A05581	----	A briefe relation of certaine speciall and most materiall passages, and speeches in the Starre-Chamber occasioned and delivered the 14th. day of Iune, 1637. At the censure of those three famous and worthy gentlemen, Dr. Bastwicke, Mr. Burton, and Mr. Prynne. Even so as it hath beene truely and faithfully gathered from their owne mouthes, by one present at the said censure. Bastwick, John, 1593-1654. 1638 Approx. 66 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 17 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2007-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A05581 STC 1570 ESTC S101052 99836876 99836876 1168 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A05581) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 1168) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1475-1640 ; 1537:02) A briefe relation of certaine speciall and most materiall passages, and speeches in the Starre-Chamber occasioned and delivered the 14th. day of Iune, 1637. At the censure of those three famous and worthy gentlemen, Dr. Bastwicke, Mr. Burton, and Mr. Prynne. Even so as it hath beene truely and faithfully gathered from their owne mouthes, by one present at the said censure. Bastwick, John, 1593-1654. England and Wales. Court of Star Chamber. 32 p. Printed [by W. Christiaens], [Leiden] : in the yeare of God, 1638. Printer's name and place of publication from STC. Reproduction of the original in the Bodleian Library. 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Puritans -- England -- Early works to 1800. 2006-04 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-04 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-05 Emma (Leeson) Huber Sampled and proofread 2006-05 Emma (Leeson) Huber Text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-09 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A BRIEFE RELATION OF Certaine speciall and most materiall passages , and speeches in the Starre-Chamber , Occasioned And delivered the 14th . day of Iune , 1637. At the Censure of those three famous and worthy Gentlemen , Dr. Bastwicke , Mr. Burton , and Mr. Prynne . EVEN SO As it hath beene truely and faithfully gathered from their owne mouthes , by one present at the said Censure . PRINTED In the yeare of God , 1638. TO THE READER . CHristian Reader , I present you heere the Relation of such a Censure ( and the Execution thereof ) as I dare say , all circumstances layd together , cannot bee paralled in any age of man throughout the Christian World , and I thinke I may take in even the World of Pagans and Heathens to it . Which , though it bee not drawne up in so eloquent a straine , as it was delivered & deserved , nor all the Heavenly words and eloquent speeches recorded , which were uttered by these Three Worthies of the Lord , both in the presence of the Lords themselves at their Censure , and also at the place of Execution : Yet I earnestly beseech you in the bowels of Iesus Christ , that you doe not in the least manner under-valu the glory and dignitie , eyther of the Persons , or the cause , but rather lay the blame upon the rudenes and meane capacity of the Composer , who is an unfeyned Wel-wisher to them . Fare well . A Briefe Relation , OF Certaine speciall & most materiall passages and Speeches in the Starre-chamber , on the 14th . day of Iune , in the yeare 1637. At the Censure of those three vvorthy Gentlemen , Dr. Bastwick , Mr. Burton , and Mr. Prynne . BEtweene eight and nine a clocke in the morning ( the 14. of Iune ) the Lords being set in their places in the said Court of Starre-chamber , and casting their eyes upon the Prisoners , then at the Bar , Sr. Iohn Finch ( chiefe Iustice of the Common Pleas ) began to speake after this manner : Sr. Iohn Finch . I had thought M. Prynne had had no eares , but me thinkes hee hath eares , which caused many of the Lords to take the stricter view of him ; and for their better satisfaction , the Usher of the Court was commanded to turne up his haire , & shew his eares : Upon the sight wherof the Lords were displeased they had beene formerly no more cut off ; and cast out some disgracefull words of him . To which M. Prynne replied ; M. Pryn. My Lords , there is never a one of your Honours , but would be sorry to have your eares as mine are . The Lord Keeper replied againe ; L. Keeper . In good faith , hee is some what sawcy . M. Pryn. I hope ( said M. Prynne ) your Honours will not be offended , I pray God give you eares to heare . L. Keeper The busines of the day ( said the Lord Keeper ) is to proceed on the Prisoners at the Barr. M. Pryn. M. Prynne then humbly desired the Court to give him leave to make a motion or two , which being graunted , he mooves , First , that their Honours would be pleased to accept of a crosse Bill against the Prelates , signed with their owne hands , being that which stands with the Iustice of the Court , which he humbly craved , and so tendred it . L. Keeper As for your crosse Bill , it is not the busines of the day ; Hereafter if the Court shall see just cause , and that it savours not of Libelling , wee may accept of it ; for my part I have not seene it , but have heard somewhat of it . M. Pryn. I hope your Honours will not refuse it , being it is on his Majesties behalfe ; wee are his Majesties Subjects , and therefore require the Iustice of the Court. L. Keeper But this is not the busines of the day . M. Pryn. Why then , My Lords , I have a second motion , which I humbly pray your Honours to graunt ; which is , That your Lordships will be pleased to dismisse the Prelates , here now sitting , from having any voyce in the censure of this cause , ( being generally knowne to be Adversaries ) as being no way agreeable with equity or reason that they , who are our Adversaries , should bee our Iudges : Therefore wee humbly crave , they may be expunged out of the Court. L. Keeper In good faith , it 's a sweet motion , is 't not ? Herein you are become Libellous . And if you should thus Libell all the Lords and Reverend Iudges , as you doe the most Reverēd Prelates , by this your Plea , you would have none to passe sentence upon you for you Libelling , because they are parties . M. Pryn. Vnder correction ( My Lord ) this doth not hold : Your Honour need not put that for a certainty , which is an uncertainty ; we have nothing to say to any of your Honours , but onely to the Prelates . L. Keeper Well , proceed to the busines of the day ; Read the Information . Which was read , being very large ; and these five Bookes annexed thereunto ( viz. ) a Booke of D. Bastwicks , written in Latin. The second , a little Booke , intituled , Newes from Ipswich . The third intitled , A Divine Tragedy , Recording Gods fearefull judgements on Sabbath-breakers . The fourth , Mr. Burtons Booke , intituled , An Apology of an Appeale to the Kings most Excellent Majesty , with two Sermons for God and the King , preached on the fifth of November last . The fifth and last , Dr. Bastwickes Letany . The Kings Counsell ( being five ) tooke each of them a severall Booke , and descanted there at the Barre upon them , according to their pleasure . M. Attorney . Mr. Attorney began first with D. Bastwickes Latin Booke , picking out here & there particular conclusions , that best served for his owne ends , ( so did all the other Counsell out of the former other Bookes ) to the great abuse of the Authors , as themselves there immediately complain'd , intreating them to reade the foregoing grounds , upon which the said conclusions depended , without which they could not understand the true meaning of them . Serjeant . Next unto the Attorney , Serjeant Whitfeild fals upon Reverend M. Burtons Booke , who vented much bitternes against that unreprooveable Booke ( as all that read it with an honest and orthodox heart may clearely perceive ) swearing : In good faith , My Lords , there is never a page in this Booke , but deserves a heavier and deeper Censure then this Court can lay upon him . Next followed A. B. who in like manner descanted upon the Newes from Ipswich , charging it to be full of pernitious lyes , and especially vindicating the honor of Mathew Wren , Bishop of Norwich , as being a learned , pious , and Reverend Father of the Church . M. Littleton . In the fourth place , followes the Kings Solicitor , who acts his part upon the Divine Tragedy ; To which part of it , concerning Gods judgements on Sabbath-breakers , he had little to say , but onely put it off with a scoffe ; saying , That they sate in the Seate of God , who judged those accidents which fell out upon persons suddainly strooken , to be the judgement of God for Sabbath breaking , or words to the like effect : but enlarged himselfe upon that passage , which reflected upon that late Reverend ( as he termed him ) and learned Professor of the Law , and his Majesties faithfull Servant M. William Noy , his Majesties late Attorney , who ( as hee said ) was most shamefully abused by a slaunder layd upon him ; which was , That it should be reported , That Gods judgement fell upon him for so eagerly prosecuting that innocent person M. Prynne ; which judgement was this ; That he , laughing at M. Prynne , while hee was suffering upon the Pillory , was strooke with an issue of blood in his privy part , which by all the art of man could never bee stopped unto the day of his death , which was soone after . But the truth of this my Lords ( saith he ) you shall finde to be as probable as the rest ; for we have here three or foure Gentlemen of good credit and ranke , to testify upon oath , that hee had that issue long before , and thereupon made a shew , as if he would call for them in before the Lords , to witnesse the truth thereof , with these particular words , Make roome for the Gentlemen to come in there , but no one witnesse was seene to appeare : Which was pretty delusion , and worth all your observations that read it : and so concluded ( as the rest ) that this Booke also deserved a heavy and deepe Censure . Mr. Harbert . Lastly , followes M. Harbert , whose descant was upon Dr. Bastwickes Letanie , picking out one or two passages therein , and so drawing thence his conclusion , that jointly with the rest , it deserved a heavy Censure . The Kings Counsell having all spoken what they could , the Lord Keeper said to the Prisoners at the Barre : Lord Keeper . You heare Gentlemen , wherewith you are charged ; and now , least you should say , you cannot have libertie to speake for your selves , the Court gives you leave to speake what you can , with these conditions : First , That you speake within the bounds of modesty . Secondly , That your speeches bee not Libellous . They all three answered : Prisoners . They hoped so to order their speech as to be free from any immodest or libellous speaking . Lord Keeper . Then speake a Gods name , and shew cause why the Court should not proceed in Censure ( as taking the cause pro confesso ) against you ? M. Pryn. My Honourable good Lords , such a day of the moneth , there came a Subpoena from your Honours , to enter my appearance in this Court ; which being entred , tooke forth a copy of the Information , which being taken , I was to draw my Answere , which I endeavoured to doe , but being shut up close prisoner , I was deserted of all meanes , by which I should have done it ; for I was no sooner served with the Subpoena , but I was shortly after shut up close prisoner , with suspention of Pen , Inke and Paper ; which close imprisonment did eat up such a deale of my time , that I was hindred the bringing in of my Answer . You did assigne me Counsell , 't is true , but they neglected to come to me , and I could not come to them , being under lock and key . Then upon motion in Court , yee gaue me liberty to goe to them ; but then presently after that motion ( I know not for what cause , nor upon whose commaund ) I was shut up againe : and then I could not compell my Counsell to come to me , & my time was short , and I had neither Pen nor Incke , nor Servant to do any thing for me , for my Servant was then also kept close prisoner under a Pursevants hands ; This was to put impossibilities upon mee . Then upon a second motion for Pen & Inke ( which was graunted me ) I drew up some Instructions , & in a fortnight time sent 40. sheetes to my Councell ; suddainly after I drew up 40. sheetes more , and sent to them ; My Lord , I did nothing but by the advise of my Counsell , by whom I was ruled in the drawing up of all my answer , and payd him twice for drawing it , and some of my Counsell would have set their hands to it . Here is my Answer , I tender it upon my oath , which your Lordships cannot deny with the Iustice of the Court. Lord Keeper . Wee can give you a President , that this Court hath proceeded & undertaken a cause pro confesso for not putting in an Answeare in six dayes ; you have had a great deale of favour shewed in affording you longer time , & therefore the Court is free from all calumny or aspersion , for rejecting your Answer , not signed with the Counsels hands . M. Pryn. But one word or two ( my Lords ) I desire your Honours to heare me ; I put a case in Law , that is often pleaded before your Lordships , One man is bound to bring in two witnesses , if both , or one of them faile , that hee cannot bring thē in , doth the Law ( my Lords ) make it the mans act ? You assigned me two Counsellors ; one of them failed , I cannot compell him ; Here now he is before you , let him speake , if I have not used all my endeavours to have had him signed it ( which my other Coūsell would haue done , if this would haue set his hand to it with him ) and to have put in long since . Counsell . My Lord , there was so long time spent ere I could doe any thing ; after I was assigned his Councell , that it was impossible his Answere could bee drawne up in so short a time as was allotted ; for after long expectation , seeing he came not to me , I went to him , where I found him shut up close prisoner , so that I could not have accesse to him : Whereupon I motioned to the Lieftenant of the Tower , to have free libertie of speech with him concerning his aunswear ; which being graunted mee , I found him very willing & desirous to have it drawne up ; whereupon I did moove in the Court for Pen and Paper , which was graunted , the which hee no sooner had gotten , but hee set himselfe to draw up Instructions , and in a short time , sent me 40 sheetes ; and soone after I received 40 more ; but I found the Answer so long , of such a nature , that I durst not set my hand to it , for feare of giving your Honours distast . M. Pryn. My Lords , I did nothing , but according to the direction of my Counsell , only I spake mine owne words , my answear was drawne up by his consent , it was his owne act , and hee did approove of it ; and if he will be so base à Coward , to doe that in private which he dares not acknowledge in publick , I will not such a sin lye on my conscience , let it rest with him . Here is my Answer , which , though it be not signed with their hāds , yet here I tender it upon my oath , which you cannot in Iustice deny . L. Keeper . But Mr. Prynne , the Court desires no such long Answer ; Are you guilty or not guilty ? M. Pryn. My good Lord , I am to Answer in a defensive way , Is here any one , that can witnes any thing against me ? Let him come in . The Law of God standeth thus ; that a man is not to be condemned , but under the mouth of two or three witnesses . Here is no witnesse comes in against me , my Lord , neither is there in all the Information one clause that doth particularly fall on me , but onely in generall , there is no Booke laid to my charge . And shall I be condemned for a particular act , when no accusation of any particular act can bee brought against mee ? This were most unjust and wicked . Here I tender my aunswere to the Information upon my oath ; My Lord , you did impose impossibilities upon me , I could doe no more then I was able . L. Keeper . Well , holde your peace : your answere comes too late . Speake you Dr. Bastwick . Dr. Bast . My Honorable Lords , Mee thinks you looke like an Assembly of Gods , and sit in the place of God ; yee are called the Sonnes of God : And since I have compared you to Gods , give me leave a little to paralell the one with the other , to see whither the comparison betweene God and you doth hold in this noble and righteous cause . This was the car●iage of Almighty God in the cause of Sodome , Before hee would pronounce sentence , or execute judgement , he would first come downe , and see whether the crime was altogether according to the cry that was come up . And with whom doth the Lord consult , when he came downe ? With his Servant Abraham , and hee gives the reason ; for I know ( saith hee ) that Abraham will commaund his children & household after him , that they shall keepe the way of the Lord to doe Iustice & Iudgment . My good Lords , thus stands the case between your Honours and us this day ; there is a great cry come up into your eares against us from the Kings Attourney ; bee novv pleased to descend and see if the crime be according to the cry , and consult vvith God ( not the Prelates being the adversary part , and ; as it is apparant to all the World doe proudly set themselves against the vvayes of God , and from vvhom none can expect Iustice or Iudgement ) and vvith righteous men , vvill be impartiall on either side , before you proceed to censure : which censure you cannot passe on us vvithout great unjustice before you heare our Answers read : Here is my Answer , which I here tender upon my oath ; My good Lords ; give us leave to speake in our owne defence ; wee are not conscious to our selves , of any thing we have done that deserves a Censure this day in this Honourable Court , but that vve have ever laboured to maintaine the Honour , Dignity , & Prerogative Royall of our Soveraigne Lord the King , let my Lord the King live for ever . Had I a thousands lives , I should thinke them all too little to spend for the maintenance of his Majesties Royall Prerogative : My good Lords , can you proceed to Censure before you know my cause ? I dare undertake , that scarce any one of your Lordships have read my Bookes ; And can you then Censure me for what you know not , and before I have made my defence ? O my Noble Lords ! is this righteous judgement ? This were against the Law of God and Man , to condemne a Man , before you know his crime . The Governour before whom S. Paul was carried ( who was a very Heathen ) would first heare his cause before he would passe any Censure upon him ; And doth it beseeme so Noble and Christian Assembly to condemne mee , before my Answer be perused , and my cause knowne ? Men , Brethren , and Fathers , into what an age are wee fallen ? I desire your Honours to lay aside your Censure for this day & inquire into my cause , heare my Answer read ; which , if you refuse to doe I here professe , I will cloath it in Roman Buffe , and send it abroad unto the view of all the world , to cleare mine innocency , and shew your great injustice in this cause . Lord Keeper . But this is not the busines of the day ; Why brought you not in your Answer in due time ? D. Bastwicke . My Lord , a long time since I tendred it to your Honour , I failed not in any one particular : And if my Counsell be so base and cowardly , that they dare not signe it for feare of the Prelates ( as I can make it appeare ) therefore have I no Answer ? My Lord , here is my Answer , which , though my Counsell out of a base spirit , dare not set their hands unto , yet I tender it upon my oath . L. Keeper But M. D. you should have beene briefe ; you tendred in too large an Answer , which ( as I heard ) is as Libellous as your Bookes . D. Bastw . No , my Lord , it is not Libellous , though large , I have none to answer for me but my selfe , and being left to my selfe , I must plead my conscience in answer to every circumstance of the Information . L. Keeper What say you M. D. Are you guilty , or not guilty ? Answer yea or no , you needed not to have troubled your selfe so much about so large an Answer . D. Bastwicke . I know , none of your Honours have read my Booke ; And can you with the Iustice of the court , condemne me before you know what is written in my bookes ? L. Keeper What say you to that was read to you even now ? D. Bast . My Lord , he that read it did so murther the sence of it , that had I not knowne , what I had written , I could not tell what to have made of it . L. Keeper What say you to the other sentence read to you ? D. Bast . That was none of mine , I will not father that which was none of my owne . L. Dorset . Did not you send that booke , as now it is , to a Noble mans house , together with a Letter directed to him ? D. Bast . Yea my Lord , I did so , but withall you may see in my Epistle set before the booke , I did at first disclaime what was not mine ; I sent my Booke over by a Dutch Merchant , who it was that wrote the addition I doe not know , but my Epistle set to my Booke , made manifest what was mine , and what was not ; and I cannot justly suffer for what was none of mine . L. Arund . My Lord , you heare by his owne speech , the cause is taken pro confesso . L. Keeper Yea , you say true my Lord. D. Bast . My noble Lord of Arundell , I know you are a noble Prince in Israel , & a great Peere of this Realme ; There are some honourable Lords in this Court , that have beene forced out as combatants in a single duell , it is betweene the Prelates and us , at this time as betweene two that have appointed the field . The one being a coward goes to the Magistrate , & by vertue of his Authority disarmes the other of his weapons , & gives him a Bullrush , and then challenges him to fight . If this be not base cowardice , I know not what belongs to a Souldier . This is the case betweene the Prelates and us , they take away our weapons ( our Answers ) by vertue of your Authority , by which we should defend our selves , and yet they bid us fight . My Lord , doth not his savour of a base cowardly spirit ? I know , my Lord , there is a Decree gone forth , for my Sentence vvas passed long since , to cut of our eares . Lord Keeper . Who shall know our Censure , before the Court passe it ? Doe you prophesy of your selves ? D. Bastwicke . My Lord , I am able to proove it , and that from the mouth of the Prelates ovvne Servants , that in August last it vvas decreed , that D. Bastvvicke should loose his eares . O my Noble Lords ? is this righteous judgement ? I may say , as the Apostle once said , What , whipp a Roman ? I have beene a Souldier , able to lead an Army into the field , to fight valiantly for the honour of their Prince ; Now I am a Physitian , able to cure Nobles , Kings , Princes , and Emperors : And to curtolize a Romans eares , like a Curre , O my honourable Lords ! is it not too base an act for so noble an assembly , and for so righteous and honourable a cause ? The cause my Lords is great , it concernes the glory of God , the honour of our King , whose Prerogative we labour to maintaine and to set up in a high manner , in which your Honours Liberties are engag'd : And doth not such a cause deserve your Lordships consideration , before you proceed to Censure ? Your Honours may be pleased to consider , that in the last cause heard and censured in this Court , between St. Iames Bagge , & the Lord Moone , wherein your Lordships tooke a great deale of paines , with a great deale of patience , to heare the Bills on both sides , with all the Answers & Depositions largely laid open before you ; which cause when you had fully heard , some of your Honours now sitting in Court , said , You could not in conscience proceed to Censure , till you had taken some time to recollect your selves . If in a cause of that nature , you could spend so much time , and afterwards recollect your selves before you would passe Censure : How much more should it moove your Honours , to take some time in a cause wherein the glory of God , the Prerogative of his Majestie your Honours dignity , and the Subjects Liberty is so largely ingaged ? My good Lords , it may fall out to be any of your Lordships cases to stand as Delinquents at this Barre , as we now doe : It is not unknowne to your Honours , the next cause that is to succeed ours , is touching a person that sometimes hath beene in greatest power in this Court : And if the mutations and revolutions of persons and times be such , then I doe most humbly beseech your Honours to looke on us , as it may befall your selves . But if all this will not prevaile with your Honours , to peruse my Bookes ; and heare my Answer read , which here I tender upon the word and oath of a Souldier , a Gentleman , a Scholler , and a Physitian : I will cloath them ( as I said before ) in Roman Buffe , and disperse them throughout the Christian world , that future generations may see the innocency of this cause , and your Honours unjust proceedings in it ; all which I will doe , though it cost me my life . L. Keeper Mr. D. I thought you would be angrie . Dr. Bast . No my Lord , you are mis-taken , I am not angrie nor passionate ; all that I doe presse , is , that you would be pleased to peruse my Answer . D. Keeper Well , hold your peace . Mr. Burton , what say you ? Mr. Burton . My goods Lords , your Honours ( it should seeme ) doe determine to Censure us , and take our cause pro confesso , although we have laboured to give your Honours satisfaction in all things : My Lords , what you have to say against my Booke , I confesse I did write it , yet did I not any thing out of intent of Commotion or Sedition : I delivered nothing , but what my Text led me too , being chosen to suite with the day , namely , the fifth of November ; the word were these , &c. L. Keeper M. Burton , I pray stand not naming Texts of Scripture now , we doe not send for you to preach ; but to answer to those things that are objected against you . M. Burt. My Lord , I have drawne up my Answer to my great paines and charges , which Answer was signed with my Counsels hands , and received into the Court , according to the rule and Order thereof . And I did not thinke to have beene called this day to a Censure , but have had a legall proceeding by way of Bill and Answer . L. Keeper Your Answer was impertinent . M. Burt. My Answer ( after it was entred into the Court ) was referred to the Judges , but by what meanes I doe not know , whither it be impertinent , and what cause your Lordships had to cast it out , I knovv not . But after it was approved of ; and received , it was cast out as an impertinent Answer . L. Finch . The Iudges did you a good turne to make it impertinent , for it was as Libellous as your Booke , so that your Answer deserved a Censure alone . L. Keeper What say you Mr. Button , are you guilty , or not ? M. Burton . My Lord , I desire you not onely to peruse my Booke , here and there , but every passage of it . L. Keeper Mr. Burton , time is short , are you guilty , or not guilty ? What say you to that which was read ? Doth it become a Minister to deliver himselfe in such a rayling and scandalous way ? M. Burton . In my judgement , and as I can proove it , it was neither rayling not scandalous ; I conceive that a Minister hath a larger liberty then alwayes to goe in a milde straine : being the Pastor of my people , whom I had in charge , and was to instruct , I supposed it was my duety to informe them of those innovations that are crept into the Church , as likewise of the danger and ill consequence of them : As for my answer , yee blotted out what yee would , and then the rest which made best for your owne ends , you would have to stand ; And now for your owne turnes and renounce the rest , were to desert my cause , which before I will doe , or desert my conscience , I will rather desert my body , and deliver it up to your Lordships , to doe with it what you will. L. Keeper This is a ●lace where you should crave mercy and favour , Mr. Burton , and not stand upon such termes as you doe . M. Burt. There wherein I have offended through humane frailty , I crave of God & Man pardon : And I pray God , that in your Sentence , you may so Censure us , that you may not sinne against the Lord. Thus the prisoners desiring to speake a little more for themselves , were commaunded to silence . And so the Lord proceeded to Censure . The Lord Cottingtons Censure . I Condemne these three men to loose their eares in the Pallaceyard at Westminster ; To be fined five thousands pounds a man to his Majestie : And to perpetuall prisonment in three remote places of the Kingdome , namely , the Castles of Carnaruan , Cornwall , and Lancaster . The Lord Finch added to this Censure . MR. Prynne to be stigmatized in the Cheekes with two Letters ( S & L ) for a Seditious Libeller . To which all the Lord agreed . And so the Lord Keeper concluded the Censure . THE Execution of the Lords Censure in Starre-Chamber upon D. Bastwijcke , M. Prynne , and M. Burton , in the Pallace-yard at Westminster , the 30th . day of Iune last 1637. at the spectation whereof the number of people was so great ( the place being very large ) that it caused admiration in all that beheld them ; who came with tender affections to behold those three renowned Souldiers and Servants of Iesus Christ , who came with most undaunted and magnanimous courage thereunto , having their way strawed with sweet hearbes from the house out of which they came to the Pillary , with all the honour that could bee done unto them . Dr. Bastwijcke and Mr. Burton first meeting , they did close one in the others armes three times , with as much expressions of love as might bee , rejoycing that they met at such a place , upon such an occasion , & that God had so highly honoured them , as to call them forth to suffer for his glorious Truth . Then immediately after , M. Prynne came , the D. and hee saluting each other , as M. Burton and hee did before . The D. then went up first on the Scaffold , and his wife immediately following , came up to him , and like a loving Spouse saluted each care with a kisse , and then his mouth ; whose tender love , boldnes , and cheerefullnes so wrought upon the peoples affections , that they gave marvailous great showte for joy , to behold it . Her Husband desired her not to bee in the least maner dismay'd at his suffrings : And so for a while they parted , she using these words : Farewell my Deerest , be of good comfort , I am nothing dismay'd . And then the D. began to speake these words . There are many that are this day Spectators of our standing here , as Delinquents , though not Delinquents , we blesse God for it . I am not conscious to my self wherein I have committed the least trespasse ( to take this outward shame ) either against my God , or my King. And I doe the rather speake it , that you , that are now beholders , may take notice , how farre innocency will preserve you in such a day as this is ; for wee come here in the strength of our God , who hath mightily supported us , and filled our hearts with greater comfort then our shame or contempt can bee . The first occasion of my trouble was by the Prelates , for writing a Booke against the Pope , and the Pope of Canterbury sayd I wrote against him : and therefore questioned me : But if the Presses were as open to us , as formerly they have been , we would shatter his Kingdom about his eares : But bee ye not deterred by their power , neither bee affrighted at our sufferings ; Let none determine to turne from the wayes of the Lord , but goe on , fight couragiously against Gog & Magog . I know there be many here who have set many dayes apart for our behalfe , ( let the Prelates take notice of it ) and they have sent up strong prayers to heaven for us , we feele the strength and benefit of them at this time ; I would have you to take notice of it ; we have felt the strength & benefit of your prayers all along this cause . In a word , so farre I am from base feare , or caring for any thing that they can do , or cast upon me , that , had I as much blood as would swell the Theames , I would shedd it every droppe in this cause , therefore be not any of you discouraged , be not daunted on their power , ever labouring to preserve Innocency , & keep peace within , goe on in the strength of your God , and hee will never fayle you in such a day as this ; As I sayd before , so I say againe ; Had I as many lives as I have heires on my head , or droppe of blood in my veines , I would give them up all for this cause ; this plot of sending us to those remote places , was first consulted and agitated by the Jesuites , as I can make it plainly appeare . O see , what times we are fallen into , that the Lords must sit to act the Iesuites plots ! For our owne parts , wee owe no mallice to the persons of any of the Prelats , but would lay our necks under their feet to doe them good as they are men , but against the usurpation of their power , as they are Bishops , we doe professe our selves enemies till doomes day . Mr. Prynne shaking the Dr. by the hand , desired him that hee might speake a word or two . With all my heart , sayd the Doctor . Te cause ( sayd Mr. Prynne ) of my standing here , is , for not bringing in my Answer , for which my cause is taken pro confesso against mee . What endeavours J used for the bringing in thereof , that , God and my owne conscience , and my Counsell knowes , whose cowardise stands upon Record to all ages . For rather then J will have my cause a leading cause , to deprive the subjects of that libertie which J seek to maintaine , J rather expose my person to a leading example , to beare this punishment : And J beseech you all to take notice of their proceedings in this cause , when J was served with a Subpoena into this Court , J was shut up close prisoner , that J could have no accesse to Counsell , nor admitted pen , inke or paper to draw up my answere by my Jnstructions , for which J feed them twice ( though to no purpose ) yet when all was done , my Answer would not be accepted into the Court , though I tendered it upon my oath . I appeale to all the world , if this were a legall or just proceeding . Our accusation is in point of Libell ( but supposedly ) against the Prelates : to cleere this now , I will give you a little light what the Law is in point of Libell ( of which profession I have sometimes beene , and still professe my selfe to have some knowledge in ) you shall finde in case of Libell , tvvo statutes : The one , in the second of Queene Mary ; The other , in the seventh of Queene Elizabeth . That in the second of Queene Mary , the extremity and heighth of it runs thus : That , if a Libeller doth goe so farre and so high as to Libel against King or Queene , by denomination , the high and extremity of the Law is , that they lay no greater fine on him then an hundred pounds , vvith a moneths imprisonment , And no corporall Punishment , except hee doe refuse to pay his fine ; and then to inflict some punishment in lievve of that fine , at the moneths end . Neither was this Censure to be passed on him , except it vvere fully prooved by tvvo vvitnesses , vvho vvere to produce a certificat of their good demeanor for the credit of their report , or else confessed by the Libeller . You shall finde in that Statute 7. Eliz. some further addition to the former of 2. Marie , and that onely in point of fine & punishment , and it must still reach as high as the person of King or Queen . Here this statute doth set a fine of two hundred pounds ; the other , but one : This sets three moneths emprisonment ; the former but one : So that therein onely they differ . But in this they both agree , namely , at the end of his imprisonment to pay his fine , and soo to goe free vvithout any further question : But if hee refuse to pay his fine , then the Court is to inflict some punishment on him correspondent to his fine . Novv , see the disparity between those times of theirs , and ours . A libeller in Queen Maries time , vvas fined but an hundred pounds , in Queen Elizabeth time tvvo hundred ; In Queen Maries daeys but a moneths imprisonment ; In Queen Elizabeths three moneths ; and not so great a fine , if they libelled not against King or Queen . Formerly the greatest fine vvas but tvvo hundred pounds , though against King or Queen ; Novv five thousand pounds , though but against the Prelates , & that but supposedly , vvhich cannot be prooved : Formerly , but the moneths imprisonment ; Novv perpetuall imprisonment : Then , upon paying the fine , no corporall punishment vvas to be inflicted ; But novv , infamous punishment , vvith the losse of blood , and all other circumstances that may aggravate it . See novv vvhat times vve are fallen into , vvhen that Libelling ( if it vvere so ) against Prelates onely , shall fall higer , then if it touched Kings and Princes ? That vvhich I have to speake of next , is this : The Prelates finde themselves exceedingly agrieved and vexed against vvhat vve have vvritten concerning the usurpation of their calling , vvhere indeed vve declare their calling not to be Iure divino . I make no doubt , but there are some Intelligencers or Abbertors vvithin the hearing , vvhom I vvould have vvell knovv and take notice of vvhat I novv say . I here in this place make this offer to them : That , if I may be admitted a faire dispute , on faire termes , for my cause , that I vvill maintaine , and doe here make the challenge against all the Prelates in the Kings Dominions , and against all the Prelates in Christendome , ( let them take in the Pope , and all to help them ) that their calling is not Iure Divino . I will speake it againe ; I make the challenge , against all the Prelates in the Kings Dominions , and all Christendome to maintaine , that their calling is not Iure Divino . If I make it not good , let mee bee hanged up at the Hall-Gate : Where upon the people gave a great shout . The next thing that I am to speake of , is this : The Prelates find themselves exceedingly agrieved and vext against vvhat I have vvritten in point of Lavv , concerning their Writs and Proces , That the sending forth of Writs and Proces in their ovvne name , is against all Lavv and Iustice , and doth entrench on his Majesties Prerogative Royall , and the Subjects Liberties . And here novv I make a second challenge against al the Lavvyers in the Kingdom in way of fayre Dispute , That I vvill maintaine , the Prelates sending forth of Writs and Proces in their ovvne names , to be against all Lavv and Iustice , and entrencheth on his Majesties prerogative Royall , and subjects Liberty . Lest it should bee forgotten , I speake it again , I here challenge all the vvhole Society of the Lavv upon a fayre dispute , to maintaine , that the sending forth of Writs and Proces in the Prelates ovvne names , to be against all Lavv and Iustice , and entrencheth on the Kings Prerogative Royall , & the Subjects Liberty . If I bee not able to make it good , let mee bee put to the tormentingest death they can devise . Wee praise the Lord , vvee feare none but God and the King : Had vvee respected our Liberties vvee had not stood here at this time : it vvas for the generall good and Liberties of you all , that vve have now thus farre engaged our ovvn Liberties in his cause . For did you know , how deeply they have entrenched on your Liberties in point of Popery ; If you knew but into what times you are cast , it would make you looke about you : and if you did but see what changes and revolutions of persons , causes and actions , have beene made by one man , you would more narrowly looke into your priviledges , and see how farre your Liberty did lawfully extend and so maintaine it . This is the second time that I have beene brought to this place who hath beene the Author of it , I thinke you all well know : For the first time , if I could have had leave given me , I could easily have cleered my selfe of that vvhich was then laid to my charge : As also I could have done now , if I might have been permitted to speake . That booke for vvhich I suffered formerly , especially for some particular vvords therin vvritten , vvhich I quoted out of Gods vvord , and ancient Fathers , for vvhich notvvithstanding , they passed Censure on me ; that same booke vvas tvvice licensed by publicke Authority , and the same vvords I then suffered for , they are againe made use of , and applied in the same sence by Heylin in his booke lately printed , and dedicated to the King , and no exceptions taken against them , but are very vvell taken . Dr. Bastwicke . Aye ( said D. Bastvvicke ) and there is another Booke of his licensed , vvherein he rayles against us three at his pleasure ; and against the Martyrs that suffered in Queen Maries dayes , calling them Schismaticall Hereticks , and there is another Booke of Pocklingtons licensed ; they bee as full of lyes as dog bee full of fleas , but vvere the presses as open to us as they are to them , vvee vvould pay them , and their great Master that upholds them , and charge them vvith notorious Blasphemy . M. Pryn. Said Mr. Prynne , You all at this present see , there be no degrees of men exempted from suffering : Here is a Reverend Divine for the soule , a Phisition for the Body , and a Lawyer for the Estate : I had thought they vvould have let alone their ovvne Society , and not have meddled vvith any of them . And the next ( for ought I knovv ) may bee a Bishop . You see they spare none of vvhat society or calling soever , none are exemted that crosse their ovvne ends . Gentlemen , looke to your selves ; If all the Martyrs that suffered in Queen Maries dayes , are accounted and called Schismaticall hereticks , and Factious Fellowes : What shall vve looke for ? Yet so they are called in a Booke lately come forth under Authority . And such Factious Fellovves are vvee , for discovering a Plot of Popery . Alas poore England ! vvhat vvill become of thee , if thou looke not the sooner into thine ovvne Priviledges , and maintainest not thine ovvne lavvfull Liberty ? Christian people : I beseech you all , stand firme , and bee zealous for the cause of God , and his true Religion , to the shedding of your dearest blood , othervvise you vvill bring your selves , and all your posterities , into perpetuall bondage and slavery . Novv , the Executioner being come , to seare him , and cut of his eares , M. Prynne spake these vvords to him : Come friend , Come , burne mee , cu● mee , I feare not . I have learn'd to feare the fire of hell , and not what man can doe unto mee : Come , seare mee , seare mee , I shall beare in my body the markes of the Lord Iesus : Which the bloody Executioner performed vvith Extraordinary Cruelty , Heating his Iron tvvice , to Burne One Cheeke : And cut one of his eares so close , that hee cut off a piece of his Cheeke . At vvhich exquisit torture Hee never mooved vvith his body , or so much as changed his Countenance , but still lookt up as vvell as he could tovvards Heaven , vvith a smiling countenance , even to the astonishment of all the beholders . And uttering ( assoone as the Executioner had done ) this Heavenly sentence : The more I am beaten downe , the more am I lift up . And returning from the execution in a boate , made ( as I heare ) these tvvo verses by the vvay , on the Tvvo Charasters branded on his Cheekes . S. L. STIGMATA LAUDIS . STIGMATA maxillis bajulans insignia LAVDIS Exultans remeo , victima grata Deo. Which one since thus Englished : S. L. LAUDS SCARS . Trimphant I returne , my face descries , LAUDS scorching SCARS , Gods greatefull sacrifice . Mr. Burtons heavenly and most comfortable Speech , which he made at the time of his fuffering , both before and while he stood in the Pillary , which was something distant from the other double Pillary , wherein Dr. Bastwicke and Mr. Prynne stood . THE night before his suffering , about eyght a clock , when he first had certaine notice thereof , upon occasion of his Wives going to aske the Warden , whither her Husband should suffer the next day , immediately he felt his spirits to be raysed to a farre higher pitch of resolution and courage to undergoe his sufferings , then formerly he did , so as he intreated the Lord to hold up his spirits at that heigth all the next day in his sufferings , that he might not flagg nor faint , least any dishonour might come to his Majestie or the cause : And the Lord heard him : For all the next day in his suffering ( both before and after ) his spirits were carried aloft as it were upon Eagles wings ( as himselfe said ) farre above all apprehension of shame or paine . The next morning ( being the day of his sufferings ) hee was brought to Westminster , and with much cheerefullnes beeing brought into the Pallace-yard unto a Chamber that looked into the Yard , where he viewed three Pillaries there set up : Me thinkes ( said hee ) I see Mount Calvery , where the three Crosses ( one for Christ , and the other two for the two theeves ) were pitched : And if Christ were numbred among theeves , shall a Christian ( for Christs cause ) thinke much to be numbred among Rogues , such as wee are condemned to be ? Surely , if I be a Rogue , I am Christs Rogue , and no mans . And a little after , looking out at the casement toward the Pillary , hee sayd : I see no difference betweene looking out of this square window , and yonder round hole poyning towards the Pillary ) hee said : It is no matter of difference , to an honest man. And a little after that , looking some what wishly upon his Wife , to see how shee did take it ; shee seemed to him to be something sadd ▪ to whom hee thus spake : Wise , why art thou so sadd ? To whom shee made answer ; Sweet heart , I am not sadd : No , said hee ? See thou be not , for I would not have thee to dishonour the day , by shedding one teare , or fetching one sigh : for behold therefore thy comfort , my triumphant Chariot on the which I must ride for the honour of my Lord & Master : And never was wedding day so welcome and joy full a day , as this day is ; and so much the more , because I have such a noble Captaine and Leader , who hath gone before mee with such undauntednes of Spirit , that hee sayth of himselfe , I gave my backe to the smiters , my cheekes to the nippers , they pluckt off the haire , I hidd not my face , from shame and spitting , for the Lord God will helpe mee ; therefore shall I not be confounded , therefore have I set my face like a flint , and I know I shall not be ashamed . At length being carried toward the Pillary , hee met D. Bastwicke at the foot of the pillary ; where they lovingly saluted and embraced each other ; and parting a little from him , hee returned ( such was the ardency of his affection ) and most affectionately embraced him the second time , being heartily sorry hee missed Mr. Prynne , who was not yet come before hee was gonne up to his Pillary , which stood alone next the Starre-Chamber , and about halfe a stones cast from the other double Pillary , wherein the other two stood : so as all their faces looked Southward , the bright Sun all the while for the space of two howers shining upon them : Being ready to be put into the Pillary standing upon the Scaffold , he spied Mr. Prynne new come to the Pillary , & Dr. Bastwicke in the Pillary , who then hasted of his band , & called for a Handkercher , saying : What , shall I be last ? or shall I be ashamed of a Pillary for Christs , who was not ashamed of a Crosse for mee ? Then being put into the Pillary , ●e sayd : Good people , I am brought hither to be a spectacle to the world , to Angels , and men . And howsoever I stand here to undergoe the punishment of a Rogue , yet except to bee a faithfull servant to Christ , & a loyall Subject to the King , be the property of a rogue , I am no Rogue . But yet if to bee Christs faithfull Servant , and the Kings loyall Subject , deserve the punishment of a Rogue , I glory in it , and I blesse my God , my conscience is cleare , & is not stained with the guilt of any such crime , as I have beene charged with , though otherwise I confesse my selfe to be a man subject to many frailties & humane infirmities . Indeed , that Booke intiteled , An Apology of an Appeale with sundry Epistles , and two Sermons , for God and the King , charged against me in the Information , I have , and doe acknowledge ( the misprinting excepted ) to be mine , and will by Gods grace never disclaime it whilst I have breath within mee . After while , hee having a Nosegay in his hand , a Bee came and pitched on the Nosegay , & began to suck the flowers very savourly , which hee beholding and well observing , said : Doe yee not see this poore Bee ? She hath found out this very place to suck sweetnes from Christ . The Bee sucking all this while , and so tooke her flight . By and by , hee tooke occasion from the shining of the Sunne , to say : You see how the Sunne shines upon us , but that shines as well upon the evill as the good , upon the just and unjust , but that the Sonne of righteousnes ( Iesus Christ , who hath healing under his wings ) shines upon the soules and consciences of every true beleever onely , and no clowd can hide him from us , to make him ashamed of us , no not of our most shamefull sufferings for his sake : And why should wee be ashamed to suffer for his sake who hath suffered for us ? All our sufferings be but fleabitings to that bee endured , hee endured the Crosse , and despised the shame , and is set on the right hand of God : Hee is a most excellent patterne for us to looke upon , that , treading his stepps , and suffering with him , wee may bee glorified with him . And what can wee suffer , wherein hee hath not gone before us , even in the same kinde ? Was hee not degraded , when they scornefully put on him a purple Robe , a Reede into his hand , a thorny Crowne upon his head , saluting him with Hayle King of the Iewes ; and so disrobed him againe ? was not hee deprived , when they smote the Shepherd , and the Sheepe were scattered ? Was not violence offered to his sacred person , when hee was buffited , and scourged , his hands and his feet pierced , his head pricked with thornes , his side goared with a Speare , & c. ? Was not the Crosse more shamefull , yea and more painfull then a Pillary ? Was not hee stript of all he had , when he was left starke naked upon the Crosse , the Souldiers dividing his garments , and casting lots upon his vesture ? And was hee not confin'd to perpetuall close imprisonment in mans imagination , when his body was layd in a Tombe , and the Tombe sealed , least hee should breake prison , or his Disciples steale him away ? And yet did hee not rise againe , and thereby brought deliverance and victory to us all , so as we are more then Conquerors through him that loved us ? Here then we have an excellent Patterne indeed . And all this hee uttered ( and whatsoever else hee spake ) with marvailous alacrity . One sayd unto Mr. Burton , Christ will not be ashamed of you at the last day . Hee replied , Hee knew whom he had beleeved , and that Christ was able to keep that he had committed to him against that day . One asked him how hee did ? Hee said , never better , I blesse God , who hath accounted mee worthy thus to suffer . The Keeper , keeping of the people from pressing neere the Pillary ; hee sayd , Let them come and spare not , that they may learne to suffer . This same Keeper , being weary , and sitting him downe , asked Mr. Burton , if he were well , and bad him be of good comfort . To whom hee replied , Are you well ? If you be well , I am much more , and full of comfort , I blesse God. Some asked him , if the Pillary were not uneasy for his neck and shoulders . Hee answered : How can Christs yoake be uneasy ? This is Christs yoake , and he beares the heavier end of it , and I the lighter , & if mine were too heavy , hee would beare that too . O good people ! Christ is a good and sweet Master , & worth the suffering for ! And if the world did but know his goodnes , & had tasted of his sweetnes , all would come and be his servants ; and did they but know what a blessed thing it were to beare his yoake , O! who would not beare it ? The Keeper going about to ease the Pillarie , by putting a stone or a bricke-batt betweene , Mr. Burton sayd , Trouble not your selfe , I am at very good ease , and feele no wearines at all . And espying a young man at the foote of the Pillary , and perceyving him to looke pale on him : Hee said , Sonne , Sonne , what is the matter you looke so pale ? I have as much comfort as my heart can hold , and if I had need of more , I should have it . One asked him a while after , if he would drinke some aqua vitae . To whom he replied , that he needed it not ; for I have , sayd he , ( laying his hand upon his breast ) the true water of life , which , like a well doth spring up to eternall life . Pawsing a while , he sayd with a most cheereful , & grave countenance , I was never in such a Pulpit before , but little doe ye know ( speaking to them that stood about him ) what fruits God is able to produce from this drye tree ; They looking stedfastly upon him , hee sayd , Marke my words , and remember them well , I say , Little doe you know , what fruites God is able to produce from this dry tree : I say , remember it well , for this day will never be forgotten ; and through these holes ( poynting to the Pillary ) God can bring light to his Church . The Keeper going about againe to mend the Pillary , he sayd : Doe not trouble your selfe so much : But indeed we are the troublers of the world . By & by after , some of them offering him a cup of wine ; He thanked them , telling them , he had the wine of consolation within him , & the joyes of Christ in possession , which the world could not take away from him , neither could it give them unto him . Then he looked towards the other Pillary , and making a signe with his hand , cheerefull called to Dr. Bastwicke , and Mr. Prynne , asking them , how they did ? Who answered , Very well . A woman said unto him , Sir , every Christian is not worthy this Honour , which the Lord hath cast upon you this day . Alas ( said he ) who is worthy of the least mercy ? But it is his gracious favour & free gift , to account us worthy in the behalf of Christ to suffer any thing for his sake . Another woman said , There are many hundreds which by Gods assistance wou●d willingly suffer , for the cause you suffer for this day . To whom he said , Christ exalts all of us that are ready to suffer afflictions for his Name with meeknes & patience : But Christs military discipline in the use of his spirituall warfare in point of suffering , is quite forgotten , and we have in a manner lost the power of religion , in not denying our selves , and following Christ as well in sufferings as in doing . After a while Mr. Burton calling to one of his friends for a Handkercher , returned it againe , saying : It is hott , but Christ bore the burthen in the heate of the day ; Let us alwayes labour to approove our selves to God in all things , and unto Christ , for therein stands our happines , come of it what will in this world . A Christian friend sayd to Mr. Burton , The Lord strengthen you . To whom hee replied , I thanke you , and I blesse his name hee strengthens . For though I am a poore sinfull wretch , yet I blesse God for my innocent conscience in any such crime as is laid against mee ; and were not my cause good , and my conscience sound , I could not enjoy so much unspeakeable comfort in this my sufferings as I doe : I blesse my God. Mistris Burton sends commendation to him by a friend : Hee returned the like to her , saying , Commend my love to my wife , and tell her , I am hartely cheerefull , and bidd her remember what I sayd to her in the morning , namely , That she should not blemish the glory of this day with one teare , or so much as one sigh . She returned answer , that shee was glad to heare him so cheerefull ; and that shee was more cheerefull of this day , then of her wedding day . This Answere exceedingly rejoyced his heart , who thereupon blessed God for her , and sayd of her , Shee is but a young Souldier of Christs , but shee hath already endured many a sharp brunt , but the Lord will strengthen her unto the end : And hee having on a payre of new gloves , shewed them to his friends there about him , saying : My wife yesterday of her owne accord bought me these wedding gloves , for this is my wedding day . Many friends spake comfortable to Mr. Burton , and hee againe spake as comfortably to them , saying : I blesse my God , that called me forth to suffer this day . One said to him , Sr. by this ( Sermon ) your suffering God may convert many unto him . Hee answered : God is able to doe it indeed . And then he called againe to Dr. Bastwicke and Mr. Prynne asking them how they did ? Who answered as before . Some speaking to him concerning that suffering of shedding his blood : Hee answered , What is my blood to Christs blood ? Christs blood is a purging blood , but mine is corrupted and polluted with sin . One friend asked another , standing neere Mr. Burton , If there should bee any thing more done unto him ▪ Mr. Burton overhearing him , answered : Why should there not be more done ? For what God will have done , must bee accompished . One desiring Mr. Burton to be of good cheere : To whom hee thus replied : If you knew my cheere , you would be glad to be partaker with mee ; for I am not alone , neither hath God left me alone in all my sufferings , & close imprisonment , since first I was apprehended . The Halbertmen standing round about , one of them had an old rusty Halbert , the Iron whereof was tacked to the staffe with an old crooked naile ; which one observing , and saying , What an old rusty Halbert is that ? M. Burton said , This seemes to mee to be one of those Halberts , which accompanied Iudas , when he went to betray & apprehend his Master . The people observing Mr. Burtons cheerefulnes , and courage in suffering , rejoyced , and blessed God for the same . Mr. Burton said againe , I am perswaded that Christ my Advocate , is now pleading my cause at the Fathers right hand , and will judge my cause , ( though none be found here to plead it ) and will bring forth my righteousnes as the light at noone day , & cleere my innocency in due time . A friend asking M. Burton , if he would have bin without this particular suffering ? To whom hee sayd , No : not for a world . Moreover , he sayd , that his conscience is the discharge of his Ministeriall duety and function , in admonishing his people to beware of the creeping in of Popery & Superstition , exhorting them to sticke close unto God & the King , in duties of obedience was that which first occasioned his sufferings , & sayd , as for this truth I have preached , I am ready to seale it with my blood , for this is my Crowne both here and hereafter . I am jealous of Gods honour , and the Lord keepe us that wee may doe nothing that may dishonour him , either in doing or suffering , God can bring light out of darkenes , and glory out of shame : And what shall I say more ? I am like a Bottle which is so full of liquor , that it cannot runne out freely ; So I am so full of joy , that I am not able to expresse it . In conclusion : some tolde him of the approach of the Executioner , and prayed God to strengthen him . Hee sayd , I trust hee will , why should I feare to follow my Master Christ , who sayde : I gave my Backe to the smiters , and my cheecke to the nippers , that plucked of my haire , I hidde not my face from shame and spitting , for the Lord God will helpe mee , therefore shall I not bee confounded , I have set my face like a flint , and I know that I shall not bee ashamed . When the Executioner had cut off one eare , which hee had cut deepe and close to the head , in an extraordinary manner : Yet this Champion of Christ never once mooved or stirred for it , though he had cut the veyne , so as the blood ranne streaming downe upon the Scaffold , which divers persons standing about the Pillary , seeing , dipped their Handkerchers in , as a thing most precious , the people giving a mournefull shout , and crying for the Chyrurgeon , whom the crowd and other impediments for a time kept off , so that hee could not come to stop the blood ; This Patient all the while held up his hands , and sayd , Bee content , It is well , blessed bee God. The other eare , being cut no lesse deepe , hee then was freed from the Pillary , and come downe , where the Chyrurgeon waiting for him , presently applyed remedy for stopping the Blood after a large effusion thereof , yet for all this hee fainted not in the least manner , though through expense of much blood hee waxed pale . And one offering him a little wormwood water , hee sayd : It needs not , yet through importunitie he onely tasted of it , and no more , saying , My master Christ was not so well used , for they gave him Gall and Veniger , and you give me strong water , to refresh mee , blessed be God. His head being bound up , two Friends led him away to an house provided for him in Kings Street , where being set downe , and bid to speake little , yet hee sayd after a pawse , This is too hot to hold long . Now , lest they in the roome , or his wife should mis-take , and thinke he spake of himselfe concerning his paine , hee sayd ; I speake not this of my self : for that which I have suffered is nothing to that my Saviour suffered for mee , who had his hands & feete nayled to the Crosse : And lying still a while , ●●e tooke Mr. Prynnes sufferings much to heart , and asked the people how he did , for ( said he ) his sufferings have beene great . He asked also how Dr. Bastwicke did , with much compassion and griefe , that hee ( being the first that was executed ) could not stay to see how they two fayred after him . His wife being brought to him , behaved herself very graciously towards him , saying : Wellcome Sweet heart , wellcome home . He was often heard to repeate these words : The Lord keepe us , that we doe not dishonour him in any thing . AMEN . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A05581-e180 D. Bastwijcke . 
A32039	----	Master Edmund Calamies leading case Calamy, Edmund, 1600-1666. 1663 Approx. 26 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 9 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2004-11 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A32039 Wing C258 ESTC R7623 13131749 ocm 13131749 97865 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A32039) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 97865) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1546:8) Master Edmund Calamies leading case Calamy, Edmund, 1600-1666. 16 p. 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Church and state -- England. 2003-11 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2003-12 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2004-08 Melanie Sanders Sampled and proofread 2004-08 Melanie Sanders Text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion MASTER Edmund Calamies LEADING CASE . Behold how he seeketh a quarrel against me ? LONDON , Printed in the Year , MDCLXIII . Mr. EDMVND CALAMIES LEADING CASE . Lord Mayor's Officer with a Warrant . FOr as much as I have received a Certificate from , and under the Hand and Seal of the right Reverend Father in God , Gilbert Lord Bishop of London , That Mr. Edmund Calamy late Curate of the Parish Church of St. Mary Aldermanbury , in the said City of London being ( according as is provided and enacted by the late Act of Parliament made for the Vniformity of Publick Prayers , &c. ) by reason of his Inconformity disabled to Preach or Read any Lecture or Sermon in any Church or Chappel within his MAJESTIES Realm of England , or Dominion of Wales , and Town of Berwick upon Tweed , and continuing and remaining still so disabled , did since the Feast of St. Bartholomew last past , upon two several daies , viz. on Tuesday the twenty sixth day of August last past , and upon Sunday the twenty eighth day of December , 1662 in the said Church of St. Mary Aldermanbury , presume , and take upon himself ( without any lawful approbation and licence thereunto ) to Preach or Read , and did Preach or Read two several Sermons or Lectures publickly before the Congregation , then , and there in the said Church assembled , contrary to , and in contempt of Authority of the said Act of Parliament : These are therefore ( as I am required by the said Act ) in His MAJESTIES Name to will and command you to receive into your Custody within the Gaol of Newgate , the Body of the said Edmund Calamy brought unto you herewith , and him there detein for the offence aforesaid , for the Term of three Months from the day of the date hereof , without Bayl or Mainprise , according to the tenor and effect of the Act of Parliament aforesaid . And this shall be your Warrant therein , Dated this fifth day of January , 1662. Church-Members . FAr be this from you , good Sir , spare your self , and retire until this Calamity be overpast . Come my people , enter thou ●nto thy Chambers , and shut thy doores about thee : hide thy self as it were for a little moment , until the indignation be overpast . Mr. Calamy , What mean you to weep , and to break mine heart ? for I am ready not to be bound onely , but to dye for the Lord Jesus . Brethren . Now you will not be perswaded , we must cease , and say , The will of the Lord be done . Calamy . The Lord Jesus did not hide himself when he was to be taken for me , but said , Here I am : I will not hide my self now I am to be taken for him , but will say , Here I am : only I shall entreat some of your Company , to my Lord Mayor , to whom you may give an account of that daies proceeding . Brethren . With all our hearts : — Lord Mayor . As I would upon other occasions have been glad , so really I am now sorry to see you Mr. Calamy : equally sorry I am , that I must inflict such a punishment ( as I am obliged by the Act ) upon a Person of your Years and Profession ; and that such a Person should dese●ve it : In charity I could not think your Conscience could have allowed you at any time , so open an affront to the most Solemn Establishment of Authoritie : I● reason I could not think your prudence could have allowed it at this time , when His Majestie was so f●ll of gracious thoughts towards you , and all sober men of your way . Calamy . In prudence I should not at this time have displeased his Majestie : In Conscience I cannot at any time displease God. Lord Mayor . I hope His Majesties Government is so just , so moderate , so agreeable to the great Principles of Religion and Reason , upon which mankind joyn in a Society , or ChristJan . in a Church ; that there is no discreet and knowing Person put upon the sad Dilemma of either provoking God , or opposing the Authority ordained of God. Calamy . Necessity is layd upon us , yea , woe unto us if we preach not the Gospel . That you may have a reason of that which was done by me , and so may not think I did it unwarrantably , I offer your Consideration what hath been much upon my spirit , from the 5. of the Acts , As the Apostles taught the People , the Priests , the Sadduces , the Captain of the Temple , came upon them , being grieved that they taught the People : And they layd hands on them , and layd them in hold against the next day : Howbeit , many of them which heard the Word believed , and the number of the men was about five thousand . And when they had called them before them , they asked them by what Power , or in what Name have you done this ? Then Peter filled with the Holy Ghost , said unto them : Ye Rulers of the People , and Elders of Israel , if we be examined this day of the good deed that we have done ; be it known unto you all , we have done it it in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when they saw the boldnesse of Peter and John they marvelled , and they took knowledge of them . But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the Councel , they conferred among themselves , saying , What shall we do to these men ; for that indeed notable things have been done by them , is manifest to all them that dwell at Ierusalem , and we cannot deny it : But that it spread no further among the People , let us straitly threaten them that they speak henceforth to no man in this Name . And they called them , and commanded them , That they should not speak at all in the Name of Jesus . But Peter and John answered and said unto them : Whether it be right in the sight of God , to hearken unto God more than unto you , judge ye ; for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard : So when they had further threatned them , they let them go , finding nothing how they might punish them , because of the People . L. B. L. If it were not our businesse rather to manifest our obedience to the Act of Uniformity in performing duty , then to dispute your disobedience in neglecting yours , we could easily show you how many waies you have wrested this Scripture , as the unlearned and unstable wrest them , to their own damnation : and how wide your case is from theirs . For 1. They were silenced by no L●w ; you are silenced by a Law : they could say with St. Paul , Acts 25. 8. for them●elves , and answer , That neither against the Law of the Jewes , nor against the Temple , nor against Caesar , have we offended at all . You must confesse , That against the Law of the Nation , against the Church , and against Caesar , in many things have you offended all . 2. They were forbid to preach in the Name of Jesus . You are onely forbid to Rebel in the Name of Jesus : They were restrained from publishing the Truth : You are restrained onely from publishing Errors . 3. There the whole Ministry was to be silenced : Here you onely , and a few others , are suspended : So that now Christ is preached , and you may rejoice . 4. They were suspended by the prevailing power of oppressions : You are silenced by the reasonable power of your own Representatives in Parliament . ●ewes silenced them without a Law ; you by a Law , which the men you have chosen have made , have silenced your selves . 5. A necessity which lay upon them , who were called of God , to reveal the Gospel which was hid from Ages ; doth not ly upon you , who many of you , are not so much as called by man to preach that Word ; which for many years . God be thanked , hath dwelt richly among us . 6. They loved not their life unto the death , that they might preach the Gospel ; you love your opinion so well , that you will rather not preach the Gospel then hear it : they would not be silenced to save their lives , you silence your selves to ●al●● your r●pute and esteem . Mr. Calamy . O add not reproach unto affliction ▪ O Sir , we would not have left our callings and stations for fear of death , we must now leave them for fear of that which is worse then death : we would willingly die rather then not serve the Lord in our calling : we must rather not serve the Lord in our calling then sin . An honest man. Really I am afraid that while you think you avoid sin by refusing Ceremonies which are indifferent , you committed sin in neglecting your calling , which was necessary . Mr. Calamy . Let every man be fully perswaded in his own mind : what is but indifferent in your apprehension , was sinful in mine , and every man must give an account of himself . B.S. It is not what you think of the thing imposed can secure your conscience , but what they are ▪ that which is good remains good , and that which is evil , evil : and that in the very same degree of good and evil as it was before , neither better nor worse , any mans particular judgement or opinion thereof notwithstanding . Mr. Calamy . That 's true indeed , yet what is good or indifferent in it self , if I am perswaded it is evil , it is evil unto me : to him that esteemeth any thing to be unlawful to him it is unlawful , Rom. 4.14 . B.S. To him th●● thinketh a thing unlawful , and is at liberty , whether he doth it or no , to ●im it is unlawful : but to him that thinketh a thing unlawful , bu● yet is enjoyned by lawful authority to do , to him if he hath not a clear rule to the contrary , it is l●wful . Wh●tsoever it co●●●●ded us by those whom God hath felt over us 〈◊〉 in Chur● , Common-wealth , or Family , which is not evidently contrary to the Law and will of God , ought to be receivved and obeyed no otherwise , then as if God himself had commanded it ; because God himself hath commanded us to obey the Higher Powers , and to submit our selves to their Ordinances , Rom. 13. 1. 1 Pet. 2.13 . Mr. Calamy . I hope I must not go against my Conscience within me , to comply with my Superiours above me . B.S. What a strange thing is this ! that when the blessed Apostle commanded you to obey for conscience sake , you should disobey , and that for conscience sake too : Your Governors charge you upon your Conscience to be obedient , and you pretend your conscience to be free from that subjection : It is a sad thing that you have brought your selves and other poor souls to such ● strait between two sins , and you can by no means possible avoid both , as long as you persist in this way ; for if you do the things commanded , you go against the perswasion of your own conscience , and that is a great sin ; and if you do them not , you disobey lawful Authority , and that is a sin too . Mr. Calamy . Truly neither fancy , faction , nor humor makes me not to comply , but meerly for fear of offending God : And if after the best means used to satisfie my self ; as prayer to God , discourse , study , I was not able to apprehend the lawfulness of what was required ; if it be my unhappiness to be in an error , surely men will have no reason to be angry vvith me in this vvorld , and I hope God vvill pardon me in the next . Mr. S●rin . When I vvas called upon either to conform to the Lavvs for Uniformity , or to leave my Ministry , I asked of my self tvvo things , Whe●her I would rather suffer death then use the thing● imposed in a Church professing the foundation , and urging them as things indifferent , not pressing them as binding consciences in themselves , or as needful to salvation ? And whether the execution of my Ministry ( which was pressed upon my conscience with ● wo , if I neglected it ) should be as dear to me as my life . P.S. Good God , to see to what pass small errors have brought us ! how difference of apprehension hath brought forth difference of judgment : and difference of judgment bath brought forth difference of practice , and disagreement of affection . The difference of practice hath moved Authority to silence and suppress refusers of conformity . The disagreement in affection doth move you who are deprived , to speak and act against persons in authority ; whereby in the event the course of the Gospel is interrupted , and of Popery enlarged ; the friends of Sion are grieved , the enemies rejoyce ; the enemy of mankind is gratified , and the Lord is displeased ; the Church is rent with schism , the truth scandalized by dissention ; the Ministers undone by loss of living , and the unity of brethren living in the same house , professing the same faith and rejoycing in the same hope , is pulled in pieces , and this like to continue God knows how long . Mr. Calamy . It is sad that Magistrates should enjoyn such things as should cause such divisions as cause great thoughts of heart . B.S. It is sad indeed that Subject● cannot submit to such things as are enjoyned for peace , order , and decency . L. M. I wonder you should not consider how dangerous it should be to affront the most solemn injunction of the whole Nation , a Law so universally desired , so deliberately resolved on , so seriously pressed , as the greatest security of Church or State. Mr. Calamy . I was several times persecuted for owning his Majesties Authority and Interest . I did not think I should live to be imprisoned for opposing it . Sr. T. E. The more favour his Majestie had for you for former service , the more sorry he is that you have forfeited it by your presen● and 〈◊〉 . His Majestie thought that Mr. Calamy would not have 〈◊〉 so , of any man in England . Mr. Calamy . Really I did not do it upon mine own head , but upon the request of divers honourable and worthy persons who were otherwise like to be disappointed of a morning Sermon . Sr. R.B. It is generally reported , and upon the extraordinary concourse of people to your Church , as generally believed that it was designed before hand ; several Citiz●n● inviting one another to your Church to hear you preach . Mr. Calamy . It might be a design upon me , it was no design by me : this is not the first time we have been tr●panne● . T.F. There are few that know you that can allow you so much indiscretion as to yeild to the private importunities of a few Gentlemen , against the publick authority of a whole Parliament . Mr. Calamy . I may say ( with reverence to the Lord Jesus , of whom it is written ) that I had compassion of the multitude , who were as sheep without a shepherd . E.W. You would have taught the people better by your silence , then by your Sermon : your obedience had been better than sacrifice ● the misguided throng had been better taught by your cheerful submission to authority , then by your indiscreet discourse against it . When you had been importuned to preach , you should have said ; I pray you go home and learn what that m●aneth , Submit your selves to every ordinance of 〈◊〉 for the Lord's sake , whether it ●e the King as supream , or 〈◊〉 Governor● 〈…〉 them who are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers , and for the praise of them 〈◊〉 do well , for so is the will of God● that wish well doing we may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men , as free and using your liberty as a cloak of ●icenti●●●ness , 〈…〉 wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for w●●th , but for conscience s●ke , 〈◊〉 13.5 Mr. Calamy . I hope an offence of this nature may be passed by , being so innocent in the design of it , so harmless in the consequence of it . W.F. How harmless it is in the design of it , be it between you and your God and soul : how dangerous it is in the consequence of it , any man may guess that considers what encouragement it may give your party , if you are not punished ; and what offence it may give them if you are . If you are winked at , why say others , are we not winked at too , without respect of persons . If you are punished , then they say , we are persecuted . It is sad that you are become such an occasion of offence between the King and his good people . Mr. Calamy . I hope I am not so unhappy . T.M. You were looked upon as the fittest man to break the Ice , being a man so much esteemed for your own worth , and so much interessed in honourable friends and acquaintance . For as formerly Cartwright was encouraged by the E. of Lecester , Travers was entertained by the L. Treasurer Cecill , Walsingham was owned by Secretary Walsingham ; so you stir up your honourable women , and look for the favour of many excellent personages . Mr. Calamy . I hope his Majesties gracious Declaration may excuse me . F.H. When my Lord of London acquainted his Majestie with what you had done , his Majestie said , I am sure he hath no encouragement to , if from my declarati●n : His Majestie never intended any favour of this nature to you● and I fear this p●ssage will obabstruct that favour he intended . Mr. Calamy . So far I hope may this passage be from prejudicing his Sacred Majesty against us●● that it may rather incline him to favour us : considering the necessity he hereby may perceive of our service , and the reasonableness of his indulgence . M. O. Flatter not your self with these v●in thoughts ; his Majesty may pity you , but he doth not want you . God hath sent his Word , and great are the company of Preachers . Mr. Calamy . Let not the rigour of one Session restrain those whom the indulgence of another may release . N.P. It is a question whether the same Parliament may repeal the act that made it : whether those things that have been over-ruled , may be debated by the same House . Mr. Calamy . I hope that what a Popish Priest may do without check , a Protestant Minister may do without imprisonment . R.B. Neither the one nor the other may be endured to seduce the people , and with fair words to deceive the hearts of the simple , if any man teach any other doctrine , and consent not to wholesome words , &c. Mr. Calamy . I hope his Majesty will use his interest with the Parliament . A.C. You of all men should not expect it , who complained of his late Majesties protecting Delinquents against his Parliament . A Brother . It is an unheard of course that the Church should be governed by Civil Laws , and Ministers punished by Lay-men . An honest man. Since the reformation , by your leave and the Papists , we have owned his Maj. under Christ , Defender of our Faith , and Law-maker of our Church : the Church directs , the State establisheth . Good women . Al●s , that they should use the good man so unworthily and hardly ! A.B. When Mr. Calamy and Mr. Love , &c. were under restraint , and word was sent to the Army in Scotl. concerning it , Harrison and others said , If godly men transgress the Law , they should be punished by the Law Good w. Alas what harm hath the good man done ? R. L. In short he abused the Kings Authority , he hath broken the settled Law , he hath vilified the power of Parliam . he hath disturbed the publick peace , he stands to the principles of the Rebellion , and provokes another . Good wo. I wonder what he preached ? A.B. He preached that glory was departing from our Isr. Good w. These courses will bring us to another war. A.B. Not so we hope . What , will you endanger the publick peace rather then be restrained ? will you not scruple at Rebellion , who scruple at a few ceremonies ? what would you do if you had power in your own hands , that are so bold without it ? shall the minor part impose upon the major ? shall a novel fancy bear down an Apostolical institution ? shall a private opinion contest with a publick Law ? G.w. Alas that our teachers are removed into corners . A.B. Our dangers begin at the Pulpit , without the aid of seditious Sermons , I do believe the strife had never come to bloud : he was a wise man that said , The single imprisonment of Crofton hath quieted that party more then all the multiplied and transcendent favors of his Majesty . Good w. These are sad times . A.B. Say not that the former times were better then these , for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this thing : when you guided the times others complained ; now others guide the times , you complain ; when shall we be quiet , I think it is our best way to rest where we are Good w. Good man , he hath discharged his conscience . A. B He hath it may be discharged his conscience , and my L. M. must discharge his : he who in order to the making of good ChristJan . , makes bad Subjects , hath a zeal indeed , but it is seditious ; a Religion , but it is Rebellion . G.w. Now you suffer for righteousness sake , happy is he . A.B. Yes , but what glory have you , if when ye are buffeted for your faults you take it patiently . Let none of you suffer as a murderer , or as a thief , or as an evil doer , or as a busie-body in other mens matter . Mr. Calamy . May I but 〈◊〉 ●espi●ed until ●o mo● row . L.M. Yes , with all my heart upon your , and your fri●●ds word . Sr. I.B. Remember how you prayed , preached , and what you did June 6. 1641. and what was done Jan. 6. 1644 , and I pray speak not with Argyle as you go home . Jeremiah 3●●38 . 1 This man se● hath not the welfare of this people , but their 〈◊〉 . 2 Thou fallest away to the Caldeans . 3 It s false . I fall not to the Caldeans . 4 Jeremiah said , what have I do●e against thee ' or against they servants that I should be put in prison . 5 Let my supplication I p●ay 〈◊〉 , &c accepted before thee O King. 6 Then took they Jeremiah and sent him to the dungeon . 7 When Ebed●●●lech the EthiopJan . the chamber lain of the Kings house heard that they put Jeremiah in the dungeon , he spake to the King , saying , My Lord the King , these men have done evil in all they have done to Jeremiah the Prophet whom they have cast into the dungeon , &c. Calamy 1 This man envieth the establishment of this Nation , and seeks its hurt . 2 Thou fallest away to the separation at Hemsted . 3 It is false , I kept no Convenucle at Hemsted . 4 Mr. Calamy said , what have I done worthy of imprisonment ? 5 Let my petition be re●●●ved by your most ●xcellent Majestie . 6 Then took they M. Calamy & sent him to Newgate 7 Now when L.Ch. heard that Mr. Calamy was in prison , he went to the King , and said , May it please your Majesty , it is pity that reverend Mr. Calamy should be sent to Newgate . Pana ad unum , terror ad omnes . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A32039-e60 ●f . 26. 20. Acts 2 ● , 13. Act. 21.14 1 Cor. 9.16 Acts 14. 
A32786	----	A sermon preached in Saint Pavles chvrch the tenth of October, 1641 by Mr. Thomas Chisheare ... ; vvherein are many memorable passages most worthy of serious observations in these times. Cheshire, Thomas, b. 1600 or 1601. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A32786 of text R18461 in the English Short Title Catalog (Wing C3780). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 29 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 9 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2017 A32786 Wing C3780 ESTC R18461 12872364 ocm 12872364 94802 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A32786) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 94802) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 255:E173, no 20) A sermon preached in Saint Pavles chvrch the tenth of October, 1641 by Mr. Thomas Chisheare ... ; vvherein are many memorable passages most worthy of serious observations in these times. Cheshire, Thomas, b. 1600 or 1601. 16 p. [s.n.], Printed at London : 1641. An "imperfect, confused, surreptitious" edition, according to Cheshire's preface to the longer authorized edition, also published in 1641, with title : A trve copy of that sermon which was preached at Saint Pavls the tenth day of October last. This edition wrongly designates Cheshire as Master of Arts from Oxford. An attack upon Puritan critics of the Church of England. Reproduction of original in Thomason Collection, British Library. eng Bible. -- O.T. -- Psalms CXLVIII, 12-13 -- Sermons. Puritans -- England -- Sermons. A32786 R18461 (Wing C3780). civilwar no A sermon preached in Saint Paules church the tenth of October. 1641. By Mr. Thomas Chisheare. Master of arts of Brasennose Colledge in Oxfor Cheshire, Thomas 1641 5471 3 5 0 0 0 0 15 C The rate of 15 defects per 10,000 words puts this text in the C category of texts with between 10 and 35 defects per 10,000 words. 2006-07 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-07 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-09 Celeste Ng Sampled and proofread 2006-09 Celeste Ng Text and markup reviewed and edited 2007-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A SERMON PREACHED IN SAINT PAVLES CHVRCH THE tenth of October . 1641. By Mr. Thomas Chisheare . Master of Arts of Brasennose Colledge in Oxford . VVherein are many memorable passages most worthy of serious observations in these Times . Printed at London in the yeare of our Lord 1641. A SERMON PREACHed at Saint Paules Church the tenth of October . 1641. Vpon Psalme . 148. ver. 12. and part of the 13. Young men , and maidens , old men , and children , let them Praise the name of the Lord . MY whole alotted time would be to short to stand , either to speak of the Pen-man heere the holy Prophet David , or this his worke in generall , or this his Psalme in particular . For himselfe , he was a man after Gods owne heart , that is his greatest title , and he went beyond all the Sonnes of Adam , who was a King , and a Prophet , in all causes , both Ecclesiasticall , and pollitique , in foure particulars never yet paralleld ; A Shepherd a Musition : a Souldier : and a Prophet . For the first , ye know what service he did , he slew a Lion , and a Beare , an absolute tipe of Death , and Hell , to be overcome by this victorious Lion , of the Tribe of Iudah . For a Musitian , he was the sweet singer of Israel , yea he was able to charme the Devill himselfe , and quit that evill Spirit which vexed Saul . For a Souldier , he was most famous , witnesse that Battell wherein he slew Goliah , and beheaded that great Champion of the Philistines with his owne sword . For a Prophet , none so fully , and so clearly foretels the Person , Incarnation , Passion , and resurrection of Christ foretold , as David did : he in his owne person did oftentimes intimate many other men , so that his divine writings are the Compendium of all the sacred Scripture , it seemes Christ himselfe set much by this booke , for you may observe that he used the sayings of the Prophet David , more then any other Prophet , yea more then all the Prophets together , Moreover when the Devill tempted Christ , he arged a Text out of this Prophet , as if the Devill had observed how greatly Davids sayings were respected Our Church considering the usefull excellency of this part of Scripture , hath ordained a more frequent use , then of any other part of Divine write . But I must stay no longer in the commendation of this our Prophet , or his booke of Psalmes , he rather bids as practise what we finde written : young Men and Maidens &c. Which wordes are the Conclusion of a Psalme , which we may not unfitly stile by the name of a Divine Masque , where is scarce any Creature in the whole world but the Species are in this Psalme . Here are Angels , and all Hosts . Sun , and Moone , and Starres of light . The Heaven , and Heavens , and the waters that be above the Heavens . The Earth , the Dragons , and all Depths . Fire , Hayle , Snow , and vapours and stormy winds . Mountaines and all Hils , Fruitfull trees , and all Cedars , Beasts , and all cattell , creeping things , and flying Foules Kings of the earth , and all People , Princes , and all Iudges of the earth . And in the words of my text , Both Young Men , and Maidens , Old Men , and Children , let them praise the Name of the Lord . You that desire strange , and rare sights , O come hither , and view the whole troope of Gods creatures , a Chorus that is led by Angells , followed by men , and directed by God himselfe , and yet stay not too long in contemplating of them , for thou they selfe also of what degree soever , have a part to act , as well as the rest . Young Men , and Maidens &c. For my better proceeding herein , I shall first observe the connection of these wordes , with the precedent . Secondly the duty that is commanded , and that is praise to God . And thirdly the Actors , and those are , Iuvenes & virgines &c. So that you see the Text like the Iron gate to Peter , opens unto us of its owne accord ; and to looke for more abroad , were like Esaw to hunt for Venison a farre off , when like Iacob , wee may have it neere our hand . I will treat of this Text very plainely , for , Ita non debet loqui Theologus , ut possit intelligi , sed ut non possit non intelligi . First that we may know that this Masque is worth our labour , and not unbeseeming so glorious a creature as man is , our Prophet shewes us that it befits the Angels in Heaven , yea it is the height of their felicity , to comfort themselves in Anthems of praise to Almighty God . So saith Saint Luk. And suddenly there was with the Angels a multitude of the heavenly Hosts praising God . The Angels leaped out of Heaven for ioy , to congratulate mankinde with a morning Antheme of praise , and thankes . Thus you see the part we have of act is nothing derogatory unto our worth , since the glorious Angels themselves are imployed in the same . But to go on , this our Prophet shews ; that the very Beasts , and Trees , and Foules can performe that , which the Devill would perswade us , is so difficult . The Oxe knoweth his owner , and the Asse his Masters crib , but Israel doth not know , my people doth not consider . So heere our Prophet would have us to take notice of Beasts , and Foules of the aire , nay the aire it selfe , wind , and stormes fulfilling his word . Christ tels the Iewes , that the Queen of the South should rise up in Iudgement against them at the last day , and not onely the Queene of the South , but the arie wind of the South , shall as it were rise up in Iudgement against us at the last day , because that also doth performe the will of God ; Which man will not doe . Now I come to that which I chiefly 〈◊〉 at , Young men , and Maidens &c. The Duty here inioyned , is a duty of Praise , but not so much 〈◊〉 , as 〈◊〉 for then the Pharisee would have acted his part best : our praise must be both Ore , Opere , & Cora● Christ forbidding swearing in that Divine Sermon of his upon the mount , shewes us a Method , how to affirme , or deny any thing , Let your communication be yea , yea , nay , 〈◊〉 : for whatsoever is more then these , commeth of evill . On which place ( I remember ) one glosseth well Christ doth not intend ( saith he ) that we should pronounce yea twice , or nay twice with our tongues , but that the heart should first consent or refuse , and then the tongue should follow , either in yea or nay , there should be an agreement betweene the tongue , and the heart , let your communication be , yea yea , nay , nay , so likewise in preaching the name of God it must be first performed by the heart , and then ecchoed out by the tongue , and afterward commented upon in all our actions , as yea may see in this Psalme , where the Prophet calling upon the creatures to praise God , urgeth them thereunto with an argument taken from the wind , and storme , fulfilling his word . So that it is not enough for the wind to whisle , or the raine to rattle , if we should Praise God as wee ought , it must by fulfilling his word : What is that instrument of ten strings which our Prophet , speaketh of but the devout heart of a Christian , tuned , and rightly set to the ten commandements ? This Musick sounds sweetest in the eares of Heaven , so saith Saint Augustine more at large in that excellent worke of his , de decem chordis . Good works should say to orall confession as Ruth did to Naomi , And Ruth said intreat me not to leave thee , or to returne from following after thee , for whither thou goest I will goe , &c. And where a godly conversation doth not concomitate orall confession , that praise sounds harsh in the eares of God , Ergo ( as the Father saith ) Noli 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We must have brace-lets as well as Earerings , good deeds as well as courteous language : or the ornament which our spirituall Isaack gives to his Rebechah , and which he most esteemeth ; these are they which make him take pleasure in our beauty , therefore let us take pleasure not onely to speake , and heare , but do the same : for this is truely to praise the name of the Lord , and as we must praise God in thought , word , and worke , we must labour to keep an agreement between them all ; for if one onely string be out of tune , although all the rest be rightly set , yet this one will so jar , that the lesson playd upon it , to a skilfull eare , will sound as bad as if all were out of tune . If thou doest forsake drunkennesse , Whoredome , or such like , and yet dost cleave to covetousnesse , it comes all to on reckoning , for he that offends in one point , is guilty of all , ( saith the Apostle ) looke therefore to thy bosome sin , and never leave striving untill thou quite extirpate the same . How many are there of us , that will pray in necessity , but will not praise in prosperity . The husband-man so long as the corne is growing , will hedge and fence the field , with all care , and dilligence : but when it is reaped then he lets it lye open , for Hogs , and other Beasts to treade , and trample in . When we have what we looked for , then welet the reine slip , in a storme we would be glad to shelter our selves under the branches of that tree : which afterward we are ready to cut downe ; and burne it . After the same manner the ungratefull Athenians delt with Themistocles , when there was any sedition , or uproare in the City , then who but Themistocles , but when by his discreet wisedome , and good Counsell all was quieted , then who more vile , who more contemptible then poore Themistocles ? I wish , this might be applyed to too many of our times , who are fitly compared to a Herd of Hoggs , the keeper beates them downe acornes , and they eate them up greedily , but never look up to the tree , onely when they find their store spent , grunt a little for more like as when some wholesome potion is boyled in a brasse vessell , yet the brasse gives it such a relish , that it becomes good for nothing . Prayers , and praise in a good mans mouth , is like sweet incense , but in others , it is like brasse , and savours too strong of the Cask , and therefore the wise man saith , that praise is not seemly in the mouth of a Sinner . The husband man when he is like to have a good harvest , or the Merchant a good returne from Sea . He will give praise to God , but with such a relation to his gaine , that a man may easily perceive it was not of free will , neither indeed willingly did he give praise to Almighty God : and indeed men doe behave themselves so , as if they were bound no more to give God praise , then he is to give them benefits . The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away ( saith Iob ) blessed be the Name of the Lord . Quando tibi benè est , lauda misericordiam Dei : quando male , lauda iusticiam Dei . And that lustily , and with a good courage . Our prophet David calling upon the creatures to praise the Lord , he joyneth a reason : For ( saith he ) Let them praise the Lord , for he commanded , and they were created . But we have much more cause ; for besides we have the benefit common with them , we have above all other creatures , a great benefit of redemption by Iesus Christ : in this God hath exalted men above Angels , in giving unto them his onely begotten Sonne , as his power was manifest in the creating of the world , so the riches of his love , was never so fully shewed , as in sending his onely begotten Sonne to suffer for us . I remember a story of one Saleucus , who made a law , that all adulterers should be punished with the losse of both their eyes : on a time it came to passe his owne son was taken in the same fault : his good old Father being perplexed much thereat , at last resolved on this course : that the executioner should pull out one of his owne eyes : and another of his Sonnes ; that so both iustice might be satisfied , and mercy shewed . We likewise were in danger both of loosing this life , and that which is to come , as also of suffering a double Death , temporall , and eternall , but God hath found out a meanes for our delivery : Christ came in , and suffered one Death himselfe , to free us from the other Death . Plato gave thankes unto the Gods . First , that he was a man , and not a Beast . Secondly that he was a Graetian , and not a Barharian . Thirdly that he was not one of the common rout , but a Philosopher . But besides we are men , we are Christian men , who live in peace , and plenty with the free passage of the Gospell of Iesus Christ . Therefore let us both Young Men and Maidens , old Men and Babes praise the name of the Lord . Gratiarum actio , respicit gratiam dantis , ubi igitur est gratia maior dantis , ibi gratia maior accipientis . Assure thy self of one thing as Saint Augustine hath , Qui non vult laudare in hoc seculo , obmutescet in futuro . God at the last day , will say to such an one , as the King did to him , that had not on the wedding garment . I should be too tedious if I should stand to reckon up the manifold mercys that God hath be stowed on this our land , beyond all the world besides , our Peace , and Plenty , with the Gospell of Christ , our many , and great deliverances , both from forreigne enemies , and Domesticke Traytors : so that we may rightly say , Ignem & aquam transivimus . God hath delivered us from the Spanish invasion , and the Gun-powder treason , and hath placed us in a wealthy land . Be ye therefore filled with the Spirit ( saith our Prophet David ) speaking to your selves in Psalmes , and Hymnes , and spirituall songs : and here I might speak of the godly care of our Church , which hath ordeined singing of Psalmes , both before , and after Sermon , and indeed are very fitting to be sung in order , for the better stirring up of our affections . And here I have a iust cause to taske them of the Seperation , who will not admit of any set forme of prayer , for that ( as they say ) is cursing of the Spirit , but why then should we have a set forme of singing ? For my part it shall ever have my allowance & I thinke that these their Ex tempore prayers sounds as harshly in the eares of heaven , as divers Psalmes sung together in sevorall tunes , would in ours . I remember the Apostle Paul makes mention of three graces viz. Faith , Hope , & Charity , but the chiefest of these is Charity , Charity , & love is the chiefest Propter durationem , for in Heaven we shall enioy both that we did beleive , and hoped for ; but love shall accompany us there also : in imitation thereof , I shall also name three , prayer , praise , and Patience , but the chiefest of these is Praise , and that for the same reason , because it shall outlast all other , here we stand in need of things necessary both for the body , and soule , and therefore we have need of prayer , here we are troubled , and afflicted with divers kinds of adversities , And therefore we had need of Patience : but hereafter in heaven , all teares shall be wiped away from our eyes , we shall have no need then , of Prayer , or patience , onely praise shall still remaine , then it shall be as it now is , the greatest ioy of the Angels to consort themselves with the Saints , in singing glory , and Honour , and praise , to him that sits upon the Throne , & to the Lamb for evermore . And so I have done with the duty in generall . And now give me leave a little to acquaint you with some observations ; and first for reproofe , there is no impartiall Christian , but it would grieve his heart to see the prophanation of Gods ordinances , when Coblers , Weavers , and Taylours , and Feltmakers . Frange leves calamos , & scinde Thalia libellos . And these to goe unpunished , nay much made on , and well countenanced : many of our Pulpits now a dayes , do ring of the Doctrine of Devils . On did preach publikely , that it was not fit for Parents to teach their children the Lords prayer . Another did maintaine , and approve , of that bloody act of Eelton . An other ( to use his owne wordes ) would maintaine that there was no more holinesse in the Church , then in his Kitchin , nor in our communion Table , then his Dresserboard . O horrid Blaspemy ! what will become of us , if Ecclesiasticall iurisdiction may not curbe such as these are . O that they might be permitted to punish these things , with what fury would they dart out their thunderbolts , and with their Coruscant beames beat these bats into their accursed holes ; the house of God prophaned : the memory of the Saints razed : the monuments of good Christians ; it is great pitty to see , that those who have beene speciall benefactors to this City , that their Monuments are defaced . I would it might be taken into serious consideration , neither Insignia Regalia can escape their censure . For in one Church of this City , it was openly preached , that the Kings Crowne should be pulled downe , because it had a crosse upon it . I wish we could pull downe the old man of Sinne , and leavell those mountains of Pride which are in our hearts . Gods house is abused , and the Ministers of God abused : there cannot one of them goe along the streets , but straight he is taken notice on , who he is , or the like contumelious reproaches , look yonder goes a Iesuite : and Abbilubber , one of Baals Priests : one of Canterburies whelpes . There is one place I would have you look unto : where it is said . They mocked the messenger of God , and despised his words , and misused his Prophets : until the wrath of the Lord was against his People , till there was no remedy . We read in the former verses that they had polluted the Temple and commited many , and great sins , bnt yet God did forbeare , untill they came to misusing of his Prophets , and then there was no remedy , the word in the originall doth properly signifie , that their sore was cancred . The decent Munimenta which have stood time out of mind in divers Churches , to keepe the Lords table from prophanaion , is fetched away by those that have no authority . ( I conceive the order of the honourable house of Parliament ) & I do confesse that there were too many alterations of late , but for those that have stood decently , time out of mind , that the rude , and inconsiderate multitude should demolish them ! I would wish these to consider what the holy Prophet saith , He that breaketh a Hedge , a Serpent shall bite him : I conceive that ye all know what I meane by the Hedge , and I wish you may not too soon feele what is meant by the Serpent . We have too many in these our days are so invective against Bishops , as if they would pluck up both branch , & root in one day , although there may be some faulty in the Church , therefore shall the Church suffer ? Some Aldermen have been faulty , and some Iudges have been Dilinquent , but therefore shall there be no Iudges , & no Aldermen ? Let the parties , that have done evill , be punished , and not their 〈◊〉 office . So likewise for the booke of Common Prayer , how is it condemned , and reviled ( that I say ) what was made by the consent of many godly Ministers , and sealed with their dearest blood ; it hath bin termed by the name of Pottage , or Porridge , you must give me leave to be a forewarner to tell : you . For what things the wrath of God doth hang over our heads , but by my conseut , those that will have none of the Porridge , should have none of the meat , Ex tempore Prayer , & Ex tempore Preaching , as if their glorious Lord , & heavenly Father , had deserved no more reverence at their hands then to serve for blockes , and Posts , that when they are ready to tumble out of their way , by taken of theirin considerate hast , taken hold of these names , keep their tongues in play , while their rash invention makes a farther passage you shall read what Method was observed in the building of Solomons Temple , that it was built of stone , made ready , before it was brought thither ; so that there was neither hammor , nor Axe , nor any toole of Iron heard in the house while it was in building : if this Method were observed in the building of the Temple , we should not have such hacking , and hamering , as if Babell were now building , rather then the house of God ; or if it were rather a pulling downe , then a building up , and therefore our late King Iames , cals such Prayers , Monstrous births , and indeed how can they be otherwise , when they are conceived , and brought forth all in one houre ? Prayer is the most necessary duty to a Christian of all other , and of all other most acceptable to Almighty God . Oratio fidelis est coeli clavis . But thou ( such as these ) must not thinke to open Heaven gate with the rusty picklock of ex tempore prayer . The same author King Iames saith in his {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . If we were to come before an earthly Prince , how would we thinke with our selves before hand , what gesture , and language , we should use before we came into his presence : Doe you thinke this fitting to be done to an earthly King : and shall the King of Kings ( my beloved ) be thus dishonoured , in many places of this your City , & Surburbs , by Anabaptists , S●peratists , Burtonists , and Brownists , and I shall acquaint you with the passage concerning the first founder of the last of these sects ? It was one Browne a Minister who would preach no where but in private houses , and desert places , and the like : and the reason that he alleadged , was , because we had no true Church but marke the event , a good benefice was offered this Brown , which he willingly accepted of , and he , that before would not acknowledge a Church in England , was content to be a Parson of A-Church a certaine towne in Northampton-shire : loe here you may behold the sincerity together with the antiquity of these Brownists ! We read in the vision of Elijah , that there was a Whirle-wind , but God was not in the whirle-wind : next an earthquake : next a fire : but last of all a still small voice , and there God was . When was there a greater whirle-wind and Tempest in the Land then now is , and is there not an earth-quake in this land of ours ? when one shall goe away with five or 600. poundes a yeare , and a poore Vicar for 40. pounds shall undergoe all the burthen ? There was also a fire , but God was not in it , when many of our protestant Martyrs in the Marian days , were carried up to heaven like Elijah in chariots of fire . But as for us throughout our second Deborah's days , & our second Solomons days , & in the raigne of our second Iosiah ( whom God long preserve ) among us , we have , & do heare the still smal voice of the preaching of the Gospell of Christ Iesus , we have had free liberty for the publike Worship , and service of God , even the full age of a man , till now of late , these disturbers of the peace of our Church , have risen , and the wind hath begun to blow againe in the whisling , and blustering of these Brownists . I know there are some who are ready to taske us for medling with these things we have nothing to doe with , but one answere is , what things are out of our reach , or what men in points of Religion ? I am sure our commission extends to the highest Cedars , in Lebanon , as will as the Hysop , that groweth upon the wall . We are dogs of the flock , and therefore when we see cause we may bark , and live too . Now I come to give you a view of the actors : and those Young Men , and Maidens , &c. The parties are mentioned by couples , being tied two and two together . Young men , and Maidens , old Men , and Children , &c. And here is a double Caveat , first against presumption , and secondly against Despaire . First , that the younger sort might desire to praise God , they are exhorted to addresse themselves to the service of God , to remember their Creator in the days of their youth . Secondly , for aged men , that they might not doubt of the acceptation of their service , our Prophet exhorts them also , for the first you know David cals upon the Sun , and the Moone , to praise God . Should the Sun reply , I will not doe it in the morning , or at noone time , but when I am about to sit ? or the Moone reply , I will not in the full , but in the waine ? or the Tree not in the spring-time , or Summer , but at the fall of the leafe ? so likewise , thou Young man deferre not the time of Praising God : take the swinge of thy youth & do not deferre to apply thy self to the service of God , till thy old age , but remember that for all these things , thou shalt come to judgement . He that stiles himselfe by the title I am cares not for I will be , or I have been ; but he that is at this present : take heed therefore , thou strong , and lustie young Man , the Divell that holds the now , will every day tie a new cord about thee : Qui non est hodiè , cras minùs aptus erit : consider this , you that are yet yong , whom the morning Sun of light adornes with his glorious rayes , every-one doth not live to be old . Let us not procrastinate Gods service : For the longer we deferre to serve God , the farther God's grace is distant from us , and the dominion of Sathan is more strenghthened in our hearts , the more we delay , the more is our debt , the greater our sin , and lesse our grace . I will commend this lesson unto all . He , that doth not repent to day , bath a day more to repent of , and a day lesse to repent in . I shall only conclude this point with an hearty exortation for us all , of what sect , Age , and degree soever , I could wish that all our lives , might end , like this booke of Psalmes in blessing , and praising Almighty God . I will hold your patience no longer in suspence , but will consummate all with the Psalmist . Let young Men , and Maidens , Old Men , and Children , praise the name of the Lord . Yea this name especially the name of our Lord Iesus Christ to whom with the Father , and Holy Spirit , be all honour , Praise and glory now and for evermore . Amen . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A32786e-140 verse . 2. verse . 3. verse . 4. verse . 7. verse . 8. verse . 9. verse . 10. verse . 11. verse . 2. Luk. 2. verse . 13. Esa : 1. verse . 3. Mat. 5. verse . 37. verse . 8. verse . 4. Ruth . 1. verse 16. and 17. verse . 5. 1 Chro. 1● verse 13. 2 Chro. 36. verse 16. 1 King 6. verse 7. 
A28513	----	True peace, or, A moderate discourse to compose the unsettled consciences and greatest differences in ecclesiastical affaires written long since by the no less famous then learned Sir Francis Bacon ... Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626. 1662 Approx. 53 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 25 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A28513 Wing B339 ESTC R37050 16197425 ocm 16197425 105042 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A28513) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 105042) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1085:10) True peace, or, A moderate discourse to compose the unsettled consciences and greatest differences in ecclesiastical affaires written long since by the no less famous then learned Sir Francis Bacon ... Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626. [2], 47 p. Printed for A.C., London : 1662. Reproduction of original in the Bodleian Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Written long since by the no less famous then Learned Sir FRANCIS BACON Lord Vernlam , Viscount St. Alban London , Printed for 〈…〉 To the Reader . Christian Reader , EIther in esteem to the learned Author , or in love to thy self read this small Discourse following , which shews the Authors Tranquil care to compose the minds of those that made it their business to make Rents in our Apostolical Episcopacy , not fearing the breach of the Third , Fifth , and Sixth Commandments ; but causing the sacred Name of God to be vainly used in their idle Controversies , disobeying our Superiors , and causing an ultimation in Murder ; But the following Discourse I doubt not but will give you good Satisfaction , VALE . IT is but ignorance , if any man finde it strange that the state of Religon ( especially in the dayes of peace ) should be exercised and troubled with controversies : for as it is the condition of the Church militant to be ever under trialls , so it commeth to passe that when the fiery triall of persecution ceaseth , there succeedeth another triall , which as it were by contrary blastes of doctrine , doth sift and winow mens faith , and proveth them whether they know God aright , even as the other of afflictions discovereth whether they love him better then the world . Accordingly was it foretold by Christ , saying : That in the latter times it should bee said , Loe here , loe there is Christ ; which is to be understood , not as if the very person of Christ should bee assumed and counterfeited , but his authority and preheminence ( which ought to bee truth it selfe ) that should bee chalenged and pretended . Thus have we read and seene to bee fulfilled that which followeth : Ecce in deserto , ecce in penetratio : while some have sought the truth in the conventicles and conciliables of Heretickes and Sectaries : others in the externe face and representation of the Church , and both sorts been seduced . Were it th●n that the controversies of the Church of England were such as did divide the unity of the Spirit , and not such as doe unswaddle her of her bands the bands of peace ) yet could it be no occasion for any pretended Catholicke to judge us , or for any irreligious person to despise us : or if it be , it shall but happen to us all as it hath used to doe ; to them to bee hardened , and to us to endure the good pleasure of God. But now that our contentions are such , as we need not so much that generall Canon and sentence of Christ : Erratis nescientes Scripturas , &c. as wee need the admonition of Saint Iames : Let every man bee swift to heare , slow to speake , slow to wrath : And that the wound is no way dangerous , except wee poyson it with our owne remedies . As the former sort of men have lesse reason to make themselves musicke in our cord : so I have good hope that nothing shall displease our selves which shall bee sincerely and modestly propounded for the appeasing of these dissentions . For if any shall bee offended at this voyce : Vos estis fratres , yee are brethren , why strive yee ? hee shall give great presumption against himselfe , that hee is the party that doth his brother wrong . The controversies themselves I will not enter into , as judging that disease requireth rather rest then any other cure . Thus much we all know and confesse , that they bee not of the highest nature : for they are not touching the high mysteries of faith : such as detained the Churches after their first peace for many yeares , what time the heretickes moved curious questions , and made strange anatomies of the nature and person of Christ ; and the Catholicke Fathers were compelled to follow them with all subtillity of disputations and determinations , to exclude them from their evasions , and to take them in their owne Labyrinths ; so as it is rightly said : Illis temporibus ingeniosa res fuit esse Christianum : In those dayes it was an ingenious and subtile matter to bee a Christian : Neither are they concerning the great parts of the worship of God ; of which it is true , that Non servatur unitas in credendo , nisieadem adsit in colendo : There will bee kept no unity in beleeving , except it bee intire in worshipping : such as were the controversies in the East and West Churches touching Images , and such as are many of those which are betweene the Church of Rome and us , as about the adoration of the Sacrament , and the like . But wee contend about Ceremonies , and things indifferent , about the externe policie and government of the Church : In which kinde , if wee would but remember , that the ancient and true bonds of unity , are one Faith , one Baptisme , and not one Ceremonie , one Policie . If wee would observe the league among Christians , that is penned by our Saviour Christ ( Hee that is not against us , is with us ) if wee could but comprehend that saying , Differentia rituum commendat unitatem doctrinae : and that , Habet religio quae sunt aeternitatis , habet quae sunt temporis : Religion hath parts which belong to eternity , and parts which belong to time . And if wee did but know the vertue of silence , and slownesse to speake , commended by Saint Iames , our controversies would ( of themselves ) close up and grow together . But most especially , if we would leave the overweening and turbulent humours of these times , and renue the blessed proceedings of the Apostles and Fathers of the Primitive Church ; which was in the like and greater cases , not to enter into assertions and positions , but to deliver counsels and advices , we should need no other remedy at all . Si eadem con●ulis frater , qua affirmas , debetur consulenti reverentia , cum non debetur ●ides affirmanti : Brother , if that which you set downe by way of assertion , you would deliver by way of advice , there were reverence due to your counsell , where credit is not due to your affirmation . Saint Paul was content to speake thus : Ego , non Dominus ; I , and not the Lord : & secundum consilium meum , according to my counsell . But now men do so lightly say , Not I , but the Lord ; yea , and binde it with heavie denunciations of his judgements , to terrifie the simple , which have not sufficiently understood out of Salomon , that the causlesse curse shall not come : Therefore seeing the accidents are they which breed the perill , and not the things themselves in their owne nature , it is meet the remedies bee applied unto them by opening what it is on either part that keepeth the wound greene , and formaliseth both sides to a further opposition , and worketh an indisposition in mens mindes to be reunited ; wherein no accusation is pretended . But I finde in reason , that it is best built by repetition of wrongs , and in example that the speeches which have been by the wisest men , De concordia ordinum , have not abstained from reducing to memory the extremities used on both parts . So as it is true which was said , Qui paccem tractat non repetitis conditionis : dissidit , is magis animos dulcedine pacis fallit quam aequitate componit . And first of all , it is more then time that an end were made of this unmodest and deformed kinde of writing lately entertained , whereby matters of religion are handled in the stile of the stage . Indeed bitter and earnest writing is not hastily to be condemned : for men cannot contend coldly and without affection about things they hold deare and pretious . A politicke man may write from his braine without touch or sense of his heart , as in a speculation that pertaineth not unto him ; but a feeling Christian will expresse in his words a character either of zeale or love : the latter of which as I would wish rather to be embraced , as being more fit for the times , yet is the former warranted also by great examples . But to leave all reverend and religious compassions toward evils , or indignation toward faults , to turne religion into a Comedy or Satyr , to search and rip up wounds with a laughing countenance , to in●ermix Scripture and Scurrilility sometime in one sentence , is a thing farre from the devout reverence of a Christian , and scant beseeming the honest regard of a sober man. Non est major confusio quam serii & joci : there is no greater confusion then the confounding of jest and earnest . The majestie of religion , and the contempt and deformity of things ridiculous , are things as distant as things may be . Two principall causes have I ever knowne of Atheisme , curious controversies and prophane scoffing . Now that these two are joyned in one , no doubt that Sect will make no small progression . And here I do much esteem the wisedome and religion of that Bishop , which replied to the first pamphlet of this kinde , who remembred that a foole was to be answered , but not by becomming like unto him , and considered the matter hee handled , and not the person with whom he dealt . Iob speaking of the majesty and gravity of a Iudge in himselfe , saith : If I did smile , they beleeved me not ; as if he should have said : If I diverted or glanced unto conceit of mirth , yet mens mindes were so possessed with a reverence of the action in hand , as they could not receive it . Much more ought this to be amongst Bishops and Divines disputing about holy things : and therefore as much doe I mislike of him , who as it seemed , pleased himself with it , as no mean policie . That these men are to be dealt withall at their own weapons , and pledged in their owne cup. This ( no doubt ) seemed to him as profound , as when the Cardinall counselled Iulius the second to encounter the Councell of Nice with the Councell of Lateran ; or as lawfull a chalenge as M. Iewell made to confute the pretended Catholicks by the Fathers . But these things will not excuse the imitation of evill in another : It should contrariwise be with us as Caesar said : Nil malo quam eos similes cum sui , & me mei . But now , dum de bonis contendimus , in malis consentimus ; while we differ in good things , we resemble in evill . Surely if I were asked of these men , who were the more to bee blamed , I should perhaps remember the proverbe , That the second blow maketh the fray ; and the saying of an obscure fellow , Qui replicat multiplicat , he that replieth multiplieth . But I would determine the question with this stutterer : Alter principium malo dedit , alter modum abstulit : by the one means we have a beginning , by the other we shall have none end . And truely , as I doe marvell that some of those preachers which do call for reformatiō ( whom I am farre from wronging , so farre as to joyne them with these scoffers ) doe not publish some declaration , whereby they may satisfie the world , that they dislike , their cause should be so sollicited : so I hope assuredly , that my Lords of the Cleargy have no intelligence with these other libellers ; but do altogether disallow that their dealing should be thus defended : For though I observe in him many glozes , whereby the man would insinuate himselfe into their favour ; yet I finde too ordinary , that many pressing & fawning persons , do misconjecture of the humours of men in authority , and many times veneri immolant suem , they seeke to gratifie them with that they most dislike . For I have great reason to satisfie my selfe touching the judgement of my Lords the Bishops in this matter , by that which was written by one of them , whom I mentioned before with honour . Neverthelesse , I note , there is not an indifferent hand carried toward these pamphlets as they deserve . For the one sort flieth in darknesse , and the other is uttered openly . Wherein I might advise that side out of a wise writer , who hath set it downe , that punitis ingeniis gliscit authoritas ; and indeed we ever see it falleth our , that the forbidden writing is thought to be a certaine sparke of truth that flieth up in the faces of them that seeke to choke and tread it out ; whereas a booke authorized , is thought to bee but temporis voces , the language of the time . But in plaine truth I doe finde to my understanding , these pamphlets as meet to be suppressed as the others . First , as the former doe seeke to deface the government of the Church in the persons of the Bishops and Prelates : so the other doth lead into contempt the exercise of religion in the persons of sundry Preachers ; so as it disgraceth the higher matter , though in the meaner person . Next , I finde certaine indiscreet and dangerous amplifications , as if the civill government it selfe of this estate , had neere lost the force of its sinewes , and were ready to enter into some convulsion , all things being full of faction and disorder ; which is as unwisely acknowledged as untruly affirmed . I know his meaning is to inforce this unreverent and violent impugning of the government of the Bishops , to bee a suspected fore-runner of a more generall-contempt . And I grant there is a sympathy between both the estates : but no such matter in the civill policie as deserveth a taxation so dishonourable . To conclude this point : As it were to bee wished that these writings had been abortive , and never seene the Sunne ; so the next is , that seeing they be common abroad , that they bee censured of all that have understanding and conscience , as the untemperate extravagants of some light person : yea further , they may beware ( except they meane to deprive themselves of all sense of religion , and to pave their owne hearts , and to make them as the high way ) how they bee conversant in them , and much more how they delight themselves in that veine , but rather to turn their laughing into blushing , and to bee amazed as at a short madnesse , that they have in matters of religion , taken their disport and solace . But this perchance is one of those faults which will bee soonest acknowledged , though I perceive neverthelesse , there wants not some which seeke to blanch and excuse it . But to descend to a more narrow view and consideration of the accidents and circumstances of these controversies , wherein either part deserveth blame and imputation ; I finde generally in causes of Church-controversies , that men do offend in some or all of these five points : 1. The first , the giving of occasion unto controversies , and also the inconsiderate and ungrounded taking of the occasion . 2. The next is the extending and multiplying of controversies to a more generall opposition and contradiction then appeareth at the first propounding of them , when mens judgements are least partiall . 3. The third is the passionate and unbrotherly practises and proceedings on both parts towards the persons each of others for their discredit and suppression . 4. The fourth , is the courses holden and and entertained on either side , for the drawing of the practizants to a more streight union within themselves , which ever importeth a further destruction of the intire body . 5. The last , is the undue and inconvenient propounding , publishing , and debating of the controversies . In which point the most palpable error hath been already spoken of , as that which through the strangenesse and freshnesse of the abuse first offereth it selfe to the conceits of all men . Now concerning the occasion of controversies , it cannot be denied but that the imperfection in the conversation and government of those which have chiefe place in the Church , have ever been principall causes and motives of schismes and divisions : For whilest the Bishops and governours of the Church continue full of knowledge and good workes , whilest they feed their flock indeed , while they deale with the secular estates in all liberty and resolution , according to the majesty of their calling , and the pretious care of soules imposed upon them ; so long the Church is situate , as it were , upon an hill , no man maketh question of it , or seekes to depart from it : But when these vertues in the Fathers and Elders of the Church have lost their light , and that they wax wordly , lovers of themselves , and pleasers of men : then men begin to grope for the Church as in the darke , they bee in doubt whether they bee the successors of the Apostles , or of the Pharisees ; yea , howsoever they sit in Moses Chaire , yet they can never speake , tanquam authoritatem habentes , as having authority , because they lost their reputation in the consciences of men , by declining their steppes from the way which they trace out to others ; so as men have need continually sounding in their eares , this saying , Nolite exire , goe not out , so ready are they to depart from the Church upon every voyce : And therefore it is truely noted by one who writeth as a naturall man , that the hypocrisie of Friers did for a great time , maintaine and beare out the irreligion of Bishops and Prelates . For this is that double policie of the spiritual enemy , either by counterfeit holinesse of life to authorize and establish errors , or by the corruption of manners to discredit and call into question truth and lawfull things . This concerneth my Lords the Bishops , unto whom I am witnesse to my selfe , that I stand affected as I ought : no contradiction hath supplanted in mee the reverence I owe to their calling : neither hath any detraction or calumnie embased my opinion of their persons ; I know some of them , whose names are most pierced with these accusations , to be men of great vertues , although indisposition of the time , and the want of correspondence many wayes , is enough to frustrate the best indevours in the Church . And for the rest generally , I can condemne none , I am no judge of them that belong to so high a master , neither have I two witnesses : and I know it is truely said of Fame , Pariter facta atque infecta canebat . Their taxations arise not all from one coast : They have indifferent enemies , and ready to invent slander , more ready to amplifie , and most ready to believe it , & magnes mendacii credulitas , credulity is the allurement of lies . But if any be who have against the supreame Bishops not a few things , but many : if any have lost his first love , if any bee neither hot nor cold , if any have stumbled to folly at the threshold , in such sort that he cannot sit well that entred ill ; it is time they returne whence they are fallen , and confirme the things which remaine . Great is the weight of this fault , Et eorum causa abhorrebant homines à sacrificiis Domini : and for their cause did men abhor the worship of God. But howsoever it be , that those have sought to defame them , & cast contempt upon them , are not to beexcused . It is the precept of Salomon , That the Rulers be not reproched , no not in thought , but that wee draw our conceit into a modest interpretation of their doings . The holy Angell would give no sentence of blasphemy against the common slanderer , but sayd , Increpet te Dominus , the Lord rebuke thee . The Apostle Saint Paul , thought against him that did polute sacred justice with tyrannous violence , hee did justly denounce the judgement of God in saying , Percuciet te Dominus , the Lord shall strike thee , yet in saying , Paries dealbate , he thought he had gone too farre , and retracted it : whereupon a learned Father sayd : Ipsum , quam vis inane , nomen & umbram sacerdotis cogitans expavit . The ancient Councels and Synods , as it is noted by the Ecclesiasticall story , when they deprived any Bishop , never recorded the offence , but buried it in perpetuall silence . Onely Cham purchased his fathers curse with revealing his fathers disgrace : and yet a much greater fault is it , to ascend from the person to the calling , and to draw that in question . Many good Fathers rigorously complained of the unworthinesse of Bishops , as if it did presently forfeit & cease their office . One sayth : Sacerdotes nominamur & non sumus , we are called Priests , and are not . Another sayth : nisi bonum opus amplectaris Episcopus esse non potes , except thou undertake the good worke , thou canst not be a Bishop ; yet they meant nothing lesse then to move doubt of their calling or ordination . The second occasion of cōtroversies , is , the nature & humor of some men . The Church never wanteth a kinde of persons that love the salutation of Rabbi , not in ceremony or complement , but in an inward authority which they seeke over mens mindes , in drawing them to depend upon their opinion , and so seeke knowledge at their lippes : these men are the true successours of Diotrephes , the lovers of preheminence , and not Lord Bishops ; such spirits doe light upon another sort of natures which doe adhere to these men , Quorum gloria in obsequio , stiffe fellowes , and such as zeale marvellously for those whom they have chosen to bee their masters . This latter sort of men for the most part , are men of young yeares , and superficiall understanding , carried away with partiall respect of persons , or with the enticing appearance of godly names and pretences . Pauci res ipsas sequuntur , plures nomina rerum ; plurima nomina magistrorum : few follow the things themselves , more the names of the things , most the names of their masters . About these general affections are wretched accidentall and private emulations and discontentments . All which breake forth together into contentions , such as either violate truth , sobriety , or peace . These generalities apply themselves . The Vniversities are the seates and continent of this disease , whence it hath been , and is derived into other parts of the realme . There some will be no longer è numero , of the number : there some others side themselves before they know the right hand from the left . So as it is truely said Transeunt ab ignorantia ad prejudicium : They leap from ignorance to a prejudicate opinion , and never take a good judgement in their way . But as it is wel noted : Inter juvenile judicium , & senile prejudicium omnis veritas corrumpitur : When men are indifferent and not partiall , then their judgement is weake and unripe , through want of yeares ; and when it groweth to strength , and ripenesse , by that time it is forestalled with such a number of prejudicate opinions , as it is made unprofitable , so as between these two all truth is corrupted ; while the honourable names of sincerity , and reformation , and discipline , are put in the forward , so as contentious and evill zeales cannot be touched , except these holy thinges are first thought to be violated . But howsoever they shall inferre the solicitation for the peace of the Church : not to proceed from carnall sinnes : yet will I ever conclude with the Apostle Paul : Cum sit inter vos zelus & contentio , nonne carnales estis ? While there is amongst you zeale and contention , are ye not carnall ? And howsoever they esteem the compounding of controversies , to favour of mens wisedome and humane policie , I thinke themselves led with the wisedome which is from above ; yet I say with Saint Iames , Non est ista sapientia de sursum descendens , sed terrena , animalis , diabolica . Ibi zelus & contentio , ibi inconstantia & omne opus provum . Of this inconstancy it is said by a learned Father : Procedere non ad perfectionem , sed ad permutationem . They seeke to goe forward still , not to perfection , but to change . The third occasion of controversies , I observe to be an extreame and unlimited detestation of some former heresie or corruption of the Church acknowledged & convicted . This was the cause that produced the heresie of Arrius , grounded chiefly upon detestation of Gentilisme ; lest the Christians should seeme by assertion of the coequall divinity of our Saviour Christ to approach to the acknowledgement of more Gods then one . The detestation of Arrius heresie produced that of Sabellius , who holding for execrable the dissimilitude which Arrius pretended in the trinity , fled so farre from him , that he fell into the other extreame , to deny the distinction of persons , and to say they were but onely names of severall offices and dispensations ; yea , most of the heresies of the Church have sprung up of this root , while men have made it their scale to measure the bounds of their religion , taking it by the farthest distance from the errour last condemned . These be Posthumi haeresium filii , heresies that arise of the ashes of other heresies that are extinct and amortised . This manner of apprehension doth in some degree possesse many of our time : they thinke it the true touch-stone to try what is good and holy , by measuring what is more and lesse opposite to the institutions of the Church of Rome , be it ceremony , be it policie or government ; yea be it other institution of greater weight , that is ever most perfect which is removed most degrees from that Church ; and that is ever polluted and blemished which participateth in any appearance with it : this is a subtile and dangerous conceit for men to entertaine , apt to delude themselves , more apt to delude the people , and most apt of all to calumniate their adversaries . This surely , but that a notorious condemnation of that position was laid before our eyes , had long since brought us to the rebaptizing of children baptized according to the pretended Catholicke religion . For I see that which is a matter of much like reason , which is the reordaining of Priests , is a matter very resolutely maintained . It is very meet that men beware how they be abused by this opinion , and that they know it is a consideration of much greater wisedome to be well advised : whether in the generall demolition of the institutions of the Church of Rome , there were not ( as mens actions are unperfect ) some good purged with the bad , rather then to purge the Church as they pretend , every day anew , which is the way to make a wound in her bowels , as it is already begun . The fourth and last occasion of these controversies ( a thing which did also trouble the Church in former time ) is the partiall affectation and imitation of forraigne Churches : for many of our men , during the time of persecution , and since , having been conversant in Churches abroad , and received a great impression of the government there ordained , have violently sought to intrude the same upon our Church . But I answer , Conveniamus in eo quod convenit non in eo quod receptum est : let us agree in this with every Church , to doe that which is convenient for the estate of it selfe , and not in particular customes . Although their Churches had received the better forme , yet many times it is to be sought . Non quid optimum , sed è bonis quid proximum : Not what is best , but of good things what is next and readiest to be had . Our Church is not now to place , it is setled and established . It may be in civill States a republique is better then a kingdome : yet God forbid that lawfull kingdomes should be tied to inovate and make alterations : Qui mala introducit , voluntatem Dei oppugnat revelatam in verbo : Qui nova introducit , voluntatem Dei oppugnat revelatam in rebus : He that bringeth in ill customes , resisteth the will of God revealed in his word : He that bringeth in new things , resisteth the will of God revealed in the things themselves . Consule providentiam Dei cum verbo Dei : Take counsaile of the providence of God , as well as of his word . Neither yet doe I admit that their forme ( although it were possible and convenient ) is better then ours , if some abuses were taken away . The party and equality , is a thing of wonderfull great confusion , and so is an ordinary government by Synods , which do necessarily ensue upon the other . It is hard in all causes , especially in matters of religion , when voyces shall bee numbred and not weighed . Equidem ( saith a wise Father ) ut verè quod res est scribam , prorsus decrevifugere omnem conventum Episcoporū : nullius enim consilii bonum exitum unquā vidi : consilia enim non minuunt mala , sed augent potius . To say the truth , I am utterly determined never to come to any Councell of Bishops : for I never yet saw good end of any Councell : for Councels abate not ill things , but rather increase them : which is not so much to bee understood of generall Councels , as for Synods gathered for the ordinary government of the Church , as for deprivation of Bishops , or such like cases , which mischiefe hath taught us the use of Archbishops and Patriarkes , and Primates , as the abuse of them since hath caused men to mislike them . But it will bee said , Looke to the fruits of the Churches abroad and ours . To which I say , I beseech the Lord to multiply his blessings & graces upon these an hundred fold . But yet it is not good we fall a numbring them . It may bee our peace hath made us wanton . It may be also ( though I would be loath to derogate from the honor of those Churches , were it not to remove scandals ) that their fruits are as torches in the darke , which appeare greatest a farre off . I know they may have some more strict order for the repressing of sundry excesses . But when I consider of the censures of some persons , as well upon particular men as upon Churches , I think of the saying of a Platonist , who saith : Certe vitia irascibilis partis animae sunt gradu praviora quam concupiscibilis tametsi occultiora . A matter that appeared well by the ancient contentions of Bishops : God grant we may contend with other Churches as the Vine with the Olive , which of us beareth best fruits : and not as the Brier with the Thistle , which of us is most unprofitable . And thus much touching the occasion of controversies . Now briefly to set down the growth and progression of these controversies , whereby will be verified the wise counsell of Salomon , that the course of contention is to bee stopped at the first , being else as the waters , which if they get a breach , will hardly ever be recovered . It may be remembred , how that on their part who call for reformation , was first propounded some dislike of certaine ceremonies , supposed to bee supersticious : some complained of dumb Ministers , who possessed rich Benefices : some made invectives against the idle and monasticall continuance within the Vniversities , by those who had livings to be resident upon , and such like causes . Thence they went on to condemne the government of Bishops , as an Hierarchy remaining to us of the corruptions of the Romane Church , and to except to sundry institutions , as not sufficiently delivered from the pollutions of former times . And lastly , they are advanced to define of an onely and perpetuall forme of policie in the Church , which ( without consideration of the possibility , or foresight of perill , or perturbation of the Church & State ) must be erected and planted by the Magistrate . Here they stay . Others not able to keep footing on so steep a ground , descend further , that the same must bee entred into , and accepted by the people at their perill , without attending the establishment of authoritie ; and so in the mean time they refuse to communicate with us , reputing us to have no Church . This hath been the progression of that side , I meane of the generality ; For I know that some persons ( being of the nature not onely to love extremities , but to fall to them without degrees ) were at the highest streame at the first : the other part that maintaineth the present government of the Church , hath not kept one ten or neither . First , those ceremonies which they pretended to be corrupt , they maintained to bee things indifferent , and opposed the examples of the good times of the Church , to that chalenge that was made unto them , because they were used in the latter superstitious times : then were they also content mildly to acknowledge many imperfections in the Church , as Tares came up amongst the Corne , which were not as yet according to the wisedome of our Saviour Christ , to be without strife pulled up , lest it might spoile and supplant the good corn , but to grow on together till the harvest . After this they grew to a more absolute defence & maintenance of orders of the Church : and stifly to hold that nothing was to be innovated , partly because it needed not , and partly because it would make a breach upon the rest . Thence ( exasperate through contention ) they are fallen to a direct condemnation of the contrary part , as of a sect : yea and some indiscreet persons have been bold in open preaching to use dishonourable and derogative speech , and censure of the Churches abroad : and that so farre , as that some of our men ( as I have heard ) ordained in forreigne parts have beene pronounced to be no lawfull Ministers . Thus we see the beginnings were modest , but the extreames violent : so as there is now almost as great a distance of either part from it selfe , as was at the first of one from the other . And surely ( though my meaning and scope be not ( as I said before ) to enter into the controversies themselves ) yet I doe admonish the maintainers of the above named discipline , to weigh and consider seriously , and attentively , how neer they are unto those with whom I know they will not join . It is hard to say that the discipline which they say we want , is one of the Essentiall parts of the worship of God : and not to affirme , that the people upon perill of their salvation without staying for the Magistrate are to gather themselves unto it . I demand if a civill State should receive the preaching and baptisme , and exclude the sacrament of the supper : were not men bound upon danger of their soules , to draw themselves to congregations , where they might celebrate that Ministery , and not content themselves with that part of worship which the Magistrate hath authorised ? This I speake not to draw them into mislike of others , but into a more deep consideration of themselves . Fortasse non redeunt , quia progressuum suum non intelligunt , Againe I say , to my Lords the Bishops that it is heard for them to avo●d blame in the opinion of an indifferent person , in standing so precisely , in altering nothing . Leges novis legibus non recreate descunt , Lawes being not refreshed with new lawes , wax sowre . Qui mala non permutat , in bonis non perseverat , without change of ill , a man can not continue the good : to take away abuses , supplanteth not good orders , but establishes them . Morosa moris retentio res turbulenta aque ac novitas est , A contentious retaining of custome is a turbulent thing as well as innovation . A good husbandman is ever pruning and stirring in his vineyard , or field ; not unreasonable indeed , nor unskilfully , for he lightly ever findeth somewhat to do . We have heard of no offers of the Bishops of bils in Parliament , which no doubt proceeding from them to whom it properly appertaineth , would have every where received acceptation , their own constitutions , and orders have reformed little . Is nothing amisse ? can any man defend the use of excommunication , as a bare processe to lackey up and downe , for duties and for fees , it being the greatest judgement next unto that generall judgement at the last day ? Is there no means to nurse and traine up Ministers ? ( for the yeld of the Vniversities will not serve , though they were never so well governed ) to traine them I say not to preach ( for that every man adventureth confidently to doe ) but to preach soundly and handle the Scriptures with wisedome and judgement . I know Prophecying was subject to great abuses ; and would be more abused now , because the lease of persecution is encreased . But I say , the onely reason of the abuse was , because there were admitted to it a popular auditory , and it was conteined with a private conference of Ministers . Other thinges might be spoken of . I pray God inspire the Bishops , with a fervent love , and care of the people , and that they may not so much urge thinges in controversie , which all men confesse to bee gracious , and good . And thus much for the second part . Now as to the third part of unbrotherly proceeding on either part , it is directly contrary to my purpose to amplifie wrongs , it is enough to note and number them : which I doe also to move compassion and remorse on the offending side , and not to animate chalenges and complaints on the other . And this point ( as reason is ) doth chiefly touch that side which doe most : Injuriae potentiorum sunt , injuries come from them that have the upper hand . The wrongs of them that are oppressed , of the government of the Church towards the other , may hardly bee dissembled or excused : they have charged them as though they denied to pay tribute to Caesar , and withdraw from the civill magistrate their obedience , which they ever performed and taught : They have sorted and coupled them with the family of Love , whose heresies they have laboured to descry and confute : they have been swift of credit to receive accusations against them from those that have quarrelled with them . But for speaking against sin and vice , their examinations and inquisitions have been streight , swearing them to blanks & generalities ( not included within the compasse of matter certaine , which the party that taketh the oath is able to comprehend ) which is a thing captious and strainable . Their urging of subscription to their owne Articles , is but lacescere & irritare morbos Ecelesiae , which otherwise would spend and crush themselves , Non consensum quaerit , sed dissidium auget , qui quod factis praestatur , verbis exigit : hee seeketh not union but division , which exacteth inwardly that , which men are content to yeeld in outward action . And it is true , there are some , which ( as I am perswaded ) will not easily offend by inconformity , who notwithstanding make some conscience to subscribe . For they know this note of inconstancie & defection from that which they have long held , shall disable that good which otherwise they would do . For such is the weaknesse of many , that they thinke their Ministeries should thereby be discredited . As for their easie silencing of them , in such great scarcity of Preachers , is to punish the people and not them . Ought they not ( I meane the Bishops ) to keep one eye open to looke upon the good that those men do ; not to fix them both upon the hurt that they suppose commeth by them . Indeed such as are intemperate and incorrigible God forbid they should be permitted to teach . But shall every inconsiderate word , sometimes captiously wa●ched , and for the most part hardly inforced , be as it were a forfeiture of their voice & gift in teaching ? As for particular molestatiōs , I take no pleasure to recite thē . If a minister shal be troubled for saying in Baptisme , Do you believe ? or , dost thou believe ? If another shal be troubled for praying for her Majesty without addition of her stiles , whereas the very form of prayer in the book of Common prayer hath ( thy servant Elizabeth ) and no more . If a third shall be accused upon these words uttered touching the controversies , Tollatur lex & fiat certamen , whereby was meant , that the prejudice of the law removed , other reasons should be equally cōpared of calling for mutinie and sedition : as if he had said , Away with the Law , and try it out by force . If these and other like particulars be true , which I have but by rumour , and cannot affirme , it is to bee lamented that they should labour amongst us with so little comfort . I know restrained government is better then remisse . And I am of his opinion that said : Better it is to live where nothing is lawfull , then where all things are lawfull : I dislike that lawes bee contemned , or disturbers unpunished . But lawes are compared to the grape , which being too much pressed , yeeldeth an hard and unwholesome wine . Of these things I may say , Iram viri non operatur justitiam Dei : the wrath of man worketh not the righteousnesse of God. As for the injuries on the other part , they are , Ictus vermium , as it were headlesse arrowes , they are fity and eager invectives : and in some fond men , uncivill and unreverent behaviour towards their persons . This last invention also which exposeth them to derision and obloquie by libels , chargeth ( as I am perswaded ) the whole side ; neither doth that other , which is yet more odious , practised by the most ●or● of thē , which is calling in as it were to their aid , certain mercenary bands , which impugned Bishops & other Ecclesiasticall dignities , to have the spoile of their endowments and livings . Of this I cannot speake too hardly : It is an intelligence between incendiaries and robbers , the one to rob or fire the house , the other to rifle it . And thus much touching the third part . The fourth part wholly pertaineth to them which repugne the present Ecclesiasticall government , who although they have not cut themselves from the body and communion of the Church : yet they effect certaine cognisants & differences , wherein they seek to correspond amongst themselves , and to differ from other : and it is truly said , Tam sunt mores Schismatici , quam dogmata Schismatica : There be as well Schismaticall factions as opinions . First , they have impropered to themselves the names of zealous , syncere , & reformed , as if all other were cold , minglers of holy things , and prophane , and friends of abuses . Yea to be a man endued with great vertues , and fruitfull in good workes , yet if he concurre not fully with them , they terme ( inderogation ) a civill and morall man , and compare him to Socrates or some heathen Phylosopher : whereas the wisedome of the Scripture teacheth us contrariwise to denominate him religious according to the workes of the second table : because they of the first are often counterfeited and practised in hypocrisie . So saith Saint Iohn , that a man doth mainly boast of loving God whom he hath not seen , if he loveth not his neighbour whom he hath seen . And Saint Iames saith , This is true religion to visit the fatherlesse and widow ; and so that which is but Phylosophicall with them , is in the phrase of the Apostle , true religion and Christianity . As in affection they chalenge to themselves the said vertues of zeale , and the rest , so in knowledge they attribute to themselves light , and perfection . They say the Church of England in King Edwards time , and the beginning of her Majesties , was but in the cradle : and that the Bishops of those daies did somewhat for day-breake , but the maturity and fulnesse of light proceeded from themselves . So Sabinus Bishop of Heraclea of Macedonia , said , that the Fathers in the councell of Nice were but infants , and ignorant men : that the Church was not so to persist in their decrees , as to refuse that farther ripnesse of knowledge which the time had revealed . And as they censure vertuous men by the names of civill and moral , so doe they censure men truely , and godly-wise who see the vanity of their assertion ) by the names of Politique , saying that their wisedome is but carnall , and favouring of mans braine . So likewise if a Preacher preach with care and meditation ( I speake not of the vaine Scholasticall forme and manner of preaching ) but soundly indeed , ordering the matter he handleth distinctly , and draweth it downe from authorising of it by strong proofes and warrents : they censure it as a forme of preaching , not becoming the simplicity of the Gospel , and referre it to the reprehension of Saint Paul speaking of the intising speech of mans wisedome . Now for their owne manner of preaching , what is it ? Surely they exhort well , and worke compuction of minde , and bring men vell to the question , Viri fratres quid age● us ? but that is not enough , except they resolve this question . They handle matters of controversies weakly and obiter , and as before a people that will accept of any thing in doctrine or manners : there is little but generality and repetition . They move the bread of life , and tosse it up and downe , they breake it not : They draw not their directions downe ad casus conscientiae , that a man may be warranted in his particular actions whether they be lawfull or not ; neither indeed are they able to doe it , what through want of grounded knowledge , what through want of study and time . It is an easie thing to call for observation of the Sabbath day , and to speake against unlawfull gaine : but what actions and workes may be done upon the Sabbath day , and in what cases ; and what courses of gaine are lawfull , and what not : to set this downe , and to cleare so the whole matter with good distinctions and decisions , is a matter of great knowledge and labour , and asketh much meditation and conversation in the Scriptures and other helpes which God hath provided & preserved for instruction . They carry not equall hand in teaching the people their lawfull liberties as well as their restraines and prohibitions . But they thinke a man cannot goe too farre in keeping a commandement ; they forget that there are sinnes on the right hand as well as on the left , and that the sword is double edged , and cutteth on both sides , as well the superstitious observances , as the profane transgressions . Who doubteth but it is as unlawfull to shut where God hath opened , as to open where God hath shut ? to binde where God hath loosed , and to loose where God hath bound ? Amongst men it is as ill taken to turne backe favours , as to disobey commandements . In this kinde of zeale ( for example ) they have pronounced generally and without difference all untruth is unlawfull , notwithstanding that the Midwives have been reported to have been blessed in their excuse , and Rahab is said by faith to have concealed the spies . Farther , I heard some Sermons of mortification , which ( I think ) with very good meaning they have preached out of their owne experience and exercise : and things in private counsell not unmeet , but surely no sound conceits : much like to Parsons his Resolutions , or not so good , rather apt to breed in men weak opinions , and perplexed despaires , then filiall and true repentance which is sought . Another point of great inconvenience and perill , is to intice the people to heare controversies , and all manner of doctrine : they say no part of the counsell of God is to bee suppressed , nor the people defrauded . So as the difference which the Apostle maketh between milke and strong meats , is confounded ; and his precept that the weake bee not admitted to questions & controversies , taketh no place . But most of all it is to be suspected as a seed of further inconvenience for manner of handling the Scriptures : for while they seek expresse Scripture for every thing ; and that they have in a manner deprived themselves and the Church of a speciall helpe , and support by embracing the authority of Fathers , they resort to naked examples , conceited inferences and forced allusions , such as doe bring ruine to all certainty of Religion . Another extremity is that excessive magnifying of that , which though it be a principall and holy institution , yet hath limites as all things else have . We see ( in a manner ) wheresoever they find in the Scriptures the word spoken of , they expound it of preaching . They have made it almost of the Essence of the sacrament of the Lords supper to have a sermon precedent . They have ( in manner ) annihilated liturgies and formes of divine service . As for the life of the good Monkes and eremites of the Primitive Church , I know they will condemne a man as halfe a Papist , if he should maintaine them as other , then prophane , because they heard no preaching . In the meane time , what preaching is , and who may be said to preach , they make no question . But as farre as I see every man that speaketh in chaire is counted a preacher . But I am assured , that not a few that call wholly for a preaching ministerie , deserve to be of the first themselves , that should be expelled . These and some other errors and misproceedings , they doe fortifie and increase by being so greatly addicted to their opinions , and impatient to heare contradiction or argument . Yea I know some of them , that would thinke it a tempting of God to heare or read what may be said against them . As if there could be a Quod bonum è tenete , without an Omne probate going before . This may suffice to offer unto themselves a view and consideration whether they do well or no , & to correct & asswage the partiallity of their followers and dependents . For as for any man that shall hereby enter into a contempt of their Ministery , it is but his owne hardnesse of heart . I know the word of exhortation doth chiefly rest upon these men , and they have zeale and hate of sinne . But againe let them take heed that it be not true which one of their adversaries saith against them , that they have but two small wants , knowledge , and love . And so I conclude the fourth part . The last point teaching the due publishing , and debating of these controversies , needeth no long speech : this strange abuse of Antiques and Pasquils hath been touched before . So likewise I repent not that which I said before , that a character of love is more proper for debates of this nature , then that of zeale . As for all direct and direct glaunces or levels of mens persons , they were ever in these cases disallowed . Lastly , whatsoever is pretended , the people is no meet judge or arbitrator ; but rather the moderate , quiet , and private assemblies of the learned . Qui apud in capace loquitur non disceptat , sed calumniatur . The Presse & Pulpit would be morefreed and discharged : neither promotion on the one side , nor glory and heat on the other , ought to continue these chalenges at the Crosse , and such places . But rather all Preachers especially such as are of a good temper , and have wisedome , with conscience ought to inculcate and beat upon a place , peace , silence , and sufferance . Neither let them feare Solons law which compelled in factions , every particular person to range himselfe on the one side , or the other : nor the fond calumnie of neutrality . But let them know that it was true which was said by a wise man , that neuters in contention were better or worse , then either side . These things have I in all syncerity and simplicity , set downe touching the controversies which now trouble the Church of England , and that without all art or insinuation : and therefore not likely to be gratefull to either part . Notwithstanding I trust what hath been said , shall finde a correspondence in their minde , who are not embarked with partiality , and which love the whole better then the part . Whereby I am not out of hope that it may doe good . At least I shall not repent my selfe of the meditation . FINIS . 
A34831	----	The Puritan and the papist by a scholler in Oxford. Cowley, Abraham, 1618-1667. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A34831 of text R33684 in the English Short Title Catalog (Wing C6688). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 19 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 6 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2017 A34831 Wing C6688 ESTC R33684 13549157 ocm 13549157 100168 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A34831) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 100168) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1547:48) The Puritan and the papist by a scholler in Oxford. Cowley, Abraham, 1618-1667. [2], 9 p. Printed [by H. Hall], [Oxford] : M.DC.XLIII [i.e. 1643] In verse. At head of title: A satyre. Signed at end: A.C. [i.e. Abraham Cowley] Imprint suggested by Wing. Reproduction of original in the Bodleian Library. eng Catholic Church -- Controversial literature. Puritans -- Controversial literature. A34831 R33684 (Wing C6688). civilwar no A satyre. The Puritan and the papist. By a scholler in Oxford. Cowley, Abraham 1643 2869 5 0 0 0 0 0 17 C The rate of 17 defects per 10,000 words puts this text in the C category of texts with between 10 and 35 defects per 10,000 words. 2002-10 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2002-11 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2003-01 Judith Siefring Sampled and proofread 2003-01 Judith Siefring Text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A SATYRE . THE PURITAN AND THE PAPIST . By a Scholler in Oxford . Printed in the Yeare M.DC.XLIII . A Satyre . THE PVRITAN AND THE PAPIST . SO two rude waves , by stormes together throwne , Roare at each other , fight , and then grow one . Religion is a Circle ; men contend , And runne the round in dispute without end . Now in a Circle who goe contrary , Must at the last meet of necessity . The Roman to advance the Catholicke cause Allowes a Lie , and calls it Pia Fraus . The Puritan approves and does the same , Dislikes nought in it but the Latin name . He flowes with these devises , and dares ly In very deed , in truth , and verity . He whines , and sighes out Lies , with so much ruth , As if he griev'd , 'cause he could ne're speake truth . Lies have possest the Presse so , as their due , 'T will scarcely , ' I feare , henceforth print Bibles true . Lies for their next strong Fort ha' th' Pulpit chose , There throng out at the Preachers mouth , and nose . And how e're grosse , are certaine to beguile The poore Booke-turners of the middle Isle . Nay to th' Almighty's selfe they have beene bold To ly , and their blasphemous Minister told They might say false to God , for if they were Beaten , he knew 't not , for he was not there . But God , who their great thankefulnesse did see , Rewards them straight with another Victorie , Just such another at Brainceford ; and san's doubt . Will weary er 't be long their gratitude out . Not all the Legends of the Saints of old , Not vast Baronius , nor sly Surius hold Such plenty of apparent Lies , as are In your one Author , Io. Browne Cleric . Par. Besides what your small Poets have said , or writ . Brookes , Strode , and the Baron of the Saw-pit : With many a Mentall Reservation , You 'le maintaine Liberty , Reserv'd [ your owne . ] For th' publique good the summes rais'd you 'le disburse ; Reserv'd , [ The greater part for your owne purse . ] You 'le root the Cavaliers out , every man ; Faith , let it be reserv'd here ; [ If yee can . ] You 'le make our gracious CHARLES , a glorious King ; Reserv'd [ in Heaven , ] for thither ye would bring His Royall Head ; the onely secure roome For glorious Kings , whither you 'le never come . To keepe the estates o' th' Subjects you pretend ; Reserv'd [ in your owne Trunkes ; ] you will defend The Church of England , 't is your Protestation ; But that 's New-England , by'a small Reservation . Power of dispensing Oaths the Papists claime ; Case hath got leave o' God , to doe the same . For you doe hate all swearing so , that when You have sworne an Oath , ye breake it streight agen . A Curse upon you ! which hurts most these Nations , Cavaliers swearing , or your Protestations ? Nay , though Oaths by you be so much abhorr'd , Ye allow God damne me in the Puritan Lord . They keepe the Bible from Lay-men , but ye ▪ Avoid this , for ye have no Laytie ▪ They in a forraigne , and unknowne tongue pray . You in an unknowne sence your prayers say : So that this difference 'twixt ye does ensue , Fooles understand not them , nor Wise men you . They an unprofitable zeale have got , Of invocating Saints that heare them not . 'T were well you did so ; nought may more be fear'd In your fond prayers , then that they should be heard . To them your Non-sence well enough might passe , They 'd ne're see that i' th' Divine Looking-glasse : Nay , whether you 'de worship Saints is not yet knowne , For ye' have as yet of your Religion none . They by good-workes thinke to be justified , You into the same errour deeper slide ; You thinke by workes too justified to be , And those ill workes , Lies , Treason , Perjurie . But oh your faith is mighty , that hath beene , As true faith ought to be , of things unseene . At Worc'ster , Brainceford , and Edge hill , we see , Onely by faith you' have gotten victory . Such is your faith , and some such unseene way The publique faith at last your debts will pay . They hold free-will ( that nought their soules may bind ) As the great Priviledge of all mankind . You 're here more moderate , for 't is your intent , To make 't a Priv'ledge but of Parliament . They forbid Priests to marry ; you worse doe , Their Marriage you allow , yet punish too : For you 'de make Priests so poore , that upon all Who marry , scorne and beggery must fall . They a bold power o're sacred Scriptures take , Blot out some Clauses , and some new ones make . Your great Lord Iesuite Brookes publiquely said , ( Brookes whom too little learning hath made mad ) That to correct the Creed ye should doe well , And blot out Christs descending into Hell . Repent wild man , or you 'le ne're change , I feare , The sentence of your owne descending there . Yet modestly they use the Creed , for they Would take the Lords prayer Root and Branch away . And wisely said a Levit of our nation , The Lords Prayer was a Popish Innovation . Take heed , you 'le grant ere long it should be said , An 't be but to desire your daily Bread , They keepe the people ignorant , and you Keepe both the People , and yourselves so too . They blind obedience and blind duty teach ; You blind Rebellion and blind faction preach . Nor can I blame you much , that yee advance That which can onely save yee , Ignorance ; Though Heaven be praysed , t'has oft beene proved well Your Ignorance is not Invincible . Nay such bold lies to God him selfe yee vaunt , As if you'd faine keepe him too ignorant . Limbus and Purgatory they beleive For lesser sinners , that is , I conceive , Malignants onely ; you this Tricke does please , For the same Cause ye ' have made new Limbuses , Where we may ly imprison'd long ere we A day of Iudgement in your Courts shall see . But Pym can like the Pope with this dispence ; And for a Bribe deliver Soules from thence . Their Councels claime Infallibility , Such must your Conventicle-synod be ; And Teachers from all Parts of th'Earth yee call , To mak 't a Councell Oecumenicall . They sev'rall times appoint from meats t' abstaine ; You now for th'Irish warres a Fast ordaine ; And that that Kingdome might be sure to fast Yee take a Course to sterve them all at last . Nay though yee keepe no Eves , Fridayes , nor Lent , Not to dresse meate on Sundayes you're Content ; Then you repeat , repeat , and pray , and pray ; Your Teeth keepe Sabboth , and Tongues working day . They preserve Reliques ; you have few or none , Unlesse the Clout sent to Iohn Pym be one . And Hollises rich Widow , Shee who carryed A Relique in her wombe before she married . They in succeeding Peter take a Pride ; So doe you ; for your Master ye' have denyed . But cheifely Peters Priviledge yee choose , At your own wills to bind and to unloose . He was a Fisherman ; you may be so too , When nothing but your ships are left to you . He went to Rome , to Rome you Backward ride , ( Though both your goings are by some denyed . ) Nor i' st a Contradiction , if we say . You goe to Rome the quite Contrary way ; He dy'd o' the Crosse ; that death 's unusuall now ; The Gallowes is most like 't , and that 's for you . They musicke love i' th Church ; it offends your sence , And therefore yee have sung it out from thence , Which shewes , if right your mind be understood , You hate it not as Musicke , but as Good . Your madnesse makes you sing , as much as they Dance , who are bit with a Tarantula . But do not to your selves ( alas ) appeare The most Religious Traitors that ere were , Because your Troopes singing of Psalmes do goe ; Ther 's many a Traytor has marcht Holbourn so . Nor was 't your wit this holy project bore ; Tweed and the Tyne has seene those Trickes before . They of strange Miracles and wonders tell , You are your selves a kind of Miracle ; Even such a miracle as in writ divine We read o' th Devills hurrying downe the Swine . They have made Images to speake , 't is said , You a dull Image have your Speaker made ; And that your bounty in offerings might abound , Y' have to that Idoll giv'n six thousand pound , They drive out Devills , they say ; here yee begin To differ , I confesse ; you let them in . They maintaine Transubstantiation ; You by a Contrary Philosophers stone , To Transubstantiate Mettalls , have the skill ; And turne the Kingdomes Gold to I'ron and Steele . I' th' Sacrament yee agree not , but 't is noted , Bread must be Flesh , Wine Bloud , if ere 't be voted . They make the Pope their Head , you exalt for him Primate and Metropolitane , Master Pym ; Nay , White , who sits in the Infallible Chaire , And most Infallibly speakes Non-sence there : Nay Cromwell , Pury , Whistler , Sir Iohn Wray , He who does say , and say , and say , and say . Nay Lowry , who does new Church-Gover'ment wish , And Prophesies , like Ionas , midst the Fish . Who can such various businesse wisely sway , And handle Herrings , and Bishops in one day . Nay all your Preachers , Women , Boyes , or Men , From Master Calamy , to Mistresse Ven , Are perfect Popes in their owne Parish growne ; For to outdoe the story of Pope Ione : Your Women preach too , and are like to bee The Whores of Babylon , as much as Shee . They depose Kings by force ; by force you 'de doe it . But first use faire meanes to perswade them to it . They dare kill Kings ; now 'twixt ye here 's the strife , That you dare shoot at Kings , to save their life . And what 's the difference , 'pray , whether he fall By the Popes Bull or your Oxe Generall ? Three Kingdomes thus ye strive to make your owne ; And , like the Pope , usurpe a Triple Crowne . Such is your Faith , such your Religion ; Let 's view your manners now , and then I ha' done . Your Covetousnesse let gasping Ireland tell , Where first the Irish Lands , and next ye sell The English Bloud ; and raise Rebellion here , With that which should suppresse , and quench it there . What mighty summes have ye squeez'd out o' th' City ? Enough to make 'em poore , and something witty . Excise , Loanes , Contributions , Pole-moneys , Bribes , Plunder , and such Parliament Priviledges , Are words which you 'le ne're learne in holy Writ , 'Till the Spirit and your Synod ha's mended it . Where 's all the Twentieth part now , which hath beene Paid you by some , to forfeit the Nineteene ? Where 's all the Goods distrain'd , and Plunders past ? For you 're growne wretched , pilfering knaves at last ; Descend to Brasse and Pewter ; till of late , Like Midas , all ye toucht , must needs be Plate . By what vast hopes is your Ambition fed ? 'T is writ in bloud , and may be plainly read . You must have Places , and the Kingdome sway ; The King must be a Ward to your Lord Say . Your innocent Speaker to the Rolles must rise , Six thousand pound hath made him proud and wise . Kimbolton for his Fathers place doth call ; Would be like him ; would he were , face and all . Isaack would alwayes be Lord Mayor , and so May alwayes be , as much as he is now . For the Five Members , they so richly thrive , They 'le but continue alwayes Members Five . Onely Pym doth his naturall right enforce , By the Mothers side he 's Master of the Horse . Most shall have Places by these popular tricks , The rest must be content with Bishopricks . For 't is 'gainst Superstition your intent , First to root out that great Church Ornament , Money and Lands ; your swords , alas , are drawne , Against the Bishop , not his Cap , or Lawne . O let not such loud Sacriledge begin , Tempted by Henries rich successefull sinne . Henry the Monster King of all that age ; Wilde in his Lust , and wilder in his Rage . Expect not you his Fate , though Hotham thrives In imitating Henries tricke for Wives , Nor fewer Churches hopes then Wives to see Buried , and then their Lands his owne to bee . Ye boundlesse Tyranes , how doe you outvy Th' Athenian Thirty , Romes Dec●mviri ? In Rage , Injustice , Cruelty as farre Above those men , as you in number are . What Mysteries of Iniquity doe we see ? New Prisons made to defend Libertie ; Where without cause , some are undone , some dy , Like men bewitcht , they know not how , nor why . Our Goods forc'd from us for Propriety's sake ; And all the Reall Non-sence which ye make . Ship-money was unjustly ta'ne , ye say ; Unjustlier farre you take the Ships away . The High-Commission you calld Tyrannie , Ye did ; Good God! what is the High-Committee ? Ye said that gifts and bribes Preferments bought , By Money and Bloud too , they now are sought . To the Kings will the Lawes men strove to draw ; The Subjects will is now become the Law . 'T was fear'd a New Religion would begin ; All new Religions now are entred in . The King Delinquents to protect did strive ; What Clubs , Pikes , Halberts , Lighters , sav'd the Five ? You thinke the Parliament , like your State of Grace , What ever sinnes men doe , they keepe their place . Invasions then were fear'd against the State , And Strode swore that last yeare would be ' Eighty-Eight . You bring in Forraine aid to your designes ; First those great Forraine Forces of Divines , With which Ships from America were fraught ; Rather may stinking Tobacco still be brought From thence , I say ; next ye the Scots invite , Which ye terme Brotherly Assistan●e right ; For with them you intend England to share : They , who , alas , but younger Brothers are , Must have the Monies for their Portion ; The Houses and the Lands will be your owne . We thanke ye for the wounds which we endure , Whil'st scratches and slight pricks ye seeke to sure . We thanke ye for true reall feares at last , Which free us from so many false ones past . We thanke ye for the Bloud which fats our Coast , ( That fatall debt paid to great Straffords Ghost . ) We thanke ye for the ills receiv'd , and all Which by your diligence in good time we shall . We thanke ye , and our gratitude 's as great As yours , when you thank'd God for being ●eat . A. C. FINIS . 
A45648	----	The Pvritanes impvritie, or, The anatomie of a Puritane of Separatist by name and profession wherein is declared the differences betwixt a true Protestant and a Pvritane, made manifest by the sincerity of the one and hypocrisie of the other : likewise the comelinesse and necessity of reverence used in the performing of the service of God, especially at the receiving of the sacrament / by John Harris Gent. Harris, John, Gent. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A45648 of text R10876 in the English Short Title Catalog (Wing H860). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 16 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 5 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2017 A45648 Wing H860 ESTC R10876 12827829 ocm 12827829 94302 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A45648) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 94302) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 255:E173, no 8) The Pvritanes impvritie, or, The anatomie of a Puritane of Separatist by name and profession wherein is declared the differences betwixt a true Protestant and a Pvritane, made manifest by the sincerity of the one and hypocrisie of the other : likewise the comelinesse and necessity of reverence used in the performing of the service of God, especially at the receiving of the sacrament / by John Harris Gent. Harris, John, Gent. [2], 6 p. Printed by T. Favvcet, London : 1641. Reproduction of original in Thomason Collection, British Library. eng Puritans -- History -- 17th century. Great Britain -- Religion -- 17th century. A45648 R10876 (Wing H860). civilwar no The Puritanes impuritie: or The anatomie of a Puritane or Separatist, by name and profession. Wherein is declared the differences betwixt a Harris, John, Gent 1641 3144 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 B The rate of 3 defects per 10,000 words puts this text in the B category of texts with fewer than 10 defects per 10,000 words. 2005-03 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-04 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-05 Mona Logarbo Sampled and proofread 2005-05 Mona Logarbo Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE PVRITANES IMPVRITIE : OR THE ANATOMIE Of a PURITANE or SEPERATIST , by Name and Profession , Wherein is declared the differences betwixt a true PROTESTANT and a PVRITANE , made manifest by the Sinceritv of the one and hypocrisie of the other . Likewise the comelinesse and necessity of Reverence used in the performing of the Service of GOD , especially at the receiving of the SACRAMENT . By JOHN HARRIS Gent. 1 Corinth . 11. vers. 27. For whosoever shall eate this Bread and drinke this Cup of the Lord unworthily , shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord . LONDON . Printed by T. FAVVCET . MDCXLI . The PURITANE's Impuritie . IN these preposterous times many vices are predominant but amongst all the whole brood of vices , there is none so great , there is none grown to that height , ther 's none so seprous as this of Puritanisme , the errours of which Sect by the grace of God , I will plainly Anatomize and lay open to the view of all men , but first it is requisite that wee should examine who is pure . Secondly , what creatures they are that count themselves pure . Thirdly , the effects of their purity , Fourthly , their opinions and Hypocriticall lives . Fiftly , whether the fruit of purity be Hypocrisie . Sixtly and lastly , the difference betwixt a true Protestant and a dissembling Puritan , all which points in their order by Gods assistance I shall lay open & plainly decipher , with as much brevity as possible I can , desiring all judicious and true Protestants , to reade it with as much care , and as free from envie , as I shall expresse in the writing , for God witnesse with me , although I hate their opinions , I love the men , and it shall be mine ( and ought to be the prayer of every true Christian ) to God that he would be pleased to illuminate their darkned judgements , to open their eyes and guide their wandring feet into the way of peace , as touching the first point or question who is pure , I hope it is needlesse to tell any beleever , yet I will give you one testimony which shall serve as a prop , unto that man , if there be such a one which shall stagger in his beliefe , and doubt of Gods purity , you may read in the 19. Psalme the 82. ver. These words , The Statutes of the Lord are right and rejoyce the heart , the Commandement of the Lord is pure , and giveth light vnto the eyes , Likewise Psal. 25. at the 7. ver. Gratious and Righteous is the Lord , for he will teach sinners in the way . So in the 33. Psal. at the 34 verse , Sing unto the Lord a song , sing prayses unto him with a good courage , for the word of the Lord is true , and all his workes are faithfull , thus much shall serve as touching this point , which I trust is apparently manifest in every one of our hearts , namely that God is pure , neverthelesse it will aske some labour , to make it apparent , that there is none pure but God , for in these latter times since , ha's got so great a predomination in some mens hearts , and so faire a pretence withall , that they presume to cover all their vicious opinions with the pure mantle of Religion , now to prove that there is none pure but God , I might quote many places in Scripture , but it were a needlesse labour bestow'd on so worthlesse a subject , onely these 3. shall serve , the first of which , you shall find in the 7. of Eccles. at the 20. ver. There is not a just man upon Earth that doth good and sinneth not , the second proofe you shall find in the 14. Psal. 2. ver. there is none that doth good , no not one . Likewise Rom. 30. 23. all have sinned and come short of the glory of God . As touching the third point what sort of Creatures they are that count themselves pure , namely sinfull men , sons and daughters of Adam , we are all heires of Originall sinne from our first Father , now if we be borne in sinne , if we be spotted with leprosie , we cannot be pure , but per-adventure they will plead that the power of originall sinne and the strēgth of the law was abolisht by Christs death , to this I answer , that to all beleevers it was , for Christs obedience made full satisfaction for our first Parents disobedience , but then how can they cleare themselves from their actuall transgressions , their sins of omission , their sins of Commission , their wilfull sins , their sins of ignorance , are those men pure , that produce naught but the effects of impurity , are those men worshippers of God , which worship their owne erroneous opinions , are they lovers of Christ which they never saw , yet hate their brothers whom they see daily , are these men pleasers of God , which preferre their own wils before Gods pleasure , non est optima quae placet , sed quae decet , that is not best which pleases , but that which becomes thee , now whether it is most becomming to please God or thy selfe , I leave it to thy consideration ; God commands thee to love thy brother , wilt thou hate him , then surely thou preferst thy own pleasure before Gods command , but of this anone , moreover Christ while he was conversant on Earth laboured to convert sinners , I came not to call the Righteous but sinners to Repentance , sayes that Physitian of our Soules Christ Jesus , he spent his time in curing the diseas'd , in feeding the poore , in performing good and pious works , now if these men be Imitators of Christ , we shall suddenly discerne , by their actions , a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit , Luke 6. 43. Now let us examine the actions of these Seperatists alias Puritanes , the fruit of a true Christian must be faith in Christ Jesus , Secondly , the fruit of that faith must be springing , it must not be a dead faith , now the greatest expression of a lively faith is good works , as you may read in the 2. of St. James , at the 26. ver. As the body without the spirit is dead , so faith without good workes is dead , Is it so then that charitable workes are the lively fruits of faith , is it so then that faith without good workes is dead , what just cause have we then to feare that those men which terme themselves Seperatists , what cause have we J say to feare that their faith is a dead faith , for they are so farre from good workes themselves , that they will perswade others from the exercise of that pious duty , Thirdly , the badge of a lively faith is humility , & a reverend zeale in the performing Gods service , as we may read a perfect example in Christ Jesus , who when he pray'd humbled himselfe before his Father , as you may see in the 22. chap. Luke , ver. 21. And when he was withdrawne from them about a stones cast he kneeled downe and prayed . Likewise you may read how Humility and reverence was accepted in the Publican , when boasting Arrogancy was rejected in the proud Pharisee , Luke the 18. ver. 13. Now that these sort of men are proud , may easily be exprest , for they are so farre from humility , that at the receiving of the Sacrament which is the greatest and surest meanes of our Salvation , they will not vouchsafe to kneele but sit on their Cushions or places of ease , they are so lazie , or as we may terme them so extream proud , that they will not vouchsafe to goe to meet Christ , but he must come to thē , the people of Hierusalem when they heard Christ was comming to ye City , they ran to meet him , they strew'd the way , they met him with a Song of prayse and thankesgiving , Hosana , Hosana in the highest , blessed is the King of Israel which commeth in the name of the Lord , Joh. 12. ver. 13. Beloved , did these people so extoll the Lord ? Did they reverence him , did they run to meet him , because they had received temporall Blessings of him , because he had cured their lame and given sight unto the blind , and shall not we reverence him , shall not we earnestly run to meet him that heald our leprous soules , that gave eyes of understanding to our blind judgements , that dyed to redeeme us from eternall death , surely beloved if we shall neglect this gratefull duty , these Jewes , these people of Hierusalem shall rise up in judgement against us , but to my former discourse , our Precisians thinke it to much labour , it savors of superstition to come up to the Communion Table , therefore if the bread and wine which is ye signe of our substantiall Savior be not brought to them , they will rather choose to disturbe the whole Congregation to make a mutenie in the presence of God then be perswaded from their diabolicall opinions , the next point we are to examine is what sort of men they be that are of this opinion , to wit Mechanick persons , for the most part unlectured grooms , Coachmen , Feltmakers , Coblers , Weavers , Glovers , hauking Ironmongers walking after the imaginations of their owne hearts , whose consciences are in a consumption , and wits as rusty as a peece of old Iron which has been broken and throwne on the dunghill , these rusty companions are knowne well enough , in every street their abominations breake forth , and like to spreading Vlcers infect poore innocent soules , this beguiler sells his pils very cheape , you may buy one for a peny , but take heed , taste it not for if you doe , it will spoyle your Common prayer ; but to proceed , that they are ignorant soules , may appeare in this , that they preferre the Discipline of ignorant men of their owne Society , before the Discipline of learned men , they prefer the drosse before the treasure , they prefer a dunce that will flatter and wrest his text according to the fancies of his Auditors , before a learned Divine , that teaches Orthodox Doctrine , that will open with the Key of knowledge , the Cabinet of the Scriptures , alas , Orthodox Doctrine is to cold of disgestion for their queazy stomacks , it is to deepe for them , oh no , it is the language of the beast , and they will not heare it , they will rather forsake the Church , and get under a hedge then endure to be told of their iniquities , so much concerning what sorts of people , they are that think themselves pure , next I come to the effects of their purity , they are proud , they are envious , they are enemies to the Church , they are enemies to learning , they are selfe-wild , selfe-conceited , they are hearers but not doers , they are covetous , they are lyers , they are persecutors of the poore , oppressors of the needy . In fine , J may say with David , ther 's not one good , no not one , now if this bee the fruit of Purity , let all true Christians judge , next for their opinions , namely , that it is lawfull to seperate themselves from the wicked , but what availes it to seperate themselves from the performers or actors of iniquity , when they retaine and keep the same iniquity in their hearts , what is it for a man to leave the Society of a publique whore , and keepe a private one , what is it to hate swearing and love lying , what is it for me to hate a vice in another , and love it in my selfe , could they separate themselves from their sinnes , as easily as they seperate themselves from the Society of the wicked ( as they terme us ) I would be one of their conventicle , but so long as J see so much deceipt , so much Poyson in a golden pill , so much basenesse covered under a Religions mantle , I le rather choose to be a dore-keeper in the house of the Lord , then a bauling Pastor in their Synagogue , Fiftly , for their lives and conversations , they are men which respect their profits above their consciences , for let a man be of what condition soever , if they thinke they can profit by him , then they will expresse a great deale of formality , a great deale of love and kindnesse , but make tryall of their love , and then in verity you shall find them inwardly Jewes , though outwardly Saints , they are all for profit , nothing for loue , their Zeale ha's forgot what St. Paul sayes in the 2 chap. 1 Epistle of St. John about the 9 , 10 , and 11. verses . He that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother is in darknesse , Likewise chap. 3. ver. 15 , whosoever hateth his brother is a Murderer , and you know that no Murderer hath eternall life abiding in him , but they will say that they doe not hate their brethren but the wicked , to this I answer , so long as they continue in sinne they are brothers unto the most wicked man , and in hating him they hate their brother , for we are all Sons of one Father , or will you say that all they that are not of your opinion are ye wicked , it does appeare so , for you have seperated your selves from us , and what greater symptome of hate can there be then seperation , but yet take heed , judge not lost you be judged , againe , ha's the wickednesse of the people made the Church wicked , why should you hate that , is a Surplice , a bug-beare , or is the Common Prayer of force to blister your precise eares , if you should vouchsafe to heare it , you may read in Matth. chap. 24. ver. 28. these words , Wheresoever the carkasse is , there will the Eagles be gathered together , this carkasse may be termed the word of God , and the Eagles all true Christians , now if the word of God be taught in the Church , let all true Christians resort thither , as for them that thinke to goe to Heaven blind-fold , let them goe on , let them spend their dayes according to the imaginations of their owne hearts ; let them live securely , yet let them remember that secura vita est mare mortuum , a secure life is a dead Sea , let them seperate , let them rayle , let them raigne in vice ; yet let them at last remember , that for all these things they must come to judgement , Lastly , the differences betwixt a true Protestant and a Puritane , are declared in these foure things , a Protestant will deale uprightly , a Puritan will cozen his Father , a true Protestant will love his enemy , a Puritane will hate every man , a true Protestant will serve God devoutly ▪ and expresse it in his life and conversation , a Puritane will make a zealous shew of serving God , but expresse the contrary in his life and conversation , a Protestant will relieve the poore and fatherlesse , a Puritane will oppresse the fatherlesse and Widdow , as it is apparent in too many of your zealous Professors , but let them take heed that Christ pronounce not that judgement against them , which is mentioned in the 25. chap. Matth. 45. ver. Verily I say unto you , forasmuch as you have not relieved the poorest of my Brethren , you did it not to me , therefore these shall goe into eternall torments but the Righteous into life eternall , is it so then that the poorest Creature is Christs brother , is it so that those that have neglected to feed the poore , shall receive that heavy sentence , How much more then are they liable to this bitter doome that have opprest the Fatherlesse and widdow , that have sufferd their poore brethren to starve for want of food , that have fed on dilicious , carres themselves , yet not afforded the crums to their brother Lazarus , God knowes this duty of charity is cold in all men , especially in this Sect , who instead of relieving a poore creature will send him going with , God helpe thee , or it may be they will bestow the title of lazy knave , or counterfeit rascall , but not a farthing , although beg'd for Christs sake , I beseech God of his aboundant mercy open their hearts , send downe the heavenly dew of thy mercy upon us and them . that we may no longer be dead in sinne , but spring and flourish and bring forth fruits worthy amendment of life , o shall we love one another , so shall we glorifie thee our God , on Earth , and when we dye be pertakens of thy glory in Heaven . VVe beseech thee to heare us good Lord . FINIS . 
A54774	----	The religion of the hypocritical presbyterians, in meeter Phillips, John, 1631-1706. 1661 Approx. 45 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 13 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A54774 Wing P2097 ESTC R36676 15869350 ocm 15869350 104655 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A54774) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 104655) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1154:18) The religion of the hypocritical presbyterians, in meeter Phillips, John, 1631-1706. [2], 22 p. [s.n.], London printed : 1661. "An attack on Oliver Cromwell and puritanism by John Phillips, nephew of Milton, originally published in 1655, and later published with title A satyre against hypocrites"--NUC pre-1956 imprints. Caption title: The religion of the hypocritical Presbyterian. Reproduction of original in the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign Campus). Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Cromwell, Oliver, 1599-1658. Presbyterians -- Anecdotes. Puritans -- Anecdotes. 2002-09 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2002-10 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2002-11 John Latta Sampled and proofread 2002-11 John Latta Text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-12 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE RELIGION OF THE HYPOCRITICAL PRESBYTERIANS in Meeter . Juvenal . Sat. 1. Si natura negat , facit indignatio versum . Juvenal . Sat. 14. — Velocius & citius nos — Corrumpunt vitiorum exempla domestica , magnis Cum subeant animos autoribus . London Printed in the Year 1661. The Religion of the Hypocritical Presbyterians . TEdious have been our Fasts , and long our Prayers ; To keep the Sabbath such have been our cares , That Cisly durst not milk the gentle Mulls , To the great damage of my Lord Mayors Fooles , Which made the greazie Catch poles swear and curse The Holy-day for want o'th'second course ; And men have lost their body's new adorning Because their cloathes could not come home that morning . The sins of Parlament have long been bawl'd at , The vices of the City have been yawl'd at , Yet no amendment ; Certainly , thought I , This is a Paradox beyond all cry . Why if you ask the people , very proudly They answer straight , That they are very godly . Nor could we lawfully suspect the Priest , Alas , for he cry'd out , I bring you Christ : And trul ' he spoke with so much confidence , That at that time it seem'd a good pretence : Then where 's the fault ? thought I : Well , I must know , So putting on clean cuffs , to Church I go . Now 'gan the Bells to jangle in the Steeple , And in a row to Church went all the People . First came poor Matrons stuck with Lice like Cloves , Devoutly come to worship their white loaves ; And may be smelt above a German mile , Well , let them go to fume the Middle-Ile . But here 's the sight that doth men good to see 't , Grave Burghers , with their Posies , sweet , sweet , sweet , With their fat Wives . Then comes old Robin too , Who although write or read he neither do , Yet hath his Testament chain'd to his wast , And his blind zeal feels out the proofs as fast , And makes as greasie Dogs-ears as the best . A new-shav'd Cobler follows him , as it hapt , With his young Cake-bread in his cloak close wrapt ; Then panting comes his Wife from t'other end O' th' Town , to hear Our Father and see a friend ; Then came the shops young fore-man , 't is presum'd , With hair rose-water'd , and his gloves perfum'd , With his blew shoo-strings too , and besides that , A riband with a sentence in his hat : The Virgins too , the fair one , and the Gypsie , Spectatum veniunt , venient spectentur ut ipsae . And now the silk'n Dames throng in , good store , And casting up their noses , to th' pew dore They come , croud in , for though the pew be full They must and will have room , I , that they wull ; Streight that she sits not uppermost distast One takes ; 'T is fine that I must be displac't By you , she cries then , Good Mistris Gill Flurt ; Gill Flurt , enrag'd cries t'other , Why ye dirt - tie piece of Impudence , ye ill-bred Thief , I scorn your terms , good Mistris Thimble-mans wife . Marry come up , cries t'other , pray forbear , Surely your Husband 's but a Scavenger , Cries t'other then , and what are you I pray ? No Aldermans wife for all you are so gay . Is it not you that to all Christenings frisk it ? And to save bread , most shamefully steal the bisket , At which the other mad beyond all law , Unsheaths her talons , and prepares to claw . And sure some gorgets had been torn that day , But that the Readers voice did part the fray . Now what a wardrobe could I put to view , The cloak-bag-breeches , and the sleek-stone shoe , The Gallimafry cloak that looks like nonsence , Now wide , now narrow , like his Master's conscience : The grogram-gown of such antiquity , That Speed could never find its pedigree ; Fit to be doted on by Antiquary's , Who hence may descant in their old Glossary's , What kinde of fardingale fair Helen wore , How wings in fashion came , because wings bore The Swan-transformed Leda to Iove's lap , Our Matrons hoping thence the same good hap ; The pent-house bever , and calves-chaudron ruff , But of this frantick fashion now enough , For now there shall no more of them be said , Lest this my ware-house spoil the French-men's trade , And now as if I were that woollen-spinster , That doth so gravely show you Sarum Minster , I le lead you round the Church from pew to pew , And shew you what doth most deserve your view , There stood the Font , in times of Christianity , But now 't is tak'n down , men call it Vanity ; There the Church-Wardens sit , hard by the dore , But know ye why they sit among the Poor ? Because they love um well for love o' th' box , Their money buys good beef , good wine , good smocks . There sits the Clerk , and there the reverend Reader , And there 's the Pulpit for the good flock-Feeder , Who in three lamentable dolefull dity's Unto their marriage-fees sing Nunc dimittis . Here sits a learned Justice , truly so Some people say , and some again say no , And yet methinks in this he seemeth wise To make Stypone yeild him an excise , And though on Sundayes Ale-houses must down , Yet wisely all the week lets them alone , For well his Worship knows that Ale-house sins Maintain himself in gloves , his wife in pins . There sits the Mayor as fat as any Bacon With eating Custard , Beef , and rumps of Capon ; And there his corpulent Brethren sit by , With faces representing gravity , Who having money , though they have no wit , They wear gold-chains , and here in green pews sit . There sit True-blew the honest Parish-masters . With Sattin Caps , and Ruffs , and Demi-casters , And faith that 's all ; for they have no rich fansies , No Poets are , nor Authors of Romances . There sits a Lady fine , painted by Art , And there sits curious Mistris Fiddle-cum-fart : There sits a Chamber-maid upon a Hassock , Whom th' Chaplain oft instructs without his Cassock : One more accustom'd unto Curtain-sins , Than to her thimble , or to handle pins . O what a glosse her forehead smooth adorns ! Excelling Phoebe with her silver horns . It tempts a man at first , yet strange to utter , When one comes near , fogh gudds , it stinks of butter . Another tripping comes to her Mistris's Pew , Where being arriv'd , she tryes if she can view Her young mans face , and straight heaves up her coats , That her sweet-heart may see her true-love knots . But having sate up late the night before To let the young man in at the back-dore , She feeleth drowzinesse upon her creeping , Turns down one proof , and then she falls a sleeping . Then fell her head one way , her book another , And surely she did dream by what we gather ; For long she had not slept , when a rude flea Upon her groyn sharply began to prey ; Straight she ( twixt sleep and waking ) in great ire , As if sh 'ad sitting been by th' Kitchin fire , Pulls up her coats with both hands , smock and all , And with both hands to scratch and scrub doth fall . Truly the Priest , though some did , saw her not , For he was praying , and his eyes were shut . Alas had he seen as much as a by-stander , Much more from 's Text it would have made him wander . That 's call'd the Gallery , which ( as you may see ) Was trimm'd and guilt in the year Fifty three . T was a zealous work , & done by two Church-wardens , Who for mis-reckoning hope to have their pardons , There Will writes short-hand with a pen of brass , Oh how he 's wonder'd at by many an asse That see him shake so fast his warty fist , As if he 'd write the Sermon 'fore the Priest Has spoke it ; Then , O that I could ( saies one ) Do but as this man does , I 'de give a crown ▪ Up goes another hand , up goe his eyes , And he , Gifts , Industry , and talents cries . Thus are they plac'd at length : a tedious work , And now a bellowing noise went round the Kirk , From the low Font , up to the Golden Creed . ( O happy they who now no eares do need ▪ ) While these cought up their morning flegm , and those Do trumpet forth the snivel of their nose ; Straight then the Clerk began with potsheard voice To grope a tune , singing with wofull noise , Like a crackt Sans-bell jarring in the Steeple , Tom Sternholds wretched Prick song to the people : Who soon as he hath plac'd the first line through , Up steps Chuck-farthing then , and he reads too : This is the womans boy that sits i' th' Porch Till th' Sexton comes , and brings her stool to Church , Then out the people yaule an hundred parts , Some roar , some whine , some creak like wheels of Carts , Such Notes that Gamut never yet did know , Nor numerous keys of Harpsicalls in a row Their Heights and Depths could ever comprehend , Now below double Ar● some descend , 'Bove Ela squealing now ten notes some flie ; Straight then as if they knew they were to high , With head-long haste down staires again they tumble ; Discords and Concords O how thick they jumble ! Like untam'd horses tearing with their throats One wretched stave into an hundred notes . Some lazie-throated fellowes thus did baule They a i hin a moy a meat uh ga have a ha me uh a ha gall a. And some out-run their words and thus they say , Too cruel for to think a hum a haw , Now what a whetstone was it to devotion To see the pace , the looks , and every motion O' th Sunday Levite when up stairs he march't , And first beheld his little band stiff starcht , Two caps he had , and turns up that within , You 'd think he wore a black pot tipt with tin , His cuffs asham'd peept only out at 's wrist , For they saw whiter gloves upon his fist , Out comes his kerchief then , which he unfolds As gravely as his Text , and fast he holds In 's wrath-denouncing hand ; then mark when he pray'd How he rear'd his reverend whites , and softly said A long most Murcifull , or O Al — Then out he whines the rest like a sad ditty , In a most dolefull recitative style , His buttocks keeping Crotchet time the while ; And as he slubbers ore his tedious story Makes it his chiefest aim his chiefest glory , T' excell the City Dames in speaking fine , O for the drippings of an old Sir loyn , Instead of Aron's oyntment for his face , When he cries out for greace instead of grace ▪ Up stept another then , how fowre his face is ! How grim he lookt , for he was one o th' Classis , And here he cries , Blood , blood , blood , destroy , O Lord ! The Covenant-breaker , with a two edg'd sword . Now comes another , of another strain , And he of Law and Bondage doth complain : Then shewing his broad teeth , and grinning wide , Aloud , Free grace , free grace , free grace , he cry'd . Up went a Chaplain then , fixing his eye Devoutly on his Patron 's gallery , Who as duty binds him , cause he eats their pyes , God blesse my good Lord and my Lady , cryes , And 's hopefull Issue . Then with count'nance sad , Up steps a man stark revelation mad , And he , Cause us thy Saints , for thy dear sake , That we a bustle in the world may make , Thy enemies now rage , and by and by He tears his throat for the fift Monarchy . Another mounts his chin , East , West , North , South , Gaping to catch a blessing in his mouth , And saying , Lord ! we dare not ope our eyes Before thee , winks for fear of telling lies . Mean while the vulgar frie sit still , admiring Their pious sentences , as all inspiring ; At every period they sigh and grone , Though he speak sometimes sense , and sometimes none : Their zeal doth never let them mind that matter , It is enough to hear the Magpy chatter ; They croud , they thrust , are crouded , and are thrusted , Their pews seem pasties , wherein they incrusted , Together bake and fry ; O patience great ! Yet they endure , though almost drown'd in sweat , Whose steaming vapours prove most singular To stew hard doctrines in , and to prepare Them , lest they should breed some ugly disease Being tak'n raw in queasie consciences . But further mark their great humility , Their tender love and mutual charity , The short man's shoulder bore the tall man's elbow , Nor he so much as call'd him Scurvy fellow , Wrath was forgot , all anger was forborn , Although his neighbour trod upon his corn ; And in a word , all men were meek and humble , Nor dar'd the Sexton , though unfeed , to grumble ▪ He honest man went with his neck a skew , Gingling his bunch of keys from pew to pew ; Good man to 's Market-day he bore no spleen , But wish'd the seven dayes had Sabbaths been ; How he worships sattin , with what a Gospel-fear He admires the man that doth a bever wear , Room , room , bear leave , he cries , then not unwilling With a Pater noster face receives the shilling . But what was more religious then to see The women in their strains of piety , Who like the Seraphins in various hews Adorn'd the Chancell and the highest pews . But now good middle-Ile-folks all give room , See where the Mothers and the Daughters come ! Behind the Servants looking all like Martyrs , With Bibles in plush jerkins and blew garters , The silver inkhorn and the writing book , In which I wish no friend of mine to look . Now must we not forget the Children too , Who with their fore-tops gay stand up i th pew , Alas-a-day ! for there is great contention , To tie this lock who hath the best invention . Well , be good children , for the time shall come , When on the Pulpit-stairs ye shall have room , There to be asked many a Question deep , By th' Parson , with his dinner , half a sleep . But now aloft the preacher 'gan to thunder , When the poor women they sit trembling under , And if he name Gehenna or the Dragon , Their faith , alas ! was little then to brag on ; Or if he did relate , how little wit The foolish Virgins had , then do they fit Weeping with watry-eyes , and making vows One to have Preachers alwaies in her house , To dine them well , and breakfast um with gelly's And caudles hot to warm their wambling belly 's , And if the cash where she could not unlock it Were close secur'd , to pick her Husbands pocket : Another something a more thrifty sinner To invite the Parson twice a week to dinner ; The other vowes a purple Pulpit-cloth With an embroyder'd Cushion , being loth When the fierce Priest his Doctrine hard unbuckles , That in the passion he should hurt his knuckles : Nay , in the Church-yard too was no small throng , And on the window-barres in swarms they hung : Nay , I could see that many Short-hand wrote , Where listning well , I could not hear a jote ; Friend , this is strange , quoth I , but he reply'd , Alas ! your ears are yet unsanctify'd . But Sermon 's done , and evening now approaches , The people walk , for none dare go in coaches ; And as they go , God , Grace , and Ordinances , Is all their chat , seem in heav'nly trances ; Thus they trim up their souls with holy words , Shaving off sin as men shave off their beards , To grow the faster ; sins , they cry , are fancies , The Godly live above all Ordinances . Now they 're at home , and have their suppers eat , When Thomas , cries the Master , come repeat ; And if the windows gaze upon the street , To sing a Psalm they hold it very meet . But would you know what a preposterous zeal They sing their Hymnes withall ? then listen well , The Boy begins , Hum , hum , hum , hum , hum , hum , hum , hum , Hum , hum , hum , hum , Thomas hum , hum , Did you enter down the ten yards of water'd-tabby to the Lady in Covent-garden ? Hum , hum , Yes Sir , hum , hum , hum , hum , hum , hum , hum , hum , hum . — Pray remember to receive the hundred pound in Gracious-street to morrow . — Hum hum hum . Hum hum hum hum Mary , hum hum hum hum , — Anon forsooth . Pray remember to rise betimes to morrow morning , you know you have a great many cloathes to sope , hum , hum hum , hum , &c. But Sunday now good night , and now good morrow , To thee oh Covenant Wednesday full of sorrow , Alas ! my Lady Anne wont now be merry , She 's up betimes and gone to Alderman-bury , Truly 't was a sad day , for every sinner Did feast a supper then , and not a dinner ; Nor men nor women wash their face to day , Put on their cloathes , and pisse , and so away ; They throng to Church just as they sell their ware , In greasie hats , and old gowns worn thread bare , Where , though th' whole body suffered tedious pain , No member yet had more cause to complain Than the poor nose , when little to its ease , A Chandlers cloak perfum'd with candle-grease , Commixing sents with a Sope-boylers breeches , Did raise a stink beyond the skill of Witches . Now steams of Garlick through the nostrils passage Made thorough-fairs , hell take their bold embassage , With these mundungus and a breath that smells Like standing-pools in subterraneal cells . Compos'd Pomanders to out-stink the Devil , Yet strange to tell , they sufferd all this evil , Nor to make water all the while would rise , The women sure had spunges 'twixt their thighs : To stir at this good time they thought was sin , So strictly their devotion kept them in . Now the Priest's elbows do the cushion knead ▪ While to the people he his Text doth read , Beloved , I shall here crave leave to speak A word , he cries and winks , unto the weak , The words are these , Make haste and do not tarry , But unto Babylon thy dinner carry , There doth young Daniel want in the Den , Thrown among Lyons by hard-harted men . Here my Beloved , and then he reaches down His hand , as if he 'd catch the Clerk by th' crown . Not to explain this pretious Text amiss , Daniel's the subject , Hunger th' object is , Which proves that Daniel was subject to hunger , But that I mayn't detain you any longer , My Brethren all prick up your ears , and put on Your senses all while I the words unbutton . Make haste , I say , make haste and do not tarry , ] Why ? my Beloved , these words great force do carry . Au ! 't is a waundrous emphatical speech , Some men Beloved , as if th' had lead i' their breech , Do walk , and some ( as snails ) do creep as fast : Truly , my Brethren , these men do not make haste . But be ye quick , 1 dear Sisters , be ye quick , And lest ye fall , take hope , hope 's like a stick . To Babylon ] Ah Babylon ! that word 's a weighty one , Truly 't was a great City , and a mighty one . Which as the learned Rider well records , Semiramis did build with brick and bords . Wicked Semiramis , Oh how I stretch ! My spirit is mightily provok'd against that wretch . Lustfull Semiramis , for will I wist Thou wert the mother of proud Antichrist . Nay , like to Levi and Simeon from antiquity , The Pope and thee were Sisters in iniquity . Strumpet Semiramis , like her was non , For she built Babylon , Ah! she built Babylon . But , 2 Brethren , be ye good as she was evil , Must ye needs go because she 's gone to the Devil ? Thy dinner carry . ] Here may we look upon A childe of God in great affliction : Why what does he aile ? Alas ! he wanteth meat , Now what ( Beloved ) was sent him for to eat ? Truly a small matter ; one a dish of pottage , But pray what pottage ? Such as a small cottage Afforded only to the Country swains , From whence , though not a man the place explains , 'T is guess'd that neither Christmas pottage 't was , Nor white-broth , nor capon-broth , good for sick maws , Nor milk-porrage , or thick pease-porrage either , Nor was it mutton-broth , nor veal-broth neither , But sure some homely stuff crum'd with brown-bread , And thus was Daniel , good Daniel fed . Truly , this was but homely fare you 'll say , Yet Daniel , good Daniel was content that day . And though there could be thought on nothing cheaper , Yet fed as well on 't as he had been a reaper . 3 Better eat any thing than not at all , Fasting , Beloved , why ? 't is prejudiciall To the weak Saints , Beloved 't is a sin , And thus to prove the same I will begin : Hunger , Beloved , why ? this hunger mauls , Au ! 't is a great mauler , it breaks stone-walls , Now my Beloved , to break stone-walls you know , Why 't is flat felony , and there 's great woe Follows that sin , besides 't is a great schism , 'T is ceremonious , 't is Pagan Judism , Judism ? why Beloved , have you ere been Where the black Dog of Newgate you have seen ? Hair'd like a Turk , with eyes like Antichrist , He doth and hath ye Brethren long entic't . Claws like a Star-chamber Bishop , black as hell , And doubtlesse he was one of those that fell . Judism I say is uglier than this dog : Truly & caetera's not so foul a hog . Thrown among Lyons by hard-harted men , ] Here Daniel is the Church , the World 's the Den. By Lyons are meant Monarchs , Kings of Nations , Those worse than heathenish abominations : Truly dear friends , these Kings and Governours , These Bishops too , nay all superiour powers , Why they are Lyons , Locusts , Whales , I Whales , beloved , Off goes our ears if once their wrath be moved ; But woe unto you Kings ! woe to you Princes ! 'T is fifty and four , now Antichrist , so saies My book must reign three daies , and three half daies , Why that is three years and a half beloved . Or else as many precious men have proved One thousand two hundred and threescore daies , Why now the time 's almost expir'd , time staies For no man ; friends then Antichrist shall fall , Then down with Rome , with Babel , down with all , Down with the Devil , the Pope , the Emperour , With Cardinals , and the King of Spain's great power ; They 'l muster up , but I can tell you where , At Armageddon , there , Beloved , there , Fall on , fall on , kill , kill , alow , alow , Kill Amaleck , and Turk , kill Gog and Magog too . But who dear friends fed Daniel thus forsak'n , Truly ( but there 's one sleeps , a would do well to awak'n . ) As 't is in th' English his name ends in Ock , And so his name is called Habacuck . But in th' original it ends in Ock For that dear sisters calls him have-a-Cock . And truly I suppose I need not fear But that there are many have-a-Cocks here : The Laud increase the number of have-a-Cocks , Truly false Prophets will arise in flocks ; But as a farding candle shut up quite In a dark Lanthorn never giveth light ; Even such are they . Ay but my brethren dear I 'am no such Lanthorn , for my horns are clear . But I shall now conclude this glorious truth With an exhortation to old men and youth : Be sure to feed young Daniel , that 's to say , Feed all your Ministers that preach and pray . First , of all cause 't is good , I speak that know so , Fourthly , cause 't is no evil for to do so . Thirdly , because 't is very good , and twelfthly , Cause there 's nought better , unlesse I my self lye . But now he smells the pyes begin to reak , His teeth water , and he can no longer speak : And now it will not be amisse to tell ye How he was troubled with a woman's belly ; For she was full of caudle and devotion , Which in her stomach raised a commotion , For the hot vapours much did damnifie , The woman went to walk in Finsbury . So though a while she was sustain'd with ginger , Yet at the length a cruel pain did twinge her ; And like as marble sweats before a shower , So did she sweat , and sweating forth did pour Her mornings draught of Sugar sops and Saffron , Into her sighing neighbours cambrick apron . At which a Lard she cry'd full sad to see The foul mishap , yet suffer'd patiently : How do you then she cry'd ? I 'me glad 't is up : Ah sick , sick , sick ; cryes one , oh for a cup Of my mint water that 's at home . As patt as might be , then the Parson cry'd , 'T is good ; one holds her head , let 't come let 't come . Still crying ; just i' th' nick , the Priest reply'd , Yea like a stream ye ought to let it flow , And then she reach'd , and once more let it go . Streight an old woman with a brace of chins , A bunch of keys , and cushion for her pins , Seeing in earnest the good woman lack it , Draws a strong-water bottle from her placket ; Well heated with her flesh , she takes a sup , Then gives the sick , and bids her drink it up . But all in vain , her eyes begin to roul , She sighs , and all cry out , alas poor soul ! One then doth pinch her cheek , one pulls her nose , Some blest the opportunity that were her foes , And they reveng'd themselves upon her face , S. Dunstans Devil was ne're in such a case . Now Priest say what thou wilt , for here 's a chat Begun of this great Empyrick , and that Renowned Doctor , what cures they have done : I like not Mayern , he speaks French sayes one . Oh sayes another , though the man be big , For my part , I know none like Dr. Trig. Nay , hold you there sayes t'other , on my life There 's none like Chamberlain the man midwife . Then in a heap , their own receipts they muster To make this gelly , how to make that plaster , Which when she heares , but that now fainting lay , Up starteth she , and talkes as fast as they . But they that did not mind this dolefull passio Followed their businesse on another fashion , For all did write , the Elder and the Novice , Me thought the Church look't like the six Clerks office . But Sermon 's done , and all the folks as fast As they can trudge , to Supper now make haste : Down comes the Priest , when a grave Brother meets him , And putting off his narrow-brim'd hat , thus greets him : Deare Sir , my Wife and I do you invite O' th' Creature with us to partake this night : And now suppose what I prepare to tell ye , The City-dame , whose faith is in the belly Of her cramm ' Priest , had all her cates in order , That Gracious-street , or Cheap-side can afford her . Lo first a Pudding ! truly 't had more Reasons Than forty Sermons shew at forty seasons . Then a Sur-loyne came in , as hot as fire , Yet not so hot as was the Priests desire . Next came a shoulder of Mutton rosted raw , To be as utterly abolisht as the Law. The next in order was a Capon plump , With an Use of Consolation in his rump . Then came a Turky cold , which in its life Had a fine tail , just like the Citizens wife . But now by 'r leave and worship too , for hark ye , Here comes the Venson put in Paste by Starky : Which once set down , there at the little hole Immediately in whips the Parsons soul. He saw his Stomacks anchor , and believ'd That now his belly should not be deceiv'd . How he leans ore the cheer toward his first mover ! While his hot zeal doth make his mouth run over . This Pastie had Brethren too , like to the Mayors , Three Christmas , or Minc'd pies , all very fair . Methought they had this Motto , Though they flirt us , And preach us down , Sub pondere crescit virtus . Apple-tarts , Fools , and strong cheese to keep down The steaming vapours from the Parsons crown . Canary too , and Claret eke also , Which made the tips of their ears and noses glow . Up now they rise , and walk to their several chairs , When lo , the Priest uncovers both his ears . Most gracious Shepherd of the Brethren all , Thou saidst that we should eat , before the Fall ; Then was the world but simple , for they knew Not either how to bake , or how to brew . But happily we fell , and then the Vine Did Noah plant , and all the Priests drank wine ; Truly we cannot but rejoyce to see Thy gifts dispenc'd with such equality . To us th' ast given wide throats , and teeth to eat ; To the women , knowledge how to dresse our meat . Make us devoutly constant in thy cup , And grant us strength when we shall cease to sup , To bear away thy creatures on our feet , And not be seen to tumble in the street . We are thy sheep , O let us feed , feed on , Till we become as fat as any Brawn . Then let 's fall to , and eat up all the cheer , Straight So be it he cryes , and calls for beer . Now then , like Scanderbeg he falls to work , And hews the Pudding as he hew'd the Turk . How he plough'd up the Beef like Forrest-land , And fum'd because the bones his wrath withstand . Upon the Mutton he fell not like a Lamb , But rather like a Wolf he tore the same . At first a Sister helpt him , but this Elfe sir , Wearying her out , she cryes , Pray help your self sir. Upon the Pastie though he fell anon , As if 't had been the walls of Babylon . Like a Cathedral down he throwes that stuff , Why , Sisters , saith he , I am pepper-proof . Then down he powres the Claret , and down again , And would the French King were a Puritan , He cryes : swills up the Sack , and I 'le be sworn Quoth he , Spain's King is not the Popes tenth horn . By this his tearing hunger doth abate , And on the second course they 'gan to prate . Then quoth Priscilla , Oh my Brother dear : Truly y' are welcome to this homely chear , And therefore eat , good brother , eat your fill , Alas for Daniel , my heart aketh still . Then quoth the Priest , Sister be of good heart ; But she reply'd good Brother eat some Tart. Rebecca then a member of the ' lection Began to talk of Brotherly affection ; For this , said she , as I have heard the wise Discourse , consisteth much in exercise ; Yet I was foolish , and would oft resist , But you had more grace , Brother , then to desist . Streight he reply'd , there is a time for all things , There is a time for great things and for small things . There 's a time to eat , and drink , and reformation , A time to empty , and for procreation ; Therefore dear Sister let us take our time , There 's reason for 't , I never car'd for Rhyme : Then truly answer'd she , 't is a good motion , And I embrace it with a warm devotion . Why you know Brother you did never prove That I was ere ingratefull for your love ; But sometimes Angels did attend your Purse , At other times you know I did you nurse , With many a secret dish of lusty meat , And presently we went and did the feat . Truly quoth Dorcas then , I saw a Vision , That we should have our foes in great derision . Quoth Martha straight , ( and then she shook the crums From off her apron white , and pickt her gums ) So I do hope , for so our Brother said ; O what a heavenly piece of work he made ! But I am ign'rant , and my memory short , I shall forget , were I to be hang'd for 't . Then quoth the Priest , The cheer that here we see , Is but an Emblem of Mortality . The Oxe is strong , and glories in his strength , Yet him the Butcher knocks down , and at length We eate him up . A Turkie's very gay , Like wordly people clad in fine array ; Yet on the Spit it looks most piteous , And we devoure it , as the wormes eate us . Then full of sawce and zeale up steps Elnathan , [ This was his name now , once he had another , Untill the Ducking-pond made him a Brother ] A Deacon and a Buffeter of Sathan . Truly , quoth he , I know a Brother dear , Would gladly pick the bones of what 's left here . Nay he would gladly pick your pockets too Of a small two pence , or a groat , or so , The sorry remnants of a broken shilling ; Therefore I pray you friends be not unwilling . But as for me , 't is more than I do need , To be charitable both in word and deed ; For as to us , the holy Scriptures say , The Deacons must receive , the Lay-men pay . Why Heathen folks that do in Taverns stray , Will never let their friends the reckning pay . And therefore pour your charity into the bason , Brethren and Sisters eke , your coats have lace on . Why Brethren in the Lord , what need you care For six pence ? we 'll one hour enhance our ware . Your six pence comes again , nay there comes more ; Thus Charity 's th' encreaser of your store . Truly well spoke , then cry'd the Master-feaster , Since you say so , here , you shall have my tester : But for the women , they gave more liberally , For they were sure to whom they gave , and why : Then did Elnathan blink , for he knew well What he might give , and what he might conceal . But now the Parson could no longer stay , 'T is time to kisse , he cryes , and so away . At which the sisters , once th' alarum tak'n , Made such a din as would have serv'd to wak'n A snoring brother , when he sleeps at Church ; With bagg and baggage then they gan to march ; And ticled with the thoughts of their delight , One sister to the other bids Good night . Good night quoth Dorcas to Priscilla , she , Good night dear sister Dorcas unto thee . In these goodly good nights much time was spent , And was it not a holy complement ? At length in steps the Parson , on his breast Laying his hand , A happy night of rest Reward thy labours sister : yet ere we part , Feel in my lips the passion of my heart . To another straight he turn'd his face , and kist her , And then he cryes , All peace be with thee Sister . To another in a godly tune he whines , Dear Sister from thy lip I le take my tines . With that he kist , and whispers in her eare , The time when it should be , and the place where . Thus they all part , the Parson followes close , For well the Parson knoweth where he goes . This seem'd a golden time , the fall of sin , You 'd think the thousand years did now begin , When Satan chain'd below should cease to roar , Nor durst the wicked as they wont before Come to the Church for pastime , nor durst laugh To hear the non-plust Doctor faigne a cough . The Devil himself , alas ! now durst not stand Within the switching of the Sextons wand , For so a while the Priests did him pursue , That he was fain to keep the Sabboth too , Lest being taken in the Elders lure , He should have paid his crown unto the poor ; And lest he should like a deceiver come 'Twixt the two Sundays inter stitium , They stuft up Lecturers with texts and straw , On working-dayes to keep the Devil in awe . But strange to think , for all this solemn meeknesse , At length the Devil appeared in his likenesse , While these deceits did but supply the wants Of broken unthrifts , and of thread-bare Saints . Oh what will men not dare , if thus they dare Be impudent to Heaven , and play with Prayer ! Play with that fear , with that religious awe Which keeps men free , and yet is mans great law : What can they but the worst of Atheists be , Who while they word it 'gainst impiety , Affront the throne of God with their false deeds , Alas , this wonder in the Atheist breeds . Are these the men that would the Age reforme , That Down with Superstition cry , and swarme This painted Glasse , that Sculpture to deface , But worship pride , and avarice in their place . Religion they bawle out ; yet know not what Religion is , unlesse it be to prate . Meeknesse they preach , but study to controule ; Money they 'd have , when they cry out the soul. And angry , will not have Our Father said , 'Cause it prayes not enough for daily bread . They meet in private , and cry Persecution , When Faction is their end , and State-confusion : These are the men that plague and over-run Like Goths and Vandalls all Religion : Every Mechanick either wanting stock Or wit to keep his trade must have a flock : The Spirit , cryes he , moveth me unto it , And what the Spirit bids , must I not do it ? But having profited more than his flock by teaching , And stept into authority by preaching For a lay Office , leaves the Spirits motion And streight retreateth from his first devotion . But this he does in want , give him preferment , Off goes his gown , God's call is no determent . Vain foolish people , how are ye deceiv'd ? How many several sorts have ye receiv'd Of things call'd truths , upon your backs lay'd on Like saddles for themselves to ride upon ? They rid amain , and hell and Satan drove , While every Priest for his own profit strove . Can they the age thus torture with their lyes , Low'd bellowing to the world Impieties , Black as their coats , and such a silent fear Lock up the lips of men , and charm the ear ? Had that same holy Israelite been dumb , That fatall day of old had never come To Baals Tribe , and thrice unhappy age While zeal and piety like mask'd in rage And vulgar ignorance . How we do wonder Once hearing , that the heavens were fir'd to thunder Against assailing Gyants , surely men , Men thought could not presume such violence then : But 't was no Fable , or if then it were , Behold a sort of bolder mortals here , Those undermining shifts of knavish folly , Using alike to God and men most holy ; Infidels who now seem to have found out A suttler way to bring their ends about Against the Deity then op'nly to fight By smooth insinuation and by slight : They close with God , seem to obey his Lawes , They cry alowd for him and for his cause . But while they do their strict injunctious preach , Deny in actions what their words do teach . O what will men not dare , if thus they dare Be impudent with Heaven , and play with Prayer ! Yet if they can no better teach than thus , Would they would onely teach themselves , not us : So while they still on empty out-sides dwell , They may perhaps be choakt with husk and shell ; While those , who can their follies well refute , By a true knowledge do obtain the fruit . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A54774-e140 Ingredients that compound a Cong●egation . Maids beware of sleeping at Church . Hang it . Robert Wisdom's delight . Practice of Piety . Hey-day ! Iack-a-dandy . To be heard of men . To the Tune of S. Margarets Chimes . Behold the zeal of the people . The Exposition . 1 Vse . Not like an anchor . Babel battered . 2 Vse . Would he have been so content ? 3 Vse . Several Reasons . Description of Antichrist . And hey then up go we , ☞ The Doctrine of Generation . For Ministers may be Cuckholds . Vse of Exhortation . Motives 1. 4. 3. 12. Hunger a great enemy to Gospel duty . A Crop-sick sister . A very great Creature-comfort . A great cry , and a little . wooll . A great sign of grace . Bill of fare . Grace before meat Much good may do you Sir. Christian forgiveness . No Grace after meat . Nothing beyond ingratitude . A man may love his brother , but Not better than himself . Christian Liberty . Nere a profane kiss among all these . 
A44689	----	The right use of that argument in prayer from the name of God on behalf of a people that profess it by John Howe. Howe, John, 1630-1705. 1682 Approx. 102 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 33 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-03 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A44689 Wing H3038 ESTC R29443 11146736 ocm 11146736 46385 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A44689) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 46385) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1425:6) The right use of that argument in prayer from the name of God on behalf of a people that profess it by John Howe. Howe, John, 1630-1705. [6], 56 p. Printed for Brabazon Aylmer, London : 1682. Reproduction of original in the Union Theological Seminary Library, New York. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Prayer. Puritans -- Doctrines. 2004-10 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2004-11 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2004-12 Andrew Kuster Sampled and proofread 2004-12 Andrew Kuster Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-01 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion The Right use of that ARGUMENT IN PRAYER FROM The Name of GOD ; On behalf of a People that profess it . By John HOWE Minister of the Gospel . LONDON , Printed for Brabazon Aylmer , at the Three Pidgeons , over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil , 1682. The PREFACE . NO sort of men have ever pretended to Religion , who have not allowed unto Prayer a very eminent place in it . And so much a deeper , and more Potent Principle is Religion , in the nature of Man than Reason , ( though both are miserably perverted , and infeebled ) that the former doth secretly prompt men ( especially in great distresses ) to Pray , and expect relief by Prayer , when the way wherein it is efficacious , cannot so well be explicated , or apprehended by the other . And as Prayer hath ever been reckon'd a very principal part of Religion . So hath Intercession for others been wont to be accounted a very fit and proper part of Prayer . In the general , Prayer is most evidently , a duty of Natural Religion , a Dictate of Nature , which every man 's own mind suggests to him , or may be appeal'd to about it : ( should not a people seek unto their God ? ) Whence that personated , eloquent Patron of the Christian cause , urging for the conviction of his Heathen Adversary , the common practice of people in their extremities , to lift up ( even untaught ) their hands and eyes to Heaven , fitly sayes of it , Vulgi iste naturalis est sermo , that they do herein , as it were , but speak the language of nature . Now hereupon , the impression of that Primitive Law of Nature , ( not quite worn out from the mind of man , even in this his very degenerate state ) to love our neighbours as our selves , doth as a natural instinct , secretly prompt us to pray for others , whom we cannot otherwise help , ( especially such to whom we have more peculiar Obligations , who are in a more especial sense our neighbours ) as ( at least , in our last necessities ) we do for our selves . In which recourse to God , whether for our selves or others , we are led by a sense of our own impotency , and dependent state , from a deeply inward apprebension of a Deity , that is ( as Epicurus himself seems constrain'd to acknowledge concerning the Idea of God , ) even proleptical , or such as prevents reason . So that we do not , being urg'd by the pinching necessity of the case , stay to deliberate , and debate the matter with our selves , how this course should bring relief , but do even take it for granted , that it may ; by an apprehension that is earlier in us , than any formal reasoning about it , and being Prior to it , is also not supprest by it , but prevails against it , if there be any thing in reason objected , which we cannot so clearly answer . Yet , when we do bring the matter to a rational discussion , we find that in our conception of God , we have the apprehension of so perfect , and excellent a nature , that we cannot suppose he should be mov'd by any thing Foreign to himself , or that we can inform him of any thing he knew not before , or incline him to any thing , to which his own nature inclines him not . And therefore , that though the wise and apt course of his Government over intelligent creatures requires that they should be apprehensive of their own concernments , ( whether personal or that belong to them as they are in communities , ) and pay a solemn homage to his sovereign power and goodness , by supplicating him about them , yet that if he hear their Prayers , it must not be for their sakes , but his own . Therefore also , it cannot upon strictest reasoning , but seem most dutiful to him , and hopeful for our selves , that our Prayers should be conceiv'd after such a tenour , as may be most agreeable unto that apprehension . The Holy Scriptures , and the Divine Spirit do both aim at the recovery of Apostate man , and the repairing the decayes of his degenerate nature , and do therefore ( besides what was necessary to be added ) renew the Dictates of the Law of Nature , the One more expresly representing them , the other impressing them afresh , and reimplanting them in the hearts of all that are born of God. Therefore that External Revelation of the mind and will of God doth direct , and his Blessed Spirit ( which is pleased to be in all his Children the Spirit of Grace and Supplication , ) doth inwardly prompt them , not only to pray ( in reference to their single and common concernments ) but to form their Prayers after this Tenour ; Which is to be seen in their so frequent use of this Argument in Prayer , from the Name of God. Whereupon , in a time when we are so much concern'd , to be very instant in Prayer , not only each of us for himself , but for the Body of a People , upon whom that Holy Name is called . I reckon'd it seasonable to shew briefly the import and right use of this Argument ; and to that purpose have taken for the ground , the following Text of Scripture . JER . 14. 21. Do not abhorr us for thy Names sake . Where we have A Petition and The Argument enforcing it . 1. A Very serious Petition , or a Deprecation of the most fearful evil imaginable . Do not abhor us . The word doth not meerly signifie abhorrence but disdain . A displeasure prevailing to that degree , and so fixed , as to infer rejection , even from a just sense of honour . So some of the Versions read , reject us not , or cast us not forth , as we would do what ( or whom ) we despise and scorn to own ; As if it were feared the Holy God might count it ignominious , and a reproach to him , to be further related to such a People , and might even be ashamed to be called their God. ( And consequently that the following Argument is used not without some suspence of mind , and doubt lest it should be turn'd against them , whereof more hereafter . ) Here it is imply'd , 1. To be no impossible thing that God should reject with abhorrence a people once his own , or that have been in peculiar , visible relation to him . Prayer is conversant about matters of Divine Liberty , i. e. that are not known to us to be already determined this way or that ; but that may be , or may not be , as he pleases , and sees fit ; consistently with the settled course and order of things , not about things that he had before made ordinarily necessary , nor about things that are simply , or in ordinary course impossible . In the former case Prayer would be needless , in the latter , to no purpose . We do not pray that the Sun may rise to morrow at the usual hour , or that the Sea may ebb and flow , nor that they may be prevented of doing so . ( But we must distinguish such necessity and impossibility from a meer certainty that things shall either be , or not be . ) We are to pray in the present case , with a deep apprehension that this is perfectly a matter of liberty with the great God , and that as he took such a people to be his , of meer good pleasure , so it depends wholly upon his meer pleasure , that he continues the relation , when he might abandon and cast them off . It is further imply'd , 2. That the more serious and apprehensive among such a people , do understand it ( at sometimes more especially ) a thing very highly deserv'd , that God should abhor and reject them . The deprecation is a tacit acknowledgment , that the deprecated severity was reasonably to be feared , not only from Sovereign Power , but offended Justice . This is indeed exprest in the next foregoing words . We acknowledge , O Lord , our wickedness , and the iniquity of our Fathers : for we have sinned against thee , Do not abhor us . &c. So that this ought to be the sense of the Supplicants in the present case , that they are herein perfectly at mercy , that if they be heard 't is undeserv'd compassion , if they be rejected 't is from most deserved displeasure . And if it were not exprest , yet the Supplication must be understood to imply it . For when the great God hath vouchsafed to limit his Sovereign power , and antecedent liberty by his Promise and Covenant , such a Prayer were it self reflecting , and an affront , if it should proceed upon a supposition , or but intimate , that he should ever be inclin'd to do such a thing , without an excepted cause . Such as that his rejecting them upon it , might consist with his being faithful to his word . When he values himself so much upon his faithfulness , and seems even to lay his very Godhead upon it . As those strangely Emphatical words import . Deut. 7. 9. Know therefore that the Lord thy God , he is God , the faithful God , which keepeth Covenant and Mercy with them , that love him , and keep his Commandments , to a Thousand Generations ; ( implying that he would even yield himself not to be God , if he did not in all points vindicate and demonstrate his faithfulness . ) Nor indeed do we properly crave for any thing , but we therein disclaim a Legal right to it , and acknowledge it to be rightfully in his power , to whom we apply our selves , to grant or deny , We make demands from Justice , and are Supplicants for Mercy ▪ and with this sense the Spirits of Holy Men have abounded , when they have taken upon them to intercede in the like case , as we see Dan. 9. 7. O Lord , Righteousness belongeth unto thee , but unto us confusion of faces , as at this day . &c. And to the same purpose , Ezra 9. Nehem. 9. at large , and in many other places . q. d. Our only resort , O Lord , is to thy Mercy . Thou mightest most justly abhor and abandon us , and say to us , Loammi , ye are none of my People , but in the multitude of thy tender compassions and mercies , do it not . It is again further to be Collected , 3. That this is a thing which holy and good men do most vehemently dread and deprecate , viz. that God should thus abhor and reject a people so related to him . 'T is that which the very Genius , and Spirit of Holiness , in the sincere , regrets beyond all things for themselves . They have taken the Lord to be their God , for ever and ever ; Their hearts have been attempered to the tenour and constitution of an Everlasting Covenant , which they entered with no design , or thought of ever parting ; but that it should be the ground of an Eternal Relation . And the Law of love written in their hearts , prompts them to desire the same thing for others too ; Especially such to whom they have more especial endearing Obligations ; and ( if it were possible ) that the whole body of a people to whom they are themselves united , might all be united to God upon the same termes , even by the same Vital and Everlasting Union ; And therefore also , that same Divine , and Soul-enlarging love , being a living Principle in them , makes them have a most afflicting sense of any discerned tendencies to a Rupture , and separation that might prevent , and cut off the hope of his drawing still more and more of them into that inward living Union , and Inter-course with himself . These things it may suffice briefly to have noted from the Petition in the Text. That which I principally design'd , is what we have next coming under our view , viz. II. The Argument brought to enforce it ; For thy Names sake . About which , what I shall observe , shall be with special reference to the case which the Prophet refers unto , in his present use of it . viz. That in Praying for a people professing the name of God , that he would not reject and cast them off , the fit and proper argument to be insisted on is that from his own Name . ( See Verse 1. 9. ) And here it will be requisite , 1. To have some very brief consideration of this argument in the general : though 2. We principally intend to treat of it , as it respects this present case . 1. In the general , we are to consider both what the name of God in it self imports , and what is signifi'd by using it as an argument in Prayer . And , ( 1. ) As to what is imported by the name of God , in it self considered . We shall not trouble this discourse with the fancies of the Rabbins ; Of whom yet one very noted , soberly , and plainly tells us the name of God is wont to signifie his essence and truth , though the instance he gives shewes he means it of the Nomen Tetragrammaton ( the name Jehovah ) which indeed more eminently doth so . To our purpose it is obvious , and sufficient , to note , that by his name , more generally , is signified both the peculiar excellencies of his nature , and being , which are himself , as the use of a mans name is to notifie the man. So when he is pleased himself to proclaim his own name , thus it runs ; The Lord , the Lord God , merciful and gracious , long-suffering , and abundant in goodness and truth , keeping Mercy for Thousands , forgiving iniquity , and transgression , and sin . &c. Exod. 34. 6 , 7. And again , That by his name is meant his Glory , and most especially the honour , and reputation of his Government . For so too , a mans name signifies his fame and repute in the World ( as they whom our translation calls men of Renown , Gen. 6. 4. the Hebrew Text sayes only , ( but plainly , meaning the same thing , ) they were Men of name . ) And if he be a publick Person , a Prince , and Ruler over others , it must more peculiarly signifie his Reputation and Fame as such . Thus Moses designing to celebrate the unexceptionable equity , and awful Majesty of the Divine Government , begins thus ; Because I will publish the name of the Lord : ascribe the greatness unto our God. He is the Rock , his work is perfect , for all his wayes are Judgment . Deut. 32. 3 , 4. 2. As an Argument used in Prayer , it may accordingly either signifie the principle from which it is hoped and requested he should do what we desire , or the end for which . For as his name signifies his nature , which himself hath taught us primarily to conceive under the notion of goodness , mercy , love , in that forementioned Exod. 34. 7. and 1 Joh. 4. 16. So when we pray he would do this or that for his names sake , the meaning may be , that we request he would do it for his mercies sake , even in compliance with himself , and as it were to gratifie his own nature , which ( as nothing is more Godlike ) is wont to be delighted in acts of goodness toward all , of compassion and mercy to the miserable , and of special favour to them that more peculiarly belong to him . And again , as his name signifies his glory , and principally the honour and reputation of his Government ; So when we pray he would do this for his names sake , we further must be understood to mean , we desire he would do it to prevent his own dishonour , to augment his glory , and further to recommend himself to the world . And I conceive it must be meant in both these senses taken together , viz. that we pray he would do this , or that , both from himself , and for himself , from his goodness , ( or indeed the general perfection of his nature , ) and for his glory , and that he may represent himself such , as he truly is : But some circumstances in the coherent Verses ( afterwards to be particularly noted ) seem to intimate that the honour and dignity of his Government is here more directly meant . His glory is indeed the end which he cannot but design in all that he does . For inasmuch as he is said to do all things according to the counsel of his will ; Eph. 1. His will must be principally of the end , which is ever the highest and most excellent good , and that can be no other than himself , and that only as he is capable of greatning himself by his own action ; which cannot be in respect of intrinsick excellency , that being already perfect and capable of no addition , therefore it must be in point of glory , and reputation only . And so , as it is said , having no greater to swear by , he sware by himself ; Heb. 6. So having no greater to act for , it is most just , and most worthy of him , and but a God-like owning of himself , to act only to and for himself . And then whereas , having this constant , just and holy will , he doth all things according to Counsel in pursuance of it , it must signifie that he ever takes the aptest , and most proper methods for the advancing of his own glory . The choosing the fittest and most suitable means to a fore-resolved end , being the proper business and design of consultation . Though that be spoken of God but allusively , and after the manner of men , who by slow degrees , and by much deliberation arrive to the ( very imperfect ) knowledge of things , which at one view he perfectly beholds from all Eternity . But also how the great God designs his own glory in all that he doth , we must take great care , be duly and decently understood . It were low and mean to think that the design of his mighty works , and accurate dispensations is only that he may fill mens minds with wonder , be highly thought of , admired , and celebrated in the world , which even a wise , and vertuous man would think an end much beneath him . But the glory of his name must be understood to be primarily an objective glory , that shines with a constant , and equal lustre in all his dispensations , whether men observe , or observe it not . And shines primarily to himself , so as that he hath the perpetual self-satisfaction of doing as truly becomes him , and what is in it self reputable , worthy of him , and apt to approve it self to a right mind , ( as his own ever is ) let men think of his wayes as they please . Thus it was in his Creating the world , when he had not yet made man , nor had him to look on , as a witness and admirer of his other glorious works , it was enough to him to be self-pleased that he saw them to be good , and that they had his own most just and complacential approbation . Nor is he less pleased with himself , in his governing the world , than he was in the making of it . As also good men , by how much the more they excel in goodness , have herein the greatest resemblance and imitation of God , doing good for goodness sake , and pleasing themselves with the lustre and beauty of their own actions , shining to their own mind , and conscience , and their discerned conformity to the steady rules of righteousness ; without being concern'd , whether perverse and incompetent Judges approve , or disapprove them . Though also , because the blessed God delights in propagating blessedness , and imparting it to his intelligent creatures , he is pleased in recommending himself , so far , to their estimation and lōve , as is necessary to their own felicity , wherein also he doth as it were but enjoy his own goodness ( as his felicity can only be in himself ) and is pleased with the self-satisfying beauty , pleasantness , and glory of it . Yet further also we are to consider that though it be most sutable to the Majesty , and the independent , self-sufficient fulness of God , to take pleasure only in the real goodness , excellency , decency , and glory of whatever he is , and doth . Yet it belongs to , and becomes the dutiful affection of his people towards him , to be deeply concern'd , how he is thought and spoken of in the world . Dishonourable reflections upon him are therefore as a sword in their bones . What cannot hurt him , ought to wound them . Which dutiful love also cannot but make them highly covet that his name might be known , and renowned all the world over , knowing that the reproach that is no real damage , is a wrong to him ; and that universal praise is his right , though it cannot be an advantage . And this love to his name they cannot more fitly express , than in praying to him . And here we are further to note that this argument , thus generally considered hath , when we use it in Prayer , a twofold aspect , i. e. we are to consider it as an argument both to God , and to our selves . To God , as whereby we expect to prevail with him to hear our Prayers . To our selves , as whereby we are to be urg'd , and excited to pray with the more importunity , and confidence , so as not to faint in Prayer . Thus much as to what is more general . We are now 2. To consider it in reference to this present case . Where we are to shew , ( 1. ) How the name of God may be understood to be concern'd , in his abhorring , so as to forsake a people more peculiarly related to him . ( 2. ) The fit and right use of this argument in deprecating his doing so . 1. How the name of God may be understood concern'd in this matter . Taking his name to signifie not only his nature , and the attributes of his being themselves , but also the glory and lustre of those his attributes , especially , which are to have a more principal exercise , and demonstration in the course of his Government over Mankind , and more particularly , over such a select , peculiar people . It may seem greatly to reflect upon those his governing Attributes , and detract from the glory of them , and consequently to lessen the honour and dignity of his Government , if having taken such a people into near , and peculiar relation to him , he should grow into that dislike of them , as at length , quite to reject and cast off them , as if he now disdain'd the Relation . That such a contemptuous rejection of this people is the thing here deprecated by the Prophet , is evident ( besides what hath been noted of the true import of the word rendred abhor , ) from other expressions in the Context , that plainly speak this very sense , and shew this to be the matter about which he was so deeply concern'd . Hast thou utterly rejected Judah ? hath thy Soul loathed Zion ? Ver. 19. And then presently is added ( to the same sense ) Do not abhor us , &c. As when a mans heart is full of a thing , and the sense of it abounds , he varies expressions , and from the abundance of the heart , as from a fountain , the matter streames from him several wayes . His iterations , and varied formes of Speech to the same purpose , shew what urg'd him , and about what his mind was engaged and taken up . 'T is plain that , at this time , that which this holy man was in this agony for , was not a lighter , temporary anger , but so settled a displeasure , as upon which a final rejection was likely to ensue . And he apprehends the name of God to be concern'd in it . Which it appears also lay with great weight upon his Spirit , Our iniquities testifie against us , but do thou it ( i. e. Save us , as afterwards ) for thy names sake . verse 7. And again , ( verse 9. ) Thou , O Lord , art in the midst of us , and we are called by thy name ; leave us not . Which also shewes how he understood it to be concern'd , viz. as the great God was not only the common Ruler of the world , but a Governour over them , in a way , and upon termes that were very peculiar , viz. by Covenant and compact . Such whereof the nuptial contract , is the usual resemblance ; By which the related persons mutually pass into each others right , and whereupon , the inferiour person in the relation takes the name of the superiour , as Isa. 4. 1. We will eat our own bread , and wear our own apparel , only let us be called by thy name . So the great God entering that Covenant with a people ; [ I will be your God , and you shall be my people , ] speakes of himself as conjugally related to them . Thou shalt be called by a new name , which the mouth of the Lord shall name . Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord ; and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. Thou shalt no more be termed , forsaken ; neither shall thy land any more be termed , Desolate : But thou shalt be called Hephzi-bah , and thy land Beulah : for the Lord delighteth in thee , and thy land shall be married . Isa. 62. 4. Thy maker is [ thine husband . ] Isaiah 54. 5. Who being the Governing relative , the phrase of being called by his name imports the agreed , voluntary subjection of such a people to his Government , and his vouchsafing to be their Governour , upon the special termes of his own Covenant , whereupon another Prophet , pleading for his special favour , and protection unto this people , against their Heathen adversaries , uses this phrase . We are thine , thou never barest rule over them , they were not called by thy name . Isa. 63. 19. Therefore this Prophet understood his name to be concern'd , if he should reject them , as it signifi'd his honour and reputation as their Governour by Covenant , which further appeares by the immediate connection of these words Do not abhor us for thy names sake , with those that next follow , Do not disgrace the throne of thy glory : remember break not thy Covenant with us , q. d. Thou hast Covenanted to be our Governour , and hast erected , accordingly , thy glorious throne among us . How canst thou sustain , or endure to break thy Covenant , and dishonour thy own throne ! to draw a disreputation upon thy Government ; or cast a dark shadow upon those famed excellencies , which were wont to recommend thee in the sight of all nations as the best Ruler that ever people had ; and might make the sons of men apprehend it the most desirable thing in all the world to be , on the same terms , under thy Government ! Particularly of his Attributes that have more special relation to his Government , such as these may seem ( and have been apprehended ) liable to be reflected on in this case . 1. His power , as if he had designed to do some great thing for them , which he could not bring about , and therefore he casts them off , and will seem no further concern'd for them . Or as if his power were confin'd within such limits , that it would suffice him to destroy them once for all , but not constantly to preserve and prosper them . So when God threatned to smite his people Israel with the pestilence , and disinherit them . ( Numb . 14. 12. ) Moses urges on their behalf , Then the Egyptians shall hear it , ( for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them ) And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land : for they have heard that thou , Lord , art among this people , that thou Lord art seen face to face , and that thy cloud standeth over them , and that thou goest before them , by day-time in a pillar of a cloud , and in a pillar of fire by night . Now if thou shalt kill all this people , as one man ; then the nations which heard the fame of thee will speak , saying , Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them , therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness . ( verse 13. 14 , 15 , 16. ) q. d. That thou hast peculiarly own'd them , and concern'd thy self for them cannot be hid . It hath made a great noise in the World , and been the common talk of all nations , and made a more special impression of awe and terrour upon the Egyptians ( against whom thou first tookest part with them ) that thou wast usually seen face to face among them , that most extraordinary tokens of a divine presence , the miraculous pillar of a cloud by day , and of fire by night , were constantly afforded them . There is no coming off ( so far and so openly hast thou been concern'd for them ) but this construction will be made of it , that though very great difficulties have been overcome for them , there was a prospect of yet greater , that could not be overcome , and therefore , that whereas less power was required to make a present end of them , thou didst rather choose to do that . And this consideration seems sometimes to have weigh'd much with God himself , as we find he is brought in speaking Deut. 32. 26 , 27. I said I would scatter them into Corners , I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men ; were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy , lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely , and lest they should say our hand is high , &c. Whence also 2. His wisdom must , by consequence , be exposed too ; that this was not foreseen , and considered , when he first undertook their conduct , and espoused their Interest . 3. His Goodness and benignity , his propensity to do good , and bestow favours , that it was not so unexhausted a fountain as might seem sutable to a God ▪ and to him , whom his wonderful noted acts of favour towards that people , had made to be vogued among the nations as the only one . 4. His Clemency , and unaptness to be provok't . The great commendation of Rulers . Who ought to be Legum similes , as little mov'd with passions , as the Lawes they govern by . A thing especially to be expected in a Divine Ruler , and most agreeable to the serenity of the nature of God. According not only to what men are commonly wont to apprehend of his nature , but what he had been pleased to declare of himself , as is alledged Numbers 14. 17 , 18. Let the power of my Lord be great ( intimating that to appear hurried with passions would seem an un-God-like impotency ) And 't is added , according as thou hast spoken , saying the Lord is long-suffering and of great mercy , &c. Whereupon therefore 5. His sincerity , another great excellency in a Governour , seemes liable to be suspected too . That he should not be what he seem'd , had given out of himself , or was taken , at least , to be the import and signification of his former dispensations . Which is the scope of Moses's reasoning , Exod. 32. 12. Wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say , For mischief did he bring them out , to slay them in the mountains , and to consume them from the face of the earth ? As if he had said , why shall the Egyptian enemy have occasion to apprehend , that God did only hide mischievous intentions towards this people , under an appearance and shew of kindness to them ; That he only drew them hereby to trust in him , and commit themselves to his care and protection that he might , when he saw his time , the more please and as it were sport himself in having deceiv'd them , and in disappointing and destroying them . That therefore the God of Israel was not such a one as he seem'd willing to be thought , nor a relation to him so covetable a thing . Or else 6. His constancy , and faithfulness to himself . He may be thought in this case more mutable , and unsteady in his own designs than is worthy of a God. Even Balaams notion of the Deity could not allow him to think either , first , that as a man he could ly , or next , that as the son of man he could repent . Numb . 23. The former he thought not agreeable to the sincerity , nor the latter to the constancy which he reckon'd must belong to the nature of God. That he should appropriate a people to himself , remarkably own them by a long-continued series of eminent favours ; and at length seem to grow weary of them , and his own design , and throw them off ! How un-Godlike a levity doth this seem to import ? and how contrary to the encouragement which we sometimes find given to such a people , even from the regard he would have to his own name in this respect , The Lord will not forsake his people , for his great names sake : because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his people . 1 Sam. 12. 22. 7. His righteousness in reference to his promise and Covenant with such a people , or his faithfulness unto them . For , as considering only his purpose , and his having begun a design , his pursuing of it is but faithfulness ( or a being true ) to himself and his own design ; So when his purpose hath exprest it self in a promise to a people ; to make it good is to be faithful and true to them . And is therefore a part of righteousness , his promise having created a right in them to whom he made it . By his purpose he is only a debtor to himself , By his promise he is a debtor to them too . Upon this account his name seems liable to be reflected on , if he should reject such a people . As the words following the Text intimate . Do not abhor us for thy names sake , do not disgrace the throne of thy glory , break not thy Covenant with us . And such is the import of Moses's plea , Numb . 14. 16. Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land [ which he sware ] unto them , therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness . Which pleading of his he himself also recites Deut. 9. 28. with little variation ; And implies in it , that if God should reject this people , it would turn greatly to the prejudice of his name and repute in the world , in respect of his truth and fidelity which made so great a part of his name and glory . That in his anger he neither regarded his word , nor his Oath . No bond was sacred with him . Than which , what could make a Prince more inglorious , and infamous ? And how gladly would those more implacable enemies out of whose hands he had rescued this people , catch at such an occasion of traducing , and defaming him ! We see then how the name of God , may appear concern'd in this matter . It seems indeed in all these respects very deeply concern'd , and much exposed to obloquy , if he reject such a people . Though if he should , it can never be , but upon such termes , as that all that can be objected , will appear to be but groundless cavil , and calumny , and admit of easie answer as we shall see anon . In the mean time , while the matter admits of any hope , We are 2. To shew the fitness and right use of this Argument for the preventing of it . We are indeed manifestly to distinguish these two things . The general fitness of this argument to be used , and wherein stands the fit and due use of it . As any thing else , though in it self very fit to be used for such and such purposes ( as meat and drink , for instance , or learning , or speech ) may yet notwithstanding be used very unfitly . Therefore we shall speak to both these severally , and shew . 1. How fit an argument this is to be insisted on in prayer , even to the purpose we are now speaking of . 2. What is requisite to the due and right use of it to this purpose . 1. That it is in it self an argument very fit to be insisted on in Prayer , to this purpose , or to any other in reference whereto 't is fit for us to pray , is most evident ; For it is most likely to prevail with God , being an argument taken from himself , and most fit to move and affect us ; for it hath most weight in it . And we ought in Prayer as much as is possible , to conform our minds to Gods. So as not only to pray for the things which we apprehend him most likely to grant , but upon the same grounds , and with the same design , which he must be supposed to have in granting them , And that there be but one end and aim common to him and us . VVe are told that if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us . John 5. 14. This is to ask according to his will , in the highest and most certain sense . For the first and most fixed object of any will whatsoever is the End : of any right will , the best and most excellent end , which can be but one . The Divine will we are sure , is ever right , and must so far as it is known be directive , and a rule to ours . Concerning the end it is most certainly known , He doth all things ( as he made all things ) for himself . Concerning the meanes and way to his end , we are often ignorant , and in doubt ; and when we are , we then are to will nothing but upon condition , that it will conduce to the great and common end of all things , and do interpretatively , retract and unpray every petition in the very making it , which shall be really repugnant thereto . Nothing can move God besides . He is eternally self-mov'd . Our attempt will be both undutiful , and vain , if we suffer our spirits to be engag'd , and mov'd by any thing which will not be a motive unto him . Therefore no argument can be fit besides this , for his own name , or that cannot be reduc't to it . But the fitness of this argument may be more distinctly shewn and discerned from the following considerations viz. that it is most sutable 1. To the object of prayer ; The glorious ever-blessed God. To whom it belongs as the appropriate , most incommunicable Prerogative of the Godhead to be the Last , as well as the First , the Alpha , and the Omega ; The End , as he is the Authour of all things . Of whom , and through whom , and to whom all things are ; And unto whom must be all glory for ever . Rom. 11. 36. So that to pray to him that he would do this or that , finally and ultimately for any thing else than his own name ; is humbly to supplicate him that he would resign the Godhead ; and quit his throne to this , or that Creature . 2. To the right subject of Prayer , considered whether according to its original , or renewed State. According to primitive nature , or renewing grace . To primitive nature , which was no doubt pointed upon God as the last end . Otherwise a Creature had been made with aversion to him , and in the highest pitch of enmity and rebellion . Since there can be no higher Controversie than about the last end . And to renewing grace , the design whereof , as it is such , can be no other than to restore us to our Original State. To bring us back , and state us where , and as we were , in that absolute subordination to God that was original and natural to us . VVhich therefore stands in repentance towards God , as our end , and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ , as our way , wherein alone we can acceptably return and render our selves back unto him . We through the law are dead to the law , being humbled , broken , macerated , mortifi'd by it , we are become dead to it , exempt from its execrating condemning power and dominion , that we might live to God. Gal. 2. 19. that a new divine life and nature might spring up in us , aiming at God , tending and working intirely , and only towards him . Have been reduc't to a Chaos , to utter confusion , or even brought to nothing , that we might be ereated anew , with a reimplanted disposition to serve the ends and purposes for which we were first made . And therefore are to yield our selves to God as those that are alive from the dead . Rom. 6. 13. i. e. ( as verse 11. ) alive to God through Jesus Christ. In him we are created to good workes ( that are principally to be estimated from the end ) which God had before ordained that we should walk in them . Ephes. 2. 10. Thus we are reconcil'd to God. The Controversie is taken up , which was about no lower thing than the Deity . Who should be God , he or we . Whether we should live and be for our selves , or him . If any man be in Christ , he is a new creature , old things are past away , behold , all things are become new ; And all things are of God , who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. 2 Cor. 5. 17 , 18. Hereupon this is , in Prayer , the only proper genuine connatural breath of the new Creature , the most inward habitual sense of a devoted soul To thee , O Lord , be all things , mayest thou ever be the all in all . Let the Creation and all things be nothing , otherwise than in thee , and for thee ! 3. To the Mediatour in whose name we pray . Who never undertook that part of mediating between God and us , with a design to alienate , and give away from God the natural rights of the Godhead ; but to assert them to the highest , to repair unto God , and expiate by his blood the encroachments we had made upon them , and provide we might do so no more . That we might be forgiven what was past , and be dutiful and subject for the future . His principal design was to salve the injur'd honour and dignity of the divine Government , and to reconcile therewith our impunity , and felicity , to make them consist . He was therefore to redeem us to God by his blood , Rev. 5. 9. How immodest , and absurd a confidence were it , for any to make use of the Mediators name in prayer against his principal , and most important design ? 4. To the Spirit of Prayer who , we are told Rom. 8. 27. makes intercession for the Saints 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . VVe read , according to the will of God , but no more is in the Text than according to God. i. e. in subserviency to him , and his Interest , so as that in prayer , by the dictate of that Spirit , they supreamly mind the things of God , and are most intent upon his concernments , and upon their own only in subordination to his . As it may well be supposed his own Spirit will be true to him , and not act the hearts which it governs , otherwise ; And that the prayers that are from himself , and of his own inspiring , will be most entirely loyal , and import nothing but duty and devotedness to him . 5. To the most perfect model and platform of prayer , given us by our Lord himself . In which the first place is given to the petition Hallowed be thy name , and the two next are about Gods concernments , before any are mentioned of our own . So that the things we are to desire , are digested into two tables , as the decalogue is containing the things we are to do And those that respect God ( as was sit ) set first . 6. To the constant 〈◊〉 of the prayers of holy men in Scripture . VVe have seen how earnestly Moses presses this argument in the 〈◊〉 places , Exod. 32. and Numb . 14. And so doth Samuel express his confidence in it , when he promises , upon their desire , to pray for the trembling people of Israel . 1 Sam. 12. 22 , 23. The Lord will not forsake his people [ for his great names sake ] because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his people . Moreover as for me , God forbid that I should sin against the Lord , in ceasing to pray for you . And this was a pair whom God hath himself dignifi'd as persons of great excellency in prayer , And whose prayers he would have a value for , if for any mans . Though Moses and Samuel stood before me , &c. Jer. 15. 1. Thus also doth Joshua insist , upon occasion of that rebuke Israel met with before Ai Josh. 7. 8 , 9. O Lord , what shall I say , when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies ? For the Canaanites , and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it , and shall environ us round , and cut off our name from the earth : [ and what wilt thou do unto thy great name ? ] And so doth Daniel plead ( one of a famous triad too , of potent wrestlers in prayer . Ezek 14. 14. ) O Lord hear , O Lord forgive , O Lord hearken and do : defer not for thine own sake , O my God ; for thy city and thy people [ are called by thy name ] Dan. 9. 19. 7. To the highest example and patern of prayer ( fit to be mentioned apart ) our Lord himself . VVho , in some of his last agonies , praying Father save me from this hour , represses that innocent voice . But therefore came I to this hour , and addes Father glorifie thy name . Joh. 12. 27 , 28. intimating that the summe of his desires did resolve into that one thing , And contented to suffer what was most grievous to himself that so that might be done which should be finally most honourable to that great name . 8. To the design and end of prayer , which is partly and principally to be considered as an act of worship , an homage to the great God , and so the design of it is to honour him . And partly as a meanes , or way of obtaining for our selves the good things we pray for , which therefore is another ( but an inferiour ) end of prayer . Whether we consider it under the one notion , or the other , or propound to our selves the one or the other end in praying ; 'T is most agreeable to pray after this tenour , and to insist most upon this argument in prayer . For First , Do we intend prayer as an homage to the great God , and to give him his due glory in praying to him . How fitly doth it fall in with our design , when not only our praying it self but the matter we chiesly pray for have the same scope and end . We pray that we may glorifie God. And the thing we more principally desire of him in prayer , is that he would glorifie himself , or that his name be glorified . And square all other desires by this measure , desiring nothing else but what may be , ( or as it is ) subservient hereto . And Secondly , If we intend and design any thing of advantage to our selves . We can only expect to be heard , and to obtain it upon this ground . The great God deales plainly with us in this , and hath expresly declared that if he hear , and graciously answer us , it will only be upon this consideration , as is often inculcated , Ezekiel 36. 22. Therefore say unto the house of Israel , thus saith the Lord God , I do not this for your sakes , O house of Israel , but for mine holy names sake , And I will sanctifie my great name , which was profaned among the heathen , and again , Not for your sakes do I this , saith the Lord God , be it known unto you ; be ashamed and confounded for your own waies , O house of Israel . Verse 32. This every way then appears a most fit argument to be insisted on in prayer ; And to this purpose as well as to any other . Many of the instances mentioned from scripture , having an express and particular reference to this very case , of praying for a people related to God , and upon whom his name was called . It remaines then to shew 2. What is requisite to the right and due use of this argument unto this purpose . Where we may summe up all in two words , sincerity and submission . The former whereof belongs to this case in common with all others , wherein we can use this argument , or ( which is all one ) wherein we can pray at all . The other hath somewhat a more peculiar reference to this case considered apart by it self . And indeed that the one and the other of these are requisite in the use of this argument , are both of them Corollaries from the Truth it self we have been hitherto insisting on , and that have the very substance and spirit of it in them . For if this be an argument fit to be used in prayer at all , it is obvious to collect , that it ought to be used with great sincerity in any case , and with much submission , especially , in such a case as this . 1. It is requisite we use this argument with sincerity . i. e. That we have a sense in our hearts correspondent to the use of it , or that the impression be deeply inwrought into our spirits of the glorious excellency of the name of God. So as it be really the most desireable thing in our eyes , that it be magnifi'd and rendred most glorious whatsoever becomes of us , or of any people or nation under Heaven . Many have learnt to use the words For thy names sake , as a formula , a plausible phrase , a customary , fashionable form of speech , when first , there is no inward sense in their hearts that doth subesse , lies under the expression , so as that with them it can be said to signifie any thing , or have any meaning at all . Or , secondly , They may have much another meaning from what these words do import , a very low self-regarding one . As when in praying for a people that bear this name , of whom themselves are a part , these words are in their mouths , but their hearts are really solicitous for nothing but their own little concernments , their wealth , and peace , and ease , and fleshly accommodations . Apprehending a change of Religion cannot fall out among such a people , but in conjunction with what may be dangerous to themselves in these mean respects . Whereupon it may fall out that they will pray earnestly , cry aloud , be full of concern , vehemently importunate , and all the noise , and cry mean nothing but their own corn , wine , and oile . They mention the name of the Lord , but not in truth . It appeares the servants of God in the use of this argument have been toucht in their very soules with so deep and quick a sense of the dignity and honour of the divine name , that nothing else hath seem'd considerable with them , or worth the regarding besides . As in those pathetic . expostulations , What wilt thou do to thy great name ? What will the Egyptians say ? &c. This alone , apart from their own concernments , was the weighty argument with them . For it weighed nothing with Moses on the contrary , to be told , I will make of thee a great nation . To have himself never so glorious a name , to be spread in the world and transmitted to all after ages as the root and father of a mighty people , was a light thing in comparison of the injury and disreputation that would be done to Gods own name , if he should desert or destroy this people . Or , thirdly , They may have a very wicked meaning . The name of God may be invok't , Religious solemnities used as a Pretence and colour to flagitious actions . In nomine Domini — &c. Most execrable villanies have been prefac't with that sacred adorable name . As when a fast was proclaim'd , but a rapine upon Naboths vineyard was the thing design'd . And the awful name of God was indifferently used in prayer and in perjury to serve the same vile purpose . In which soever of those Degrees this venerable name is insincerely mentioned , we ought to account a great requisite is wanting to a right use of it as an argument in prayer . And should consider both the absurdity and the iniquity of our so misusing it . 1. The absurdity , For who can reasonably think him capable of hearing our prayers , whom at the same time he thinkes incapable of knowing our hearts ? Am I consistent with my self when I invocate , worship , trust in him as a God , whom I think I can impose upon by a false shew ? Is it likely , if I can deceive him , that he can help and succour me ? 2. The iniquity . For this can be no low ( though it be not the peculiar ) sense of taking the name of the Lord our God in vain . And we know with what awful words that great precept is inforced . The Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain . Nor can any man devise to put a greater affront upon him than to approach him with insincerity . For it is to use him as a senseless Idol , and signifies as if I counted him as the vanities of the Gentiles , one of their inanimate or brutal Gods ; Denies his omniscience to discern , and his justice and power to revenge the indignity , all at once . And what now is to be expected from such a prayer wherein I both fight with my self and him at the same time . With my self , for the same object that I worship , I affront in the same act , and with him ; for my worship is but seeming and the affront real . Such a disagreement with my self were enough to blast my prayer . The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the man with two soules , Jam 1. the double-minded man is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , unstable ( inconsistent with himself the word signifies ) and let not such a man think saith the Apostle , that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. Much more when his prayer is not only not acceptable to God , but offensive . And by which he is so far from pleasing , that he provokes . It is then of unspeakable concernment to us in the use of this Argument , that we well understand our selves . Let us search our hearts . And see that we mean as we speak , that we do not pretend a concernedness , and zeal for the name of God , when he that knowes all things , knowes that we lye ; and that we do but flatter him with our mouth , and lye unto him with our tongues when our heart is not right with him . Psal. 78. 36 , 37. That we do not seem to be in great perplexity about the name and glory of God , when we are quite unconcern'd what becomes of his name , are only solicitous lest we should suffer our selves , afraid of being undone , of losing our estates , or of being driven from our dwellings , or perhaps but of being abridg'd somewhat of our conveniencies , and more delectable enjoyments . As if ( not the Fortunes of Cesar , and the Empire but ) the mighty and all comprehensive name of the great Lord of heaven and earth did depend upon our being rich , or quiet , and at our ease , and having our sense and fancy gratifi'd . As if the heavens rested upon our shoulders , and the frame of the universe were sustained by us , who our selves need such pitiful supports , lean upon shadows , and if they fail us are ready to sink and drop into nothing ! 2. Submission is highly requisit especially in a case of this nature , i. e. We are to submit to his judgment the disposal both of his concernments , which this argument directly intends , and our own , which we are too apt , indirectly to connect with his , so as to be more principally solicitous about them . 1. His concernment in this case must ( as is fit ) be submitted with all humble deference to his own judgment , it being really a doubtful case , not whether it be a desireable thing , that the name and honour of God should be preserved and advanced , or whether we should desire it ? But whether his continuing such a people in visible relation to himself , or rejecting and casting them off , will be more honourable and glorious to him ? Where the doubt lies , there must be the submission , i. e. This matter must be referr'd to himself , it being such as whereof he only is the competent judge , and not we . The thing to be judg'd of is not whether occasion may not be taken by men of short discourse , and of profane minds , to think and speak reflectingly of such a piece of providence , viz. if a people whom God had long visibly owned and favoured should be , at length , rejected with detestation , and exposed to ruine . 'T is like the heathen nations were very apt so to insult , when God did finally abandon and give up that people of the Jewes , and make them cease at once to be his people , and any people at all . As we know they did before , when they gained any temporary advantage upon them , upon their being able to spoil their countrey , to reduce them to some distress , and straiten their chief City with a siege , as if they had them totally in their power , they presently draw the God of Israel into an ignominious comparison with the fictitious Deities of other vanquished Countreys . The Gods of Hamath , Arphad , Sepharvaim Isa. 36. 19. ( who are also stiled their Kings as is thought 2 King. 19. 13. though the destruction of their Kings may also admit to be meant as an argument of the impotency of their Gods. And they are mentioned distinctly , as perhaps was not observed , in both those cited bookes of Scripture , where that history is more largely recorded ; 2 Kings 18. 34. chap. 19. 13. And Isa. 36. 19. chap. 37. 12 , 13 ) As if he were able to do no more for the protection of his people , than they for their worshippers . And so , for a few moments , he remaines under the censure of being an impotent God. But that momentary cloud he knew how soon to dispel , and make his glory shine out so much the more brightly unto , not only a convincing , but an amazing confutation of so prophane folly ; yielded the short sighted adversary a temporary Victory , which he could presently redeem out of their hands , that he might the more gloriously triumph in their surprizing , unfeared ruine ; And so let them , and all the world see that those advantages were not extorted , but permitted upon considerations that lay out of their reach to comprehend ; and that they proceeded not from want of power , but the excellency of other perfections , which would in due time be understood by such as were capable of making a right judgement . His wisdom , holiness and justice which appeared in putting a people so related to him , under seasonable rebukes and discountenance , when the state of the case , and the methods of his Government required it . And so much the rather because they were so related . According to that You only have I known of all the families of the earth , therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities . Amos 3. 2. The matter here to be disputed , was not whether it did not occasion a present dishonour to the God of Israel , to let the enemy have such a seeming ground of spiteful suggestions concerning him , as if he were impotent , or variable , or false to them that had intrusted themselves to his protection and care ; but whether that dishonour were not recompenst with advantage , by the greater glory that accrued to him afterwards . And this also is the matter that must come under judgement , if at length he should finally cast off such a people ; whether upon the whole , all things being considered and taken together , it be not more for the honour of his name , and the reputation of his rectoral attributes , to break off such a relation to them , than continue it . Wherein he is not concern'd to approve himself to the opinion of fooles , or half-witted persons : and whose shallow judgment too , is govern'd by their disaffection ; but to such as can consider . Perhaps , to such as shall hereafter rise up in succeeding ages . For he is not in haste . His steady duration , commensurate with all the successions of time , and which runs into Eternity , can well admit of his staying till this or that frame , and contexture of providence be compleated , and capable of being more entirely viewed at once , and till calmer minds , and men of less interested passions shall come to have the considering of it . And in the mean time he hath those numberless myriads of wise and holy sages in the other world , the continual observers of all his dispensations , that behold them with equal , unbyast minds , and from the evidence of the matter , give their concurrent approbation , and applause , with all the true members of the Church on earth , Great and marvellous are thy works , Lord God Almighty , just , and true are thy wayes , thou King of Saints . Rev. 15. 3. But it is enough , and much more considerable to approve himself to himself ; and that all his dispensations are guided according to the steady , eternal Reason of things , which is an inviolable law to him , from which he never departs , and from the perpetual uniform agreement of all his providences whereto , an indubious glory will result unto him , that will never admit the least Eclipse , or ever be capable of being drawn into dispute . And according whereto it will appear , if ever he forsake such a people , the concernment of his name and glory in the matter , was the great inducement to it , that he did even owe it to himself , and had not , otherwise , done right to his own name . And whatsoever might be argued from it to the contrary will be found capable of a clear and easie answer , so as that the weight of the argument will entirely ly on this side . For 1. As to his Power , he hath reason to be ever secure concerning the reputation of that , having given , and knowing how further to give , when he pleases , sufficient demonstrations of it , otherwayes . Nor was it ever his design to represent himself as a Being of meer Power , which of it self , hath nothing of moral excellency in it , nor do the appearances of it tend to beget that true notion of God in the minds of men which he designed to propagate ; otherwise than as the glory of it should shine in conjunction with that of his other Attributes that are more peculiarly worthy of God , more appropriate to him , and more apt to represent him to the world as the most sutable object of a Religious veneration . Whereas meer power is capable of having place in an un-intelligent nature , and in an intelligent tainted with the most odious impurities . He never desir'd to be known among men by such a name , as should signifie power only un-accompani'd with wisdom , holiness , &c. And 2. For his wisdom it is seen in pursuing valuable ends , by methods sutable to them , and becoming himself . It became the absolute Soveraignty of a God , to select a nation , that he would favour more than other nations ; but would ill have agreed with his wisdom to have bound himself absolutely to them , so to favour them , howsoever they should demean themselves . 3. His bounty and goodness , though it found them no better than other people , was to have made them better . Nor was it any disreputation to his goodness to divert its current , when they , after long tryal , do finally resist its design . 4. His Clemency must not be made liable to be mistaken for inadvertency , or neglect . And to give the world cause to say , Tush God seeth not , neither is there knowledge in the most high . Nor for indifferency , and unconcernedness what men do , as if good and bad were alike to him . And that such as do evil were good in the sight of the Lord , and he delighted in them ; words , wherewith he sometime complain'd that men wearied him Mal. 2. 17. He is not to redeem the reputation of one attribute by the real prejudice of another ; i. e. the offense and grievance to it , which acting directly against it ( if that were possible ) would occasion . 5. His sincerity will be highly vindicated and glorifi'd , when it shall be seen that there is nothing more of severity in such a dispensation , when ever it takes place , than was plainly exprest in his often repeated fore-warnings and threatnings , even long before . And therefore 6. He is herein but constant to himself , and should be more liable to the charge of mutability , and inconstancy , if finally , when the case should so require , he should not take this course . And 7. As to his righteousness , and fidelity towards such a people , even those to whom he more strictly oblig'd himself than ever he did to any particular nation besides . Let but the tenour of his Covenant with them be consulted , and see whether he did not reserve to himself a liberty of casting them off , if they revolted from him . And whether these were not his express termes that he would be with them while they were with him , but that if they forsook him , he would forsake them also . Therefore much more is he at liberty , as to any other people , to whom he never made so peculiar promises of external favours as he did to this people . Nor hereupon can any thing be pleaded from his name , or that is within the compass of its signification , with any certainty , that it shall conclude , and be determining on the behalf of such a people . There is a real , great doubt in the case , whether the argument may not weigh more the other way . And whether the wickedness of such a people may not be grown to such a prodigious excess , that whereas none of these his mentioned attributes do make it necessary , he should continue his relation , some other , that could not be alledg'd for it , may not be alledg'd against it , and do not make it necessary he should break it off . The glory of his holiness ( which if we consider it in it self , and consider the value , and stress he is wont to put upon it , we might even reckon the prime glory of the Deity ) is not , perhaps , to be sufficiently salv'd and vindicated without , at length , quite abandoning and casting them off . There seems to be somewhat very awful and monitory in those most pleasant , gracious words , and that breathe so sweet a savour . But now they desire a better Countrey , that is , an heavenly : wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God. Heb. 11. 16. viz. that if a people that have long enjoy'd brighter discoveries of heaven , and the way to it , do yet generally bear a disaffected heart to the design of that revelation , remain habitually terrene , like the rest of the world , govern'd by the spirit of it , ingulft in the common pollutions , sensualities , impieties of the wicked atheistical inhabitants of this earth . God will bë even ashamed to be called their God. He will reckon it ignominious , and a reproach to him ( though he will save such as are sincere among them ) to stand visibly related to such a people as their God. What to have them for a peculiar people , that are not peculiar ? To distinguish them that will not be distinguisht ? To make a visible difference by external favours and priviledges , where there is no visible difference in practice and conversation , that might signifie a more excellent Spirit . This is not only to lose the intended design , but to have it turn to a disadvantage . And whom he expected to be for a name and a praise to him , a crown and a royal Diadem , to become to him a dishonour and a blot . And we do find that such severities as have been used towards such a people , are declared to have been so , even for the sake of his name , Jer. 34. 16 , 17. But ye turned and polluted my name , — Therefore — I will make you to be removed into all the Kingdoms of the earth . And when therefore a remnant of this people , rebelliously , against Gods express word , went down into Egypt , preferring a precarious subsistence , under tyranny and idolatry , at the cruel mercy of a long since baffled enemy before the true Religion , and liberty , under the divine protection , see how God expresses his resentment of this dishonour done to his name , and the affront offered to his Government . Jer. 44. 26. Therefore hear ye the word of the Lord , all Judah that dwell in the land of Egypt , Behold , I have sworn by my great name , saith the Lord , that my name , shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah , in all the land of Egypt , saying ; The Lord God liveth . And when the time drew nearer of Gods total rejection of that people , as in the time of Malachi's prophecies ; They are charg'd with despising and profaning his name . chap. 1. verse 6. and 12. and are told God had now no pleasure in them , nor would accept an offering at their hands , but that his name should be great among the Gentiles ( verse 10 , 11. ) even from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same , Intimating that ( excepting those few that thought on his name , chap. 3. 16. and that feared his name , chap. 4. 2 , who he sayes should be his , when he made up his jewels , and the sun of righteousness should rise upon them ) he would have no more to do with them , but in the day that should burn as an oven , ( when the whole Hemisphere should be as one fiery vault ) they should be burnt up as stubble , and neither root nor branch be left of them , And all this upon the concern he had for his name , which was reproacht by such a peoples pretending to it . Whereupon , they had been threatned chap. 2. verse 2. that except they did give glory to his name , he would curse them , and their blessings , corrupt their seed , spread dung upon their faces , even that of their solemn feasts , and they should be taken away therewith . It is therefore possible the whole force of this argument may lye against us , in praying for such a people , I say , it is possible it may , Whether actually it do or no , we can never be competent judges . Our knowledge is not large enough , nor our minds enough comprehensive . Our wisdom is folly it self to the estimating such a case . We are capable of pronouncing hastily , it would in this , or that particular respect , be dishonourable , and an obscurement of Gods name , if he should cast off England . But he that pronounces hastily , considers but a few things , and lookes but a little way . The question is whether all things compared and considered together , that belong to such a case , it will be more honourable to God or dishonourable , and more or less recommend him to intelligent minds , get him a greater and more excellent name and renown in the world , when it shall be enlightned to consider the case , to break off his relation or continue it ? We know his own judgment is according to truth , and hope he will judge the way , that will be more favourable to us . But we cannot be certain of it . 'T is a case that requires the judgment of his all comprehending mind , whose prospect is large every way ; and takes in all the decencies and indecencies that escape our notice . As we know in viewing things with the eye , a quick and clear sight ( especially helpt with a fit instrument ) will discern many things , so fine , and minute , as to be , to a duller eye , altogether invisible . It is the work of wisdom , and judgment , to discern exactly the critical seasons , and junctures of time , when to do this or that . And the wise God in his dispensations , especially towards a great Community , or the collective body of a people , takes usually a vast compass of time , within which to select the apt and fit season , for this or that act , whether of severity , or mercy towards them . And it is more fit , as by the coincidence of things , it contributes more to the greater glory of his name . We cannot discern the things , the concurrence whereof , make this a fitter season than another , that such an event should be plac't just there , within so large a tract of time . What mortal man , or indeed what finite mind , was capable of judging some hundreds of years before , what was just wanting to the fulness of the Amorites sin , so as that it should be more honourable , and glorious to the divine justice , not to animadvert thereon , till that very time when he did it . Or why he chose that time which he pitcht upon , wherein to come down , and deliver his Israel from their Egyptian oppressours . Or when ( without inspiration ) to be able to say the time to favour Zion , even the set time is come . Nor are we to resolve the matter only into the absoluteness of his Sovereignty , upon the account whereof he may take what time he pleases , but the depth of his hidden wisdom , for he doth all things according to the Counsel of his will , having reasons to himself , which our shallow , dim , sight perceives not , and whereof we are infinitely less able to make a sure judgment , than a Countrey Idiot of reasons of state . He may ( as to the present case ) think it most fit , most honourable , and glorious , so often to forgive , or so long to forbear such a delinquent people ; And may , at length , judge it most becoming him , and most worthy of him , as he is the common Ruler of the world , and their injured , despised Ruler , to strike the fatal stroke , and quite cut them off from him . Now here , it is therefore necessarily our duty , to use this argument with him of his name , so , as wholly to submit the matter to his judgment , and but conditionally , if it will indeed make most for the glory of his name , that then he will not abhor and reject such a people even for his names sake . Nor can we herein be too importunate , if we be not peremptory , not too intent upon the end , the glory of his name ; for about the goodness , excellency , and desireableness of that we are certain ; if we be not too determinate about the meanes , or what will be most honourable to his name , concerning which we are uncertain . Neither is it disallowed us to use the best judgment we can , about the meanes , and the interest of Gods name in this case . It is not our fault to be mistaken , he expects us not to use the judgment of Gods. But it will be our fault to be peremptory and confident in a matter , wherein we may be mistaken ; and must signifie too much officiousness , as if we understood his affaires better than himself , and a bold insolence , to take upon us to be the absolute judges of what we understand not ; and to cover our presumption with a pretence of duty . Therefore though such a people be dear to us , yet because his name ought to be infinitely more dear , that , in the settled bent of our hearts , we ought to prefer . And be patient of his sentence , whatever it prove to be , with deep resentment of our own desert but with high complacency that his name is vindicated , and glorifi'd , and with a sincere , undissembled applause of the justice of his proceedings ; how severe soever they may be towards us . Especially if we have reason to hope , that severity will terminate , but in a temporary discountenance , and frown ; not in a final rejection . 2. Much more are we to submit our own secular concernments , which may be involv'd . i. e. We ought only to pray , we may have the continued , free , profession , and exercise of our Religion , in conjunction with the comfortable enjoyment of the good things of this life , if that may consist with , and best serve the honour of his great name . But if he do really make this judgment in our case , that we have so misdemean'd our selves , and been so little really better to common observation , in our practice and conversation , than men of a worse Religion , that he cannot without injury to his name , and the reputation of his Government , countenance us against them , by the visible favours of his providence : That it will not be honourable for him to protect us in our Religion , to so little purpose ; and while we so little answer the true design of it ; That if we will retain our Religion ( which we know we are upon no terms to quit ) we must suffer for it , and sanctifie that name before men by our suffering , which we dishonoured by our sinning . We have nothing left us to do but to submit to God , to humble our selves under his mighty hand , to accept the punishment of our sin , to put off our ornaments , expecting what he will do with us . And be content that our dwellings , our substance , our ease , and rest , our liberties and lives , if he will have it so , be all sacrifices to the honour of that excellent name . Nor can our use of this argument want such submission without much insincerity . Concerning this therefore look back to what was said on the former head . Nor is there any hardship in the matter , that we are thus limited in our praying , for what even nature it self teacheth us to desire ; our safety , peace , and outward comforts ; unless we count it an hardship that we are Creatures , and that God is God , and that ours is not the supream interest . The desires of the sensitive nature are not otherwise to be formed into petitions than by the direction of the rational , that also , being govern'd by a superadded holy divine nature ; unto which it is a supream , and a vital law , that God is to be first-eyed in every thing . Reason teaches that so it should be , and grace makes it be so . And it ought to be far from us to think this an hardship ; when , in reference to our greater , and more considerable concernments , those of our soules , and our eternal states , we are put upon no such ( dubious suspenceful ) submission . He hath not , in these , left the matter at all doubtful , or at any uncertainty , whether he will reckon it more honourable to his name to save , or destroy eternally , a sincerely penitent , believing , obedient soul. He hath settled a firm connection between the felicity of such , and his own glory . And never put it upon us , as any part of our duty , to be contented to perish for ever , that he may be glorifi'd ; or ever to ask our selves whether we are so content or no. For he hath made such things our present , immediate , indispensable duty , as with which our perishing is not consistent , and upon supposition whereof , it is impossible we should not be happy . If we believe in his son , and submit to his Government , his name pleads irresistibly for our being saved by him . He can have no higher glory from us , than that we be to the praise of the glory of his grace , being once accepted in the beloved . Neither is it disallowed us to do the part of concives , fellow-members of a community , civil , or spiritual , to pray , very earnestly , for our people , city , countrey that are so justly dear to us . Only since prayer it self is an acknowledgment of his superiority to whom we pray : and we have no argument , that we ought to hope should prevail , but that of his own name ; we can but pray , and plead as the nature of prayer , and the import of that argument will admit . i. e. with entire subjection to his holy and sovereign will , and subordination to his supream Interest , to whom we address our selves in prayer . Use. And now the use this will be of to us , is partly to correct and reprehend our prayers , wherein they shall be found disagreeable to the true import of this Argument , and partly to perswade unto , and encourage , such praying , as shall be agreeable to it . 1. It justly , and aptly serves to reprehend , and correct , such praying as disagrees with it . Especially the carnality , and the selfishness of our prayers . The use of this argument implies that the glory of God , and the exaltation of his name , should be the principal design of our prayers . Is it not in these respects much otherwise ? We keep fast after fast , and make many prayers . And what is the chief design of them ? or the thing we are most intent , and which our hearts are principally set upon ? We see how God expostulates this matter . Zech. 7. 5. When ye fasted and mourned , in the fifth , and seventh month , even those seventy years , did you at all fast unto me , even unto me ? Why to whom can it be thought this people did keep fasts but unto God ? Yes no doubt they did eye him , as the object , but not as the end . They were kept to him , but not for him , so as that his interest , and glory was the thing principally designed in them . Nor can it be , if the things we cheifly insist upon , be such as have no connection with his true interest , or subserviency to it . And let us enquire upon these two heads ; whether our prayers , in these respects , do not run in such a strain , as that they cannot possibly be understood to mean him , or have a true reference to him . 1. In respect of the carnality of them . When we pray for the people of our own land , or for the Christian Church , more generally , what sort of evils is it that we find our hearts most feelingly to deprecate , and pray against ? what are the good things we chiefly desire for them ? We find our selves , 't is likely , to have somewhat a quick sense , and dread of the calamities of war , depredation , oppression , persecution , and we feel , probably , somewhat of simpathy within our selves , when we hear of any abroad , professing true , reformed Christianity , that suffer the spoiling of their goods , are banisht from their pleasant homes , drag'd to prisons , prest with pinching necessities , for the sake of their Religion ; and it were well if our compassions were more enlarged in such cases . And if we should hear of nations depopulated , Cities sackt , Towns and Countreys delug'd with blood and slaughter , these things would certainly have an astonishing sound in our eares . But have we any proportionable sense of the Spiritual evils that wast , and deform the Christian Church , exhaust its strength and vigour , and blemish its beauty and glory ? Ignorance , terrene inclination , glorying in the external formes of Religion , while the life and power of it is unknown and deny'd , estrangement from God , real infidelity towards the Redeemer , vailed over by pretended nominal Christianity , uncharitableness , pride , wrath , strife , envy , hatred , hypocrisie , deceitfulness towards God and man ? We ought to lament and deprecate the former evils without over-looking these , or counting them less , or being less affected with them . We are apt to pray for peace unto the Christian community , for halcyon dayes , prosperity , the abundance of all outward blessings , in conjunction with the universal reception of such forms of Religion , as are most agreeable to our minds , and inclinations . But do we as earnestly pray for the reviving of primitive Christianity , and that the Christian Church may shine in the beauties of holiness , in heavenliness , faith , love to God , and one another , in simplicity , meekness , patience , humility , contempt of this present world , and purity from all the corruptions of it . This we chiefly , ought to have done , without leaving the other undone . Which while it is left out of our prayers , or not more principally insisted on in them , how ill do they admit of enforcement by this argument from the name of God ? For do we think it is so very honourable to his name , to be the God of an opulent , luxurious , voluptuous , proud , wrathful , contentious people , under what religious form or denomination soever ? 2. But also do not our prayers chiefly center in our selves ? while we make a customary ( not understood ) use in them of the name of God ? And when we principally design our selves in our prayers , what is it we covet most for our selves ? 'T is not agreeable to the holy , new divine nature , to desire to ingross spiritual good things to our selves ; when for others , we desire only the good things of this earth . But if our prayers do only design the averting from our selves outward calamities , or inconveniencies , and the obtaining only of ease , indulgence , and all grateful accommodations to our flesh , how absurd an hypocrisie is it to fashion up such a petition , by adding to it for thy names sake ? As if the name of God did oblige him to consult the ease and repose of our flesh ! when our soules , thereby , are made , and continued the nurseries of all the evil , vicious inclinations , which shew themselves in our practice , most of all to the dishonour of that name ! what subordination is there here ? Manifest is the opposition of our carnal interest , to the interest and honour of the blessed name of God. If a Malefactor , convicted of the highest crimes against the Government , should petition for himself to this purpose , that it will bring a great disreputation upon authority , and detract from the famed clemency and goodness of the Prince , if any punishment should be inflicted on him for his offences , or if he be not indulg'd and suffered to persist in them . How would this petition sound with sober , intelligent men ? 'T is no wonder our flesh regrets suffering , but 't is strange our reason should be so lost , as to think , at random , that right or wrong the name of God is not otherwise to be indemnifi'd than by its being saved from suffering . As if the gratification of our flesh , and the glory of Gods name were so very nearly related , and so much akin to one another ! And now this carnal self-interest , insinuating it self , and thus distorting our prayers , is the radical evil in them , and the first and original part of their faultiness . For it is not likely we should love others , better than our selves ; Therefore we cannot go higher in supplicating for others . But yet we inconsiderately mention the name of God for fashion sake , though it be no way concern'd in the matter , unless to vindicate and greaten it self , in rejecting us and our prayers together . 2. The further use of what hath been said upon this subject , will be to perswade and engage us to have more regard to the name of God in our prayers ; Especially in our praying about national , and publick concernments ; or such external concernments of our own as are involv'd with them . That , in the habitual temper of our spirits , we be so entirely and absolutely devoted to God , and the interest of his great name , that our prayers may savour of it , and be of an agreeable strain ; that the inward sense of our soules , may fully correspond to the true import of this argument , and our hearts may not reproach us , when we use it , as only pretending God , but meaning our selves , and that only our carnal self , the interest whereof alone , can be in competition with that of Gods name ; and which , while it prevailes in us , will be the measure of our prayers for others also ; That the meaning of our words may not be One , and the meaning of our hearts , another , that we may truly mean as we speak , when we use the words for thy names sake . And that our hearts may bear us this true testimony , that we desire nothing but in due subordination to the glory of his name ; external favours , with limitation ; only so far as they may ; and spiritual blessings , absolutely , because they certainly will , admit of this subordination . And to this purpose let it be considered . 1. How unsutable it is to the condition of a creature , that it should be otherwise . That were certainly , a most uncreaturely prayer , that should be of a contrary tenour . Let us but digest and state the case aright in our own thoughts . Admit we are praying , with great ardency , on the behalf of a people to which we are related , and who are also related to God. It can scarce be thought we are more concern'd for them , than for our selves ; or that we love them more than we do our selves . Our love to our selves is the usual measure of our love to others . And that is higher in the same kind , which is the measure of all besides , that belongs to that kind . When therefore we are much concern'd for the external felicity of such a people , it is very natural to be more deeply concern'd for our own . Now if the sense of our hearts , in such a prayer , will not agree with the true import of these words , for thy names sake ; because indeed , we are more concern'd for our own carnal peace , ease , and accommodation than we are for the name of God. Let us , that we may have the matter more clearly in view , put our request into such words , as wherewith the sense of our hearts will truly agree , and will it not be thus Lord , whatever becomes of thy name , let nothing be done that shall be grievous , and disquieting to my flesh , which is as much as to say , Quit thy throne to it , resign thy Government , abandon all thy great interests for the service , and gratification of this animated clod of clay ; And do we not now begin to blush at our own prayer ? We easily slide over such a matter , as this , while our sense is more latent , and not distinctly reflected on , but let us have it before us conceptis verbis ; let it appear with its own natural face , and look ; and now see what horrour and detestableness it carries with it ! And dare we now put up so treasonable a prayer ? It would puzzle all our Arithmetick , to assign the quota pars , or the proportional part any of us is , of the universe , or the whole creation of God! And do I then think it fit , that the heavens should roll for me ? or all the mighty wheeles of providence move only with regard to my convenience ? If a worm in your garden were capable of thoughts , and because it is permitted to crawl there , should think , this garden was made for me , and every thing in it ought to be ordered for my accommodation , and pleasure , would you not wonder that such insolence , and a disposition to think so extravagantly , should be in conjunction with the thinking power , or an ability to think at all . If we allow our selves in that far greater ( infinitely more unbeseeming , and disproportionable ) petulancy , Do we think when the roller comes it will scruple to crush us , or have regard to our immodest , pretenceless claim ? Let us consider what little minute things , how next to nothing we are , even compared with all the rest of the world ; what are we then compar'd with the Maker and Lord of it , in comparison of whom the whole , is but as the drop of a bucket , or the small dust of the ballance , lighter than nothing and vanity ! We should more contemplate our selves in such a comparison , many comparing themselves with themselves are not wise . While we confine and limit our eye only to our selves , we seem great things , fancy our selves very considerable . But what am I ? VVhat is my single personality ? ipseity , selfhood ( call it what you will ) to him who is the all in all ; whose being ( actually , or radically ) comprehends all being , all that I can conceive , and the infinitely greater all , that I cannot . If therefore I take in , with my self , the whole body of a people besides , that I am concern'd for , and admit that a generous love to my Countrey , should make me prefer their concernments to my own ; or that upon an higher account , as they are a people related to God , I could even lay down my life for them . VVhat are we all , and all our interests to that of his name ? And if we should all agree in a desire , that our interest should be serv'd upon the dishonour of that name , it were but a treasonable conspiracy against our common rightful Lord. And a foolish one , being exprest in a prayer ; as if we thought to engage him , by our faint breath , against himself . VVe are to desire no more for them , than they may for themselves . And if we have joyn'd in open sinning against him , to that height that he shall judge he is obliged for the vindication , and honour of his name , ( by which we have been called ) of his wisdom , holiness , and punitive justice , as openly to animadvert upon us , can we gainsay ? If we knew of such a judgment nothing could remain for us but shame , and silence , conviction of ill desert , and patienent bearing the punishment of our sin . And while we know it not , yet because it is possible ; we ought no otherwise to deprecate such a procedure against us , than as will consist with that possibility . To pray otherwise , if we make no mention of his name , is absurd presumption , that we should wish , or imagine , he will prefer any concernments of ours , to the steady order and decorum of his own Government . But if we do make mention of it , 't is a more absurd hypocrisie , to seem concern'd for his name , when we intend only our own external advantages ! as if we thought he that could answer our prayers , could not understand them . 'T is surely very unbecoming creatures , to bear themselves so , towards the God that made them . 2. Consider , that to have a sense in our hearts truly agreeable to the proper meaning of this argument for thy names sake , is very sutable to the state of returning Creatures , who are gathering themselves back to God , out of the common apostacy , wherein all were engag'd , and combin'd against that great Lord and Ruler of the world . In that defection every one did principally mind and set up for himself . Each one would be a God to himself , but all were , by consequence , against God. Whom to be for , they were divided , and of as many minds as there were men . Whom to be against , they were agreed , as if their common Lord , was the common Enemy . For his interest , and theirs , were opposite , and irreconcileable . They were sunk and lost in sensuality , and had no other interest , than that of their flesh . VVhen man hath made himself a brute , he then thinks himself fittest to be a God. The interest of our soules must unite us with him : that of our flesh engages us against him . Some are thorough the power of his grace returning . VVhat a pleasure would it be to us to behold our selves among the reduces ! those that are upon their return . That are , again , taking the Lord only to be their God , and his interest for their only interest ! 3. Consider that our very name , as we are Christians , obliges us to be of that obedient , happy number . For what is Christianity but the tendency of soules towards God , through the mediation , and under the conduct of Christ ? Therefore is the initial precept of it , and the condition of our entrance into that blessed state , self-denyal . VVe answer not our own name , further than as we are revolving , and rolling back , out of our single , and separate state , into our original , most natural state , of subordination to God ; wherein only we are capable of union with him , and final blessedness in him . This is Discipleship to Christ , and the design of the Christian Religion to be subdu'd in our Spirits , and wrought down into compliance with the divine will , to be meek , lowly , humble , patient , ready to take up the cross , to bear any thing , lose any thing , be any thing , or be nothing , that God may be all in all . This is our conformity , not to the precepts only , but to the example too , of our great Lord. Who when he was in the form of God , and thought it no robbery to be equal with God : made himself of no reputation , and took upon him the form of a servant , and was made in the likeness of man ; And being found in fashion , as a man , humbled himself , and became obedient unto death , even the death of the cross . Phil. 2. 6 , 7 , 8. And hereupon , because he was so entirely devoted to the honour , and service of Gods great name ( father glorifie thy name summ'd up his desires ) therefore God highly exalted him , and gave him a name above every name , That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow , &c. verse 9. 10. And when ever he shall have a Church in the world , that he will think it fit to own with visible , unintermitted favours , it must consist of persons formed according to that patern . And then , by losing their own name and little interests for Gods , they will find all recovered , when their glorious Redeemer shall write upon them the name of his God , and the name of the City of his God , and his own new name . Rev. 3. 12. 4. Let it be further ( in the last place ) considered , with what chearfulness and confidence , we may then pray ; when our hearts are wrought to this pitch , that we sincerely design the honour of the divine name , as the most desireable thing ; and which name above all things we covet to have glorifi'd . For we are sure of being heard , and to have the same answer , which was given our Lord by a voice like that of thunder , from heaven , when he pray'd Father glorifie thy name , Joh. 12. I have both glorifi'd it , and will glorifie it again . Our hearts are not right in us , till we can count this a pleasant , grateful answer . And if we can , we can never fail of it . For we are told 1 Joh. 5. 14. That whatsoever we ask according to his will he heareth us . This will deliver our minds from suspence . When we pray for nothing whereof we are uncertain , but with great deference and submission , and for nothing absolutely , and with greatest ingagement of heart ; but whereof we are certain . Upon such termes we may pray with great assurance , as Daniel did , O Lord hear , O Lord forgive , O Lord hearken and do defer not for thine own sake , O my God : for thy city , and thy people are called by thy name . ch . 9. 19. And tho an angel be not thereupon sent to tell us , as was to him , so many weeks are determined upon [ thy ] people and [ thy ] holy City ( so the matter is exprest ; as it were kindly giving back the interest in them to Daniel , with advantage , that he had before acknowledged unto God ) to finish the transgression , and to make an end of sins , and to make reconciliation for iniquity , &c. yet we are assured , of vvhat reasonably ought to be as satisfying , that vvhatsoever shall befall our City , or our people , shall end in the eternal glory of God , and of the City of God. FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A44689-e120 Octav. apud Min. F. Notes for div A44689-e790 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sprevit contempsit Vulg. Lat. & Chald. Par. Deut. 7. 7. C. 10. 15. Maimon . Mor. Nevoch . Selden . de Diis Syris Synt. 2. Cap. 16. 
A65872	----	The law and light within the most sure rule or light, which sheweth the right use and end of the Scripture, manifested in opposition to several false principles inserted in a book intitled Scripture light the most sure light, by William Bridge, the great pastor and Reverend Father, so accounted, of the Church at Yarmouth in Norfolk / confuted by George Whitehead. Whitehead, George, 1636?-1723. 1662 Approx. 21 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 5 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-10 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A65872 Wing W1940 ESTC R39128 18216908 ocm 18216908 107196 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A65872) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 107196) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1136:17) The law and light within the most sure rule or light, which sheweth the right use and end of the Scripture, manifested in opposition to several false principles inserted in a book intitled Scripture light the most sure light, by William Bridge, the great pastor and Reverend Father, so accounted, of the Church at Yarmouth in Norfolk / confuted by George Whitehead. Whitehead, George, 1636?-1723. 8 p. s.n., [London : 1662?] Caption title. Imprint suggested by Wing. Reproduction of original in the Union Theological Seminary Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. 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Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Bridge, William, 1600?-1670. -- Scripture-light the most sure light. Puritans -- England -- Controversial literature. Society of Friends -- England -- Apologetic works. Dissenters, Religious -- England. 2004-11 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2004-12 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-01 Judith Siefring Sampled and proofread 2005-01 Judith Siefring Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-04 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE Law and Light WITHIN , The most sure Rule or Light , which sheweth the right use and end of the Scripture , MANIFESTED In opposition to several false Principles inserted in a Book Intituled Scripture Light the most sure Light , by William Bridge , the Great Pastor and Reverend Father , so accounted , of the Church at Yarmouth in NORFOLK . Confuted by George Whitehead . HAving lately viewed part of William Bridge his Book aforesaid , who hath long been esteemed an Eminent Teacher among many of the Professors , and them called Independents in England , and having in his Book found many false principles and sinful Doctrines , contrary to the Scriptures of Truth , it was upon me in the fear of the Lord to lay open some of his Principles , that the Ignorant may be instructed , and the Professors of Yarmouth and els-where may not trust in delusion nor in deluders , but cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils , and no longer esteem of any above what they are , but turn to the Spirit of the Lord as it appears in them , which Spirit searcheth all things , and leadeth them into all truth who are willing to be guided by it , whereby they may try all things , both Spirits , Doctrines and fruits , and hold fast that which is good , which Spirit they that hate it and resist the movings of it when it moves against their ungodlinesse and errours , it will be a witnesse against them unto condemnation , and they shall remain in darknesse , and have their portion in darknesse ; So let the Professors and People of all sorts consider these things in the fear of God. First I shall lay down one particular for a truth which Wil. Bridge hath inserted in his book in p. 12. but it is against himself & such as he is , where he saith , Pr. That a knowing learned man it may be can utter more of the Scripture then he feels , but a good man feels more then he can utter . Answ. This is a Testimony against himself and his Brethren the Priests , who are learned men , who utter many things not in the true feeling which the good man is in ; so they are not the good men , for they walk contrary to that which should bring them into the feeling of truth in the inward parts ; & I shall here prove that William Bridge is out of the true feeling when he utters such Doctrines as he hath done contrary to the truth . Pr. From 2 Pet. 1.19 . We have also a more sure word of prophecy whereunto ye do well to take heed , W. Bridge saith the Apostle doth here prefer the written word before a revelation from heaven , now if he do prefer it before a Divine Revelation , then it is not to give place to the dawning of some special Light and Revela●ion in the heart , p. 4. Answ. In this he hath both perverted the Scripture & affirmed that which is fals , for the Apostles preferred Divine Revelation before the writings , as having the things of God revealed in them , before they spoke them forth or wrot of them , and Peter saith , The prophecy came not in old time by the will of man , but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost , 2 Pet. ● . 2● . so that they first had the prophesies of Scripture revealed in them by the holy Ghost before they were written , and that word which the Apostle directs to was the word of prophecy which was before the words were written , nigh in the heart , and gave place to the dawning of a special Light and Revelation in their hearts , for it led them to the dawning of the day and the arising of the day-star in their hearts which was Christ , for whose Revelation they hoped through the word or spirit of prophecy in them , and such did not deny the giving place to the dawning of the special Light and Revelation in the heart , as W. Bridge in his blindness hath done , see Mat. 11.27 . 1 Pet. 1.13 . 2 Pet. ● . 19 . Pr. He saith p. 9. I le tell you sayes the Apostle what ye shall do whilest ye are in the dark , even take heed to the word written . Ans. That 's false , the Apostle sayes no such words , neither saies he the word is written but living , and they were to take heed to the word of prophecy which they had as a Light that shined in a dark place , until the day-star arose in their hearts ; now they that are in the dark do not understand the Scriptures , then how should they take heed to that they know not ? but the light in the heart which shineth in darknesse , before it shine out of darknesse it gives the true understanding ; Again William Bridge is exceeding dark in counting the word of prophesie the writing or Scriptures of the Prophets , for the Apostles words or writings which testifies of Christ as he is come are as sure as the Prophets writings ( or more ) so that if he had intended the more sure word to be the Scriptures without , he would rather have said ye have a more sure word of the Apostles to take heed unto ; and again , the Scriptures doth not shine to them that are in darknesse , because they understand them not , but the light shineth in darknesse though the darknesse comprehends it not , and the least measure of the light of Christ being waited in by any one , it prophesies of a greater manifestation of light , and leads them that believe in it to the Revelation of Christ , the power and glory of the Father , so that this light in them is more sure to them then a voice or vision which another hath heard or seen which they have not , a manifestation of which light or spirit is given to every man to profit withal , John 1.4 , 5.9 . 2 Cor. 4 6 Pr. In page 7. he saith , A good man may live and dwell in a place or Town where no means of grace are , in a poor dark ignorant corner of the World. Ans. This is false Doctrine , for the Grace of God which brings salvation hath appeared unto all men , Titus 2.11 . and this grace is not without some means of it as it doth convince of sin , and teacheth to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts , and it appears with the means of it as to convince of sin and to teach righteousnesse , as thousands do and shall witnesse , and they who will not be taught by it , with it they shall be left without excuse . Pr. In page 7. he saith , David thirsted after Ordinances , saying , my soul thirsteth after thee O God to see thy Power and thy Glory , Ps. 63.1 , 2. Ans. David in thirsting after God and his power and glory , thirsted after that which is beyond all carnal or visible Ordinances , and shall remain when all such your Ordinances shall fail and have an end ; but now see how plainly William Bridge hath in this contradicted himself , for if the Scripture be preferred before Revelation from Heaven , and be not to give place to such a Revelation in the heart as he hath affirmed , then what needed David have thirsted to see the Power and Glory of God , for that is revealed in the hearts of believers , Eph. 3.20 . Pr. In page 9. and 10. A very good man may be much in the dark , ( temptation time is a dark time ) yet this Scripture light he hath alwayes by him , to the law and to the Testimony . Ans. A very good man is born of God and walketh in the light , and though he be tempted entereth not into the temptation , for the wicked one toucheth him not , as John said , and that is the most sure light to him which keepeth him out of temptations , which light was before the Scriptures were , and the Law is light , and the testimony is the Spirit of prophesie which was in the Saints before they wrote the Scriptures , which are not the light but testifie of it . Pr. page 7. Joseph when Mary was first with child , he did not know what to do in the case till the Angel of the Lord appeared to him . Ans. Which flatly contradicts his former words , for then the Angel of the Lord and what he revealed to Joseph was more sure to him then the Scriptures of the Prophets , for they did but foretell of Christ , but the Angel convinced Joseph concerning Christ , that he must not put away his wife as he would have done , as by the Scripture , touching fornication which she was not guilty of , as the Angel convinced him , Mat. 1.19 . so that Revelation was more sure then the Scripture . Pr. page 10. Wicked men have the light of the Scripture as a blind man hath the Sun , the Sun is in the firmament over the head of the blind man , yet it is not light to him . Ans. Here again William Bridge hath contradicted himself , for then the Scripture is not the most sure light to the wicked , because the wicked are as far from understanding the Scripture , as the blinde man is from seeing the light of the Sun , by this mans words , and yet he bids them that are wicked in the dark take heed to the word written , which is no better then to bid a blind man follow the light of the Sun , but that is the most sure light which shineth in the hearts , and opens the blinde mans eyes , and brings to Divine Revelation , which the Scripture without doth not , but testifies of the light and of Revelations , which the light of Christ brings to . Pr. page 12. The Scripture light is the most excellent safe and sure light , it is the light of lights ; there are many false lights in the world . Ans. God is the light of lights , the Father of lights , James 1.17 . and not the Scripture , for it is the writing not the light , and if God be the Fountain of lights , from whence did these false l●ghts come ? surely William Bridge hath spoken here much out of the feeling , for that which is false is not the Light , though deceit may transform like the light , but no deceit is really light . Pr. page 12. In looking in the Scripture , this great looking-glass , ye see the truth ▪ that are therein contained concerning God and Christ , there is God seen especially , and Christ seen , there also you see your selves and your own dirty face , this is that manifesting light under Christ. Ans. Here is confusion and false Doctrines added to confusion , for if the wicked have the Scripture but as the blind man hath the Sun , how should they see their dirty faces in the Scriptures , or see the truth , or God or Christ in the Scriptures , when the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain God , 1 Kings 8.27 . much less the Scripture , and he that would here divide the Scripture light from Christ , as if the Scripture light were one and Revelation were another , he is blind , for the Light which the Saints have in Scripture is in them , and is the light of Christ , without which the Scriptures cannot be understood , so that is the manifesting light which gives the true understanding of the Scriptures , and the Letter or Writing not the light . Pr. page 15. Scripture Light is the highest Light , Scripture Dispensation the highest Dispensation , the Dispensation of Visions and Revelations was of a lower rank . Ans. Herein hath William Bridge both shewen his ignorance and contradicted his brethren the Priests , for many of the Priests do account the Dispensation of the Prophets and Apostles of Christ , which was a dispensation of visions and revelations , far higher then theirs who now have the Scriptures , but do not own revelations to be manifest in these dayes , when as no man knoweth the Father but the Son , and he to whom the Son will reveal him , Mat. 11.27 . so William Bridge in his counting visions and revelations of a lower rank then the Scripture , he might as well say that the knowledge of God and Christ which is revealed , is lower then the letter , when as they were in a Scripture dispensation , and had the letter of the Law and Prophets who persecuted Christ , and Paul was there when a persecutor , but when he received the dispensation of God given him by revelation , whereby he was made a Minister , he knew that which was above or beyond the Scriptures , even Christ revealed in him the mystery , and so preached him unto the Gentiles , and did not sleight divine revelation , nor set the letter above it as William Bridge hath done , Gal. 1. Col. 1.27 . 2 Cor. 13.5 . Pr. page 15. If God should now speak unto you by Visions or Visional Revelations , how would you know that this were the voice of God but by the Scripture , and who doth not know that the Devil will speak an hundred truths . Ans. Here his grose ignorance of the voice of God is seen , for God is able to manifest his own voice to them that have not the Scriptures without , as he did before they were written , and the sheep of Christ knows and hears his voice ; what doth William Bridge believe that the Sheep of Christ must all go to the Scripture without , and try his voice thereby , when the devil can speak Scripture or a hundred truths ? then what must try the devils voice , and how then must they try voyces and spirits that cannot read the Scriptures ; now all that own the Spirit of Truth which searcheth all things , whereby words voyces and Spirits are to be tryed , they may soon see the Priests ignorance in these things . Pr. Pag. 18. I am to be so far from desiring God to speak in this way of a vision , as I am bound rather to be backward to it . Ans. Here William Bridge his desires are contrary to the true Ministers desires , for they went on to Visions and Revelations , and preached what God had revealed by his word in them , but in this he hath manifested himselfe to be like the Priests of old , from whom the vision was departed , and the day was become dark over them that they might not have a Vision , and where there is no vision the People perish , Mica 3. 2 Cor. 12.1 . Pr. Pag. 18. If any have a revelation to try or confirme any Gospel doctrine , 't is a delusion of Satan . Ans. Which is quite contrary to the Apostles doctrine , for they taught them that had revelation to try all things and hold fast that which is good . 1 Thes. 5.21 . And by the revelation of Christ they witnessed the doctrine of the Gospel confirmed and fulfilled in them , and this is no delusion , so that this Priest might as well have said that the knowledge of God is a delusion , for it comes by revelation and confirmes Gospel doctrine . Pr. Pag. 27. He saith the Light and Law within us here is Imperfect , the Law of Grace within , & the Light within is not able to convince others . Ans. Which are both false , for the Law and Light of the Lord is perfect , and by this Light within are many convinc'd of their evil deeds , and reproved for them , and things that are reproved are made manifest by the Light , & who ever speaks to the convincing others it must be from the Light within which is perfect , as every gift of God is perfect , Eph. 5.13 . Col. 3.16 . Pr. Though the Law and Light and Spirit within us be a principle of good , yet it is not the Rule of our goodness or Lives . Ans. Herein William Bridge hath plainly contradicted himself , for he confesseth in pag. 28 that the inward Law and Light discovers those heaps of sin that are in the Soul , and doth not onely incline a man unto what is good , but it inables him thereunto ; then I say , that the inward Light both discovering sin , and inclining and inabling man to that which is good , it must be the rule of their Lives , for the Spirit of Truth leadeth into all truth , John 1.6.13 . which is more then the Scripture will do , though we truly own the Sripture in its place as it testifies of the Truth , and against sin in the generall , yet the Light within must be the more sure Rule , for it shewes unto particular men their particular sins , and shews unto them wherein they are guilty , and opens their eyes and sheweth them the way to Life which is Christ , who enlightens every man coming into the World , and this is more then all outward words or writings . Pr. In pag. 29 , William Bridge saith , If the Law and Light and Spirit that is in me be my rule , then I may do any thing without sin , I may whore , be drunk , steal or any thing without sin , but the Law , Light and Spirit may command me to do such things as these . Ans. Here 's heaps of confusion & horrible blasphemy , for before he confessed that the inward Law and Light doth both incline a man to what is good , and inables him to it , and that it is a great help to us in our way to Life , and against this William Bridge in pag. 29 saith , that the Law or Light or Spirit within you is Christ in you , so you may see how horribly he hath blasphemed against Christ , in making him the author or commander of whoredome , drunkenness and stealing , as by his words appeare , when as Christ condemns all unrighteousness , and all that own Christ in them for their guide and rule , they witness that he is come to condemn sin in the flesh , and not to lead them into whoredome and drunkenness , nor any sin , for he purgeth throughly them that receive him , Mat. 1.21 . and 3.12 . Rom 8.1 , 2 , ● . Pr. If the Law and Light and Spirit that is in me be my Rule , then I am my own rule , and so I am God. Ans. This is false and absurd , and contradicts his own words , for he confessed that the Law or Light or Spirit within is Christ , now then if Christ be my Rule , I am not my own Rule , nor am I God ; for he that hath Christ to rule him , is not ruled by himselfe but by Christ in him , whereby he is come to deny himselfe and to follow Christ. Pr. Pag. 30 , He saith , the Scripture is the first ground of our Faith and Hope . Ans. Then Christ is not your ground nor hope who are out of the Apostles doctrine , for they witnessed that another foundation could no man lay then that which is laid , which is Christ , who was in them their hope , and the Author and Finisher of their faith , 1 Cor. 3. ●1 . Heb. 12.2 . Pr. Pag. 32. Humane Reason is a beam of Divine wisdom , yet if it be not inlightened with a higher Light of the Gospel , it cannot reach unto the things of God. Ans. Here 's both falsehood and absurdity , for a beam of Divine Wisdom is not Humane but Divine , as the Wisdom is from whence it comes , and a beam of Divine Wisdom need not higher light then that Wisdom , by which Wisdom the things of God are reached and known , now he is exceeding blinde who cannot discern Humane reason which is earthly and corruptible , from the Divine Wisdom , which is Incorruptible and eternall . Pr. Pag. 33. T is Revelation Light from the Gospel that doth bring to Heaven . Ans. So now at length he hath granted to the Truth ; but in this he hath overthrown all his former doctrine against revelation , wherein he did set the Scripture above Revelation , and would not have Scripture to give place to the dawning of the speciall Light and Revelation in the heart ; But now is the Light of the Gospel which is the power of God revealed in His People , which hath discovered the blindness and Ignorance of all such blind leaders who are ignorant of the Light and Law of God within , and who are against the knowledge of God in their preaching against Divine revelation , concerning which William Bridge hath so largely shewen his grosse darkness and blasphemies ; And this may be a warning to all his hearers , & all professors who are not wilfully blind to be awakened and cease from such blind watchmen and pastors , who have long fed themselves and not the flocks , and come to Christ the true Shepherd and Pastor who will feed his flock Himselfe . This in tender love was I moved to give forth for the simple ones sake that they may be undeceived ; and let none at the reading hereof be offended at what I have charged against William Bridge aforesaid , for I am willing ( if the Lord so order me , and give me an oportunity ) publickly to prove that he leads the people besides the wayes of God , and teacheth errour in stead of Truth ; this I am willing to prove to his face if the Lord so order me , if William Bridge would stand a fair dispute with me publikly , and stand to his own doctrines ; many more of whose false doctrines I could manifest in his book , which at present I omit THE END . 
A75478	----	Anti-Quakerism, or, A character of the Quakers spirit, from its original and first cause. / Written by a pious gentleman that hath been thirteen years amongst the Separatists to make observations, and is now returned home with a full intent to lay open the whole mystery of iniquity, in unvailing the whore, that men may no longer drink of the wine of her fornications; he hath vowed a single life, and given himself up wholly to the exercises of the mind. And here he hath described the spirit of Quakerism. 1. Being a precise Puritan. 2. An Anabaptist. 3. A Seeker. 4. A Ranter. 5. A Quaker, and indeed what not, all things, and nothing. By which character every man may in some measure see the deceitfulness of his own imagination and be careful, and watch himself accordinly [sic]. Younge, Richard. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A75478 of text R211441 in the English Short Title Catalog (Thomason 669.f.22[57]). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 10 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 1 1-bit group-IV TIFF page image. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2017 A75478 Wing A3507 Thomason 669.f.22[57] ESTC R211441 99870168 99870168 163639 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A75478) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 163639) Images scanned from microfilm: (Thomason Tracts ; 247:669f22[57]) Anti-Quakerism, or, A character of the Quakers spirit, from its original and first cause. / Written by a pious gentleman that hath been thirteen years amongst the Separatists to make observations, and is now returned home with a full intent to lay open the whole mystery of iniquity, in unvailing the whore, that men may no longer drink of the wine of her fornications; he hath vowed a single life, and given himself up wholly to the exercises of the mind. And here he hath described the spirit of Quakerism. 1. Being a precise Puritan. 2. An Anabaptist. 3. A Seeker. 4. A Ranter. 5. A Quaker, and indeed what not, all things, and nothing. By which character every man may in some measure see the deceitfulness of his own imagination and be careful, and watch himself accordinly [sic]. Younge, Richard. 1 sheet ([1] p.) Printed for the author, London : anno Dom. 1659. [i.e., 1660] "A pious gentleman" = Richard Younge. Cf. Wing and foot of page which reads: The author hath written a book, which is a tract of his thirteen years experience: entituled, A leaf from the tree of life. And are to be sold by Daniel White, at the Seven Stars in Pauls Church-yard, and by some that sell this paper. Partly in verse - "I have been in the valley of Siddim". Annotation on Thomason copy: "Jan. 5." Reproduction of the original in the British Library. eng Society of Friends -- Early works to 1800. Puritans -- Early works to 1800. Anabaptists -- Early works to 1800. Dissenters, Religious -- England -- Early works to 1800. A75478 R211441 (Thomason 669.f.22[57]). civilwar no Anti-Quakerism, or, A character of the Quakers spirit, from its original and first cause. Written by a pious gentleman that hath been thirte Younge, Richard 1659 1745 15 0 0 0 0 0 86 D The rate of 86 defects per 10,000 words puts this text in the D category of texts with between 35 and 100 defects per 10,000 words. 2008-06 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2008-09 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2008-11 Megan Marion Sampled and proofread 2008-11 Megan Marion Text and markup reviewed and edited 2009-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion Anti-Quakerism , or , A Character of the Quakers Spirit , from its Original and first cause . Written by a pious Gentleman that hath been thirteen years amongst the Separatists to make Observations , and is now returned home with a full intent to lay open the whole Mystery of iniquity , in unvailing the Whore , that men may no longer drink of the wine of her Fornications ; he hath vowed a single life , and given himself up wholly to the exercises of the mind . And here he hath described the spirit of Quakerism . 1. Being a precise Puritan . 2. An Anabaptist . 3. A Seeker . 4. A Ranter . 5. A Quaker , and indeed what not , all things , and nothing . By which Character every Man may in some measure see the deceitfulness of his own imagination and be careful , and watch himself accordinly . I Have been in the valley of Siddim There I met with a Ranter , a Seeker , a Quaker , a Puritan , And he told me from the light within All things that ever I did was sinne . He said also by the same light , God dwelled with him by his spirit , From these two premises I resume These are the Spirits that do presume . And now since they presumptious be , I 'l take the same Authority ; For Reason wills that I defend My Life and Soul , being my own friend . And this without all fear I say , They lyers are , that every way , There is nothing that they say is true , As I will demonstrate to you . And first I 'le them Anatomize , In divers shapes of their own guize ; Then to their Conscience I will go , To see if this be true or no . And first he was a Puritan , Wareing short hair and little band ; Then I thy Conscience did extol , Till thou wouldst ware no Band at all . Then thou foundst fault with singing Psalms , And said they were as black as charms ; But now in singing you delight ; Songs of your own made by the spirit Thy custome was to fast and pray , Honour thou didst the Sabbath Day ; But now thou hast got a better light Opening thy shop that day for spite . Sermons at length thou wouldst not hear , Because the Minister would sware ; But now you sware and curse down-right Is this the effects of your spirit . At length you had a Call come out , I will be your Father without doubt ; Then could not you no longer stay , But left the Church without delay . Then he turned Anabaptist . Then you together took in hand , To build Christ house upon the Sand , And still you want the Corner stone , I mean Jesus that is Christ alone . His word you know you did promise , And there you found the word baptize , You said the meaning of 't must be Needs meant of water , Baptisme . Then did you muse and cast your care All for an Administraetor , But here in England none was seen , That used ought but sprinkling . At length you heard men say , That there was Saints in Silesia , Who ever since the Apostles time Had kept this Ordinance pure , divine . Thither alass you sent in haste , And thus you did some treasure w●ste , But wh●n your mess●ngers came there , They were deceiv'd as we are here . But this they told you in good deed , That they of baptism stood in need , And for a present remedy , With prayers they to Heaven did cry . Then did they with a joynt consent Do that o● which you now repent , Authorize one them to bap●iz● , Thus this fine cheat they did devise . The Original of the Anabaptists . They said that you should thus do , And God would own it they did know , And you their councel simply took , Because Baptize was writ in Book . He turned Seeker and Ranter . And thus at length you your selves baptiz'd , Tell you ano●her sect devis'd ; You will say now Ord na●ces are low , God doth not own them you do know . Then you Assemblies quite forsook , Having learn'd your lessons without book , And fo● a time you ●orment were , Till you discern'd the morning star . He turned Quaker , and nothing . Which as a light in you did shine , Which light you said w●s Christ divine , And now you say he dwells in you , Whatsoever you say I know is true . Thus have you trac'd and run division , In your confused mad religion ; A great deal more I could you shew , But this is en●ugh for once to know . And now you see our trade is gone , Is it long of God , or long of Man , If caus'd by m●n'tis thee and I , Let us repent then speedily . And do thou do what I have done , If future evils , thou wilt shun , Return to Church again , I say , There thou maist learn to sing and pray . Return to Church again with speed , Lest obstinacy doth thy torment breed , For if-that Faction have his head , Blood in our streets must needs be shed . It is good Reasoning , Inter argumenta hominum , amongst the Arguments of Men , to draw Conclusions from such premises which the Respondant or Adversaries that are to answer do own . THe Puritan Spirit was the Spirit of Quakerism , in the first degree , which thing wise men knew full well , which made them so much i●de●vour the suppressing of them , though howbeit they took not the right way , or else the Spirit was too strong , and had gotten too much hold both in the Magistrates and vulgar , by reason whereof it brake into these extreames , the men of those times were too precise , critical , and exact , which is an infallible sign of relig●ous dotage , or melancholly : See Burton on Religious Melancholly , They took offence without cause ; and I think now the Devil , is in them , for they will not be pleased with amends , though they have got all , for their desires are as deep and as large as Hell . They sing spiritual Songs and Hymns of their own devising , and force their brethren to sing with them , under penalty of their censure , which in their opinion is little less then damnation . They bitterly curse and banne all that any way differ from their opinion , and say , they have Authority from God to open their Shops on the Lords day , even that day of which they had once so high an esteem . They applie that Text worthy of all Consideration , which is by Saint Paul meant of universal sinne unto themselves , with opposition to others , Cor. 6.17 . and make as if they onely were the alone people of God . The word Jesus , signifies a Saviour , Christ , a King , so that Christ Jesus is such a King that doth save ; but their Christ within leads all into destruction , and hurries them upon impossibilities contrary to Law and Reason , witness their new Catalogue of Martyrs , printed in red Letters like blood , because by the simple they would forsooth be understood as Martyrs . The word Baptism is an Ambiguous term , take heed how you understand it , or make any particular application thereof . They sent up and down the world for a Man to baptize them , but they found none , but such as had baptized themselves . In England there was some in the practise of sprinckling , but those the D●ppers , to my knowledge , did reject from Communion with them on this very ground . They forsook Assemblies , and lay dormant , and so imagined a new Gospel , and a new Christ within them , the Devil take him for me , for I am too much under his power ; then they went to work afresh to get Disciples , and I think they have hit it ; for I know , Country-men , what I say , that three parts of you that are religiously affected at this day , are possessed with that humour which will make you Quakers , if you take not great heed . The Quakers did preach , that it was a sinne to wear Bands or Band-strings . And now my Christian friends , and Country-men , for the Lords sake take heed to your selves , be wise and warned by my harms ; for Faction , I thank God , hath undone me , as to my outward Estate , in my outward Man ; But I have seen the bottom of their bottomless pit ; and beseech you take unto you the whole Armour of God , put on Fortitude and Faith , Clothe your selves with zeal , as with a Cloak , but for the Lord sake let your feet be shod with the Preparations of the Gospel of peace . Follow my directions , and under heaven I will fell these Spirits , and then will War and Tumults cease , and keep alwayes in memory the words of our Lord , Matthew 26.41 . Mark 13.37 . The Author hath written a Book , which is as a Tract of his thirteen years Experience : Entituled , A Leaf from the Tree of Life . And are to be Sold by Daniel White , at the Seven Stars in Pauls Church-Yard , and by some that sell this paper . LONDON , Printed for the Author , Anno Dom 1659. Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A75478e-30 Hos. 13.9 . 
A69622	----	English Puritanisme containing the maine opinions of the rigidest sort of those that are called Puritans in the realme of England / written by William Ames ... Bradshaw, William, 1571-1618. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A69622 of text R14601 in the English Short Title Catalog (Wing B4158). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 35 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 13 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2017 A69622 Wing B4158 ESTC R14601 11714441 ocm 11714441 48309 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A69622) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 48309) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 15:18 or 261:E208, no 4) English Puritanisme containing the maine opinions of the rigidest sort of those that are called Puritans in the realme of England / written by William Ames ... Bradshaw, William, 1571-1618. Ames, William, 1576-1633. [4], 20 p. s.n.], [London : 1641. The English original, published anonymously in 1605, was written by William Bradshaw. William Ames, whose name erroneously appears on the t.p., made a free Latin version, published in 1610 with title: Puritanismus anglicanus. Cf. DNB. Place of publication from Wing. Reproduction of original in Bodleian Library and Thomason Collection, British Library. eng Puritans -- England. A69622 R14601 (Wing B4158). civilwar no English Puritanisme. Containing the maine opinions of the rigidest sort of those that are called Puritans in the realme of England. Written Bradshaw, William 1641 6357 3 0 0 0 0 0 5 B The rate of 5 defects per 10,000 words puts this text in the B category of texts with fewer than 10 defects per 10,000 words. 2004-01 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2004-02 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2004-07 Judith Siefring Sampled and proofread 2004-07 Judith Siefring Text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion ENGLISH PVRITANISME . CONTAINING The maine Opinions of the rigidest sort of those that are called Puritans in the Realme of ENGLAND . Written by WILLIAM AMES D. of Divinity . ACTS 24. 14. But this I confesse unto thee , that after the way ( which they call Heresie ) so worship I the God of my Fathers , beleeving all things which are written in the Law and the Prophets . ACTS 28. 22. But we will heare of thee what thou thinkest : for as concerning this Sect , we know that every where it is spoken against . Printed in the yeare . 1641. To the Indifferent Reader . IT cannot be unknowne unto them that know any thing , that those Chistians in this Realme which are called by the odious and vile name of Puritans , are accused by the Prelates to the Kings Majestie and the State , to maintaine many absurd , erronious , Schismaticall , and Hereticall opinions , concerning Religion , Church-government , and the Civill Magistracie . Which hath moved me to collect ( as neare as I could , the chiefest of them , and to send them naked to the view of all men , that they may see what is the worst that the worst of them hold . It is not my part to prove and justifie them , Those that accuse and condemne them , must in all reason and equity prove their accusation , or else beare the name of unchristian slanderers . I am not ignorant that they lay other opinions ( yea , some cleane contradictory to these ) to the charge of these men , the falshood whereof we shall ( it is to be doubted have more and more occasion to detect . In the meane time all Enemies of Divine Truth shall finde , That to obscure the same with Calumniation and untruthes , is but to hide a Fire with dry Straw or Towe upon it . But thou mayest herein observe , what a terrible Popedome and Primacy these riged Presbyterians desire . And with what painted Bug-beares and Scar-Crowes the Prelates goe about to fright the States of the Kingdome with all . Who will no doubt one day see how their wisedomes are abused . Farewell . ENGLISH PVRITANISME . CHAP. I. Concerning Religion , or the worship of God in generall . IMPRIMIS , They hold and maintaine , that the Word of God contained in the writings of the Prophets and Apostles , is of absolute perfection , given by CHRIST the head of the Church , to be unto the same , the sole Canon and rule of all matters of Religion , and the worship and service of God whatsoever . And that whatsoever done in the same service and worship , cannot be justified by the said Word , is unlawfull . And therefore that it is a sin , to force any Christian to doe any act of Religion , or Divine Service , that cannot evidently be warranted by the same . 2 They hold , that all Ecclesiasticall actions invented and devised by man , are utterly to be excluded out of the exercises of Religion ? Especially such actions as are famous and notorious Mysteries of an Idolatrous Religion , and in doing whereof , the true Religion is conformed ( whether in whole or in part ) to Idolatry and Superstition . 3 They hold , that all outward meanes instituted and set apart to expresse and set forth the inward worship of God , are parts of Divine worship and that not onely all morall actions , but all typicall Rites and Figures , ordained to shadow forth in the solemne worship and service of God , any Spirituall or religious Act or habit in the minde of man , are speciall parts of the same , and therefore that every such Act ought evidently to be prescribed by the Word of God , or else ought not to be done ? it being a sinne to performe any other worship to God , whether Externall or Internall , Morall or Ceremoniall , in whole or in part , then that which God himselfe requires in his Word . 4 They hold it to be grosse Superstition for any mortall man to institute and ordaine as parts of Divine worship , any mysticall Rite and Ceremony of Religion whatsoever , and to mingle the same with the Divine Rites and Mysteries of Gods Ordinance . But they hold it to be high presumption to institute and bring into Divine worship such Rites and Ceremonies of Religion , as are acknowledged to be no part of Divine worship at all , but onely of civill worship and honour : For they that shall require to have prformed unto themselves a ceremoniall obedience , service and worship , consisting in Rites of Religion to be done at that very instant that God is solemnely served and worshipped ? and even in the same worship make both themselves and God so an Idoll . So that they judge it a farre more fearefull sinne to adde unto , and to use in the worship and service of God , or any part thereof , such mysticall Rites and Ceremonies as they esteeme to be no parts or parcels of Gods worship at all : then such as in a vaine and ignorant Superstition , they imagine and conceive to be parts thereof . 5 They hold , that every Act or action appropriated and set apart to Divine Service and Worship , whether Morall or Ceremoniall , reall or typicall ? ought to bring speciall honour unto God , and therfore that every such Act ought to be apparently commanded in the Word of God , either expresly , or by necessary consepuent . 6 They hold , that all actions whether Morall or Ceremoniall appropriated to Religious or Spirituall persons , Functions , or Actions , either are or ought to be Religious and Spirituall . And therefore either are or ought to be instituted immediately by God , who alone is the Author and Institutor of all Religious and Spirituall actions , and things : whether Internall or Externall , Morall or Ceremoniall . CHAP. II. Concerning the Church . 1 THey hold and maintaine , that every Company , Congregation , or Assembly of true beleevers , joyning together according to the order of the Gospell , in the true Worship of God , is a true visible Church of Christ ; and that the same Title is improperly attributed to any other Congregations , Synods , Societies , Combinations , or Assemblies whatsoever . 2 They hold , that all such Churches or Congregations , communicating after that manner together in Divine worship , are in all Ecclesiasticall matters equall , and of the same power and authority , and that by the Word and Will of God they ought to have the same Spirituall Priviledges , Prerogatives , Officers , Administrations , Orders , and Formes of Divine worship . 3 They hold , that Christ Jesus hath not objected any Church or Congregation of his , to any other Superiour Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction , then unto that which is within it selfe . So that if a whole Church or Congregation shall erre , in any matter of Faith or Religion , no other Churches or Spirituall Church-Officers have ( by any warrant from the Word of God ) power to censure , punish , or controule the same : but are onely to counsell or advise the same , and so to leave their Soules to the immediate judgement of Christ , and their bodies to the sword and power of the Civill Magistrate , who alone upon earth hath power to punish a whole Church or Congregation . 4 They hold , that every established Church or Congregation ought to have her owne Spirituall Officers and Ministers , resident with her , and these such as are joyned by Christ in the new Testament , and no other . 5 They hold , that every established Church ought ( as a speciall prerogative wherewith shee is endowed by Christ ) to have power and liberty to elect and chuse their owne Spirituall and Ecclesiasticall Officers , and that is a greater wrong to have any such forced upon them against their wils , then if they should force upon men wives , or upon womens husbands , against their will and liking . 6 They hold , that the Ecclesiasticall Officers and Ministers of one Church , ought not to beare any Ecclesiasticall Office in another , neither as they are Officers in one Congregation , can they officially administer in another , but ought to be tyed unto that Congregation of which they are members , and by which they are elected into Office . And they are not ( without just cause , and such as may be approved by the Congregation , to forsake their Callings , wherein if the Congregation shall be perverse , and will not hearken to reason , They are then to crave the assistance and helpe of the Civill Magistrate , who alone hath power , and who ought by his civill sword and authority , procure to all members of the Church , whether Governours or others , freedome from all manifest injuries and wrongs . 7 They hold , that the Congregation having once made choyse of their Spirituall Officers , unto whom they commit the Regiment of their soules , they ought not ( without just cause , and that which is apparantly warrantable by the Word of God ) to discharge , deprive , or depose them . But ought to live in all Canonicall obedience and subjection unto them agreeable to the Word of God . 8 They hold , that the Lawes , Orders , and Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction of the visible Churches of Christ , if they be lawfull and warrantable by the Word of God , are no wyaes repugnant to any civill State whatsoever , whether Monarchicall , Aristocraticall , or Democraticall , but to tend to the further establishing and advancing of the right and prerogatives of all and every of them . And they renounce and abhorre from their soules all such Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction or Policy , that is any wayes repugnant to any civill State whatsoever , whether Monarchicall , Aristocraticall , or Democraticall , but doe tend to the further establishing and advancing of the right and prerogatives of all and every of them . And they renounce and abhorre from their soules all such Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction and Policy , that is any way repugnant and derogatory to any of them specially to the Monarchicall State , which they acknowledge to be the best kinde of Civill Government for this Kingdome . 9 They hold and beleeve , that the equality in Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction and Authority , of Churches and Church-Ministers , is no more derogatory , and repugnant to the State and glory of a Monarch , then the parity of equality , of Schoole-masters , of severall Schooles , Captaines of severall Campes , Shepheards of severall flockes of sheep , or Masters of severall Families . Yea , they hold the cleane contrary , that inequality , of Churches and Church-Officers in Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction and Authority , was that principally that advanced Antichrist unto his throne , and brought the Kings and Princes of the earth , unto such vassalage under him , and that the Civill Authority and glory of Secular Princes and States hath ever decayed , and withered , the more that the Ecclesiasticall Officers of the Church have bin advanced and lifted up in Authority , beyond the limites and confines that Christ in his Word hath prescribed unto them . CHAP. III. Concerning the Ministers of the Church . 1 THey hold , that the Pastors , Teachers , and ruling Elders of particular Congregations , are , or ought to be highest Spirituall Officers in the Church , over whom ( by any Divine Ordinance ) there is no Superiour Pastor , but onely Jesus Christ ; And that they are led by the Spirit of Antichrist , that arrogate , or take upon themselves to be Pastors of Pastors . 2 They hold , that there are not by Divine Institution in the Word , any ordinary Nationall , Provinciall , or Diocesan , Pastors or Ministers under which the Pastors of particular Congregations are to be subject , as inferiour Officers . And that if there were any such , that then the Word of God would have set them downe distinctly , and more precisely then any of the rest : For the higher place that one occupieth in the Church , of the more necessity he is unto the Church : the more carefully would Christ ( the Head of the Church ) have beene in pointing him out , and distinguishing him from other . Hence , in the Old Testament , the high Priest , his Title , Office , Function , and speciall Administration and Jurisdiction is more particularly and precisely set downe then the Office of any of the inferiour Priests and Levites . Also in the New Testament , the Office of a Pastor is more distinctly , and more precisely set down , then of a Doctor , or any other inferiour Church-Officer ; So that a man may as well call into question the whole New Testament , as doubt whether there ought to be a Pastor in every Congreation , or doubt of his proper Office and Function . and if by Gods Ordinance there should be an Ordinary Ecclesiasticall Officer above the Pastors of particular Congregations , then Christ out of all question would with that speciall care and cost hath set it forth : by Titles , Prerogatives , peculiar Offices , Functions and Gifts . That the Churches and people of God , should have reason rather to doubt of any Office or Jurisdiction , then of the peculiar Office or Jurisdiction of the Primates , Metrapolitanes , Archbishops and Prelates of the world . 4 They hold , that if there were a Supreame Nationall Ecclesiasticall Minister or Pastor , that should be the Prince of many thousand Pastors : that then also Christ ( as he did in the Jewish Church ) would have appointed a solemne Nationall or Provinciall Leiturgie or worship , unto which at some times of the yeare , the whole body of the People should ascend , and that unto the Metropolitan City as unto a Jerusalem , and that he would ( as he did in the Jewish Church ) more precisly and particularly have set downe the manner of solemnization thereof , then of his Prochical worship . For as much therefore as they cannot read in the New Testament of any higher or more solemne worship , then of that which is to be performed in a particular Congregation they cannot be perswaded that God hath appointed any higher Ministers of his service and worship under the New Testament , then the elect Ministers of particular Congregations . 4 They hold , that the High Priest of the Jewes , was typicall and in a figure the supreame head of the whole Catholick Church , which though it were visible only in the Province and Nation of Jury , Yet those of other Nations and Countries ( as appeare , by the History of Acts , Even though they were Ethiopians ) were under this high Priest . And acknowledged homage unto him . So that he was not a Provinciall Metropolitane , but in very deed , an Occumenicall and universall Bishop of the whole world . And therefore they hold , ( this being the best ground in the word , for Metropolitane and Provinciall Pastors or Bishops , ) that the Pope of Rome , who alone maketh claime unto , and is in possession of the like universall Supremacy : hath more warrant in the word of God , to the same , then any Metropolitane , or Diocesan ( not dependant upon him ) hath or can have . So that they hold , that by the word of God , either there must be no Metropolitans and Diocesans , or else there must be a Pope . 5. They hold , that no Ecclesiasticall Minister ought to exercise or accept of any Civill publique jurisdiction and authority , but ought to be wholly imployed in spirituall Offices and dueties to that Congregation over which he is set . And that those Civill Magistrats weaken their owne Supremacy that shall suffer any Ecclesiasticall Pastor to exercise any civill jurisdiction within their Realmes , Dominions , or Seignories . 6 They hold , that the highest and Supreame office and authority of the Pastor , is to preach the Gospel solemnely and publickly to the Congregation , by interpreting the written word of God , and applying the same by exhortation and reproof unto them . They hold that this was the greatest worke that Christ and his Apostles did , and that whosoever is thought worthy and fit to exercise this authority , cannot be thought unfit and unworthy to exercise any other Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall authority whatsoever . 7. They hold , that the Pastor or Minister of the word , is not to teach any Doctrine as to the Church , grounded upon his owne Judgement , or Opinion , or upon the judgement or opinion of any or all the men in the world . But only that truth , that he is able to demonstrate and prove evidently , and apparently , by the word of God soundly interpreted , and that the people are not bound to beleeve any Doctrine of Religion or Divinity whatsoever , upon any ground whatsoever , except it be apparently justified by the word , or by necessary consequent deduced from the same . 8. They hold , that in interpreting the Scriptures , and opening the sense of them , he ought to follow those rules onely that are followed in finding out the meaning of other writing , to wit , by waying the propriety of the tongue wherein they are written , by waying the Circumstance of the place , by comparing one place with another , and by considering what is properly spoken , and what tropically or figuratively . And they hold it unlawfull for the Pastor to obtrude upon his people a sence of any part of the divine word , for which he hath no other ground but the bare testimonies of men , and that it is better for the people to be content to be ignorant of the meaning of such difficult places , then to hang their Faith in any matter in this case upon the bare Testimony of man . 9. They hold , that the people of God ought not to acknowledge any such for their Pastors as are not able by preaching , to interpret and apply the word of God unto them in manner and forme aforesaid . And therefore that no ignorant and sole reading Priests are to be reputed the ministers of Jesus Christ , who sendeth none into his ministery and service , but such as he adorneth in some measure with Spirituall gifts . And they cannot be perswaded that the faculty of reading in ones mother tongue the Scriptures , &c. which any ordinary Turke or Infidell hath , can be called in any congruity of Speech a ministeriall guift of Christ , 10. They hold , that in the assembly of the Church , the Pastor only is to be the mouth of the congregation to God in prayer , and that the people are onely to testifie their assent by the word Amen . And that it is a Babilonian confusion , for the Pastor to say one peece of a prayer , and the people with mingled voices to say another except in singing , which by the very ordinance and instinct of nature , is more delightfull , and effectuall , the more voices there are joyned and mingled together in harmony and consent . 11. They hold , that the Church hath no authority to impose upon her Pastors , or any other of her Officers , any other ministeriall dueties , Offices , Functions , Actions , or Ceremonies , either in Divine worship or out of the same then what Christ himself in the Scriptures hath imposed upon them , or what they might lawfully impose upon Christ himselfe , if he were in person upon the Earth , and did exercise a ministeriall office in some Church . 12. They hold , that it is as great an injury to force a congregation or Church to maintaine as their Pastor , with tithes and such like donations , that person that either is not able to instruct them , or that refuseth in his owne person ordinarily to doe it , as to force a man to maintaine one for his wife , that either is not a woman , or that refuseth in her owne person to doe the dueties of a wife unto him ? 13. They hold , that by Gods Ordinance there should be also in every Church a Doctor , whose speciall office should be to instruct by opening the sense of the Scripture to the Congregation ( and that particularly ) in the maine grounds and principles of Religion . CHAP. IIII. Concerning the Elders . 1 FOr as much as through the malice of Sathan , there are and will be in the best Churches many disorders and Scandals committed , that redound to the reproch of the Gospel & are a stumbling block to many , both without and within the Church , and sith they judg it repugnant to the word of God , that any Minister should be a Sole Ruler , and as it were a Pope so much as in one Parish , ( much more that he should be one over a whole Diocesse , Province or Nation ) they hold that by Gods Ordinance the Congregation should make choise of other officers , as Assistants unto the Ministers in the spirituall regiment of the congregation , who are by office jointly with the ministers of the word to be as Monitors and Overseers of the manners and conversation of all the Congregation , and one of another ; that so every one may be more weary of their wayes , and that the Pastors and Doctors may better attend to prayer and Doctrine , and by their means may be made better acqainted with the estate of the people , when others eyes besides their owne shall wake and watch over them . 2 They hold , that such onely are to be chosen to this Office , as are the gravest , honestest , discreetest , best grounded in Religion , and the Ancientest Professors thereof in the Congregation , such as the whole Congregation doe approve of & respect , for their wisdome , holinesse , and honesty , and such also ( if it be possible ) as are of civill note and respect in the world , and able ( without any burden to the Church ) to maintain them selves , either by their lands , or any other honest civill trade of life , neither doe they thinke it so much disgrace to the policy of the Church , that tradesmen and artificers , ( indowed with such qualities as are above specified ) should be admitted to bee ▪ Overseers of the Church , as it is that persons both ignorant of Religion and all good letters , and in all respects for person , quality , and state , as base and vile , as the basest in the Congregation , should be admitted to be Pastors and Teachers of a Congregation . And if it be apparent that God ( who alwayes blessed his owne Ordinances ) doth often even in the eyes of Kings and Nobles , make honourable the Ministers and Pastors of his Churches upon which he hath bestowed Spirituall gifts and graces though for birth , education , presence , outward , state and maintenance , they be most base and contemptible , so he will as well in the eyes of holy men , make this Office , which is many degrees inferiour to the other , precious and honourable , even for the Divine calling and Ordinance sake . CHAP. V. Concerning the censures of the Church . 1 THey hold , that the spirituall keies of the Church are by Christ , committed to the aforesaid spirituall Officers and Governours , and unto none other : which keyes they hold that they are not to be put to this use , to locke up the crownes , swotds , or scepters of Princes and civill States , or the civill rights , prerogatives , and immunities of civill subjects in the things of this life , or to use them as picklocks to open withall , mens treasuries & coffers , or as keys of prisons , to shut up the bodies of men ; for they thinke that such a power and authority Ecclesiasticall is fit onely for the Antechrist of Rome , and the consecrated governours of his Synagogues , who having no Word of God which is the sword of the Spirit , to defend his and their usurped jurisdiction over the Christian world , doth unlawfully usurpe the lawfull civill sword and power of the Monarches and Princes of the earth , thereby forcing men to subject themselves to his spirituall vassaladge and service , and abusing thereby the spiritull keyes and jurisdiction of the Church . 2 They hold , that by vertue of these keyes , they are not to make any curious Inquisitions into the secret or hidden vices or crimes of men , extorting from them a confession of those faults that are concealed from themselves and others ; or to proceed to molest any man upon secret suggestions , private suspition , or uncertaine fame , or for such crimes as are in question whether they be crimes or no ; But they are to proceed , onely against evident and apparent crimes , such as are either granted to be such of all civill honest men : or of all true Christians , or at least such , as they are able , by evidence of the word of God , to convince to be sinnes , to the conscience of the offender ; As also such as have beene either publickly committed , or having been committed in secret , are by some good means brought to light , & which the delinquent denying , they are able by honest and sufficient testimony to prove against him . 3 They hold , that when he that hath commited a scandalous crime commeth before them , and is convinced of the same , they ought not ( after the manner of our Ecclesiasticall Courts ) scorne , deride , and taunt , and revile him , with odious and contumelious speeches , eye him with big and sterne lookes , procure Proctors to to make personall invectives against him , make him dance attendance from Court day to Court day , and from terme to terme , frowning at him in presence , and laughting at him behind his back : but they are ( though he be never so obstinate and perverse ) to use him brotherly , not giving the least personall reproaches , or threats ) but laying open unto him the nature of his sinne by the light of Gods Word , are onely by denouncing the judgements of God against him , to terrifie him , and so to move him to repentance . 4 They hold , that if the party offending be their civill superiour , that then they are to use ever throughut the whole carriage of their censure , all civill complements , offices and reverence due unto him , that they are not to presume to convent him before the , but are themselves to goe in all civill and humble manner unto him , to stand bare before him , to bowe unto him , to give him all civill titles belonging unto him ; And if hee bee a King and supreame ruler , they are to kneele downe before him , and in the humblest manner to censure his faults ; so that he may see apparently that they are not carried with the least spice of malice against his Person , but onely with zeale of the health and salvation of his soule . 5 They hold , that the Ecclesiasticall Officers laying to the charge of any man , any errour , heresie , or false opinion whatsoever do stand bound themselves , first to prove that he holdeth such an errour or heresie ; and secondly to prove directly unto him that it is an errour by the word of God , and that it deserveth such a censure before they doe proceed against him . 6 They hold , that the governours of the Church ought with all patience and quietnesse , heare what every offender can possibly say for himself , either for qualification , defence , apology , or justification of any supposed crime or errour whatsoever ; and they ought not to proceed to censure the grossest offence that is , untill the offender have said as much for himselfe in his defence as he possible is able . And they hold it an evident character of a corrupt ecclesiasticall government , where the parties convented may not have ful liberty to speak for themselves , considering that the more liberty is granted to speak in a bad cause , ( especially before those that are in authority and of judgement ) the more the iniquity of it will appeare , and the more the Justice of their sentence will shine . 7 They hold , that the oath ex Officio , whereby Popish and English Ecclesiasticall Governours , either upon some secret informations , or suggestions , or private supitions goe about to binde mens consciences , to accuse themselves and their friends , of such crimes or imputations as cannot by any direct course of Law bee proved against them , and wherby they are drawne to bee instruments of many heavy crosses upon themselves and their friends , and that often for those actions that they are perswaded in their consciences are good and holy . I say , that they hold , that such an Oath ( on the urgers part ) is most damnable and Tyrannous , against the very law of Nature , devised by Antichrist , through the inspiration of the Devill ; That by meanes thereof the Professors and Practisers of the true Religion , might either in their weaknesse by perjury damne their owne soules , or bee drawne to reveale to the enemies of Christianity , those secret Religious Acts and Deeds , that being in the perswasion of their consciences ) for the advancement of the Gospell , will be a meanes of heavy sentences of condemnation against themselves and their dearest friends . 8 They hold , that Ecclesiasticall Officers have no power to proceed in censure against any crime of any person , after that he shall freely acknowledge the same , and professe his hearty penitency for it ; And that they may not , for any crime whatsoever lay any bodily or pecuniary mulct upon them , or impose upon them any ceremoniall marke or note of shame , such as is the white sheet , or any such like ; or take fees for any cause whatsoever , but are to accept of as a sufficient satisfaction , a private submission , and acknowledgement if the crime be private , and a publicke , if the crime be publike and notorious . 9 They hold , that if a member of the Church be obstinate , and shew no signes and tokens of repentance of that Crime , that if they by evidence of Scripture have coevinced it to be a crime , that then by their Ecclesiasticall authority , they are to denounce him to be as yet no member of the Kingdome of Heaven , nor of that Congregation , and so are to leave him to God and the King . And this is all the Ecclesiasticall Authority and jurisdiction that any Spirituall Officers of the Church are to use against any man , for greatest crime that can be committed . 10 They hold , that the Officers of the Church are not to proceed unto excommunication against against any man , without the consent of the whole Congregation it selfe , first called for in publike Assembly . 11 They hold , that the Minister or any other particular Officer offending , is as subject to the censures , as any other of the Congregation . 12 They hold , that if any member of the Congregation having committed a srandalous sinne , shall of selfe forsake the worship of GOD , and the Spirituall Communion with the Church ; that the Church shall then send for the said person , and if hee refuse to come , they shall ( after much seeking and long patience ) openly declare that he hath no part nor portion in the holy things of God among them ; that then the Ecclesiasticall Officers hove no authority or jurisdiction over him , but onely the Civill Magistrate , and those unto whom he oweth civill subjection , as Parents Masters , Landlords , &c. CHAP. VI . Concerning the Civill Magistrate . 1 THey hold , that the civill Magistrate , as he is a civill Magistrate hath and ought to have supreame power over all the Churches within his dominions , in all causes whatsoever . And yet they hold , that as he is a Christian , he is a member of some one particular Congregation , and ought to be as subject to the spirituall regiment thereof prescribed by Christ in his word , as the meanest subject in the kingdome , and they hold that this subjection is no more derogatory to his supremacy , then the subjection of his body in his body in sicknesse to Physitians , can be said to be said to be derogatory thereunto . 2 They hold , that these civill Magistrates are the greatest enemies to their own supremacy , that in whole or in part , communicate the vertute and power therof , to any ecclesiasticall officers . And that there cannot be imagined by the wit of man , a more direct meanes to check-mate the same , then to make them Lords and Princes upon earth , to invist them with civill jurisdiction and authority , and to conforme the State and limits of their jurisdiction , to the state of Kings and bounds of Kingdomes . 3 They hold , that there should be no ecclesiasticall officer in the Church so high , but that he ought to be subject unto , and punishable by the meanest civill officer in a kingdome , city or town , not onely for common crimes , but even for the abuse of the ecclesiasticall offices , yea , they hold , that they ought to be more punishable then any other subject whatsoever , if they shall offend against either civill or Ecclesiasticall Lawes . 4 They hold , that the Pope is that Antichrist , and therefore that Antichrist because being but an Ecclesiasticall officer he doth in the hight of the pride of his heart make claime unto , and usurp the Supremacy of the Kings and civill Rulers of the Earth . And they hold , that all defenders of the Popish Faith , all indeverours of reconcilement with that Church , all plotters for toleration of the Popish Religion , all countenancers and maintainers of Seminary Priests , and professed Catholicks , and all denyers that the Pope is that Antichrist , are secret enemies to the Kings Supremacy . 5 They hold , that all Arch-Bishops , Bishops , Deans , Officials , &c. have their Offices and Functions onely by will and pleasure of the king and civill States of this Realme ; and they hould , that whosoever holdeth that the King may not without sin remove these Officers out of the Church , and dispose of their Temporalities and maintenance according to his owne pleasure , or that these Offices are jure divin● , and not onely or meerely jure human● : That all such deny a principle part of the Kings Supremacy . 6 They hold , that not one of these opinions can be proved to be contrary to the word of God ; and that if they might have leave , that they are able to answer all that hath been written against any one of them . FINIS . 
A67115	----	A sermon preached in London by a faithfvll minister of Christ, and perfected by him and now set forth to the publike view of all for the ivstification of the truth and clearing the innocencie of his long suffering for it. Walker, George, 1581?-1651. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A67115 of text R27052 in the English Short Title Catalog (Wing W363). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 42 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 10 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2017 A67115 Wing W363 ESTC R27052 09626655 ocm 09626655 43858 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A67115) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 43858) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1345:9) A sermon preached in London by a faithfvll minister of Christ, and perfected by him and now set forth to the publike view of all for the ivstification of the truth and clearing the innocencie of his long suffering for it. Walker, George, 1581?-1651. 17 p. Printed by Margery Mar-Prelate, [London] : 1642. Attributed by Wing to George Walker. Reproduction of original in the Cambridge University Library. eng Church and state -- Sermons. Sermons, English -- 17th century. Puritans -- Sermons. A67115 R27052 (Wing W363). civilwar no A sermon preached in London by a faithfull minister of Christ. And perfected by him: and now set forth to the publike view of all, for the i Walker, George 1641 7986 7 0 0 0 0 0 9 B The rate of 9 defects per 10,000 words puts this text in the B category of texts with fewer than 10 defects per 10,000 words. 2004-11 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-02 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-03 Mona Logarbo Sampled and proofread 2005-03 Mona Logarbo Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-04 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A SERMON PREACHED IN LONDON BY A FAITHFVLL MINISTER OF CHRIST . AND PERFECTED BY HIM : AND NOW SET FORTH TO THE PVBLIKE VIEW OF ALL , FOR THE IVSTIFICATION of the Truth , and clearing the Innocencie of his long suffering for it , Act. 5. 29. We ought to obey God rather then men . Printed by Margery Mar-Prelate . 1641. A SERMON PREACHED IN LONDON BY A FAITHFVLL MINISTER OF CHRIST . GEN . 3. 17. Because thou hast hearkned to the voyce of thy wife , and hast eaten of the Tree of which I commanded , saying , Thou shalt not eate of it , cursed is the ground , &c. VVHen Adams eating of the forbidden Fruit , was so manifest by his nakednesse , shame , and feare of Gods presence , that he could not hide it , nor deny it , Hee had no excuse but onely this , That the Woman whom God had given to be an helpe meet for him , Shee gave him of the Tree and he did eate , vers. 11. Some perhaps will thinke that this was a sufficient excuse for Adams part ; for why should not he respect her , and hearken to her voyce whom God had given him for a meet helpe ? What affection of men and women one to another can be so great as the affection of Adam to his wife ? She was bone of his bone , and flesh of his flesh , chap. 2. 23. framed and made of a rib taken out of his side , in the same Image of God with him , and was his second selfe , the Queene and Lady of the inferiour World , who had with him equall dominion and rule over all visible creatures in the earth , and in the Sea ; why then should not Adam be excused for his eating , seeing hee did it not of himselfe , nor by the perswasion and example of any other , but one by his wife , and out of respect and affection to her , and to her words and voice . But the Text here shewes , that no such excuse could free him from the foul staine of sinne in the eyes of God the righteous iudge of all the earth . For as the eating it selfe contrary to Gods Commandment , so the hearkning to the voyce of his wife , and respecting her and her perswasion more then the Word of God , is laid to his charge as a sin , and an heavie curse is laid on the ground for his sake , and many grievous paines and sorrowes on him and all his posterity , yea and death it selfe also , as a just punishment of his transgressions ; Because thou hast hearkned ( saith God ) to the voyce of thy wife , &c. Cursed is the ground for thy sake . The consideration whereof offers to us this generall Doctrine . That no affection or respect to any man , no word , command , or threatning of greatest Kings and Potentates , no perswasion of them that are most neere and deare , no importunity of them to whom men are most obliged in love and duty for many great favours , can excuse any act which thereby they are drawne to doe against the commandement of God , from the foule staine of sinne , nor the doers of such an act , from the guilt of sinfull transgression : or to expresse it in fewer words briefly , No affection of one man to another , whether feare or dread of Superiours , or reverence of Benefactors , or love of them that are most neer and deare , can excuse any person from the guilt of sinne before God , when by them he is moved and drawne to doe a thing which God hath forbidden in his word and Law . If any such affection or respect could excuse any unlawfull act before God , then had Adams excuse been very good , for the reasons before named , ( viz. ) because hee did eate by the perswasion of his wife , who deserved more love and respect at his hand then any fraile sinfull person of all his posterity can be worthy of , or expect at the hand of any other : But this excuse was of no force with God ( as heere wee see ) that great and righteous Judge , whose will is Law , and the rule of Justice , pronounceth him guilty and worthy of death , and of all the paines , sorrowes and punishments which are expressed in this verse , and the two next following : And this God is no respecter of persons , but most just to all without partiality to any . Wherefore this Doctrine holds most true , firme and sure , among all men , even all Adams posterity of all ages , and in all Nations of the World . For the further illustration whereof , and confirming of our hearts in the truth and stedfast beliefe of it , wee have the plaine word and testimony of God himselfe in his Law , Deut. 13. Where hee gives a strict charge to all his people , under greatest penalties , to take heede , that neither reverence and respect of extraordinary Prophets which have certainely foretold before-hand things which afterwards have come to passe , nor the love and affection of any one to his brother , the sonne of his Mother , or to his wife which lyeth in his bosome , doe at any time draw them into the transgression of his Law by worshipping other Gods : And if a whole City be seduced by some wicked person , and drawne to serve strange Gods , and the people thereof be found to commit Idolatry , ( in which Cases many are moved and drawne out of affection and respect , Some to Superiours , some to Parents or Masters , some to Husbands , or Wives , or Brethren , or Friends , and Benefactors ) the Lord declares all to bee deeply guilty , foulely stained , and worthy of death , out of what affection or respect soever they are drawne to serve False Gods , and adjudgeth them all to the sword ; For he commandeth the whole Nation of his people , to destroy every soule therein with the edge of the Sword , and to burne all the substance thereof as a cursed thing , and to make the Citie an heape , for a terrour to all others . Thus wee see God in his Law admits no excuse or plea for the breach of his Commandement , whether men plead , that the feare and Commandement of Superiours , ( as Judges , Magistrates , Parents , or Masters , or love and respect of Husbands , Wives , Brethren , Benefactors , and dearest Friends , or reverence of extraordinary Prophets , and Teachers esteemed for men of God ) did move and perswade them , they shall not be found nor judged innocent . And to this purpose are those words of God in the body of the morall Law in the second Precept , where he forbids making of any Image , of any thing in Heaven or Earth , to bow downe to it , or to worship it , as being a similitude of him ▪ or a signe of his divine power and presence ; I am ( saith he ) a jealous God , and visit the sinnes of the Fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me . Marke the words ; First , the Lord saith , I am a jealous God . Now jealousie is the indignātion and wrath of some person against those who with-hold and with-draw from him that love and respect which is due to him , and bestow it on others who doe not deserve it , and to whom it is not due : As for example ; when a wife bestowes the love and affection due to her husband upon other men , this provokes him to jealousie , and fills him with anger and indignation against her and her lovers . Here God compares himselfe to such a person ; saying , I am a jealous God , which is all one in effect , as if hee had said , I am the Lord , the Creator of all things , there is no God besides me , no religious or divine worship is to be given to any but to me alone ; and therefore , whosoever gives such honour to any besides me , and doth breake any of my Commandements out of feare , love , or other affection and respect to any creature whatsoever , hee provokes me to jealousie : And then , what followes ? I will ( saith he ) visit the sinnes of the Fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that thus hate me . Now the meaning of these words is not , that hee will punish the innocent children for the Idolary of the Parents , For hee is the righteous Judge of all the earth , hee will not destroy the righteous and innocent with the wicked and the guilty , Gen. 8. 25. He himselfe protesteth with an oath , That the Father shall not dye for the Child , nor the Child for the Father , for all soules ( saith hee ) are mine , the soule of the Child as well as the soule of the Father , Ezek. 18. How then can this saying stand , that he will visit the sinnes of the Fathers on the Children to the third and fourth generation ? Surely the meaning is , That because men often times live to see their Children and their Childrens children to the third and fourth generation , and if they be wicked Idolaters , haters of the true God , they are examples of evill to their Children , and by exhortations , commandements , and examples draw such Children to commit the same sinnes , and their Children are led by affection and respect of their evill wayes . And hence it is that the Fathers sinnes becomes the sinnes of their children , and the sinnes which the Children commit in imitation , and by the perswasion of their Fathers , are called the sins of the Fathers : And it is no excuse of the Children ; that the example , and their respect of their Parents did draw them to follow their wayes , but the Lord in fury and jealousie will proceed against them as hatefull sinners , and will visit their sinnes upon them : And least any should thinke or imagine , that the justice of God is not so strict in this point now under the Gospel , but the rigour thereof is much remitted : Wee have a most cleare testimony from the mouth of the chiefest Evangelicall Preachers and Publishers of the Gospel ; the holy Apostles , wherewith joynt consent and one voyce they protest , that they might not for feare of men , nor upon the commands and threatnings of the chiefe Rulers in the Church and State of Israel transgresse the Commandement of Christ , and by obeying men , disobey God , Acts 4. 19. and 5. 29. Yea , though their preaching of the Gospel publikely in the Temple ( as the Angel commanded them from God , Acts 5. 20. ) and to all the people in all publike Assemblies and their proclaiming of the Lord Christ ( whom Pilate by instigation of the High-priests and Elders had condemned , crucified , and slaine ) and their declaring of him to be the just and holy one of God , and the Redeemer promised to the Fathers , was no lesse then Scandalum Magnatum in the highest degree , for hereby they brought the bloud of Christ on Pilate the Chiefe Governour of the Romans , and on them the chiefe Rulers of the people , and in that respect they did out of State-policie charge them , and straightly command them , not to preach any more in the Name of Christ . as our Saviour had commanded them , Matth. 28. 19. Yet Peter and the rest of the Apostles answered resolately , We ought to obey God rather then you ; and they appealed to themselves ( though most unjust adversaries ) to judge whether it were not right so to doe : And therefore it is as great a sinne now under the Gospel , as it was under the Law , to breake Gods Commandements , for feare , or any other affection or respect of men , or upon the commandements and threatnings of the greatest Kings and Potentates . If you will yet see this Truth made more cleare and manifest , look into the examples of those severall persons , and also of those multitudes of people which are noted for great sinners , and were most severely punished for doing wicked acts , contrary to the Law of God out of obedience to their Rulers , and at the commandement of their Kings who had power and authority over them ; the holy Scriptures afford many examples of this kind in severall places , where they commend Subjects and Children for refusing to obey their Superiours and Parents in things which they commanded against the Law of God ; and condemne others for obeying such wicked commandements out of Feare , or for any other respect . When King Saul commanded Ionathan his sonne and all his servants that they should wait for an opportunity to slay David his innocent servant and sonne in Law , and Gods great and Noble Champion , he had a faire pretence of State-policie for it ( to wit , that David did steale away the hearts of his people , and aspired to the Kingdome , and sought to depose him and to disinherit his sonnes : But because Ionathan feared God , hee would not obey his Father in murthering an innocent , contrary to Gods Law , but used all meanes that he could devise to discover his Fathers wicked purposes to David , and to reserve him out of his cruell hands ; and this disobeying of the word and threatnings of the King , his Father commanding him to slay an innocent , is highly commended in Ionathan , and recorded for his praise and honour in the Holy History , I Sam. 19. So likwise we read that Ionathan did ignorantly breake his Fathers rash and foolish vow before he knew it , by eating honey which God unexpectedly offered to him when hee was faint and weary in his pursuit of the Phihstines , whom hee and his Armour bearer had rowted and put to flight , and thereby brought great deliverance to Israel ; and when King Saul his Father for this act done out of inuicible ignorance , adjudged him to death , and swore with a great oath , that hee should dye ; the people of Israel his Subjects fearing God more then his anger , did not onely abhorre the act , and refuse to yeeld to his commandement , which had some shew and pretence of Religion , but also did stand out and oppose themselves against it , and did save and rescue Ionathan out of his hands , saying , God forbid that Ionathan should dye , As the Lord liveth there shall not one haire fall from his head to the ground , for hee hath wroughe with God this day , I Sam. 14. 45. Which speech of theirs implies , that it had been a great sinne to slay Ionathan , as Saul their King commanded , or to suffer him to dye for such a cause . But the most pregnant example of all is that of Doeg the Edomite , Sauls chiefe Heards-man , I Sam. 22. where wee read that when King Saul commanded the men of his Guard ( whom hee had obliged to him by many preferments and gifts , as his upbraiding words in the seaventh verse seeme to imply , that they should slay the Lords innocent Preists whome he out of false and unjust suspition and jelousy supposed to conspire with David against him , they would not put forth their hands to fall upon them , as the Text saith verse . 17. and Doeg the Edomite who at the Kings Commandement slue the Preists and mangled and murthered their wives , and children and innocent Sucklings , and like a bloudy oppressing Tyrant spoyled their City and all their substance , is by the Spirit of God in the mouth of David cursed with most dreadfull curses , though hee did these things in obedience to the King his Lord , upon whose favour all his preferment did depend , the sentence of judgement passed upon him , Psal. 52. that God would destroy him for ever , pluck him out of his dwelling , and root him out of the Land of the living , doth most plainely shew , that his Act was a most heinous sinne and wickednesse . In like manner when Ieroboam commanded the Israelites who had chosen him for their King , to worship God who brought them out of Aegypt in the Images of golden Calves , such as Aaron had before made at Mount Horeh , it is said in the Text , that he made them to sinne , his Command●ment did not excuse them , and their worship of Images , neither did God spare to punish them for it , but ( as the Prophet Hosea testifieth , cap. 5. 11. ) Ephraim , ( that is , the Israelites of the ten Tribes ) was oppressed and broken in judgement , because he willingly walked after the Commandement ( that is ) of Ieroboam , and also of Baasha , and other wicked Kings , who walked in the wayes of Ieroboam , and made Israel to sinne . And although Omri , Ahab , and Iezabel were cruell Tyrants , and by Statutes , tyrannicall commands , terrours , threatnings , and slaughter of the Lords Prophets , teachers of Gods true worship , did not onely draw ▪ but drive and force Israel their people and subjects to worship Baal , yet this excused not the peoples Idolatry , but the Lord threatens them by the Prophet Micha 6. 16. that because they kept the Statutes of Omri , and walked in the counsels and wayes of the house of Ahab , therefore hee will make the Land a desolation , and an hissing and reproach ; and for their forsaking of Gods covenant , and worshipping of Baal , Idols and Groves , Eliah the man of God accuseth them all as great offenders deeply guilty , saying , The Children of Israel have forsaken thy Covenant and broken downe thine Altars , 1 King. 19. 14. And God in his answer to Eliahs accusation exempts none from the guilt of these sinnes in all Israel , but onely those seveven thousand men who had not been drawne by the terrours , threatnings , and cruell commands of Ahab and Iezabel to worship Baal , but had kept their knees from bowing to him , and their mouthes from kissing him , as we see vers. 18 What man can plead more plausible for any disobedience to any Commandement of God , then the man of God which came from Iudah to Bethel to prophesie against Ieroboams Altar , might plead for his eating bread and drinking water in that wicked Idolatrous place , contrary to Gods particular Commandement given to him ; First , the thing forbidden , was a matter in it selfe very indifferent , there was no appearance of any evill in it , so long as he did not eate and drinke with infectious and infamous Idolaters which might be a snare and scandall to him : Secondly , his resolution and endeavour to keep this Commandement was such that when King Ieroboam thankfully invited him to eate and drinke out of kindnesse for healing his withered hand , he could not be overcome with any intreaty , nor promise of great gifts and rewards . Thirdly , when he was seduced and drawne to eate and drinke in the place forbidden , it was the authority of the old Prophet , and his respect to his words which he confidently affirmed to be the words of God which perswaded him to returne with him and to eate bread with him ; and yet all this could not excuse this man of God from sinne in doing contrary to Gods Commandement given to him , for God presently makes the old Prophet which deceived him , a Messenger of death to declare unto him his untimely death for his disobedience , and that his dead carkasse torne by a Lyon should not come to the Sepulchre of his Fathers , 1 King. 13. Whereby it is manifest that no power or authority of any man how fairely soever it is pretended to be from God can excuse any act done against any knowne Commandement of God , though it be a Commandement of a small indifferent thing , given onely to try mans obedience , but whosoever upon any respect to any creature , or by any perswasion doth transgresse any Precept or word of God , he is guilty of sinne and worthy of death before Gods just Tribunall : Sauls letters from the High-priests which gave him a Commission and authority to persecute Christians did not excuse him from sin though he did it in ignorance and blind zeale for he calls himselfe the greatest of sinners for that act of persecution , 1 Tim. 1. 15. But I hold it needlesse to spend time in rehersing more examples to prove this doctrine , though it is of all Doctrines the chiefest and most necessary to be beleeved , continually kept in mind , and observed of all Adams posterity . I will onely adde one strong and invincible argument and demonstration to convince all men of the truth thereof grounded upon divers solid principles of Reason and Religion . First , it is a thing which none but Atheists can or will deny , that when any creature stands in competition with God , and seekes to bee respected and obeyed before God , and to have his demands and commands yeelded unto , which are contrary to the will and Law of God , as he in that case seekes to rob God of his due honour and glory , and to exalt himselfe above God , which is Luciserian pride & rebellion ; so they who in such a case obey him , whether for feare , or love , or any respect and affection in a thing contrary to any Word or Commandement of God , they do undobtedly rob God of his glory and of the honour which properly belongs to him , for God as the Creator of all things , and giver of being , life and breath to all creatures severally , who also upholds and preserves them all in being and well being , and sustaines them by his providence ; so he is the chiefe Father of all , worthy to be respected , loved , and obeyed above all other Parents and Benefactors , who are but instruments of his bounty , and subordinate meanes of our being and other benefits : He also by the right both of Creation , and also of redemption is the chiefe King , Lord , owner and possessor of all things in heaven and earth , to whom all hearts , hands , wills , desires and affections ought to be subject and obedient in all things , and at all times . Besides , if we consider God in himselfe as he is revealed in his word and workes to be the one only true Jehovah , eternall , omnipotent , immortal , immutable , infinite in goodnesse , bounty , wisdome , mercy , justice , faithfulnesse and truth , most mighty wise and prudent to order , rule and governe all the world , most bountifull to reward all obedience , and most just to punish , and dreadfull and terrible in revenging all disobedience against his Word and Law ; Wee cannot but acknowledge and confesse , that hee is the supreame Lord of all Lords , King of Kings , and the eternally blessed and onely Potentate , who is in all things to bee obeyed above all , and before all ; and all Lords , Kings , Fathers , and Benefactors are to bee obeyed onely in and under him as his Substitutes , subordinate Vicegerents , Stewards , and Messengers , whosoever doe , out of feare , love , or any affection and respect to any creature , doe any thing contrary to his kowne will , word and commandement , they rob him of his honour and glory , set up the creature above the Creator , and make it their God , which must needes by all reasonable men be confessed to be a most heinous and grievous sinne worthy of Gods wrath and all punishments . This is the solid argument and invincible demonstration which fully proves the Doctrine , which I will briefly reduce into the strict forme of a Sylogisme , thus , Whosoever robs the King , and Lord of Lords , the blessed and onely Potentate and cheife Father and Authour of all being goodnesse , and bounty , by taking from him the honour and glory which doth properly belong to him , and setteth up the creature and servant above his Lord and Creator , he is guilty of most heinous sinne and transgression . Every one who out of feare , love , or any affection and respect to any creature , doth any act contrary to the revealed will , word , and Commandement of God , robbeth thereby God the supream Lord , King , Father , and Benefactor ; and setteth up the creature and servant above his Lord and Creator . Therefore he is guilty in this of heinous sinne and transgression ; and by consequence it followeth necessarily , that ( as this Doctrine teacheth ) no feare , threatning , or commandement of earthly Potentates , no love , or respect of Parents and Benefactors can free from the foule staine of sinne in any act , which they draw men to doe contrary to the Commandement of God . This Doctrine is of speciall use : First , to admonish all Gods people to be carefull and diligent above all to know and acknowledge God aright , and to set their hearts and affections chiefly on him as the supreme Lord and Father of all , and the chiefe Author and Fountaine of all goodnesse , and to put on a setled resolution to obey all his Commandements , though all the world should perswade & command them ro the contrary . It is true that Kings , Rulers , and Potentates of the world are set up by God to rule by him and under him , as his Vice-geren●s , Stewards , and Messengers , and all men who are under them , especiaily Christians ( Gods free and willing people ) ought to give them all honour and reverence and to feare and obey them for conscience sake in and under God ; the very law of Nature binds all men to love , reverence , honour and obey their Parents and Benefactors , who are Gods instruments of their being and well being ; and not onely Civility and the Common Law of Nations bindes men to honour and respect them who are honourable in wisdome , gravity , and authority , but Religion and Gods Word teach men to honour and affect such as are Prophets , Preachers , Embassadours and Messengers of God unto them : But yet all these are to be loved , feared honoured and respected in and under God , and with feare , love , and affection subordinate to the feare , love , and affection which they have towards God above all : Wherefore let all Gods people take heed and beware , and carefully looke to it , that they give not too much way to humane passions and affections by regarding and respecting secondary meanes and inferiour causes more then God the first and chiefe cause , Author and bountaine of all blessings , or by accustoming themselves to esteeme too highly , or to love , feare and admire too excessively the persons of men , how great , wise , and learned , or how aimiable and honourable soever they appeare in their eyes ; If men once give way so far to the reverence , awe , feare , and dread of earthly Kings , Rulers and Potentates , that they become more affraid of their faces , angry countenances , menacing and threatnings , then of the terrours of Gods Law and of his wrathfull judgements ; this is that which will draw them to disobey Gods Word and Law , out of respect to mortall men and will bring them under the staine and guilt of unecusable sinne laid open in this Text and Doctrine : So likewise excessive love , carnall affection , and respect of Parents and Benefactors ( while men set their eyes and hearts on the things which are visible and sensible , and on the outward meanes more then on the invisible hand , power and goodnesse of God ) may easily supplant them and make them fall in like sort into heinous sinne and inexcusable transgression . But most dangerous of all is that superstitious feare , reverence and respect which men out of blind and undifereet zeale without knowledge doe shew to such as are set over them to rule and direct them in things which concerne God , Religion , and godlinesse , and hold the place of Prophets , Messengers , Bishops , wise Pastors and learned Teachers in Gods Church ; when men are so enthralled in their wills , and become Slaves in their affections , that they are ready to beleeve and embrace whatsoever they hold and teach without proofe from Gods Word , or examination of things taught by the word or consent with the word and rule of Faith , they are in the high way to horrible and dangerous errours and disobedience to the Law of God , into which whosoever fall being led by immoderate affection and more then due respect to any persons whatsoever , he may here learne from Gods proceeding against Adam ( the common Father and root of all mankinde ) that God will admit no excuse for breaking any of his Commandements out of any respect , or any feare , reverence , love or affection to any persons , how great , wise , learned , honourable or aimiable soever they appeare to him . As Adam by his excuse could not turne away the guilt and punishment of his disobedience , but had a curse laid on the ground , and all paines , sorrowes and death it selfe on himselfe and all his posterity : So it shall fare with all Adams seed and children in the like case , For there is no respect of persons with God . Secondly , this Doctrine discovers unto us abundance of error in the judgements , and iniquity in the practice of many worldly-wise and learned men , especially in those State-polititions , admirers of worldly power , greatnesse and authority , who doe thinke and hold , that they may lawfully doe things commanded by such as have the rule over them , without examining whether they be allowed or forbidden in the Law of God . If Kings and great Potentates command them under great penalties , as losse of goods , liberty , or lives , torturing , imprisoning and death to make Images of God , and to bow down to images and Altars of wood and stone , and to practice superstitious will-worship , or to do as proud and potent Nebuchadnezar commanded all his people to worship his Image under paine of burning to ashes in an hot firie Furnace : Or if a law and decree were made ( like that which Darius made by the advice of his wicked and malicious Princes ) for a snare to Gods people , forbidding the true worship of God . It is the common opinion of self-conceited wordlings abundantly wise and politick in their own opinion , that there is no danger in obeying , no feare of unexcusable sin , and that they who are afraid to obey such commands , and to stirre their consciences with guilt of sin by breaking Gods Law , are too scrupulous , worthy of contempt ; yea that they are mad men , who in such cases wil hazard their lives , goods , or liberty . But the 3. faithfull servants of God , full of the holy Spirit were of a contrary opinion and resolution , ( as Dan. 3. ) Though Nebuchadnezar was a mighty Potentate , and had highly promoted them to honour and dignity , and the thing which he commanded was only to fall downe and worship his golden Image , yet they utterly refused to doe such an act forbiden in Gods Law , and did rather chuse to yeeld their bodies to death and to be burned in his hot fiery Furnace : And so likewise Daniel that holy seruant of God , so famous in his time for learning wisdome and favour with God , he regarded not the Decree of the wicked Princes which restrained him from the worship of his God and from praing to him for the space of thirty dayes under paine of being cast into the den of Lions , but notwithstanding it was confirmed by his great Lord and King Darius and sealed with his Seale , he would not refraine from his constant course & custom of prayer and worship of his God , wich he knew to be a duety daly and continually required by the divine Law , and did chuse rather to forgoe all the honours and promotions which the King had bestowed on him , and to be cast into the den of Lions , then to disobey Gods Commandement by obeying the Kings decree : and such hath the opinion , resolution and practice of all Gods noble Wortheys and faithful serevants been in all ages . Wherefore let me here be bold to spend some few words in arguing against , and conuincing the blind carnal wicked world , and in discovering that wisdome which is commonly callen State-policy , to be folly and enmity against God , which I wil do very breifly by answering and taking away those foolish excuses of carnal men which are as vaine and unable to shroud and defend them from the staine of sin and Gods just wrath , as the fig-leaves patched together by our first parents were unfit to cover their nakednes● Some when they are commanded by great Potentates & cruell Tyrants to worship God in Images and in Altars of wood and stone or the like , or are forbidden to professe the truth and true religion and to practice the holy worship of God , that under pain of death , persecution , imprisonment , spoyling of their goods , and losse of all worldly substance , they are very f●●ward and earnest to plead , that authority must be obeyed & the powers must not be resisted , and that it is no wisedome to undergoe losse of goods , liberty and life for conscience and needlesse fear of breaking Gods Commandements . But let me tell such pleaders , that Ephraim , & the Israelits of the ten Tribes had as good a plea , and the same excuse for their forsaking of the Covenant of the Lord , & for worshipping of Baal , Calves , Idols & Groves , in the daies of Ieroboam , Ahab & other wicked kings , their Kings did comaund them so to do for a politike reason of state even to keep them from going up to worship God at Ierusalem , lest by that means they might be drawne away and revolt to the house of Dauid , and reunite themselves to the Kingdome of Iudah : Also some of their Kings were cruell Tyrants which persecuted the true . Prophets and worshippers of God , and by feare of death and other great penalties forced and compelled men to commit Idolatry , as we read in the dayes of Ahab and Iezabel , and as appeares by Eliahs complaint unto God , 1 King. 19. And yet this was no excuse of the peoples Idolatry and sinne , for Ephraim was oppressed and broken in judgement because hee willingly walked after Ieroboams commandement , as Hosea testifieth , Hos. 5. 11. And because they kept the Statutes of Omri , doing the workes of the house of Ahab , and walking in their counsels , the Lord gives this sentence against them by the Prophet Micha , That he will make their land a desolation , and them an hissing and reproach , Micha 6. 16. Our Saviour in the Gospel discovers to us how vaine and frivolous all such excuses will be found before his Tribunall , where hee saith , that whosoever loves houses , lands , goods , or life it selfe more then him , insomuch that they will rather deny , and not confesse him before men , then indanger or lose their life , liberty , or wordly goods , they are not worthy to be counted his Disciples , and hee will deny them in the presence of his Father and before his holy Angels ; and as they feared them who could kill the body only and were not able to kill the soule , more then God who could destroy both soule and body in hell ; so they shall lose their life which they loved more then him they shall also be excluded from life eternall , and so cast wholly both soules and bodies into hell , into the fire which never shall be quenched , and dye and perish eternally , Matth. 10. 28 Mark 8. 35. Luk. 9. 24. Secondly , whereas oathes are to be given and taken in truth , in judgement , and righteousnesse , Ier. 4. 2. That is , men must not sweare any false thing but onely what is true , neither to raise up strife , nor to doe injury , or to hurt any man , but to put an end to strife by laying open in judgement things as they are , neither must they bind themselves by oath to doe any vain , unjust or wicked against Christian charity , or to execute any unlawfull office . Now there are and have beene in all ages divers politick worldlings and cowardly Hypocrites , who when vaine or sinfull oathes are imposed on them , such as the Elders and Nobles of Iezrael imposed on the wicked men whom they set up to sweare falsely , that Naboath blasphemed God and the King ; or such as the Iewes tooke to kill Paul , Act. 23. 12. or such as Traytors take to conceale or act Treasons ; or as many corrupt men take to execute unlawfull offices and unjust designes , which are hurtfull and injurious to divers others either in Church or Common-wealth . If these oathes be imposed by men of authority , who rule over them , or under great penalties , as trouble , vexation , imprisonment , and losse of liberty , or with hope of some preferment , profit , and gaine , which they may reape by executing an unlawfull office ; they are ready to plead for themselves that they are excusable , because they did take such oathes , and doe execute such offices by command of Superiours and in obedience to authority , and that otherwise they should forgoe a profitable office and trade which doth maintaine and enrich them and their Family , and should be vexed , troubled , fined , impoverished , imprisoned , and deprived of their libertie . But let mee answer such in the words of Holy Iob , chap. 27. 8. What is the hope of the Hypocrite that he hath gained , when God taketh away his soule ? What will his gainefull office advantage him when God findeth and judgeth him guilty for profaning his holy Ordinance and taking his Name in vaine ? Yea , our Saviour fully answereth such Hypocrites , and discovereth the folly of such worldly Polititions in expresse words , saying , What is a man profited to gaine the whole World , and lose his owne soule ; or what shall a man give in exchange for his soule , Matth. 16. 26. All the liberty and freedome from bands and imprisonment , all the worldly profits , pleasures , goods , and wealth which men purchase and procure to themselves by their obsequious observing of great ones , and obeying the authority and commandements of men in things contrary to the Word and Law of God , will yeeld them no comfort at all , but rather adde to their torment in that flaming fire wherein God will render vengeance to them , and punish them with everlasting destruction from his presence and the glory of his power , and shut them up with the Devill and damned spirits in the prison of blacknesse and darknesse for ever world without end . Lastly , whereas many who are wise in their owne conceit , and most politicke for the world and in wordly matters , when they are commanded as Doeg was by Saul his lawfull King to mangle , murder , and massacre the innocent servants of God , and to oppresse and spoile them of goods , lands and lives , as the Nobles of Naboaths City were by Iezabels Letters written in Ahabs name and sealed with his Seale , or to execute cruell and bloudy sentences given by Judges of unrighteousnesse under the name and colour of the Law , by haling to prison , torturing and punishing Christian people men and women ; as Saul did when he was a persecutor armed with Commission and Letters from the High Priests , they perswade themselves and plead confidently , that it is no sinne in them to doe such things , though in themselves most unjust and contrary to the Law of God , but that the sinne and guilt lyes wholly on their Superiours , and on the Judges , which by their authority and imperious commands , doe impose upon them such executions , and they the executioners shall never be called to account , nor undergoe the punishment of just revenge from God : Let all such be admonished by this Doctrine , that this their plea and perswasion will never excuse them before God , but as they have an hand in wicked workes , and are executioners of cruell and ungodly sentences , so they shall have their share in the just punishments of such heinous transgressions , and the righteous and supreme Judge will cause just vengeance to be executed on them also : It is true that seducors and perswaders of others to sinne ; and all they who by their power and authority , feare and awe cause others to commit wickednes , as they are cheife Authours there of next under the Divill , the Father of all iniquity , and the blood of those whome they haue seduced , compelled and caused to transgresse Gods holy Commandements , shall ly heavy upon them , and God will certainly require it at their hands , so shall they chiefly bear the curse and punishment : But they who are seduced and led by them through blind obedience shall not escape , but shall also fall with them into the pit of destruction ; And all they who are voluntarily instruments of cruell oppression , violence , or any wickednesse , they shall undoubtedly dye and perish in those sinnes of which they are partakers with them , who set them on worke to doe wickedly , there is no way for them to escape Gods revenging curse but by godly griefe and sorrow to repentance , and by seeking and finding pardon in Christ . Wherefore behold your folly and wilfull madnesse yee worklly Polititions who are so wise to worke your owne ruine , who by vaine excuses and subtile fallacies of fleshly reason doe blinde your owne eyes , and hardon your hearts not to repent ; Alas ! what comfort will it be to you that your great Lords whom you feared and obeyed , and the unrighteous Judges , whose cruell sentences yee executed , doe chiefely beare the curse and punishment of that cruelty , injustice , and iniquity , which they acted by your hands ? what ease or mitigation of sorrow , paine , and griefe , will it be to you , that you see them leade the way and goe before you ? when you also follow them at the heeles , and dance after them attendance unto Hell , there to remaine for ever in the lake which burnes with fire and brimstone , where the worme dyeth not , and the fire never goeth out , but burneth eternally , and is unquenchable world without end . From which wrath and eternall woe the Lord deliver us for his mercies sake , and through the meritorious satisfaction of the Lord Jesus Christ our Redeemer and Saviour ; To whom with the Father and the blessed Spirit be all glory , honour and praise now and for ever . Amen . ●INIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A67115e-130 Doct. Reason . Vse 1. Vse 2. 
A48309	----	A discovrse concerning Puritans tending to a vindication of those, who unjustly suffer by the mistake, abuse, and misapplication of that name. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A48309 of text R212712 in the English Short Title Catalog (Wing L1876). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 146 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 34 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2017 A48309 Wing L1876 ESTC R212712 12392537 ocm 12392537 61021 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A48309) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 61021) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 766:27) A discovrse concerning Puritans tending to a vindication of those, who unjustly suffer by the mistake, abuse, and misapplication of that name. Parker, Henry, 1604-1652. Ley, John, 1583-1662. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A48309 of text R212712 in the English Short Title Catalog (Wing L1876). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread [6], 3-63 p. Printed for Robert Bostock, [London] : 1641. Variously attributed to Henry Parker and John Ley. cf. Jordan, W.K. Men of substance, p. 69; Halkett & Laing suppl. Reproduction of original in Huntington Library. eng Puritans. A48309 R212712 (Wing L1876). civilwar no A discourse concerning Puritans. Tending to a vindication of those who unjustly suffer by the mistake, abuse, and misapplication of that nam [no entry] 1641 26886 21 15 0 0 0 0 13 C The rate of 13 defects per 10,000 words puts this text in the C category of texts with between 10 and 35 defects per 10,000 words. 2005-01 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-01 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-02 John Latta Sampled and proofread 2005-02 John Latta Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-04 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A DISCOURSE CONCERNING PURITANS . TENDING TO A VINDICATION of those who unjustly suffer by the mistake , abuse , and misapplication of that NAME . Vivere qui vultis sanctè , discedite Româ , Omnia cùm liceant , non licet esse bonum . MANTUAN . You who would guiltlesse be , depart from hence , No guilt is here so blacke as Innocence . The second Edition , much inlarged , augmented and corrected by the Authour . LONDON , Printed for Robert Bostock , 1641. To the Puritan Reader . IF thou art such a one as doest confesse thy selfe a Puritan ( as the name is now unjustly used ) thou wilt soon find in this short Tract , that my indevour has been to do thee right , but not to humor thee ; to take off unjust aspersions from thee , but not to insinuate by flattery into thee . An Ambidexter I would not be in two contrary factions , by seeking to please both ; neither would I be a Neuter , if I could avoyde it : but in things where I dissent , I will depart from both sides , rather then from that which I think the truth . I shall not use the word Puritan factiously , as if all Puritans were alike to be imbraced : but cautiously , as if that difference and contrariety might happen amongst Puritans in England , as did once amongst the Disciples in our Saviours owne Schoole . Charitie urges me not to censure any man in particular for an hypocrite , yet wisdome teaches me not to free all men in generall from being hypocrites : such charity may well stand and agree together with such wisdome , and such wisdome with such charitie ; but if I doe not at all scruple any mans integrity , this necessitates me not therefore to ascribe an infallibilitie : for if I can easily yeeld to hope and think well of all Puritans , yet it ought not to be expected that I should yeeld my consent to all Puritans in all things . I am free and open in declaring my opinion aswell against the rigorous and necessary urging of Presbyteriall as Episcopall Government in all places , and at all times ; but I relye upon proofe not meere phansie , and my proofe being enervated by my clearer judgement , it will be a pleasure to me to retract . Variety of opinion and understanding ( some say ) has place amongst those glorious spirits in Heaven , amongst whom no other kind of discord can have place : and even the Apostles themselves though inspired by God , yet when they spake not by inspiration , they were not desirous to lead captive the beliefes of other lesse-knowing men . Heat and acrimony amongst such as dissent in opinion has done more mischiefe in the Church of God , then any thing that I can imagine besides ; and certainly 't is not the meere love of truth , but some other sinister respect that workes thus violently in the minds of men so naturally dimme , as we all are . For why should I burn with indignation against another , because he is lesse understanding then I am ? or why should I so farre presume upon my selfe , if I think I am liable to errour , as well as other men ? can the meere love of knowledge make me abhorre ignorance more in another then in my selfe ? or make me arrogate more freedome from errour to my selfe , then to other men ? Sure , truth has more affinity with charity then so , and charitie with humility . For my part , I doe acknowledge my selfe not onely subject to much ignorance , but to much scandalous offence too ; my greatest enemie shall not charge me of more staines , then I will my selfe ; I will confesse my self the chiefe of sinners , and that not only in regard of sinnes past , as perhaps Saint Paul did , but also in regard of my present sinfull condition ; but certainely since sin and ignorance are such things as cleave radically to all men , and must be accounted sortis humanae ; therefore to beare mutuall reproofes , and to forbeare all bitternesse and censure , ought to be professed as vertues , and to be accounted Sortis Christianae . And since I my selfe notwithstanding all my other defects ▪ do not glory in them , but confesse them to my shame , and since I doe not maligne the graces of God in rigid Puritans , but rather rejoyce thereat , I am persuaded , howsoever I appeare to the eye of God , no man living ought to despise me , much lesse to expunge me out of the booke of life . If God does not give me so much grace as he does thee , wilt thou say , He gives me not that which he accounts sufficient ? and if I am not in this or that so unblameable as thou art , wilt thou say , my grace generally is not equall with thine ? if thou exceedest me in all other vertues , and yet art by me exceeded in humility alone , wilt thou upon this proceede to censure me ? Puritans have not made themselves more inexcusable by any thing then by condemning other men : for though they see not as God sees , yet they will often undertake to judge as God ought to judge : and in this they have not been greater enemies to themselves , then to the whole state of Pietie and Religion . It does not appeare to the contrary , but that the Pharisee in the Gospell , of whom our Saviour put his case , might be a good man , and his cause might be good to praise God for not leaving him to the scandalous excesses of some other men : but when he would undertake to judge particular men , more righteous perhaps in Gods sight then himself , we know what judgement he received himselfe . And if it be not lawfull to censure a Publican , much lesse will I censure a Pharisee , except alone in that particular wherein hee is himselfe censorious , and wherein our Saviour Christ condemnes him : that doctrine therefore which I shall recommend to all men both Pharisees and Publicans , is , to be Charitable , to be Humble : to be Charitable , because they are Christians , to be humble , because they are men . The Times have lately received a very great and wonderfull change , almost equall to that of Edw. the 6. and yet still there is the same use of Charitie , as was before . Lukewarmnesse that odious and nauseous bane of Religion was hitherto decored and guilded over with the title of Moderation : but now we are in danger to suffer in the other extreme , for Moderation that blessed pacificall vertue is now likely to be as much debased , and defaced under the title of Lukewarmnesse : Both wayes Charity is violated , both wayes Piety is opposed : and what difference is it to Satan , if he prevaile , by which extreme he does prevaile , whether he sinks us by a Tempest , or confound us by a calme ? For a remedy of all mischiefes then let us embrace Charitie , and that Charitie may dwell amongst us , let us all learne to censure , despise , and abhorre our selves more , and other men lesse hereafter . A DISCOURSE CONCERNING PURITANS . ITis a common Maxim amongst Politicians , that a State is maintained by Accusations , but ruined by Calumnies : and therefore ( saies Marquesse Malvezzi ) Happy shall the Subjects be of that wise Prince , which countenances Accusations , and checks Calumnies : for the suffering of Accusations to goe lesse in repute , and Calumnies to get footing , hath beene the encrease of manslaughter , and the continuance of enmity in all ages . Many beleeve that nothing which is done would be knowne , if this meanes of dispersing privie calumnious speeches were not used , whereas little is knowne because it is used : for falshood constantly affirmed for truth , sometimes deceives , and when it does not , but is knowne to be falshood , yet it forces to some suspension of judgement , and makes us yeeld some way even to that which we beleeve not . This is most apparant at this day in this Kingdome in the Case of Puritans , for did accusation and legall processe take place , few crimes would be proved against Puritans , and did not malicious calumny prevaile , as few men would be proved Puritans , whereas now nothing is so monstrous , which is not branded upon Puritans , and no man is so innocent as to escape that brand . So great also is the audacity of those which lacerate the fames of Puritans , and with so much confidence doe they vent their obloquies , that they which know the falsity thereof , and easily perceive that the same aspersions are more truely due to the Autors and raisers of them , yet they are dazeled , and driven to some doubtfull admittance thereof . Neither could this audacity be so prevalent amongst the vulgar , but that Scholars , and the greatest of the Clergy are now become the most injurious detesters and depravers of Puritans , having taken up in Pulpits and presses , almost as vile and scurrilous a licence of fiction and detraction , as is usuall in Play houses , Taverns , and Bordelloes . Some men divide generally all Protestants into Puritans , and Antipuritans , but I shall admit of subdivisions in both , for all men are not alike , which either affect or disaffect , either Puritans or Antipuritans . Antipuritans I shall thus divide . Some Antipuritans are so tearmed , because they are no Puritans , but such I dislike not , for I my self am neither the one nor other , I neither merit the name of Puritan , neither doe I hate them so as to professe my self an Antipuritan . Others are accounted Antipuritans , because they are of the Romish Religion , and so professe themselves , but their enmity is but a due antipathy , and as a necessary consequence of their Religion , and such I take no notice of , I think Puritans expect no other from them . Others again there are which are very averse from some Puritanicall Tenets , and hold Puritans in very many things erroneous , but yet they mean well themselves , and bear no hatred to the persons of Puritans , they allow Puritans sound in the most and weightiest matters of faith , they hold dissent in disputable things no ground of malice , and they attribute no infallibility to themselves in those things wherein they dissent : from these men I am but little removed . The worst sort of Antipuritans , and they which ought only to be so called , are they which bitterly hate and persecute many good men under the name of Puritans , and many goods things in those which are Puritans , whose antipathy is to mens persons , as well as opinions , & in opinions those which are sound , as well as those which are erroneous . These are the Antipuritans which I shall now strive to detect , whom I now hold to be of great number and power in the State at this day , whom we may account the chiefest causers , and procurers of all those mischiefs and plagues which now incumber both Church and Commonwealth , and to be guilty of all those crimes , which falsly they charge upon Puritans , being therein like Caesars enemies which therefore onely hated him , because they had deserved hatred from him . By such Antipuritans is all love to goodnesse and zeal to the Protestant Religion , and all hatred of vice , and dislike of Popish Superstition , brought into contempt . For as they admit all true of Puritans which Papists object against Protestants , so they account all Protestants almost ( besides their own faction ) Puritans . By such is the Religion of the Scots made ridiculous ; by such is the amitie of the two Nations , and therein the Honour and safety of the King , his Crown , and Progeny endangered . By such is Calvin , & the Reformers of our Religion for hearkning therein to Calvin , traduced , and another reformation attempted ; by such is Antiquity preferred to obscure Scripture , Uniformity in Ceremonies to the disadvantage of unity in hearts ; by such is the outside and walls of Religion trimmed and decored , whilst the soule thereof is neglected and defaced ; by such is the Kings heart stolne from his Subjects , and the Subjects estranged from the King : by such is the Name of Royalty pretended whilst a Papall Hierarchy onely is intended ; by such is dissention nourished in the State , that they may fish in troubled waters : by such is truth in other men styled faction , and faction in themselves styled truth ; by such are innovations preached and printed for necessary points , whilst necessary doctrines in other men are prohibited . In the power of such it now remaines to teach and publish all things consonant to their owne ends , and to quash and silence all gainsayers , and either to promote or detrude all Suiters for preferment at their discretion being absolutely possessed of Presses , Pulpits , and the eares of great men ; by such are many good men reviled and oppressed for their constancie to the true Religion , whilst many factious , semipopish Dunces are unduly preferred every where for neutrality in Religion , or some worse innovation ; by such are Puritans made as Sinks and Sewers to unlode and discharge their own filth into , whilst their black railing tongues expume nothing against Puritans , but what is true of themselves . These things ( if I am not deceived ) will appeare in this ensuing discourse . In all ages true Religion hath been odious amongst Heathens , and true devotion amongst Sensualists , Judaisme appeared to Painims meer Superstition : Christianity seemed to the Jewes grosse blasphemie : and now amongst Christians Protestantisme is nothing else but Heresie : and amongst Protestants Zeal is misnamed Puritanisme ; But in this word Puritanisme is a greater mystery of defamation then ever was before , it may well be called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , it is a word of depravation , fit onely for these times , wherein the shine of the Gospel is at the brightest , and the malice of Satan at the highest . This word sprung up almost with the Reformation , no sooner had the woman brought forth , but the Serpent pursued her to devoure her issue , and she being fled into the Wildernesse , this streame of infamy was spued forth after her to overtake her . The Bishop of Downe in Ireland , in his Visitation speech 1638. endeavours to make it credited , that Puritans have increased since the Reformation by degrees , both in number and malice : but the contrary is most apparently true . Dissent in Ecclesiasticall Policie about Ceremonies and other smaller matters , being not of the substance of Religion , first gave occasion to raise this reprochfull word Puritan in the Church : but since that time mens minds being better satisfied , and peace being more firmly setled about those indifferent things , the more few Puritans remayned , and the more moderately those few became inclined , the more furiously their enemies raged against them , Bastwick , Prin , and Burton , the onely men which Law can take hold of , are Names now as horrid in the world , as Garnet , Faux , Ravilliack . Precisians have now wonne the Scene from Iesuites : Poysoning of Emperours , massacring of Provinces , blowing up of Parliaments are all now grown into oblivion , and drown'd in the stories of Ceremony-haters . Howsoever as amongst Antipuritans , so amongst Puritans ( it must be confessed ) there , are some differences to be observed . Some Puritans think all Puritans alike to be loved , and all Antipuritans alike to be hated , but sure there is truer affinity in minde between some which are Puritans , and some which are not , then between some Puritans and others , or some of the contrary opinion and others . Paul unconverted equally opposes Peter as Simon Magus does , and in regard of this joynt opposition , both are unanimous , but even in this opposition both have their opposite ends . Magus opposes maliciously for ambition and lucres sake , but Paul ignorantly seeking thereby the same Gods Honour whom Peter serves in a truer way . Therefore in regard of the mayne end , there is more unity and consent betwixt Paul the persecuter , and Peter the persecuted , then betwixt Paul and Magus , though both persecuters of the same cause . The like is now visible in England , for every man which is an Antipuritan is not so for the same Reasons , some have more of malice , others are more ignorant , some are pestilent Engineers , and through the sides of Puritans knowingly stab at purity it self , others are but Engines misimployed , or by their owne blind zeal misled , and these perhaps whilst they persecute Gods children , imagine they doe God a gratefull service therein . In Samaria , from an unkindly mixture of Israelites and Syrians , a strange heterogeneous of-spring different in Religion from both did arise ; and the like is now in England , nay , it may be said here ( as it was in Constantines dayes ) There are almost as many Religions as Opinions , and as many Opinions as Men . Papists have their differences , Protestants theirs , therefore needs must there be many more differences where Papists and Protestants live so confusedly blended together . For examples sake , how many differences have we even about indifferent Ceremonies ; and that meerly amongst Protestants ? Some men loath Ceremonies out of Antipathy to Popery , which too superstitiously extols them ; others againe admire them for Antiquities sake , which before Popery innocently ( yea , and perhaps profitably for those infant times of the Gospel ) used them . These two sorts of men , though different are not dangerous . Again , some men are thought to disrelish Ceremonies out of stomack to that authority which commands them ; but if there be any such , I thinke they are very few , and scarce visible to the eye of man . Others on the contrary give reverence to them for Poperies sake , which depends so much upon them ; and I feare there are many such amongst us . Again , some men stand devoted to Ceremonies , as they are the lightest things of the Law : like the Tythers of Mint and Annis in the Gospel , embracing them instead of weightier matters , and none are more unmercifull then these to scrupulous minded men . Others in the mean while account all things of the same moment , both great and small , pretending to spie some faults , and some truths on either side , and therefore they hold it indifferent to assent to either , or dissent from either in any point whatever . But the wisest sort conceive there may be errours on both sides , but not alike grosse and pernicious , and therefore such eschew the wrong , and apply themselves to the right in either side , yet neither honour , nor despise either side alike . And these instances shew that all men doe not professe , or condemne Puritanisme alike , or from the same ends , and yet in the Chaos of this Countrey , as things now stand . Frigida cum calidis pugnant , humentia siccis . Mollia cum duris , sine pondere habentia ●ondus . I could wish therefore that all well meaning men would take notice of these things , and affect by reason , not passion ; for since some good men are Puritans , and not all , and since some ill men are Puritans , and not all , this ought not to be a rule of love and hatred in all cases alike . That which is most objected to Puritans , is fury , faction , and hypocrisie : if I see these in a man reputed no Puritan , yet to me He is a Puritan : and if I see not these in a man reputed a Puritan , as to me He is no Puritan . If Gracchus be invective against Sedition , I censure him by his actions , not by his words , and if Cato be accused of mutiny , I censure him by himselfe , not by his accusers , I condemne none meerely because condemned by others ; for it is usuall for the Wolfe to sit on the Bench and condemne the Lambe at Bar , for that which is most proper to the Wolfe most unnaturall to the Lambe , and yet this proves the Wolfe the more a Wolfe , and the Lambe the more a Lambe . I cannot but professe it , there is nothing more scandalizes me at this time , then to see Puritans being so few in number , so despicable in condition , so harmelesse in example , so blamelesse in opinion , yet sentenced and condemned in judgement , as if they were the greatest Incendaries , and the only Innovators in the Christian World . Doctor Heylin a violent pamphleter against Puritans , calls Burton the great Dictator of Puritans , and the Law hath past upon him with great severity , yet Burtons crime was that He wrote against Altar-worship , and it was adjudged that his style was seditious . It is not manifest that his intention was seditious therein , and if it was so , it is manifest that He was most vaine and absurd therein as our State is now establisht , and as our King is generally revered , They which pretend great danger to the King likely to ensue out of such paper machinations as these , may have three mischievous ends therein . First , that they may be thought the only solicitous men of the Kings safetie . Secondly , that they may disparage the common peoples loyaltie . Thirdly , that they may crush their adverse Puritanicall party ; but , it is thought , they which pretend most danger hereby to the King : doe least believe themselves , and therefore they doe spin that affection and division out of the sufferings of Burton , &c. which his attempts could never have effected . My Lord of Canterbury in all his invectives against Puritanisme , ever made fury and turbulence the ground of all his hatred and enmity against it , and yet let the whole world judge if the earth ever brought forth any thing more furious and turbulent then himself . At the same time whilst he adjudges torture to that incendiary Burton , &c. for writing a Pamphlet against Altars , &c. He himself is busie in sowing the Dragons teeth ( I may say the great red Dragons teeth ) all over England Scotland , and Ireland , and putting all the three Kingdomes into a posture of warre , that like earthen vessels they may be dashed to peeces by conflicting one against the other . To whom can it be credible that Burtons quill should blow the flame of warre amongst Nations so combined in spirituall , carnall and politicall consanguinity ; under the protection of so peacefull a Prince , in such Halcyonean dayes of tranquillitie , when even my Lord of Canterbury himself with all his ill accomplices at home , and Spanish , Italian , French confederates abroad , ought for ever to be admired for his prevalence in that vast stupendious dis-service ? Howsoever , as the times lately were , we beheld sedition grievously upbraided , and punished in Burton by my Lord of Canterbury , and that old verse applyed as a proverbe : Quis tulerit Gracchos de seditione loquentes ? But it s no wonder that Burton should be an incendiary in that mouth , wherein Calvin was a knave , Good God , could he think the Reformed Religion any thing else but knavery , when he calls Gods most sanctified and best inspired instrument of Reformation Knave ? Because God doth not now work by miracles , as he did in the first plantation of the Gospel ; are not therefore his works as sacred , and his instruments as venerable ? And since the Redemption , what work hath God ever performed more noble , and for ever to be exalted then the Reformation ? for what was that worke , but a reviving of lost salvation , and a new restauration of the buried Gospel amongst us ? and in that glorious worke who was anoynted by God for a more egregious charge then Calvin ? Is it not therefore the same sin in kinde if not in degree so to conspurcate and defile this blessed messenger of this blessed tidings with impure termes of obloquie , as it was to ascribe the worke of our Saviour to Beelzebub ? O the execrable gall of that breast , and venome of that tongue , which through the sides of Calvin did strive to defame the most gracious services of Calvin , nay that most pure and fiery Spirit of God himselfe , which enabled Calvin for those services ! Needs must he hate and prosecute all Puritans whatsoever , and reject and disrelish all things whatsoever in Puritans , which is so maliciously bent against Calvin himselfe meerly because Puritans have him in so high esteeme , for that holy Spirits sake which rested so aboundantly upon him . But let us a little further search into the mysterious abuse , and misapplication of this word Puritan . Those whom we ordinarily call Puritans are men of strict life , and precise opinions , which cannot be hated for any thing but their singularity in zeale and pietie , and certainly the number of such men is too small , and their condition too low , and dejected : but they which are the Devils chief Artificers in abusing this word when they please , can so stretch and extend the same , that scarce any civill honest Protestant which is hearty and true to his Religion can avoid the aspersion of it , and when they list againe , they can so shrink it into a narrow sense , that it sha●l seem to be aimed at none but monstrous abominable Heretickes and miscreants . Thus by its latitude it strikes generally , by its contraction it pierces deeply , by its confused application it deceives invisibly . Small scruples intitle mee to the name of Puritan , and then the name of Puritan intitles me further to all mischiefe whatsoever . The Scots rise up against Episcopacie , it is questioned by some , whether they so rise up , for the good of Religion , or for the overthrow of wholsome Discipline . Answer is soone made , that Episcopacie cannot be unpleasing to any but Puritans , there is no opinion can smell stronger of Puritanisme , then that of a Church parity , and of Puritans what good can be expected ? but the Scots also desire redresse in other grievances , and here their intention is againe questioned . Answer is as soone made again . That the Scots being declared open Puritans , they must needs be enemies to Monarchicall government , and that no redresse can ever satisfie them , but such as shall debase royall dignity , and establish a popular rule among them . But some of the Scots in some actions doe very much misdemeane themselves , and here it 's thought by some , that this ought not to redound to the prejudice , or blame of the whole Nation : but strait the Antipuritan steps in againe with answer to the former purpose , that the same faction which makes them all Puritans , makes them all mutiners , and that there is no trust to be given , nor favour shewed to any whose very religion is disobedience . Other the like examples may be instanced in . Parliaments of late in England have beene jealous of religion , this laudable Zeale made them at first come into contempt as Puritanicall , and then the imputation of puritanisme made this laudable Zeale contemptible ; and so by degrees , as any thing else might be charged upon Puritans , as disobedience , and disaffection to Monarchy , so nothing could be charged but proceeding from Puritanisme . Some scrupulous opinions make Say , Brooke , &c. Puritans , Puritanisme inferres them mutiners , mutinie makes all that they can doe or say , all that they forbear to doe , or say , it makes their very thoughts wicked and perverse . Thus wee see what a confused imposture there is in this infamous terme of Puritan : but wee will yet further evidence by plaine instance how broad the devils net is in the vast application of this word , and how deep his pit is by its abominable sence , and the nature of its importance , that we may the better discover that net which intangles so many , and shun that pit which ingulphs so sure . Puritans ( as I said before ) were at first Ecclesiasticall only , so called because they did not like a pompous or ceremonious kinde of discipline in the Church like unto the Romish : but now it is come about , that by a new enlargement of the name , the world is full of nothing else but Puritans , for besides the Puritan in Church policie , there are now added Puritans in Religion , Puritans in State , and Puritans in morality . By this means whole Kingdomes are familiarly upbraided with this sinne of Puritanisme : As for example , All in Scotland which wish well to the Covenant , though some Papists , some Courtiers , and almost all the whole body without exception have now declared themselves for it , yet all these are manifest Puritans . So also in England , all the Commons in Parliament , and almost all the ancient impartiall temporall Nobility , and all such as favour and rellish the late proceedings of both the houses , which is the maine body of the Realme , Papists , Prelates and Courtiers excepted , nay , and its likely all Scotland , and more then halfe Ireland , all these are Puritans . They which deprave this great Councell of the Kingdome , suggest to the King that the major part is gull'd and dorde by the Puritan Party ; but this is only because they are ashamed to speake it out openly in grosse termes , that all the major and better part in the Court of Parliament is Puritanicall . But this suggestion is utterly false and impossible , for such as the major part in Parliament is , such are those that chose them and sent them thither , and such are those that now approve their actions there , and both in the elections of Parliament men , and in the consultations of Parliament affaires , the Kings party is as wise , cautious and vigilant ( if not more ) as the other party , and no subtilty could circumvent or cheat them out of their votes , if the Puritans were so small and inconsiderable a side , as now they make them . No man of what capacity soever can admit this ; it is to all undeniable , that the blame of a Parliament , is the blame of a whole Kingdome . But I returne to my Ecclesiasticall Puritan . Though it be true that Ecclesiasticall Puritans are fewer now , then heretofore they have been , yet it is as true that Ecclesiasticall puritanisme is made a larger thing by farre then it was , being now spread abroad like a net to ensnare the more , as our many late additions and innovations testifie , which have crept into the Church ( as may be feared ) for the vexation and molestation of such men , as were not disquieted with former ceremonies . It is generally suspected , that our Prelates have aimed at two things in the novelties which they have lately induced into the Church ; first , the suppression of those which are enemies to their pride , avarice , and ambition , by them tearmed Puritans : secondly , their owne further ease , promotion , and advantage . Both these ends seeme to be leveld at in sanctifying the Altar , and unsanctifying the Lords day , in advancing auricular confession , and corporall penances by externall mortifications , and crying downe lecturing , and preaching ; for if we marke it , these new Doctrines doe not onely serve to terrifie and scandalize tender consciences , and thereby to deprive , and silence many painfull good Ministers , and to scare away into forreign Plantations whole troups of Laymen , and to inwrap the rest in opposition ▪ but each of these doctrines besides hath a further reach in it of benefit to the Clergie . The Communion Table hath lately gained a new Name , a new Nature , a new Posture , a new Worship that Emperours and Kings may be brought againe to take notice how far the persons and offices of Priests excell in sanctity the persons and offices of Princes . Theodosius within one hundred yeares after Prelacie began to arrogate to it selfe , was presently taught this lesson , for taking his seat in the Chancell according to the Easterne and ancient fashion , a Deacon was sent to him in great state , to let him understand that none but men in holy Orders might presume to set their feet on that sacred ground . This was then the Bishops Law , not the Emperours , nor knowne in any other of his Dominions , but Italy onely ; but sure it was fit discretion , that much should be ascribed by Bishops to that place , from which they were to derive much , and which would be sure to repay their homage with so great an advantage of homage back againe . Preaching is now also grown too burthensome , and the Lords Day to Priests according to that sanctity which Puritans allow it , it requires too much praying , preaching , singing , which are not onely to them tedious , but also apt means to encrease , and foment Puritanisme amongst the people . Auricular Confession also is a godly devise to bring the Laity into subjection , and to make the people bow before the power of the Keyes , and it may aptly force the consciences of Kings themselves to feare the scourges of gowned men . Adde lastly Mr. Wats his bodily mortification to Mr. Sparrows confession , and then Laymen will be soone inured againe to finde out the fittest penances , especially Praesbyteris , & aeris advolvi , and so in time their purses , their bodies , their consciences shall all bee made sensible of the spirituall Scepter of Priests . It s no great wonder then if our Court Divines , and their dependents doe what they can to draw us neerer dayly towards Popery , under shew of Antiquity , Uniformity and Charity , for ( without all doubt ) of all Religions , Popery is the most beneficiall to Priests , most tyrannous to Laymen . Neither is it strange that they pretend so much zeale and devotion to the Kings Crowne and Prerogative , as things now stand in England , as if none truly affected the same but themselves , for its cleare , that they cannot subject the people but by the King , nor the King without the people : and so long as they stand possessed of the Kings good opinion , no man shall have power to confute them . King Iames is a great instance for Antipuritans , and a great prop to the Episcopall Cause , it s alleadged of him that Hee hated Puritans for their hatred to Episcopacie , and loved Episcopacie for its amity to Monarchie : His Aphorisme was , No Bishop , no King : Let us therefore appeale from King Iames in their words to King Iames in his owne . In his Preface before his Basilicon Doron his words are : The style of Puritans properly belongs to that vile Sect of the Anabaptists , onely called the Family of love , Such were Browne , Penry , Howbeit there are others which participate too much with Anabaptists contemning civill Magistrates , &c. It is onely this sort of men which I wish my sonne to punish in case they refuse to obey Law , and cease not to stirre up Rebellion . But I protest upon mine Honour , I meane it not generally of all Preachers or others , which like better of the single forme of Policie in our Church of Scotland , then of the many Ceremonies in the Church of England , which are perswaded that Bishops smell of a Papall supremacie , that Surplices , Caps , &c. are outward badges of popish errour . No , I am so farre from being contentious in these indifferent things , that I doe equally love and honour the learned and grave of either opinion , It can no wayes become mee to pronounce sentence so lightly in so old a controversie . Since wee all agree in grounds , the bitternesse of men in such questions doth but trouble the peace of the Church , and give advantage to Papists by our division . These were the golden words of that peacefull , just Prince upon his second thoughts : ô that they were now duly pondred , and taken to peeces word for word ! ô that they were esteemed , and understood in their owne weight amongst us , that they might reconcile our present differences , and that the same peace which followed him to his glorious Urne , might still blesse these our times ! ò how contrary are these mild words to the unnaturall suggestions of Antipuritans ! Such as daily accuse all good men for Precisians , and all precise men for Puritans , and all Puritans for the onely Firebrands of the World , thus aiming the King against his Subjects , and by consequence raising Subjects against the King ; Puritans here are described both what they are , and what they are not , the King had been misinterpreted before , writing generally of Puritans , now to avoid all mistake , he expresses himselfe plainely and definitely . A Puritan positively in King Iames his sense , is He which imitates Anabaptists in rebellion , turbulence and opposition to Law , and such are liable to Law ; but negatively a Puritan in the acception of King Iames , is not He which dislikes Episcopacie , or the Ceremonious Discipline of England . This King Iames protests upon his honour , though to his great dishonour He be now often cited to the contrary . As for those which rellish not Bishops and Ceremonies or the English Policie , Wishes them to be at peace only with those of the opposite opinion , Hee himselfe vowing equall love and honour to the grave , and learned of either side , and not taking upon him to be a Judge in so old and difficult a controversie ; He onely like a sweet arbitrator perswades both parties to peace and amity . I wish our Bishops would now stand to this arbitration , I wish they would neither condemne the Scots discipline , nor urge the English ; I wish they would put difference betweene seditious and scrupulous Puritans , and not inferre the one out of the other ; I wish they would either disclaime King Iames as a manifest favourer of Puritans , or else imitate him in the same definition , and opinion of them . King Iames further takes notice , that the reformation in Scotland was far more disorderly , then in England , Denmark &c. whilst the mayne affaires there were unduly carried by popular tumults , and by some fiery-spirited Ministers , which having gotten the guiding of the multitude , and finding the relish of government sweet , did fancie to themselves a democratick forme of policy , wherein they were likely to be Tribuni plebis . That the Crown might be disincombred of these usurping ring-leaders , the King advises the Prince to entertaine and advance godly , learned , and modest Ministers , promoting them to Bishopricks , but restrayning them heedfully from pride , ambition , and avarice . These things then are hence observable . First , Scotland differs from England in turbulent Ministers : Secondly , this is imputed to the iniquity of the times , not to Puritanisme , as if by nature the Scots were more inclining to Puritanisme then other Nations . Thirdly , notwithstanding that iniquity of those times , there was a number sufficient of worthy Ministers fit for preferrement . Fourthly , King Iames erects Bishops Sees in Scotland for peculiar reasons , and therefore He speaks not of Denmarke , &c. Lastly , notwithstanding that peculiar reason , He advises the Prince to be indifferently at warre with both extreams alike , as well to represse Papall Bishops , as to curbe proud Puritans . For ( sayes the King ) the naturall sicknesses which have ever troubled and beene the decay of all Churches since the beginning changing the Candlesticke from one to another , have beene pride , ambition , and avarice : and these wrought the overthrow of the Romish Church in divers Countreys . King Iames knew well how apt Churchmen had ever beene to abuse their power and pompe , what enemies the High-Priests had beene to our Saviour , and what a tyranny Bishops had erected over all Christendome ever since Constantine almost , and therefore though he dislikes a Democracie in the Church , ( as Hee had reason ) yet Hee so limits and circumscribes his Bishops both in power and honour , that they might be as sensible of their chaines and fetters , as of their Miters and Crosiers . I wish King Iames had particularly signified what bonds and bounds Hee thought fit to prefixe to Episcopacie , to preserve it from corruption , and what his opinion was of a Prelacie so active in secular affaires as ours is now in England , and how it would have pleased him to see a Metropolitan amongst Protestants almost a rivall to the French Cardinall . The world , in my opinion , hath little reason to doate upon a gowned Empire , wee have all smarted long enough under it , men of meane birth commonly beare preferment with little moderation , and their breeding having beene soft and effeminate , in their malice and cruelty they neerest of all approach to the nature of Women : and by the advantage of learning they extend their power , and win upon others more then they ought . When the Church was at first under Heathen , or Jewish Governours , which sought as enemies to ruine it , not as Fathers to protect it , they which were within could not live in peace and unity without some Politicall bonds , so at that time there was a necessity of some coercive power within , besides that which was without . The world is now unsatisfied what kinde of power that was , whether Episcopall or Presbyteriall , or what Episcopacy , or Presbytery was in those dayes . Yet me thinks what government so ever then was , it is not necessarily precedentary to us now . The Episcopall faction at this day takes advantage by the abuses of the Presbyteriall , and the Presbyteriall by the Episcopall , and most men thinke either the one power or the other necessary , and some more favour the Episcopall as K. Iames , some the Presbyteriall as M. Calvin ; but sure the Presbyteriall is lesse offensive then the Episcopall , and yet neither the one nor other of necessity . Kings may grant usuram quandam jurisdictionis either to Bishops or Elders , but the jurisdiction it selfe is their owne property , from which they ought not to depart , nor can without wrong to their charge committed to them . For the power which God gives the Prince , is not given for his use alone , but for the peoples benefit , so that since He cannot let it fall to decay without making it insufficient for good and entire government which is mischievous to the people , he cannot justly lessen it at all . And it is manifest that except one supreme head be alone in all causes as well Ecclesiasticall as Civill , humane nature must needs be destitute of those remedies which are necessary for its conservation , since power cannot be divided , but it must be diminished to him which suffers that division , and being diminished it proves insufficient . All confesse some government necessary for men in holy Orders , to whom the power of the Keyes belongs , but some account Princes but as meere Temporall or Lay persons , and therefore conclude against their authority over sacred Ecclesiasticall persons as incompetent , especially in cases meerely Ecclesiasticall . For this cause spirituall Governours have ever beene in the Church to whom some have attributed a divine right depending from none but God , and subordinate to none but God , but this hath beene controverted by others , and no little debate and strife hath followed hereupon . But it seemes to me , that Princes do receive from God a spirituall Unction , whereby not onely their persons are dignified , and their hearts prepared and enlarged with divine graces fit for rule ; but their functions also innobled and sanctified above any other whatsoever , and higher advanced then the sense of Laick or Secular will beare . To Princes an assistance of counsell is requisite in spirituall as in civill affaires , but that , that Counsaile ought to bee composed onely of persons Ecclesiasticall , or that those persons ought to bee invested with all those Ensignes of Honour and Authority which our Bishops now claime as of divine right , seemes not necessary . Clergy-men are not alwayes the most knowing in all Ecclesiasticall cases , neither are they at all indifferent and impartiall , in many which concerne their owne honour and profit , ( as the world feeles to his regret ) therefore for jurisdiction they are not the most competent . But be they of what use soever , they may still remaine subordinate , and at the Princes election , and admitted of ad consilium solum , not ad consensum , and it had beene happy for all Christians these many hundred yeares by past if they had not been further hearkned to . The Sacerdotall function is not at all disparaged by this subordination , for whether the order of Princes be more sacred then that of Bishops , or not , it is all one to Priests , for an obedience they owe , and must pay , be it to the one Order or the other . Our Bishops at this day stand much upon their Divine right of Jurisdiction , and they refer their style to the providence of God immediatly , not to the grace of the King : and though in words they acknowledge a Supremacie of power to remain to the King ; yet indeed I thinke they mean rather a priority of order . Whatsoever Supremacie they meane , if it be not such as makes them meerely subordinate , and dependent , so that the King may limit , alter , or extinguish their jurisdiction , as far as He may to his civill Judges , they derogate much from his Kingly office . Bishops for their claime of Jurisdiction ought to prove that they alone did exercise it over all in all causes from our Saviours dayes , till the entrance of Christian Princes : and that being cleared , they must further prove , that those times also are leading , and precedentary to ours . In both these their proofes are lame , especially in the latter ; for neither is the power of the Keyes the same thing as Iurisdiction , nor is jurisdiction now as it was in the Apostles dayes , nor is the State of the times now the same as then . In those dayes either Christians were to implead one another before Infidel Magistrats whatsoever the case were , criminall or civill , spirituall or temporall , or else they were to erect some tribunall in the Church , or else they were to await no justice at all : and because some judicature within the Church was most fit , therfore Christ himselfe according to the exigence of those times , did endow his Church with a divine Oeconomy , which was partly miraculous , and of use then but not now . The Spirit of God did then internally incite such and such men at such times to reside and preside in such & such places ; and some of the Apostles at some times could judge by inspiration without proofs and allegations , and could execute sentence of death or other spirituall punishment upon secret hypocrites , not intrenching upon temporall authority , but in these times this discipline is uselesse , and therefore decayed . Whatsoever the offence then was , what injury or trespasse soever betwixt brother and brother , the onely remedy was Dic Ecclesiae , and yet that precept serves as strong for temporall as spirituall trespasses , so that it cannot be enforced now to continue , unlesse wee meane to drowne all temporall authority . As for the extent also of spirituall power in those dayes , I will onely cite a learned Politician of the Popish religion : who admitting ( it seemed ) that the keyes of heaven were given to Saint Peter alone , and his Successours , and not to all Bishops and Ministers whatsoever thus proceeds . By the keyes given to S. Peter many Holy Fathers mean , the one of knowledge , and the other of power , and that that power ought not to be understood universally , but only concerning the Kingdome of Heaven which is spirituall : for the Civill , Royall , and Temporall power is expresly forbidden him by Christ . Even so that also of knowledge , it is not to be understood of naturall , politike , or morall things , but as Saint Paul saith , of Christs mysteries only . Wherefore in matters of faith Ecclesiasticall authority may approve , and Secular cannot condemne , but in matters of policy what all the Prelates in the World approve , Temporall authority may condemne . It is a great wrong to pretend , because Christ hath given Saint Peter the cognizance and power of the Kingdome , and forbidden him the earthly , contrary to this precept , to extend spirituall things to temporall . Saint Augustine often saith , That Grace doth not destroy any thing in Nature , but leaveth her all her owne ; adding moreover divine perfection . The Temporality hath of its owne nature , power to forbid all things repugnant to publike quietnesse and honesty ; and Christ came not to take away this authority from Magistrates , He onely addes power to his Ministers in matters of faith , not knowne by nature , but revelation . For ought wee know , this power of opening or shutting Heaven , of binding and loosing sinnes was miraculous , and so but Temporary : but admit it in this Catholike Writers sense , yet we plainly see , it is no prejudice at all to limit Secular Princes thereby . The same learned Papist writes : That the Easterne and Westerne Churches continued in unity and charity for the space of nine hundred yeares after Christ , and this peace was easily kept , because the Supreme power was then in the Canons , to which all Churches acknowledged themselves equally subject . Ecclesiasticall Discipline was then severely maintained in each Country by its owne Prelates , not arbitrarily , but absolutely according to Canonicall rigour , none of them intermedling in anothers government . No Pope of Rome did pretend to conferre Benefices in other Bishops Diocesses , or to get money out of others by way of Dispensations and Buls : but when Rome began to shake off all subjection to Canons , then notwithstanding any ancient order of the Fathers , Councels , or Apostles themselves , in stead of her ancient Primacy she brought in an absolute Dominion , free from any Law or Canon , and this made the division . Neither could any re-union bee brought to passe within these 700 yeares , because this abuse which caused the Division is not remedied . Whilst the union held , Saint Pauls doctrine was joyntly observed , that Every one should be subject to Princes , no man pretended to be free from punishment . Nay , and after the division , the same opinion remained , that every Christian in temporall businesses is subject to the Prince . And nothing is more temporall then offence , because nothing is more contrary to the Spirit . Amongst the Greeks also it is still held that Bishops ought to judge what opinion is sound , what Hereticall , but to punish those of hurtfull opinions belongeth to the Secular . The State of Venice , as well as other Catholike Kingdomes , walks between two extreams , betweene Protestants , which have no other ayme but to diminish Ecclesiasticall authority , and the Court of Rome which hath no other aime , but to encrease it , and to make the Temporall her servant . Those of the Court of Rome , making use of Religion for worldly ends and respects under a spirituall pretense , but with an ambitious end and desire of worldly wealth and honour would free themselves from obedience due to the Prince , and take away the love and reverence due by the people to draw it to themselves . To bring these things to passe , they have newly invented a doctrine that talks of nothing but Ecclesiasticall greatnesse , liberty , immunity , and jurisdiction . This doctrine was unheard of , till about the year 1300 , then it began to be written scatteringly in some books , but till 1400 , there were not written above two Bookes which treated of nothing else ; after this such Writers increased a little , but after 1560 , there were scarce any Bookes printed in Italy , but in diminution of Secular authority and exaltation of the Ecclesiasticall : And now the people have scarce any other Bookes to read , nor have the Confessors any other doctrine , or need any other learning . Hence comes this perverse opinion , that Magistracy is a humane invention , and to be obeyed for policy onely , not for conscience : but that every intimation of Ecclesiasticall persons is equivolent to a divine precept ; there want not in Italy , pious , learned men which hold the contrary , but they are not suffered to write , or print . Neither are forraine Books permitted , or ancient Authours left ungelded of all which serves for Temporall authority : as appears by a book printed 1607 , called Index Expurgatorius : and Clement the Eighth in 1595 , published a rule in his Index , that all Catholike Writers Bookes since 1515 , might be corrected not only by expunging but also by interlining , and this hath beene practised though not publikely above seventy yeares . Thus we finde the Court of Romes , but not the Authors meaning , and finally , wee are sure to have no book true . I have hitherto cited this egregious Politician , for these purposes . First , That we may see how easie it is for Clergie-men to wrest all authority out of the Temporalties hands , if Princes will be so easie to be hood-winkt , and deluded by them , and to resigne their judgements to them in such cases as concern their profit and advancement . Secondly , That we may take notice how far the learnedst of Papists themselves doe discover , and detect the errours and tyranny of the Court of Rome , and that mysticall way of deceiving , whereby all hope of remedy is cut off . I observe this also the rather because our Prelates in England at this day assume to themselves almost as vast and unquestionable a power of stifling and repressing all adverse disputes , and of authorizing and publishing all arguments whatsoever favouring their cause , as the Court of Rome does . Thirdly , that I might produce the same Author against himselfe in those points wherein he taxes Protestants . Wee will yeeld that for the space of nine hundred yeeres the See of Rome did not usurpe over other Sees , but did acknowledge equall subjection to the Canons , and that the division and separation of the Easterne Churches happened when Rome arrogated above Canons ; but withall we must have it yeelded to us , that those Canons had been composed only by Clergy-men , and that in too much favour of Clergy-men , and too much abridgement of Temporall Rights and Priviledges , and that they did concerne matters more then meerely spirituall , and speculative , and things known by meere revelation . So that though one Prelate did not usurpe over another , yet all Prelates had usurped over the Laity from the times of Constantine almost . It is true , the Church had Bishops before in its times of persecution , but of what power or pompe ? It is said of Calvin , that in regard of his sway in Geneva , he wanted nothing but the Name of Bishop ; and it may be as truly said of the Bishops before Constantine , that they wanted all but the Name . The power of Bishops before the installment of Christian Princes , was rather like that of Arbitrators then of Judges , and that held in all cases alike , Civill and Spirituall , but in case of disobedience they did not intrench so farre upon the Lay power , as to inflict any pecuniary , or corporall punishment , but they did deny the Sacrament , and eject delinquents out of the Congregation , and this was then an abscission from Christ , being done Clave non errante : that is , whilst God did inspire ( according to his promise ) a miraculous power of binding and loosing infallibly . The Priestly function was then an Office , not a jurisdiction , of sacred dignity , not power : but the Function of a Prince was ever sacred both for honour and power , for dignity and command . Constantine the Great was the first Prince which tooke upon him the care and protection of the Church , after that it had suffered contempt and poverty for 300 yeares : and now did even that authority and protection cease , and devolve into his hands , which the poore persecuted Bishops had but feebly managed before ; but such was the extraordinary indulgence of this pious Emperour , as well to religious persons , as to Religion it selfe , that taking little notice what the Church had gain'd by him as its Head and Governour , He heaped up greater Titles and Honors upon Bishops , Archbishops , Patriarchs , and Popes , as if some other supreme Ruler more sacred and competent then himselfe were necessary . Neverthelesse it is thought , that this was as poyson poured into the Church , and not Balme , for from that very time Clergy-men began to be more glorious , but lesse gracious , more rich outwardly , but more poore , and vile inwardly . Within a little space after Constantine there was just cause of complaint that excessive Honours had corrupted the Church , and that Religion had prospered better in former times , when it had wooden Chalices and golden Priests , then now , when it had golden Chalices , but wooden Priests . It is remarkable also , that soon after Constantine the temporall power being too much restrained , and abased , and the spirituall as much inlarged and exalted , the whole face of Christendome began to be imbroyled with wars , and poysoned with heresies , so that the Historians of those times have almost nothing else to write of but the forcible investing and devesting by armes of such Bishops and Patriarchs , and of the oppositions of such and such Councels and Synods , and of the Appeals , Iars , Schismes , Excommunications , and Commotions of such , and such Priests , and Monks . Nay , such were the ill effects of those ages , which were certainly more zealous then politike , that they cannot yet be wholly rectified , and purged in these our latter times , which are growne too too contrary , being more politike then zealous : Thus did the Church fare for 900. yeares till the Romane Bishops began to Empire above all , and then did the greatest part of the Clergie themselves , especially East from Italy , make their departure and separation . Neither did the Romish Vice-god after this great rent and division in the world hang his head for shame , or seeke any re-union by letting fall his pompous , painted plumes , but audaciates himselfe rather to mount higher yet , and to detrude the Western Emperour quite out of the bounds of Italy . And in this , his industry failes him not , for after much bloud-shed in many cruell conflicts Hee gaines in Italy a Temporall , and in all Europe besides a spirituall Monarchy , making a triple Mitre shine as gloriously upon the seven-hilled City , as the Diadem had done before . During his warres with the Emperour of Germany , He had other contestations also with England , and some other Potentates at sometimes , but all dismaid him not , only once He was heard to say , It was time for him to compound with the Dragon , that he might crush the lesser Adders at his pleasure . Yet after this even this Holy tyranny growes too insolent and insufferable , and so conspires its owne dissolution , so that many Countries in the North-west parts lying more remote from Rome , quite revolt from her Allegeance , and protest against her . Amongst those other Countries also lesse distant , which still in words confesse her Supremacy , her Reigne is now but little more then precarious : Venice regards not Buls and Anathemaes , France disdaines a yonger brothers benediction , and Spaine being honoured with the title of the Popes eldest Son , confesses him a Father but imployes him as a Chaplain , gives verball , but reapes reall honours by him . Augustus having cashiered an unworthy Commander , gave him leave to say , that hee had cashiered Augustus : and so the Popes great sonnes shake off his yoke by degrees , but conceale it , and give him leave to doe the like . It is now very good policy in the Pope , not to pretend to Temporall things as they stand in ordine , or have relation to spirituall things , but rather to relinquish his right to spirituall things , as they stand in order to Temporall : it is eminent wisedome in him to forbeare threatning , roaring , cursing , and sending his ridiculous Epigrams , out of his owne Territories : as he was wont to doe : Nay , his very last refuge of sending forth his poysoning and stabbing Ministers cannot remaine in season much longer . But to returne to our learned Statesman : as Hee justly taxes the Court of Rome , so Hee unjustly taxes Protestants of the contrary extreme , and this will appeare out of his owne words . For He grants , first that the Secular Magistrates have nothing diminished of their authority by Christs comming ▪ and it is cleare that Princes were absolute Governours of the Church before Christ both in Spirituall and Temporall Cases . In the next place He yeelds , that the power and knowledge of Clergy-men , called the power of the Keyes , is no other but such as Christ infuses in meere supernaturall things , knowne onely by Faith and Revelation , not by any physicall , or Ethicall Principles ; but it is easily proved by us , that such power can extend to no proper jurisdiction at all in humane affaires , but is a meere speculative Notion , and such we deny not . Thirdly , Hee yeelds that in Jurisdiction there bee three things distinct . First , matter of Law . Secondly , matter of fact . Thirdly , matter of execution : whereby retribution is made to every fact according to Law . The first of these , and that in Spirituall Cases alone being tryable by Clergy-men only . Admit this and nothing followes , but that things meerely Spirituall , are best knowne to Spirituall persons , there is no power here concluded . As for example . In case of Heresie , that I hold such an opinion , must appeare by witnesses and proofes , and herein all kindes of witnesses besides Clergy-men are competent . Next , that this opinion is hereticall , requires the judgement of Ecclesiasticall persons , but it does not follow , if they be the fittest Judges herein , that they must bee the supreme Judges herein , and not as well Dependent and Subordinate as our Civill Judges are in common actions . But in the last place , that such an hereticall opinion , so dangerous and pestilent to the Church and Common-wealth ought to bee corrected or eradicated by such coercive force , and the raising of that force whereby it is to be punished , is in the judgement , and in the power of the Supreme Magistrate , for two Magistrates cannot have a Supreme power of the same sword . Either the Secular must command the Ecclesiasticall , or the Ecclesiasticall must command the Secular , as to coercive power , or a worse confusion then either must needs follow . So then , it is the Execution of justice alone , which is essentiall to the Supreme Governour , Matter of Law requires a Counsellour , Matter of fact a witnesse , Matter of Execution alone intimates a Prince , and that Principality cannot bee divided betwixt two persons of a severall nature . From hence then it appeares plainely that no Catholike differing from the Court of Rome ascribes more to Clergy-men , then this first poynt of adjudging according to the Law of God in things Divine ; and this implyes rather a dependent , then an independent condition in the judge : and in this Protestants joyne with full consent . But all this while I finde my selfe in a digression : my scope is not to proove that Protestants doe attribute sufficient to Priests , it lies upon mee to prove that they attribute too much to them , and herein I am to undertake not onely the Episcopall , but the Presbyteriall side also , not onely Protestant Prelates , but even Master CALVIN that great Antiprelate also . Divines have much trumped the World hitherto in not setting forth the true bounds and limits of Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction , but if I mistake not , the first power ( which they claime as most essentiall ) they take to be the power of the Keyes , though they define not certainly , what that is , whether a power , or Office ; or to whom belonging , or of what extent , and continuance . The second power which they insist upon , as next issuing out of the power of the Keyes , is in Excommunication , Ordination of Ministers , Exposition of Scriptures , &c. The third and more remote kinde of causes wherein they challenge an Ecclesiasticall power , is of such as concerne Matrimonie , Testaments , Heresies , Fasts , Tythes , and Immunities of Clergy-men , &c. And further doubtlesse they would proceed , but that these savour so much of the Temporality , and discover their trumpery ; but I have said , if in all these cases Clergy-men are necessarily more knowing and impartiall then all men else , there is necessity of their Counsell to declare matter of Law , but not of their Consent in applying coercive , and forcible remedies for the execution of Law . I have said also that Clergie-men being as well Citizens of the Common-wealth , as sonnes of the Church , and these Cases importing as well perturbance of the State , annoyance to the Church , that there can be but one Head which ought to have command over both , and in both . It is manifest also that many Cases are partly temporall , and partly spirituall , and that scarce any is so temporall , but that it relates in some order to spirituall things , or any so spirituall , but that it hath some relation to temporall things , so that the true subject of Ecclesiasticall and civill justice cannot rightly be divided . Further , also it is as manifest that where any doubt , strife , or uncertainty may arise betweene one Jurisdiction and another , neither acknowledging any supreme power of decision , no assured peace can continue , and by consequence no stability or permanent subsistence to either , is to be expected . It is naturall therefore to be inferred , that either the Temporall or the Ecclesiasticall Magistrate must be in all Cases absolutely predominant , and that since the Ecclesiasticall ought not by Christs owne command , therefore the Temporall ought , as hath been further proved by sundry arguments , and Scripture proofes alledged out of this famous Politician . So much of the temporall power , and its necessary Supremacie : my endevour shall be now to maintain that no Ecclesiasticall power is at all necessary in meere Ecclesiasticall persons . Master Calvin according to the popish grounds maintains , that spirituall jurisdiction differs from temporall , and is not incompatible but assistant thereto , because it proposes not the same ends , but severall , which by severall meanes may be the better compassed . But the spirituall Magistrate ( as I conceive ) can propose no other end , then what the Secular ought to ayme at , for either the Prince ought to have no care at all of the Honour of God , and the good of men , and that which is the prime meane of both , true Religion , or else his ends must bee the same which the Prelate aymes at , viz. to vindicate Religion by removing and correcting scandalous offenders . Secondly , to preserve the innocent from contagion by the separation of open offenders . Thirdly , to prevent further obduration , or to procure the amendment of such as have transgressed by wholsome chastisement . This is beyond all controversie , as also that the person and power of a Prince , are as sacred to effect these ends , as the Prelates : and certainly , God did not so sanctifie their persons and offices for any lesse end . And therefore in ancient times Holy Bishops did preach and recommend nothing more to Princes then the care of Religion , though proud Prelates now arrogate this onely to themselves , and though it be still apparant , that no offence is so spirituall , but that it is a civill evill , as well as a blemish to Religion : forsomuch as true Religion is the foundation of a State . And this could not bee , neither were Princes answerable to God for the corruption of Religion , if God had not given them a supreme power , and that effectuall to bring all offenders whatsoever to confession , satisfaction and contrition , or to expell them the congregation by themselves , or their surrogates . Master Calvin instances in adultery and drunkennesse , &c. and sayes , That the temporall power punishes these by externall force , and for publicke examples sake , as it concernes the State , but the Spirituall Iudge punishes them without force internally for the amendment of the delinquent . Hee might as well have named swearing , lying , stealing , murdering , and all sinnes whatsoever , and so have made all men twice punishable , and the Ecclesiasticall Courts as full of businesse as the Temporall to the great vexation of the State , and danger of division , out of this false ground onely that Temporall power hath not a competence for the amendment of offenders , or for the care of Religion , but only for the satisfaction of wronged parties , and the expedition of Civill Justice . This is a way to erect regnum in regno , and to maintaine such concurrent jurisdictions , as cannot possibly stand together , for all being subject to sin and offence , as well the Spirituall as temporal , either the one or other must go unquestioned , and this may produce division , or else both ; and that will cause most certaine confusion . Both sides here seem strangely puzled , the rigidest of the Episcopall faction allow Princes a coercive power over Priests , and Prelats , where they performe not what their duty is in their functions or jurisdictions , and this power requires a higher power of summoning , arraigning , and legally trying them : and yet the moderatest of the Presbyteriall faction would have Princes questionable , tryable and punishable by the Spiritualty . This is a grosse confusion , which will appeare to be so more plainly in the sequel ; when it is more fully cleared , that to Princes alone God has precisely committed utramque tubam , and utramque tabulam too , as our reverend Andrews says . 'T is true , as Calvin alleadges , Princes are sons of the Church , they are in it , not above it : the word intending the Church universall , such as is both militant and triumphant ; past , present , and future ; for that hath no other head but Christ : to that all Princes and Priests are equally sons : but take Church for such or such a Nationall , Locall Church , and then the Prince is head thereof , under Christ ; and the Clergy are part of his charge , and under his protection . The same man also may in diverse respects be both father and son to the same man without confusion of relations . A King , a Bishop may heare the Word , and receive the Sacrament from an inferiour Minister ; a Subject may be naturall father to his Prince , and in this respect , a filiall subjection is due from the Superiour , and so a King may referre his own case to his Chancellor , yet this destroyes not the greater , higher , and more generall superiority in other things , at other times . And to me it seemes that even in the exercise of the Keys , the Priest officiates under the Prince , as the Chancellour does in matters of Law , even when the Kings own case lyes in Iudgement before him , and when perhaps hee makes a decree against his own Master , and contrary to his owne Masters private advertisement : and yet the King is not properly either Lawyer or Theologue , though both are actuated , and organized as it were , by the soule like commanding , over-seeing , and over-ruling of his more sublime and divine power . Herein the Priest also may learne a limitation from the Lawyer , for though the Iudge bee bound to pronounce right Iudgement against his owne Master , yet this holds not in all cases alike ; because of his limitted condition , for in Criminall cases such as concerne the safety of the Kings own person , or the Royall dignity of his calling , therein Iudgement must be utterly mute . And therefore it is a weake argument of Master Calvin , though it be his best : when he inferres a necessity of an Ecclesiasticall Iudicature from hence , because else the Prince himselfe wanting punishment , should escape free : for the reason is the same in matters of Law ; the King is not questionable , or responsible , for personall crimes , and yet this is held no politicall mischiefe . Besides if the Prince shall not go unquestioned , or undisciplined by the Spirituall , yet the supreme Spirituall Magistrate must , and this is an equall , if not a greater mischiefe : for both cannot be equally lyable to the judgement of each other . Neither is it to much purpose that the example of Bishop Ambrose so harshly , so unreverendly treating pious penitent Theodosius , is so confidently cited always by either faction Episcopall and Presbyteriall ; for though the name of Ambrose be great , yet I will crave leave to speake as an Advocate against him in the name of the Emperour Theodosius . Reverend Sir , you take upon you to be a Iudge over me , and to condemne me of a bloudy Massacre committed unjustly at Thessalonica , and being so condemned , you proceed against mee with your ghostly punishment , subjecting me to your Ecclesiasticall severity : But I pray consider what mischiefes may follow hereupon ; if Emperours may be punishable by Bishops , then common equity requires that Emperors have the benefit of a faire hearing and arraignment , or else were their condition more miserable than the condition of the meanest vassals : for as Princes actions are more inscrutible , and their counsels more mysticall ; so also their ends are for the most part more lyable to envy , and mis-interpretation : It is not possible for you without due discussion , inquiry , and examination of impartiall witnesses , perfectly to understand all the true circumstances , reasons , and grounds of this my fa●● ; and without this understanding it is not possible for you to pronounce a just censure against me . It 's necessary then that some Tribunall be prepared for you , and some Barre for me , that upright Sentence may passe , and that Iustice may be done understandingly , and upon this it must needs follow that I am your meere Subject , and must lay down my Scepter to bow my selfe under your Crosier , till this difficulty be fully ended . Admit this also , and then you may use what procrastination you please in this intricate decision ; or in the like manner question mee of all other enormities , and scandalous deviations , which rumor , envy , or treason it selfe forges against me ; and thus shall I have no leasure to judge other men , it will be scarce possible for me to acquit my selfe in judgment from other men : that power which God hath put into my hands for the protection of so many Myriads , will be utterly disabled by that higher power which is put into your hands over me . By the same reason also that I am to render an account to you in this place , I am to render the like to all your superiours , equals , or inferiours in other jurisdictions , of all sins whatsoever , whether reall , or imputable , Ecclesiasticall , or Civil , so that no end is like to be of my tryals , purgations , or condemnations . You will say , my crime is sensibly evident ; if I would deny this , you could not prove it so ; and if I would not confesse this , you could not force me , for it was a politicall thing , and farre off acted : and my meere confession can give to you no Iurisdiction . But be my crime as manifest in it selfe as the disobedience of Saul was to Samuel , or as Davids murther was to Nathan , or as Salomons incontinence was to all the World , or as Manasses his Idolatry : yet why should I suffer more than they ? What new coercive , vindicative authority have Priests gained over Princes by Christs Gospel , which the Iewish Priests never used , claymed , or heard of ? If Excommunication , &c. be now necessary , sure it was in use before Christ ; and then we should have heard of some Kings Excommunicated , &c. by some Priests ; for if the Temporall power had not of its owne nature a competent force and habitude to restraine all things repugnant to publique quietnesse , and honesty , a Spirituall power was necessary ; and yet we read of none such . But if there was a sufficiency in the Temporall power , as is most manifestly apparent ; then wee cannot imagine that Christ came to take away any of this authority from Magistrates : but that power which he added , was rather an excellency of grace and vertue in matters of Faith , and illumination . It cannot be alleadged by you , that that punishment is meerely spirituall , and so no politicall evill : for as it puts other men into the condition of Publicans , Heathens , and worse ; so it further yet degrades , disables and oppresses Princes . How shall he be honored and obeyed as the Vicegerent of God in all causes , whom the Layty sees ejected out of the Church , and expelled out of the Communion of the Faithfull , as a rotten contagious member ? How shall hee be held more sacred than a Priest , whom the sentence , interdiction , and the confounding blow of a Priests spiritual execration , shall render so contemptible , miserable and abominable in the eyes of the world ? Saint Paul being accused in matters of Doctrine , made his appeale to a wicked Heathen Emperor ; and yet now a Christian godly Emperor being accused by any Church-man , no appeale is allowed , though in meere civill accusations . S. Peters Keyes did either induce some new power not before known unto the world , or not ; if it did , then our Saviours Gospell came into the world to the detriment of civill government , which is contrary to Religion , and all reason : and if no new addition of power were imported , then Tiberius himselfe , though a Heathen , and Tyrant , remained as absolute as before ; and yet in his time there was more necessity of an Ecclesiasticall judicature , than is now . But you will say , if Princes be not subject to some chastisement , then some scandals must passe unremediable . Not so , for here God is the revenger , and strikes often , as he did Vzziah ; but if not , yet either the Temporall or Spirituall Governour must passe unchastiz'd , which is all one ; for two Supreames cannot be , nor no entire Government without some supremacy , nor no supremacy without immunity , and exemption from judgement . The perpetuall conflicts and contestations betweene Princes and Prelats , which are likely to ensue , will soone cleere this ; that either Princes must at last submit to the tribunals of Church-men , and raigne at their discretion ; or else Church-men must submit to them : For both Tribunals cannot stand compatible . For my part , I excuse so grave a Father as you are , of ambition herein ; and therfore I am the lesse cautious in summiting my selfe at this time : but I conceive this Doctrine may bee the ground of dangerous consequences to others , and therefore I desire it may not from mee passe into a president for the time to come . Let not proud Prelates from this my voluntary humiliation , arrogate to themselves as if it had been due ; or derogate thereby from the more sacred order of Princes : neither let Princes from this particular learne to yeeld to any Spirituall Monarchy whatsoever . My beliefe is , that the Prince is the Head , the Fountaine , the Soule of all power whatsoever , Spirituall , or Temporall ; wherein he ought not to indure at all any kind of rivality of Ecclesiasticall persons , nor can admit of any diminution in any part of his Iurisdiction , without offence to God , dammage to his charge , and danger to himselfe . So much for Theodosius , and so much for that Iurisdiction , which is due to Prelats : I should now speake of the exercise thereof , as it is granted by the favour of Princes , but this is a very tender point . It seemes to some , that Princes ought not to incumber men in Sacred Orders , in any kind of judicature which is not purely spirituall ; nor that Prelates can accept of any Temporall imployment whatsoever , without dishonour to their Orders , and neglect to their cure of Soules : and yet now none so greedy of such imployment . A sacred place may not be put to secular uses , that 's prophane : but a sacred person may , that 's honorable . A Bishoprick now adayes is but a Writ of ease , to dismisse from Preaching , and attending Gods service ; whereby the man is preferred from the Church to the Court , from the Altar to some Tribunall , from Gods Spirituall to the Kings Temporall affaires . In the High Commission , at the Councell Table , in the Star-Chamber , and the Chequer , Church-men are now more active than in their own Consistories , and yet their ambition further aimes ( as 't is said ) to the Chancery , Court of Requests , &c. which could not chuse but redound to the scandall of Religion , the obstruction of Iustice , and vexation of the Subject : if there were not learned and skilful men enough in Policy and Law to serve the King , unlesse Divinity were deprived of some of her followers , there were some seeming umbrage why the King might borrow of God ; as in the shady times of Popery it was usuall : when all learning was as it were ingrossed by the Clergy , and purloyned from the Layty : but when the clouds of universall Ignorance are now dispelled as well from the Layty as Clergy ; now the Clergy are not so necessary in temporall affaires , unlesse we judge it fit that Gods more Holy Offices should be neglected , for this purpose only , that the Kings meaner businesse may be worse administred . The functions of Divines are too sacred for any secular person to officiate , and therefore it should seeme , their persons also ought to be too sacred for secular functions ; for it seemes prepostrous , that it should be thought an honour to Priests to relinquish spirituall , and adhere to temporall imployments . Nic. Machiavell did observe that Christian Religion had long since falne to the ground , had not the regular strictnesse of poore inferiour Priests and Pryers held , and propped up the reputation of it in the world , as much as the Pride and Luxury of the great Cardinals , and Princelike Bishops , did strive to sinke and demolish it . The same observation holds true amongst us Protestants at this day , for the more our Prelats enjoy , the more still they seeke ; and all our three Kingdomes are growne so sick of their Pride , Injustice , and Pragmaticall faction , that scarce any remedy but bloud-letting can cure them . Wee finde in Scripture the most High and Holy Offices of Religion performed by Princes , even amongst , and above the greatest of Priests ; but wee scarce finde any instance at all where Priests intermedled with any State affaires , either above , or under Princes : and yet with us now the imploying and entrusting of Clergy-men in Temporall businesses , is held as politique as it was in times of Popery : although no time could ever justly boast of that use . But to passe over Temporall businesses , how violent have our Bishops beene in their own Canons about Ceremonies , and indifferencies ? and what disturbance hath that violence produced ? They strive as for the beauty and glory of Religion , to bring in the same formes of Liturgy , the same posture of the Communion-Table , the same gesture at the Communion , &c. in all our three Dominions ; as if uniformity were always beautifull : and yet we see , all men are created with severall faces , voyces , and complexions , without any deformity to the universe . 'T is not externall variety , but internall dissention , which spoyles the harmony of Religion ; and dissention is more nourished by the harshnesse of Pastors over their flocks , especially over the weake ones in scruples , than by permitting various Rites and Formes in the externall worship of God . Certainly , liberty and variety in indifferences , and Ceremonies is more favour'd in Scripture , than any universall similitude , or rigorous force whatsoever , over the perplexed , anxious consciences of weake men . We see in Scotland , where there is no Ceremonies , they enjoy that uniformity without contention , which we ayme at only , and seeke to purchase with infinite debate , and persecution ; and under their peace and unity , the Protestant Religion thrives , and Romish Superstition utterly ceases : whereas under our strife and disagreement , Religion and true Devotion is over-run , and overgrown , like Corne choaked with weeds . Nay , it is thought that if our Bishops had been more gentle-handed all this while towards such as dis-relish't Ceremonies for Poperies sake , and had rather pitied them as men of tender consciences , than persecuted and defamed them , as seditious Puritans , these differences had not lasted so long : for when the Reformation was not yet fully perfected , the Puritans of those dayes were more fiery than now ; but not being so odious in the Church , lesse combustion followed thereupon : whereas now they are so unmercifully treated , that no moderate complyance can serve the turne . There seemes now little remaining of Puritanisme , but the breathlesse carkasse of it , and yet till that too be interred and consumed , no truce can be admitted . The very sufferings of Puritans now are sufficient guilt , and imputed as the effects of their owne malice , their punishment is argument enough for the desert of their punishment ; the more they have borne , the more they must now beare ; and the more they now beare , the more they shall hereafter . Fury is one of the maine things objected to Puritans ; but in truth , the World has not any thing more furious than such as most pretend against them . Hence it is , that the hatred of Puritans flowes and descends from the Highest of the Clergy to the lowest : and young Students in the Vniversity know it now their wisest course to Study the defamation of Puritans , as the first and most necessary point of their Learning and qualification , and as their surest path to promotion . And to make their detestation sure , and themselves irreconciliable , they must ingage themselves by some notable service of novelty , quarrelling with some point of Protestantisme , or refining some point of Popery ; they must taxe Protestants as some wayes injurious to Princes , or extoll Papists as zealous observers of Antiquity . It must be maintained that royalty cannot stand without the prop of Episcopacy , though it never yet found greater enemy ; and that Puritanisme only hinders the stretching of our Religion , or else Papists and we should soon agree . Those of vulgar wits which serve not for such straines , that they may bee redeemed from suspicion of Puritanisme , must do something factiously , or be vitious , or else their hopes of preferment are almost desperate . Charity to Papists , conformity to Ancient Fathers , and decent uniformity amongst our selves , are the specious colours wherewith they dresse and deck all their pretences ; for want of Sectaries living in these dayes , they racke out of their tombes Hacket , Copinger , Brown , &c. to upbraid us , for want of opposites enow here in England , they calumniate the Scots to our dishonor ; for want of true imputations , they forge any crimes how monstrous soever , and their most sure one is , that which is most undiscernible , hypocrisie . Neverthelesse it must be believed that the Antipuritan disparages not our Ancestors in the Reformation , but for love of Antiquity ; nor teares in sunder the bonds of Religion Nature , Policy betwixt two the most close-united Nations of the World , but out of love to unite : nor fils whole Kingdomes with bloud , but out of love to Order . Such was sure Diogenes his humility , trampling upon Plato's Couches ; such was Nero's uniformity , setting on fire the streets of Rome ; such was Procrustes his symmetry , cutting his guests according to his beds . And therefore it s thought Puritans are not so much hated for their opposition to Ceremonies , as Ceremonies are multiplied , and inforced for suppression of all zealous Christians , under the umbrage of Puritans : and that for the same purpose the enemies of Piety have blown those coales which they might have quenched . Hooker that sweet and noble Antagonist of Ecclesiasticall Puritans says much in defence of the Churches authority in imposing of Ceremonies , but he says nothing in defence of the Churches Charity in imposing many , and displeasing Ceremonies . So S. Paul might have justified himselfe , as fitter to be subscribed unto and complyed withall then his scrupulous brother , and he might have justified his case concerning eating of such and such meates : but S. Paul in wisdome , and Charity , would doe neither . S. Paul made not his strength an Argument to make his brother yeeld who was weake , but he made his brothers weaknesse an Argument whereby to prevaile and win upon him being strong . And why then does our Mother the Church maintaine her authority against her own scrupulous and tender-minded infants ? If in Iustice and rigor they ought to obey her , and conforme to her wise commands ; does it therefore follow that in Wisdome and Charity she ought not to pity , and preferre their foolish , groundlesse doubts and jealousies ? Is it honorable for the Nurce to contest about authority with a forward Childe , when by indulgence she may better still it ? If Ceremonies bee but things indifferent , they are not so valuable , as peace , for that is necessary . Admit fit and decent Ceremonies to bee the outworkes of Religion , the better to secure it from contempt , and prophanation : Yet let not the outworks be too vast , least they take up more admiration , than they repulse disregard . Neither let us suppose that all times are alike liable to prophanenesse . Before Moses , Religion was very naked and simple in her Ceremonies , and yet we must not thinke that God did then make ill provision , or was carelesse of the government of his Church ; but under the Law , Ceremonies were strangely multiplyed to the Iews , and that by Gods owne appoyntment ; and yet in those times , I cannot thinke that any Discipline could bee invented more honorable for Religion . I shall desire therefore to walke between two extremes , neither wholy condemning all Ceremonies as superstitious , nor embracing many as necessary , besides the Ceremonious use of water in Baptisme , and of Bread and Wine in the Eucharist ; the Gospell recommends no externall rites , but such as the generall rules of decency inclose , to our observation : but it seemes utterly to discountenance all Iewish , carnall ordinances ; yet certainly if multiplicity of pompous ceremonies had been very usefull where knowledge abounds , and to be look't upon as the outworks of Religion , the Gospell would not have been so silent as it is concerning them . Were we now to plant a Church in the West-Indies , amongst rude Salvages , perhaps the externall splendour of our worship might bee as convenient as it was amongst the Iews to attract Proselytes : Or had we now such a dreadfull presence of God residing amongst us , as the Iews had in their Oracle , perhaps Musick Vocall , and Instrumentall , and Statelinesse of attire , and fearefulnesse in our Gestures , and Postures would beseeme us in our solemn addresses and Festivall celebrations : but the difference betwixt these times and those , and these Christian Countreys , and those that are Barbarous is very great . What manner of Divine Service the French Protestants and the Scots use , and some other Nations I cannot tell , but I hope it is not so nasty , and slovenly as some of our Formalists would make us believe : for it seemes not impossible to me , but that in times of so much Light , as these are , God may be very honourably and zealously served without many Stately Ceremonies . The Bishop of Downe makes a very sharpe speech to the Puritans in Ireland , as being very disobedient , and animated therein by the Scotish Covenanters ; but his chiefest eloquence is uttered against his own Countreymen the Scots , whom bee paints forth , as the chiefest Traytors , Perjured Rebels , Heretiques and Hypocrites in the World : nay , he denounceth them worse than Anabatists , and such as have more than justified the Powder-Traytors , and all the rebellious practises of the Iesuites . Afterwards hee addes also , That Puritanisme is not the Nationall sin of Scotland only , but that they of the same faction in England had been as deep in the same condemnation , had they had so much power . See here the lively portraiture of an Antipuritane , see a true B●ner revived againe , but in Protestant habit ; and for ought I see , here are none exempted from this black venomous censure in all the Kings Dominions , but those of the Popish and Episcopall Faction . It 's not to bee wondred at that the King thinkes ill of his subjects , or that Burton or Prin suffered worse than Traytors merits . It s rather to be wondred at , that our streets do not runne with bloud dayly , since this is the Gospell our Reverend Fathers of the Church preach . This Speech was thought worthy to bee dispersed in Print over all our Kingdomes in English ; but since , because it redounds so much to the honour of the three Nations , and the repute of Protestant Religion , it s Translated into Latine , and Coppies are Printed for all Christendome to take notice of . In this Speech it s urged , that Puritans , who began about 80 yeares since , have proceeded from bad to worse by sixe degrees ; first they did dislike , then contemne Bishops ; then they did disobey their Jurisdiction ; then separate themselves ; then they fell into the Heresie of holding no difference between Bishop and Presbyter : lastly , they rebelled , and grew more immoderate than Anabaptists : And here S. Cyprian is alledged , who says , that the contempt of Bishops is the beginning and ground of all Heresies and Schismes . Here we see what Puritans are , the most cursed Miscreants on earth ; next we see who Puritans are , all such as hold not with Episcopacy : that is in probability halfe Ireland , more than halfe England , all Scotland , and many other Protestant Countryes . King James did put a difference betwixt such as dis●relisht Bishops , and Ceremonies meerly , and such as under that pretext fraudulently sought to perturbe the State , and make a factious separation . But here the difference of all Puritans is graduall only , not substantiall : for dislike of Bishops is the beginning of all Heresie , and must needs end in Anabaptisme and rebellion . How plainly d●es it here appeare , that Episcopacy is the true Helena of all this war ; and yet S. Cyprian is to bee understood of the Pastorall function , not of the Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction of a Bishop , or else in his sense the Genevans , and the greatest part of Protestants are Heretiques , and King James made a frivolous distinction . Such stuffe as this had not mis-beseemed a Papist , but it s very odde in a Protestant Bishop ; except we consider him , as one who hath lookt back towards the Onions and Flesh-pots of Egypt , and is inamored againe upon those glorious Titles and Ensignes of Honour and Pompe , which Rome confers upon her Courtiers . But to conclude this point , I wish Princes would not allow such Bishops to be carvers to themselves , and make them Iudges in cases of their owne interesse : they are surely good spectacles for Princes in Theologicall deliberations , as Temporall Counsellors are in State affaires ; but miserable are those Princes whose eyes cannot see without such spectacles . If Religion did not prosper worse , if peace were not more violated , if persecution were not more common in Countreys where Bishops governe , than where they are expelled , we might suspect the Scots as Hereticall and rebellious by nature ; for chusing all the plagues of war rather than Bishops : but when we see the contrary , we may as well listen to the Scots against Bishops , as to Bishops against the Scots . So much of the Ecclesiasticall Puritan , next after whom sprung up the Puritane in Religion , of whom I shall speake very briefly . There are many men amongst us now , which brooke Bishops and Ceremonies well enough ; and perhaps favourably interpret our late innovations : and yet these may bee too grave to escape the name of Puritans . To be a Protestant may be allowed , but to dispute against Papists , smels of precisenesse : to hold the Pope fallible is tollerated , but to hold him Antichrist , is abominable Puritanisme : to go to Church is fashionable , but to complaine of the Masse , or to be grieved at the publique countenance of Popery , whereby it intwines our Religion , and now drinkes up that Sap which is scarce afforded to Protestantisme , or at all to take notice how farre some of our Divines are hereat conniving ▪ if not cooperating , is a symptome of a deepe infected Puritan . He that is not moderate in Religion , is a Puritan , and he that is not a Cassandrian , or of Father Francis Synclers faith , is not moderate : he favours too much of Calvins grosse learning , exploded now by our finest wits . Sir Robert Cotton professes , that he stands much amazed to behold the magnificence of Churches built by our Ancestors , we their Successors being scarce able to keep up the same : but that hee is farther beside himselfe with exceeding marvaile , when he casts his eyes back upon the excellent ground-worke of Religion laid by our Fathers in the Reformation , and yet sees the same so ill built upon , and so negligently seconded by us their children : But this ( he says ) is not to be attributed to the hanging up of Pius 5. his Bull upon the Bishop of Londons gate , or to that favour which has been shewd to Priests , but it is the idlenes , and insufficiency of many of our own teachers , conspiring with the peoples cold zeale , that has wrought this apostacy . The Name of Recusant was scarce known till the II. of Queen Eliz. the Marian persequution , being yet fresh in memory , and great zeale being begotten thereby , and the finger-worke of God being so apparent in the suddaine alteration of Religion . Then did the Layty and Clergy with holy emulation , strive who should shew themselves most affectionate to the Gospell : then were our Ministers as frequent in great mens houses , and as active as Jesuites now are : then were Praying and Preaching both equally pretious to great and small . The name of Papist smelt then ranke even to themselves , all sorts resorting dayly to Church , to avoyd the shame thereof , untill Arch-bishop Grindals disgrace , and Hatfields hard conceit of Prophecies , brought the flowing of these good graces to a still water : But when Sanders the Coripbeus of Catholicks had slily pinned the Name of Puritans upon all such as were most forward in encouraging , and couragious in opposing Catholiques , and when he perceived that the word was pleasing to some ill affected of our own side ; He quickly heated some of us beyond the temper of discretion . And now with the crosse tumults of both factions in extreme choler vented in Pulpits , and Pamphlets , most men grew to be frozen in zeale , and so benummed , that whosever ( as the worthy L. Keep. Bacon observed ) in those days pretended a little sparke of earnestnesse , seemed red-fire-hot in respect of others . Thus it betided Protestants , as those which fare the worse for ill neighbours , for whilst they curbe Papists , or reproove idle drones , they are incontinently branded with the ignominious name of Precisians . See here Sir Robert Cottons Iudgement , as touching the occasion and originall of our Religious Puritans : and see also his censure of the State , as touching the same : For where hee taxes the indiscreete zeale of those who were so violently incensed at Sanders his nickname , so maliciously and subtilly fastened upon them there in his Margin , his Note is this ; If these mens zeale had beene imployed otherwise , and a taske set them to do some good , they might have been reformed , or made harmelesse by diversion . But I passe from this kind of Puritan to another , whom I shall call my Political Puritan ; for the bounds of Puritanisme are yet larger , and inclose men of other conditions . Some there are yet which perhaps disfavour not at all either Ecclesiasticall Policy , or moderate Papists ; and yet neverthelesse this is not sufficient to acquit them from the name of Puritans , if they ascribe any thing to the Laws and Liberties of this Realme , or hold the Prerogative Royall to be limitable by any Law whatsoever . If they hold not against Parliaments and with Ship-money , they are injurious to Kings ; and to be injurious to Kings , is proprium quarto modo to a Puritane . Our present civill , nay more than civill warre with Scotland , and all the mischiefes thereon attending , the disaffection between the King and his Subjects , and all the mischiefes thereon attending the discontinuance of Parliaments , the proper remedies of all State-maladies , and universall grievances , which is a mischiefe whereby all mischiefes become incurable , all are caused by the abusive mistake , and injurious mis-application of this word Puritan . The Scots are Puritans , and therefore enemies to Monarchy , the English are Puritans , and therefore haters of Royall prerogative , both the Nations have been hitherto famous for their devout reverence , and obsequious zeale to their Princes ; but now Puritanisme has infected them , and perverted them to disloyalty . Thus is the Kings heart alienated from his Subjects , and by consequence , the Subjects loyalty blunted towards him , to the incomparable , almost irreparable detriment of both : neither is this disaccord b●tween the King and his best Subjects , more fatall and pernic●ous to the Common-wealth , then his accord with the Recusant faction . Papists have now gotten the repute of the best Subjects , and fittest for trust in places of eminent service ; nay 't is almost necessary that forraine Papists be brought in for the supporting of the indangered Royalty : for though the Popish faction at Court be strong and active enough for matter of Counsell , yet for matter of force , the Puritans in City and Countrey be too predominant . The Bishop of Downe in his visitation speech layes all the calamities of Church and Common-wealth upon Non-conformists , and for proofe thereof instances in the Covenanters , whom he charges of rebellion , charging withall that rebellion upon Puritanisme . The first thing ( says he ) that made me out of love with that Religion , was their injurious dealing with Kings , which I observed both in their Practice and Doctrine . Hee taxes first their Doctrine , because they deny the Kings supremacy in causes Ecclesiasticall , and allow Subjects to resist , nay and depose their King , if he be a Tyrant Surely Ahab could say little for himselfe , if he could not lay his owne crimes upon Elijah ; but see here by what art of confusion all Scots are called Puritans , and all Puritans rebels . King James spoke not so confusedly as if Puritanisme were a Religion ; and all that disliked Bishops and Ceremonies were of that Religion ; and all of that Religion were enemies to Kings . If a Bishop needed any proofe , it his {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} were not unquestionable , I would desire him to prove all Covenanters Puritans ; denyers of the Kings supremacy : or to instance in any Kings which have been deposed or murthred by Presbyteriall authority . How far Bishops have incroached upon Kings , is knowne to all the world : our Protestant Bishops lately have by Oath and Canon , combined together to bind the Kings hands , though hee bee Supreme , that hee shall not governe our Church but by Arch-bishops , Bishops , Arch-deacons , &c. And yet these troublers of Israel have the face to taxe Elijah of their own sinne . Presbytery indeed has heretofore passed her bounds , yet not of late , but Episcopacy has ever from Constantine claimed an independance of Divine right , till this instant . I conceive there are not in all the Kings Dominions , three men , except Papists and Anabaptists , which hold it lawfull to depose , or by any force to violate the persons of Kings , how ill soever . The Scotch Divines indeed maintaine that a great body of men may defend themselvs against the unjust sword of misled Kings , because they cannot fly , or otherwise save themselves ; and this they take now to be their own case ; whereas our Court Divines in England hold , that in such case , we ought all to yeeld our throats without defence . This seemes unnaturall , and truth was never unnaturall , but I forbeare to dispute a point so horrid to mans imagination . The Bishop next instances in the rebellious practices of Puritans , & reckons up some Fasts in Scotland appointed by the Presbytery , without King Iames his privity , and some other seditious Sermons , and actions whereby he was much annoyed . But what ? Did not King James know his owne enemies , or how to blame them ? Did hee condemne all Scots alike , or all Bishop haters alike , or joyne the English in like condemnation ? We know well enough , that King James called rebellious precisians Pu●itans , but he never called all Puritans rebellious precisians ; He never used those termes as conve●tible , but declared his contrary meaning by a manifest difference taken between them . But the Bishops maine ●nstance is in the present Scotch insurrection ; this he cals a rebellion of Puritans , and far greater than the Powder-treason : For ( says he ) that plot was but the act of a few discontented Gentlemen , but in this rebellion of the Puritans they have ingaged a great part of the Kingdome , so that this may be said to be the common sin of that Sect. What could have beene raked out of Hell more slanderous to our Religion , more Apologeticall for Popery ? The Powder-Traytors are here preferred before the whole sect of Puritans : The sin of the Powder-Traytors was , that they being but an inconsiderable party , sought the destruction of their King and his issue , and the flower of the Nobility , Gentry , Commonalty , and the extirpation of the true Religion , by a most diabolical bloudy practice and conspiracy . And it ought not to be charged upon the meere actors , as a symptome of discontent , onely wee know how far the Romish Religion it selfe favours and gives ground to such damned feats , and how far it has owned some having proved prosperous , and justified the doing thereof in nature as impious , though perhaps in degree not so hainous as this . For take this as it was conspired , and questionlesse , since the crucifying of Iesus Christ , the Light never discovered any treason more ugly and horrible . Now to out-match this deed of darknesse , the Scotch Nation by a strange general unanimity have armed themselves to oppose the ill government of Bishops , and other alterations in the service of God , and the administration of Iustice , and being invaded therefore by another Nation , have used force to defend their lives ; and seeing that defence not safe in their owne Countrey , they have since pursued it further by way of prevention in the Country of their Invaders . That is the greatest act of Rebellion whereby the common Peace and safety of a Kingdome is most disturbed and impeached ; but by the common act of a whole Kingdome , that mischiefe cannot be effected : therefore the Bishop failes in his politiques when he thinkes that the Major part disturbing the Minor , is more trayterous , than the contrary . The unanimous act of a whole Kingdome ought to bee presumed to bee lesse injurious , and more wise than the act of any small inconsiderable party , for it hath scarce ever been seen that a whole Kingdome , or the majority thereof hath ever been treasonable to its selfe in procuring its own ruine . Many States have perisht by the machinations of a few ill-affected , ill-advised Counsellors , ( scarce ever any perisht otherwise ) but the totall body and collection has never been guilty of its owne ruine : and if it were , such Treason could not be so great as that which is plotted by a few . Whilst the Scots contained themselves within their owne territories , and were considered as a kingdome within themselves , as they were when the Bishop past his censure , they were not rightly so censured : neither was he then privy to their intrusions , that they would infest our kingdome with the same combustion , and so prove a disturbance to the greater part of our British Monarchy , whereof they themselves are but a member of lesse bulke and value . Cursed therefore are those uncharitable exasperating censurers , whereby the King is too far incensed , and by whose rash instigations the commotions themselves become the harder to be appeased . Great insurrections are like great fires , wherein delay is mischievous , and small remedies rather turne to fuell , then extinguish : and violent counsell against an inraged multitude , is like oyle , or pitch cast into the flame . The wise politician proportions his remedy according to the mischiefe , if water will not prevaile , he useth milke ; if a little quantity will not suffice , he powres as the combustion it selfe requires . Vnfortunate Rehoboam stands as a Seamarke to warne all Princes how to shun this rocke of violent counsell against a people violently inraged and aggrieved . Some men have interpreted the designes of the Scots to have been treasonable from the beginning , and wholy bent upon the spoyle and havocke of the English Nation from their first stirring : Others have wholly justified their intentions and proceedings hitherto as defensive only , and inforced by necessity : both these , I conceive , are too rash and head-long in their guesses . In so great a body of men , there must needs be variety of opinions , and its likely contrariety of affections ; and therefore it behoves the King to be the more tender , moderate , and circumspect in his deliberations , as well for the one side as the other , especially since the Scots have not evidently and universally as yet declared themselves for the worse . We may at once be charitable in hoping the best , and wise withall in preventing the worst ; nay , a charitable and sweet demeanor , if it be not too fond , may prove a great part of our prevention : doubtlesse Rehoboam himselfe , had he not been wilfully devoted to yong , rash , and violent Counsellors , might have easily retained within his obedience many of his well-meaning Subjects , and reclaimed others of more moderation ; and by that meanes have divided and dissipated the most obstinate , headstrong , and furious of all the rebellious party . Some Princes thinke themselves bound in Honour to do unwise things , and this was the error of Rehoboam , his aged Counsellours advised him to that which was most politick , concluding that to be most honourable ; but his Genius rather led him according to the advise of his young Gallants , to conclude that most politick , which to his haughty stomack seemed most honorable : but what was the event ? to avoid the scorn of young men , he incurred the scorn of old men ; to avoid the unjust censure of fooles , he incurred the just censure of wise men ; to gaine the honor of appearing stout , he purchased the dishonour of being rash ; to shew a contempt of danger he made himself a prey to it ; rather then to decline a blow by a gentle bowing of his body , he yeelded himself to be inevitably oppressed by it . At this time of revolt the Israelites were not so wicked , as their revolt after made them ; it may be so with the Scots , they are yet Protestants , and perhaps may be retained so : and who can thinke of Protestants , that so great a body of them , can at one fall so desperately tumble into the depth of mischiefe , as to make Fasting , Praying , Oaths and Sacraments , meere instruments and traines to commit murther , theft , sacriledge , treason , and the most unnaturall of all crying crimes ? But to returne to our owne Nation , and what we suffer by our owne Divine . Manwarings Doctrine is common at Court , and 't is not long since a Byshops Chaplaine in Tearme-time , challenged a Iudge of Treason , for delivering Law according to conscience . And this is now no prodigie , for Pulpits are not publike enough to preach an unlimitable prerogative in ; 't is fit our learned Doctors should mount the Benches of Iustice also ; there to advance Logicke instead of Law ; for Law is growne injurious to Princes , and smels ranke of Puritanisme . Divines themselves will loose nothing to Princes , but all other men shall , that they may gaine the more : and neither Lawyers nor States-men must direct them in any thing , but both Lawyers and States-men must be directed by them in all things : but let us a little examine how the conditionate and absolute formes of government come within the circle of Theologie . The Israelites were governed by Monarchs , but not all alike absolute . The Patriarchs were not so absolute as the Iudges , nor the Iudges as the Kings , nor the Kings as those Heathen Emperours , which at last made them tributary . The due of Caesar , and the due of Solomon , and the due of Samuel , and the due of Jacob , was not the same as to all points of State , or all degrees of Royalty , and yet the nation was the same , and the forme of government still remained the same : viz. monarchicall . It should seeme that God approved that degree of Soveraignty best , which was by himselfe setled in the person of Moses , for when that people afterwards desired a King , of a more awfull and large prerogative , in imitation of other Nations , the thing displeased God . Samuel also wrote a book of this subject , shewing the just conditions of Regall power ; ( the losse whereof is much to be lamented ) for if it had been Gods will that all Kings should be equally absolute in all respects , and free from all limitations and obligations alike , Samuel needed to have written little thereof ; one word had determined all . But in Scripture , as it now remaines , Samuels booke being not extant , our chiefest light and guide now is by example , not rule ; and example we finde very various . The State and Soveraignty of the Jewish Kings in generall , we find mild , and gratious ; but much differing in particulars . Solomon was heavy over his Subjects , and under his Son they would not beare the like ; yet Solomons pressure was not upon the estates of his Subjects by taxes , and impositions , for He made silver in Jerusalem as stones for plenty ; nor did He vex their persons by Military hazzards and services , for He was at peace with all the world : Neither did He any way let fall , or lessen their honour amongst other Nations ; He made them rather a spectacle of glory and prosperity to the world . Solomons harshnesse was onely in imploying so great multitudes for his own pompous attendance , and for the performance of such publike workes , and structures , as did tend to the Magnificence and beauty of the State . Besides , Scripture does not satisfie us , neither by rule , nor example , whether Kings ought to be successive alwayes , or elective ; or whether primogeniture of Males , or unigeniture of Daughters , ought to take place : many things are left so uncertaine , that it is not alwayes safe for Kings wholly to rely upon examples ; and for the rule of obedience , it is generall , and no more advantagious for free Monarchs , than conditionate Potentates ; no more for supreame , than subordinate commanders . The Law of Nature best determines , that all Princes being publike Ministers for the common good , that their authority ought to be of sufficient latitude for that common good ; and since Scripture is not expresse concerning that latitude , as to all people , the same not being to all alike necessary , the severall Laws of severall Countries best teach that certaine latitude . I could wish therefore that Princes herein would not so much consult with Divines , as Lawyers ; or rather with Parliaments , which are the grand Courts and Counsells of Kingdomes ; for ( as Cotton saies ) Every man in particular may deceive , and be deceived ; but no man can deceive all , nor can all deceive one . Ancient times are not precedentary to ours by any necessity , for Lawes are now more learned , exact , and particular ; and Courts and Tables of Iustice , and Policy , are more wisely and methodically composed and elected , then they were ; and therefore there needs not that vocall power , or indisputable force to remaine in the breasts of Princes , as was of old . The Courts of Parliament , and their unquestionable Acts ▪ and Ordinances , and their infallible avisoes , are now in all well-governed Countries , the very Oracles of all Policy , and Law , they are the fountaines of civill bloud , spirits , and life ; and the soveraigne antidots of publike mischiefes . That Prince was never yet deceived which relied upon them , nor can he chuse but be deceived , which thinkes he can be assisted with any more wise or faithfull advertisement , then that which is given him by his whole Realme united , and contracted in a lesse circumference . What end can all the flower of the Nobility , Gentry , and Commonalty of a Nation , being wise and religious , have in seducing their Soveraigne , or in limiting that Soveraignty , by which alone they are protected ? Or what one party of particular men can better understand the true limits of sufficient Soveraignty , and the profit thereof ; then this collective universality , whole rayes like the Suns , are every where dispersed ; and yet whose body of light is here as in a refulgent Globe concentred ? Individualls may have many particular ends , severed from the Princes or the States , but Communities can ayme at nothing but the common good ; as the lesser fountaines scatter their branching streames up and downe in various Maeanders , whilst the Sea containes it selfe in an intire body , within its constant bounds . Individuals also have but their owne particular set limit of perfection , and have judgements beside apt to be darkened by their owne severall interests and passions ; whereas the common body enjoyes a confluence of severall perfections , and hath the lesse force from abroad to overcloud them . Of all men therefore it will most concerne Princes to suspect them which are enemies to publike assemblies , and to confide in them most , whose ends are not divided from the generalities ; and as they tender their owne happinesse , to expect it chiefly from that generality , by which they are Kings , to which they are Gods , from which their very Diadems receive honour and sanctity , to which their very Royall Order imparts life , and breath , and necessary subsistence . I come now to my Ethicall Puritan . The name of Puritan must not rest here , for there may be some moderate , well inclined , facile men , whose education may be such that they are not much vers'd or insighted either in matters of Religion , or matters of State ; they may be such as are no waies busie but in their own particular affaires , and yet it behooves that these men too be brought in within the opprobrious compasse of Puritanisme . To the Religious , Ecclesiasticall , and Politicall Puritan , there must be joyned also an Ethicall Puritan . This detested odious name of Puritan first began in the Church presently after the Reformation , but now it extends it selfe further , and gaining strength as it goes , it diffuses its poysonous ignominy further , and being not contended to Gangrene Religion , Ecclesiasticall and Civill policy , it now threatens destruction to all morality also . The honest strict demeanour , and civill conversation which is so eminent in some men does so upbraid and convince the Antipuritan , that even honesty , strictnesse , and civility it selfe must become disgracefull , or else they which are contrary cannot remaine in grace : But because it is too grosse to deride vertue under the name of vertue ; therefore other colours are invented , and so the same thing undergoes derision under another name . The zealous man is despised under the name of zealot , the Religious honest man has the vizard of an hypocrite , and dissembler put upon him to make him odious . Here I may alledge even Hooker himselfe in justification of this Ethicall Puritan , that good ingenuous man in these dayes , though he opposed them in polity , yet honoured them in morality , and certainty if he were now living , he would strongly inveigh against their opposers in this respect . He cites Aristotle in his 5. booke of Ethicks , and 3. cap. that many men in domesticall things may be vertuous , and yet offend {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , yea , I am perswaded ( sayes he ) that of those with whom we strive in this cause , there are whose betters amongst men could hardly be found , if they did not live amongst men , but in some wildernesse amongst themselves . And the cause ( sayes he ) of their disposition so unframeable to Society is , for that what they thinke privately to be convenient and just with some shew of probability , the same they thinke themselves bound to practise and uphold , notwithstanding any Law of man to the contrary : and thus by following the Law of private reason , where the Law of publike should take place , they breed disturbance . See here the maine taxation of Puritans amongst their honest and wise opposers ( such as I allow Hooker to bee , ) is this , that in things indifferent , they will not recede from their owne consciences , for any command whatsoever , in all necessary points of morality there cannot be found better men . I cannot tell , I am left to pronounce here with the Poet . Crudelis Mater magis , an puer improbus ille ? Improbus ille puer , crudelis tu quoque mater . I will only wish that neither the child would be so disrespectfull of his mothers judgement in indifferencies , nor the mother so unpittifull of her childes weaknesse in scruples . Hooker also in his preface confesses , that Puritans at first were pityed only in their errors , and not much withstood by any : for the great humility , zeale , and devotion which appeared to be in them , was in all mens opinions , a pledge of their harmelesse meaning . The hardest ( sayes he ) that men of sound understanding , conceived of them , was but this : O quàm honestâ voluntate miseri erant ! and for this cause Luther made request to Fredericke of Saxony , that within his dominion they might be favourably dealt with , and spared , for that , ( their error exempted ) they seemed otherwise right good men . So then whilst their meaning is honest , and whilst their honest meaning tends onely to make themselves miserable , that is , objects of scorne , and punishment , favour ought to be shewed . T is true , Hooker after complaines , that this favour produced ill effects amongst Puritans , who by meanes of such mercifull tolleration gathered more strength then was safe for the State : but under favour , this does not appeare so with me : In France , Scotland , and those parts of Germany where Zealots have had most liberty , and favour , I doe not see any effects so evident thereof , as these : that Popery hath the sooner vanisht , and enmity beene the better prevented . It seemes to me , that England of all Protestant countries has least cause to boast of her rigorous discipline towards Puritans , having never yet been either quiet , or safe til this instant , and now scarce being able to beleeve , that great worke of deliverance , which God hath mercifully wrought for us . It cannot be denyed , but the yet unsettled condition of these times hath been scandalous in multitudes of Anabaptisticall sectaries , whose severall conventicles cry , here is Christ , and here is Salvation : but what ? Is this the blame of the Churches indulgence to weake brethren in nice scruples ? surely no : for it is to be hoped , that when government is againe settled , as favour shall bee used in matters of indifferency , so the rod shall be resumed againe against all obstinate offenders in matters of weight . And who does not see , that these swarmes of conventiclers which now sequester themselves from us , are but the dregges of the vilest and most ignorant rabble , whose doctrines cannot prevaile though they meet with no opposition , nor subsist when authority once lifts up its hands or shakes its Staffe against them . The feeble Flyes of Sommer , which every shower , and cloud almost disperses , are not more contemptible , than these wretched throngs , whose workes not being of God , no nor scarce of Rationall man , cannot prosper in such an age of Knowledge , Learning , and Piety , as this is . Let us not then for some Gnats , or frogges sakes ungratefully murmure against Sommer , or undervalue all the sweet influences of the Sun , and the softer gales of Heaven . Puritans by some are parallelled to Iesuites , Iesuites are called Popish Puritans , and Puritans , Protestant Iesuites ; yet this is not indeed disparageable to them : For doubtlesse fiery zeale and rigour were not blameable in Iesuites , were not their very Religion false ; as celerity and expedition in a Traveller is not in it selfe faulty , but commendable , though the Traveller being in a wrong path , it causes him to stray the further from his journies end . My Lord of Downe professes that the first thing which made him distast the Religion of Puritans ( besides their grosse hypocrisie ) was sedition : So grosse hypocrisie , it seemes , was the first . What is grosse or visible hypocrisie to the Bishop , I know not , for I can see no windowes or casements in mens breasts , neither do I think him indued with Saint Peters propheticall spirit whereby to perceive and search into the reines , and hearts of hypocrites ; but let him proceed . It is a plausible matter ( saies he ) with the people to heare men in authority depraved , and to understand of any liberty and power appertaining to themselves , The profession also of extraordinary zeale , and as it were contempt of the world workes with the multitude . When they see men goe simply in the Streets , and bow downe their heads like a Bull-rush , their inward parts burning with deceit , wringing their neckes awry , shaking their heads as if they were in some present griefe , lifting up the white of their eyes at the sight of some vanity , giving great groanes , crying out against this sin and that sin in their Superiours , under colour of long prayers , devouring widdowes , and married wives houses ; when the multitude heares and sees such men , they are carried away with a great conceit of them , but if they should judge of these men by their fruits , not by outward appearance , they should find them to be very far from the true Religion . See here the froth of a scurrilous libeller , whereby it is concluded that he that is of severe life , and averse from the common vanit●es of the time , is an hypocrite : If these descriptions of outward austerity I shall not only shew what is an hypocrite , but point out also who is an hypocrit , our Saviour himselfe will hardly scape this description ; doubtles our Saviour , and many of his devoutest followers did groane shake their heads , and lift up their eyes at the sight of some publick 〈◊〉 , and vanities , and did not spare to taxe the vices of Superiours , and to preach to , and admonish the meaner sort of the people ; yet who but an Annas or Caiphas will infer from hence that therefore their inward parts burne with deceit , and that their end is meerely to carry away the multitude ; such as judge only by outward appearance , and have not their senses exercised to discerne betwixt good and evill ? It is likely the High Priests and Pharisees did thus blaspheme in those dayes , and that the rather , because from their owne fayned sanctity , they were the more apt to suspect the same in others : But what I must wee needs follow them , or this Bishop in this ? But to proceed with this Bishop , Saint Iames ( sayes he ) gives us a full description of true Religion . Wisdome from above is first pure , then peaceable , gentle and easie to bee entreated , full of mercy and good fruits , without judging , and Hypocrisie . None of these properties will agree with the Religion of Puritans . It is not pure for it allowes Vsury , Sacriledge , Disobedience , Rebellion , &c. It is not peaceable , for these men are the incendiaries of Christendome , It is not gentle , nor easie to be intreated , for they are more austere than Cato , and not to be moved by perswasion or command . It is not full of mercy and good fruits , for they are all for sacrifice , nothing for mercy ; for the first Table , not the second ; for faith , not charity ; they pull downe Churches , but build no hospitals . It is not without judging , for they are known to be most rigid censurers . And hee is an Hypocrite which spies a mote in his brothers eyes , and not a beame in his owne . Here is a confused proofe , that such Puritans are hypocrites , but no proofe at all , that this man is such a Puritan . If my Lord Say be such a Puritan , this denotes him an hypocrite , but this does not prove that my Lord Say , or Brooke , or Dod , or Clever &c. or any the most famous Puritan living is guilty of Vsury , Sacriledge , Rebellion , pulling downe of Churches , setting the World on fire , or of renouncing the second Table and all works of justice and charity , or of censuring and condemning malignantly other men : If these things were true of particular men , calumny were needlesse : Accusation would better suppresse them . And sure it is not out of favour that Law proceeds not , for malice has often enough shewed her teeth , and would have bitten if she could , neither would she now calumniate if she could accuse . The Bishop expects not to be beleeved ; if he puzzell , and work some into doubt , it is sufficient : but since bitter censuring , and calumnious condemning of others is s● infallible a signe of hypocris● : how doth the Bishop wipe this off from himselfe ? Can Puritans , speake worse of any , than he doth of Puritans ? Sure they may well joyne with him upon this issue , that the greatest slanderer is the greatest hypocrite ; and yet seeke no further for slanders , than this very speech , wherein he so eagerly inveighs against slander ; but if individuals cannot be thus convinced by the Bishop , how shall these signes and symptomes be applyed to whole Sects , Religions , Kingdomes ? The most ordinary badge of Puritans is their more religious and conscionable conversation , than that which is seene in other mens : and why this should make them odious or suspected of hypocrisie amongst honest and charitable men , I could never yet learne . A seeming religious consists in doing actions outwardly good , and the goodnesse of those actions is apparent to man ; but the false hypocriticall end of them is onely discerned by God : and therefore with what conscience can I condemne that good which is visible , for that evill which is not visible ? Say , Brooke , Dod , Clever , &c. are knowne to me ; yet no otherwise but as men singularly devote , and as all the Prophets , and Appostles would , if they were now living : and shall I conclude because they seem so , therefore they are not so ? I am so far from this , that my owne conscience bindes me to honour them , and that in those things , wherein I have not the grace to follow them . I have been a diligent inquirer into Puritans , and have exactly tryed them three wayes . First , in themselves ; and so I finde them zealous , at least seeming so outwardly , and distinguisht principally from other men by their remarkeable , and singular zeale to God and the Truth : and this to me is no ground of uncharitable censure . Secondly , in those , which in these times thinke and speake charitably of them ; and they are so many in number , and of so good quality , that indeed to the Popish and Episcopall faction , all the kingdom almost seems Puritanical ; but for this I cannot think the worse of them . But thirdly , when I consider Puritans , and compare them with their common notorious adversaries , then their goodnesse seemes most evident to me , and if it were legibly ingraved in the open wickednesse and scandall of their chiefe opposers . Nothing but Truth , Hollinesse , and Goodnesse , seemes to me to be the cause , that Papists do so implacably abominate them : that our proud Hierarchists , Ambidexters , and Neuters in Religion , do so uncessantly pursue their subversion ; that Court-flatterers and time-serving Projectors , and the ravenous Caterpillars of the Realme , do so virulently prosecute them with defamations and contumelies ; that Stage-poets , Minstrels , and the jesting Buffoones of the age , make them the principall subject of derision : Lastly , that all the shamelesse rout of drunkards , lechers , and swearing ruffians ; and the scume of the vulgar are so tickled with their reproach , and abuse . Certainely , nothing but an unappeaseable antipathy could be the cause of all this , and no testimony of goodnesse can be more sure , un-erring , and unanswerable than such antipathy . Amongst wicked men there may be particular hatred , but not a generall antipathy : One wicked man hates not another as wicked , but rather loves him therefore , or else the World did not observe a decorum in loving her owne , and hating strangers : As there cannot be division in Satans kingdome ; so there cannot be communion or compatibility betwixt Christs and Satans Subjects . But t is a miserable thing to see how far this word Puritan in an Ethicall sense dilates itselfe . Heretofore it was Puritanicall , to abstaine from small sins ; but now t is so to abstaine from grosse open sins . In the mouth of a Drunkard , he is a Puritan which refuseth his cups ; In the mouth of a Swearer , he which feares an oath ; In the mouth of a Libertine , he which make any scruple of common sins ; In the mouth of a rude Souldier , he which wisheth the Scotch warre at an end without bloud . It is sufficient that such men thinke themselves tacitly checked and affronted by the unblamable conversation of Puritans , Byshop Lake that good and godly man moved at the declining state of his time , is said to have expressed his regret thus : We feare , saith he , a relapse into Popish error , and superstition ; but my heart misgives me worse than so : Vtter irreligion and Atheisme , me thinkes , begins to prevaile strangly amongst us : we are not so likely to lose the light of truth , as the heat of zeale ; and what benefit is in Religion , where the name of it is honoured , but the power of it is not at all seene ? where Gods Will is truely understood , but his commands are wholy slighted ? where men know like Christians , but live like Heathens ? The soule of Religion is hearty devotion , and that growes dayly more and more ridiculous amongst us ; and yet Religion without the soule of it , is rather a curse than a blessing to us . No impiety is so hainous in an ignorant Sodomite , as want of Piety is in a right instructed Israelite . In this wise I have heard that good Prelate did complaine ; and this makes me thinke , that he had in his complaint some respect to this word Puritan , then which , certainely the Devill hath not a more fatall engine whereby to confound religion , and to subvert all true zeale , goodnesse , and devotion . Thus farre it appeares what a vast circumference this word Puritan has , and how by its large acception it is used to cast durt in the face of all goodnesse , Theologicall , Civill , or Morall : so that scarce any moderate man can avoid its imputation . And thus it does mischiefe to men , not commonly noted for Puritans , but if a man be so noted , though perhaps irregularly , then it is farther otherwise abused : for all such a mans evill shall be charged upon his Puritanisme , and all his good defaced for his Puritanisme . Such a man is condemned for murther , and adultery ; and at his death gives strong assurances of unfaigned repentance , and contrition of heart . He was a Christian , a Protestant , a Minister , a Puritan ; yet this crime is recorded and blowne abroad , not for the shame of Christians , Protestants , Ministers , but of Puritans . And as for his attestation of deepe humiliation , how excellent soever , the honour of them , if any be acknowledged , shall redound to the Christian , the Protestant , the Minister , to any thing else except the Puritan . Howsoever in the first place it ought to be observed , that an uncleane streame does not alwayes receive it's uncleannesse from the filth of the Fountaine , but in the second place a pure streame necessarily infers a pure Source . T is true , Trees are knowne by their fruites , and so are men generally by their workes ; but this similitude holdes not in all men , at all times : for good men sometimes commit soule sinnes , and bad men performe laudable services . David defiles Vriahs wife , and to conceale it from the world , makes drunke and murders Vriah ; and together with him casts away the lives of many other faithfull Souldiers : yet nothing moved at this his owne mis-doing , at the same time he sentences to death a Subject of his for damnifying a neighbour , to the value of a poore lamb : what might Joab , and the other privy Ministers of these his foule deeds , censure all this while of this his externally professed sanctity , and purity , and strictnes in point of justice to other men ; or of his so great indignation against pet●y offenders ? what might they judge of the root , from whence these fruits sprung ? did they conclude these fruits , good ? or did they conceive that such fruits might grow upon a good stocke ? It 's strange , that he which would be so rigid to a petty fellon , should himselfe find no remorse at his owne murther and oppression , in spoyling so gallant a Commander , of his wife , of his sobriety , of his life , and to continue so long a time without regard either what himselfe had done , or what Vriah had suffered . But it 's well , David lived in those times when the name of Puritanisme was not invented to blast all goodnesse : had he lived amongst us , he had been accounted a Puritan , and being a Puritan , God might have forgiven him , but the world never would : but it seemes the world was not then poysoned with the same base word , though I beleeve under some other nicke-name goodnesse was alwaies odious : for we read , that for that very sin of David , Gods name was evill spoken of amongst the wicked . So Solomon the Sonne of seduced Bathsheba , if we censure him by many of his actions , perhaps Jeroboam , and Ahab that made Israel to sinne , were not personally addicted to so much excesse of bodily lust , and pollution , nay perhaps many heathens and Turkes have detested his enormous lubricities . I speak not this to countenance sin , but to discountenance rash censures of sinners , wishing all that thinke themselves fraile and mortall , to turne their eyes inwards , and to lay their hands upon their owne mouths , forbearing to censure all sins , but most especially the most latent and obscure of all sins , hypocrisie . Solyman the magnificent is held the honestest of all the Princes which raigned in his time , not excepting Christian Princes , nay not excepting the great Father of them all , the Apostolicke man of Rome : yet this is no shame to Christianity , but to Christians rather ; nay I wish it might be accounted rather a rebuke , than a shame ; rather a rebuke to humble them , than a shame to confute them . For Christ tels us that many times the first are last , and last first , God sees not as man sees , and yet he that will judge uprightly ought to see as God sees , and not as man . So much of the extensive infamy of this word Puritan , now of its intensive malignancy : but little more needs to be spoken hereof , for he which tels you who is a Puritan , for the most part tels what is a Puritan . The Papist we see hates one kind of Puritans , the Hierarchist another , the Court Sycophant another , the sensuall Libertin another ; yet all hate a Puritan , and under the same name many times hate the same thing . He which is an enemy to our Religion which is the truth , hates the Puritan as an enemy to Truth ; he which is an enemy to Piety , Policy , Morality , charges the Puritan of being the same : wherefore whatsoever is hated by the perverted and disaffected in Religion , Piety , Policy , Morality , is a Puritan , and whosoever is a Puritan , is censured , hated , and slandered as a man perverted and disaffected in Religion , Piety , Policy , and Morality . This sufficiently appeares by the common slanders of all goodnesse in these dayes , and particularly by the Byshop of Downe , for as he justifies Jesuites , Anabaptists , and the Powder-Traiters before Puritans ; so he describes , and proscribes whole Religions , Sects , and Kingdomes for Puritans . In the yeare of grace 1588 , when the Spanish Armado had miscarried , notwithstanding that his holines of Rome had so peremptorily christned it , and as it were conjured for it , One of that Religion was strangely distempered at it , and his speech was as 't is reported , God himselfe was turned Lutheran : By which , for certaine , he meant Hereticall . 'T is much therefore that my Lord of Downe , now that Episcopacy is so foyled in Scotland , has not raged in the like manner , and charged God of turning Puritan : but surely , if he has spared God , he has not spared any thing else that is good ; and if he has spared to call God Puritan , he has not spared to call Puritan Devill : but to conclude , if the confused misapplication of this foule word Puritan be not reformed in England , and that with speed , we can expect nothing but a suddaine universall downefall of all goodnesse whatsoever . AElius Adrianus the Emperour , about an hundred yeares after our Saviour , having beene certified by Serenius Granianus , Proconsul of Asia , that the Christians in those partes were illegally oppressed by the malice of unjust Sycophants , sends this his Imperiall edict to the next successor Minutius Fundanus . If the Provincials can prove ought against the Christians , whereof they charge them , and can at the barre of justice make good the same , let them proceed in a juditiall course : but let them not appoach , the Christians meerely for the name , by clamouring , and rayling scandals against them : For it is expedient , if any be disposed to accuse , that the accusation bee throughly knowne , and judicially tryed you ; therefore if any accuse the Christians that they transgresse the Lawes , see that you judge and punist according to the quality of the offence , but if any upon spite or malice by way of calumny complaine agai●st them , see you chastise such for their malice , and repay them with condigne punishment . I began with a Marquesso , I end with an Emperour , both read the same Lecture , both teach us a difference betwixt privy malicious calumny and open judiciall accusing , or impleading ; God sends us to hearken to both , asmuch as the necessity of our case requires it . FINIS . 
A65867	----	The glory of Christ's light within expelling darkness being the sum of the controversie between the people called Quakers, and some of the non-conformist priests, as manifest at two publick disputes in Essex : between George Whitehead (called a Quaker) and Stephen Scandret (Presbyter) being at the latter dispute assisted with five more of his brethren, the priests, to wit, Nathaniel Barnard, Henry Havers, Henry Coleman, Nath. Ball, and Robert Billoes : wherein are several. Whitehead, George, 1636?-1723. 1669 Approx. 103 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 24 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-10 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A65867 Wing W1930 ESTC R39125 18216695 ocm 18216695 107193 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A65867) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 107193) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1136:16) The glory of Christ's light within expelling darkness being the sum of the controversie between the people called Quakers, and some of the non-conformist priests, as manifest at two publick disputes in Essex : between George Whitehead (called a Quaker) and Stephen Scandret (Presbyter) being at the latter dispute assisted with five more of his brethren, the priests, to wit, Nathaniel Barnard, Henry Havers, Henry Coleman, Nath. Ball, and Robert Billoes : wherein are several. Whitehead, George, 1636?-1723. 47 p. s.n.], [London : 1669. Place of publication suggested by Wing. Imperfect: Stained, with print show-through. Errata: p. 47. Reproduction of original in the Union Theological Seminary Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. 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Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Scandrett, Stephen, 1631?-1706. Society of Friends -- England. Puritans -- England. Dissenters, Religious -- England. 2004-11 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2004-12 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-01 John Latta Sampled and proofread 2005-01 John Latta Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-04 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE GLORY of CHRIST's LIGHT WITHIN Expelling DARKNESS : Being the sum of the Controversie between the People called Quakers , and some of the Non-conformist Priests , as manifest at Two Publick Disputes in Essex ; Between George Whitehead ( called a Quaker ) and Stephen Scandret ( Presbyter ) being at the latter Dispute assisted with five more of his Brethren , the Priests , to wit , Nathaniel Barnard , Henry Havers , Henry Coleman , Nath. Ball , and Robert Billoes . Wherein are several weighty Matters and Principles discussed , to inform and undeceive the deceived , that they may know the Truth as it is in Jesus , which is really desired By us who are Lovers of Truth , and Well-wishers to our Enemie's Souls , Robert Ludgater , William Allen , John Furly , John Childes , Giles Barnadiston , George Whetherley Whereunto is added a Brief and Scriptural Examination of that private Principle of a Personal Election and Reprobation of certain definite numbers from Eternity ; wherein that ridged Spirit ( that denies Grace to be free for all men ) is detected , By G. Whitehead . Evil men and Seducers wax worse and worse . Printed in the Year , 1669. A Narrative to Professors and Followers of Presbyterian Priests , and others concerned . ALthough perverse Disputes of men of corrupt minds are things neither desirable , nor pleasing to us ; yet when such men do appear with impudence , and open face , against the Precious and Living Truth professed by us , we are necessitated to appear on Truth 's behalf , and to stand up for the Lord in these weighty matters ; as namely , on the behalf of his Universal-Love , and Free-Grace to mankind , therein we bearing witness unto that true Light of his , within and the sufficiency of it both as Rule and Guide in the Way to Salvation , and in vindication of this true Light which enlightens every man coming into the World , as also for the Power and Work of Christ in his restoring and freeing man , perfectly , out of Sin and Death ; for this ( through his Grace ) we are engaged to appear against the Devil and Darkness , and against all his sinfull Agents and Messengers , who dispute against the sufficiency of the Light of Christ that is in every man , and against Perfection being attainable in this life , wherein they do but contend for the Devil , Error , Darkness , and the works thereof , and so against God , his Truth , Free-Grace , and his Work , whom we desire ever to serve and testifie to . And now , as to the occasion of our having thus to do with this Stephen Scandret , and some of his Brethren ; the two Disputes ( as they were deemed ) that were between him and our Friend George Whitehead , were chiefly occasioned by the said S. S. and some of his Hearers and Benefactors , both proffering and urging for dispute ; it appears that some of his Hearers had in that matter better conceits of him then he deserved , as judging him a man of competent parts and abilities for that purpose ; as also probably supposing that his Cause on Principles had had such Truth in them , that they should have had the more power and prevalency with them to have stood the trial better then they did . As for the first Dispute on the 20th of the 11th moneth ( 68 ) it was managed with more calmness and moderation on S. S. his part than the latter , excepting that many times he would interrupt when an answer was a giving , and at the latter end he broke off to be gone , in such an abrupt manner , that as he occasioned some disorder , leaving some false insinuations against us , implying , as if we did not own the Righteousness of Christ for Justification , &c. without staying to receive answer thereto , which tended to stir up the ruder sort against us : Howbeit , the Controversie having been managed before with some moderation , this S. S. ( as no doubt , being then under some conviction ) was forc'd to confess to several truths which G. W. urged : As first , ( after he had asserted the Scriptures to be the only Rule of Life ) he confessed , that the Light within was a spiritual Light , and the Light of the Spirit of God , that every one is enlightened with . Secondly , That this Light many have who have not the Scriptures . Thirdly , That this Light within might , through the blessing of God , with a good improvement , save them that have not the Scriptures ; So that to his own confutation , he did herein confess to the Light within , as being more universal than the Scriptures . And in his confessing this Light within to be Spiritual , or a Light of the Spirit of God , he hath flatly contradicted his denying the Light within to be saving ; and in divers other things , at the other Dispute , he did manifestly contradict himself , and yet would not appear to see or confess his Error , when several times urged upon him at the Dispute : Howbeit , afterwards he writ a Paper to G. W. wherein he confessed himself defective in the Disputation ; howbeit , ( as appeared upon some of his Hearers pressing him for a second Disputation , as also being reflected upon by some of the professing Party , who reported , that he had given away their Cause ) he himself writ , and pressed several times upon G. W. for another Dispute , using very smooth words ; as , Beloved Friend , I am willing again to meet you in a friendly and amicable manner to dispute ; but at this last Dispute all his pretended amity and friendship was turned into enmity , railing , interruptions and disorderly proceedings , not at all like a man either serious , or composed in his mind for to mannage a Dispute , nor yet moderately to search into matters . To his earnest urging to a second Dispute to be on the 25th or 30th of March , G. W. could not then lay aside his occasions to attend upon him at that time , but rather endeavoured to perswade this his ( more forward and confident , then prudent ) Antagonist to weigh the business a little longer , that he might forbear pressing such a thing , until the Lord should order his coming from London into this Country ; George proposing these things following to his consideration , in the mean time a little to quiet him , as in his Letter to S. S. in these words , ( viz. ) Seeing that thou dost appear as one so willing and forward in this case to gratifie the peoples desires , I judge it meet that thou take the matter into more serious consideration , before there be a positive conclusion between us of the time and place for such a meeting ; as first , to mind , that Sectaries ( among whom thou and I , with our Friends are numbred ) have their present Liberty and Meetings rather by connivance , then by Law or Tolleration granted by the present Power ; so that if occasion of provocation should be taken at such Meeting or Meetings , we must consider aforehand what in probability may be the issue . Secondly , I have not observed those Leaders of the People of thy perswasion to be so forward or ready to suffer imprisonment and exile in Stormy Times , as many of us , or our Friends have done , that now you should seem to be so forward to make a flourish , and perk up so high in a time of Calm , unless you were resolved to stand a Storm with us ; however , prudence in these matters would become all , &c. howbeit , G. W. did signifie , that he was not unwilling , in the Lord's Will and time , both to answer the will and desires of moderate people in the case , as also to stand up for God and his Truth , as required by him , or necessitated upon such occasions being put upon him , ( withal urging , that S. S. would engage there should be no Tumult nor Disturbance made against us ) but when S. S. saw that G. W. could not meet him so soon as he desired , he seemed to be the more urgent for a second Dispute , and so writ again for that end , probably thinking , either that that might excuse him to his Hearers , if George should not meet him ; or else , if he should , that he might amend his matter , and salve up the sore wherein he was defective before ; [ though he has more marred his work , and stained his credit at the last dispute , in the eyes of all moderate people , then ever before ; for his confessing to several Truths at the former Dispute , though to the breaking the neck of his and his Brethrens corrupt Cause , was better resented by all indifferent Auditors , then his insolently opposing and gainsaying the Truth in a most irregular manner at the last Dispute , as one resolved both to stop his ears , and shut his eyes against plain demonstration and conviction , as also to hinder the People from hearing the Truth , by his frequent interruptions , when answers should have been given ; being , with his Assistant Nathaniel Barnard , resolved to bawl and make a noise when any thing of Truth was like to pinch them , or inform the people against their Errors and Corruptions . ] But notwithstanding all this Scandret's pressing for this second Dispute , when he was sent to by John Childe and Joseph-Smith , upon G. W. his order , to inform him of George's being in the Country , as also of his willingness to meet him for a Dispute ; also , George writ several times to him upon his seeming to evade disputing , because that George at first took not notice of his propositions ; [ he having pretended , that it was in love to Christ , in love to Truth it self , and in good will to Souls that he would dispute again ; though he would have shuffled it off when it came to trial ] whereupon he used these words in his Letter to George ; ( viz. ) Who would come over the threshold to Discourse with such a one ? I do still look upon you to deny to dispute with me ; thus he both slighted him , and uttered falshood , for George did not deny to dispute , though he could not joyn with him in prayer , which was one of his main Propositions , in these words , I shall still urge , that we begin with solemn Prayer , wherein none of us could joyn with him , judging it a very unreasonable thing in him to impose any such thing upon us , while we are so opposite and contrary in our spirits and principles to him and his Brethren ; for there cannot be a real joyning in worship , where there is not an union in Principle ; though the Duty of Prayer , it self , we really own , where it is perform'd and brought forth in the Spirit of Truth , and from its immediate teachings and motions . Now when S. S. saw that this Proposition could not be assented to , he stood peremtorily upon other two , which were in these words , ( viz. ) That you speedily and expresly consent , under your hand , the Dispute shall not hold above five or six hours in a day . Secondly , That what Question be asked , pertinent to the point in hand , it be answered by affirming or denying of it expresly , if it be capable of such an answer , &c. to which G. W. returned this answer ; ( viz. ) as for thy two demands which thou art so peremtory in ; to the first I say , Thou art left to thy liberty to cease disputing when five or six hours are out , provided thou dost not break of abruptly , to a disturbance , as before . To the second , I do intend , according to my understanding , to be as positive and intelligent in my answers to questions pertinent , as I can , and in my answers to signifie an affirmation or denial , if the question be capable of such an answer : upon which the time and place for the meeting ( which was on the first day of the fifth Moneth 1669. ) was prefixt in the same Answer by G. W. which S. S. could not well evade . As for the manner of this S. Scandret , and those his Brethren that assisted him , their behaviour and mannagement of the second Dispute , on their parts , it was quite contrary to what he proffered and pretended in his Letters before ; for he had pretended to meet and dispute in an amicable and friendly manner ; as also , that equal liberty should be granted to each party to explain their sence ; but instead thereof , there were frequent noises , interruptions on his and their parts , when things should have been explained on our parts ; as first , when our Friend James Parks was exhorting the people to Christian moderation and sobriety , which was before this S. S. was come into the Meeting to dispute , Nathaniel Barnard ( Priest ) being a proud vapouring Fellow , stood up in a frothy scornfull spirit , and interrupted James in his speaking , making a bawling noise , to stop the peoples ears from hearing the Truth declared ; and after some little progress was made in the Dispute with S. S. his manner also was , to make a noise and a bawling , freequently interrupting G. W. when he should have explained his answers , and sence , frequently using these words to George ( viz. ) a trifle , a trifle , a trifle , you ramble , you ramble , you ramble , &c. when he was neither able to make replication , nor render a reason against what George had urged in his answers ; and it was usual with this S. S. when he could not reply , to keep a noise in that manner ; also using these words , if you dare , if you dare ; as when he had affirmed the Scriptures to be the only Rule of Life , and the full Rule to guide us to Heaven and Glory , he would add , affirm the same of the Light within if you dare ; and would be daring often to stop the Peoples ears , and to stop an answer from being given , and this was his manner often times ; and when we both durst , and positively did affirm the same of the Light of Christ within , that it is a sufficient Rule , &c. he would continue his bawling , several times , and either say , you dare not , you dare not , or if you dare ; and being willing to pass over the questions about the only Rule , and the Light that is in every man , he run to his fifth question , about Baptism with water , whether it be an Ordinance of Christ ? but G. W. pressed and desired that the question about the Light might be more fully discust , which S. S. refusing , George desired to know first , in what capacity he stood for Water Baptism ; whether as a Popish Priest , or an Episcopal Priest , or as a Non conformist Presbyterian Priest , or a Baptist ? seeing that all these pretended Water Baptism , but differed greatly about it ; some being for sprinkling Infants , others for plunging Believers ; therefore we urged to know whether he own'd Infants or Believers to be the subjects of this Baptism ; but neither would he or his Brethren pitch upon , nor give an answer , though George , many time proffered to dispute either of them , which he would pitch upon , but S. S. durst not stand to either , as a man affraid either to maintain or contradict his own practice , ( viz. ) Sprinkling Infants ; and instead of being ingenious in this matter , he made a bawling noise , crying out , it s with water , water , water ; and calling out against us , you Rebels , Rebels , Rebels , go baptize you Rebels , for many times together , appearing then rather like one of Bedlam , then either a Minister , or a sober man ; and thus he manifested his deceit and hypocrisie , and breach of promise in railing and reviling us : And now , where was his amity , and friendliness , and the equal liberty he proposed in his Letter to G. W. dated from Haverill , Febr. 12. ( 68 ) But it was observed how well these Priests were furnished with strong Liquor , when they were at the dispute , which they often made use of to keep up their spirits for their work ; as when S. S. had spent himself a while , that he must be fain to go to the Bottle , then that proud scornfull Fellow Nathaniel Barnard he would stand up , and make a bawling , till he must be fain to get to the Bottle also ; and thus they were fain to relieve one another ; this S. S. and N. B. being as the mouthes of the rest , but chiefly S. S. who making such a hidious noise and bawling , and so often crying out water , water , as also using these words , You Rebels , you Rebels , go baptise you Rebels ( and that Priest Bernard bawling his story over and over , ) ( not like sober or ingenious men , but more like men infatuated ) but Henry Havers , and the other three , they behaved themselves more soberly then either S. S. or N. B. though they took their part , and all brought shame and disgrace upon themselves by suffering such a shallow bragging and vapouring man as S. S. ( who shewed himself in his Ribbonds like a Fiddler ) to be their mouth , and to mannage their cause , as if he were their Chieftain , and over them all . Again , When he stated a Question , or read an Argument ( for he had his Arguments patch'd up aforehand in papers ) which was not capable of a direct answer , by affirming or denying presently , he would not admit of an explanation of it , but would cry , affirm or deny ; and if at any time , in the first place , any thing was affirmed or denied , he would not suffer us further to render a reason , but make a noise to stop the Truth ; and when any of us granted to a question , according to Truth , he would turn up his eyes and thank God , as if he had wrought some great conviction upon us ; whereas , what we either affirmed or granted , we did not learn of him , but spoke the naked truth , as we had it of the Lord before ; as for instance , after this S. S. had affirmed the Scriptures , which are the Writings , to be our only Rule of Life , which being denied by us , that the Writings abstractivly can be the only Rule , because the Spirit of Truth is said to guide into all Truth ; hereupon he confest that it was not the Scriptures abstractively that he meant to be the only Rule , but the Will of God contained , or declared of in the Scriptures ; where , though he manifestly contradicted himself , yet , when we granted , that the Will of God declared of in the Scriptures is the Rule , which Will is , that we should follow the Light within ; hereupon this S. S. would again turn up the white of his eyes , and thank God that we granted to this Truth , though it was so apparently contradictory to his error , who went about to set up the Scriptures as the only Rule , and to cause people to turn their Backs upon the Light within , telling them , You must follow the Scriptures , for they will lead you to Heaven and Happiness , but you must turn your backs upon the Light within as not sufficient ; and yet at another time , again was necessitated to confess , That it is by the spiritual enlightning of the understanding that the Scriptures are understood ; so that here the spiritual Light in the understanding was the Rule to know the Scriptures , so by his own confession they could not be the only Rule , but the Spirit or Light that gave them forth , and gives the understanding of them , hath the preserment and preheminence of them . Besides , what great Hypocrisie and Dissimulation for these Presbyterian Priests thus to pretend the Scriptures to be the sole , absolute , or universal Rule , when they do not really so own them ; neither are they their Rule , while they put their meanings , false interpretations and glosses upon them , many times contrary to the very intent of Scripture , when it goes positively against their Principle , whereby they will either make themselves the Rule over the Scriptures , or else tell us that it hath another meaning or signification in the original , and so dare not stick to plain Scripture as their Rule when they are brought to trial , and this is their course from time to time to keep people in blindness and ignorance , when they set up the Writing above the Spirit or Light written of , and tell people , that immediate Teaching , and immediate Revelation are ceased in these dayes ; and whither must people go then to ground their faith ? must they pin it upon their sleeves ? must they turn their backs on the Light of Christ within , to be captivated with the Popes and Priests darkness , with their dark and implicite faith ? and so be kept ever learning , that they may be always paying and maintaining a Company of Hypocrites , who were wont to cry against the Quakers for creeping into houses , whilst they had Cromwell to uphold them , and whilst they counted him the light of their Eyes , and breath of their Nostrils : but now these Presbyterian and Independant Priests are fain to creep up and down themselves into houses , though it is evident they are no better then blind and dead men , since the light of their Eyes and breath of their Nostrils is extinguished : howbeit , they have gotten a cunning way to drive a trade now more hiddenly then when they were Parish Priests , having at their Meetings large Collections , at some places a great Bason or Platter held at the door , and at some other places their Agents to go from house to house to procure or beg money for them ; and thus many of them ( it is supposed , and credibly reported ) drive a greater trade then many of the Parish Priests ; and in some places , some of their Company have made a cunning bargain with the Episcopal Parish Priests , as allowing them part of the Fleece ( or money ) that they take from off their Flock , whereupon the Episcopal Priest is contented to let them drive a trade under his Nose . But now you who are the Followers , and Hearers , and Benefactors these cunning creeping Priests , you should do well to try them a little , be not too free of your purses to them , lest afterward you repent of it ; for we do not believe that many of them are so consciencious as to scruple conforming to the Common-Prayer , if they had but a dead trade among you , or were put upon trial ( for now you have fed them so full and fat , that they make such a vapour and blustering against us who have been the Sufferers , and whom they know in stormy times have endured the storms , and born the heat , and the blows very much from them , when they have skulkt and crept into holes and corners , and very few of them durst shew their heads in any Testimony for God or Christ ; but have been ready to run away out at back-doors , or over the houses , rather then be taken prisoners , though now they can in their Meetings , Houses and Barns most unworthily and unjustly rail against , and revile us , called Quakers , and grosly pervert and misrepresent our Principles , vilifying and reproaching the Truth that we profess concerning the Light of Christ that is in every man , and the sufficiency of it ; but it is set over all their heads , and the Truth hath confounded and shattered them , for they were commonly wont to tell people it was but a natural light , the light of a natural Conscience , a created light ; but now this their representative ( S. S. hath confest , that it is a spiritual Light , yea , a Light of the Spirit of God that is in every man , so what he hath asserted to the contrary in his declaring it insufficient , and bidding people turn their backs upon it , is all against the Spirit of God , and the Light of it , wherein his folly and confutation is so signally discovered , that he , and the rest that owned him , have neither cause now to boast , nor yet to urge for any more meetings with any of us , nor we much so regard them , except that we should order some of our women Friends to dispute with them , for many of them are able to confute these shatter'd Priests , whom the Sun is set upon , and the day is become dark , and the Lord is delivering many out of their mouthes , and that is their torment , especially , when they are like to lose any of their Benefactors , then they are ready to call for disputes with us , and to make a bussle and stir , by which they still lose and are disappointed of their ends ; for at the last Dispute when they would not suffer us to explain our selves , or give an answer ; some of the people said , We shall like the Quakers never the worse , if you will not give them leave to speak ; and indeed , many were then convinced so far as to see the folly and madness of this S. S. and his Assistant Priest Bernard , who was there proved a manifest Lyar , in interrupting G. W. contrary to his plain promise . The Questions which we propounded to be disputed on before the first Dispute were three ; as first , Whether every man be enlightned with a spiritual saving Light ? which we affirmed . Secondly , Whether Perfection be attainable in this life ? which we affirmed . Thirdly , Whether impure persons ( while such ) be justified by the imputation of Christ's Righteousness ? which we denied . This last Question S. S. altered , and stated it thus , Whether Justification be by the works of the Law , or by the Righteousness of Christ through Faith ? which Question could not in these general terms so reach the controversie between us , as the Question we proposed ; these Priests holding , That men are imputatively righteous , and justified when actually Sinners ; and we holding the contrary , That men are justified when really and actually righteous , or partakers of the Righteousness of Faith in Christ , wherein they are obedient to the Word or Spirit of God in their hearts , to which the righteousness of Faith requires obedience ; and we further affirm , that it is a false imputation to reckon men righteous or just , whilst they are really or personally unrighteous and unjust ; for the Faith that was reckoned to Abraham , and by which the Believers are justified , is a Living Faith , that purifieth the heart , and that is accompanied with those works of obedience , which answer the Law of Faith in the heart . Moreover , to these Questions before S. S. added three more ; as in the first place , Whether the Scriptures are not to be our Rule of Life ? to which we affirmed , Not the Writings , but the thing written of , to wit , the same that was the Saints Rule in all Ages , or the Spirit and Light of Christ within which gave forth the Scriptures , and brings to the right understanding , true use and fulfilling of them , and without which Light people cannot truly understand them . Then S. S. added , for the two last Queries , ( viz. ) Whether Baptism with water be an Ordinance of Christ ? which he affirmed , though he durst not tell us whether Babes or Believers were to be the Subjects of it ? or whether he were a true administrator of it ? for when G. W. in a Letter would have put him to prove his call to the Ministry ; and whether he own'd immediate Revelation in these dayes ? he must have George to prove his call first ; thus he shuffled . And then his last Question was , Whether the Lords Supper be not an Ordinance of Christ , binding us ? this Question we got not to , to discuss , nor did he explain what he meant by the Lords Supper : howbeit , he hath told G. W. in a paper , That this Light within doth not dictate that Baptism by water is Gods Will , nor that we ought to celebrate the Lords Supper , &c. So that you the Hearers and Followers of this S. S. may take notice , that if he does celebrate ( as he Popishly saith ) and delivers to you . Bread and Wine , and tell you it is the Lords Supper , he is not led to it by the dictates of the Light within , which he hath confest to be the Light of the Spirit of God ; and therefore we may conclude his pretended Celebration and Ordinance not binding to us , because the Light of the Spirit of God does not enjoyn us to it ; for we must worship in the newness of the Spirit , and we know the Spirit of Truth leads into all Truth ; so that what is of Truth the Light dictates to us , and therefore we must not follow Priest S. S. his darkness for our Dictator or Guide . Secondly , If sprinkling Infants be a part of his Trade in houses and corners , you may understand that the Light of the Spirit of God doth not dictate it unto him , and therefore you will be exceeding , blind and dark , if you give your selves to be bound to submit to his darkness , or to any of his impositions , which are neither Scriptural nor Spiritual ; therefore we caution you not to follow such dark and blind Guides , and not to turn your backs upon the Light of Christ within , lest you be shut up under the chains of these Priests darkness and ignorance , who have perverted and deceived you , one while endeavouring to keep you from the Light within , another while pretending to pray for God's Teaching , as this S. S. hath done , where in his papers he saith , The whole Congregation stand in need of Gods teaching , and the Lord God of Heaven lead us into all truth ; thus prayeth ( saith he ) your truly well-wisher in the Lord S. Scandret . But , we pray you , how should you know and receive Gods teachings or leading into all Truth , if not by his Light within ? Are you like to receive his teachings in the darkness ? or by turning your backs on the Light ? whereas if God be your Teacher , you must know and own his Law in your hearts , and his Spirit in your inward parts , as he hath promised , and not follow Hypocrites , that one while pray to God to teach you , another while say , You must turn your backs on his Light within , as insufficient , whereas the Light of the Spirit of God is to be the only Teacher , and is both true , infallible , and a perfect Guide to all them that obey and follow it ; therefore reject it not , as you tender your own eternal happiness , and desire to be delivered from under the power of Darkness , Hell and Destruction . We have Copies of the Disputes more at large , and circumstancially , as they were then taken by several in short-hand , and after compared , which are here abreviated into this method following for plainness to the Readers , with some passages added in the Answers where we met with interruptions . And if Steph. Scandret shall undertake to appear in print , in vindication of his own and his Brethrens Principles , we hope we shall have more opportunity to make them further manifest , then they would allow us at the Disputes . SECT . I. Here followeth some of S. Scandret his Principles and Doctrines , disputed on between him and G. W. at the first Dispute , ( on the 20th of the 11th Moneth 68. ) with a brief Answer and Reply . S. Scandret affirmed , That the Scriptures are the sole universal and most certain Rule of Life , more full then any other to us , and that they most fully discover and reveal the Mind and Will of God , which cannot be known but by the Scriptures ; therefore we are directed to search them : and if it be certain that the Scriptures come from God , as none dare deny , then am I not so certain , if any thing else be dictated to me ( said he ) . Answer . Although we own the Scriptures of Truth in their place , yet they are not to be set up above that Spirit that gave them forth , as here our Opposer hath done ; for it is the Spirit of Truth that leads into all truth , that reveals the Mind and Will of God , and it is the Inspiration of the Almighty that giveth understanding , without which men are ignorant of the Scriptures ; and how comes this man to be so certain of the Scriptures , whilst his certainty depends not upon the Spirit 's guidance ? and whence hath he his certainty , whilst he hath excluded the immediate teachings and guidance of the Spirit of Truth , which searcheth all things , even the deep things of God ? is he not among them that searched the Scriptures to find Eternal Life in them , but would not come to Christ that they might have Life ? besides , he doth not rely upon the Spirit of Truth for certainty , both as the most absolute Rule and Leader ; we have little cause to believe his spirit , his faith and perswasion being implicite and dark ; and how will he convince them meerly by the Scriptures , who question them , or the Translation of them , seeing his Brother Tho. Danson hath confessed , that it is but petitio principii , a begging of the Question , to bring a Testimony of Scripture concerning it self , for their conviction that question its Authority ? whereby he hath apparently shaken their Foundation ; but if the Scriptures be the only most certain universal Rule , as S. S. affirms , then it seems the course he 'll take to convince Papists , Jews and Turks , who question , or oppose much of the Scriptures , is by the Scriptures themselves ; and herein he still comes under his Brother Danson's censure of begging the question , and imposing upon his Opposers : But how manifestly did this S. S. contradict himself , when he confessed , that the Light of the Spirit of God within was more universal then the Scriptures , in that many have it , who have not Scripture , and to such the Light within might through the blessing of God be saving ? as also , if he and his Brethren did really own the Scriptures to be the sole , and most certain , and full Rule of Life , what needed they have Assemblies in Scotland and England to make them a Directory , Confession of Faith , Catechisms and Covenant , if the Scriptures were so full and of such esteem with them as they pretend ? S. S. Paul by the Light within did , and thought he might do many things contrary to the Name of Jesus , and so was misled and mistaken by following the Light within , &c. Answ. This is a gross mistake , it was not by following the light within , but by following his own thoughts and darkness that he was mistaken , wherein he was zealous for Traditions more then for Light or Spirit within ; so that here our Opposer hath done no less then put Darkness for Light ; and what , and where were the pricks that it was hard for him to kick against ? were they not from the Light within ? S. S. What is dictated to me within may come from the Darkness , and I may take it for Light ; but what comes from Scripture I am certain is from the Spirit of God , there is no darkness in the Scriptures ; it is true the Spirit of God is a Spirit of Truth , but in as much as within us there is Darkness as well as Light , we are not able to discern the one from the other without the Scriptures , as Paul was subject to mistake by following the Light within . Answ. Here he hath sufficiently manifested himself to be one that understands not the dictates of the Light from Darkness , as one yet in the blindness of his mind , and in the Darkness that comprehends not the Light ; and Paul when he was mistaken , and thought he might act contrary to Jesus , was in the unconverted state , as it plainly appears this Priest S. S. is , who discerns not between Light and Darkness ; and what signifies his saying , there is no darkness in the Scriptures ; is he any whit the nearer the understanding of them , whilst he is so full of Darkness in himself , that he discerns not the Light from it , the God of the World having blinded his mind ? And did not Paul when he was Saul , and a Persecutor own the Scriptures of Moses and the Prophets as his Rule , and yet acted contrary , as one out of the Light , when he persecuted ? but yet when he was turned to the Light and Law of God within , then he saw himself and sin to be exceeding sinfull ; and it was the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ , that was inward and spiritual , that made him free , and this was his Rule in the converted state , when he was come to serve the Lord , not in the oldness of the Letter , but in the newness of the Spirit : But again , how did this S. S. contradict himself in granting , that the Spirit was to give the understanding of Scripture , and did as certainly reveal the Mind and will of God as the Scriptures ? but then again in contradiction to himself , asserted , that the Spirit of God must be tried by the Scriptures , whereby he still hath ascribed the Supremacy to the Scriptures , and not the Spirit ; absurdly preferring the effect before the cause , as if the Spirit of God were not sufficient to manifest it self to them that believe in it , and yet be sufficient to lead into all Truth : what gross ignorance , and apparent contradiction is this our Opposer involved in ? certainly the Spirit of Truth is all-sufficient , and must have the preferment among all that are spiritually minded : And seeing it was granted by S. S. That where the Scriptures did not come , the Light within was to be their Rule , and the Spirit of God listned unto , and obeyed ( but the Scriptures must be our only Rule who have them , &c. ) Upon this we query , whether yet he will own the Spirit of Light within to be greater , and preferr'd before Scripture ? as doubtless the Spirit of Truth that gave them forth is the greater ; and then we ask , if the Heathen or Gentiles , that shewed the work of the Law written in their hearts , were led or guided by that which is greater then the Guide which the Christians now are to rely upon ? or whether or no professed Christians in England must be inferiour to the Gentiles or Heathen ? Let these things be seriously considered , for Christ is given for a Light unto the Gentiles , to be Salvation to the ends of the Earth ; and he said , Believe in the Light that you may be Children of the Light ; and he that doth Truth cometh to the Light , that his deeds may be manifest that they are wrought in God , John 3. 21. So that here the Light is the Rule to manifest and try mens actions , whether they are wrought in God , yes or nay ? SECT . II. S. Scandret confest , That it was a spiritual Light , and that it was the Light of Christ that every one was inlightned with ; G. W. asked him what Spirit it related to , or was the Light of ? for the word that is the primative of the derivative SPIRITUAL , is SPIRIT ; to this S. S. answered , that it was the Spirit of God which it was a Light of , &c. Reply , A plain confession , no wit is the Light of the Spirit of God that is in every man , enough to overthrow all our Opposers work to the contrary , and his reason from his own , and the Creatures darkness and mistakes against the sufficiency of the Light of the Spirit of God ; this is the Stone and Rock that breaks , and will break him and such Opposers to pieces . S. S. Objection , The Light within doth not change all mens hearts ; all do not obey God ; it brings not all to God ; all heard not the joyfull sound ; all had not satisfaction in God ; therefore the Light within is not saving . Reply , The same he might as well object against the Spirit of God , as against the Light of it , which he hath confest to before ; for many had the good Spirit given to them who rebelled against God , and grieved his holy Spirit ; therefore their hearts were not truly changed by it , because of their Rebellion ; and they that rebel against the Light know not its ways , because they abide not in its Paths , Job 24. 13. and there are many who resist the Spirit of God , and reject his Counsel until they are given over to hardness and unbelief . Now what doth S. S. think that the Spirit , or Light of the Lord , will inevitable , or irresistably inforce a change and Salvation upon rebellious gainsaying Persons , who hate his Light and reject his Counsel ; if he suppose this , why is it not inforc'd upon all in the same capacity ? what , doth he render man like a Block , or a Beast , not to go or act in obedience or subjection , but as he is forc'd or driven ? surely , man hath a better capacity given him of God then so : and seeing S. S. did confess , That the Light in its common operations was in the unbelievers ; upon which , we ask , what those common operations are ? and what do they tend to ? and what is the good end of God in affording this Light of his Spirit to all , and such operations in unbelievers ? surely , if it be to their conviction and reproof for sin and evil , God's good end and Will therein is , that they may come to see and hate sin and evil , and so be by degrees drawn out of it , and find mercy , peace and satisfaction with the Lord in forsaking sin , and embracing righteousness ; surely the universal Love of God in giving Light to all , is of this tendance and effect , to all that really accept of his Love and good will. S. S. The common Light may misguide a man , for it may become darkness ; if the Light that is in you be darkness , &c. Answ. The Light of the Spirit of God is infallibly true , and cannot misguide any , neither is it proper or true to call this darkness , for the Light in every man is confessed to be the Light of the Spirit of God ; however , S. S. and such Blind-Guides , to their own confusion , may put light for darkness , and darkness for Light , as such whose minds and eyes are evil do ; and it was such that Christ spoke of , who , if they put darkness for light , then , how great was their darkness ; for , to be sure , no light in it self , or in its own being , can properly be called darkness . S. S. Object . Deut. 29. 4. Yet the Lord hath not given you a heart to perceive , and eyes to see , and ears to hear unto this day ; therefore , &c. Reply , There were those who closed their eyes , and stopped their ears , as did the rebellious Jews , Zach. 7. 11 , 12. Matth. 13. 15. and though these whom Moses reproved , did not continue in the tenderness of heart , and true Light unto that day , yet it is evident verse 2. they had seen all that the Lord did before their eyes in the Land of Egypt , and the signs and miracles , verse 3. as also of the same people an ample testimony is given in Nehem. 9. what great things the Lord had done for them ; and how he gave also of his good Spirit to instruct them , verse 20. SECT . III. UPon the Question about Perfection S. S. affirmed , That Perfection that is a state free from all Sin , is not attainable in this Life , but God would take his own time to do it in the other World , after Death ; Sin shall never be wholly taken away in this life , but in another life , when we come to the spirits of Just men made Perfect , and to God the Judge of all , &c. Ans. Here he hath spoken both like a Stranger from God and Just men , and hath taken Sathan's part in pleading for his work , which is Sin , denying the end of Christ's coming and manifestation , and the work and effect of the true Ministry , which was given for the Perfecting of the Saints , Ephes. 4. And Christ was manifest to destroy the work of the Devil , which was Sin , and he that abideth in him sinneth not , see 1 John 3. and when , and where are Believers perfectly freed or clensed from sin in the life to come ? is not this like the Pope's Doctrine for a Purgatory ? but how long it is between death and this time of clensing ? or whether the Saints deceased are yet clensed , yes or nay ? and the place where S. S. could not tell . But further , how gross and absurd is it for him to suppose Believers not come to the Spirits of Just men made Perfect , or to God the Judge of all , till after their decease ? for were the Hebrews not alive , nor upon Earth , when they were writ to , in these words , Ye are come unto Mount - Sion , to God the Judge of all , &c. Hebr. 12. 22. surely they were then living upon Earth . S. S. They were come , that is spiritually , but not corporally , to the Spirits of Just men , &c. Reply , What a strange shuffle is this ; where do the Scriptures speak of a corporal Perfection , or a joyning to God corporally ? but must not the Body be subject to the Spirit , seeing Believers are to be sanctified throughout , in Body , Soul and Spirit ? and if that which is born of the Spirit , which is Spirit , have the Rule , then the Body is brought into subjection , and that which is born of God overcomes the World , 1 John 5. 4. Upon Psalm 119. 1 , 2 , 3. S. Scandret gave his meaning thus , They do no iniquity , that is , so far as they are regenerated , &c. To this we say , This is his corruption and perversion put upon plain Scripture , his meaning implying only thus much ; They do no iniquity , that is , so far as they do no iniquity ; and so according to his meaning , the words are to be read thus , Blessed are the undefiled in the way , so far as they are undefiled in the way ; and blessed are they that keep his Testimonies , so far as they keep them , &c. whereas the words are plain and positive , without any such exception , Blessed are the undefiled in the way , who walk in the Law of the Lord , &c. as his instance of Paul in Rom. 7. 17. he should also as well have instanced Paul's deliverance , and being made free by the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus from the Law of sin and death , and his being made more then a Conqueror . S. S. The state of Perfection is not attainable in this life , because whilst men are in the Body , vain thoughts lodge within them ; and Job saith , If I say I were perfect , I should not know my own Soul. Reply , First , Victory over vain thoughts through Faith in the Power of Christ is attainable , the thoughts of the righteous are right , Prov. 12. 5. David waited and travelled , that vain thoughts might not lodge within him ; and also he said , I hate vain thoughts , Psalm 119. 113. And let the wicked forsake his way , and the unrighteous man his thoughts , and let him return unto the Lord , and he will have mercy upon him , &c. Isa. 55. 7. and it was the rebellious that walked after their own thoughts , Chap. 65. 2. And , oh Jerusalem , wash thine heart from wickedness , that thou mayst be saved ; how long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee ? Jer. 4. 14. So that it is evident victory over them is attainable . First , because a forsaking of them is required . Secondly , because Believers waited and prayed for such a victory . Thirdly , because it was attained by those whose thoughts were right , and those under the Gospel whose thoughts were brought into subjection to Christ : And as for Job , however he debased himself under his great Affliction and Trial , yet at that time of temptation , the testimony given of him , was , That he was a perfect and upright man , one that feared God and eschewed evil , Job 1. 1 , 8. this was God's own Testimony of him to Satan ; to which Satan answered the Lord , and said , Doth Job fear God for nought ? hast not thou made an Hedge about him , & c ? Now , [ mark ] here Satan did more confess to the truth that God said of Job , then these Priests do who plead for sin and imperfection term of life ; so that they are more ignorant and blind then Satan , they shew themselves to be his Agents , in pleading for his work , who notwithstanding sought to make Job curse God , and so to decline from his perfection . In that of Job 9. 20 , 21. If I justifie my self my mouth shall condemn me , though I were perfect , yet would I not know my Soul , &c. Self-Justification we do not own , but yet Perfection is attainable , see Job 23. 10 , 11. But he knoweth the way that I take , when he hath tried me , I shall come forth as Gold ; my Foot hath held his Steps , his Way have I kept , and not declined So here is Perfection , whatever the Devil and his Instruments either work , or say to the contrary . S. S. That God saw it not good to abolish sin in this life . Answ. A strange Doctrine , contrary to both God's Commands , Promises and Works ; viz. Sin not ; I will make an end of sin , for this purpose is the Son of God made manifest to the destroy the works of the Devil : can God see the continuance of evil to be good ? or that his Commands should be made void ? surely no. S. S. Arg. That God is continually purging every Branch in Christ ; therefore there is something to be purged out . Reply , There is a time of purging , and a time of being purged in this life ; He hath washed us from our sins in his own Blood , &c. and because every Branch in Christ , is of the Heavenly Father's purging , therefore it must be perfectly purged and fitted to bring forth much fruit ; for God's work is perfect , it is not an imperfect work of mans ; and we ask , whether every Branch that bringeth forth fruit in the Vine , be not of the nature of the Vine in which it grows , and hath its vertue ? SECT . IV. S. S. We are all lost in Adam ; we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God , and we could not redeem our selves ; it is only the Blood of Christ answers for us at the Bar of Gods Justice , &c. Answ. You that plead and contend forsin term of life , are but yet in Adam , in your sins , short of the glory of God , not redeemed by the Blood of Christ , while in your polluted state ; you are not acquited , neither will God's Justice pass you by ▪ if you continue without repentance , rejecting his Love and good will tendred in Christ , who was not an Offering only for some Presbyterians , or a few as they imagine , but for the whole World , though none do experimentally enjoy the good end of Christ's coming , Sacrifice and Blood , but such as receive him to believe in , follow and obey him as the Author of Eternal Salvation , to as many as obey him . S. S. A justified state is attended with Sanctification ; what Righteousness is that which justifies ? Answ. First , it is a true confession , that a justified state is sanctified , and therefore men are not justified , nor made righteous while unsanctified ; and this confutes much of these mens Doctrine for an imputed Justification of men in their sins . Secondly , the Righteousness which justifies , renders true Believers both Righteous , Just and accepted of God , is the Righteousness of Faith , it is spiritual inwardly , and spiritually received in the obedience of the Spirit of Holiness , of Faith and Power of God ; it is an everlasting Righteousness , not of self , nor yet imperfect , nor yet an imagination of an imputation to men in sin , but it is inwardly revealed in such in whom the Image of God is renewed , and not in them who are in old Adam in the fall . S. S. Though Christ's Suffering was temporary , his active and passive obedience was the only thing that redeemed our Souls , and that the Righteousness within had no hand to exempt us from wrath . Answ. What is the tendency of this Doctrine , but to shut Christ out of doors , and not to suffer him place in his people , whilst his Righteousness within is so little valued ; whereas Christ is made unto the true Believers , Wisdom , Righteousness , Sanctification , and Redemption : And know ye not that Christ is in you , except you be Reprobates ; and did not his active and passive obedience in his Person bare witness unto that Spirit of Holiness and Righteousness within , by which he offered up himself ? and though Christ's Suffering on the Cross was temporary , yet the Righteousness of Faith still remains , and the blessed effect of his Suffering and Sacrifice is therein enjoyed by true Believers , in Light ; and we neither go about to establish self-righteousness , nor works of Self for Justification , as S. S. seemed falsly to insinuate in his preachment at the latter end ▪ to which he would not stay to receive an Answer , but gat away in the crowd : and he needed not have told us that God will not acquit the guilty ; it was a Doctrine more proper to himself , and his Brethren ; for , to be sure , they are deeply guilty , who dispute for sin and imperfection all their dayes , wherein God will not clear nor acquit them . And such who are found in Christ , and his Righteousness , not having their own , are not found disputing and pleading for the Devil's Work , as these men are ; nor yet shutting Christ , or his Righteousness , out of people ; but are really partakers of that Everlasting Righteousness wherein both Redemption , Justification , and Acceptance with the Lord is enjoyed by them that are Sanctified by the Spirit and Power of God , and Restored out of the faln state , up to Christ , who is made unto us Wisdom , Righteousness , Sanctification and Redemption , 1 Cor. 1. 30. Thus far we have in plainness , for the information of the Readers , returned an Answer to S. S. his chief Principles , which were more fully discoursed of at the first Dispute , in which you may see how defective he was , as he afterward confessed ; as also , that he hath not amended his Matter at the second Dispute , but made it worse . Here follows some of Stephen Scandret his Principles asserted by him , and owned by the other Priests with him , ( at the Second Dispute , ( which was on the 1st of the 5th Moneth 1669. ) upon some of the same Questions disputed on at the former . I. FIrst , concerning the Scriptures and the Light within , S. S. said , The main Difference between those , called Quakers , and us in this , is , as judge , here we set up the Scriptures , as the only Rule to Guide to Heaven and Glory , they the Light within ; they own the Scriptures so far as they agree with the Light within ; we own the Light within so far as it agrees with the Scriptures : The Scriptures are the only Rule , and most pretious , and not the Light within ; we are to turn our backs upon the Light within ▪ as being insufficient , &c. The Scriptures are a full Rule , and ●ully sufficient for Salvation , let him affirm the same of the Light within if he dare : The Scriptures are the infallible Rule , a trying Light , a binding Rule , let him affirm the same of the Light wi●hin if h● dare Answ. Here are several Affirmations laid down , but no proofs ; remember what thou did'st acknowledge and confess at our last Dispute concerning the universallity of the Light within , that it might be a Rule where the Scriptures were not ; and also didst grant , that it was spiritual , the Light of the Spirit of God ; but now it may be seen plainly , that thou goest about to set up the Scriptures above the Spirit of God which gave them forth : And now we do affirm , that the Light of Christ within , is both a certain infallible trying Light , and binding Rule to all them , the Children of the Light , and every one that love it both doth , and dare so own it , and confess to it , as that certain manifesting Rule and Guide , whereby things that are reproved are made manifest ; and they that love it bring their deeds to it , that they may be proved whether they are wrought in God ; and such do not give ( nor own ) such sinful advise to people as to turn their backs on the Light , as this Blind-Guide , who shuts his eyes ( as one opposing plain conviction ) hath done , who after he had so highly asserted the Scriptures or Writings to be the only Rule which leads to Salvation , he confessed , that he did not mean the Scriptures or Writings abstractively to be the Rule , but the Will of God contained or declared of in them , wherein he contradicted himself , for this alters both the state of the Question and Assertion ; for whilest he laid all upon the Scriptures , this tended to shut out all people under Heaven from Salvation , Life and Glory , but such as have the Scriptures , which is a sad and prejuditial censure ; but now , seeing it is not the Writing , but the Matter or Thing declared of , that is the Rule , the Light of Christ within must be the standing universal Rule , for that is declared of , and referred to by the Scriptures ; so that to follow the Light ▪ within , in what it dictates , is agreeable , and not repugnant to Scripture , as is falsly insinuated by this Opposer . Moreover , the things declared of , or contained in the Scriptures , relating to the Will of God , and to Life and Salvation may be enjoyed where the Writings are not ; for there were Gentiles instructed by the Will or Spirit of God , who had not the Law outward , as in Rom. 2. therefore this Spirit or Light of God is greater , or more universal then the Scriptures , and contains that which the Scriptures contains , and more ; so the tenor and tendance of S. S. his work is to turn people from the greater , wherein they can never truly own the lesser ; for by turning of their backs upon the Light within , they oppose and violate the Scriptures of Truth ; although he could hypocritically pray to God to lead us into all truth ; and also , in contradiction to himself , did grant , that without Spiritual Illumination , and Regeneration he could not come to the Excellency and Knowledge of the Will of God in the Scriptures ; so that here the Spiritual Illumination is the Rule preferred before the Writings ; and now the Question is , whether those Gentiles had not a sufficient Rule in them , who had not the Scriptures , who yet did the things contained , and enjoyed the things declared of ? to this we could not have an Answer , but the same thing before asserted of the Scriptures over and over , as being the full Rule , &c. and that we must turn our backs upon the Light within , whereas , people had need turn their hacks upon the darkness and blindness of such at S. S. who notwithstanding , in contradiction to himself , was made to grant , that we have but a part of the Scriptures , many things being written , acted and spoken from the Spirit of God , which we have not in the Bible ; however , we must not turn our backs upon the Light of the Spirit of God within , nor deny or question its sufficiency , for we have experience of it , and that this Spirit is the Guide into all truth , without which the Scriptures are not truly understood ; the Will of God declared of in the Scriptures we grant is the full Rule ; hereupon the Priest interrupted , and said , thanks be to God for this truth they have granted , &c. whereas we still added , that it was the Will of God we should follow his Light and Spirit within , to guide us into all truth ; for this is that which unvails the heart , enlightens the understanding to know the Scriptures ; but the Jews had the Writings of Moses and the Prophets , yet they understood not what they read , they could not see the end , because their hearts were vailed , even until the Apostles dayes ; so their reading the Scriptures did not discover Life and Glory to them , because it did not remove the vail from off their hearts ; but the Inspiration of the Almighty giveth understanding , the Light of the Spirit of God within can unvail the hearts , and enlighten the minds , and to this S. S. hath in effect granted , when he said , I did never affirm , that without Spiritual Illumination we could come to the knowledge of the Will of God in the Scriptures , &c. To which we further add , that it is the man of God , who is in the Faith , being led by his Spirit , who truly knows the right use and service of Scriptures , they being of use and profitable , as given by divine inspiration ; but the Writing or Letter , outward , is not of absolute , universal necessity to Salvation ; for many may be saved who neither have it , nor can read it ; for , from the Light of Christ within , they have so much of the Instructions , or precepts therein contained , as are necessary to Salvation . And Christ is the Way , the Truth and Life , and it is by the Fathers drawings that men come to him ; and his Light is universal , and enlightens every man that cometh into the World , now , it is no where so said of the Scriptures ; and if the Spirit of Truth Guide Believers into all truth , then the Light of this Spirit within must needs be a sufficient Rule of Life , &c. And this S. S. did confess it was a Spiritual Light , the Light of the Spirit of God , that is in every man. II. S. S. Grant I did , that it is a Light of the Spirit of God , but not given to all ; it is only the Elect are savingly enlightned , &c. Answ. It is given to all ; if God gave his good Spirit to wicked and rebellious men , then none are excluded from it ; but God did give his good Spirit to rebellious men , Nehemiah 9. 20 , 26. To this , with several other Arguments , our Opposer gave no Answer , but asserted his old Matters over and over ; and added some things , but not material . S. S. This is not a full Light , &c. for God created the Stars , which are a Light ; Must they therefore be the full Light of the Day & c ? Answ. We are speaking about the Light which is Spiritual , and of God , which his instance of the Stars makes nothing against ; nor did we ever read that the Light of the Stars was Spiritual ; neither doth it follow that the Light of the Spirit of God is not a sufficient Rule , because it is given by measure , and not in the fulness of it to all ; for however , it is pure and holy , the degrees do not alter the property : to every one of us ( saith the Apostle ) is given Grace , according to the measure of the Gift of Christ ; were they then to turn their backs of the measure of Grace given , because it was not given in its fulness ? no sure ; for the Light within , though manifest by measure , doth gradually lead men out of darkness , and sin , as they take heed unto it ; it is truly spiritual , pure , and universal , though it reveal not all things at once : and the Path of the just is a shining Light , that shineth more and more until the perfect day : and the more sure Word of Prophesie is to be taken heed unto , as a Light that shineth in a dark place , until the day dawn , and the Day-Star arise in the hearts ; but it is questionable , whether S. S. or his Brethren , will not say , that this is meant the Scriptures ; if so , then we ask , Are they more sure then what ? and whether the Day dawning , and the Day-Star arising in the hearts be the Scriptures ? Again , the Spirit of Truth doth convince the World of sin , and of righteousness , and declares the will of God. S. S. It doth not convince of righteousness ; if it convinceth of sin , then not of the contrary . Answ. We will appeal to the people , whether any of them can say , when they are reproved of sin , that they are not convinced of a contrary sta●e ? as namely , of a state of Righteousness , which they ought to come into . S. S. No , no , we will appeal to the Scriptures . Answ. It is no● contrary to the Scriptures to appeal to mens Consciences ▪ the Apostle was manifest in mens Conscience in the sight of God ▪ and sure it was the Light of Christ in them , which he was manifest unto . S. S. I deny that this Light within doth convince of Chist's Righteousness imputed . Answ. It being the Light of the Spirit of God , which both convinceth , and leadeth out of Sin , that must needs lead to a state of Righteousness , which is no other but Christ's Righteousness , even that of Faith , wherein those Gentiles that feared God , and obeyed this Light within , were accepted , and in this were they justified , see Acts 10. and Rom. 2. S. S. I deny that the Light within reveals Christ Jesus , prove it . Answ. The Light was given to believe in , before they were Believers , and shined in their hearts to give them the knowledge of the Glory of God , in ▪ the face of Jesus Christ ; therefore it was sufficient to answer the end of its being given , as to bring them into that knowledge , see 2 Corinthians 4. 6. S. S. This doth not prove that the Light doth reveal Christ ; Is this Grace ( that hath appeared to all ) the Light in every man ? prove that this Grace was the Light within : the Light in every man never heard , or taught , that the Gospel should come by Christ , &c. Answ. The Light shineth in Darkness , and the darkness comprehends it not ; but the Grace of God which bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all men ; therefore it is sufficient : and it hath been confest by S. S. that the Light of the Spirit of God did appear in every man ; now that this Grace which teacheth to deny ungodliness , and worldly lusts , is a spiritual inward Light ( and that which reveals Christ to Believers ) is plain , in that it both teacheth them to live Godly , to look for that blessed Hope and Appearance of that great God and Jesus Christ , Titus 2. 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15. therefore this Light or Grace within is both sufficient to reveal Christ and Gospel unto Salvation , whatever this Blind-Guide say to the contrary . Another Priest , with S. S. alledged , That the Grace of God appeared to all men , but not not in all . Reply , Was not its appearance Spiritual , how then did it appear to all , and not in all ? Surely its appearance to all , was in all , seeing it is spiritual , and spiritually to be seen , though many close their eyes against it . S. S. The Light within is not , nor ever was from the Foundation of the World a sufficient or full Rule : none from Adam in Innocency , to Moses and the Prophets ; nor from them to the Apostles ; nor any to this day that had a Light in them sufficient to be a Rule of Life , but something was super-added to the Light within ; as Gods Prohibition to Adam ; and to the Jews the Law of Ordinances , as Circumcision , Sacrifices , &c. and to the Apostles Baptism , and the Supper , &c. Answ. What a heap of ignorance and darkness is here uttered against the Light of the Living ! And how is the sufficiency of it in all Gods People opposed by this our Opposer , who denies the Light in Adam , in Innocency , to be the full Rule ; was not God and his Light in him ? Surely , the Scriptures were not Adams Rule , for they were not written till many hundreds of years after ; and the Holy men of God had a Rule before they were written ; as Abel , Enoch , Abraham , &c. And what was the Rule to the Prophets and Apostles , which directed them in writing and giving forth the Scriptures ? Was not their Rule within , and the Revelation of the things contained in Scripture inward , before they were written ? Was not the Spirit , the Law and Light of the Lord within ? And whatsoever may be known of God , is it not manifest within ? S. S. Did not God require more of Adam then the Light did dictate ? for if there be twenty Trees in a Garden ( looking about upon the Trees in the Grove , there , where the dispute was ) how should we know by the Light within which of the Tree were prohibited , if there were not a super-added Command , &c. Reply , Here all along he manifested his ignorance , both of God , of his Law within , which is Light , and of the forbidden Fruit : And being asked , whether it was outward Fruit , and an outward Tree that Adam was prohihited ●● some of them answered , yes ; still opposing the sufficiency of the Light in Adam , when they could not deny God to be in him : And as for those Laws of Ceremonies and Shadows to the Jews , Salvation doth not depend upon them , but upon the Light of Christ within , who is the Substance : And when we urged that Christ was the Image of the Invisible God , and the First-born of every Creature ; and that Adam was made in the Image of God , which Image was Inward and Spiritual ; and that God is not like to corruptible man , it was no ingenious Answer for S. S. to cry out , A triffle , a triffle , or to cry , Ye Ramble , ye ramble , &c. As often he did , when he was baffled and confounded : And being asked , whether the appearance and Law of God to Adam was inward or outward ? his answer was , I am willing not to be wise above what is written ; I do not know , I am satisfied to be ignorant of it ; and yet he was ready to assert in his ignorance , That the Light in Adam was insufficient , when he did not know whether the appearance of God to him ▪ was inward or outward ; yet granted , that Adam in Innocency had the enjoyment of God , and so plainly contradicted himself , as not able to mannage what he had asserted against the Light , nor yet his Brethren with him ; though when he was put to a nonplus , his Brother Priest B. to help him , argued in this manner , though to little purpose . Priest. viz. If those people , to whom the Apostles were sent , did never hear the words of Life and Salvation , till they came to preach unto them ; then the Light in them did not declare the words of Life and Salvation : but they did never hear the words of Life and Salvation , until the Apostle came to preach to them ; therefore , &c. But this Priest being manifest to be but a scornfull vopouring proud Fellow , with neither common sobriety , much less any weight or sence of Truth upon his Spirit , his filly shallow matter was slighted , and the Query was put to him , and the other Priests , in this manner . Query , Whether or no wilt thou grant the same thing that S. Scandret hath done ; viz ▪ that a Light of the Spirit of God is in every man ? or will you deny it ? If there be any of the same mind with him let them speak . Priests , We do own what Steph. Scandret hath laid down . Reply , Then this Light of the the Spirit of God was able to teach all the words of Life and Salvation ; and the Apostles did not preach to turn Peoples backs upon this but to turn them to it , and confirm them in it , as that which taught many before , to fear God and work Righteousness , wherein they were accepted ; and this overthrows the Argument before , that was so often repeated , and S. S. his vain Assertions and Totoligies to the contrary ▪ who turned his back on the Light within , till he is turned into gross darkness , and would have others do as he hath done . S. S. You dare not say the Light within is the full Rule . Answ. That 's false , we both dare say it , and have affirmed , and proved , that the Light of the Spirit of God is a full Rule to lead to Salvation , where it is obeyed , as it was to the Saints and true Believers of old , who according to their several attainments were to walk by the same Rule , and God would reveal to them , Phil 3 16. and they had attained to divers measures and degrees of the Spirit of God : and accordingly their states were written unto in several Epistles ; that which was to one state , was not to every particular state and condition among the Churches ; neither do we read , that the Church at Gorinth was to go and make the Epistle to the Church at Rome their Rule ; nor that the Churches at Ephesus , Philippi , or Thessalonia were to go to the Corinthians , for Paul's Epistles to them , to compare theirs with , and to be their Rule ; but that of the Spirit or Light within , to which they were all directed , and which was the Rule of the new Creature , whereby the things of God were revealed and made known unto the Saints ; who could say , we have not received the Spirit of this World , but the Spirit which is of God , whereby we know those things that are freely given us of God. III. S. S. Go Baptiz● , there is a Command for it , the Light saith nothing of it ; Go Teach and Baptize , that 's Christs Command : And then he urged to have us speak to Water Baptism , but durst not declare who he intended as the Subjects of it , whether Babes , or Believers , which G. W. and some of us often urged to know ; whereupon , if he had told us ingeniously his intention , we proffered fairly to dispute it ; but S. S. and his Brethren durst not be plain with us in this matter , but shuffled and evaded , calling out over and over , Do ye grant Baptism with water ; Go Baptize with water , water , &c. You Rebels , you Rebels , go Baptize you Rebels ; can Rebels be saved , &c. Thus , and after this manner , he continued bawling and railing for some time , that little fair dealing we could have . Answ. Go teach all Nations baptizing them , cannot intend Infants , neither is there water mentioned in the Command , Matth. 28. And it was proffered these Priests , that if they would stand for Baptizing Infants , or Plunging Believers , we would dispute that with them : Or if S. S. would be plain , and ingeniously tell us in what capacity he stood in , whether in the capacity of a Popish Priest , Episcopal Priest , Presbyterian Priest , or Baptist ? but hereunto we could have no other Answer , then his general clamor , as before , for water , water , &c. and therefore G. W. proferred to speak something to both Sprinkling Infants , and Plunging Believers , to shew the rise of the one , and the other not to be in force nor continuance under the Gospel ; but G. W. was interrupted , as often he was by these Priests . S. S. Water Baptism is Gospel ; a Dispensation of the Gospel was committed to Paul , &c. Answ. The Gospel is Everlasting , so is not Water-Baptism ; and Paul said , Christ sent me not to Baptize , but to preach the Gospel , 1 Cor 1. 17. and surely his Commission was as large as the rest of the Apostles . S. S. Christ sending him not to Baptize , but to Preach , is meant , not so much to Baptize , &c. as in Hosea 6. 6. it is said , I desired mercy and not Sacrifice , &c. Reply , This instance doth not prove his meaning , which perverts the Apostles words , who thanked God he baptized none of them , but such as he mentioned , 1 Corinth . 14. 15 , 16. For Christ sent him not to Baptize , but to Preach the Gospel , a full reason for his not continuing that then permissive practice of Water-Baptism ; which if it had been a Command in force , surely , he would neither have thanked God , for not obeying it ; nor yet have said , Christ sent me not to Baptize : And where it is said in Hosea 6. 6. I desired Mercy and not Sacrifice , those mentioned verse 5 , 7. whom he had hewed by his Prophets , who transgressed and dealt treacherously against the Lord , their Sacrifice could not be accepted ; therefore he desired Mercy , and not Sacrifice , and the Knowledge of God more then Burnt-offerings ; and indeed , if this Mercy and the Knowledge of God had born sway among them , there had been no need or occasion for Sacrifices , Burnt-offerings , or Sin-offerings ; the Sacrifices of God being a broken spirit , and a contrite heart , Psalm 51. 16 , 17. S. S. Water Baptism is necessary to Salvation ; ( being affirmed to be Gospel , to be binding of necessity , &c. ) Answ. What then will become of all them that never came under it : Must they all be damned for want of Sprinkling or Plunging in Water ? A sad sentence ; that Baptism which saveth , is not the putting away of the filth of the Flesh , but the answer of a good Conscience , &c. Giles Barnadiston urged , That there is one Faith , one Baptism , Ephes. 4. And asked these Priests , what Baptism it was ? whether that of Water , or the Baptism of the Spirit ? to which S. S. answered . S. S. There is but one Baptism , and it consists of two parts ; an inward part , and an outward ; the inward part was with the Spirit , and the outward with water . Reply , Did you ever read or hear such Doctrine before ? he makes the Baptism of the Spirit , and the Baptism with outward Water , both but one Baptism ; and so whereas he hath made such a bawling for Water-Baptism , now it is but the outward part of Baptism ; he should rather have said , as it is in the Common-Prayer-Book , It is the outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual Grace : However , in Scripture there is a plain distinction between the Baptism of Water , and the Baptism of the Spirit , as there is between John's baptizing with Water , and Christ's baptizing with the Holy Ghost and with Fire ; but this ignorant Opposer S. S. makes them both but one Baptism . IV. And further , we add an other instance against him and his Brethren , in behalf of the Light within , out of the Common-Prayer-Book , in the Collect for the third Sunday after Easter ; viz. Almighty God , which sheweth to all men that be in error , the Light of thy Truth , to the intent that they may return to the Way of Righteousness , &c. Now here is the Light of the Truth confest unto , both in its general extent , and in its sufficiency , as Guide and Rule , to lead men into the Way of Righteousness , which these men have all this while opposed : here is more of Truth confest in this particular , in the Common-Prayer-Book , then these men will confess to , who think themselves better Reformed with their Covenant , Directory , Confession of Faith and Catechisms , while yet in their Darkness they are opposing the Light of Truth within ; but it is set over all their heads , and hath manifested their darkness and confusion . V. Now concerning Justification , the question being asked , what it is ? it was answered , Priest , To make Righteous ; and S. S. confest , That Justification is by the Righteousness of Christ through Faith. Answ. That 's true , but men are not Justified , that is , made Righteous ; nor in the Righteousness of Faith , without Sanctification . S. S. Who affirms they are ? we own , that Justified Persons are Sanctified . [ But in contradiction , he again affirmed thus ] We Sinners are Justified by the Righteousness of Christ , imputed ; viz. Absolved from all our Sins from the beginning of our lives to the end . Reply , This gives a large Liberty to sin , if men may sin all their dayes , and yet think themselves absolved from all ; whereas , that of Rom. 3. 25. which they instanced , is thus , concerning Christ ; viz. Whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood , to declare his Righteousness for the Remission of Sins that are past , through the forbearance of God : It is not said , for the remission of sins past , present , and to come ; nor yet of all our sins from the beginning of our Lives to the end ; neither is the guilt of sin taken away , while men remain in the act of sin , as falsly was affirmed by S. S. contrary to Job 10. 14. If I sin , then thou markest me , and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity . And to be sure , men whilst Sinners , are not made Righteous , nor yet in a Sanctified state , while actually Sinfull : for while our Opposers confess , that Justification and Sanctification are inseparable ; and that we are not Justified without the work of Sanctification in us ; how do they break the Neck of their own Cause , in their pleading , That men are imputatively Righteous and Justified , and actively Sinfull ? This is a pleasant conceit to sooth up Hypocrites ; but when they come to see and feel the end of this Doctrine to be destruction , they will not be able to sooth themselves up with it in Hell ; nor to tell God then , that though they be really in Hell , yet they are imputatively in Heaven ; this their imagined imputation ( without the Living enjoyment of the Righteousness of Faith within , or the Fellowship of Christ's Sufferings ) will not save them from the sence of Anguish and Torment , when it comes upon them that live and die in their sins . S. S. I prove that the Righteousness by which we are saved is not within , but without ; the Saints were arrayed in White Robes ; and are not thy Garments outward ? ( George ) Do we not wear our Cl●thes on our Bodies ? you do not wear your Garments within you , but without you , &c. Reply , This is such an Argument , as we never heard , nor read of before , because the Righteousness of Christ is compared to a Garment , or to White Robes ; he concludes it not within , but without ; it appears he will let sin have a place within , and plead for it , but not Christ's Righteousness : Doth he think it is his Garment , while he 'll not receive it within ? Surely , he 's gr●sly mistaken : And might he not as well say , that Christ , and the Armour of God , or Light , is not to be within , because to be put on ; and then , after this manner , he may as well say , that neither Faith nor Salvation , nor the Word of God are to be within , but without only , which were gross Error and Ignorance ; for the Meek are clothed with Salvation ; the Upright put on Zeal for a Cloak , and Righteousness for a Garment ; Are not these within ? surely , yes , where Truth reigns in the heart ▪ VI. Here follows some of S. S. his manifest Contradictions for the Readers to take notice of . Contraditions . We are to turn our backs upon the Light within , as insufficient , and follow the Scriptures as the full Rule , &c. It is by the Spiritual enlightning of the understanding , that the Scriptures are known . [ In his Prayer ] Grant , O Lord , that Error , may be burnt up by thy holy Spirit , as by fire , &c. Contr. The Scriptures are the only Rule to guide us to Heaven , &c. I mean the Will of God contained in them , not the Writings abstractively . Contr. The Light that is in every man is not a full Rule . Yet a Light of the Spirit of God. Contr. We Sinners are justified by the Righteousness of Christ imputed , or absolved from all our sins , from the beginning of our lives to the end . Justification is to make Righteous ; it is by the Righteousness of Faith justified persons are Sanctified . Contr. The guilt of our sins is taken away , not the act of sin . [ His Brother Priest contradicted him ] viz. Men are not actually Sinners after Justification ; [ contradiction ] yet they sin , &c. Contradictions . Believers are Justified by the passive Obedience of Christ upon Earth , ( that is , by both his outward and inward Suffering ) not by his Righteousness within . Yet we are not justified without the work of Sanctification in us — He hath brought in Everlasting Righteousness — Christ's passive Obedience or Sufferings on Earth were temporary . Contr. This Light that is in every man doth not dictate that Justification is by Christ's Righteousness only . Yet it is a Light of the Spirit of God — — the Spirit makes application to us of Christ's Everlasting Righteousness . Robert Ludgater , William Allen , Jo. Furly , jun. John Childe , Giles Barnadiston , George Witherley . A Brief and Scriptural Examination of the Doctrine Concerning Election and Reprobation of Persons ; as held by Presbyterians , and some others . ANd now concerning that private Opinion of Personal Election and Reprobation from all Eternity , held by Presbyterian Priests , and some others related to them ; their Principle may be seen in their Confession of Faith and Catechisms , agreed on by the Assembly of Divines ( so called ) at Westminster , and approved by the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland , as where they say in their third Chapter of their Confession , That God from all Eternity , did by the most wise and holy Counsel of his own will freely and unchangeable ordain whatsoever comes to pass — and that by the Decree of God , for the manifestation of his Glory , some men and Angels are predestinated unto Everlasting Life , and others fore-ordained unto Everlasting Death ; and that these Angels and Men thus predestinated and fore-ordained , are particularly , and unchangeably design'd , and their number so certain and definite , that it cannot be either increased or diminished , &c. And also , upon the same Principle , they add in Chapter ten , That all those whom God hath predestinated unto Life , and those only he is pleased effectually to call by his Word and Spirit out of the State of Sin and Death , in which they are by nature , to Grace and Salvation by Jesus Christ , enlightning their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God , &c. And in Chapter eleven , God did from all Eternity decree to Justifie all the Elected ; and Christ did in the fulness of time die for their sins , and rise again for their Justification , &c. Observe , that it is upon this Opinion of a particular Personal Election and Reprobation of such certain designed number of persons , that these Priests , and Professors do ground their Doctrine of Saving-Grace , or Light , being but intended and given to a few , whom ( they suppose ) are designed for Salvation , as also , that Grace is only free for that few , and that Christ died , and satisfied only for that select number , according to their Principle ; and that Justification by Christ's Righteousness , imputed , is only designed for that select number ; the rest that they reckon God with-holdeth mercy from , passeth by , as having ordained them to Everlasting death and wrath , he withholdeth both saving Light and Grace from them ; so that they cannot avoid Hell and Damnation , what ever they do , according to this their Principle . Answ. The Consequences and effects of this Doctrine have been very sad ; first , in rendring God the Decreer and Designer of the Destruction of the greater part of Man-kind . Secondly , It renders him the Author of Sin and Iniquity , which is the cause of Destruction , in that they here accuse him , as ordaining what ever comes to pass . Thirdly , it renders him both partial and cruel unto his own workmanship . Fourthly , it makes void the free extent of God's Love and Grace to Man-kind , and his sending his Son into the World ; as also , renders the preaching of the Gospel to every Creature to be of no use , nor real intent , for the good of the greater part of Man-kind ; so that Priests of this Perswasion might stop their mouthes , and people never spend their money for their preaching any more . Fifthly , This their narrow and partial Opinion hath been an engine for Satan to work upon , to the causing many poor Souls to dispair of ever having the benefit of Saving-Grace , or Light , when they have believed Death and Damnation to be unalterably designed for them . Sixthly , It hath pufft up a few conceited Professors , as Presbyterians , Independants , and others , in secret pride , and self-confidence , as being more regarded of God , then all others , supposing themselves from Eternity to be Elected , and Grace and Salvation , or the benefits of Christ's Sufferings and Death only to be free for them , when their states and conditions are as sinfull , corrupt and bad ( with pride and covetousness ) as others ; and therefore against them , their narrow spirit , Principle , and partial Opinion , in this matter , we do in general lay down a few plain Scriptures , which , with many more , might be produced for the same purpose , on the behalf of God , and his goodness to man , and how equal his wayes are , and how mans own iniquity and sin being continued in , without repentance , is his ruin . As first , Genesis chap. 2. vers . 16 , 17. and the Lord God Commanded the man , saying , of every tree of the Garden thou mayst eat , but of the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil , thou shalt not eat of it ; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die , &c. where note , that God was neither the Ordainer , nor Author of mans Transgression , which brought death , and occasioned his being driven out of Paradice , chap. 3. ver . 23 , 24. but God gave man a plain Prohibition , Command and Warning to the contrary ; so that God did not secretly design or decree touching man , contrary to his own pure and equal Law given to man. Gen. 4. 6 , 7. And the Lord said unto Cain , why art thou wroth ? and why is thy Countenance faln ? if thou do well , shalt thou not be accepted ? and if thou do not well sin lieth at thy door : So that it is evident here , that God did not particularly design either that Cain should do evil , nor yet decree his eternal death from Eternity , seeing that in well doing he might have had acceptance ; but his evil doing was the cause of his misery . Deut. 30. 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20. See , I have set before thee this day Life and Good : I call Heaven and Earth this day to witness against you , that I have set before you Life and Death , Blessing and Cursing ; therefore chuse Life , &c : And see vers . 17 , 18. But if thy Heart turn away , I denounce unto you this day , that you shall surely perish , &c. Where mark , that Life and Death was set before them , that they might chuse Life , and refuse death : but , if God had particularly decreed them for death and destruction , it had been a mockery to bid them chuse life , if they could never have it : and if he had absolutely elected them from Eternity for Life Eternal , why should it be denounced against them , that they should surely perish , if their hearts turned away from the Lord ? were it not an impertinent vain thing , to warn persons of such a danger , if they were absolutely secured from being liable to any such danger ? Nehem. 9. 20 , 26. Thou gavest also thy good Spirit to instruct them , and with-heldest not thy Manna from their mouth ; nevertheless , they were disobedient , and rebelled against thee , and cast thy Law behind their backs , and slew thy Prophets , &c. where , note , that God gave his good Spirit unto them , who rebelled , the Persecutors of his Prophets ; and if such had the good Spirit given them , surely , none are excepted , but all have so much of the true Light or Spirit of God given them , as shall leave them without excuse . Psal. 81. 11 , 12. But my people would not hearken to my voice ; nor Israel would none of me ; so I gave them up to their own hearts lust , and they walked in their own counsels : See here , they refusing to hearken to the voice of God ; and their refusing him was the cause of his giving them up to their own lusts and evil counsels , and not any partial secret decree concerning them . Isa. 63. 10. But they rebelled and vexed his holy Spirit ; therefore he was turned to be their Enemy , and he fought against them : Here their rebelling and vexing the holy Spirit of God , was the cause of his turning to be their enemy , and warring against them ; surely , then God was their Friend before he turned to be their Enemy , in that he had befriended them with his own Spirit . 2 Chron. 15. 15. Then the Spirit of God came upon Azariah the Son of Obed , and he went out to meet Asa , and said unto him ; O Asa , and all Judah and Benjamin , hear ye me , The Lord is with you , while ye be with him ; if ye seek him , he will be found of you ; but if ye forsake him , he will forsake you : So that it is mens forsaking of God first , for which cause he forsakes them ; and man forsakes the Lord before the Lord forsake him ; and is not this a falling from Grace to forsake the Lord. Isa. 1. 19 , 20. If you be willing and obedient , ye shall eat the good of the Land ; but if you refuse and rebel , ye shall be devoured with the sword : and ver . 28. The destruction of the Transgressors and of the Sinners shall be together , and they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed : Where , mark upon what terms God promised good unto them ; and what was the cause of destruction , but rebellion and forsaking the Lord : See likewise Jer. 12. 17. Ezek. 18. 20. The Soul that sinneth , it shall die . verse 23. Have I any pleasure at all that the Wicked should die , saith the Lord God , &c. verse 25. Hear , O House of Israel , Is not my Way equal ? are not your wayes unequal ? and see verses 26 , 27 , 28 , 29. Again , vers . 30. Repent , and turn your selves from all your Trangressions , so Iniquity shall not be your ruin . And verse 32. For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth , saith the Lord God ; wherefore turn your selves and live ye . and Hosea 13. 9. Oh , Israel , thou hast destroyed thy self , but in me is thy help . See how evidently , in these passage , God is cleared , both in warning them , and in that he willeth not , nor hath pleasure in their destruction ; and how Iniquity is the ruin of them that continue in it ; and not any secret design or decree of God , contrary to his own Testimony given by his holy Prophets , concerning his good will for the Recovery of man out of Iniquity ; as also , see Ezek. 33. 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8. what is the cause of peoples destruction , and how their blood shall be upon their own heads that do not take warning ; and now lets a little take notice of the Testimony of Christ and his Ministers : As first , John 3. 16 , 17. For God so loved the World , that he gave his only begotten Son ; that whosoever believe in him should not perish , but have Everlasting Life : For God sent not his Son into the World , to condemn the World , but that the World through him might be saved . Surely , then God did not from Eternity design or decree the destruction of the greater part of the World , for that had contradicted the end of sending his Son. John 12. 46. I am come a Light into the World , that whosoever believe on me should not abide in darkness : So here it is manifest , that Christ is freely given a Light to those that are in darkness , that whosoever believeth on him ( it is not that a designed or select number of persons only ) should not abide in darkness , but whosoever believeth , &c. And see the Testimony given of him John 1. 9 , That was the the true Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the World ; It is not said , which lighteth only a select small number . 2 Cor. 5 14 , 15. For the Love of Christ constraineth us , because we thus judge , that if one died for all , then were all dead ; and that he died for all , that they which live , should not henceforth live unto themselves , but unto him which died for them , and rose again . 1 Tim. 2. 5 , 6. For there is one God , and one Mediator between God and Man , the Man Christ Jesus , who gave himself a Ransom for ALL , to be testified of in due time . Hebr. 2. 9. But we see Jesus , who is made a little lower then the Angels , for the suffering which death , crowned with glory and honour , that he by the Grace of God should taste death for every man. 1 John 2. And he is the Propitiation for our sins , and not for ours only , but for the sins of the whole World. In all which passages observe , that the free and universal Love , Grace , and Good-will of God in Christ , is testified in the Suffering , Death or Sacrifice of Christ , for all that were dead , for every man , for the sins of the whole World ; it is not said , that he died only for a few , or for a small number , Elected from Eternity , but for all men ; and gave himself a Ransom for all , for a Testimony in due time : And therefore away with such Doctrines and Opinions as oppose the free extent of the Grace of God and Light of Christ , which universally is given to all Man-kind ; and do not blame or lay the fault upon God any longer , as either decreeing mans destruction , or the cause of it ; but lay it in the right place , upon the Rebellious and Transgressors , who hate the Light and love Darkness rather , see John 3. 19 , 20. Object . But some object , That God loved Jacob , and hated Esau , before they were born , or had done good or evil . Reply , What then did he hate Esau for ? for any to suppose he hated him for nothing , or without cause , is to render God cruel and unequal in his wayes ; but those that thus object do both grosly mistake , and misplace the words : For that which was said before the Children were born , was , The elder shall serve the younger , ( the mystery whereof is only known , where the two Seeds , or two Births are known ) Rom. 9. 12. and then follows , as it is written , Jacob have I loved , and Esau have I hated ; but where was it written before Paul mentioned it , it was not written or spoken to either Isaac or Rebekah ; but it was written many hundred years after concerning their Successors , to wit , those of Israel and Edom , by the Prophet Malachi , chap. 1. and those whom God hated were the same people , that was called , The Border of Wickedness , the people against whom the Lord had Indignation for ever ; so that it was because of their Wickedness that the Indignation of God was against them . Object . Again , some object , That God hath Mercy on whom he will , and whom he will be hardneth ; Hath not the Potter power over the Clay ? &c. Reply , God hath concluded them all in unbelief , that he might shew mercy upon all ; it is his universal Love and good will in the first place , to tender and shew Mercy in his own Son unto all both Jews and Gentiles , but it is his Justice to give them up to hardness and unbelief who reject and oppose his free Love and tenders of Mercy ; for what can be the reason of hardning some , seeing this hardning is a Judgment upon them , in time ? not particularly or partially design'd from Eternity , ( as to particular persons simply ) for it s no reason for any to say , that he will harden some , because he will hearden them ; but because its just for him so to do , they having provoked him , and grieved his holy Spirit in them ; see Zachariah 7. 11 , 12. But they refuse to hearken , and pull'd away the Shoulder , and stopped their Ears , that they should not hear ; yea , they made their hearts as an Adamant-stone , &c. Therefore came a great Wrath from the Lord of Hosts . And as for his having power over the works of his hands , as the Potter hath over the Clay ; who questions that ? but though he made or formed man , as man , or as his Creature , he did not make him , nor ordain him to be a sinfull Rebellious man ; God is not his Potter , or Former , into Sin , but the Devil ; which , if man continue in , against his Maker , without repentance , then his end , which is destruction , is determined : For , Wo unto him that striveth with his Maker ; let the Potsherd strive with the Potsherds of the Earth ; shall the Clay say to him that fashioneth it , what makest thou ? Wo unto him that sayeth unto his Father , what begettest thou , & c ? Isa. 45. 9 , 10. Surely , God did not make man to strive against himself , nor yet to question , or suppose evil against his Workmanship , for he is not the Author of Sin ; and it is because of Iniquity that God hides his Face , and consumes people , who are the Clay , and he the Potter , Isa. 64. 7 , 8. Now , to be sure , God doth not find fault with any thing that is proper to his own Workmanship ; nor doth he consume any , meerly as his own Workmanship , but because of Iniquity ; see also Jer. 18. 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12. by which these partial opinionated Professors are absolutely confuted ; besides , it is such as like not to retain God in their knowledge , whom he gives over to a reprobate mind , Rom. 1. 21 , 28. Wherefore we advise all , who tender their own Salvation , not to be byassed or prejudiced with private and corrupt opinions of men of corrupt minds , nor yet to reject or dispise the Free Grace , or Light , of Jesus , which is freely tendred and given unto all ; but every one wait in it , and mind its appearance in your hearts , that thereby your understandings may be opened , that you may come to know the Election in Christ , as chosen in him to be holy , and without blame ( this Election we own ) and be conformed unto his Image , even the Image of the Son of God , and know him as the First-born among many Brethren , as those that are chosen in him , through the Sanctification of the Spirit , and belief of the Truth , to be holy , and without blame before him , which is a high and precious state that many are short of who conceit and pretend themselves to be Elect Persons , when yet they are polluted , unsanctified , unregenerate , unholy , impure , unfaithfull to God , rejecting the elect Seed , the elect and precious Stone ; therefore their Foundation is Sandy , their Building shattered , and the Lord our God is risen to stain their glory , and the pride of all Flesh , and yet more to confound all empty and Babilonish Professions , that are set in opposition to his Glorious Appearance in this his day . G. W. The moderate Reader is desired to Correct some Errors that have escaped the Press , whether they be Words , Letters or Points , and not impute them to the Authors . PAge 11. l. 8. read of these . p. 12. l. 37. for affirmed , r. answered . p. 18. l. 12. for no wit , r. now it . p. 21. l. 11. r. as for . l. 34. dele yet . p. 22. l. 17. for to the , dele the. p. 23. l. 33. for bare , r. bear . p. 26. l. 1. blot out them . p. 31. l. 11. r. trees . p. 34. l. 18. r. Chap. 1. p. 39. understand , or add to the names subscribed ; viz. Witnesses that these are the Priests Contradictions . p. 44. l. 4. r. passages . l. 37. for which , r. and. THE END . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A65867-e2860 Priest. Notes for div A65867-e5100 Note . Observation . Rom. 11. 32. 
A95901	----	To his reverend and much respected good friend, Mr. John Goodwin: be these I pray presented. Vicars, John, 1579 or 80-1652. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A95901 of text R212477 in the English Short Title Catalog (Thomason E259_3). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 24 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 5 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2017 A95901 Wing V331 Thomason E259_3 ESTC R212477 99871085 99871085 123483 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A95901) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 123483) Images scanned from microfilm: (Thomason Tracts ; 44:E259[3]) To his reverend and much respected good friend, Mr. John Goodwin: be these I pray presented. Vicars, John, 1579 or 80-1652. Taylor, Daniel, ca. 1614-1655. 8 p. s.n., [London : 1645] Signed on page 4: Iohn Vicars. Caption title. Imprint from Wing. Includes: Taylor, Daniel. To his much respected friend Mr. Iohn Vicars [signed on page 8: D.T.]. Annotation on Thomason copy: on page 1: "feb: 11th 1644"; on page 8: "Dan: Taylor". Reproduction of the original in the British Library. eng Goodwin, John, 1594?-1665. -- Innocency and truth triumphing together. Puritans -- Controversial literature -- Early works to 1800. Independent churches -- England -- Early works to 1800. Congregationalism -- Early works to 1800. A95901 R212477 (Thomason E259_3). civilwar no To his reverend and much respected good friend, Mr. John Goodwin:: be these I pray presented. Vicars, John 1645 4305 6 0 0 0 0 0 14 C The rate of 14 defects per 10,000 words puts this text in the C category of texts with between 10 and 35 defects per 10,000 words. 2007-06 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2007-06 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2007-10 Emma (Leeson) Huber Sampled and proofread 2007-10 Emma (Leeson) Huber Text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion TO HIS REVEREND AND MUCH Respected Good Friend , Mr. JOHN GOODWJN : Be these I pray presented . REVEREND SIR , HAving lately received from you , by the hands of my loving Neighbour and Friend , Mrs. Ducker , a both undeserved and unexpected favour , one of your last Books , intituled , Innocencie and Truth triumphing together ; I acknowledge it a just engagement of obliged gratitude , and therefore , accordingly , I do here return you deserved and most humble thanks for the same , by the same friendly hand . And because ( worthy Sir ) I conceived and considered with my self , that you sent it by way of love and desire to give me ( who am , as I acknowledge , a poor and unworthy Presbyterian ) satisfaction , if it might be , touching your Independent Church-way : I having now perused it all over , even à capite ad calcem ( and I hope with that pietie and impartialitie , as my God hath enabled me , which becomes a Christian and fellow servant to the same Lord Jesus Christ with you ) I therefore hope you will , not so much pardon ( which I pray not ) as accept ( which I heartily desire ) with Christian Candor , mine ingenuitie and plain dealing with you , in now giving you an account , briefly , as I thought it most fit , of what light or content and satisfaction I have received from it . Truly Sir , I having read your Epistle to the Reader , found therein very full and fair promise of your ingenuous aym and intention in the subsequent discourse , viz. that you projected four things therein , Brevitie , Perspicuitie , Moderation , and Satisfaction . But having , I say , perused your Book , truly Sir , ( if I am not mistaken , as I believe I am not ) you have come extream short of your promised project , in every of the four branches thereof . For first , if I found you short , I am sure I found you sharp and tart ; For Perspicuitie , I assure you I found much cloudie obscuritie ; Veri similitudinem multam , non ipsam veritatem ; satisfaction , therefore none at all . But especially , in that of projected moderation , and promised temperature in writing , ( the great defect , and foul fault , so cried out upon by Independents against all Presbyterian Writers or Speakers ) in stead of moderation I found abundance of bitternesse , and unsavourie jerkes and jeeres ( the light issues me thought , rather of a youthfull green-head , then the solid expressions of such a grave heart ) sprinkled , almost , over all your whole discourse ; which I must confesse much troubled and affected me with wonder to meet with , after such a seeming promise of moderation : Some few of very many whereof ( because I knew , Dolosus versatur in generalibus ) J have here particularized with their pages where they are evidently and easily to be seen . As first ( to omit your Via Sanguinea , with all its most bitter and biting , yea sorely wounding expositions of that term , in your Theomachia , &c. ) pag. 13. you compare Mr. Prynn in his Reply , to the two false witnesses , who falsly accused our blessed Saviour . And in the same Page you tell the Reader , Here Mr. Prynn vapours in his Reply ; immediatly after , in the same page how notably do you jeer and scoffe him about three Tabernacles ? And with what an elated spirit do you answer him , page 16. line 4. together with a down-right jeer about a Nationall Church , some 12 lines after ? You also grossely taxe him with errors , Page 17. Sect. 21. And Page 18. and 19. you frequently jeer him , and amongst those jeers you tell him , that Acts 15. is onely Mr. Prynns Gospell ; what a bitter and unchristian censure lay you upon him , and all Presbyterians , Page 24. Sect. 26. towards the end of it ? And O how you jeer him with his quotations , Page 37. towards the bottome ; as also Page 49. and Page 51. you slander him with want of Reason and Truth too ; and Page 52. you tell him , his pen spits black reproches in the face of Independents . You also accuse him Page 65. of much untruth ; and the same also again most fouly , Page 84. Together with a Notable jeer , exalting your selfe , and vilifying Mr. Prynn , which I have noted at large in your book , page 85. Together with very many other such like expressions , too tedious to be here recited ; And yet ( strange to consider ) you conclude them all ( with the conclusion of your book ) page 99. in a hortatorie way to Mr. Prynn in these words : That he would put lesse Vineger and Gall into his inke and more Wooll and Cotten . And in the Apostles words , Ephes. 4. 31. That all bitternesse and evill speaking be put away , as becomes brethren . And now any impartiall person may judge , whether you your self have followed this brotherly exhortation ; Nay , whether contrariwise , you have not with unbrotherly aspersions , indeavored to besmear the face of that precious Gentleman , most worthy ever to be honoured both by you all and us all ? Truly Sir , you Independent Gentlemen have dealt with this most worthy servant of the Lord , just as the people of Lystra did with the Apostle Paul , whom at first they so honoured and admired , as that they were ready to deifie him and make him a god ; but shortly after , they furiously indeavoured to stone him to death : So ye , at the first , in the time of Mr. Prynns first most elaborate and learned divine writings , yea and for his most glorious and Saint-like sufferiugs ; O then , how ye all ( with us ) most highly ( and that most justly too ) honoured him , and brought him home from bauishment , as it were in the triumphing Chariot of your love and praises ! But now , since he hath piously and faithfully written against your Independent way , and onely for this , O how have you and almost all of your way , indeavoured as much as in you is , to stone to death his illustrious reputation , by most unworthy and unchristian reviling and vilipending of him , both in words and writings ! Even him I say , who for his pietie , humilitie , incomparable constancie , fortitude and magnanimitie in suffering for Gospell Truths , was not inferiour to any of his most faithfull fellow-sufferers yea , whose soundnesse and sinceritie , whose profound learning and indefatigable labours in writing upon deepest points of Divinity and controverted Gospel Truths ( witnesse his Perpetuity of the estate of a regenerate man ; his Anti-Arminianisme , Vnbisboping of Timothy and Titus , his Histri-Mastix ; and many other his later , most learned , orthodox and precious peeces ) have made his never-dying name and fame most worthily renowned both in England and other parts of the world , beyond the Seas . And yet this noble Gentleman to be thus , I say , besmeared and bespattred with your unjust accusations , onely I say again , for writing the truth against Independent novelties ; O! it is most sad and bad to consider . Truly Sir , you must here give me leave to be yet more plain with you , I professe in the sinceritie of my soul , that I do most groundedly beleeve , that ( had Mr. Prynn been such a Non-sense , Consciencelesse , irrationall , false and frivolous writer , as you and others of your way only have strugled ( but all in vain ) to make and demonstrate him by your lavish tongues and pens ) that yet , I say certainly , Mr. Iohn Goodwin , was the most unfit man of all I know in London , to lay those undeserved criminations to Mr. Prynns charge . For , you know good Sir , that Qui in alterum paratus est dicere , ipsum vitio carere opertet . For you therefore , Reverend Sir , to take upon you to tax Mr. Pryn of errours , untruths , and such like , as you have done , how deeply you your self , ( before ever this most unhappy and unhol● difference of Independency with Presbitery was dreamed of ) have been ceusured both of Socinianisme ; ( and how justly too others have most learnedly in publike declared ) and more lately also how you have been discovered to hold a most Dangerous , yea a most Damnable opinion ( as a learned Independent Brother of yours termed it in my hearing , and who then said , he would justifie it against you ) touching justifying Faith by Christ . And now also , how fiercely you are faln on this unhappily disturbant new way of Independencie . I beseech you therefore , Reverend Sir , seriously to consider these things , to muster up your saddest thoughts , and to see into what a Labyrinth you are strangely and strongly intricated . Sir , I do not , I cannot denie , but ingenuously confesse that God hath given you much learning and eminent parts , but truly Sir , if I be not , mistaken , I greatly fear your Independent Proselites do too much magnifie , if not ( almost ) deifie you for them , and as it was with Pythagoras his Shollars , an Ipse dixit is enough , I , feare for many , if not most of your disciples , jurare in verba Magistri ; Whereby I pray God , your great parts and gifts bee not ( thus ) a great Snare to your soul , which I much feare , if not timely and truely seen into and prevented by Cordiall Self-deniall , and Holy Humilitie in your selfe , being more kindely affectioned with brotherly love , and in honour preferring others before your self ▪ Rom. 12. 10. And thus , Reverend Sir , I have made humbly bold , by your own occasion , lovingly and , I hope , fairly and friendly as a true Christian Brother ought , ( Levit. 19. 17 ) Liberare animam meam , and thus to manifest my reciprocall love and gratitude unto you , praying our good God it may be accepted with the like right handed Christian Candor , and Simplicitie of Heart with which it is sent and intended , I humbly take my leave and rest , SIR , Yours in our great Lord and Master Christ Jesus , to be commanded . IOHN VICARS . Jan. this 18. 1644. Imprimatur . Ja. Cranford . Jan. 24. 1644. An Answer thereunto . To his much respected Friend Mr. IOHN VICARS , These be delivered . ( The Author of this following Letter , did not intend it for the Presse , but sent it to Mr. Vicars in a private way : But Mr. Vicars his Letter comming forth in Print , and divers Copies thereof being disperst into severall hands by himself , it was thought fit that this Letter should be published also . ) SIR , WHether it was my good or hard happe to meet with your Letter directed and sent to Mr. Iohn Goodwin , I cannot easily determine : for though all manner of knowledge , either of persons or things , be in some kinde or other beneficiall ; it being an undoubted Maxime , that Verum & Bonum convertuntur : yet some knowledge may be so circumstantiated , that it may prove more burdensome and offensive to the party knowing , then commodious . I confesse from the reading of your Lines I have gained thus much , to say I know you : but this gain hath occasioned such a considerable losse in the things of my joy , that I doe even wish for my former ignorance , and could be well contented , to have met with no other description of your frame and temper , then what the promise of your countenance , and the report of your friends have made of you : Indeed it cannot but deduct somewhat from the comfort of a reasonable man , to see one , whom ( one would thinke ) gray haires should have taught the language of sobernesse , shooting with his tongue at rovers , and speaking sharpe and devouring words against persons and things , which hee knowes not . Sorry I am , that Mr. Vicars should break the fair face of his reputation upon this stone , against which this besotted world is dashing it selfe in peeces from day to day . I have some hope that though your zeale to Mr. Prinns glory , did cast you into such an extasie of passion , that you scarce knew what you writ ; yet by this time you have pretty well recovered your selfe again : and lest the sense of your miscarriage should too much oppresse you , I give you to know that you are falne into soft and tender hands , and have discovered your nakednesse to such onely , who rather pittie , then deride it . For my part , I love not to disport my selfe at the weaknesse of any man , or to turne his folly into laughter ; for what were this , but to reflect dishonour upon the same nature , wherein he partakes with my selfe . Rather , I could mourn over the vanities of your Pen , and weep to see you so farre intoxicated , as to call the most injurious dealing one shall lightly meet with , by the name of candor and ingenuitie . The truth is , you have so fouly berayed your paper with bold and untrue assertions , imputations , exprobations , and such like excrements , that I thought even for modestie sake to have drawne over them the veile of silence , and to have contested with that spirit that breathes in them no further , then by speaking to it in a secret wish , the Lord rebuke thee . But I considered with my selfe , that perhaps you might communicate in the nature of such persons who ( as Solomon saith , Prov. 26. 5. ) are apt ( being unanswered ) to be wise in their own conceits : and if I shall hereby demolish or at least weaken this conceit of yours , I presume I shall do you herein a very charitable and Christian peece of service . Think not I am become your enemeie , because I tell you the truth : you have injured me no other waies then by trespassing upon your own credit , and by making thereby a sad breach in that holy profession , wherein you stand ingaged with my selfe . What ever your intentions were , I conceive you have done me no more wrong in clapping the title of an Independent Proselyte upon my back , then Pilate did to Christ in affixing this Superscription over his head , This is the King of the Iews . I think this name to be full as honourable , as that of a poore and unworthy Presbyterian , wherewith you have pleased to baptize your selfe : and conceive that herein only you have followed your owne , or rather the Apostles counsell , in honour to preferre others be●ore your selfe . But had you been minded to suppresse your name , your very Dialect had been enough to betray you : Me thinkes you write just like such a one as you say you are . Did I not hope for better things from the hands of more worthy Presbyterians , your unworthy dealing had set me off ten degrees further from your way , then now I stand : But I will not take the advantage of your , or any mans misdemeanor , though more grosse and absurde then yours to render Pesbytery odious to the world : To cloath any opinion or practice with the garments of mens personall distempers , thereby to fall upon them and beat them with the more applause , is a method which I as much abhorre , as the Gentleman you admire , delights in : and if this property in him were one of those beauty-spots which ravished you into a passionate adoration of him , you need not fear , that ever I should become your corrivall : And yet I love and honour Mr. Prynn for what ever you can finde lovely and honourable in him : I cannot denie but that in some of his workes , he hath acquitted himselfe upon commendable termes ; but to say that in all things , he writes after the rate of a God , when in many things he falls beneath the line of a man , is to make him and my selfe obnoxious to the wrath of God , and the scorne of man . I acknowledge that for a time he ran well , but who hindred him ? questionlesse He who is ever and anon Hindring the Saints in the race of holinesse . The Prince of darkenesse owed him a fall for his sharpe contesting with his prime agents , and now hee hath payed his debt ; but if Mr. Prynn will bee ruled by the advice of his best friends , hee may rise again to his greater glory , and notwithstanding his fall , triumph over the envy and malice of the Devill . Concerning Mr. Iohn Goodwin , ( over whom you shake the rod of your reproofe , as if he were one of your Schollers ) I could speak as high and excellent Encomiums , as you have spoken of your preci●us Gentleman ; I could compare him even with Mr. Prynn himselfe : but such a comparison as this , would bee to mee most odious . I could tell you what hee hath done , what hee hath writ , how deeply hee hath suffered from unreasonable men ; yea , I could give you such a lively and bright description of him , as would dazle your eyes to look upon , and make you blush for shame to have grapled with such a person as he is , upon such rude and unmannerly termes as you have done . For you , who are but a Teacher of boyes , so haughtily to correct a great Master in Israel , is such an absurdity , as cannot but rend a more patient soule then mine , into disdaine and griefe . T is a wonder to me , that , whereas at the beginning of your Letter , you confesse your selfe to bee but a poore and unworthy Presbyterian , you should so far forget your selfe before you come halfe way , as to take upon you , like the Dr. of the Chaire ; and to censure the best of men and wayes with as much confidence , as if your pen had dropt the Votes of a Generall Assembly with its inke . Had a poore and unworthy Independent done the like , you would have cast this boldnesse into a Basiliske , and used it to batter down the way of his profession , and to lay the glory of it even with the ground ▪ But I well perceive , though you have scap't the snare of Gifts and parts ( in which you fear Mr. Goodwin is taken ) yet you are falne into the pit , not of Divine , but naturall simplicity ; and have verified the old Proverb , A rash mans bolt is soone shot . As for that Book of Mr. Goodwins , called Innocencie and Truth triumphing together , though you are pleased to triumph over both , and to cast it out as an Arch-Rebel to reason and morality , yet ( I must tell you ) it hath found joyfull and bountifull entertainement in the judgements of sober and intelligent men : But certainly , it was the unhappinesse of this Treatise to fall into your hands , when you stood upon the Mount of Mr. Prins honour , and when the vision of his transfiguration wrought so strongly in you , that you did not wot , what you spake , no , nor what you did neither , for you laid about you with such regardlesse fury that you broke the head of your friend Priscian , * of whose safety men of your profession , should be most tender . I thought to have argued the case with you , whether your exceptions against this Treatise and its Author , will hold in the Court of Reason and equity : but perhaps you are not so well skilled in the rules of this Court ; and I am loath to take the advantage of you . I shall only propound a few Querees , peradventure the struglings of your thoughts to give them satisfaction , may dissolve the inchantment that is now upon you . What persons did ever most learnedly declare Mr. Goodwin to be justly censured for Socinianisme ? When , or in what publique place did they make this Declaration ? How call you that Brother of his , who will justifie against him the charge of holding a most damnable opinion about justifying faith ? I suppose you must strain , not so much your memory as your invention , in shaping your answer : You had done well to remember , that though Fooles ( as Solomon speaks ) beleeve every thing ; yet wise men will question such assertions as these : Alas ( Sir ) the best course you can run to gaine credit with the prudent , is to cut your allegations and your proofes , just of one and the same length : to cloath large and broad sayings with curtaild Arguments , reflects as much shame upon such sayings , and him that speakes them , as Hanun did upon the servants of David● in cutting off their Garments to their buttocks . You cannot but know , how that many grave , sober , Godly , and learned men have falne into that way you call Independencie . Now , your onely method , to have brought over these to your partie , and to have filled their mouthes with the cry of a confederacy against this way , had bin this ; not barely to have affirmed it to be a novell and disturbant way ( as you have done ) but to have poysed the lightnesse of your affirmation , with the weight and substance of a Demonstration . I assure you ( Sir ) ( what ever you may thinke ) I approve of this way no further then I see the footsteps of those sweet sisters , Truth and Peace Printed in it : I have narrowly view'd it , and I can finde no drops of blood , no strewings of the liberties , estates , names , comforts of the Saints scattered in it , and yet some Travellers affirme , they have seen such things as these in that way , which the ignorance of thousands lust after . But to conclude , I beseech you ( Sir ) bee more watchfull over the extravagancies of your tongue and pen for the future : since you are ( in part ) acquainted with their infirmities , let it be your wisdome to seek their cure . I reverence you for age , piety , and some services you have done to the Publique ; and I should rejoyce to see such an ancient standard in the Garden of God as you are , carrying your hoary head with honour to the grave : which that you may doe , as I have ( you see ) in part indeavoured , so I shall further prosecute with my prayers to him , who is able to keep you to the end : in whom ( though I am unknown to you ) yet with all sincerity I professe my selfe , SIR , A cordiall well-wisher to your peace and credite : D. T. January 27. 1644. Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A95901e-1100 * The words in the written Coppy of his Letter , are these , and thus spell'd , qui in alterum paratus est dicere , ipsum vicio careat oportet , as may appeare from the originall in Mr. Goodwins custody . But it seemes the Corrector being the better Grammarian transform'd them into good Latine in the printed Copie . ] 
A67085	----	The key of saving knovvledge, opening out of the holy Scriptures, the right way, and straight passage to eternall life, or, A dialogue wherein the chiefe principles of the Christian religion are unfolded for the enabling of Christian people, to understand the Word of God ... composed by Geo. Walker ... Walker, George, 1581?-1651. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A67085 of text R39413 in the English Short Title Catalog (Wing W360). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 134 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 62 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2017 A67085 Wing W360 ESTC R39413 18400047 ocm 18400047 107490 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A67085) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 107490) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1134:16) The key of saving knovvledge, opening out of the holy Scriptures, the right way, and straight passage to eternall life, or, A dialogue wherein the chiefe principles of the Christian religion are unfolded for the enabling of Christian people, to understand the Word of God ... composed by Geo. Walker ... Walker, George, 1581?-1651. [10], 113 p. Printed by Tho. Badger, London : MDCXLI [1641] Imperfect: print show-through. Reproduction of original in the Union Theological Seminary Library. eng Puritans -- England -- Apologetic works. Theology, Doctrinal -- 17th century. A67085 R39413 (Wing W360). civilwar no The key of saving knovvledge, opening out of the holy Scriptures, the right way, and straight passage to eternall life. Or A dialogue wherei Walker, George 1641 24881 52 0 0 0 0 0 21 C The rate of 21 defects per 10,000 words puts this text in the C category of texts with between 10 and 35 defects per 10,000 words. 2004-11 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2004-11 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-01 Jonathan Blaney Sampled and proofread 2005-01 Jonathan Blaney Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-04 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE KEY OF SAVING KNOWLEDGE , Opening out of the holy Scriptures , the right way , and straight passage to Eternall life . OR A Dialogue wherein the chiefe principles of Christian Religion are unfolded for the enabling of Christian people , to understand the Word of God and to atteine to the true sense and mean●ng thereof . Composed by GEO. WALKER B. of Div. and Pastor of S Iohn the Evangelists Church in LONDON . LONDON , Printed by THO. BADGER . M.DC.XLI . To his little flock , the Inhabitants of the Parish of S. Iohn the Evangelist in Watlingstreet in London , Georg● Walker their weake , but wellwishing ●astor , commendeth this small token of his unfeined love , and hearty desire of their eternall happinesse in the fruition of God ; by their fellowship and communion with him in the Lord Iesus Christ . BEloved in the Lord Christ , seeing now I have spent one halfe of my dayes in Preaching to you and your predecessors the Gospell of Christ , in expounding the sacred Scriptures , & in watching and labouring for the good of your soules , to wit , for the space of 29 yeares , untill there is not one left alive of all those inhabitants , who were masters of families at my first coming to this place , and did all with one consent and voyce make choyce of me to be their Pastor : I hold it high time for me , to thinke of my departure from hence by putting off this earthly tabernacle , and of leaving you as your predecessors who were my first flocke , have left me their Pastor behind them to feed you a succeeding generation . And least my labour and paines , which I spent among them for the good of their soules should seeme to die with them , and to bee buried in their graves : I have thought good to renew the memory of them ; and to leave to the World some Monuments of that Doctrin I have Preached to them heretofore , as also to you of latter times , by Gods gracious assistance , though in great weaknesse of body , yet with a willing mind , and with a courage never daunted with any menacings and threatenings of potent adversaries , and malicious persecutors . The principall heads and true platforme of which doctrine I have briefly comprised , and compendiously set forth in this short Dialogue , which containes in it the principles and foundations of Christian Religion and which I do here commend to you , as a testimony of that unfeigned love which I beare to you , and of my fervent desire of the salvation of your soules . I have already published , and have ready for the Presse divers larger Treatises , wherein are conteined many particular doctrines which may be reduced to these principall heads ; and are there largely handled , plainly opened , and fully proved by Scriptures ; and the true use of them shewed in such manner as they have beene by my mouth publikly preached among you . But this golden Key , which is the quintessence of them all , will open Heaven unto you , if you can learn to use it aright . It is made of divine metall , even the Word of God revealed from Heaven , which is more pure than the most refined gold . It will teach you by a short and compendious way to know God , not only in the unity of Essence in his essentiall attributes ; In the Trinity of persons , and in his Works of Creation , and actuall Providence overruling mans fall , and disposing it and all the evils which entered in by it , to his own glory , and the good of his Elect : but also in Iesus Christ , in whom to know him the only true God is eternall life , as our Saviour testifieth , Iohn 12. 3. Here Gods eternall Counsell and Decree of Predestination is discovered : Here you may learn the saving works of God , in and by Christ , God and man humbled in our nature . What love God hath shewed in giving his Son for us ; and what Christ hath done and suffered for our Redemption . Here you may see what saving works God works by his Spirit , shed on his Elect through Christ , as Regeneration , Renovation , effectuall calling , Vnion with Christ , Adoption , Communion of his ransome for Redemption , of his Righteousnesse for Iustification , of his satisfaction for Remission of sins , and Reconciliation . And what Gods Spirit works in us and by us , as Mortification , Sanctification , Faith , Repentance and all holy graces ; and how and by what meanes he enables us to apply Christ and his benefits unto us , and to enioy him and them for Salvation ; and also doth beget and increase grace in his Elect , to wit , by the Word preached and heard , the Sacraments rightly administred and received , faithfull and fervent Prayer , and the like . And how these worke in the Elect to eternall life and blessednesse , and are abused by wicked reprobates , to their owne everlasting damnation and destruction . These things have I written to you Fathers and Masters , that you may read them your selves , and commend them to your children and families ; I commend them to you Young men , that you may grow strong , and may overcome the wicked one . And I commend them to you litle children ; that you may learne to know his name , and that your sins may be forgiven you for his names sake . If after so much preaching & teaching you be found ignorant & unprofitable , it is because the God of this World hath blinded your minds , least the light of the glorious Gospell of Christ , who is the image of God , should shine unto you . This word will be to you the savour of death unto death , and this booke shall witnesse for me against you , that you are wilfully ignorant and a lost people . But if , as I hope , and pray fervently and wish from my heart ; You do chearefully receive the love of this Truth : then shall my Doctrine bee to you the savour of life unto life , and wee shall both together , I of my worke and labour in preaching , and you of your reverence in hearing , and faithfulnesse in obeying the Word Preached , receive the reward of righteousnesse , which Christ hath purchased for them that beleeve and obey the Gospell , even the Crown of glorie , which never fadeth . This briefe summe of Christian Religion , with other more large Treatises I have written in my bonds , for the common benefit of you and others , to testifie unto you , that the many waters of troubles and persecutions , which I suffer for the Truth sake , which I have preached unto you , cannot quench my love to you , nor my desire of your salvation , nor hinder mee from labouring for your good . In all which I seeke not yours , but you . And as I have preached the Gospell freelie to you , never seeking any of your temporall goods , for my ministring of spirituall things plentifullie unto you ; but spending besides my spirits , much substance over and above the revenues of my smal Benefice , which from you I have received ; so I commend to you freely this and all other works and labours of my love , which if you do lovinglie accept and use , and imploy to your own advantage , I shall thinke my work in some good measure rewarded , and shall ever remaine a faithfull labourer for the good of your soules , according to the utmost of my power , and Your welwilling , though weake Pastor , GEO. WALKER . A briefe Dialogue , wherein the Father examineth his Son , concerning the principles of Religion , in which he hath formerly instructed him . Quest . MY deare Child , why doest thou complaine because of thy sicknesse , and many paines and infirmities which often doe befall thee , seeing thou by thy sins pullest them upon thee , and causest God thus to punish and correct thee ? Answer . Indeed in my book of the of the Psalmes of David , I am taught to confesse , that I was shapen in iniquity , and that in sin hath my mother conceived me , but this is the fault of you that are my parents , from whom I received in my birth and with my first being this sinfull corruption . Quest . It is true , that wee brought thee into this world a poore sinfull wretch . But doest thou not know , that this corruption commeth not from our selves , as the first causes of it , but from our first parents in whom thou and we and all mankind have sinned against God , and lost that image and likenesse of God , in which wee were created , and are so infected with the poyson a●d malice of the Devill , which hee breathed into our first parents , that wee have no power , or will to do the good which God requireth of us in his Law ; but are forward to run into all sins which God forbiddeth . Answ. I remember now when you put me in mind of it , that you have taught me oftentimes , that God created all things good at the first , and in Adam he created all man-kind in his owne image and likenesse ; and that the Devill by the Serpent did tempt the woman , and breathed into her his poyson and drew her into sin , and by her infected Adam , who was the root and stock of all man-kind ; and by drawing him into transgression , did corrupt him and all man-kind , defaced Gods image in us al , and stained and defiled our nature , so that eversince we are by nature children of wrath and disobedience , who of our selves have no power to will or do any good , but do run into sin and actuall transgression continually . Quest . I see and perceive by this , that you are ready to forget those instructions of godlinesse which you have often learned , and have need to have your memory often rubbed up . And therefore I will stirre you up to remember the things which I have often taught you , by asking you questions concerning the chiefe points of Christian Religion which you have learned , that they may be more deeply printed in your mind , and that you may have them more ready to put them in practise when occasion shall be offered . Answ. I acknowledge my selfe bound in a double bond of thankefulnesse unto you , both for your godly paines in t●aching me saving Knowledge , and for your fatherly care , to ma●e me remember the things which you have taught me , that I may both beleeve and practise the things which God requireth of me , for the obteining of eternall life , and blessednesse . Quest . My paines of teaching you , are a pleasure to me , when I see you willing to bee instructed . And if you answer readily the questions which I shall aske you concerning the grounds of Religion , which I have heretofore taught you , I shall rejoice in hope and confidence that God hath chosen you to be a vessell of honour ▪ called you to the state of Grace , and prepared you for the state of glory in Heaven . Answ. I acknowledge with all thankfulnesse Gods infinite love , mercy and bounty to me , in that hee hath ordeined me to be borne of Godly and Christian parents , who as they were meanes to bring me into the world , a corrupt sinfull child of Adam , so are Gods speciall instruments to beget me to God a new creature in Iesus Christ , by instructing me in his holy Word , by which his holy Spirit doth take possession of my soule , worketh in me Faith , and renueth me after the image of Christ ; wherefore I am ready according to my best understanding and memory to answer every question which you shall aske , concerning the things which I have before heard and learned from your mouth , humbly beseeching God to print in my heart , and to enable me by his grace to practise in my life the things , which by your often urging and pressing are printed in my memory . Quest . My first Question therefore shall be about that which is the first work of God , by which he gave to man-kind their first being , I meane the creation of Adam and all man-kind in him , tell mee what you have been taught concerning it ? Answ. First , I have learned that God created the whole world and all things therein , Gen. 1. & 2. Quest . What God is he who did performe and perfect so great a work ? Answ ▪ He who is the one only true God , and besides whom there is no other God , Deut. 6. 4. & Isay 45. 5. Quest . What a one do you conceive this God to be ? Answ. I conceive him to bee such a one as his most proper name Jehovah doth signifie . Quest . What doth that name signifie ? Answ. It signifieth that he is and hath his being of himselfe from all eternity , without beginning and without end , and that bee giveth being , motion , breath , life , and all other things , to all creatures which live , move , and breath , and to all other things which have been , are , or shall bee in the world , and without him nothing can ●e or come to passe , Exod. 3. 14. Quest . What do you learn from thence ? Answ. I learne , First , that God is most absolute of himselfe , and depends upon none other , neither needeth , either for his being , glory , or blessednesse any help , or for the increase of them . Secondly , that he is before all things , and is the first cause of them . Thirdly , that he is eternall , even one who was before all times , and is and shall be the same for ever , without beginning , and without end . Fourthly , that he is immutable and unchangeable in his nature , essence and being , and in his counsels , will and all other his attributes and properties . Fiftly , that he is most perfect , one who wanteth nothing , but hath in him all excellencies to the full , so that nothing can bee added to him to increase his goodnesse or blessednesse . Sixthly , that he is infinite and incomprehensible , no tongue can utter , no eye can see , nor eare heare , nor heart conceive , nor reason and understanding comprehend him or his excellencies . Quest . Wherein doth his infinitnesse consist ? Answ. It consists in this , that he hath no bounds , nor limits , but is above all degrees of comparison , his whole essence is at all times pr●sent in all places ; and neither Heaven , nor the Heaven of Heavens , nor all places in the World can conteine him , or measure his Substance . He is infinit in Wisdome , Knowledge , Power , Goodnesse , Mercy , Iustice , Will , Counsell , and all other Attributes and Properties , able to do whatsoever he will . He seeth and knoweth all things , which are , have beene , shall be , or can be , and his Will is the rule of all things , and is limitted to no rule or law , but is it selfe the rule and law of all things . Quest . If God be infinite in Essence and Will , and all Attributes , and wholy present in all places by his whole Essence , and all his Attributes : How comes it to passe that he sheweth his glory above the Heavens more than in the World which is below , and in one place hee do●h shew more power , and justice , and in another place , and to other persons hee sheweth more goodnesse , gra●e and mercy ? Answ. There is great difference betweene God , as he is in himselfe , and as he is seene , felt , and apprehended by his creatures in his Word , and Workes : Though he is Omnipotent and can do all things , yet he doth not worke all things in all to the full , according to his infinite power , but only so much as he pleaseth , when , & where and in whom he will , as in his Wisdome he thinkes fit for every one Neither can wee see and conceive Gods Essence , and properties in themselves , but in the effects and works of them , which are limitted by his Will and Wisdome . And though hee worketh by degrees and by measure : Yet his Essence and essentiall properties are without measure and degree , and his Word is fitted to our capacy . Quest . What other properties do you conceive to be in God ? Answ. There is no shadow of excellency , Vertue , Goodnesse , or Grace in any creature , but it is in God Essentially , and Substancially , one and the same thing with his very Essence and Substance . He is Essentially , Good , Wise , Iust , Mercifull , Gracious and Loving , and even Goodnesse , Wisdome , Iustice and Mercy it selfe : And as the Apostle saith , that God is Love , so we may truely and most properly say of him , that he is Goodnesse , Wisdom , Iustice , and Mercy ; and yet hee is in himselfe a most pure and simple Essence , free from all mixture , composition and division . Quest . Wherein doth this purity , and simplicity of God consist ? Answ. It consists , First in this , that though God filleth Heaven & Earth , and is in and withall creatures : Yet his substance is not mingled with any of them . Secondly , that hee is not compounded of things different , neither of act and power as other Spiriturall substances are , nor of matter and forme , Substance and Accidents , such as quantity , quality and the like , as bodily creatures are . Thirdly , that he cannot bee divided into severall parts , as mens bodies are . He is not of the same kind and nature with any other thing whatsoever : But is a most pure simple Spirit , or Spirituall substance , in comparison of whom the most pure Spirits and Angels are but grosse substances and impure : In a word his Substance and properties are all one and the same thing ; and wheresoever he is present , there his whole Essence , and all and every one of his essentiall properties are actually present , even in all places at once . Quest . If God be only one most pure and simple : Why do the Scriptures speak of three persons , the Father , the Sonne , and the Holy Ghost , and doe call every one of them IEHOVAH and God ? Though there is but one God , and one Iehovah , even one most pure and simple Nature and Essence : Yet in this one pure simple , undivided Essence , there are three distinct persons , the Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , all which three are but one Iehovah , and one God , and every one of them is called Iehovah and God ; because they are all of one and the same simple and Divine Essence . Quest . How are they then three persons distinguished one from another ? Answ. They are distinguished , not by their Essence , and Nature , which in all three is one singular and undivided : but by their personall subsistence and properties . Quest . Which are they ? Answ. First , the Father subsists of himself and is not begotten of any , but begets the Son : The Son is begotten of the Father from all eternity , and receives his personall subsistence , from the person of the Father alone : The Father and the Son together breath out the Spirit , and the Spirit hath his subsistence by proceeding from them from all eternity . Secondly , in order the Father is the first , the Son the second , and the Holy Ghost the third ; though in time and dignity , none of them is before or after other ; but all are coeternall , consubstantiall and coequall of the same dignity , glory and Majesty . Quest . How can he who is Jehovah and God eternall , proceed and receive his personall subsistence from another ? Seeing Jehovah the true God , is of himselfe and can receive nothing from any ? Answ. It is true that the persons considered according to their nature and substance , which is common to all three , and is one and the same in them all , cannot beget nor be begotten , nor proceed one from another . For if God absolutely considered , could beget , as he is an absolut essence , or be begotten , or proceed ; then there might be more Gods than one . But a person or personall subsistence in that one simple essence of God may beget another person , but not another God , and may be begotten and proceed , not from the simple essence of God , but from another person in that one Essence ▪ Wherefore the Son is begotten not as he is one and the same Essence with the Father , but as hee is another person in that Essence : and so the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son , as he is another person in the same Essence : And so Iehovah the true God doth proceed from none , nor receiveth any thing from any : but a person which subsists in the Essence of God , and is Iehovah the true God , receiveth subsistence from another person in the same Essence . Quest . I see you do rightly conceive of God the Creator , both in the unity of his Essence , and in the Trinity of persons . Now tell me which of the three persons created the world ? Answ. Though the Father is called the Creator of whom are all things : Yet he alone did not create the world , nor any thing in it , but the Son and the Spirit also did work with the Father , and had an equall hand in the Creation of every thing : For in all the outward works of God , that is the joynt operation of all the three persons . Quest . How doth it appeare that the creation is the work of all the three persons ? Answ. By plaine testimonies of holy Scripture , for in the description of the Creation , we have expresse mention of the Word , that is the Sonne , and of the Spirit , Gen. 1. 1 , 2 , 3. and David , Psal. 33. 6. saith , by the Word of the Lord were the Heavens made , and all the Host of them by the breath of his mouth , that is , b● the son & the Spirit . For the Sonne is called the eternall Word , one God with the Father , by whom all things were made , and without whom nothing was made that was made , John 1 ▪ 1 , 2 , 3. And the Apostle , Colos. 1. 16. saith that by Christ the Son all things were created that are in Heaven and Earth , visible and invisible , and by him all things consist . Quest . You have well declared the Truth concerning the Creator , now tell mee whereof the World was made ? Answ. God made all things of nothing at the first , to wit , the highest heavens with the Angels and all the Host of them ; and also the Earth that is the rude masse without forme and voyd , which was the common matter of all the visible world , and this is called simple and primary creation . Afterwards God created out of that rude matter the Li●ht , that is , the Fiery and Starry Heavens and the large Element of the Aire , which is called the Firmament , and the Sea , and the dry Land , and then out of those foure Elements hee formed and made all other things , as the Sunne , Moone and Stars , the Herbs , Plants , and Trees ; the Stones and Mettals , the Fishes , Birds and all other living creatures ; and this is called , secondary creation , because all those things were not made first and immediatly of nothing : but secondarily were formed out of a matter , which God had before created of nothing ; and so al creatures had their first beginning , and being out of nothing ▪ so mighty and omnipotent is Gods hand farre above the reach of mans reason . Quest . After what manner did God create the World and all things therein ? Answ. The Scriptures teach us that hee created all things : First , most freely by the liberty of his Will , not by necessity of Nature ▪ Secondly , not rashly , but according to his most wise Counsell and eternall purpose . Thirdly , with great ease , and facility , without paines , toyle or labour . Quest . How doth that appeare ? Answ. By the words of Moses in the History of the Creation , where it is recorded , that God in the creation did but say let things be , and so they were made ; so he is said to creat the Light , the Firmament , the Waters , the dry Land , the Lights in Heaven , the Hearbes and Trees , and all things living and moving on the Earth and in the Sea . He said let them be , and they were made and brought into being , Gen. 1 ▪ 2 ▪ 6 , 9 , &c. Quest . How doth this speech shew that God created all things in such manner as you have said , to wit , freely , wisely , and with ease and facility ? Answ. Very plainely , for these words are not to bee understood properly that God uttered a sound of words : but the phrase is Metaphoricall borrowed from the doings of men . For workes done by necessity of Nature , men do without consulting or speaking , or any pr●scription or direction given by word of mouth . The things which men first speake of , and then do , are done by liberty of will ; and therfore this phrase teacheth us , that the Creation was a work done , not by necessity of Nature , but by liberty of will , that is a work which God , if he had so been pleased , might have left undone , and did therefore do , because it was his free will to do it . Secondly , wise men do not command , or prescribe things to be done unlesse they have consulted , purposed , and determined , that they shall be so done . Their words by which they command , and prescribe the doing of great works , are the open manifestation of their mind , will purpose , and decree ; and the first thing which belongs to the actuall performing and effecting of the worke . And therefore this phrase teacheth us , that as God in his eternall Counsell had wisely purposed and decreed ; so now God the Father by his Word the Son , and by his Spirit , began to put his wise counsell in execution , and actually to create and make all things , and to bring them outwardly into being according to his wise counsell , and as hee had inwardly purposed in himselfe , so the creation was a work not rashly done , but wisely according to counsell . Thirdly this phrase sheweth , that as among men , nothing can bee done with greater ease and facility , and with lesse toyle or labour , then when they only say the word let it be done , and presently it is done , without any more paines : So it was with God in the creation , he did as easily and without paines create all things as a man doth a thing by saying let it be , which of al things is most easie as experience teacheth . Quest . What speciall things have you learned concerning the creation of man-kind ? Answ. Foure things especially . First , that God consulted about it saying , Let us make man . Secondly , that hee made man after his owne Image and likenesse , male and female . Thirdly , that he gave them domination over all other creatures in the inferiour world . Fourthly , that he created a place of pleasure for them to dwell in , and there placed them . Quest . How doe you understand these words ? And God said , Let us make man in our image and after our likenesse ? Answ. They are thus to bee understood , not that God the Father , Sonne , and Holy Ghost did then first enter into consultation about mans creation : But that as God in the common counsell of the blessed Trinity , had from all eternity purposed and decreed ; so now hee began to put his decree into execution and actually to create man , after such a manner and such a creature as hee had decreed , even stamped with his Image , fit to rule over other Creatures . Quest . Shew me more particularly how God created man in his own image male and female ? Answ. First , he made Adam of the dust of the earth , and with breath of life , created a soule in him , and hee made him one only , that he might bee the common stocke and roote of all mankind , from whom the woman also might have her beginning , and bee made of his flesh and bone , even of a fleshy rib taken out of him . Secondly , he made them both in his own image , the man first , and when man appeared so excellent above all living creatures , that among them all there could not be found a mate , or help meet for him ; then hee tooke a rib of the man and made a female , the woman meete for him in the same Image , and after the same likenesse . Quest . Wherein did the Image ●f God consist , and how was man like unto God ? Answ. This Image did consist , first and principally in his Soule , s●condarily in his body , and thirdly in his whole person . First , in the substance of his soule , he was like to God ; For as God is a Spirit , so mans soule was created a Spirit or spirituall living substance . Secondly , in the powers and faculties of his soule , to wit , his reason , will , desires , and affections , in all which created perfect and upright in him , he was like unto God ; For as God knoweth and understandeth all things : so man by his reason was able to know and understand all things , meet for him . As God hath liberty of will , so man had liberty of will to do all things , which by his upright reason , he knew to bee good & in his power . As God loveth goodnesse and delighteth in it , so man loved and desired all good things , which his upright reason and will did lead him unto . In all this did the Image of God primarily consist . Quest . How did he beare Gods Image , and was like to him in his body ? Answ. First , in the upright stature , beauty , glory , and Majesty of his body ; Secondly , in the abilities , actuity and fitnesse of all members of his body , to move , work and performe all things , unto which his upright reason , will , and affections did move him and direct him . Quest . How was man like to God in his whole person ? Answ. First , as he was perfectly upright , both in soule , and body , and in his whole person conformable to Gods Will , and fit and able to serve and obey him . Secondly , as he was in his whole person , soule and body , endowed with all ability and fitnesse , to rule over all other visible living creatures , and to bee the Lord of them ; so hee bare the Image of God , and was like to him the supreme Lord of all . Quest . Did not Gods Image in Adam consist in holinesse also , as some do teach from the Apostles words , Ephes. 4. 24. Answ. The Image of the first Adam consisted only in naturall uprightnesse , as wise Salomon teacheth , Eccles. 7. 29. and his perfections , gifts , and endowments were only naturall . But holynesse is a property of the 2 Adam Christ , and is a supernaturall work and gift of the Spirit , which in our new birth is shed on us only through Iesus Christ , and is the image of the new man made a new creature in Christ , as the Apostles words plainly sh●w in the fore-named place , Ephes. 4. ●4 . & 1 Cor. 15. 49. & Tit. 3. 6. If man had been holy , he could not have fallen as hee did . Quest . Wherein did mans dominion over the creatures consist ? Answ. It consisted in this , that as man was in nature above them all , and had reason and wisdome to order and rule them : So God made them all obedient to man , and put in them a reverence and love of man , insomuch that they delighted , and rejoyced to look on man and to come to him at his call and to shew their nature and severall qualities , that man might admire Gods manifold wisdome shewed in their creation , and in the workemanship of them . Quest . Had not man power to sacrifice , kill , and eat them ▪ as men have had since the fall ? Answ. No verily , For all death , groaning and vanity of the creatures came in by mans sin : Mans meat in the state of innocency was only fruits of trees , and herbes bearing seed , Gen. 1 29. But after mans fall , and the promise of Christ , God through Christ inlarged mans dominion over the creatures , and appointed the killing and sacrificing of birds , and beasts to foreshew Christs death for mans redemption from sin , and withall gave the flesh of them to man for meat , and their skins to cloath him ; and hereby wee see that wee gaine more by Christ , than we lost in Adam . Quest . What place of pleasure was that which God made for mans dwelling and habitation ? Answ. It was the Garden which God planted in Eden , the most fruitfull place of Mesopotamia , in which he made to grow out of the ground , all trees pleasant to the sight , and good for food ; and in that Paradise of pleasure , all delights did abound which the world could afford to a naturall man . A river divided into foure streames watered it , and there was no want of any thing , which mans upright heart could conceive or desire . Quest . What service did God require of man for all this bounty and goodnesse , and all the delights and honour bestowed on him ? Answ. Hee required no more service of man over and above that which his own reason , will , naturall appetite and affection did lead him to do of himselfe ; but only to abstaine from the fruit of one tree , even the Tree of Knowledge of good and evill , Gen. 2. 16. 17. Quest . Was the fruit of that Tree by nature evill , and hurtfull ? Answ ▪ Surely no , for all things which God made were very good , Gen. 1. 31 and the fruit was pleasant to the eye , and good for food , Gen. 3. 6. Quest ▪ Why then did God forbid man to eat of it ? Answ ▪ For good reasons . First , to exercise and prove mans obedience . Secondly , to shew that all other trees were of free gift given to man , and that God might as well have kept back all other trees , as this , if hee had would , which consideration might justly have moved man to acknowledge Gods large bounty in giving him dominion over the whole Earth , the Sea , and all the creatures in them . Quest . When God had made the world and al things therein very good , did he not by his wisedome and providence , rule , order and governe them ? Answ. Yes verily , he did and doth still by his Wisdome so order , governe , and dispose all things , that without his Will nothing can come to passe in all the world . Quest . Wherein doth that Providence of God consist ? Answ. First , in doing and working all the good which comes to passe in the World . For as he gave being to all things ; so he susteineth and keepeth them in their being by the word of his power , and by him all things consist . There is no good done in the world , but he bringeth it to passe , either immediatly by his own hand , or else by the power which he hath given and continueth to his creatures , and by his inclining and moving them to it . For hee worketh in them both to will and to do , Philip . 2. 13. Secondly , his Providence consists in permitting and suffering his creatures to abuse his power and strength which he gives them , and to imploy it to sin and transgression . And if God had not wittingly and willingly suffered the Devil and the evill Angels to sin and fall , and to tempt and draw man into sinne , no evill nor sinne could have entered into the world . Quest . How could God who is infinit in goodnesse willingly suffer sinne to enter into the World , which is a thing so hatefull to him ? Answ. Hee suffered it in his Wisdome and Goodnesse , not out of any pleasure , which he takes in sin , or any evill , or in the destruction of his creatures , but because by his Omnipotency hee can out of evill bring greater good , than any , which is lost and forfeited by sin . For by hating sin hee sheweth his holinesse , by punishing it his justice , by redeeming his elect from it , his mercy , free grace , and goodnesse , by the evils which his elect do undergo for their tryall and correction , and the misery and torment which they see inflicted on reprobates , they are made more sensible of their own happinesse , and more blessed in the fruition of God and of his glory at last . And as a man who was never pinched with hunger , and paine of sicknesse , cannot so fully know the goodnesse of health , nor so sweetly tast and relish his meat ; so without sight and sense of evill we cannot so fully know , nor so sweetly enjoy our own happinesse , nor so perfectly rejoyce and glory in the fruition of God and all his goodnesse . Quest . If sin comes to passe by the will and providence of God , how is God excused from being the author of sin ? Answ. Very well , For the bare willing and permitting of a thing , makes not him who willingly permits it the author and cause thereof . To make God the author of sin , or any way guilty of it ; there are three things required . First , that God do command , counsell , or perswade men to commit sin : Or secondly , that he move , incline , or stir them up to it . Or thirdly , that when he willingly permits and suffers it , and is able to hinde● it , he be bound by some Law and bond of duty ( as men are ) to hinder it to the utmost of his power , and in no case to will it . But Gods Will hath no Law besides it selfe ; as he is supreme Lord of all , so he may will or not will where hee pleaseth . Hee is bound by no Law to restraine men from sin : Hee may have mercy on whom he will , and whom he will , he may leave to be hardened . Neither doth God command , counsell or perswade any man to sin by his Word ; but hath given a Law to the contrary , by which he forbids sin under paine of death . And never did hee tempt , move , incline , or stir up any to sinne : Therefore he can neither bee the cause or author of sinne , nor any way partaker in the staine and guilt of it . Quest . But doth not Gods Providence meddle any more with sinne , but only to permit it willingly and wittingly ? Answ. Yes certeinly , God by his providence doth hinder and limit sin , that it doth not break forth in all wicked men , nor prevaile to the utmost extremity . He doth also order and dispose the sins of the wicked to his own glory , and the good of his elect : He made the fiercenesse of Pharaoh and Senacherib turne to his honor , fame , and praise ; and the trechery of Judas in betraying , and the cruelty and malice of the Jewes , in murthering Christ , he turned to the redemption of the world , and the salvation of his elect in Christ , by his overruling power and goodnesse . Quest . You have fully justified God from being the Authour of sin . Now tell me how man being made in Gods image perfectly upright and good could bee drawne to disobey his Commandement , which was so just , equall and easie to bee observed ? Answ. By the power , malice and subtlety of the Devill . For every creature is in it selfe mutable , and may decline and bee corrupted , unlesse it bee brought by Covenant into Communion with God , who onely hath immortality , and is of himselfe unchangeable . Man though made perfect with all naturall perfection , was Mutable in innocency , and therefore God made a Covenant of life with him , upon condition of his obedience , hee gave him the Tree of life to bee a seale of this Covenant , and to confirme it , and to settle man so steadfastly in that naturall estate , that hee could not have beene seduced by any power or subtlety of the Devill , if hee had received the seale by eating of the Tree of life . But the Devill prevented our first parents , before they had time to eat of that Tree , and subtlety by the Serpent insinuated himselfe into the woman , and by her , into the man before they were setled and established by the sealing of the covenant , breathed into them infidelity and ambition , and by his lyes brought them into an evill opinion of God , and so drew them into disobedience and transgression of Gods Commandement , and made both Adam and all mankind , who were then in his loyns guilty before God , worthy of death , and subject to all the evils and curses which follow sin and disobedience . For Adam the root and stock being corrupted , and stained with sin ; all the branches which spring from him , must needs bee partakers of the same corruption , and of the malice & enmity against God , which the Devill breathed into him . Thus the Devil was the first author of mans sin and fall , and the Serpent was his instrument . Quest . If this be so , why do not the Devill the author , and the Serpent his instrument beare the punishment , but man and his posterity suffer for it ? Answ ▪ The Devill and the Serpent are cursed for this sinne with an eternall curse , from which there is no redemption . And Adam because by infidelity , pride , ambition , and an ill and false opinion of God , which Satan suggested into his heart , did willingly yeeld to the temptation , and transgressed Gods Commandement , and as a voluntary agent did work with the Devill in that act of disobedience , therefore hee is guilty : yet so as that his sin is pardonable , and both he himselfe and all his Elect and Faithfull posterity are redeemed from it by Christ . Quest . How comes it to passe , that so small a thing as that wherein Adam transgressed , to wit , eating of a forbidden fruit is counted so great a sin before God , and brings on all man-kind so many evils and curses ? Answ. The smaller the thing was in which God required obedience of Adam , the greater was his sin , and the more blame he deserved ; in that having received so many gifts from God , and such large dominion over all earthly creatures by the free gift of God ; he would not upon Gods just Command which was so easie to bee observed , obey his Creator in absteining but onely from one Tree ▪ Besides hee disobeyed God out of infidelity , pride , ambition , a false opinion of God , and enmity against his Majesty . For hee beleeved the Devils words , who said hee should not dye , and not Gods Word , who had said that in the day hee did eate hee should surely dye . Hee in pride and ambition sought by eating to become as God ; and imagined wickedly , that God out of envie did forbid him to eate , of purpose that hee might not become wise as himselfe : So that this disobedience in so small a matter did include in it all kindes of sinnes , whereby the whole Law of God is transgressed . Quest . You have well shewed that this act of disobedience was an heinous sin . Now tell me what evils it brought upon man-kind ? Answ. First , it stript man naked of all those perfections of Nature , and all that uprightnesse and image of God , in which hee was created ; so that his person , which before for the beauty , majesty , and comelinesse of it was reverenced , loved , and served of all creatures , came to be feared and abhorred of them , as an enemy , his nakednesse made him ashamed , and his paines and sorrows made his life a burden to him . Secondly , mans nature and frame , was so stained and corrupted by this sin , that neither he nor any of his posterity can understand things aright , nor will , nor do any good ; but are altogether perverse & froward , prone to all wickednesse , very slaves of sinne and Satan , and by Nature children of wrath . Thirdly , it brought a curse upon the ground for mans sake , so that without his hard labour and sweet it yeelds no good fruit , but only thornes , thistles & other noysom weeds & plants . Lastly , it brought all mankind in bondage to death , both temporal ( wch is such a corruption of the body , as doth separat the soule frō it & make it utterly unfit for the soule to lodge in ) and also eternall , which is the punishment of him with eternall destruction from the presence of God , and from the glory of his power . Quest . Is there any hope of deliverance , from this foule staine , & guilt of sins , and from death , and all evill of wrath , which are the fruits and effects of it ? Answ. There is no hope of deliverance in any thing which mans wit and reason can devise , or man by his art , skil , and power can performe . All creatures in the world can yield him no help . God only of his infinit mercy , free grace , love and kindnesse to man-kind hath from all eternity , ordeined an all-sufficient Saviour , and Redeemer , even his only begotten son , who immediatly after mans sin and fall , did undertake for man , staid the execution of the sentence and punishment of death , and was promised to become the seed of the woman , and by suffering death and all the punishments due to sin in our nature , to redeeme man-kind from sin , and death , and to destroy the Devill , who had the power of death , and to dissolve all his workes . Quest . Who is this Son of God , which did undertake to redeeme man ? Answ. It is the Lord Iesus Christ , who was first promised under the name of the seed of the woman , Gen. 3. 15. which should break the serpents head , and afterward was promised to Abraham , Isaac , and Jacob , under the name of the blessed seed , in whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed . And to David , and by the Prophets , by the name of Messiah , that is the annoynted Saviour of the seed of David . And at last in the fulnesse of the time , when hee was made flesh , tooke our nature upon him , and was borne of a Virgin , did beare the name of Iesus ; and is now preached and made knowne to the world , under the name of the Lord Iesus Christ . Quest . Why did not Christ come in the flesh in the beginning or first age of the world , and worke mans redemption , that the Fathers who lived under the old Testament ▪ might bee redeemed and saved by him , as we now are under the Gospell ? Answ. The Incarnation of Christ , and all things which he did and suffered for our redemption in the dayes of his flesh , were present with God from all eternity , ( as all times , and all things which come to passe in all times past , present and to come , are continually present with him ) and were as effectuall to satisfie his justice , appease his wrath , and to purchase and procure perfect salvation to men at his hands ; as they are now ever since they were actually performed . And through Christ promised , God did shed his Spirit on the Fathers of old , as hee now doth on us through Christ given and exhibited , and by the Spirit united them to him in one spirituall body , and wrought in them Faith , by which they did ( as it said of Abraham ) see the day of Christ beleeve in him , were partakers of all his benefits , and were made conformable to him both in his death and life by mortification and sanctification . Quest . Why did Christ come and satisfie for sinfull men , in the mids of yeares between the times of the Old and New Testament ? Answ. Because that was the most fit and seasonable of all times for man-kind for divers reasons . First , if he had appeared in the first ages of the world , the memory of him would have been worne out . For as the people of the Gentiles within a few ages forgot the promises of Christ made to Adam , Noah and Sem , and lost the knowledge of them : so men would have forgotten Christ , and all his doings , and sufferings long ago ; for the world loveth changes , and loathing old things , seeketh after novelties . Secondly , the deferring of Christs comming held the world in suspence and expectation with promises from age to age , still more plainely renued ; that after much longing his comming might be so much more welcome , and men might with greater joy receive him . Thirdly , the world increasing in sin and corruption , and being growne so hard , that weaker meanes and obscurer revelation could worke litle upon men ; it was Gods Wisdome to reserve the appearance of Christ , and the publishing of the powerfull Gospell for these latter evill days , as being the fittest meanes for these harder times . Fourthly , if Christ in our nature had made satisfaction in the first ages of the world , and had paid our ransome so many ages before wee were borne or had our being ; it had not been so equall and proportionable to justice , as now it is , by reason of his comming in the midst of yeares , between the Old and the New Testament . For by this meanes Gods forbearance of the ransome and satisfaction for the sinnes of the Fathers before Christs death , is recompensed with payment of our debt , and making a full satisfaction for our sinnes as much before hand , even many ages before our committing of sinne , or running in debt to his Majesty in our own persons . Lastly , it was necessary that many of the members of his elect and faithfull Church should by the Spirit bee united to him , and by Faith have Communion with him before and at his comming & appearing in the flesh , that being the head of the Church actually through them , He might by Cōmunion and imputation of the sins of so great a body & multitude , justly suffer the punishments due to the sins of his people even of them who were in after ages to grow up into the same mystical body by the same Spirit . If he had beene borne in the beginning of the world , before the Church of the Old Testament had any actuall being , he could not have been the actuall head of the body , nor united to the Church , which as yet was not in being , and so could not have borne the sins of his Church , nor justly suffered the punishment of them . Therefore the Apostle very fitly cals the time of Christs comming in the flesh the fulnesse of time , that is , the time most seasonable , Gal. 4 ▪ 4. Quest . What have you learned concerning Christs person needfull to be knowne and beleeved ? Answ. I have learned , That as he was the eternall Son of God , one and the same God , and of the same nature and substance with the Father , and the Spirit , hee did undertake , according to Gods eternall Counsell to bee the Mediator between God and man , and to mediate for man from the day of his fall ; and as hee was promised to bee the Seed of the woman , so hee did in fulnesse of time assume and take into personall union with himselfe , the whole nature , and substance of a man , and was made of the seed of Abraham and David in the womb of a Virgin , of their seed , a man like unto us in all things , but without sin , even the holy one of God , and so was God and man in one person . Quest . How could hee bee borne a pure holy man without sinne , of a woman , a daughter of Evah , and of the same nature with the rest of man-kind , who are all corrupted in Adam ? Answ. God Almighty , who alone is able to bring a cleane thing out of an uncleane , did by his power over-shadow the Virgin his mother , and the holy Ghost came upon her , and framed out of her seed and substance an holy seed , and so hee was conceived and borne without sinne , perfectly holy both in soule and body , and filled with the holy Ghost . Quest . How could he being so perfectly holy , be subject to infirmities , and to death , and other punishments due to sin ? Answ ▪ Though he knew no sin , yet he was made sin for us , 2 Cor. 5. 21. and being most holy and righteous in himselfe , he tooke all our sins upon him , and bare all our sorrows and infirmities , that he might thereby satisfie Gods infinit justice , pay our ransome , and redeeme and reconcile us unto God , Isa. 53. 4 , 6. Quest . How and by what meanes hath Christ redeemed us from wrath , and wrought our salvation ? Answ. By executing and performing the office of a Mediator between God and men . Quest . How is he a Mediator ? Answ. As he is God the Son , equall with the Father , so he is a person of infinite value , and worthy to be accepted , and able to make a full satisfaction for all sin to Gods Iustice , and to pay a ransome of infinit value . And as hee is man of the same nature and substance with all man-kind , and the first fruits of the whole lumpe ; so hee is fit to make satisfaction in the same nature which sinned , and is our brother and friend , and one who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities , and is compassionate towards us , and deales faithfully for us . As he is God , so he is too high to be a Mediator for man , and as he is man , so hee is too low to mediate and plead to God for us sinners : But as he is God and man in one person , so he is most fit to come as a Mediatour betweene God and men . Quest . Wherein doth Christs Mediation consist ? Answ. In the faithful execution of a threefold office : The first , of a Prophet . The second , of a Priest . The third , of a King . Quest . How did he execute the office of a Prophet ? Answ. By Prophecying , Preaching , and Revealing the Will of God from the beginning , both in his own person , and also by his Prophets , Apostles and Ministers of the Word and Gospell . In the old world he went forth in the Spirit , and soake to the godly Fathers , Enoch , Methushelah , Noah and others , and by them preached to the wicked , especially while the Arke was a preparing , as the Apostle testifieth ▪ 1 Pet. 3. 19. He in the forme of man , and sometimes of an Angell spake to Abraham , Isaac and Jacob , Gen. 18. 26. & 32 ▪ 24. Hee was the Angell of the Covenant , which appeared to Moses in the bush , and said , I am the God of Abraham , the God of Isaac , and the God of Jacob , Exod. 3. Hee spake also at sundry times , and in divers manners , as apparitions , dreames and visions to the Fathers in times past , and by his Spirit inspiring and moving the Prophets , Heb. 1. 1. And in the dayes of his flesh he preached the Gospell with his own mouth . And as after his Ascension , he sent down the Holy Ghost upon his Apostles , and gave them the gifts of Tongues , and of Knowledge to Prophecy and Preach the Gospell to all Nations , Act. 2. So he is with them in their true successors the Ministers of the Gospell to the end of the world , Mat. 28. 20. And by his Spirit gives them knowledge and utterance , to teach and expound the Scriptures , and to bring men to the saving knowledge of the truth . And in a word he is the great Prophet whom God promised to raise up to his people , like unto Moses , whom all ought to heare and obey in all things , Deut. 18. 15. And no other Prophets or Preachers , are to be heard , but those which Preach in his Name , truly according to his Word conteined in the holy Scriptures . Quest . Wherein doth the office of his Priesthood consist ? Answ. In making attonement betweene God and men , both by offering up himselfe , and all sufficient Sacrifice for all our sins , in his obedience unto death , and in suffering all punishments due to sin , and by bringing in eternall righteousnes , which is his perfect fulfilling of the Law in the obedience of his whole life , Dan. 9. 24. Rom. 8. 3 , 4. & 1 Cor. 5. 21. For in these two consists the whole work of mans redemption , and the full ransome and sacrifice of attonement which is needfull to reconcile men unto God . Quest . How can the sufferings of one man satisfie for all men , and the righteousnesse of one be able to justifie all that are to bee justified ? Answ. The man Christ as hee fulfilled the Law , and suffered in our nature , so his righteousnesse and satisfaction is humane , and is proper only to mankind , for as man sinned , so man satisfied ▪ But as this man Christ , is also God in the same person : So his righteousnes and satisfaction is Divine of infinite value and worth , even the righteousnesse and suffering of God ; and that is more than if all men had suffered eternall death , and fulfilled in their own persons every jot and title of the Law , and all the righteousnesse thereof . Quest . If Christs infinite Godhead doth adde so much to his obedience performed in our Nature , and makes his sufferings of infinite worth and value : What need was there of shedding his bloud unto death , and of suffering all the stormes of Gods wrath , was not ( as some say ) one drop of his bloud sufficient to redeeme the world ? Answ. Though Christ is a person of infinite value , because he is God ; yet as he could not be a compleat and perfect Mediator , if hee had taken into his person the body only of a man , and not a complete Manhood consisting both of soule and body : So suffering in part , and obeying the Law in part , could not bee made a complete satisfaction , for justice requires a full suffering of all kinds of punishment due to man for sin , even of death it selfe , and a perfect fulfilling of the whole Law ; otherwise there is no righteousnesse : If one drop of Christs bloud shed for sin had beene a sufficient price of redemption : than it had been injustice in God to exact more , and undiscreet , and vaine prodigality in Christ to poure out all his bloud , and his soule to death , when one drop was enough . Quest . Is this all that Christ doth as a Priest ? Answ. This is all that Christ did in paying mans ransome and price of attonement , but to make men partakers of it , and of the benefit thereof , he doth make intercession to God for them , as appeares , Rom. 8. 34. and Heb. 7. 25. Quest . How doth Christ make intercession ? Answ. First , by praying for his Elect and Faithfull , whom the Father had given him out of the world , this he did in the dayes of his humiliation . Secondly , by sitting at Gods right hand , hee presents continually before God his perfect satisfaction and righteousnesse in the behalf of all his Faithfull members , and with his Sacrifice and Intercession , doth as it were perfume all their Prayers , and make them acceptable in the sight of God . Quest . Doth not Christ as well make Intercession for all , as hee dyed for all man-kind ? Answ. Though Christ dyed and fulfilled the Law for a common benefit to all man-kind and his ransome is sufficient to save all ; yet he never purposed to redeeme all men by his death . For hee knew that many were already damned , and past all hope of redemption before he dyed , and that Iudas was a son of perdition , and therefore hee did not purpose to give himselfe a ransome for them . Besides he himself testifieth that hee did not pray for the world , but only for his Elect given to him by his father out of the world , Ioh. 17 ▪ 9. Therefore he did much lesse dye with an intent purpose and desire to redeeme and save them . Quest . How doth Christ execute his Kingly office ? Answ. By ruling spiritually in his Church , and giving his Spirit and all spirituall gifts to men , by which they are fitted and furnished with severall gifts , for severall offices , and functions , in that his mysticall body . The distribution of all honors , offices , and dignities , as of some to be Apostles , some Prophets , some Evangelists , others Pastors and Teachers , is in his hand . No man is capable of such honours , and dignities , nor fit for such offices , but by his gifts and qualifications . Whosoever thrusts himselfe into the office of a Bishop , Elder , Pastor , or publike Preacher without such gifts , and calling , as hee hath in his Word prescribed , hee is a thiefe , and an usurper , as our Saviour himselfe testifieth , who is the onely doore by which men must enter into his sheep-fold , Iohn 10. Hee ruleth also in the hearts of all Faithfull people by his Word and Spirit , as by a Law , and that Law is the rule of their life , and of all their actions . Hee also by his power defends his Church from all enemies , and takes just revenge on their persecutors and oppressors for all power is given him in Heaven and Earth , Matth. 28. 18. and hee hath all judgment committed to him , Iohn 5. 27. All the Saints fight under his Royall Standard against the Devill , the World , the Flesh , Sinne and Antichrist , being armed by him with the whole armour of God , Eph. 6 11. He will treade down Satan under their feet , Rom. 16. 20. and by the spirit of his lips will destroy the wicked one , 2 Thes. 2. And by his iron rod break in pieces all his enemies , like a Potters vessell , Psal. 2. So that whatsoever can be required in a King , for the well ordering and ruling of his Kingdome , by judgement and righteousnesse ; for the mercifull relieving and he ping of them in their need . For the powerfull defending of them from all dangers , and for the execution of just revenge on their enemies ; all this is abundantly found in Christ as he is the Lord and King of his Church . Quest . You have well shewed that Christ both in respect of his Person and Offices , is an all-sufficient Redeemer and Saviour , and is able by the infinite worth of his Mediation to save all men : Now then tell me why all men are not saved ? Answ. Though Christ his ransome and satisfaction is able to save and redeeme all that are partakers thereof , even all mankind , if they had grace to receive and apply him and all his merits by Faith , Yet because none have spirituall communion with him , but only they whom God hath chosen to eternall life in him , and predestinated to be effectually called , according to his purpose , to the state of grace , and to be made conformable to his image : Therfore many who are not elect , follow their own evil ways , and have no will nor care to repent of their sins , and beleeve in Christ , but run wilfully into destruction and perish . Quest . Hath God then chosen from all eternity a certeine number only of man-kind to salvation in Christ ? Answ. Yea verily . For the Scriptures plainly testifie ▪ First , that God hath a certain number of particular persons , whom hee hath from all eternity predestinated both to eternall life in Christ , and also to the meanes which lead unto life , to wit , redemption , effectuall calling , adoption , faith and the like , Ephes. 1. 4. 5 , 11. & Rom. 11. 5 ▪ 7. & Act. 13. 48. Secondly , that the persons elected are they only who are called in time , according to his purpose , iustified ▪ made conformable to the image of his Son , and at length glorified , Rom. 8 ▪ 28 , 29 , 30. Thirdly , that they are chosen not for any work which God foresaw in them , but meerely according to the good pleasure of his own Will , Rom. 9. 11. 15. Eph. 1. 5. And fourthly , that all they who continue in obstinacy and impenitency unto the end , and are damned , were of old ordeined to that damnation , & destructiō . 1 Thes. 5. 9. 1 Pet. 2. 8. Jud. 4. Quest . If God hath not ordeined men to Faith in Christ repentance , and good works , but hath willingly rejected them , as he did Esau before he had done any evill ; and given them up to hardnesse , and impenitency , as he did Pharaoh : Why is he angry with them , for none can resist his Will ? Answ. It is too much presumption in men to dispute against God , and to judge of his actions by their owne shallow reason . For he is not to give account of any of his matters , nor to answer for his doings , Iob 33. 13. Rom. 9. 19. And yet it is reason that every absolute Lord should do what he list with his own , & that as the potter hath power over the clay to make of the same lump one vessell unto honour , and another unto dishonor ; so God much more should have power over his creatures , to ordaine and make some vessels of honor , and leave others to follow their own evil ways which they have found out to themselves , and are not lead into by him , and so to perish ; seeing their evill and destruction by his over-ruling wisdome and power doth turne to the greater good of his Elect , and makes the glory of his holinesse , Iustice , Power and Mercy shine forth more clearely to them . Quest . Doth the benefit of Christ the Mediator , and Redeemer reach only to the Elect ? Answ. Though the saving vertue of Christ belongeth only to the elect ; yet there is a common benefit of Christ , wherof reprobates are partakers , which reacheth also to all the world . For hee is said to preserve man and beasts , that is , to keep them in life and being , Psal. 36 6. and to be the Saviour of all , especially of them that beleeve , 1 Tim. 4. 10. and to give himselfe a ransome for all , 1 Tim. 26. and by him all things are said to consist , Coloss. 1. 17. Quest . How can Christs vertue reach to them who are a far off Aliens and Strangers from him , and enemies to his Crosse and sufferings ? Answ. It reacheth to them not immediatly by vertue of union with him , as it doth to the Faithfull , but after a secondary manner for his Elects sake . For Christ by his mediation hath obteined of God , that all the World which was made for mans use , should be upheld by his generall providence , that the Heavens , and the Sun , Moon and Stars , should keep their course , and continue in their naturall being , and give light and influence to the good and the bad , the just and unjust , and that the Aire , the Earth , and the Sea , should breed and nourish living creatures , and herbes , plantes , fruit-trees and all other things usefull for men , yea the wicked prosper and flourish in wealth and strength , either that they may be a wall of defence to the Elect which live among them , or that they may build houses , plant vineyards , and subdue the Earth for them , as the cursed Canaanites did for Israel ; or that they may be progenitors , and instruments , to bring forth an elect seed , as our fore-fathers the Heathen Gentiles were to us their Christian progeny ; or for the punishing and correcting of the sins of the elect , as the Canaanites were kept alive to punish the Israelites when they sinned ; and for the tryall and exercise of their Faith and patience by unjust persecution . Christ by his Mediation hath procured all these things for his elects sake , to all creatures , which otherwise should have perished with man being all stained and corrupted by his sin . And hence it is that he is said to beare up the pillars of the world , when the earth and the inhabitants thereof are dissolved , Psal. 75 3. And thus farre we may grant and acknowledge an universall grace , which Christ by his Mediation hath procured to all the world , even to the wicked reprobates which perish . Quest ▪ Hath not Christ procured to all man-kind grace and ability , to beleeve , repent and be saved , if they will do as much as they are able for the obteining of regeneration , and other saving graces of the Spirit ? Answ. No certeinely , For Regeneration , Effectuall calling , Faith , and all saving Graces are purchased and given by Christ , only to the Elect , for whom alone he prayed , and doth still make intercession : And they also while they remaine in the common state of Nature , have no power in themselves , either to will or to do any work truly good , but are dead in trespasses and sins , Ephes. 2. 1. They are aliens and enemies in their minds , and all their thoughts incline to evill , Colos. 1. 21. If all men , even they who perish , had power and liberty of will , to beleeve and be saved , certeinely some of them who are not elect , would beleeve and be regenerate , and use their liberty to the saving of their soules . For it is given for that end , that it might be brought into act , and take effect ; if it never doth , it is given by God in vaine . But Nature , as the Philosophers observed , never gives power in vaine , and much more doth the God of Nature , abhorre to give men a vaine power which never comes into act . Quest . If it be not in their power to do any worke tending to life , nor to beleeve and repent : why are they condemned for infidelity , impenitency , and omission of good works ? Answ. Though they cannot beleeve nor repent to salvation , yet they have a power left by common grace , to use the meanes which lead to Faith , and Repentance , as hearing of the Word , reading the Scriptures , hearkning to Reproofes and to good admonitions and exhortations , and this naturall power they refuse to exercise , and wickedly and wilfully neglect and reject those outward meanes . Also by their sin in Adam ▪ they have disabled themselves , are become froward and averse from all actions truly good , and are a cursed generation justly condemned . Quest . How come the Elect to bee redeemed , and saved by the Mediation of Christ ; seeing they by nature have no more interest in Christ than others ? Answ. They are redeemed and saved by the most gracious supernaturall working of God in them , according to his eternall Counsel , Purpose and Decree . For as he hath ordeined them to eternall life in Christ , before the foundation of the world , so it doth in the time appointed , gather them to himselfe , in and by the Lord Iesus Christ . Quest . By what meanes doth God worke saving grace in them ? Answ. By the Ministery and Preaching of his holy Word , which is a worke of the Propheticall office of Christ . For by that Word spoken to the Elect Fathers of old , in Dremes , Visions , and Apparitions ; and after spoken and written by Moses , the Prophets and Holy men of God , who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost ; and since by the mouth of Christ and his Apostles , Evangelists and their successors ; hee hath revealed and doth continually reveale himselfe to them in Christ , teacheth them the onely right way to salvation , cals upon them , and invites them by gracious promises to come unto him ; and by the threatenings of the Law , he drives them out of themselvs , discovers their sins , and the dangerous estate in which they are by reason of sinne , and suffers them to find no place wherein to rest , untill like Noahs dove , they flee unto his Arke the true Church . Quest . Can the Word Preached bring men to Christ , and to salvation in him ? Answ. It is the only outward ordinary meanes which God useth for that purpose , and we never read of any , who without the word beleeved , were called effectually to Christ and saved . All Heathen , Infidels , Turks and Pagans , who either never heard the Word Preached , or hearing do refuse and reject it , do undoubtedly perish in their unbeliefe . For he that beleeveth not is condemned already . John 3. 18. and without the Word heard none can beleeve , Rom. 10. 14. Quest . What then shall wee thinke of infants borne of beleeving parents , which dye before they heare , or are able to beleeve the Word ? Answ : God teacheth and inclineth them inwardly by his Spirit to long after Christ and to grope after him , as they do after their mothers breasts for milk and bodily nourishment : but yet not without the Word . For by the Word preached to their Fathers , hee workes Faith in them , and makes his covenant of life in Christ with them and their seed ; and so by the Ministery of the Word , their infants come to be in the Covenant . And God doth often times sanctifie them by his Spirit from the wombe ( as we read of Jeremy and John the Baptist ) or in their baptisme at the Prayers of his Church . And therefore we ought charitably to beleeve and judge , that children of beleeving parents , as they are from the wombe holy by dedication , 1 Cor. 7. 14. and capable of baptisme , so are inwardly baptized by the Spirit into Christ ; and if they dye in their infancy , are saved by the free Grace of God , who worketh all things after the counsell of his own will . Quest . How doth the Word preached worke saving grace in men ? Answ. Not barely by it selfe , nor by any divine vertue inherent in it ; but by the free grace of God , and the inward operation of the Spirit working with it , when and where , and in whom he will . For the Word preached doth not profit , when it s notmingled with Faith in them that heare it , Heb. 4. 2. as we see in the Iewes , to whom Christ himselfe preached , and yet they were not turned to God ; but the Word by him spoken , through their infidelity turned to their hurt , wrought to the hardening of them in their sins , and left them without all excuse or any cloak for their wickednesse , Iohn 15. 22. Quest . What are those necessary works and saving graces , which God by his Word and Spirit worketh in men to bring them to salvation in Christ ? Answ. They are works and graces , which flow from Gods eternall election and are only wrought in the elect . They are necessary , because without them none can be saved , and they are called saving works and graces , because the persons in whom they are once wrought , can never fall away and perish , but shall certeinely persevere in them and be saved : And they all may be brought under two heads . The first are the works , which God alone by his Word and Spirit worketh in his Elect. The second sort , are the works which God so worketh , that they also do cooperat with him , and work together with his Spirit . Quest . Which are the works which God alone by his Spirit worketh in the Elect ? Answ. The first is regeneration , from which all the rest do flow , to wit , renovation , which is called renuing of the holy Ghost , Tit. 3. 5. Effectuall calling , union with Christ , adoption and Communion of all Christs benefits , as of his ransome , satisfaction , righteousnesse and intercession for redemption , remission of sins , justification , and perfect reconciliation . Quest . Which is the first saving grace ? Answ. The first , which is the ground of al the rest , is Regeneration . Quest . What is Regeneration ? Answ. It is that worke of God by which he sheds the Holy Ghost on his Elect , through Iesus Christ , of which Spirit given to dwell in them as his immortall seed , they are borne again and become new creatures , and spirituall members of Christ , and children of God by a new birth and Generation . Quest . What is Renovation ? Answ. It is the work of God , which he by his Spirit shed on them , and dwelling in them , doth work in them , renuing them after the image of Christ , and making them conformable to him , both in his death , by mortification , and in his life , by vivification . Quest . What is Mortification ? Answ. It is that work of Gods Spirit wherein hee deriveth the vertue of Christs death unto them , and worketh in them such a sense of their misery , sin , and corruption , and such a godly griefe , sorrow , contrition of heart , loathing and abhorring of themselvs , as doth tame their rebellious lusts , and gives a deadly blow to the old man of sinfull corruption in them ; so that sinne can no more reigne in their mortall bodies , but by grace they prevaile more and more over their corruption and do mortifie it continually . Quest . What is Vivification ? Answ. It is that worke of the Spirit by which he derives the vertue of Christs holy life unto them to quicken them , and sanctifie them by inherit holines , and to make them in the whole course of their life conformable to the holy and upright life of Christ . Quest . What gifts and graces are wrought in the Elect by Renovation ? Answ. The first which is , as it were , the root of the rest is Faith . For as the Devill did first breath into Adam an unbeleefe , and distrust of God and his truth , so that hee beleeved not the Word and threatning of God , but gave credit to Satans lyes , and relyed on them , and by his false beliefe , Satan drew him on to a false opinion of God , and a conceipt that God envyed his greater good , whereupon hee began proudly to imagine that he might by eating of the forbidden tree become wise as God , and did conceive enmity in his mind against God , ambitious lusts , and evill affections : So God in renuing man doth first worke Faith in him , which is the gift of beleeving in God , and relying on his Word and Promises . And by his Word beleeved , he gives light of unde●standing , and knowledge , which drives out errors , and false opinions , and enables man to see his owne vilenesse , and Gods goodnesse towards him , whence ariseth the grace of humility and repentance ; also a sincere holy love of God , feare and reverence of his Majesty , joy , rejoycing , hope , and delight in God , and a will and desire to obey him in all things , and in a word , all Christian vertues , by which a man becomes conformable to Christ . Quest . What is Effectuall Calling ! Answ. It is the work of the Spirit of Regeneration , who by giving to the elect a new heart and spirit , doth incline and enable them to follow the outward calling of the Word , and to turne from darknesse to light , and from the power of Satan unto God , Act. 26. 18. Quest . What is the Vnion of the Elect with Christ ? Answ. It is not a making of their severall persons one undivided Essence and Substance with the person of Christ . For that unity is only in God , and in the three persons of the blessed Trinity : Neither is it a making of them one person with Christ , by such a personal union as is between his Godhead , and Manhood , and betweene the soule and body of every man : Neither is it a bodily uniting of them with Christ , by a bodily mixture and composition of the substance of their soules , and bodyes , with the substance of the soule and body of Christ , as wine and water are mingled together : For such an union makes the things united inseparable in place one from another ; so that wheresoever Christs body is , there they must needs be , and can be in no other proper place who are thus united : Neither is this union only in heart and affection . But this is a spirituall , mysticall and substantiall union , in which Christ sitting at Gods right hand above the Heavens , and they dispersed over all the Earth , are made one spirituall , and mysticall body , whereof Christ is the head and they members , by meanes of the same Spirit dwelling and working in them , after the same maner as he dwelleth and worketh in the humane nature of Christ from his first conception and framing in the wombe . For by one Spirit they are all Baptized into one body , whereof Christ is the head , and being many members , they make up one body , even as all members in naturall body , though they be many , make up but one body , because they all have but one soule and life , the holy Spirit of which they are regenerate , borne againe , and made new creatures is the sure spirituall band of union betweene Christ the head , and them the members of the same mysticall body . Quest . What is Adoption ? Answ. It is a necessary consequent of the union of the Elect with Christ . For Christ being the only begotten Son of God by eternall generation , as hee is God , and as hee is Man by personall union with God the Sonne , and by a supernaturall and miraculous generation , and so heire of all things , Heb. 1. 2. It must necessarily follow , that whosoever are in him , one body with him , and lead by his Spirit , do thereby come under the account of children and heires of God , and of coheires with Christ , and so God the Father doth esteeme , respect and accoumpt them , & the Spirit dwelling in them doth witnesse with their spirit that they are the children of God . Rom. 8. 16. Quest . What is the Communion with Christ of all his benefits ? Answ. It is a consequent that is a grace necessarily following from union with Christ . For whosoever are by one Spirit baptized into Christ , and made one spirituall body with him , as really and substantially as all members in a mans body , are one naturall body with the head , they must needs have such a spirituall communion of all Christs treasures , vertues , and endowents as is the naturall communion which all the members in a mans body have with the head . Christs sufferings , satisfaction for sin , righteousnesse , ransome and intercession are theirs , and they have a right and interest in them , and communion of them all . And thus God justifies and makes them fundamentally righteous by Christs perfect righteousnesse , frees them from the guilt of all their sins , by his satisfactory sufferings , and accepts them for his redeemed , and reconciled ones through Christs intercession , and makes them actually accepted in his beloved Christ , Eph. 1. 6. Quest . What are the works of saving grace , which God so worketh in the Elect , that they also being moved by his Spirit , do cooperat and worke together with him ? Answ. They are the actions of the Elect regenerat , exercising by the motion of the Spirit those spirituall gifts , and Christian vertues , which were given them by renovation or renuing of the holy Ghost . Quest . Which is the first of them ? Answ ▪ The first is actuall Faith , or Beleeving in God and in Christ , for as the gift of Faith is the first of all spirituall gifts , which by the renuing of the holy Ghost , is wrought in the elect regenerate : So the worke of their Faith , that is , actuall beleeving is the first of all , which by the motion of the Spirit , they performe after they are quickned and raised up to live a spirituall life . Quest . Why is the work of their Faith the first before the acts of knowledge , repentance , love , hope , and the rest ? Answ. Because Faith possesseth the whole heart and soule of man , and informeth after a sort all the powers and faculties thereof : even the understanding , will , and affections . It is the opening of the understanding to take notice of Gods goodnesse , and of the truth of his Word . It is the inclining of the will , to give assent to the whole Word of God and all truth therein revealed , and to acknowledge all Gods Truth , Goodnesse , and Mercy in Christ . It is the rectifying of the affections , and the plyablenesse of them to trust in God , to rely on him , to hope in his mercy ; to love , feare , and reverence him , and to hate all offence of his holy Majesty , to sorrow for sin with godly sorrow to repentance , to rejoyce and delight in the things of God , and to bee zealous of good works , and resolve to serve , honour , and obey God in a constant course of life . This saving Faith sets a work all other graces , and therefore all works of true godlinesse , holinesse , and righteousnesse performed by the Elect regenerate , and sanctified , are called fruits of Faith , by which their Faith is openly shewed , and made knowne as a tree by the fruits of it . Quest . Which is the proper work of true saving Faith ? Answ : The proper work of it by which all other graces are set a work is a firme , and stedfast beleeving with the whole heart , of the Word of God , and all things therein revealed , which concerne their salvation by Christ , that is , both eternall life in the fruition of God , and the way to it . Quest . What difference is there betweene this beleeving and that which is in Devils , and in carnall hypocrites who beleeve these things , or at least many of them at some times ? Answ. There is as great difference between them , as between light and darknesse . The beleeving of the Elect regenerat proceeds from a supernaturall cause , and from a Divine and holyroot , even the Spirit of God dwelling in them , as Gods immortall seed , and sanctifying them , and therefore it is holy , firme , and stedfast , and reacheth beyond all hope , sense and reason . But that of the Devils and carnall hypocrites , proceeds from their own naturall reason , convinced by sense , experience and plaine arguments , or by a common illumination of the Spirit , shining from without into the hearts of hypocrites , and temporary beleevers , as we read of Simon Magus , Act. 8. 13. and the hypocriticall Iews who beleeved in Christs name , when they saw his miracles , John 2. 23. And therefore their beleeving is carnall temporary and vanishing , and goeth no further than sense and naturall reason do lead . The beleeving of the Elect is the subsisting of things hoped for , and the evidence of things not seen , Heb. 11. 1. That is , they have the things which they beleeve , as certainly as they beleeve that they have them and hope for them , and their beleeving is a cleare evidence to them of their being in Christ , and of their communion with him in grace , and of their portion in Heaven , which things are not seene with carnall eyes of sense or reason . For the Spirit which works this beleefe , hath united them to Christ , and made Christ and all his benefits theirs already , so that their beleeving is infallible and cannot deceive them . But Devils , carnall men , and hypocrites cannot reach so far as to beleeve their own particular salvation in Christ , or their having of things thereto belonging : And if any of them do at any time , Mich. 3. 11. it is but a false and vanishing beliefe . In a word whosoever doth by a true saving Faith , beleeve historically the Word of God , and the truth therein conteined , he hath withall an affiance in God , and grace to beleeve by all other acts of Faith , even to apply to himselfe all Gods promise by beleeving steadfastly that they belong to himself in particular . For as the Spirit wch works this faith is the fountain of all grace , and unites the beleevers to Christ , & makes him & all his benefits theirs . So this Faith necessarily produceth all acts of beleeving in them , and makes them able by beleeving , to apply to themselvs & to enjoy all blessings , which are to be found in Christ . Quest . What benefits do the Elect receive by their actuall beliefe , and exercise of their saving Faith ? Answ. They receive hereby , First a comfortable sense , feeling and fruition of their regeneration , renovation , effectuall calling , union , adoption , remission of sins , justification , reconciliation , and in a word communion of all Christs benefits , and hence it is , that they are said by Faith to turne to God to be united to Christ adopted , justified , and to obtaine remission of all their sins , that is , in their own sense , and feeling . And secondly , by this actuall beleeving , and by the sense and feeling , which it brings to the beleevers , all other graces are set a worke , and more and more increased in them . Quest . How doth beleeving give to the Elect a feeling of their regeneration , renovation , effectuall calling union , adoption , and other saving works of God in them ? Answ. First , as it is a fruit and work of the Spirit of regeneration and adoption , which hee never workes in any but them who are regenerate , made new creatures effectually called , united to Christ , adopted and have communion of all his benefits : so it is a cleare evidence to them of those graces in themselves , and by it the Spirit witnesseth with their spirits , that they are the children of God by regeneration and adoption , and are effectually cald and engraffed into Christ , become new creatures , heires of God and coheires with Christ . Secondly , the act of beleeving by a true saving Faith is an applying of the things beleeved to themselvs , and by beleeving that they are regenerat , renued , effectually cald , united , adopted and have cōmunion of Christs perfect satisfaction , intercession and righteousnesse , they possesse and injoy all those graces , and are in their own sense fully reconciled to God . Quest . How are they justified and have their sins pardoned by Faith ? Answ. They are justified and have their sins remitted by Faith , not as by an instrumentall cause and meanes to make them righteous before God ; but as by the hand of the soule , receiving and applying to themselves the righteousnesse of Christ to make them righteous in their own sense and feeling . And their actuall beleeving that they are justified and pardoned , is neither their righteousnesse , nor the satisfaction for their sins , nor any thing which in it selfe properly is accepted of God or reputed for righteousnesse and satisfaction , but is only the applying of Christs righteousnes and satisfaction to themselves , and an assuring of themselves , that by communion thereof they are justified . And by this beleeving they possesse and sweetly enjoy them , and are in their owne sense and feeling , justified and absolved from the guilt of al their sins , and obteine this testimony from God that they are righteous , Rom. 4. 3. Quest . Can any man bee justified before hee doth actually beleeve ? Answ. If we take justification in the first most proper and principall sense , as it is the act of God alone , communicating Christs righteousnesse and satisfaction to his elect , when hee doth first unite them to Christ by his Spirit , and make Christ theirs with all his treasures : Then it must bee granted that men may be and are justified , before and without any expresse act of beleeving : As for example , elect infants which dye in their infancy , when they are regenerated and united to Christ by his Spirit , they have communion of his righteousnesse , and are justified and made righteous , and all their sins are abolished and blotted out , and yet they do not actually beleeve , nor performe any explicit and expresse act of Faith . Also they who are not effectually called to the state of grace , and to communion with Christ till they come to yeares of discretion , though they have the gift of Faith immediatly at the same time infused into them : yet Christs righteousnesse is in order of nature communicated to them and they are made righteous by it before God , before they do actually beleeve , or can truly beleeve that Christ is made to them righteousnesse , or can by beleeving possesse and enjoy his righteousnesse for justification . As a child may bee borne , or made an heire to Lands , Honor and riches , and may have a true right and interest in them , and bee Lord of all , before hee hath wit to know his own estate , or discretion to possesse actually and use them : So men may be justified by Christs righteousnesse madetheirs , in the first instant of their regeneration and spirituall union with Christ , before they do actually beleeve , and sensibly possesse , and enjoy Christ and his obedience for justification . But if we take justification in a secondary sense , as it is an act wherein the elect themselves do cooperat and work together with God , by receiving and applying to themselves particularly the gift of righteousnesse freely given unto them , and by possessing and enjoying it ; then must actuall beleeving go before it as the instrumentall cause , by which God justifieth them in their own sense and feeling , and upon which he doth esteeme and account them righteous in the intercourse betweene him and them , and gives them his warrant to esteeme themselves justified with him . But if we take justification in a Iudiciary sense , as it is used in Courts of Iustice and Iudgement , for proving , declaring and pronouncing men righteous : Then not only Faith and actuall beleeving , but also repentance , amendment of life , and all holy Christian duties , and good works of piety , mercy and charity must necessarily go before as evidences , testimonies , and proofes by which men must be justified , that is judged declared and pronounced righteous . First , in the Court of their owne conscience , so often as sin and Satan stand up against them to accuse them . Secondly , in the common judgement of men . Thirdly , in the generall judgement at the last day . Of the first , Iustification , the Apostle speakes , Rom. 5. 19. where he saith that by the obedience of Christ many are made righteous , and Rom. 8. 4. and 1 Cor. 5. 21. Of the second he speakes , Rom. 3. 28. and 4. 3. and Gal. 3. 8. where he saith , we are justified by saith without workes or deedes of the Law . Of the third Saint James speakes , where he saith , that Abraham was justified by works , Jam. 2. 21. and Job 13. 18. where he saith , Behold now I have ordered my cause , I know that I shall be justified , and this S. Paul cals justification of life , Rom. 5. 18. because it is an adjudging of men to eternall life , according to the evidence of their works , as our Saviour sheweth , Mat. 24. 35. Quest . How doth justifying Faith differ from that which they call historicall Faith ? Answ. They both in the elect are one and the same Faith , and differ onely as severall acts of the same Faith exercised about severall objects . For when they beleeve the History of the Scripture , and that those things are true which they heare , or read out of Gods Word , this is called historicall Faith . But when they beleeve firmely and confidently , that the promises of God in Christ belong to them , and that Christ , with his righteousnes is given to them of God , & made theirs , this beleeving & applying of Christs righteousnes to themselves is the justifying act of Faith . And whereas the historicall saith of Devils and carnall men , is only an assent unto the Word of God , that it is true , arising from carnal reason , and arguments convincing the judgement without any affection to the truth , or any relying on it . On the contrary every act of beleeving any word or promise of God ; if it proceeds from a true Faith in the elect , is not a naked assent ruled by humane and naturall reason , but guided by Gods Spirit , and joyned with a relying on God , and his Word , upon the Divine authority of the speaker , and may be brought as an evidence of their salvation , & may in that respect be called a saving beliefe , as we see at large , Heb. 11. where beleeving that the worlds were framed by the Word of God . And that God would bring a flood upon the world and destroy all except them that were in the Arke made by his appointment ; and that he would give the land of Canaan to the seed of Abraham the Israelites , and after 400 yeares deliver them out of Aegypt , and such like acts of beleeving , proceeding from an holy spirituall Faith , are declared to bee saving Faith . Quest . How doth actuall beleeving set a work all other graces , and increase them more and more in the Elect regenerate , and justified ? Answ. By the sense , feeling , and sweet fruition of Christ and his righteousnesse , satisfaction , and intercession , it brings us to the sight and experimentall knowledge of the goodnesse , bounty , love and mercy of God to us in Christ . And being justified by Faith , we have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ , and rejoyce in hope of the glory of God , and hereby the holy Ghost sheddeth the love of God abroad in our hearts , so that being inflamed with the love of God , wee begin more and more to hate and abhorre our owne vile corruptions and sins , which are offensive to his holy Majesty : We are ashamed and confounded , because we have by our sins so often provoked so gracious a God , and mercifull Father , wee grieve and mourne and sorrow with godly sorrow to repentance , wee strive and wrastle against our lusts , and by the assistance of the Spirit , tame and subdue them ; so that sinne can no more reigne in our mortall bodies , we contend to sollow hard after God , to cleave to him in love , and to bee still more & more united to Christ in love and zealous affection of heart : And in holinesse and newnesse of life we study and strive to be conformable to his image ; and in a word we are stirred up to use all care and endeavour , that wee may abound in all good works , and still forgetting those things which are behind , may reach forth unto those things which are before and presse hard towards the marke for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Iesus : In all which workes of saving grace , as God moves us by his Spirit , so we being moved , enabled , and made a free people , do cooperate and work together with him , till we come to the measure of the age of the fulnesse of Christ , and be fitted to see God in glory . Quest . What outward meanes are to bee used whereby the Spirit of God may worke in the Elect , and beget and increase Faith and beliefe with all other saving graces in them ? Answ. The chiefe outward meanes is the Word of God , without which God doth not ordinarily shed his Spirit on them , beget them again and by his Spirit work saving grace , and the works of grace in them . For they are borne again of incorruptible seed , that is , of the Spirit by the Word of God , 1 Pet. 1. 23. and regeneration which is Gods shedding of the holy Ghost on them , through Christ and the first saving worke , even the ground worke of all other saving graces is not to be found where the Word is not Preached . By the Word of Christ the holy Gospell only , the Spirit speaks inwardly to mens hearts , and leads them into all truth , John 16. 13. By the Word preached hee begets Faith , for Faith commeth by hearing , and none can beleeve except heheare , Rom. 10. 14 , 17. The Word is the whole and perfect rule of Faith , and whatsoever the elect beleeve to salvation , is conteined in the Word , and there only to be learned , John 3. 39. The threatenings of the Law are the meanes by which the Spirit discovers to beleevers the danger of sin , and their own misery , humbles them in their own eies , and drives them out of themselves to Christ by repentance . The precepts of the Law prescribe to them the right way in which they ought to walk , and is a lamp to their feet , and light to their steps , Psa. 119 105. The Word of the Gospell is the Covenant of life , and sets before them the goodnesse , bounty , love and mercy of God in Christ , and by it the Spirit inflames them with the love of God , with joy and delight in God , and with zeale for his glory , and stirres them up to imitate God in works of mercy , love , and charity , and in all holinesse and sanctification , till they be conformed to Christ , and to serve , honour , and worship God . And in a word , the whole Scripture , which is the sure , infallible Word of God , given by Divine inspiration , is profitable for doctrine , for reproofe , for correction , and for instruction in righteousnes , that the man of God may bee perfect thorowly furnished unto all good works , 2 Tim. 3. 16. 17. Quest . How must the Word of God bee used , that it may be such an effectuall meanes of the Spirit to worke all these gracious effects in Gods elect people ? Answ. It must not only be read out of the Sacred Scriptures , in which it is recorded by the Prophets and Apostles ; but also preached , and expounded by godly , able and learned Ministers , who are called and sent of God , Rom. 10. 15. For they are Gods watchmen , who have a charge given to watch for mens soules , Ezek. 3. 17. & Heb. 13. 17. They are his Shepheards and Overseers to feed his flock with his Word , the Bread of Life , Act. 20. 28. & Ezek. 34. & 1 Pet. 5. 2. Ephes. 4. 11. And by delivering Gods message faithfuly , they obteine this honour to themselves to bee called the Angels of the Lord , Mal. 2. 7. and Gods Ambassadours , 2 Cor. 5. 20. and to be spirituall Fathers under God , who beget children to God in Christ by the Gospell , 1 Cor. 4. 15. Quest . What other meanes are to be used ? Answ : None but such as God hath prescribed in his holy Word , to wit , the Sacraments which are seales annexed to the Word , publike Prayers , Invocation , and Worship of God , And also good education , and private Prayers , and instruction , and often reading of Gods Word alone , and in private Families . Quest . What is a Sacrament ? Answ. It is a religious action prescribed by God , in which by using outward visible rites consecrated to be signes , seales , pledges , and remembrances of the invisible graces promised and given in Christ , the Covenant of grace is sealed to his people , their Faith confirmed , and all holy graces stirred up , quickened , and increased in them . Quest . How many Sacraments are now in use under the Gospell ? Answ. There are but two properly so cald , and ordeined to be seales of the whole Covenant of Grace : Baptisme , and the Lords Supper . For these two are expresly commanded and commended by our Saviour , to the Church in the Gospell , and to every true member thereof . There are divers other signes , pledges , and remembrances of benefits and blessings past or to come ; but they either do not belong to all Christians , as imposition of hands in ordeining Pastors and Elders , is proper to them who are so ordeined : Or els beside their signification , they have other more principall uses , as the weekely Sabbath , besides that it is a pledge of the eternall rest in Heaven , and a signe that God is our God , who doth sanctifie us . It serves chiefly to be the first fruits of our time , and is to be spent wholly in the worship of God publike and private , preaching and hearing of the Word , Prayer and other Religious exercises , by which God is immediatly served , and our soules edified . So also holy Feasts , and Dayes which are remembrances of some great blessings , as Easter , Pentecost , the dayes of Christs Nativity , Passion and Ascension , besides their signification have other far more principall use , to wit , the solemne worship , and service of God , such as is used on the Sabbath , and therefore they are called holy Signes and Sacraments improperly , and in a secondary sense . But Baptisme and the Eucharist serve only for Signes , Seales and Pledges , and have no other notable use . Quest . What is the Sacrament of Baptisme ? Answ. It is an outward washing of the body with pure water , applyed therto by dipping or sprinkling , ordeined by God to be a Sacrament , that is , a Signe , Seale and Pledge of regeneration to the party baptized , by which outward rite , hee is received into the true visible Church , and dedicated to Christ , to bee a member of his body , and a faithfull servant of God all the dayes of his life . Quest . To whom doth this Sacrament belong ? Answ. It belongs to all that are either borne in the Church of God , or by the Word preached are called to beleeve in Christ , and to professe true Christian Religion , after they are come to yeares of discretion . Quest . What warrant have Gods Ministers to baptize Infants , and to give them the Signe , Seals , and Pledge of Regeneration , which a great number of them , that are borne in the Church never have , but are reprobates and shew themselves so to be , by living in sin all their dayes , and dying in impenitency ? Answ. They have sufficient warrant in the Word of God . For the Apostle saith , that children of beleeving parents are not uncleane but holy , 1 Cor. 7. 14. that is , they are so far within the Covenant ( being in their infancy , as it were members of their beleeving parents and wholy at their disposing ) that they may justly bee dedicated to God by Baptisme , ( as Samuel was by his mothers vow ) and received into the true Church . The vow which their parents and guardians made for them in baptisme , is a band to tye them to serve God so soon as they begin to have knowledge and discretion . Certeinly Gods grace and bounty towards Infants of Christian Parents under the Gospell , is not straitened more than to Infants in the Old Testament , whose males were Circumcised the eight day after their birth . Baptisme , and the promise and Vow therein ma●e for them is as powerfull a meanes and motive to provoke them from their youth to serve God , as Circumcision was to the children of Israel . Also Christ hath taught us that his blessing & the Kingdom of eaven belongs to them , Marc. 10. 13. And the Apostles baptized whole housholds of beleeving men and women , not refusing any children , as we read of Lydias and the Iaylors houshold , Acts 16. 15. 33. In a word , many who were at full age called by the Gospel preached to beleeve by a temporary carnall saith , and to professe Christ , were never truly regenerate , as Judas , Simon Magus , Demas , and others , but proved hypocrites and backsliding reprobates ; and yet this was never counted a just cause to hinder or restraine the Apostles from baptizing al who professed Christ outwardly , for feare of prophaning the Sacrament of Baptisme , and abusing the holy ordinance of Christ . Quest . How doth the Spirit of God by Baptisme increase grace in men , and set it a worke ? Answ. So often as they are put in minde of their Baptisme , either by the name of Christians or their owne proper names given in Baptisme , when they are called by them , or by seeing others baptized ; the Spirit of God doth thereby as by a sure pledge assure the Faithfull that God is their Father , and they are his children in his Son Christ , borne againe of the Spirit , and so confirmes their Faith in that communion which they have with God the Father and his Son Iesus Christ ; hereby he stirs them up to remember , that their endeavour ought to be to walke in newnesse of life , as new creatures , adopted to God , called unto Christ out of the world mortified and dead to the world , and sinfull lusts , and sanctified to lead a godly life in all righteousnesse and true holynesse . Quest . What is the Sacrament of the Lords Supper ? Answ. It is that holy ordinance instituted by Christ after his last Supper , in which by Bread and Wine consecrated , with blessing and giving of thankes , and by the publike Minister given and distributed ; and received , eaten and drunk , by the people assembled , Christ God and Man their Redeemer , together with all his obedience and full satisfaction , made and performed in the dayes of his humiliation , in the forme of fraile flesh and bloud , is signified and sealed to them and in greater measure given , and of them received by Faith , as a spirituall nourishment to feed their soules to life eternall . Quest . Is Christ given to all , and received of all who partake of this Sacrament ? Answ. He is Sacramentally given , that is , the true signes and pledges , of him , are given to all , and of them received ; but he is not spiritually given to any but true beleevers , and worthy receivers ; Neither do any effectually receive him or his benefits to the feeding of their soules , but only they who lay hold on him by a lively working Faith . For the giving , receiving , eating , drinking , is not carnall , but spirituall , as our Saviour himselfe sheweth , John 6. 63. saying , It is the Spirit that quickeneth , the flesh profiteth nothing , the words that I speake they are spirit , and they are life . Quest . Why doth Christ call the Bread given and eaten , his Body , and the Wine his Bloud , if hee be not in them bodily present , and his Flesh and Bloud given and received bodily ? Answ. The true reason of his speaking so is to call our thoughts to the remembrance of him in the state of humiliation , and of his infirmities , obedience and sufferings , which in that estate he did undergo in the forme of fraile flesh and bloud for us , and to stirre us up so to apprehend him , and feed on him by Faith . For Christ did not redeeme us , and pay our ransome by any thing which he did as God before his Incarnation , nor by any thing which he doth as man exalted and glorified ; but as hee God and Man in the dayes of his flesh , fulfilled the whole Law , and suffered all punishments due to mans sin , so hee paid our ransome , brought in eternall righteousnesse , and made full satisfaction to Gods Iustice , and these are the things which together with himselfe are signified and sealed by Bread and Wine , and are Spiritually given to , and received by the Faithfull in this Sacrament . Quest . How can true Beleevers bee said to receive Christ and his benefits , seeing they are already united to him , and have Communion of them all , and his satisfaction and righteousnesse is made theirs before in their regeneration , when they were first effectually called , and made fit to partake of this Sacrament ? Answ. The Spirit of God by this Sacrament rightly administred , doth as by a sure pledge confirme and increase their Faith , and set it a worke to lay hold on Christ , and to apply him and his righteousnesse , and satisfaction to themselvs more strongly and sensibly , and by this meanes they are more feelingly united to him in love and affection , and have a more sweet communion with him of all his benefits , which doth like a plentifull feast , refresh and feed their soules , strengthen them in all grace , and this is as it were a new and fresh receiving of Christ and the benefits of his Life and Death , more abundantly & in greater measure than they had him before . Quest . You have well declared the efficacy of the Sacraments , and how the Spirit worketh by them . Now tell me what the other meanes are , and first what is prayer and invocation both publike and private ? Answ. Prayer and Invocation , if it bee publike , is the speech of the whole Congregation , and if it be private of one person or more directed to God , in the Name of Iesus Christ , wherein all needfull blessings and increase of grace , are asked and desired in Faith , and Hope , that God will give them for Christ his sake , in such a measure as he in his wisdome doth know to be fit for every one . Quest . How is grace thereby increased ? Answ. The Spirit of God by stirring our hearts to pray , and by putting fit words in our mouths , or in the mouths of them who are the mouth of the Congregation , inflameth our affections , exerciseth our Faith , kindleth our desires , and reviveth the sense and feeling of our wants . And by directing us to pray to God in the Name of Iesus Christ , he maketh us implicitely to acknowledge and confesse that God is the author of all blessings , and giver of all grace , and so maketh us to give to him in our prayers all the glory with all humble thankfulnesse . And God who is gracious , rich in mercy , faithfull , and true in his promises , will accept our holy and humble desires , and for Christs sake and his own truths sake , grant our requests and give a supply of grace , and an increase of blessings . Quest : How doth the publike worship of God increase grace ? Answ. The publike worship of God performed outwardly and frequently in the congregation of his people , by holy preaching and reverent hearing of his Word , prayses , thankes , singing of Psalmes , and reverent gestures and behaviour , according to Gods Word , is a speciall meanes by the inward operation of the Spirit , to kindle and increase devotion in the hearts of all his people . It is their using of his talents , and improving of his graces in them to his glory . And God hath promised that as they get more gaine of grace , Mat. 25. 29. so hee will still adde more unto them , and will surely establish them , give them the gift of perseverance and uphold them by his grace unto the end , till they be received to glory and come to eternall life and blessednesse . Quest . Wherein doth the eternall life and blessednesse of the Elect consist ? Answ. In the eternall sight , knowledge , and fruition of God in his Heavenly glory , Ephes. 5. 27. For when Christ hath fully purged , and sanctified his Church and people , and made them fit to see God , then will he present them before his glorious Maiesty to dwell in his presence , where is fulnesse of joy and pleasures for evermore , Psal. 16. 11. Quest . Where shall they enjoy this blessednes ? Answ. In the Heavens where a Kingdom is prepared for them , Luk. 12. 32. and John 14. 2. an inheritance incorruptible , and undefiled which shall never fade away , 1 Pet. 1. 4. which is farre above all that the eye hath seen , or the eare heard , or that ever entered into the heart of man , 1 Cor. 2. 9. Quest . When shall they come to possesse this blessed inheritance ? Answ. They have the earnest of it in this life in the state of grace , even the Spirit of adoption by which they are sealed up to the day of full redemption , and even here in this life they finde that sweetnesse and communion with God , that though they see him not , yet beleeving they rejoyce with joy unspeakeable and full of glory . But when their soules are loosed out of the prison of the body , then shall their spirit bee made perfect , and they shall in that better part depart hence and be with Christ , and reigne in glory , untill the last great day of account , the generall judgement . At which time the Lord Iesus Christ shall descend from heaven , & bring them with him . And he the Prince of Angels with the commanding voyce of the Archangell shall call all the Angels of God to attend him , and to gather before him al his Elect from the foure winds , from one end of Heaven to the other , and by the power of his voyce and the sound of the trumpet of God , shall raise up their dead bodies purged in the grave , from all the degrees of corruption , and brought up in a most glorious forme like unto his own glorious body : Which bodies shall not be prevented by the Elect and Faithfull then alive on earth , but shall bee first raised up and joyned with their glorified soules , before those then living shall be changed , and in a moment in the twinckling of an eye shall they all together be ready to meet the Lord in the ayre , whither they shall be caught up , and being set at his right hand shall receive this comfortable sentence , Come yee blessed of my Father , inherit the Kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the world , and so they shall bee ever with the Lord and raigne with him in glory world without end , 1 Thes. 4. 17. & 2 Tim , 2. 12. & Rev. 22. 5. Quest . But what shall become of all wicked reprobates , who were never chosen , nor called to be of this number ? Answ. Their bodies also shall be raised up to everlasting shame , and joyned with their cursed soules , that as they have sinned in both , so they may in both be punished , Dan. 12. 2. They shall also be gathered together like a flock of ill savouring goates by themselves and brought before the judgement seat of Christ full sore against their will , with horror , howling and trembling : And tumbling and groveling on the earth as if they would creep into the ground intermingled among the Devils and wishing that the rocks and mountaines might fall on them , and the hils cover them , but all in vaine ; Luke 23. 30. they shall receive an heavy doome . For the Iudge sitting above in the aire , attended with all his glorious Angels , & with all his elect Saints , caught up to meet him in their glorious bodies , and to sit with him in judgement , shall with a dreadfull voice passe this woful sentence against them , Math. 25. 41. Depart from me ye● cursed into everlasting fire , prepared for the Devill and his angels . And then shal they go into everlasting destruction , and be punished in unquenchahle fire , from the presence of God , and from the glory of his power ; where a gnawing worme which never dyeth , shall torment them world without end , 2 Thes. 1. 9. Isa. 66. 24. Mark . 9. 44. Quest . What may wee conceive of the punishment , and torment of the wicked after this judgement ? Answ. It far surpasseth all conceipt of mortall man , being such as all the tongues of men and Angels are not able to expresse . But this is plaine by Scripture , that whatsoever can be conceived , or is named among men as a cause of extreme torment , or a meanes to increase it beyond all measure , that shall be in their damnation & punishment . First , the Lord Christ whom they have skorned , provoked and perfecuted , both in himselfe and in his members , shall be their Iudge , and shall give the sentence against them . And all his Saints whom they have mocked , misused , proudly insulted over , despightfully handled , and evill intreated , and put to death , shall sit as assessors with Christ in judgement , and with their voyces shall approve and applaud the sentence of condemnation , as the Scriptures testifie , Mat. 22. 28. & 1 Cor. 6. 2. and shall judge the evill angels , v. 3. Now for malicious proud skorners full of envy , to be judged and condemned by those who they have most of all others hated , skorned and abused with despight , is worse than a thousand deaths , as experience teacheth . Secondly , their torment unto which they shall bee adjudged is said to be in everlasting fire , in that Lake of hell burning with fire and brimstone , Mat. 25 41. which of all torments that men by sense can discerne , or reason conceive is the greatest and most intollerable , Rev. 19. 22. And yet as if that were not enough , our Saviour saith , that they shall have a worm inwardly gnawing them which shall never dye , even the worme of Devillish malice , rancour and envy , which shall make them fret and rage against the Lord Christ , and against his Saints gnawing their tongues for griefe : For the sight of their glory shall be to them inwardly as great a torment , as the torture of fire and brimstone are outwardly unto them . Thirdly , they shall have no light of comfort or refreshing from God , but shall be imprisoned in the dungeon of everlasting darknesse , for the blacknesse of darknes is reserved for them for ever , Iude v. 13 which is a thing most horrid to the eyes . Also the sound of horror and a dolefull noyse shall fill their eares , even weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth , Matth. 13. 42. & 25. 30. Luk. 16. 24. And all the world shall not yeeld them a drop of water to coole their tongues when they are tormented in that flame . Fourthly , their misery and torment shall bee endlesse , easelesse , and remedilesse , when they have endured it many thousands and millions of yeares and ages , more in number then the stars of Heaven , and drops of water in the Sea , and sands by the sea shore ; they shall bee as far from any end as they were at the first beginning . Now we know that when men suffer any paine or misery , without hope of any end thereof , it is made by this meanes most grievous and intollerable , though in it selfe it be not so great . And therefore the extremity of torment to them who are cut off from all hope of ease or end , must needs exceed all conceipt and utterance , and bee more than can by tongue bee expressed . Quest . How can their sins committed in the short time of their life deserve such an endlesse torment in so great extremity ? Answ. Very well , For first their sinnes being committed against an infinite Majesty , and having offended the infinite God , and provoked his infinite wrath , do by the rule of reason and justice deserve an infinite punishment . Secondly , as the elect Saints , shall in the last Resurrection be all filled up to the full with holinesse , and with the image of Christ , and shall every one have as much as his vessell can conteine , so that hee can desire no more , Even so wicked reprobates after the last judgement shall be transformed into the image of the Devill , and filled up with malice and rage against God to the brimme , insomuch that they shall blaspheme and curse God , for tying them in everlasting chaines , that they can doe no more mischiefe , and gnash their teeth with anger against themselves , because they have no more provoked the Lord by transcendent wickednesse , so far shall they be from relenting and from remorse and repentance for their sins . And therefore the more and the longer they suffer the torments of hell , the more they deserve to suffer them for ever with increase , if it were possible . That they are past all hope and possibility of repentance , may easily bee proved by that which the Scriptures testifie of Apostatas and such as sinne against the holy Ghost , to wit , that it is impossible to renew them by repentance , Heb. 6. 6. and it is a vaine thing to pray for them , 1 Iohn 5. 16. for their hearts are hardned to commit all iniquity with greedinesse : And therefore much more the damned in hell being turned into the image of the Devill , are past hope of repentance , and must needs be hardened in eternall malice and impenitency to the utmost . Quest : Is there no difference of glory among the Saints in Heaven , and of torment among the damned in hell ? Answ. The Apostle saith , that as one Star differeth from another in glory ; so it is in the resurrection of the Saints to glory , 1 Cor. 15. 41. But though some of the Saints are capable of more glory then others , because they have beene more excellent members of Christ in the state of Grace , and instruments of great good to the Church , as appeares , Dan. 12. 3. and Mat. 19. 28. And some reprobates are more capacious vessels of wrath , as they have more outragiously and despightfully provoked God in the time of their life ; and both these shall bee filled up to the utmost fulnes of their measure , the one sort with glory , the other with shame and wrath , and so they shall have the one more glory , the other more misery : Yet hee that hath the least glory , shal have as much as he can conceive or desire , and hee who hath the least torment and misery shall have as much as his vessell can conteine , and as hee is capable of , and can beare . This may be made plain by a familiar similitude . If divers bottles or earthen vessels of divers measures and different capacity beeplunged into the deep sea with open mouths ; every vessell will be filled to the brim , that it cannot conteine one drop more , the least as well as the greatest ; and though the greatest conteines more ; yet the least is as full , as it is , even to the utmost . So it is both in the Saints glorified in Heaven , and the wicked tormented in Hell . Though some are like vessels more capacious , and being filled with glory , or with misery , have more than others : Yet the least Saint is as full as hee can bee of glory , and can desire no more ; and the least among the damned is filled up with torment and with the wrath of God to the utmost , and hath as much as his vessell can hold . The one wants nothing , but hath a fulnesse of glory , to make him , as blessed , as hee can desire , for ever . And the other hath so much torment , as makes him to the utmost extremity miserable : And as there is no possibility of the falling away of the Saints from their glory in the least degree . So it is impossible to ease the damned of the least graine of his heavy and intollerable misery ; but Gods wrath shall cleave to them for ever , and abide on them to the utmost , world without end . Quest . Seeing now I have lead you on by Questions to the utmost ends both of the godly Elect , and wicked Reprobates : Now tell mee what remaines ? Answ. No more but this : That , as God hath set before us Life and Death ; For the godly , Life eternall in the fruition of himselfe in Glory ; but for the wicked and ungodly eternall Death , misery and torment in Hell : So wee by following hard after God by Faith in Iesus Christ , and making his glory , the marke which wee shoote at in the whole course of our Lives , and the maine end of all our labours , may bee free from all danger and feare of eternall Death in Hell , and may obteine the inheritance of Heavenly glory , and with Christ our Head , and all his Elect Saints , may see God and enjoy all his goodnesse , as our portion for ever , World without end . To this blessed God who hath vouchsafed thus farre to reveale himselfe unto us , and to shew us the right way , by which wee may come to him , bee all glory , honour and praise giuen , and ascribed by us and his whole Church , now and for ever . Amen . Trin-uni Deo gloria . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A67085e-180 1 Kin. 8. 27 Psa. 147 ▪ 5 Isa. 46. 10. 1 Ioh. 4. 8. Phil. 2. 6. Heb. 1. 3. ● Colo. 1. 17 Rom. 9. 18 Iam. 1. 13. Gen 3. 10 Psa. 49. 12 Gen. 3. 17. vers. 19. 2 Thes. 1. 9. Heb. 2. 14. 1 Ioh. 4. 8. Gen. 12 8. 22. Iohn 8. 5● . Luk 1. 35. Iob 16. 21. Heb. 2. 17. & 4. 11. Iohn 17. Rev. 8. 3. 2 Cor. 3. 5. Tit. 3. 5 , 6. Rom. 5. 19. & 10. 4. Rom. 3. 7 : 2 Cor. 5. 21. Rom. 5. 1. 1 Pet. 1. 8. Heb. 12. 23. Phil. 1. 23. Mat. 24. 31 1 Thes. 4. 15 , 16. Phil. 3. 21 : 1 Cor. 15. 52. Mat. 25. 33 
A88100	----	A discourse concerning Puritans. A vindication of those, who uniustly suffer by the mistake, abuse, and misapplication of that name. A tract necessary and usefull for these times. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A88100 of text R15236 in the English Short Title Catalog (Thomason E204_3). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 132 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 31 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2017 A88100 Wing L1875 Thomason E204_3 ESTC R15236 99859827 99859827 111926 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A88100) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 111926) Images scanned from microfilm: (Thomason Tracts ; 36:E204[3]) A discourse concerning Puritans. A vindication of those, who uniustly suffer by the mistake, abuse, and misapplication of that name. A tract necessary and usefull for these times. Ley, John, 1583-1662, attributed name. Parker, Henry, 1604-1652, attributed name. [2], 58 p. Printed for Robert Bostock, [London] : 1641. Variously attributed to Henry Parker and John Ley. Annotation on Thomason copy: "by Henry Parker a cou[n]sellor". Reproduction of the original in the British Library. eng Puritans -- England -- Early works to 1800. Dissenters, Religious -- England -- Early works to 1800. A88100 R15236 (Thomason E204_3). civilwar no A discourse concerning Puritans.: A vindication of those, who uniustly suffer by the mistake, abuse, and misapplication of that name. A tra [Ley, John] 1641 23125 3 10 0 0 0 0 6 B The rate of 6 defects per 10,000 words puts this text in the B category of texts with fewer than 10 defects per 10,000 words. 2007-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2007-05 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2007-06 Pip Willcox Sampled and proofread 2007-06 Pip Willcox Text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A DISCOVRSE CONCERNING Puritans . A vindication of those , who uniustly suffer by the mistake , abuse , and misapplication of that NAME . A Tract necessary and usefull for these Times . Printed for Robert Bostock , 1641. A DISCOVRSE CONCERNING Puritans . IT is a common Maxim amongst Politicians , that a State is mayntained by Accusations , but ruined by Calumnies : and therefore ( says Marquis Malvezzi ) happy shall the Subjects be of that wise Prince , which countenances Accusations , and checks Calumnies : for the suffering of Accusations to goe lesse in repute , and Calumnies to get footing , hath beene the encrease of manslaughter , and the continuance of enmity in all ages . Many believe that nothing which is done would be knowne , if this means of dispersing privy calumnious speeches were not used , whereas little is known because it is used : for falshood constantly affirmed for truth sometimes deceives , and when it does not , but is knowne to be falshood , yet it forces to some suspension of judgment , and makes us yield some way even to that which we believe not . This is most apparent at this day in this Kingdome in the Case of Puritans , for did accusation and legall processe take place , few crimes would be proved against Puritans , and did not malicious calumny prevaile , as few men would be proved Puritans , whereas now nothing is so monstrous , which is not branded upon Puritans , and no man is so innocent as to escape that brand . So great also is the audacitie of those which lacerate the fames of Puritans , & with so much confidence doe they vent their obloquies , that they which know the falsity thereof , & easily perceive that the same aspersions are more truly due to the Autors and raisers of them , yet they are dazeled , and driven to some doubtfull admittance thereof . Neither could this audacity be so prevalent amongst the vulgar , but that Scholars , and the greatest of the Clergie are now become the most injurious detesters & depravers of Puritans , having taken up in Pulpits and Presses , almost as vile and scurrilous a licence of fiction and detraction , as is usuall in Play-houses , Taverns , and Bordelloes . Some men divide generally all Protestants into Puritans , and Antipuritans , but I shall admit of subdivisions in both , for all men are not alike , which either affect or disaffect , either Puritans or Antipuritans . Antipuritans I shall thus divide . Some Antipuritans are so termed meerly because they are no Puritans , but such I dislike not , for I my selfe am neither the one nor other , I neither merit the name of Puritan , neither doe I hate them so as to professe my selfe a Antipuritan . Others are accounted Antipuritans , because they are of the Romish Religion , and so professe themselves , but their enmity is but a due antipathy , and as a necessary consequence of their Religion , and such I take no notice of , I think Puritans expect no other from them . Others againe there are which are very averse from some Puritanicall Tenets , and hold Puritans in very many things erroneous , but yet they meane well themselves , and beare no hatred to the Persons of Puritans , they allow Puritans sound in the most and waightiest matters of faith , they hold dissent in disputable things no ground of malice , and they attribute no infallibility to themselves in those things wherein they dissent : from these men I am but little removed . The worst sort of Antipuritans , and they which ought only to be so called , are they which bitterly hate and persecute many good men under the name of Puritans , and many good things in those which are Puritans , whose antipathy is to mens persons , as well as opinions , and in opinions those which are sound , as well as those which are erroneous . These are the Antipuritans which I shall now strive to detect , whom I hold to be of great number and power in the State at this day , whom wee may account the chiefest causers , and procurers of all those mischiefs and plagues which now incumber both Church & Commonwealth , and to be guilty of all those crimes , which falsly they charge upon Puritans , being therein like Caesars enemies , which therefore only hated him , because they had deserved hatred from him . By such Antipuritans is all love to goodnesse and zeal to the Protestant Religion , and all hatred of vice , and dislike of Popish Superstition , brought into contempt . For as they admit all true of Puritans which Papists object against Protestants , so they account all Protestants almost ( besides their own faction ) Puritans . By such is the Religion of the Scots made ridiculous ; by such is the amity of the two Nations , and therein the Honour and safety of the King his Crowne , and Progeny much indangered . By such is Calvin , and the Reformers of our Religion for hearkning therein to Calvin , traduced , and another reformation attempted , by such is Antiquity preferred to obscure Scripture , Uniformity in Ceremonies to the disadvantage of unity in hearts ; by such is the outside and walls of Religion trimmed and decored , whilst the soule thereof is neglected , or defaced ; by such is the Kings heart stolne from his Subjects , and the Subjects estranged from the King : by such is the Name of Royalty pretended whilst a Papall Hierarchy only is intended ; by such is dissention nourished in the State , that they may fish in troubled waters : by such is truth in other men styled faction , and faction in themselves styled truth ; by such are innovations preached and printed for necessary points , whilst necessary doctrines in other men are prohibited . In the power of such it now remayns to teach and publish all things consonant to their owne ends , and to quash and silence all gainsayers , and either to promote or detrude all Suiters for preferment at their discretion being absolutely possessed of Presses , Pulpits , and the eares of great men ; by such are many good men reviled and oppessed for their constancie to the true Religion , whilst many factious , semipopish Dunces are unduly preferred every where for neutrality in Religion , or some worse innovation ; by such are Puritans made as Sinkes and Sewers to unlode and discharge their own filth into , whilst their black railing tongues expume nothing against Puritans , but what is true of themselves . These things ( if I am not deceived ) will appeare in this ensuing Discourse . In all ages true Religion hath been odious amongst Heathens , and true devotion amongst Sensualists , Judaisme appear'd to Painims meere Superstition : Christianity seemed to the Jews grosse blasphemy : and now amongst Christians Protestantisme is nothing else but Heresie : and amongst Protestants Zeale is misnamed Puritanisme ; But in this word Puritanisme is a greater mystery of defamation then ever was before , it may well bee called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , it is a word , of depravation , fit only for these times wherein the shine of the Gospell is at the brightest , and the malice of Satan at the highest . This word sprung up almost with the Reformation , no sooner had the woman brought forth , but the Serpent pursued her to devoure her issue , and she being fled into the Wildernesse , this streame of infamy was spued forth after her to overtake her . The Bishop of Downe in Ireland , in his Visitation speech 1638 , endevours to make it credited , that Puritans have increased since the Reformation by degrees , both in number and malice : but the contrary is most apparently true . Dissent in Ecclesiasticall Policie about Ceremonies and other smaller matters , being not of the substance of Religion , first gave occasion to raise this reprochfull word Puritan in the Church : but since that time mens minds being better satisfied , & peace being more firmly setled about those indifferent things , the more few Puritans remayned , and the more moderately those few became inclined , the more furiously their enemies raged against them . Bastwick , Prin , and Burton , the only men which Law can take hold of , are Names now as horrid in the World , as Garnet , Faux , Ravilliack , Precisians have now wonne the Scene from Jesuites : Poysoning of Emperours , massacring of Provinces , blowing up of Parliaments are all now growne into oblivion , and drown'd in the stories of Ceremony-haters . Howsoever as amongst Antipuritans , so amongst Puritans ( it must be confessed ) there are some differences to be observed . Some Puritans thinke all Puritans alike to be loved , and all Antipuritans alike to be hated , but sure there is truer affinity in minde betweene some which are Puritans , and some which are not , then between some Puritans and others , or some of the contrary opinion and others . Paul unconverted equally opposes Peter as Simon Magus does , and in regard of this joynt opposition , both are unanimous , but even in this opposition both have their opposite ends . Magus opposes maliciously for ambition and lucres sake , but Paul ignorantly seeking thereby the same Gods Honour whom Peter serves in a truer way . Therefore in regard of the mayne end , there is more unity and consent betwixt Paul the persecuter , and Peter the persecuted , then betwixt Paul and Magus , though both persecuters of the same cause . The like is now visible in England , for every man which is an Antipuritan , is not so for the same Reasons , some have more of malice , others are more ignorant , some are pestilent Engineers , and through the sides of Puritans knowingly stab at Purity it selfe , others are but Engines misimployed , or by their own blind zeale misled , and these perhaps whilst they persecute Gods children , imagine they doe God a gratefull service therein . In Samaria , from an unkindly mixture of Israelites and Syrians , a strange heterogeneous of-spring different in Religion from both did arise ; and the like is now in England , nay , it may be said here ( as it was in Constantines dayes ) There are almost as many Religions as Opinions , and as many Opinions as Men . Papists have their differences , Protestants theirs , therefore needs there must be many more differences where Papists and Protestants live so confusedly blended together . For examples sake , how many differences have we even about indifferent Ceremonies ; and that meerly amongst Protestants ? Some men loath Ceremonies out of antipathy to Popery , which too superstitously extols them ; others again admire them for Antiquities sake , which before Popery innocently ( yea , and perhaps profitably for those infant times of the Gospell ) used them . These two sorts of men , though different , are not dangerous . Again , some men are thought to disrelish Ceremonies out of stomack to that autority which commands them ; but if there be any such , I think they are very few , and scarce visible to the eye of man . Others on the contrary give reverence to them for Poperies sake , which depends so much upon them ; and I feare there are many such amongst us . Againe , some men stand devoted to Ceremonies , as they are the lightest things of the Law ; like the Tythers of Mint and Annis in the Gospell , embracing them instead of weightier matters , and none are more unmercifull then these to scrupulous minded men . Others in the meane while account all things of the same moment , both great and small , pretending to spie some faults , and some truths on either side , and therefore they hold it indifferent to assent to either , or dissent from either in any point whatsoever . But the wisest sort conceive there may be errours on both sides , but not alike grosse and pernicious , and therefore such eschew the wrong , and apply themselves to the right in either side , yet neither honour , nor despise either side alike . And these instances shew that all men doe not professe , or condemne Puritanisme alike , or from the same ends , and yet in the Chaos of this Country , as things now stand , Frigida cum calidis pugnant , humentia siccis , Mollia cum duris , sine pondere habentia pondus . I could wish therefore that all well meaning men would take notice of these things , and affect by reason , not passion ; for since some good men are Puritans , and not all , and since some ill men are Puritans , and not all , this ought not to be a rule of love and hatred in all cases alike . That which is most objected to Puritans , is fury , faction , and hypocrisie : if I see these in a man reputed no Puritan , yet to mee Hee is a Puritan : and if I see not these in a man reputed a Puritan , as to mee He is no Puritan . If Gracchus be invective against Sedition , I censure him by his actions , uot by his words , and if Cato be accused of mutiny , I censure him by himselfe , not by his accusers , I condemne none meerly because condemned by others ; for it is usuall for the Wolfe to sit on the bench & condemne the Lambe at Bar , for that which is most proper to the Wolfe most unnatural to the Lambe , and yet this proves the Wolfe the more a Wolfe , and the Lambe the more a Lambe . I cannot but professe it , there is nothing more scandalizes me at this time , then to see Puritans being so few in number , so despicable in condition . so harmlesse in example , so blamelesse in opinion , yet sentenced and condemned in judgment , as if they were the greatest Incendiaries , and the only Innovators in the Christian World . Doctor Heylyn a violent pamphleter against Puritans , calls Burton the great Dictator of Puritans , and the Law hath past upon him with great severity , yet Burtons crime was that Hee wrote against Altar-worship , and it was adjudged that his style was seditious . It is not manifest that his intention was seditious therein , and if it was so , it is manifest that He was most vaine and absurd therein as our State is now establisht , and as our King is generally revered . They which pretend great danger to the King likely to ensue out of such paper machinations as these , may have three mischievous ends therein . First , that they may be thought the only solicitous men of the Kings safety . Secondly , that they may disparage the common peoples loyalty . Thirdly , that they may crush their adverse Puritanicall party ; but , it is thought , they which pretend most danger hereby to the King : doe least believe themselves , and therefore they doe spin that disaffection and division out of the sufferings of Burton , which his attempts could never have effected . Let us then a little farther search into the mysterious abuse , and misapplication of this word Puritan . Those whom we ordinarily call Puritans are men of strict life , and precise opinions , which cannot be hated for any thing but their singularity in zeale and piety , and certainly the number of such men is too small , and their condition too low , and dejected : but they which are the Devils chiefe Artificers in abusing this word , when they please can so stretch , and extend the same that scarce any civill honest Protestant which is hearty and true to his Religion can avoid the aspersion of it , and when they list againe , they can so shrink it into a narrow sense , that it shall seem to be aimed at none but monstrous abominable Heretickes and Miscreants . Thus by its latitude it strikes generally , by its contraction it pierces deeply , by its confused application it deceives invisibly . Small scruples first intitle mee to the name of Puritan , and then the Name of Puritan intitles me further to all mischiefe whatsoever . The Scots rise up against Episcopacie , it is questioned by some , whether they so rise up , for the good of Religion , or for the overthrow of wholsome Discipline . Answer is soone made , that Episcopacie cannot be unpleasing to any but Puritans , there is no opinion can smell sharper of Puritanisme , then that of a Church parity , and of Puritans what good can be expected ? but the Scots also desire redresse in other grievances , and here their intention is againe question'd . Answer is as soone made again , That the Scots being declared open Puritans , they must needs be enemies to Monarchicall government , and that no redresse can ever satisfie them , but such as shall debase royall dignity , and establish a popular rule amongst them . But some of the Scots in some actions doe very much misdemeane themselves , and here it 's thought by some , that this ought not to redound to the prejudice , or blame of the whole Nation : but strait the Antipuritan steps in againe with answer to the former purpose , that the same faction which makes them all Puritans , makes them all mutiners , and that there is no trust to be given , nor favour shewed to any whose very religion is disobedience . Other the like examples may be instanced in . Parliaments of late in England have beene jealous of religion , this laudable zeale made them at first come into contempt as Puritanical , and then the imputation of Puritanisme made this laudable zeale contemptible ; and so by degrees , as any thing else might be charged upon Puritans , as disobedience , and disaffection to Monarchy , so nothing could bee charged but proceeding from Puritanisme . Some scrupulous opinions make Say , Brooks , Puritans , Puritanisme inferres them mutineers , mutinie makes all that they can doe or say , all that they forbeare to doe , or say , it makes their very thoughts wicked and perverse . Thus wee see what a confused imposture there is in this infamous terme of Puritan : but we will yet further evidence by plaine instance how broad the devils net is in the vast application of this word , and how deepe his pit is by its abominable sense , and the nature of its importance , that we may the better discover that net which intangles so many , & shun that pit which ingulphs so sure . Puritans ( as I said before ) were at first Ecclesiasticall only , so called because they did not like a pompous or ceremoneous kinde of discipline in the Church like unto the Romish : but now it is come about , that by a new enlargement of the name , the world is full of nothing else but Puritans , for besides the Puritan in Church policie , there are now added Puritans in religion , Puritans in State , and Puritans in morality . By this meanes whole Kingdoms are familiarly upbrayded with this sinne of Puritanisme : As for example , All in Scotland which wish well to the Covenant , though some Papists , some Courtiers , and almost all the whole body without exception have now declared themselves for it , yet all these are manifest Puritans . So also in England , all the Commons in Parliament , and almost all the ancient impartiall temporall Nobility , and all such as favour or rellish the late proceedings of both the houses , which is the mayne body of the Realme , Papists , Prelates , and Courtiers excepted , nay , and its likely all Scotland , and more then halfe Ireland , all these are Puritans . They which deprave this great Councell of the Kingdome , suggest to the K. that the major part is gull'd and dorde by the Puritan party ; but this is only because they are ashamed to speake it out openly in grosse termes , that all the major and better part in the Court of Parliament is Puritanicall . But this suggestion is utterly false and impossible , for such as the major part in Parliament is , such are those that chose them and sent them thither , and such are those that now approve their actions there , and both in the elections of Parliament men , and in the consultations of Parliament affaires , the Kings party is as wise , cautious , and vigilant ( if not more ) as the other party , and no subtilty could circumvent or cheat them out of their votes , if the Puritans were so small and inconsiderable a side , as now they make them . No man of what capacity so ever can admit this , it is to all undeniable , that the blame of a parliament , is the blame of the whole Kingdome . But I returne to my Ecclesiasticall puritan . Though it be true that Ecclesiasticall puritans are fewes now , then heretofore they have been , yet it is as true that Ecclesiasticall puritanisme is made a larger thing by farre then it was , being now spread abroad like a net to ensnare the more , as our many late additions and innovations testifie , which have crept into the Church ( as may be scared ) for the vexation and molestation of such men as were not disquieted with former ceremonies . It is generally suspected , that our prelates have aymed at two things in the novelties which they have lately induced into the Church ; first , the suppression of those which are enemies to their pride , avarice , and ambition , by them termed puritans : secondly , their owne further case , promotion , and advantage . Both these ends seeme to be leveld at in sanctifying the Altar , and unsanctifying the Lords day , in advancing auricular confession , and corporall penances by externall mortifications , and crying downe lecturing , and preaching ; for if we marke it , these new Doctrines doe not only serve to terrifie and scandalize tender consciences , and thereby to deprive , and silence many painfull good Ministers , and to scare away into forreigne Plantations , whole troups of Laymen , and to enwrap the rest in opposition : but each of these doctrines besides hath a further reach in it of benefit to the Clergie . The Communion Table hath lately gained a new Name , a new Nature , a new Posture , a new Worship that Emperours and Kings may be brought again to take notice how far the persous and offices of Priests excell in sanctity the persons and offices of Princes . Theodosius within one hundred yeares after Prelacie began to arrogate to it selfe was presently taught this lesson , for taking his seat in the Chancell according to the Easterne and ancient fashion , a Deacon was sent to him in great state , to let him understand that none but men in holy Orders might presume to set their feet on that sacred ground . This was then the Bishops Law , not the Emperours , nor knowne in any other of his Dominions , but Italy only , but sure it was fit discretion , that much should bee ascribed by Bishops to that place , from which they were to derive much , and which wonld be sure to repay their homage with so great an advantage of homage back againe . Preaching is now also grown too burthensome , and the Lords Day to Priests according to that sanctity which Puritans allow it , it requires too much praying , preaching , singing , which are not only to them tedious but also apt means to encrease , and foment Puritanisme amongst the people . Auricular Confession also is a godly devise to bring the Laity into subjection , and to make the people bow before the power of the Keyes , and it may aptly force the consciences of Kings themselves to feare the scourges of gowned men . Adde lastly Mr. Wats his bodily mortification to Mr. Sparrows confession , and then Laymen will be soone inured againe to finde out the fittest penances , especially Praesbyteris , & ars advolvi , and so in time their purses , their bodies , their consciences shall all bee made sensible of the spirituall Scepter of Priests . It s no great wonder then if our Court Divines , and their dependents doe what they can to draw us neerer daily towards Popery , under shew of Antiquity , Uniformity , and Charity , for ( without all doubt ) of all Religions , Popery is the most beneficiall to Priests , most tyrannous to Laymen . Neither is it strange that they pretend so much zeale to devotion to the Kings Crowne and Prerogative , as things now stand in England , as if none truly affected the same but themselves , for its cleare , that they cannot subject the people but by the King , nor the King without the people : and so long as they stand possessed of the Kings good opinion , no man shall have power to confute them . King Jawes is a great instance for Antipuritans , and a great prop to the Episcopall Cause , it s alleadged of him that Hee hated Puritans for their hatred to Episcopacie , and loved Episcopacie for its amity to Monarchie : His Aphorisme was , No Bishop , no King : Let us therefore appeale from King James in their words to King James in his owne . In his Preface before his Basilicon Doron his words are : The style of Puritans properly belongs to that vile Sect of the Anabaptists only called the Family of love . Such were Browne , Penry . Howbeit there are others which participate too much with Anabaptists contemning civill Magistrates , &c. It is only this sott of men which I wish my sonne to punish in case they refuse to obey Law , and cease not to stirre up Rebellion . But I protest upon mine Honour , I meane it not generally of all Preachers or others , which like better of the single forme of Policie in our Church of Scotland , then of the many Ceremonies in the Church of England , which are perswaded that Bishops smell of a Papall supremacie , that Surplices , Caps , &c. are outward badges of popish errours . No , I am so farre from being contentious in these indifferent things , that I doe equally love and honour the learned and grave of either opinion . It can no wayes become mee to pronounce sentence so lightly in so old a controversie . Since wee all agree in grounds , the bitternesse of men in such questions doth but trouble the peace of the Church , and give advantage to Papists by our division . These were the golden words of that peacefull , just Prince upon his second thoughts : ô that they were now duly pondred , and taken to pieces word for word ! ô that they were esteemed and understood in their own weight amongst us , that they might reconcile our present differences , and that the same peace which followed him to his glorious Urne , might still blesse these our times ! O how contrary are these milde words to the unnaturall suggestions of Antipuritans ! Such as daily accuse all good men for Precisians , and all precise men for Puritans , and all Puritans for the only Firebrands of the World , thus arming the King against his Subjects , and by consequence raising Subjects against the King : Puritans here are described both what they are , and what they are not , the King had been misinterpreted before , writing generally of Puritans , now to avoid all mistake , hee expresses himselfe plainly and definitely . A Puritan positively in King James his sense , is He which imitates Anabaptists in rebellion , turbulence , and opposition to Law , and such are liable to Law ; but negatively a Puritan in the acception of King James , is not Hee which dislikes Episcopacy , or the Ceremonious Discipline of England . This King James protests upon his Honour , though to his great dishonour Hee be now often cited to the contrary . As for those which rellish not Bishops and Ceremonies or the English Policie , He wishes them to be at peace only with those of the opposite opinion , Hee himselfe vowing equall love and honour to the grave , and learned of either side , and not taking upon him to bee a Judge in so old , and difficult a controversie ; He only like a sweet arbitrator perswades both parties to peace and amity . I wish our Bishops would now stand to this arbitration , I wish they would neither condemne the Scotch discipline , nor urge the English ; I wish they would put difference betweene seditious and scrupulous Puritans , and not inferre the one out of the other ; I wish they would either disclaim King James as a manifest favourer of Puritans , or else imitate him in the same definition , and opinion of them . K. James further takes notice , that the reformation in Scotland was far more disorderly , then in England , Denmark , &c. whilst the mayne affaires there were unduly carried by popular tumults , and by some fiery-spirited Ministers , which having gotten the guiding of the multitude , and finding the relish of government sweet , did fancie to themselves a democratick forme of policy , wherein they were likely to be Tribuni plebis . That the Crown might be disincombred of these usurping ringleaders , the King advises the Prince to entertaine and advance godly , learned , and modest Ministers , promoting them to Bishopricks , but restrayning them heedfully from pride , ambition , and avarice . These things then are hence observable . 1. Scotland differs from England in turbulent Ministers : Secondly , this is imputed to the iniquity of the times , not to Puritanisme , as if by nature the Scots were more enclining to Puritanisme then other Nations . Thirdly , notwithstanding that iniquity of those times , there was a number sufficient of worthy Ministers fit for preferment . Fourthly , King James erects Bishops Sees in Scotland for peculiar reasons , and therefore He speaks not of Denmark &c. Lastly , notwithstanding that peculiar reason . Hee advises the Prince to be indifferently at war with both extreams alike , as well to represse Papal Bishops , as to curbe proud Puritans . For ( sayes the King ) the naturall sicknesses which have ever troubled and beene the decay of all Churches since the beginning changing the Candlestick from one to another , have beene pride , ambition , and avarice : and these wrought the overthrow of the Romish Church in divers Countries . K. James knew well how apt Church-men had ever beene to abuse their power and pomp , what enemies they had beene to our Saviour , and what a tyranny they had erected over all Christendom ever since Constantine almost , and therefore though Hee dislikes a democracie in the Church , ( as Hee had reason ) yet Hee so limits and circumscribes his Bishops both in power and honour , that they might be as sensible of their chaines and fetters , as of their Miters and Crosiers . I wish K. Iames had particularly signified what bonds and bounds Hee thought fit to prefix to Episcopacy , to preserve it from corruption , and what his opinion was of a Prelacy so active in secular affaires as ours is now in England , and how it would have pleased him to see a Metropolitan amongst Protestants almost a rivall to the French Cardinall . The world , in my opinion , hath little reason to dote upon a gowned Empire , we have all smarted long enough under it , men of meane birth commonly beare preferment with little moderation , and their breeding having beene soft and esseminate , in their malice & cruelty , they neerest of all approach to the nature of women : and by the advantage of learning they extend their power , and win upon others more then they ought . When the Church was at first under Heathen or Jewish Governours , which sought as enemies to ruine it , not as Fathers to protect it , they which were within could not live in peace and unity without some Politicall bonds , so at that time there was a necessity of some coercive power , within besides that which was without . The world is now unsatisfied what kinde of power that was , whether Episcopal or Presbyteriall , or what Episcopacy , or Presbytery was in those dayes . Yet me thinks what government so ever then was , it is not necessarily precedentary to us now . The Episcopal faction at this day takes advantage by the abuses of the Presbyter al , & the Presbyterial by the Episcopal , and most men think either the one power or the other necessary , and some more favour the Episcopal as K. Iames , some the Presbyterial as M. Calvin ; but sure the Presbyterial is lesse offensive then the Episcopal , and yet neither the one nor other of necessity . Kings may grant usuram quandam jurisdictionis either to Bishops or Elders , but the jurisdiction it selfe is their owne property , from which they ought not to depart , nor can without wrong to their charge committed to them . For the power which God gives the Prince , is not given for his use alone , but for the peoples benefit , so that since He cannot let it fall to decay without making it insufficient for good and entire government which is mischievous to the people , he cannot justly lessen it at all . And it is manifest that except one supream head be alone in all causes as wel Ecclesiastical as civill , humane nature must needs be destitute of those remedies which are necessary for its conservation , since power cannot be divided , but it must be diminished to him which suffers that division , and being diminished it proves insufficient . All confesse some government necessary for men in holy Orders , to whom the power of the Keyes belongs , but some account Princes but as meere temporall or Lay persons , and therefore conclude against their authority over sacred Ecclesiastical persons as incompetent , especially in cases meerely ecclesiasticall . For this cause spirituall Governours have ever beene in the Church to whom some have attributed a divine right depending from none but God , and subordinate to none but God , but this hath beene controverted by others , and no little debate and strife hath followed hereupon . But it seemes to me , that princes doe receive from God a spirituall unction , whereby not only their persons are dignified , and their hearts prepared and enlarged with divine graces fit for rule ; but their functions also innobled and sanctified above any other whatsoever , and higher advanced then the sense of Laick or Secular will beare . To Princes an assistance of counsell is requisite in spirituall as in civill affaires , but that , that Counsaile ought to bee composed onely of persons Ecclesiasticall , or that those persons ought to bee invested with all those Ensignes of Honour and Authority which our Bishops now claime as of divine right , seemes not necessary . Clergy-men are not alwayes the most knowing in all Ecclesiasticall cases , neither are they at all indifferent and impartiall , in many which concerne their owne honour and profit , ( as the world feeles to its regret ) therefore for jurisdiction they are not the most competent . But be they of what use soever , they may still remaine subordinate , and at the Princes election , and admitted of ad consilium solum , not ad consensum : and it had beene happy for all Christians these many hundred yeares by-past if they had not been further hearkned to . The Sacerdotall function is not at all disparaged by this subordination , for whether the order of Princes be more sacred then that of Bishops , or not , it is all one to Priests , for an obedience they owe , and must pay , be it to the one Order , or the other . Our Bishops at this day stand much upon their Divine right of Jurisdiction , and they refer their style to the providence of God immediately , not to the grace of the King : and though in words they acknowledge a Supremacy of power to remain to the King ; yet indeed I think they mean rather a priority of order . Whatsoever Supremacy they meane , if it be not such as makes them meerely subordinate , and dependent , so that the King may limit , alter , or extinguish their jurisdiction , as far as He may to his civil Judges , they derogate much from his Kingly office . Bishops for their claim of Jurisdiction ought to prove , that they alone did exercise it over all in all causes from our Saviours dayes , till the entrance of Christian Princes : and that being cleared , they must further prove , that those times also are leading , and precedentary to ours . In both these their proofes are lame , especially in the latter ; for neither is the power of the Keyes the same thing as Iurisdiction , nor is jurisdiction now as it was in the Apostles dayes , nor is the State of the times , now the same as then . In those dayes either Christians were to implead one another before Infidel Magistrates whatsoever the case were , criminall or civill , spirituall or temporall , or else they were to erect some tribunall in the Church , or else they were to await no justice at all : and because some judicature within the Church was most fit , therefore Christ himselfe according to the exigence of those times , did indow his Church with a divine Oeconomy , which was partly miraculous , & of use then , but not now . The Spirit of God did then internally incite such and such men at such times to reside & preside in such & such places ; and some of the Apostles at some times could judge by inspiration without proofes & allegations , and could execute sentence of death or other spirituall punishment upon secret hypocrites , not intrenching upon temporall authority , but in these times this discipline is uselesse , & therfore decayed . Whatsoever the offence then was , what injury or trespasse soever betwixt brother and brother , ( the only remedy was Dic Ecclesiae , and yet that precept serves as strong for temporall as spirituall trespasses , so that it cannot be enforced now to continue , unlesse wee meane to drowne all temporall authority . As for the extent also of spirituall power in those dayes I will onely cite a learned Politician of the Popish religion : who admitting ( it seemed ) that the keyes of heaven were given to Saint Peter alone , and his Successours , and not to all Bishops and Ministers whatsoever , thus proceeds . By the keyes given to S. Peter many Holy Fathers mean , the one of knowledge , & the other of power , and that that power ought not to be understood universally , but only concerning the Kingdome of Heaven which is spirituall : for the Civill , Royall , and Temporall power is expresly forbidden him by Christ . Even so that also of knowledge , it is not to be understood of natural , politike , or morall things , but as Saint Paul saith , of Christs mysteries only . Wherefore in matters of faith Ecclesiasticall authority may approve , and Secular cannot condemne , but in matters or policy what all the Prelates in the World approve , temporall authority may condemne . It is a great wrong to pretend , because Christ hath given Saint Peter the cognizance and power of the Kingdome , and forbidden him the earthly , contrary to this precept to extend spirituall things to temporall . Saint Augustine often saith , That Grace doth not destroy any thing in Nature , but leaveth her all her owne ; adding moreover divine perfection . The Temporality hath of its own nature , power , to forbid all things repugnant to publike quietnesse and honesty ; and Christ came not to take away this authority from Magigistrates , He only adds power to his Ministers in matters of faith , not knowne by nature , but revelation . For ought wee know , this power of opening or shutting Heaven , of binding and loosing sins was miraculous , and so but temporary : but admit it in this Catholike Writers sense , yet we plainly see , it is no prejudice at all to limit Secular Princes thereby . The same learned Papist writes : That the Easterne and Westerne Churches continued in unity and charity for the space of nine hundred yeares after Christ , and this peace was easily kept , because the Supream power was then in the Canons , to which all Churches acknowledged themselves equally subject . Ecclesiasticall Discipline was then severely mayntained in each Country by its own Prelates , not arbitrarily , but absolutely according to Canonicall rigour , none of them intermedling in anothers government . No Pope of Rome did pretend to conferre Benefices in other Bishops Diocesses , or to get money out of others by way of Dispensations and Buls : but when Rome began to shake off all subjection to Canons , then notwithstanding any ancient order of the Fathers , Councels , or Apostles themselves , instead of her ancient Primacy she brought in an absolute Dominion , free from any Law or Canon & this made the division . Neither could any re-union bee brought to passe within these 700 yeares , because this abuse which caused the Division is not remedied . Whilst the union held , Saint Pauls doctrine was joyntly observed , that Every one should be subject to Princes , no man pretended to be free from punishment . Nay , and after the division , the same opinion remayned , that every Christian in temporall businesses is subject to the Prince . And nothing is more temporall then offence , because nothing is more contrary to the Spirit . Amongst the Greeks also it is still held that Bishops ought to judge what opinion is found , what Hereticall , but to punish those of hurtfull opinions belongeth to the Secular . The State of Venice , as well as other Catholike Kingdomes , walks between two extreames , betweene Protestants , which have no other ayme but to diminish Ecclesiasticall authority , and the Court of Rome which hath no other ayme , but to increase it , and to make the Temporall her servant . Those of the Court of Rome , making use of Religion for worldly ends and respects under a spirituall pretense , but with an ambitious end and desire of worldly wealth and honour would free themselves from obedience due to the Prince , and take away the love and reverence due by the people to draw it to themselves . To bring those things to passe , they have newly invented a doctrine that talks of nothing but Ecclesiasticall greatnesse , liberty , immunity , and jurisdiction . This doctrine was unheard of , till about the year 1300 , then it began to be written scatteringy in some books , but till 1400 , there were not written above two Bookes which treated of nothing else ; after this such Writers increased a little , but after 1560 , there were scarce any Books printed in Italy , but in diminution of Secular authority and exaltation of the Ecclesiasticall . And now the people have scarce any other Books to read , nor have the Confessors any other doctrine , or need any other learning . Hence comes this perverse opinion , that Magistracy is a humane invention , and to be obeyed for policy only , not for conscience : but that every intimation of Ecclesiasticall persons is equivalent to a divine precept ; there want not in Italy , pious , learned men which hold the contrary , but they are not suffered to write , or print . Neither are forraine Books permitted , or ancient Authours left ungelded of all which serves for Temporall authority : as appeares by a book printed 1607 , called Index Expurgatorius : and Clement the Eighth in 1595 , published a rule in his Index , that all Catholike Writers Books since 1515 , might be corrected , not only by expunging but also by interlining , and this hath beene practised though not publikely above seventy yeares . Thus we finde the Court of Romes , but not the Authors meaning , and finally , wee are sure to have no book true . I have hitherto cited this egregious Politician , for these purposes . First , That we may see how easie it is for Clergie-men to wrest all authority out of the Temporalties hands , if Princes will be so easie to be hood-winkt , and deluded by them , and to resigne their judgments to them in such cases as concern their profit , and advancement . Secondly , That we may take notice how far the learnedst of Papists themselves doe discover , and detect the errours and tyranny of the Court of Rome , and that mysticall way of deceiving , whereby all hope of remedy is cut off . I observe this also the rather because our Prelates in England at this day assume to themselves almost as vast and unquestionable a power of shifting and repressing all adverse disputes , and of authorizing and publishing all arguments whatsoever savouring their cause , as the Court of Rome does . Thirdly , that I might produce the same Author against himselfe in those points wherein he taxes Protestants . We will yield that for the space of nine hundred yeers the See of Rome did not usurpe over other Sees , but did acknowledge equall subjection to the Canons , and that the division and separation of the Easterne Churches happened , when Rome arrogated above Canons ; but withall we must have it yielded to us , that those Canons had been composed only by Clergy-men , and that in too much favour of Clergy-men , and too much abridgment of Temporall Rights and Priviledges , and that they did concerne matters more then meerly spirituall , and speculative , and things known by meere revelation . So that though one Prelate did not usurpe over another , yet all Prelates had usurped over the Laity from the times of Constantine almost . It is true , the Church had Bishops before in its times of persecution , but of what power or pompe ? It is said of Calvin , that in regard of his sway in Geneva , he wanted nothing but the Name of Bishop ; and it may be as truly said of the Bishops before Constantine , that they wanted all but the Name . The power of Bishops before the installment of Christian Princes , was rather like that of Arbitrators then of Judges , and that held in all cases alike , Civill and Spirituall , but in case of disobedience they did not intrench so far upon the Lay power , as to inflict any pecuniary , or corporall punishment , but they did deny the Sacrament , and eject delinquents out of the Congregation , and this was then an abscission from Christ , being done Clave non errante : that is , whilst God did inspire ( according to his promise ) a miraculous power of binding and loosing infallibly . The Priestly function was then an Office , not a Jurisdiction , of sacred dignity , not Power : but the Function of a Prince was ever sacred both for honour , and power , for dignity and command . Constantine the Great was the first Prince which tooke upon him the care and protection of the Church , after that it had suffered contempt and poverty for 300 yeares : and now did even that authority and protection cease , and devolve into his hands , which the poore persecuted Bishops had but feebly managed before ; but such was the extraordinary indulgence of this pious Emperour , as well to religious persons , as to Religion it selfe , that taking little notice what the Church had gaine by him as its Head and Governour , He heaped up greater Titles and Honors upon Bishops , Archbishops , Patriarchs , and Popes , as if some other supreme Ruler more sacred and competent then himselfe were necessary . Neverthelesse it is thought , that this was as poyson poured into the Church , and not Balme , for from that very time Clergy men began to be more glorious , but lesse gracious , more rich outwardly , but more poore , and vile inwardly . Within a little space after Constantine there was just cause of complaint that excessive Honours had corrupted the Church , and that Religion had prospered better in former times , when it had wooden Chalices and golden Priests , then now , when it had golden Chalices , but wooden Priests . It is remarkable also , that soon after Constantine the temporall power being too much restrained , and abased , and the spirituall as much inlarged and exalted , the whole face of Christendome began to be imbroyled with wars , and poysoned with heresies , so that the Historians of those times have almost nothing else to write of but the forcible investing and devesting by armes of such Bishops and Patriarchs , and of the oppositions of such and such Councels and Synods , and of the Appeals , Jars , Schismes , Excommunications , and Commotions of such , and such Priests , and Monks . Nay , such were the ill effects of those ages which were certainly more zealous then politike , that they cannot yet be wholly rectified , and purged in these our latter times , which are growne too too contrary , being more politike then zealous : Thus did the Church fare for 900 yeares till the Roman Bishops began to Empire above all , and then did the greatest part of the Clergie themselves , especially East from Italy , make their departure and separation . Neither did the Romish Vice-god after this great rent and division in the World hang his head for shame , or seeke any re-union by letting fall his pompous , painted plumes , but audaciates himselfe rather to mount higher yet , and to detrude the Western Emperour quite out of the bounds of Italy . And in this , his industry fails him not , for after much bloud-shed in many cruell conflicts Hee gains in Italy a Temporall , and in all Europe besides a spirituall Monarchy , making a triple Mitre shine as gloriously upon the seven-hilled City , as the Diadem had done before . During his wars with the Emperour of Germany , He had other contestations also with England , and some other Potentates at sometimes , but all dismaid him not , only once Hee was heard to say , It was time for him to compound with the Dragon , that hee might crush the lesser Adders at his pleasure . Yet after this even this Holy tyranny grows too insolent and insufferable , and so conspires its owne dissolution , so that many Countries in the Northwest parts lying more remote from Rome , quite revolt from her Allegeance , and Protest against her . Amongst those other Countries also lesse distant , which still in words confesse her Supremacy , her Reigne is now but little more then precarious : Venice regards not Buls and Anathemacs , France disdains a yonger brothers benediction , and Spain being honoured with the title of the Popes eldest Son , confesses him a Fathe● , but employs him as a Chaplain , gives verball , but reaps reall honours by him . Augustus having cashiered an unworthy Commander , gave him leave to say , that he had cashiered Augustus : and so the Popes great sonnes shake off his yoke by degrees , but conceal it , and give him leave to doe the like . It is now very good policy in the Pope , not to pretend to Temporall things as they stand in ordine , or have relation to spiritual things , but rather to relinquish his right to spirituall things , as they stand in order to Temporall : it is eminent wisdome in him to forbeare threatning , roaring , cursing , and sending his ridiculous Epigrams , out of his owne Territories : as hee was wont to doe : Nay , his very last refuge of sending forth his poysoning and stabbing Ministers cannot remayne in season much longer . But to returne to our learned Statesman : as Hee justly taxes the Court of Rome , so He unjustly taxes Protestants of the contrary extream , and this will appeare out of his own words . For He grants , first , that the Secular Magistrates have nothing diminished of their authority by Christs comming : and it is cleere that Princes were absolute Governours of the Church before Christ both in Spirituall and Temporall Cases . In the next place Hee yields , that the power and knowledge of Clergy-man called the power of the Keyes , is no other but such as Christ infuses in smeere supernaturall things , knowne only by Faith and Revelation , not by any Physicall , or Ethicall Principles ; but it is easily proved by us , that such power can extend to no proper jurisdiction at all in humane affaires , but is a meere speculative motion , and such wee deny not . Thirdly , Hee yields that in Jurisdiction there bee three things distinct . First , matter of Law . Secondly , matter of fact . Thirdly , matter of execution : whereby retribution is made to every fact according to Law . The first of these , and that in Spirituall Cases alone being tryable by Clergy-men only . Admit this and nothing follows , but that things meerly Spirituall , are best knowne to Spirituall persons , there is no power here concluded . As for example . In case of Heresie , that I hold such an opinion , must appeare by witnesses and proofs , and herein all kinds of witnesses besides Clergy-men are competent . Next , that this opinion is hereticall , requires the judgement of Ecclesiasticall persons , but it does not follow , if they be the fittest Judges herein , that they must be the supreme Judges herein , and not aswell Dependent and Subordinate as our Civill Judges are in common actions . But in the last place , that such an hereticall opinion so dangerous and pestilent to the Church and Common-wealth ought to be corrected or cradicated by such coercive force , and the raising of that force whereby it is to be punished is in the judgement , and in the power of the Supreame Magistrate , for two Magistrates cannot have a Supreame power of the same sword . Either the Secular must command the Ecclesiasticall , or the Ecclesiasticall must command the Secular , as to coercive power , or a worse confusion then either must needs follow . So then , it is the Execution of Justice alone , which is essentiall to the Supreame Governour , Matter of Law requires a Counsellour , matter of Fact a witnesse , Matter of Execution alone intimates a Prince , and that Principality cannot bee divided betwixt two persons of a severall nature . From hence then it appeares plainly that no Catholike differing from the Court of Rome ascribes more to Clergy men , then this first point of adjudging according to the Law of God in things Divine ; and this implyes rather a dependent , then an independent condition in the Judge : and in this Protestants joyne with full consent . But all this while I finde my selfe in a digression : my scope is not to prove that Protestants doe attribute sufficient to Priests , it lies upon mee to prove that they attribute too much to them , and herein I am to undertake not only the Episcopall , but the Presbyteriall side also , not only Protestant Prelates , but even Master CALVIN that great Arch-prelate also . Divines have much trumped the World hitherto in not setting forth the true bounds and limits of Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction , but if I mistake not , the first power ( which they claime as most essentiall ) they take to be the power of the Keyes , though they define not certainly , what that is , whether a Power , or Office ; or to whom belonging , or of what extent , and continuance . The second power which they insist upon , as next issuing out of the power of the Keyes , is in Excommunication , Ordination of Ministers , Exposition of Scriptures , &c. The third and more remote kinde of causes wherein they challenge an Ecclesiasticall power , is of such as concerne Matrimonie , Testaments , Heresies , Fasts , Tythes , and Immunnities of Clergymen , &c. And further doubtlesse they would proceed , but that these savour so much of the Temporality , and discover their trumpery ; but I have said , if in all these cases Clergy men are necessarily more knowing and impartiall then all the else , there is necessity of their Counsell to declare matter of Law , but not of their Consent in applying coercive , and forcible remedies for the execution of Law . I have said also that Clergy-men being as well Citizens of the Common-wealth as sons of the Church , and these Cases importing as well perturbance of the State as annoyance to the Church , that there can be but one Head which ought to have command over both , and in both . It is manifest also that many Cases are partly temporall , and partly spirituall , and that scarce any is so temporall , but that it relates in some order to spirituall things , or any so spirituall , but that it hath some relation to temporall things , so that the true subject of Ecclesiasticall and civill justice cannot rightly be divided . Further , also it is as manifest that where any doubt , strife , or uncertainty may arise between one Iurisdiction , and another , neither acknowledging any supreame power of decision , no assured peace can continue , and by consequence no stability or permanent subsistence to either , is to be expected . It is naturall therefore to be inferred , that either the Temporall or the Ecclesiasticall Magistrate must bee in all Cases absolutely predominant , and that since the Ecclesiastical ought not by Christs owne command , therefore the temporall ought , as hath been further proved by sundry arguments , and Scripture proofes alledged out of this famous Politician . So much of the temporall power , and its necessary Supremacie : my endevour shall be now to maintain that no Ecclesiasticall power is at all necessary in meere Ecclesiasticall persons . Master Calvin according to the Popish grounds maintaines , that spirituall jurisdiction differs from temporall , & is not incompatible but assistant therto , because it proposes not the same ends , but severall , which by severall meanes may be the better compassed . But the spirituall Magistrate ( as I conceive ) can propose no other end , then what the Secular ought to ayme at , for either the Prince ought to have no care at all of the Honour of God , and the good of men , and that which is the prime meane of both , true Religion , or else his ends must bee the same which the Prelate aymes at , viz. to vindicate Religion by removing and correcting scandalous offenders . Secondly , to preserve the innocent from contagion by the separation of open offenders . Thirdly , to prevent further obduration , or to procure the amendment of such as have transgressed by wholsome chastisement . This is beyond all controversie , as also that the Person and Power of a Prince , are as sacred to effect these ends , as the Prelates : and certainly , God did not so sanctifie their persons and offices for any lesse end . And therefore in ancient times Holy Bishops did Preach and recommend nothing more to Princes then the care of Religion , though proud Prelates now arrogate this onely to themselves , and though it be still apparent , that no offence is so spirituall but that it is a civill evill , as well as a blemish to Religion : forsomuch as true Religion is the foundation of a State . And this could not bee , neither were Princes answerable to God for the corruption of Religion , if God had not given them a supreame power , and that effectuall to bring all offenders whatsoever to confession , satisfaction , and contrition or to expell them the congregation by themselves , or their surrogates . Master Calvin instances in adultery & drunkennes , &c. and sayes , that the temporall power punishes these by externall force , and for publick examples sake , as it concernes the State , but the Spirituall Judge punishes them without force internally for the amendment of the delinquent . Hee might as well have named swearing , lying , stealing , murdering , and all sinnes whatsoever , and so have made all men twice punishable , and the Ecclesiasticall Courts as full of businesse as the temporall , to the great vexation of the State , and danger of division , out of this false ground onely that temporall power hath not a competence for the amendment of off●nders , or for the care of Religion , but only for the satisfaction of wronged parties , and the expedition of ●ivill justice . This is a way to erect regnum in regno , and to maintaine such concurrent jurisdictions , as cannot possibly stand together , for all being subject to sin and offence , as well the Spirituall as temporall , either the one or other must goe unquestioned , and this may produce division : or else both ; and that will cause most certaine confusion . Both sides here seem strangely puzled , the rigidest of the Episcopall faction allow Princes a coercive power over Priests , and Prelats , where they performe not what their duty is in their functions or jurisdictions , and this power requires a higher power of summoning , arraigning , and legally trying them : and yet the moderatest of the Presbyteriall faction would have Princes questionable , tryable and punishable by the Spiritualty . This is a grosse confusion , which will appeare to bee so more plainely in the sequell ; when it is more fully cleared , that to Princes alone God has precisely committed utramque tubam , and utramque tabulam too , as our reverend Andrew sayes . T is true , as Calvin alleadges , Princes are sons of the Church , they are in it , not above it : the word intruding the Church universall , such as is both militant and triumphant ; past , present , and future , for that hath no other head but Christ : to that all Princes and Priests are equally sons : but take Church for such or such a Nationall , Locall Church , and then the Prince is head thereof , under Christ ; and the Clergie are part of his charge , and under his protection . The same man also may in diverse respects be both father and son to the same man without confusion of relations . A King , a Bishop may hear the Word , & receive the Sacrament from an inferiour Minister ; a Subject may be naturall Father to his Prince , and in this respect a filiall subjection is due from the superiour , and so a King may referre his owne case to his Chancellor , yet this destroyes not the greater , higher , and more generall superiority in other things , at other times . And to me it seemes that even in the exercise of the Keyes , the Priest officiates under the Prince , as the Chancellor does in matters of Law , even when the Kings owne case lyes in Judgement before him , and when perhaps he makes a decree against his owne Master , and contrary to his owne Masters private advertisement : and yet the King is not properly either Lawyer , or Theologue , though both are actuated , and organiz'd as it were , by the soule-like commanding , over seeing , and over-ruling of his more sublime and divine power . Herein the Priest also may learn a limitation from the Lawyer , for though the Judge be bound to pronounce right judgement against his owne Master , yet this holds not in all cases alike ; because of his limited condition , for in Criminall cases such as concerne the safety of the Kings owne person , or the royall dignity of his calling , therein judgement must be utterly mute . And therefore it is a weake argument of Master Calvin , though it be his best ; when he inferres a necessity of an Ecclesiasticall Judicature from hence , because else the Prince himselfe wanting punishment , should escape free : for the reason is the same in matters of Law ; the King is not questionable , or responsible , for personall crimes , and yet this is held no politicall mischiefe . Besides if the Prince shall not goe unquestioned , or undisciplin'd by the Spirituall , yet the supreme spirituall Magistrate must , and this is an equall , if not a greater mischiefe : for both cannot be equally lyable to the judgement of each other . Neither is it to much purpose that the example of Bishop Ambrose so harshly , so unreverendly treating pious penitent Theodosius , is so confidently cited alwayes by either faction Episcopall and Presbyteriall ; for though the name of Ambrose be great , yet I will crave leave to speake as an advocate against him in the name of the Emperour Theodosius . Reverend Sir , you take upon you to be a judge over me , and to condemne me of a bloody Massacre committed unjustly at Thessalonica , and being so condemned , you proceed against me with your ghostly punishment , subjecting me to your Ecclesiasticall severity : But I pray consider what mischiefes may follow hereupon ; if Emperours may bee punishable by Bishops , then common equity requires that Emperours have the benefit of a faire hearing and arraignment , or else were their condition more miserable then the condition of the meanest vassals : for as Princes actions are more inscrutable , and their counsels more mysticall ; so also their ends are for the most part more lyable to envy , and misinterpretation : It is not possible for you without due discussion , inquiry , and examination of impartiall witnesses , perfectly to understand all the true circumstances , reasons , and grounds of this my fact ; and without this understanding it is not possible for you to pronounce a just censure against me . It 's necessary then that some Tribunall be prepared for you , and some Bar for me , that upright sentence may passe , and that justice may be done understandingly , and upon this it must needs follow that I am your meere Subject , and must lay downe my Scepter to bow my selfe under your Crosier , till this difficulty be fully ended . Admit this also , and then you may use what procrastination you please in this intricate decision ; or in the like manner question me of all other enormities , and scandalous deviations , which rumor , envy , or treason it selfe forges against me ; and thus shall I have no leasure to judge other men , it will scarce be possible for me to acquit my selfe in judgement from other men : that power which God hath put into my hands for the protection of so many Myriads , will be utterly disabled by that higher power which is put into your hands over me . By the same reason also that I am to render an account to you in this place , I am to render the like to all your superiours , equals , or inferiours in other jurisdictions , of all sinnes whatsoever , whether reall , or imputable , Ecclesiasticall , or Civill , so that no end is like to be of my tryals , purgations , or condemnations . You will say , my crime is sensibly evident ; if I would deny this , you could not prove it so ; and if I would not confesse this , you could not force me , for it was a politicall thing , and farre off acted : and my meere confession can give to you no jurisdiction . But be my crime as manifest in it selfe as the disobedience of Saul was to Samuel , or as Davids murther was to Nathan , or as Solomons incontinence was to all the world , or as Manasses his Idolatry : yet why should I suffer more then they ? What new coercive , vindicative authority have Priests gained over Princes by Christs Gospell , which the Jewish Priests never used , claymed , or heard of ? If Excommunication , &c. be now necessary , sure it was in use before Christ ; and then wee should have heard of some Kings Excommunicated , &c. by some Priests ; for if the Temporall power had not of its owne nature a competent force and habitude to restraine all things repugnant to publike quietnesse , and honesty , a Spirituall power was necessary ; and yet we read of none such . But if there was a sufficiency in the Temporall power , as is most manifestly apparent ; then we cannot imagine that Christ came to take away any of this authority from Magistrates : but that power which he added , was rather an excellency of grace and vertue in matters of faith , and illumination . It cannot bee alleadged by you , that that punishment is meerely spirituall , and so no politicall evill : for as it puts other men into the condition of Publicans , Heathens , and worse ; so it further yet degrades , disables , and oppresses Princes . How shall he be honoured and obeyed as the Vicegerent of God in all causes , whom the Laity sees ejected out of the Church , and expelled out of the Communion of the faithfull , as a rotten contagious member ? how shall hee be held more sacred then a Priest , whom the sentence , interdiction , and the confounding blow of a Priests spirituall execration , shall render so contemptible , miserable , and abominable in the eyes of the world ? Saint Paul being accused in matters of Doctrine , made his appeale to a wicked Heathen Emperour ; and yet now a Christian godly Emperour being accused by any Church-man , no appeale is allowed , though in meere civill accusations . Saint Peters Keyes did either endure some new power not before known to the world , or not ; if it did , then our Saviours Gospell came into the world to the detriment of civill government , which is contrary to Religion , and all reason : and if no new addition of power were imported , then Tiberius himselfe , though a Heathen , and Tyrant , remained as absolute as before ; and yet in his time there was more necessity of an Ecclesiasticall judicature , then is now . But you will say , if Princes be not subject to some chastisement , then some scandals must passe unremediable . Not so , for here God is the revenger , and strikes often , as he did Vzziah ; but if not , yet either the Temporall or Spirituall Governour must passe unchastiz'd , which is all one ; for two Supreames cannot be , nor no entire government without some supremacy , nor no supremacy without immunity , and exemption from judgement . The perpetuall conflicts and contestations betweene Princes and Prelates , which are likely to ensue , will soone cleere this ; that either Princes must at last submit to the tribunals of Church-men , and raigne at their discretion ; or else Church-men must submit to them : for both tribunals cannot stand compatible . For my part , I excuse so grave a Father as you are , of ambition herein ; and therefore I am the lesse cautious in submitting my selfe at this time : but I conceive this Doctrine may bee the ground of dangerous consequences to others , and therefore I desire it may not from me passe into a president for the time to come . Let not proud Prelates from this my voluntary humiliation , arrogate to themselves as if it had beene due ; or derogate thereby from the more sacred order of Princes : neither let Princes from this particular learne to yeeld to any Spirituall Monarchy whatsoever . My beliefe is , that the Prince is the Head , the Fountaine , the Soule of all power whatsoever , Spirituall , or Temporall ; wherein he ought not to indure at all any kinde of rivality of Ecclesiasticall persons , nor can admit of any diminution in any part of his jurisdiction , without offence to God , dammage to his charge , and danger to himselfe . So much for Theodosius , and so much for that jurisdiction which is due to Prelates : I should now speake of the exercise thereof , as it is granted by the favour of Princes , but this is a very tender point . It seemes to some , that Princes ought not to incumber men in Sacred Orders , in any kinde of judicature which is not purely Spirituall ; nor that Prelates can accept of any Temporall imployment whatsoever , without dishonour to their Orders , and neglect to their cure of Soules : and yet now none so greedy of such imployment . A sacred place may not be put to secular uses , that 's prophane : but a sacred person may , that 's honourable . A Bishoprick now adayes is but a Writ of ease , to dismisse from Preaching , and attending Gods service ; whereby the man is preferred from the Church to the Court , from the Altar to some Tribunall , from Gods spirituall to the Kings temporall affaires . In the High Commission , at the Councel Table , in the Star-chamber , and the Chequer , Churchmen are now more active then in their owne Consistories , and yet their ambition further aimes ( as 't is said ) to the Chancery , Court of Requests , &c. which could not chuse but redound to the scandall of Religion , the obstruction of Justice , and vexation of the Subject : if there were not learned and skilfull men enough in Policy and Law to serve the King , unlesse Divinity were deprived of some of her followers , there were some seeming umbrage why the King might borrow of God ; but when Gods more holy office is neglected , that the Kings meaner may be the worse administred , the world much gazes and wonders at it . The functions of Divines are too sacred for any secular person to officiate , and therefore it should seeme , their persons also ought to be too sacred for secular functions ; for it seems prepostrous , that it should be thought an honour to Priests to relinquish spiritual , and adhere to temporall imployments . Nic : Machiavell did observe that Christian Religion had long since falne to the ground had not the regular strictnesse of poore inferiour Priests and Fryers held , and propped up the reputation of it in the World , as much as the pride and luxury of the great Cardinals , and Prince like Bishops , did strive to sinke and demolish it . The same observation holds true amongst us Protestants at this day , for the more our Prelates enjoy , the more still they seeke ; and all our three Kingdomes are growne so sicke of their pride , injustice , and pragmaticall faction , that scarce any remedy but bloud-letting can cure them . We finde in Scripture the most high and holy Offices of Religion performed by Princes , even amongst , and above the greatest of Priests ; but we scarce finde any instance at all where Priests intermedled with any State affaires , either above , or under Princes : and yet with us now the imploying and entrusting of Clergy-men in Temporal businesses , is held as politick as it was in times of Popery : although no time could ever justly boast of that use . But to passe over Temporal businesses , how violent have our Bishops beene in their owne Canons about Ceremonies , and indifferencies ? and what disturbance hath that violence produced ? They strive as for the beauty and glory of Religion , to bring in the same former of Liturgie , the same posture of the Communion-Table , the same gesture at the Communion , &c. in all our three Dominions ; as if uniformity were alwayes beautifull : and yet we see , all men are created with severall faces , voyces , and complexions , without any deformity to the universe . 'T is not externall variety , but internall dissention , which spoyles the harmony of Religion ; and dissention is more nourished by the harshnes of Pastors over their flocks , especially over the weake ones in scruples , then by permitting various Rites and Formes in the externall worship of God . Certainly , liberty and variety in indifferences , and Ceremonies is more favour'd in Scripture , than any universall similitude , or rigorous force whatsoever , over the perplexed , anxious consciences of weake men . We see in Scotland , where there is no Ceremonies , they enjoy that uniformity without contention , which wee ayme at onely , and seeke to purchase with infinite debate , and persecution ; and under their peace and unity , the Protestant Religion thrives , and Romish Superstition utterly ceases : whereas under our strife and disagreement , Religion and true Devotion is over-run , and over-growne , like Corne choaked with weeds . Nay , it is thought that if our Bishops had bin more gentle-handed all this while towards such as disrelisht Ceremonies for Poperies sake , and had rather pitied thē as men of tender consciences , than persecuted and defamed them , as seditions Puritans , these differences had not lasted so long : for when the reformation was not yet fully perfected , the Puritans of those dayes were more fiery than now ; but not being so odious in the Church , lesse combustion followed thereupon : whereas now they are so unmercifully heated , that no moderate complyance can serve the turne . There seemes now little remaining of Puritanisme , but the breathlesse carkas of it , and yet till that too be interred and consumed , no truce can be admitted . The very sufferings of Puritans now are sufficiently quit , and imputed as the effects of their owne malice , their punishment is argument enough for the desert of their punishment ; the more they have borne , the more they must now beare ; and the more they now beare , the more they shall hereafter . Fury is one of the maine thing ; objected to Puritans ; but in truth , the World has not any thing more furious then such as most pretend against them . Hence it is , that the hatred of Puritans flowes and descends from the highest of the Clergie to the lowest : and young Students in the Vniversity know it now their wisest course to study the defamation of Puritans , as the first and most necessary point of their learning and qualification , and as their surest path to promotion . And to make their detestation sure , and themselves irreconciliable , they must ingage themselves by some notable service of novelty , quarrelling with some point of Protestantisme , or refining some point of Popery ; they must taxe Protestants as some ways injurious to Princes , or extoll Papists as zealous observers of Antiquity . It must be maintained that Royalty cannot stand without the prop of Episcopacy , though it never yet found greater enemy ; and that Puritanisme only hinders the stretching of our Religion , or else Papists and we should soone agree . Those of vulgar wits which serve not for such straines , that they may be redeemed from suspicion of Puritanisme , must doe something factiously , or be vitious , or else their hopes of preferment are almost desperate . Charity to Papists , conformity to Ancient Fathers , and decent uniformity amongst our selves , are the specious colors wherewith they dresse and deck all their pretenses ; for want of Sectaries living in these days , they rake out of their toombs Hacket , Copinger , Browne , &c. to upbraid us , for want of opposites enow here in England , they calumniate the Scots to our dishonour ; for want of true imputations , they forge any crimes how monstrous soever , and their most sure one is , that which is most undiscernible , hypocrisie . Neverthelesse it must bee beleeved that the Antipuritan disparages not our Ancestors in the reformation , but for love of antiquity ; not teares in sunder the bonds of Religion , Nature , Policy betwixt two the most close-united Nations of the World , but out of love to unity : nor fills whole Kingdomes with bloud , but out of love to Order . Such was sure Diogenes his humility , trampling upon Platoes Couches ; such was Neroes uniformity , setting on sire the streets of Rome : Such was Procustes his symmetry , cutting his guests according to his beds . And therefore it s thought Puritans are not so much hated for their opposition to Ceremonies , as Ceremonies are multiplied , and inforced for suppression of all zealous Christians , under the umbrage of Puritans : and that for the same purpose the enemies of Piety have blown those coales which they might have quenched . The Bishop of Downe makes a very sharpe speech to the Puritans in Ireland , as being very disobedient , and animated therein by the Scotish Covenanters ; but his chiefest eloquence uttered against his owne Countrymen the Scots , whom he paints forth as the chiefest Traytors , perjured Rebels , Heretickes and Hypocrits in the World : nay , he denounceth them worse than Anabaptists , and such as have more than justified the Powder-Traytors , and all the rebellious practises of the Jesuites : Afterwards he addes also , That Puritanisme is not the Nationall sin of Scotland only , but that they of the same faction in England had beene as deep in the same condemnation , but that they had not so much power . See here the lively portraiture of an Antipuritane , see a true Boner revived againe , but in Protestant habit ; and for ought I see , here are none exempted from this black venomous censure in all the Kings Dominions , but those of the Popish and Episcopall Faction . It 's not to be wondred at that the King thinks ill of his Subjects , or that Burton or Prin suffered worse then Traytors merits : It 's rather to be wondred at , that our streets doe not runne with blood dayly , since this is the Gospell our Reverend Fathers of the Church preach . This speech was thought worthy to be dispersed in Print over all our Kingdomes in English ; but since , because it redounds so much to the honour of the three Nations , and the repute of Protestant Religion , it 's Translated into Latine , and Coppies are Printed for all Christendome to take notice of . In this speech it s urged , that Puritans who began about 80 yeares since , have proceeded from bad to worse by six degrees ; first they did dislike , then contemne Bishops ; then they did disobey their jurisdiction ; then separate themselves ; then they fell into the Heresie of holding no difference betweene Bishop and Presbyter : lastly , they rebelled , and grew more immoderate than Anabaptists . And here Saint Cyprian is alledged , who sayes , That the contempt of Bishops is the beginning and ground of all Heresies and Schismes . Here we see what Puritanes are , the most cursed Miscreants on earth ; next we see who Puritans are , all such as hold not with Episcopacy : that is in probability halfe Ireland , more then halfe England , all Scotland , and many other Protestant Countries . King James did put a difference betwixt such as disrelisht Bishops , and Ceremonies meerly , and such as under that pretext fraudulently sought to perturbe the State , and make a factious separation . But here the difference of all Puritans is graduall only , not substantiall ; for dislike of Bishops is the beginning of all Heresie , and must needs end in Anabaptisme and rebellion . How plainly does it here appeare , that Episcopacy is the true Helena of all this warre ; and yet Saint Cyprian is to be understood of the Pastorall function , not of the Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction of a Bishop , or else in his sense the Genevans , and the greatest part of Protestants are Heretiques , and King James made a frivolous distinction . Such stuffe as this had not mis-beseemed a Papist , but it s very odde in a Protestant Bishop ; except wee consider him , as one who hath looke back towards the Onions and Flesh-pots of Aegypt , and is inamor'd again upon those glorious titles & ensignes of Honour , and Pompe , which Rome confers upon her Courtiers . But to conclude this point , I wish Princes would not allow such Bishops to be carvers to themselves , and make them Judges in cases of their owne interesse : they are surely good spectacles for Princes in Theologicall deliberations , as Temporall Counsellors are in State affaires ; but miserable are those Princes whose eyes cannot see without such spectacles . If Religion did not prosper worse , if peace were not more violated , if persecution were not more common in Countries wher Bishops govern , than where they are expelled , we might suspect the Scots , as Hereticall , and Rebellious by nature ; for chusing all the plagues of warre rather then Bishops : but when we see the contrary , we may aswell listen to the Scots against Bishops , as to Bishops against the Scots . So much of the Ecclesiasticall Puritan , next after whom sprung up the Puritan in Religion , of whom I shall speak very briefly . There are many men amongst us now , which brooke Bishops and Ceremonies well enough ; and perhaps favourably interpret our late innovations ; and yet these may be too grave to escape the name of Puritans . To be a Protestant may be allowed , but to dispute against Papists , smels of preciseness : to hold the Pope fallible is tolerated , but to hold him Antichrist is abominable Puritanisme : to goe to Church is fashionable , but to complaine of the Masse , or to be grieved at the publick countenance of Popery , whereby it intwines our Religion , and now drinkes up that Sap which is scarce afforded to Protestantisme , or at all to take notice how far some of our Divines are hereat conniving , if not cooperating , is a sumptome of a deepe infected Puritan . He that is not moderate in Religion is a Puritan , and hee that is not a Cassandrian , or of Father Francis Syncters faith , is not moderate : he savours too much of Calvins grosse learning , exploded now by our finest wits . But I passe from this kinde of Puritan to another ; whom I shall call my Politicall Puritan ; for the bounds of Puritanisme are yet larger , and inclose men of other conditions . Some there are yet which perhaps disfavour not at all either Ecclesiasticall Policy , or moderate Papists ; and yet neverthelesse this is not sufficient to acquit them from the name of Puritans , if they ascribe any thing to the Lawes and Liberties of this Realme , or hold the Prerogative royall to be limitable by any Law whatsoever . If they hold not against Parliaments and with Ship-money , they are injurious to Kings ; and to be injurious to Kings , is proprium quarto modo to a Puritan . Our present civill , nay more then civill warre with Scotland , and all the mischiefes thereon attending , the disaffection betweene the King and his Subjects , and all the mischiefes thereon attending the discontinuance of Parliaments , the proper remedies of all State-maladies , and universall grievances , which is a mischiefe whereby all mischiefes become incurable , all are caused by the abusive mistake and injurious misapplication of this word Puritan . The Scots are Puritans , and therefore enemies to Monarchy , the English are Puritans , and therefore haters of Royall prerogative , both the Nations have beene hitherto famous for their devout reverence , and obsequious zeale to their Princes ; but now Puritanisme has infected them , and perverted them to disloyalty . Thus is the Kings heart alienated from his Subjects , and by consequence , the Subjects loyalty blunted towards him , to the incomparable , almost irreparable detriment of both : neither is this disaccord betweene the King and his best Subjects , more fatall and pernicious to the Common-wealth , then his accord with the Recusant faction . Papists have now gotten the repute of the best Subjects , and fittest for trust in places of eminent service ; nay 't is almost necessary that forraine Papists be brought in for the supporting of the indangered royalty : for though the Popish faction at Court be strong and active enough for matter of Counsell , yet for matter of force the Puritans in City and Countrey be too predominant . The Bishop of Downe in his visitation speech layes all the calamities of Church and Common-wealth upon Non-conformists , and for proofe thereof instances in the Covenanters , whom he charges of rebellion , charging withall that rebellion upon Puritanisme . The first thing ( saies he ) that made me out of love with that Religion , was their injurious dealing with Kings , which I observed both in their practice and doctrine . He taxes first their doctrine , because they deny the Kings supremacy in causes Ecclesiasticall , and allow Subjects to resist , nay and depose their King , if he be a Tyrant . Surely Ahab could say little for himselfe , if he could not lay his owne crimes upon Elijah ; but see here by what art of confusion all Scots are called Puritans and all Puritans rebels . King James spoke not so confusedly as if Puritanisme were a Religion ; and all that disliked Bishops and Ceremonies were of that Religion ; and all of that Religion were enemies to Kings . If a Bishop needed any proofe , if his {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} were not unquestionable , I would desire him to prove all Covenanters Puritans , and all Puritans , denyers of the Kings supremacy : or to instance in any Kings which have beene deposed or murdred by Presbyteriall authority . How far Bishops have incroached upon Kings , is known to al the world : our Protestant Bishops lately have by Oath and Canon combined together to bind the Kings hands though hee be Supreme , that he shall not governe our Church but by Arch-bishops , Bishops , Arch-deacons , &c. and yet these troublers of Israel have the face to taxe Elijah of their owne sin . Presbytery indeed has heretofore passed her bounds , yet not of late , but Episcopacy has ever from Constantine claimed an independence of Divine right , till this instant . I conceive there are not in all the Kings Dominions , three men , except Papists and Anabaptists , which hold it lawfull to depose , or by any force to violate the persons of Kings , how ill soever . The Scotch Divines indeed maintaine that a great body of men may defend themselves against the unjust Sword of misled Kings , because they cannot flye , or otherwise save themselves ; and this they take now to be their owne case ; whereas our Court Divines in England hold , that in such case , wee ought all to yeeld our throats without defence . This seemes unnaturall , and truth was never unnaturall , but I forbeare to dispute a point so horrid to mans imagination : The Bishop next instances in the rebellious practices of Puritans , and reckons up some facts in Scotland appointed by the Presbytery without King James his privity , and some other seditious Sermons , and actions whereby he was much annoyed . But what ? did not King James know his owne enemies , or how to blame them ? did he condemne all Scots alike , or all Bishophaters alike , or joyne the English in like condemnation ? we know well enough , that King James called rebellious precisians Puritans , but he never called all Puritans rebellious precisians : He never used those termes as convertible , but declared his contrary meaning by a manifest difference taken betweene them . But the Bishops maine instance is in the present Scotch insurrection ; this he cals a rebellion of Puritans , and far greater then the Powder-treason : For ( sayes he ) that plot was but the act of a few discontented Gentlemen , but in this rebellion of the Puritans they have ingaged a great part of the Kingdome , so that this may bee said to be the common sin of that sect. What could have beene raked out of Hell more slanderous to our Religion , more Apologeticall for Popery . The Powder-Traytors are here prefer'd before the whole sect of Puritans : The sinne of the Power-Traytors was , that they being but an inconsiderable party , sought the destruction of their King and his issue , and the flower of the Nobility , Gentry , Commonalty , and the extirpation of the true Religion , by a most diabolicall bloudy practice and conspiracy . And it ought not to be charged upon the meere actors , as a symptome of discontent , onely we know how farre the Romish Religion it selfe favours and gives ground to such damned feats , and how farre it has owned some having proved prosperous , and justified the doing thereof in nature as impious , though perhaps in degree not so hainous as this . For take this as it was conspired , and questionlesse , since the crucifying of Jesus Christ , the light never discovered any treason more ugly , and horrible . Now to outmatch this deed of darknesse , the Scotch Nation by a strange generall unanimity have armed themselves to oppose the ill government of Bishops , and other alterations in the service of God , and the administration of justice , and being invaded therefore by another Nation , have used force to defend their lives ; and seeing that defence not safe in their owne Countrey , they have since pursued it further by way of prevention in the Countrey of their Invaders . That is the greatest act of rebellion whereby the common peace and safety of a Kingdome is most disturbed and impeached ; but by the common act of a whole Kingdome , that mischiefe cannot be effected , therefore the Bishop failes in his politiques when he thinks that the Major part disturbing the Minor , is more trayterous , than the contrary . The unanimous act of a whole Kingdome ought to be presumed to be lesse injurious , and more wise then the act of any small inconsiderable party , for it hath scarce ever beene seene that a whole Kingdome , or the majority thereof hath over been treasonable to its selfe in procuring its owne ruine . Many States have perisht by the machinations of a few ill affected , ill advised Counsellors , ( scarce ever any perisht otherwise ) but the totall body and collection , has never been guilty of its owne ruine : and if it were , such Treason could not be so great as that which is plotted by a few . Whilst the Scots contained themselves within their owne territories , and were considered as a kingdome within themselves , as they were when the Bishop past his censure , they were not rightly so censured : neither was he then privy to their intrusions , that they would infest our kingdome with the same combustion , and so prove a disturbance to the greater part of our British Monarchy , whereof they themselves are but a member of lesse bulke and value . Cursed therefore are those uncharitable exasperating censures , whereby the King is too far incensed , and by whose rash instigations the commotions themselves become the harder to be appeased . Great insurrections are like great fires , wherein delay is mischievous , and small remedies rather turne to fuell , then extinguish : and violent counsell against an inraged multitude is like oyle , or pitch cast into the flame . The wise politician proportions his remedy according to the mischiefe , if water will not prevaile , he useth milke ; if a little quantity will not suffice , he powres as the combustion it selfe requires . Unfortunate Rehoboam stands as a Seamarke to warne all Princes how to shun this rocke of violent counsell against a people violently inraged and aggrieved . Some men have interpreted the designes of the Scots to have beene treasonable from the beginning , and wholly bent upon the spoyle and havocke of the English Nation from their first stirring : Others have wholly justified their intentions and proceedings hitherto as defensive onely , and inforced by necessity : both these , I conceive , are too rash and head-long in their guesses . In so great a body of men , there must needs be variety of opinions , and its likely contrariety of affections ; and therefore it behooves the King to be the more tender , moderate , and circumspect in his deliberations , as wel for the one side as the other , especially since the Scots have not evidently and universally as yet declared themselves for the worse . We may at once be charitable in hoping the best , and wise withall in preventing the worst ; nay , a charitable and sweet demeanor , if it be not too fond , may prove a great part of our prevention : doubtlesse Rehoboam himselfe , had hee not beene wilfully devoted to young , rash , and violent Counsellors , might have easily retained within his obedience many of his well-meaning Subjects , and reclaymed others of more moderation ; and by that meanes have divided and dissipated the most obstinate , head-strong , and furious of all the rebellious party . Some Princes thinke themselves bound in Honour to doe unwise things , and this was the errour of Rehoboam , his aged Counsellours advised him to that which was most politick , concluding that to be most honourable ; but his Genius rather led him according to the advise of his young Gallants , to conclude that most politick , which to his haughty stomack seemed most honourable : but what was the event ? to avoid the scorne of young men , he incurred the scorne of old men ; to avoid the unjust censure of fooles , he incurred the just censure of wise men ; to gaine the honour of appearing stout , he purchased the dishonour of being rash ; to shew a contempt of danger , he made himself a prey to it ; rather then to decline a blow by a gentle bowing of his body , he yeelded himselfe to be inevitably oppressed by it . At this time of revolt the Israelites were not so wicked , as their revolt after made them ; it may be so with the Scots , they are yet Protestants , and perhaps may be retained so : and who can thinke of Protestants , that so great a body of them , can at one fall so desperately tumble into the depth of mischiefe , as to make Fasting , Praying , Oaths and Sacraments , meere instruments and traynes to commit murther , theft , sacriledge , treason , and the most unnaturall of all crying crimes ? But to returne to our owne Nation , and what we suffer by our owne Divines . Manwarings Doctrine is common at Court , and 't is not long since a Bishops Chaplaine in Terme-time , challenged a Judge of Treason , for delivering Law according to conscience . And this is now no prodigie , for Pulpits are not publick enough to preach an unlimitable prerogative in ; 't is fit our learned Doctors should mount the Benches of Justice also , there to advance Logick instead of Law ; for Law is growne injurious to Princes , and smels ranke of Puritanisme . Divines themselves will lose nothing to Princes , but all other men shall , that they may gaine the more : and neither Lawyers nor States-men must direct them in any thing , but both Lawyers and States-men must be directed by them in all things : but let us a little examine how the conditionate and absolute formes of government come within the circle of Theologie . The Israelites were governed by Monarchs , but not all alike absolute . The Patriarchs were not so absolute as the Judges , nor the Judges as the Kings , nor the Kings as those Heathen Emperours , which at last made them tributary . The due of Caesar , and the due of Solomon , and the due of Samuel , and the due of Jacob , was not the same as to all points of State , or all degrees of Royalty , and yet the nation was the same , and the forme of government still remained the same . It should seeme that God approved that degree of Soveraignty best , which was by himselfe setled in the person of Moses ; for when that people afterwards desired a King , of a more awfull and large prerogative , in imitation of other Nations , the thing displeased God . Samuel also wrote a booke of this subject , shewing the just conditions of Regall power ; ( the losse whereof is much to be lamented ) for if it had beene Gods will that all Kings should be equally absolute in all respects , and free from all limitations and obligations alike , Samuel needed to have written little thereof ; one word had determined all . But in Scripture , as it now remaines , Samuels booke being not extant , our chiefest light and guide now is by example , not rule ; and example wee finde very various . The State and Soveraignty of the Jewish Kings in generall , we finde milde , and gratious ; but much differing in particulars . Solomon was heavy over his Subjects , and under his Son they would not beare the like ; yet Solomons pressure was not upon the estates of his Subjects by taxes , and impositions , for He made silver in Jerusalem as stones for plenty ; nor did He vex their persons by Military hazards and services , for He was at peace with all the world : Neither did He any way let fall , or lessen their honour amongst other Nations ; He made them rather a spectacle of glory and prosperity to the world . Solomons harshnesse was onely in imploying so great multitudes for his owne pompous attendance , and for the performance of such publike workes , and structures , as did tend to the Magnificence and beauty of the State . Besides , Scripture does not satisfie us , neither by rule , nor example , whether Kings ought to bee successive alwayes , or elective ; or whether primogeniture of Males , or unigeniture of Daughters , ought to take place : many things are left so uncertain , that it is not alwayes safe for Kings wholly to rely upon examples ; and for the rule of obedience , it is generall , and no more advantagious for free Monarchs , then conditionate Potentates ; no more for supreame , then subordinate commanders . The Law of Nature best determines , that all Princes being publike Ministers for the common good , that their authority ought to be of sufficient latitude for that common good ; and since Scripture is not expresse concerning that latitude , as to all people , the same not being to all alike necessary , the severall Lawes of severall Countries best teach that certaine latitude . I could wish therefore that Princes herein would not so much consult with Divines , as Lawyers ; or rather with Parliaments , which are the Grand Courts and Counsels of Kingdomes ; for ( as Cotton sayes ) Every man in particular may deceive , and be deceived ; but no man can deceive all , nor can all deceive one . Ancient times are not precedentary to ours by any necessity , for Lawes are now more learned , exact , and particular ; and Courts , and Tables of Justice , and Policie , are more wisely and methodically composed and elected , then they were ; and therefore there needs not that vocall power , or indisputable force to remaine in the breasts of Princes , as was of old . The Courts of Parliament , and their unquestionable Acts , and Ordinances , and their infallible avisoes , are now in all well-governed Countries ; the very Oracles of all Policy , and Law , they are the fountaines of civill bloud , spirits , and life ; and the soveraigne antidotes of publike mischeifes . That Prince was never yet deceived which relyed upon them , nor can He chuse but be deceived , which thinkes he can be assisted with any more wise or faithfull advertisement , then that which is given 〈◊〉 by his whole Realme united , and contracted in a lesse circumference . What end can all the flower of the Nobility , Gentry , and Commonalty of a Nation , being wise and religious , have in seducing their Soveraigne , or in limiting that Soveraignty by which alone they are protected ? Or what one party of particular men can better understand the true limits of sufficient Soveraignty , and the profit thereof ; then this collective universality , whose rayes like the Suns , are every where dispersed ; and yet whose body of light is here as in a refulgent Globe concentred ? Individuals may have many particular ends , severd from the Princes or the States , but Communities can ayme at nothing but the common good ; as the lesser fountaines scatter their branching streames up and down in various Maeanders , whilst the Sea containes it selfe in an intire body , within its constant bounds . Individuals also have but their own particular set limits of perfection , and have judgements besides apt to bee darkned by their owne severall interests and passions ; whereas the common body injoyes a confluence of severall perfections , and hath the lesse force from abroad to overcloud them . Of all men therefore it will most concerne Princes to suspect them which are enemies to publick assemblies , and to confide in them most , whose ends are not divided from the generalities ; and as they tender their owne happinesse , to expect it chiefly from that generality , by which they are Kings , to which they are Gods , from which their very Diadems receive honour and sanctity , to which their very Royall Order imparts life , and breath , and necessary subsistence . I come now to my Ethicall Puritan . The name of Puritan must not rest here , for there may be some moderate , well inclined , facile men , whose education may be such that they are not much vers'd or insighted either in matters of Religion , or matters of State ; they may be such as are no wayes busie but in their owne particular affaires , and yet it behooves , that these men too be brought in within the opprobrious compasse of Puritanisme . To the Religious , Ecclesiasticall , and Political Puritan , there must be joyned also an Ethicall Puritan . This detested odious name of Puritan first began in the Church presently after the Reformation , but now it extends it selfe further , and gaining strength as it goes , it diffuses its poysonous ignominy further , and being not contented to Gangrene Religion , Ecclesiasticall and Civill policy , it now threatens destruction to all morality also . The honest strict demeanour , and civill conversation which is so eminent in some men does , so upbraid and convince the Antipuritan , that even honesty , strictnesse , and civility it selfe must become disgracefull , or else they which are contrary cannot remaine in grace : But because it is too grosse to deride vertue under the name of vertue ; therefore other colours are invented , and so the same thing undergoes derision under an other name . The zealous man is despised under the name of zealot , the Religious honest man has the vizard of an hypocrite and dissembler put upon him to make him odious . Puritans by some are parallelled to Jesuites , Jesuites are called Popish Puritans , and Puritans , Protestant Jesuites ; yet this is not indeed disparageable to them : For doubtlesse fiery zeale and rigour were not blameable in Jesuites , were not their very Religion false ; as celerity and expedition in a Traveller is not in it selfe faulty , but commendable , though the Traveller being in a wrong path , it causes him to stray the further from his journeys end . My Lord of Downe professes that the first thing which made him distest the Religion of Puritans ( besides their grosse hypocrisie ) was sedition : So grosse hypocrisie , it seemes , was the first . What is grosse or visible hypocrisie to the Bishop , I know not , for I can see no windowes or casements in mens breasts , neither doe I think him indued with Saint Peters propheticall spirit whereby to perceive and search into the reines , and hearts of hypocrites ; but let him proceed . It is a plausible matter ( sayes he ) with the people to heare men in authority depraved , and to understand of any liberty and power appertaining to themselves . The profession also of extraordinary zeale , and as it were contempt of the world workes with the multitude . When they see men goe simply in the Streets , and bow downe their heads like a Bull-rush , their inward parts burning with deceit , wringing their necks awry , shaking their heads as if they were in some present griefe , lifting up the white of their eyes at the sight of some vanity , giving great groanes , crying out against this sin and that sinne in their superiours , under colour of long prayers , devouring widowes , and married wives houses ; when the multitude heares and sees such men , they are carryed away with a great conceit of them , but if they should judge of these men by their fruits , not by outward appearance , they should find them to be very farre from the true Religion . See here the froth of a scurrilous libeller , whereby it is concluded that he that is of severe life , and averse from the common vanities of the time , is an hypocrite : If these descriptions of outward austerity shall not onely shew what is an hypocrite , but point out also who is an hypocrite , our Saviour himselfe wil hardly escape this description ; doubtles our Saviour , and many of his devoutest followers did groane , shake their heads , and lift up their eyes at the sight of some publick sins , and vanities , and did not spare to taxe the vices of Superiours , and to preach too , and admonish the meaner sort of the people ; yet who but an Annas or Caiphas will infer from hence that therefore their inward parts burne with deceit , and that their end is meerely to carry away the multitude ; such as judge onely by outward appearance , and have not their senses exercised to discerne betwixt good and evill ? It is likely the High Priests and Pharisees did thus blaspheme in those dayes , and that the rather , because from their owne fayned sanctity , they were the more apt to suspect the same in others : But what ? must we needs follow them , or this Bishop in this ? But to proceed with this Bishop , Saint James ( sayes he ) gives us a full description of true Religion . Wisedome from above is first pure , then peaceable , gentle , and easie to be intreated , full of mercy and good fruits , without judging , and hypocrisie . None of these properties will agree with the Religion of Puritans . It is not pure , for it allowes Vsury , Sacriledge , Disobedience , Rebellion , &c. It is not peaceable , for these men are the incendiaryes of Christendome . It is not gentle , nor easie to be intreated , for they are more austere then Cato , and not to be moved by perswasion or command . It is not full of mercy and good fruits , for they are all for sacrifice , nothing for mercy ; for the first Table , not the second ; for faith , not charity ; they pull down Churches , but build no Hospitals . It is not without judging , for they are known to be most rigid censurers . And he is an hypocrite which spyes a moate in his brothers eyes , and not a beame in his owne . Here is a confused proofe , that such Puritans are hypocrits , but no proofe at all , that this man is such a Puritan . If my Lord Say be such a Puritan , this denotes him an hypocrite , but this does not prove that my Lord Say or Brooke , or Dod , or Clever , &c. or any the most famous Puritan living is guilty of Vsury , Sacriledge , Rebellion , pulling downe of Churches , setting the World on fire , or of renouncing the second Table and all workes of justice and charity , or of censuring and condemning malignantly other men : If these things were true of particular men , calumny were needlesse ; Accusation would better suppresse them . And sure it is not out of favour that Law proceeds not , for malice has often enough shewed her teeth , and would have bitten if she could , neither would she now calumniate if she could accuse . The Bishop expects not to be beleeved , if he puzzell , and worke some into doubt , it is sufficient : but since bitter censuring , and calumnious condemning of others is so infallible a signe of hypocrisie , how does the Bishop wipe this off from himselfe ? Can Puritans speake worse of any , then he doth of Puritans ? Sure they may well joyn with him upon this issue , that the greatest slanderer is the greatest hypocrite ; and yet seeke no further for slanders , then this very speech , wherein he so eagerly inveighs against slander ; but if individuals cannot be thus convinced by the Bishop , how shall these signes and symptomes be applied to whole Sects , Religions , Kingdomes ? The most ordinary badge of Puritans is their more religious and conscionable conversation , than that which is seene in other mens : and why this should make them odious or suspected of hypocrisie amongst honest and charitable men , I could never yet learne . A seeming religious consists in doing actions outwardly good , and the goodnesse of those actions is apparent to man ; but the false hypocriticall end of them is onely discerned by God : and therefore with what conscience can I condemne that good which is visible , for that evill which is not visible ? Say , Brooke , Dod , Clover , &c. are knowne to me ; yet no otherwise but as men singularly devote , and as all the Prophets , and Apostles would , if they were now living : and shall I conclude , because they seeme so , therefore they are not so ? I am so far from this , that my owne conscience bindes me to honour them , and that in those things , wherein I have not the grace to follow them . I have beene a diligent inquirer into Puritans , and have exactly tryed them three wayes . First , in themselves ; and so I finde them zealous , at least seeming so outwardly , and distinguisht principally from other men by their remarkable , and singular zeal to God and the Truth : and this to me is no ground of uncharitable censure . Secondly , in those , which in these times thinke and speake charitably of them ; and they are so many in number , and of so good quality , that indeed to the Popish and Episcopall faction , all the Kingdome almost seemes Puritanicall ; but for this I cannot thinke the worse of them . But thirdly , when I consider Puritans , and compare them with their common notorious adversaries , then their goodnesse seemes most evident to me , as if it were legibly ingraved in the open wickednesse and scandall of their chiefe opposers . Nothing but Truth , Holinesse , and Goodnesse , seemes to me to be the cause , that Papists do so implacably abominate them : that our proud Hierarchists , Ambidexters , and Neuters in Religion , do so uncessantly pursue their subversion ; that Court-flatterers , and time-serving Projectors , and the ravenous Caterpillars of the Realme , doe so virulently prosecute them with defamations and contumelies ; that Stage-poets , Minstrels , and the jesting Buffoones of the age , make them the principall subject of derision : lastly , that all the shamelesse rout of drunkards , lechers , and swearing ruffians ; and the scum of the vulgar are so tickled with their reproach , and abuse . Certainly , nothing but an unappeaseable antipathy could be the cause of all this , and no testimony of goodnesse can be more sure , un-erring , and unanswerable then such antipathy . Amongst wicked men there may be particular hatred , but not a generall antipathy : One wicked man hates not another as wicked , but rather loves him therefore , or else the World did not observe a decorum in loving her own , and hating strangers . As there cannot be division in Satans kingdome ; so there cannot be communion or compatibility betwixt Christs and Satans Subjects But 't is a miserable thing to see how farre this word Puritan in an Ethical sense dilates it selfe . Heretofore it was Puritanicall to abstaine from small sinnes ; but now 't is so to abstaine from grosse open sinnes . In the mouth of a drunkard , He is a Puritane which refuseth his cups ; In the mouth of a swearer , He which feares an oath ; In the mouth of a Libertine , He which makes any scruple of common sinnes ; In the mouth of a rude Souldier , He which wisheth the Scotch warre at an end without blood . It is sufficient that such men thinke themselves tacitly checked and affronted by the unblameable conversation of Puritans . Bishop Lake that good and godly man moved at the declining state of his time is said to have expressed his regret thus : We feare , saith he , a relapse into Popish error , and superstition ; but my heart misgives me worse than so : Vtter irreligion and Atheisme , me thinkes , begins to prevaile strangely amongst us : we are not so likely to lose the light of truth , as the heate of zeale ; and what benefit is in Religion , where the name of it is honoured , but the power of it is not at all seene ? where Gods will is truely understood , but his commands are wholly slighted ? where men know like Christians , but live like Heathens ? The soule of Religion is hearty devotion , and that growes dayly more and more ridiculous amongst us ; and yet Religion without the soule of it , is rather a curse than a blessing to us . No impiety is so hainous in an ignorant Sodomite , as want of piety is in a right instructed Israelite . In this wise I have heard that good Prelate did complaine ; and this makes me think , that he had in his complaint some respect to this word Puritan , then which , certainly the Divell hath not a more fatall engine whereby to confound Religion , and to subvert all true zeale , goodnesse , and devotion . Thus farre it appeares what a vast circumference this word Puritans has , and how by its large acception it is used to cast durt in the face of all goodnesse , Theologicall , Civill , or Morall : so that scarce any moderate man can avoid its imputation . And thus it does mischiefe to men , not commonly noted for Puritans , but if a man be so noted , though perhaps irregularly , then it is farther otherwise abused : for all such a mans evill shall be charged upon his Puritanisme , and all his good defaced for his Puritanisme . Such a man is condemned for murther , and adultery ; and at his death gives strong assurances of unfaigned repentance , and contrition of heart . He was a Christian , a Protestant , a Minister , a Puritan ; yet this crime is recorded and blowne abroad , not for the shame of Christians , Protestants , Ministers , but of Puritans . And as for his attestation of deep humiliation , how excellent soever , the honour of them , if any be acknowledged , shall redound to the Christian , the Protestant , the Minister , to any thing else except the Puritan . Howsoever in the first place it ought to be observed , that an uncleane streame does not alwayes receive it's uncleannesse from the filth of the Fountaine , but in the second place a pure streame necessarily infers a pure Source . 'T is true , Trees are knowne by their fruits , and so are Men generally by their workes ; but this similitude holdes not in all men , at all times : for good men sometimes commit foule sinnes , and bad men performe laudable services . David defiles Vriahs wife , and to conceale it from the world , makes drunke and murders Vriah ; and together with him casts away the lives of many other faithfull Souldiers : yet nothing moved at this his owne mis-doing , at the same time He sentences to death a Subject of his for damnifying a neighbour , to the value of a poor Lamb . What might Joab , & the other privy Ministers of these his foul deeds , censure all this while of this his externally professed sanctity , and purity , and strictnes in point of justice to other men ; or of his so great indignation against petty offenders ? What might they judge of the root , from whence these fruits sprung ? did they conclude these fruits good ? or did they conceive that such fruits might grow upon a good stocke ? It 's strange , that He which would be so rigid to a petty Fellon , should himselfe finde no remorse at his owne murther and oppression , in spoiling so gallant a Commander , of his wife , of his sobriety , of his life , and to continue so long a time without regard either what himselfe had done , or what Vriah had suffered . But it 's well , David lived in those times when the name of Puritanisme was not invented to blast all goodnesse : had he lived amongst us , he had beene accounted a Puritane , and being a Puritane , God might have forgiven him , but the world never would : but it seemes the world was not then poysoned with the same base word , though I beleeve under some other nicke-name goodnesse was alwaies odious : for we reade , that for that very sinne of David , Gods name was evill spoken of amongst the wicked . So Solomon the Sonne of seduced Bathsheba , if we censure him by many of his actions , perhaps Jeroboam , and Ahab that made Israel to sinne , were not personally addicted to so much excesse of bodily lust , and pollution , nay perhaps many Heathens and Turkes have detested his enormous lubricities . I speak not this to countenance sin , but to discountenance rash censures of sinners , wishing all that thinke themselves fraile and mortall , to turne their eyes inwards , and to lay their hands upon their own mouths , forbearing to censure all sins , but most especially the most latent and obscure of all sinnes , hypocrisie . Solyman the magnificent is held the honestest of all the Princes which raigned in his time , not excepting Christian Princes , nay not excepting the great Father of them all , the Apostolick man of Rome : yet this is no shame to Christianity , but to Christians rather ; nay I wish it might be accounted rather a rebuke , then a shame ; rather a rebuke to humble them , then a shame to confute them . For Christ tels us that many times the first are last , and last first , God sees not as man sees , and yet he that will judge uprightly ought to see as God sees , and not as Man . So much of the extensive infamy of this word Puritan , now of its intensive malignancy : but little more needs to be spoken hereof , for hee which tels you who is a Puritan , for the most part tels what is a Puritan . The Papist we see hates one kind of Puritans , the Hierarchist another , the Court Sycophant another , the sensuall Libertine another ; yet all hate a Puritan , and under the same name many times hate the same thing . He which is an enemy to our Religion which is the truth , hates the Puritan as an enemy to Truth ; Hee which is an enemy to Piety , Policy , Morality , charges the Puritan of being the same : Wherefore whatsoever is hated by the perverted and disaffected in Religion , Piety , Policy , Morality , is a Puritan , and whosoever is a Puritan , is censured , hated , and slandered as a man perverted and disaffected in Religion , Piety , Policy , and Morality . This sufficiently appeares by the common slanders of all goodnesse in these dayes , and particularly by the Bishop of Downe , for as he justifies Jesuites , Anabaptists , and the Powder-Traytors before Puritans ; so he describes , and proscribes whole Religions , Sects , and Kingdomes for Puritans . In the yeare of grace 1588 , when the Spanish Armado had miscarried , notwithstanding that his holinesse of Rome had so peremptorily christened it , and as it were conjured for it , One of that Religion was strangely distemper'd at it , & his speech was as 't is reported , God himselfe was turned Lutheran : By which , for certaine , he meant Hereticall . 'T is much therefore that my Lord of Downe , now that Episcopacy is so foyled in Scotland , has not raged in the like manner , and charged God of turning Puritan : but surely , if he has spared God , he has not spared any thing else that is good ; and if he has spared to call God Puritan , he has not spared to call Puritan Devill : but to conclude , if the confused misapplication of this foule word Puritan be not reformed in England , and that with speed , we can expect nothing but a suddaine universall downfall of all goodnesse whatsoever . Aelius Adrianus the Emperour , about an hundred yeares after our Saviour , having been certified by Serenius Granianus , Proconsul of Asia , that the Christians in those parts were illegally oppressed by the malice of unjust Sycophants , sends this his imperiall edict to the next successor Minutius Fundanus . If the Provincials can prove ought against the Christians , whereof they charge them , and can at the bar of justice make good the same , let them proceed in a judiciall course : but let them not appeach the Christians meerely for the name , by clamouring , and rayling scandals against them : For it is expedient , if any be disposed to accuse , that the accusation be throughly known , and judicially tryed by you ; therefore if any accuse the Christians that they transgresse the Lawes , see that you judge and punish according to the quality of the offence , but if any upon spite or malice by way of calumny complain against them , see you chastise such for their malice , and repay them with condigne punishment . I began with a Marquesse , I end with an Emperour : both read the same lecture , both teach us a difference betwixt privy malicious calumny and open judiciall accusing , or impleading ; God send us to hearken to both , as much as the necessity of our case requires it . FINIS . TO THE READER . READER , I Have said enough to make my selfe condemned for a Puritan , and by consequence , all which I have said to be condemned for Puritanicall : but verily , if thou art not an Antipuritan of the worst kinde , I am not a Puritan . In my opinions I am not scrupulous or precise , in my life I am not strict , or austere , the more is my blame ; if thou art a downe-right Protestant , and no more , I am the same , and no more . If thou thinkest some men religious which affect not the name of Puritan , I thinke so too : if thou thinkest most men irreligious which hate the name of Puritan , I thinke so too : if thou art not to me a violent Antipuritan , I have no quarrell with thee ; nor am I a Puritan to thee : if thou art , hate me as a profest Puritan , and I will thanke thee for the honour of it . Farewell . Thine to feare thee , more then hate thee , and to feare thy malice rather then justice , Philus Adelphus . 
A85389	----	Cretensis: or A briefe answer to an ulcerous treatise, lately published by Mr Thomas Edvvards, intituled Gangræna: calculated for the meridian of such passages in the said treatise, which relate to Mr. John Goodwin; but may without any sensible error indifferently serve for the whole tract. Wherein some of the best means for the cure of the said dangerous ulcer, called gangræna, and to prevent the spreading of it to the danger of the precious soules of men, are clearly opened, and effectually applied; / by the said John Goodvvin, a well-willer to the saints, in the work and patience of Jesus Christ. Published according to order. Goodwin, John, 1594?-1665. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A85389 of text R35707 in the English Short Title Catalog (Thomason E328_22). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 145 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 27 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2017 A85389 Wing G1161 Thomason E328_22 ESTC R35707 99872425 99872425 159609 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A85389) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 159609) Images scanned from microfilm: (Thomason Tracts ; 53:E328[22]) Cretensis: or A briefe answer to an ulcerous treatise, lately published by Mr Thomas Edvvards, intituled Gangræna: calculated for the meridian of such passages in the said treatise, which relate to Mr. John Goodwin; but may without any sensible error indifferently serve for the whole tract. Wherein some of the best means for the cure of the said dangerous ulcer, called gangræna, and to prevent the spreading of it to the danger of the precious soules of men, are clearly opened, and effectually applied; / by the said John Goodvvin, a well-willer to the saints, in the work and patience of Jesus Christ. Published according to order. Goodwin, John, 1594?-1665. [2], 50 p. Printed by M.S. for Henry Overton, and are to be sold at his shop in Popes-head Alley., London, : 1646. A reply to: Edward, Thomas. Gangraena. Annotation on Thomason copy: "March: 19 1645"; the second 6 in imprint date crossed out. Reproduction of the original in the British Library. eng Edwards, Thomas, 1599-1647. -- Gangraena -- Early works to 1800. Church of England -- Controversial literature -- Early works to 1800. Puritans -- England -- Early works to 1800. Great Britain -- Church history -- 17th century. A85389 R35707 (Thomason E328_22). civilwar no Cretensis: or A briefe answer to an ulcerous treatise, lately published by Mr Thomas Edvvards, intituled Gangræna:: calculated for the meri Goodwin, John 1646 26436 17 55 0 0 0 0 27 C The rate of 27 defects per 10,000 words puts this text in the C category of texts with between 10 and 35 defects per 10,000 words. 2007-09 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2007-10 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2007-12 David Karczynski Sampled and proofread 2007-12 David Karczynski Text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion CRETENSIS : OR A BRIEFE ANSWER TO an ulcerous Treatise , lately published by Mr THOMAS EDVVARDS , intituled , GANGRAENA : Calculated for the Meridian of such passages in the said Treatise , which relate to Mr John Goodwin ; but may without any sensible error indifferently serve for the whole Tract . Wherein some of the best means for the cure of the said dangerous ulcer , called Gangraena , and to prevent the spreading of it to the danger of the precious soules of men , are clearly opened , and effectually applied ; By the said JOHN GOODVVIN , a well-willer to the Saints , in the work and patience of Jesus Christ . The Cretians are alwayes liers , evill beasts , &c. This witnesse is true : Wherefore rebuke them sharply ( {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , cuttingly ) that they may be sound in the Faith , Tit. 1. 12 , 13. And I heard a lowd voice saying in Heaven , Now is come salvation and strength and the Kingdome of our God , and the power of his Christ ; for THE ACCVSER OF OVR BRETHREN is cast downe , &c. Revel. 12. 10. Let not an evill-speaker be established on earth : evill shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him , Psal. 140. 11. But they shall proceed no further ; for their folly shall be manifest unto all men , as theirs also was , 2 Tim. 3. 9. Qui ergo bene mentitur , & absque ullâ verecundiâ , quicquid in buccam venerit , confingit in fratres , magistrum se optimum probat ▪ Hieronymus . l. 1. Apol. adversus Ruffin . {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . Musaeus . Published according to Order . LONDON , Printed by M. S. for Henry Overton , and are to be sold at his Shop in Popes-head Alley . 1646. CRETENSIS ; OR A BRIEFE ANSVVER to an ulcerous Treatise , lately published by Mr Thomas Edwards , intituled , GANGRAENA . BEhold ( saith the Lord Christ to Peter ) Satan hath desired you , that he may sift you as wheat a . Men use to sift wheat more carefully and thoroughly , then other graine . The reason is , because it being the purest and richest of all graine , a little beggery or soyle left in it , is so much the greater eye-sore , whilst it is yet in the heap , or hand ; and besides any mixture of drosse being ground with wheat , is ( for the same reason ) the more offensive in taste , when bread comes to be made of it . So that our Saviours meaning in the recited passage is ; that the Devill hath a very great desire to obtaine leave from God of sifting the Saints thoroughly , i. by libertie of temptation to try them to the uttermost , what may be gotten out of them by way of weakness and corruption ; not indeed to make them the more pure , ( though this be Gods designe in the permission ) but to render them the more sinfull and polluted , and to abate and pull downe their high interests both with God and man . The Author of the late Treatise , knowne by the marke of a Gangrene or Cancer in the forehead of it , being ( as it seems ) of Satans counsell , and partaker of his intentions against the Saints , hath diligently swept his floore , and gathered together his siftings , all that drosse and beggery of weaknesses and infirmities , which Satan within the compasse of foure yeares ( by his own confession ) was able to sift out of them , and he to come to the knowledge of ; and hath ground , kneaded , and bak't it , and made shew-bread of it , for such of the Presbyterian Sons of Levi , and their retinue , to eat , as are of his own dyet and constitution . But ( doubtlesse ) the man suffers losse in his designe , upon the same terms , and by the same occasion , upon which his Grand Tutor many times suffers the like also in his ; who , though his subtiltie and industry to promote his kingdome , be very great and formidable , yet is ever and anon befool'd by his malice , which is predominant , and magnifies it selfe above them both . This still importunes him for present action against the Saints , and suffers him not to preconsider , whether the winning of the Rests , be not like to lose him the race . So ( doubtlesse ) Mr Edw. being overcome , even to an intoxication , with the sweetnesse of his end , the defamation of his poore innocent helpless Brethren , sirnamed ( by himselfe and many others , who of late have acted themselves into a far deeper merit of the name , and that in the worst sense & construction of the word ) Independents ; had not his Prudentials free , to consider , whether the course which he hath steer'd to drown them in the black Sea of infamy and reproofe , be not more like to carry them into the faire Havens of honour . For he that chargeth his enemy , whose reputation in every kinde he sets himself to tread and trample under foot , like clay and mire in the streets , onely with such and such crimes ; he doth not so much charge him with these , as acquit and discharge him from all others . There is no reasonable man , but will abate and deduct , and that to a good proportion , from such reckonings and accounts , which are drawne up and given in to him by the hand of envie : much lesse will he judge such accounts short , or defective in particulars . So that whereas Mr Edw. conceits , that he hath now in his Gangraena inform'd the world , how bad and vile these Sectaries and Independents are ; the Truth is , that he hath done this but faintly , and with the extreame hazard of his own reputation ; but he hath justified and acquitted them with an high hand from all other crimes and imputations of any worse resentment or import , then those wherewith he asperseth them ; and consequently , hath represented them unto the world as better and far more deserving , then far the greatest part of his own Presbyterian generation . For first , as to matter of practise , look of what crimes or miscarriages soever , he hath with any truth , impeached those men , of his indignation ; I here ( in his own phrase elswhere a ) cast the glove to him , that if he will accept of the challenge , I will produce both as many for number , as foule ( yea far more foule ) for nature , perpetrated and done by a far lesse number of his Classique Proselytes , then they are , amongst whom he pretends to find so many things of such portentuous demerit . Yea and that I will give another manner of account of the realitie and truth of what I bring upon the Stage in this kinde , then he hath done , or ever will be able to doe , of a very considerable part of those things , which his gangred pen hath uttered against his Sectaries . And secondly , for matter of opinion ; I cast my glove unto him the second time , that I will doe the like . 1. That I will discover and find out as many errors and heresies , and those of every whit as dangerous an import , as those which he pretends ( or at least is able to prove ) to be at this day extant among those who by the authoritie ( or passion rather and precipitancy ) of his pen are voted Sectaries , in a far lesser number of his Classique party ; onely upon condition , that he shall undertake to perswade those , amongst whom I shall undertake to make this discovery , to answer , and give an account unto me what their judgements are , in all such points and questions , which I shall propose to them . Yea whereas he makes such a Tragicall outcry , that there should be 180 errors and heresies amongst us , as if he were afraid that he should lose his Presbyterian Religion in the crowd ; I verily believe ( and not without ground ) that if he would vouchsafe but freely and candidly to declare his minde and judgement , in all such points , as I would tender unto him , and not professe that Scepticisme himselfe , which he so much abhorres in others , I could make a discovery of as many ( errors and heresies together I meane ) in himselfe alone . Nor doe I judge , that the most Orthodox Presbyterian under Heaven ( no nor Independent neither ) erres much beneath the like rate or number of errors and mistakes in matters of Religion . And suppose the man were reliev'd with this supposition ( Cujus tamen contrarium verum est , as will be attested by many Authentique witnesses ) that all the tales he tells to make that crowne of honour to languish and fade , which God hath set upon the heads of those which to him ( it seems ) are Heathens and Publicans , I meane Sectaries and Independents , were true ; yet certainly they that scattered them were more innocent then he that gathered them up , especially with so polluted an intention , as to call the world together to see the nakednesse of the Saints , and to rejoyce with Satan in his victories and triumphs over them . If the man had thought good to have served his God in verse as he hath done in prose , hee might have begun his work with this Hexameter , Fortunam Satanae , & magnos cantabo triumphos . Failings through infirmity , are but the footsteps of Flesh and Bloud : but bloudy insultations over men because of failings , bewray Principalities and powers , and more , spirituall wickednesses . Doubtlesse , the sinne of Cham in discovering the nakednesse of his Father unto his Brethren , was greater then the sin of his Father in being drunk : Cursed be Canaan , ( saith Noah as a Prophet ) a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren a . And so the fact of Doeg the Edomite in informing Saul against Ahimelech the Priest , about what he had done for David b , was by many degrees more stigmaticall then any thing that Ahimelech did . The form of those accusations which Mr. Edwards hath levied against his brethren , is much more inexcusable then the matter of them . Nor doe we read that either Cham or Doeg , though sonnes of much unworthinesse , ever traded with Satan for these black commodities , or compassed the earth to and fro by their Eves-droppers , Agents , or Factors , to gather up and furnish themselves with the sinnes or infirmities of the Saints ; no nor that they ever took up a report into their lips against any man , upon either the loose or malicious suggestion of others ; but onely related and informed what themselves saw with their own eyes , and that casually and without awaiting the opportunity . Whether therefore the man we know , hath not comforted these sonnes of shame by doubling the spirit of their unworthinesse upon himselfe , I leave to the consideration of such men , who have not sacrificed the principles of their ingenuity upon the service of the Classique cause . In publishing the failings and miscarriages of persons engaged in the profession of Religion , what hath he else done but sowne the world with the seed both of blasphemy against God , contempt of his wayes , and obduration of the hearts of wicked and prophane men ? yea , he hath spread a table for Satan with the shame and sorrowes of the Saints , and made more joy in hell with the noyse of his Gangrene going forth into the world , then that climate hath known for these many generations ; yea , he hath made Belzebub himselfe drunk with the bloud of the Saints , and reputation of his enemies , and hath lifted him up halfe way towards that heaven from which our Saviour long since saw him falling like lightning e. Besides , doe not all men know that the composition of the world it selfe , and of all the parts of it , consists ex flore & faece , of what is excellent and what is excrement ? For Mr. Edwards or any man to judge of Independency by the miscarriages , whether in practice or opinion , of some few that ( it 's likely ) are the retrimentitious part of that way , is as if a man should make an estimate of Cheapside by the chanell that runs in the midst of it , or give sentence of the holy and elect Angels by what is found in sin and wickednesse in the Devils . If Independency hath its tens , Presbytery hath its thousands of the sonnes of Belial in her retinue . And if the man will deale fairly in comparing them together , hee must not set the head of the one against the taile of the other , but measure head with head , and taile with taile . All may bee true which the man chargeth upon Independency , and yet independency lift up her head in worth and dignity as high above Presbytery , Quantum lenta solent inter viburna cupressi , as the Cedar in Lebanon is by the hand of nature advanc'd above the Thistle in Lebanon . The most accursed hypocrites that ever the earth bare , have been of the profession of Christianity , and yet Christianity the best of all professions . That Wolves are oft found in Sheeps cloathing , is so farre from being matter of disparagement unto it , that it rather commends it for the best and most innocent cloathing of all other : Nor ought the sheep ( as Augustine said long since ) either to lay aside his cloathing , or think the worse of it , because the Wolfe sometimes puts it on to deceive by it . The Angels of light are not out of love with their shining , because the ministers of Satan transform themselves into their likenesse . Nay , it is a glorious testimony to the outward deportment of the blessed Angels , that the Angels of darknesse desire to assume it , when they desire to conceale and hide themselves . The ordinary wisedome of the flesh teacheth men to take of the best to cover the worst withall . But what atonement can be made for the man and his demerit , in case he shall be found to sycophantize , to fill the world with forged cavillations and slanders against the Saints ? and a great ( if not the farre greater ) part of what he hath written , bee evidenced to be not of the race or issue of the folly and weaknesse of those that are accused , but of the wisdome of the flesh , and strength of envie in the accuser , and some others , who by the mediation of the same deare interest , are both one flesh and one spirit too with him ? Should not the world have cause to feare lest the Sun would be ashamed , and the Moon abashed at the very sight of such a monster of impiety as this ; and mourn in sackcloth over the deplorable and sad condition of men , that such things should be found with them ? yea , and to interpret the birth of it , as a signe that her dissolution approacheth , and is even at the doores ? I have neither leasure nor opportunity to search to the bottome , or sift to the bran , all that the man storieth , per se and per alios , in his Gangrene ; nor doe I hold Intelligence with any man to inform my self of his haltings , but I am able of mine owne knowledge to avouch the untruth of some things asserted by him : the untruth of more hath been avouched unto me by others ; and I make little question but that when all his accused ones shall have had time and opportunity to stand forth & plead their innocency , there will be very little truth found remaining in any thing reported by him , except ( haply ) in such things which are transgressions against no Law . In the mean while he hath taken a pretty politick course to save the stake of his own repute , and to prevent as much as may be , the through examination of the greatest part of what his Gangrene represents by way of disparagement to the Independent party , by printing so many letters so full fraught with these commodities , without the names of their Authors . For by this means he may put down in ink and paper , and make up letter-wise what he pleaseth , and yet no man be able to say unto him that black is his eye for so doing . If hee will affirm that such or such letters were sent unto him , or came to his hands , and withall refuse to produce the authors , or pretend reasons why hee should not name them ; well may we suspect jugling : but yet the Jugler hath a Citie of refuge to fly unto to save himselfe out of the hand of a detector . And to me it seems not a little strange , that Mr. Edwards should keep the names of his informers , who have contributed so liberally towards the same designe with himselfe , under hatches , or within the vaile ; when as he prostitutes his own name with so much confidence ( that I say not impudence ) in the frontispice of his booke . If hee judgeth it honorable in himselfe , to bee taken notice of for Commander in chiefe in the Classique warres against Sectaries and Independents ; he had no reason to hide the names of his Captains , and those that served in inferior place of command under him in the same service : except he either thinks that they have been too timorous and low-spirited in the action , and in this respect is tender of their reputation , hoping they may quit themselves more like men hereafter , and then he means to bring forth their names with honour ; or else judgeth that his own interest in the glory of the atchievement , will rise the better , and bee the greater and more intire , if no man shall be looked upon , or known by name , that gave assistance to him in the work . Or else thirdly , feareth lest the contents of the letters being evicted of forgery and untruth , should reflect dishonor upon the indighters , and so discourage and weaken their hand as to any further service in so laudable a cause . But the truth is , that I cannot attribute so much either to the first of these reasons , or to the second , nor yet to the third ( though this hath most in it ) as to be able to beleeve , that he suppressed his names for any other end , then to suppresse the examination of the truth of the letters . I know , that if I would borrow but a little Presbyterian faith , I could with this , without any demurre or consideration at all , beleeve that all that is contained in the letters from the first to the last of them , is pure and simple truth ; and that M. Edwards did very vertuously and commendably in sending away the names of the writers into a land of darknesse . But these being no fundamentals , I hope we shall be tolerated without beleeving them with our own faith . One of his Apocryphall letters ( p. 66. ) comforts his friend , Good Mr. Edwards ( as he stiles him ) against me , thus : But whatsoever Mr. John of Colemanstreet sayes , they ( the Independents he means ) will be found the fighters against God . I grant , they may be so found in the Presbyterian Almanack , through a mistake , but in the originall , the Ephemerides of heaven , they are called Fighters WITH and FOR God . Except the letter-man means , they will be found fighters against the God of this world , in that Militia which hee hath armed against the nation and servants of the God of Heaven in it . Against this God in his Militia , I confesse , they have fought , and ( I doubt not ) will fight still more cordially and more courageably then many Anti-Independent soules have done . Indeed if the Independents should turn Turks , and betray their principles , and passe over into the Tents of High Presbytery , they will bee found fighters against God , as well as others . But in the mean season let Mr. Anonymus and his compeers know , that there is no Sect of men in the Land , the sonnes of high Presbytery and Episcopacy onely excepted , that being true to their Principles , are capable of fighting against God , at least in that sense , which both Gamaliel in the Text , and Mr. John of Colemanstreet in his Commentaries intends and prosecutes . Nor let any man think that I breath the least aire of disparagement in the face of Presbytery , by ranging Episcopacy with it : in as much as Mr. Edwards himselfe , springs an ingagement upon Presbytery to persecute the Saints under the vaile of suppressing errors , from the laudable practise of her elder sister Episcopacy in the same kind . In another letter of the same Packet ( or packing rather , ) viz. p. 55. he presents the honorable and grave Assembly of Parliament ( for to them he dedicates his Gangraena , quanta quanta est , from the one end of it to the other ) with such a painted peece of lasciviousnesse and prophanenesse , kissing together , which might probably have found acceptation and thanks , had he presented it to the company of free Traders in Turnbolstreet , for the beautifying of their Hall : but by exhibiting it to those persons of Gravity and Honour , he hath traduced the modesty of their eyes and eares , and attempts no lesse then to draw them into part and fellowship with himselfe in his own reproach , by seeking to make them patrons of all the filthy , slanderous , and abominable practices of his pen . In the very front and entrance of his Dedicatory unto them , he tells them that he presents them with a Catalogue , or black Bill : hee might have added ( in stead of what hee doth adde ) of the same nature , tendency and import with those , which the black Accuser of the Brethren was wont long since by his agents to present unto the Heathen Emperours and powers of this world , against the Saints of the most high God . And whereas ( a few lines after ) he professeth that hee much feareth lest the subject matter of his Catalogue may prove unto England like the Bill of Divorce given unto Israel ; I professe also that I feare the same feare with him , in part , because a great , if not the farre greatest part , of the subject matter of his Catalogue consists of defamatory untruths , forged cavillations , and bloudy insinuations against the servants of God in the Land . And such practises as these in a Nation , ( unlesse some speedy and effectuall course be taken to prevent them ) portend indeed little lesse then a bill of divorce from Heaven to that Nation . But for the Errors , Heresies , Blasphemies , and Practices of the Sectaries of this time , which he makes the subject matter of his Catalogue ; by that time , 1o all those Tenets which he very erroneously makes Errors and Heresies , to advance his Catalogue ; and 2o all those , which are forged in his own brain , falsly fastened upon others , no man holding or owning them : and 3o , all those , which it may be have fallen from the lips or pen of some one inconsiderable and halfe-distracted person , no man seconding him therein : and 4o all those that hee hath perverted in the setting down : 5o , all those that ( for substance ) are repeated the second , third , and forth time over . 6o , and lastly , all those Blasphemies and Practises , which without cause or ground of truth he chargeth upon his Sectaries ; by that time ( I say ) that all these shall bee struck out of his black Bill , the Bill will appeare much blacker and fouler then yet ( perhaps ) it doth in the eyes of many , and so resemble the Author more to the life : But the formidablenesse of the subject mattrr of his Catalogue will be much eased , and the form of it bee found much more formidable then the matter . But I marvaile how Mr Edw. having ( it seemes ) an authorized power to make errors and heresies at what rate , and of what materialls he pleaseth , and hopes to live upon the trade , could stay his pen at so small a number as 180 ; and did not advance to that Angelicall quotient in the Apocalyps , which is ten thousand times ten thousand , and thousand thousands . If he had consulted with a book , not many yeares since printed , which maintaines that dangerous heresie of the Cosmoselenitae , i. of those that hold there is another world in the Moone , and with another , printed within the compasse of his foure yeares , intituled , Divinity and Philosophy dissected and set out by a mad man , with some few others , that I shall shortly be able to name unto him ; I will undertake , that out of these he shall be able to increase his roll of errors and heresies , from 180 , to 280 , if not to 500 ; and that upon more honest and honourable terms , then now he hath advanc'd it to his own number . And if he pleaseth to repaire unto me before the course of his menstruous or monethly labour comes upon him , I will undertake to inrich his Treasurie of errors and heresies , by twentie and ten , out of his own Antapologie . For certain I am , that every contradiction affords an error , either on the one hand , or on the other : and if I doe not find twenty and ten , and a better number then so , of birds of that feather in that Element , let Mr Edwards pen plough as many long furrows more upon my back , as it hath done . In the meane time , I must crave leave to say ( or at least to thinke ) that it is a most importune and unsufferable presumption , for a poore , weake thimble-full of dust , that knows not how to range his parts of speech in a sentence , nor to put the nominative case and verb together regularly in English , nor how to frame the structure of a period according to the common rules of reason , Grammar , and common sense ; to advance himselfe into a Paper Throne , and from thence , satis pro Imperio & tribunali , pronounce the formidable sentence of Error and Heresie , against all opinions and judgements of men whatsoever , which will not comport with his understanding ( or fancie rather ) as the standard of all Truth . Yea and Nebuchadnezzar-like , to slay and smite what opinion he pleaseth : what he will to set up , and what he will to pull downe . For I professe ingenuously , that I know not by what other rule or measure , besides his own humour and will , he judgeth of error or heresie . Certaine I am , that if he will stand either to the arbitrement of the Scriptures , or to the principles of cleare & sound Reason , he must discharge and justifie many of those Tenets for innocent , yea and well-deserving Truths , which now he hath arraigned at the barre of his Tribunall for Errors & Heresies . If his Touchstone be , the major vote of his own party , I desire to recommend unto him the conscientious perusall of a passage from the pen of a conscientious and learned man of the same side , ( I hope he will not say , that he is knowne ex professo , to be of another judgement , then what he plainly expresseth in writing ; a base calumny , wherewith to honour himselfe , he dishonoureth Calvin , p. 45. ) If dissentions and schismes ( saith Musculus a ) arise in the Church , they are in fault who stand up to maintaine a false faith , not they who oppose it . Nor is it materiall which partie is the more numerous . For the Church , neither her selfe judgeth according to the multitude , nor is shee to be judged according to the consent of the greater number , but according to the manifest truth expressed in the Scriptures . If the man will but own the verdict of as learned and ingenuous a pen as ever wrote on his side , he must release the better halfe ( I beleeve ) of his prisoners , and instead of an 180 Errors and Heresies , take his tables and write downe , four-score . Secondly , I would know of him , whether this be a regular processe in Law , To ask my fellow whether I be a Thiefe . If Mr Edw. thinks that he ought to be reputed , and honoured as a man Orthodox , till men of his owne judgement vote him erroneous ; I know no reason he hath , but to measure out the same measure unto others ; and consequently to judge no man or men erroneous or hereticall , untill they be adjudged such by those that concur in opinion with them . As for twenty and ten of those opinions , which he hath impeached of error and heresie , ( and I will not say for how many more ) I doe here cast the glove to whosoever will take it up , to bring them off with the honour of truth , from all that the man hath to lay to their charge . For I evidently see , that he hath dealt with many precious Truths of God , as the Jews did by Christ himselfe , when they numbred him with Transgressors . And particularly , for that which he hath arraign'd in the 70th place in his Catalogue of Errors , viz. that Faith in a proper sense is imputed to justification , and not Christs righteousnesse ; ( in the sense by me rejected ) I thinke I may with far lesse boasting say , what he saith of his abilities in the Church-Controversies ; I am ( saith he ) so farre vers'd in these Controversies , that I challenge , &c b . So may I say without offence , that I am so far versed in the Controversie about the Imputation of faith & Christs active obedience in Justification , that I here challenge all the Presbyterians one after another , assembled , or not assembled , in England , Scotland , France and Ireland , to prove either by the Scriptures , or by dint of argument , either that faith is not imputed in a proper sense , or that the active obedience of Christ , is in the formalitie of it , imputed in Justification . P. 45. He labours to justifie the Devill , only to make me appear like unto him ; for in saying , that I deal just by him , as the Devil did by Christ ; doth he not plainly imply , that the Devill did no worse by Christ , then I doe by him ? So then if it appeare , that I dealt fairly by him , and did him no wrong , in my citation of his words , then will the Devill be found to be Mr Edwards client , and he the Devills Advocate , and that by the verdict of his own pen . Now then whether I have wrong'd the man the least haire of his head , let the world , and the great Judge himselfe of the world , judge . The case is this . In my Innocencies Triumph , p. 8. I cite these words from his Antapologia , p. 169. The power of the Magistrate by which he punisheth sinne , doth not subserve to the Kingdome of Christ the Mediator . Now to take an occasion of resembling himselfe unto Christ ( which he doth more then once in his Gangrene a ) and me unto the Devill , he chargeth me , that citing the former part of the sentence , I leave out the latter : adding further , that had I but named this latter part , it would have been an evident confutation of me . Let any sober and intelligent man , but consider , what that latter part of the sentence is , how incongruous and illcoherent with the former , and he will clearly see , that in omitting it , I rather cast a covering upon his nakednesse , then any way prejudic'd him ; unlesse ( haply ) he counts this a prejudice to him , not to have his nakednesse and weaknesse appeare to the world all over . But the latter part of the sentence he speaks of , the naming whereof would have been so evident a confutation of me , is this ; that he may apply efficaciously {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} of the Propheticall and Priestly office of Christ : he doth not affect the inward man and conscience with spirituall punishment . Where , first , it is observable , that himself , citing here so much of the latter part of the sentence , as ( it seems ) he would have had me have cited in my Innocencies Triumph , leaves out the latter part of this latter part it selfe , viz. these words ( distinguished onely by a comma , from the former ) neither is this instituted of God , and sanctified as the means for the destruction of the flesh , that the spirit may be saved in the day of Christ . So that if I have dealt by him as the Devill did by Christ , meerly by citing the former part of his sentence without the latter , he deales himselfe by himselfe as the Devill did by Christ , ( which is more unnaturall of the two ) yea he deales by himselfe , with a far more exact conformitie to the patterne he speaks of , the Devils dealing by Christ , then I , though his charge against me could be justified . For the Devill did not leave out the latter part of the sentence which he cited , but onely the last words , or latter part of the latter part of this sentence . For Mr Edw. in affirming that the Devill left out these words , To keep thee in all thy wayes , deales farre worse then the Devill did by Christ ; for the Devill did not lie unto Christ , though he tempted him ; but whether Mr Edw. doth not dash his foot against this stone , in saying the Devill left out the words mentioned , let the Evangelist speak ; And he brought him to Jerusalem , ( saith Luke ) and set him on a pinacle of the Temple , and said unto him , If thou be the Son of God , cast thy selfe down from hence . For it is written , he shall give his Angels charge over thee , to keep thee a . So that the Devill left out but part of those words which Mr Edw. chargeth upon him , viz. these , In all thy wayes ; which being the very last words of the sentence , it is Mr Edw. that hath copied out the Devils delinquency to an haire ; dealt just by himselfe , as the Devill did by Christ , not I. But whereas other Authors frequently make use of the figure Synecdoche , in putting down a part for the whole ; Mr Edw. makes much use in his writings of a new figure , which we may call an Anti-Synecdoche , by putting the whole , yea and sometimes more then the whole for a part . But however , I must give him the testimony of a man impartiall between the Devill and the Saints ; for though he speakes falsly of these , yet he will not flatter the other with the truth . 2o . I would faine know , in case the former part of his sentence cited by me , be false , whether the addition of the latter would have made it true . If the power of the Magistrate by which he punisheth sin , doth not subserve to the Kingdome of Christ the Mediator ( which are the words I cite ) would the naming of the following words , that he may apply efficaciously {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , &c. render or make it subservient thereunto ? Therefore I know not how , or wherein I have trespassed either upon the man or his words in the least . If his meaning be , the whole period , former and latter part being taken together , that the power of the Magistrate by which he punisheth sin , doth not subserve to the Kingdome of Christ the Mediator , by an efficacious applying of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} of the Propheticall and Priestly Office of Christ , &c. First , the Grammar of the sentence will not beare it . And secondly , if it would , yet such a sense is little better then no sense ; the sentence thus taken , being of the same forme and character of speaking with this : The bread by which Mr. Edwards lives , doth not subserve to the maintenance of his life , by making his drinke effectuall to quench his thirst . Or this : The learning by which Mr. Edwards confuteth the Sectaries , is not subservient to their preferment by giving them houses or lands , or great rewards , &c. If there be sap , savour , or sense in either of these , then may hee have some cause to complain of wrong done unto him , in that the body of that sentence he speaks of , was not produced by me whole and intire , lower parts and upper parts together . But if the period taken together , was of the very selfe-same shape and forme with those , then was it Centaure-like ; and then I did him more right then came to his share , in shewing onely the upper parts of it , wherein it was rationall , and like to a man , and concealing the nether parts of it , the discovery whereof makes it appeare like a monster , strange and uncouth to behold . The truth is , that the passage he speaks of , and over which he mourns , finding it without the taile in my citation , though he calls it a Sentence , yet a sentence it is none , having neither form , feature , nor any property of a sentence in it . And in this my sentence and censure of it , I refer my selfe to all those that have but their senses exercised in discerning between sensible and senselesse sayings . Notwithstanding the man ( in his Preface ) is tumultuously importune for an answer to his Antapologie , and calls all the speeches that have been given out by the Independents cōcerning an answer to it , but meer flourishes and swelling words of vanity ; as if to talke of answering him , were a swelling word of vanity , a word of too much confidence to proceed from the mouth of a mortall man . Yea , in the very first page of his preface he vapours at an insufferable rate , powring out contempt upon the poore Independents ( whom hee calls Dogges , making himselfe or his Antapologie the Moone ) as if they were not onely not able to answer it , but as if they knew not so much as which way to goe about to answer it : as if they who mean to answer him , had need to be furnished with other manner of parts , learning , knowledge , wisdome , then were any wayes requisite to answer all the Seraphicall disputants in the world besides . Paul himselfe ( it seems ) with some others , had given out some speeches of his coming to Corinth , some while before he came . And because through occasionall diversions his journey was for some considerable time deferred , some in this Church that were obnoxious , were puffed up ( it seems ) as if the bitternesse of death had been past , and Paul never meant to come amongst them . Some ( saith hee ) are puffed up , as though I would not come unto you a . But he cuts the comb of this their confidence in the next words , by acquainting them with his resolution in that behalfe . But ( saith he ) I will come unto you shortly , if the Lord will , and will know not the words of them which are puffed up , but their power b . Because an answer to his Antapologie hath been so much spoken of , and through many interruptions following like the waves of the Sea one in the neck of another , hath not yet been brought forth , therfore the man is so far swoln & puffed up with conceit , as if the world were not wide enough to containe him . But the answer which he calls for with so much fiercenesse of importunity , will ere long ( if the Lord will ) be with him : and the world shall know , not what the words are , ( for these are big enough , & known unto the world already ) but what the power is ( or weaknesse rather ) of the Antapologie . There were some sonnes of Belial , and yet sonnes of Confidence too , among the Jewes , in the dayes of the great provocation of that nation , when the day of that soare judgement of the 70. yeares captivity drew neere , and was even at the doores , who ( it seems ) derided the predictions of the Prophets concerning the judgement , and were so confident as to desire and call for that day of the Lord , ( under which expression the Prophets of the Lord were wont to forewarn them of it ) as for a treasure . But what saith the Prophet Amos to these ? Woe be to you that desire the day of the Lord : to what end is it for you ? The day of the Lord is darknesse , and not light c . I verily beleeve that the Answer to Mr. Edwards Antapologie , will not be for his honour : in which respect he hath no great ground to be so restlesse or importunate in calling for it ; or to insult over those , who have told him once and again , that ( if the Lord will ) an answer shall be given him . Whereas hee talks of his worthy peece being published 18. months since , he supposeth ( it seems ) that men have little or nothing to doe , but to attend the motions of his pen , and to expedite and dispatch him out of hand . Indeed if Independent Ministers had either the priviledge of ease , to preach to the bare walls and pews in their meeting-places , or that shamelesnesse of forehead to make the subject matter of their Sermons little else but loose , and lying , and frivolous reports and stories , or virulent invectives against the Saints and servants of God , ( with which kind of materiall , this world , and the God of this world together , will be glad to furnish Preachers at a very low rate , either of time or study , for their building ) they might ( I confesse ) be men of more expedition in writing , then they are , and be as like the Tree spoken of in the Revelationa , as Mr Edw. himselfe . It is sufficiently knowne , that since the 18 moneths Mr Edwards speaks of , I have given some account unto the world , and that by publique writing , and this more then once , twice , or thrice , ( besides my constant and standing labours with those who have committed themselves unto me in the Lord ) that I am not so loose , or idly dispos'd , as Mr. Edwards would insinuatingly perswade and possesse the world concerning me ( p. 73. ) And knowne also it is , though somewhat more privately , that I had given some further account in the same kind , of my time spent , ( within the said compasse of 18. moneths ) had not the way , by which light and truth should goe forth into the world , been hedg'd up by Clergie-Classique Counsels , as with thornes , against me . But however , I can hardly believe , that Mr Edwards himselfe , notwithstanding all the advantage of libertie and freedome from other ingagements which he had above other men , tooke much lesse then 18. moneths time , for the building and beautifying his Antapologie . And who knows not how much more easie it is , to be first in writing , or to object , then to answer ; according to the common saying in the Schooles , Plura porest interrogare Asinus , quàm respondere Aristoteles : i. An asse may soone aske more questions , then Aristotle be able to answer ? In the latter part of his Preface , he arms himselfe with constancie and heroique resolution , to triumph and rejoyce in what he shall suffer in way of hatred or reproach from the Sectaries , for his faithfull and noble service done both to Heaven and Earth in opposing them ; animating and flattering himselfe in his course , with this , that in case he shall suffer in this kind , he shall ride parallel in the triumphant Chariot of honour with those great worthies of the world , Calvin , Luther , and Austine ; yea with the Apostle Paul himselfe ; nay , with the great Lord of all the Apostles & Patriarchs , the Lord Christ himselfe , blessed for ever . See the 4 , 5 , and 6 pages of his Preface . But poore man ! little doth he consider , how diametrally opposite he is in his cause and course , both to Christ and Paul ; and how unlike those other men . Was either Paul or Christ , of his occupation ? did they spend their time , or ingage their friends , in gathering up vagrant , loose , scandalous and lying reports against the Saints , and servants of God , under the names of Sectaries , to blesse the vanitie and wickednesse of the world with the venting of them ? Did Paul or Christ , set their faces like an Adamant , to inflame and set on fire the Powers of this world , with hatred , bitternesse and bloudinesse of spirit , against the sons and daughters of God , though full of weaknesse , and unworthy in the highest ? Or did they importune and clamour upon the secular arme , even to the wearying of it , to avenge them on their adversaries ; and little lesse then threaten those in place and Authoritie , if they would not comport with them in their carnall ends and desires , and lift up their iron rod to breake their enemies in pieces like a potters vessell ? This , ( saith Christ to the Jewes , speaking of their murtherous attempts against him ) this did not Abraham a . Nor did the Lord Christ , or his blessed Apostle any of the things mentioned : but whether Mr. Edw. hath done any thing else ( almost ) either in his Lion , or in his Beare , I mean either in his Antapologie , or in his Gangrene , especially in this latter , I appeale to the judgements and consciences of all , that either have , or shall please diligently to peruse them , and withall have but their wits and senses free from Classique bands . When the Lord Christ was sollicited by some of his disciples , and that by those whom he loved best , to call for fire from Heaven to consume those that would not receive him , he turn'd himself , and rebuked them , telling them that they knew not what spirit they were of . Whereas Mr. Edwards calls and cries , might and maine , for fire from Hell to destroy , not those who refuse to receive the Lord Christ , but such as do receive him with all their hearts , and with all their souls , onely because their faces are not instantly set to receive the Traditions of his Discipline and Doctrine ; and yet conceits that he knows well enough of what spirit he is , making no question for conscience sake , but that it is Heavenly . And for Paul , we know he burnt ( viz. griefe and sorrow ) when any Christian , though never so weake , was but offended : his Doctrine and desire was , that supplications , prayers , intercessions , and giving of thanks , be made for all men : for Kings and all that are in Authoritie , that wee [ Christians & believers , of what judgement soever , for he excludes none ] may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godlinesse and honestie b . But Mr. Edwards is so far from burning when weake Christians are offended , that he is offended , when they burne not . His Doctrine , Practise , and desire is , that supplications and prayers , intercessions and giving of thanks , be made for , and to , Kings and all in Authoritie , that Christians and believers may either not live at all , or at least be so far from leading quiet and peaceable lives in godlinesse and honestie , as to have their faces ground , and their bones broken , and their hearts fill'd with heavinesse , unlesse they will receive the Clergie-Classique Faith , as well as the Faith of the Lord Jesus Christ himselfe . O miserable man ! who shall deliver him from this dangerous snare of death ; I meane of conceiting himself like unto Paul and Jesus Christ , in the course he steer's against Sects and Errors ! And as for Calvin , Luther , and Austin , though these had much more flesh and bloud in them , then the two former had ; yet for him to strengthen his hand in the way he goes , by their example , is as if a murtherer should incourage himselfe in his way , from the practise of a Surgeon when he lets bloud , or the proceedings of a Judge , when he slayes a malefactor with a sentence of death . For when , or in what age of the world did any of these spread the world round about them with snares of intelligence , in every place , to catch the failings , and haltings and infirmities of the Saints ; and when they had taken a proportion of them , to spread a table with them to entertaine and feast the prophane world ? Especially when did any of these , ever publish such a rhapsodie , of loose , light , lying reports and tales , all or the greatest part of them calculated for the shame of the Saints , and glory of the Sons of Belial ? Or when did any of them deale so importunely or imperiously with those , whom God had set in Authoritie over them , to crush the generation of the righteous , the lambs of Jesus Christ , under the names of Sectaries , only because in some things they held not conformitie in judgement with them ? I doe not all this while say , that either Mr. Edwards writing , or printing , or preaching , against errors , heresies , or Sectaries , is that , which simply makes him unlike either unto Christ , or Paul , or those others named ; for doubtlesse they did , interpretatively at least , all this ; and who hath not ingagements upon him , to go thus far both with him and them , if he be able , and hath opportunitie ? But first , the blaspheming many Truths of God , under the names of errors and heresies ( a stone at which his pen frequently dasheth ) maketh him extremely unlike unto Christ and Paul ; yea and unto those others also , except onely in their failings . Secondly , his turning himselfe , especially with that fiercenesse of countenance , and furiousnesse of importunitie , upon the Civill Magistrate , to provoke men of this Interest , to powre out themselves in wrath and indignation upon all those , whom he thinks good to make Delinquents by his pen . Thirdly , His sending forth of Emissaries ( wherein , thorough a mistake of the word Independents , in stead of Presbyterians , he chargeth the Independents to resemble the Jesuites ) to discover , and report unto him , the slips and weaknesses of the servants of God . Fourthly , His inveteratenesse , and Dragon-likenesse of spirit , by which he manageth all his endeavours against Errors and Sectaries . Fifthly , His importune confidence , and overgrowne presumption of his own parts , learning , knowledge . Sixthly , His drinking in with so much greedinesse , all , and all manner of reports , that are brought in to him , whether with ground or without , that will but make dirt to throw in the faces of those , whose understandings are either longer or shorter then his , be they otherwise as deare to him whose Name is jealous , as the apple of his eye . Seventhly and lastly , His virulent and viperous designe , to preach the nakednesse of the Saints , yea the nakednesse of vile and unworthy men ( I meane their false , base , and putid suggestions against them ) as their nakednesse , upon the house-top , and to call upon all the world to heare ; these things make him so extremely unlike Jesus Christ , and those others whom he pretends to imitate , that that drop of resemblance wherein he partakes with them , is quite drown'd and swallowed up in this Great Ocean of dissimilitude . And let Mr. Edwards know , and let his Conscience and Compeers know , that whatsoever he shall suffer , whether from his Sectaries or others , in this bloudy negotiation , he shall suffer not as a Christian , nor with Christ , but as a malefactor and an evill doer . But I marvaile with what profound Oracle of policie the man consulted with , about the title of his book , calling it , A Catalogue and discovery of many Errors of the Sectaries . Was it not that tyrannicall and bloudy principle : Pereant amici , dummodo & inimici una pereant . i. Let friends goe to wreck too , so that enemies may but wreck with them . For certainly , by this title he makes Presbyterians Sectaries , as well as any others . Wherein I should not have faulted him , but onely to shew how that the zeale of High Presbytery , hath eaten him up , and not left him so much of himself , as wherewith to know his friends from his enemies . For if men be therefore Sectaries , because they hold such opinions , as he rallieth in his Catalogue under the Name of Errors , I know many Presbyterian Sectaries . First , for that which he makes the 104 error in his Catalogue , viz. that Paedobaptisme is unlawfull , it is sufficienrly known , that the strongest shield and buckler wherewith that cause was ever protected , was the workmanship of a Presbyterian hand . So for that opinion , that there is no Scripture against a mans being often baptized ( mentioned in the 110th place ) it calls a Presbyterian , Master . That the calling and making of Ministers of the Word and Sacraments , are not jure divino , &c. which is the 116th . That there is no distinction concerning Government of Ecclesiastical & Civil , &c. ( the 141. ) are the opinions of one , who professeth himself to be no Separatist a , and then I know not by Mr. Edwards principles , to make him any thing but a Presbyterian . I know divers of the Presbyterian judgement , as well Regular as Secular , that own the 70th error ▪ ( so called , or miscalled rather ; ) viz. That faith in a proper sense is imputed in justification , and that Christs righteousnesse ( i● his active obedience ) is not imputed ( in the formality of it ) in justification ; though for his {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} credere , it is a patch of his own peecing to the opinion , and is no expression of theirs , who otherwise are not ashamed of the opinion . To passe by many others of like patronage and relation ; that which hee cataloguizeth for the 64. viz. this , That naturall men may doe such things , as whereunto God hath by way of promise annexed grace and acceptation : and that if men improve their naturall abilities to the utmost in seeking grace , they shall find it . I desire to be informed by any understanding man , whether there be not every inch , yea every jot and tittle of the substance of it , asserted by a great Doctor ( while he lived ) of the Presbyterian Schoole , and who being dead , yet speaketh much for that way . I mean Mr. John Ball , in his Treatise of the Covenant of Grace , not long since published by M. Simeon Ash . The said Treatise being further subscribed and recommended unto the world by five great Masters of the Assembly it selfe , all of them of intemerated fidelity to the Presbyterian Cause ; viz. Mr. Edward Reynolds , Mr. Daniel Cawdrey , Mr. Edmond Calamy , Mr. Thomas Hill , Mr. Anthony Burges . In this passage ( p. 44. ) of the said Treatise , No man is hindered from beleeving through the difficulty or unreasonablenesse of the command , or through his owne simple infirmity , as being willing and desirous to beleeve , but not able , ( which inability deserves pitie ) but his inabilitie is of corruption and wilfulnesse : hee doth not beleeve because hee will not : he is unable because he doth not covet or desire , which is inexcuseable . Doubtlesse , if no man be hindered from beleeving , either through the difficulty of the command , or through his own infirmity ; and all the reason why a man doth not beleeve , is , because hee will not , naturall men by improving their abilities to the uttermost , may beleeve , and consequently doe that , whereunto God hath by way of promise annexed grace and acceptation . For hath he not promised , that he that beleeves shall be saved ? or doth not salvation amount to as much , or more , then grace and acceptation ? And if men should improve their naturall abilities to the uttermost , and yet not to be able to beleeve , the reason why they doe not beleeve , cannot be said to be this , Because they will not : for their will in this case puts forth it selfe to the uttermost , in ingaging men to such an improvement of their abilities . So doubtlesse the same errror ( if an error it be ) is asserted by Paulus Testardus , Pastor to the reformed Church of Bloys in France , in a Tract called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , seu Synopsis Doctrine de Natura & Gratia , published not simply by the permission or licence , but ex mandato , by the command of a whole Synod of the Reformed Churches in the Province of Orleance , p. 91. Thesi 121. where hee saith , that God in all the three wayes or methods of calling sinners unto salvation ( which he had opened before ) doth not onely shew unto the sinner what hee should , or ought to doe , but gives power to all that are invited or called , to performe and doe it , and so to be saved if they will . So that if even he that is called onely in the most generall manner of all , be not saved , he is inexcuseable before God . This Paul expresly teacheth , That ( saith hee ) which may bee known of God , is made manifest in them ( namely the Gentiles , ) for God hath made it manifest unto them , that they might bee without excuse before him . But certainly ( he inferres ) excusable they had been , if they had been fully willing to doe it , and only wanted power a : with more of like importance in the seqeul of the same Thesis . So that if M. Edw. wil make this an error , and a brand of a Sectary , to hold , That a man by the uttermost improvement of his natural abilities , may doe that , whereunto God by promise hath annexed Grace and Acceptation ( though all this while I doe not say that I own the opinion ) he will involve one whole Synod , not onely with the guilt of the error ( which is lesse , ) but of an authoritative command , to have the error both printed and published , which is enough to separate between all Synods , and their authority and esteem for ever ; yea , and make the crown of Orthodoxisme to fade and languish upon the head of our present Assembly , by arraigning five of the principall members of it at once , as men tainted with the errors of the Sectaries of the time . Therefore let him either strike these opinions mentioned ( with many others ) out of his Catalogue of errors , or else let him number his own party amongst the Sectaries . To draw towards a conclusion ; I shall put a measuring Reed into the hand of the Reader , wherewith to measure the truth and honesty of the Gangrene and her Author , from the one end of both unto the other , made of a straight observation of some crooked passages and relations in the Gangrene , ready to stink for want of the salt of truth . I shall begin with such particulars as concern my self , and close with others of another aspect and relation . First , though hee doth not set my name in the margin against his 70th error , ( p. 25. ) as he had done a little before in the same page against another , yet his intent clearly enough was ( and I think himself will not deny it ) to arraigne the opinion held by me concerning the imputation of faith , and non-imputation of Christs righteousnesse in justification , in my Treatise upon that subject , entituled , Imputatio fidei , for an error a . Now how falsly and forgingly he represents the opinion , appeares first , in that hee fathers that mungrell expression , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} credere upon it , onely because it is an expression ad invidiam comparata , but no where used by me throughout the controversie : yea , p. 91. of the former part of that Treatise Sect. 3. I expresly deny that Faith justifieth as it is an act . Secondly , in that he makes this opinion to say , That the righteousnesse of Christ is not imputed in justification . Whereas I expresly affirm , ( p. 54. of the second part of the Treatise ) that in a sense ( which I there explain ) as well the habituall holinesse of Christs person , as the morall righteousnesse , or active obedience of his life , may be said to be imputed to those that beleeve in him . And very often in the said Treatise , upon occasion , I declare in what sense I admit , as well as in what sense I refuse the righteousnesse or active obedience of Christ in justification . I suppose he is not himself a son of that profound ignorance , as to hold , that the righteousnesse of Christ ( as he calls it , whether meaning ▪ his active or passive obedience , or both ) is in every sense imaginable imputed in justification ; and yet it 's ill presuming of over-much understanding ( especially in the point of justification ) in him , who going about to rectifie the mistakes of others , shall himself affirm , That the redemption and reconciliation purchased by Christ , is the moving and meritorious cause of our justification and salvation : and that the instrumental cause whereby the same is imputed , is the bloud of Christ . Of wch ▪ Atheologicall and putid assertions , who would have thought that the great Aristarchus of the errors & heresies of the times , could have been the Author and Assertor , had not Mistresse Gangraena in the margin of her 22. page betrayed him ? But if hee , onely denying the imputation of Christs righteousnesse in justification in one sense , but asserting it in another , should be simply and indefinitly charged to deny it , would think the charge base and unjust ( as indeed hee should have cause to doe , ) hee himselfe must bow down his back to the same burden , and bee content to be looked ▪ upon as a man of this basenesse , untill hee hath made his atonement with God and men for it . Ex ungue leonem . You may by this one instance judge with what truth or honesty hee hath laid down the rest of the opinions in his Catalogue . Well may he call them errors , when once he hath lift up his pen upon them . Forgery hath a mischievous omnipotency , and is able to create what errors or heresies she pleaseth . Again , p. 45. he chargeth Mr. John Goodwin , that in his point of justification , he quotes Calvin , Bucer , and others , who are known ex professo to be of another judgement . Surely the man is not either so simple , or free from the guilt of false speaking in this assertion , as his words beare . Doubtlesse he doth not intend to make it a matter of charge against a man , in the handling of a controversie , to quote Authors who are known ex professo to be of a judgement differing from his . How many doth himselfe quote in his Gangrene upon as deplorable terms as these ? But the mans meaning is , if he knew how to get it out , that Mr. J. G ▪ in his point of justification , quotes Calvin , Bucer , and others , as being of the same judgement with him , who are known ex professo to bee of another judgement , If this be his sense and charge , either he shewes himselfe to be a very illiterate man , and not able to construe a peece of plain Latin ; or else charges Calvin , Bucer , & the reft , wth being of a judgment as contrary to themselves as to me . If he can construe Latin , let him confesse in English whether Calvin bee ex professe of a differing judgment from me in the point of justification , in these passages following ( to omit very many others of the same import . ) Quum autem justiciam in se repositam non habeant homines , imputatione hane adipiscuntur , quia Deus fidem illis fert acceptam pro justiciâ , Calvin in Gal. 3. 6. And again , Quare Abraham credendo nihil aliud quam oblatam sibi gratiam amplectitur , ne irrita sit . Si HOC illi imputatur in justiciam , sequitur non aliter esse justum , nisi quia Dei bonitate consisus , omnia ab ipso sperare audet , Calv. in Rom. 4. 3. FIDES REPVTATVR IN JVSTICIAM , non quod ullum à nobis meritum afferat , sed quia Dei bonitatem apprehendat . Ibidem . Yet again : Quibus etiam verbis do●emur , iusticiam Paulo nihil aliud esse quàm remissionem peccatorum . Calvin Rom. 4. 6. Manet ergo salva nobis pulcherrima sententia , iustificari hominem fide , quia gratuita peccatorum remissione coram Deo purgatus sit . Ibid. Abraham fidem habuit Iehova : & reputavit id ei iusticiam : hoc est , habuit ei pro iusticia HANC FIDEM . Credendo igitur id accepit , ut Deus eum pro iusto haberet . Bucer Rom. 4. 3. I forbeare to English these passages , because I desire to make an experiment upon Mr. Edwards , whether he be able to doe it , or no . If he shall publickly acknowledge that he hath abused both me and himselfe , and many more , in charging me with quoting Authors for me , who are known ex professo to be of another iudgement , I shall conceive the better hopes of some competency of a Latin faculty in him ; but if he shal stand to avouch a charge of so palpable and manifest untruth , to them that understand the Authors language a , I professe ingenuously that I know no reason but to judge him uncapable of the English sense of a Latin sentence . But whether Calvin , Bucer , and those other he speakes of , quoted by me in my point of Justification , be of the same judgement or no , with me in the point , let neither me , nor he , nor Mr Roborough be Judges , ( for we very possibly may all be partiall ) but let us referre the decision to two sufficient men , and without exception , both for learning , and integritie , and knowledge of the case , the one a foreine Divine , some yeares since at rest with God , never knowne to me ; the other a neighbour Minister indeed , and of the Assembly it selfe , but between whom and my selfe , there was never any acquaintance , beyond a casuall enterview , and the exchange of a few words of course . The former of the two is David Pareus , sometimes chiefe Professor of Divinitie in the Universitie in Heidelburgh : who in his Tract concerning the Active and Passive Righteousnesse of Christ , having laid downe his judgement ( in the Controversie depending ) thus , ( pag. 176. ) that remission of sinnes for the satisfaction of Christ imputed to us , is our whole and intire Justification , and argued accordingly ( pag. 177. ) in the following page , addeth as followeth ; I might here produce the Authorities of the Fathers , who likewise place our righteousnesse ( meaning , in Justification ) in the alone forgivenesse of sinnes for the death of Christ : and accordingly cites severall testimonies out of Austin , Oecumenius , and Ambrose . And immediately after these testimonies , thus ; I might also alledge the consent of Luther , Melancthon , Zuinglius , Oecolampadius , Calvin , Bullinger , Martyr , Musculus , Hyperius , Vrsine , Olenian , &c. from whose doctrine in the point of Justification , I doe not vary a nailes breadth . So that the light of this mans reading and judgement together , could discover no other opinion touching the formall cause of Justification , either in the Fathers , or any of the chiefe Protestant Writers in his time , but that it should stand ONELY in remission of sinnes . The latter of the two mentioned is , Mr Thomas Gataker , a man of approved learning and integrity amongst us : who in Mr An. Wottons Defence against Mr Walkers charge , lately published in Print by him , acknowledgeth ( p. 58. ) that however he for his part deemeth it erroneous ( and so doe I too , taking the word Justification in that large sense which it seemeth he doth where he argueth against the opinion , as viz. in his Animadversions upon the disputes between Piscator and Lucius , p. 9. Besides sundry other places ) to hold that Justification consisteth in remission of sinnes , yet that Calvin , Beza , Olenian , Vrsine , Zanchie , Piscator , Pareus , Musculus , Bullinger , Fox , and divers others of great note and name , yea whole Synods of ours are found so to say : adding further , And yet were these men never yet , that I ever heard or read , for so saying , condemned as Heretiques , much lesse as blasphemous Heretiques , but had in high esteeme , as their worth , parts , and workes well deserved , by those that therein dissented from them . I trust the servant is not greater then his Master ; nor the Authoritie of the Clerk , equall to that of the Justice of Peace . If Mr. Gataker hath spoken , I hope Mr. Roborough will hold his peace . And since two such men , as David Pareus and Mr. Thomas Gataker , have so clearly and confidently affirmed , every mouth ( I trust ) of clamor and contradiction will from henceforth be stopped . For in the mouth of two or three witnesses ( saith the Divine Law it selfe ) shall every word be established a : Yea I am not without some hope , but that Mr. Thomas Edwards himselfe , may in time be reduced , though I know that in clamorous and aspersive bickerings , he emulates the glory of that martiall zeale which was in him , who still affected to appeare , Primus inire manu , postremus ponere bellum , i ▪ The first to fight , and last to quit the field . Pag. 45. he affirmes , that quoting his Antapologie , and citing the former part of the sentence , I leave out the latter ; adding this palpable untruth ; that had I but named it , it would have been an evident confutation of me . I clearly prov'd ( Sect. 13. of this Answer ) that the latter part of the sentence he speaks of , especially construed with the former part which I cite , is absolute and complete non-sense . And was any man ever evidently confuted in evident non-sense ? except it be in such a sense , as he that drinkes puddle water , confutes him that chooseth rather to drinke at the cleare fountaine or streame . Pag. 67. he chargeth his Sectaries or Independents , that they use to give great and glorious Names , and swelling titles to their bookes , as ( for instance ) Innocency and Truth Triumphing together , &c. I perceive by his aggrievement at this title , first , that if High Presbyterie be advanc'd , neither Innocency , nor Truth , are like to triumph : this keene piece of Presbyterie is not able to beare the mention of such things . Secondly , that matters of Truth any wayes tending to the disparagement of Independency , are very rare , and scarce , and not to be had for love or money . For otherwise , ( doubtlesse ) the man would not have plaid at so small game , would not have strain'd himself to catch at this flie . As much love as a single half-peny , would have serv'd to have cover'd this Transgression . What ? not so much libertie meet to be allowed to Independents , as to give what Names they think best to their bookes , without a Synodicall debate , and permission ? I confesse , Gangraena , is no Great or glorious Name , but it is a title swelling with poyson , and the gall of aspes . But for me , I shall take no offence at it : the proverb is but fulfilled , Similes habent labra lactucas ; like lips , like lettuces . Both title and booke ( I presume ) are savoury meat to those for whom they were prepared , and such as their soules love , as marrow and fatnesse . But what reason he hath to call Innocencie and Truth Triumphing together , either a great and glorious Name , or swelling Title , wee desire to gather from the Tree of paradise the next moneth of her fructification . In the mean season , Mr Edwards must suffer as an unjust asperser in this charge also . Pag. 54. He chargeth Mr. John Goodwin , in a Sermon to have uttered that against the Parliament , and the power of it , as opens a gap to all slighting of their Authoritie and power : and further addeth , that he believes there was never any such speech from any before himselfe . But first , if any such gap ( as he speaks of ) be opened , I know no wild beasts that have broken in at it , but some such Presbyterians , who ( as I heare ) demanded , What hath the Parliament to doe with Inferior Courts ? And who charge some of the worthy members thereof , to be hereticall and factious ; yea ninnies and grolls , and men that have no more wit , then will reach from their nose to their mouth , and are onely sensible . I confesse in respect of such Presbyterian spirits as these , there had need be no gap opened to the slighting of Parliamentarie Authoritie and power : and that the Parliament it selfe had need keepe power out of such hands , which without it know how to be Imperious enough . But secondly , it is so far from being true , that I in the Sermon he speaks of , have uttered any thing against the Parliament or power of it ; much more , any thing which opens any gap to all slighting of their Authoritie and power ; that he himselfe in this charge against me , dasheth his foote against the stone he speaks of . For first , that which he insinuates as uttered by me of such a consequence , is nothing else but manifest and cleare truth ; yea and hath passed the triall of Presbyterian fire it selfe , and is come forth in full weight , without suffering the least damage or detriment by it . Secōdly , most certain it is , that no Truth whatsoever hath any prejudiciall or endamaging influence upon any just and lawfull Authoritie ; for God is not divided in , or against himselfe . Therefore he that shall affirme , that any Authoritie or power whatsoever , is any waies endangered , prejudic'd , or disparaged by any Truth , doth by an unavoidable consequence , denie that Authoritie or power to be lawfull , or from God . Nor could Mr. Edwards lightly have uttered any thing , that would have strooke more dangerously at the very roote of all Parliamentarie Authoritie and power , then to say , that he that speakes the truth , speaks against them , and opens a gap to all slighting of them . But thirdly ( and lastly ) let Mr. Edwards and his abettors in this charge know , that it is not they who speake the Truth , whether to Parliament or Princes , that open a gap to the slighting of their Authoritie or power ; no : but they are the men of this demerit and impietie , who for their own ends flatter them , and have their persons in admiration for advantage ; who straine their wits and consciences together , to lift them up nearer to the Heavens then God will beare , that so they may be masters of an opportunitie and power , to gratifie them in their carnalls . And the Truth is , that had not God by more then an ordinary hand of grace , both towards themselves , and towards the Nation , made those honorable and worthy Counsellors , wiser then their Teachers ; Satan had a most dangerous advantage against them , to have made them more unwise then their enemies . Page 73. He chargeth the Independents , That many of them play at Cards and Tables , are very loose on the Sabbath dayes , goe to Bowls and other sports on dayes of publick Thankesgiving , as Mr. Iohn Goodwin , and severall of his Church , &c. Whether his intent be to justifie and make good the first and second branches of this charge , viz. the Independents playing at Cards and Tables , and their loosness on the Sabbath dayes , by the instance of Mr. Iohn Goodwin and severall of his Church , I will not determine . Certain I am , that according to the common rules of construction , his words import it , and I beleeve that not one Reader of ten but so understands him . If this be his sense , abhorred of all men be his lying : for Mr. Iohn Goodwin neither playes at Cards nor at Tables ; neither hath he done either since his first comming to the Citie , nor of many yeares before ; nor doth he know any of his Church addicted to either of these recreations . But however , I marvell the man should think to burthen the Independents with these exercises of Cards and Tables , when as it is so generally known , of what light account , and generall use they are in the best reformed Presbyterian Churches . And if there bee any of the Independent way so much addicted to them , as Mr. Edwards charge seems to import , I beleeve they are chiefly , if not onely , those whom Mr. Edwards calls Malignants , complaining of them for falling to this way ; and who lately drank of the same waters of Episcopacie with the far greatest part of the Presbyterian party , and now accompany them in their schisming or rending off from that way . And ( alas ! ) who knowes not how hard a thing it is for men that have a long time drunk old Wine with their old Friends , presently to drink new ? For his charge of loosnesse on the Sabbath dayes , the net of Independency , like that of the Gospel ( as it seems by the many bitter complaints made by Mistresse Gangraena in that behalfe ) gathering fishes of every kind , good and bad a , and that in such abundance , as the tenor of the said complaints imports , I am not able to speak for the whole circumference . But for M. I. Goodwin and severall of his Church , who are the onely persons in whom instance is given to make good the truth of the charge , we desire that when his great labours of powring out the Viall upon the Sun be over , he will please to refresh himselfe with telling out the story at large , with the particularities of it , viz. on what Sabbath , or Sabbaths it was , whether before Saint Ieffrey or after , that either himselfe or his Informers saw that loosnesse in Mr. Iohn Goodwin and severall of his Church , and what loosnesse it was , and who of his Church they were , that transgrest this transgression with him . For my part , I shall not goe about to justifie my selfe , or all of my Church from more loosnesse then well becomes us , on such dayes ; but I know no loosnesse comparable to that , when Ministers of the Gospel , ( whether such , or so called by themselves ) shall take liberty under the name of preaching to vent vagrant , loose , light , lying tales and reports , on purpose to defame the good wayes and servants of God ; or else to make lowd challenges to all the world , to make good what they deliver , and yet shrink and decline the incounter with a few plain conscientious men . Doublesse neither Mr. Iohn Goodwin , nor any of his Church , ever trespassed the trespass of any such loosnesse as this on any Sabbath day ; nor of any other equall in demerit to it . But though hee should cavill himselfe off from the charge of charging , either Mr. Iohn Goodwin or any of his Church , either with playing at Cards and Tables , or with loosnesse on Sabbath dayes , yet he must own the charging of them with going to Bowles , and other sports , on dayes of publick Thankesgiving . Therefore , first , because he speaks of dayes in the plurall number , as of many ; we desire him , that in the next return of his monethly course upon him , he will throughly purge himselfe from all malignancy in this particular of his charge , by naming those dayes of publick Thankesgiving wherein this hainous offence ( but against no commandment or law , either of God or Man ) was committed . Wee cannot allow it , no not by his own law for a sufficient come-off , to say that on such a day of publick Thankesgiving , the men impeached trespassed the said impeachment , except he can give instance of the pretended miscarriage in more dayes then one , of that denomination . For himselfe in his Antapologie , p. 54. quarrels with his You five ( as ever and anone hee calls the Apologists ) onely for saying , that some of their brethren in their printed books do candidly testifie of them ; telling them ( by way of reproof , and charge of untruth in their Assertion ) that it is but one of them , not some that doe so testifie . Therefore by his own rule , an assertion of the plurall number cannot be justified by a single instance or example of what is plurally asserted . And yet who knowes not the very law of Nature allowes a man a greater indulgence of phrase and expression in his own purgation , then it doth in charging or impeaching others ? Secondly , wee desire of our grand-accuser , the next time hee comes amongst us with his monethly visitation , to let the world know , what other sports they are that Mr. Iohn Goodwin , and some of his Church use to go unto on dayes of publick thankesgiving , besides Bowles : they are not conscious to themselves of transgressing either in Bowles or in any other sports on such dayes . Thirdly ( and lastly ) we desire of him for the further vindication of himselfe in this charge , when it shall next bee with him after the manner aforesaid , that hee will please to speak it out , that the world may hear , on what day of publick Thanksgiving , about what time or houre of the day , whether fore-noon , or afternoon ; whether in the morning , or in the evening it was that Mr. Iohn Goodwin , with severall of his Church went , or on such dayes are wont to goe to Bowles and other sports . For if it were on the evening of such a day , that the deed was done , it is no clean strain to say it was done in the day it selfe , especially except some notice were given in the margin , that he chargeth by the day naturall , not artificiall . And besides , if it proves but an evening transgression ▪ the constant practice of the gravest Presbyterians themselves , going to see the Fire works usually made in severall places of the Citie , on every fifth of November , being the most ancient , and honorable day of publick thankesgiving unto the Nation , will be an abundant atonement for it . But ( Reader ) that thou maist understand ab ovo ad mala , from the top to the toe , the nature and tenor of that grand delinquencie in point of loosnesse , which is here charged upon Mr. John Goodwin and severall of his Church , the story truly and briefly is this : Vpon the day ordered by Authority for publick Thanksgiving unto God for his gracious and good hand upon the new Modell in the victory at Nazeby the last Summer , having preached somewhat long , and to wearines in Michaels Cornhill in the fore-noon , and being hereby somewhat indisposed to further labour that day , I kept my house privatly in the afternoon , till about five or six of the clock . At which time two of the brethren comming in , and finding me in no better posture , desired me to walk out a little into the fields with them , suggesting that a walk in the fresh aire might doe me some good . So a walk we took , the season being pleasant and faire ; and having walked about a quarter of a mile , or very little more , and being now upon returning , one of those that were with me told the other and my selfe , that if we thought good to ease our selves a little before wee returned , there was a garden-house of a friend of his ( a man familiarly known also to my self and the other , though of a differing judgement from us in point of discipline ) neere at hand , and that if we pleased we might step in thither , and repose our selves for a while . Comming into the garden , we betook our selves to an Arbour , and there fate about halfe an houre . During which time ( and I know not how long before ) there was a company playing at Bowles in a little Alley in the Garden ; whom ( I presume ) we shall not wrong in case we judge them Presbyterians , though ( I confesse ) wee did not examine them upon the point . But before this company had given over their exercise , there came into the Garden to us some more of our acquaintance , some of them of our , others of them of M. Edwards judgement in point of Church-government . When the company that all this while had been bowling , quit their ground , one in our company , ( I remember not who , or of what judgement ) asked mee if I would not stirre my self a little by casting a Bowle before I went home . The motion being made , and the rest inclining to it , wee went , whether 6 or 8 , of us , I doe not remember ; but that the one part was Presbyterian , and the other Independent , I perfectly remember , and betook our selves for about halfe an houre to the exercise ; the Sun by this time being either down , or very neere it ; and so returned home . This is the story of that drop of water which M. Edwards hath got upon the tip of his finger to cool his tongue , being ( as it seems ) grievously tormented in the flames of passion and indignation , that the world should no more wonder after the Presbyterians for holinesse and religion , then to think that the Independents had equall part and fellowship with them therein . But let us animadvert a few things upon the story before wee leave it . First , it is very observeable that the man , who ( it seems ) holds correspondency with the world , and with all parts in the Kingdome , to receive intelligence of all the miscarriages and undue deportments of all such as are independently given , is notwithstanding necessitated for the carrying up his great designe of their defamation , to article against them supposed miscarriages and misdemeanors , in stead of those that are truly and really such . Mr. Edwards I presume knowes , that where there is no Law , there is , there can be , no sin , no transgression a : For that sin ( all sin ) is a transgression of some Law b . Now then till Mr. Edwards shall produce some law either of God or Man , against which Mr. Iohn Goodwin and those of his Church hee speakes of , trespassed in bowling as aforesaid , ( which I know hee will not bee able to doe till the day after doomsday ) it must be acknowledged that all their offence and miscarriage therein , amounts to no more , then onely to an unhappy occasion of causing Mr. Edwards to give testimony unto them , whilst his heart was up to dishonor them . Secondly , it is considerable , that as there were some of Mr. John Goodwins Church : so there were some ( and , as I remember , more ) of Mr. Edwards his Church also , ( I mean of the Church of England ) who were involved in that innocent transgression of playing at Bowles ; yea , the owner of the Garden and Alley , a godly and honest man , and competently warm in the Presbyterian way , was partaker with them in the supposed oversight . But ( as was said before ) his Maxime is , Pereant amici dummodo & inimiciuna pereant . Let us bespatter our enemies , what ever becomes of our friends . Thirdly , for my selfe , I neither so much as handled a Bowle for many months , ( I think I might truly say , for some years ) before ; nor have I done it since : nor would I then have drunk this cup of cold water , could I have thought the weaknesse of any brother so great , as to be offended at it . But now perceiving the Presbyterian weaknesse to be so excessively and importunely great as it is , I doe hereby , in the word of a Minister of the Gospel , secure Mr. Edwards , and all his tender retinue , that I wil drink no more any such waters , I mean cast a Bowle on a day or night of publick thanksgiving , whilst the world stands , lest I should offend them . But Fourthly , if I had a mind to demand a tooth for a tooth , I could call some Presbyterian starres by their names , and those of the first magnitude , who upon a day of publick thanksgiving , fell every whit as far from heaven , as Mr. I. Goodwin and those of his Church did . Yea , if you sift the Doctorate it selfe of the Assembly , I beleeve you wil find a man dropping through your sieve , who with three more ( of his com-or sub-Presbyters rather , four Ministers in all ) consecrated the greater part ( if not the whole ) of an afternoon upon a publick thankesgiving day , to a service that had no more Religion in it , then the Fishermans daily occupation and imployment : nor did their exercise ( it seems ) receive any great testimony from heaven , they ate but very little of the labour of their hands ; two Roaches ( as saith the History ) being all that Providence and they could agree upon for the reward of their afternoone service . But Presbyterians ( I perceive ) have a priviledge asserted to steale horses , without sin : but poore Independents must not have so much as a Toleration to look on . And if Mr. Edwards will not take faire warning when it is given him , and give over telling tales of Independents , I know who is resolv'd to sift the fore-mentioned heap yet neerer to the bran : and to make the world judge , whether Presbyterian mistakes in the night , be not far worse then Independent bowlings on dayes ( or evenings rather ) of publick Thanks givings . Yea I know who hath a story of a Presbyterian Angel , which doth but waite for the opening of Mr. Edwards mouth in reproaches and slanders against his Independent Brethren the second time , to clap into it , and stop it for ever . Yea I my self have a Manuscript by me , which came to my hands above a yeare since , concerning Mr. Edwards himself ; which discourseth his jugling and indirect walking between the two Townes of Godalmin in Surrey , and Dunmow in Essex . The writing will be attested by good hands : and if there be no remedy , will be content to submit it selfe to the Presse . In the meane time , how wofull and sad is the method , wherein the case depending between Presbytery and Independency , must now ( it seemes ) thorough Mr. Edwards his horrid and portentuous proceedings , be argued and debated thorough ! the arguments on both sides being onely or chiefly , firebrands of Reproaches and Defamations , throwne in faces of the one side by the other . So that that way of the two , which is able to render the sons of her competitresse most odious and hatefull unto the world , must sit as Queene , and weare the Crowne . Mr. Edwards by the method , wherein he hath begun to plead the cause of Presbytery , and threatens to proceed , hath devoted the Names and reputations of all of his owne partie , at least of such of them as are any wayes obnoxious , to the universall abhorring both of the present , and future ages . Therefore it concernes all Presbyterians in generall , and the Doctorage of this way more particularly , that are any wayes conscious , to heale the Gangrene of his pen , & to restraine the further spreading of it : otherwise their Names and Reputations are but so many dead corpses . 5. Whilst Mr. Edwards so conscientiously refraineth from casting a bowle upon the evening of a Thankesgiving day , and takes libertie to recreate himself with revilings and bitter speakings against the wayes and servants of God in the heart and strength of such dayes , ( as his manner is too too frequently to doe ) doth he not straine out gnats , and swallow camels ? and run parallel in practise with those Priests & people , who refused to goe into the common hall , left they should be defiled a ; but fear'd no defilement from prosecuting that Just One , even unto death ? Yea doth he not by such distinctions as these , imitate the temper and spirit of the Goddesse Diana among the Heathen , who ( as Iphigenia in Euripides saith of her ) was wont to drive from her altar , as uncleane , whoever did but touch a woman in childbed , or a person slaine ; and yet delighted to have men slaine in sacrifice unto her ? 6. ( And lastly ) May it not be some Question , whether the particularitie of that day of publique Thanksgiving , wherein Mr. Edwards finds Mr. John Goodwin and some of his Church so tardie , might not occasion him to sift the Independents more narrowly on that day , then on many others ? It was said of King Philip , that though he loved the treason , yet he hated the Traytor . So wee have many spirits amongst us who love victories , and yet doe little lesse then hate the victors , I meane those by whom it pleaseth God to give many of these unto them . Mr. Edwards administers a strong ground of suspition , that he himself is a man of this dark complexion , in the last page ( save one ) of his Dedicatory Epistle , where , having first strip'd himself nak'd of all principles of reason and ingenuitie , he thus shamelesly bespeakes the two Honourable Houses of Parliament . And who knows but that all these victories are sent to take away all excuse , to answer this objection , and to encourage you to this work ? The work he speaks of , and whereunto he supposes that no man can be ignorant , but that the Parliament are incouraged from God by those many victories which he hath given them , is ( as appeares by the tenor and straine of the whole Epistle ) the crushing and utter undoing of all those , whose consciences cannot submit to the Lawes of Presbytery in all things appertaining to God . So then , it being generally knowne , that many considerable persons , whom God hath honored , by making them eminently instrumentall in the victories he speaks of , cannot presbyterialize in things of God ; that which he saith to the Parliament in the words mentioned , being interpreted , is this ; Who knows but that the many victories , which God hath given you , were intended by him as a means of incouragement unto you , to quash and crush the greatest part of those men , who were signally instrumental and serviceable both to God and them in the obtaining of them , together with all those that adhere in judgement to them in the land . Now the spirit of the man being so extremely incomportable with the honour , comfort , or peace of many of those who were prime Actors in the service at Naseby , lest the valour and faithfulnesse of these men being commended by God unto the Nation with such remarkable successe , should plead with too nigh an hand the goodnesse of the way wherein they serve and worship God , in the minds and thoughts of the generalitie of men , he ( probably ) conceiv'd that the best way to prevent this misery from coming upon him , was to inquire out how men professing the same way with them , behav'd themselves on that day , whereon publique Thankes were to be given unto God for that victory : that so in case any unseemly or unworthy thing could be found out and charged upon any of them , as on this day , the divulging of it , might help to break the strength and interest of that other plea in the minds of men . Page 70. He observes , that two of my children were taken away by the plague of pestilence , upon the making my house a meeting for the Sectaries . That two of my children were taken away , by that hand of God he speaks of , others so reporting it besides Mr. Edwards , ( for touching the manner or means of their taking away , I know nothing but by report , my selfe having been far absent severall weeks , when God took them away ) I shall not denie . And if he had staid his pen and clos'd the period here , he had wrought little lesse then a miracle ; for he had uttered one whole sentence of Truth . But now he may take up the Poets lamentation ; Sed mea me in culpam nimirùm fata trahebant : the spirit that attends him , ( it seems ) envied him the crown of that glory . For in saying , that this was done upon making my house a meeting for the Sectaries , he makes the sentence like unto its fellows , I meane void of Truth . For first , my house is a solid substance ; whereas Mr. Edwards meeting is a fluid accident . I never heard of an house , that was made a meeting till now . And if mine be transformed into such a thing , doubtlesse Mr. Edwards hath done it by some magique incantation ; I have done no such thing to it my self . But it is the mans unhappinesse to be ever and anon tardie , in non-sense , as well as in non-truth . 2. If his meaning be , that I have made a meeting place of it , whether for Sectaries , or whosoever , he doth not herein neither nick the Truth . For if by my house , he means , my dwelling house , consisting of that building and roomes , wherein I keepe and converse daily with my familie , ( which is the ordinary acception of the word ) this is no wayes altered by me since my coming to it . Or 3. If his meaning be , that I have ordered and disposed some part of the buildings which I have hired , with an intent to have Sectaries meet there ; neither yet doth the man or his meaning agree with the Truth . I confesse one roome in these buildings , is ordered with an intent that such persons who thinke it worth their time to attend my ministery , whether Presbyterians or others , may be some wayes accommodated to partake thereof . But that I ever made it , or intended to make it , a meeting-place for Sectaries , well may it be one of Mr Edwards assertions , but Truth it is none . Nor doe I know any sort of persons that ever met in it yet , that any whit more deserve the denomination of Sectaries , then the Presbyterians themselves . But 4. ( And lastly ) If the mans meaning be , ( which is simply the best construction can be made of his words ) that I have permitted and given way , that some part of the buildings which I have taken , should be us'd by such persons , as in his mis-carrying dialect are called Sectaries , to meet in ; neither will this relieve him against the habituated foulnesse of his pen , or make the sentence cleane . For it was not upon that permission or grant of mine , that my two children were taken away , nor yet upon the furnishing of the roome for conveniency of meeting , ( for the Sectaries he speaks of , both Presbyterians & others , had met therein severall times before the least haire of the heads of either of the children fell to the ground ) but it was upon my deserting and disuse of it for a longer time , then God ( it seems ) was well pleased with ; at least if I should look upon the taking them away , as a stroake of anger or displeasure from God . But as touching the Providence it selfe about my children , whether I should look upon it as having more of mercie , or more of judgement in it , I am not satisfied to this day . Though the children ( I confesse ) were deare unto me , & their lives very desireable , upon hopes that God ( howsoever ) would have provided for them , if he had thought it meet they should live ; yet considering that the best part of that livelihood and means of subsistence which I had , was by a strong hand taken from me , I could not so much look upon the taking of them away by God , as a taking them away from me , as from that misery , whereunto the undeserved hatred and injustice of my Presbyterian neighbours , in wresting and detaining my means from me , had exposed them . Men took away my means ; and God made up the breach ( in part ) by diminishing my charge . Neither were they taken away alone : there was a greater number of children taken away out of a Prebyterian familie neere to them , by the same hand of God ; where yet there was no meeting-place made for Sectaries . And besides , I could soone be out of Mr. Edwards debt for this story concerning two of my children being taken away ; by telling him of three Grave men ( and two of them Great ) who were principall Actors in my troubles and ejection , taken away by death since the good service they did to the Presbyterian partie in that transaction . God hath cut off both head and taile of those my adversaries : But I leave Mr Edw. to make observatiōs upon it : for my part , I make none . I have now perfected reckonings and accounts between Mr. Edwards and my selfe , and have set straight the foule errors and falsifications of his bookes in these . I have yet another small parcell of accounts to cleare with him in the behalfe of others : and by that time I shall have issued these , though I shall be very briefe in this transaction , yet I feare I shall make him uncapable of any Quietus est for ever . For doubtlesse the man hath sold himselfe to write all , and all manner of untruths that he can but scrapple together , from what mouths or tongues or pens he cares not , so they be but Presbyterian in their constitution , and carry any antipathie in them either to the honour or peace of Independencie . I presume that Mris Gangraena hath not as yet paid me the tith or tenth part of her forgeries : it is like in time shee will be more honest in this , and I shall receive knowledge of the whole substance of her iniquitie . I shall begin this latter account , where Mr. Edwards wel-nigh makes an end ; with a story related by him in the very last leafe , ( save one ) of his booke , viz. p. 181. concerning one Cosens of Rocbester in Kent . By the way , if the common Proverb , which saith , That the best is at the bottome , takes place in his Booke ; forgery of forgeries , and all is forgery , all over it . For in this Relation , ( by which you may judge both of those many that goe before it , and those few that follow after it ) there are wel-nigh , quot verba , tot mendacia : and yet even this also hath this banner of confidence displayed before the face of it ; I was enformed for certaine : upon which preface we shall animadvert presently . First , His Relation here reports , that one Cosens of Rochester in Kent , that Jesus Christ was a Bastard . Hoc primum : let this be the first lie in this Catalogue : the man never said it . 2. This report avoucheth , that the said Cosens said , that if Jesus Christ were upon the Earth againe , he would be ashamed of many things he then did . This is another of the same , and the second in order . For neither did the man speake any such words as these ; the witnesse , upon whose single testimony , ( originally ) both these and the former words were charged upon him , upon reexamination , and that upon oath , before the Committee of the Countie , wav'd both the one and the other ; as appeares by the said Examination under the hand of the Clerk of the said Committee , which I saw & read ; and is forth-coming for any man to peruse for his satisfaction . 3. This Information of Mr. Edwards affirmes , that the said Cosens , for the said Blasphemies , was put into prison in Rochester . Keep tale : this is a third stumble . The occasion of the mans imprisonment , was a matter of a quite differing nature ; as by inquiry may be found out by any man ; though for some reasons the partie thinketh not so fit to have it printed . 4. The said certain Information informeth ; that the said Cosens being committed , at the Sessions there came an Order from some in place to the Recorder to release him . Skore up : this is the fourth word of folly in this Narration . For there came no Order from any in place , nor unto any in place , Recorder or other , for the release of the man ; but upon the sight of the fore-mentioned Examination taken upon oath before the Committee , by the Justices , the man was discharged . This untruth may well stand for two ( or at least be printed in a Capitall letter ) because men of honour and place are aspersed by it , as if they interposed with their interest or power to obstruct the course of Law and Justice . 5. The Information now under impeachment , further averreth , that upon the receipt of the said Order , the Recorder a Serjeant at Law , and a grave man , used these words ; Cosens , know you must shortly come before another Court to answer for these words , where you shall have no Order to release you . Tallie on : this is a fift ( if not a fift and sixt ) phib in the Relation . For here is a big lye with a lesser in the belly of it . For , first , the Recorder he speaks of , never , upon no occasion , spake any such words as these to the man : nor secondly , did he ever receive any such Order , as is here spoken of ; and so could not speake , either these words , or any other , upon the receipt of it . 6. This loud-lying Information , further attests , that this man ( Cosens ) being at libertie , entertaines in his house the Sectaries that come from London , or other places into those parts , as Den , Lamb , Woodman , &c. Keep tale ; this is a sixt flaw ( at least ) in the certain Information . For the man professeth that he knows no such man , as Woodman ; nor that ( to his knowledge ) he ever saw the face of the man . 7. ( And lastly ) The said Presbyterian Information , for uniformitie sake , that it may end as it began , affirmes ( in the cloze of it ) that this Cosens is so bold , that he dares threaten to question and trouble godly Orthodox Presbyteriall Ministers , and goes to some of their Churches to see if he can get any matter against them : for example , he hath gone to one Mr. Clares , a godly Minister , and threatened upon hearing him to complaine of him , and put in Articles against him . Remember the account : for this is the seventh and eighth time ( at least ) that the Information prevaricateth with the Truth . For first , the man is so far from daring to threaten to question or trouble any godly Minister whatsoever , that he professeth it to be his judgement , that neither godly , nor ungodly , whether Ministers or others , ought to be questioned or troubled for their judgements in matters appertaining unto God . Therefore secondly , though he confesseth that he went to Mr Clare upon the preaching of a Sermon , and told him that he had not delivered the Truth ; yet that he any wayes threatned Mr. Clare , he absolutely denieth . I find nothing more to be excepted against in this Information of the 9th of February , as matter of untruth : the reason ( I conceive ) is , because there is no more of it . This Counter-Information , I had from the mouth of the said Cosens himselfe , and have the particulars under his hand . Now though there be never a sentence ( scarce a clause or piece of a sentence ) true in all this Relation , yet it hath Mr Edwards seale upon it , and this foundation ; I WAS INFORMED FOR CERTAIN : But first , by this specialtie of honour , I was informed for certain , bestowed upon this Relation , doth he not plainly grant and imply , that he was informed of many other things in his Gangrene , for uncertain ? If he had been informed of the greatest part of them for certain untruths , his Information had been orthodox , and no guile found in the lips of it . But secondly , If Mr. Edwards signall and choice reports , of which he was informed for certain , be of so dark and dismall a complexion , that there is scarce so much as one beame , or the least glimmering of the light of Truth in the whole body of some of them , what shall we think of those that have no such image or superscription of confidence upon them ? If his Chariots and Horsemen faile , surely his Infantery will yeeld the field . 3. ( And lastly ) I would gladly understand , by what character of difference the man discernes between his Informations for certain , and those that are but of vulgar repute with him , and for which he alloweth three graines of non-beliefe : I suppose such as come from his godly Orthodox Presbyterian Ministers , he holds for certain : those which come from hands whose heads have not been anointed with the hands of Consecration , more ambiguous and doubtfull ; and yet certain enough to be reported and spread , if their faces be but set against Independency . But who is Mr Edwards godly Orthodox Presbyterian Minister ? Is he not such an one , who works stoutly at the forge , and feeds both himself & the world with all manner of scandals and falshoods against the Independents , without feare ? We have reason to judge so by the rule of proportion . For p. 57. he pronounceth a man , a Person Religious , and well-affected to the Parliament , only upon occasion of a Letter written by him , full fraught with false and foule stories and insinuations against his Sectaries ; who is look'd upon by men as godly , and as judicious as Mr. Edwards , yea and who have better opportunitie to know the spirit and wayes of the man , in reference to both those particulars , then he ; by such ( I say ) this man is look'd upon , as a man no wayes deserving either of those commendations , except it be by the figure {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} ; as will appeare ( in part ) by a Letter , whereof we shall give a copie before we end . You have seene the man like himselfe in a Kentish storie : let us crosse the water , and see whether wee can finde him in any better shape on this side . Pag. 78. & 79. He tells you a long formall story of one Nichols , living about Moore-fields , that comes into Stepney-Parish to draw away people : That to Mr. Greenhils face did justifie and maintain many wicked opinions , &c. Vpon occasion whereof there was a meeting concluded , and Mr. Greenhill and Mr. Burroughs , with many others , were at it . Hee tells you further when this meeting was , viz. a little before Mr. Burroughs fell upon the preaching of the power of the Magistrate in matters of Religion . And further adorns the relation with many good words that Mr. Greenhill should speak at this meeting ; with others that Mr. Burroughs should speak , as particularly , that in regard of these things , matters being so , there was a necessity both of the government of the Church , and of the power of the Magistrate , &c. As likewise with others that should be spoken by divers others there present . This story is long , and the particular forgeries in it numerous beyond measure . In which respect I shall desire the Reader at his leasure to make the computation , which he may do with exactnes enough , if he shall please to compare Mr. Edwards Relation with these ensuing lines which I received from Mr. Burroughs himself in writing , anent the businesse : That story Mr. Edwards hath , page 79. of one Nichols , and of a meeting concluded of , occasioned by some vise opinions vented by that Nichols , where Mr. Greenhill and my selfe ( he sayes ) was , together with divers passages that hee relates came from mee at that meeting , is all false . I know no such man as this Nichols , I never heard there was such a man in the world , till I read it in Mr. Edwards his book . I to this day know of no meeting about him , or any of his opinions , either intended , desired , or resolved upon , much lesse that there was any such meeting . The next Lords day after Mr. Edwards his book came forth , M. Greenhill asked me whether I knew of any such meeting with that Nichols : for his part he wondred to see such a thing in Mr. Edwardshis book , for he knew of no such meeting . Thus far M. Burroughs . And because we have had occasion here to mention Mr. Burroughs ; and Mr. Edwards takes occasion p. 33. not onely to deale by him as he doth by his other Sectaries , whose opinions he arraignes ( ad placitum ) for errors ; but seldome either names their persons , or encounters their opinions by argument ; whereas hee hath expressed himselfe in both against him ; I desire to insert a few lines for the vindication of him that is unjustly charged , by detecting the weaknesse and groundlesnesse of the charge . The opinion wherewith Mr. Burroughes stands there charged amongst the Sectaries , as with an error , is this : Whatsoever errors or miscarriages in Religion , the Church should bear withall in men , continuing them still in communion with them , as brethren , these the Magistrates should beare with in men , continuing them in the Kingdome or Commonwealth , in the enjoyment of the liberty of Subjects . But first it is to be considered , that Mr. Burroughes , p. 34. of his book , had laid down this position , That notwithstanding any plea of conscience , yet if the error be destructive to the State , a man may be dealt withall by the State for it . And secondly , this , ( p. 35. ) That no pretence of conscience can excuse a man in any matter of apparent injustice . These two conclusions pre-asserted , he comes , ( p. 67. ) to give this Rule for forbearance in matters of Religion : That whatsoever miscarriages in matters of Religion the Church should beare with , these the Magistrate should beare with : because though it should be never so much granted , that the Magistrate is Custos utriusque tabulae , yet his charge in matters of Religion reacheth not further then the charge of the Church doth . Now Mr. Edwards to confute this , instanceth in a man whose conscience is not satisfied in the point of subjects taking up Armes against Armies raised by a Prince , and therefore refuseth bearing Armes , and all maintenance to such a warre , &c. Such a man as this ( saith he ) the State may sequester , and the Parliament I think hath sequestred many upon such occasions , taking their estates , &c. Surely this confutation is so farre from being fit to satisfie any Scholar , that it hath hardly strength or colour enough to take women or weake people with a . For doth the State deale with such a person as he gives instance in , as for an error , or matter in Religion ? or for injustice to the State ; yea , apparent injustice , and that which is destructive to the State ? For forbearing that , which if others should for beare also , the State must needs be destroyed ? Now evident it is , that Mr. Burroughs Doctrine or Rule touching for bearance , concerns matters of Religion , when the subject matter is Religion , not matters of State , wherein men may pretend conscience ; yea , it may bee , are conscientious indeed so farre , and in such a sense , as men of an erroneous conscience may be such . But this confutation of Mr. Burroughs is ( it seems ) but a forlorn hope ; the fore-runner of a great Army of confutations advancing . Troilus ( I see ) will needs be trying his valour with Achilles , whatsoever it costs him : Infelix puer , atque impar congressus Achilli . How his Pen hath abused Mr. Ellis of Colchester , and other faithfull servants of God in those parts , with base calumnies and slanders , the world ( I conceive ) will shortly understand by an Expresse from thence : For Mr. Ellis himselfe writes thus to a friend in London . The aspersions cast on me , and some others here , by Mr. Edwards , are as false as foule : which because they are a great part of his book and strength , those who are here concerned in it , will , if God please , shortly make reply . Page 57. He affirms that the preceding letter beginning thus : ( p. 54. ) Worthy Sir , the consideration of those many , &c. was written to him by a person religious , and cordially affected to the Parliament . I know not the man my selfe , and therefore shall not attempt to infringe this testimony of him out of any personall experience which I have of him , or of his wayes : but shall onely referre the Reader for his satisfaction , both concerning the man , and the testimony given to him , to this ensuing letter , written by one well enough known to himselfe , to a speciall friend of his about the Citie . DEarly beloved and much honored in Christ , grace , mercy and peace be multiplied to you , and to as many as are enabled by the power of God to look towards Sion . As I was hastily perusing a book writ in Mr. Edwards name , among sever all letters therein contained , I found one written by a person with whom I have more then ordinary acquaintance . In which letter the glory of God , the pure institutions of the Lord Jesus , with the Saints practises , are maliciously abused , as also your selfe not a little concern'd . In consideration of the which , I was not a little prest in my own spirit , neither indeed could I refrain , but needs must declare unto you the person that wrote it ( as he himself acknowledgeth , ) not knowing but it might seem strange unto you , and remain as a burden upon your spirit , that the author of so many falshoods , and , as they appeare to me , palpable untruths , should be ( by such a one as Mr. Edwards ) termed a man religious , and cordially affected to the Parliament . But not to withhold you any longer , his name is Josiah Ricraft , the same man in whose name the Reply to your Answer was printed , the which whether he did indite , or no , I will not affirm , only I may thinke , but it matters not much whether he or another did indite it , only this I am confident of , hee is a man so far from ▪ being religious , and cordially affected to the Parliament , ( as Mr. Edwards would make the world beleeve , that I shall , and am able by evident testimonies , yea and by that knowledge I in particular have of him , perspicuously make it appeare ( and had done before this , had I not been extraordinarily prevented ) that he is an enemy to the Parliament , State , and Kingdome , by concealing , countenancing , & bearing correspondency with such as endevour nothing more then the overthrow of religion & the subjects liberty . At present I shal speak no more cōcerning him , then what I my self distinctly know of him : After he had taken the solemne league & covenant , he did inviolation thereof , conceal a Colonell the which came out of the Kings Army , and from him did receive the Kings Picture . This Colonell not daring to goe abroad in the day time . All this he did declare in my hearing ; nay , during the time this Colonell was in town , he did carry , as now hee doth , a great correspondency with one Mr. Roberts , Minister , being one in fellowship with him , whose life this Colonel would have taken from him , if I be not misinformed , the which as I am credibly informed , had Mr. Roberts known of the Colonels being in town , he would have endeavoured the hanging of him , & that not without cause , for former discourtesies received from him , too tedious to relate . I shal deferre the naming of him until I am called to testifie what I here declare , the which I hope wil be suddenly . And though he was wisht & desired to discover him , pressing the Covenant upon him , yet would he not : I shall at the present , as not desiring to be tedious , present you with one passage more ; it is concerning one who being to goe to Oxford with an intent to take up Arms for the King , he wel knowing he was a malignant , and would not take the covenant , yet him did he furnish with mony to carry him to Oxford , and hath since taken up Armes . This I shall through the help of God make appeare to be really true , and will declare his name and where he lived , the which I now forbeare in regard of some friends whom I am not willing in the least to grieve ; were not the glory of God and the Kingdoms good interessed in it , I should not at present have mentioned any thing of this nature , but not knowing any way more tending to the vindicatiou of both , I take this method . Truly , should I declare unto you how contrary his carriage and conversation is to the Gospels rule , I am confident it would sadden the spirits of conscientious men , and cause admiration in those who professe themselves to be followers of our Lord Jesus . I do assure you , the Lord hath so carried on my soul with divine contemplation , and sweet communion & fellowship with the Father and the Son , that all the unreasonable dealings I have received from him , have not made any impression upon my spirit : only this the righteous God knoweth hath been no small saddening to my spirit , to see his aversnesse of spirit to those who are of his own judgement . But these miscarriages I shall let passe untill a more convenient season , desiring with all my soule the Lord may through the glorious and rich discoveries of himselfe powerfully upon his spirit , cause him to be ashamed of his folly , and to own his weaknesses , that the Lord may yet be honored by him , and his soule comforted in the day of our Lord Jesus . And now that God who hath made such rich discoveries , and glorious manifestations of his tender love to you in the Son of his love , strengthen you throughout , that you may be able to stand , and withstand all the opposition you shall meet withall from any generation of men , and that you may increase with the increasings of God . And this is the request of him who is Your brother in the Rock Christ , G. C. As to the contents of the letter written to Mr. Edw. by that religious person , and so cordially affected to the Parliament ( as you have heard ) how notoriously false are a great part of them ! As first , that Mr. Kiffen , and some others , upon their disputes with Dr. Featley , M. Seaman , M. Calamy , M. Porter , and others , gave out to their members that they had the better , and that M. Calamy durst not dispute with them . Both which are disavowed by the persons charged , and with certainty of knowledge that the reporter can never prove either the one or the other of them . 2. The said letter affirmeth , that M. Kiffen was left out from that disputation which was held and to be held with M. Calamy ▪ &c. whereas it is so far from the truth , that he was left out from this disputation , that earnestly soliciting an exemption from that ingagement , his motion herein was absolutely refused by the rest that were to dispute . 3. He affirmeth , that the said M. Kiffen was put to do the drudgery , to fetch up members scattered to and fro in the countrey &c. This also is as false as falshood it selfe can make a report to be : The said M. Kiffen never stir'd a foot out of the Citie , further then his own house all the while . 4. This religious person in the same letter saith , that not onely M Kiffen , but others also of them did the like good service ( as Hobson the Taylor ) in their places . This again is so far from truth , or likelihood of truth , that this Hobson he speaks of , with Mr. Kiffen , were ( amongst others ) made choyce of by their friends to attend the disputation , and to manage their interest in the controversie against their opposers , and therefore could not doe that , besides which there was nothing possible to be done by them , or any others , that can now save the pen of Religious I. R. from the pollution and reproach of a false pen . 5. The said letter advanceth yet further in her way of folly , and affirmeth , that one of their members , whose name is Palmer , being recovered , came into their Conventicle house , and there before many people said , That Physitians left her as they found her . This is a very emphaticall untruth ; the woman never making use of any Physitian all the time of her sicknesse . 6. This letter ( which seems to be Gangrena's chiefe favourite among all her fellowes ) being loath that any other should carry away the whetstone from her , pleads for this prize with such an argument , which makes all the quaint inventions , and bold fictions , and daring relations in the book besides , to give place and yeeld the crown . This is a story of a woman that was to be rebaptized ; a story which makes the tale of Gargantua and Don Quixote with his windmils , to look like Gospels in comparison of it . It is pitie the relator should either eat or drink , till either he hath proved the truth , or else confessed the untruth of it . This letter boasts what mischiefe it could doe yet further , as when it saith , Many such Heathenish & Atheisticall passages WITH BASENES , I could relate of this man & some of his members , &c. It is very likely that what ever you can do in this kind , you must doe it WITH BASENES , or else let it alone . But indeed you have givē the world a very full account of your great ability to relate what heathenish and Atheisticall passages you please of any man . Hee that can report and avouch the last mentioned story for a truth , may be confident that his forehead will not fail him in any adventure of impudence whatsoever . For a conclusion , I shal only point you to some few more spots which appeare here and there in the body of the Gangrene , which plainly shew the very vitals & inward parts of it to be pestilentially infected ; & I make no question but ere long you will see the whole body of it full of such spots all over , which will plainly bewray the constitution of it to be the poyson of Dragons , and gall of Asps . Pag. 93. he affirms , That severall Sectaries went early to Bristoll ( he means since the retaking of it by the Parliament , ) and into Wales also ; instancing in two , with an &c. viz. one M. Bacon , and M. Symonds : This M. Symonds professeth , that since the recovery of Bristoll , he came not neer either Bristoll or Wales by fourty miles . But if M. Edw. comes within fourty miles of the Truth , he makes a commendable voyage . I beleeve hee came not neer it by twice fourty , when p. 100. speaking of great livings , hee calleth them , a thing which their Presbyterian souls abhorre . The tenor of the passage is this : He chargeth M. Peters , frequently to have preached in Citie and countrey , that were it not for livings of two or three hundred pounds a yeare , there would be no difference between the Presbyterians and the Independents . And glossing this text , addeth , wickedly and maliciously insinuating unto the people , as if Presbyterian Ministers opposed the way of Independency because of great livings , A THING OVR SOVLS ABHOR . If his meaning be , that the practice here gently insinuated against them ▪ viz. that the opposing the way of Independency because of great livings , is a thing which their soul abhors , not the great livings themselves , I say no more but this ; I wish the rule were as true as the exception : i. that the opposing the way of Independency for great livings , were as truly the abhorring of Presbyterian souls , as the great livings themselves are NOT . Pag. 70. he affirms , That one of Lilborns eyes was PVT OVT by a Pike in the street , immediatly upon his letter comming forth against Mr. Prynne and the Assembly . By the way it seems he hath forfeited his honour of being Lieutenant-Colonel , by the high crime of writing a letter against M. Prynne and the Assembly ; yea and all his interest in the honor and gentry of his House and Family . But had not M. Edw. a great beam in his own eye , he might easily have seen , that neither of Lilborns eyes are put out . He is able to see and read twenty untruths and ten in M. Edw. book , with the worst of them . That which he reports of him , p. 96. that hee is reported to bee one , who is a player at cards , either is a false report it self , or at least a Report of a Report which is false , and so little better . The man protested that he never plaid a game at cards since his coming to London . The rest of the aspersives in the same retinue , as that he is reported to be a man of a loose life , prophaning the Lords day in sports , one who will sit long with company at wine and tipling , &c. are grapes growing upon the same thorn . In the page last named , he talks of one Thomas Moore of Lincolnshire , a great Sectary and manifestarian : I beleeve M. Edw. himself is the greatest manifestarian under heaven . There is no man hath manifested that weaknes of judgement , that strength of malice against the Saints , which he hath done . And for Thomas Moore of Lincolnshire , a Sectary of that magnitude which hee imports , I no more beleeve there is any such man , then I doe that there is any such woman at Brasteed in Kent , as he speaks of , p. 88. 89. that is a Preacher , and that with others breaks bread in her order . Mr. Saltmarsh in his late booke affirms , that the contrary is knowne to himselfe and all the Towne . Pag. 128. He talks of Bishop Hall , or one of his Chaplains , as holding far smaller errors then I ( he means chiefly , in the point of Justification , as appears by the context . ) But that I hold any errors in Justification , greater then himself , yea or any so great by many degrees , who yet ( I make no question ) presumes himself as Orthodox in the point as either the Bishop he speaks of , or any of his Chaplains , will be a thousand times said , before once prov'd , either by himself , or all his party of godly Orthodox Presbyteriall Ministers . Pag. 8. of his Dedicatory Epistle , his forehead serves him to abuse the honorable Houses of Parliament with this loud untruth , that there are eleven meetings , at least , of Sectaries , in one Parish in this Citie . What shall be given unto thee ▪ or what shall be done unto thee , thou false tongue ? Sharp arrowes of the mighty , and coales of Juniper a . Setting aside the Presbyterian meetings , confident I am , that he cannot find the one halfe of that number he speaks of , of meetings of all other Sectaries , in any Parish whatsoever in the Citie . But this saying of his needs not be melancholy for want of company ; it hath Brethren enough in the iniquitie of it . And because the pages of his book are not large enough to contain the shameless untruths he hath a minde to utter , he quarters them here and there in the margent of it . You shall find two together in the margent of the second and third pages of his Preface . Here first he saith , that Overton an Independent Book-seller boasted that an Answer ( to his Antapologie ) was in the Presse . Whereas he onely said ( and that without boasting ) that there was an Answer to it entred in their Hall-Booke , and ready for the Presse . 2. He addes iniquitie to iniquitie ; and saith , that Eaton an Independent , Milliner , said the same words , who yet spake not so much ; for he neither said that it was in the Presse , nor yet that it was entred into the Hall book . And who should report , that some of John Goodwins Church reported , that some of his Church-members preached for him , because he was answering the Antapologie ; I believe he no more knoweth , then declareth . And why he calls Eaton an Independent Milliner , I believe , if he were called to an account , he could give none ; but like unto himselfe , i. either some vagrant and loose report that he was so ; or some poore reason , 89 degrees of Logique latitude from a sufficient proofe or demonstration . But the saying is , Tractant fabrilia fabri . Pag. 33. speaking of Mr Burroughs opinion formerly mentioned , which he makes the 150 error in his Catalogue , he brands it with this false mark in his margin : This is an error destructive to the power of Civill Magistrates , and safety of Common-wealths , in divers cases . The truth is , that the opinion , 1. is no error , but a Truth : and 2. so farre from being an error destructive , either to the power of Civill Magistrates , or safety of Common-wealths , in any case or cases whatsoever ; that it is a Truth of a soveraigne importance , both for the support and strengthning of the Magistrates power ; as also for the safety of Common-wealths . The smoak of the exception made against it , was before scattered . And if he were examined how he came by that story , p. 104. concerning Mr Kiffen ( formerly spoken of ) viz. that he should tell the Church , that he would relate the whole matter ( concerning the womans recovery that had been anointed ) I feare he could hardly prove , that he came honestly by it . The man assures me , that there was no such undertaking , nor relation made by him at all . Reader , I have ( for the present ) given thee onely a taste of Mr Edwards grapes : yet sufficient ( I presume ) to convince thee , that his vine , is of the vine of Sodom , and of the fields of Gomorrah ; his grapes , grapes of gall ; his clusters bitter ; his wine , the poyson of dragons , and the cruell venome of Aspes a . I professe truly , that I have not read one quarter of the book , as yet ; nor know whether I shall ever care to read it thorough or no . The far greatest part of the particulars detected , were observ'd by others , and presented unto me . A few daies ( I make no question ) will give thee more light , wherewith to comprehend his darknesse . By that time the boughs of his tree are a little more withered , they will be broken off : the women will come , and set them on fire b . The day will come , and is even at the dore , when there will be scarce one stone left upon another of all this false building , which will not be pull'd downe by the hand of Truth . And when the servants of God shall have had the opportunitie to wash off that dirt and filth which Mr. Edwards hath now cast upon them , Gangraena will be found a strumpet , yea and of the race & lineage of that Great scarlet whore , which corrupteth the Earth with her fornication c . The Cretians are alwaies lyers , evill beasts ▪ slow bullies . This testimony is true : wherefore rebuke them sharply , that they may be sound in the faith d . I trust that this brief Answer , will contribute a proportionable influence toward this blessed effect upon Mr Edwards , and helpe to make him more sound both in Faith , and manners also . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A85389e-360 a Luk. 22. 31. Sect. 2. Sect. 3. a Antap. p. Sect. 4. Sect. 5. a Gen. 9. 25. b 1 Sam. 22. 9 , 10. Sect. 6. Luke 10. Sect. 7. Sect. 8. Sect. 9. Sect. 10. Sect. 11. Sect. 12. Dan. 5. 19. a Si oriantur dissensiones & schismata in Ecclesiâ , in culpâ sunt qui falsam sidem defendūt , non qui impugnāt : Nec refert utri sint multitudine superiores . Ecclesia namque nec judicat ipsa secundū multitudinem , nec judicanda est secundū majoris numeri consensū , sed secundū manifestam veritatem in sacris Scripturis expressam , Musc. Loc. Tit. de Eccle. Sect. 9. b Antapol . p. 117. Sect. 13. a See his Preface , p. 4. a Luk. 4. 9 , 10● . Sect. 14. a 1 Cor. 4. 18. b Verse 19. c Amos 5. 18. Gangrena . Pref. p. 2. Sect. 15. a Joh. 8. 40. b 2 Tim. 2. 12. Sect. 16. Compassion . Samaritan . p. 4 a Quod in omnibus vocandi rationibus Deus peccatori , quid debeat non modo oftendit , sed & omni invitato , vocato det posse illud praestare , & salvari , si velit : adeo ut si non salvatur is , qui generalissimâ tantum ratione invitatus est , sit prorfus inexcusabilis coràm Deo. Id expresse docet Paulus . {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} ( inquit ) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} manifestum factum est in ipsis , ( Gentilibus scilicet ) Deus enim manifestum fecit , &c. ita utinexcusabiles ipsi sint . At certè , si , etsi maximè voluissent , non potuissent , fuissent excusabiles , &c. Paulus Testardus , Eiren. p. 91. Thesi 121. Sect. 17. Sect. 18. a Pag. 128. he talkes of farre smaller errors in justification then mine . Sect. 19. a The Reader for his further satisfaction about Calvins iudgement in this controversie , is earnestly desired to peruse the 11th chapter , as also the 5 , 6 , & 7. Sections of the fift chapter of the first part of my Treatise of Justification . a Deut 19. 15. 2 Cor. 13. 1. &c. One affirmative testimony is more valid in Law , then many negative . Sect. 20. Sect. 21. Sect. 22. Sect. 23. a Mat. 13. 47 ▪ 48. a Rom. 4. 15. b 1 John 3. 4. The Proverb saith , Is is an evill bird that defileth his own nest . a Joh. 18. 28. Sect. 24. Sect. 25. Sect. 26. Sect. 27. a H saith , that this & others of Mr. Burroughs principles and rules about Toleration , will bee found both unsound and weak , fit to take women and weak persons with , but not to satisfie any Scholar . The truth is , that many principles , the more sound & strong they are , are like to prove the lesse satisfactory to such Scholars as he . Engag'd men are ususually more offended at a truth , then at an error wth opposeth them in their way . Sect. 29. Sect. 30. Sect. 31. Sect. 32. Sect. 33. a Psal 120. 3 , 4 Sect. 34. Sect. 35. a Deut. 32. 32 , 33. b Isa. 27. 11. c Revel. 19. 2. d Tit. 1. 12 , 13. 
A19460	----	A iust and temperate defence of the fiue books of ecclesiastical policie: written by M. Richard Hooker against an vncharitable letter of certain English Protestants (as they tearme themselues) crauing resolution, in some matters of doctrine, which seeme to ouerthrow the foundation of religion, and the Church amongst vs. Written by William Covel Doctor in Diuinitie, and published by authority. The contents whereof are in the page following. Covell, William, d. 1614? 1603 Approx. 349 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 81 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-11 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A19460 STC 5881 ESTC S120909 99856102 99856102 21624 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A19460) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 21624) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1475-1640 ; 1134:2) A iust and temperate defence of the fiue books of ecclesiastical policie: written by M. Richard Hooker against an vncharitable letter of certain English Protestants (as they tearme themselues) crauing resolution, in some matters of doctrine, which seeme to ouerthrow the foundation of religion, and the Church amongst vs. Written by William Covel Doctor in Diuinitie, and published by authority. The contents whereof are in the page following. Covell, William, d. 1614? [8], 154 [i.e. 152] p. Printed by P. Short for Clement Knight, dwelling at the signe of the holy Lambe in Paules church-yard, At London : 1603. A reply to: A Christian letter of certaine English protestants, unfained favourers of the present state of religion, authorised and professed in England: unto that reverend and learned man, Mr R. Hoo. The first leaf is blank except for signature-mark "A". P. 152 misnumbered 154. Variant: title omits "and published by authority". Reproduction of the original in the British Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Hooker, Richard, 1553 or 4-1600. -- Ecclesiastical polity -- Early works to 1800. Puritans -- Controversial literature -- Early works to 1800. Christian letter of certaine English protestants, unfained favourers of the present state of religion, authorised and professed in England: unto that reverend and learned man, Mr R. Hoo. -- Controversial literature -- Early works to 1800. 2003-06 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2003-07 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2003-08 Rina Kor Sampled and proofread 2003-08 Rina Kor Text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A IVST AND TEMPERATE DEFENCE OF THE FIVE BOOKS OF ECCLESIASTICAL POLICIE : WRITTEN BY M. RICHARD HOOKER : Against an vncharitable Letter of certain English Protestants ( as they tearme themselues ) crauing resolution , in some matters of doctrine , which seeme to ouerthrow the foundation of religion , and the Church amongst vs. Written by WILLIAM COVEL Doctor in Diuinitie , and published by authority . The contents whereof are in the page following . Psalm . 112.6 . The righteous shall be had in an euerlasting remembrance . At LONDON Printed by P. SHORT for CLEMENT KNIGHT , dwelling at the signe of the holy Lambe in Paules church-yard . 1603. The Articles handled in this Booke . 1 Of the Deity of the Sonne of God. 2 Of the coeternitie of the Sonne , and the proceeding of the holy Ghost . 3 Whether the holy Scriptures containe all things necessary to saluation . 4 Whether the Scriptures be aboue the Church ? 5 Of the nature and freedome of mans will. 6 Of the vse of faith and good works . 7 Whether God allow more then he commandeth . 8 Of the vertue of good works . 9 None free from euery sinne , how from all ? 10 Of Predestination . 11 Whether the Church of Rome be any part of the visible Church ? 12 Of Preaching and Sermons . 13 Of the Ministers office . 14 Of the nature of the Sacraments . 15 Of Christs institution of the Sacraments . 16 Of the necessitie of Baptisme . 17 Of Transubstantiation . 18 Of speculatiue doctrine , or sentences mistaken . 19 Of Caluin and the reformed Churches . 20 Of Schoolemen , Philosophie , Reason , &c. 21 Of the stile and maner of M. Hookers writing . TO THE MOST REVEREND Father in God , my verie good Lord , the Lord Archbishop of Canterburie his Grace , Primate , and Metropolitan of all England . THree principall causes ( Right Reuerend ) haue moued me to offer this small Labour to your Graces view : First , the iust respect of my particular dutie , which challengeth al parts of my labor , as a most thankefull acknowledgement of that seruice which I owe vnto you . Secondly , the forme of our Church gouernment , which imposeth a submitting of our labours , to the censure and allowance of those , to whom by right that charge belongeth ; wherein seeing your authoritie and care , next vnto our dread Soueraigne , is , and is to bee esteemed greatest , I desire you to vouchsafe to giue that allowance , which your Grace in your wisdome shall thinke fit . The last reason , is the person of him , who ( whilest he liued ) was aduanced , honoured , and esteemed by you ; and now being dead , his learning , and sinceritie , against the false accusations of others , challengeth a defence at your Graces hand : For doubtlesse it is more right to vertue , to defend the deceased , then to aduance those that are liuing . This as reason , euer expecteth at the hands of vertue ; so especially then , when men of worth , of desert , of learning , are mistaken and accused , by those that doe want all . I craue to the rest of all your Graces fauours , that this last may be added ; That whatsoeuer my imperfections are , in this iust and temperate Defence , they may no way diminish the honourable remembrance of him , whom I doe defend : all allowance is his due ; the faults are mine ; for which in all humilitie , I craue pardon . Your Graces to bee commaunded , W. COVEL . TO THE READER . SEeing we are all bound , in the dutifull respect of a common iust cause , euen to defend those who are strangers to vs ; it cannot seeme vnfit to any , if we affoord thē so much fauour , whose persons , and deserts are verie well knowne . There is no better contentment for our labour past , then in the assurance from our conscience , that it is well imployed : for doubtlesse the spurning at vertue , giueth a greater stroke to the doer , then to him that suffereth ; & yet euen that religion , that cōmandeth patience , forbiddeth not the iust defence of our selues in a good cause ; especially then , when by wronging a particular man , there may be some hazard of the truth it selfe . Our Church hath had some enemies , more openly discontent in the case of Discipline , then they now appeare ; whom to satisfie with reason , Maister Hooker indeuoured with much paines ; that which might haue contented all , was in diuers , a spurre to a more violent choler : for medicines how profitable soeuer , worke not equally in all humours . From hence proceeded a desire in some , to make question of things , whereof there was no doubt , and a request for resolution , of some points , where in there was no danger : to this end a Letter ( which heere is answered ) was published by certaine Protestants ( as they tearme themselues ) which I heare ( how true I know not ) is translated into other tongues ; this they presume hath giuen that wound , to that reuerend and learned man , that it was not the least cause to procure his death . But it is farre otherwise ; for he contemned it in his wisdome ( as it was fit ) and yet in his humilitie would haue answered it , if he had liued . Surely for mine owne part , I neuer thought it conuenient that the grauity of this present businesse , and the reuerend worthinesse of him that is accused , should not be answered with grauitie both of person and speech ; and my witnesses are both in heauen and earth , how iustly I can excuse my selfe , as Elihu did : Behold , I did wait vpon the word of the ancient , and harkened for their knowledge : I stayed the time , and a long time , vntill some elder and of viper iudgement , might haue acquited me from all opinion of presumption in this cause ; which being not done by thē , whom many reasons might haue induced to this Defence , I could not for that part which I beare in that Church , whose gouernment was defended by Maister Hooker , with patience endure so weake a Letter anie longer to remaine vnanswered . And herein I haue dealt as with men ( although to me vnknown ) of some learning and grauitie , to whom peraduenture in manie respects I am farre inferiour ; and yet for anie thing that I know , or appeareth in this Letter , they may bee clothed with the same infirmities that I am . But if this had beene by himselfe performed ( which I heare he hath done , and I desire thee to expect it ) thy satisfaction ( gentle Reader ) would haue beene much more , yet vouchsafe in thy kindnesse , to accept this . The Authours Preface . LIttle hath labour done , to make any man excellent , if vertue haue not as much power to make it continue : neither were it anie honour , to deserue well , if our memories might die with our names ●or our names be buried , as often ●s malice , or enuie doth seeke to hide them . Fewe things are eminently good , which are indured amongst distempered iudgements without bitter reprehension ; for where weakenesse hath not strength enough to imitate , and reuerence that vertue which it feareth ; it hath violence and malice sufficient to detract from that vertue which it hateth . Amongst euill persons , as there be fewe things that are good , in themselues ; so there be not manie things which they are willing should appeare good in others ; for vertue , where it is not followed , must either be dispraised , or our negligence shall want excuse . And whatsoeuer hath the power to conuince , must suffer reproofe , where the heart of man wanteth humilitie to giue obedience . The worlds greatest errour , is in esteeming , when our corruptions making vs ambitious to seeme , whilest we are carelesse to be , winneth allowance from a fond opinion , which the streame of violent fancies , denieth to rest vpon those that are truly vertuous . Because for anie man to oppose himselfe , against that euill which is growne heady , either by custome , or patience , is to hazard much of himselfe , if he be strong ; and in the opinion of many vndoubtedly to perish , if he be weake . And therefore as vice hath euer had mo that did dislike it , then durst dispraise it ; so vertue wil euer haue mo that are willing to allow it in their iudgements , then dare aduenture to interpose themselues , for the defence of that which they do allow . Iealousie making those to depraue , euen the very defence of that , which their owne iudgements did thinke worthy , and their wishes desired , might be defended . For to do that which euerie man accounteth his own duty , as it argueth oftentimes more strength then courage ; so amongst many , it reapeth little else but an opinion of singularitie . From this corrupt fountaine ( a fountaine poisoned by malicious ignorance ) haue flowed these bitter , but small streames , which the importunitie of some mens commendations ( arising out of a blind loue ) haue made for power and greatnesse , like the red sea , to drown ( as they say ) Pharaoh and all his host . Let them perish in it without helpe , beaten downe with that hand , that striketh from aboue , who seeke to hold Israel a seruant in Egypt , or captiue in the house of bondage : but let them passe through without harme , who couragiously haue freed the posterity of Iacob , and led Israel to the land of promise . I doubt not but without a miracle , a man of small stature may goe through these waters and not bee drowned ; yet sometimes the most righteous , may say with Dauid , the ouerflowing of vngodlinesse made me afraid . Deceit vsually couereth with a mask ( better then the face ) that euill which it desireth should kill vnseene and vnpreuented : but errour cannot more easily fall , then when it is built vpon such a foundation ; nor weaker opinions sooner vanish , then when they are bred , nourished , & supported , onely with the strength of fancie . It is of small vse in the church ( though a thing practised in al ages ) for men ouer-curiously to labour to remoue those staines , which like an impure breath , darken the glasse of steele , whilest it is warme , but slide off through their owne weakenesse , hauing no power to make any deeper impression , then onely aire . Any cloth in a hand of no skill , or strength , is able to wipe off , with ease , those blots , or marks , that are stained with no greater force , or vertue , but a hote breath . But seeing the reputation that vertue challengeth , and industrious labour seasoned with discretion doth merit , seeketh rather to gaine an approbation , from the iudgement of the wise , then recompence or reward , from the mightie hand of the rich ; men of vertuous desert in all ages ( euen from the lowest step of humilitie & obedience ) haue with confidence , and truth , taught the world a far better iudgment , by their wise apologies ; and haue gained as much honour in remouing euill , as they haue gotten vertue vnto their names , in doing wel . The malice of enuie out of impatient ignorance , doing vertue this benefit , that that which was cleare before , by a few , light , trifling spots , gaineth a wiping , to make it clearer . desert and goodnesse , being effects of a first motion ; perfection and excellencie the worke of a second maker . It must needs seeme strange to many , and be vnpleasing to all , that are of any sober , indifferent , or vertuous disposition , that the iust defence of a present , religious , Ecclesiasticall policie , vndertaken without bitternesse of spirit , in a graue moderation to reforme presumption , and informe ignorance , should so farre taste , of the eagernesse of some vnlearned pennes ; that iudgement , should be thought too weake , to answer idle wordes ; or vertue not strong enough to withstand malice ; or lastly , that he could want a defence , whose endeuour ( as himselfe professeth ) was not so much to ouerthrow them , with whom he contended , as to yeeld them iust , and reasonable causes , of those things , which for want of due consideration , heretofore they haue misconceiued ; sometimes accusing lawes , for mens ouersights ; sometimes imputing euils growne , through personall defects , to that which is not euill ; framing to some sores vnwholsome plaisters ; and applying remedies sometimes where no sores were . It is much easier to answer those shadowes of reason , wherein these Admonishers do please themselues ; then by their silence to make them confesse , that they are fully answered . For as they know not ( for the most part ) well how to speake , sauing only tinkers musick , like sounding brasse , because they want charitie ; so do they lesse know how to hold their peace , like clamorous Frogs , because they want humilitie . Holy pretences haue euer beene the strongest motiues that pride hath ; and Zeale , how preposterous and ignorant so euer , hath beene deemed reason sufficient to some men , in the opinion of their followers , to warrant & defend whatsoeuer they haue done . Vpon this ground , was published , some few Articles in manner of a letter , in the yeare 1599. requiring resolution in matters of doctrine , concerning some points , which either they misconceiue , or list not to vnderstand , vttered by M. Hooker , in those fiue learned , and graue books of Ecclesiasticall policie ; wherin , it must needs appeare , that their ignorant malice , hath done him great honour ; who in an argument so distasted by them , and comming with a proud confidence to reprehend , haue only carped sillily , at some few things , neither of moment , nor importance , whereof humilitie , and charitie , would haue craued no answer . But these being willing , and desirous , to find somewhat to oppose , haue onely discouered ▪ his great , mature , and graue iudgement , and their owne small , vndigested , and shallow learning . For there is nothing , that can better , both excuse , and commend a workman , thē to see enuie desirous to reprehend , and reprehension to vanish in his owne smoke . For ( saith the Wiseman ) * all such as regarded not wisedome , had not onely this hurt , that they knew not the things that were good , but also left behind them , vnto men a memoriall of their foolishnesse ; so that in the things wherein they sinned , they could not lie hid ; yet the people see and vnderstand it not , and consider no such things , in their hearts , * how that grace and mercie is vpon his Saints , and his prouidence ouer the elect . For as he himselfe well noted ; as to the best , and wisest ( while they liue ) the world is continually a froward opposite , a curious obseruer of their defects , and imperfections ; so their vertues , it afterwards as much admireth . Those , whom we must make aduersaries in this cause , are men , not knowne either by name , religion or learning ; yet such as would seem , in zeale to the present state , to desire a resolution in some points that might otherwise giue offence . It may be peraduenture the worke of some one , who desirous to gaine an opinion amongst his followers , vndertaketh to speake as from the minds of many , hoping those demaunds ( how idle soeuer ) will gaine answer , being to satisfie a multitude , which no doubt M. Hooker in his wisdome , patience , and grauity , would easily haue contemned , if they had but beene the priuate cauils , and obiections of some one . For there is no man but thinketh , manie , how light so euer , in themselues , being vnited , may haue that weight , to chalenge euen by a ciuill right , a direct answer , from one euerie way farre better then had beene fitting , for their modestie , & weaknesse to prouoke . Well ; whosoeuer they are , as I cannot easily coniecture , so I am not curious to knowe ; this age hath affoorded an infinite number , whom superstitious feare , for want of true vnderstanding , and an ignorant zeale , not directed with discretion , haue made violent in matters of Religion , vsing the razor in steed of a knife , and for hatred of tares oftentimes pulling vp good corne . But with these we will deale , with that temperate moderation , as may serue , to giue true worthinesse , a iust defence ; and impatient and furious spirits ( vnlesse desperately violent ) no iust cause to find themselues to be grieued with vs. This which wee are to answer , is tearmed by them , A Christian letter of certaine English Protestants , vnfained fauorers of the present state of religion , authorised , and professed in England ; vnto that reuerend , and learned man , M. Richard Hooker . Thus the humilitie , and mild temper of their superscription , may peraduenture gaine the reading at some mens hands , through an opinion , that Protestants ; and manie ; and in a Christian letter ; would hardly be caried with violence so far , to make demaunds , seasoned with so little modestie , learning , or vnderstanding . These men , they may be ( as we take the word largely ) Protestants for anie thing that I know ; that is , men outwardly of the Christian religion ; who liue and professe a doctrine , for the most part opposite to the Church of Rome ; but I can hardly be perswaded , that the Letter being wholy an vnciuill Ironie , is either Christian , or that themselues , are vnfained fauourers of the present state of religion ; or that they thinke M. Hooker to be either reuerend , or learned in their opinions . For whatsoeuer they may pretend , in vrging the reuerend Bishops of our Church against his assertions ; as though they ascribed much vnto them ; yet their desire is , to make an opposition appeare , and in that shewe of contradiction , to make themselues sport , & in the end proudly and maliciously to contemne both . But Saint Iames telleth these , that if anie man seeme religious , and refraine not his tongue , but deceiueth his owne heart , this mans religion is vain . And in this I appeale to the censure of the most modest and discreet amongst themselues , by what shew of reason , they could tearme that Letter to bee Christian , wherein were contained so many vnseasoned and intemperate speeches ? or that man to be either reuerend , or learned , whom they haue vsed with so little respect , and accused of so manie defects ? But doubtlesse , as they neuer thought him to be either reuerend , or learned ( whom all that knew him , whilest he liued knew to be both ) so they little desired , that their Letter should be such a one , as might worthily be accounted Christian. * Else what meane these accusations , to account his goodly promises , meere formall , and great offers to serue only , to hoodwink such , as mean wel ; as though by excellency of words , and intising speeches , of mans wisedome , he ment a as they say to beguile , and bewitch the Church , of God. A little after b they call him a goodly Champion , and by the sweet sound , of your melodious stile , almost cast into a dreaming sleepe ; which stile notwithstanding afterwards , they account not c vsual , but long , and tedious ; far differing from the simplicity of holy scripture ; and a d hard , and harsh stile : for the manner of the stile , we shall make our defence , when we answere that Article . But in that , you scoffingly account him a goodly Champion , giue me leaue to tell you , that if our Church were throughly furnished with such men , the holy function of our calling , had not growne in contempt by ignorant and vnlearned ministers ; our peace had not bin troubled with furious and violent spirits : worldly men , had not seazed vpon the Church , with such eagernes , through an opinion of the vnworthines of the clergie : they of the Church of Rome , had not thus long remained obstinate , through the violent proceedings of vndiscreet men , whose remedies were worse then the disease it selfe : nor last of all , the generall amendment of life ( the fruite of our preaching ) had not bin so small , if these turbulent heads , had not more desired , to make Hypocrits , then truely religious . It is much safer to praise the dead , then the liuing , hauing seene the period of their dayes expired ; a when neither he that is praised , can be puffed vp , nor he that doth praise can be thought to flatter , hee was , as Saint Austine sayd of Saint Cyprian * , of such desert , of such a courage , of such a grace , of such a vertue , that as Theodosius sayd of S. Ambrose , I haue known Ambrose , who alone is worthy to be called a Bishop ▪ of whom I dare giue that iudgement ( though he were in true estimation great already ) which Antigoras , gaue of Pirrhus , that he would haue bin a very great man , if he had bin old . Great in his own vertues , of great vse in the Church , & in al app●rance , ( though these times be vnthankefull ) of great authoritie . I let passe those other tearmes , which shew your letter to bee vnchristian , vntill we come to their particular answers ; and thus much for the title . It hath bin , no new thing in all ages , that reprehension hath waited vpon those books , which zeale ▪ from a vertuous minde , hath written to support the truth ; for the nature of man is much apter to reproue others , then reforme it selfe ; seeing to see faults in others , is an act of the vnderstanding if they bee ; and of a frowardnes of the will if they be not : but to rectifie them in ourselues must be the worke of a cleare vnderstanding and a reformed will ; therfore vsually men practise themselues , what they punish in others ; so that no man can directly conclude , a that all men hate what they do accuse . Therefore Saint b Hierom , of whome saith S. Austin ( no man knew that whereof S. Hierom was ignorant ) oftentimes complaineth of the detractions , slaunders , and vntrue accusations of euill men . These , for the most part , are vnstaid , violently caried with the current of the present time , sometimes bitterly either vpon discontentments , or to please others , inueighing against those , whom themselues before out of flattery , not iudgement , haue highly praised . Thus c Libanius the sophister , who was eloquent against the Christians , to please Iulian , was noted with this marke of leuity , for writing Panegyricks , or orations of praise , to commend Constantius , while he liued , against whome afterward he wrote most bitter inuectiues when he was dead . Thus some small discontentment serued to turne the heart , and open the mouth of Porphyry against the Christians : what cause of griefe these zealous professours haue I know not , but in my opinion , the whole tenor of that vncharitable and vnchristian letter , argueth some inward discontent , either enuious that other men should be excellent , or that themselues being excellent , are not more regarded . Wherein though they dislike , the dim eie of gouernment , that loketh not cleerely into mens vertues , and the niggardly hand , that doth not bountifully reward such , as deserue well ; yet they mighte out of patience , and charity , worthily haue forborne , to haue inueied against his honour , which consisted in no other wealth , but in his religious contentment , and in that true commendation , which was the due merit of his own vertues . For b the world had not much to take from him , because hee had not taken much from the world ; for he neuer affected , flatteringly to please her , nor she neuer cared fauninglie to please him . For as c all that Scipio brought ▪ from Africa , after his danger , and trauell , to be called his , was only a Surname ; so the greatest recompense , that his labours had , was the iust commendation , that he was a very reuerend , learned and graue man. For his iudgement taught him out of a Christian patience , the resolution of Cato , if d I haue anie thing to vse , I vse it ; if not , I know who I am . And seeking to profit in knowledge , and that this knowledge might profit the Church ; he shewed that hee was borne for the good of many , and few to bee borne for the good of him . For as S. Hierom speaketh of Nepotian , e despising gold , he followed learning , the greatest riches . But peraduenture his learning had puft him vp ; and his pride had made his writings , impatient , and full of bitternes ; and this moued you , to vndertake , this vncharitable and vnchristian letter ; for you say if we beleeue them ( meaning the Bishops ) we must thinke , that Master Hooker is verie arrogant , and presumptuous , to make himselfe the onely Rabbi . That you had no cause , to prouoke him , in these tearmes , all men know that do reade his writings ; for dealing in an argument of that kinde , with aduersaries , of that nature ; and in a time growne insolent by sufferance ; hee hath written with that temperat moderation , rather like a graue father to reforme the vnstayed errors , of hot , young , violent spirits , then seuerelie correcting them with the vntemperat bitternes of their owne stile ; and sighing at the scurrilous and more then satyricall immodesty of Martinisme , he feared with a true sorrow , least that honourable calling of Priesthood , which was ruinated by slaunder amongst ourselues , could not long continue firme in the opinion of others . Well , for all this the gouernment of his passions , was in his owne power , as a Saint Bernard speaketh of Malachie the Bishop . And he was able to rule them ; for he was truly of a milde spirit , and an humble hart , and abounding in all other vertues ; yet he specially excelled in the grace of meekenes : for the grauity of his lookes , as b Saint Bernard speaketh of Humbers , was cleered by those that did sit , or conuerse with him ; least he should be burdensome vnto them ; but a ful laughter , few euer discerned in him . Some such our Church hath had in all ages ; a few now aliue , which are her ornament , if shee can vse them well ; but moe that are dead , whome she ought to praise . For all those were honourable men , in their generations , and were well reported of , in their times ; there are of them , that haue left a name behind them , so that their praise shall be spoken of , for whose posterity , a good inheritance is reserued , and their seede is conteined in the couenant ; their bodise are buried in peace , but their name liueth for euermore ; the people speake of their wisedome , and the congregation talke of their praise . In this number vertue hath placed him , whom you accuse ; and are not afraid , being now awaked out of a dreame , to account a deceiuer . As though in his labours he had meant by intising speech , to deceiue the Church ; or as though by a colourable defēce of the Church discipline , he purposed ( as you say ) to make questionable , and to bring in contempt the doctrine , and faith it selfe ; beating against the heart of all true Christian doctrine , professed by her Maiestie , and the whole state of this realme . Therfore you haue made choice of the principall things conteined in his bookes ; wishing him to free himselfe from all suspicion of falshoode and trechery ; accounting your selues to rest contented , if he will shew himselfe , either all one in iudgement , with the Church of England , or else freely and ingenuously acknowledge ; his vnwilling ouersight ; or at the least shew plainely by good demonstratiō , that al our reuerend Fathers haue hitherto bin deceiued ▪ To this you craue a charitable , direct , plaine , sincere , and speedy answeare ; this is the summe of the preface to your Christian letter . It is too true that al ages haue had deceiuers ; and that the most dangerous deceiuers , haue strongly preuailed vnder pretence of Religion ; and therefore whereas all bodies are subiect to dissolution , there are vndoubtedly mo estates ouerthrown , through diseases within themselues , which familiarly do steale vpon them , then through violence from abroade . Because the maner is alwaies , to cast a doubtfull , and a more suspicious eie , towards that , ouer which men know they haue least power ; & therfore the feare of apparant dangers , causeth their forces to be more vnited ; it is to all sorts a kind of bridle ; it maketh vertuous minds watchful ; it holdeth contrary dispositions in suspence ; and imployeth the power of all wits ; and the wits of all men , with a greater care . Whereas deceits couered with good pretenses , are so willingly interteyned , so little feared , & so long suffered , vntill their cruelty burst forth , when it is too late , to cure them ▪ vice hath not a better meanes to disperse it selfe , nor to gaine intartainment , and fauour , then by borrowing the counterfeit name , and habit , of seeming vertue . a Thus that rebellious Sandracot vnder pretence of liberty , mooued the Indians , against the officers of Alexander the Great ; which when they had slaine , he that was the author of their liberty , turned that into a more cruell bondage , oppressing the people whom he had freed from strangers , vnder the cruell tyranny of his owne gouernment . But of all deceits , there is none more dangerous , then when the name of God , or religion is pretended , to countenance out heinous crimes . And howsoeuer euen in this kinde , this age hath not wāted examples , who beeing dangerous vnder holy pretenses , the hand of Iustice hath cut off ; yet the imputation of this fault , can in no reason cleaue to him , who hath so far hazarded himselfe , for the iust defence of religion , and Church gouernement . If hee had broched any new fancies , or proudly opposed the wise established discipline ; there had bin some reason to haue suspected , that by intising speech he had meant to deceiue the Church . But seeing hee hath laboured in a waighty cause , with reasons , against those , whom the Magistrats seuerity could not easily suppresse ; seeing he hath vndertaken it by appointment ; and performed it with allowance ; and seeing he hath made no other shew of supporting popery , but only by resisting Puritans ; the slaunder must needs be too light , and the accusation without color , to say that he hath beaten against the heart of al true Christian doctrine , professed by her Maiestie , & the whole state of this Realme : as though ( which you desire the world might beleeue ) the hart of Christian religion , were only amongst such , whom the affectation of singularity hath tearmed by the name of Puritans : And that the rest who are not of that temper , are dangerous , and close hereticks . Thus Appollinarius the yonger , who wrote so much in defence of the Christian faith , that Saint Basil said of him , that with his volumes he had filled the whole world ; and wrote against rauing and frantick Porphury , thirty bookes , more excellent then any other of his workes ; was afterward accused that he held the error of the Millenaries , that into the trinity he had brought , Great , greater , and greatest of all ; that he thought not right of the incarnation of Christ : but seeing Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria , who was an enemy vnto him , & diuers other Authors besides , report that he was vehement , to confute the Arrians , Eunomians , Origenists , and many other hereticks , in many volumes , it may be thought whatsoeuer his other errors were , the malice of his aduersaries had forged this , to diminish the authority of those bookes , which hee had written against them . So that this practise is no new thing , to diminish the soundnes of their religion , whose iudgements , and reasons we are vnable to withstand . But I doubt not by that which followeth , but it shall easily bee made to appeare , that he is of the same iudgement with the Church of England ; that he hath not committed any ouersight ; nor that he goeth not about to contradict , the reuerend fathers of our Church ; which things ( in al likeliehood ) are matters by al you much desired ; and therefore I hope you will accept ( as you desire ) this charitable , direct , plaine , and sincere answere ; which no doubt of it , from himselfe had bin far more learned and more speedy , if he could either haue resolued to haue don it , or after he had resolued could haue liued , to haue seene it finished . But first of all , he was loth to entermeddle with so weake aduersaries ; thinking it vnfit ( as himselfe said ) that a man that hath a long iourney , should turne backe to beate euerie barking curre ; and hauing taken it in hand , his vrgent and greater affaires , together with the want of strength , weakened with much labour , would not giue him time to see it finished . Yet a his mind was stronger then his yeares , and knew not well how to yeeld to infirmitie . Wherein if hee had , somewhat fauoured himselfe , he might peraduenture , haue liued to haue answered you ; to the benefite of the Church , and the comfort of a great number . But b death hath done what hee could ; it hath killed his bodie , and it is laid vp in the heart of the earth ; it hath taken from vs , and from the Church of God , a sweete friend , a wise counsellour , and a strong Champion : so that I may say , as it was sometimes said of Demosthenes : Demosthenes is meete for Athens , Demades ouergreat . Others fit enough to liue in the midst of errour , vanitie , vnthankfulnesse , and deceit , but hee too good . For he was as the morning starre , in the middest of a cloud , and as the Moone when it is full ; and as the Sunne shining vpon the Temple of the most High , and as the rainebowe that is bright in the faire cloudes ; when he put on the garment of honour , and was clothed with all beautie , hee went vp to the holy Altar ; and made the garment of holinesse honourable . But this ought to content vs , that the soules of the righteous , are in the hand of God , and no torment shall touch them : In the sight of the vnwise they appeared to die , and their end was thought grieuous , and their departing from vs destruction , but they are in peace . ARTICLE I. Of the Deity of the Sonne of God. AL points in Diuinitie , are not of the like easinesse of apprehension . For in some , the dimme light of nature not wholy darkened , can giue a reason of that wee doe ; as well as faith out of precept , doth warrant what wee doe beleeue . And therefore the Gentiles both before , and after the Lawe , were to themselues a kind of Lawe , euen by the light of nature , not to doe all those thinges that they did desire , but they had a thing in their hearts , equiualent to the law in respect of forbidding , because they could accuse and excuse themselues , hauing the witnesse of their conscience present with them . Thus the effect of all the commandements , was in the Iewes before the lawe , and in the Gentiles who had not the law , giuen vnto them . Thus the first commuandement was in Terah , Abrahams father , which was the reason of his departure from Vr of the Chaldees , to goe into the land of Canaan . And afterwards in Iacob when hee departed out of Labans house ; aboue foure hundred yeares before the Lawe was giuen : so the second commandement in Rachel ; the third in Abraham to his seruant : the fourth had a precept in the creation : the fift for honouring his parents , euen in Esau : the sixt in Cain , who knew the greatnesse of that euill , which hee had committed , that slew his brother : feare making him , out of a guiltie conscience , to denie that , which loue before had not power enough to teach him to forbeare . The seuenth , in the hatred of the sinne of Sichem ; which Iacob though he allowed not to be rightly punished , yet he did not approue as to be well done . The eight , euen in Egypt , which made Ioseph to say , What act is that you haue done ? when the cup of Pharaoh was found in the sacke of Beniamin . The ninth , when Iudah feared the witnesse of Thamar . The last in Abimelech for taking the wife of Abraham , where the vision did not so much tell him it was a sinne ( which hee knew by nature ) as that she was another mans wife . Now in these things which were obserued before the morall Law , some were of more apparant dislike , euen in the opinion of the heathen , who had no other direction but the light of nature ; as the third , fift , sixt , seuenth , eight , and ninth commandements . For the Egyptians had a lawe ; Sweare not least thou die . And this was punished in the twelue tables of the Romans . For the fift , Homer saith of one that had a misfortune , it was because hee honoured not his parents . For the sixt , nature hath made the Murderer to expect what he hath committed . For the seuenth , Flie the name of an adulterer , if thou wilt escape death . For the eight , Demosthenes against Timocrates repeateth it as Solons law , plainely in the verie words . And for false witnesse , the Romans did punish it by their twelue tables . But the incarnation of Christ , the Sacraments , the Trinitie , the Decree of God , are matters of a deeper speculation ; wherin humilitie must follow the direction of faith , and not seek vainely with curiositie to know that , which our silly weaknesse , is far vnable to comprehend . For * as those things that are manifest are not to bee neglected , so those things that are hid , are not to be searched ; least in the one we be vnlawfully curious , and in the other be found daungerously vnthankfull . Now specially for the matter of the Trinitie , wherein you take exception in your two first Articles ; doubtlesse a there are few errours more dangerous , or that haue stirred vp greater tragedies in the church of God. All men see in nature , that there is a God ; but the distinction of persons , Trinitie in Vnitie , that faith in humilitie must teach vs to beleeue . For who can comprehend by reason , that in that holy , and sacred Trinitie , one is what three are , and that two is but one thing ; and in themselues and euerie particular infinite ; and all in euerie one , and euerie one in all , and all in all , and one in all . Fire hath three things , motion , light and heat ; Arrius deuide this if thou canst , and then deuide the Trinitie . Out of this difficultie , together with the rash presumption of ignorant men , haue proceeded those dangerous errours , that so long , and so hotly haue troubled the church ; thus the Manichies haue denied the vnitie of Essence ; the Valentinians ( or Gnostici ) from Carpocrates , held that Christ was man onely , from both sexes borne , but that he had such a soule , which knew all things that were aboue , and snewed them . Those that haue in their erronious doctrine oppugned the Trinitie , are of two sorts ; they haue either denied the distinction of persons , or else the samenesse of Essence ; thus the Arrians ( for we will not stand to incounter or confute all other heresies ) held that Christ was a person before his incarnation , but that he was true , and eternall God , equall , and of the same essence , with his Father , that they denied ; for they hold that the Sonne is not eternally begotten , of the substance of his Father , and so that there is an inequalitie , and indeed a distinction , and prioritie of essence . Into this dangerous , and ignorant blind heresie , confuted long since with powerfull and strong reasons , it seemes you are of opinion that Maister Hooker is fallen , both against the truth , and against the true assertions , of the Reuerend Fathers of our church . The ground of this so great and so vncharitable accusation , is because he saith , that the Father alone , is originally that Deitie , which Christ originally is not . Where you seem to inferre , against the distinction of the Trinitie , that the Godhead of the Father , and the Sonne cannot bee all one , if the Sonne be not originally that Deitie . It seemes then in your opinions , that this speech vttered verie learnedly , and with great wisedome , and truth ; The Father alone is originally that Deitie which Christ originally is not , is both vnusuall , new , and dangerous . First , because it weakeneth the eternitie of the Sonne , in the opinion of the simple , or maketh the Sonne inferiour to the Father in respect of the Godhead , or else teacheth the ignorant that there may be many Gods. I know your owne Christian iudgements , could easily haue freed him from all suspicion of error in this point ; if your charity had bin equall to your vnderstanding : for he himselfe hath confessed in the very same place , from whence you haue taken this , wherof you accuse him ; that by the gift of eternall generation , Christ hath receiued of the father , one and in number the selfe same substance ; which the father hath of himselfe vnreceiued from any other . Who seeth not , saith S. Augustine , that these words Father , and Son , shew not the diuersities of natures , but the relation of persons ; and therfore the Son is not of another nature and of a diuers substance , because the father is God , not from another God , but the Son is God from God his father : heere is not declared the substance but the originall ; that is , not what he is , but from whence he is , or is not ; for in God the Father , and in God the Son , if we inquire the nature of them both , both are God , and but one God , neither greater or lesse in essence of Godhead , one then the other . But if we speake of the originall , saith Saint Austin ( which you see Master Hooker did ) the Father is God originally , from whom the Son is God ; but there is not from whom the Father hath originally his deity ; so that to mislike this kinde of speech , is contrary to all truth , to affirme , that the Son is not eternally begotten of the father , & that the Father is not eternally a deity begetting . But heere you must take heede of the errour of Arrius , who against the truth reasoned thus ; If the Sonne be coeternall with his Father , tell vs , we beseech you , whether he were begotten when he was , or when he was not ; if when he was , then there was before two vnbegotten , and afterwards one begot the other ; if when he was not , then he must needes be later , and after his Father . But saith Saint Augustine , as we haue knowne onely the Father , alwayes and without beginning to be vnbegottē ; so we confesse , the Son alwaies , and without beginning to bee begotten of his Father : therefore because the Father , is originally that Deitie , from whence the Sonne is the Sonne ; though hee be the same Deity , yet the Father alone , is originally that Deitie , which the Sonne originally is not : The want of Identitie being not in the Deitie ( whereof we must needes with the Church of God acknowledge an Vnitie ) but in that it is not originally the same . For euery thing that is a beginning , is a father vnto that which commeth of it , and euery ofspring is a sonne vnto that out of which it groweth . Christ then being God , by being of God , light by issuing out of light , though he be the same deity ( for in the Trinitie there is but one deity ) yet the Father is originally that deity alone , which Christ originally is not . Here if you note but the difference betwixt that Deity , and originally that Deity , you must needs confesse that M. Hooker speaketh , with the consent of reformed antiquitie , and hath said nothing to diminish the eternitie of the Sonne , or to make him inferiour , in respect of his Father ; or to teach the ignorant , that there be manie Gods. ARTICLE II. The coeternity of the Sonne , and the proceeding of the holy Ghost . IN this Article , the thing which you mislike is not any matter of his iudgement , but that he seemeth to cōfesse , either out of lesse learning then you haue , or more humilitie then you shew , that the coeternitie of the Sonne of God , with his Father , and the proceeding of the Spirit from the Father and the Sonne , are in Scripture no where to be found by expresse literall mention : And yet you cannot be ignorant , but that vndoubtedly he beleeued both . Therfore in my opinion it is strange , why out of the second , & fift Article , holdē by our church ; you alleage that the Sonne is the word of the Father from euerlasting , begotten of the Father ; and the holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son ; as though you dealt with an aduersarie that denied either . You could not be ignorant ( hauing perused his writings with that diligence to reprehend ) but in this great mysterie of the Trinitie , both concerning the equalitie of the Sonne with the Father , and the Deitie of the holie Ghost , who proceedeth from both , see plainly , that he held directly , and soundly that doctrine , which is most true , and euerie way agreeable with the iudgements , and expositions of the Reuerend Fathers of our Church . Neither doe I know , whether in this point , anie of them , haue left behinde them a more sound , learned , and vertuous Confession , then he hath done . For , saith he ; The Lord our God is but one God. In which indiuisible vnitie , notwithstanding we adore the Father , as being altogether of himselfe ; we glorifie that Consubstantiall Word , which is the Sonne ; wee blesse and magnifie that coessentiall Spirit , eternally proceeding from both , which is the holy Ghost : what confession can there be in this point , of greater iudegment , learning , and truth ? and wherein , there is lesse difference with that , which our Church holdeth ? both hauing their ground , as you may see , by the places alleaged by M. Hooker , in the Margent , from the infallible euidence of Gods word . This troubleth you that hee saith , that these points are in scripture no where to be found , by expresse literall mention : which you out of your learned obseruation , haue prooued ( as you thinke ) to be farre otherwise , by those places of Scripture , which his carelesse reading and weake iudgement , was no way able to obserue . Where first , to proue the coeternitie of the Sonne , you alleage ; The Lord hath possessed me in the beginning of his way ; I was before his works of old . And againe , In the beginning was the word , and the word was with God , and the word was God. And againe , Glorifie me thou Father with thine owne selfe , with the glorie which I had with thee before the world was . These places I confesse by way of collection , may serue , trulie to confirme in this Article , that which our Church holdeth ( and yet they are not the plainest places that might be alleaged for this purpose . ) But in all these , where is there to be found expresse literall mention , of the Coeternitie of the Sonne , with the Father ? Nay , for any thing that euer I could reade ; I do not thinke you are able to find the word Coeternall , or Coequall , in the whole Scripture in this sence . For after the Arrians had long , in this point troubled the Church , the holy Fathers expresse what they held , by the word Homousion ; which word Saint Augustine affirmeth , not to be found in all the Scripture . What then hath Maister Hooker said ; which Saint Augustine said not long since ? neither of them disprouing the thing , but both denying the expresse literall mention of the word ; which I persuade my self your selues are neuer able to find . Now for the proceeding of the holy Ghost , you alleage , as you say , expresse words : When the Comforter shall come , whom I will send vnto you ▪ from the Father , euen the Spirit of truth , which proceedeth of the Father : Out of this place ( as you thinke ) you haue sufficiently proued , the expresse literal mention of this point ; we contēd not with you , nor with any , whether the truth of this point may directly be warranted by holy scripture , but whether there be , as you say , expresse literal mention . First then we call that expresse literal mention , which is set down in plaine tearmes , & not inferred by way of consequence : that it is so in this point we haue some reasō to doubt , vntil out of your great obseruation , you confirme it by more plaine and apparant Scripture . For against this place ( which is but one ) which you haue alleaged , we take this twofold exception ; as thereby accounting it insufficient , to proue as you would haue it , that there is expresse literall mention of the proceeding , of the Spirit from the Father and the Son. For first , in that place alleaged out of Saint Iohn , there is no mention at all of proceeding from the Sonne . Secondly , as Maister Beza ( whose authority you will not denie ) doth expound the place , Christ speaketh not of the essence of the holy Ghost in himselfe , but of the vertue and power of the holy Ghost in vs : neither doth his interpretation ( which wee will not examine at this time ) any way preiudice the foundation of that truth , which our Church doth hold . For the Deitie of the holie Ghost proceeding from the Father , and the Sonne , though not by any expresse literall mention , yet may easily be proued by infinite places of Scripture , and other infallible demonstrations besides this . In the dayes of Liberius the Pope , and of Constantius the Emperour , certaine fantasticall spirits held , that the holy Ghost was not God ; but onely the ministeriall instrument of diuine working : This began vnder Arrius , and increased by Eunomius , a leprous heretike , but a subtill Logitian ; whom the Church hath strongly confuted , with arguments impossible to be answered . As first , that the holy Ghost is euerie where ; to giue all things : to know and search all things ; that we are commanded to baptise in the name of the Father , of the Sonne , and of the holy Ghost : besides the greatnesse of the sinne against the holy Ghost : So Ananias that lyed , as Peter said , to the holy Ghost , lyed not to man , but to God. These and many such places , warranted those ancient Councels , to conclude the Deitie of the holy Ghost , equall to the Father and the Sonne ; and equally proceeding from both . As first the Councell of Constantinople , consisting of an hundreth and fiftie Bishops , vnder Theodosius the elder , and Damasus the Pope , which condemned the heresie of the Macedonians . The same faith was confirmed by the Councell of Ephesus ; the Councell of Chalcedon ; the Councell of Lateran , vnder Innocentius the third , and diuers others . And Athanasius himselfe maketh it most plaine , that the Father is of none , either made , created , or begotten : the Sonne is of the Father alone , not made , nor created , but begotten : the holy Ghost is from the Father , and the Sonne , not made , nor created , nor begotten , but proceeding . In this , nothing being first , or last , greater , or lesse ; but all the three persons , coeternall and coequall . The proceeding of the holy Ghost ( as the Schoolemen obserue ) is threefold ; one vnspeakeable and eternal , whereby the holy Ghost eternally ; and without time , proceedeth from the Father and the Sonne ; the other temporall , when he is sent from the Father , and the Son , to sanctifie the elect . Of this latter proceeding , saith Beza , is that place vnderstood which you peremptorily alleage , for to proue the first . So then we say , for our answer to this cauill , that as yet we see not expresse literall mention of these points ; but that they are truly and soundly collected , by the Church , we neither doe , can , or dare deny ; secondly , that the deniall of expresse literall mention , ought not to make any scruple , in the minds of weake Christians , concerning these articles , the substance wherof are plaine scripture ; though for the words we finde not as yet any expresse literall mention : nor last of all ( as you seeme to feare ) it can be no vnderpropping to the traditions of the Church of Rome , which if they can proue with the like necessary collection , out of the holy scripture , we are readie to imbrace them with all our hearts . In the meane time we account it a wrong , to haue an article of our faith , for want of expresse literall mention out of scripture , to be compared to traditions , of that kinde , for which in scripture there is no warrant at all . To conclude then this article , we say that in the Trinitie there is that Identity of essence , that it admitteth equality , but not plurality : the Father is one , the Sonne another , the Holy-Ghost another , but not another thing . For that thing that they all are , is this one thing , that they are one God. So that Saint Austin saith , I and my Father are one ; heere both the words of the sentence , one , & are ; in that he saith one , he freeth thee from Arrius ; and in that he saith are , hee freeth thee from Sabellius . For are , hee would not say of one ; and one , he would not say of diuers : for euery person hath his owne substance , which no other besides hath , although there be others besides , which are of the same substance . For the persons of the Godhead by reason of the vnity of their substance , doe as necessarily remaine , one within another , as they are of necessitie , to be distinguished one frō another : because two are the issue of one , and one the ofspring of the other two ; only of three , one , not growing out of any other . For sith they all are but one God in number , one indiuisible essence , or substance , their distinction cannot possiblie admit separation ; the Father therefore is in the Sonne , and the Son in him ; they both in the Spirit , and the Spirit in both them : He that can , saith Austine , conceiue , let him comprehend it , but hee that cannot , let him beleeue , and pray , that that which hee beleeueth ▪ he may truly vnderstand . ARTICLE III. Whether the holy Scriptures containe all things necessarie to saluation . TWo things , are requisite to mans better life ; a faith to beleeue what he ought , a knowledge to comprehend what hee must beleeue . For , saith our Sauiour , in this is eternal life , to know thee to be the only verie God , and whom thou hast sent Iesus Christ. Because therefore the want of this knowledge , is the cause of all iniquitie amongst men , as contrariwise the verie ground of all our happinesse , and the seed of whatsoeuer perfect vertue groweth from vs , is a right opinion touching things diuine : this kind of knowledge wee may iustly set downe , for the first and chiefest thing , which God imparteth to his people ; and our dutie , of receiuing this at his mercifull hands , for the first of those religious offices , wherewith wee publikely honour him on earth . Now our Church holdeth , and wee most willingly confesse , that the scripture is the true ground , of all that holily we beleeue . But yet for all that , not the onely meanes , concerning God , of all that profitably wee know . For that new impression , made into our nature , euē by the hand of the Almightie , after the first sinne ; and the wise beholding of his excellent workmanship , in the making of all his creatures , are two volumes wherein wee may read ( though not directly ) the mercy of that power , that hath saued vs ; yet the greatnes , and the might of that hand that hath first made vs : which though it be not all that we must beleeue , yet it is not the least part of that , which we ought to know . For this , as it maketh vs without excuse , so it serueth euen to leade vs , to a better knowledge : and ( vntill it be perfect ) to vtter out of the light of nature , those voices , which may argue vs , though not to be sonnes ( for by this we cannot crie Abba Father ) yet to be reasonable creatures , of that power which we do adore ; this made * Euripides in Troas , and manie of the heathen , to vtter those prayers , which had they beene offered vp in Christ , had not bin vnbeseeming a good Christian : so that though the Scriptures containe all things , which are necessarie to saluation ; and that our chiefest direction , is from them ; yet we are not affraid to confesse , that there is besides a light of nature , not altogether vnprofitable ; the insufficiencie whereof , is by the light of Scripture , fully and perfectly supplied : and that both these together , as Master a Hooker affirmeth , which you mislike , doe serue in such full sort , that they both iointly & not seuerally , either of them , be so compleat , that vnto euerlasting felicity , we need not the knowledge of any thing more then of these two ; I cannot but maruaile , that men indued with reason should finde anie thing , in this assertion , which in the hardest construction , might be wrested as detracting frō the sufficiency of the holy scripture : And only for this cause , by reason that we reade darkly , by the light of nature those first elements , out of a naturall knowledge , which by the accesse of a better teacher , serue afterward for the full perfecting of that knowledge , which is requisite to mans saluation . For as the schoolemen say , man standeth in need of a threefold lawe , to a morall vprightnes , setting aside that righteousnes requisit for his heauenly country . First an eternall law ( which b Saint Austin calleth the cheifest reason ) secondly naturall ; last of all humane ; vnto which if we adde that man , ouer and besides these , is in an ordination to a supernaturall ende ; then it is manifest , that to make him a heauenly Citizen there is requisite a fourth lawe ; which man , must learne to obei● , out of the holy scripture . But as in the greatest and fairest buildings euen those stones , that lye lowest , are of an vse , not be contemned ; though peraduenture , not comparable to those last , exquisite perfections , by which the worke is finished ; so euen the light of nature , for the acting of morall vertues , hath his vse , though not absolutely compleat , to make vs Christians : And therefore in the nature of mans will , the very Philosophers did seldome erre ; but in the strength of it often . So that some ascribed more then was fit ; others lesse then they ought ; imputing al to a stoical and fatall necessitie . Now that we may truly vnderstand , ( the ignorance or mistaking wherof , hath bin the ground of your exception in this third article ) what good things man of himselfe may do or know without the grace of God ; we are taught , first that all actions are of three sorts ; naturall , which are common to man with the brute beasts ; as to eate , sleepe , and such like , which appertaine to his naturall life . Secondly , ciuill , which we call politicall , or morall , humane actions ; as to buie , sel , to learne anie art , and to conclude any other action , which concerneth the politick , or priuate society of man. Thirdly , those which belong to the kingdome of God , to a perfect , happy , and true Christian life ; as to repent vs of our sinnes , to beleeue in God , to call vppon him , to obeie his voice , to liue after his precepts , and such like : now the question is , what grace and power is requisite to man , to performe any , or all these . Where we must obserue , that some men ( how properlie I know not ) make the grace of God to be threefold . First that generall motion and action diuine , of which Saint Paule saith , in him we liue , we moue , and haue our beeing . This the Schoolemen call a c generall ouerflowing ; and of the late writers , especially of Luther , it is called the action of the omnipotency ; and this grace is common to all , that are within that compas to be called creatures . Secondly there is a grace of God , which is a special fauor of God , by the which he bestoweth , and deuideth his gifts , and morall vertues , both to the faithfull and vnfaithfull , as pleaseth him . To the faithfull , that hauing the helpe afterward of a better light , they may serue to be meanes of their saluation ; to the vnfaithfull , for speciall vses , and manifold , in the society of man , and to make themselues , in the end without excuse . Such were those gifts in the Romans , and others of the heathen , of iustice , fortitude , temperance , prudence , which they thought , were from nature ; but we acknowledge to be from the speciall fauour of God ; for as being , so truth is but one , and by d whom soeuer it is done , or spoken , it proceedeth from the Holy-ghost ; and therefore I both maruaile at those , who make an opposition betwixt this light of nature and the scripture ; e being both from one fountaine , though running in diuers streames ; and that some men peeuishly refuse the excellentest truthes , of heathen learning , seeing euen in them , these haue proceeded from the Holy-ghost . Thirdly , there is a grace of regeneration , or the grace of Christ , without which , there can bee nothing performed of man truly good ; for saith f our Sauiour , Without me , you can doe nothing ; and Saint g Paule , Not I but the grace of God which is with me ; so that this must be the perfection of the other two , which is powerfull to mans saluation , not rasing out , that which before was , but finishing that which before was imperfect . The two first , induing man with a passiue power , ( as the schoolemen call it ) which though actually it can doe nothing , yet it is fit to performe that , which it hath no repugnancy in his owne nature to resist ; as wood can be made fire , which water cannot . The last only affoording that actual power , which maketh him capable of the supernaturall worke ; so that it is true in diuinity , that a the possibility to haue faith , is from nature ; but to haue it , it is of grace ( as Saint Austin and Prosper hold ) neither of them vnderstanding an actuall hauing of faith without the grace of regeneration : This made the Fathers , in their sermons to the people , to stirre them vp to prayer and good workes ; to tell them often , that wee can loue God , and doe good workes ; whereunto , they only ment that we had a passiue power , which stocks and brute beasts haue not . Now for the actiue power , wee hold , that man hath not this in naturall things , without the generall helpe of God ; and in morall actions , or the learning of artes , not with that generall helpe onely , ( which hath bin some mens error ) but from a more speciall and peculiar grace ; the weakenes of those common notions of good and euill , iust and vniust , left in our nature by a newe impression , after sin , is for the most part such , that they can hardly discerne any thing , no not in arts , vnlesse they be inlightned from aboue . And therfore , that Numa amongst the Romans ; Solon amongst the Athenians ; Lycurgus amongst the Lacedemonians ; and that many other amongst the Gentiles , were wise , and in that kinde vertuous ; was not so much from nature , as from a speciall grace : whose morall workes , saith Saint Austin , were good , in their office , and action ; but not in their end . This argument he very learnedly handleth , against Iulian the Pelagian , where he concludeth two thinges ; that there can be no true vertues , or truly chast workes in infidels ; and that those works whatsoeuer they are , are not from nature , but from a speciall grace : the hauing whereof , though it serue not of it selfe to saluation , yet we are not afraid to affirme , that the want of these doe ordinarily exclude from saluation : Iustice , fortitude , temperance , & prudence , being the effects of the same grace , but lesse powerfully working ; faith , hope , and charity , only taught by a supernaturall truth . So that though the light of nature , teach a truth necessary to saluation , without the scripture , yet it teacheth no knowledge , which is not conteined in holy scripture ; the difference only being in this , that the light of nature , doth not teach all that the scripture doth , but that the scripture teacheth all , ( & more perfectly ) which is taught by the light of nature : heerein only neither excluded as vnnecessarie , the one being subordinate to the other , and both meanes of the same thing . To conclude then this point ▪ wee hold ( being warranted by holy truth ) that the scriptures are the perfect measure and rule of faith , and that without Christ , we cannot be compleat ; and yet for all this , that nature , so inlightened , teacheth those morall vertues , without which , is no ordinary saluation ; but we say not , that matters and cases of saluation bee determined , by any other lawe , then warranted by holy scripture ; or that we are , or can be iustified , by any other then in Christ , by faith without the workes of the lawe : for there is no other name , which is giuen vnder heauen , amongst men , by which we must be saued . The naturall man perceiueth not the things of the spirit of God , for they are foolishnes vnto him : for except a man bee borne againe , hee cannot see the kingdome of heauen . ARTICLE IIII. Holy scriptures aboue the Church . THough the vnthankefulnes of man be without excuse , euen from the brightnes that riseth from looking vpon al the creatures ; which with their beames shineth into the darkest corners of mans hart , yet in his mercy , he hath not left him altogether destitute of a better guide . The first seruing , to teach him that there is a God ; the latter , what that God is , and how he will bee worshipped by man. This light wee call the scripture ; which God hath not vouchsafed to all , but to those only , whome he gathereth more neerely and familiarly to him selfe , and vouchsafeth that honor , to be called his Church , that , as men through infirmity seeing weakely , prouide vnto themselues , the helpe of a better sight ; so , what man cannot reade , by the dimnes of his seeing out of the creatures , he may more apparantly reade them , in the holy scriptures . For as there is no saluation without religion ; no religion without faith ; so there is no faith without a promise , nor promise without a word : for God desirous to make an vnion betwixt vs and himselfe , hath so linked his word and his Church , that neither can stand , where both are not . The Church for her part , in her choice allowance testifying , as well that it is the scripture ; as the scripture , from an absolute authority , doth assure vs that it is the Church . For as those , who are conuerted , haue no reason to beleeue , that to be the Church , where there is no scripture ; so those who are not conuerted , haue no great reason , to admit that for scripture , for which they haue not the Churches warrant . So that in my opinion , the contention is vnnaturall and vnfit , to make a variance by comparison , betwixt those two , who are in reason and nature , to support each other . It was a memorable attonement , that Abraham made with Lotte , let there be no strife I pray thee betweene thee and me , neither betweene thy heardsmen , and my heardsmen , for we be brethren ; so vndoubtedly , may the Church and the scripture say ; it is then to be feared that those , who treacherously make this contentious comparison betwixt both , are in very deede , true friends to neither . For though we dislike of them , by whome too much heeretofore , hath bin attributed to the Church ; yet we are loth to grow to an error on the contrary hand , and to derogate too much from the Church of God : by which remoouall of one extremity with another , the worlde seeking to procure a remedy , hath purchased a meere exchang of the euill , which before was felt . We and our aduersaries confesse , that the scriptures in themselues haue great authority ▪ inward witnes from that spirit , which is the author of all truth : and outward arguments , strong motiues of beleefe , which cleaueth firmely to the word it selfe . For what doctrine was euer deliuered with greater maiesty ? What stile euer had such simplicity ? purity ? diuinity ? What history or memoriall of learning is of like antiquity ? what oracles foretold haue bin effected , with such certainty ? What miracles more powerfull to confirme the truth ? What enemies euer preuailed lesse or laboured more violently to roote it out ? To conclude , what witnesses haue dyed with more innocency , or lesse feare , then those that haue sealed the holinesse of this truth ? This the scripture is in it selfe ; but men who are of lesse learning , then these reformers are , do not vnworthily make question , how that which ought thus highly to be esteemed for it selfe , commeth to be accounted of thus honorably by vs ; for the weakenes of mans iudgement , doth not euer value things , by that worth which they doe deserue . For vndoubtedly out of that error , hath proceeded your suspition of him , whose inward worthines , must now be content to receiue testimony , from a witnes by many thousand degrees , inferiour to himselfe . To them of Samaria the woman gaue testimony of our sauiour Christ ; not that she was better , but better knowne ; for witnesses of lesse credit , then those of whome they beare witnesse , but of some more knowledge then those to whome they beare witnes , haue euer bin reputed to giue a kind of warrant and authority vnto that they proue . Seeing then the Church , which consisteth of many , doth outwardly testifie , what euery man inwardly should be ; to swarue vnnecessarilie from the iudgement of the whole Church , experience as yet hath neuer found it safe . For that which by her ecclesiasticall authority , she shal probably thinke & define to be true , or good , must in congruity of reason , ouerrule all other inferiour Iudgements whatsoeuer . And to them ( that out of a singularity of their owne ) aske vs why we thus hang ou● iudgements on the Churches sleeue , wee answere with Salomon , Two are better then one ; for euen in matters of lesse moment , it was neuer thought safe , to neglect the iudgement of many , and rashly to follow the fancy , and opinion of some few . If the Fathers of our Church , had had no greater reasō to auouch their forsaking of the Antichristian Synagogue , ( as you call it ) then this point ; wee might iustly haue wished to haue bin recōciled to the fellowship , & society of their church . For this point , as it seemeth rightly vnderstood , affordeth little difference betwixt them and vs ; and therfore there was no mention of it in the last councell their Church had . And Bellarmine himselfe , doth apparantly complaine , that we wrong them in this point ; for doubtles it is a tolerable opinion of the Church of Rome , if they go no further ( as some of them do not ) to affirme that the scriptures , are holy and diuine in themselues , but so esteemed by vs for the authority of the Church ; for there is no man doubteth but that it belongeth to the Church ( if we vnderstand as we ought those truely who are the Church ) to approue the scriptures , to acknowledg ; to receiue ; to publish ; & to commend vnto hir Children . And this witnes ought to be receiued of all , as true , yet wee doe not beleeue the scriptures for this only ; for there is the testimony of the Holy-ghost , without which the commendation of the Church were of little value . That the scriptures are true to vs , wee haue it from the Church ; but that wee beleeue them as true , we haue it from the Holy-ghost . We confesse , it is an excellent office of the Church , to beare witnes to the scriptures ; but we say not , that otherwise we would not beleeue them . We graunt that the scriptures rightly vsed , are the iudge of controuersies ; that they are the triall of the Church ; that they are in themselues a sufficient witnes for what they are : but yet for all this , wee are not afraid , with Master Hooker to confesse , that it is not the word of God , which doth , or possibly can , assure vs , that we do well to thinke it is the word of God. For by experience we all know , that the first outward motion , leading men so to esteeme of the scripture , is the authority of Gods Church , which teacheth vs to receiue Markes Gospell , who was not an Apostle , and refuse the Gospell of Thomas who was an Apostle , & to retain S. Lukes gospel , who saw not Christ , and to reiect the Gospell of Nicodemus that sawe him . For though in themselues , they haue an apparant & great difference ( as there must needs be betwixt Scripture and no Scripture ) yet to those that are vnable to discerne so much , the matter stands ouerruled only , by the authoritie of the Church . For though , as Maister Hooker saith , the Scriptures teach vs , that sauing truth , which God hath discouered to the world , by reuelation ; yet it presumeth vs taught otherwise , that it selfe is diuine and sacred : And therefore the reading of the Scripture in our Churches , is one of the plainest euidences we haue of the Churches assent and acknowledgement that it is the Scripture : And yet without any contradiction at all , who so assenteth to the words of eternall life , doth it in regard of his authoritie whose words they are . Those with whom the Church is to deale , are often heretikes ; and these will much sooner beleeue the Church , then the Scriptures . Therefore saith Saint Austine ( in that knowne place ) I had not beleeued the Scriptures , if I had not beene compelled by the authoritie of the Church . And howsoeuer the Church may seeme , now little to need her authoritie , because the greatest haruest of heresies is past ; yet we must not contemne her for all that , because euen the weedes of heresie , being growne vnto a ripenesse , doe euen in their verie cutting downe scatter oftentimes , those seedes , which for a whilely vnseene , and buried in the earth , but afterwards freshly spring vp againe , no lesse pernicious then at the first . Therfore the Church hath , and must haue , to the end of the world , foure singular offices towards the Scripture . First , to be a witnesse and keeper of them , as it were a faithfull Register : whose fidelitie , in that behalfe , vnlesse we be bastard children , we haue no reason at all ●o suspect ; witnesses of lesse truth and authoritie , hauing oftentimes the credite to be beleeued . Secondly , to discerne and iudge betweene false and adulterate , and that which is true , and perfect ; in this respect , it hath a propertie , which other assemblies want ; to heare , and discerne the voice of her husband ; neither can she be thought a chast spouse , who hath not the abilitie to do that . But as the Goldsmith either in his ballance , or with his touchstone , discerneth pure gold from other mettals of lesse value , yet doth not make it ; so dealeth the Church , who hath not authoritie to make scripture , that which is not ; but maketh a true difference from that which did only seeme . Neither in this respect , is the Church aboue the Scriptures , but acknowledgeth in humilitie , that shee is left in trust , to tell her children which is her husbands voice ; and to point our to the world ( as Iohn Baptist did Christ ) a truth of a farre more excellent perfection then her selfe is : As if I doubted of a strange coine , wherein I rest satisfied in the resolution of a skilfull man ; but yet valuing the coine for the matter and the stampe of the coine it selfe . The third office of the Church is to publish , and diuulge , to proclaime as a cryer , the true edict of our Lord himself ; not daring ( as Chrysostom saith ) to adde anie thing of her owne ; which shee no sooner doth , but the true subiects yeeld obedience , not for the voice of him that proclaimeth , but for the authoritie of him whose ordinances are proclaimed . The last is to be an Interpreter ; and in that following the safest rule ( to make an vndiuided vnitie of the truth vncapable of contradiction ) to be a most faithfull expositor of his owne meaning . Thus whilest the Church for that trust reposed in her , dealeth faithfully in these points , we are not afraid to acknowledge , that wee so esteeme of the Scriptures , as rightly wee are led by the authoritie of Gods Church . Those that are of that iudgement , that they dare giue credit without witnesse , though we follow not their example in ouermuch credulitie , yet we blame not their iudgmēts in that kind . Touching therfore the authoritie of the Church , & the scriptures , though we graunt ( as you say ) that the Church is truly distinguished by the scriptures ; that the scriptures ( which is a strāge phrase ) warrāt y e trial of Gods word ; & that it was euer beleeued for the words sake ; yet without feare of vnderpropping anie popish principle ( as you tearme it ) we say , that we are taught to receiue it , from the authoritie of the Church ; we see her iudgement ; we heare her voice ; and in humilitie subscribe vnto all this ; euer acknowledging the Scriptures to direct the Church , and yet the Church to affoord ( as she is bound ) her true testimony to the Scripture . For the verse of Menander , Aratus , or Epimenides , was , and had beene euer but the saying of Poets ; had not the Church assured vs , that it was vttered since , by an instrument of the holy Ghost . ARTICLE V. Of Freewill . IN searching out the nature of humane reason , whilest wee reach into the depth of that excellencie , which man had by creation ; we must needs confesse , that by sinne he hath lost much , who now is vnable , to comprehend all that hee should ; but wee dare not affirme that hee hath lost all , who euen in this blindnesse , is able to see something , and in this weakenesse strong enough , without the light of supernaturall Iustifying grace , to tread out those paths of moral vertues , which haue not only great vse in humane society , but are also not altogether of a nature oppositely different from mans saluation . And therefore the naturall way to find out lawes by reason , guideth , as it were by a direct path , the will vnto that which is good , which naturally hauing a freedome in herselfe , is apt to take , or refuse , any particular obiect whatsoeuer being presented vnto it . Which though wee affirme , yet we neither say that Reason can guide the will vnto all that is good ( for though euery good that concerneth vs hath euidence inough for it selfe , yet reason is not diligent to search it out ; ) nor we say not , that the will doth take or refuse any particular obiect ; but is apt rather , noting the nature wherby it hath that power , then shewing the ability wherby it hath that strength . For though sinne hath giuen ( as the Schoolemen obserue ) foure wounds vnto our nature ; Ignorance , Malice , Concupisence , and infirmity ; the first in the vnderstanding , the second in the will , the third in our desiring appetite , the last in the Irascible ; yet the will is free from necessity and coaction , though not from misery and infirmity . For ( as Saint Bernard saith ) there is a threefold freedome , from necessity , from sinne , from misery : the first of nature , the second of grace , the third of glory . In the first , from the bondage of coaction , the will is free in it owne nature , and hath power ouer it selfe . In the second , the will is not free , but freed , from the bondage of sin . And in the third , it is freed from the seruitude of corruption . Now that freedome , by which the will of man is named free , is the first only : and therefore we dare say , that the wicked , who haue not the two last , ( being captiues to sin in this life , and to misery in the life to come ) yet for all this , want not the freedome of will. Now this freedome of nature as Aristotle noteth , is two fold ; that which is opposite to a simple coaction , and that to which not only a coaction , but a necessity is opposite . The first is of those thinges , which cānot by any meanes but be willed of vs , & yet freely and voluntarily are willed ; as to be happy , which none can chuse but will , though most doe faile in the meanes : the second , when we can either will , or not will ; as to walke , speake , sit , or such like . Now because nothing is the proper , or the chiefe obiect of the will , but that which either is , or seemes to bee good , as all learned men affirme ; therefore in our wils , there is this vsuall error , that our vnderstandings are deceiued by the inferior appetite of the flesh , which maketh that seeme good , in the particular proposition , which it pronounceth to bee euill in the generall . And therefore beeing by nature to will good , willeth that which is directly opposite , because reason growing idle , in the slouth of an inferior appetite , wanteth diligence to search it out . Fewe men but think drunkennes in generall to bee euil , which notwithstanding themselues do imbrace , because in particular they thinke it good : This being the difference in all sinne , that then it seemeth to be none , when it is ( this sin ) Thus the conclusion by the rules of Logicke , being from the particular ( wherein reason corrupted hath failed ) the will hath reason enough to follow that ; and therfore saith S. Austin , man vsing amisse the freedome of this wil , hath both lost it and himselfe ; not in respect of the naturall libertie from coaction , but in respect of the libertie which is from sinne , as Aquinas answereth . Saint Ambrose ( or whosoeuer was the Authour of that booke of the calling of the Gentiles ) saith , that in man there is a threefold will ; sensitiue , animal , spiritual ; the two first , he holdeth to bee 〈◊〉 , the last to be the worke of the holy Ghost . For as one 〈◊〉 , there is in man an vnderstanding of earthly things , and of heauenly : earthly things , as of policie , gouerning of families , arts , liberall and mechanicall , and such like , which pertaine not directly to God , to his kingdome , to the righteousnesse of it , to eternall happinesse ; heauenly , as the knowledge of the diuine will , and framing our liues according to it : Of the first we say , that because man is a sociable creature , & naturally inclineth to all that concerne the preseruation of that ; there are left in him certain vniuersall impressions , wherein in all ages , wise men haue conspired for the making of good lawes : Which in my opinion is not much lesse , then that which you reprehend , being affirmed by M. Hooker . But the vnderstāding of heauenly things , we confesse by the corruption of original sin wholy to be taken from vs. For natural things are corrupted , & supernaturall taken away . For we think not as some of the ancient Fathers did , especially the Greekes ( who were loth to dissent too much from the Philosophers ) that man was corrupted only in his sensuall part , and that hee hath reason found , and his will also for the most part . For saith Saint Austin , Adam had that he might , if he would ; but not to will that he could : And therefore in supernaturall things ( which are the workes of pietie pleasing and acceptable to God ) ( of which is vnderstood all that you alleage out of the tenth Article of the Church of England ) we say the will of man hath not obtained grace by freedom , but freedome by grace ; yet for all this , neither doth the will want in his owne nature a potentiall freedome in all things , nor an actuall powerfull freedome in some things : for the blow that sinne gaue , made not an equall disabilitie to all actions ; seeing all actions are not in equal distance from mans nature . For the thoughts , and the actions of man , wee know are of three kindes ; naturall , morall , supernaturall ; nowe there are manie truths theoricall , and mechanicall , contained in naturall and humane arts , which by man may bee comprehended , onely by the light of nature : for though some diuines are of opinion , that no morall truth can be knowne of the vnderstanding of man , in the state of nature corrupt , without the special help of God ; others contrary ( as Albertus , Bonauenture , Scotus , Aqumas and diuers others ) yet all agree in this , that man can know a morall truth in generall , without any speciall grace ; but that good that directly belongeth to eternall life , he cannot . Now what I pray you doth our Church say lesse when saith , that without the grace of God ( which is by Christ ) preuen●ing vs , that we will , and working together while we will , we are nothing at all able to doe the workes of pietie , which are pleasing & acceptable to God ? Or what in your opiniō doth M. Hooker say more , when he saith that there is in the will of man , naturally that freedome , wherby it is apt ( not able ) to take , or refuse any particular obiect whatsoeuer , being presented to it ? or when hee saith there is not that good which cōcerneth vs , but it hath enough for euidēce in it selfe if Reason were diligent to search it out : the fault of mans errour in election , arising out of the slouth of reason , not out of the nature of the good . And this slouth , being nothing els , but that heauie burthen , wherwith we are loden by our first corruption . And therefore in mine opinion , the accusation is directly false , whereby you would make him to say contrary to his words ; that reason by diligence is able to find out anie good concerning vs. For hee that saith that there is vertue enough in the poole to heale , if a man had power enough to put himselfe in ; doth not affirme that man hath strength enough to doe it ; but that the poole had vertue , if hee were able to do it . But doubtlesse we are dead in our sinnes , and trespasses ; we are not sufficient of our selues to thinke anie thing ; and yet as Seneca saith , it is the gift of God that we liue , for that he hath done without vs ; but it is an act of our owne ( not simply , but of our selues helped ) that we liue well . For many other things may vnwillingly be done by vs , but the act of beleeuing , as it must be done in vs , so it must be done willingly , and with vs. And therefore saith Saint Austin , there are three things necessarie that supernaturall mysteries may bee perceiued by vs ; first , a diuine reuelation from the Scriptures ; a perswasion of that truth by miracles , or some other meanes ; and last of all , the rule of the will. For , saith he , a man may enter into the Church vnwillingly ; he may receiue the sacrament vnwillingly ; but no man can beleeue but willingly . Now there is no difference betwixt the will , and the free will , ( both being the rationall power of desiring ) but that the one respecteth the end , and then it is called will : the other respecteth the meanes , and then it is called free-will . So the same power of vnderstanding , as it respecteth the first principles , is called vnderstanding ; as it respecteth the conclusion which is gathered by a discourse , from the principles , it is called reason . Now this reason concerning things doubtful , hath naturally in it selfe , a way to both opposites ; but leaneth to that for the most part , wherunto either appetite , ignorance or grace sway it . So that though freely and without constraint , it follow naturally the wisedome of the flesh ; yet without a supernaturall grace , the wisedome of the flesh is enmitie against God : For it is not subiect to the lawe of God , neither indeed can be . This being duly weighed with vnderstanding , and considered of with a charitable humilitie , such as the cause requireth , euery man may see ( notwithstanding your accusation ) that our Church in this neither differeth from the truth , nor Master Hooker at all from our Church . ARTICLE VI. Of Faith and Works . WHere charity hath not power enough to guide reason , there malice out of ignorance , is able to make conclusions against sense . For the eies being blinded which naturally are to perform the best offices of seeing ; the colours that are discerned otherwise , are litle better , then the false errors of a troubled fancy . For where the light is darkenes , how great must that darkenes be ? To attaine by a supernaturall power , to that felicity , which is an acte of the greatest mercy , as infinite numbers faile in the thing ; so there are not a few , which vtterly mistake the meanes . And whilest all , that are Christians , acknowledge it to be a grace ; eager contentions are stirred vp , whether it be imputed or inherent in vs. And seeing in this acte of iustification , by the consent of all , man doth receiue from God what he hath , the question is , what vertue must be in that hand , to inable weakenes to receiue such strength : and how that faith must be accompanied , that is able to clothe our soules with the righteousnes of anothers merit . Heere we haue aduersaries , whom peraduenture we mistake , as they mistake vs ; making , ( as in other points ) a misconstruction , to be the ground of a great difference , and the strongest opposition , to arise from hence ; that nether part is willing to vnderstand each other . Heere if we should but discouer the least meanes of reconcilement , some hasty spirits would not stick to accuse vs as more then partiall ; and that treacherouslie we sought to betray the cause . In that we purpose , to set downe what truth warranteth in this behalfe , it is rather to free him from suspition , whom you doe accuse , then that hee in that , wherein you accuse him , any way standeth in neede of our weake defence . If man rightly value but the merit of the Sonne of God ; and how so humble , and innocent obedience , to so lowe a state , must needes in iustice , make a full satisfaction , for so great a sin ; he cannot chuse but confesse that onely for the merit of our Lord , and Sauiour Iesus Christ , through faith , and not for works and our merits , we are accounted righteous before God. If the soule of man , did serue only to giue him being in this life , then things appertaining to this life would cōtent him , as we see they doe other creatures ; which creatures , inioying those things by which they liue , they doe seeke no further , but in this contentation , doe shew a kinde of acknowledgement , that there is no higher good , which any way doth belong vnto them . With man it is far otherwise ; for although all inferiour things were in the possession of one , yet he would euer with a desire thirst , for some thing aboue all those ; so that nature , euen in this life , doth claime a perfection , higher and more diuine , then any thing in it selfe , which man must receiue in the reward : now rewards doe alwaies presuppose such duties performed as are rewardable ; our naturall meanes vnto blessednesse are our workes , nor is it possible , that nature should euer finde any other way to saluation , but only this . Yet seeing that no man can say , since the foundation of the world , that his workes are pure , but that all flesh is guilty of that , for which God hath threatned eternally to punish ; there resteth either no way vnto saluation , or a way which must needs be supernatural , and aboue mans reach . Had Adam continued in his first estate , mans absolute righteousnes , and integrity in all his actions , had bin the way of life to him and to all his posterity ; though peraduenture not in so large a manner as heauenly felicity , doth import ; the possession ▪ whereof , euen the least moment , were too abundant a retribution . Yet now , we fayling , in that which was our dutie , it were a thing impossible in nature , to obtaine the other . The light of nature , is neuer able to find out any way of obtaining the reward of blisse , but by performing exactly the works of righteousnes . Therfore God hath prepared a supernaturall way , namely that we doe beleeue ; not that God doth require nothing vnto happines , at the hands of men , ( as Maister Hooker sayth ) sauing only a naked faith ( for Hope & Charity we may not exclude ) but that without faith all other things are as nothing ; this being the grounde of those other diuine vertues . The principall obiect of faith , is that eternall verity , which hath discouered the treasures , of hidden wisdome in Christ ; the highest obiect of hope , is that euerlasting goodnes , which in Christ doth quicken the dead ; the final obiect of charity , is that incōprehensible beauty , which shineth in the countenance of Christ , the Son of the liuing God. The first beginneth heere , with a weake apprehension of things not seene , and endeth in the beholding of God in the world to come . The second beginneth heere , with a trembling expectation of things far remoued , and as yet , but only heard of ; and endeth with a reall , and actuall fruition , of that which no toong is able to expresse . The third beginneth heere , with a weake inclination of hart , towards him , vnto whom ; we are not able to approch , and endeth with an endles vnion ; the mystery wherof , is higher , then the reach of the thoughts of men . And howsoeuer the apprehension , of that righteousnesse , wherby man is iustified , be properly but the worke of one , yet we dare not ( neither doe any learned in our Church ) make faith to be naked of other vertues ; and therefore it is so much the more strange , that you follow the error , which our aduersaries haue accused vs for , as though it were an opinion holden by our Church . In this article against Maister Hooker , you say , that God requireth no more at the hands of men ▪ vnto happinesse ; then a naked beleefe . And a little after ; We claime nothing , by any dutie we do , or can do , or any vertue which wee find in our selues , but onely by that naked faith , &c. In these assertions ( which in my opinion are repugnant to our Church ) and in the best construction , make but a harsh sound ; what do you else , but discouer y e error , which they of the Church of Rome , by a mistaking , haue thought vs to hold ? as though it were our doctrine , that wee could be iustified , by a faith that were meerely naked ? Luther striuing to shew how litle our works , did in the merit of mans saluation , speaketh somewhat harshly , when he saith ; a Faith without & before we haue charitie , doth iustifie . And in another place ( both which are not vniustly called in question by those of the Church of Rome ) he saith ; Faith vnles it be without euen the least good works , doth not iustify ; nay , it is no faith . But M. Calum speaketh in this , better then either Luther or you ; Faith alone iustifieth , but not that faith which is alone . For if our Church held a naked faith ( which none that were wise euer did ) might not all the world iustly accuse vs as enemies to good works ? The most of the learned in Germany held a necessitie of good works ▪ not a necessitie of effecting , but a necessitie of presence for we are saued doubtlesse by grace , but ( hauing yeers ) we cannot ordinarily be saued vnles we haue good works . For faith which we teach to iustifie , is not void of good works ; as Doctor a Fulke answereth to the Rhemes obiection . And b therfore in another place , he saith ; the elect are alwayes fruitfull of good works . From hence ( seeing faith hath no assurance for itselfe either to God or to mā ) we exhort in our sermons to good works , we perswade to humiliation , by fasting & weeping ; which are ( if they be truly penitent ) meanes to blot out sin , thorough Gods vnspeakable and vndeserued mercie . For as Saint c Paul saith , Godly sorrow causeth repentance vnto saluation , not to be repented of : And therefore saith Saint Hierom , fasting , and sackcloth are the armor of repentāce ▪ And y e men please God by fasting ( saith D ▪ d Fulk ) as Anna , Tobie , Iudith , Hester , we doubt nothing at all , while we vse it to the right end allowed of God ; that is , hūbling of our selues , & chastising of our bodies , that it might bee more obedient to the Spirit , and feruent in prayer . Nay our solemne fasts are , as M. Hooker saith , the splendor , and outward glorie of our religion ; forcible witnesses of ancient truth ; prouocations to the exercise of all pi●tie ; shadowes of our endlesse felicitie in heauen ; and euerlasting records and memorials vpon earth ; which , it is great pitie it is so much neglected , because euen therein , they which cannot be drawne , to harken vnto what we teach , might onely by looking vpon that we do , in a maner reade whatsoeuer we beleeue . Now , that he saith , the attainement vnto anie gratious benefit of Gods vnspeakable and vndeserued mercie , the phrase of antiquitie , hath called by the name of Merit ; this is that , wherein you desire to be resolued . And surely , he hath read little , who is ignorant , that the heathen Masters of the a Latine tongue , and the Fathers for antiquitie , nearest vnto those times , haue vsed the word ( Merit ) far in another sence , then that whereunto the violence of some cōstructions haue wrested it at this day . And Aquinas himselfe vnderstandeth by the name of ●urit , not a worke not due , which should deserue a reward ; but a worke which mercifully , and by the goodnes of God a reward followeth . The phrase of the Latine doth properly make one to merit of another , and as it were to bind him to him , who doth any thing , which pleaseth and delighteth him , for whom it is done . Thus that place in the epistle to the Hebrues , To do good , and to distribute forget not , for with such sacrifice God is well pleased . Where they of Rhemes , following the Latine ( promeretur ) say promerited , shewing that they meant nothing els , in ancient time , by merit , but that delight , allowance , and contentment , which God taketh in those good things we do , and so rewardeth them . And Doctor Fulke confesseth that Primasius , who was Saint Austins scholler , vsed the same word , b promeretur , as it was taken amongst the vulgar at that day , farre differing from the sense wherein it is nowe vsed . Thus much briefly , may serue for answer in this point ; that faith is not alone , though alone it iustifie ; that though a man sinne ( if he repent ) his faith may saue him ; that there are vses , ( nay excellent vses ) of good works , though they do not saue vs ; and last of all , if posteritie had not corrupted the word merit , that we would not be afraid , to speake in the phrase of antiquitie , and call our vertuous attainment ( by mercie of grace ) by the name of merit . ARTICLE VII . The vertue of works . AS goodnesse , so truth being but one , whatsoeuer is opposite ( be it neuer so carefully obserued ) in the course of a long streame , at the last foldeth it selfe in a contradiction . For falshood hath no more strength , to proue a truth ; then truth , hath weaknesse , to beget a lie . Then the ground of all true assertions , concurring immoueably in that one first truth , of which all other inferior are but branches ; whatsoeuer goeth about to disproue that , must of necessitie , in his owne parts bee diuers , and imply a contrarietie , seeing it laboureth to infring the certainty of that , which eternally , and vnchangeably , is but one . Hence commeth it , that vnskilfull men ( the grounds of whose opinions are but the vncertainties of their owne ignorance ) are thought to want memorie , whilest they contradict themselues ; when indeed , the defect is in iudgment , which cānot make truth the ground of their knowledge , from which if they swarue neuer so little , they doe not sooner oppugne others , then crosse themselues ; truth admitting no coherence of contrarieties , seeing it selfe , is but onely one . From this hath proceeded , that ouersight of a great number , who speaking first , against a truth vttered by others ; come at length , to speake euen directly , against themselues . Thus you that in the former Article , disputed of faith , naked and destitute of all good works , make your next step to those good works that do accompany faith . Where I vnderstand not ( but perhaps you do ) why you call them good , if they arise not naturally out of faith ; or why you call that faith naked , which is accompanied with these good works . But doubtlesse there being a morall goodnes , euen where there is want of supernatural light ; and the most certaine token of that goodnes being , if the general perswasion of all men do so account it ; it can not chuse , but seeme strange , that the approbation of these , should in your opinion be applied to those works that are done out of faith , after man is iustified ; seeing there is a good ( as M. Hooker saith ) that doth follow vnto all things by obseruing the course of their nature ; yet naturall agents cannot obtaine either reward , or punishment : for amongst creatures in this world , only mans obseruation of the law of his nature ( because he hath wil ) is righteousnes ; only mans transgression sin . For euen to doe that , which nature telleth vs we ought ( howsoeuer we know it ) must needs be acceptable in Gods sight . How this , vttered out of great iudgment to another purpose ( namely , that good things are done , and allowed , whereof we haue other direction then Scripture ) is by you wrested against the articles of our Church , either concerning the perfection of works , which are with faith , or the goodnes of works , without faith ; to say plainly , I cannot yet vnderstand . Therfore as the dealing is vnequall , to make him say what you list , so the aduātage is too great , to make him an aduersary to a cause of your own making ; when the whole scope of his speech is to another purpose . For there is no indifferēt reader , but had he considered what M. Hooker speaketh , & to what end , in those places by you alleaged ; he must of necessity haue wondered at your sharpe and acute iudgements , that would without blushing , aduenture to alleage him to that end . But an opiniō doubtlesse that these things wold neuer be examined , gaue that cōfidence to your first motion , which consideration would haue hindered , if you had but once dreamed to haue bin called in question . Wee should not therfore need in this , much to defend him but briefly resolue you , what our Church holdeth , ( and fitly ) in this point . The a articles of our Church which ye thinke are oppugned , are two ; first that the fruits of faith , cannot abide the seuerity of Gods iustice ; that man out of faith , doth good workes , which though they make vs not iust , yet are both acceptable , and rewardable : I doubt not but it is a truth , wherof if yee had not bin perswaded , this letter of yours ( profitable ( as you think ) to the Church and pleasing to God ) as all the rest of your writings in that kinde , had lien buried , vnborne in those rotten sepulchers , from whēce into the world they did first come , whilest we are by that intermediat iustice of Christ , made righteous , and haue obtained a free remission of our sins , that we are tearmed iust ; there is with this mercy ioyned the Holy-ghost ; which dwelling in vs maketh vs fruitfull to good workes ; this reuiuing all parts from our naturall corruption , reformeth vs to a pure , and willing obedience vnto that reuealed will , which is the rule of all that we ought to doe ; yet seeing we are clothed with corruption , there are euen in our best actions , those remainders of imperfection , which serue , to teach vs thankefulnes , and humility , both arising , from the consideration of our own weakenes . And I doubt not , but euen in this poynt , many of the Church of Rome , ( whose humiliation in their penitēcy of heart , seemeth far to exceed ours ) are of this opinion , that euen the best action performed in their whole life ( as there are yet some few monumēts spared from the couetous hand ) if all points of it were considered with a streight view , sifting euen the least circumstances , which closely insinuate thēselues , out of our corruptiōs , into our actions , they would ( I say ) confesse , that there is something which tasteth of the flesh ; which corruption , if either for want of a strict consideration we see not , or through a selfeloue could pardon , yet it is not able , in the feeblenes of his owne nature , to abide the exact triall , & seuerity of Gods iudgement . That law , the least transgression wherof is sin , is sayd to be fulfilled three waies ; first in Christ ; and so all the faithfull are said to fulfill the lawe , hauing his obedience imputed to them . Secondly , it is fulfilled by a diuine acceptatiō , for God accepteth our obediēce begun , as if it were perfect ; seeing what imperfections are in it , are not imputed to vs. For it is al one , not to be , & not to be imputed ; blessednes being the reward of both : And we know that there is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Iesus . Thirdly , it is fulfilled by vs ; an error I thinke scarce any do hold , sauing only the Anabaptists . For that eternall wisdome , which hath ledde man by the law vnto Christ , hath set those bounds , which all men haue broken , ( the first commandement and the last ) to include all , as guilty of the breach of the whole law : For our knowledge being but in part , it is not possible ( saith Saint a Austen ) that our loue can be perfect . And therfore we conclude the first point , according to the article of our Church , from which there is no sillable in Master Hooker that is different ; that our workes though they be good , and so esteemed , and rewarded , yet they cannot abide the iustice of the lawe , and the seuerity of Gods iudgement . The second point is , whether the workes which are done before the grace of Christ , are not only not acceptable to God , but also haue the nature of sinne . In this we must vse some care ; for whilest men iustly disagreeing , haue equally laboured to be differēt one from another , both in the end , haue bin equally distant frō the truth . That there are excellent graces in the heathen , no man doubteth ; and he must needs be far from reason , and sense , who maketh no difference betwixt the iustice , moderation , and equity of Titus and Traian , and the fury , violence , and tyranny of Caligula , Nero , and Domitian ; betwixt the vncleane lusts of Tiberius , and the continency in this respect of Vespasian ; in one word , betwixt the obseruation , and the breach of lawes . For there is that difference betwixt iust , and vniust , that euen the frame of nature ( where sense wanteth ) acknowledge a well being , by the obseruation of what it ought : and therfore , much more in those good works , which because they missed of the right scope , wee dare not call by the name of true , perfect Christians vertues ; yet for their very action , we are content , ( so long as they swarue not from the righteousnesse of the lawe of nature ) to giue them leaue to be called by a better name , then only sinnes ; and yet for all this , no man taketh them , to be much better in the true seuerity , of a hard construction ; for those that are not regenerate , although they sin in their best obseruation of the morall lawe , yet it is much better to performe those offices , then to performe them not ; seeing b a part of that indeuour , though it be not meere righteousnesse , yet it is lesse sinne . We must therefore remember , that a worke is considerable , either in respect of the substance ; or in regard of the manner of doing . In respect of the worke , all the actions of infidels are not sin ; seeing they performe those things , which are commanded , by the law of nature , of nations , of God ; nay they are so far , in this respect , from beeing sins , that as ( Saint Austin saith ) God doth plenteously reward them . But concerning the manner of working , all their actions are sin ; as proceeding from a corrupt fountaine , a hart that wanteth true faith ; and directed to an ende of lesse value , then he is , whose glory ought to be the end of all we doe . This is confessed euen by our aduersaries themselues , with whom seeing we doe agree , there can be no suspition that we should dissent , from that which our Church holdeth ; and this may serue rather to tell you what in these points , is the iudgement of our Church , then to defend him , whose words you haue wrested , to a far different sense . ARTICLE VIII . Works of supererogation . THe neerenes , oftentimes to euill , is warrant enough for suspition , to accuse of euill ; and because all errors , are not equally distant from truth , some men in their true assertions , are supposed , by weake iudgements , not to differ at all from error . From hence commeth it , that those men ( who haue no other iudgement but zeale ) ( which is the best excuse I can make for your accusation in this article ) haue run so far , with a desire of safety , from those opinions that were thought dangerous ; that they haue come at length , vnto those that were much more daungerous in truth . Which practise , though it argue a good care , yet it proceedeth from a timorous nature , wanting the ability , to put a difference in the causes of true feare ; so that this circumspection , is but cowardlinesse ; as he that were loth to be taken amongst his enimies trenches , would get himselfe so far distant , that he would outrun , euen the vtmost limits of his owne armie . Thus haue you dealt in this article ; fearing to approue any thing that might tend to supererogation , you haue misliked euen the allowance of those works , which are good , and yet not commanded ; for ( say you ) to hold , as Master Hooker doth , that God approueth more then he commandeth , what is it else , but to scatter euen the graines of Popery , and to lead men , to those arrogant works of supererogation . Herein your feare , if it would haue giuen you leaue , to haue looked behinde you , it may be peraduenture , you would not haue run away in such haste ; especially in cases of no great daunger . And therfore giue me leaue , to tell you , that there is no treachery , no danger , no cause of flying , from this opinion . All the vnforced actions of men , are voluntarie ; and all voluntarie actions , tending to their end , haue choice ; and all choice presupposeth the knowledge of some cause , wherefore we make it ; and therfore it is no absurditie to thinke that all actions of men , indued with the vse of reason , are generally either good , or euill . And although whatsoeuer is good , the same is also approued of God , yet according to the sundry degrees of goodnes , the kinds of diuine approbation are in like sort multiplied : for some things are good , yet in so meane a degree of goodnes , that men are only not disproued , nor disallowed of God , for them : as that no man hateth his owne flesh ; it is a matter of approbation , and allowance , but of no great , or singular acceptation . So saith * our Sauiour , if you do good vnto them that do so to you ; the verie Publicans themselues do as much : Wherein to come short of them , as it were a great vice , so not to exceed thē , is no great vertue . Some things in such sort are allowable , that they be also required as necessary to saluation , by way of direct , immediate , and proper necessitie finall ; so that without performance of such , wee cannot by ordinarie course be saued ; nor yet by any meanes be excluded from life , if we obserue those . As nature gaue light , vnto the former ; so the Scripture is a guide to teach these : wherein because all faile , it is the obedience , and merit onely of one , that must make all righteous , that must be saued . Some things there are , although not so required of necessitie , that to leaue them vndone , excludeth from saluation ; yet notwithstanding are of so great dignitie and acceptation with God , that most ample reward in heauen is laid vp for them . Of these we haue no commandement , in nature , or Scripture , that doth exact them , in particular at our hands ; yet those motiues there are in both , which may serue to draw our minds , most effectually to the performance of them . In this kind there is not the least action , but it doth somwhat make to the accessorie augmentation of our blisse ; which men haue as much reason to desire , as to desire that they may be blessed ; no measure of blessednesse hauing power to content , sauing onely where the blessed wanteth capacitie to receiue greater . Vpon this dependeth , whatsoeuer difference there is betweene the states of Saints in glorie . Hereunto we referre whatsoeuer belongeth vnto the highest perfection ( for all perfection in this life is not equall ) of man , by way of seruice toward God : hereunto that feruor , and first loue of Christians , did bend it selfe , causing them to a sell their possessions , and lay down the price at the blessed Apostles feete ; hereunto Saint b Paul , vndoubtedly did aime , in so far abridging his owne libertie , and exceeding that which the bond of necessarie , and enioyned dutie tied him vnto , to ease those Churches , to whom he preached , with his handie labour ; knowing that although it were not a duty which hee was commaunded , yet it was an aduantage to his preaching , and acceptable to God ; who doubtlesse approueth much more , then he doth commaund . Thus when a man may liue in the state of matrimonie , seeking that good thereby , which nature principally desireth ; to make rather choice , of a contrarie life , in regard of Saint Paules iudgmēt ; he doth that which is manifestly allowed , and yet not commanded in Gods word ; because without anie breach , he might doe otherwise . Thus when a man who might lawfully possesse his riches , yet willingly doth bestow them , to religious vses , vertuously imbracing that pouertie , which he esteemeth as an aduantage to eternall riches ; doth that which argueth a greater perfection , and for which he hath warrant , though no precept at all ; because that which is a great vertue in him , is not a fault simply in those that do not the like . Precepts and counsels hauing this difference , that the one is of absolute necessitie , the other left vnto our free election ; where both tending to the same end , yet in this differ ; that both tend not after the same maner : both looking at the meanes , but the one after a more exquisite , and excelling perfection . For euery man being placed in this life , betwixt the things of this world , and spirituall good things , the more hee cleaueth to these , the more perfect and excellent he is ; and yet to cast them away wholy , is no precept of necessitie , but an aduise of greater perfection . He that obeyeth not a precept , is guiltie of deserued punishment ; but he that faileth of these counsels , onely wanteth , without sinne , that measure of perfection . a For it is not a fault not to vow , but to vow , and to performe , it is a praise . Hee that performeth the one , shall haue greater glorie , but he that faileth in the other ( without repentance ) shall haue certaine punishment . Neither is it said , saith Saint Austine , as thou shalt not commit adulterie , thou shalt not kill ; so thou shalt not marie , for b those are exacted , this is offered . This if it bee done , it is praised ; those vnlesse they bee done , they are punished . For saith c Saint Hierome , where it is but aduise , there is left a freedome ; but where there is a precept , there is a necessitie . Precepts are common to all ; counsel , the perfection of some few . The precept being obserued , hath a reward ; being not obserued , a punishment : but a counsell , or aduise , not obserued , hath no punishment ▪ and being obserued , hath a greater reward . In these points all haue not holden the same opinions ; some thought these counsels to be of the same necessitie with precepts ; as those heretikes called Apostolici , mentioned by Saint Austine and Epiphanius . Others esteemed them as things indifferent , and of no greater perfect●on . Others as things forbidden , which errour is accuse● by some of our aduersaries , to bee an opinion of our Church . He that amongst vs of learning is most earnest in this point , is Peter Martyr ; and all that anie of them say , is but this ; that these counsels are sinne , if we esteeme them as meritorious of thēselues ; that they are not sinful , but sometimes foolish ; these men rather looking at the fol●ies , which hath accompanied the superstition of some few , then the vertuous perfection , which attendeth vpon the thing it selfe . Nay , there is none of any sound iudgement in our Church , which doth not thinke , that willing pouertie , humble obedience , and true chastity , are things verie commendable , and do bring with them great aduantage , to the true perfection of a Christian life ; not that we can supermerit , by these , more then we ought ; but that by these , we do more , then without these we should : for nature , common wealths , and religion , as they haue a being , so they refuse not a perfection , and a being well . ARTICLE IX . None free from all sinne . IT cānot chuse but seeme strange , that this should bee an act of many , which in the most fauourable construction , commeth far short of that wisdome which should be in one . But it may be peraduenture ( that as it falleth out in things naturall ) actions are then best done , when one doth but one ; distraction being a let to a finite power , and vsually arising from diuersitie of iudgements . For all not looking with the same eyes , nor following the like principles of vnderstāding , though they agree in the generall to reprehend , yet for the most part , they faile , in a particular resolution , of what they thinke worthie to bee reprehended . And therefore as in elections , whilest two of the worthiest are competitors , stiffe factions vnite themselues , in allowance of a third inferiour to both . It seemeth that you haue dealt so in this article , wherein either all your consents made a hindrance to what you meant , or a diuisiō made you agree to mislike a thing of the least importance : Wherin if you had not discouered a weaknes to be pitied , you might iustly haue expected an answer of more learning ; but as men failing , euē in those things , wherein it is no great vertue not to faile , ad little vnto any mā y t shall direct thē ( because it is smal praise to teach that which is ashame not to know ) so to omit our direction , euē where we wonder that any man should need it , must needs be esteemed in a high degree , an vnexcusable neglect of a necessarie duty . No man I thinke ( not of those that are thought to be out of the compasse of the Church ) maketh a doubt whether all men sin , leauing the redemptiō of man , & so the freedome from sin , to him only who was eternally the Son of God. It was as necessary that he should be without sin , as it is certaine that ( except him ) in many things we offend all . This is our frailty , that all of vs doe amisse which we know , and the best of vs do offend , when we know not ; and therfore a Dauid with an humble hart , desired to be clēsed , from his secret faults ; making that euen a step , to keepe him from presumptuous sins . As it is therfore , an infirmity that we doe amisse in many things ; so it is a vertue , that we would do amisse in nothing ; this being the perfection of our country , & that the desire of our way : which because ( clothed with corruption ) we cannot attaine , we say daily ( as we are taught ) forgiue vs our trespasses . And they pray in vaine , to haue sin pardoned , which secke not also by prayer , to haue sin preuented ; yea euery particular sin , except men can haue some transgression , wherwith they ought to haue truce . For although ( saith Maister Hooker ) we cannot be free from all sin collectiuely , ( that is generall , for so none was free sauing only Christ ) in such sort that no part therof shal be foūd inherent in vs , yet distributiuely at the least al great and greeuous actuall offences , as they offer themselues one by one , both may , and ought by all meanes to be auoided ; so that in this sense , to be preserued from all sin , is not impossible . This assertion , seemeth in your opinions to be vntrue , and for proofe you alledge , that we which are baptized , and regenerated , in many things do offend all ; did euer Maister Hooker denie this ? Nay in the very same place , are not these his words ? In many things we doe all amisse . But say you if that be so , how can we auoide all great and greiuous sins ? Or if we can , why may we not be preserued also , from all small sins ; and so being free from both small , and great , preserue our robe pure , to the cōming of our Sauiour Christ ? In these few words , in my opinion , are three of the most strange , and most violent conclusions , that I haue euer read ; and those , which are by no meanes agreeable to any Church . First we say , In many things we offend all ; therfore say you , in all things we offend all . Secōdly we say , we may auoid some particular great , & greeuous sins ; therfore fay you , why not lesse also ? as if it were all one , not to small , & not to sinne at all . Thirdly , we say y t we are to pray , and hope to be pre●erued frō any & euery speciall sin ; therfore say you , we may keep our robe pure , to the cōming of Christ. I would be loth to make euill arguments worse by repeating ; and therfore I haue vsed a direct sincerity in rehearsing your own words ; wherein I shall not need , to bestow any labour to ouerthrow a ruinous building of such weakenes ; but only to tell you , in these points , what is the iudgement , and sentence of the whole Church . First , no man doubteth but that all men are sinners ; for b all the imaginations of the thoughts of mans hart , are only euill continually . In c iniquity are we borne and in sin are we conceaued ; who d can vnderstand his faults ? For e the hart is deceitfull , and wicked aboue all things , who can know it ? f For vnlesse a man bee borne , of water and of the spirit , he cannot enter into the kingdome of heauen . g And we are all by nature , the children of wrath . In one word , none are free from sin , but he whom the blessed Virgin conceaued , without the law of the flesh , rebelling against the law of the minde ; as Saint Austin proueth most learnedly , by a h cloud of witnesses of the auncient Fathers against Iulian the Pelagian . Nay euen they of the Church of Rome , shew by their exorcising before baptisme , that they thinke none to be without sin ; where we doe not now dispute of the lawfulnes of that vse , but by that conclude that in this point , they hold a truth . So that the maine thing which you so seeme to mislike , is a thing not holden or defended ( sauing in some particular case , as the Virgin Marie ) by any that I know ; for euen that streame of originall sin , hath ouerflowed all mankinde , out of which dayly proceede those great and innumerable multitudes of actuall sins . Your three false conclusions , seeme to establish a threefold error , contrary to the doctrine of all Churches , that are accounted Christian. First , that all sin is but one sin . Secondly , that all sins are equall . Thirdly , that all sins , are vnited . The first , making no diuision , of the kinds of sin ; the second , no distinction of the qualities of sin ; and the third no difference , in committing sin . Against these , we say ( and we hope warranted by truth ) that sins , are of diuers kinds ; of diuers degrees ; of diuers natures ; and that all are not , where one is . Sins then may be distinguisht , in respect of the obiect against whom , God , our neighbour , ourselfe , of the matter wherein ; in the 〈◊〉 Ignorance , heresie ; in the body , as the desires of the flesh ; from the manner of committing ; of Ignorance , Infirmity , Malice ; from the action it selfe ; or our dutie ; of omission , of commission . From the degrees , by which they rise , in the hart only ; in the toung , in the hands , or the worke it selfe . From the qualities of the persons ; of Saints , which are veniall , not imputed ; of the wicked , mortall , for which they shall be condemned . From the guilt ; not pardonable , as the sin against the Holy ghost ; pardonable , not crying , or crying sins ; as the sheading of innocent bloud ; the afflicting of the fatherlesse , or widow , the sin of Sodome ; & last of all , the denying the laborers wages ▪ These , are called crying sins , because for their greatnesse , they call aloude , for a great punishment . Others , make a distinction of the seauen Capital , or deadly sins ; which as we haue no great reason to admit , so we haue as little reason to disallowe ; knowing that euen those are the heads and fountaines of all sins , of the second table . The second assertion which we hold , is ; that all sins are not equall ; this was an opinion of the Stoicks , who desirous to seeme vnwilling , to commit the least , held an opinion that they were equall to the greatest ; a good care , grounded vpon an euill reason . If a pilote ( say they ) ouerturned a ship full of gold , he sinned no more , then if he ouerturned a ship full of strawe ; for although there be a difference in the losse , yet the vnskilfulnes , or negligence is all one . Or if two erre , from the scope , euen he that misseth a little , as well erreth , as he that misseth a great deale . But as in the former of shipwrack , the fault was greater , because he had greater reason , to make him circumspect ; reason telling vs that where we haue mo , and stronger motiues to doe any thing , there we haue lesse excuse , and the sin greater if we doe it not : for the latter , he erreth as well , but not asmuch ; seeing both , shooting at one marke , it is not al one to be a foote , & a rod wide . And therfore that lawe , that forbad but one thing ( thou shalt not kil ) forbad three things , as Christ expoundeth it ; anger to thy brother ; to call him foole ; to offer him violence ; these hauing euery one as their seueral degrees , so their seuerall punishment . For who will say that the first is as great a fault , as the second ; or the third as small as the first ; for doubtles , things that are all forbidden , doe in their owne nature admit more or lesse . And howsoeuer in some sort , vertues are called equall ; yet vices are not : for all vertues , from the vanity of the world , tend but to one perfection , ( either to reason , as the Philosophers thought ) ( or to say better , to the reueiled will of God ) which is the rule of good , and euill ; but sinnes departing from this leadeth vnto diuers vanities , in diuers kinds . Neither are vertues all equall simply , but by a kinde of proportion ; because they all proceede from the loue of God ; and all tend vnto his glory : otherwise in it selfe , faith is better then tēperance , & one vertue may in the same man , be far more excellent , then in many others . As faith in the Centurion ; obedience in Abraham ; patience in Iob ; the consideration of this inequality of sinne , as it acquainteth vs , with those steps that sinne maketh in vs ; ●o it causeth vs , not to dispaire , that we haue committed some , but to hope , and to be thankfull , that we haue escaped greater : Assuring our selues , ( if we be not ourselues wanting ) that though wee cannot auoid all sinnes ; yet we may , and shall auoid , all great and presumptuous sinnes . This heresie , then wee leaue to his first a Authours Iouinian , and the rest ; and so come to the last point : Because Saint Iaemes saith , hee that keepeth the whole law , and offendeth in one , is guiltie of all ; some thought , all sinnes to be imputed vnto him that committed anie one ; but Saint Iames onely telleth vs , that God exacteth a keeping of them all . The Schoolemen , they interpet this place thus ; In all sin , are two things ; a departure from God , & a comming to the creature ; which made S. b Austine call sinne , an vsing of that which wee ought to enioy , and an enioying of that , which wee ought but to vse . So that in respect of the departure , it is true that S. Iames saith , he departeth as well , from God , that committeth but one sin , as he that committeth many , but not so farre . Therefore to impose this vpon vs , were to adde euen to those that are oppressed already , a burthen farre greater , then the law doth ; for by obedience of the diuine lawe ; wee tend from manie to one ; but by disobedience , from one to many ; and those diuers : and therfore though vertues , haue amongst themselues , their vnion , and consent ; yet vices , haue their dissent , nay their opposition . So that this , then , is the conclusion ; that though no man bee without all sin , yet many are without many presumptuous sinnes : which because through prayers , and good meanes they auoid ; it followeth not an vtter exclusion of all sinne ; nor because they commit the least , it followeth not , that they offend equally , as if they committed all . ARTICLE X. Of Predestination . LEast you should be like those , whose humility ye are loth to imitate ; ye haue drawne your readers in this Article , to a serious consideration of a deepe point ; letting them vnderstand , that yee are able , not onely to aduise sobrietie , to such rash presumers ( as in your opinions M. Hooker is ) but also to direct them , in those points , wherein , in your iudgements , they are much deceiued . That there is no man , how excellent soeuer , but without humilitie may easily erre ; I can as willingly confesse it , as I commend such , whom I see carefull to giue aduise vnto those , that haue gone astray . The one being the punishment of pride , to teach sobrietie ; the other the power of their learning , to shew humility ; but that either he hath done the one , or you the other , in this Article , it is more then ( as yet ) I see any iust inducements to beleeue . And I am sorie , that things of principall excellencie , should bee thus bitten at , by men , whom it is like , God hath indued with graces both of wit and learning , to better vses . For if all men had that indifferencie of mind , that the greatest part of their forces were imployed , for the inlarging of that kingdome , whereof all of vs desire to bee subiects ; we should easily discerne , that a curious searching into that will , which is not reuealed , serueth but to breed a contempt , of that which is reuealed vnto vs. Man desireth rather to know , then to doe ; nay to know , euen those things which do not concerne him , rather then to do that , for the neglect whereof , he must giue an account . From hence commeth it to passe , that what the Schooles haue curiously sought out , concerning the nature of Gods wil ; the Pulpits , nay the stalles of Artificers haue vndertaken to decide them all . So that those things , which once were but the deep amazemēt of some few , are now become the vsuall doctrine , and the vulgar consideration of many : where , that is not so much to be lamēted which we search , & cannot comprehend ; as that which we might comprehend , but do not search : Following , euen that first euil exchange , for eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and euill , to depriue our selues of the tasting of the tree of life . So , that which nature once made a disease , the continuance of that disease , hath made it nature ; for euen that light , which man whilest he wanteth liueth in perpetuall darkenesse , is a light by our weakenesse not possible to bee attained vnto , and those paths , which in our blindnesse we grope after with so much desire , they are wayes not possible by mans weaknesse , to bee found out . For there is a cloud and darkenesse which are round about him , and thicke mis●es to couer him ; for we are without proportion inferiour to that power that hath first made vs ; not equall , not like . This being the iust recompence of him that searcheth out that Maiestie , in the end to be ouerwhelmed with the same glory . Our greatest knowledge in this , saith Saint Cyprian , is to confesse our ignorance ; for those acts , that are of this nature , there is greater holinesse to beleeue them , then to know them . Truth lieth in the bottome , as Democritus speaketh ; and as Pindarus saith , about our minds there hang innumerable errours ; therefore the counsell of the son of Sirach is to be followed ; Seeke not out the things that are too hard for thee , neither search the things rashly , which are too mightie for thee ; but what God hath commanded thee , thinke vpon that with reuerence , and bee not curious in manie of his workes ; for it is not needfull for thee to see with thine eyes , the things that are secret ; be not curious in superfluous things , for many things are shewed vnto thee aboue the capacitie of men ; the medling with such , hath beguiled ma●ie , and an euill opinion hath deceiued their iudgment ; thou canst not see without eyes . Yet for all this to bee absolutely either ignorant , or carelesse , of those things that concerne vs ; are no warrants for humilitie ; but euidences of our slouth : The world at this day hath two sorts of men ; whom though we need not to respect much , yet we are willing euen to giue them a reason of what wee do ; which though peraduenture they challenge at our hands , yet wee demaund not of them , a reason of what they surmise . The first sort are sensuall and carelesse ; neither respecting the will of God , of vs , or towards vs : these for the most part , vnderstand nothing but earthly things ; whom if you remoue to matters of a higher reach , you onely arme them against yourselfe , & awake them , to shew an vnsufferable contempt of all vertue . For that which they thinke painefull to themselues , being idolaters to the bellie , that they suppose partly impossible to others ; and that which for their owne dulnesse , they cannot easily learne , that they imagine ( but falsly ) that others can as hardly teach . The second sort , wiser then these , thinke that we ought to search , what God will haue vs to do ; but what he will do with vs , or what he hath decreed , or determined of vs , that they thinke , ought wholy to be neglected by vs. In these two errours , there is this difference ; that the dangers being equall , the reasons are not equall , that do moue both ; seeing man hath mo reasons , to perswade him to know too little , then to know too much . Therefore the Church of England , calleth Predestination vnto life , the eternall purpose of God , whereby before the foundations of the world were laid , he constantly decreed , by his counsel vnto vs vnknown , to deliuer from the curse and destruction , them , whom he chose in Christ out of mankind , and as vessels made vnto honour , through Christ to bring them to eternall saluation ; whereupon , they who are indowed with so excellent a benefit of God , are called according to his purpose , and that by his Spirit , working in a fit time : wherein if any thing , in his generall wil be opposite to that which secretly he hath determined of vs , it is neither a contrarietie in that essence which is but one ; neither anie warrant for vs , to bee defectiue in our charitie , which must imitate his general inclination to saue all . And howsoeuer he graunt not those prayers , which we make , for those who are not predestinate , because there is a more secret will that hath determined the contrarie ; yet notwithstanding , euen these prayers conformable to his general inclination , are in themselues without sin ; they are our duties ; & acceptable to God. For in God there is a wil reueiled , which not to do is sin ; & not reueiled , which we may do & yet sin . And therfore ▪ it must needs seeme strange , that it is made a question by any , how God eternally predestinateth by a constant decree , them whom hee calleth and saueth , and yet hath a generall inclination to saue all . A matter easily answered , if we doe but remember a twofold will ; It is not then a foresight of any thing , that occasioned his will otherwise ; It is not any generall election , altered vpon a speciall cause ; It is nothing either in vs , or in himselfe , that maketh this decree , either to be at all , or to be any other , sauing only one . We must know therfore , that the will of God is secret ; which therfore in scripture is compared to a deepe ; or reueiled , which must be the rule of those actions which we ought to doe : we may indeuour to doe against the first and not sinne , as Abraham in offring Isaac ; I say indeuour , for no man can do against it ; as also fulfill the other , and yet sin , as Iudas . This diuision of the will of God , made by many others , ( though in other tearmes ) serueth both to answer such doubts , as vsually arise out of this darknes ; as also , fully to satisfy those slender obiections , which you haue framed in this point . Damascene deuideth the will into antecedent and consequent ; Peter Lumbard , into his good pleasure , and the signe of it ; others , into a will absolute , or conditionall ; others , into wil of vs , or by vs , to be done ; S. Austin , into a most omnipotent , and most powerfull wil , and into a will not so powerfull , that it euer commeth to pas●e : all these diuisions , concurring in one , and the selfe same thing , to teach vs , that there be parts some reueiled some secret of that , which in his owne nature , can no more be diuers or many , then it is possible for the essence of the Godhead , to be more then one . But how is it then ( say you ) that God willeth all men to be saued ? Is it a constant decree , or only an inclination ? That he thus willeth , there is no man doubteth ; and although some with the restraint of the word ( all ) vnderstand it , of his eternall , vnchangeable , secret decree ; yet we affirme● , that with a conditionall will ( which euer implyeth faith and obedience ; ) with a will of the signe , antecedent , vneffectuall , reueiled , he willeth all men to be saued . Who therfore that they are not , it is not his decree , but their own fault . And although we say , as Maister Hooker doth , that God willeth many thinges conditionally , yet if wee speake properly , all things that God willeth , hee willeth simply ; and therefore all things that God willeth , must bee : the condition being , not in respect of the wil , but the manifestation of it . For it is no more possible , that there should be a wil in God conditional , then that his knowledge , and his wisedome should not be eternall : and yet in respect of vs , who must be ruled by his law , it is conditional . God sometimes commandeth what hee will not haue done ; not that he is contrary in his wil , but that his wil as yet is not , wholy reueiled : The matter of predestination was neuer fully handled before the time of Pelagius , whose heresies gaue occasion to Saint Austin , and others to confirme vs in this point ; wherein though I confesse I vnwillingly labour at this time , yet I doubt not to affirme ( which may serue in steed of answere to content you ) that the predestination of God , is eternall , not conditional ; immutable ; not for works foreseen , and that those , which God hath determined ( though his predestination doe not take away second causes ) certainly must come to passe . Neither is that any variablenes , as you ouer boldly seeme to insinuate , that he inclineth one way , & decreeth another ; for certainly saith S. Ambrose , he willeth al men to be saued , if they wil themselues ; for he that hath giuen a law to al , doubtles hath excluded none . Neither is here any acceptatiō of persons , that he hath chosen some , & not others ; for that is acceptiō of persons , saith S. Austin , whē things to equals , equally due , are not equally diuided ; but where those things are diuided , y t are not due , but only of meere liberality bestowed , there this inequality is without iniustice , or acceptation of persons : It being in the power of a creditor , that hath two debtors , to exact his due of the one without iniustice , and meerely of his bounty , to forgiue the other . If you goe further in this point , to leade me into that depth , that lamentably hath swallowed vp many thousands , I say with S. Austin ; thou oh man , dost thou expect an answer of me , and I am a man also ? therfore let vs rather both heare him , who saith , oh man who art thou , that doest answere God ? reason thou , I wil maruaile : dispute thou , I wil beleeue ; and say , oh how vnsearchable are his waies , and his Iudgements past finding out ! ARTICLE XI . The visible Church and the Church of Rome . IN the vehement dissentions of factions that are opposite ; there is not a labour vsually that reapeth either lesse fruite , or lesse thanks , then a charitable perswasion to a reconcilement ; which peraduenure hath bin the principal cause , why both parties , looking with a iealous eie , at the indifferent perswasions of a third , haue continued both enimies in themselues , and yet the third , suspected as a friend to neither . This whilest men haue done in kingdomes , their conclusions of peace , haue faintly languisht ; all sides earnestly wishing the thing , but suspecting those , who were agents to intreate , a perswasion to it : this in the Church , some men haue done , both in former times and of late , with more charity , then either learning or successe ; so that in the end , both parties haue taken offence , at the mentiō of a reconcilement . That the Church is at variance in it selfe , and so hath continued a long time , I thinke there is no man doubteth ; and surely we are all perswaded , that vnity , and peace , are not fitter for any society in the world , then for that , which is called by the name of Church : how this might be effected , it hath bin the care of very wisemen ; who though they haue found little apparance of successe , by reason of those badde offices , which vncharitable minds haue performed , yet they haue not ceased , to wishe in the behalfe of the Church , as Dauid did for Ierusalem , Oh that it were , as a City built , at vnity in it selfe . Priuate contentions , are then furthest from all hope of agreement , when both parties , equally standing vpon tearmes of superiority , earnestly contend , which is most excellent ; and that neither haue committed fault . In what straits the Church is , and hath bin in all times , it may easily be gathered , in that as yet , men are not resolued to whom it belongs principally to procure her peace . Some are of opinion that princes must , and ought to prouide for the good and welfare of the common-wealth ; but as for religion , they may lawfully permit to euery man what his fancy desireth ; so that the peace of their realmes be not thereby troubled . This once was the a error of the heathen , who admitting all sects of Philosophers , accounted it their honor that they refused none . Wherupon saith Pope b Leo , this City ( speaking of Rome ) ignorant of the author of her aduancement , whilest she hath ruled almost ouer al nations , hath basely bin a seruant to the errors of them al , and seemed to her selfe to haue intertained a great religion , because she hath not refused the falshood of any . This made Themistius the Philosopher , ( as c Socrates reporteth ) to perswade Valens the Emperor , that the variety of sects was a thing much pleasing to God , seeing by that meanes he was worshipped after diuers manners . This though d Constantine the great did at the first , ( whose fact we will not at this time examine ) yet afterward , he commanded all the temples of the Idols to be shut vp , and the Christian religion to be only vsed ; whose sonnes Constantius and Constantinus so far followed ( as Saint Austin saith ) the example of their Father , that Constantine threatned banishment to al those , who rested not in the determination of the Nicene councel . The contrary was practised by the Emperors Iouinian , Valens , and Iulian , who giuing a liberty to all heretickes , sought nothing more , then the ouerthrow of the vnity of the Church . But wisemen haue euer seene , that the peace and tranquilitie of the common wealth , seldome or neuer ariseth , but out of the concord and agreement of the Church it selfe . The dissentions whereof , as they serue to hinder religion , so they kindle that flame , wherewithall doubtlesse in the end , the common wealth it selfe , must needs perish . But how farre all sides are from allowance of reconcilement , both the times present can testifie too well , and the ages to come must needs witnesse ; which shall possesse a Church , as sonnes doe the inheritance of contentious parents , the best part whereof is wasted in vnnecessarie sutes : The sound knowledge of religion , as well perishing in the middest of dissention , as the true practise doth faile , by the plentifull abundance of too much peace . There haue beene in the world from the verie first foundation thereof , but three religions ; Paganisme , which liued in the blindnesse of corrupt , and depraued nature ; Iudaisme , embracing the law which reformed heathenish impietie , and taught saluation to bee looked for , through one , whō God in the last dayes , would send & exalt to be lord of al ; finally , Christianisme which yeeldeth obedience to the Gospell of Iesus Christ , and acknowledgeth him the Sauiour , whom God did promise . Now the question is , whether the dissenting parties , in this last religion , be so farre ( not in opinion ) but in the obiect , differing , as that there is no hope of reconciliation , and the one part only , hath but the priuiledge , to be tearmed the Church . For the matter of reconcilement , it is no businesse , which lieth within the compasse of this labour , and whether , and how it may be done , we are willing to referre it to the iudgements of men , who haue better abilitie to decide the cause . A booke in Latine was published , in the first beginning of these bitter contentions , without name , bearing the title , of the dutie of a godly man ; but since Bellarmine saith , that the Author was one George Cassander ; this booke perswading that Princes ought to make an agreement betwixt the Catholikes , the Lutherans , and Caluinists , as he tearmes them ; which whilest they cannot find out the meanes to performe , they should permit to all men their seuerall religions , so that they held , both the Scripture and the Apostles Creed : for all ( saith he ) are the true members of the Church , howsoeuer in particular doctrines , they seeme to differ . This booke was first confuted by Caluin , on the one side , and then by one Iohn Hessels of Louaine , on the other side ; that all the world might see , how loth both sides were , to be made friends . This hath since beene esteemed by others , a labour , much like to those pacificants , in the Emperour Zeno his time , or the heresie of Apelles , who held , as Eusebius writeth , that it was needlesse to discusse , the particulars of our faith , and sufficient only to beleeue in Christ crucified . But least any man should thinke , that our contentions were but in smaller points , and the difference not great , both sides haue charged the other , with heresies ( if not infidelities ) nay euen such , as quite ouerthrowe the principall foundation of our Christian faith . How truly both haue dealt , those that are learned can best iudge ; but I am sure , that in the greatest differences , there are great mistakings , which if they were not , it is like , their dissentions had beene much lesse . Now for the second , whether both parts may bee called the Church , this is that which concerneth the cause that wee haue in hand . The Church of England confesseth , that the Church of Christ , is a company of faithfull people , among whom the pure word of God is preached , and the sacraments rightly administred , according to Christs institution ; so that as our reuerend Fathers say , without Christ there is no Church ; and those particular Churches , are more perfect , which in their religious worship , haue lesse failed in both these : now when enemies become iudges , sentences are often partiall , and each side with bitternesse of tearmes , doth condemne other ; whilest neither part , is willing to confesse their errour , or amend themselues . Wee haue not suffered the contemptible reui●ings of the Church of Rome , without telling her aloud that her faults are not so few as she imagineth ; that her chastitie and puritie are not so great , that she need to boast ; and that if she will needes bee proud , and confidently striue to be the chiefe , and the onely Church ; wee must tell her in zeale , that what she was , she is not ; that pride and prosperitie haue corrupted her , as other Churches . This though we speake out of zeale , seeing her faults , and knowing her contempt of vs ; yet out of iudgement , we say ( which Maister Hooker doth ) that with Rome , we dare not communicate , concerning sundrie her grosse , & grieuous abominations , yet touching those maine parts of Christian truth , wherein they constantly still persist , wee gladly acknowledge them to bee of the familie of Iesus Christ : therefore , wee hope that to reforme our selues ( if at anie time wee haue done amisse ) is not to seuer our selues from the Church wee were before ; in the Church we were , and we are so stil ; as also we say , that they of Rome , notwithstanding their manifold defects , are to bee held , and reputed a part of the house of God ; a limme of the visible Church of Christ. This is that , whereat your hote spirits haue taken offence ; speaking out of the same ignorant zeale against our Church ; as ye wish our Church to speake against the Church of Rome ; accounting vs for perfection of a Church , as farre short of you , as Rome is of vs ; or your selues of the Angels that are in heauen ; and therefore you affirme that our statute congregations of England , are no true christian churches . Which error , as you haue at last beene from an vnresistable wisedome taught how to recant , so no doubt at length , vpon better aduise , you wil learne in iudgment how to censure of the Church of Rome . And yet mistake me not , to giue her her due , is not to grant more then shee ought to challenge ; nor to account her a part of the Church , is not to affirme that shee is absolutely perfect . There is no one word , that from the varietie of acceptation , hath bred greater difference , in the Church of God , then the word Church . Somtimes , it is taken for any assembly ; somtimes for a faithful , & religious assembly ; and thē it sometimes noteth out the whole bodie of the elect in all ages , times , & places , both in heauen & earth ; and only them . So it is in the article of our faith , I beleeue the catholike church , that is , all those who are , or shal be saued both Angels & men ; so it is taken in that speech of our Sauior ; Vpō this rock will I build my church , that is , the whole catholike church . Somtimes it is taken for that part only , which is in heauen ; as when it is said , that the church is without spot , or wrinckle ; which can be verified of no part ▪ ( whatsoeuer the Anabaptists dreame ) but of that which triumpheth . Sometimes it is taken for that part of the catholike church , which is militant , that thou maist knowe howe thou oughtest to behaue thy selfe in the house of God , which is the church of the liuing God ; the piller and ground of truth ; So feare came vpon all the church . Sometimes it is taken for the pastors , and gouernours onely of the church , as when it is said , Tell the church , that is , the heads and gouernours of the church . Sometimes for the people , Take heede therefore vnto yourselues , and to all the flocke , whereof the holy Ghost hath made you ouerseers , to feede the church of God , which he hath purchased with that his owne bloud . Somtimes for particular churches , professing the doctrine and religion of Christ : as , To the Angell of the church of Ephesus ; so we say , the church of Rome ; the church of Corinth ; the church of England : now from the mistaking of this worde ( Church ) doubtlesse much harme , and needlesse contentions haue come vnto the church of Christ. For in the first great contention ( of what persons the Church consisteth ) in my opinion wee dispute of one Church , namely , the true Catholike , all which must be saued ; they dispute of the visible , wherein are hypocrites also . So that the reasons that are brought on both sides , are smally to the purpose , seeing both sides directly mistake the question . Thus in the iudgment of those of the Church of Rome , persons excommunicate ( though vniustly ) are cut off frō the particular Church , but not frō the catholike ; excommunication being only , the censure of a particular Church : Therfore ( saith our Sauior Christ ) many are called ( with an externall calling to the society of the ●isible Church ) but few are chosen ; that is , to the Catho●icke . For though both be a folde , yet of the visible Church ( saith Saint Austin ) In the Church there are many wolues , and out of the Church there are many sheepe ; but in the Catholicke , without any other mixture are sheepe only . Now visible and inuisible maketh , not two Churches ; but the diuers estate & condition of one , & the same Church . Hence cōmeth it to passe , that in this question of the visibility of the Church , there is the like mistaking as in the former ; for they of Rome say , we haue made this distinction , because our Church hath not bin alwaies visible ; but we say , if our Church had bin as glorious , and as famous , as any Church in the world , we would haue accounted , the Catholicke Church inuisible : Which ( no doubt of it ) they of Rome doe , vnderstanding ( Catholick and visible ) as we meane . For the Church of Christ , which we properly tearme his mystical body , can be but one ; neither can that one , be sensibly discerned , by any man ; in as much as the parts therof , are some in heauen already with Christ , and the rest that are on earth , ( albeit their natural persons be visible ) yet we cannot discerne vnder this property , wherby they are truly and infallibly of that body ; only our minds by internal conceit , are able to apprehend , that such a real body there is , a body collectiue , ( because it conteyneth a huge multitude ) a body mystical , ( because the mystery of their coniunction is remoued altogether from sense . ) Whatsoeuer we reade in scripture concerning the endles loue , and the sauing mercy , which God shewed towards his Church , the only proper subiect therof is this Church . They who are of this society haue such markes , and notes , of distinction from al others , as are not subiect vnto our sense ; only vnto God who seeth their harts , and vnderstandeth al their secret cogitations , vnto him , they are cleere , and manifest . In the eie of God , they are against Christ , that are not truly and sincerely with him ; in our eies , they must be receiued as with Christ , that are not to outward shew , against him ; to him they seeme such as they are , but of vs they must be taken for such as they seeme . Al men knew Nathaniel to be an Israelite , but our Sauiour pearsing deeper , gi●eth further testimony of him then men could haue done , with such certainty as he did ; behold indeede , an Israelite , in whom is no guile . Now as those euerlasting promises of loue , mercy , and blessednes , belong to the mystical Church , euen so on the other side , when wee reade of any duty , which the Church of God is bounde vnto ; the Church whom this doth concerne , is a sensible knowne company ; and this visible Church in like sort is but one , continued from the first beginning of the world to the last end : which company , beeing deuided into two parts , the one before , the other since the comming of Christ ; that part which since the comming , partly hath imbraced , and partly shal hereafter imbrace the Christian Religion , we tearme as by a proper name , the Church of Christ. For all make but one body , the vnity of which visible body , and the Church of Christ , consisteth in that vniformity , which al seueral persons thereunto belonging haue by reason of y e one Lord , whose seruants they all professe thēselues to be , that one faith , which they al acknowledge ; that one baptisme , wherwith they are al receiued into the church . As for those vertues , y t belong vnto morall righteousnes , & honesty of life ; we do not speake of them , because they are not proper vnto Christian mē , as they are Christian , but do concerne thē , as they are men . True it is , the wa●t of these vertues , excludeth from saluation ; so doth much more the absence of inward beleefe of heart ; so doth despaire and lack of hope ; so emptinesse of Christian loue and charity ; but we speake now , of the visible Church , whose Children are signed with this marke ; One Lord , one Faith , one Baptisme . In whomsoeuer these things are ▪ the Church doth acknowledge them for her children ; them only she holdeth for aliens and strangers , in whom these things are not found . For want of these , it is that Saracens , Iewes , and infidels are excluded out of the bounds of the Church ; others we may not ( though you doe ) denie to be of the visible Church , as long as these things are not wanting in them . For apparant it is , that al men are of necessity , either Christians , or not Christians ; if by externall profession , they be Christians , then are they of the visible Church of Christ ; and Christians by externall profession they are all , whose marke of recognisance hath in it those things which we haue mentioned : Yea although they be impious Idolaters , wicked hereticks , persons excommunicable , such as we deny not to be euen the lims of Satan , as long as they continue such . Is it then possible , say you , that the selfesame men should belong both to the Synagogue of Satan , and to the Church of Christ ? Vnto that Church , which is his mystical bodie , not possible ; because that bodie consisteth of none , but only true Israelits ; true sonnes of Abraham , true seruants , and Saints of God. Howbeit of the visible body and Church of Christ , those may be , and oftentimes are , in respect of the maine parts of their outward profession , who in regard of their inward disposition of minde , yea of externall conuersation , yea euen of some parts of their very profession , are most worthily both hatefull in the sight of God himselfe , and in the eies of the sounder parts of the visible Church , most execrable . From hence haue proceeded those bitter speeches , wherewith many of our reuerend Fathers haue censured the Church of Rome : as also those violent courses , and vnseemely , which they haue hitherto vsed against vs. Therefore our Sauiour compareth the kingdome of heauen , to a net , whereunto al that commeth neither is nor seemeth fishe ; his Church he compareth to afield , where tares manifestly knowne and seene by all men doe grow , intermingled with good corne ; and so shall continue til the final consummation of the world . God hath had euer , and euer shall haue , some Church visible vpon earth . But for lack of diligent obseruing , the difference , first betwixt the church of God , mystical and visible ; then betweene the visible , sound , and corrupted , sometimes more , sometimes lesse , the ouersights are neither few , nor light , that haue bin committed : This deceiueth them , and nothing else , who thinke that in the time of the first world , the family of Noah , did containe al that were of the visible church of God. From hence it grew , and from no other cause in the world , that the Affrican Bishops , in the councel of Carthage , knowing how the administration of Baptisme belongeth only to the church of Christ , and supposing that hereticks , which were apparantly seuered from the sound beleeuing church , could not possiblie be of the church of Iesus Christ , thought it vtterly against reason , that baptisme administred by men of corrupt beleefe , should be accounted as a Sacrament . Some of the Fathers were earnest , especially Saint Cyprian , in this point : but I hope you haue not yet proceeded so farre . This opinion was afterwards both cōdemned by a better aduised councel , and also reuoked by the chiefest of the Authors therof themselues : And therfore as it is strāge for any man to denie them of Rome to be of the church ; so I cannot but wonder , that they will aske where our church was , before the birth of Martin Luther ; as if any were of opinion that Luther did erect a new church of Christ. No , the church of Christ , which was from the beginning , is , and continueth in substance the same vnto the end ; of which , al parts haue not bin alwaies equally sincere and sound . In the daies of Abiha , it plainly appeareth , that Iuda was by many degrees more free from pollution , then Israel : In Saint Paules time , the integrity of Rome , was famous ; Corinth many waies reproued ; they of Galathia much more out of square : in Iohns time , Ephesus and S●yrna , in better state , then Thiatyra and Pergamus were ; and yet all of them , no doubt , parts of the visible church ; so standeth the cause , betwixt Rome and vs ; so farre as lawfully we may , we haue held , and do hold fellowship with them ; we acknowledge thē , to be of the family of Iesus Christ ; and our heartie prayer vnto God Almightie is , that being conioyned , so farre forth with them , they may at length , if it be his will , so yeeld to frame , and reforme themselues , that no distraction remaine in anie thing , but that we all , may with one heart , and one mouth glorifie God , the Father of our Lord , and Sauiour , whose church we are . As there are , which make the church of Rome no church at all , vtterly : so we haue them amongst vs , who vnder pretence of imagined corruptions in our discipline , do giue , euen as hard a iudgement of the church of England it selfe . But whatsoeuer either the one sort , or the other teach , we must acknowledge , euen heretikes themselues , to bee ( though a maimed part ) yet a part of the visible church . For as to baptize is a proper action , belonging vnto none but the church of Christ , which is true in the church of Rome ( howsoeuer some Anabaptists account it but a mockerie ) so if an infidell , should pursue to death an heretike , professing christianitie , onely for christian profession sake , could the church denie him the honour of Martyrdome ? Yet this honour all men know to be proper vnto the church ; and therefore where the Fathers make opposition betwixt the visible church , and hereticall companies ( as often times they doe ) they are to bee construed , as separating heretikes , not altogether from the companie of beleeuers , but from the fellowship of sound beleeuers : for where profest vnbeleefe is , there can be no visible church of Christ ; there may be where sound beleefe wanteth . Infidels being cleane without the church , denie directly , and vtterly reiect , the very principles of Christianity ; which heretikes imbrace , and erre onely , in misconstruction . And therefore it is strange that you dare affirme ; the Turke to hold any part of the christian faith , or to bee in that respect comparable to the church of Rome : For that which separateth vtterly , that which cutteth off cleane , from the visible church of Christ , is , as Maister Hooker saith , plaine Apostasie ; direct deniall ; vtter reiection of the whole christian faith ; as farre as the same is professedly different , from infidelitie . Heretikes , as touching those points of doctrine wherein they faile ; Schismatikes , as touching the quarrels , for which , or the duties wherein they diuide themselues from their brethren ; loose , licentious , and wicked persons , as touching their seuerall offences , or crimes ; haue all forsaken the true church of God , the church which is sound and sincere , in the doctrine ; that they corrupt : The church that keepeth the bond of vnitie , which they violate : the church that walketh in the lawes of righteousnesse , which they transgresse : This verie true church of Christ , they haue left ; howbeit not altogether left , nor forsaken simply the Church , vpon the maine foundations whereof , they continue built , notwithstanding these breaches , whereby they are rent at the top asunder . But peraduenture you will say , why then doe wee refuse to communicate with the church of Rome , more then Zacharie , Elizabeth , Anna , and others , did with the high priests ? corruptions being in both , and both remaining parts of the church of God ? I answer , that in the time of our Sauiour Christ , the synagogue of the Iewes , although it was not in regard of the high Priests , and chiefe Doctors in all respects , the true visible church ; yet in some sort , it was ; because the remainders of religion , were left , & the worship instituted of God himselfe , was not wholy taken away : so with the Papists we would not be affraid to communicate , in our liturgie , if it were not in respect of their superstitious order , & some prayers which are idolatrous , for which we haue some reasons , as yet to doubt , that they haue no warrant . We must all of vs be ioined to the true church , else we cannot be saued , that is to the catholicke ▪ not the visible : for doubtles a man may bee saued , that liueth not in any particular Church ; or that is excommunicated from all : yet we say , thus much ; That we must ioyne ourselues to some particular Church , if wee will be saued ; with this twofold caution , If such a Church be knowne vnto vs ; or if it be possible to ioyne vnto it . Wherein , because euerie particular may erre , yet none absolutely exclude from saluation , all men haue reason to ioyne with that , that is most sound . This then were the fittest point , to bee discust with moderation , and learning : That seeing all Churches haue some vnsound parts in them , which Church is to be reputed at this day the soundest of all the rest . Doubtlesse the Church of Rome , was once a light to all the Churches of the world ; but through the corruptions of some , those diseases haue somwhat infected the Church , which now to the sorrow of Christendome , like a canker , or leprosie , haue inlarged themselues . As there is a contention when Adam fell ; so histories varie , when this defection beganne : Some make fiue or sixe hundred yeares to be the continuance of her sound estate ; some three hundreth ; some to erre , euen from the Apostles time . Doubtlesse in the Apostles time , there were heretikes in the Church ; the Nicholaitans , Simon Magus , Cerinthus , & others . Eusebius reporteth out of Egesippus , that although as long as the Apostles liued , the Church did remaine a pure virgin , yet after those times , immediately , errours crept into the Church . Clemens Alexandrinus , to confirme that there was corruption of doctrine presently after the Apostles time , alleageth the prouerbe , There are few sons like their Fathers . Socrates saith of the Church of Rome and Alexandria ( the most famous Churches in the Apostles time ) that about the yeare 430. the Roman and Alexandrian Bishops , leauing their sacred function , were degenerate to a secular rule or dominion . Yet we say not , that all before Gregorie , were sound , nor all after , corrupt : yet their errours grew on by little and little , euen from those men , whose reuerend names , gaue warrant to what they held ; they thinking nothing ●esse , then by those meanes to haue corrupted the Church . But shee may when it pleaseth God , recouer her former soundnesse againe ; if we had but so much care of them , as they seeme to haue of vs ; or that all sides peaceably with indifferencie , would admit the true vse of a generall Councell . But let their errours be as they are ; we leaue them , to bee reproued by those , whom that businesse doth concerne , and to bee iudged by the searcher of all hearts : yet for all that , we affirme them to be parts of the Church of Christ ; and that those , that liue , and die in that Church , may notwithstanding bee saued . Of those who are of a contrarie opinion in a good meaning , I say with Lactantius , With howe good a meaning these poore soules do euill . To conclude , least you should thinke Maister Hooker to bee arrogant , and presumptuous , to make himselfe ( as you say ) the onely Rabbi ; know that hee hath saide nothing , which that honourable Frenchman of worthie memorie hath not said before , with great wisdome , moderation , and learning . But if you cannot bee resolued without a miracle , as you scoffingly seeme to desire , wee can but in our prayers recommend your weakenesse to the God of all power , and the fountaine of all light . ARTICLE XII . Of Preaching . HOw hard it is , for those who are in loue with themselues , to car●e a well tempered indifferencie , betwixt that , which they out of ignorance performe , and others , out of iudgement auoid ; this Article alone may serue , as euidence sufficient to perswade all . For euen , in the matter , of greatest vse vnto Gods church ( the dispensation of the word of life ) a vehement dislike of those things , which they cannot attaine , hath wrought too violēt an opposition , for the ouerthrow of that course , which learning and truth haue held not to be the weakest meanes , to support the same . Hence commeth it to passe , that whilest al grant the word to be powerful and effectual ; some thinke , this is only true , of the word preached ; which otherwise , hath smal vertue , except it be in sermōs ; & those sermōs only , to haue this power , which are of their own making . Causing the holy ghost , whose strēgth is perfected in weakenes , to be necessarily tied , to a defect of al outward ornaments ; as though that almighty power , vpon whom euer excellency depēds , euē in the weakest meanes , were of lesse authority , or lesse power , whē the meanes which he vseth , were more excellent : thus depriuing the church of variety of guifts , who out of obedience and humility , hath learned how to profit by all . But , as to tie the power of conuerting sinners , to that which is eloquently strong in humaine wisdome , were a thing not safe , & iniurious to the church ; so to bee too earnest , against al outward ornaments , through an affectation of pure simplicity , is an error no lesse dangerous then the former was . For seeing those that teach are not all , either capeable , or furnisht , with the same guifts , and that continually , there is no lesse variety in those that heare ; it is the wisdome , and discretion of the church , for a better attainmēt of a more perfect estate , to learne with thankfulnes and reuerence how to profit by all . For as it is impossible , that anie one forme of teaching should please or perswade all men , ( a prerogatiue which was not graunted to the first and best sermons ) whose excellencie was that they conuerted many , but not all ; so the rest , who yet are not , but must be conuerted , are to expect ( though not with curiosity to affect ) a variety for the manner , euen of that which in substance and end , is but meerely one . For the mysticall body , as it is ful of variety and diuersity in his parts , yet in it selfe but one ; so the working is manifold , & different , though the beginning and the end , Gods power , and his glory be in truth , to , and for all men , but one . For sometimes the word , by being read proposeth , and preacheth it selfe to the hearer ; sometimes they deliuer it , whom priuately zeale and piety moueth to be instructors of others , by conference ; sometimes , of them it is taught , whom the church hath called to the publick , either reading thereof , or interpreting ; & by them after a most diuers manner ; but all tending to one ende , for which God hath made his visible church to be that congregation of faithfull people , wherein the pure word of God is preached : so that in this respect we refuse not , to make the preaching of the word ( taking the word preaching for all manner of teaching ) to be an essentiall note , of the church . For doubtles in that parable of the sower , by you alledged , we mislike not much the interpretation of that Reuerend Bishop which you bring forth , as opposite to Maister Hooker ; saying , God is the husbandman , the Preachers of the word are the seed sowers , the seede is the word of God , the ground is the harts of men ; and yet Saint Austin , differeth a little from this exposition , where he saith , the sower is God , and I , because he soweth , what am I but the seedmans basket ? Which euen the meanest Christian no doubt is , though neuer called to the office of preaching , if he can by priuate conference , exhort and instruct out of holy Scripture : which as it is an acte of lesse honor , and profit , then the preaching of those , that are worthily called to that office ; so euen , in their sermons that are called , there is no man but must acknowledge , a manifold , and apparant difference . For seeing speech ( as Maister Hooker saith ) ( which you mislike ) is the very image , whereby the mind , and soule of the speaker , conueyeth itselfe into the bosome of him that heareth ; we cannot chuse , but see great reason , wherfore the word , that proceedeth from God ( who is in him selfe very truth and life ) should be ( as the Apostle to the Hebrues noteth ) liuely , and mighty in operation , sharper then any two edged sword . Now , to make our sermons that strong , & forcible word , is to impart the most peculiar glory of the word of God , vnto that which is not his word . For touching our sermons , that which giueth them their very being , is the will of man ; and therefore , they oftentimes , accordingly tast too much of that ouer-corrupt fountaine , from which they come . For euen the best of our Sermons , ( and in Sermons there is an infinite difference ) howsoeuer they oftentimes , haue a singular blessing , and that the scripture , the pure word of God , is the text and the ground of the speech ; yet the rest of the discourse , which is sometimes two , or three houres long , ( a time too long for most preachers to speake pertinently ) is but the paraphrasticall inlarging of the same text , together with those fit exhortations and applications , which the learning of the preacher , is able to furnish himselfe withall , and his discretion shall thinke fit for that auditory to which he speaketh . And therfore , as to equalize euery declamation , or oration in schooles , to them , is to wrong sermons ; so to make , euen the best sermons , equall to the scripture , must be in apparant reason a great wrong , to that which is immediately Gods own word ; wherunto , though the best preach agreeably , yet the sermons of none , since the Apostles time , are or ought to be esteemed of equall authority with the holy scripture : and yet , we are not afraide , to ascribe vnto them , that blessing from aboue , to conuert , reforme , and strengthen , which no eloquence , Wisedome , Learning , Policie , and Power of the world , is able to match . Neither is there contrariety in this , that we that are the Preachers are sent as the Apostles were , in respect of our calling from God ; and yet , that the learning , and wit of man , giueth the very beeing vnto that wee teach . Vnlesse ( which some ouerboldly doe ) you thinke it vnlawfull to vse either learning or wit , in making of sermons : As though all other helpes , purchased with great cost , and infinite labour , together with a naturall ability , all perfected in those excellent fountaines of all learning , the Vniuersities , were to be reiected , as wholy vnprofitable in this busines . Neither doth Master Hooker , or any other of iudgement say ( which you seeme to infer ) that a man by natural witte , without a supernaturall light , from the scripture , is able to vtter those mysteries as he ought ; which doubtlesse being a great fault , is rather the error of those who preach most , and yet vse least helps of learning or wit , for that they vtter . Wherein it must needs seeme strange , that they euer vnderstanding by the word , the worde preached ; whereunto they ascribe vitall operation ; yet they performe this with such negligence , that they come rashly , vnfurnished , to so great a businesse ; and scarce attentiuely weigh the dangerous sequell , of this construction . Doubtlesse , our sermons , euen the best , either for sound knowledge , or pure zeale , are not Gods word in the same manner that the sermōs of the Prophets were ; no , they are but ambiguously tearmed his word , because his word , is commonly the subiect , wherof they treate , and must be the rule whereby they are framed . Yet sermons haue sundrie , peculiar , and proper vertues , such as no other way of teaching besides hath : aptnesse to follow particular occasions presently growing ; to put life into words , by countenance , voice and gesture ; to preuaile mightily in the sodaine affections of men ; these and such like , are those excellent prerogatiues , which some few may challēg , who worthily deserue the name to be called preachers . We reiect not ( as of no vse at all in the Church ) euen the vertuous labours of meaner men , who come far short of the perfection of these few ; but earnestly wish the gouernours of our Church , for fitte imployment and maintenance , to respect both : And they laying aside all comparisons , equally to labour to further that worke , which by a blessing from aboue , knoweth how to profit by the labours of all . It seemeth by that which you allege , that only such sermons , haue their beeing , from the wit of man , which curiously bring into the pulpit , Poets ; Philosophers ; Rhetoricians ; Phisitions ; Schoolemen , and other humaine learning ; which the reuerend Fathers , say you , and more staid diuines , are war●e to auoid . In this speech of yours , in my opinion , there are two faults . The first , a particular vniust censure , of the Fathers , whether you meane , the holy Fathers of the Church , as Saint Austine , Saint Ambrose , Saint Gregorie , Saint Bernard , and the rest ; or those reuerend Fathers which doe liue at this day ; all which , whilest you seeke to commend , directly you dispraise ; accounting them , to auoid all humane learning , and that their sermons , haue not their being from the wit of man : which doubtlesse is false , seeing they excell by infinite degrees , the sermons of manie others which are framed , by neither . The second fault , is a generall taxation of all those , who anie way furnish their sermons with humane learning . You may peraduenture be able , to giue good direction in other points , but surely in framing of a Preacher , or making of a sermon , you are much deceiued : for I can neuer perswade my selfe , that the exactest industrie that man can vse , is vnlawfull or vnnecessarie in this worke ; for sometimes , we are to deale with those , whose opinions are not easily confuted without humane learning ; nor their attention gained without wit ; nor their affections perswaded without eloquence ; where to come vnfurnisht , and leaue the workings without meanes , to him who giueth a power , and a blessing to the meanes we vse , is all one to appoint him what meanes are fittest , or to inioyne him to worke without meanes at all : which , though that Almightie power can do , yet then to refuse thē , when they are prouided , or not to furnish vs , with as much as we can of the best that he hath prouided , it argueth our vnthankfulnesse , and our want of choise . This made ( when Celsus , Iulian , and Porphyry , had written against vs ) the holy Fathers to confute them , with all varietie of humane learning ; that thus the enemies of that truth , which we teach , may say with Iulian , We are strooke through with our owne weapons . This was the happines of Epiphanius ( whi●● I wish were common to all preachers ) that his writings were read of the learned for the matter , of the simple for the words . Thus we should not doubt but to win an attention from all ; nay euen for the true discharging of this businesse , there is a necessarie vse of Grammar , to teach the originall & proprietie of words ; of Logicke , to discerne ambiguities ; of Rhetoricke , for ornament ( a good tale being much better , when it is well told ; ) of Philosophie , for the vnfolding the true nature of causes ; the ignorance whereof , hath brought much error in expounding the holy Scriptures ; of Historie , for the computation of times ; in one word , of all humane learning , which like the spoiles of Egypt , we haue recouered from the vniust owners ; accounting it no more disgrace to be accused of eloquence , wit , or humane learning , then S. Austin did , by Petilian , to be termed Tertullus the Orator . There be that account Inciuilitie of maners , and Rusticitie of speech , as Saint Hierome speaketh , true holinesse . But it is not fit , that those that are toothlesse should enuie the teeth of others ; or those that are Moules , repine that others see ( as the same Father admonisheth Calphurnius . ) It hath beene a trouble , of some of our best and most excellent preachers , that they haue beene inforced , after their wearisome ●oiling , and vnregarded paines , to giue a reason , and make a defence ( as though they had committed a fault ) for the vse of that , for which in true estimation , they ought to haue reaped much praise . And therfore saith one ( whom I dare oppose , for eloquence and iudgement , against the best in that great city of the contrarie faction ) I am not of opinion with those men , who thinke that all secular , and prophane learning should be abandoned from the lips of the preacher , and that whether hee teach , or exhort , he is of necessitie to tie himselfe , to the sentence and phrase of only Scripture . Good is good , wheresoever I find it : vpon a withered and fruitlesse stalke , saith S. Austin , a grape sometimes may hang ; shall I refuse the grape because the stalk is fruitlesse and withered ? There is not any knowledg of learning to be despised , seeing that all science whatsoeuer , is in the nature & kind of good things ; rather those that despise it , we must repute rude , & vnprofitable altogether , who would bee glad that all men were ignorant , that their owne ignorance lying in the common heape , might not be espied . And S. Austin in in another place , saith , Eloquence is not euill , but a sophisticall malignant profession , proposing to it selfe , not as it meaneth , but either of contention , or for commodity sake , to speake for all things , & against all things . What were more profitable , then the eloquence of Donatus , Parmenian , & others of your sect , if it ran with as free a streame , for the peace , vnity , truth , and loue of Christ , as it floweth against it ? for els it is a venimous eloquence , as Saint Cyprian wrote of the eloquence of Nouatus ; I know there is much amisse , both in matter , and in the vse of prophane learning ; but this we are sure , if we bring it to the Scripture , if it bee faultie , it is condemned ; if wholsome , it is there confirmed . And I see no reason , that any man should be bold , to offer his owne inuentions , and conceits to the world , when hee findeth such , in the Fathers , and others , as cannot be amended . I am sorie that the learned of any sort ( as my Author saith ) that hath but born a book , should dispraise learning ; she hath enemies enough abroad , though she bee iustified by her children . It is fitter that wisedome , bee beaten by fooles , then by those who ought to be esteemed wise ; aboue all other places , a blow giuen in the pulpit against learning ( a fault too common ) leaueth a scarre in the face of knowledge , which cannot easily be cured . It calleth in question , the reaching of others , as if they fed the people with acorns & husks , not bread ; or because they gather the truth out of humane Authours , they contemned the authority of the holy Scriptures . Doubtlesse , it is somtime vanity in those that preach , & itching in those that heare , & a thing not tolerable , or allowable in either ; but where it is otherwise , let not a ras● conclusion without proofe ( as though it were young mens faults ) bee admitted against good learning . If Asclepiodorus will draw with a cole , or chauke alone , I iudge him not ; if others , wil paint with colours , neither let them be iudged : for those , that are wise , and humble in the Church , know how with discretion to make vse of all ; and yet , not all of the like authoritie . For doctrines deriued , exhortations deducted , interpretations agreeable , are not the verie word of God , but that onely , which is in the originall text , or truly translated ; and yet we call those sermons , though improperly , the word of God. To conclude this point , as our Church hath manie excellent Preachers , which we wish by good incouragement may increase ; so it is too presumptuous a labour for any , to prescribe one forme necessarie to all . But I could wish that all were like him whom you accuse , or like one Marianus Genazanensis , whom Angelus Politianus doth excellently describe , in my opinion an excellent patterne of a reuerend Diuine . ARTICLE XIII . Of the Ministers office . IN the actions of this life , whether spirituall or temporal , God and man giue their approbation in a diuers maner ; the one looketh onely at the thing done , the other at the mind & disposition of the doer . And therefore , the same things from diuers parties , are not of the same , nor of like value : nay , that which is from sinceritie , a worship ; is from hypocrisie , a sin : and the defects , which outwardly the maner of doing disproueth , the sinceritie oftentimes in the mind of the doer , acquiteth . In the eye of man , it is sometimes a fault which is no sin ; & in the eye of God , a sin , which in the eye of man , was no fault . So that according to lawes , which principally respect the heart of man , works of religion being not religiously performed , cānot morally be perfect . Baptisme as an Ecclesiasticall work , is for the maner of performāce ordered by diuers ecclesiastical lawes , prouiding , that as the sacrament it self , is a gift of no mean worth ; so the ministerie thereof might in all circumstances , appeare to bee a function of no small regarde . The ministerie of the things diuine , is a function , which as God did himselfe institute ; so neither may men vndertake the same , but by authority and power giuen them in lawfull manner . That God which is no way deficient or wanting vnto man in necessaries , and hath therfore giuen vs the light of his heauenly truth , because without that inestimable benefit , we must needes haue wandred in darknesse , to our endles perdition ; and who hath in the like aboundance of mercies , ordeined certaine to attend vpon the due execution , of requisite parts , and offices , therein prescribed , for the good of the whole world ; which men therunto assigned , doe hold their authority from him , whether they be such as himselfe immediately , or else the Church in his name inuesteth ; it being neither possible , for all , nor for euery man , without distinction conuenient , to take vpon him a charge of so great importance : and therfore very fitly , the Church of England affirmeth , that it is not lawfull for any one , to take to himselfe the office of preaching publikely , or administring the Sacraments , in the Church , except he be first lawfully called to doe th●se things : For God who hath reserued , euen from the first beginning of the world , vntill the end therof , a Church vnto himselfe , vpon earth ; against which , the gates of hell , shall not preuaile ; hath likewise appointed , a perpetuall ministery for the seruice therein ; which though for outward calling hath not bin euer the same , yet continually it was limited , in those bounds , as a thing most vnmeet , and vnlawfull , for any man to vndertake , that was not called . For as it is Gods infinite mercie , when he could either saue vs without the ministry of any , or by the ministry of Angels ; yet then to honor man , with this dignity to make him a coadiutor , dispenser , and cohelper in so great a worke ; so it is his wisdome to appoint both for the auoiding of confusion , and vnfitnesse , such persons as are truly allotted to so honorable an office ; which neither before , vnder , or after the law , was euer lawfull , without any calling to vndertake . The enemies to this religious order of the Church , haue bin certaine louers of confusion , which vnder pretence of the calling of the spirit , haue ouerboldly intruded themselues , into those holy functions ; for which lawfully they had neuer warrant . Such were the Enthusiasts , Anabaptists , Schwenkfeldians , who being enemies to all order , vnder pretence of a calling from the Holy-ghost , which others wanted , haue made a passage contrary to that restraint of the Apostle , ( Let no man take vpon him that honor to himselfe , but he that is called of God ) without expectation of lawfull warrant , to those duties , that in the Church are greatest : for in the time before the law , it was not permitted to take the office of priesthood , vnlesse he either were or had the prerogatiue of the eldest brother . This was for the sinne of Ruben deriued to the tribe of Louie ; first for their zeale , in that great idolatry ; and was after confirmed vnto him , in the sedition of Corah : and yet not to all of that family , either to serue in that tabernacle , or to teach throughout all Israel . Neither were all ages equally fit vnto this calling ; it being neither lawfull before fiue and twenty , nor after fifty to be admitted to it : As also those , that were admitted , had a speciall consecration , for a personall difference , from the rest of that family , to let them vnderstand , that although they , and only they of that tribe , were to be imployed in those functions , yet it was not lawfull to vndertake it , without a calling : this afterward , whē better notes of eminencie gaue that allowance which before birth did , was with greater reuerence to be expected , and to be obserued with a greater care , by those whom the Church had inuested , with authority to call vnto that charge . To these persons , because God imparted power ouer his mysticall bodie , which is the society of soules , and ouer that naturall , which is himselfe , for the knitting of both in one ( a worke which antiquity doth call the making of Christs body ) the same power is in such , not amisse both tearmed a kind of marke , or Character , and acknowledged to be indeleble . For ministeriall power , is a marke of separation , because it seuereth them that haue it from other men , and maketh them a speciall order , consecrated vnto the seruice of the most high , in things wherewith others may not meddle . Their difference therfore from other men is , in that they are a distinct order : and I call it indeleble , because they which haue once receiued this power , as Maister Hooker saith , may not thinke to put it off and on like a cloake , as the weather serueth , to take it , reiect and resume it , as oft as themselues liste : of which prophane and impious contempt , these latter times haue yeelded ( as of all other kinds of iniquity and apostasie ) strange examples . But let them know , which put their hands to this plough , that once consecrated vnto God , they are made his peculiar inheritance for euer . Suspensions may stoppe , and degradations vtterly cutte off , the vse or exercise of power giuen ; but voluntarily it is not in the power of man , to separate and pull asunder , what God by his authority coupleth : Neither neede there a reordinatiō for such as were consecrated by the Church , in corrupter times ; for out of men indued with gifts of the spirit , the Church chose her ministers , vnto whom was giuen ecclesiasticall power by ordination , which they could neither assume , or reiect at their owne pleasure . Of these , without doubt the Apostolick Churches , did acknowledge but three degrees at the first ; Apostles ( in stead whereof are now Bishops ) Presbyters , and Deacons ; for there is an error ( as Maister Hooker saith ) which beguileth many , who much entangle both themselues and others , by not distinguishing , seruices , offices , and orders Ecclesiasticall ; the first of which three , and in part the second , may be executed by the laity , whereas none haue , or can haue the third , namely ( order ) but the clergie . Catechists , Exorcists , Readers , Singers , and the rest of like sort , if the nature only of their labour , and paines be considered , may in that respect seeme clergie men ; euen as the fathers for that cause tearme them vsually Clerks ; as also in regard of the end whereunto they were trained vp ; which was to enter into orders , when yeeres and experience should make them able ; notwithstanding in as much as they no way differed from others of the laity , longer then during that work of seruice , which at any time they might giue ouer , beeing thereunto but admitted , not tyed by irreuocable ordination ; we finde them alwaies , exactly seuered from that body , whereof those three before rehearsed orders , alone are naturall parts . This will appeare more fully ( howsoeuer you mislike it ) ●f we consider but a little , those seruices , and duties , about which they were imployed . The first were doorekeepers , ( for we omitte the first tonsor , which was not any order but a preparation ) whose office was , as Maister Caluin noteth , to open and to shut the doores of the temple ; we agree in this with the Church of Rome ; our diffrenece is , for the ordination of them . The second were readers , the duty of these , as Zanchy saith , was only to reade the Bible , without any exposition , in a pulpit or place more eminent then the rest ; so that in the compasse of a whole yeere , it was fully finished and read ouer : this was to make the people who could not read , more familiarly acquainted with the holy scriptures . Of this duty , S. Cyprian in his Epistles , hath written most ; as of one Aurelius , beeing made a Reader ▪ of one Satur●s ; as also of Celerinus , which afterward was a Martyr . The difference betwixt vs , in this point , and the Church of Rome , is , that they make it a certaine degree and order , which Maister Caluin doth not ; which in my opinion is no material difference , seeing vndoubtedly the Church by speciall ordination ( without Ecclesiasticall order ) appointed those , whom she vsed in those places . The next were exorcists , with vncleane spirits ; but this was rather doubtlesse a peculiar gift , then any ordinary office in Gods Church . The next were disputers , which were appointed with all commers to defend the religion , against the heathen . The next were Acolouthi , attendants vpon the Bishops , with whom these had for their learning , and reuerend behauiour , that familiarity , that they were thought fittest to succeede in the place of Bishops . This , as it was an imployment of great respect ; so it is retained in the Church of Rome at this day , with too meane a regard for so reuerend a place . The next were Singers : for it was thought vnfit , that a Bishop , a Presbyter , or Deacon , should doe this . The last which we wil reckon , was the Catechists , whose office was to teach children , and others conuerted , the summe of Christian doctrine . This dutie was referred to learned men ; sometimes Presbyters , Doctors , or Deacons ; but not euer . For though Origen and Clemens , were both Doctors , and Catechists in Alexandria ; yet all that were Catechists , and so allowed to expound , and teach the Scriptures , were not of necessitie admitted to holy orders : and so consequently , as the word is properly taken by Maister Hooker , none of the Clergie . I say properly , for Clergie is a general name for all those , whose lot , and portion is the Lord : More specially for those , who are students in diuinity , & after are to enter into holy orders . Of these , there were Colledges after the Apostles ; as before , Colledges of the Prophets . And out of these , were taken such , as the Church ( without Ecclesiasticall ordination ) vsed in those seruices , which before are mentioned . Out of all which , it is most apparant , that from the Clergie in respect of ministeriall power , these are iustly seuered . This is that which you mislike , esteeming it a thing vnfit for any man to preach , that hath not a ministerial calling . Neither doth Maister Hooker determine how fit it is , that this should be performed , by men who are not entred into orders ; but that this hath sometimes beene the practise of the Church , howsoeuer now performed by men of another calling ; there is no man of anie reading can possibly doubt : Neither is the practise in some Colledges of diuines at this day , altogether vnlike ; where men are admitted , euen for exercise , or triall , to interpret & expound the Scriptures , which are not as yet ( but hereafter may be ) consecrated to an Ecclesiasticall function . Now , whereas you scoffe at the word Character , as if there were no stamp at al which made a difference betwixt the Clergie and the Laity : know , that where there is a chāge of estate , with an impossibility of returne , there we haue reason to account an indeleble character to bee imprinted . This faith the Church of Rome , is in Baptisme , Confirmation , & Order . Of the last of which , we only contend at this time : For any thing that I reade , Saint Austin was the first that vsed the word in this sense ; and no doubt of it , in Baptisme there is that mark stamped vpon vs , in that we are baptized , that there is a passiue power , as the Schoolemen call it , which maketh a man in time fit to receiue the rest , which they cal Sacraments , and without which , they are truly accounted void . This forme , figure , impession , or character , is called indeleble , because that is not to be reiterated , frō whence it commeth . The character of Order , is an actiue power , as the Schoolemen speake , which giueth an abilitie publikely to administer the Sacramēts , vnto those , whō the church hath esteemed fit . From whence proceedeth the second great exception , which you haue taken in this Article , namely , that Maister Hooker seemeth to grant a libertie , as for Cat●chists to preach , who are no Ministers ; so also for women in cases of some necessitie to Baptise , contrary , say you , both to that most Reuerend Archbishop , and others , who constantly affirme , that God , & wel ordred Churches forbid women all dispensation of holy mysteries . Wee are not to dispute , what lawes giue allowance to the performance of this office , nor what care ought to make restraint from too vsuall a libertie of doing it without great necessitie ; seeing weaknesse is commonly bold , and boldnesse a presumptuous intruder , where it hath least cause . But this we say , which M. Hooker hath pro●ed already , that Baptisme by women is truly Baptisme , good , and effectual to those that haue it : neither doe all those exceptions of sexe , qualitie , insufficiencie , or whatsoeuer , serue to frustrate , such as the Church of her indulgence , is willing to admit , from being partakers of so great a benefit . To make women teachers in the house of God , were a grosse absurditie , seeing the Apostle hath said , I permit not a woman to teach : and if any from the same ground , exclude them frō other publike offices in the Church , wee are not much against it . But to womens Baptisme in priuate , by occasion of vrgent necessitie , the reasons that concerne ordinarie Baptisme in publike , are no iust preiudice ; neither can we by force thereof , disproue the practise of those Churches , which ( necessity requiring ) allow Baptisme , in priuate to be administred by women . We may not from lawes that prohibite any thing with restraint , conclude absolute , and vnlimitted prohibitions . For euen things lawfull , are well prohibited , when there is feare , least they make the way to vnlawful more easie ; & it may be , the libertie of Baptisme by women , at such times , doth sometimes embolden the rasher sort to do it , where no such necessity is . But whether of permission besides law , or in presumption against law , they do it ( which now is no part of the question in hand ) it is not hereby altogether frustrate , void , and as if it were neuer giuen . True it is , that seeing God , from whom mens seuerall degrees , & preheminences proceed , hath appointed them in his Church , at whose hands his pleasure is that we should receiue Baptisme ; and all other publike helpes medicinable to the soule ; perhaps thereby the more to settle our hearts , in the loue of our ghostly superiors ; they haue small cause to hope that with him , their voluntarie seruices will be accepted , who thrust themselues into functions , either aboue their capacitie , or besides their place , and ouerboldly intermeddle with duties , whereof no charge was euer giuen vnto them . In which respect , if lawes forbid it to be done , yet therefore it is not necessarily void when it is done . For many things are firme being done , which in part are done , otherwise thē positiue rigor , and strictnes did require . Actions vsurped haue often the same nature , which they haue in others , although they yeeld not him that doth them the same comfort . What defects then are in this kind , they redound with restraint to the offender only ; the grace of Baptisme commeth by donation from God onely . That God hath committed the mysterie of Baptisme vnto speciall men , it is for orders sake in his Church , and not to the intent that their authoritie might giue being , or adde force to the Sacrament it selfe . Infants haue right to Baptisme , we all know ; that they haue it not by lawfull ministers , it is not their fault ; Mens owne faults are their owne harmes . So then wee conclude this point , with Maister Hooker , that it is one thing to defend the fact for lawfulnesse in the doer ( which few do ) and another thing the fact being done , which no man hath reason to disallow ; for though it is not lawfull for women to vndertake that office to baptize , which peraduenture belongs not vnto them ; yet the Baptisme being done , we hold it lawfull . ARTICLE XIIII . Of the Sacraments . IT is not a thing lesse vsuall in the apprehension of truths , through the weaknesse of our vnderstanding , to ascribe too little , to that which in all reason hath great vertue ; then to allow ouermuch to that , which hath no vertue at all . It fareth with men in this kind , as it doth with some deceitfull artificers ; who bestow most arte and outward additions , where inwardly there is least value , whilest they leaue that altogether vnfurnished , which is able to expose it to sale , by his owne worth . It is our fault , no lesse violently to extoll , what our fancies make vs to account excellent , then to dispraise things truly commendable in their owne nature , because onely they haue gained this disaduantage , to bee disliked by vs. So that whosoeuer maketh , either praise , or dispraise to be a rule of iudgement , or the iudgement of some few , to bee a signe of value , he with like hazard equally erreth in both . For times and places , violent circumstances , of that which men say with or against , breed infinite varietie of alterations , where things are the same ; and out of commendation alone ( a strange effect ) dispraise like a monster , doth spring vp : It being cause sufcient to distempered humours , vehemently to dislike , only in this respect , that others doe commend the same . Wherein , the safest , and most charitable direction , will bee absolutely in that violent opposition to beleeue neither ; but euen from both , to deriue a truth much sounder then that which either holdeth : From hence hath it come to passe , that whilest they of the Church of Rome , haue peraduenture ascribed too much to works , some of vs too little , others haue set downe an equality , dissenting from both . Thus in the matter of the sacraments , ( things of greatest and most hidden vertue left vnto the Church , ( for they are called Mysteries ) some haue bin thought to deriue that power to them , which belongeth to God only ; which , whilest others sought to auoide , they haue euen depriued them , of that grace , which God doubtles in truth hath bestowed vpon them . In this kinde you are of opinion , that M. Hooker hath erred , who as you imagine , hath ascribed to the sacraments , farre more , ( following therein the steps of the Church of Rome ) then either the Scripture , the articles of our Church , or the exposition of our Reuerend Bishops , and others do . For the Fathers ( say you ) make the Sacraments only Seales of assurance , by which the Spirit worketh inuisibly , to strengthen our faith : And therfore , they call them visible words , seales of righteousnesse , and tokens of grace . That they doe , and say thus , there is no man , doubteth ; but we are not yet perswaded that this is all , or the furthest ( as you alledge ) that they saie ; because vndoubtedly we are assured , that they haue learned both to know and to speake otherwise . For the Sacraments chiefest force , and vertue , consisteth in this , that they are heauenly ceremonies which God hath sanctified and ordained , to be administred in his Church : First , as markes to know when God doth impart his vitall or sauing grace of Christ , vnto all that are capable therof : and secondly , as meanes conditionall , which God requireth in them , vnto whom he imparteth grace . For doubtles , it must needes be a great vnthankfulnesse , and easily breed contempt , to ascribe only that power to them to be but as seales ; and that they teach but the minde , by other sense , as the worde doth by hearing : which if it were all , what reason hath the Church , to bestow any Sacrament vpon Infants , who as yet for their yeares , are nor capable of any instruction ; there is therefore of Sacraments , vndoubtedly some more excellent and heauenly vse . Sacraments , by reason of their mixt nature , are more diuersly interpreted , and disputed of , then any other part of Religion besides ; for that in so great store of properties belonging to the selfe same thing , as euery mans wit , hath taken hold of some especiall consideration , aboue the rest ; so they haue accordingly giuen their censure of the vse and necessity of them . For if respect bee had to the dutie , which euery communicant doth vndertake , we may cal them truly bōds of our obedience to God ; strict obligations to the mutuall exercise of Christian charity ; prouocations to godlines ; preseruatiōs frō sin ; memorials of the principal benefits of Christ. If we respect the time , of their institutiō , they are annexed for euer , vnto the new testamēt ; as other rites were before with the old . If we regard the weakenesse , that is in vs , they are warrants for the more security of our beleefe . If we compare the receiuers , with those that receiue them not , they are works of distinctiō , to separate Gods owne from strangers ; and in those that receiue them as they ought , they are tokens of Gods gratious presence , whereby men are taught , to know what they cannot see . For Christ and his holy spirit , with all their blessed effects , though entring into the soule of man , we are not able to apprehend or expresse how , doe notwithstanding giue notice , of the times when they vse to make their accesse , because it pleaseth Almighty God , to communicate by sensible meanes , those blessings which are incomprehensible . Seeing therfore , that grace is a consequent of Sacraments ; a thing which accompanieth them as their end ; a benefit , which he y t hath , receiueth from God himselfe , the author of Sacraments , & not from any other natural or supernatural quality in them ; it may be heereby both vnderstood , that Sacraments are necessary ; and that the manner of their necessity to life supernaturall , is not in al respects , as foode , vnto naturall life . Because they containe in themselues , no vitall force or efficacie , but they are duties of seruice and worship ; which vnlesse we performe , as the author of grace requireth , they are vnprofitable : For all receiue not the grace of God , which receiue the Sacraments of his grace . Neither is it ordinarily his will , to bestowe the grace of Sacraments vpon any , but by the Sacraments . Which grace also they that receiue by Sacraments , or with Sacraments , receiue it from him , and not from them . That sauing grace , which Christ originally , is , or hath , for the general good of his whole Church , by Sacramēts he seuerally deriueth into euery mēber therof . They serue , as instruments , the vse is in our hands , the effect is his . And this made the Schoolemen , and the rest , ( which you are affraide to graunt ) to say that the Sacraments were not only signes , but causes of our iustification . Now agent causes , we know , are of two sorts ; principall , which worketh by the vertue and power of his forme ; as fire , maketh hotte : and thus nothing can cause grace , but God himselfe ; Grace being a participation of the diuine nature . Instrumentall , which worketh not as the other , by vertue of his owne proper forme , but only by that motion , which it hath from the principall , and first agent . Thus doe Sacraments worke ; and therfore saith Saint Austin , the Sacraments are finished , performed , and passe away ; but the vertue of God , that worketh by them , or with them , remaineth . Thus for the vse of them , the Church hath Gods expresse commandement ; for the effect , his conditionall promise ; so that without our obedience to the one , there is of the other no apparant assurance ; as contrariwise , where the signes , and Sacraments of his grace are not , either through contempt vnreceiued , or receiued with contempt , we are not to doubte , but that they really giue what they promise ; and are what they signifie . For we take not the Sacraments ( as it seemeth you doe ) for bare resemblances , or memorials of things absent , neither for naked signes , and testimonies assuring vs of grace receiued before , but ( as they are indeede and in truth ) for meanes effectual , whereby God , when we take the Sacraments , deliuereth into our hands that grace , auaileable vnto eternall life ; which grace , the Sacraments represent or signifie : And yet we acknowledge as Hugo saith , that the Sacraments , being , as he calleth them , vessels of grace , they cure not of them selues , no more then glasses , doe the sick ; but the potions contained in them . Neither doth any man say , ( no not the Church of Rome ) ( although they be so accused by some of vs ) that the Sacraments , worke of themselues , by a vertue resigned vnto them , without God , meerely of the worked on actiuely ; but that God worketh by them , as by instruments powerfull , and thought in his wisdome fittest . For doubtles , the Church hath authority to vse the word , and the Sacraments , as powerfull meanes , of regeneration , both hauing by a diuine ordination , a force , and vertue to beget faith : and therefore iustly amongst all the treasures , that God hath left vnto his Church , we honor and admire most , the holy Sacraments ; not respecting so much the seruice , which we do vnto God in receiuing them , as the dignity of that sacred and secret guift , which we thereby receiue from God. And therfore , when our Church saith , that Sacraments are not only markes of Christian profession , but rather certaine testimonies , and effectuall signes of Grace , and of the goodwill of God towards vs , by which God worketh inuisiblie in vs , we thereby conceiue , how grace is indeed the very end , for which these heauenly mysteries were instituted ; and besides , sundry other properties obserued in them , the matter whereof they consist is such , as signifieth , figureth , and representeth their end : For surely sacraments are the powerfull instruments of God , vnto eternall life . For as the naturall life consisteth in the vnion of the body with the soule ; so the spiritual life in the vnion of the soule with God : And for asmuch as there is no vnion of God with man , without that meane betweene both , which is both ; nor this participated to vs , without the sacraments ; the vertue must needs bee great , that God by these imparteth vnto his Church . For they are signes , not only signifying , but ( as M. Zanchie saith ) exhibiting also inuisible grace . For God directly affirmeth , that he giueth that with the signe , which by the signe he representeth . In the Sacraments , wee acknowledge three things : The Word , the Element , the thing signified by the word ; and represented by the element ; and all these vnited , yet not by any reall , or physicall vnion , that one cannot bee receiued without the other ; but in these the vnion is sacramentall , and the order mysticall , betwixt the signes , and the things signified , by an institution from God : Whereby it commeth to passe , that heauenly and spirituall things by signes bodily , and earthly are signified , offered , and by the vertue of the holy Ghost , really exhibited , and performed vnto the elect . Thus if either the signes , or the thing signified be wanting , it ceaseth truly to bee a sacrament . Neither is grace , necessarily tied euer , to the externall sacrament : for we giue the one , and God giueth the other ; and when both are giuen , then is the sacrament faithfully receiued . Thus God iustifieth by the washing of the new birth , and the renewing of the holy Ghost : for this being the effect of his promise ; the sacraments apply it vnto vs , by thus giuing it , faith by thus receiuing , both being as instruments . For God doth iustifie , by the sacraments , man by faith ; but God one , and the same , maketh righteous , by both ; he being the author from whence they both come . Therefore it is a branch of beleefe ( howsoeuer you scoffe at it as omitted in our Creed ) that sacraments are in their place , as Maister Hooker saith , no lesse required , then beleefe it self . For when our Sauior promiseth eternall life , it is with this condition , as health to Naaman the Syrian , Wash and be cleane . But you are afraid to say that the Sacraments beget faith , although you confesse that they do increase it : Surely this is a feare like to the disposition of some melancholie humour , where fancie growing strong , forceth an auoidance of things , oftentimes that are without daunger : for to make Sacraments , and the word , to be ioyned with faith , both in his generation , and in our iustification , is neither to rob faith of his proper office , nor to ascribe more vnto the Sacraments , then of right belongeth . For we are not in anie doubt to affirme , that the Sacraments by the worke done actiuely , doe not affoord grace , though rightly vnderstood , passiuely they may , by the worke done : for in that iustification , and meanes of righteousnesse , whereof man is made partaker by the Sacraments , manie things concurre . First in Gods behalfe , a will that we should vse those sensible elements ; in Christs behalfe , his passion , from which the sacraments haue their vertue ; in the Ministers behalfe , his power , his will ; in the receiuers behalfe , will , faith , repentance ; in respect of the Sacrament it selfe , the externall action , which ariseth out of the fit application of the matter , & the form of the Sacraments . Now that which in all this , actiuely , and instrumentally bringeth grace , is the externall action , which is commonly called the Sacrament : This hauing his vertue from his institution , and not from anie merit , either in the Minister , or in him that receiueth . For the wil of God , which vseth the Sacramēts as that meanes of grace , which it hath ordained , concurreth actiuely , but as a principall cause ; the passion of Christ concurreth , as a cause meritorious ; the power and the will of the Minister , necessarily concurre , but as causes further remoued ; hauing their vse only in effecting the sacramentall action ; in whose due circumstances , of administring , he is vnwilling to faile . Will , faith , and repentance , are necessarily required in the receiuer , that is of yeares ; not as actiue causes , but as fit dispositions , for the subiect ; for faith , and repentance , make not the sacramentall grace , nor giue power to the Sacrament , but onely remoue those lets , which are hindrances , that the Sacraments exercise not that vertue , that is annexed to them . So that in infants , in whom no such disposition is required , the sacrament of Baptisme is auaileable without these . And therefore to satisfie your demaunds in this Article , wee conclude that a man dying without faith , and receiuing the sacramentall signes ( for sacraments he cannot receiue ) shall not be saued ; and not receiuing them ( if his want bee not either negligence , or contempt ) may be saued . Yet the latter to vs is fearefull , and ordinarily , impossible ; whereas the former is an euidence of our hope , and giueth most iust reason charitably to iudge . So that we say with Saint Austin , he that eateth , and drinketh vnworthily , eateth and drinketh his owne damnation , but he that contemneth to eate hath not life ; and therefore shall not come to eternall life . And yet those things that hurt the vnworthy receiuer , do much profit him who receiueth them , as he ought . ARTICLE XV. Of Christs Institution . IT is not an apprehension equally incident vnto the iudgments of all wise men , rightly to conceiue the true dependance of things ; for those who allow , and confesse actions , to haue much vertue , oftentimes do mistake , from whence that vertue commeth : this , as it happeneth in causes of more vsuall , and knowne nature ; so it is sometimes , euen in those things , where the authour is but one , and he incomparably the best : Because he vouchsafeth to admit instruments , of a lower conditiō , to be agents in the performance of things of so great an vse . This maketh men , in the sacraments , those holy institutions of God , left vnto the Church , often to faile , in a due estimation of them : And when they do graunt , their vse to be singular ; yet euen then , to doubt whereupon this dependeth ; because the same things performed by diuers , are not the same ; and those which admit no difference , in respect of substance , yet are subiect , in regard of some circumstance , to an alteration , either more , or lesse . From hence hath proceeded , the difference in this article , which ouer violently you vrge to be betwixt Maister Hooker and our Church ; of whom ( as vsually you do ) you carie too iealous a suspition , of too great agreement with the Church of Rome . That sacraments haue a vertue , euen more then to be onely signes , is already proued : but whether this vertue be lesse , where the Minister hath moe faults , or none at all , where his intention is not to administer a sacrament , that commeth now to be discussed in this place . To make the Sacraments , depend for their grace , vpon the integritie of men , were to denie the benefit to a great number without cause , and to punish men , for a fault that were none of theirs . The first of these is denied by fewe ; nay , some are so farre from opinion , that sin in the Minister , is anie let to the sacrament , that they are not affraid to affirme , that Sacraments are effectuall , though administred by Satan himselfe . Doubtlesse few ( sauing onelie some Anabaptists ) denie the efficacie of the Sacraments , for the defects of life , in the lawfull dispensers of them . They are inestimable fauours , vnto Gods Church , not to be measured by the hand , from whom immediately wee receiue them , but by that Almightie power , the fountaine of all goodnesse , from whence they do first come . For as , amongst men it were want either of iudgement , or ciuilitie , or both , lesse to esteeme of the benefit , for the meannesse of the messenger , where we are vndoubtedly assured , that it is the princes seale : so , in the Sacraments , we must esteem them , as the seales , & fauours of God himselfe , whatsoeuer the imperfections are , in those Ministers , from whom we haue them . For the defects of men , being in the Church , and lawfully called to those functions , no way touch the efficacie of the Sacraments , whose vertue dependeth vpon a higher power : And therefore we denie all reiteration of Baptisme , whatsoeuer the defects for manners are in those , that do first giue it . For we are equally baptized , into the name of the Father , the Sonne , and the Holy-ghost , what vnworthines , or inequality soeuer , remaine in the persons , that do baptize . For the holinesse of the Sacraments , is no way polluted , by the vncleannesse of the handes that giue them . For those Sacraments , which vnreuerently being handled , as Saint Austin saith , doe hurt the giuer , yet euen by their hands profit those that receiue them worthily . It was both in Asia , and Africk , an error longe since , that the Sacraments were not firme , which were administred by Heretickes , or Schismatickes , separated from the vnity of the Church . The first author of this , was Agrippinus Bishop of Carthage , whom Saint Cyprian succeeded , as Saint Austine writeth ; and was a little infected with the same errour . After these were the Donatists : but we wil not labour for confirmation of this point , because , you obiect nothing against Master Hooker in it . And it is no controuersie at all , betwixt vs and the Church of Rome : and therfore we say , with the auncient Fathers , Stephanus , Siricius , Innocentius the first , Leo , Anastasius the second , in his epistle to Anastasius the Emperour ; with the councels ; first the generall councell of Nice , often alledged by Saint Austin to this ende ; the first councell of Carthage , the last assembly at Trent ; with the testimonies of Fathers , and Doctors , and according to the articles of our Church by you alledged ; That by the malice of wicked men , which are ouer the administration of the Sacramēts , the effect of the thing ordeined by Christ , is not taken away , or the grace of Gods guift diminished , as touching them which receiue by faith , and orderly , the things offered vnto them ; which for the institutiō of Christ , and his promise , are effectuall , although they be administred by euill men . But to inferre heereupon , that the same actions , howsoeuer don scoffingly , and in iest , contrary , or besides the holy institution of the Church , are truly Sacraments ; It is a conclusion too violent , and not warranted by any truth . For howsoeuer , the grace of Sacraments dependeth not vpon the Minister , who maie faile of these vertues , that are fitte to bee required in him : yet it is necessarie , that there should bee an intention to administer a true Sacrament , least we put no difference betwixt that , which either derision , imitatiō , chance , or the Church doth . For if the conuersion of Lucius first Christian king of this land , were to be acted vpon a stage , and that two persons , were to represent , ●ugatius and Damianus , sent by Eleutherius the Pope , to baptize Lucius , could any man in reason thinke , how orderly soeuer performed ; that this were true baptisme ? were not this , to make the bare action , all , and the intention a circumstance not belonging to it ? But we must know , as M. Hooker saith , that Sacramēts are actions , mysticall and religious ( for no man can truly define them otherwise ) which nature , they haue not , vnlesse they proceede from a serious meaning : yet what euery mans priuate minde is as we cannot know , so neither are we bound to examine ; for in these cases , the knowne intent of the Church , doth generally suffice ; and where the contrary is not manifest , ( as circumstances will serue easily to discouer ) we must presume , that he which outwardly doth the worke , hath inwardly the purpose of the Church of God. Now , this beeing a discreet rule , wisely to put a difference betwixt Sacraments ( holie actions ) and the like irreligious●●e , and prophanely performed , is that , whereat your zealous wisdome , doth take offence ; and which you pursue with that bitternesse of speech , ( calling it meere Popery , a humane inuention , and inducemēt to fides implicita ) as though the dangers were neither few , nor small , which came vnto y e Church by this opinion . Let me intreat your patience a little , & vouchsafe to be but aduised by him , who in all humilitie wil be readie to follow y e sound directions of the meanest in Gods church ; and I doubt not , to make it apparant , that Maister Hooker hath deliuered that truth , the contrary wherof , is no way fit , to be admitted , or allowed by vs. Some are of opinion , that no intention at all is required in the Ministers of the Sacraments , but that if the thing , and the words be present , though either in ●est , or otherwise performed , yet notwithstanding it is a Sacrament . The first Author of this , as Bellarmine saith , was Luther , whose words I must needes say , are violētly wrested , to make him speake that which he neuer ment . It is like that heout of whom by misunderstanding you haue collected this opinion , was Maister Caluin ; who rightly deriuing the vertue of Sacraments from the Minister to God himselfe the author of the first institution , saith thus ; I refer , so much to the holy institution of Christ , that if an Epicure , inwardely deriding the whole action , should administer the supper , by the commandement of Christ ( marke the words ) and according to the rule by him giuen , ( which no man could that wanted the intention of the Church ) I would account them , saith he , the true pledges of the body , and the blood of Christ : Where we are willing to confesse with him and with truth it selfe , that Sacraments for their vertue , depēd not vpon the intention of the Minister , though without the intention of the Church they are not Sacraments . Where , by intention we meane not a particular purpose , of all that the Sacraments require , ( a thing peraduenture aboue the capacity of many lawfull Ministers ) but a generall intention , of performing that sacred action , according to the meaning of the Church : Where , by church we mean not any one particular , but the true Church ; or as M. Caluin saith , Christs rule , or that intention which Christians in that action haue ; and yet if one in this should follow the intention of a particular Church that did erre , it were not a reason sufficient to make the Sacrament to be none at all : for euen his intention , in following that particular Church though erring , were an intentiō of following the true Church that doth not erre . Neither is it required , as the scholemen say , that this intention necessarily be actual , nor it sufficeth not , to be habituall , ( which may be in men either drunke or asleepe ) but vertuall , that is , in the power of that intention , which howsoeuer now distracted , before was actuall : Neither doe we meane , that the Minister should necessarily haue the same intent of the end , which the Church hath , but of the action ; the end being perhaps , without the compasse of his knowledg , but the action cannot ; vnlesse we suppose him to be a Minister weaker then any church hath . For it is one thing , to intend what the Church intendeth , and another thing , to intend what the Church doth : For those that intend by baptisme , an vtter acquittance from originall sinne , and those that doe not , there is a diuersitie in the end , but the action is all one ; and therefore not reiterated , though the end be diuers . Now to do the externall action , and yet in iest , is no more to doe , what the Church intendeth to doe , then their speech , and action ( Haile King of the Iewes ) was any honor , or true reuerence to our Sauiour Christ. The necessity of this intention , ( not for grace , but to make it a Sacramentall action ) will more euidently appeare , if wee consider what kinde of instrument the Minister is . Man may be the instrument of another agent many waies : First in respect only of his bodily members , his hand , his backe or such like ; without any , vse of the will. Secondly , in respect of his outward parts , with the vse of sense ; as to reade , to watch , to tell what he seeth ; and to this also , the will is no further required , but to the outward action . Thirdly , in respect of the bodily members , together with sense and reason , as in Iudges appointed by Princes to determine causes , wherein wisdome and the will are to be instruments . Now the Ministers of the Sacrament , must be of this third kinde : And therefore saith Hugo , if a father should take his sonne to a bathe , and should say , Sonne , I wash thee in the name of the Father , and of the Son , and of the holy Ghost , and so dip him in the water , it were ridiculous to thinke that hee were thus baptized . Where , although such prophaners are without excuse , for vnreuerend imitation of holy things , yet these actions , without the intention of the Church , can no wayes bee tearmed sacraments . For if those , who hold a sermon read , to be no sermon , and yet a prayer read , to be a prayer , require that the Spirit of grace , and prayer , bee not wanting in the partie reading , and the hearers ; how can we thinke those actions to be sacramentall , where in the Minister , there is not so much as an intention , that they should be sacraments ? And therefore , saith Hugo , in the place before alleaged , Alexander the Bishop held the Baptisme that Athanafius ministred to other boyes in play , to be true Baptisme , because he did it with an intention of true Baptisme . In those that are but instruments ( as the minister is no more ) the vertues of faith , hope , and charitie , are not requisite ; and yet because they are reasonable instruments , their actions must proceede from election , and intention . Therefore we conclude , that this intention of the Church , is no ground of vncertaintie , seeing she tendeth but one thing ; that is , to performe them as Sacraments ; nor giueth any power to the vertue of the Sacrament ; and that the Church cannot make a Sacrament ; but to distinguish betwixt actions religious , and the same not religious , there is required the intention of the Church . ARTICLE XVI . Of the necessitie of Baptisme . WHere many things are doubted of without reason , it is neither easie , nor vsually expedient to answer all . Wisdome esteemeth it much fitter , to passe by without yeelding satisfaction to some apparant truths called in question , rather then by answering , to let the simple vnderstand , that men haue doubted of those points . For the first calling in question of vnfallible truths , gaue strength to euill minds , to find out all shewes of reason , for maintaining of those things , which their owne weaknesse at first made them simply to mistake . So that , whosoeuer maketh euerie doubt to bee a contention , or laboureth to confute errours of long continuance , in the first , kindleth but that sparke , which without some breath would easily die ; and in the latter , must arme himselfe to encounter an obstinate resolution . The consideration of this , made me not willing , either to dispute the newe borne doubts of your owne in this Article , which being discussed in time , might grow to be old errours , or to bestowe labour , for the assisting of that truth , which out of great iudgement , and learning , hath often beene defended by other mens paines . But seeing it is an vsuall false conclusion , as to argue a lawfulnesse from what we doe , so a want of abilitie from what we doe not ; I thought it fitter , euen following their steps that haue gone before me , rather to resolue others what you haue doubted of in this point , thē that any should conclude out of silence , an impossibilitie that you could be answered . For the willingnes that some men haue , to do more then they are able , maketh others suspected , to want abilitie , in whom there appeareth not the same willingnesse . If al men rightly considered in those actions that concerne mans saluation , how farre we are tied not onely in obedience , but for vse , to those things that are meanes to effect the same ; few would haue beene so carelesly resolute , to contemne good works , through an opinion of an eternall election , or so negligently haue despised the onely doore of entrance into the Church ( Baptisme ) through an opinion that God doth saue , euen where this is wanting . We do all confesse , that Baptisme is a sacrament of regeneration , or new birth , by water in the word of life ; that it is a signe , nay a meanes of initiation , whereby we are coopted into the societie of the Church : Thus , by this being ingraffed into Christ , we may be taken for the sonnes of God ; and so receiue newe names to bee called Christians : And therefore learned men , haue thought it to bee the doore of our actuall entrance into Gods house ; the first apparant being of life , as Saint Basil calleth it ; the first step of our sanctification , as Master Hooker saith . For as we are not naturally men , without birth , so neither are we Christian men , in the eye of the Church , without new birth ; we say in the eye of the Church : for we take not vpon vs , to see as God doth , who knoweth without all meanes , both to make , and without visible tokens , is able to discerne who belong vnto him : And yet in our eye , Baptisme is that , which both declareth , and maketh vs to be Christians . Therefore it is a strange opinion of them , who say , that he which is not a Christian before baptisme , cannot be made a Christian by baptisme ; which is onely the seale of the grace of God , before receiued . These , as it seemeth you doe , eleuate too much the ordinarie and immediate meanes of life , relying wholy vpon the bare conceit , of that eternall election , which notwithstanding includeth a subordination of meanes ; without which , we are not actually brought to inioy what God secretly did intend : And therefore to build vpon Gods election , if we keepe not our selues to the wayes which he hath appointed for men to walke in , is but a selfe deceiuing vanitie : for all men notwithstanding their preordination vnto life ( which none can know but God only ) are in the Apostles opinion , till they haue imbraced the truth , but the children of wrath as well as others . And howsoeuer the children of the faithfull , are borne holy , as you alleage out of y t reuerend Bishop ; & the Elect , are adopted to be the sons of God in their predestination , 〈◊〉 afterwards whē they beleeue , then they are said more properly to be the sons of God indeed : for although it be true as Saint Paul saith , that your sonnes are holy , namely , when they are borne , by reason of the promise , yet he saith , that we are sanctified by faith , meaning actually and indeed . For as kings ( in those kingdomes that are by election ) are first chosen , then designed , then crowned , which last action is that which maketh them ful , and compleate kings ; so whatsoeuer we were , in that secret election to vs vnknowne , yet then , when we are baptized , and not before , we are properly , publikely , solemnly ioyned vnto God , and admitted into his Church : Yet we exclude not ( neither doth any that I know ) these benefits thus bestowed , ordinarily , in , and with Baptisme , but that extraordinarily ( sometimes before , as in Paul and Cornelius ; sometimes after , as in many baptized by heretikes ; sometimes without , as in those who preuent their baptisme by martyrdome , and some others ) these benefits may be bestowed . For it were a fearefull doctrine , iniurious to many thousands soules , and blasphemous against the bottomles mercie of a most louing father , to exclude all those from eternall life , whom not negligence , or contēpt , but some other occasion hath hindred to be baptized . And therefore it is strange , that you would make M. Hooker to speake for so absolute a necessitie ( which indeed he doth not ) but maketh it limited ; or that yourself would dislike a necessity , wheras you confesse , this to be the conditiō of baptisme , if it cannot be had as it ought . The matter then principally called in question in this Article , is what kind of necessity there is of baptisme ; a thing already fully hādled by M. Hooker ; & therfore we wil be more sparing in this point . All things , which either are known causes , or fit meanes , wherby any great good is vsually procured , or men deliuered frō greeuous euil , the same we must needs confesse necessarie : now we know there is a necessity absolute , & there is a necessity conditionall & euen that conditional for the end in ordinary estimation , is absolutely necessarie . Thus to a man in the sea , to escape drowning , we account a ship a necessary meanes , euen of absolute necessity in respect of our iudgement , howsoeuer some few , haue escaped by other meanes ; so our Sauiour saith of Baptisme , vnlesse a man be born●●gaine of water , and of the Holy-ghost , he cannot enter into the kingdome of heauen . Which place we vnderstand , howsoeuer some deny it , of Baptisme , by materiall water , according to the generall consent of the auncient Fathers : For it is a rule in expounding the Scriptures , that where a literall construction will stand , ( as in this place ) the farthest from the letter is commonly the worst . And therefore water , & the spirit both concurring in that sacrament , why should there not be , though not an equall , yet a necessity of both . For as the spirit is necessary to regeneratiō , so regeneratiō is necessary to eternal life , which so far dependeth vpō the outward sacramēt , that God wil haue it imbraced not only as a signe or token what we receiue , as you affirme , but also as an instrument , or meane , whereby we receiue it ; and this without any inthralling , as you seeme to feare , of Gods mercifull grace : Neither , as Hugo saith , doe these giue , ( speaking of the Sacraments ) that which is giuen by these , and yet ordinarily as necessary to receiue these , as those graces are necessary which we receiue by these . For , though Baptisme bee not a cause of grace , yet the grace which is giuen by baptisme , doth so far depend vpon the very outward sacrament , as God will haue it imbraced as a necessary meanes , whereby we receiue the same : and howsoeuer we dare not iudge those , that in some cases do want it , yet we may boldly gather , that he , whose mercy now vouchsafeth to bestowe the meanes , hath also long since intended vs that wherunto they leade . For to imagine , nothing necessary but saith , is to come neere the error of the old Valentinian hereticks , who ascribed all to knowledge only . So saith Tertullian . Some account the Sacraments , as vnprofitable without faith , so needeles where faith is ; but no faith can bee profitable , saith Saint Bernard to him , who when he may , yet refuseth to receiue the Sacraments . Therefore if Christ himselfe , which giueth saluation , require Baptisme , it is not for vs to dispute or examine , whether those that are vnbaptized , may be saued , but seriously to doe that , which is required , and religiously to feare the danger , which may grow by the want thereof . For doubtles , the sacrament of Baptisme , in respect of God the author of the institution , may admit dispensation ; but in respect of vs , who are tyed to obeie , there is an absolute necessity . For it is in the power , of God without these to saue ; but it is not in the power of man , without these to come to saluation . And yet the Church holdeth constantly , as well touching other beleeuers , as Martyrs , that Baptisme taken away by necessity , taketh not away the necessity of Baptisme ; but is supplied by the desire therof . For what is there in vs , saith Saint Ambrose , more then to will and to seeke for our owne good . Thy seruant Valentinian ( who died before he was baptized ) Oh Lord , did both . For as the visible signe , may be without true holinesse , so the inuisible sanctification , saith Saint Austin , may sometimes be without the visible signe : And yet these are no iust reasons , either to make vs presume , or to take away the necessity of this holy sacramēt : For euen those haue it in their wishe , as the Schoolemen say , who indeed do want y e same . And howsoeuer , as they of Rhemes confesse , such may be the grace of God towards men , that they may haue remissiō , iustification & sanctificatiō before the external sacrament of Baptisme ; as in Peters preaching they all receiued the Holy-ghost before the sacrament ; yet this is no ordinary thing now in infants ; and whosoeuer therefore shal contemne them , cannot be saued . Yet God , who hath not bound his grace , in respect of his owne freedome , to any Sacrament , may , and doth accept them as baptized , which either are martyred before they could be baptized , or else depart this life , with wi●he and desire to haue that Sacrament , which by some remediles necessity , they could not obtaine . For the iust , by what death soeuer he be preuented , his soule shall be in rest . And whereas you demaund , whether our sacraments be not the same in nature , vertue , and substance , that the sacraments of the Iewes were vnder the law ; and therefore baptisme to be of no more necessity , then circumcision ; we answeare with Saint Austin : The Sacraments deliuered by Christ , are for number fewer ; ( taking , as Maister Zanchy noteth , sacraments largly for al those ceremonies as he did ) for performance easier ; for vnderstanding more excellent ; for obseruation more chast . And therefore , though all sacraments for their substance be one , ( that is Christ ) and that more particularly baptisme succeedeth circumcision : yet their difference is great , both in their rites which were diuers , & in the maner of the obiect ; the one Christ to come , the other already come ; the one a corporall benefit , to be of that Church which should haue her certaine seate vntill the comming of the Messias , in the land of Canaan ; the other expecting a spiritual kingdom . The one bounde , to an obseruation of the whole lawe , Ceremoniall , Iudiciall , Morall ; the other only to the moral law ; and for want of true fulfilling of it , to faith and repentance . The one to Israel only , the other to the whole Church . The one to continue , till the comming of the Messias in humility , the other vntill his comming in glory . The one belonged vnto the males only , the other to all . So that as the differences were many , and not small ; euen so we doubte not to affirme , that the benefits are far more ; and the necessity is much greater . And therfore , as Maister Hooker saith , we haue for baptisme no day set , as the Iewes had for circumcision ; neither haue we by the law of God , but only by the Churches discretion , a place therunto appointed . Baptisme therefore euen in the meaning of the law of Christ , belōgeth vnto infants capable therof , frō the very instant of their birth ; which if they haue not howsoeuer , rather then lose it by being put off , because some circumstances of solemnity do not concur , the Church , as much as in her lieth ( marke the words , for she cannot disappoint Gods eternall election ) but as far as is in her power , by denying the meanes , casteth away their soules : and therefore there is a more absolute necessity , in the Church to giue Baptisme , which she can neuer willingly refuse to doe without cruelty , then there is in the faithfull to receiue it , who , how willing soeuer , yet alwaies cannot . ARTICLE XVII . Of Transubstantiation . SEeing the Church , hath nothing left vnto it , either more powerful , or more reuerently to be esteemed , then the holy Sacraments ; it hath bin the policie of Sathan , from the beginning , to darken the cleere light of these , with infinit clouds of vnnecessary questions , wholy impertinent , and vnprofitable to that cause . So that out of due consideration of this great euill , wisemen haue thought it more fit , by application , to make vse of that , which concernes them in this kinde , rather then by curious inquisition to desire , to finde out , what concerneth them not . The whole benefit , which the Church hath , is from Christ ; and this by no other meanes but by participation : For Christ to be what he is , is not to be what he is to the Church , but only by a participation of all that he is , ( as a mediator ) betwixt him and vs. This we cal the mutuall , inward hold , which Christ hath of vs and we of him , in such sort that each possesseth other , by way of speciall interest , properly , and inherent copulation : for what soeuer we are eternally , according to his election , wee are actually no longer in God , then onely from the time of our actuall adoption into the body of his true Church , into the fellowship of his children : wee are therefore adopted sonnes of God to eternall life by participation of the onely Sonne of God , whose life is the welspring & cause of ours . This participation , besides the presence of Christs person , and besides the mysticall copulation thereof , with the parts and members of his whole Church , importeth a true actuall influence of grace , whereby the life which we liue , according to godlinesse , is his , and from him wee receiue those perfections , wherein our eternal happinesse consisteth . This is partly by imputation of his merit , partly by habituall , and reall infusion of his grace ; the first whereof , as the ground of all the rest , being the Spirit , maketh a blessed vnion of all those , howsoeuer distinguisht , by place , or time , who mystically belong vnto that body ; and this being the common vnion of all Saints , we fitly terme , the communion of Saints . That of imputation , maketh vs al sonnes , in which number , how farre so euer one may seeme to excel another ; yet touching this , that all are sons , they are all equals ; some happily better sonnes then the rest are , but none anie more a sonne , then another . Neither doth this participation , include anie grosse surmise , of any mixture of the substance of his flesh with ours , but is actually deriued vnto his Church , by the vse of his holy Sacraments : Wherein Baptisme doth chalenge vnto it self , the inchoation of those graces , the consummation whereof dependeth vpon other mysteries . For the grace which we haue , by the holy Eucharist , doth not begin , but continue life ; and therefore no man receiueth it before Baptisme , because nothing is capable of nourishment , that doth not liue . Now life being propounded to all men as their end ; those which by Baptisme haue laid the foundation , and attained the first beginning of a new life , haue in the Eucharist , foode prescribed and giuen , for the continuance of life in them . In both the same thing being affoorded ( which is a participation of Christ ) in our infancie we are incorporated into Christ , and by Baptisme receiue the grace of his Spirit , without any sense or feeling of the gift , which God bestoweth . In the Eucharist we so receiue the gift of God , that we know by grace , what the grace is , which God giueth vs. The degrees of our increase in holinesse , and vertue , we see , and can iudge of them ; we vnderstand that the strength of our life begun in Christ is Christ ; that his flesh is meat , and his bloud drinke , not by surmised imagination , but truly ; euen so truly , that through faith we perceiue in the body and bloud sacramentally presented , the verie taste of eternall life : the grace of the Sacrament is heere as the food which wee eate and drinke . And howsoeuer it was to bee feared , that by the meanes of some , men should be brought to account of this Sacrament , but only as of a shadow , destitute , emptie , and voide of Christ ; yet now at length , for any thing that I can see , all sides are growne , as it is fit , to a generall agreement concerning that which alone is materiall , namely , the reall participation of Christ , and of life , in his body and bloud , by meanes of this Sacrament . The maner how , which ought to be the least part of our consideration , is in this question , the greatest difference : So that , considering the small successe , that bitter contentions haue had in this cause , it were to be wished , that men would giue themselues , more to meditate with silence , what they haue by the sacrament ; and in humilitie , lesse to dispute , of the maner how : This being the true difference betwixt Christes disciples , and others ; that the one , because they enioyed not , disputed : the other disputed not , because they inioyed . For doubtlesse this heauenly food , is giuen for the satisfying of our emptie soules , and not for the exercising of our curious , and subtill wits . It is sufficient that the sacraments reallie exhibit , what they promise ; though they are not really , or doe not really containe in themselues , that grace , which with them , or by them , it pleaseth God to bestow . Now the first by all sides being granted , why doe we vainly ( saith Maister Hooker ) trouble our selues with so fierce contentions , whether by consubstantiation , or els by Transubstantiation , the sacrament it selfe , be first possest with Christ or no ? a thing which no way can either further , or hinder vs , howsoeuer it stand , because our participation of Christ in the sacrament , dependeth vpon the cooperation of his omnipotent power , which maketh it his body and bloud to vs , whether with change , or without alteration of the element , such as they imagine ; we need not greatly to care or enquire for : That being admitted , wherein all agree , ( which is a reall presence ) why should not the rest in question , rather be left as superfluous , then vrged as necessarie . This is that , which being vttered by Maister Hooker , out of great wisdome , argueth as you surmise , that hee maketh light of the doctrin of Transubstantiation ; whereas the reuerend Fathers of our Church , doe so much detest it ; and that so many blessed Martyrs , haue suffered death for denial thereof . Whether the doctrine of Transubstantiation be true , or false ( howsoeuer it is plaine what Maister Hooker thought ) yet , that is no part of the contention at this time . The matter in question betwixt you and him , is only this : Whether it be not curiosity , to contend for the manner , how , seeing all sides are agreed , that the thing is . For as in those who were to bee cured , by our Sauiour Christ , we ought not curiously to enquire howe the hem of his garment had such vertue , but faithfully to beleeue that it was able to affoord health ; so neither in this need the church to be inquisitiue after what maner , Christ presenteth himselfe , but truely to beleeue that he is there present . Which because some irreligious men , at the first doubted ; men haue beene driuen to find out these reasonable satisfactions , or rather satisfactions to humane reason , from his omnipotencie , Transubstantiation , Consubstantiation , or such like ; whereas indeed we know , that in many mysteries of our faith , it is sufficient to beleeue the thing , though wee cannot comprehend the meanes , how . Of this kind , saith Bellarmine , is the Trinitie of persons in the vnitie of essence ▪ Christ to bee both God , and man ; the same bodies in number to rise againe ; Christ really to be in the Eucharist ; and such like , which by reason of our shallow vnderstanding , mans weaknesse is not able to comprehend . For if ignorance bee in these things that are below , then how much more in those things that are aboue . And if Mephibosheth , whē he came vnto Dauids table , accounted himselfe in all humility , so farre vnworthie ; what ought our contemplation to be , but of his mercie , and our want of desert , when we shall come to bee partakers of so inestimable fauours ? For if the Bethsamites were punished for looking into the Arke , what can we expect to be the recompence of our vndiscreete follie ? Is it not then an aduise needfull , which Maister Hooker giueth , and you mislike , rather to seek how to receiue it worthily , then to desire to know how it is present with vs ? For the one importeth a duty that is necessary , and the other bewrayeth a desire , that is superfluous ; in the one , we performe what God hath commanded , and in the other , affect , what he hath forbiddē . Neither is this to make Transubstantiation ( for deniall whereof so many , as you say , haue died ) any light matter , but rather to shew , the great depth of the mystery , and the small profit , that is reaped by the searching of it : for seeing it is on all sides plainely confest ; first , that this Sacrament is a true , and reall participation of Christ , who thereby imparteth himselfe , euen his whole entire person , as a mysticall head , vnto euery soule that receiueth him , and that euery such receiuer , doth thereby incorporate , or vnite himselfe vnto Christ as a mysticall member of him , yea of them also , whom he acknowledgeth to be his owne . Secondly , that to whom the person of Christ is thus communicated , to them he giueth by the same Sacrament his holy Spirit , to sanctify them , as it sanctifieth him which is their head . Thirdly , that what merit , force or vertue soeuer , there is in this sacrificed body and bloud , we freely , fully , and wholy haue it by this sacrament . Fourthly , that the effect thereof in vs , is a reall transmutation of our soules and bodies , from sinne , to righteousnesse ; from death and corruption , to immortalitie and life . Fiftly , that because the Sacrament , being of it selfe but a corruptible and earthlie creature , must needes be thought an vnlikely instrument , to worke so admirable effects in man ; we are therfore to rest our selues , altogether vpon the strength of his glorious power , who is able and will bring to passe , that the bread and cup , which he giueth vs , shal be truly the thing he promiseth . Now seeing there are but three differing opinions , for the manner of it ; Sacramentaries , Transubstantiation , and Consubstantiation ; & al do pleade Gods omnipotencie ; the first to that alteration which the rest coufesse he accomplisheth ; the patrons of transubstantiation , ouer and besides that , to the chang of one substance into another ; the followers of cōsubstantiation , to the kneading vp of both substances as it were in one lumpe : and that in this variety the mind which loueth truth & seeketh comfort out of holy mysteries , hath not perhaps the leasure , perhaps not the wit , nor capacity , to tread out so endlesse mazes , as the intricate disputes of this cause , haue led men into , how should a vertuously disposed minde , better resolue with it selfe then thus ? Variety of iudgements , and opinions argueth obscurity in those things where about they differ ; but that which all parts receiue for certaine ; that which euery one hauing sifted , is by no one denyed or doubted of , must needes be matter of infallible truth : whereas therefore there are but three expositions made of , This is my body ; the first , this is in it selfe before participation , really , and truly the natural substance of my body , by reason of the coexistence which my omnipotent body hath with the sanctified element of breade , which is the Lutherans interpretation . The second , this is in it selfe , and before participation , the very true & natural substance of my body , by force of that deity , which by the words of consecration , abolisheth the substance of bread , and substituteth in the place thereof my body : which is the construction of the Church of Rome . The last , this hallowed food , through concurrence of diuine power , is in verity and truth , vnto faithfull receiuers , instrumentally a cause of that mysticall participation ; whereby as I make my selfe wholy theirs , so I giue them in hand , an actuall possession of all such sauing grace , as my sacrificed body can yeeld , and all their soules do presently need ; this is to them , and in them , my bodie . Of these three rehearsed interpretations , the last hath in it nothing , but what the rest do all approue , and acknowledg to be most true ; nothing but that which the words of Christ , are on all sides confest to inforce : nothing but that which the Church of God hath alwayes thought necessarie : nothing but that which alone is sufficient , for euerie Christian man to beleeue , concerning the vse and force of this Sacrament : finally , nothing but that , wherewith the writings of all antiquity are consonant , and all Christian confessions agreeable : And as truth in what kinde soeuer , is by no kind of truth gainsaid ; so the mind which resteth it selfe , on this , is neuer troubled with those perplexities , which the other doe both finde , by meanes of so great contradiction , betweene their opinions , & the true principles of reason , grounded vpon experience , nature , and sense . What moueth vs to argue how life should be bread , our duty being but to take , what is offred , and most assuredly to rest perswaded of this , that if we can but eate , we are safe ? Such as loue piety will as much as in them lyeth , know all things , that God commandeth , but especially the duties of seruice which they owe vnto him : as for his darke and hidden workes , they preferre ( as becommeth them in such cases ) simplicity of faith , before that knowledge , which curiously sifting what it should adore , and disputing too boldly of that which the wit of man can not search , chilleth for the most parte , all warmth of zeale , and bringeth soundnes of beleefe , many times into great hazard . Let it therefore be sufficient for me , presenting my selfe at the Lords table , to know what there I receiue from him , without searching , or inquiring of the manner , how , Christ performeth his promise ; let disputes and questions , enemies to piety , abatements of true deuotion , and hitherto in this case but ouer patiently heard , let them take their rest : Let curious and sharpe witted men beate their heads about what questions themselues will , the very letter of the word of Christ giueth plaine security , that these mysteries doe , as nailes , fasten vs to his Crosse , that by them we draw out ( as touching efficacy , force , and vertue ) euen the blood of his wounded side ; that this breade hath more in it , then our eies behold ; that this cup hallowed with solemne benediction , auaileth to the endlesse life , and welfare both of soule and body , i● that it serueth , as well for a medecine to heale our infirmities , and purge our sins , as for a sacrifice of thanksgiuing , which touching it sanctifieth ; it inlightneth with beleefe ; it truly conformeth vs vnto the Image of Iesus Christ. What these elements are in themselues , it skilleth not , it is enough that to me which take them , they are the body and blood of Iesus Christ ; his promise in witnesse hereof sufficeth ; his word , he knoweth which way to accomplish ; why should any cogitation possesse the minde of a faithfull communicant but this ? Oh my God , thou art true ! oh my soule , thou art happy ! To dehort then from violence of disputing , and curiosity of seeking in a matter needlesse to know , being ( as Maister Caluin saith ) incomprehensible , what fault can you finde , in Maister Hooker ? Doth he not disswade from this in zeale , only to draw vs , to a better contemplation ? Can this in reason be termed any gentle construction of popishe opinions , or priuily to rob the truth of our English creede of her due estimation ? thinke not so vncharitably of one , whose principall care was , in the midst of all his knowledge , only to follow that truth , soundly , and vncorruptly , which was auaileable and sufficient to saue himselfe . Many itch with curiosity , they are not few , that doe blow contentions , to make them kindle ; some desire to know , only that they may know ; some others , that they may be knowne ; he doubtles , with humble sobriety , both in this and in all other points , to comprehend that which was most auaileable for the true direction of others , and the saluation of his own soule . And therefore to your obiections in this article , which are neither great , nor many ; I haue framed my answere , most out of his mouth who fulliest vnderstood this cause , and ought to be esteemed , the best interpretor of his owne meaning . ARTICLE XVIII . Of Speculatiue doctrine . AS wise Phisitians in the curing of some diseases , neglect not that habit of the body which when the disease is cured , may threaten a relapse , because euils past , leaue a disposition for the like to come , and by returning are so much the more daungerous , by how much the strength of the sick is lesse able to make resistance ; so fareth it with vs , in the labour imployed about these articles that follow : wherin if you had wel considered , the serious superscription of your letter , that it was for resolution in matters of doctrine , & those of no small moment , but such as seeme ( it is wel you said seeme ) to ouerthrow the foundation of Christian religion , and of the church amongst vs , these articles that follow , might very fitly haue bin omitted by you . For though all that you obiect , be far frō that mature iudgment , which ought to bee in such as you desire to seeme ; yet these , concerning speculatiue doctrine , the naming of Maister Caluin , Schoolemen , or Maister Hookers stile , how can they bee called matters of doctrine , or in any construction , be thought to weaken the foundation of the Church amongst vs ? But seeing in the former we haue done somwhat to cure that distemper ( the effect of too much choler ) which being suffered to increase , might grow dangerous ; it is not amisse gently to apply some thing , euen to these , which wanting the malice of any dangerous discase , yet are infallible tokens of a distempered habit . Neither neede we in this , to make anie other defence , for the right vse of those sentences , which you reprehend , sauing only to set downe to the readers eye , the sentence at large , which you haue maimed by seuering ; and challenging him , in those things , which are incomparably excellent , you haue manifestly discouered your weaknesse of vnderstanding . But as in anie curious workmanship , where the parts are not disiointed , there appeareth the admirable effects of a skilfull hand , which rudely being seuered , and rashly pulled in peeces , blemish the beautie of the former work , and make manie things seeme , in the eye of ignorance , to be idle , and of no vse ; so fareth it with those speeches , which in this Article so vnseasonably are distasted by you , which if any indifferent reader , will but compare , with the places from whence you tooke them , he must needs be amazed , that things set downe with so much eloquence , and iudgment , should be called in question , by so great a weakenesse of vnderstanding . The sentences by you alleaged , of speculatiue doctrine ( as you call them ) are onely eight , which if you had set downe at large , with that coherence , that hee did , doubtlesse you could not haue deuised , to haue done Maister Hooker a greater honour ; but being pretermitted , by what reason I know not , you haue hazarded the suspition of intolerable ignorāce : And vndoubtedly this Article alone , giueth full assurance , that this Letter could not possibly be the act of many , nor of any one , that had either charitie , leasure , or learning in any great abundance . The first Theorem ( so you terme them in derision ) not familiar to you common Christians , is this : Ten the number of natures perfection : In which place Maister Hooker , speaking of paying of tythes , saith , as Abrahā gaue voluntarily , as Iacob vowed to giue God tithes , so the law of Moses did require , at the hands of al mē , the self same kind of tribute ; the tenth of their corn , wine , oyle , fruit , cattell , and whatsoeuer encrease , his heauenly prouidence should send : Insomuch that Painims being herein followers of their steps , paid tithes also . Imagine we , that this was for no cause done , or that there was not some speciall inducement , to iudge the tenth of our worldly profits , the most cōuenient for Gods portion ? are not all things by him created in such sort , that the formes which giue their distinction are number ; their operations measure ; and their matter weight ; three being the mysticall number of Gods vnsearchable perfection , within himselfe ; seuen the number whereby our perfections through grace , are most ordered ; and ten the number of Natures perfections ( for the beauty of nature is order , & the foundation of order is number , and of number ten the highest we can rise vnto , without iteration of numbers vnder it ) could nature better acknowledge the power of the God of nature , then by assigning vnto him , that quantity , which is the continent of all that she possesseth ? Now let the Reader iudge , what reason you had to mislike that he called ten , the number of natures perfections . But in this the iniury you do to Maister Hooker , is not all ; for thorough his sides you wound one , vpon whom , as Sixtus Senensis saith , all the commendations of the Christian Fathers , are poured out ; for he taketh this speech out of Philo Iudaeus , in whom there are many excellent things to this purpose , and who was in all kind of learning , incomparably the most excellent in his time ; in honour of whom the ancient Romans placed his workes , as euerlasting monuments in their publike Library . The second is this : Angels perpetuitie , the hand that draweth out celestiall motiō : Where M. Hooker speaking of the reuolutiō of time , which bringeth with it , a reiteration of Saints memories , saith ; as the substance of God alone is infinite , and hath no kind of limitatiō ; so likewise his cōtinuance , is frō euerlasting to euerlasting , & knoweth neither beginning nor end . Which demonstrable conclusion , being presupposed , it followeth necessarily , that besides him , all things be finite : it cannot be but that there are bounds , without the compasse wherof their substance doth not extend ; if in continuance also limited , they all haue it , cannot bee denied their set and their certaine tearmes , before which they had no being at al. This is the reason why first we do most admire those things which are greatest ; & secondly , those things which are ancientest , because the one , are lesse distant from the infinite substance ; the other , from the infinite continuance of God. Out of this we gather , that onely God hath true immortality or eternity , that is to say , continuance ; wherin there groweth no difference by addition of hereafter vnto now , whereas the noblest , and perfectest things besides , haue continually through continuance , the time of former continuance lengthened : so that they could not heretofore be said to haue continued so long as now ; neither now so long , as hereafter . Gods owne eternitie is the hand which leadeth Angels in the course of their perpetuity , the hand that draweth out celestiall motion , the line of which motion , and the threed of time , are spun together . What could haue beene more excellently spoken , to haue set downe the frame , and dependance of things , euen lineally deriued from the first motor ? The third thing is this ; Church attire ( meaning Surplesses ) with vs liuely resembleth , the glory of Saints in heauen ; for it suteth fitly , saith M. Hooker , with that lightsom affection of ioy , wherin God delighteth , when his saints praise him ; and so liuely resembleth the glory of the saints in heauē , together with the beauty wherein Angels haue appeared vnto men , that , they which are to appeare , for men , in the presence of God as Angels , if they were left to their owne choise , & would chuse any , could not easily deuise a garment of more decencie for such a seruice . Now whosoeuer considereth that the Angels are said to come out of the Temple , clothed in pure & bright linnē , & that the Angel at Christs sepulchre , sate clothed in a long white garment , & those Angels that appeared at Christs ascension , in white apparel , and that white is the colour of brightnes , & brightnes an adiunct of the glorie of Saints , wil neither deride nor mislike this speech , that Church attire with vs , liuely resembleth the glory of Saints in heauen . The fourth thing is this : Dayly bruises spirituall promotions vse to take , by often falling . Here you aske very sillily , what be the bruises & falles that spirituall promotions ordained by Christ do or can take ? M. Hooker weighing the manifold impedimēts , which hinder the vsuall consultation of prouiding able preachers in euery parish , to instruct the people ; alleageth the multitude of parishes ; the paucity of Schooles ; the manifold discouragements , which are offered to mens inclinations , that way ; the penury of the Ecclesiastical estate ; the irrecouerable losse of so many liuings of principall value , cleane taken away from the Church long since , by being appropriated ; the daily bruises y t spiritual promotions vse to take by often falling ; the want of somthing in certaine statutes , which concerne the state of the Church ; the too great facility of many Bishops ; the stony hardnes of too many patrons harts , not touched with any feeling in this case : who is there now that considereth this discourse , but seeth easily , the proprietie of his speech , & without an interpreter the truth of it ? that euen some of the best of our spirituall preferments haue receiued great bruises by often falling ; where the fault hath bin , that they haue light so hard , some men know , though you & I do not . And I hartily wish , for the good of the Church , that you were able to proue , that he had spoken false in this ; to the intent that our reuerend Fathers , the Bishops might bee more beneficiall to the inferiour Clergie ; more bountiful in hospitality ; more honourable in their attendance ; more able in their paiments to their prince ; more forward in the memorable works of deuotion ; building of hospitals , colledges , and such like : which no doubt , some yet do out of their pouerty : And last of all , more conueniently prouided for the auoyding of such base meanes , as are a hindrance of religion , a wrong to the Church and a dishonor to their profession . The next thing is this ; multiplied petitions of worldly things , a kind of heauenly fraud , to take the soules of men , as with certaine baites . Where M. Hooker answering those , who dislike in our prayers the multiplied petitions , for earthly things saith ; it must be considered , that the greatest part of the world , are they , which be furthest off from perfection ; such being better able by sense to discerne the wants of this present life , then by spirituall capacity to apprehend things aboue sense , which tend to their happines in the world to come , are in that respect more apt to apply their minds , euen with harty affection and zeale , at the least , vnto those branches of publike prayer , wherein their own particular is moued ; and by this meanes , there stealeth vpon them a double benefit . First , because that good affection , which things of smaller account haue once set on worke , is by so much the more easily raised higher : & Secondly , in that the very custome of seeking so particular aide , and releefe , at the hands of God , doth by a se●ret contradiction , withdraw them frō indeuoring to help thēselues , by those wicked shifts which they know can neuer haue his allowance , whose assistance their prayer seeketh . These multiplied petitions of worldly things in prayer , haue therfore besides their direct vse , a seruice whereby the Church vnder hand , through a kind of heauenly fraud , taketh therewith , the soules of men , as with certaine baites . I know not in this point what could haue bin spoken , either more soundly , more plainly , or more agreeable to this purpose . And therefore it must needes be in you , either delicacie , or ignorance to account this a Theorem of speculatiue doctrine ; the very metaphor of baytes , being not vnfitly applyed , euen by orators , to the best things : The next is these words : In Baptisme God doth bestow presently remission of sins , and the Holy-ghost , binding also himselfe to ad in processe of time , what grace soeuer shall be further necessasary for the attainment of euerlasting life . Heere you aske of Maister Hooker , what warrant he hath of present grace in the very work wrought of baptisme : where by the way you cūningly ( with a truth of his ) mingle an error of your owne ; for who euer doubted but that baptisme doth bestow the remission of sins , and yet not this , as we haue often told you , for the very work wrought of baptisme . The next in these wordes : The signe of the Crosse , as we vse it , is in some sort a meane to work our preseruation , from reproch , and Christs marke . It seemes , that this speech hath made you to forget that ciuill respect , which had bin fit to one whome worthily you ought to esteeme , as reuerend ; for very rudely you say , when , where , or how , did Christ tell thee , that the signe of the Crosse ( as we vse it ) is the marke of Christ , and preserueth frō reproch ? Be not caried more violently then the cause requireth : for Maister Hooker doth not affirme , but saith , shall I say ? and addeth , surely the minde which as yet hath not hardned it selfe in sinne , is seldome prouoked thereunto , in any grosse and greeuous manner , but natures secret suggestiō obiecteth against it , ignominy as a bar ; which conceit being entred into that pallace of mans fancy , the gates wherof haue imprinted in thē that holy signe , which bringeth forthwith to mind whatsoeuer Christ hath wrought , and we vowed against sinne ; it commeth hereby to passe , that Christian men , neuer want a most effectuall , though a silent teacher , to auoid whatsoeuer may deseruedly procure shame . Let vs not thinke it superfluous , that Christ hath his marke applied vnto that part , where bashfulnes appeareth ; in token , that they which are Christians , should at no time be ashamed of his ignominie . The last words misliked by you , in this article are these . Assuredly whosoeuer doth wel obserue how much al inferiour things depend vpon the orderly courses and motions of these greater orbs , wil hardly iudge it meet , or good , that the Angels assisting them , should be driuen to betake themselues vnto other stations , although by nature they were not tyed where now they are , but had change also else where , as long as their absence from beneath , might but tollerably be supplyed , and by descending , their roomes aboue , should become vacant . Heere wholy mistaking Maister Hooker , you run into a strange discourse of Angels , of their attendance vpon the elect , and aske where it is reuealed that they attend vpon celestiall orbs , and whether it be not sinne , to leaue their naturall charge ; and here you aske , whether he meane not the Angels that fel : These , and such like , are those collections which your iudgement thath gathered , wholy mistaking the scope of this excellent speech . For he sheweth here that there may be iust reasons of non-residence , in Vniuersities , in Bishops houses , and last of all for their imployment in the families of noble men , or in princes courts . For assuredly whosoeuer doth well obserue , how much all inferiour things , depend vpon the orderly courses , and motions of those greater orbs , will hardly iudge it either meete or good , that the Angels assisting them , should be driuen to betake themselues , vnto other stations ; although by nature , they were not tyed , where now they are , but had charge also else where ; as long as their absence from beneath , might but tolerably be supplied , and by descending , the roumes aboue , should become vacant . Who vnderstandeth not now , that by orbes are ment those great persons , which by their motion do carrye inferiours with them ? And by Angels assisting them , are ment those graue diuines , which are by their wisdome , holinesse , and direction , to moderate their motion ? Why then , being but a parable , or an allegorie , run you to examination of orbes , of Angels , of motion ; and yet these are things so well knowne , in the Philosophers schooles , as that Maister Hooker , had no reason to feare , to take a similitude from them , without being called to examination of the truth of the thing it selfe . And this may suffice , for a moderate answere , to those things which in this article are tearmed by you speculatiue doctrine . Only I must ad this , which Maister Hooker noteth in a troublesome aduersary , with whom he had to deale , that in this article , as often ▪ in this letter besides , there are two faults predominant , which would tyre out any , which should answeare to euery poynt , seuerally ; first vnapt speaking of schoole controuersies : & secondly , a very vntoward reciting of M. Hookers words , that as he which should promise to draw a mans countenance , and did indeed expresse the parts , at least the most of them truly , but peruersely place them , could not represent a more offensiue visage , then a mans owne would be to himselfe ; so haue you dealt with M. Hooker , where your misplacing of those words , which he hath vttered , hath framed a picture , which as you direct men to looke at it , little differeth from the shape of an vgly monster : for answeare whereunto , this labour is sufficient ; wherein I haue set downe , both his words , and meaning , in such sort , that where your accusation doth depraue the one , or that either you misinterpret , or without iust cause , mislike the other ; it will appeare so plainly , that to the indifferent reader , I shall not neede to ad any further answeare : for any man may see , that you haue iudged his words , as they doe colours , which looke vpon them with greene spectacles , and thinke that which they see is greene , when indeede that is greene whereby they see . The best remedy will be to vse charity , where iudgment wanteth . ARTICLE XIX Of Caluin and the reformed Churches . WHere the persons of particular men , is the subiect of our discourse , we cannot well either be too short , or too charitable ; for of the best if we speake much , something will be wrested to a hard construction , if vncharitablie we shal seeme to follow the practise of those , which haue no other skill , to ouerthrow a generall cause , but by wounding of some particular men . And howsoeuer that cause must needs be weake , which either hath his beginning , or his greatest strength , from one priuate man ; yet doubtles in common reason it is no small policie , to blemish a truth , by detracting frō the sincerity and religion of such , as are the principal defenders of it . How much this part of the world hath cause to esteeme of Luther , and Caluin , there is no man of any learning that can be ignorāt ; in which respect , notwithstāding , by some mē , a threefold wrong is don vnto our Church . First , to make thē authors of that religion amongst vs , which by many hūdreth yeers , was far more ancient then they both were : Secondly , to lay the infirmities that were in thē ( as being mē , it were too great ignorance & flattery , to acquite them frō al imperfections in that kind ) euen vpon the religiō it self , which had no more affinity with the faults that were in them , then they had , with the framing of that religion , which proceeded first from no weaker author then God himselfe . The last , is y e wrong , which our church hath euen frō those , who vndoubtedly would seem in their zealous affection , exceedingly to fauour both . The ground of which wrong proceedeth only from hence , that those persons , & y ● gouernment , which place , time and other necessities , caused them to frame , ought without exception , to be an absolute patterne to al the Churches that were round about them : In so much , that that gouerment , which was at the first so weake , that without the staffe of their approbation , who were not subiect vnto it themselues , it had not brought others vnder subiection , began now to challenge an vniuersal obedience , and enter into open conflict , with the most Churches of Europe ; but especially with those , which in desperate extremity had bin releiuers of it . Thus , because some few , who neither in quality nor place were much distant from Geneua , in opinion of Maister Caluin , were content to follow their forme of gouernment , others not weighing the riches of that mercy which had made their own Church too great and honorable , to be framed to so narrow & poore ascantling , began stormingly to repine , that presently al things were not so bared to y e patterne of those Churches , which in their opinions were most reformed . So that whatsoeuer any man spake or wrote , in disallowance of that , to be our modell to beframed by , or truly to the laying open of those conflictes , ( conquered with great policy ) which Maister Caluin had in the first establishing of that gouernment , all sounded harshly in the eares of these men , and was plainly construed to be a direct disgracing of Maister Caluin , which could be nothing else ( as you say ) but a discouery of a popish and vnsound affection . Where before I answere to this , I must first tell them , that if they should with the like importunity seek to frame vs to the exāple of the primitiue church , in respect of gouernment , we should tell them that Israel are not bound to the same things in Canaan , that they were in the desert ; nor that those reuerend Fathers 〈◊〉 Bishops , who succeed in that apostolick charg , are not for their maintenance and state , ( though the authority be all one ) to be framed to that pouerty which was the portion of those , who planted , and gouerned the first Churches . This being then no such necessity , but that the Church may lawfully vse , euen those benefits wherwith God hath blessed her , setting her feete in a large roume , why should men without cause recall her back againe , to her daies of mourning , or feeding her , with the bread of teares , coupe her vp in those narrow limites of subiection , and want , seeing God in his mercy hath prouided for her now , the same gouerment to be administred , in a richer manner ? Now how far all men are bounde to speake of those , whom they reuerence and loue , and yet in some cases do thinke not safe to follow , this is that error that hath deceiued many . For from hence , the priuate ouersights of those ( who , how famous and excellent soeuer , were but men ) haue growne , by the violence of some of their followers , to be stifly maintained , as vndoubted truthes , as though there were no difference betwixt being a man not alwaies erring , and not erring at all : The one is a worthy happines graunted to some few ; the other a speciall priuiledge not permitted to any , meerely man , no not to Maister Caluin himselfe . This serueth to teach vs , that for those things which we doe and beleeue , wee haue better warrant then mans inuention ; and that no man , how excellent soeuer , ( except Christ ) may , or ought precisely , to be followed in all that he doth . For thus while we ad vnto men that honor , a great part whereof peraduenture they deserue , we detract frō that truth , which we make no where to be found , but in those , who inseparably are followers of their steps . That Maister Caluin ( who is made by you , the vnpleasing subiect of this article ) was , ( as Maister Hooker termeth him ) the wisest man incomparably , that euer the French Church did inioy , since the hower it inioyed him ; I thinke there is no man of any reading , that much doubteth : and surely for learning , and vnwearied paines in his calling , men of best iudgement and vnderstanding , would be ready enough , to giue him that which belonged vnto him , if some priuate men out of their loue and zeale , did not too greatly ouerlode him with it : For doubtlesse , we should be iniurious to vertue it selfe , if we did derogate from them , whom their industry hath made great . Two things there are of principall moment , which haue deseruedly procured him honor throughout all the world ; the one his exceeding paines in composing the Institution of Christian religion , from which most haue gleaned , that haue written since ; the other his no lesse industrious trauailes , in the exposition of holy scripture ; in which two things , whosoeuer they were , that after him bestowed their labour , he gained the aduantage of preiudice against them , if they gainsaide ; and of glory aboue them , if they consented . Now out of this ( so hardly are we taught to keepe a meane ) proceeded this intollerable fault , that many were desirous , in an opinion of his worth , that all Churches together with his learning , shoulde swallow vp , without making choice , whatsoeuer other imperfections remained in him . So that of what account Peter Lumbard was in the church of Rome ( whom for singular reuerence they called the Maister of the Sentences ) of the same , and more , amongst the Preachers of reformed Churches , Maister Caluin was : And they onely were iudged the perfectest diuines , which were skilfullest in Caluins writings . His bookes almost were reputed the very Canon for controuersies to be iudged by . To this extremity , and far greater , the partiall affection of loue caried a number of wise men , who from approbation growing to strong praises ; frō praises , to admiration ; frō admiration , to a tyrannous opinion ; that it was wholy vnlawfull , in any thing to dissent from him . So that now , it was almost as necessarie to dispraise him , as to commend him ; because what with discretion , the Church before might haue vsed with much profit , she scarce now could admit , without a generall suspition , thorough all Christendome , that we durst not in any thing dissent from him . And doubtlesse , in some weake minds , that which at first was but praise , in the end was not many steps short of idolatrie . So that the practise of Ezechias , in breaking to peeces that serpent of brasse , wherunto the children of Israel had burnt incense , was not altogether vnfit to bee vsed in this case . For in kingdomes it is high time , either to cut off , or disgrace those , whom the multitude are willing to puffe vp ; when ( neglecting their owne ruine ) they are content to burie the happinesse of their countrey , in the ashes of anothers greatnesse . Thus God both in mercie and iudgement ( in mercie to them that die , and in iudgement to those that are left behind ) doth before the fulnesse of yeares , cut off those men , whom other mens erring affections haue aduaunced too high , conueying that from the presence of vnstable mindes , whereunto desert and weakenesse , whilest it was in our sight , gaue strength that it could bewitch . This oftentimes I confesse hath beene my priuate contemplation , when I haue seene Parents vntimely , to loose their children , In whom they tooke most pride ; Churches , those persons of greatest ornament ; the cōmon wealth those , that were worthiest of all honor ; as if God had bin iealous , that these would haue stolne our honor , & loue from him . And therfore wise was the answer of that mother , who in one day losing both her husband , & her two sonnes , said , I know O Lord , what thou seekest , my whole loue : Which she thought peraduenture might haue beene lesse , if those things had bin left vnto her , which she found her selfe apt for to loue too much . And therfore as vertuous men haue voluntarily disclosed their owne infirmities ( scratching as it were the face of beautie ) least others should too much admire them ; so I perswade my selfe , that Maister Caluin , if he now liued , would much worse esteeme of your fond commendation , then of those speeches , which M. Hooker out of iudgement , doth write of him . He was doubtlesse , as Bishop Iewel calleth him , a reuerend Father , and a worthy ornament of Gods Church ; and surely they do much amisse , who haue sought by vniust slaunders against him ( a thing too vsuall ) to derogate from that truth , whose strength was not builded vpon mans weaknesse . This therefore being the practise of our aduersaries , you aske M. Hooker , what moued him to make choise of that worthy piller of the Church aboue all other , to traduce him , and to make him a spectacle before all Christians ? Giue me leaue to answer you for him , who vndoubtedly would haue giuen a farre better answer for himselfe , if he had liued ; There is not one word that soundeth in that whole discourse , to any other end , towards Maister Caluin , but to shew how his great wisedome , wrought vpon their weakenesse ; his knowledge vpon their ignorance ; his grauitie vpon their inconstancy ; his zeale vpon their disorders ; only to establish that gouernement , which howsoeuer not necessary for other places , was fit enough peraduenture for that town . Neither need the present inhabitants thereof , take it in euill part , that the faultinesse of their people heretofore , was by Maister Hooker so farre forth laid open , seeing he saith no more , then their owne learned guides , and pastors haue thought necessarie to discouer vnto the world . But what , say you , hath Master Caluin done against our Church , that he should be singled out , as an aduersarie ? Surely that harme ( though against his will ) which neuer will bee soundly cured , so long as our Church hath any in it to spurne at the reuerend authority of Bishops . For howsoeuer those Ecclesiasticall lawes , established in Geneua ( wherein notwithstanding are some strange things ) might be fit enough to passe for statutes , for the gouernement of a priuate Colledge , or peraduture some small Vniuersity ; yet to make them a rule , for so great , so rich , so learned a kingdome as this is , must needes be a vaine desire of noueltie , idly to attempt ; and a thing in nature , vnpossible to performe . And therefore hee cannot bee free , as an occasion , though no cause of all those troubles , which haue disquieted our Church for these many yeares . But it may bee M. Hooker spake not thus against M. Caluin of himselfe , but perswaded either by our aduersaries , in whose mouth , he is an inuincible champion , or incited vnto it , by some of the Reuerend Fathers of our Church ; and therefore you desire him to resolue you in that point . Can it possibly be , that you should thinke him a man of so great simplicitie , either to be moued to attempt it , by the perswasion of others , or hauing attempted it , that he must needs disclose it ? are all those flatterings of the Bishops ; that alleaging of their authorities , ended in this , to accuse them as Authors of doing that , which your conscience maketh you accuse to be euill done ? Could you perswade yourselfe , that those reuerend Fathers , whose authorities you alleage in the praise of Caluin , would be drawne to substistute another , to dispraise him whom themselues commended ? Is it not a thing differing from sense ? void of reason ? contrary to religion ? And if that be a fault that M. Hooker is commended by our aduersaries , in no construction , it can be concluded to bee his fault . This peraduenture may commend them , who are ready to approue learning , iudgement , and moderation , euen in those who are aduersaries , but no way can touch those , whom they thus commend : Vnlesse wee make the conclusion to light heauily vpon the best , both for place , wisedome , and learning that our Church hath . Haue not in all ages , the Heathen thus commended the Christians ? and did not Libanius , thus thinke Gregorie most worthy to succeed him , if he had not been a Christian ? Can we in reason denie , Iulian his learning , because an Apostata ? or Bellarmine , and others , because they haue written against vs ? No , we willingly giue thē that due , that belongs vnto them , and hold it not vnmeete , to receiue euen from their mouthes , without suspition of trechery , that commendations which are but the recompence of a iust desert . The termes of hostility are too violent , and vnreasonable , which denie vs thus far to communicate with our verie enemies . But , you say , this was pride in M. Hooker , to contemne all those of our owne Church , as too weake to encounter with him ; and therefore he must raise Maister Caluin out of his sweet bed of rest , to contend against him . And here you vncharitably make a comparison betwixt Golias and Maister Hooker ; only you say vnlike in this , that Golias was content to chalenge one liuing and present in the army , demanded , but chose not ; sought for one , that was aliue , and vaunted not ouer the dead ; in all which respects by your censure , Maister Hooker is more presumptuous . To speake the least which is fit to be answered in this place , surely , hee which will take vpon him to defend that there is no ouersight in this accusation , must beware left by such defences , he leaue not an opinion dwelling in the minds of men , that he is more stiffe to maintaine what he hath spoken , then carefull to speake nothing , but that which iustly may be maintained ; that he hath not shunned to encounter those , euen the best of that faction in our land , your selues can witnesse : that he nameth M. Caluin , onely to this end , to shew the authour of that Discipline , which he was to handle , you must needes confesse ; that he rather reprooued another state , then discouered the violent and vncharitable proceedings to establish it at home , it was his wisdome : for we know that the age present is corrected , when the age past is iustly rebuked for the same fault . And there cannot be a better meanes to cure our disorder at home , then by discouering the effects that it hath wrought abroade . Now , that which principally discouereth that you are not such , as in the title of this letter , you terme your selues , is , that you make not Caluin , but Christ himselfe the author of this discipline ; who , as you say , raised vp diuers men , in diuers places , as Oecolampadius , Swinglius , Suychius , Philip , Bucer , Capito , and Miconius ; and ●aught them , by the same spirit , out of the same holy scripture , the same doctrine , and commandement of truth and righteousnes . In this you bewray what you are ; and how truly you fauour our present state , in giuing so honorable testimony of that Church gouernment , which hath bin so much oppugned by the Fathers of our Church : Nay so much misliked by the Queene her self , as appeareth by her most eloquēt speech against those reformers . And I must needes tell you , that those who haue taken vpon them the defence thereof , are only able to confirme it , not by places of scripture , but by poore and marue●lous sleight coniectures , collected frō them . I need not giue instance in any one sentence so alledged : for that I thinke the instance of any alledged otherwise not easily to be giuen . A very strange thing sure it were , that such a discipline as you speake of , should be taught by Christ and his Apostles in the word of God , and no Church euer hath found it out nor receiued it till this present time : contrariwise , the gouerment , against which you bend yourselues , to be obserued euery where , through all generations , and ages of the Christian world , no Church euer perceiuing the word of God , to be against it . Finde but one Church ( one is not much ) vpon the face of the whole earth , that hath bin ordered , by your discipline , or hath not bin ordered by ours , that is to say , by Episcopall regiment , sithence the time that the blessed Apostles were here conuersant . But you complaine of it , as an iniurie , that men should be willed to seeke for examples , and paterns of gouerment in any of those times , that haue bin before : It is to small purpose , that some daughter Churches haue learned to speake their mothers dialect . In one word to conclude this article , such is naturally our affection , that whom in great things we mightily admire , in them wee are not perswaded willingly , that any thing should be amisse . The reason wherof is , that as dead flies putrefie the ointment of the apothecary , so a little folly , him that is in estimation for wisdome . This in euery profession hath too much authorised , the iudgments of a few : this with Germans hath caused Luther , and with many other Churches Caluin , to preuaile in all things . But thou O Lord , art only holy , thou only art iust , who permittest the worthiest vessels of thy glory , to be in some things blemished , with the staine of humane frailty , euen for this cause , least we should esteem of any man , aboue that which behooueth . ARTICLE XX. Of Schoolemen , Philosophie , and Popery . PHilosophie telleth vs ( if it be lawfull for me to vse so much Philosophie ) that naturall motions in the end are swifter , but violet are more slowe ; and therefore heauy things , the lower they descend , doe moue faster ; and by so much also they moue slower , by how much they ascend higher . It seemeth that the accusations in this letter were such , as had their first motion , rather from the violence of some affection , then from any naturall inclination to vnderstand the truth . For surely , though I take not vpon me to censure any man ( being my selfe clothed with so many wants ) yet in my weake opinion , those , that would desire are solution of such things , as ouerthrow the foundation of the Church amongst vs , which in your le●ter you professe , should hardly esteeme , the right vse of Philosophers and schoole learning , to be an accusation of that kind . So that whereas , at the first your obiections seemed to moue with a greater strength , now in the end , they growe weake like the stroke of a man that is halfe tyred . But I haue final reason to complaine of this , which is mine owne aduantage : for without the armour of other learning , only in the strength of reason , I du●st incounter a stronger man then my selfe , in this , wherein you accuse Maister Hooker ; that the right vse of Schoolemen , and Philosophers , is no hindrance , or disgrace to true diuinity . And therefore , whereas you charge him , that in all his discourse for the most part Aristotle and the ingenious Schoolemen , almost in all points haue some finger ; and that reason is highly set vp against holy Scripture , and such like : I verely perswade my selfe , that herein he hath committed no vnlawfull thing . For those schoole imployments , are acknowledged by graue and wise men , not vnprofitablie to haue bin inuented ; the most approued for learning and iudgment doe vse them without blame ; the vse of them , hath bin well liked , by those that haue written in this kind ; the quality of the readers of his bookes , though not of the most , yet of those whom the matter concerned most , was such , as he could not but thinke them of capacity very sufficient , to conceiue harder learning then he hath vsed any ; the cause he had in hand , did in my opinion necessarily require those schoolemen and philosophers that he hath vsed : for where a cause is strangely mistaken , for want of distinctions , what other way was there for him , but by distinctions to lay it open ? That so it might appeare vnto all men whether it were consonant to truth or no ; and although you and I peraduenture , being vsed to a more familiar , and easie learning , thinke it vnmeete , to admit , approoue , or frequent the schooles ; yet our opinions are no Canons for Maister Hooker : And although you being troubled in minde , doe thinke that his writings , seeme like fetters , and manacles ; yet no doubt he hath met both with readers and hearers , more calmely affected ; which haue iudged otherwise . But it is a strange presumption in my opinion , for priuate men , such as professe themselues to be but common Christians , ( which your writings , besides your owne confession , doe make manifest ) to prescribe a forme , either of writing or teaching , so plaine and familiar , or rather indeed so empty , and shallow , that no man may doubte , how vnlearned soeuer , to giue his censure . Must all knowledge be humbled so low , that it must stoope to the capacity of the meanest reader ? But the Fathers , say you , haue misliked it . Indeed I confesse , there is an ouermuch vse , which is euill , in all things , where there is not an absolute necessity . Besides things comparatiuely spoken , in regard of true vnderstanding of the scriptures , is no rule for warrant that they are to be misliked simply . For Stapleton himselfe confesseth , in his cautions of expounding the scripture , that the Schoolemen haue not a certaine , and infallible authority of interpreting ; which as to maintaine must needes be great simplicity , so to dislike all vse of them is intolerable vnthankfulnesse . But in this accusation , it is not apparant what you meane , whē you alledge out of Luther , that schoole diuinity , hath banished from vs , the true and sincere diuinity . If this were the direct iudgement of Luther , to condemne all schoole diuinity ; yet it is a strange oppositiō to alledge the sentence of one man , against the practise , and authorities of the best Fathers . Neither doe we vnderstand which it is ( the olde or the new ) that so much offendes you ; by old , we meane that Scholasticall kinde of expounding , which the most eloquent Fathers lately comen from the schooles of Rhetoricians , and Philosophers , haue brought with them , to the interpreting of holy Scriptures ; that thus they might be able to teach , to delight , to perswade ; a matter fitting al , but not easie for any , that is not excellently furnished with humane learning . In this sense Beda calleth Prudentius the most noble Schooleman of the Spaniards , whom it is like in the seueritie of your iudgment , you would haue dispraised ; and Gennadius in the Catalogue of famous writers , reckoneth vp Museus , Iulianus , Eucherius , and diuers others , amongst the Schoolmen ; that is , amongst the chiefe professours of Schoole-eloquence . Saint Hierome affirmeth of himselfe , that manie things in Diuinitie , he handled with Schoole o●nament ; and of Saint Paul he saith , that when he preached at Athens , vpon occasion of the inscription of the Altar to the vnknowne God , he handled it with a scholasticall kind of elegancie . Is this then that which so much offends you ? Was it an ornament in these Fathers , and many others , and is it a blemish in M. Hooker ? But peraduenture it is the new and later kind of Schoole interpreting that you mislike ; whose methode is Philosophicall disputing , made of Aristotelian learning ; this sprang vp about some foure hundreth and odde yeares past , in the time of Lotharius the second , Emperour of Rome , who recouering out of darkenesse the Roman lawes , caused them publikely to bee read , and to be expounded by diuers Writers ; by this meanes diuinitie began to waxe cold , vntill by imitation of these men , certaine deuout Monkes , and others , vndertooke the like in expounding the holy Scripture ; by which meanes euen vntill this day , there remaineth in the Schooles tenne orders of their vsuall expounding ; by Concordance , Historie , Postill , Question , Lecture , Compendium , or Abridgement , Sermon , Meeter , Meditation , all which no doubt of it in your opinion , are esteemed vnlawfull and vnprofitable : Nowe , many that were excellent in this kind , the Church both knoweth how to vse with great profit , and in recompence of their labour , hath giuen them titles , with much honour . Thus Alexander Hales , who made his Summe , that excellent worke , by commaundement of Innocentius the fourth was called the fountaine of life , because of that liuely knowledge , that flowed from him : he was Maister to Bonauenture , a scholer not inferiour to himselfe , of whom he was wont to say , that in Bonauenture he thought Adam sinned not ; meaning , for that illumination , which was in him ( & doubtles there was much in him ) as though he had not beene darkened by the fall of Adam ; and therfore the Church called him the Seraphicall Doctor . To these Aquinas was not inferiour , who came so neere vnto Saint Austin , that some thought , hee had all his works by heart , and by a common prouerbe it was spoken , that the soule of Saint Austin dwelt in Aquinas ; in whom aboue all the rest , foure contrarieties were said to excell ; abundance , breuitie , facilitie , security : In respect whereof , hee gained the title to be called Angelicall . Now for any man to follow the steps of these , though treading sure , as hauing more light , can any man in reason account it to be a fault ? Is there no other matter of reproofe in Maister Hookers writings , but that vertues must bee faults ? But hee seeketh to proue matters of diuinity with the strength of reason : Indeed this is a great fault , which if many had not beene afraid to commit , the world had not beene filled with so many idle , and vnreasonable discourses . But so it is , that through an ignorant zeale of honouring the scriptures , the name of the light of nature , is made hateful with men ; the starre of reason , and learning , & all other such like helps , beginneth no otherwise to be thought of , then as if it were an vnlucky Comet , or as if God had so accursed it , that it should neuer shine , or giue light in things , concerning our duty , any way toward him ; but be esteemed as that starre , in the Reuelation called wormwood : Which being fallen from heauen , maketh riuers , & waters , in which it falleth so bitter , that men tasting them , die thereof . A number there are , who thinke they cannot admire , as the ought , the power & authority of the word of God , if in things diuine , they should attribute any force to mans reason ; for which cause they neuer vse reason so willingly , as to disgrace reason . Then vsuall and common discourses are to this effect ; The naturall man perceiueth not the things of the Spirit of God , for they are foolishnesse vnto him ; neither can he know them , because they are spiritually discerned . For answer where unto we say , that concerning the abilitie of Reason , to search out , and to iudge of things diuine , if they be such , as those properties of God , and those duties of men towards him , which may be conceiued by attentiue consideration of heauen and earth , wee know that of meere naturall men , the Apostle testifieth , how they know both God and the law of God ; other things of God there be which are neither so found , nor though they bee shewed , can euer be approued , without the speciall approbation of Gods good grace , & spirit : such is the suffring , & rising againe of our Sauiour Christ , which Eestus , a meere naturall man , could not vnderstand ; therefore Paul seemed in his eyes to be learnedly mad . This sheweth , that nature hath need of grace , to which Maister Hooker was neuer opposit , in saying that grace may haue vse of nature . But Paul chargeth the Colossians to beware of Philosophie , that is to say , such knowledge as men , by naturall reason are able to attaine . I confesse , Philosophie wee are warned to take heed of , not that Philosophy , which is true and sound knowledge , attained by a naturall discourse of reason ; but that Philosophie , which to bolster heresie , or errour , ( which I am sure Maister Hooker doth not ) casteth a fraudulent shew of reason , vpon things which are indeede vnreasonable ; and by that meanes , as by a stratageme , spoyleth the simple , which are not able to withstand such cunning . He that giueth warning to take heede of an enemies policie , doth not giue counsell to auoid all policie ; but rather to vse all prouident foresight , and circumspection , least our simplicity bee ouerreacht by cunnin● sleights : The way not to be inueigled , by them , that ar● so guilefull through skill , is throughly to be instructed in that , which maketh skilful against guile ; and to bee armed with that true and sincere Philosophie , which doth teach against that deceitfull , and vaine which spoileth . But haue not the greatest troublers of the Church bin the greatest admirers of humane reason ? Hath their deep & profound skil in secular learning made thē the more obedient to the truth , and not armed them rather against it ? Indeed many great philosophers haue bin very vnsound in beleefe , & yet many sound in beleef haue bin great Philosophers . Could secular knowledge bring the one sort vnto y e loue of christian faith ? nor Christian faith , the other sort out of loue with secular knowledg . The harme that heretikes did , was to such , as by their weakenes were not able to discerne betweene sound , and deceitfull reasoning , and the remedie against it was euer , the skill of the ancient Fathers , to discouer it . In so much that Cresconius the heretike complained greatly of Saint Austin , as you do of Maister Hooker , for being too full of logicall subtilties . But the word of God in it selfe is absolute , exact , and perfect , and therefore needlesse to adde any humane or schoole learning ; for those weapons are like the armour of Saul , rather cumbersome then needfull ; and with these hath Maister Hooker filled his writings . I answer , there is in the World no kind of knowledge , whereby any part of truth is seen , but wee iustly account it precious : yea that principall truth , in comparison whereof , all other truth is vile , may receiue from it , some kind of light ; whether it be that Egyptian , and Chaldean wisdome mathematicall , wherewith Moses and Daniel were furnished ; or that naturall , morall , and ciuill wisdome , wherein Salomon excelled all men ; or that rationall , and oratoriall wisedome of the Grecians , which the Apostle Saint Paul brought from Tharsus ; or that Iudaicall which he learned in Ierusalem , sitting at the feete of Gamaliel ; to detract from the dignity thereof were to iniure , euen God himselfe ; who being that light which none can approch vnto , hath sent out these lights , whereof we are capable , as so many sparkles , resembling the bright fountain from which they rise . And therfore vnto he word of God , being in respect of that end wherunto God ordeined it , perfect , exact , and absolute , we doe not adde any thing , as a supplement of any maime , or defect therein ; but as a necessary instrument , without which wee coulde not reape by the scriptures perfection , that fruite , and benefit , which it yeeldeth . In respect of al which places alledged , it must needs seem strange , that any for the vse of schoole diuinity , and humane learning , should incur that hard suspition , which you seeke to fasten vpon M. Hooker , namely , that he is a priuie & subtil enimie , to the whole state of our Church ; that he would haue men to deeme her Mai●stie to haue done ill , in abolishing the Romish religion ; that he would be glad to see the back-slyding of all reformed Churches ; or that he meanes , to bring in a confusion of all things ; a tolleration of all religions ; these , and such like , are the heauie conclusions , that follow the vse of schoolemen , and secular learning ; and the least of those euils , which are likely in your opinion , to be deriued into the heart of our Church and common wealth , from that dangerous poyson which is conteined in Maister Hookers writings . Surely it is great pitie , that al men should thinke what they list , or speake openly what they think ; but doubtlesse it did little moue him , whē you say that which a greater thē you certainely wil gainsay . His words in this cause haue seemed to you , as an arrow sticking in a thigh of flesh , and your own as a child , whereof you must needes be deliuered by an hower ; but deliberation would haue giuen peraduenture , more ripenes , which now by haste , hath , as a thing borne out of time , beene small ioye to you that begat it . Therefore I wil conclude , with the speech of the son of Sirach : He that applieth his minde to the law of the most high , keepeth the sayings of famous men , & entreth in also into the secrets of darke sentences : he seeketh out the mystery of graue sentences , and exerciseth himselfe in dark parables ; though he be dead he shall leaue a greater fame , thē a thousand : Doubtles this is verified in him , of whom you haue published vnto the world so hard a censure . ARTICLE XXI The stile and maner of writing . AS it is an honour to performe that which is excellent ; so it is a vertue to approue that which is excellently performed ; where to be wanting in the first , may be slouth , or ignorance , but to be wanting in the latter , must needes be malice . Fewe there are , or haue beene in any age , which reaping the due recompence of their labour , haue done that good , which they ought , and haue not receiued that reward which they ought not . Wise men haue thought no otherwise , but that this common lot , might be their portion ; yet the feare thereof , could not haue that power ouerall , to make them in that respect , wholy & vnprofitably silent : Knowing , that euen that which they suffred for well doing , was their honour ; and that which they did well , and suffred for it , was others shame . This vice , in my opinion , is not more vsuall with anie , then with vs , who by reason of the corrupt quality thereof , haue imposed a silence to a great number , who by their writings , doubtlesse , would haue bin verie singular ornaments vnto Gods Church : whereas strangers of lesse merit , haue a twofold aduantage . The one , that we read their writings without preiudice of their persons ; the other , that with a desire of nouelty , we greedily deuoure ( as we do fashions ) whatsoeuer we think to be done by strangers ; this onely in all things ( how excellent soeuer ) being cause enough of dislike , that it is home borne ; but more iustly of silence , that it is disliked . So that when we haue sifted , whatsoeuer is likely to be reproued , euen the last thing to be examined , is the stile itselfe . Thus haue you dealt with Maister Hooker , whom as in all other things , you haue set vpon the racke ; so in this you haue taken vpon you far more , thē beseemeth either the modesty , or the small learning that is vsually found in such , as professe thēselues , to be but common Christians . For certainely to iudge of a stile , is not the least point of learning , though it be the least known : but peremptorily , to dislike , which you do , is more then only to iudge . For this , is but to deliuer a speciall verdict , as we thinke our selues ; but the other is to take vpon vs , exactly to tell what the law is . Some I haue seene , excellently writing vpon the variety of stiles ; and the best , in my opinion , is one Pascalius , who was like enough to iudge well , because he himselfe wrote an excellent stile ; yet surely there is in no point of learning , greater varietie of tastes , then there is in this : some preferre Salust , others Caesar , a third Seneca , a fourth Tacitus ; in one word , euery man according to his owne fancy . This , as it is in stiles , so it is in the seuerall actions of men ; where they are no sooner borne into the world , but Censure , as a gossip names them . A thing I confesse needfull , and vnfit to be prohibited , seeing we reape oftentimes , more benefit by our enemies , then our friends ; yet this sheweth , that the world is vnhappy , where the best offices are performed by our worst acquaintance . If we come to Authours , some dislike Plato , as Athenaeus did , calling him confused ; others say , I only esteem Plato , who doth so cunningly weaue knowledge , and vertue together , as if he said , he were content to giue you knowledge , vpon condition , that you should be honest . Some compared Aristotle to that fish , whose humour is like inke ; Liui● he likes not Trogus , nor Tully Demosthenes ; Lenaeus a seruant of Pompeies mislikes Salust ; Asenius calleth him an affecter ; Quintilian calleth Seneca chalke without sand ; Galigula dispraised Liuie , as ful of words , and yet negligent , in suppressing the triumphes of Romulus , gotten by the victorie of the Tuscans . Thus Varro ( without question a mā most learned ) euen in the opinion of S. Austin , by one Quintus Rhemius Pal●●on was called a hog . Surely emulation of learning , and difference , either of opinion , or maners , breedes a dislike in schollers . This hath bin , is , and shall be that euill , whereunto learned men must be subiect in the variety of other mens censures ; nay euen those bookes , which wee translate , because they are excellent , others wish because they are excellent , not to be translated . Surely it is much easier , saith Dio Cassius , to reprehend others , then to moderate our selues . Some are of so feeble , and weake stomackes , that they loath bread : nay some are of that inconstant humour , that what they commēd now , they dispraise the next day ; and what yesterday they dispraisd , they commend to day . For in the beginning of your Letter , you cal it a sweet sound of M. Hookers melodious stile ; and in another place , you confesse that his bookes are very excellently and learnedly penned ; and yet in this Article , your last scruple is , because his bookes are so long and tedious , in a stile not vsuall , and as you thinke , the like hard to bee found . Where it seemes you are desirous to reprehend , if you could but resolue of the maner how . I dare not take vpon mee to censure those , whom you say he is vnlike ; Cranmer , Ridley , Latimer , Iewel , Whitgift , Foxe , Fulke : but I perswade my selfe , that whatsoeuer their other vertues were , wherein peraduenture they were more eminent , yet doubtlesse the best of them that now liueth , will acknowledge M. Hookers stile to be very excellent . And although it is vnmeet I should compare him with others , whose labours haue beene profitable in another kind , yet I hope I may say without offence , that as profoundly to iudge , with sound variety of al learning , was cōmon to him with diuers others ; so to expresse what he conceiued , in the eloquence of a most pure stile , was the felicitie almost of himself alone . That honorable Knight S. Philip Sidney , gaue a taste in an argument of recreation , how well that stile would befit an argument of a grauer subiect ; which it may be is more vnpleasing in the taste of some , because the maner is learned , & the subiect is not agreeing to their humour . Doubtlesse the perfecting of a stile , and especially of our English stile ( which in my opinion , refuseth not the purest ornaments of any language ) hath many mo helps , then those honorable places of learning , the Vniuersities , can affoord . And therfore in those things , which they conceiue ( and some of them conceiue much ) there are found in the Princes court , diuers most purely eloquent , whom euen the best in the Vniuersities may despaire to imitate . And ( if I may speake without offence ) I am fully perswaded , that M. Hookers stile ( if he had had lesse learning ) ( a strange fault ) ( for the weight of his learning made it too heauy ) had bin incomparably the best that euer was written in our Church . If our English story had been borne to that happinesse , euer to haue beene attired in such rich ornaments , she might worthily haue beene entertained in the best courts that the world hath ; but all Countries know our actions haue beene better done then they haue beene ●old . Of things affected we may giue a reason , but to aske , as you do , a reason of M. Hooker for his stile , it is all one , as if you asked him why he knew so much . For doubtlesse out of iudgement he made this choise ( in my weake opinion , or strong fancie ) simply the best , and ( without comparison ) imitable to few . Therefore your comparison of the bramble was vnfit , which by a shew deceiued you a farre off ; for there is much more by a narrow view to bee discerned in him , then hee seemeth to promise at the first sight . Three things you desire with all instancie . First , to shew what arguments he hath alleaged , which are not to be found in the answer of that reuerend Father vnto M. Cartwright . To satisfie you in this demaund , if there were no difference , yet the consent of their arguments were reason enough , for you to allow M. Hooker , seeing you haue giuen your approbatiō of the works of that most reuerēd Father , whose worthines no doubt , can receiue litle honor from your praise ; yet you know , that the whole subiect of M. Hookers first foure books , is an argument , as , ful of learning , so directly heretofore , not handled by any , that I know . Secondly , you desire , that if he set forth his other books , which are promised , that he would be more plaine , and sensible . Concerning those three bookes of his , which from his own mouth , I am informed that they were finis●● , I know not in whose hands they are , nor whether y e church shall euer be bettered by so excellent a worke ; for as the Church might haue been happie , if he had liued to haue written more ; so she were not altogether so much harmed , if she might but inioy , what he hath written . But for you to prescribe him a stile , as it is an authority vnfit to assume vnto your selfe , so it were a request , if he liued vnpossible to obtaine . For as once the greatest of place for iudgement of law in our land answeared a client of his in my hearing , who was desirous to haue him take information of his cause , from another lawyer , that seemed more fully acquainted with it ; he wil speake ( saith he ) wel himselfe , by his own direction ; but if I should speake by his information , I should speake but like a foole : so I am sure , howsoeuer you your selfe may write , following your owne stile , yet Maister Hooker by your direction could hardly attaine the commendations that himselfe had already gaind . Lastly , you wish him to be carefull , not to corrupt the English creed , by philosophie or vaine decei● , of Schoolemens new borne diuinity ; giue me le●ue to exempt you from this fear : for I am fully perswaded , neuer any man liued , who would haue bin lother , to haue bin the author of any new & vnwarranted opinion , which might giue but the least shew of cōtradiction , to the faith which our Church professeth . Things are not to be measured by violence of speech , or vncharitable collections ; for who are on Gods side , and who against , our Lord , in his good time , shall reueale . And seeing you doubt of his soundnes so far ( y ● because he maketh the church of Rome a part of the church of christ ( which M. Sarauia , Zanchy , & others do , that you wish him to take heed , that he forget not to giue his lawful Soueraigne , her right , & full due ) giue me leaue to set downe his words , & in his words his sound , & feruent affection in this point . When the ruines of the house of God , ( that house which consisting of religious soules , is most immediatly the precious temple of the Holy-ghost ) were become not in his fight alone , but in the ●ies of the whole world , so ●nc●●ding great , that verie superstition began euen to feele it selfe too far growne ; The first that with vs , made way to repaire the deca●es thereof , was King Henrie the eight ; the son and successor of which famous King , as we know , was Edward the Saint . In whom ( for so by the euent we may gather ) i● pleased God , righteous ●●d iust , to let England see , what a blessing sin , and iniqui●y would not suffer her to inioy ; that worke , which the one had begun and the other so far proceeded in , was ●n short space so ouerthrowne , as if almost it had neuer bin , till such time , as that God , whose property is to shew his mercies then greatest , when they are neerest to be vtterly despaired of , caused in the depth of discomfort , and darknes , a most glorious star to arise , and on her head setled the Crowne , whom he himselfe had kept as a lambe from the slaughter of those blondie times , that the experience of his goodnesse in hir owne deliuerance , might cause her merciful disposition , to take so much the more delight , in sauing others , whom the like necessity should presse ; the continuance of which mercy toward vs , in the abundance of his fauour to her , we wish may happely continue so long , as the Sunne indureth . Hitherto Maister Hooker . To conclude this small and imperfect worke , whereas you ioyne these bookes of Maister Hooker , with two other which you take to bee bellowes to blow the coles of sedition ; I perswade my selfe , that the ages which are to come , shall more then the present , esteem them with high honor : for mine owne part , what I haue don in defence thereof , it is neither from opinion of sufficiencie , who know mine owne strength in this kinde , weaker then many thousands ; nor from a desire of contention , which I hold ( howsoeuer sometimes needefull ) the worst imployment of all learning ; nor from a willingnes to flatter any , a fault ( what soeuer my other infirmities are ) whereunto I was neuer subiect ; nor that I thought those would haue bin wanting , who had , both farre more learning , and greater reason , to vndertake the defence , then my selfe had : Wherefore , if there be anything , either vnsoundly , or vncharitably set downe ( faults , which willingly I would be loth to be accused of ) I submit my selfe to the Iudgement of the Church , and the courteous admonition of the Christian Reader . But if any man without cause , spurne or thinke himselfe grieued , and finde that conteined herein , which with iudgement , and sound learning he is able to confute , and be desirous hereafter to receiue my answere , let him set to his name , that writeth ; otherwise , let him thinke , that Libels , personall , and of no moment , are to bee rather punished by authority , then confuted by any mans pen. And so I will hartily pray that no strife may euer be heard of againe , but this , who shall hate strife most , who shall pursue peace and vnity with most desire . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A19460-e410 Iob. 32. Notes for div A19460-e510 * Wisd. 10.8 . * Wis. 4.15 . The title of the Booke . * in the Letter Pag. 1. a Ibid. b pag. 2. c Pag. 45. d Pag. 3. Lin. 10 a Quando nec laudantem mouet adulatio , nec laudatum tentat elatio . * Tanti meriti , tanti pectoris , tanti oris , tantae virtutis . The preface of the letter answeared : when men dreame they are a sleep &c. a Vt argumen●o non sit propter quod alios accusant has ipsas odisse . Dio. Cass. lib. 36. hist. b Epist. ad Asellam virg . in prolog super los. c Nicephor . Calixtus lib. 10. hist. cap. 36. b In obit . Humber●i . Ber , c Nihil ex ea quod meum diceretur praeter cognomen retuli . Val. Max. d Si quid est quo vtar , vt●r ; si 〈◊〉 , ego sum . e Nepotianus noster aurū calcans schedulas consectatus . Pag. 19. lin . 16 Lege Carol. mag . fol. 421. a Ira eius in manu eius . Ber. b Sereneb at vultum suum assidētium gratia , no ●ieret ●nerosus , sed visum integrum si bene recolitis non admisit . Ber. Eccl. 44.7 8. v●●s . 11 12.13.14.15 . Pag. 2. a Iustin. lib. 15. ex Trogo . Sixt Sin. lib. 4. bibliothecae . Epiphanius in 3. pannarii . a Erat animus victor annor●m , & cedere nesciens infirmitati : Ber. in vita Humberti . b Mors fecit quantum potuit , occidit carnem , & ecce recondita est in corde terr● ; separauit à nobis dulcem amicum , prudent● Consiliarium , Auxiliarium fortem . Ber. Eccles. 50.6.7.11 . Wis. 3.1.2.3 . Notes for div A19460-e1930 Gen. 13. Gen. 35.2 . Gen. 31.34 . Gen. 24.3 . Gen 27 41. Gen. 4.9 Gen. 34 31. Gen 49.6 . Gen. 44.15 . ver . 12 Gen. 38.23 . Gen , 20.3 . Diodorus Sicul. Fustibus caeditur . Homicida quod fecit expectat . Fuge nomen maechi si mortem fugies . Stephanus ex Nicosirato . Tarpeio Saxo deijciatur . Leg. 12. Tabul . * Quae deus occulta esse voluit , non sunt scrutanda ; quae autem manifesta fecis , non sunt negligenda ; no & in illis illicite curiosi , & in his damnabiliter inueniantur ingrati . Prosper de vocat . Gentium . a Nec periculosius alicubi erratur , nec laboriosius aliquid quaeritur , nec fructuosius aliquid inuenitur Aug. lib. 4 de Trinitat . Aug. tom . 6. ser. 7 Lib. 5. Pag. 113. Epist. 66 ad Maxim. Hic non indicatur substantia , sed origo . i. non quid sit , sed vnde sit , vel non sit : epist. 66. ad Maxim. Aug. Notes for div A19460-e2750 Bookes 5. pag. 106. sect . 51. Pro. 8.22 . Ioh. 1.1 . Ioh. 17.5 . Tom. 2. epist. 174 A●g . Ioh 15.26 . In comment ▪ in Iohan. 15 26 Psal. 126. 1. Corinth . 2 Iam. 1. Matt. 28. Matth. 12. About the yeare 381. 430.451 . Aug. in Psal. 68 Alius non aliud . Vnum non vnus . Aug. tom . 9. in Euang. Ioh. tract . 36. Damasc. de Orthodox . fid . lib. 3 cap. 6. Ho● . lib. 5. pag. 121. Aug. tom . 6. cont . Max. epist. lib. 3.10 . Notes for div A19460-e3450 Iob. 17.3 . Rom. 1. * O terrae ●ehiculum , & in terrasedem habens . Quisquis tande es maccesse nostri●●●imis Iupiter ; siue naturae ordo sic ferat , siue mens mortalium te veneror : omnia enim secrete , & sine strepituqui facis incedcrevia , & iusto libramine mortalia & humana . Eurip. in Troas . a Booke 1. pag. 88. b ●●b . 1. de Libero . arbit . cap. 6. Summam ratio●em . Caìetan , ad ●uit mam Aquinatis in quest . 9.2 Acts. 17. c Super fluxus generalis . 1. Cor. 12. d Veritas á quocunque dicatur a Spiritu Sancto est . Ambros. e Si vnicum veritatis fontem de● Spiritum esse reputamus , veritatem ipsam neque respuemus neque contemnam●● vbicunque apparebit . Caluin Inst. lib. 2. cap. 2. sect . 14. f Io. 15.5 . g 1. Cor. 15.10 . a Posse habere fidem , est naturae ; habere , gratiae . Aust. et Prosp. cont . Cassianum . Officio et actione bona sunt sed non fine . Aust. Tom. 7. lib. 4. cap. 3. Deu● . 4 2. Gal. 1.8 . Iohn . 20. vlt. 2. Tim. 3.16 . Rom 10.17 Rom 15.4 . Ephe. 2.20 Rom. 3.27 1. Cor. 2.14 Io. 3 , 3 Notes for div A19460-e4050 Genesis . 13. ● 1. King. 13.2 Esay . 44.28.45 1. Iohn . 4. Ecclesi . 4 9 of Trent . D. Whitaker . Book . 2. pag. 102. Booke . 2. pag. 146 Hooker . Li● . 38. 〈◊〉 supra . Contra epist. fundamenti . cap. 5. Testi● . Vindex Praeco . Homil. 1. ad Titum . Interpres . Epist. pag. 9. Act. 17.28 . Tit. 1. ●0 . Notes for div A19460-e4580 Hook. Book 1. pag. ●0 61. De graetia et libero arbitrio & P. Lomb. lib. 2. Sent. dist . 25. 1. Cor. 7.36 . Libera sed liberata . Rom. 6. Rom. ● . Aristot. 3. Ethic. cap. 4.5 . Clem. Alexan. in Strom. Aug. lib. 2. confess . cap. 6. Boeth . de . con . lib. 4. Damasc. de . fide lib. 2. cap. 22 Arist. 1 ▪ Eth. cap. 1. Senec. lib. 4. de . ben . cap. 7. In hypothesi bonum , in thesi malum . Ang●n ●ach . cap. 30. Part. 1. quest . 83. art . 2. ●al Inst. lib. 2. cap. 2. sect . 13. Inspersum est vniuersis s●men ●liquod ordinis ●olitici . Naturalia corrupta supernaturalia ablata . De corrept . & gratia ad Valent . cap. 2. Humana voluntas non libertate gratiam , sed gratia consequitur libertatem . Aug. vbi supra . Cum vult non potest , quia quādo potuit noluit : ideo per malum velle perdidit bonū posse . Aug. Cal. lib. 1. Instit. cap. 2. & lib. 2. cap. 2. Grego . Arimi . in in 2. Sent. dist . 26. quest . 1. art . 1 Gaspar . Cassalius lib. 1. de quadripartita iustitia cap. 32. Prima principia doctrinae moralis . Ioh 5. Ephe. 2.5 . 2. Cor. 3 5. Deorum munus est quod ●iu●mus , nostrum quod sancte vinimus . Senec. Rom. 10. Imperium voluntatis . Aug. in tract . 36 in ●ohan . Prima principia . Rom. ● 7. Notes for div A19460-e5420 Matth. 6 23 A●t . 11. Eccl●s . A●gl . de hominis iustificat . Su●●ma merce● est vt ipso perfruamur . A●g . de doct . Christi . cap. 6. Matth 5.11 Ioh. 6.29 Lib. 1. pag. 32 Epist. pag , 13. a Fi●es & sine & ante charitat● Iustificat . Luth. in 2. ad Ga● . Luth. tom . ● . prop. 3. Fides nisi sit sin● vllis etiam minimis operibus non iustificat ▪ imo ●on est fides , In Anti. concil . ad a● . 11. sess . 6. Melancton . Brent . Clemnis . Caluin . lib. 3. Inst. cap. 16. Necessitas praesentiae , non e●●icientiae . Gratia saluamur sed non a s●ue bonis operibus . C●em . Alexand. ● . Strom. a In cap. 2. la● . annot . 11. b In Matt. 25. annot . 3. c 2. Cor. 7.10 d In Matt. 15. annot . 3. Rhem. ●est . Meriting for obtaining : so in the Confession of Wittenberge . a Casobon . in Pl. epist. Mereri stipēdia . Cal. Inst. lib 3. cap. sect 2. Vsi sunt ( fateor ) passim vetusii ecclesiae scriptores , atque vtinam voculae vnius ( abusu ) ( so that it properly signifieth otherwise ) erroris materiam posteris non praebuissent . mark the word ( praebuissent ) gaue but only occasion . Heb. 13. b pleased . Notes for div A19460-e6230 Hook. lib. 2. sect . ● . a Art. 12 Rom. 8. 1. Cor. 1. Psal. 32.1 . Rom. 8. Diliges Dominum Deum tuum &c. 2. Non concupisces . a Aug. Tom. 3. de Sp. et lit . cap. vlt. b Zanch. de relig . lib. 1. cap. 6. Notes for div A19460-e6550 Hook. lib. 2. pag. 122. Ephe. 5 ▪ 29. * Matt. 5.46 . a Act. 4 31 b 1. Thes. ● . 9 . 1. Cor. 7. Hook. lib. 2. pag. 140. a Non est criminis non v●●isse , sed 〈◊〉 & r●dd●sse e●t ●audi● . Aug. de virg . cap. 14. b Illa exi●untur , i●la o●feruntur , si 〈…〉 illa damna●tur . A●g . c 〈◊〉 ad Eu●●ch . Her. 40. Her ▪ 61. 〈◊〉 Vigilan 〈◊〉 . Aug. her . 82. Proficientem coronabo , non proficientem non punio . Chrysost. Notes for div A19460-e6950 a Psalm 19. Lib. 5. pag. 102. b Gen. 6.5 . c Psal. 51.5 . d Psal. 19.12 e Ier. 17.9 . f Iohn . 3.5 . g Eph. 2.3 . h Lib. 1. & 2. Irenaeus . Cyprian . Raeticius . Olympius . Hilarius . Ambros. Innocent . Greg. Naz. Basil. Chrysost. Hieron . 〈◊〉 delinquendo , 〈◊〉 a ●acien●o . Gen 4. Exod 22 Gen. 19 ●am . 5.4 a Aug. ●er . 82. b Pecca●um est vt●ndis frui , & fruendis vti . Notes for div A19460-e7450 Arbor scientiae complures priuat arbore vitae . Bonauent . Lux inaccessibilis . ● . Tim. 6.2 . In●estigabiles 〈◊〉 eius . R●m . 11. Psal. 97. ● Prou. 25 , Eccle. 3.22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26. Art. 17. Epist. pag 16. Psal. 36.7 . Lib. 2.46 . Lib. 1. dist . 45. In E●●h . 102.103 . 1. Tim. 2.4 Bell. Tom. 3. de grat . et lib. arb . lib. 2. cap. 11.12 Aqui. par . 1. quest 23. By his reuealed will. Rom. 9.10 Notes for div A19460-e7940 Psal. 122 a Aug. de ciuitat . Dei. lib. 18. cap. 51. b Ser. 1. de S. S Petr● et Paulo . c Lib. 4. hist. cap. 27 d Euseb. lib. 10 cap. 5. Optatus lib. 2 cont . Parmen . Epist. 166. et Ru●fin . lib. 10. cap. 5 Greg. lib. 4. epist. 32. Ho●● . lib. 5. pag. 184. De officio pii viri Ton. 1. de ec●l . lib. 3. cap 19. Euag. lib. 3. cap. 14 , 30. Euseb. lib. 35. hist. cap. 13. Art. 19. de eccle . Hook. lib. 5. pag. 188. Preface against D. Bancrof● . Psal , 26.5 . Ecclesia malignantium . Catholike Church . Matth. 16 Ephe. 5.27 . 1. Tim. 3.15 . Act. 5.11 Matt. 18.17 Act. 20 , 28. Reu. 2 , 1. Hook. lib. 5. Ioh. 1.47 . Ephes. 2.16 . Matth. 13.47 In conc . Nicen. vide Hieron . in di . con● . Lucifer . 2. Cor. 13 Booke . 5. pag. 186. Rom. 1. ● . Caluin . Melanct. Lib. 3. cap. 32. Lib. 5. I●st . cap. 19. O quàm ●onesta voluntate mis●rierrant . In his Treatise of the Church cap. 2. Notes for div A19460-e9200 2. Cor. 12 Acts. 3. Matt. 13.3 Bishops of Lincol. 1. Ser. vpon . Mat. 13. Cophinus Seminantis . Heb. 4.12 Epist. pag. 23. sin . 20. Prop●lis p●nnis configutur . Ad Marcell . epist. 102. Epist. ad Rom. London . M. King vpon Ionas , pag. 541 De Baptis . contra Donat. lib. 6. cap. 2. Aduers . Cresco . 〈◊〉 . cap. 1. Epist. ad Cornel. Epist. lib. 4. Epist. 6. Tristano Chalco . Notes for div A19460-e9780 F●●le . Ang. artic . 23 Heb. 5.4 . Leuit , 21.22 Num. 8. Exo. 29 Leuit. 8 Num. 8 Hook. lib. 5. pag 228. Ostiarii . Hook. lib. 5. pag. 240. Ostiarii . Lib. 4. Instit. cap. 4 sect . 9. Bellar. tom . 1. de Cler. lib. 1. cap , 13. Lect●re● . Epist. lib. 2.5 . lib 3. Epist. 22 lib. 4. epist. 5. Lib. 4. Inst. cap. 4 sect . 9. Exorcistae . which did adiure those that were possessed Ca● . lib. 4 cap. 49 sect . 24. Zanch. in 4. praecep . pag. 688. Disputatores . Acolouthi . Cantatores Greg. in regist . lib. 4 cap. 88. Catechista . Gal. 6. Eusib. lib. 6. Cap. 13. & 20. All Christians . Bell. 〈◊〉 . 2. pag. 220. My L. Grace of Cant. D. Whitgift . pag. 516. 1. Tim. 2.12 . Notes for div A19460-e10660 Iew Apol. Aug. cap 10 diuisi . 1. The letter pag. 28. lin . 2. Hook booke . 5 pag ▪ 226 Aquin part . 3. ●uest . 62 8. Pet. 1. Cont. Faust. cap. 19. Lib. 1. de . San. cap. 4 Bel. Tom. 2. lib. 2 de Sacr. cap. 1 Caluin lib. 4. Inst cap. 14. sect . 17. Eccles. Ang. art . 25. Alia sunt sacramenta d. vitia salutem , alia promittentia saluatorem . Aug. in Psal. 73. Exhibentia . Zanch. in decal . lib. 1. cap. 16. pag. 396. T it 3.5 . Hook. booke . 5 pag. 133 2. King. 5.14 . Dente non corde , soris non intus . Aug. Habent ad testimonium damnationis , non ad adiu●orium sanitatis . A●g . contra liter . Petil. lib. 2. cap 21. 1. Cor. 11 Tom. 6. lib. 13. cont . Faustum Manich. cap. 16. cont . epist. Parmen . lib. 2. Notes for div A19460-e11270 Luth. de Missa priuat . ●dit . anno 1534. Aug. cont . Donatist . lib. 4. cap. 13 Cont. epist. Parm. lib. 2. cap. 10. Euseb. lib. 7. hist. cap. 6. &c. 2 Lib. 2. de Baptis . Euseb. lib. 7. cap. 2. in epist 1. ad Himerium . Ep●st . 22. ad Maced . episc . Epist. 77. ad Nicetam . Lib. 2. de Bapt. cap. 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 9 circa Ann. 327. Eccles. Angl. art . 16. Circa ann . 165 Hook. lib. 5. pag. 129. But Sacramentum ect Sacra actio . Lib. 1. de Sacra . cap 27. Lib. de . missa priuata . In audit . con●i●ii . Trid. sess . 7. can . 2 Tho. Aqui● . part . 3. quest . 64. art . 8. Lib. 2. de ●●cra . part . 6. ●ap . 13. Perk. vpon the Lords prayer . pag. 143. imp● . 1596. Ruf● . lib. 10. cap. 14. 〈…〉 2.16 Nice● . lib. 8.40 . Notes for div A19460-e12200 Roman . Catechis . Cal. lib. 4. Inst. Hook. lib. 5. pag 132. T.C. lib. 3 pag. 134. Ephe 2.3.12 . Iewel in the Def. of Apol. 2. par . pag. 150. 1. Cor. 7. Zanch. in decal . pag. 400. 1. Cor. 12. In the Letter pag. 31. lin . 16. Lib. 5. pag. 130. Ioh. 3.5 Non enim i●●a tribuunt quod 〈…〉 . Hugo . de Sacra . lib. cap. 3 Iren. con . Her. lib. 1. cap 18. De baptism . Epist. 70. ad . Hugo . Hug. de sacra . lib. 1. cap. 5. Lib. 3. quest . vet . Test. cap. 84 Aqui. part . 3. quest . 63 Art. 2. voto , non re . In Act. Apost . 10 Sect. 9. Rhem. test . in Ioh. 3. sect . 2. Wis. 4.7 De doctrin Chri●t . lib. 3 cap. 3. Petra erat Chri●●us . 1 Cor. 10 Colos● . 2. Lib. 5. Pag. 135 Notes for div A19460-e13000 Col. 2.10 . Ioh. 14.19 . Gal. 2.20 , Lib. 5. pag. 176. Lib. 2. de Sacr● . cap. 1. Eccle. ● . 2. Sam. 9. 1. Sam. 6. Notes for div A19460-e13270 Hook-booke . 5 pag. 244. Plin. hist. natur . lib. 12. cap. 14. Philo. Iud. Lib. 4. biblio . Hook. lib. 5. pag. 190. Booke 5. pag. 61. Psal. 149. Reuel . 15.6 . Mark. 16.5 . Act. 1.10 . Io the Letter . pag. 37 , lin . 2. Lib. 5 Pag. 71 Hook ▪ lib ▪ 5. pag. 154.155 . Hook. lib. 5. pag. 160. Hook. lib. 5. pag. 261 Notes for div A19460-e13910 Aliud est virtutem habere , aliud nihil nisi virtutem habere . Ber. He preached yearly 286. sermons , he read 186. lectures euery yeare . 2. King. 18.3 Defence of the Apol. 2. part . pag. 149. 〈◊〉 . 12. of Nouember . 1557 13. Nouemb. 1561. 19. Feb. 1560. Aetas praesēs corrigitur dum praeterita suis meritis obiurgatur . Gregor . In the parliament . 29. martii . 1585. the Q. oration . T.C. lib. 1. pa. 97 Eccles. 10.1 . Notes for div A19460-e14520 In the letter pag. 43. In your letter pag. 35. lin . 29. Cranmer , Luther . Lib. 10. cap. 11. In lib. de arte metr . nobilissim 〈◊〉 Hispanorum Scholasticum . In Com. Epist. ad Ti●um . Ann. 1130. Sixt. Sin , bib . Sanct. lib. 3. pag. 180. Pons vita . Moritur ▪ ae●at . 48. ●n . Dom. 1274. R●uel . 8.10 . Ob. 1. 1. Cor. 2.14 . Rom. 1.2 . Act. 25.19 Act. 26.24 . 1. Cor. 2.24 . Ob. 2. Col. 2.8 . Sol. Ob. 3. Sol. Ob. 4. Sol. Act● 7.22 . Dan. 1.17 . 1. King. 4.29.30 ▪ Act. 22.3 . In your letter . pag. 43. Eccle. 39.1.2.3 verse . 11 Notes for div A19460-e15350 Sepia a Cuttle . 〈◊〉 36. hist Pag. 4. lin . 3. Pag. 46. lin . 4. Pag. 46. The L. Keeper . Querimonia Ecclesiae . A Booke of Scotizing and Geneuatizing . 
A85386	----	Calumny arraign'd and cast. Or A briefe answer to some extravagant and rank passages, lately fallen from the pen of William Prynne, Esquire, in a late discourse, entituled, Truth triumphing over falshood, &c. against Mr John Goodwin, Minister of the Gospel. Wherein the loyall, unfeigned and unstained affection of the said John Goodwin to the Parliament, and civill magistracie, is irrefragably and fully vindicated and asserted against those broad and unchristian imputations, most untruly suggested in the said discourse against him. By the said John Goodvvin. Licensed entered and printed according to order. Goodwin, John, 1594?-1665. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A85386 of text R12923 in the English Short Title Catalog (Thomason E26_18). 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This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A85386) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 111442) Images scanned from microfilm: (Thomason Tracts ; 5:E26[18]) Calumny arraign'd and cast. Or A briefe answer to some extravagant and rank passages, lately fallen from the pen of William Prynne, Esquire, in a late discourse, entituled, Truth triumphing over falshood, &c. against Mr John Goodwin, Minister of the Gospel. Wherein the loyall, unfeigned and unstained affection of the said John Goodwin to the Parliament, and civill magistracie, is irrefragably and fully vindicated and asserted against those broad and unchristian imputations, most untruly suggested in the said discourse against him. By the said John Goodvvin. Licensed entered and printed according to order. Goodwin, John, 1594?-1665. [8], 55, [1] p. Printed by M. Simmons for Henry Overton, and are to be sold at his shop in Popes-head-Alley, London : 1645. Initial leaf is blank. Annotation on Thomason copy: "Jan: 31st"; the 5 in imprint date is crossed out and altered to 1644. Reproduction of the original in the British Library. eng Prynne, William, 1600-1669. -- Truth triumphing over falshood, antiquity over novelty. Puritans -- Controversial literature -- Early works to 1800. A85386 R12923 (Thomason E26_18). civilwar no Calumny arraign'd and cast. Or A briefe answer to some extravagant and rank passages, lately fallen from the pen of William Prynne, Esquire, Goodwin, John 1645 29120 6 40 0 0 0 0 16 C The rate of 16 defects per 10,000 words puts this text in the C category of texts with between 10 and 35 defects per 10,000 words. 2007-09 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2007-11 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2008-06 John Pas Sampled and proofread 2008-06 John Pas Text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-09 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion CALUMNY ARRAIGN'D AND CAST . OR A Briefe Answer to some extravagant and rank passages , lately fallen from the pen of WILLIAM PRYNNE , Esquire , in a late Discourse , entituled , Truth Triumphing over Falshood , &c. against Mr John Goodwin , Minister of the Gospel . Wherein the loyall , unfeigned and unstained affection of the said John Goodwin to the Parliament , and Civill Magistracie , is irrefragably and fully vindicated and asserted against those broad and unchristian imputations , most untruly suggested in the said Discourse against him . By the said JOHN GOODVVIN . Psal. 56. 5. Every day they wrest my words : all their thoughts are against me for evill . Psal. 120. 2. Deliver my soule , O Lord , from lying lips , and from a deceitfull tongue . Gal. 3. 4. Have yee suffered so many things in vaine ? if yet it be in vaine . Praeceptum trahit praeceptum , & transgressio trahit transgressionem . Dictum Hebraeorum . ex Mercero in Prov. 22. 4. Apologiae nullas aures inveniunt : calumniae omnes praeoccupant . Oecolam . Epist. Licensed Entered and Printed according to Order . LONDON ; Printed by M. Simmons for Henry Overton , and are to be sold at his Shop in Popes-head-Alley . 1645. TO THE READER . READER ; MY businesse with thee ( at present ) is not much . Onely upon occasion of those passages of my Antagonist , replied unto in the following Discourse , I could not without breach of dutie , but administer this Preservative unto thee against the danger of very many writings on that side ; that if thou beleevest them , especially in what they present concerning either the persons or opinions of their Adversaries , without strict examination , thou art like to imbrace nubem pro Junone , and to match thy understanding with untruth . Which kind of marriage oft-times and in many cases , proves of as sad and unhappie consequence unto men , as Ahabs joyning himself in this relation with Jezabel did unto him ; concerning whom the sacred Record avoucheth this ; That there was none like Ahab , who did sell himself to work wickednesse in the sight of the Lord , whom Jezabel his wise provoked a . Errors and misprisions concerning the persons , practises , and opinions of men , having taken the fancies and imaginations of some men , many times work them into very uncouth , violent , unseemly , and unchristian distempers , which makes them out of measure forgetfull of themselves , and of all rules of reason , equitie , and good conscience , in their representations of , and contestations against both the one and the other . Especially when the speciall and particular points of difference between them and others , are of a difficult eviction and clearing on their parts , the resentment hereof is a sore temptation upon them to make many a voyage beyond the line of Truth , to fetch Apes and Peacocks , and I know not what monsters both of practises and opinions to bestow upon them ; that so the uncontroverted disparagement which they hope to derive upon their opposites by such imputations as these , may help to mediate the like disparagement of their judgements in those other matters of difference , in the thoughts and minds of men . Nor doth an Accuser ( ordinarily ) open his mouth to that widenesse , or lift up his voyce to that strength and straine of clamour , when he can come by any thing that is reall and matter of truth , to make his accusation , as when he is constrained to serve his disposition in that kinde , with that which is fictitious , and pretended onely . The Jews that sought the suppression and ruine of our Saviour , not being able to prove any thing of reall demerit against him ( for Pilate himself knew well that they had delivered him out of envie a ) thought to fill up the emptinesse of their cause or accusation , with the abundant loudnesse and importunitie of their clamour and cry : But they CRYED , AWAY WITH HIM , AWAY WITH HIM : crucifie him . And in another place , because they could not with truth reprove him of any sin b ; being put upon it to feigne , they did it to purpose , and charged him with being a Samaritan and having a Devill c . Who would have thought that the Gentleman ( my Antagonist in the ensuing pages ) or A. S. the Duplicator against M. S. and some others of the same engagement , that I could name , would ever have sought protection for the cause they desire to maintaine , at those polluted Sanctuaries of untruth ! If our opinions know not how to maintaine themselves and live , without the undue disparagement , or collaterall impeachment of those who are of opposite judgement to us therein , it is a sore testimony against them , that they are but counterfeits , and not of the royall line and race of Truth ; who is able to maintaine all her legitimate off-spring , with her owne demeans , and native inheritance , without the unjust taxations of the reputation , practises , or opinions of her Adversaries . Till the Sons of Difference in matters controversiall , give over all wresting ( at least , all wilfull wresting ) and perverting of the sayings , doings , and opinions of their opposites , and catching at impertinencies and lighter oversights , and lie close in their reasonings to the points in difference ; they will never doe any great matter , either for the truth , or for their owne Repute , amongst sober and advised men . This briefe advertisement I thought needfull to impart unto thee ; and if thou hast the taste and relish of it in thy spirit , I have nothing by way of transaction further with thee ( for the present ) but onely to expresse my desires unto God on thy behalf , that the perusall of the little piece ensuing , may either make or keepe thy thoughts streight concerning the man , ( a friend of thine , who ever thou beest ) whom thou shalt finde fiercely accused , and yet ( I hope ) sufficiently ( though calmely ) acquitted therein . It is a speciall grace of GOD vouchsafed unto thee , to be preserved , from making that crooked , which he hath made streight . From my Study in Colemanstreet . London . Jan. 30. 1644. Thine in Him who is our all in all , JOHN GOODVVIN . Faults escaped in some Copies . PAg. 5. l. 24. for , confidence , r. confidence . Pag. 18. l. 24. for , rerum , r. reum . Ibidem . l. 30. for , contemned , r. continued . Pag. 28. l. 6. for , rf , r. of . Pag. 32. l. 30. for , right , r. Law . Pag. 35. l. 18. for , declare , r. decline . Pag. 39. l. 15. for , not onely , r. not onely not . Pag. 42. l. 13. for , shacking , r , sharking . Pag. 44. l. 31. for , commodious , r. commodiously . Pag. 46. l. 20. for , yet ( and , r. ( and yet . CALUMNY ARRAIGN'D AND CAST . SInce the finishing of my lately publish'd a Discourse , my Antagonist having ( as it seems by his own expression b ) sacrificed the necessary naturall rest of his body , upon the service of the un-necessary and violent restlesnesse of his spirit , hath thereby gotten the opportunitie of doing very good service to the way of Independencie ( so called ) by sending forth a Discourse into the world , intituled Truth triumphing over Falshood ; i. ( by the figure Hypallage ) Falshood triumphing over Truth : For whereas the weight of his credit and reputation before lay somewhat heavy upon the shoulder of Independencie , and oppressed it ; by the unchristian extravagancie and impertinencie of this Discourse , he hath so farre eas'd and reduced the burthensomnesse of it , that it may now be endured and borne without much detriment or disadvantage . And doubtlesse , Divine providence was above him in drawing this acknowledgement and confession from him , that these Collections or Lucubrations of his are distracted c and impotent d : Distracted they are in point of argument or reason ; Impotent , in point of heat , height , and passion . Or did we wave his own confession of the distractednesse of them , his expectation of such preferment for them as the satisfaction of the learned e , yea , and conviction of all the world f , were a demonstration , and that à priori , of such a {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , or affection cleaving to them . For can any man , with any consistency of Reason , expect or think , that learned men , who have risen early , and gone to bed late , bestowed much time and paines to inquire out the truth and certainty of what they hold and professe , should yet be so desultorie and light in their judgements , as by a few indigested , nocturnall a , subitane b , impotent c collections and lucubrations to be turned out of their way ; especially when the Collector makes no more conscience of speaking truth in matters of fact and of the most obvious and easie cognizance , then Mr. Prynne in many passages doth in these his lucubrations ? Doth he think that the elaborate and long-studied notions and apprehensions of learned men , are of no better use or worth , then onely to adorn the trophies and triumphs of his extemporanie pen ? If he expected such obsequiousnesse of Faith from the judgements of learned men to his subitane and indigested collections , in matters of more difficultie and weight , his method had been to have laid the foundation of such credence , by speaking Truth in those things , which are every mans inquirie and cognizance , and wherein the miscarriage of his pen is obvious unto all . For he that hath not so much policie as in parvis sibi fidem praestruere , will never get an opportunitie magnâ mercede fallendi . And he that will not deale honestly in the light , who will trust in the dark ? I shall not ( for the present ) insist upon the refutation of those twelve imputations in his Epistle to the Reader , wherewith he labours to render the Independents odious ; all and every of which , ( except the fift ) are every whit as appliable ( as I am able to demonstrate in the sight of the Sunne ) to his partie , as to the Independents , and some of them with farre more truth to the former , then to the latter . And for that inference which he deduceth from the fift particular there charged upon the Independents ( which is the sting of the charge ) as viz. that denying there is any Nationall Church under the New Testament , they must of necessitie deny one Article of their Creede , That there is a Catholique Church ; This Collection ( I say ) is so impotent and undigested , that he that runs may reade Non sequitur written in the face of it . Nor secondly , do I intend to unbinde or meddle with that farrago , that bundle of blind learning ; I mean , those transcriptions and quotations , fetch'd many ( if not most ) of them , out of the darkest times of Popery , ( as himself somewhere doth little lesse then confesse ) d which are the bulkie and unweildie part of his discourse : For , What communion hath light with darknesse ? old obsolete , exolete Records , fetch'd out of the darkest times of Popery , are no Vrim and Thummim , no Oracles to be consulted about the mind of Jesus Christ ; no competent Judges or Interpreters of the Lawes and Statutes of Heaven . The saying of Cyprian is seasonable upon this occasion : This is not to be esteemed true Antiquity to understand , quid hic aut ille ante nos fecerit , aut docuerit , sed quid is qui ante omnes est Christus , &c. i. what this or that man did or taught before us , but what hee did and taught who was before all , even Christ himselfe , who only is the way , the Truth , and the life , from whose precepts we ought not to digresse a . And besides , if Mr Prynnes hand was no steadier , in transcribing these old matters , then it hath been in some things of later date concerning me , his Antiquity it self may have cause enough to complain of being perverted into noveltie . Nor thirdly , shall I thrust my sickle into my brother Burtons harvest ; but leave the latter part of the Discourse unto him , either to neglect , or answer , as God shall direct him . But fourthly , ( and lastly ) I shall briefly acquaint the Reader , how unworthily my Antagonist hath dealt by me , ( that I say not by himself , and his own Reputation ) first , by assertion of untruths ; secondly , by cruell and unreasonable wrestings and torturing of my words , to make them speak what they never meant ; thirdly , ( and lastly ) by slight and empty replies to things asserted and laid down by me . For the first , he cites my two Sermons ( intituled Theomachia ) and my Innocencies Triumph , as denying ( hee means disswading ) all opposition in word , deed , or thought against the Way of Independency , as a direct fighting against God b ; which is a most notorious untruth ; all that I drive at in these Discourses , is to disswade men from opposing this Way with an high hand , lest in so doing , men should fight against God : there is no such assertion as this which Mr Pryn chargeth upon me , nor any neer it , or like unto it , in either of those Tracts . I no where affirm , all opposition to this Way , whether in word , deed , or thought , to be a direct fighting against God . Nay , p. 12. of my Theomachia , I affirm the quite contrary , viz. that it is not every degree or kinde of opposing a Way or Doctrine which is from God , which either the Text or the Doctrine calleth a fighting against God ; but only such an opposing which is peremptory , and carried on with an high hand , &c. 2. He cites my Sermon , preached Febr. 25. 1643. My Theomachia and Innocencies Triumph , as holding forth this Position , That every particular Congregation of visible Saints , and Independent Church , is under the Government of Christ alone , as the ONLY Head , King , Governour , Law-giver of it ; and subject to NO OTHER JURISDICTION , then that of Christ , his Word and Spirit , &c. a Which conclusion , though generally held and maintained by Protestants against Papists ; and in that respect I need neither be afraid , nor ashamed to own it ; yet if hee can find , or make out with any tolerable construction of words and saying , of any , or all of those pieces of mine which he chargeth with it , let Mr Pryn be true , and me the lier . But if otherwise , currat lex , &c. 3. He chargeth me with affirming ( in the fore-mentioned Sermon ) that it would be more easie for me , and I should rather yeeld to be torn in pieces by wild horses , then submit to such a Government which proceeded from a Parliament chosen by the Riffe-raffe of the world , b &c. Never was there an innocent and harmlesse expression more cruelly and despitefully handled , since the world was first haunted with a spirit of unrighteousnesse and untruth . The passage of mine , represented by Mr Prynne , as you have heard , was only this ( I shall go as neer the very words as my best memory will lead mee ; but the effect and substance of the saying I perfectly remember ) It were as easie for mee to be torn in pieces by wild horses , as to submit to any Church-government whatsoever , which is not agreeable to the Scriptures , and minde of Christ . But to deny subjection unto a Government which should proceed from a Parliament , because chosen by the Riffe-raffe of the world ( which terms I mean the Riffe-raffe of the world , are suppositious too , and none of mine ) was so far from my thoughts in that Sermon , that I expresly declared , and said ( as severall of those that were examined about the Sermon before the Committee , there testified , and I nothing doubt , but to this day , do perfectly remember the saying ) that as a Church-government was not therefore to be received or submitted unto , because it is injoyn'd by men ; so neither is it therefore to be rejected , because it is commanded by men . 4. He cites the fore-mentioned Sermons ( called Theomachia ) as holding forth this assertion , p. 48 , 49 , 50. that perchance all , or the greatest part of the Parliament and Assembly are not indued with the sanctifying Spirit of God , c &c. If there be so much as the least hint or insinuation of any such matter in any , in all of those pages , I shall mistrust either my eyes , or my sensus communis for ever . But if it be otherwise , Mr. Prynnes tongue and pen ( as well they deserve ) are like to beare the burthen of this my diffidence . 5. Hee cites the prementioned , Theomachia , with my two books since , for crying up the Independent Way , as the very Government , Discipline , Kingdome and Ordinance and Christ himself , a &c. whereas , First , since the coming out of my Theomachia , I had put forth only one book ( and that a very small one too , and which the violent and mercilesse proceedings of himself against mee , extorted from me , ) when this was affirmed and printed by him . And secondly , there is no such cry , as that wch his fancie is troubled with , to be heard throughout either the one of those books , or the other . So that here is a double notorious untruth in this quotation : 1. that I had set forth two books , since my Theomachia : 2. that in these two , as also in my Theomachia , I cryed up the Independent Way , as the very Government , Discipline , Kingdome and Ordinance of Christ . 6. Whereas hee avers , that pending the complaint against me before the Committee for plundered Ministers , for some Antiparliamentary passages ( so called by him ) with other particulars , I justified the said passages again very unseasonably in the Pulpit on a solemn first day , and likewise in two printed books , to the one whereof I prefixed my name b ; the truth is , first , that ( if my memory serves me not as ill as Mr. Prynnes confidence serveth him ) I never justified , nor medled with those passages he speaks of in the Pulpit , either on any solemn fast day , or any other , within that compasse he speaks of : nor secondly , had I justified them in two books , when Mr. Pryns pen avouched it , though by this time it may be interpreted that I have ; nor thirdly , have I put forth any book since , to which I have not prefixed my name ; or at least suffixed it to an Epistle , if not at large , yet by the initiall letters of it . Therefore if Mr. Pryn implies , that I have published any book within the time hee speaks of , which I do not publikely own , he is implicated with a further untruth in such his implication . 7. Whereas he affirms ( with no want of confidence ) that hee hath elsewhere answered , and fully refuted c the passagers aforesaid ; what truth there is in this affirmation , let my last Discourse d testifie . He hath answered those passages of mine he speaks of , much in such a sense , and after such a manner , as Mr. Walker and Mr. Roburrough , have answered my Socinian errors : which Answers hee adviseth his Reader to see ( p. 109. in the margent ) but tells him not where they are to be seen . 8. Whereas he chargeth me in my Innocencies Triumph ( quarrelling with the very title , as if it were unfit , and he unwilling that Innocency should triumph ) with denying those very matters of fact which I voluntarily confessed in his hearing before the Committee a , for which I was sequestred ; the truth is , that there is no truth at all in this his allegation or charge . For , first , I am certain , that Jesus Christ was present at the Committee , as well as Mr. Prynne ; and certain I am that in his hearing ( which is every whit as good as Mr. Pryns ) I confessed nothing there , which is denyed by me in my Innocencies Triumph . I neither confessed that I neglected my parishioners , nor that I seldome preached unto them , nor that I prescribe a Covenant to my Independent Congregation , with in stead of my parishioners I have gathered to my self , before they be admitted ; nor that I receive tithes of my parishioners in any other way , or after any other manner , then as I declare and expresse in my said book . If I had confessed any of these things , either before the Committee , or any others , I had been of Mr. Prynnes confederacie against mine own innocencie , and the truth . But what I did confesse before the Committee , I confesse as plainly in my Innocencies Triumph ; as viz. first , that I had refused to baptize some children of my parishioners b . Secondly , that I had not administred the Sacrament to my Parish for some moneths c . Again , secondly , whereas he saith that I was sequestred d by the Committee , for the matters before mentioned , and denyed by mee in my Innocencies Triumph , in this hee asperseth the honourable Committee every whit as much ( if not more ) then mee . For ( doubtlesse ) it no way stands with their honour to sequester a man for that which was never done by him . Nor thirdly , do I know whether I may take Mr. Prynnes word ( it is now grown so unstable ) that I am suspended , censured , or sequestred by the Committee , either for the one thing , or the other ; and besides , a friend of mine , inquiring of some that are Members of the said Committee concerning that suspension or sequestration which Mr. Prynne speaks of , received this answer from them , that they knew no such thing . I suppose it is not ordinary , that a sentence or censure should passe in a Court of Justice against any man , and hee not to have any knowledge of it for severall moneths together : but if it be so , Gods will , and Mr. Prynnes wish , ( Fiat Justitia ) in Mr. Prynnes sense , are fulfilled together . 9. He is not ashamed to avouch , that I publish my brain-sick jealousies and suspicions of the Parliament behind their backs in open Pulpit , and then to the whole world in print ( a strange misdemeanor indeed , and more monstrous and incredible , then ever committed by the VERY Pope or Turk himself , or the great Antichrist , or the Arch-Prelate , or Oxford Aulicus , or the most venemous Malignant , that a man should doe that behind mens back , which he doth in print to the whole world ) of purpose to make my Auditors , Readers , jealous of them , as men who invaded the very incommunicable royalties and priviledges of Heaven a : Whereas the God of Heaven , who knows my purpose and intent in those passages ( as in all my actions besides ) much better then Mr. Prynne knows the contrary ; and that my purpose therein was singly and simply , and with all faithfulnesse , as becomes a Minister of Jesus Christ , to caution those worthy persons of honor and trust , against that snare of sinning against God , into which great places of power and interest in the world are apt to lead men before they are aware . 10. He chargeth my late Sermons and Pamphlets to have kindled such unhappie flames of contention in our Church and State , as all the teares of Repentance which I may shed , will not be sufficient to quench . For my part I know of no such , I heare of no such , I know no cause why I should imagine that any such unhappie flames as he speaks of , should be kindled by any of my Sermons or writings . I have much more reason to conceive and think , that Mr. Prynnes writings charge mine with kindling flames of contention , much after the same manner , and upon the same terms , that one charged Eliah with being the troubler of Israel b : and that mine may recharge his , as the Prophet did that King c . 11. Whereas he further chargeth me , that in my Innocencies Triumph , I slander the Parliament more then before , and shew my self a man despising Government ( at least any Church-Government the Parliament shall establish not sutable to my fancy ) self-willed , and even speaking evill of Dignities , &c. d ; The truth is , that there is far more slander in the charge , then in the crime : the best is , that that book is open before the world , to see and judge whether therebe , I doe not say any aspersion of slander , but so much as the least touch or tincture of any thing dishonourable to the Parliament , or to any Government or Dignitie whatsoever , because not sutable to my fancie . 12. Whereas he insinuates a guilt upon me of Socinian errors a , and in his margent invites his Reader to see Mr. Walkers and Mr. Roburroughs answers to them ; the truth is , that in the Answers he speaks of , his Reader may see and finde mistakes of my opinion , and confutations of those mistakes , as substantially managed as want of apprehension of my thoughts , and somewhat else , was able to manage such an enterprize : but for any Socinian errors of mine , they are onely to be seene in such books as were never written : and then where the Answers to them are to be seene , remaines yet as matter of further inquirie for Mr. Prynne . For the second head propounded , the unreasonable wresting , torturing , and tormenting of my words , I shall chiefly insist upon his paraphrase upon that passage , recited ( in part ) by him , p. 107. ( but mis-cited in the margent , as touching the page , where it stands in my book ) . The tenor of the Passage in this ; If I have denyed the least dram or scruple of that power which is truly Parliamentary , and consistent with the word of the great and glorious God ( of which misdemeanor I am not in the least measure conscious unto my self as yet ) I most seriously and solemnly professe in the presence of this God ( my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost that I lie not ) that I did it out of a loving , tender and affectionate jealousie over the Parliament , lest possibly they might dash their foote against that stone , by which all Rule and all Authoritie and power will one day be broken in pieces . So that if either my tongue or pen have in the least miscarried , it was , Error amoris , not amor erroris , &c. You have heard the text : and if you have any mind to see darknesse brought out of light , hearken to the Interpretation . But good Sir ( saith this Intepreter , one , I may say of twentie thousand ) can any rationall man think ( though you should protest it ten thousand times over ) that such Anti-Parliamentary passages as yours are , should proceed from your love to the Parliament ? Suppose the passages he speaks of were Anti-Parliaentary ( an aspersion I conceive fully attoned in the foregoing discourse ) yet is it so highly irrationall to conceive they should proceed from love to the Parliament , ( especially upon ten thousand Affidavits made for it ) that it must be made matter of a doubtfull disputation , whether it be possible for a rationall man so to think or conceive ? Did Mr. Prynne never heare of a veine of people , who did bona animo malè precaris , wish that which was hurtfull to their friends , out of good affection towards them ? Seneca ( I am certain ) speaks of such . And God himself is said to have testified things against his people ( as the former English translation , and Junius out of the Originall reads the place , Gen. 32. 46. ) Cannot a rationall man conceive that these things might proceed from love and good affection in God towards this people , because they were against them ? I cannot but think that Mr. Prynne himself hath been Anti-Parliamentary , I meane , hath done some things , ( if not many ) in their natures at least , if not in their fruits and effects , prejudiciall to the honour and safety of the Parliament , as ( by name ) in representing their cordiall Friends ( as sometimes his conscience , or something else prevailes with him to call them a ) unto them as dis-affected unto them , and as acting , and that successively against their jurisdiction more desperately then the worst Malignant , Royalist , Cavalier , on the Arch-Prelate himself b ) . Doubtlesse , such a practise as this , is in the nature and tendency of it very disserviceable to the Parliament ; as making sad ( and so indisposing ) the hearts of those , whose inclinations otherwise stand ready bent with all chearfulness , to serve the Parliament with all their strength and all their power , as ( blessed be God ) they are resolved to doe ; after the example of Christ , who continued still to cast out Devils , though represented by the Pharisees unto the people , as dealing by Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils , in casting them out . Compare Mat. 9. 34. with Mat. 12. 22. &c. So againe by representing unto them as peaceable , innocent and harmlesse a generation of men , as the land beares any , yea , persons as deeply and dearly devoted unto , of as high and honourable endeavours to promote the publick peace both of Church and State , as those that are extremely derogatory and destructive unto both , yea , and great disturbers of our Peace and unitie c . Yet againe when he infuseth such notions and principles into Kings , Magistrates , highest civill powers , as this , that Christ hath delegated his Kingly power unto them , &c. d . he spreads snares of death in their way , and tempts them to think higher thoughts of themselves then He that is higher then the highest of them will beare . Now however in these and severall other things of like consideration ( which are ready too for instance ) I absolutely conceive him to be very whit ( yea , and much more ) Anti-Parliamentarie , then ever I have been in any passages whatsoever , whether from my tongue or pen ; yet doe I not think but that I may very lawfully , and without trespassing upon the reputation of my reason , conceive and think , that he did both the one and the other of the things mentioned , out of love to the Parliament . Secondly , The honey of the foresaid passage , by reason of an ill digestion in his stomach , breeds this cholerick argumentation : If this proceeded from such affectionate jealousie over the Parliament , I pray what made you so strangely , if not malignantly , jealous over them , as to feare and presume they might dash their foote against that stone , which , &c. Good Sir , let me seriously intreat you to be more jealous over your pen for the time to come , and see to it , that in repeating and arguing mens words and sayings , it deale more honestly , then to adulterate and imbase them , as you doe both here and elsewhere in this discourse . Doe I anywhere say that either I feare , or presume the Parliament might dash their foote against the stone spoken of ? Why then doe you represent me so strangely , if not malignantly , jealous over them , as to do both , both feare and presume ? I confesse , I should be very strangely jealous , or ( however ) very strangely affected in one kinde or other , both to feare and presume in respect of one and the same thing , as you feare not , but presume to say here that I doe . You find out I know not how many significations ( I beleeve more then ever any man did before you ) of the word Presume , p. 109. to salve the reputation of your pen in charging me to have done that presumtuously , which I never did at all , or at most very ignorantly ; but is there any one amongst them all , that is able to reconcile PRESVMPTION and FEARE , and make them draw together in the same yoke ? But this by the way . Onely this I desire you would candidly account unto me , why you translate my expression , Lest possibly they might dash , by fearing and presuming they might dash . I beseech you deale ingenously with your self and me : is there not farre more malignancie in the interpretation , then in the text ? or did you not straine the roote overhard , to make such an extraction as this out of it ? Nay , out of the vehemencie of your intention to make an unchristian advantage of your Brothers words , did you not almost forget the proprietie of your owne ? I conceive I should speak much beneath the line of Mr. Prynnes reputation for a Scholar , if I should expresse my self thus ; I feare and presume that Mr. Prynne might doe that which is very possible for any man to doe . An English care any thing well palated , would find no pleasant taste in such words . But let us give Mr. Prynne the libertie of an Interpreter or Translator , who is not bound Verbum verbo reddere a , and accept of his substitues , presumption and feare ; is either a feare , or a presumption ( or both ) that a Parliament might , or may , dash their foote against that stone I speak of , any demonstration or argument at all of so strange a jealousie as he speaks of , and which he is at a stand with himself , whether he should not call malignant ? If any of the other Apostles had feared or presumed , that Peter possibly might fall ( as he did ) by denying his Master , ( as they had reason enough to have done , in respect of that humane frailtie whereof the best men are partakers , and Peter himself was with the rest ) and had dealt lovingly and faithfully with him to have kept him upright , by caution , counsell , or advice ; had this been any argument at all , or so much as a colour of any such jealousie in them , which should have carried in it any touch of malignancie towards him ? When Paul feared in the behalf of the Corinthians , Lest by any means , as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtiltie , so their minds should be corrupted from the simplicitie that is in Christ b ; was this so strange a jealousie over them ? Indeed himself calls it a godly jealousie c : and in such a sense , as godlinesse is strange d in the world , let Mr. Prynne vote my jealousie over the Parliament , STRANGE ; and then he shall be eas'd of his scruple , whether he should call it malignant , or no . But jacta alea est ; and he intends not to make a stand here , but advanceth thus . Did the Parliament ever give you the least colour or occasion of such uncharitable , unchristian , that I say not detestable , jealousie ? Could you have harder or more jealous thoughts then these of the very Pope or Turk himself , or of that Great Antichrist , who exalts himself above all that is called God ? Can such jealousies as these issue from any , but from a rancorous or dis-affected heart towards the Parliament ? or did ever such execrable jealousies as these proceed from the heart , tongue , much lesse the pen of any Oxford Aulicus , or most venomous Malignant to our Parliament ? The straine of eloquence in these passages , may be thought above the line of Mr. Prynnes Rhetorique ; nor can I beleeve but that he had some supernaturall assistance in the raising and composure of them . And therefore whereas others ( it 's like ) will be apt to censure him more for a few such lines as these , then for many others of a softer temper , and more plausible allay ; I on the contrary , can better beare with him in these , and be content to passe by and spare him , as our Saviour spared Peter , when he rebuked Satan in his stead a . But did I know that Mr. Prynne would not accept of this purgation , but when recovered out of that Tartarean Ecstasie , wherein he spake this dialect of Dragons , would still stand by and owne those ebullitions of bloud , as the naturall and genuine productions and fruit of his pen ; I should hardly refraine from taking a solemne vow and protestation upon me in the sight of God , Angels , and men , never more to have to doe with him in word or deed , at least untill he repented , and turn'd Christian . Well might the Apostle Paul pray to be delivered from unreasonable men b : They that neither make use of their reason nor goodnesse , ( or charitie ) dwell in such a darkness which is inaccessible to all principles both of Nature and Grace . For the present , though I think it not meet for me so far to vvi my self of my libertie to comply with such opportunities from Heaven , which may possibly and unexpectedly come in my way , as absolutely to abjure all commerce with him by pen ; yet this I professe , that I am as neere the brow of such a resolution , as ever I can goe without falling into it . From henceforth I shall give Mr. Prynne leave to write stormes and tempests , whirlwinds and earth-quakes , thundering and lightning , mill-stones and mountains , ( or if his pen knows how to utter it self in any thing more formidable then these ) better cheap , then hitherto I have done : I see there is no mercy with him ; and therefore I shall not feare him ; no , nor in the mind I am in for the present , ever look after him in his writings more , this answer finished . But to his lines ( or , whose-ever they be ) . First , Doth Mr. Prynne think that he is heire to that Laurell which was long since wreath'd for the head of Socrates , reputed in his dayes the Grand-Matter of wisdome in the world ; Tanquam umbrae velitant alii ; solus sapit iste ? Other men generally as well learned and Scholars by profession , as others , yea , even those in whose affections neither my person nor cause were any wayes interessed , gave testimony to my Innocencies Triumph ( and consequently to that passage also so cruelly handled by Mr. Prynne ) as moderately and inoffensively written : onely Mr. Prynne , as if his eyes were given him to condemne all the world besides of blindnesse , espies Bears and Tygers , Lyons and Dragons , where other men saw nothing but doves and sheep ; discovers fanatique jealousies , rancourousnesse and dis-affection of heart , execrablenesse of jealousies , Oxfordian Aulicisme , venomousnesse of malignancie , and I know not how many other strains of most portentuous and hideous outrage against the Parliament , where no man besides himself either saw or could see , any jot , tittle , letter , syllable , word , or sentence , but what both was and is of the fairest consistencie with the honour , dignity , peace and safety of the Parliament . But secondly , how irrationall and weak is that demand of his ; Did the Parliament ever give you the least colour or occasion of any such uncharitable , unchristian , that I say not detestable jealousie ? as if to feare , or think it possible that men might be men , that is , do weakly or unworthily , were an uncharitable , unchristian , detestable , execrable jealousie over them ; Or , as if there were not ground and reason enough , yea , and more then enough , in the very natures of the best and holiest of men , to judge that they may very possibly miscarry , and that dangerously , unlesse they should adde ex superabundanti , such personall irregularities , as might further presage their future falls , I wonder what Epithet or Name Mr. Prynne will find for that jealousie of an ancient Father over Kings , out of which he uttered this saying : Miror si aliquis Rex salvahitur ; I wonder that any King should ever be saved . If so be such a jealousie over them , which only conceiveth a possibility of their perishing , be uncharitable , unchristian , detestable exeorable ; of what censure is that jealousie worthy of , which makes it matter of admiration that any of them should be saved ? Considering that there hath scarce ( if at all ) been any Councel or Synod since the Apostles dayes , but which hath miscarried and heterodogmatiz'd , more or lesse ; would it be my uncharitable , unchristian , detestable , execrable jealousie over any Synod or Councel now fitting , to think that they also might possibly miscarrie , unlesse they gave some particular and speciall occasion so to think and conceive of them ? But my Adversarie hath not yet finished his severe Commentaries upon his gentle and harmlesse Text ; his pen moves forward thus : Had you had any just cause of such a jealousie , yet it had been your duty privately to have informed your friends in Parliament with it in a Brotherly Christian way : but to publish these your brain-sick jealousies of them behinde their backs in open Pulpit , and then to the whole world in print , of purpose to make your Auditors , Readers , jealous of them , as those who invaded the incommunicable Royalties and Priviledges of Heaven , &c. — or to defame or draw an odium or contempt upon them , and prepare the people beforehand to oppose or reject whatsoever Church-government they shall establish , &c. — is such a transcendent crime and high affront against the Parliament , as you are never able to expiate : and is so far from extenieating , that it aggravates your former offences beyond expression . I answer , first , that howsoever by reason of my yeeres , profession , and tenour of studies , it is ( I confesse ) a shame to me , that I should not be as able to teach Mr. Prynne his duty , as ( it seems ) he is to teach mee mine ; yet glad and willing shall I be to receive instruction , were it from a far meaner hand then Mr. Prynnes , in any thing that becomes me in a way of dutie to do . But , Secondly , whereas the tenour of his Instruction to me is this , that it had been my duty privately to have informed my friends in Parliament with it in a Christian Brotherly way ; I perceive hee hath heard of dealing with his friends in a Way which well becomes him , as well as it doth mee ; I mean , that which is Christian and Brotherly . But it seems , hee that teacheth another , doth not alwayes teach himself . For since the mountains were brought forth a and settled b , it may very probably be thought , that there was never any son of Adam , whose pen made a broader digression from that Christian Brotherly way he speaks of , then his own . For look as low as the Earth is beneath the heavens ; so far is Mr. Prynnes Way of dealing with his friends , beneath that which is Christian and Brotherly . Thirdly , whereas he conceives it had been my duty to have informed my friends privately of what I preached and printed publikely in the premisses ; I conceive it had been his duty to have understood himself better in the point , before hee had taken the Chaire . For first , the greatest part of the things which I either preached or printed in the premisses , concern'd only or chiefly those to whom I preach'd , and the generalitie of men to whom I printed , not the Parliament . That it is a terrible and most dreadfull thing for men to be found fighters against God , that it is better and more righteous to obey God then men ; that men in great places , men of great parts , learning , and Grace , may possibly erre , and de facto have err'd from time to time , with some few particulars more of like consideration ( which are the substance of what was either preached or printed by mee in the premisses ) are Doctrines of equall ( if not of superiour ) concernment to the generalitie of the people , with the Parliament . As for that passage in my Innocencies Triumph , wherein I mention my tender and affectionate jealousie over the Parliament , &c. ( the passage so tenter'd , tortur'd and tormented by the evill spirit which so much haunts Mr. Prynnes pen ) it was occasioned ( indeed necessitated ) by his own most unreasonable , bloody , and importune suggestions , clamours and instigations of authoritie against mee : in regard of which I had no other course but to give a faire and reall account out of what principle and motive ( in reference to the Parliament ) I spake such and such things , which were most unchristianly handled and misused by his pen . Now then to whisper those things in the eares only of a few , the knowledge whereof concernes so many thousands , is not the duty , but an high prevarication of the duty of a Minister of Jesus Christ . Secondly , neither doth he know whether the Doctrines so much questioned and quarrelled by him , did , or do so particularly concern my friends in Parliament ( by my friends , I suppose hee means my acquaintance : for otherwise I trust the whole number of that honourable Assembly are my friends ; at least I know no cause but why they should ) as many other members of this Assembly . If so , his ignorance in such a circumstance as this , plainly proves that he hath here prophesied above the analogie or proportion of his Faith a ; and consequently , ( even in his own notion of the word b ) hath done it PRESVMPTVOVSLY . Yea , thirdly , how doth he know but that I did prevent the admonition or reproof of his pen , by doing the very duty , for the neglect whereof I am so deeply censured by him . I presume that my acquaintance in the Parliament have not communicated unto him all things that have passed between me and them ; therefore his ignorance in this particular also , proves him ( according to the responsall of his own Oracle , even now intimated ) to have been somewhat PRESVMPTVOVS in his charge of neglect of Duty in mee . Fourthly , and lastly , there being nothing in the particulars excepted against , either preached or printed by mee , which in the judgement of any indifferent or Christian-spirited man , is of any hard or disparaging reflexion either upon any particular person in the honourable Assembly of Parliament , or upon this Assembly it self , there could be nothing in the publishing of them , whether by preaching or printing , any wayes repugnant to any duty lying upon me . That which followes in the late transcribed passage , as that I publish my brain-sick jealousies and suspicions against them behind their backs , of purpose to make my Auditors , Readers jealous of them , as men who invaded , &c. or to defame or draw an odium or contempt upon them , to prepare the people before-hand to oppose or reject , whatsoever , &c. these things ( I say ) with many others of like calculation , both in this and many other of his writings , are but the reasonlesse presumptions of his exasperated , transported , unchristianized spirit , over-heat ( it may be ) with his nocturnall lucubrations , and in part occasioned by the fuliginous vapors breathing still upon him from his lamp ; and in this regard , I judge them unworthy to have day-light bestowed upon them for their refutation . Hee talks of my brain-sick jealousies and suspicions ; but these are more then brain-sick , even brain-dead calumniations and slanders ; ten degrees ( to speak in his own language ) more unchristian , uncharitable , detestable , execrable , then any ( even the worst of ) jealousies or suspicions whatsoever . If he would but authorize mee to reason after the rate of his Logique in raising conclusions from his premisses , I could prove ( according to the tenor of such authoritie ) that Mr. Prynne hath written against the Congregationall Way , hath represented those that walk in it as extremely derogatory and destructive both unto the Parliament and Church of Englend a , as great disturbers of our publique peace and unity b ; hath slandered them in their spirits , principles , practices , over and over c ; hath presumptuously attempted to infuse such dangerous principles as these into Kings , Magistrates , and highest civill powers , that they are Christs Substitutes , Vicars , in point of Government ( Church-government hee speaks of a ) that Christ hath delegated his Kingly power unto them b , that it may passe as tolerable , that Christ is King alone over his Churches in matters of Faith , c &c. with many others of like undue insinuation ; I could prove ( I say ) by the Commission aforesaid , that Mr. Prynne hath done all these things on purpose to despite the Spirit of God , to defame the Gospel , to make the Wayes of godlinesse and Religion hatefull unto the world , to increase divisions , to multiply distractions , to bring a snare and evill day upon the Parliament , to expose the whole Kingdome to utter ruine and destruction . Yea , the truth is , that there is a far more rationall connexion between the premises last mentioned from Mr. Pryn's pen , and such collections and conclusions as these ; then there is between those premises of mine transcribed by him , and the inferences which he extracts and deduceth from them . A man might think that the Gentleman had by this time laid out himself to a sufficient proportion , in depraving both the expressions and intentions of him , that never ( to his best knowledge ) did him the least wrong , nor ever administred the least occasion of provocation ; — Sed audi facinus majoris abollae . Your last clause ( saith he , yet further , p. 108. ) And if continued , &c. intimates and speaks , aloud without any straining that the Parliament for the present are guilty of dashing their foot against Christ the Rock : of claiming the most sacred incommunicable royalties and priviledges of heaven , and making themselves equall with God : and that if they persevere in the course they have begun ( to Reforme our Church , &c. ) it is such an high provocation against the most High , as will kindle a fire in the brest of him whose name is Jehovah ; he should have said jealous , ( but that his pen hath contracted an ill habit of stumbling ) which will consume and devoure , &c. Could all the malignant and Prelaticall party in England lay a greater , wickeder , or more unjust scandall in our Parliament then this , or more defame them then by such a false report ? enough to fire the whole Kingdome against them , as well as Gods wrath , &c. as it followeth in his most unjust and ignoble strain of Calumny . But for answer , 1. Doth a wicked or unjust scandall use to fire Gods wrath against those upon whom it is cast , and who are the sufferers . Though the sin committed be enough to kindle a fire in the brest of him whose name is jealous , against those , whosoever they be , that lie under the guilt of such a Commission ; yet is there not the least colour to imagine , that the false or scandalous imputation of it unto any , should have the like operation , in respect of those that are so scandaliz'd . He tells me of my being a meer Divine , p. 109. and a man altogether ignorant in the ancient Rights and Privileges of our Parliament , ( with how little pertinencie or advantage to his cause , shall be taken into consideration in due place . ) And by such passages as this , it seems he is every whit as meer a Lawyer as I a Divine ( and consequently of no such super-transcendent abilities neither , to discerne and judge of the Rights and Privileges of Parliament , as will be manifested in due time . ) For he that knowes not , that God is no wayes offended with men for having wicked & unjust scandals cast upon them , surely had need to be taught what are the first principles of the Oracles of God a . And 2. Whereas in the beginning of the last transcribed passage , he speakes thus , Your last clause , And if continued , &c. intimates and speakes loud without any strayning , that , &c. doth hee not seem to rejoyce , as if now he had met with a full feast , and had onely scrambled for all he had gotten and satisfied his hunger with till now ? And doth he not without any strayning , seem to imply , that all my former clauses without straining , would have spake none of those things , which now by his rackes , screws , and engines , he hath made them to speak ? So that here we have confitentem rerum : oh that we had but the Participle as well match'd as the Adjective , that is ( by interpretation ) emendantem confitentem , and then let both our bookes to the fire together , to purge out the drosse of them b . But 3. The grand unhappinesse of the man is , that what I speake onely in thesi , or in the generall throughout the whole period or passage , wherein this clause , And if contemned , &c. stands , hee here represents upon the Stage of his passion , as if it had been spoken in hypothesi , with particular and precise application to the Parliament . The whole period , though it be somewhat long , yet that the Reader may not be denied any part of his due in point of satisfaction , I shall transcribe , ab ovo usque ad mala , as it begins at the bottome of page 2. of my Innocencies Triumph . I confesse I am in the habituall and standing frame of my heart and spirit , tender and jealous over all the world , and much more over those who are deare unto me , but most of all over those who being deere unto me , are likewise more exposed then others unto the tentation and danger of the sinne ; extreamly jealous and tender ( I say ) I am over such , lest they should touch with any title , or claim the most sacred and incommunicable royalties and privileges of heaven , and so count it no robbery to make themselves equall to God ; knowing most assuredly , that this is a high provocation in the eyes of the most High , and if continued in , will kindle a fire in the breast of him whose name is Jealous , and will consume and devoure . I confesse I spake in some passages before this , of the Parliament by name ; nor doe I deny all relation between this and the former : but all the relation that can reasonably be imagined between the one and the other , will not amount so much as to a colourable justification of this high-handed and full-mouth'd charge , that the latter speaks aloud without any strayning , that the Parliament is guilty of dashing , &c. of claiming , &c. And that if , &c. These are every whit as pure and clean straines of that disposition which acted in the former part of this exposition , as any of those other which have playd before us already . And 4. Suppose the period had been perfectly Hypotheticall , and the contents of it applied to the Parliament by name , yet it is farre from speaking the dialect that Mr. Prynne would fain force into the mouth of it . He that shall represent the great evill or danger of a sinne , as suppose of oppression , drunkennesse , adultery , or the like , unto a man , in these or the like terms , Know most assuredly , that such a sinne is a most high provocation in the eyes of the most High : and then should adde , And if continued in , will kindle a fire in the breast of him whose name is Jealous , &c. doth no wayes suppose , that the person to whom such an addresse or representation is made , is under the present actuall guilt of the perpetration of such a sinne ; but onely demonstrates the dangerous and deadly consequence of it unto him , in case he shall be intangled with the guilt , and continue in the perpetration of it without repentance . Therefore Mr. Prynnes lucubration and collection , that this clause , And if continued , &c. speaks aloud without any strayning , any such Parliamentary guilt as he deciphers with his pen , is nocturnall , neither is there so much as a beam of the light of truth in it . 5. Whereas he chargeth that innocently-offending clause of mine , And if continued , &c. both to intimate and speak aloud , and that without any straining , that high misdemeanour lately mentioned , ( little lesse then capitall to him that shall avouch it ) I cannot conceive any regular consistence in the charge . For though one and the same man , who hath a liberty and power both to alter his tone and voyce , and tenour of expression , may one while only intimate , i. whisper , or expresse a thing sparingly : and otherwhile , speake it out aloud , with a full and strong voyce , ( though hardly thus without any straining at all ) yet how one and the same clause in writing , which hath neither principle nor shadow of any variation or change of expression in it , but is still uniforme and standing both in the matter which , and in the manner wherein , it speaketh , should both intimate ( or whisper ) and yet speak aloud too , one and the same thing , is a saying divided in it selfe , and which my understanding knoweth not how to make to stand . But thus , God many times makes both tongues and pens which imagine evill against others , to f●ll upon themselves a . 6. And lastly , whereas he pretends the forementioned clause , And if continued , &c. guilty of speaking aloud and without any straining , the prenamed enormitie , the truth is , that this charge speaks aloud and without any straining , that Mr. Prynne loves all devouring words b , whether they be words of sobernesse and truth c , or of another inspiration . Is it not very strange , and a miracles fellow ( at least ) if not a miracle , that Mr. Prynnes hearing should be so predominant in the world , that he alone should heare a loud s●eaking , where all the world besides could not heare the least muttering or whisper ? But when men have Brick to make , and want straw , they must bee content to gather stubble in stead of it d . The builders of Babel were fain to make use of slime in stead of mortar e . {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , were a generation of men in Plato's dayes , & the line ( it seems ) is not yet extinct . Many other passages there are in this Triumphing discourse , wherein the author doth miserable carnifice other words and passages of mine ; but Caesars image and superscription may bee seen in a peny f , as well as in a pound . But because the great Guerdon and Crown for which Mr. Prynne runnes in this and other his lucubrations against me , is to transform me into a man of a ranc●●ous and disaffected heart against Parliaments g , and to couple me with the worst Malignants , Royalists , Cavaliers , yea with the Arch-Prelate himself a ; before I leave the point in hand , I shall briefly specifie , both what , in what degree I have done , and continue yet doing from opportunitie to opportunitie , to the utmost of my power , for the Parliament : and withall solemnly professe in the sight of God and men , that if either Mr. Prynne , or any other man , can direct or say unto me , how , or what , when , or wherein I may yet doe more for them , or shew and expresse more love or affectionatenesse unto them , then I have already done , and still doe ( upon occasion ) daily ; provided onely that I may see and understand , that what shall be required of me in this kind , doth really and indeed , not in shew and pretence onely , tend to the benefit , honour and safetie of the Parliament ; I am ready and willing , and doe by these presents obliege and bind my self , Testibus Coelo & Terrâ , to performe . I have once b and againe c in Print , with the utmost ingagement of my weak abilities in that kind , asserted the Parliamentary cause against the Oxfordian ; yea ( as far as I yet understand ) I was the first amongst all my Brethren who serve at the Altar , that rose up in this kind , for the Parliament : with what exposall of my self to danger , on the one hand , and with what successe and advantage to the cause undertaken by me on the other , many there are that know , and ( I make no question ) are ready upon occasion to declare and testifie . How frequently , yea for many moneths together , when the Parliamentarie occasions were most urging and pressing , ( almost ) uninterruptedly , and with what fervency and contestation of spirit , I laboured by preaching to advance the service ; yea with what alacritie and importunity , I continually sollicited and promoted all Parliamentarie occasions , suits , and motions recommended by Ordinance or otherwise ; was openly testified by a Member of that Honourable Committee before which I was called , pending the complaint against me there . How many young men and others , as faithfull as usefull in the Armie as any others of their rank and imployment whatsoever , what by preaching , what by conference and perswasion , were through the blessing of God , armed with courage and resolution by me for the warres , there are both in the Citie , and in the Armie , more then a few that can informe . Nor is it unknowne to thousands , with what contention and striving of spirit , with what earnestnesse of prayer and supplication I have without ceasing in my publick prayers , commended the Parliament with all their proceedings and affaires unto God ; nor have my later intercessions for them , either in strength of affection , or in any other desireable respect whatsoever , given place unto my former . Without any disparagement to Mr. Prynnes Orisons a be it spoken , I may conjecture I have been both as frequent , and desired to be as fervent in commending that Honourable Assembly with all their pious endeavours to the Divine Benediction , as himself . As touching pecuniary expressions of my self to and for the Parliament , my affections may ( perhaps ) suffer losse and disadvantage in the thoughts of some , who measure by the Arithmeticall , in stead of the Geometricall proportion ( by which our Saviour measured the poore widdows gift , cast into the treasury b , and every mans expressions of himself in this kind should be measured ) yet I make no question but I can produce speaking papers , ( yea and men too , if need be ) that will abundantly testifie , that I have not been behind many of those who are before me for matter of estate , and who are look'd upon too as men sound-hearted to the Parliament . There hath no proposition for advance of moneys , been at any time recommended by the Parliament unto the Citie , that I know of , but hath been entertained by me with a full proportion of my estate . And look what I have been , and have appeared to be in publick , and in view of many ; the same have I bin also in all my more private intercourses and colloques with men ; strengthning the hands of some which began to be feeble and to hang downe , loosing the bands , resolving the doubts of others , so setting them at libertie to serve the Parliament , who before were bound up , and could doe nothing . Nor have I quitted my self at this rate in the Parliamentary service , in or about the Citie onely : but have been as diligent and faithfull an Agent for them in the Countrey also where I have become , and that not without some considerable successe . I am a foole ( I confesse ) to speak all this of my self : but Mr. Prynne hath compelled c me . If I be yet defective and wanting in any thing that is my dutie to doe for the Parliament , if there be any other service or labour of love wherein I may yet further expresse my self to , and for them ; all the powers of my soule stand ready bent and prest within me to embrace the opportunitie , and to fall on upon the work . If for all this I must be numbred amongst men of rancorous and disaffected hearts against the Parliament , I shall congratulate the felicitie of those that are better thought of ; and yet shall think mine own the more Princely portion a . Mala opinio benè parta delectat . A good conscience is never at the full of her sweetnesse , light , and glorie , but when uprightnesse suffers and is eclipsed : the antiperistasis of outward sufferings , intends the inward vigor and strength of that principle , out of which a good conscience acteth , when shee comforteth . If the affections of men to the Parliament , must be compell'd to hold up their hand and be tryed at Mr. Prynnes barre , and the Law ruling there be this , that whosoever will not adore Mr. Prynnes notion of an Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction in the civill Magistrate , and submit the cleare and lightsome decisions ( at least in the eye of their judgement & conscience ) of the Oracles of God to the Spirit that spake in old Stories , Statutes and Records in the darkest times of Popery , though they have given never so satisfactory and abundant an account of the goodnesse of their affection in this kind otherwise , must be condemned and cast as venemous Malignants and underminers of the undoubted priviledges of Parliaments , &c. I confesse , that my affection will not abide the tryall of this fire . Neverthelesse , this I solemnly promise and professe , that if Mr. Prynne or any other , shall reasonably demonstrate unto me truth in either of these Positions ; either 1. in this , that any thing is to be esteemed a Priviledge , which is not for the benefit , good , or safety of those that shall injoy it ; or 2. in this , that such an Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction or power , as Mr. Prynne in all or most of his discourses upon this subject portraictures and sets out , tends in the nature and constitution of it , to the benefit , safety or good of the Parliament ; I shall soone be his convert , and cause my present apprehensions in the point to bowe downe at the feet of his . This for the second head propounded . For the third and last , the insufficiencie , or ( to speak the dialect of his own pen ) the impotencie , of those few exceptions which he makes against some few particulars in my Innocencies Triumph , such as he conceives ( it seems ) to be more soft and tractable under his exceptious pen . First , to salve a sore that will never be perfectly healed , to justifie ( I meane ) his Indictment against me , that I did not only or simply undermine the undoubted priviledges of Parliament by the very roots , ( this being not a charge , as it seems , worthy the indignation or discontent of Mr. Prynnes pen ) but that I perpetrated this high misdemeanour PRESVMPTVOVSLY ; he informes us as matter of high concernment to his cause and honour , that Grammarians , Lawyers , and Divines informe us , that the word , Presumptuous , comes from the verb , Praesumo : which verb he presumes will accommodate him with one or other of those various significations , which with great care and circumspection that none be wanting , he there musters and enumerates . And because the honour and validitie of this his purgation rests altogether upon such significations or acceptions of his verb , as are most mens mysteries ; therefore in his margent he calls in Thomas Aquinas , Calepine , with some others , for his compurgators . But Good Sir ; did you either expect or intend , that either the Parliament or your other readers , should be so above measure tender either of your reputation or of mine , as that meeting with the word PRESVMPTVOVSLY in your indictment against me , they would goe and search Calepine , Thomas Aquinas , Holy-oake , Media-villa , and I know not how many more , to informe themselves in how many senses or significations the word might be taken , lest otherwise they should take you tardy with an unjust crimination , or me with a foule crime ? What you may conceive them likely to doe in this kind out of tendernesse of respect to your reputation , I will not prejudge : but to deale plainly with you , I expect no such quarter from any of your Readers , for the preservation of mine . They that have a mind to beleeve you in that point of your charge , ( yea and indeed any other , considering other expressions of yours of the like importance ) are like to take the word Presumptuously , according to the vulgar and most familiar signification of it in common parlance , and that which is next at hand : in which signification , it doth nothing lesse then import all that varietie you speak of , but a plaine wilfull ( as your word elsewhere is ) perpetration of an evill ; and as for the three last significations which you fasten upon it , as that it signifies , against Authoritie , or Lawes , or upon hopes of impunitie ; though I have not the Authors by me upon whom you father the proprietie of these significations , to examine the truth of what in this you affirme ; yet am I very strong of Faith , that men of learning and judgement ( as most of the Authors you cite were ) never assigned any of these three senses or importances , as the proper and legitimate acceptions or significations of the word . When John the Baptist told Herod ( a man in great Authoritie ) to his face , that it was not lawfull for him to have Herodias his Brother Philips wife a , was this done PRESVMPTVOVSLY , especially in the proper signification of the word ? Againe , when Shadrach , Meshach and Abednego refus'd to submit to that Decree or Law which Nebuchadnezzar and his Nobles had made , which commanded all to fall downe and worship the golden image which the King had set up b ; and so when Daniel trangress'd that Law or Statute which Darius and his Nobles had decreed and established according to the Law of the Medes and Persians , which altereth not c , by kneeling upon his knees three times a day , praying unto , and praising God , with his chamber-window open towards Jerusalem ; did either of these sin , or doe any thing ( under the Interpretation aforesaid ) PRESVMPTVOVSLY ? Mr. Prynne himself ( I presume ) dedicated these his Lucubrations to the Parliament , upon hopes , yea upon more then hopes of impunitie , upon hopes of Grace and Acceptation : hath he therefore done PRESVMPTVOVSLY ? I am content in this sense to own the word PRESVMPTVOVSLY , in my prementioned charge ; and confesse that I did that , which he ( calling it quite out of its name ) calls an undermining of the undoubted Priviledges of Parliament , &c. PRESVMPTVOVSLY . i. I did upon hopes , yea and somewhat more then upon hopes of impunitie , upon hopes of acceptation both with God and men . And if Mr. Prynne would have pleas'd but to have declar'd in his margent or otherwise , that in the aforesaid indictment he meant the word , PRESVMPTVOVSLY , in this sense , and no other ; he had saved me a double , and himself a single labour , ( if not a double also ) for I should not have lift up so much as a word of exception against it . But let us see a little , how like a man he quits himself in vindicating the truth and equitie of his so-dearly-beloved terme , PRESVMPTVOVSLY , as it stands , or lies , ( which you will ) in the controverted indictment . His first signification of the verb PRAESVMO , is to forestall ; and to prove that in this sense of the word , I committed the capitall crime objected PRESVMPTVOVSLY , he reasons , or rather talks , thus . First you preached and printed those passages of purpose to forestall the Parliaments and Assemblies pious resolutions , &c. But Mr. Prynne , there is a rule in the civill Law ( and because there is so much reason in it , I conceive your Common Law complyes with it ) which sounds thus ; Non esse , & non appaerere , aequiparantur in Jure . How will you doe for witnesse , or evidences competent in Law , to make it appeare that I printed and preached the passages you speak of , for such a purpose as you pretend ? can you find the present thoughts or purposes of all particular men in this age , in the ancient Records which beare date , from the darkest times of Popery ? Or hath the Omniscient anointed your eyes with any such eye-salve , which makes you able to see into the hearts and reins and spirits of men ? or have I acknowledged either in writing or otherwise , any such intent or purpose as you speak of , in those passages ? or is it beyond the upper region of possibilities , that I should have any other purpose in them , then what you affirme ? When you print , that I printed the passages you mention of purpose to forestall the pious resolutions of the Parliament ; doe you print this OF PVRPOSE to forestall the pious inclinations or resolutions of the Parliament , not to make more offenders by punishment , then were made such before by delinquencie ? Or when you printed , that Christ hath delegated his Kingly Office unto Kings , Magistrates , and highest civill powers a , did you print it of purpose to make them think that they had as much power and Authoritie to make Lawes for his Churches , as Christ himself hath ? Such affirmations and right-downe conclusions as these , are worse then the most uncharitable , unchristian , detestable , execrable , groundlesse , fanatique jealousies b . The second signification of the auxiliarie verb , PRAESVMO , is ( as Mr. Prynne from his Authors , or otherwise , informs us ) to conceive before-hand : and to prove that in this sense I trespassed the trespasse of his complaint , PRESVMPTVOVSLY , he advanceth with this demonstration . 2. To establish and support that Independent way which you had before-hand without any lawfull warrant conceived , ere the Parliament had made choyce of , or setled any Church-Government for them , &c. But good Sir , hath no man a lawfull warrant to consider , inquire after , ( and consequently , to conceive ) what Christ hath established in point of Church-Government , untill the Parliament hath made choyce of , or setled such a Government ? Every man hath warrant enough , yea and that which is more then a warrant , an ingagement by way of dutie lying upon him ; especially Divines ( as you call them ) whose particular calling and profession it is to search the Scriptures , and to discover the mind of Christ there , to conceive before-hand , if they be able , what tenour or forme of Church-Government is most agreeable to the mind of Christ ; and not to suspend their studies , inquiries , conceptions in that kinde , untill men have fram'd their conceptions or apprehensions for them . The Parliament had not made choyce of , nor setled any Church-Government for Mr. Edwards , when he compos'd and printed his Antapologie ? Did he therefore PRESVMPTVOVSLY , to conceive it before-hand , and so peremptorily conclude for it as he hath done ? Whether yet they have made choyce of any , or no , I cannot say ; I have no demonstrative grounds to think they have : but certain I am that they as yet have setled none , and so are still at libertie to choose another , in case they have chosen any . Hath not Mr. Prynne then done PRESVMPTVOVSLY , to conceive a Government before-hand , and to print for it , the Parliament as yet having chosen none , or however , setled none ? If Mr. Prynne being a Lawyer , had a lawfull warrant to , conceive a Church-Government before-hand , as he hath done , Church-matters being eccentricall to his profession ; much more hath he that is a Divine , and neverthelesse because he is a meere one . Neither can the five Apolog. be said to have done this first , because they rather shew their own practise and desire libertie therin , then peremptorily , ( as some others ) prescribe to others under the notion of schismatiques and troublers of the publick peace , if they be not of their minds in all things , about what they practise and professe , as ( in their judgements ) most agreeable to the truth . A third signification of the verb we wot of , is according to Mr. Prynnes Lexicographie , to usurp or take that upon a man which belongs not to him . And to prove that in this sense also I am a Son of PRESVMPTION in the transgression voted by Mr. Prynnes pen , upon me , he riseth up higher then yet in this insulting straine . It was no lesse then high PRESVMPTION in you , being a meere Divine , and a man altogether ignorant of , or unskilfull in the ancient Rights and Priviledges of our Parliament ( as your writings demonstrate , and your self intimate , p. 5. ) to undertake and judge of them so peremptorily — When as if you had knowne any thing concerning them , you might have learned this among other things , that Divines are no competent Judges of Parliaments priviledges : that the Priviledges , Rights and Cujiomes of our Parliaments , are onely to be judged and determined by the Parliament it selfe , not in or by any other inferiour Court , &c. In this passage there are some things true , and some things false ; and both the the one and the other make aloud and without straining , against the Author , and neither of them against me at all . For , 1. If I be a man altogether ignorant if the ancient rights and privileges of Parliament , how come I to be charged , as a wilfull underminer or violator of them a ? Ignorance though it bee good for little , but to cause men to stumble and doe amisse ; yet it is ( for the most part ) a preserver of men from offending wilfully , how ever it selfe may be a wilfull offence . Those things ( saith Aristotle ) appeare to bee involuntary , b or unwillingly done , which are done either by externall compulsion , or out of ignorance . If I judge Mr. Prynne ignorant of that government which the Scriptures hold forth , I cannot reasonably judge him a wilfull opposer of it . 2. If the Privileges , Rights and Customes of our Parliaments , be onely to be judged and determined by the Parliament it selfe , and not in or by any other inferior Court , how comes Mr. Prynne by his authority or commission to judge and determine , that I have wilfully violated , presumptuously undermined the undoubted privileges of Parliament , by the very roots ? Surely he hath not the power which an inferiour Court of Judicature hath , much lesse is he the Parliament it selfe : and yet he undertakes to judge and determine , & that positively and negatively , ( which I doe not ) not onely the privileges themselves of Parliament , but the very roots also of these privileges . If according to his own assertion , he hath no power or authority to judge or determine of the privileges we speak of , why doth he judge and censure me as a PRESUMPTUOUS underminer and violator of these privileges ? Can any man reasonably passe a sentence against another as a delinquent in such and such cases , when as the cases themselves are not of his cognizance , nor lawfull for him to judge of ? 3. If the Privileges and Rights of our Parliament bee onely to bee judged by the Parliament it selfe , upon what Christian or indeed reasonable foundation , shall we a vouch the taking of the late Nationall Vow and Covenant , wherein with our hands lifted up to the most high God ( among other things ) we sweare , that wee would sincerely , really , and constantly , in our severall vocations , endevour with our estates , and lives , mutually to preserve the Rights and Privileges of Parliament , &c. Did we sweare in this most tremend and solemne manner , to preserve those things , not onely that wee know not what they are , but which it is not lawfull for us to enquire after , at least , not to judge and say what they are after our most diligent and faithfull enquiry after them ? If before the taking of this covenant , I had conceived , that whatsoever Mr. Prynne should please to avouch for Privilege of Parliament , I should have stood bound by the covenant taken , to maintain with my estate and life , for such ; I should rather have exposed both to the mercy and equity of the Parliament by refusing it , then both these and my selfe besides , to the displeasure of God , by such an unchristian , yea unreasonable and unmanlike action . Besides , Parliament privileges are either fundamentall , generall , and common Rights of all nationall Bodies , or else peculiar to this State ; and so also they are either such as are by their constant practice commonly declared , or else more reserved for occasional emergencies . The two former are obvious to judge of ; and the latter also apprehensible upon their discovery of them , especially with their grounds , else how could they have been assisted in the defence of them all this time ? 4. Whereas he vilifies , or insults over me as being a meere Divine , I confesse I have not much to except against the disparagement ; yet I desire leave to speak these three things . 1. That if Mr. Prynne himselfe had been a meere Divine , he had chosen the better part : and if he yet knew how to tranforme the skill which hee hath in the Law , into a like proportion of sound Divinity , he and the Church should gain by it ; so great plenty is there of good Lawyers , and so few faithfull labourers in Gods harvest . 2. Though I pretend to no great knowledge in any other Science , but to that which is the glory of all the rest ( Divinity I mean ) no nor yet to one halfe of that knowledge in this , which my years and opportunities , had not I been a sonne of folly and infirmities above many , might well have furnished me with ; yet can I not with truth yeeld my selfe so meerly a Divine , as not to understand many Principles and Maximes of reason , besides those which I have learned from the Scriptures ; As that every whole is more then any part of it : That no effect can possibly exceed the vertue or efficacy of the totall cause thereof : That one part of any contradiction is verifiable of every thing : That the good of many other circumstances being alike , is to be preferred before the like good of one , or of a few : with many others of affinity with these . By the authority and aid of which alone , without the concurrence or assistance of any Principle at all , proper to the Science of Divinity , I know ( God assisting ) I am able to make good the ground which I have chosen to stand upon in the controversies depending between Mr. Prynne and me . Yea , I should injure mine own ignorance and weaknesse , and censure them too deep , if I should deny but that I know somewhat in other Arts and Sciences also . 3. And lastly , if I be a meer Divine , I remember I have read some such observation as this for my comfort , that when the streame of endevours is divided , the waters of knowledge run but shallow in a plurality of channels , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . But 5. Whereas he lifts up this Iron mace on high , and thinkes to break all in peeces like a potters vessell , that I have either said , or ever shall be able to say , to escape the push of his pike , PRESUMPTUOUSLY , wherewith he makes at me in the pre-recited charge , that Divines are no competent Judges of Parliaments privileges ; and that therefore it was no lesse then PRESUMPTION , nay then PRESUMPTION upon PRESUMPTION , then high PRESUMPTION for me being a meer Divine , and a man altogether ignorant in the ancient Rights and Privileges of our Parliaments , to undertake to determine and judge of them so peremptorily , &c. I answer . 1. If I had been altogether ignorant of the Rights and Privileges of Parliament , I was not so capable of ingaging my selfe by that solemne vow , which is now upon me , for the maintaining of them sincerely , really , constantly , &c. For though a man may indefinitely swear to maintain the just rights of such or such a Body , though he know them not all distinctly , yet that he may sweare in judgement , it is requisite he be not altogether ignorant of them . So that if Mr. Prynnes doctrine in this point be true , it is more then time for me to flie from my Covenant , as from a Serpent , and to abhorre my selfe in dust and ashes before the presence of God , that ever I took it . But blessed be God , my ignorance of the Rights and Privileges of Parliaments , is not such , but that I know many of them : These by name ( questionlesse ) are some of them ; To bee the Soveraigne Tribunall , and supreme Judicatory in the Kingdome : To have a Legislative power in civill affaires in respect of the whole Kingdome : To have a power of discharging or repealing all former Lawes and Statutes that are found inconvenient for the State and Kingdome : To dispose of the Militia of the Kingdom , for the safety and best advantage thereof : To impose Rates and Taxes of money for the necessary occasions of the Kingdome ; to call even the greatest Delinquents in the Kingdome to account , and to inflict punishments upon them according to the nature of their crimes : To defend , protect , and encourage , and that with an higher hand then others can doe , those that doe well , and live peaceably , and are serviceable in their callings and imployments to the State . Besides many others like unto the Starres in the Firmament of heaven , which cannot be numbred . 2. Whereas Mr. Prynne to make light of darknesse , and to cover the shame of his darling ( PRESUMPTUOUSLY ) with honor , thrusts Divines out of doors , as no competent judges of Parliaments privileges , he must know from a meer Divine ( if there be any place left in him for an addition in that kind , and intus apparens doth not prohibere alienum , with too strong an hand ) that Divines in one respect , & that of soveraigne consideration , are Judges of a better & more regular competencie of such things , then Lawyers are , ( without prejudice to that profession be it spoken ) yea & the meerer Divine ( in M. Pryns sense ) the more competent Judge in this kind , as the meere Physitian a more competent Judge of medicines then others . There is a double judgement or dijudication of Parliament Privileges : the one positive or affirmative , the other privative or negative . The positive or affirmative judgement wee speake of , consists in a faculty or ability of discerning what really and indeed are the Privileges of Parliament : the judgement which I call negative , consists in the like faculty or ability of discerning , what are not . For this is a most certain and undoubted Maxime , That nothing that is sinfull , or contrary to the will and word of God , can possibly be a privilege of Parliament . The reason whereof is plain : Nothing that in the nature and direct tendencie of it , is dishonourable or destructive to a creature , can possibly bee any privilege thereof . Now whatsoever is sinfull , and displeasing unto God , is in the nature and direct tendencie of it , dishonourable and destructive to the creature , as the whole tenour of the Scriptures ( almost ) yea and the impressions of naturall light and conscience in all men , doe abundantly confirme . Ergo . So then the Scriptures or word of God being the Standard or supreme Rule whereby to judge what is sinfull , and consequently destructive to the creature , and what not ; evident it is , that they who reasonably may be presum'd to have the best knowledge and soundest understanding in these , are the most competent Judges ( from amongst men ) in all cases and questions , about what is sinfull , and what not . And whether meere Lawyers , or meere Divines , may with more reason be presum'd to be men of this interest , let either Lawyers themselves , or Divines , or who ever will , judge . I had not known sinne ( saith the Apostle a ) but by the Law : He speaks of the Law of God , not of any law of men . And another Apostle to like purpose : Whosoever committeth sinne , transgresseth also the Law : for sinne is the transgression of the Law b ; speaking as the other did , onely of the Law of God . Now howsoever Mr. Prynnes meer Divines cannot reasonably bee supposed to have spent so much of their time in traversing and reading over the ancient Records of Parliamentary transactions , as Lawyers have , nor consequently to be so able or ready as they , to tell Stories in this kind , of what Parliaments formerly have done ; yet when any case of conscience , or question ariseth , about such and such customes or passages in Parliaments , ( call them Rights , Privileges , or what you will ) whether they were lawfull in point of conscience , and justifiable in the sight of God , or no , the meere Lawyer with his bookes and records , must stand by , as having neither part nor fellowship in this Judicature ; the meere Divine is the only competent Judge in the case ; yea , and this is confirmed by Parliaments themselves , who have decreed that in some Courts and Cases , Clergy-men , as some call them , should fit , and was the custome till very lately in London it selfe , the Bishop usually and by right sitting at the Sessions of life and death ; yea , and in case of life , if the Clergyman saith , Legit ut Clericus , the Law saves the man . And if Mr. Prynne conceives , that all customes or Presidents of Parliaments will make Privileges of Parliament , I conceive the present Parliament will abhorre his conception ; many of them being only matter of sorrow , shame and caution , not of Privilege or example . So then to deale clearly and unpartially between Lawyers and Divines , touching their respective abilities and interests for discerning and judging of the Customes , Rights and Privileges ( so called ) of Parliaments ; The Lawyers interest and facultie ( if he be a Master in his profession ) as such ( I mean as a meere Lawyer ) is to collect , draw together , and present to view , all , and all manner of Parliamentary transactions , passages , statutes , customes , presidents , &c. good and bad , one with another , without distinction , out of their respective Records : but the interest and faculty of the Divine ( if he be a man worthy his profession ) is to survey this collection presented unto him , to consider whether there be nothing in them contrary to the will and mind of God declared in his Word : ( which contrariety dissolves the authority and interest of any Statute , Custome , President , whatsoever ) and so to separate the vile from the pretious a , that which hath a consistence with the word of God , from that which opposeth and contradicteth it . The entrie series or story of Parliamentary passages , is like the Polypus head , wherein there are observed to bee {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , many good things , and many bad ; the Statutes of Moses , and the Statutes of Omri , the manner of the house of David , and the manner of the house of Ahab , are intermixed and wrapped up together there . Now alas , with the meere Lawyer ( I speak of him , as such , and not as Christian or godly ) all is fish that comes to net , all this Congregation is holy , even every one of them b ; every Statute without exception , if unrepeal'd on earth , though nullified in heaven before it was made , is still valid , and good in Law ; every custome , without difference , an undoubted privilege of Parliament : every passage a sufficient president for after-imitation , the Statutes of Omri as good for his turn , and in his eye , as the Statutes of Moses : the manner of the house of Ahab , as laudable as the manner of the house of David , or of the house of God himselfe : as is the good , so is the bad , ( to him ) the Statute that curseth , as that which blesseth a Land . All this is evident from that voluminous coacervation of old matters , passages , presidents , &c. by Mr. Prynne himselfe in the former part of this discourse , many of them ( as himselfe intimates c ) fetch'd out of the darkest times of Popery , and highest ruff of Pope , of Prelates : and yet thinkes that these are enough to evict and convince me and all the world besides , that I have not only violated , but denied , oppugned the privileges of Parliament in Ecclesiasticall affairs d . In the case last presented , except the Divine shall come with his fire from heaven , to separate and purge the Tinne from the Silver , and the Drosse from the Gold , and be as the mouth of the Lord to take away the vile from the pretious a , that enmity unto God , and that unrighteousnesse which cleaveth , and is like to cleave ( notwithstanding all that the meere Lawyer is able to doe by way of reliefe ) unto many the Lawes and Statutes of a State or Kingdome , is like to be first an heavie scourge , and rods of Scorpions , for the punishment of the State ; and in fine , the utter ruine and destruction of it . {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} ( saith the Apostle b ) i. the wisdome of the flesh is death : The reason whereof he gives in the next verse , which is this , because the wisdome of the flesh is enmity against God . So that wheresoever there is any enmity against God , especially if it utters it selfe in any the consultations , acts , or results of the wisdom of the flesh , it disposeth the subject wherein it is sound , whether it be Person , Family , State , or Kingdome , unto death . And whether this enmity against God which wee speake of , sound in some of our lawes & statutes yet unrepeal'd ( if not in more then is generally observed and knowne ) hath not made God an enemy unto us , and strengthened the arm of his displeasure and indignation against us , I leave to Divines of sound judgement and conscience , to consider : yea and to such Lawyers who have sanctified their profession with the sound knowledge of the word of God and prayer . By what hath been argued in this last passage , evident it is , that the skill , faculty , and interest of the Divine , ( yea of the meere Divine ) to discerne and judge of the customes , rights , privileges of Parliament , is farre more usefull and necessary , then that of the meere Lawyer . The reason is plaine ; because there is no manner of doubt or question to be made , but that whatsoever is not sinfull & prohibited by the word of God for them to doe , is an undoubted privilege of Parliament , without the authority or contribution of former passages or records : and on the contrary , whatsoever is sinfull and displeasing unto God , can never make Privilege , as hath been already argued and proved . Now then the faculty or skill of the Lawyer , as such , excending it self only to the conquisition and mustering together former transactions , passages and records of Parliament , or at most to assist in the literall explanation or interpretation of them ; but matter of sin , and what is lawfull by the law of God , belonging properly to the cogniance of the Divine , it is as evident as evidence it self in her highest exaltation can make is , that Divines are more usefull , necessary , yea and competent Judges ( in the saense declared ) of Parliamentary Priviledges , then Lawyers are : Notwithstanding To the last recited passage I answer 3. and lastly ; that whereas my Adversary chargeth me , to have determined and judged of the ancient Rights and Privileges of our Parliaments so peremptorily , &c. that this charge is like all or most of the rest , undue untrue ; I doe not meddle with any ancient Right or Priviledge of Parliament ; I onely argue and work upon the Principles of mine own Profession , the Scriptures and Word of God : if these in their naturall and proper inclination , ducture , and tendencie , lead me to any such position or conclusion , which enterfeers with something which Mr. Prynne will needs call an ancient Right or Priviledge of Parliament , it is meerly accidentall , and which I cannot with my Allegeance to Heaven , nor otherwise then at the utmost perill of my soule , no nor without a sinfull prevarication with that dutie which I owe to the State I live in , decline . And therefore whereas The 4th signification which the Gentleman finds of the verb Praesumo ( to salve the miscarriage of his pen , in the word , PRESVMPTVOVSLY ) is to doe a thing before a man be lawfully called to it , and hereupon tells me that I had no lawfull calling or warrant from Gods Word or our Lawes to handle the Jurisdictions and rights of Parliament in my Pulpit , &c. and concludes against me without bayle or mainprize , that in this I was PRESVMPTVOVS by the Scriptures owne definition , 2 Pet. 2. 10. I answer , 1. That the Apostle Peter in the place cited , gives no definition at all , of the word , Presumptuous , but onely speaks of a wicked generation of men , who walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleannesse , and despise Government , presumptuous , self-willed , and they are not afraid to speak evill of dignities . Can a man gather any definition of Presumption , or of a Presumptuous man , from hence ? When the Apostle Paul confesseth himself to have been a Blasphemer , Persecutor a , &c. doth he give any definition of either ? I had rather Mr. Prynne should call me a Presumptuous man a thousand times over , then that he should be able once to prove it out of any definition of St Peter . The Scriptures which Mr. Prynne still citeth , are acknowledged to be very good ; but he imployeth them against their wills ; and so their goodnesse and his purpose , doe not greet or kisse each other . But 2. Whereas he tells me I had no warrant from Gods Word , or our Lawes to handle the Jurisdictions or rights of Parliament in my Pulpit , &c. I first demand what warrant from Gods Word or our Lawes hath he , thus to calumniate a Minister of the Gospel , onely for his faithfulnesse to God and men ; to wring , wrest , and wier-draw his words and sayings , as he hath done these ten times ( at least ) in this and his other writings ? I shall have my warrant , and that Authentique enough , to shew for what I have done , when his will be to seek for what he hath done , and ( that which is worse ) will no where be found . As for his charge , that I handle the Jurisdictions and rights of Parliament in my Pulpit , &c. it is but a dead corps of an accusation , without any life or soule of Truth in it at all ; and may well be reputed free of the company of his other not more foule then false criminations . I never handled any such theame or subject in my Pulpit as he talks of , except it were in pleading the justnesse of their cause in the present warres , against the determinations of the Oxford Schooles . I trust Mr. Prynne will forgive me this offence . But 3. If by handling the rights and Jurisdictions of Parliaments , he means those passages wherein I argued against the lawfulnesse of submitting unto any Government from men , except it be agreeable also to the Word of God , and mind of Christ ; or against any lawfulnesse of power in any civill Magistrate or Magistracie whatsoever , to make any such Lawes or Statutes in matters of Religion , and which concerne the worship of God , whereunto the servants of God shall stand bound under mulcts and penalties to submit , whether they can with a good conscience submit unto them , or no ; if this be the tenor of my charge , I answer , that I have warrant both from the Law of God , and from the Laws of the Land also , as farre as I understand them , ( and I hope I understand them sufficiently in this ) to doe whatsoever I have herein done . The warrant of a Law , ( whether we speak of the Law of God , or of the Law of men ) for an action , doth not stand onely in a positive or expresse injunction , or declaration in the Law , that such or such an action , either must , or may be done : but also in the totall silence of the Law , ( directly and by evident consequence ) as touching any restraint or prohibition of the action . It is true , the totall silence of humane Lawes concerning many actions , doth not simply and absolutely warrant them for lawfull or good , ( though this be true concerning the Divine Law ) but it warrants them sufficiently against any crime imputable , against any censure or punishment infligible by the Authoritie of such Lawes . Where no Law is ( saith the Apostle a ) there is no transgression . So then , if amongst all the Laws and Statutes of the Land , there be no one Law or Statute to be found , which prohibiteth or restraineth a Minister of the Gospel from declaring and making known the whole counsell of God b unto men , ( of which wretched import I know none , yea I am securely confident that there is none ) then have I warrant sufficient , in respect of our Laws , both to preach and print whatsoever I have done either in the one or in the other , in the passages aforesaid : because in them I have neither preached nor printed any thing , but what is part of the counsell of God , as I have abundantly manifested & made good , in severall tracts , especially in that which was last published c , against all opposition and counter-reasonings whatsoever . As for the word of God , I have not onely a warrant from thence , to doe all that I did in the premises , but ( that which is more then a warrant , in the sense specified ) precept upon precept , injunction upon injunction , command upon command : yea I stand here most deeply and dreadfully charged , as I will answer it at the great and terrible day , when the Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed from Heaven , with his mightie Angels , in flaming fire , taking vengeance on them that know not God , and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ d , to doe that which I did in the passages excepted against . I charge thee therefore ( saith the Apostle to Timothy , a Minister of the Gospel ) before God and the Lord Jesus Christ , who shall judge the quick and dead at his appearing and his Kingdome : Preach the Word : be instant , in season , out of season ; reprove , rebuke , exhort with all long-suffering and Doctrine . For e , &c. Peruse the other Scriptures presented unto you in the margent f ; behold , they lift up their voyces together , calling , crying out amaine for all diligence , faithfulnesse , zeale , undauntednesse of courage and resolution in those who are entrusted with that great dispensation of the mind and counsell of God in the behalf of the world , in the discharge of this most high and honourable trust committed unto them . And therefore for Mr. Prynne to charge me with boldnesse , daringnesse , audaciousnesse , &c. for sticking to , standing by , and maintaining what I have said and done out of faithfulnesse both unto God and men , and according to the true tenor and intent of my Commission from Heaven ; is as childish and weak , as if I should charge him with boldnesse , daringnesse , audaciousnesse , for eating his bread , or pleading the righteous cause of his honest client . He mistakes his mark day and way , if he thinks either to ( rayle I might truely say , or ) threaten me out of the way and course of my dutie , by his great words . Through Christ strengthning me , it is as easie for me to beare all his unjust and hard sayings , as it is for him to speak them : to stand under , and carry the greatest burthen of infamie and reproach , as it is for him to lay it on ; yea to suffer the worst and hardest of sufferings , as it is for him to procure them . He that cannot {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , and that at any rate whatsoever , will never make good Souldier indeed for Jesus Christ . His pen ( I hope ) you see , hath not prospered hitherto , in pleading the cause of his client , PRESUMPTUOUSLY : he cannot finde any one signification of the word , that will stick or fasten . The fift and last signification , which he insists upon , is this . The verb ye wot of , PRAESVMO , yet further signifies , to doe a thing boldly , confidently , or rashly , without good grounds , &c. To help himself at the dead lift he is now at , by this signification of his verb , he sets on thus ; After you were questioned before a Committee of Parliament for those very passages in your first Sermon , as exceeding scandalous and derogatory to the Members and Privileges of Parliament , yet you in a daring manner , whilst you were under examination , audaciously preached over the same againe for substance in your Pulpit on a solemne Fast day , and published them with additions in no lesse then two printed books : yea since your very censure by the Committee for them , you have in a higher straine then ever gone on to justifie them in print once more , in your Innocencies Triumph ( like an incorrigible Delinquent ) wherein you slander the Parliament more then before , &c. Where before I answer , observe 1. That the signification here insisted upon is , lower then the charge ; it signifies to doe boldly , &c. but his charge is , that I did it presumptuously . 2. In this great Muster-roll of the severall significations of his verb Praesumo , he passes over , and forgets to list the common or generall acceptation of the word , as it is usually taken amongst us , and as any Author that writes English uses to be understood ; viz. for a wilfull and high-handed commission of some wicked thing . But for answer ; 1. What Logick is there in all this Rhetorick to prove , that what I did in the passages under contest , I did rashly or without good grounds ? Here is nothing so much as in pretence ( in reality no where else ) to disable those grounds upon which those passages stand . 2. How unkindly he deales with the truth , in affirming , 1. That I preached over the same again for substance or a solemne Fast day . 2. That I published them with additions in no lesse then two printed books , whilst I was under examination ; hath been already presented to view towards the beginning of this Discourse . And here wee have yet more ( besides these ) ejusdem farinae , ( seu potius , furfaris ) as 1. That the passages in my first Sermon were exceeding scandalous , and derogatory to the members and privileges of Parliament : There hath been nothing yet proved , nor ( I beleeve ) ever will or can be proved , that there was any thing in this Sermon , not only not exceeding scandalous and derogatory , &c. but not scandalous or derogatory in the least or lightest manner or degree either to any member , or any privilege of Parliament whatsoever . 2. That since my very censure by the Committee for them , I have gone on to justifie them in an HIGHER STRAIN then ever , in my Innocencies Triumph . Mr. Prynne I see is no Astronomer , to take the altitude or elevation of a strain in Rhetorick ; if hee were , he would be ashamed of this calculation , that in my Innocencies Triumph I justifie my passages in a HIGHER STRAINE then ever . Whosoever reads this little peece , cannot lightly but see and confesse , that all along I creep as neere the ground as any man ( lightly ) can goe . 3. That in my said Innocencies Triumph I slander the Parliament more then before . Here wee have untruth upon untruth , position upon supposition , and both vanity . For this assertion 1. supposeth , that I had slandered the Parliament before , ( wherein I am certain Mr. Prynne slanders me : ) And 2. i affirmeth , that I slander it a second time more then I did before . If he had contented himself only to have said , that in my Innocencies Triumph I slander the Parliament as much as I did before , he had spoke a kind of truth , though of very slender importance . 4. That I was censured by the Committee for the passages in my Sermon . If by censured he means sequestred ( as by the tenor of all he writes concerning me in this discourse , it should seem he doth ) granting the truth of the act or censure it selfe ( which yet to me is very questionable , upon the reasons formerly mentioned ) yet I cannot beleeve but that Mr. Prynnes pen faulters in assigning the grounds or reasons of the censure . It will not enter into me , to conceive a thought so dishonorable to that honorable Committee , as that they should suspend or sequester a Minister of Jesus Christ , who hath in all things from the first to the last , approved himselfe faithfull unto them , and to that honorable cause wherein they are ingaged , for preaching his judgement and conscience in a point of doctrine , having such substantiall and weighty grounds both from the Scriptures themselves , and otherwise , ( which I then in part accounted unto them , and am still ready to perfect the account , if called to it ) to conceive and judge is none other but the very truth of God . 3. And lastly , whereas he brands me for an incorrigible Delinquent , and elswhere for one impenitent after censure a . I answer and confesse , 1. That I am incorrigible indeed , by a crooked rule , as the Apostles themselves were , when being charged and commanded by a whole Councell , not to speak at all , or teach in the Name of Jesus , they notwithstanding professed , that they could not but speak the things which they had seen and heard b . Rectitude is alwayes unrectifiable , i. incorrigible : And 2. I answer and confesse yet further , that I am impenitent also in respect of that wherein I know no unrighteousnes , or sin . The truth is , I am conscious to my self of too many sinnes and failings in my selfe , to cast away my Repentance upon such things as need it not If I can find repentance for all my finnes , I shall leave all my other actions to be lamented and mourned over by the world . If Mr. Prynne will indict me for such incorrigiblenesse and impenitency as these , so be it : I know the great Judge of heaven and earth will acquit me . And thus you see that Mr. Pryn still stands as a man convicted of an unrighteous charge in the word PRESUMPTUOUSLY ; haeret lateri lathalis arundo : the arrow sticks still in his sides , and all his wringling and wresting , and pulling , cannot get it out . His last charge and contest against me in this peece , is , that the Authors which I cite to justifie my selfe , are miserably wrested and mistaken for the most part . The common saying is , That it 's ill halting before a creeple ; The Proverb seems to import some dexterousness of faculty in him that halts continually , to take those tardy who onely counterfeit , and doe that by way of designe , which himselfe doth out of necessitie . The truth is , though Mr. Prynne may reasonably be conceived to have a more sagacious facultie then other men , of taking those with the very manner , who wrest Authors and mistake their meaning , as being a man so familiarly exercised in the practise himself ( I speak of his writings against my self ) yet either his skill fails him , or his will stands too fast by him , in the sentence pronounced against me in this kind ; as will appear presently . In the mean while , I cannot but take notice of that expression , mistaken for the most part , as an expression of the greatest caution and care , that ( to my best remembrance ) I have met with in all that he hath written against me . It is very rare to find any of his uncharitable assertions concerning me , at all bridled or corrected with any allay of any diminutive , lenitive , limitation or restraint : but the saying ( I remember ) is , that he goes farre , that never returns . But let us hearken unto his complaint of the behalf of those Authors , whom he so bewaileth , as being miserably wrested by me . The first is his Friend Mr. Edwards , from whose unaunswerable a piece of Presbyterie , I cite this passage , The Parliament interposeth no Authority to determine , what Government shall be ; and gather upon it thus ; therefore his opinion APPEARS to be ( not , as Mr. Prynne , whose pen I see loves to play at small game in mis-reports , rather then sit out , recites it soon after ; Therefore his opinion is ) either that the Parliament hath no Authoritie , or at least intends not to make use of it , it determining a Government . How miserably this good well-meaning Author is by me wrested , he declares thus : It was written onely with reference to the present time , the Parliament having at that time when he writ ( during the Assemblies debate and consultation ) interposed no Authority is determine what Government shall be . But good Sir , though you ( it may be ) hit the meaning of the Author better then I , having and the opportunity to consult with him about it , which I have not ; yet I am sure I hit the meaning of his words better then you . If men and their words will be of two different minds and meanings , I confesse their meanings may very easily be mistaken , not by me onely , but by those that are wiser , and farre more able then I to understand stand the force and proper import of words . And yet now I come upon this occasion to review my expression , I find it more cautions and warie , then I can remember my self to have been in the calculation or inditing of it ; and altogether free even from that cavilling and shifting exception , which is here made against it . For I do not absolutely say or conclude , that his opinion was or is either so or so , ( as Mr. Prynne , pro more suo , chargeth me to do ) but onely that it appears to be either the one or the other : and I think there is scarce any that understands English , from the child that hath new learn'd his Primer , to the greatest Master in the language , but will acknowledge an appearance at least of one or other of those opinions in the words . And how anomalous and sharking that interpretation of the words , which Mr. Prynne would force upon them , is , will best appear by comparing the words and interpretation with other expressions of the same Grammaticall character and construction both in the same Author , and in others . When ( p. 170. of his Antapologie ) he cites this saying out of Zanchie ; that which doth not disturbe the publique peace — the Magistrate PROCEEDETH not against ; doth he imagine that the meaning of this Author was to confine that non-proceeding of the Magistrate he speaks of , to the particular and precise time of his writing ; as if then indeed he did not so proceed , but at all other times he did . So again when himself ( p. 169. of the same Tract ) saith thus , the power of the Magistrate by which he punisheth sin , doth not subserve to the Kingdom of Christ the Mediator ; can any reasonable man think that his meaning onely should be , that this power of the Magistrate which he speaks of , doth not thus subserve whilest he is in speaking or writing it ; but that afterwards it may , or doth subserve in such a kind ? Apagè nugas ! when the Evangelist John , speaking of Christ , saith thus : This was the true light that LIGHTETH every man that cometh into the world b ; is his meaning that Christ performed that act of grace he speaks of , enlightened men coming into the world , onely whilest he was writing his Gospel , and that afterwards he suspended it ? In such constructions of speech as this , the common Rule of Divines ( touching matter of Interpretation ) is , that verbum praesentis notat actum continuum seu consuetum : i. a verb of the present tense noteth a continued or still accustomed act . So that whilest Mr. Prynne goes about to prove , that I miserably wrest his Author , how favourably soever he may deal with his Author in comparison of my dealing with him , certain I am that he miserably wrests his words , with which I deal as favourably , as their genuine and native signification , according to all rules both of Grammaticall and Rhetoricall construction will bear . As for that reason which Mr. Prynne alledgeth , to countenance the sense which he puts upon the words now contested about , to the disparagement of mine , viz. that be maintains point-blank against me throughout his Treatise a legislative and coercive power in Parliaments ; and that the inference which I draw from the said words is quite contrarie to the next ensuing words and pages ; I answer , 1. ( To the former part of the Reason ) that it is most untrue : he doth not maintain point-blank against me throughout his Treatise a legislative and coercive power in Parliaments and civill Magistrates . I every where acknowledge and assert a civill legislative power in both ; therefore Mr. Edwards maintaining such a power in them , maintains nothing point-blank against me . And whether he maintains a spirituall or Ecclesiasticall legislative power in them , especially throughout his Treatise , let this passage be witnesse between me and my Adversarie : There is nothing more common in the writings of the learned and orthodox , then to shew that the civill power and Government of the Magistrate , and the Ecclesiasticall Government of the Church , are to genere disjoyned : and thereupon the power of the Magistrate by which he deals with the corrupt manners and disorders of his people , it in the nature and specificall reason distinct from Ecclesiasticall discipline a . I know not what artificiall construction and meaning Mr. Prynne may possibly find out for these words ; but surely he that hath not affirm'd the contrarie , as Mr. Prynne very inconsiderately ( that I say not PRESUMPTUOUSLY ) hath done , will not affirm , that Mr. Edw. in this passage maintains an Ecclesiasticall legislative power in Parliaments or civill Magistrates , but the contrary ; yea and affirms this to be the common judgement of men learned and orthodox . So again when he affirms , p. 282. that it is their duty ( speaking of the Parliament ) by their power and Authority to bind men to the Decrees of the Assembly , he doth not ( doubtlesse ) maintain an Ecclesiasticall legislative power in the Parliament : for they that have such a power , cannot be bound in dutie to own the Laws or Decrees of others , much lesse to bind others to subjection to them . I omit many other passages in this book of like importance . The truth is , that Mr. Prynnes opinion concerning an Ecclesiasticall spirituall Jurisdiction in the Civill Magistrate , which yet is his grand notion in all that he hath written upon the subject of Presbyterie , overthrows the main grounds and principall foundations upon which the Doctrine of Presbyterie is built by all her ablest and most skilfull workmen . Insomuch that I wonder not a little , that the Masters of that way and Judgement , have not appeared at another manner of rate then yet they have done , for the vindication of their principles against him that hath made so sore a breach upon them , and laid their honour in the dust . Somewhat I know some of them have done in this kind : but the Prophet Elisha reproved the King of Israel , for smiting thrice onely upon the ground , and then ceasing , telling him that he should have smitten five or six times . 2. To the latter part of the Reason , I answer and confesse , that the inference I draw from the words mentioned , may very possibly be quite contrarie to the next ensuing words and pages , and yet the sense of them no wayes wrested , nor mistaken by me ; because it is familiar in the Discourse , for the Author to contradict himself , as well as other men ; according to one of the ingredients in that most true and happie character of the Discourse , given by a woman , who describes it to be wrangling-insinuating-contradictory-revengefull storie b . And the truth is , that in the eye of an unpartiall and disengaged Reader , there is scarce any passage or period throughout the whole Discourse but may be commodiously enough reduced under one of these 4. heads . And therefore whereas Mr. Prynne gives this elogium of it , that it is in truth unanswerable c ; I confesse that unanswerable it is in severall respects and sundrie wayes . First , it is unanswerable to that esteeme which my self with many others had of the Author formerly . Secondly , unanswerable it is to that opinion , which he would have the world conceive of his parts and learning , and in speciall manner of his abilities to deal in the particular controversie . Thirdly , it is unanswerable to his profession as he is a Christian . Fourthly , much more unanswerable is it to his calling , as he is a Minister of Jesus Christ and of the Gospel : And fifthly ( and lastly ) most unanswerable it is to those frequent , solemn and large professions which he makes both in his Epistle and elsewhere , of his love to the Apologists , and candor and fairnesse in writing . But for any such unanswerablenesse as Mr. Prynne intends , the one part of it will not indure that such a thing should be spoken of the other ; there being enough in the Discourse it self to answer whatsoever is to be found in it , of any materiall consideration against the Congregationall way ; as will in time convenient be made manifest in the sight of the Sun , God not preventing , by more then an ordinarie ( or at least expected ) hand . And whereas Mr. Prynne glorieth ( and that twice over at least , for failing ) that it hath not been hitherto answered by the Independents d ; I answer three things : First , that neither hath Mris Katharine Chidleys Answer to Mr. Edwards his Reasons against Independencie and Toleration , been yet replyed unto or answered , either by Mr. Edwards himself , or any other of his partie ; notwithstanding the said Answer be but a small piece in comparison of the Antapologie : and besides hath been some yeers longer abroad , then this . Besides this , there are many other Tractates and Discourses extant ( and so have been a long time ) in defence of the Congregationall way , which as yet have not been so much as attempted by any Classique Author whatsoever . A particular of some of these you may see , p. 65. of my Innocencie and Truth triumphing together , in the Margent . As for that which A. S. or ( in words at large ) Adam Steuart hath lift up his pen to do against M. S. if men will needs vote it for an Answer , an Answer ( so called ) let it be : * but ( doubtlesse ) he that wants either will or skill to distinguish between the persons and the distempers of men , is in an ill capacitie ( or incapacitie rather ) of framing any sober answer to a sober Discourse . Secondly , Mr. Edwards himself , the smallnesse of the content of the Apologeticall Narration considered , took not a whit lesse time to give answer to it , then hath yet been taken by the Independents to answer the Antapologie . But thirdly ( and lastly ) if Mr. Prynne knew and considered , who it was that hath hindered the Independents , and that once and again from answering it as yet , viz. he that sometimes hindred Pauls coming to the Thessalonians e , though ( in Mr. Edwards apprehension ) he both hastened and furthered the coming back of the Apologists into England f ; he had little or no cause to glorie in that priviledge . But Quod defertur , non anfectur : Quicquid sub terrâ est in apricum proferet aetas . Having ( as you have heard ) befriended Mr. Edwards ( his fellow-labourer in the Presbyterian cause ) with the best accommodation he could to make one piece of him hang to another ( but alas , who is able to comprimize between fire and water ? ) he proceeds and tels me behind my back , ( and yet with an intent I presume that all the world should take notice of it ) that my passages out of Mr. Hayward , Bishop Jewel , Mr. Fox , Mr. Calvin , Jacobus Acontius , &c. make nothing at all against the legislative Authority of Parliaments in matters of Religion and Church Government , and have no affinity with my passages , words , most of them propugning the very Ecclesiasticall power of Parliaments , which I oppugne : And yet in the very next words adds ; that indeed some of their words seem to diminish the coercive power of Magistrates , and enforcing of mens consciences in matters of Religion ; as if I ever oppugned or denied any other Authority or power in Magistrates , then this . If he will please but to peruse my Innocencies triumph , pag. 8. and my Innocency and Truth triumphing together , pag. 72. 73. 78. with severall other passages in these and other my writings , he will ( or at least very easily , may ) see that I oppugne , deny no other Authority , power in Parliaments , Civill Magistrates , but onely that which is enforcing of mens consciences in matters of Religion . Whereas he promiseth or undertakes that he shall in due place answer these words of theirs , which ( as he saith ) seem to diminish the coercive power of Magistrates in matters of Religion , and manifest how I abuse the Authors herein as well as Mr. Edwards ; My answer onely is , that he may indeed soon answer them after that rate of answering , at which he hath answered any thing of mine hitherto , and he may shew how ( i. say that ) I abuse them ; and without writing or speaking , as well as by either , manifest that I abuse their Authors herein , as well as I do Mr. Edwards . But for this last particular , I am willing to save him the labour and pains of writing for the manifestation of it . For I here freely confesse , that I have abused these Authors in what he speaks of , just as I have abused Mr. Edwards : and both of them just as much as amounts to no abuse at all . I wonder by what art or way the Gentleman means to go to work , to prove that I have miserably wrested , or abused the Authors he here speaks of , or their words , when as I have put no construction at all or interpretation upon their words , nor drawn any inference or deduction from them , but onely transcribed them with as much diligence and faithfulnesse as I could , and presented them cleerly as they stand in their respective Authors . If his meaning be , that I have miserably wrested and abused them by my quotation of them , as subservient to my cause or purpose , ( a deed of folly which himself commits with the holy Scriptures themselves many a time and often ) my answer is , that were this assertion true , that they are not subservient to my cause or purpose , yet my recourse unto them , for aid to my purpose , were no miserable wresting or abusing of them . Our Saviour being an hungry , did not abuse the fig-tree by repairing to it , though there prov'd nothing upon it for his purpose . Nor should Mr. Prynne abuse a Tavern by going into it to drink a cup of wine that pleaseth him , though he shold be disappointed in his expectation when he comes there . Nay in this case would he not rather think ( and that much more reasonably of the two ) that the Taverne had abused him , then he it . In like manner , if those Authors and sayings which I have produced , and which Mr. Prynne speaks of , have no affinity with my passages and purpose , I may much more truly and reasonably say that they have abused me , then Mr. Prynne can either say or ever prove , that I have abused them . For the truth is , if they do fall me , or refuse to stand by me in the defence of those passages spoken of when Mr. Prynne hath done his worst to them , they are the greatest dissemblers that ever wore the livery of paper and inke . Never were there sentences or sayings that more fully and freely complied with any mans notions whatsoever in terms and words , then farre the greatest part of these do with my passages and purpose . If Mr. Prynne can dissolve or abrogate the Authoritie of Grammar rules , and destroy the naturall and proper signification of words , then may I have some cause to fear , that he may possibly evict me to be a miserable wrester and abuser of Authors and their sayings . But if words be able to defend themselves , and make good the possession of their known significations and rules of construction , their both ancient and moderne interest in the understandings of men , against the Authority or violence of Mr. Prynnes pen ; I defie all his interminations and threatnings of manifesting me either a miserable wrester or abuser of my Authors . The last parcell of his high contest against me in this Discourse , is , that I pervert the meaning of the Divines of Scotland , in one , or more , or I know not , he knows not , how many or how few , of those passages which I cite from them ; whereas I meddle not little or much with any sense or meaning of any of them ; but onely barely tender them unto the Reader , leaving it free unto him to judge of the sense and meaning of them , and whether they consort with my apprehensions , or no . And though he be doubtfull of that interpretation or meaning which himself ( however ) adventures to put upon them ( as there is reason more then enough , why he should ) delivering himself with this sub-modest caution , If I mistake not ; yet am I rated and chidden at no lower rate , then this : you may THEREFORE blush at this ( I wonder , which ) your perverting of their meaning , as if they held , that the Parliaments of England or Scotland had no power to make Ecclestasticall Laws for Religion and Church Government . THEREFORE may I blush : wherefore ? what ? because Mr. Prynne hath put such a sense and interpretation upon the passages in hand , of which he knows not ( it seems ) what to make , but suspects a mistake in it ? Blush in this respect I confesse I may : but what cause have I to blush , at my perverting of their meaning , when as 1. I do not interpose to put any meaning ( I mean any particular or speciall meaning ) upon any of them . 2. Why should I blush upon Mr. Prynnes injunction , at any meaning which I put upon them , when as that very meaning which himself puts upon them , by way of confutation and disparagement of that which he pretends to be mine , is by himself little lesse then suspected for a mistake ? The tax of blushing which Mr. Prynne imposeth upon me , should in reason be rather levied upon the estate of his own modestie , who by his own confession runs the hazard of perverting the meaning of those passages under debate , whereas I never came so neere the crime of such a perversion , as to ingage my self in any Interpretation of them at all . But if you will please to heare his Interpretation , and compare it diligently with his Text ( the passages cited by me from the Divines of Scotland ) you may very fairly translate Mr. Prynnes , If I mistake not , into , certainly , Mr. Prynne mistakes . I Answer , ( saith he ) 1. That their onely meaning ( if I mistake not ) in these passages , is , that the Prince or chiefe Civill Magistrate of himselfe , without a Parliament , or without the assistance and consent of his Nobles , Commons , Clergie , cannot legally make any Ecclesiasticall Lawes to oblige his people . Mark this saying well ; and see how like it looks to the genuine Interpretation , sense or import of these ( and the like ) ensuing sentences . All men , as well Magistrates , as inferiors , ought to be subject to the judgement of the Nationall Assembly in Ecclesiasticall causes without any reclamation or appellation to any Judge , Civill or Ecclesiasticall , within the Realme . Againe ; It belongeth to the Synod ( the Clergie having the chiefe place therein to give Direction and advice ) not to receive and approve the definition of the Prince in things which concerne the worship of God , but it self to define and determine what Orders and Customes are fittest to be observed , &c. We see here in the Text , that the chiefe place , yea the sole power ( for what other sense can be put upon those words , It belongeth to the Synod it self to define and determine ) of defining and determining Orders and Customes in things which concerne the worship of God , is ascribed unto the Synod , ( wherein also the Direction of the Clergie ought to be predominant ) not onely without the definition of the Prince , or chiefe Civill Magistrate , but with rejection of his definition : NOT TO RECEIVE OR APPROVE THE DEFINITION OF THE PRINCE ( saith this text . ) Whereas in Mr. Prynnes Interpretation , the Prince or chiefe Civill Magistrate ( as we heard ) hath the preheminence and precedencie in all such definitions and determinations assigned unto him ; and next to him , the Nobles , and next to them the Commons , ( of neither of which ne {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} quidem in the Text ) are interessed in the same ; and the Clergie , or Synod , which are made the head , and have the chiefe place , if not the sole power , about such definitions and determinations in the text , are in the Interpretation made the taile , and compelled to come behind all the rest , as a partie borne out of due time , or at least in the lowest influence of power , for any such Interest . If Mr. Prynne be not ( at the softest ) mistaken in this Interpretation , the sense and meaning of those words , Abraham begat Isaac a , may very possibly be this , that Judas went and hung himself b . Judge , Reader , between me and my Adversary , who hath more cause to blush , and who is the more miserable wrester of words , and perverter of meanings . And whether there be not an ayre or gentle breathing of a contradiction in this period which he subjoynes , within it self , and in one part of it to the premised Interpretation , I desire the Reader attentively to consider . But that the King ( saith he ) or supreame temporall Magistrates , assisted by a Parliament and Orthodox Divines , may not make binding Ecclesiasticall Lawes , or , that their or our Parliaments have not a reall Legislative power in any matter Ecclestiastique ( the onely point controversed ) is directly contrary both to the constant Doctrine and Practise of our Brethren and their Church , &c. I beleeve that neither our Brethren , nor their Church , will conne Mr. Prynne thanks for this his vindication and plea for them : but however , I shall not speak in his cast , nor forestall his market . Onely I desire to know of him , if their , and our Parliaments have a reall Legislative Power in matters Ecclesiastique ( as he affirms in the latter part of the sentence ) why he requires an assistance of Orthodox Divines in the former part of it , to make binding Ecclesiasticall Lawes . They that have a reall Legislative power in , or within themselves ; need no forinsecall assistance of others , to make their Laws binding , though they may need forinsecal advice for the better constitution of them , as in Laws about any particular trade ; yea he had given this judgement in the case a little before ( as we heard ) that the Prince or chiefe civill Magistrate cannot legally make any Ecclesiasticall Lawes to oblige his people , not onely not without a Parliament , but not without his Clergie also . Doth he not here interesse the Clergie every whit as farre , and as deep in the very essence or substance of the Legislative power to make binding Ecclesiasticall Lawes for the people , as he doth the Parliament it self ? And whereas in the passage last recited , he affirms the onely point in controversie to be , whether our Parliaments have not a reall legislative power in any matters Ecclesiastique ; I wonder why he storms me and my writings with so much indignation , pag. 106 , 107. &c. for printing passages onely charged by him as being against the Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction of Parliaments a ; which likewise is his usuall expression elsewhere . Doth he apprehend no difference at all , between an Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction , power , Authoritie ; and a legislative power in or about Ecclestiasticall matters , or things ? Mr. Edwards , if he will vouchsafe to learne of him , will teach him a wide difference ; who in many places gives and grants unto the Magistrate a power and Authoritie about Ecclesiasticall causes , and businesses b of many kinds , ( though not of any c , as Mr. Prynne bountie extendeth ) but no where ( to my remembrance ) grants any Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction or power to him : yea p. 163. of his Antapologie , he interrogates his Apologists , Whether there doth not reside in the Church all Ecclesiasticall power absolutely necessary to the building up of the Kingdome of Christ , and salvation of men , even when the Magistrate is not of the Church ? The import of which interrogation agrees well with that assertion of the same Author ; and tract p. 169. that the civill power and Government of the Magistrate , and the Ecclesiasticall Government of the Church , are toto genere disjoyned ; and thereupon the power of the Civill Magistrate , by which he deales with the corrupt manners and disorders of his people , is in the nature and specificall reason distinct from Ecclesiasticall Discipline . If there be an Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction or Legislative power in civill Magistrates , Parliaments , to make Ecclesiasticall binding Laws ; why may not the exercise of this power in the administration or execution of these Lawes , be called Ecclesiasticall Discipline or Government ? yea , why not rather Ecclesiasticall , then civill ? So that Mr. Prynne confounding an Ecclesiasticall power , with a power about Ecclesiasticall things , plainly shews that he is not perfectly initiated in the mysterie of Presbyterie : and did not his writings more accommodate that cause and partie by the weight of their Authoritie , and height of language , and confidence , together with unparalleld bitternesse against his opposites , then by their worth in strength of reason , I beleeve they would hardly think them worthy to be numbred amongst their Benefactors . But notwithstanding all that Mr. Prynne hath done or said to , or against me , or my Innocencies Triumph , in particular ; in the 106 , 107 , 108 , 109 , 110 , 111 , 112 pages of this his Discourse , yet his spes gregis , the strength of his hope that he hath done sufficient execution upon me , rests onely upon his former sections ; however the Question of many concerning them , is , Cui bono ? He tells me , that my own conscience and judgement cannot but informe me , that he hath written enough in the former Sections to convince me and all the world besides , that I have not onely violated , but denyed , oppugned those Priviledges of Parliament in Ecclesiasticall affaires , which our own Parliaments in all ages , and Parliamentary Assemblies in all other Kingdomes have unquestionably exercised , &c. I answer , 1. I confesse that in the former sections he hath written enough , quantitativè , to convince any reasonable man ( if not all the world ) of any errour or mistake whatsoever : but much too little qualitativè , to convince either me , or any reasonable man , that I have violated , or oppugned any Priviledge of Parliament ; I have farre more reason to conceive and hope , that in this and my last-published Discourse , I have written enough both wayes to convince both him and all the world , that I have NOT violated or oppugned any Priviledge of Parliament , truly , or with the consent of Heaven , so called . If he intends to conclude , that therefore I have violated , oppugned the Privileges of Parliament , because I have argued against some positions or opinions , which Mr. Prynne , with some others , are pleased to call Priviledges of Parliament ; the Logician , who is a man of reason , will answer for me , that à terminis diminuentibus non sequitur argumentatio . It doth not follow , that a piece of metall or coyne is therefore gold , because it is counterfeit gold ; nor that Mr. Prynnes Great Grandfather is a man , because he is a dead man . If he can , or shall fairly demonstrate unto me ( though in a far lesse content of words , then his three former sections amount unto ) that any act , practise , or exercise , either by continuance or succession of time , or by frequencie of repetition , or customarinesse of reiteration , by connivencie or want of opposition from men , must needs change the nature and kind of it , and of sinfull become lawfull , he shall by such a demonstration as this , put life into his former sections , and render them potent for that conviction which he expects from them ; but till this be done , that great bulk and body of things done in the dark , and time out of minde , will partake of that infirmitie which the Author himself acknowledgeth as cleaving to the Discourse , I meane , impotencie a ; and can with no tolerable pretence of reason or equitie , demand that interest in the judgements , consciences , understandings of men , which he challengeth ( it seems ) on their behalfe . It is as poore and low a designe , onely by alledging the examples , opinions , or judgements of men , to attempt the conviction of him that builds his opinion upon the Scriptures & word of God , yea though he builds besides his foundation ; as it would be in a man to carry a sack of chaffe to the market , hoping to bring home a like quantitie of wheat for it , without giving any other price . Yea to alledge and cite the Scriptures themselves , though in never such an abundance , without close arguing and binding them to our cause ; is a means of very small hope , whereby to prevaile or doe good upon such a man who holds his opinion , not barely or simply upon a supposall of Scripture-Authoritie for it , but upon Scripture thoroughly debated , and by principles of sound reason and naturall deductions , brought home unto his judgement and cause . Againe , 2. in all that great body of premisses contained in all the former Sections he speaks of , there is not one word , syllable , letter , or tittle to prove that maine ingredient in his Conclusion , unquestionably exercised . Logicians justly reject and exauthorize all such Conclusions , which swell above the line of their premisses . By all the tables and donaries presented unto Neptune by those that in Shipwracks escaped with their lives , it could not be knowne , who , or how many they were , that were drowned . 3. Nor is there any whit more in any , in all the said Sections or premisses , that reacheth home , or indeed comes neere , to that specialtie in the Conclusion , in all ages . Evanders mother lived many ages agone ; yet the mother of Abel had the precedencie of her by many generations . Therefore surely all the world will never accept of the Conclusion so insufficiently and lamely prov'd . 4. And lastly , Whereas Mr. Prynne tells me , that if I now make not good my promise , few or none will ever credit me hereafter ; I should be very glad to meet with my condition , that so I might performe my obligation . But in the meane time , whether any or none will credit me hereafter ; I know not well how I , or any other should credit him for the present , as touching the authentiqueness and truth of those citations and transcriptions , upon which the principall weight of that Conclusion depends , whereof he expects conviction both from me , and all the world to boote . Is it lightly possible for any man to refraine jealousie in this kind , that doth but consider how oft his pen hath dash'd against the rock of truth , in representing me , my opinions and sayings , ( yea , I can say further , affections , intentions ) upon the open theatre of the world , where any man that will , may see his nakednesse in this kinde ? Is boldnesse in the Sun , like to prove modestiē in the shade ? As for satisfaction by examination of all particulars , it is not every mans , indeed very few mens , opportunitie . The respective Authors and records , wherein particularities must be inquired after , and found , for satisfaction in that kind , are in few mens hands ; and not of all mens understandings . So that Mr. Prynne by dealing so unfaithfully and unchristianly by me and my sayings , as he hath done , hath not onely obstructed the course and passages of his own reputation and credit ; but hath further also injur'd the world round about him , by rendring those good parts and abilities wherewith God hath intrusted him for publick accommodation , if not wholly unserviceable , yet of very meane usefulnesse and concernment , in comparison of what their line and tenour would well have borne . It is a saying in the Civill Law , that he that hath injur'd one , hath threatened many . I end , with a word of Christian admonition and advice , both to the Gentleman my Antagonist , and my selfe . Sir , the Great and Glorious God that made us , in mercy remembers both our frames , and considers that we are dust a . This gracious remembrance of his we injoy both by night and by day , in whatsoever we injoy in the Comforts of this world , yea or in the opportunities wee have of laying hold on that which is to come . Our dust which abaseth us , in this respect , yet relieveth us , and becomes a Mediator for us with the bountifulnesse of God : were wee creatures of a more excellent line , those sins and infirmities would ( in all likelihood ) were they found upon us , be our ruine , which now doe not so much as shake the least haire of our heads . If wee would but remember and consider one the other , as God doth us both , that common principle of frailtie , out of which wee act to a reciprocall discontentment and offence , would be of soveraigne use to mollifie and supple , if not perfectly to heale , both our wounds . Not to think any thing that befalleth us strange , is almost ( being interpreted ) not to think it evill . We shall not quit our selves like men , if we make any great matter of it , to be evill intreated by men . Mutuall discontentments now and then are a known tribute which men must look to pay for the commoditie of living & conversing together in the world . If we have offended one the other , happie shall we be in forgiving one the other , and circumvent him whose designe was to have circumvented us , and made hatred ( a kind of upper hell ) of our contestation . If I have offended you otherwise then by speaking the truth , and so as the defence of it , all circumstances duly poysed , required , you shall not need long to complaine of want of Christian satisfaction , as far as I am able either to doe or to speak any thing that may accommodate you , if you please , but to signifie your aggrievance , and make your demands in a Christian and loving way . And if your heart will but answer mine in these inclinations , the storms and tempests of our contestations , shall yet end in a sweet calme ; and men shall look upon us , as if wee had never been they : If you reject the motion of a Christian compliance by the way , I can very patiently , and with comfort enough , awaite the Decisions of that Great Tribunall , whose awards will shortly seale all the righteousnesses and unrighteousnesses of men , against all further disputes or inquiries to the dayes of Eternitie . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A85386e-290 a 1 King. 21. 25. a Mat. 27. 18. b Joh. 8. 46. c Vers . 48. Notes for div A85386e-930 a Innocency and Truth triumphing together . b My nocturnall lucubrations , borrowed from the houres allotted to my necessary naturall rest , &c. Epist. Dedic. c Epist. Ded. Propè finem . d Epist. to the Reader . Propè finem . e Epist. to the Reader . Versus finem . f Pag. 110. Versus finem . a Epist. Delic . non longè à fine . b Ibid. & p. 1. c Epist. to the Reader . Sect. 2. d Pag. 106. a Cyprian ad Caecil . lib. 2. Ep. 3. Sect. 3. b Epist. Ded. p 3. paulò ab initio . Sect. 4. a Ibidem . Sect. 5. b Ibidem . Sect. 6. c Pag. 156. a Pag. 134. Sect. 7. b Pag. 106. c Pag. 106. d Innocency and Truth triumphing together . Sect. 8. a Pag. 107. paulo ante medium . b Innocencies Triumph . p. 18. 19. c Ibidem . d Ibidem . Sect. 9. a Pag. 108. Circà medium . Sect. 10. b 1 King. 18. 17. c 1 King. 18. 18. Sect. 11. d Pag. 110. Circà medium . a Pag. 109. Paulò post ini●●●● . Sect. 12. Sect. 13. a Though for the most part really cordiall in their affections , actions to the Parliament and Church of England ( speaking of Independents ) Epist. Dedic. Circa initium . b Pag. 107. Circa finem . c Epist. Dedic. Paulo post initium d Full Reply . p. 7. Circà initium . Sect. 14. a Nec verbum verbo curabis reddere fidus Interpres . Hor. de Art. Sect. 15. b 2 Cor. 11. 3. c Ver. 2. d Isa. 8. Sect. 16. a Mat. 16. 23. b 2 Thes. 3. 2. Sect. 17. Sect. 19. Mr. Pryn , p. 108 Sect. 20. a Psal. 90 2. b Prov. 8. 25. Sect. 21. a Rom. 12. b Pag. 109. paulò ante medium . Sect. 22. a Epist. Dedic. non longè ab mitio . b Ibidem . c Epist. to the Reader , all most throughout , and elsewhere in severall other of his writings , as his ful Reply , &c. a Full Reply pag. 7. b Ibidem . c Full Reply p. 6. propè finem . a Heb. 5. 12. b What ever censure you deserve , I fear your book demerits the fire to purge out this dross . p. 109. a Psal. 64. 8. b Psal. 52. 4. c Act . d Exod. 5. 12. e Gen. 11. 4. f Mat. 22. 19 , 20. g Pag. 108. a Pag. 107. b See my Anti-Cavalierisme . c See my Bonc for a Bishop . a Epist. Dedic. in sine . b Mar. 12. 43. c 2 Cor. 12. 11. a Reglum est malè audire , cum bene feceris . a Mat. 14. 4. b Dan. 3. 18. c Dan. 6. 8. 10. a Full Reply pag. 7. Circa initium . b Pag. 108. a Full Reply in the very last clause . b {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . Arist. Ethic. ad Nichom . l. 3. c. 1. a Rom. 7. 7. b 1 Ioh. 3. 4. a Ierem. 15. 19 b Numb. 16. 3. c Pag. 106. l. 9. 10. d Pag. 110. in fine . a Jer. 15. 9. b Rom. 8. 6. a 1 Tim. 1. 13. a Rom. 4. 15 b Act. 20. 27. c Innocencie and Truth triumphing together . d 2 Thes. 1. 7 , 8. e 2 Tim. 4. 1 , 2. f Ezek. 3. 10 , 11. 18 , 19 , 20. Jer. 1. 17. Esa. 58. 1. Mat. 10. 27 , 28 Act. 4. 19 , 20. & 20. 24 , 25 , 26 , 27. Rom. 12. 6. 1 Pet. 4. 10 , 11. 1 Cor. 9. 16. Tit. 1. 9. & 3. 15 , &c. a Pag. 107. circa medium . b Act. 4. 18. 20. b Ioh. 1. 9. a Mr. Edwards Antap. p. 169. b Katharine Chidley New-yeers gift . Epist. to the Reader . c Epist. Dedic. non longe à finè d Epist. Dedic. non longe à fine . And again , p. 111. non longè à fine . * Whereas M. S. hath these words : Better a thousand times is it that such distempers as these , though found in millions of men , should suffer , then that the least haire of the head of one of those men should fall to the ground : This passage A. Steuart ( 〈…〉 ) interprets this : Better that millions of us , who desire the suppression of all Sects , should suffer , then but any of them should lose but one , yea the least hair of their heads . The second part of the Duply , &c. by Adam Steuart , p. 180. What M. S. cals , DISTEMPERS , A. S. interprets , Presbyterians ; and is not able to conceive how the one should suffer without the other . And this line of interpretation he stretcheth over this whole Discourse : 〈…〉 . e 1 Thes. 2. 18 f Actapol . p. 191. a Mat. 1. 2. b Mat. 27. 5. a Pag. 106. ante medium . b Antapol pag. 159 , 160 , 163 , &c. c pag 166. 169. 170 , &c. a These my impotent endeavours . Epist. to the Reader , versus finem . a Psal. 103. 14. 
A85400	----	Innocency and truth triumphing together; or, The latter part of an answer to the back-part of a discourse, lately published by William Prynne Esquire, called, A full reply, &c. Beginning at the foot of p. 17. of the said discourse, with this title or superscription, Certain brief animadversions on Mr. John Goodwins Theomachia. Wherein the argumentative part of the said animadversions is examined; together with some few animadversions upon some former passages in the said reply. Licensed and printed according to order. Goodwin, John, 1594?-1665. 1645 Approx. 298 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 55 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2008-09 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A85400 Wing G1176 Thomason E24_8 ESTC R22666 99871810 99871810 124227 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A85400) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 124227) Images scanned from microfilm: (Thomason Tracts ; 5:E24[8]) Innocency and truth triumphing together; or, The latter part of an answer to the back-part of a discourse, lately published by William Prynne Esquire, called, A full reply, &c. Beginning at the foot of p. 17. of the said discourse, with this title or superscription, Certain brief animadversions on Mr. John Goodwins Theomachia. Wherein the argumentative part of the said animadversions is examined; together with some few animadversions upon some former passages in the said reply. Licensed and printed according to order. Goodwin, John, 1594?-1665. [8], 99, [1] p. 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Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Prynne, William, 1600-1669. -- Full reply to certaine briefe observations and anti-queries on Master Prynnes twelve questions about church-government. Puritans -- Controversial literature -- Early works to 1800. 2007-09 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2007-11 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2008-01 Judith Siefring Sampled and proofread 2008-01 Judith Siefring Text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion Innocency and Truth Triumphing together ; OR , The latter part of an ANSWER to the back-part of a DISCOURSE , lately published By William Prynne Esquire , called , A FULL REPLY , &c. Beginning at the foot of p. 17. of the said Discourse , with this title or superscription , Certain brief Animadversions on Mr. JOHN GOODWINS Theomachia . Wherein the Argumentative part of the said Animadversions is examined ; Together with some few Animadversions upon some former Passages in the said REPLY . Qui innocentiae debitum servat , poenitentiae non solvit usuram , Chrysost . Nolo mihi imperet ille vel ille , qui me opprimere potest , docere non potest , Hieronymus . Non est delicata in Deum , & secura confessio : qui in me credit , debet sanguinem suum sundere ibidem . Ignosci potuit simpliciter errantibus : post inspirationem verò & revelationem factam , sine ignorantiae veniâ peccatur , Cypr. Ep. Pios hoc nomen & titulum in mundo oportet gerere , quòd seditiosi ac schismatici , ac infinitorum malorum authores sunt , Lutherus Gal. c. 5. Not that wee have dominion over your faith : but are helpers of your joy , 2 Cor. 1. 24. Let us therefore , as many as be perfect , be thus minded : and if any of yee be otherwise minded , God shall reveale even the same unto you , Phil. 3. 15. Licensed and Printed according to Order . LONDON ; Printed by Matthew Simmons , for Henry Overton , at his Shop in Popes-head-Alley , 1645. To the unpartiall and unprejudic'd READER . AM I therefore become your enemy , because I tell you the truth a , ( saith the first-born b , and yet the last born also c , of the Apostles to his Galathians ; ) The interrogation is a constructive assertion of two things . First , that to speak the truth in some cases , is very opportune to sinister interpretation , and apt to represent the speaker as a man of no benevolous or friendly comportance with those , to whom he so speaketh . The reason whereof seems to be this : Errors and misprisions are many times very indulgent and bountifull to the flesh ; and he that incounters men under such injoyments , with the truth , seems to them rather to strike at these injoyments , then at the error or opinion , by whose consent they have first taken , and still keep possession of them . Themselves esteeming the opinion of small value ( as well it deserves ) save onely in reference to those carnall gratifications ; are very apt to conceive that neither doe others so much minde that , or take offence at that , as at those priviledges or accommodations which they injoy by it : and this they judge to be a straine of an hostile inclination . Secondly , The prementioned Interrogation supposeth , that no manifestation or speaking of what truth soever unto men , simply as such , is any argument at all of want of affection , and that in the highest , unto them . The reason is , because there is no Truth , which being imbraced , and honoured with sutable practise , but will give farre better wages and consideration to her servants in due time , then any error whatsoever . Yea , the truth is , that the greater breach , or spoyle , a Truth makes in any mans worldly possessions or enjoyments , it is of so much the richer and the more advantagious concernment unto him , and will honour him the more abundantly . It is the manner and guise of divine truth , to pull downe houses built with firres and brick , and to build them up againe with cedars and hewne stones . He that deals much either in the discoverie , ( or recovery rather ) or inforcement of such truths , which are opposed in the world , not onely by errors and contrary misprisons , but by secular accommodations also , as of honour , power , riches , pleasures , or the like , takes a very direct course to make himself conformable to the image of his Saviour , who being so great a Benefactor to the world , was yet numbred amongst Transgressors . To attempt the casting downe of such imagination , which do not onely exalt themselves in the minds of men , but contribute also to the exaltation of men themselves in the world , be they never so extravagant or eccentricall to the truth , is an undertaking of almost as doubtfull a presage , as they that speak Proverbs are wont to represent by the taking a Lion by the beard , or an Elephant by the tooth . And did not the God of Truth umpire ( and that with an high hand ) amongst the thoughts and counsells of the sons of men , and put many a by ingredient into his providence of soveraign reliefe to those , whose hearts are set , and hands lift up to magnifie such Truths , which being advanced are like to doe justice in the world , and to reduce all usurpations and unrighteous detainments amongst men , the Earth would not be able to beare the words of such men ; and the world soone become too hot a climate for Truths of such a complexion . It is a matter of somewhat a sad contemplation , ( and yet in part , delightfull also , viz. as those Oracles of Heaven , the Scriptures , are mightily asserted and vindicated like themselves thereby ) to see , what commotions , tumults , and combustions are presently raised in the minds and spirits of men upon the birth ( or resurrection rather ) of any Truth into the world , concerning which there is the least jealousie , that in case it should reigne , it would rack them from off the lees of their old customes , or compell them to a restitution of what they have unjustly taken , and peaceably injoyed for a long time , or any wayes expose them to any outward sufferings , or disaccommodations in the world ; to see , what hurryings up and downe , what ingaging of parties , what inquiring after parts and abilities , what rembling over Authors old and new , what incensing of Authoritie , what streynings of wits and consciences , what slighting of solid arguments , what evading substantiall and cleare interpretations of Scripture , what magnifying of those that are streined and farre fetch'd in their stead , what casting abroad of calumnies and reproaches , what incrustations , and misrepresentations of opinions , sayings , practises , actions , what shiftings , what blendings , what colourings , what pretendings , what disgracings , yea , what conventings , what persecutions , what evill intreatings of men , what appealings to fire , sword , prisons , banishment , confiscations , and all to turn a beam of light and glorie , into darknes & shame , to keep a new-born Truth from ruling over them . As soone as Herod the King heard that Christ was borne , and that wise men were come from the East to worship him , inquiring after him , as a King ; the Text saith , that he was troubled , and all Jerusalem with him : and how unnaturall and bloudy a design was there presently put in execution , to prevent the reigning of him that was but now borne into the world ? That one , who yet was their lawfull King , might not reigne over them , many poore infants ( innocents altogether in this ) were not suffered to live amongst them . This Scene also was acted in Germany , when God first made Luther as life from the dead a vnto the Doctrine of free justification and remission of sins ; a Doctrine not so much opposed by the Popish Tenet concerning the vertue and validitie of Papall Indulgences , as by the b sacred thirst of that gold and silver which the trade of such merchandize formerly driven by the Grand Seignior of Rome and his Factors throughout the Christian world , brought into their coffers in that bewitching and transporting abundance . Reader , of any wrong done to my self , I will not complaine : but I know a man , who hath been forsaken of his friends , found those of his own house to be his enemies , who hath been reviled , traduced , reproached , way-laid , by tongues , by pens , by practises , reported to have lost his wits , abilities , parts , suffered losse of his due and necessary subsistence , wrongfully deteined from him , and for which he hath laboured faithfully , brought before Rulers and Magistrates , represented to Soveraigne Authoritie , as a wilfull and presumptuous underminer of their undoubted priviledges , and that diametrally contrary to his Vow and Covenant ; besides twenty more hard sayings and practises of men against him ; and all this for no other cause , upon none other ground or exception , but onely because he holds forth such a Truth ( as in all his heart and all his soule he is verily perswaded ) which , if entertained , is like to blesse the world , though it be as by fire , I meane by casting downe the present thoughts , and crossing the present desires and designs of many in it : Of the injuries & indignities offered to such a man , I have cause ( with many others ) to complaine ; but for any sufferings or evill intreaties of mine own from men , I count it beneath my ingagements to him , who strengtheneth me to doe and to suffer all things a , to stoop to take up any lamentation or complaint . In these leaves following , I make payment of a debt unto thee , contracted by a promise and ingagement made in my late briefe defence , which I styled , Innocencies Triumph ; with some small additionall consideration , for thy present forbearance . For in the former sections till about pag. 54. I animadvert upon some select passages in the former part and body of that piece , in whose tayle lies the sting of my accusation ; the pulling out whereof , is my taske from the third section unto the end . In the carriage of the discourse , I projected these foure ; Brevitie , persecuitie , moderation , satisfaction . How I have performed or prospered in my designe , is a case now presented unto the Great Judicatorie of the world to judge and determine . I shall not court thy favour or approbation : if thou wilt deale hardly either with the Truth or her Friends , at thine own perill be it : Injure what thou canst , we shall be repaired ; yea , and have all our forbearance and delay , in full consideration and recompence . Yet a very little while , and he that doth come , will come , and will not tarry a : and behold , his reward is with him b . In the day of whose coming , however thou shalt deale with me in the interim , I cordially wish thee peace , and that lifting up of the head , after which it shall never hang downe more . From my Study in Coleman-street , Jan. 8. 1644. Thine , all that thy soule desireth , in the love of the truth , J. G. Errata . Pag. 3. line 36. dele , only , and close the parenthesis at the word , government . P. 8. l. 26. dele , ) . P. 17. l. 5. for vere , r. vero . P. 13. l. 7. for apparent , r. apparan . P. 39. l. 3. for distances , r. disturbances ; ibid. l. 36. for disturbances , r. disturbance . P. 47. l. 33. for , ingagements , r. inducements . P. 49. l. 14. for , leave , r. give . P. 51. l. 31. for , in ordinary , r. in an ordinary . P. 53. l. 1. for , faith , r. truth . P. 56. l. 34. for . praise , r. honour . P. 59. l. 11. for , still , r. till . P. 61. l. 35. for , is more , r. is of more . P. 62. l. 15. in the margent , for ipsa , r. ipsam . P. 65. l. 4. for , precedent , r. president . ibid. l. 12. for guiltie , r. guilt . P. 68. l. 9. those words , and lastly , to be closed in a parenthesis . P. 70. l. 18. for , together by , r. together for by . P. 80. l. 10. for , the , r. that . P. 87. l. 25. for , exemptively , r. executively . Some other lesser mistakes , as in points , parentheses , or the like , the Reader is desired to pardon , and amend . Innocency and Truth Triumphing together : OR , The latter Part of an ANSWER to the back-part of a Discourse , lately published by WILLIAM PRYNNE Esquire , called , A FULL REPLY , &c. THe Gentleman who hath vouchsafed me the honour of so noble an Antagonist , as himself , p. 8. of his Full Reply , hath this ingenuous saying : I presume my friends are so ingenuous , as not to be offended with mee for reproving only their errours with ingenuous freedome , in which I manifest my self their greatest friend , because I neither spare nor flatter them in their mistakes . I cannot doubt , but that hee will put the same interpretation upon the ingenuous freedome of his friend in the same kind , which hee presumes his friends will put upon his ; and will make no other construction of my not-sparing or flattering him in his mistakes , then as a manifestation of my self to be his greatest friend . The truth is , that if he shall put any other construction upon them , but this , it is a signe that he understands not the dialect or language of mine intentions . Upon the stock of so faire and rich an incouragement , as this , I conceive it very proper for mee to graffe ( at least ) the presentation of some errors and mistakes ( more then so called ) to Master Prynnes view , which himself had first scatteringly , presented to the view of the world , in his late piece , called , A full Reply , &c. and will ( I trust ) assist my Pen with his in the censure and condemnation of them ; I make no question , but that he will acknowledge it an errour and mistake in any man , to confute concealed errours and mistakes with those that are open and professed . Hee makes a sad complaint ( in the very beginning of his work ) that his condition still hath been to have his best actions and publique services ( he means performed by his Pen ) misconstrued and traduced ; and yet a few lines after , hee affirms that his twelve Questions touching Church-Government , gave ample satisfaction to many truly Religious , of all ranks and qualities , who returned him speciall thanks . He that can give men , yea , the best of men , men truly Religious , yea , not a few of these men neither , but many , and that of all ranks and qualities satisfaction , yea , ample satisfaction ( and receive thanks accordingly ) only by asking Questions , seems to write with Fortunatus his Pen ; and may well beare the burthen of much misprision from other men , out of the strength of the joy of this rare successe . Ordinarily , men of greatest worth and learning , have much ado to give satisfaction , by the most elaborate and exact resolutions ; which is another manner of service to the world , then asking Questions is : A weak man may ask moe Questions in an houre , then seven wise men can answer in seven yeeres . And when hee saith , that our Saviour both instructed and refuted his opposites and auditors , by demanding Questions only , I conceive it is a mistake : As for those Scriptures which hee cites to prove this , some of them being more then half Chapters , most of them very large portions of Chapters ; he that shall please to peruse them , shall finde more in them , then demanding Questions only . No question demanded by our Saviour was further instructive , then as it gave occasion to an answer . It is the marrow of the answer , not the bone of the Question that nourisheth with instruction ; And Luke 2. 47. ( the first Scripture alledged by him in this Cause ) it is said , That all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and ANSWERS , not at his Questions . Notwithstanding , we acknowledge Aristotles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be very usefull and serviceable for the advancement of knowledge ; only herein we must crave pardon , if we judge it no signe of any depth or thoroughness in an Argument or Subject , to be imperious and sore in asking Questions about it , and but weak and superficiall in giving Answers . Again , whereas hee supposeth , p. 4. that Independent Ministers and Congregations lay claim to a soveraign Temporall all Jurisdiction , for the prescribing and setting up of a Church-Government ; certainly it is a mistake , ( whatsoever it is more ) they claim to Jurisdiction at all , much lesse any temporall Jurisdiction , least of all any soveraign Jurisdiction , to prescribe unto any ( much less , to command or injoyn under penalties , which is proper to soveraign Temporall Jurisdiction ) any Church-Government whatsoever : they only submit to that good and holy and perfect Will of God , for the regulation of themselves , in point of order amongst themselves , as far as he hath pleased to inlighten them with the knowledge thereof ; without taking any offence at others , for being contrary-minded to them , and without the least semblance or shew of claiming any Authoritative or Temporall power to impose or force what they practise themselves upon others . Again , whereas because some of the Independents ( as he chargeth them , p. 5. whether truly or no , I can neither affirm , nor deny ) refuse to heare the Scriptures read in our Churches , hee thinks to evict this practice of theirs , by proving ( and that by no lesse then thirteen Texts of Scripture ) that publique reading of them is an ordinance of God ; I conceive it is a defect or mistake in point of proof . Because , if such refusall be made by any , it is not made either upon denying or questioning , whether publike reading of the Scriptures , be an Ordinance of God ; but either upon questioning , whether the bare reading of them in publique , without giving the sense of them , or framing some exhortation upon them , or the like , be an Ordinance of God ( which some of the Scriptures cited by himself , particularly , Neh. 8. 8. make very questionable ) or else upon this reason and ground of conscience , that a man may very safely refuse an inferiour accommodation for his soul , when he hath a lawfull opportunity to injoy a superiour . Again , whereas he affirms , p. 5. the only point in question ( I presume he means about Church-Government only to be , whether the Independent modell alone be that exact , unalterable form of Church-Government , which Christ hath punctually & particularly set down for all Christian nations , Churches to follow ; and yet both in the same page afterwards , and in severall passages besides in this Discourse , denies that there is any such form of Government , so punctually and particuarly set down by Christ , doubtles it cannot but be a mistake , if it amounts not to an error : for they that hold the Independent modell ( as hee calleth it ) to be the only form of Church-Government , which Christ hath so punctually and particularly set down , must needs hold withall , that Christ hath set down a form of Church-Government upon such terms , I mean , which is , and must be , unalterable . Now Mr. Prynne , ( with many others of his judgement , in this controversie ) denying this latter opinion , as well as the former , evident it is , that the former cannot be the only point in question . But the truth is , that besides both the one point & the other , there are many others in question , though possibly not of that difficulty or importance : yea , himself in the following page , propounds another question , differing from this , to which notwithstanding hee appropriates the same honour , and affirms it to be the sole Question too . Again , p. 6. whereas he determines , moderated or regulated Episcopacy , to be the same with Presbyterie ; I conceive this determination will hardly be voted orthodox in the Assembly it self , nor in the generall Assembly of the Church of Scotland . For my part , though I cannot approve of it as matter of truth , yet for matter of inconvenience otherwise , I have nothing to charge it with . Again , whereas ( in the same page ) in case the Parliament by the Synods advice , should unanimously establish a moderated Episcopacy , as most consonant to the Scriptures , he professeth for himself , that hee shall readily submit unto it ; and withall demands of the Anti-Querist , Why not hee , and all others ? as if either the consonancy of a practice to the Scriptures , or the example of one man submitting unto it as consonant thereunto , were a sufficient ground for all men whatsoever to submit likewise unto it , without any more ado ; this savours strongly of that error , which comports so well with the practice of some , viz. that if men in Authority shall conclude and injoyn any thing , as consonant to the Word of God , all men are bound readily to submit unto it , without asking any Question for conscience sake ; yea , or whether they see either consonancy or dissonancy in it thereunto . Again , whereas he owns this saying , p. 6. as the naturall issue lawfully begotten of the body or soule ( th' one ) of his own position , that Politicians and Statesman are fit to be consulted with to suit a Church-government best to the Civill State ; certainly it is no assertion to be rejoyced in . For as the Apostles made their enemies themselves judges in this point between them , Whether it was meet to obey God , or them : So shall I willingly abide the arbitration of any of all those that make but the least conscience of fearing God and his King ( Christ , ) whether the government of Christs Church and Kingdome should condescend , and be compelled by Politicians and Statesmen to doe obeysance to civill States in accommodating them ; or whether the government of these should not rather veyle , and doe homage unto that , and deny themselves in their most indeered Principles and maximes of State , to give all accommodation and honour unto it . The truth is , that the government of Christs Kingdome in a civill State , will never do any great thing for it , except it first receive accommodation from it . The truth knowes no compliance , but onely with those that submit to it . Whereas ( pag. 6. ) he placeth the whole representative as well Church as State of England in the Parliament , though I dare not gain-say it , fearing lest Mr. Pryn , claiming ( as it should seem ) a priviledge to make the privileges of Parliament what he pleaseth , should make it a presumptuous and wilfull undermining of the undoubted priviledges of Parliament by the very roots : yet I must ingenuously professe , that it is a notion which I know not how to procure quarter for in my brain , as yet . What I may doe hereafter when the Gentleman shall bestow more cost and pains upon it to reconcile the disproportion which for the present it carrieth to my understanding , I will not predetermine . But none of all the Authors or Books that ever yet I was debtor unto , for any grain or scruple of that knowledge wherewith God hath pleased to recompence my labour in studying , ever licensed mee to call any Assembly the Representative Church of any State or Kingdome wherein there is not so much as any one Church-officer to be found Whereas he affirmes it ( in the same page ) a truth so cleare , that no rationall man , good Christian , or subject , can deny it , that the whole representative Church and State of England in Parliament , have sufficient authoritie by Gods law to over-rule and bind all , or any particular members or congregations of it , as well as the major part of an Independent Congregation , power to over-vote and rule the lesser part , and to order yea , bind any of their particular members ; though for the danger aforesaid , it be not ( perhaps ) so safe for me simply to call the latter assertion touching the comparison between the two powers , either an error or a mistake ; yet that this assertion should be a truth so royally qualified , that no reasonable man , or good Christian can deny it , seemes not so reasonable . The reason is , because in an Independent congregation , all the members by free and voluntary consent have submitted themselves to the regulation and order of the whole body , or ( which is the same ) of the major part of it : and therefore this body having received a lawfull power in a lawfull way , for the reiglement of her respective members , may lawfully exercise it according to the tenor and true intent of the delegation of it : whereas there are many thousands in the Church and State of England , who by Mr. Prynnes owne acknowledgement ( p. 24. line 3. 4. ) have not given any such consent for their regulation in matters Ecclesiasticall , and which concerne Religion , unto the Parliament ; yea , and there are many thousands more besides those which hee there describes and intends , who will not owne any such Resignation . Therefore the difference between the one case and the other , is very broad , and no lesse considerable , so that a reasonable man may without any dispraise to his Reason , and a good Christian , without any prejudice to the goodnesse of his Christianity , demurre a while before judgement upon the case . Besides , there is no question , or ground of doubting , but that a good Christian may lawfully , and with a good conscience , submit himself unto a godly , able , and faithfull Pastor , together with his people , whom he hath good ground to judge godly , and faithfull also , as well for their edification in their most holy faith , as for the inspection & regulation of themselves in matters of life and conversation : But whether it be lawfull to submit to any man , or any rank or association of men , ( especially of men , of whose sufficiencie and faith fulnesse in the things of God , and Jesus Christ , we have either but a very slender or no testimony at all , yea whose persons are altogether unknowne to us ) in matters which concerne the worship and service of God , cannot but be a question , and that of great moment , to all considering and conscientious men , who are not already satisfied in the negative part of it . The Apostles doe not onely permit , but give it in charge to Christians in Church-fellowship , to submit themselves one to another in the feare of God , Eph. 5. 21. i. to be yeelding , and tractable , easie to be intreated one by another . And , submit your selves every man unto another , 1 Pet. 5. 5. If one man ought to submit to another man in this kind , much more ought one to submit unto many , and most of all to the whole society of Saints whereof he is a member . But as touching submission unto any man , or men whatsoever in matters which concerne the worship and service of God , the Scripture is so farre from imposing this upon any man , that it imposeth the contrary , and that with great Emphasis and weight , Call no man your father upon earth , ( is our Saviours owne charge , Matth. 23. 9. ) for one is your Father which is in heaven . And in the preceding verse , Be ye not called Rabbi : for one is your master ( or Doctor ) even Christ , and ye all are brethren . And the Apostle , 1 Cor. 7. 23. Yee are bought with a price , be ye not the servants of men . He speakes of a servility or subjection in judgement and conscience , to the decisions or determinations of men in matters of conscience and Religion . And whosoever doth submit or subject himselfe in things of this nature unto any man or men whosoever , that is , resigne up his judgement and conscience to be ordered , obliged , and tied , by the meere authority or magistery of men in such things , Call's men Fathers on earth , makes himselfe a servant unto men : and consequently makes himself a transgressor both of our Saviours injunction and charge in this behalf , and of his Apostles also . Thirdly , he that submits himselfe to a Pastor and Congregation of Saints for such regulation as hath been mentioned , is presumed to know and understand before-hand , of what spirit both the one and the other are ; how matters appertaining to the worship and service of God , are carried , managed , and ordered amongst them ; so that he may with the full concurrence and consent of his judgement and conscience , submit himselfe unto them , as touching communion with them in their practice in this kind : but what any Synod , Assembly , or Court of men will determine or enjoyn in such things , cannot be known before-hand by any man ; and consequently , no man can with a good conscience submit himselfe unto them , as touching any of their determinations or decisions , untill he first understands what they are , and whether according to the light and judicature of his conscience , agreeable to the word of God. Fourthly , in case a Pastor and Congregation shall afterwards so farre alter and vary from that posture either in Doctrine or practice , wherein they stood , when a man first joyned and submitted himselfe unto them , that hee cannot with the peace of his conscience walk any longer with them , hee may with leave obtained , or otherwise if by request it cannot be obtained , withdraw himselfe without any inconvenience , from their communion , and incorporate himselfe elswhere , as he judgeth best . This may bee done with farre lesse trouble and inconvenience , then ordinarily a man upon a dislike of his Parochial Pastor , can remove out of one Parish into another . But when such things concerning the worship and service of God , which a man cannot with a good conscience submit unto , shall be enacted and commanded , under mulcts and penalties by those that have power and authority over us , wee cannot refuse subjection hereunto , but at our perill , and with the sustaining of what detriment or dammage , whether in our estates , liberties , or otherwise , as the commanders shall please to impose . Therefore the case between a particular Congregation , and the representative body of a Kingdome , is farre different . Fifthly and lastly , the representative Church and State of a Kingdome , may ( and doth ordinarily ) differ from it selfe in poynt of judgement touching matters of Religion ) at severall times , as much as heaven and earth . Such Bodies in the dayes of Queene Mary , and before , stood up for Lordly Episcopacie , which you confesse , page 8. that Body which now is , hath by solemne covenant abjured . And besides , enacted many things concerning the worship & service of God , which other Bodies of the same representation and power , have since repealed . And the nature and claim of such Bodies as these in their severall successions , is , that what powersoever hath been either given unto , or exercised by any of the Predecessors , of right appertains to the Successor . So that suppose the representative Body now in being , shall be freely and willingly submitted unto , as having a lawfull power to establish what they shall please in matters of Religion , as most agreeable to the word of God : this submission doth not onely interesse or confirm them in this power , but in the consequence and construction of it , is the like interessing and confirmation in the same power , of all their successors , of what constitution or judgement soever they shall bee for matters of Religion . Whereas for particular Independent Congregations ( loquendum ut vulgus ) their present constitution being sound & safe , as touching their members , being all in the judgment of charity ( and discretion too ) persons of conscience , and of competent understanding , they are not like in an ordinary way of providence , to degenerate or decline in their successors : and besides , in case they should , their interest and authority over any of their members , may at any time , and under their greatest confirmations , be declin'd without any considerable dammage , or inconveence , as was formerly shewed . So that Mr. Prynnes Truth now under consideration ( I meane his Assertion so called ) is nothing so cleare , but that a rationall man may deny it ; yea , the more rationall a man is , he is the more like to deny it . The Antiquerist having said , that the Saints think Christ alone is King over his Churches , and hath not left them to Substitutes , &c. whereas Mr. Prynne , page 6. replies thus ; If hee meanes it onely of matters of Faith , or of internall government over the soules of men , it may pass as tolerable ; it is ( as I conceive ) an expression which may not pass as tolerable , being worse then an ordinary error , or then more then an ordinary mistake . He that calls any thing tolerable , must needs suppose it either to be evil , or inconvenient ( at the best . ) Now if Mr. Prynne thinks it either evill or inconvenient , that Christ should be King alone over his Churches , in matters of faith and internall government of their soules , it is no marvell if he seeks to interesse men in a Legislative power over his Churches in respect of their externall government ; it is a marvell rather , that he seekes not to infringe his title and claime even to the internall government of their soules also , and that hee anoints not Representative Bodies of Churches and States , with authority to repeale the Articles of the old Creed , and to enact another . Whereas ( in the same page ) hee tells his Antiquerist , that hee must renounce his oath of Allegeance , his late Protestation , and Nationall Vow and Covenant , make foure or five Canonicall Scriptures Apocrypha , with some such other mormolukies as these , if he thinkes Christ to be King alone over his Churches , in point of externall Ecclesiasticall government , Discipline , or Order ; I conceive this consequence of his to be inconsequent & a mistake . For first , the Scriptures he specifies , Rom 13. 1. to 6. 1 Pet. 2. 13. 14. Tit. 3. 1. 1 Tim. 2. 1 , 2 , 3 , 4. speake nothing of Ecclesiasticall Government , nor of any subjection unto Kings or Rulers in matters of Conscience , or Religion ; but onely of that obedience which is due unto them in civill things : yea some of them ( the last by name ) not so much as of either . And secondly , for the Nationall vow and Covenant , doubtlesse they that took and sware that , did not abjure the absolute Monarchicall Independent power of Christ over his Churches , nor did they swear homage or fealty to any other Lord or Lords , but with a Salvo jure , &c. saving the rights and priviledges of the Lord Paramount , Jesus Christ ; amongst which that is one of the most undoubted ones , to have the sole dominion over the faith and consciences of men , especially in things concerning the worship and service of God. And thirdly and lastly , for the Oath of Allegeance , and late Protestation , either there is nothing contained in either of these , but what is of a cleare and perfect consistence with this sole dominion of Christ over the faith and consciences of men : or if there be , the renouncing of them will be more honourable and safe for Christians , then their taking of them was , or then their standing by their ingagement in that kind will be . But whereas ( page 7. ) he affirmes , that Christ hath delegated his Kingly power to Christian Kings , Magistrates , and highest civill powers ; as likewise bequeathed his Propheticall Office unto Ministers : these certo certius are errors in the highest , undermining ( I shall not abate , wilfully and presumptuously , in the reckoning ) the undoubted priviledges of the Throne of Jesus Christ by the very roots . For are not the Offices of Christ incommunicable ? appropriable only unto him who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , God & Man , and Mediator ? Or is Christ retired from the throne of his glory , to live privatly as a Recluse , to solace & enjoy himselfe in some solitary angle or by-corner of heaven ? Or hath he eas'd his shoulder of that great burthen of the government of the world , which was laid by God upon it , devolving it upon the shoulders of others ? Where is then the promise of the Everlastingnesse of his Kingdome , and of the continuance of his dominion throughout all ages ? And where is the prediction of his delivering up his Kingdome unto his Father , if he hath delivered it up ( or down rather ) unto men ? Surely he means to call for it againe out of their hands , before that day . But if Kings and Magistrates have the Kingly Power of Christ delegated unto them , they have all power given unto them both in Heaven and Earth , and consequently have not onely a right and lawfullnesse of Authoritie to command as well all the Angels of Heaven , as men on Earth , but also to incline and bow the hearts of both , to the willing execution & fulfilling of those commands . And if so , let them impose what Ecclesiasticall Government or Discipline they please , they may , if they please , be obeyed and submitted unto upon what terms , with what willingnesse and readinesse , and by whom they desire . And if Ministers be invested in the Propheticall office of Christ , how dares Mr Prynne refuse to hearken unto them ? or ingage himself in a theologicall warre against them , having no part or fellowship in this office himself ? Will he subject the spirit of the Prophets , yea , of those that prophecie in the Authoritie , and by the vertue of the Propheticall office of Christ , unto himself , and his own spirit , being no Prophet at all ? Letentur tenebrae , erubescat lux . Againe , whereas ( in the same page ) he votes , that if any man deny a certain odd kind of veritie ( so called and asserted by him ) he must renounce not onely his Christianitie , but his Allegeance and Humanitie too ; I utterly renounce the consequence , conceiving it to be tantamont with an absolute mistake . For a man may deny , that every Christian in point of Conscience is bound by the expresse resolution of Rom. 13. 1. 1 Pet. 2. 14 , 15. ( with severall other Scriptures as little to the purpose ) without any danger of blind obedience , to lawfull decreas , consonant to Gods Word , &c. without renouncing , yea , or so much as a shew of renouncing his Christianitie ( and much more of his Humanitie . ) For what hath a mans humanitie to doe with the expresse resolution of Rom. 13. 1. to 6. Ezra . 7. 26. Josh . 1. 16 , 17 , &c. Or what hath the expresse Resolution of these and other Texts , to preserve a mans Christianitie from the danger of bind obedience , even to lawfull decrees , in case the lawfulnesse of them be not seene , nor so much as examined , by those that submit unto them ? A man is in the same danger of blind obedience , as well in respect of lawfull , as unlawfull decrees . Yea , a man that after a serious and conscientious debate , shall upon a mistaken ground submit unto an unlawfull decree , acquits himself more like a Christian , and with better acceptation unto God by following the light of his conscience upon such terms , then he that shall subject himself unto a lawfull decree , without knowing , or caring to know , what , why , or wherefore he so doth . Againe , Whereas ( in the same page ) he taxeth the Anti-querist for presuming an oversight in the Parliament and Synod , before it be actually committed , and censures this ( imaginary ) act of his , as neither Christian , charitable , nor any way of Christ ; and for the proofe hereof , cites 1 Cor. 13. 5. 7. Certainly , all this is an oversight , and nothing els but the presuming of an oversight , where none is . For he that saith thus , Suppose the whole Parliament and Synod should erre in commanding a Government , &c. doth not so much as suppose , much lesse presume , that either of them will so erre ; no more then the Apostle Paul , in saying , If Christ be not risen a , presumes , that Christ is not risen : least of all doth that Text , 1 Cor. 13. 5. 7. prove that act or speech of the Anti-querist here taxed , to be either unchristian , or uncharitable . Nor is that marginall note in the same page excusable at any lower rate then a mistake of that kind , which they that speak sparingly , are wont to call an untruth ; which chargeth the Independent party , that without discovery or proofe of their way , they will have the Presbyterians blindly to submit unto it , as the onely way of Christ . Never was a poor innocent margin compell'd to carry a more guilty Annotation then this . It is the first-born of abhorrencies in Independency , to compell any man blindly to submit unto any thing . That infinuation following , is an arrow shot from the same bow , viz. that the Anti-querist and his , oppose and prejudicate both the Parliaments and Synods Proceedings , though never so pious , conscientious and religious . This were something to the purpose , if there were any thing to the proofe . Verùm de genere hoc adeò sunt multa , &c. Whereas p. 8. because the two Brethren in their Reply to A. S. used this expression concerning the Congregationall Government , that in time it cannot but overthrow all other sorts of Ecclesiasticall Government , he gathers upon them with this insulting Interrogatory ; Is it not then a turbulent , dangerous , schismaticall , unquiet ( that I say not , insufferable ) Government by your own confessions , which will admit no equall nor corrivall , &c. is not this , either through weaknesse of understanding , or strength of a worse principle , an insufferable interpretation ? Or can it but call to remembrance , that testimony of those two against our Saviour ( who are call'd false witnesses for their labour , Mat. 26. 60. ) wherein they testified , that he had said , I can destroy the Temple of God , and build it againe in three dayes , as if he had spake concerning the materiall Temple , whereas it is evident from Joh. 2. 21. that he spake concerning the Temple of his body ? In like manner , what the two Brethren spake ( as is most apparent in the passage cited by him from p. 111. of the said Reply ) concerning the finall prevailing of the Congregationall Government over other Governments , by reason of that affinitie which it hath with the Truth , and consonancy with the word of God , this man will needs interpret , as if they spake it in respect of some fierce , fiery , turbulent & domineering spirit , wherewith that way of Government should be haunted or inspired above all others ; yea , his pen blusheth not to avouch ( in effect ) that themselves confesse as much . The whole passage in the said Reply , that the Reader may the better judge , is this ; Indeed , by the beauty and perfect consonancy of this Government to the word of God , it may very reasonably ( yea and upon higher terms then of reason , meaning I suppose , of Faith ) be thought that in time it cannot but overthrow all sorts of Ecclesiasticall Government , and stand up it self in their stead . Those words in this period , it cannot but overthrow all sorts of Church-Government , they borrow from the pen of their Adversary , ( as appeares by their different character ) in which respect , for a man confederate with him in the same cause , to put a sinister or malevolent construction upon them , though used by his opposites , is very unnaturall , and a breach of ingenuitie ( I verily beleeve ) without president . Whereas a few lines after , he vapours thus ; Will any Parliament , State , or Nation ( think you ) suffer such a Government to take root among them , which will un-King , un-Parliament , un-Church , un-Nation them altogether , and make each severall Congregation an absolute Monarchie , Church , &c. A man would think he were calling for the making of three Tabernacles , one for Moses , and one for Elias , and a third for himself , not knowing indeed what he speaketh . In case a few poore Christians , persons truly fearing God , shall be permitted to worship and serve God in such a way , wherein they may injoy the peace of their consciences being tender , is such a permission as this , of any such formidable aspect , as to threaten , either the un-Kinging of a State , or the un-Parliamenting of a Parliament , or the un-Nationing of a Nation , or the un-Churching of a Church ? Or are such persons more likely , or upon terms of any moe advantage ( in case their inclinations stood for it ) to bring any of these doomes-dayes upon a State or Nation , when they are permitted to worship and serve God with peaceablenesse of Conscience , then they would be , in case they were compelled contrary to their Conscience in both ? Surely the man to whom the shadowes of the mountaines seemed men , was very prudent and advised in his feare , in respect of him that is terriculamented with such apocryphall pretences of feare , as these . Et si nullus erit pulvis , tamen excute nullum : Quaelibet officio causa sit apta tuo . Whereas he saith , p. 9. that in Parliaments every particular man hath his vote , though not in proper person , yet in their Deputies ; and yet p. 24. that there be a degree of vulgar people , who have no votes in Parliamentary elections , ( and consequently can have no Deputies ) I shall claime no priviledge of determining , which is the error or mistake ; but freely give him leave to be his own carver herein : let either number 9 , or number 24. be condemned for either , that so the Law of Contradictories however may be satisfied , and all my demands are satisfied in this particular . Whereas p. 9. he so much rejoyceth over that saying of his own , That there is no example of gathering Independent Congregations , not of Infidels , but of men already converted to , & setled in the Christian Faith , unlesse derived from the private Conventicles , of Arrians , Novations , Donatists , and other Heretiques , who yet were not Independent among themselves ; as if it were a true saying indeed , and onely bitter to Independents , because undeniable ; the truth is , that the truth of it ( were it granted ) will hardly equall the dust in the ballance , to make the cause he maintains weight . He that saith , there is no example of gathering Independent Congregations of men already converted to , and setled in the Christian Faith , unlesse derived , &c. must needs suppose and grant , that there are examples of gathering such Congregations of men not yet setled in the Christian Faith , which are not so derived , &c. according to the tenor of that knowne maxime ; Exceptio firm it Regulam in non exceptis . He that should say thus , there is no example of any man truly sanctified , that ever finally apostatis'd from his Christian profession ; implies and grants , that there are or may be examples of persons never truly sanctified , who did so apostatise . Now if there be examples of gathering Independent Congregations , of men onely converted to the Christian Faith , though not yet established or setled in it , other then those that are derived from the Conventicles of Heretiques ; it is an argument of more strength to countenance the Congregationall Government , then any Mr Prynne hath brought either to disable that , or to strengthen the other , in whose defence his pen so much triumpheth . Suppose the Apostles did build up or gather Independent Churches or Congregations onely of persons newly converted to the Christian Faith , and not of such as had been setled herein , yet 1. this amounts to an expresse patterne of ( and consequently to a sufficient warrant for ) gathering Independent Congregations simply , or in such cases , wherein there is not error in personis . Nay , 2. if these Apostolicall Independent Congregations did at their first gathering or framing consist onely of persons lately Infidells , and as yet newly converted unto , and not setled in Christianitie , yet afterwards , the same Congregations must needs be supposed to consist of persons setled in Christianitie also , unlesse we will suppose either that such as were converted by the Apostles to the Faith , were never either by them , or any others setled herein ; or els that upon such setling of them , their Congregations were either broken up and dissolved , or els specifically chang'd in their Government . Either of which suppositions , though to others they may be but as gnats , easie to be swallowed , yet to me they are Camells , I cannot get them downe . So that we see Mr Prynne hath gotten nothing yet by his true undeniable passage , ( for which notwithstanding , he scarcely refraineth from sacrificing unto his pen ) but onely the giving of his adversaries such an argument for their cause , which he will never be able to take away from them . And whereas in the latter part of this passage , he would insinuate , ( that which more plainly he affirms a few periods after ) that those that gather Independent Congregations , derive their practise from the examples , of Novatians , Donatists , and other Heretiques ; whom yet he denies to have been Independent amongst themselves ; it is as if he should challenge women that are modest and chaste , for deriving their behaviour from the example of Josephs Mistresse , or servants that were loyall and faithfull to their Masters , for imitating the practise of Judas Iscariot . Now since the passage we wot of , whilst supposed true and undeniable , doth us more service , then the eviction of it for false , would doe ; I conceive not my self bound , either in point of wisdome or conscience , to make a labour of the confutation or conviction of it . Whereas p. 10. he demands , Why the Nationall Church of the Jews under the Old Testament , should not be a patterne for us to imitate , as well as their Nationall Covenant , Fasting , Sabbath-keeping ; the question ( I conceive ) carries an error ( or at least a mistake ) in the ground and foundation of it . It supposeth , that we covenant , fast , keep Sabbath , &c. onely in imitation of that Nation , who did the like , and that we have no other ground for these practises , but the nationalitie of the like observations amongst the Jews : whereas if we had no better foundation for them then this , the nationall Idolatries of that people would be a patterne for us to imitate , as well as these . If Mr Prynne will needs have the Nationall Church of the Jews , a pattern for us to imitate , let him procure an Injunction from Heaven for the imitation , and we are ready to joyne issue with him . Whereas p. 11. he saith , that wicked members of a Church , when excommunicated , after they are baptized , do not actually cease to be members , &c. Certainly it is a mistake , one or more , if nihil supra . For 1. if such members when excommunicated , doe not actually cease to be members , I would know whether then they cease to be such potentially onely ? If so , they ceased thus to be members , as soone as ever they became members ; they were then in potentiâ remotâ of ceasing to be members , as a man is of dying , as soone as he is borne : or if we speak of potentia propinqua , they thus ceas'd to be members , upon the committing of those sins , which rendered them justly obnoxious either unto excommunication by the Church , or unto death by the Civill Magistrate , before either of these censures or sentences pass'd upon them . Therefore if they actually cease not to be members when excommunicated , they cease not at all to be members ; or at least no otherwise , then they ceased to be before such excommunication : and if either , what doe we with this learned impertinencie , actually ? But 2. if wicked members when excommunicated , doe not actually cease to be members , I marvaile our Saviour should allow them no better quarter amongst their fellows , then to be look'd upon as Heathens and Publicans ? Mat. 18. 17. It seems Heathens and Publicans may be actuall members of Mr Prynnes Presbyterian Church ; yea , though they be by the highest hand the Church can lift up , cast out of it . Ne verè , ne me ad tales compellite coetus . And 3. and lastly , what mysterious notion he should intend to let in , or what dangerous conceit he should intend to shut out by that emphaticall insertion , after they are baptized , is out of the hemisphere of my apprehension . All that I can work out of it , is this ; that there is or may be a two-fold excommunication of the members in a Christian Church ; one , before they are baptized , and another , after : and that by the power of the former excommunication , they actually cease to be members of their respective Churches ; not so by vertue of the latter , which ( it seems ) is either more indulgent , or lesse vigorous and active . If this be Mr Prynnes Doctrine , it is most properly and peculiarly his ; Libera per primos posuit vestigia Princeps : if it be not his , Sensum & sententiam vestram , ô verba , after they are baptized . Whereas immediately after , he argues thus , that since none separated from the Churches of Ephesus , Colosse , Smyrna , and though they had some corruptions and evill members , therefore for us to separate from , and un-church such Nationall or Parochiall Churches , which have such members in them , is to un-church all Churches in the old and new Testament , &c. He commits as many errors in arguing , as a man shall lightly meet with within such a compasse of words . For 1. he must be beholding either to an abundant weaknesse or charitie ( th' one ) in his Reader , to obtaine the grant of that which is the base or rise of this whole argumentation , viz. that none separated from the Churches of Ephesus , Colosse , &c. Negative proofes from the Scripture in this case are not concluding . But suppose charitie should cover the nakednesse or weaknesse of this supposition , and passe it as a truth , yet 2. that such a supposition should argue , that to separate from Nationall or Parochiall Churches which have evill members in them , is to un-church all Churches in the old and new Testament , hath neither head , nor foot , neither body nor soule of reason in it . For 1. they who separate from a Nationall Church , supposing no place or ground for such a Church under the New Testament , have no ground or colour but to judge that such a Church was lawfull , and truly so called under the old : as they who now separate themselves from Circumcision and other Judaicall observations , as superstitious and highly displeasing unto God , doe in no reasonable construction hereby deny , but that sometimes they were , or might have been , a legitimate and acceptable worship unto him . 2. Nor is there any sinew or strength of reason at all in this position ; they who separate from a Nationall or Parochiall Church , which have wicked members in them , doe therefore separate , because of these members , more then there is in this ; they who avoid the company of men with heads , doe therefore avoid them , because they have heads . There may be reasons more then enough , of separating either from a Nationall , or from a Parochiall Church , besides the wickednesse of some of the members of them : yea , I doe not conceive that ever any man separated from either of these Churches , Nationall or Parochiall , simply or solely upon this ground : nor doe I judge it a sufficient cause of separation from either . Mr Prynne himself hath separated from the Church of England as Episcopall , and hath given the strength of his assistance to cast it into another frame or mould of Government , whereby it will specifically differ from it self : and yet it is a plain case , that he hath not made this separation from it , because of the wickednesse of some of the members that were in it , whilst Episcopall ; because it is like to have many of this character , in case it shall be torkened to Presbyterall . Therefore a man may separate either from a Nationall or Parochiall Church which have wicked members in it , without unchurching ( yea , or disparaging ) any Church at all , either in the Old or New Testament . Whereas p. 12. he collects thus ; If Independents denie that there were diverse particular Congregations at Jerusalem , then they must prove , that all the Apostles and Elders at Jerusalem , were Pastors but of one and the self-same Individuall Congregation ; it is at least a mistake , though pardonable in a Lawyer , yet not in a Logician . For 1. suppose there were diverse particular Congregations at Jerusalem , it doth not follow , therefore all the Elders belonging to these severall Congregations , were Pastors of them , except we stretch the signification of the word , Pastor , beyond the Staple of the Scriptures , ( as Presbyterians I confesse , usually doe to help themselves at a dead lift ) and extend it unto all manner of Governours and Officers in the Church . And consequently , a pluralitie of Congregations at Jerusalem may be denied ; though no proofe or supposition be made , that all the Apostles and Elders at Jerusalem , were PASTORS to one Individuall Congregation . 2. A pluralitie of Congregations supposed , it doth not follow , that all , or any of the Apostles , were Pastors unto any of them ; Pastors and Apostles being contra-distinguished , Eph. 4. 11. He therefore gave some Apostles , some Prophets , some Evangelists , some Pastors and Teachers . The Apostles had a Commission to preach unto any particular Church , or Churches , without being made Pastors unto them : yea , himself afterwards in this very page confesseth , that the Apostles were not immediate Ministers or Pastors to particular Churches . Therefore Mr Prynnes collection ( however ) faulters . 3. ( And lastly ) The presence or continuance of so many of the Apostles at Jerusalem for a time ( for that all the Apostles should be present at the meeting , Act. 15. is onely Mr. Prynnes Gospel ) no wayes implies , that their stay there was so much either for the Government or edification of the particular Church of Jerusalem , whether consisting of one or more Congregations , as for the generall accommodation of the Gospel , and of the affaires of all particular Churches elsewhere ; this Citie being their Head-quarter , or Rendevouz , from whence upon occasion they might , and did the more commodiously issue forth by parties into other parts , upon their spirituall designs , as God called them , or gave opportunitie . So that there is no necessitie at all lying upon them , who conceive that there was onely one Congregation at Jerusalem , to prove , that all the Apostles and Elders there were Pastors of one and the self-same individuall Congregation . He tells me p. 24. of my Independent fabrique fastened together with Independent Grochets : but I can assure him , that if his Presbyterian fabrique be not fastened together and supported by better Crochets and Crutches , whether dependent , or independent , then are to be found in the words either of his twelve considerable serious Questions , or of his Independencie examined , or of this his Full Reply , it will drop one piece from another , and the honour of it soone lie in the dust . The inference which he would make by way of question , in the words immediately following those already insisted upon , complaines of the same weaknesse with the former . And then ( saith he ) what becomes of their independent Churches , which have no Apostle , and onely one Pastor , &c. I presume his Presbyterian Churches want Apostles , as much as the Independent : and if these be peccant through such a defect , I hope those will not be justified . But how effeminate and loose a consequence is this : The Church at Jerusalem had Apostles and Elders to be the Pastors of it : therefore that Church that hath not both Apostles and Elders to be the Pastors of it , is or can be no true Church ; as if Pastors made of Apostles ( in case there had been such ) had been of the essence of the Church at Jerusalem . If either Mr. Prynne , or any other , shall shew me any one such Independent crochet as this and twenty more in this Reply , in any of my writings , I shall freely confesse a Judgement against them to the fire . Whereas ( p. 12. ) he pretends to find , an impregnable evidence of the lawfulnesse of Nationall Synods , Parliaments , in all Christian Kingdomes , and of an Authoritie given them to determine all Ecclesiasticall Controversies , settle , order all Church-affaires , &c. in the frequent Generall Nationall Assemblies , Synods — among the Israelites , prescribed , appointed by God , and no waies contradicted , revoked under the Gospel , invested with such Authoritie , &c. he is ( questionlesse ) mistaken over and over . For 1. the Assembly spoken of 1 Chron. 13. 1. to the 14. ( the prime place produced by him to prove his Generall Nationall Assemblies , Synods , amongst the Israelites , prescribed , appointed by God ) is neither there , nor any where else in Scripture said to have been prescribed , appointed by God. Nor 2. did this Assembly , consisting ( the King himself excepted ) of the Captaines of thousands , and of hundreds , of every Leader , ( a very strange Synod to determine all Ecclesiasticall Controversies ) either claime or exercise any authoritie in this kind ; but only resolved upon the sending to , and gathering together the Priests and Levites , with the generalitie of the people of the Land from all parts , as not thinking it meet to remove the Ark without their presence and consent . Nor 3. were the members of this Assembly , Synod , chosen by the respective Synagogicall Congregations in the Land ; and consequently no such impregnable evidence of the lawfulnesse of Nationall Assemblies , Synods , now ; though for my part I never questioned the lawfulness of such Assemblies , Synods , as these , but onely the lawfulnesse of some power , which some of these claim and exercise . 4. Nor did this , nor any other Generall Nationall Assembly , Synod , any where to be found in Scripture , ever enact any thing concerning the worship and service of God , under mulcts and penalties , but what God himself had plainly determined and adjudged to be done , in his Law. Nor was this done by any select Assembly , Synod , consisting onely of Priests and Levites , or of persons voted into places of Authoritie by the generalitie of the people of the Land , but by the generality of the people themselves met together , with an uniforme , full and free consent and approbation on all hands . It is said , 2 Chron. 15. 9 , 10. 12 , 13 , &c. ( another Scripture cited by Mr. Prynne , to prove the aforesaid gain-said conclusion ) that all Judah and Benjamin , and the strangers with them out of Ephraim , and Manasseh , and out of Simeon , gathered themselves together at Jerusalem , And entered into a Covenant to seek the Lord God of their Fathers , with all their heart , and with all their soule , That whosoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel , should be put to death , whether small or great , — And all Israel rejoyced at the Oath , &c. Here is no compelling of any man by any Authoritative Synod of Priests and Levites , nor by any assembly of the Nobles or persons delegated by the people , to submit-unto such a Law , or such a Covenant , as is mentioned ; but the generalitie of the people in their proper persons , did voluntarily and freely with one consent enter into this association or agreement between themselves , and confirmed it by an Oath . 5. ( And lastly ) that which was here generally agreed upon , and solemnly sworne by the people under the penaltie of death , viz. The seeking of the Lord God of their Fathers , &c. was not any matter of doubtfull disputation , any determination of the sense and meaning of any conttoversall passage of Scripture , was not any thing ensnaring , any thing destructive to the peace and comfort of those that were tender and conscientious amongst them : no : it was nothing but what in expresness and plainness of words , was required of them by God himself in their written Law a ( which they had all owned and voluntarily subjected themselves unto formerly b . ) The contrary to it , viz. Idolatry , being as expresly and plainly forbidden in the same Law , and that ten times over c . Yea , it was the effect of the first & greatest commandement of this Law ; Some lively sparkes and impressions whereof remaine to this day in the fleshly tables of mens hearts , anciently written by the finger of God , without the mediation of Scripture instruction . Thus you see Mr. Prynnes impregnable evidence for the lawfulnesse of an Authoritie in Nationall Synods , Parliaments , Assemblies , for determining all Ecclesiasticall Controversies , &c. plainly non-suited , and defaced . — Irus & est subito , qui modo Croesus erat . No such authority as that wherein he seekes to infeoffe Generall Nationall Assemblies , Synods , in determining Ecclesiasticall controversies , &c. will ever be evidenced from any Assembly , Synod , heard of in the Scriptures . Whereas ( page 13. ) from the words of his Antagonist there expressed , he drawes this conclusion , Therefore the Infant-Church in the Apostles dayes was not so compleat , perfect in all points , as the multiplied or grown Churches afterwards , either he amphibologizeth , or else his conclusion is an absolute mistake in reference to his purpose . For though the Infant-church in the Apostles dayes , that is , Christian Churches in their first bud and spring , in and about the beginning of the Apostles dayes , and their first going forth into the world to preach the Gospell , were not so compleat , perfect in all points , as either the same , or other Churches were afterwards , viz. towards the later dayes of the Apostles in the world , when they had supplied and added all things necessary , and any wayes appertaining to the beauty and well-being of these Churches in point of Government and Discipline ; yet it follows not from hence , that either these , or any other succeeding Churches after the Apostles dayes , how multiplied or grown soever , ever grew to more beauty or perfection in point of government , then these had attained unto , before the Apostles were taken away by death from them . This conclusion indeed , if Mr. Prynne could have made lawfull prize of it , from the premises of his adversary , would have smiled a little upon his cause : but for the other , it holds no correspondencie at all with it , but rather frowns upon it . For if the Apostles left the Churches of Christ in the perfection of beauty for matter of government , it must needs follow , that any variation from that forme of government wherein they left them , is rather matter of deformity then perfection . Whereas ( in the same page ) he affirmes with an high hand , that if the Parliament and Synod shall by publicke consent establish a Presbyteriall Church-government , as most consonant to Gods word , — Independents and all others are bound in conscience to submit unto it , under pain of obstinacie , singularity , &c. in case they cannot really , by direct texts , and precepts , prove it diametrically contrary to the Scripture . — I conceive it to be a jeofaile in Theologie , a mistake in stead of a truth . For first , a man is not bound in conscience to doe any thing that is commanded , though both the authority whereby it is commanded , yea and the thing it selfe which is commanded , be never so lawfull , whilst his judgement and conscience remain considerably doubtfull , and unsatisfied touching the lawfulnesse of it , especially whilst they vehemently incline to thinke and judge the contrary ; least of all , whilst the contrary is the absolute and unquestioned decision of both ; yea , though the grounds of such a doubt or determination bee never so insufficient and weake . The Scripture is cleare in this , Let every man be fully perswaded ( or assured ) in his own mind , or understanding , ( viz. concerning the lawfulnes of what he doth ) & not build upon , or content himself with the mind and understanding of others , Rom. 14. 5. Again , He that doubteth , is condemned if he eat , because he eateth not of faith ; i. not out of a ful perswasion or knowledge in himselfe of the lawfulnes of his eating in such a kind : For whatsoever is not of Faith [ i. is acted or done , and not out of such a knowledge ] is sinne , Rom. 14. 23. Now certaine it is , that no man is bound in conscience , under pain of obstinacie , singularity , &c. to sinne , or bring damnation upon himselfe . The truth is , that to scruple or question the lawfulnes of any thing that is commanded by the high hand of Authority to be done , is somwhat singular in the world ; and so deserves not the pain , but the honour of singularity : But that such a behaviour or deportment as this , should suffer the pain of obstinacy , is as contrary to reason , as that the Sunne should be arrested for being a nuysance unto the world with his darknes . 2ly , if by proving the contrariety of what he speaks of , unto the Scriptures , by direct texts and precepts , he means , the producing of such texts of Scripture wherin this contrariety is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in terminis , or in tofidem verbis expressed , he binds a heavier burthen on the shoulders of others , then he is willing himself to touch w th the least of his fingers , in all he hath publickly discoursed hitherto upon this subject ; yea , heavier then either God , or the common light of reason in men , will suffer to be bound upon them in this case . The Sadducees were bound to beleeve the resurrection of the dead by vertue of this text , I am the God of Abraham , and the God of Isaac , and the God of Jacob , Exod. 3. 6. wherein notwithstanding there is no direct or expresse mention made of this resurrection , as appears Mat. 22. 31 , 32. In like manner the Corinthians were bound to think it a matter of duty to minister in their carnall things , unto those that sowed spirituall things unto them , by vertue & warrant of this Scripture , Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the Ox that tradeth out the Corn , Deu. 25. 4. ( as appears 1 Cor. 9. 8 , 9. ) & yet evident it is , that the direct letter of such a duty is not here to be found . What proposition soever , shall , or may be found to be a legitimate and native consequence or deduction from any text in Scripture being found , ought to be of the same sacred consideration unto us , and according to the tenor of it , of the same obligation upon us , with that Scripture-ground from whence it issueth and is derived . For if the first fruits bee holy , so is the whole lump : and if the root bee holy , so are the branches , Rom. 11. 16. Therefore that Church-government which shall be overthrowne by a direct and pregnant consequence from a text , is as sufficiently overthrowne , as if the defeat had been given by the most direct and expresse letter of such a text . Whereas ( page 14. ) hee superaddes this notion ( in a passage much of the same import with the last brought under examination ) that though the establishment of a government by the Parliament and Assembly , doth not bind all Independents to be simply of their opinion , yet it binds them in point of practice and obedience outwardly thereto , and not to separate under pain of arrogancie , faction , schisme , unlesse they can clearly manifest it to be absolutely unlawfull and repagnant to the Scriptures . I conceive he addes unto his mistakes , if not unto his errors . For first , whereas he here supposeth , that Independenters must separate from the government that shall bee established by Parliament and Assembly , ( and so must undergoe the pains and penalties imposed upon that crime by the law of his pen ) in case they doe not , or shall not submit unto it , hee should have done well to consider , that separation still presupposeth former union . Those whom God hath joyned together , let not man separate , a or put asunder . That woman cannot bee divorced , nor yet forsake her husband , which never was married ; no more can Independents be said ( unlesse by saying that which had been better unsaid ) to separate from that government unto which they never were yet united . Therefore let Mr. Prynne , and all other of the Presbyterian judgement , know assuredly , that they will never gain any thing but the wages of unrighteousnesse by charging their brethren of the Congregationall way , either with separation or schisme . Secondly , to affirme , that a man though he be not of their opinion , who shall establish a Government ( he must meane , touching the lawfulnesse of the Government so established , or else it is nothing to the purpose ) is yet bound in point of outward practise and obedience to submit thereunto , is a note beyond that Elah of the Familists , wherein they teach , that if a man shall keep his heart and mind sound and uncorrupted within , he may for his safety or accommodation otherwise , comply outwardly with any Idolatrous worships or superstitions , or other unlawfull practises whatsoever . This generation it self , doth not hold such an outward compliance as this , simply necessary , in point of dutie or conscience , but onely lawfull in point of Christian libertie . Therefore Mr. Prynne wades deeper into these polluted waters , then they . 3. And ( lastly ) whereas he thinks sufficiently to proviso his former assertion , by adding , unlesse they can cleerly manifest it to be absolutely unlawfull and repugnant to the Scriptures ; the truth is , that here is neither shield nor buckler that can saye it harmlesse . For 1. it is not the truth or soundnesse of a mans judgement standing in opposition to the supposed or asserted lawfulnesse of a thing , that makes the practise of the thing , during the present state of his judgement , unlawfull to him ; but the very tenor or state of his judgement in respect of such opposition , whether this state of it be good or bad , sound or unsound . Much lesse 2. is it an abilitie in men to manifest unto others the truth or soundnesse of their judgements , when they stand bent against a practise that is injoyned as lawfull , that onely can excuse them from subjection . Mens actions are not to be regulated either by a Rhetoricall or Logicall facultie of expressing themselves or their judgements to the conviction and satisfaction of others ; but by those impressions of righteousnesse and equitie that are in and upon their judgements , whether they be able to represent or commend them for such unto others , or no. Shadrach , Meshach , and Abednego , were not able cleerly to manifest it unto Nabuchadnezzar and his Nobles , that it was absolutely unlawfull for them to fall downe and worship the golden Image which he had set up : yet was it not therefore unlawfull for them to refuse subjection unto the Kings commandement in that behalf . If the lawfulnesse of our refusing our Superiours in their injunctions and commands , be suspended upon our abilitie to convince them of the unlawfulnesse of these commands , there will not be much danger in it to bid the Papists God speed , when they bring the Doctrine of blind obedience unto us . Rare are those superiours , that care to impose any thing by way of command , of the unlawfulnesse whereof they can be willing to be convinced , especially by the commanded : and where there is no disposition , no willingnesse towards a conviction , arguments and demonstrations are ( for the most part ) but as sounding brasse , and tinkling cymballs . Leviathan in regard of the strength and toughnesse of his skin and scales , esteemeth iron as straw , and brasse as rotten wood : The arrow cannot make him flee : the stones of the sling are turned with him into stubble , Job 41. 27 , 28. Whereas ( p. 14. ) he saith , that if the Parliament should settle Independencie , I am certain you would then write and preach for universall obedience to it , without dispute ; doubtlesse this certaintie of his is but a confident mistake ; For 1. it is no wayes consistent with the principles of that Government he speaks of , to urge or presse universall obedience to it ; because it professeth an absolute incapacitie in farre the greatest part of men ( for the present ) for it ; nor doth it expect that the universalitie of men will ever become capable of it . This Government pleadeth for no subjection to it , but from those that are Saints , at least in view , such I mean , who doe not in works or deeds denie that Faith , which in words they professe . Such as these the Scripture pronounceth to be worse then Infidells : and therefore whilst such , they are not capable of part & fellowship in that Government , which is appropriate to the Kingdome , or Churches of Christ . Neverthelesse , it earnestly prayeth for , and by every other good way and means is ready to endevour the conversion of these unto God : onely it judgeth not meet to bring them into the Temple , untill they be purified . Nor 2. doth this Government presse for subjection unto it from the Saints themselves , without dispute : it cares for no Proselytes , but for those that are first instructed , and made disciples . It disdaignes so far to undervalue its beautie and lovelinesse , as to ravish or force the conscience of any man. Whereas ( p. 16. ) he makes it an apparent schisme , separation from all other Churches , for Independent Churches to appeale onely to Churches of their own partie ; I conceive it is a repetition of a former mistake , with the augmentation of a new . For 1. there is no place for the crimes of schisme or separation , but where a preceding union hath prepared it . Well may it be a crime or fault of another nature or kind in Congregationall Churches , to limit themselves in point of appeale , unto Churches onely of their own constitution ; but for the crimes of schisme and separation here charged upon it , it is unquestionably innocent . And Mr Prynnes Printer ( I presume rather casually , then consultedly ) by making it , not an apparant , but an apparent Schisme , hath much eased the burthen of the charge ; and represents the action more like unto it selfe in point of truth , then the Author himself intended ; for the truth is , there is no realitie or truth , but onely an appearance or shew ( at most ) of a schisme or separation in it . 2. It is but a mistaken supposition in him , to suppose , that in case an aggrieved partie in an Independent Church , shall chuse rather to appeale to a Church ( one , or more ) of a differing Government and constitution from their own , that this Church will refuse to be accountable unto the Church or Churches so appealed unto , because they are not of the same constitution with it self . I beleeve there is no Congregationall Church any where , but if it be lawfully and in a Christian manner required or called upon to do it , will be ready and willing to render an account of any of her actions or proceedings , not onely to a Presbyterian Church , but even to the meanest member of it . But 3. Why he should call a voluntary account given by a Church , a meere mockery in stead of an account , unlesse the Church accounted unto , should have power to inforce it to correct its errors or injustice , my eyes can see no reason . For in case the Church which willingly accounteth for her actions unto another , shall , upon the discovery and sight of any error or injustice in these her actions , as willingly retract and reforme them ( which , with the help and assistance of a very little charitie , may ordinarily , if not universally , be presum'd of Saints ) why shall not such a reformation as this , being voluntary and free , be every whit as commendable and reall , as a reformation compelled or inforced would be ? And consequently , why should not an arbitrary or voluntary account , be as Christian , as satisfactory , as reall , as that which is purchased by an iron rod ? Or doth any Church or association of Churches , obtaine a quicker or richer spirit of discerning , or a more accomplished facultie of convincing Churches that are delinquent , of their errors or injustice , by being armed with a compulsive power over them , then they were or would be capable of , if their authoritie were consultative and perswasive onely ? Or hath a Church called to an account for error or injustice , any more reason to acknowledge either for such , because they are adjudged such unto her , by Churches ( one or more ) having a coactive power over her , then if this sentence were passed by Churches not daring to claime , owne , or exercise any such power ? 4. And lastly , I would faine know , why it should be more schisme or separation , for an Independent Church to appeale onely unto Churches of their owne partie , and not unto the Presbyterian , then it is for Presbyterian Churches , to appeale onely to Churches of their partie , and not unto the Independent ; considering , that Churches of this constitution , are every whit as much ( at least ) Churches of Christ , as those of the other . But the truth is , it being lawfull and free ( as himself here supposeth ) for Churches to appeale to Churches , as well of the one constitution , as of the other , that it is somewhat an uncouth and strange conceit , to make schisme or separation of appealing either unto the one , or the other . Whereas ( p. 17. ) he gives us leave to differ in judgement from the decrees of Synods and Parliaments , when erroneous and contrariant to the expresse Word , not to our owne fancies , inferences , or opinions ; doubtlesse , he mistakes , taking that away from us with the one hand , which he gives us with the other ; which , I presume was not his intention . For if we may not differ in judgement from Synodicall decrees , when they are contrariant to our opinions , wee may not so differ from them at any time . Or may we , or can we differ in judgement from that , which is not contrary to our opinion ? Though Mr Prynne differs in judgement from those that hold forth the Congregationall way , yet ( it seems ) he may be of the same opinion with them concerning that way . Whereas ( in the same page ) he demands of us , If we deem not our selves more holy then our brethren , or be not sweld up with spirituall pride , why refuse we to close with them now , as we have done heretofore ? The ground of the demand ( questionlesse ) is a mistake , and should not suffer ultrâ condignum , if it were called an error . There may be many reasons why one man closeth not with another in point of judgement ( and consequently why not in practice also ? ) besides deeming himselfe more holy then his brother , from whom hee dissenteth , or being sweld up with spirituall pride . I doe not conceive that the Apostle Paul deemed himselfe more holy then Peter , much lesse that he was sweld up with spirituall pride , when hee not onely dissented from him touching the justifiablenesse of that course and practice wherein Peter now walked , but ( as the text saith a ) withstood him to his face ; but that the true ground of such both dissent and resistance , was partly the standing of Pauls judgement in opposition unto , and dislike of what Peter did ; partly the desire hee had of doing his fellow Apostle the Christian kindnesse of making streight that which was crooked in his way ; partly also ( if not principally ) his zeal and faithfulnesse to his Lord and Master Jesus Christ , and his Gospel , and his Saints , that none of these might suffer losse or disadvantage in the world by the misprisions , or miscarriages of any man , how great or holy soever , as farre as lay in his power to prevent it . Nor would it have been any disparagement or dishonour at all to the name of Mr. Prynne , nor wound ( I beleeve ) to his conscience , if hee had wav'd those hard suggestions we spake of , and substituted these or the like in their stead , as the true grounds of his brethrens not closing with him , and those of his judgement in the Presbyterian way . The truth is , that for my part ( and I verily beleeve that I may truly speak the same for many thousands more ) any conceit or deeming of my selfe more holy then others , was so far from interessing either my judgement or affections for the congregational way in the least , or from keeping me at any distance from my brethren of a contrary judgement , that a sense of mine owne defectivenesse therein , together with an earnest desire of better accommodations for my supplies , was not the least of those motives and arguments which carried and set my heart upon that way . And here I make open profession in the presence of Heaven and Earth , that if any of my brethren of opposite judgement , shall give me any reasonable account , or satisfaction , how in an ordinary way of providence , or experience , I may build up my selfe in holinesse , better ( or , if it be but as well ) in the way of Presbytery , then in that way wherein I am for the present ingaged , I will soon pull down what I have built , and dwell no longer in the Tents of Independencie , but devote my selfe , and all my strength and might , to the service of that way , which for distinction sake is called Presbyterie . For I make no question , but that way of Church-government which hath the richest sympathy , and most direct and full compliance with the edification of the Saints in holinesse , is against all reasons , grounds , and arguments of what seeming strength or evidence soever , the way which Jesus Christ hath sealed . For any harsh censures cast , or passed by any Congregationall men upon Mr. Prynne , or other of their brethren of Mr. Prynnes judgement and way , I trust the complaint is to the height of the crime . I cannot justifie one harsh censure given , by a thousand received : but if there were a Law for any such attonement , I make no question but that all the Congregational delinquency in that kind , would be fully purged . If my pen hath trespassed in this kinde , ( whereof notwithstanding I am no ways conscious , though upon some charge , I have made diligent enquirie after my own guilt ) I hope the last period in this Mr. Prynnes Reply a , will speak a good word for it , and salve the imputation of such a sin . Hitherto I have examined onely such passages in the Reply which concerne the common cause depending between the two wayes of Church-government , so much ingaged in competition . My Pen must now travaile for her selfe , and make triall of her strength for the redeeming of her own Innocency out of the hand of those accusations , which have laid violent hands upon her . I intend scarce so much as to touch or mention any thing that was brought to the touch-stone in the former part of this discourse : a single vindication is large allowance for criminations without either substance , or colour of truth : the chiefe ( & almost the only ) thing which I have now to doe , is to weigh the discussions of Mr. Prynnes pen in opposition to those of mine , in the ballance of reason and truth , that so the reader , to whom judgement in this case belongeth , may give sentence accordingly . But first it is a thing almost incredible , ( doubtlesse farre beyond the belief of any sober or ingenuous man ) that a man of that Name and Reputation not only for learning , but for Religion also , which Mr. Prynne is , should affirme , those 15. lines about the middle of page 18. to be the main doctrine prosecuted in my discourse called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : the said 15 lines being nothing else but a rapsody or collection of severall words , phrases , and expressions , scattered here and there throughout the Discourse , some of them being expressly contrary to those restrictions and limitations , under which the doctrine there prosecuted , is propounded , and asserted in the explication of it . As for example ; whereas page 18. of the said Theomachia , I expresse my selfe thus ; If to attempt the suppression , or keeping downe any way , doctrine or practice , which is from God , bee of no lesse concernment , of no safer interpretation then a fighting against God , then certainly it is the greatest imprudence , or improvidence under heaven , for any man , or rank of men whatsoever , to appeare , especially in any high-handed opposition , or contestation , against any way , &c. In stead of those words , To appeare , especially in any high-handed opposition , he , most unworthily and unchristianly substitutes these , to appeare , or so much as to lift up an hand , or thought against any way , &c. Which falsification of my words is so much the more unsufferable because in the explanation of my doctrine , page 12. I expresse my selfe thus : It is not every degree or kind of opposing a way , doctrine , or designe of God , which either the Text , or the doctrine calleth a fighting against God , but onely such an opposing which is peremptory , and carried on with an high hand , so that those instruments of God which hee hath anointed to hold forth that way , doctrine , or designe of his in the world , are not suffered to execute their commission , but are countermanded either by the authority , or over-bearing strength or power of men And immediatly after , for the further explanation of my intent in the doctrine proposed , I distinguish thus : It is one thing to oppose , or contend against a doctrine or way of God , per modum doctoris : another to doe it per modum judicis : The former I grant , may befall the best and faithfullest of men ; yea , the later I grant to be somtimes incident to men otherwise upright in the main before God ; onely affirming that the children of this later contention and contestation against their maker , must expect to be taught more wisdome and reverence towards him with thorns and briers . And that the Reader may yet more clearly see and judge of Mr. Prynnes artifice in swelling my two lines ( at most ) of doctrine , into his 14. or 15. of representation , that so hee may have the fairer mark , and bigger But to hit , I shall verbatim transcribe it , as it is laid down about the middle of page 12. of the said discourse . The content and words of it are onely these : That for any man to endevour or attempt the suppression of any doctrine , practice or way , which is from God , is to fight against God himselfe . Which doctrine , especially so qualified and understood , as the subsequent explication states the sense , purport , and meaning of it , I could not lightly expect should ever have been opposed , or contested against by any that were willing to owne Abrahams relation of friendship unto God. But with what successe Mr. Prynne hath attempted to shake the foundations of the truth of it , or whether indeed he hath attempted this at all , and not rather ( contrary to the Law of all regular disputation ) fallen foule onely upon the conclusion it selfe , without giving any answer at all unto the premises , shall bee presently taken into consideration . In the mean time let mee adde this : That if the grossest and most abhorred Heretickes in the world , might have but the same liberty to prove their hereticall opinions out of the Scriptures , which Pryn taketh to represent the doctrine prosecuted by me , and quarrelled against by him , out of my Sermons , they might prove them , and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , from thence . For what opinion is there , or lightly can be imagined , but that all the words , wherin it is ( or at least very easily might be ) conceived , may be found some where or other scattered here and there severally in the Scripture , & so be framed together into a sentence ? By the law of such a liberty as this , I might say , that Mr. Prynne , in his Full Reply , holds , That wee must speedily oppose , resist , avoid , suppresse , a Parliaments , Emperours , Kings , Judges , Magistrates , Ministers , b , even for conscience sake , and the Lords sake too c . For all these words and clauses are to be found in this discourse of his , as the pages cited in the margine doe direct : yea , and twenty moe as wild and uncouth opinions , and as farre from Mr. Prinnes judgement as this , might by the liberty aforesaid , be collected out of the same piece . But let us come to consider those grounds and reasons , upon which , in Mr. Prynnes judgement , it may justly be questioned whether the Doctrine expressed towards the beginning of the last Section ( which is the maine , indeed the onely Doctrine prosecuted in those two innocently-offending Sermons ) be Orthodox or tolerable . His first Reason is ; because it opens a wide gate to the reviving of all the old , the speading and propagating of all new Heresies , Errors — without the least timely opposition or prevention , to the endangering of infinite soules , and disturbance of the Churches , Kingdomes peace . For there is no Heretique , Schismatique or Sectarie whatsoever , but pretends his way , Doctrine , practise , opinions , to be the way of Christ , &c. Will any reasonable man conceive , that there is any reason at all in all this , to question the truth or soundnesse of the prementioned Doctrine ? For any man to forbeare the suppression of any Doctrine or Way which is ( for any thing that is knowne to the contrary ) from God , and that least he should fight against God , is this , to open a wide gate to all heresies , errors , and schismes ? Then by the rule of contraries , the suppression of all Doctrines and wayes , which for any thing that is knowne to the contrary , are from God , must be the fast-shutting of the gate against all heresies , errors , and schismes . This is the heart & soule of the first reason , which interesseth Mr. Prynnes judgement in questioning the Orthodoxisme , yea , the tolerablenesse of the premised Doctrine . But by the way , if Mr. Prynnes judgement concerning the Doctrine , be , that it opens a wide gate to all heresies , errors , schismes , sects whatsoever , both new and old , &c. it is marvaile it should have no further operation upon him , then onely to prevaile with him to question whether it be Orthodox or tolerable : Such an effect or consequent of a Doctrine as this , is foundation large enough to build a confident determination upon , that it is heterodox and intolerable . And for the body of this Reason , wherein he informes us at large ( and that with truth enough ) that Satan and his ministers also tranforme themselves into Angels of light , that false Teachers usually come to seduce men in sheeps cloathing , that there is no Heretique , Schismatique , or Sectary whatsoever , though never so pernicious , grosse , and detestable , but pretends his way , Doctrine , practise , to be the way and truth of Christ ; with many other good sayings to like effect ; I cannot but marvaile , what a reasonable man should imagine to be in all this , to make him question the truth of this Doctrine , that for any man to attempt the suppression of any Doctrine , practise , or way which is from God , is to fight against God. Because false Teachers pretend their Doctrine to be from God , doth it therefore follow , that the suppressing of such a Doctrine which is from God , should not be a fighting against God ? It is somewhat an hard case , that a man should be arrested of a presumptuous undermining the undoubted priviledges of Parliament by the very roots , at the suite of such a consequence as this . Whereas upon the former assertions , he enters his action in such an Interrogatory as this : Must we therefore not speedily oppose , resist , avoyd , suppresse them now , because they thus pretend they are of , and from God , but stay till God hath renounced them , &c. I joyne issue with him , and say ; that there is little lesse then a meere Contradiction in the forme of his Plea ; Those Doctrines , practises , opinions , which in the former part of his Plea , he had censured and condemned for Heresies , Errors , Schismes , Sects , &c. in this latter part of it he supposeth , that God hath not yet disclaimed , or renounced from Heaven ; and that we see not their condemnation yet written with the beame of the Sun. Else why should he represent it as so unreasonable and hainous a thing , that we should stay the opposing and suppressing of them , till such things were done ? Surely Mr. Prynne cannot be so hardy , as to condemne any Doctrine or practise for Hereticall or errneous , untill God hath some wayes or other disclaimed or renounced them from Heaven , for such . It is he , not Mr. Prynne , that must , not onely determine , what is Heresie , Error , and Schisme , but also signifie his determinations in this kinde , before it comes to Mr. Prynnes turne , or any mans beside , to give any such sentence against them at the barre of their Judgements . A second Reason which created that jealousie in him we spake of , against the forenamed Doctrine , is the contrarietie of it to forty and one expresse precepts and presidents ( if my Arithmetique failes me not in the computation ) in the old and new Testament ; one whereof ( viz. Jer. 4. 30 , 31. ) he avoucheth for pregnant ; but the rest ( it seems ) must be compared together , or else the contrarietie in them to the Doctrine which he opposeth , will not utter it self . And it is well that he can be content to afford us leasure for the perusall of these Scripture precepts and presidents , though he would afford us none , to peruse or consider of Doctrines or practises , as we heard before . But 1. I must professe the second time , that I can little lesse then wonder , that the Gentleman should onely question or suspect the Orthodoxnesse of a Doctrine , and not positively and peremptorily conclude it Heterodox , which carrieth a contrarietie in it to forty-one expresse precepts and presidents of Scripture . A man would think by such a streine of tendernesse and indulgence as this , that he were a very faire and favourable interpreter of mens opinions and wayes ; and would never exact or stand upon Summam jus ( which the Proverb interprets to be Summam injuriam ) with any man. 2. If all the precepts and presidents here drawne together from the Scriptures , be expresse , why is that one , Jer. 4. 30 , 31. separated from all its fellows by this parenthes●s of preferment , [ a pregnant place ] as if all the rest were barren and empty of that conception , which is indifferently fathered , or mothered rather , upon them all ? and one other of them ( viz. Gal. 2. 4. to 18. ) singularized with this parenthesis , [ a noted place ] ? If no contrarietie to the suspected Doctrine be found either in the pregnant place , or in the noted place , I trust all the rest of the places will give place , and confesse themselves strangers thereunto . First , for the pregnant place , Jer. 4. 30 , 31. doubtlesse , there is not so much as an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or an embryo of such a contrarietie to be found there . The tenor of the place is this ; And when thou art spoyled , what wilt thou doe ? Though thou cloathest thy self with crimson , though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold , though thou rentest thy face with paynting ; in vaine shalt thou make thy self faire , thy lovers will despise thee , they will seek thy life , ver . 30. For I have heard a voyce as of a woman in travaile , and the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child , the voyce of the daughter of Zion , that bewaileth her self , that spreadeth her hands , saying , Woe is me now : for my soule is wearied because of murtherers , ver . 31. I am not able to discerne the least swelling or bearing-out of the womb of either of these verses , with any contrarietie in the least , to the import of the Doctrine now under protection . To attempt the suppression of any Doctrine or Way which is from God , may be a fighting against God , and yet God say to the daughter of his people , And when thou art spoyled , what wilt thou doe ? together with all that which followeth in the two transcribed verses . I beleeve the noted place is every whit as voyde of that contrarietie we speak of , as we found the pregnant place to be . Mr. Prynne himself , partly transcribes , partly argues this place , beautifying the words or clause wherein he chiefly puts his trust , with emphaticall letters , thus ; Paul would not give way to false Apostles , NO NOT FOR AN HOURE , that the truth of the Gospel might continue among the Galatians , and resisted Peter to his face , as soone as ever he walked disorderly , ( he should have spake more truth , if he had said , as soone as ever he understood or knew , that he so walked ) and gave the least countenance to false Teachers , &c. — Fortassè cupressum , Scis simulare : quid hoc , si fractis enatet expes Navibus , aere dato qui pingitur ? Mr. Prynne doth very substantially prove , by this passage , and that which followes , that errour in Doctrines , and miscarriages in persons , are to be resisted and withstood , ( by wayes and means warrantable by the Word of God ) as soone as ever they are certainly discerned , or known to be such : but here is not the least semblance of an Argument to prove , either that the one or the other , ought to be resisted or suppressed , before they are discovered or manifested to be such ; or that being discovered or manifested to be such , they ought to be either resisted or suppressed by any other means , then what God himself hath authorized in that behalf ; least of all , is there any jot , tittle , or peep of a proof of that , which is the burthen of Mr. Prynnes undertaking , viz. that to attempt the suppressing of any Doctrine or Way which is from God , is not to fight against God. Nor doth his third Reason any whit more accommodate his enterprize , then the former . For what contrariety , or shew of contrariety is there in these unquestionable maximes , of Divinity , Policy , and Morality , Principiis obsta●e : venienti occarrite morbo , &c. to that Doctrine , which only pronounceth , the attempt of suppressing any Doctrine or Way which is of God , to be a fighting against God ? yea , or to this ; that no Doctrine or Way ought to be suppressed , untill it be certainly known , whether they be from God , or no ? He that gave counsell , Principiis obstare , i● to withstand beginnings , did not mean to advise men to make resistance against such beginnings , which might , for ought they know , be as wel the beginings , of good , or of strength , as of evill or sicknesse ; but only such beginnings , which did cleerly presage inconvenience ensuing , if not timely prevented . And though all wise men hold preventing physique best for their bodies ; yet no wise man holds such Physique best , or good in any degree for his body , which is as like to prevent the health and sound constitution of his body , as any infirmity or distemper of it . He that will either launce or seare , before he knowes whether the condition of his body requires either , may abound in flesh , but sure is no true born son of Wisdome . That creature which is indued by God with principles of discerning , certainly was not made to act ( especially in things of highest importance , as matters of Religion are ) at peradventure . His 4th and last Reason holds no correspondence at all with the Truth . For what contrariety is there in the Doctrine under Mr. Pryns arrest , to the Policy , Practice of most godly Magistrates , Princes , Ministers , Churches in all Ages , Nations ? When did the Policy or Practice of any of these affirm , that to attempt the suppression of any Doctrine or Way which is from God , is not to fight against God ? If his meaning be , that the Policy and Practice of the persons hee represents , never indulged any known Heresies , Errors , Schismes ; no , not for an houre , the Doctrine against which hee contends , in this contends not at all against him , but gives him the right hand of fellowship in such an apprehension . Only it adviceth godly Magistrates , Prince , Ministers , Churches , to be very carefull and wary , of suppressing Angels of light indeed , instead of Satan transformed into an Angel of light ; of baiting and hunting the sheep of Christ , in stead of Wolves that come in sheeps clothing ; of smothering light in stead of darknesse , of smiting truth in stead of error and heresie . And is there any harme in this counsell or contrariety either to the Policy or Practice of any wise or godly man ? Or , if there be any contrariety to either , it is because there is a contrariety in them to the Word and Wildome of God. Whereas in the same Reason , he makes himself a further debtor unto mee , by charging mee , that I plead for Schismes and CONVENTICLES set up only by private spirits in opposition to the publique established Church-reiglement . My Answer is : 1. That I know a publique Church-reiglement abrogated and demolished , but I know none as yet established . When Mr. Prynne by his Logique shall convince mee of acting in opposition to that which is not , I trust I shall be provided with mine to give him a satisfying answer . 2. Whereas he declares against me , as a Pleader for Schismes and Conventicles ; I answer , that hee is the happiest man I know of his Profession , if he never pleaded any worse Cause , then that which I plead in those Sermons . But whereas in other places of his Reply , his margent glorieth with quotations in abundance , here ( it seems ) it is ashamed , as not knowing what to say , nor where to finde or point at , any pleading for Schismes and Conventicles , as the lines in the page adventure to affirm . 3. Mr. Prynnes privie notion of a Schisme or Conventicle is , I am not able to say : but if hee be here of the same minde and judgement with his own marginall note , p. 10. which affirmeth , that none are Conventiclers but Heretiques and Schismatiques , who wholly separate themselves from our publique assemblies established by law ; certain I am , that I plead for no Conventicles in those Sermons ; nor do I approve of the practice of any , who wholly separate themselves from our publique assemblies . But calumniare audacter ; aliquid haerebit , holds good ( it seems ) in Law. But , 4. If by pleading for Schismes and Conventicles , he means a pleading for the spirituall liberties of the Congregations of the Saints , and of the Assemblies of the first-born , whose names are written in heaven , whom Jesus Christ hath made Kings and Priests unto God his Father , b and who are shortly to judge the world , if the vindication ( I say ) of the rights and priviledges of these in point of exemption and immunity in their spirituall affaires , and such as concern the regulation of their consciences in matters appertaining to the worship and service of God , from the Jurisdiction and interest of the Commissioners and Delegates of the world ; if this ( once again ) be pleading for Schismes and Conventicles , I had quitted my self much more like a faithfull Minister of Jesus Christ , if I had pleaded for them yet seven times more , then now I have done . My sorrow and shame ( in part ) is , that I have pleaded this honourable Cause so weakly , as to leave thoughts and imaginations in Mr. Prynne , which still exalt and magnifie themselves against the righteousnesse , truth , and equity of it . 5. And lastly , whereas hee calls the Church-government which I plead for , a Government set up only by private spirits ; if it be found to be a Government set up by the Spirit of God in the Scriptures ( the consideration unto which all my pleadings for it in those Sermons are homagers , being all of them conditionall , and none peremptory or absolute ) Mr. Prynnes spirit , and the spirits of all others that shall oppose it , how publique soever their persons may be , will be found to be the private spirits , disallowed in the Scriptures by the Spirit of God. Whereas hee yet addes , that differences and varieties in matters of government are such tender things , that they cannot be tolerated in one and the self-same Church and State , without infinite inconveniences and distances , &c. I answer , 1. That differences and varieties in matters of Government , are not things so tender in any degree , as the consciences of the Saints ; and therefore no reason , that Reason of State should be more tenderly respected , then these . Better a thousand men inconvenienced in their temporalls , then one righteous soul wounded in his spiritualls ; yea , or then one sin committed to prevent all those inconveniences . Vna Dei gloria ( saith Calvin , a great Presbyterian ) praeferri meretur centum mundis . Yea , and one greater then Calvin ( I mean the Apostle Paul ) saith , ( neither saith he any thing more then what an whole Christian State or Nation is bound to say ) If meat offendeth my brother , I will eat no flesh whilest the world standeth , that I may not offend my brother , 1 Cor. 8. 13. But , 2. Whereas wee still heare of wars and rumors of wars from Presbyteriall pens , of infinite inconveniences and disturbances , and turnings of all things upside down in States , as if they should never die any other death , in case any other Government should be indured , but their own ; the truth is , that such predictions ( or pretences rather ) as these , are but a kind of politique agents sent forth to negotiate their Cause with the ignorance and simplicity of the generality of men ; who being indifferent for matter of Church-government , but of firmly-resolv'd judgements to keep themselves as far from all that which is called trouble or disturbances as possibly they can , are apt to drink in the impressions of all overtures or pretences which sound that way , as fishes drink water , and so are made Proselytes of a zealous inspiration for the Classique Consistory . Primus in orbe Deos fecit timor . That mixture of ignorance and feare which is commonly found in vulgar constitutions , may easily be wrought and fashion'd by a politique hand , almost into what apprehensions , and indeavours suitable , a man desireth ; if his design in this kind exceed not the compasse and content of nature : for the darknesse of ignorance hath no communion at all with the kingdome of light ; but being in conjunction with an awakened passion of feare , it disposeth the hearts and souls of men to receive any superstitious impressions of what shape and from soever the intellectus agens , or hee that worketh upon it , shal desire . For my part , I am not able to calculate the least rational proportion or conexion between a variety or diffrence of Church-government , & the distractions , or disturbances in a State ; nor can I easily beleeve , that all the Presbyterian Writers themselves , do truly & unfainedly fear any such effect from such a cause , though some peradventure may . For what if every congregation or Parish in & about London , had a different government , or way of ordering their Church-affairs , as they generally have somewhat ( more or lesse ) differing in the ordering and managing of their Vestries , or Parochiall civill affaires , the one being supposed as agreeable to the civill Lawes of the State , as the other , and each Parish respectively satisfied , and well apaid with their own government , I am not able to discerne , nor cast it in my thoughts , how the peace or safety of the civill State should suffer in the least by it . But I can very easily conceive , how a State may be very probably disturbed , ( and I can give instances of many that have been ) by an universall compulsion of all the subjects thereof , to one and the same Religion ; yea , and how by the like compulsion to one and the same Church-government . It is very strange to me that they that know ( and how generally it is knowne ) what variety of Churches and Church-government , yea , and professions of Religion there are , and have for a long time been in the dominion of the States of Holland , and withall , how pacate , flourishing , and free from disturbance this State hath been ; and againe , how that not onely a forme of Church-government differing from that kinde of government which is more generally practised throughout the kingdome of France , but even a different Religion also , have without the least occasion of inconvenience or disturbance to the State , ( yea I might say , to the great advantage and benefite of the State , ) been tolerated , yea little lesse then countenanced , and that neer the very heart , & chiefe places of this Kingdom ; very strange ( I say ) to me it is , that they that cannot lightly but know these things ( besides many other instances in other States and Republicks , of like consideration ) should yet pretend fears , yea certainties of I know not what inconveniences and disturbances to the State , if any more Church-governments then one should take place , or bee endured in it . They that shall please to peruse page 23. of the Reply of the two brethren to A. S. shall finde many Scriptures , of a friendly and harmlesse consistence of severall Religions ( and therefore doubtlesse of severall Church-governments ) in the same State , besides some others . And Lucas Osiander in his Epitome of the Ecclesiasticall History , written by the Magdeburgenses , in the 6th Century , relates severall examples of successfull issues and events of such mutuall tolerations , as wee now speak of . Troubles and disturbances of States , are far more like to be the fruits and consequents of rigour and hard measure , measured out unto the Saints , then of favour or condescension unto them for their accommodation . They that think a State should work wisely for it self , by any hard intreaty of the servants of God , have forgotten wherefore Pharoah and his great host perished together in the red Sea. Whereas p. 19. he taxeth me with a default , that I neither discover unto him what that Way is , which I there so earnestly plead for , nor produce any one text to prove it Christs own way , nor one example to warrant it , &c. My Answer is , 1. I suppose , that an understanding man , as all men acknowledge Mr. Prynne to be , that prosecutes a Way with so much violence and bitternesse , as hee doth the Way there pleaded for , understandeth it all over , through and through , ( and so needeth not any further discovery of it to be made unto him ) . Such a man ( doubtlesse ) will take heed above all caution , of stumbling at that stone above all other , whereat the Princes of this world stumbled , and were broke to pieces , when they crucified the Lord of glory , before they knew who he was , 1 Cor. 2. 8. 2. I answer further , that it was no part of my design or intent in those Sermons , to justifie the Way so oft there mentioned , simply , or as a Way of Christ against all contradiction ; but only to justifie it against those common exceptions and vulgar objections there insisted upon ; and to demonstrate , that it may be Christs own Way , notwithstanding any thing that hath yet appeared to take away that crowne from it : and so upon this consideration , to perswade men , as they love and tender their own safety and peace , not to lay violent hands upon it , untill they should have better grounds to judge it none of Christs Way , then yet they had any . This being the adequate and precise tenor of my intention in that Discourse , I kept my self close to it ; and so had no occasion to argue any thing ( or very little ) in a cataskenastique or positive Way for it . But because I produce nothing positively to prove the Way I plead for , ( or rather , against the suppression of it ) to be Christs own Way , Mr. Prynne takes the courage to assault the credit and reputation of it by four Reasons or Arguments , ( as hee desires to have their number thought ) though the second and fourth be but one and the same ; and the third , nothing but what hee had said before , and that unsuceessefully , ( as was argued in the 39th Section of this Discourse ) and the first , second , third and fourth , nothing to prophane the excellency , or pollute the beauty of that Cause , against which his pen is armed . But let us answer them , so far as they have not been answered already ; only this one thing pre-observ'd , that Mr. Prynn's conscience , with the assistance of all his four Arguments , doth not yet serve him , peremptorily or simply to condemn this Way , as none of Christs own Way , but only to suspect it none of his , as himself expresseth himself in the last line of pag. 19. Now being advanced no further in the confidence of his judgement against this Way , but only to suspect it for none of Christs , I trust , that remembring what Cameron ( a learned Presbyterian ) saith , viz. that suspicion of falsity , was ever a calamity incident to truth , he will advance no further in his opposition to it , untill his suspicion be grown up to the stature of a perfect , cleere , and certain knowledge . This only premised , let us try whether the grounds of his jealousie it self will not shake . To the first wee answer , 1. That whereas this Way is here charged to be a new Way , never yet heard of , in any age or Church of Christ ; it hath been sufficiently proved by those that have written in the defence of it ; that in point of Antiquity , it hath the preheminence of its Competitresse to the value of 1500 yeers , as having been that Way of Government , wherein the Primitive Churches of Christ , through his gracious & wise indulgence administred unto them by his Apostles in this behalf rejoyced for the space of about 200. yeers , as Mr. Burton in his Answer to Mr. Prynn's two first pieces upon this subject , lately published , cleerly manifests , p. 19. and 24. a shewing moreover , how these Churches in time came to degenerate in point of Government , and to lose their spirituall liberties therein . 2. Whereas the opposition of the generality of Magistrates , Ministers and people to this Way , is pleaded in barre to the legitimacy and truth of it ; We answer , 1. That according to the tenor of Poeticall story ; Vlysses after twenty yeers absence from his house and home , was grown out of the knowledge of his friends and neighbours ; yea , Penelope her self ( his wife ) knew him not at his return at first , but upon some conference and discoveries otherwise , hee became known both to the one and the other . Nor should it seem strange to any , that a Church-government , set up by the Apostles , so many hundreth yeers since , and having for a thousand yeers and upwards been in exile , the rights , priviledges and possessions of it seised upon , and usurped by others , should not presently at the first return of it , be acknowledged by the generality of men , no , nor by the generality of her friends themselves , I mean , godly , sober , and understanding men ; whom I call her friends , because I make no question , but there lies love and friendship to her , at the root and bottome of their hearts , though there be a crust of enmity and opposition at the top , for a season . Joseph will in due time , make himself known unto his brethren . 2. Though numbers of those that are opposite to this Way , if we compute the generality of them , be confessedly far greater , then of those that plead for her ; yet the barren begins to rejoyce , and to beare children apace ; and the desolate may in time come to have more children then she that hath an husband . John Baptist had many moe Disciples and followers at first , then Christ himself ; yet ingenuously subscribed to the dignity of Christ above himself , saying , He must increase , but I must decrease , Joh. 3. 30. 3. The judgements both of Magistrates and common people , concerning this Way , depending chiefly ( if not solely ) upon the judgements of Ministers , it is the lesse strange , that there should be found such a grand concurrence in the judgements of both against it , especially for a time . There are these twelve Reasons ( among others ) why the judgements of Ministers especially may , according to the course of humane affairs in other like cases , stand off at some distance form this Goverment , for a season . First , their judgements have for a long time conversed familiarly with another , and that with approbation and contentment ; by means whereof there is a kinde of a pleasing sympathy or connaturalnesse growne between them ; which is such a conveniencie or accommodation , that nature will not suddenly quit or lose , nor without good consideration : No man ( saith our Saviour ) that hath drunk old wine , streight way desireth new ; for he saith , the old is better , Luke 5. 39. Secondly , godly Ministers ( more generally ) stand publiquely declared in their judgements for another Government . And how hard a thing is it , even for good men ( in the Philosophers phrase ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to do execution upon their own tenets and opinions , especially when they have own'd them in the sight of the world ? The casting out of his son Ismael , is said to have been a thing very grievous in Abrahams sight , notwithstanding he had the advantage of the expresse Commandement of God upon him , to make it easie , Gen. 21. 11. It is confessed , that this , ( haply with some others of the Reasons following ) beares as hard against some Independents in their adhesion unto , and stiff-standing by their Way , as it doth against Presbyterians in their resolvednesse for theirs . But this rather confirms , then any way infeebles , the argumentative authority of it for that probation , which it undertakes . Thirdly , many Ministers conceive , that if they shall pull out but one stone out of their building , though never so ill laid , they shall shake the foundations of the whole fabrique , and that in case themselves should begin with any one of those Doctrines which they have taught , to disclaim it , the people will follow their example herein , and do the like by all the rest . Whereas on the contrary , the truth is , that to separate the vile from the precious , is to raise the honour and esteem of that which is precious ; and the cancelling of some things , which a man hath taught , as erroneous , is an high confirmation of all the rest ; according to that Schoole maxime , Exceptio firmat regulam in non exceptis . Fourthly , many by being declaredly ingag'd for such or such an opinion , have fared the better for it , either in their credits and reputations , or otherwise ; yea , and haply at unawares , have gained deep interest and honour with persons of name and prime respects in the world , by means of a co-ingagement in the same opinion with them . Now as our Saviour saith , a there is no man that shall doe a miracle in my name , that can lightly speake evill of me ; No more will men easily be brought to make refuse or untruth of any such opinion , which hath been , and still continues , such a Benefactresse unto them . Ministers may truly say in such cases , Beneficium accepi , libertatem vendidi : i. by receiving a benefit , I have sold my liberty . Fifthly , many are not able to be baptized with the baptisme wherewith Paul was baptized , Act. 17. 18. where he was charged to bee a setter forth of new Gods : they are not able to beare the reproach of being teachers of new doctrines ; of being charged with whimzies and Independent Crotchets a , of trading in Apes avd Peacocks b , &c. and so resolve to hold on in such a way , wherein though they may meet with some reproofes , yet they are sure of farre more with them , then they can feare being against them . Sixthly , some think it a point of humility to build upon other mens foundations , and feare they should pollute the memories and honour of Calvin , Beza , and other famous lights in the Church of God , if they should recede from their principles in the least . Seventhly , some have laesum principium , a maimed principle of seeing any thing that is new , except they see it first , cannot stoop so low , as to carry any mans honor after him , ( especially that converseth upon the earth with him : Pascitur in vivis livor : ) nor yet so farre disparage their own parts and abilities , as to judge any thing which is of a new discovery , to be Truth , except they bee some wayes or other interessed in the discovery of it . Ingenio qui vult cedere , rarus erit . There is a notion ( unsound as it seemes to me ) of a kind of knowledge supposed to be in God , a called Scientia media , lately started amongst the Schoolmen : and how doe the great masters of that learning , contend amongst themselves for the primacie of that invention ? Fonseca stands up , and tells the world , b that he was the first that observed it amongst his Conimbrians . Nay rather ( saith Molina ) I am he that first discovered it amongst my Eborans . In comes Lessius from amongst his Lovanians , and takes away this Crown from them both , and sets it upon his own brain . Eighthly , some are of opinion , that matters of truth in point of Church-government , are neither too great nor too good , to bee sacrificed upon the service of peace ; though Luthers saying was , that unus apex verbi , major est coelo & terra : i. the least tittle , or poynt of the word of God , is greater then heaven , and earth . Ninthly , some are more addicted to Authors then Arguments , for the furnishing of their judgements , and regulating their consciences in matters of Religion : and then it is no marvell if these make Silver and Gold of the Presbyteriall , and Hey and Stubble of the Congregationall way ; though it bee true also on the other hand , that in very many Authors , and those of Classique authority , both ancient and modern , there are manifesta rotae vestigia cernendi , manifest prints and footsteps of this way a . Tenthly , the Congregationall way puts Ministers upon a more immediate dependence upon God and his providence for matter of maintenance and outward accommodation : and how few are there but had rather see , then beleeve ? have the knowne Lawes of a State , then the unknowne purposes and decrees of heaven , the vouchers of their livelihood and supports to such a proportion or degree ? Eleventhly , ( some it's like ) are afraid lest the wrath and discontent of the generality of the people of the Land , should evince the error and untruth of the Congregationall way , by offering violence to those that shall hold it forth in practice ; and so chuse rather to build upon the peoples generall acceptation of the Presbyterian way ( which they cannot much question ) as an unquestionable demonstration of the truth and goodnesse thereof . Twelfthly ( and lastly ) others ( probably ) are jealous , and foresee , that they shall not be able to give that quarter of contentment to many great persons , and men in place of authority , in the Congregationall way , which they know they may in the Presbyterian . Yea , they cannot lightly but foresee , that in the practice of the Congregationall way , they shall ( in all likelihood and without the gracious hand of God preventing ) contract the odium and ill will of many great ones , who under God have power to grind their faces , and break their bones . And who will be willing to study and take pains , and be earnest with God in prayer night and day , for the conviction of such a Truth , which being discovered , will either expose a man to all that danger of hardship and misery in the world , which we speak of , or else doe him a worse displeasure then so , by tormenting his conscience , in case he shall refuse to be so exposed ? These with many other like reasons there are , why Ministers ( rather then others ) may more generally incline to fall in rather with the Presbyterian , then the Congregationall way ( and consequently why Magistrates and people , who see much by their eyes , should fall in also ) and yet such a constellation no signe from heaven , but onely from the earth , ( the element made to be trampled under foot ) of the truth & righteousnes of that Way . But that I may not be mistaken , nor leave the least touch or tast of offence in the mind of any man , by occasion of the reasons insisted upon , I solemnly professe , as in the presence of God , that I intend no ill reflexion upon any of my brethren in the Ministery , who are contrary minded to me in point of Church-government , as such in any of them ; nor to infinuate as if they , either divisim or conjunctim , were swayed in their judgements by any of the said motives in the present controversie : but to demonstrate against my Antagonist , that such tentations are very incident to the nature of man , yea , even when it is under the best accomplishments of nature , industry & grace it self : and consequently , that his argument drawne , A multitudine taliter sentientium , is of little force . I freely acknowledge , that Ministers very possibly may have ( yea I verily beleeve that many have ) the Presbyterian way in their hearts , who never consulted with any of those Oracles about the bringing of it in thither : and that many of this judgement are as candid , free , unspotted , and untouched by any of those respects , in their way , as many who imbrace the Congregationall way , are in theirs . Yet 4. I must answer this one thing further to my Repliers Argument , that the testimony of a few godly persons , having little or nothing of this world to accommodate their judgements , but a thousand things to distance and distaste them , is in reasonablenesse and fairnesse of construction , of more consideration for the averment of a truth , then the judgement of many who have the Sunne , Moone , and twelve Starres to give light unto them , I mean all or most of this worlds endowments to confirme them . 5. ( And lastly ) the known case happening at the Councel of Nice between Paphnutius and the rest of the learned members thereof , with that of Athanasius opposing ( in a manner ) the whose Christian world now turned Arrian , with some others of like consideration that might be added , have broke the heart of that Topique place , Quod pluribus videtur , &c. and made it void and invalid for ever . To his second Argument , which ( it seemes ) strengthens the hand of his great jealousie against the Congregationall cause , I answer . First , I am unduly and untruly charged , to acknowledge the Congregationall government set up by a few private men , against the Authority and commands of the Parliament , &c. I no where mention any Authority or command of Parliament declared against this Way ; neither indeed doe I know any to this houre . Nor doe I either hope or feare to live to that day , wherein private men may not both feare God , and obey Jesus Christ , without offending against the authority and commands of Parliament . But this charge being hard to find in my discourse , and he that affirmes it , being desirous to make it as hard to answer or disprove , he takes field-room enough for his reference , and in his Margine bids us ( in effect ) looke from page 30. to 52. telling us , that if we look narrowly enough , wee shall find it somewhere within that circuit , though himselfe ( it seems ) knowes not well where . 2. Nor do I any where , either tacitly or vocally acknowledge that this way , not onely denies , but oppugnes the temporall Magistrates , Parliaments , Synods directions or coercive power in Ecclesiasticall affairs . If any man of this way doth denie , much more if hee oppugneth either the one or the other , it is not necessary that he should doe either , as a Son of this Way , nor by any influence of those grounds and principles upon which this Way is built . But I verily beleeve , that Mr. Prynne never knew any man of this Way , that ever denied , much lesse oppugned any directions whether from Parliaments or Synods , ( or from farre meaner hands then either of these ) unlesse they saw or apprehended them contrary to the mind and will of God in the Scriptures ; in which case I have that Christian and honourable opinion of the authour of this charge , that he would deny them himselfe . What he meanes by the word oppugning , in such an emphaticall opposition to a denying , is none of my understanding . It he meanes onely a pleading or an arguing in oppositum , I conceive it no wayes opposite unto , but of a just and necessary concurrence with a deniall . For he that denies any thing affirmed by another , is bound to , ( or at least very lawfully may ) give a reason of that his deniall ; which must needs be an oppugning ( in this sense ) of the others assertion . If by oppugning , he means , an opposing or resisting by force , the charge is a most unworthy and unchristian slander . I no where give the least intimation that the way I plead for in any of her principles or maximes , thus oppugneth either Parliaments or Synods , either in their directions , or in the exercise of any coercive power . As for a coercive power in Synods , I think Mr. Prynnes way denies , if not oppugns , it , as well as mine . And to gratifie the Civill Magistrate with such a power as this , in matters of Religion , denying him withall any Directive power for the ordering and government of it ( which is the bountie of the Presbyterian way to the Civill Magistrate a ) is no such eminency of desert at his hand , above what the Congregationall way doth willingly and chearfully leave unto him . The understanding and reason of a man , is certainly better then the strength of an Elephant , or a Lyon. 3. I absolutely deny , that Mr. Prynne hath either largely , or contractedly proved , either by many Texts , or any Texts , either in his Independencie examined , or in any other of his writings whatsoever , whether examined or unexamined the deniall of any such coercive power , either in Parliaments or Synods , to be either directly or indirectly contrary to the Scriptures , which either the Congregationall way , or any Patron or friend of this way , that I know of , have denied , or doe deny unto either . And whereas his page boasts of his large proofe hereof by many Texts , and by this finger ( o ) points us to his margent , as if that would justifie and make good this boasting ; the honest margent , as conscious to the vanitie thereof , refuseth to say any thing at all , jot or tittle , to it . 4. Whereas he pleads , that Paul himself even in matters of Religion pleaded his cause before Festus , Felix , and King Agrippa , all this is granted in point of Truth , but absolutely denied in point of pertinencie to his purpose . If Independents be brought before Kings and Rulers for Christs sake , or for their conscience sake , it is their wisest course ( and that which well becomes them , yea , and that which they would doe , if so brought ) to plead their cause before them as well as they can , as Paul did before Festus , &c. But though Paul was a chosen vessell of Christ to carry his Name before Kings a , yet they were chosen vessels of Satan , who compell'd or brought him before Kings to answer for his life , because he preach'd and practis'd the doctrine of Christ , notwithstanding he alwayes carried the Name of Christ with him , whensoever he was brought before them . Nor doth his pleading his cause before Festus , &c. any whit more prove that Festus had a lawfull coercive power in matters of Religion , then James his being slaine by Herods sword , or Christs being crucified by Pilates power , prove that Civill Magistrates have a lawfull power to sentence the faithfullest and most innocent men unto death . As for Pauls appeale unto Caesar , ( an Heathen Emperour ) can we blame him for it , when as he hop'd to find more equall and faire proceedings before him , then at the Judicatories of inferior Judges ? If Mr. Prynne will accept or interpret , either the pleading of our cause before a Civill Magistracy when we are brought before it , or an appealing from an inferior Civill Judicatory when we feele or feare injustice , to a Superior , or an acknowledgement of a lawfull power in the Civill Magistrate to restraine the violence and unjust proceedings and practises of men against us ; if ( I say ) he will interpret any , or all these , to be an acknowledgement of a Coercive power in the Civill Magistrate , in Ecclesiasticall affaires , there is an end of this strife between us ; we will all readily subscribe , that such a coercive power as this in matters of Religion and Ecclesiasticall affaires , is the undoubted priviledge of the Civill Magistrate , and of right belongs unto him . 5. Wee freely likewise subscribe unto those injunctions of the Apostle , where he injoyns all Christians to pray , even for heathen Kings , Magistrates , and to submit to all their lawfull commands for conscience sake : yea , and are heartily sorry that any such commands should at any time proceed from Kings , Magistrates , whether Heathen or Christian , unto which we cannot submit with a good conscience , and for conscience sake ; but are necessitated even for conscience sake to decline them . Onely we question , whether Kings , Magistrates , Heathen or Christian , have any power from God , to punish good and godly men , for declining such commands of theirs for conscience sake , which they cannot for conscience sake submit unto . 6. For those Princes and Magistrates who were long sence predicted to become nursing Fathers to the Church under the Gospel , we wish them all Christian care , tendernesse , and compassion , according to the nature and tenor of this so honourable a service and imployment , so long sence by prophecie from God assign'd and recommended unto them . But whether it be proper for those , that desire to be look'd upon as nursing Fathers of the Church , to sacrifice the peace and comfort of one part of the children of the Church upon the service of the wills or humors of another part of them , I leave to nursing mothers , who have twins of their womb hanging upon their breasts , to judge and determine . 7. And lastly , for the good and wholesome Laws enacted by Cyrus , Artaxerxes , Darius , &c. for the worship of God , &c. We gave ( I trust ) a good and wholesome answer in the former part of this discourse , published some weeks since . Wee freely grant a power , yea , and more then a power , a necessitie by way of dutie , in Kings , Magistrates , to further the honour and service of the true God , and his people in the worship of him . It is onely a power of discouraging his people , of interrupting and hindring their peace and comfort in the worship and service of the true God , which we conceive incompetible unto Magistracie , as any gift or donation setled upon it by God. His third Argument or ground of jealousie against the way of his great Contestation , is , that it appears to be a way that will breed infinite confusions , disorders , by confounding the bounds of Parishes , &c. We answer 1. That Physicians seldome complain of sickly times ; nor Millars of those that bring griest to their mills . The old saying was , De morbo gaudet medicus . It is strange to me that Mr. Prynne should thus prevaricate with his profession . But it may be this argument is figurative , and cat-antiphrasticall : And so , by confusions , disorders , &c. he means , peace , unitie and concord amongst men , whereby confusions , disorders , and consequently suits at Law , will be prevented and cut off . And the truth is that such peace , unitie , and concord amongst men , whereby such unchristian mischiefes and miseries as these , may in ordinary way of providence be prevented , is the genuine and naturall product of this way , and a fruit that is daily gathered from it by many . 2. Whereas he chargeth this way , with confounding the bounds of Parishes , and in his margent cites p. 38. to 40. of my two Sermons , for the justification of this charge ; the truth is , that both charge and justification may go together , and serve in the Forlorne hope , having neither reason nor truth to second either . For 1. the way he speaks of , intermeddles not with , offers no violence to the bounds of Parishes onely it thinks it equall that the bounds of Parishes should not offer violence , or be houses of bondage unto the consciences of the Saints , nor be as barres of iron against them in the way of their comfort , and spirituall edification . 2. Whereas I am sub-pena'd for a witnesse against this way , touching the crime objected , I meane of trespassing upon the bounds of Parishes . May answer is , that the printed copie of those Sermons of mine , which I have , hath ne gry quidem , either in pag. 38 , 39 , or 40. of any such matter : nor hath it any where else , any page , passage , sentence , line , word , syllable , letter , point , or tittle , amounting to the import of such a charge . 3. Whereas his pen spits this black reproach in the face of Independencie , that it is a Government inconsistent with Royaltie and the civill Government ; My answer is , that look in what degree this accusation and charge would be weighty and sore , in case it could be prov'd ; in the same degree it is light and contemptible , through a deficiencie of all , and all manner of proofe , or colour of proofe , whatsoever . The Roman Empire lost nothing of her beautie , strength , or interest , by the Churches of Christ practising this Government in severall places within the bounds and territories of it . If it sustained losse in any of these , by occasion of this Government , it was not because of their toleration of , but their opposition to it . 4. Nor is this charge , that it giveth way to every sect to choose Ministers , erect Churches of their owne without controule , of any better commendation in point of truth , then the former . For it giveth way to no sect whatsoever without controule ; it reproves , oppugns , censures , and condemns sects and sectaries of all sorts ; so far is it from granting allowance to them , to choose Ministers , and erect Churches , without controule . Indeed it knows no authoritie or commission which it hath from God , to countenance the controulement of the civill sword against such persons , who in the simplicitie ( not convicted obstinacy ) of their hearts , are misled in matters of Religion : it trembles to make misprisions in things of that difficult , high , and rare attainment , as the acknowledgement of supernaturall truth is in matters of Religion , and the things of God , to be matter either of confiscation of goods , imprisonment , banishment , death , unto men : though it denies not a power of restraint from opposing the received faith , with publick disturbance and offence . 5. Whereas in Answer to somewhat argued by me to make the innocency of Independencie touching matter of Divisions , as cleare as the noone day , he repones thus ; That those who in point of conscience cannot communicate or agree together in one Church , will never questiolesse accord well together in one familie , bed , Parish , Kingdome , as experience manifests ; I answer , 1. That experience manifests the quite contrary . How many Ministers of the Presbyterian judgement are there in the Kingdome , yea , in and about the Citie , that hold communion in all deare and Christian respects , and terms of love and friendship , with many called Independent , and these againe with them ? The difference in judgement between them in point of Church-Government , in some rather increasing , then diminishing or dissolving their familiaritie and acquaintance . How oft doth Mr. Edwards himself in his Antapologie , acknowledge his Apologists to be dearly and deeply interessed in the love and care of many of his judgement a ? Yea , he commends his own love and affections towards them , once and twice and the third time also b . How many families are there in and about the Citie , wherein the respective members injoy themselves together with much Christian sweetnesse and peace , notwithstanding relations to severall Pastors & Churches among them ? I had it from a person worthy credit in a greater matter , that a friend of his ( a man also very well knowne to my self , and knowne for a man both of honesty and understanding ) related to him ; how that having but foure persons in his familie , ( himself being one of the foure ) and every of these constantly repairing to a different Congregation and Ministery , yet liv'd very peaceably , comfortably , and contentedly together in the same house . Yea , and that he moreover added ; that except he should grant this libertie to the rest respectively , he could not expect that good accord and agreement with them and between them in his family , which now he found . Yea , 2. Experience manifests yet more then this ; viz. that not onely persons dissenting in point of Church-Government , being otherwise united in the profession of the same pure , Orthodox and undefiled Religion ; but that persons dissenting in the very substantialls of their respective Religions , doe lovingly and peaceably combine and live together , not onely in the same State or Kingdome , but even in the same Citie , yea , in the same street or neighbour-hood ; and are mutually helpfull and serviceable one to another in all matters of civill courtesie , often meet , eat and drink together ; yea , and are all of one heart and of one mind , in promoting and maintaining the peace and safety of the State where they live . I have received every whit as much as this in report from persons of good esteem and worth , who have been ey-witnesses and diligent observers of such things , both in the Low-Countries and in France . Yea , 3. ( that which is yet more then all this ) the Scripture it self implies , that persons , not onely distanced in their judgements about Church-Government , but about the God-head of Christ , and truth of the true and Christian Religion , may not onely accord and agree together in one and the same State , as Abraham and his people did with the Amorites , Gen. 14. 13. with the Philistims at Gerar , Gen. 20. 1. with the AEgyptians , Gen. 12. 10. &c. Christians with Pagan Idolaters , 1 Cor. 10. 27. but in the one and the same familie , yea , and hed also , 1 Cor. 7. 12 , 13. 1. Pet. 3. 1. &c. 4. And lastly , Not onely experience , but even Reason it self manifests , that those who cannot in point of conscience communicate and agree together in one Church , may yet very well accord together , in one familie , bed , Parish , Kingdome : yea , evident it is , that they , who cannot in point of conscience agree together in one Church , cannot possibly ( or lightly at least ) but agree together in familie , Parish , bed , Kingdome . For if it be conscience that sets them at a distance in matter of Church-government , it must needs unite them in the performance of all such duties , which are cleerly and manifestly such . He that out of conscience abstains from any practise , as not being satisfied in his judgement touching the lawfulnesse thereof ; cannot but be ready and willing to practise every such dutie , of the necessitie where of he stands convinced , either by the light of nature , or by the Word of God ; Conscience being unpartiall between the negative and the affirmative , and equally respecting its own comfort and peace in both . Now it is no wayes probable , ( if possible ) that such as are truly conscientious in point of Church-Government , should be ignorant of such duties required of them by God in the foure mentioned relations , family , parish , bed , kingdome , the practise and performance whereof will strongly and sweetly unite and accord them in the said Relations , respectively . All these things considered , I cannot wonder a little , that the Gentleman , who makes so many Questions , should make that Questionlesse in the negative , which is so palpably plain and questionlesse in the affirmative . But 6. Whereas I onely argue and demonstrate , that the repairing of persons out of severall Parishes to one and the same Ministery or Pastor , needs be no more trouble or disturbance , then the like repair of persons of the respective Companies in London , to one and the same Hall ; he represents this demonstration of mine , as if I thereby intended to prove or justifie the Congregationall Government simply , and accordingly insists upon 3 differences between the one and the other . I know nothing but that he might easily have found out not onely 3 , but 23 differences , and have argued them all with as much pertinencie to his purpose , as he hath done the three . For we do not urge the analogie of the Government of Companies of Corporations in all the relations or appurtenances belonging to it , as any ground or proof of the Congregationall Government ; we are better provided in this kind , then so : we onely urge the particular mentioned , to accommodate and heal the pretended offensivenesse in the like , in this Government . Notwithstanding let us briefly see what advantage he hath gotten against the Independent way , by his 3 great differences found between severall Trades and Hals in one Citie , Parish , Kingdom , and severall forms of Church-Government . As to the first we answer . 1. That it is not so without dispute , as he makes it , whether all Trades , Societies , bold one another lawfull , usefull , necessarie , agreeable to the Laws of God , and the Realme . I know both some Trades , yea and some Societies too in London , much questioned upon all , or most of these particulars . But passe we this . Whereas he infers upon it , that so they breed no contrarietie of opinions or disaffections , &c. We answer . 2. That certainly experience doth not manifest this Contentions , differences , disaffections , yea and Law-suits sometimes betweene Trades and Trades , Societies and Societies , are known occurrences in and about the Citie . Whereas he addes : that each different Church deems the other unlawfull , so as they cannot with safe conscience joyn or communicate together , and thereupon sever one from another ; We answer . 3. That according to Mr. Prynnes notion of Church-Government , it is not necessarie that each different Church should judge the other unlawfull , &c. because he supposeth , that the Scripture is so indulgent in this behalf , as to leave roome enough for variety of forms of this Government . So that if he will but give others leave to be of his judgement , this reasoning of his fals to the ground . But Fourthly ( and lastly ) Though each different Church do deem the other unlawfull , and so cannot with safe conscience communicate together in Church-ship ; yet this hinders not , but that they may judge and think as well one of anothers persons ( and consequently love and affect one another , and combine together as affectionately , ) as persons of severall Trades and Societies do ; who have no more communion together in their respective Trades , then different Churches have in their respective Churches ; yea , there is far better ground ( as hath been partly touched already ) why different Churches , though they deemeach other unlawfull , should yet think better of , yea and love the respective members each of other , then there is , that persons of severall Trades , or members of severall civill Societies , should do either the one or the other among themselves . To his second difference , I answer , 1. That experience manifests the contrary to what he here affirms , viz. that the subordination or subjection of severall Trades , Societies , to the whole Corporation , Parliament , or supreame Magistrate , doth not keep them all in peace and writie . What contentiones , quarrels , emulations , suits amongst them from day to day , any such subordination or subjection notwithstanding ? 2. Whereas by way of opposition he addes , that Independent Churches will be regulated , obliged onely by their own peculiar edicts , which must needs occasion infinite schismes and disorders ; We answer . 1. We wish that by way of commendation and praise in many cases , to Parliaments , temporall Magistrates , and Synods , which is here cast upon Independent Churches by way of imputation and charge , I mean regulation and obligement by their own peculiar edicts . But 2. Whereas the charge is thus laid against these Churches , that they will be regulated , obliged onely by their own peculiar Edicts ; the truth is , that they are every whit as willing to be regulated , obliged , by the Edicts of any other , as by their own , alwayes provided that they be conform to the Word , and this conformitie sufficiently proved and made known unto them . They put no difference at all between the mind of Christ presented unto them by others or discovered and found out by themselves . Yea and that subordination and subjection which they all professe and own to the written word of God , is a farre more effectuall and hopefull means , to keep them all in peace and unitie , then that subordination mentioned by Mr. Prynne , is to keep all Trades and Societies in the same precious posture . Onely in this one thing these poore Independent Churches desire Parliaments and Magistrates and Synods to be mercifull unto them , that they cannot write any of them , infallible , nor yet subscribe unto any their injunctions or decisions in matters of Faith , or which concern the worship and service of God , without retaining the Scriptures for their Counsell , and advising with them what to do therein . To his third and last difference also , we answer . 1. That he saith very well , in point of truth , when he saith , that Christians , as Christians , are all of one and the self same society and profession , as those of one trade and calling are . But this truth as yet , is not at all conscious to his intention or purpose . Therefore he addes : therefore they should all have but one Church and Government , as these trades have . Nor doth this , if granted , make any whit more for the Presbyterian cause , then for the Independent : because it doth not follow ; Christians , as Christians , ought all to have one and the same Church and Government : therefore this Church and Government ought to be Presbyterian . Take a parallel : Simeon and Levi ought to have been Brethren : therefore they ought to have been Brethren in iniquitie . Take another : A●ania● and Sapphira , being man and wife , ought to have agreed together : therefore they ought to have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord. But 2. If by his one Church , he means , one and the same Catholique , mysticall , and invisible Church ; We answer , that Christians , as Christians , have all one and the same Church ; in this sense , they are all members of this one Church . But if he means , one and the same ministeriall and visible Church , we answer , by demanding , How can this thing be ? We have heard indeed of some Oecumenicall Councels ; but of Oecumenicall visible Churches , wherein all Christians should be comprehended as members , I beleeve there hath been Oecumenicall silence unto this day . 3. Whereas he goeth about to set the comparison ( of his own making ) upright , by stating it thus : If some of one Fraternitie in London ( suppose Merchant-t tylors , Sadlers , &c. ) should fall out among themselves , and one would have one form of Government , another another , and thereupon divide themselves into severall conventicles and pety meetings in corners , not at their common Hall , and one chuse one Government or Master , another another , and so sever the Company , and continue Independent , this ( no doubt ) would prove an apparent schisme and seminary of infinite divisions , to the distraction , destruction of the whole Company and Fraternitie ; and then addes , This is the true State of your Independencie : We answer , that the comparison thus stated holds no proportion or correspondence with the State of Independencie . For , 1. That number of Christians which pleads for Independencie ( so called ) is not the whole Socieitie of Christians ( nor indeed any confiderable part thereof , in respect of number ) as that Fraternitie of Merchant-tayloes or Sadlers the comparison speaks of , is therein supposed to be the whole Societie of such a Company . Therefore to set Mr. Prynnes comparison upright , and make it agree with the State of Independencie , in this particular , it must be stated thus ; Suppose two or three members of a numerous and vast companie , consisting ( it may be ) of ten or twenty thousand persons , should differ from the rest of the Societie in some things about their Government , and hereupon should withdraw themselvs from that Society , and seek incorporation elsewhere ; would such a dissent or withdrawing of so few from amongst so many , any waies threaten the distraction , much lesse the destruction of the whole Company ? 2. Suppose a considerable part of a Company , should out of a conscientious dislike of the carriage of things in the Government of the body withdraw themselves , and refuse subjection to this Government so ordered and administred ; though in probabilitie this act of theirs may occasion some distraction or disturbance in the rest of the body for a season ; yet supposing it done upon substantiall and due grounds , it may be so farre bringing destruction to this body , that very possibly it may occasion the Reformation and amendment of those things that were unjust in this Government , ( and consequently destructive to the bodie ) and so become a means of the preservation of it from destruction . And this is the true state of our Independencie . 3. In case the Fraternity of Merchant-taylors in London should fall out amongst themselves , and one would have one form of Government , and another another , and thereupon divide themselves , &c. What ever inconvenience should , or might hereupon ensue to the Company , yet still it was determined by equall and prudent Judges , who , or which partie gave the chief occasion of these distractions and rents ; there is no reason why any one partie should fall foule upon all the rest , and give an extrajudiciall sentence for themselves . For any thing that God hath yet determined to the contrary , the Independent partie of Christians in the Kingdom , may be as innocent ( yea more innocent ) of the breaches and distractions amongst us in point of Church Government , them the Presbyterian . They that call and plead for that Government which is held forth in the Scriptures , calling and pleading for it in a regular , meek and Christian manner , are those that are innocent ; and those that call and plead for any other , or indeed for any in a violent , preposterous , and unchristian manner , ( light the stroke where it will ) are those that are guiltie . I confesse that in one respect , and that of very great consequence , I could really wish that the beam were in the eye of Independencie , and the moat in the eye of Presbyterie ; because in this case it would ( I conceive ) be the sooner and the more easily plucked out . For as Austin said long since : Vitiun quod inebriat multitudinem , examinis amittit veritatem . A sin or error that hath taken the heads and hearts of a multitude , is hardly curable a An error in a few , is but as smoke , it may be approach'd unto , handled , and dealt with , without danger : but in many it becomes a flame of fire ; and he that attempts the quenching of it , had need purifie himself , as men at Sea do , when they see the breakings of Leviathan , and look for nothing but present death . Job . 41. 25. 4. In case any parcell or lesse number of the Company of Merchant-taylors in London , could not with a good conscience continue their union and incorporation with the Societie , apprehending some things sinfull amongst them , of the sinfulnesse whereof they conceive an unavoidable necessitie that themselves must be partakers , whilest they continue their relation to the Company , the rest of the Company all this while resenting no evill in the things stumbled at by those other , and so are able to keep on their way without scruple ; in this case it is so farre from being a thing destructive to this Company , that the partie so scrupul'd , should withdraw , that it is the best accommodation , thing standing as they do , whereof they are capable ; it being certain that no Company or Societie whatsoever but suffers losse and disadvantage by union and communion with such members , who walk with gainsaying judgements , and polluted consciences with them . And this also is the true State of Independencie . The Great Communitie and Societie of Christians in the Kingdom , suffer farre lesse by the Independents withdrawing of themselves from the Presbyterian Government , their judgements in this point standing as they do , then they would by their joyning with them therein . Their joyning with them under the reclamation of their judgements and conscieaces , would but disaccommodate both parties ; whereas their refusall in this kind , convenienceth both ; and so hath the true character of a legitimate contract or bargain between man and man , which still ought to be so conditioned , that both parties may be bettered in their conditions by it . Therefore Mr. Prynne hath not set the comparison upright to the point in hand . 5. And lastly , There is no arguing in Divinitie , either from conveniences or inconveniences , from disturbances or from peace , from life or from death , against the necessitie of avoiding sin , and keeping a good and a cleere conscience towards God. Therefore supposing that the Company of Merchant-taylors in London , would by such fractions and divisions amongst the members thereof , as are presented in Mr. Prynnes comparison , be in danger of ruine and dissolution ; yet better were it that this ruine & dissolution should come upon it , then that God should be dishonoured by the least sin , or the meanest soule indangered , for the presevation of it a . In like manner , it is more agreeable to the mind of God , and to all principles of Christianitie , that even the greatest numbers and multitudes of Christians should rather suffer , though very deep , in their externall conveniences , then that the least sin should be committed by the meanest of them , for their accommodation . And this likewise is the true state of things between our Independency , and Mr. Prynnes Presbyterie . Many other particulars there are , wherein it might be made further to appeare , how ill his comparison comports with the case and state of Independencie : but enough ( as the Proverb saith ) is as good as a feast . To what he subjoyns concerning my present case in my own Parish , miserably divided , disordered by my Independent way , &c. I have answered in part in my Innocencies Triumph . I here adde 1. That my Parish is no otherwise divided , disordered , by my Independent way , then the world commonly is by the Gospel , when it cometh in power amongst the inhabitants thereof . Think not ( saith our Saviour ) that I am come to send peace on Earth : I came not to send peace , but a sword . For I am come to set a man at variance against his Father , and the daughter against the another , and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-low : And a mans foes shall be they of his owne houshold , Mat. 10. 34 , 35 , 36. 2. It was not my Independent way , ( as Mr. Prynne affirmeth ) but the opposition to it , that caused those divisions , disorders , ( if any such be ) in my Parish : If the partie which now opposeth , had been willing , either to have complied with him whom they acknowledged for their Pastor , and the rest of their Brethren , who submitted themselves unto him in this way ; or else patiently to have waited upon God , untill he should please to reveale the goodnesse of the way unto them , in case they saw no sufficient ground at the present , for their submission in this kind ( as many of the best of them have done hitherto : ) there had been no place for any division or disorder amongst them . And whether it be not more fitting , for a people to follow their Pastor , giving them substantiall grounds and reasons for that way wherein he desires to lead them ; then for a Pastor to follow his people in such a way , whereof they neither give , nor ( I verily beleeve ) can give , any account like men , I leave to Mr. Prynne , and all unpartiall Judges , to determine . 3. ( And lastly ) Nothing is more regular , or of more constant observation in all ages , then for troubles , commotions , and disturbances , to attend for a while , any considerable mutation or change , especially , for the better , either made , or attempted to be made , in any State or Societie of men whatsoever . Calvin in his Preface before his Institutions , dedicated to the King of France , complains a of the indirect and unworthy dealings of his adversaries , who charged the preaching of the Doctrine of the Gospel , with being the cause of I know not what troubles , tumults , and contentions ; Whereas such things as these , should have been charged upon the Militia or Agents of the Devill . And then addes this memorable saying : Est hic divini verbi quidam quasi genius , ut nunquam emergat , quieto ac dormiente Satana : It is ( as it were ) the lot and destinie of the word of God , never to find Satan in a good mood , or asleep , when it comes abroad into the world : in the following words , making this a most certaine and faithfull mark or signe , whereby it is discern'd from false Doctrines , which ( saith he ) soone bewray themselves by this , that the world applauds them in the hearing , and gives them intertainment in a posture of fairnesse , favour , and peace . What storms , tempests , whirle-winds of troubles , tumults , commotions , did Satan and his auxiliaries raise in all places and parts in the world b , wheresoever Luthers Doctrine and Reformation did but touch , to render them the hatred and indignation of the world ? Yea , and Luther himself doubted not to raise it to a generall maxime or observation , that Godly men must beare the name & title of men that are seditious , schismaticall , and Authors of infinite evills and troubles in the world . c That great and blessed alteration and change that God made in the State of Religion , and things of his worship , by the sending of Jesus Christ into the world , and the preaching of the Gospel , is called the shaking of the Heavens and the Earth d , because of the great concussions , troubles , distractions , rents , and divisions , in the great concussions , troubles , distractions , rents , and divisions , in the world , which did ( and doe yet daily ) accompany them , by reason of the pride , ignorance , and unbeliefe of those which oppose either the one or the other . And as the Doctrine of the Gospel in the generall , never comes amongst any people in excellencie and power , but that it smites the foundations of that unitie and peace wherein it finds them , makes breaches upon them , renting one part of them from another , upon which discontents and disorders follow like the waves of the Sea ; in like manner , every considerable piece or branch of the Gospel , in the first discovery and breaking out of it , even in such places , and among such persons , where and amongst whom the Doctrine of the Gospel in the generall hath been of a long time professed , by reason of the strangenesse of it , and that contrarietie and crossenesse which it beares to the judgements and wills of many , must needs be offensive and distastefull unto them , and so occasion distractions , disorders , discontents . So that Mr. Prynne by representing my Parish as divided , disordered by my Independent way , hath rather given testimony to the truth and Evangelicalnesse of it , then brought any argument to disprove either . And to say ( as he doth a few lines after ) that he needs no other evidence to prove it a schismaticall by-path , and so no way of Christ , then the schismes and discords which it hath raised in other Parishes , is just such a saying and resolution , as that of the High Priest against our Saviour , when he rent his cloaths , and said , He hath spoken blasphemie : What further need have we of Witnesses * ? The blasphemie of Christ , and the guiltinesse of Independencie touching the matter of division and disorder , are sins much of the same order and calculation . To his fourth and last reason , which renders him a man of jealousie against the way of Independencie , and prevailes with him so farre , that he cannot ( as he saith ) think it a Way of Christ ; wee Answer . 1. That this way is no Pioner or underminer of Parliamentarie Authoritie : nor hath Mr. Prynne found it , nor ever shall find it such : the principles of this way being none other then what are laid in the Scriptures , unpossible it is , that it should destroy , or pull downe any thing , which they build up . Therefore if Mr. Prynne hath ought in this kind against any of the sons of this way , let him implead these in a lawfull triall , and spare not ; but if for their sakes he will needs blaspheme the way , he will open a dore of example very effectuall for those that are opposite to his way of Presbyterie , to heap shame , infamie and reproach upon the head thereof without end ; ( yea , and for those also that are enemies to Christian Religion , to render that as hatefull , wicked , vile in the eyes of men , as themselves can desire it should be esteemed ) . If all the errors and misprisions found in the writings of Presbyteriall men , should be charged upon the way of Presbyterie , as the Authoresse and Foundresse of them , she would appeare ten times more erroneous and deformed , then her Independent adversaries are yet willing to judge or conceive her to be . 2. For the Sons or Patrons of this way ( as Mr. Prynne pleaseth to term them ) I verily beleeve , that there is none of them all , but are willing , ready and chearfull to invest Parliaments with as full , high , and compleat a power and Authoritie , as are by any , by all the rules and principles , either of reason , or Religion , competible unto men . If Mr. Prynne , or any other of the Presbyterian way , conceive that in times of Parliaments , when they apprehend them like to be for them , they may and ought to say , that Gods are come down to us in the likenesse of men * ; we confesse , that we cannot ( our reason , our Religion will not beare it at our hands ) subscribe any such Apotheosie . But let him and his , first survey the territories , patrimonie , and heritance of Heaven , the royalties and prerogative of the most high God , and of the Lord Jesus Christ , blessed for ever , and set them out by the line and rule either of reason , or Religion ; and look what power , Authoritie , Jurisdiction soever , shall be found situate , lying and being without the compasse of this line , no waies enterfeering with those that are within , wee all unanimously , universally professe , that incunctanter , and with both our hands we will cast and heap it upon the Parliament , asking no further question for conscience sake . Therefore whereas he challengeth this way , for devesting Parliaments of all manner of Jurisdiction in matters of Religion and Church-Government ; we answer , 3. That neither this way , nor the Patrons of it , devest them of any , or any manner of Authoritie in what matters soever , unto which Mr. Prynne , or any other Master of the Presbyterian way , is able , Salvo jure coeli , to entitle them . For jurisdiction in matters of Religion and Church-Government , we willingly give unto them the same line , measure , and proportion herein to the full , which himself asserteth unto them from the examples of those Kings and Princes , Cyrus , Artaxerxes , Darius , &c. ( which he insists upon p. 20. ) Who ( as he here said ) enacted good and wholsome Lawes , for the worship , honour and service of the true God. Let him instance particularly in any such Law , or Lawes , enacted by any of them : and ( doubtlesse ) none of us will denie the Parliament a power of enacting ( exceptis excipiendis ) the like . But if Mr. Prynnes intent be to make Precedent of whatsoever was enacted or done by any , or all of these Heathen Kings , Princes , and States , to warrant a lawfulnesse of power in the Parliament of enacting or doing the same , we conceive that he neither hath , nor knows where to have any thing to justifie such an intent . I trust that that Law enacted by Nebuchadnezzar and his Nobles , Dan. 3. 6. That whosoever falleth not downe and worshippeth , shall the same houre be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace , shall not be drawne by him into precedent , for the vindication of a Parliamentary Jurisdiction in matters of Religion and Church-Government . 4. Whereas to make good his last charge against the way so often smitten by his pen , he referres to the passage of the two Independent Brethren recited p. 3. of his Independencie examined , adding ( after a parenthesis of much untruth , there being many that have represented the way he speaks of in her native colours and lineaments a ) that I rather aggravate , then extenuate the guiltie of the said passage , by my explanation , which he there recites ; I answer , 1. That for matter of guilt , the passage referred unto , standeth as yet , cleare , innocent , and untouch'd , as concerning any thing in way of demerit , that hath been prov'd against it . 2. As concerning the explanation , that also keeps its standing , and that upon holy ground , notwithstanding all that Mr. Prynne hath done , or attempted to doe , for the removall of it ; — manet illa , suóque est robore tuta . Yea , the truth is , that in all his contra-remonstrance , he hath not so much as once touch'd or mentioned that which is the maine base or foundation of the principall conclusion managed in the said explanation , and principally opposed by him . The conclusion is not that which Mr. Prynne extracts from the passage which he cites , viz. that there is not onely an improbabilitie , but an absolute impossibilitie , that the Parliament should have any power at all to enact Lawes and Statutes in matters of Religion , Church-Government , &c. Here are words , which the explanation knows not , either in the letter , or in the spirit of them , as by name these , not onely an improbabilitie , an absolute impossibilitie , no power at all , &c. but the maine conclusion driven at in the passage , is this ; That the generalitie or promiscuous multitude of the Land , have no authoritie or power from Christ to nominate or appoint , who shall be the men that shall order the affaires of Christs Kingdome , or institute the Government of his Churches . The maine foundation or base of reason , upon which this pillar of Truth stands in the said passage , is this ; Because such an Authoritie or power ( viz. to nominate or appoint who shall order the affaires of Christs Kingdome , or institute the Government of his Churches ) is greater then ever Christ himself had , ( I meane as man , or Mediator ) at least then ever he exercised , which in the sequell I explaine and prove . Now then this is that which I say , that Mr. Prynne in all his long reasoning against the Conclusion , doth not so much as with the least of his fingers once touch this ground , or answer any thing at all to it . So that he hath not as yet the least colour or pretence to blame me , if I be not proselyted to his opinion by what he hath written here . And because I desire faire and Christian quarter with him for the future , I doe here promise and protest in the sight of God , Angels , and men , that if Mr. Prynne shall at any time ( God preserving my life and understanding ) plainly and substantially demonstrate and prove , either that the generalitie , and promiscuous multitude of the Land , have a power greater then ever the Lord Christ himself had , or exercised as man , or Mediator ; or , that a power to nominate and appoint whom they please amongst men , to order the affaires of Christs Kingdome , and institute the Government of his Churches , is not a power greater then ever Christ had , or at least exercised , as either man , or Mediator ; I promise and protest againe , as before , that if Mr. Prynne , or any other , shall at any time clearly and fairly prove , either the one or the other of these propositions , I will pull downe with both mine hands , what I have built up but with one , and without any more adoe joyn judgement with Mr. Prynne touching the power of the Civill Magistrate in matters of Religion : but till this be done , I neither see how Mr. Prynne can with a good conscience persist in his , nor require me to desist from mine . It is true , the Lord Christ as Mediator , had all power given him both in Heaven and on Earth , Mat. 28. 18. That is , had the whole and intire execution and transaction of all his Fathers will , pleasure , and decrees , concerning all men , Angels & creatures whatsoever , put into his hand & power . And hath given him Authoritie TO EXECUTE judgement also , because he is the son of man , Joh. 5. 27. But he had no power or Authoritie given him , to carry any thing contrary to his Fathers will or pleasure . Verily , verily , I say unto you , ( saith he himself , Joh. 5. 19. ) the Son can doe nothing of himself , but what he seeth the Father doe , &c. So againe , ver . 30. I can doe nothing of my self — Now then as Christ had no commission or power to give eternall life , but onely to those whom God the Father had given unto him , Joh. 17. 2. Joh. 6. 37. So neither had he any Authoritative power to institute or appoint any other government for his Churches , then that which he had seene with , or received from his Father : much lesse had he any such power , to delegate unto men ( least of all unto unsanctified persons and rude multitudes ) a power of nominating whom they should please , to appoint and settle what government they pleas'd in the Churches of God. Certain I am , that Christ never exercised any such power as this : and therefore have little hope of being convinc'd that he ever had it . Howsoever , let us give the Gentleman an unpartial hearing in what he pleads against the aforesaid Conclusion . 1. To his former marginall Annotation ( p. 22. ) honoured with a Preface made of this word , Note , wherein he tells me that Gamaliel and my Text never taught me any such Anti-Parliamentary Doctrine . I answer , that neither doth Gamaliel , nor my Text , nor any other Text whatsoever in Scripture , teach Mr. Prynne to call the truth an Anti-Parliament try Doctrine . But both Gamaliel and my Text teach me to take heed of fighting against God ; and I being taught so high and necessary a point of wisdome , conceiv'd it my dutie not to eat such a morsell alone , but to spread a Table for as many of my Brethren as pleas'd to come , and sit downe and eat of the same with me . I and my Doctrine are onely in such a sense Anti-Parliamentarian , as Christ and his were Anti-Cesarean . 2. To a second Marginall note in the same page , ordered likewise to be noted ( as the former ) I answer likewise , that though people have authoritie to nominate such who by the rule of Gods Word may limit some particulars , though not by their own bare Authoritie , without , or against the Word , yet it followeth not ; either 1. That they have authoritie to nominate such , who shall have authoritie by vertue of such nomination to peremptorize by fire or sword all their limitations whatsoever , as agreeable to Gods Word . Nor 2. Doth it follow , that , in case their limitations should be agreeable to the word of God , therefore they have power to compell any man by externall violence , to subject either in their judgement or practise unto them ; especially whilst they are not able to convince them of any such excellency in these limitations , as an agreeablenesse to the word of God ? It is no waies agreeable to the word of God , that men should be punish'd either in their bodies or estates , for not siding with the truth in difficult and hard Questions ; as all such may well be presum'd to be , wherein sober and conscientious persons cannot be satisfied . The word of God doth not permit two persons or parties of a dissenting judgement about an hard case or question , to judge or think hardly one of another a ; much lesse doth it permit them to punish , or lay violent hands one upon another . Nor 3. And lastly , doth it follow , that , though Princes , Magistrates , Ministers , Parliaments , Synods , should be nominated or elected by the lawfull power of the people , and withall should have Authoritie by the word of God to limit any particulars thereof ; that therefore this Authoritie should be deriv'd upon them by means of such nomination . Every private man hath sufficient Authoritie , ( though perhaps he may want abilitie of gifts ) to limit any particular in the word of God according to the word of God ; this being nothing else but a true and right apprehending or understanding of this word . Which apprehension or understanding of his , though he hath no power by way of office to impart unto others , yet hath he a right , yea , and an obligation upon him by way of dutie , so to impart it , when God affords season and opportunitie , time and place for it . So that this marginall note is not accessory to any harme done to the said Conclusion . 3. To a third marginall note subservient in the same page to the two former , I answer , 1. That though it should be granted , that every Magistrate , Parliament and Synod have power to declare and injoyn , what is necessarie to be beleeved , practised , by or according to Gods Word , yet this is nothing more then what every Pastor or Minister over a congregation , hath power to do , yea and ought to do b from day to day in the course of his ministery . But 2. If by declaring and enjoyning , he means any such declaring and enjoyning , whereby Magistrate , Parliament , or Synod , shall be enabled temporally to punish those who shall either not beleeve , or not practise ; I answer , that this is but petitio Principii , a supposall of that which is the main Question ; and therefore waits still upon Mr. Prynne's pen for a more sufficient proof , the old writ of Ipse dixit , being out of date long since . We have reconciled the margent ; and nothing doubt but that the page will be of as easie accommodation . Therefore 4. Whereas he puts himself to the needlesse labour of repeating the charge formerly charged upon my Doctrine , a an underminer of the Authority of Parliaments , &c. I shall take admonition by it , and save a needlesse labour of repeating what hath been already said in way of answer to it . Onely I shall adde , that this Repetition of Mr. Prinnes judgement and charge of my fore-mentioned Doctrine , compared with my own thoughts and apprehensions of it , puts me in mind of a saying of a great Casuist : Eadem possunt alicui videri manifestè vera , quae alteri videntur manifestè falsa . The same things may seem to one manifestly true , which to another seem as manifestly false . That Doctrine which Mr. Prynne arraigns as an underminer of Parliamentary Authority , I conceive to be a Doctrine of the richest establishment and confirmation to it : of which apprehension of mine , I have given a sufficient account elsewhere . 5. Whereas he further chargeth the said Doctrine with contrarietie to my late Covenant and Protestation , and that in the most transcendent manner that ever any have hitherto attempted in print ; and refers himself to all wise men to judge , whether this be not so ; I referre both himself and all his wise men , to judge , whether I have not given a sufficient answer hereunto in my Innocencies Triumph . p. 4 , 5 , 6 , &c. yet lest sentence should be given against me herein , I here adde , that certainly no clause in that Covenant and Protestation intended , that the Subscribers unto it should be bound in conscience by vertue of such subscription , to make Gods of men , or ( which interpreted , amounts to as much ) to give any man Dominion over his Faith a . If this be but granted , my Doctrine is no Delinquent at all against the Covenant and Protestation . 6. Whereas he promises , or threatens ( which he pleaseth ) short answer to my extravagant discourse ; and first alledgeth that the objection might be made against the generall Assemblies , Parliaments , Kings of the Israelites , who were chosen by the people , yet they made Laws and Statutes concerning Religion , and Gods worship , with his approbation : I answer . 1. That the , Generall Assemblies , and Kings of Israel , were not chosen by the people , at least by any formall free choice of one out of many , as our Parliaments and Assemblies are . For first the Generall Assemblies consisted of the generalitie of the people , and so were not chosen at all ; for where all are admitted , there is no choice . Or secondly , if by the Generall Assemblies of Israel , he means the seventy persons spoken of , Numb . 11. 16. 24. &c. it is evident from the context , first , that they were not chosen by the people into that Assembly , but by Moses , and that by expresse order and command from God. They might possibly be chosen by the people into the places of Elders and Governours over their respective Families and Tribes ; but they had no right or calling by vertue of such eldership , to gather themselves into an Assembly of seventy , upon any such terms , or for any such ends , as the fore-mentioned Assembly were drawn together by God. Secondly , evident like-wise it is , from ver . 25. that these seventy had a speciall anointing of the Holy Ghost from God , and prophecied . Therefore there is a great difference between this Assembly , and generall Assemblies now . 2. Neither were the Kings of Israel chosen by the people , but by God ; except we will call a subsequent consent and that by way of duty and homage to the choice made by God , a choice . When thou shalt come unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee , and shalt possesse it and dwell therein , if thou say , I will set a King over me , like as all the Nations that are about me , Then shalt thou make him King over thee , whom the LORD THY GOD SHALL CHVSE , &c. Deut. 17. 14 , 15. Saul their first King , was chosen and appointed by God , 1 Sam. 9. 15 , 16. So David their second King , 1 Sam. 16. 1. yea his seed likewise was chosen and appointed by God to succeed in this Kingdom , and to reign after him for ever , 2 Sam. 7. 12. 16. yea and notwithstanding this generall choice and designation , Solomon their King , is particularly said to have been chosen by God , 1 Chron. 29. 1. So for the Kings that reigned over the ten Tribes , after the rent of the ten Tribes from the other two ; Jeroboam , the first King , was chosen by God , 1 King. 11. 31. yea and his seed also , conditionally , ver . 38. But Nadah his son , proving wicked , brake the condition , and cut off the intailment . Their third King , Baasha , was not chosen by the people neither , but was fore-chosent by God , 1 King. 14. 14. to do that execution upon the house of Ieroboam , which is recorded , 1 King. 15. 27 , 28 , 29. Elab their next King succeeded his Father , by right of inheritance , and is no where said to have been chosen by the people into the throne . Zimri the next , was a bloody Traytor and usurper . The two next following him , Omri and Tibni , were set up indeed by the people , but not in any way of a lawfull and regular election , but by way of tumult and faction : and the one partie prevailing , the King followed by the other , was soon suppressed . Ahab the son of the prevailing King , without any election by the people ( except a connivence or permission , be called an election ) by the ascent of descent or succession got up into the throne . After the same manner also Ahaziah his son came to be King. This Ahaziath dying without children , his Brother Jeboram ( another son of Ahath , and next to him by birth , as it seems ) by the priviledge of his birth came peaceably to the Kingdom , without any election by the people any where heard of . 2 King. 1. 17. The next King , Jehu by name , was chosen by God himself after a speciall manner , 2 King. 9. 1 , 2. and his children after him to the fourth generation ( 2 King. 10. 30. ) to sit upon the throne of Israel , Shallum , who succeeded Ahab and his race , ( their date of Reiglement being expired ) came to the Kingdome by blood ; and is indeed said to have smote Zachariah ( the last of Ahabs race ) before the people , and so to have reigned in his stead : ( 2 King. 15. 10. ) but by what maxime enle ley , the murthering of a King before the people , will be interpreted , a being chosen King by the people , I understand not . Menahem his successor after a moneths reigne , found the same way to the Kingdome ( I mean , by blood ) which his Predecessour had chalked out . Pekahiah his son and successour , had no other choice we read of , but onely by that his relation . Nor had Pekah who succeeded him in the throne , any other choice into this dignitie , but onely by the murther he committed upon his Master ; except it be said , that he was chosen by those 52. men who assisted him in that bloody execution . 2. King. 15. 25. Nor had Hoshea ( the last of these Kings ) any other choice , entrance , or accesse we read of unto the Throne , but the same with his Predecessor , a bloodie conspiracie against his Lord and Master . So that Mr. Prynne is absolutely mistaken in the very bottome and groundwork of his first allegation , affirming the Generall Assemblies , Parliament , Kings of the Israelites , to have been chosen by the people . 3. ( And lastly ) neither did they make Laws and Statutes concerning Religion and Gods worship , with his approbation , except his approbation went along with the transgression of his Law. For by this they stood expresly charg'd , not to adde unto the word which he commanded them , nor yet to diminish ought from it . Deut. 4. 2. And againe , Deut. 12. 32. And what addition could be made with an higher hand , or with more provocation in the sight of God , unto this word of his , then an enacting Laws and Statutes concerning Religion , and his worship , whereunto men should stand bound in conscience to submit , as well as unto the Lawes of God themselves declared in this word ? Or if it be said , that men were not bound in conscience to submit to such Laws and Statutes , as well as unto the Laws of God ; then were they not to be punished for non-submission to them , unlesse we will say , that men ought to be punished for somewhat else , besides sin . To his second reason against the Doctrine and Conclusion aforesaid , I answer , that as God himself used the ministery , assistance of Cyrus , Artaxerxes , Darius , for the building of his Temple , and advancement of his worship , for which they made Decrees , Statutes ; so I conceive he doth expect and require the ministery , assistance of Christian Magistrates , Parliaments , and Laws and Statutes to be made by them , for the promotion of his worship , But as Cyrus , Artaxerxes , Darius , made no Decree , Statute , to discourage any of the true worshipers of God , nor yet to compell them to any kinde of worship , contrary ( in their judgements ) to the word of God ; or in case they did make , or should have made , any such Decree , Statute , they should have exceeded the limits of their just power , and not have done justifiably in the sight of God ; So neither can Christian Princes , Magistrates , commend themselves unto God in any such exercise of their power , whereby they shall constraine or enforce the conscientious & faithfull servants of God to any kind of worship , contrary to their conscience , or by the performance whereof , condemning it in their judgements for unlawfull , they should pollute and condemne themselves in the sight of God. To his third Reason we answer likewise ; that for most Christian Kings and Magistrates in the world , whether claiming to be hereditarie , or whether eligible by the people , as the Members of Parliament are , we CAN without either disloyaltie or absurdity , deny them any such Authority in matters of Religion and Church-Government , whereby they should be enabled to destroy , crush , or undo such persons as live godlily and peaceably under their jurisdiction , and that for none other reason or offence on their parts , but either for weaknesse in judgement and understanding , by reason whereof they cannot see the agreeablenesse of those things that are imposed on them , to the Word of God , ( in case they be indeed so qualified ) or else for the goodnesse of their conscience , which is unwilling to ship-wrack it s own peace , by going contrarie to its own light and dictate . We freely allow to all Christian Kings and Magistrates in the world , any Authoritie whatsoever in matters of Religion , Church-Government , or in what other causes or cases soever it can be desired either by them , or for them , which will not claim or challenge a right of power to punishmen for not being as wise , as learned , as farre insighted into matters of Religion as themselves , or for such matters of fact which are occasioned directly and meerly by such defects as these . We allow a power to all Magistrates to punish the wickednesse of mens wils ; when this discovers it self by any sutable action in what matters or cases soever : but the weaknesse of mens judgements , we conceive cals rather for means of instruction , then matter of punishment , from the Magistrates hand . We cannot judge , that the mistaking of a mans way in a dark controversie , deserves a prison , or any other stroke with the civill sword . To his fourth we answer ; 1. That whereas he affirms , that I do not onely grant , but argue , that every private man hath , yea ought to have , power to elect and constitute his own Minister , causing these words to be printed in a differing character , as if they were mine , and onely transcribed by him , citing ( in his margin ) pag. 25. 26. as their quarter in my discourse ; the truth is , that this is no fair play ; for there is no such line or juncto of wordseither in either of those pages , or elsewhere in those Sermons . It never came into my thoughts to think , ( nor surely ever issued out of my pen ) that every private man hath , or ought to have a power to constitute his own Minister . And besides he puts a more quaint and subtlle distinction upon me , then I am capable of . I cannot conceive that any private man hath a power to elect or constitute his Minister , except he ought to have it . That power which God hath been pleased to conferre upon any man , he both ought to have , and hath ; though the exercise and benefit of that power may be injuriously denied unto him , or withheld from him . 2. Whereas he further presumes , that I will grant , that private men have power likewise to set up Independent Congregations , which have Authoritie to prescribe such Covenants , Laws and rules of Government , Discipline , worship , as themselves think most agreeable to the Word ; and hereupon demands ; if then they may derive such an Ecclesiasticall Authority to Independent Ministers and Churches , why not as well to Parliaments , and Synods likewise by the self-same reason ? I answer , 1. That he is mistaken in his good opinion of my bountie . For I do not grant , either first , that all , or every sort of , private men have power to set up any Independent Congregation . Or 2. That any private men have power to set up any such congregation consisting of other men then themselves : but onely to agree together amongst themselves to become such a congregation . Or 3. That any Congregation whatsoever hath any Authoritie to practise , much lesse to prescribe either such Covenants , Laws , Rules of Government , or worship , as themselves onely think most agreeable to the Word of God ; but onely to practise those amongst themselves which they know to be agreeable to the Word of God ; without prescribing either these or any other , unto others . God gives no person or Congregation any Authoritie or power so much as to practise themselves what they simple think most agreeable to his Word , but onely that which REALLY IS agreeable unto his Word ; much lesse doth he give either the one or the other any Authority to prescribe their thinkings in this kind unto others . But 2. Whereas he demands , Why private men may not derive an Ecclesiasticall Authority unto Parliaments and Synods , as well as unto Independent Ministers and Churches ; the account is readie : 1. No private men whatsoever , can in any sense , neither in whole , nor in part , derive any Ecclesiasticall Authority , either unto any Minister , but onely him , unto whom they commit the charge of their ●ouls ; nor unto any Congregation , but onely that whereof they are members themselves . Therefore it no wayes follows ; Private men have power to derive Ecclesiasticall Authoritie to those Congregations whereof they are the respective members themselves : therefore they have the like power to derive the same Authority to Parliaments , and Synods , whereof they are no members : Take a parallel : The Assistants in the Company of Chirurgians , have an interest in the Government and carriage of the affairs of their own Companie ; therefore they have the same interest in the Government of the affairs of the Company , of Merchant-taylors . 2. A person qualified for the office and work of the Ministery according to the word of God , is a subject capable of Ecclesiasticall Authority ; and may accordingly by persons Authorized by the word of God thereunto , be lawfully invested with that power : But we have no rule or direction from the word of God either 1. to judge whether , or when , either Parliaments or Synods are subjects capable of Ecclesiasticall Authoritie : nor 2. is there any rule or warrant to be found there for the Authorizing of any sort , or rank of men , actually to conferre such an Authority or power , in case they should be found subjects capable of it . Therefore Mr. Prynnes arguing in this place , is of no better form , or strength , then this : Private men may do that which Gods Word authorizeth them to do : therefore they may do that also , which Gods Word doth not authorize them unto . But 3. ( And lastly ) The main foundation and ground-work upon which he builds the fabrique of his reasoning here , is an utter mistake . For I neither grant nor think , that private men , either when by consent they first congregate themselves and chuse a Minister or Pastor over them , much lesse when they joyn themselves to a Congregation already gathered and form'd , do derive any Ecclesiasticall Authority unto it : but that a company of persons fearing God , and consenting together to become a Church-body or holy Congregation , have an Authoritie ( which you may call Ecclesiastique , if you please ; but I shall not commend the terme unto you in this case , nor would I willingly call it an authoritie , but rather a right or priviledge ) derived unto them , not by themselves , but from God. First to chuse unto themselves a Pastor , and other officers , as opportunity shall be , such as are recommended in the Scriptures as meet for such places , and then by , and together , with these to administer and order their Church-affaires , in all the concernments thereof , according to the word of God , in the name and authoritie of our Lord Jesus Christ , whose properly , all Ecclesiasticall authoritie is . To his fift argument , we answer , 1. By a demurre , whether God doth oft-times makes use of unsanctified persons , and the rude multitude ( which I doe not under-value , because I refuse to entitle them to a power in Church-matters greater then ever the Apostles had ) to advance his glory , propagate his Gospel , promote his worship , vindicate his truth , edifie his Church . A Judas , a Balaam , a Saul , a Gamaliel , a persecuting High Priest , were not the rude multitude : unsanctified persons it is like they were , at least most of them : But God did not oft-times make use either of Balam , or Saul , or Gamaliel , or the persecuting High Priest , either to propagate his Gospel , promote his worship , edifie his Church , &c. but the Devill oft-times made use of them to the contrary , viz. to hinder his Gospel , to pollute his worship , to persecute his Church , &c. And for the vulgar multitude , which he commends as none-such , for forwardnesse to beleeve , follow , professe Christ , embrace the Gospel , though he confesseth , that many of them did it for sinister ends ; I answer , 1. That this multitude was but one swallow , ( not a multitude of swallows ) and therefore not sufficient to make his spring , of Gods oft-times using the rude multitude to doe such and such things . 2. They that beleeve , follow , professe Christ , embrace the Gospel out of sinister ends , when they decline and fall back ( as all sinister-ended Professors are like to doe first , or last , and as this vulgar multitude generally did ) are like more to hinder and set back the Gospel by their declining , then ever they propagated or promoted it by their profesion . But 2. Whereas he inferres , that therefore they may well have power to chuse such persons , who shall and may make Lawes , to promote the Gospel and Government of the Church of Christ ; I answer . 1. That Gods power to make use of unsanctified persons , or a rude multitude to promote the affaires of his Gospel , Worship , Churches , &c. is no argument to prove , that therefore men may commit the care and trust of these affaires to such persons or multitudes , or interesse them in any such power , which it is ten to one but they will use rather in a destructive , then promotive way thereunto . Gods power to powre out a Spirit of prophecie upon a person altogether ignorant of the Scriptures ; and so to powre out a Spirit of grace and holinesse upon a gracelesse and prophane person , is no ground or warrant for a Christian Congregation to chuse either such an ignorant or prophane person for their Minister or Pastor . 2. Neither is Gods will , act , or example in this kind , as viz. when to shew the soveraigntie of his power over and above the powers of darknesse , and the God of this world ; he makes use of Satan to give testimony unto his Son Jesus Christ , as he did , Mar. 1. 24. Luk. 4. 34. and so to exercise the patience of Job by afflicting him , as he did , Job 1. Such acts ( I say ) or dispensations of God as these , are no grounds for the justification of such men , who shall make use of the Devill to preach the Gospel , or to afflict the Saints , for the exercise or improvement of their patience . Therefore nothing that ever God hath done ( how oft soever he hath done it ) either by unsanctified persons , or by rude multitudes , for the propagation of his Gospel , the edification of his Church , &c. doth any waies countenance or warrant men , to invest either the one or the other with such a power , whereby they may endamage and make havock and spoyle both of the one and the other . The reason is plaine : because the evill Spirit that said a , Jesus I know , and Paul I know ; yet said to the Exorcists , but who are yee ? So the powers of sin and wickednesse in men , which will tremble at the voyce of God , and forget their natures and motions at his command , will laugh all the conjurements and charmings of men in the face to scorne ; and will act their own parts , and drive on their own way with what fury and violence they please , notwithstanding all charges , intercessions , and obtestations of men to the contrary . Therefore no power can with reason , equitie , or conscience , be put into the hand of such persons , ( I meane persons unsanctified and rude multitudes ) or nominating whom they please ( I meane from amongst persons eligible enough by the Lawes of the Land either for Parliamentary or Synodicall interest ) to umpire in the affaires of the Gospel , and to make what Lawes they please for the government of the Church of Christ . If it be yet objected and said ; But why may not unsanctified persons and rude multitudes nominate and chuse such , who by vertue of such nomination may have power to make Lawes in matters of Religion , Worship , Government of the Church , &c. though not according as they please , yet according to the word of God , and such as are agreeable thereunto ? What inconvenience is there in this ? I answer , 1. By way of concession ; that the grant of a power in persons so nominated and chosen to make Lawes onely of incouragement and protection to the servants of God , in matters of Religion and Church-Government , or to order some particularities in either , onely upon incouragements to those that shall obey without penall enactions against those that cannot obey , may possibly not tend or sort to much inconvenience . Nor let any man think , that outward mulcts and penalties are essentiall unto Laws , whether in matters of Religion , worship , or in any other cases . Threatning of bodily punishment ( saith learned Mr. Rutherford , one of the Commissioners for the Kingdome of Scotland a is not essentiall to Lawes in the generall , because some Lawes are seconded onely with rewards . Yet this inconvenience ( it's like ) would attend even such a power , were it granted ; Those Lawes which should be made in matters of Religion , worship , &c. by men in authoritie , would be of like consequence amongst the generalitie of men , with the traditions of the Scribes and Pharisees , by which they made the Commandements of God of none effect b ; I meane they would so interesse themselves in the hearts and affections of the common sort of men , that they would soone place more in the observation of them , then in keeping the Commandements of God. An experiment of which inconvenience we had in folio , in the Ceremoniall and superstitious injunctions of the late Prelaticall power , when men thought better of themselves for standing up at the Creed , joyning in Gloria Patri , secundum usum Sarum , bowing at the Name Jesus , cringing before an Altar , &c. then they did of others for hearing the Word of God preached , with reverence and attention , or for walking in a conscientious conformitie unto it . But 2. If a further power shall be granted unto men so chosen ( I meane by unsanctified persons and rude multitudes , as Mr. Prynne calleth them ) as viz. a power of enacting Lawes and Statutes in matters of Religion , worship , &c. under what mulcts and penalties they please , who shall judge whether these Lawes and Statutes be agreeable to the word of God , or no ? If they themselves , the Law-makers , shall be Judges , miserable is the condition of the servants of God under them like to be : because it is not to be expected , but that they will avouch whatever Lawes or Statutes they shall make in this kind , to be agreeable to the word of God. The Popish Parliaments , during the reigne of Antichristianisme in the Land , did no lesse . If the people , from whom obedience and subjection to such Lawes is expected , shall be authorized to judge , whether these Lawes be agreeable to the word of God , or no ; ( which of necessitie must be granted , otherwise obedience unto them can never be yeelded with a good conscience ) this will reflect prejudice and disparagement upon the wisdome and prudence of the Law-givers , ( and consequently enervate their Authoritie ) especially when any of these Judges shall give sentence in oppositum , and determine a nullitie in such Lawes , for want of due correspondence with the word of God. The nomothetique power or Authoritie , wherever it resides , will never consult honour , interest , confirmation or strength to it self , by making such Lawes , which in their very nature , frame , and constitution are matters of dispute , and which must passe and abide the tests of the judgements and consciences of the best and wisest of those that are to yeeld subjection unto them , and that with so much hazard of censure and contradiction , as Lawes made in matters of Religion , worship , and Church-Government , alwayes have been and ever will be exposed unto . The point of agreeablenesse to the word of God , in Lawes and Statutes about matters of Religion , will be a farre longer suite and Question between Legislators in that kind , and conscientious subjects , then ever any Chancerie suite was , or is like to be 3. To me it is a question , whether in this assertion ( at least understood according to the proper importance of the words ) Men have power to make Laws and Statutes in matters of Religion , worship , &c. agreeable to the word of God ; there be not contradictio in adjuncto ( as Logicians speak ) . It is a very hard matter for me to conceive how any thing should be agreeable to the Word of God , at least in matters of Religion , worship , &c. but onely that , which for the spirit , matter and substance of it , is the word of God it self . There is no great agreeablenesse between that which is necessarie , and that which is unnecessarie ; between that which is indulgent and favourable to the Saints and others in point of libertie , and that which inthrals and brings them into bondage ; between that which is of divine inspiration , and that which is of humane . Now certain it is , that whatsoever is imposed upon men by the word of God , is necessarie , and of divine inspiration ; and whatsoever the word of God doth not impose upon men , it doth it in a way of a gracious libertie and indulgence unto men . And as certain it is , that whatsoever shall be imposed upon the Saints or others by men , especially in matters of Religion , worship , &c. which for the matter and substance of it is not the very word of God it self , is first unnecessarie , ( for otherwise we must make the Word of God imperfect , and defective even in matters of necessitie , which is Popery in the highest ) and secondly , it is but of humane inspiration , except we hold Enthusiasme , and the revelations eccentrick to the Scriptures are yet authentique and of propheticall authority : thirdly ( and lastly ) it is an abridgement of the libertie , a cancelling of that indulgence , wherewith God in his Word hath gratified the world . Therefore whatsoever shall be imposed by men upon men in matter of Religion , worship , &c. under a pretence of an agreeablenesse to the word of God , in case it be not ( in the sense declared ) the very word of God it self , it can have no other agree thlenesse with this word , then Pelop's shoulder , which ( if Poets feign not ) was made of yvorie , had with the other limbs and members of his body which were all living and sound flesh . Yea and whether any Law or Statute , can in any sense be said to be agreeable to the word of God , which shall make the Saints servants and bondmen , where God in his Word hath either made them , or left them free , I refer to further and more mature consideration . But 4. And lastly , Suppose it were granted , as a thing convenient , that some should be intrusted or invested with a power of making Laws and Statutes in matters of Religion , worship , &c. provided they be agreeable to the Word of God ; yet in asmuch as the making of such Laws and Statutes upon such terms , necessarily requireth the most exact and profound knowledge and understanding of the Scriptures ; I cannot conceive that unsanctified persons , or rude multitudes , should be Authorized by God , or by any principle of sound reason , to have the nomination or election of those men ; but rather another Generation , who may in reason be conceived to have a more excellent spirit of discerning of such abilities in men , then they . When men stand in need of the help and advise of a Physician , Lawyer , or Divine , they do not addresse themselves to a company of children playing together in the market place , ( as our Saviour speaks a ) to nominate or vote amongst them , what person in any of these professions they should imploy & commit their concernments unto . No more did God ever issue any commission out of Heaven to unsanctified persons , rude multitudes , men ignorant of God and of the Scriptures , to nominate or chuse for him , who , or what men he should imploy to make Lawes and Statutes for his Saints and Churches , in matters of Religion , and which concerne his worship . A man of ordinary discretion , and that knows any thing of the nature or disposition of the Fox , will never chuse a Fox to be his Caterer ( as our English Proverb hath it ) . To his sixt and last Argument , I answer , and end . 1. That it is not alwayes found , that those who have no skill at all in Law , Physicke , or Architecture , have yet judgement and reason enough to make choyce of the best Lawyers , Physicians , Architects , when they need their help . If this were true , these professions would prove malignant unto , and eat up the far greatest part of their own children and professors : there would be very few in any of them , that ever should have imployments . For who is there that would set a bungler on work , that hath judgement and reason enough to chuse a Master-workman ? Especially considering what our Engish Proverb saith ; The best , is best cheape . There is no man will ride upon an ox , that may have a well-manag'd and mettal'd gelding to carrie him . But 2. Suppose it should be granted , as universally true , that men who have no skill at all in the said professions , yet had judgement and reason enough to make choyce of the best in every of them respectively , when they stood in need of their help ; yet this supposition must be made withall , that these best Practitioners , which according to the other supposition will be chosen , have given a sufficient account & proofe , and that to publick satisfaction of their respective abilities in their severall professions . Otherwise how shall they who have no skill in their professions , come to know or understand , so much as by conjecture , who are the best in them ? This being so , Mr. Prynnes comparison or parallel , halts right-downe . Because many of those , who are by the Laws of the Land eligible into places of Parliamentarie trust and power , yea , haply many of those who are of the best and richest accomplishment for the discharge of that part of this trust , which Mr. Prynne will needs suppose belongeth to them , ( I meane in making Lawes in matters of Religion , worship , Church-Government , &c. agreeable to the word of God ) never have given any publick account or proofe ( nor perhaps ever had opportunitie to doe it ) of those abilities which God hath given them in that kinde . And if so , how should the rude multitudes , or the generalitie of the people ever come to know or understand who are the best or fittest men to be chosen into those great places of trust and power ? 3. When men stand in need of the help either of a Lawyer , Physician , or Architect , it is a far easier matter to know how to chuse a man in any of these professions , without running the hazard of much detriment in his occasions , then it is for men to know how to chuse men tolerably qualified for Parliamentary imployment ; especially , if one part of this imployment consists in making Lawes & Statutes in matters of Religion , worship , &c. agreeable to the word of God. The reason of the difference is plaine : Recourse is made to Lawyers ( and so to Physicians , Architects respectively ) onely for one kind of help or imployment , and that such which is proper to their profession , and wherein their abilitie and sufficiencie , is or very possibly may be sufficiently knowne ; But Parliamentarie service or imployment consisting ( according to Mr. Prynnes notion ) as well in making Church-lawes , in matters of Religion , worship , & agreeable to the word of God , as in framing Laws politique , to accommodate the civill affaires of the Common-wealth ( which are imployments of a very differing nature , hardly incident unto , and very rarely found in one and the same person ) it must needs be conceived to be a matter of very great difficultie , and requiring a very choyce and excellent spirit of discerning , to make a commendable , yea , or a competent choice of men for that investiture and trust . Yea , himself 〈◊〉 acknowledgeth little lesse then an utter inconsistencie of respective abilities in one and the same person , for these so different imployments ; For here he requires , both Politicians and Statesmen os fit to be consulted with a suit a Church-Government to the Civill State , and likewise an Assembly of Divines , to square it by , and to the word . But in as much as whatsoever an Assembly of Divines shall determine in or about Churh-Government , or other matters of Religion , cannot passe into an Act , Law , or Statute , but by the superveening of Parliamentarie interest upon their determinations and there beeing every whit as great ( if not farre greater ) abilities in Divinitie and knowledge of the Scriptures , requisite to enable men rightly to discerne and judge , whether a Church-Government , or other Decision in matter of Religion , be agreeable to the word of God , as there are to discourse and make out that in either kind which is agreeable thereunto ; yea and further , it being no waies either Christian or reasonable , that a Parliament should passe that into an Act , Law , or Statute , as agreeable to the word of God , and obliege an whole Kingdome under mulcts and penalties to submit unto it accordingly , which themselves are not able to discerne whether it be indeed agreeable unto the word of God , or no ; these three things ( I say ) duly considered , evident it is , that it is a matter almost of infinite difficultie , ( and therefore not so obvious to unsanctified persons , and rude multitudes , as Mr. Prynnes would carrie it ) to discerne or make choice of persons of a due temper and composition for Parliamentarie operations , Mr. Prynnes supposition being admitted , viz. that making Lawes in matters of Religion , as well as in civill affaires , is a part of these operations . To set then his comparison upright , wee must state it thus : Suppose Mr. Prynne were of none of the three Professions he speaks of , neither Lawyer , nor Physician , nor Architect , but stood in need of the help of them all , having 1. a suite at Law of very great concernment to him ; 2. a dangerous distemper or disease upon his body ; 3. an house to build for his necessary accommodation ; and in this posture of necessities , were necessitated or limited to make choyce of three men , but all of one and the same profession , either all Lawyers , or all Physicians , or all Architects , to minister unto him in all his respective concernments and necessities ; I beleeve that under such a constellation of circumstances and occasions as these , though he be a man of farre greater judgement and reason , then the generalitie of men are , yet he would not find it so easie a matter to satisfie himself in the choyce of his men within the compasse of any one of the three professions . This is the true state and case of the difficultie of Parliamentarie Elections , upon Mr. Prynnes supposition of Parliamentarie interest and power . 4. Suppose yet further , that unsanctified persons and rude multitudes had skill enough to elect the most eminent and ablest men for Parliamentary service ; yet who knoweth not but that there is somewhat ( yea , much ) more then knowledge of what is a mans dutie , required to make him willing to doe it . To him that knoweth to doe good , and doth it not , to him it is sin ( saith James ) Jam. 4. 17. It is no wayes reasonable to think , that unsanctified persons , and men addicted to sinfull lusts and pleasures , should willingly and by the ducture of their own inclinations , put a power of making Lawes into the hands of such men , who they know are professed enemies to those lawlesse waies of theirs , and therefore are like , being interessed in such a power , to make Lawes for the restraint and punishment of them . That God , when he pleaseth , may by an extraordinarie hand of Providence , over-rule the natures and dispositions of men in this kind , and serve unfanctified persons in their Parliamentary Elections , as he did the Syrian host of old , which he led blindfold into the midst of Samaria , when they thought they had been going to Dothan , is not denied ; yea , it is acknowledged , that in grace and mercy to this Nation , he hath stretched out that very hand of Providence we speake of in the choyce of many members of the Honourable Assembly of Parliament ; whose perseverance in a faithfull discharge of their imployment , declares , that their Election was more from God , then from men . Therefore that one word of Mr. Prynnes which follows p. 24. viz. That the choyce which your vilest and most unworthy of men have made this Parliament , may for ever refute this childish reason , the corner stone of your Independent fabrique fastened together with Independent crotchets , unable to abide the Test ; this one word ( I say ) is no word either of reason or of truth . An happy election made by men over-acted by God in the action , doth no more prove either a proportionablenesse of wisdome , or a sutablenesse of affection in such persons to make such a choyce , then that praise which God hath ordained , and which he accordingly draws out of the mouths of babes and sucklings , proves these babes and sucklings to be indued with a naturall strength and abilitie of yeelding such praise unto God : or then the service which the Ravens did the Prophet in bringing unto him bread and flesh duly morning and evening a , proves that they had a principle of reason and understanding , to know and to consider the necessities of godly and faithfull men ; or that such men ought to renounce their estates and callings , and to depend upon Ravens for their sustenance . And besides , how doth the election of so many members of this Parliament , who stand by their trust with faithfulnesse and honour , more refute ; then the election of so many unworthy ones , who have not onely turned their back , but head also upon both , confirm my reason ? not to mention so many elections as have been made both in Queen Maries dayes , and many a time before these , of such members , who made many a Law as agreeable to the Word of God , as harp is to harrow . Which further shews , of how slender esteeme in point of truth , that assertion of his pa. 23. is : where he saith , that those that are unjit or unable to be Members of Parliament themselves , yet have had wisdom enough in all ages , and especially at this present , to elect the must eminent and ablest men for such a service . So that if my pen were not more bashfull then Mr. Prynnes , it would say , that the Reason Defendant is by many degrees more childish then the Reason Plaintiffe : and that this Presbyterian engins wherewith he makes account to batter my Independent Fabrick , are made of Independent metall , able to do no execution at all . There is not one brick or tyle in all my Independent Fabrick , as yet bruised , crack'd or shaken , by all the hot and loud play of Mr. Prynnes artillery against it . But 5. Whereas in further prosecution of this last reason , he argues thus : If the common people , which neither are , nor can be Parliaments , Emperours , Kings , Judges , Magistrates , Ministers , have yet a lawfull power to make others such , by their bare election , & to give them such Authority and power as themselves never actually were , nor can be possessors of ; then why by the self same reason may they not likewise delegate a lawful Ecclesiasticall Legislative Authoritie in Church affairs to their elected Parliamentary and Synodicall members , which was never actually in themselves , as well as Mr. Goodwin delegate the power of determining who should be fit persons to receive the Sacrament , and to become members of his Independent Congregation , to eight select Substitutes , which was never actually vested in himself , nor transferible thus to others by any Law of God , or man ? In answer ( passing by the Grammatical illegality of the period ) 1. That Mr. Goodwin never delegated the power he speaks of , of determining who , &c. to any Substitutes ; but this delegation was made respectively by those , who had power , ( yea haply and dutie too ) by the Law of God , and power sufficient by the Law of man , to referre themselves for matter of examination and triall touching their fitnesse for the Sacrament , unto persons of competent abilities for such a Christian service . Mr. Prynnes pen is ( I think ) the most unhappie and un-successefull in matters of impeachment and charge , that ever contested against the misdemeanors of men ; it seldome or never lays the indictment right . Here he chargeth me with delegating such and such a power to eight Substitutes ; a little after , that I have wilfully , yea and presumptuously undermined the undoubted priviledges of Parliament by the very roots : a little before , that I scandalously terme the Commonaltie of the Land , the vilest and most unworthy of men : not long before this ( viz. pa. 21. ) that I preach but seldome to my Parishioners : that I receive their tithes : that I gather an Independent Congregation to my self : that I prescribe a Covenant unto them before they be admitted members of it : that I preach to these alone , neglecting my Parishioners , &c. in all which suggestions and charges there is but one and the same proportion of love and truth . 2. Whereas he supposeth that the common people , by their bare election , give such an Authority and power , to Parliaments , Emperours , Kings , &c. as themselves never actually were , nor can be possessours of ; he doth not ( I conceive ) speak like a man of his profession ; certain I am , that he doth not speak the truth ; no , nor yet the thoughts of men of learning and judgement in the point . For 1. ( to reason the case a little in point of truth ) if the common people were not actually possessed of that Authority and power , which by their election they give to Parliaments , Emperours , Kings , &c. I demand , how , or after what manner they were possessed of it ? For in saying , they were not ACTVALLY possessed of it , he supposes and grants , that they were some wayes or other possessed of it . No man excludes one speciall modification from a thing , but for the gratification of another . Now then if the common people were not ACTVALLY possessed of that Authority and power which by their election they give unto Parliaments , Emperours , &c. they were onely potentially possessed of it . For actually and potentially , are opposita ; yea and of that kind which they call opposita immediata . So that whatsoever is had or possessed by any , and not actually , must of necessiue be had or possessed potentially , and potentially onely ( at least in respect of an actuall possession . ) Now then I reason first thus : If the people have that power though not actually , yet potentially , which by their election they give to Parliaments , Emperours , Kings , &c. then are they capable of it even actually also ; which yet Mr. Prynne here plainly denies , in these words , Nor can be possessours of . The consequence is undeniable : For whatsoever any entire subject hath , or is , potentiâ ; there is no impossibilitie but that it may have , or be , actu , or actually . So that Mr. Prynne is here upon the matter in an absolute contradiction . For he supposeth that the people may have that Authoritie or power potentially , which yet he saith is unpossible they should ever have actually . Again , I would willingly for the bettering of mine understanding , know and learn , how any person , or other Agent whatsoever , can actually conferre that upon , or communicate that unto another , which it hath onely potentially it self . Water , whilest it is actually cold , and onely potentially hot , cannot heat that which is put into it . Nor can a man that is actually ignorant of such or such a truth , and potentially onely knowing it , actually communicate or impart the knowledge thereof unto another , by vertue of that potentiall knowledge which he hath . No more can a people that is onely potentially possessed of any Authority or power , actually give or conferre it upon any , whether Parliaments , Emperours , Kings , &c. The ground of all such consequences as these , is that common principle or maxime in reason : Modus operandi sequitur modum essendi . Things that have but a weak or imperfect being themselves , cannot give strength or perfection of being unto others . But had Mr. Prynne said the body of a Nation have that authority really , vertually , eminently , and collectively , which they cannot have formally , distributively , and exemptively ; I should have had the lesse to say unto him . For the judgement of men learned in matters of this concernment ; he that shall please to read the Discourse of Christophorus Besoldus , intituled , Dissertatio Politico-Juridica de Majestate in genere , &c. shall find a little Jurie of Lawyers joyning with him in the verdict of his judgement upon the case ; the tenor whereof is , that there is not onely an Authoritie or power , but ( that which is somewhat more ) a majestie also in the people , which is coevall with the Republique or common-wealth it self ; and which continues as long as the body thereof remains , yea and stands firm under all vacancies of Personall Empire , and all alterations and changes of Government : in which respect he saith it may be called the foundation or ground-work of the Common-wealth . This majestie in the people he cals , Reall ; that in the King or chief Ruler , Personall : this he saith , still fals and expires with the death of the person invesred with it ; and returns to the people , or commonwealth . Yea and adds , that the people in making or setting up a King over them , transferre onely a power of administring , not of constituting the common-wealth . With more to like effect a Therefore the opinion of this man with his Associates clearly is , that the people have Really or actually , that Authority or power which by their election they transfer upon , or derive unto their Rulers and Governours . 3. ( And lastly , for this ) whereas he affirmeth , that such a power , as he supposeth to have been delegated by me to eight Substitutes , is not transcrible to others by any Law of God or man ; and yet demands , Why the common people may not as well delegate a Lawfull Ecclesiasticall legislative Authoritie in Church-affaires unto their elected Parliamentarie and Synodall members , as I delegate such a power ; I answer and confesse , that they may every whit as well ( and no whit better ) delegate such an Authoritie to such their members , as I delegate such a power to my Substitutes . 6. Whereas in prosecution of his last argument , he further argues and interrogates thus ; Why may not a man bring an Ecclesiasticall or spirituall extraction out of a secular roote , as well as a Regall , Magisteriall , Parliamentall , Ministeriall extraction out of a meere popular or servile roote ? or the best strong waters out of the vilest lees ? the richest mineralls out of the coursest earth ? the most Orient pearles , out of the basest Oysters ? I answer , 1. That no Regall , Magisteriall , Parliamentall , Ministeriall extraction can be made out of a meere servile roote . A people meerely servile , can have no libertie or power to appoint or chuse unto themselves either Kings , Masters , Parliaments , or Ministers . Therefore Mr. Prynnes Question very truly imports , that the one extraction may ●s well be made , as the other ; but it no waies proves a possibilitie of either . 2. There is a plain reason , why and how a Regall , Magisteriall , Parliamentall extraction may be made out of a popular roote : but there is a loud reclamation in reason and Religion both , against a possibilitie of making a spirituall extraction out of a secular roote . Regall , Magisteriall , Parliamentall extractions , are in their respective natures and tendencies , means proportioned to the civill and temporall ends , or good of the people ; and God having endued men , ( I meane the common sort or generalitie of men , the people ) with wisdome and understanding to accommodate and provide for themselves in such things as these , hath given them power accordingly to make use of such principles and endowments in a regular way , for the accomplishment and obtaining of such ends . Now civill Rule and Government being a naturall , proper , and direct means , whereby a good societie or communitie of men may best obtaine a civill or politique good , viz. a safe , just , and peaceable living and conversing together in the world ; God therefore hath given them a libertie and power to contrive and cast themselves into what forme of Government they should judge most conducible to such ends . Upon which indulgence or grant from Heaven , they have a lawfull power by consent among themselves to elect and chuse whom they please to governe them , and that upon such terms , as they conceive most agreeable to those ends . And yet even in this Government it self , one communitie or corporation of men have no right or lawfulnesse of power , to chuse or appoint either Government , or Governors over another : least of all hath any communitie , consisting of men altogether uncivill , ignorant , and unexperienced in matters of Government , any lawfulnesse of power to appoint either Rule or Rulers over other Societies , whose members generally are of a better accomplishment , for civilitie , & parts of wisdome , learning , and understanding ; But all societies of men since the dissolution of the Judaicall politie , are left free by God and nature , to set over themselves what Government and Governors they shall judge of best accommodation , for their temporall safety and peace . But now in spirituall things , and matters of Religion , the case is farre otherwise ; differing as much from the former , as the Heavens from the Earth . God hath not endued the generalitie of men with spirituall wisdome and understanding , nor with the knowledge of those things which are of a supernaturall concernment unto them ; and consequently hath not invested them with any power of casting themselves into what forme of Government they please in respect of these , nor of chusing whom they please to rule over them , no nor yet of appointing upon what terms they will be governed in these . The naturall man ( saith the Scripture ) perceiveth not ( or , receiveth not ) the things of the Spirit of God ; for they are foolishnesse unto him : neither can he know them , because they are spiritually discerned , 1 Cor. 2. 14. Now certaine it is , that the farre greater part of men in every State Politique or Kingdome , are naturall men , and consequently perceive not the things of the Spirit of God. Many are called , ( saith our Saviour ) but few chosen . And 2. as certaine it is , that God doth not interesse or invest any man or men , with a power of interposing in such things , which are not of their cognizance , and whereof they have no knowledge or perceivance . Much lesse 3. hath he given a power to naturall men who perceive not the things of the Spirit of God , to appoint Rulers and Governors in these , over men that are spirituall , and which doe perceive them . This were to give a power unto the blind , to lead not the blind onely , but even the seeing also . Nay , 4. and lastly , God hath not given unto spirituall men themselves any power to nominate or chuse men , to make any new Lawes or Articles in matters of Religion , Worship , Church-Government , &c. but onely to administer , execute and teach those , which are already ordained and established by God himself , as hath been prov'd already . Thus then we see there is reason enough and to spare , why such a spirituall extraction as the two Brethren speak of , cannot be made out of a secular roote ; though a Regall , Magisteriall , Parliamentall extraction , may well be made out of a popular roote . But 3. Whereas Mr. Prynne supposeth that a Ministeriall Extraction ( as he calleth it ) is , or may be made out of a meere popular or servile roote , this supposition is not made without opposition to the truth . For no people or men , meerly such , that is , as they are simply people or men , have any power delegated unto them by God or by Christ , to set a Minister or Pastor over them ; neither can they as meerly such , by any call , election , or ordination whatsoever , conferre a Pastorall office or dignitie upon any man. The reason is , because it is an essentiall propertie or part of the Pastorall office , to feed , rule , and governe a flock of Christs sheep a , ( I meane a Societie , or company of such persons , who in the judgement of charitie are to be reputed such ) and to administer the seales of the Covenant ordinarily unto them , &c. Now no company of men , meerly and simply as men , have any power to invest any man , with any authoritative power to performe either of those administrations . One company or societie of men however qualified , cannot derive any Authoritative power upon any man , to performe the office of a Pastor to another societie of men . Therefore except that company of men , which calls and chuseth a person into the place or office of a Pastor ( as it supposeth ) be such a flock of Christ as was expressed , their act in so calling and chusing , is but a nullitie ; the person called hath indeed and in truth no Pastorall investiture upon him by vertue of such a call . As for example ; Suppose a company of ignorantly prophane , and desperately debauch'd men , should make choyce of a man of worth , to be a Pastor unto them ; the man thus called and chosen , hath no authoritie or power hereby , either to feed or govern any flock of Christ , ( no , not so much as any flock of Christ in appearance ) or to administer the seales of the Covenant unto any ; and consequently is made no Pastor thereby . Or if Mr. Prynnes meaning be , that a root meerly popular , that is , any company of people whatsoever , may lawfully call or chuse a man to preach the Gospel unto them , and in this sense be said to make a Minister ; I answer ; that the man thus called , is no more a Minister then he was before ; nor hath he any more Authoritative power to preach the Gospel unto them , by vertue of such a call , then he had without it ; onely he hath thereby a greater opportunitie , and a more speciall invitation from the providence of God to preach the Gospel unto those who so call him , then unto others . Therefore in this case there is no ministeriall extraction made out of a meere popular roote . 4. Whereas he speaks parables , and further demands , Why not a spirituall extraction out of a secular roote , as well as the best strong waters out of the vilest lees ? the richest mineralls out of the coursest earth ? the most Orient pearles out of the basest Oysters ? I answer , 1. That I know not by what rule of true speaking , Mr. Prynne either calls those the basest oysters , out of which the most orient pearls , or that the coursest earth , out of which the richest mineralls , or those the vilest lees , out of which the best strong waters are extracted . That expression of the Poet , — Veios habitante Camillo , — 〈◊〉 Roma fuit , I never yet heard censured by any . Noble births and inhabitants , ennoble Cities and Countries . And thou Bethlehem in the land of Juda , art not the least among the Princes of Juda : for out of thee shall come a Governor that shall rule my people Israel . By the consent of this principle , which hath testimony both from God and men , those are not the basest , but the noblest oysters , which give birth and breeding to the most ortent pearles ; nor that the coursest , but the finest and best earth , that yeelds the richest mineralls ; nor those the vilest , but the most generous and best deserving lees , which gratifie their Distillator with the best strong waters . But 2. ( Not to impose any tax upon an acyrologie ) there is this plain reason , why no spirituall extraction out of a secular roote , though all those other extractions may be made out of those respective roots appropriated unto them : because a man may very possibly find a thing where it is ; but it is unpossible for him to find it where it is not . A man may very easily and very lawfully extract five shillings out of his purse that hath five shillings , or more , in it : but he that shall undertake to make an extraction of five shillings , out of a purse that is emptie , must Acheronta movere , make himself a debtor to the black art . The pearle is in the oyster , and the minerall in the Earth , and the strong water in the lee : and therefore it is no great matter for art and nature joyning together , partly by allurement and invitation , partly by a stronger and more forcible hand , to sequester all these from their native and proper elements , and to draw them out of their dark and secret habitations . Nor is it any waies unlawfull thus to practise upon them , because God hath not serv'd any prohibition upon men , to inhibite any such extractions or separations , either in a naturall or artificiall way . But there is no such spirituall extraction as the two Brethren speak of , in their secular roote : there is no Ecclesiasticall Legislative power in matters of Religion , worship , and Church-Government , neither formally , nor eminently , in unsanctified persons , rude multitudes , men ignorant of God , &c. therefore no such power can by any extraction whatsoever , proceed or be drawne out of these . There is indeed a lawfulnesse of power in them ( if they had a principle to incline them to the due exercise of it ) to assist the servants of God against violence and wrong , to incourage and countenance them in well-doing , to admonish and reprove them for doing any such evill which falls within the compasse of their cogniance ; yea , there is a lawfulnesse of power in them , if they have not given it out of their hands already , and invested others with it , to make Lawes for the regulation of the Saints themselves , in all their civill affaires , and to restraine them by mulcts and penalties from all such courses , actions , and practices , which are properly and in their natures disserviceable unto the common peace , and weal-publick : And all such power as this , they may lawfully devise , and demise unto persons meet for the manage and exercise of it ; because in this case they doe but give of their own ; yea , they give it in a regular and rationall way ; upon which termes God hath given unto every man a liberty or power to doe with his owne what he pleaseth a . But the persons we now speak of , never had a power of regulating the Saints in their Religious or Spirituall affairs ; or of compelling them under temporal mulcts and penalties , to order themselves in the worship and service of God , as they pleased , or to preach and teach onely such points and doctrines amongst them , as they should think well of . Therefore how they should convey or make over any such power as this unto others , by a Title or Conveyance good in Law , I desire Mr. Prynne to consider . If his desire had been to have paralleld the Brethrens spirituall extraction out of a Secular root , with naturall comparisons or similitudes , he should have done it not with those which hee hath made use of in this kind , or the like ; for we have shewed a manifest and main disproportion in them ; but with these , and such as these which follow : Why not a spirituall extraction out of a Secular root , as well as a man out of a mouse , or of water out of a flint , or of the element of fire out of the midst of the Sea ? He might rationally enough have argued and concluded here ; Why not the one as well as the other ? But 5. Whereas his Margine demandeth , Why not a spirituall extraction out of a secular root , as well as himselfe extracts many spiritual doctrines out of Gamaliels Secular speech ? My answer is , that hee hath made this demand at the perill of his owne reputation in what he had said but in the former page , where he supposeth , that God powred out a spirit of prophesie upon Gamaliel , as hee had formerly done upon Balaam and Saul , If Gamaliel spake as the spirit of prophesie which was poured out upon him , gave him utterance , his speech was not secular , but spirituall and divine . And 2. Suppose there was no spirit of prophesie upon Gamaliel , when he spake that speech , from which I extract my Doctrines ; yet the speech it selfe , being for the matter , tenor , and substance of it , nothing but what is fully agreeable to the undoubted word of God elsewhere , ( which I clearly demonstrate in the particular doctrine handled in those Sermons ) it is not to be reputed Secular , though the person speaking it had been Secular ; but Divine , because the matter of it being a truth of Divine revelation elswhere , is Divine . This saying , Jesus Christ is the Sanne of God , or the holy One of God , is not , therefore a Devilish saying , because the Devill spake it a , but an holy or divine saying or sentence , because the truth contained in it , which is the matter of it , is from God. But 3. the person speaking it was Ecclesiasticall , a Doctor of the Law , Acts 5. 34. 4. And lastly , it was about matters of the Church , and so Ecclesiasticall also . 6. Whereas in the context of the same margine , hee calls my principall Argument ( as he calls it ) drawn from the non-jurisdiction of the seven Churches of Asia one over another , a meer Independencie , giving this for the ground or reason of this so severe an award , that these Churches were under different civill Dominions , and not members of the selfe-same Christian Republicke ; I answer , 1. That why he should call this my principall Argument , which I doe not so much as mention , nor make any argument at all ( as least in those Sermons against which his pen riseth up in this discourse with so much indignation ) I am behind hand in my understanding . I suppose he would willingly make that my principall Argument , from the dint whereof he knowes how to contrive some plausible evasion and escape . It was an wholsome admonition of Austin long since , a That we are very inclinable and prone , rather to seeke out how to answer or evade those things which are brought to refute our error , then to minde that which is wholsome , that so wee may bee free from error . But 2. If that be a reason , why the Churches in Asia had no jurisdiction one over another , because they were not members of the selfe-same Christian Republicke ; then neither had the Church of Jerusalem either divisim , and by it selfe , nor yet conjuncti●● with others , any power of jurisdiction over the Church of Antioch . For neither were their Churches members of the selfe-same Christian Republicke , no nor yet any other Churches in the Apostles dayes , there being then no Christian Republick in the world . 3. Neither can I well understand how the seven Churches of Asia should be under different civill dominions , when as one and the same man had power to command that all the world should be taxed , Luke 2. 1. Certain I am , that Mr. Pryn doth not befriend either his owne exception , or my understanding so farre , as to inform what these different civill dominions were ; or under what or whose dominion every or any of these Churches did respectively consist . The consideration whereof moderately inclines me to conceive , that he put this peece of his answer to the making , and affirmed it onely de bene esse , that the seven Churches of Asia were under different civill dominions . Is it not much more probable , that the Churches of Jerusalem and Antioch , which yet by the Assertors of Presbytery , are generally and with importune confidence made confederate in Classique association , were under different civill dominions ? Considering , 1. that their Cities were two hundred miles distant one from the other ( a distance greater almost by an hundred miles , then any two of the seven Churches of Asia stood one from the other , as will appear presently . ) And 2. that Judea was an intire Province by it self , & Luke 3. 1. is said to have been under the government of Pontias Pilate . So that subjection under different civill dominions , is not like to have been any obstruction in the way of those Asian Churches , to impede their Presbyteriall conjunction , had they felt the weight either of divine institution , or of any Christian accommodation of their respective affaires , lying upon them for the ingaging themselves in it . 4. And lastly , some that seeme to have perfect knowledge of those parts where these seven Churches with their respective Cities stood , affirme that some of them were not situate above twelve miles distance from some others of them ; and that the greatest distance between any two of them , was not above an hundred and twenty miles , which is not the one half of the distance between many Churches in this Kingdom . So that had the Presbyteriall combination or subordination of Churches been an ordinance of God , there is little question to be made , but that these Churches with their respective Angels , especially under such an opportunity , would have subjected themselves unto the will of God in this behalfe , and not have remained single and uncombined in their government , as they did . If it be objected , they were times of persecution ; wee answer , So were they afterward , when ( as men of the Presbyterian way suppose ) they had Presbyteries ; and after that when they had Episcopall government . This hath been the case of the Protestants in France , where they now have , & constantly have had , a Presbyterial government . So it is of the Papists in England , where they have had ever since the Reformation , a Papall jurisdiction . And to speak to the particular , so was it a time of persecution against the Presbyteriall government in Queen Elizabeths time , and yet it was then exercised in severall places of this Kingdome . See Rogers Preface to his Analysis of the Articles of Religion . 6. Whereas he seemes to require a reprievement for his opinion , onely till Independents can shew him better grounds against it , then any yet produced ; and informe him why our representative Church and State should not of right enjoy and exercise as great or Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction over all particular persons and Churches , who are members of our Church and Realm , as any Independent Minister or Congregation challenge or usurp unto themselves over their own members , &c. My answer is , 1. That now I trust he will willingly surrender his opinion into the hand of Justice , and plead no further for it . First , because though haply there have been no better grounds produced in this discourse against it , then have been formerly in others ; yet I cannot but conceive and judge , that better arguments and grounds against it , have been here produced , then Mr. Prynne hath had either the happinesse or opportunity to meet with elsewhere ; especially considering partly the frequencie of his complaint , that Independents have given little or no account of their way in writing ; partly that it is a thing hardly consistent with Mr. Pryns abilities , being sweetned with so much ingenuity , not to see and acknowledge the delinquencie of such an opinion , in whose condemnation so full a Jury of the first borne principles as well of Reason as Religion , as hath been here impannelled , doe conspire . And secondly , because Information hath been given him again and again ( and more particularly in the eighth Section , page 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9. of this discourse ) why our whole representative Church and State ; ( though I doe not clearly understand what he meanes by our Representative Church in this place ) but why the Parliament and Synod should not exercise as great or greater Ecclesiastical jurisdiction over particular persons & Churches within the Realme , &c. as an Independent Minister AND Congregation ( for his disjunctive particle , Or , turnes him quite out of the way of his question ) may exercise over their owne members . But 2. Whereas he states the question thus : Whether our Representative Church and State , may not exercise as great or greater Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction over , &c. as an Independent Minister or Congregation challenge or USURP unto themselves over their own members ; My answer is , that doubtlesse they may ; one unrighteous or unjust thing , may be as lawfully done as another every whit as unrighteous and unjust as it . For Mr. Prynne may please to take knowledge , that Independent Ministers and Congregations doe not usurp any power at all unto themselves over their own members , that is , over themselves ; but onely administer that regular and lawfull power over and amongst themselves , which every of their respective members have mutually and freely given one to another , and every particular member unto the whole body , over it selfe , and that as well for its own benefit and behoofe , as for the benefit and good of the whole body . And lawfull ( questionlesse ) it is ( yea matter of duty ) for every man to give such a power of , or over himself , unto others , which he hath sufficient ground either from the Scriptures , or reason otherwise , to conceive and expect that it will bee administred for his good ; especially having ground to conceive yet further , that this act of his , in thus submitting himselfe unto others , will according to the ordinary course of Providence and experience , be of Christian accommodation unto others also for their good . Submitting your selves one to another in the feare of God , Eph. 5. 21. which submission doubtlesse ought so farre to extend , as in reason it may accommodate , or promote the edification and spirituall good , both of the persons by whom , and to whom it is made . And by the same reason it is no usurpation in those , to whom the submission is made , to administer or exercise that power which is committed unto them , according to the regular intentions of those who have given it : yea , such an administration of it as this , is so farre from being an usurpation , that a non-administration of it upon such terms , would be a very unchristian prevarication both with God and men . Therefore 7. ( And lastly , to conclude ) Whereas Mr. Prynne referres me to the High Court of Parliament , either to crave their pardon , or to undergoe their justice , for my Anti-parliamentarie passages , &c. I shall request no other favour of this most honourable Court , then that I may stand right and streight in their opinions , and be respited from censure onely so long , till my Accuser shall make good his charge against me by sufficient evidence and proofe ; and substantially answer and refute this my Apologeticall plea. When the light of this day of darknesse shall dawne upon me , I shall willingly submit unto his demand , and either crave the Pardon of that Honourable and High Court he speaks of , or otherwise undergoe their justice : in the meane season I presume he will subscribe my Petition for a reprieve , as just and equall . And if the result of his more serious thoughts shall be , to resume and prosecute the bill of endictment which he hath preferr'd against me ; my earnest request unto him is , as well for his own ease and conveniencie , as mine , 1. That he will not argue from pluralities , but pertinences of Scriptures ; and shew how , and wherein every Text alledged , according to the genuine sense and rationall dependance of the words , stands by him in what he intends to prove from it . And 2. that he will not place the strength and confidence of his cause , either in humane Authorities , humane practises , statutes or ordinances of men , excepting onely such , whose truth , justice and equitie he shall first demonstrate either from the word of God ; and that not by Texts barely cited , chapter and verse , though in never such abundance ; but throughly argued , and examined upon the matter in question ; or els from sound principles of reason and equitie , managed in a cleare and rationall way , and so drawne up to a faire compliance with the conclusion , seeking testimony and proofe from them . For otherwise , what sayings , doings , Lawes or Ordinances of men soever shall be produc'd or insisted upon , for confirmation or proofe of any thing ; it will be sufficient to Answer , that men as wise , as just , as vertuous as they , have both said and done , things neither true nor meet to be done ; and have made Lawes and Statutes of no better constitution ; yea , and have been of a contrary opinion to Mr. Prynne in the particular questioned : which made Augustine often decline that way of reasoning , as we reade in his 48. Epistle , and elsewhere . Thirdly and lastly , that he would put lesse vinegar and gall into his inke , and more wooll or cotton : or ( in the Apostles words , Eph. 4. 31. ) that all bitternesse and evill speaking be put away , and that we follow the truth in love , and language that becometh Brethren . This treble request I make unto him with much earnestnesse and importunitie upon the supposition aforesaid , because I had much rather yeeld , might I do it upon honourable and Christian terms , then to be put to take the field yet againe . As for any opinion held by me , when once I perceive that it will not make knowledge , I am ready to give the right hand of fellowship unto any man in casting it out as unsavoury salt upon the dunghill . I never yet thought my self ( nor I hope ever shall ) such a debtor unto error , as to sacrifice my time , paines , occasions , credit , conscience , upon the service of it . But unto Mr. Prynne I shall willingly acknowledge my self a debtor , if he will either acquit me of my crime by silence , or deliver me from my error by his pen. FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A85400-e380 a 1 Cor. 15. 10. b 1 Cor. 15. 8. c Gal. 14. 16. Amos 7. 10. Mat. 2. 1 , 2 , 3. a Rom. 11. 25. b Auri sacra fames . 2 Cor. 12. 5. 1 Cor. 3. 15. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Phil. 4. 13. a Heb. 10. 37 b Rev. 22. 12 Notes for div A85400-e1520 Sect. 1. Sect. 2. Sect. 3. Sect. 4. Sect. 5. Sect. 6. Sect. 7. Sect. 8. Sect. 9. Sect. 10. Sect. 11. Sect. 12. Sect. 13. a 1 Cor. 15. 14. Sect. 14. Sect. 15. Sect. 16. Sect. 17. Sect. 18. Sect. 19. Sect. 20. Sect. 21 Sect. 22. Sect. 23. a Exod. 23. 25. Deut. 6. 12 , 13. Deut. 10. 12. & 11. 13. & 13. 14. & 30. 16. Joih . 22. 5. & 24. 14. 23. b Exod. 19. 8. & 24 3. Deut. 5. 27. & 26. 17. Josh . 24. 16 , 21 , 22 , 24. c Exod. 20. 23. & 23. 24 , 32 , 33 Deut. 5. 7 , 8 , 9 , & 6. 14. & 7. 5. 16. & 8. 19. & 12. 30. & 13. 2 , 3. & 29. 17 , 18. Sect. 24. Sect. 25. Sect. 26. a Mat. 19. 6. Dan. 3. Sect. 27. 1 Tim. 5. 8. Sect. 28. Sect. 29. Sect. 30. a Gal. 2. 11. a Where he chargeth mee to have presumptuously undermined the undoubted privileges of Parliament , with I know not how many more Anti-parliamentary passages diametrally contrary to my nationall vow and coveuant , &c. Sect. 31. Sect. 32. Sect. 33. Jam. 2. a Page 18. b Page . 24. c Page 9. Sect. 34. Sect. 35. Sect. 36. Sect. 37. Sect. 38. b Rev. 1. 6. Sect. 39. Sect. 40. Sect. 41. Sect. 42. a Mr Jacob affirmeth , that for the space of 200. or 300. yeeres after Christ , every visible church had power to exercise Ecclesiasticall Government , and all other Gods spirituall Ordinances ( the means of salvation ) in and for it self , immediatly from Christ . Sions Prerogative , p. 28 , 29. a Mar. 9. 39. a Mr. Prynne . full Replies . p 74. b M. Edwards Antapol . p. 261. a Twiss de Scientia med . b Ego ( inquit Fons●ca ) in Academia Con●mbricensi , hoc primus observavi . Imo potius ego ( clamat Molina ) apud , Eborenses meos . His non cedit Leonardus Lessius Lovaniensis , & suo cer●bello , de codem partu ambitiosè gratulatur . Prid. Lect. 2. de Scient . med . a See Sions prerogdtive , almost throughout . a The Civill Magistrate arrogates not to himself any directive power in matters of Religion . A. S. in his Observ . & Annot. p. 5. And againe , p. 7. To grant them such a power ( viz. of judging questions in debate between the two parties in the Assembly , speaking of the Parliament ) were nothing else but to joyne your selves with the Arminians , &c. a Act. 9. 15. Sect. 44. a Many godly and learned Ministers — even such as are their good friends , & tēder enough of them , &c p. 3. their friends & familiars , p. 4. That all the godly Ministers of Citie and Countrey should carrie themselvs towards you w th love , respect , fairness , brotherly kindnes &c. Et max : The Ministers courted them by all waies of respect & oft high entertainment of them inloving speech , friendly coūtenance , familiar cōver sing , &c. p. 226 b I love their persons & value them as Brethren , yea , some of them above Brethren , and besides that love I bear to them as Saints , I have a personall love , and a particular love of friendship to some of them , &c. Epist . p. 7. Sect. 45. Sect. 46. a Gravis enim est , & periculosus error in plurimis : & multorum lapsus , etiamsi se intelligat , exurgend pudore , authoritatem sibi praesumit , ex numero habens hoc impudentiae , ut quod errat , intelligentiā esse veritatis asserat , dùm minus error is esse existimatur in multu . Hil. l. 6. a Cum turpis est medicina , sanari pudeat . Sect. 47. a postr●mò nō satis cā dide fac●ūt , ●ū invid . ose cōmemorāt , quātas turbas , tumultus , contentiones secū traxer●t nostrae Doctrinae praedicatio , et quos nunc in multis fructꝰ crat . Nā horū malorum culpa indignè in ipsa derivatur , quae in Satanae militiā torquer● debuerat . Et mox : Haec certissima et inprim●● fidelis no tanquâ dis●●nt tursverbū à vi nū ) à medacibꝰ Dactrinis , quae sefacile prodūt dum aequis on●niū auribꝰ recipiuntur , & à mūdo plaudēte aud●untur . b Lutherus velu●● molum Eridis misit in mūdum , cujus nuliam omninò partè non turba●ā video . Erasm . l. 14. ep . 7. c Pios hoc nomen & titulum in mundo oportet gerere , quòd seditiosiac schismatici ac infinitorū malorū authores sunt Luth. in Gal. 5. d Hab. 2. 21. with Heb. 12. 26 , 27. * Mat. ●6 . 6 , 5 Sect. 48. * Act. 14. 11. a The New England Catechisme , called The Government of the Church , compos'd by Mr. Cotton , and thrice printed . A Guide unto Sion . Another small treatise , butful of learning , reading and strength , called , Sions Prerogative Royall . The answer of the Elders of the severall Churches of New England to 32 questions , sent &c. Another Answer of the same Elders to 9. other Questions about Church Government . Mr. Thompson and Mr. Mathors answer to Mr. Charles Herles Independencie . Mr. Tho. Welds answer to Mr. W. Rathbone ; besides many other Treatises published upon this subject . Sect. 49. Sect. 50. a Rom 14. 2 , 3 , 4. Sect. 51. b 1 Tim 6. 13. 17 , 18. 1 Tim. 4. 11. &c. a It is not safe for any to receive matters of Religion without terious examination . — Who ever be the Church , the Authoritie of it , is not sufficient ; possibly the Church may one and therefore we must flee to the Throne of Jesus Christ the Head of the Church for satisfaction . Whom shall we rather beleeve concerning God , then God himself ? if there were a Councell of the most learned Doctors that ever the world had , yea , if an Assembly of Angels yet in matters of Religion , concerning the good way , the last Resolution must be into Thus saith the Lord. Mr. Th. H●ll ( an High-resolved Presbyterian ) in a Sermon , staled the Good old way , Gods way , &c. ) preached before the L. Maior , &c. Apr. 24. 1●44 . pa. 16 , 17. Sect. 52. Sect. 53. Sect. 54. Sect. 55. Sect. 56. a Act. 19. 11. a Due right of Presbyteries part . 2. pag. 404. b Mat. 15. 5. a Luk. 7. 32. Sect. 57. Sect. 58. 2 King. 6. 20. a 1 King. 17. 6. Sect. 59. a Eaque ( majestas ) 〈…〉 quae in constanendâ ) & personalem , ( quae in administrandâ seu gubernandâ Republicâ consistit ) dividi videtur . Et meat Majestas Realis seu Imper● , Republicae est coaeva ; quamdiu corpus ejus durat , per manet : & etiam sub inter regnis & alterationibus persistit : quam ideò fundamentum Republicae possu●● are . Personalis conci●● cum personâ , & ad Rempublicam redit . Hujus majestatis 〈…〉 etiam post 〈◊〉 Legem , populum Romanum aliquam retinuesse dicitur majestatem . § 4. 〈…〉 c. l. 7. § 〈…〉 maj statem nostram . F. de captiv . & postium . l. 1. 〈…〉 Majestatem publica ad L. Iuliā majest . Lex namque Regia de personalis 〈…〉 is translatione intell g●debet : ego in tract . de monarchia cap. 4. num 4. ac 〈…〉 per eam populus potestatem administrationis , non constitutionis . Et constat ex l. 2 § 1. 〈…〉 administrationem Re publicae , non aliqu●d ultrà , Imperatori datum esse . Christoph . 〈…〉 Dess●● Politico - 〈◊〉 de Majestate , &c. Sect. 1. p. 5. Sect. 60. a Act. 20. 28. 1 Pet. 5. 2. Sect. 61. Mat. 2. 6. a Mat. 20. 15. a Mark. 1. 24. Luke 4. 34. a Procliviores sumus quaerere potiùs , quid contra ea respondeamus , — quae nostro objiciuntur errori , quàm intendere ea quae sunt salubria , ut careamus errore . Sect. 64. 
A19461	----	A modest and reasonable examination, of some things in vse in the Church of England, sundrie times heretofore misliked and now lately, in a booke called the (Plea of the innocent:) and an assertion for true and Christian church policy, made for a full satisfaction to all those, that are of iudgement, and not possessed with a preiudice against this present church gouernment, wherein the principall poynts are fully, and peaceably aunswered, which seeme to bee offensiue in the ecclesiasticall state of this kingdome. The contentes whereof are set downe in the page following. Covell, William, d. 1614? 1604 Approx. 511 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 117 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-09 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A19461 STC 5882 ESTC S108881 99844533 99844533 9354 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A19461) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 9354) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1475-1640 ; 1408:01) A modest and reasonable examination, of some things in vse in the Church of England, sundrie times heretofore misliked and now lately, in a booke called the (Plea of the innocent:) and an assertion for true and Christian church policy, made for a full satisfaction to all those, that are of iudgement, and not possessed with a preiudice against this present church gouernment, wherein the principall poynts are fully, and peaceably aunswered, which seeme to bee offensiue in the ecclesiasticall state of this kingdome. The contentes whereof are set downe in the page following. Covell, William, d. 1614? [8], 215, [9] p. Printed by Humfrey Lownes for Clement Knight, and are to be solde at his shop at the signe of the holy Lambe in Saint Paules Churchyard, At London : 1604. A reply to: Nichols, Josias. The plea of the innocent. 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Puritans -- Great Britain -- Early works to 1800. 2003-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2003-06 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2003-07 Judith Siefring Sampled and proofread 2003-07 Judith Siefring Text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-08 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A Modest and reasonable examination , of some things in vse in the Church of England , sundrie times heretofore misliked , and now lately , in a Booke called the ( Plea of the Innocent : ) and an Assertion for true and Christian Church policy , made for a full satisfaction to all those , that are of iudgement , and not possessed with a preiudice against this present Church Gouernment , wherein the principall poynts are fully , and peaceably aunswered , which seeme to bee offensiue in the Ecclesiasticall State of this Kingdome . The Contentes whereof are set downe in the Page following . By William Couell , Doctor of Diuinitie . Eccles. Chap. 3.1 . The children of wisedome are the Church of the righteous , and their ofspring is obedience , and loue . AT LONDON , Printed by Humfrey Lownes for Clement Knight , and are to be solde at his shop at the Signe of the holy Lambe in Saint Paules Churchyard . 1604. The Contents of this Booke . Chap. 1 KIngs and Princes haue authoritie , and ought to haue care , for the Church gouernment . page . 1 2 The Church visible of all other Societies is fittest to haue a Discipline , but neuer the same that some men desire . page . 13 3 The Censure of a booke called The Plea of the Innocent . pa. 25 4 The proceeding of the Reformers wholly vnlawfull . pag. 32 5 Of Contention . pag. 46 6 Of Ceremonies . pag. 55 7 Of Subscription . pag. 75 8 Of Discipline . pag. 94 9 Of Archbishops and Bishops . pag. 103 10 Of Ministers , their Office , and learning . pag. 124 11 Of the maintenance of Ministers , and of Tithes . pag. 142 12 Of Non Residencie , Pluralities , and Dispensations . pag. 159 13 Of publike prayer , and of the defectes supposed to be in the Liturgie of the Church of England . pag. 174 14 Of Tolleration of diuers Religions , and how farre dissenting opinions from the true Christian faith , may and ought to bee permitted in one and the same Kingdome . pag. 196 15 An humble conclusion to his sacred Maiestie and the Right Honorable Lords of his Highnesse priuie Councill , together with the rest whom it may concerne to defend this Church . page . 206 Deo omnis Potestas & Gloria . To the Right Honourable and most Reuerend father in God &c. my verie good Lord , the Lord Bishop of LONDON . ( ⸫ ) THe word ( Right honorable ) is in great trauell with much euill , & when she shall be deliuered he onely knoweth who measureth al times with his hand , and before whose eye lieth open that bottomlesse aeternitie it selfe . The faces of Kingdomes and States according to the prosperitie and aduersitie of the Church amongest them sometimes looke heauily and sometimes chearfully as refreshed with more good . Man whose Reason and Religion serueth to number these things feeleth in himselfe a true diuinitie manifested by that pure ambition of being greater than hee yet can bee ; whilest notwithstanding in the sence and feare of these things hee stoopeth as to a burthen that is too heau●e . Religious and mature wisedome ( the safest builders of true greatnesse ) assureth men in prouidence to preuent the worst things or at least by foresight growing familiar with thē teacheth how to beare them with much patience ; fewe Kingdomes there are which haue not eyther more scarres in the Church not fully cured or else greater signes of greater insuing euils than our owne . I am loth to be thought to flatter ( a fault whereunto I am not vsually subiect and a thing needlesse , being the greatest hatred from the greatest loue which euerie beareth to himselfe ; ) but I may say truly , and I doubt not but what I say the world thinketh , the greatest part of this good ( next our dread Souereigne ) is now ( without enuie bee it spoken ) your owne . The consideration whereof hath made me out of that infinite loue and duty which I owe to his Grace being dead , and your Honour yet aliue to dedicate these labours to you both , in the defence of that Church , which truth , experience , & her aduersaries haue proued ( for gouernment ) the most absolute since the Apostles time . That it is vndertaken by me is the greatest disaduantage to this cause ; that it is continued and daily receiueth strength from authority is amongst infinite blessings the greatest and most vnspeakable of this Church . I haue dealt ( as your Honour well knoweth ) in this cause with a threefolde disaduantage , one , that it hath so fully beene handled by so many of great learning heretofore , so that at this time a defence was rather requisite to tell those that hope for alteration that our Church is still of the same iudgement , and spake not heretofore onely to please that State ; a second is , that the things disliked are not differences of any great learning , seeing wee deale with aduersaries whose chiefest hope dependeth vpon the allowance of vnlearned followers ; so that Demonstrations of reason are more requisite than proofes from authoritie . Last of all , they are a generation apt and skilfull to speake euill , I haue carefully and according to my naturall disposition auoided all occasion that might prouoke them to it , yet I looke for no other , neither by the grace of God ( so that this paines may benefit the Church ) do I much care ; the strongest tyrant of things and men is fancy ; the truest gouernour Religion , hallowed follies when they are vnmasked are but at the best the weake opinions of simple men ; of whom ( notwithstanding ) if they had learned humilitie and obedience , this Church might haue much vse ; your Lordship is ( besides that particular duty and thankefulnesse which I owe vnto you ) executor of his Testament and Inheritour of his vertues that was the true owner and possessor of these labours ; which if it please your Honour to accept with their vnworthie Author into your more priuate and inward affection , It shall bee my happinesse to be your seruant and their credit by your Lordships meanes to doe seruice to this Church . Thus in the assurance of this hope crauing pardon for my boldnesse , I humbly take my leaue : desiring God to blesse you with all Graces fit for so high a place , and with contentment and long life to my singular comfort , and the especiall benefit of this Church . May 27. 1604. Your Lordships in all dutie ▪ WILLIAM COVELL . To the Christian Reader . IF the immoderate desire of reformation in some men had not extended it selfe further than eyther Religion or reason would wel permit , and especially at that time when thankfulnesse exacted from vs all something like a Sabbath for that blessed Rest continued to this Church by the meanes of our dread Souereigne this cause and some others not yet published had with their vnworthy authors slept in a long and a charitable silence , and whereas the miraculous blessings bestowed and continued vpon this land could no otherwise rightly be vnderstood , than the true effectes of that Church which was planted in it ( seeing as S. Ambrose saith : That is Charitie to be expected , that is Charitie greater than the Empire , if that faith bee inuiolate which preserueth the Empire . ) I thought it vnfit to let these men vnderstand that the peace of this Church was litle beholding to their paines , who in the middest of an vniuersall ioy sounded a seditious Alarum to a second warre which as it could be no lesse than inconsiderate Zeale in some of the Tribe of Leui to drawe their swords against their Reuerend Religious Fathers as if with Aaron they had beene guiltie of erecting a Golden Calfe ; so we hope , in the opinion of the most seuere , our defence shall neither be thought needlesse , nor out of season ; wherein peraduenture our labour is of lesse vse , because we encounter in particular men of no greate authoritie in this Church , whom our directions were first to haue answered in another manner , but finding that to follow their steps had beene onely but to tread often in the same pathes which were wearisome in themselues and could haue brought little aduantage to this publike cause , we rather resolued ( hauing the approbation of authoritie to giue allowance ) to defend a necessary , weighty , ●ighteous and publike Church gouernment , than onely to reproue and confute some particular obscure , and priuate men ; for accusing gaineth not that admittance in the eares of indifferent Readers , which defending doth , and herein I may safely protest I looked at no other scope in the labour and cost of this vnpleasing imployment than the discharge of my particular dutie , and the performance of that seruice which I owed vnto this Church , & yet if I had known which I vnderstand since that some more of Master Hookers works had bene recouered from the iniurie of men and time once againe to speake in the defence of this truth , I woul● most willingly haue obserued the praecept of the Sonne of Sirach : Thou that art yong speake if need be , and yet scarcely when thou art twice asked : for the same things ( but who is able to speake the same things that he did ? ) being spoken by diuers are not the same , and for my selfe if any man thinke this defence a presumption , I may boldly say as E●●u did , Behold I did wait vpon the words of the auncient and hearkened to their knowledge . But seeing wee are children of that Church whose prosperitie was enuied and peace hindered by the aduersaries of this cause , wee could not but let them vnderstand that the voyces of Angels , of men and of time and all against them ; and if wee were in the comparison of them ( as they bo●st of number ) but like the children of Ruben and the children of Gad , and the Tribe of Manasses in respect of all Israell besides , yet if they will needes send vs a message by Phyneas the sonne of Eleazar and ten Princes with him saying : What transgression is this that ye haue transgressed against the God of Israell to turne away this day from the Lord in that ye haue built you an Altar for to rebell this day against the Lord ? Haue wee too little for the wickednesse of Peor whereof wee are not cleansed this day though a plague came vpon the congregation of the Lord ? Wee must aunswere them as they did : The Lord God of Gods , the Lord God of Gods he knoweth , and Israell himselfe shall know , if by rebellion or by transgression against the Lord we haue done it , saue thou vs not this day . If wee haue built vs an Altar to returne away from the Lord eyther to offer burnt offerings or meat offerings , or to offer peace offerings thereon , let the Lord himselfe require it . And if wee haue not rather done it for feare of this thing , &c. vnto vers . 30. Wee hope they will giue vs leaue if their Zeale make them iealous of any thing vsed or admitted in our Church , to tell them that these are witnesses betwixt them and vs. &c. Betweene our forefathers , and our generations after vs to execute the seruice of the Lord before him , in our Lyturgie , in our prayers , in our Sacraments , and that neither their children , nor the children of any Idolatrous Church should say to our children in time to come , Yee haue no part in the Lord : and if for all this they cease not the heape reproaches vpon that Church , whose absolute gouernment they ought with thankfulnesse to imbrace , and with loue to honour , we must tell them as Saint Hierom doth that amongest Christiās not he that suffereth , but he that offereth reproach is wretched . Wherein surely of all that euer laboured in this cause , he endured most , & with most patience , whom vertue crownd with much Honour in this life , and according to his owne propheticall word ( ouercame whilest he suffered ) and now triumpheth . And for my selfe ( Gentle Reader ) I resolue humbly to endure whatsoeuer it pleaseth the vsuall impatience of their furie to lay vpon mee , saying with Saint Austen , In a good conscience I speake it , Hee that willingly doth detract from my good name vnwillingly doth add to my reward . For I lay with Saint Ambrose , Let no man thinke that there is more weight in the slaunder of another , than in the testimonie of his owne conscience . Farewell . CHAP. 1. Kings and Princes haue Authoritie , and ought to haue care for the Church gouernment . WWhere right hath no other aduantage but Fortune , and Weaknesse hath got strength from opinion of Zeale , there it is no lesse safe to maintaine error , than amongst better dispositions to defend a trueth . The Circle of time , the best discouerer of mens secret ends ( and not the least , nor the least violent circumstance ouer the means ) must at length make knowen to the weakest eye that is able to discerne least , who haue beene thought wicked and prophane in humilitie for maintayning a truth ; and who proudly haue beene opposites to this end , that being ignorant and vnhonest , they might bee thought to bee learned , and seeme righteous . As there is not any one action since the time that this Land first embraced true Religion , wherein more violent and vnnaturall dispositions , haue discouered themselues , than in , and for the Church gouernment ; so is there nothing wherein the Wisedome , Vertue , and Souereigntie of Kings , doth and ought more to appeare , than in the well ordering of that Societie , where vnto the most vsuall and greatest harmes haue commonly proceeded from too much Zeale : For that which man once apprehendeth as vertuous to bee done without great iudgement and moderation , hee seldome tempereth himselfe from doing it eyther ouer-eagerly , or ouermuch . This as it swayeth with Inferior persons , ( who for the most part haue no easier and speedier meanes to become eminent ) so it is hardly tempered in those Princes being eminent alreadie , whose vertuous education hath made them religious ; this being in one action to the people , the best assurance they can expect ; for themselues , the best testimony of a good conscience ; and toward God , a demeanour least vnthankfull for any straunge or miraculous deliuerance that they haue receiued . All these being made stronger , when a new people are become subiects ; when all men are disposed to giue strength to their hopes ; and make collection from Signes ; and when deliuerances are seconded by the peaceable and happie accesse of a greater Kingdome . So that in this case ( vnlesse to a minde that hath no Religion at all ) it shall bee much harder to perswade a moderation than too little . For with righteous Kings , and of vnderstanding , as nothing is dearer than Religion ; so in nothing they imploy their labour and authoritie more willingly , than for the preseruation , and honouring of the Church it selfe ; all kingdomes hauing no other safetie but this , Their prosperitie to flourish for no longer time , than the prosperitie of the Church is maintayned among est them . This being by all obseruation the truest signe of a decaying Kingdome , To haue a Cleargie vnhallowed , and the Church vnhonoured . But whilest all men are carefull that the Church may bee well gouerned , euerie man obtrudeth his owne fancy , and liketh best of those Rules , which haue neerest affinitie with his owne brayne . Hence commeth it to passe , that some men are not fully resolued , to whom especially belongeth the Authoritie to prescribe ( with warr●nt ) the direct forme of the Church gonernment . Other offices for the attainment of this end ( as to instruct , and to aduise ) may in all re●son , to make the burthen of gouernment both more vertuous and more easie , belong vnto other men ; But to prouide for the safetie of the Church , for the publicke enioying of the Word of God , for the maner of gouernment , for the maintenance of the Clergie , all these ( in a strict vnderstanding ) are the religious duties , and the honourable effects of the King , so that what authoritie is deriued vnto any , ●yther in a blinde and false obedience to the Sea of Rome , or through a partiall affection to a new Consistorie , are both ( if not equall ) yet equally vsurpers of the Kings right . Nay whilest some of late haue beene earnest , though ignonorant refusers of Subscription , they hane showed in their actions , how vncharitably they haue thought of their late Souereigns sincere Religiō . For to mislike the book of Orders is indirectly to affirme that we haue no ministery ( which some impudently shameles haue dared to affirme plainly : ) not to subscribe to the Booke of Common Prayer , is to teach that we haue no forme of Church Liturgye : And lastly , to refuse to subscribe to the Articles of Faith , is to make men beleeue , that our Church maintaineth vnsound doctrine . This as it was alleaged once by a Reuerend bishop in a Sermō , so it is an accusatiō not yet cleered by any that I know ; a by one it is slubbered ouer vnhandsomely , making the Obiection stronger than himselfe was able to answere truly : but this wee shall haue better occasion to confute hereafter . And it is too plaine what opinion they had of Her Religion ( liuing ) whom so boldly they dare depraue being once dead : But flattery looketh no further , than eyther to escape punishment , or receiue a benefit ; so that when the one is past feare , and the other past hope , wee dare then speake what wee thinke , and more vnreuerently oftentimes of the same partie being a Saint in Heauen , than we durst being a Prince in earth . It were fit all men considered ( but especially Kings , whose authoritie it doth secretly vndermine ) how farre the admission of a Consistoriall Gouernment in a kingdome may suddenly vsurpe vpon that right which Scripture , and Lawes haue ascribed to the King. That Kings ought to haue rule in all causes , ouerall persons , as it is warranted by the word , so it is confirmed to the Princes of this Land by Act of Parliament . This giueth vnto them Supremacy in Ecclesiasticall Gouernment , Exempteth from Inforcement of any Domesticall or forreigne power , and freeth them from the penaltie of those lawes , both Ecclesiasticall and Ciuill , whereunto all inferiour persons in a Kingdome are tyed . And howsoeuer sinnes in Princes ought to be reprooued , and rights of Clayme may be recouered against Kings , yet in nothing are they liable to penall lawes , much lesse subiect to the Iurisdiction of Elders , or Excommunication of this Tyrannous Consistorie . Vnhallowed blouldnesses attempted in other Kingdomes , and Imperionsly affected and vrged by some amongst vs , nay the power to call Synods ( an Authoritie by Parliament graunted vnto the Prince ) some violent spirits haue attempted with that bouldnesse , as if those only were Lawes , which were warranted by this Consistorie , ( Princes being but to Execute what they appoint them out of Gods word , ) whereof notwithstanding themselues must be only Iudges . Thus whilst the Prince , warranted by his owne Law , ( which is the publike Act of his whole people ) gaue Authority to some graue Commissioners for Reformation of Ecclesiasticall disorders , They denie that any such ought to be appointed Iudges and often both in priuate and publike , depraued that honorable and high Commission ; a thing , as it is vnseemely for them to controule , so if our late Souereigne in great Wisedome , and care of the Church , had not giuen it authoritie and strength , the bolddnesse of a great number , pretending a Zeale , had growen to bee so strong , that in all appearance , There had beene little likelihood of safety to the Queene her selfe . And seeing all attempts are most violent , that haue their beginning and strength from a Zeale to Religion , bee it neuer so false ; there can be nothing ( doubtles ) of greater vse , either for the safetie of the Prince , the peace of the Church , or the quiet of the Commonwealth , than the seuere and Reuerend authoritie of this high Cōmission ; without which assuredly long since we had miserably tasted of all those euilles , which vncontrouled ignorance , Hypocrisie , and crueltie cculd haue brought amongst vs. It is small reason Princes should giue eare vnto these plots , which leaue them naked without meanes to defend themselues , or their Subiects in the time of danger ; nay , those of the honorable and highe Court of Parliament , are to thinke themselues ( and I doubt not but will ) iniured by such , who haue taken from them on of the three States ( a State not of the least wisedome and grauitie ) and from them all that Authoritie , which they ascribe to a number of ignorant and sillie Artificers ( for such some Consistories must needes bee ) and guided by a youth sometimes , neither of wisedome nor vnderstanding . It is miserable where men are ruled by no lawes , seeing nothing is in man of greater daunger , ( vnlimited ) than his owne will , which imperiously commaundeth ouer his fancie , that is able to corrupt and peruert all Rules of order . Thus they interprete Tell the Church , tell the Consistorie ; Which because Iohn Morrell did expound otherwise , himselfe was excommunicated and his Booke burnt : there is nothing more vsull , than their pleasures to become Lawes ; ( A thing peraduenture men may affect , which either desire Change , or do hate gouernment , ( but doubtles in it selfe Tyrannous and vnsufferable , and so much the more odious and daungerous , by how much the Rulers are base , there gouernment lesse equall , and once admitted , not easie to be shaked of . In on word , There is nothing in the Lawes of this whole Land , ( nay not in the possession of any priuate persō ) safe , if this Consistoriall Gouernment may take place ; the benefit whereof as they magnifie ( little weighing those yet vnexperienced Euils which must needes follow ; ) so the harmes of it are at large set downe by diuers others , who with learning and iudgment haue labored in this point . There is doublesse no Societie deerer vnto God than his Church ; in the gouernment whereof he hath made choice of two sorts of men to be imployed vnder him ; The first are Ministers of his word , and Sacraments , whose calling is perpetuall and necessary in the Church ; for so long as the Church is in this world , it cānot possible be cōtinued without these : of wihch we shall more fitly speake heereafter . The other are Kings and Magistrats : whom to the happy estate of the Church , we hold with all reuerence , of such vse , that those are worst that mislike their gouernment , & that Church ( in all reason ) like to be most happy , which God , in his mercy , hath blessed with the best King. This appeareth in the Kings of Iuda , who being vertuous , Religion ( that was decaied ) was restored , and what the Idolatry of others had corrupted , the vprightnes of some which followed did purifie againe ; God in his loue performing that promise vnto his Church , that Kings should be her Nursings-fathers , and Queenes her Nursing-mothers . In this respect ( more specially than others ) they are called Gods seruants ; not only because they serue him in the gouernmēt of the cōmonwealth ( a thing common with them and the worst Princes ) but because he vouchsafeth to vse their meanes , as the fittest Instruments to aduance his Church vpō earth . And surely a double seruice God expecteth from them ; the one Common with all Christians ; the other peculiar , to serue him in that place as Kings & Princes . To haue performed the first is an action of praise and may giue great hope ; but to faile in the second , is staynd with reproch , & vsually accompained with much daunger : Euill Princes seruing oftentimes to Act but the ruines of that Kingdome by the fall of the Church , in whose misery theselues for the most part doe perish . In the first dutie ( as Christians ) they are not priuiledged aboue other men , they are tyed to same obedience , bound to as many vertues ( nay moe for exāple ) & must in the end ( being called to the same account ) be iudged with as much seuerite as the meanest subiect . Be wise now therfore , O ye Kings , be learned ye that are Iudges of the Earth . Serue the lord with feare & reioyce vnto him with Reuerence : In the latter the seruice of Princes hath two parts , the one concerning the Commonwealth , the other Religion , and the Church : to the first they are tyed as Kings ; to the latter they are bound , as they are vertuous , and Religious Kings . The first in dooing mercy , and iudgment , in defending the fatherlesse and poore , in seeing that such as be in neede and necessitie haue right , in bestowing duely punishment , and reward ; and in all those other polliticke vertues , they are happy Instruments , to make a prosperous and flourishing Commonwealth ; The second concerneth his Religion ; a duty , as it lyeth vpon all ( for all ought to be Religious ) so especielly vpon the Prince , who must not only be , but be the meanes to make all other to become Religious : a thing , though not euer true vnder vertuous Kings ( whose holy examples sometimes preuaile no farther but to make Hypocrits ) but seldome , or neuer , to be expected , where the Princes thēselues delight to seeme opēly prophane . If man had no other light but the light of Nature , & would not so willingly beleeue what were done with , as without the Scripture ; yet euen this point will appeare to be most true , being the practise of those men , who had no other guide for their Actions , than the vnchangeable directions of the light of Nature ; for whatsoeuer the Religion was , ( as in most it was nothing but Idolatrous Superstition ; ) yet the transgression thereof was esteemed worthy to receaue punishment , and the appointment of this punishment was thought to be peculiar to those , who had principall authoritie to gouern the Comonwealth . Thus the Athenian tooke vpon thē the power to condēne Socrates ( a man peraduenture wiser thā any of the rest ) but faulty ( as they thought ) in Religiō , & therefore to be censured by the Authoritie which they al had . The like we read of the Romās . Tyberius would make Christ a God without the authority of the Senat ( wher though the Act was needles , & to Christ little honor ; ) yet it sheweth that both the care of Religion belonged to the Roman Emperor , & that men ( euen Heathe●s ) were not hastily carried to performe any actiō of that nature , without the aduice of others iudgmēt : neither euer the Apostles or Prophets reprehēd this care in the Rulers in any age . It was easie to erre what Religiō was , but all men saw to whom the care did principally belong ; neither should any mā deserue cōmendation for performing that which were wholy exempted from the limits of his owne calling . But al Antiquiti● hath giuē in this kind , honorable Testimony to Cōstantine and Theodosius , two Emperors of much vertue . Nay Religi●n it selfe , which giueth the best Rules to preserue Religion , being contained in the Two Tables , expresly commandeth , who ought to be the ouerseer , the keeper and preseruer of both . Inwardly the strongest mōtiue is Religion , and they are most ( for the most part ) Religious , who are Religious for conscience ; but there is a feare from the hand of the Maiestrate , able to restraine those ( at least from outwarde being euill ) whom neither Conscience , nor Religion could make honest . Christian Emperours haue with their Zeale gained much honor for this in the eye and Iudgement of Gods Church . This made them when contentions arose , to call Councells as that of Nice , Constantinople , Ephesus , Chalcedon to purge the Temples both from Heathenish Idolatry , and Christian superstition ; to make lawes , the better to keepe men in obedience towardes God ; the irreligious contempt of whose worshippe ( though in the Subiects themselues ) haue brough a iust ruine , euen for not forbidding , both vpon the Prince and the Commonwealth . Reason then , which tyeth Princes to procure the prosperitie of that land , ouer which they gouerne , exacteth frō them a principall care of the Church , and of Religion , the decay and the contempt whereof , are the originall causes of pestilence , dearthes , wares , and such like . For where humors are infected a little , it is like that the maners are first distempered a great deale , the most of the Fathers are plentifull in this point . This made Saint Austine , learnedly to confute the Donatists whose Haerecy was like the error of some in our days , holding that Princes ought to permit euery man to enioy , what Religion he likes , and to persecute no man for Religion at all ; this serueth to confute the two great Errors of our time ; the one of the Anabaptists , the other of the Church of Rome ; The first holding it vnlawfull for a Christian to be a Magistrate , much lesse to vse his authority in matters that cōcerne Religion ; the other that the care of Princes to maintaine Religion , ought only to be with these word ; but to cōfute errors , to reforme Churches , to call Synods , These they thinke to be peculiar to the Pope himselfe . The contrary to both these , wee are taugh by Scriptures , by Historie , by Fathers , and by Testimonie of some of the Popes themselues ; who haue earnestly intreated the Christian Emperours to call Councels . This then being in the opinion of all that are of sound iudgement , both the greatest care and honor to a Christian prince , let vs consider a little those pointes that are absolutely requisite for the Religious performing of this duty ; the person whom wee call the Prince , is hee that hath supreame authoritie according to the forme of that kingdome wherein he ruleth . In humane actions that they may be performed aright , it is requisite , that we are willing , that we haue knowledg , that we haue power ; with out the first our knowledge & abilitie do want motion ; without the second our motion & ability shal want skill ; without the third our motion and skil shal want strength . The first is an vnestimable benefit bestowed vpō religious princes from the powerfull Author of all pietie ; in this respect all men are bound to commend them to God more especially in their prayers , assuring our selues , that vnlesse wee or they faile , hee that hath giuen them to will shall inhable them at length to performe it likewise . The best assurance to discerne the Author of this wil , is the considerations of the ends which are only two ; Gods glory , and the good of others , which being not the scope of their actiō , it is no more possible that God should bee the Author of that will , than that goodnes is possible to bee the Author of much euill ; Ends of doing which lye in the hart of man , and are onely discerned by God himselfe , are the true discouerers what is the originall fountain of that we doo . For the same things are not alwaies of the same nature , though the maner of performing be all one , if the ends be diuers . The second thing is knowledge , not of much lesse necessitie than the former , wherby hee may bee truely assured , what things are vnfit , and what are warrantable to bee reformed ; neither this onely in general , and by others , but if it bee possible in euery particular , and of himselfe ; A happines wheresoeuer it is , neither least worth , nor least power , to make happy both the Church , & Cōmonwealth . This only was thought to bring greatnes , & ruine , both at once into the Church of Rome ; whilst Emperors being busied with other affairs , left the gouernment to the Bishops ; the Bishops to the Suffragans ; these to the Monks ; whose authority & knowledge , being much lesse , all things were ruled , with greater corruption & lesse truth . To auod this , Moses , cōmandeth the Princes , day & night to be exercised in reading the holy Scripture ; next , to haue those about thē who are lerned , & honest ; it is a maime to a Prince to be assisted by any that do want either . For to be learned without Zeal , is to make aduātage to thēselues by a publick losse , & to be Zealous without skil , is to coūsel oftētimes to matters that do much hurt . As the former maketh a King cōmonly to be ouer dissolute , so these other do make him to be too rigorous ; it is a memorable exāple of Ioas the King of Iuda , whilst he had Ieboida the priest assistāt to him , al things happily succeeded to him , & to his whole Realme ; but with his death ( the King being destitute of such ) all things as speedily came to great ruine . To further the Kings knowledge , it is a means neither of least honor nor vse to call Synods , of those Churches that imbrace the truth ; and in them to asemble men of best learning , moderation , and least partiall , whose consultatiō ( for disputatiō is a means both to contētious & insolent to finde a truth ) may serue for resolution of such points , as weaknes in humility would be glad to learn. It is lost labour in any , & farre vnbefitting the honour of Kings , to vndertake with Curiositie & pride to get knowledge , seeing the one is not desirous to learne , & the other desirous for to learne too much . This hath bin the Care of all religious Emperors ; Constantine the great , in the case of Arrius called the Councell of Nice . Thus Theodosius the great , in the case of Nestorius , the Councel of Ephesus , Valentinian and Martian , the Councell of Chalcedon against Eutiches , Iustinian the Councell of Constantinople , against Seuerus , the Patriarch of Antioch which renued the error of Eutyches , Constantine the fift , The sixt Synod against the Monothelyts , George the Patriarch of Constantinople , Macharius the Patriarch of Antioch , & their followers : the third thing is ability which shall easily receiue greatest strength from hence , if all lesser differeces remoued , a perfect concord & agreement be made with those of the same Religiō . If Israel and Iuda be at variance , both shal be caried into Captiuity ; the one into Assyria , the other into Babilon . Thus the Eternall power punisheth our pride , the fountaine of our dissention with captiuity , to learn vs amitie , & friendship in a strange land ; Oh that Ierusalē were built as a City at vnitie in it selfe ! If any man yet doubt of the authority of kings in Ecclesiasticall causes , & ouer s●ch persons ; let them know that in● al ages , with good warrant , Princes haue displaced and iudged men of the Church ; as Religiō , reason , & desert haue moued them . Salomon displaced Abyathar , and placed Zadock ; Theodosius , & Valentinian , made a decree that those which were infected with the impiety of Nestorius , should be deposed . Iustinian is cōmended for deposing Silueirus & Vigilius ; Ieremy his case was heard of the Princes ; Cecilian & Athanasius being wronged , appealed to Constātine : seeing thē this cloud of witnesses against thē , let thē hereafter not so vnreuerently ( as some haue done ) account those persons Bauds to al maner of sins in Princes , who maintain thē to be free frō excōmunication ; neither need they to fear ( as some of them say ) tha● this opinion proceedeth frō a worse cause than frō simple error . But the boldnes of some to excōmunicate the Prince at their pleasure , hath both giuen incouragement , to seek alteration without reuerence , & perēptorily to call that reformation , which is but their own fancies ; hereunto I might add which is obserued by others , that this Consistory taketh appeals , or the right of redresse for all wrongs , offered in Ecclesiasticall Courts , from the power of the Prince , for they themselues sitting in Christs Tribunall seat , it can be neither lawful , nor warrantable , to appeale from them ; besides the law giueth vnto the Prince the Nomiuation of Bishops , & some other Electiue dignities in the Church : the custody of Bishops Temporalties , during the vacation ; And patronage paramōt , or right to present by the last lapse : but these giue election of Church Offices to their Consistories , and people , and would deuide all liuings among their Elders & Decons , whom they appoint to be paymasters of their Pastors , if either I charge them with vntruth , or any indifferent vnderstanding can thinke this not danngerous to the Church and the Commonwealth , let their petitions haue successe ; their complaints haue audience ; their cause finde fauor : and in that one Act , let Religion , the Prince , peace , and all vtterly perish . I omitt first fruites , Tenthes , subsides , cōtributions of Ecclesiasticall persons , all which are graunted by the lawes vnto the Prince of this Land , all which by thē are accounted sacriledge and robberie , and left wholy to the disposition of their polliticke Consistorie ; and where as ( as wee shall haue occasion to handle heareafter ) some special men in particular cases , both in equitie , and conscience , are to be exemted by priuiledge , from those lawes that doe binde all , ( a power only reserued to the Prince himselfe , ) These hould all dispensations vnlawfull , and howsoeuer they fauour it in themselues , no lesse than superstitious , and Antichristian , in others . A thing doubtlesse of much vse , and great necessitie in all kingdomes , and of no daunger at all , where the King is vertuous . Whilst the true consequēts of their false opinions , haue taught the world that these and such like derogations of the Kings authoritie , haue beene maintained in that vnlearned Schoole , they labour to make all men beleeue that Princes haue not more honest Religious and loyall Subiects than they are ; A thing surely by experience neuer to be found , so longe as they haue entered , vnder pretence of Religion to become abbaters and disposers of the Kings Reuenewes ; as if he that were gouernor of the Church and the Commonwealth , were bound in dutie by power and reuenewe but to haue care of the Church only ; a Diminution of all greatnesse is affected by thē , that by the disposition of that which they esteeme to be the superfluitie of all States , necessarie defences , and moderate Ornaments may all faile to make them rich . CHAP. II. The Church visible of all other Societies is fittest to haue a Discipline : but neuer the same that some men desire . TO thinke that either the Church ( how putrified soeuer the Religion be ) be in so good a case for gouernment , that nothing can either be added , or taken away , to make it better ; or that the same societie , how much soeuer disordered , be to be altered , by priuate warrāt ; is very daungerously , and apparantly , to erre in both . The first being the effect of too much flattery , and self loue : the latter , the daungerous attempt of an insolent presumption ; both hazardous to that holy Societie , whom either they thinke for gouernment to be absolute , or absolutely to be gouerned by their owne fancies . In these two Errors , the difference is this , that they first may easily erre , in thinking ▪ that to be best which Experiēce hath taught them to be good : in the latter there is lesse excuse because they mislike all , whatsoeuer may not be esteemed to proceede from their owne deuice , that there is a gouernment requisite for that Societie which we call the Church , the wisdome of God hath made knowen vnto vs , both by proportion of those naturall , and Ciuill Societies , to which the Church is compared , and by the perfection of that fellowshippe , which the Saints in all ages , and places , where the true worship of GOD hath preuailed , haue had from the foundation of the worlde , amongst themselues . The first roote of humane Societie ( as being impossible to continue without order ) is distinguisht by God himselfe into seuerall degrees and prerogatiues of Husbands , Parents , Maisters , aboue Wife , Children , and Seruants ; and yet all linked in the mutuall agreement of like dueties . The greater Branches that rise out of these rootes ; Cities , countries and kingdomes are neither destitute of lawes , to prescribe , nor Magistrats to execute for the common good ; all receiuing dignitie , and strength , from this fountaine , that by the benefit of Good lawes , they are well gouerned . If men were of themselues either willing , or constant in that which were good , It were needles to haue a discipline for all , where euery mans vertue were a lawe to himselfe ; but seeing our corruption is such , that we are easily deceiued by our selues , more easily seduced by others , but most and most daungerously peruerted through feare , and desire ( the one to spurn vs that we goe not too flowe , the other to bridle vs that we runne not too fast ) there is a line , both to direct , and to amend , necessarily limited to all sorts ; and this , in due season , lest disorder indured , bread confusion , the fore-runner of all ruine . Seeing then the Church of Christ is the house of God , the Citty of the liuing God , the kingdome of his beloued Sonne , can wee thinke that he is careful for others , and carelesse , or negligent for his owne ? or that disorder is lesse daungerous , or lesse to be feared in the Church , than in the Common-wealth ; surely hee that in all places is the Author not of confusion but of peace , will haue all thinges performed decently and in order for the Gouernment of his Church . To this ende hee appointed Stewardes oouer his houshold , Watchmen , and leaders , ouer his flocke ; laborers in his haruest ; Husbandmen in his Tyllage ; and being proportioned to a bodie , maketh some to bee Eyes , Eares , Tongues , Handes ; that is principall members , for directing , and assistance of the whole ; without which ( in all reason ) it must needes be vnable to prouide for the safetie and securitie of it selfe ; so that the Honour , or happinesse had beene small , to haue made it a Church , vnlesse this likewise had beene added , To haue made it a Church that is well Gouerned : for the vnitie of of the Spirit is not kept , but in the bande of peace . This Regiment of the Church , is as well Extelternall , as Internall ; The latter is that gouernment which God hath by his holy Spirit , and truth , in the hearts of the faithfull ; which as it is neuer varied , so it is not questioned amongest vs in the Church of Englande . By this which is the Kingdome of his Sonne , all men confesse , that GOD inwardly , and effectually worketh in his Saintes the Faith of his truth ; the feeling of his grace ; and other spirituall blessinges according to the purpose of his will , for the praise of his owne Glorie , in which no earthly creature is able to ioyne or to concurre with him ; sauing only in this , that the Word and the Sacraments being left as externall meanes , there must be fitte persons for both , and a power in them to admitte , and reiect , lest happily , holy thinges be defiled , whilst Pearles are cast vnto Dogges and Swine . From hence ariseth a necessitie of externall Gouernment in Gods Church ; which respecteth the appointing of meete men , and the due approbation of such , as are to be credited with the free dispensation of such inestimable Treasures committed to their Charge . In this , whilst all men agree that it ought , and many that are religious are desirous that the Church should be rightly ordered ; many Intemperat men , without any learning , or care , haue offred vnto vs that kinde of gouernment , which had it beene once admitted , could not choose but time haue pocured a ruine to the whole Church , whose labours ( as farre as they were honest ) no man hath reason to dispies : but being daungerou● , they are to be diswaded from attempting , and frendely to be counsailled , to aduise better . For to allow the best and fauorablest excuse that this cause can afford , ( a curtesie perhaps they desire not at our hands ) is to thinke they haue dealt as men , that comming in loue , to visite a sicke friende , haue euery man geauen his aduise without skill . The best reason ( in wise Iudgements ) to deny alteration of any well establisht order , as also to procure approbation , with good conscience to such customes as are publikely in vse ; is when there riseth from the due consideration of them , apparant reason ( allthough not all waies to proue them bettter ) than any other , ( for who did euer require this in mans ordinance ( yet competent to shew their conuenient fitnesse in regard of the vse for which they should serue ; duties of Religion performed by the Church , ought to haue in them according to our power , a sensible excellency , Correspondent to the Maiestie of him whom we worship ; yea then are publike duties in the Church best ordered , when the militant doth resemble by sensible meanes , as it may in such cases , that hidden dignitie , and glory , wherewith the Church Triumphant in Heauen is beutified ; how be it as the heate of the Sun , which is the life of the whole world , was to the people of God in the Desert , a greeuous annoyance ; ( for ease whereof his extraordinary prouidence ordained a Clowdy Pillar to ouershadowe them ) so things of generall vse and benefit ( for in this world what is so perfect that no inconuenience doth euer follow it ) may by some accident , be incomm●dious to a few ; in which case for priuate Euills , reamedies there are of like conditions , though publike ordinances wherein the common good is respected , be not stirred . Let it be therefore allowed that in the externall forme of Religion , such things as are apparantly and haue beene sufficiently proued effectuall , and generally fit to set forward godlinesse , either as betokening the greatnesse of God , or as beseeming the dignitie of religion , ( both which are shadowed in the riches and ornaments of our Church ) or as concurring with Celestial impressions in the minds of men , may be reuerently retained , some few , rare , casuall , and tollerable , or otherwise cureable inconueniences , notwithstanding . And in this case , it is not a consideration either of least reason , or least vse , to obserue what hath beene allowed as fit in the iudgement of all Antiquitie , for the good gouernment of the Church ; from which either easily , or much , to swarue , was neuer yet in experience , warranted to be safe . Wherefore in the altering of formes of Church gouernment , Reason doth not allow it to be good either to change what Experience hath taught to be without much hurt , or in the change to followe the direction of yong heads . For though Ripenes of vnderstanding , be grayehairs and the vertues of such be old age , yet wisedome and youth are seldome ioyned ; for we must seeke it among the Auncient , and in the length of dayes vnderstāding . So that if the contention be , to whom we must harken , and who are they that rule vs in this case , doubtlesse the aged for the most part are best experienced , least subiect to rash & vnaduised passiōs , seldome carried with an affectation of noueltie , or change , & therefore best in matter of Counsaile to be best trusted , and safest in matter of Change , to be wholly followed ; for as hands are seldome profitable to any great attempts , longer than youth strengthen them ; so Wisedome is not of much value , till age and experience haue brought it to perfection . In whom therefore time hath not perfected knowledge , such must be content to follow them , in whom it hath , sharp and subtill discourses of witt ( which are not the ordinarie felicities of those that haue laboured in this cause ) procure many times great applause , butbeing laid in the ballāce with that which the habit of sound Experience plainly deliuereth , they are ouer-weighed . Let vs therefore as in all other things of deliberation and Counsaile , follow the aduise of him , who said , Aske thy Father , and he will shew thee , thine Auncients , and they shall tell the. They which doe nothing ( as one wisely noteth ) but that which men of accompt did before them , are although they doe amisse , yet they lesse faultie , because they are not the Authors of harme ; and doing well their actions are freed from preiudice of Noueltie , an imputatiō alone able to diminish the credite of that which is well donne ; The loue of thinges auncient doth argue stayednesse , but leuitie and want of Experience , maketh apt to innouations . For vsually ( where Scripture doth not gaine say ) that which wisedome did first begin , and hath beene with good men long continued , challengeth allowance of them that succeede , although it pleade for it selfe , nothing , but that which is new ( as their discipline is ) if it promise not much , doth feare condemnation , before triall , till triall noe wise man ( although women and some rash heades doe ) doth acquite , or trust it , what good soeuer it pretend or promise . So that in this kinde , fewe things being knowen to be good , till such time as they growe to be auncient , as wee haue small reason to dislike , or alter , what by continuance wee haue found to bee profitably honest ; so we haue much lesse cause to admitt that which in our selues , and our Church doth want triall , and with others abroad , hath beene the Originall of much euill . Nowe because all thinges can not be Auncient which are expedient , and needefull , in the Church ; This being a bodie which neuer dieth , hath euer power , no lesse to ordaine in things indifferent , that which neuer was , than to ratifie that which hath beene before . for surely the Church ( howesoeuer some men distast this point ) hath Authoritie to establish that for an order at one time , which at an other , it may abolish , and in both doe well . Laws concerning outward order are changable , articles concerning doctrine are not . There is ( saith Cassianus ) no place of audience left for them , by whom obedience is not yielded to that which all haue agreed vpon ; for it is to bee feared that the sacred worde shall at their handes , hardly receiue due honour , by whom the holy ordinances of the Church , doe receiue contempt ; It being a vertuous obedience in both , as well to the rest in that which the Church commaundeth vnto vs , as in that which God commaundeth vnto his Church . And if those things which are misliked , ( peraduenture of a number without reason ) were euils of that nature that could not bee remooued , without manifest daunger to succeede in their roomes ; wisedome ( of Necessitie ) must giue place to Necessity ; all that it can doo , is as much as may bee , to mitigate the euils , that when the best things are not possible , the best may bee made of those that are . Wisedome will rather tollerate some euill in A forme of gouernment that is tryed , Than in a Gouernment vntryed ; to stand to the hazard of a farre greater . It is the honour of all Kings that which is the Title of the Princes of this Land , to bee as they are called , Defendours of the Faith : and this not onely in regard of Enemies abroad , but in respect of those also which desire alteration at home , oftentimes A hope of ease giueth men that iustly suffer , occasion to complaine , whose discontentments ( how lamentably soeuer diplayed ) are not alwaies the euidences of true griefe ; nor euer the argumentes of a iust wrong . For doubtlesse let a Church bee as well gouerned , as euer was any eyther in , or before the Apostles time ; Let Moses and Aaron both labour to make it Excellent ; Let Dauid and all his Counsellours aduise for the good of it ; yet she shal neuer want those within the bosome of her , who eyther wearie with that which is auncient , or in loue with some newe deuise of their owne , are readie to depraue that Gouernment , which they ought for to reuerence , as being the Orders of that Societie wherevnto in all dutie they doo owe obedience . There will euer bee some Corah , Dathan , and Abiram , to tell Moses and Aaron , that they take too much vpon them . Such is the frailtie of humane nature , and so great our vnwillingnesse to liue in subiection to the gouernment of other men , That wee will rather , hazard an opposition to God himselfe , than haue our Zeale to bee guided by the limits of any Lawes ; doubtlesse those that are thus proud , may iustly suspect that GOD hath not placed them as workmen , in the reformation of the External gouernment of that Kingdome , whose foundation was first laid with so much humilitie ; This if the first authors of these troubles had well considered , they would not in a matter of so great Consequent , haue allotted the power , and authoritie of alteration , vnto the violent , and vnlimited passions of the rude multitude ; a thing in it selfe as without warrant , so incredible almost to haue proceeded from men that were furnished but with common sence . Could any thing sound more pleasing to the lowest and worst parts of a Kingdome ? Could any thing moue sooner to rebellion , than to tell them that Reformation of Religion belongeth to the Communaltie ? that the Communaltie may lawfully require of their King to haue true Preachers , and if he be negligent they iustly may themselues prouide them , maintaine them , defend them against all that persecute them , and may detaine the profit of the Church-liuings from the other sorte ? If these strange opinions which must needes sound harshly in the eares of all Kinges , had not dispersed themselues like a poyson into the veynes of this Kingdome , the Authors might haue slept in silence , and their hallowed treasons haue remained vntouched ; But seeing those who were sollicitours abroad , are now so neere that they be daungerous perswaders at home , it is a consideration not of small importance , as well to looke at the Authors and the meanes ( with what pretences soeuer they are ouershadowed ) as at the thing it selfe , neither much needfull , nor verie safe . And howsoeuer ( in humane reason we haue now lesse cause than euer , to feare the daunger of this euill ; yet seeing no harme in a religious Kingdome , with a vertuous Prince findeth as little resistance , as that which is couered with the name of Zeale ; all men haue cause both to pray , aduise , and assist , that the misteries of this euill ( the iust punishment for the contempt of his truth ) light not vpō vs , in our dayes nor in the dayes of our Children , that shall succeede after . There is not any fancie grounded vpon so little truth , that hath so speedely growne to that greatnes , as the discipline of Geneua hath ; It is like in our Kingdome ( yet fit inough peraduenture for them ) vnto the Gourd that shadowed Ionas , but of a small continuance , and yet some great Prophets are content to rest vnder the shadowe of it ; wee shall easily forgett the Author of greater benefits , vnlesse some Worme in mercie be sent for to eate it downe ; at the first in the Auncient Disputations , against the Papists and Anabaptistes , both in Fraunce , and Geneua , there could bee found but two essentiall notes of the Church ; The true preaching of the word , and the right administration of the Sacraments , but when some of ours were returned from Geneua , they were not affraied to tell vs , ( a strange opinion to be publisht by learned wise men ) That Maister Beza helde the Geneua Discipline , the third note of the Church , and of as much necessitie as the Sacramentes or the worde it selfe ; which thing if it were as soundly proued , as it seemes it is constantly beleeued by them , all men had reason to acknowledge them the Authors of much good , and to aduenture themselues farre , in the defence of it . Out of this stronge opinion haue proceeded these vnreuerend speeches against our Land : Englande with an Impudent forehead , hath said , I will not come neere the Holy one : wee are neuer the better for her Maiesties reformation . seeing the Walls of Sion , lye euen with the Ground . Rome is come into our gates . Antichrist reigneth amongst vs , Infinite are the speeches collected out of their owne writings by others in this kinde ; and yet for all this , they would seeme both to flatter the Prince ( if so worthie a Prince could bee flattered ) and highly to commend her happie gouernment , so many waies profitable both to the Church and the Common-wealth : but whilst we charge them with Innouation ( a thing whereunto wise Gouernors must haue good regard ) One commeth forth with great boldnesse ( yet one of the weakest that hath laboured in this cause ) and saith , wee craue no alteration in Religion , but only , that the things which are ( standing as they doe ) may be brought to the order of the Apostles vse , and to the Canon of Gods holy word in those circumstāces which remain yet vnreformed . Do you speake cōsideratly in this plea ? were all things that are desired by you , and others vsed in the Apostles time ? Are they all warranted by the Canon of Gods word ? Doubtlesse if you had perused with any indifferency , all the learned discourses , of those that haue laboured in this , you should easily haue found that most things demaunded , and so much desired , are new , and that wee are not now absolutely tied , to all these things that were in vse in the Apostles time . It shall not be amisse ( howsoeuer it hath beene alreadie most learnedly performed by others ) to let them Vnderstand , that the orders of the Church , haue beene at times diuers , Whereof some haue beene added , some ceased ; and that wee are not absolutely tied to imitate the times that haue beene before in euerie particular ; the Church as it is Militant heere on earth , liueth not alwaies in the same state , it laboureth sometimes ( seeming to decay ) vnder the Crosse , sometimes it flourisheth in the aboundance of much peace ; sometimes it is gouerned by these , who are Nurses of it , and sometimes by such whose hands are readiest to pull it downe ; now , where the affection of Princes that gouerne is not all one , the condition and state of the Church , must needes alter ; besides euen the chiefe officers , erected by our Sauiour , of the Apostles , Prophets , and Euangelistes , in that kinde notwithstanding are all ceased ; for although Apostolicall Iurisdiction , doo now continue ▪ in Bishops , yet no man is ordayned to bee an Apostle : that which is aunswered of ordinarie , and extraordinarie , ouerthroweth the cause ; for if these bee extraordinarie , and all offices that are reckoned vp by the Apostle bee not ordinarie , then the Gouernours of the Church ceasing , no man can say with reason , that forme of the Church gouernment is all one . To holde that all that was diuers at diuers times , was the same gouernment , is to make things continuing , and ceasing , distinguisht , and confounded , to bee all one . And if wee looke further to that which seemed to bee most solemne , the Senedrin and great Councell at Ierusalem , is no where extant . And if they allow the forme at Geneua , they are popular , but surely though in this no man , could looke for other , than difference to arise where trueth hath not laid the foundation of what they holde ; yet this is most straunge , that they are so firme for Doctors , to bee distinguisht from Pastors , for seuerall Consistories for euerie parish ; widowes , and such like ; whereas Geneua hath but one Consistorie for diuers Parishes ; no Doctors , distinct from Pastors , no widowes , and in Fraunce onely Pastors , and Elders , are thought necessarie ; yea besides this , there were many things , commendably , in vse in the former times , which as the Church hath power to remooue , so likewise hath she authoritie to appoint new ; our Sauiour instituted a Ceremonie which hee inioyned his Disciples to obserue , of washing of feete ; the same continued long in the Church as may appeare by a Treatise attributed to Saint Cyprian , but now out of vse , and vtterly ceased . The Apostles decreed that all should abstaine from bloud and from things strangled , the Apostle willeth the Romans to greete one another , with a holy kisse ; yet both these discontinued amongst vs , euery man praying or prophecying with his head couered dishonoreth his head ; a thing at this day not of that strict obseruance , but that it may bee done without breach of humility , or the Apostles precept . That all the lawes and orders in the Church are not durable appeareth , by ceasing of the Ceremoniall law , and the Iewish pollicie , so that the obseruation of the Morall , and whatsoeuer hath dependance vpon that , is the true rule of discipline for maners ; other things are but the violent fancies of some weak men , who haue abused their Zeale to doe much hurt . Neither neede wee stand to prooue much the alteration of this gouernment , seeing themselues haue varied in the demanding of it . In the yeare 1572. the first admonition ( which the late most Reuerend Lord Archbishop of Canterbury did after confute ) was offered to the Parliament , as contayning a perfect platforme of the discipline they desired to be established in this Realme . Within fewe yeares after they altered it againe ; In the yeare 1584. an other , which seemed to haue receiued as much perfection , as they could desire ; but presently after the Parliament this was found amongst them to haue some thing amisse , and the correcting being referred to one , who had trauersed the matter a new , it came out more perfect in the yeare 1586 , an other in the yeare 1588 ; and it is like , as most of these were , against Parliaments , so some thing now is to bee performed for this , if their cause can haue patrons , or the patrons can finde hope ; but I hope by this time , our Gouernours are more wise , and hee who is able to discerne these plots , hath found by experience their desires to bee too proud , and in reason not likely to benefit this Church , with a better peace ; so that wee may safely conclude this point ; That though the Church of all Societies bee fittest to bee Gouerned with an auncient and veriuous discipline , yet that discipline is farre differing from the same that they doo require . CHAP. III. The Censure of a Booke called the Plea of the Innocent . WHere the persons of men , haue so neere affinitie with the actions performed by them , it will require great moderation and care , so to censure the one , as that we may not iustly bee suspected to disgrace the other : the neglect of this , ( a fault which is too common both in the times before vs and in our age ) hath turned the confutation of errors to personall reproofes , and hath made the defendors , weaknes , or Indiscretion , the greatest aduersary to a good cause ; and howsoeuer some partiall men are caried with as much loue to all they doo , as they are to themselues that doo it ; and with like disposition , are impatient to bee toucht in eyther ; yet no man of wisedom or vnderstanding , can thinke it to bee all one , to haue his action or his person , censured ; some Actions I confesse there are of that nature , which are the defectes of our ordinary weakenesse ; and therein though not Excusable , yet carry some reason to challenge a fauourable compassion , extending either to forgiuenes or to concealments ; ( which both doubtlesse are the effects of men that are truly vertuous ) where as some others , as it were by couenant are performed to that end , that they rest amongest all men , and in all ages , lyable to that censure which time shall giue them , And they merit . Of the first sort are our sinnes , in which kinde our profession hath had some euill Confessours ; of the Latter are Bookes , which as they are actes performed ; with the best of our iudgement , voluntarie , with deliberation , and with a resolution by couenaunt eyther to aunswere or indure what Censures shall light vpon them , it cannot bee any breach of Charity , or modesty , where the opinions misliked are defended , to censure the Bookes , which are made in defence of them . And although euerie man in reason is tyed , to bee cerefull of his good name , yet seeing that both euerie harde Censure , is not a proofe to continue errour , nor euerie errour an imputation to a man that deserues well ; It is not all one to say such a Booke is euill written , and to say such a one is not an honest man ; The first is allowed in the warrantable liberty of all learning , but the latter , Charitie , and Humilitie , do both forbid , as being but the daungerous effect of too much pride . Things that are euill in manners , are euill in that they are done , and are a iust imputation to the partie in that they are knowne ; but writings that are Censured , carry not euer that sentence among them , which some ignorant , or partiall opposite , shall impose vpon them ; nor euer doo men censure , as some enemies peraduenture would make them speake . There are Commentaries wee know vpon Saint Luke , which passe vnder Saint Ambrose name , of which Ruffinus in his second Booke of Inuectiues , maketh Saint Hierome to giue this Censure , that hee dallyed in the words , and slept in the sence . Which surely as the best writers are of opinion , was rather forged by Ruffinus , to make Saint Herome odious , than spoken by Saint Hierome , to disgrace Saint Ambrose . Doubtlesse it were great pity , that seeing the world so much erreth in the choise of friends , that this so necessary an office rather than omitted , should not be performed by our worst acquaintance , and the resolution of all men ought to be this ( which I thank God I finde in my selfe ) if thy friend chide iustly in his Censure , he hath profited thee , if vndeseruedly yet hee meant to doe thee good , so that to the first being bound for that which he hath donne , and to the other for that which he would haue done , in reason for this good office , were tyed to both ; and for my selfe I neuer wrot any thing , with that minde to haue it publisht in print ( although some things I haue don for which with Master Beza I craue pardon ) but I am very willingly content to be Censured for them ; when the chiefe troubles of the Church for discipline were either appeased with discretion , or else buried with the Authors of them , sodainly in the yeare 1602 came forth a Booke written by Maister Nicholles , as an Apologie for the dealing in that cause Intituled the Plea of the Innocent . Wherein as there were many things , that serued to little vse , sauing only to expresse that honest desire to be wel thought of , which peraduenture the Author had ; so the first thinge , though not the greatest in my opinion to be misliked , was the want of due consideration of the time , for surely if Salomon said true ( which no man hath reason to make doubt of ) that there was a time for al things ; a time to keepe silēce and a time to speake , in my weake iudgment , it had beene much sitter ( considering the eager contentiō amongst those of the Church of Rome ) to haue beene lookers on , rather at the euent of that quarrel , than to haue beene Authors of any new disagreement amongst ourselues ; but so different are the dispositiōs of men , that what one mā taketh to be a reason why a thing should be done , and other peraduēture taketh it to be a reasō why it should not be don ; to haue forborne a little had beene much safer for the Church , & in all reasō more honorable for your selues . I wish the Author of that booke had those three ornamēts , with S. Hierom calleth the foundation of all vertue ; a patience to be silēt , an oportunitie to speak , & a cōtempt of riches . Doubtles to renue an vnnaturall contention that was almost buried , & especially at that time , when all proceedings in the Church wer without rigor , as it could not choose , but be labour euil spent , so it was likely to bring little aduantage vnto Gods Church , Peraduēture I mistake the cause , which moued him then to vndertake that Trettise , wee will heare himselfe in his Preface what he saith , we haue suffered ( meaning himselfe and others that haue laboured for reformations , and indured much reproach , and cōtempt , which we haue patiently borne , and with great silence , for diuers yeares sustained , that on our part the sacred word of righteousnesse , might not be euill spoken of , and as much as in vs lieth , wee might cut-off all occasions to the common aduersarie to preuaile against the holy Church of Christ Which is among vs. This surely was iust reason , and if it were performed as he saith , it was not performed without Iust cause ; for doubtles there is nothing of so small moment that hath brought greater disaduantage to our Church , than that with so much violence we haue deferred amongst our selues and blessednesse surely shall be their portion , who in this kinde haue beene forward to make peace ; but it is not these imbracings of Ioab , nor the kisses of Iudas , that can bury from the worlds eye , those bitter Inuectiues , of Whittingam , Good man Knox , Buckanan , Gilby , Martin , Throgmorton , Pennry , Fenner and sundrie other , most odious and vnsauerie bookes ( besides a great number of others without name ) all which must needes testifie , that for this whole time of our happie peace , whatsoeuer the occasions were , the matter hath beene carried with little silence , and lesse patience . These men in this case ( how well soeuer they haue deserued otherwise , ) haue not bin for bitternesse of speech much inferiour to the Heretikes of former times , and of whose followers I may say , with Saint Chrisostom ; In age they are yonger but in malice Equall ; the Broode of Serpents are of lesse stature , but haue not lesse poysō The Whelps of Wolues , though they cannot hurt so cunningly , yee will hurt with biting , and desire to sucke Blood. The some of all is as Sidonius speaketh ; openly they enuied , basely they forged , and seruilelie they were proud ; and that which made all this to be much worse , was that the Authors of this euill-speaking , made Religion to be a warrant to speake euill ; and whilst they offended vpon this ground , others were desirous to offend , that they might not differ , from their example so that a double fault lyeth vpon the first Author ; one that they offended in their owne person , the second that they were examples to others to the like offence . But why continued you not in this silence still ? notwithstanding all this ( say you ) The state of things is worse than euer before and I cannot tell whether our conniuence in suffering of euill speeches against vs , hath done the Church harme . For nowe Papists begin to comfort themselues , yea they challeng vnto thē the name of honest and true men , and good subiects , and by the reprochfull name of Puritan , All godly Protestats are most cunningly depraued . Giue me leaue quietlie to tell you this much ; That ( vnlesse I mistake it ) you haue little reason or any that hath laboured in that cause to thinke that the state of things is worse than before , At that time when you wrote thus what men were committed for their disobedience ? arraigned for their treasons ? or where was th●t assault as you call it of Subscription ? besids , all Godly Protestants are not tearmed Puritans ; no it is but the singular affection of a some few , that would seeme vpright , which haue gained that name , wherein they doe much glory , last of all if by your sufferāce , some Priests grewe insolent , and were not affraide in comparison to make themselues to bee more righteous than you , this was no reason so vnreasonably to prouoke the Reuerend Fathers of the Church against you ; but rather all to haue ioyned and your selues formost against them , and yet he not gniltie that is accused , but he that is conuinced in this cause . But to let passe the occasion of that treatise ; giue me leaue without offence to giue you my opinion of the whole Booke : it is a verball reiterating of the same things ; handled and discoursed by some of those with whom by some occasiō you haue much neernes , I speak it not that I thinke you had their helpe , for to this their needes none , but to shew that the labour might well haue beene spared seeing others with farre better successe , had trauelled in that same cause ; Contradictions there are diuers and all is vnsaid in the last Chapter , which before you haue handled in the whole Booke ; speaches that sauour of slattery too plaine . First of the Queene whose worthinesse farre exceeded whatsoeuer you could speake of her , but surely you cannot possiblie commend her gouernment , who as it seemes by your complaints was no more carefull to haue the Church reformed , as you deale with the Queene so you deale with the Councill , nay rather than faile you will flatter the Bishops also . You reckon vpa true Catologue of their excellent vses in this Church ; & yet notwithstanding , if any harme should haue come to our late Queene , you threaten a little after to lay it their charge . Much like vnto the Author of the demonstration of discipline who saith that the Bishops by their gouernment giue leaue to a man to be any thing , but a sound Christian ; nay your selfe feare not to say , ( which certainly is not true , ) they that were incensed against the Puritanes , by the Papists meanes ; nay you spare not our first Bishops , in our late Souereignes time , which hauing fledd in Queene Maries dayes , were not likely in reason to be fauourers of the Church of R●me ; herevnto I may ad your often repetitions of the same things ; besides is not this a strang phrase ? We cannot tell whether we might by the lawes and order of this Realme subscribe , although it were otherwise lawfull by Gods word . As if the Lawes of this Land could be a restraint for subscribing being warrāted in Gods word , which they so earnestly impose only in this respect because it is so warranted . I omitt false English , which could not be the Printers fault . The principall points which you seeme to handle we will answere , God willing , in the Chapters following ; and with this desire rather to finde out the truth than to confute you , the one is a dutie , but the other can be smale honor . Neither are you to thinke me ouer arrogāt in this cēsure , seeing I may much better doe it to you than you to his Grace whom you ought in all dutie not to haue named , but with greater honor , hauing shewed vnto you more fauour , as yourselfe connot but confesse , than many others of your qualitie & deserts . I will therefore conclude this point , saying with that learned man ( whom I must euer reuerence ) as he spake of Maister Cartwrights second Reply . Let me not liue if euer I sawe any thing writtē more loosely or almost most Childishly , and after much to the same effect , the conclusion is this , he is alltogether vnworthie to bee confuted by any man of learning . Surely there is nothing we doe tast worse thā to haue a true censure of those things , which oftentimes either out of ignorance or affection are much esteemed , which serueth in the ende only to delude our selues and deceiue others ; but though the flatterie of Parasites doe seeme pleasant , yet the wounds of a Louer are much better . CHAP. IIII. The proceeding of the Reformers wholy vnlawfull . IT falleth oftentimes out in the deliberations of men , that where they haue iust reason to desire reformation of that which is faultie , the meanes many times to attaine this are in themselues vnlawfull and lesse safe . Their arc few Kingdoms which haue not found this to be true , both in the Church and the Commonwealth . For as in all States the lowest are aptest to reeciue harme , and so euer to pretend that they receiue wrong , and hauing least iudgment to moderate the sence of euill , are most impatient to suffer euill ; so whilst they become vnskilfull Phisitions to a pub like sicknesse , they make vsually the remedie worse than the disease it selfe ; that there is any kingdome gouerned with so much happinesse , wherein the hand of authoritie is carried with that equal tenor , that either rewards or punishmēts are not , or are not thought to bee bestowed by fauour , as we scarcely read of any that haue beene before vs so neither can we hope for a better fortune , to those that are present or shall succeed heereafter . For where true causes of Complaint are wanting , vnnecessarie discontentments are readie to make them to seeme true , nay the Church it selfe ( a Societie that hath farre better lawes to gouerne it than any Kingdome ) seldome gaineth this opinion from all , but that some violēt spirits , dare vndertake by orders deriued out of their owne fancies , to frame a gouernment that should be more holy , and more excellent . So that whilst they are earnest conceitours of this forme , ( a forme peraduenture without warrant and therefore in the ende not likely to proue safe ) they fall ( a thing vsuall ) into so great an admiration of their owne creature , that any other gouernment ( be it neuer so profitable and vertuous ) is despised , and in the ende , nothing is of power to hinder the building of this Babell , but the confusion of tongues . So that Reformatiō ( by a long continued distēper ) which ought to be the care and the conscionable desire of all , commeth at the length to be the preposterous and violent misshapen disorder of some few ; all men hauing this defect by nature , that where they haue power to discerne an euill , they haue not the vnderstanding to finde out the meanes for to make it lesse , the consideration of this as it ought to make those in Authoritie to haue more care and digligence ; so vndoubtedly it serueth to restraine the vncharitable constructions of priuat men , who must not thinke all men to be Hypocrites that are in this case carried with lesse learning , and more Zeale ; for doubtlesse in our Church , a great number haue vnfeinedly though without discretion wasted their Zeale , and their labour , in that cause with much hurt , which if they could haue beene so cōtent , might haue serued the Church to a better vse . But seeing that cause ( how euill soeuer handled ) hath found so much fauour euen at their hands who in reason had least cause to allow disorder ; and that nothing is to be more suspected as euill to be don than that which we finde to be euill donne , we will make a short but a true narration of this course , which hath beene held from the beginning for the establishment of this gouernment . Neither is it fit that the particular ouersigts of some fewe , and peraduenture of such as either were , or were thought least fit to be imployed in a matter of that momēt , should be any iust exception to that proceeding , if men of greater learning , and cheefest in that action , it had beene carried without violence , with much grauitie , moderation , and Zeale , but if we finde both the words , and the deedes of the best amongst them , to haue been such as no man hath reason to allow , it cannot choose but seeme strange , that any one ( carefull of what he vttereth ) should become a patron to that proceeding , which is no sooner barely rehearsed , but must vnto all men of necessitie , appeare to be without warrant . For iffailing in Cmilitie of tearmes , their actions , had beene more milde ; or if ouer seene in their Actions , their words had beene of a better temper ; some colorable snow might haue been their excuse , which now is wanting ▪ seeing they doe faile in both ; and therefore euen to discouer their proceedings is to ouerthrow thē . As few Societies are or can be hoped to be without some euill , so the principall remedies in the iudgement of wise men haue been thought to be three . First that all things corrupted by time should with discretion be brought to their first Institution . Secōdly if this were not to be hoped for , they might vtterly be abolished . Thirdly , that no Innocatiōs were permitted to begin ; and being begun immediatly by the hand of Authoritie , to be cut of . The first of these was called Reformation ; which is a repetion or Restitution of the auncient deede . So that to Reform , is not to make new , but to restore to his former well being , what time and corruption by continuance had made euill . Now as authoritie and wisedome are both requisite to performe this , so must it needs be a disorder in those that would reforme , and doe want both ; And it cannot bee but a great ouersight in them , Who hauing thus erred ought to bee silent , and craue pardon , dare aduenture notwithstanding , to plead this cause , and to publish Apologies in there owne defence . Wee will not touch the first Authors and Originalles of this euill , being deriued from those , who then both for scituation and gouernment , were straungers to our state . But only make it appeare that since the beginning of our last Soueriegnes reigne , what holinesses so euer was pretended , the whole proceeding in matters of Reformation both in worde and deede , was altogether vnlawfull , and without warrant . A thing howsoeuer obserued by diuers heeretofore , yet not vnfit to be handled in this place , and at this time . The ground of that euill which followed was layd in Queene Maries time , in whose Zealous gouernment ; ( a Zeale in others of our Countrie , from other forreigne places ) ( in both peraduenture a like euill ) sowed the vncleane seede of those immoderat growing tares , which since haue daungered our whole Church . Neither can the goodnesse of Religion bee any warrant for euill doeing , seeing what is lawfull where true Religion doth seeme to giue leaue , must of necessitie bee as Lawfull being permitted by a Religion , or don for a Religion , though it be false . So that it was no more fit for priuat and Inferiour persons at that time by violence to remoue Idolatrie ( the contrarie whereof was their Doctrine ) than in times much purer which haue since followed it was or could be lawfull for any of the Church of Rome , by inuasion or treason to establish the Doctrine of that Sea. This euer remaining a true rule , That good then deserueth the name of euill , when being good it ceaseth to bee well done , and no Religion can warrant to pull downe Kings when true Religion doth commaund that whatsoeuer their Religion is , wee must obay them , either in suffering with patience what they impose , or in dooing with obedience what they doe commaund . So that the iust hatred of Idolatrie seruing to giue warrant to what they did then , in times when the Church was much polluted , hath been not the least occasiō since , to attempt the like and farre worse , when by many degrees the times & the Religion was more pure . And I am sorie so good a man by name , should publish to the world a Doctrine so false and daungerous , that it should be lawfull to kill wicked Kings and Tyrants . Neither had this ( being but the priuat error of one ) been in all respectes so daungerous , if an other , for his place a Deane , ( and not meanely esteemed ) had in not his preface to that Booke , affirmed it to be the doctrine of the best , and most learned in those partes : meaning ( as I thinke ) Caluin and the rest . So that all thinges being duely weighed , the practise of those in that time for religion , was neither more honest , nor lawfull , than the late practises of those of the Church of Rome , neither let any man thinke that Religion can be a warrant for that deed , which must remaine an euerlasting blemish to that Religion , that caused it to bee doone . Others our countrie had at that time men of famous and worthie memorie which liued in Zuriech , Bas●ll and Franckefort ; these discretly obserued without Innouation the reformation established in King Edwardes dayes . Nowe when those that had liued in Geneua , and obserued with what policie Caluin and others swayed the whole gouernment , ( a thing peraduenture neither much contradict seeing the worthinesse of the man , nor Difficult to effect considering the forme of that state ) they began ( sayling in both repects ( being equal only in a violēt Zeale ) to attempt the like discipline in their owne Countrey . A thing so much the lesse sufferable , by how much the parties were meaner , the gouernment of their Countrie farre better , and the alteration not safe in so great a Kingdome . And yet at that time the Zeale of these contented it selfe , little to meddle in shew , with the matters of disciplie , but rather was busied about the apparell of Ministers , Cerimonies prescribed and amendment ( as they thought ) of the Communion booke . But after ( so hardly are those things limited which are but the workes of a strong fancie ) those that succeeded made their discipline , an essentiall Note of the true Church , & were as ready ( as they said ) to become Martyrs in that quarell , as for the defence of any Article of the Christian faith ; of whom I may say ( as Saint Austine doth of some such ) they were Martyrs if they had died , of a foolish Philosophy . Out of this strong and vehement perswasion of well doing , and from a desire of goodnes peraduenture in some ( although it is like that those who were most earnest had not the best conscience ; ) were published sundrie Dialogues , able to haue iniured a good cause ; complaints , petitions to her Maiestie and the Parliament , in the name of the Comunaltie ; their appellations , their exhortations , fiue or six seuerall supplications to the Parliament ; Martyns vnhallowed Imitations of Passauantius ; The humble motion to the Lords of the Councill ; and diuers other of the like nature , in manner of Register collected into one volume . These , & many such ( for it were infinit and of small vse to reckon all ) were the chiefe , and the best meanes , their learning , wisedome , and holinesse , thought fit , for the gaining of Authoritie to this new discipline , but if these immodest libelles , had beene the worst fruites of those times , and the Art to speake euill , had extended it selfe no further , but to the infinite iniurie of the worthiest in this Church , their error peraduenture might haue had pardon , and that which was indeed the malitious consultation of a number , would haue beene thought , to haue beene , but the madnesse of some fewe ; but after all this ( as either desiring themselues a sedition , or being misledde by some politicke Atheist to be the actors of the Churches ruine , ) they assemble in diuers places , they make lawes , despise Authoritie , and leaue nothing that is violent vnatēpted . In the midst of all which , the happinesse of the Church was this , that malice had not so much force as shee had Endeuour . I am sorry that men endued with vnderstanding , and making Religion to be the ground of what they did , could so farre deceiue themselues , and delude others , as to thinke a practise so disordered , so inconsiderat , so vnciuill , could possibly be allowed in an vnderstanding and well gouernd Kingdome , only because it seemed to be masked with an Idle shadowe of a pure Zeale . Now these proceedings that seeme to bee warranted by Religion , are most easily spread abroade , because all men presume themselues to haue an interrest in Religion , and they are for the most part more hotly pursued , than other strifes , for as much as coldnesse which in other contentions , may bee thought to proceede frō moderatiō , is not in this so fauorably cōstrued . This made them ( that if all other meanes fayled them ) they hoped to effect their desire by force of Armes ; To this end they write that in this quarrell ( for reformation ) a hundred thousand hands would be gotten , and then ( say they ) you may easily think what stroke , so many would strike togither . Doubtlesse there is nothing that could sauour of greater sedition , ( especially vnder so gratious a gouernment ) than being so violently addicted to their owne fancies , what they could not obtaine by any quieter meanes , rather than faile , to seeke to establish it , with th● hazard of so much bloud . Nay all seditions almost and the open Rebellions of all times , haue proceeded at first from this ground ; that what in the beginning was but weakly thought vpon , grew afterwardes to bee affected with more violence , and in the end rather than to fayle , to bee attempted by open warre . I confesse the part against whom wee striue , was a long while nothing feared , the wisest contented not to call to minde how errors haue their effects many times not proportioned to that little appearance of reason , wherupon they would seeme built ; but rather to vehement affection of Fancie , which is cast towardes them , and proceedeth from other causes . And surely if a sparke of errour lightening in those dispositions , which in all mens thinking were farthest from any inclination vnto furious attemptes , was in all reason like to bee verie daungerous , must not the perill thereof bee farre greater , in men whose mindes are of themselues as drye fewell , apt before hand vnto the tumults ? For surely in a cause of Religion men will strayne themselues vnto desperate aduentures , for the reliese of their owne part , though Lawe and authoritie bee both against them . This then will bee a consideration of importance at this time , both for the King and the high Court of Parliament , ( when as it is like those humours will growe strong through confidence in their cause , and a hope of friendes ) how vnsafe in reason it must needes bee , to suffer the sparks to bee blowen that are almost quenched , or to hazard an Established forme of Church Gouernment , by experience found profitable with much peace , in exchaunge with any newe imaginarie forme lesse warrantable in trueth , and in all reason lesse possible to stand , with the safety of the Commonwealth . Now that wee haue laid open some part of their proceeding for this Discipline ; ( a poynt handled by vs sparingly and with great vnwillingnesse ) ( for hee that desireth to see more of their practises may read some Bookes written alreadie to that ende ) wee will briefely examine whether any man ( and vpon what reason ) doth endeauour to iustifie the proceeding of the Reformers in this kinde . The Booke which wee Censured in the former Chapter , called the Plea of the Innocent , vndertaketh ( verie straungely in my opinion ) the defence of the proceeding in this whole cause . For although the Author himselfe might haue assurance of his owne sinceritie , whereof I can not accuse him ( though some doo ) yet surely hee could not bee so ignoraunt of what had past , since the beginning of her late Maiesties Reigne , nor so charitable to excuse the maner of it , but that a defence of the whole Storie might haue beene better spared than written at that time , and doubtlesse if all other meanes of opposition had fayled , their owne dealing was an ouerthrow sufficient to that cause . The first thing that hee misliketh is that they are called Puritanes ; and in the clearing them from all effectation of this name , hee spendeth the whole Chapter ; making other of his brethren that seemed to bee lesse Religious , and the Vniuersities ( places which in duetie hee ought to haue more honoured ) to bee the principall Authours of this name , for to tearme them Puritanes . But seeing the end of names is but to distinguish , and those who first vsed it amongst vs , did rather showe what their owne followers did esteeme of them , and what themselues affected , than what they were ; It cannot in reason bee an imputation to any , that they were tearmed by that name . Neither doo I thinke ( although diuers of them did glorie to bee so tearmed ) that this name first proceeded from vs , but rather that the Church of Rome , seeing vs to reforme our selues to a purer Religion than they professed , and that diuers amongest vs not content with that , desired yet to be more pure , accounting all of vs to bee Heretikes , these by a speciall name , as affecting to seeme more holy than others , ( a common practise of the Heretikes in olde time ) they tearmed by the name of Puritanes ; so that the fault which hee layeth vpon vs , doubtlesse had his originall from those of the Church of Rome ; and therefore one Rishton in a Table dedicated to Cardinall Allen then Gouernour of Doway maketh Puritanisme an Heresie which began in the yeare 1563. neither do I thinke it can easily bee found that any Protestant in England before that time , in any publike writing , vsed the name of Puritan ; for no man can bee ignorant but that hee who was the strongest & first opposite to this new discipline , and handled this argument with greatest learning , was himselfe in all precisenes farre purer , than those that most gloried in that name ; and was neuer an aduersary to any of this cause , that was not eyther malitious , arrogant , or an hypocrite ; neyther is it fit to lay that distinction vpon the Vniuersitie , of youthes and Prescisians , ( as this pleader doth ) as though all that were not for this new Reformation were like one Athacius who bending himselfe by all meanes against the heresie of Priscilian ( the hatred of which one euill was all the vertue he had ) became so wise in the end , that euery man carefull of vertuous conuersation , studious of Scripture , and giuen vnto any abstinence in dyet , was set downe in his Kalender of suspected Priscillianistes . For whom it should bee expedient to approue their soundnes of faith , by a more licentious and loose behauiour ; neither do I thinke vnto a great number that desired this name , could any thing more fitly be applied than that vnto the Cathari , a sect of Heretikes , not cleane but worldlings ; or as Epifa●i●s calleth them , pure impure ones . But surely if eyther the Cathari , the Nouatians , the Pelagians , the Donatists , or any sect of the papists at this day worthily deserue to be termed by the name of Puritan , thē surely it is no great error to apply that name to a number amongst vs , who are euer readie to boast of their innocencie , and in respect of themselues , to account all of a contrary faction vnholy , and prophane . Others this Author accounteth old barrels . And yet if he had well remēbred what he saith in any other place ; That who so feareth an oath or is an ordinarie resorter to Sermons earnest against excesse , ryot , Popery , or any disorder , they are called in the Vniuersity , Prescisians , and in other places Puritans . Surely if this description of a Puritan were true , neither were there much reproach in the name , nor would a great number be left out of that sect , who in all humility , religion and conscience , haue learned to submit themselues to the present States ; and I doubt not but verie truly a great nūber of the Reuerend Fathers of the Church , might more fitly be called prescise , than those that for the earnest affectatiō of a new discipline , desire by their followers to bee called pure . For surely in all those things mētioned as notes to discerne a Puritan , many that are very far from that peeuish singularity of some amongst vs , haue done the Church more seuice in one yeare , and liued with greater sinceritie their whole life , than the principall of those who are distinguisht by that name ; Is it not a straunge presumption to Impropriat Conscience , Holines , Innocency , and Integrity onely to some few , as if all the rest who haue seuered themselues from the Church of Rome , were no better than Athiests , time-seruers , prophane , and irreligious , only in this respect because by their authoritie and learning , they haue resisted this vnreasonable desire of a new disciplne ? So hardly doo 〈◊〉 temper our selues , when wee are strongly perswaded of our owne fancies , but that all that are contrarie or repugnant to vs , wee traduce thē to the world , as men without conscience , only for this that they are apposite . A practise which alone is able to discouer to the world , our exceeding pride , and intollerable selfe-loue ; for no man can doubt but the aduersaries to this cause haue exceeded the other , in all 〈◊〉 wherein they are or would seeme to bee most excellent ; onely they haue learned to obey , which is much better than all the sacrifice of fooles . But seeing words haue so many Artificers , by whom they are made , and the things whereunto wee apply them , are fraught with so many varieties , it is not alwaies apparant what the first inuentours respected , much lesse what euerie mans inward conceit is , which vseth their words ; doubtlesse to distinguish things that are of a different condition , is the most ordinarie , and the safest vse of names , seeing necessarily to collect what things are , from names by which they are called , can haue small warrant , these being but effectes oftentimes of malice , sometimes of ignorance , mistaking sometimes of some particular accident ; all which serue but in the construction of wisemen , to make their estimation by a better rule ; and where things are not in nature such , not to condemne them , though they called by euill names . The name of Puritan or Prescisian no man hath reason to vse it as a disgrace , seeing with vs it serueth , but to signifie such , as being more strict for obseruation of Ceremonies , than others ( both parties being opposite in that ) they both notwithstanding may bee equally distant from the Church of Rome , and therefore as I cannot excuse such , as prophanely make it any imputation to bee prescise , ( a duetie which surely ought to bee performed by vs all in a stricter maner ) so neyther doo I thinke the proceeding of those to bee altogether lawfull , who vnder this name hauing shrowded themselues , account all men besides , to bee prophane Atheistes , and the resistance which they finde in their violent course , to bee a cruell persecutor of innocent men in a good cause . They that teach the world to thinke and to speake thus , must needes bee iudged both to slaunder the profession of the Gospell amongest vs , and to make themselues the best part of that Church which is seuered from the customes of the Church of Rome . But lest peraduenture none of them eyther mislike the name , or make the original of their sufferings to bee their innocency , let vs heare one of them plead for the rest , Men which made consceince of many things , which the Reuereud Fathers and many learned men affirmed to bee lawfull , and for this they were called Puritans ; There is no man can think , but in matters of this nature , the iudgement of the Reuerend Fathers , and many other learned men that were not Bishops , might haue ouerswayed the stifnesse of some few ( for so they were at the first ) without inforcing any faction or breach of the Churches vnion ; this phrase is vsuall in that Booke ( the goodnes of our cause ) and the innocency of our persons , God deliuered his innocent seruants ; and being reproued for their proceeding , their aunswere is , the innocency of our cause doth constrayne vs , and that the world may knowe the reason of their sufferings , they say the chiefest cause of their trouble and reproach , is their carefull and zealous following of Gods holy Word , and their tender conscience in offending God. Would not a man thinke that the Church of England which hath seuered it selfe not without many Daungers from the Church of Rome , had looked backe and become a Harlot and a bloody Kingdome ? surely there cannot be a greater blemish laid vpon this Church ( which both is , and is desirous to be thought reformed ) than that it hath persecuted for their conscience , men holy , religious , Innocent , and it a good cause . The whole tenor of that plea of the Innocent runneth on in this course as if it were the sighes and mournings of a Church vpright and pure , labouring vnder the burthen of persecution , because they cannot in conscience yeelde vnto Superstition as others doo ; from hence are these speeches . They seeing our Innocencie that of mere conscience our vprightnesse makes vs poore innocent men . And in an other place to the same purpose . We can boldely and in the sight of God protest our Innocency , wee and our honest and iust cause . It is now at the least three and thirty yeares since our troubles began to be beauie vpon vs , let them shew how wee haue moued our finger against our dread Souereigne , and in defence of all those who haue laboured in this cause he is not affraid to say : Was not all our doings by humble Supplications , honest and Christian Apologeticall writings , and by lowly and earnest suing by our friendes ? And further : In this wee haue done no otherwis●●han all Christian Ministers may and ought to doe . And if any man maruell how the Bishops became their enemies he aunswereth ; Bishops were our enemies by the Papists meanes . Could any man Imagine that either so much without cause against the Bishops , or so many things without truth for thēselues , could haue beene vttered , if an opinion peraduenture of that wherein thēselues were Innocent , did not carrie them with ouermuch charitie , both to thinke all which was against them to be too vehement & too much , and all for them ouer modest and too little . Can it be thought that the Author of the plea of the Innocent , should be perswaded that the Papists had made any of the Bishops to be their enemies ? or that those libels which past vnder the name of Admonitions , Supplicatiōs , Demonstrations , Martin , Dialogues and such like should by any indifferent reader be thought to be either hūble , honest , or Christian ? or that they had done nothing in this cause more than all Christian Ministers may , & ought to haue done ? no surely ; the Christian part of the world to whom our vnnaturall , violent , and vnholy contentions haue cōmen , are able to witnes too wel that he who hath brought a willingnes to speake euill , and hath performed it ( in howe vnseemly a manner soeuer ) hath beene thought by the patrons of that cause , to haue merited sufficiently the name of a brother , and to haue beene a deserued partner of their liberall contribution ; This to many yong men hath beene a daungerous temptation ( I meane those of the meanest sort , ) who in themselues naturally haue a double aduātage to giue strength to this daungerous weakenes , The one a disposition to reproue wherein their owne innocency is thought greatest when they dare in vnseemely tearmes take vpon them to controule others ; The other a hastie desire to seeme of some account , which , in an ordinary course without great labour is not easily attained , where as euil speaking and vnseasonable raylings ( Commonly called Zealous preaching ) bringeth them ( at least among their partiall followers ) into an opinion of learning , innocency ; and purified Zeale ; But let these men vnderstand , that where readers are of Indifferen●y ( as some times their Bookes fall into the hands of such ) ( though for the most part they are dispersed amōgst the Breathren of the cause ) they gaine this Iust Censure ; That that cause cannot be good which hath not other patrons to support it , than those who haue learned nothing , but only to speake euill . I am sorie the inferiour sort of our Clergie , are both so ignorant themselues , and haue possessed their auditors with the same error , that we may not allow any thing vsed in the Church of Rome , no more than any thing vsed in any assembly of the Heathen whatsoeuer ; So that whilst ouer bitterly we distast euerie thing , which is in vse in that Church ( whose greatest part is infected with much error ) we breed an opiniō in those who are not fully resolued , that we rather mislike many things because they vse them , than for that we are able to giue a reason why we doe mislike them . The best course in this had beene first to haue made Demonstration that the same things being vsed by diuers are all one ; or that those things contēded for by authority in our Church , were not in the better and former times of the Church or are not of an indefferent nature , neither can be made lawfull by any circūstance . These things being neglected and other meanes vsed , lesse reasonable , and lesse honest , we conclude that the proceeding of the Reformers hetherto , hath beene altogether vnlawfull and without warrant . CHAP. V. Of Contentions . THere was neuer any thing more fatal to the prosperitie of Gods Church thā the violēt nourishing of contentiō within her Bowells , and especially by their meanes , who ought to haue been the principall Authors to procure her peace ; for where euery man is violent for that which himselfe likes ; and partiall affection through stronge humors becommeth the best reason to plant a Religion , ( a falt most vsuall in those Kingdomes that are most vertuous ) euery man becommeth so great an opposite , that in the ende they are in hazard to be depriued of all truth ; There is nothing safer to a Kingdome than that the Religion professed be but only one , and this safetie then shall bee accompanied with much honor , when those of the same Religion , are desirous and carefull to preserue the Vnitie of the spirit in the bond of peace ; otherwise it must needes come to passe that those small and first beginnings which receiued life and increase from an holy Vnion , must in the end by discord and discention , al perish . And therefore not vnwisely the Cities of Greece receiued of their Citizens , no other oath sauing only this , to preserue Vnion ; That Satan hath had apt instruments to hinder this in all ages , those Scarres in the Church which are not yet throughly cured , shall witnes well to the ages that succeed after ; and the hatefull note of reproch shall remaine as a blemmish vnto their names , who rather than they would yeeld , haue been contēt in the midst of these flames , that the Church perish ; This being the blessing annexed to the cōmandement of the holy Prophet ; Pray for the peace of Hierusalem , they shall prosper that loue thee ; As though the happines of prosperitie could not light vpon their heads , whose Tongues haue been the principall actors of contentiō in Gods Church ; this being an euil by so much the lesse cureable , by how much the oppositions for Religiō be more violent . This made the Apostle to frame that most Eloquēt Exhortation to humilitie and peace ; If there be any Consolation in Christ , If any comfort of loue , if any fellowshippe of the spirit , if any compassion and mercy , fulfill my ioy that yee be like minded , hauing the same loue , being of one accord , and of Iudgement , that nothing be done through contention , or vaine Glorie . This being the meanes to attaine vnto this perfection , if in meekenesse of minde , euery man esteeme better of others than of himselfe , for saith the wise man , as the Cole maketh burning Coles , and woode a fier ; so the Contentious man is apt to kindle strife . In the case of the Church , wee ought to haue remembred long since , the great reason of that attonement betwixt Lott and Abraham ; Wee are Breathren ; vnlesse they in discreatiō of some few haue caried them so farre that they can hardly afforde those to be tearmed by that name , who because their Iudgements and wisedome are farre greater , Their Religion and Zeale is thought to bee farre lesse . But we will hope much better of these men , than that sufferance hath made them proud . and their pride more contentious , than heretofore ; And therefore me thinkes it is most straung that any man should haue so little vnderstanding , as one of them hath , who make vs beleeue that the Countenaunce of the Bishops , were more estraunged from them now than euer before ; for doubtlesse if the great moderation of those persons ▪ whom our late Souereigne of blessed memorie thought fit to be aduansed to that place to be called Bishoppes , had not with more than fatherly care , ●estrained it selfe in compassion towards them , from seuere execution of Iust lawes , their occasions of complaint peraduenture would haue beene farre greater , ( though not more reasonable ) but surely the Vnitie of the Church had beene much more ; There is nothing so daungerous as lenitie in that case , where patience giueth occation for insolent contention , to be more proud ; a thing as vnsufferable in it owne nature at all times , so then especially most destitute of all excuse , when inferiour persons are aptest to prouoke , and the things in question in their owne iudgment , are of no great momēt : as those then haue don euill offices , who haue renued the memorie of almost outworne errors , so are they lesse tollerable in this , that hauing poysoned the world with so euill opinions , they seeme notwithstanding earnestly , and humbly , desirous to liue in peace ; assuring themselues that what difference soeuer prosperitie breedes , doubtlesse persecution would make vs to be all one ; but euer reseruing this priuiledge to themselues , that the Bishops in submission ( as offendours ) must first yeeld . But if a man rightly consider the originall of this sinne of contention and what affections they are which giue strength vnto it , hee can hardely in reason expect quietnesse to be found in the patrons of this cause ; pride , enuie , and vaine Glorie are the originall fountaies of this euill ; for where inferiour persons both for place and Iudgment , haue ouerualued their owne fancies by their owne conceit , it is no more like that in humilitie they should once yeeld , thā it is possible for obedient humilitie , to become proude . The distance being equall in both , only in this the disaduantage greater , that wee haue all of vs an aptnesse to doe euill , but without grace , no possible meanes in our selues to become good . Hereunto if we add the second , that as out of pride we loue our selues , so out of enuie wee hate others , no man can maruell if men that are proude , vaine glorious , and enuious , easely also bee founde contentious ; for that which in different opinions maketh conten●i●●s to cease , is when men are perswaded of their betters , that they are not easily deceiued , and of themselues , that they may , and doe easely erre ; but all contentions are not of the same nature ; for some neede no excuse when we resist as we are bound for the defence of a good cause ; for other a small excuse may serue , in that being without order yet they are not scandalous ; but that which is common with these men , is highly sinfull , without all colourable show of excuse , when they are more vnreuerently bitter than is beseeming the grauitie of the persons with whom they striue , and more vehement than is aunswerable to the cause that they would defend . For the seruant of the Lord must not striue , but must be gentle towards all men , apt to teach , suffering the euill men patiently ; so that if any man had these defects that were an aduersarie in this cause , We must instruct them with meekenesse , that are contrarie minded , proouing if at any time God will giue them repentance , that they may knowe the truth ; If any man teach otherwise hee is puft vp , and knoweth nothing , but doteth about questions , and striffe of words , whereof commeth enuy , strife , raylings , euill surmisings , all which are to no profit , but to peruert the hearers . And surely as the Apostle telleth vs Where enuie and strifes is , there is sedition and all manner of euill workes . But if after so much patience , so many fould , cleare , and modest defences of a iust cause , any man lust to be contentious , we haue noe such custome , neither the Churches of God. Thus Coutention through the corruption of our nature being seldome limited , in the end becommeth Inordinate , and a foule sinne ; and so consequently without warrant , when either we contend about that which is so true , or so trifling , that we ought not , or whether we contend in that maner that doth not become vs , or in that place ; or last of all with those persons that are vnbefitting . The error in the first is that of the disciples which should be the greatest , which exāple saith Beda is willingly reade of many that desire f●ō the Scripture to find● example to warrant them to the like cōtention , but saith S. Ambrose if the Apostles contend it is not made a pretence of excuse for vs , but set downe for a Caueat . In the second the fault in those clamorous , rayling , and vuciuill speaches by aduersaries of all sides ; wherein if some in our Church had not beene too forward to aunswere their aduersaries in the same kind , the best causes had beene handled with better praise , and the worst had beene performed with lesse blame ; hence commeth it that hee who for learning hath not deserued least , for the defence of our Church , for modestie of writing ( onely excepted ) hath deserued best . The place and the persons are ordinary circumstances to make our contentions to bee more faultie ; but seldome ( though the Scholeman say otherwise ) doe I finde any reason for men of the Church for to warant either ▪ For̄whereas there is amongst vs Enuying , & strife , and diuisions , are we not Carnall and walke as men ? For saith Salomon , it is a mans honor to cease from strife , but euerie foole will be medling . And doubtlesse if in this cause of the Church gouernment , many whose conditions and learning might Iustly haue inioyned them silence , had not beene medling , Moderation with Grauitie might haue determined that cause , which stoode only supported with a hott Zeale ; And seeing the best warrant of our actions must be the sincere Testimonie of our conscience from a true feare , I wonder how some Inferiour and meane men ; could thinke it lawfull for them to vndertake a matter of that moment , ( nay to receiue it being almost deade ) when men of farre greater learning , and dwiseome did remaine silent ; some excuse peraduenture I could allowe him , if others farre more worthie had not had as much Zeale , and had not beene as farre better able to defend the cause ; but it may be he taketh his labour to be well imployed , hauing made in his opinion for the good of the Church , a benifit of that small Talent , which God hath giuen him . Other ends ( for which the world hath censured him hardly ) I dare not acc●●● him of , for a who am I that I should condemne an o●her mans seruant ? He standeth or falleth to his owne Master ▪ And yet as that morall wise man saith , b It little skillet● with what minde that is d●●● , which is euill done ; because th●●●ede is seene , but the minde is not . c It is no praise not to doe th●●●●ich thou canst not . And if the best excuse bee allowed both to him and others , which can be afforded in so euill a cause , wee must needes say ; That centention in the Church , is the hurtfull effect of indiscrete Zeale . And howsoeuer men bouldly apply that to themselues , which was spoken by our Sauiour Christ. The Zeale of thine house hath euen eaten mee ; yet they little consider that with this Zeale of Gods honor , which eateth them , they haue no warrant that Gods house should be eaten by them ; true Zeale saith S. Austine desireth in his place to amend what is a misse , but if he cannot , he doth tollerate it , and sigh ; for there is a Zeale that proceedeth from rancor and malice , but not from loue . Extraordinarie Zeale which exceedeth the limits of our priuate calling , is then only no sinne , when it proceedeth from the power of the spirit , and not a priuate motion ; the same spirit warranting that Zeale by giuing an extraordinarie power , as also an vnresistable strength ; all which were found in our Sauiour , in the sonne of Eleazer , in the Sonnes of Leuie , in Elias ; and diuers others . And if the Pleader hath performed any thing either more powerfully or more effectually than other men , we are readie to confesse that this newe Contention arose from a holy Zeale ; But under this colour , daungerous attempts haue beene committed in Gods Church . Thus Anabaptist in Germanie cut off his brothers head in the sight of his Parents , perswading them that the holy Ghost was the Author of that fact ; But because he could not make the Magistrate to beleuee so much , hee himselfe by their sentence indured the same death . And it were fitt all these Zealous murderers of their bretheren by their hot contentions , were examined by the Magistrate of their lawfull calling , for it is great pitie that Religion and Zeale ( and sometimes peraduenture a good cause , all which are most innocent ) should suffer the reproach of a shamefull Act ; but such Zealous persons haue beene in all ages who vnder pretense to reforme Religion haue been the worst mē and the greatest enemies that Religion had , when Claudins & Nero gouerned , there were some that called themselues ( Zealatours ) and vnder that name were earnest for Religion , vntil thēselues had brought fier to consume the Temple for which they stroue ; and surely if humane reason haue leaue to coniecture what is like to be the euent of these euils , Atheisme , propanenes and sacrilege , must al enter at the dore of Contention , to burnvp Religion , & to robbe the Church . And howsoeuer peace be best built vpō redēptiō of wrongs , for otherwise to make an Vnitie without repeting the causes of discord is but rather to please vs with the name , than with equitie to compound the wrongs ; wherein if we had beene the first ( yet it may appeare , that we are not willing to vrge the Authors of these Contentions too farre ) in giuing a beginning to his euill , surely their fault must needes be the greater which will not suffer it to haue an ende ; alter principium malo dedit , alter modum abstulit ; neither can we excuse the bitternesse of some whose paines were little required to haue laboured in this cause as the former in the impure cōtentions of Martinisme defaced the gouernment of the Church in the persons of Bishops and Prelates , so the other sort did lead into contēpt , the exercises of religion in the persons of sundrie Preachers , disgracing ( as one well noteth ) the higher matter though in the meaner person ; we can be cōtent to thinke that in many the beginning of these euils was a detestation which they had to the Church of Rome . But we wish such men to know , that first they haue iniured greatly the Church of Christ by hindering that increase which Religion in this Land might haue had , if these violently had not beene ouer willing to contend with all men ; and then that as there is nothing of more vse , so nothing in respect can be of greater daunger in Religiō thā Zeale is ; for this if it be directed aright , is mother of much ●olines , but being mislead , is the Adulterous stepmother of much Hypocrisie ; and doub●lesse the corrupt fountaine of the greatest and most daungerous contentions that haue troubled this Church , ha●● bin the faise opinion of vndiscret Zeale , and when our contentions growe strong they spoyle ( saith Solo●●● ) a house full of facrifices ; and lest they should thinke wee are willing and esteeme it an honor to contend with them , we say we haue taught the truth , the auncient and perpetuall gouernment of the Church , we haue maintained the reformed discipline , by the example of the first and best Churches after the time of persecution ; we teach nothing but the pure Gospell of Christ ; wee administer the Sacraments as wee ought ; we are and haue learned to bee obedient to those that rule ouer vs ; we wish and prouide that the Ministerie of England may be learned , that men may be diligent in that honorable fruction committed to them , that all Idolatrie and superstition may be banished , in one word that the Church may be cured from all their infirmities by the hand of authoritie , and those lawfull meanes prouided for her safetie ; that noe rayling and contentious speeches to the disgrace of any mans person may be vsed by vs ; and if any man teach otherwise and consenteth not to the wholsome words of the Lord Iesus Christ , and to the doctrine which is according to Godlinesse , hee is puft vp and knoweth nothing , but doateth about questions & strife of words whereof commeth enuy , strife , raylings , euill surmisinges , froward disputation of men of corrupt minds , and destitute of the truth , which thinke that gaine is godlines ; for doubtlesse the wrath of man doth not accomplish the righteousnesse God ; for where enuy and strife is there is sedition and all manner of euill workes , but wisedome that is from aboue is first pure , then peaceable , gentle , easie to bee entreated , full of mercy and good fruits , without iudging , and without Hypocrisie ; and the fruit of righteousnesse is sowne i● peace , of them that can make peace . Wee therefore beseech you breathren by the mercies of Christ , Let vs be all of one minde , let vs seeke peace and ensue it , let there be noe strife I pray you betwext you & vs neither betwext your beardmē nor our beard-men , for we are Breatheren . But if they will needes proceede in this intemperat manner , to nourrish the flame of these vnhallowed Contentions , which both strengthen the aduersaries , and weaken our selues ; we can but wish that authoritie may cause their writings to bee abortiue and not see the Sunne ; but if their policies in this doo preuent lawes , our next desire is , they may bee censured by all that haue Vnderstanding and Conscience , as the intemperate and extrauagant conceits of some giddie headed persons , and that men beware ( except they meane to aduenture to depriue themselues of all sence of Religion , and to paue their owne hearts , and make them like the high way ) how they bee consuersant in them , and giue credit or beliefe vnto them . Therefore to conclude this poynt , seeing contentions are of that daunger , and that zeale is no warrant to ouerthrow the Church , let vs all follow the counsa●le which the Angel gaue vnto Agar , Returne vnto thy dame , and humble thy selfe vnder her hands . There is no vertue that better beseemeth vs that are inferiors , than Patience and Humilitie . Therefore we exhort with the Apostles . But God be thanked , that ye haue beene the seruants of sinne , but ye haue obeyed from the heart vnto the forme of the doctrine , whereunto ye were deliuered . Being then made free from sinne , ye are made the seruants of righteousnesse . Let vs not bee desirous of vaine glory , prouoking one another , enuying one another . For where enuying and strife is , there is sedition , and all maner of euill workes . But the wisedome that is from aboue , is first pure , then peaceable , gentle ; easie to bee intreated , full of mercie and good fruits , without iudging , and without hypocrisie . And the fruite of righteousnesse is sowen in peace , of them that make peace . CHAP. VI. Of Ceremonies . WHere men are apt to mislike things of necessarie vse , the entrance for the most part into that contempt is through the distasting of those things which are of a meaner nature , and serue but in the opinion of wise men onely to make the act of deuotion to be more solemne ; Solemnitie in some measure being a necessarie adiunct to all publike seruice . And whilst it stirreth men with greater holinesse to become outwardly religious , whilst it stayeth men from wauering in that they do , and others from contempt of that which is done ( all being by these outward Solēnities better prepared ) we cannot but account them the hedge of deuotion , and though not the principall points , yet as some of the fathers call them the second Intentions of the law ; Intermeditate meanes not to be despised of a better and more religious seruice . This whilst some in our Church haue either not vnderstood , or not much regarded , they haue earnestly laboured ( as for a matter of great moment ) that because the Iews had a religiō ful of Ceremonies , the most part whereof being types are in their particular so far ceased ; & be●●use the Church of Rome hath not limited the infinit burden , in this kind ; partly idle , partly needles , & the greatest part through the corruption of ●lme , being growen superstitious ; these in opposition to all the rest , onely misunderstanding the time of Grace , are desirous to haue Religion , without any Ceremonies at all . As if the same God who seeing the weakenesse of his owne people , and therefore ledd them as if it were by Ceremonies to that worship which was fittest for them , and for that time ; and who euer since hath beene the Author , and approouer of solemne order , especially in the publike action of Religion , did now eyther see vs to bee so absolute , as that these outward helpes were of no vse , or that all Ceremonies were but shadowes of things to come , not ornaments and helpes to things present , did meerely with the passion of his Sonne , cancell all kinde of worship that had any solemnities or Ceremonies ( how vertuous soeuer ) annexed to it . But as to think that Ceremonies without true and inward holinesse , could cleanse them from their sinne were to erre , and to be Iewish and superstitious , so to account them of no vse , were to be meerely prophane . Wee call them Ceremonies , properly all such thinges as are the externall act of Religion , which haue their commendation and alowance , from no other cause but onely that in Gods worship they are vertuous furtherances of his honour . For Religion which is the height and perfection of all Morall vertues , conteyneth in it three actes as all other vertues doo ; the first the Internall , which is the willing desire to giue vnto God his due worship and honour ; secondly , the externall , aunswering to this , which is no otherwise good , or commendable than that it vertuously serueth to this end ; thirdly , the commaunded act , that is the act of euery vertue ordained by religion to Gods honour ; so fasting , almes , and such like are tearmed the Actes of Religion , when they are done for Gods worship , howsoeuer othe●●ise they are properly the actes of other vertues . This the Apostle calleth pure Religion and vndfiled bofore 〈◊〉 the Father , to visit the fatherlesse , and widowes , in their ad●●rsity , and to keepe himselfe vnspotted of the world . Saint Austine saith that God is worshipped with Faith , Hope , and Charity , of these three the first is no way Ceremoniall , The third likewise is no Ceremonie , but as it is an act inioyned by Religion ; but the second is properly that which concerneth the Ceremoniall part of Gods worship . All antiquitie was euer so farre from misliking of those , that they had almost placed Religion in them onely . The name which the Hebrewes gaue vnto Ceremonies signifieth not so much the externall act , as the law and the precept by which is was commaunded ; so that in the new Testament euen those which had no longer continuāce but vntill Iohn , ( for then began the Iewish Ceremonies to decline ) are tearmed by our Sauiour by the name of the Law and the Prophets . Saint Paule calleth them Iustifications , because they were Rites instituted & ordayned to that end . With them they were the Images of heauenly things opposite to the Images of the Heathen ; & howsoeuer we follow neither of them in the particular , the one being the Idolatrous prophanation of an Heathenish superstition , the other but the externall seruice appropriate to that people , and to that time : yet wee dare not , seeing no Religion can want all Ceremonies , fall so headlong to the error on eyther side , as to embrace or refuse , all those Ceremonies that the Church hath . Now as it is the vnhappinesse of Religion to bee ouerloaden with Ceremonies , so in those that haue authoritie , not to establish by law such as are needefull , is a defect ; to neglect them in those that ought to bee obedient , is a fault ; but to contemne them in any that liue in the bosome of the same Church , must needs bee the manifest argument of their pride , and in the end the vtter ruine of Religion it selfe . For in the Ceremonies of the Law , there were three things to bee obserued ; first , that they were all ordayned for the expressing of the inward and morall worship , to serue to true holinesse , Fayth , Hope , and Charity , without which all the rest were reiected ( euen as a burthen ) by him that commaunded them ; saying , I will haue mercy but not sacrifice : for obedience is better than sacrifice , and to hearken is better than the fat of Rammes . Secondly , if Ceremonies be contrarie to true holines , they were to be omitted , ( for their end was to further deuotion , not to hinder it ) In this respect they were dispensable , when eyther by the place or time , ( two violent circumstances of all our actions ) or for some impediments they could not well be reserued ; in this respect Circumcision was omitted for those that were borne in the desart , as being vnfit to moue immediatly after that wound , and being vncertaine to rest , seeing they must follow the fire , or the cloud when they moued . Thus in persecution we are content rather to exercise Religion without Ceremonies , than to want it ▪ which in peace to neglect , or contemne , must needs be a great offence . Those times being fittest to serue God with greater reuerence and holier solemnities , which are compassed about with greater rest and more happie blessings . Lastly , when Ceremonies are requisite to testifie our faith ; ( as doubtlesse they are then when they are through misunderstanding oppugned ) wee may not in conscience remit any part of them ; for the refu●ing of such , can be no small sin , where the vsing is blessed with the crowne of martyrdom . But seeing as some thinke , frō the particular deuotiō of the town Cere , or as others frō wanting ( being a religious restraint ) they are called Ceremonies , we need not to doubt in the beginning , eyther that vertuous office which they did , or those religious abstinences which they performed , ioyned Religion & Ceremonies with that nearnesse , as that neither was absolutely perfect , where both were not . This vnkinde separation , ( one of the sower fruits that haue growen in this latter age ) is a great wound giuen vnto Religion , doubtlesse in many ( for I will not excuse all ) only frō the abundance of too much loue . Al Ceremonies may be deuided thus . Some were for Iustifications such as the law commāded , whereby the obseruer was made more purified , and more holy . In place whereof afterward succeeded those that were for ornament and to signifie such vertues as were requisite in those parties that rightly vse them . Secondly , in respect of the Author , some were the ordinances of Nature , as to looke vp to heauen , to lift vp the hands , to bow the knees , to knocke the breast , and such like when wee pray , things vsed in their deuotion by the Heathen themselues , others were appointed by God himselfe , some by the Apostles , and the Bishops , that succeed in her place ; Thirdly , some are parts of the immediate worship , as sacrifice , prayer , adoration , and such like , some onely dispose , as fasting , austere liuing , some are onely instruments , as Churches , Altars , Chalises , and all those , which religiously being separated , serue onely to make the deuotion more solemne , and that solemnitie to be more holy . Fourthly , of these , some respect persons , sometimes , some other concerne places , all which concurring in a diuine worship are with Ceremonies by separation made sacred , and so fitter to serue vnto holy vses . Lastly , some are particular , some more general & vninersal , as the fa●●ing vpō the Sabbath in S. Austins time was obserued at Rome but not at Millan ; as also the washing of feet after baptisme , was obserued at Millane but not at Rome ; in all which saith the same Father there is no discipline can be better , than in these to follow the custom of the place wherunto we come . This coūsaile gaue Saint Ambrose to Saint Austen , that none might offend him , nor he might offend any . A graue moderation , which doubtlesse if it were found in all , which desire to bee examples to others of a better life , the showes of Religion could not haue wanted so much deuotion , nor the sinewes of the Church , could haue beene racked with so little pittie . For in this kinde , the same persons may in contrarie places performe contrarie things , & both well . As Zachaeus receiue Christ into his house with ioy , and the Centurion with as much prayse say , Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter into my house ; both honouring their Sauiour by a diuers maner , both miserable in their sinnes , and both obteyning mercy . For in alterations of custome , that which may helpe peraduenture with the profit of it , doubtlesse with the noueltie of change will do more hurt . The best remembrance in this ca●e wil be this , That the end of the commandemēt is loue out of a pure hart & a good consciēce & of faith vnfeigned ; frō the which things some haue erred , & haue turned vnto vain iangling ; they would be doctors of the law , & yet vnderstand not what they speak 〈◊〉 wh●r●f th●y affirme . For loue is the fulfilling of the 〈…〉 therefore whosoeuer thou art saith S. Austen , that readest either this , or any other , so read and so learn that thou thinke this to be truly spoken , knowledge puffeth vp , but Charity buildeth : this suffereth long , it is bountifull , enuieth not , doth not boast it selfe , is not puffed vp ; for preseruatiō of Vnitie , being that whereunto in this kinde all must ayme , it is fittest for those who finde Ceremonies in vse not vnlawfull in any Church , rather to obserue them keeping the Vnitie of the spirit in the bonde of peace , than with the hazard of scisme , to striue to annihilate these , and to establish those that are much better . For in the vse of Ceremonies at this day our Church doth not so farre differ from the endes of the first institution of them , that though her reasons be not the same , yet shee retaineth nothing , that in substance & truth , is directly opposite . The first end of the Iewish Ceremonies , was that by them as by certaine elements the people might be retained in the seruice of God , as a childe vnder the gouernment and discipline of his father ; for where men are not restained within some bounds & limits for external worship , discentions through affectation of singularitie , serue as wel by a general contempt to make men prophane , as continuall new and vnlimited additions of Ceremonies doe make them superstitious . Those rites then to them ( and ●o in proportion to vs ) serued as sinewes to hold all and euery seuerall member of the Church , in Religious inuocation and worship of the true God. A second end was , that they might haue a worshipp , neither outwardly ouer naked , nor apparelled like that which the Gētiles had ; a reason doubtlesse to vs , not lesse forcible than to them , who haue in our eye neere at hand , such as are richly attired in this kinde , with whom we shall ouer easily fall in loue , and dislik our own seruice of God , if we haue not some external Ceremonies , which we are able to defende both to be as fit for Gods seruice , as naturall and comely warranted by Gods word , and seruing as wel to that end , namely his worship as all the Ceremonies either of Heathens , the Iewes , or the Church of Ro●● doe . And surely whilst some honest mindes , for profitable ends haue laboured to vnburthen the Church of many Ceremonies , they haue done nothing els , but vntyle the house , that the Rafters the Beames & the maine timber might with the violence of tempests more speedily perish . The third end was , to make knowne vnto men by an externall worship , that holinesse which in hart they professed vnto him ; that man hauing two parts , and he the Author of both , it might not be his fault , to be defectiue in either of them . Yet as wholy to depend vpon outward Ceremonies is but Hypocrisie , so altogether to neglect them vnder pretence to worshippe him in spirit , is but to sinne with more libertie vnpunished , and vncontrouled . Lastly , the comlinesse of order , and the preseruation of humane Societie , are not the contemptiblest ends for the vse of Ceremonies . For seeing order is the ornament of all Societies , and seeing the Church , of all Societies is most excellent , it must needes follow , that those things which ( Ciuilie done ) doe adorne others , vnciuilly neglected , or continued , doe disgrace the Church . And I am sorrie that in the earnest contention for Church gouernment men are so backeward in the allowance of Church Ceremonies , seeing wise men of found iudgment , haue made them a part of the Church discipline . Yet Ceremonies are not all of like nature , some being absolutely necessarie and common to all , others not so necessary , and to some ; it is fitte that for all men in the furtherance of Gods worshippe , there should bee a sanctification of persons , times and places , which if either they were not done at all , or done without Ceremonie , the corruption of mans nature would easily esteeme them to be vnholy . For although God be to be worshipped at all times , and that as Christ saith , the Kingdome of Heauen commeth not by obseruation either of time or place ; yet because whole Churches must assemble , which cannot be done without these , nor these rightly be thus seuered without Ceremonies , all antiquitie hath allowed the distinction of these , and the vse of sober and moderate Ceremonies in the separation of them ; that being rightly to be tearmed Religious , which for the holines we leaue to imploy vnto common vses . And howsoeuer it may be not altogether vnfit , ( at least it ought not to be offensiue ) that Churches , though all reformed are in this different ( for so in the obseruation of Easter the East and the Weast were diuers Africa and Italie Rome and Millaine ) in which our Rule must be with humilitie and loue , to be all things to all , yet it is many waies conuenient , to haue an vnitie if it were possible , of Ceremonies for the whole Church . First , that all may abstaine from that worshippe which is Heathenish ; Secondly , not to inuent a peculiar worship of our owne , a thing neither safe to be done , nor easily without better directions to be left vndone . Thirdly , to remoue offence , for weakenesse not able to discerne , that the meanes often are diuers where the end is but one , from the differing in Ceremonies , haue thought a contrarietie and difference to be in Religion it selfe . Lastly , to let vs know that God will be worshipped externally , and with order ; this being the best witnesse , and nourishing of that worshipp which is within . And doublesse the Ceremoniall worship in generall is from the lawe of nature , although some specials doe proceede from the lawe positiue ; so that both respecting the vse , which is manifolde , & the practise both before the lawe , vnder the law , and since , ( for the Church of God vpon earth did neuer want Ceremonies ) it must needes seeme strange that the peeuishnesse of some few , and they none of the greatest vnderstanding , should preuaile so far , that things of more necessarie vse ( as the word of Sacraments ) should be amongst the people distasted , only for the obseruation of some few Ceremonies , and yet these neither many , nor the fancies of priuate men ; as if the obedience of inferiours with humilitie in this case , were like the sinne of the sonnes of Elie , for which men abhorred the offerings of the Lord. All men confesse that the Ceremonies of the Iewes , ( prefiguring ) are to be remoued , but not those in the Church which established by Authoritie , serue onely for order , and the better worship . Yet all men of sound iudgment must needs graunt , that for their vertue , they are all inferior to the word and the Sacraments ; & for their number , they ought to be so limited , that with their vnseasonable multitude , they ouerwhelme not that worshippe , which with their order and comlinesse they ought to further . For as husbandmen are content the Branches of the Vine so long to growe , and spread , vntill thereby they procure the grapes to become fewer ; so in the Church the admission and retaining of Ceremonies are so farre lawfull , vntill by their error and defect , either in substance or number , religion and deuotion become colder . And if the opinion of them , who hold the Church may ordaine Ceremonies for instructions , ornament , and order , had extended it selfe likewise to account them , a bond of diuine worshipp ( so farre as positiue lawes may serue to increase deuotion ) their assertion doubtlesse had beene much sounder , and the people had excercised religion with greater holinesse , and more peace ; but in this we haue dealt ( as in our religious seruice ) where few things can be rightly ordered that are carried with a doubtfull and headlong course . The originall of this euill , is as a wise man noteth ; That wee haue numbred the opinions of others , but not weighed them ; a sweete error seruing but to make vs to loue that , wherein , at length wee must needs perish . But if any man thinke ( as surely it is the opinion of some ) that those Ceremonies ordained by Christ or his Apostles , are fit inought to be retained in the Church , but the rest as being made without warrant haue no warrant to remaine still , we answere that of all which Christiā Churches ( how much soeuer corrupted doe , or shal vse ) there is by vs noe defence vndertaken for them ; yet wee doubt not that euery particular Church , may & our Church hath , lawfully ordained some Ceremonies , which ought religiously to be obserued , & more also if the church so thought fit ; not hereby to iustifie any & to make him righteous , but for ends that are spiritual , and many waies behouefull to Gods worship . First for ornamēt , a thing which I wōder in al other cases should be accounted a vertue , & in religion only should be esteemed a vice . Herein whilst we haue shūned iustly , the glorious vanity of superstitious worship , we haue familiarly fallen to despise the persons , the place , the times , and almost that dutie , which we would honor ; and all onely through the neglect of some due Ceremonies . Secondly , to stirr vp deuotiō , a thing apt inough through our vanities to become small , vnlesse some externall helps may be added for to make it greater . Neither can the accesse of Coremonie in the consecration of new times , or new places , be otherwise vnderstood , than the faithfull acknowledgment of special new , & extraordinary fauours , that we haue receiued . Neither ought the memorie of the resurrection so to swallow vp , in vnthankesfulnesse all other benefits of a lesser nature , as if the obseruation of other times were to be accounted an vnhallowed prophanatiō of the Lords Sabbath . And surely those Rites , which before lawfull ordination were left free , after , in conscience doe binde to the obseruation of thē . So that what priuate opinions may fancie vnto them selues , are but slender exemptions for the breach of lawes ; these imposing a restraint with their due Ceremonies established by authoritie from vsing respects , and behauiours that are common , towarde persons , places , and times which are all solemnly appointed to a holy vse . If this had been throughly weighed by a number i● our Church , neither would the contempt of them haue beene so vsuall and so pardonable a fault , nor the defence haue beene thought ouer violent loue to superstition onely . But in these things with some amongst vs can neither diffent with their good fauour , nor consent with them with a good conscience . And if any man thinke that Ceremonies are of that nature , that the obseruation of them is onely indifferent and lesse free , let him consider the great and violent discentions in the Church that haue risen for them , and how Councills haue condemned them as heretikes , onely for being stifly opposite in this kinde . The first dissention allmost in the Church was for legall Ceremonies which afterward was determined with this word ; these necessaries , to abstaine from blood , and frō strangling . The second great dissention was for Easter day : neither was it thought then a small matter for which Pope Victor the first of that name , would haue separated all Asia from the vnitie of the faithfull , onely for being disobedient in that point ; which afterwards was not the least occasion for assembling the counsell of Nice , the councel of Antioch not long after excommunicating all such , as for the obseruation of Easter rested not in the determination of the Nicen Councell . To conclude , all that were willing to obserue it otherwise , by Epiphanius , Austin , and Theodoret , are accounted heretikes . After this some such dissentions arose about baptisme , not for the essence , but the ceremonies in it ; the violence of which resisting , was not the least impuratiō to al the Donatists . After these succeeded hotter contentions , but for matters of lesse moment ; in al which the oppugners of established order , euen in the lowest parts of religion , were little better accounted of the fathers , than plaine heretikes . The beginning of things ( saith Seneca ) proceede slowly , but losses runne headlong ; the causes of euill , are vsually in a tumult , and breake out ( as in this ) from whence they are oft feared ; for whatsoeuer either person , or place , or custome , hath many admirers for the holines , must needes for the holines haue many to be enuiers of it : but in things whereunto men doe easily fall , discipline by authoritie must restraine such when singularitie is in daunger to make a schisme ; for where to make alteration in this kinde is allowed to all men , a dissolution saith Caluin , must needes follow in the sinewes of that Church , neither doe we make ( as in precepts of a higher nature ) euery defect to be a great sinne , but neglect in ceremonies is then no small fault , when disobedience and contempt are ioyned with it . Our care in religion appearing by so much the greater , that wee are loth to neglect the adherents of it . For the contempt which willingly is offered vnto these , will easily without resistance extend it selfe to the ouerthrow of all religion . There is nothing can be a surer preseruer of religion , than to keepe it from contempt ; a thing not easily done , where it is left destitute , and depriued of holy ceremonies . For the principall excellencie of our religion being spirituall , is not easily obserued , of the greatest number which are carnall ; and therefore we propound not naked mysteries , but cloth them ; that these offering to the sences a certaine maiestie , may be receiued of the minde with a greater reuerence . And therefore some of the fathers , accounting them as the shell to the kernell , haue said that no religion either true or false , was possible to consist without them . So that amongst the auncient to be a diuine , was nothing else but to know what deities were to be worshiped , with what ceremonies . And amongst the Iewes as a thing of greatest importance Ierbro ▪ wisheth Moyses to referre ciuill iudgements to others , and himselfe to instruct them in the ceremonies and rites of Gods worship ; the ignorance whereof as it hath brought much harme into the Church , so it is sharpely reproued by some of the Fathers that haue been before vs. These if they had serued to no other vse yet were they manifest and honorable distinctions betwixt them that were heretikes , and those of the true Church ; in whom howsoeuer we cannot iudge of their sinceritie , and religion that is inward , yet by the vse of these , we may easily discerne , what Church in her worship they would seeme to follow ; for to cast away in time of persecution , the badge and signes of their warfare , was to discouer vnto the world that they were cowardly souldiers . Tert●llian reporteth of one , who chose rather to die , then with the rest of the souldiers to be crowned with lawrell ; onely in this respect , that the christians had a ceremonie not to doe it . Now if any man aske me a rule , whereby to discerne in this varietie of cerimonies which are to be reiected and which alowed ; we say with the Apostle ; Let all things be done honestly , and by order ; for true wisedome teacheth sobernes , and prudence , righteousnesse , and strength , which are the most profitable things that men can haue in this life . But if any man shall thinke , that cerimonies being externall things in religion , are not to be exacted with such violence , that their carefull refusing should depriue them of performance of greater good ; these in my opinion first erre in the ouer slight estimation of ceremonies , and then if they were but of that nature ( as contemptibly they thinke of them ) the alteration of such belongeth not to them , neither haue they ( where obedience is commaunded ) reason to refuse conformitie with so much stomacke ; especially in matters which by them are accounted of that nature . But because some of them thinke that ceremonies are but small things , and yet that a small thing may trouble the eye , as these the conscience ; I am sorry that they haue so farre weighed the hurt which themselues might receiue by doing of them , and so lightly valued the harmes they haue offered by their wilfull disobedience , to the lawfull ordinations of a reformed member of Christs Church . If the Church of England retained any ceremonies that were vnholy and superstitious , demonstration should haue been made in this kinde , What they are : how many : of what nature : why daungerous : to which doubts ( being the sober demaunds of a weake conscience ) if due satisfaction could not haue been giuen , doubtlesse those who had the execution of such lawes , would haue giuen tolleration for a time , that they might be resolued , if by their humilitie they manifested a desire that they had to learne : but se●ing they confesse that by the late Queenes Iniunctions , all superstitious ceremonies are taken away , ●s shrines , tables , pictures , and such like ( a testimonie not vnworthely giuen to the reformed gouernment of so good a Prince ) it is but a slender exception annexed , such doe we take the surplesse to be . A weake eye surely would haue seene a difference , and an humble minde would haue indured much more , rather then by such violent oppositions to haue so farre troubled the Churches peace . I cannot well obserue in the tennor of that last defence , the Plea of the innocent , what their constant opinion is concerning the cerimonies misliked in our Church ; vnlesse they meane that they are idle , indifferent , and humane ordinations , whilest they are commaunded ; but being disobeyed by them , they are waight●i , and great causes , able to warrant resistance and rebellion in the highest measure . I wish they would either account them as trifles , and so being commaunded not so stifly refuse to vse them ; or else esteeme them matters of great moment , and so thinke the gouernors of the Church haue reason , and warrant so much to vrge them . But the things say they in controuersie which wee desire to bee reformed and others earnestly maintaine , are but accessarie additaments , brought into the Church by humane constitution , and without these the religion would stand . But we are sure that once being brought in , they are to be obeyed for conscience ; and surely the religion that would stand without them , with them shall be able to stand much better . Many things which are not requis●t for the being , are notwithstanding required , to the well being . But afterward speaking of themselues , as desirous to be iustified for their dealing in this cause , they call it a good iust and wa●ghtie cause founded in Gods word ; iniuriously reputed and tearmed , an accidentall fancie , and deuise . I hope wise men from their owne wrytings will obserue the dealings of these men ; that they may not be vrged by authoritie to obedience ( a poynt of religion I wish they had well learned ) they call these things but additaments , fit enough to bee contemned , because they are humane constitutions ; and yet after to approue their obstinacie for refusing of them , they call them waightie causes ; this contrarietie may peraduenture deceiue some , but truth at the length will discouer it selfe . Falsehoode is slight and shines through if we looke into it . These onely mislike what they are not autho●s of themselues , and euer labour for excuses , as reasons to warrant what they doe mislike . They thinke and say it is pitrie necessarie seruice ( wherein I thinke they vnderstand their preaching ) should be houlden backe , by these vnnecessarie ceremonies . But if vnnecessarie ( whereof it is not fit for them to be iudges ) why doe they not rather yeeld vnto them by conformitie , then depriue themselues by their obstinacie , of doing that good , which by obedience they might ? and if any man thinke these ceremonies vnlawfull ( as weaknes may stumble in the plainest way ) why doe not they who haue cast these doubts , show which they are , the daungers of them ; and aduer tise those as becommeth them that make lawes , seeing we vse none but those which the law doth warrant ? besides if abuses had crept in with these ceremonies , and things tollerated first for good ends , could not afterward be retained , but with great abuse , these only had been to be remoued by authoritie , and not from the fancies of priuate men . It is their error who thinke it the act of reformation to take things away and not onely the abuse ; for reformation is properly the repetition and restitution of the auncient vse ; neither can that be said to be reformed which is made new ; far be it from vs faith an auncient Father that things which are good and lawfull , if through the corruption of some few they become hurtfull , that this should be imputed to vs as our fault . For thus the vse of all things were daungerous and vnlawfull , seeing nothing can be so profitably imployed from whence daunger may not arise , vnto those that snall vse them otherwise . Doubtles they haue done much in this that haue been before vs , yet some thing may be added by those which follow ; wherein if we alter or dissent from them , it can be no blemish to their names , which are not mentioned by vs , but with much honor . It is sufficient Rome knew not Cato but when she lost him . And the innocencie & vertue of Rutilius had laine secret , if he had not receiued iniurie . But diseases ( as a wise man noteth ) sometimes ouertake those that are most temperate ; punishment those that are most innocent ; & tumults those that are most secret . But to conclude this point ( and to i●stifie the Church of England , in the matter of ceremonie , wherein she hath heard euil , by some of her owne children without cause ) I doubt not to affirme , that few men haue euer red any iudgement , or censure of ceremonies written with greater moderation and learning , then that which is published next after the preface in the communon booke , out of which it shall not bee amisse , to note the iust reprehension of the intemperat affectours of innouation , as also the lawfull defence of such ceremonies as soberly they are vsed in our Church . Cerimonies there are which though they haue been deuised by man , yet it is thought good to reserue them still , as well for a decent order in the Church for the which they were first de●ised , as because they pertaine to edification whereunto all things done in the Church , as the Apostle teacheth o●ght to be referred ; and although the keeping or omitting of a cerimonie in it selfe considered , is but a small thing , yet the willfull and contemptuous transgression and breaking of a common order and discipline is no small offence before God ; let all things be done among you saith Saint Paul in a seemely and due order ; the appoyntment of which order pertaineth not to priuate men , therefore no man ought to take in hand , nor presume to appoint or alter any publike or common order in Christs Church , except he be lawfully called and authorised thereunto . And as concerning those persons which peraduenture wil be offended for that some of the old cerimonies are retained still , if they consider that without some cerimonies , it is not possible to keepe any order or quiet discipline in the Church , they shall easily perceiue iust cause to reforme their iudgements , and if they think● much that any of the old remaine , and would rather haue all deuised anew , then such men graunting some cerimonies conuenient to be had , surely where the old may be well vsed , there they cannot reasonably reproue the old , onely for their age , without bewraying their owne folly . For in such a case , they ought rather to haue reuerence vnto them for their antiquitie , if they will declare themselues to be more studious of vnitie , and concord , then of innouations and new fanglnes ; which as much as may be with the true setting sorth of Christs religion , is alwaies to be eschewed . In these our doings we condemne no other nation , nor prescribe any thing but to our owne people onely . An excellent censure and graue moderation fit to be considered by al that are desirous to alter our church cerimonies . And surely it must needes seeme strange that when all opinions how false so euer , haue had this happinesse that some of their maintainers haue had the coullorable helpes of learning to defend their cause ; the chiefe aduersaries in this , haue dealt at all times so weakely , as if all of them purposely had ment to haue betrayed it . For to speake without partiallity what truth requireth in this poynt , the principall and first opposites , that I reade of vnto our Church cerimonies , were those that in Queene Maries time got the libertie to plant a Church at Franckford ; where first ioyning with the French afterward out of their humors strengthned with some counsell from Geneua , so farre dissented from their religious and learned countriemen , which hauing left their countrie for the profession of the Gospell , lay then at Zurick , Strausborugh , Wezell , and Emden , that some bookes , and the greatest part of christendome was filled with the vnreuerent , vnholy and vnnaturall contentions of that time . This vnwise and inconsiderate dislike ( yet then much more tollerable where they had some showe of authoritie to plant a Church ) kindled that fire which hath burned euer since , and without great resolution and wisedome of some in authoritie , doubtles long agoe , had burst fourth into a daungerous flame within the very bowels of our Church ; and all onely from this head , that whilest the greater part was loth to yeeld to the wiser and more learned , some sparkes of that opposition ( notwithstanding their showe of reconcilement when they heard of Queene Maries death , daungerously brake out , when they returned home . They from Franckeford , wrote to them of Zuricke by Maister Grindall ( after that reuerent Archbishop ) and maister Chambers , that they thought not that any godly man would stand to the death in the defence of cerimonies ; which as the booke specified vpon iust occasions may be altered and changed ; accounting it an argument that they are slenderly taught which for breach of a cerimonie will refuse such a singular benefit as to ioyne with the Church . They likewise from Strausgburgh onely desired such vse of the communion booke , as no reasonable man shal iustly reproue ; a graue moderation doubtles in them , and a iust censure against all those , as being vnreasonable men which reproue it at this day . Some of those that fledde vertously out of their owne countrie ( which was then for the most part an aulter for y e bodies of y e dead , or a prison●● the soules of the liuing ) vnaduisedly were content to make a schisme , as the Donatists from the Romane Church , for the keeping of Easter , and onely through the dislike of a few ceremonies , which in a letter that they wrote after Queene Maries death for ending of these contentions , they call trifles , and superfluous ceremonies . I cannot enough wonder how men of learning and iudgement ( as most of them surely had both ) could in time of banishment , in a strange citie , and amongst themselues , for the space of foure or fiue yeares , nourish a contention with that bitternes , for things of that nature which the most eager amongst them , did account but trifles . It had been surely a great honour to them , and a greater happines to this Church , if they had remembred themselues ( though in exile ) to haue been a part of it , and so haue framed their orders to the gouernment , and those ceremonies which were established by law , and vsed by them in King Edwards time . To this letter they of Franckeford make a wiser and farre more reasonable answere , that it shall be to small purpose for them to contend for ceremonies , where it shall lie neither in your hands nor ours to appoint what they shall be ; but in such mens wisedomes , as shall be appoynted to the deuising of the same , and which shall be receiued by common consent of the Parliament : and a little after , All reformed Churches differ amongst themselues in ceremonies , and yet agree in the vnitie of doctrine , we see noe inconueniences if we vse some ceremonies diuers from them , so that we agree in the chiefe points of our religion . If all of them at their returne home , had obserue the moderation that was in some few , such clamorous inuectiues had not been vsed against those , whose places inioyne them to see an obseruation ( for the vniformitie of the Church ) of those few , modest , and comely ceremonies , which the law appointed . But at their returne , one of them a man ( otherwise in the opinion of some vertuous , and learned ) chargeth vs that we make these Antichristian ragges ( for so it pleaseth him in his heate to call them ) causam sine qua non , in Christs holy ministerie ; so that these make an english priest be he neuer such a doult or villane , and without these Romish reliks not Paul himselfe should preach . What could any of our aduersaries haue spoken more bitterly against our cleargie ? and surely in the eares of any temperate , and wise man , it must needes seeme a strange and inconsiderate speech , to slaunder a whole Church with so little reason , especially that Church , whose honor and peace should haue been maintained by him . We dare in this take their owne offer , to rest vpon melancholie iudgement ( a thing peraduenture not so fit in another case ) that when the opinion of holinesse , of merit , of necessitie ( meaning a religious necessitie ) ( not a necessitie of obedience ) is put into things indifferent , then they darken the light of the Gospell , and ought to be taken away . But they are with vs , as all other things of that nature , of comlines , of order , of obedience . And the same which was the reason to those in authoritie to remoue others , was likewise their reason to retaine these ; wherein if their wisedomes saw not so much ( as others peraduenture would haue done if they had been in their places ) we dare not take vpon vs to censure their doings , but where scripture is not against it , we are desirous to be obedient vnto those , that doe rule ouer vs. And where some thinke it is as lawfull ( if the Prince commaund ) to weare Aarons garments , as these , and if not Aarons much lesse the Popes ; first we say not that these are the Popes , ( howsoeuer peraduenture by them vsed before vs ) neither are we bound ( for any thing that I know ) so precisely in all things to dissent from them . We are willing to retaine of theirs what we may , that those amongst vs which superstitiously are addicted to them , may see that it is not of malice , that we are parted , and themselues may haue lesse couller of excuse , for dissenting from vs But for any Prince to commaund the wearing of Aarons grrments , in that manner , and to that end that Aaron ware them , were to erect that priesthood which is abolished , and those ceremonies which were types and ended at the passiō of Christ in despight of his passion to call againe . Neither can there be a comparison more inconsiderately made , then betwixt these two , seeing for the one not to be vsed their reasons are neither many nor of great waight , and for the other to be vsed , there is none at all . For if the lawe be taken away , whose priestly apparrell and garments were onely a figure and shadowe of Christ to come , he then which doth vse such garments of Aaron , doth heretically with the Iewes confesse that Christ is not yet come , and doth as much as in him lyeth renew the shadowes by him abolished , and receiuing againe his schoolemaster Moses , doth forsake Christ. Therefore stand in the libertie wherewith Christ hath deliuered you , and be not wrapped againe in the yoake of bondage ; wherefore seeing these ceremonies are neither the dregges of poperie , nor cannot in reason offend the weake , nor haue any religion actually placed in them , we see no cause as yet why they may not be continued in our Church . CHAP. VII . Of Subscription . AS there is little hope of peace in the outward gouernment of that Church , where the leaders of others are not willing , or thinke it not lawfull , to be obedient ; so there is no one act , in the obseruation of al wise mā , more auaileable , and in reason more likely , to procure this , then that which tyeth the tongue , and hands , from any way resisting these lawfull ordinances that preserue peace . A thing ( doubtles ) if it had been well wayed , by those holy disturbers of the Churches rest , who ( notwithstanding all this ) are desirous to seeme innocent ; surely themselues would haue been formost both to haue done and suffered whatsoeuer would haue serued to haue furthered the offices of deuotion , and to haue blessed the Church with so much happinesse . Neither can they be excused in this , as men wholie ignorant , seeing all know that the best times for performing religious duties , is when the Church is at vnitie in it selfe ; and the meanes to attaine this , is for inferiours to be subiect to those reasonable directions that others giue . Both because submission in them , is a part of dutie , and few that haue authoritie to commaund , if they want reason for that they doe ( a thing not to be thought in men of that wisedome and in a matter of so great importance ) yet seldome they want resolution , seuerely to exact dutifull obedience , where they doe commaund , Mildnes which in some other cases may be a vertue being in this a vice ; opposite to that courage required in those who are to rale ouer vs. So that whilest some men haue published to the world , what others haue done , and they suffered in this kinde ; a hard censure of reproch for willfull resistance will blemish them to the worlds end , and a memorable testimonie of the others courage , shall follow amongst all posterities their blessed names , euen from the writings of such , as doe most dispraise them . The frute of their righteousnes being the Churches peace , whilest the peeuish refusall in others , serued onely but to make a schisme . And as the glorious Saints in heauen ( those blessed spirits freed from the troubles of this life ) enioy in Gods presence an eternall peace ( who before in their flesh were comforted with the peace of the holy Ghost : ) so if against outward enemies , both at home and abroade , they might haue obtained peacefull dayes and nights , this threefould cable should be hardly broken ; and the Church might sing as we haue cause ( and more might haue had if these men would ) that God hath done great things for vs alreadie whereof we reioyce ; for that blessing which is the happinesse of all other societies , cannot in reason but be a singular aduantage for the better performance of our religious duties in Gods seruice . This being the principall end of that great benefit of peace , that all men inioying those particular things without daunger , which God hath giuen them , haue stronger motions to giue him praise , and better meanes without disturbance to glorifie that name , which is great wonderfull and holy . And surely if it had not been for the ouerheadie disobedience of some men , wee might haue giuen this glorious testimonie of the happines of this land , that peace was within our walles , and plentiousnes within our pallaces , and that all the daies of Queene Elizabeth the Church had rest . A blessing doubtles so long continued , such as our fathers neuer sawe the like , and when it shall be tould to our childrens children that are to come , they will not beleeue it . I haue euer in my weake opinion so farre honored the holy instruments of peace , that I did alwaies thinke , that their could not be a surer argument of an euill cause , then in a Church reformed to resist authoritie , and to disobey those that should rule ouer vs. All other things obserue that law which their maker appointed for them ; for he hath giuen them a law which shall not be broken . This must needes bee the reproofe of man ( saith Saint Ambrose ) but most of all unto such , who being the children of the Church ( nay which is more ministers to serue in it ) are notwithstanding disobedient vnto those lawes which in great wisedome for her owne safetie , the Church hath made . As if she now might complaine as Saint Bernard did out of the Prophet Esay ; behold for felicitie I had bitter griefe ; bitter before in the death of Martyres , more bitter after in the conflict with heretikes ; but most of all now with my owne house . Vnlike in this to that maister , whose schollers they desire to seeme , who chose rather to loose his life , then to disobey . We had rather all of vs inuent , and teach , then heare and follow ; for our reason is but an euill lackey , but our will is worse . Seeing we want not reasons ( as we think ) to warrant vs in that we do ; accounting the commaundements of others to be against right , and what wee will our selues that to be most holy . Whereas true obedience hath nothing of his owne , but is wholy anothers ; it is daungerous when we say desperately , surely we will walke after our owne imaginations , and doe euery man after the stubbornes of his wicked heart . This vertue of obedience maketh good things vnlawfull as the eating of the forbidden tree to Adam ; and euill things to be good and lawfull , as to smite the Prophet ; the one because he did what he was forbidden was punished with death , and the other was deuoured of a Lyon because he did it not . That which at another time ought to haue been omitted and could not be done without a great sin , now ( being commaunded ) without a great sinne could not be omitted . Neither is the fault much lesse ( though the parties be diuers ) so long as the authoritie that commaundeth is all one ; nor can we ( vnlesse we flatter our selues ouer much ) thinke that we are obedient to God , whilest we are willing to disobey those whom he in his wisedome hath placed ouer vs. Neither are we so much to waie ( in things not simply vnlawfull ) what that is that is commaunded , as with this to be content , that it is commaunded . This if it had been duely considered by some in our Church , they had neither gloried so much that in not yeelding to order they were vnlike others , neither had they with such showe of reason , labored to make the ignorant beleeue , that the lawfull , wise , and religious exacting , of subscription , was like vnto an inquisition and the tyranous requiring of an vnlawfull thing . But in this fact wherein the wisdome of authoritie was thought too cruell , they are able to answere why they did refuse . For what men being inioyned by order doe not , doubtlesse of that ( in equitie ) they are bound to giue a reason : which whilest some haue laboured to performe in this kinde , the world hath seene what small and weake excuses they haue had to refuse obedience ; a thing which must in the end lie heauie vpon them , that haue made resistance without cause , or else vpon them that without warrant , did exact it from them . Neither haue these refusers of subscription , been onely actors themselues in this disobedience , but the authors by their example haue thrust with violence , men of lesse learning and greater moderation , into the like contempt . This being as one noteth the principall vnhappines of those men , that they had the authoritie of the aged , and the faults of youth . Who being in this ( as they thought ) to publish their vertue ; were supposed not without cause , in the opinion of wise men , that they affected glorie . The Church hath found the example of these to be very daungerous , who were thought in that wherein they did amisse to be very holy . For such a one few are willing to reproue ; and example doth inlarge the fault when the sinner is honored for the reuerence of his person . Doubtles there was no act since the death of Queene Mary , either of greater wisedome to preserue the peace of the Church in those that were first authors of it , or of more daungerous disobedience in the refusers , then the act of subscription was . A practise not first inuented by vs , but arising of it selfe , euen from that naturall care , which ought to be in all of authoritie , to take securitie ( as it were ) for the good behauiour , of all such as are admitted to teach others . By this one act both binding their hands and tongues from any way disabling the Churches orders , and testifying to the world , the vnitie of that Church where all of one calling , haue giuen their approbation , to those lawfull ordinations , which authoritie in wisdome , moderation , and vertue haue set downe . Whereby it appeareth , as their grieuance to be lesse , so their fault to be much greater then they thinke , who haue refused to subscribe , and haue labored with others to doe the like ; whilest notwithstanding they haue giuen their hands ( and doe daily ) not onely to their owne dicipline ( wherein the best amongst themselues agree not and the meaner haue not knowledge toexamine ) but also to false suggestions , intemperate petitions , vniust complaints , lawes and ordinances of their owne . For all which they haue ( by many degrees ) lesse warrant , than to subscribe , to that which they doe refuse . This onely being the difference , that they distaste any thing that is not new , and their hands are ruled by example , and fancie , in that they doe . Wherein if they had well considered in humilitie , that obedience which the Church might exact of them , as also ( without preiudice ) the lawfulnes of those things , whereunto they were required to set their hands ; doubtles the vrging would not haue been thought a matter of so much rigor , nor the refusing be so much defended , as a thing lawfull . For what indifferent man can thinke it vnmeete , that when the Prince , and the Parliament haue made orders , Ca●ons , Iniunctions , Articles , or any thing of that kinde , for the vniformitie in the Church gouernment , that a Bishop hauing authoritie to institute into spirituall liuings with cure , should require by subscription a consent vnto these things , before he be admitted in to that charge ? A thing if by his owne authoritie for the peace of that dioces committed to his care the Bishop had done , surely the fault had been much lesse , then in any that had refused to performe obedience . But seeing the law doth inioyne subscription , and that they ( howsoeuer wronged by the clamorous complaints of some ) are but ministers to see the due execution of the law , for the peace of the Church , they haue as little reason to lay the burthen of this vpon the Bishops shoulders , as a robber by the high way ▪ his apprehension , arrainment , and execution to the iustice charge . The law in them both hauing made that prouision , that they which doe what the law forbids , or doe not what the law commaunds , must be content ( for their owne fault ) willingly to suffer what the law inflicts . And therefore it must needes be by so much the more strange , that men who are content to flatter the Prince , the Parliament , and those that doe make lawes , can thinke themselues warranted to refuse obedience , and reuile those honorable and reuerend persons to whom onely is committed the execution of them . Besides , places , times , and persons , orderly with iudgement and conscience concurring to make lawes , euery person in the land hauing resigned his particular intrest to those , who are assembled to that end , all after examination is debarred , to all how wise so euer , who are not admitted to that , and at that time ; much more to the rest , whose weakenes of iudgement cannot without apparant suspition of intollerable pride , take vpon them the examination of those lawes , before they can easily be drawne to subscribe vnto them . The particular exceptions that are made by them ( although seuerally answered by sundrie most learned and graue men heretofore ) yet then we shall better examine when we come to the defence of the Communion booke . Onely we say now , that the vrging of subscription , so farre as the Bishops doe , and ought , is warranted by lawe from man , and the disobedience of those who refuse to doe it , is no way warranted by the lawes of God. So that both the tumultuous and clamorous outcries , which they haue raised , onely for this , and the slender excuses pretended for so foule a fact , are but like the coullerable rebellions , which for inlarging of commons , the basest of the people haue stirred vp . But least peraduenture I should doe them wrong , I am willing that the reader should heare them speake . And herein I will make choyse of him , who comming later then the rest , vndertaking from the writings of others to pleade the cause , hath labored to free them from this great fault , and to iustifie that they haue performed so much as the statute required in this kinde . It is like he rather desired to tell the world that he was an actor in the troubles of that time , then to giue reasons , for that which he and they did , or to craue with submission , pardon of the Church , for that which they did not . Aboute the yeere ( saith one ) 1571. subscription was inforced vpon the Ministerie , for which cause in that time , certaine men wrote an admonition to the Parliament opening diuers things worthie of reformation , whereupō arose great volumes of prouing , & defending , &c. But in the middest of these fiery contentions , a goodly space of quietnes about the time that the reuerend father Maister Grindall was Archbishop of Canterburie , &c. after the said archbishops death there came forth a new & fresh assault of subscription , vniuersally imposed , and againe inforced , vpon all the ministers in three articles ; first of the Queenes maiesties soueraigne authoritie ouer all persons , &c. secondly that the booke of common prayer , and of ordayning Bishops , Priests , and Deacons , containe in it nothing contrarie to the word of God , &c. thirdly to allowe and approue all the articles of religion , agreed vpon by the Archbishop and Bishops , &c , 1562 , and to beleeue all therein contained to be agreeable to God. The Ministers offered freely and willingly to subscribe to the first article of her Maiesties most lawfull authoritie : and for the other two they refused to doe any further then by law they were bound ; and namely according to the statute made for that purpose Anno 13. Hereupon many in diuers shires were suspended from the execution of their ministery and some depriued . And in another place , We cannot tell whether we might by the lawes and order of this realme , subscribe although it were otherwise lawfull by Gods word ; it concerneth the whole state aduisedly to consider that the holy ministers of God be not oppresse lwith an vniust subscription . This the author calleth in another place the first great storme that fell vpon them , and in another place this he maketh to be the fruites of subscription that the unpreaching minister , and the non-resident are both warranted by it ; and in another place it is , ( meaning subscription ) against many good and learned ministers , and some it thrusteth out . Others before this author , both for time and worthines , haue stifly ( but I doubt scarse considerately ) refused obedience in this point . The some of all their reasons tending to this end , that many obscure vntruthes , were contained in those things , whereunto they required that they should subscribe ; all aiming at this , that nothing was euer so greeuous in the Church , to the humours and dispositions of these men , as to giue by subscription their allowance vnto that which the lawes had done . One of them to the Lords of the councell , speaking of subscription ; when D. Whitgift was made Archbishop , and set forth his vnaduised deuise , of subscription , it seemed as a strong pot of brasse that would soone haue broken in peeces all the power of poore ministers and made discipline in vtter contempt ; I will only put the reader in minde , that though it were no dishonor vnto his grace , to be the author of so wise an order , for the Church , yet the same ( by their owne confession ) was a lawe , before her Maiestie had called him to be a Bishop ; another ( for it were endlesse and of little vse to alleage the reasons of Iohnson preacher at Northhampton , of Grayer and many besides published to this end ) being more learned ( yet in my opinion lesse religious thē the rest ) hath set downe some reasons , why the Bishops doc vrge subscription t● her Maiesties authoritie in causes ecclesiasticall ; first for a hope of a more sure setlednes to themselues and their followers ; that none may hereafter preach against the lordlynes of prelates , that none may preach against ciuill offices in a preiate ; that none may speake against baptisme by women ; that none may preach against an vnlearned ministerie ; that none may preach against any corruption yet established whatsoeuer . A strange collection thus to aime at the intention of making lawes . But we say no otherwise of him , then a father did in the like case . His words showe vs wholy what he is , and if we therefore know him not , because we haue not seene his face , neither doth he knowe himselfe because he doth not see his face . But these doubtles and such like are but as Saint Hierome calles them , the hissings of the old serpent . For wise men would haue thought that these had had nothing to haue spokē , vnlesse they had propounded this to thēselues to haue spoken euill . But seeing the tenor of them all is all one ( an vnreuerent estimation and speaking of men in authoritie and lawes that are made by them ) a fault surely not small nor easily forgiuen , if the cause were vertuous ; I must needes before I answere them , giue them this aduise , which I hope some will follow , they that do as Gennadius reporteth of one Seuerus seduced to bee a pelagian , acknowledge their loquacitie with him and keepe silence vnto death ; that they may recompence by their silence what they haue offended in speaking . Now before we answere this , which they haue alleadged against subscription ; the consideration of the nature of that , doubtles must be fittest which in all reason ought to be accounted the best warrant to excuse them , both in this and the rest which they doe refuse ; a reason which cannot be the same to all , and in those in whom it is found , without deceite , they are rather to be pittied and instructed , then to be vrged to that ( which how lawfull so euer ) ( their conscience gainesaying ) they doe make a sinne . For though the conscience of man allowing cannot make that to be no sinne , which the lawe doth , yet the conscience forbidding , may make that to be a sinne , which the lawe doth not . And therefore amongst men of wisedome , and vertue , there is no Plea that ought to be heard with so much attention , as when men for that which they doe , or doe not , truely and sincerely doe alleadge their conscience . Now as the coullorable excuse for refusing to subscribe , must be the weaknes of such mens conscience , who were perswaded in themselues , the things to be vnlawfull whereunto they were required to giue allowance ; so surely a double fault must lie vpon them ( if there be any such ) who making no conscience of those things , pretend only the greatest bond vpon earth , to be the lawfull warrant of refusing of that which they would not doe . And surely where feare and humilitie are both wanting , there it is ouer much charity to thinke that they make a conscience . All men vnderstand not aright , what that is which they alledge for themselues , when they say ( their conscience . ) There is naturally ingrafted in the heart of man , that light of nature which neuer can be put out , that telleth him that no euill is to be done . Now reason according to the knowledge that it hath ( which in some is more , and in some lesse ) deliuereth his iudgement of particulars , that they are euill or good ; from whence the conclusion followeth , they are to be done being good , or omitted being euill . And this is our conscience ; which is nothing els , but an application of our knowledge to a particular act . This application is made in a threefould manner ; as first to consider whether such a thing bee done or not done ; and doubtles in this , our consciences can best tell the actions and intentions of those which are done by vs. Giue not thy heart ( saith Salomon ) to al the words that men speake , least thou do heare thy seruant cursing thee , for oftentimes thy heart knoweth , that thou likewise hast cursed others . The second application is when we iudge of the fact which is done , whether it be well or euill ; the measure of our knowledge in this making vs to mistake , as euill for good , so that to be euill which indeede is good . The third is , that this , or that , is to be done , or to be left vndone . In the first it is a witnes , which will not lie ; in the second , it may accuse , but not absolutely excuse ; in the last it may binde , though it want strength , in this respect onely that we are weake . For those new cords ( and such are new opinions ) which were not able to hold Sampson , may easily hold him fast , that is many degrees weaker then Sampson was . The first of these respecteth the time past ; the second the time present ; the third for the well or euill doing to the hauing or suffering the ioy or torment that is to come ; as if he that had made time , the pretiousest circumstance of all our actions , had set our conscience as the seuere and diligent watchman of all our times . Thus seeing the vse of conscience ; the next consideration is for the originall of the errors in it : these are two , a false assumption , and a false application . In the first we take those things to be good or true , which indeede directly are euill , and false ; ( an error peraduenture that misleadeth a number in this point ; ) so those that put the Apostles to death , did thinke in that action that they pleased God ; for the time was come that our Sauiour foretold , whosoeuer killeth you , will thinke that hee doth God seruice . In the second a false application , arising out of a true ground ; because hee heareth that God is to bee loued aboue all things , thinketh it vnlawfull to loue any thing except God. Both these erre not alike , but the error of conscience doth infect both . Neither ought a conscience that thus erreth to binde , seeing the force and strength of conscience , is not built vpon himselfe , but vpon some precept ( seeming so vnto it selfe , being no good reason ) but either because it is commanded , or els forbidden . Al the actions of man are of three sorts ; good , euill , and indifrent . If our conscience say that is to be done , which is naturally good , it is no error . If it deny that to be done which is euill it is no error ; for by the same reason , euill is forbidden which commaundeth good . But if on the contrarie , it say that is to be done which is naturally euill , or not to be done which is good ( a thing fit to be considered in this case ) it is doubtles a conscience which doth erre in both . Likewise in indifferent things ( as the remouing of a strawe ) ( and yet some wise men haue made these things refused by them , of that nature ) to make them of necessitie , on either part where authoritie hath not determined , is a conscience without doubt that doth much erre . For euery will that disagreeth from reason , either true , or false , directly sinneth ; for whatsoeuer is not of faith is sinne : and yet euery thing which is done by the will , giuen assent vnto reason , is not voyde of sinne , because that ignorance which is a fault , cannot possible make the action to be without fault . The conscience as it includeth knowledge and is conioyned with the light of nature is euer right , yet as it is ioyned to reason , and about particulars it often erreth ; the light of nature maketh the first proposition that it is not lawfull to doe euill ; our reason ( which often erreth either through ignorance or the strength of fancie ) saith this is euill ; whereupon the conscience being misled , maketh a firme and a strong conclusion , therefore by no meanes I ought to doe it . In the first proposition there can be no error ; sometimes there is in the second ( as peraduenture in this act of subscription whilest we call good euill and euill good ) and so a falsehoode in the conclusion ; which as the logicians say , euer followeth the weaker part . The errors on both hands are , when it is either too large tending to presumption , making euill good ; or to strait tending to despaire ; making good euill ; whereas the Prophet pronounceth a woe to both . Now because euery conscience that would not erre , ought to be grounded vpon the commaundement that God giueth , doubtles it is more safe to obey a conscience that erreth not , then the commaundement of any who is but a mortall creature . But those who wilfully suffered martirdome , for opinions which they fancied , and willingly should haue disclaimed , were not commended for that they did , being but the martyres of foolish phylosophy , and no way to be praised for that they suffered . But in things which are indifferent ( as many things misliked peraduenture are ) the precept of the superior doth binde more , then the conscience of the inferior can ; for though the conscience be iudge , yet the other is more immediate vnder God ; and this is but in those things , which either directly are commaunded , or els forbidden . For the subiect hath the commaundement of the superior for his warrant , and in things of this nature , his dutie is not to examine ; but onely to performe what he seeth commaunded . Wherein surely the consideration ought to be greatest of those in authoritie what they doe commaund ; but to determine this point ( which peraduenture is the case in question ) according to that which the schoolemen say ; we answere that the bond of an erring conscience is greater , because it is more vehement , and bindeth longer , then in things of this nature the commaundement of a superior doth ; but directly it is lesse on the other side , because it is fitter to bee vnloosed ; for both the bond , and the conscience are to be reformed , where as the obedience to the superior in this , can admit no dispensation ( things now ceasing to be what they were by nature ) and this being no part of the inferiors dutie , to examine the lawfull ordinations that superiors make . Now whether these men that in refusing to subscribe , say they follow their conscience , are ruled by that which is to be reformed , or directed by that which shall be their warrant , reason and time will easily finde out , if due examination be taken both of their refusing , and of the things themselues which they doe refuse . The conscience which doth erre though it binde vntill it be reformed , ought notwithstanding to be reformed ; because , either ignorance , negligence , pride , inordinate affection , faintnes , perplexitie , or selfe loue , are the corrupt and originall causes of the errors of it . So that if none of these haue ouerruled the conscience of these men , but that knowledge with due consideration hath directed them in that they did , we haue great reason to harken to their excuse , and to regarde them with more attention , whilest with reuerence and humilitie they alleage their conscience . In the meane time for remedie against these errors , let them not disdaine the counsell which wise men haue found to be most safe , if it be of ignorance to say with Iehosaphat , we know not what to doe but our eyes are towards thee ; if of negligence to come without partiallitie or preiudice as Nichodemus to Christ , to those that for knowledge are fit to teach them . If of pride to submit our selues one to another , and especially to those that haue more learning & do rule ouer vs ; for he that praiseth himselfe , is not alowed but he whom the Lord praiseth . A singularitie in this kinde hath been the originall of most heresies in all ages , and not the least occasion of the troubles of these times ; for he that walketh vprightly walketh bouldly ( the rest are presumptuous ) but he that peruerteth his waies , shall be knowne . If from inordinate affection , making that lawfull which we haue a minde to doe , we must harken to iudgement , and refuse our affections in this case ; for iudgement turned into affection , doth all perish . If from faintnes , then onely to be scrupulous & feareful when we haue cause , least we thinke it lawfull because we streane a knat , for to swallow a Cammell . If of perplexitie , when a man is closed as it were betwixt two sinnes , where he is not able ( though willing ) to auoyde both ; that which will not make either to be lawfull , will make one of them directly a lesse sinne . This is not euer to do euill , that good may come of it ; for though the casting away of things profitable for the sustenance of mans life , be an vnthankfull abuse of the fruites of Gods good prouidence towards mankinde ; yet this consideration did not hinder Saint Paul from throwing corne into the sea , when care of sauing mens liues made it necessarie to loose that which else had been better saued . For of two such euils being not both euitable , the choyse of the lesse is not euill ; and euils ( as a wise man noteth ) must be in our construction iudged ineuitable , if there be no apparant ordinarie way to auoyde them ; because where counsell and aduise beare rule , of Gods extraordinarie power without extraordinarie warrant wee cannot presume . Last of al , if of humility , ( an error surely of least daunger ; ) we wish them onely to take heede of to much feare ; else we say it is the propertie of good mindes there to acknowledge a fault , where no fault is . For whilest the conscience of man is troubled in this manner , grace repaireth in man the excellent image of his first maker . Thus giuing our simple direction , and not daring to censure the consciences of such , as thinke their refusall to be warranted with pretence of conscience ; we will examine a little what they haue said , and done , and whether the exacting or refusing of subscription , was a greater sinne . If the vrging of subscription which the law required , was the cause of those seuerall admonitions which the Parliament had , surely a worse effect could not haue proceeded from so good a cause , then that which was a vertuous inuention to make peace , by the vnquiet disposition of some few , should become the originall fountaine of so much warre . And surely that mildnes , which that reuerend Archbishop Grindall vsed in those times , little auailed with those men for to make them better ; which in wisedome euer since , hath caused others in that place , for to vse the lesse . For experience ( euen in them ) findeth it to be most true , that fauour in that kinde they esteeme but desert , and the patience of others but their owne merit . Yet wise men in the same place , at diuers times , to the same persons , may vse direct contrarie courses and both well . The second inforcing of subscription in the three articles of supremacie , the booke of common prayer , with those things annexed , and the booke of articles made in the Synode 1562. the first they allowe , but as for both the other they esteeme them vnlawfull , and such as the statute requireth not of them ; where me thinkes it is strange that men which doe not so much as the lawe requires , will alleadge ( notwithstanding ) the lawe for their warrant , in that which they doe not . For if either the vrging of law , by the vertue of law , or not against law , could in wisedome haue serued to make peace ; those men had little reason to haue been against it , who were not able to proue that it was vnlawfull , and knew the authoritie to be lawfull that required it of them . Neither was there any great reason , to hope for obedience in subscribing to the articles ( if the lawe required it ) seeing they are not willing towards the communion booke to affoord that allowance which the law required . And howsoeuer I take not vpon me to interpret the meaning of that statute , yet surely the pretended exception of law , is of little force , seeing both the Archbishops and Bishops and al the clergie in the conuocatiō , subscribed vnto them ; and that all Canons which the Church doth make , haue either confirmation vnder the great seale , or the parties that make them , haue warrant by the statute for that they doe . And if it had not been , euer their practise to make a pretence of law , for that for which they haue no warrant , neither would they doe it if the law commaunded ; it were better to be excused in that they refuse with pretence of law . With the same boldnes some haue affirmed that the present gouernment of the Church of England by Archbishops and Bishops vnder the Prince is to be accounted vnlawfull by the statutes of this land , and that to be a Lord Bishop is directly against the statute Eliz. 13. A practise like this some of the Church of Rome haue lately vsed against vs , as though our oppositiō against them , were beyond law ; and the instruments made for our defence , and to cut them off , were intruth the safest protection their actions had . But haue these men that thus earnestly pretend law , either neuer subscribed to any thing of their owne without law , or euer been obedient to the lawes of others ? surely if they had , the contention in this kinde , had been buried that day when it was first borne . But the English when they came to Franckeford were tied to subscribe to the same confession of faith , which the French had : after they themselues enioyned all to subscribe to their discipline , that they might showe that they were readie and willing to be subiect to it . Nay D. Cox ( a man at that time farre better I thinke then any that refuse subscription ) and his companie were not admitted to haue voices in the Church of Frankeford , vntill they had subscribed to the discipline as others had done before them . These holy conscionable refusers to assent to the ordinations that others make , are violent exactors of subscription , and obedience , in a strange countrie , at their betters hands , to those pettie orders , which are of their owne making . When Maister Horne was made pastor of the Church at Frankeford , he receiued all such persons as members of that Church , which were contented to subscribe and to submit themselues to the orders of it . A wise course not vnfit for a greater gouernment , wherein all men ought to binde themselues some way or other , vnto the obedience of those vnder whom they liue . Nay if any minister appeale to the magistrate , and be found to doe it without iust cause ( a fault surely lesse then their refusing to subscribe ) yet then he shall be directly deposed from his ministerie by them . Neither was this the practise of those times , and in that place , but euen at home those men , who had neither authoritie to make lawes nor to exact of others allowance of them , haue required , and had , a generall subscription to that discipline , which neither scripture , wisedome , law , or themselues , could approue vnto vs. So that all those inconsiderate and vnreuerend termes which most of them haue intemperately vttered , against subscription , are but the violent courses of men , that desire to punish , and not the charitie of such as should ( if they had authoritie ) correct . Let them show their affection , that they loue our Church , and then we will allow them to vtter and aduise what they thinke good . In the meane time , those false coniecturall effects , for which subscription was required ( as they thinke ) are but vncharitable deuises of their owne , onely to make those in authoritie to be more odious ; that contempt of their persons , breeding disobedience to their gouernment , either a generall dissolution may bring a palsey into the Church , or else we must onely be ruled by orders of their making . Which because neither reason , nor experience hath taught vs to be so safe , we hold the exacting of subscription to be lawfull and necessarie , in those that doe it , and the refusall to be daungerous , vnholy , and vnwarranted , in those that are disobedient . They which haue labored in their zealous defences , to make the world for to thinke otherwise , they haue taken vpon them to iustifie themselues with to much loue , and to censure our Church with to much rigor . But it is like a better consideration will possesse them now , when they shall haue small reason to feare , either partiallitie , or want of vnderstanding , to make the chiefe in authoritie either not willing , or not able , to perceiue their weightie reasons , alleaged against those things , which they doe mislike . But wise men surely haue cause to feare , that nothing wil either much , or long , please them , which is not some transformed monster of their owne making . So that if any defect be in that statute ( as they vrge ) made by our late soueraigne of blessed memorie , whereby the refusers may pretend a warrantable excuse for not yeelding by subscription an absolute obedience both to the doctrine , gouernment , and ceremonies of the Church , we hope that now hauing tasted of the sower frutes , of their disobedience , and seeing without preuention that more daungerous inconueniences , are like to follow it will not be thought vnfit , either in his maiesties singular wisedome and great iudgement , or in the honorable consideration of the whole Parliament , is stricter lawes be now made to take securitie by subscribing , of the tongues and the hands of these men , which so often with so much libertie , and boldnes they haue wilfully imployed to the hinderance of the Churches peace ; we demaund but in this , what they thinke reasonable in their owne discipline ; not onely for men but for women , to the auoyding of heresies and sects , in the Church . And if he that hath most learning and hath been most earnest for the alteration of our Church gouernment be able to make demonstration , that their hands are required to giue consent to any one syllable , either in our ceremonies , our liturgy or our discipline , which truth will not warrant , and obedient humilitie exact from them , I doubt not but the Bishops of our land are , and will be readie , either to giue them satisfaction why they ought to doe it , or yeelde vnto their earnest demaunds , that it may not be done . But if any man thinke that the vrging of this ( wherein doubtlesse a remisnes in some hath done more hurt then rigor ) is either to confirme those things , which without the allowance of these great refusers to subscribe , might peraduenture be thought to want authoritie ; or that it is meerely a politike inuention , besides law , whereby the practises of the Bishops and others , may be free from reproofe , he doth vncharitably misconster a religious ordination , for great vse , and to the wrong of himselfe , sinisterly suspect in both . So that we thinke we may ( notwithstanding their great complaints of cruel●ie , persecution , and tyranny , wherewith diuers of their books haue slaundered the most pure , peaceable , and reformed gouernment that euer this nation had since it was christian , giuing occasion to the common aduersarie , to write as they haue done of the English iustice ) safelie conclude , that the exacting of subscription vsed by the Bishops , in the Church of England is lawfull , and ne●essarie , and the refusers , are immodest , disturbers , of the vnitie , and peace , both of the Church , and the Common-Wealth . CHAP. VIII . Of Discipline . SEeing that no societie vpon earth can long ( without authoritie to correct ) retaine all her parts in due obedience , and that the disorders of none are of more daunger then of that societie which we cal the Church ; it is of all ciuill considerations the greatest , to thinke of that discipline which is best warranted , most agreeable to the state of that kingdome where the Church is , and in all reason likelyest to obtaine that end for which discipline is allowed vnto Gods house . So that herein if either their skill had been so great , or their moderation in that busines so much ( as peraduenture their desire was to doe good ) doubtles the Church ought in all reason , to haue giuen great attention to these careful aduisers , and to haue showed her selfe readie with thankfulnes , to make vse of those vertuous indeuours , religiously imployed for her good . But now that they haue obtruded a discipline with that violence , and such a one as must quiet ouerthrow , both the practise of other Churches , and of this in al other ages that haue been before vs , nor this as the inuention of wise men , not against the word , but the expresse commaundemēt in euery particular of God himself , accounting those to haue no Church ( this being as essentiall as either the word or the sacraments ) where this is wanting ; wee haue great cause both to examine the practises of these men , and to consider that discipline which they tender vnto vs , for that which we now haue ; and what benefit by this exchange is likely to redownd vnto Gods Church . And surely if both our Disciplines had the like warrant , that they were the lawfull ●rdinations of men for the well gouerning of the Church , not repugnant to the word of God , yet it is like the aduantage would be far greater on our side , being auncient , not the inuention of our selues , found to be safe by experience , and duly proportioned with the greatnes , riches , freedoms , glory and gouernment of this kingdome , whereas theirs , in their owne opinions ( if they were not ouer partially addicted to it ) is new , the inuention of late time , dangerous by experience in a kingdome , and no way proportioned but to the limits and bounds of some priuate Citie ; we haue knowne the aduocates of this discipline to haue much grace ( for which I do honor them ) in exhortation and prayer ; but to be either inuentors , or aduisors of lawes and ordinations fit for a Church discipline , their manner of liuing doth not allowe them that wisdome : so that wee holde it much safer to retaine our owne ( reforming such parts as the boldnes of sinne maketh vs to thinke now to bee too remisse ) rather than to aduenture an exchange , euen for that which by so many titles , they commend vnto vs. For surely no man is lesse fit to lend his tongue to giue praise to a worke , than he or they , who haue lent their heads and their hands to be authors of it , both because all of vs naturally , loue what we doe our selues , and seldome haue wee so much vnderstanding that we doe a●●isse , when we had no more vnderstanding but to faile in the doing of it . But where their owne weakenes or want of experience might faile , as not affoording them so much wisdome to make lawes , if there they will vrge vs with expresse commaundement of holy Scripture , then it must not seeme strange vnto them , if that for which they pretend scripture , without warrant of scripture be not admitted by vs , wherein if they faile , the Church at their hands receiueth a double wrong , first a contention to disturbe her peace , and secondly , the false pretence of an euerlasting truth , to giue authority and warrant to the late , unwise , inconsiderate and vnholy inuentions of silly men . Dealing in this but peraduenture with lesse malice ( as Satan and all heretikes haue done ) to couller temptations and heresies with Gods word . For seeing that with man ( especially in the Church ) nothing is , or ought to be of that account as the scriptu●es are , all men are d●sirous for that which they are willing to maintaine , to alledge that proofe which hauing g●eatest authoritie , must with men of reason finde least resistance . For in all other things let reason be neuer so apparant with some men , they are as easily contemned as they are alledged ; this onely conteyned in the two testaments , both in admonishing is vpright , in promising is heauenly , and in threatning is fearefull . All other writings as the assurance is but weake which they can affoord , so their proofes are but the opinions or iudgements of mortall men , and where the hearer is of the same nature with him that perswadeth , reason oftentimes doth bel●●ue , that he hath not much reason to be perswaded . But in the scriptures ( as Hugo saith ) whatsoeuer is taught is truth ; whatsoeuer is commaunded is goodnes ; and whatsoeuer is promised is happines ; and therefore these men haue proceeded aright ( if they be able to proue what they vndertake ) in making the plaine scripture to be the commaunder of all parts of that discipline , which doubtlesse whithout scripture , reason hath little warrant to thinke that lawfull ; we understand then by discipline in this chapter ( which notwithstanding few of the patrones haue defined vnto vs ) that eternal gouernment of the church , and of euery member thereof , in respect they are of the Church , whereby manners are reformed , the peace of the Church maintained , God glorified , and order and decency procured ; this whether in substance it be such that nothing is to be added , altered , or diminished , is the principall contention betwixt them and vs ; our Church holding that it hath this libertie to prescribe orders for the whole assemblie ; to giue direction for the goods of the Church ; and the maintenance of the clergie ; for the proceeding in matters of Church gouernment ; making lawes and ord●rs ; iudiciall notice , censures , election of offices , and such like ; and this not without the authoritie of him , who hath the supremacie in all causes ; all these we hold changeabl● according to times , and places , whereas those ( who will needes be our aduersaries in this cause ) will haue all such as concerne the substance of discipline to be appointed by God , and to be alwaies firme , and immutable , and the Eldership to haue the execution of them ; and to this end in euery parish or precinct , there must be a presbyterie of doctors , pastors , elders , and deacons ; and of diuers presbiteries , conferences and synodes ; all which ( say they ) are precisely required in Gods word . But seeing remonstrance hath been made both of the errors of them all , and the infinit dissentions amongst themselues , we can be content to let that discipline fall , which stronger then they ( if they were willing ) could hardly haue strength for to hold vp . This discipline of the Church ought to see the execution of those lawes , and ordinances , which God by his Apostles in their time , and daily since by the Church maketh ; neither doe we thinke that any in the bosome of the Church , after so long a time of knowledge , can now doubt , but that God hath left vnto his Church , an authoritie to make lawes , the execution whereof in reason is committed to those , who succeed in place and authoritie , the Apostles of Christ , that did plant the Church ; whose dominion ( notwithstanding ) we make not so absolute , that like tyrants at their pleasure , they may rule ouer Christs flocke ; yet the power that the rulers of the Church haue , in matters of a lower nature , are lesse limited by farre ( hauing warrant to ordaine and appoint things indifferent ) which serue for order , comlines , and the edification of Christs Church . By this authoritie the Apostles ordained many things in the Church , whereof from Christ they had no expresse mention ; by this power S. Paul ordained that gatherings should be made at Corinth , vpon the Lords day ; that the man should pray bare headed , and the woman couered . Such autho●itie at this day a particular Church hath ( as of England France end Scotland , or any other ) that the clergie with the allowance of the prince and the rest , whom it may concerne for to make lawes , may ordaine , and appoint , ●uch ordinances , as seruing for edification , order , and comlines in the Church , are so long in force , vntill they shall be abrogated by that authoritie that did first make them . To this we referre , the time , and manner , of publike prayer , administring the Sacraments , ecclesiasticall censures , apparell for diuine seruice , ornaments of Churches , and such like ; all which as the Church frō Christ hath lawfull authoritie to ordaine , so it is peeuish disobedience in those men , who had rather without warrant , impose vpon the Church lawes of their own making , then by commaundement obey the lawful ordinations that others make . Now because in no societie , al men will be obedient at all times , and that it is little auaileable to make lawes , and no way to see to the execution of them ; as the Church hath left vnto her admonitions to warne thē , & correctiōs to restraine ; so last of al she hath power to suspend , frō partaking of the best things , that the church hath , because they haue refused to obey , the voyce of the Church , in those lesser ordinations that she made ; the seueritie of the Church tending to this end , the amendment of such whō she doth correct , and the terrifying of others from the like offence ; wherein if our Church , administer this discipline with two much lenitie ( a fault surely if at all in inferior officers ) we had rather aduenture the manifest inconuenience of that euill , then hazard by a new course , the certaine molestation of a farre greater . Now because all men will seeme to haue reason for that they doe , and no reasons are equall to those which the scripture yeeld , some wise men amongst them haue vndertakē to make proofes from hence , absolutely in their opinions sufficient , to establish this new discipline . The consideration of which weaknes , as also the great iniurie vnto Gods word , must needes make , that their discipline doth want proofes , which themselues are rather desirous thē able to alledge for it . It must needs seeme strange , that because Moses and Aaron when they came into Egypt , did at Gods commandement cal together the elders of the children of Israel that the very mention of their names , shuld be alledged as a warrant for the elders of the church in this new discipline . But one of Gene●a writing vpon that place faith , such were vnderstoode as by doctrine , and example did rule , the people ; whereas their elders are laymen and by no meanes are admitted to teach others . Others , peraduenture more truly , men of that time , and not much diffe●ing from that humor , sa● that neither preachers , nor lay elders are vnderstoode by it , but only such ciuill gouernors as were Senators & princes to beare rule And doubtles whatsoeuer they wrest out of the old testament to make Moses the author of it , yet Caluin to whose iudgement the chiefest amongst them hath promised to stand in this case , saith that the pretended eldership till after the time of the captiuitie was neuer thought of , and the reason ( as M. Cal●i● saith why they thought of it then ) was because it was not lawfull for them , to haue a King ; as if the gouernment by a King , which in former times they had , might haue bin graunted to thē , this institution of their Sanedrim of elders , had been of no vse . So that all those scriptures out of the old testament by them alledged to this end ( as they haue alledged many ) are to small purpose ; or if they were , that gouernment were needles , in a realme where there were a King. And that Sanedrim or councell of the Iewes erected after their returne from Babilon being seuentie elders were of the stocke of Dauid , and of their former Kings ; but to bring these into the Church by the mistaken example of those times , cannot but be daungerous ; and the foundation being so weake , this building of theirs cannot long continew . Doubtles it is not safe in wresting of scriptures to follow the streme of their owne fancies , seeing he that held that all who would be saued must goe to Ierusalem , forced all places out of the scripture that gaue any testimonie to commend Ierusalem either litterall or otherwise , as apparant demonstration to maintaine his error . As these men haue delt in the old testament , so in the new , what M. Caluin doth expound of pastors , and preachers only , some others do wrest for the establishing of these lay elders , in their Church discipline . I am sorie that men of learning that would seeme vertuous & holy , should be charged so truely with so manifold wresting of the scriptures , as in this whole matter of discipline they are by sundrie that doe write against them . Let men loue and aduance their owne fancies as they thinke safe , but let the scripture not be vrged to giue strength vnto them . For doubtles heresies and erroneous opinions do no otherwise spring vp , then when the good scriptures are not well vnderstoode , and because that which is not well vnderstoode , is notwithstanding boldly affirmed to be the meaning of them . For few things hitherto haue been so fondly deuised , but the authors did pretend they had scripture for it : or else saith S. Hierom , the garrulity of such persons , would hardly haue got credit ; for when through vanitie & pride men haue ingaged themselues by the broaching of new opinions , they wil rather labour to bring the scripture to yeeld vnto their fancies , then suffer their fancies to be ouerruled by them ; a fault as it is great in it selfe , so it carieth a manifold disaduantage with it , that the aduersaries of the truth , want not a couller to refuse the interpretations of such at another time , whom men of the same profession , for saith , and the sacraments , haue worthely charged to haue wronged the scriptures . It had been doubtles a greater honour to them , much better dealing with the word of God , and a course of more reason in the opinion of wisemen , that this discipline , had been commended to vs , as a politike gouernment which they found safe ; as the best deuise which necessitie in Geneua , betwixt the putting out of their Romish Bishop , & the keeping out of the Duke of Sauoy did inforce vpon them ; as a platforme sutable enough for such a citie , at such a time . But to offer it to the greatest kingdomes that imbrace the truth , who happily florish vnder the prosperous gouernment of vertuous princes ; where all things are established in the Church with a most auncient , Apostolike , & holy order , and al this vnder the name of Gods word ; It is to poyson the world with much euill , and to couer the pollicie of their first teachers , with the vnhallowed contentions of all after times . And yet for all that we can neither mislike the gouernment of our Church , which alreadie we haue by Bishops , nor accept theirs by Elders , vntill they haue answered all such as soundly and with iudgement doe write against them . Add surely I may make the same protestation which a wise man doth in this case , that if I were to leaue this life , and should speake what I thought of the present forme of Ecclesiasticall gouernment at this time in the Church of England , I would take it vpon my soule ( so farre as my iudgement serueth ) that it is much more Apostolicall , then the gouernment of any Church , that I reade of ; and if it were not for Prohibitions ( such peraduenture as good intentions found out ) ( and some few hinderances of the Common-law ) a gouernment without exception more holy and of greater peace . For whilst euery man will aduenture to offer vnto the Church , fancies of his owne making , as H.N. and many others , saying loe here is Christ , and loe there is Christ , we shall stand neede to be put in minde of that caueat , goe not after them . And whereas the two forciblest reasons to giue any thing allowance in the opinion of men , is that it is warranted for the institution , and profitable for the vse : these politike maisters of the new discipline , hauing proued neither , yet doe offer both . To thinke that if we had this gouernment ( which doubtles God in his mercie hath thus long kept from vs ) that then God would blesse our victuals , and satisfie our poore with bread , that he would cloth our priests with health , and his Saints should shout for ioy ; that it is best and surest for our stare ; that it would cut of contentions , and sutes of law ; that it would nourish learning ; that then there would be vnitie in the Church ; that it would bring strength and victorie , and many other benefits like these ; which is experience of these that haue tried them , could as well assure , as these mens words , doubtles the Church had great reason to thinke of it ; and yet these are benefits no greater , then alreadie by Gods mercie , our Church hath inioyed without this . But they imitate ●aith a learned and graue man of their countrie those seditious Tribunes of Rome who by vertue of the Agrarian law bestowed the publike goods only to this end to enrich themselues ; that the Bishops being ouerthrowne , they might succeede into their places . And a little after , it ought especially to be prouided , that there be not any high authoritie giuen vnto this presbyterie , whereof many things might be said , but time will reueale what yet doth lie hid . Wherefore saith Gualter writing to the Bishop of London at that time , and touching some abuses ( as they are infinit of this new discipline ) we are carefully to be vigilant , least new heads doe bud out of the wounds of the romish Hydra scarce yet subdued . The same author in a letter to Bishop Sands , after many troubles procured by this new discipline , I hope ( saith he ) the frame of it will in short time fall of it selfe , considering that many , who before had it in admiration , are now of themselues become wearie of it . Another saith , that by the meanes of this discipline , the magistrates haue inuaded the Church goods , the ministers haue little alowance , there is no respect of the studie of diuinitie . And another complaining of the disorderly frutes of this discipline saith ; If you did see the confused state of the Churches of these countries , you would say that England ( and marke it for it is true ) how bad soeuer , were a paradise in comparison , to be thought ; but if these men could haue bin content , only to haue praysed their owne ; without opposition , defacing , and slaundering the gouernment of our Church , we would haue been willing to haue furthered their inioying of so much happines in their owne relmes , if the peace , and prosperitie of our owne , had not been enuied by them ; whereas now we must tell them , and when we haue done , the Church shall haue some to performe this dutie to the worlds end , that a discipline erected by fancie , & pollicie , consisting vpon parts vnsound , disagreeing , daungerous in themselues , chargeable to parishes , & without profit , derogatorie to Princes , banishing Apostolicall Bishops appointed by Christ , in one word a discipline new , full of crueltie , ambition , and pride , cannot be safely admitted into that Church , which is seated in a kingdome , where a Prince hath authoritie , both ouer the Church , and the common-wealth . There is no part of it vnanswered that I know , & our purpose in this , is but only to let them see , that a church being happely planted , and gouerned ( as ours is ) they that are strangers , are charitably to thinke of vs , & those amongst our selues , ought all to be furtherances of our common peace . That sinne out of our dissentions may not grow strong , and whilest vnthankfully with Israel we reiect Samuel , we haue not either a gouernment that is tyrannous , or no Church at all . For that prouidence which powreth downe mercies whilest mē are thankefull , raineth downe iudgements , for the peoples sinnes . Let vs thē hereafter in sted of filling the world with our clamorous outcries for a new Church gouernment , approach the throne of his mercie with praiers for our sinnes , that they may be pardoned . CHAP. IX . Of Archbishops and Bishops . IF in the generall dislike which diuers not well aduised haue had toward the ecclesiasticall state in this kingdome , things of principall and chiefe vse might haue escaped the vnreasonable and intemperate reprehension of some mouthes , neither should a thing of so great necessitie , nor a condition and estate both by example and reason so much warranted , stand in neede of any defence at this time . But seeing amongst those ambitious humors ( which vnder pretence of an equalitie more then is fit , aspire vnto a tyrannous authoritie more then is safe ) there is nothing lesse willingly indured , then the title and authoritie of Bishops , which by establishing an order doth frame all parts of the Church to a due obedience and by making seuerall dignities ( which for order are different ) do impose a vertuous and humble obedience euen amongst them , whose ministerie and ordination is all one ; we cannot but thinke it a thing vnreasonable in those which demaund it at our hands , and great folly in vs if we yeeld vnto it , that an office of that vse , of that lawfulnes and continuance , should be remoued as tyrannous and antichristian in Gods Church , onely because it pleaseth the wisedome and violence of some men , so to haue it . Now as to thinke that the state of the Church , might either continew better , or continew at all without these , is but the strong fancies of some , which ouerloue themselues ; so to maintaine after so long practise of the most auncient Churches , that Archbishops and Bishops , both for name , title , and authoritie are lawfull , and to the well gouerning of the Church necessarie , is but to confesse that order , must as wel be a safegard to the church , as the common-wealth ; and that subordination of men in authoritie , can be well wanting in neither ; but if in either , surely in that societie farre lesse , where disorders in manners are not much fewer ( considering the number of persons ) and the errors in opinion are more vsuall , and more daungerous ; and none of these possible with any conuenience to bee remedied but by this meanes . In regard whereof being neither safe to trust all without rule , nor all with authoritie to rule , Apostolicall ordination , reason , the custome of all Churches auncient , and well gouernd , and lastly nature it selfe , doth ordaine Archbishops in their prouinces , as Bishops also in their dioces , and both in their places , and vnder the Prince , for to rule the Church . And herein , we may boldly say without offence , that the causes of displeasure conceiued against Bishops ( how vehemently soeuer they are followed ) are surely lesse reasonable , then against any one thing which they doe mislike ; seeing the vse of all other things may either be touched in show , with some coullerable pretence of fault , or the not vsing warranted with some likely excuse , whereas in this , the greeuances ( if there be any ) that are iust , are in the persons not in the office , and the remouing them away , must leaue a passage to a disorderly confusion , and possesse the Church with that fatall disease of all societies , want of order , whereby for the present she must needes doe many things confusedly , and doubtles in short time miserably perish . So that to make ambition , and couetousnes , the originall of this honor ; and tyrannie ouer their brethren , to giue continuance vnto it ; is to make the best things in the outward pollicies of the Church , to proceede from the worst authors , and to lay too great an imputation to their charge , whom in all reason , by the benefit of this gouernment we ought to acknowledge , as our spirituall fathers , for deriuing the Gospell vnto vs , and by a continuall succession euen from the Apostles hands . The best warrants that we haue for the execution of our spirituall functions , to vs the greatest calling vpon earth , and to the world the hallowed and blessed instruments of all happines , which being imployed to that end , it must needes be an intollerable presumption in any to vndertake the same , but by authoritie and power giuen them in lawfull manner ; for the same God which is no way deficient vnto man in things necessarie , and hath giuen vs to that end the light of his heauenly truth , without which we must needes haue wandred in continuall darknes , hath in the like abundance of mercies , ordained certaine to attend vpō the due execution of requisit parts , and offices therein prescribed for the good of the whole world : which men thereunto assigned doe hold their authoritie from him , whether they be such as himselfe imediatly , or as the Church in his name , inuesteth : It being neither possible for all , nor for euery man without distinction conucnient , to take vpon him a charge of so great importance . The power of this ministerie translareth out of darknes into glorie ; it raiseth men from the earth , and bringeth God himselfe downe from heauen ; by blessing visible elements it maketh them inuisible grace . It giueth daily the holy Ghost . It hath to dispose of that flesh which was giuen for the life of the world ; and that blood which was powred out to redeeme soules . When it powreth out malediction vpon the heads of the wicked they perish , whē it reuoketh the same they reuiue . O wretched blindnes faith one if we admire not so great power , more wretched if we consider it aright , and notwithstanding imagine that any but God can bestowe it . It is a power which alone ought to make the authors of it to man vnder God deare vnto vs ; which neither Prince nor Potentate King nor Caesar on earth can giue . Yet neither is it being duly waied , in the Bishops successors to the Apostles which bestow this , nor in those who are desirous to enter into that calling , any ambitiō ( as some men surmise ) seeing such reputation it hath in the eye of this present world , that both neede rather incoragement to beare contempt , then deserue blame as men desirous to aspire higher . Now because men dying there must be a continuall supply into this calling , and that those who had first the authoritie to ordaine ( I meane the Apostles ) were mortall ; their care doubtles must extend it selfe thus far , though they could not indew men with the same measure of grace which themselues had , yet they should ( and so doubtles did ) impart the same power to ordaine which was giuen to them ; that neither men might rush into it without admission , nor the power of admission be granted to all , nor the Church bee left destitute of so great a blessing . And because in the executiō of holy things , where the persons put in trust are but men , discord & disorder vsually doe breake in ; the wisdome of God thought it necessarie , that amongst them who for their ministerie were equal , an inequalitie for order , and superioritie to command should be granted ; that by this meanes order and vnion should both be preserued in Christs Church . They that most dissent in the kinde of gouernment , doubtles will confesse with Nazianzen , that order is the mother and preseruer of all things . Which if it concerne all persons , and ages in the Church of Christ ( as surely it doth ) the gouernment must not cease with the Apostles , but so much of that authoritie must remaine to them , who frō time to time , are to supply that charge , & doubtles to that end haue succeeded in the apostles roomes . For we easily see that equality doth breed factions , and therefore wise men to suppresse the seedes of dissentions haue made one aboue the rest . And the best deuisers of the new presbyterie do hold it necessarie , that one chiefe in place and dignitie , moderate , & rule euery action , with that right which is allowed him by Gods law . For surely a multitude vngouerned , must needes be easily confused , and there cannot well be obedience , where all are equall ; where shepheards leade sundrie waies , it is hard for the sheepe to know whom to follow ; and if no man can serue two maisters , which haue equall authoritie ouer him , and perhaps command contrarie things ( for whilest they agree , though diuers , they are but one ) then surely the Church ought not to be put to this hazard , by multitudes equally ruling in one place , seeing to dissent is vsuall in all places , and if not , yet in all persons it is casuall ; whereas the wisedome of the Church in them that gouerne , must as wel looke vnto that which may happen , as vnto that which alreadie is . Now if this were the principal meanes to preuent schismes and dissentions in the primitiue Church , whē the graces of God were far more aboundant & eminent then now they are ; nay if the twelue were not lik to agree except there had bin one chiefe amongst thē ; for ( saith S. Hierom ) amongst the twelue one was therfore chosen , that a chiefe being appointed occasion of dissention might be preuented ; and if euery presbytery by Gods ordinance must haue a ruler ( as themselues confesse ) how can they thinke that equalitie would keepe all the pastors of the world in peace and vnitie ? or that the Bishops of a whole prouince or kingdome , could meete , conferre , & conclude , as often as neede requireth , vnlesse their assemblies were moderated , and ruled by some one ? For in all societies , authoritie ( which cannot be where all are equall ) must procure vnitie , and obedience , if vertue will not . Now seeing that all men may easily erre , & that no errors are so daungerous as those which concerne religion , the Church should be in a far worse case then the meanest common-wealth ( nay almost then a den of thieues ) if it were left destitute of meanes , either to conuince heresies , or to suppresse them ; yea though there were neither helpe , nor assistance , of the christian magistrate ; without which it were not possible for truth & equitie any long time to harbour amongst the sons of men . The remedie which in these cases the primitiue Church had , & when occasion was offered vsed against heresie and iniurie , she deriued as well from the promise made by Christs owne words , as from the Apostles example in the like case . Christ willing them that were grieued by their brethren , after the first and second admonition to tell it to the Church . And addeth for direction and confirmation of all religious assemblies and conferences ; where two or three are gathered together in my name , there am I in the middest of them ; and whatsoever you shall binde on earth shall be bound in heauen , and whatsoeuer ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heauen . Now whatsoeuer is ment here by the name of Church , in the reasonable exposition of any , to me it is all one , to prooue this order ; that from priuate admonitiō they went to witnesses , and from them to assemblies ; and seeing there must be an end of controuersies amongst men ( vnlesse we will plucke vp by the rootes all charitie and right ) when neither priuate perswasion , not frendly mediation can appease parties that violently contend , what other order could be prescribed , but a iudicial hearing and determining of things in question ? Now because Christ did not set the sword to be the generall , and perpetuall rule to gouerne his Church ( for then without a Prince there could be no Church , & so consequently there was none either in the Apostles time or three hundred yeeres after ) ( though , where they beleeue , the defence and maintenance of the Church is committed to their charge ) it must of necessitie follow that either there is no iudge ( which were the vtter subuersion of all peace ) when the christian magistrate is wanting , or els the pastors and stewards of Christs Church to whom this care is committed , must assemble together , and with mutuall conference performe those duties to the Church in generall , which otherwise they are bound to do to each particular place and person . By Gods law what obedieuce and reuerence the father may expect from his owne childe , the same or greater , must all beleeuers yeeld to the fathers of their faith ; the one begetteth vs to this life , the other to a life that is much better . Those then whom Christ hath placed to be watchmen and leaders , the light and salt of his Church , must not onely warne and guide , but also lighten and season in their measure that whole body ; for when all other failes , this onely is left to clense the house of God from vessels of dishonour , yea when there were no beleeuing Magistrates to assist the Church , this onely was left , as the best meanes ; and after when christian Princes began to protect the truth , they neuer had nor can haue safer direction amongst men , then by the Synods of wise and godly Bishops . Thus a Synod at Antioch about threescore yeeres before the councell of Nice , condemned and deposed Paulus Samosatenus , for heresie ; and when he would not yet yeeld to the Church , but keepe it by violence , vpon complaint to Aurelianus the Emperor ( though he were a heathen ) Samosatenus was with extreame shame driuen from the Church by the worldly Prince . All countries in all ages , haue had the benefit of this , not as a thing arbitrarie and left free to those that peraduenture were careles of the Churches welfare , but prescribed by sundrie councels ; as Nice , Antioch , Constantinople , Chalcedon ; and commaunded by the imperiall lawes , in this manner ; That all the Ecclesiasticall state , and sacred rules , may with more diligence be obserued , we require ( saith the Emperor ) euery Archbishop , Patriarch , and Metropolitan to call vnto him once or twise euery yeere , the Bishops that are vnder him in the same prouince , and throughly to examine all the causes , which Bishops , Clarkes , or Monkes , haue amongst themselues ; and to determine them , so as whatsoeuer is trespassed by any person against the Canons , may be reformed . So that wee must either cleane reiect Synods ( a thing doubtles of no small daunger as the times may fall out ) and make the presbyters in euery parish supreme iudges , or else admit some ( which be no other but the Bishops ) both to call and to moderate these meetings ; for in all those Synods which continued in the Church ( euen when she mas most sharpely pursued by the sworde from the death of the Apostles to the raigne of Constantine ) they were assembled and gouerned by the Bishops of the chiefe , and mother Churches , and Cities , in euery prouince ; who by the auncient councels were called Metropolitanes . And after when Princes came to imbrace the faith , the best meanes they could deuise to procure peace , and aduance religion , was by their lawes to referre Ecclesiasticall causes to Ecclesiasticall Iudges . And least they should be long in strife , they charged the Metropolitane to assemble the Bishops of his prouince twise euery yeere , & there to examine , and order , what matters of doubt should arise , which happely might disturbe the Churches peace . Thus the Synode of Rome , called by Cornelius against Nouatus , consisted of threescore Bishops , and many others of the clergie . In the councels of Rome , vnder Hilarius and Gregorie , where foure and thirtie presbyters subscribed after two and twentie Bishops ; infinit are the examples in this kind , which teach vs that neither the Church , at any time was , or in deed● can , safely be without tempests , if Synods want ; nor Synods can be tightly ordered , if the Metropolitans and Bishops should be wanting in them . Seeing then they haue this vse if this were all to make that societie able with order to suppresse heresies and redresse wrongs ) ( without which doubtles the Church of all assemblies were worst gouerned ) it ought not to seeme vnreasonable to any , that a thing so necessarie , and auncient , should with honour , and reuerence , be retained amongst vs. But least the name of Bishops , should be offensiue to any ( as some haue thought it onely the ambitious title of a tyrannous gouernment ) these that would seeme moderate aduisers to equalitie and humilitie , in this case , must giue vs leaue to tell them , that the name is auncient the office needefull , and both so warrantable , that they must needes be thought ( at the least ) malicious enuiers of the peace and prosperitie of Gods Church , who are desirous or can be content , that order obserued in the Apostles time , and those Churches which were purest , and next vnto them , should be banished as Antichristian from amongst vs , only because it is the pleasure of those men , to admit no superiors . For if the name of Archbishop be not to be found in scripture , considering the thing it selfe is of necessarie vse in Gods Church , they haue as little reason to except against it as if Homonsion were not warrantable , because Arius gaue occasion , that the Nicen councell did first inuent it . Many names are inuented since the Apostles time , and yet both lawfully , and necessarily vsed ; for these men haue been told long since , that the authoritie and the thing whereof the Archbishop hath his name , was in Saint Paules time , and therefore the name lawfull ; and if it were not , yet both might bee lawfull , seeing they appertaine to the externall pollicie , and regiment of the Church ; which according to time , place , persons , and other circumstances , is not tyed of necessitie , to be alwaies one . And surely those that mislike this ouer proude title ( as they tearme it ) haue least cause : seeing they of the Discipline challenge as great iurisdiction ouer their Parishes , and as lofty dominion ouer Prince and Nobles , as euer any Pope did ouer the whole Church . And if Clement ( whom Polydore alledgeth to that end ) said that Peter in euery Prouince appoynted one Archbishop , whom all other Bishops of the same Prouince should obey , I see no reason why any man for that , should so farre forget both modestie and charitie ( as some haue done ) to call him a hell hound , a naturall sonne of Satan ( surely naturall he was not ) and the sworne souldier of Antichrist . I wish these to remember , that the slaunder of authors , is no good answere , when better reasons can be alledged then onely to say , that they say it . But if they thinke the title vnlawfull ( as some of them write ) because the Scripture doth appropriate it to our Sauiour Christ , I wish them to remember , that if Archshepheard and Archbishop be all one , then the name is to bee found in Scriptures : and that names proper vnto God , as Shepheard , light of the world , and such like ; may be in a diuers sence , and are often communicated with other men . Hereunto we may adde , that the famous Councell of Nice , ( which by all men of wisdome is reuerenced , esteemed , and imbraced as the soundest and best testimony next the Scriptures ) doth not onely allowe of the name , but also of the office of Metropolitane and Archbishop ; determining him to be no Bishop , which is made without the consent of the Metropolitane ; and to shew that this name and office was more auncient , than that famous Councell , the Canon saith , Let that olde custome be obserued , alluding peraduenture to those Canons which passe vnder the Apostles names . Neither was this name or title so strange imediatly after the Apostles time , that Volusianus was affeard to say , that Diomysius Areopagita was by S. Paul , made Archbishop of Athens , or Erasmus to call Titus Archbishop of Crete , and Eusebius giueth the authoritie to Iohn the Euangelist ; whose suruiuing the rest , brought this benefit vnto the Church , that for consecrating of Bishops and other vses , he was as Archbishop , or Metropolitane to the whole Church . For in Saint Cyprians iudgement , heresies and schismes haue risen from no other occasion then from this , that the Priest of God is not obeyed , neither one Priest for the time in the Church , and one Iudge for the time in stead of Christ thought vpon , to whom , if the whole brotherhoode would be obedient , according to Gods teaching , no man would moue any thing against the Colledge of Priests . This speech of that auncient Father , was to comfort Cornelius , shewing , that faintnes in that case was to betray the Church , and that sects and schismes , must needes arise , where the authoritie of Bishops is despised . For this place was not to confirme the authoritie of the Church of Rome , but as the best expounde him , that hee would haue an Archbishop in euery Prouince to beare rule ouer the rest of the Cleargy . For hee that attempteth any thing in the Church , without the Bishop , breaketh peace and confoundeth good order ; and Cyprian being Bishop of Carthage , had the charge and ouersight of all the Churches in Africke , in Numidia , and in both the Mauritanes ; and not only these , but ( as Gregorie Nazianzene saith ) the whole East parts ; for the which cause Illiricus doth call him Metropolitane . So that if herein wise men , had onely inuented what was fit , and not followed what was before them , their action had not been without warrant , seeing in the outward pollicie of gouerning the Church , where precepts and examples are wanting , it is not forbidden for those that come after , as well to be examples to others , as to follow the examples of such as haue gone before them . But if in the first planters of the Church ( which both in comparison of the rest were fewe , and blessed with graces farre more excellent than any in our time ) inequalitie was allowed , and that allowance without fault , it must needes in all reason follow , that the authoritie of Archbishop was not thought so dangerous as now , to the gouerning of Christs Church ; wherein if either their maintenance bee greater , or their outward honor more in these Christian times of peace , then could be expected amongst Pagans ( and they tyrants ) no man can in reason , or ought with out blame , to oppugne these , who will not be thought an enemie to the former ; seeing the times and names being diuers , the authoritie notwithstanding is all one . But it is the vnnaturall fault of this age , through the sides of those whom peraduenture in some priuate respects we mislike , to wound euen our fathers in religion , whom we ought to honor . But seeing these men doubtles are much wiser , who take vpon them to be the reformers of our Church , then that they should be offended with the names , where the things are lawfull ; it is surely to be thought in all reason , that the superioritie of Bishops , is not by them accounted so great a fault , as that any amongst the clergie , whose office and ministerie is all one , should by a speciall name aboue the rest of theirbrethren , be called Bishops . As if to ouer see that flocke committed to their charge , were a dutie belonging , and by our Sauiour imposed vpon them onely . But because the names of things haue so many artificers , by whom they wore first made ; but moe who after haue vsed them to an other sence ; it shall not so much concerne vs , to inquire what in the beginning was the difference betwixt Bishop and presbyter , as to learne afterward what the Church ment when these names expressed those persons which for office and ministerie of word and sacraments , not for order and iurisdiction , were all one . The clergie of the Gospell , were at the first after the Apostles time , either Presbyters or Deacons : for those who aduisedly at the first did impose names vnto things , had either regarde vnto that which naturally was most proper , or if peraduenture to some other speciallitie , to that which is sensiblie most eminent in the thing signified : and therefore what better title , could be giuen to all that w●re imployed in this worke , then the reuerend name of presbyters or fatherly guides ? For a presbyter according to the proper meaning of the new testament , is he vnto whom our sauiour Christ , hath communicated the power of spirituall procreation . Out of the twelue patriarchs issued the whole multitude of Israell , according to the flesh ; and according to the ministerie of heauenly birth , our Lords Apostles we all acknowledge to be the patriarches of his whole Church . S. Iohn therefore beheld sitting about the throne of God in heauen , foure and twentie presbyters ; the one halfe fathers of the old , the other of the new Ierusalem , in which respect the Apostles likewise gaue themselues the same title , albeit that name were not proper , but common vnto them with others . For of presbiters some were greater , some lesse in power ; and that by our Sauiours owne appointment ; the greater they which receiued fulnes of spirituall power , the lesse they to whom lesse was graunted . The Apostles peculiar charge was to publish the Gospell of Christ vnto all nations , and to deliuer his ordinances receiued by immediat reuelation from himselfe ; ( which preeminence excepted ) to all other offices and duties , incident vnto their order , it was in them to ordaine and consecrate , whomsoeuer they thought meete ; euen as our Sauiour did himselfe assigne seuentie disciples of his owne , inferior presbyters , whose commission notwithstanding , to preach and baptise , was the same which the Apostles had . But when time , and obseruation , had made a difference in the Church of these two , euery Bishop being a presbyter , but not euery presbyter a Bishop , the Church condemned it as the heresie of Acrius , to hold that a presbyter and a Bishop were all one . The Bishops ( as Epiphanius reasoneth ) begot fathers in the Church , but the presbyters onely begot Sonnes . For the priests did chose ( saith Saint Hier●● ) one amongst themselues , whom they placing in a higher degree , called a Bishop . For vnlesse ( saith the same father ) the chiefe authoritie were giuen to one , there would be as many schismes as priests . So that their collection out of Saint Ambrose , and Hierom , is so much the more strange , who thinke that bishops , and presbyters did not differ , in the Apostles time . It must at least be an imitation of their pride , who in former time haue troubled the Church with the like errors . Cornelius Bishop and Martyre , long before the Councell of Nice , reporting to Fabius Bishop of Antioch , the originall of Nouatus schisme , saith ; this iolly inquisitor of the Gospell , vnderstandeth not , that there ought to be but one Bishop in that Catholike Church , in which hee knoweth there are fourtie and sixe presbyters . Neither haue there wanted rules , whereby if it please them , they might easily make a difference betwixt these two ; the presbyters were many in euery Church , of whom the presbytery consisted ; Bishops were alwaies singular , one in a citie ; and noe moe except an intrusion , which made a schisme . This singularitie descended , from the Apostles , and their schollers in all the famous Churches of the world , by a chare of succession , and continueth to this day , where abomination or desolation ( that is heresie or violence ) haue not broake it off . The second signe of Episcopall power , was imposition of hands , to ordaine presbyters , and Bishops ; for as pastors had some to assist them in their charge , which were presbyters , so were they to haue others to succeede , in their places , which were Bishops . And this right by imposing of hands to ordaine presbyters , and Bishops , was deriued at first from the Apostles , not vnto presbyters but Bishops onely . A thing continuing for this fifteene hundred yeare , without example or instance to the contrarie ; and hath onely found resistance in our age ; which surely in my opinion , cannot be ignorance so much in them , as willingnes to oppugne the gouernment of our Church ; seeing there haue been few Churches of account , through all christendome , that had not ( as may be shewed ) Bishops and presbiters both at the same time . But Austin is most plaine who writing to one that was but a presbyter , saith , Thou shalt be a presbyter as thou art , and hereafter when God will thou shall be a Bishop . This poynt is learnedly obserued by that reuerend and worthie Bishop , whose labored defence , may shorten our trauell in this poynt . Now besides these , many other things were peculiar to Bishops , by the authoritie of the Canons , and custome of the Church ; as reconciling of penitents , confirmation of infan●s , dedication of Churches , and such like , which were as Saint Hierom saith , rather to the honor of priesthoode , then to the necessitie of any law . Now if any man thinke this office superfluous in the Church , and of no vse ; let him well consider before he censure them , what it is to see the Church continually stored , with sound , and able pastours to watch ouer their soules ; to take care that the flocke of Christ be rightly taught , and soberly guided ; to keepe both presbyters , and people , from schisme , heresie , and impietie ; to direct in times of daunger ; to determine doubts , without troubling the whole prouince ; and if he shall thinke either these needles to be done , or lawfull and fit to be done by any other , we could ( peraduenture ) thinke it more tollerable , tha● an ordination , so auncient , and so much warranted , neuer interrupted in the orderly gouernment of any Church since the Apostles time , should notwithstanding be remooued , as a calling tyrannous , and antichristian , onely to content the humorous fancies of these men . But ( doubtles ) that which reasonably they mislike in this case , is , that men called to the office of the ministerie ( a function meerely spirituall ) and ordained to the dispensation of heauenly graces , should so farre either forget the vertuous example of our Sauiour , or the humilitie of such whom they desire to succeede , that swelling with ambition , they renew the contention long sincé controuled in the disciples of Christ , which should bee the greatest ; and are content if not to affect , yet to accept of those ciuill imployments , which belong vnto the Princes counsell ; whereby not onely they are made idle , and hindred from that dutie , which the Church requireth , but are puft vp , with those Lordly titles which are directly vnlawfull , and without warrant . Now to preuent this , we admit Synodes ( say they ) and some to gather , and gouerne those assemblies ; but for feare of ambition , we would haue that priuiledge to goe round by course , to all the pastors of euery prouince . Where men are irregular , we will not aske them , either for reason , or example for that they doe ; but a chiefe man amongst them , confesseth , that this going round by course , to gouerne the Church , doth maintaine disorder , and faction ; and ambition is not at all decreased by it ; and the choosing of one , to continew chiefe for his life , began at Alexandria , from the Euangelist Saint Marke , sixe yeeres before Peter and Paul were martyred ; sixe and thirtie before the death of Saint Iohn ; in the which there is nothing that can , or ought to be misliked . This as it is true , so it is warranted with much reason ; for vnlesse we suppose ( a thing surely not likely , if possible ) all in a presbytery to be men without fault , a power to doe harme vnto Christs Church , must by this curcular reuolution , fall into their hands , whom wisedome of election , would hardly haue called to that place . Besides , what men shall worthily suffer , whilest they are inferiors , there is some likelyhoode , they will offer the like , when they doe commaund . Neither is this to quench ambition ( as they thinke ) but to kindle a farre greater , in the whole clergie . For what we giue vnto one experienced of yeeres , tried in gouernment , freed for the most part from the passions of young men , these without difference propound to all . And thus they cure this feuer of ambition , by infecting many ; as if diseases were therefore lesse , because moe were sicke . For what cannot be inioyed without pride , is not easily expected without sinne ; fruition , and expectation of one and the same thing , are so neere , that neither can be vertu●●s where both are not . Neither doe we giue vnto Archbis●ops or bishops , power or honor by Gods law , but what their people must needes yeeld vnto their pastors and presbyters , if they will haue any . We are not to limit Princes whom they shall vse in councell , or to whom they shall commit the execution of their lawes , especially such as are made for the Churches good , seeing we finde that God hath blest those Princes and kingdomes most , where vertuous Bishops haue been admitted to the Princes Councell ; wherein surely they haue brought a farre greater benefit to the peace and prosperitie of the Church , then in reason they could by any other imployment besides . Neither was it a meanes for to be idle , either in Caluin , or Beza ( both of them fit men for that place ) that they were both admitted as councellors of that state . It cannot chuse , but bee great intemperancie in them , who haue so dishonorably laboured to deface that dignitie , so auncient and of such vse in the Church of God , as also to wound euen the best , and the worthyest in that place with tearmes farre vnbeseeming , as if their vngouerned humors , had fully resolued to belch out poyson , against all that were thought excellent . It pleaseth one of them to censure them all thus ; Archbishops , and Bishops are vnlawfull , vnnaturall , false , and basterdly gouernors of the Church ; and the ordinances of the diuell . Another saith , they are in respect of their places enemies to God. Much hath the vnwise and immodest dealings of sundrie in our Church , labored to dishonor so honorable and so great an office ; experience hath taught vs the good of them , and to these we onely make this answere ; that wee are sorrie to see them , so skilfull , and so willing to speake euill . But doubtles it is loue to our present state , which hath made them so zealous in this cause ; for ( saith one ) If we be sworne to her maiesties most lawfull supremacie ouer all persons , and espie in our Church a lordly prelacie , a thing brought into the Church by humane inuention , by meanes weereof it is apparant that the Pope of Rome hath climed about all states both Ecclesiasticall and ciuill , if now , our desire extend it selfe , that our lordly dignities , and power of our Bishops might be examined by holy scripture , and brought backe a degree or twaine neerer to the apostolike practise , and Christs institution , that so all occasions might be cut off hereafter , that this climing vsurpation , might neuer take holde vpon England any more , are we troublers of the state ? Doubtles we are . If it were not a thing possible to make a difference betwixt the clyming vsurpation of the Church of Rome , and the lawfull prelacie , how lordly so euer established in our Church , I doubt not but all our Bishops , would cast themselues at his Maiesties feete , and intreate his highnes to vnburthen them of all that honour , which hetherto they haue held , iniurious to his supremacie , and contrarie to the scriptures , and the Apostles practise . To men of vnderstanding things could not bee thus odiously compared , that are moste vnlike . The Pope challengeth authoritie ouer all christendome , so doe not our Archbishops ; the Pope exalteth himselfe aboue Kings and Princes , but our Archbishops , with reuerence and humilitie , acknowledg their subiection ; and more dutifully ( I doubt not ) then those , who thus carefully are fearefull , of their clyming . The Pope saith , that to bee subiect vnto him , is of necessitie to saluation , our Archbishops acknowledge no such thing ; and as their limits of gouernment are farre vnlike , so the manner of their gonernment , is farre more lawfull ; the one being an vsurpation , which ambition sought out , superstition and pollicie haue holden vp ; the other a necessarie authoritie , which schismes and dissentions in the Church inuented , the Apostles vsed , all antiquitie followed , and the peace of the Church did impose vpon them . So that one of the most modest , and most learned , that seemeth to fauour the cause of discipline , maketh it a principall point of the Ecclesiasticall gouernment , that the inferior clergie in things honest , bee obedient to the Bishop , and the Bishop to the Metropolitan ; expressing the vse of that which others vehemently mislike , and acknowledging the names , and subordination of both . But as it is an imputation , in their opinion , to the Archbishops that their place and authoritie is like the Popes , so it is a blemish to our Bishops , in the iudgement of these men , that for learning and vertue , they are not like vnto those holy fathers of the Church that haue gone before them . We dare not take vpon vs to thinke , that our times are better , and more fruitefull in vertue then other were , or that the Bishops of our land , ( a thing to be wished ) are all of them without fault ; but seeing it pleaseth some to compare them thus , I hope it shall neither be dishonour to the vertuous memories of those that are dead , nor bee thought a flattery towards those that doe liue , if we say ( considering we may say it with much truth ) that for soundnesse of doctrine , honestie of life , and the moderate vse of externall things , they are not inferiour , to the most reuerend of those Bishops , that haue been before them . For doctrine , wee are loth to rippe vp the errors that the anncient Bishops were infected with ; Papias Bishop of Ierusalem ( who liued in Ignatius and Policarpus time ) held the error of a thousand yeere after the resurection , wherein the kingdome of Christ , should here remaine vpon earth . Most of the auncient fathers , were infected with this opinion . Saint Cyprian that same clere fountaine , as Saint Hierom calles him , failed in the opinion of rebaptisation ; diuers both of the Greeke and Latin Church , were spotted with the errors about freewill , merits , inuocation of Saints ; many things might bee alleadged in this kinde ( if it were any vertue to rippe vp their faults , whom we ought to honor ) where as I hope the aduersaries to our Bishops , will confesse , that neuer any companie of Bishops , since the Apostles time , taught , and held such sound doctrine , in all points as the Bishops of England at this day . For the second which is honestie of life , euery age hath some imperfections amongst all conditions , & the most worthie are not free from the slanderers tongue . In the councell of Nice , in the presence of the Emperor , the Bishops libeld one against another ; contentions ouer eager & bitter , were betwixt Epiphanius and Chrisostome , both very worthy and very reuerend Bishops , betwixt S. Austin , and S. Hierom , whereas doubtles , if some zealous for discipline had held their peace , the Church of England had beene as Hierusalem a Citie , built at vnitie in it selfe . Now for the last , which is the moderate Imployment of externall things , vve recken it amongst the greatest felicityes , of our time , that when the expectation of greedy cormorants , was big with hope , of the deuouring the riches and reuenews that the Church had , that euen then , the conscionable zeale of the prince , by vertuous and wise lawes , manacled their hands , whose desires were vnsatiat , and their harts vnhallowed , and left vnto the church , a rich and honorable patrimony , for Indowment , whereby worthy rulers , may not want double honor , labour may haue her merit , and religion may bee able to releeue the poore . Heerein if any couetously doe retaine , or riotously mispend , what vertuous authority confirmed vnto better vses , ( a thing which I hope no man can accuse in the Bishops of our church ) let them amend their faults , and not their offence be made , a cloke to those monsters , that thirst with desire for to robbe the church . More perticulerly amongst the rest , of him who being the worthiest amongst the clergie , and worthylie in the highest place , is by an vntemperate spirit with vnholy sacriledge , said of all the Bishops in the sea of Canterburie , to haue done most harme , and that none had so ambitious , and aspiring a minde , as hee ; no not Cardinall Wolsey ▪ none so proud as he no not Stephen Gardiner ; none so Tyrannicall as hee , no not Bonner . I may say truely of him , that if the church gouernment of this land , which he defended with great Iudgement with his pen , hee had not with as great authority protected for the space of this twenty yeres in the place of an Archbishop ( which God graunt for the good of his church may continew still ) doubtles Contention , Ignorance , and Atheisme , long since had ouer-runne the Church . Of whom , because it is neither honour to him to bee commended by mee , nor disgrace to bee reproched by them , I will say considering his iustice in gouernment , his care in prouiding for the Clergie , his wisedome in Counselling , his Integritie in preferring ▪ his Diligence in Preaching , his grauitie in behauiour , his humilitie in conuersing , his care to the Church , his zeale to religion , his courage to the truth as Theodosius spake of S. Ambrose , I know onelie Ambrose , who is most worthy to be● called a Bishop . But not to labour any further in this cause , ( which hath had so many of singuler worthy men ab●e to defend it much better ) wee say this calling so much misliked , serueth to a greater perfection , to a fitnes in action , and to a singuler ornament , in gouerning the Church . For the first the fulnes of grace , which is in the heads of the Church distilleth as by seuerall wayes , to the singuler benefit of all parts , whilst hee hath giuen some to be Apostles , some to bee Prophets , some to bee Euangelists , some to bee Pastors , and Doctors , for the consummation and Perfection of his Church , for the fitnes in action , the Church hauing diuers Imployments , as well for gouernment , as doctrine , requireth and alloweth seuerall ordinations , to serue these . Let no man therefore presume to vnderstand aboue that which is meete , to vnderstand , but that he vnderstand according to sobrietie , as God hath delt to euery man , the measure of faith . For as wee haue many members in one bodie , and all members haue not one office , so wee being many , are one bodie in Christ , and euery one anothers members . Last of all for Ornament ; that Atheists , vnbeleeuers , may wonder and bee in loue , with the comely and beautifull gouernment of Christs Church , as the Queene of Saba was with the order of Salomons house , for in a great house are not onely vessels of gold , and ●f siluer , but of wood and earth , some for honour , and some vnto dishonor : vnitie and varietie , are the ornaments of the church of Christ ; Vnitie of Faith , Charitie , and Peace ; Varietie of Offices and degrees , and these saith the Apostle for the repairing of the Saints , for the work of the Ministrie , & for the edification of the body of Christ ; for if the whole body were ancare ? wher were the seeing , if the whole were an eie ? where were the heating ? but now hath God disposed the members euery one of them in the body at his owne pleasure ; for if they were all one member , where were the body ? And who are these , that they should mislike what Example , Authoritie and Experience , haue found sufficient . CHAP. X. Of Ministers their office and learning . IF the passage from earth to heauen , were either not needefull at all , or possible to bee performed ordinarilie by any other meanes , then a vertuous meditation betwixt God and man , then peraduenture Instruments of best vse , for the defects of this life , were wholly to bee regarded , and the vtter want of the Clergies seruice , were as lawfull in the best kingdomes , as the contempt of their persons , is vsuall and common with the worst subiects . But seeing vniuersall Corruption , is the truest inscription of mankinde , and holinesse to the Lord is the great title , that God hath , that man by that power may bee made like vnto him that did first make him , hee hath appointed for the performance of this worke , holy times , holy places , holy things , and holy persons ; all chiefely to this end , that as hee is himselfe so man likewise by these might bee made holie . As if the same puritie which could not endure those blessed spirits , once stained to continew in a place of blisse , but cast them down , did lesse reasonablie allow , that creature ( whose greatest happines peraduenture was but vpon earth ) to be carried vp to heauen ▪ into those ioyes , vnles redeemed by his Son , and sanctified by his holy spirit , and by both these by the seruice and ministerie of men , and not Angels , darkenesse were made light , rebellion obedience , the children of wrath the sonnes of an infinit loue , enmitie reconsiled , and made peace , and lastly sinfull men were become holy . So that the summe of their dutie , whose labours are imployed in this kinde , is onely to honour God , and to saue m●n . And their difference from all the world besides , is principally this , that being a seuerall portion of men , consecrated vnto the seruice of the most high , in things wherewith others may not meddle , as the peculiar lot of the Lord himselfe , they are a di●uict order , not vnfitlie expressed by the name of Clergie . Whose spirituall power , consisting in the execution of holy things , properly is conuersant in the affaires of God. Now as no kingdome can stand without Religion ( wherein though they erre yet a religion they must hold ) so no religion can in seuerall duties , bee possiblie performed amongst men , where there are not with some fitnesse instruments allotted to that vse . And heerein Christianitie hath builded a liberall maintenance , in this land , to those that are now gouernours in the church of Christ , where blind Superstition , laid the foundation for the Priests of those Idols , which the heathen worshipped . As for the persons imployed in this action , hee fitted those likewise in a celestiall manner , proportioned with his owne working ; who as in no sort , he tooke vpon him the Angels nature , but tooke on him the seede of Abraham , so hee vsed in this , the ministrie of men not of Angels , because where weakenesse from aboue is able to receiue strength , there the exelentest creatures , and the best meanes , are not all one ; Amazement out of feare , making our capacities more dull where our teachers are too glorious , and charitie not to bee so thankefull , when wee are not indebted to men of our owne nature nor our Preachers are clothed with the same infirmities , that wee are . This being the greatest reason , why Prophanesse doth scorne , and Wisedome despise , what Simplicitie and Humilitie doe both worship . Yet the course of Instruction serueth to teach all , that the waies in these things which God and man vseth are not both alike . Neither was this Office ( though his worke ) befitting the Maiestie of God himselfe , seeing we are apt to contemne that presence ( how glorious soeuer ) if it bee common , or to tremble at the brightnesse of so great a power , if it bee not common . In which respect , that wisedome which knew best , how most fitlie to prouide for 〈◊〉 weakenesse , did sometime ( though seldome ) in a cloud , in a fire , in the shape of a man , appeare vnto his own people , sometime with Moses he spake face to face , yet graunted the desire of his fearefull seruants , when they spake to Moses , talk● thou with vs , and wee will heare , but let not God talke with vs least wee die . This Wisedome of theirs , hauing approbation from God himselfe ; I haue heard the voice of the words of this people , which they haue spoken vnto thee , they haue well said , all that th●y haue spoken ; Oh that there were such an heart in them to feare mee , and to keepe all my commandements alway , that it might goe well with them , and with their children for euer . But to the Sonne of God , when hee became man , so being made fittest , both to do , and to suffer for vs , the voice from heauen gaue this testimonie heare him . As if the same power which by religion purposed to bring man from earth to heauen , found no Instrument fitter for this vse , then onely the seruice of man himself Nothing being so comfortable to vs , as that voice of the Apostles to the men of Listra , wee are euen men subiect to the like Passions that yee bee and preach vnto you , that yee should turne from these vaine things , vnto the liuing God , which made heauen and earth , and the sea , and all things that in them are ; this maketh the Church to go● boldlie to the throne of grace , that she may receiue mercie , and finde grace to help in time of need . Thus al things which are from God , are sodred , as it wer together with so much art and loue , causing a mutuall assistance that the lowest of mankinde , are appointed to receiue from the nearest vnto themselues , what the mercie and the influence of the highest yeeldeth , wherein as those whom God imployeth in this busines , beeing Embassadours receiue commission onely from him , whose inward affaires they menage , hee being the father of Spirits and soules the purchase of his owne sonne , and thereby may challenge of the children of the Church honor and respect aboue other men , so doth the Church likewise require vertuous abiliments , matched with good learning at their hands ; heereof they are fitly remembred by that Vrim and Thummim , vpon Aarons brest , and by those names of Watchmen , Lights , Salt , Guides , and such like , which the scripture doth giue vnto them . Requiring in all ( yet accepting though not excusing a lesse measure ) in some sort an ability sufficient to informe the Church . The small difference in this kinde from the common sort , in some of those ages that haue beene before vs , gaue men occasion to thinck and say , that the Laitie and the Clergie were all one . Nay diuers amongst vs , haue laid this vntrue accusation vpon our Church , ( with what conscience and honestie the world may iudge ) as if our land , onely of all those kingdomes that are reformed , were not carefull , to haue a learned ministrie , but wer absolutely content , with those persons , who for the discharge of this dutie , could but onely reade . Let them first vnderstand what we say , and then let the world bee our Iudge , if wee say true . Doubtlesse if the heathen required in those that were their Priests , that they should bee able for knowledge to performe those duties , of Counsell and Deuotion which others could not , let no man think but that wee principally desire , a soundnesse of Iudgement , knowledge of scripture , wisedome to Interpret , an eloquence to vtter , power to exart , zeale to reproue , in the ministers of God , and all these in farre greater measure , then in other men ; but may wee not seing hee that liueth made all things together , the Lord who onely is iust , and there is none other but hee , and hee remaineth a victorious King for euer , hee ordereth the world with the power of his hand , and all things obey his will , for hee gouerneth all things by his power , and deuideth the holie things from the prophane , say with the sonne of Sirach , to whom hath hee giuen power to expresse his works , or who is sufficient for these things ? neither must this hould all those back who are willing to bestow their labours for the benefit of gods Church , because they are not able ( no not in any tolle●able manner ) to performe all these ; seeing his strength is oftentimes perfected in our weaknesse , and to discharge our calling ( as to auoid temptations ) this must bee our comfort , whilst wee desire for to grow better , that his Grace is sufficient for vs. For as in distribution of gifts , God giueth not the same number of talents , to all , neither doth hee expect equall proportion of increase , nor blameth him that had but one talent , that hee got not fiue , or two , but onely for this that hee did not vse it . So that if those of the lowest sort of Clergie , who in the plentifull knowledge of this age , modestly content themselues onely to reade the Scriptures , and the profitable indeuours of other men ( whilst some not much their betters for learning out of a bold presumption arising from a false opinion of equalitie in all degrees , dare approch the honorablest and grauest assemblies in this land ) shall wee thinke their modestie deserueth so much blame , as that they are not worthy to bee tearmed ministers ? and not rather blame the vnmodest presumption of others , who vnskilfully and boldly , haue taken vpon them , the dispatch of those duties , which doubtlesse by many hundreds , might haue beene performed much better . And I am sorie it fareth with vs in this case , worse then it doth in all other courses besides , seeing commodities , and seruices , are worthely suspected , onely in this respect that they are offered ; and in these functions much holyer , and of more weight , they are thought by some to deserue better , in that they boldly and vnconscionably , outrun the rest . As if in the discharge of these sacred duties , an Vnhallowed Emulation were the best vertue , or that a lawfull ordination to preach , were a warrant sufficient , allwaies to preach where it pleaseth them . This error to bold and ouerfoule , if it were not the vsuall misdemeanor of those men , who to rigorously ( beeing vnlearned themselues ) call for a learned ministrie , wee could as easilie afford them their desired happinesse , as wee are willing to craue pardon for others , that beeing better learned , are not indued with the like boldnesse . Wee doubt not but all men in this calling , haue great reason to vse , the vttermost of their learning to the benefit of Gods Church , and that those who are not so well able to teach others , should indeuour themselues to bee more learned . Which vertuous trauells of theirs , so much deserueth the more fauour , in that there is no calling , which hath not more ease , and whose scope is not shorter , then the vnlimited , and endlesse desire to obtaine knowledge . In which respect , men indued with greater gifts should receiue from the Church a better recompence ; and where there worthynesse is farre vnequall , there both with Prince and people , ( which is some mens error ) their estimation and honor ought not to bee all one . For euen the heathen Philosophers ( who in comparison of these drunk but of the standing waters which were drie in the time of heate ) forsaking the fountaine of life , euen the Lord himselfe , for that glorious show ( which was nothing else but like the beames of a Comet , to be wondred at , for a time , but neither of continuance , nor influence ) amongst many , they were much esteemed ; the heathen Princes finding this benefit at their hands , that those Morall vertues , wherein they were excellent , like sweet flowers had withered long since , if men of learning , like skilful Apothecaries had not distilled them . But the knowledge of these , surely was amisse , in leauing that which was necessarie for a thing superfluous , a thing sound for that which was emptie , profitable for that which to a better life serued to small vse , and a thing ( in comparison ) euill for that which was absolutely good . Yet whilst wee haue dispised these ( digging wels vnto our selues like those of Isack , Contention and Hatred ) were puft vp with an opinion that we know much ; as if our weakenesse , could incounter the worthiest for learning that the Church hath . Who in deed as concerning time , ought to bee teachers , yet haue neede againe to bee taught , what are the first principles of the word of God , and surely the most faults in the Kingdome haue proceeded from this fountaine , that the Priesthoode for doctrine is not sound : Who being faultie in this kinde , if they had tempred themselues from teaching so much , vntill they had learned more , it is like the Church had beene healed of a great part of that malladie , wherewith shee is now sicke . Whom I would bee loath to take vpon mee to reproue , ( seeing in their opinion they are wise men ) but onely to put them in minde of this , that an Ecclesiasticall Ministrie is their function . This ought to teach them , that corners are no fit temples to preach their doctrine , especiallie now in the time of peace , or if necessity at sometimes require it of them , yet that their doctrine bee such , as for soundnesse and truth , it may beseeme the Temple Secondlie that the Church by those whom she hath inuested with that power , should call such vnto that place , whose labours shee pu●poseth to vse in that kinde . For the Church hath no reason to heare their voice , whom Christ hath not commaunded for to feede his sheepe . Wherein if those in authoritie ( by ordaining men altogether vnworthie ) vnhonestlie discharge that trust , which the Church doth Impose vpon them , it is their fault who abusing that honor , which they haue receiued , haue nourished some Wolues , to deuoure the flock . In detestation whereof multitudes often times cry out , whilst Foxes are honoured as holy creatures . But seeing it is true , that the dulnesse of our witts , and the strength of our fancies , maketh vs run after to beleeue , ( and those whom authoritie suppresse as men that deserue euill wee releeue them as martyrs that suffered for well doing ) our Church had small gaine to exchaunge the ignorance of her worst ministers , for the factious Im●loyments of those men Now , seeing these men by reason of their holy function are called stewards , Ouer the Church , which is Gods household , the holie Ghost telleth vs who is a faithfull and wise steward whom the maister shall make ruler ouer all his household , to giue them their portion of Meate in due season ; commending vnto vs ( as some of the fathers obserue ) those fiue properties ; Truth , Humilitie , Discretion , a lawfull Calling , fit execution of the Place , which are requisit in him who desireth the approbation of a good steward that neither hee bee a betrayer of the flock nor wastfull ; accounting that his owne which is but onely committed to his charge ; of such a one wee say as the holy Ghost in another case , who is so faithfull amongst all thy seruants as David . For doubtlesse many men , will boast euerie one of his owne goodnesse , but who can finde a faithfull man. Secondly that hee bee humble , remembring that hee is but a fellow seruant , which vertue is not so repugnant ( as some think ) to the highest title of office in our Church , but that experience hath taught vs , how both of them fitly may bee ioynd together . Thirdly , wise , not blind , nor an Idiote , of whom the Prophet speaketh , their watchmen are all blinde , they haue no Knowledge , they are all dumb dogs , they cannot barke , they lie and sleepe and delight in sleeping ; surely Fortitude , and Constancie are required of such as haue set their hands vnto the Lords plough , wisedome in those that are made watchmen ouer the Lords house , Iustice , in that they are Debters , both to wise & foolish ; and Temperance in the performa●ce of this duty . We may & ought to say ( I hope without off●ce ) to the Honorable Bishops , the fathers of our Churches , as Ioseph said to 〈◊〉 , prouide for a man of vnderstanding , and wisedome , and set him ouer the Land of ●egipt . ther is nothing surely more dangerous then a watchman , that is blind , a Preacher that is dumb , a Teacher that is Ignorant , or a Prelate that is Remi●●e , ●either doe I think our Church , hath so much cause to complaine , ( as some men beare vs in hand ) nor if it had ( as may appeare hereafter ) it is neither onely nor Principally , the Bishops fault . Fourthly a lawful caling , whom the lord hath made not he whom fauour , nor any other corruption , nor the peoples vnwarranted vocation , nor his owne Intrusion hath placed in that roome . For this shall remaine vndispensable to the worlds end , let no man take vpon him that honor , but hee that is called of God as Aaron was . Lastly is required the fit execution of his Place , that hee giue them their meate in due season ; the parties are those , which are of his familie , the Lords house , to them it must bee Meate , not Poyson , as many giue ; and it must bee in Due season , that is when it can seasonablie bee performed . For hee that hath alotted a time for all things , hath giuen this allowance , that there is a time to keepe silence , and a time to speake . Which some not considering , haue made the Apostles commaundement ( Bee instant in season and out of season ) to lie with equall necessitie , vpon the former clause , Preach the word : As if this eagernes in the dispatch of this dutie , might warrant them , loosely , negligently , vnlearnedly ( for want of time ) to preach those profound misteries , which vttered in due season , are like Aples of Gold with pictures of Siluer . Surely to Preach diligently , is not to Preach often , but rather to bee diligent in studying , for that we preach ; which a great number nelecting ( men otherwise zealous and able to doe well ) haue thought it not onely Excuse , but Commendation sufficient , that they preach often . Wherein doubtles the Church receiueth at their hands a double wrong ; both a Contempt of those misteries , wherinto they search not , for want of time , and an vncharitable Condemning of others , who wanting peraduenture that felicitie of tongue which they haue , or rather who are loath to handle those holy things vnlike themselues , are thought by many , to bee Idle , for not Preaching so often , as others doe . A thing certainely more excusable by much , if men in Preaching were onely to haue respect , to the Capacitie of the hearers , and not to the Maiestie of that word , which they expound vnto them . For-getting that Euery Scribe that is taught vnto the Kingdome of Heauen , is like vnto a househoulder , which bringeth forth out of his treasurie things both new and old . I hope the due meditation of this text , wil put them in minde , that to speak often , is not euer to say much ; for saith the son of Sirach , The talking of a Fo●le , is like a burthen in the way , but there is comelinesse in the talke of a Wise man ; they inquire at the mouth of the wise man in the congreg●tion , & they shall ponder his words in their hart , for the words of such as haue vnderstanding , are waighed in the ballance . Doubtlesse I can neuer perswade my selfe , when Wee speake of those matters , which wee haue made vnto the King of Heauen , that the exactest Industrie , which either tongue or pen can take in the handling of this work can displease God ; wherin I will not condemne ( as vnprofitable ) the labours of such , who are defectiue in this kinde ; no more then I hope they will , the Seldome , Reuerend , and learned Preaching of those men , who in these respects are not so common speakers ; as others bee . But not to handle the excellencies of some , and the vertues which were to bee wished in all , let vs consider a little better , the nature of this Ministrie , and see how sufficiently our Church is prouided in this kinde . And the defects ( if there bee any as wee may not supose that wee haue none ) from whence they proceed , and how the best remedies may bee prouided for them . We call then the Ecclesiasticall Ministrie a sacred Action , Publick , Instituted of Christ in the Church of God , for the saluation of the elect , & his own glory , vntill the end of the world , wherein some seuerall men , Lawfully elected , called , and ordained to this function , Externallie and Visiblie , serue both to offer vp the Publick and Common praiers of any one Church , and by the pure Preaching of the word , and the lawfull administration of the Sacraments , and holy Discipline , they serue Instrumentallie to Christ , who Inwardly and Inuisiblie , by his holy Spirit , doth Teach , Correct , Comfort , Nourish with his flesh and bloud , his misticall Bodie , which wee call the Church . The consideration it is like of this office , hath neither fully possest all who are desireous to enter into this calling , ( because whom all other worldlie hopes haue forsaken they commonly reserue ministeriall vocation as their last and surest refuge , euer open to forlorne men ) nor those who blame some part of the Clergie of this land ; whereas in deed the greatnesse of the haruest , and the scarsetie of able workmen hath made it necessarie that Law should yeelde to admit numbers of men , but slenderlie and meanlie qualified ; now as wee cannot excuse the former fault , whether it bee the corruption in their owne desires , or the greedinesse of those who are the Patrons of Church liuings , making that the Church , that should nourish them , whose seruice shee needeth , hath obtruded vpon her their seruice that know not otherwise how to liue , and sustaine themselues . Yet surely for the other neither is the fault so common , as it hath beene in times past , nor altogether so great , ( if these Reformers who haue so much knowledge themselues could but with patience indure a smaller proportion in other menn● ) for it fareth with the Church as with a common wealth , where manie gouernours are needfull , and they not many whom their qualitie can commend ▪ the penu●ie of worthier , must needs make the meaner sort capable , who notwithstanding are not altogether so vnfit as some men thinke to discharge the greatest if not the principallest part which is committed to them . For seeing no man of sound Iudgement , can doubt but that Sacraments , where the Ministers haue lawfull ordination ( nay peraduenture Baptisme wher they haue not ) is as auaileable to saluation , as administred by the best Preacher ; and that preaching it selfe , is not onely to make , and frame of themselues ( which manie doe foolishly , which are thought by their followers that they preach well ) but also to reade the Scriptures , and those learned Homelies of other men , as some vnanswerably haue confirmed vnto vs , and that not the least part of this dutie is the publike offering vp of the praiers of the whole Congregation , which themselues confesse to bee Praiers , though the other to bee no Sermon ; we may boldly say ( which they hitherto are both to confesse ) that Ministers vnable to preach in that manner as they vnderstand preaching , and of lesse profound learning then these great Reformers haue in themselues , and doe wish in others , are notwithstanding True Ministers , Lawfully ordain●d , and that the Church is not simplie faultie , for admitting of these men , to the performance of those duties . Hereunto we add , that seing Priuate Instruction , and Exortation , was the most vsuall kinde of teaching in the Apostles time ; both because Publicke authoritie did not fauour publicke Assemblies to this end , and that simple men are better informed by priuate conference , and considering the nature of profound Schollers , is not altogether so easilie framed to goe from house to house to this purpose , nor can if they had inclination and leasure ▪ probablie frame themselues to the small capacities of the poore people , which ( notwithstanding ) greater imployments of the Church , if they were willing would denie vnto them ; we rather chuse to haue them receiue Instruction , from meane Schollers , such as our Church admitteth ( not vnprofitably ) to that vse , then wholie in expectation of great learned men , to liue and die with no other Information then they heare at Se●mons . So that touching those Arguments taken from the Principles of common right , to proue that Ministers should bee learned , as likewise those authorities of the Apostle aledged to that end , because S. Paul req●ireth in a Minister abilitie to teach , to conuince , to distribute the word rightly , because also the Lord himselfe , hath protested they shall bee no Priests to him , which haue reiected knowledge , and because if the blind lead the blind , they must both needs fall into the ditch , wee hold it iust , and requisite , according to the lawes and statutes which the Scripture hath the Cannons that are taken out of auncient Sinods , the decrees and constitutions of sincerest times ; the sentences of all antiquitie , and the conscience of men ; that Ign●rance is a great sinne , in those that haue taken vpon them the cure of soules . But seing to furnish all places of Cure in this Realme , it is not an armie of twelue thousand men , that would suffiice , nor two Vniuersities ( though both well stored ) can alwaies supply so many as decay in so great number ; nor the fourth pa●t of the liuings with Cure able when they fall to giue maintenance to learned men ; It must needs in reason bee allowed ( vnlesse the greatest part of the people should bee altogether left voide of the vse and exercise of Religion ) that a number must bee admitted into Ecclesiasticall Order , which doubtlesse for learning , are but meanely furnished . For whatsoeuer wee may conceiue in our plots , priuatlie in our studies , or vtter to others to maintaine argument , yet surely reason will tell vs , that ( all vneuitable necessities considered ) besids eminent and competent learning , wee shall bee forced , for supply of this calling , to discend a step , which is neither , but onely tollerable . Wherein if hee that is Iudge , for the allowance of those men , shall finde them able to performe the seruice of publike Praier , to minister the Sacraments vnto the people , to solemnize Marriage , to visit the Sick , and burie the Dead , ( which some fondly think to bee no part of the Ministers dutie ) to instruct by reading ( although by more learned preaching as yet they cannot ) wee hold in this case , that the law of the Apostle is not altogether broken . In this respect we obey necessitie , which we know not how possiblie to auoide otherwise , and of two euils make choice of that , which is lesse dangerous : seeing some inconueniences being tollerated in this , it may notwithstanding be recompenced with greater good ; and if euen these men ( the lowest almost of the Clergie which our Church hath ) who are accounted by others to bee dumb and silent , may and doe in some degree , as profitably instruct their Parishioners as some others , who of as meane gifts but of more audacitie then they , dare take vpon them to expound and deuide the Scriptures by Preaching vpon some text , whervnto notwithstanding they come nothing neere : whereas the onely reading of Scripture in the other , is properly to bee termed a Preaching , what reason haue they with disdaine so to think and to speake of them ? for surely when the world most abounded with iust , righteous , and perfect men , their chiefe studie was the exercise of pietie , wherein for the safest direction they reuerently harkened to the reading of the law of God , they kept in minde the Oracles and Aphorismes of wisedome , which tended vnto vertuous life , if any scruple of conscience did trouble them for matter of actions , which they tooke in hand , nothing was attempted before counsell and aduice were had , for feare least rashlie they might offend , wee are now more confident , not that our knowledge is more , but because our desires are an other way , their Scope was Obedience , ours is Skill , their Indeuour was reformation of life , our Vertue nothing but to here gladlie the reproofe of Vice , they in the practice of religion wearied chieflie their knees and hands , wee especiallie our eares and tongues , wee haue grown to an intemperancie ( as one noteth ) that the desire of Sermons , hath brought almost all other duties of religion out of tast : and in these wee think onelie such , to bee most excellent , who are aptest to mislike what superiors in their wisedome aloweth , and what the giddinesse of our fancies desire to haue chaunged . These compared with the other , which doe onelie read , and yet are obedient to the Princes lawes , are to receiue incouragement and alowance , when as the other , ( better learned paraduenture in small measure ) for their vurulie disobedience deserue neither . For it is much better that the Church should want altogether the benefit of such mens labours , then indure the mischiefe of their inconformitie to good lawes . In which case if any by beeing put to silence , repine at the course and proceedings of Iustice , they must learne to content themselues , with the answere of that wise Roman , which hauing occasion to cut off one from the bodie of the common wealth , in whose beehalfe because it might haue bene pleaded , that the partie was a man seruiceable , he therefore beegan his Iudiciall sentence , with this preface ; The common wealth needeth men of qualitie , yet neuer those men , which haue not learned how to obey . Now because neither any man in our Church taketh vpon him the defence of vnlearned Ministers , nor the lawes of our land inclyne not to the fauoring of that defect , ( as if wee expected no more of any then we allow in some . ) It must needs bee a slander in them , who think there are worthie men enough , if they wer sought after , both in the Vniuersities & other where ; but while men are suffered to run , and ride , and catch before they fall , many worthie men are passed ouer & not knowne , some are faine to bee schoolemaisters , and some beecause of these troubles , change their Audies . First I desire this man to remember his owne words in another place ; If hee think there are worthie men enough , why doth he complaine of the silencing of some as a great wrong to the Church , which in this great scarsitie of good , and lawfull Ministers , did much want their seruice . Secondly , that the Apostle described , the qualities required in men of this calling , doth not say , that if none can bee found , or not a sufficient man , in whome all these qualities concur , that then the Church shal rather be destitute of Ministers , then haue such . For there were in the Apostles time , that swarued frō this rule , and yet he was glad that they preached the Gospell . Heerein we differ not from the confession of the Heluetian church , ( which it is like our aduersaries in this cause doe more reuerence then they doe our owne ) who say , wee condemne all vnmeet Ministers not indued with guifts necessarie for a shepheard , that should feed his flock , how bee it wee acknowledge that the harmlesse simplicitie of some shepheards in the ould Church , did sometime more profit the Church then the great exquisit , but a little to proude learning of some others . Wherefore we reiect not now a daies the good simplicities of certaine so that they bee not altogether vnskilfull of God and his word ; and yet for all this , let no man think , but there are as many learned , godlie , graue , and worthy Ministers of the word in this Church of England at this day , ( bee it spoken without pride to Gods honour and the ioy of our whole land ) as in any one realme , or perticuler Church in all Christendome , that either is now , or hath beene before vs. But for the scarsetie ( not of our owne in comparison of others ) but rather in respect of the multitude of our parish Churches , I hope they will giue vs leaue to render them better , and truer reasons then as yet wee haue receiued at their hands , who onely with out cause to make it the Bishops fault , are willing to tell the world that if these , vrging of order and obedience , which it pleaseth them to tea●●●e beggerlie trifle of mans deuise were not ) that then learning and religion would not bee of so little account , and estimation amongst vs. But I hope all men see , that the defect of prouision in this kind , ( and yet I wish that most reformed Churches were but so well furnished ) is neither from religion professed , nor from the gouernment that is vsed , nor from the gouernours of the Church , but the crueltie of the times past , wherein numbers of meete Ministers haue beene consumed , the vnwillingnesse of manie at this present , who seeing the contentions amongst our selues , and by reason of these the contempt of the Clergie , are vnwilling to enter into this calling , the schismes and deuisions which haue made a number renounce this office , others worthilie to bee suspended and depriued , from all which the Church ( which ought to haue had the vse of the labour and learning of men of abilitie ) is forced to craue a supply at their hands , who are not altogether so sufficient to performe that charge . But the greatest occasion of this euill , is where law and reason haue giuen authoritie to some to be patrons to present , their consciences haue beene corrupt , and they haue failed of that trust which former times haue iustlie reposed in them . Wherein if the people complaine , that their authoritie to choose is defeated by this meanes , surely it is but vnthankfulnesse in them , to mislike a thing begun with so great reason for their good , continued now more then a thousand yeeres , warranted by lawes , and practised with the liking of all nations , the beeginning of patronages is not expreslie mentioned in the lawes of this land , Aduocations & Presentations are remembred in Magna Charta , as currant by the lawes before that time , the plea of Quare Impedit , when Bishops refuse the patrons clarke , is mentioned long since , for this custome was most vsuall , that the patron might not place a Clarke without the Bishop , nor the Bishop refuse the Clarke of the patron , if hee were such as were alowable by the Canons of the Church . In Spaine before that time , the councell of Toledo made this Canon ; wee decree that so long as the founders of Churches remaine in this life , they shall bee suffered to haue the chiefe and continuall care of the said place , and themselues shall offer meete Rectors , vnto the Bishop to bee ordained in those Churches , and if the Bishop ( neglecting the founders ) shall presume to place any other let him know that this admission , shal bee voide and to his shame , others shal be placed in their steads , euen such as the founders shall choose , beeing not vnworthy . Long before this the like was determined by the Roman lawes , strictlie to bee obseruēd through the Roman Empire . If any build a Church or house of praier , and would haue Clarks to bee placed there , hee or his heires , if hee alow maintenance for those Clarks , and name such as are worthy , let them bee ordained vpon his nomination , but if such as they choose bee prohibited by the Canons , as vnworthy , then let the Bishop take care to promote some whom hee thinketh to bee more worthy . It seemeth this law had two reasons , for the patronage , which doubtlesse are not the least ground of that intrest which they now haue . The first the building of the Church , a work which while the world was in loue , with religion gaind greatest reuerence , to those of whom it could point and say , these are the men that haue built vs Sinagogs . Heerein if any fraudulentlie discharge , that vertuous trust which through many discents is deriued vnto them , I hope God will looke vpon them in mercie to amendment , as the carefull Phisition vpon sick persons : in the meane time I must tell them what I heare , that the church by their meanes is like the body of the Amalekite , sicke , and vnlesse it bee refreshed , like spedily to die for famine . For whilst meaner men , content with lesse alowance hauing beene important suters for places in the Church , obtaine them ; the Patrons haue deuided the maintenance of the Clergie , and the small alowance hath depriued them peraduenture of a better teacher . And howsoeuer good lawes haue beene made , to auoide the corruptions of Patrons in this kinde , yet the couetous desires of such , as hardly satisfied , are able to finde meanes to escape the danger , and yet falselie notwithstanding to defraud the Church . For humane lawes ( how vertuous or religious soeuer ) where the vprightnesse of conscience is wanting , serueth for the most part , not to make the sinne to bee lesse common , but the sinner in the fact to bee more secret : seeing betwixt God and man , this is the difference , that the law of man , what it seeth doth account sinne ; but God punisheth as a fault what no man can reueale , sauing onely the conscience of him that sinneth . In the one Confession is a way to obtaine pardon , but in the other a meanes to procure punishment ; They onely are vertuous , who without all respects in respect of Conscience , are onely vertuous . To conclude then this point , we say our lawes , & our tongues desire that our Ministrie may be learned , through the whole land : that the hinderance of this is not wholy in the gouernours of the Church : that a lesse portion of learning may serue , then some men exact in all ; & vntill better supply may be had , we Reuerence , Vse , and Esteeme , the meanest of these , as the Ministers of Iesus Christ. CHAP. XI . Of the maintenance of the Ministers , and of Tythes . AS it is of all vertuous considerations to a Prince not one of the lest moment , ( if both for the safetie of his subiects , for remouing of scandall , and the discharge of his owne conscience in the day of account , it bee not the greatest ) to prouide for a learned Ministerie in all parts of his kingdome ; so it is not either of least difficultie or least vse , to ordaine a conuenient and bountifull allowance for them ; neither can this ( how wisely soeuer gouernd ) bee a perpetuall maintenance , if it shall depend vpon the voluntary contribution of rich men ; or to be thought an allowance fit and conuenient for them , if it be not . So that the wisdome of deuout men in times past , from their religion , were as carefull to haue alotted a perpetuitie of liuing to them whose continuall successors could not dye , and were not lykely to be very euill ; as naturall parents , for that race , which proceeding out of their owne bodies , ( more subiect both to ende and miscarry ) are notwithstanding desirous , that they may be richly furnished , and plentifully maintained for a long tyme. Vertue working as strongly and prouidently in the one , as nature and affection in the other . So that what care those that were beefore vs , vertuously imployed in this kinde , by indowing both Churches , and other places , ( both to furnish and giue rest to the Clergie ) with honorable , & perpetuall alowance to this end , serueth both to make the labour now far easier , to prouide maintenance for a learned Ministrie , the greatest part whereof their religious deuotion hath performed vnto vs ; as also to make vs , so holily to esteeme of those things which their wisedome did consecrate to this end ; that pollicie cannot thinke alterations or diminutions in this kind to bee safe , euen where vnhallowed , Prophane , and cruell Sacriledge , were accounted to bee no sinne . For seeing the Chruch peraduenture doth now want , what authoritie thought fit , to take from her , because Superstition had made her too rich , and Alterations onely might haue giuen some hope , that time would haue brought those religious houses and lands into their possessions againe , whose erronious blindnesse deserueth an euerlasting banishment : it is wisedome rather to tollerate some things , for the maintenance of the Clergie , which a few wandring person ( made rich by contributions , whilst a great number zealously blind are made poore to maintaine them ) think and write against with great bitternesse , ( as the meanes of idlenesse and a superfluous pompe ) then stirred vp by the inconsiderate enuie of these men , being vpon the Church such vnnecessarie want , that if the deuotion of the Apostles time , wherein they sould their possessions , and laid the price at their feete , faile , ( as no doubt they doe ) the Church must either bee desperately poore , or beg her reliefe from those kingdomes that are next vnto her . Wherein besides the iniurie to God , which is no lesse then a boulde prophanation of holy things ▪ the Church receiueth at their hands a double wrong . First an apparant discouragement from entring into that calling , wherein how faithfully soeuer they imploy themselues , & with how great sinceritie soeuer it be vndertaken by them , yet few or none ( doubtles ) wil be willing to vndergoe either the labour or the contempt , wher so slender recompence , & so small rewards , are alotted to them . Both which of necessity must be , seeing almes , seldom , when it is no matter of extraordinarie zeale , floweth with so great a streame from worldly men , that it hath or can haue , any possibility to effect either : the other is the intollerable burden of the poore , which now lieth vpon the shoulders of the laitie ; in former times whilst the church was rich , beeing chiefely the humble almes-men of religious houses , and now because both the charity , and the meanes faile , the Clergie ( who for the most part are fitter to receiue then to giue reliefe ) haue referred this waight to the laitie , which neither they can well beare , nor easely put off . And yet an extremitie in this kind , hath bene the originall of good lawes , for the redresse of it . Now surelie all this must of necessitie bee more desperatlie euill , if either our owne couetousnesse , or the clamorous zeale of some inconsiderat men , cause vs to make a diuision , ( as of pray ) ( whatsoeuer our pretences are ) of that last , and least portion of the Churches wealth . Now because the first groūd of that plentifull alowance , which the Church had , was the religious consecrating of a portion of our goods to his seruice , who had reserued a part of our time meerelie to that end : and seeing our liberall dealing with God , was the best and most thankfull acknowledgment , of his bountifull and liberall dealing with vs , holy men did confesse , ( as well in the one as in the other ) that in mercy , they did receiue both their time and their riches from his hand : so that by a part ( and that small in comparison of what wee allot vnto other vses ) we confesse his absolute dominion , by whose fatherlie goodnesse , wee receiue the whole . Wherein through couetousnesse , or any other sinister occasion to bee defectiue , were to denie vnto God , that which belongs vnto him , seeing neuer any nation in the world did honour him , and not account it a speciall part of their dutie , to doe him honor with their verie goods . A part doubtlesse in christianitie of our Morall dutie , seeing for the sway riches carrie in the world , and for that inclination which mens minds haue to cleaue fast vnto these things , wee are naturallie more apt , to honor our riches as God , then to honour as wee ought God with our riches . So that vnlesse this tribute ( as it were ) daylie put vs in minde whose subiects we bee , wee are apt to make our selues Kings , and the world to bee our owne free , and independant inheritance . Now seeing what wee offer vnto God , serueth vs well for the perpetuitie of religion , ( which cannot possiblie continue without a conuenient alowance for such as are necessarilie to bee imployed in the Ministerie thereof ) as it doth to expresse our thankfull acknowledgement , of his mercie from whence wee receiue all that wee haue , in all ages both the gift hath beene refused , and the giuers reproued , whensoeuer the coldnesse and want of deuotion in the people , made their oblations to bee sparing , and little worth : for there ought to be some proportion , both betwixt him whom wee desire and hope that he will accept our oblations , as likewise betwixt the principalest end , and the things themselues : wherein whatsoeuer either our errour or defect bee , the burden of that euill , must in the end fall vpon our owne heads . In which respect , euen the heathen themselues : thought it vnmeete , to offer that vnto God , which was impure , or vnsound , or alreadie giuen , or else not truely their owne to bestow . Now concerning the vse of those riches , whether in moueables , or lands , which out of mens deuotions were consecrated to holy ends , their bestowing is not for God ; who hath no neede of any thing that is ours , seeing the earth is the Lords , and all that therein is ; but because it is our good and aduantage to bee exercised with donations of that kinde , & he accepteth them to no other end , but to haue them imployed to the endles continuāce of religion it selfe . So y e , inexcusable is the sacriledge of those men , who robbing the Church , seeke by that pollicie to ouerthrow religion ; and their opinion is not altogether sound , who think no more fit to bee the possession of the church , then may serue by a false proportion of theirs ; to make a naked , and bare allowance to some inferiour , worthlesse men of the Clergie ; to whom notwithstanding whilst necessitie & want of due prouision inforceth them to beg their maintenance from the Layetie , they vnproportionably commit the greatest & weightiest authorities in the church , wholly or principally , to be ruled by them ; as if naturall and politick wise men did not think that they might iustly challenge an ouerswaying of their Counsells , whose verie liuing , food , & rayment , must be deducted out of their coffers ; to whome they will be content , so long to be beneficiall and liberall , as nothing by the Clergie , either in doctrin , or discipline , shal bee performed contrary to the liking of these men . So that the complaint of the pride & authoritie in church-men , is onely from hence , not that in deede their riches are too great , but that the maintenance which they haue alotted from antiquitie , ( and happely by good lawes confirmed vnto them ) is a free , and absolute right , and possession , no wayes depending vpon the courtesie and fauour of laye men ; who for the most part expect obedience , and seruice , where they are voluntarily content , to afford alowance . Men seldome being willing to be reprooued by those men , whose condition is absolutely , to depend vpon their maintenance . This being the ordinarie effect of liberalitie in this kinde , beesides that patrons to the Clergie may grow poore , & that all men at the length become wearie to be continuall giuers . Seeing then we can haue no exemption from publishing of that gospel , without a woe ; by which the earth hath men vertuous , and the heauen glorious , and that without maintenance all the fathers are of opinion , it is lawfull to substract our labour ; and that this maintenance can neither bee conuenient nor perpetual , if it be Almes ; wisdom hath found it out , ( which our Fathers beefore vs haue practised ) that it was not ( thought a great honor to those that did it ) enough onely to build churches , & to furnish them with rich ornaments , ( not so much to further deuotion as to bee a treasurie for what want soeuer the church might haue ) as also because these moueables , were subiect to casualtie , to prouide that the church might haue for perpetuitie , a large indowment of inheritance , in lands : so that seeing wee goe not a warfare vpon our owne expence , nor plant not those vineyards wherof wee are , or can be debarred to eate the fruit ; nor feed not those flocks , whose milk ought not to bee our foode ; and seeing all that wee doe , is accompanied with a hope , which seldome faileth to aunswere the sowing , & the reaping of other men ; It were a thing vnreasonable , and vnhonest , to crie so much for either learning , or paines , extraordinarie in the Clergie , vntill first we had in all parts of the land , sufficiently prouided for the maintaining of them . For doubtlesse seeing their function deserueth honor , ( wh●ch seldome amongst men is performed what worth soeuer bee in the persons where their abilities are small ) ( this beeing the common fault of our corruption to think a want of desert whersoeuer there is a want of reward ) It is fit that the maintenance for all ( though not for all alyke ) were such , that the reuerent and estimation which many desire , & ouergreedely hunt after , a Cato might not aske but the common wealth should bestow it vpon him for his vertuous merit without sute . And doubtlesse without conuenient liuing , vertue shall want honor , and contempt must needs follow wher that is wanting . b For howsoeuer the best preachers ought to shun it , to auoide pride , yet they are willing to be honored , that they may be followed ; and though wee preach not to receiue reward , or recompence , which wee ought to bee willing , if wee were able to doe without others ; c yet wee receiue recompence , and reward , that wee may preach . Neither in this doe wee demaund , what nature and reason can deny vnto vs ; for the labourer is worthie of his hyer . Now seeing the Clergie ought to haue a fit maintenance , and that some cause , ther was in all ages , why besides sundry other more rare Donations of vncertaine rate , the tenth should be thought a reuenew so natural to be alotted out vnto God ; let vs consider a litle without offence both the conueniencie of this proporcion , and what some reformers displeased with the name of Tythes , ( a thing in their opinion Iewish and Cerimoniall ) haue in stead thereof offered by way of aduise vnto the church , as a conuenient meanes of allowance for her . Where seeing maintenance for the Clergie is all that wee stand for ; wee hope their indifferencie cannot but graunt vs this fauour , that it may arise out of that proportion , and in that manner as all antiquitie before vs , haue thought fit ; vntill they shall finde out some other meanes whereby the allowance may be certaine and much better . And herein though wee make not the practice of Abraham , who gaue the tithes of what hee had taken in war vnto Melchisedech , to bee a rule of an absolute necessitie to all men , that any way are increased , and shall liue now , yet seeing it was then done by him , who it is like knew better , what was fit then wee doe , and paraduenture was to bee an example to the faithfull , as well in this as in other things : ( who therefore amongst other reasons are called the sonnes of Abraham ) and at that time , when the cerimoniall law was not commaunded with so great strictnesse , it may bee a better warrant for the children of the Church to prouide for her allowance by example , then to hazard , such new inuentions of our owne , as beeing reiected in this respect onelie that they are new , wherein they are subiect to much preiudice , are not altogether so like to afford vnto the Church a maintenance either of that indifferencie , or continuance as tithes doe . For doubtlesse euen these , would bee much diminished , and detaind if antiquitie , and custome , did not tell vs , that were fit which lawes and ordinations commaund to bee done by vs , wherein to refuse what hath beene the practice of former times , ( onelie because it was proportionable to that age ) is ouer well to esteeme of our selues , and rather to hazard an opinion of singularitie , then to bee thought wise . Besids if Iacobs vowe , at such time , as hee tooke his Iorney towards Haran was , that if God will bee with mee , and will keepe me in this voyage , which I am to goe , and will giue me bread to eate , and clothes to put on , so that I may returne , to my fathers house in safetie , then shall the Lord bee my God , and this Stone which I haue set vp as a Piller , the same shall bee Gods house , and of all thou shalt giue mee , I will giue vnto thee , the tithe : be a rule not onely of prescription , but an example of warrant ( what ought and is fit to bee done by vs in the like case . Doubtlesse wee are no sooner to think of Gods protection and his blessing of our increase , but withall to think of the furtherance of his worship , and that not the least effectuall to this end , is our iust and liberall paying of our tithes . Wherein if vowes , be but a more speciall obligation of our dutie , in those things which religion generallie doth require at our hands , it must needs seeme equall and iust , ( both for others who are free in the like case for to vow the like ) and for those who alreadie by lawes stand boud to the same duties , to performe them sincerelie and with much truth . Now this which nature taught , vnto the heathen themselues , making tenne that portion which they paid for deuine tribute , the law after by Moses imposing equally vpon all ( euen by this meanes the poorest among them yeelded equallie the same proportion as the greatest did ) in affection peraduenture much more . It was to them an vndoubted assurance that in Gods sight , from whom all good is expected concerning acceptation , and protection , they were all one : and that this thus bestowed was not lost , but that the remainder was sanctified by this meanes , and that God receiuing a part , vndertaketh to blesse all . And doubtlesse if we were as vertuously inclined , either to depend vpon God for new blessings or humbly to giue thanks for those we haue alreadie receiued ( as sometimes the Iewes were ) wee must needs account our tithes , a hedge and a wall to the rest wee possesse besides . For these being truely brought into the storehouse , that there may be meate in my house , proue if I will not ( saith God ) open vnto you the windowes of heauen , and powre downe vpon you , an vnmeasurable blessing . So that although the Church bee now free from the law of Moyses , yet because nature hath taught men to honour God withall that they possesse , and the scripture hath left vs an example of that particuler proportion , which for Morall considerations hath ben thought fittest by him that could best iudge ; and seeing the Church hath entred into the like obligation long since ; it must needs bee a question altogether supersluous to dispute whether tithes bee a matter of diuine right . For doubtlesse that which lawfully ( whilst it was ours ) wee might retaine , now being once by our own consent for that which our fathers did , the law accounteth to bee our act ) alienated from our selues , wee can no more warrantablie retaine backe , then Ananias the price of those possesions , whereof voluntarilie hee made sale for the Apostles vse : for they no sooner by alienation passe from vs , but the propertie being altered , God for euer after , doth account them and recken them to bee his owne . Whose tribute either to diminish , or to wash and to clip that coyne , whervpon God hath placed his owne marke , must in the end proue heauie , and shal be punished as the robbing of God himselfe . And therefore least any man should challenge a proprietie , by any interest in these things , the lawes doe account , them the possessions of none . a The vertuous consideration whereof , made those princes memorable and famous , which tooke vpon them inuiolablie to defend the Churches right ; whereas the bold prophanation in others , puld downe the wals of their kingdome , b and their hands were ouer weake to rule those scepters committed to them , because before they were vnhallowed and poluted , by presumptuouslie aduenturing for to robbe the Church . Wherein the resistance of some inferiours in this case , were of a little merit , if nature had not taught all men to abhor Sacriledge . For this alone ouerturneth Kingdomes , when souldiers are made rich by the churches spoiles ; And these for the most part as a c wise man noteth , suffer both the miserie of beggers and the infamie of robbers ; seeing then the indowment of our church , for the continuall supplye and reward of the Clergie , aryseth from some lands , but principally from Tythes , and these well and conueniently alotted , by former Kings , to giue maintenance both to Colledges , which may breed deuines , as to Cathedrall Churches , where deuines after their paines may well rest , ( both places beeing the rich storehouses of learned men seruiceable to the Church for many vses ) it cannot bee but an intention of ouermuch enuie , and violence , to seeke inconsideratlie an alteration , and impouerishing of these honourable allowances for these places , by which in the end all feruent studie of deuinitie in the best dispositions must needs perish , so that if men had as much freedome to alter , and diminish the liuing of the Church , as of other persons , yet no man can think it safe , nor possible for a Ministrie to continue learned in that kingdome long , when other professions grow rich , and the reueneues of the Church faile . Tithes then beeing a dutie wherevnto all men are now bound , both by law of nature , deuine positiue , and a vertuous voluntarie obligation to the Church , wee can see no great reason in the refusers of them , why they shoud either altogether bee kept back , or else bee alienated to other ends . For where the law of nature requireth a sufficient maintenance for the Minister , the law positiue being a determination of the former , alloweth the tenth to bee the best proportion , wheerein if this bee remembred , that the maintenance bee sufficient , we doubt not but the prince may determine the tenth , or the fift , or any other number , to bee the measure . Yet surelie stronger reasons , and of more equalitie in all ages , haue beene found , for the tenth , then for any other number besides , that tenne being the perfection of all number , and this dutie ( as it were ) a quit rent to him that is the author of all perfection , as it is , or hath beene moderatlie conuenient to maintaine those , whom hee imployeth in that businesse , so most fitly , it is answereable to his owne perfection . And if the bond of allowance arise from the benefit which wee receiue at their hands , whom Gods ordination for our good , imployeth in that kind , it must needs follow , that the tenth vnder the law , being the proportion which the Clergie had , there is small reason why now , ( their seruice being more honorable and the benefits more singuler ) their maintenance and allowance should be made lesse . In all things surely , this being the rule of our sauiour Christ , that our righteousnesse should exceede theirs : so that though Christians now be all freed from the burthen of ceremoniall precepts , yet from oblations , and tenths , they are not . And whereas in S. Austins time , some part of Africa , were not accustomed to pay Tithes , hee exhorteth them to this dutie , from the consideration of those blessings which came vpon their labours , whilst they were not slack in these , which once beginning to faile , they found by experience , that they lost all . A dutie as tribute vnto Kings , not onely to bee paid there where the Prince is vertuous , but also ( with as much conscience ) where they are not : for duties belonging vnto callings , are not dispensable for the vnworthinesse of the persons : seeing Gods ordinations , must not be altred without his warrant : neither are these therefore to bee retained or diminished , because the abilities of some persons , is able to liue without them ( which hath beene the heresie of some men ) but being the recompence of their charge , & labour , to those that are appointed , ( whether poore or rich ) they are due vnto both alike . Whereunto though we leane not either so strōgly ( as some Canonists ) to make ten , an absolute neccessitie of the maintenance for the Clergie ; or so weakely to make Tithes ( as some doe ) either Almes , or Ceremoniall● yet we thinke , as a mainetenance for the Ministerie is necessarie , so the Tithes are the fittest , from whence this maintenance may arise vnto them ; which being in many places either small , or otherwise imploied , so that a conuenient allowance can not arise from thence , to maintaine the Clergie , some other meanes must bee thought of , by those whom it may concerne fitlie , and without iniurie , to supplie that want . And if Counsell to that purpose may seeme needefull , this Church ( God bee thanked ) is not destitute of men in both the Vniuersities and else where , indued with ripe iudgement , whensoeuer any such thing shall bee thought necessarie , who as their care is originally the greatest , for the continuall supply of a learned Ministrie ( the rest without them for the most part being but troublers of the Churches peace ) it shall be a consideration ( if so it may stand with his maiesties most Royall , vertuous , & Princelie wisedome ) in all reason fitest to bee thought of by their care . For which end at this present , to propose any speciall inuentions of my owne , might argue in a man of my place and calling , more presumption perhaps then wit. But seeing there are some who though they can bee content , that the Clergie should haue a maintenance , yet think notwithstanding , that the tenth is no fit proportion , because the reason for the Leuites and our Clergie is far different , they being the twelfth or the thirtenth part of the people , ours not the hundreth , it is fit though all men see that this proportion is to many but a meane liuing , to giue some reason to satisfie these men , why with equall conuenience , the tenth is a number , as proportionable to vs , as it wasto the Leuites in the old time . To omit then , what some of the schoolmen write , that the Clergie are to maintaine the poore , which are without number , ( a burden now wee are not vnwilling , but vnable to beare ) yet wee answere further , first that the Leuites were not the thirtenth part of the Iewes , and ours the hundred , for the Hebrewes are numbred , ( without Leuites ) from twenty yeeres olde vpward ; Sixe hundred and three thousand , fiue hundred and fiftie men fit to goe to warre , ( children and olde men not reckoned ) all which being added to the former , it may bee thought likelie , that the number might arise to a million and three hundred thousand . Now the Leuites , all from the infant to the old men , were but two & twentie thousand , so that adding these to the rest , and deuiding the whole by two and twentie thousand , the parts deuided are threescore : Which was much about that proportion which the Leuites were , in respect of the other people ; which number peraduenture some thinke , when all religious places did stand ( as now in other countries ) was not any great difference , from the proportionate number betwixt the Clergie and the Laitie at this day . But this is not the whole reason , for seeing the christian Clergie , are liable to greater labour , and more cost , then the tribe of Leuie amongst the Iewes , then but one Temple , one high Priest , and a few priests , of the house of Aaron , which in their course serued in the Temple ( the rest being allotted to inferiour vses ) whereas now the temples are innumerable to bee maintained , from the Church , many Bishops , and prelates , whose places are more needfull to the benefit of religion , then the inferiour Clergie , many Ministers , and learned deuins , whose labour , and expences are infinit to gaine knowledge , and afterward they serue not by turns , but continuallie attend vnto their charge , where it is fit they should liue able to maintaine hospitalitie , in a bountifull manner ( which is not so much for their owne families as for the entertainment of strangers ) ( the former being House keeping the latter Hospitalitie ) wherevnto if wee add , that manie are free , from tithes , and that tenthes and other payments , are a part of the Clergies cost , wee see no great reason , but as a maintenance is fit for the Clergie now , so this proportion of tenne , ( if it bee not too little ) is as agreeable to vs , as it was to the Leuites in old time . Neither doe we heereby bring vnto all parishes , that superfluous charge , ( which they of the new discipline doe ) as first besides in euerie parish a Pastor or two , there must bee a Doctor at the least , manie Elders , ( two and twentie some say ) ( though Geneua haue but twelue ) certaine Deacons , a colledge of widowes , and all these ( as they say ) must bee found , by the parish charge . Now what were conuenient seuerallie to bee allowed vnto their maintenance , ( though wee cannot finde , an Vnitie in their diuersitie of opinions ) yet for the Pastor they are cleare two hundred pound yeerelie , in chieffer places more , and in none lesse then two hundred marks ; this with the rest amounting to so great a summe , and all from the maintenance of the Church , which yet experience telleth vs is scarse able to maintaine one learned diuine in euerie parish ) we demaund ( without offence at their hands ) from whence they can hope or imagin , such maintenance to arise , to bee the strength and the sineues of their new discipline ? but because in this to follow any other coniectures then their owne words , were perhaps to wrong them , ( which willingly we would not ) it shall not bee amisse to consider that aduice , which they haue giuen , how for the expence of all this , in their wisedomes , the maintenance of the Church , may bee made sufficient . First one saith ( if it were but the act of one as commonly in this case they pretend number ) If no other way may be found then haue the Bishops , and Cathedrall Churches , Temporalties enough , to redeeme those liuings , that be impropriated ; other counsel the same author giueth , which haue bene all answered ; another saith the same which the Lord B. B. and the Cathedral Churches doe possesse , if it be taken in time , beefore it be to much scambled , how well would it serue , to redeeme Impropriations , and augment the smaller things , & with the ouerplus to serue to other good vses for his Maiesties wars , and increase of learning ; and a litle after , ( as if his counsell were worthie twise to be repeated ) he addeth the same : nay he wisheth all to be taken from the Bishops . Yet still they must remaine to the Ministerie , and the common wealth : onely to change the order , and manner of the applying , that wheras before they serued to vphold a Lordly pompe , Idlenes , and brauerie in some few , they might now by a wise , & godly distribution bee communicated vnto many , for the benefit of many Churches : and if Bishops liuings be to litle , a free beneuolence , and as it were an offering of all sorts of people , young and ould , through this land , ought to bee . Heereunto I might ad the counsell which others giue , all tending to this end , that whatsoeuer the church hath , and is not bestowed according to the fancie of these men , should presently be altered , and vndoubtedly by many degrees lamentably , be imployed to worse vse . It pleased that wisdome and Maiestie which then ruled ouer vs , to discerne the cruell purpose of these men , & to hold it vnsafe to aduenture a worse maintenance for the clergie , by a worse meanes . And surely wee doubt not , but this great vnderstanding , to whome God for our happinesse , hath committed the gouernment of the church and the common wealth , whose dayes wee desire may continue , as the dayes of heauen , will throughly vnderstand , that a maintenance thus procured , can bring litle aduantage vnto Gods church , when by this meanes colledges , Bishops , or cathedrall churches , are puld downe . For if the fountaines be dryed vp , a generall thirst , must be the disease of our whole land . If the clergie want gouernours , better to be without maintenance , then without order . And last of all if recompence be taken away , wherwith the clergie maintained , may take rest , not ease , for the time to come , benefiting the church peraduenture in another manner , lamentable experience must needs tell vs , that in short space , the number of diuines wil be very few . In tymes past there was in euery citie a Colledge of Ministers , ouer whome the Bishop bate rule , the which Sainct Hierom termeth the Senat of the Church , and with vs it is called a Collegiat , or Cathedrall church : wherein for the most part ( for wee cannot excuse all ) after their labour in the vniuersitie , in the Kings house , in Bishops pallaces , in their painefull imployment , either by writing or teaching in other places , are plentifully maintained ( as it is most fit ) the best , the wisest , and the most learned of the clergie in this land , which not onely ( as that most reuerend Archbishop worthy of all honor sometimes said ) in respect of their soundnesse in religion , profoundnesse in learning , diligence in preaching : but wisdome also , experience , and dexteritie in gouerning , are not onely a singuler ornament to the Realme , profitable to the church , an honor to the prince , but also a stay frō barbarisme , a bridle to sects and heresies , and a bulwark against confusion . From whence I doubt not ( next vnto those two famous noursing places of learning the Vniuersities ) but when our kingdome shall haue cause to send to the greatest councell , that the church shall haue , men of wisest moderation , best liues , and deepest iudgements , that these places , shal be able to furnish them , with much honor : & therfore as it is a bold presumption in those men , who ( without degrees ) for some commendable paines in preaching , think it merit enough , to aduance them to that honor , so the sacrilegious impietie of those is without excuse , who wish & desire all places of that nature , to be pulled downe , or their reuenues to bee altered to some other vse : make them ( O Lord ) and their Princes like Oreb and Zeb , yea all their princes like Zeba , and Zalmana , which haue said , let vs take the houses of God in possession : O my God make them lyke vnto a wheel , & as the stubble before the winde . To conclude then this point , as wee hartely wish the Ministerie of England to be learned , so wee hope the wisdome & vertue of those whome it doth concerne , without iniurie of any person , state , or condition wil in due time , think of conuenient allowance for them : and this not by selling , or changing of any thing to a stock of money , ( which was the manner of the maintenance in the primatiue Church ) seeing wee are taught by experience , that things of that nature are vncertaine , and are not so likely to carrie to those that come after a perpetuitie with them , it may bee that if any age were so prophane , or authority were carried away with the violence of these spirits , by the wounds of the Church , to cure the Wants of some few , and meane persons ( a thing God bee thanked not much to bee feared in this religious and vnderstanding age vnder the gouernment of so vertuous and so wise a King ) the Church paraduenture might keepe a Festiuall day of solemnitie , plentie , and all aboundance , for some few yeeres , and for euer after , Lament her desolation and ruin , in want , Penurie , Ignorance , and Contempt , vnto the worlds end . And whereas the ages before vs gaue this deserued honor to some few , These were those holie and religious men that did build vs Temples , Colledges , Cathedrall Churches , and gaue ample reueneues vnto them all , for the continuall supply , of a learned Ministrie , our posterity in the vnfortunat times , of fasting and mourning , after so vnhallowed a feast , and so prophane a surfet , should haue cause to bemoane their losse , and lament the times , where vnto they were reserued , cursing these sacrilegious Reformers , that haue spoild the Churches , the riches whereof being put to saile , haue serued but to satisfie the couetous pollicie of some few , & those neither of much worth , not for long time ) it wil be a most vertuous consideration , wherein his Maiestie shall giue perfection to the happie beginnings of our late Queene Elizabeth , ( the nursing mother of our Church whose memorie shal be sacred to all posterities ) by prouiding that the allowance for the Clergie may be good , & conuenient and that those onelie bee suffered to enter into , and to execute that function , who haue learned themselues , and will teach others , in thankfull obedience , to be gouerned by those whom reason and religion haue placed ouer them , the other course must needs breed confusion , contempt of authoritie , needlesse discontentments , indiscret reprehensions , ignorant teachers , and the disorder of all states , whereas the wisedome , and counsell of those , who are alreadie aduaunced in our Church , conspiring with so learned , and so wise a King shall fill his landfull of good subiects ; his Vniuersities full of good schollers ; all Churches ( in time ) with excellent Deuines , and in one word our whole land , with men of singuler worthinesse in all professions . CHAP. XII . Of Non Residencie , Pluralities , and Dispensations . WEE cannot but commend the religious disposition of those men , if their intentions be as good , as their care doubtlesse seemeth to bee great , who awaking that Idle Ministerie , which in their opinion sleepeth in our church , cal all men to a necessarie consideration of those duties , which beelong vnto them : which either ease , or other imployments , might paraduenture , cause them to forget . Negligence which in other cases , runneth not either into that hazard , or can be likelie to bee the originall of so great daungers , being in the calling of the Clergie , ouer that flock , wherof the holy ghost hath made them ouerseers , the verie downefall ( so far as mans , reason is able to discerne ) into an euerlasting woe ; both vnto themselues , & vnto those soules , which are committed to their care . So that the same spirit , which in other cases , and at other times , vttereth those comfortable promises , of the greatest loue , beegetting in man , by his blessed working , an assured hope of an endlesse mercie , heapeth vpon him in this kinde , and for this sinne , euen vpon those , who aboue others he hath honored with these titles , to bee watchmen , Shepheards , and the leaders of Christs flock , the names of blinde watchmen , dumb doggs , which can neuer haue enough , Idle Shepheards , that leaue their flocks : the sword shal be vpon his right arme , and vpon his right eye : woe vnto the shepheards which feed themselues , should not the shepheard feede the flock ? they bee the blinde leaders of the blinde , imposing this dutie vpon all , to take heede vnto themselues and to all the flock whereof the holie Ghost hath made them ouerseers to feed the Church of God which hee hath purchased with his owne blood , so that Teachers being those Shephards , whose flocks cannot at any time be without daunger , those Watchmen whom the most malicious enemie , doth alway beseege , those labourers in that Haruest , which neither can haue end or Intermission in this life , those liuing Oracles of God , to whom men must resort in all doubts , those Spirituall fathers , which must bee alwaies readie in priuate conference to admonish , to reproue , to Exhort , to Instruct , to Comfort , as well as to teach in publike , it cannot bee but an intollerable , inexcusable fault in those men , whose care is onely to be rich , by the multitude of Cures , whose absence , and negligence is all one with ignorance and want of abilitie to teach , sauing that the sinne is greater in them , who are able with learning ( if they were diligent ) greatlie to benefit Gods Church . And doubtlesse it is to bee feared , ( vnlesse their Consciences bee without feeling ) that this secure , negligence in them , is but like a heauie Lethargy , which commends them as it were by certaine steps , to a dangerous and eternall sleepe : so that as all the fathers of former ages , haue filled their writings , with eloquent inuectiues against these men , and all the Councels almost haue sharplie decreed against them , the Canonists likewise and Scholemen , haue concluded their offences to bee great sinnes , and their drousie negligence without excuse , couetously rather heaping vp the liuings of manie , then conscionably performing the dutie of any one : wee can with as much patience and thanks bee content to heare , the loud declamations against non Residents , and Pluralities , by some in our Church , onelie if it please them to remember , their owne vsuall absence , lesse warranted , and to looke with what sinceritie of Conscience and Zeale , vnto Christs flock , they haue vndertaken , the Vehement , continuall , loud , and intemperate reprehension of these faults , as if they onelie in our Church , had a tender care of the peoples instruction and none else , and that all besides them , ( some few conscionable Ministers who can bee content with one flock ) were nothing but a number of proud ambitious , and idle Prelates , like that vnprofitable fig-tree , seruing to little vse sauing onelie to bee cut downe , or that these were that euill and slothfull seruant , which must be cast into vtter darknesse , where shall bee weeping and gnashing of teeth . And further which ought least of all to bee indured by any well affected to the credit and estimation of this Church , which doubtlesse for Reformation is , & shall be famous through all parts of the christian world , that our state did vnresonablie & vnconscionably by their owne lawes , graunt Dispensations , both for pluralities , and absence , onelie to further the corrupt desires of some few , to the infinit wrong of the whole Clergie , besides the hazard of many thousand soules , the intollerable dishonor of Gods truth , and the exceeding disaduantage of Christs Church . Doubtlesse we cannot but confesse , that learning is of little vse in the Ministerie , vnlesse they bee faithfull to discharge that dutie : and that abilitie to teach , bringeth small profit , where care and indeuour are both wanting , to further that good which our place exacteth : wee neither doe , nor can stop our eares , against the whole booke of God , which requireth labour at our hands , and diligence in our Ministerie ; neither doe we think , that all places alike , may challenge our paines , seeing it is in this , as in all other things besides , which are through priuate interest , dearer then that which concerneth either others wholie , or vs but in part , & at our owne pleasure : or if in dutie , onely according to the rate of a Generall regard . Yet I hope these men , will giue vs leaue to tel them without offence that the no● Residencie & Pulralities warranted by the positiue lawes of this land , are neither of them , so cleerely conuicted as incurring the penaltie of so high displeasure , but that indifferent minds may finde peraduenture good reason as yet to defend them both : which if neither wee much attempt , nor bee thought sufficiently performed by vs , we are preuented ( as they know ) by the most learned , and reuerend indeauours of other men , and are not greatly willing , that either Idlenesse , or Ambition , should couer it selfe vnder that shadow in a great number , which is in a true intention , a Priuiledge and Dispensation , the lawfull and vertuous merit , of some few . But because it seemeth that the originall of this errour , is from the not iustlie considering , either what Benefices are , or the first limitation of them ( wherof whilst some are ignorant they rigorously conclude , all duties required in a Minister , necessarily to be performed in one particuler parish , ) we must put them in minde , that either Euaristus Bishop in the sea of Rome , or as some others say Dionisius , first assigned the Precincts to euery parish , and appointed to each Presbiter , a certaine compasse , whereof himselfe should take charge alone ; & in this kingdome , one Honorius somtime Archbishop of Canterburie , did first deuide them , so that from hence , was vnderstoode by the name of a Benefice , A pastorall cure of soules , ouer the people of some parish , whereas formerly it signified some standing Ecclesiasticall reuenue , taken out of the treasure of God , and alotted to a spirituall person to the end hee may vse the same , and inioy it as his owne for tearme of life , vnlesse his default cause depriuation . And wee know that the Clergie for manie yeeres after Christ , had no other Benefices , but onely their Canonicall portions , or monethlie Diuidends , allowed vnto them according to their seuerall degrees , and qualities , out of the common stock of such guifts , oblations , and Tythes , as the feruor of christian pietie did then yeeld . In the Apostles time Churches were onelie in the cities , in regard whereof those that liued in villages , beeing without instruction , were called Pagans , which after by the example of others , both intertaining and giuing allowance , for the maintenance of the same truth , those to whom principall care was committed in this kind , appointed meaner men of lesse learning , and lower qualitie , to vndertake the instruction of those places , who were desirous and willing , to yeelde after the example of others ; oblations and tithes for maintenance of those , that were placed ouer them . Now to say that either seuerall parishes thus distinguished , might by no permission bee allotted to the care and instruction of one man , or that it were not lawfull for any reason , how beneficiall soeuer to Gods Church to bee absent from that particuler care committed to him , were in the former to denie all better trust , and reward to men of more worth and greater abilities and desert : and in the latter to bee ouer Tirannous in considering , and allowing the cause of absence , and peraduenture in a true construction , ouer rigorouslie seuere in both . But seing all men know which wee doubt but our aduersaries in this cause will conffesse that this limitation of particuler parishes was meerlie positiue , and the inuentions of men , thought , and found better , for the better performance of the Clergies dutie , it cannot bee the absolute transgression of a deuine ordination in that sence , as if either to haue moe parishes then one , or from one to be absent at somtime , were a direct , & vnexcusable breach of the morall law . For the duties commanded not to bee done in them , are by no meanes ( not for a moment ) euer allowed to be done at all : which thraldome if in seueritie they bring vpon Gods church , let them take heede what dangers they fall into themselues , & that by this meanes , the church receiue not a greater harme , whilst peraduenture in this case , their remedie is worse , then the disease is . Now to allow absence vpon reason , without appointing those causes , and such as must iudge which are reasonable , were to make all men to think that they had reason that were willing : neither is there any great force from the nature of Relatiues , ( if that were all ) why one may not as well haue diuers parishes , as one parish haue diuers Pastors . And howsoeuer wee hold not the reason good , that beecause Tymothie , & Titus had manie congregations committed to their charge , therefore others may : yet the reason in their opinion , from this example ought not to want strength , who think a Bishop , and a Minister is all one . In this first distribution for the best discharge of their calling , and the greatest benefit to the church of Christ , if some vnder the Bishops & aboue their bretheren , which had moe and more distant parishes then any in our church , & all termed by one name though some were Suffraganes to Bishops , it ought not to seeme a matter of vnreasonable fauour ; and vnlawfull , to commit seuerall churches , to the instruction and gouernment of some men , whose learning , discretion , & care , is more eminent , and that these may whilst their labours are vsed for the benefit of Christs flock , lawfully bee absent , and haue inferiour men of the Clergie for a tyme to supply , and to execute their roomes : so that doubtlesse a zeale in these reprouers did carrie them to far , when alledging those extrauagant reasons against Pluralities , they yeeld them , to tend to couetousnesse , that one man had the stipend of many ; that they make non Residents ; that it maintaines Ambition ; that it is the occasion of a gadding and roaguing ministerie ; no small cause why others want ; and lastly a taking away of that recompence , which belongs to others , these reasons in their opinion of some force , ( howsoeuer they haue alreadie bene profoundly answered with much iudgement ) yet beecause they still please themselues , in the rehearsall of them , we can bee content both with patience to giue them hearing , and withall to hope for this fauour at their hands , that they will yeeld thus much to vs , that many things may occasionally bee the accidentall procurers of much euill , which are originally no causes , nor iustly can suffer a reproofe as vnlawfull things . Neither are these onely the occasions of the euills which they lay vpon them , seeing either all , or most are commonly to bee found amongst thē , who notwithstāding would seeme to be furthest from this sin . But seeing whatsoeuer in our Church is practised in either of these two ( Pluralities or non Residencie ) is not the corruption of some priuate man , but ( the approbation and allowance of the Court of Parliament , wherein what soeuer is established , all men in the eie and construction of the law , are thought and deemed to haue consented , we cannot but thinke it vnreasonable and vnreuerend for these men , to disanull or make question , of an Act of their owne making ; and withall wee hope it both hath and shall appeare , to the world , that as it is not lawfull without dispensation to haue , or to doe either , so that authoritie to dispence in both , is most agreeable to reason , and Gods truth . For seeing the disposition and limitation of priuate parishes , extendeth no further , but to be the wise , Positiue inuention , and ordination of those , who formerlie haue gouerned in Gods Church , and that all humane lawes , are dispensable by supreame authoritie ( a dispensation being but the relaxation of a common right , made vpon knowledge of the cause by him that hath right to dispence ) wee hope that likewise these may , and that the lawes forbidding non Residencie & Pluralities are in force still , notwithstanding by Priuiledge , some particulers are , and are fit to bee exempted from the common right . Doubtlesse neuer meere human law , was either made with that wisedome , or was in execution of so necessarie vse , but that sometimes , it was fitter to receiue Dispensation , then to stand in force ; for seeing the best lawes of men are but the euidences of Humane reason , which wee finde by experience groweth from a weakenesse to bee more strong , and from imperfection to bee more absolute ; wee cannot in reason ( without inthralling our selues in too great a bondage ) deny Abrogation and Dispensation to humane lawes , which are not to bee like those of the Medes and Persians that might not be changed . For though reason , from whence lawes of this kind haue their originall , be but that voice of nature , which neuer changeth , concerning generals , yet lawes shall follow reason , reason follow nature , ( both immutably ) and nature euer the same , and yet lawes concerning particulers , shall change often . But if any man thinke , that Priuiledges and Dispensations , either are to bee graunted often , or when they are graunted vpon iust cause are contrarie to common right , doubtlesse hee erreth in both ; for the first , surelie we owe that reuerence to those that haue beene before vs , that it is an iniurie to them , and for our selues ridiculous , to alter ouer easilie the lawes , which antiquitie hath commended to vs. Yet if aduantage apparantlie , and without question redound vnto that societie , whose benefit is principally intended in those lawes , wee haue as little cause , to wish them perpetuall , as otherwise to dispence or to breake them when there is not ; for in abrogating of ould , or establishing of new , the commoditie ought to be euident , which must warrant vs to depart from that which long custome hath found to bee right : for seeing to the obseruation of all lawes , Custome hath not the least force to procure obedience , whatsoeuer is depriued of this strength , is seldome regarded with so much care , so for the second either neuer to dispence , or not then , when the measure of the common good , shal bee euidentlie proportioned to a priuate case , is to make lawes for to want life , and those which were in the first intendiment a benefit to all , to make them a captious Tirannie to some , and those neither of worst , nor of least merit : which as ouer easely to graunt in some Princes , could not but bee iniurious to the publike state , so in others ouer rigorously to denie , ( hauing princelie wisedome to discerne a particuler worthinesse in a common right ) could but bee , that vnwarranted seueritie , which surely in the end , would doe great hurt . Seeing then all humane lawes , are onely the conclusions of the law of nature , such as reason hath fitted for the benefit of some societie , either the church , or the common wealth , and that all these are and euer must be subiect to dispensation , and priueledge , from those that haue supreame authoritie , and that ( as wee think ) limitation of Cures , either for many , or attendance vpon some one , is meerlie a law positiue , wee hope , that what the vehemencie of some mens zeale accounteth a great offence , reason and deuinitie , will warrant to bee no sinne . For seing as well in the Church as the common wealth , honors and rewards are to bee giuen , not by an Arithmeticall , but a Geometricall proportion , and that honour and maintenance for the Clergie being from the law of God , Benefices and Cures are by the law positiue , surelie it cannot well bee denied , but that how much of either shall bee giuen to this , or that particuler person , must be in the Prince to dispose onely ; now because lawes haue alreadie set downe how much may or ought to be graunted to any one man , and what Residence and attendance hee ought to performe there if more then this , ( for the good of the Church ) by Priuiledge and Dispensation ouer and besides ( not Contrarie or against the common right ) be graunted to some one , can wee think it vnwarrantable and to bee a fault ? Dispensations for Pluralites haue bene in all times ; and the necessitie and vtilitie of the Church are confessed by themselues to bee the onely iust causes , to make them lawfull ; neither doth our Church require other allowance at their hands , then that in these cases it would please them to think , and to write , that the dispensations which are giuen , are not contrarie , and repugnant to common right . If any think or speake otherwise , in cases dispensable , it is their error ; for it is the voice of Equitie , & Iustice , that a generall Law doth neuer derogate from a speciall Priuiledge : and that a Priuiledge is not opposit , vnto the principles of common right ; because it dispenseth with that , which common right doth prohibit , for in the one it is respected by way of generalitie , in the other beset with limited and speciall circumstances , so that in the eie of law , and reason , they seeme to bee the same , though they bee not , wherein because men often times ( as one noteth ) waigh things stripped of some particuler circumstances , which add waight vnto them , they waigh them vneuenlie , and thereupon oftentimes pronounce that to bee to light , which is not in truth , if they had skill to waigh it . Now seeing the absence of all Priuiledges Non Residencie and Pluralities , is in the intendement of the law for the aduantage of the Church , whether it be by parties aboade in the Vniuersitie , to get more learning , or attendance in the families of noble men , in Princes Courts ; or Cathedrall Churches : it ought not to seeme vnreasonable , that some part of the reuenues of the Church is allotted to their vse , who though yet in person they bring not that benefit to some particuler flock , which in time they may , yet the Church at their hands shall receiue no losse : for if the whole riches of the Church were a stock of monie ( as some Deacons paraduenture desire it might bee ) it can bee in reason no greater fault to giue maintenance now from some parish to some one absent for a time , and in that absence profitable to the Church , then in their diuision to giue that allowance , which seldome they bestow for so good desert . Yet whatsoeuer vnder pretence of Priuiledge is practised by any , for to wrong the Church , in a true construction , is neither defended by vs at this time , nor fit to bee suffered in admitting ( as I think it is not ) often meane persons , to haue the benefit either of Non Residencie or Pluralities , which were in the first intendement , onely for men of better degree , of more worth , and of some speciall imployment in some other kind , for the singuler benefit and aduantage of the Church of Christ. Which as wee cannot excuse , if it bee graunted with ouer much facilitie to all those , whom either idlenesse shal make absent , or couetousnesse make them desire Pluralities , so wee are not as yet of their opinion , who think all dispensation , and priuiledge in this kinde , to bee against law , or if not , yet both the law , and the priuiledge to be against truth . Wee desire them without offence , who vrge so strictly the lawes of our land for both these , to consider this , which is not altogether impertinent to this cause : that if a strict law were made for a citie , that were beeseeged , that no man vpon any occasion might open the gates of the same citie , ( whereby the keeping of them shut , was intended to be for the good and safetie of the whole citie , ) now if afterward some of the armie be without the gates , who vnlesse they be receiued in , neither they , nor the citie can remaine in safetie , shall wee think the verie meaning of the law , is that the gates should not bee opened to receiue them , which is the very end of that law which forbad it to bee done , and the law of nature ? it cannot but bee a seueritie in those , that denie it , which must needes in the other be excusable , furthering that end , for which the law was made . In all lawes as in all actiōs the end is the mark ; and this commonly is the publick good , of that societie , for which the law is made , now if the same publick end , wherat the church aymeth , in prohibiting either Pluralities , or non Residencie , may be procured best by graunting dispensation , for both these , to some particuler men , wee hold the law in forbidding , intendeth so much , and therefore in this case , to dispense is not to breake the law of common right , but rightly to apply it to his proper and peculiar vse : wherein captiously to cleaue ouer strictly to the letter of it , is rather to vnderstand lawes by the words , then the intents of them : which practise if wee shall vse , in those lawes which had the best author , and doubtlesse was able to set them best downe , wee shall Iewishly keepe a Sabboth , in abstayning from all things , by the vertue of that law , which commandeth thou shalt doe no manner of work ; & fall into the heresie of some , who held it vnlawfull vpon any occasion to sweare , beecause our sauiour sayd , thou shalt not sweare at all : and yet in both whilst wee cleaue vnto the letter , vtterly dissent from that which the law requireth . Now so farre as lawes are Positiue , and meerely humane , it is in the power of their makers , to dispense with them , by vertue whereof whatsoeuer is done , is not contrarie to the precept , because for the doing hee hath the superiors warrant ; which if wee allow not in Gods lawes , many things must bee sinne , which doubtlesse were none . Heerein if these men can proue that that which man dispenseth withall God doth not , we will be content to heare them , and must needes graunt , that they haue not the authoritie of the superiour , and that such Dispensations are without warrant . But wee are and shall bee euer readie by the grace of him vpon whose mercie wee relie in all that wee doe , to iustifie and maintaine , the religious practise of our late Soueraigne in this , against those who are willing vnthankfully , vnnaturallie , and irreligiouslie , to depraue and traduce her most vertuous , blessed , & happy gouernment : For seeing that Dispensations are some meerely of grace , wherein the Prince may lawfully respect one aboue another , as in Legitimations , Pardoning of heynous faults , and such like , in which for the dispensed , or the dispenser , ther is no other necessitie , either in the court of man , or the court of conscience , sauing onely grace ; because ( it is to be thought the people and the lawes of euery countrie in these and other such matters , haue yeelded this power vnto their Soueraigne Princes , euen where they cannot by prerogatiue as with vs challenge so much right ) wee doubt not , but their assertion is to manacle the Kings hands , and to binde them in these chaines of their owne making , who teach the world that Lawes must haue that force , that all Dispensations , are vnlawfull , and transgressions of them . Now touching other dispensations which are called of iustice , they are conuersant either about the law of God and nature , or about the positiue law of man , in the first there is no dispensation from man , yet interpretations are allowed , to show that the generallitie of the words , do not indeede extend to some speciall cases , and that of those thinges which strong and manifest arguments teach vs that God himselfe would not haue included , in the generalitie of his law , Interpretation , Declaration , and Limitation , may bee made , and this by the lawyers is called one kinde of dispensation of iustice , whereby the bond of the law is not released , but the law is interpreted in such case , not to haue force , according to the true meāing of it . Now in the other dispensations of Iustice , which are bestowed about the positiue lawes of man , we must obserue two things , first that the law remaining , yet the reason in some particuler case doth cease , which ought by the prince , or the inferiour Iudge , in dispensing to bee so declared : the second is when the law is grounded vpon diuers reasons , whereof some ceasing , and some continuing , the law is notwithstanding in force , vnlesse a dispensation of Iustice , bee graunted to vs. There are also besides these dispensations mixt partlie of grace and partlie of Iustice , because that he graunteth it , it is grace & fauour , & yet it is Iustice , because he granteth it to none but vpon iust cause ; so that when a King dispenseth with any positiue law of man , the law teacheth vs to intend and presume both , that there is a cause why hee should so doe , and that the same cause is iust and sufficient , and doubtlesse hee that receiueth such dispensation sinneth not against the law , nor his own conscience , because hee is by the same authoritie deliuered from the bond of that law , by the which hee stood bound . So that if the Church ought to honour learned personages , not onely in word , but indeed , as in prouiding more liberallie to help , and releeue them , by the Church reueneues , then for others not so learned , ( because learning doth not onelie profit the owner , but the Vniuersall Church ) and that causes of absence from their seuerall Cures , may bee such as shal be beneficiall to the Church and iust , as for recouerie of Health , if called by his Superiours authoritie ; if for repulsing of greeuous Iniuries ; if sent vpon ambassage , or to giue attendance , if his help bee required for pacifiing of Scismes in other places , if his paines bee necessarie for the confirming of the doctrine of the Church either by speaking or writing ; if his presence be necessarie for consultation about Church matters at some Sinode particuler , prouinciall , Nationall , or generall , if some other parts of the Church were in more need , and whollie destitute of a Pastor ; or for any other such cause allowed by those whom the lawes haue trusted with the examination of these things , shall wee that are inferiours out of enuie towards other mens respect and grace , ( the due merit of their worthinesse ) whereof wee are far short , make the world beleeue , that the great Sinne of Non Residencie , hath three goodlie vndersetters , which are also broad figge leaues , to couer the nakednesse of these learned men , whereby many are vpholden in their sinne , first rewardes of learning , secondlie the power of the state to order the liuing of the Church , thirdlie that so they preach they are not to b●e charged although they Preach not in their owne parish , and make this onelie the originall of the ignorance of the whole land , whom to reproue ( say they ) was to bee accounted a conuentickler , a Puritan , an enemie to the state : could any thing in the eares of wisemen , haue sounded more sharplie , or bee vttered more vnreuerentlie , against that mother that hath giuen them suck , against those men who haue bene the fathers of our faith , through the whole land , against that Prince whose blessed gouernment , procured them and many thousands peace , which peace made them something ( if they bee any thing ) could I say , any words bee vttered with more follie , and lesse truth ? We hope that neither they themselues nor the world wil beleeue , that the church of England , so happely reformed , so mercifully blest , so wisely gouerned , so sufficiently supplyed , so honorably esteemed , both at home , and abroad , either doth , or will maintaine and defend , the sinnes of non Residencie , and idle absence , or couetous heaping vp of many things vnconscionably , and without desert ; seeing they are faults controwled , & forbidden by so many good lawes of the realme , and the vertuous constitutions and Canons of our church ; wherin if they vnderstand ( as they ought ) what a cure is , what Residencie is required ; what absence tollerated by the law of God : when and how long : what rewards of learning are due in the church to men of better qualitie : what disposition of these things resteth in the power of the prince : what vnion , or limitation of parishes is meerely positiue : what dispensations are conscionable and agreeing to Gods law : what priuiledges are the right application , and not the violent breach of the lawes . Lastly what is fit , and what is holden , in our Church , ( for things forbidden , neither doe we nor doth our church defend ) we are & wil be readie , to giue them the right hand of fellowship , in the reproofe of these sins , which we doubt not may be daungerous , to the soules of many . But if they , desirous to outrunne vs in an vnlearned zeale , teach the world , that all absence is vnlawfull : that diuision of parishes are from diuine right : and so one onely for one Pastor ; that princes cannot Dispence : that the inioying of these , is Couetousnes , Idlenesse , Theft , and the ground of all ignorance : then wee must tell them ( which wee haue proued alreadie ) that these reprouers themselues are not onely Idle , but also pratlers , and busie bodies , speaking things which are not comely ; and that our conclusion is this , that all dispensations for non Residencie and Pluralities , are not against law , nor that law that giueth dispensations against conscience ; and that neither all giuing , or taking of them is so great a fault , as it pleaseth some ▪ men , to make the world beeleeue that they both are . CHAP. XIII . Of Publike Praier and of the defects supposed to bee in the Liturgye of the Church of England . IF our praiers were onely the performance of our owne dutie , and not a Religious act , whereby our mindes beeing lift vp to heauen , euen all graces both Spirituall & Temporall discend vpon our heads , Godlinesse hauing the promise both of this life and the life to come ) it might bee paraduenture of some doubt , whether they were any part of our religious seruice , or onely the pollitick inuention of the church , to breed a superstitious opinion in the simple people , of that almightie power , whom because they see not , Atheisme laboureth to parswade that they need not feare . But seing the intercourse betwixt heauen and earth to vs in Doctrine , from vs in praier , is the assured euidence of that mercifull loue , which desireth to make vs conquerours in the day of victorie , it must needes bee ( if assistance doe want to obtaine this ) the onely fault of man himselfe not to aske , seeing the promise is past , and sealed , that whatsoeuer yee aske the father , in my name , hee will giue it you . Which if euer wee finde not come to passe , ( measuring things by our weaknesse which is not alwaies able to discerne what mercie denieth and iustice graunteth ) after our Asking wee must Seeke , if that faile crie aloude , and with Importunitie knock , not doubting of his promise , yee shall receiue , yee shall finde , it shall bee opened vnto you . Thus wee sanctifie in this Principall Act of our Religion , and offer vnto the Trinitie , the three especiall parts of our bodie , as an acceptable sacrifice , correcting our tongues , beeing commaunded because God some time seemeth not to heare to aske ; erecting our harts and beecause God seemeth to bee lost , bidding vs Seeke , directing our hands , and because God ( as it were ) sometimes shutteth the dore against vs , willing vs to Knock , in the first our praiers doe awake him , who seemeth to sleepe as Elias said of Baall , ( but hee that keepeth Israell shall neither slumber nor sleepe . ) In the second to deale as our Sauiour whom Ioseph and Marie thought to be lost , whilst hee tarried to doe the will of his father . In the third like the Pharisies , who shut the kingdome of Heauen , least any man should enter , but hee saith as the Psalmist , Lift vp your heades O yee gates , and bee yee lift vp yee euerlasting dores , and the King of glory shall come in ; and not onely hee himselfe , but all the righteous : for this is the gate of the Lord , and the Righteous shall enter into it , so that then euery faithfull man performing this dutie as he ought , may say with Dauid , I will thanke thee , for thou hast heard mee , and art become my saluation ; for the promise is without exception , Euerie one that asketh receiueth , he that seeketh findeth , and to him that knocketh it shall bee opened . So that though Wine bee strong , though Women bee likewise strong , though the King bee strong , and aboue all things the trurth bee strong ; yet doubtlesse the Praier of the Righteous ( especiallie if it bee feruent ) is stronger then all these . The Earth is strong which supporteth all this great waight of creatures and sinne ; and is so made by the mouth of truth , that it neuer should moue at any time ▪ yet the Praier of Moses & Aaron , was so strong and so powerfull that shee deuided her selfe , and rent a sunder , like the vaile of the Temple , and opened her mouth , like the great Whale to swallow vp Dathan , and the congregation of Abiram . The Sea is strong , which supporteth the burden of all this ( for thou hast founded it vpon the flouds ) but the praier of Moses made it to flie , that Israell might passe on drie land ; What aild thee thou sea , that thou fleddest , and thou Iordan that thou wast driuen backe ? surely Iuda was his sanctuarie , and Israell his dominion , and his seruant Moses praied for their safetie , and the Sea answered , as Adam , I heard thy voice , and I was affraied . Like effects euen weakenesse hath had , from the strength of Praier , ouer the Fire , the Aire , and the Sunne : But why doe I speake of these , seeing the Almightie seemeth to be bound by our praiers ? that hee asketh leaue of Moses , Let mee alone that my wrath may wax hot against them : To whom the humble suppliant , hauing fastned his praiers , as with a chaine to the throne of mercie , may answere confidentlie with out presumption , as Iacob to the Angell , I will not let thee goe except thou blesse mee . Yet let not our importunitie exclude humilitie , but that still wee pray ( as if the smallest grashopper vpon earth ( a worme and no man ) were to speake with feare , and reuerence , before the maiestie of God himselfe . Seeing then praier is that name , which expresseth all that seruice , that our religion can performe , beeing the best meanes both to testifie our dutifull affection , and most effectuall to obtaine , what soeuer wee wanting can desire at Gods hands ; seeing it is the easiest and most comfortable almes , which all men haue power to giue , and no man to refuse , seeing it is that office from performance whereof , neither time , nor place ( violent circumstances in other things ) are able to hinder vs , seeing it is and ought to be the first dutie , wherewith a religious soule , beginneth his life , and the last wherwith hee endeth it , seeing it is the seruice of all Saints , aswell those that Triumph in heauen , as that are Militant on earth ( the one praising God for their glorie , the other praying for their victorie ) and seeing amongst all praiers those are most powerfull , and effectuall , which hauing the feruour of manie , and the promise of presence , are rather powred out in the Temple then our priuate chambers ; for in a congregation a house of praiers , there may bee amongst manie , some Moses , or Samuell , which shall bee heard both for themselues and others ( one righteous in the middest of a froward , and crooked generation ) let from henceforth all impietie stop her mouth , which heeretofore hath blasphemed a holy ordination of so much vse , ( thrusting it out of our Churches , vnder pretence of preaching ) and that open prophanes by seueritie of lawes , bee taught obedience , which either in puritie , or superstition haue refused in our Temples , to offer vp their Praiers , as the rest doe . It is no small blessing , to haue the libertie of the sonnes of God , to enter into the house of the Lord , the house of prayer , the place where his Honour dwelleth ( for in his temple doth euery man speake of his honour ) yet we denie not but in the most desolate , and solitariest place , more voide of resort then the ransackt sanctuarie of Hierusalem , in the vncomfortablest vault that euer was entred , his eares shall bee open vnto our Praiers , that goe not out of fained lippes ; but euen praier it selfe ( as one noteth ) when it hath not the comforts of many voices to strengthen it , is not it selfe . So that wheras secret neglect of our dutie in this kinde , is but onely our owne hurt , one mans contempt of the Common prayer of the Church of God , may bee ( and often times is ) preiudiciall , & hurtfull vnto many thousands : and doubtlesse in time of persecution , when wee are in exile , the principall griefe to any Christian soule must bee this , euen the vncomfortable absence from the house of God , that wee cannot praise God in the great Congregation , that euen in this respect , the Sparrow and the Swallow are in better case then wee are ; That all our Melodie is buried in this one euill : for how should wee sing the Lords song in a strange land ? For if there be in the Lords Sanctuary , in the Courts of the house of our God , the holy Angels mix● amongst vs , it ought surely to be our care ( euen for praier ) to refort thether , with ioy aboue all other places whatsoeuer : & ther to powre out our praiers , with that solemnitie , & deuotion , as those vertuous & humble requests , which the Church appointeth , the Saints vpon earth powre out , the almightie sitteth to heare , & the Angels attend to further . Now for the religious performance of this dutie , no wise man can doubt , but that solemnitie of place , is a circumstance neither indifferent , nor of small force : the authoritie of their calling , whome the Church imployeth to offer vp the praiers for the whole people , is no small assurance of obtaining , what is presented by their meanes : in whom if zeale and feruencie of spirit concur , with a vertuous lyfe , they are no small aduantages to make the rest of the multitude to bee more holy , and to teach all the people of God , both what reuerence they owe vnto such , whom God vouchsafeth to bee mediatours beetwixt him and them , and with what deuotion and reuerence , they are to esteeme and frequent , those holy places , for the performance of those duties , which out of all circumstāces rightly are termed by the Church , holy and deuine Seruice . Heerevnto if wee ad the strongest motiue vnto a minde sober and humble , that these prayers are not the voluntarie , suddaine , & extemporal supplications of one man , who ( though zealous and honest ) yet may easily faile in asking what is behoueful for the whole Church ( for wee know not how to pray as wee ought ) but that they are those holy sacrifices of our lippes , made and allowed by the considerate deliberation of men vertuous , and duely proportioned with the sacred , and solemne Lyturgies of the Church in all ages : he must needs think the iniurie offered by some men , to bee vnsufferable , who esteeme all corners equall to the church for this vse , all persons as conuenient as those who are elected and appointed to this end , and sencelesse effusions of idle , reiterated , vnhallowed , indigested prayers , as auaileable in the eares of God , as the best either places , persons , or order , that the Church hath . This beeing the dangerous pollicie of sathan , to frustrate the Church of so great a benefit : and beecause no man d●●st bee so impious as absolutely to condemne publick prayer , to stir vp those who should draw the people , both by example and precept to a contempt of that forme , which taken from the puritie of all times , is worthely thought by the Church , a Lyturgie most reformed , whereby , wee must serue God : and doubtlesse not to lay vpon them a greater burden , then the weight of this sinne doth necessarilie impose vpon the consciences of such , who are and haue bene , the authors of this contempt , wee cannot easily be perswaded otherwise ; But what prophanes hath crept into our church , what vnhallowing of the Sabboth , what want of reuerence in diuine Seruice , what loathing of praiers without Sermons : in one word what Athisme , or Hippocresie is in al states in this kingdome , hath ( originally ) proceded frō this fountain , the bould and vnhallowed despising of the Communion Booke ; whilst in the meane time , they haue offred vnto the Parliament in the dayes of our late Soueraigne , a Booke of the forme of Common prayers , of which , wee dare not ( as yet ) giue that testimonie , which truth compelleth them to giue of ours ; That grose errors & manifest impieties is taken from it . But seeing all of vs agree in this , that a Prescript forme of praier is conuenient and necessarie for the Church ( they onely permitting a greater libertie , for vs then wee doe ) both because it bringeth much aduantage to haue the people familiar with those praiers , which concerne all ; and that they may not say Amen , to any thing that is vnsound ( a thing iustlie to bee feared whilst men haue no better direction but the sodaine motion ( as they call it ) of the spirit , and lastlie because vniformitie in this worship , is best befitting , them , whose doctrine and religion is all one , wee cannot but both meruaile at them who deuise continuallie new formes of praier , in their publike seruice , iniuriouslie depraue in sundry points , that Liturgie , which in the iudgements of moderate , and wise men , is both least different from antiquitie , and withall most absolute for perfection , of any that is vsed in the Churches reformed at this day ; and how soeuer it lieth not in the power of any one Prince to prescribe an Vniformitie of worship , ouer all Christendome ( a thing happie to be praied for that the whole Visible Church in doctrine and Cerimonies as it hath but one faith , one Lord , so it had but one hart , and one mouth : yet doubtlesse in the limits of the same kingdome , it is possible , easie and verie necessarie , that the manner of diuine Seruice bee preciselie one . For seeing wise men before vs , feeling those harmes which wee feare haue euer accounted ( which the common people doe now ) a new Liturgie to bee a new religion , ( the forme of worship beeing diuers though the doctrine bee the same ) and therefore euer prohibited all new manner of assemblies , it ought not to seeme strange , if our maiestrates heeretofore haue forbidden all Conuenticles , ( and such are all those who assemble to worship God after a manner not allowed by the lawe of the land ) or that in this they haue dealt either rigorously , or against law , for as one saieth to the furtherance of religion , men may and ought to assemble together , so long as it is not against that Law , whereby vnlawfull societies are forbidden ; but when danger may arise from the hazard of a new worship ( by the example of him , that forbad all priuate Sacrifices , in priuate places ) wise men haue thought it not safe , for euerie man to take libertie to haue priuate Chappell 's . The counsell before this hauing made this Canon , that all Clarkes which minister or baptise in priuate Chappels without the allowance of the Bishop , were to be depriued : the equitie of this for preuention of all new Worship being from that law , Take heed that thou offer not thy burnt offerings in euery place that thou seest : a facilitie in permission of which abuse hath filled the Church of God with Contempt , Prophanation , and Confusion of all worship : This being in Iustice the punishment of these men , that because they wanted Modestie to bee Schollers of Truth , they were filled with Pride to bee Maisters of Errour . Antiquitie thought Alcibiades worthely condemned for this fault , that hee tooke vpon him the vse of those sacred misteries in priuate , which the Athenians thought vnlawfull ; thinking him by this meanes rather to vse coniuration , then to exercise Deuotion : the wisedome of all , ayming at this , that Innouation in Religion , was no way safe : and that libertie for priuate assemblies , to the contempt of publike , was in all likelihoode a meanes to inuent , as manie sundry religions , as men had fancies . And howsoeuer the number is not manie , which misliked all set formes of Praier , and their reasons not much stronger that refuse ours , and so consequently whether we take account of our aduersaries , in this cause , either by waight or number , there can be no great danger : yet for a further satisfaction to all such , whom either ignorance , or credulitie hath made our opposits , wee are willing first to let them vnderstand , what the Liturgie of the Church of England is , and then that in our opinion , there is nothing either superstitious , or vnsound contained in it . And howsoeuer sundrie times , by men of great learning ( whom I presume not to mention without honor ) this Booke heretofore hath ben strongly defended , against al her aduersaries , yet it shall not I hope , be offensiue to any , to let the world vnderstand , that the greatest & most bitter reprehentions of this booke , haue ben stirred vp ( through want of Charitie , misaplying some places ) euen for matters of small waight ; at what time the vertuous King Edward had restored this Church from the burden of those Ceremonies , wherewith shee lay grieuouslie opprest , the care and consultation of the most learned and religious in that age , framed by authoritie A publick order for prayer and the Sacraments to bee vsed in this Church . This continued not long ( good things for the sins of the people being shewed vnto the world but they not suffred to enioy them ) beefore the most religious in this kingdome , whom persecution pursued , and opportunitie gaue meanes to escape , beetooke themselues to the mercie of that Lord , whose truth they desired might bee kept inuiolate , and planted the Church in a strange land : for that fauour which they found as a comfortable refreshing in so great a storme , wee and our posteritie shall say ( for sauing the bodies of the liuing , as Dauid to the men of Iabis Gilead for burying of the dead ) Blessed are ye of the Lord that ye haue shewed such kindnesse vnto your Lord Saul , that ye● haue buried him , therefore now the Lord shew mercie and truth vnto you , and I will recompence you this benefit , because yee haue done this thing . The first place of their aboade where they found fauour to plant an English Church was at Francford ; where ioyned with the French and others they ouerhastely fell in loue with the orders and Liturgye of those Churches : which beecause the English at Zurick , and Strausburge , did not ; but rather with wisdome and moderation ( as they were ) so desired to retaine the shape and the fashion of an English Church . Bitter contentions arise amongst them , onely for retaining or reiecting of the Communion booke ; Those who came from Geneua , being desirous to rest vppon Caluins iudgement , who was in a manner , as the oracle of God to all Churches that were reformed , translated into latin the Liturgie of the Church of England , and sent it to him to haue his Censure of it . Neither did their discription much differ , from that which is vsed at this day : wherevnto it pleased Maister Caluin to giue this answere ; In the Liturgie ( saith hee ) I see there were many tollerable foolish things ; by these words I meane ( a strange meaning ) that there was not that puritie which was to be desired ; these vices though they could not at the first day bee amended , yet seeing there was no manifest Impietie ( mark it ) they were for a season to be tollerated ; Therefore it was lawfull to begin off such rudiments , or Abcedaryes ; but so that it behoued the learned Graue and Godly Ministers of Christ , to enterprise further and to set forth some thing more field from rust , and purer ; If godly religion had florished till this day in England , there ought to haue bene a thing better corrected , and many things cleane taken away ; now when these principles be ouerthrowne and a Church must bee set vp in an other place , where ye may freely make an order againe , which shal be apparent to bee most commodious to the vse & edification of the Church &c. We wil not take vpon vs to censure this letter , onely we see not how the same things could be thought in his iudgemēt Foolish , & yet tearmed Tollerable in a Church Liturgie , or how they are called vices , which notwithstanding hee freeth from manifest Impietie , or if that this libertie of reformation were to bee giuen where a Church was to bee new set vp , how it could bee agreable to them who still I think desired , to bee a part euen for outward cerimonies , of that Visible Church , which then suffered persecution in England . But it sufficeth in these troubles all were not of one minde , the most and the best were before their departure and in their banishment , after their returne , Zealous , discreet and learned maintainers of the Communion Booke . And most of them afterward became worthily worthy gouernors in this Church . For God who sawe their Fidelitie , constancie , and truth , rewarded them seauen fould into their bosome , this booke then ( but somewhat purer and more reformed then at that time ) is that huge volume of Ceremonies ( for I vse their owne words ) which is in their opinion vnlawfull , & Idolatrous but in ours a most holie , and chast forme of Church Seruice , and least in this case , our opinion and defence , should be thought but the corrupt flatterie of those , who are or hope to bee aduanced by the present time , the wise and graue approbation of the holie Martire Doctor Tailour , is fit by vs to bee alledged in this place . There was ( saith hee ) set foorth by the most innocent King Edward ( for whom God bee praised euerlastinglie ) the whole Church seruice with great deliberation and the aduice of the best learned men of the Realme , and authorised by the whole Parliament , and receiued and published gladly by the whole Realme , which Booke , was neuer reformed but once and yet by that one reformation it was so fully perfected , according to the rules of our Christian religion in euerie behalfe , that no christian conscience , can bee offended with any thing therein contained , I meane of the Booke reformed . Thus farre Doctor Tailour , and shall wee now make light account of so honorable a Testimonie , or alter these things onelie to satisfie the vnreasonable fancies of some men ? nay surelie in that most memorable Act , of our gracious and dread Soueraīgne , ( whose wisdome appeares in these Importunate sutes , like the wisdome of Salomon ) there is no one thing which shal heape more honourable and euerlasting glorie vnto his name , which is , or can bee a greater blessing , to this land , a more religious dutie towards God , a more thankfull requitall of all the fauours that Queene Elizabeth did performe vnto him , then without any alteration or change in the strict commaundement of publishing this order of common praier , in any matter of substance . Let thy dew ( O Lord ) from aboue fall downe vpon his head to make him wise in the councells of thy law , sanctifie his hart with the reuerend and holie estimation of thy truth , make his wisdome powerfull against all Achitophells ; perfect ( O Lord ) and blesse these beginnings , that wee and our posteritie ( without chaunge ) may worship thee in this land , so long as the sonne is before thee ; that it may neuer sound in tents of our enemies , that thy worship ( as erronious ) is now altered which in mercie thou hast protected fourtie and foure yeeres in the happie daies of Queene Elizabeth . And surelie reason must needs tell vs , that if wee should ouer easilie yeeld to alter what paraduenture they wish , doubtlesse the same reproofe , must iustlie fall vpon our own Liturgie , of Varietie , vncertaintie and Inconstancie , which one laieth verie truelie vpon the Romane Missall . Besides it were as they of Strausburge wrote of them of Francford , to condemne the chiefest authors therof who most of them suffered as Martirs , it would giue occasion to our aduersaries to accuse our doctrine of imperfection , and vs of mutabilitie , and the godlie to doubt in that truth , wherein beefore they were perswaded , and to hinder their comming hether which beefore they had purposed . Thus far did they of Strausburg wiselie answere to them of Francford , so that wee may safelie conclude , and say of this Booke , as S. Austin doth in another case , if thou runnest through all the words of the holie Praiers , I suppose thou shalt finde nothing which the Lords praier doth not containe and comprehend , therefore we may in other words speake the same things in our praiers , but wee may not speake contrarie things . Yet because reason hath not beene sufficient to restraine the intemperate proceedings of some men , & they thinke this Church is little beholding vnto them ( vnlesse they traduce the gouernment and the Liturgie which she vseth ) for which notwithstanding others out of greater wisedome and conscience haue made against the common aduersarie this challenge ; Looke if any Line bee blameable in our Seruice and take hold of your aduantage : I think M. Iewell will accept it for an Article ; our Seruice is good and Codly , euery title grounded vpon holie Scriptures , and with what face doe you call it darknesse : Wee are content after the learned indeauours of other men , to adde some thing to those principall points , which in the Communion booke is , and hath beene misliked by them , that to whose hands the writings of other peraduenture come not , this short answere to such , may giue some satisfaction in the principall things which they doe mislike . 1 The forme of the Liturgie of the Church of England , is taken from Antichrist . Wee are sorie that their weakenesse taketh offence at that which wee hold as an honour , and a vertue in the Church of England ; namely that wee haue so sparingly and as it were vnwillingly disented , from the Church of Rome ( for surely by Antichrist they meane her ) with whom if the corruptions of that Church would haue giuen vs leaue , we would haue willingly consented in their whole seruice : which being vnsafe and vnlawfull , wee follow them notwithstanding in all , wherin they follow those holie , and auncient fathers which first planted the truth amongst them ; And as we acknowledge them our fathers in the Faith , so wee are willing euen to borrow that from them , which vertuouslie was vsed in that Church , when it was worthie to bee called our mother● and if now the holie Citie bee become an harlot , yet we ( as most Churches ) haue receiued light from them , for there was a time , that their Faith was published ouer all the world , and if now they bee at enmitie with God , and vs , yet wee had rather follow the perfections of whom wee like not , then the defects and Imperfections of those wee loue , nay the spoiles of the heathe● taken from the Deuill , are deuided to the furniture and ornament of the Church of God. For doubtlesse as one saith all true Godlie men may vertuouslie vse those rites , which wicked men haue abused , howsoeuer vngodlie . 2 It is vnlike the Reformed . If they meane Geneua , we cannot but acknowledge both the great mercies of God toward them , and the singuler benefit from them to the whole Church . But wherin wee differ as there may bee reasons in respect of place and people warrantable for both , and without offence , so if difference were a fault it may bee as well in them , not to follow vs , as in vs not to follow them , but the strife for preheminence of example , is a weake contention , wheras for Antiquitie there is no great difference ; wee thanke God for them , and reuerence that truth which is taught amongst them , but it is ( saith Maister Caluin ) a pestilent mischiefe , when wee will haue the manner of one Church to bee in place of an Vniuersall law . And doubtlesse if we were as willing to giue them our reasons , why wee cannot conforme our selues to the orders of that Church , ( as some amongst vs haue be● violentlie bold , for to vrge vs to it ) suretie the world woulde thinck , wee had rather a desire to reproue them , then to amend our selues : an Vniformitie in all Churches were to bee wished , but it is not euer absolutelie necessary , wher the forme of the common wealth is not all one ; in this case all being lawfull , that is best that is fittest for vs. 3 The reading of Epistles and Gospels so cut and mangld . That we read them at all is that which they do mislike , but seeing men are easilie wearied in those duties , that are best , and Praier making vs apt to fall into Speculations . concerning God both that our wearinesse may bee lesse , and our thoughts more sound , and more agreeable to the present businesse , those wise men that haue beene before vs , haue chosen lessons , for the Church , as also Epistles , and Gospells , sutable to the present time and occasion , that as Praier maketh vs fitter to heare ; so the hearing of these , may make vs likewise fitter to pray . To read Scriptures in the time of diuine Seruice , wee hope ( being auncient and of such vse ) their wisdome will not much mislike , and if the name of Epistle and Gospell doe offend , they cannot but know that the originall of this both for the name and the thing was from Paul himselfe , commaunding the same Epistle , which hee sent vnto the Collossians to bee read in the Church of the Laoditians . And of that to the Thessalonians he saith , I charge you in the Lord that this Epistle bee read vnto all the Brethren , the Saints . From which custome the Church hauing appointed that portion of Scripture ( which circumstances being weighed ) is then fittest to be read vnto the people , as if it were directlie sent vnto them ( thereby procuring their attention ) is not vnfitlie tearmed by the name of Epistle , to these as S. Chrisostome noteth , the Minister stood vp , and with a loud voice cried ( let vs attend . ) In one word the originall of this custome which so much offends them , hath better likelihood of warrant from the Hebrewes ( then their Sanadrin ) seeing it was the custome amongst them , euerie Sabboth ( which continueth yet in their Sinagogues ) that some thing is read out of Moses or the Prophets . And we hope the name of the Gospell shall not displease them , vnlesse they be offended with Glad tidings , and if to read onelie so much as fitteth with the present occasion , bee to cut and mangle , their wisdome can tell that diuision of Chapters , is not so auncient , that it may not bee altered , and their practise is vsuallie to read sometime , but a part of a chapter , sometimes two , as the matter it selfe hath dependance with it . 4 It maintaineth an vnpreaching Ministerie , by banishing preaching vnder the coulour of long prayer . To accuse vs of long prayer , will litle beeseeme them , who are long and tedious . If we esteeme not of Sermons , as wee ought it is our fault ; And doubtlesse if there had but bene that respect in them , which was in vs , to a thing of so great vse , surely many of their sermons , would bee shorter , and much better : wee are content that they shall extoll either them , or themselues , but withall let them remember , that the Church of God hath as much neede , sensibly and orderly to pray , as to heare a Sermon , wherein if it shall bee onely ouer-short , ( beeing a dutie solemne and publick ) the world will learne to think that we make litle account of that , wherevnto wee allow so litle tyme : words surely how few soeuer are then long and paraduenture tedious , when they benefit not the hearer , but whosoeuer speaketh much , and by much speaking doth much edifie , doubtlesse is vndeseruedly blamed for much speaking . It is likely that they who labour for much time , to bee long in preaching , are of more singular abilitie then other men , or intend to trouble their hearers with impertinent discourses : or else that they cannot expresse in few words which themselues beefore doe not rightly vnderstand . But seeing the generall fault is , that wee are swift to speake , and had rather that the people should heare vs , then God himself ; the time which wee think ouerlong for deuine seruice , is accounted ouershort for to vtter our own fancies : but such Sermons are farre lesse then praiers , to the Edification of Gods Church . 5 That wee praye ( without faith hauing no promise ) that wee may euermore bee defended from all aduersitie . If either wee know some aduersitie against which wee may not lawfully praye , or that there bee some aduersitie which is not euill in it owne nature , or some euill that is not to bee shunned by vs , or what wee would shun that prayer is not a meanes for to escape it : if all these or any of these can bee proued , wee refuse not to forbeare to aske ; That wee may bee defended from all aduersities But seeing that the same things which when they happen both wee indure with patience , and God is able to turne them to our great aduantage , yet because we neither know our strength ( vnable of it selfe to ouercome the least tryall ) and that God hath promised , that no euill shall come nigh our dwelling , wee pray but deliuer vs from euill , that is , defend vs from all aduersitie : to think we may pray for nothing for which wee haue not warrant in Scripture is paraduenture an errour . 6 Which for our vnworthinesse wee dare not aske ; a note of a seruile feare . There is no vertue that better beeseemeth suters then humilitie , no humilitie better beeseemeth suters to God then the vnfaigned acknowledgement of our owne vnworthinesse , wherein if wee should rest , it were needlesse to aske , seeing there must bee a hope to receiue , aswell as a sence of our want : so that whilst wee haue confidence to obtaine that in Christs name , which for our owne vnworthinesse wee dare not aske , wee rather expresse the louing humilitie of Sonnes , then the feare of seruāts ; but it is maruell how they can say , & think ; That there is nothing which in his name wee dare not aske , beeing needfull for vs , seeing they denye that it is vnlawfull to pray to bee deliuered from all aduersitie . 7 To bee deliuered from Lightning and Tempest ( which T.C. calleth Thundring ) when none is nigh . Doubtlesse wee haue greater reason to feare , and so consequently to pray against these , then any other daunger of this life : It is the fearefull executioner of Gods wrath , manifested in the giuing of the law , to teach the transgresser , what hee must expect , wee want not examples ; The Heathen knew it , dangers aboue the meanes of mans wisdome to preuent , are onely to bee escaped by praier . 8 The Singing nunc Dimittis , Benedictus , Magnificat , wee know not to what purpose . You cannot but know to what purpose they were first made , and that the occasion of their first making , was the memorie of a benefit , not fit euer to bee forgotten : the Church in this performeth , and learneth a dutie ; by the same reason we may not reade the Psalmes of Dauid , vnlesse wee were in Dauids case : In Scripture the fence is one , but the vse & application is diuers , & yet warrantable . 9 The Letanie all Popish . Wee cannot doe our aduersaries a greater honour , then to make them the founders of these Praiers . Whether Mamercus or Gregorie , made them it skilleth not . The generall callamitie of the Church was the cause , and seeing the presumptuous iniquities of these times , may i●stly cause vs feare what wee feele not , wee haue as much reason to pray to bee kept from them before they happen , as to haue them remoued when they doe happen . 10 Gloria Patri and Athanasius creed to what vse ? To giue honor to the Trinitie ; for as they were made to teach the Arrians to confesse what they beleeued not , so they are for vs to praise & expresse what we doe beleeue . 11 To say after the Minister is a losse of time . That Scripture which commandeth the people to say Amen , doth not forbid them to say more : custome and example tell vs that this losse is to the people an aduantage , whose vniuersall consent exprest by their voices , is like the roaring of the waues against the sea banck . 12 Baptisme by women commanded and allowed . Nay rather forbidden , and the action not allowed , though the act be . Wee are sorie if any inconsiderately and presumptuouslie doe it ; but being done ( wee hold a greater necessity of Baptisme ) then that we dare thinke them , fit to be baptised againe . Heerein if there bee any fault , surely it is not a fault in the Communion booke . 13 Priuate Communions to the sick . If the Minister and the sick person communicate , how can they call it priuate ? for there bee not many , yet there are two : and where two or three are assembled as they ought , they need not doubt of the blessing of a Congregation : but seldome so few are , and things of that vse , in such extremitie desired , it is Tirrannie to denie them , for the not concurring of some solemne , and conuenient circumstance . 14 Churching of women . And that Psalm● appointed . If that Childbirth bee a curse for the labour , and sorrow in it ; because then ( naturally ) an enemie is borne to Gods kingdome : if many hardly escape those daungers , which fitly are called by vs labour and trauell ; how can w● but thinke it conuenient to giue thanks and in that to acknowledge the author of their safe deliuerance to bee the Lord , who protecteth his owne day & night : they looke not at any meanes vpon earth , but vnto the hils from whence commeth their help . 15 Holidayes a superstitious honour to Saints . No , a memoriall of that benefit which the Church hath receiued by that particular occasion ; which therefore it wanteth not warrant to appoint , as occasions of mercies , and deliuerances are new , so new solempnities : and therefore wee will euer say , This is the day of the Lord ; and sing prayses vnto the Lord : the fifte of August , and the foure & twentie of March ; for in them the Lord hath done great things for vs alreadie , whereof wee reioyce . Let the leprosie of those foure lepers cleaue vnto vs , if wee hould our peace , from Psalmes , and thanksgiuing , seeing it is a day of good tydings : for surely as Zachous heard Christ speake , so God shall heare vs thankfully confesse , that this day Saluation is come vnto this land : for he that is mightie hath magnified him and holy is his name . 16 Reading of Homelies and Apocrypha . If they serue to edifie , why doe they refuse them ; if they bee not Canonicall , neither are they so esteemed . If nothing bee to bee read in the church but Scripture , why is it a law amongst them , to haue their orders for gouerning the church , reade publickly , once euery quarter ▪ the supposed errours in the Apocrypha maketh vs with the warrant of the Church , to refuse them ; for Canonicall scripture to informe our faith : but the excellent precepts that are in them , make vs by the same warrant think them profitable , to bee read for to reforme our manners . 17 The Ring in Marriage Superstitious . To finish an act of that solemnitie without some visible and significant assurance , as it were no wisdome ( seeing vowes were neuer thought so firme as when they receaued a strength from some outward action , ) so many reasons are giuen , why this cerimonie is most fit , and lesse harmelesse , both betokening the affection of the hart , the linking them together vnchangeablye , the continuance of their affection , without end , the puritie of that ordinance which is heauenlie , and last of all , an humble submission to the ordinance of that Chrurch , which hath authoritie to appoint cerimonies , and hath appointed this as one most fitting to the grauitie of this action . 18 Confirmation vnlawfull . What wee promise by others in our Baptisme , that wee then vndertake in our owne names ; and remembring the conflict wee haue vndertaken , we come for an addition of new forces , in Baptisme wee are regenerate to life , but in confirmation wee are strengthned to battaile : memorialls to this are not , nor are not to be thought needlesse , for many know they haue names , who little remember that they are Baptised , but whom the Church on earth hath once receaued to bee her children , she ceaseth not to pursue with fauours and helps , vntill she deliuereth them to their father , which is in heauen . 19 Burialls are heathnish , and superstitious , either in meeting the dead bodie with praiers , mourners , and such like . It is well beseeming that hope which wee haue of the Resurrection , and in this the liuing receaue profit , though the dead doe not . Wee esteeme the bodies of the faithfull , as sometimes the vessells of the holie Ghost , wee hold them fit to bee layd vp , not to bee cast away , and though they are not lost but sent before vs , yet wee sadlie lament our want , and their absence , though ouer vehementlie wee mourn not as those that had no hope , we may wish for them , because they are not with vs , but not too much lament for them , because they are with God. This stoicall age , need not this doctrine , it is sinne to forget that wee are friends , and christians . 20 The Priest praieth for the Prince , and the people answere of another matter . That praier which wee offer vp for that power vpon earth which doth rule ouer vs , if the people answere with this voice ( and mercifully heare vs when wee call vpon thee ) is no fault to bee done , and peraduenture were a fault not to bee done . Litle things will offend them , who can bee so curious to mislike this . 21 Crossing in Baptisme Popish . And yet to Baptise vsing the signe of the Crosse is not popish . Wee are not of their mind who thinke the crosse whereupon Christ suffered was like Pithagoras letter , neither is this crossing a sacrament though it put vs in mind of our manfull fight vnder the banner of Christ crucified , wee vse it not as bestowing a grace vpon vs but thankfullie remembring what was done for vs : a Signe that may be vsed amisse , wee can forbeare if it please the Church , but in the meane time wee can and doe vse it with obedience , beecause wee doe know how . 22 That all may bee saued , all trauailing by land , or by water . It were pittie but their mouthes were stopt who forbid vs to pray that all men may bee saued . It is the reuealed will of God ; and although wee know that all are not , yet beecause wee know not exactly who are , and that our desire is extended without exclusion , equally to all , in that sence , as our sauiour willeth , so wee wish and desire , that all men may bee saued ; for those that trauell if a blessing come vpon them , whilst they trauel to good ends by land , or by water ( and this for our prayer ) the church hath an interest by the communion of Saints ; if they trauel to euil ends , and finde successe , this mercie serueth to make them better ; and therfore as wee pray that God would strike through the loynes of those , who rise vp against him and against his annoynted , so whilst wee know not definitiuely who are such , Indeffinitly wee pray for his defence , to all those ( which trauell by land or by water ) where politick respects , or Gods reuealed will particularly forbid not , ther Charitie commandeth for to pray for all . 23 Bells and Organs are from Popes . To refuse them for that reason were rather mallice then wisdome : for seeing the one calleth by the sound the people to the Temple , the other by sounding , furthereth the prayse of God in the temple , it is not their author , that can be a reason to make vs mislike either : they ayme at some other end whom so harmelesse inuentions can so much displease . That wee worthely lamenting our sinnes , may obtaine of thee perfect remission ; they tell vs not in this , what they doe mislike , and therefore wee will accept of their gentle allowance , wherein they say this requireth a fauorable exposition , & that the words were well ment , as they were appointed for vs. 24 On Christmas day it is said thou hast giuen vs thy Sonne this day to bee borne of a Virgin ; the same words wee vse all the weeke after , as if Christ vpon euery day , had bene borne a new . I hope it is not the memorie of his Natiuitie that doth displease them : If this day , when perhaps it was not , be that which in this they do mislike , the Church tyeth no man to so strict an acception of this day , as if it were ment this verie particuler day , but that it may without offence , bee vnderstood of the solemnitie of that feast , if they haue learned to think and to speake otherwise , wee haue no such custome , neither the Church of God. 25 Scripture openly abased to shew a necessitie of Baptisme , from that place ( except a man be borne againe of water and of the Spirit . ) Wee hope a necessitie they will not deny of Baptisme and if this place bee not sufficient to proue it , wee will be , readie to afford them other ; if this be that which offends them , our interpretation of it ; other haue told them concerning this , ( wherein their negatiue is all that is alledged ) that in expositions of Sacred Scripture , where a litterall construstion will stand , the farthest from the letter is commonly the worst . 26 That wee pray for the dead when wee say remember not O Lord our offences nor the offences of our forefathers . No , but because God punisheth temporallie sonnes euen for the iniquities and transgressions of their fathers : as the infants in the flood , & in Sodome ( which they well knew who asked our Sauiour ( who had sinned this man or his father ) and that wee goe on for the most part to fill vp the measure of our fathers sinnes , which must fall heauie vpon vs , when it commeth with a double force , therefore not for them but our selues wee say : Remember not O Lord our offences , nor the offences of our forefathers . 27 Out of the Collect vpon Sainct Michaels day , prayer is made for the help of Angells . And why not ? doth any man think that they doe not help vs ( beeing ministring spirits ? ) and seeing he hath giuen his Angells charge ouer vs , may not wee pray to haue their assistance : wee onely aske them as Christ , thinkst thou that I cannot pray to my father , and hee will giue moe then twelue legions of Angells . If any thing bee misliked beesides these , ( these being but small occasions of so great a difference ) our Church doubtlesse hath many which are able and wil be willing , to giue them what satisfaction they can demaund : but if it offend them beecause it is auncient , or solemne , or sober , or charitable , wee are sory for their weaknesse , but wee had rather offend them , then the whole Church of God. CHAP. XIIII . ¶ Of Tolleration of diuers Religions and how far discenting opinions from the true Christian faith may and ought to bee permitted in one and the same kingdome . THere are few kingdomes in the world which haue not at some times diuersities of religion nourished and brought vp in the bosome of them : for the enuious man whilst others sleep , is watchfull and diligent to sow Tares : & these vsually either in mercie , or for their nearenesse , to that which is good , are suffered to grow , till the time of haruest . If naturall bodies of men either had no diseases , or that rest were not sometimes auaileable to procure their health ; Wisdome were a vertue in Phisitions of litle vse , and vndoubtedly patience would bee thought Sloth . But seeing the eyes of councell in all euills that are , looke not so much what they be , as what they may bee : and that the best perfection which humane indeuours doe , or can receiue , is from that leysurable maturitie , that times affoord , ( moments and instants being onely fit either for powres infinit , or for weaknesse that is furthest from them ) all men haue as much reason not ouer hastely to censure what the wisest doe , as the wisest haue warrant and example , not ouer hastelie to performe what they doe intend . Few doe or can doubt , but that the foundation of all happinesse to a realme is true religion : it is the wals of defence to the greatest kingdomes , Princes haue their best securitie from this , both for Crowne and Scepter , and their aduersaries shall all faile , in the iustice of the highest , that doe rise against it . The power how to ordaine that worship which God requireth and man oweth ( which wee call Religion ) is neither in our weaknesse to inuent , nor being taught and instructed in it , haue wee willingnesse or strength to yeeld an outward obedience without lawes . As the care then of this in all kingdomes chieffly concerneth the Prince , so the best enterance and assurance to the well performing of this dutie , is the sanctification of of the Lords Rest. Without this , the slumber of peace shall bee no prosperitie , health shal be but a sweet poison to make vs distaste what doubtlesse would be better for vs , and in the end , the felicitie of such states , shall but resemble the grasse vpon the house top which withereth before it be pulled vp , and their faire day shal bee suddenlie ouer cast , or concluded and shut vp , with a blacke and a long night . Where it is easie to erre , seldome doe men looke at vices with so much seueritie , as where it is not : custome haueing both the Priuiledge of a multitude to bee without shame , and the lenitie of a pardon , because few men think it a dutie to bee honest , where the most are not , or that to bee an offence in one , which is the fault of all . Now the persons of men being swaied many times to error , by lighter occasions then meere fancie , and all men des●ring a Religion , yet most carelesse of the meanes that doe lead vnto it , and nothing surer to finde more resistance , then that counsell that crosseth affection or custome : it must bee a consideration of great consequence , to further ( by an absolute vnitie ) the true Religion : no examples being suffered that doe lead from it , and all men to bee truelie taught , that they neither can with happinesse want this , nor without miserie think this to bee any other , sauing onelie one . But because all men traduse ( euen without respect of nature ) that deuotion which they see in others , who looke not the same way that they doe , it shall not bee amisse , to consider , who , and what they are , that vsuallie dissent in religion in any kingdome . And from the Prince and the state , what fauour , tolleration , or respect is to bee had towards them : for seeing all men ( though their Religion bee false ) haue reason both to loue , and to bee earnest for the religion which they pro●esse , it cannot bee in a realme where diuers stand diuersly affected towards this , but that all wil looke with a iealous eie at the state , and either obtaine or procure equall freedome of that which they call their conscience , to themselues , or complaine as suffering a harder persecution , and paraduenture bee readie when oportunitie shall serue , to become Traitors . But because euen the most absolute Monarchs , haue not an vndependant libertie , to incline with mercie towards these in this case , as much and as far as their princely Grace could bee content to yeeld : it shall not bee amisse for the satis●action of those , who importune & hope for fauour in this kinde , if wee let them vnderstand , who they are that doe hold diuersitie of opinion , concerning Religion in any kingdome , and what fauour and tolleration may and ought by the Prince to bee graunted toward them . And because wee haue heard , the greatest Prince in the world tell vs , that Kings are Phisitions in this kind , wee may safely resolue that where Patients & Diseases are not all one , ther the remedie & the cure is not all alike . There may be in a kingdome ( for we are not now to speake either of Hippocrits , or open prophane persōs ) Heathē , Idolatours , Heretickes , those that erre and faile in some points of Religion publickly professed in that state , and lastlie vpright and true Christians . Toward all these ( if all happen to bee in one kingdome ) as paraduenture Poland can tell they are ) the state is to carry a diuers respect , both for the curing of them that are thus sicke , and for the safegard of those that are yet whole . Heathens or Infidels wee call them who professe not at all the Christian Faith , as Iewes and Turks : Idolatours such as haue in doctrine and worship Superstitiously fallen backe , from the true Religion of Christ : in place wherof either Saints , or reliquies , haue a great part of that honor which is due vnto God onelie , such are a great number of the Church of Rome ; these vsuallie wee call by the name of Papists , and so wee must tearme them in this Chapter . Hereticks are they who strike through the verie foundation of religion , and directlie gainsay some article of our faith , and are or haue beene condemned , by some generall councell , as Arrians , Eunomians , Seruetians , Anabaptists , and such like . Yet in these all are not alike , some beeing Seducers , and others by them simplie seduced . The next are those that erre , beeing or seeming to bee infected with some errour , but such a one as yet is not condemned as an heresie : as betwixt the Lutherans and the Zwinglyans , about the Sacrament , both holding each other to erre , wheras neither sentence as yet hath bene lawfullie condemned . To these may bee referred all those erronious opinions , which take not away the foundation of faith . Lastlie those whom the Prince knoweth to be vertuous , and sound : not infected with any heresie or error , a seuerall respect is fit to be carried toward all these . Concerning the Iewes a Prince may lawfullie permit them to dwell in his Kingdome , and to traffick in it , so that marriages with Christians , communicating with their religion and all nearer familiaritie betwixt such , bee denied vnto them : these were the limitations which were set betwixt them and the heathen , by the law of Moses , the lawes of Emperours haue permited the like ; some of the fathers but especiallie S. Austin , was so fauourable toward them , that hee alledgeth seuerall reasons , for the doeing of it ; first that aboue others they had the promise of Saluation , and though their case bee lamentable , yet it is not desperate , for euen at this present , there is a remnant according to the election of Grace ; for God is able to graft them in againe . For I would not brethren that you should bee ignorant of this secret , least ye should bee arrogant in your selues , that partly obstinacie is come to Israell , vntill the fulnesse of the Gentils bee come in ; for that prayer sayth Sainct Austin , was made for them : Slay them not least my people forget it , but scatter them abroad among the people , & put them downe O Lord our defence . There cannot bee doubtlesse ( and so they are dispersed in most kingdomes ) better obiects to cōsider the iustice & the mercie of God , then they are Iustice to them , mercie to vs : and that wee vnlesse wee repent , wee shall likewise perish . But concerning the permission of Sinagogues vnto them , all men are not of one minde : seeing dayly in them blasphemies are vttered against our sauiour Christ ; yet wee doubt not to affirme , that these may be graunted with some cautions , as onely to reade the Scriptures , and to pray , but not to teach , where the reason for them , and the Turks to haue Temples , is not all one : seeing these both haue the promise ; Call vpon God , reade the Byble , but the Turks doe not . If Kings for intollerable exactions , as hurtful to their state , banish them out of their realmes , it is lawfull , and yet if otherwise they permit them , surely in neither they offend God. Charitie ought to make vs carefull to instruct them in the way of truth , but vnwillingly wee dare not compell either them , or their children , to be Baptised . 2 The next are Idolatours , to whom wee denie not , but permission if it please the state , may lawfullie bee graunted to liue amongst vs. Yet euen these with the same limitation as the former were , neither that wee communicate in their Idolatrie , nor bee of too great a familiaritie and nearnesse with them , nor bee suffered ( as some think ) with such to contract marriage , for seeing the Infection of Idolatrie creepeth as a contagious disease , and that all neere conuersing , must gaine at length , if wee cannot alter them , an approbation or tolleration of what they like , it is not euer safe ( though to permit them in a kingdome ) yet to conuerse any nearer with them , then with meere strangers . But I see not how this can be the opinion of those men , who thinke it vnlawfull to shun the plague . But we thinke not as they doe , who hold it lesse safe to haue any nearenesse with an Idolatrous Church , than with Turkes or Iewes . Imitating the blindnesse of the Israelites in times past , which had the Iewes in greater detestation , than the Idumaeans , the Aegiptians or the Assyrians ; but the wrath of God , was kindled against them for this sinne , and the comparison betwixt these , is not all one , where the disstance from true Religion is not all alike . Now a greater question , concerning Idolatours is this , Whether a Prince may tollerate and graunt Churches to Idolatours for Idolatrous worship ? One of the best learned in our age , thinketh that to say , it might , so that they abstaine from balsphemous Doctrine , and Idolatrous worshippe , were in his opinion not to aunswere ill ; but seeing the custody of both the tables , is committed by God vnto vertuous Kings , and that pure Religion , is or ought to be , the principall part of their care ; seeing they beare the sworde of authoritie to make such to feare as doe euill ; and that few euils are worse than Idolatrie , we say it is not lawfull to permit Churches to Idolatours , but rather to ouerthrowe their Idols , & superstitious worship ; yet not their Tēples , but to conuert them to a holy and a better vse , a du●tie surely well performed as it hath and shall be the honor , and happinesse of vertuous Kings , so it is not a worke to bee permitted to the audatious , violent , and vnruly multitude . Neither doe we thinke all ouerthrowing of Idolatrous Temples to be vnlawfull , seeing those which vertuously Constantine the great did only shut , and Iulian afterward did set open , Valentinian and Theodosius did worthely pull downe . It was fatall To Dauids house , Salomons promission of two religions ; and we will require no better testimonie to disproue this , thā the eloquent oration of the league , to the King of Fraunce ; a speech surely as fit for vs if either there were daunger or feare of so much euill . Your Maiestie ( saith hee ) looking into the memorie of things past , may sufficiently perceiue , that as long as France hath been vnited vnder one Christiā religiō , she hath made her glory & renoun spread through all countries : she hath caused her valour in armes to be proued & felt in all places of the world , she hath alwaies been victorious ouer all the enemies of Catholicke religion and hath done so many honorable actions , and atchiued so great and happy conquests against Infidel● , that it 〈◊〉 such glory among the Asians , Africans , Indians , Persians , Tartarians , Moores , Sarrazins and others , that al the Christians in Europe by them are called Frenchmen , for that because those strange Nations , haue only felt the armes of Frenchmē , they haue also cōprehended all the Latin Churches vnder the name of France & Frenchmē . But since France hath been diuided and rent with two Religions , let vs see how much it hath lost of her auncient renoun she that commanded a great part of Europe , that cōquered countries f●r distant frō her , that at her only name , made diuers warlike nations to tremble , is found since this vnhappie and vnfortunat diui●i●n , to be reduced into such extremity , that in the middle of her brest , she hath receiued forraine powers , she hath in a manner receiued the law of her neighbours , and of her enemies : & that cruel turning her sword against her own Intrayles : & although she was Inuincible in respect of all other Natiōs , she is now her self so Imbased , vanguished & ouerthrown , which is the fruit that this venemous plant of new opinion hath Induced which seemeth to be at the poynt ready to giue more dangerous thrusts , if according to to the expectation which we all haue conceiued of your wisedome & piety , It pleseth not your Maiesty spedely to take order therein ; much more was vttered to this effect showing the opinion which they haue for any Tolleratiō of diuers religions , which since some of thē in other places haue been well content earnestly to sollicit that they might obtaine , it was the error of S. Austin , to thinke that men by violence ought not to be cōpelled to the faith ▪ But after seing many cities of the Donatists conuerted by the Imperiall lawes , and returning to the true Church , he thought seuerity fit to be vsed , where linity , and mercy would doe no good . The next are Heretikes who are neither simple Infidels , nor Idolatours , but obstinately erring in some fundamental point , these neither faile all alike nor fall all at once For the beginnings to slide in this case are easie , & thought to be without dāger , whereas in the end it is deadly , & such proue Apostataes frō the whole Church . The Arrians & the Nouatians the one denying the diuinite of Christ , the other Repentance vnto those that sin , were not hoth a like dangerous , although both by the Church were condemned as Hereticks . ● . Cyprians opinion , & some other in Africa , who held such as were Baptised by Heretickes , that they ought to be Baptized againe , and some peraduenture amongst vs , whose errors concerning our Church , are not lesse dangerous , are to be respected by the Magistrate in a different manner , from such Heresies as Arrius held ; with these , perswasions & conferences are to be vsed , after which if they continue obstinate , Excommunication ( the censure of the Church ) is to cut them off , wherein notwithstanding to auoide tumults if their number were dangerous , like the Nouatians in S. Chrisostomes time , It were lawfull & conuenient for the Gouernors of the Church to be at peace with them , the ecclesiasticall authoritie ayming at this scope , rather to build than to pull downe . Concerning the fourth which only doo , or seeme to erre , in some point , that commeth not so far to be thought an heresie , doubtlesse a greater moderation is befitting such , and violent condemnations are vnlawfull , vntill both haue bene heard with indifferēt tryal . Inuectiues , alienations of minde , partaking & such like are both scandalous to the Church , enemies to peace , and in the end are little auaileable to find the truth . It were fit al to be of one mind vntil more warrātable proceedings might resolue our doubts ; let vs therfore as many as be perfect be thus minded , & if ye be otherwise minded , God shal reueile euen the same vnto you & after this whosoeuer he is that seeketh further , hauing found a truth , laboureth but with paines to inuēt an error . Their diligence if it were vpright , the church cold not refuse ; of whom now it is like shee may say ( as one doth of the accusers of Priscillian ) their desire to ouerthrowe Heretikes , I could not reprehend , if they had not contended more thā was fitting to ouercōe ; What mildnes they haue vsed , we take it as the speech of the Donatists , who as S. Austin reporteth , said they wold not be cruel , but I think they could not : no mā coūteth that beast meekest which hurteth not , bccause teeth & claws are denied him : but if any man be ignorant , and desire to know , what courses haue beene taken with these men whom we cannot defend and the state of our Church hath supposed to erre ; whilst ouer eagerly they haue sought a Reformatiō of some things we are content for defence of our selues , in not yeelding to all which they demanded of vs , and most earnestly frō the purified example of some other Church , to let them know , that the Church of England , being to enter into a considetion of those lawes , which were thought fit to bee altered , concerning matter of Religion , knew by experience both at home , and abroad , that howsoeuer the best humane lawes haue much imperfection annexed to them , yet ouergreat or ouerspeedy alteration , could neither argue much wisedome , nor be thought safe . For to alter lawes of continuāce and especially in this kinde , must needs with the common sort , Impaire and weaken the force of those grounds whereby lawes are esteemed to haue greatest strength . For if we haue neither voyce from heauen ( the ground of the first alteration in the Apostles time ) that pronounceth them fit to be thus chaunged ; neither sentence of wise men , built vpon manifest euil ; nor cleare proofe that they in whose hands it is to alter them , may likewise infallibly euen in hart and conscience iudge them so ; vpon necessitie to vrge alteration , is without necessitie , to trouble and to weaken the whole stare . But such is the lot of all that deale in publike affaires , whether of Church or commonwealth , that which men list to surmise of their doings , be it good or ill , they must before hand , arme their minde to indure it with much patiēce . Now if it were a fault in the Church of Rome , through a loue to some thing that is harmles , obstinately to maintaine what is not lawfull ; had it not been an Imputation to our church frō the dislike of those things , which were neither warrantable , nor iust , to proceede to an alteration of such , as in the iudgement of the best vndoubtedly were both . But when experience shal haue showed the seueral fruits of both kinds of reformatiō , as well moderate with vs , as violent rigorous and extreame in other Churches , it is the voice of truth wil expresse it selfe , euen from their consciences ; we are they that haue hindered the happinesse of the Church of England ; for the way of peace haue we not knowne . In the meane while not to aduise those , whose authoritie is powerfull , and their wisedome excellent , wee canne but wish suspence of iudgement , and exercise of charitie , to those that doe thinke otherwise , adutie much safer and seemelier for Christian men , than the ouer hote , and violent pursuit , of these controuersies , wherein they that are most feruent to dispute , be not alwaies the most able to determine ; now for the last of those which we tearmed professours of Religion in a sound manner , as honor and respect is their merit , so doubtlesse in this Kingdome at this time if they be humble , obedient , and patient , they can want neither . Thus much we haue written , not that we take vpon vs either to prescribe vnto the Prince what he may , or to direct the State what they ought to performe in this case , but plainely to deliuer our owne weake opinion which very willingly in all humilitie we submit to the Censure of this Church . An humble conclusion , to his Sacred Maiestie and the right Honorable Lords of his Highnes priuie Counsell together with the rest whom it may concerne to defend this Church . CHAP. V. IT is not the least happines to a kingdome ( if it be not of temporal felicities the greatest ) to haue a King euery way so inabled , that euerie mans particular case is like enough to come to his particular view ; for nature hath made all men to beare with greater moderatiō that done , which proceedeth from those who doe and ought to gouern , than frō others ; & grace ( euen that grace that cōmeth frō aboue ) hath inspired a greater feeling of each mans particular want & a better vnderstanding of some mens eminent worthines than can be expected from those ( how wise soeuer ) who act but the parts of politicke men , in the habits of obedient and moderate aduisers , where it is like no man will be ouerforward to benefit any priuate man two much , seeing the commendation of whatsoeuer is well done must of necessitie be equally diuided amongst many ; neither hath vertue ( howe well soeuer deseruing ) in all kingdomes , found alwaies that equal fauour at vertuous mens hands , which both she might haue expected & in reason was due vnto her , because a timorous disposition in al , maketh euery man feare , that nothing can be added to another mans greatnes , which must needs serue at the length , to make his seeme lesse , because of lesse vse ; Now the greatest burden vpon earth ( Gracious and right Honorable ) ( next the burden of a troubled conscience ) lyeth ( as ye well know ) vpon his shoulders who gouerneth a Nation , rich , wise , valiant and by reason of all these peraduenture proud , surely howsoeuer wisemen haue thought all authoritie a care ( because many must of necessitie want many helpes ) both to relieue things past , to satisfie things present , & to preuent things to come ; ( which no man without care can doe , and few with it , ) yet surely ouer those who are either simple , or poore , or seruile , or cowardly , the gouernment cannot be troublesome , seeing he commandeth those ouer whom a litle reasō is much , & weaknes & feare haue denied thē libertie to examine what is well or ill done ; this alone made that easie passage of the Portingales and the Spaniards into the Indiaes , which against a nation of lesse wealth , or circuit , furnished with more vnderstanding , had doubtles been vnpossible , if the forces of both kingdomes had been vnited ; such is the willingnes to resist in the defence of auncient libertie , where the reason of man by ciuill education , hath power to discern the qualitie of that which it doth defende . But in those who are of a contrarie nature , & will dare to do much because they would seeme not to vnderstand little , there to take a Crowne , is to take a heauie burdē , & to gouerne is to rule men , where euerie particular danger of moment must haue a remedie , vnlesse they will hazard by the contēpt of some few , the ruine of the whole state ; this consideration made Dioclesian , ( who was neither the best nor the happiest that euer gouernd ) thinke truely , that there was nothing harder than to rule well . For if they shall either commit all to others ( which no King whose Nation was happie euer did ) or take all vpon themselues , in both they shall finde ( if not equall ) yet the like , certaine , & vnresistable danger , therfore well said Saturninus to those that put on his kingly ornamēts ; frends , ye know not what an euil it is to rule , many dāgers hang ouer our heads ; for where in other cases feare maketh mē watch , in this men vsually feare those that watch ouer them . I know not a better securitie in this for the kingdom ( God make vs all thankefull that it hath beene our happines ) than a good Prince , nor for the Prince than a good Counsell , nor for all , than profitable and religious lawes . These only are left vppon earth from men to be the strength and supporters to those that Rule ouer greate Kingedomes . It is true which Tacitus saith , that the most weightie labours of a Prince stand in need of the greatest helps ; therefore as tyrāts in al ages haue loathed nothing so much as good counsaile , bestowing the greatest honors & riches ( the iust recōpence of vertue ) vpon the worst persons ( whose vices serued only to make them forget thēselues and to ruinate the kingdome ouer which they gouernd ( so the best & wisest , haue euer made choise of such , as were fit to be eies , & eares , nay tongues & hands , all to be imployed for the common good ; for seldome ( saith one ) shall we see great men , not to haue the assistance of great Counsaile ; to gouerne a great fortune ; nay there cannot be in a Prince , a greater argument of wisedome nor a greater safetie to the Church and the common-wealth , than in making his choice of a wise Councill ; some are of opinion that the chiefest reason why Rome florished so long , was principally this , because they that gouernd her followed not their owne , but the Counsaile of the whole Senate . Neither saith Augustus , could any of these thinges ( meaning the troubles of his house that break out ) haue happened vnto me , if Agrippa , or Maecenas ( two wise Counsellours ) had now liued ; for doubtles there is not a better instrument of a happie kingdome than a wise and vertuous Counsellour , who not vnfitly may be tearmed ( as Tacitus calleth him ) the ornament of peace . Surely no lesse necessarie to a state that would florish , than the soule to a bodie that would liue . The consideration of this happines at this time maketh both the Church & the Cōmonwealth ( dread Souereigne & right honorable Lords ) to cast themselues at your feet , and to lay open before your eyes , the daungers which they feare ( without your gracious assistāce ) may fall vpon them . And howsoeuer many other things of vse & moment , are like wheeles in this kingdome , to stirre at your Honors motion , yet Religion it selfe , in the habit of the Church , Religion that hath infinitely blest you , & this kingdome , doth earnestly intreat that against all her enemies , publike , or priuate , shee may rest , florish and be fruitfull , by your meanes ; and howsoeuer the Common-wealth may now be an humble suppliāt for redresse of those grieuances that offend her , yet aboue all other the Church had most cause to feare , that the time of a second consultation , either through violence importunitie and sleight , might haue beene fatall to her , or that the contempt of his voyce in the dayes of peace , might haue in iustice , procured a scourge from the almightie to cause her to remember whom shee had despised ; the seuerall times for all states ( either to vse or to knowe their strength ) are peace , and warre , and the two professions that are the safetie of both are the militarie and the gowne : It is no small care , nor wisedome for a Realme , to knowe when and with whom to fight , and to thinke not onely vpon defence ( which were enough had it as much honor as safetie ) but vpon victorie ; surely in a kingdome carelesse of these men , the King may oftener fight than ouercome ; and in his best successe peraduenture be more beholding to fortune , than to his good Counsaile ; who surely of all other howsoeuer the warre be ended , is most innocent , and furthest from all blame , yet it is strange to see how all men lay the faults of their inconsiderate folly , rather vpon any thing than vpon themselues . So that ignorance of true causes , giuing the name to fortune , men are willing to hide that with obscuring the cause ( calling it chaunce ) which only proceeded frō their want of Counsaile , which wheresoeuer it is , it leaueth no power either in peace or warre , vnto that which they call Fortune ; I confesse sometimes there is a higher cause ( that Iustice which our sins awake ) which taketh strength from the best meanes , and maketh the errors of Princes & their Counsell , the foundatiō of publike calamities ; but our purpose is not at this time to pleade for any other sauing onely for this Church ; for the happinesse whereof it seemeth that good lawes heretofore haue not beene so much wanting to vs , as wee to them . In penall lawes surely there is the greatest wisedome , of those that make them , and the greatest presumption , of those that breake them ; so that for the safetie of all states , but especially of the Church , there are few things of greater aduantage thā the seueritie of Iustice in the strict execution of penall lawes ; for it is straunge that some inconueniences should first cause them seeme fit to be made , and no disorder make them seeme necessarie to be obserued ; I thinke no other reason can be giuen but this , that those lawes doe hire men with halfe the allowance to be informers , which makes that good seruice to the commonwealth , only in that respect odious , as being not the effect of iustice , and zeale , but the vnconscionable desire of some couetous promoter , the best remedie in this , will be to referre the benefit of these , to some publike vse ( for it is meete that vertue be maintained from the penaltie of vice ) and that such be seruants to the state in the executiō of these lawes , as are furthest from partialitie and pittie , & yet least to be suspected for vnsatiable desiring of their own gaine . But there is a greater defect in most kingdomes , ( wherein this Church is an humble suter to your Highnesse ) that it would please your Grace ( a thing absolutely hoped for at your Maiesties hands ) as well to reward those that deserue well , as to punish those that are dangerous to the Church or the commonwealth ; doubtlesse there is no politike consideration of greater vse , in a kingdome , that all parts of it may florish , than the iust bestowing of these two , reward and punishment ; seeing they are the spurre and the bridle , absolutely requisit for the right commanding of a whole Realme . And surely it is a great question , whether to the happinesse of a state it be safer to want punishment for the euill , or rewards for the vertuous ; But seeing all kingdomes haue greater feeling , and can better iudge of what is euill than well done , therefore punishments are by the lawe due to the one , whereas the other is many times a matter of great suit , fauour , and sometimes of infinite corruption , which the best and most worthy obseruing , they are in al likelihood furthest from being preferred , because least subiect to such corruption . It was an Honorable farewell the last Deanry that was giuen by Queene Elizabeth : Honorab●e to him that procured it freely ( as I heard ) of his owne motion ; Honorable to him that had it without al corruptiō ( neither in acquitting of him do I condēn al others ) and most Honorable to her , who no sooner heard of a man worthy but was most willing to preferre him : There are few things of a greater aduantage to the Church , than to haue the eyes of the Prince ( if sometimes his occasions diuert him otherwise ) drawne to looke at men of very speciall and singular deserte : who peraduenture are neither so corrupt , so fortunate , so seasonable , so well frended , nor indeed so any thing ( sauing only worthy ) that they can obtaine that , which men of farre meaner deserts ( if not easily ) yet commonly doe . And surely for vs of the Church there is not out of the Vniuersitie ( excepting the Kings Chappell ) a better stand for the nobilitie , to take ●ew of such , than the Sermons at Pauls Crosse : this being sincerely lookt at , vertue shall haue incouragment to take paines , because vertuous paines shall be sure to haue recompence : a thing , where it wanteth that want must of necessitie fill all places with the worst , and the worst disposed . So shall men that are worthy , and very excellent , be preferred either slowly , or not at all , whilst euery ignorant , vnhonest , vnprofitable flatterer , shall depart loaden with the best preferments , ( the due recompence that belongs to vertue : ) for redresse whereof I dare not take vpon me to aduise , only I wish that they ( especially the Honorable and reuerend Bishops , Fathers of the Church ) who haue any stroake , in the disposition of such preferments , as appertaine vnto learned men , would be thinke themselues , what it is to respect any thing , either aboue or besides merit , considering ( as one well noteth ) how hardly the world taketh it , when to men of commendable note and qualitie , there is so little respect had , or so great vnto them whose deserts are very meane , that nothing doth seeme more straunge , than the one sort because they are not accounpted of , and the other because they are ; It being euery mans hope , and expectatiō that the only purchase of greater rewards should be alwaies greater deserts , & that nothing should euer be able to plāt a thorne , where a vine ought to growe , or to commit that to a Fox , or an Asse , which requireth the strength & the toyle of the painful Ox : the careful obseruatiō of this , ( which the Church humbly intreateth at your Graces hands ) shal roote out all Idolatours from your lands ; banish all Heretikes from Christs fold , which steale in like rauenous wolues ; discouer those Anabaptists who stirre vp contentions to hinder Religion , labour to haue magistrates contemned , inueying against the lawfull ordination of our Clergie , accounting them to be but Scribes and Pharisies , Idle , haue too great liuings : flatterers of the Ciuill Magistrate , saying the reformation of the Church , is not spirituall enough & perfect , and their vnhallowed & priuate conuenticles are more holy , making their pretence of all , the puritie of the Gospell ; these pretend grauitie , reprehend seueritie , speake gloriously , and all in Hypocrisie : these dayly inuent newe opinions , and run from error , to error : their wilfulnes they account constancie , their deserued punishment persecution ; their mouthes are euer open to speake euill , they giue neither reuerence , nor titles , to any in place aboue them ; in one word the Church cannot feare a more dangerous and fatall enemie to her peace and happines , a greater cloud to the light of the Gospell , a stronger hand to pull in Barbarisme , and pouertie , into all our La●d , a more furious monster , to breed contempt , and disobedience in all states ; a more fretting Cankar to the very marrowes and sinewes of this Church , and kingdome , than the Anabaptist ; who is proud without learning , presumptuous without authoritie , Zealous without knowledge , holy without Religion ; in one word a dangerous and malicious Hypocrite . Sundrie of these m●nifest and violent disturbers of the peace of this Church and the Common-wealth , were banished from amongst vs in the dayes of out late Souereigne , we heare they are returnd ; they make petitions , they hope for fauour . Consided ( great and mightie Prince ) ( right Honorable Lords and all yee whom it may concerne to defend this state ) that now is the time to make and execute lawes against them : for these are more daungerous than other Heretikes , because they are transformed into the shapes of some amongst vs ; The Church of England , which lyeth prostrate at your Graces feet , desireth not to be fauoured in her errors , not to haue her corruptions warranted by authoritie , to haue staines not washed , because shee hath had them long : to haue idolatrie and superstition harbored in her bosome : to be loadē in her Religiō with the inuentions of man and vnhalowed Ceremonies , to be supported with a prophane Hierarchie , an vsurping dominion : to bee poysoned with humane learning , to be murdered with Idle , and vnpreaching Ministers ; but she humbly intreats , ( showing her wounds , with teares in her eyes , sights in her hart , humilitie in her whole behauiour ) that she may be defended , protected , and armed in that truth , which Christ and his Apostles haue taught her ; which Queene Elizabeth hath Cherished & maintained in her : which the earth hath wondered at , & heauens haue blessed ; that her beautie may not be defaced vnder pretence of washing : that she may not be left naked of her comely , decent , and Religious ceremonies : that the gouernment of her Bishops , ( auncient , warrantable , and safe , ) may not be taken from her ; that her schooles may florish with all sacred , and Heathen learning : that her Ministers may be painefull and liberally maintained ; and last of all , that the Liturgie , so vertuous , so holy , for which so many Martyrs of hers haue dyed , restored in the dayes of King Edward , continued in the gratious and happie dayes of Queene Elizabeth , may by your Princely authoritie ( seeing all the learned of your kingdome are readie in the defence of it ) be strongly and vnresistably maintained against her enemies ; so shall we account it a second birth day to our countrie : a day of grace and saluation wherein God hath sworne by his holinesse that hee will not faile you : and therefore to this ende hath preuented you with the blessings of goodnesse and set a crowne of pure gold vpon your head , a day wherein the Nations that are round about vs , shall say as Hyram when hee heard the words of Salomon ; blessed be the Lord this day , which hath giuen vnto Dauid a wise Sonne ouer this mightie people ; Vnto Queene Elizabeth an Heire of her owne house and linage , full of Religion , wisedome and vnderstanding ; so that we may truely say ( as they did ) doubtlesse we haue seene straung things this day ; straunge to our countrie , to ourselues , to our enemies , to haue neighbours , to our prosteritie ; for which our harts burne within vs ( and shall for euer with feruencie of deuotion for your highnesse safetie ) our mouthes are filled with laughter , and our tongues with ioy ; and we must needes confesse with the Prophet Dauid , The Lord hath done great things for vs alreadie whereof we reioyce ; for which we intreate the heauens to reioyce with vs ; the earth to be glad , and the Sea to make a noyse , and all that therein is , the compasse of the round World and they that dwell therein ; for by this means innumerable benefits are common vnto them ; to the Heauen a multitude of Saints , to the earth peace , to the Sea Treasure , to the fields plentie , for God hath broken the rod of the wicked , and the whole land is at rest : and surely if euer Natiō of the world had cause either to hope for happines to this Church and Commonwealth , or to giue thankes vnto the Lord , and to that ende to fall low vpon our knees before his footestoole , it is we ; to haue a King , but which is greater happinesse , of the same blood : nay more than that , of the same Religion : but most of all , without bloodshed , and especially ( Then ) when all the politikes of the world , had set our period , & rung our passing Bell : euen thē by your Highnesse meanes the Lord himselfe ( for we must al acknowledge that it was his worke ) deliuered our soule from death , our eyes from teares and our feet from falling : our soule from bodily , and spirituall death , our eyes from teares , arising from our daunger , ( nay from our holy teares for our late Souereigne : ) & our feete from falling into troubles , which then were present : into sinne , which then was likely ; into blindnesse which then we feared : into shame , which we all deserued : into misery , which many hoped : but we say againe the Lord hath done great things for vs alreadie : and greater , and far greater shall doe , if we be not vnthankefull : and therefore howsoeuer thou art , either Iesuite , or Preest , Anabaptist , Protestant , or Atheist , which sayst in thy heart , let vs make hauocke of them altogether , thou shalt so dianly consume and perish , and come to a fearefull ende : and the Church shall continually intreate , at the hands of the Lord of heauen , and humbly before the Throne of your gratious Maiestie , for protection against her , and all your aduersaries , saying , O deliuer not the soule of the Turtle Doue vnto the multitude of the enemies , and forget not the congregation of the poore for euer ; looke vpon the couenant , for al the earth is full of darkenesse and cruell habitations ; O let not the simple goe away ashamed , but let the poore and needy giue praise vnto thy name : A rise ( O God ) maintaine thy own cause , remēber how the foolish man blasphemeth thee dayly : forget not the voyce of thy enemie , the presumption of them that hate thee , increaseth euer more and more . Amen . FINIS . This Epistle following is here annexed , and thought fit to be Printed because the Dedication of this booke was first intended vnto the late right Honorable and right Reuerend Father the Lord Archbishop of Canterburie his Grace . To the most Reuerend Father in God , my very good Lord , the Lord Archbishop of Canterburie his Grace , Primate and Metropolitan of all England . WHat benefit ( Right Reuerend ) this Church hath receiued by your Graces meanes , ( God bessing your Counsell vnder the gouernment of two great Princes ) as this age present doth sensiblie perceiue , so the memorie thereof shal be honorable in the time to come . For when the vertuons Gouernment of our late Souereigne , had banished from all parts of her Kingdome the Tyrannie and superstitiō of the Church of Rome , some men ( fit instruments to disturbe the peacefull happinesse of this Land ) fearefull as it seemed of the dangers that might follow , and impatient of that forme of gouernment which mercy and wisedome had planted for the Churches safetie , laboured by meanes , ouer violent , and vnholy , to bring in ( perhaps from the partiall loue to the orders of those Churches which comfortably refresht them in the time of banishment ) a presbiteriall Discipline ; both of them ( notwithstanding ) following a diuers shape of the Ecclesiasticall state in diuers times ; the one in peace , the other in persecution , neither of them both , doubtlesse , ( circumstances being weighed ) either warranted by truth or answerable to these times ; The one labouring , to ouerload vs , with an intollerable burden of humane traditions ( polliticke inuentions to make an outward greatnesse whilst inwardly Religion must needs ●aile ) the other to strippe her , as naked as the day wherein shee was first borne ; discouraging her teachers , by robbing them of honour and maintenaunce ; traducing that learning , wherein many of our Reuerend Fathers were equall to any in any part of the world besides , and in steade of these , making the Church to doe Pennance for her wontonnesse in the dayes of superstition , being left vnpitied , desolate , ignorant , and without honour ; all their purposes tending to this end , to make vs had in dirision of all those that were rounde about vs ; Thus these two enemies in our owne bosome , looking both of them with enuie at your happinesse , and with Ielosie at that fauour , which we might be suspected to beare towards either of them ; their discentions were not so violent to each other , as they both were cruell and daungerous to our peace ; as if Ephraim , and Manasses , had made a truce , and both of them concluded to deuour Iuda ; At this time your Lordship ( for lawes and authoritie had restrayned the one ) vndertooke the defence of this Church Gouernment , against the other ; wherein doubtlesse if your great wisedome and moderation , had not like another Athanasius , indured the furie and rage of this vnbridled multitude , Wee might ●●stly haue feared , that disorder and barbarisme would haue tyrannously possest long since , the worthiest and most beautifull parts of our whole land . And as doubtlesse it was happie for the Church that you vndertooke by writing , the defence of this cause , ( seeing no man could haue done it either better , or with lesse exception ) so the day of your admission to the Sea of Canterburie , is , and was ( in all likelihood ) ( next vnto our late Souereigne ) the forciblest meanes , and the best securitie , this Church then could hope for to procure her peace ; neither can the Clergie of this land , but in dutie and thankefulnesse , offer vp continually , their Zealous and deuout prayers , for all blessings to come downe , and light , and rest vpon his sacred Maiestie , and vpon his Royall posteritie to many thousand generations , for those Princely fauours , which his Highnesse extending to you , giueth , as vndoubted assurance to all vs , of the peace , prosperitie and happinesse , of this Church ; I haue often with my selfe thought , that the greatest riches and most to be valued , which our late Souereigne left vnto his Princely Maiestie with the lawfull inheritance of this kingdome , was a learned and deuout Clergie ; A wise and Religious Counsell ; An Honorable , and Auncient Nobilitie ; Valiant and discreet leaders ; rich and louing Citizens ; painfull and diligent husbandmen ; In one word , a people not in any Vertue Inferour to any Nation of the earth ; and for Loyaltie , and obedience ( be it spoken without enuie ) aboue them all ; yet in the happinesse of all this , there haue not beene since wanting , which earnestly haue sought to ouerthrow the state of this Church ; We know not their Intentions , the world seeth they are cunning to doe , and to speake euill ; and whatsoeuer may seeme auaileable to further their cause , wanteth not the best aduantage , that any opportunitie can giue vnto them ; in which respect it is all our duties , who desire the peace of this Church , & prosperitie of the Commonwealth , no way to be wanting , to the reasonable , Iust , and honest defence of a good cause ; In regard whereof , though by many degrees I am the vnworthiest of a great number , who haue , and are readie , to write in the defence of this Church ( the aduersaries in this cause hauing receiued the first & greatest Wounds from your pen ) yet my care amongst the rest was , to imploy my labour , according to that abilitie which God hath giuen me , in the modest defence , of the Gouernment of this Church . Which hauing beene handled so often , and so learnedly heretofore , it ought not to seeme straunge to any , and I hope , will be pardoned at your hand , if wee gather but the gleanings after those , that plentifully haue sown , and haue reaped before vs. Whatsoeuer my labour , and trauell hath beene in this , it is due vnto your Grace , whose manifold , continued , and vndeserued fauours , together with my priuate dutie , challengeth me & my whole seruice , by a greater nearenesse , than that Law ; yee shall bring a sheafe of the first fruites of your haruest vnto the Priest. Thus hartely desiring your Lordships Fauourable acceptance of this paines , how small soeuer , with my continuall prayers , for the long preseruation of your Graces health , and Honor , to the comfort of a great number , and the singular blessing of this Church , euen through the mercies of him , in whom we all liue , moue , and haue our being , I humbly take my leaue . Your Graces in all Dutie . WILLIAM COVELL . Faults Escaped . In Epist. Didte . Line the 1. for the Word Read the World. Page 4 Line . ●1 for blould 〈◊〉 boldnesses p : 5 l. 2 : for Vsull r. Vsuall p. 6 l. ●● . for to ●amer to the same p 7. 〈◊〉 2. for A●henian r. Athenians . p 8. l. 8 for outward r. Outwardly . l. 〈◊〉 for W●res r warres . l. ●7 for these word r. the sword . p. 9. l. 9. for as 1 is . l 22. for inhabit r. inable , l. ●3 for to r. of l. 38. for nor least r nor of least p 13. l. 2. for putrified r. purified p. 15. l. vlt for but time r. but in time . p. 16 l ● . for per●aps . r. perhaps . l. 9 for g●eauent geauen l. 26. for Cod r. God p. 18. l. Vlt. for to the rest r. to reft p. 20 l. 1. for Eternall r. Externall . l. 30. for a little r. so litle . p. 11. l. 21. in ma●g for Pennies r. Penries p. 26. l 12. for cerefull r. carefull l. 14 for continue . r. conuince . p. 27. l. 5. for were 1. we are l. 31 for with r which p. 50 l. 7 for only r. one . l 24 for receiue . r rcuiue . l. 25. for dwiseome r. wisedome p. 51. l. 3. fercentention r. contention . p. 52. l. 6. for Propanenes r. Prophanenes . l 9. for Redemption r. repetition p. 53. l. ●1 for fruction r , function l. 13. for their r her p 56 l. 18. for them r t●en . p. 59. l. 2. for her r. their p 6● . l. 17. for continued , r. contemned . p 62. l 27. for of r and p. 67. l. 27. for vscan r. vs ● cā . p. 82. l. 28. for Grayer r. Gray . p. 83. l. 15. for they that r. that they p. 85 l. 37. for giuen r. giuing . p. 124 l. 5. for mediation r. meditation . p. 125. l. 11 for disuict . r. distinct . p. 16 l 9. for vluen r. when . p . 127. l. 29. for exart . r. exhort . p. 129. l. 34 for were r. we are . p. 134. l. 34. for both . r loth p. 137. l. 34. in marg . for par●re r parere . p. 143. l. 22. for person r. persons . l. 26. fo● be●ng r● bring p. 144 l 6 , for either the other r either , the other . l. 33. for occafion r. occasion . P. 145. l. 8. for vs r. as . p. 146 , l. 34. for thought r. though . p. l. 147. 19. for reuerent . r. reuerence l. 29 for others r. either p. 162. l 2. for Pulralities r Plural ; p. 164. l. 26. for Extragauāts r. Extrauagants p. 165. l. 19. in marg . for cōmumis r. communis l 29. in marg , for quam vis r. quamuis . p 189 l 13. for Codly r Godly , l. 17 , for disented r. dissented l , vult for Ghurches r. Churches , p. 186. l. 27. for Vgre r. ●rge p , 187. l. 23. in marg . for Cominis r. Communis p. 190 l. 7. for Mamerces r. M●merc●s , p. 191. l , 17. for the the first r. the fifth , p. 192 , l. 33 in ma●g . for Disperandi r. desiderandi , p , 194 , l. 27 , for abased , r , abu●ed . p. 196 , l. 14 , for patience r. patience . l , 15 , for councell r , counsaile p. 197. l , 14. for chieffly r , chiefly , Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A19461-e480 The late Lord Archbishop of Canterburie . Notes for div A19461-e560 Haec est charitas expectanda , haec est charitas maior imperio , si fides tuta sit qu● seruat imperium . Ambrose . ep . 31. ad Valentinianū . The Assertion for Church policie . Eccles. 32. Iob. 32. Iosua . 22.16.17 . Vers. 22. Apud Christianos non qui patitur , sed qui facit contumelians miser est . Hier. Vi●t qui patitur . In bona consc●entiateneo , quisguis volens detra●it fame meae , nolens addi● merced● meae . Ne aestimet quis plus ponderis esse in alienoconuitio quam in testimoni● suo . Ambrose . Notes for div A19461-e950 a By Ios●●s Nichols in the Plea of the Innocent . Pag. 135. Psal. 2.10 . Rom. 13.1 . Pet , 2. Ier. 26. T.C. in his second reply . D. Sutcliffe . In their Eccles. dis . Notes for div A19461-e3300 1. Tim. 3. Hebr. 12. Coloss. 1. 1. Cor. 14. 2. Cor. 4. Hebr. 13. Luke . 10. Basil. in Psal. 33 Eph. 4. Math. 7. Maister Hooker . 2. Chro. 2.5 . Iob. 10.12 . Deut. 23.7 . Cassina . de Incar 〈◊〉 lib. 1. cap. 6. Numb . 16. Knox to the Communaltie Fol. 49.50 . Ibid. Fol. 55. Bertrā . pag. 15 Morna . pag. 37 Calvin Inst. lib. 4 , 1.9 . T.C. his second reply . Pag. 53. Penrie ● Epist. before the Humblmotion . Suppl . to the parliament . pag. 67. Gilbyes Dial : Pag. 151. Admonit . pa. 34. Nich , in the plea of the Innoc , p. 130. My Lord his Grace of Canterbury . Doctor Bilson . Doctor Sutcliff . Master Hooke , & many other . Iohn . 13. Cyprian de ablutione pedum . 1 Cor. 11. Notes for div A19461-e4320 Ludere in verbis & dormitare in sensibus . Si merito obiurgauerit te aliquis , scito quia profuit ; si immerito , scito quia prodesse voluit . Seneca . Poem●ita . Eccles. 3.7 . Priests & Iesuits not feigned . Silendi patientia oportunitas loqueudi , contemptus diuitiarum , sunt maxima fundamenta virtutum ; Hier Epist . Preface . B. 2. Aperte inuidet , Abiecte fingit , seruiliter superbis Sidon . lib. 2. Epist. Plea : pag. 10. line : 5. Ibid. pag. 10. line . 5. Fenner Philips . Pag. 60. ad . 59 ▪ Pag. 68. Reuerend Fathers in the cōtents of the 5. Chap. Pag. 232. Pag. 110. Pag. 113. Omnia cū liceāt , non licet esse bonum . Preface to the Demōstr . A , 4 Pag. 120. From pag 45. to 47. which were handled from 17. to 27. And againe in pag. 73.78.79 . from 124.129 Pag 53. lin . 13. Writed pag. 53 L. 2. vndeceable milk . pag. 9 lin . 20. Pag. 8. lin . 18. D. Whitaker for his priuat kindnesse ; Non viuā si quid vnquā viderim dissolutius as pene puerilius . Indignus est quia quopiam docto refutetur . Notes for div A19461-e5030 Sentētia ; vestras prodinisse superasse est . Hiero. ai Ctesiphont . Grego . Tholosse . de Rep. lib. 13. cap. 3. Sect. 2. In proemio Clement . S.S. h●c sane . The plea of the Innocent . Suruay of discipline . Danger : posit . M Hooker in his Preface to his first booke . D. Sutclisf . That of Queen Matie and of those reform . Goodman . pag. 73.74.77 . Aut agendumi Aut patien●● . Goodman of obedince . pag. 99 , 103. Whitingame . The Iesuites . Martyres St●lt● philosophiae By Gilby . 1.5 . Vtalle Thro●mor . Pe●ry &c. A presbitarie erected at Wandsworthin Surrey . 1572 Noue . 20 Bene quod malitia non habet tantos vires quantas conatus . Hieron . lib. 2. contr . Ruffin Dange . pos . Pag 137. Humble motion , Pag 39. Danger . posit . Suruey of discip . I know not any thing we did in our meetings or in our supplications or Apologeriall writings but that which was comely for men of our sort . M. Nick. in the Plea. Pag. 29. lin . 24. The Protest . in England be in a maner in hart al Puritās . Bristow in his motiue● . 40. The Lo. Archbishop of Canterbury . Whitgift . Pag. 11. lin . 23. Sulp. Seu. Epit. Hist. Eccles : Mundanos potius q●am mundos . Ios. Nich in the Plea. pag. 11 , ●in . 14. Pag. 31. lin . 6.33 . lin . 23. Pag. 53. lin . 2 Pag. 5925. Pag. 58. lin . 19. Pag. 71. lin . 1. Pag. 100. l. 19. Pag. 103. lin . 7. Pag. 114. l. 28. Pag. 80. lin . 22. Pag. 120. lin . 7. Notes for div A19461-e6440 Phil. 2.1 . Prou. 26.1 . Gen. 13.1 . In the plea. of the Innoc. pag. 83. l. 3. Ib. Plea. pag. 84. lin . 2. Plea. pag. 96 line 4. Thom. Aq● . 22. quest . 38. act . 1. 2 , Tim. 2 24 : Vers ▪ 25. 1. Tim. 6.4 . 2. Timoh . 2.54 Iame. 3.6 . 1. Cor. 11.16 . 1 : de eo quod non . 2 : modo quo non . 3 : Loco : 4 : personis . Luke . 22. Maist. Hooker . Lawyers may . 1. Cor. 3.3 . Prou. 20.3 . Maist. Nichols in his plea. a Rom. 14.4 . b Nihil Interest quo animo facimus quod vitiosum est fecisse , quia facta cernūtur , a●●imus nō videtnr . c Nulla enim l. ●●● est n●● facere quod facere non ●ossis . Senec. Mat. 2. Emendare non quiescit si emēdare non potest , tollerat , et gemit . Aug. Zealus Liuoris , non amoris . Math. 21 , Numb . 25.7 , Exod. 32. 1. King. 18.4 . Zelatores . Ioseph . lib. 5. de bells Iudaico . cap. 5. et lib. 6. cap. 1.2 . Prou. 17.1 1. Timoth. 6.4.5 . Iame. 1.20 . Iame. 3.16.17 . Gen. 13. ● . Gen. 16.9 . Rom. 16.17 . 18. Gal. 5.26 . Iames. 3.16 , 17 18 Notes for div A19461-e7670 Secundae intentiones Legis . Iam. 1.27 . Encherid . cap. 3. Matth. 11. Gal. 5. Iudicidia sunt moralia in ordine ad proximum . Ceremonialia sunt moralia in ordine ad deum . 1. Sam. 15.22 . Ios. 5. 1. Mach. 6. & 7. Liu●e . lib. 5. Val. Max. li. 1.1 a Carendo , Aug. lib. 2. Retract , cap. 37. Gell. lib. 4.9 . Mocrob . Satur. lib. 2. cap. 3 , Nec disciplina vlla in his melior graui prudentique Christiano quam vt eo mod● agat quo agere viderit ecclesia ad quamcunque deuenerit . Aug. Epist. 118. Luke . 18. Matth. 18. Ipsa quippe mutatio Consuetudinis etiam quae adiu●at vtilitate nouitate perturbat . Aug. 1 , Tim. 1.5.6.7 . Rom. 13.10 . 1. Cor. 13.4 . Zanch. in 4. praecep . pag : 696. Religiosum a relinquendo , Massarius S●binus in Gell : lib : 4 : cap : 9 : 1. Cor. 9. Deut. 14.2 . 1. Sam. 2.17 . Luther in lib. de pijs Cermonijs . Melanch . loc . cō . Nihil ordinatum est quod precipitatur et properat . Sen. epist. 40 A thowsend . Rom. 13. 2. Cor. 13. Hedr . 13. In quibu●●ee ego dissentire a nostris salua gratia , ●ec consentite sal●a Conscientia possum . Sen. epist. 117 : Euseb. lib. 5. cap. 25. Epiph. heres . 70. Athanas. in Epist. de Synod . A●imin . & Seleuciae . Can. 1. Epiph. baer . 50. Aust. Haeres . 29. Theodor. lib. 3. August . Haeres . 23. Epiphan . b.er. 46. Incrementa lente exeunt ; sestinatur in damnum ; Nibil stabile est tumultuantibus causis , mala v●de minimè expectabantur erumpunt . Sen. epist. 91. Quam magnu● mirantium tam magnus innidentium . Sen. de vita beata . Caluin Instit. lib. 4. cap. 10.27 . Aug. lib. 9. contr . Faust. mani●b . cap. 11. Theologus . Plato in Dial. de Regno . Exod. 18.20 . Basil. epist. 63. Leo. epist. 4. Innoc. epist. 1. Placendum est diuinis oculis & habitu corporis & modo vocis ; Cypr. in S●r. de . orat . do● . lib. de Coron . militis . 1. Cor. 14.40 . Wisd. 8.7 . Nichols in the Plea. pag 16. lin . 1.9 . Nichols in the Plea of the Innoc pag. 43. lin . 10. Marke the word all . Nichols pag. 91. lin . 27. Pag. 92. lin . 17. Nichols in the Plea pag. 124. lin . 18. Nichols . pag. 91.27 . Tenue est 〈◊〉 , perlucet si dili●enter inspe●eris . Se●ec . Nich pag 171 lin . 9. Reformatio est repetitio vel restitutio facti antiqui . In pro●m . Clement . lib. 3. §. penult . de itiner . act . 1. August . ad Publicolam . epist. 154. Multum egerunt qui ante nos fuerunt , sed non peragerunt . Senec. epist. 65. Catonem non intellexit ciuitas nisi cum perdidit . Inuadit temperatissimos morbus ; innocentissimos paena ; secretissimos tumultus . Sen. epist. 91. Reade the discourse of the troubles begun at Franckford , 1555. about the book of common prayer and ceremonies . This letter was subscribed with 17. hands whereof Knox , Whittingam , and Fox were three . This letter written , Decemb . 13. 1554. This letter was subscribed with eleuen of their hands , wherof Knox , Gil●y , Whittingam , and Goodman were foure . From these ; Horn. D. Cox. D. Sands and diuers o●hers did not nor would not dissent . Ianu. 3. 1559. This was subscribed with eleuen hands . Iames Pilkinton , Iohn Mullings , Henry Carow , Edmund Isaack , &c. Reade the discourse of the troubles begun at Franckford pag. 189. Maister Gilby . This letter was written Anno 1570. to Maister Couerdall , Maister Turner , Maister Whittingam , Maister Sampson , Maister Humphrey , Maister Leauer , Maister Crowley . Melanch● . in Rom , 14. Regest . pag. 41. Gal. 5. Notes for div A19461-e10400 Exod. 18.2 . In the Plea of the Innocent . Iam. 3.18 . There is pax . 1. Temporis 1. Pectoris . 3. Aternitatis . Ber. Psal. 99. Nolumus hun● regitare . Psal. 148.6 . In Hexamer . Esa. 38.16 . Amara prius in nece martyrum ; amarior post in conflictu● . ereticorum ; amarissimanunc in moribus domesticorum . Ber. in Cant. Sen. 23. Ne perderet obedie 〈◊〉 ●uit 〈◊〉 tam 〈◊〉 Ma● 〈◊〉 ratio , 〈◊〉 peior . 〈◊〉 Quod 〈◊〉 sanctu● 〈◊〉 Vera o● 〈◊〉 tianihil 〈◊〉 de suo 〈◊〉 tum de . 〈◊〉 ●er . 28. ● 〈◊〉 Gen 3. 1 King. 20 ● Non attendit verus obediens quale sit quod precipitur hoc solo contentus quia precipitur . Ber. in lib. de precep & dispens . In vitia alter alterum tradimus . Sen. epist. 41. Authoritatem habemus senum vitia puerorum Senec. epist. 4. Qui virtutem suam publicare vult non virtuti laborat sed gloria . Sen. epist. 113. Nemo amplius in ecclesia nocet quam qui peruerse agens nomen vel ordinem sanctitatis habet . Delinquentem namque hunc redarguere nullus presumit & in exemplis culpavehementius extenditur quando pro reuerentia ordinia peccator honoratur Gregor . in past . A thousand of them . Chap. 13. Nichols in the Plea of the Innoc pag. 8. lin 9. Which they do not whilest they breake that statute . Anno 1. Eliz. for vniformitie of prayer . Nichols Plea. pag. 54. lin . 14. and pag. 79. lin . 3. Nichols Plea pag. 80. lin . 8. Nichols . Plea pag. 223. lin . 13. Subscription shaked the heauens and darkned the skies . Nich pag. 226 lin . 11. Humble motion pag. 43. lin . 24. A Gentleman of the country to a Londoner touching an answere to the Archb. articles . Regest . pag. 178. Libritui penè totum ●enobis exbibent . Si enim propt●res te non no●imus , quia saciem corporis t●●non vidi●●us , hoc modo nec ●●se tenos●i , nam in quoque non vides ca●● Aust. epist. 9. ●iero . Sibi'a antiqui Serpe●●is . Hi●ron . Yea●bitrari possunt homine nibil in●enisse quod diceres nisitibi proponeres c●i malediceres . Aust. contr . Petilian . Donatist . Agnoscens loquacitatis culpam vsque ad mortem silentium ●enuit , vt quod loquendo contraxerat tacendo emendaret . Gennad . Catalog . Conscientia est applicatio notitiae nostrae ad actum particularem Aquinas 2. Script . sent . dist . 14. art . 4. Eccles. 7.23.24 . Conscientia testis . Mille. Accusator . Vinculum . Iudg. 16.9 . 1 Testificatio . 2. Examinatio . 3. Consiliatio . 1. De praeteritis . 2. De praeteritis factis & de futuris faciendis . 3 De faciendis tantum . 1. Dictamen . 2. Examen . 3. Ligamen . Ioh. 16.2 . Eadem ratione prohibentur mala qua praecipiuntur bona . Rom. 14. Quia ignorantia quae est ex culpa nocet . Ambros. Esa. 5 10. Martyres stulta philos . Aust. Aquinas in disput . de veritat . quest . 17. art . 5. Alex. 2 part . Summae . quest . 35 art . 2. 1. Chro. 20.12 Ioh. 3. 2. Cor. 10.18 . Pro. 10.9 . Perit omne iudicium cum res transit in affectum . Sen. Hooke● . lib 5. pag. 15. Bonarum mentium est ibi culpas agnocere vbi culpa non est Gregor . Dum perturbatur conscientia hominis , reparatur in homine similitudo conditoris . Elizab. 13. 1. Elizab. Martin Iunior Thes. 50. Apologeticall epistle . Discourse of the troubles . pag. 6. Ibid. pag 8. Ibid. pag. 39. March. 1.1556 . Ibid. pag. 62. Ibid. pag. 132. Danger . pos . pag. 98. Quicquid lacerato animo dixeris punientis est impetus non charitas corrigentis : dilige& di● quicquid voles . August . We desire humbly his M●iestie and the whole Parliament to consider this . Notes for div A19461-e12130 Quod de Scriptura sacris anthantatem non 〈◊〉 cadem facilitate contemnitur qua probatur . H●er . in Matt. 26. Scriptura sacra in 〈…〉 & monendo recta est & promittendo al●a & minando ter . ribilis . Gregor . in Ezech. In sacra scriptura qutequid docetur verit●s ; qui●quid piaecipitur bonitas quicquid promi●titur felicitas est . Hugo . D. Sutcliff . 1. Pet. 5. Zanch. in decal pag 671. Omnia decenter . 1. Cor. 14. Exod. 4 29. Cartwright . Nicholas Gallasius . Pellican . & Siml●rus in exod . 4. Cornel. Bertram de politeia Iudai . dedicated to Maister Beza . T. C. lib. 1. pag. 33. Caluin in Math 18. Exod. 4 29. and 17 5. Deut. 1.15 . and 17.12 . 2. Chron. 19.8 Ierem. 19.1 . Ezech. 8 1. Ket burnt at Norwich . By D. Sutcliffe and the suruay of discipline , pag. 414. Aust. in tract . in lob . Hiero. ad Tit. 2. Aust contra . faust . lib. 32. cap. 19. Suruay . p. 80. Humbl . motion . pag. 31. Pag. 27. Pag. 74. Pag 64. Pag. 37. Pag. 79. Bullinger in a letter to a Bishop of England . 1574. March. 10. Anno. 1574. Hart , a preacher at Emden to M Feeld . By the right reuerend the L. Archbishop of Canturburie . Notes for div A19461-e13060 Hook. lib. ● . pag. 228. Order is the mother and preseruer of all things . Greg. Nazian . de moderatione in disput . servanda . Hieron . ad Euagrium . Beza in Respo . ad Fractat . de mi●ist evangel . grad . sol . 153. Hiero contrae Iouini . lib. 1. Matth. 18. Euseb. lib. 7.30 Cap. 5. Cap. 20. Cap. 2. Cap. 19. Nouel . const . 123. cap. 10. Anno do . 255. Euseb. lib. 6.43 Epist. lib. 4. cap. 88. The defence of the answere to the Admon● pag. 310. Polydor. lib. 4. de Ixuent . c. 12. T.C. pag. 66. Sect. 4. Archshopheard . 1. Pet. 5. Anno. 330. Can. 6. Can. 33. Volusianus wrote , Anno. 965. Theod. in arg . in epist. ad Tit. Euseb. lib. 5. cap. 23. Lib. 1. Epist. 3. ad Cornelium . Ignat. in Epist. ad Smirnenses . Lib. 4. epist. 8. Hook. lib. 5. 236. Reuel . 4.4 . Reuel . 21.14 . Matth. 19.28 . Aust. de har . cap. 53. Epiph. har . 75. Hiero. ad euagr . T●t essent sci●mata quot sacerdotes . Hiero. contr . luciferi● . In respons . ad Tractat de grad . ministr . Ab eo tempore quo cepit dici ego sum Pauli ego Appollo ego au tem Cephae . Hier. in cap. 3. ad Titum . Euseb. lib. 6. Cap. 43. D. Bilson Bish. of Winchester pag. 247. Eris presbyter ●tes & quando deus voluerit futurus Episcopus . Aust. Epist. 210. D. Bils . p. 274. Hierom aduers. Lucifer . Luk. 9. Beza in Resp. ad Tract . de minist . grad . fol. 143. Nay you any work pag 21. Vdal . dial . c. 1. Iosias Nichols in the Plea of of the Inoc. pag. 76. Vt peculiarem promitterent obedientiam in rebus honestis suo episcopo , & episcopi Metropolitano . Zanch. de . Relig. cap. 25. Sect. 38. As my Lord Archbishop answered long since to T.C. Euseb. lib. 3. cap. 39. & 35. millenarij . Iustar fontis purissimi . The Dialogue that came frō Throg . D. 3. Ambrosium noui vnum qui s●lus dignè vocetur Episcopus . ●ph 4.11 . Rom. 12.34 1. King. 10.5 . 2. Tim. 2.20 . Eph. 4.12 . 1. Cor. 12.17 18.19 . Notes for div A19461-e15610 28 Flamines turned into so many Bish. & 3 Archflamins into 3. Archbi . in the da●es of Eleuthe●g . Fox . Tom. 1. pag. 146. Platin. Galfrid Momu . Heb. 2.16 . Exod. 20.19 . Deut. 5 28 19. Math. 3. Act. 14.15 . Heb. 4.15 . Eccle 1.23 . 2 Cor. 2.16 . 2. Cor. 12. Math 25. Falsa est eorū scientia qui quod necessariū est pro suꝑfluo deserūt quod solidū ꝓ vacuo , vtile ꝓinutili , bonū ꝓ malo . Gregor . Ezek. Contention . Sitnah . Hatred Gen. 26.20.2 . Heb. 5.12 . ● victim in rep . Sacerdotiū non est sanū . Luk. 12.24 . Non prodito● aut raptor . Chrisost. 1 Sam. 22 14. Prou. 20.6 : A Lay man : Es. 56 10. This was s●oké against Kings , Princes and Magis . Caluin . Ber. Gen. 41 33. Speculator 〈◊〉 . Preco nintus . D● cto , ●●lciu● 〈◊〉 ●nissu● . Heb. 5. ●● . Eccle. 3.7 . 2. Tim. 4.2 . Prou. 25.11 . Math. 13.52 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Eupolis . Eccle. 2 , 16.17 . verse . 25. Psa. 45. Zanch in . 4. Prec . Cap. 19. pag. 654. Apollos preached diligently and knew only the Bap. of Iohn Act. 18. Nec ignoro maxim ●s honore ; ad parū dignos penuria meliorū s●lere defferri . Māmertius Panager . ad Iulianum . My L. Grace . M. Hooker . Perkins vpon the L. praier . Into what house soeuer ye enter say Pax huie dom● Luk. 10. Maximū viu●di impedunētū est expectatio que pende● ex crastino pe● dis hodiernū . Sene. de breu●● vitae . 1. Tim. 3.2 . Titus . 19. 2. Tim 2.15 . Hos. 4.6 . Math. 15.14 . A true obseruation of M. Hookes . Titus . 1.9 . Que Prophetae vaticinati sunt populis predicare hoc est legere . Gloss ▪ in verb. predicare dist . 25. C. perlectis ●● . ad Lectorē . M. Hook. lib. 5. pag. 263 : M. Curlus . Non est opus rcip . eo ciue qui parite nesciret . Val. Max● lib. 6. cap. 3. Nichols in the plea. pag. 145. Lin 12. Nichols . pag. 171. Lin. 1.1 . Tim. 5. Confess . Heluet . Which are aboue 8000. Nichols plea. Pag. 171. Lin. 14. Magna Charta 33. & . 13. Ann. 52. Hen. 3 Ansegisus legum . Franciae . lib. 1. cap. 84. Anno. 827. Anno. 654. Concilij Tol. 9. cap. 2. Nouella Constit ▪ 123. cap. 18 Omnia ista ta●● propitius aspiciet quam aegros suos medicus . Sen. lib. 2. de Ira. 1. Sam. 30. T. C. aloweth onely readers . pag. 104. Sect 3 Some godly graue man which can doe nothing else but read , may be appointed to be reader in the church . Notes for div A19461-e17710 1 Vniuersities 2 & Cathedral Churches . Anno. 39. Elizab. Purū , probū , prophanū , suū fest . lib ▪ 14. Psal. 24 . 1● 1. Cor. 9.7.8 . a Honores quos expetunt multi Cato petere non debuit sed eos ciuitas ob eius virtutē non petenti dare . Aust. lib. 5. de ciui Dei. b Praedicatores boni & honorē propter elationem sugiunt & honorari tamen propter imitationem volunt . Greg. in moral . c Vetus predicatornō ideo hic predicare debet vt in hoc tempore mercedem recipiat sed ideo debet mercedem recipere vt predicare sufficiat , Greg. Nescio quid habet sordidi singulorum agros aestimare Trauers , in discipt . Eccl. fol. 95.96 . Gen. 14.20 . Gen. 20.28 . Diuitiarum sepes decimae R. Aquila in pirk . Aboth . Malach. 3. a Nullius autē res sa●rae & religiose & sacte quod enim diuini iurisest id nullius in bonis est lustini . lib 2. T it 1. b Nouimus multa regna & regeseorum propte●eac●cidisse quia Eecle●ias spoliaue●●t ●esque earū vastauerunt , alienauerūt , veldirupuerūt Episcopisque & sacerdo . ●ib● at● ; quod maius est Ecclesijs conīabstulerūt & pug nanti●● dedenīt Verba . Caroli Magni . c Hook lib. 5. pag. , 249. Math. 5. Maiores nostri adeo copijs omnibꝰ abundabant quia deo decimas dabant & Caesari censum reddebát modo autem quia disces●it deuotio de●acces●it indictio fiscal noluimus partiri cum Deo decimas modo autem totum tollitur . Aust. Homel 48 . cx lib. 50. Homel . ●Error fratri cellorum . Ioh. de Turre cremat . lib 4. pact . 2. cap. 57. S̄amae . Caiat . in 22. quest . 87. Numb . 1.46 . Numb . 3.36 . Suruay . pag. 117. M. Beza . contr . Erast. lib. script T. C. lib. 1. pag. 1●7 . The humble motion . The 2 Admonit . pag. 12. The humble motion . pag. 40. Pag. 97. Pag. 98. Lin. 3. Pag. 103. My L. his grace of Cant. in the defence of the answere to the Admonit . pag 747. Psal. 82 , 11 , 12 13. Vrban● prim● epist. ad omnes Episcopos . Notes for div A19461-e18900 Ef. 56 10. 11. Zachar. 11. 17. Ezech. 34 2. Math. 15. 14. Act. 20 18. Act. 20 2. Elezh . 23. 2. Sam. 1. 19. Lu● . 13.7 . Math. 25. 30. Nichols in the plea pag. 212. Lin. 23. Ezech. 34.2 . M. Hooker . lib. ● . pag. 251. Anno. 112. Gloss. in verbo aut in elect . cap. nec Numer● . 10. q. 3. Anno. 636. Camde● . This the Lords did for which they were allowed to bee patrons . This M Rogers Martir wisned Anno. 1554. Act. & Monu . fol 1492. M. Hooper and he wisht they might haue . 10 Chore Piscopi villarū Episcopi . Damas. epist. 3. Concit . Neocesar . cau . 13. & Antioch . cau 8 Some of these being Suffraganes did ordaine Presbiters . Concil . Antio . cau . 10 Reasons all edged in the Abstract , out of the Extragauants . By D. Cosen . 4. Hen. 7.10 . Dispensatio estiuris cōmumis relaxatio facta cū causae cognitione ab eo qui ius habet dispēsandi . Dispensare est diuersa pensare ; which they doe not who disallow all dispensations . Lex humana quā vis Iusta sit commutari tamē pro tempore iustè potest . Aust. lib. 1. de liber arb . Aquinas . 12. qu 97. act . 1. fol. 1. Ridiculum est & ●atis abominabile dedec ' vt traditiones quas antiquitus a patribus accipimus infringi patimur Decret . dist . 12 ca. ridiculū est Euidens debet esse vtilitas vt rectarecedatur ab eo iure quod diu aequum visum est . Aqui. 12. q. 97. Act. 2. Abstract . pag. 128. Zanch in decat . lib. 1. cap. 10. pag. 180. Ocatꝰ ad scopum . Intelligentia distorū ex causa est assum ēda quia non sermoni res sed rei debet esse sermo subiectis . Hilar. in lib. 4. de Trinit . 14 Waldenses & some of the Cathari . Alph. de Castr lib. 8 Haeres . Iuramentum . Ma●h . 5. Quod fit authoritate superioris non fit contra preceptum . Arg. L. Scio. ff . de minoribus . Panormit . in C. de multa extr . de Preb. vlt. notab . Aunswere to the Abstaact . pag. 230. My L. his grace of Cant. in the defence of the answere to the Admo . Tract . cap. 1. diuis . 1. pag. 236. D. Bridges . pag. 488. Nichol. in tho plea. pag. 210. Lin. 14. Pag 221. Pag 35. Canon Residentia . 1571. & 1597. 1. Tim. 5.13 . Notes for div A19461-e20380 1. Tim. 4. ● . Ioh. 16.23 . Luk. 11.9 . Psa. 24.9 . Psal. 118. Luk. 11.10 . 1. Esdr. 3.11 . Psa. 114.5 . Gen. 3. Exod. 32.10 . Gen. 32 , 26. Zwengfeldiā● Brownists . Basil. Epist. 6● Rom. 8.26 . Anno. 27. Eliz. T. C. lib. 1. pag. 131. Conci . Lat. sub Inno. 3 cap. 13 Concil . Lugil . a Grego . 10. Concil . Carth. 3. can . 23. Martianus Iurisconsul . in lib. 1. de Colleg . Illic . Nouel . 58 ca 8 siquid in sua domo . Ne forte aliquid contrafidem aut p minus studiū fit cōpositū Concil . mileuit sub Inno 1. can . 2. Leu. 17. Deut. 12. 13. Magistri erroris existūt quia veritatis discipuli nō fuerūt . Nemo priuatim deos habes fit . Lex . 12. tab Amil. pro Plutarch Thacid . Seperatim nemo habessit deos neue nouos siue aduenas nisi publice ascitos priuatim colunto 12 ▪ Tabul . Sundry Martirs in Q. Maries time . Diuers Bish. of our nation in Germ. My L. his grace in def . of the answere to the Adm. M. Hook , lib. 5 2. Sam. 2.5 . 6 1554 Iune . 72. Knox & others Discourse of the trouble at Franckford . pag 28. Knox & Whittingam . Discour . pa. 35 From Geneua Ian. 20 , 1555. D. Horn. D. Leuer . D. Humphry . D. Sands . D. Grindall . D. Cox. D. Scorie . D. Iewell . In his conference betwixt him & B. Gardiner . Ianu. 22. 1555. Act & Monu ▪ fo . 1521 Note that this censure of D. Tailour martir was giuen in England within 2 daies of that cēsure which M. Caluin gaue at Geneua . Vide Bucerum Cranmerum . Ridleum . Vide librū nuperim●ressum Sutlif . de mis●a . pag 146 ▪ This letter was sent Nouē . 28 , and subscribed with 16 hands to them of Franckford . Si per omnia precationum sanctorū verba discurras quātū existimo nihil inuenies quod non ista dominica contineat & concludat oratio , &c. Aust. epist 12. ad probam viduam . Deering against Hard. in a booke called a sparing restraint , &c. E● . 1. ● . Rom. 1.8 . Mil. in psa . 67. M. Bucer in a letter to Archbish . Cranmer . In arg . in Epist ad Galat. Pauli res ipsas sequntur plures nomina rerū plurimi magistrorum . Consentimus in eo quod conuenit non in eo quod receptum est . Iust. Martir . 2. Apol. Tertul. in apol . cap. 39. Colos. 4.16 . 1. Thes. 5.27 . S. Aust. in many places mentioneth this custome to be ancient and vsuall . De ciuit . lib. 22 Ser. 236. Stat minister , comunis minister alta voce clamat attendamus . Chris. Hom. 9. in cap 9. Act. Luk. 4. Act. 13.15.17.18 . M. Hook. Nemo paucis explicat quod ●on recte intelligit . Eras. in praef . in Arnob in Psalt . The Collect on Trinitie Sunday . Aliud est petere liberationē presentem aliud est petere liberaria male pen●presentis Psal. 91. Math. 6. 12 Sunday after Trinitie . T.C. Si quoties homines peccant Iust. Martir 2. Apol. Basil. Haxame . Psa. 12● . Psa. 118. 2. Kings 7 9. Luk ▪ 19. Luk. 2. Discourse of the troubles pag. 133. In Baptismo regeneramur ad vitam post Baptismū confirmamur ad pugnam Euse. Emissen . Non amissi sed premissi fulgent . Disperandi sunt vt absentes non deplorandivt mo●●ul . Standon in the Register . pag 409. In the Collect for the first day of Lent. Regist. Pag. 82 Iohn . 9. Math. 26. 53. Notes for div A19461-e24360 Pf. 59. 11. Concil 4. Tolet ▪ sub Honorio primo . can . 56. De Cret . dist . 45. can . 5. Zanch. in decal . pag. 727. Deut. 17.18.19 But we pleade not as that harlot before Salomon , diuidatur . All or none . Pag. 117. Henr. 3. The Reformer boaste ▪ of 1000 hands . Danger pos , pag. 137. Phil. 3.15 . Quisquis post veritatem repertā aliquid vlterius diseutit , mēdacium querit . Quorū studiū in expugnandis heretecis non reprehenderem , si non studio vi●ēdi plus quam opertuit certa●●ēt . Sulp. Seuer . Epi. 27. Seuire se nolle aliquando Donatistae di●eba●t , ego vero non potuisse ▪ ●●bitror Aust. Nulla ●●stias● nemanē vulnerae ma● uetadicitur , quia dentes & vngues non habet . Notes for div A19461-e25340 Lib. 12. Annal. Raro eminentes viros non magnis adiutoribus ad gubernandam fortunam suam vsos inuenies . Velleius paters . Dionis . Halycar . lib. 2. Senec. de Benef. lib. 16. cap. 32. T●tit . lib 4 : Hist. Dec●● pasis . Master Hooker Ps. 83.3 . Ps. 21.3 . 1. King. 5.7 , Luke . 5.26 . Ps. 75. Notes for div A19461-e26120 Leu. 23.11 . 
A65296	----	The godly mans picture drawn with a scripture-pensil, or, Some characteristical notes of a man that shall go to heaven by Thomas Watson ... Watson, Thomas, d. 1686. 1666 Approx. 521 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 191 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2004-03 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A65296 Wing W1124 ESTC R38514 17542654 ocm 17542654 106547 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A65296) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 106547) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1108:4) The godly mans picture drawn with a scripture-pensil, or, Some characteristical notes of a man that shall go to heaven by Thomas Watson ... Watson, Thomas, d. 1686. [6], 363, [11] p. Printed for Thomas Parkhurst ..., London : 1666. Imperfect: pages faded, stained, and torn, with some loss of print. Errata and advertisement: p. [11] at end. Reproduction of original in the Union Theological Seminary Library, New York. Includes bibliographical references and index. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Puritans -- Doctrines. Christian life. Theology, Practical. 2003-12 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2003-12 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2004-01 Rina Kor Sampled and proofread 2004-01 Rina Kor Text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE Godly Mans Picture , Drawn with a Scripture-Pensil . OR Some Characteristical Notes of a Man that shall go to Heaven . By THOMAS WATSON , Minister of the GOSPEL . But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is Godly for himself , Psalm 4. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cl●m . Alex. LONDON , Printed for Thomas Parkhurst at the three Crowns , over against the great Condu●t , at the lower end of Cheap-side , 1666. To the Reader . Christian Reader , THe Soul being so precious , and Salvation so glorious , it is the highest point of Prudence , to make preparations for another world : That there is an Inheritance in Light , 〈◊〉 beyond all dispute , and that there must be an Idoneity and meetness for it , 〈◊〉 in Sacred Writ most strenuously * as●●rted . If any shall ask , who shall ●scend into the hill of the Lord ? The ●nswer is , He that hath clean hands , 〈◊〉 a pure * heart . To describe such 〈◊〉 person , is the work of this ensuing ●●reatise : Here you have the godly ●ans Effigies , and see him pourtrayed 〈◊〉 his full Lineaments : What a rare ●●ing is godliness ! 't is not airy and flatulent , but solid , and such as will take up the heart and spirits : Godliness consists in an exact harmony , between holy Principles and Practises : 〈◊〉 that all into whose hands this Book shall providentially come , may be 〈◊〉 enamoured with Piety , as to fall 〈◊〉 the hearty imbracing of it : So sublim● is Godliness , that it cannot be del●●neated in its perfect radiancy and lustre , though an Angel should take 〈◊〉 Pensil : Godliness is our * wisdom● Job 28. 28. The fear of the Lord , th●● is wisdome . Policy without Piety , profound madness : Godliness is a Sp●ritual Queen , which whosoever Ma●ries , is sure of a large Dowry with 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 4. 8. Godliness hath the pr●mise of the life that now is , and that which is to come . Godliness giv● * assurance , yea holy triumph in Go● and how sweet is † that ? It was 〈◊〉 Latimers Speech , when sometimes I sit alone , and have a setled assurance of the state of my Soul , and know that God is my God , I can laugh at all troubles , and nothing can daunt me : Godliness puts a man in heaven before his time . Christian , aspire after Piety , it is a lawful Ambition : Look upon the Saints Characters here , and never leave till thou hast gotten them instamped upon thy own Soul. This is the grand business that should swallow up your time and thoughts : Other Speculations , and Quaint Notions , are nothing to the Soul : They are like Wafers which have fine works printed upon them , and are curiously damasked to the eye , but are thin , and yield little nourishment . But I will not stay you longer in the Porch ; should I have inlarged upon any one Character of the Godly Man , it would have required a Volume , but designing to go over many , I have contracted my Sails , and given you only a brief Summary of things : If this Piece ( how indigested soever ) may conduce to the good of Souls , I have my Option ; which that the God of Grace will effectually accomplish , shall be the Prayer of him who is Thine in all Christian affection , Thomas Watson . Feb. 26. 1666. THE Character of a Godly Man , drawn with a SCRIPTURE-PENSIL . PSAL. 32. 6. For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee . CHAP. I. Containing the Preface or Introduction . HOly David in the front of this Psalm , shews us , wherein true happiness consists ; not in beauty , honour , riches , ( the Worlds Trinity ) but in the forgiveness of sin . Vers. 1. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven . The Hebrew word to forgive * signifies to carry out of sight ; which well agrees with that , Ierem. 50. 20. In those dayes ( saith the Lord ) the sins of Judah shall be sought for , and they shall not be found . This is an incomprehensible blessing , and such as layes a foundation for all other mercies . I shall but glance at it , and lay down these five Assertions about it . 1. Forgiveness of sin is an act of Gods Free Grace . The Greek word to forgive * deciphers the Original of pardon ; it ariseth not from any thing inherent in us , but is the pure result of Free Grace . Isa. 43. 25. I , even I am he , that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake . When a Creditor forgives a Debtor , he doth it freely . Pardon of sin is a fine thread spun out of the bowels of Free Grace . Paul cries out , I obtained mercy , 1 Tim. 1. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , I was be-mercied : he who is pardoned , is all bestrewed with mercy . When the Lord pardons a sinner , he doth not pay a Debt , but give a Legacy . 2. God in forgiving sin , remits the guilt and penalty . Guilt cries for justice ; no sooner had Adam eaten the Apple , but he saw the flaming sword , and heard the Curse ; but in remission God doth indulge the sinner ; he seems to say thus to him , Though thou art fallen into the hands of my Justice , and deservest to die , yet I will absolve thee , and whatever is charged upon thee , shall be discharged . 3. Forgiveness of sin is through the blood of Christ. Free grace is the impulsive cause , Christs * blood is the meritorious . Heb. 9. 22 : Without shedding of blood is no remission . Justice would be revenged either on the sinner or the surety . Every pardon is the price of blood . 4. Before sin is forgiven , it must be repented of . Therefore repentance and remission are linked together . Luk. 24. 47. That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his Name * . Not that repentance doth in a Popish sense merit forgiveness ; Christs blood must wash our Tears : but repentance is a qualification , though not a cause . He who is humbled for sin will the more value pardoning mercy . When there is nothing in the soul but clouds of sorrow , and now God brings a pardon , which is a setting up a Rainbow in the Cloud , to tell the sinner , that the flood of wrath shall not overflow him ; O what joy is there at the sight of this Rainbow ! The soul that before was steeped in tears , now melts in love to God. Luk. 7. 38. 47. 5. God having forgiven sin , he will call it no more into remembrance , Ier. 31. 34. the Lord will make an * act of Indempnity , he will not upbraid us with former unkindnesses , or sue us with a cancelled Bond. Micah 7. 19. he will cast our sins into the depth of the sea . Sin shall not be cast in as Cork which riseth up again ; but as Lead which sinks to the bottom . How should we all labour for this Covenant-blessing ! 1. How sad is it to want it ! It must needs be ill with the Malefactor who wants his pardon : all the Curses of God stand in full force against the unpardoned sinner ; his very blessings are cursed . Mal. 2. 2. Caesar wondred at one of his Souldiers , that was so merry when he was in debt . Can the sinner be merry who is heir to all Gods Curses , and knows not how soon he may take up his Lodgings among the damned ? 2. How sweet is it to have it ! 1. The pardoned soul is out of the gun-shot of Hell. * Rom. 8. 33. Satan may accuse , but Christ will show a discharge . 2. The pardoned soul may goe to God with boldness in prayer . Guilt clips the wings of prayer , that it cannot flye to the Throne of Grace ; but forgiveness breeds confidence : He who hath his pardon , may look his Prince in the face with comfort . This great mercy of pardon David had obtained , as appears , vers . 5. Thou forgavest me . And because he had found God a God of pardons , * therefore he encourageth others to seek God , in the words of the Text , For this cause shall every one that is godly pray unto thee . CHAP. II. Opening the Nature of Godliness . Every one that is godly . IT will first be enquired , What Godliness is ? I answer in general , Godliness is the sacred impression , and workmanship of God in a man , whereby of carnal he is made spiritual . When Godliness is wrought in a person , he doth not receive a new soul , but he hath another spirit , Numb . 14. 24. The faculties are not new , but the qualities ; the Strings are the same , but the Tune is mended . Concerning Godliness , I shall lay down these seven Maxims or Positions . 1. Godliness is a Real thing , it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; Godliness is not the feaverish conceit of a sick brain ; a Christian is no Enthusiast , one whose Religion is made up all of Fancy ; Godliness hath Truth for its foundation ; it is called the way of Truth , * Psal. 119. 30. godliness is a ray and beam that shines from God : if God be true , then godliness is true . 2. Godliness is an intrinsecal thing : it lies chiefly in the heart . Rom. 2. 29. Circumcision is that of the heart . The dew lies on the leaf , the sap is hid in the root . The Moralists Religion is all in the leaf , it consists only in Externals * but godliness is an holy sap which is radicated in the soul. * Psal. 51. 6. in the hidden part , thou shalt make me to know wisdom . The Chalde expounds it , In the close place of the heart . 3 , Godliness is a supernatural thing : by nature we inherit nothing but evil . Rom. 7. 5. When we were in the flesh , the motions of sin did work in our members : we did suck in sin , as naturally as our Mothers milk ; but godliness is the wisdom from above , Jam. 3. 17. it is breathed in from heaven . God must light up the Lamp of Grace in the heart : Weeds grow of themselves , flowers are planted . Godliness is a Coelestial Plant , that comes from the New Hierusalem : Therefore it is called a fruit of the Spirit , Gal. 5. 22. A man hath no more power to change himself than to create himself . 4. Godliness is an extensive thing ; it is a sacred leaven that spreads it self into the whole soul. 1 Thess. 5. 23. The God of peace sanctifie you wholly . There is light in the understanding , order in the affections , pliableness in the will , exemplariness in the life . We do not call a Blackamore white because he hath white teeth : he is not godly who is good only in some part . Grace is called the new man , Col. 3. 10. not a new eye , or tongue , but a new man : he who is godly is good all over ; though he be regenerate but in part , yet it is in every part . 5. Godliness is an intense thing ; it doth not lye in a dead formality and indifferency , but is vigorous and flaming , Rom. 12. 11. Fervent in spirit . * We call water hot , when it is so in the third or fourth degree . He is godly whose devotion is inflamed , and his heart boyls over in holy affections . 6. Godliness is a glorious thing : As the Jewel to the Ring , so is Piety to the Soul bespangling it in Gods eyes . Reason makes us Men , Godliness makes us earthly Angels ; by it we partake of the divine nature , 2 Pet. 1. 4. Godliness is neer a kin to Glory , 2 Pet. 1. 3. Glory and Vertue . Godliness is glory in the ●eed , and glory is godliness in the flower . 7. Godliness is a permanent thing . Aristotle saith , denominations are given from the habit . We do not call him sanguine that blusheth , but who is of a ruddy complexion † A blush of godliness is not enough to denominate a Christian , but godliness must be the temper and complexion of the soul. Godliness is a fixed thing : There is a great deal of difference between a Stake in the Hedge , and a Tree in the Garden ; a stake rots and moulders , but a tree having life in it , abides and flourisheth . When godliness hath taken root in the soul , it abides to eternity . 1 Ioh. 3. 9. his seed remaineth in him ▪ Godliness being engraven in the heart by the Holy Ghost , as with the point of a Diamond , can never be raced out . CHAP. III. A Reproof to such as are but Pretenders to Godliness . Use. HEre is a sharp Reprehension to such as are Alchimy Christians , who do only make a show of * godliness : like Michal who put an Image in the bed , and so deceived Sauls Messengers , 1 Sam. 19. 16. these our Saviour calls whited * Sepulchres . They do not Virtutem colere , but colorare . In ancient times a third part of the Inhabitants of this Island were called Picts , which signifies painted ; 't is to be feared they still retain their old name : How many are painted only with the Vermilion of a Profession , whose seeming lustre dazles the eyes of beholders , but within there is nothing but putrefaction † . Hypocrites are like the Swan , which hath white feathers , but a black skin ; or like the Lilly , which hath a fair colour , but a bad sent . Rev. 1. 3. Thou hast a name to live , but thou art * dead . These the Apostle Iude compares to clouds without water , vers . 12. they pretend to be full of the Spirit , but they are empty clouds ; their goodness is but a Religious Cheat. Quest. But why do persons content themselves with a show of godliness ? Answ. This helps to keep up their fame . 1 Sam. 15. 30. Honour me before the people . Men are ambitious of credit , and would gain repute in the world , therefore they will dress themselves in the garb and mode of Religion , that others may write them down for Saints . But alas , what is one the better to have others commend him , and his Conscience condemn him ? What good will it do a man when he is in Hell , that others think he is gone to Heaven ? O beware of this ; Counterfeit piety is double † iniquity . 1. To have only a show of godliness is a God-enraging sin : he who is a pretender to Saint-ship , but his heart tells him he hath nothing but the * Name ; he carries Christ in his Bible , but not in his Heart ; some politick design spurs him on in the wayes of God , he makes Religion a Lacquey to his carnal Interest : What is this but to abuse God to his face , and to serve the Devil in Christs Livery ? Hypocrisie makes the fury rise up in Gods face ; therefore he calls such persons the generation of his wrath , Isa. 10. 6. God will send them to Hell to do penance for their hypocrisie . 2 To make only a show of godliness , is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , self-delusion . Ajax in his phrensie took Sheep for † men ; but it is a worse mistake to take a show of grace for grace . This is for one to put a cheat upon himself . Iam. 1. 22. Deceiving your own souls : He who hath counterfeit Gold instead of true , wrongs himself most . The hypocrite deceives others while he lives , but deceives himself when he dies . 3 To have only a name , and make a show 〈◊〉 godliness , is odious to God and man. The ●ypocrite is born under a sad Planet , he is ab●orred of all . Wicked men hate him because 〈◊〉 makes a show , and God hate him be●ause he doth but make a show : The wicked ●ate him because he hath so much as a mask 〈◊〉 godliness , and God hates him because he ●ath no more , Act. 26. 28. Thou hast almost ●erswaded me to be a * Christian. The wicked ●ate the hypocrite , because he is almost a Christian , and God hates him because he is 〈◊〉 almost . 4 To be only Comets , and make a show of ●iety is a vain thing . Hypocrites los● ▪ all ●hey have done . Their dissembling tears ●rop beside Gods bottle , their Prayers and ●asts prove abortive . Zack . 7. 5. When yee ●asted and mourned , did ye at all fast unto me , ●ven to me ? as God will not recompence a ●othful , so neither a treacherous servant . All ●he hypocrites reward is in this life , Matth. ● . 5. They have their reward . A poor reward , ●he empty breath of men . The hypocrite may make his Acquittance , and write , Received in ful payment . Augustus Caesar had great triumphs granted him , but the Senate would not suffer him to be Consul , or sit in the Senate-house . Hypocrites may have the praise of men , but though these triumphs be granted them , they shall never have the priviledge to sit in the Senate-house of Heaven . What acceptance can he look for from God , whose heart tels him he is no better than a Mountebank in Divinity ? 5 To have only a pretence of godliness , will yeeld no comfort at death . Will painted gold enrich a man ? Will painted wine refresh him that is thirsty ? will the paint of godliness stand thee in any stead ? what were the foolish Virgins better for their blazing lamps , when they wanted oyle ? what is the lamp of Profession , without the oyl of Grace ? he who hath only a painted holiness , shal have a painted happiness . 6 Thou who hast nothing but a specious pretext and mask of Piety , exposest thy self to Satans scorn . Thou shalt bee brought forth at the last day as Sampson , to make the devil * sport . He wil say , what is become of all thy Vows , Tears , Confessions ? Is all thy Religion come to this ? Didst thou so often defy the devil , and art thou now come to dwel with me ? couldst thou meet with no weapon to kill thee , but what was made of Gospel-mettle ? couldst thou suck poyson no where but out of Ordinances ? couldst thou finde no way to hell , but by seeming godly ? what a vexation will this be , to have the devil thus reproach a man ! 'T is sad to be insulted over in this life ; Cleopatra Queen of Egypt , when shee saw shee was reserved by the Enemy for a triumph , that shee might avoyd the infamy , put Aspes to her breasts , and dyed . What then wil it be to have the devil triumph over a man at the last day ? Let us therefore take heed of this kinde of pageantry , or devout stage-play . That which may make us the more to fear our hearts , is , when we see tall Cedars in the Church worm-eaten with hypocrisy . Balaam a Prophet , Iehu a King , Iudas an Apostle , all of them stand to this day upon record for hypocrites . 'T is true , there are the seeds of this sin , in the * best ; but as it was with the Leprosy under the Law , all that had risings , or spots in the skin of the flesh , were not reputed unclean ; and put out of the * Camp : so all that have the risings of hypocrisy in them , are not to be judged hypocrites , for these may be the spots of Gods * children . But that which denominates an hypocrite , is , when hypocrisy is predominant , and is like a spreading humour in the body . Quest. When is a man under the regency and power of hypocrisy ? Answ. There are two signes of its predominancy . 1 A squint eye , when one serves God for sinister ends . 2 A right eye , when there is some sin dear to a man , which he cannot part with . These two are as shrewd signes of an hypocrite , as any I know . Oh let us take Davids candle and lanthorn , and search for this leven , and burn it before the Lord. Christian , if thou mournest for hypocrisy , yet findest this sin so potent , that thou canst not get the mastery of it , go to Christ , beg of him that he would exercise his Kingly Office in thy soul ; that he would subdue this sin , and put it under the yoke . Beg of Christ to exercise his spiritual Chirurgery upon thee ; desire him to lance thy heart , and cut out the rotten , and that he would apply the medicine of his blood to heal thee of thy hypocrisy . Often make that prayer of David , Psalm 119. 80. Let my heart be found in thy statutes . Lord , let mee be any thing rather than an hypocrite . Two hearts will exclude from one heaven . CHAP. IV. Shewing the Characters of a godly man. 2. IT will be enquired in the next place , Who is the godly man ? For the full answer whereunto , I shall lay down several specifical signs and characters of a godly man. SECT . I. 1 The first fundamental sign is , a godly man is a man of † Knowledge . Prov. 14. 18. The prudent are crowned with knowledge . The Saints are called wise Virgins , Mat. 25. 4. A natural man may have some discursive knowledge of God , but he knoweth nothing as he ought to know , 1 Cor. 8. 2. He knows not God savingly : he may have the eye of Reason open , but he discerns not the things of God after a spiritual † manner . Waters cannot goe beyond their Spring-head : Vapors cannot rise higher than the Sun draws them . 〈◊〉 natural man cannot act above his sphere ; 〈…〉 no more able to judge aright of sacred things , than a blind man is to judge of colours . 1 He sees not the evil of his heart ; if a face be never so black and deformed , yet it is not seen under a Vail : the heart of a sinner i● so black , that nothing but Hell can pattern it , yet the vail of ignorance hides it . 2 He sees not the beauties of a Saviour . Christ is a Pearl , but an hid Pearl . But a godly man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , taught of God. 1 Ioh. 2. 27. The anointing teacheth you all † things ; that is , all things essential to salvation . A godly man hath the good knowledge of the Lord , 2 Chron. 30. 22. he hath sound wisdom , Prov. 3. 21. he knows God in Christ : to know God out of Christ , is to know him an enemy ; but to know him in Christ is sweet and delicious . A gracious soul hath the savour of knowledge , 2 Cor. 2. 14. There is a great difference between one that hath read of a Countrey , or viewed it in the Map , and another who hath lived in the Countrey , and tasted the Fruits and Spices of it . The knowledge wherewith a godly man is adorned , hath these eight rare Ingredients in it . 1 It is a grounded Knowledge , Col. 1. 27. If ye continue in the Faith grounded . It is not a believing as the Church believes , but 〈◊〉 Knowledge rests upon a double basis 〈◊〉 Word and Spirit ; the one is a 〈…〉 other a witness : saving Knowledge is not pendulous or doubtful , but hath a certainty in it , Iohn 6. 69. We believe , and are sure thou art that Christ , 2 Cor. 5 , 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being always confident * a godly man holds no more then he will dye for : The Martyrs were so confirmed in the knowledge of the Truth , that they would seal it with their bloud . 2. It is an appretiative knowledge . The Lapidary is said to know a Jewel , who hath skill to value it : He knows God , who esteems him above the glory of heaven , † and the comforts of the earth . To compare other things with God , is to debase Deity ; as if you should compare the shining of a Gloworm with the Sun. 3. The knowledge of a godly man is quickning , Psalm 119. 93. I will never forget thy Precepts , for with them thou hast quickned me . Knowledge in a natural mans head , is like a Torch in a dead mans hand : True knowledge animates . A godly man is like Iohn Baptist , a burning and a shining Lamp : He doth not only shine by illumination , but burn by affection . * The Spouses knowledge made her sick of love , Cant. 2. 5. Per●ulsa sum , † I am wounded with love . I am like a Deer that is struck with a Dart , my Soul lies a bleeding , and nothing can cure me , but a sight of him whom my Soul loves . 4. Divine Knowledge is appropriating , Ioh 19. 25. I know that my Redeemer liveth . A Medicine is best when it is applyed ; this applicative Knowledge is joyful . Christ is called a Surety , Hebr. 7. 22. O what joy when I am drowned in debt , to know that Christ is my Surety ! Christ is called an Advocate , 1 Ioh. 2. 1. The Greek word for Advocate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , signifies a Comforter , O what comfort is it when I have a bad Cause , to know Christ is my Advocate , who never lost any Cause he pleaded . Quest. But how shall I know that I make a right application of Christ ? an Hypocrite may think he applyes when he doth not . Balaam , though a Sorcerer , yet said , My God , Numb . 22. 18. Answ. 1. He who rightly applyes Christ , puts these two together , Iesus and Lord , Phil. 3. 8. Christ Iesus my Lord : Many take Christ as a Iesus , but refuse him as a Lord. Do you joyn Prince and Saviour ? Act. 5. 31. Would you as well be ruled by Christs Laws , as saved by his Bloud ? Christ is a Priest upon his Throne , Zac. 6. 13. He will never be a Priest to intercede , unless your hear be the Throne where he sways his Scepter ▪ A true applying of Christ is , when we so take him for an Husband , that we give up our selves to him as a Lord. 2. He who rightly applyes Christ , fetcheth virtue from him : The Woman in the Gospel having touched Christ , felt virtue coming from him , and her fountain of bloud was dried up , Mar. 5. 29. This is to apply Christ , when we feel a sin mortifying virtue flow from him . Naturalists tell us , there is an Antipathy between the Diamond and the Loadstone , insomuch that if a piece of iron be laid by the Diamond , the Diamond will not suffer it to be drawn away by the Loadstone : So that knowledge which is applicatory , hath an antipathy against sin , and will not suffer the heart to be drawn away by it . 5. The knowledge of a godly man is transforming , 2 Cor. 3. 8. We all with open face , beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord , are changed into the same Image . As a Painter , looking upon a face , draws a face like it in the Picture : So looking upon Christ in the glass of the Gospel , we are changed into his similitude . We may look upon other objects that are glorious , yet not be made glorious by them : A deformed face may look upon beauty , and yet not be made beautiful : a wounded man may look upon a Chyrurgion , and yet not be healed ; but this is the Excellency of Divine Knowledge , it gives us such a sight of Christ , as makes us partake of his Nature ; as Moses when he had seen Gods back-parts , his face shined ; some of the Rays and Beams of Gods glory fell upon him . 6. The knowledge of a godly man is self-emptying ; carnal knowledge makes the head giddy with pride , 1 Cor. 8. 2. True knowledge brings a man out of love with himself , the more he knows , the more he blusheth at his own ignorance . David a bright Star in Gods Church , yet he thought himself rather a Cloud than a Star , Psalm 73. 22. 7. The knowledge of a godly man is growing , Col. 1. 10. Encreasing in the knowledge of God. * True knowledge is like the light of the morning , which encreaseth in the Horizon till it comes to the full Meridian : So sweet is Spiritual Knowledge , that the more a Saint knows , the more thirsty he is of knowledge ; 't is called the Riches of Knowledge , 1 Cor. 1. 5. the more riches a man hath , the more still he desires ; though S. Paul knew Christ , yet he would know him more , Phil. 3. 10. that I may know him , and the power of his Resurrection . 8. The knowledge of a godly man is practick , Iohn 10. 4. The Sheep follow him , for they know his voice . Though God requires knowledge more than burnt-offering , Hos. 6. 6 , yet it is a knowledge accompanied with obedience : True knowledge doth not only mend a Christians sight , but mends his pace : 'T is a reproach to a Christian to live in a contradiction to his knowledge ; to know he should be strict and holy , yet to live loosly : Not to obey , is all one as not to know , 1 Sam. 2. 12. The Sons of Eli knew not the Lord : they could not but know , for they taught others the knowledge of the Lord ; yet they are said not to know , because they did not obey : when Knowledge and Practise , like Castor and Pollux , appear together , then they presage much happiness . Use 1. Let us try our selves by this Character . 1. Are they godly , who are still in the Region of darkness ? Pro. 19. 2. That the Soul be without knowledge , it is not good ; ignorant persons cannot give God a reasonable service , Rom. 12. 1. 'T is sad , that after the Sun of Righteousness hath shined so long in our Hemisphere , yet that persons should be under the power of ignorance : Perhaps in the things of the world they are knowing enough , none shall out reach them , but in the things of God they have no knowledge . Nahash would make a Covenant with Israel , that he might put out their right eyes , 1 Sam. 11. 1. The Devil hath left men their left eye , knowledge in secular matters , but he hath put out their right eye , they understand not the Mystery of Godliness ; it may be said of them as of the Jews , To this day the vail is upon their heart , 2 Cor. 3. 15. Many Christians are no better than baptized Heathens . What a shame is it to be without knowledge ! 1 Cor. 15. 34. Some have not the knowledge of God , I speak this to your shame . Men think it a shame to be ignorant in their Trade , but no shame to be ignorant of God ; there 's no going to Heaven blindfold , Isa. 27. 11. It is a people of no understanding , therefore he that made them , will not have mercy on them . Surely ignorance in these daies is affected ; 't is one thing nescire , another thing nolle scire , 't is one thing not to know , another thing not to be willing to know , Iohn 3. 19. They loved darkness rather than light . 'T is the Owle loves the dark : Sinners are like the Athlantes , a people in Aethiopia , which curse the Sun. Wicked men shut their eyes wilfully , Mat. 13. 15. and God shuts them judicially , Isa. 6. 10. 2. Are they godly , who though they have knowledge , yet they know not as they ought to know ; they know not God experimentally : How many knowing persons are ignorant ? they have Illumination , but not Sanctification ; their knowledge hath not a powerful influence upon them to make them better . If you set up an hundred Torches in a garden , they will not make the flowers grow , but the Sun is influential : Many are so far from being better for their knowledge , that they are worse , Isa. 47. 10. Thy knowledge hath perverted thee ; the knowledge of most makes them more cunning in sin ; these have little cause to glory in their knowledge . Absalom might boast of the hair of his head , but that hanged him ; so these may boast of the knowledge of their head , but it will destroy them . 3. Are they godly , who though they have some glimmering of knowledge , yet no fiducial applying of Christ : Many of the Old World knew there was an Ark , but were drowned , because they did not get into the Ark ; Knowledge , which is not applying , will but light a man to hell ; it were better to live an Indian , than to die an Infidel under the Gospel : Christ not believed in , is terrible . Moses Rod , when it was in his hand , did a great deal of good , it wrought Miracles , but when it was out of his hand , it became a Serpent : So Christ , when laid hold on by the hand of Faith , is full of comfort , but not laid hold on , will prove a Serpent to sting . Use 2. As we would evidence our selves godly , let us labour for this good knowledge of the Lord : What pains will men take for the atchievement of Natural Knowledge ! I have read of one Benchorat , who spent forty years in finding out the motion of the Eighth Sphere ; what pains then should we take in finding out the knowledge of God in Christ ? There must be digging and searching for it , as one would search for a vein of silver , Pro. 2. 3. If thou seekest her as silver . — Et pluteum coedit , & dimorsos sapit ungues . This is the best knowledge , it doth as far surpass all other , as the Diamond doth the Christal ; no Jewel we wear doth so adorn us as this , Pro. 3. 15. She is more precious than Rubies . Iob 28. 12 , 13. Man knows not the price thereof , the depth saith it is not in me , it cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir , with the precious Onyx , or the Saphire . The dark Chaos was a fit Embleme of an ignorant Soul , Gen. 1. 2. but when God lights up the Lamp of Knowledge in the mind , what a new Creation is there ? How doth the Soul sparkle as the Sun in its glory ? This knowledge is comfortable ; we may say of the Knowledge of Nature , as Solomon , Eccles. 1. 18. He that encreaseth knowledge , encreaseth sorrow . The knowledge of Arts and Sciences is gathering of straw , but the knowledge of God in Christ is gathering of Pearl . This Knowledge ushers in Salvation , 1 Tim. 2. 4. Quest. But how shall we get this Saving Knowledge ? Answ. Not by the power of Nature : Some speak of Reason well improved how far it will go ; but alas the plumb-line of Reason is too short to fathom the deep things of God : A man can no more by the power of Reason reach the Saving Knowledge of God , than a Pigmy can reach the Pyramides : The Light of Nature will no more help us to see Christ , than the light of a Candle will help us to understand , 1 Cor. 2. 14. The natural man receives not the things of God , neither can he know them . What shall we do then to know God in a Soul-saving manner ? I answer , let us implore the help of Gods Spirit , Paul never saw himself blind till a light shined from heaven , Act. 9. 3. God must anoint our eyes ere we can see : What needed Christ have bid Laodicea to come to him for eye-salve , if she could see before , Revel . 3. 18. Oh! let us beg the Spirit , which is a Spirit of Revelation , Eph. 1. 17. Saving Knowledge is not by speculation , but by inspiration , Iob 32. 8 , The inspiration of the Almighty giveth understanding . Narrat Cassianus † de Theodoro quodam , qui notitia Scripturarum praeclare emicuit , quam ei non tam studium lectionis contulerat , quàm Spiritus Sancti Gratia ; siquidèm vix ipsius Graecae Linguae perpauca verba vel intelligere poterat , vel proloqui , quae Sancti Patris Oratio ( inquit Acosta ) non eò pertinere putanda est , ut studium humanum floccipendamus , sed ut hoc nobis eluoeat , Divini Spiritus dono interdùm fieri , ut homo plura de Sacris Scripturis Saluificè intelligat vel nuda lectione , quam magna vallatus copia commentariorum alioqui assequi possit . We may have excellent notions in Divinity , but the Holy Ghost must inable us to know them after a spiritual manner : A man may see the Figures upon a Dial , but he cannot tell how the day goes unless the Sun shine . We may read many Truths in the Bible , but we cannot know them savingly till Gods Spirit doth shine upon us , 1 Cor. 2. 10. The Spirit searcheth all things , yea the deep things of God. The Scripture discovers Christ to us , but the Spirit reveals Christ in us , Gal. 1. 16. The Spirit makes known that which all the world cannot do , namely , the sense of Gods love . Use 3. You who have this saluifical sanctifying knowledge flourishing in you , bless God for it ; this is the Heavenly Anointing : the most excellent objects cannot be seen in the dark , but when the light appears , then every flower shines in its Native beauty . So while men are in the midnight of a natural estate , the Beauty of Holiness is hid from them ; but when the light of the Spirit comes in a saving manner , then those truths they slighted before , appear in that glorious lustre , as transports them with wonder and love . Bless God , ( ye Saints , ) that he hath taken off your Spiritual Cataract , and hath given you to discern those things , which by Natures Spectacles you could never see . How thankful was Christ to his Father for this ! Mat. 11. 25. I thank thee , O Father , Lord of Heaven and Earth , that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent , and hast revealed them unto babes . How should you admire Free-grace , that God hath not only brought the light to you , but given you eyes to see it ! that he hath inabled you to know the truth as it is in Iesus , Ephes. 4. 21. That he hath opened , not only the eye of your understanding , but the eye of your Conscience : This is a mercy you can never be enough thankful for , that God hath so enlightned you , that you should not sleep the sleep of death . SECT . II. 2. The godly man is a man acted by Faith ; † as gold is the most precious among the metals , so is Faith among the Graces . Faith cuts us off from the wild Olive of Nature , and inoculates us into Christ : Faith is the vital artery of the Soul , Hab. 2. 4. The just shall live by his Faith. Such as are destitute of Faith , though they breathe , yet they want life ; Faith is the quickner of the Graces ; not a Grace stirs , till Faith sets it awork ; Faith is to the soul , as the animal spirits are to the body , they excite lively operations in the body ; Faith excites Repentance ; it is like the fire to the Still which makes it drop . When I believe Gods love to me this makes me weep that I should sin against so good a God : Faith is the Mother of Hope ; first we believe the Promise , then we hope for it : Faith is the Oyl which feeds the Lamp of Hope ; Faith and Hope are two Turtle-graces , take away one , and the other languisheth . If the sinews be cut , the body is lame ; if this sinew of Faith be cut , Hope is lame ; Faith is the ground of Patience : He who believes God is his God , and all Providences work for his good , doth patiently yield up himself to the Will of God ; thus Faith is a living Principle . And the life of a Saint is nothing else but a life of Faith ; his prayer is the breathing of Faith , Iam. 5. 15. His obedience is the result of Faith , Rom. 16. 26. A godly man by Faith lives in Christ , as the beam lives in the Sun , Gal. 2. 20. I live , yet not I , but Christ lives in me . A Christian by the power of Faith sees above Reason , * trades above the Moon ; by Faith his heart is finely quieted ; † he trusts himself , and all his affairs with God : As in a time of War , men get into a Garrison , and trust themselves and their treasure there : So the Name of the Lord is a strong Tower , Pro. 18. 10. and a Believer trusts all that ever he is worth in this Garrison . 2 Tim. 1. 12. I know whom I have believed , and I am perswaded he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him , against that day . God trusted Paul with his Gospel , and Paul trusted God with his Soul. Faith is a Catholicon , or remedy against all troubles ; it is a godly mans sheat-anchor that he casts out into the Sea of Gods mercy , and is kept from sinking in despair . — Si modo firma fides , nulla ruina nocet . Use. Let us try our selves by this Character : Alas , how far are they from being godly , that are destitute of Faith ! such as are altogether drowned in Sense . Most men are spiritually purblind , they can see but just before them ; * 2 Pet. 1. 9. I have read of a people of India who are born with one eye ; such are they who are born with the eye of Reason , but want the eye of Faith ; who because they do not see God with bodily eyes , they do not believe a God ; they may as well not believe they have Souls , because being Spirits they cannot be seen . O where is he who lives in Excelsis , who is gotten into the upper Region , and sees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things not seen , Heb. 11. 27. † Did men live by Faith , would they use sinful policy for a livelihood ? Were there Faith , would there be so much fraud ? Did Faith live , would men like dead fish swim down the stream ? In this Age there is scarce so much Faith to be found among men , as there is among the Devils , for they believe and tremble . * It was a grave and serious speech of Mr. Greenham , that he feared not Papisme , but Atheisme would be Englands ruine . But I shall not expatiate , having been more large upon this Head in another discourse . † SECT . III. 3. A godly man is fired with love to God , Psalm 116. 1. Faith and Love are the two Poles on which all Religion turns . A true Saint is carried in that Chariot , the midst whereof is paved with love , Cant. 3. 10. As Faith doth quicken , so love doth sweeten every duty : The Sun mellows the fruit , so love mellows the services of Religion , and makes them come off with a better relish : A godly man is sick of love , Ioh. 21. 16. Lord , thou knowest I love thee . Though dear Saviour I did deny thee , yet it was for want of strength , not for want of love : God is the Fountain and Quintessence of goodness , his beauty and sweetness lay constraints of love upon a gracious heart : God is the Saints portion , Psalm 119. 57. And what more loved then a portion ? I would hate my own Soul ( saith Austin ) if I found it not loving 〈◊〉 A godly man loves God , therefore delight to be in his presence ; he loves God , therefore takes comfort in nothing without him , Cant. 3. 3. Saw ye him whom my Soul loveth ? — Lilia nigra videntur , Pallentesque rosae , nec dulce rubens hyacinthus , Nullos nèc myrtus , nec laurus spirat odores . The pious Soul loves God , therefore thirsts after him ; the more he hath of God , the more still he desires ; a sip of the Wine of the Spirit , provokes the appetite after more : The Soul loves God , therefore rejoyceth to think of his appearing , 2 Tim. 4. 8. He loves him , therefore longs to be with him : Christ was in Pauls heart , and Paul would be in Christs bosome , Phil. 1. 23. When the Soul is once like God , it would fain be with God : A gracious heart cries out , O that I had wings , that I might flie away , and be with my Love Christ. The Bird desires to be out of the Cage , though it be hung with Pearl . Such is the love a gracious Soulbears to God , that many waters cannot quench it ; he loves a frowning God. † Though I am out of sign , and clean forgot , Let me not love thee , if I love thee not . A godly man loves God , though he be reduced to straits : A Mother and her Childe of nine years old , being ready to perish with hunger , the Childe looking upon its Mother said , Mother , do you think God will starve us ? No Childe , said the Mother , he will not : The Childe replied , But if he do , we must love him , and serve him . Use. Let us try our godliness by this Touch-stone ; Do we love God ? Is he our Treasure and * Center ? Can we with David call God our Ioy , yea our exceeding Ioy ? Psal. 43. 4. Do we delight in drawing nigh to him , and come before him with singing ? Psal. 100. 2. Do we love him for his Beauty more than his Iewels ? Do we love him , when he seems not to love us ? If this be sign of a godly man , how few will be found in the number ? Where is the man whose heart is dilated in love to God ? Many court him , but few love him : * People are for the most part eaten up with self-love ; they love their ease , their worldly profit , their lusts , but they have not a drop of love to God : Did they love God , would they be so willing to be rid of him ? Iob 21. 14. They say to the Almighty depart from us . Did they love God , would they tear his Name by their Oaths ? Doth he love his Father who shoots him to the heart ? Though they worship God , they do not love him ; they are like the Souldiers that bowed the knee to Christ , and mocked him , Mat. 27. 29. He whose heart is a grave , in which the love of God is buried , deserves to have that Curse written upon his Tomb-stone , 1 Cor. 16. ult . Let him be Anathema Maranatha . A Soul void of Divine Love , is a temper that best suits with damned spirits . But I shall wave this , and pass to the † next . SECT . IV. 4. A godly man is like God , he hath the same judgement with God ; he thinks of things as God doth ; he hath a God-like disposition ; he partakes of the Divine Nature , 2 Pet. 1. 4. A godly man doth bear Gods Name and Image ; godliness is God-likeness . 'T is one thing to profess God , another thing to resemble him . A godly man is like God in † Holiness : Holiness is the most orient Pearl of the King of Heavens Crown , Exod. 15. 11. Glorious in Holiness . Gods power makes him Mighty , his mercy makes him lovely , but his holiness makes him glorious : The Holiness of God is the intrinsick purity of his Nature , and his abhorrency of sin : A godly man bears some kind of Analogy with God in this : He hath the Holy Oil of Consecration upon him , Psal. 106. 16. Aaron the Saint of the * Lord. Holiness is the Badge and Livery of Christs people , Isa. 63. 18. The people of thy † Holiness : The godly are as well an Holy as a Royal Priesthood , 1 Pet. 2. 9. Nor have they only a Frontispiece of holiness , like the Egyptian Temples , which were fair without ; but they are like Solomons Temple , which had gold within ; they have written upon their heart Holiness to the Lord : The holiness of the Saints consists in their conformity to Gods Will , which is the rule and patern of all Holiness . Holiness is a mans glory : Aaron put on garments for glory and beauty , Exod. 28. 2. So when a person is invested with the embroidered garment of Holiness , it is for glory and beauty . The goodness of a Christian lies in his Holiness , as the goodness of the Air lies in the clearness of it ; the worth of gold in the pureness . Quest. Wherein do the godly discover their holiness ? Answ. 1. In hating the garment spotted by the flesh , Iude 3. The godly do set themselves against evil , both in purpose and practise ; they are fearful of that which looks like sin , 1 Thes. 5. 22. The appearance of evil may prejudice a weak Christian : If it doth not defile a mans own Conscience , it may offend his Brothers Conscience ; and to sin against him , is to sin against Christ , 1 Cor. 8. 12. A godly man will not go as far as he may , least he go further than he should ; he will not swallow down all that others ( bribed with preferment ) may plead for : 'T is easie to put a golden colour upon a rotten stuff . 2. The godly discover their holiness in being Advocates for Holiness , Psal. 119. 46. I will speak of thy Testimonies before Kings , and will not be ashamed . When Piety is calumniated in the world , the Saints will stand up in the defence of it ; they will wipe off the dust of a reproach from the face of Religion : Holiness defends the godly , and they will defend Holiness ; it defends them from danger , and they will defend it from disgrace . Use 1. How can those be reputed godly , who are unlike God ? they have nothing of God in them , not one shread of holiness : They call themselves Christians , but blot out the word holiness ; you may as well call it day at midnight . So impudent are some , that they boast they are none of the holy ones : Is it not the Spirit of Holiness which marks the sheep of Christ from the goats , Eph. 1. 13. Ye were sealed ( or marked ) with the Holy Spirit : And is it a matter for men to boast of , that they have none of the Spirits ear-mark upon them ? Doth not the Apostle say , that without holiness no man shall see the Lord , Heb. 12. 14. Such as bless themselves in their unholiness , had best go ring the Bells for joy that they shall never see God. Others there are that hate holiness : sin and holiness never meet but they fight : holiness dischargeth its fire of zeal against sin , and sin spits its venom of malice at holiness : Many pretend to love Christ as a Saviour , but hate him as he is the Holy One , Act. 3. 14. Use 2. Let us labour to be like God in holiness . 1. This is Gods great design he drives on in the world ; 't is the end of the Word preached : the silver drops of the Sanctuary are to water the seed of grace , and make a crop of holiness spring up : What use is there of the Promises but to bribe us to holiness ? What are all Gods Providential Dispensations , but to excite holiness ? As the Lord makes use of all the seasons of the year , frost and heat , to bring on the harvest ; so all prosperous and adverse providences , are for the promoting the work of holiness in the soul. What is the end of the mission of the spirit , but to make the heart holy ? When the ayr is unwholesome by reason of foggy vapours , the wind is a fan to winnow and purifie the ayr : so the blowing of Gods Spirit upon the heart , is to purifie it , and make it holy . 2. Holiness is that alone which God is delighted with : * Tamerlain being presented with a pot of gold , asked whether the gold had his Fathers stamp upon it : But when he saw it had the Roman stamp , he rejected it . Holiness is Gods stamp and impress ; if he doth not see this stamp upon us , he will not own us . 3. Holiness fits us for communion with God : communion with God is a paradox to the men of the world ; every one that hangs about the Court , doth not speak with the King : We may approach to God in duties , and as it were hang about the Court of Heaven , yet not have communion with God : That which keeps up the intercourse with God is holiness ; the holy heart enjoys much of Gods presence ; he feels heart-warming and heart-comforting virtue in an Ordinance : Where God sees his Likeness , there he gives his love . SECT . V. 5. A godly man is very exact and curious about the Worship of God ; the Greek word for * godly , signifies a right Worshipper of God : A godly man doth reverence Divine Institutions , and is more for the Purity of Worship than the Pomp : Mixture in sacred things , is like a dash in the wine , which though it gives it a colour , yet doth but adulterate it : The Lord would have Moses make the Tabernacle according to the pattern in the † Mount , Exod. 25. 40. If Moses had left out any thing in the pattern , or added any thing to it , it would have been very provoking : The Lord hath always given testimonies of his displeasure against such as have corrupted his Worship : Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire , ( other than God had sanctified on the Altar ) and fire went out from the Lord , and devoured them , Levit. 10. 1. Whatsoever is not of Gods own appointment in his Worship , that he looks upon as strange fire ; and no wonder he is so highly incensed at it ; for as if God were not wise enough to appoint the manner how he will be served : Men will go to prescribe him , and as if the rules for his Worship were defective , they will attempt to mend the Copy , and superadd their * inventions . A godly man dares not vary from the Pattern which God hath shewn him in the Scripture ; and probably this might not be the least reason , why David was called a man after Gods own heart , because he kept the springs of Gods Worship pure , and in matters sacred , did not super induce any thing of his own devising . Use. By this Character we may try our selves , whether we are godly : Are we tender about the things of God ? Do we observe that mode of worship , which hath the stamp of Divine Authority upon it ? 'T is of dangerous consequence to make a medley in Religion . 1. Those who will add to one part of Gods Worship , will be as ready to take away from another , Mar. 7. 8. Laying aside the Commandment of God , ye hold the Traditions of men . They who will bring in a Tradition , will in time lay aside a Command ; This the Papists are highly guilty of ; they bring in Altars and Crucifixes , and lay aside the second Commandment : They bring in Oyl and Cream in Baptism , and leave out the Cup in the Lords Supper ; they bring in praying for the dead , and lay aside reading the Scriptures intelligibly to the living : They who will introduce that into Gods Worship which he hath not commanded , will be as ready to blot out that which he hath commanded . 2. Those who are for outward commixtures in Gods Worship , are usually regardless of the Vitals of Religion ; living by Faith , leading a strict mortified life , these things are less minded by * them : Wasps have their Combs , but no honey in them ; the Religion of many may be likened to those ears which run all into straw . 3. Superstition and Prophaness kiss each † other : Hath it not been known that those who have kneeled at a Pillar , have reeled against a Post. 4. Such as are devoted to Superstition , are seldome or never converted , Mat. 21. 31. Publicans and Harlots go into the Kingdome of God before you : It was spoken to the Chief Priests , who were high Formalists ; and the reason why such persons are seldom wrought upon savingly , is , because they have a secret antipathy against the power of godliness : the Snake is of a fine colour , but it hath a sting ; so outwardly men may look zealous and devout , but retain a sting of hatred in their hearts against goodness . Hence it is , that they who have been most hot for superstition , have been most hot for persecution . The Church of Rome wears white linnen , ( an Embleme of Innocency ) but the Spirit of God paints her out in Scarlet , Rev. 17. 4. Whence is this ? not only because she puts on a scarlet Robe , but because her body is of a scarlet die , having imbrued her hands in the bloud of the Saints , Rev. 17. 6. Let us then , as we would demonstrate our selves godly , keep close to the rule of Worship , and in the things of Iehovah , go no further than we can say , it is written . SECT . VI. 6 A godly man is a servant of God , and not a servant of men . This Character hath two distinct branches , I shall speak of both in order . 1. A godly man is a servant of God , Ezra 5. 11. We are the servants of the God of Heaven . Col. 4. 12. Epaphras a servant of Christ. Quest. In what sense is a godly man a servant of God ? Answ. In seven respects . 1. A servant leaves all other , and confines himself to one Master : so a godly man ●eaves the service of sin , and betakes himself ●o the service of God , Rom. 6. 22. Sin is a tyrannizing thing ; a sinner is a slave , when he ●ins with most † freedome : The wages which sin gives , may deter us from its service , Rom. ● . 23. The wages of sin is death . Here is ●amnable pay ! A godly man Lists himself 〈◊〉 Gods Family , and is one of his menial ser●ants , Psalm 116. 16. O Lord , truly I am thy servant , I am thy servant . David useth an in●emination ; as if he had said , Lord , I have ●aken earnest , none else can lay claim to me ; ●●y ear is bored to thy service . 2. A servant is not sui juris , at his own ●ispose , but at the dispose of his Master : A servant must not do what he please , but ●e at the will of his Lord. Thus a godly ●an is Gods servant , he is wholly at Gods ●ispose , he hath no will of his own . Thy will 〈◊〉 done on earth . Some will say to the godly , why cannot you do as others ? Why will not you drink , and swear , and prophane the Sabbath as others do ? The godly are Gods servants , they must not do what they will , but be under the rules of the Family ; they must do nothing but what they can show their Masters hand for . 3. A servant is bound , there are Covenants and Indentures sealed between him and his Master . Thus there are Indentures drawn in Baptisme ; and in Conversion , the Indentures are renewed and sealed ; we do there bind our selves to God to be his sworn servants , Psal. 119. 106. I have sworn , and I will perform it , that I will keep thy righteous Iudgements . A godly man hath tyed himself to the Lord by * Vow , and he makes conscience of his vow ; he had rather die by Persecution , than live by Perjury . 4. A servant doth not only wear his Masters Livery , but do his work : Thus a godly man works for God ; S. Paul did spend , and was spent for Christ , 2 Cor. 12. 15. He outwrought all the other Apostles , 1 Cor. 15. 10. A godly man is active for God to his last breath , Psalm 119. 112. only , The dead rest from their labours . 5. A servant follows his Master ; thus a godly man is a servant of God , while others wonder after the * beast , he follows after the † Lamb. He will tread in the steps of Christ : If a Master leap over hedge and ditch , the servant will follow him : A godly man will follow Christ through afflictions , Luk. 9. 23. If any man will come after me , let him take up his Cross daily , and follow me . Peter would follow Christ upon the water : A godly man will follow Christ though it be death every step ; he will keep his goodness , when others are bad ; as all the water in the salt Sea cannot make the Fish salt , but still they retain their freshness ; so all the wickedness in the world cannot make a godly man wicked , but still he retains his piety ; he will follow Christ in the worst times . 6. A servant is satisfied with his Masters allowance ; he doth not say , I will have such provisions made ready , if he hath short commons he doth not find fault ; he knows he is a servant , and is at his Masters carving : In this sense a godly man is Gods servant ; he is willing to be at Gods allowance ; if he hath but some leavings he doth not grumble . Paul knew he was a servant , therefore whether more or less fell to his share , he was indifferent , Phil. 4. When Christians murmure at their condition , they forget that they are servants , and must be at the allowance of their Heavenly Master : Thou that hast the least bit from God , wilt die in his debt . 7. A servant will stand up for the honor of his Master ; he cannot hear his Master reproached , but will vindicate his credit . Thus every godly man will stand up for the honor of his Master Christ , Psal. 119. 139. My zeal hath consumed me . A servant of God appears for his truths : They who can hear Gods Name reproached , and his ways spoken against , yet be silent , God will be ashamed of such servants , and discard them before men and Angels . Use. Let us declare our selves godly , by being servants of the most high God. Consider 1. God is the best * Master , he is punctual in all his promises , 1 Kin. 8. 23. There is no God like thee in Heaven above , or on earth beneath , who keepest Covenant with thy servants . Ver. 56. There hath not failed one word of all his good promise . God is of a most sweet gracious disposition ; he hath this property , he is slow to † anger , and ready to * forgive : In our wants he doth relieve us , in our weakness he doth pitty us ; he reveals his secrets to his † servants , Psal. 25. 14. He wait on his servants : Was there ever such a Master ? Luke 12. 37. Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching ; verily I say unto you , that he shall gird himself , and make them sit down to meat , and will come forth and serve them . When we are sick he makes our bed , Psal. 41. 3. Thou wilt make all their bed in their sickness . He holds our head when we are fainting : Other Masters may forget their servants , and cast them off when they are old , but God will not , Isa. 44. 21. Thou art my servant , O Israel , thou shalt not be forgotten of me . 'T is a slander to say , God is an hard Master . 2. Gods service is the best service : There are six priviledges in Gods service . 1. Freedome . Though the Saints are bound to Gods service , yet they serve him freely : Gods Spirit , which is called a free * spirit , makes them free and chearful in obedience : The Spirit carries them upon the wings of delight ; it makes duty a priviledge ; it doth not force , but draw ; it inlargeth the heart in love , and fills it with joy ; Gods service is perfect freedome . 2. Honour . David the King professeth himself one of Gods Pensioners , Psal. 143. 12. I am thy † servant . St. Paul , when he would blaze his Coat of Arms , and set forth his best Heraldry , he doth not call himself Paul , ●n Hebrew of the Hebrews , or Paul of the Tribe of Benjamin , but Paul a servant of Christ , Rom. 1. 1. Theodosius thought it a greater dignity to be Gods servant , than to be an * Emperour . Christ himself , who is equal with his Father , yet is not ashamed of the Title Servant , Isa. 53. 11. Every servant of God is a Son , every subject a Prince : 'T is more honor to serve God , than to have Kings serve us : The Angels in Heaven are servitors to the Saints on † earth . 3. Safety . God takes care of his servants ; he gives them a protection , Isa. 41. 9 , 10. Thou art my servant , fear not , I am with thee . God hides his servants , Psa. 27. 5. In the secret of his Tabernacle * shall be hide me ; that is , he shall keep me safe , as in the most holy place of the Sanctuary , where none but the Priests might enter . Christs † Wings are both for healing , and for hiding ; for curing , and securing us : The Devil and his Instruments would soon devoure the servants of God , if he did not set an invisible guard about them , and cover them with the golden feathers of his * Protection , Acts 18. 10. I am with thee , and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee . Gods watchful eye is ever upon his people , and the Enemies shall not do the mischief they intend , they shall not be destroyers , but Physitians . 4. Gain . Atheists say , It is vain to serve God ; and what profit is it that we have kept his Ordinances ? Mal. 3. 14. besides the vails which God gives in this life ( sweet peace of Conscience ) he reserves his best Wine till last ; he gives a glorious Kingdome to his * servants , Heb. 12. 28. The servants of God may for a while be kept under , and a bused , but they shall have preferment at last , Iohn 12. 26. Where I am , there shall my servants be . 5. Assistance . Other Masters cut out work for their servants , but do not help them in their work ; but our Master in heaven doth not only give us work , but strength , Psalm 138. 3. Thou strengthenedst me with strength in my Soul. God bids us serve him , and he will inable us to serve him , Ezek. 36. 27. I will cause you to walk in my Statutes . The Lord doth not only fit work for us , but fit us for our work ; with his Command he gives † power . 6. Supplies . A Master will not let his servants want ; Gods servants shall be provided for , Psal. 37. 3. Verily thou shalt be fed . Doth God give us a Christ , and will he deny us a crust ? Gen. 48. 15. The God who hath fed me all my daies : If God doth not give us what we crave , he will give us what we need : the wicked are fed , who are dogs , Phil. 3. 2. If a man feeds his dog , sure he will feed his servant : Oh then who would not be in love with Gods service . 3. We are ingaged to serve God ; we are pretio empti , bought with a price , 1 Cor. 6. 20. 'T is a Metaphor taken from such as do ransom Captives out of prison , by paying a sum of money for them , they are to be at the service of them that ransomed them : So when the Devil had taken us prisoners , Christ ransomed us with a price , not of money , but bloud ; therefore we are to be only at his service : If any can lay a better claim to us than Christ , we may serve them ; but Christ having the best right to us , we are to cleave to him , and enroll our selves for ever in his service . 2. I pass to the second Branch of this Character : A godly man is not the servant of men , 1 Cor. 7. 23. Be ye not the servants of men . Quest. But is there no service we owe to men ? Answ. There is a three-fold serving of men . 1. There is a Civil service we owe to men ; as the inferiour to the superiour ▪ The servant is a Living Tool , as Aristotle * saith , Eph. 6. 5. Servants obey your Masters . 2. There is a Religious service●we owe to men , when we are serviceable to their souls , 2 Cor. 4. 5. Your servants for Iesus sake . 3. There is a sinfull serving of men ; this consists in three things . 1. When we prefer mens Injunctions before Gods Institutions ; God commands one thing , man commands another ; God saith , sanctifie the Sabbath ; man saith , prophane it : When mens Edicts have more force upon us than Gods Precepts , this is to be the servants of men . 2. When we do voluntarily prostitute our selves to the impure lusts of men ; † we let them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lord it over our Consciences : when we are ductill and frameable to any thing , either Arminian or Atheist , either for the Gospel or the Alchoran , when we will be what others will have us ; just of Issachars temper , Gen. 49. 14. Issachar is a strong Ass , couching down between two burdens . This is not humility , but sordidness , and it is a serving of men . 3. When we are Advocates in a bad Cause , pleading for any impious , unjustifiable actings ; when we baptize sin with the Name of Religion , and with our Oratory wash the Devils face ; this is to be the servants of men ; in these cases a godly person will not so unman himself , as to serve men ; he saith as Paul , Gal. 1. 10. If I pleased men , I should not be the servant of Christ : And as Peter , Act. 5. 23. We ought to obey God rather than men . Use. How many leagues distant are they from godliness , who do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , who either for fear of punishment , or hope of preferment , comply with the sinful commands of men , who will put their Conscience into any yoak , and sail with any wind that blows profit : These are the servants of men ; they have abjured their Baptismal Vow , and renounced the Lord that bought them . He who is such a * Proteus , who can change into any form , and bow as low as hell to please men , I would say two things to him . 1. Thou that hast learned all thy postures , who canst cringe , and tack about , how wilt thou look Christ in the face another day ? When thou shalt say upon thy death bed , Lord look upon thy servant , Christ shall disclaim thee , and say , 〈◊〉 servant ? No , thou didst renounce my service , thou wert a servant of men , depart from me , I know you not . What a cooling card will this be at that day ? 2. What doth a man get by sinfully inslaving himself ? he gets a blot in his name , a curse in his estate , an hell in his Conscience , nay , even those that he basely stoops to , will scorn and despise him . How did the High-Priests kick off Iudas , Mat. 27. 4. Look thou to that . That we may not be the servants of men , let us abandon * fear , and advance faith : Faith is a world-conquering grace , 1 Ioh. 5. 4. It overcomes the worlds musick and fornace ; it steels a Christian with Divine courage , and makes him stand immoveable , as a Rock in the midst of the Sea. SECT . VII . 7. A godly man is a Christ-prizer . To illustrate this , I shall show ; 1. That Jesus Christ is in himself precious . 2. That a godly man esteems him precious . 1. That Jesus Christ is in himself precious , 1 Pet. 2. 6. Behold I lay in Sion a chief corner-stone , elect , precious . Christ is compared to things most ●recious . 1. To a bundle of myrrhe , Cant. 1. 13. Myrrhe is very † precious , it was one of the chief spices , whereof the holy anointing Oyl was made , Exod 30. 25. 1. Myrrhe is of a perfuming Nature ; so Christ perfumes our persons and services , that they are a sweet odour to God : whence is it the Church , that heavenly Bride , is so perfumed with * grace , but because Christ , that Myrrhe-tree , hath dropped upon her . 2. Myrrhe is of an exhilarating nature ; the smell of it doth comfort and refresh the spirits : So Christ doth comfort the souls of his people , when they are fainting under their sins and sufferings . 2. Christ is compared to a Pearl , Mat. 13. 46. When he had found one Pearl of great price . Christ , this Pearl was little in regard of his humility , but of infinite value . Jesus Christ is a Pearl that God wears in his † bosome ; a Pearl , whose lustre drowns the worlds * glory ; a Pearl that enricheth the soul , the Angelical part of † man ; a Pearl that enlightens * heaven ; a pearl so precious , that it makes us precious to † God ; a Pearl that is cordial and * restorative ; a Pearl more worth than † heaven . The preciousness of Christ is seen three wayes . 1. He is precious in his ●erson ; he is the picture of his Fathers glory , * Heb. 1. 3. 2. Christ is precious in his Offices ; which are several Rays of the Sun of Righteousness . 1. Christs Prophetical Office is precious , Deut. 18. 15. He is the great Oracle of Heaven ; he hath a preciousness above all the Prophets which went before him ; he teacheth not only the ear , but the heart : He who hath the Key of David in his hand , opened the heart of Lydia , Act. 16. 14. 2. Christs Priestly Office is precious : This is the solid basis of our comfort , Heb. 9. 26. Now once hath he appeared to put away sin , by the sacrifice of * himself . By virtue of this Sacrifice , the soul may go to God with boldness ; Lord give me heaven , Christ hath purchased it for me ; he hung upon the Cross , that I might sit upon the † Throne . Christs Bloud and Incense , are the two hinges on which our Salvation turns . 3. Christs Regal Office is precious , Rev. 19. 16. He hath on his Vesture , and on his Thigh , a name written , King of Kings , and Lord of Lords . Christ hath a preheminence above all other Kings for Majesty ; he hath the highest Throne , the richest Crown , the largest Dominions , and the longest possession , Heb. 1. 8. Thy Throne , O God , is for ever and ever . Though Christ hath many Assessors , Ephes. 2. 6. yet no Successors . Christ sets up his Scepter where no other King doth ; he rules the will and affections ; his power binds the Conscience : The Angels take the oath of Allegiance to him , Heb. 1. 6. Christs Kingship is seen in two Royal Acts. 1. In ruling his people . 2. In over-ruling his Enemies . 1. In ruling his people . He rules with Clemency ; his Regal Rod hath honey at the end of it : Christ displays the Ensign of Mercy , which makes so many Volunteers run to his Standard , Psal. 110. 3. Holiness without Mercy , and Justice without Mercy , were dreadful ; but Mercy encourageth poor sinners to trust in him . 2. In over-ruling his Enemies . He pulls down their pride , befools their policy , restrains their malice , Psalm 76. 10. The remainder of wrath thou shalt restrain : Or as it is in the Hebrew , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou shalt girdle up . That stone cut out of the Moutains without hands , which smote the Image , Dan. 2. 34. was an Embleme ( saith Austin ) of Christs Monarchical power , conquering and triumphing over his Enemies . 3. Christ is precious in his benefits ; by Christ all dangers are removed , through Christ all mercies are conveyed ; in his bloud flows Justification , Act. 3. 9. Purgation , Heb. 9. 14. Fructification , Ioh. 1. 16. Pacification , Rom. 5. 1. Adoption , Gal. 4. 5. Perseverance , Heb. 12. 2. Glorification , Heb. 9. 12. This will be matter of sublimest joy to Eternity . We read , that those who had passed over the Sea of Glass , stood with their Harps , and did sing the Song of Moses and the Lamb , Revel . 15. 2. So when the Saints of God have passed over the glassie Sea of this world , they shall sing Hallelujahs to the Lamb , who hath redeemed them from sin and hell , and hath translated them into that glorious Paradise , where they shall see God for ever and ever . 2. The second thing to be illustrated is , that every godly man doth set an high value and estimate upon Christ , 1 Pet. 2. 7. Unto you therefore who believe , he is precious : In the Greek it is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an honour : Believers have an honourable esteem of Christ ; the Psalmist speaks like one captivated with Christs amazing beauty , Psalm 73. 25. There is none upon earth that I desire besides thee . He did not say he had nothing ; he had many comforts on earth , but he desired none but God ; as if a wife should say , there 's no ones company she prizeth like her husbands : How did David prize Christ , Psa. 45. 2. Thou art fairer than the children of men : The Spouse in the Canticles looked upon Christ as the Coriphoeus , the most incomparable one , Cant. 5. 10. The chief among ten * thousand . Christ out-vies all others , Cant. 2. 3. As the appletree among the trees of the wood , so is my beloved among the sons . Christ doth infinitely more excel all the beauties and glories of this visible world , than the appletree doth surpass the trees of the wild Forrest : So did Paul prize Christ , that he made him his chief study , 1 Cor. 2. 2. I determined to know nothing among you save Iesus Christ ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; I judged not any thing else of worth : St. Paul did best know Christ , 1 Cor. 9. 1. Have I not seen Iesus our Lord ? He saw him with his bodily eyes in a Vision , when he was wrap'd up into the third heaven , 2 Cor. 12. 2. and he saw him with the eye of his faith , in the blessed Supper , therefore he did best know him ; and behold , how he did slight , and vili-prize other things , in comparison of Christ , Phil. 3. 8. I count all things but loss , for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Iesus my Lord. Gain he esteemed loss , and gold dung for Christ. Indeed , a godly person cannot chuse but set an high valuation upon Christ , he sees a fulness of worth in him . 1. A fulness in regard of variety , Col. 2. 3. In whom are hid all † treasures . No Country hath all commodities of its own growth ; but Christ hath all kind of fulness ; fulness of Merit , of Spirit , of Love ; he hath a treasure adequate to all our wants . 2. A fulness in regard of degree : Christ hath not only a few drops , or rays , but is more full of goodness than the Sun is of light ; he hath the fulness of the Godhead , Col. 2. 9. 3. A fulness in regard of duration : The fulness in the creature , like the brooks of Arabia , is soon dried up ; but Christs fulness is * inexhaustible , 't is a fulness over-flowing and ever-flowing . And this fulness is for † Believers : Christ is Communis Thesaurus ( as Luther saith ) a common Treasury or Magazine for the Saints , Ioh. 1. 16. Of his fulness have we all received ; Set a glass under a Still , and it receives water out of the Still drop by drop : So those who are united to Christ , have the dews and drops of his grace distilling upon * them : Well then , may Christ be admired of all them that believe . Use 1. Is a godly man an high prizer of Christ , then what is to be thought of them who do not put a value upon Christ , are they godly or no ? There are four sorts of persons who do not prize Christ. 1. The Iews . They believe not in Christ , 2 Cor. 3. 15. Unto this day the vail is upon their heart : They expect their saeculum futurum , a Messiah yet to come , as their own Talmud reports : they blaspheme Christ , they slight righteousness imputed : They despise the Virgin Mary , calling her in derision Marah , which signifieth bitterness : They vilifie the * Gospel ; they deny the Christian Sabbath ; they have the Christians in abomination ; they hold it not lawful for a Jew to take physick of a Christian. Schecardus relates of one Bendema a Jew , that being stung with a Serpent , a Christian came to heal him , but he refused his help , and chose rather to die , than to be healed by a Christian : So do the Iews hate Christ , and all that wear his Livery . 2. The Socinians , who acknowledge only Christs Humanity : this is to make him below the Angels ; for the Humane Nature simply considered , is inferiour to the Angelical , Psa. 8. 5. 3. Proud Professors ; who do not lay the whole stress of their Salvation upon Christ , but would mingle their dross with his gold , their duties with his Merits ; this is to steal a Jewel from Christs Crown , and implicitly to deny him to be a perfect Saviour . 4. Airy Speculatists ; who prefer the study of the Arts and Sciences before Christ ; not but that the knowledge of these is commendable : Moses was skill'd in all the knowledge of the Egyptians , Acts 7. 22. Humane Learning is of good use to prepare for the study of better things ; as a courser dye prepares the cloath for a richer and a deeper dye : but the fault is , when the study of Christ is neglected : The knowledge of Christ ought to have the preheminence : It was not sure without a Mystery , that God suffered all Solomons writings about birds and plants to be lost ; but what he wrote about spiritual wisdome , hath been miraculously preserved ; as if God would teach us , that to know Christ ( the true * Wisdom ) is the Crowning Knowledg : One leaf of this Tree of Life , will give us more comfort on a death-bed , than the whole Idea and plat-form of Humane Science : What is it to know all the motions of the Orbs ; and influences of the Stars , and in the mean time to be ignorant of Christ , the bright Morning Star ? Rev. 22. 16. What is it to understand the nature of Minerals , or precious stones , and not to know Christ the true Corner-stone ? Isa. 28. 16. 'T is an undervaluing , yea despising of Christ , when with the load-stone we draw iron , and straw to us , but neglect him who hath tryed gold to bestow upon us , Rev. 3. 18. Use 2. Is it the sign of a godly person to be a Christ-prizer ? then let us try our godliness by this : Do we set an high estimation upon Christ ? Quest. How shall we know that ? Answ. 1. If we are prizers of Christ , then we prefer him in our judgements before other things : We value Christ above honor and riches ; the Pearl of Price lies neerest our heart : He who prizeth Christ , esteems the gleanings of Christ better than the worlds Vintage : He counts the worst things of Christ better than the best things of the world , Heb. 11. 26. Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches , than the treasures in Egypt . And is it thus with us ? Is the price of worldly things fallen ? Gregory Nazianzene did solemnly bless God , that he had any thing to lose for Christs * sake But alas , how few Nazianzenes are to be found : You shall hear some say , they have honourable thoughts of Christ , but they prize their Land and Estate above him . The young man in the Gospel preferred his bags of gold before Christ : Iudas valued thirty pieces of silver above him : May it not be feared , if an hour of tryal come , there are many would rather renounce their Baptisme , and throw off Christs Livery , than hazard the loss of their earthly possessions for him . 2. If we are prizers of Christ , we cannot live without him ; things which we value , we know not how to be without : A man may live without musick , but not without food . A Childe of God can want health and friends , but he cannot want Christ : In the absence of Christ he saith as Iob , I went mourning without the Sun , Iob 30. 28. I have the star-light of creature-comforts , but I want the Sun of Righteousness . Give me Children ( said Rachel ) or I die , Gen. 30. 1. So saith the Soul , Lord give me Christ , or I die ; one drop of the Water of Life to quench my thirst : Let us try by this , do they prize Christ , who can make a shift well enough to be without him ? Give a childe a rattle , and it will not mind gold : If men have but worldly accommodations , corn and wine , they can be well enough content without Christ : Christ is a Spiritual Rock , 1 Cor. 10. 4. Let men have but oyl in the cruse , they care not for honey out of this Rock : If their Trading be gone , they complain , but if God takes away the Gospel , which is the Ark wherein Christ the Manna is hid , they are quiet and tame enough : Do these prize Christ , who can sit down content without him ? 3. If we are prizers of Christ , then we shall not grutch at any pains to get † him . He who prizeth gold , will dig for it in the Mine , Psa. 63. 8. My Soul followeth hard after God. Plutarch reports of the Gauls , an antient people in France , after they had tasted the sweet wine of the Italian Grape , they enquired after the country , and never rested till they had arrived at it . He in whose eye Christ is precious , never rests till he hath gotten Christ , Cant. 3. 1 , 2 , 4. I sought him whom my soul loveth , I held him , and would no● let him go . Try by this ! Many say they have Christ in high Veneration , but they are not industrious in the use of means to obtain him . If Christ would drop as a ripe fig into their mouth , they could be content to have him , but they will not put themselves to too much trouble to get him : Doth he prize his health , who will not put himself upon physick or exercise ? 4. If we are prizers of Christ , then we take much complacency in Christ : What joy doth a man take in that which he counts his treasure ? He who prizeth Christ , makes him the Head of his joy : He can delight in Christ , when other delights are gone , Hab. 3. 17. Though the fig-tree doth not flourish , yet I will rejoyce in the Lord. Though a flower in a mans garden die , yet he can delight in his money and Jewels : He who esteems Christ , can solace himself in Christ , when there is an Autumn upon all other comforts . 5. If we are prizers of Christ , then we will part with our dearest lusts for him . Paul saith of the Galathians , they did so esteem him , that they were ready to have pulled out their own eyes , and have given him , Gal. 4 , 15. He who esteems Christ , will pull out that lust , which is his right eye . A wise man will throw away a poyson for a cordial : He who sets an high value upon Christ , will part with his pride , unjust gain , sinful † fashions : He will set his feet upon the neck of his sins . Try by this ! How can they be said to prize Christ , who will not leave a vanity for him ? Not a spot in the face , not an oath , not an intemperate cup : What a scorn and contempt do they put upon the Lord Jesus , who prefer a damning lust , before a saving Christ. 6. If we are prizers of Christ , we shall think we cannot have him at too dear a rate . We may buy gold too dear , but we cannot purchase Christ too dear : Though we part with our bloud for him , it is no dear bargain : The Apostles rejoyced that they were graced so much , as to be disgraced for Christ , Act. 5. 41. They esteemed their fetters more precious than bracelets of gold : Let not him say he prizeth Christ , who refuseth to bear his Cross , Mat. 13. 21. When persecution ariseth because of the Word , by and by he is offended . 7. If we are prizers of Christ , we will be willing to help others to a part in him ; that which we esteem excellent , we are desirous our friend should have a share in : If a man hath found a Spring of water , he will call others that they may drink , and satisfie their thirst . Do we commend Christ to others ? Do we take them by the hand , and lead them to Christ ? This shows how few prize Christ , because they strive no more that their Relations should have a part in him : They get land and riches for their posterity , but have no care to leave them the Pearl of Price for their portion . 8. If we are prizers of Christ , then we prize him in health as well as in sickness ; when we are inlarged , as well as when we are straitned : A friend is prized at all times ▪ the Rose of Sharon is always sweet : He who values his Saviour aright , hath as precious thoughts of him in a day of prosperity , as in a day of adversity : The wicked make use of Christ , only when they are in straits ; as the Elders of Gilead went to Ieptha when they were in distress , Iudg. 11. 7. Themistocies complained of the Athenians , that they ran to him but as to a Tree , to shelter them in a storm : Sinners desire Christ only for a shelter : The Hebrews never chose their Judges , but when they were in some imminent * dangers : Godless persons never look after Christ , but at death , when they are in danger of hell . Use 3. As we would evidence to the world that we have the impress of godliness on us , let us be prizers of Jesus Christ ; he is Elect , Precious ; Christ is the wonder of beauty : Pliny saith of the Mulberry Tree , there is nothing in it , but what is medicinable and useful , the fruit , leaves , bark : So there is nothing in Christ , but what is precious ; his Name is precious , his Virtues precious , his bloud precious . — Et precium mundi sanguiser at Domini — Oh then let us have endearing thoughts of Christ ; let him be accounted our chief treasure and delight : This is the reason why millions perish , because they do not prize Christ : Christ is the door by which men are to enter into heaven , Iohn 10. 9. If they do not know this door , or are so proud that they will not stoop to go in at i● , how can they be saved ? That we may have Christ-admiring thoughts : Let us consider , 1. We cannot prize Christ at too high a rate ; we may prize other things above their worth ; that is our sin , we commonly over-rate the creature ; we think there is more in it than there is ; therefore God withers our gourd , because we over-prize it : But we cannot raise our esteem high enough of Christ , he is beyond all value : There is no Ruby or Diamond but the Jeweller can set a just price upon it , he can say it is worth so much , and no more ; but Christs worth can never be fully known : No Seraphim can set a due value on him ; his are unsearchable riches , Eph. 3. 8. Christ is more precious than the Soul , than the Angels , than † Heaven . 2. Jesus Christ hath highly prized us ; he took our flesh upon him , Heb. 2. 16. He made his Soul an offering for us , Isa. 53. 10 : How precious was our Salvation to Christ ? Shall not we prize and adore him , who hath put such a value upon us ? 3. Not to prize Christ is high imprudence ; Christ is our Guide to Glory ; 't is folly for a man to slight his Guide ; he is our Physitian , Mal. 4. 2. 'T is folly to despise our Physitian . What , to set light by Christ for things of no value ? Mat. 23. 17. Ye fools and blind . How is a fool tryed , but by showing him an Apple , and a piece of Gold , if he chuse the Apple before the Gold , he is judged to be a fool , and his Estate is begged : How many such Ideots are there , who prefer Husks before Manna , the gaudy empty things of this life , before the Prince of Glory , Will not Satan beg them at last for fools ? 4. Such as slight Christ now , and say , There is no beauty in him that he should be * desired : There is a day shortly coming , when Christ will as much slight them ; he will set as light by them , as they do by him ; he will say , I know you not , Luk. 13. 27. What a slighting word will that be , when men shall cry , Lord Jesus save us , and he shall say , I was offered to you , but you would none of † me ; you scorned me , and now I will set light by you , and your Salvation ; Depart from me , I know you not . This is all that sinners get by rejecting the Lord of Life : Christ will slight them at the day of Judgement , who have s●ighted him in the day of Grace . SECT . VIII . 8. A godly man is an Evangelical weeper . David did sometimes sing with his Harp , and sometimes the Organ of his eye did weep , Psal. 6. 6. I water my couch with tears . Christ calls his Spouse his Dove , Cant. 2. 14. The Dove is a weeping creature : Grace dissolves and liquifies and Soul , causing a spiritual thaw : The sorrow of the heart runs out at the eye , Psa. 31. 9. The Rabbins report , that the same night Israel departed out of Egypt towards Canaan , all the Idols of Egypt were broken down by Lightning and Earthquake : So at that very time men go forth out of their natural condition towards heaven , all the Idols of sin in the heart must be broken down by Repentance : A melting heart is the chief branch of the Covenant of Grace , Ezek. 36. 26. and the product of the Spirit , Zac. 12. 10. I will powre upon the House of David the Spirit of Grace , and they shall look on me whom they have pierced , and they shall mourn for him . Quest. But why is a godly man a weeper ? Is not sin pardoned , which is the ground of Ioy ? Hath ot he had a transforming work upon his heart , why then doth he weep ? Answ. A godly man finds matter enough of weeping . 1. He weeps for the in-being of sin , the Law in his members , Rom. 7. 23. The ebullitions , and first risings of * sin ; his Nature is a poysoned Fountain : A regenerate person grieves that he carries that about him which is enmity to God ; his heart is like the wide Sea , wherein there are creeping things † innumerable ; vain sinful thoughts : A Childe of God laments hidden wickedness ; he hath more evil in him than he knows * of : There are those Meanders in his heart which he cannot trace ; a terra incognita , an unknown world of sin , Psalm 19. 12. Who can understand his errors ? 2. A godly man weeps for the adherency of Corruption ; if he could get rid of sin , there were some comfort , but he cannot shake off this † Viper . Sin cleaves to him as the Leprosie to the wall , Lev. 14. 39. Though a Childe of God forsakes his sin , yet sin will not forsake him , Dan. 7. 12. Concerning the rest of the beasts , they had their Dominion taken away , yet their lives were prolonged for a season . So though the Dominion of sin is taken away , yet the life of it is prolonged for a season ; and while sin lives it molests : The Persians were daily Enemies to the R●mans , and would be invading upon their frontiers ▪ So sin wars against the Soul , 1 Pet. 2. 11. And no cessation of arms till death ; will not this cause tears ? 3. A Childe of God weeps that he is sometimes overcome by the prevalency of Corruption , Rom. 7. 19. The evil I would not , that do I. Paul was like a man carried down the stream : How oft is a Saint overpowred with pride and passion ! When David had sinned , he steeped his Soul in the brinish tears of Repentance : It cannot but grieve a regenerate person to think he should be so foolish , as after he hath felt the smart of sin , yet to put this fire in his bosom again . 4. A godly heart grieves that he can be no more holy ; it troubles him that he shoots so short of the Rule and Standard which God hath set : I should , faith he , love the Lord with all my heart : But how defective is my love ? how far short do I come of what I should be , nay , of what I might have been : What can I see in my life , but either blanks or blots ? 5. A godly man weeps sometimes , out of the sense of Gods love : Gold is the finest and most solid of all the metals , yet is soonest melted with the fire : Gracious hearts , which are golden hearts , are the soonest melted into tears by the fire of Gods love . I once knew an holy man , who walking in his garden , and shedding plenty of tears , a friend coming to him accidentally , asked him , why he wept ? He brake forth into this pathetical expression , O the love of Christ , the love of Christ , Thus have we seen the Cloud melted into water by the Sun-beams . 6. A godly person weeps , because the sins he commits are in some sense worse than the sins of other men ; the sin of a justified person is very odious . 1. Because he acts contrary to his own principles ; he doth not only sin against the Rule , but against his Principles , against his knowledge , vows , prayers , hopes , experiences : He knows how dear sin will cost him , yet he adventures upon the forbidden fruit . 2. The sin of a Justified person is odious , because it is a sin of unkindness , 2 King. 11. 9. Peters denying of Christ was a sin against love ; Christ had enrolled him among the Apostles , he had taken him up into the Mount of Transfiguration , and showed him the glory of Heaven in a Vision ; yet after all this signal Mercy , that he should deny Christ , it was high ingratitude . This made him go out and weep bitterly , Mat. 26. 75. He baptized himself , as it were , in his own * tears : The sins of the godly go neerest to Gods Heart : Others sins anger God , these grieve him : The sins of the wicked pierce Christ sides , the sins of the godly wound his heart ; the unkindness of a Spouse goes neerest the heart of her Husband . 3. The sin of a Justified person is odious , because it reflects more dishonor upon God , 2 Sam. 12. 14. By this deed , thou hast given occasion to the Enemies of the Lord to blaspheme . The sins of Gods people put black spots in the face of Religion . Thus we see what cause there is , why a Childe of God should weep even after Conversion . — Quis talia fando , temperet à lachrymis ? Now this sorrow of a godly man for sin , is not a despairing sorrow ; he doth not mourn without hope . Psal. 65. 3. Iniquities prevail against me : There is the Holy Soul weeping ; as for our transgressions thou shalt purge them away : There is Faith triumphing . Divine sorrow is excellent : There is as much difference between the sorrow of a godly man and a wicked , as between the water of a Spring which is clear and sweet , and the water of the Sea which is salt and brackish . A godly mans sorrow hath these three qualifications , 1. It is internal ; it is a sorrow of Soul ; hypocrites disfigure their faces , Mat. 6. 16. godly sorrow goes deep , it is a pricking at the heart , Acts 2. 37. True sorrow is a spiritual Martyrdome therefore called Soul-affliction , Lev. 23. 29. 2. Godly sorrow is ingenuous ; it is more for the evil that is in sin , than the evil which follows after ; it is more for the spot than the sting : Hypocrites weep for sin only as it brings affliction . I have read of a Fountain that never sends out streams , but the Evening before a Famine : Hypocrites never send forth the streams of their tears , but when Gods Judgements are approaching . 3. Godly sorrow is influential ; it makes the heart better , Eccles. 7. 3. By the sadness of the countenance , the heart is made better . Divine tears do not only wet , but wash , they purge out the love of sin . Use 1. How far are they from being godly ; who scarce ever shed a tear for sin : If they lose a neer Relation , they weep , but though they are in danger of losing God and their Souls , they weep not . How few know what it is to be in an Agony for sin , or what a broken heart means ; their eyes are not like the Fish-pools of Heshbon , full of water , Cant. 7. 4. but rather like the Mountains of Gilboa , which had no dew upon them , 2 Sam. 1. 21. It was a greater plague for Pharaoh to have his heart turned into stone , than to have his Rivers turned into bloud . Others , if they do sometimes shed a tear , yet they are never the better , they go on in wickedness , and do not drown their sins in their tears . Use 2. Let us labour for this Divine Character , be weepers . This is a repentance not to be repented of , 2 Cor. 7. 10. 'T is reported of Mr. Bradford Martyr , that he was of a melting spirit , he seldome sate down to his meat , but some tears trickled down his cheeks . There are two Lavors to wash away sin , Bloud and * Tears : The Bloud of Christ washeth away the guilt of sin , tears wash away the filth ; repenting tears are precious , God puts them in his bottle , Psal. 56. 8. They are beautifying ; a tear in the eye doth more adorn , than a Ring on the finger : Oyl makes the face shine , Psal. 104. 15. Tears make the heart shine ; tears are comforting ; a sinners mirth turns to melancholy , a Saints mourning turns to musick : Repentance may be compared to Myrrhe , which though it be bitter to the taste , it is comforting to the spirits : Repentance may be bitter to the fleshy part , but it is most refreshing to the spiritual . Wax that melts is fit for the Seal ; a melting Soul is fit to take the stamp of all heavenly blessings : Let us give Christ the water of our tears , and he will give us the Wine of his Bloud . SECT . IX . 9. A godly man is a lover of the Word , Psal. 119. 97. O how love I thy Law. 1. A godly man loves the Word written . Chrysostom compares the Scripture to a garden set with knots and * flowers : A godly man delights to walk in this garden , and sweetly solace himself ; he loves every branch and parcel of the Word . 1. He loves the counselling part of the Word , as it is a Directory and Rule of life : The Word is the Mercurial Statue which points us to our duty ; it contains in it credendae and fac●enda , things to be believed and practised : A godly man loves the Aphorismes of the Word . 2. A godly man loves the Minatory part of the Word : The Scripture , like the Garden of Eden , as it hath a Tree of Life in it , so it hath a Flaming Sword at the Gates of it ; this is the threatning of the Word ; it flasheth fire in the face of every person that goes on obstinately in wickedness , Psal. 68. 21. God shall wound the hairy scalp of such an one , as goes on still in his trespasses . The Word gives no indulgence to evil ; it will not let a man halt between God and Sin : The true Mother would not let the Childe be divided , and God will not have the heart divided : The Word thunders out threatnings against the very appearance of evil ; it is like that flying Roll full of curses , Zac. 5. 1. A godly man loves the menaces of the Word , he knows there is love in every threatning : God would not have us perish , therefore doth mercifully threaten us , that he may scare us from sin : Gods threatnings are as the Sea-mark , which shows the Rocks in the Sea , and threatneth death to such as come neer ; the threatning is a curbing bit to check us , that we may not run in a full careir to hell ; there is mercy in every threatning . 3. A godly man loves the consolatory part of the * Word , the Promises ; he goes feeding upon these , as Sampson went on his way eating the honey-comb , Iudg. 14. 8. The Promises ; are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , all marrow and sweetness ; they are our Bezar-stone when we are fainting ; they are the conduits of the Water of Life , Psal. 94. 19. In the multitude of my thoughts within me , thy comforts delight my Soul. The Promises were Davids Harp to drive away sad thoughts ; they were the breast which milked out Divine Consolation to him . A godly man shows his love to the Word written : 1. By diligent reading of it : The Noble Bereans did search the Scriptures daily , Act. 17. 11. Apollos was mighty in the Scriptures , Act. 18. 24. The Word is our Magna Charta for heaven , we should be daily reading over this Charter : The Word is index sui & obliqui , it shows what is truth ; and what is error ; it is the field where the Pearl of Price is hid : How should we dig for this Pearl ! A godly mans heart is the Library to hold the Word of God , it dwells richly in him , Col. 3. 16. It is reported of Melancthon , that when he was young , he carried the Bible always about him , and did greedily read in † it . The Word hath a double work , to teach us , and to judge us : They that will not be taught by the Word , shall be judged by the Word : Oh let us make the Scripture familiar to us ! What if it should be as in the ●imes of Dioclesian , who commanded by Proclamation the Bible to be * burned ; or as in Queen Maries daies , wherein it was death to have a Bible in English ; by diligent conversing with Scripture , we may carry a Bible in our head . 2. A godly man shows his love to the Word , by frequent meditating in it , Psalm 119. 97. It is my meditation all the day . A pious Soul meditates of the Verity and Sanctity of the Word ; he hath not only a few transient thoughts , but lays his mind a steeping in the Scripture ; by meditation he suck● from this sweet flower , and concocts holy truths in his mind . 3. He shows his love to the Word by delighting in it , it is his recreation , Ier. 15. 16. Thy word● were found , and I did eat them , and thy Word wa● unto me the Ioy and rejoycing of my heart . Never did a man take such delight in a dish that he loved , as the Prophet did in the Word : And indeed , how can a Saint chuse but take great complacency in the Word , because all that ever he hopes to be worth is contained in it : Doth not a son take pleasure in reading over his Fathers Will and Testament , where he makes a conveyance of his Estate to him ? 4. He shows his love to the Word , by hiding it , Psal. 119. 11. Thy Word have I hid in my heart : As one hides a treasure that it should not be stoln away : The Word is the Jewel , the heart is the Cabinet where it must be locked up : Many hide the Word in their memory , but not in their heart . And why would David inclose the Word in his heart ? That I might be kept from sinning against thee . As one would carry an Antidote about him , when he comes neer an infected place ; so a godly man carries the Word in his heart as a spiritual antidote to preserve him from the infection of * sin : Why have so many been poysoned with error , others with moral vice , but because they have not hid the Word as an holy antidote in their heart . 5. He shows his love to the Word by desending it : A wise man will not let his Land be taken from him , but will defend his Title . David looked upon the Word as his Land of Inheritance , Psal. 119. 111. Thy Testimonies have I taken as an Heritage for ever . And do you think he would let his Inheritance be wrested out of his † hands ? A godly man will not only dispute for the Word , but die for it , Rev. 6. 9. I saw under the Altar the souls of them that were slain for the Word of God. 6. He shows his love to the Word by preferring it above things most precious . 1. Above food , Iob 23. 12. I have ●esteemed the words of his mouth , above my necessary food . ● Above riches , Psal. 119. 72. The Law of thy mouth is better unto me , then thousands of gold and * silver . 3. Above worldly honor . Memorable is the story of King Edward the Sixth , who upon the day of his Coronation , when they presented before him three Swords , signifying to him that he was Monarch of three Kingdomes , the King said , there is yet one Sword wanting ; being asked , what that was ? he answered , the Holy Bible , which is the sword of the Spirit , and is to be preferred before these Ensigns of † Royalty . 7. He shows his love to the Word by talking of it , Psal. 119. 172. My tongue shall speak of thy Word . As a covetous man is talking of his rich purchase , so a godly man is speaking of the Word : what a treasure it is , how full of beauty and suavity ; they whose mouths the Devil hath gagg'd , who never speak of Gods Word , it is a sign they never reaped any good by it . 8. He shows his love to the Word by conforming to it ; the Word is his Sun-Dial , by which he sets his life , the balance in which he weighs his actions ; he copies out the Word in his daily walk , 2 Tim. 4. 7. I have kept the Faith. St. Paul kept the Doctrine of Faith , and lived the life of Faith. Quest , Why is a godly man a lover of the Word ? Answ. 1. Because of the excellency of the Word . 1. The word written is our pillar of fire to guide * us : It shows us what Rocks we are to avoid ; it is the card by which we sail to the new Hierusalem . 2. The word is a Spiritual Optick Glass , through which we may see our own hearts : The Glass of Nature which the Heathen had , discovered spots in their Conversation , but this Glass discovers spots in the Imagination ; that Glass discovered the spots of their unrighteousness , this discovers the spots of our righteousness , Rom. 7. 9. When the Commandment came , sin revived , and I died : when the word came as a Glass , all my opinion of self-righteousness died . 3. The word of God is a Soveraign comfort in distress ; while we follow this Cloud , the Rock follows us , Psal. 119. 50. This is my comfort in my affliction , for thy word hath quickned me . Christ is the Fountain of Living water , the word is the Golden Pipe through which it runs : what can revive at the hour of death , but the Word of † Life . 2. A godly man loves the word , because of the efficacy it hath had upon him , this day-star hath risen in his * heart , and usher'd ●n the Sun of Righteousness . 2. A godly man loves the Word Preached ; which is a Commentary upon the word written : The Scriptures are the Soveraign oyls and balsoms , the preaching of the word is the powring of them out : The Scriptures are the precious spices , the preaching of the word is the beating of these spices , which causeth a wonderful fragrancy and delight . The word preached is the Rod of Gods strength , Psal. 110. 2. and the breath of his lips , Isa. 11. 4. What was once said of the City Thebes , that it was built by the sound of Amphius his Harp , is much more true of Soul-Conversion , it is built by the sound of the Gospel Harp ; therefore the preaching of the Word is called , the power of God to Salvation , 1 Cor. 1. 24. By this , Christ is said , ( now ) to speak to us from Heaven , Heb. 12. 5. This Ministery of the word is to be preferred before the Ministry of Angels . A godly man loves the word preached , partly from the good he hath found by it ; he hath felt the dew fall with this Manna ; and partly because of Gods Institution , the Lord hath appointed this Ordinance to save him ; the Kings Image makes the Coyn go currant ; the stamp of Divine Authority upon the word preached , makes it an Engine conducible to mens Salvation . Use. Let us try by this Character , whether we are godly : Are we lovers of the word ? 1. Do we love the word written ? What sums of money did the Martyrs give for a few leaves of the Bible ? Do we make the word our familiar ? As Moses had often the Rod of God in his hand , so should we have the Book of God in our hand : when we want direction , do we consult with this sacred Oracle ? when we find corruptions strong , do we make use of this Sword of the Spirit to hew them down ? when we are disconsolate , do we go to this Aqua vitae bottle for comfort ? then we are lovers of the word ! But alas , how can they say they love the Scriptures , who are seldome conversant in them ? their eyes begin to be sore when they look upon a Bible : The two Testaments are hung by , like rusty Armour , which is seldome or never made use of : The Lord wrote the Law with his own finger , but though God took pains to write , men will not take pains to read ; they had rather look upon a pair of Cards , then upon a Bible . 2. Do we love the word preached ? Do we prize it in our judgements ? Do we receive it into our hearts ? Do we fear the loss of the word preached , more than the loss of peace and trading ? Is it the removal of the Ark that troubles us ? Again , do we attend the Word with Reverential Devotion ? when the Judge is giving his Charge upon the Bench all attend , when the word is preached , the great God is giving us his Charge , do we listen to it as to a matter of life and death ? this is a good sign we love the word . Again , do we love the Sanctity of the word ? Psal. 119. 140. The word preached is to beat down sin , and advance holiness : Do we love it for its spirituality and purity ? Many love the word preached only for its eloquence and notion ; they come to a Sermon as to a Musick-lecture , Ezek. 33. 31. or as to a garden to pick flowers , but not to have their lusts subdued , or their hearts bettered : These are like a foolish woman which paints her face ▪ but neglects her health . Again , do we love the convictions of the word ? Do we love the word when it comes home to our Conscience , and shoots its arrows of reproof at our sins ? 'T is the Ministers duty sometimes to reprove : He that can give smooth words in the Pulpit , but knows not how to reprove , is like a sword with a fine hilt , without an edge , Titus 2. 15. Rebuke them sharply : Dip the nail in oyl , reprove in love , but strike the nail home . Now Christian , when the word toucheth upon thy sin , and saith , Thou art the man , dost thou love the reproof ? Canst thou bless God that the sword of the Spirit hath divided between thee and thy lusts ? This is indeed a sign of grace , and shows thou art a lover of the word . A corrupt heart loves the comforts of the word , but not the reproofs , Amos 5. 10. They hate him that rebuketh in the gate . — Igne micant oculi — Like venomous creatures , that upon the least touch spit poyson , Act. 7. 54. When they heard these things they were cut to the heart , and gnashed upon him with their teeth . When Stephen touched them to the quick , they were mad , and could not endure * it . Quest. How shall we know that we love the reproofs of the word ? Ans. 1. When we desire to sit under an heart-searching Ministry ; who cares for Physick that will not work ? A godly man chuseth not to sit under such a Ministry as will not work upon his Conscience . 2. When we pray that the word may meet with our sins ; if there be any traiterous lust got into our heart , we would have it found out , and Execution done upon it ; we would not have sin covered , but cured : we can open our breast to the bullet of the word , and say , Lord smite this sin . 3. When we are thankful for a reproof , Psa. 141. 5. Let the righteous smite me , it shall be a kindness , and let him reprove me , it shall be an excellent oyl which shall not break my * head . David was glad of a reproof . Suppose a man were in the mouth of a Lyon , and another should shoot the Lyon and save the man , would not he be thankful ? So , when we are in the mouth of sin , as of a Lyon , and the Minister by a reproof shoots this sin to death , shall not we be thankful ? A gracious soul rejoyceth when the sharp Lance of the word hath let out his Imposthume ; he wears a reproof as a Jewel on his ear , Pro. 30. 12. As an ear-ring of gold , so is a reprover on an obedient ear . To conclude , 't is convincing ●reach●ng must do the soul good ; a nipping reproof prepares for comfort , as a nipping frost prepares for the sweet flowers of spring . SECT . X. 10. A godly man hath the Spirit of God residing in him , 2 Tim. 1. 14. The Holy Ghost which dwelleth in * us . The Schoolmen move the question , whether a man receive the Holy Ghost himself or no ? Montanus held that the godly have so Gods Spirit in them , that they partake of his Essence , and are become one person with himself ; but this amounts to no less than blasphemy ; then it would follow , that every Saint were to be worshipped . I conceive the spirit is in the godly per modum influxus , they have the presence , and receive the sacred influences of it : When the Sun comes into a room , not the body of the Sun is there , but the beams that sparkle from it : Indeed , some Divines have thought , that the godly have more than the influx of the spirit , though to say how it is more , is ineffable , and is fitter for some Seraphique Pen to describe than mine . The Spirit of God discovers its self in a gracious soul two wayes . 1. By its motions : These are some of that sweet perfume the spirit breaths upon the heart , whereby it is raised into a kind of Angelical frame . Quest. 1. But how may we know the motions of the Spirit from a delusion ? Answ. The motions of the Spirit are always consonant to the word ; the word is the Chariot wherein the Spirit of God * rides ; which way the tyde of the word runs , that way the wind of the spirit blows . Quest. 2. How may the motions of the Spirit in the godly , be distinguished from the impulses of a Natural Conscience ? Answ. 1. A Natural Conscience may provoke sometimes to the same thing that the spirit doth , but not from the same principle . Natural Conscience is a spu● to duty , but it puts a man upon doing duties for fear of hell ; as the Gally tugs at the Oar for fear of being beaten : whereas the spirit moves a Childe of God from a more Noble Principle ; it makes him serve God out of choice , and esteem duty his priviledge . 2. The impulses of a Natural Conscience , put men only upon more facil duties of Religion , wherein the heart is less exercised ; as perfunctory reading , or praying ; but the motions of the spirit in the godly go further , causing them to set upon the most irksome duties , as self-reflection , self-humbling ; yea perillous duties , as confessing Christs Name in times of danger : Divine motions are in the heart like new wine which will have vent : When Gods Spirit possesseth a man , it carries him full-sail through all difficulties . 2. The Spirit discovers it self in the godly by its † virtues . These are various . 1. Gods Spirit hath a teaching virtue , the spirit teacheth convincingly ▪ * Ioh. 16. 8. It doth so teach , as it doth perswade . 2. Gods Spirit hath a sanctifying † virtue , the heart naturally is polluted , but when the spirit comes into it , it works sin out , and grace in : The Spirit of God was represented by the Dove ▪ Embleme of Purity ; the spirit makes the heart a Temple for pureness , and a Paradise for pleasantness : The holy Oyl of * Consecration , was nothing else but a prefiguring of the † spirit : The spirit sanctifies a mans fancy , causing it to mint holy meditations ; it sanctifies his will , byassing it to good : so that now it shall be as delightful to serve God , as before it was to sin against him : sweet powders perfume linnen ; so Gods Spirit in a man , perfumes him with holiness , and makes his heart a Map of Heaven . 3. Gods Spirit hath a vivifying virtue 2 Cor. 3. 6. The Spirit giveth * life : As th● blowing in an Organ makes it sound , so th● breathing of the spirit causeth life and mo●on : When the Prophet Elijah stretche● himself upon the dead Childe it revived 1 Kin. 17. 22. so Gods Spirit stretching self upon the soul infuseth life into it . As our life , so our liveliness is from th● spirits operation , Ezek. 3. 14. The Spirit lifted me up . When the heart is bowed dow● and is listless to duty , the Spirit of God lift it up , it puts a sharp edge upon the affection● it makes love ardent , hope lively ; the spir●● takes off the weights of the soul , and gives wings , Cant. 6. 12. Or ever I was aware , 〈◊〉 Soul made me like the Chariots of Ammin●●i ▪ The wheels of the soul were before pulle● off , and it did drive on heavily , but whe● the spirit of the Almighty possesseth a ma● now he runs swiftly in the ways of God , an● his soul is as the Chariots of Amminadib . 4. Gods Spirit hath a Jurisdictive virtue it rules and governs ; Gods Spirit sits paramount in the † soul , it gives check to th● violence of corruption , it will not suffer man to be vain and loose as others : The Sp●rit of God will not be put out of office , exerciseth its authority over the heart , bringing every thought to the obedience of Chri●● 2 Cor. 10. 5. 5. The spirit hath a mollifying virtue ; therefore it is compared to * fire , which softens the wax : The spirit turns flint into flesh , Ezek. 36. 26. I will give you an heart of flesh . How shall this be effected ? Ver. 27. I will put my spirit within you . While the heart is hard , it lies like a log , and is not wrought upon either with judgements or mercies , but when Gods Spirit comes in , it makes a mans heart as tender as his eye , and now it is made yielding to Divine Impressions . 6. The spirit of God hath a corroborating † virtue , it infuseth strength and assistance for work , it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a spirit of Power , 2 Tim. 1. 7. Gods spirit carries a man above himself , Eph. 3. 16. Strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man : The spirit confirms faith , animates courage , it lifts at one end of the Cross , and makes it lighter to be * born : The spirit gives not only a sufficiency of strength , but a redundancy . Quest. How shall we know whether we act in the strength of Gods Spirit , or in the strength of our own abilities ? Answ. 1. When we do humbly cast our selves upon God for assistance ; as David going out against Goliah , did cast himself upon God for help , 1 Sam. 17. 45. I come to thee in the Name of the Lord. 2. When our duties are divinely qualified , we do them with pure aims . 3. When we have found God going along with us , we give him the glory of all , 1 Cor. 15. 10. This doth clearly evince , that the duty was carried on by the strength of Gods Spirit , more than by any innate abilities of our own . 7. Gods Spirit hath a comforting † virtue ; disconsolacy may arise in a gracious * heart ; as the Heaven , though it be a bright lucid body , yet hath interposition of Clouds ; this sadness is caused usually through the malice of Satan , who if he cannot destroy us , he will disturb us , but Gods Spirit within us doth sweetly chear and revive ; he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Comforter , Ioh. 14. 16. These comforts are real and infallible : Hence it is called the Seal of the Spirit , Eph. 1. 13. When a Deed is sealed , it is firm and unquestionable : so when a Christian hath the seal of the spirit , his comforts are confirmed ; every godly man hath these revivings of the spirit in some degree , he hath the seminals and initials of joy , though the flower be not fully ripe and blown . Quest. How doth the Spirit give comfort ? Answ. 1. By showing us that we are in a state of Grace : A Christian cannot always see his riches ; the work of Grace may be written in the heart like short-hand , which a Christian cannot read ; the spirit gives him a Key to open these dark Characters , and spell out his Adoption , whereupon he hath joy and peace , 1 Cor. 2. 12. We have received the Spirit which is of God , that we might know the things which are freely given to us of God. 2. The spirit comforts , by giving us some ravishing apprehensions of Gods love , Rom. 5. 5. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost . Gods love is a box of precious oyntment , and it is only the spirit can break open this box , and fill us with the sweet perfume of it . 3. The spirit comforts , by carrying us to the Bloud of Christ ; as when a man is weary and ready to faint , carry him to the water , and he is refreshed : so when we are fainting under the burden of sin , the spirit carries us to the Fountain of Christs Bloud , Zac. 12. 1. In that day there shall be a Fountain opened , &c. The spirit inables us to drink the waters of Justification which run out of Christs sides : The spirit applyes whatever Christ hath purchased , it shows us that our sins are done away in Christ , and though we are spotted in our selves , we are undefiled in our head . 4. The spirit comforts , by inabling Conscience to comfort ; the Childe must be taught before it can speak : The spirit opens the mouth of Conscience , and helps it to speak , and witness to a man that his estate is good , whereupon he begins to receive comfort , Rom. 9. 2. My Conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost . Conscience draws up a Certificate for a man , then the Holy Ghost comes and sets his hand to the Certificate . 5. The spirit conveys the Oyl of Joy through two Golden Pipes . 1. The Ordinances . 2. The Promises . 1. The Ordinances : As Christ in prayer had his countenance changed , Luk 9. 29. There was a glorious lustre upon his face ; so often in the use of Holy Ordinances , the godly have such raptures of joy , and soul-transfigurations , that they have been carried above the world , and despised all things below . 2. The Promises : The Promises are comfortable : 1. For their sureness , Rom. 4. 16. God in the Promises hath laid his truth to * pawn . 2. For their suitableness , being calculated for every Christians condition . The Promises are like a Physick-garden , there is no disease but some herb may be found there to cure it ; but the Promises of themselves cannot comfort , only the spirit inables us to suck these Honey-combs : The Promises are like a Limbeck full of herbs , but this Limbeck will not drop , unless the fire be put under : So when the spirit of God ( which is compared to fire ) is put to the Limbeck of the Promises , then they distil Consolation into the soul. Thus we see how the spirit is in the godly by its virtues . Object . But is this the sign of a godly man to be filled with the Spirit ? Are not the wicked said to partake of the Holy Ghost ? Heb. 6. 4. Answ. Wicked men may partake of the spirits working , but not of its in-dwelling ; they may have Gods spirit move upon them , the godly have it enter into them , Ezek. 3. 24. Object . But the unregenerate taste of the Heavenly Gift ? Heb. 6. Answ. It is with them as Cooks , who may have a smack and taste of the meat they * dress , but they are not nourished by it : Tasting there , is opposed to eating : The godly have not only a drop or taste of the spirit , but it is in them as river of living water , Iohn 7. 38. Use 1. It brands them for ungodly , who have none of Gods spirit , Rom. 8. 9. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ , he is none of his : And if he be none of Christs , then whose is he ? to what Regiment doth he belong ? 'T is the misery of a sinner he hath none of Gods spirit : Me thinks 't is very offensive to hear men say , Take not thy holy spirit from us , who never had Gods spirit : will they say they have Gods spirit in them , who are drunkards and swearers ? Have they Gods spirit who are malicious and unclean ? It were blasphemy to say these have the spirit : Will the blessed spirit leave his Caelestial Palace , to come and live in a prison ? A sinners heart is a Gaol , both for darkness and noysomness , and will Gods free spirit † be confined to a prison ? A sinners heart is the Embleme of Hell , what should Gods spirit do there ? Wicked hearts are not a Temple , but an Hog●sty , where the unclean spirit makes his abode , Ephes. 2. 2. The Prince of the power of the Ayr , the spirit that now worketh in the children of * disobedience . We would be loath to live in an house haunted with evi● spirits ; a sinners heart is haunted , Ioh. 13 ▪ 27. After the sop Satan entred . Satan venter upon the godly , but enters into the wicked when the Devils went into the herd of swine they ran violently down a steep place into th● Sea , Mat. 8. 32. Whence is it men run so greedily to the Commission of sin , but because the Devil hath entred into these * Swine . 2. This cuts them off from being godly , who not only want the spirit , but deride it : Like those Iews , Acts 2. 13. These men are full of new wine : And indeed so the Apostles were , they were full of the wine of the spirit : How is Gods spirit scoffed at by the sons of Belial ? These ( say they ) are men of the Spirit . O wretches , to make those tongues which should be Organs of Gods praise , instruments to blaspheme : Have you none to throw your squibs at but the spirit ? Deriding of the spirit comes very neer to the despighting of it : How can men be sanctified but by the spirit ? therefore to reproach that , is to make merry with their own damnation . Use 2. As you would be listed in the number of the godly , labour for the blessed indwelling of the spirit ; pray with Melancthon , Lord inflame my soul with thy holy † spirit ; and with the Spouse , Awake O North-wind , aad come thou South , blow upon my garden , Cant. 4. 16. As a Mariner would desire a wind to carry him to Sea , so beg the prosperous gales of the spirit ; and the Promise may add wings to prayer , Luke 11. 13. If ye being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children , how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Spirit to them that ask him ? Gods spirit is a rich Jewel , go to him for it , Lord give me thy spirit , where is the Jewel thou didst promise me ? When shall my soul be as Gideons Fleece , wet with the dew of heaven ? Consider how needful the spirit is , without it we can do nothing acceptably to God. 1 VVe cannot pray without it ; 't is a spirit of Supplication , Zac. 12. 10. It both helps the invention , and the affection , Rom. 8. 26. The spirit helps us with sighs and * groans . 2. We cannot resist temptation without it , Act. 1. 8. Ye shall receive power , after the Holy Ghost is come upon you : He who hath the tyde of corrupt nature , and the wind of temptation , must needs be carried down the stream of sin , if the contrary wind of the spirit doth not blow . 3. VVe cannot be fruitful without the spirit . — Aureus imber sitientia caelo ●orda rigans . — VVhy is the spirit compared to dew and † rain , but to show us how unable we are to bring forth a Crop of Grace , unless the dew of God fall upon us ? 4. VVithout the spirit no Ordinance is effectual to us ; Ordinances are the Conduit-Pipes of Grace , but the spirit is the Spring : Some content themselves that they have a Levite to their Priest , but never look any further ; as if a Merchant should content himself that his ship hath good tackling , and is well manned , though it never have a gale of wind : The Ship of Ordinances will not carry us to heaven , though an Angel were the Pylot , unless the wind of Gods Spirit blow : The Spirit is the Soul of the Word , without which it is but a dead letter : Ministers may prescribe Physick , but it is Gods spirit must make it work : Our hearts are like Davids body , when it grew old , they covered him with cloathes , but he gat no heat , 1 King. 1. 1. So though the Minister of God ply us with prayers and counsels as with hot cloathes , yet we are cold and chill till Gods spirit comes , and then we say as the Disciples , Luke 24. 32. Did not our hearts burn within us ? Oh therefore , what need have we of the spirit ? 3. You who have the blessed spirit manifested by its energy and vital operations : 1. Acknowledge Gods distinguishing love ; the spirit is an ear-mark of Election , 1 Iohn 3. 4. Christ gave the bag to Iudas , but not his spirit : The spirit is a Love-token ; where God gives his spirit for a pawn , he gives himself for a portion : The spirit is an Epitomizing blessing , it is put for all good things , Mat. 7. 11. What were you without the spirit , but as so many carkasses ? Without this Christ would not profit you ; the Bloud of God is not enough without the Breath of God : Oh then , be thankful for the spirit ; this Loadstone will never leave drawing you , till it hath drawn you up to heaven . 2. If you have this spirit do not grieve it , Eph. 4. 30. Shall we grieve our Comforter ? Quest. How do we grieve the Spirit ? Answ. 1. When we unkindly repel the motions of it : The spirit sometimes whispers in our ears , and calls to us as God did to Iacob , Gen. 35. 1. Arise , go to Bethel . So saith the spirit , Arise , go to prayer , retire thy self to meet thy God : Now when we stifle these motions , and entertain temptations to vanity , this is a grieving of the spirit ; if we check the motions of the spirit , we shall lose the comforts of the spirit . 2. We grieve the spirit , when we deny the work of the spirit in our hearts ; if one gives another a token , and he should deny it , and say he never received it , this were to abuse the love of his friend : So Christian , when God hath given thee his spirit , witnessed by those meltings of heart , and passionate breathings after heaven , yet thou deniest that thou ever hadst any renewing work of the spirit in thee ; this is high ingratitude , and is a grieving the good spirit ; renounce the sinful works of the flesh , but do not deny the gracious work of the spirit . SECT . XI . 11. The godly man is an humble man ; he is like the Sun in the Zenith , which when it is at the highest shows lowest : St. Austin calls Humility the Mother of the Graces ; but ere I show you who is the humble man , I shall lay down three distinctions . 1. I distinguish between being humbled and humble ; a man may be humbled , and not * humble ; a sinner may be humbled by affliction , his condition is low , but not his disposition ; a godly man is not only humbled , but humble , his heart is as low as his condition . 2. I distinguish between outward humility and inward ; there 's a great deal of difference between an humble carriage , and an humble † spirit ; a person may carry it humbly : 1. Towards others , yet be proud ; who more humble than Absalom in his outward behaviour ? 2 Sam. 15. 5. When any man came neer to do him obeysance , Absalom took him by the hand and kissed him . But though he had an humble carriage , he aspired after the Crown , ver . 10. As soon as ye hear the sound of the Trumpet , ye shall say Absalom reigneth in Hebron . Here was Pride dressed in Humilities Mantle . 2. A person may behave himself humbly towards God , yet be proud , 1 King. 21. 27. Ahab put on sackcloth , and fasted , and went softly , but his heart was not * humble : A man may bow his head like a bull-rush , yet lift up the Ensigns of Pride in his heart . 3. I distinguish between Humility and Policy ; many make a shew of Humility to work their own * ends : The Papists seem to be the most humble mortified Saints , but it is rather subtilty than humility ; for by this means they get the Revenues of the earth into their possession ; all this may be , and yet no godliness . Quest. How may a Christian know that he is humble , and consequently godly ? Answ. 1. An humble soul is emptied of all swelling thoughts of himself : Bernard calls Humility a Self-annihilation , Iob 22. 29. Thou wilt save the humble . In the Hebrew it is , Him that is of low * eyes . An humble man hath lower thoughts of himself than others can have of * him : David , though a King , yet looked upon himself as a worm , Psal. 22. 6. I am a worm , and no man. Bradford a Martyr , yet subscribes himself a sinner , Iob 10. 15. If I am righteous , I will not lift up my head : Like the Violet , a sweet flower , but hangs down the head . 2. An humble soul thinks better of others than of himself , Phil. 2. 3. Let each esteem others better than † themselves . An humble man values others at an higher rate than himself ; and the reason is , because he can better see his own heart than he can anothers ; he sees his own corruption , and thinks sure it is not so with others , their Graces are not so weak as his , their corruptions are not so strong ; sure ( thinks he ) they have better hearts than I : An humble Christian studies his own infirmities , and anothers exellencies , and that makes him put an higher value upon others than himself , Pro. 30. 2. Surely I am more bruitish than any man. And Paul , though he were the chief of the Apostles , yet he calls himself the least of Saints , Eph. 3. 8. 3. An humble soul hath a low esteem of his duties ; Pride is apt to breed in our holy things , as the worm breeds in the sweetest fruit , and forth comes from the most generous wine : An humble person doth not only deny his sins , but his duties ; when he hath prayed and wept , alas , saith he , how little have I done , God might damn me for all this ; he saith as good Nehemiah , Chap. 13. 22. Remember me O my God concerning this , and spare me . Remember Lord how I have poured out my soul , but spare me , and pardon me ; he sees that his best duties weigh many grains too light , therefore he desires Christs Merits may be put into the Scales : The humble Saint blusheth when he looks upon his Copy , he sees he cannot write even , nor without blotting ; this humbles him to think that his best duties run dregs ; he drops poyson upon his sacrifice : Oh , saith he , I dare not say I have prayed or wept , those which I write down for duties , God might write down for sins . 4. An humble man is ever preferring Bills of Indictment against himself ; he complains not of his condition , but his heart : O this evil heart of unbelief ! Lord ( saith Hooper ) I am hell , but thou art heaven . An hypocrite is ever telling how good he is ; an humble soul is ever saying how bad he is : Paul that high-flown Saint , who was caught up into the third heaven , how doth this bird of Paradise bemoan himself for his corruptions , Rom. 7. 24. O wretched man that I am , &c. Holy Bradford subscribes himself , the hard-hearted sinner : The more knowledge an humble Christian hath , the more he complains of ignorance ; the more Faith , the more he bewails his * unbelief . 5. An humble man will justifie God in an afflicted condition , Nehem. 9. 33. Howbeit thou art just in all that is brought upon us . If men oppress and calumniate , the humble soul acknowledgeth Gods righteousness in the midst of severity , 2 Sam. 24. 17. Lo , I have sinned : Lord , my pride , my barrenness , my Sermon-surfeiting hath been the procuring cause of all these judgements ; when Clouds are round about God , yet righteousness is the habitation of his Throne , Psa. 97. 2. 6. An humble soul is a Christ-Magnifier , Phil. 1. 20. he gives the glory of all his actions to Christ , and Free-grace : King Canutus took the Crown off his own head , and set it upon a Crucifix ; so an humble Saint takes the Crown of honour from his own head , and sets it upon Christs ; and the reason is , from that 〈◊〉 he bears to Christ ; Love can part with 〈…〉 to the object loved : Isaack loved 〈…〉 and he gave away his Jewels to † 〈…〉 humble Saint loves Christ intirely , therefore can part with any thing to him : he gives away the honour and praise of all he doth to Christ , let Christ wear those Jewels . 7. An humble soul is willing to take a reproof for sin ; a wicked man is too high to stoop to a reproof : The Prophet Micaiah used to tell King Ahab of his sin , and saith he , I hate him , 1 Kin. 22. 8. Reproof to a proud man , is like powring water on lime , which grows the more hot ; a gracious soul loves him that reproves , Pro. 9. 8. Rebuke a wise man , and he will love thee . The humble-spirited Christian can bear the reproach of an Enemy , and the reproof of a friend . 8. An humble man is willing to have his name and parts eclipsed , so Gods glory may be more encreased ; he is content to be out-shined by others in gifts and esteem , so that the Crown of Christ may shine the brighter : This is the humble mans Motto , Let me decrease , let Christ encrease : 'T is his desire that Christ should be exalted , and if this be effected , let who will be the instrument , he rejoyceth , Phil. 1. 15. Some preach Christ of envy ; They preached to get away some of Pauls hearers ; Well , saith he , Christ is preached , and I therein do rejoyce , ver ▪ 8. An humble Christian is content to be laid aside , if God hath any other tools to work with which may bring him more glory . 9. An humble Saint likes that condition which God sees best for him ; a proud man murmures he hath no more , an humble man wonders he hath so much , Gen. 32. 10. I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies : when the heart lies low , it can stoop to a low condition . A Christian looking upon his sins , wonders it is no worse with him , he doth not say his mercies are small , but his sins are great ; he knows the worst piece God carves him , is better than he deserves , therefore takes it thankfully upon his knees . 10. An humble Christian will stoop to the meanest person , and the lowest office , he will visit the poorest member of Christ : Lazarus his sores are more precious to him than Dives purple ; he doth not say , Stand by , come not neer to me , for I am holier than thou ; but , condiscends to men of low estate , Rom. 12. 16. Use 1. Is Humility the inseparable Character of a godly man , let us try our hearts by this Touch-stone : Are we humble ? alas , where doth their godliness appear , who are swelled with pride , and ready to † burst ? But though men are proud , they will not confess it : This Bastard of Pride is born , but none are willing to father it ; therefore let me ask a few questions , and let Conscience answer . 1 Are not they proud who are given to glorying ? 1 Cor. 5. 6. Your glorying is not good . 1 VVho glory in their riches ; their hearts swell with their estates . St. Bernard cals Pride the rich mans couzen . Ezek. 28. 5. Thy heart is lifted up because of thy riches . 2 VVho glory in their apparel . Many dress themselves in such fashions , as they make the devil fall in love with them ; Black-spots , gaudy attire , naked breasts , what are these , but the flags and banners which Pride doth display ? 3 VVho glory in their beauty . The body is but dust and blood kneaded together : Solomon saith , Beauty is vain , Prov. 31. 30. Yet so vain are some , as to be proud of vanity . 4 VVho glory in their gifts . These trappings and ornaments do not set them off in Gods eyes ; an Angel is a knowing creature , but take away humility from an Angel , and he is a devil . 2 Are not they proud who are highly opinionated of their own excellencies ? who beholding themselves in philautiae speculo , in the multiplying glass of self-love , appear in their own eyes better than they are : Simon Magus gave out , that himself was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , some great one , Act. 8. 9. Alexander would needs be son to Iupiter , and of the Race of the gods . Sapor King of Persia stiles himself Brother of the Sun and Moon . Projicit ampullas , & sesqui pedalia * verba . I have read of a Pope , who trod upon the neck of Frederick the Emperour , and as a Cloak for his pride , cited that Text , Psa. 91. 13. Thou shalt tread upon the Lyon , and the Dragon shalt thou trample under feet : No such Idol as Self ; the proud man bows down to this Idol . 3. Are not they proud who despise others ? Luke 18. 9. The Pharisees trusted in themselves that they were righteous , and despised † others . The people of the Chineses say , that Europe hath one eye , and they have two , and all the world else is blind : A proud man looks upon others with such an eye of scorn , as Goliah did upon David , 1 Sam. 17. 42. When the Philistim looked about , and saw David , he disdained him . They who stand upon the Pinacle of Pride , look upon other men no bigger than Crows . 4. Are not they proud who are the Trumpets of their own * praise ? Acts 5. 36. Before these days rose up Theudas , boasting himself to be some body . A proud man is the Herald of his own good deeds , he blazeth his own fame , and therein is his vice , to paint his own virtue . 5. Are not they proud who take the glory due to God , to themselves , Dan. 4. 30. Is not this great Babylon I have built ? So saith the proud man , are not these the Prayers I have made ? Are not these the works of Charity I have done ? When Herod had made an Oration , and the people cryed him up for a God , Act. 12. 22. he was well content to have that honor done to him : Pride is the greatest sacriledge , it robs God of his glory . 6. Are not they proud who are never pleased with their condition ? they speak hardly of God , taxing his care and wisdom , as if he had not dealt well with them . A proud man God himself cannot please , but like Momus , he is ever finding fault , and flying in the face of heaven . Oh let us search if there be none of this leven of pride in us : Man is Naturally a proud piece of flesh ; this sin runs in a bloud ; our first Parents fell by their Pride , they did aspire after a Deity ; there are the seeds of this in the best , but the godly do not allow themselves in it ; they labour to kill this weed by mortification . But certainly where this sin is regnant and prevailing , it cannot stand with grace ; you may as well call him a prudent man who wants discretion , as a godly man who wants humility . Use 2. Labour for this character ; be humble . 'T is an Apostolical Exhortation , 1 Pet. 5. 5. Be cloathed with humility . Put it on as an embroydered † robe : better want any thing than humility ; better want parts than humility , nay better want the comforts of the Spirit , than want humility . Micah 6. 8. What doth the Lord require of thee , but to walk humbly with thy * God ? 1. The more worth any man hath , the more humble he is . Feathers fly up , but Gold descends . The golden Saint descends in humility . Some of the Ancients have compared Humility to the Celidonian stone , which is little for substance , but of rare virtue . 2. God loves an humble soul. 'T is not our high birth , but our low hearts God delights in . An humble spirit is Gods prospect . Isa. 66. 2. To this man will I look , even to him that is poor , and of a contrite spirit ; an humble heart is Gods Palace , Isa. 57. 15. I dwell in the high and holy place , with him also that is of an humble spirit . Great Personages besides their houses of state , have lesser houses which upon occasion they retreat to . Besides Gods house of state in Heaven , he hath the humble soul for his retiring-house , where he takes up his rest , and doth solace himself . Let Italy boast that it is for pleasure the Garden of the world ; an humble heart glories in this , that it is the Presence-chamber of the Great King. 3. The Times we live in are humbling : The Lord seems to say to us now , as he did to Israel , Exod. 33. 5. Put off thy Ornaments from thee , that I may know what to do to thee . My displeasure is breaking forth , I have eclipsed the light of the Sanctuary , I have stained the waters with blood , I have shot the arrow of Pestilence , therefore lay down your Pride , put off your Ornaments . Woe to them that lift themselves up , when God is casting them down . When should a people be humble if not under the rod ? 1 Pet. 5. 6. Humble your selves under the mighty hand of God. When God afflicts his people , and cuts them short in their priviledges , 't is time then to sow sackcloath on their skin , and defile their horn ( or honour ) in the dust , Job 16. 15. 4. What an horrid sin Pride is ! St. Chrysostom calls it the mother of Hell. Pride is a complicated evil : as Aristotle saith , Justice comprehends all virtue in it ; so Pride comprehends all vice . 'T is a spiritual drunkenness ; it flies up as Wine into the brain , and intoxicates it . It is * idolatry ; a proud ma● is a self-worshipper , 'T is revenge ; Hama● plots Mordicaies death , because he would not bow the knee . How odious is this sin to † God! Prov. 16. 5. Every one that is proud in heart , is an abomination to the Lord. 5. The mischief of pride . It is the break-neck of * souls . Zeph. 2. 9 , 10. Surely Moab shall be as Sodom , &c. this shall they have for their pride . The Doves ( saith Pliny ) take a pride in their feathers , and in their flying high , at last they fly so high that they are a prey to the Hawk . Men fly so high in pride , that at last they are a prey to the Devil the Prince of the † aire . 6. Humility raiseth ones esteem in the eyes of others : All give respect to the humble , Prov. 15. 33. Before honour is * humility . Quest. What means may we use to be humble . Answ. 1. Let us set before us the golden pattern of Christ. He commenced Doctor ●n humility . Phil. 2. 7. But made himself of ●o reputation , and was made in the likeness of flesh . O what abasement was it for the Son of God to take our Flesh ! nay , that Christ ●hould take our Nature when it was in disgrace , being stained with sin , this was the wonder of humility . Look upon an humble Saviour , and let the plumes of Pride fall . 2 Study Gods Immensity and Purity : a sight of glory humbles . Elijah wrap'd his face in a Mantle when Gods glory passed before him , 1 King. 19. 13. The Stars vanish when the Sun appears . 3 Let us study our selves . First , our dark side : by looking our faces in the glass of the Word we see our † spots : what a world of sin swarms in us ! We may say as Bernard , Lord I am nothing but peccatum aut sterilitas , either sinfulness or barrenness . Secondly , Our light side . Is there any good in us ? 1 How disproportionable is it to the means of Grace we have enjoyed ! There is still something lacking in * our Faith , 1 Thess. 3. 10. O Christian be not proud of what thou hast , but be humble for what thou wantest . 2 The Grace we have is not of our ow● growth : We are beholding to Christ an● free Grace for it : as he said of that Ax● which fell in the water , 2 King. 6. 5. Al● master , for it was borrowed . So I may say 〈◊〉 all the good and excellency in us , it is bo●rowed . Were it not folly to be proud of Ring that is † lent ? 1 Cor. 4. 7. For 〈◊〉 maketh thee to differ from another ? and wh● hast thou , that thou didst not receive ? Th● Moon hath no cause to be proud of 〈◊〉 light , when she borrows it from the Sun. 3. How far short do we come of others ; perhaps other Christians are Gyants in Grace ; they are in Christ not only before us , but above * us . We are but as the foot in Christs Body , they are as the eye . 4. Our beauty is spotted : The Church is said to be fair as the Moon , Cant. 6. 10. which when it shines brightest hath a dark spot in it ; Faith is mixed with infidelity ; a Christian hath that in his very grace may humble him . 5. If we would be humble , let us contemplate our mortality : Shall dust exalt it † self ? The thoughts of the grave should bury our pride : They say when there is a Tympany in the body , the hand of a dead man stroaking that part , cures the Tympany : The serious meditation of death , is enough to cure the Tympany of Pride . SECT . XII . 12. A godly man is a praying man : This is in the Text , Every one that is godly shall pray unto thee . As soon as Grace is powred in ; prayer is powred out , Psa. 109. 4. But I give my self to prayer ; in the Hebrew it is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but I prayer : Prayer and I are all one ; Prayer is the Souls traffique with heaven ; God comes down to us by his Spirit , and we go up to him by prayer . Caligula placed his Effigies in the Capitol , whispering in Iupiters ear ; prayer whispers in Gods ear . A godly man cannot live without prayer : A man cannot live unless he takes his breath ; not can the Soul , unless it breathes forth its desires to God : As soon as the Babe of Grace is born it cryes ; no sooner was Paul converted , but , behold he prayeth , Act. 9. 11. No doubt he prayed before being a Pharisee , but it was either superficially , or superstitiously ; but when the work of Grace had passed upon his soul , behold , now , he prays : A godly man is every day upon the Mount of Prayer ; he begins the day with prayer , before he opens his shop , he opens his heart to * God. We use to burn sweet perfumes in our houses ; a godly mans house is domus aromatum , an house of perfume , he ayrs it with the incense of prayer ; he ingageth in no business without seeking God : Scipio never entred into the Senate House , but first he ascended the Capitol , where he did his † devotion : A godly man consults with God in every thing , he asks his leave , and his blessing : The Grecians asked counsel at their Oracles ; so doth a godly man enquire at the Divine Oracle , Gen. 24. 12. 1 Sam. 23. 3 , 4. A true Saint continually shoots up his heart to heaven by sacred ejaculations . Quest. Is Prayer a sign of a godly man , may not an hypocrite pray eloquently , and with seeming devotion ? Answ. He may , Isa. 58. 2. they seek me daily ; but an hypocrite doth not pray 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in the spirit , Eph. 6. 18. A man may have the gift of prayer , and not have the spirit of prayer . Quest. How shall we know that we have the Spirit of Prayer ? Answ. When the prayer which we make is spiritual . Quest. What is it to make a Spiritual Prayer ? Answ. 1. When we pray with knowledge ; under the Law , Aaron was to light the Lamps , when he burned the Incense upon the Altar , Exod. 30. 7. Incense did typifie prayer , and the lighting of the Lamps did typifie knowledge ; when the Incense of prayer burns , the Lamp of knowledge must be lighted , 1 Cor. 14. 15. I will pray with the understanding . We must know the Majesty and Holiness of God , that we may be deeply affected with reverence when we come before him ; we must put up such Petitions as are exactly adequate and agreeable to Gods will. Eccles. 5. 2. Be not rash with thy mouth , to utter any thing before God : The Lord would not have the blind offered to him , Mal. 1. 8. How can we pray with affection , when we do not pray with judgement ? The Papists pray in an unknown tongue ; Christ may reply to them as he did to the Mother of Zebedees Children , Mat. 20. 22. Ye ask ye know not what . He that prays he knows not how , shall be heard he knows not when . 2. A spiritual prayer is , when the heart and spirit pray ; there are not only words but * desires : 'T is excellent when a man can say , Lord , my heart prays , 1 Sam. 1. 13. Hannah prayed in her heart : The sound of a Trumpet comes from within ; and the excellent Musick of Prayer comes from within the † heart ; if the heart doth not go along in duty , it is speaking , not praying . 3. A spiritual Prayer is a fervent * Prayer , Iam. 5. 16. An effectual fervent prayer prevails much . The heart , like the Primum Mobile , should carry the affections in a most zealous and rapid manner ; fervency is the wing of Prayer , by which it ascends to heaven ; Prayer is expressed by sighs and groans , Rom. 8. 26. It is not so much the gifts of the spirit , as the groans of the spirit God likes : Prayer is called a wrestling , Gen. 32. 24. and a powring out of the Soul , 1 Sam. 1. 15. Prayer is compared to Incense , Psa. 141. 2. Incense without fire makes no sweet smell ; Prayer without fervency , is like Incense without fire : Christ prayed with strong cryes and tears , Heb. 5. 7. crying Prayer † prevails : When the heart is inflamed in Prayer , a Christian is carried as it were in a Fiery Chariot up to heaven . 4. A Spiritual Prayer is such as comes from a broken heart , Psa. 51. 17. The Sacrifices of God are a broken spirit . The Incense was to be beaten , to typifie the breaking of the heart in Prayer : 'T is not the voluble tongue , but the melting heart God accepts : Oh saith a Christian , I cannot pray as others ; as Moses said to the Lord , I am not eloquent : But canst thou weep and sigh ? Doth thy soul melt out at thy eyes ? God accepts broken expressions , when they come from broken hearts . I have read of a Plant that bears no fruit , but it weeps forth a kind of Gum which is very costly : So , though thou dost not flourish with those gifts and expressions as others , yet if thou canst weep forth tears from a contrite heart , these are exceeding precious to God , and he will put them in his bottle ▪ Iacob wept in prayer , and had power ever the Angel , Hos. 12. 4. 5. A spiritual Prayer is a believing Prayer , Mat. 21. 22. Whatever ye shall ask in prayer believing , ye shall receive : The reason why so many Prayers suffer shipwrack , is because they split against the Rock of unbelief ; Praying without Faith , is shooting without * bullets : When Faith takes Prayer by the hand , then we draw neer to God ; we should come to God in Prayer ; as the Leper , Mat. 8. 2. Lord if thou wilt , thou canst heal † me : 'T is a disparagement to Deity , to have such a whisper in the heart , that Gods ear is heavy , and cannot * hear : What is said of the people of Israel , may be applyed to Prayer , It could not enter in , because of † unbelief . 6. A Spiritual Prayer is an holy Prayer , 1 Tim. 2. 8. Wherefore lift up pure hands : Prayer must be offered upon the Altar of a pure heart ; sin lived in , makes the heart hard , and Gods ear deaf ; sin stops the mouth of Prayer , it doth as the Thief to the Traveller , puts a Gagg in his mouth , that he cannot speak ; sin poysons and infects prayer : A wicked mans prayer is sick of the Plague , and will God come neer him ? The Loadstone loseth its virtue , when it is bespread with Garlick : so doth prayer , when it is polluted with sin , Psa 66. 18. If I regard iniquity in my heart , the Lord will not hear me . 'T is foolish to pray against sin , and then to sin against prayer ; a spiritual prayer , like the spirits of Wine , must be refined , and taken off the Lees and dregs of sin , Mal. 3. 3. That they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness : If the heart be holy , this Altar will sanctifie the gift . 7. A spiritual prayer is an humble prayer , Psa. 10. 17. Lord thou hast heard the desire of the humble . Prayer is the asking of an Alms , which requires humility , Luke 18. 13. The Publican standing afar off , would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven , but smote upon his breast , saying , God be merciful to me a * sinner . Gods incomprehensible glory may even amaze us , and strike an holy consternation into us when we approach nigh to him , Ezra 9. 6. O my God I blush to lift up my face to thee : 'T is comely to see a poor nothing lye prostrate at the feet of its Maker , Gen. 18. 27. Behold , I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord , which am but dust and ashes . The lower the heart descends , the higher the prayer ascends . 8. A spiritual prayer is when we pray in the name of Christ : To pray in the name of Christ , is not only to name Christ in prayer , but to pray in the hope and confidence of Christs mediation : as a Childe claims his Estate in the right of his Father who purchased it , so we come for mercy in Christs Name , who hath purchased it for us in his bloud ; unless we pray thus , we do not pray at all , nay , we rather provoke God ; as it was with Uzziah , when he would offer Incense without a Priest , God was angry , and struck him with Leprosie , 2 Chron. 26. 16. So when we do not come in Christs Name in prayer , we offer up Incense without a Priest , and what can we expect but to meet with wrath ? 9. A spiritual prayer is when we pray out of love to prayer ; A wicked man may pray , but he doth not love prayer , Iob 27. 10. Will he delight himself in the Almighty ? A godly man is carried upon the wings of delight ; he is never so well as when he is praying ; he is not forced with fear , but fired with love , Isa. 56. 7. I will make them joyful in my house of prayer . 10. A spiritual prayer is , when we have spiritual ends in prayer : There is a vast difference between a spiritual prayer , and a carnal desire ; the ends of an Hypocrite are secular and carnal ; he looks asquint in prayer ; it is not the sense of his spiritual wants that moves him , but rather lust , Iam. 4. 3. Ye ask amiss , that ye may consume it upon your lusts . The sinner prays more for food than Grace ; this God doth not interpret praying , but howling , Hosea 7. 14. They howled upon their beds , they assemble for corn and wine . — Da modo lucra mihi . — Prayers which want a good aim , want a good answer : A godly man hath spiritual ends in prayer ; he sends out his prayer , as a Merchant sends out his Ship , that he may have large returns of spiritual blessings ; his design in prayer is , that his heart may be more holy , and that he may have more communion with God : A godly man drives the Trade of prayer , that he may encrease the stock of Grace . 11. A spiritual prayer is accompanied with the use of means ; there must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : When Hezekiah was sick , he did not only pray for recovery , but he laid a lump of figs to the boyl , Isa. 38. 21. Thus it is in case of the soul , when we pray against sin , and avoid temptations ; when we pray for Grace , and improve opportunities , this is the laying a fig to the boil , which wil make us recover : To pray for holiness , and neglect the means , is like winding up the Clock , and pulling off the weights . 12. A spiritual prayer is that which leaves a spiritual frame behind upon the heart ; a Christian is better after prayer , he hath gotten more strength over sin , as a man by exercise gets strength : The heart after prayer keeps a tincture of holiness , as the Vessel savours and relisheth of the Wine that is put into it . Moses having been with God on the Mount , his face shined ; so having been on the Mount of prayer , our Graces shine , and our lives shine : This is the sign of a godly man , he prays in the spirit : This is the right kind of praying ; the gift of prayer is ordinary , like Culinary fire ; but spiritual prayer is more rare and excellent , like Elementary fire which comes from heaven . Use 1. Is a godly man of a praying spirit ? then this excludes them from being godly , 1. Who pray not at all : Their houses are unhallowed houses ; 't is made the note of a Reprobate , he calls not upon God , Psal. 14. 4. Doth that indigent creature think to have an Alms who never asks it ? Do they think to have mercy from God who never seek it ? Truly then God should befriend them more than he did his own Son ; he offered up prayers and supplications with strong cryes , Heb. 5. 7. None of Gods Children are tongue tyed , Gal. 4. 6. Because ye are sons , God hath sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts crying Abba Father . Creatures by the instinct of Nature cry to God , Psal. 147. 9. The young Ravens which cry : Psal. 104. 21. The Lyons seek their meat from God : Not to cry to God , is worse than bruitish . 2. Others pray , but it is seldome ; like that prophane Atheist Heylin speaks of , who told God he was no common begger , he never troubled him before , and if he would hear him now , he would never trouble him again . 3. Others pray , but not in the Holy Ghost , Iude 20. They are rather Parrots , than weeping Doves ; their hearts do not melt in prayer ; they exercise their invention more then their affection . Use 2. As you would evidence the New-birth , cry Abba Father ; be men of prayer ; pray at least twice a day : In the Temple there was the Morning and Evening Sacrifice : Daniel prayed three times a day ; nay , so did he love prayer , that he would not neglect prayer to save his life , Dan. 6. 10. Luther spent three hours every day in prayer . Object . But what needs prayer , when God hath made so many promises of blessings ? Answ. Prayer is the condition annexed to the Promise : Promises turn upon the hinge of prayer , Ezek. 36. 37. I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel . A King promiseth a pardon , but it must be sued out . David had a promise that God would build him an house , but he sues out the promise by prayer , 2 Sam. 7. 25. Christ himself had all the promises made sure to him , yet he prayed , and spent whole nights in prayer . Therefore if you would be counted godly , be given to * Prayer : Prayer sanctifies your mercies , 1 Tim. 4. 5. prayer weeds out sin , and waters Grace . That I may encourage Christians , and hold up their heads in prayer , as Aaron and Hur held up Moses hands , let me propound these few considerations . 1. Prayer is a seed sown in Gods ears ; other seed sown in the ground may be picked up by the Birds , but this seed ( especially if watred with tears ) is too precious to be lost . 2. Consider the power of prayer : The Apostle having set down the whole Armour of a Christian , brings in prayer as the chief part , Eph. 6. 18. Without this ( saith Zanchy ) all the rest are little † worth : By prayer Moses divided the Red Sea ; Ioshua stop'd the course of the Sun , and made it stand still , Iosh. 10. 13. Nay , prayer made the Sun of Righteousness stand still , Luke 18. 40. And Iesus stood still . Prayer is the in-let to all blessings , spiritual and temporal . When Aurelius Antonius went against the Germans , he had in his Army a Regiment of Christians , who upon their earnest prayer , obtained Rain for the refreshment of his Army ; and because of the power of their prayers , he called them the Thundering Regiment . Prayer hath a power in it to destroy the insolent Enemies of the Church . We read , the two Witnesses have a flame at their lips ; fire proceeds out of their mouths which devoures their Enemies , Rev. 11. 5. This fire is certainly to be interpreted of their * prayers : David prayed , Lord turn the counsel of Achitophel into foolishness , 2 Sam. 15. 31. This prayer made Achitophel hang himself . Moses prayer against Amalek did more than Ioshua's Sword : Prayer hath a kind of Omnipotency in it , it hath raised the dead , overcome Angels , cast out Devils ; it hath influence upon God † himself : Iacobs prayer held God ▪ Gen. 32. 26. I will not let thee go till thou bless * me . Prayer finds God free , but leaves him bound . 3 , Jesus Christ prays over our prayers again ; he takes the dross out , and presents nothing but pure gold to his Father . Christ mingles his sweet odours with the prayers of the Saints , Rev. 5. 8. Think of the dignity of his person , he is God ; and the sweetness of his Relation , he is a Son : Oh then what encouragement is here for us to pray ! Our prayers are put in the hand of a Mediator ; though as they come from us they are weak and imperfect , yet as they come from Christ , they are mighty and powerful . 4. The sweet promises which God hath made to prayer , Isa. 30. 19. He will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry , Ier. 29. 13 , 14. Then shall ye go and pray unto me , and I will hearken unto you ; and ye shall seek me , and find me , when ye shall search for me with all your heart . And Isaiah 65. 24. Before they call , I will answer , and while they are yet speaking , I will hear . These promises keep the head of prayer above water ; God is bound with his own promises , as Sampson was bound with his own hair . Let us then double our files , and with our Saviour , pray yet more earnestly , Luke 22. 44. Let us be importunate Suitors , and resolve with S. Bernard , that we will not come away from God without * God : prayer is a Petarr , which will make heaven gates fly open . Quest. How shall we do to pray aright ? Answ. Implore the Spirit of God , Iude 20. Praying in the Holy Ghost . The Holy Ghost both Indights prayer , and inflames it : God understands no other language but that of his spirit ; pray for the Holy Ghost , that you may pray in the Holy Ghost . SECT . XIII . 13. A godly man is a sincere man , Iohn 1. 47. Behold an Israelite indeed , in whose spirit there is no guile . The word for sincere , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies sine plicis , without pleats and folds : A godly man is plain-hearted , having no subtil subterfuges ; Religion is the Livery a godly man wears , and this Livery is lined with Sincerity . Quest. Wherein doth the godly mans Sincerity appear ? Answ. 1. The godly man is that which he seems to be ; he is a Iew inwardly , Rom. 2. 29. Grace runs through his heart , as silver through the veins of the earth : The hypocrite is not what he seems . — Fronte positus , Astutam vapido servans sub pectore vulpem . A picture is like a man , but it wants breath : The Hypocrite is an Effigies , a picture , he doth not breathe forth Sanctity ; he is but like an Angel on a Sign-post : A godly man answers to his profession , as the Transcript to the Original . 2. The godly man labours to approve himself to God in every thing , 2 Cor. 5. 9. We labour that whether present or absent , we may be accepted of him . 'T is better to have God approve , than the world applaud : They that did run in the Olympick Race , laboured to have his approbation , who was the Judge and Umpire of the Race : There is a time shortly coming , when a smile from Gods face will be infinitely better than all the applauses of men : How sweet will that word be , Euge bone serve , Well done thou good and faithful servant , Mat. 25. 21. A godly man is ambitious of Gods Letters-Testimonial ; the hypocrite desires to carry it fair with men : Saul was for the vogue of the people , 1 Sam. 15. 30. A godly man approves his heart to God , who is both the Spectator and the Judge . 3. The godly man is ingenuous in laying open of his sins , Psa. 32. 5. 1 confessed my sin to thee , and my iniquity have I not hid . The hypocrite doth vail and smother his sin ; he doth not abscindere peccatum , but abscondere ; like a Patient that hath some loathsome disease in his body , he will rather die than confess his disease : But a godly mans sincerity is seen in this , he will confess and shame himself for sin , 2 Sam. 24. 17. Lo I have sinned , and I have done wickedly : Nay , a Childe of God will confess sin in particular ; an unsound Christian will confess sin by wholesale , he will acknowledge he is a sinner in general ; whereas David doth as it were point with his finger to the sore , Psal. 51. 4. I have done this evil : He doth not say , I have done evil , but this evil ; he points at his bloud-guiltiness . 4. The godly man hath blessed designs in all he doth ; he propounds this end in every Ordinance , that he may have more acquaintance with God , and bring more glory to God ; as the herb Heliotropium turns about according to the motion of the Sun ; so a godly mans actions do all move towards the glory of God : It is an axiom in Phylosophy , The means are in order to the * end . A godly mans praying and worshipping is , that he may honor God ; though he shoots short , yet he takes a right aim ; the hypocrite minds nothing but self-interest , the sails of his Mill move not , but when the wind of preferment blows ; he never dives into the waters of the Sanctuary , but to fetch up a piece of gold at the bottom . 5. The godly man abhors dissimulation towards men , his heart goes along with his * tongue , he cannot flatter and † hate , commend and censure , Rom. 12. 9. Let love be without dissimulation . Dissembled love is worse than hatred ; counterfeiting of friendship is no better than a * lye , for there is a pretence of that which is not : Many are like Ioab , 2 Sam. 20. 9. He took Amasa by the beard to kiss him , and smote him with his sword in the fifth rib , and he † died . — Impia sub dulci melle venena latent . — There is a River in Spain , where the fish seem to be of a golden colour , but take them out of the water , and they are like other fish : All is not gold that glisters ; there are some pretend much kindness , but they are like great veins which have little bloud ; if you lean upon them , they are as a Leg out of joynt : For my part I much question his truth towards God , that will flatter and lie to his friend , Pro. 10. 18. He that hideth hatred with lying lips is a fool . By all that hath been said , we may try whether we have this note of a godly man , to be sincere . Sincerity ( as I conceive ) is not properly ● grace , but rather the ingredient into every grace : Sincerity is that which doth qualifie grace , and without which grace is not true , Eph. 6. ult . Grace be with them , which love our Lord Iesus Christ in sincerity : Sincerity qualifies our love ; sincerity is to grace , as the bloud and spirits are to the body ; there can be no life without the bloud , so no grace without sincerity . Use. As we would be reputed godly , let us labour for this Character of sincerity . 1. Sincerity renders us lovely in Gods eyes ; God saith of the sincere soul as of Sion , Psal. 132. 14. This is my rest for ever , here will I dwell , for I have desired it : A sincere heart is Gods Paradise of * delight : Noah found grace in Gods eyes : Why , what did God see in Noah ? he was girt with the girdle of sincerity , Gen. 6. 9. Noah was perfect in his Generation . Truth resembles God , and when God sees a sincere heart , he sees his own Image , and he cannot chuse but fall in love with it , Pro. 11. 20. He that is upright in his way , is Gods delight . 2. Sincerity makes our services find acceptance with God ; the Church of Philadelphia had but a little † strength ; her grace was weak , her services slender , yet of all the Churches Christ wrote to , he found the least fault with her : What was the reason ? because she was most sincere , Rev. 3. 8. Thou hast kept fast my word , and hast not denied my Name . Though we cannot pay God all we owe , yet a little in currant Coyn is accepted ; God takes sincerity for full payment : A little gold , though rusty , is better than Alchimy be it never so bright ; a little sincerity , though rusted over with many infirmities , is of more value with God , than all the glorious flourishes of hypocrites . 3. Sincerity is our safety ; false hearts that will step out of Gods way , and use carnal policy , when they think to be most safe , they are least secure ; he that walketh purely , walketh surely , Pro. 10. 9. A sincere Christian will do nothing but what the word warrants , and that is safe , as to the Conscience : Nay , oftentimes such as are upright in their way , the Lord takes care of their outward safety , Psal. 4. I laid me down and slept . David was now beleaguer'd with Enemies , yet God did so incamp about him by his Providence , that he could sleep securely as in a Garrison : Ver. 5. The Lord sustained me : The only way to be safe , is to be sincere . 4. Sincerity is Gospel perfection , Iob 1. 8. Hast thou considered my servant Job , that there is none like him in the earth , a perfect , and an upright man. Though a Christian be full of infirmities , and like a Childe that is put out to Nurse , weak and feeble , yet God looks upon him , as if he were compleatly righteous : Every true Saint hath the Thummim of perfection upon his breast-plate . 5. Sincerity is that which the Devil strikes most at : Satans spite was not so much at Iobs Estate , as his integrity ; he would have wrested the Shield of Sincerity from him , but Iob held that fast , Iob 27. 6. A Thief doth not fight for an empty purse , but for money : The devil would have robbed Iob of the Jewel of a good Conscience , and then he had been poor Iob indeed : Satan doth not oppose Profession , but Sincerity : Let men go to Church , and make glorious pretences of holiness , Satan doth not oppose this ; this doth him no hurt , nor them no good ; but if men will be sincerely pious , then Satan musters up all his forces against them : Now that which the Devil doth most assault , we must labour most to maintain : Sincerity is our Fort-Royal , where our chief treasure lies ; this Fort is most shot at , therefore let us be more careful to preserve it : While a man keeps his Castle , his Castle will keep him : While we keep Sincerity , Sincerity will keep us . 6. Sincerity is the beauty of a Christian , wherein lies the beauty of a Diamond , but in this , that it is a true Diamond ? If it be counterfeit , it is worth nothing : So wherein lies the beauty of a Christian , but in this , that he hath truth in the inward * parts : Sincerity is a Christians Ensign of glory ; 't is both his Breast-plate to defend him , and his Crown to adorn him . 7. The vileness of hypocrisie : The Lord would have no leven offered up in Sacrifice ; leven did typifie hypocrisie , Luke 12. 1. The hypocrite doth the devil double service , under the Vizor of Piety , he can sin more , and be less † suspected , Mat. 23. 14. W● unto you Scribes and Pharisees , hypocrites , for ye devoure Widows houses , and for a pretence , make long prayers : Who would think they were guilty of Extortion , that would pray so many hours together ? Who would suspect him of false weights , that hath the Bible so often in his hand ? Who would think he would slander , that seems to fear an oath ? Hypocrites are the worst sort of sinners , they reflect infinite dishonor upon Religion ; hypocrisie for the most part ends in scandal , and that brings an evil report upon the ways of God ; one man breaking , makes such as are honest suspected ; one scandalous hypocrite , makes the world suspect that all Professors are so ; the hypocrite was born to do Religion a spite , and to bring it into an odium . The hypocrite is a lyer , he worships God with his knee , and his lusts with his heart ; like those 2 Kin. 17. 33. They feared the Lord , and served their own gods . The hypocrite is an impudent sinner , he knows his heart is false , yet he goes on : Iudas knew himself to be an hypocrite ; he asks , Master is it I ? Christ replies , Thou hast said it ? Yet so shameless was he as to persist in his falseness , and betray Christ : All the plagues and curses written in the Book of God , are the hypocrites portion , Hell is his place of Randezvous , Mat. 24. 51. Hypocrites are the chief guests the Devil expects , and he will make them as welcome , as fire and brimstone can make them . 8. If the heart be sincere , God will wink at many failings , Numb . 23. 21. He hath not seen iniquity in Iacob . Gods love doth not make him blind , he can see infirmities , but how ? not with an eye of revenge , but pitty , as a Physitian sees a disease in his Patient to heal him : God doth not see iniquity in Iacob , so as to destroy him , but to heal him , Isa. 57. 18. He went on frowardly , I have seen his ways , and I will heal him : How much pride , vanity , passion , doth the Lord pass by in his sincere ones ! He sees the integrity , and pardons the infirmity : How much did God overlook in Asa ! the high-places were not removed : Yet it is said , 2 Chron. 15. 17. The heart of Asa was perfect all his days . We esteem of a picture , though it be not drawn at the full length : So though the graces of Gods people are not drawn at their full length , nay , have many scars and spots , yet having something of God in sincerity , they shall find mercy ; God loves the sincere , and 't is the nature of love to cover * infirmity . 9. Nothing but sincerity will give us comfort in an houre of trouble : King Hezekiah thought he had been dying , yet this revived him , that Conscience drew up a Certificate for him , Isa. 38. 2. Remember O Lord , how I have walked before thee in truth , &c. Sincerity was the best flower of his Crown : What a golden Shield will this be against Satan , when he shall roar upon us by his temptations , and set our sins before us on our Death-bed , then we shall answer , 'T is true Satan , these have been our miscarriages , but we have bewailed them ; if we have sinned , it was against the bent and purpose of our heart ; this will stop the Devils mouth , and put him to a retreat ; therefore labour for this Jewel of Sincerity , 1 Ioh. 3. 24. If our heart condemn us not , then we have confidence towards God : If we are cleared at the Petty Sessions in our own Conscience , then we may be confident , we shall be acquitted at the Great Assizes at the day of Judgement . SECT . XIV . 14. A godly man is an heavenly man ; Heaven is in him , before he is in Heaven ; the Greek word for Saint , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , signifies a man taken off from the earth : a person may live in one place , yet belong to another ; he may live in Spain , yet be a free Denizon of England ; Pomponius dwelt at Athens , yet was a Citizen of Rome : So a godly man is a while in the * world , but he belongs to the Hierusalem † above ; that is the place to which he aspires ; every day is Ascension day with a Believer : The Saints are called Stars , for their sublimeness ; they are gotten above into the upper Region , Pro. 15. 24. The way of life is above to the wise : A godly man is Heavenly six ways . 1. In his Election . 2. In his Disposition . 3. In his Communication . 4. In his Operation . 5. In his Expectation . 6. In his Conversation . 1. A godly man is heavenly in his Election ; he chuseth heavenly objects : David did chuse to be a Residentiary in Gods house , Psa. 84. 10. A godly person chuseth Christ and grace , before the most illustrious things under the Sun : That a man is that his choice is ; and this chusing of God is best seen in a critical houre : When Christ and the World come in competition , and we part with the world to keep Christ and a good Conscience , a sign we have chosen the better * part . 2. A godly man is heavenly in his Disposition ; he sets his affections on things above , Col. 3. 2. He sends his heart to heaven before he comes there ; he looks upon the world , but as a beautiful prison , and he cannot be much in love with his Fetters , though they are made of gold : An holy person contemplates glory and Eternity ; his defires have gotten wings , and are fled to heaven : Grace is in the heart like fire , which makes it sparkle upwards in Divine breathings and ejaculations . 3. A godly man is heavenly in his Communication , his words are powdred with salt to season others , Col. 4. 6. As soon as Christ was risen from the grave , he was speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdome of God , Act. 1. 3. No sooner is a man risen out of the grave of Unregeneracy , but he is speaking of heaven , Eccles. 10. 12. The words of a wise mans mouth are gracious : He speaks so heavenly , as if he had been already in heaven ; the love he bears to God , will not suffer him to be silent ; the Spouse being sick of love , her tongue was as the pen of a ready writer , Cant. 5. 10. My beloved is white and ruddy , his head is of fine gold , &c. If Wine be in the house , the Bush will be hung forth , and where there is a principle of godliness in the heart , it will vent it self at the lips ; the Bush will be hung forth . How can they be termed godly , 1. Who are possessed with a dumb devil ? They never have any good discourse ; they are fluent and discoursive enough in secular things ; they can speak of their wares and drugs , they can tell what a good crop they have , but in matters of Religion they are as if their tongue did cleave to the roof of their mouth : There are many persons , if you come into their company , you cannot tell what to make of them , whether they are Turks or Atheists , for they never speak a word of Christ. 2. Whose tongues are set on fire of Hell : Their lips do not drop honey but poyson , to the defiling of others . Plutarch saith , speech ought to be like gold , which is then of most value , when it hath least dross in it : O the unclean malicious words that some persons utter ! What an unsavoury stench comes from these dunghils ; those lips had need have Davids * Bridle , that gallop so fast in sin : Can the body be healthful when the tongue is black ? Can the heart be holy when the devil is in the lips ? A godly man speaks the language of Canaan , Mal. 3. 16. They that feared the Lord , spake often one to another . 4. A godly man is heavenly in his Operation . The motions of the Planets are Caelestial : A godly man is sublime and sacred in his motions , he works out salvation , he puts forth all his strength , as they did in the Olympicks , that he may obtain the Garland made of the Flowers of Paradise ; he prays , fasts , watcheth , he offers violence to heaven , he is divinely acted , he carries on Gods Interest in the world , he doth Angels work , he is in his Operations Seraphical . 5. A godly man is heavenly in his Expectation ; his hopes are above the † world , Tit. 1. 2. In hope of eternal life : A godly man casts Anchor within the * vail ; he hopes to have his fetters of sin filed off ; he hopes for such things as eye hath not seen ; he hopes for a Kingdome when he dies ; a Kingdome promised by the Father , purchased by the Son , assured by the Holy Ghost ; as an Heir lives in hope when such a great Estate shall befall him , so a Childe of God , who is a Co-heir with Christ , hopes for glory : This hope comforts him in all varieties of condition , Rom. 5. 2. We rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God. 1. This hope comforts a godly man in affliction ; hope doth lighten and sweeten the most severe Dispensations : A Childe of God can laugh with tears in his eyes ; the time is shortly coming , when the Cross shall be taken off his shoulders , and a Crown set upon his head : A Saint at present is miserable , with a thousand troubles , in an instant , cloathed with Robes of Immortality , and advanced above Seraphims . 2. This hope comforts a godly man in death , Pro. 14. 32. The righteous hath hope in his death : If one should ask a dying Saint , when all his earthly comforts were gone , what he had left ? he would say , the Helmet of Hope . I have read of a Martyr Woman , who when the Persecutor commanded that her breasts should be cut off , she said , Tyrant do thy worst , I have two breasts which thou canst not touch , the one of Faith , the other of Hope . A soul that hath this blessed hope , is above the desire of life , or the fear of death : Would one be troubled to exchange a sorry Lease for an Inheritance that will be for him and his Heirs ? Who would care to part with life , which is a Lease will soon be run out , to be possessed of a glorious Inheritance in light ? 6. A godly man is heavenly in his Conversation ; he casts such a lustre of Holiness , as adorns his Profession ; he lives as if he had seen the Lord with bodily eyes ; what zeal , sanctity , humility , shines forth in his life : A godly person doth emulate not only the Angels , but imitate Christ himself , 1 Iohn 2. 6. The Macedonians celebrate the Birth-day of Alexander , on which day they wear his picture about their necks , set with Pearl and rich Jewels ; so a godly man carries the lively picture of Christ about him , in the heavenliness of his deportment , Phil. 3. 20. Our conversation is in heaven . Use 1. They must needs be cast over the Bar for ungodly , who are eaten up with the world ; godly and earthly is a contradiction , Phil. 3. 18 , 19. For many walk , of whom I now tell you even weeping , that they are the Enemies of the Cross of Christ , whose god is their belly , who mind earthly things . We read the earth swallowed up Korah alive , Numb . 16. 32. This Judgement is on many , the earth swallows up their time , and thoughts , and discourse , they are buried twice ; their hearts are buried in the earth before their bodies : How sad is it that the soul , that Princely thing , which is made for Communion with God and Angels , should be put to the Mill to grinde , and made Mancipium terrae , a slave to the earth ? How is the soul become like the Prodigal , chusing rather to converse with swine , and feed upon husks , than to aspire after Communion with the blessed Deity ? Thus doth Satan befool men , and keep them from heaven , by making them seek an heaven here . Use 2. As we would evidence our selves to be born of God , let us be of a sublime heavenly temper : We shall never go to heaven when we die , unless we are in heaven whilest we live : That we may be more Noble , and raised in our affections , let us seriously weigh these four considerations . 1. God himself sounds a retreat to us , to call us off the world , 1 Iohn 2. 15. Love not the world : We may use it as a posie of flowers to smell to , but it must not lie as a bundle of myrrhe betwixt our breasts , Rom. 12. 2. Be ye not conformed to this world ; do not hunt after the honors and profits of it , and as Gods Precepts , so his Providences , are to beat us off the world : Why doth he send War and Pestilence ? What means the heat of this great anger ? Surely dying times are to make men die to the world . 2. Consider how much below a Christian it is to be earthly-minded : We laugh sometimes at Children when we see them busying themselves about toys , blowing bubbles in the ayr out of a shell , kissing their Babies , &c. when in the mean time we do the same ; at death what will all the world be which we so hug and kiss , but as a Baby of Clouts , it will yield us no more comfort then ; and to be taken up with these things , how far is it below an heaven-born soul ! nay , for such as profess to be enobled with a principle of Piety , and to have their hopes above , for them to have their hearts below , how do they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 disparage their Heavenly Calling , and spot their silver wings of Grace , by beliming them with earth ? 3. Consider what a poor contemptible thing the world is , it is not worth setting the affections on , it cannot fill the heart ; if Satan should take a Christian up to the Mount of Temptation , and show him all the Kingdomes and glory of the world , what could he show him but a phancy , an apparition ? Nothing here can be proportionable to the immense soul of man , Iob 20. 22. In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in streights : Here is want in plenty ; the creature will no more fill the soul , than a drop will fill the bucket ; and that little sweet we suck from the creature , is intermixed with some bitterness , like that Cup which the Jews gave Christ , Mar. 15. 23. They gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrhe . And this imperfect sweet will not last long , 1 Iohn 2. 17. The world passeth away . The creature doth but salute us , and is presently upon the * wing ▪ The world rings Changes , it is never constant but in its disappointments ; how quickly may we remove our lodgings , and make our pillow in the dust ? The world is but a great Inne , where we are to stay a night or two , and be gone ; what madness is it so to set our heart upon our Inne , as to forget our home ? 4. Consider what a glorious place heaven is : We read of an Angel coming down from heaven , who did tread with his right foot on the Sea , and with his left foot on the earth , Revel . 10. 2. Had we but once been in heaven , and viewed the superlative glory of it , how might we in an holy scorn trample with one foot upon the earth , and with the other foot upon the Sea : Heaven is called a better Country , Heb. 11. 16. But now they desire a better Country , that is an heavenly : Heaven is said to be a better Country , in opposition to the Country where we now sojourn : What should we mind but that better * Country . Quest. In what sense is heaven a better Country ? Answ. 1. In that Country above there are better delights ; there is the Tree of Life , the Rivers of Pleasure ; there is amazing beauty , unsearchable riches ; there are the delights of Angels ; there is the Flower of Joy fully blown ; there is more than we can ask or † think ; there is glory in its full dimensions , and beyond all hyperbole . 2. In that Country there is a better dwelling house : 1. It is an house not made with hands , 2 Cor. 5. 1. To denote the excellency of it : There was never any house but was made with hands ; but the house above surpasseth the art of man or Angel , none besides God could lay a stone in that building . 2. It is eternal in the heavens ; it is not a sojourning house , but a Mansion-house , it is an house will never be out of repair , Wisdome hath built this house , and hewn out her seven * Pillars , which can never moulder . 3. In that Country there are better provisions , in our Fathers house is bread enough : Heaven was typified by Canaan , which did flow with milk and honey : There is the Royal Feast , the spiced Wine , there is Angels food , there are those rare viands and dainties served in , as exceed not only our expressions , but our faith . 4. In that Country is better Society : There is God blessed for ever : How infinitely sweet and ravishing will a smile of his face be ? the Kings presence makes the Court : There are the glorious Cherubims ; in this terrestrial Country where we now live , we are among Wolves and Serpents ; in that Country above , we shall be among Angels : There are the spirits of just men made perfect , Heb. 12. 23. Here the people of God are clouded with infirmities , we see them with spots in their faces , they are full of pride , passion , censoriousness ; in that Hierusalem above , we shall see them in their Royal attire , deck'd with unparallell'd beauty , not having the least tincture or shadow of sin upon them . 5. In that Country there is a better ayr to breathe in : We go into the Country for ayr ; the best ayr is only to be had in that better Country , 1. It is a more temperate ayr , the Climate is calm and moderate , we shall neither freeze with the cold , nor faint with the heat ; 2. It is a brighter ayr , there is a better light shines there : The Sun of Righteousness enlightens that Horison with his glorious beams , Rev. 21. 23. The Lamb is the light thereof . 3. It is a purer ayr : The Fens , which are full of black vapours , we count a bad ayr , and unwholesome to live in : This world is a place of Bogs and Fens , where the noxious vapours of sin arise , which make it pestilential and unwholesome to live in , but in that Country above , there are none of these vapours , but a sweet perfume of holiness ; there is the smell of the Orange-tree , and the Pomgranate ; there is the Myrrhe and Cassia coming from Christ , which send forth a most odoriferous smell . 6. In that Country there is a better soil ; the Land or Soil is better 1. For its altitude ; the earth lying low , is of a baser pedigree ; the Element , which is neerest heaven , is purer and more excellent , as the fire ; that Country above is the High Country , Psal. 24. 3. it is seated far above all the visible Orbs. 2. It is a better Land for its fertilness , it bear a richer Crop : The richest Harvest on earth is the golden Harvest , but the Country above yields Nobier Commodities , there are Pearls Caelestial , there is the Spiritual Vine , there is the honey-comb of Gods love dropping , there is the Water of Life , the hidden Manna ; there is fruit that doth not rot , flowers that never fade ; there is a Crop which cannot be quite reaped , it will be ever reaping time in heaven , and all this the Land yields , without the labour of ploughing and sowing . 3. It is a better Land for its inoffensiveness : There are no bryars there ; the World is a Wilderness where are wicked men , and the best of them is a bryar , Mica 7. 4. They will be tearing the people of God in their spiritual Liberties ; but in the Country above there is not one bryar to be seen , all the bryars are burned . 4. It is a better Land for the rareness of the prospect ; all that a man sees there is his own : I account that the best prospect , where a man can see furthest on his own ground . 7. In that Country is better union ; all the Inhabitants are knit together in love : The poysonful weed of malice doth not grow there ; there is harmony without division , and charity without envy : In that Country above , as in Solomons Temple , no noyse of Hammer is heard . 8. In that Country is better imployment ; while we are here we are complaining of our wants , weeping over our sins , but there we shall be praising God : How will the Birds of Paradise chirp when they are in that Caelestial Country ? There the Morning Stars will sing together , and all the Saints of God shout for joy . O what should we aspire after , but this Country above ? Such as have their eyes opened , will see that it doth infinitely excel : An ignorant man looks upon a Star , and it appears to him as a little silver spot ; but the Astronomer who hath his Instrument to judge of the dimension of a Star , knows it to be many degrees bigger than the earth : So a natural man hears of the heavenly Country , that it is very glorious , but it is at a great distance ; and because he hath not a spirit of discerning , the world looks bigger in his eye ; but such as are Spiritual Artists , who have the Instrument of Faith to judge of Heaven , will say , it is far the better Country , and thither will they hasten with the Sails of desire . SECT . XV. 15. A godly man is a zealous man ; grace turns a Saint into a Seraphim , it makes him burn in holy zeal ; zeal is a mixed affection , a compound of love and anger , it carries forth our love to God , and anger against sin in the most intense manner : Zeal is the flame of the affections ; a godly man hath a double baptism , of water and fire , he is baptized with a spirit of zeal , hee is zealous for Gods honour , truth , worship , Psal. 119. 139. my zeal hath consumed me ; it was a crown set on Phineas his head , hee was zealous for his God. Numb . 25. 13. Moses being touched with a coal from Gods altar , in his zeal hee breaks the Tables , Exod. 32. 19. our blessed Saviour in his zeal , whips the buyers and sellers out of the Temple , Ioh. 2. 17. the zeal of thy house hath eaten me up . But there is a Praeternatural heat , something looking like zeal , which is not , a Comet looks like a Star : I shall therefore show some differences between a true and a false zeal . 1 A false zeal is a blinde zeal , Rom. 10. 2. They have a zeal of God , but not according to knowledge ; this is not the fire of the spirit , but wild-fire . The Athenians were very devout and zealous , but they knew not for what , Acts 17. 23. I found an Altar with this Inscription , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , To the unknown God , Thus the Papists are zealous in their way , but they have taken away the key of knowledge . 2 A false zeal is a self-seeking zeal ; Iehu cries , come see my zeal for the Lord , 2 King. 10. 16. but it was not zeal , but ambition , he was fishing for a Crown . Demetrius pleads for the Goddess Diana , but it was not her Temple , but her Silver shrines he was zealous for : Such zealots Ignatius complains of in his time , that they made a Trade of Christ and Religion , thereby to enrich * themselves . 'T is probable many in King Henry the eights time were forward to pull down the Abbies , not out of any zeal against Popery , but that they might build their own houses upon the ruines of those Abbies ; like Eagles which fly aloft , but their eyes are down upon their prey : If blind zeal be punished seven fold , hypocritical zeal shall bee punished seventy and seven fold . 3 A false praeposterous zeal , is a misguided zeal ; it runs out most in things which are not commanded , It is the sign of an hypocrite to be zealous for traditions , and careless of institutions . The Pharisees were more zealous about washing of their cups than their hearts . 4 A false zeal is fired with passion . Iames and Iohn , when they would call for fire from heaven , were rebuked by our Saviour , Luk. 9. 54. Yee know not what spirit yee are off , it was not zeal , but choller ; many have espoused the cause of Religion , rather out of faction and humour , than out of zeal to the truth . But the zeal of a godly man , is a true and holy zeal , which evidenceth it self in the effects of it . 1 True zeal cannot bear an injury done to God , zeal makes the blood rise , when Gods honour is impeached , Rev. 2. 2. I know thy works and thy labour and patience , and how thou canst not bear them which are evil ; hee who zealously affects his friend , cannot hear him spoken against , and be silent . 2 True zeal will encounter with the greatest difficulties ; when the world holds out a Gorgons head of danger to discourage us , zeal casts out fear ; it is quickned by * opposition . Zeal doth not say there is a Lyon in the way ; zeal will charge through an Army of dangers , it will march in the face of death . Let news be brought to Paul , that he was way-laid , in every City bonds and imprisonment did abide him , this sets a keener edge upon his zeal , Acts 21. 13. I am ready not only to bee bound , but to dye for the name of the Lord Iesus : as sharp frosts do by an antiparistasis make the fire burn hotter , so sharp oppositions do but inflame zeal the more . 3 True zeal as it hath knowledge to go before it , so it hath sanctity to follow after it : Wisdome leads the van of zeal , and holiness brings up the rear : an hypocrite seems to be zealous , but he is vitious : the godly man is white and ruddy , white in purity , as well as ruddy in zeal ; Christs zeal was hotter than the fire , and his holiness purer than the sun . 4 Zeal that is genuine loves truth when it is despised , and opposed , Psal. 119. 126. They have made void thy law , therefore I love thy commandements above gold : the more others deride holiness , the more we love it ; what is Religion the worse for others disgracing it ? doth a Diamond sparkle the less , because a blinde man disparageth it ? the more outragious the wicked are against the truth , the more couragious the godly are for it : When Mical scoffed at Davids religious dancing before the Ark , if ( saith he ) this be to be vile , I will yet be more vile , 2 Sam. 6. 22. 5 True zeal causeth fervency in duty , Rom. 12. 11. fervent in † spirit : Zeal makes us hear with reverence , pray with affection , love with ardency . God kindled Moses his sacrifice from heaven , Lev. 9. 24. There came a fire out from before the Lord , and consumed upon the Altar the burnt offering : when we are zealous in devotion , and our heart waxeth hot within us , here is a fire from heaven kindling our sacrifice : how odious is it for a man to be all fire when he is sinning , and all y●e when he is praying : A pious heart , like water seething hot , boils over in holy affections . 6. True zeal is never out of breath ; though it be violent , 't is perpetual ; no waters can quench the flame of zeal , it is torrid in the frigid zone : The heat of zeal is like the natural heat coming from the heart , which lasts as long as life : That zeal which is not constant , was never true . Use 1. How opposite are they to godliness who cry down zeal , and count it a Religious phrensie ? They are for the light of knowledge , but not for the heat of zeal . When Basil was earnest in preaching against the Arrian Heresie , it was interpreted folly and dotage . Religion is a matter requires zeal ; the Kingdom of heaven will not be taken but by violence , Mat. 12. 11. Object . But why so much fervour in Religion ? what becomes then of Prudence ? Answ. Though Prudence be to direct zeal , yet not to destroy it ; because sight is requisite , must the body therefore have no heat ? If Prudence be the eye in Religion , zeal is the heart . Quest. But where is moderation ? Answ. Though moderation in things of indifferency be commendable , and doubtless it would much tend to the setling the peace of the Church ; yet in the main Articles of Faith , wherein Gods glory and our Salvation lie at stake , here moderation is nothing else but sinful neutrality : It was Calvins advice to Melancthon , that he should not so affect the name of moderate , that at length he lost all his zeal . Object . But the Apostle presseth moderation , Phil. 4. 5. Let your moderation be known to all ? Answ. The Apostle speaks there of moderating our passion ; the Greek word for * moderation , signifies candour , and meekness , opposite to rash † anger ; and so the word is rendred in another place * Patient , 1 Tim. 3. 3. By moderation then , is meant meekness of spirit ; and that is clear by the subsequent words , The Lord is at hand : As if the Apostle had said , avenge not your selves , for the Lord is at hand , he is ready to avenge your personal wrongs , but this doth not at all hinder , but that in matters of Religion a Christian should be zealous . 2 What strangers are they to godliness , who have no zeal for the glory of God ? they can see his ordinances despised , his worship adulterated , yet their spirits are not at all stirred in them . How many are of a dull , lukewarm temper , zealous for their own secular interest , but have no zeal for the things of heaven ; hot in their own cause , but cool in Gods. The Lord doth most abominate lukewarm professours , I had almost said , hee is sick of them , Rev. 3. 15. I would thou wert cold or hot , ( any thing but lukewarm ) but because thou art neither cold nor hot , I will spue thee out of my mouth : A lukewarm Christian is but dough-baked , just like Ephraim , Hos. 7. 8. Ephraim is a cake not turned : To keep up a form of Religion without zeal , is to be like those bodies the Angels assumed , which mooved , but had no life in them . I would ask these Tepid neutral professors this question , If Religion be not a good cause , why did they undertake it at first ? if it be , why do they go so faintly about it ? why have they no more holy ardours of soul ? these persons would fain go to heaven in a soft bed , but are loath to bee carried thither in a fiery Chariot of zeal . Remember , God will be zealous against them , who are not zealous ; he provides the fire of hell , for those that want the fire of zeal . Use 2. As you would be found in the catalogue of the godly , labour for zeal ; as good bee of no religion , as not to be zealous in religion . Beware of carnal policy ; This is one of those three things which Luther feared would bee the death of * Religion . Some men have been too wise to bee saved . Their discretion hath quenched their zeal ; beware of stoth , which is an enemy to zeal , be zealous and repent Rev. 3. 19. Christians , what do you reserve your zeal for ? is it for your gold that perisheth ? or for your lusts that will make you perish ? can you bestow your zeal better , than upon God ? how zealous have men been in a false religion ? Isa. 46. 6. They lavish gold out of the bag , and weigh silver in the ballance . The Iews did spare no cost in their idolatrous worship , nay , Ier. 32. 35. They cause their Sons and Daughters to pass thorow the fire to Molech . They were so zealous in their idol-worship , that they would sacrifice their Sons and Daughters to their false Gods ; how far did the purblinde Heathens go in their false zeal ? 〈◊〉 the Tribunes of Rome complained they wanted gold in their Treasur●es , to offer to Apollo , the Roman Matrons plucked off their chains of gold , and rings , and bracelets , and gave them to the Priests to offer up * sacrifice : were these so zealous in their sinful worship , and will not you bee zealous in the worship of the true God ? can you loose any thing by your zeal ? shall it not bee super-abundantly recompenced ? what is heaven worth ? what is a sight of God worth ? was not Jesus Christ zealous for you ? he sweat drops of blood , hee conflicted with his Fathers wrath ; how zealous was hee for your redemption , and have you no zeal for him ? is there any thing you your selves hate more than dulness and slothfulness in your servants ? you are weary of such servants ; do you dislike a dull temper in others , and not in your selves ? what are all your duties without zeal , but non entia , meer fancies and nullities . Do you know what a glorious thing zeal is ? it is the lustre that sparkles from grace , it is the flame of † love ; it resembles the Holy Ghost , Act. 2. 2. There appeared cloven tongues like fire , which sat upon them , and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost . Tongues of fire , were an Emblem to represent that fire of zeal which the spirit powred upon them . Zeal makes all our religious performances prevalent with God : When the iron is red hot , it enters best ; and when our services are red hot with zeal , they soonest pierce heaven . SECT . XVI . 16. A godly man is a patient man , Iam. 5. 11. Ye have heard of the patience of Iob. Patience is a star which shines in a dark night : There is a twofold patience . 1. Patience in waiting . 2. Patience in bearing . 1. Patience in waiting : A godly man , if he hath not his desire presently , he will wait till the mercy be ripe , Psa. 130. 6. My soul waiteth for the Lord. Good reason God should have the Timing of our mercies , Isa. 60. 22. I the Lord will hasten it in his time . Deliverance may tarry beyond our time , but it will not tarry beyond Gods time . Why should not we wait patiently upon God. 1. We are servants ; it becomes servants to be in a waiting posture . 2. We wait upon every thing else ; we wait upon the fire till it burns ; we wait upon the seed till it grows , Iam. 5. 7. Why cannot we wait upon God ? 3. God hath waited upon * us : Did not he wait for our repentance ? How often did he come year after year before he found fruit ? Did God wait upon us , and cannot we wait upon him ? A godly man is content to stay Gods leisure , though the Vision tarry , he will wait for † it . 2. Patience in bearing : This patience is twofold . 1. Either in regard of man ; when we bear injuries without revenging . Or 2. In regard of God ; when we bear his hand without repining : A good man will not only do Gods will , but bear his will , Mica . 7. 9. I will bear the indignation of the Lord. This patient bearing of Gods will is not 1. A Stoical Apathy : Patience is not insensibleness under Gods hand ; we ought to be sensible . 2. It is not patience upon force ; to bear a thing because we cannot help it ; which ( as Erasmus saith ) is rather necessity than patience . But , patience is a cheerful submission of our will to God , Act. 21. 4. The will of the Lord be done . A godly man doth acquiesce in what God doth , as being not only good , but best for him : The great quarrel between God and us is , whose will shall stand : Now the Regenerate will , falls in with the will of God : ●here are four things opposite to this patient ●ame of soul. 1. Disquiet of spirit : When the soul is discomposed , and pulled off the hinges , insomuch that it is unfit for holy duties ; when the strings of a Lute are snarled , the Lute is not fit to make Musick ; so when a Christians spirit is perplexed and disturbed , he cannot make melody in his heart to the Lord. 2. Discontent ; which is a sullen dogged humour : When a man is not angry at his sins , but at his condition , this is different from patience : Discontent is the daughter of pride . 3. Prejudice , which is a dislike of God and his ways , and a falling off from Religion : Sinners have hard thoughts of God , and if he doth but touch them in a tender part , they will presently be gone from him , and throw off his Livery . 4. Self-vindication , when instead of being humbled under Gods hand , a man justifies himself , as if he had not deserved what he suffers : A proud sinner stands upon his own defence , and is ready to accuse God of unrighteousness , which is as if we should tax the Sun with darkness ; this is far from patience : A godly man subscribes to Gods wisdome , and submits to his will ; he saith not only good is the Word of the Lord , Isa. 3●●8 . but good is the Rod of the Lord. Use. As we would demonstrate our selves godly , let us be eminent in this grace of patience , Eccles. 7. 8. The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit : There are some Graces which we shall have no need of in heaven ; we shall have no need of Faith when we have full Vision , nor patience when we have perfect joy ; but in a dark sorrowful night , there is need of these stars to * shine : Let us show our patience in bearing Gods will ; patience in bearing Gods will is two-fold . 1. When God removes any comfort from us . 2. When God imposeth any evil upon us . 1. We must be patient when God removes any comfort from us : Doth God take away any of our Relations ? Ezek. 24. 16. I will take away the desire of thine eyes with a stroak ; yet it is our duty patiently to acquiesce in the Will of God : The loss of a dear Relation , is like the pulling away a Limb from the † body . — Homo toties moritur , quoties amittit suos . — But grace will make our hearts calm and sedate , and work us to an holy patience under such a severe dispensation . I shall lay down eight considerations , which may be as spiritual Physick to kill the worm of impatience under the loss of Relations . 1. The Lord never takes away any comfort from his people , but he gives them that which is better : The Disciples parted with Christs corporal presence , and he sent them the Holy Ghost : God eclipseth one joy , and augments another , he doth but make an exchange , he takes away a Flower , and gives a Diamond . 2. Godly friends dying are in a better condition , they are taken away from the evil to come , Isa. 57. 1. They are out of the storm , and are gotten to the Haven , Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord , Rev. 14. 13. The godly have a portion promised them upon their marriage with Christ , but the portion is not paid till the day of their death : The Saints at death are preferred to Communion with God , they have that they so long hoped for , and prayed for ; why then should we be impatient at our friends preferment ? 3. Thou that art a Saint , hast a friend in heaven which thou canst not lose : The Jews have a saying at their † Funerals , Let thy consolation be in heaven . Art thou a close Mourner , look up to heaven , and fetch comfort thence , thy best kindred are above , Psa 27. 10 , When my Father and Mother forsake me , then the Lord will take me up : God will be with thee in the hour of death , Psa. 23. 4. Though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death , thou art with me . Other friends thou canst not keep , God is a friend thou canst not lose ; he will be thy Guide in life , thy Hope in death , thy Reward after death . 4 Perhaps God is correcting thee for a fault , and it so , it becomes thee to bee patient ; it may bee thy friend had more of thy love than God , and therefore God did take away such a relation , that the stream of thy love may run bak to him again . A gracious woman having been deprived , first of her Children , then of her Husband , Lord ( saith she ) thou hast a plot upon me , thou intendest to have all my love ; God doth not like it , to have any Creature set upon the throne of our affections , hee will take away that comfort , and then he shall lye nearest our heart . If an Husband bestow a jewel upon his Wife , and she doth so fall in love with that jewel , as to forget her Husband , hee will take away the jewel , that her love may return to him again ; a dear relation is this jewel , if we begin to idolize it , God will take away the jewell , that our love may return to him ●gain . 5 A Godly Relation is parted with , but not lost , that is lost , which wee are out of hope ever of seeing again ; religious friends are but gone a little † before . A time will shortly come , when there shall bee a meeting without parting , 1 Thes. 5. 10. How glad is one friend to see another , that hath been long absent ? Oh what glorious acclamations shall there bee , when old relations shall meet together in heaven , and be in each others embraces ? when a great prince lands at the shore , the guns go off , in token of joy ; when godly friends shall be all landed at the heavenly shore , and shall congratulate one anothers felicity , what stupendious joy will there be ? what musick in the quire of Angels ? how will heaven ring of their praises ? and that which is the crown of all , they who were here joyned in the flesh , shall bee joyned nearer than ever in the mystical body , and shall lye together in Christs † bosome , that bed of perfume . 6 Wee have deserved worse at Gods hands ; hath hee taken away a childe , a wife , a parent ? hee might have taken away his spirit ; hath he deprived us of a relation ? he might have deprived us of salvation ; doth he put wormwood in the cup ? we have deserved poyson , Ezra . 9. 13. Thou hast punish●d us less than our iniquities deserve ; wee have a sea of sin , and but a drop of suffering . 7 The patient soul doth most sweetly enjoy it self ; an impatient man is like a troubled sea , that cannot rest ; he tortures himself upon the wrack of his own griefs and passions , whereas patience calms the heart , as Christ did the sea , when it was rough , and now there is a sabbath in the heart , yea , an heaven , Luk. 21. 19. In your patience possess yee your souls : By faith a man possesseth God , and by patience hee possesseth himself . 8 How patient have many of the Saints been , when the Lord hath broken the very staff of their comfort , in berea●ing them of Relations ; The Lord took away Iobs children , and he was so far from murmuring , that he falls a blessing , Iob 1. 21. The Lord hath taken away , blessed be the name of the Lord. God fore-told the death of Elies sons , 1 Sam. 2. 34. In one day they shall dye both of them ; but how patiently did he take this sad news , 1 Sam. 3. 18. It is the Lord , let him do what seemeth him good : See the difference between Eli and Pharoah , Pharoah saith , who is the * Lord ? Eli saith , it is the Lord : When God struck two of Aarons sons dead , Lev. 10. 〈◊〉 Aaron held his peace ; patience opens the ear , but shuts the mouth , it opens the ear to hear the Rod , but shuts the mouth that it hath not a word to say against God , Behold here the patterns of patienc● ; and shall not wee write after their fair Copies ? these are heart-quieting considerations , when God sets a deaths-head upon our comforts , and removes dear relations from us . 2 We must be patient , when God inflicts any evil upon us , Rom. 12. 12. Patient in Tribulation . 1 The Lord sometimes laies heavy affliction upon his people , Psal. 38. 2. Thy hand lies sore upon me . The Hebrew word for * afflicted , signifies to bee melted ; God seems to melt his people in a furnace . 2 God doth sometimes lay divers afflictions on the Saints , Iob 19. 17. Hee multiplieth my wounds : as wee have divers waies of sinning , so the Lord hath divers waies of afflicting ; some hee melts away their estates , others hee chains to a sick bed , others hee confines to a Prison ; God hath various arrows in his quiver , which he shoots . 3 Sometimes God lets the affliction lye long , Psal. 74. 9. There is no more any Prophet , neither is there among us any that knoweth how long : As it is with diseases , there are some Chronical , that linger and hang about the body several years together , so it is with afflictions , the Lord is pleased to exercise many of his precious ones with Chronical afflictions , such as lye upon them a long time ; now in all these cases , it becomes the Saints , patiently to rest in the will of God ; the Greek word for † patient , is a metaphor , alludes to one who stands invincibly under a burden . This is the right notion of patience , when we bear affliction invincibly without fainting , or fretting . The trial of a Pilot is seen in a storm ; so is the tryal of a Christian seen in affliction ; hee hath the right art of navigation , who when the boistrous winds blow from heaven , doth steer the ship of his soul wisely , and not dash upon the ●rock of impatience ; a Christian should alwaies keep a decorum , not behaving himself unseemly , or disguising himself with intemperate passion , when the hand of God lies upon him . Patience adorns suffering ; affliction in Scripture is compared to a net , Psa. 66. 11. Thou broughtest us into the net . Such as have escaped the Devils net , yet the Lord suffers them to bee taken in the net of affliction , but they must not be as a wild Bull in a net , Isa. 51. 20. to kick and fling against their maker , but lye patiently till God break the net , and makes away for their escape . I shall propound four cogent Arguments , to excite patience under those evils which God inflicts on us . 1 Afflictions are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for our benefit . Heb. 12. 9. Hee for our profit , wee pray that God would take such a course with us as may do our souls Good , when God is afflicting us , hee is hearing our prayers , he doth it ▪ for our * profit : not that afflictions in themselves do profit us , but as Gods Spirit works with them ▪ For as the waters of Bethesda could not give health of themselves , unless the Angel descended and stirred the water , Iohn 5. 4. So the waters of affliction are not in themselves healing till Gods Spirit co-operates and sanctifies them to us : Afflictions are many ways † profitable . 1. They make men sober and wise : Physitians appoint distracted persons to be bound in Chains , and to be dieted , and have hard fare to bring them to the use of reason : Many run stark mad in prosperity , they neither know God nor themselves ; the Lord therefore binds them with cords of affliction , that he may bring them to their right * understandings , Iob 36. 8. If they be held in cords of affliction , then he shews them their transgression , he openeth also their ear to discipline . 2 Afflictions are a friend to grace . 1 They beget grace ; Beza acknowledged God laid the foundation of his Conversion in a violent sickness at Paris . 2 They augment grace , the people of God are beholding to their troubles , they had never had so much grace , if they had not met with such sore trials ; now , the waters run , and the spices flow forth . The Saints thrive by affliction , as the Lacedemonians grew rich by war ; God makes grace flourish most in the fall of the leaf . 3 Afflictions quicken our pace in the way to heaven ; it is with us , as with children sent on an errand , if they meet with Apples or Flowers by the way , they linger and make no great haste home , but if any thing fright them , then they run with all the speed they can to their fathers house ; so in prosperity , we are gathering the Apples and Flowers , and do not much minde heaven , but if troubles begin to arise , and the times grow frightful , then we make more haste to heaven , and with David ; run the way of Gods commandements . Psa. 119. 32. 2 God intermixeth mercy with affliction , hee steeps his-sword of justice in the oyl of * mercy , there was no night so dark , but Israel had a Pillar of fire in it ; there is no condition so dismal , but we may see a Pillar of fire to give light , if the body be in pain , conscience is in peace , there is mercy ; affliction is for the prevention of sin , there is mercy : In the Ark there was a rod and a pot of Manna , the Emblem of a Christians condition , mercy interlined with * judgement , here is the rod and Manna . 3 Patience evidenceth much of God in the heart ; patience is one of Gods titles ; Rom. 15. 5. The God of patience ; thou that hast thy heart cast into this blessed mould , it is a sign God hath imparted much of his own nature to thee , thou shinest with some of his beams . Impatience evidenceth much unsoundness of heart ; as it is in the body , if the body bee of that temper , that every little scratch of a pin makes the flesh to rancle , you will say , sure this mans flesh is very unsound ; so for every petty cross to flye out in impatience , and quarrel with providence , it is the sign of a distempered Christian ; if there be any grace in such an heart , they must have good eyes that can see it ; but he who is of a patient spirit , is a graduate in Religion , and doth much participate of the divine nature . 4 The end of affliction is glorious ; the Iews were captive in Babylon , but what was the end ? they departed out of Babylon with vessels of silver , with gold and precious things , Ezra . 1. 6. So , what is the end of affliction , it ends in endless glory , Acts 14. 22. 2 Cor. 4. 17. how may this rock our impatient hearts quiet : who would not willingly travel through a little dirty way , and ploughed lands , at the end whereof is a fair Meadow , and in that Meadow , a golden Mine ? Quest. How shall I get my heart tuned into a patient frame ? Answ. 1 Get faith ; all our impatience proceeds from unbelief ; faith is the breeder of patience , when a storm of passion begins to arise , faith saith to the heart , as Christ to the Sea , peace , be still , and there is presently a calm . Quest. How doth faith work patience ? Answ. Faith argues the soul into patience ; faith is like that Town-Clark in Ephesus , who allayed the contention of the multitude , and argued them soberly into peace , Act. 19. 35 , 36. So when impatience begins to clamour and make an hubbub in the soul ; faith appeaseth the tumult , and argues the soul into holy patience : Saith faith , Why art thou disquieted O my Soul ? art thou afflicted ? is it not thy Father hath done it ? he is carving and pollishing thee , and making thee fit for glory , he smites that hee may save ; what is thy tryal , is it sickness ? God shakes the Tree of thy body , that some fruit may fall , even the peaceable fruit of righteousness , Heb. 12. 11. Art thou driven from thy habitation ? God hath prepared for thee a City , Heb. 11. 16. Dost thou suffer reproach for Christs sake ? a spirit of God and glory rest upon thee , 1 Pet. 4. 14. Thus faith argues and disputes the soul into patience . 2 Pray to God for patience , patience is a flower of Gods planting ; pray that it may grow in your heart , and send forth its sweet perfume : Prayer is an holy charm , to charm down the evil spirit ; prayer composeth the heart , and puts it in Tune , when impatience hath broken the strings , and put all into a confusion : Oh go to God , prayer delights Gods ear , it melts his heart , it opens his hand ; God cannot deny a praying soul ; seek to him with importunity , and either he will remove the affliction , or which is better , he will remove thy impatience . SECT . XVII . 17 A Godly man is a thankful man ; praise and thanksgiving , is the work of heaven , and he begins that work here , which he shall bee alwaies doing in heaven . The Iews have a saying , the world subsists by three things ; the Law , the worship of God , and * thankfulness ; as if where thankfulness were wanting , one of the Pillars of the world were taken away , and it were ready to fall . The Hebrew word for praise , comes from a radix , that signifies to shoot † up ; the Godly man sends up his praises , as a volly of shot towards heaven . David who was modelled after Gods heart , how melodiously did he warble out Gods praises ? therefore was called the sweet singer of Israel , 1 Sam. 23. 1. Take a Christian at the worst , yet hee is thankful : The Prophet Ionah , who was homo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a man of a waspish spirit ; the sea did not so work with the tempest , * as Ionahs heart wrought with passion ; yet , through this cloud you might see grace appear ; he had a thankful heart , Ionah 2. 9. I will Sacrifice to thee with the voice of thanksgiving , I will pay that which I have vowed . For the clearer illustrating of this , I shall lay down these four particulars . 1 Praise and thanksgiving is a Saint-like work ; we finde in Scripture , the godly are still called upon to praise God , Psa. 135. 20. Ye that fear the Lord , bless the Lord. Psa. 149. 5. Let the Saints bee joyful in glory , let the high praises of God be in their mouth ; praise is a work proper to a Saint . 1 None but the godly can praise God aright ; as all have not skill to play on the Lute , so every one cannot sound forth the harmonious praises of God ; wicked men are bound to praise God , but they are not fit to praise him ; none but a living Christian can tune Gods praise ; wicked men are dead in sin , how can they lift up Gods praises , that are dead ? Isa. 38. 19. The grave cannot praise thee : A wicked man stains and eclipseth Gods praise , if a foul hand work in Damask , or flowred Sattin , it will slur the beauty of it ; God will say to the sinner , what hast thou to do , to take my name into thy mouth ? Psa. 50. 16. 2 Praise is not comely for any , but the godly , Psa. 33. 1. Praise is comely for the righteous : A prophane man stuck with Gods praises , is like a dunghill stuck with flowers ; praise in the mouth of a sinner , is like an Oracle in the mouth of a fool ; how uncomely is it for him to praise God , whose whole life is a dishonouring of God ? it is as undecent for a wicked man to praise God , as it is for an Usurer to talk of living by faith , or for the Devil to quote Scripture ; the godly only are fit to be queristers in Gods praises , 't is called the Garment of praise , Isaiah 61. 3. this garment sits handsome only on a Saints back . 2 Thanksgiving is a more noble part of Gods worship ; our wants may send us to prayer , but it argues an heart highly ingenuous to bless God ; the Raven cries , the Lark sings ; in petition we act like men , in thanksgiving we act like Angels . 3 Thanksgiving is a God-exalting work , Psa. 50. 23. Whoso offereth praise , glorifieth me , though nothing can adde the least cubit to Gods essential glory , yet praise exalts him in the eyes of others ; praise is a setting forth of Gods honour , a lifting up of his name , a displaying the trophy of his goodness , a proclaiming his excellency , a spreading his renown , a breaking open the box of oyntment , whereby the sweet savour and perfume of Gods name is sent abroad into the world . 4 Praise is a more distinguishing work ; by this a Christian excels all the infernall spirits ; dost thou talk of God ? so can the Devil , hee brought Scripture to Christ ; dost thou profess religion ? so can the Devil , he transforms himself into an Angel of light ; dost thou fast ? he never eats ; dost thou beleeve ? the Devils have a faith of assent , they believe and tremble , Iam. 2. 19. but , as Moses wrought such a miracle , as none of the Magicians could do the like ; so here is a work Christians may be doing , which none of the Devils can do , and that is the work of thanksgiving ; they blaspheme , but do not bless ; Satan hath his fiery darts , but not his harp and viol . Use 1 See here the true genius and complexion of a godly man , hee is much in doxologies and praises . 'T is a saying of Lactantius , hee cannot bee a good man , who is unthankful to † his God : A godly man is a God-exalter ; the Saints are Temples of the Holy Ghost , 1 Cor. 3. 16. where should Gods praises bee sounded , but in his Temples ? a good heart is never weary of praising God , Psa. 34. 1. His praise shall continually bee in my mouth . Some will be thankful while the memory of the mercy is fresh , but afterwards leave * off ; The Carthaginians used at first ; to send the tenth of their yearly revenue to Hercules , but by degrees they grew weary , and left off * sending . David as long as hee drew his breath , would chirp forth Gods praise , Psa. 146. 2. I will sing praises to my God , while I have any being : David would not now and then give God a fit of Musick , and then the instrument must be hung up , but he would continually be celebrating Gods praise . A godly man will express his thankfulness in every duty , hee mingles thanksgiving with prayer , Phil. 4. 6. In every thing by prayer , with thanksgiving , let your requests bee made known to God. Thanksgiving is the more divine part of prayer ; in our petitions wee express our own necessities , in our thanksgivings we declare Gods excellencies . Then prayer goes up as incense , when it is perfumed with thanksgiving . And as a godly man expresseth thankfulness in every duty , so in every condition ; hee will be thankful in * adversity , as well as prosperity , 1 Thes. 5. 18. In every thing giving thanks : A gracious soul is thankful and rejoyceth , that hee is drawn nearer to God , though it be by the cords of affliction ; when it goes well with him , hee praiseth Gods mercy ; when it goes ill with him , he magnifies Gods justice ; when God hath a rod in his hand , a godly man will have a Psalm in his mouth . The Devils smiting of Iob , was like the striking upon a musical instrument , he sounded forth praise , The Lord hath taken away , blessed be the name of the Lord , Iob 1. 21. Gods spiritual plants , when they are cut and do bleed , drop thankfulness , the Saints Tears cannot drown their praises . 2 If this be the sign of a godly man , then the number of the godly will appear to bee very small . Few are in the work of praise , sinners cut God short of his thank-offering , Luk. 17. 17 where are the * nine ? Often Leapers healed , there was but one returned to give praise ; the most of the world are Sepulchres , to bury Gods praise ; you shall hear some swearing and cursing , but few that bless God : Praise is the yearly rent that men sit at , but most are behinde hand with their rent . God gave King Hezekiah a famous deliverance , but Hezekiah rendred not again , according to the benefit done unto him , 2 Chron. 32. 25. that But , was a blot in his Scutchion ; some instead of being thankful to God , render evil for good , they are the worse for mercy , Deut. 32. 6. Do yee thus requite the Lord , foolish people and unwise ? This is like the Toad , that converts the most wholsome hearb to poyson ; where shall wee finde a grateful Christian ? Wee read of the Saints , Rev. 5. 8. Having harps in their hand ; the Emblem of praise ; many have tears in their eyes , and complaints in their mouths , but few that have harps in their hand who are blessing and praising the name of God. Use 2 Let us put our selves upon a scrutiny , and examine by this Character whether we are godly , are wee thankful for mercy ? 't is an hard thing to bee thankful . Quest. How may wee know whether wee are rightly thankful ? Answ. 1 When wee are careful to register Gods mercy , 1 Chron. 16. 4. David appointed certain of the Levites , to record and to thank and praise the Lord God of Israel . Physitians say , the memory is the first thing that † decayes ; 't is true in spirituals , Psal. 106. 13. They soon forgat his works : A godly man enters down his mercies , as a Physician his receipts into a book , that they may not bee lost . Mercies are Jewels that should be locked up ; A childe of God keeps two books alwaies by him , one to write his sins in , that he may be humble , the other to write his mercies in , that he may be thankful . 2 Then wee are rightly thankful , when our hearts are the chief instrument in the musick of praise , Psa. 111. 1. I will praise the Lord with my whole * heart . David would not only put his Viol in tune , but his heart ; if the heart doth not joyn with the tongue , there can bee no consort ; where the heart is wanting , the Parrot is as good a Querister , as the Christian. 3 Then we are rightly thankful , when the favours which we receive , endear our love to God the more . Davids miraculous preservation from death , drew forth his love to God , Psa. 116. 1. I love the Lord , it is one thing to love our mercies , another thing to love the Lord ; many love their deliverance , but not their deliverer ; God is to bee loved more than his mercies . 4 Then we are rightly thankful , when in giving our praise to God , wee take all worthiness from our selves , Gen. 32. 10. I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies , thou hast shewed unto thy servant ; as if Iacob had said , Lord the worst bit thou carvest me , is better than I deserve . 2 Sam. 9. 7. Mephibosheth bowed himself , and said , what is thy Servant , that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am ? So a thankful Christian , when he takes a survey of his blessings , and sees how much he enjoyes , that others better than he want , Lord saith he , what am I , a dead dog , that free-grace should look upon me , and that thou shouldst crown mee with such loving kindness ? 5 Then we are rightly thankful , when we put Gods mercies out of Use ; wee turn our injoyments into improvements ; the Lord gives us health , and wee spend and are spent for Christ , 2 Cor. 12. 15. hee gives us an estate , and wee honour the Lord with our substance , Prov. 3. 9. he gives us children , and wee dedicate them to God , and edugate them for God ; wee do not bury our Talents , but trade them , this is to put out our mercies to Use : a gracious heart is like a peece of good ground , that having received the seed of mercy , thrusts forth a crop of obedience . 6 Then wee are rightly thankful , when we can have our hearts more enlarged for spiritual mercies , than for temporal : Eph. 1. 3. Blessed be God , who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings : A godly man blesseth God more for a fruitful heart , than a full crop ; hee is more thankful for Christ , than for a Kingdome : Socrates was wont to say , hee loved the Kings smile more than his gold : a pious heart is more thankful for a smile of Gods face , than hee would bee for the gold of the Indies . 7 Then wee are rightly thankful , when mercy is a whe● to duty , it causeth a spirit of activity for God ; Mercy is not as the Sun to the fire , to dull it , but as oyl to the wheele , to make it run faster . David wisely argues from mercy to duty , Psal. 116. 8 , 9. Thou hast delivered my Soul from death , I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living . It was a saying of Bernard , Lord I have two Mites , a soul and a body , and I give them both to * thee . 8 Then wee are rightly thankful , when we excite others to this Angelical work of praise : David would not only bless God himself , but calls upon others to do so , Praise ye the Lord , Psalm . 111. 1. That is the sweetest musick , which is in consort ; when many Saints joyn together in consort , then they make heaven ring of their praises ; as one drunkard will bee calling upon another , so in an holy sense , one Christian must bee stirring up another to the work of thankfulness . 9 Then we are rightly thankful , when we do not only speak Gods praise , but live his praise : It is called gratiarum actio , then wee give thanks , when wee live thanks ; such as are mirrours of mercy , should be patterns of piety , Obad. 17. Upon Mount Sion , shall be deliverance , and there shall be holiness : To give God orall praise , and dishonour him in our lives , is to commit a barbarism in religion , and is to be like those Iews who bowed the knee to Christ , and then did spit upon him , Mark 15. 19. 10 Then wee are rightly thankful , when wee do propagate Gods praises to posterity , we tell our children what God hath done for us , in such a want hee supplyed us , in such a sickness he raised us , in such a temptation he succoured us : Psa. 44. 1. O God our Fathers have told us , what work thou didst in their daies , in the time of old . By transmitting our experiences to our Children , Gods name is eternized , and his mercies will bring forth a plentiful crop of praise when wee are gone . He man puts the question , Psal. 88. 10. Shall the dead praise thee ? Yes , in this sense , when we are dead , we praise God , because having left the Chronicle of Gods mercies with our Children , we put them upon thankfulness , and so make Gods praises live , when we are dead . — dumque aurea voluet astra polus , Memori semper celebrabunt cantu . — Use 3 Let us evidence our godliness by gratefulness , Psa. 29. 2. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name . 1 It is a good thing to be thankful , Psal , 147. 1. It is good to sing praises to our God. 'T is ill when the tongue ( that Organ of praise ) is out of tune , and doth jar , by murmuring and discontent ; but it is a good thing to be thankful : it is good , because this is all the creature can do to lift up Gods name ; and it is good , because it tends to the making us good : the more thankful we are , the more holy ; while wee pay this tribute of praise , our stock of grace increseth : in other debts , the more we pay , the less wee have , but the more wee pay this debt of thankfulness , the more grace wee have . 2 Thankfulness is the quit-rent wee owe to God , Psa. 148. 11 , 13. King of the earth , and all people , let them praise the name of the Lord : Praise is the tribute or custome , to bee paid into the King of heavens Exchequor : Surely while God renews our Lease , we must renew our rent . 3 The great cause we have to be thankful , 't is a principle grafted in nature , to be thankful for * benefits : The Heathens praised Iupiter for their victories . What full clusters of mercies hang upon us ? when we go to enumerate Gods mercies , we must ( with David ) confess our selves to bee nonplussed , Psal. 40. 5. Many , O Lord my God , are thy wonderful works which thou hast done , they cannot be reckoned up in Order . And as Gods mercies are past numbring , so they are past measuring : David takes the longest measuring line hee could get , hee measures from earth to the clouds , nay , above the clouds , yet this measure would not reach the heighth of Gods mercies , Psal. 108. 4. Thy mercy is great above the heavens . O how hath God enriched us with his silver showers ? a whole constellation of mercies , hath shined in our Hemisphere . 1 What Temporal favours have wee † received ; every day wee see a new tide of mercy coming in ; the wings of mercy have covered us , the breast of mercy hath fed us , Gen. 48. 15. The God which hath fed mee all my life long to this day . What snares laid for us have been broken ? what fears blown over ? the Lord hath made our bed , when he hath made others grave ; he hath taken such care of us , as if he had none else to take care for ; never was the cloud of providence so black , but we might see a Rainbow of Love in the cloud ? we have been made to swim in a sea of mercy , and doth not all this call for thankfulness ? 2 That which may put a string more into the instrument of our praise , and make it sound louder , is to consider what spiritual blessings God hath conferred upon us : he hath given us of the upper-springs , he hath opened the Wardrobe of Heaven , and fetched us out a better garment than any of the Angels wear ; he hath given us the best robe , and put upon us the Ring of faith , whereby wee are married to him : These are mercies of the first magnitude , which deserve to have an Asterist put upon them , and God keeps the best Wine till last , here hee gives us mercies but by retail , the greatest things are laid up ; here are some Hony drops , and fore-tastes of Gods love , the Rivers of pleasure are reserved for Paradise ; well may we take the harp and viol , and triumph in Gods praise ; who can tread upon these hot coals of Gods love , and his heart not burn in thankfulness ? 4 Thankfulness is the best policy , there is nothing lost by it ; to bee thankful for one mercy , is the way to have more , 't is like powring water into a † Pump , which fetcheth out more ; Musicians love to sound their trumpets , where there is the best Eccho , and God loves to bestow his mercies , where there is the best Eccho of * thankfulness . 5 Thankfulness is a frame of heart God delights in ; if repentance bee the joy of heaven , praise is the * musick . Bernard calls thankfulness the sweet Balm that drops from a Christian. Four Sacrifices God is much pleased with , the sacrifice of Christs blood , the sacrifice of a broken heart , the sacrifice of Alms , and the sacrifice of thanksgiving : Praise and Thanksgiving ( saith Mr. Greenham ) is the most excellent part of Gods worship , for this shall continue in the heavenly quire , when all other exercises of Religion shall cease . 6 What an horrid thing ingratitude is , it gives a dye and tincture to every other sin , and makes it Crimson ; ingratitude is the spirits of baseness , Obad. v. 7. They that eat thy bread , have laid a Wound under thee : Ingratitude is worse than bruitish , Isa. 1. 3. 'T is reported of Iulius Caesar , that he would never forgive an ungrateful person ; though God be a sin-pardoning God , he scarce knows not how to pardon for this , Ier. 5. 7. How shall I pardon thee for this , thy children have forsaken me , when I had fed them to the full , they then committed adultery . Draco ( whose Laws were written in blood ) published and edict , that if any man had received a benefit from another , and it could bee proved against him , that hee had not been grateful for it , hee should be put to death ; an unthankful person is a monster in nature , a Pardox in Christianity ; he is the scorn of heaven , and the plague of earth ; an ungrateful man , never doth well but in one thing , that is when hee dies . 7 The not being thankful , is the cause of all the Judgements which have lain upon us ; our unthankfulness for health , hath been the cause of so much Mortality ; our Gospel-unthankful thankfulness , and Sermon-surfeiting , hath been the reason why God hath put so many Lights under a Bushel ; as Bradford said , my unthankfulness was the death of King Edward the sixth : Who will bestow cost on a peece of ground , that brings forth nothing but briars ? unthankfulness stops the golden Vial of Gods bounty , that it will not drop . Quest. How shall we do to be thankful ? Answ. 1. If you would be thankful , get an heart deeply humbled in the sense of your own vileness ; a broken heart is the best pipe to sound forth Gods praise ; hee who studies his sins , wonders that he hath any thing , and that God should shine upon such a dunghill , 1 Tim. 1. 13. Who was before a Blasphemer , and a Persecuter , but I obtained mercy : How thankful was he ? how did he Trumpet forth free-grace ? A proud man will never bee thankful , he looks upon all his mercies , to bee either of his own procuring or deserving ; if he hath an Estate , this he hath gotten by his wit and industry , not considering that Scripture , Deut. 8. 18. Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God , for it is he that gives thee power to get Riches . Pride stops the Current of gratitude : O Christian ! think of thy unworthiness , see thy self , the least of Saints , and the chief of Sinners , and then thou wilt be thankful . 2 Labour for sound evidences of Gods love to you ; read Gods love in the impress of holiness upon your hearts ; Gods love powred in , will make the Vessels of Mercy run over with thankfulness , Rev. 1. 5 , 6. Unto him that loved us , be glory and dominion for ever . The deepest Springs yeeld the sweetest water : hearts deeply sensible of Gods love , yeeld the sweetest praises . SECT . XVIII . 18 A godly man is a lover of the Saints ; the best way to discern grace in ones self , is to love grace in others , 1 Ioh. 3. 14. Wee know we have passed from death to life , because we love the Brethren : What is religion but religation ? a knitting together of hearts ; Faith knits us to God , and love knits us one to another : There is a two-fold love to others . 1 A civil love ; a godly man hath a love of civility to all , Gen. 23. 7. Abraham stood up and bewed to the children of Heth : Though they were extraneous , and not within the pale of the Covenant , yet Abraham was affable to them : grace doth sweeten and refine nature , 1 Pet. 3. 8. be † courteous : wee are to have a love of civility to all . 1 As they are ex eodem luto , of the same lump and mould with our selves , and are a peece of Gods curious * needle-work . 2 Because our sweet deportment towards them , may bee a means to win upon them , and make them in love with the waies of God ; a morose ruggid carriage , often alienates the hearts of others , and hardens them the more against holiness , whereas a loving behaviour is very obliging , and may bee as a load-stone to draw them to religion . 2 There is a pious and an holy love , and this a godly man doth bear chiefly to them , who are of the houshold of † faith ; the other was a love of courtesie , this of complacency : Our love to the Saints ( saith Austin ) should bee more than to our natural relations , because the bond of the spirit is nearer than * that of blood . This love to the Saints , which evidenceth a man godly , must have seven ingredients in it . 1 Love to the Saints must bee sincere , 1 Ioh. 3. 18. Let us not love in word or in tongue , but in deed and in truth : The hony that drops from the comb is pure , so must love be pure without deceit : Many are like Naphtali , Gen. 49. 21. he giveth goodly words : Pretended love is like a painted fire , which hath no heat in it . Some hide malice under a false veil of love ; I have read of Antoninus the Emperour , where he made a shew of Friendship , there he intended the most mischief . 2 Love to the Saints must be spiritual , we must love them because they are Saints ; not out of self-respects , because they are affable , or have been kinde to * us , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Hesh . but we must love them under a spiritual notion , because of the good that is in them ; we are to reverence their holiness , else it is a carnal love . 3 Love to the Saints must be extensive , we must love all that bear Gods * image . 1 Though they have many infirmities ; a Christian in this life , is like a good face full of Freckles ; thou that canst not love another because of his imperfections , didst never yet see thy own face in the glass ; thy brothers infirmities may make thee pity him , his graces must make thee love him . 2 Wee must love the Saints , though in some things they do not coalesce and agree with us : another Christian may differ from me in less matters , either because hee hath more light than I , or because hee hath lesse light ; if he differs from me , because he hath more light , then I have no reason to censure him ; if because hee hath less light , than I ought to bear with him , as the weaker Vessel , in things of an indifferent nature , there ought to be Christian connivance . 3 We must love the Saints , though their graces out-vye and surpass ours ; we ought to bless God for the eminency of anothers grace , because hereby religion is honoured ; Pride is not quite slain in a believer ; Saints themselves are apt to grudge and repine at each others excellencies ; is it not strange , that the same person , should hate one man for his sin , and envy another for his vertue ? Christians had need look to their hearts ; then is love right and genuine , when we can rejoyce in the graces of others , though they seem to eclipse ours . 4 Love to the Saints must be appretiating , we must esteem their persons above others , Psa. 15. 4. He honours them that fear the Lord : we are to look upon the wicked as lumber , but upon the Saints as jewels , these must bee had in high veneration . 5 Love to the Saints must bee Social , wee should delight in their company , Psal. 119. 63. I am a companion of all them that fear thee . 'T is a kind of hell to be in the company of the wicked , where we cannot choose but hear Gods name dishonoured : It was a capital crime , to have carried the Image of Tiberius , engraven upon a Ring or Coyn into any fordid place ; They who have the Image of God engraven upon them , should not go into any sinful fordid company . Never but two that I read of , who were living , did desire to keep company with the dead , and they were possessed with the * Devil : what comfort can a living Christian have , to converse with the dead ? Iude 2. but the society of Saints is eligible ; this is not to walk among the Tombs , but among beds of spices . Beleevers are Christs garden , their graces are the flowers , their savory discourse is the fragrant smell of these flowers . 6 Love to the Saints must be demonstrative ; we should be ready to do all offices of love to them ; vindicate their names , contribute to their necessities , and like the good Samaritan , pour Oyl and Wine into their wounds , * Luk. 0. 34. 35. Love cannot be concealed , but is active in its sphere , and will lay out it self for the good of others . 7 Love to the Saints must be constant , 1 Iohn 4. 16. He that dwelleth in love : Our love must not only lodge for a night , but we must dwell in love , Heb. 13. 1. Let Brotherly love * continue : as love must bee sincere without hypocrisie , so constant without deficiency ; love must be like the pulse , alwaies beating ; not like those Galathians , who at one time were ready to pull out their eyes for Paul , Gal. 4. 15. and afterwards were ready to pluck out his eyes ; love should not expire but with our life : and surely if our love to the Saints , be thus divinely qualified , we may hopefully conclude that we are enrolled among the godly , Ioh. 13. 35. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples , if ye have love one to another . That which induceth a godly man to love the Saints , is , because he is nearly related to them , there ought to be love among relations , there is a spiritual consanguinity among beleevers , they have all one head , therefore should all have one heart , they are stones of the same building , 1 Pet. 2. 5. and shall not these stones bee cemented together with * Love ? Use 1. Is this the distinguishing Mark of a godly man , to be a lover of the Saints , then how sad is it to see this grace of love in an eclipse ? this Character of godliness , is almost blotted out among Christians England was once a fair garden , where the flower of love did grow , but sure now this flower is either plucked or withered ; where is that amity and unity as should be among * Christians ? I appeal to you , would there bee that censuring and despising , that reproaching and undermining one another if there were love ? instead of bitter Tears , there are bitter spirits ; a sign iniquity abounds , because the love of many waxeth cold ; there is that distance among some professours , as if they had not received the same spirit , or as if they did not hope for the same heaven : In the Primitive times , there was so much love among the godly , as set the heathens a wondring , and now there is so little , as may set Christians a blushing . Use 2 As we would be written down for Saints in Gods Kalender , let us love the † Brotherhood : they who shall one day live together , should love together ; what is it makes a disciple but * love ? Iohn 13. 35. The Devil hath knowledge , but that which makes him a Devil is , that hee wants love . To perswade Christians to love , consider , 1 The Saints have that in them , which may make us love them ; they are the curious embroidery and workmanship of the Holy ghost , Eph. 2. 10. they have those rare lineaments of grace , as none but a pensil from heaven could draw ; their eyes sparkle forth beauty , Cant. 4 9. their breasts are like clusters of grapes , Cant 7. 7. This makes Christ himself delight in his spouse : The King is held in the galleries . The Church is the daughter of a Prince , Cant. 7. 1. she is waited on by Angels , Heb : 1. ult . she hath a Pallace of glory reserved for her , Ioh. 14. 2. and may not all this draw forth our love ? 2 Consider how evil it is for the Saints not to love . 1 It is Unnatural , the Saints are Christs Lambs , Ioh. 21. 15. for a dog to worry a Lamb is usual , but for one Lamb to worry another , is unnatural : The Saints are brethren , 1 Pet. 3. 8. how barbarous is it for brethren not to love ? 2 Not to love is a foolish thing ; have not Gods people enemies enough , that they should flye in the faces one of another ? the wicked confederate against the godly , Psal. 83. 3. They have taken crafty counsel against thy people : though there may fall out a private grudge betwixt such as are wicked , yet they will all agree and unite against the Saints : if two Gray-hounds are snarling at a bone , yet , put up an Hare between them , and they will leave the bone , and follow after the Hare ; so if wicked men have private differences amongst themselves , yet if the godly be near them , they will leave snarling at one another , and will pursue after the godly ; now , when Gods people have so many enemies abroad , who watch for their halting , and are glad when they can do them a mischief ; shall the Saints fall out , and divide into parties among themselves ? 3 Not to love is very unseasonable ; Gods people are in a common calamity , they suffer in one cause , and for them to disagree , is altogether unseasonable ; why doth the Lord bring his people together in affliction , but to bring them together in affection ? Mettals will unite in a furnace , if ever Christians unite , it should bee in the furnace of affliction . Chrysostome compares affliction to a shepherds Dog , which makes all the sheep run together : Gods Rod hath this loud voice in it , Love one another ; how unworthy is it when Christians are suffering together , to be then striving together . 4 Not to love is very Sinful . 1 For Saints not to love , is to live in a contradiction to Scripture ; the Apostle is continually beating upon this string of love , as if it made the sweetest musick in Religion , Rom. 13. 8. Col. 3. 14. 1 Pet. 1. 22. 1 Ioh. 3. 11. 1 Iohn 4. 21. This Commandement we have from him , that hee who loveth God , love his Brother also : not to love , is to walk Antipodes to the word ; can he be a good Physician , who goes against the rules of Physick ? can he be a good Christian , who goes against the rules of Religion ? 2 Want of love among Christians , doth much silence the spirit of prayer : hot passions , make cold prayers ; where animosities and contentions prevail , instead of praying one for another , Christians will be ready to pray one against another ; like the Disciples , who prayed for fire from heaven upon the Samaritans , Luke . 9. 54. and will God , think you , hear such prayers as come from a wrathful heart : will hee eat of our leavened bread ? will hee accept of those duties , which are sowered with bitterness of spirit ? shall that prayer ever go up as incense , which is offered with the strange fire of our sinful passions ? 3 These heart-burnings , hinder the progress of piety in our own souls ; the flower of grace , will not grow in a wrathful heart ; the body may as well thrive while it hath the Plague , as a soul can , that is infected with malice : while Christians are debating , grace is abating ; as the spleen grows , health decaies , and as hatred increaseth , holiness declines . 5 Not to love is very fatal ; the differences among Gods people , portend † ruine : all mischiefs come in at this gap of division , Mat. 12. 25. Animosities among Saints , may make God leave his Temple , Ezek. 10. 4. The glory of the Lord , went up from the Cherub , and stood upon the threshold : Doth not God seem to stand upon the threshold of his house , as if he were taking his wings to ●lye ? and wo to us , if God depart from † us : If the Master leave the ship , it is near sink●ng indeed : if God leave a land , it must needs ●ink in ruine . Quest. How shall wee attain this excellent grace of love ? Answ. 1 Beware of the Devils Foot●osts , I mean such as run on his errand , and make it their work to blow the coals of contention among Christians , and render one party odious to another . 2 Keep up friendly meetings ; Christians should not be shy one of another , as if they had the Plague . 3 Let us plead that promise , Ier. 32. 39. I will give them one heart , and one way : Let us pray that there may bee no strife among Christians , but who shall love most ; let us ●ray that God will divide Babylon , and unite ●ion . Use 3 Is this a mark of a godly man , to ●ove ▪ the Saints ? then they must stand inlighted for ungodly , who hate the Saints ; the wicked have an implacable malice against Gods * people , and how can antipathies be reconciled ? To hate Saint-ship , is a brand of a reprobate : they that maligne the godly , are the curse of the creation ; if all the scalding drops in Gods Vial , will make them miserable , they shall bee so : Never did any● who were the haters and persecuters of Saints , thrive upon that Trade : What became of Iulian , Dioclesian , Maximinus , Valerian , Cardinal Crescentius , and others , some of them , their bowels came out , others choked with their own blood , that they might be set up as standing monuments of Gods vengeance , Psa. 34. 21. They that hate the righteous shall be desolate . SECT . XIX . 19 A godly man doth not indulge himself in any sin . Though sin lives in him , yet he doth not live in sin . Every man that hath wine in him , is not in wine . A godly man may step into sin through infirmity , but hee 〈◊〉 not keep the road , Psal. 139. 24. See if there bee any way of wickedness in mee . Quest. What is it to indulge sin ? Answ. 1 To give the breast to it , and feed it ; as a fond Parent humours his childe , and lets him have what he will , so to indulge sin , is to humour sin . 2 To indulge sin , is to commit it with delight , 1 Thess. 2. 12. They have pleasure in unrighteousness . In this sense a godly man doth not indulge sin ; though sin be in him , hee is troubled at it , and would fain get rid of it ; there is as much difference between sin in the wicked , and the godly , as between poyson being in a Serpent , and in a Man ; Poyson in a Serpent , is in its natural place , and is delightful : But poyson in a mans body is offensive , and hee useth Antidotes to expel it . So sin in a wicked man is delightful , being in its natural place , but sin in a childe of God is burdensome , and he useth all means to expell it . This pares off from the sin ; the will is against it . A godly man enters his protest against sin , Rom. 7. 15. What I do , I allow not . A childe of God while he commits sin , hates the sin he * commits ; Rom. 7. in particular , there are four sorts of sins which a godly man will not allow himself in . 1 Secret sins , Some are more modest than to commit gross sin , that would be a stain to their reputation , but they will sit brooding upon sin in a corner , 1 Sam. 23. 9. Saul secret●y practised mischief . All will not sin in a Belcony , but perhaps they will sin behind the curtain . Rachel did not carry her fathers Images as a Sumpter-cloath , to be exposed to publick view , but she put them under her , and sate upon them , Gen. 31. 34. many carry their sins secretly , as a candle in a dark lant●orn . But a godly man dares not sin secretly : 1 he knows that God sees in secret , Psal. 44. 21. as God cannot be deceived by our subtilty , so he cannot be excluded by our secresy . 2 A godly man knows that secret sins are in some sense worse than others : they discover more guile and Atheism ; The Curtain-sinner makes himself beleeve God doth not see , Ezek. 8. 12. Son of man , hast thou seen what the Antients of the house of Israel have done in the dark ; for they say , the Lord seeth us not . They that have bad eyes , think the Sun is dim ; how doth this provoke God , that mens Atheisme should give the lye to his Omnisciency , Psal. 94. 9. He that formed the eye , shall he not * see ? 3 A godly man knows that secret sins shal not escape Gods Justice ; a Judge on the Bench can punish no offence but what is proved by Witness ; he cannot punish the Treason of the heart : but the sins of the heart are as visible to God , as if they were written upon the fore-head . As God will reward secret duties , so he will revenge secret sins . 2 A godly man will not allow himself in gainful sins . Gain is the golden bait , with which Satan fisheth for souls . — dulcis odor lucri — This was the last temptation hee used to Christ , Mat. 4. 9. All this will I give thee . But Christ saw the hook under the bait . Many who have escaped gross sins , yet are caught in a golden Net : To gain the world , they will use indirect courses . A godly man dares not travel for riches thorow the Devils high-way . Those are sad gains , that make a man lose peace of conscience , and heaven at last . He who getteth an estate by injustice , stuffs his pillow with thorns , and his head will lye very uneasie when he comes to dye . 3 A godly man will not allow himself in a beloved sin ; there is usually one sin that is the † favorite , the sin which the heart is most fond of : A beloved Sin lies in a mans bosome , as the Disciple , whom Iesus loved , leaned on his bosome , Ioh. 13. 23. A godly man will not indulge a darling sin , Psa. 18. 23. I have kept my self from mine iniquity . The Sin of my constitution , to which the byas of my heart doth more naturally incline , 1 Kings 22. 31. Fight neither with small nor great , save only with the King : a godly man fights with this King-sin . The Oracle of Apollo answered the people of Cyrrha , that if they would live in peace among themselves , they must make continual war with those strangers , which were upon their confines . If wee would have peace in our souls , wee must maintain a war against our complexion-sin , and never leave till it be † subdued . Quest. How shall we know the beloved sin ? Answ. 1 That sin which a man doth not love to have reproved , is the darling Sin. Herod could not endure to have his incest spoken against ; if the Prophet medles with that sin , it shall cost him his head : men can be content to have other sins declaimed against , but if the Minister put his finger upon the sore , and toucheth this sin , their hearts begin to burn in malice against him ; a shrewd sign , that is the Herodias . 2 That sin the thoughts run most upon , is the darling sin ; which way the thoughts go , the heart goes ; he that is in love with a person , cannot keep his thoughts off the object ; examine what sin runs most in your minde , what sin is first in your thoughts , and salutes you in the morning , that is the praedominant 〈◊〉 . 3 That sin which hath most power over us , and doth most easily lead us captive , that is the beloved of the soul ; there ●re some sins a man can make better resistance against ; if they come for entertainment , he can more easily put them off ; but there is one sin , if that comes to be a suitor , hee cannot deny it , but is overcome by it , this is the bosome sin . The young man in the Gospel , had given a repulse to many sins , but there was one sin foiled him , that was covetousness : Christians , mark what sins you are soonest led captive by , that is the Harlot in your bosome . 'T is a sad thing that a man should bee so bewitched by lust , that if it ask to part with , not only half the Kingdome , but the whole Kingdome of heaven , hee must part with it , to gratifie that lust . 4 That sin which men use arguments to defend , is the beloved sin ; he that hath a jew●l in his bosome , will defend it as his life ; so when there is any sin in the bosome , men will defend it ; the sin we are advocates and disputants for , is the complexion-sin ; if the sin be passion , and we plead for it , Io● . 4. 9. I do well to be angry : if the sin be covetousness , and we vindicate it , and perhaps wrest Scripture to justifie it , that is the sin which lies neerest the heart . 5. That sin which doth most trouble us , and flies most in our face in an hour of sickness and distress , that is the Dalilah-sin : When Iosephs Brethren were distressed , their sin came to remembrance , in selling their Brother , Gen. 42. 21. We are verily guilty concerning our brother , in that we saw the anguish of our brother when he be sought us , and we would not hear , therefore is this distress come upon us . So , when a man is upon his Sick-bed , and Conscience shall say , thou hast been guilty of such a sin , thou didst go on in it , and roul it as honey under thy tongue , Conscience reads a sad Lecture , sure that was the beloved sin . 6. That sin which a man doth most hardly let go his hold of , is the endeared sin : Iacob could of all his sons most hardly part with Benjamin , Gen. 42. 36. Joseph is not , and Simeon is not , and ye will take Benjamin away : So saith the sinner , this and that sin I have parted with , but must Benjamin go , must I part with this delightful sin , that goes to the heart ▪ As it is with a Castle that hath several Forts about it , the first and second Fort are taken , but when it comes to the Castle ▪ the Governour will rather fight and die than yield that : So a man may suffer some of his sins to be demolished , but when it comes to one sin , that is the taking of the Castle , he will never yield to part with that ; surely , that is the Master-sin . The complexion-sin is a God-provoking sin . The wise men of Troy counselled Priame to send back Helena to the Grecians , not suffering himself to be any longer abused by the Charms of her beauty , because the keeping her within the City , would lay the foundation of a fatal war : So should we put away our Dalilah-sin , least it incense the God of heaven , and make him commence a war against us . The complexion-sin is of all other most dangerous : As Sampsons strength lay in his hair , so the strength of sin lies in this beloved sin : This is like an humour striking to the heart , which brings death . A godly man will lay the Axe of Repentance to this sin , and hew it down ; he sets this sin , as Uriah , in the fore-front of the battel , that it may be slain : He will sacrifice this Isaack , he will pluck out this right eye , that he may see the better to go to heaven . 4. A godly man will not allow himself in those which the world counts lesser sins : There is no such thing as little sin , yet some may be deemed less comparatively ; but a good man will not indulge himself in these . As 〈◊〉 Sins of Omission . Some think it no great matter to omit Family , or Closet-prayer ; they can go several moneths and God never hear of them : A godly man will as soon live without food , as without prayer : He knows every creature of God is sanctified by prayer , 1 Tim. 4. 5. The Bird may sh●me many Christians , it never takes a drop , but the eye is lift up towards heaven . 2. A godly man da●es not allow himself in vain frothy discourse , much less in that which looks like an oath : If God will reckon for idle words , will he not much more for idle oaths ? 3. A godly man dares not allow himself in rash censuring : Some think this a small matter , they will not swear , but they will slander : this is very evil ; thou woundest a man in that which is dearest to him : He who is godly turns all his censures upon himself , he judgeth himself for his own sins , but is very chary , and tender of the good name of another . Use. As you would be numbred among the Genealogies of the Saints , do not indulge your selves in any * sin ; consider the mischief that one sin lived in will do . 1. One sin gives Satan as much advantage against thee as more : The Fowler can hold the Bird by one wing : Satan held Iudas fast by one sin . 2. One sin lived in argues the heart is not sound ; he who hides one Rebel in his house is a Traytor to the Crown ; that person who indulgeth one sin , is a trayterous hypocrite . 3. One sin will make way for more ; as a little Thief can open the door to more : Sin is linked and chained † together ; one sin will draw on more : Davids adultery made way for murder : One sin never goes alone ; if there be but one Nest-egg , the Devil can brood upon it . 4. One sin is as well a breach of Gods Law as more , Iam. 2. 10. He that shall offend in one point , is guilty of all . If the King make a Law against Felony , Treason , Murder , if a man be guilty but of one of these , he is as well a Transgressor of the Law , as if he were guilty of all . 5. One sin lived in keeps out Christ from entring ; one stone in the Pipe keeps out the water ; one sin indulg'd obstructs the soul , and keeps the streams of Christs Bloud from running into it . 6. One sin lived in will spoil all thy good duties : A drop of poyson will spoil a glass of Wine : Abimeleck , a Bastard , destroyed threescore and ten of his Brethren , Iudg. 9. 5. One Bastard-sin will destroy threescore and ten prayers : One dead fly will corrupt the box of oyntment . 7. One sin lived in will be a Canker-worm to eat out the peace of Conscience , it takes away the Manna out of the Ark , and leaves only a Rod. — Eheu quis intus scorpio ? — One sin is a Pyrate to rob a Christian of his comfort ; one jarring string brings all the Musick out of tune ; one sin countenanced , will spoil the Musick of Conscience . 8. One sin allowed will damn as well as more ; one disease is enough to kill : If a Fence be made never so strong , leave open but one gap , the wilde Beast may enter , and tread down the corn : If there be but one sin allowed in the soul , you set open a gap for the Devil to enter . 'T is a simile of Chrysostom , a Souldier that hath his Head-piece on and Breast-plate , if in but one place he wants Armour , the bullet may enter there , and he may as well be shot , as if he had no Armour on : So if thou favourest but one sin , thou leavest a part of thy soul unarmed , and the Bullet of Gods Wrath may enter there and ●hoot thee . One sin may shut thee out of heaven ; and as Hierom * faith , What difference is there in being shut out for more sins , or for one ? Therefore take heed of cherish●ng one sin : One Milstone will sink a man into the Sea as well as an hundred . 9. One sin harboured in the soul will unfit for suffering : How soon may an hour of Tryal come ; he who hath an hurt in his shoulder , cannot carry an heavy burden , and he who hath any guilt in his Conscience , cannot carry the Cross of Christ : Will he deny his life for Christ , that cannot deny his lust for Christ ? One sin in the soul unmortified , will bring forth the bitter fruit of Apostasie . Would you then show your selves godly , give a Bill of Divorce to every sin , kill the Goliah-sin , Rom. 6. 12. Let not sin reign : In the Original it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , let not sin King it over you : Grace and Sin may be together , but Grace and the love of Sin cannot . Therefore parley with sin no longer , but with the Spear of Mortification , let out the heart-bloud of every sin . SECT . XX. 20. A godly man is good in his Relations : To be good in general is not enough , but we must show forth Piety in our Relations . 1. He is godly who is good as a Magistrate : The Magistrate is Gods Representative ; a godly Magistrate holds the ballance of Justice , and gives to every one his * right , Deut. 16. 19. Thou shalt not respect persons , neither take a gift , for a gift doth blind the eyes . A Magistrate must judge the Cause , not the person : He who suffers himself to be corrupted with bribes , is not a Iudge , but a Party : A Magistrate must do that which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , according to Law , Act. 23. 3. And that he may do Justice , he must examine the Cause : T●e Archer that will shoot right , must first see the mark . 2. He is godly who is good as a Minister . A Minister must be 1. Painful , 2 Tim. 4. 1 , 2. Preach the Word , be instant in season , out of season . The Minister must not be idle ; sloath is as inexcusable in a Minister , as sleep in a Centinel : Iohn Baptist was a voice crying , Mat. 3. 3. A dumb Minister is of no more use than a dead Physitian : A man of God must work in the Lords † Vineyard : It was Austins wish , that Christ might find him at his coming , either praying or preaching . 2. A Minister must be knowing , Mal. 2. 7. The Priests lips should keep knowledge , and they should seek the Law at his mouth . It was said in the honour of Nazianzene , that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an Ocean of Divinity . The Prophets of old were called Seers , 1 Sam. 9. 9. 'T is absurd to have our Seers blind : Christ said to Peter , Feed my sheep , Ioh. 21. 16. But how sad is it when the Shepherds need to be fed ? Ignorance in a Minister , is like blindness in an Oculist . Under the Law , he who had the plague in his head was unclean , Levit. 13. 44. 3. A Minister must preach plain , suiting his matter and stile to the capacity of his Auditory , 1 Cor. 14. 19. Some Ministers , like Eagles , love to soar aloft in abstruse Metaphyfical notions ; thinking they are most admired , when they are least understood ; they who preach in the Clouds , instead of hitting their peoples Conscience , shoot over their heads . 4 A Minister must be zealous in reprooving sin , Tit. 1. 13. Rebuke them sharply . Epiphanius saith of Eliah , he sucked fire out of his Mother breasts ; a man of God must suck the fire of zeal , out of the breasts of Scripture . Zeal in a Minister , is as proper as fire on the Altar ; some are afraid to reprove ; like the Sword-fish , which hath a sword in his head , but is without an heart ; so they carry the sword of the spirit about them , but have no heart to draw it out in a reproof against sin ; how many have sown pillows under their people , making them sleep so securely , that they have never waked , till they have been in hell . 5 A Minister must bee holy in heart and life . 1 In heart . How sad is it for a Minister , to preach that to others , which he never felt in his own soul ; to exhort others to holiness , and himself a stranger to it : O that it were not thus too often ! how many blow the Lords Trumpet with a foul breath . 2 In Life . The Priests under the Law , before they served at the Altar , washed in the Lavor ; such as serve in the Lords house , must first bee washed from gross sin , in the Lavor of repentance : The life of a Minister should be a walking Bible . Basil said of Nazianzene , he did thunder in his doctrine , and lighten in his conversation : A Minister must imitate Iohn Baptist , who was not only a voice crying , Isa ▪ ● . 3. but a light shining , Ioh. 5. 35. they disgrace this excellent calling , who live in a contradiction to what they preach ; they turn their codices into calices , † their books into cups , and though they are Angels by office , yet are Devils in their lives , Ier. 23. 15. 3. Hee is godly , who is good as an Husband , he fills up that relation with love , Eph. 5. 25. Husbands love your Wives : The Vine twisting its branches about the Elm , and embracing it , may be an emblem of that intire love , which should be in the conjugal relation ; a married condition would be sad , if it hath cares to imbitter it , and not love to sweeten it : Love is the best diamond in the marriage Ring : Isaac loved Rebeckah , Gen. 24. 57. Unkindnesses in this near relation , are very unhappy . Wee read in Heathen Authors , that Clitemnestra the wife of Agamemnon , to revenge an injury received from her Husband , first rent the Vail of her chastity , and afterwards consented to his death : The Husband should shew his love to his Wife , by covering infirmities , by avoiding occasions of strife , by sweet endearing expressions , by pious counsel , by love-tokens , by incouraging what he sees amiable and vertuous in her , by mutual prayer , by associating with her , unless detained by urgency of business : The Pilot that goes from his ship , and quite leaves it to the merciless waves , declares that he doth not esteem it , or reckon any treasure to be in it . The Apostle gives a good reason , why there should be mutual love between Husband and Wife , 1 Pet. 3. 7. That your prayers bee not hindred : where passions prevail , there prayer is either intermitted , or interrupted . 4 He is godly who is good , as a Father . 1 A Father must drop holy instructions into his Children , Eph. 6 4. Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord : Thus did Abraham , Gen. 18. 19. I know Abraham , that hee will command his children , and his houshold , and they shall keep the way of the Lord. Children are young plants , which must be watered with good education , that they may with Obadiah , fear the Lord from their youth up , 1 Kings 18. 12. Plato saith , in vain doth he expect an harvest , who hath been negligent in sowing ; nor can a parent look to reap any good from a childe , where he hath not sown the seed of wholesome instruction ; and though notwithstanding all counsel and admonition , the childe should dye in sin , yet it is a comfort to a godly Parent , to think that before his childe dyed , he gave it spiritual physick . 2. A parent must pray for his Children : Monica the Mother of Austin , prayed for his Conversion , and one said , It was impossible a Son of so many Prayers and Tears should miscarry : The soul of thy Childe is in a snare , and wilt not thou pray that it may bee recovered out of the snare of the Devil , 2 Tim. 2. 26. many Parents are careful to lay up portions for their children , but they do not lay up prayers for them . 3 A Parent must give his children discipline , Prov. 23. 13. Withhold not correction from the childe , for if thou beatest him with the rod , he shall not dye : The rod beats out the dust and moth of sin ; a childe indulg'd and humoured in wickedness , will prove a burden instead of a blessing : David cockered Adonijah , 1 King. 1. 6. His Father had not displeased him at any time , saying , why hast thou done so ? and hee afterwards was a grief of heart to his Father , and would have put him besides his throne ; correction is a hedge of thorns , to stop Children in their full Car●eir to hell . 5 He is godly who is good , as a Master ; a godly man promotes religion in his family ; he sets up piety in his house , as well as in his heart , Psalm 101. 2. I will walk within my house with a perfect heart , Ioshua 24. 15. I , and my houshold will serve the Lord. I find it written in the honor of Cranmer , his Family was Palaestra Pietatis , a Nursery of Piety : A godly mans house is a little Church , Col. 4. 15. The Church which is in his house . 1. A good man makes known the Oracles of God to them , who are under his roof ; he reads the Word , perfumes his house with prayer : It is recorded of the Iews , that they had sacrifices in their Family , as well as in the Tabernacle , Exod. 12. 3. 2. A godly man provides necessaries ; he relives his servants in health and Sickness ; he is not like that Amalakite , who shook off his servant when he was sick , 1 Sam. 30. 13. But rather like the good Centurion , who sought to Christ for the healing of his sick servant , Mat. 8. 5. 3. A godly man sets his servants a good example , he is sober and heavenly in his deportment , his virtuous life is a fair glass for the servants in the family to dress themselves by . 6. He is godly who is good in the Relation of a Childe , He honours his parents . Philo the Jew , placed the fifth Commandment in the first Table ; as if Children had not performed their whole devotion to God , till they had given honour to their Parents . This honouring of Parents consists in two things . 1. In reverencing their persons ; which reverence is shown both by humility of speech and gesture : The contrary to this is , when a Childe doth behave himself unseemly and proudly . Among the Lacedemonians , if a Childe had carried himself imperiously towards his parent , it was published by Authority , that it was lawful for the Father to appoint whom he would to be his Heir , and to dis-inherit that Childe . 2. Honoring of Parents lies in obeying their Commands , Eph. 6. 1. Children obey your Parents in the Lord. Duty is the Interest money which children pay their Parents , for the Principal they have had from * them . Christ hath set all Children a pattern of obedience to their Parents , Luke 2. 51. He was subject unto them . The Rechabites were eminent for this , Ierem. 35. 5. 1 set before the Rechabites pots full of wine , and said to them drink ye wine , but they said we will drink no wine , for Jonadab the son of Rechab our Father commanded us saying , Ye shall drink no wine , neither ye , nor your sons for ever . Solon among the many Laws he made , one asked him , Why he made no Law against disobedient Children ; he answered , because he thought none would be so wicked . God hath punished Children , who have refused to pay the tribute of obedience . Absalom , a disobedient son , was hanged in an Oak betwixt Heaven and Earth , as being worthy of neither . Manlius , an old man , being reduced to much poverty , and having a rich son , he entreated him only for an alms , but could not obtain it ; the son disowned him as his Father , and gave him reproachful language ; the poor old man let tears fall ( as witnesses of his grief ) and went away ; God to revenge this disobedience of the son , soon after struck him with † phrensie ; he in whose heart godliness lives , makes as well Conscience of the fifth Commandment as the first . 6. He is godly who is good as a servant , Col. 3. 22. Eph. 6. 5. Servants be subject to them who are your Masters , according to the flesh , with fear and trembling . The goodness of servants lies 1. In * diligence : Abrahams servant made haste to dispatch the business his Master intrusted him with , Gen. 24. 33. 2. Chearfulness : Servants must be Free-willers : Thus the Centurions servants , Luke 7. 8. If I say to one go , he goes . 3. Faithfulness ; which consists in two things : 1. In not defrauding , Titus 2. 10. Not purloyning . 2. In keeping counsel ; it argues the badness of a stomack , when it cannot retain what is put into it ; and the badness of a servant , when he cannot retain those secrets which his Master hath committed to him . 4. Silentness , Titus 2. 9. Not answering ●●gain . 'T is better to mend a fault , than to mince it ; and that which may quicken a servant in his work , is that encouraging Scripture , Col. 3. 24 , Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the Inheritance , for ye serve the Lord Christ. If Christ should bid you do a piece of work for him , would ye not do it ? While you serve your Master , you serve the Lord Christ : If you ask what Salary you shall have , Ye shall receive the reward of the Inberitance . Use 1. Is this the Grand Sign of a godly man , to be relatively holy 〈◊〉 ●hen the Lord be merciful to us , how few godly ones are to be found ? Many put on the Coat of Profession , they will pray , and discourse of points of Religion , but what means the bleating of the sheep ? They are not good in their Relations : How ill doth it sound when Christians are defective in Relative Piety : Can we call him godly who is a bad Magistrate ? He perverts equity , Psalm 58. 1. Do ye judge uprightly , O ye sons of men ? You weigh the violence of your hands in the earth . Can we call him godly , who is a bad Parent ? He never teacheth his Childe the way to heaven : He is like the Ostrich , which is cruel to her young , Iob 39. 19. Can we call him godly who is a bad Master ? Many Masters leave their Religion at Church , ( as the Clerk doth his book ) they have nothing of God at home , their houses are not Bethels , but Beth-avens ; not little Temples , but little Hells . How many Masters at the last day must hold up their hand at the Bar , though they have fed their servants bellies , they have starved their souls : Can we call him godly , who is a bad Childe ? He stops his ear to his Parents counsel ; you may as well call him a good subject who is disloyal : Can we call him godly , who is a bad servant ? He is slothful and wilful ; he is more ready to spy a fault in another , than to mend it in himself . To call one godly , who is bad in his Relations , is a contradiction , it is to call evil good , Isa. 5. 20. Use 2. As we desire to have God approve us , let us show forth godliness in our Relations : Not to be good in our relations , spoils all our other good things ; Naaman was an honourable man , but hee was a Leaper , 2 King. 5. 1. That But , spoiled all ; so such an one is a great hearer , but he neglects relative duties , this stains the beauty of all his other actions ; as in Printing , though the Letter be never so well carved , yet if it be not set in the right place , it spoils the sense ; so let a man have many things commendable in him , yet if he be not good in his right place , making conscience how he walks in his relations , he doth hurt to religion . There are many , to whom Christ will say at last , as to the young man , Luk. 18. 22. Unum deest , yet lackest thou one thing , thou hast miscarried in thy relative capacity ; as therefore we tender our salvation , and the honour of religion , let us shine forth in that Orb of relation , where God hath fixed us . SECT . XXI . 21 A godly man doth spiritual things in a spiritual manner , Phil. 3. 3. Wee are the Circumcision , which worship God in the spirit : Spirit-worship is Virgin-worship , 1 Pet. 2. 5. Ye are built up a spiritual house , an holy priesthood , to offer up spiritual * sacrifices ; not only spiritual for the matter , but the quality ; a wicked man either lives in the total neglect of duty , or else dischargeth it in a dull careless manner ; in stead of using the world , as if he used it not , hee serves God , as if hee served him not ; a godly man spiritualizeth duty , hee is not only for the doing of holy things , but for the holy doing of things . Quest. What is it to perform spiritual duties spiritually ? Answ. It consists in three things . 1. To do duties from a spiritual principle , viz. a renewed principle of grace : let a man have gifts to admiration , let him have the most melting ravishing expressions , let him speak like an Angel dropped out of heaven , yet his duties may not be spiritual , because he wants the grace of the spirit ; whatever a moral unregenerate person doth , is but nature refined , though he may do duties better than a godly man , yet not so well ; better as to the matter and elegancy , yet not so well , as wanting a renewed principle ; a Crab-tree may bear as well as a Pippin , the fruit may be bigger and fairer to the eye , yet it is not so good fruit as the other , because it doth not come from so good a stock ; so an unregenerate person may perform as many duties as a childe of God , and these may seem to be more glorious to the outward view , but they are harsh and sower , because they do not come from the sweet and pleasant root of grace : a true Saint gives God that wine , which comes from the pure grape of the spirit . 2 To perform duties spiritually , is to do them with the utmost intention ; a Christian is very serious , and labours to keep his thoughts close to the work in hand , 1 Cor. 7. 35. That ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction . Quest. But may not a godly man have roving thoughts in duty ? Answ. Yes , sad experience sets seal to it , the thoughts will bee dancing up and down in prayer ; the Saints are called Stars , and many times in duty they are wandring stars . The heart is like Quick-silver , which will not fix . 'T is hard to tye two good thoughts together ; we cannot lock our hearts so close , but that distracting thoughts , like winde , will get in . Hierom * complains of himself , sometimes saith he , when I am about Gods service , I am walking in the galleries , or casting up of accounts . But these wandring thoughts in the godly , are not allowed , Psa. 119. 113. I hate vain thoughts , they come as unwelcome guests , which are no sooner spied , but are turned out of doors . Quest. Whence do these impertinent thoughts arise in the godly ? Answ. 1 From the pravity of nature , they are the mud which the hear casts up . 2. From Satan ; the Devil if he cannot hinder us from duty , ●hee will hinder us in duty ; when we come before the Lord , he is at our right hand to resist us , Zac. 3. 1. As when one is going to write , another stands at his elbow and jogs him , that he cannot write even ; Satan will set vain objects before the fancy , to cause a diversion : the Devil doth not oppose formality but fervency ; if he sees we set our selves in good earnest to seek God , he will bee whispering things in our ears , that wee can scarce minde what wee are doing . 3 These impertinent thoughts arise from the world ; these vermine are bred out of the earth , worldly business oft crouds into our duties , and while we are speaking to God , our hearts are talking with the world , Ezek. 33. 31. They sit before me as my people , but their heart goes after their covetousness . While we are hearing the word , or meditating , one worldly business or other commonly knocks at the door , and we are taken off the duty , while we are in the duty . 'T is with us as with Abraham , when he was going to worship ; the fowles came down upon the sacrifice , Gen. 15. 11. Quest. How may wee get rid of these wandring thoughts , that we may be more spiritual in duty ? Answ. 1 Eye Gods purity ; hee is an holy God whom wee serve , and cannot endure when wee are worshipping him , that wee should converse with vanity : Will a King like it , that while his subject is speaking to him , hee should bee playing with a feather ? will God endure light feathery hearts ? how devout and reverend are the Angels , they cover their faces , and cry Holy , Holy. 2 Think of the Grand importance of the duties we are engaged in ; as David said , concerning his building an house for God , 2 Chron. 29. 1. The work is great ; when wee are hearing the word , the work is great ; this is the word by which we shall be judged ; when we are at prayer , the work is great , wee are pleading for the life of our souls , and is this a time to trifle ? 3 Come with affection to duty ; the nature of love , is to fix the minde upon the object ; he who is in love , his thoughts are still upon the person he loves , and nothing can take them off . Hee that loves the world , his thoughts are ever intent upon it ; were our hearts more fired with love , they would be more fixed in duty ; and O! what cause have we to love duty ? is not this the direct road to heaven ? do we not meet with God here ? can the spouse be better than in her Husbands company ? where can the soul be better , than in drawing nigh to God ? 4 Consider the mischief that these vain distracting thoughts do ; they fly-blow our duties , they hinder fervency , they shew high irreverence , they tempt God to turn away his ear from us ; how do we think God should minde our prayers , when we our selves scarce minde them ? 3 To do duties spiritually , is to do them in faith , Heb. 11. 4. By faith Abel offered a better sacrifice than Cain . The holy oyle for the Tabernacle , had several spices put into it , Exod. 30. 34. Faith is the sweet spice , which must be put into duty : 'T is a wrong to God , to doubt either of his Mercy or Truth ; a Christian may venture his soul upon the publick faith of heaven . Use 1 How far are they out of the way of Godliness , who are unspiritual in their worship ? who do not duties from a renewed principle , and with the utmost intention of soul , but meerly to stop the mouth of conscience : many people look no farther than the bare doing of duties , but never mind how they are done . God doth not judge of our duties by the length , but by the love : when men put God off with the dreggish part of duty , may not he say as Isa. 58. 5. Is it such a Fast that I have chosen ? Are these the duties I required ? I called for the heart and spirit , and you bring nothing but the Carkass of Duty , should I receive comfort in this ? Use 2. Let us show our selves godly , by being more spiritual in duty ; 't is not the quantum , but the quale ; 't is not how much we do , but how well . A Musitian is commended not for playing long , but for playing well : We must not only do what God appoints , but as God appoints : O how many are unspiritual in spiritual things ? they bring their services , but not their hearts ; they give God the skin , not the fat of the offering : God is a Spirit , Ioh. 4. 24. And it is the spirituality of duty he is best pleased * with , 1 Pet. 2. 5. Spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God : The spirits of the Wine are best ; so is the spiritual part of duty , Eph. 5. 19. Making melody in your hearts to the Lord : It is the heart makes the † Musick ; the spiritualizing of duty gives life to it ; without this , it is dead praying , dead hearing , and dead things are not pleasing ; a dead flower hath no beauty , a dead breast hath no sweetness . Quest. How may we do to perform duties in a spiritual manner ? Answ. 1. Let the Soul be kept a Virgin ; lust doth besot and dis-spirit a man ; beware of any tincture of uncleanness , Iam. 1. 21. Wood that is full of sap will not easily burn ; and an heart steeped in sin , is not fit to burn in holy devotion . Can he be spiritual in worship , who feeds carnal lust ? Hos. 4. 11. Whoredome and wine , and new wine , take away the heart . Any sin lived in takes away the heart ; such an one hath no heart to pray , or meditate : The more alive the heart is in sin , the more it dies to duty . 2. If we would be spiritual in duty , let us revolve these two things in our mind . 1. The profit which comes from a duty performed in a spiritual manner ; it infeebles Corruption , it encreaseth Grace , it defeats Satan , it strengthens our Communion with God , it breeds peace of Conscience , it procures Answers of Mercy , and it leaves the heart always in a better tune . 2. The danger of doing duties in an unspiritual manner , they are as if they had not been done ; for what the heart doth not do , is not * done : Duties slubbered over , turn Ordinances into Judgements : Therefore many , though they are often in duty , they go away worse from duty : If Physick be not well made , and the ingredients rightly tempered , it is as bad as poyson for the body : So if duties are not well performed , they leave the heart more hard and sinful than before . Duties unspiritual oft create Judgements temporal , 1 Chron. 15. 13. The Lord our God made a breach upon us , for that we sought him not after the due order . Therefore God makes breaches in Families and Relations , because persons worship him not in that manner and due order which he requires . 3. If we would have our duties spiritual , we must get our hearts spiritual ; an earthly heart cannot be spiritual in duty : Let us beg of God a spiritual pallat , to relish a sweetness in holy things ; for want of spiritual hearts , we come to duty without delight , and go away without profit : If a man would have the wheels of his Watch move regularly , he must mend the Spring . Christian , if thou wouldst move more spiritually in duty , get the Spring of thy heart mended . SECT . XXII . 22. A godly man is thorow-paced in Religion , he obeys every Command of God , Act. 13. 22. I have found David a man after mine own heart , which shall fulfill all my will. In the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all my wills . A godly man labours to walk according to the full bredth and latitude of Gods Law. Every Command hath the same stamp of Divine Authority upon it , and he who is godly , will obey one Command as well as another , Psal. 119. 6. Then shall I not be ashamed , when I have respect to all thy Commandments . A godly man goes through all the Body of Religion , as the Sun through all the Signs of the Zodiack . He that is to play upon a ten-stringed Instrument , must strike upon every string , or he spoils all the Musick . The ten Commandments may be compared to a ten-stringed Instrument , we must obey every Commandment , strike upon every string , or we can make no sweet Musick in Religion : True obedience is fil●al ; it is fit the Childe should obey the Parent in all just and sober commands : Gods Laws are like the Curtains of the Tabernacle , which were looped together ; they are like a Chain of Gold , where all the links are coupled : A conscientious man will not willingly break one Link of this Chain ; if one Command be violated , the whole Chain is broken , Iam. 2. 10. Whosoever shall keep the whole Law , yet offend in one point , is guilty of all . A voluntary breach of one of Gods Laws , involves a man in the guilt , and exposeth him to the curse of the whole Law : True obedience is intire and uniform : A good heart , like the Needle , points that way which the Load-stone draws . This is a grand difference between a Childe of God and an hypocrite ; the hypocrite doth pick and chuse in Religion ; some duties he will perform which are more facil , and do gratifie his pride or interest , but other duties he makes no reckoning of , Mat. 23. 23. Ye pay tithe of Mint and Annis , and have omitted the weightier matters of the Law , Iudgment , Mercy , and Faith. To sweat in some duties of Religion , and freeze in other , is the symptom of a distempered Christian. Iehu was zealous in destroying the Idolatry of Baal , but let the golden Calves of Jeroboam stand , 2 Kin. 10. 30. This shows men are not good in truth , when they are good by halves . If your servant should do some of your work you set him about , and leave the rest undone , how would you like that ? The Lord saith , Walk before me , and be perfect , Gen. 17. 1. How are our hearts perfect with God , when we prevaricate with him ? Some things we will do , and other things we leave undone ; he is good , who is good universally . — Pater adsum , impera quid vis . — There are ten duties God calls for , which a godly man will conscientiously perform ; and indeed these Duties may serve as so many other Characters and Touch-stones to try our godliness by . 1 A godly man will be often calling his heart to account ; he takes the candle of the word , and searcheth his inward parts , Psa. 77. 6. I commune with my own heart , and my spirit made diligent search : a gracious soul searcheth whether there be any duty omitted , any sin cherished ; he examines his evidences for heaven ; as hee will not take his gold upon trust , so neither his grace ; he is a spiritual Merchant , hee casts up the estate of his soul , to see what he is worth ; he sets his house in order ; often reckonings keep God and conscience friends ; a carnal person cannot abide this heart-work , he is ignorant how the affairs go in 〈◊〉 soul ; he is like a man , who is well acquainted in forraign parts , but a stranger in his own country . — ut nemo insese tentat descendere , nemo ? 2 A godly man is much in closet-prayer , he keeps his hours for private devotion ; Iacob when he was left alone , wrestled with God , Gen. 32. 24. So when a gracious heart is alone , it wrestles in prayer , and will not leave God till it hath a blessing ; a devout Christian exerciseth eyes of faith , and knees of prayer . Hypocrites , who have nothing of religion , besides the frontispiece , love to bee seen . Christ hath Characterized them , Mat. 6. 5. They love to pray in the corners of the streets , that they may be * seen : The hypocrite is devout in the Temple ; there all will gaze on him ; but he is a stranger to secret communion with God ; he is in the Church a Saint , but in his closet an Atheist ; a good Christian holds secret intelligence with heaven : — ille dolet verè , qui sine teste dolet . Private prayer keeps up the trade of godliness ; when closet-holiness is laid aside , there is a stab given to the hear● of religion . 3 A godly man is diligent in his † calling ; he takes care to provide for his family : the Church must not exclude the shop . 'T is a speech of Mr. Perkins , though a man be endued with excellent gifts , and hear the word with reverence , and receive the sacrament , yet if he practise not the duties of his calling , all is but hypocrisie ; religion did never grant a pattent for idleness , 2 Thess. 2. 11 , 12. There are some which walk among you disorderly , working not at all ; them that are such , we command and exhort by our Lord Iesus , that with quietness , they work , and eat their own bread : That bread eats most sweet , which is got with most sweat ; a godly man had rather fast , than eat the bread of idleness . Vain professors talk of living by faith , but do not live in a calling ; they are like the Lillies of the field , they toyl not , neither do they spin ; an idle person is the Devils Tennis-ball ; which he bandies up and down with temptation , and at last the Ball falls into the Hazzard . 4 A godly man sets bounds to himself in things lawful ; he abates in matters of recreation and diet , hee takes only so much for the recruits of nature , as may the better dispose him for Gods service . Hierom lived abstemiously , his diet was a few dried Figs , and cold water . And Austin in his Confessions saith thus , Lord , thou hast taught me , to go to my meat as to a * medicine : If the snaffle of reason , much more should the curbing-bit of grace check the † appetite ; the life of a Sinner is bruitish ; the glutton feeds without fear , Iude 2. and the drunkard drinks without * reason : Too much oyle choaks the Lamp , whereas a lesser quantity makes it burn brighter ; a godly man holds the golden bridle of temperance , and will not suffer his Table to be a snare . 5 A godly man is careful about moral righteousness ; he makes conscience of equity , as well as piety ; the Scripture hath linked both together , Luk. 1. 75. That wee might serve him in righteousness and true holiness : Holiness , there , is the first Table , Righteousness , there , is the second Table : Though a man may be morally righteous , and not godly , yet no man can be godly , but hee must be morally righteous : This moral righeousness is seen in our dealings with men ; a good man observes that golden maxim , Mat. 7. 12. Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you , do ye even so to them . There is a threefold injustice in matters of dealing . 1 Using of false weights , Hos. 12. 7. The ballances of deceit are in his hands : men by making their weights lighter , make their sin heavier , Amos 5. 8. They make the Ephah small : the Ephah was a measure they used in selling ; they made the Ephah small , they gave but scant measure ; a godly man , who takes the Bible in one hand , dares not use false weights in the other . 2 Imbasing a commodity , Amos 8. 6. They sell the refuse of the wheat : they would pick out the best grains of the wheat , and sell the worst at the same price as they did the best , Isa. 1. 22. Thy wine is mixed with water : they did adulterate their wine , yet make their customers beleeve it came from the pure grape . 3 Taking a great deal more than the commodity is worth , Lev. 25. 14. If thou sell ought to thy neighbour , ye shall not oppress one another : a godly man deals exactly , but not exactingly , he will sell so as to help himself , but not damnifie another . His motto is , A conscience void of offence , towards God , and towards men , Act. 23. 16. The Hypocrite separates these two , which God hath joyned together , Righteousness and Holiness , he pretends to be pure , but is not just : This brings religion into contempt , when men hang forth Christs colours , yet will use fraudulent circumvention , and under a mask of piety , neglect morality ; a godly man makes conscience of the second Table , as well as the first . 6 A godly man will forgive them that have wronged him , revenge is sweet to nature . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . A gracious spirit passeth by affronts , forgets injuries , and counts it a greater victory to conquer an enemy by patience , than by † power : This is truly heroical , To overcome evil with good . Though I would not trust an Enemy , yet I would endeavour to love him ; though I would exclude him out of my Creed , yet not out of my prayer , Mat. 5. 4. Quest. But doth every godly man arrive at this , to forgive , yea love his Enemies ? Answ. He doth it in a Gospel-sense ; that is , 1. Quoad assensum , he subscribes to it in his judgement , as a thing which ought to be done , Rom. 7. 18. With my mind I serve the Law of God. 2. Quoad dolorem : A godly man mourns that he can love his Enemies no more , Rom. 7. 24. O wretched man that I am ! O this base canker'd heart of mine , that have received so much mercy , and can show so little ! I have had Talents forgiven me , yet I can hardly forgive Pence . 3. Quoad votum : A godly man prays that God will give him an heart to love his Enemies ; Lord pluck this root of bitterness out of me , perfume my soul with love , make me a Dove without gall . 4. Quoad conatum : A godly man doth in the strength of Christ resolve and strive against all rancour , and virulency of spirit : This is in a Gospel-sense to love our * Enemies ; a wicked man cannot do this , his malice boils up to revenge . 7. A godly man lays to heart the miseries of the Church , Psal. 137. 1. We wept when we remembred Sion . I have read of certain Trees , whose leaves if cut or touched , the other leaves begin to contract , and shrink up themselves , and for a space hang down their heads : Such a spiritual sympathy is there among Christians , when other parts of Gods Church suffer , they feel themselves as it were touched in their own persons . Ambrose reports , that when Theodosius was sick unto death , he was more troubled about the Church of God , than about his own sickness . When Aeneas would have saved Anchises his life , saith he , Absit ut excisa possim supervivere Troiâ . Far be it from me that I should desire to live when Troy is buried in its ruines ; there are in Musick two Unisons , if you strike one , you shall perceive the other to stir , as if it were affected : When the Lord strikes others , a godly heart is deeply affected , Isa. 16. 11. My bowels shall sound like an Harp. Though it be well with a Childe of God in his own particular , he dwells in an house of Cedar , yet he grieves to see it go ill with the publick . Queen Esther enjoyed the Kings favour , and all the delights of the Court , yet when a bloudy Warrant was signed for the death of the Jews , she mourns and fasts , and ventures her own life to save theirs . 8. A godly man is contented with his present † condition ; if provisions grow low , his heart is tempered to his condition : Many ( saith Cato ) blame me because I want , and I blame them because they cannot want : A godly man puts a candid interpretation upon Providence ; when God brews him a bitter Cup , this ( saith he ) is my diet-drink ; it is to purge me , and do my soul good , therefore he is well * content . 9. A godly man is fruitful in good works , Titus 2. 7. The Hebrew word for godly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies merciful ; implying , that to be godly and charitable , are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , one and the same . A good man feeds the hungry , cloathes the naked , he is ever merciful , † Psal. 37. 6. The more devout sort of the Jews , at this day , distribute the tenth part of their Estate to the poor ; and they have a Proverb among them , give the tenth , and you will grow * rich . The hypocrite is all for Faith , nothing for Works ; like the Lawrel that makes a flourish , but bears no fruit . 10. A godly man will suffer persecution ; he will be married to Christ , though he settle no other Joynture upon him but the Cross ; he suffers out of † choice , and with a spirit of gallantry . Argerius wrote a Letter to his friend , dated , From the pleasant Garden of the Leonine prison . The blessed Martyrs , who put on the whole Armour of God , did by their courage blunt the edge of Persecution . The Juniper Tree makes the coolest shadow , and the hottest coal : So Persecution makes the coal of love hotter , and the shadow of death cooler . Thus a godly man goes round the whole Circle of Religious Duties , and obeys God in what ever he commands . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Object . But it is impossible for any one to walk according to the full bredth of Gods Law , and to follow God fully ? Answ. There is a two-fold obeying Gods Law ; the first is perfect ; when all is done that the Law requires , this we cannot arrive at in this life . Secondly , There is an incompleat obedience , which in Christ is accepted . This consists in four things . 1. An approving of all Gods Commandments , Rom. 7. 12. The Commandment is just , and holy , and good ; and ver . 16. I consent unto the Law that it is good . There is both assent , and consent . 2. A sweet complacency in Gods Commands , Psal. 119. 47. I will delight my self in thy Commandments which I have loved . 3. A cordial desire to walk in all Gods Commands , Psal. 119. 5. O that my ways were directed to keep thy Statutes . 4. A real endeavour to tread in every path of the Command , Psal. 119. 59. I turned my feet unto thy Testimonies . This God esteems perfect obedience , and is pleased to take it in good part . Zacharias had his failings , he did hesitate through unbelief , for which he was strucken dumb ; yet it is said he did walk in all the Commandments of the Lord blameless , Luke 1. 6. Because he did cordially endeavour to obey God in all things . Evangelical obedience is true for the essence , though not perfect for the degree ; and wherein it comes short , Christ puts his Merits into the Scales , and then there is full weight . SECT . XXIII . 23. A godly man walks with God , Gen. 6. 9. Noah walked with God. The Age in which Noah lived was very corrupt , ver . 5. The wickedness of man was great in the earth : But the iniquity of the times could not put Noah out of his walk ; Noah walked with God. Noah is called a Preacher of Righteousness , 2 Pet. 2. 5. Noah preached 1. By Doctrine ; his preaching was ( say some of the Rabbins ) after this manner ; Turn ye from your evil ways , that the waters of the Floud come not upon you , and cut off the whole seed of the Race of * Adam . 2. Noah preached by his life ; he preached by his humility , patience , sanctity ; Noah walked with God. Quest. What is it to walk with God ? Answ. Walking with God imports five things . 1. A walking as under Gods eye : Noah did reverence a Deity : A godly man sets himself as in Gods presence , knowing his Judge looks * on , Psalm ▪ 16. 8. I have set the Lord always before me , Here was Davids Opticks . 2. Walking with God implies the familiarity and intimacy the soul hath with God : Friends walk together , and solace themselves one with another : The godly make known their requests to God , and he makes known his love to them . There is a sweet intercourse between God and his people , 1 Iohn 1. 3. Our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , our Communion is with the Father , and his Son Iesus . 3. Walking with God , is a walking above the earth : A godly man is elevated above all sublunary objects ; that person must ascend very high , who walks with God : A Dwarf cannot walk among the Stars ; nor can a dwarfish earthly soul walk with God. 4. Walking with God , denotes visible piety ; walking is a visible posture ; grace must be conspicuous to the beholders : He walks with God , who discovers something of God in his carriage ; he shines forth in a Bible-Conversation . 5. Walking with God , imports a continued progress in Grace ; it is not only a step , but a walk ; there is a going on towards perfection : A godly man doth not sit down in the middle of his way , but goes on till he comes at the † end of his Faith , 1 Pet. 1. 9. Though a good man may be extra semitam , yet not extra viam : He may through infirmity step aside ( as Peter did ) but he recovers himself by repentance , and goes on in a progress of holiness , Iob 17. 9. The righteous also shall hold on his way . Use 1. See from hence , how improper it is to call them godly , who do not walk with God : They would have Noahs Crown , but they do not love Noahs walk : Most are found in the Devils black walk , Phil. 3. 18. Many walk , of whom I tell you weeping , that they are the Enemies of the Cross of * Christ. 1. Some will commend walking with God , and say it is the rarest life in the world , but will not set one foot in the way ; all that commend Wine do not come up to the price ; many a Father commends virtue to his Childe , but doth not set him a pattern . 2. Others walk a few steps in the good old † way , but they retreat back again : If the ways of God were not good , why did they enter into them ? If they were good , why did they forsake them ? 2 Pet. 2. 21. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness , than after they have known it , to turn from the holy Commandment . 3. Others slander walking with God , that it is a melancholly walk , and such as are less zealous , are more prosperous ; this God accounts blasphemy , 2 Pet. 2. 2. The way of truth shall be evil spoken of : In the Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it shall be blasphemed . 4. Others deride walking with God , as if it were a way of foolish preciseness : What , you will be of the Holy Tribe ? You will be wiser than * others ? There are some persons , if it were in their power , would jeer Holiness out of the world : The Chair of the Scornful stands at the Mouth of † Hell. 5. Others instead of walking with God , walk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after the * flesh . 1. They walk by Fleshly Opinions . 2. They walk after Fleshly Lusts. 1. They walk by Fleshly Opinions . There are six of these . 1. That it is best to do as the most do , to steer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , after the course of the World ; to be in the Mode , not to get a new heart , but to get into a new fashion . 2 That Reason is the highest Judge and Umpire in matters of Religion ; we must beleeve no farther , than we can see ; for a man to become a fool that he may be wise , to be saved purely by the righteousness of another ▪ to keep all , by loosing all ; this the natural man will by no means put in his Creed . 3 That a little Religion will serve the turn ; the life-less form may in policy be kept up , but zeal is Frenzy ; the world thinks that religion to be best , which like leaf-gold , is spread very thin . 4 That way is not good , which is exposed to affliction , a stick , though it be straight , yet under water it seems crooked : So Religion , if it be under affliction , appears to a carnal eye crooked . 5 That all a mans care should be for the present ; as that prophane Cardinal said , he would leave his part in Paradise , to keep his Cardinalship in Paris . 6 That Sinning is better than Suffering ; 't is more discretion to keep the skin whole , than the Conscience pure : These are such Rules , as the Crooked Serpent hath found out , which whosoever walk by , shall not know Peace . 2 They walk after fleshly lusts , they do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 turn Caterers for the * flesh , Rom. 13. 14. such an one was the Emperour Heliogabalus , he so indulged the flesh , that he never sate but among sweet flowers , mixed with Amber and Musk ; he attired himself with Purple , set with precious stones ; he burned in his Lamps , instead of oyle , a costly Balsome brought from Arabia , very odoriferous ; he bathed himself in perfumed waters , he did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he put his body to no other use , but to be a strainer for meat and drink to run thorow . Thus Sinners walk after the flesh , if a drunken or unclean lust call , they gratifie it ; they brand all for cowards , who dare not sin after the same rate as they do . These instead of walking with God , walk contrary to him : Lust is the Compass they sail by , Satan is their Pilot , and Hell the Port they are bound for . Use 2 Let us try whether we have this Character of the godly , do we walk with God ? That may be known , 1 By the way we walk in ; it is a private retired way , wherein only some few holy ones walk : therefore it is called a Path-way , to distinguish it from the common road , Pro. 12. 28. In the path-way thereof is no death . 2 If we walk with God , then we walk in the fear of God , Gen. 5. 22. Enoch walked with God : The Chalde Version renders it , he walked in the fear of the Lord ; the godly are fearful of that which may displease God , Gen. 39. 9. How then can I do this great wickedness , and sin against God : this is not a base servile fear , but 1 A fear springing from affection , Hos. 3. 5. a childe fears to offend his father , out of the tender affection he bears to him : This made holy Anselm say , If Sin were on one side , and Hell on the other , I would rather leap into Hell , than willingly offend my God. 2 It is a fear joyned with affiance , Heb. 11. 7. By faith , Noah moved with fear : Faith and fear go hand in hand ; when the soul looks upon Gods holiness , he fears ; when he looks upon Gods promises , he beleeves : A godly man doth tremble , yet trust ; fear preserves reverence , faith preserves chearfulness ; fear keeps the soul from lightness , faith keeps it from overmuch sadness : By this we may know whether we walk with God , if we walk in the fear of God , we are fearful of infringing his Laws , and forfeiting his love : It is a brand set upon sinners , Rom. 3. 18. They have not the fear of God before their eyes . The godly fear and offend not , Psa. 4. 4. the wicked offend and fear not , Ierem. 5. 23 , 24. Loose and dissolute walking will soon estrange God from us , and make him weary of our company , 2 Cor. 6. 4. What communion hath light with darkness ? Use 2. Let me perswade all who would be accounted godly , to get into Noahs walk : Though the truth of grace be in the heart , yet the beauty of it is seen in the walk . 1. Walking with God is very pleasing to God : He that walks with God , declares to the world what is the company he loves most ; his fellowship is with the Father ; he counts those the sweetest hours which are spent with God ; this is very grateful and acceptable to God , Gen. 5. 24. Enock walked with God. And see how kindly God took this at Enocks hands , Heb. 11. 4. He had this testimony , that he pleased God. 2. Close walking with God , will be a good means to intice and allure others to walk with him . The Apostle exhorts Wives to walk so , that the Husbands might be won by the Conversation of the * Wives , 1 Pet. 3. 1. Iustin Martyr confessed he became a Christian , by beholding the holy and innocent lives of the Primitive † Saints . 3. Close walking with God , would put to silence the Adversaries of the Truth , 1 Pet. 2. 15. A loose carriage , puts a Sword into wicked mens hands to wound Religion : What a sad thing is it , when it shall be said of Professors , they are as proud , as coverous , as unjust as others : Will not this expose the ways of God to contempt ? But holy and close walking , would stop the mouths of sinners , that they should not be able to speak against Gods people , without giving themselves the lye . Satan came to Christ , and found nothing in him , Iohn 14. 30. What a confounding thing will it be to the wicked , when they shall have nothing to fasten as a crime upon the godly , but their holiness , Dan. 6. 5. We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel , unless we find it against him concerning the Law of his God. 4. Walking with God is a pleasant walk : The ways of Wisdome are called Pleasantness , Pro. 3. 17. Is not the light pleasant ? Psal. 89. 15. They shall walk ( O Lord , ) in the light of thy countenance . Walking with God , is like walking among Beds of * Spices , which send forth a fragrant perfume . This is it which brings peace , Act. 9. 31. Walking in the fear of the Lord , and in the joys of the Holy Ghost . While we walk with God , what sweet Musick doth the Bird of Conscience make in our breast ? Psal. 138. 5. They shall sing in the ways of the Lord. 5. Walking with God is honourable ; it is a credit for one of an inferiour rank to walk with a King : What greater dignity can be put upon a mortal man , than to converse with his Maker , and to take a turn with God every day . 6. Walking with God leads to rest , Heb. 4. 9. There remains a rest for the people of God. The Philosopher saith , Motion tends to * rest . Indeed there is a motion which doth not tend to rest ; they who walk with their sins shall never have rest , Re. 4. 8. They rest not day & night : But they that walk with God , shal sit down in the Kingdom of God , Luk. 13. 29. As a weary traveller when he comes home sits down and rests him , Rev. 3. 21. To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my Throne . A Throne denotes Honor , & sitting , denotes rest . 7. Walking with God is the most safe walking : Walking in the ways of sin , is like walking upon the edge of a River : The sinner treads upon the banks of the bottomless Pit , and if Death gives him a jogg , he tumbles in ; but it is safe going in Gods way , Pro. 3. 23. Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely : He walks safe , who walks with a Guard ; he that walks with God , shall have Gods Spirit to guard him from sin , and Gods Angels to guard him from danger , Psal. 91. 11. 8. Walking with God will make death sweet : It was Augustus his wish , that he might have an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a quiet easie death , without much pain . If any thing make our Pillow easie at death , it will be this , that we have walked with God in our Generation : Do we think walking with God can do us any hurt ? Did we ever hear any cry out upon their Death-bed , that they have been too holy , that they have prayed too much , or walked with God too much ? No , that which hath cut them to the heart , hath been this , that they have walked no more closely with God ; they have wrung their hands , and torn their hair , to think that they have been so bewitched with the pleasures of the World : Close walking with God , will make our Enemy ( Death ) to be at peace with us . King Ahashuerus , when he could not sleep , called for the Book of Records , and read in it , Esther 6. 1. So when the violence of sickness causeth sleep to depart from our eyes , and we can call for Conscience ( that Book of Records ) and find written in it , such a day we humbled our souls by fasting , such a day our hearts melted in prayer ; such a day we had sweet communion with God ; what a reviving will this be ? How may we look death in the face with comfort , and say , Lord , now take us up to thee in Heaven , where we have so often been by affection , let us now be by fruition . 9 Walking with God ; is the best way to know the minde of God ; friends who walk together , impart their secrets one to another , Psa. 25. 14. The secrets of the Lord , is with them that fear him . Noah walked with God , and the Lord revealed a great secret to him , of destroying the Old World , and saving him in the Ark. Abraham walked with God , Gen. 24. 40. and God made him one of his Privy-council , Gen. 18. 17. Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do ? God doth sometimes sweetly unbosome himself to the soul in Prayer , and in the holy Supper , as Christ made himself known to the Disciples , in the breaking of bread , Luk. 24. 35 10 They who walk with God , shall never be wholly left of God ; the Lord may retire himself for a time , to make his people cry after him the more , but he will not quite leave them , Isa. 54. 8. I hid my face for a moment , but with everlasting kindeness will I have mercy on thee . God will not cast off any of his old acquaintance , he will not part with one that hath born him company . Enoch walked with God , and he was not , for God took him , Gen. 5. 24. He took him up to heaven , as the Arabick renders it ; Enoch was lodged in the bosome of divine Love. Quest. How may we do to walk with God ? Answ. 1 Get out of the old road of sin ; hee that would walk in a pleasant meadow , must turn out of the road . The way of sin is full of Travellers , there are so many travelling in this road , that hell , though it be of a great circumference , is fain to enlarge it self , and make room for them , Isa. 5. 14. This way of sin seems pleasant , but the end is damnable . I have ( saith the Harlot ) perfumed my bed , with Mirrhe , Aloes , and Cinamon , Prov. 7. 17. See how with one sweet ( the Cinamon ) there were two bitters , Myrrhe , and Aloes : for that little sweet in sin at present , there will be a far greater proportion of bitterness afterwards : Therefore get out of these briars , you cannot walk with God and sin , 2 Cor. 6. 14. What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness ? 2 If you would walk with God , get acquaintance with him , Iob 22. 21. Acquaint now thy self with him . Know God in his attributes and promises ; strangers do not walk together . 3 Get all differences removed , Amos 3. 3. Can two walk together except they are agreed ? This agreement and reconciliation is made by faith , Rom. 3. 25. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation , through faith in his blood . When once we are friends , then we shall be called up to the Mount as Moses , and have this dignity conferred on us , to bee the favourites of heaven , and to walk with God. 4 If you would walk with God , get a liking to the vvaies of God : They are adorned vvith beauty , Prov. 4. 18. svveetned vvith pleasure , Prov. 3. 17. fenced vvith truth , Rev. 15. 3. accompanied vvith Life , Acts 2. 28. lengthned with eternity , Hab. 3. 6. be enamoured with the way of Religion , and you will soon walk in it . 5 If you would walk with God , take hold of his arm ; such as walk in their own strength , will soon grow weary and tire : Psal. 71. 16. I will go in the strength of the Lord God : We cannot walk with God , without God ; let us press him with his promise , Isa. 36. 27. I will cause you to walk in my statutes : If God take us by the hand , then we shall walk and not faint , Isa. 40. 31. SECT . XXIV . 24 He who is godly , labours to be an instrument of making others godly ; he is not content to go to heaven alone , but would bring others thither ; Spiders work only for themselves , but Bees work for others : A godly man is both a Diamond and a Load-stone ; a Diamond for the sparkling lustre of grace , and a Load-stone for his attractiveness , he is ever drawing others to the embracing of Piety : Living things have a propagating virtue ; where Religion lives in the heart , there will be an endeavour to propagate the life of grace , in those we converse with , Philemon v. 10. My son Onesimus , whom I have begotten in my bonds . Though God be the fountain of grace , yet the Saints are pipes to transmit living streams to others . This thirsty endeavour after the conversion of souls , proceeds , 1 From the nature of Godliness ; it is like fire , which assimilates and turns every thing into its own nature ; where there is the fire of grace in the heart , it will endeavour to inflame others ; grace is an holy leaven , which will be seasoning and leavening others with divine principles . Paul would fain have converted Agrippa ; how did he court him with Rhetorick ? Act. 26. 27. King Agrippa , beleevest thou the Prophets ? I know that thou beleevest : his Zeal and Eloquence had almost captivated the King , ver . 28. Then Agrippa said unto Paul , almost thou perswadest me to be a Christian. 2 A godly man attempts the conversion of others , out of a spirit of compassion : Grace makes the heart tender ; a godly man cannot chuse but pitty such as are in the gall of bitterness ; he sees what a deadly cup is a brewing for the wicked ; they must without repentance , be bound over to Gods wrath ; the fire which rained on Sodome , was but a painted fire , in comparison of hell-fire ; this is a fire with a vengeance , Iude 7. Suffering the Vengeance of eternal fire : now , a godly man seeing captive Sinners ready to be damned , labours to convert them from the errour of their way , 2 Cor. 5. 11. Knowing the terrour of the Lord , we perswade men . 3 A godly man endeavours the good of others , out of an holy zeal he bears to Christs glory ; the glory of Christ is dear to him , as his own salvation ; therefore that this may be promoted , he labours Summo conatu , to bring in souls to Christ. 'T is a glory to Christ , when multitudes are born to him ; every star adds a lustre to the sky , every convert , is a member added to Christs body , and a jewel adorning his Crown . Though Christs glory cannot be encreased , as he is God , yet as he is Mediatour , it may ; the more are saved , the more Christ is exalted ; why else should the Angels rejoyce at the Conversion of a † Sinner ? but because now Christs glory shines the more . Use 1. This excludes them from the number of godly , who are spiritual Eunuchs , they labour not to promote the Salvation of others . Nascitur indignè per quem non nascitur alter . — Did men love Christ , they would endeavour to draw as many as they could to him . He who loves his Captain , will perswade others to come under his Banner ; this unmasks the hypocrite . Though an hypocrite may make a show of Grace himself , yet he never minds the procuring Grace in others ; he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without bowels . I may allude to that , Zac. 11. 9. That which dies , let it die , and that which is cut off , let it be cut off . Let souls go to the Devil , he cares not . 2. How far are they from being godly , who instead of endeavouring Grace in others , labour to destroy all hopeful beginnings of Grace in them ? Instead of drawing them to Christ , they draw them from Christ ; their work is to poyson and mischief souls : This mischieving of souls is three ways . 1. By evil Edicts : So Jeroboam made Israel sin , 1 King. 17. 26. He forced them to Idolatry . 2. By evil Examples : Examples speak louder than Precepts ; but principally the examples of great ones are influential : Men placed on high , are like the Pillar of Cloud , when that went , Israel went : If great ones move irregularly , others will follow after . 3. By evil Company ; the breath of sinners is * infectious ; they are like the Dragon which cast a floud out of his mouth , Revel . 12. 15. They cast a floud of oaths out of their mouth : Wicked tongues are set on fire of Hell , Iam. 3. 6. The sinner finds Match and Powder , and the Devil finds fire : The wicked are ever setting snares , and temptations before others ; as the Prophet speaks in another sense , Ier. 35. 5. I set pots full of wine , and cups , and said unto them drink . So the wicked set pots of Wine before others , and make them drink till Reason be stupified , and Lust inflamed : These are prodigiously wicked , who make men Proselites to the Devil : How sad will their doom be , who besides their own sins , have the bloud of others to answer for ? 3. If it be the sign of a godly man to promote Grace in others , then much more ought he to promote it in his neer Relations . A godly man will be careful that his Children should know God ; he would be sorry that any of his flesh should burn in hell ; he labours to see Christ formed in them , who are himself in another Edition . Austin saith , That his Mother Monica travelled with greater care and pain for his Spiritual Birth , than for his † Natural . The time of Childhood is the fittest time to be sowing seeds of Religion in our Children , Isa. 28. 9. Whom shall he make understand Doctrine ? Them that are weaned from the milk , that are drawn from the breasts . The Wax , while it is soft and tender , will take any impression : Children while they are young will fear a reproof , when they are old they will hate it , 1. It is pleasing to God that our Children should know him betimes : When you come into a garden , you love to pluck the young bud , and smell to it ; God loves a Saint in the bud ; of all the Trees the Lord made choice of in a Prophetical Vision , it was the Almond Tree , which blossomes one of the first of the * Trees : Such an Almond Tree is an early Convert . 2. By endeavouring to bring up our Children in the fear of the Lord , we shall provide for Gods glory when we are † dead . A godly man should not only honor God while he lives , but do something that may promote Gods glory when he is dead : Our Children being seasoned with gracious Principles , will stand up in our room , when we are gone , and will glorifie God in their generation . A good piece of ground doth not only bear a fore-crop , but an after-crop ; he that is godly , doth not only bear God a crop of obedience himself while he lives , but by principling his Childe with Religion , he bears God an after-crop when he is dead . Use 2. Let all who have Gods Name named upon them , do what in them lies to advance Piety in others : A Knife touched with a Loadstone will draw the Needle ; he whose heart is divinely touched with the Loadstone of Gods Spirit , will endeavour to draw those who are neer him to Christ : The Heathen could say , We are not born for our selves * only . The more excellent any thing is , the more communicative ; in the body every member is diffusive , the eye conveys light , the head spirits , the liver bloud ; a Christian must not move altogether within his own circle , but endeavour the welfare of † others : To be diffusively good , makes us resemble God , whose sacred influence is universal . And surely it will be no grief of heart , when Conscience can witness for us , that we have brought glory to God in this manner , by labouring to fill heaven . Not that this is any ways Meritorious , or hath any causal influence upon our Salvation . Christs bloud is the cause ; but our promoting Gods glory in the Conversion of others , is a signal evidence of our Salvation : As the Rain-bow is not a cause why God will not drown the World , but it is a sign that he will not drown it ; or as Rahabs Scarlet thread she hung out of the * window , was not a cause why she was exempted from destruction , but it was a sign of her being exempted ; so our building up others in the Faith , is not a cause why we are saved , but it is a Symbole of our Piety , and a presage of our felicity . And thus I have shown the Marks and Characters of a godly man. If a person thus described be reputed a Phanatick , then Abraham , and Moses , and David , and Paul , were Phanaticks , which I think none will dare to affirm , but Atheists . CHAP. V. Containing two Conclusions . COncerning the Characteristical signs , afore-mentioned , I shall lay down two Conclusions . 1 These Characters are a Christians box of evidences ; for as an impenitent sinner hath the signs of reprobation upon him , whereby , as by so many spots and tokens , he may know he shall dye ; so he who can shew these happy signs of a godly man , may see the Symptomes of Salvation in his Soul , and may know he is passed from death to life ; he is as sure to go to heaven , as if he were in heaven already ; such a person is undoubtedly a member of Christ , and if he should perish , then something of Christ might perish . These blessed Characters , may comfort a Christian under all worldly dejections , and Diabolical suggestions ; Satan tempts a Childe of God with this , that he is an hypocrite , and hath no title to the Land of promise ; a Christian may pull out these evidences , and put the Devil to prove , that ever any wicked man or hypocrite , had such a fair Certificate to shew for heaven : Satan may sooner prove himself a lyar , than the Saint an hypocrite . 2 He who hath one of these Characters in truth , hath seminally all , he who hath one link of a Chain , hath the whole Chain . Object . But may a Childe of God say , either I have not all these Characters , or they are so weakly wrought in me , that I cannot discern them ? Answ. To satisfie this scruple , you must diligently observe the distinctions the Scripture gives of Christians ; it casts them into several classes and orders ; some are infantuli , little children , who are but newly laid to the breast of the Gospel ; others are adulti , Young men , who are grown up to more maturity of Grace ; others are patres , Fathers , who are ready to take their degree of Glory , 1 Iohn 2. 12. 13 , 4. Now , you who are but in the first rank or classis , yet you may have the vitals of Godliness , as well as those who have arrived at an higher stature in Christ : the Scripture speaks of the Cedar , and the bruised Reed , the last of which is as true a Plant of the heavenly Paradise , as the other ; so that the weakest ought not to be discouraged ; all have not these characters of godliness written in Text-Letters , if they be but dimly stamped upon their souls , God can read the work of his spirit there . Though the seal be but weakly set upon the wax , it ratifies the will , and gives a real conveyance of an estate : If there be found but some good thing towards the Lord ( as it was said of Abijah ) God will accept it . CHAP. VI. Containing the first Vse , Exhorting all to become Godly . Use 1 FRom all that hath been said , I would draw three great Uses . First , Such as are still in their natural estate , who never yet did relish any sweetness in the things of God ; let me beseech them in the bowels of Christ , that they would labour to get these Characters of the Godly , engraven upon their hearts ; though godliness be the object of the worlds scorn and ha●ed ( as in Tertullians daies , the name of a Christian was a * crime ) yet be not ashamed to espouse godliness ; know , that persecuted godliness , is better than prosperous wickedness ; what will all the world avail a man , without godliness ? To be learned and ungodly , is like a Devil transformed into an Angel of light ; to be beautiful and ungodly , is like a fair picture hung in an infected room ; to be honourable in the world and ungodly , is like an Ape in purple , or like that Image , which had an head of gold upon feet of clay ; 't is godliness , that en-nobles and consecrates the heart , making God and Angels fall in love with it . Labour for the reality of godliness , rest not in the common workings of Gods spirit ; think not that it is enough to be intelligent and discurive , a man may discourse of Religion to the admiration of others , yet not feel the sweetness of those things in his own Soul : the Lute gives a melodious sound to others , but is not at all sensible of the sound it self ; Iudas could make an elegant discourse of Christ , but did not feel vertue from him . Rest not in having your affections a little stirred ; an hypocrite may have affections of sorrow , as Ahab ; affections of desire , as Balaam , these are sleight and flashy , and do not amount to real godliness . Oh I labour to be as the Kings daughter , glorious within , Psa. 45. 13. That I may perswade the sons of men to become godly , I shall lay down some forcible Motives and Arguments , and the Lord make them as nails fastened by his spirit . 1 Let men seriously weigh their misery , while they remain in a state of ungodliness ; which may make them hasten out of this Sodome : the misery of ungodly men appears in nine particulars . 1 They are in a state of death , Eph. 2. 1. dead in * Trespasses : dead they must needs be , who are cut off from Christ , the principle of life ; for as the body without the soul is dead , so is the soul without Christ. This spiritual death is visible in the effect , it bereaves men of their senses : sinners have no sense of God in them , Ephe. 4. 19. who being without feeling : all their moral endowments , are but strewing flowers upon a dead corpse ; and what is hell , but a sepulchre to bury the dead in . 2 Their offerings are polluted ; not only the * Ploughing , but the praying of the wicked is sin , Prov. 15. 8. The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord : If the water be foul in the well , it cannot be clean in the bucket ; if the heart be full of sin , the duties cannot be pure : In what a strait is every ungodly person , if he doth not come to the Ordinance , he is a contemner of it , if he doth come , hee is a defiler of it . 3. Such as live and die ungodly , have no right to the Covenant of Grace , Eph. 2. 12. At that time ye were without Christ , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , strangers from the Covenants of Promise . And to be without Covenant , is to be like one in the old World , without an Ark. The Covenant is the Gospel-Charter , which is enriched with many glorious priviledges , but who may plead the benefit of this Covenant ? Surely only such whose hearts are in-laid with grace . Read the Charter , Ezek. 36. 26. A new heart will I give you , and I will put my spirit within you : Then it follows , ver . 28. I will be your God. A person dying in his ungodliness , hath no more to do with the New Covenant , than a Ploughman hath to do with the priviledges of a Corporation . Gods Writing is always before his Seal , 2 Cor. 3. 3. Ye are declared to be the Epistle of Christ , written not with ink , but with the spirit of the living God , not in Tables of stone , but in fleshy Tables of the heart . Here is a golden Epistle , the writing is the work of Faith , the Table it is written in , is the heart , the finger that writes it is the spirit : Now , after the Spirits writing , follows the Spirits sealing , Ephes. 1. 13. After ye believed ye were sealed with the Spirit ; that is , ye were sealed up to an assurance of glory : What have ungodly men to do with the seal of the Covenant , who have not the writing ? 4. The ungodly are spiritual fools ; Psalm 75. 4. I said to the fools deal not foolishly , and to the wicked , lift not up the * horn . If one had a Childe very beautiful , yet if he were a fool , the Parent would take little joy in him : The Scripture hath dressed the Sinner in a Fools Coat ; and let me tell you , better be a fool void of Reason , than a fool void of Grace : This is the Devils fool , Pro. 14. 9. Is not he a fool who refuseth a rich portion ? God offers Christ and Salvation , but the Sinner refuseth this portion , Psal. 81. 11. Israel would none of me . Is not he a fool who prefers an Annuity before an Inheritance ? Is not he a fool who tends his mortal part , and neglects his Angelical part ? As if one should paint the wall of his house , and let the Timber rot : Is not he a fool who will feed the Devil with his Soul ? As that Emperour who fed his Lion with † Feasant : Is not he a fool who lays a snare for himself ? Pro. 1. 18. Who consults his own shame , Hab. 2. 10. who loves death , Pro. 8. 36. 5. The ungodly are vile persons , Nahum . ● 14. I will make thy grave , for thou art vile . 〈…〉 men base , it blots their name , it taints their bloud , Psal. 14. 3. They are altogether become filthy : In the Hebrew it is , rancidi facti sunt , they are become * stinking . Call wicked men never so bad , you cannot call them out of their name ; they are swine , † Mat. 7. 6. Vipers , Mat. 3. 7. Devils , Iohn 6. 70. The wicked are scoria & gluma , the dross and refuse , Psalm 119. 119. And heaven is too pure to have any dross mingle with it . 6. Their Temporal Mercies are continued in Judgement : The wicked may have health and estate , yea more than heart can wish , Psa. 73. 7. But their Table is a snare , Psa. 69. 2● . Sinners have their mercies with Gods leave , but not with his love : The people of Israel had better been without their Quails , than to have had such sowre sawce . The ungodly are Usurpers , they want a spiritual Title to what they possess ; their good things are like cloath taken up at the Drapers , which is not paid for ; death will bring in a sad reckoning at last . 7. Their Temporal Judgements are not removed in Mercy : Pharaoh had ten Arrows shot at him ( ten Plagues ) and all those Plagues were removed , but his heart remaini●g hard those Plagues were not removed in Mercy ; it was not a preservation ▪ but a reservation : God reserved him for a signal Monument of his Justice , when he was drowned in the depth of the Sea : God may reprieve mens persons when he doth not remit their sins : The wicked may have sparing Mercy , but not saving Mercy . 8. The ungodly while they live are exposed to the wrath of God , Ioh. 3. 36. He that believeth not , the wrath of God abideth on him . He who wants Grace , is like one who wants a pardon , he is every hour in fear of Execution : How can a wicked man rejoyce ? Over his head the Sword of Gods Justice hangs , and under him hell fire burns . 9. The ungodly at death must undergo Gods fury and indignation , Psal. 9. 17. The wicked shall be turned into hell . I have read of a Loadstone in Aethiopia , which hath two * corners , with one it draws the iron to it , with the other it puts the iron from it : So God hath two hands , of Mercy and Justice , with the one he will draw the godly to heaven , with the other he will thrust the sinner to hell : And O how dreadful is that place ! It is called a fiery † lake , Rev. 20. 15. A lake , to denote the plenty of Torments in hell ; a fiery lake , to show the fierceness of them : Fire is the most torturing Element . Strabo in his Geography mentions a Lake in Galilee , of such a pestiferous nature , that it scaldeth off the skin of whatsoever is cast into it : But alas , that Lake is cool , compared with this fiery Lake , into which the damned are thrown . To demonstrate this fire terrible , there are two most pernicious qualities in it . 1. It is Sulphureous , it is mixed with brimstone , Revel . 21. 8. which is unsavoury and suffocating . 2. It is unextinguishable ; though the wicked shall be choaked in the flames , yet not consumed , Revel . 20. 10. And the Devil was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone , where the Beast and the False Prophet * are , and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever . Behold the deplorable condition of all ungodly ones , in the other world , they shall have a life that always dies , and a death that always lives : May not this affright men out of their sins , and make them become godly , unless they are resolved to try how hot hell fire is ? 2. What rare persons the godly are , Pro. 12. 26. The righteous is more excellent than his Neighbour . As the Flower of the Sun , as the Wine of Lebanon , as the sparkling upon Aarons Breast-plate , such is the Orient splendor of a person imbellished with godliness : The exce●lency of the persons of the godly , appears in seven particulars . 1. They are precious ; therefore they are set apart for God , Psal. 4. 3. Know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself : We set apart things that are precious ; the godly are set apart as Gods peculiar treasure , Psa. 135. 4. As his garden of delight , Cant. 4. 12. As his Royal Diadem , Isa. 62. 3. The godly are the excellent of the earth , Psa. 16. 2. Comparable to fine gold , Lam. 4. 2. Double refined , Zach. 13. 9. They are the glory of the Creation , Isa. 46. 13. Origen compares the Saints to Saphires and * Christal : God calls them Iewels , Mal. 3. 17. They are so : 1. For their value ; Diamonds ( saith Pliny ) were not known a long time but among Princes , and were hung upon their Diadem : God doth so value his people , that he will give Kingdomes for their ransome , Isa. 43. 5. He laid his best Jewel to pawn for them , Ioh. 3. 6. 2. They are Jewels for their lustre : If one Pearl of grace doth shine so bright that it doth delight Christs heart , Cant. 4. 9. Thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes ; that is , one of thy Graces : Then how illustrious are all the Graces met in a Constellation ? 2. The godly are honourable , Isa. 43. 4. Thou hast been * honourable : The godly are a Crown of glory in the hand of God , Isa. 62. 3. They are plants of Renown , Ezek. 16. 14. They are not only Vessels of Mercy , but Vessels of Honour , 2 Tim. 2. 21. Aristotle calls Honor , the chief good † thing . The godly are neer a Kin to the blessed Trinity , they have the Tutelage and Guardianship of Angels ; they have Gods Name written upon them , Revel . 3. 12. and the Holy Ghost dwelling in them , 2 Tim. 1. 14. The godly are a sacred Priesthood ; the Priesthood under the Law was honourable ; the Kings Daughter was wife to Iehoiada the Priest , 2 Chron. 22. 11. It was a custome among the Egyptians , to have their Kings chosen out of their Priests : The Saints are a Divine Priesthood to offer up spritiual sacrifices , 1 Pet. 2. 9. They are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Coheirs with Christ , Rom. 8. 17. They are Kings , Rev. 1. 6. Novarinus relates of an antient King who invited a Company of poor Christians , and made them a great Feast , and being asked why he showed so much respect to persons of such mean birth and Extract , he told them , these I must honour as the Children of the most high God , they will be Kings and Princes with me in another world . The godly are in some sense higher than the Angels , the Angels are Christs friends , these are his spouse ; the Angels are called morning-stars , Iob 38. 7. but the Saints are clothed with the Sun of righteousness , Rev. 12. 1. all men saith * Chrysostome , are ambitious of honour ; behold then the honour of the godly ! Prov. 7. 8. Wisdome is the principal thing , therefore get wisdome , exalt her , and she shall promote thee , she shall bring thee to honour , when thou dost embrace her : The Trophies of the Saints renown , will be erected in another world . — Famaque post cineres major — 3 The godly are beloved of God , Psal. 47. 4. The excellency of Iacob whom he loved : An holy heart , is the garden where God plants the flower of his love : Gods love to his people is an antient love , it bears date from eternity , Ephe. 1. 4. he loves them with a choice distinguishing love , they are the dearly beloved of his soul , Ier. 12. 7. The men of the world have bounty dropping from Gods fingers , but the godly have love dropping from Gods heart ; he gives the one a golden cup ; the other a golden kiss ; he loves the godly , as he loves Christ , Iohn 17. 26. it is the same love for kinde , though not for degree : here the Saints do but pitissare , sip of Gods love , in heaven they shall drink of Rivers of pleasure , Psa. 36. 8. And this love of God is permanent ; death may take away their life from them , but not Gods love from them , Ier. 31. 4. I have loved thee with a love of * perpetuity . 4 The godly are prudent persons , they have good Insight and Foresight . 1 They have good insight , 1 Cor. 2. 10. He that is spiritual judgeth all things : the godly have insight into Persons and Things . 1 They have insight into persons , they have the anointing of God , and by a spirit of discerning , they can see some difference between the precious and the vile , Ier. 15. 19. Gods people are not censorious , but they are juditious ; they can see a wanton heart , through a naked breast , and a spotted face ; they can see a revengeful spirit , through a bitter tongue ; they can guess at the Tree by the fruit , Mat. 12. 33. They can see the Plague-tokens of sin , appear in the wicked , which makes them remove from the tents of those sinners , Num. 16. 26. 2 The godly have insight into Things Mysterious . 1 They can see much of the mystery of their own hearts : Take the greatest Politician , who understands the mysteries of state , yet he doth not understand the mystery of his own heart ; you shall sometimes hear him swear , his heart is good ; but a Childe of God sees much heart-corruption , 1 King. 8. 38. though some flowers of grace grow there , yet he sees how fast the weeds of sin grow , therefore is continually weeding his heart by repentance and mortification . 2 The godly can discern the mystery of the times , 1 Chron. 12. 32. The children of Issachar were men that had understanding of the times : The godly can see when an age runs dregs , when Gods name is dishonoured , his messengers despised , his Gospel ecclipsed ; the people of God labour to keep their garments pure , Rev. 16. 15. their care is , that the times may not be the worse for them , nor they the worse for the times . 3 The godly understand the mystery of living by faith , Heb. 10. 38. The just shall live by faith : they can trust God , where they cannot trace him ; they can fetch comfort out of a promise , as Moses did water out of the rock : Hab. 3. 17. Though the Fig-tree doth not blossome , yet I will rejoyce in the Lord. 2 The godly have good foresight : 1 They foresee the evil of a Temptation , 2 Cor. 2. 11. We are not ignorant of his devices ; The wicked swallow temptations like Pills , and when it is too late , feel these Pills gripe their Conscience ; but the godly fore-see a Temptation and will not come near ; they see a snake under the green grass , they know Satans kindness , is craftiness ; hee doth as I●phtha's daughter , he brings forth the Timbrel , and danceth before men with a temptation , and then brings them very low , Iudg. 11. 35. 2. The godly fore-see temporal dangers , Pro. 22. 3. A prudent man foreseeth the evil , and hideth himself . The people of God see when the Cloud of wrath is ready to drop upon a Nation , and they get into their Chambers , Isa. 26. 20. The Attributes and Promises of God ; and into the clifts of the Rock , the bleeding wounds of Christ , and hide themselves ; well therefore may they be baptized with the name of Wise Virgins . 5. The godly are the bull-wark of a Nation , 2 Kin. 2. 12. O my Father , the Chariots of Israel , and the horsemen thereof . The godly are the Pillers to keep a City and Nation from falling ; they stave off Judgement from a Land : It was said of old , so long as Hector lived , Troy could not be demolished : God could do nothing to Sodom till Lot was gone out of it , Genesis 19. 22. Golden Christians are Brazen Walls . The Lord would soon break up house in the world , were it not for the sakes of a few Religious ones : Would God ( think we ) preserve the world only for Drunkards and Swearers ? He would soon sink the Ship of Church and State , but that some of his Elect are in it : Yet such is the indiscretion of men as to injure the Saints , and to count them burdens which are the chief * blessings . 6. The godly are of a brave Heroick spirit , Numb . 14. 24. My servant Caleb , because he had another spirit . An excellent spirit was found in Daniel , Cap. 5. 12. The godly hate that which is base and sordid , they will not inrich their purses by inslaving their Consciences ; they are Noble and couragious in Gods Cause , Pro. 28. 1. The righteous are bold as a Lion. The Saints live suitably to their high birth , they breathe after Gods love , they aspire after glory , they set their feet where worldly men set their heart ; they display the Banner of the Gospel , lifting up Christs Name and interest in the world . 7. The godly are happy persons : King Balak sent to curse the people of God , but the Lord would not suffer it , Numb . 22. 12. God said unto Balaam , thou shalt not curse the people , for they are blessed : And Moses afterwards records it as a thing memorable , that that intended Curse of the King , God did convert into a blessing , Deut. 23. 5. The Lord thy God turned the curse into a blessing unto thee . They must needs be happy who are always on the strongest side , Psa. 118. 6. The Lord is on my side : they are happy who have all conditions sanctified to them , Rom. 8. 28. Who are crowned with peace while they live , Psa. 119. 165. and with glory when they die , Psal. 73. 24. And may not this tempt all to become godly ? Deut. 33. 29. Happy art thou , O Israel ; a people saved by the Lord. 3. To endeavour after godliness , is most rational . 1. It is the highest act of Reason , for a man to become another man : If while he remains in Natures Soil , he is poysoned with sin , no more actually fit for communion with God , than a Toad is fit to be made an Angel , then it is very consonant to Reason , that he should endeavour after a change . 2. It is rational , because this change is for the better , Eph. 5. 8. Now are yee light in the Lord. Will not any man be willing to exchange a dark prison for a Kings Palace ? Will he not change away his brass for gold ? Thou that becomest godly ▪ changest for the better ; thou changest thy pride for humility , thy uncleanness for holiness ; thou changest a lust that will damn thee for a Christ that will save thee : Were not men besotted , had not their fall beat off their head-piece , they would see it were the most rational thing in the world to become godly . 4. The excellency of godliness . Auro quid melius ? jaspis , quid jaspide ? virtus . The excellency of godliness appears several ways . 1. Godliness is our spiritual beauty , Psa. 110. 3. The beauties of holiness : Godliness is to the soul as the light to the world , to illustrate and adorn it : 'T is not greatness sets us off in Gods eye , but goodness : What is the beauty of the Angels but their sanctity ? Godliness is the curious imbroidery and workmanship of the Holy Ghost : A soul furnished with godliness , is damask'd with beauty , it is enamell'd with purity , this is the cloathing of wrought gold , which makes the King of heaven fall in love with us : were there not an excellency in holiness , the hypocrite would never go about to paint it : Godliness sheds a glory and lustre upon the Saints : What are the Graces , but the golden feathers in which Christs Dove * shines ? 2. Godliness is our defence : Grace is called the Armour of Light , Rom. 13. 12. It is light for beauty , and armour for defence . A Christian hath armour of Gods making , which cannot be shot thorow ; he hath the Shield of Faith , the Helmet of Hope , the Breast-plate of Righteousness ; this is armour of proof , which defends against the assaults of temptation , and the terrour of † hell . 3 Godliness breeds solid peace , Psa. 119. 165. Great peace have they that love thy Law. Godlines composeth the heart , making it sedate and calm , like the upper Region , where there are no winds and tempests . How can that heart be unquiet where the Prince of Peace dwells , Col. 1. 27. Christ in you . An holy heart may be compared to the doors of Solomons Temple , 1 Kin. 6. 32. which were made of Olive-tree , carved with open Flowers . There is the Olive of peace , and the open Flowers of joy in that heart : godlines doth not destroy a Christians mirth , but refine it ; his Rose is without prickles , his wine without froth ; he must needs be full of joy and peace , who is a favourite of heaven ; he may truly sing a Requiem to his soul , and say , Soul take thy * ●ase . King Ptolomy asked one how he might be in rest when he dreamed ? He replied , Let piety be the scope of all thy actions : If one should ask me how he should be in rest when he is awake ? I would return the like answer , Let his soul be in-laid with godliness . 4. Godliness is the best Trade we can drive , it brings profit ; wicked men say , It is vain to serve God , and what profit is it ? Mal. 3. 14. To be sure there is no profit in sin , Pro. 10. 2. Treasures of wickedness profit nothing . But , godliness is profitable , 1 Tim. 4. 8. It is like digging in a gold Mine , where there is gain as well as toil : godliness makes God himself over to us as a portion , Psa. 16. 5. The Lord is the portion of my Inheritance : If God be our portion , all our estate lies in Jewels ; where God gives himself , he gives every thing else ; he who hath the Mannor hath all the Royalties belonging to it : God is a portion that can neither be spent nor lost , Psa. 26. 73. Thus we see godliness is a thriving Trade . And as godliness brings profit with it , so it is profitable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for all things , 1 Tim. 4. 8. What is so besides godliness ? Food will not give a man wisdome , gold will not give him health , honor will not give him beauty ; but godliness is useful for all things , it fenceth off all troubles , it supplies all wants , it makes soul and body compleatly happy . 5. Godliness is an enduring substance , it knows no fall of the leaf . All worldly delights have a Deaths-Head set upon them ; they are but shadows , and they are flying : Earthly comforts are like Pauls friends , who brought him to the Ship , and there left him , Acts 20. 38. So these will bring a man to his grave , and then take their farewell ; but godliness is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a possession we cannot be robbed of , it runs parallel with Eternity ; force cannot weaken it , age cannot wither it ; it out-braves sufferings , it our-lives death , Pro. 10. ● . Death may pluck the stalk of the body , but the Flower of grace is not hurt . — numquam stygias fertur ad umbras inclyta virtus . 6 Godliness is so excellent , that the worst men would have it when they are going hence ; though at present godliness be despised , and under a cloud , yet at death all would be godly : A Philosopher asking a young man , whether he would be rich Croesus , or virtuous Socrates ? answered , he would live with Croesus , and dye with Socrates : So men would live with the wicked in pleasure , but dye with the godly , Numb . 23. 10. Let me dye the death of the righteous , and let my end bee like his : If then godliness be so desirable at death , why should we not pursue after it now ? godliness is as needful now , and would bee more feasible . 5 There are but few godly ; they are as the gleanings after vintage ; most receive the Mark of the Beast , Rev. 13. 17. The Devil keeps open house for all comers , and hee is never without ghuests ; this may prevail with us to be godly , if the number of the Saints be so small , how should we labour to be found among these pearls ? Rom. 9. 27. but a remnant shall be saved : it is better going to Heaven with a few , than to Hell in the crowd . 6 Consider how vain and contemptible other things are , about which , persons void of godliness busie themselves ; men are taken up about the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things of this life , and what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind ? Eccles. 5. 16. can the winde fill ? what is gold but dust ? Amos 2. 8. which will sooner choak , than satisfie : pull off the mask of the most beautiful thing under the Sun , and look what is within , there is care and vexation ; and the greatest care is yet behinde , and that is account : The things of the world , are but as a bubble in the water , or a Meteor in the air . But godliness hath a real worth in it , if you speak of true honour , it is to be born of God ; if of true valour , it is to fight the good fight of faith ; if of true delight , it is to have joy in the Holy ghost . Oh then espouse godliness ! here is reallity to be had ; of other things , we may say as Zac. 10. 2. They comfort in vain . CHAP. VII . Prescribing some helps to Godliness . Quest. But what shall we do that we may be godly ? Answ. I shall briefly lay down some rules or helps to godliness . 1 Be diligent in the use of all means , that may promote godliness , Luke 13. 24. strive to enter in at the straight gate : what is purpose without pursuit ? when you have made your estimate of godliness , prosecute those mediums which are most expedient for obtaining it . 2 If you would be godly , take heed of the world ; 't is hard for a clod of dust to become a star , 1 Ioh. 2. 15. love not the world : many would be godly , but the honours and profits of the world divert them ; where the world fills both head and heart , there is no room for Christ ; he whose minde is rooted in the earth , is likely enough to deride godliness ; when our Saviour was preaching against sin , the Pharisees , who were covetous , derided him , Luk. 16. 14. The world eats out the heart of godliness , as the lvy eats out the heart of the Oak ; the world kills with her silver darts . 3 Inure your selves to holy thoughts ; serious meditation , represents every thing in its native colour ; it shews an evil in sin , and a lustre in grace . By holy thoughts , the head grows clearer , and the heart better , Psa. 119. 59. I thought on my waies , and turned my feet unto thy testimonies : Did men step aside a little out of the noise and hurry of business , and spend but half an hour every day , in thinking upon their souls , and eternity , it would produce a wonderful alteration in them , and tend very much to a real and blessed conversion . 4 Watch your hearts ; it was Christs watch-word to his Disciples , Mat. 24. 42. Watch therefore ; the heart will praecipitate us to sin , before we are aware ; a subtil heart , needs a watchful eye ; watch your thoughts , your affections ; the heart hath a thousand doors to run out at : O keep close sentinel in your souls ! stand continually upon your Watch-tower , Hab. 2. 1. when you have prayed against sin , watch against * tentation ; most wickedness in the world , is committed for want of watchfulness ; watchfulness maintains godliness , it is the selvedge which keeps religion from ravelling out . 5 Make Conscience of spending your time , Eph. 5. 16. redeeming the time : Many persons fool away their * time ; some in idle visits , others in recreations and pleasures , which secretly bewitch the heart , and take it off from better things : What are our golden hours for but to mind our souls ? Time mis-improved , is not time lived , but time lost . Time is a precious commodity ; a peece of wax in it self , is not much worth , but as it is affixed to the label of a Will , and conveyes an estate , so it is of great value : Thus time , simply in it self , is not so considerable , but as salvation is to be wrought out in it , and a conveyance of heaven depends upon the well improvement of it , so it is of infinite concernment . 6 Think of your short stay in the world , 1 Chron. 29. 15. Our daies on the Earth are as a shaddow , and there is none abiding . There is but a span between the Cradle and the Grave : Solomon saith , there is a time to bee born , and a time to dye , Eccles. 3. 2. but mentions no time of living , as if that were so short , it were not worth naming ; and time , when it is once gone , cannot be recalled ; the Scripture compares time to a flying Eagle , Io● 9. 6. — yet , herein time differs from the Eagle , the Eagle flies forward , and then back again , but time hath wings only to fly forward , it never returns back . — fugit irrevocabile tempus — The serious thoughts of our short abode here , would be a great means to promote godliness ; what if death should come before we are ready ? what if our life should breathe out , before Gods spirit hath breathed in ? he that considers how flitting and winged his life is , will hasten his repentance ; when God is about to make a short work , he will not make a long work . 7 Possess your selves with this maxim , that godliness is the end of your Creation ; God never sent men into the world , only to eat and drink ▪ and put on fine cloathes , but that they might serve him in righteousness and holiness , Luk. 1. 75. God made the world only as an attiring room , to dress our souls in ; he sent us hither upon the grand errand of godliness ; should nothing but the body ( the bruitish part ) bee looked after , this were basely to degenerate , yea , to invert and frustrate the very end of our being . 8. Be often among the godly ; they are the salt of the earth , and will help to season * you . Their counsels may direct their prayers may quicken : Such holy sparks may be thrown into your breasts , as may inkindle devotion in you : It is good to be among the Saints to learn the trade of godliness , Pro. 13. 20. He that walketh with wise men shall be wise . CHAP. VIII . Exhorting such as have made a Profession of Godliness , to persevere . Use 2. MY next Use is to exhort those who wear the Mantle , and in the judgement of others are looked upon as godly , that they would † persevere , Heb. 10. 23. Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith. This is a seasonable Exhortation in these times , when the Devils Factors are abroad , whose whole work is to unsettle people , and make them fall off from that former strictness in Religion which they have professed : 'T is much to be lamented to see Christians 1. Wavering in Religion : How many do we see desultorii ingenii , unresolved and unsteady : Like Reuben , unstable as water , Gen. 49. 4. These the Apostle fitly compares to waves of the Sea , and wandring Stars , Iude 13. They are not fixed in the principles of godliness . Beza writes of one Bolsechus , his Religion changed like the * Moon : Such were the Ebionites , who kept the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian : Many Professors are like the River Euripus , ebbing and flowing in matters of Religion ; they are like reeds , bending every way , either to the Mass or the † Alchoran : They are like the Planet Mercury , which doth vary , and is seldome constant in its motion : When men think of heaven , and the recompence of reward , then they will be godly ; but when they think of Persecution , then they are like the Jews , who deserted Christ , and walked no more with him , Iohn 6. 66. Did mens faces alter as fast as their Opinions , we should not know them : to be thus vacillant and wavering in Religion , argues lightness : Feathers are blown any way , so are feathery Christians . 2. 'T is to be lamented to see men fall from that godliness which once they seemed to have ; they are turned to worldliness and wantonness , the very mantle of their Profession is fallen off ; and indeed if they were not fixed stars , it is no wonder to see them falling stars . This spiritual Epilepsie , or falling-sickness , was never more rife ; this is a dreadful sin , for men to fall from that godliness they-seemed once to have . Chrysostom saith , Apostates are worse than they who are openly flagitious , they bring an evil report upon godliness : The Apostate ( saith Tertullian ) seems to put God and Satan in the ballance , and having weighed both their services , prefers the Devils service , and proclaims him to be the best Master , in which respect the Apostate is said to put Christ to open shame , He. 6. 6 This will be bitter in the end , Heb. 10. 38. What a worm did Spira feel in his Conscience ? How did Stephen Gardiner cry out in horror of mind upon his Death-bed , that he had denied his Master with Peter , but he had not repented with Peter . That we may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , stedfast in godliness , and persevere , let us do two things . 1. Let us take heed of those things which will make us by degrees fall off from our profession . 1. Let us beware of covetousness , 2 Tim. 3. 2. Men shall be covetous , ver . 5. Having a form of godliness , but denying the power . One of Christs own Apostles was caught with a silver bait : Covetousness will make a man betray a good cause , and make shipwrack of a good Conscience . I have read of some in the time of the Emperour Valens , who denied the Christian Faith , to prevent the confiscation of their goods . 2. Beware of unbelief , Heb. 3. 12. Take heed least there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief , in departing from the living God. No evil like an evil heart , no evil heart like an unbelieving heart ; why so ? It makes men depart from the blessed God ; he that believes nor Gods mercy , will not dread his Justice ; Infidelity is the Nurse of Apostasie ; therefore unbelieving and unstable go together , Psal. 78. 22. They believed not in God , ver . 41. They turned back and tempted God. 3. Take heed of cowardliness ; he must needs be evil , who is afraid to be good , Pro. 29. 25. The fear of man bringeth a snare . They who fear danger more than sin , to avoid danger will commit sin . Origen out of a spirit of fear , offered Incense to the Idol . Aristotle saith , the reason why the Camelion turns into so many colours , is through excessive fear : Fear will make men change their Religion , as often as the Camelion doth her colour . Christian , thou who hast made a profession of godliness so long , and others have noted thee for a Saint in their Kalendar , why dost thou fear , and begin to shrink back ? The Cause is good which thou art imbarqued in ; thou fightest against sin ; thou hast a good Captain which marcheth before thee ; Christ the Captain of thy Salvation , Heb. 2. 10. What is it thou fearest ? Is it loss of liberty ? What is liberty worth , when Conscience is in bonds ? Better lose thy liberty and keep thy peace , than lose thy peace and keep thy liberty : Is it loss of Estate ? Dost thou say as Amaziah , 2 Chron. 25. 9. What shall we do for the hundred Talents ? I would answer with the Prophet , The Lord can give thee much more than this : He hath promised thee in this life an hundred-fold , and if that be not enough , he will give thee life everlasting , Mat. 19. 29. 2. If you would hold fast the profession of godliness , use all means for perseverance , 1. Labour for a real work of Grace in your soul ; Grace is the best fortification , Heb. 13. 9. It is a good thing that the heart be established with grace . Quest. What is this real work of Grace ? Answ. It consists in two things . 1. It lies in an heart-humbling work : The thorn of sin pricked Pauls Conscience , Rom. 7. 9. Sin revived , and I died . Though some are less humbled than others , as some bring forth Children with less pangs , yet all have pangs . 2 Grace lies in an heart-changing work , 1 Cor. 6. 11. But ye are washed , but ye are sanctified ; A man is so changed , as if another soul did live in the same body ; if ever you would hold out in the waies of God , get this vital principle of grace ; why do men change their religion , but because their hearts were never changed ? they do not fall away from grace , but for want of grace . 2 If you would hold on in godliness , be deliberate and judicious , weigh things well in the ballance , Luke 14. 28. Which of you intending to build a Tower , sitteth not dow● first , and counteth the cost : Think with your selves , what it will cost you to be godly , you must expect the hatred of the world , Ioh. 15. 19. the wicked hate the godly for their piety ▪ 't is strange they should do so ; do we hate a flower because it is sweet ? the godly are hated for the perfume of their graces ; is a Virgin hated for her beauty ? the wicked hate the godly for the beauty of holiness , which shines in them ; and secret hatred will break forth into open violence , 2 Tim. 3. 12. Christians must count the cost before they build ; why are people so hasty in laying down Religion , but because they were so hasty in taking it up ? 3 If you would hold fast your profession , get a clear distinct knowledge of God , know the love of the Father , the merit of the Son , the efficacy of the Holy Ghost : Such as know not God aright , will by degrees renounce their profession : The Samaritans sometimes sided with the Iews , when they were in favour , afterwards they disclaimed all kindred with the Iews , when they were persecuted by * Antiochus ; and no wonder they did shuffle so in their religion , if you consider what Christ saith of the Samaritans , Ioh. 4. 22. Ye worship ye know not what ; they were inveloped with ignorance ; blinde men are apt to fall , so are they who are blinded in their mindes . 4 If you would persist in godliness , enter upon it purely , out of choice , Psa. 119. 30. I have chosen the way of truth : espouse godliness for its own worth ; he that would persevere , must rather choose godliness with reproach , than sin with all its worldly pomp ; he who takes up religion for fear , will lay it down again for fear ; he who imbraceth godliness for gain , will desert it when the ●ewels of preferment are pulled off ; be not godly out of a wordly design , but a religious choice . 5 If you would persevere in godliness , labour after integrity ; this will be a golden pillar to support you ; a tree that is hollow , must needs be blown down ; the hypocrite sets up in the trade of religion , but he will soon break , Psa. 78. 37. Their heart was not right with him , neither were they stedfast : Iudas was first a sly hypocrite , and then a Traitor ; if a peece of copper be guilded , the guilding will wash off , nothing will hold out but sincerity , Psa. 25. 21. Let integrity preserve me : How many storms was Iob in ? not only Satan , but God himself set against him , Iob 7. 20. which was enough to have made him desist from being godly , yet Iob stood fast , because he stood upright , Iob 27. 6. My righteousness I hold fast , and will not let it go , my heart shall not reproach me , so long as I live : those colours hold best , which are laid in oyle ; if we would have our profession hold its colour , it must be laid in the oyl of sincerity . 6 If you would hold out in godliness , hold up the life and fervour of duty , Rom. 12. 1. 1. Fervent in spirit , serving the Lord : We put coals to the fire to keep it from going out , when Christians grow into a dull formality , they begin to be dis-spirited , and by degrees abate in their godliness ; none so fit to make an Apostate , as a lukewarm professour . 7 If you would persevere in godliness , be much in the exercise of self-denial , Mat. 16. 24. let him deny himself , self-ease , * self-ends ; whatever comes in competition with , or stands in opposition to Christs glory and interest , must be denied ; Self is the great snare , self-love undermines the power of godliness . The young man in the Gospel , might have followed Christ , but that something of self * hindered , Mat. 19. 20 , 22. Self-love , is self hatred , he will never get to heaven , that cannot get beyond himself . 8 If you would hold on in godliness , preserve an holy jealousie over your hearts , Rom. 11. 20. Be not high-minded , but fear : he that hath Gun powder in his house , fears lest it should catch fire ; sin in the heart is like Gun-powder , it may make us fear , lest a sparkle of temptation falling upon us , should blow us up : There are two things may make us alwaies jealous of our hearts ; the deceits of our hearts , and the lusts of our hearts : When Peter was afraid hee should sink , and cried to Christ , Lord save me , then Christ took him by the hand and helped him , Mat. 14. 31. but when Peter grew confident , and thought he could stand alone , then Christ suffered him to fall . Oh let us be suspitious of our selves , and in an holy sense , cloathe our selves with trembling , Eze. 26. 16. 9 If you would continue your progress in godliness , labour for assurance , 2 Pet. 1. 10. Give diligence to make your calling and election sure : He who is sure God is his God , is like a Castle built upon a rock , all the powers of Hell cannot shake him : How can he be constant in religion , who is at a loss about his spiritual estate , and knows not whether he hath grace or no ? it will be a difficult matter for him to dye for Christ , who doth not know that Christ hath died for him ; assurance establisheth a Christian in shaking times ; he is the likeliest to bear witness to the truth , who hath the spirit of God bearing witness to his heart , Rom. 8. 16. Oh give diligence ! be much in prayer , reading , holy conference ; these are the oyle , without which the lamp of assurance will not shine . 10 If you would hold out in godliness , lay hold of Gods strength ; God is called the strength of Israel , 1 Sam. 15. 29. It is in his strength we stand , more than our own ; the childe is safest in the Nurses hands ; it is not our holding God , but his holding us , preserves us ; a little pinnace tyed fast to a rock , is safe , so are we , when we are tyed to the rock of ages . CHAP. IX . Motives to persevere in Godliness . THat I may excite Christians to persevere in the profession of Godliness , I shall propose these four considerations . 1 It is the glory and Crown of a Christian , to be gray-headed in godliness , Act. 21. 16. Mnason of Cyprus , an old Disciple : What an honour is it to see a Christians garments red with blood , yet his conscience pu●e white , and his graces green and flourishing ? 2 How do sinners persevere in their sins , they are setled on their lees , Zeph. 1. 12. The judgements of God will not deter or remove them ; they say to their sin , as Ruth to Naomi , Ruth 1. 16. Where thou goest , I will go , the Lord do so to me , and more , if ought but death part thee and me ; so nothing shall part between men and their sins ; Oh! what a shame is it , that the wicked should be fixed in evil , and we unfixed in good ? that they should be more constant in the Devils service than we are in Christs . 3 Our perseverance in godliness , may be a means to confirm others ; Cyprians hearers followed him to the place of his suffering , and seeing his stedfastness in the faith , cryed out , Let us also dye with our holy Pastor , Phil. 4. 14. Many of the Brethren waxing confident by my Bonds , are much more bold to speak the Word . St. Paul's zeal and constancy , did animate the beholders ; his Prison-chain made converts in Neroes Court ; and two of those Converts were afterwards Martyrs , as History relates . 4 Wee shall lose nothing by our perseverance in Godliness : There are eight glorious Promises which God hath intailed upon the persevering Saints . The first is Rev. 2. 10. Be thou constant to the death , and I will give thee a Crown of * life . Christian , thou mayest lose the breath of life , but not the Crown of life . The second promise is Revel . 2. 7. To him that ●vercometh will I give to eat of the tree of life . This Tree of life is the Lord Jesus . This tree infuseth life , and prevents * death ; in the day we eat of this tree , our eyes shall indeed be opened to see God. The third promise is Rev. 2. 17. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden Manna , and will give him a white stone , and in the stone a new name written , which no man knoweth , saving he that receiveth it . This Promise consists of three branches . 1 I will give to eat of the hidden Manna , This is mysterious , it signifies the love of God ; which is Manna , for its sweetness , and hidden for its rarity . 2 I will give him a white stone ; that is absolution , it may be called a precious stone saith Hierom. 3 And in the stone a new name ; That is , Adoption , he shall be reputed an Heir of Heaven , and no man can know it , saving he who hath the privy seal of the spirit to assure him of it . The fourth promise is , Rev. 3. 5. he that overcometh the same shall bee cloathed in white raiment , and I will not blot his name out of the book of life , but I will confess his name before my Father , and before his Angels . The persevering Saint shall bee cloathed in White ; This is an Emblem of joy , * Eccles. 9. 8. He shall put off his mourning , and be cloathed in the white robe of glory ; and I will not blot his name out of the book of life : God will blot a Believers sins out , but he will not blot his name out ; the Book of Gods Decree hath no Errataes in it . But I will confess his Name ; he who hath owned Christ on earth , and worn his colours , when it was death to wear them , Christ will not bee ashamed of him , but will confess his Name before his Father , and the holy Angels . Oh what a comfort and honor will it be to have a good look from Christ at the last day ; nay , to have Christ own us , by Name , and say , these were they who stood up for my truth , and kept their garments pure , in a defiling age ; These shall walk with mee in white , for they are worthy . The fifth promise is , Rev. 3. 12. Him that overcometh will I make a Pillar in the Temple of my God , and he shall goe no more out , and I will write upon him the Name of my God , and the Name of the City of my God. Here are many excellent things couched in this Promise ; I will make him a Pillar in the Temple of my God ; The Hypocrite is calamus , a Reed shaken with the wind , but the conquering Saint shall be columna , a glorious Pillar ; a Pillar for strength , and a Pillar in the Temple , for sanctity ; and he shall go no more out ; I understand this of a glorified state , Hee shall go no more out ; that is , after he hath overcome , hee shall go no more out to the Wars ; hee shall never have sin or temptation more to conflict with , no more noyse of Drum , or Cannon shall bee heard , but the Believer having won the field , hee shall now stay at home , and divide the spoil . And I will write upon him the Name of my God. That is , he shall bee openly acknowledged for my Childe ; as the Son bears his Fathers Name . How honourable must that Saint bee who hath Gods own Name written upon him ! And I will write upon him , the Name of the City of my God. That is , he shall be enrolled as a Denison or Citizen of the Ierusalem above , hee shall bee made free of the Angelical society . The sixth promise is , Rev. 2. 26. He that overcometh , and keepeth my works unto the end , to him will I give power over the nations : this may have a double mystery , either it may be understood of the Saints dwelling upon earth ; they shall have power over the nations ; their zeal and patience shall over-power the adversaries of * truth , Act. 6. 10. or principally , it may be understood of the Saints triumphing in heaven , they shall have power ●ver the nations ; they shall share with Christ in some of his power ; they shall joyn with him in judging the world at the last day ; 1 Cor. 6. 2. Know ye not , that the Saints shall judge the world ? The seventh promise is , Rev. 3. 21. To him that overcometh , will I grant to sit with me upon my throne . 1 Here is first the Saints dignity , they shall sit upon the throne . 2 Their safety , they shall sit with Christ ; Christ holds them fast , and none shall pluck them out of his throne ; the Saints may be turned out of their houses , but they cannot be turned out of Christs throne ; men may as well pluck a star out of the sky , as a Saint out of the throne . The eighth promise is , Rev. 2. 28. I will give him the morning-starre : Though the Saints may be sullied with reproach in this life , they may be termed factious and disloyal ; St. Paul himself suffered trouble ( in the opinion of some ) as an evil doer , 2 Tim. 2. 9. yet God will bring forth the Saints righteousness , as the light , and they shall shine as the Morning-star , which is brighter then the rest , I will give him the morning-star . — This morning star is meant of Christ , as if Christ had said , I will give the persevering Saint , some of my beauty , I will put some of my splendid raies upon him , he shall have the next degree of glory to me , as the mornning Star is next the Sun. O what soul-ravishing promises are here ! who would not persevere in godliness ? he that is not wrought upon by these promises , is either a stone or a bruite . CHAP. X. The third Vse referring to the Godly . Use 3. LEt me in the next place direct my self to those , who have a real work of godliness upon their hearts , and I would speak to them by way of , 1 Caution . 2 Counsel . 3 Comfort . 1 By way of Caution , that they do not blur these Characters of grace in their souls ; though Gods children cannot quite deface their graces , yet they may disfigure them ; too much carnal liberty , may weaken their evidences , and so dim their lustre , that they cannot bee read : These Characters of the godly are precious things , the gold and christal cannot be compared with them . O keep them fair written in your hearts ! and they will be so many living comforts in a dying hour ; it will not affright a Christian , to have all the signs of death in his body , when he can see all the signs of grace in his soul , he will say as Simeon , Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace . 2 By way of Counsel , you who are inriched with the treasures of godliness , bless God for it : This flower doth not grow in natures garden ; when you had listed your selves under the Devil , and taken pay on his side , fighting against your own happiness , that then God should come with converting grace , and put forth a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a loving and gentle violence , causing you to espouse his quarrel against Satan ; when you had lain many years soaking in wickedness , as if you had been par-boild for Hell , that then God should lay you a steeping in Christs blood , and breathe holiness into your heart , O what cause have you to write your selves eternal debtors to free grace . Hee denies God to be the Authour of his Grace , who doth not give him the praise of it ; * O acknowledge the love of God ; admire distinguishing mercy , set the Crown of your praise upon the head of free grace . If wee are to bee thankful for the fruits of the earth , much more for ●he fruits of the Spirit ; it is well there is an eternity coming , when the Saints shall triumph in God , and make his praise glorious . 3 Let me speak to the godly by way of Comfort ; you that have but the least dram of godliness in sincerity , let me give you two rich Consolations . 1 That Jesus Christ will not discourage the weakest Grace , but will cherish and preserve it to Eternity : Grace which is but newly budded , shall by the beams of the Sun of Righteousness bee concocted and ripened into Glory : This I shall speak more fully to in the next . CHAP. XI . Showing , that the least degree of Godliness shall bee preserved . Mat. 12. 20. A bruised Reed shall hee not break , and smoking flax shall hee not quench , till hee send forth Iudgement unto Victory . THis Text is spoken Prophetically of Christ ; hee will not insult over the infirmities of his people , hee will not crush Grace in the infancy ; A bruised Reed shall he not break , and smoking flax shall be not quench . — I begin with the first , the bruised Reed . Quest. What is to bee understood here by a Reed ? Answ. It is not to bee taken litterally , but mystically , It is a Rational Reed ; the Spiritual part of man ; the Soul , which may well bee compared to a Reed , because it is subject to imbecility , and shaking in this life , till it grow up unto a firm Cedar in Heaven . Quest. What is meant by a bruised Reed ? Answ. It is a soul humbled and bruised in the sense of * sin , it weeps , but doth not despair , it is tossed upon the waves of fear , yet not without the Anchor of Hope . Quest. What is meant by Christs not breaking this † reed ? Answ. The sense is , Christ will not discourage any mournful spirit , who is in the pangs of the New-birth : If the bruise of sin be felt , it shall not be mortal : A bruised reed shall he not break . In the words there is a Mi●o●●s , he will not break , that is , he will bind up the bruised reed , he will comfort it . The result of the whole is , to show Christs compassion to a poor dejected sinner , that smites upon his breast , and dares hardly lift up his eye for mercy , the bowels of the Lord Jesus yern towards him , this bruised reed he will not break . In the Text there are two parts : 1. A Supposition , a soul penitentially bruised . 2. A Proposition , it shall not be broken . Doct. The bruised soul shall not be broken , Psal. 147. 3. He bindeth up their wounds : For this end Christ received both his Mission and Unction , that he might bind up the bruised soul , Isa. 61. 1. The Lord hath anointed me to bind up the broken-hearted ▪ But why will not Christ break a bruised reed ? 1. Out of the sweetness of his Nature , Iam. 5. 11. the Lord is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , very pitiful ; he begets bowels in other creatures , therefore is called the Father of mercies , 2 Cor. 1. 3. and surely he himself is not without bowels ; when a poor soul is afflicted in spirit , God will not exercise harshness towards it , lest he should be thought to put off his own tender disposition . Hence it is , the Lord hath been ever most solicitous for his bruised ones ; as the Mother is most careful of her Children , that are weak and sickly , Isa. 40. 11. He shall gather the Lambs with his arm , and carry them in hi● bosome : Such as have been spiritually bruised , who like Lambs , are weakly and tender , Christ will carry them in the arms of free-grace . 2 Jesus Christ will not break the bruised reed , because a contrite heart is his sacrifice , Psa. 51. 17. A bruised spirit sends forth tears , which are as precious wine , Psa. 56. 8. A bruised soul is big with holy desires , yea , is sick of love ; therefore if a bruised reed hath such virtue in it , Christ will not break it ; no Spices when they are bruised , are so fragant to us , as a contrite spirit is to God. 3 The bruised reed shall not be broken , because it doth so nearly resemble Christ Jesus Christ was once bruised on the cross ▪ Isa. 53. 10. It pleased the Lord to bruise him , his hands and feet were bruised with the nails , his side was bruised with the Spear : A bruised reed , resembles a bruised Saviour ; nay , a bruised reed is a member of Christ , which though it be weak , Christ will not cut off , but cherish so much the more . 1. Will not Christ break the bruised reed ? this tacitly implies he will break unbruised reeds ; such as were never touched with trouble of spirit , but live and die in impenitency , these are hard reeds , or rather rocks : Christ will not break a bruised reed , but he will break an hard reed : Many know not what it is to be bruised reeds ; they are bruised outwardly by affliction , but they are not bruised for sin ; they never knew what the pangs of the New birth meant : You shall hear some thank God they were always quiet , they never had any anxiety of spirit , these bless God for the greatest Curse : Such as are not bruised penitentially , shall be broken judicially ; they whose hearts would not break for sin , shall break with despair ; in hell there is nothing to be seen but an he●p of stones , and an hammer ; an heap of stones , that is hard hearts , and an hammer , that is Gods Power and Justice , breaking them in pieces . 2. Will not Christ break a bruised reed ? See then the gracious disposition of Jesus Christ , he is full of clemency , and sympathy ; though he may bruise the soul for sin , he will not break it : The Chyrurgion may lance the body and make it bleed , but he will bind up the wound ; as Christ hath beams of Majesty , so bowels of mercy : Christ gives the Lyon in his Scutchion , and the Lamb ; the Lyon , in respect of his fierceness to the wicked , Psal. 50. 22. And the Lamb , in respect of his mildness to his people ; his name is Iesus , a Saviour , and his office is an healer , Mal. 4. 2. Christ made a plaister of his own bloud to heal a broken † heart : Christ is the quintessence of love ? One saith , if the sweetness of all flowers were in one flower , how sweet would that flower be ? How full of Mercy is Christ , in whom all mercy meets ? Christ hath a skilful hand , and a tender heart : He will not break a bruised reed . Some are so full of Ostracisme and cruelty , as to add affliction to affliction , which is to lay more weight upon a dying man ; but our Lord Jesus is a compassionate High Priest , Heb. 2. 17. He is touched with the feeling of our infirmity ; every bruise of the soul goes to his heart ; none refuse Christ , but such as do not know him . He is nothing but love incarnated : He himself was bruised , to heal them that are bruised . 3. See then what encouragement here is for Faith ! Had Christ said , he would break the bruised reed , then indeed there were ground for despair ; but when Christ saith , he will not break a bruised reed , this opens a door of hope for humble bruised souls : Can we say we have been bruised for sin , why do we not believe ? Why do we go drooping under our fears and discouragements , as if there were no mercy for us ? Christ saith , He will heal the broken in heart , Psal. 147. 3. No , saith Unbelief , he will not heal me : Christ saith , he will cure the bruised soul : No , saith Unbelief , he will kill it : Unbelief , as it makes our comforts void , so it goes about to make the Word void ; as if all Gods Promises were but forgeries , or like Blanks in a Lottery : Hath the Lord said , he will not break a bruised reed , can Truth lie ? O what a sin is unbelief ! Some think it dreadful to be among the number of drunkards , swearers , whoremongers , let me tell you , it is no less dreadful to be among the number of * Unbelievers : Unbelief is worse than any other sin , because it brings God into suspition with the Creature , it robs him of the richest Jewel of his Crown , and that is his truth , 1 Ioh. 5. 10. He that believeth not ; hath made God a lyar . Oh then , let all humbled sinners go to Jesus Christ : Christ was bruised with desertion to heal them who are bruised with sin : If you can show Christ your sores , and touch him by faith , you shall be healed of all your soul-bruises : Will not Christ break thee , then do not undo thy self by despair . Use 2. Will not Jesus Christ break a bruised reed , then it reproves those who do ( what in them lies ) to break the bruised reed ; and they are such as go about to hinder the work of Conversion in others , when they see them wounded and troubled for sin , they dishear●en them , telling them , that Religion is a sowre melancholly thing , they had better return to their former pleasures : when an Arrow of Conviction is shot into their Conscience , these pull it out again , and will not suffer the work of Conviction to go forward . Thus when the soul is almost bruised , they hinder it from a thorow bruise : This is for men to be Devils to others : If to shed the bloud of another makes a man guilty , what is it to damn anothers soul ? Use 3. This Text is a spiritual hony-comb , dropping consolation into all bruised hearts ; as in the body , when there is a Lipothimy , or fainting of the vital spirits , we apply cordials ; so when sinners are bruised for their sins , I shall give them some cordial-water to revive them : This text is comfortable to a poor soul , who sits with Iob among the Ashes , and is dejected in the sense of its unworthiness : Ah! saith the soul , I am unworthy of mercy , what am I , that ever God should look upon me ? those who have greater parts and Graces , perhaps may obtain a look from God , but alas ! I am unworthy ; doth thy unworthiness trouble thee ? what more unworthy than a bruised reed ? yet there is a promise made to that , a bruised reed he will not break ▪ the promise is not made to the Fig-tree , or Olive , which are fertile plants , but to the Bruised reed : Though thou art despicable in thy own eyes , a poor shattered reed , yet thou mayest be glorious in the eyes of the Lord ; let not thy unworthiness discourage thee ; if thou seest thy self vile , and Christ pretious , this promise is thine , Christ will not break thee , but will binde up thy wounds . Quest. But how shall I know that I am savingly bruised ? Answ. Did God ever bring thee upon thy knees ? hath thy proud heart been humbled ? didst thou ever see thy self a sinner , and nothing but a sinner ? didst thou ever with a weeping eye , look upon Christ ? and did those tears drop from the eye of faith ? This is a Gospel-bruising : canst thou say , Lord , though I do not see thee , yet I love thee , though I am in the dark , yet I cast Anchor ? this is to be a bruised reed . Object . 1 But I fear I am not bruised enough ? Answ. 'T is hard to prescribe a just measure of humiliation ; it is in the new birth , as in the natural , some bring forth with more pangs , some with fewer ; but would you know when you are bruised enough ? when your spirit is so troubled , that you are willing to let go those lusts , which did bring in the greatest income of pleasure and delight ; when sin is not only discarded , but disgusted , then you have been bruised enough ; then the Physick is strong enough , when it hath purged out the disease , then the soul is bruised enough , when the love of sin is purged out . Object . 2 But I fear I am not bruised as I should be , I finde my heart so hard ? Answ. 1 Wee must distinguish between hardness of heart , and an hard●heart ; the best heart may have some hardness , but though there be some hardnesse in it , it is not an hard heart ; denominations are from the better part ; if we come into a field that hath Tares and Wheat in it , we do not call it a field of Tares , but a Wheat-field ; so though there be hardnesse in the heart , as well as softnesse ; yet God , who judgeth by that part which is more excellent , looks upon it as a soft heart . 2 There is a great difference between the hardnesse in the godly and the wicked ; the one is natural , the other is only accidental ; the hardnesse in a wicked man , is like the hardnesse of a stone , which is an innate continued hardnesse ; the hardnesse in a childe of God , is like the hardnesse of Ice , which is soon melted with the Sun-beams ; perhaps God hath at present withdrawn his spirit , whereupon the heart is congeal'd as Ice , but let Gods spirit as the Sun , return and shine upon the heart , now it hath a gracious thaw upon it , and it melts in love . 3 Dost not thou grieve under thy hardnesse ? thou sighest for want of groans , thou weepest for want of tears ; the hard reed cannot weep , if ●hou wert not a bruised reed , all this moisture could not come from thee . Object . 3 But I am a barren reed , I bring forth no fruit , therefore I fear I shall bee broken . Answ. Gracious hearts are apt to overlook the good that is in them , they can spye the worm in the leaf , but not the fruit . Why dost thou say thou art barren ? if thou art a bruised reed , thou art not barren . The spiritual reed ingrafted into the true Vine is fruitful , there is so much sap in Christ , as makes all , who are inoculated into him , bear fruit Christ distils grace , as drops of dew , upon the soul , Hos. 14. 5 , 6. I will be as the de● unto Israel , he shall grow as the Lilly , his branches shall spread , and his beauty shall be as the Olive-tree . That God , who made the dry rod blossome , will make the dry reed flourish . So much for the first expression in the Text , I proceed to the second , The smoaking Flax shall he not quench . Quest. What is meant by smoak ? Answ. By smoak is meant corruption : Smoak is offensive to the eye , so sin offends the pure eye of God. Quest. What is meant by smoaking flax ? Answ. It is meant Grace mingled with corruption ; as with a little fire there may be much smoak , so with a little grace there may be much corruption ▪ Quest. What is Christs not quenching the Smoaking Flax ? Answ. The meaning is , though there be but a spark of grace with much sin , Christ will not put out this spark . — In the words there is a figure , He will not * quench , that is , he will encrease : Nothing more easie than to quench Smoaking Flax , the least touch doth it , but Christ will not quench it ; he will not blow the spark of Grace out , but will blow it † up ; he will encrease it into a flame ; he will make this Smoaking Flax a burning Taper . Doct. That a little grace mixed with much corruption , shall not be quenched . For the illustrating of this , I shall show you 1. That often a little grace is mixed with much corruption . 2. That this little grace interlined with corruption , shall not be quenched . 3. The Reasons of the Proposition . 1. Often in the godly a little grace is mingled with much corruption , Mark 9. 24. Lord I believe , there was some Faith ; help my unbelief ; there was corruption mixed with it : There are in the best Saints interweavings of sin and grace ; a dark side with the light : much pride mixed with humility , much earthliness with heavenliness : Grace in the godly doth relish of an old Crabtree stock . Nay , in many of the Regenerate there is more corruption than grace , so much smoak that you can scarce discern any fire , so much distrust , that you can hardly see any * Faith , so much passion , that you can hardly see any meekness . Ionah a peevish Prophet , he quarrels with God ; nay , he justifies his passion , Ionah 4. 9. I do well to be angry to the death . Here was so much passion , that it was hard to see any grace . A Christian in this life , is like a glass that hath more froth than wine ; or like a diseased body , that hath more humours than spirits : This may humble the best , to consider how much corruption is interlarded with their grace . 2. This little grace mixed with much corruption shall not be quenched : The smoaking flax he will not quench : The Disciples Faith was at first but small , they forsook Christ and * fled . Here was smoaking flax , but Chirst did not quench that little grace , but cherish and animate it ; their Faith afterwards grew stronger , and they did openly confess † Christ. Here was the flax flaming . 3. The Reasons why Christ will not quench the smoaking flax . 1. Because this Scintilla , this little light which is in the smoaking flax is of divine production , it comes from the Father of Lights , and the Lord will not quench the work of 〈◊〉 own grace : Every thing by the instinct of Nature will preserve its * own : The Hen that hatcheth her young , will preserve and cherish them , she will not destroy them as soon as they are hatched : God who hath put this tenderness into the Creature to preserve its young , will much more cherish the work of his own spirit in the heart : Will he light up the Lamp of Grace in the soul , and then put it out ? This would be neither for his interest nor honor . 2. Christ will not quench the beginnings of grace , because a little grace is precious as well as more : A small Pearl is of value : Though the Pearl of Faith be little , yet if it be a true Pearl it shines gloriously in Gods eyes : A Goldsmith makes reckoning of the least filings of gold , and will not throw them away : The pupilla oculi , the apple of the eye , is but little , yet of great use , it can at once view an huge part of the heavens : A little Faith can justifie ; a weak hand can tye the Nuptial Knot ; a weak Faith can unite to Christ as well as a strong ; a little grace makes us like God ; a silver penny bears the Kings Image upon it as well as a larger piece of Coyn : The least dram of grace bears Gods Image on it , and will God destroy his own Image ? When the Temples in Greece were demolished , Xerxes caused the Temple of Diana to be preserved for the beauty of its structure : When God shall destroy all the glory of the world , and set it on fire , yet he will not destroy the least grace because it bears a print of his own likeness upon it : That little spark in the smoaking flax is a ray and beam of Gods own glory . 3. Christ will not quench the smoaking flax , because this little light in the flax may grow bigger : Grace is resembled to a grain of Mustard-seed , of all seeds it is the least , but when it is grown , it is the greatest among herbs , and becometh a Tree , Mat. 13. 32. The greatest grace was once little ; the Oak was once an Acorn ; the most Renowned Faith in the world was once in its Spiritual Infancy ; the greatest flame of zeal was once but smoaking flax : Grace , like the waters of the Sanctuary , riseth higher : If then the least Embryo and seed of holiness be of a ripening and growing nature , the Lord will not suffer it to be abortive . 4. Christ will not quench the smoaking flax , because when he preserves a little light in a great deal of smoak , here the glory of his power shines forth : The trembling soul thinks it shall be swallowed up of sin , but God by preserving a little quantity of grace in the heart , nay , by making that spark prevail over corruption , as the fire from heaven licked up the water in the trench , 1 King. 18. 38. Now , God gets himself a glorious Name , and carries away the Trophies of Honor , 2 Cor. 12. 9. My strength is made perfect in weakness . 1. See the different dealings of God and men , men for a little smoak will quench a great deal of light ; God for a great deal of smoak will not quench a little light : 'T is the manner of the world , if they see a little failing in another , for that failing they will pass by and quench a great deal of worth : This is our nature , to aggravate a little fault , and diminish a great deal of virtue ; to see the infirmities , and darken the excellencies of others ; as we take more notice of the twinkling of a Star , than the shining of a Star : We censure others for their passion , but do not admire them for their piety . Thus for a little smoak that we see in others , we quench much light . God doth not thus , for a great deal of smoak he will not quench a little light ; he sees the sincerity , and over-looks many infirmities , the least sparks of grace he cherisheth , and blows them gently with the breath of his spirit , till they break forth into a flame . — 2 If Christ will not quench the smoaking flax , then we must not quench the smoaking flax in our selves ; if grace doth not increase into so great a flame as we see in others , therefore to conclude we have no fire of the spirit in us , this is to quench the smoaking flax , and to bear false witness against our selves ; as we must not credit a false evidence , so neither must we deny a true ; fire may be hid in the embers , so may grace be hid under many distempers of soul ; some Christians are so skilful at this , in accusing themselves for want of grace , as if they had received a fee from Satan , to plead for him , against themselves . This is a great mistake , to argue from the weakness of grace , to the nullity ; it is one thing to be wanting in faith , and another thing to want faith ; he whose eye-sight is dim , is wanting in his sight , but he doth not want sight ; a little grace is grace , though it be smothered under much corruption . 3 If the least spark of grace shall not bee quenched , then this follows as a great truth , that there is no falling from * grace ; if the least dram of grace should perish , then the smoaking flax should be quenched ; grace may be shaken by fears and doubtings , but not blown up by the * roots : I grant , seeming grace may be lost , this wilde-fire may be blown out , but not the fire of the Spirits kindling ; Grace may be dormant in the soul , but not dead , as a man in an Appoplexy , doth not put forth vital operations : Grace may be eclipsed , not extinct , a Christian may lose his comfort , like a tree in Autumn , that hath shed its fruit , but still there is sap in the vine , and the seed of God remains , 1 Ioh. 3. 9. Grace is a flower of eternity . This smoaking flax cannot be quenched by affliction , but like those trees , Pliny writes of , growing in the red Sea , which being beaten upon by the waves , stand immoovable , and though they are sometimes covered with water , flourish the more ; grace is like a true orient Diamond , that sparkles , and cannot be broken . I confesse it is matter of wonder , that grace should not be wholly annihilated , especially if we consider two things . 1 The malice of Satan , he is a malignant spirit , and laies bars in our way to heaven ; the Devil with the wind of temptation , labours to blow out the spark of grace in our hearts ; if this will not do , he stirs up wicked men , and raiseth the Militia of Hell against us : what a wonder is it , that this bright Star of grace , should not be swept down with the tail of the Dragon ? 2 It is an amazing thing , that grace should subsist , if we consider the world of corruption in our hearts ; sin makes the major part in a Christian ; there is in the best heart more dregs than spirits . The heart swarms with sin ; what a deal of pride and Atheism is in the soul ? now is it not admirable , that this Lilly of grace , should be able to grow among so many thorns ? it is as great a wonder , that a little grace , should be preserved in the midst of so much corruption , as to see a Taper burning in the Sea , and not extinguished . But though grace lives with so much difficulty , as the infant that struggles for breath , yet being born of God it is immortal , grace conflicting with corruption , is like a Ship tossed and beaten with the waves , yet it weathers out the storm , and at last gets to the desired Haven . If grace should expire , how could this Text be verified , The smoaking flax he will not quench . Quest. But whence is it , that grace , even the least degree of it , should not be quenched ? Answ. It is from the mighty operation of the Holy Ghost ; the Spirit of God , who is origo originans , doth continually excite and quicken grace in the heart : He is every day at work in a believer ; he powres in oyl , and keeps the Lamp of Grace burning : Grace is compared to a river of life , Ioh. 7. 38. The river of grace can never be dri●d up , for the Spirit of God is the Spring which feeds it . Now that the smoaking flax cannot be quenched , is evident from the Covenant of Grace , Isa. 54. 10. The Mountains shall depart , and the Hills be removed , but the Covenant of my peace shall not be removed , saith the Lord. If there be falling from grace , how is it an immoveable Covenant ? If grace die , and the smoaking flax be quenched , wherein is our state in Christ better than it was in Adam ? The Covenant of Grace is called , A better Covenant , Heb. 7. 22. How is it a better Covenant than that which was made with Adam ? Not only because it hath a better Surety , and contains better priviledges , but because it hath better conditions annexed to it , It is ordered in all things , and sure , 2 Sam. 23. 5. * Such as are taken into the Covenant , shall be as stars fixed in their Orb , and shall never fall away : If grace might die , and be quenched , then it were not a better Covenant . Object . But we are bid not to quench the spirit , 1 Thes. 5. 19. which implies , that the grace of the Spirit may be lost , and the smoaking flax quenched . Answ. We must distinguish between the common work of the spirit , and the sanctifying work , the one may be quenched , but not the other : The common work of the spirit , is like a picture drawn upon the yce , which is soon defaced : The sanctifying work is like a Statute carved in gold , which endures : The gifts of the spirit may be quenched , but not the grace ; there is the enlightning of the spirit , and the anointing ; the enlightning of the spirit may fail , but the anointing of the spirit abides , 1 Ioh. 2. 27. The anointing which ye have received of him , abideth in you . The hypocrites blaze goes out , the true believers spark lives and flourisheth , th●● one is the light of a Comet which wastes and * evaporates , the other is the light of a star which retains its lustre . From all that hath been said , let a Saint of the Lord be perswaded to these two things , 1. To believe his priviledge . 2. To pursue his duty . 1. To believe his priviledge : This is the incomparable and unparallel'd happiness of a Saint , that his coal shall not be † quenched : That grace in his soul , which is minute at● languid , shall not give up the Ghost , but recover its strength , and encrease with the encrease of God : The Lord will make the smoaking flax a burning lamp : It were very sad , that a Christian should be continually upon the Tropicks , one day a member of Christ , and the next day a limb of Satan ; one day to have grace shine in his soul , and the next day his light put out in obscurity : This would spill a Christians comfort , and break asunder the golden Chain of Salvation ; but be assured , O Christian , he who hath begun a good work , will ripen it into perfection : Christ will send forth judgement unto victory ; he will make grace victorious over all opposite corruption : If grace should finally perish , what would become of the smoaking flax ? And how would that title properly be given to Christ , Finisher of the * Faith ? Object . No question this is an undoubted priviledge to such as are smoaking flax , and have the least beginnings of grace , but I fear I am not smoaking flax , I cannot see the light of grace in my self ? Answ. That I may comfort the smoaking flax , why dost thou thus dispute against thy self ? What makes thee think thou hast no grace ? I believe thou hast more than thou wouldst be willing to part with ; thou valuest grace above the gold of Ophir : How couldst thou see the worth and lustre of this Jewel , if Gods Spirit had not opened thy eyes ? Thou wouldst fain believe , and mournest that thou canst not believe , are not these tears the Initials of Faith ? Thou desirest Christ , and canst not be satisfied without him ; this beating of the pulse evidenceth life : The iron could not move upward , if the Loadstone did not draw it ; the heart could not ascend in holy breathings after God , if some heavenly Loadstone had not been drawing it . Christian , canst thou say sin is thy burden , Christ is thy delight ? and as Peter once said , Lord , thou knowest I love thee : This is smoaking flax , and the Lord will not quench it ; thy grace shall flourish into glory ; God will sooner extinguish the light of the Sun , than extinguish the dawning light of his spirit in thy heart . 2. Let a Christian pursue his duty : There are two duties required of believers , 1. Love. 2. Labour . 1. Love. Will not the Lord quench the smoaking flax , but make it at last victorious over all opposition ? how should the smoaking flax flame in love to God ? Psal. 31. 23. love the Lord all ye his Saints : The Saints owe much to God , and when they have nothing to pay , it is hard if they cannot love him : O ye Saints , it is God who carries on grace progressively in your souls : He is like a Father who gives his son a small stock of money to begin with , and when he hath traded a little , he adds more to the stock : So God adds continually to your stock , he is every day dropping oyl into the lamp of your grace , and so keeps the lamp burning : This may inflame your love to God , who will not let the work of grace miscarry , but will bring it to perfection : The smoaking flax he will not quench : How should Gods people long for heaven , when it will be their constant work , to breathe forth love , and found forth praise ? 2. The second duty required of Christians is labour : Some may think if Christ will not quench the smoaking flax , but make it burn brighter to the Meridian of glory , then we need take no pains , but leave God to bring his own work about . Take heed of drawing so bad a Conclusion from such good premises : What I have spoken , is to encourage Faith , not to indulge sloath : Do not think God will do our work for us , and we sit still : As God will blow up the spark of grace by his spirit , so we must be blowing it up by holy endeavours : God will not bring us to heaven sleeping , but praying : The Lord told Paul , all in the Ship should come safe to shore , but it must be in the use of means , Act. 27. 21. Except ye abide in the Ship , ye cannot be saved . So the Saints shall certainly arrive at Salvation , they shall come to shore at last , but they must abide in the Ship , in the use of Ordinances , else they cannot be saved : Christ assures his Disciples , None shall pluck them out of his hand , Ioh. 10. 28. But yet he gives that counsel , Watch and pray , that ye enter not into temptation , Mat , 26. 41. The seed of God shall not die , but we must water it with our tears ; the smoaking flax shall not be quenched , but we must blow it up with the breath of our endeavour . The second comfort to the godly , is that godliness advanceth them into a near and glorious union with Jesus Christ : But of this in the next . CHAP. XII . Shewing the Mystical union between Christ and the Saints . CANT . 2. 16. My beloved is mine , and I am his . IN this Book of the Canticles , we see the love of Christ and his Church , running toward each other in a full torrent . The Text contains three general Parts . 1 A Symbol of affection , my beloved . 2 A term of appropriation , is mine . 3 An holy resignation , I am his . Doct. That there is a conjugal union between Christ and beleevers . The Apostle having treated at large of marriage , he windes up the whole chapter thus , Eph. 5. 32. This is a great mystery , but I speak concerning Christ and the Church : what nearer than union ? what sweeter ? there is a twofold union with Christ , 1 A natural union ; this all men have , Christ having taken their nature upon him , and not the Angels , Heb. 2. 16. but if there be no more , than this natural union , it will give little comfort ; thousands are damned , though Christ be united to their nature . 2 There is a sacred union , whereby we are mystically united to Christ ; the union with Christ is not personal ; if Christs essence were transfused into the person of a beleever , then it would follow , that all which a beleever doth , should merit . But the union between Christ and a Saint , is , 1 Faederal ; * my beloved is mine ; God the Father gives the bride , God the Son receives the bride , God the Holy ghost tyes the knot in marriage ; he knits our wills to Christ , and Christs love to us . 2 This union is vertual ; Christ unites himself to his spouse , by his graces and influences , Iohn 1. 16. Of his fulness have we all received , and grace for grace : Christ makes himself one with the spouse , by conveying his Image , and stamping the impress of his own holiness upon her . This union with Christ , may well be called mystical , it is hard to describe the manner of it ; as it is hard to shew the manner how the soul is united to the body , so how Christ is united to the soul ; but though this union be spiritual , it is real : Things in nature work often insensibly , yet really , Eccles. 11. 5. we do not see the hand move on the Dial , yet it moves ; the Sun exhales and draws up the vapours of the earth insensibly , yet really ; so the union between Christ and the soul , though it be imperceptible to the eye of reason , yet is real , 1 Cor. 6. 17. Before this union with Christ , there must be a separation ; the heart must be separated from all other lovers ; as in marriage there is a leaving of Father and Mother , Psa. 45. 10. Forget also thine own people , and thy Fathers house ; So there must be a leaving of our former sins , a breaking off the old league with hell , before wee can bee united to Christ , Hos. 14. 8. Ephraim shall say , what have I to do any more with Idols ? or as it is in the Hebrew , with sorrows : Those sins which before were looked upon as lovers , now they are sorrows ; there must be a divorce , before an union . The end of our conjugal union with Christ is twofold . 1 Co-habitation ; this is one end of marriage , to live together , Ephes. 3. 17. That Christ may dwell in your hearts ; it is not enough to give Christ a few complemental visits in his ordinances , hypocrites may do so ; but there must be a mutual associating ; we must dwell upon the thoughts of Christ , 1 Iohn 3. 24. he that dwelleth in God ; married persons should not live asunder . 2 Fructification , Rom. 7. 4. That ye should 〈◊〉 married to another , even to him who is raised from the dead , that we should bring forth fruit unto God : the Spouse brings forth the fruits of the spirit , love , joy , peace , long-suffering , gentleness , Gal. 5. 22. Barrenness is a shame in Christs spouse . This marriage-union with Christ , is the most noble and excellent union . 1 Christ unites himself to many ; in other marriages there is but a person taken , but here millions are taken ; alas , else poor souls might cry out , Christ hath married himself to such an ones person , but what is that to me ? I am left out ; no , Christ marries himself to thousands ; 't is casta polygamia , an holy and chaste polygamy ; multitudes of persons doth not defile this marriage-bed ; no poor sinner , but bringing an humble beleeving heart , may be married to Christ. 2 In this holy marriage , is a nearer conjunction , than can be in any other , in other marriages , two make one flesh , but Christ and the beleever make one spirit , 1 Cor. 6. 17. He that is joyned to the Lord , is one spirit : now as the soul is more excellent than the body , and admits of far greater joy ; so this spiritual union , brings in more astonishing delights and ravishments , than any other marriage-relation is capable of ; the joy that flows from the mystical union , is unspeakable and full of glory , 1 Pet. 1. 8. 3 This union with Christ never ceaseth . — Foelices ter & amplius , quos irrupta tenet copula — Other marriages are soon at an end , Death cuts asunder the marriage-knot , but this conjugal union is eternal : thou that art once Christs spouse , shalt never be a widdow more , Hos. 2. 19. I will betroth thee unto me for ever : to speak properly , our marriage with Christ begins , where other marriages end , at death . In this life is but the contract ; the Iews had a time set between their espousals and marriage , sometimes a year , or more : in this life is but the affiancing and contract , promises are made on both sides , and love passeth secretly between Christ and the soul ; he gives some smiles of his face , and the soul sends up her sighs , and drops tears of love : But all this is but a praevious work , and something tending to the marriage , the glorious compleating and solemnizing of the Nuptials , is reserved for heaven ; there is the marriage-supper of the Lamb , Rev. 19. 9. and the Bed of glory perfumed with love , where the souls of the elect shall be perpetually solacing themselves , 1 Thes. 4. 17. then shall we ever be with the Lord ; so that death doth but begin our marriage with Christ. Use 1 If Christ be the head of the body Mystical , Ephes. 1. 22. then this Doctrine doth behead the Pope , that man of sin , who usurps this prerogative , to be Ecclesiae caput , the head of the Church , and so would defile Christs marriage-bed ; what blasphemy is this ? two heads is monstrous ; Christ is head , as he is husband , there is no vice-husband , no deputy in his room : The Pope is the Beast in the Revelation , to make him head of the Church , what were this , but to set the head of a Beast , upon the body of a Man ? Use 2 Is there such a conjugal union , let us try whether we are united to Christ. 1 Have we chosen Christ to set our love upon ? and is this choice founded upon knowledge ? 2 Have we consented to the match ? 't is not enough that Christ is willing to have us , but are we willing to have him ? God doth not so force salvation upon us , as that wee shall have Christ whether wee will or no ; we must consent to have him ; many approve of Christ , but do not give their consent : and this consent must be , 1 Pure and genuine , we consent to have him for his own worth and excellency , Psa. 45. 2. Thou art fairer , than the Children of men . 2 It must be a present consent , 2 Cor. 6. 2. now is the accepted time ; if we put Christ off with delayes and excuses , perhaps he will come no more , he will leave off wooing , his spirit shall no longer strive , and then poor finner what wilt thou do ? when Gods wooing ends , thy woes begin . 3 Have we taken Christ , faith is vinculum unionis , the bond of the union ; Christ is joyned to us by his spirit , and we are joyned to him by faith : Faith tyes the marriage-knot . 4 Have we given up our selves to Christ ? thus the spouse in the Text , I am his ; as if she had said , all I have is for the use and service of Christ ; have we made a surrender ? have wee given up our name and will to Christ ? when the Devil solicites by a temptation , do we say , we are not our own , we are Christs , our tongues are his , wee must not defile them with oathes , our bodies ar● his temple , we must not pollute them with sin : if it be thus , it is a sign the Holy ghos● hath wrought this blessed union between Christ and us . Use 3. Is there this Mystical Union ? then from hence we may draw many Inferences . 1. See the dignity of all true believers ▪ they are joyned in Marriage with Christ , there is not only assimilation , but union , they are not only like Christ , but one with Christ ; This honor have all the Saints : A King marrying a Beggar , by virtue of the union she is ennobled and made of the Bloud-Royal ; 〈◊〉 wicked men are united to the Prince of darkness , and he settles Hell upon them for their Jointure : So the godly are divinely united to Christ , who is King of Kings , and Lord of Lords , Rev. 19. 16. By virtue of this Sacred Union , the Saints are dignified above the Angels , Christ is their Lord , but not their Husband . 2. See how happily all the Saints are married ; they are united to Christ , who is the best Husband , Cant. 5. 10. The chief of ten thousand . Christ is a Husband that cannot be parallel'd , 1. For tender care . 2. For ardent affection . 1. For tender care : The Spouse cannot be so tender of her own soul and credit , as Christ is tender of her , 1 Pet. 5. 7. He careth for you . Christ hath a debating with himself , a consulting and projecting how to carry on the work of our Salvation ; he transacts all our affairs , he minds our business as his own ; indeed he himself is concerned in it ; he brings in fresh supplies to his Spouse ; if she wanders out of the way , he guides her ; if she stumble , he holds her by the hand , if she falls , he raiseth her ; if she be dull , he quickens her by his spirit , if she be froward , he draws her with cords of love ; if she be sad , he comforts her with promises . 2. For ardent affection : No Husband like Christ for love : The Lord saith to the people , I have loved you ; and they say , Wherein hast thou loved us ? Mal. 1. 2. But we cannot say to Christ , wherein hast thou loved us ? Christ hath given real Demonstrations of his love to his Spouse : He hath sent her his Word , which is a Love-letter ; and he hath given her his Spirit , which is a Love-token : Christ loves more than any other Husband . 1. Christ puts upon his Bride a richer Robe , Isa. 61. 10. He hath cloathed me with the garments of Salvation , he hath covered me with the Robe of Righteousness . In this Robe God looks upon us as if we had not sinned : This is as truly ours to justifie , as it is Christs to bestow : this Robe doth not only cover , but adorn : Having on this Robe we are reputed righteous , not only as Angels , but as Christ , 2 Cor. 5. 21. That we might be made the righteousness of God in him . 2. Christ gives his Bride , not only his Golden Garments , but his Image : He loves her into his own likeness : An Husband may bear a dear affection to his Wife , but he cannot stamp his own Effigies upon her ; if she be deformed , he may give her a Vail to hide it , but he cannot put his beauty upon her : But Christ imparts the beauty of holiness to his Spouse , Ezek. 16. 14. Thou wert comely through my comeliness . When Christ marries a soul , he makes it fair , Cant. 4. 7. Thou art all fair my Spouse . Christ never thinks he hath loved his Spouse enough , till he can see his own face in her . 3. Christ dischargeth those debts which no other Husband can : Our sins are the worst debts we owe , ( if all the Angels should go to make a Purse , they could not pay one of these debts ) but Christ frees us from these ; he is both an Husband and a Surety ; he saith to Justice , as Paul concerning Onesimus , If he ows thee any thing , put it upon my score , I will repay it , Philem. 19. 4. Christ hath suffered more for his Spouse , than ever any Husband did for a Wife ; he suffered poverty and ignominy : He who crowned the heavens with stars , was himself crowned with * thorns : He was called a companion of sinners , that we might be made companions of Angels ; he was regardless of his life ; he leaped into the Sea of his Fathers wrath to save his Spouse from drowning . 5. Christs love doth not end with his life . He loves his Spouse for ever , Hos. 2. 19. I will betroath thee unto me for ever . Well may the Apostle call it , a love that passeth knowledge , Eph. 3. 19. 3. See how rich believers are , they are matched into the Crown of Heaven , and by virtue of the Conjugal Union all Christs riches go to believers , Communion is founded in Union . Christ communicates his Graces , Iohn 1. 16. As long as Christ hath it , believers shall not want ; and he communicates his Priviledges , Justification , Glorification : He settles a Kingdome upon his Spouse for her Joynture , Heb. 12. 28. This is a Key to the Apostles Riddle , 2 Cor. 6. 10. As having nothing , yet possessing all . By virtue of the Marriage-Union , the Saints are interested in all Christs riches . 4 See how fearful a Sin it is to abuse the Saints ; it is an injury done to Christ , for beleevers are mystically one with him , Act. 9. 4. Saul , Saul , why persecutest thou me ; when the body was wounded , the head being in heaven cryed out ; in this sense men crucifie Christ afresh , Heb. 6. 6. because what is done to his members , is done to him ; if Gideon was avenged upon those who slew his brethren , Iudg. 8. 21. will not Christ much more bee avenged upon those that wrong his Spouse ? Will a King endure to have his Treasure rifled ? his Crown thrown in the dust ? his Queen beheaded ? will Christ bear with the affronts and injuries done to his Bride ? the Saints are the apple of Christs eye , Zac. 2. 8. and they that strike at his eye , let them answer it , Isa. 49. 26. I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh , and they shall be drunken with their own blood , as with sweet wine . 5 See the reason why the Saints do so rejoyce in the Word and Sacrament , because here they meet with their Husband Christ ; the Wife desires to be in the presence of her Husband : The Ordinances are the chariot in which Christ rides , the lattice through which he looks forth and shews his smiling face ; here Christ displaies the banner of love . Can. 2. 4. The Lords Supper is nothing else but a pledge and earnest of that eternal communion the Saints shall have with Christ in heaven : Then he will take the Spouse into his bosome ; if Christ be so sweet in an Ordinance , when we have but short glances , and dark glimpses of him by saith , Oh then , how delightful and ravishing will his presence be in heaven , when we shall see him face to face , and be for ever in his loving embraces ? 4 This mystical union affords much comfort to beleevers , in several cases . 1 In case of the dis-respects and unkindenesses of the world , Psa. 55. 3. In wrath they hate mee : but though we live in an unkinde world , wee have a kinde Husband , Ioh. 15. 9. As the father hath loved me , so have I loved you : What Angel can tell how God the Father loves Christ ? yet the Fathers love to Christ , is made the copy and pattern of Christs love to his Spouse ; this love of Christ , as far exceeds all created love , as the Sun out shines the light of a Torch ; and is not this matter of comfort ? what though the world hates me , yet Christ loves me . 2 It is comfort in case of weakness of grace ; the beleever cannot lay hold upon Christ , but with a trembling hand ; there is a spirit of infirmity upon him , but O weak Christian ! here is strong consolation ; there is a conjugal union , thou art the Spouse of Christ , and hee will bear with thee as the weaker vessel : will an Husband divorce his Wife , because she is weak and sickly ? no he will be the more tender of her ; Christ hates treachery , but he will pity infirmity ; when the spouse is faint , and ready to be discouraged , Christ puts his left hand under her head Can. 2. 6. this is the spouses comfort , when she is weak , her Husband can infuse strength into her , Isaiah 49. 5. My God shall bee my strength . 3 It is comfort in case of death ; when beleevers dye , they go to their Husband ; who would not bee willing to shoot the Gulf o● death , that they might meet with their Husband Christ ? Phi. 1. 23. I desire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to loose Anchor , and be with Christ ; what thoug● the way be dirty , seeing we are going to ou● friend ; when a woman is contracted , she longs for the day of marriage ; after th● Saints funeral , begins their marriage ; the body is ergastulum animae , a Prison to the soul who would not desire to exchange a Priso● for a Marriage bed ? How glad was Iosep● to go out of Prison to the Kings court God is wise , he lets us meet with changes an● troubles here , that he may we an us from the world , and make us long for death ; when the soul is divorced from the body , it is married to Christ. 4 It is comfort in case of passing the sentence , at the day of Judgement : There is a marriage union , and O Christian , thy Husband shall be thy Judge ; a Wife would not fear to bee cast at Bar , if her Husband sat Judge ; what though the Devil bring in many indictments against thee ? Christ will expunge thy sins in his blood ; he will say , shall I condemn my spouse ? O what a comfort is this ? the Husband is Judge : Christ cannot pass the sentence against his spouse , but hee must pass it against himself , for Christ and beleevers are one . 5 It is comfort in case of the Saints sufferings ; The Church of God is exposed in this life to many injuries , but she hath an Husband in heaven , that is mindeful of her , and will turn her waters into wine ; now it is a time of mourning with the Spouse , because the Bride-groom is absent , Mat. 9. 15. But shortly she shall put off her mourning , Christ will wipe off the tears of blood from the cheeks of his Spouse , Isa. 25. 8. The Lord God will wipe off tears from off all faces . Christ will comfort his spouse after the time wherein she hath been afflicted , he will solace her with his love , he will take away the cup of trembling , and give her the cup of consolation , and now she shall forget all her sorrows being called into the banqueting house of heaven , and having the banner of Christs love displayed over her . 5. Let me press several duties upon such as have this Marriage-Union with Christ. 1. Make use of this Relation ; in two cases . 1. When the Law brings in its Indictments against you ; here are , saith the Law , so many debts to be paid , and it demands satisfaction ; acknowledge the debt , but turn over all to your Husband Christ : 'T is a Maxim in Law , that the suit must not go against the wife as long as the Husband is * living : Tell Satan when he accuseth thee , 't is true the debt is mine , but go to my Husband Christ , he will discharge it : Would we take this course , we might ease our selves of much trouble ; by Faith we turn over the debt to our Husband : Believers are not in a state of Widdow-hood , but Marriage : Satan will never go to Christ , he knows Justice is satisfied , and the Debt-book cancell'd , but he comes to us for the debt that he may perplex us , we should send him to Christ , and then all Law-suits would cease : This is a believers Triumph , when he is in himself guilty , in Christ he is worthy , when he is spotted in himself , he is pure in his head . 2. In case of desertion : Christ may ( for ends best known to himself ) step aside for a time ; Cant. 5. 6. My beloved had withdrawn himself ; say not therefore Christ is quite gone : 'T is a fruit of jealousie in a Wife , when her Husband hath left her a while , to think he is quite gone from her : Upon every removal out of sight , for us to say ( as Sion ) The Lord hath forsaken me , Isa. 49. 14. This is jealousie , and it is a wrong done to the love of Christ , and the sweetness of this Marriage-Relation : Christ may forsake his Spouse in regard of comfort , but he will not forsake her in regard of union : An Husband may be a thousand miles distant from his Wife , but still he is an Husband : Christ may leave his Spouse , but still the Marriage Knot holds . 2. Love your Husband Christ , Cant. 2. 5. love him , though he be reproached and persecuted : A Wife loves her Husband when in prison : To inflame your love towards Christ , consider , 1. Nothing else is fit for you to love : If Christ be your Husband , it is not fit to have other Lovers , that would make Christ grow jealous . 2. He is worthy of your love ; he is of unparallel'd beauty , Cant. 5. 10. altogether lovely . 3. How pregnant is Christs love towards you ? he loves you in your worst condition , he loves you in affliction : The Goldsmith loves his gold in the Furnace : he loves you notwithstanding your scars and blemishes : The Saints infirmities cannot wholly take off Christs love from them , Ier. 3. 1. Oh then how should the Spouse be endeared in her love to Christ ! This will be the excellency of Heaven , our love will then be as the Sun in its full strength . 3. Rejoyce in your Husband Christ ; hath Christ honoured you to take you into the Marriage-Relation , and make you one with himself ? this calls for joy : By virtue of the Union , believers go sharers with Christ in his riches . It was a custome among the Romans , when the Wife was brought home , she received the Keys of her husbands house , intimating , that the treasure and custody of the house was now committed to her : When Christ shall bring his Bride home to those glorious Mansions which he is gone before to Prepare for her , Iohn 14. 2. He will deliver up the keys of his treasure to her , and she shall be as rich as heaven can make her ; and shall not the Spouse rejoyce , and sing aloud upon her bed ? Psal. 149. 5. Christians , let the times be never so sad , you may rejoyce in your spiritual Espousals , Hab. 3. 17. Let me tell you , it is a sin not to rejoyce ; you disparage your Husband Christ. When a wife is always sighing and weeping , what will others say , This woman hath a bad husband : Is this the fruit of Christs love to you , to reflect dishonor upon him ? A melancholly spouse sads Christs heart : I deny not but a Christian should grieve for sins of daily incursion , but to be always weeping ( as if he mourned without hope ) is dishonourable to the Marriage-Relation , Phil. 4. 4. Rejoyce in the Lord always . Rejoycing doth credit your husband ; Christ loves a chearful Bride ; and indeed the very end of Gods making us sad , is to make us rejoyce ; we sow in tears , that we may reap in joy : The excessive sadness and contristation of the godly , will make others afraid to imbrace Christ , they will begin to question whether there be that satisfactory joy in Religion as is pretended : Oh yee Saints of God forget not consolation , let others see that you repent not of your choice ; 't is joy that puts liveliness and activity into a Christian , Nehem. 8. 10. The ioy of the Lord is your strength . Then the soul is swiftest in duty , when it is carried upon the wings of joy . 4. Adorn this Marriage-Relation , that you may be a crown to your husband . 1. Wear a vail . We read of the spouses vail , Cant. 5. 7. This vail is humility . 2. Put on your Jewels . These are the graces , which for their lustre are compared to rows of Pearl , and chains of gold , Cant. 1. 10. These precious Jewels distinguish Christs Bride from strangers . 3. Carry your selves as becomes Christs Spouse . 1. In chastity . 2. In sanctity . 1. In chastity : Be chaste in your judgments , defile not your selves with error , error adulterates the mind , 1 Tim. 6. 5. 't is one of Satans artifices , first to defile the judgement , then the conscience . 2. In sanctity : It is not for Christs Spouse to do as Harlots ; a naked breast , a wanton tongue , doth not become a Saint ; Christs Bride must shine forth in Gospel-purity , that she may make her husband fall in love with her . A woman being asked what Dowry she brought her husband , answered , she had no Dowry , but she promised to keep her self chaste : so though we can bring to Christ no Dowry , yet he looks we should keep our selves pure , not spotting the breasts of our Virginity by contagious and scandalous sins . FINIS . AN ALPHABETICAL TABLE . A AFflictions on the Saints various . 172 Afflictions may lye long . ibid. Affliction compared to a Net. 173 Apostasie dangerous . 301 Arguments to patience in affliction . 174 Assurance to be endeavoured after 308 B Benefits by Christ , precious . 56 Bruised reed , what . 318 When a soul is bruised enough . 326 Bruised Reed not barren . 328 C Caution to the Godly . 315 Characters of a godly man. 15 Children to honour their Parents . 225 Christ of a merciful disposition . 322 Christ full of preciousness . 53 Christ prized by a Saint . 57 Comfort to the real Christian. 317 Company of the godly to be frequented . 299 Complexion-sin how known . 210 Contentment with our condition . 247 Covetousness to be avoided . 301 Counsel to the godly . 316 D Danger in allowing one sin . 215 Decay of Charity to be bewailed . 200 Diligence in a mans calling . 242 Disobedient children punished . 226 Distinctions about humility . 103 Distractions in duties , whence they arise . 232 How they may be cured . 233 E Earthly and godly , a contradiction . 146 Endeavours of a Christian to be quickned . 342 Examples of patience . 171 Examples speak louder than precepts . 267 Excellency of the Word written . 83 F Faith excites all the graces . 28 Few know the mystery of Faith. 30 Faiths encouragement . 323 Falling from grace refuted . 334 Fathers to instruct and pray for children . 223 Forgiveness of sin . 2 How sad to want it . 4 How sweet to have it . ib. G Gainful sins make men loosers . 209 God the best Master . 46 Godliness what . 5 Seven maxims about godliness . 6 Godly man like God. 34 Godly man a lover of the Word . 77 Godly man exact about the worship of God. 39 Godly man instrumental for the good of others . 263 Godliness exhorted to . 273 Godly men prudent . 284 Godly men the Bulwark of a nation . 285 Helps to godliness . 295 Grace to be promoted in our relations . 268 One grace in truth , hath all linked with it . 272 H Hardness of heart differenced from an hard heart 327 Haters of Saints put in Gods black Book . 206 Heart to be called toaccount . 240 Heart to be watched . 296 Heavenly mindedness the note of a Saint . 141 How many wayes a godly man is heavenly . 142 Heaven-aspiring motives . 147 How heaven is a better country . 150 Holiness Gods glory . 35 Holiness of Saints , wherein discovered . 36 Honouring of Parents , wherein it consists . 225 Humble Soul Characterized . 104 Humility exhorted to . 113 How to be attained . 115 Husbands must love their Wives . 221 Hypocrisie a vile sin . 138 Hypocrites , partial in matters of Religion . 239 I Ignorance in Gospel-times inexcusable . 22 Indulging sin , what . 206 Ingratitude odious . 193 Injuries to be forgiven . 245 K Divine Knowledge , how qualified . 16 To be sought after . 24 How obtained . 25 L Life of a Saint a life of believing . 29 Love of God to his people . 283 Love to God. 31 Love to the Scriptures , how shown . 79 Love to the Word Preached . 84 Whether we are Lovers of the Word . 85 Love to the Saints , how qualified . 196 Motives to Love. 201 Love , how gotten and preserved . 205 Luke-warm temper abominable . 161 M Magistrates must put on Iustice as a robe . 218 Masters to be good at home , as well as at Church . 224 Ministers must sweat in Gods Vineyard . 218 Ministers ought to be zealous . 219 Mischieving of Souls three waies . 267 Misery of a natural estate . 275 Moral Righteousness to be observed . 243 Mystical union sweet . 343 O Obedience to God must be universal . 238 How a godly man obeys all Gods commands . 249 Object . Touching hardness of heart answered . 327 Object . Touching smoaking flax answered . 339 Offices of Christ , precious . 55 Opposites to patience . 166 P Patience in waiting . 164 Patience in bearing . 165 Patience , what it is . ib. Patience how attained . 177 Persecution for Christ. 248 Perseverance in the profession of godliness . 299 Means to perseverance . 301 Motives to perseverance . 309 Persons of the godly , precious . 280 Praise , a God-exalting work . 181 Prayer the badge of a godly man. 117 Prayer spiritual , what it is . 119 A perswasive to Prayer . 128 Pretenders to godliness . 8 Pride an horrid sin . 114 Persons who do not prize Christ. 60 Whether we are prizers of Christ. 62 A perswasive to all , to prize Christ. 67 Promises to persevering Christians . 310 Proud men unmasked . 110 R Relative holiness . 218 Motives to be good in our relation . 228 Reproof to them who pray not at all . 126 Reproofs , when loved . 87 Religion to be entred upon , out of choice . 305 S Secret sins . 207 Self-denial needful . 307 Servant of God described . 43 Service of God excellent . 47 Serving of men when sinful . 51 Servants how to carry themselves to their Masters . 226 Sincere Christian deciphered . 131 Sincerity the ingredient into all the graces . 134 Sincerity a jewel of incomparable worth . 135 Sins of a justified person odious . 73 Smoking flax , what it signifies . 328 Why smoking flax shall not be quenched . 331 Spirit of God known by its motions . 89 Spirits motions , how distinguished from the impulse of a natural conscience . 90 Spirit known by its vertues . 91 How the spirit of God comforts . 94 Spirit deriders far from Godly . 99 Spirits in-dwelling to be laboured after . 100 Such as have the spirit , how they are to carry themselves . 101 Spiritualness in duty what . 230 How we may grow more spiritual in the service of God. 236 Superstitions persons seldome converted . 41 Support in the death of godly relations . 168 Sympathy with Sion . 246 T Thankfulness a work proper for a Saint . 179 Thankfulness in adversity as well as prosperity . 183 How wee may know whether wee are rightly thankful . 185 Motives to thankfulness . 189 How to get a thankful heart . 194 Thanksgiving a more noble part of Gods worship . 181 Time to be redeemed . 297 Tryal of our love to God. 33 V Unbeleif a God-dishonouring sin . 323 Unworthiness ought not to discourage . 325 W What it is to walk with God. 251 Walking after the flesh , what it imports . 253 How we may know whether we walk with God. 255 Walking with God excellent . 257 How we may come to walk with God. 262 Weeper for sin 70 Why weeping after conversion . 71 Weeping , how qualified . 75 Go often into the weeping hath . 76 Works of Mercy . 248 World an hindrance to godliness . 295 Worldly things contemptible . 148 Worship of God , better in purity than pomp . 39 Z Zeal , the flame that ascends from an holy heart . 155 Zeal fictitious . 156 Zeal rightly tempered . 157 Zeal to be pursued after . 162 FINIS . ERRATA . Page 76. line 23. For sangui serat , read , sanguit erat . page 64. marg . for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . page 131. line 20. for fronte positus , read fronte politus . page 278. marg . for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 page 342. marg . for 2 Conclusion , read , 2 Consolation . These Books following are Printed for , and sold by Thomas Parkhurst , at the three Crowns at the lower end of Cheapside , over against the great Conduit . A Divine Cordial ; Or , the Transcendent Priviledge of those that love God , and are savingly Called ; By Tho. Watson . The Holy Eucharist , or , the Mystery of the Lords Supper , briefly explained ; By Tho. Watson . Paramythion , or a Word of Comfort for the Church of God ; By Tho. Watson . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A65296-e120 * Colos● 1. 12. * Psal. 2. 4. * Vera est 〈…〉 cam Hebrai ele●anter appellant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( i. e. ) esse●tiam . 〈◊〉 3. ●1 * Isai. 32. 17. † Omni melle dulcior , omni luce clarior . Aug. Notes for div A65296-e400 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * Christus se in cruce Deo oblatus est sacrificium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sic nostra pians peccata . Maresius de ver . rel . lib. 3. * Da Domin● poenitentiam , & postea indulgentiam . Fulgentius . * Peccata semel remissa nunquam redeunt . * Peccatum sic pessundatum est ut non possit nos damnare . Luther . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Neh. 9. 17. 1. Inquiry Answ. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * Qualitates sunt in subjecto intensive . † 1 Sam. 17. 42. Use of Reproof . * Non faciunt justitiam sed fing●nt . Melancth . * Mar : 23. † Matth. 23. 27. * Quis pejor an profitens impietatem ; an mentiens sanctitatem . Bern. † Simulata sanctitas duplex iniquitas . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . † Arietem occidit credens se Vlyssem interemisse . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Judg. 16. 25. * Vivit adhuc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quamdiù aliquae fibrae manent , sed agrè , & admodum languidè . * Levit. 13. 6. * Deut. 32 5. 2 Inquiry . 1 Character . † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Arist. † Nihil agit ultra suam speciem . † Spiritus sanctus veluti oleo mentes fidelium perfundit & irrigat . Estius . * Si caelum ruat , si orbis illabatur praecept , ego in Deum erectus ero ; Angelus licèt de caelo aliud mihi persuadere enitatur , dicam ei Anathema Anton. Marinar . † Psal. 73. 25. * Claritas in intellectu , parit ardorem in affectu . † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * Tandem fit surculus arbor . Vse of Tryal . 1 Bran. 2 Bran. 3 Bran. Use 2. of Exhort . Pers. Motive Motive † Lib. 3. Constit. Mon , Cap. 33. Vse 3. 2 Character . † Fides est Sanctissima humani pectoris gemma . * 2 Cor. 4. 18. † Psal. 112. 7. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Chrysost. * Jam. 2. 19. † See the Christians Charter in Quarto , pag. 103. 3 Character . † Herb. Poem . * Amor ponit amantem extrase ▪ Aquinas . * Plurima fier● 〈◊〉 sunt , quae speciem habent bonam , sed non ex radice amoris proficiscuntur ; habent & spinae flores ; sit intùs dilectio , non potest ex ista radice nisi bonum existere . Aug. in Epist. Ioh. Tom. 9. † See Divine Cordial , page 123. 4 Character . † Summa religio est , imitari quem colis . Lactant. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deo consecratus & à rebus immundis sejunctus . River . † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Use 1. Use 2. of Exhort . Motive Motive * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Aristot. Motive 5 Character . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * Qui Deum ad humani cerebri id aeam , & ingenii tenuitatem admetiuntur , necesse est , ut in sua arrogantia confusi jaceant . Rivet . Vse . * Si modo exteriorum rituum pompis luxuriare poterint , sperant se Deo glaucoma obduxisse . Rivet . † Qui curios simulant , & bacchanalia vivunt 6 Character . 1 Bran. † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Psalm 56. 12. * Revel . 13. 3. † Revel . 14. 4. Vse . Motive * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Euripides . † Psal. 103 9. * Psal. 86. 5. † Pro. 3. 32. Motive * Psa. 51. 12. † Servire est regnare . * Nihil regio splendore indignum , si ad hanc ingenuam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 invitentur . Rivet . † Non est onerans sed ornans Dei servitus . * In abdito tento rii● sui . † Mal 4. 2. * Psal. 91. 4. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Origen Cont. Cels. † Da Domine quod jubes , & ju●e quod vis . Austin . Motive 2 Bran. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . † Ne adulentur , & impiis aeliorum cupiditatibus se addicant , vetat Apostolus . Calv. in 1 Cor. cap. 7. Vse . * Omnium scenarum homo . Erasm . * Esther 8. 17. 7 Character . † Plin. * Cant. 3. 6. † John 1. 18. * Gal. 6. 1● . † 1. Cor. 1. 5. * Rev. 21. 23. † Eph. 1. 6. * Luke 2. 25. † Col. 1. 16 , 17. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Origen . Cont Cels. * Hic est in cujus typo immolabatur agnus , qui non solum suo sanguine nos redemit , sed & lanis over●it . Hierom. † Per has ●●mas later●● Christi licet 〈◊〉 sugere me● de Petra . ●ern . Accinges . Arias Mont. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Theophilact . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * Communio fundatur in unione . Vse 1. * Evangelium vocant avengelaion . * Pro. ● . 12. Vse 2. of Tryal . * Naz. † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Plut. † Isaiah 30. 22. * Godw. Iew. Antiq. Use 3. of Exhort . † Si tanti vitreum ? quanti verum Margaritum ? Tertull. * Isa 53. 2. † ●sa . 81. 11. 8 Character . * Motus primo primi . Aquin. † Psa. 104. 25. * Plangendae tenebrae Aug. † Fomes iste & stirps ●eccati , etiam in renatorum 〈◊〉 medullis tenacissimè i●h●ret . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Chrysost. de poen , Use 1. Use 2. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Just. in Collat. cum Triph. 9 Character . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Chrys. Psa. 48. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Chry●ost . † Biblia etiam adolescens semper secum circumtu●it , avideque legit in templo & alibi . Melch. Adam in vit . Melancth . * Euseb. lib. 8. c. 3. * Verbum Dei alexipharmacum . † Potius ruat caelum quam pereat una mica veritatis . Luther . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vocat . Zenoph . † Wolfius lect memorabil . Centur . 16. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Clem. A●lexandrin . † Phil. 2. 16. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Chrysost . Vse . * Quales quaeso illi sunt , qui verbi redargutiones accipere nolunt , sed contra , obstinati murmurant , & Ministros verbi Caelestis ob id odio prosequuntur ? Nimirum non sunt vasa contrita , sed serrea ac lapidea ; & ô utinam malleo legis , hae petrae se concuti Paterentur , sed quia quotidie in duricie sua pergunt , & diabo●o se regendos in solidum tradunt , idem Dei malleus tandem in inferni barathru●● eos percussione horrenda deturbabit . Glassii ex eg . p. 4. in Johan . * Sermo vulnerans dolorem affert sed salutarem . Molleru● . 10 Character . * Gal. 4. 6. * Verbum est vehiculum spiritus . † Spiritus Dei opulens virtutibus suamque 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impertiens Ambros. de Spir. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . † Omne agens producit sibi simile . * Exod. 30. ●5 . † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ▪ Chry. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . † Spiritus Dei habitat in nobis quia regit , & gubernat . Paraeus . * Act. 2. 3. † Spirit● praeeunte nullus fit obex . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 † Spiritus super mel dulcis , qui vel ipsam mortem suavem reddit . Bern. * Psa. 43. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Chrysost. * Mr. Perkins . Vse 1. 1 Bran. † Psal. 51. 52. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Th●ophilact . * Diabolus ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impios propellit , donec in aeternum ignem ruant Praecipites . Glassius . Use 3. Exhort . † Domine accende animam meam spiritu tu● 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Motive * Suspiria haec & gemitus , à caelesti columba didicerunt sancti . Aug. † Si fluvius riparum editis superfusus exu●dat , quanto magis spiritus superveniens animam , ●ffusiore quadam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ubertate laetificat . Ambr. de Spir. Vse 3. 11 Character . 1 Distinction . * Quanti humiliantur & humiles non sunt . Bern. 2 Distinction . † Plurimi humilitatem vultu menti entes superbia autem intus adeò tument , ut nulla vesica adeò sic inflata ventoquam cor eorum fastu . * Nobilior humilitatis pars , animo inclusa latet , atque oculorum aciem effugit . 3 Distinction . * Plurimi humilitatis umbram sectantur . Hierom. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Humilitas est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suae agnitio . † Humilitas est contemptus propriae excellentiae . Bern. de gard . humil . * Quanto quis plus proficit , eò minus se reputet profecisse . Bern , de mod . Orand . † Gen. 24. 53. Use 1. of Tryal . † Cristas erigit , & jovem se putat . * Horat. † Alto supercilio alios intuentes , & quum loquuntur dictatores agunt . * Proprio laus sordet in ore . Vse 2. Exhort . † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , idem valet quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Helychius . * Excelsa est Patria humilis est Via . Motive * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . † 1 Pet. 5. 5. * Quem non gula 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 superavit ▪ Cyprian . † Superbiat homo , & tanquam Icariis pennis●e ipsum elevet , deprimitur tamen in profundum ruinae barathrum . Rivet . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Chrysost. † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Chrysost. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . † Ne micam habes quam non Dei charismate accepisti ; num sani hominis est de eo gloriari quod non est suum sed alienum ? * In quantis sis minor cogita , non in quantis sis major . Aug. in Mat. † Cum sis humilimus , cur● non humilimus ? 12 Character . * Oratio ●st clavis diei . † Prius in Capitolium quàm Seratum . Plutarch . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Chrys. † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Chrys * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Act. 12. 5. † Clamor iste penetrat nubes , ac pertingit usque ad aures Dei. Luther . * Qui timide rogat docet negare . Seneca . † Invoco te Domine quanquam languida & imbecilla fide , tamen fide . Caspar . Cruciger . * Isa. 59. 1. † Heb. 3. 19. * Quanto cum tremore , quantâ humilitate , accedere debet à Palude sua repens ranuncula vilis Bern. de mod . Orandi . Ovid. Vse . 1. Use 2. Exhort . * Deus nunquam frustra quaeritur , imò ne tunc cum inveniri non potest . Bernard . † Reliqua arma Parum prosunt . Zanch. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Macar . Hom. † Exod. 32. 10. * Precibus suis velut vinculis ligatum tenuit Deum . * Nunquam à te Domine absque te recedam . Bern. 13 Character . * Media sunt appetenda propter finem . * Homo sine fuco . Erasm. † Psa. 28. 3. * Psa. 78. 36. † Mel in ore , fel in corde . Use of Exhort . Motive * Tali corde unicè delectatur Deus , id veluti dulcisonum quoddam spirituale nabl●um , harmoniae suae suavitate , modulorumque oblectamine , aures ejus mirum in modum mulcet . † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * Psa. 51. 6 † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Euseb. * Pro. 12. 10. 14 Character . * Patria loci . † Patria juris . * Luke 10. 42. * Psa. 39. 1 † Psa. 39. 7 * Viget spei immobilis virtus . Cypr. Vse 1. Vse 2. Exhort . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . socr ad Demon. * Sistitur appetitus in via satiatur in Patria . † Eph. 3. 20. * Pro. 8. 1. Char. 15. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Ignat * Marcet sine adversario virtus . Sen. de provid . † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Use 1. 1 Bran. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 † Beza . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Bran. Use 2. Exhort . * Melch. Adam in vit . Luth. * Livy . † Ignis quidam flagrantissimi amoris . Aug. 16 Character . * Isa. 30. 18. † Hab. 2. 3 ▪ Vse . * Heb. 10. 36. † Quae arden er diligimus habita graviter suspiraemus ablae●ae . † Sit consolatio tua in caelis . † Non sunt amissi sed pr●misse Cypr. † 1 Thes. 4. 17. * Exod 5. 2. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 1 Argu. * Domine hic ure , hic seca ut in aeternum parcas . Aug. † Quod mundus noxium esse putat , exitum utilem parit . Calv. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Chrysost. 2 Argu. * Vindictae gladium misericordiae oleosemper exacuit . * Psa. 101. 1. 3 Argument . 4 Argument . 17 Character . * Super tribus consistit mu●●dus , super lege , & cultu sacro , & retributione . Aloys . novar . † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 jaculatus est . Hiph . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confiteri , gratias agere . Buxtorf . * Jon. 1. 13. Vse 1. 1 Bran. † Lactan. instit . c. 3. * Plures sunt apud quos non diutius in animo sunt donata quam in usu . Sen. de benef . * Diodor. Siculus . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Chrysost . ad Antioch . ●om . 1. ●om . 17. 2 Bran. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Theodor. Vse 2. Trial. † Memori● primo senescit . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Du●s h●beo min●tias domine , &c. Bern. Vse 3. Exhor . Motive * Beneficium Postulat officium . † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Chrys. 〈…〉 † Ascensus gratiarum descensus gratiae . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Char. 18. † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * Resert laertius de Aristotele , quum ipsi probo daretur , quod flagitioso homini opem tulisset , eum respondisse , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . † Quemadmodum ignis ea intensius caleficit quae adsita quam quae dissita sunt : ●ta charitatis ignis ferventius fidei domesticos diliget , quam 〈◊〉 qui sunt a fide extranei . * Quia major est fraternitas spiritus quam sanguinis . Aug. Tom. 0. * Ollaris amor , qui tamdiù fervet quā diù olla fervida est . * A quatenus ad omne valet consequentia . * Mat. 8. 28. * Haec erat aqua limpida ex fonte charitat is in miserum profluens , Solitarius erat , Samaritanu● accedit eum , & visitat ; vulner atus erat , haec sine naus●ae vin● expurgat , oleo lenit ; semi-mortuus erat , hic suo jumento ipsum vehit ; peregrinus erat , hic in hospitium invehit ; pauper erat , hic pecuniam pro illo erogat . Glass exeg . p. 4. in luc . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * Quando quidem lapides vivi sumus , nos coadunari in unu●● templum , ac mutua charitate conglutinari necesse est . Calvin . Vse 1. * Quam ardent ubique odia regnat discordia , germana illa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non secus ac si in tenebrosum aliquem carcerem esset inclusa , aut in exilium pulsa , nusquam fere inter Christianos conspicitur . Use 2. Exhort . † 1 Pet. 2. 17. * Charitati nihil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , est virtutum regina Christianorum vexillum , discipulorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , perfectionis vinculum . † Omne divisibilé est corruptibile . † Hos. 9. 12 Vse 3. * Impii sanctorum statuas coronant , eorumque virtutes odio habent . 19 Character . * Suae ipsius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 odio habet . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Cyril . † Peccatum in delitiis . Aug. † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Thucid. Esth. 7. 2. Use of Exhort . * Quam absurdum est postula re à Deo omnium peccatorum veniam , & ●olle repromittere omnium peccatorum fugam ? † Omne peccatum est connexum . Aquin. Sen. Trag. * Quid refert an uno , an pluribus ? Hier. 20 Character . * Ius suum cuique tribuit . † Oportet Episcopum concionantem mori . B. Jewell . Eze. 13. 18 † Pet. Blessens . ep . 7. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Isocr . † Beards Theat . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Ig at . Ep. ad Tarsens . Vse 1. Inform. Vse 2. Exhort . 21 Character . * Templum dei est vir pius , & ubicunque locorū fuerit , altare in corde suo ponere potest . 1 Cor. 7. 30. * Aut per● porticus de ambulo , ●ut de faenore computo , &c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Vse 1. Vse 2. Exhort . * Nobis cum Deo est negotium , cui nihilo minus cum carne dissidium quam igni cum aqua . † Non chordula musica sed cor . * Quiequid cor non facit non fit . 22 Character . Plautus . 1 Duty . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , plus valet qua 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Beza . 3 Duty . † Nullus mihi per otium dies exit . Sen. ep . 8. 4 Duty . * Lib. 10. confess . † Magnu● sum & 〈◊〉 majora natus , 〈◊〉 ut sim corporis mei mancipium Seneca . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Claud 5 Duty . 6 Duty . Hom. II. † Haud quaquam offensas ●●bi illatas chaly●eo stilo marmore insculpit , se● Dei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imitatur , qui injurias molli inscribit palimpsesto , cui gratiae suae spongia alligata est , ut illas statim deleat . * Amicos ●iligere omnium est , inimico● autem s●lorum Christi anorum . Tert. ad Scapull . cap. 8. 7. Duty . Virg. 8 Duty . † Dives est qui ni nil concupiscit . * Phil. 4 ▪ 11. 9 Duty . † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyrill . * Decima ut dives fias . 10 Duty . † Heb. 11. 35. Polynices ap . Erip. 23 Character . * R. Eli●z . c. 22. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iso●r . † Quid prodest currere & ante cursus metam defecere ? Bern. Vse 1. Inform. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Cyrill . † Jer. 6. 16. * Psal. 137. 3. † Pro. 19. 29. * 2 Pet. ● . 10. 1 Opin . 2 Opin . 1 Cor. 3. 18 Phil. 3. 9. Mar. 10. 39 3 Opin . 4 Opin . 5 Opin . 6 Opin . * Animalia ventris , Luther . Epictetus . Vse 2. Trial. Use 2. Exhort . * Est pellax virtutis odor . † Euseb. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist 〈◊〉 . l. 1. 〈◊〉 * Motus tendit ad quietem . 24 Character . † Luke 15. 10. Vse 1. 1 Bran. 2 Bran. * Nemo errat sibi ipsi , sed dementiam suam spargit in Proximos . Sen. Epist. 3 Bran. † Lib. 5. Confess . * Jer. 1 11 † Celebre honoris divini trophaeum , etiam mortui in altum feremus . Use 2. Exhort . * Non nobis solum nati . † Vir bonus magis aliis prodest quam sibi . Caution . * Josh. 2. ●8 . 1 Conclus . 2 Conclus . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Kings 14. 13. Vse 1. * Ideo torquemur confitentes , quia nominis prali●● est . Tertu● Apol. Dan. 2. 33. Col. 1. 6. Motive * Manet hoc porisma , unionē anim e nostrae cum Christo , veram esse & unicā ejus vitam , ac proinde extra Christū nos esse penitus mortuos , quia regnat in nobis pecca●ū mortis materia● Calvin . * Pro. 21. 4. * Nonne isti moriones qui dum animam suam vulnerant rident ? † Heliogab . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Cyrill ▪ * Vincentius . † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Poenam inextinguibilem & foetorem maximum minatur Deus Muscul. Motive * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Origen . Cont. Cel● . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Gloriosus fuisti . † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Chrys. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Isa. 1● . 24. Motive Motive * Psa ▪ 68. 13. † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Chrysost. * Luk. 12. 19. Seneca . Motive Motive 1 Rule . 2 Rule . 3 Rule . 4 Rule . * Haud militi tutum cum in castris ei excuba●dum est , vel ad quadrantem hor ae a somno opprimi . 5 Rule . * Aut aliud agendo aut male agendo● Sen. 6 Rule . 7 Rule . 8 Rule . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Clem. Alex . Paed. l. 3. Vse 2. † Non cepisse sed perfecisse virtutis est * Religionem Ephemeram habuit . † Hos cum hyaena meritò comparaveris , de quâ Plinius lib. 7. cap. 2. Hyaena sicut & ichneumon , nunc mas est nunc faemina , it a quidem sui dissimiles , nunc Deo serviunt , nunc carni , ab uno ad aliud transferuntur , tipula leviores . † Ig●at . * Josephus * Nemo d● displicet nisi qui sibi placet . Bernard * Nemo laeditur nisi a se ipso . ●●iamur ●ul cum ●cto Escopo , in ●ss . Cypr. * Tria amplectitur corona , ●uae beatitudini apprime conve●iunt , nimirum tranquilitatem , ●uia corona dat praemium post ●ertamen ; deinde plenit●dinem , quia corona habet perfectam figuram , utpote circularem ; & denique sublimitatem , quandoquidem corona est summi honoris ●signe . Brond . * Lignum vitae ea virtute est praeditum , ut animi vires roboret , nec senium obrepere unquam patiatur , Alchazar . Vincere , est peccatum & mundum fide calcare & veritatem nunquam deserere . Muscul. Alb● lap●●●● not ar● dicitur qui probatur . * Festos Albatus celebret . Horat * Necesse est ut Veritati cedat mendacium , Piis impii . Rev. 22. 16 Vse 3. * Negat beneficium , qui beneficium non honorat . Tertul. 1 Consolation . Isa. 42. 3. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 animan contrit●● , interpret●tur . Erasm. † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Reas. 1. Reas. 2. Reas. 3. Use 1. Inform. 1 Bran. 2 Bran. † Cum debilitati nostrae ita se attemperat Christus , ejus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deo●culari discamus . Musc. 3 Bran. * Rev. 21. 8. Vse 2. Reproof . Vse 3. Consol. Zac. 12. 10. Mar. 9. 24. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 † Ellychnium prope extinctum , sufflavit , magis ut clarè arderet . Musculus . * 1 Sam. 27. 1. * Mat. 26. 56. † Acts 4. 29. 30. * Omne agens est ful conservativum . Vse 1. Inform. 1 Bran. 2 Bran. * Fides justificans semel habita , non potest in totum amitti . * Gratia concutitur non excutitur . Aug. * Status ante la●sum purior , in Christo certior . * Mat , 25. 8. † 2 Sam. 14 ▪ 7. * Heb. 12. 2. 2 Conclusion . * Religio nostra non mis●et naturas sed personas conf●derat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Horat. 1. Carm. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vse 1. Ca. 13. 11 Vse 2. Tryal . 1. Infer . 2. Infer . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Chrysost. 3 Infer . 4. Infer . 5. Infer . Vse 4. Consol. Vse 5. 1 Duty . * Uxori lis no● intenditur . 2 Duty . 3 Duty . 4 Duty . 
A25291	----	The marrow of sacred divinity drawne out of the Holy Scriptures, and the interpreters thereof, and brought into method / by William Ames ... ; translated out of the Latine ... ; whereunto are annexed certaine tables representing the substance and heads of all in a short view ... as also a table opening the hard words therein contained. Medulla theologica. English. 1642 Ames, William, 1576-1633. 1642 Approx. 745 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 211 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2004-05 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A25291 Wing A3000 ESTC R23182 12493554 ocm 12493554 62444 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A25291) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 62444) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 302:23) The marrow of sacred divinity drawne out of the Holy Scriptures, and the interpreters thereof, and brought into method / by William Ames ... ; translated out of the Latine ... ; whereunto are annexed certaine tables representing the substance and heads of all in a short view ... as also a table opening the hard words therein contained. Medulla theologica. English. 1642 Ames, William, 1576-1633. [18], 389 p. Printed by Edward Griffin for Henry Overton ..., London : 1642. Translation of: Medulla theologica. Reproduction of original in Union Theological Seminary Library, New York. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. 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Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Theology, Doctrinal -- Early works to 1800. Calvinism -- Early works to 1800. Puritans -- Early works to 1800. 2004-01 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2004-02 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2004-03 Judith Siefring Sampled and proofread 2004-03 Judith Siefring Text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-04 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE MARROW OF SACRED DIVINITY , DRAWNE OUT OF THE holy Scriptures , and the Interpreters thereof , and brought into Method . BY WILLIAM AMES , sometime Doctor and Professor of Divinity in the famous University at Francken in Friesland . Translated out of the Latine , for the benefit of such who are not acquainted with strange Tongues . Whereunto are annexed certaine Tables representing the substance and heads of all in a short view , directing to the Chapters where they are handled . As also a table opening the hard words therein contained . A Worke usefull for this Season . 1. COR. 14. 26. When yee come together , every one hath a Psalme , hath a Doctrine , hath a Tongue , hath a Revelation , hath an Interpretation . Let all things be done unto edifying . Published by order from the Honorable the House of Commons . LONDON , Printed by Edward Griffin for Henry Overton in Popes-Head-ally next Lumbard streete . 1642. A Briefe Premonition , or forewarning of the Author , touching the reason of his purpose . ALthough I doe not assume this to my selfe , to comprehend in my minde all the thoughts of evill speakers , yet I foresee divers exceptions which this my endeavour ( proceeding certainly from a very good intent ) Proseculi genio according to the disposition of the world , will fall into ; the chiefe of which I purpose briefly to meete withall . Some , and those indeed not unlearned , dislike this whole manner of writing , that the sum of Divinity should be brought into a short compend . They desire great Volumes , wherein they may loosely either dwell , or wander . Whom I desire to consider , that all have not so great leasure , or so vast a wit , as to hunt the Partrich in the Mountaines , and Woods : but that the condition of many doth rather require , that the nest it selfe , or the seat of the matter which they pursue , bee shewed without any more adoe . Some doe not dislike this way , if the chiefe heads be handled in a Rhetoricall way , but they thinke that every particle is not so punctually to be insisted on . But indeed , when the speech is carried on like a swift stream , although it catch many things of all sorts , yet you can hold fast but a little , you can catch but a little , you cannot find where you may constantly rest : but when certaine rules are delivered , the Reader hath alwayes , as it were at every pace , the place marked where he may set this foot . Some also there will be , who will condemne the care of Method , and Logicall form as curious and troublesome . But to them a sounder judgement is to be wished , because they remove the art of understanding , judgement , and memory from those things , which doe almost only deserve to bee understood , known , and committed to memory . On the otherside there will not be wanting some who will require more exactnesse of the art of Logick , whom I could not fully satisfy if I would , through my own imperfection , neither indeed would I so much as I could , because of the weaknesse of others . I imagine there will not be few who will thinke that to set forth such institutions as these , after so many labours of learned men in the same kind , is superfluous , and but to doe that which hath been done before . Of whose opinion I should readily be , if any thing of this kind were extant , which did please all in every respect . Which notwithstanding , I would not have so taken , as if it ever came into my mind to hope any such thing of this writing ; but because I am not out of hope , that it may come to passe that two , or three or so , may fall upon this of ours , who may here find something more fit to instruct , and stir them up to piety , then they have observed in the more learned writings of others ; which conjecture if it doe not faile me , I shall think I have done a work worth the labor . I cannot but expect to be blamed of obscurity of those that are not so skilfull , whom I desire that they would learne of Cyrus , Radiorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , latis luminibus non tam esse suaves , that is , The diffused brightnesse of the beames of the Sun is not so pleasant in large windowes ; certainly a contracted light , although it may seem small , yet it doth more enlighten ( if a man come neere and observe ) then that which is , as it were dispersed , by too much enlargement . The drinesse of the style , and harshnesse of some words will be much blamed by the same persons . But I doe profer to exercise my selfe ●…n that heresie , that when it is my purpose to Teach , I thinke I should not say that in two words which may be said in one ; and that that key is to be chosen which doth open best , although it be of wood , if there be not a golden key of the same efficacy . Lastly , if there be any who desire to have some practicall things , especially here following , more largly explained , we shall indeavour to satisfie them hereafter ( if God give leave ) in a particular Treatise , which at this time we have an affection to , touching questions which are usually called cases of conscience . If there be any who doe yet find fault with , or desire other things , I would intreat them , that they would vouchsafe candidly to impart to me their thoughts , which may afford desired matter for a just apology , or due amendment . To the Reader . These words explained are not intended for the learned , but for the unlearned , whereby they may come to the understanding of this booke and others of the same nature , and the rather because many sentences may depend on the opening of a word . SYnecdoche , A figure containing a part for the whole p. 3. Genuine distribution naturall or proper division . p. 4. Metonymy a figure by which the cause is put for the effect , or the subject for the Adjunct or contrarywise , the effect for the cause . p. 5. Inaccessibile that cannot be gone unto . p. 10. Essence the beginning . p. 11. Consectaries , or conclusions . p. 12. Subsistence the manner of being . ibidem . Abstract the substantive as , whitenesse . ibidem . Concrete the Adjective as white . ibidem . Imparitie Inequality . ibidem . Equivocally Doubtfull . p. 13. Analogically by way of Resemblance . ibidem . Numericall , Individuall As one and the same thing not only in nature , but in number . p. 14. Dimension the meansureof a thing . ibidem . Immensity greatnesse . p. 15. Relatives Respective . p. 17. Individuating Restraining or Limiting . ibidem . Procession Issuing . p. 19. Efficiency of God his whorking power . p. 21. Syllogisme an argument . p. 23. Identity Samenesse of a thing . p. 25. Termination the relation of a worke to a particular person . p. 26. Analysis resolution . p. 28. Idea a forme or image of a thing in a mans mind . ibidem . Quiddity the being of a thing . p. 29. Existence the actuall being of a thing . ibidem . Contingent accidentall . ibidem . Simple intelligence Gods absolute Knowledge . ibidem . Science is Knowledge . p. 30. Sapience is Wisdome . ibidem . Concomi●… ●…panyng . p. 31. Antecedent going before . ibidem . Connexion joyning before . ibidem . Exist to have an ectuall being . p. 32. Passive attingency , that is the Efficacy of the will of God , upon one thing causing another thing . ibidem . Contingency by chance . p. 34. Metonymically by a figure , the cause for the effect , or the subjects for the quality , or contrary wise . p. 35. Formacy transien really passing . p. 36. Virtually that is in power . ibidem . Praeexist to be before . ibidem . Entitie the being of a thing . p. 38. Aggregation heaping up or joyning together . ibidem . Incompleat Imperfect . p. 40. Intrinsecally inwardly . p. 48. Indissoluble that must not be dissolved . ibidem . Previous going before . p. 50. Sunteresis that part of the understanding in which we keepe severall Notions . p. 54. Animall living . ibidem . Sanction the establishment ofte Law. ibidem . Adjuvant belying . p. 57. Sophisticall by a false argument . p. 58. Prediction fortelling . p. 59. Homogeneall of the same name and nature . p. 67. Detractation with-drawing from the Law. p. 70. Theoreticall contemplative . p. 72. Inauguration installing . p. 97. Ubiquitari that is everywhere . p. 108. Promiscuously confused . p. 114. Physicall motion an actuall change . p. 130. Adequate of the same extent . p. 132. Extrinsecall outward . p. 136. Manumission freedome . p. 139. Transmutation change . p. 146. Collectively together . p. 153. Integrally wholly . p. 154. Genus a logicall terme intimating a nature common to severall kinds . d. 155. Species is alogi●…all terme signifying a nature agreeable onely to severall particulars . ibidem . Theologicall Axiome , a rule in Diinitie . p. 177. Proems beginnings . p. 181. Exordium Preface . iibdem . Predication Predicated denomination or naming . p. 189. Reciprocall interchangeable . p. 188. Suspension or abstension withholding . p. 191. Secluding orshut out . ibidem . Proselytes followers . p. 127. Intensively the inward vertue of a thing , extensively are outwardacts of a thing . p. 200. Aberration erring . p. 201. Classes the lesser meeting . p. 202. Synods the grerater meeting . ibidem . Oecumenicall universall . ibidem . Consubstantiation the being of two substances together . p. 208 Tropee a translation of the signification of words . p. 209. Delegated appointed . p. 214. Lesbian crooked . p. 225. Ethicks manners . p. 226. Mediocrity the meane . p. 234. Specificall the same in kind . ibidem . Ens incomplexum a simple being . p. 253. Specifica●…ive that 〈◊〉 divers kinds . ibidem . Appretiatively valuablely . p. 268. Compellation naming or calling . p. 275. Sympathies the agreements of nature . Antipathies the disagreements of nature . p. 277. Appropriatiation applying to one . p. 282. Mentall in the understanding . ibidem . Vocall in word . ibidem . Deprecation to pray against . p. 285. Anthemes songes . p. 284. Impetration obtaining . p. 287. Celebration praising . p. 289. Metaphoricall the property of one thing is translated to another . p. 291. Promissory promising . p. 293. Assertory affirming . ibidem . Candidly ingenuously . p. 294. Spontaneous willingly . p. 295. Exorcismes conjuration . p. 296. Indefinite unlimited . ibidem . Fortuinous casuall . p. 297. Conjecture guesse . ibidem . Petinacious obstinate . p. 302. Monomachies Duells . p. 306. Accurate perfect . p. 309. Redundancy abounding . ibidem . Detraction slander . p. 311. Iotaes tittles . ibidem . Subjective in this place terminated . p. 314. Objectively referred by ibidem . Idolothites things offered to indolls . p. 315. Situation seating . p. 319. Prolepsis or Anticipation The declaring of a thing before that shall bee done afterward . p. 323. Polygamy many mariages . p. 325. Adumbration shadowing . p. 329. Iudiciall the Lawes for the Common-Wealth . p. 330. Allegorically figuratively . p. 337. Concession granting . ibidem . Mechanicall Handiwork . ibidem . Disparity inequality . p. 345. Emendative correcting . p. 152. Commutative changing . ibidem . Criminall . faulty . ibidem . Parsimony sparing . p. 378. Pedagogy Child-hood . p. 330. Accommodation fitting . p. 331. FINIS . Capit. Of the Contents or summe of the First Booke . CHAP. 1. OF the definition or nature of divinity . p. 1. CHAP. 2. Of the distribution or parts of divinity . p. 4. CHAP. 3. Of faith . p. 5. CHAP. 4. Of God and his essence . p. 10. CHAP. 5. Of the subsistance of God. p. 16. CHAP. 6. Of the efficiency of God. p. 21. CHAP. 7. Of the decree , and counsel of God. p. 26. CHAP. 8. Of Creation . p. 35. CHAP. 9. Of providence . p. 45. CHAP. 10. Of speciall gubernation about intelligent Creatures . p. 50. CHAP. 11. Of Mans Apostacy or fall . p. 55. CHAP. 12. Of the consequents of sinne . p. 60. CHAP. 13. Of Originall sinne . p. 66. CHAP. 14. Of actuall sinne . p. 68. CHAP. 15. Of Corporall death . p. 73. CHAP. 16. Of the consummation of death . p. 75. CHAP. 17. Of the propogation of sinne . p. 77. CHAP. 18. Of the Person of Christ the Mediator . p. 79. CHAP. 19. Of the Office of Christ. p. 82. CHAP. 20. Of satisfaction . p. 87. CHAP. 21. Of the life of Christ being humbled . p. 91. CHAP. 22. Of the Death of Christ. p. 99. CHAP. 23. Of the exaltation of Christ. p. 104. CHAP. 24. Of the application of Christ. p. 111. CHAP. 25. Of Predestination . p. 116. CHAP. 26. Of Calling . p. 123. CHAP. 27. Of Iustification . p. 129. CHAP. 28. Of aodption . p. 135. CHAP. 29. Of Sanctification . p. 140. CHAP. 30. Of Glorification . p. 146 CHAP. 31. Of the Church mystically considered . p. 151. CHAP. 32. Of the Church instruced . p. 157. CHAP. 33. Of the extraordinarie ministers of the Church . p. 161. CHAP. 34. Of the holy Scripture . p. 167. CHAP. 35. Of ordinary Ministers , and their office in preaching . p. 173. CHAP. 36. Of the Sacraments . p. 183. CHAP. 37. Of Ecclesiasticall discipline . p. 188. CHAP. 38. Of the administration of the Covenant of grace be fore the Comming of Christ. p. 193. CHAP. 39. Of the administration of the covenant from Christ exhibited to the end of the world . p. 198. CHAP. 40. Of Baptisme and the supper of the Lord. p. 205. CHAP. 41. Of the end of the world . p. 210. L. Cap. Of the Contents or summe of the Second Booke . CHAP. 1. Of observance in generall . p. 215. CHAP. 2. Of Vertue . p. 223. CHAP. 3. Of good workes . p. 236. CHAP. 4. Of Religion . p. 243. CHAP. 5. Of faith . p. 249. CHAP. 6. Of Hope . p. 257. CHAP. 7. Of Charity . p. 264. CHAP. 8. Of hearing of the word p. 271. CHAP. 9. Of Prayer . p. 277. CHAP. 10. Of an Oath . p. 290. CHAP. 11. Of a Lot. p. 296. CHAP. 12. Of tempinhg of God. p. 303. CHAP. 13. Of instituted Worship . p. 307. CHAP. 14. Of the manner of Divine worship . p. 315. CHAP. 15. Of the time of worship . p. 322. CHAP. 16. Of Iustice and Caharitie toward our Neighbour . p. 341. CHAP. 17. Of the Honour of our Neighbour . p. 353. CHAP. 18. Of Humanity toward our Neighbour . p. 363. CHAP. 19. Of Castitie . p. 368. CHAP. 20. Of Commutative Iustice. p. 374. CHAP. 21. Of telling truth . Verracitie . p. 380 CHAP. 22. Of Contentation . p. 384. FINIS . THE FIRST BOOK OF DIVINITY . The first Chapter . Of the Definition , or Nature of Divinity . DIvinity is the doctrine of living to God , Iohn 6. 68. The words of eternall life , Acts 5. 20. The words of this life , Rom. 6. 11. Reckon your selves to be alive unto God. 2. It is called a doctrine , not as if the name of Intelligence , Science , Sapience , Art , or Prudence were not hereto belonging ; for all these are in every accurate Discipline , and especially in Divinity : but because this discipline is not from Nature and humane invention , ( as others are ) but from divine revelation and institution . Isay 51. 4. Doctrine shall proceed from me , Matth. 21. 25. From Heaven : why did you not then believe him ? Iohn 9. 29. we know that God spake to Moses , Gal. 1. 11. 12. The Gospell is not according to man : for neither did I receive it from man , neither was I taught it , but by Revelation , Iohn 6. 45. 3. The principles of other Arts being inbred in us may be polished and brought to perfection , by sense , observation , experience , and induction : but the solid principles of Divinity how ever they may be brought to perfection by study and industry , yet they are not in us from Nature . Matth. 16. 17. flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee . 4. But seeing every Art consists of rules , whereby some Act of the Creature is directed , and seeing life is the most noble of all acts , it ( that is Divinity ) cannot properly be conversant about any other thing then about life . 5. And seeing , that , that life of the Creature is most perfect , which comes neerest to the living , and life-giving God , therefore the nature of Divinity life is to live to God. 6. Men live to God when they live , according to the will of God , to the glory of God , God inwardly working in them , 1. Pet. 4. 2. 6. that he might live after the will of God ; according to God. Gal. 2. 19. 20. That I may live to God : Christ lives in me . 2. Cor. 4. 10. that that life of Jesus might be manifest in our bodies . Phil. 1. 20. Christ shall be magnified in my body , whether by life or death . 7. This life , as touching its essence remaines one and the same , from its beginning unto eternity . Iohn 3. 36. & 5. 24. He that believeth in the Sonne hath eternall life , 1. Iohn 〈◊〉 . 15. Life eternall remaining in him . 8. But although in this life there is contained as well to live happily as to live wel , yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to live well , is more excellent then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to live happily ; and that which ought cheifly and finally to be respected is not blessednesse , which respects our profit , but goodnesse , which is referred to Gods glory . Therefore Divinity is better defined by that good life whereby we live to God , then by a blessed life whereby we live to our selves ; as it is called of the Apostle by a Synecdoche . The doctrine according to God lives , 1. Tim. 6. 3. 9. Moreover seeing this life is a spirituall act of the whole man , whereby he is caried on to enjoy God , and to doe according to his will , and it is manifest that those things are proper to the will , it followes that the prime and proper subject of Divinity is the will. Pro. 4. 23. From the heart commeth actions of life . And 23. 26. Give me thy heart . 10. But seeing this life and will is truly and properly our most perfect practise , It is of it selfe manifest , that Divinity is practicall , and not a speculative discipline , not onely in that common respect , whereby other disciplines have their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , well doing for their end , but it is practicall in a peculiar and speciall manner and above all other . 11. Neither indeed is there any thing in Divinity which is not referred to the last end , or to the meanes pertaining to that end : all of which kind doe directly tend to Practise . 12. This practise of life is so perfectly contained in Divinity , that there is no precept universally true pertaining to living well , contained in the disciplines of houshold government , morality , politicall government or making Lawes , which doth not properly pertaine to Divinity . 13. Divinity therefore is of all Arts , the supreame , most noble , and the master-peece , proceeding in a speciall manner from God , treating of God , and divine matters , and tending and leading man to God , in which respect it may be not unfitly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is a living to God , or a working to God , as well as a speaking of God. CHAPTER II. Of the Distribution or parts of Divinity . 1. THere are two parts of Divinity , Faith and observance . 2. Tim. 1. 13. Hold the expresse forme of wholesome words , which thou hast heard of mee with faith and love . 1. Tim. 1. 19. Having faith and a good conscience . Psal. 37. 3. Trust in the Lord and doe good . Of those parts did the Divinity of Paul consist , Acts 24. 14 , 15 , 16. I believe all things that are written , and have hope in God : I exercise myselfe to have a conscience void of offence : the same were the parts of Abrahams divinity , Gen. 15. 6. & 17. 1. Abraham believed Iehova : walke before me continually and be perfect . The same doth Christ require of his Disciples , when besides faith he requires that they observe all things that he hath commanded , Mat. 28. 20. The same doth Paul handle , in the Epist. to the Rom. wherein t is manifest that the summe of Divinity is contained . Finally , he would that the same should be taught in the Churches , Tit. 3. 8. these things I will that thou affirme , that they that have believed God , might be carefull to goe before in well doing . 2. A property of this distribution ( which is required in a genuine distribution of every art ) is , that it flouwes from the nature of the object . For seeing the beginning and first act of spirituall life , ( which is the proper object of Divinity ) is faith , and the second act or operation flowing from that principle is observance , it necessarily followes that those two are the genuine parts of Divinity , neither is there any other to be sought for . 3. In the old Testament ( fitly for that legall and servile estate ) Divinity seemes sometime to be divided into the feare of God and observing of his Commandements , according to that Eccles. 12. 15. The summe of all is , feare God , and keepe his Commandements , for this is the whole duty of man. But by a metonymie faith is included on the former part , as appeares out of Pro. 3. 5. 7. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart : feare the Lord , and depart from evill . 4. These two parts in use indeed and exercise are alwayes joyned together , yet in nature and precepts then are distinguished . 5. They are also so distinguished in order of nature , that faith holds the first place , and spirituall obedience the latter : for there can be no vitall actions brought forth , unlesse a principle of life be first begotten within . CHAPTER III. Of Faith. 1. FAith is a resting of the heart on God ; as on the author of life and eternall salvation : that is to say , that by him we may be freed from all evill , and obtaine all good , Esa. 10. 20. Let him leane upon Iehova the holy one of Israel in Faith. Psal. 37. 5. Rolle thy way upon Iehova , and trust in him , Ierem. 17. 7. Blessed is the man who trusteth in Iehova , and whose confidence Iehova is . 2. To believe commonly signifies an act of the understanding yeelding assent to testimony : but because the will is wont to be moved thereupon , and to stretch forth it selfe to embrace the good . so allowed , therefore Faith doth aptly enough set forth this act of the will also , in which manner it is necessarily understood in this place . For it is a receiving , Iohn 1. 12. As many as received him — who believe . 3. Hence Faith is caried unto that good which by it is made ours , is an act of election , an act of the whole man , which things doe in no wise agree to an act of the understanding . Iohn 6. 35. He that commeth to me , he that believeth in mee . 4. Therefore although Faith alwayes presuppose a knowledge of the Gospell , yet there is no saving knowledge in any , ( and which differs from that which is found in some that shall not be saved ) but what followes this act of the will , and depends upon it . Iohn 7. 17. & 8. 31. 32. 1. Iohn 2. 3. 5. That truly Christian Faith which hath place in the understanding doth alwayes leane upon a Divine testimony , as it in Divine : yet this testimony cannot be received without a pious affection of the will towards God. Iohn 3. 33. He that receiveth his testimony , hath sealed that God is true , Rom. 4. 20. He was strengthened in Faith , giving glory to God. 6. Neither yet because it is grounded only upon a testimony , is it the more uncertaine and doubtfull : but more certaine in its own nature then any humane science , because it is caried to its object under a formall respect of infallibility : although by reason of the imperfection of the habit whence Faith flowes , the assent of Faith in this or that subject oft-times appeares , weaker then the assent of science . 7. Now God is the object of Faith , not as he is considered in himselfe , but as we by him doe live well . 1. Tim 4. 10. We hope in the living God , who is the preserver of all men , especially of those that believe . 8. Christ as Redeemer is the mediate object of Faith , but not the highest , for we believe in God through Christ. Rom. 6. 11 : to live to God by Christ. 2. Cor. 3. 4. we have trust through Christ to God-ward , 1. Pet. 1. 21. Through him believing in God. 9. The sentences in the Scriptures or promises , doe containe and present an object of Faith , and they are called the object of Faith by a Metonimy of the adjunct●… The good which is propounded to be obtained , as it is such , is the end and effect of Faith , not properly the object it selfe . But that , upon whose power we rest , in the obtaining of that good , is the proper object of Faith. 1. Cor. 1. 23. We preach Christ , and 2. 2. I determined to know nothing among you but Iesus Christ , 2. Cor. 5. 19. God in Christ. 10. With this Divine Faith , which looketh to the will of Cod and our own salvation , we must not simply believe any man , but God above , Rom. 3. 4. Every man is a lyar , 1. Cor. 2 , 5. that your faith consist not in the wisdome of men . 11. Therefore the Authority of God is the proper and immediate ground of all truth in this manner to be believed : whence is that solemne speech of the Prophets every where , the Word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord. 12. Hence , the last resolution of Faith as it sets forth a thing to be believed , is into the authority of God , or Divine revelation . 2. Pet. 1. 20 , 21. If ye first know this , that no prophety of Scripture is of private interpretation , &c. Iohn 2. 29. We know that God spake to Moses ; As the last resolution of it as it notes the act of believing , is into the operation , and inward perswasion of the Holy Spirit , 1. Cor. 12. 3. 11. That none can call Iesus Lord , but by the Holy Spirit . 13. This Faith whereby we believe not only a God , or give credit to God , but believe in God , is true and proper confidence : not as by this word is set forth a certaine and absolute perswasion of good to come , but as it signifies chusing and apprehending of a sufficient , and fit meanes , and such wherein such a perswasion , and expectation is founded . In which sence men are said to put confidence in their wisdome , power , friends and riches . Psa. 78. 2. They believed not in God nor trusted in his salvation . 14. This is every where declared in those phrases of Scripture , wherein the true nature of solid Faith is unfolded , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To lean upon , as Isay 10. 20. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pro. 3. 5. & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isa. 50. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pro. 3. 5. Isa. 50. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal. 71. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Rom. 10. 11. 15. Therefore to beleeve in God , is in believing to cleave to God , to leane on God , to rest in God as in our all-sufficient life and salvation . Deut. 30 , 20. by cleaving to him , for he is thy life . 16. Hence that generall assent , which the Papists make to be Faith , is not Faith , because by their own consession , it may be without any life , Iames 2 , 17. 17. But that speciall assent whereby we resolve that God is our God in Christ , is not the first act of Faith , but an act flowing from Faith : for there is no greater certainty of this truth in thee then in another , nor a truer apprehension of it in thee then another , before thou hast specially applied thy selfe to God by Faith , Rom. 5. 1 , 2. Being justified by Faith , we have peace toward God , we glory in God. 18. Seeing also that Faith is the first act of life , whereby we live to God , in Christ it must needs consist in union with God , which an assent given to the truth concerning God can in no wise doe . 19. Further also , seeing he that is about to believe out of a sense of his misery , and defect of any deliverance , either in himselfe , or in others , must needs cast himselfe upon God in Christ , as a sufficient , and faithfull Saviour , he cannot in any measure so cast himselfe by an assent of the understanding , but by a consent of the will. 20. Although in Scriptures sometimes an assent to the truth which is touching God and Christ , Iohn 1. 50. is accounted for true Faith , yet there is a speciall confidence alwayes included : and so in all places where there is speech of saving faith , either a confidence in the Messiah is presupposed , and there is only declared a determination , or application of it to the person of Christ : or by that assent confidence is set forth as an effect by its cause , Iohn 11. 25 , 26. He that believes in me shall live : believest thou this ? He saith , yea Lord , I believe that thou art that Christ , that Son of God who should come into the world . 21. But whereas confidence is said to be a fruit of Faith , it is true of confidence , as it respecteth God , for that that is to come , and it is a firme hope : but as it respects God in Christ , offering himselfe in present , it is Faith it selfe ; Hence arise those titles which the Scripture gives to saving Faith , that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Perswasion , boldnesse . 2. Cor. 3 , 4. & 5 , 6 , 7 , 8. Eph. 3 , 12. 1. Pct. 1. 13. 1. Iohn 5. 13 , 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a full perswasion . Romans 4. 21. Col. 2. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the substance , Heb. 11. 1. 22. Now whereas true Faith is of some placed partly in the understanding , and partly in the will , that is not so accurately spoken , because it is one single vertue , and doth bring forth acts of the same kinde , not partly of Science , and partly of affections . 1. Cor. 13 , 13. But that solid assent yeelded to the promises of the Gospel is called Faith ; and confidence , partly because it begetteth Faith as it is a generall assent : partly because it flowes from that confidence as it is a speciall and solid assent apprehending the actuall possession of grace already obtained . For so it rests upon confidence of the heart , as a●… meane , or third argument , by force whereof such a conclusion onely can be inferred . E. G. He that beleeveth , I am sure he shall be saved . Experience also teacheth that that particular assurance of the understanding is wanting in some , for a time , who notwithstanding have true Faith lying hid in their hearts . CHAPTER IIII. Of God , and his Essence . 1. IN the former dispute , wee have treated of Faith : now order requires , that we treat of God , who is the object of Faith : which that it may bee somewhat more exactly done , wee will first speake of the knowledge of God. 2. God as he is in himselfe cannot be apprehended of any , but himselfe 1. Tim. 6. 16. Dwelling in that inaccessible light , whom never man saw , nor can see . 3. As he hath revealed himselfe unto us , he is conceived as it were , by the backe parts , not by the Face . Exod. 33. 23. Thou . shalt see my back-parts , but my Face cannot be seene , and darkely , not clearly , that is , after an humane manner , and measure , 1. Cor. 13. 12. Through a glasse : darkely , after a sort . 4. Because those things that pertaine to God are necessarily explained after an humane manner : hence is th●…t manner of speaking frequent in these matters which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . I. E●… . figure that attributes those things to God which bee proper to men , as in humane affections senses or members . 5. Because also they are explained after our measure , to mans capacity , hence many things are spoken of God according to the way of our conceiving , rather then from his Nature . 6. We cannot know him otherwise , so as yet to live : neither have we need to know him otherwise that we may live well , Exod. 33 , 19 , 20. 7. That which is revealed of God is sufficient for us , that we may live well , Deut. 29 , 29. Those things which are revealed to us , and our children , for ever that we may doe all the words of this Law. 8. Now that which may be knowne of God his Sufficiency and his Efficiency Rom. 4. 21. Being fully perswaded , that he who had promised , was able to performe . 9. These two , are the Pillars of Faith , the props of comfort , the incitements of piety , and the surest markes of true Religion : prov'd by the place before Viz. Rom. 4. 11. 10. The sufficiency of God , is that whereby he himselfe hath sufficient in himselfe for himselfe , and for us : hence also is he called , Al-sufficient , Gen. 17 , 1. 11. This sufficiency of God is the first ground or reason of our Faith , why we beleeve in him , viz. because he is able to give us life , Rom. 4. 20. 12 The sufficiency of God is in his Essence , and Subsistence . 13. The Essence of God is , that , whereby he is a being , absolutly first . Isa. 44 , 6. I am the first and the last , besides me there is no God. Rev. 1. 8. & 21. 6. & 22 , 13. I am Alpha , and Omega , the beginning and end , the first and the last . 14. This Essence of God is declared in his Name . Iehova . Now because the Essence of God is such , hence it . followes . 15. Frst , that God is one , and only one , Deut. 6. 4. 1. Tim. 2 , 5. Ephes. 4 , 6. 1. Cor. 8 , 5 , 6. Marke 12. 32. Rom. 3. 29 , 30. 16. Secondly , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is , neither from another , nor of another , nor by another , nor for another . 17. Thirdly , finally hence it is that he is voyd of that power which is called passive , hence he is unchangeable , Psal. 102. 27 , 28. thou remainest : thou art the same . Rom. 1. 23. the glory of the Incorruptible God , Iames 1. 17. With whom there is no variablenesse , nor shadow of turning , or changing . 18. Now because this Essence cannot be sufficiently comprehended of us by one Act , it is explicated of us as if it were manifold , namely by many attributes . 19. They are called attributes , because they are rather said to be attributed to God , then properly to be in him , if they be taken as the words sound . 20. These attributes in God , are one most pure , and simple act . Hence the nature of the Divine attributes , may be rightly explained by these propositions as so many Consectaries , consequences , or conclusions . 21. First all the attributes of God are truly spoken of God , as well in the abstract as in the concrete . 22. Secondly , those attributes which are in a sort common to God with the Creatures , doe in their substance belong to God in the first place , to the Creatures secondarily : although the names are transferd from the Creatures to God , and so doe first agree to the Creatures . 23. Thirdly , the Divine attributes doe admit no inward intention , extention , remission or imparity . 24. Fourthly , the Divine attributes are not contrary one to another , but doe very well agree together . 25. Fifthly , all Divine attributes are as it were Divine perfections : yet so as that all imperfection , which accompanies such a property in the Creature , is to be removed in this application of it to God , and the perfection thereof is to be conceived with greatest eminency . 26. Sixthly , Divine attributes are in God , not only virtually , and by way of eminency , but also formally , although not in that manner , that qualities , are in the Creatures . 27. Seventhly , they are in God as in a second Essence , because they are not of the formall reason of the Divine Essence , for we conceive God to be , before we can conceive him to be just , and good . 28. Eightly , they are distinguished , from the Essence , and among themselves , not only in reason ( as they say ) reasoning , but also reason reasoned , so that the foundation of the distinction is in God himselfe . 29. Ninthly , those attributes , which in their formall respect , include something proper to the Divine Essence , are altogether incommunicable : as Omnipotency , Immensity , Eternity , and such like . 30. Tenthly , those that are said to be communicated to the Creatures , doe agree to them by likenesse , not altogether in the same manner as they are in God : neither yet altogether aequivocally . 31. The attributes of God set forth , What God is , and Who he is . 32. What God is , none can perfectly define , but that hath the Logicke of God himselfe . But an imperfect description which commeth neerest to unfold Gods nature , and may bee conceived of us , is such as this . 33. God is a Spirit having life in himselfe . Iohn 4. 24. God is a spirit , and Chap. 5. 26. The Father hath life in himselfe . 34. He is called a Spirit . 1. Negatively , because he is not a body . 2. Analogically , or by a certaine likenesse , because there are many perfections in spirituall substances which doe more shadow forth the Divine nature , then any bodily thing can . 35. He is said to be Living . 1. Because God doth most especially worke of himselfe , not being moved by another . 2. Because the vitall action of God is his very Essence . 3. Because he is the Fountaine of all being ; and vitall operation to other living things . Acts 17. 25. 28. He giveth to all life , and breath , and all things : in him we live , move , and be . 36. He is said to live in himselfe , because he receiveth neither being nor life , from any , in any part . 37. Hence , the chiefe title of God whereby he is distinguished from all Idolls , is , that he is the living God. Deut. 32. 40. Psal. 84. 23. Ierem. 5. 2. 38. Hence our Faith seeking eternall life , doth rest in God alone , because God is the Fountaine of all life . Iohn 5. 26. 39. Who God is , those properties doe set forth to us wherby he is distinguished from all other things . 40. Now those Divine properties doe shew , How great God is , and what an one he is . 41. Under the motion of Quantity he is said to be . 1. One. 2. Infinite . First inwardly , because he is unmeasurable . Secondly , outwardly as he is incomprehensible . 3. He is said to be eternall . 42. He is said to be One , not in kinde , but in that most perfect unity , which in the Creatures , is wont to be called numericall , and individuall . 43. God is infinite , as he is void of all bounds of his Essence , Psal. 139 , 8. If I clime up to Heaven , thou art there : or make my bed in the Grave , be hold thou art there . 44. God is unmeasurable , as he is void of all matter of dimension or measure . 1. King 8. 27. The Heavens , and Heavens of heavens doe not containe thee . Isa. 66. 1. Heaven is my throne , Earth my foote-stoole . 45. Hence Faith doth looke for no certaine measure of blessednesse , to be communicated from God , but unmeasurable glory . 46. God is incomprehensible , because he is void of any bounds to compasse him . 47. Hence he is present every where ; because there is no place whence he is excluded any where . 48. God is also eternall , because without beginning and end . Psal. 102. 25. 26. Esay 44. 1. 1. Tim. 1 , 17. 49. Hence it is , that our Faith doth apprehend eternall life in God. 50. What an one God is those properties doe set forth by which he is said to worke : unto these now ought to be attributed all the properties of Essence , and quantity , simplicity , immutability , eternity , and immensity . 51. These qualities are conceived either under the reason of faculties or else of vertues , by which those faculties are adorned . 52. The faculties are understanding & will , whence Faith doth leane upon him , who knowes what is needfull for us , and is willing also to supply it . 53. The understanding of God is simple without any composition , discourse or representation of shapes . Heb. 4. 13. All things are naked and open to his eyes . 54. The understanding of God is unchangeable : he knowes not otherwise , nor more one thing then another , nor more before then now , or now then before . Acts 15. 18. known to the Lord are all his workes , from before all ages . 55. The understanding of God is eternall : it neither beginneth nor endeth . Ibid. 56. The understanding of God is Infinite , because he perceiveth all truths , and reasons of all things . Iob 11. 8. 9. The Wisdome of God is heigher then the Heavens , longer then the Earth : deeper then the Sea. Psal. 139. 6. thy knowledge is more wonderfull then that I can conceive it . 57. The same way also the nature of the Divine will ought to be conceived of us . 58. The will of God is single and onely one in God. 59. The will of God is unchangeable : because he alwayes willeth the same , and in the same manner . Psal. 33. 1. The counsell of the Lord remaineth for ever . 60. The will of God is eternall ; because hee doth not begin to will what before he would not , nor ceaseth to will that which before hee willed . Mala. 3. 6. I Iehova change not . 61. The will of God may be said to be infinite : because it hath no outward limitation . 62. The affections which are given to God in Scripture , as love , hatred , and the like , doe either set forth acts of the will , or doe agree to God only figuratively . 63. A vertue is the perfection of the understanding and will , such as is wisdome , holinesse , and the like in God. 64. Virtue is attributed to God , as it notes a readinesse of doing : not under the respect of an habit distinct from faculty and act . 65. But the vertues which in man arise from occasion of sinne and imperfection , doe not agree to God , as humility , chastity , shamefastnes , and the like . 66. Out of all these attributes , that perfection of God doth result , whereby hee is called blessed , 1. Tim. 1. 11. and 6. 15. 67. Hence our Faith hath a firme foundation , because it leaneth on God the possessor and author of all perfection , blessednesse and glory . CHAPTER V. Of the Subsistence of God. 1. THe Subsistence of God is that one Essence , as it is with its personall properties . 2. The same essence is common to three subsistences , and as touching the Deity , every subsistence is of it selfe . 3. Nothing moreover is attributed to the Essence , which may not be attributed to every subsistence in regard of the Essence of it . 4. But those things that are attributed properly to every subsistence in regard of its subsistence , cannot be attributed to the Essence . 5. The subsistences are distinguished from the Essence , as the manners of subsisting growing together with the same Essence are distinguished from the same absolutely considered . 6. They are distinguished among themselves , as Relatives by certaine relative properties ; so as one cannot be another ; yet they are together in nature , neither can they be said to be former , or latter ; but in order of beginning , and manner of subsisting . 7. But seeing those relative properties are , as it were individuating in an Essence that lives spiritually and most perfectly : therefore those subsistences are rightly called persons . 8. Now these properties are not inherent qualities , but relative affections , unto which agrees all that perfection , which is found in the like affections of the Creature , but no imperfection agreeth to them . 9. Hence t is that a relative property in God doth make or infer a person , which in the Creatures hath not the same reason . 10. Those subsistences are either breathing , as Father , and Sonne ; or breathed , as the Holy Spirit . 11. To breath , or send forth is a relation , not such as by it selfe can make a person , but common to two persons . 12. The relative property of the Father is to beget , Psal. 2. 7. Thou art my Sonne , this day I begot thee . Iohn 3. 16. the only begotten Sonne . Heb. 1. 6. The first begotten . Hence he is the first in Order . 13. The relative property of the Sonne is to be begotten , that is , so to proceede from the Father , that he is partaker of the same Essence , and doth perfectly resemble his nature : and hence , he is the second in order , Heb. 1. 3. The brightnesse of his glory , and the Character of his Person . 14. The property of the holy Ghost , is to be breathed , or sent forth , and proceede both from the Father , and the Sonne . Iohn 15. 26. Whom I will send to you from the Father , that spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father , Romans 8. 9. The spirit of Christ. Gal. 4. 6. The spirit of the Sonne . 15. The difference betweene ( these two ) to be begotten , which agrees to the Sonne , and to proceed , which is proper to the holy Ghost , cannot be explained by us in proper words , but that the Sonne proceeds from the Father alone , and the holy Ghost from the Father and the Sonne , making one relative together , Or making together one relation . 16. Yet it may , in part , be shadowed out in a similitude ; namely the father is as it were , Deus intelligens , God understanding : the Sonne the expresse Image of the Father , is as it were Deus intellectus , God understood ; the holy Spirit flowing and breathed from the Father by the Sonne , is as it were Deus dilectus , God beloved . The Sonne is produced as it were by an act of understanding or speaking , from the understanding , or fruitfull memory of the Father : the holy Spirit is produced by an act of loving or breathing from the fruitfull will of the Father and the Sonne . Hence the Sonne is called the word , Wisdome , Image , which are not affirmed of the holy Ghost . But because in the Creatures there is found the generation of a sonne , but there is not any thing found which doth so immediately procced from two equally perfect ( as the holy Spirit proceedeth from the Father , and the Sonne ) therefore the procession of the Sonne is properly designed , noted , or set downe in Scripture : but neither is a speciall manner of proceeding , nor speciall name absolutly proper given to the third person . For it is truly said of the Father and the Sonne , that they are spirits , and holy , and the Sonne also proceedeth from the Father by spirituall generation . 17. The proper name of God , with his proper titles , is given in Scripture , not onely to the Father , but also to the Sonne . Ier. 23. 6. Iehova our righteousnesse , Iohn 1 , 1. The word was God , Rom. 9. 5. God blessed for ever , 1. Tim. 3 , 16. God manifest in the flesh , Rev. 17. 14. Lord of Lords , and King of Kings . It is also given to the holy Spirit . Acts 5. 3 , 4. that thou shouldest ly to the holy Spirit , thou hast lien unto God , Acts 28. 25. with Isay 6. 9. Iehova said , the holy Ghost spake , 1. Cor. 3. 16. & 6. 19. 2. Cor. 6. 16. the Temple of God , the Temple of the spirit . 18. Divine attributes are affirmed not only of the Father , but also of the Son , Isay 9. 6. The most mighty God. Father of eternity , Iohn 2. 25. He knew what was in man , and 3. 13. The son of man is in Heaven , and 8. 38. Before Abraham was I am . In like manner also of the holy Spirit , Psal. 139. 7. Whither shall I fly from thy spirit . 1. Cor. 2. 10. The spirit searcheth all things , even the deepe things of God. Heb. 9. 14. the eternall spirit . 19. The proper operations of God , are attributed not only to the Father , but also to the Sonne , and the holy spirit . Election is attributed to the Sonne , Mat. 24. 31. His elect , and the eternall counsell of God is attributed to the holy Ghost . Isay 40. 13. Who hath waighed the spirit of the Lord as the man of his counsell , Creation , is attributed to the Sonne , Iohn 1. 3. All things were made by him , and without him was made nothing that was made : Also it is attributed to the holy Spirit , Psal. 33. 6. By the Word of the Lord were the Heavens made , and all the strength of them by the breath of his mouth . Upholding , & governing of things created is attributed to the Sonne , Heb. 1. 3. Who upholdeth all things by that his mighty Word . Also they are attributed to the holy Spirit . Gen. 1. 2. The spirit did move upon the face of the waters . Zech. 4. 6. By my Spirit saith the Lord of Hosts ; Proper Power of doing miracles is given to the Son. Act. 4. 10. Through the name of Iesus Christ , he standeth before you whole , & 9 , 34. Iesus Christ he aleth thee . It s also given to the holy Spirit , Acts 2. 4. They began to speake with tongues , as the spirit gave them utterance . The communicating of spirituall life , and of all grace , in vocation , justification , adoption , sanctiand glorification , fication , is every where given as well to the Sonne & holy Spirit as to the Father , the ordaining , sending & blessing of Ecclesiasticall Ministery is given to the Sonn , Eph. 4. 8. 11. He gave gifts , he gave some Apostles , &c. And to the holy Ghost , 1. Cor. 12. 11. All these worketh one & the same spirit , Act. 20. 28. The holy Spirit hath made you overseers . The very Resurrection of the flesh is ascribed to the Sonne , as the author , Iohn 6. 54. I will raise him up . Also to the holy Spirit , Rom. 8. 11. Hee shall raise up your bodies , by his spirit dwelling in you . 20. Divine honour also , and worship is given , not only to the Father , but also to the Sonne , Heb. 1. 6. Let all the Angels of God worship him . And also to the holy Spirit : when his Name together with the Father and the Sonne , is appointed to be called upon over the Baptised . Mat. 28. 19. In the name of the Father , and Sonne , and holy Spirit . In like manner the Sonne , and Spirit is called upon , in that solemne forme of salutation . The grace of the Lord Iesus Christ , and the love of God the Father , and the communication of the holy Spirit be with you all , 2. Cor. 13. 13. And whatsoever pertaineth to worship is referred as well to Christ as to the holy Spirit , in that the true worshippers of God , as they are such , are called Temples not only of God the Father , but also of Christ , Rev. 21. 22. The Lord God Almighty is her Temple , and the Lambe . 1. Cor. 3. 16. Know yee not , that yee are the Temple of God , and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you ? and 6. 19. Know yee not that your body is the Temple of the holy Spirit , who is in you . 21. Finally , that authority , and majesty , which is proper to God , is given to the Sonne and the spirit . 1. Cor. 2. 8. The Lord of glory , 1. Pet. 4. 14. that spirit of glory . All holy prophecy is attributed to Christ and the holy Spirit . 1. Pet. 3. 19. Christ by his spirit went and preached to the spirits that are in prison . 2. Pet. 1. 21. Holy men spake being moved by the holy Spirit . Acts 28. 25. The holy Spirit spake by Isaiah the Prophet . 22. Now that the holy Spirit is propounded to us in all these as a person subsisting , it doth manifestly appeare by this , that life , understanding , will and power is given to him every where , together with all acts proper to a person . 23 , Also his distinction from the Father and the Sonne is cleerly taught when he is called , another , sent , comming , from the Father and the Sonne . Iohn 14. 24. Hence , God is the object of our Faith , is every way sufficient to impart salvation to us . For all love , grace , and the communication of those things which pertaine to living well , doe flow from the Father , Sonne , and holy Spirit , 2. Cor. 13. 13. CHAPTER VI. Of the Efficiency of God. 1. THe Efficiency of God is that , whereby he worketh all in all things . Eph. 1. 11. Who worketh all things . Rom. 11. 36. Of him , by him , and for him are all things . 3. That Effecting , working , or acting of God , being actively taken as they are in God acting , not really diverse from God himselfe . For no composition , ormutation of power and act can have place in the most simple , and immutable nature of God. Yet it addeth a certaine relation of God to a reall effect . 4. He worketh all in all things , because the Efficiency of all and every thing , depends upon the first cause , not only as touching its substance , but also , as touching all reall circumstances . Isay 45. 7. That I Iehova doe all these things , Lam. 3. 37. 38. Who is he that saith , and it commeth to passe , when the Lord commandeth it not ? Out of the mouth of the most high proceedeth not evill and good ? Also whatsoever hath any perfection in genere moris in matter of manners , is accounted among the workes of God : but not imperfection or defects , which are opposed to the subjection that is due to God. 4. In the efficiency of God shines forth both his Essence and his subsistance . 5. That Efficiency which pertaines to the Essence of God , is his omnipotency . 6. The power of God being considered as simply powerfull , is altogether the same with his sufficiency , and pertaines properly to the nature of God , as it is considered under the respect of a being , and so is before the knowledge and will of God. Rom. 11. 23. for God is able to graft them in againe . 7. But power in asmuch as it is in execution , is in some sort after sufficiency , and pertaines to the Efficiency of God , and so doth follow the knowledge and will of God. Psal. 115. 3 and 135 , 6. Whatsoever he pleased he did . 8. In these therefore this order is to be conceived , That first we conceive in God Posse , to be able , secondly Scire to know , thirdly Velle to will ; Lastly , Efficere potenter , powerfully to effect , which differs from the effectuall will of God , but only ratione , in reason , whence is that Syllogisme of Faith , which in Matth. 8. 2 , 3. is distinctly explained : Lord of thou wilt , thou canst : I will. Therefore it is done . Where the argument is from the will comming to the power . 9. Hence the very Will of God , as it is an effecting principle , hath a kinde of power , Rom. 9. 19. Who hath resisted his will ; neither is executive Omnipotency any thing else , then the effecting will of God. Psalme 33. 9. Hee commanded and it was done . Revel . 4. 11. By thy will they are and were created . 10. Therefore it is an error against the nature of God , to say , that God properly willeth to doe many things , which yet by his Omnipotency he doth not . Eph. 1. 19 , 20. The exceeding greatnesse of his power in us that believe , according to the working of his mighty power . 11. The Omnipotency of God is that whereby , he his able to effect all things that he willeth or can will. 2. Cor. 20. 6. In thy hand is power and strength , and none can resist thee , Luke 1. 37. With God there is no word which cannot be done . Phil. 3. 21. He is also able to subject all things unto himselfe . 12. Hence also God is everywhere called in the old Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mighty God , Isay 9. 6. Ieremy 32. 18. Also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God al-sufficient . Gen. 17 , 1. & 35. 11. Ruth 1. 20. 21. And in the new Testament he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord Almighty , 2. Cor. 6. 18. Rev. 1. 8. & 48. And the only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Potentate , 1. Tim. 6. 15. Power is attributed to God actively , because he hath power to communicate something to others , such as is the power of the cause . 13. Potentia , vel potestas causae , A causing power yet properly active power doth not agree to God , as if in respect of himselfe , he were first idle , and after did put himselfe forth into act : for God is a most pure Act. Iames 1. 17. 14. Therefore we must not imagine such an active power in God , which is a different thing from his Essence , for the very Essence of God is this power whereby he is powerfull : As the same Essence is mercy it selfe , whereby he is mercifull . 15. But an active power agrees to God , in respect of the Creature , which is properly said to be able to receive , and prove that act of God , which before it did not feele and prove . Matthew 19. 26. All things are possible with God. 16. The Omnipotency of God is conversant about things absolutely possible , whatsoever God willeth , or can will. Ibidem . 17. It is not therefore exercised about things which are altogether 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impossible , and doe imply a certaine contradiction , either in God , or in the things created , 2. Tim. 2. 13. He cannot deny himselfe . 18. Hence a certaine distinction ariseth of Divine Omnipotency , whereby it is distinguished into absolute power , and ordinate , or actuall power . 19. Absolute power is that whereby God is able to doe all things possible , although they never shall be . Matth. 3. 9. God can of these stones raise up children unto Abraham , and 26. 53. Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray my Father , and he shall presently give me more then twelve legions of Angels ? Mark. 10. 27. Eph. 3. 20. 20. The ordinate power of God is that whereby he not only can doe that which he will , but also in very deed doth actually doe , whatsoever he will. Psal. 115. 3. & 135. 6. Eph. 3. 11. 21. The manner of Gods subsistence which shines forth in his Efficiency is first , the co-working of all persons ; secondly , the distinct manner of the persons in working . 22. Their co-working is , that whereby they do inseparably worke the same thing : for all externall actions are common to all the persons , Iohn 5. 17 , 19. My Father worketh , and I worke . Whatsoever he doth , the same likewise doth the Son. and 16. 13 , 14. That spirit shall not speak of himselfe ; but whatsoever he shall heare , he shall speak . He shall take of mine , and give it to you . 23. Hence every person worketh of himselfe , as touching the causall power which he exerciseth . 24. Hence , there is no praeeminence of dignity , in that co-working , but great unity , and identity of one , and the same cause . 25. Hence equall honor is equally due from us to all the Divine Persons . 26. The Distinct manner of working is that whereby every person doth worke according to the distinct manner of his subsistence . 27. That distinct manner is partly in the order of working , partly in the bounding of the action . 28. As touching the order , the manner of working of the Father is of himselfe , by the Sonne and Holy Spirit . Hence the beginning of things , namely Creation is properly attributed to the Father , who in order of beginning is the first Person . 29. The manner of operation of the Sonne is from the Father by the spirit . Hence the dispensation of things is properly attributed to him , namely Redemption , & the constitution of all the offices in the Church . Ephes. 4. 11. He therefore gave some to be Apostles , some Prophets , &c. 30. The manner of working of the spirit is from the Father and the Son by himselfe . Hence the communication of things is attributed to the Holy Spirit , as Regeneration , Tit. 3. 5. The communication of all spirituall gifts , 1. Cor. 12. 4. And the perfection of naturall things themselves , Gen. 1. 2. 31. As touching the termination of the action that works , in which the working , or manner of working of one person , doth chiefly shine forth is chiefly attributed to that person . So Creation is by a speciall application appropriated to the Father , Redemption to the Sonne , and Sanctification to the holy Ghost . CHAPTER VII . Of the Decree , and Counsell of God. 1. IN the powerfull Efficiency of God , the Decree of God obtaineth the first place : because this manner of working , being of all most perfect , doth chiefly agree to the Divine Nature . 2. The Decree of God is his determinate purpose of effecting all things by his almighty Power , and according to his counsell , Eph. 1. 11. He doth all things according to the counsell of his own will. 3. In the Decree of God there appeareth his constancy , truth , and faithfulnesse . 4. Constancy is that whereby the Decree of God remaines alwayes immutable , Num. 23. 23. The strong God is not a man that he should ly , or the Sonne of man that he should repent , Prov. 19. 21. The Counsell of the Lord it shall stand . 5. Truth is that whereby he declares that alone which he hath decreed , Ierem. 13. 10. Iehova is a God of truth . Rom. 3. 4. Let God be true and every man a lia●… . For although his words may seeme sometime to sound another thing , yet the sence of them doth alwayes agree with the Decree . 6. Faithfulnesse is that whereby he effects that which he hath decreed , and as he hath decreed . Isay 46. 10. My Counsell shall stand , and I will doe all my pleasure . 7. Every Decree of God is eternall . 1 Cor. 2. 7. Acts 15. 18. 8. To this Decree of God pertaineth Counsell . Eph. 1. 11. Acts 4. 28. 9. The Counsell of God is as it were his deliberation concerning the doing of every thing in the best manner , after that it is of the understanding and will approved . 10. Counsell is given to God in respect of perfect judgement , whereby he doth all things advisedly I. E. willingly and of set purpose : not in respect of any inquisition upon which such a judgement doth depend us men . For God seeth , and willeth all and every thing together . Therefore it is called , as it were deliberation , not deliberation properly so called . 11. Three things concurre to the perfection of this Counsell . 1. A scope or end propounded . 2. A conceipt of the minde tending towards that scope . 3. An intention , and well pleasingnesse of the will. 12. The scope or end of this Counsell is the glory of God himselfe , that is , that goodnesse , or perfection of God which is made manifest by his Efficiency , and shines forth in his works , Eph. 1. 6. To the praise of his glorious grace . 13. In every artificer , or one that workes by counsell ad extra , outwardly , there is a platforme afore hand in the mind which when he is about to work he lookes into , that he may fit his worke to it : so also in God seeing he worketh not naturally nor rashly , nor by constraint , but with greatest perfection of reason , such a platforme is to be conceived to praeexist before in his mind , as the exemplary cause of all things to be done . Heb. 11. 3. Those things we see were made of things that doe not appeare . 14. The platforme of all things is the Divine Essence , as it is understood of God himselfe as imitable by the Creatures , or so as in some sort the Image of that perfection or some footstep thereof may be expressed in the Creatures : that is , the Creatures themselves , as they are conceived in the Mind of God , are the platforme or image of that nature which they have in themselves . 15. A platforme in the mind of man , who attaines to knowledge by Analysis or resolution is collected of things themselves : and so things are first in themselves , then they come unto the senses of men , and then to the understanding , where they can make some Idea to direct the following , operation . But because God understandeth all things by Genesis , or composition , and doth not require knowledge by Analysis , or resolution of things , therefore all things are first in his minde before they are in themselves . 16. In us the things themselves are the example , platform or copy , and our knowledge is the Image : but in God the Divine knowledge is the coppy-platforme , and the things themselves the Image , or expresse likenesse of it . 17. An Idea in man is first imprinted and afterwards expressed in the things : but in God it is only expressing properly , not impressed , because it doth not come from any other thing . 18. From this one foundation may all errors of merits and foreseene faith be sufficiently refuted . For if any Decree of God should depend properly upon such foresight , then the Idea of God should come to him from something else , which doth in no wise agree with his nature . 19. The Idea or platforme , as it is absolutly considered in God , is only one , but as it includes divers respects to the Creatures , it becomes manifold ; so that it is true , that the Idea of one Creature is not the Idea of another . 20. There are in God platformes of all perfections which are in the Creatures , because they proceed from the active power of God : but not of imperfections , if they be formally considered as imperfections . 21. Therefore the knowledge of evill depends upon the denying of good , as the being of evill consists in privation of good , for every thing as it hath its being , so it is knowne . 22. Ideas as they are many , so some of them are Connexa knit together among themselves , and depend one upon another : whence also a certaine order ariseth of former and latter . 23. Idea's as they are considered going before the Decree of Gods Will , doe represent a quiddity of things , and only a possible existence : as they are considered after the determination of Gods Will , they represent the same thing , as actually to come , according to their actuall existence . 24. From that divers consideration there ariseth distinction of Divine knowledge into that which is called , Knowledge of simple understanding , and knowledge of vision . 25. Knowledge of simple intelligence , is of all possible things , that is , of all and every thing , which may be done by most perfect knowledge in God. 26. Knowledge of vision , is the knowledge of all future things , whether they be in their own nature , necessary , or free , or contingent . 27. These things that God knowes by the knowledge of simple intelligence or meere understanding , he knowes by his all sufficiency : but those things that he knowes by knowledge of vision , he knowes by his Efficiency , or by the Decree of his own will , Psal. 33. 15. He that frames their hearts , observeth all their workes . Isa. 44. 2. Who as I , foretelleth and declareth it , or ordereth it to me , from the time that I disposed the people for ever : that the things to come , and which shall come to passe may be declared to them ? 28. A middle knowledge by which God is fained of some to have known before the Decree of his will by supposition , such events to come to passe , if such causes were put : seeing that it doth both determine events to come certainly to passe independantly from Gods Will , and doth make some knowledge of God to depend chiefly on the object : I say such a knowledge cannot stand with the great perfection of God. 29. The Divine Idea , according to the variety of Notions , which are in the things , doth put on divers respects . In respect of the Principles , it is called intelligence whereby God perceiveth every severall thing in every thing : in respect of truth belonging to every severall thing it is called Science , which as to the extent of it , is Omniscience : & as to that being which things have in their proper measure , is called Praescience . In respect of the dependance of truths which they have among themselves , it is called Sapience , whereby he knoweth what is convenient for every thing , and what is disagreeable from it : In respect of the whole order to be appointed in practise , it is called Prudence , whereby he knowes , to apply the fittest occasions to every thing : Lastly , in respect of putting in practise , it is called Art. Whereby hee knowes to effect all things most skilfully . Heb. 11. 10. 30. Those words are often used promiscuously in the Scriptures , to explaine the perfection of Divine understanding to the capacity of those , who have an understanding very imperfect ; yet of their own nature they admit this distinction , and not another . 31. That conjecturall knowledge which only some doe give to God , about contingent things to come , doth plainly repugne the nature , and perfection of God. Of those three things which were propounded as concurring to the perfection of Gods Counsell , namely , A scope , conceived of the minde , and intention of will ; The Third remaines to be considered , which is called , Good pleasure . 32. The Good pleasure of God is an act of Divine will , most freely and effectually determining of all things . 33. Good pleasure indeed in Scripture doth most usually set forth the good will of God , whereby he willeth , and determineth a saving good unto his : yet because all the Counsell of God is well pleasing to him , it is rightly used by Divines to explaine every Counsell of God , even according to the Scriptures . 34. This will is truly free : because whatsoever it willeth , it willeth it not by necessity of nature , but by Counsell . 35. It is most free , or chiefly and absolutely free , depending upon no other , but the freedome of the will of men and Angels by reason of that dependance which it hath on God , is lesse free partaking of another . 36. Freedome in those operations which are outward is not only concomitant , as it is in inward operations ; but also it is antecedent by way of a principle : because that which God willeth to worke outwardly , he willeth not out of necessity of nature , but of precedent choise : for there is not a necessary connexion betweene the Divine Nature , and those Acts. 37. This will is Effectuall : because whatsoever it willeth , he effecteth it in its time , neither is there any thing that is not done , if he willeth it to be done . Psal. 115. 3. & 135. 6. Iehova doth whatsoever he pleaseth . 38. Hence the Will of God is the first cause of things . Rev. 4. 11. By thy will they are , and were created . But the Will of God , as it willeth to worke outwardly , doth not presuppose the goodnesse of the object , but by willing doth make the object . Iames 1. 18. Because he would , he begat us , Rom. 9. 18. He hath mercy on whom he will. 39. Therefore there is no cause properly so called , to be given of Gods Will. 40. Hence it is rightly said , that God doth will one thing to exist for another : but not that that one thing is a proper cause whereby the Will of God is inwardly moved to appoint that other thing . So God would that the Sunne and stars should exist , for the generation , conservation , and corruption of things below : yet the Sunne and Stars , are not a cause why God would that those things should be generated , conserved , and corrupted . And so it is in all things out of God , which indeed among themselves are causes and effects , even as they depend upon the Divine will , but there is no cause of Gods Will out of it selfe . 41. Also the willing of one thing in God , is not properly a cause effecting that he will another thing in himselfe , because the Efficiency of a cause upon an effect , and dependance of the effect upon a cause , cannot be in the Will of God , which is God himselfe , truly and simply willing all things together and at once , with one onely act ; yet it is true that the Schoolemen say , that a passive attingency of the Divine will in respect of one thing , is a cause of a passive attingency in respect of another : and so in this sence it is truly and piously said , that God willeth some one thing , because he willeth another . 42. Therefore although he willeth many things which will not follow but upon some antecedent act of the Creature , yet the very act of willing in God doth not properly depend as a consequent thing upon the act of the Creature . Neither is it lawfull under the appellation of an Antecedent will , to give unto God that imperfect will which is called Velleitas , a woulding in the Schooles . For it doth not agree to an Omniscient , Omnipotent , and infinitely , blessed Nature . 43. Wherefore that opinion which determines that God doth will something antecedently to the act of the Creature , which same thing afterwards he willeth not towards them , but wills another thing , is not to be admitted : because it makes the Will of God mutable and depending upon the act of the Creature , so that as often as the act of the Creature is changed , so often also it is changed . 44. By that opinion also , that forme of speech prescribed in the Word of God wherein we commit ourselves and all ours to God , as I will doe this , or that , if God wil , should not be used in all things , but turned contrarily , God will doe this or that , if man will. 45. This will determines of all things , greatest , least , contingent , necessary , free , without exception : This the Scripture shewes of all kind of things : as of Christ Iesus to be glorified , and the Church to be saved by him . Psal. 2. & 110. 1. & 40. 7 , 8 , 9. Heb. 7. 16. 21. Eph. 5. 25. 2 Tim. 1. 9. Of Pharaoh . Exod. 1. 3. Where God did so dispose all things , that he might move Pharaoh to persecute and overthrow the people of Israel ; nay he hardened him , that he might persecute them : yet Pharaoh , and Israel did worke freely . In like manner of the selling of Ioseph , wherein all things happened freely , and contingently , God determining of it according to his Will. Of the very heart of man. Psal. 33. 15. 1 Sam. 10. 9. 26. Prov. 21. 1. Of a man killing another by chance . Exod. 21. 13. Of the Lot cast into the Lap. Prov. 16. 33. Of little Sparrowes falling to the ground : Of all the haires of a mans head . Matthew 10. 29. 30. Of the Lillies , Flowers , and Grasse of the Earth , Matthew . 6. 28. 30. Finally , of all created things . Iob 38. Psal. 104. Isay. 45. 7. Ierem. 14. 22. 46. If God should not determine of all things , his Will should not be simply & universally the first cause : and therefore they that thinke the contrary , must of necessity either make two first beginnings , or more then two , which is very far from all truth . 47. But there is not the same reason of will as there is of Divine knowledge and power , for knowledge knowes all things that may be known , and power can doe all possible things , and they are stretched forth together beyond those things which actually have been , are , and shall be : but by his Will he willeth not all things he can will , but all things which he judgeth to be willed , and therefore actually to be hereafter : whence it is that although God may be called , Omniscient , and Omnipotent , yet he cannot be called Omnivolent . 48. Whatsoever God willeth in all these things , he is universally effectuall : so as he can in no wise be hindred , or frustrated , whereby he cannot obtaine what he wills . For if he should properly will any thing , and could not obtaine it , he should not be most perfect and blessed . 49. Yet the Will of God doth not infer a necessity upon all future things , but a certainty only as touching the event . So it could not be as to the certainty of the event , that the bones of Christ should be broken , because God would that they should not be broken : yet there was no necessity imposed upon the Souldiers Speares , and other second causes which were present . 50. Nay it is so far off , that the will of God , which doth most certainly attaine to whatsoever it willeth , doth urge all things with hard necessity , that it is the prime roote , and efficient cause of all that contingency , and freedome , which is in things : because it doth effectually foreordaine such effects to follow of such causes . 51. In those things which God Willeth there is a certaine order conceived , namely that first he Willeth the end , before the meanes to the end , because he worketh by most perfect reason : and among meanes , he first Willeth those things which come neerest to the end : for that which is first in order of execution , that is last in order of intention , and so contrarily . 52. This Will of God , is , partly hidden , and partly revealed . Deut. 29. 29. 53. Those meanes by which this Will is revealed , are rightly called the Will of the signe , not only metaphorically , because they declare among men what they would have , but also metonymically , because they are either effects , or adjuncts , partly declaring the proper Will of God. 54. There are five signes put in that old verse . Praecipit , & Prohibet , Permittit , Consulit , Implet : He commandeth , and forbiddeth , Permitteth , Counselleth , fulfilleth : but because counsell is all one with a command ; instead of it , it should be better to put in Promittit , He promiseth . Thus farre in generall of Gods Efficiency , which together with his Sufficiency , doth make a fit , and adaequate object of Faith. The kinds of it do follow . CHAPTER VIII . Of Creation . 1. THe Efficiency of God , is either Creation or Providence . 2. Creation is the Efficiency of God whereby he made the World of nothing , in the beginning very good . 3. Active Creation is conceived , by the manner of a transient action , in which there is alwayes an Object presupposed about which the agent is exercised , yet it is not formally , transient but only virtually ; because it doth not presuppose , but make an Object . 4. Passive Creation is conceived by the manner of mutation , which is improperly called mutation . 5. Creation respects the whole world , that is , whatsoever doth exist besides God. 6. Hence , both all things which exist besides God are created , and they are altogether created , that is , as well according to matter , as according to forme . Rev. 4. 11. Because thou hast made all things . Col. 1. 16. For by him were made all things which are in Heaven , and which are in Earth , visible and invisible . 7. Creation doth produce Originally , because it produceth a being , not only as it is a being , but also absolutly in every part . 8. Therefore before the Creation , the Creatures had no reall being either of existence , or Essence , although they had a known being from eternity in the knowledge of God. 9. Creation then produceth out of nothing , that is , out of matter that doth not praeexist , that hath a being before , but co-exist , that hath a being together with the thing created : For there was nothing from eternity besides God , neither is God the matter or part of any Creature , but only the efficient cause . 10. Indeede somethings are said to be created , whose matter did pre-exist : but then Creation respects not only that immediate action , whereby it comes to passe that such things are ; but also a mediate action , whereby it comes to passe that the matter it selfe should exist of which they are formed : so it was in the Creation of plants and living Creatures , Genes . 1. 20. 11. That nothing , or not being of things , did goe before their being : not only in order of nature , for so they might co-exist with God from externity : but also in order of duration , continuance , according to our manner of conceiving . 12. Hence that beginning in which God is said to create the world , was the end of that duration which nothing had , and the beginning of that which a the world had . 13. Therefore God would by the Creation , both shew forth his perfection , that he did not neede any Creature or outward thing ; for then he had created the world as soone as he could . And also his freedome whereby he brought forth all things without naturall necessity , for if he had created necessarily , he had done it from eternity . Rev. 4. 11. Psal. 115. 3. 14. The world neither was made from eternity , neither could be created from eternity , in that disposition , and order of things , which now it hath . 15. That day had not been , if infinite dayes ought to have gone before , for those dayes going before had never been ended , that that might succeed them . 16. Hence also it followeth that no Creature was , or could be a cause either instrumentall , or principall in the act of Creation . 17. Every thing created was very good , because it was made neither rashly , nor in vaine , but unto the end which the Maker did attaine unto . Gen. 1. 31. Whatsoever hee made was very good . 1 Tim. 4. 4. Whatsoever God made is good . 18. Goodnesse of a thing created is that perfection whereby it is fit to the use it serves for : Now that use is particular , or universall . 19. The Particular is that proper operation to which any thing serves in its proper nature . 20. Universall use , is the ordaining of one thing with others , for the perfection of the Universe or whole . Psal. 104. & 148. Esay . 40. 13. 21. By this goodnesse all created things in their naturall manner tend to God from whom they came . For the second being is from the first , and for the first . Hence those phrases . From him , through him , and for him are all things . Rom. 11. 36. 22. Now naturall things tend unto God. 1. In that they declare Gods Glory . Psal. 19. 1. 2. That they give occasion to us to know , and seeke God , Rom. 1. 20. Acts 17. 26. 3. In that they sustaine our life , that we may live well unto God. 1 Cor. 10. 31. 1 Tim. 4. 3. 4. 23. Time doth co-exist or hath a being together with all naturall things , as appeares in that phrase in the beginning : for then was the beginning of time . 24. Place also doth co-exist , that is , a certaine space , wherein the extention of the Creature is bounded . Genes . 1. 22. 25. But these are not properly created , but concreated , or annexed , knit to the things created : because they have not an absolute , but only a relative entitie or being . 26. Because God created all things of nothing , therefore our faith rests in him against hope , under hope , for those things which are not , as if they were . Rom. 4. 17. 18. 27. The Creation of the world is distributed according to the parts of the world : for although the world be one , by unity of aggregation , order , and end ; yet it consists of parts , distinguished not onely according to the situation , but also according to the Essence , and Existence . 28. But the Creation of these parts of the world , was not altogether and in one moment , but it was finished by parts succeding one another , in the space of six dayes . 29. Creation then is of the parts of the world , that are either immediatly perfect , or mediatly , Psal. 33. 6. Heb. 11. 3. Gen. 2. 7. 19. 22. 30. Creation of things immediatly perfect is , that whereby things were made having their principles , both materiall and formall , at the first ingenerated in them , and that in a compleat existence . 31. Hence those Creatures of themselves are subject to no essentiall change ; as generation , or corruption . 32. The parts immediatly perfect are the highest Heaven , and the Inhabitants of it the Angels . 33. The highest Heaven , is the dwelling-place of Gods holinesse , full of all things which pertaine to eternall blessednesse : where the Majesty of God doth present it selfe to be seene as it were Face to Face . 1 Cor. 2. 8. Marc. 12. 23. 1 Cor. 13. 12. 34. It is called the third Heaven , Empyreum fiery , The Heaven of Heavens , and Paradise . 1 Kings 8. 27. Mat. 18. 10. Marc. 12. 25. 2 Cor. 12. 2. 4. 35. This Heaven is meant . Gen. 1. 1. Heb. 11. 10. 16. 36. Angells are Spirits of primary perfection , created to minister unto God. 37. That Angels were ereated appeareth , Col. 1. 16. Psal. 14. 8. 5. That they were created the first day with the highest Heaven , appeareth . 1. From the likenesse of nature , that they have . 2. In that they are faid to have as it were applauded God in the Creation of other things . Iob 38. 7. 3. In that they are Spirits . Heb. 1. 14. Luc. 24. 39. Ministers of God. Heb. 1. 7. 14. Of chiefe perfection , and of an immortall nature . Luke 20. 36. 38. Hence the Angels doe so excell in cleere seeing reason , that they are said to be as it were , full of eyes , presently discerning what God would have done by them , and how it is to be done : And in liberty of will , that they performe their offices with diligence , Psalme 103. 20. And in perfection of strength , that they are able to doe great things . 2 Peter . 2. 11. And in greatest agility , that as if they had wings , they doe swiftly dispatch that which they have in Commission . Ezech. 1. 6. 39. Their Ministery is to celebrate the Glory of God ; and to execute his commands . Psal. 103. 20. Especially about those who shall be heires of eternall life . Hebr. 1. 14. Psalme 91. 11. & 34. 8. 40. They were created sound in holinesse , and righteousnesse , Lu. 9. 26. Iohn 8. 44. Iude 6. 2. Pet. 2. 4. 41. In number they are very many , unto ten thousand times ten thousand . Dan. 7. 10. Hebr. 12. 22. Mat. 26. 53. They are distinguished among themselves , in respect of their Offices , & Objects , about which they are exercised . Ephe. 1. 21. And they are under the command of God and Christ only . 42. By the Creation God is known , but not God the Father , Sonne and Holy Spirit , because that effecting power whereby the world was created , pertaines to the essence of God , and not to his personall subsistence . 43. Creation of the parts of the World mediately perfect , is whereby things were made of principles , that did exist before . 44. Hence those Creatures are subject to change and corruption . 45. Those things that were mediatly perfect have a double existence ; first a rude and incompleate , then afterwards a compleat , distinct , and beautified existence . 46. The rude and incompleat existence of things was in that masse which in the beginning was created , without forme , void , and involved in darknesse , which is called Earth , Waters , the Deepe . 47. It is said to be without forme ; not because it had no forme , but because it neither had beauty , and ornament , nor a compleat act of those formes which were afterwards to proceed out of it . 48. In the constitution of the compleat existence of things , two things are chiefly to be respected ; Namely , the manner , and order . 49. The manner of constitution containes foure things . 1. The command of God producing every thing : Let be , or let this or that be done : wherein the power of God shines forth , that by his only word or will he did all things . Psal. 33. 9. Psal. 115. 3. 2. His approbation acknowledging the same thingh brought forth as good , God saw that it was good . Hence the goodnesse of Cod shines forth , that he produced all things to a good end and use . Psal. 19. 2. 3. His ordination assigning to every thing his use ; Let it be to this or that end . Hence the wisdome of God shines forth whereby he hath assigned severall uses to every thing , in a most fit way . Ier. 10. 12. & 51. 15. He made the Earth by his power , he stablished the habitable World by his wisdome , and stretched out the Heavens by his prudence . 4. The establishing of a Law , and order , perpetually to be observed in that thing , which is also joyned with ordination . Hence the constancy of God shineth forth , that he would have all Creatures to observe their order , not for some dayes , or yeares , but to the end of the world . 50. These former are not severally expressed in some kind of things ; because their imperfection depends upon the perfection of other things : yet in common reason they doe equally agree to all . 51. The order of constitution was thus : In the first day after the bringing forth of the highest Heavens , the Angells , and the u●…shapen Masse , the subtilest part of that Masse being called forth upward , there was made light , that is , shining fire . 52. On the second day , Of that part which in subtilty came neerest to the former there was made Aire . 53. On the third day , the parts of the Masse were so distributed , that the Waters being gathered , in their cha●…nels , of that part which was for the greatest , the Séa was by it selfe , and the Earth appeared adorned with Herbs and Trees . 54. On the fourth day , The Luminaries of Heaven were made , to give light upon the Earth . 55. On the fifth day , Fishes , and Birds , that dwell in the aire and water were brought forth . 56. On the sixth day , were brought forth all Terrestriall living Creatures , first the brutish Creatures , and then afterward man : and so the Heavens and Earth were perfected , and all the Hosts of them . 57. In this order the wisdome , power and goodnesse of God doth greatly shine forth . 58. His wisdome . 1. In that the simple elements were first created before things elementary or concrete , and compounded . 2. In that among simple things the more perfect were made first , which come neerest to the nature of God. 3. In that those things were first created which only have being : then those which beside being have also life : then those that beside being and life , have also sence : then last of all , those things which beside being , life and fence , have also reason . 4. In that in simple things , there was a progresse from things more perfect to things lesse perfect , but incompound things from things lesse perfect to things more perfect , from plants to men . 59. The power of God shined forth in that he first created the Plants , Herbs and Trees , before the Sunne , and Stars , which are wont to be causes in their producing . 60. The goodnesse of God shined forth in that he created dwellings , before inhabitants , food before living Creatures , those things which should be usefull for man , before man himselfe . 61. Man as he was the last of the Creatures , so was he the Compendium , abridgement of all Creatures , both immedatly and mediatly perfect , partaking the nature of the one , in his soule , and of the other in his body . 62. He was the end of the Creatures mediatly perfect , and so in Gods-intention respected in them , and above them . 63. Hence he is said to be created in another manner then the other Creatures : for they were brought forth by a word only : let there be light , let there be a firmament . But man was brought forth as it were with greater counsell , and deliberation : Let us make man. Gen. 1. 26. 64. For the body was first prepared , and afterward the soule was inspired . Gen. 2. 7. The body of Elementary matter , but the soule was produced of no matter being before , but immediatly by the power of God. 65. The Excellency of man was placed chiefly in this , that he bore the Image of God. 66. Three things are required to make an Image . 1. That it be like . 2. That it be expresse , and framed to imitate another thing as an exemplar , or copy . 3. That that likenesse be either in its specifiall nature , or most noble perfection . 67. Hence it is , that in the inferior Creatures the Image of God is not properly found ; but only a shadow , and footstep of it . 68. But in man the proper reason of an Image is found , yet not perfect , which is only in the Son of God. Col. 1. 15. Hebr. 1. 3. But imperfect , not with a privative we , but negative imperfection . 69. This Image then is a conformity of man , according to his measure , to the highest perfection of God. 70. All this Image was naturall to man , but in a different respect , for it was partly the very nature of man , partly it flowed from the principles and perfection of nature , and partly it was due to nature in a certaine manner . 71. The Image of God in man was partly inward , partly outward . The inward , was the perfection of body and soule . 72. The perfection of the body is that whereby it was absolutely fitted for comlinesse and use agreeable to Gods Will. Gen. 2. 25. Rom. 6. 13. 73. The perfection of the soule was that whereby it was of an immortall nature , not only in those faculties by which it was a free principle of its own actions , in understanding and will , but also being adorned with gifts whereby man was made able , and fit to live well , namely with wisdom , holinesse , and righteousnes . Eph. 4. 24. Col. 3. 10. 74. The Externall perfection of man was his Dominion over other Creatures , whereby he might use them freely to Gods Glory , and his own necessity , Genes . 1. 26. and 2. 19. 20. 75. Hence the tilling of the Earth , and getting of food out of the Plants of the Earth , was committed to him . Gen. 2. 25. 76. Hence was the comming of the Creatures to him as to their Lord , and names by him put on them , as by their Lord. Gen 2. 19. 77. Hence he was placed in the Garden of Eden as in his Pallace . Gen. 2. 19. 78. In all those things joyned together the perfection of man was compleate : and from that perfection , a certaine Image of God , or of Divine perfection did arise . 79. This Creation of man , was , of the Male , and Female , both of them of nothing , as touching the soule . The body of the Male , of the Earth , mingled with other Elements . The body of the Woman , of the Male , and for the Male , that nothing might be wanting to his well being . 1 Cor. 11. 8. 9. 80. From the consideration of the Creation our Faith ascendeth above all the order of nature , and apprehends the light of the Glory of God , to be shewed forth in the Face of Iesus Christ , because it is God , who commanded the light to shine out of darknesse . 2 Cor. 4. 6. CHAPTER IX . Of Providence . 1. THe Providence of God is that Efficiency whereby he provides for his Creatures now made , in all things , according to the counsell of his owne Will. 2. This Providence is extended to all things , not only common , but proper . Psal. 145. 15. 16. Prov. 16. 9. 33. Exod. 21. 13. Being properly determined of no cause , but determining all causes : and hence in their manner it is the universall and particular cause of all things . 3. The Providence of God is either immediate , whereby God by himselfe , as the absolute sole cause provides for things , or mediate , whereby he provides by the use of meanes . 4. God doth all things that come to passe immediatly , both by reason of his power , in respect of all being , which is found in the effect , ( for the power of God attaines to every effect . Deut. 8. 3. Esay 28. 26. ) and also by reason of the subject in respect of that being it hath as it is a being : for God himselfe who is alwayes and every where present immediatly and inwardly , doth worke that in all things also . 5. Yet in respect of those things upon which second causes have their influence by force of their own proper forme , God is not said to worke , immediatly , but mediatly , because he worketh by the meanes of subjects and virtues of second causes : 6. God therefore useth meanes , not for want of power , but through the abundance of his goodnesse : that namely he might communicate a certaine dignity of working to his Creatures also , & in them might make his efficiency more perceiveable . 1 Sam. 14. 7. T is all one to Iehova to save with many , or with few . Hence God doth often use those meanes , to produce the most noble effects , which of themselves , have no aptnesse to bring forth such effects . 1 Cor. 1. 27. 28. Amos 5. 9. 2. Chr. 24. 24. Also he doth often make the most fit means , ineffectuall . Psal. 33. 16. & 127. 1. 2. Hos. 4. 10. 7. Hence our Faith doth not properly respect those means which God useth , neither depends on them , but on God only , who can relieve all our necessities either with means , or without meanes , as it seemes good to him . Dan. 3. 17. Our God whom we worship is able to deliver us out of the hot fiery Fornace , and out of thy hand , O King. 8. The Providence of God is either Ordinary and usuall , or Extraordinary and unusuall . 9. The ordinary providence is whereby God observeth that order in things which was appointed from the beginning . The reason of which order requires , that some certain thing goe before , and from that being put , some certaine thing follow after . Hos. 2. 22. I will heare the Heavens , and they shall heare the Earth , and the Earth shall heare the Corne , and the Wine , and the Oyle , and they shal heare Israel . 10. That order in naturall things is the Law of nature , common to all things or the very nature of things , as it is stablished in a certaine order , arising from the force and efficacy of that never to bee revoked Word of God given in the beginning : Let it be made , let it be , be it so , which expressing the respect of a thing to come doth signifie perpetuity and constancy , and by its virtue doth effectall things which doe usually come to passe of the samthings . Ier. 31. 35. 36. The statutes of the Moon , and ofthe of the Starres , &c. and 33. 20. My Covenant of the day and my Covenant of the night . 11. Extraordinary providence is that whereby God provideth for things beyond the usuall , and appointed order of them , in which manner whatsoever is effected , is by a metonymy of the effect called a Miracle . 12. A Miracle is an operation above the order appointed whence true Miracles doe alwayes give evidence of the omnipotency of the doer . Hence God only is the Author of true Miracles . 13. Men may-be morall causes of Miracles , as they obtaine this of God that he would doe them , or as God useth their help as a signe , or token of a Miracle to be done by him , yet they cannot be causes really efficient , nor indeed , instrumentall , much lesse principall . 14. The Providence of God is either conservation or gubernation . 15. Conservation is that whereby God maketh all things , both universall , and singular , both in their Essence and existence , and in their strength , to persist , and continue . Psal. 104. 19. 20. Acts 17. 28. Heb. 1. 3. Which is of Schoolemen , not unfitly called Manutenentia Dei , Gods holding in his hand , because by it God doth sustaine all things as with his Hand . 16. This conservation doth necessarily come between Creation , and government of things created : because whatsoever is created , is created to some end , and use , to which also it ought to be directed and governed : but it cannot attaine that end , nor be directed to it , unlesse it be continued and conserved in its being . 17. Gods conservation is necessary for the Creature because the Creature doth every way depend upon the Creator , not only as touching its Fieri . i. being to be made , but also touching its Esse , existere , permanere , & operari . i. Being , Existence , Continuance , and operation : so that every Creature should returne into that nothing whereof it was made , if God should not uphold it , and the very cessation of Divine conservation , would without any other operation presently reduce every Creature into nothing . Psalme 104. 29. If thou hidest thy Face , they are troubled , if thou takest away their breath they die , and returne to their dust . 18. Some things are conserved immediatly , namely such as are subjected unto God only . This conservation is in very deed the same with Creation , differing only in reason , in that Creation includes a certaine newnes which conservation excludes , & Creation excludes a precedent existence which conservation includes , so that that conservation is nothing else then as it were a continued Creation , and therefore it is joyned with Creation . Neh. 9 : 6. Thou hast made , and thou preservest all these things . 19. Gubernation is that whereby God directeth and leadeth all his Creatures to their proper ends . Psal. 29. 10. Iehova sits King for ever . 20. The government of all things ought to be of God. For they would never certainly attaine the end to which they were created , unlesse they were governed by the same power , by which they were created : and it proceeds from imperfection , when he leaves the work that he hath made , to be directed by another afterward . 21. This Gubernation includes intrinsecally , not only meanes convenient and fitting to the end , but also their certaine efficacy , or the attainment it selfe . The order therefore of this government is certaine , immoveable , and indissoluble , so that the Creature cannot wholly withdraw it selfe from all order of government , although it may decline from its particular order . Gen. 50. 20. 22. This government is common or speciall . 23. Common is that whereby God doth govern all things in a like manner , unto this government belongeth , First , The Law of nature common to all things , which is a certaine participation of the Law , and Will of God , put into all things from the beginning . Iob 38. 12. Hast thou commanded the morning , and made known to the day-spring his place , &c. Secondly , a naturall inclination , which is a principle of working according to that law , Iob 5. 7. The sparkes fly upward . Thirdly , a naturall instinct : which is a peculiar stirring up of the living Creatures , to some more noble acts , with a certaine shew and print of reason . Pro. 6. 6. Goe to the Pismire , O sluggard , behold her wayes and be wise . And 30. 24. These foure are small upon the Earth , but they are exceeding wise , the Ants , the Mise , the Locusts , the Spiders , Ierem. 8. 7. The storke , the Turtle , the Crane , and Swallow observe the times of their comming . Fourthly , A certaine obedientiall power , whereby all Creatures are apt to obey the command of God. Psa. 103. 21. & 148. 8. Doing his pleasure , fulfilling his Word . 24. This government shines forth in the operation of all things , first in that they alwayes looke to some certaine end , and so it is necessary that they be acted and governed by an intelligence every where present , and omnipotent , that is , of God himselfe . Iob 38. 27. In sending down raine to satisfie the wast place , and bringing forth the bud of the tender Herbe , Isay 55. 10. The raine causeth that the Earth bring forth feed to the sower , and bread for him that eateth . Secondly , In that the works of nature are ordained so accurately , and agreeable to reason , that they cannot but proceed from highest reason . Prov. 30. 25 , 26 , 27. 28. Thirdly , in that besides a proper ordination whereby every thing seekes his own perfection , they doe keepe as it were a common society and all doe more desire the conservation of the whole then of themselves , as it is to be seen in heavy things which are caried upward to avoyd an emptinesse . 25. By force of this Gubernation all second causes , are in a certaine manner determined afore , that is , First , they are stirred up , to worke , by an influence , or previous motion , in regard that ( beside the communicating of strength , and sustentation of the same ) there is some such thing required necessarily to bring forth that into act which before was in the power of the Creature . Secondly , they are applied to a certaine object , about which they are exercised in working . Ezech. 21 , 21 , 22 : &c. 2. Sam. 16. 10. Also by force of the same government they are ordered , that is , 1. Limits , and bounds are set to their actions : Iob 1. 12. & 2 , 6. & 38 , 10 , 2. Some good is drawn out of their action , Gen. 50. 20. 26. Because the exercise of that strength which is in the Creatures depends upon the Will of God ; hence it is that we trust in God alone , & not in those Creatures , by which the kindnesse of God is derived to us . CHAPTER X. Of speciall Gubernation about intelligent Creatures . In the former disputation common Gubernation was handled : now followes speciall Gubernation . 1. SPeciall Gubernation is that whereby God doth governe reasonable Creatures in a speciall manner . 2. The speciall condition of those Creatures doth cause the difference . For seeing they are in some sort immortall , and created after the Image of God , and have an inward principle of their own actions proceeding from counsell , therefore they are to be governed to an eternall state of happinesse or unhappinesse , and that agreeably to counsell , and freedome . 3. Yet this speciall Gubernation doth not conclude that reall Gubernation of the reasonable Creature , which is common to all Creatures , but is added to it . 4. This morall government consists in teaching , and fulfilling according to that that before he hath taught Micah . 6. 8. He hath shewed thee O man what is good Deus . 30 , 15. Life and good : Death and Evill . Hither to properly pertaineth that revealed Will of God whichis the rule of doing as touching manners , to the reasonable Creature . God governes by teaching , partly in making a Law , partly in establishing it . 6. A Law is made by commanding , and forbidding . 7. A Law is established by promising , and threatning . 8. God governes by fulfilling , when he performes those things he hath taught . Ierem. 32. 19. Thine eyes being open do looke unto all the wayes of men , that thou mayest give to every one according to his wayes , and according to the fruit of his doings . 9. From this speciall and proper way of governing reasonable Creatures , there ariseth that covenant , which is between God and them . For this covenant is as it were a certaine transaction of God with the Creature , whereby God commandeth , promiseth , threatneth , fulfilleth , and the Creature doth tie it selfe in obedience to God thus covenanting . Deut. 26. 16 , 17 , 18 , 19. This day Iehova thy God commandeth thee . &c. Thou hast avouched this day the Lord to be thy God , &c. Iehovah hath avouched thee this day , &c. To make thee high , &c. And that thou mayest be an holy people , &c. 10. Now because this way of entring into covenant is not between those that are equall , but between Lord and servant . Therefore it portaines to government , whence also it is most properly called not the covenant of man , but of God , who is the author , and chiefe Executor of it . Deut. 8. 17. 18. That he may performe his covenant . 11. By vertue of this covenant the morall workes of the intelligent Creature , whilst he is in the way , have alwayes a respect , either to happinesse as a reward , of to unhappinesse as a punishment : but in the last there is meriting , but in the other not . 12. Hence the proper and highest difference of a good work and sinne doth flow , namely in that a good worke is an operation expecting happinesse of another by way of reward : as by the opposite privation of it , evill workes are made in their kind extreamly evill . 13. Hence ariseth the force & reason of conscience , which is the judgement of an intelligent Creature of it selfe , as he is subjected to God. 14. Speciall government of the reasonable Creature is of Angels and men . 15. Speciall government of Angels , is either a speciall prescription , or ordering the event that followes upon it . 16. This was the same Law as touching the substance , with the morall Law which is contained in the Decalogue . 17. Yet those in the Decalogue are to be excepted which either pertaine to the nature of mans body , or the condition of this mortall life , which take no place in them , as many things of propagation pertaining to the seventh precept . Matth. 22. 30. Also many things pertaining to the fift precept , of subjection of inferiors of their superiors , in like sort some things belonging to the eighth precept of every ones getting of food in his vocation : finally many duties of the second and fourth Commandement to be performed to men . 18. The ordering of the event , was in some , a preservation to persist in obedience . He●…ce it is that they were confirmed in good , and endowed with full happinesse , so that they doe immutably cleave to God , with perfect obedience , and fullnesse of glory . Whence those Angells are called elected . 1. Tim. 5. 21. Good and holy , Luc. 9. 26. Blessed also , and Angels of light . 2. Cor. 11. 14. 19. In others , the ordering of the event was a permission , whence it is that they abusing their liberty did fall into Apostasie . 20. Hence it is that from that time they were obstinate , in evill , and condemned to extreme misery . Iud. 6. 2. Pet. 2. 4. Whence the evill Angells , are called impure spirits , and angells of darknesse . Luke 8. 2. & 9. 42 : 21. In that different ordering , there doth manifestly appeare the election of some Angels , and reprobation of others , by Gods free counsell , and good pleasure . 22. Touching the time of the fall of Angels , it doth only appeare , that it was before Adams fall . 23. Touching the kind of their sin which was first committed by them , it is most like that it was pride . 24. Touching their punishment the Scripture witnesseth that it is not yet inflicted in the highest degree , but to be inflicted in the end of the world . Matth. 25 ; 41. 1. Cor. 6. 3. Thus much of the government of Angells . The government of Man followes . 25. In the speciall government of men , Two things are to be observed , as in the government of Angells , namely prescribing a Law , and ordering the event that would thence follow . Yet there is not the same reason of all on either side . 26. In prescribing a Law there is like reason . 1. In that the Law prescribed to Men and Angells , was the same as touching the Essence of it : namely morall , the summe whereof is in the Decalogue . 2. In that that it was written in the heart by way of habit , wherein the first reason of conscience is placed , which is called Syn●…ercsis . Rom. 2 , 15. 27. But the similitude , and difference is divers . For , First , The principles indeed of this Law are common to Angells and Men , but many secundary conclusions are only proper to men : as of Parents , mariage , meats , and the like . 28. Secondly , seeing man is of a more imperfect nature then Angells , and so needs more instruction and exercise : therefore there was added to the Law of nature a certaine positive thing , otherwise of the same reason with it : as the sanctifying of the seventh day . 29. Thirdly , because Man in this animall life doth understand by sences , and so is as it were led by the hand from sensible things to intelligible and spirituall , therefore unto that spirituall Law there were added unto Man outward Symboles ; and Sacraments , to illustrate , and confirm it . And in these Symboles , there was contained , both a certaine speciall , and positive Law , & a prosession of generall obedience to the Law of nature before put into him and also a confirmation of that solemn sanction of the Law , which did consist of promises , and threatnings . 30. Fourthly , because Adam was the beginning of mankind , out of whom all Men were to be derived , therefore a Law is given to him not only as one private person , as was done in the Angells , but also as a publique person , or the head of mans nature , from whom all good and evill was to be derived to his posterity . Acts 17. ●…6 . Rom. 5 , 18 , 19. 1. Cor. 15. 21. 22. 31. Fifthly , in the sanction of this Law , there was contained a promise , of continuing animall life , and of exalting it afterward to spirituall , as also a threatning of bodily death which had no place in the Angells . 32. This interpretation being had , the Law and covenant of God with man in the Creation was , Doe this , and thou shalt live : If thou doe it not , thou shalt dye the death . In which words there is first contained a precept , Doe this . 2. a promise joyned to it . If thou doe it , thou shalt live , 3. A like threatning . If thou doe it not , thou shalt dye the death . 33. Unto this covenant there were two Symboles , or Sacraments adjoyned , In one of which the reward due to Obedience was sealed by a Tree , namely of life , and in the other the punishment of disobedience was sealed by a Tree , namely of knowledge of good and evill : that was a Sacrament of life , this a Sacrament of death . CHAPTER XI . Of Mans Apostacy , or Fall. In the former dispute , we have treated of the first parc of the speciall government of Men , which consists in prescribing a Law : the other part followes , in ordering the Event . 1. IN ordering the Event , as to Man , there are tw●… things to be considered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mans fall , and his restoring . Rom. 5. 19. 1. Cor. 15. 21. 2. In the Angells there was preservation of some , and Apostacy of others , but no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 restoring of those that did Apostate . But in Man there could not be both preservation and apostasy , together : because all men were created in one Adam as in the beginning , roote , and head : but in one and the same Adam , some men could not be preserved from the Fall and others Fall. 3. In the Angells there was no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Restoring . First , Because they Fell from the highest top of excellency : Secondly , because in the Fall of Angells , all the Angelicall nature did not perish , but by the sin of the first Man all mankind did perish . 4. The Apostacy of Man is his Fall from obedience due to God , or transgression of the Law prescribed by God. 5. In this Fall two things are to be considered . 1. The committing of the transgression . 2. The propagation of it . 6. The committing of the transgression was accomplished in the eating of the forbidden Fruit , which was called the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evill : but the first motion or degree of this disobedience , did necessarily goe before that outward act of eating , so that it may be truly said that Man was a sinner , before he had finished that outward act of eating . Wence it is that the very desire which Eve was caried toward the forbidden Fruit , doth seeme to be noted , as some degree of her sin . Gen. 3. 6. When the Woman saw , that the Fruit of the Tree was good for Meate , and most delightfull to the Eyes , and the Fruit of the Tree to be desired to get knowledge , she tooke and eat . 7. Therefore the first degree and motion of this disobedience , was an inordinate desire of some excellency , by the lifting up of the mind : which that she might attaine , the forbidding of God being laid aside , through unbeliefe , she would make triall , whether the forbidden Fruit had some power to confer such an excellency . 8. Hence was the grievousnesse of this sin , which did not only containe pride , ingratitude , and unbeliefe : but also by violating of that most solemne Sacrament , did make shew of , as it were a generall profession of disobedience , and contempt of the whole covenant . All which also were so much the more foule by how much the condition of the sinner was more perfect . 9. In the committing of this transgression two things are to be considered , the causes ; and consequents of it . 10. Causes were one principall . And others adjuvant . 11. The principall cause was man himselfe , by the abuse of his free will. Eccles. 7. 29. For he had received that righteousnesse , and grace by which he might have persisted in obedience if he would . That righteousnesse and grace was not taken from him before he had sinned , although that strengthning and confirming grace by which the act of sinning should have been actually hindered , and the contrary act of obedience brought forth was not granted unto him , and that by the certaine , wise , and just counsell of God. God therefore was in no wise the cause of his Fall : neither did he lay upon man a necessity of falling , but man of his own accord , did freely Fall from God. 12. The adjuvant causes were the Devill , and the Woman . 13. The first sin of the Divell was pride : From pride did presently follow envy towards God , and Gods Image in Man ; For because he had lost an orderly Excellency by affecting one out of order , therefore the Excellency of others grieved him , and he was maliciously bent to oppose it . But the Devill was not the compelling cause , neither the cause of sufficient direct necessary or certaine efficacy in procuring that sin : but only the counselling and perswading cause , by tempting , whence also it is that he hath the name of the tempter . Mat. 4. 3. 14. The tempting of the Divell is a fallacy , or sophisticall argumentation : whereby under a shew of that which is true , and good , he labours to seduce to that which is false : and induce to that which is evill . 15. In this tentation , the good which he propounded , and as it were promised , was shewed to be as it were the greatest : the way to be used to attaine that good , was propounded to be as it were easie , and light : that greatest evill which did hang over his head , was hidden from him . 16. The Devill is wont to goe the like way in all his tentations , which he doth insnare mankind with ; yet in this tentation a certaine speciall cunning is to be observed which containes many crafts and those very subtile . 17. The first of them was in that he chose a Serpent for his instrument which had a certaine naturall aptnesse , which the Devill knew how to abuse . 18. The second slight was in that he dealt with the Woman 1. Tim. 1. 13. Whether in the presence , or absence of her husband the Scripture is silent . 19. The third slight was in that he determined nothing at the first speech : but only propounded a certaine question to the Woman , as if he were ignorant of those matters ? Hath God indeed said ? 20 The fourth was that his question had much ambiguity in it , for so might be understood that he should not aske of Gods command , but of the sence or meaning of that command , peradventure not sufficiently understood by man , If the question be understood of the command it selfe , then he might seem to have asked whether God had forbidden them , that they should not at all eat of the fruit of any Tree , or as the Woman her selfe answered whether he had forbidden them the use of that one Tree , and so had not simply given them leave for all . 21. The fift was that having first called the command of God into doubt by that question , he did so artifically extenuat the sanction of it , or communication adjoyned in the conceit of the Woman now wavering , that she should deny either the truth , or at least the necessity of it . 22. The sixt was that after he had weakened the Commandement , and the sanction of it , it doth oppose a prediction quite contrary . 23. The seventh was that to confirme that prediction , he doth both abuse the Name of God , and the Name which God had imposed on the Tree . Gen. 3. 5. God knoweth that what day ye shall eat there of your Eyes shall be opened , and you shall be as Gods knowing Good and Evill . 24. Hence it is that the Divill is called a Serpent , a Lyer , a Seducer , a Man-slayer . Revelations 12. 9. Iohn 8. 44. Rev. 20. 10. 25. With this tempting of the Devill there was joyned the tempting of God , whereby he did so order that businesse , that it might thence be manifest what was in Man. But this tempting of God was neither Evill , nor tending to Evill . 26. A third tempting did follow these : namely of Man towards God , wherein he did in a certaine manner make triall of the truth and Grace of God : namely making triall , whether God would preserve him , although he did not cleave to him , or whether he would certainly doe what he had threatned . 27. A fourth temptation of Eve did accompany that namely towards her selfe , whereby she received the tentation or suggestion of the Devill , into her selfe , and applied to her selfe to her own ruine . 28. From that arose a fifth , whereby the Woman serving the Divill , as his instrument did tempt Adam : and from that proceeded a sixth , whereby Adam tempted himselfe , whilst he consented with a certaine purpose to the Woman , and the Devill . 29. Either all or most of these tentations are found also in every Mans sins . 30. And so that sin was consummated , as touching the Fall of Man-kind in Adam , for Adam was properly the beginning of Man-kind , not Eve : Unlesse as she was made for him , and with him , did make one and the same beginning . Hence it is that we read in Scripture of a second Adam , but not of a second Eve. CHAPTER XII . Of the consequents of Sinne. In the Former disputation wee treated of the Fall , and the causes of it : now follow the consequents of the Fall. 1. THE consequents of Sinne are . 1. Guiltinesse and Filthinesse , 2. Punishment , properly and distinctly so called . 2. Guiltinesse is the binding of the Sinner to undergoe just punishment for his fault . Levit. 5. 2 , 3 , 4 , 5. He is guilty . Rom. 3. 9. We have proved that all are under Sinne. And Vers. 19. All the world is guilty before God. 1. Cor. 15. 17. Ye are in your Sinnes . 3. Hence that distinction , of Guiltinesse of the fault , & guiltinesse of punishment , as also that distinction of the Papists of remission of the punishment , and of the fault is a distinction without a difference . 4. That guiltinesse is not the forme of Sinne , but an affection , or a consequent adjunct , partly separable , partly inseparable . 5. Now it followes Sinne , partly by vertue of the Law of God adjudging punishment to Sinnes , in which respect it hath some good in it , and is of God : and in this respect , God cannot separate that guiltinesse from Sinnes . Yet as it flowes from Sinne , and is a worthinesse and deserving of punishment , it doth also partake of the nature of it , and it is a vitious thing : and in this respect it cannot be separated from Sinne. This double consideration of guiltinesse is intimated , Romans 1. 32. Knowing the Law of God , that they that doe such things are worthy of death . 6. From this guiltinesse there followeth a conscience altogether evill : namely accusing & condemning justly . And hence followes horrour , and flying from the presence of God , Gen. 3. 8. 20. Heb. 2. 15. Rom. 8. 15. 7. Filthinesse is that spirituall pollution , whereby a sinner is made destitute of all comlinesse , and honour , and becomes vile . Matth. 15. 11. Rev. 22. 11. 8. This filthinesse doth immediatly follow the offence of the Sinne , and remaineth in the Sinner , after the act of Sinne is past and ceaseth to be : it is wont to be called the spot of Sinne , Corruption , Defilement , Deformity , Dishonesty , Nakednesse , Uncleannesse , a blot , and somtimes Culpa , a fault . 9. From this filthinesse there followes ; First , A turning away from God , Esay 1. 15. Which is also called abomination , and detestation , Prov. 1. 32. Especially in respect of greater Sinnes . Prov. 3. 16. Ierem. 16. 18. Secondly , the shame of a man to his confusion , Gen. 3. 7. For such a shame , is a feare arising from the conscience of some filthinesse . Rom. 6. 21. What fruit had you of those things whereof you are now ashamed ? 10. Punishment is an evill inflicted upon the Sinner for his Sinne. 11. It is called an evill because it is a privation of good . But it is not a privation of an honest good , as it is honest , as sin is : but it s a privation of the good of happinesse , in respect of the Sinner , who is punished . 12. It is said to be an evill inflicted , not simply contracted , because it pertaines to rewarding and revenging Iustice. 13. It is said to be inflicted for Sinne , because it hath alwayes respect and order to the desart of Sinne , unto which punishment followes from the offence , by reason of the prohibition , and from the guiltinesse , by reason of the commination . 14. Therefore punishment properly so called , hath no place but in Intelligent Creatures , in whom also Sinne is found . 15. Because Sinne is reduced into order by punishment , and Sin in it selfe is in some measure against the goodnesse of God , but punishment only against the good of the Creature : therefore Sin hath more evill in it selfe then punishment . 16. Hence it is that the least Sin is not to be admitted , although the greatest punishment might by that meanes be avoyded , or the greatest good obtained . Rom. 3. 8. 17. In the ordaining of punishment divers attributes of God doe shine forth , chiefly Holinesse , Righteousnesse , and Mercy . 18. The holinesse of God in the largest signification is that whereby he is free and as it were separated from all imperfection . Isa. 6. 3. Rev. 4. 8. But that holinesse of God which doth there properly shine forth is that whereby he being pure from any spot of Sinne , cannot communicate with any Sinne. Psal. 5. 5. Thou art not a strong God that delighteth in iniquity : evill shall not dwell with thee . Hab. 1. 13. Thou art of purer Eyes then that thou mayest behold Evill . 19. The revenging justice of God which here shines forth is that whereby he inflicteth evill upon them that doe evill . 2. Thes. 1. 6. It is just with God to render affliction to them that afflict you . 20. This Iustice as it doth burne simply-against Sinne is called wrath Rom. 1. 18. Eph. 5. 6. As it doth more fiercely wax hot it is called fury . Deut. 29. 20. As it doth give sentence to be executed against a Sinner it is called judgement . Rom. 2. 5. As it doth execute the sentence given , it is properly called revenge . Heb. 10. 30. 21. Mercy here shining forth is that whereby be punisheth Sin , lesse then the condigne desert of it . 22. This mercy is clemency or beneficence . 23. Clemency is that whereby he doth moderate the punishments that are due , Lam. 3. 22. It is the Lords great kindnesse that we are not consumed . 24. Clemency appeares in patience , and long sufferance . 25. Patience is that whereby he doth forbearingly suffer Sin , and spares the Sinners . 2. Pet. 3. 9. 26. Long sufferance is that whereby he doth long suspend revenge . Exo. 34. 6. 27. Beneficence is that whereby , being rich in goodnesse , he powreth forth many good things , even upon Sinners . Matth. 5. 45. So much of the Guiltinesse , Filthinesse , and punishment of sinne in generall , now followes the punishment in speciall . 28. The punishment inflicted on man for Sinne is death . Gen. 2. 17. Rom. 5. 12. 29 This Death is a miserable privation of life . 30. By the life of man is understood , both the conjunction of the soule with the body , and all that perfection , which was agreeable to man in that state , whether it was actually communicated , or to be communicated upon condition . Psalme 36. 10. With thee is the Fountaine of life , in thy light wee shall enjoy light . 31. Therefore Death is not from God , as he did ordaine nature , but it is from God , as taking vengeance on Sinne ; and so properly from Sinne , as the meritorious and procuring cause . 32. But that Death is not a simple , and bare privation of life , but joyned with subjection to misery : and therefore is not the annihilating of the Sinner , whereby the subject of misery being taken away , the misery it selfe should be taken away . 33. A certaine Image and representation of this Death was the casting out of Paradise , in which there was contained a Symboll or Sacrament of life . Genes . 3. 22. 23. 24. Thus much of Death in generall : It followeth to speake of it in speciall . 34. In Death , or the curse of God that doth lye upon Sinners , there are two degrees ; the beginning of it , and the perfection of it : and two members ; The punisment of losse , or privative ; & the punishment of sense , or positive : and there are two kinds ; Death spirituall , and corporall . 35. The beginning of spirituall Death , in matter of losse , in the defacing of the Image of God , that is , the losse of grace , and originall Iustice. Rom. 3. 23. They are deprived of the glory of God. Eph. 4. 18. Being strangers from the Life of God. 36. By this losse of grace , man is robbed of all saving gi●…ts : and so nature is weakned , put out of order , and as it were wounded . 37. The beginning of spirituall death in matter of sence , is spirituall bondage . 38. Spirituall bondage is a subjection to the power of darknesse , or of spiritually deadly enemies . Coloss 1. 13. Hath taken us out of the power of darknesse . 2. Pet. 2. 19. Of whom a man is overcome , of the same hee is brought in bondage . 39. This bondage , is bondage of the Devill , and those that serve the Devill . 40. Bondage of the Devill , is a subjection to that power of the Devill , whereby he effectually worketh in men , & in respect of them he hath command of Death Act. 26. 18. 2. Cor. 4. 4. Iohn 12. 31. & 16. 11. 2. Tim 2. 26. Eph. 22. 41. Bondage of the servants of the Devill , is of the world and Sinne. 42. Bondage of the world is a subjection to the entisements which are found in the world . Phil. 3. 19. 1 Iohn 4. 5. & 2. 15. 16. 43. Service or bondage of Sinne , is that whereby a man is so captivated under Sin , that he hath no power to rise out of it . Rom. 6. 16. 17. 19. 20. 44. By this bondage it comes to passe , that although freedome of will remaine ; which is essentiall to mans nature , yet that freedome which pertaines to the perfection of humane nature , ( the property whereof was that power to exercise acts spiritually good , and by that meanes acceptable ) is not found in his sinfull state unlesse , Remote , and Dead . 45. From this beginning of spirituall Death , there followes the multiplying of Sin in this life present . 46. Those Sins that follow , have some respect of punishment , in respect of the first sin . Rom. 1. 26. 47. But this respect of punishment is attributed to those Sinnes , first by reason of the effects or consequents of them , because they further the Death of man , and increase his misery : Secondly , they are said to be punishments in respect of that inward suffering to which man is subjected to in sinning ; whereby also his nature is pressed down , and made more base . Thirdly , they are said to be punishments of the former sin : because that former sinne was a cause for which man is deprived ; of that righteousnesse , and grace , or Divine helpe , by the absence whereof it comes to passe , that man runs into those sins . Fourthly , they may be said also in a certaine manner punishments of the former sin , because that former sin was a cause disposing and preparing man to commit the following sins , and in that respect it hath brought upon man all those Sins , and whatsoever evills , doe either accompany or follow them . CHAPTER XIII . Of Originall Sinne. In the former dispute ( Thesi 45. ) the multiplication of sinne was given as a consequent from the beginning of spirituall Death , which we will thus shew forth in the following Theses . 1. THe Sinne that followed upon the first Fall is either Originall , or Actuall . 2. Originall Sinne , is an habituall exorbitancy , of the whole nature of man , or it is a deviation from the Law of God. 3. Because it is the corruption of the whole man : he●…ce it is called in the holy Scriptures . The old man. Rom. 6. 6. Eph. 4. 22. Col. 3. 9. The body of Sinne. Rom. 6. 7. 24. A Law of the members . Rom. 7. 23. And the members themselves . Col. 3. 5. Flesh. Iohn 3. 6. Rom. 7. 5. 18. 25. 4. Hence also it is that in Scripture , a homogeneall corruption is attributed not only generally to the whole man , but also to every part of it : as to the understanding , Gen. 6. 5. The imagination and thoughts only evill . Rom. 8. 5. 6. 7. They savour the things of the flesh . To the conscience . Tit. 1. 15. Their mind and conscience is defiled . To the will , Gen. 8. 21. The imagination of the heart of man is evill from his childhood . To the affections of every kind . Rom. 1. 24. To uncleannesse in the lusts of their hearts . Lastly , to the body and all the members of it . Rom. 6. 19. Your members servants to uncleannesse , and iniquity to commit iniquity . 5. This Sinne is said to be an exorbitancy , or deviation of man , because it is in man an habituall privation of that due conformity to the Law imposed on man by God , wherein he ought to walk as in his way . 6. Hence it is that that originall depravation is called in the Scriptures Sinne or that Sinne , by a certaine speciall appropriation . Rom. 6. 12. 7. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 7. 8. 20. The Law of Sinne. 7. 23. Sinne dwelling in us , inhering , adhering and compassing us about . Rom. 7. 17. 20. 7. 21. Heb. 12. 1. 7. This disorder in man , hath as it were two parts . One formall , and the other as it were materiall , Ier. 2. 13. My people have done two evills : they have forsaken me , &c. That they might dig to themselves Cisternes . The description of actuall Sin doth containe the picture of originall , as the daughter doth containe the picture of the mother . 8. The formall part is an aversion from good . Rom. 3. 12. There is none that doth good , no not one . 9. The materiall part is a turning and inclining to evill . Rom. 7. 23. The Law of Sin. 10. By reason of this originall depravation , it commeth to passe , that although the will of man be free in the state of Sinne , as touching all acts which it doth exercise , yet it is captive and servile , as touching the manner of doing , because it is deprived of that power whereby it should will well , and that inclination is as it were a forme whereby it commes to passe that it willeth amisse , even when that thing is good about which it is exercised inwilling . Rom. 3. 12. 7. 14. 2 Cor. 3. 5. Iohn 8. 34. 2 Pet. 2. 19. Rom. 6. 16. CHAPTER XIV . Of Actuall Sinne. 1. Thus much of Originall : Now followeth Actuall Sinne. 2. ACtuall Sinne is an exorbitancy of mans action : or a deviation of it from the Law of God. 1 Iohn 3. 4. It flowes from originall Sinne , as an act from an habit : or as the fault of the person flowes from the fault of nature . In which respect also originall Sin is rightly called the fall of Sinne. Fomes peccati . 3. Therefore actuall Sinnes although they are often opposite one to another in respect of their objects , and their special wayes whereby they are carried towards their objects : yet in respect of that beginning or foundation whence they proceed , they are indeed tied & knit together , Ia. 2. 10. 1 Tim. 6. 9. 4. Actuall Sinnes are diversly distinguished among themselves , First , in respect of degree . One Sinne is greater or lesser then another . Ezech. 5. 6. & 8. Shee hath changed my judgements more then the Gent●…es themselves . & 8. 15. Thou shalt see yet greater abominations then these . Iohn 19. 11. He hath the grearer Sinne : whence also punishment is greater , or lesser . Luke 12. 47. He that knoweth and doth not , shall be beaten with many stripes , and he that knoweth not and doth , shall be beaten with few stripes , Mat. 11. 22. 24. 5. But this difference of degrees depends . First , upon respect of the person by whom it is committed . Numb . 12. 14. Whence it is , there is a difference between Fornication , Adultery , & Incest . 2. Upon the kind and nature of the thing , Mat. 5. 21. 22. He that is angry unadvisedly : he that calleth Raca : he that saith , thou foole . 3. Upon the intending , and remitting the Act. Phil. 3. 6. As concerning , ●…eale persecuting the Church , 1 Tim. 1. 13. A blasphemer , a Persecutor , and Injurious . 4. Upon the way , and manner of committing : for it is done either out of ignorance , infirmity , or with an high hand . Num. 15. 27. 30. If a soule shall Sinne through error , he shall offer as he Goat , but the soule which shall commit with an high hand , shall be cut off . Psalme 19. 13. 14. 1 Cor. 6. 7. There is utterly a fault in you . 5. Upon the circumstances of place , time , and the like . Isa. 26. 10. When favour is shewed to a wicked man , he will not learne righteousnesse : in the land of uprightnesse , he doth wickedly . 6. Secondly , the speciall difference of actuall Sinnes is properly privative , and doth formally depend upon the difference of rectitudes , from which these acts doe decline . 7. Therefore that distribution of Sins as they are contrary to the Commandement of God , is most proper . 8. Thirdly , actuall Sin is distinguished in respect of parts : into Sinne of Omission , and Sinne of Commission . For seeing there are as it were two part of originall Sinne , turning from good , and a turning to evill : actuall Sinne that flowes from thence hath a double respect , for where turning from good doth most appeare , that is said to be a Sinne of Omission : and where a turning to evill doth most appeare , that is called a Sin of Commission . 9. Therefore a Sinne of Omission is not to doe that that ought to be done . Iames 4. 17. He that knoweth to doe well and doth it not , to him it is Sin. Mat. 25. 42. I was an hungry and ye gave me no meat , &c. 10. Sinne of Commission , is to doe that which ought not to be done . 11. Sinne of Omission is most directly contrary to the command of God , and Sinne of Commission to the forbidding : in a Sinne of Commission there is a certaine addition to the Law of God , and in Omission there is a certaine detractation from the Law : both which are forbidden . Deut. 4. 2. 12. 32. Rev. 22. 18. 19. 12. This distribution of Sinne is not into the kinds of Sinne. 1. Because , Commission and Omission being about the same object , and under the same formall respect , doe not differ in kind , as in covetousnesse . 2. Because to speake morally there is no Omission without an act going before , or accompaning it . 3. Because Omission cannot be voluntary and free without an act , unto which act there doth alwayes cleave a Sinne of Commission . 13. Fourthly , Sinne is distributed in respect of the subject , into Sinne of the heart , of the mouth , and of the worke . So that it is . A word , a deed , or a thought against the Law. Isa. 18. 13. Mat. 5. 28. 15. 19. 14. Fifthly , Sinne is distributed in respect of the object . Into that Sinne which is against God , and into that which is against men . Luke 15. 18. 1 Sam. 2. 25. Yet it doth not altogether in the same reason respect God and man. For Sinne as it is a transgression of the Law of God , is an offence against God only : but yet in a materiall respect , as to the wrong and losse that is often done to men by Sinne , it hath respect also to men . 14. Sixthly , Sinne is distributed in respect of the effect . Into Sinne distroying the conscience , and not destroying . Into Sinne raigning , and mortified : into Sinne pardonable , and unpardonable , which yet are not properly belonging to this place . 16. From this multiplication of Sinne there followes an increase of spirituall death both in matter of losse , and in matter of sense . 17. In matter of losse , there is security of conscience , and stupidity ; that is a deprivation of the sence of Sinne and misery . 18. This security comes from custome of sinning , and obstinacy of mind in Sins : for Sins whether they be of Commission or Omission , being brought into custome , and made old , through dayly multiplication doe beget an evill habit , and doe as it were bring an hard skin over the will and mind . Ierem. 13. 23. Can a Blackamore change his skin , or a Leopard his spots ? them may yee doe good that are accustomed to doe evill . Eph. 4. 19. Being past feeling , they gave themselves to lasciviousnesse , to commit all uncleannesse with greedinesse . 19. In matter of sence , there is greatest terror of conscience joyned with desperation . Hebr. 10. 26. 27. Gen. 4. 13. 20. This terror ariseth from the greatnesse and multiplicity of guilt , together with an inavoydablenesse of imminent punishment . 21. But in this beginning of spirituall death , there is a certaine moderation used by God. This moderation is internall or externall . 22. The internall appeareth in the remainders of Gods Image , Iames 3. 9. Now these remainders appeare both in the understanding , and also in the will. 23. In the understanding , by those principles of truth , which direct both the theoreticall , and practicall judgement . 24. The theoricall principles , are both of true , and false , of which all men that have any use of reason have some knowledge , Rom. 1. 20. Psal. 19. 2. 3. 25. Practicall principles , are of that which is honest , and dishonest , just , and unjust , that God is to be worshipped , that that is not to be done to another , which one would not have done to himselfe . 26. This is the Law written in the hearts of all men . Rom. 2. 15. They shew the effect of the Law written in their hearts . 27. From these principles there ariseth a certaine force of naturall conscience . Rom. 2. 15. Their consciences together bearing witnesse , and their thoughts accusing one another , or excusing : which conscience notwithstanding together with those principles , is corrupt , and so dead . Tit. 1. 15. Their mind , and conscience is defiled . 28. In the will those remainders appeare by a certaine inclination unto good knowen in that manner : which although it be vanishing , and dead , yet it is found in all in some measure : whence also it is that at least the shaddowes of vertues , are allowed and embraced of all . 2 Tim. 3. 5. Having a shew of goodlinesse . 29. Also that restrayning power pertaineth to the will together with the understanding whereby excesse of Sinne is restrained in most , so that then Sinners doe abhorre the committing of many grosser Sinnes . 1 Cor. 5. 1. Such fornication which is not named among the Gentiles . 30. The outward moderation of this misery is by those externall meanes both politicke and oeconomicke , whereby the course of Sinne and misery is wont partly to bee hindred . CHAPTER . XV. Of Corporall Death . Thus farre of the beginning of the spirituall Death ; now it followes to speake of the beginning of bodily Death , with the consummation of both . 1. THe beginning of bodily death in matter of losse , is either inward or outward . 2. Inward is the losse of the internall good things of the body , as of health and long life , Deut. 28. 21. 27. 35. 1 Cor. 11. 30. Mat. 9. 2. 3. Hence is mortality , as touching the state , and neerest power to Death . 4. For this mortality is a dissolving or loosing of that band wherewith the soule was joyned with the body . 5. The outward beginning of this Death in matter of losse is the losse of outward good things , whereby this life was either beautified or sustained . 6. Of the first kinde is . 1. Losse of dominion over the Creatures . ●…he which after the Fall did put offor the greatest part that subjection towards man , to which they were made , and became his deadly enemies unlesse they be brought into order by the speciall providence of God , Iob 5. 22. 23. Be not afraid of the beasts of the Earth , For thou shalt be in covenant with the stones of the Field , and the beasts of the Field shall be at peace with thee . Hos. 2. 18. I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the Field . 2. That ignominy which hee is subject to , both living and dead . Deut. 28. 20. 37. 7. Of the latter kinde is poverty , or the losse of those things which pertaine to food , raiment , and possessions . Deut. 28. 17. 18. 8. The beginning of this Death in matter of sence is also inward or outward . 9. Inward is in wearinesse , Gen. 3. 19. Paine , and diseases . Deut. 28. 35. 10. Outward , is in all those calamities to which the life of man it outwardly subject . Deut. 28. 25. 48. 11. The moderation , that appeared in this corporall punishment is touching inward , and outward things . 12. Touching inward things . In that man hath yet space , and commodity of life , granted to him by the goodnesse of God. Gen. 3. 6. 13. Touching outward things : in that he hath certaine remainders of dominion over the Creatures . Gen. 9. 2. Let the feare of you and the dread of you be upon all the beasts of the Earth , &c. So that although man by his sinne fell from all right which he had before , of using the Creatures to his benefi●… ye●… by grant and divine indulgence , hee may use them , and in that h●… sins not , that lie doth simply use them , althoug he sinne in the manner of using : because so long as life is granted , and prolonged to him , with the same , there is together granted the use of those things , which are necessarily required unto life , and in a sort they are due to him . Hence it is that although the Creatures were subject to vanity and a curse , for the sin of man. Gen. 3. 17. 18. Rom. 8. 20. 22. yet they are preserved in that estate , that they may supply the necessities of mans life . CHAPTER XVI . Of the Consummation of Death . 1. THE Consummation of Death is the highest degree of the punishment appointed , and to endure for ever . As touching the degree , it is said to be infinite . 2. But it is infinite only in respect of the losse and privation : because it is the loosing of an infinit good , not in respect of sence or positive affliction ; yet it may be said to be positively infinite , in respect of the thing afflicting , but not in respect of the manner of afflicting . 3. Hence it is that there are certaine degrees in this punishment , according to the variety of degrees , which are found in sins , Luke 12 , 47 , 48. He shall be beaten with many stripes : he shall beaten with few stripes . 4. As touching the continuance , this punishment is said to be eternall or never to be ended . Marc. 9. 44. 46. 48. Where their Worme dieth not , and their fire never goeth out . 5. Now it is eternall . 1. Because of the eternall abiding of the offence . 2. Because of the unchangeablenesse of the condition which that degree of punishment doth follow . 3. Because of the want of satisfaction . 6. Hence it is that the incorruptibility of the damned is their immortality in death , and to death . 7. The consummation of spirituall death in matter of losse , is a totall and finall forsaking , whereby a man is separated wholy from the face , presence , and favour of God. Matth. 7. 23. Depart from me . And 25. 41. G●… yee cursed . 2. Thess. 1. 9. Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction , being driven from the Face of the Lord , and the glory of his Power . 8. Hence followes the greatest , and eternall hardning in evill , and despaire of good Luc. 16 , 26. 9. The consummation of spirituall Death in matter of sence , is fulnesse of bondage , whereby he is altogether delivered into the power of the Devill , Matth. 25. 41. 10. Hence is fulnesse of terrors of conscience , and fulnesse of sinne , for the damned doe sin , and will fin for ever , although neither the same sins which were in this life , as Theft , Murder , Adultery ; nor altogether of the same condition , with them which they committed alive . For they offend chiefly in hatred , envy indignation , and such like affections , which the sharpenesse of punishment gives occasion to . Also these sins after death , have not the same respect of desert which they have in this life , because then there is neither any possibility to avoyd sin , neither is there place for threatning and increase of punishment by them . 11. Hence it is that sins themselves , in the damned , have more respect of punishment : but in those that live , they have more respect of offence . 12. Terror of conscience is as it were a worme , perpetually gnawing . Mar. 9. 44. Esay 66. 24. 13. The Consummation of corporall Death together with spirituall , is first by separation of the soule from the body . 1. Cor. 15. 42. 43. To which that change of some is answerable , which is like death . 1. Cor. 15. 51. 52. 1. Thess. 4. 15. 16. Secondly , by casting the soule and body into Hell , or that place which God hath prepared , for the extreame torments of sins . Rev. 21. 8. 14. Hence are paines , and greatest vexations both of soule and body . Luc. 16. 23. 15. Hence are Lamentation , Howlings , G●…ashing of Teeth , and such like effects , of greatest vexation . Luc. 13. 28. 16. But of the place of Hell , and manner of torture , & nature of outward things which pertaine thereunto , because they are not necessary for us to know , the Scripture hath not pronounced any thing distinctly of them . CHAPTER XVII . Of the Propagation of Sinne. Thus much of the transgression . Now it followes to treat of the propagation of it . 1. THis propagation , is that whereby the whole posterity of man , decending from Adam , in a naturall manner , is made partaker of the same condition with him . Iob 14. 5. Psal. 51. 7 Rom. 5. 44. Eph. 2. 3. This is come to passe by Gods just ordination . The equity whereof appeareth in some measure among men . 1. In naturall right , whereby inbred qualities are derived from that which begetteth , to that which is begotten . 2. In hereditary right , whereby the burdens of parents are transferd upon their children . 3. In the right of like for like whereby the rejection of good , and suffering of evill are equally extended . 2. This propagation of Sinne consists of two parts . Namely , Imputation and reall communication . 3. By imputation , the same singular act of disobedience , which was Adams , is also become ours . 4. By reall communication the same singular sin is not derived to us , but the same in kind , or of the same reason and nature . 5. Originall sin , seeing it is formally a privation of originall righteousnesse , and this privation doth follow the first sin as a punishment , hence it hath the respect of a punishment in order of nature , before it hath the respect of a sinne . As by the Iustice of God that originall righteousnesse is denied , so far forth it is a punishment : As it ought to be in us , and yet through mans fault in wanting , so far forth it is a sin . 6. Therefore this privation is derived from Adam by way of desert , as it is a punishment ; and by way of a reall efficient , as it hath the respect of a sin joyned to it , for in that that any is borne a son of Adam , he is made worthy to be endowed with righteousnesse : when therefore he ought to have it , and hath it not , that want to him is sin . 7. Together with this privation , there is also derived , an unaptnes , and a certaine perversnesse of all the bodily faculties , which in their manner are opposite to that rectitude , that is approved of God. 8. For upon the deprivation of righteousnesse whereby all the faculties were to be directed , there followes in them all , such a defect , whereby it comes to passe , that when they are carried to any morall thing ; that very inclination is morally evill . 9. Of these ariseth every actuall Sinne : for the mind being blind by the privation of light dotheasily admit any errors : And the will being now turned from God , doth burne with love of it selfe , and evill desires without God. 10. From Sinne thus propagated , there followes also , a propagation of death , both begun & consummate : as well touching sence as touching losse , as well corporall as spirituall , to all the posterity of Adam . 11. Through this apostasie of mankind , it comes to passe , that our Faith , whereby now wee believe in God , is not simply for life , but for salvation . For it is not sufficient for man being fallen , that God doe simply give him life , but it is also required , that he would give it man being dead in Sinne , Eph. 2. 1. And this was one difference betweene the question of the rich young man. Matth. 19. 16. What good shall I doe that I may have eternall life ? and that of the Iaylor , Acts 16. 30. What must I doe to be saved ? CHAPTER XVIII . Of the Person of Christ , the Mediator . After the Fall of Man : it followes that wee see his restoring . 1. THe restoring of man is the lifting him up from an estate of sinne and death , unto an estate of grace , and life . 2. The cause of this restoring was the mercifull purpose of God. Eph. 1. 9. According to his free good will which hee had purposed in himselfe . For there was nothing in man , which could confer any force to procure this restoring : but rather much which made to the contrary , as sin , in which there was an enmity against God : which in that respect doth commend this love of God towards us . Rom. 5. 8. But God commends his love towards us , in that when we were yet sinners , Christ died for us . 3. There are two parts of this restoring : Redemption , and the application thereof . That is as it were the first act of this restoring : this as it were the second act . That is as it were the matter , this as it were the forme of our salvation . That is as it were the Sufficiency , this the very Efficiency . 4. These parts are altogether of one and the same latitude . For the end of redemption is the application of it : and the prime reason , rule , and measure of application is that same gracious Will of God which was the cause of Redemption it selfe . Eph. 1. 9. 10. He hath made knowne to us , the mystery of his will , according to his free good will , which he had foreordained in himselfe , that in the full dispensation of those times before ordained , he might summarily gather together all things in Christ. 5. Therefore Redemption is appointed to all and every one , for whom it was in Gods intendment obtained : according to that of Christ. Iohn 6. 37. Whatsoever the Father giveth me shall come unto me . 6. Redemption is the bringing of man into freedome , from the bondage of sinne , and the devill , by the payment of an equall price . 1. Pet. 1. 18. Yee know that yee were not redeemed by corruptible things , as silver and gold , but with precious blood . 1. Cor. 6. 20. Yee are bought with a price , and 7. 23. Yee are bought with a price . 7. For this freedome was not primarily effected by power , nor by prayers , ( although these also had their force in perfecting this businesse , ) but by the payment of a just price . 8. This price seeing it could not be paid by man , the helpe of a Mediator was necessary , who should come betweene God and man , making a perfect reconciliation betweene them . 1. Tim. 2. 5. Acts 20. 28. The Church of God which he hath purchased by his own blood . 1. Tim. 2. 6. The man Christ Iesus , who gave himselfe a price of our redemption . 9. Now such a Mediator is not given , for one age onely but for yesterday , to day and for ever . Hebr. 13. 8. Iesus Christ yesterday , to day and is the same for ever : Revel . 13. 8. The Lambe slaine from the foundation of the World. Although he was only manifest in the fulnesse of time . Col. 1. 27. Tit. 1. 2. 1. Pet. 1. 20. For this Meditation was equally necessary in all ages : Also is was sufficient , and effectuall from the beginning , by vertue of Gods decree , promise , and acce●…tation . 10. This M●…iator is only Iesus Christ. Acts 4. 12. Neither is there salvation in any other , for among men there is given no other name under Heaven , by which wee must be saved . 11. In Christ two things are to be considered . 1. The fitnesse which he had to performe the worke of redemption . 2. The parts of the redemption it selfe . 12. His fitnesse consists of two parts . The first is his person : the second is the office , imposed upon his person . 13. In the person of Christ the Mediator two things are to be observed : the distinction ; of the two natures , and the personall union of them . 14. The distinct natures are : the Divine nature , as it is the second person of the Deity , and the humane , in all things like to our natures ( excepting sinne , and the manner of subsisting ) Matt. 1. 23. Emanuel , God with us , Iohn 1. 14. That word was made flesh , &c. The distinction it selfe betweene those two natures remaines : because they remaine absolutely the same which they were before , as well touching their essence as all their essentiall properties : Hence neither the Deity in Christ with the humanity , nor the humanity with the deity is either changed , or mingled , or any way confounded . 15. The personall union , is that whereby the second person of the deity did take the humane nature , that it might inseparably subsist in the same person Iohn 1. 14. 16. For the second person of the deity although it have but one subsistence , yet i●… hath a twofold way of subsisting : one in the Divine nature from eternity ; another in the humane nature after the incarnation . Rom. 9. 5. Of whom is Christ , as touching the flesh , who is above all , God blessed f●…r ever , Amen . Which latter way of subsisting doth agree to the Son of God. In respect of the union which he hath with the humane nature . 17. This union to the divine person and nature , doth ad nothing , but a certaine relation : but in the humane nature it maketh a change , whilst by this meanes it is elévated to highest perfection : for it is made as it we a proper adjunct of the Divine person by which it is assumed : as it were a member of the same whole God man. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , whereof the divine nature is as it were another part : as touching the subsistence , it is made as it were an effect singularly upheld by the Divine nature : and also it is made as it were a subject wherein the Divine nature doth especially dwell . Coloss. 2. 9. 18. Wee endeavour to describe this union ; by many logicall wayes : because it cannot sufficiently be explained by any one . 19. We use all those termes wherein the fountaines , of consent , and unity are contained , that we may shew the union to be most neere . 20. Yet wee temper these termes with that limitation , as it were , because this union is mysticall , and secret , so it may not be plainly expressed , but onely shadowed forth by humane words , and notions . 21. From this union there followeth a personall communication of properties which is not a reall transfusion . For then the Divine nature should take the properties of the humane , and the humane should take the properties of the Divine , and so the humane should be the Divine , and the Divine , the humane , or as well the Divine , as humane should cease to be . Neither it is a reall donation from which should follow , that the humane nature might use the Divine properties as its own restruments . But it is a Communion , or co●…curring unto the same operations ; so that they are performed together by each nature , but according to their own distinct properties . 22. Hence it comes to passe that all the doings a●… sufferings of Christ are referred properly to his p●…rson as the proper Terminum bound of them : althou●… some are properly to be referred to the one , s●…me to the other nature , as to their beginning , and proper respects . 23. And hence followeth the Communication of these properties , as touching predi●…ation , or attribution , whereby the properties of the one nature are attributed either to the whole person , as when Christ is said to be dead which is proper to the humane nature , and to have beene in the beginning which is proper to the Divine nature : Or to the other nature , because of the person , as when ●…od is said to be taken up into glory : 1. Tim. 2. 16. ●…o be crueified , 1. Cor. 2. 8. Which doe not properly agree to the Divine nature , but to the huma●…e . And those things which are proper to the whole person , are properly attributed to either nature : as when the man Christ is said to be the Mediator betwixt God and man. 1. Tim. 2. 5. Which doth not agree to Christ as hee is man , but as he is God and man. 24. But as that Commu●…ion doth properly respect the person of Christ , not the natures considered in themselves , so that communication which consists in predication doth respect God , or man in the concrete , not the Deity , or humanity in the abstract . 25. Therefore the communication of properties is not meerely verba●…l , neither yet is it so reall that the property of one nature doth pa●…se in the other as touching the intri●…secall possession and us●…pation . 26. Those examples which are wont to be brought of those that thinke the con●…rary of that communication which is betweene the matter and the forme , betweene the soule and the body , and betweene Iron and the fire , doe neither agree to this mistery , nor prove the possition it selfe 27. There were in Christ two understandings ▪ one Divine , whereby he knew all things , Iohn 21. 17. And the other humane , whereby he knew not some things as yet . Mar●… 13. 32. Also there were two wills , one divine Luke 5. 13. And the other humane , together also with a naturall appetite , Mat. 26. 39. So there is a double presence of Christ ▪ but yet the humane presence , can neither be every where , nor in many places at once . 28. Because God in Christ , God-man , hath restored life to us , therefore our Faith is carried towards Christ , and by Christ , toward God. CHAPTER XIX . Of the office of Christ. Thus farre of the Person of Christ , his office followes . 1. THE Office of Christ , is that which he undertooke that he might obtaine salvation for men : 1. Tim. 1. 15. This is a sure saying , and worthy of all acceptation : That Iesus Christ came into the World to save Sinners . 2. For those that denie that the proper end propounded by God and Christ in this mistery , was the salvation of men , they deprive God and Christ of their honour , and men of their comfort . 3. In it two things are to be considered . The calling to this office , and the office it selfe . Heb. 5. 4 , 6. 6. None takes this honor to himselfe , but he that is called of God , as was Aaron : So also Christ , &c. 4. The calling is in action of God , especially of the Father , whereby , a speciall covenant being made , he ordained his Son to this office . 5. This covenant is expressed , Isay. 53. 10. That if Christ would make himselfe a sacrifice for sin , then he should see his seed , he should prolong his dayes , and the delight of the Lord should prosper by him . 6. This calling therefore containes in it selfe . Chusing , fore-ordaining , and sending . Isay 42. 1. Mine elect 1 Pet. 1. 20. Which was sore-knowne before the foundation , of the World , Iohn 3. 17. God hath sent his Sonne into the World. It is called in Scriptures sealing . Iohn 6. 27. Sanctification , Iohn 10. 36. Anointing . Isay 61. 1. Psal. 45. 8. Heb. 1. 9. And a giving , Ioh. 3. 16. 7. Chusing , respects the end ; fore-ordaining the meanes ; sending , the execution it selfe ; of meere grace , without any condition foreseene , either inmen , or in Christ himselfe . 8. All things which Christ either did or suffered , even as touching all circumstances were foredetermined . Luke 22. 22. The Sonne of man goeth as it is appointed . Acts 4. 28. That they might doe all things whatsoever thy hand , and thy counsell had before determined to be done . 9. But this calling was not instituted in an ordinary manner , but confirmed with a solemne oath , to confirme the excellency and eternity of it . Psalme 110. 4. Hebr. 5. 6. & 7. 24. 10. The office it selfe to which Christ was called is threefold : Of a Prophet , of a Priest , of a King. 11. This number , and order of offices , is shewed : First by mens necess●…ty , greevously labouring under ignorance , alienation from God , and disability to returne to him : the first of which is healed by the Prophecy of Christ , the second by his Priest-hood , the third by his Kingdome . 12. Secondly , the order of conferring salvation doth shew his number also which ought first to be unfolded then obtained , and then afterward applied ; the first of which is the part of a Prophet , the second of a Priest and the third of a King. 13. Thirdly , the same order also appeareth by the solemne manner of executing it , whereby Christ did first teach others , declaring the Will of God unto them : then hee did offer himselfe ; and afterward hee did enter into his Kingdome . 14. The prophecy of Christ is that whereby he hath perfectly revealed the whole Will of God that bringeth salvation : whence he is in Scripture called not onely a Prophet . Deut. 18. 15. Acts 3. 22. And a Doctor , Mat. 23. 7. The Apostle of our profession . Hebr. 3. 1. And the Angell of the covenant . Malach. 3. 1. But also the very wisdome of God. 1 Cor. 1. 24. And the treasure of wisdome and understanding , Col 2. 3. 15. This prophecy was in Christ as in the principall cause : in others whether angells , or men as in his instruments , 1 Pet. 1. 11. The Prophets did search what or what manner of time the foretelling spirit of Christ which was in them , should decline , &c. And 3. 19. By which going to the spirits which are in prison , he preached ▪ It was in Christ by way of habit so that he might when he pleased , reveale all the secrets of God. But in others by way of act , and flas●…ing or coruscation so that they could not exercise prophesie but at certaine times when he pleased , Ierem. 42. 7. After ten dayes came the Lord to Ieremy . 16. That he might be such a prophet , it was necessary that he should be God , Iohn 1. 18. & 3. 13. And withall also that he should be man , Acts 3. 22. Compared with Deut. 18. 15. For unlesse he had beene God , he should neither have perfectly understood the Will of God. 1 Cor. 2. 11. 16. Neither had he been able to reveale it throughout all ages : unlesse he had been man , he could not fittly have unfolded it in his own person unto men , Hebr. 1. 1. 17. The priesthood of Christ is that whereby he hath purged by sacrifice the sins of men , and obtained the favour of God for them . Col. 1. 20. & 22. 2 Cor. 5. 15. Rom. 5. 10. 18. This priesthood was not legall , or temporary , but according to the order of Melchisedek . Hebr. 7. 17. Not by a carnall Commandement but by the power of an endlesse life . Ibid. Ver. 16. Not by an order that it weake and lame , but stable , and perfect . Ibid. Ve. 18. & 19. Not for a time , but for ever . Ibid. Verse 24. Finally admitting no successor or Vicar , but perpetuall , and proper to Christ , and of him that ever liveth . Ibid. Vers. 24. and 25. 19. In this office Christ himselfe was the Priest , Sacrifice , and Altar , he was Priest according to both natures . Hebr. 5. 6. He was a Sacrifice , most properly according to his humane nature : whence in the Scriptures this is wont to be attributed not only to the person of Christ , but to his body . Heb. 12. 13. 1 Pet. 2. 13 Col. 1. 22. To his blood , Col. 1. 20. And to his Soule . Isay 53. 10. Mat. 20. 28. Yet the chiefe force whereby this sacrifice was made effectuall did depend upon the nature of God , namely that the Sonne of God did offer himselfe for us . Acts 20. 28. Rom. 8. 3. He was the Altar properly according to his Divine nature . Hebr. 9. 14. & 13. 10. 12. 15. For it is belonging to the Altar to sanctifie that which is offered upon it , and so it ought to be of greater dignity then the sacrifice it selfe . Mat. 23. 17. But Ghrist by his divine nature did in a certaine manner sanctifie himselfe according to his humane nature , Iohn 17. 19. 20. Therefore it doth hence also appeare , how necessary it was that Christ the Mediator , should be both God and man : for unlesse he had been man , he had not been a fit sacrifice : and unlesse he had been God , that sacrifice had not been of sufficient vertue . 21. The Kingdome , of Christ is that whereby he doth dispence and administer all things with power and authority , which pertaine to the salvation of man , Psal. 2. 6. Dan. 2. 44. Luc. 1. 36. 22. The properties of this Kingdome are . First . That it is universall . 1. In respect of all ages , Mat. 22. 43. 44. 45. 2. In respect of all kind of men . Dan. 7. 14. Rev. 17. 14. 3. In respect also of all Creatures , as they doe in any sort pertaine to the furthering , or beautifying of mens salvation . Eph. 1 , 21. 22. 23. Secondly , that it is over the very soules , and consciences of men , Rom. 14. 17. 24. Thirdly , that it dispenseth life and death eternall , Rev. 1. 18. 25. Fourthly , that it is eternall . Dan. 2. 44. & 7. 14. 26. Fifthly , that it brings greatest peace , and perfect felicity to those , that are heires of it Isay 9. 6. Eph. 2. 16. Hebr. 7. 2. 27. Hence this Kingdome in the Scriptures is every where called the Kingdome of God , the kingdome of peace , and glory , in the places above cited : and the Kingdome of light and glory , the Kingdome of Heaven , and the world to come , Hebr. 2. 5. 28. And hence also it appeareth how necessary it was that Christ the Mediator should be God , and man : for unlesse he had bin God , he could not be the spirituall King of our soules , dispensing life and death eternall : and unlesse hee had been man he could not have been an head of the same kinde with his body . 29. Christ in all his offices had types : In the propheticall office he h●…d men also so subordinate to h●…mselfe that they also were called prophets : but his Priesthood and kingdome doe not admit such a subordination : neither was there ever any by office a spirituall Priest or King beside Christ alone . 30. The reason of the difference is , because that the declaration of the will of God unto men , which is the office of a Prophet may in some manner be performed by a meere man : but purging of sinnes by sacrifice before God which is the duty of a priest , and government over the soules and consciences of men , which is the part of a King , cannot at all be done by a meere man. 31. The Kings of the nations , are not properly subordinate to Christ in their authority , but unto God. CHAPTER XX. Of Satisfaction . 1. THere be two parts of redemption : the humiliation of Christ as our Mediator , and his exaltation . 2. Humiliation is that whereby he is subject to the justice of God , to performe all those things which were required to the redemption of man. Phil. 2. 8. Being found in shape as a man , he humbled himselfe and became obedient unto death . 3. This humiliation was not properly of the Divine nature or person , considered in it selfe , but of the Mediator God-man . 4. Therefore the taking of the humane nature , considered simply & in it selfe is not a part of this humiliation : because it was the action of God only : but that condition of a servant , which did accompany the taking of the Divine nature , was the prime and proper reason of the humiliation . Yet in respect of this condition , by a relation redounding from thence , the Divine person is rightly said to be of no reputation . Phil. 2. 7. Because it did exist in that forme , which for a time was void of all glory and Divine Majesty : for the Divine Majesty did suppresse and hide it selfe throughout all that space of humiliation ; that it did not constantly exercise that dignity which did afterward appeare in the exaltation . 5. The end of this humiliation is satisfaction and merit . 6. It is called satisfaction , as it is ordered to the honour of God by a certaine recompence for the injury done to him by our sinnes , Rom. 3. 25. Whom God hath set forth to be a reconciliation by his blood to shew this righteousnesse . This is shewed in all those places of Scripture wherein Christ is said to be dead for us , for that efficiency is set forth in this phraise , which cannot be attributed to Paul , or Peter in their death , 1 Cor. 1. 13. Which takes away condemnation , Rom. 8. 34. Which finally brings with it reconciliation to salvation , Rom. 5. 10. 7. It is the same also which is signified where it is said , he was made sinne for us . 2 Cor. 5. 21. For he could no other way be made sinne then either by inward pollution , or outward reputation : but he was most of all free from pollution : neither did the imputation of sin any other way agree to him then that he migt for us undergoe the punishment due to sinne . 8. In the same respect it is said that he bore our iniquities , Isay 53. 4. Neither doth that phraise signifie a bearing of patience : for by bearing he tooke away the sins of the world , Iohn 1. 29. Neither doth it only declare a power of taking away sins : for he bore our sins in his body upon the Crosse. 1 Pet. 2. 24. 9. The like sorce is of that f●…rme he paid the price of redemption for us . Mat. 20. 28. For neither is there a meere delivering set forth by that phraise , nor every meanes of it ; because the price it selfe is nominated , and it is intimated to be of the like common respect with the paiment of silver or gold for vendible merchandize . 1 Pet. 1. 18. And the application of this price it also added . Hebr. 9. 13. 14. 15. Blood sprinkling those that are uncleane . And 10. 22. Our hearts purged by sprinkling from an evill conscience . So that Christ himselfe is therefore a Mediator because he hath given himselfe a price of redemption . 1 Tim. 2. 5. 6. And we are therefore made partaker of that redemption , because Christ hath given himselfe for us , Gal. 2. 20. And we believe in him . Iohn 1. 12. And by him in God. 1 Pet. 1. 21. 10. In the same sence also he is called an offering and sacrifice for our sinnes , Eph. 5. 2. He gave himselfe for us an offering and sacrifice of a sweet smelling favour to God. For he was so true and proper a sacrifice for sinne , that all other sacrifices which went before , were but shadowes of this : and after this is finished , it is neither needfull , nor lawfull to offer any other , Hebr. 16. 12. 14. 11. But this whole mystery depends upon this , that Christ is made such a Mediator , as that he is also a surety . Hebr. 7. 22. And the common roote of those that are to be redeemed , as Adam was of those that are created , and lost . Rom. 5. 16. 17. 18. 19. 1 Cor. 15. 22. 12. In the same humiliation of Christ there was also , merit , as it is ordered to our benefit , or to obtaine some good for us in the way of reward . This is shewed in all those places of Scripture wherein he is said by his obedience to have procured righteousnesse forus . Rom. 5. 19. Many are made righteous : to procure the favour of God for us , Rom. 5. 10. We have been reconciled to God by the death of his Sonne : and to procure life eternall for us , Rom. 6. 23. Life eternall by Iesus Christ. 13. The merit and satisfaction of Christ differ not in the thing it selfe , soo as they should be sought for in sundry and different operations : but they ought in a diverse way to be acknowledged in one and the some obedience . 14. Neither ought any part of that obedience which is found in the humiliation of Christ , to be excluded from that dignity and use . 15. But the exaltation of Christ , although it be an essentiall part of his mediation , yet it doth not pertaine to his merit , or satisfaction . 16. This satisfaction as touching the substance of the thing was perfect , in rigour of justice : yet it presupposeth grace , whereby Christ was called to performe this worke , and whereby it being performed , it was accepted in our name and for our good : Lastly , whereby that is performed by covenant rewarding which was required in this Satisfaction , Iohn 3. 16. So God loved the world that hee gave his only begotten Sonne , Rom. 3. 24. We are justified freely by his grace , through the redemption made in Iesus Christ , and 5. 15. The grace of God , and gift by grace , which is of that one man Iesus Christ. 17. Hence greatest justice , and greatest grace , are together manifested , and worke in mans redemption . Rom. 5. 17. They receive abundance of grace , and the gift of righteousnesse , soo that all the fruit of this Satisfaction are rightly together called the fruits and effects of the grace and mercie of God. 18. This Satisfaction had worth sufficient , and in some respect infinite : First , from the person of him that did offer , who was God : Secondly , from the dignity and excellency of the thing offered , for he offered himselfe God and man. Thirdly , from the manner of offering , in which there was a certaine divine perfection , by reason of the personall Union . 19. For as the greatnesse of the injury growes from the dignity of the person offended , because there the worth of the offended person is hurt : so the worth of him that makes satisfaction doth grow from the dignity of him that makes Satisfaction , because here the yeelding of honour is looked unto , which depends upon the dignity of him that yeelds the honour . 20. Also in satisfaction , not the act only or suffering , but also the person it selfe which doth or suffereth is voluntarily subjected to the obedience of him to whom that honour is yeelded , also the manner of workingh doth alwayes flow from him that worketh with proportion : 21. Where this also is to be observed , that a substantiall dignity such as was in Christ , doth more properly confer to the dignity of the work , then an accidentary dignity , such as is in some men . 22. From this dignity of the person it comes to passe , that the satisfaction of Christ , was sufficient as touching the substance : and superabundant as touching certaine circumstances which did not at all agree to Christ. CHAPTER XXI . Of the Life of Christ being humbled . 1. THe parts of Christs humiliation are two : his Life , and Death . 2. Of his Life there are two parts : the first in his Conception and Birth : the second after hee was Borne . 3. Unto his conception there were two principles that did worke together one active , and another passive . 4. The Passive was the blessed Virgin Mary : which 〈◊〉 called a passive principle , not because she did nothing unto the bringing forth of Christ , but because she did nothing of her selfe , but that she did administer that matter of which the flesh of Christ was formed . Neither yet could she administer it immediatly fit , ( for she had no pure matter ) but it was made fit by a certaine supernaturall preparation , and sanctification , Luc. 1. 35. Because that which shall be borne of thee is holy , yet Christ was truly and really the Sonne of Mary , and the seed of the Woman promised from the beginning . Neither are there therefore two Son-ships in Christ really distinct , or two sonnes joyned together ; for that temporall Son-ship , whereby he is referred to his Mother , was a respect of reason only . Indeed the humane nature of Christ had a reall relation to Mary , as to a cause , but the Son-ship doth no way agree to the nature , but to the person only : yet there is that relation of the humane nature to the person , and of Mary to that nature , that it may be truly and rightly said , Mary was the Mother of God. 5. The active principle of this conception was not a man ( whence , blessed Mary was a Mother and Virgin together . Mat. 1. 23. Isay 7. 14. ) But the holy Spirit . Neither yet can Christ be called the Sonne of the holy Spirit , no not in as much as he is man ; for as he is man , neither is he of the same nature with the holy Spirit , neither doth it agree to a nature , but to a person to undergoe the respect of a Sonne . 6. In the first instant of this conception , Christ received according to his humane nature , fulnesse of all grace , as touching the first act . Iohn 1. 14. Full of grace , and truth . Luc. 2. 40. He was filled with wisdome , yet so as that it might be increased as touching the second acts , and by spreading forth to new objects , Luke 2. 25. Hee grew in Wisdome . 7. Hence Christ was indeed erriched with blessednesse , from the very instant of his conception , but so as that , as travellers doe , he proceeded in it , untill he came to highest exaltation . 8. In the birth of Christ there was humility of greatest poverty with an attestation of gratest glory : that both natures , and both parts of mediation , might be declared from the beginning . 9. All the earthly things which did belong to the birth of Christ were most humble : But the Angels and Starres of Heaven did declare that glory wherewith all kinds of men , Shepheards , wisemen , Herod , and the Priests with all the people were moved , Luc. 1. 18. Mat. 2. 2. 3. 10. By reason of this birth he was according to the flesh the Sonne of the Patriarches of all the world , yet specially he was that seed of Abraham , in whom all Nations should be blessed ; and that Sonne of David who was to possesse a Kingdome , not of this , but of another for ever . Iohn 18. 36. My Kingdome is not of this world . Luc. 1. 33. And he shall raigne in the house of Iacob for ever , and of his kingdom there shall be no end . 11. The time , place , and the like circumstances , accompanying his Birth did make the same truth manifest . 12. After the birth of Christ was his life . Private and publique . 13. He lived a private life before publike , because the condition of man did so require , to which he had subjected himselfe , because the Law of God had so determined , and so also the infirmity of man did require that by degrees the Sunne of righteousnesse should appeare unto them , and that they should be lead as it were by the hand from every imperfect thing to that which is perfect . 14. In his private life , there was his infancy and subection to his parents . 15. In his infancy there was his . 1. Circumcisio●… and offering . 2. His flight unto Egypt , and returning thence . 16. Christ was circumcised and offered , because he did subject himselfe not only to the eternall and morall Law , but also to the Ceremoniall , and every Law of God. 17. Those ceremoniall observations , were so many confessions of sinne . Therefore Christ who was made sin for us , was fitly made conformable to them . 18. Also they were certaine outward meanes belonging to Divine worship : therefore Christ observed them , that he might fulfill all righteousnesse . 19. Lastly , they were certaine types shadowing forth Christ : now that he might fulfill those , and by this meanes sanctifie the same , he would apply them to himselfe . 20. Circumcision was the Seale of the Covenant of God. 21. Offering was a presenting and dedicating the first born unto God : therefore Christ was fitly both circumcised and offered , because hee was to confirme that saving Covenant by his blood , and among the first borne , hee was onely perfectly holy to God , of whom all others were only types . 22. His flight into Egypt , and his returne thence , was , 1. That he migt shew from the beginning of his age , that he was borne to undergoe misery . 2. That according to the condition to which he had submitted himselfe , he might provide for his life after the manner of men . 3. That he might withal shew , that he was the man , that should bring us out of spirituall Egypt into the promised Land. 23. In his subjection to his parents which pertaineth to the fift precept of the Decalogue , he did shew that he was subject to the whole morall Law. 1. Because there is the same reason of one precept as of all . 2. Because there is no part of morall obedience from which Christ the Lord of Heaven and Earth might seem to be more free , then from subjection to men . 24. Although that this legall obedience was required of Christ now made man by right of Creation , yet because he was made man , not for himselfe , but for us , it was a part of that humiliation , satisfaction and merit , which God required , and accept of him for us . 25. In this subjection these two things are to be observed . The exception which hee did suffer , and the effect which it did bring forth . 26. The exception was the disputation which he had with the Scribes , when he was but twelve yeares old . 27. This disputation was a foregoing testimony , of that publick calling whereby he was ordained and sent to be a master and teacher of Israel . 28. It was also to teach , that that knowledge and wisedome wherewith Christ was endued , was not gotten , by progresse of time , but conferred or infused of God from the beginning . 29. The effect of this subjection was his labouring with his hands , that is , an enduring of that curse of ours , whereby it comes to passe that we eat our bread with that labour in the sweat of the face . 30. His publique life is that whereby he openly manifested himselfe to be the Messias . In this life , there was . 1. The enterance . 2. The progresse . 3. The conclusion . 31. Unto the entrance pertaines his Baptisme and Tentation . 32. The Baptisme of Christ was his publick inauguration to the publick performance of his office : therefore in it , the three offices of Christ are affirmed , and confirmed . 33. They are affirmed by the testimony of the father publickely pronouncing that Iesus Christ is his Sonne , and so that he appointed a king by him , even that King in whom he is well pleased , that is , a chiefe Priest , who by his intetcession should take away the sins of the World , and a chiefe Prophet , Mat. 3. 17. & 17. 3. This is my Sonne in whom I am well pleased , heare him . 34. The same offices are confirmed by signes : namely , by opening of Heaven , descending of the holy Spirit under the bodily shape of a Dove , resting upon Christ , and an audible voyce sent downe from Heaven , whereby the testimony of the Father was signified . 35. They were also confirmed by the testimony of Iohn , who was appointed , for a witnesse , preacher and forerunner of Christ , and being certified of Christ partly by the revelation of the Spirit , & partly by those signes before mentioned , he did testifie of him before others . 36. Moreover by the Baptisme of Christ , our Baptisme was confirmed , and sanctified : and withall the person is declared to whom Baptisme doth so adhere , that all the force of it is to be sought for in him . 37. Christ was tempted , that he might shew that he was much stronger then the first Adam , and that he could also overcome tentations , and also helpe us with a fellow-feeling . 38. The progresse of his publicke life was in poverty and labour . 39. The poverty of Christ was without a singular vow , and without beggery . 40. The labour of Christ was in travailing through divers Countries , in watchings , and in greatest intention of all his strength to doe good . 41. 2. This publique life of Christ was performed in preaching , and working miracles , unto the preaching of Christ was alwayes joyned , in respect of himselfe , grace and authority . In respect of others either opening , or hardening of heart . 42. The object of h●…s preaching was properly the Gospell , or Kingdome of Heaven . Marc. 1. 14. Preaching the Gospell of the Kingdome of God. 43. The end of his miracles was . 1. To demonstrate the person of Christ. 2. To confirme his doctrine . 3. To signifie his spirituall operations . 44. Christ wrought miracles , in the Angels , in men , in brute Creatures , in things without life : In Heaven , in Earth , in the Aire , and in the Sea : in things corporeall , and spirituall : that he might shew , his universall and Divine power to be of equall force in every kind of thing . 45. The conclusion of the life of Christ was in the very preparation to death . 46. His preparation to death was in his instructing his Disciples , and conforting them . 47. This instruction and consolation was partly exercised in his transfiguration , Luc. 9. 31. Moses and 〈◊〉 appearing in glory did tell of his departure . And by those Sacraments which looke to the death of Christ by a certaine speciall respect , namely the passeover , and supper of the Lord : partly in example , Iohn 13. 15. I have given you example , that as I have done to , you , so also should ye doe , partly in his last Sermon , Iohn 14. & 15. & 16. and partly in his prayer , Iohn 17. CHAPTER XXII . Of the Death of Christ. 1. THe Death of Christ is the last act of his humiliation , whereby he did undergoe , extreme , horrible , and greatest paines for the sins of men . 2. It was an act of Christ , and not a meere suffering , because he did of purpose dispose himselfe to undergoe and sustaine it . Iohn 10. 11. I am that good shepheard : the good shepheard layes downe his life for his sheepe , Verse 11. No man taketh it from me , but I lay it downe by my selfe : by the same reason also it was voluntary , not compelled . And out of power , not out of infirmity only : out of obedience to his Father , and love to us , not out of his owne guilt or desert : unto satisfaction by overcomming , not to perdition by yeelding . 3. It did containe greatest punishments : because it did equall all that misery which the sinnes of men did deserve . Hence is that plenty of words & phrases , by which this death is set forth in Scriptures . For it is not simply called a death , but also a cutting off , a casting away , a treading under feet , a curse , an heaping up of sorrowes , and such like . Isay. 53. Psal. 22. 4. But it did so conraine these punishments , that the continuance of them , and holding under , and such like circumstances , which accompany the punishments of the sins of all the damned , were removed from this death . Acts 2. 24. It could not be that he could be held under by death . The reason is first because such circumstances as these are not of the essence of the punishment it selfe : but adjuncts following and accompanying that punishment in those who cannot so suffer punishment , that by suffering they should satisfie . Secondly , because there was in Christ , both worthinesse , and power to overcome as it were by this meanes , the punishment imposed . 1 Cor. 15. 54. 57. Death is swallowed up in victory . Thankes be given to God who hath given us victory by our Lord Iesus Christ. 5. But because there was in this death the consummation of all humiliation , whereof that also was the far greatest part : hence often in Scriptures by a Synechdoche of the member , the death itselfe of Christ is put for all that satisfaction which is contained in his whole humiliation . 6. These limitations being had , this death of Christ was the same in kind and proportion with that death which in justice was due to the sins of men representing the very same degrees , members , and kinds . 7. The beginning of the spirituall death of Christ in matter of losse , was the loosing of that joy and delight , which the enjoyment of God , and fulnesse of grace was wont to bring . But he did loose this spirituall joy , not as touching the principle and habit of it , but as to the act and sence of it . 8. The beginning of spirituall death in matter of sence , was the tasting of the wrath of God , and a certaine subjection to the power of darknesse . But that wrath of God was most properly that Cup which was given to Christ to be Drunke . Mat. 26. 39. My Father , if it be possible , let this Cup passe from me . 9. But the object of this anger was Christ , not absolutly , but only as touching the punishment which is brought by this anger , which he as our surety did undergoe . 10. That subjection to the power of darkenesse was not to bondage , but to vexation , which Christ did feele in his mind . 11. From these the soule of Christ was affected with sorrow , griefe , feare , and horror , in an agony . Mat. 26. 39. Iohn 11. 27. Hebr. 5. 7. Luc. 22. 24. 12. In this manner was the soule of Christ affected not only in that part which some call the inferior , but also in the superior part : not only nor chiefly out of a fellow-feeling which it had with the body , put properly and immediatly : not chiefly out of compassion which it had in respect of others , but out of a proper suffering , which it did undergoe in our name . Lastly , not out of an horror of temporall death , which many of Christs servants also have by his power overcome , but out of a certaine sence of a supernaturall and spirituall death . 13. There were two effects of this agony . First , a vehement deprecation shewing a mind astonished and a nature flying from the bitternesse of death , yet under condition , and with subjection to his Fathers will. Mar. 14. 35. He prayed that if it might be that houre might passe from him . Iohn 12. 27. My soule is troubled , and what shall I say ? Father keepe me from this houre : but therefore came I unto this houre . Secondly , a watery sweat having clotters of blood mixed with it dropping downe to the ground , Luc. 22. 44. Being in an agony he prayed more earnestly . And his sweat was like drops of blood falling downe to the ground . 14. In this beginning of spirituall death there was a certaine moderation , and mitigation , that in the meane while there might be place for those duties which were to be finished before his death , namely prayers , conferences , admonitions , answeres . 15. This moderation was inward or outward . 16. The inward was by spaces of time upon the flacking of the pressure and vexation which he did feele in his soule . Hence in his understanding he did attend unto the course of his office undertaken , to the gl●…ry that would thence arise to his Father , and to himselfe , and to the salvation of those whom his Father had given to him . In his will also hee did chuse and embrace all the miseries of death to obtaine those ends . 17. The outward mitigation of this death was by an Angell who did strengthen him in talking with him . Luc. 22. 43. And appeared to him an Angell from Heaven comforting him . 18. There was no inward beginning of the bodily death of Christ besides that naturall mortality and weakening which the outward force did bring . 19. The externall beginning was manifold , both in matter of losse , and matter of sence . 20. In matter of losse , he was rejected of his own people , counted worse then a murtherer , forsaken of his most inward Disciples , denied , and betrayed of all kind of men , especially of the chiefe ones , and those who were counted the more wise , he was called a mad man , a deceiver , a blasphemer , one having a devill , a great man and invader of another mans kingdome , he was stripped of his garments , and destitute of necessary food . 21. In matter of sence there was . First , shamefull apprehending . Secondly , a violent taking away : in just judgements , both Ecclesiasticall , and civill . Fourthly , in working , whipping , and crucifying , with reproches , and injuries of all kinds joyned with them . Yet there was some mitigation of this death . First , by manifestation of the Divine Majesty , to the working of certaine miracles : as in casting the Souldiers downe to the ground with his sight and voyce , and in healing the eare of Malchus . Secondly , by operation of the Divine providence , whereby it came to passe , that he was justified by the Iudge , before he was condemned . Mat. 29. 24. I am innocent of the blood of this just man. 22. The consummation of the Death of Christ was in the highest degree of the punishment appointed : where is to be considered . The death it selfe , and the continuance of it . 23. The consummation of spirituall death in matter of losse , was , that forsaking of the Father whereby he was deprived of all sence of consolation . Mat. 27. 46. My God , my God why hast thou forsaken me ? 24. The consummation of the death of Christ in matter of sence was the curse , whereby he did endure the full sense of Gods judgement upon mans sinne . Gal. 3. 13. He was made a curse for us . The hanging on the Crosse was not a cause and reason of this curse , but a signe and symbole of it . Ibid. 25. The consummation of bodily death was in the breathing out of his soule with greatest torment , and paine of the body . 26. In this death there was a separation made of the soule from the body , but the union of both did remaine with the Divine nature , so that a dissolution of the person did not follow . 27. This death of Christ was true , not feigned : it was naturall , or from causes naturally working to bring it , not supernaturall ; it was voluntary , not altogether compelled ; yet it was violent , not of inward principles : It was also in a certaine manner supernaturall , and miraculous , because Christ did keepe his life , and strength so long as he would , and when he would , he layd it down , Iohn 10. 18. 28. The continuance of this death was , in respect of the state of lowest humiliation , not in respect of the punishment of affliction , for that which Christ said , it is finished , is understood of those punishments . 29. The continuance was the remaining under the dominion of death by the space of three dayes , Acts 2. 24. This state is wont properly to bee set forth by descending into Hell. 30. Christ being buried three dayes , was a witnesse and certaine representation of this state . CHAPTER XXIII . Of the Exaltation of Christ. 1. THe Exaltation of Christ is that whereby he did gloriously triumph over his and our enemies . Luc. 24. 26. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things , and so to enter into glory ? Eph. 4. 8. When he ascended up on high , he led captivity captive . Col. 2. 15. He hath spoiled principalities and powers , and hath made a shew of them openly , and hath triumphed over them in it . 2. He overcame death by enduring it , sinne by satisfying , the Devill by spoiling him , or taking the prey out of his hands . 3. The perfection and manifestation of this victory is in his Exaltation . Therefore although there was a virtuall triumph , and triumph of merit in his death , and in the Crosse , in which Christ is said to be exalted , or extolled . Iohn 3. 14. Not in situation and place only , but also in vertue and merit : yet the actuall triumph as touching the state of it , was not in his humiliation , but his Exaltation . 4. Christ did triumph in the Crosse , as in a Field of victory ; but in his Exaltation , as in the kingly seat , and Chariot of triumph . 5. The glory of this triumph was , a changing of the humble forme of a servant , and that most abject condition which in it he did undergoe , into blessednesse altogether Heavenly . Phil. 2. 9. Wherefore also God did highly exalt him , and gave him a name above every name . 6. In respect of the Divine nature , it was onely an active manifestation : in respect of the humane nature , it was a reall receiving with sutable actions flowing from it . 7. The humane nature received all those perfections , which a created nature could take . For in the soule there flourished all kind of fulnesse of wisdome and grace , not only in respect of the principle and habit , but also in respect of the act and exercise : his body also was adozned with greatest purity , agility , splendor , and strength . Hebr. 12. 2. For the joy that was set before him , he endured the Crosse , Phil. 3. 21. Who shall transforme our vile body , that it may be life to his glorious body . 8. But as the soule of Christ being now exalted , did still retaine the nature of a soule , so also the body glorified did in no wise lay downe the essence , and essentiall properties of a body : therefore it can neither be every where , nor together in many places , nor in the same place with an other body Penetrativè . Which indeed all that have eyes to see may cleerly perceive in those phrases of Scripture . Being taken from them he was caried up into Heaven . Luke 24. 51. He is not here , he is risen , Mat. 28. 6. And many such like . 9. There were three degrees of Exaltation opposite to as many degrees of his extreame humiliation : namely his Resurrection from the dead being opposed to his death ; his ascending into Heaven opposed to his descending into the Grave , and to the Lowest place of the Earth , and his sitting at the right Hand of God opposed to his remaining in the Grave , and in the state of death or in Hell. 10. Christs Resurrection was of his whole humane nature which before had fallen by death . In respect of the soule it was from Hell , or from the state , and dominion of death , to which the soule as it was a part of the humane nature , was subject . In respect of the body , it was from the dead , and from the Grave . 11. The soule is said improperly to have risen againe : but the body and humane nature properly . For the body , and the man , did properly recover his perfection : but the soule did recover the act and motion of its perfection in the body . 12. There are two parts of his Resurrection ; the first is an internall act , namely a reviving restored , by the uniting of soule and body : the second is an externall act , namely his going out of the Grave to the manifestation of life restored . 13. Unto this Resurrection there did give testimony . 1. The Angells . 2. Christ himselfe by divers apparitions ( ten whereof at least are reckoned up in the Scriptures ) and also by divers proofes taken out of the Scriptures . 3. Men , who were certified of it by seeing hearing , and handling him . 14. But Christ did rise not by the power or leave of another , although this operation be attributed to God the Father , Acts 2. 24. But by his own power . Iohn 2. 19. Destroy this Temple , and within three dayes I will raise it up . And 10. 18. I have power of taking up my life againe . 15. The time of Resurrection was the third Day after his Death and Buriall , Mat. 16. 2. Luke 24. 7 Acts 10. 40. 1 Cor. 15. 4. 16. The end of this Resurrection was . 1. That he might be declared to be the Sonne of God , Rom. 1. 4. Declared mightily to be the Sonne of God by the Resurrection from the dead . 2. That he might seale a full victory of death , 1 Cor. 15. 57. Thankes be to God who hath given us victory through our Lord Iesus Christ. 3. That he might fulfill those parts of his office which did follow his death , Rom. 4. 25. He was raised againe for our justification . 4. That he might shew himselfe both justified , and justifying others , 1 Cor. 15. 17. If Christ be not risen , your faith is vaine : yee are yet in your sinnes . 5. That he might be the substance , example , and entrance of our spirituall , and corporall Resurrection . Vers 20. 21. 23. of the same Chapter . He is made the first fruits of them that sleepe . In Christ shall all be made alive . 17. For Christ as God is the cause absolutely principall of our Resurrection : as satisfying by his humiliation , and death , he is the meritorious cause : but as rising from the dead he is the exemplary cause , and withall a demonstration and an initiation . 18. The ascending of Christ into Heaven , is a middle degree , or certaine progresse of exaltation , whereby leaving the Earth he ascends up into the highest Heaven as into his throne of glory . Acts 1. 11. He is taken up from you into Heaven , Ephes. 4. 10. Hee ascended farre above all Heavens . 19. This ascension was of the whole person ; yet it doth not agree to the Divine nature , but figuratively , namely as it was the cause of ascending , and was joyned with the humane nature , in excellency : manifesting also his glory in it , whereof he had as it were emptied himselfe , when he descended into it by the incarnation : but it doth most properly agree to the humane nature , because it suffered change from a lower place to an higher . 20. The time of his ascension was 40 dayes after his Resurrection , Acts 1. 3. not sooner : because the infirmity of the Disciples did require the delay of this space of time , that their faith might be confirmed by divers appearings , and they might also be more fully instructed in those things , which pertaine to the Kingdome of God. Acts 1. 3. Not later , least he should seeme to thinke upon an earthly life . 21. The place from which he did ascend was mount Olivet , Acts 1. 12. Where also he entred into deepest humiliation , Luc. 22. 39. That he might teach that his suffering , and ascension did pertaine to the same thing . 22. The place into which he ascended , was the Heaven of the blessed , and which is not an ubiquitary Heaven , as some doe imagine , so as that ascension should only be a change of condition , and not of place , but it is the highest above all the other Heavens , Eph. 4. 10. The seat , house or mansion of God. Iohn 14. 2. So that in respect of locall presence , Christs humane nature is rightly and truly said to be with us in Earth , Mat. 26. 11. Although he himselfe in respect of his person , and that spirituall efficacy which doth depend upon the humane nature , is every where with his unto the end of the world , Mat. 28. 20. 23. The witnesses of this ascension , were both many men , and Angels . Acts 1. 24. In respect of order , he was the first of all those who ascended into Heaven , in priority of nature : because his ascension was a cause by vertue whereof others doe ascend . Heb. 9. 8. But others had ascended in their soules before in time , Col. 1. 20. And some also ( as it is most like ) in their bodies . Gen. 5. 24. Hebr. 11. 5. 2 King●… 2. 11. 25. The cause of this ascension was the same which before was of the Resurrection : namely the power of God , which is the same both of the Father and the Son : hence in respect of the Father it is called an assumption which in respect of the Son is called an ascension . Act , 1. 11. But there was added moreover the condition of a glorified body ; which is carried as well upward as downward . 26. The ends of his ascension were . 1. That he might place his humane nature now glorified in the mansion of glory . 2. That he might shew himselfe to be him who could pierce into the Heavenly and deepest counsels of God. Iohn 3. 13. How shall yee believe , if I tell you heavenly things ? For there is none that ascendeth into Heaven , but he who descendeth from Heaven ; namely , the sonne of man who is in Heaven . 3. That he might prepare mansions for all his in the house of his Father . Iohn 14. 3. 4. That hee might in the name of his own take possession of the heavenly Kingdome . Eph. 2. 6. Hath raised us up together , and hath made us sit together in Heaven , in Christ Iesus . 5. That by his intercession & power he might take care for those things which were to be performed for their salvation . Ioh●… 16. 7. If I goe from you , I will send the Comforter unto you . 6. That we may have a most certaine argument of our ascension into Heaven , 1 Cor. 15. 20. He is made the first fruits of them that sleepe . 7. That wee also might in thought , affection and conversation follow after Heavenly things . Col. 3. 1. Phil. 3. 20. Seeke those things that are above where Christ is . We carry our selves a Citizens of Heaven : from whence also we looke for a Saviour , the Lord Iesus Christ. 27. Sitting at the right Hand of God is the highest degree of his Exaltation , whereby he enjoyeth the highest glory of his mediation . Hence Resurrection , and Ascension are motions tending to this sitting : hence also Resurrection and Ascension in a certaine manner common to us with Christ ; but sitting at the right hand of the Father agrees to none , but to Christ only . 28. That highest glory wherewith Christ is endowed by this sitting , is properley and formally a kingly glory . Acts 2. 36. Let therefore all the house of Israel know for certaine , that God hath made this man a Lord. 29. This Kingly glory is a fulnesse of power and majesty whereby he governeth all things for the good of his , Psal. 110. 1. 1 Cor. 15. 25. For he must raigne untill he have put down all his enemis , under his feet . 30. This majesty and power doth properly agree to the person of Christ the Mediator : in respect of which it is also truly said that the humane nature of Christ hath now so much eminency of dignity and ruledome , that with power he is above , and set over all created things , Eph. 1. 20. But from this eminency of dignity , to conclude that the humane nature of Christ ( which was created end remaines finite ) being absolutely and abstractedly considered , hath the same omnipotency , and omnipresency with God himselfe it is no other thing then a certaine stupid madnesse , and it is not far from blasphemy . 31. Vnto this kingly dignity pertaines that power whereby Christ was made the judge of all men , and Angells . 32. This kingly glory of Christ doth also redound unto other of his offices , so that he exerciseth a kingly Priest-hood , and a kingly prophecy . 33. The kingly priest-hood is , that whereby he doth plead our cause , not by suffering , and humbly supplicating as it were with bended knees , but by representing gloriously those things which he did and suffered . Hebr. 9. 24. Christ is entred into Heaven it selfe , to appeare before the Face of God for us . 34. Christ doth exercise a kingly prophecy : whilest he powres out his spirit upon all flesh : whilest he sends his Embassadors , workes together with them , and confirmes their word by signes that follow : lastly whilest he gather his own out of the world , protects , builds up , and preserves them for ever . Mat. 28. 18 , 19 , 20. Marc. 16. 20. CHAPTER XXIV . Of the application of Christ. So much of Redemption : The application of the same Redemption followes . 1. THis application is that whereby all those things which Christ hath done , and doth as Mediator , are made actually effectuall in some certaine Men. 2. This application by a speciall appropriation is attributed to the holy Spirit , 1 Cor. 12. 13. By one spirit we are all baptised into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : yet it doth depend . 1. Upon the dceree , and donation of the Father ▪ whereby he hath given some certaine men to Christ to be redeemed , and saved . Iohn 6. 36. This is the will of my Father , that of that he hath given me , I should lose nothing , for all those , and only those whom the Father hath given to Christ , doe come to him . Ibid. verse 37. 2. Vpon the intention of Christ whereby he hath determined his satisfaction for the good of those , whom he hath appointed to him by his Father . Iohn 17. 9. 11. 12. 19. I pray for them whom thou hast given me , because they are thine . 3. Vpon the acceptation of the Father , whereby he doth accept and ratifie that satisfaction for the reconciliation , & salvation of the same persons . 2 Cor. 5. 19. Namely , that God was in Christ , reconciling the world to himselfe , not imputing their sins unto them . 3. This transaction betweene God and Christ was a certaine fore-going application of our redemption , and deliverance to our surety , and to us in him : which unto the finishing of that secundary application in us , hath the respect of an effectuall example , so as , that is a representation of this , and this is brought forth by vertue of that . 4. Hence our deliverance from sinne and death , was not onely determined in the decree of God , but also granted , and communicated to Christ , and to us in him , before it be perceived by us . Rom. 5. 10. 11. We were reconciled to God , by the death of his Son. By whom we have now received a reconciliation . 5. Hence both the Father and the Sonne are said to send the Spirit to performe this application , Iohn 14. 16. & 16. 7. The Father shall give you an advocate , I will send him unto you . 6. Hence every good giving , and every perfect good is said to descend from above from the Father . Iames 1. 17. And all saving things are said to be communicated to us , in Christ , as in the head . For Christ as obtaining it by his merit and through Christ , as effectually applying it . Eph. 1. 3. 5. 11. 7. Hence also application is the end & effect of impetration . But seeing the end is intended by God the Father and Christ , it hath a certaine connexion with impetration as with its meanes . For if the redemption of Christ were of incertaine event , then the Father should appoint the S●…nne to death , and the Sonne also should undergoe it , being yet uncertaine , whether any would be saved by it or no ; then also all the fruit of this mystery should depend upon the free will of men . 8. Hence application is altogether of the same latitude with redemption it selfe , that is , the redemption of Christ is applied to all and only those , for whom it was obtained by the intention of Christ and the Father , yet for their sakes the same temporall benefits of Christ doe redound unto thers also . 9. And in this sence , namely in respect of the intention of application it is rightly said : Christ did onely satisfy for those that are saved by him : although in respect of that sufficiency which is in the mediation of Christ , it may be rightly said also , Christ satisfied for all , or every one : and because those counsells of God are hidden to us , it is agreeable to charity , to judge very well of every one , although we may not pronounce of all together collectively , that Christ did equally plead their cause before God. 10. The way of application whereby God doth with greatest firmnesse performe that , which was contained in a covenant formerly made , and broken , is called in the Scriptures a new covenant , Hebr. 8. 8. 10. A covenant of life , salvation , and grace , Rom. 4. 16. Gal. 3. 18. Which in the same sence also is called the Gospell . Rom. 1. 16. The good Word of God. Hebr. 6. 5. A faithfull saying and worthy of all acceptation . 1 Tim. 1. 15. A good doctrine . 1 Tim. 4. 6. The Word of life . Phil. 2. 16. The Word of reconciliation , 2 Cor. 5. 19. The Gospell of peace . Eph. 2. 17. & 6. 15. The Gospell of salvation , and the Word of truth , Eph. 1. 13. The arme of God , Isay 53. 1. The savour of life to life , 2 Cor. 2. 16. 11. It is called a covenant because it is a firme promise , for in the Scriptures every firme purpose , although it be of things without life , is called a covenant , Ierem. 33. 20. 25. My covenant of the day , and my covenant of the night : if my covenant be not with day and night , if I appoint not the statutes of Heaven and Earth . 12. Yet because it consists of a free donation , and is confirmed by the death of the giver , it is not so properly called a covenant as a testament , Hebr. 9. 16. Which seeing it is not found in the former , that is not so properly called a testament as a covenant . 13. But this new covenant differs from the old many wayes . 1. In the kind , for that was as it were a covenant of friendship betweene the Creator and the creature : but this is a covenant of reconciliation between enemies . 14. 2. In the efficient : for in that there was an agreement of two parties , namely God and man : but in this God onely doth covenant . For man being now dead in sinne , had no ability to contract a spirituall covenant with God. But if two parties after the manner of a covenant are to be appointed , yet then God only is the party assuming , and constituting , but man is the party assumed . 15. 3. It differs in the object : for that is extended to all men , but this belongs to some certaine ones in a speciall manner . For although the promulgation of it be oftentimes propounded promiscuously , after the manner of men , yet by a special propriety it belongs , and is directed to those to whom it was intended by God , who are therefore called sonnes and heires , of this promise and of salvation , Gen. 15. Act. 1. 39. & 3. 25. Rom. 4. 16. 13. & 9. 7. 8. Gal. 3. 21. 29. 16. 4. In the beginning or moving cause : for there God according to his soveraingty did worke out of his wise and just counsell : but here mercy only hath place . There indeed there did some respect of grace shine forth , in appointing a reward due to obedience : yet it was not properly directed by grace : and so not this covenant of grace , but that was accomplished , that is , it did actually lead man to happinesse . 17. 5. In the foundation , which in the former was the ability of man himselfe ; but in this , Christ Iesus . 18. 6. In the matter or good things promised : for in that God promised life only ; but in this he promiseth righteousnesse also , and all the meanes of life : because to man being dead , not the continance or perfection of life , but restoring was necessary . 19. 7. In the conditions : for that required perfect obedience of workes , which was also to be performed by man of his own strength before any effect of the promise , that it might have respect of merit unto it : but this requires not any condition properly so called , or going before , but only following after or comming betweene , and that to be communicated by grace , that it might be a meanes to perfit the same grace : which is the proper nature of Faith. 20. 8. In the effects : for that teached and sheweth what is righteous , but this bestowes righteousnesse it selfe , in that there was a dead letter , and deadly to a sinner : but in this a quickning spirit . 21. Hence that never brought salvation to any man , neither could bring any thing to a sinner , but onely death but this doth not properly and of it selfe bring death or condemnation to any , but it brings assured salvation to all those of whom it is received . 22. 9. In the adjunct of continuance : for that is antiquated in respect of those who are partakers of this new : but this is everlasting , both in respect of the countenance it hath in it selfe , because it admitts no end , or change , touching the substance , and also in respect of those to whom it is communicated , because the grace of this covenant doth continue for ever with them , who are once truly in covenant . CHAPTER XXV . Of Predestination . 1. BEcause this application of redemption is made to some certaine men , and not to all , so that it sheweth a manifest difference betweene men , in respect of the dispensation of grace ; hence it doth make the predestination of God concerning men appeare to us in the first place . 2. Predestination indeed was from eternity , Eph. 1. 4. He hath chosen us before the foundations of the World were laid . 2 Tim. 1. 9. Which grace was given us before all ages . And it did also worke from the beginning of the workes of God : but it makes no inward difference in the Predestinate themselves before the actuall dispensation of this application . Eph. 2. 3. And we were by nature the children of wrath as well as others . 1 Cor. 6. 11. Thus yee were indeed . For Predestination before the application of grace doth put nothing in the persons Predestinated , but it doth lie hid only in him that doth predestinate . 3. This Predestination is the decree of God of manifesting his speciall glory in the eternall condition of men . Rom. 9. 22. 23. Willing to shew his wrath and to make his power knowne , he suffered with much long suffering the vessells of wrath , prepared to destruction . And to make knowne the riches of his glory towards the vessels of mercy which he hath prepared unto glory 1. Thess. 5. 9. God hath not appointed us to wrath , but to obtaine mercy . 4. It is called destination : because it is a certaine determination of the order of meanes unto the end . But because God had determined this order with himselfe , before any actuall existence of things , therefore it is not simply called destination , but predestination . 5. It is called a decree : because it containes a definite sentence to be executed by certaine counsell . In the same sence also it is called a purpose , and counsell , because it propounds an end to be attained unto , as it were with an advised deliberation . 6. Hence predestination hath greatest wisdome , freedome , firmenesse , and immutability joyned with it : because these are found in all the decrees of God. 7. Therefore the reason of Predestination is unmoveable , and indissoluble , 2 Tim. 2. 19. The foundation of God standeth sure having this seale . The Lord knoweth who are his . And under that respect the number of the predestinated , ( not only the formall number , or number numbering ( as they speake ) that is , how many men at length shall be saved , and how many not : but also the materiall number or number numbred , that is , who those severall men are ) is certaine with God , not only by certainty of foreknowledge , but also by certainty of order of meanes . Luc. 10. 20. Rejoyce that your names are written in the Heavens . 8. For Predestination doth not necessarily presuppose either its limit , or object as existing , but it maketh it to exist : so that by force of predestination it is ordered , that it should be . 1 Pet. 1. 20. Of Christ foreknowne before the foundations of the world were laid . 9. Hence also it depends upon no cause , reason or outward condition , but it doth purely proceed from the will of him that predestinateth . Mat. 11. 26. Even so Father , because it pleased thee . Rom. 9. 16. 18. It is not of him that willeth , nor of him that runneth , but of God that sheweth mercy : he hath mercy on whom he will , and whom he will he hardeneth . 10. Hence it is neither necessary nor agreeable to the Scriptures either to appoint any fore required quality in man , as it were the formall object of Predestination : or so to assigne any certaine condition of man , that the rest should be excluded : for it is sufficient to understand that men are the object of this decree , so that the difference of the decree doth not depend upon man , butthat differēce , which is found in men , doth follow upon the decree 11. In order of intention there is no fore-knowledge , fore-required , or ought to be presupposed unto the decree of Predestination , besides that simple intelligence which is of all possible things : because it depends not upon any reason , or eternall condition , but doth purely proceed from the will of him that doth predestinate . Eph. 1. 5. 9. He hath predestinated us according to the good pleasure of his owne will. According to his free good will which he had purposed in himselfe . 12. It is properly an act of Gods Will , whereby it is exercised about a certaine object which it determines to bring to a certaine end by certaine meanes . Eph. 1. 11. We were chosen , when we were predestinated , according to the purpose of him that worketh all things according to the pleasure of his own will. 13. This decree as it doth exist in the mind of God presupposing an act of the will is called fore knowledge : whence it comes to passe that fore-knowledge signifies as much sometime as Predestination , but lesse properly , Romans 11. 2. Hee hath not cast away his people whom hee fore-knew . 14. There is only one act of will in God properly , because all things in him are together , and nothing before or after , and so there is only one decree about the end and meanes : but after our manner of conceiving , God in order of intention doth will the end before the meanes . Rom. 8. 30. Whom he hath predestinated , those he called : although in order of execution , he willeth the meanes first before their direction to the end . 2 Thess. 2. 13. He hath chosen us to salvation through sanctification , and faith . 15. Some things are the meanes , and the end , and the causes also of other meanes . Iohn . 6. 37. Whatsoever the Father giveth me shall come to me , and him that commeth to me , I will in no wise cast away , yet they are not causes of the act it selfe of Predestination , nor of all the effects of it . 16. There are some meanes which of their own nature are ordered to the end of Predestination : of which sort are all those things which pertaine to the grace revealed in the Gospell ; but other things in a certaine outward respect are subjected to this order : such as are naturall good or evill things which above or beyond their nature through the over-ruling direction of grace doe worke together to our salvation . 17. Of Predestination there are two kindes , Election and Reprobation . 18. Election is the predestination of some certaine men , that the glorious grace of God may be manifested in them . Eph. 1. 4. 5. 6. He hath chosen us , he hath predestinated us to the praise of his glorious grace . 19. Election is an act of the will , which in God is only one and simple : yet after our manner of conceiving it sets forth ( by Synecdoche ) by divers acts . 20. The first act of election then is to will the glory of his grace in the salvation of some men . 2 Thessa. 2. 13. God hath chosed us from the beginning unto salvation . 21. The second act is to appoint some certaine men who shal be made partakers of this salvation . 2. Tim. 2. 19. The Lord knoweth who are his . 22. But the proper reason of election is in this second act , which act containes these three things in the conceaving of it , 1. Love. Rom. 9. 13. 2. Love with respect to a supernaturall and chiefe good . Ier. 31. 3. Eph. 5. 25. 3. Love with a separating from others : in which comparative manner , there is contained a certaine virtuall intention of love . Rom. 9. 13. Iohn . 17. 6. 1. Cor. 1. 27. 28. 23. The third act of election is a purpose or intention of preparing and directing those meanes by which men elected , are certainely lead through to salvation as to an end . But these meanes are properly redemption , and application of redemption , Ionh 6. 37. 2 Thess. 2. 13. 24. This third act in a speciall respect is called predestination : which is sometime in the Scriptures distinguished from election , even as it respects the elect above , Rom. 8. 29. Eph. 1. 4. & 5. Whom he did foreknow , those he also predestinated . As he hath chosen us . Who hath predestinated us . Although otherwise by a synecdoche it is used in the same sence with election . 25. Hence Predestination is sometime said to be according to his purpose . Eph. 1. 11. And his purpose according to election , Rom. 9. 11. And election also according to purpose , the counsell , and good pleasure of the Will of God , Eph. 1. 5. 26. There doth a certaine knowledge particularly accompany these acts of will in election in the mind of God , wherebyGod doth most certainly know the heires of eternall life : whence also election it selfe is called , knowledge or fore-knowledge . Rom. 8. 29. But this knowledge of God because with greatest firmnesse it retaines the distinct names of those that are to be saved , and the good things appointed for them , as if all were written in Gods Booke , therefore it is called the booke of Life . Psalme 69. 29. Revelations 3. 5. and 13. 8. 27 This election was only one in God in respect of whole Christ mystically considered , that is , of Christ , and of those who are Christ , as there was one Creation of all mankind ; yet as a certaine distinction may be conceived according to reason , Christ was first elected as the Head , and then some men as members in him . Eph. 1. 4. 28. Yet Christ is not the meritorious , or impulsive cause in respect of the election of men it selfe , although it hath the reason of a cause in respect of all the effects of election , which follow the sending of Christ himselfe . 29. Christ himselfe in the first act of election as touching the worke of redemption is rightly said to be an effect , and meanes ordained to the salvation of man , as the end ; as this salvation is the action of God , Iohn 17. 6. Thine they were , and thou gavest them me . Yet as this salvation is our good , Christ is not the effect , but the cause of it . So it may be rightly said in respect of the first act of election , that Christ the redeemer was the effect and subordinate meanes , but in the third act of election he is to be considered as a cause , Eph. 1. 3. He hath blessed us with all spirituall blessings , in the Heavens , in Christ. 30. Reprobation is the predestinating of some certaine men , that the glory of Gods Iustice might be manifested in them . Rom. 9. 22. 2 Thess. 2. 12. Iud. 4. 31. Three acts are to be conceived in reprobation , as before in election . 32. The first act is to will the setting forth of Iustice. Therefore the end of God in reprobation , is not properly the destruction of the Creature , but the Iustice of God , which shines forth in deformed destruction . 33. Hence is the first difference in reason betweene election and reprobation , for in election not only the glorious grace of God hath the respect of an end : but also the salvation of men themselves : but in reprobation damnation in it selfe hath not the respect of an end , or of good . 34. The second act is to appoint those certaine men in whom this Iustice of God should be made manifest . Iude 4. 35. That act cannot properly be called election : because it is not out of love , neither doth it bring the bestowing of any good , but the privation of it : Therefore it is properly called reprobation , because it doth reject or remove those about whom it is exercised , from that love wherewith the elect are appointed to salvation . As therefore in election , there is love with discerning so in reprobation , there is seene the deniall of love with putting a difference . 36. But because this negative setting apart which is found in reprobation , doth depend upon that setting apart which is in election : hence the remote end of reprobation is the glory of that grace which is manifested in election . Rom. 9. 22. 23. He suffered the vessels of wrath , that he might make known the riches of his glory toward the vessels of mercy . 37. Because of this setting apart , whereby God will not communicate blessednesse upon some persons , he is therefore said to hate them . Rom. 9. 13. This hatred is called negative , or privative , because it denies election : but it includes a positive act whereby God would that some should be deprived of life eternall . 38. Neverthelesse in this is the second difference of reason , between election and reprobation , that th●… love of election , doth bestow the good on the Creatu●… immediatly , but the hatred of reprobation , doth only deny good , doth not bring or inflict evill , but the desert of the Creature comming between . 39. The third act of reprobation is an intention to direct those meanes whereby Iustice may be manifested in the reprobate . 40. The most proper meanes of this kind are permission of sin , and living in sin , Rom. 9. 18. ●…2 Thess. 2. 11. 12. 41. In this act there is the third difference of reason between election and reprobation , that election is the cause , not only of salvation , but also of all those things which have the consideration of a cause unto salvation : but reprobation is not properly a cause , either of damnation , or of sin which deserves damnation , 〈◊〉 an an●…ecedent only . 42. Hence also followes a fourth disparity , that the very meanes have not alwayes among themselves the respect of a cause and effect : for the permission of sin is not the cause of forsaking , hardning , punishing , but sin it selfe . CHAPTER XXVI . Of ●…lling . Hitherto of Application : The parts of it follow . 1. THE parts of Application are two . Union with Christ , and communion of the benefits that flow from that Union , Phil. 3. 9. That I may be found in him , having the righteousnesse that is by the Faith of Christ. 2. This Union●… that spirituall relation of men to Christ whereby they obtaine right to all those blessings which are prepared in him . 1 Iohn 5. 12. He that hath the S●…e hath life 〈◊〉 And. 3. 24. He dwelleth 〈◊〉 him , and he in him . 3. This Union is wrought by calling . 4. For Calling is a gathering of men together to Christ , that they may be united with him . 1 Pet. 2. 4. 5. To whom comming , Eph. 4. 12. For the gathering together of the Saints , for the edifying of the Body of Christ. From which Union with Christ there followes Vnion with GOD the Father . 1 Thess. 1. 1. & 2. 1. 1. To the Church which is in GOD the Father , and in our Lord Iesus Christ. 5. This therefore is that first thing which pertaines to the application of redemption . Eph. 1. 7. 8. 9. In whom we have redemption , &c. After he made known unto us the mystery of his will : and it is that first thing which doth make a man actually elected himselfe , that is the first act of election which is shewed forth and exercised in man himselfe : whence also it is that Calling and election are sometime taken in the Scriptures in the same sence . 1 Cor. 1. 26. 27. 28. Yee see your Calling : God hath chosen foolish things and weake things . 6. Hence the Calling of men doth not in any sort depend upon the dignity , honesty , industry , or any indeavour of the called , but upon election and predestination of God only . Acts 2. 47. The Lord did ad to the Church such as should be saved . And 13. 48. As many as were ordained to life believed . Rom. 8. 30. Whom he predestinated , them also he called . Tit. 3. 5. Not by works of righteousnesse , but of his own mercy , Iane●… 1. 18. Of his owne will begat he us by the word of truth . 7. The parts of Calling are two . The offer of Christ , and the receiving of him . Iohn 1. 11. He came to his own , and his own received him not . But to as many as receive him , he gave to them , &c. 8. The offer , is an objective propounding of Christ as of a meanes sufficient and necessary to salvation . 1. Cor. 1. 23. 24. We preach Christ , the Power of God and the wisdome of God. Heb. 7. 25. He is able perfectly to save those that come to God by him . Acts 4. 12. Neither is there any other name under Heaven , which is given among men , by which we must be saved . 9. But there is nothing propounded , nor ought to be propounded of Christ , in the Calling of men , to be believed as true , which is not simply and absolutely true . For this is both against the nature of a testimony , as it is an object of that Faith which is in the understanding , the formall reason whereof is truth : and also is against the nature of the Gospell it selfe , which by an excellency , is called the word of truth . Eph. 1. 13. 10. The offer of Christ is outward , or inward . 11. The outward is a propounding , or preaching of the Gospell or of the promises of Christ. Acts. 9. 15. That he may beare my name in the sight of the Gentiles . 12. Yet that man be prepared to receive the promises , the application of the Law doth ordinarily goe before to the discovery of sin , and inexcusablenesse and humiliation of the sinner : Rom. 7. 7. I knew not sinne , but by the Law. 13. Those promises as touching the outward promulgation , are propounded to all without difference , together with a command to believe them , but as touching the propriety of the things promised , which depends upon the intention of him that promiseth , they belong only to the elect , who are therefore called the sonnes and heires of the promise . Rom. 9. 8. 14. The inward offer is a spirituall enlightning , whereby those promises are propounded to the hearts of men , as it were by an inward word . Iohn 6. 45. Whosoever hath heard of the Father and hath learned , commeth to me . Eph. 1. 17. That he might give unto you the spirit of wisdome and revelation , the eyes of your mind being enlightened , that ye may know what is that hope of your calling . 15. This also is sometime , and in a certaine manner granted to those that are not elected . Hebrewes 6. 4. & 10. 29. Mat. 13. 20. 16. If any one oppose himselfe out of malice to this illumination , he commits a sin against the Holy Ghost , which is called unpardonable , or unto death . Hebr. 6. 6. & 10. 29. 1 Iohn 5. 16. Mat. 12. 32. 17. The receiving of Christ is that whereby Christ being offered is joyned to man , and man unto Christ. Iohn 6. 56. He abides in me , and I him . 18. In respect of this conjunction we say that we are in Christ , 2 Cor. 5. 17. And to put on Christ. Gal. 3. 27. To be dwelled in by Christ. Eph. 3. 17. The house of Christ. Hebr. 3. 6. the Temple of Christ , 2 Cor. 6. 16. To be espoused to Christ. Eph. 5. 23. Branches of Christ , Iohn 15. 5. Members of Christ , 1 Cor. 12. 12. And the Name of Christ is a certaine manner communicated to us . 1 Cor. 12. 12. So also is Christ. 19. By reason of this receiving , Calling is called conversion . Acts 26. 20. Because all they who obey the call of God , are wholly converted from sin to grace , from the world to follow God in Christ : It is also called regeneration as by that word , the very beginning of a new life , of a new Creation , of a new Creature , is often set forth in the Scriptures . Iohn 1. 13. & 3. 6. 1 Iohn 3. 9. 1 Pet. 1. 23. & 22. As in respect of the offer it is properly called , Calling , as God doth effectually invite and draw men to Christ. Iohn 6. 44. 20. Receiving in respect of man is either passive , or active . Philippians 3. 12. That I may apprehend : I was apprehended . 21. Passive receiving of Christ is that whereby a spirituall principle of grace is begotten in the will of man. Eph. 2. 5. He hath quickned . 22. For this grace is the foundation of that revelation whereby a man is united with Christ , Iohn 3. 3. Except a man bee borne againe , hee cannot see the Kingdome of God. 23. But the will is the most proper and prime subject of this grace , because the conversion of the will is an effectuall principle of the conversion of the whole man. Phil. 2. 17. It is God that worketh in you both to will and to doe , of his own good pleasure . 24. The enlightning of the mind is not sufficient to produce this effect , because it doth not take away that corruption which is in the will , neither doth it communicate unto it any new supernaturall principle , by vertue whereof it may convert it selfe . 25. Yet the will in respect of this first receiving , hath not the consideration either of a free agent , or a naturall patient , but only of obedientiall subjection . 2 Cor. 4. 6. Because God who hath said that light should shine out of darkenesse , he it is who hath shined in our hearts . 26. Active receiving is Actus olicitus , an act of Faith drawn forth , whereby he that is called doth now wholly leane upon Christ as his Saviour , and by Christ upon God , Iohn 3. 15. 16. Whosoever believes in him , 1 Pet. 1. 21. Through him believing in God. 27. This act of Faith doth depend partly upon a principle or habit of grace ingenerated , and partly upon the operation of God moving before and stirring up , Iohn 6. 44. None can come to me , unlesse the Father draw him . 28. It is indeed drawen out and exercised by man freely , but certainly unavoydably , and unchangeably . Iohn 6. 37. Whatsoever my Father giveth mee shall come unto mee . 29. With this Faith wherewith the will is turned to the having of the true good , there is alwayes joyned repentance , by which the same will is turned also to the doing of the true good , with an aversnesse , and hatred of the contrary evill , or sinne . Acts 19. 4. Marc. 1. 15. Repent , and believe the Gospell . 30. Repentance hath the same causes and principles with Faith , for they are both the free gifts of God. Eph. 2. 8. Faith is the gift of God. 2 Tim. 2. 25. Whether God will at any time give them repentance . They have the same subject , because both have their seat in the heart or will of man. Rom. 10. 9. 1 Kings 8. 48. With the heart man believeth . They shall returne with all their heart . They are also begotten at the same time . But , first , they have divers objects , for Faith is properly carried unto Christ , and by Christ unto God : but repentance is carried to God himselfe who was before offended by sin , Acts 20. 21. Repentance toward God , and Faith toward our Lord Iesus Christ. Secondly , they have divers ends , for Faith doth properly seeke reconciliation with God , but repentance a sutablenesse to the will of God. Rom. 3. 25. A reconciliation through Faith in his bloud . Acts 26. 20. That they should turne unto God doing workes meete to repentance . 31. Repentance in respect of that carefulnesse , and anxiety , & terror arising from the Law which it hath joyned with it , doth goe before Faith , by order of nature , as a preparing and disposing cause : but in respect of that effectuall and kindly turning away from sin , as God is offended by it , so it followes Faith , and depends upon it as the effect upon his cause , and herein is proper to the faithfull . 32. Although this repentance doth alwayes bring griefe with it for sins past and present , yet it doth not so properly or essentially consist in griefe , as in turning from , and hatred of sin , and in a firme purpose to follow after good , Amos 5. 14. 15. Hate the evill , Love the good . 33. That repentance is not true and sound , which doth not turne a man from all known sin , to every known good : neither that which doth not virtually continue , and is actually , renewed as often as need is , from the time of conversion to the end of life . 34. Repentance is wont to be perceived before Faith : because a sinner cannot easily perswade himselfe that he is reconciled to God in Christ , before he feele himselfe to have forsaken those sins which did separate him from God. CHAPTER XXVII . Of Iustification . 1. COmmunion of the blessings flowing from Union with Christ , is that whereby the faithfull are made partakers of all those things they have need of , to live well , and blessedly with God. Eph. 1. 3. He hath blessed us with all spirituall blessings . Rom. 8. 32. He who spared not his own Son , &c. How shall he not freely with him give us all things also ? 2. This communion therefore doth bring a translation and change of condition to believers , from the state of sin and death , to the state of righteousnesse and life eternall . 1 Iohn 3. 14. We know that we are translated from death to life . 3. This change of state is twofold ; relative , and absolute or reall . 4. A relative change of state is that which consists in Gods reputation . Rom. 4. 5. And he that worketh not , but believeth in him that justifieth the ungodly , his faith is imputed to him for righteousnesse , 1 Cor. 5. 19. God was in Christ reconciling the World tot himselfe : not imputing to them their offences . 5. Hence it admits no degrees properly so called , but it is together and at once perfect in one only act , although in respect of the manifestation , sence , and effects , it hath divers degrees . Hitherto pertaines justification and adoption . 6. Iustification is a gracious sentence of God , whereby for Christs sake apprehended by Faith he doth absolve the believer from sin and death , and accounts him righteous unto life . Rom. 3. 22 , 24. The righteousnesse of God by Faith of Iesus Christ in all , and upon all that believe : as they who are freely justified by his grace through the redemption made by Iesus Christ. 7. It is the pronouncing of a sentence , as the use of the word declares , which doth norset forth a physicall , or reall change in the holy Scriptures : but that judiciall , or morall change which consists in pronouncing of a sentence and in reputation . Prov. 17. 15. He that justifies the wicked . Rom. 8. 33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect ? It is God that Iustifies . 8. Therefore Thomas with his followers doth fowly erre , who would have justification as it were a physicall motion , by a reall transmutation from a state of unrightousnesse to a state of righteousnesse ; so as that the terme from which is sin , the terme to which , is inherent righteousnesse , and the motion is partly remission of sin , partly infusion of righteousnesse . 9. This sentence was . 1. As it were conceived in the mind of God by a decree of justifying . Gal. 3. 8. The Scripture foreseeing that God would justifie the Gentiles by Faith. 2. It was pronounced in Christ our head , now rising from the dead . 2 Cor. 5. 19. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himselfe not imputing their sins to them . 3. It is virtually pronounced upon that first relation which ariseth upon Faith begotten , Rom. 8. 1. There is therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus . 4. It is expresly pronounced by the Spirit of God witnessing unto our spirits our reconciliation with God. Rom. 5. 5. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the holy Spirit that is given to us . In this testimony of the spirit justification itselfe doth not so properly consist , as an actuall perceiving of that before granted as it were by a reflected act of Faith. 10. It is a gratious sentence , because it is not properly given by the Iustice of God , but by his grace , Rom. 3. 24. Freely by his grace . For by the same grace whereby he called Christ to the office of Mediator , and did draw the elect to Union with Christ , he doth account them being already drawn and believing , to be just by that Union . 11. It is for Christs sake , 2 Cor. 5. 21. That we may be made the righteousnesse of God in him , for the obedience of Christ is that righteousnesse in respect whereof the grace of God doth justifie us , no otherwise , then the disobedience of Adam was that offence in respect whereof the justice of God did condemne us . Rom. 5. 18. 12. Therefore the righteousnesse of Christ , is imputed to believers in justification . Phil. 3. 9. That I may be found in him not having mine own righteousnesse which is of the Law , but that which is by Faith of Christ , the righteousnesse of God through Faith. 13. But because this righteousnesse is ordained of God to that end , and by his grace is approved and confirmed : so that sinners can stand before him through this righteousnesse , therefore it is called the righteousnesse of God. Rom. 10. 3. 14. But this justification is for Christ , not absolutely considered , in which sence Christ is also the cause of vocation , but for Christ apprehended by Faith , which Faith doth follow Calling as an effect , and followeth righteousnesse , by which being apprehended justification followes : whence also righteousnesse is said to be of Faith. Romans 9. vers . 30. & 10. 16. And Iustification through Faith , Chap. 3. 28. 15. This justifying Faith is not that generall Faith whereby in the understanding we yield assent to the truth revealed in the holy Scriptures : for that doth neither properly belong to those that are justified , neither of it own nature hath it any force in it selfe to justifie , neither doth it produce those effects which are every where in the Scripture given to justifying Faith. 16. Neither is it ( to speake properly ) that speciall confidence , whereby we doe apprehend remission of sins , and justification it selfe : for justifying Faith goeth before justification it selfe , as the cause goeth before the effect : but Faith apprehending justification doth necessarily presuppose , and follow justification , as an act followes the object about which it is exercised . 17. That Faith therefore is properly called justifying , whereby we rely upon Christ for remission of sins and for salvation . For Christ is the adaequate object of Faith as Faith. Iustifyeth . Faith also doth no otherwise justifie , then as it apprehends that righteousnesse by which we are justified : but that righteousnesse is not in the truth of some sentence to which we yield assent , but in Christ alone , who is made sinne for us , that wee might bee righteousnesse in him , 2 Cor. 5. 21. 18. Hence are those Sermons so often repeated in the new Testament , which doe shew that justification is to be fought for in Christ alone . Iohn 1. 12. & 3. 15. 16. & 6. 40. 47. 14. 1. 54. Romans 4. 5. & 3. 26. Acts 10. 43. & 26. 18. Gal. 3. 26. 19. This justifying Faith of it own nature doth produce , and so hath joyned with it a speci●…ll and certaine perswasion of the grace and mercy of God in Christ : whence also justifying Faith is oftentimes not amisse described by the orthodox by this perswasion , especially when they doe oppose that generall Faith to which the Papists ascribe all things : but 1. This perswasion as touching the sence of it , is not alwayes present . For it may and often doth come to passe , either through weakenesse of judgement , or through divers tentations and troubles of mind , that he , who truly believeth , and is by Faith justified before God , yet for a time may thinke according to that which hee feeles , that he neither believeth , nor is reconciled to God. 2. There be divers degrees , of his perswasion , so that neither all believers have altogether the same assurance of the grace and favour of God , nor the same believers at all times : which yet they cannot properly affirme of justifying Faith without a great deale of detriment of that consolation and peace which Christ hath left to believers . 20. Iustification absolves from sin and death not immediatly by taking away the blame , or staine , or all the effects of sin : but that oblation and guilt to undergoe eternall death . Rom. 8. 1. 33. 34. There is no condemnation , who shall lay any thing to their charge ? who shall condemne ? 21. Neither yet doth it so take away the guilt , as that it takes away the desert of punishment from the sin , which ( the sinne it selfe remayning , ) can in no sort be taken away ; but it so takes away the guilt , that it takes away the revenging pursuit of the desart of it , or the deadly effects of it . 22. This absolution from sins is called in a divers respect , but in the same sence in holy Scriptures Remission , Redemption , and Reconciliation , Eph. 1. 6. 7. For as the state of sin is considered as a bondage , or certaine spirituall captivity in respect of the guilt , so his justification is called Redemption , but as the same state is considered as a subjection to doe punishment , so it is called remission , as also a passing by , a blotting out , a disburdening , a taking away , a casting away , a removing , a casting behind the back , Rom. 4. 7. Col. 2. 13. Mich. 7. 18. Isay 43. 12. 38. 17. Psal. 32. 1 , 2. And as the same state is considered as a certaine enmity against God , so justification is called a reconciliation . Romans 5. 10. As also a certaine winking at sin , Numb . 23. 25. A covering of sin . Ps. 32. 1 , 2. 23. But not only the sins of justified persons that are past are remitted , but also in some sort those to come . Numb . 23. 25. He seeth no iniquity in Iacob , nor perversnesse in Israel , because justification hath left no place to condemnation , Iohn 5. 24. He that believeth hath eternall life , and shall not come into condemnation : and it doth certainly and immediatly adjudge one to eternall life . It also maketh all that remission , which was in Christ obtained for us , to be actually ours : neither can sins past and present be altogether and fully remitted , unlesse sins to come be in some sort remitted also . 24. But there is this difference , that sins past are remitted by a formall application , by sins to come onely virtually : sins past are remitted in themselves , sins to come in the subject or person sinning . 25. Yet those that are justified doe daily desire the forgivenesse of sins . 1. Because the continuance of this grace is necessary to them . 2. That the sence and manifestation of it may be more and more perceived , as severall sinnes required . 3. That the execution of that sentence which in justification is pronounced , might bee matured and furthered . 26. Besides the forgivenesse of sinnes there is required also imputation of righteousnesse , Rom. 5. 18. Rev. 19. 8. Rom. 8. 3. Because there may be a totall absence of sin , where notwithstanding there is not that righteousnesse which must come in place of justification . 27. But this righteousnesse is not severally to be sought in the purity of the nature , birth , and life of Christ : but it ariseth out of all the obedience of Christ together with remission of sins , as the same disobedience of Adam , hath both robbed us of originall righteousnesse , & made us subject to the guilt of condemnation . CHAPTER XXVIII . Of Adoption . 1. ADoption is the gracious sentence of God whereby he accepts the faithfull for Christs sake , unto the dignity of Sons . Iohn 1. 12. As many as receive him , to them he gave power to be made the Sons of God , to those that believe in his Name . 2. It is called a gracious sentence of God : because it doth manifest the gracious will of God toward men : 1 Iohn 3. 1. See what love the Father hath shewed to us , that we should be called the Sons of God. 3. This sentence is pronounced with the same diversity of degrees as justification : for it was first in Gods predestination . Eph. 1. 5. He hath predestinated us that he might adopt us to be Sons . Afterward it was in Christ. Gal. 4. 4 , 5. God hath sent forth his Son , that we might receive adoption . Afterward it was in believers themselves , The same Chapter Verse 6. And because yee are Sonnes , GOD hath sent forth the Spirit of his Sonne into your hearts , crying , Abba Father . 4. It is properly conversant about the faithfull that are called and justified , Iohn 1. 12. For by adoption we are not made just : which would necessarily follow , if adoption were part of justification it selfe , as some would have it : neither is it a calling unto Christ , but a certaine excellent dignity flowing from the application of him , Romans 8. 17. Heires together with Christ : 5. Yet calling and justification have the respect of a foundation to this relation of Adoption : for the right of Adoption is obtained by Faith , and the righteousnesse of Faith. Iohn 1. 12. 6. But although Adoption follow upon Faith : yet it doth not so immediatly follow , but justification comes betweene : for Adoption of its owne nature doth fore-require , and presuppose that reconciliation which is found in Iustification . 7. Hence all the faithfull doe expect Heaven as it were by a double title , namely by the title of redemption which they have by justification , and by the title as it were of Son-ship , which they have by Adoption . 8. Which yet ought so to be understood that the title of redemption is a foundation of this right , and Adoption doth ad a certaine manner of excellency and dignity . 9. Hence ariseth the first difference betweene Divine Adoption and humane : for humane Adoption is of a person that is a stranger , which hath no right to the inheritance , but by force of Adoption : but the faithfull although by naturall generation they have no right to the inheritance of life , yet by vertue of regeneration , Faith and justification , they have it adjudged to them . 10. Hence also the second difference followeth , that humane adoption is only an extrinsecall denomination , and a communication of those things which are externall : but Divine adoption is a relation so reall , that it is also founded in an intrinsecall action , and in the communicating of a new inward life . 11. This Adoption is made for Christs sake : because Christ did not only deserve it as Redeemer , Gal. 4. 5. That he might redeeme them , to receive the adoption of Sons . But also as being already applied by Faith , he is the bond of this Union . Rom. 8. 17. 29. Heires of God , coheires with Christ. To be conformed to the Image of his Son. 12. For as Christ in justification is applied as a garment to cover our sins : so in Adoption he is applied as a brother and Prince of our salvation . Hebr. 2. 10 , 11 , 12 , 13. Many Sons . The Prince of salvation . He that sanctifieth , and they that are sanctified are all of one . He is not ashamed to call them Brethren . Behold I and the children which God hath given mee . 13. This application and conjunction is so neere , that although Christ is properly the only naturall So●… of God , and much more the first begotten of God : yet by this grace of Adoption , and communion with Christ , all the faithfull also are said to be the first begotten of God. Heb. 12. 23. Yee are come to the universall assembly and meeting of the first borne who are written in Heaven . 14. Whence also it appeares that believers are in a far different manner the Sons of God then Adam was in the first Creation : for although Adam by reason of that dependance which hee had of God together with that similitude and Image to which he was created , might be called metaphorically the Son of God ; yet he was not the Son of God by this mystical conjunction and communion with Christ who is the naturall Son of God. 15. Hence ariseth the third difference betweene humane adoption and divine , for humane adoption was brought in upon want of a naturall Son : but the divine Adoption is not from any want , but out ●…f aboundant goodnesse , whereby a likenesse of a naturall Son , and a mysticall conjunction with him is communicated to the adopted Sons . 16. That dignity which this Adoption brings with it , doth not onely far exceed that common relation whereby God is said to be the Father of every Creature : but that also which we had before the fall : because that was weake , but this by reason of the band doth remaine for ever , Iohn 8. 32. The servant abideth not in the house for ever : but the Son abideth for ever . 17. Hence the Name of God and of Christ is named upon the faithfull , by a speciall right and reason . 1 Iohn 3. 1. As Iacob taking the sons of Ioseph into adoption would have them called by his name . Gen. 48. 5. 18. Hence also the faithfull are taken as it were into Gods Family , and are of his houshold . Gal. 6. 10. That is , that they may be alwayes under the fatherly tuition of God , depending upon him , for nourishment , education , and perpetuall conservation : as in old time among the Hebrewes adoption of tentimes was no otherwise testified then by the nurturing and education , of their next kindred in blood . Hest. 2. 7. 19. Together with the dignity of sons there is joyned also the condition of heires , Rom. 8. 17. If sons , then also heires : But this inheritance to which the faithfull are adopted , is blessednesse eternall : whence adoption doth sometimes in Scripture comprehend all that glory which is prepared for the faithfull , and is expected by them in Heaven , Rom. 8. 23. Looking for our adoption , the redemption of our bodies . 20. Therefore eternall blessednesse pertaines to the faithfull , and is communicated to them , not of justice for their deserts , but from that grace whereby they are taken into the number of sons . Gal. 3. 29. If yee are Christs , then are yee Abrahams seed , and heires by promise . 21. Hence ariseth a certaine fourth difference betweene humane adoption and divine : for humane adoption is ordained for that that the Son might succeed the Father in the inheritance : but divine adoption is not ordained for succession , but for participation of the inheritance assigned : because both the Father and his first begotten Son liveth for ever , and so admitteth no succession . 22. A proper adjunct of this adoption is the testimony of the spirit which is given to the faithfull whereby this dignity is sealed together with the inheritance which is to be expected from it , and it is called the spirit of Adoption , Rom. 8. 15 , 16 , 23. Gal. 4. 5 , 6 , 7. 23. But the Spirit is said to be communicated to the faithfull , not because Faith goeth before all operation of the Spirit , as some unskilfully gather : for the very first regeneration and conversion is plainly attributed to the holy Spirit by Christ. Iohn 7. 5. 6 , 8. Borne of the spirit : but because believers onely after they have already believed , doe receive this operation of the holy Spirit whereby they are sealed , as with an earnest of their inheritance . Eph. 1. 13 , 14. & 4. 30. Gal. 3. 14. 24. And hence also it doth sufficiently appeare that assurance of salvation is not properly justifying Faith , but a fruit of that Faith : because the Apostle expresly faith . After yee believed , ye were sealed . Eph. 1. 13. 25. The first fruit of adoption is that Christian liberty . Whereby all believers are as set at liberty by a manumission as it were from the bondage of the Law , sin and the world . Iohn 8. 32 , 36. If the Son shal set you free , ye shal be free indeed . Rom. 8. 22. Being freed from sin we are made servants unto God. Gal. 4. Ierusalem which is above is free , which is the mother of us all . Hebr. 2. 15. That he might set at liberty those who for feare of death were all their life time subject to bondage . 26. The second fruit is that the faithfull partaking of the dignity of Christ , are also by him , as it were , Prophets , Priests , and Kings . Rev. 1. 6. The third fruit is , that all the Creatures and those things which are done by them , are either subject unto the dominion and pure use of the faithfull . Tit. 1. 15. 1 Cor. 3. 21. 22. Or doe performe the office of Ministery for them , as it is affirmed of the Angells . Heb. 1. 14. Or at least doe turne to their good . Rom. 8. 28. CHAPTER XXIX . Of Sanctification . So much of the relative change of the condition of the faithfull in Iustification and adoption : the reall change followes whereby that former is manifested , and as touching the effects , as it were committed to execution . 1. THE reall change of state is an alteration of qualities made in man himselfe . 2 Cor. 5. 17. Old things are past away , all things are become new . 2. But because it doth not consist in relation and respect , but in reall effecting ; therefore it admits divers degrees , of beginning , progresse , and perfection . 2. Cor. 4. 16. The inward man is renewed day by day . 3. This alteration of qualities doth either respect that good which is just , and honest , and it is called Sanctification : or that good which is profitable and honorable , and it is called glorification . Rom. 6. 22. Yee have your fruit in holinesse , and the end everlasting life . 4. Sanctification is a reall change of a man from the filthinesse of sin , to the purity of Gods Image . Eph. 4. 22. 23. 34. To put off as touching the old conversation , that old man , which doth corrupt it selfe in the deceivable lusts : and to be renewed in the spirit of your mind ; and to put on that new man , who according to God is created to righteousnesse and true holinesse . 5. For as by justification a believer is properly freed from the guilt of sin , and hath life adjudged to him , the title of which life is as it were , determined in adoption ; so by sanctification the same believer is freed from the filthinesse and staine of sinne , and the purity of Gods Image is restored to him . 6. For hereby Sanctification is not understood the separation from a common use and consecration to some speciall use , in which sence the word is often taken in Scripture , sometime setting forth onely the outward , sometime also that inward and effectuall separation ; for so it may be extended to calling or that first regeneration whereby Faith is communicated as a principle of new life : in which sence regeneration and Sanctification is wont to be confounded by most : but by it is understood that change of a man , whereby a believer hath righteousnesse and inherent holinesse communicated to them . 2 Thess. 2. 13. Through Sanctification of the Spirit . 7. For God himselfe doth manifestly witnesse that holinesse is a gift of grace inherent , Ier. 31. 33. I will put my Lawes into their mind , and in their heart will I write them , Ezech. 36. 26. 27. I will give you a new heart , and a new spirit will I put into the midst of you . 8. But this sanctification is distinguished , from that change of a man which is proper to the calling of a man in Faith and repentance . In that that Faith there is not considered properly as a quality , but in relation to Christ : neither is repentance there considered as a change of disposition ; for so it is all one with sanctification : but as a change of purpose and intent of the mind . But here a reall change of qualities and dispositions is looked unto . 9. It is called a reall change , that it may be distinguished not onely from justification , but also from that sanctification which is by Iustification , as is the Sanctification of the seventh day : or also that which is by relation of a signe , as is the Sanctification of the elements in the Sacraments , or lastly , that which is by manifestation , in which manner God himselfe is said to bee sanctified by men . 1 Peter 3. 14. 10. It is of the whole man , not of some one part . 1. Thess. 5. 23. Now the God of peace himselfe sanctifie you wholly , and your whole spirit , soule and body be preserved blameles unto the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ , Although so much of man , Tantum & totum or that whole that is in man is not presently changed . 11. But although the whole man be partaker of this grace , yet it first and chiefly , agrees to the soule , and afterward from the soule is derived to the body , as the body of it is capable by that obedientiall power wherewith together with the soule it is subject to the will of God. So also in the soule first and properly it agrees to the will , from which it is derived into other faculties according to the order of nature . Deut. 30. 6. The Lord thy God shall circumcise thy heart , and the heart of thy seed , to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart , and with all thy soule , that thou maist live . Rom. 2. 29. The circumcision of the heart . 12. It is a change of a man from sin , to distinguish it from that sanctification which is , A 〈◊〉 mere negative from the mere negative contrary , such as that was which is attributed to the humane nature of Christ , which is said to be sanctified , or made holy , although the nature of Christ was never defiled with sinne . 13. The terme from which this is , is filthinesse , corruption , or the blot of fin , 2 Cor. 7. 1. Let us purge our selves from all filthinesse of flesh and spirit , perfecting holinesse in the feare of God. 14. The terme to which , is the purity of Gods Image , which is said to be framed or created againe in knowledge , righteousnesse and holinesse . Eph. 4. 24. Or a conformity to the Law of God. Iam. 1. 25. Newnes of life . Rom. 6. 4. The new creature . 2. Cor. 5. 16. Gal. 6. 15. & the Divine nature . 2 Pet. 1. 4. 15. But it is called the new and Divine creature . 1. Because it is not produced of those principles which are in us by nature , as the habit of all arts are brought forth which are gotten by industry learning , but out of a new principle of life , communicated by God unto us , in our calling . 2. Because our naturall disposition is altogether of another kinde then it was before . 3. Because in its measure it resembles that highest perfection which is found in God. 16. There be two degrees of this sanctification , one in this life , which is called in generall an infancy . 1. 〈◊〉 . 13. 11. 12. Eph. 4. 14. 2 Pet. 2. 2. Because although that variety be found in this life , that if some of those that are sanctified be compared with others and with themselves at divers times , then some may be rightly called infants , and others men growen , whilst they live here . Heb. 5. 13. 14. Yet the highest degree which we attaine to in this life is onely a beginning of holinesse promised and to be expected . The other degree is called mans age and perfect age . Eph. 4. 14. 1 Cor. 13. ●…1 . Phil. 3. 12. Because in the life to come the motion and progresse of sanctification ceaseth , there is onely found rest , and perfection , so that in this life we are more properly said to have sanctification then holinesse , and in the life to come : holinesse only , and not sanctification . 17. Sanctification therefore hath two parts : one in respect of the terme from which , is called mortification , and the other in respect of the terme to which , is called vivification and resurrection . Rom. 8. 5. 6. 18. Mortification is the first part of sanctification whereby sin is wasted , Col. 3. 3. 5. Ye are dead , mortifie therefore your earthly members . 19. The meritorious , and exemplary cause of it is the Death of Christ. Rom. 6. 5. 6. Being grafted into the likenesse of his death : knowing this that our old manis crucified with him . 20. The cause principally working is that spirit of God who communicates to the faithfull the efficacy of his death . Rom. 8. 13. If by the spirit yee mortifie the deeds of the body , yee shall live . 21. The administring cause is Faith it selfe , Rom. 6. 17. From the heart yee have obeyed that forme of doctrine unto which yee were delivered . 22. From this mortification there followes in all that are sanctified a deniall of themselves , and the World. Luc. 9. 23. Gal. 6. 14. 23. Hence ariseth that inward difference which is betweene sin , which remaines in the faithfull from that which remaines in others : In others sin is raigning , prevailing , and predominating : in the faithfull it is broken , subdued and mortified . 24. Vivification is the second part of sanctification wherby the Image or life of God is restored in man. Col. 3. 10. Eph. 4. 24. Rev. 12. 2. Having put on the new man : be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind . 25. The exemplary cause of it is the Resursection of Christ. Col. 3. 1. 2. Ye are risen with Christ. 26. The cause principally working is the Spirit of God , which raised Christ from the dead , Rom. 8. 11. If the Spirit of him that raised Iesus from the dead dwelleth in you . 27. The administring cause is Faith , Gal. 2. 20. The life which I now live in the flesh , I live by the Faith of the Son of GOD. 28. From this vivification there ariseth a strong tye in those who are sanctified , of themselves to be addicted wholy to God and to Christ. 2. Cor. 8. 5. They give themselves to the Lord. 29. Because this sanctification is imperfect whilest we live here as infants , therefore all the faithful lare informed as it were with a double forme ; sin and grace : for the perfection of sanctification not found in this life , unlesse in the dreames of some fantastick persons . 1 Iohn 1. 8. If wee say we have no sin , we deceive our selves , and there is no truth in us . Yet all that are truly sanctified doe tend unto perfection , Mat. 5. 48. 1. Cor. 13. 11. 2 Pet. 3. 18. 30. Sinne or the corrupted part which remaines in those that are sanctified , is called in Scriptures , The old man , the outward man , the members , and the body of sinne . Grace or the renowed part is called the new man , the spirit , the mind , &c. 31. Hereupon there followes two things . 1. A spirituall war which is made continually betweene these parties . Gal. 5. 17. For the flesh lusts against the spirit , and the spirit against the flesh : and these are contrary one to the other . 2. A dayly renewing of repentance . 32. That flesh which remaines in the regenerate ; is not only in the vegetative , and sensitive appetite , but also in the will , and reason it selfe . 1 Thess. 5. 23. 33. The flesh or this concupiscence hath the true and proper reason of sinne in the regenerate themselves . Rom. 7. 34. With this corruption even the best workes of the Saints are infected , so as they have need of some remission . 35. Yet the good works of the regenerate are not to be called sins , but defiled with sin . 36. That defilement of good workes , ( by reason of Iustification ) doth not hinder but they may be accepted of God to be rewarded . 37. That fight which is found in wicked men betweene conscience and the will , is not the striving of the spirit against the flesh , but of the flesh fearing against the flesh desiring . CHAPTER XXX . Of Glorification . In the former disputation we spake of sanctification which is one part of the alteration of qualities , which did respect that good that is just and honest : the other part followes , namely Glorification which respects that good , that is profitable and honorable . 1. GLorification is a reall transmutation of a man , from misery or the punishment of sinne , unto happinesse eternall . Rom. 8. 30. And whom hee justified , those hee glorified . 2. It is called a reall transmutation , that it may be distinguished from that blessednesse which is either virtuall onely , in Election , Calling , Iustification , and Adoption , or declarative in holy workes . Rom. 4. 6. David declares that man to be blessed to whom God imputeth righteousnesse , &c. Psal. 65. 5. Blessed is hee whom thou chusest , and bringest to dwell in thy Courts . Matthew . 5. Blessed are the poore in spirit , &c. 3. In respect of the terme from which , viz. misery or the punishment of sin , it is called a redemption . 1 Cor. 1. 30. Eph. 1. 14. Gal. 3. 13. Heb. 2. 14 , 15. 4. This redemption is a reall delivering from the evills of punishment : which is nothing else in very deed , but the execution of the sentence of Iustification : for in Iustification , as wee are judged to be just , so we are judged to have life . Now Glorification makes that life that was judged , and pronounced ours by reall communication , to be ours actually and by possession . 5. It is said to be reall , that it may be distinguished from that redemption which is in the paiment of the price of redemption , and in application of the same to justification , whereof mention is made Eph. 1. 7. Col. 1. 14. 6. In the Scriptures also it is wont to be called deliverance , and preservation from the wrath of God , from death and from the kingdome of darkenesse . 7. In respect of the terme to which , it is called , beatification , blessing , life eternall , glory , Glorification , the kingdome of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ , and an immortall inheritance . Eph. 1. 3. Iohn 3. 36. & 6. 47. 2 Pet. 1. 3 , 11. 1 Pet. 1. 4. & 5. 10. 8. The first degree of this Glorification begun , is the apprehension and sence of the love of God shining forth in Christ , upon the communion which the faithfull have with him . Rom. 5. 5. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts , by the holy spirit which is given to us . 9. Hence there ariseth a certaine friendship betweene God , Christ , and the faithfull , Iohn 15. 15. I have called you friends , because all that I have heard of my Father have I made known unto you . Iames 2. 23. Abraham was called the friend of God. 10. The second degree is undoubted hope and expectation , of the enjoyment of all those good things which God hath prepared for his . Rom. 5. 2. We rejoyce under the hope of the glory of God. 11. Hence is freedome to come to God with boldnesse . Eph. 2. 18. & 3. 12. Heb. 10. 22. 12. Hitherto pertaines the assurance of perseverance and salvation also , Rom. 8. 38. 13. For this assurance as touching the thing it selfe which is called a certainty of the object , . is sealed to all true believers : but as touching the perceiving of it , which is called a certainty of the subject , it is not alwayes present to all ; yet it may bee gotten by any without speciall revelation , & it ought also to be sought for by all : so as this certaine confidence rightly grounded hath nothing common with presumption . 14. This certainty is grounded upon , and confirmed to the faithfull by the word , the seales , by oath , and by the earnest of God himselfe . He. 6. 17. God willing abundantly to shew to the heires of the promise the immutability of his counsell , he bound it by an oath : that by two immutable things we may have strong consolation . Eph. 1. 13. Yee are sealed with that holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance . 15. This truth is perceived , and made certaine to us . 1. By a certaine spirituall sence whereby the grace of God now being present , doth make its presence manifest , and evident to the believer . 2. By the gift of discerning whereby believers doe distinguish true grace from the shew of it . 3. By discourse and testimony of conscience whereby grace and salvation is no lesse seale to the faithfull , then sin and death to unbelievers . 4. The Spirit of God himselfe doth so confirme all these wayes of perceiving , that they have the same certainty that Faith hath . Rom. 8. 16. The spirit it selfe witnesseth with our spirit , that we are the Sons of God. 1 Cor. 2. 12. We have received the spirit which is of God , that we may know the things which God hath freely given us . 2 Cor. 13. 5. Try your selves whether yee be in the Faith , examine your selves . 1 Iohn 4. 16. We know , and believe , the love which God had towards us . 16. This certainty doth follow upon the perceiving of Faith and Repentance , where the free covenant of God is rightly understood . 2 Cor. 13. 5. 17. If either of these be wanting , this certain ty is taken away as touching the perceiving of it ; so that hee that doth rightly understand the promise of the covenant , cannot be sure of his salvation , unlesse hee perceive in hemselfe true Faith and repentance : neither can he that feeles himselfe truly to believe , and repent , be sure of his perseverance and salvation , unlesse he also understand by the covenant that God will mightily preserve those that believe and repent , even to the end . 18. Therefore certainty of salvation is not of any , nor otherwise perceived , but those who together with Faith keepe a good conscience , and that whilst they keepe it from any grievous wound , which by those sins is brought which are wont to wast conscience . 19. Hence as Faith , and a good conscience doe florish or languish in men , so also this certainty is either confirmed , or diminished . Ps. 51. 20. They therefore that without any sence or care of Faith , and repentance doe certainly hope for salvation , in presuming they hope , and hoping they perish . 21. From this certainty ariseth consolation , peace , and joy unspeakable . Rom. 5. 2. 3. 1 Pet. 1. 8. Rom. 14. 17. 2 Cor. 1. 5. Which are the first fruits of glory , Rom. 8. 23. 22. Consolation is an easing of feare and oppressing griefe . 2 Cor. 1. 4. Yet it containes sometimes by a Synecdoche all salvation begun . Col. 2. 2. 23. Peace is a quieting of the mind , which ariseth partly from deliverance from evills , and partly from the presence or hope of contrary good things . Phil. 4. 7. 24. When it is joyned with grace in the Apostles salutations , then it sets forth all that felicity which is communicated to the faithfull by the favour of God. 25. Ioy is that delight which is perceived from the conjunction , and communion of the chiefe good . 26. Hence eternall life it selfe is called joy . Mat. 25. 21. Iohn 15. 11. 27. The third degree is in partaking of the spirituall gifts of grace with abundance , or overflowing . Col. 2. 2. 7. 10. With all riches of the full assurance of understanding . Abounding in Faith : complete . 28. Hence the abundance of grace is said to minister a large entrance into the Kingdome of God. 2 Peter 1. 8. 11. 29. The fourth degree is in experience of the good will or kindnesse of God. Psalm . 31. 20. How great is thy goodnesse which thou dost lay up for them that feare thee ? Psal. 65. 5. We are satisfied with the goodnesse of thy House , with the things of thy holy Temple . 30. Hither to pertaineth that fatherly providence of God whereby he watcheth alwayes over the faithfull for good , as he watcheth over the wicked for evill : in which respect , in Scripture the good Hand of God is said to be with his , Nehem. 2. 8. 31. Hence all things worke together for good to them that love God , Rom. 8. 28. 32. From the sence of all these , the faithfull are rooted , and grounded in the love of God. Eph. 3. 17. 33. Perfect Glorification is in the taking away of all imperfection from soule and body , and communication of all perfection . 34. This is granted to the soule immediatly after the separation of it from the body . 2 Cor. 5. Verse 2. Phil. 1. 23. Hebr. 2. 12. 23. But it is not ordinarily granted to the soule and body joyntly before that last Day , wherein all the faithfull shall bee perfected together in Christ. Ephes. 4. 13. Philippians 3. 20. 21. CHAPTER XXXI . Of the Church mystically considered . Thus much of the application of Redemption considered in it selfe : The subject to which , and the manner by which this application is made , doth follow . 1. THE Subject is the Church . Eph. 5. 25. 26. 27. Christ loved the Church , and gave himselfe for it : that he might sanctifie it being purified by him with the washing of water through the Word : that he might make it to himselfe glorious , that is , a Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing , but that it might be holy and unblameable : whence Election , Redemption , Vocation , Iustification , Adoption , Sanctification , and Glorification doe in their propriety belong to the same subject , that is , to the same singular men , which make the Church . Iohn 17. 9. 10. & 11. I pray for them ; I pray not for the World , but for them whom thou hast given mee , because they are thine , Rom. 8. 29. 30. For whom hee hath fore-knowne , them hee did predestinate , &c. 2. Yet the Church hath so the consideration of a subject in respect of his application , that it is also an effect of the same application : for it is not first actually a Church , and afterward made partaker of Union and communion with Christ ; but because it is united to Christ , therefore it is the Church of Christ. 3. And this is the reason why we can neither explaine nor understand the nature of the Church , unlesse those things which pertaine to the application of Christ , be first explained and perceived . 4. The elect before they be grafted into Christ are in themselves no otherwise of the Church , then that power which in its owne time shall certainly come into act , by reason of Gods intention and his transaction with Christ : because that remote power which is common to all men , in respect of the elect , is certainly determined in God. 5. Therefore those orthodox Divines , which define the Church a company of elect ones , doe either by elect ones understand , those that are called according to election ; or , they define the Church not only as it doth actually exist , but also as it is to be hereafter . 6. That first thing which doth make actually a Church is calling : whence also it hath taken both its name and definition . 7. For the Church is a company of men that are called . 1 Cor. 1. 24. With 10. 32. Called both Iewes and Greekes . To the Iewes , to the Greekes , and to the Church of God. But because the end of calling is Faith , and the worke of Faith is ingrafting into Christ , and this Union with Christ , doth bring with it communion with Christ , hence it is defined , in the very same sence , a company of believers , a company of those who are in Christ ; and a company of those that have communion with Christ. 8. But as Faith doth so respect Christ , as that by Christ also it respects God ; so this Church , which doth exist by Faith is both referred to Christ as to the head , and by Christ unto God : whence the Church is called the body of Christ. Col. 1. 24. And also the Church of God. 1 Cor. 10. 32. The Kingdome of Christ. Colos. 1. 13. And the Kingdome of God , Rom. 14. 17. 9. It is called a company : because it doth consist properly in a multitude joyned in fellowship together , or a community of many , not in some certaine one that is called : whence Eph. 4. 16. It is called a body fitly joyned and compacted together , of divers members , and by the same reason it is often called in Scripture an House , a Family , a City , a Kingdome , a Flock , &c. 10. This company is restrained to men : because the good Angels , although in some respect they pertaine to the Church , by reason of that Union they have with Christ , and the grace of conversation communicated by him , yet they are not homogeneall members of the Church redeemed . 11. The forme or constituting cause of this Church must needs be such a thing which is found alike in all the called : but this can be nothing else then a relation neither hath any relation that force besides that that consists in a chiefe and intimate affection to Christ : but there is no such in man besides Faith : Faith therefore is the forme of the Church . 12. For Faith as it is in every believer , distributively , is the forme of those that are called : but as it is considered in all collectively , it is the forme of the company of those that are called , that is the Church . 13. For the same , believing men , who being in severall distributively , considered are the called of God , are also the Church of God , as they are joyntly or collectively considered in a company . 14. Hence all those promises of God which are made to the Church in the Scriptures , and doe containe in themselves essentiall blessings , doe also pertaine to every believer . 15. This relation is so neere , that in respect of it , not only Christ is the Churches , and the Church Christs , Cant. 2. Verse 26. But also Christ is in the Church , and the Church in him . Iohn 15. Verse 4. 1 Iohn 3. Verse 24. So that the Church is mystically called Christ. 1 Cor. 12. 12. And the fulnesse of Christ. Eph. 23. 16. Hence the Church by a metaphor is called the bride , and Christ the Bride-groome : the Church a City , and Christ the King ; the Church an House , and Christ the House-holder ; the Church the branches , and Christ the Vine : finally the Church a body , and Christ the head . 17. But by these comparisons , there is signified not onely the Union and Communion which is betweene Christ and the Church , but also the way of order whereby Christ is the beginning of all dignity , life , power , and perfection , to the Church . 18. This Church is mystically one , not generally , but as it were the Species Specialissima , or Individu●…n : because it hath no kind properly so called . 19. It is therefore called catholique , not as catholique signifies a Genus or some generall thing , but as it sets forth something integrally universall , ( as when we say the universall world ) because it containes the faithfull of all Nations , of all places , and of all times . 20. Therefore no part of the Church can truly be called catholick , but as it doth professe that Faith which is the Faith of the catholick Church , in which sence the Ancients , did not onely call that part of the Church which was at Rome , but other Churches also . As our Church at Francken , may be rightly called catholick , as it doth professe that Faith which belongs to the catholick Church . 21. The Church is devided into members according to the degrees of communion which it hath with Christ , in which respect it is called either Militant , or Triumphant . 22. The Church militant is that which is partaker onely of communion begun : and so doth wrastle as yet with enemies in the field of this World. 1 Cor. 13. 9. 12. We know in part , and prophesie in part : for we see now through a Glasse and darkly . 2 Cor. 10. 3. The weapons of our warfare . Eph. 6. 12. 13. Wee wrastle , therefore take to you the whole Armour of God. 23. The Church triumphant is that which is already perfitted . Eph. 4. 13. Untill we all come to a perfect man , to the measure of the full stature of Christ. 1 Cor. 15. After commeth that which is perfect . 24. The militant Church is both invisible and visible , namely with outward sight or sence . 25. But this distinction is not a distribution of the Genus into the Species , as if so be there were one Church visible , and another invisible ; nor of the whole into the members , as if one part of the Church were visible , and another invisible : but a distinction of the adjuncts of the same subject , because invisibility is an affection or manner of the Church , in respect of the essentiall , and internall forme : visibility is an affection or manner of the Church in respect of the accidentall , and outward forme . 26. The essentiall forme is invisible : because it is both a relation , which doth not come into the sence , and also spirituall , and so removed more from sence then in many other relations . 27. The accidentiall forme is visible , because it is nothing else then an outward profession of inward Faith , which may be easily perceived by sence . 28. This visible profession is that visible communion of the Saints which they have with Christ , and among themselves . 29. The acts of communion with Christ are those visible acts , by which they present themselves to God in Christ to receive his blessings , and to give the glory of them to him . 30. The acts of communion among themselves are all those acts , by which they study to doe good each to other : but especially those which directly make to further their communion with God in Christ. 31. Many acts of this latter kind are to be exercised also toward those who as yet are not members of the Church : because by a certaine power they are to be judged to belong to it . 32. This Church as it is visible in it selfe , is in respect of others and comparatively also distinguished into the Church lying hid , and manifest . 33. That which is manifest is when the number is greater , and the profession more free and more publick . 34. That which is hidden is when the number is lesse , and profession lesse open : which is wont to come to passe by reason of heresies , persecutions , or prophane manners abounding abroad . 35. In the same respect also the Church is purer and impurer , as the profession is more or lesse perfect . 36. But this profession doth not depend upon confession only and preaching of the Word , but also upon the receiving of it and religious obedience to it . 37. But although the Church be subject to such changes , and may leave any part of the World , yet it hath never totally falled , or shall faile from the beginning of the gathering it to the end of the World. 38. For Christ must alwayes have his Kingdome in the mids of his enemies , untill hee shall make his enemies his foote-stoole . 39. Yea the Church doth never wholly cease to be visible , for although sometime there scarse appeare a Church any where so pure , that one may fly unto it in communion of the same worship in all things : yet the Church doth in some sort abide visible in that very impurity of worship and profession . CHAPTER XXXII . Of the Church Instituted . 1. THE Church as it lives upon Earth , although it be not wholy visible together , yet it is visible in its parts , both dividedly in the severall members , and joyntly in companies or Congregations . 2. The former visibility is by mens personall profession which doth not make a Church simply visible , but in certaine members , or visible members of the Church , although the Church in it selfe or in its integrall state is not visible in the same place . Acts 19. 1. Paul came to Ephesus where he found certaine Disciples . 3. That visibility , which is in distinct companies or congregations , doth not only make a visible Church , but touching the outward forme doth make so many visible Churches as there are distinct congregations . Revel . 1. 4. The seven Churches . 2 Cor. 8. 1. 19. The Churches of Macedonia , all the Churches . 4. For those congregations are as it were similary parts of the catholick Church , and so doe partake both of the name and nature of it . 5. Therefore a particular Church in respect of that common nature which is found in all particular Churches ▪ is a Species of the Church in generall , but in respect of the catholick Church which hath the respect of an whole , it is a member compounded of divers severall members gathered together , and so in respect of those members it is also an whole . 6. Such a congregation or particular Church is a society of believeres joyned together by a speciall band among themselves ▪ for the constant exercise of the communion of Saints among themselves . 7. It is a society of believers : because that same thing in profession doth make a Church visible , which by its inward and reall nature doth make a mysticall Church , that is , Faith. 8. But because true Faith hath holinesse joyned with it , which it doth effectually worke . Acts 15. 9. And so the profession of true faith cannot be disjoyned from the profession of holinesse , therefore the Church is promiscuously and in the same sense called , a society of believers , and of Saints . Eph. 1. 1. To the Saints which are at Ephesus and faithfull in Christ Iesus . 1 Cor. 1. 2. compared with , 2 Cor. 1. 1. Rom. 1. 7. Colos. 1. 2. 9. Hence visible and particular Churches also , by reason of this Faith which they professe , are rightly said to be in God the Father , and in the Lord Iesus Christ. 1 Thess. 1. 1. 2 Thess. 1. 1. 10. It is also very probable that there is no such particular Church in which the profession of the true Faith flourisheth , but in the same also there are found some true believers . 11. But those who are onely believers by profession , so long as they remaine in that society are members of that Church , as also of the catholick Church as touching the outward state , not touching the inward or essentiall state . 1 Iohn 2. 19. They went out from us , but they were not of us . 12. Among believers there are to be accounted as members of the Church the children of those believers who are in the Church . 1 Cor. 7. 14. Your children are holy . For they are partakers of the same covenant , and the same profession with their parents . 13. Yet infants are not so perfect members of the Church , as that they can exercise acts of communion , or be admitted to partake of all the priviledges thereof , unlesse there doe first appeare an increase of Faith : but they are not to be excluded from those priviledges which pertaine to the beginning of Fait and entrance into the Church . 14. Believers doe not make a particular Church , although peradventure many may meete and live together in the same place , unlesse they be joyned together by a speciall bond among themselves : for so some one Church should often be dissolved into many and manyal●…o should be confounded into one . 15. This bond is a covenant , either expresse or implicite whereby believers doe particularly bind themselves , to performe all those duties , both toward God and one toward another , which pertaine to the respect and edification of the Church . 16. Hence it is that in the old Testament wee doe for the most part so often read of the renewing of their covenant , as there is related any solemne reformation of the Church . 17. Hence none is rightly admitted into the Church , but by confession of Faith and promise of obedience . 18. This joyning together by covenant doth onely so far forth make a Church as it respects the exercising the communion of Saints : for the same believing men may joyne themselves in covenant to make a City or some civill society , as they doe immediatly respect a common civill good , but they doe not make a Church but as in their constitution they respect holy communion with God among themselves . 19. Hence the same men , may make a City or politicke society and not a Church ; or a Church , and not a City ; or both a Church and a City . 20. Hence it is that those meetings that are formally Ecclesiasticall , are said to be had in the Name of the Lord. Math. 18. 20. 1 Cor. 5. 4. 21. Neither yet doth some suddaine joyning together , and exercise of holy communion suffice to make a Church : unlesse there be also that constancy , at least in intention , which brings the state of a body , and members in a certaine spirituall politie . 22. This Cureh is instituded by God and by Christ , Heb. 3. 3. 4. He that builded the House , for every House is built by some , and in this respect it differs from the mysticall Church , the gathering of which together into one is not prescribed unto men , but performed immediatly b●… divine operation , but the gathering together into an instituted Church is so perfomed by God , that his command and mans duty and labour doe come betweene . Hebr. 10. 25. Not forsaking the assembling our selves together . 23. But it is ordained by God and Christ onely , because men have neither power of themselves to institute , or frame a Church unto Christ , neither have they by the revealed will of God any such power committed to them : their greatest honour is , that they are servants in the House of God. Heb. 3. 5. 24. It is not therfore in the power of man either to take away any of those things which Christ hath granted to his Church , or to ad other to them of the like kind : although he may and ought by all lawful meanes to provide , that those things which Christ hath ordained may be farthered , and confirmed . 25. But Christ hath so instituted the Church , that it alwayes depends upon himselfe as upon the head , so that if it be distinctly considered without Christ , it is not a compleat body . 26. Hence the Church itselfe may not properly make new Lawes to her selfe of new things to be ordained , but thee ought onely to care for this , that shee doe well find out the will of Christ , and observe his ordinances in order and decently , with greatest fruit of edification . 27. But because the ordinances of Christ have alwayes a blessing of God joyned with them , therefore here are divers promises of God made to the Church of the presence of Christ. Mat. 18. 20. 1 Cor. 5. 4. So as in a speciall manner hee is said to be conversant and to walke in the Churches . Revel . 2. 1. Esay 31. 9. And of the presence of the Holy Spirit , Esay 59. 21. So that a more ample and certaine blessing of God may be expected in the Church of God instituted , then in any solitary life whatsoever . 28. They therefore that have opportunity to joyne themselves to the Church , and neglect it , doe more grievously sinne , not onely against God in respect of ordinance , but also against their owne soule in respect of the blessing adjoyned . And if they doe obstinatly persist in their carelessenesse , whatsoever they doe otherwise professe , they can scarce be accounted for believers truly seeking the Kingdome of GOD. 29. The profession of the true Faith is the most essentiall note of the Church . 30. This profession may in some company goe before the solemne preaching of the Word , and administration of the Sacraments . CHAPTER XXXIII . Of the extraordinary Ministers of the Church . 1. THus far of the subject of application . The manner of it followes . 2. The manner of applying consists in those things which are meanes of the spirit applying Christ with all his benefits to us for our salvation . 3. The which spirit it selfe doth apply all saving things unto us , internally and most neerely , and so in his manner immediatly , neither is any externall meanes capable properly of that vertue whereby grace may be really communicated to us : Therefore though those doe morally concurre and operate in the preparation of man to receive thie grace , yet they doe not properly confer the grace by themselves , but the spirit which worketh together with them . 1 Cor. 3. 7. Neither is he that planteth any thing , nor he that watereth : but God who giveth power to increase . 4. The two principall meanes of this sort are the Ministry and the holy Signes : unto which notwithstanding there is necessarily too bee joyned some Ecclesiasticall D●…scipline . 5. The Ministry is an Ecclesiasticall function whereby a man being chosen out doth dispense holy things of speciall right . 2 Cor. 4. 1. We have this Ministery , as we have obtained mercy , 1 Cor 1. 2. Let a man so account of us as of the Ministers of Christ , and dispensers of the Mysteries of God. 6. It is called a Ministry , because that power which is committed to Ecclesiasticall men , is a power of doing onely by the command of Christ , and meere obedience toward him . 1 Cor. 4. 1. 2. 7. A spirituall or regall power of government whereby one worketh of his owne liberty and will , is not belonging to men , but to Christ alone . 8. Hence a Minister of the Church is bound to execute his office by himselfe , as one that hath not power to appoint any vicar in his place , for this should not be an action of obedience , but of command . 9. Therefore one that is a constant Minister of divers Churches which are necessarily to be provided for by Vicars , is not of Gods Ordaining , but of mans ambition and presumption . 10. The power is not absolute , but relative , that is , it doth not consist in an absolute power to doe any thing , but in a right , whereby one hath power to doe that rightly and lawfully which he might not before so doe , and therefore it is Potestas juris , a power of right . 11. But it is of speciall right : because it respects som●… speciall duties unlawfull to others , and it doth undertake some common duties in a certaine special manner . 12. The right of the Ministery depends upon calling , Heb. 5. 4. Neither doth any take this honour to himselfe , but he that is called of God , as was Aron . 13. A calling is an action whereby an office is committed to any with authority to Minister . 14. Therefore they are very ridiculous who doe so ordaine the calling of Ministers , that they give them not power to preach the word , unlesse they have some new grant . 15. A necessary adjunct of a calling is fitnesse to the Ministery . 16. Hence those who are altogether unfit to fulfill the Ministery , if they be called to it by men , are the Ministers of men , not of God. Hos. 4. 6. Because thou hast despised knowledge , I will also despise thee , that thou shalt not be a Priest unto mee . 17. This fitnesse ariseth from a fit measure of gifts , and a ready wil to undertake and execute the office . 18. From the Ministery there ariseth a third , staet of the Church : for as by Faith it had its essentiall state , and by a combination its integrall state : so also by the Ministery it hath a certaine organicall state : because it is now made fit to exercise all those operations which pertaine to the good of the whole . 19. The course and direction of these operations , is Ecclesiasticall polity . 20. The forme of this polity is altogether monarchicall in respect of Christ , the head and King ; but as toching the visible and vicarious administration , it is of a mixt nature ; partly as it were aristocraticall , and partly as it were democraticall . 21. Hence in the lawfull Ministery of the Church , Hierarchy holy principality hath no place , but rather Hieroduly , or holy Service . 22. Therefore one Minister is not subjected unto the power of another in his dispensation , but all doe immediatly depend on Christ : as those Angells which are inferiors in office to others , are immediatly subject unto God , not to other Angels . 23. This Ministery is either extraordinary or ordinary . 24. Extraordinary Ministry is that which hath a certaine higher , and more perfect direction then can be attained to by ordinary meanes . 25. Hence such Ministers have alwayes gifts and assistance extraordinary , so that they doe Minister without error . 26. The right of an extraordinary Minister is bestowed properly neither from man , nor by man , but from God alone by Jesus Christ and the holy Spirit . Gal. 1. 1. 27. Hence the calling to such a Ministery is immediate . 28. Yet every etraordinary calling , is not so immediate that it excludes all Ministery of men ; as appeares in the calling of Eliseus , and Matthias ; but it excludes onely that Ministery which is destitute of an infallible direction . 29. This extrordinary Ministery was very necessary for the Church , because that will of God which pertaines unto living well to God , could not be found out by humane industry and ordinary meanes , as all other Arts and Sciences , but it did require men stirred up and sent by God , to whom he hath manifested his will , that they might be to us in stead of God hemselfe . Exod. 4. 15 , 16. And be thou to him instead of GOD. 30. God hath revealed his will to these extraordinary Ministers . 1. By lively voyce . Reg. 1. 10. Unto which was often added an apparition and speaking to of an Angell or Christ himselfe , as of the Angel of his covenant . 2. By vision , whereby together with the word the Species of the things to be declared were represented to their eyes waking . 3. By dreames whereby such like things propounded to the minds of them being a sleepe . 4. Sometime also by a certaine speciall familiarity as it were mouth to mouth , without parable , Numb . 12. 6 , 7 , 8. If there be a Prophet among you , I will make my selfe Iehova knowne to him in a vision , and will speake to him in a dreame . My servant Mosi●… is not so : with him I speake mouth to mouth even apparently , and not in darke speeches , and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold . 31. The manner of this revelation was so powerfull , that its dis draw men oftentimes into an extasie or trance , whereby they were so caught above themselves , that they perceived nothing beside that that was propounded , neither all that thing it selfe according to all its circumstances , 2 Cor. 13. 3. 4. 32. Yet it is so certaine , that the divine truth of it is often confirmed , and in a certaine speciall manner sealed to them to whom it is revealed : so as it need not another confirmation . Gal. 1. 17. & 2. 6. Neither did I returne to those who were Apostles before me . They who were in estimation added nothing to mee : Although sometimes also for the more abundant confirmation miracles are added . Iudge 6. 36. 37. 38. 33. This extraordinary Ministery is either for the first instituting of a Church , or , for the speciall and extraordinary conservation of a Church , or finally for the extraordinary restoring of a Church being fallen . 34. The Ministery of instituting a Church hath alwayes a testimony of miracles joyned with it : Heb. 2 , 3 , 4. Which at first began to be spoken , &c. God also bearing them witnesse , with signes and wonders , and with divers miracles , & gifts of the holy Ghost according to his will. 35. Yet miracles doe not so give testimony to the doctrine of any , as that it may bee presently believed . For that doctrine which doth not consent with the knowne will of God ought not to be admitted , although it seeme to be confirmed with miracles . Deut. 13. 1 , 2 , 3. Although that signe or wonder come to passe which he soretold thee , saying , Let us goe follow other Gods. Harken not to the word of that Prophet . Gal. 1. 8. Though wee or an Angell from Heaven , preach another Gospell beside that we have preached , let him be accursed . 36. The Ministery of conserving , & restoring a Church , although it be extraordinary , and is alwayes confirmed by miracles , yet it doth not alwayes or necessarily require a testimony of miracles : as appeares in many in the old Testament , and in Iohn the Baptist. 37. Extraordinary Ministers were Prophets , Apostles , and Evangelists . 38. Wicliffe , Luther , Zwinglius , and such like , that were the first restorers of the Gospell , were not to speake properly , extraordinary Ministers . 39. Yet they are not amisse called extraordinary by some . 1. Because they did performe something like those things which were done by extraordinary Ministers of old . 2. Because in respect of degree they received some singular gifts from God , as occasion did require : which also may be affirmed of many among the more famous Martyrs . 3. Because order at that time being disturbed and decayed , they were of necessity to attempt some things out of the common course . 40. It is therefore ridiculous , to require miracles of those men , to confirme that doctrine which they propounded ; seeing such an attestation is not necessary , no notin all extraordinary Ministers . CHAPTER XXXIIII . Of the holy Scripture . 1. EXtraordinary Ministers were raised up by God , to instruct the Church not onely by lively voyce , but also by Divine writings , that there might be a perpetuall use , and fruit of this Ministery in the Church , even when such Ministers were taken away . 2. For they onely could commit the rule of Faith and manners to writing , who by reason of the immediate and infallible direction which they had from God , were in that businesse free from all error . 3. They received a command of writing from God , partly externally , both generally when they were commanded to teach , and specially sometimes , when they were commanded to write . Deut. 3. 19. Revel . 1. 19. Write yee the Song , write those things which thou hast seene , and partly by the inward instinct of the spirit . 2 Pet. 1. 21. For prophecy came not in old time by the will of man , but holy men spake as they were moved by the holy Spirit . 2 Tim. 2. 16. All Scripture is inspired by God. 4. They wrote also by the inspiration and guidance of the holy Spirit , so that the men themselves were as it were instruments of the spirit . In the place before . Ierem. 1. 9. Behold I put my words in thy mouth . Acts 28. 25. Well indeed spake the holy Spirit by Esaias the Prophet . 5. But Divine inspiration was present with those writers with some variety , for some things to be written were before altogether unknowne to the writer , as doth sufficiently appeare in the History of the Creation past , and in foretellings of things to come : but some things were before knowne unto the writer , as appeares in the History of Christ , written by the Apostles : and some of these they knew by a naturall knowledge , and some by a supernaturall : In those things that were hidden and unknowne , Divine inspiration did performe all by it selfe : in those things which were knowen , or the knowledge where of might be obtained by ordinary meanes , there was also added a religious study ( God so assisting them ) that in writing they might not erre . 6. In all those things which were made known by supernaturall inspiration , ( whether they were matters of right , or fact ) he did inspire not onely the things themselves , but did dictate and suggest all the words in which they should be written : which notwithstanding was done with that sweete attempering , that every writer , might use those manners of speaking which did most agree to his person and condition . 7. Hence the Scripture is often attributed to the holy Spirit as to the author , making no mention of the Scribes . Hebrewes 10. 15. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witnesse to us . 8. Hence also , although in the inscriptions of the holy Bookes it is for the most part declared by whose labour they were written , yet there is sometimes deepe silence of this matter , and that without any detriment of such bookes , or lessening their authority . 9. Neither yet doth it suffice to make a part of holy writ , if a booke be written by some extraordinary servant of God , and upon certaine direction of the spirit : unlesse it be also publickly given to the Church by divine authority , and sanctified to be a Canon or rule of the same . 10. The thing it selfe which they committed to writing , as touching the summe and chiefe end of the matter , is nothing else , then that reveale will of God , which is the rule of Faith and manners . 11. Hence all those things which in the first disputation were spoken of the doctrine of life revealed from God , doe properly agree to the holy Scripture . For the Scripture is nothing else then that doctrine , with the manner of writing joyned to it , which manner was not to be handled there , but in this place . 12. Hence the Scripture in respect of the thing and subject meaning , that is , as it was the doctrine revealed from God , it was before the Church : but in respect of the manner in which it is properly called Scripture , it is after the first Church . 13. It is called the holy Scripture , and by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Scripture , and the writers themselves are called holy , partly in respect of the subject , and object matter , which is so called , the true and saving will of God , and partly in respect of that direction whereby it was committed to writing . Romans 1. 2. Eph. 5. 5. 2 Pet. 1. 21. & 2. 22. & 3. 2. Rev. 18. 20. 14. But although divers parts of the Scripture were written , upon some speciall occasion , and were directed to some certaine men , or assemblies : yet in Gods intention , they doe as well pertaine to the instructing of all the faithfull thorough all ages , as if they had beene specially directed to them , whence , Heb. 12. The exhortation of Solomon , which is used in the Proverbs , is said to be spoken to the Hebrewes ( who lived in the Apostles time , ) as to children , and 2 Pet. 3. 15. Paul is said to have wrote to all the faithfull in that he wrote to the Romans . Hebr. 13. 5. That which was said to Ioshua is said to be spoken to all the faithfull . 16. All things which are necessary to salvation are contained in the Scriptures , and also all those things which are necessarily required to the instruction and edification of the Church . 2 Tim. 3. 15. 16. 17. The holy Scriptures can make thee wise unto salvation , that the man of God might be perfect , perfectly furnished to every good worke . 16. Hence the Scripture is not a partiall , but a perfect rule of Faith , and manners : neither is here any thing that is constantly and every where necessary to be observed in the Church of God , which depends either upon any tradition , or upon any authority whatsoever and is not contained in the Scriptures . 17. Yet all things were not together and at once committed to writing , because the state of the Church & the wisdome of God did otherwise require : but from the first writing , those things were successively committed to writing which were necessarily in those ages . 18. Neither did the Articles of Faith therefore increase according to succession of times , in respect of the essence , but only in respect of the explication . 19. As touching the manner of delivery , the Scripture doth not explaine the will of God by universall , and scientificall rules , but by narrations , examples , precepts , exhortations , admonitions , and promises : because that manner doth make most for the common use of all kinde of men , and also most to affect the will , & stirre up godly motions , which is the chiefe scope of Divinity . 20. Also the will of God is revealed in that manner in the Scriptures , that although , the things themselves are for the most part hard to be conceived , yet the manner of delivering and explaining them , especially in those things which are necessary , is cleere and perspicuous . 21. Hence the Scriptures need not especially in necessaries , any such explication whereby light may be brought to it from something else : but they give light to themselves , which is diligently to be drawne out by men , and to be communicated to others according to their calling . 22. Hence also there is onely one sence of one place of Scripture : because otherwise the sence of the Scripture should be not onely not cleere and certaine , but none at all : for that wich doth not signifie one thing , signifieth certainly nothing . 23. For the determining of controversies in Divinity , there is no visible power as it were kingly or pretorian , appointed in the Church : but there is laid a duty on men to enquire : there is bestowed a gift of discerning , both publickly and privatly : and there is commanded a desire to further the knowledge and practise of the known truth according to their calling , unto which also is joyned a promise of direction , and blessing from God. 24. But because the Scriptures were given for the use and edification of the Church , therefore they were written in those tongues , which mere most commonly vulgar in the Church at that time when they were written . 25. Hence all those bookes which were written before the comming of Christ were written in Hebrew , for to the Iewes were committed the Oracles of God. Rom. 3. 2. & 9. 4. And upon lice reason they that were written afterward were delivered in the Greeke tongue , because that tongue was most common in those parts were the Church did first florish . 26. Hence there is some knowledge at least of these tongues necessary to the exact understanding of the Scriptures : for the Scriptures are understood by the same meanes that other humane writings are , many by the skill , and use of Logick , Rethorick , Grammar , and those tongues in which they are expressed except in this , that there is a singular light of the spirit alwayes to bee fought for by the godly in the Scriptures . 27. Yet the Scripture is not so tied to those first tongues , but that it may and ought also to bee translated into other tongues , for the common use of the Church . 28. But among interpreters , neither , those seventy , who turned it into Greeke , nor Hierome , nor any such like did performe the office of a Prophet , so that he should be free from errors interpreting . 29. Hence no persons absolutely authenticall , but so far forth only as they doe expresse the fountaines , by which also they are to be tried . 30. Neither is there any authority in Earth whereby any version may be made simply authenticall . 31. Hence the providence of GOD in preserving the Fountaines , hath beene alwayes famous , and to be adored , not onely that they did not wholy perish , but also that they stould not be maimed by the losse of any booke , or deformed by any grievous fault , when in the meane while there is no one of the auncient versions that remaines whole . 32. Neverthelesse , from those humane versions there may be all those things perceived which are absolutly necessary , if so be they agree with the fountaines in the essentiall parts , as all those versions that are received in the Churches are wont to doe , although they differ , and are defective in the smaller things not a few . 33. Neither therefore must wee alwayes rest in anie version that is received : but we must most religiously provide , that the most pure and faultlesse interpretation be put upon the Church . 34. Of all those bookes , being delivered from God , and placed , as it were in the Chest of the Church , there is made up a perfect Canon of Faith and manners , whence also they have the name of Canonicall Scripture . 35. The Prophets made the Canon of the old Testament , and Christ himselfe approved it by his Testimony . The Canon of the new Testament together with the old , the Apostle Iohn approved and sealed up being furnished with Divine authority . Rev. 22. 18 , 19. For I doe witnesse together to every one that heares the words of the prophesy of this booke : if any shall ad to these , God shall lay upon him the plagues written in this booke : and if any shall take away any thing from the books of his prophesie , God shal take away this part out of the booke of life . 36. Those bookes which commonly we call apocryphall , doe not pertaine to the divine Canon , neither were they rightly enough joyned by men of old to the canonicall bookes , as a certaine secundary Canon : for first in some of them there are manifest fables told and affirmed for true Histories as of Tobith , Iudith , Susanna , Bel , the Dragon , and such like . Secondly , because they contradict both the sacred Scripture and themselves . Oftentimes Thirdly , they were not written in Hebrew , nor delivered to the Iewish Church or received by it , to which notwithstanding God committed all his Oracles before the comming of Christ. Rom. 9. 4. Fourthly they were not approved by Christ , because they were not among those bookes which he set forth when he commanded his to search the Scriptures . Fifthly , they were never received either by the Aostles or the first Christian Church as a part of the Divine Canon . CHAPTER XXXV . Of ordinary Ministers , and their Office in Preaching . 1. ORdinary Ministery is that which hath al its direction from the will of God revealed in the Scriptures , and from those meanes which God hath appointed in the Church , for the perpetuall edification of the same . 2. And hence they are called ordinary : because they may and are wont to bee called to Minister by order appointed by God. 3. But because in their administration they have that Will of God which was before revealed by extraordinary Ministers for a fixed rule unto them , therefore they ought not to propound or doe any thing in the Church which they have not prescribed to them in the Scriptures . 4. Therefore also they depend upon extraordinary Ministers , and are as it were their successors : for although in respect of manner and degree exraordinary Ministers have no successors ; yet in respect of the essence of administration , ordinary Ministers performe the same office toward the Church as extraordinary did of old . 5. The right of his Ministery is wont to be communicated by men , and in that respect the calling of an ordinary Minister is mediate . 6. But this is so to be understood , that the authority of administring Divine things is immediatly communicated from God to all lawfull Ministers , and the appointing of persons upon which it is bestowed is done by the Church . 7. But because the Church can neither confer gifts necessary for this Ministery nor prescribe unto God upon whom he should bestow them , therefore she can only chuse those whom before she sees fitted , for not as extraordinary Ministers , so also ordinary are made fit by their very calling , when they were unfit before . 8. Hence in an ordinary calling it is necessarily required that a lawfull triall goe before the calling it selfe . 1 Tim. 3. 10. Let them be first tried , then let them Minister if they be blamelesse . 9. Ordinary Ministery is for the preserving , propagating , and restoring the Church by ordinary meanes . 10. There are two parts of this Ministery . 1. That in the Name of God he doe those things which are to be done with the people . 2. That in the name of the people he doe those things with God which are to be done with him . 11. But in these the preaching of the Word doth most excell , and so it hath beene alwayes of perpetuall use in the Church . 12. The duty of an ordinary preacher is to propound the Will of God out of the Word , unto the edification of the hearers . 1 Tim. 1. 5. The end or preaching is love out of a pure heart , and a good conscience , and faith unfained . 13. But because there is chiefly required a serious desire to edify the Church , therefore he cannot be a fit preacher , who hath not prepared his heart to seeke the Law of the Lord , and to keepe it , and to teach Israel the statutes and judgements . For he that teacheth another ought before and when he teacheth , to teach himselfe . Rom. 2. 21. Otherwise he is not fitted to edifie the Church . 14. This duty is to be performed not only universally in respect of all the heare 〈◊〉 in common , but also specially in respect of order and age whatsoever , as of old men , young men , servants . Tit. 2. & 3. Of teachers , 2 Pet. 1. 12. &c. Yea of every one . 1 Thess. 1. 11. We exhorted , and comforted , and charged every one of you , not publickly onely , but privatly also . Acts 20. 20. Publickly , and from house to house . 15. He ought to have this scope of edifying so alwayes before his eyes , that he diligently take heed 〈◊〉 turne not aside from it , to vaine laughing . 1 Tim. 1. 6. To striving about words . 2. Tim. 2. 14. To unprofitable controversies , or speculations of science falsly so called . 1 Kin. 6. 20. But shew himselfe to be an holder fast of the faithfull word which tends unto doctrine . Tit. 1. 9. And which cannot be condemned , Tit. 2. 8. 16. But because the Will of God is to be propounded out of his Word , to this end therefore he is not fit for his Ministery , who hath not his sences exercised in the holy Scriptures , even beyond the common sort of believers , so that he might be said to be with Apollos mighty in the Scriptures . Acts 18. 24. Hee must not trust to Postils and Commentaries . 17. That the Will of God may be propounded with fruit of edification these two things , are necessary to be done . 1. That a declaration be made of those things that are contained in the Text. 2. That application of the same be addressed to the consciences of the hearers as their condition doth seeme to require . 1 Tim. 6. 17. Charge those that are rich in this World that they be not high minded , nor rust in uncertaine riches &c. 18. They deceive their hearers , and altogether forget themselves , who propound a certaine text in the beginning , as the beginning of the Sermon to be had , and afterward doe speake many things about the text or by occasion of the text , but for the most part draw nothing out of the text it selfe . 19. In declaring what truth there is in the text , first it ought to be explained , and then afterward what good doth follow from thence . That part is spent in doctrines , or documents , this in use or derivation of profit from those doctrines . 2. Tim. 3. 16. All the Scripture is profitable for doctrine , for reproofe , for correction , and instruction in righteousnesse . 20. They who invert and confound those parts , doe not provide for the memory of their hearers , and doe not a little hinder their edification : because they cannot commit the chiefe head of the Sermon to memory , that they may afterward repeate it privatly in their families without which exercise the greatest part of that fruit doth perish which would by Sermons redound unto the Church of God. 21. Doctrine is a Theologicall Axiom , either consisting in the expresse word of Scripture , or flowing from them by immediate consequence . 22. A doctrine must first be rightly found out , and then afterward handed . 23. The finding it out is by Logick Analysis , unto which Retoricke also and Grammar serveth . 24. Analysis depends chiefly upon the observation of the scope , or purpose and the meanes by which it is attained , according to the act of Logick . 25. Unto this must be subjoyned for confirmation the interpretation of those things which are doubtfull in the Analysis : but manifest things , and such as are perspicuous of themselves doe neither require , nor admit a needelesse interpretation . 26. Handling ( of a doctrine ) doth partly consist in proving , if it may be questioned by the hearers , ( for it is unfit carefully to confirme that which all acknowledge ) and partly in illustration of the thing sufficiently proved . 27. Proving ought to be taken out of the more cleere testimonies of Scripture , reasons also being added where the nature of the thing will suffer . But here that measure is to be kept , which the commodity of the hearers , will dictate . 28. Illustration may be drawen almost from all places of invention , b●… dissentaneous , and comparate arguments have here the chiefe place . 29. Every doctrine being now sufficiently explained must presently be brought to use , in which pa●…t also , unlesse some speciall reason doe otherwise require , we must most insist : because it containes the end and good of the other , and is more joyned with the chiefe scope of the Sermon , namely the edification of the hearers . 30. They faile therefore who stick to a naked finding out and explication of the truth and neglecting use and practise , in which Religion and so blessednesse doth consist , doe little or nothing edifie the conscience . 31. Neither yet are all the doctrines which may be drawn out of the text , to be propounded , nor all the uses to be inculcated , but those are to be chosen out which the circumstances of place , time and persons , shall teach to be most necessary , and of those such especially are to be chosen which make most to stir up or confirme the life of Religion . 32. They faile therefore , who care not much what they say : so they may seeme to have observed , and spoken many things : nay they doe this not seldome , that they may extort many things out of the text which are not in it , and oftentimes draw from other places unto it , bringing every thing out of many things whereby indeed the subversion rather then the edification of the hearers , especially those that are more unskilfull , doth follow . 33. Both doctrine and use as much as may be ought so to be framed , that they may have some connexion among themselves , and doe also shew it . For the minde is not drawen from one thing to another without disprofit : neither is there any thing doth more helpe memory then order of deduction . 34. An use is a Theologicall Axiom , drawne from the doctrine , shewing the profit goodnesse or end of it . 35. The reason of the deduction is to be opened , if it be not very plaine : unto which also must be subjoyned probation , or illustration , as the necessity of the hearers , and prudence of the speaker shall advise . 36. This use either pertaines to the judgement , or to practise . 2 Tim. 3. 16. 37. In the judgement there is Information , and Reformation of the minde . 38. Information is the proving of some truth . 39. Reformation is the confutation of some error . 40. But although every truth may be taught upon occasion , yet every error is not every where to be refuted . For old heresies which are already buried , are not to be digged up againe that they may bee refuted ▪ neither are wicked blasphemies easily to be repeated : this doth trouble and offend , especially when they are solemnly nominated , explained , and refuted : 41. In practise of life there is direction , which consists of instruction and correction . 42. Iustruction is a demonstration of that life that is to be followed . 43. Correction is a condemning of that life that is to be shunned . 44. After declaration , application ought to follow , which hath so great agreement with derivation of uses , that it may often be mingled with it . 45. To apply a doctrine to his use , is so to whet and put on some generall truth with speciall accommodation ; as it may pierce into the minds of such as are present , with a moving of godly affections . 46. Men are to be pricked to the quick , that they may feele in every one of them that of the Apostle , namely that the Word of the Lord is a two edged sword , that pierceth into the inward thoughts and affections , and goeth through unto the joyning together of the bones and the marrow . Preaching therefore ought not to be dead , but lively and effectuall , so that an unbeliever comming into the Congregation of the faithfull he ought to be affected , and as it were digged through with the very hearing of the Word , that he may give glory to God. 1 Cor. 14. 25. And so the hidden things of his heart are made manifest : and so falling down on his face , he will worship God , and say that God is in you indeed . 47. But this application doth either respect a minde oppressed , as consolation , or fainting in the prosecution of good , as exhortation ; or in avoyding of evill , as admonition . 48. Consolation is the application of some argument , either to take away , or to mitigate griefe and oppressing feare . 49. In consolation , markes are profitably joyned , by which the conscience of a man may be assured that such a benefit portaines to him , with the consideration of which the Minister doth comfort the consciences of believers , adding occupations , and refutations of such things as a pions and troubled minde may bring and thinke of to the contrary . 50. Exhortation is the application of an argument , either to beget , cherish , and excite some inward vertue , or to further the exercise of it . 51. In exhortation to vertue it is very profitable to shew the meanes which doe tend to the begetting that vertue in us , but let all be proved by places of Scripture and examples , or by reasons which have a firme foundation in the Scriptures . 52. Admonition is the application of an argument to correct some vitiousnesse . 53. In admonition , or dehortation from vice , there may be remedies adjoyned out of those places which are most like to prevaile against those vices . 54. The manner of working in all these must be such that it have no ostentation of humane wisdome , or an entermingling of carnall affections , but the demonstration of the spirit every where manifested . 1 Cor. 1. 17. & c. 2. 1. 4. 13. Not with skill of speaking , least the Crosse of Christ should be made of none effect . Not with excellency of speech or wisedome : not in parswading words of mens wisedome , but in spirituall and powerfull demonstration . Not in words which mans wisedome teacheth , but which the holy Spirit teacheth , for it is the word of the spirit , the word of life which is preached to edification of God which is by Faith : unto which if any thing be not fitly spoken or done , it is as vaine as hay and stuble . 1 Cor. 3. 12. 55. Therefore neither ought humane testimonies whatsoever they be , nor Histories known only to the learned to be intermingled , unlesse very seldome ( the cause also being signified which constraineth so to doe ) when urgent necessitie , or certaine hope of fruit doth seeme to require such a thing , much lesse words or sentences of Latine , Greeke , or Hebrew , which the people doe not understand . 56. The purity , perfection , and majesty of the word of God is violated , whilst it seemes to want the mixture of humane words , and withall there is a scandall given to the hearers , who being accustomed to such humane flourishes , oftentimes , contracting it ching eares , doe begin to lothe , the simplicity of the Gospell , and will not suffer wholesome doctrine . 2 Tim. 4. 3. 57. The example of Paul ( who cites a very few , and briefe sayings of heathen Poets , not naming the Authors , to convince the Gentiles to whom they were known and approved , and that very seldome , and but by the way ) this example I say doth nothingh enforce that necessity or profit , which they urge , who doe obtrude humane testimonies frequently , and of purpose , commen ding the authors with the same solemnity almost wherewith they use to cite the names of the prophets , and that among Christians , who doe onely desire to heare Christ , to the end to shew forth some learning . 58. Neither also are unnecessary , and far fetched Proems , or perswasive words of Orators to be followed : neither must they love digressions , or excusions . They doe savour an humane spirit , spend time , and shut out other things which would more edifie . 59. But if there be used any Exordium , pertaining to the present matter , that hath his proper place , either in the declaration of the text or applying it to use . 60. The speech and action ought to be wholly spirituall flowing from the very heart , shewing a man much conversant in exercises of piety who also hath before persuaded himselfe , and troughly setled in his conscience , those things which he endeavours to perswade others to : into which finally there is Zeale , Charity , Mildnesse , Freedome , Humility , whit grove authority . 61. The pronouncing of the speech must be both naturall , familiar , cleere , and distinct , that it may be fitly understood : as also agreeable unto the matter that it may alsoo move the affections . Gal. 4. 20. I would now be present with you , and change my voyce : because I am in doubt of you . 62. Among others here are two voyces most to be blamed : the one which is heavy , slow , singing , drousie , in which not only the words in the same distinction , of a comma , are separated with a pause , but even the syllables in the same word , to the great hinderance of the understanding of things . 63. The other voyce which doth here most offend is that which is hasty and swift , which overturnes the eares with too much celerity so , that there is no distinct perceiving of things . 64. That speech pronountiation and action which would be ridiculous in the senate in places of judgement , in the Court , that is more to bee avoyded in a Sermon . 65. The efficacy of the holy Spirit doth more cleerely appeare in a naked simplicity of words , then in elegancy and neatnesse : hence Paul saith that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rude in speech . 2 Cor. 11. 6. Yet if any have a certaine outward force of speaking , hee ought to use it with Genuine simplicity . 66. So much affectation as appeares , so much efficacy and authority is lost . 67. The summe is , that nothing is to be admitted which doth not make for the spirituall edification of the people , neither any thing to be omitted whereby we may in a sure way attaine to that end . 68. An appendix of the Sermon is Prayer , both before and after . 69. In Prayer going before , those generall things ought to be propounded , whereby the end and use of the word and preaching , and our wants , unworthinesse , and duty , together with the gracious promises of GOD may bee so brought to remembrance , that the minds of all may be stirred up humbly to seeke , and faithfully to observe the Will of God. 70. In Prayer following after , giving of thankes is alwayes to be used , and the chiefe heads of the Sermon should be turned into petitions . CHAPTER XXXVI . Of the Sacraments . Thus much of the manner of application , in the first part of it , namely in the Ministery . 1. THe manner of application in the other part of it is in the signes . 2. A signe is a sensible thing which besides that shew it carieth immediatly to the senses , makes another thing withall come into the mind : and in this sence the consideration of a signe is as large as of a Logicall argument . 3. Signes are some naturall , some by institution . 4. Yet betweene these two there is so great difference , that they cannot be confounded without foule error . 5. There is also a signe ordinary and perpetuall , and another extraordinary and temporary . 6. In respect of the thing signified , it is either of things past , and it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rememor●…wn , A signe of remembrance : or of things present , and it s called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Demonstrativum , a demonstrative signe : of things to come , and it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Praenunciativum , a foretelling signe ; or finally consisting of all these , so as it sets forth things present , past , and to come . 7. In respect of the end and use , it either serveth for the understanding , and is called Notificans a notefying signe ; or the memory , and is called Commonefacions , a●… admonishing signe ; or for Faith also , and is called Obsignans , a Sealing signe , or lastly for all these together . 8. Hence an holy Signe is either a bare signe , or a seale also . 9. A bare signe is that which onely representeth : a seale is that which not onely representeth , but also exhibiteth by sealing . 10. A seale sealing the Covenant of God is called a Sacrament , Rom. 4. 11. 11. For it is a signe , of remembrance , demonstrating , foretelling , notifying , admonishing , and sealing . 12. A Sacrament therefore of the new Covenant is a Divine institution , whereby by sensible signes , the blessings of the new Covenant are represented , exhibited and applied . 13. Hence such a Sacrament hath the respect of a secondary Divine testimony , whereby that primary testimony which is contained in the Covenant it selfe , is specially confirmed in respect of us . 14. Hence that speciall application of the favour and grace of God , which ariseth from true Faith , is very much confirmed and furthered by the Sacraments . 15. In a Sacrament therefore there is a sensible thing , and a spirituall . 16. The sensible thing is a signe either representing , or applying : the spirituall thing is that which is represented and applied . 17. Yet by the name of a Sacrament , usually and most properly the outward and sensible thing it selfe is wont to be set forth . 18. The Sacramentall signe hath not that spirituall thing to which it is referred either physically inhering or adhering ; for so the signe and thing signified should bee together . 19. Neither yet are they bare declaring and representing signes , but communicating the thing it selfe , testifying , and exhibiting the thing to be more communicated . 20. Hence none can institute such an holy signe , but God only : because no Creature can bestow the thing signified , or make the communication of it certaine to us , or finally ad that vertue to such signes , whereby they may be made fit to confirme Faith , and Confidence , or to stir up any spirituall grace in us , more then any other thing . 21. The thing it selfe which is set apart and separated to such an holy use , is properly called a representing signe , as Bread and Wine in the supper , but the use of these things is called an applying signe ; as distributing , receiving , eating , drinking . 22. Hence Sacraments doe not properly exist out of their use , that is neither before , nor after they are applied to their use , are they indeed Sacraments . 23. The spirituall thing which is signified by the Sacraments of the new covenant is the new covenant it selfe , that is , Christ with all those blessings which in him are prepared for the faithfull . 24. Yet some Sacraments doe more expresly represent a manner or some respect of his Covenant , then others , which doe also more set forth some other manner 25. But all have this common , that they seale the whole Covenant of grace , to the faithfull ; neither have they this use at that only time whilst they are administred , but to the end of life . 26. The forme of a Sacrament is that union which is between the signe , and things signified . 27. This union is not corporall , neither yet is it imaginary , but it is a spirituall relation by vertue whereof the things signified are really communicated to these , who doe rightly use the signes . 28. For neither doe all those partake the spirituall thing it selfe , who are made partakers of the signes , neither is there the same manner and meanes of partaking both . 29. From this Union followeth a communication of Praedication , whereby First , the signe is predicated of the thing signified , as when Sanctification of the heart is calling circumcision . 2. The thing signified of the signe , as when circumcision is called the Covenant , and bread the body . 3. The effect of the thing signified is predicated of the signe , as when Baptisme is said to regenerate . 4. A property of the signe is predicated of the thing signified , as when breaking which agreeth to the Bread is attributed to Christ. 5. A property of the thing signified is attributed to the signe , as when sacramentall eating and drinking is called spirituall . 30. The foundation of this relation arifeth , First , from the similitude or proportion of the signe to the thing signified : for such a likenesse although it doe not make a Sacrament , yet it is required afore to those things which doe make a Sacrament , and is laid as a foundation to them . Secondly , from the word of institution , which consists of a command and a promise . The command doth impose a duty of using the Creatures to that holy end . The promise doth give us to believe that we shal not so use them in vaine . But this word of institution distinctly applied with fit prayers , is called the word of consecration , of blessing , the word of sanctification , and separation . 3. It is perfited with observation , and the use it selfe prescribed , of which here is so great force , that for default of it that is not a Sacrament to this or that person , being present in body or receiving , which to others is most effectuall . 31. The primary end of a Sacrament is to seale the covenant , and that not on Gods part onely , but consequently also on ours , that is , not onely the grace of God , and promises are sealed to us , but also our thankfulnesse and obedience towards God. 32 Therefore mysticall signes of holy things cannot be instituted by man , without prejudice and violation of the Sacraments , although they doe set forth mans duty only . 33. For although such signes are not properly Sacraments , yet they are signes Sacramentall , that is , they partake the nature of Sacraments and so cannot be instituted by man. 34. A secondary end is profession of Faith and love : for there are represented in the use of the Saraments , both that union which we have with God in Christ , and that communion which we hold with all those who are partakers of the same union , especially with those who are members of the same Church . CHAPTER XXXVII . Of Ecclesiasticall Discipline . An adjunct of the Word and Sacraments is Discipline : which in respect of the summe of the matter hath beene alwayes one , and so may fitly be handled in this one place . 1. HOly Discipline is a personall application of the Will of God by censures , either for the preventing , or taking away of scandals out of the Church of God. 2. For in the preaching of the Word , the Will of God is propounded and really applied to beget and increase Faith and obdience . In the administration of the Sacraments , the Will of God is also personally applied by the seales , to confirme Faith and obdience . In the exercise of Discipline , the Will of God is personally also applied in the censures for the removing of those vices , which are contrary to Faith and Obedience . 3. Hence it is that Discipline is wont to be joyned with the Word and Sacraments by the best Divines , in the notes of the Church , for though it be not a note simply essentiall and reciprocall ( as neither the other two ) yet it ought necessarily to be present to the complete estate of a Church . 4. This Discipline is ordained and prescribed by Christ himselfe . Mat. 16. 19. & 18. 15 , 16 , 17. And so is plainly of Divine right : neither may it be taken away , diminished , or changed by men at their pleasure . 5. Nay the sins against Christs , the author , and ordainer , whosoever doth not so much as in him is to establish and promote this Discipline in the Churches of God. 6. The persons about whom it ought to be exercised , are the members of visible instituted Churches , without any exception . Mat. 18. 15. 1 Cor. 11. And not others : There Vers. 12. For it pertaines to them , and only them that have right to partake of the Sacrament . 7. Unto those persons it applies the Will of God , that is , those meanes of spirituall reformation , such as Christ onely hath given to his Churches . 2 Cor. 10 , 4. Therefore punishments and vexations to be endured by the body or purse , have no place at all in Ecclesiasticall Discipline . 8. It respects sins and scandalls in those persons : for it is an wholesome healing plaister of those wounds and diseases to which the sheepe of Christ are subject . 1 Cor. 5. 5. 9. It forbids and takes away those offences : because it doth effectually and personally apply the Will of Christ , the impugning and abolishing of them . 10. But because it doth so effectually urge obedience toward Christ , therefore not without singular reason a great part of the Kingdome of Christ , as hee doth visibly governe the Church , is placed by the best Divines in this Disciplines . 11. And this is the true reason why the Discipline of Christ is solidly constituted and exercised together with doctrine in so few Churches , because most even of those who would seeme to knew Christ , and to hope in him , doe refuse to receive the whole Kingdome of Christ , and to yeeld themselves wholly to him . 12. But as it is a part of the Kingdome of Christ , so also it is by the same reason a part of the Gospell : for it is an holy manner of promoting the Gospell ordained in the Gospell : They therefore who reject Discipline , doe neither receive the whole Kingdome of Christ , nor the whole Gospell . 13. But because both every part of the Kingdome of Christ is necessary in its measure , and that chiefly which doth represse sin , effectually , therefore men doe not safely enough content themselves , in Churches wanting Discipline , unlesse that publick defect be made up by a private care , and watching one over another . 14. The parts of this Discipline are brotherly correction , and excommunication . 15. For it doth not either only or chiefly consist in the thunderclaps of Excommunications and Anathem●…is , but chiefly in Christian correction . 16. Neither is the proper end of reproofe that there might be then an entance made to Excommunication ( although by accident that sometimes doe follow ) but that the necessity of Excommunicating if it can be , might be prevented , and the sinner may bee by timely repentance retained in the Church . 17. Correction , increpation or admonition , ought to be used in every sinne unto which the midicine of Discipline agreeth , yet in a divers manner according to be difference of the sin secret , and knowen . For in hidden sins , those three degrees are to be observed which Christ hath in order prescribed . Mat. 18. 15. 16. 17. But in publick sins such a gradation is not necessary , 1 Tim. 5. 20. 18. These admonitions ought alwayes to be taken out of the word of God , not out of mens decrees : otherwise they will not pierce to the conscience . 19. A plenary excommunication is not to be used , unlesse contumacy be added to the sin . Mat. 18. 17. For the sinner rightly admonished , of necessity must appeare penitent , or obstinate , but the penitent is not to be excommunicated , therefore only he that is obstinate . 20. Yet in the more hainous offences so much patience and delay is neither necessary nor profitable , to expect repentance , and to the discerning of contumacy , as in more usuall faults . 21. When the thing it selfe may suffer delay , it is agreeable to Scripture and reason , that excommunication be first begun by suspension or abstension from the Supper , and such like priviledges of the Church , which is wont to be called the lesser excommunication . 22. Yet wee must not stay in this degree , but by this meanes and in this space repentance is to be urged , and there being no hope of it , we must proceede at length to a compleat severing from the Communion of the faithfull , which is wont to be called the greater Excommunication . 23. But because an obstinate sinner cannot be separated from the faithfull , unlesse the faithfull be separated from him , and this also maketh for their wholesom shame . 2. Thess. 3. 14. Therfore they who are lawfully excommunicated are to be avoyded of all Communicants , not in respect of duties simply morall , or otherwise necessary , but in respect of those parts of conversation which are wont to accompany approbation and inward familiarity . Os , orare , vale , conviva , mensa , negat●… . With the secluded , neither confer , nor pray , Salute , nor feast , nor eath with day by day . 24. From the bond Excommunication none that is not penitent ought to be loosed , neither ought it to be denied to any that is penitent . But it is not a sufficient repentance , if one say it repent me , I will doe so no more , and doe not otherwise shew true Repentance : but such judgements , of serious repentance ought to appeare as the Church is bound to bee , satisfied in them : otherwise hyprocrisie is nourished , and the Church is mocked , and Christ himselfe . 25. Yet in some sins a weake repentance ( so it appeare true ) may be admitted them in other sins . 26. The power of this Discipline in respect of the right it selfe pertaines to that Church in common , whereof the offendor is a member , for it pertaines to her to cast out to whom it belongs to admit at first : and the conservation or cutting off of members concernes the whole body equally : it is therefore to be committed to execution with the consent of the Church ( and that not onely the Church permitting , but also approving and appointing . ) 27. Yet the Elders have the chiefe parts , in the acting and exercise of it . And that not onely in directing the publick action , and pronouncing sentence , but also in admonitions foregoing , in which they must make up that which they see was neglected by private persons . 28. The usuall censures of the Popes , of pontificall Bishops and their officers , doe themselves deserve a grievous censure : for they are prophanations of the Name of God , props of an injust government , and snares to catch other mens money , not spirituall remedies of such sins . 29. Indulgences , Commutations , and humane transactions , in those things unto which Christ hath ordained the Discipline of the Church , are wages of the great Whore. CHAPTER XXXVIII . Of the administration of the Covenant of grace before the comming of Christ. 1. ALthough the free , and saving Covenant of God hath beene onely one from the beginning , yet the manner of the application of Christ or of administring this new Covenant , hath not alwayes beene one and the same , but divers , according to the ages in which the Church hath been gathered . 2. In this variety here hath beene alwayes a progresse from the more imperfect , to the more perfect . 3. First therefore the mystery of the Gospel was manifested generally and more darkly , and then more specially and more cleerly . 4. This manner of administring is double : one of Christ to be exhibited , and the other of Christ exhibited . 5. For the old and New Testament are reduced to these two primary heads : the old ●…miseth Christ to come , the New testifieth that he is come . 6. Whilest Christ was to be exhibited , all things were more outward and carnall , afterward more inward and spirituall Iohn 1. 17. The Law was delivered by Moses , grace and truth came by Christ. 7. Yet at that time there was a double consideration of the Church . 1. As an heire , and 2. as it was an infant . Galatians 4. 1. and following : So long as the heire is an infant , hee nothing differs from a servant , though hee bee Lord of all . 8. As an heire it was free : as an infant it was in a certaine manner servile . Ther●… 9. As an heire it was spirituall : as an infant carnall , and earthly . Heb. 9. 10. Rom. 9. 7. 10. As an heire it had the spirit of adoption , as an infant the spirit of feare , and bondage . Rom. 8. 15. Yee have not received the spirit of bondage againe to feare , but yee have received the spirit of Adoption . 11. The manner of administration which respects Christ to be exhibited was one before Moses , and another from Moses to Christ. 12. Before Moses the polity of the Church was rude and loose , as being in infancy : there were so many visible Churches as there were Families of godly persons : the Ministery was almost alwayes extraordinary by Prophets : the masters of Families , and first borne had right to administer some holy things , as ordinary Ministers , according to that direction which they receaved from the Prophets . 13. Yet there were some difference of the dispensation from Adam to Abraham , and from that which was after Abraham , untill Moses . 14. From Adam to Abraham , First , Redemption by Christ , and the application of him was promised in generall , to be performed by a seed of the Woman , to loose the workes of the Devill , that is , sin and death . Gen. 3. 15. Rom. 1●…●…0 . 1 Iohn 3. 8. The seed of the Woman shall breake the Serpents head . The God of peace shall tread Satan under your feet shortly . The Son of God was manifested to dissolve the works of the Devill . 15. 2. Calling was exercised in that distinction which was between the seed of the Woman and the seed of the Devill , between the sons of God and the sons of men . Gen. 6. 2. 3. The way of justification was set forth by expiatory sacrifices offered and accepted for sins . Eph. 5. 2. Christ hath loved us and given himselfe for us , an offring and sacrifice to God for a swee●… smelling savour . 16. 4. Adoption was declared both by the title of sons at that time common to all the faithfull , and by the translation of Enoch into the Heavenly inheritance . Gen. 5. 24. Hebr. 11. 5. 17. 5. Sanctification was both expresly inculcated by the Prophets and typically shadowed out by oblations and rites of sacrifices . Iud. 14. Rom. 12. 1. 18. 6. Glorification , was publickly sealed both by the example of Enoch , and conversation of Noach with his family from the flood . 1 Pet. 3. 20. 21. 19. In this period of time the building and conserving of the Arke in the flood , was an extraordinary Sacrament . Heb. 11. Vers. 7. 1 Pet. 3. 20. & 21. There was no ordinary Sacrament : but that in many sacrifices here was something that had the respect of a Sacrament : for in that those that did sacrifice for the most part were made partakers of their sacrifices in an holy banquet , in an holy place with joy before God. Exod. 18. 12. This did seale to them in some sort that grace of the Covenant which is exhibited in the Sacraments . 20. From the time of Abraham the Church did chiefly consist in his family and posterity . 21. In that period of time all the benefits of the new Covenant were more cleerly and distinctly set forth then before . 22. 1. Election was represented in the persons of Isaac and Iacob , beloved before Ismael and Esau. Romans 9. 11. 12. 13. 23. 2. Redemption together with the application of it was most excellently exhibited in the person and blessing of Melchisedeck , also in the promise and covenant of blessing to come to all Nations by the seed of Abraham . 24. 3. Calling was exercised by leading forth Abraham out of Vr of the Caldees to a certaine new and heavenly Countrey , Heb. 11. 8. 9. 10. 25. 4. Iustification was illustrated by the expresse testimony of God , that Fa●…th was imputed to Abraham for righteousnesse , as the Father and patterne of all that should believe , and by the Sacrament of circumcision , which was a seale of the same righteousnesse . 26. 5. Adoption was set forth by calling of the Name of God upon Abraham and all the sons of the promise , and by assigning of the inheritance to the sons of the promises begotten of the free Woman , through grace . Galatians 4. 26. 28. 31. 27. 6. Sanctification was figured by circumcision which did set forth the taking away and abolishing of the corruption of sin & of the old man , that a new Creature might be settled in its place . Col. 2. 11. Deut. 30. 6. 28. 7. Glorification was shewed in the blessing promised , and in the Land of Canaan , which was a type of the Heavenly Country . 29. From the time of Moses unto Christ , all these same were further shadowed , by meanes both extraordinary , and also ordinary . 30. Redemption and the application hereof was extraordinarily signified . 1. By the deliverance out of Egypt by the Ministery of Moses as a type of Christ. Mat. 2. 15. And by the bringing into the Land of Canaan by the Ministery of Iosuah , as of another type of Christ. 2. By the brasen Serpent , by the beholding whereof , men that were like to dye were restored to health . Iohn 3. 14. 12. 32. 3. By the cloud , whereby the Israelites were covered from all the injuries both of their enemies , and of the Heaven . And moreover they had light , together with refreshing of their strength administred by day and by night . 1 Cor. 10. 2. Esay 4. 4. 4. By passing thorough the red Sea , whereby they had a way cast up to the Land of promise , their enemies being overwhelmed and destroyed . 1. Cor. 10. 2. 5. By Mannah from Heaven , and Water out of the Rock , whence they received continuall nourishment , as it were out of Gods Hand . 1 Cor. 10. 3. & 4. Iohn 6. 32. 33. 31. Ordinarily Christ and Redemption by him was shaddowed out by the high priest , the authours , and sacrifices for sinnes . 32. Iustification was shewed in many sacrifices , washings , and the Sacrament of the Passeover . 33. Adoption was shewed in the first borne , who were dedicated to God. 34. Sanctification , in all the offerings and gifts , and in those observations which had any shew of cleanlinesse . 35. Glorification , by the inheritance of the promised Land , and by that communion which they had with God in the most holy place . 36. The Church of Iewes instituted by Moses , in respect of the outward gathering together was only one , because all that solemne Communion , which was at that time prescribed , did depend upon one Temple , and there it was to be exercised by publick profession and with certaine rites . 37. The Synagogues were not compleate Churches , because the whole worship of God and the whole holy Communion at that time prescribed could not be exercised in them . 38 Therefore the Church of the Iewes was a nationall Church , and in some respect catholick , or universall , as the believing Proselytes of every Nation under Heaven , were bound to joyne themselves to that one Church . Acts 2. 5. 6. 8. 9. 10. 11. & 8. 27. 39. The primary Ministers were the Priests , of the family of Aaron , in a continued line of succession , to whom were joyned the other Levites . Num. 3. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 40. Yet neither Priests nor Levites were admitted to Minister , unlesse they were first tried , and that as they were able in body , age , and the gifts of the mind . 41. The Discipline of that time that was merely Ecclesiasticall , was for a great part ceremoniall , yet so as all kind of holy things were to be preserved pure . CHAPTER XXXIX . Of the administration of the Covenant from Christ exhibited to the end of the World. 1. THE manner of administration now Christ is exhibited is double , one untill the end of the world , and the other in the end it selfe . 2. From Christ to the end of the world , there is an administration of one manner , and that altogether new : whence also it is called the New Testament . 3. It is of one manner without end or alteration , because it is perfect , so that there is not another to be expected , to which it should give place as to the more perfect . 4. It is the New Testament , in respect of that which was from the time of Moses , and in respect of the promise made to the Fathers : not in respect of the essence , but in respect of the manner , because in them in respect of the manner of administring , there was some representation of the Covenant of workes , from which this Testament doth essentially differ ; and so seeing there did not appeare an integrall difference , of the New Covenant from the Old , but in that administration which is most properly called the New Covenant & Testament . 5. But it differs from the former administration , in quality and quantity . 6. That wherein it differs in quality is either cleernesse , or freedome . 7. Cleernesse consists in this , first that the doctrine of grace and salvation by Christ and Faith in him , together with those things annexed to it , is more distinct and expresse , then before it was : Secondly , that it is not declared in types and shadowes , but in a most manifest manner . 8. In both these respects , Christ before is said to be propounded before under a valid , but now to be offered with open and unvailed face . 2 Cor. 3. 12. We use great evidence in speaking ; neither are we as Moses who put a vaile over his face , that the children of Israel could not see to the end of that which now as unprofitable is taken away . 9. Freedome doth consist in this . First , that the government of the Law , or mixing of the covenant of workes , which did hold the ancient people-in a certaine bondage , is now taken away : whence also the spirit of adoption , although it was never wholy denyed to the faithfull , yet most properly it is said to be communicated under this New Testament , in which the most perfect state of believers doth most cleerly appeare , Gal. 4. 5. After the fulnesse of time came , God sent forth his Son — that we might receive the adoptions of sons , &c. Secondly , it consists in this , that the yoke of the ceremoniall Law , as it was an hand-writing against s●…ers , as it did forbid the use of things in their nature indifferent , as it did command many burdensome observations of them , and as it did vaile the truth it selfe with manifold and carnall ceremonies , is now wholy taken away , Col. 2. 14. 17. Which are a shadow of things to come , but the body is of Christ. 10. They therefore offend against that liberty which Christ hath obtained for us , who obtrude upon the Christian Churches either Iewish ceremonies , or other of the like nature with them , religious , and mysticall . For divine ceremonies are not taken away , that humane should succeed in their roome ; neither is it likely , that Christ would leave such mysteries to the will of men , after his comming , when he permitted no such thing to his people of old , especially seeing he might so easily . in this kind provide for us , if he had judged any religious and mysticall ceremonies necessary or profitable for his , besides those very few which he did by name prescribe , or at least shew in certaine Tables , to whom he did grant such an authority , which he no where did . Gal. 5. 1. Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free , and going back againe be not entangled with a yoke of bondage . 11. In quantity this administration differs from the former , both intensively and extensively . 12. Intensively , first , in that the application by the spirit is more effectuall , and the gifts of the spirit are more perfect , then ordinarily they were under the Old Testament , whence the old administration is comparatively called the Letter , and the new the spirit . 2 Cor. 3. 6. Secondly , in that it begetteth a more spirituall life . 2 Cor. 3. 18. 13. Extensively , first in respect of place , because it is not contracted to some one people , as before , but is diffused through the whole world . Secondly , in respect of time , in that it hath no terme of duration before the consammation of the whole mysticall Church . 2 Corinthians 3. 11. Eph. 4. 13. That which remaineth , untill we all meet unto a perfect man , unto the measure of the full stature of Christ. 14. But because this new administration is so perfect , therefore it is meete also , that the communion of Saint●… in the Church under the New Testament bee ordained most perfect . 15. Therefore in every Church of the New Testament the whole solemne and ordinary worship of God and all his holy ordinances may and ought to be observed , so that all the members of that Church may ordinarily exercise communion together in them . 16. For it is not now as it was ordained of God in the Church of the Iewes that some more solemne parts of Divine worship may be exercised in one place , and other in other places , but one particular Church is ordained , in which all holy offices are to be performed . 17. Hence all Christian Churches , have altogether one and the same right , tha●…ne doth no more depend upon another , then another upon it . 18. Hence also it is most convenient that one particular Church doe not consist of more members then may meete together into one place to heare the Word of God , celebrate the Sacraments , offer prayers , and exercise Discipline , and performe other duties of Divine polity , as one body . 19. For it is an Aberration not void of all confusion , that in some greater Cities , although there be more believers then that can exercise that Communion together , yet they are not distributed into divers Churches , but doe make one so to abound , that the edification of every one cannot be rightly taken care for and furthered . 20. Therefore the Church instituted since Christ exhibited , is not one catholick Church , so as all the faithfull throughout the world should be joyned together in one and the same outward band among themselves , and should depend upon one and the same visible pastor , o●… company of pastors , but there are so many Churches as there are companies , or particular Congregations , of those that prosesse the Faith , who are joyned together by a speciall band for the constant exercise of the communion of Saints . 21. For although the mysticall Church , as it is in its members , is no other way distributed then into the adjuncts , and subjects , in which respect we call the Church of Belgia , of Britany , of France , as we call the Sea according to the shores which it was heth to , the Belgick , British , French Sea , although it be one and the same Sea : yet the instituted Churches , are divers most speciall Species , or Individualls , partaking of the same common nature , as divers fountaines , divers Schooles , divers Families : although many or all peradventure might be called one Church in respect of some one affection which they have in common , as many Families of some noble stocke , are often set forth by the name of one Family , as the Family of the House of Nassou , &c. 22. Neither is this Church that is instituted by God properly nationall , provinciall , or Dioecesan , which f●…rmes were brought in by men from the paterne of civill government , especially the Romane : but it is Parochiall , or of one congregation , the members where of are combined among themselves , and doe ordinarily meete into one place to the publick exercise of religion . 23. For such a company , and not larger , is properly signified by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Church , neither hath it a larger signification in the New Testament when it is referred to any visible and designed company , neither also among prophane authors who are the more ancient . 24. Hence divers fixed Congregations , of the same Countrey , and Province are alwayes called Churches in the plurall number not one Church , even in Iudaea , which was all before one nationall Church . 1 Thess. 2. 14. Acts 14. 23. & 15. 41. Romans 16. 4. 5. 16. 1 Cor. 16. 1. 19. 2 Cor. 8. 1. 18. 19. Gal. 1. 2. 12. 25. Also those particular Churches which are reckoned up i●… the New Testament were wont to meere together E 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into one Acts 2. 46. & 5. 12. & 14. 27. & 15. 25. & 21. 22. 1 Cor. 5. 4. & 14 23. 26. & 11. 17. 23. 26. Neither is there any thing read in all the New Testament of the institution of any larger Church upon which lesser congregations should depend , neither is there any worship or holy ordinance prescribed which is not to be observed in every Congregation , neither is there any ordinary Minister made , who is not given to some one such company . 27. Yet particular Churches , as their Communion doth require , the light of nature and equity of rules and examples of Scripture doe teach , may and of tentimes also ought to enter into a mutuall confederacy and fellowship among themselves in Classes , and Synods , that they may use their common consent & mutuall helpe as much as fitly may be , in those things especially , which are of greater moment ; but that combination doth neither constitute a new forme of a Church , neither ought it to take away , or diminish any way , that liberty and power which Christ hath left to his Churches , for the directing and farthering whereof it onely serves . 28. The ordinary Ministers doe follow the forme of the Church instituted ; and are not Occumenicall , Nationall , Provinciall , or Dioecesan Bishops , but Elders of one Congregation , who in the same sence are also called Bishops in the Scriptures . 29. Those transcendent members of the Hierarchy were meerly humane Creatures brought into the Church without any Divine precept or example : They cannot fulfill the office of a Pastor in so many Congregations . They rob the Churches of their liberty , whilst they exercise as it were , a regall , or rather tyrannicall dominion over the Churches themselves , and their Pastors , they have brought in with them the Roman Antichrist himselfe , as the head , and Chancellors , Suffraganes , Arch-deacons , Officialls and the like props of the Hierarchy , as the taile of the same sort , ( whose very names are Apocryphall , and altogether unknowen to the first Churches ) to the utter oppressing of the Churches of GOD. 30. The right of calling an ordinary Minister is in the Church it selfe to whom he must serve . Acts 14. 23. 31. Yet here they need the direction and helpe of the Elders , both of the same Church , and very often also of the neighbour Churches . 32. The essence of the calling is in election of the Church , and acceptation of the elected . 33. An antecedent adjunct of it is , examination , or triall . 34. A consequent , and consummating adjunct is ordination , which is nothing else then a certaine solemne entrance of the Minister already elected , into the free execution of his function : whence it comes to passe that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ordaining by election , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Imposition of hands doe often signifie the same thing among the ancients . 35. The Episcopall ordination of a Minister without title , that is , without a Church to which and in which he should be ordained , is as rediculous as if any should be fained to be a husband without a wife . 36. A Minister so called to some one Church , can neither forsake it at his own will , or be cast out from it without just cause : neither can another undertake the like care of the Church , or neglect that which he hath undertaken , by voluntary non-residency , without sacrilegious breaking of his covenant . 37. Ordinary Ministers are either Pastors and Teachers , or ruling Elders , to whom are joyned those that take care of the poore , that is Deacons , Diaconesses or Widowes . 38. By these offices Christ hath sufficiently provided for all the necessities of the members of the Church , namely that they may be chiefly instructed in the knowledge of the truth by Teachers , stirred up chiefly to the practise of piety by Pastors , preserved in that course of life , and called back to repentance for sins , by them and the Rulers , and be helped against poverty by Deacons . CHAPTER LX. Of Baptisme and the Supper of the Lord. 1. AFter the nature of the New Testament , the Sacraments of the same doe follow , for they are for number few , to be obtained , and observed easy , and in their signification must perspicuous . 2. They were sanctified and instituted by Christ himselfe : for although the one Sacrament was first used by Iohn Baptist , yet in that very thing he was the forerunner of Christ , that he might shew , what Christ himselfe afterward would allow and institute , neither had it the respect of an ordinary institution by the Ministery of Iohn , but by the institution of Christ himselfe . 3. These Sacraments are Baptisme , and the Supper of the Lord , for neither were there either other Sacraments or Sacramentall signes delivered to the Church by Christ or his Apostles : neither can there other be appointed by men in the Church . 4. In respect of Gods Institution , there lieth greatest necessity upon the faithfull to use these Sacraments , diligently , and religiously , yet they are not so absolutely necessary to salvation , that the absence , or meere privation of them doth bring a privation of this institution : neither ought they in that respect , to be celebrated either of those that are not lawfull Ministers , or out of a Church assembly . 5. Baptisme is the Sacrament of Initiation or Regeneration . 6. For although it doth seale the whole covenant of grace together to the faithfull , yet by a speciall approbation it doth represent , and confirme our very ingrafting into Christ. Rom. 6. 3. We are baptised into Christ Jesus , and Verse 5. Being planted together with him . And 1 Cor. 12. 13. We are baptised into one body . 7. But because upon our first ingrafting into Christ by Faith , there doth immediatly follow a relation of our Iustification and Adoption : therefore Baptisme as the Sacrament of the ingrafting itselfe , is unto remission of sins . Marc. 1. 3. And it is also a representation of adoption , whilst that by it wee are confecrated to the Father Sonne , and holy Spirit , and their names are called upon the baptised . 8. Because also holinesse is alwayes derived from Christ into whom we are ingrafred , unto all the faithfull , therefore Baptisme also is the seale of our sanctification . Tit. 3. 5. He hath saved us by the laver of regeneration , and the renuing of the holy Spirit . Rom. 6. 4. 5 , 6. 9. And because Glorification cannot be separated from true holinesse , therefore it is withall the seal also of eternall glory . Tit. 3. 7. That we might be made heires , according to the hope of eternall life . Romans 6. 8. If we be dead with Christ , wee believe that wee shall also live together with him . 10. But because those benefits are sealed according to the measure of initiation in Baptisme , hence , First , Baptisme is but once to be administred , because there is but one beginning of spirituall life by regeneration , as there is but one beginning of naturall life by generation . 11. Hence also , Secondly , Baptisme ought to be administred to all those to whom the covenant of grace pertaines , because it is the first sealing of the covenant it selfe now first begun . 12. But that the infants of the faithfull are not to be forbidden this Sacrament , it appeareth . 1. Because if they be partakers of any grace , it is by vertue of the covenant of grace , and so both the covenant , and the first seale of the covenant also doth pertaine to them . 2. In that the covenant in which the faithfull are now contained , is the same with that covenant which was made with Abraham . Rom. 4. 11. Gal. 3. 7 , 8 , 9. But that did expressely extend unto Infants . 3. This covenant which is now administred to the faithfull , doth bring more large and full consolation to them , then of old it could before the comming of Christ. But if it should pertaine onely to them , and not to their Infants , then the grace of God and their consolation should be more narrow , and contracted after Christ is exhibited then before it was . 4. Because baptisme succeeded in the place of circumcision . Col. 2. 11. 12. And so doth pertaine as well to the children of believers as circumcision itselfe . 5. Because in the very beginning of regeneration , whereof baptisme is a seale , man is meerely passive ; whence also there is no outward action required of a man either to be circumcised or baptised , as in other Sacraments , but only a passive receiving : therefore Infants , are as capable of this Sacrament in respect of the chiefe use of it , as these of age are . 13. Faith and repentance doe no more make the covenant of God now then in the time of Abraham ( who was the Father of the faithfull ) therefore the want of those acts ought no more to hinder baptisme from Infants now , then it did forbid circumcision then . 14. The signe in this Sacrament is water , not simply , but as it purgeth the uncleane , either by dipping or sprinkling . 15. But therefore water was chosen , because there is nothing in use that doth more fitly represent that spiritual washing , which is performed by the blood or dead of Christ , neither is the sprinkling or application of the blood of Christ , so fitly expressed by any thing , seeing that now since the death of Christ , there ought to be no use of naturall blood in holy things . 16. The supper of the Lord is the Sacrament of the nourishing and growth of the faithfull in Christ. 17. Hence it ought oftentimes to be administred to the same persone . 18. Hence also the supper is onely to be administred to those , who are visibly capable of norishment and growth in the Church : and so not to Infants , but onely to those of age . 19. But because most full and perfect nourishment is sealed in Christ , therefore here is used not some one and simple signe of nourishing , but of a double kind , as the nourishment of the body doth require , namely Bread and Wine . 20. They therefore who take away one of these signes from the faithfull in the administration of the supper , doe detract from the wisdome of God , make lame the institution of Christ , and grievously lessen or take away the consolation of the faithfull . 21. But bread and wine are therefore used , because except the eating of flesh ( which hath no place in holy things now the sacrifice of Christ is finished ) and the drinking of blood , from which not only religion , but mans nature adhors : there is nothing doth more conveniently expresse that neerest union which by degrees wee enjoy with Christ , which is founded in the sacrificing of his body and shedding of his blood . 22. To faigne any transubstantiation , or consubstantiation in this Sacrament more , then in baptisme , is a certaine blind and stupid superstition . 23. For it is not required to spirituall nourishment in this Sacrament , that the bread and wine be changed into the body and blood of Christ , nor that Christ be corporally present with them , but only that they be changed relatively in respect of application and use , and that Christ be spiritually present with them who receive in Faith. 24. This transubstantiation , and consubstantiation is against the nature of a Sacrament in generall , against the analogy of our other Sacrament , or baptisme , against the most usuall phrases in the Old Testament against the humane nature of Christ against his state of Glorification , and against the revealed will of God , which saith that Christ shall remaine in Heaven untill the day of judgement . 25. As touching the words of Institution , This is my body , they are necessarily to be understood , as other sacramentall phrases , which every where we meete with in the holy Scriptures , of which we have God himselfe a cleere interpreter , Gen. 17. 10 , 11. This is 〈◊〉 Covenant . That it may be a signe of the Covenant betweene me and you . 26. As touching the manner of opening the words of this phrase according to art , learned men doe differ among themselves . Most of our interpreters would have a trope in the words , that is , a metaphor or a metonymy . 27. The Lutherans contend that here is no trope to be found , but only an unusuall predication . 28. There are not a few , and those new Interpreters , who deny , that there is either any proper trope , or unusuall predication , but they make it an improper and mysticall predication . 29. But no sufficient reason is brought why we may deny that there is a trope in the words : which may be thus demonstrated . If it be an improper or unusuall predication as they would have it , this unusuall or improper way ought to be shewed in some word : which if it be done , then of necessity it is that that word be some way translated from his naturall signification and use : if that be so , the word takes the nature and definition of a trope . 30. But the trope is neither in the Article going before , nor in the proper Copula , as in the word is ; but in that which followes , that is , in the word body , for body is put for a signe of the body , not that a true and proper body is excluded out of that sentence , but rather included , by a relation , which the signe hath to the thing signified . 31. But there is not onely one trope , but threefold in this word , the first is a metaphor , whereby one thing like is put for another unto which a metonymie of the adjunct adheres and is mingled . For the bread is not onely like the body of Christ , but also by Gods institution it is made an adjunct of it : the second is a Synechdoche of the part for the whole , whereby the body of Christ is put for whole Christ ; the third is a metonymy of the subject for the adjuncts , in that Christ is put for all those benefits also which are derived from Christ to us . In the other part of the Wine , there are other tropes sufficiently manifested . CHAPTER XLI . To the end of the World. 1. THus far of the administration which is before the end of the World : in the end itselfe that application shall be perfected , which is onely begun in this life . 2. Then the end of calling shall be present to all the called : for we are called to the eternall glory of God. 1 Pet. 5. 10. Wherein also the end of Faith is said to be contained , that is , the salvation of soules . 1 Pet. 1. 9. 3. Then that declaration of Justification and Redemption , which is by the effects , shall be compleat , in respect whereof the faithfull are said in this life , to expect Redemption . Luc. 21. 18. Rom. 8. 23. Eph. 1. 14. 4. Then all the adopted shall enter into the possession itselfe of the inheritance , in which sence the faithfull are said in this life to expect their adoption . Rom. 8. 23. 5. Then the Image of God shall be perfected in all the Saints . Eph. 5. 27. That he might present it to himselfe glorious , not having spot , or wrinkle , or any such thing , but that it might be holy and unblameable . 6. Finally then the glory and blessednesse hoped for , shall shine in all kind of fulnesse , not only in the soule , but also in the very body . Philippians 3. 21. Hee shall transfigure out meane body , that it may be made conformable to his glorious body . 7. But because the state of the Church at that time shall be a state of perfection , and not of edification , therefore the Ministery , Sacraments , and Discipline , together with the instituted Churches themselves shall cease , and the mysticall Church shall remaine in immediat communion with God. 8. Hence also this end of the World ought with desire to be expected of all the faithfull . Phil. 3. 20. Tit. 2. 13. We expect a Saviour , Jesus Christ. Expecting that blessed hope , and that glorious comming of the glory of the great God and our Saviour . 9. The perfection of this finall administration doth require the comming and personall presence of Christ himselfe . Acts 10. 42. 10. The second comming of Christ in this shall be like the first , that it shall be reall , visible and apparent . Acts 1. 11. But in this unlike , that it shall be . 1. With greatest glory and power . Mat. 24. 30. Tit. 2. 13. 2. It shall be with greatest terror in respect of the ungodly , and with greatest joy of all the godly . 2 Thess. 1. 7 , 8 , 9 , 10. 11. Hence there are two Acts , that serve for the last discerning between the godly and ungodly ; Resurrection and the last judgement , 2 Cor. 5. 10. 12. Resurrection is of that which fell : but because man fell from life , by the separation of the soule from the body , therefore that he may rise againe , it is necessary that the same soule be againe reunited to the same body , that by the restored union of both , the same man may exist . 13. That such a Resurrection is possible to God it appeares : because such a reparation of man doth not exceed that power which was manifested in his first Creation . Phil. 3. 21. According to that effectuall power whereby he is able to subdue all things to himselfe . 14. But that this Resurrection shall actually be , it cannot bee certainly demonstrated by any naturall reason , neither , A priori , nor A posteriori , but it is properly of faith . 15. Neither the nature of the soule , nor of the body , can be the cause of Resurrection : for the forming againe and raising up of the body , out of the dust , is against the wonted course of nature , which when it is perfectly destroyed , is not wont to be repaired by nature : and the inseparable union of the soule with the body by which man is made immortall , is above the strength of nature . 16. Therefore the raising up of the dead doth properly agree to Christ God-man : the principle of it is the Divine omnipotency of Christ , whereby it may easily be accomplished , even in an Instant . 17. The Ministery of the Angels , shall not be properly to raise the dead , but together the parts to be raised , and to gather them together being raised . 18. But although all shall be raised by Christ , yet not in one and the same way : for the Resurrection of the faithfull is unto Life , and it is accomplished by vertue of that union , which they have with Christ , as with their Life . Col. 3. 4. 1. Thess. 4. 14. And by the operation of his qu●…ckning spirit which dwels in them . Rom. 8. 11. He shall also quicken your mortall bodies , by his spirit dwelling in you : but the Resurrection of others , is by that power of Christ , whereby he excecuteth his revenging Justice . 19 Therefore the Resurrection of the faithfull is from the Life of Christ , as from a beginning , unto their life , as the fruit and effect : and therefore it is called the Resurrection of life : and the raising up of others is from the sentence of death and condemnation , to death and condemnation it selfe , and therefore it is called , the resurrection of condemnation . Iohn 5. 28 , 29. 20. The last judgement is exercised by Christ as by a King : for the power of Iudging is part of the office of a King. 21. In respect of the faithfull it comes from grace , and is an office of the Kingdome of grace , essentiall to Christ the Mediator : but in respect of unbelievers , it is an office of power onely and dominion , granted of the Father , belonging to some perfection of mediation , but not essentiall to it . 22. Hence the sins of the faithfull shall not come into judgement : for seeing that in this life they are covered and taken away by the sentence of Iustification , and that last judgement shall be a co●…firmation and manifestation of that sentence , it would not be meere , that at that time they should againe be brought to light . 23. The place of this judgement shall bee in the Ayre . 1 Thess. 4. 17. 24. The day and yeare of it is not revealed in Scripture , and so may not be set down by men . 25. The sentence presently to be fulfilled , shall be given , of eternall life or death , according to workes foregoing . 26. But the sentence of life , in respect of the elect , shall be given , according to their workes , not as meritorious causes , but as effects testifying of true causes . 27. But the sentence of death in respect of the reprobate , shall be given according to their workes , as the true causes . 28. Christ God-man is the Iudge , as it were delegated : yet in respect of that Divine authority and power which he hath , and upon which depends the strength of the sentence , here is the principall Iudge . 29. The faithfull also shall judge with Christ , assisting ; not consulting , but approving , as well in their judgment and will , as by comparison of their life and workes . 30. Iudgement shall be given not onely of wicked men , but also of evill Angells . Therefore the raising up , and judging of wicked men to be done by Christ , doth no more argue the universall redemption of such men , then of the Devills . 31. The fire that is appointed to purge and renew the World , shall not goe before the judgement , but shall follow . 32. Purgatori is no more necessary before the day of judgement then after : seeing there shall be none afterward , by the confession of the Papists themselves , neither is there any now before . 33. The elements shall not be taken away , but changed . 34. Christ also after the day of judgement shall remaine King and Mediator for ever . THE SECOND BOOKE OF SACRED THEOLOGY . CHAPTER 1. Of Observance in generall . Thus much of the first part of Theology , or of Faith in God : the other part followes , which is Observance toward God. 1. OBservance is that whereby the Will of God is performed with subjection to his glory . 2. It respects the Will of God as a patterne , and a rule , as appeares by the those words of Christ , wherein also he describes our obdience ; let thy Will be done as in Heaven , so also in Earth ; and did also explaine his own obedience , Mat. 26. 29. Not as I will , but as thou wilt , and Verse 42. Let thy will be done , so Psalm . 40 , 9. I delight to doe thy will , O my God : and thy Law is written in my bowells . 3. But it respects the Will of God not as it is secret , and powerfully effectuall , or ordaining : for so even all other Creatures and ungodly men , and the very Devills also themselves doe performe the Will of God , with that obedientiall vertue which is common to all Creatures : but it respects that Will of God which prescribes our duty to us . Deut. 29. 29. Things that are revealed , are revealed , that wee may doe them . 4. It respects that will with subjection . Rom. 8. 7. Because it applies our will to fulfill the Will of God , as it commands us any thing according to his authority . Rom. 8. 7. It is not subject to the Law of God. 5. Hence it is called obedience : because it makes the will ready to commit the command of God to execution , being heard , and in some measure perceived . 6. Hence also it hath in it selfe some respect of Service toward God ; whence it comes to passe , that to obey God , and to serve him , sound one and the some thing . Luc. 1. 74. Rom. 6. 16. And to serve God is altogether the same with serving of obedience and righteousnesse . There Verse 16. 18. 22. Because that to doe the Will of God with subjection , is to serve God. Eph. 6. 6. 7. As servants of Christ , doing the Will of the Lord from the heart , with good will doing service , as to the Lord. 7. For our obedience toward God , although in respect of readinesse of mind it ought to be the obedience of sons : yet in respect of that strict obligation to subjection , it is the obedience of servants . 8. From this subjection to the Will of God , there doth necessarily follow a conformity betwixt the Will of God and ours . Rev. 2. 6. This thou hast , that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans , which I also hate . And a certaine expresse resemblance of that Divine perfection which God hath revealed and propounded to be imitated by us . 2 Pet. 1. 4. That we might be made partakers of the Divine nature , for he that doth truth , his workes are said to be done according to God. Iohn . 3. 2. 9. Hence the same obdience which is called obedience , because it respects the Will of God with subjection ; and righteousnesse , because it performes that subjection which is due ; is also called holinesse because it respects the same will with conformity and pure likenesse . 1 Pet. 1. 14. 15. As obedient children — as he that hath called you is holy , be ye also holy in all manner conversation . 10. Obedience lookes to the glory of God. 1 Cor. 10. 31. Doe all to the glory of God : as it doth acknowledge his chiefe authority and power in commanding . 1 Cor. 6. 20. Yee are bought with a price : therefore glorifie God , &c. And also as it hath in part relation to , and doth represent the perfection of God. 1. Pet. 2. 9. That yee may set forth his vertues , in the manifestation of which things consists that glory which may be given to him of us . 11. Also in this subjection there is a respect of feare , as the Authority and Power of God is acknowledged : whence also the feare of the Lord is in Scripture often ●…at for whole obedience . Psalme 34. 12. I will teach you the feare of the Lord. 12. It is therefore said to be toward God , both as God is the Rule of it , and as hee is the Object of it , and also as hee is the End. 13. The principall efficient cause of it by way of an inward and inherent principle , is mediatly Faith , and immediatly sanctifying Grace . 14. For Faith doth both prepare a way for us to God. Heb. 10. 22. Let us draw nigh by assurance of Faith , and Power to goe to him . 2 Cor. 1. 24. By Faith yee stand , whence obedience is called the obedience of faith . Rom. 1. 5. And the faithfull are called the children of obedience , 1 Pet. 1. 14. 15. Now Faith doth bring forth obedience in a threefold respect . 1. As it doth apprehend Christ who is the Fountaine of Life , and the Spring of all power to doe well , and 2. As it receives and rests in those arguments , which God hath propounded to us in Scripture to perswade obedience , namely by promises and threatnings . 3. As it hath power to obtaine all grace , and so that grace whereby obedience is performed . 16. But sanctifying grace is that very power whereby we are lifted up , to apply our will to the will of God. Whence also new obedience is alwayes included and understood , in Scripture , when there is mention made of the new man , and the new creature . Eph. 4. 24. Gal. 6. 15. 17. For nothing can be performed by man , since sinne is entred , acceptable to God , as it comes from him , or as a worke of spirituall life : unlesse , it be performed in Christ by Faith and the grace of sanctification . Iohn 15. 4 , 5. Without mee yee can doe nothing . 18. Yet these duties are not therefore to be omitted by a man that doth not yet believe ; because they are in themselves good , they hinder the increase of sinne and punishments of sinners , nay they are often reconpensed with divers benefits from God , although 〈◊〉 by force of any determined Law , but by a certaine abundant and secret kindnesse of him . 19. The adjuvant cause by moving is . 1. The dignity and majesty of God in it selfe to be observed . Deut. 31. 3. Ascribe yee greatnesse to our God. Psal. 29. 2. Give unto the Lord the glory of his name . 2. The kindnesse of God toward us , in which respect we owe to him whatsoever is in us . 1 Cor. 6. 20. Know yee not that yee are not your owne — which are Gods. Rom. 12. By the mercy of God , whence also it is , that our obedience is nothing else then thankfulnesse due to God , and it is rightly explained by Divines under that name . 3. The authority of God commanding , which hath universall and full dominion over us , Iames 4. 22. There is one Law-giver who can save and destroy . 4. The equity and profit of the things commanded , which doe both agree with greatest reason , Rom. 2. 15. Their conscience together bearing witnesse , and also pertaine to our perfection and blessednesse . Deut. 32. 47. It is your Life . 5. The reward and promises by which obedience is perswaded . 2 Cor. 7. 1. Seeing we have these promises , let us purge our selves , &c. 6. The misery which they that doe otherwise doe incurre , Deut. 28. 16. Heb. 12. 26. Cursed shalt thou be . For our God is a consuming fire . 20. The matter of obedience is that very thing which is commanded by God , and so is summarily contained in the Decalogue : for otherwise the Law of God should not be perfect . 21. Therefore the Law of God altough in respect of the faithfull ithee as it were abrogated , both in respect of the power of justifying which it bad in the state of integrity , and in respect of the condemning power which it had in the state of sinne : yet it hath force and vigor , in respect of power to direct , and some power also it doth retaine of condemning , because it reproves , ●…d condemnes sinne in the faithfull themselves , although it cannot wholy condemne the faithfull themselves , who are not under the Law , but under Grace . 22. The forme of obedience is our conformity to the Will of God , therefore revealed , that it may be fulfilled by us Mich. 6. 8. He hath 〈◊〉 ●…ee O man , what is good . 23. For neither is the secret Will of God , the rule of our obedience , nor all his revealed will , for Ieroboam sinned in taking the Kingdome of Israel , although the Prophet told him that God did in some sort will it . 1 Kings 11. 31. with 2 Chron. 13. 5 , 6 , 7. But that revealed will , which prescribeth our duty is therefore revealed that it may be fulfilled by us . 24. But this Will of God in this very respect , is said to be good , perfect and acceptable to God. Rom. 12. 2. Good , because it containes in it selfe all respect of that which is honest : perfect , because there is nothing to be sought further for the instruction of life : acceptable to God , because obedience performed to this will , is approved and crowned of GOD. 25. The knowledge of this will is necessary to true obedience . Prov. 4. 13. Take hold of instruction , and let her not goe : keepe her , for shee is thy life , and Verse 19. The way of the wicked is darkenesse , they know not at what they stumble . Therefore the disire of knowing this will of God is commanded to us , together with obedience it selfe . Prov. 5. 1. 2. Attend to wisdom , incline thine eare to understanding : whereof a great part also is , when it respects practise , as on the contrary , all ignorance of those things which we are bound to know and doe , is sinne . 2 Thess. 1. 8. Rendring vengeance to those that know not God , and obey not the Gospell of our Lord Iesus Christ. 26. With knowledge of the will of God in this life , there ought to be joyned a trembling and feare to transgresse it . Pro. 8. 12. 13. & 14. 16. I wisdome , have with me the feare of the Lord. The wise man feareth and departh for evill . Chiefly indeed in respect of offence : but also in respect of the anger and punishment most of all as it separates from God. Neither ought such feare to be called servile , when it respects not punishment only . 27. The chiefe end is Gods glory ; for we tend unto him by obedience , upon whom we leane by Faith : otherwise obedience should not flow from Faith. Seeing also that Faith is our life , as it doth joyne us to God in Christ , it is necessary that the actions of the same Faith , which are contained in the obedience , should bee caried also to God , that is , to his Glory . 28. The lesse principall end is our own salvation and blessednesse . Rom. 6. 22. Being made servants to God , yee have your fruit in holinesse , and the end eternall life . Heb. 1. 2. 2. For the joy that was set before him he endured the Crosse. 29. For although that obedience which performed onely for feare of punishment or expectation of reward , is rightly called mercenary : yet that any should be secondarily stirred up to doe his duty , by looking on the reward , or for feare of punishment also , this is not strange from the Sonnes of God , neither doth it in any part weaken their solid obedience . 30. But our obedience is not the principall or meritorious cause of life eternall . For we do both receive the priviledge of this life , and also the life it selfe , by grace , and the gift of God for Christs sake apprehended by Faith. Rom. 6. 23. The gift of God is eternall Life in Iesus Christ our Lord. But our obedience is in a certaine manner , the Ministring , helping and furthering cause toward the possession of this life , the right where of we had before ; in which respect it is called the waywherein we walke to Heaven . Eph. 2. 10. 31. But it furthers our life , both in its own nature ; because it is some degree of the life , it selfe alway es tending to perfection : and also by vertue of the promise of God who hath promised life eternall to those that walke in his precepts . Galatians 6. 8. Hee that sowes to the spirit , of the spirit shall reape life eternall . 32. For although all our obedience whilst wee live here is imperfect and defiled with some mixture of sinne . Gala. 5. 17. the flesh lusteth against the spirit ; yet in Christ it is so acceptable to God , that it is crowned with the greatest reward . 33. Therefore the promises made to the obedience of the faithfull , are not legall , but evangelicall , although by some they are called mixt . Mat. 5. 3. 34. The manner of obedience is in subjection or humility largely taken , whereby the creature doth submit himself to God , to receive and execute his commands : unto which there ought alwayes to be joyned . 1. Sincerity , whereby all mixture of a strange intention and affection is removed , so that the whole man is applied to this duty . 1 Thess. 5. 23. 1 Cor. 6. 20. And 2. Zeale , that is , the highest degree of a pure affection . Gal 4. 18. It is a good thing to love servently , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a good thing alwayes . 35. The chiefe subject of obedience as also of lively Faith is the will. Phil. 2. 13. It is God that worketh in you both to will , and to doe . 36. But because the s●…rity of the will approving doth most appeare in readinesse , alacrity or cheerfulnesse of mind , therefore that cheerfulnesse doth most of all pertaine to the very essence of obedience . 2 Cor. 9. 7. Deut. 28. 47. God loves a cheerfull giver : because thou didst not serve thy God in joy and cheerfulnesse of heart . So as often it is pleasing and acceptable to God , although the worke it selfe that is propounded , be not performed . 2 Cor. 8. 12. For if there be first a ready mind , one is accepted according to that he hath . 37. And because the zeale of the will doth chiefly consist in love and hatred , therefore also there is necessarily required to obedience acceptable to God , a love of the good , and hatred of evill . Ps. 45. 8. Thou hast loved righteousnesse , and hated iniquity . 38. The effect and fruit is not onely a declaration , but also a confirmation of Faith and Hope . 2 Tim. 1. 19. Keeping Faith and a good conscience , which being put away , some have made Shipwrack of Faith. 39. An adjunct that accompanies it is a conscience quiet , joyfull and glorying . Heb. 13. 18. 2 Cor. 1. 12. 1 Iohn 3. 19. 21. For we trust that we have a good conscience , desiring to behave our selves well in all things . 1. Our glorying is this , the testimony of our conscience , by this we shall assure our hearts . CHAPTER II. Of Vertue . 1. THere be two parts of obedience . Vertue , and the action of Vertue . 2. Pet. 1. 5. Ad to your Faith Vertue , &c. For if these things be with you and abound , they will make you that yee shall neither be barren nor unfruitfull in the knowledge of our Lord Iesus Christ. 2. This distribution is of the whole into members ▪ for these two are in their own nature joyned together , and doe make one and the same obedience . 3. Hence both vertues and their actions are set forth by the same name , and are explained also by the same definition , because they are altogether of the same nature : even as arguments of Logicke , are of the same name and nature , whether they be considered alone and by themselves , or in Axioms , and Syllogismes . 4. Vertue is an habit whereby the will is inclined to doe well . 5. It is called an habit , not as it is distinguished from disposition , and signifieth a confirmed and perfect constitution of mind : for such a degree of vertue is scarce granted to men , while they live heere : but generally , as it containes both a perfect and also imperfect degree of Vertue , and state of the mind . 6. But it is called an habit , not onely because it is had , but also because it maketh the subject which it is in to have it selfe in a certaine manner , that is , it determines the faculty to good , which otherwise is not determined , in which sence this word is found , Hebr. 5. 14. Who by reason of habit , have their sences exercised to discerne good and evill . 7. It is in the will. First , because the will is the proper subject of the Theology as it is the proper principle of life , and of morall and spirituall actions . 2. Because the will is that faculty which is properly carried unto good that is honest , Rom. 7. 19. 21. 3. Because vertue is an habit that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or elective , the proper , and immediate operation whereof is voluntary election . 4. Because the will doth commend the other faculties , and so Vertue doth most agree to it , that all may be directed aright . 5. Because the will is neither by it selfe , nor by reason sufficiently determined to good actions , and so it hath need of its owne and internall disposition to worke aright . 6. Because the other faculties may he compelled , and by consequence one may whether he will or no lose vertue , if it should have the proper and fixed seat , in them . 7. Because that praise is most properly due to the actions of the will , and to the operations of the other faculties , so far forth as they flow from and depend upon the will ; but that it is proper to vertue to be praise-worthy , not onely the Philosophers teach , but also the Apostle , Philippians 4. 8. If there be any vertue , if any prayse . 8. Because neither the understanding can be the subject of vertue , because intellectuall habits , although they bee most perfect , yet they doe not make a man good , nor any sensitive appetite , because true vertue is found in Angels , and the soules being separated from bodies , which are void of this appetite : yet there are often in the sensitive faculties some dispositions , which cause that the will commanding aright is more easily obeyed , and in that respect they have a certaine resemblance of Vertue . 8. Vertue is said to incline to God. First , that it may be distinguished from a vitious habit whereby men are inclined to evill . Rev. 7. 17. 20. 23. 2. That it may be distinguished also from those perfections of the mind , which indeed doe bring light , whereby the will may direct it selfe as well doing , but not incline it to doe right . 9. Hence , First , true and solid vertues , doe alwayes make him good in whom they are : not that the very dispositions that doe inhere in us , are the grace making us first accepted with God , as the Schoolemen speake , for that pertaines to Faith ; but because they are reciprocated with a good man , and goodnesse is derived from them into our actions . 10. Hence also none can use vertue amisse , as being the principle of action ; when notwithstanding men may , and are wont to abuse any habit of the mind . 11. Therefore those vertues which are wont to be called intellectuall , have not an exact respect of vertue . 12. Moreover vertue is said to incline not onely to good , but also to well doing : because the manner of action doth chiefly flow from vertue . 13. But as the rule of well-doing , so also the rule of vertue is the revealed will of God , which only hath the force of a certaine rule in those things which pertai●… to the direction of life . 14. That is a Lesbian rule of vertue which Aristotle , puts to be the judgement of prudent men : for there are never such wise men , to whose judgement wee may alwayes stand : neither if there were , they could not bee alwayes knowne or consulted with by those who exercise themselves in Vertue . 15. That which is said to be right reason , if absolute rectitude be looked after , it is not else-where to be sought for then where it is , that is , in the Scriptures : neither doth it differ from the will of God revealed for the direction of our life . Psal. 119. 66. Teach me the excellency of reason and knowledge : for I believe thy precepts . But if those imperfect notions concerning that which is honest , and dishonest , be understood , which are found in the mind of man after the fall : seeing they are imperfect and very obscure , they cannot exactly informe vertue ; neither indeed doe they differ any thing from the written Law of God , but in imperfection and obscurity only . 16. Therefore there can be no other discipline of vertue then Divinity , which delivers the whole Will of God revealed , for the directing of our reason , will , and life . 17. They that thinke otherwise , doe bring no reasons , which may move an understanding and sound man. They say the end of Divinity is the good of grace : but the end of Ethicks is a morall or civill good . As if no morall or civill good were in any respect , a good of grace and spirituall . As if the proper good , blessednesse , or end of man , were manifold , or as if that should be a vertue of a man , which doth not lead a man to his end , and chiefe good . They say that Divinity is exercised about the inward affections of men ; but Ethicks about the outward manners . As if either Ethicks ( which they define a prudence to governe the will and appetite ) did not respect the inward affection : or that Divinity did not teach as well outward , as inward obedience . They would have it that Ethickes are concluded in the bounds of this life , but that Divinity extends to a future . As if a blessed life were not one ; or that of one and the same life , there were one rule , as it is present , and another as it is to come . They say the subject of Ethickes is a man , approved , good and honest : but the subject of Divinity is a godly and religious man ; when notwithstanding the Apostle doth expresly teach that Divinity instructs us to live not only piously and religiously , but also temperatly , and justly , that is , approvedly and honestly , Tit. 2. 12. Ad to these , that the most eager defenders of the contrary opinion , doe acknowledge and contend , that morall vertues are the image of God in man , and so a degree of Theologicall vertue ; and that morall vertue compared to spirituall is as warmth to heat , and the morning-light to the noone-light . As therefore warmth and heat , morning , and noone-light are taught in the same act : so also vertue morall and spirituall . 18. Therefore that judgement , and wish of that greatest master of arts , Peter Ramus , was no lesse pious then prudent : If I should wish for that which I would obtaine , I had rather that this learning of philosophy were delivered to children out of the Gospell , by some Divine that is learned , and of approved manners , then out of Aristotle by a Philosopher . A child will learne many impieties out of Aristotle , which it is to be feared , that he will forget too late . That the beginning of blessednesse , doth arise out of men ; that the end of blessednesse is bounded in man : that all vertues are wholy contained in mans power , that they are obtained by mans nature , art , and industry . That though these workes , are great and Divine , yet that God is never used to them , either as an aider , or workeman : that Divine providence is removed from this theatre of humane life : of Divine Iustice , that there is not a word spoken : that mans blessednesse is placed in this fraile Life , &c. 19. But the same habit which is called vertue , as it doth incline in his manner unto God , is also called a gift , as it is given of God , and inspired by the holy Spirit : and it is called grace , as it is freely bestowed , by the speciall favour of God upon us ; also in respect of the perfection which it hath , together with the profit and sweetnesse , which is perceived from is , is it called fruit : and in respect of the hope it brings of life eternall , it is called blessednesse by some . 20. They therefore doe weary themselves in vaine , who make seven gifs of the spirit out of Isay 11. 2. Upon whom the spirit of Iehova shall rest . The Spirit of wisdome and understanding , the spirit of counsell and of might , the spirit of knowledge and of the feare of Iehova : and doe carefully distinguish them from vertues , and have enough to doe to demonstrate the proportion of every of them to some vertue . For neither are there only seven gifts of the spirit , although there are no more ( nay but six ) reckoned up there : because there only the chiefe and most kingly giftsin respect of the subject are remembred ( for it is there spoken of Christ ) other gifts by a Synecdoche being understood : neither those gifts themselves whereof there is mention made there , are in very deed distinguished from vertues , but they doe by a metonymy , set forth all vertues by their causes . 21. For although those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Graces , whereof there is mention , 1 Corinthians 12. 4. are in very deed distinguished from virtues : yet Grace when it notes an inherent perfection in us , doth either set forth some one vertue , or all joyntly as it were in his roote . 22. In vaine also are there twelve fruits of the spirit gathered out of Gal. 5. 22. The fruit of the spirit is Love , Ioy , Peace , Long-suffering , Kindnesse , Goodnesse , Faith , Meeknesse , Temperance , together with the addition which is found in the common translation : and they are compared to vertues , as is aforesaid of gifts ; for neither are they only the fruits of the spirit , which are there expressed upon the present occasion , and are explained in that place with the names of the vertues themselves : because vertues are fruits , such as are required and expected by the husband-man , and doe agree to the nature of the seed which he did sow , and also bring profit and sweetnesse , with them , when they are perceived : all which doe agree to virtues , and their actions in a certaine manner in respect of God ; but the profit chiefly in respect of us : whence also it is that holinesse with all vertues is not only called a fruit of the holy Spirit , but also our fruit , Rom. 6. 22. But this profit together with the sweetnesse is shewed in that place to the Galatians , in as much as joy , and peace are reckoned up , as fruits of the fruits . 23. They also use the same judgement , who thinke they have found eight beatitudes in the Sermon of Christ. Matth. 5. For there is but one beatitude , but seeing it hath divers signes , namely all solid vertues , together with the operations of them , the Lord doth propound certaine singular vertues , or operations of vertues , which doe most agree to his Kingdome , and are very remote from humane sence , and doth partly perswade them by the promise of blessednesse , and doth partly also describe blessednesse , or blessed men , by the study and profession of them . 24. The common affections of vertue , are those foure which are wont to be called Cardinall vertues . 25. For they doe not make foure kinds of vertues , as the most have hitherto thought , who doe manifest violence both to vertue and reason it selfe , whilest they will constrainedly refer all singular vertues to those heads : but they are foure conditions , which are necessarily required in that disposition which deserves the name of vertue . 26. The first of these is called Iustice in that generall sense , whereby it sets forth an inclination to doe rightly , giving every man his own , and it may be called the rectitude of vertue : for in that description of vertue which the Apostle doth propound in a certaine heap of words , Phil. 4. 8. Whatsoever things are true , whatsoever things are honest , whatsoever things are just , whatsoever things are pure , whatsoever things are lovely , whatsoever things are of good report , if there be any vertue , and if any praise , although truth , Iustice , purity doe set forth one and the same nature of vertue , yet Iustice doth most intimately set forth the essence of it . 27. The second is Prudence ; whereby all the strength of reason is used to find out that which is right , and to direct a right all the meanes of it : it is therefore the alone descerning of those things which pertaine to right doing : and it containes in it selfe the force of understanding , knowledge and wisedome : so that all those perfections of the mind which are wont to be called intellectuall vertues , in this respect alone doe pertaine to vertue , so far forth as by the power of them the wil is directed in doing well . 28. It is called in the Scripture Spirituall understanding and wisedome , Col. 1. 9. Where understanding doth seeme to set forth a generall perceiving of good , and evill ; and wisdome notes out the same perceiving as it is applied to severall things considered with their circumstances , wherewith they are clothed : so that understanding considering doth as it were say , It is lawfull : wisdome saith , It is expedient ; according to that distinction which is , 1 Corinthians 6. 12 & 10. 23. To this is opposed , Foolishnesse . Ephesiant 5. 17. Be not therefore unwife , but understanding what the Will of the Lord is . And Ignorance , Eph. 4. 18. Being strangers from the Life of God , by reason of the ignorance that is in them . It is also called Iudgement . 1 Cor. 2. 15. And Discerning , Phil. 1. 10. To which is opposed vanity of mind , Eph. 4. 17. And a mind voyd of all Iudgement , Rom. 1. 28. 29. This Prudence ought to be exercised , 1. With circumspection , taking heed and due diligence , which are often in the Scripture commended under the name of watchfulnesse . Marc. 13. 33. Take heed , watch and pray : unto which is opposed that drowsie sleepinesse which is said to have seised upon the foolish Virgins . Mat. 25. 5 , 13. Secondly , with election upon a due proportion ; so as the greater duties be preferred before the lesser , and in every one a covenient measure be kept according to the intending of affections and strength . Mat. 6. 33. 1 Cor. 12. 31. & 14. 1. Seeke first the Kingdome of God and the righteousnesse of it . Affect the greater gifts : but rather that yee may prophesie . 30. The third generall affection of vertue is fortitude , which is a firme persisting in doing rightly , enduring and overcomming all those difficulties which may arise either from the continuance of the act which is required , or from other impediments whatsoever . Hence it is that vertue in the Hebrew is set forth by the name Christ , even when it is ascribed to Women . Prov. 31. 10. And a mighty strengthning is required in every vertue . Eph. 3. 16. It containes therefore . 1. That confidence which is commended . Acts 4. 29. To which feare is opposed , Phil. 1. 14. That they are bold to speak the word without feare . Secondly , perseverance and constancy , Revel . 2. 26. Whosoever shall overcome ; and keep my workes unto the end . To which is opposed a fainting of mind and wearinesse of weldoing . 2. Thess. 3. 13. Gal. 6. 9. Hebr. 12. 3 , 12. Let us not be weary . Be not weary . Least ye faint in your minds . Raise up the weake hands , and feeble knees . Thirdly , It containes sufferance or patience . Iames 5. 7 , 8. Heb. 10. 36. Be of patient mind , and stabl●…sh your hearts . For ye have need of patience . 31. The fourth is Temperance , whereby all those desires which divert men from wel-doing are asswaged and restrained : and so it makes vertue undefiled . 2 Tim. 2. 4. None that goeth a warfare entangleth himselfe . 1 Pet. 1. 13. Gird up the loynes of your mind , be sober , &c. It is often called in Scripture Sobriety when that word is used in a more generall sence , as 1 Pet. 1. 13. & 5. 8. And purity or cleannesse of heart . 1 Tim. 1. 5. 1 Peter 2. 22. And also sincerity , as it doth exclude pollution of any mixture . This force of the word is shewed 2 Cor. 1. 12. With simplicity and sincerity of God , not with fleshly wisdom . 32. Of these foure conditions of vertue , the first doth order and as it were constitute vertue : the second doth direct and free it from error : the third doth strengthen it against inconveniences : the fourth makes it pure , and defends it against all allurements which doe seduce it . 33. All these vertues doe seeme to be prescribed , and explained together and almost by name . 2 Pet. 1. 4. & 6. Ad to Faith Vertue : that is Justice or an universall rectitude : to vertue knowledge , that is , Prudence directing aright all your wayes : to Prudence continence , that is , that temperance whereby ye may containe your selves from all allurements of pleasures , wherewith men use to be fleshed , and drawen away from the right way : to continence patience , that is fortitude , whereby ye may endure any hardship for righteousnesse sake . But that which followes there of piety & charity doth containe a distribution of vertue , to be propounded in his proper place . 34. Yet because every of those affections doe more appeare in some vertues then in other , therefore some speciall vertues doe take both their name and definition from them : for because an accurate rectitude doth most appeare in the number , measure , weight , and valew of those things which are mutually received and given by man , therefore Iustice , in a certaine speciall manner is wont to be placed in things of such sort . And because those inconveniences are held most terrible , which are wont to happen in warre and such like dangers , therefore the name of fortitude is wont to be restrained to such things . Because the pleasures of the sences are wont most to tickle , therefore temperance is for the most part placed in them only ; although those three together with Prudence taken in a generall sence , are tied and folded together among themselves , as that Philosopher did observe , who did first almost propound those foure heads of vertues . 35. Whereas the forme of vertue is placed by many in a certaine mediocrity between two vices in the extreame , that can be defended by reason . 1. Because privation is not the forme of an habit ; but mediocrity , is nothing else then a privation of a defect and an excesse . 2. Because the forme of vertue is to be sought in that conformity which it hath to his rule : But this conformity doth neither only , nor chiefly , nor sometime at all consist in mediocrity . 3. Because vertue in its formall respect cannot be too much intended , & so doth not admit excesse , but either in that materiall thing which it hath common with vices , or in the circumstances of operations , as when some of them are exercised when they ought not , or are not excercised when they ought . 36. That meane which is found in all vertues , is no other thing then a conformity to their rule , or measure : for by this they have certaine measures and bounds in which their nature is as it were contained , so that they may not decline to the right hand or to the left , but by this reason mediocrity is no more the forme of vertues , then of all other things which are distinguished from other things by certaine formes and differences . 37. But those vertues which consist in the middle between two vitious habits , are not therefore vertues because they consist in the middle , but because they doe in that manner consist in the middle as their rule prescribes ; in which manner , mediocrity whether of participation or negation , Rei vel rationis , of the thing , or of a respect , is to be considered rather as a subject matter , then as a perfecting forme . 38. But it is manifest that such mediocrity hath no place in some vertues : for the love of God is not in that respect praised that it is not too much , but that is is most ardent , here the measure is without measure . 39. There is the like reason of all vertues in respect of their proper and specificall nature . Hee that giveth when he ought not , is not too liberall : but he is too much in giving , so that in that respect he ceaseth to be liberall , and in the same act he may be as much defective in not doing that which he ought . 40. The wiseman indeed admonisheth , Eccles. 7. 16. That we be not just overmuch , but this is not at all to be understood of Iustice in its nature ( for it followes Verse 20. that there is none just upon Earth who doth good and sinned not ) but as it is in opinion , whereby many doe challenge too much to themselves , and would have it attributed to Iustice : but in true vertues we ought alwayes to endeavour to this , that we may more and more abound , as in the holy Scriptures we are often admonished . 41. There be no degrees in vertue of one and the same kind , if it be considered in it selfe in the extent . For there is no vertue which at least in disposition doth not extend it selfe to all those things which are contained in the compasse of its object . He is not temperate which doth moderate himselfe in one ●…st , and favours himselfe in others ; but in respect of the subject some vertue is more strong in one then it is in another , either by reason of a more apt disposition by nature , or because of greater accustoming , or because of a more perfect judgement of reason , or finally because of a geater Gift of GOD. 42. That which is wont to be said , that vertues are increased by daily use and exercise , that must be so understood in solid vertues proceeding from sanctifying grace , that dayly exercise is the disposing cause , and by vertue of the promise of God in some sort the procuring cause , not principally or properly effecting such an increase of vertue . 43. But vertues are lessened by the opposite vitious acts , and in respect of the disposition which they bring , and by reason of the merit that is in them . 44. By how much the acts of vertues , or contrary vices are more intent , more frequent and more continuall , so much the more they prevaile , either to the increasing or diminution of vertues . 45. Hence is that distinction of vertues into humane and heroicall ; into vertues purging , purged and exemplary : and of those that are endued with vertue , into Infants , and men of ripe age . Heb. 5. 13 , 14. 46. The communion of vertues is both in the connexion and subordination of them among themselves . 47. For connexion is that whereby all vertues which are simply necessary , doe cleave together among themselves . 1. In respect of the beginning from whence they flow : For every good giving , and every perfect gift descends from the Father of lights ; By the spirit of grace . Iames 1. 17. 1 Cor. 12. 2. In respect of the end and intention , which is to the same thing in generall ; for all vertues doe so respect God , that if his authority be violated in one , it is withall virtually violated in all . Iames 2. 10. 3. In respect of that helping indeavour which they performe mutually one to another . For one vertue doth dispose to the act of another , and also doth defend and confirm the same with the act . 48. Yet vertues are not so essentially and intrinsecally knit together , that every one is of the essence of the other , or doth necessarily depend upon it as upon a procreating cause . 49. Subordination of vertues is that whereby the act of one vertue is ordered to the act and object of another , either as a meanes to an end which is the command of a superior upon an inferior vertue as Religion commands Iustice temperance , and the like , when it refers their acts to the furthering the worship and glory of God ; or as a cause to its effect , which belongs to every vertue in respect to every one : for so Religion it selfe is ordained to bring forth and conserve Iustice. 50. Whensoever the act of one vertue is ordered to the end of another vertue , this ordination although in respect of the direction it depends upon Prudence , yet in respect of the effectuall force and authority , it depends upon a superior vertue . CHAPTER III. Of good Workes . 1. AN action of vertue is an operation flowing from a disposition of vertue . Mat. 12. 35. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things . 2. In the same sence it is called an action or worke that is good , right , laudable , and pleasing to God. 3. Unto such an action there is required first a good efficient or beginning , that is , a will well disposed , and working from true vertue ; for good fruits doe not grow but out of a good Tree . Mat. 12. 33. Secondly , a good matter or object , that is something commended by God. Mat. 15. 9. In vaine they worship me , teaching doctrines which are the Commandements of men . Thirdly , a good end , that is the glory of God , and those things which tend unto his glory . 1 Cor. 10. 31. Doe all to the glory of God. 4. But the end and the object are oftentimes all one , both in good and evill actions , especially in the intention and election of te will , where they end it selfe is the proper object . For those acts are either conversant in the end it selfe , as in the matter or object , as the acts of desiring , willing , wishing , loving , injoying ; or in those things which tend to the end as they are such , so as the goodnesse or deformity is properly derived from the end . 5. For although that good intention or intention of welldoing which is generall and confused doth not make a particular action good , if other conditions be wanting : neither doth a speciall intention of good suffice for it , if the meanes be evill : as if any intending to bestow any thing on the poore or upon pious uses should to that end take to himselfe other mens goods : yet an evill intention doth alwayes make an action evill , and a good intention with other conditions doth make very much to the constitution of a good action . 6. But there is required to an action truly good , that at least virtually it be referred to God , as to the chiefe end . 7. In the fourth place also , there is required a forme or a good manner , which is placed in the agreeing of the action to the revealed Will of God. 8. Moreover this will of God doth informe an action of man , as far forth as it is apprehended by reason . Hence the very conscience of man is the subordinate rule of morall actions : so as every action must agree with a right conscience , and an erring or doubtfull conscience is first to be laid down before a man may doe against it ; although a lighter scruple or sticking of conscience must not any way put off any action otherwise approved . 9. But that this forme or manner be good it requires all the circumstances to be good , for a singular action is alwayes clothed with its circumstances , upon which the goodnesse or evillnesse of it doth not a little depend . 10. But those circumstances being referred to the act of the will , doe passe into the nature of an object . For the will whiles it willeth some worke , willeth all that which is in it , and so all the known circumstances either expresly or implicitely ; and a knowen circumstance being changed , oftentimes the act of the will is changed . 11. But the same circumstances being referred to the act of any other faculty besides the will , are only adjuncts . 12. So the end it selfe is rightly reckoned among the circumstances , although not in respect of the will , yet in respect of the faculties and other Acts. 13. By reason of these circumstances it comes to passe , that although many Acts in the generall or in their owne nature are indifferent , yet there is no singular Act that is morall , and deliberate , but it is either good or evill . 14. An Act in its kind indifferent is , when the object of it includes nothing which pertaines to the will of God , either commanding or forbidding , yet such acts being in exercise , severally considered , if they be properly humane proceeding of deliberate reason , are either directed to a due end , and have conformity to the will of God , and so are good : or they are not rightly directed , but dissent from the will of God , and in that respect are evill . 15. Besides actions good , evill , and indifferent , some doe observe that there are some acts that do Sonare in malum , have an evill sound , that is being absolutly considered they doe impart a certaine inordinatenesse , but by some circumstances comming to them they are sometimes made good , as to kill a man , & the like : but even those acts ought to be referred to indifferents ; for they o●…ly seeme to have some evill in themselves : as also to free a man from danger of death seemeth to have some good in it selfe , with which shew also many that are not evill are deceived : but the true goodnesse , or pravity of these actions depends upon the object , and other circumstances : to slay the innocent or set at liberty the guilty is evill ; to slay the guilty justly , or deliver the innocent upon just reason is good . 16. The goodnesse of all these causes and conditions is collectively required for an action absolutely good , but the defect of some one makes the action so far forth evill . 17. Hence our good workes , whilest we live here , are imperfect and impure in themselves . 18. Hence they are not accepted before GOD , but in Christ. 19. Hence in the workes of the regenerate there is not that respect of merit whereby any reward is obtained by Iustice. 20. Yet that reward which is imputed not of debt , but of grace , Rom. 4. 4. is sometime assigned to those imperfect indeavours , Mat. 5. 12. Because although all our blessednesse is the meere gift of God , Rom. 6. 23. Yet the fruits of grace abounding in us , are put upon those accounts whereby we doe get the certainty of that gift . Phil. 4. 17. I require that fruit abounding which may be put on your accounts . 21. The action of vertue is either inward , or outward . 2 Cor. 18. 10. 11. To will , to doe , to performe . 22. The internall action is properly of the will it selfe . 23. The externall action is of another faculty distinct from the will ; whether it be of the understanding , or of the sensitive appetite which is commonly called internall , or of the executive power which is usually called externall . 24. The internall action of the will hath goodnesse or evillnesse so intrinsecall , that an act cannot remaine the same in the nature of it , but it must be the same in manners ; but an outward act may remaine the same in nature , and yet become another in manners : namely of good may become evill , and of evill good : As if any one beginning to walke out of an honest purpose , doe persist in his journey for an evill end . 25. There is one and the same goodnesse or evillnesse of an internall act , and an externall commanded by it : for it is the same act in kind of manners ; For to will to worship God , and from that will towards God , are not two acts of obedience , but two degrees of one and the same act , so that the goodnesse of the one is perfited in the other , 2 Cor. 8. 11. Performe to doe that very thing : that as there was a readinesse to will , so there may be a performance . 26. The outward act without the inward is not properly , good or evill : but the inward is good or evill , without the externall ; because the goodnesse of an action depends first and chiefly upon the will , which is often accepted with God , although the outward work it selfe be absent . 2 Cor. 8. 13. If there be first a ready mind , one is accepted according to that he hath . 27. But as vertue in its own nature tends to an act ( for it is a disposition to doe well , neither is it idle ) so the internall act of it tends to an externall , and produceth it , and in it is lead to its end . Iames 2. 22. Thou seest that Faith was the helper of his workes , and by works Faith was brought to its end . 28. Yet the externall act joyned with the internall doth not properly and by it selfe increase the goodnesse , or evillnesse of it in respect of the intention only ; but by accident it doth increase it , as it doth continue or increase the act of the will it selfe . 29. The goodnesse and evillnesse of any act , which depends upon the object and the circumstances of the act , is in respect of its nature in the externall act , before it be in the internall , although in order of existence it is first in the internall . For to will to give every one his owne is therefore good , because this thing , to give every one his own is good : yet the goodnesse doth exist in the act of willing before in the act of giving . So to will to steale is evill , because to steale is evill . The reason is , because the exterior act is the cause of the inward , in order of intention , and the inward act is the cause of the outward in order of execution . 30. But that goodnesse or evillnesse which depends upon the end , is first in the inward act , and after in the outward ; because the very intention of the end is the inward act of the will ; so-to-forsake the World for righteousnesse sake is good , because to will righteousnesse is good , and to give almes for vaine glory is evill , because it is evill to will vaine Glory . 31. Obedience that appeares in outward actions , without the inward is hypocrisie , and so is not indeed obedience , but a certaine shadow of it . 32. Yet inward obedience without outward , although it be incompleat ; yet it is true : and if there be an effectuall will present , so that opportunity , or ability of executing is only wanting , it is no lesse acceptable to God , then if it had an externall act joyned with it . 2 Cor. 8. 12. 33. Therefore we must not judge of actions good or evill by the event . For although it is equall , and God himselfe willeth , that he that is judge of offences among men , doe incline to the more fovourable side , if the event it selfe doe favour . Exod. 21. 21. and so forward : yet before the tribunall of God , the inward sin is as great caeteris paribus other things answerable , when neither event not outward act followes , as if both should follow . Mat. 5. 28. Whosoever lookes on a woman to lust after her , hath committed adultery already with her in his heart . 34. Yet inward obedience is not of it selfe sufficient because the whole man ought to subject it selfe to God : our bodies are to be offered to God , Rom. 12. 1. He is to be glorified in our bodies . 1 Cor. 6. 20. Neither is that true inward obedience which doth not incline to externall . 35. The workes which are called workes of supererogation , whereby the Papists doe boast that some of theirs doe performe more excellent workes then are commanded in the Law of God , by the obsevation of certaine counsells which they faigne doe not command , but counsell only a singular perfection , are the dotings of idle men which know neither the Law nor the Gospell . 36. Unto the best workes of the faithfull there adhereth that imperfection which hath need of remission : yet the workes themselves are not sins . CHAPTER IIII. Of Religion . 1. OBservance is either Religion , or Iustice. 2. This distribution as touching the thing it selfe is made by God in the division of the decalogue , as it is enfolded by Christ. Mat. 22. 37. Also the sence of the same distribution is expressed in other words , Rom. 1. 18. Where all disobedience of man is distributed into impiety and injustice , which could not stand unlesse all obedience also were conversant in Piety and Iustice : which is also more plainly opened . Tit. 2. 12. Where of those thres thinge propounded . Righteousnesse and Piety , doe make the parts of new Obedience , and Temperance notes the manner or meanes of performing the same , namely denying worldly lusts . 3. Unto the same also that distribution of a Christian life tends , which is more frequently used , into holinesse and righteousnesse . Luc. 1. 75. Eph. 2. 24. And the same is the meaning of that distribution which is of love towards God , and love towards our neighbour . 4. Yet we use the names of Religion & Iustice , because Religion is a word most generall , containing all those duties which are owing to God , and it is most emphaticall , because it expresseth that proper and distinct way whereby they are due to God. Acts 26. 5. Iames 1. 26 , 27. And often in the Epistle to the Hebrewes . 5. Religion is Observance , whereby we performe those things which doe directly pertaine to the bringing of honour to God. Romans 1. 21. When they knew God , yet they glorified him not as God , neither were they thankefull . 6. Therefore this neme is not amisse by some said to be derived à Religando from binding againe , because in this part of obedience we doe directly and immediatly tend unto God , that we may cleave , and as it were , be tied to him . 7. It hath the first place in observance , 1. Because obedience towards God must necessarily begin , from God himselfe , and from those affections , and acts whereby we are caried towards him . 2 Cor. 8. 5. They gave themselves first to the Lord , and then to us by the Will of God. 2. Because Righteousnesse towards men , must be performed by force and vertue of Religion , that it may be true obedience towards God , for it would not be obedience towards God , unlesse it did bring honour to God : neither could it bring honour to God , unlesse it should proceed from a religious affection . 1 Cor. 10. 31. Doe all to the glory of God : whereunto that phrase also belongeth . In the Lord , in the Name of the Lord. Col. 3. 17. And as to the Lord , and not to men . There Verse 23. 3. Because Religion hath command over the acts of Iustice , and is the cause of them not only virtually effecting , but also directing and ordering . Iames 1. 26. If any seeme to be religious among you , not refraining his tongue , but deceiving his own heart , this mans religion is vaine . 4. Because religion is in a certaine manner the end of all the acts of Iustice , as far forth as they dispose to the act of religion , as a certaine greater thing . 8. Hence Iustice it selfe is sometime called religion in the Scriptures . There Verse 27. But religious worship , pure , and without spot before God , and the Father is to visite the fatherlesse , &c. Not only because it is a signe which is not separated from true religion , but also because it ought to be exercised by the command of religion , and have its beginning from it . 9. Hence the offices of religion a re the first and chiefest . Mat. 6. 33. & 22. 37. First seeke the kingdome of God. The first and great Commandement . 10. They are the first in order , so that they ought to be taken care for in the first place , There . 11. Hitherto pertaines that phrase , which every where we meete with in the Psalmes , of seeking God early in the morning . 12. Also they are chiefe in dignity , and so chiefly to be cared for . Mat. 10. 37. He that loveth father or mother above me , is not worthy of me . 13. Hence the duties of religion ought to be performed with more intent and stirred up forces then the duties of Iustice , for that rule pertaines properly to them , not to these , to love with all the heart , all the soule , and all the thought . Mat. 22. 37. 14. Which yet must not be so understood , as if all the strength were not also required in performing and fulfilling the duties of the second table , but. 1. Because this is principally required in the duty of Religion . 2 Because it is not required in the other dut is in respect of our neighbour , whom they doe immediatly respect ; b●… in respect of God , and by vertue of religion . 3. Because one may love his neighbour with too much intention as touching the very materiall act of loving , although this cannot be done under the respect of vertue and love , but we can no way love God with too much intention . 15. Hence , if some duties of piety and justice cannot be performed together , an equall and prudent comparison being used , the duties of piety are to be preferred . Mat. 12 , 46 , 47 , 48. Luke 2. 49. Behold my mother and my brethren , why did ye seeke me ? knew ye not that I must goe about my fathers businesse ? 16. But an equall comparison is , when a just proportion is observed of the greatest to the greatest , and of the lesser to the lesse . 17. But because God is more worshipped with the inward affection then with the outward worke , but men doe more need the outward worke : therefore the outward worke of religion may sometime be omitted , that a necessary worke of Iustice , and mercy may be fulfilled . Matthew 12. Verse . 1. 3 , 4. 7. 10. 12. I will have mercy and not sacrifice , &c. 18. Neither yet is religion in the meane while by this meanes violated , because religion it selfe doth command to omit an externall worke , that a necessary may be performed . 19. The immediate object of religion unto which it is caried , is God : and that so adequate , that no duty of religion may be referred to any other object without greatest injury to God ; hitherto pertaines that title of God whereby he is said to be Zelotes , Zelotypus , zealous or Iealous . 20. But that respect , under which religion doth consider God , is that Divine excellency , which shines f●…rth in his sufficiency and efficiency ; it is not some one attribute , but a perfection arising of all his attributes . Ex. 34. 6 , 7 , 8. Iehova Iehova the strong God , mercifull and gracious , long-suffering , & full of loving kindnesse and truth , &c. Therefore all the attributes of God have some power to beget religion in us , & so , in the Scriptures , the speciall respect of it is referred , sometime to mercy , Psal. 130. 4. with thee is pardoning , that thou mayest be reverently worshipped : sometime to Iustice. Deut. 4. 24. Heb. 12. 29. Let us have grace , by which we may so serve God , that we may be accepted of him with reverence and feare . For our God is a consuming fire . And so also to all the other attributes . 21. Hence religion doth immediatly flow from that Faith wherewith we believe in God , as in the sufficient , and efficient cause of life . 22. So is that to be understood which is wont to be said , that religion respects God as the first beginning and supreame Lord of life . And so that distinction of the Papists is too empty whereby they confesse , that those acts of religion which respect God as the first beginning of life , are to be performed only to God , but they contend that other acts of religion may be communicated to the Creatures also , when there is no act of religion which doth not belong to God , as the first beginning of life . 23. The proper act of religionis to bring honor to God , and it is called worship . Exod. 12. 25 , 26. and adoration , Iohn 22. 23. For it must containe in a certaine manner good unto God , otherwise it should not be obedience towards him , but there can be no intrinsecal good added to God , but an outward good , which is honor , that is , a testification of the vertue of another to further his glory or estimation , and this is all that which the Creature can performe unto God. 24. Therefore an agreable or worthy estimation of God , and other acts wherby an estimation is manifested , doe make as it were , the next matter of religion . And every humane honest act , as far forth as it may be referred to the honour and glory of God , may be the matter , or matteriall object of religion . Also one and the same act which in respect of subjection to the precept is called obedience , in respect of the honour which it brings to God , is called religion and worship . 25. The proper manner of honour , or religious worship is to subject the soule it selfe , and the inward affections and acts of the will to another . 26. For in respect of the soule and inward acts of it , man is not subject directly and Per se to any Creature , although as the soule is knit to the body , and the inward acts to the outward , his , as it were necessary , condition doth command that subjection which is due to the Creature as a superior . 27. This honour is due to God , not only according to the agreement of the thing , in which sence we say , those things are due which we give of liberality ; but also according to the right of the person to whom it is given , and that by so strict a right , that in respect of the debt it exceeds all Iustice , although in respect of equality it is much exceeded by Iustice. 28. Therefore all worship which either by its nature or condition , or by Law , and common custome , or by the mind and institution of him that gives it doth give religions honour to another beside the true God , it doth so far forth at least faine to it selfe a new and a false GOD. 29. He that doth not give this religious worship to God is prophane , he that gives it to another besides to the true God is an idolater , Acts 10. Revel . 19. 10. & 22. 8. 30. But because greatest care ought to be had in Divine worship therefore among the Latines the word religion is sometime metaphorically used to set forth any anxious care , even in things that were not sacred . By which appeares that the Heathens themselves by the light of nature did see , that the care of Religion is to bee prefered before all other things . 31. Also because the feare of conscience pertaines to the worship of religion , therefore also every scruple of conscience is wont to be called religion , whence also we may gather , that nature it selfe doth dictate that the conscience of a man doth first and most properly respect religion . 32. The generall state of the Church , as it doth prefesse a right manner of worshipping God , is rightly wont to be called the Christian Religion , because such a relation of a state or profession , ariseih from vertue and the act of Religion . 33. Those things which by a speciall institution are destinated to religious uses as the instruments of religion , are also by reason of their state or fixed relation which they have , called religious . 34. That peculiar manner of living which the Monkes have chosen to themselves to exercise a certaine fained perfection , without any reason , and not without wrong to other Christians , is wont to be called religion by the Papists , and such Monkes religious persons . 35. He that is not religious , is not a Christian. 36. The true religion is onely one . CHAPTER V. Of Faith. 1. THE parts of religion are two ; naturall worship , and voluntary or instituted worship . 2. This distinction is grounded on Exod. 20. 6. Those words of the second Commandement : who love me , and keep my Commandements . 3. Naturall worship is that which depends upon the nature of God : so that although we had no Law revealed , and prescribed by God , yet if we did rightly perceive and know the Nature of God , by a meet contemplation of it , we might , the grace of God helping us , perceive al those things which in this behalfe pertaines unto our duty . 4. For there is no body who understands the Nature of God rightly , but withall he doth also necessarily acknowledge , That GOD is to be believed and hoped in , that God is to be loved , called upon , and to be heard in all things . 5. Hence this naturall worship is simply necessary to salvation . Psal. 79. 6. Ierem. 10. 52. 2 Thess. 1. 8. Powre out thy wrath upon those Nations that know thee not , and upon the Kingdomes that call not upon thy name . For although we obtaine eternall life neither by merit , nor by any vertue of our obedience ; yet this part of obedience hath such an essentiall connexi●…n with that Faith whereby we rest upon Christ to life eternall , that in exercise it cannot be separated from it . 6. Hence also this worship hath been , is , and shall be one and the same , or immutable . 1 Iohn 2. Verse 7. The old Commandement which ye had from the beginning . 7. Naturall worship is commanded in the first precept , not only as it is internall , but also as it is externall . 8. For. 1. All obedience is the same inwardly and outwardly : therefore the same inward and outward worship is contained in the same precept . 2. In those precepts which pertaine to the second table , inward and outward obedience is together commanded in every one , Christ himselfe being interpreter . Mat. 5. Much more therefore in the precepts of the first table , and in the first and chiefe of them . 3. If that distinction were lawfull , that the first precept would command only inward worship , and the second only outward , then the first Commandement should bind the inward man , and the second only the outward man and the body , which is contrary to all reason . 9. Naturall worship tends unto God , either as our good , or as good in himselfe . 10. The worship which tends unto God , as unto our good , doth either respect him as he is in present ours , as Faith : or as hereafter he is to be ours , as hope . 11. Faith is a vertue whereby we cleaving to the faithfulnesse of God , doe leane upon him , that we may obtaine that which he propounds to us . He that receiveth his testimony hath sealed that God is true . Iohn 1. 12. As many as received him , who believe in his Name . 12. These five things concurre to make a Divine Faith. 1. A knowledge of the thing testified by God. 2. A pious affection towards God , which causeth that his testimony doth most prevaile with us . 3. An assent which is given to the thing testified , because of this affection towards God who is the witnesse of it . 4. A resting upon God for the obtaining that which is propounded . 5. An election or apprehension of the thing it selfe , which is exhibited to us in the testimony . 13. The first of these is in the understanding : but it doth not make Faith , because it is common to us with unbelievers , hereticks , apostates , and the devills themselves . 14. The second , fourth and fift are in the will , and doe make Faith as it is a vertue , and act of religion . 15. The third as in the understanding , but as it is moved by the will ; neither is it properly the vertue of Faith , but an effect . 16. But the perfection of Faith is not but in election or apprehension , and so is to be defined by it . 17. Hence the nature of Faith is excellently opened in Scripture , when the faithfull are said to cleave to God. Ioshua 23. 6. Acts 11. 23. 1 Corinthians 6. 17. And to choose the way of truth , and to cleave to the testimony of God , Psal. 1●…9 . 30 , 31. 18. For by Faith we first cleave to God , and then afterward consequently we cleave to those things which are propou●…ded to us by God : so that God himselfe is the first Object of Faith , and that which is propounded by God the secundary Object . 19. But because Faith as it joynes us to God is our life ; but as it is a vertue and our duty towards God ; it is a act of life , therefore in the former par●… we have defined it only by that respect which it hath to obtaine life and salvation ; but here we have defined it by tha●… generall respect which it hath to all that which God propounds to us to believe . Hence Faith cannot exercise all its act about the threatnings of God considered in themselves , because they doe not propound the good to be received by us : nor about the precepts of God simply considered , because they declare the good to be done , not to be received ; nor about meere predications , because under that respect they propound no good to us . But it is perfect in the promises , because in them there is propounded good to be embraced : whence also it is , that our Divines are wont to place the object of Faith chiefly in the promises . 20. They who place Faith in the understanding : doe confesse that there is some necessary motion of the will to the yeilding of that assent : even as in humane Faith it is said to be a voluntary thing to give credit to one . But if Faith depend upon the will , it must needs be that the first beginning of Faith is in the will. 21. The Objectum quod , or materiall object of this Faith is whatsoever is revealed and propounded by God to be believed , whether it be done by spirit or by word ; publickly or privatly , Acts 24. 14. I believe all things that are written in the Law and the Prophets . Iohn 3. 33. He that receiveth his testimony . 22. Hence the propounding of the Church is not absolutly necessary ; no not in respect of us , to make an object of Faith , for then Abraham , and other Prophets had not given assent to those things which were revealed to them from God , without any helpe of the Church comming between , which is both against the Scriptures and all sound reason , and yet is necessarily admitted and defended by the most learned of the Papists , that they may defend the fained authority of their false Church from such arguments . 23. This object is alwayes immediatly some axiom or sentence under the respect of truth : but that in which Faith is principally bounded , of which , and for which assent is yielded to that axiom by Faith is , Ens incomplexum under the respect of some good . Rom. 4. 21. Being fully perswaded , that he who had promised was able also to doe it . Heb. 11. 13. Not having received the promises , but seeing them a far off , after they had bin perswaded of them , and had embraced them . 24. For the act of the believer is not bounded in the Axiom , or sentence , but in the thing , as the most famous Schoole-men confesse . The reason is ; because we doe not frame axioms , but that by them we may have knowledge of things . Therfore the principall bound unto which the act of the believer tends , is the thing it selfe , which is chiefly respected in the Axiom . 25. The Objectum Quo , or formall object of Faith is the Truenes or faithfulnesse of God. Heb. 11. 11. Because he judged him faithfull who had promised . For the formall , and as they say , the specificative reason of Faith is truth in speaking , that is , the Truenes , or faithfulnesse of God revealing something certainly , because it is a common respect of Faith that it leaves upon the authority of him that witnesseth , ( in which thing Faith is distinguished from opinion , science , experience , and sight or sence ) but the authority of God is his Truenes or faithfulnesse . Tit. 1. 2. God that cannot lie had promised . Hence that proposition is most true , what soever we are bound to believe ( with a Divine Faith ) is true . For because nothing ought so to believed , unlesse God doe witnesse the truth there of : but God testifieth as he is true , but Truenes in a witnesse that knoweth all things , cannot be separated from the truth of the testimony ; therefore it must needs be , that all that which we are bound to believe with a Divine Faith is true . This whole demonstration is manifestly confirmed and used by the Apostle Paul. 1 Cor. 15 ▪ 14 , 15. If Christ be not raised , our preaching is vaine : your Faith also is vaine ; we are also found false witnesses of God : because we have witnessed of God , that he raised up Christ. That is , If the testimony be not true , the witnesse is false . Unlesse this be admitted , that whatsoever . God witnesseth is true , that consequence which is most firme , should availe nothing at all , God doth witnesse this or that , therefore it is true . Hence Divine Faith cannot be a principle or cause ; either directly or indirectly , either by it selfe or by accident , of assenting to that which is false , or of a false assent . 26. Hence also the certainty of Faith in respect of the object is most firme , and by how much more it is confirmed in the heart of him that believeth , so much the more glory it giveth to God. Rom. 4. 20. But he doubted not at this promise of God through unbeliefe : but he was strengthened in Faith , giving glory to God , and being fully perswaded that he that had promised , was able also to doe it . But in that somitime our Faith doth waver in us , that is not from the nature of Faith , but from ●…ur imperfe●…ion . 27. A sufficient and certaine representation of both objects , that is , both of those things which are to be believed , and of that respect under which they are to be bel●…eved , is propounded to us in the Scripture . Rom. 16. 26. It is made manifest , a●…d by the Scriptures of the Prophets according to the Commandement of the everlasting God , m●…de knowen to all Nations for the obedience of Faith : 2 Tim. 5. 15. The holy Scripture can make thee wise to salvation ; by Faith which is in Christ Jesus . 28. For al●…hough in the subject , that is in our hearts , the ligh●… and testimony of the holy Spirit stirring up Faith in us is necessary ; yet in the object , which is to be r●…ceived by F●…h there is nothing at all required , either in respect of the things to be believed , or in respect of the cause and way of believing , which is not found in the Scripture . 29. Therefore Divine Faith cannot be reduced or resolved into the authority of the Church , or into other simple externall arguments which are wont to be called Motives by perswading and inducing things preparing to Faith ; but it is to be resolved into the Scripture it selfe , and that authority which it hath imprinted upon it from the author God , as into the first and proper cause which causeth the thing to be believed ; and into the operation of the holy Spirit , as into the proper cause of the act it selfe believing . 30. Hence , that principle from which Faith doth first begin , and into which it is last , resolved , is , that the Scripture is revealed from God for our salvation , as a sufficient rule of Faith and manners . 2 Pet. 1. 19. 20. If you first know this , that no prophecy of the Scripture is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , of a private interpretation . 31. Faith is partly Implicite , and partly Explicite . 32. Implicite Faith is that whereby the truths of Faith are believed , not distinctly in themselves , but in their common principle . 33. That common principle wherein all things to be in this manner believed are contained , is not the Chu●…ch , but the Scripture . Act. 24. 14. Who doe believe all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets . 34. He that believeth that the Scripture is every way true , he doth implicitly believe all things which are contained in the Scriptures , Psal. 129. 86. compared with Verse . 28. 33. All thy precepts are truth it selfe ; open mine eyes , that I may see the wonders of thy Law. ●…each me the way of thy statuts , which I will keepe unto the end . David did believe that those were wonderfull , and to be holily kept , which he did not yet sufficiently understand . 35. This implicite Faith is good and necessary , but it is not of it selfe sufficient to salvation ; neither indeed hath it in it selfe , the true reason of faith , if it subsist by it selfe : for it cannot be that the will be effectually affected , and embrace that as good , which it doth not at all distinctly know . Rom. 20. 14. How shall they believe him of whom they have not heard ? 36. Explicite Faith is that whereby the truths of Faith are believed in particular , and not in common only . 37. Explicite Faith must necessarily be had of those things which are propounded to our Faith as necessary meanes of salvation . Heb. 6. 1. 2. Cor. 4. 3. The foundation of repentance from dead workes and of Faith in God. If our Gospell be hid , it is bid to them that perish . 38. There is required a more explicite Faith now after the comming of Christ , then before , 2 Cor. 3. 18. Of those who are set over others in the Church then of the common people , Heb. 9. 12. Lastly , of those who have occasion to be more perfectly instructed , then of others : Luc. 12. 48. To whom much is given , of him much shall be required . 39. The outward act of Faith is confession , profession , or manifestation of it , which in its order , and in its place is necessary to salvation , Rom. 10. 9. 10. Namely in respect of the preparation and disposition of minde alwayes necessary . 2 Peter 3. 15. And in respect of the act it selfe , when the glory of God and edification of our neighbours shall require it . 40. Persisting in confession of the Faith with losse of temporall life , doth give testimony to the truth and doth bring most honour to God , and so by excellency is called Martyrdome , and they who doe so are called witnesses , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Martyrs . Revel . 2. 13. But this is as necessary in its place as confession of Faith , so that it cannot be refused without denying of Christ. Mat. 10. 33. 39. & 16. 25. 41. There are opposed to Faith. Infidelity , Doubting , Error , Heresie , Apostasie . 42. Infidelity is a dissenting of a man from the Faith , who never professed the true Faith. 1 Cor. 14. 22. 23. 43. Doubting in him who made profession , doth either diminish or take away assent . 44. Doubting that doth diminish only assent may stand with a weake Faith. 1 Cor. 8. 10. 11. But not that doubting which takes away assent . Iames 1. 6 , 7 , 8. 45. An error in Faith doth put some opinion contrary to Faith. 1 Cor. 15. 46. Heresie addeth stubbornnesse to error . Ti●… 3. 10 , 11. 47. Apostasie addes unto heresie universility of errors contrary to Faith , 1 Tim. 1. 19. 20. 2 Tim. 1. 15. 48. These are opposed to Faith not only as they take away that assent of the understanding which is necessary to Faith , but also as they bring and include a privation of that election and apprehension of Faith , which is in the will. CHAPTER VI. Of Hope . 1. HOpe is a vertue , whereby we are inclined to expect those things which God hath promised us . Rom. 8. 25. 2. This Hope respecteth God. 1. As the object which it doth expect , for the principall object of Hope is God himselfe , and those acts whereby he is joyned to us , 1 Peter 1. 13. Hope in the grace which is brought to you . Hence God himselfe is called the Hope of Israel . Ier. 1. 4. 8. And Rom. 15. 13. The God of Hope : not so much because he is the Author and Giver of hope , as because it is he , upon whom we hope . 2. It respects God as the Author and Giver of all the good it doth expect . Psal. 37. 5. 6. Roll thy way upon the Lord , and trust in him , for he shall bring it to passe : For as , it tends unto God to attaine good , so also it respects him as to be obtained by his owne Grace . Ieremiah 17. 7. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord , and whose hope the Lord is . 3. But the proper reason why we may not trust upon the Creatures , in that manner as we trust in God , is because the formall object of Hope is not fo●…d in the Creatures . Psal. 146. 3. Trust not in Princes , nor in any sonne of man , in whom there is no salvation . For although some power of doing us good and helping us , is placed by God in the Creatures , yet the exercise of this vertue doth alwayes depend upon God. Psal. 107. Sending his word he healed them . And Psal. 137. 1. Unlesse the Lord build the house , in vaine they labour that build it , unlesse the Lord keep the City , the watchmen watcheth in vaine . 4. Therefore when one saith , I hope this or that of such a man , doth either signifie that he hopes for that from God by that Creature , or it sets forth a humane hope , not Divine , or finally it is not Christian. 5. But as Faith , so also Hope in God doth respect the grace of God , and Christ only as causes of good to be commun cared . 1 Pet. 1. 13. Col. 1. 27. Hope in the grace . Christ the hope of glory . 6. Yet Divine Hope doth not only respect God and eternall blessednesse , but in God , and from God it respects all those things which faith apprehends in the promises of God , although in their own nature they be temporall things . Heb. 11. 1. 2 Cor. 1. 10. Although it doth ciefly respect eternall life : whence also it is , that Hope in Scripture is often by a metonymy of the adjunct , put for salvation it selfe or life eternall hoped for . Gal. 5. 5. Rom. 8. 24. Tit. 2. 13. And salvation also is sometime put for Hope of salvation , by a metonymy of the subject . Epb. 6. 17. Compared with 1. Thess. 5. 8. The helmet of Salvation , for the helmer of the Hope of salvation . Also usually this object is put as proper to Hope . 1 Thess. 5. 8. Tit. 3. 7. The hope of eternall life . Rom. 5. 2. The hope of glory . 7. Those conditions which are wont to be required to the object of Hope , as that it be good , to come , difficult , probable , ●…re all sound in the promises of GOD , who promiseth alwayes the greatest good things which cannot bee had without his helpe , but by vertue of the promise will come to passe , not only probably , but certainly . 8. The act wherewith it is conversant about its object is called expectation , because it is not of uncertaine or probable conjecture only , as humane Hope , but of most certaine expectation . Rom. 3. 25. Phil. 1. 20. If we hope for what we see not , we doe with patience expect it . According to my earnest expectation and hope , and every where in the old Testament , where the word Mikueh which is wont to be turned , Hope , doth properly signifie expectation . 9. This certainty is derived to Hope from Faith : for Faith is the foundation of Hope ; neither is any thing hoped for , which is not before believed by Faith. Galatians 5. 5. For , we through the spirit , wait for the Hope of righteousnesse by Faith. 10. For seeing Faith apprehends that which is promised , and Hope expects that which is promised ; the whole difference between Faith and Hope , is the respect of that which is present , and that which is to come . 11. Therefore that distinction of the Papists is empty and vaine , who granting that the faithfull may be certaine of their salvation with certainty of hope , yet doe deny , that they can ever by ordinary meanes be made certaine of it with certainty of Faith , when there is one and the same certainty altogether of Faith and Hope : for which reason also it is , that Hope in Scripture , especially in the old Testament , is often put for Faith. 12. Therefore that expectation of good things to come which is in the Angells , and the spirits of just men in Heaven , doth not in that differ from our hope , because one is certaine , and the other incertaine : but in these . 1. That our hope is grounded upon Faith , which beholds God in the promises , as through a glasse , and darkly , 1 Cor. 13. 12. But their expectation is grounded upon open sight . 2. In that our hope is with labour and contention , but their expectation is without all difficulty . 3. In that our hope is an imperfect expectation , and their expectation is perfect . 13. Therefore although Hope together with Faith is wont to be said to be abolished in the life to come : yet this is not so to be understood , as if they ceased to be in respect of their essence , but only in respect of the measure and degree of imperfection . 1 Cor. 13. 10. So that the imperfection only is properly to be abolished : but Faith and hope it selfe are to be perfected in respect of their essence . 14. Hence Christian confidence as it respects good to come , is nothing else then Hope confirmed . For it must necessarily be referred to some one of those theologicall vertues which are reckoned up by the Apostle . 1 Cor. 13. 13. That is , either to Faith , or to Charity , or to Hope . But it can neither be referred to Faith , because Faith apprehends a thing as now present , which it maketh also to subsist . Heb. 11. 1. Nor to Charity , because Charity doth not respect good that is ours . 1 Cor. 13. 5. Therefore to Hope . 15. Hence the naturall fruit of Hope is Ioy , and delight in God , Heb. 3. 6. The hope whereof we rejoyce . 1 Pet. 1. 3. 6. A lively hope , wherein yee rejoyce . Because it doth respect the greatest good things not only as possible and probable ; but also as certainly to come , and so doth make the possession of them in a certaine manner to subsist , whilest it doth assure us of that which at length shall in very deed subsist . Ro. 8. 24. We are saveth by Hope . 16. The manner of this act depends upon that respect of the object , whereby it is said to be , to come , and promised . So that in its formall reason , it is not of those things which are seene . Romans 8. 24. Hope if it be seene , is not Hope ; for why doth a man hope for that which hee seeth ? 17. Hence the fruit and companion of Hope is patience towards God , whereby we doe constantly clave to him in seeking and expecting blessednesse , although we doe in this present life conflict with divers evills , even without that consolation we doe desire , Esay . 8. 17. Waiting upon the Lord who hath hid his Face and looking for him . Rom. 8. 25. But if we hope for that we doe not see , we doe with patience expect it . 2 Thess. 3. 5. That patient expectation . 18. A fruit of this patience is silence , whereby we rest in the will of God , and doe represse all those carnall things whereby we are stirred up to make hast , or to resist him . Psal. 37. 7. Be silent to Iehovah , and without ceasing waite on him . 19. Hope is strengthened and increased , by all those arguments , whereby we are assured that the good hoped for pertaines to us . Rom. 5. 4. Experience causeth Hope . 20. Among these arguments the inwatd signes of Divine grace have the first place . 1 Iohn 3. 14. 19. We know that we are translated from death to life , because we love the brethren . 21. Therefore although it is most false which the Papists say , that our hope is grounded partly upon the grace of God , & partly our own merits , it may bemo●… truly affirmed , that hope is strengthened , increased and stirred up , by Faith , repentance , workes and a good conscience . So that true and lively hope doth exist by those as it were antecedent arguments . Heb. 10. 22. 23. 1 Pet. 3. 23. 22. The effect of hope is the confirmation of the soule as an anchor , safe , and firme . Heb. 6. 19. Whereby we possesse our very soules . Luc. 21. 19. 23. There followes alwayes from this confirmation of mind a study of holinesse . 1 Iohn . 3. 3. Whosoever hath this hope in him , keepeth himselfe pure , even as he is pure . 24. There is opposed to hope by way of defect . 1. A feare of the evill of punishment , Psal. 27. 3. For as Hope is the expectation of good , so this feare is an expectation of evill . 25. But this feare , if it be moderate and tempered by Faith , although it be alwayes materially opposed to Hope yet in man that is a sinner , it is not so formally opposed to Hope and vertue , that it is simply a vice , but rather puts on the consideration and nature of a vertue , 2 Chron. 34. 27. Because thy heart was tender , and thou didst cast down thy selfe before the Face of God , when thou heardest his words against this place , &c. The reason is because the opposition is not , Secundum idem , & ad idem , according to the same , and unto the same ; for hope respects the grace of God , and feare respects the deserts of our sins . 26. Also desperation is more directly opposed to hope , in the defect , which is a meere privation of hope joyned with a sence of that privation , and apprebension of the thing hoped for , as of a thing impossible , or at least as to come , such as was in ●…ne . Gen. 5. 13 , 14. And in Iud●… . Mat. 27. 4. 5. 27. This desperation is alwayes a grievous sin : because it is not a privation of that hope which men are wont to have in themselves or other Creatures , which is wont to be a laudable introduction to Divine hope , but it is a privation of Divine hope , having its beginning alwayes from unbeliefe , as hope hath its beginning from Faith. 28. Yet desperation in the Devills and damned , hath not the consideration of a sin , but of a punishment . For desperation may either be taken privatively when one doth not hope that which he ought to hope , and when he ought , or negatively for a meere cessation of hope . In the former sence it is alwayes a fin because it is contrary to the Law , but in the latter sence not so . 29. The reason of despairing may be divers , either because the grace of God is not accounted sufficient to communicate that good to us , or because God will not communicate it . As desperation is grounded on the former reason , it is alwayes a sin , but in the latter sence it is not a sin , if so be any be certaine of that will of God. 30. But because it is seldome or never manifest to any one by ordinary meanes before the end of this life , that God will not make him partaker of grace and glory : Therefore there is no desperation of men in this life which is not a sinne . 31. By way of excesse presumption is opposed to hope , whereby wee doe expect some good rashly . Deut. 29. 19. Ier. 7. 4. 8 , 9 , 10. Let there not be any man , when he hath heard , &c. 32. This rash presumption doth in expectation of good sometime leane upon the Creatures . Ierem. 17. 5. 1 : Tim. 6. 17. Sometime also it doth leane on God in some sort , but perversly without a promise , and Faith , as when any lookes for pardon and salvation , although he remaine impenitent , or retaine a purpose of living in his sins , or expect some other thing of God which doth noth agree to his nature or revealed will. 33. But one doth not therefore sin in this presumption , because he hopes too much upon God , namely with a true and religious hope , for this can in no wise be done but because he hopes too lightly and rashly without any ground , or hopes those things also which are not to be hoped . 34. Also shame of face , or confusion is opposed to hope , in respect of the event . Ps. 25. 2 , 3. CHAPTER VII . Of Charity . 1. CHarity is a vertue whereby we love God as the chiefe good . Psal. 106. 1. And 118. 1. & 136. 1. Praise the Lord , because he is good , for his mercy endures for ever . The joy of praising which is an effect of Charity hath the same primary object with Charity its proper cause . Therfore the goodnesse of God which doth specially shine forth in the effects of kindnesse , is the proper object of Charity ( as it is of praising . ) 2. It followes Faith and Hope in order of nature , as the effect followes its causes : for we therefore love God out of Charity , because by Faith and hope we tast in some measure how good God is , and his love shed abroad in our hearts . 1 Iohn 4. 16. 19. We have knowen and believed the love which God hath towards us , we love him because he loved us first . 3. Therefore not love , but Faith is the first founda tion of the spirituall building in man : not onely because then the building begins , but also because it sustaines , and containes all the parts of it as also it hath the nature of a roote , as it doth confer power to fructifie . 4. A confuse and remote inclination towards God goeth before Faith ( a certaine shadow ▪ whereof is found in a certaine manner in all Creatures ) Acts 17. 27 - That they might seeke the Lord , if happily they might find him by seeking him , but it is rather an ineffectuall Velleitas woulding ( as they call it ) to love God , then a true love . 5. That distinction of the Scholemen , betweene the naturall and supernaturall love of God , that is , whereby they make one love of God , as it is the beginning and end of nature , and another as it is the beginning and end of grace , is an idle figment . Neither indeed can a man since the fall , by the strength of nature without Faith , love GOD above all , no not with that love which they call naturall . 6. The love of Charity is of Union , well-pleasednesse , and good will : for those are as it were the parts of Charity , and they are alwayes contained in it , if it be true , namely desire of Union , wel-pleasednesse of enjoying , and affection of good will. 7. Love of Union is that affection , whereby we would be joyned together with GOD. 2 Corinthians 5-8 . It is our desire to be absent from the body , and to be present with the Lord. 8. There is also love of Union , in GOD towards us . Eph. 2. 4. 13. He loved us with much love . You who were far off , are made neere . But his love is out of the aboundance of goodnesse , because he expects no profit out of us : for we are unprofitable servants to GOD. Luc. 17. 10. Iohn . 22. 2. 23. But our love towards him is out of the want of goodnesse , because we stand in need of God. 2. Cor. 5. 4. We groane being burdened — that mortality may bee swallowed up of life . 9. Therefore our love as it is love of Union with God , is in part , that love which is called love of concupiscence or desire : because we doe properly desire God to our selves , because wee hope to have profit from him and our eternall blessednesse . 10. Yet the highest end of this love ought to be God himselfe . 11. Love of wel-pleasednesse is that affection , whereby we doe approve of all that that is in God , and rest in his most excellent goodnesse . Rev. 7 : 12. Blessing and glory , and wisdom , and thanksgiving , and honour and power , and strength unto our God for ever , and ever , Amen . 12. God also hath love of wel-pleasednesse towards us , Heb. 13. 16. But his wel-pleasednesse is in those good things which are communicated by him to us : but our wel-pleasednesse is in that goodnesse , and Divine perfection which in no sort depends upon us . 13. Love of good will , is that affection whereby we yield our selves wholy to God , and we wil , and endeavour that all things be given to him which pertaine to his glory . Revel . 4. 10 , 11. They fell downe and cast their crownes before the throne , saying , Thou art worthy , O Lord , to receive glory , and honour , and power . 1 Cor. 10. 31. Doe all to the glory of God. 14. God in bearing us good will , doth make us good , by conferring that good which he willeth : but we cannot properly bestow any good upon him , but only acknowledge with the heart , publish by words , and declare in some measure by deeds that goodnesse which he hath . 15. That mutuall Charity which is between God ▪ and the faithfull , hath in it selfe some respect of friendship . Iohn 15. 15. I have called you friends , because I have made knowen all things which I have heard from my Father . 16. In this friendship although there is not found that equality which is among men that are friends , yet that equality which is possible doth appeare in a certaine inward communion which is exercised betweene God , and the faithfull : in which respect God is said to reveale his secrets to the faithfull . Psalm 25 , 14. Iohn 15. 15. And to be as it were familiarly conversant with them . Revel . 3. 26. If any shall heare my voyce and shall open the doore , I will goe in to him , and sup with him , and hee with me . Iohn 14. 23. If any love me , hee will keepe my Word ; And my Father will love him ; and we will come to him , and dwell with him . 17. Charity doth implicitly containe in it the keeping and fulfilling of all the Commandements of God ▪ Rom. l 13. 10. 1 Iohn 2 ▪ 5. and 3. 18. For he cannot truly love God who doth not study to please him in all things , and to be like him . 1 Iohn 4. 17. Herein is our Charity made perfect — that as he is , such also are we . 18. The manner of our Charity towards God is that it becaried to him , as to that which is simply the highest good and end ; so that neither God , nor the love of God is principally and lastly to be referred to any thing else : because such love should be mercenary . Iohn 6. 26. Ye seeke me , because yee ate of the loaves and were filled . 19. Yet wee may love God as our reward . Genesis ▪ 15. 2. And with respect , of other good things , as of a reward . Gen. 17. 2. 20. The degree of Charity towards God ought to be the highest , first in respect of the object , or as they say objectively , that is , willing a greater good to him then to any . 2. In regard of esteeme , or as some speake , appretiatively , that is , preferring him and his will before all other things , even our own life . Matt. 10. 37. Luc. 14. 26. So that we rather choose to die then to transgresse even the least of his Commandements . 3. Intensively , that is , in respect of the vehement indeavour , in the application of all the faculties to the loving of God. Deut. 6. 5. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God , with all thy heart , and with all thy mind , and with all thy strength . 21. According to this description of Charity it is rightly said of some Divines , that God is only to be loved : that is , simply , by it selfe and according to all the parts of Charity ( namely with affection of good will , desire of Union , and wel-pleasednesse of enjoying in the highest degree ) although our neighbour also is to be beloved in a certaine respect , for another thing , in part and in a lower degree . 22. To this Charity is opposed that feare which hath torment , by the presence of God and feare of punishment to be in-flicted by him , 1 Iohn 4. 18. Perfect love casteth out feare : because feare hath torment . 23. Hence Charity being perfected casteth out feare . Ibid. Because that feare is an horror arising from the apprehension of evill , by reason of the presence of God : and so is opposed to Charity , which is caried unto God , as unto that which is absolutly good . 24. Secondly , there is opposed to it an enstranging from God , which is called by some hatred of abomination . Psalm 14. 3. Iohn 3. 20. They are all gone out of the way . He hates the light , for as Charity consists in affection of union , so this enstranging is in disjunction . But that hatred of God is most contrary to the love of God , which is called hatred of enmity . Iohn 13. 23 , 24 , 25. They have hated both me and my Father . For as the love of Charity is in good will : so this enmity against God , is in that that ungodly men doe desire and will ill to him if it might be , that he were not , or at least that he were not such an one as he is . 25. For although if God be apprehended so as he is in himselfe , he cannot be the object of hatred ; yet as he is apprehended as one that taketh vengeance on sinners , so far forth he is often hated of the same sinners : because in that respect he is most contrary to them , Ioh. 3. 20. Whosoever evill doth , hateth the light , neither commeth to the light , least his deeds be reproved . For as the love of God is in the godly the cause that they hate impiety contrary to God ; so the love of iniquity in the ungodly causeth that they hate God as contrary to their iniquity . 26. But the degrees by which men ascend to this height of ungodlinesse are these . 1. Sinners love themselves inordinatly . 2. They will that which pleaseth themselves , although it be contrary to the Law of God. 3. They hate the Law : because it is contrary to this desire . 4. They hate God himselfe who is the giver and author of such a Law. 27. The love of this world also is opposed to the Charity towards God. 1 Iohn 2. 15. Because this world agreeth not with God & his will. There Verse 16. If any love the world , the love of the Father is not in him . Because whatsoever is in the world is not of the Father . 28. For as the perfection of Charity is in this that the mind doth rest in God , so it must needs be against Charity that the minde doth rest in that which is contrary to God. 29. Charity is no more the forme of other vertues , then any vertue commanding or ordering the acts of another is the forme of it : but because those acts which in their nature doe not respect God are referred to him by Charity , and in him such acts are perfected , therefore by a metaphor it is not amisse called the forme of those acts , and of the vertues also from which they come . 30. But Charity cannot be the intrinse call forme of Faith : because in its nature it followes Faith as an effect followes the cause , it doth not goe before as a cause doth the effect . 31. Neither is faith extrinsecally directed toward God by love ; but in its proper and internal nature it respects God as its object . 32. Iustification of Faith doth in no sort depend upon Charity ( as the Papists will have it ) but upon the proper object of Faith. 33. Where Faith is said to worke by love . Gal. 5. 6. It is not because all efficacy of Faith depends upō charity as upon a cause : but because Faith doth shew forth and exercise its efficacy in the stirring up of Charity . 34. The particle , by , doth not there shew a formall cause : but as it were an instrumentall : as when God is said to regenerate us by the word . 35. That Faith which is without works is said to be Dead . Iames 2. 26. Not because the life of Faith doth flow from workes : but because workes are second Acts , 〈◊〉 flowing from the life of Faith. 36. Faith is said to be perfected by workes . Iames 2. 22. Not with an essentiall perfection , as the effect is perfected by the cause : but by a complemental perfection , as the cause is perfected , or made actually compleat , in the producing of the effect . 37. Because the object of Charity is the very goodnesse of God , as it is in it selfe , but Faith and Hope doe respect God as he is propounded to us to be apprehended : therefore that inclination of the mind toward God which belongs to Charity , doth more evidently and constantly appeare in weake believers , then the speciall acts of Faith or Hope : because the goodnesse of God is more manifest in it selfe , then the way of apprehending it ; which is represented to us in this life , as it were darkly . CHAPTER VIII . Of hearing of the Word . 1. FRom these vertues of Religiō towards God , Faith , Hope , and Charity , there ariseth a double act of Religion which respects that spirituall communion which is exercised betweene God and us : Hearing of the word , and Prayer . 2. The reason or foundation of this distribution is in this , that we doe affect God with religious worship , when we yeild him due honour , whether this be by receiving that which he him selfe propounds to us , or by offering that which may be received by him according to his perfection ; for in both respects we doe that which is immediatly , and directly honorable to God. 3. The first act of Religion therefore is about those things which are communicated to us from God : and the other is about those things which are yeilded to God from us . 4. Hearing the word is a religious receiving of the will of God. 5. Therefore hearing is here taken for any receiving of the words of God , whether they be communicated to us by preaching , or by reading , or any other way , because God is wont to worke in a singular manner , and by his own institution in the preaching and hearing of the Word . 6. Therefore this word ought not to be taken so strictly , that it should either chiefly , or necessarily include alwayes the outward sence of hearing : but that it may note any percieving of the will of God , and chiefly set forth an inward receiving and subjection . 7. The receiving of the Word consists of two parts , Attention of mind , and intention of will. 8. Attention is an applying of the understanding to perceive the revealed will of God. Acts 16. 14. The Lord opened the heart of Lydia , that she might attend to the things which were spoken by Paul. It is often called in the Scripture especially in the Old Testament , A seeking of the will of God , or of God himselfe , to set forth that great desire wherewith we should be carried to know Gods Will , as to the finding out of some thing which we can by no meanes want . Esay 58. 2. Yet they seeke me dayly , and delight to know my wayes ; as a Nation which doth righteousnesse and doth not forsake the judgement of their God , they inquire of me the ordinances of Iustice , they delight in approching to God. 9. In this attention there needeth that providence whereby we may discerne , what that is that God willeth . Rom. 12. 2. That yee may prove what is that good , pleasing , and perfect Will of God : which when it is perceived , we must not deliberate further , whether it be good , or to be observed or no : for the will of God itselfe is the last bound of all religious inquiry . Gal. 1. 15. 16. When it pleased GOD to reveale his Sonne in mee , I did not consult with flesh and blood . 10. Intention is an applying of our will to a religious observance of the will of God already perceived . Psal. 119. 106. I have sworn and will performe it , that I will keepe thy righteous judgement . 11. The purpose of the intention ought to be so strong and firme , that without all exception we be ready to observe whatsoever God will command . Ier. 42. 5 , 6. The Lord be a true and faithfull witnesse betweene us , if we doe not even according to all things for the which the Lord thy God shall send thee to us : whether it be good , or whether it be evill , we will obey the voyce of the Lord our God. 12. In respect of this intention the Law of God it selfe is said to be in the heart of a believer . Psal. 40. 9. & 119. 11. Ier. 31. 33. Heb. 8. 10. 13. This hearing that it may be right , ought to be from religious observance , bringing subjection of the inward acts , and inclinations of the mind . Romans 6. 17. From the heart yee obeyed that forme of doctrine to which yee were delivered . 14. But that it may be truly religious , It is requisite , first that it arise from Faith , whereby we believe that to be the word of truth which God reveales unto us , and also are accordingly affected toward it . Hebr. 4. 2. The word being heard did not profit them , not being mingled with Faith in them that heard it . Luc. 24. 32. Did not our hearts burne in us whilest he spake to us ? 15. By this Faith we cleave to the word . Psa. 119. 31. And the word it selfe cleaves unto , and is ingrafted in us , unto salvation , Iames 1. 21. That ingrafted word . 16. Secondly the same hearing must flow from that hope , whereby we doe embrace that which God hath promised as the word of life , also expecting life by it ▪ Deut. 32. 47. Iohn 5. 39. It is your life , yee looke in them to finde eternall life . 17. By this hope it comes to passe that the faithfull bring forth fruit with patience . Luc. 8. 15. 18. In like manner it must have love joyned with it , whereby we cleave to the same word , or to God revealing himselfe to us in that word as simply good . Psa. 119. 97. How doe I love thy Law. 1 Thess. 2. 10. They received not the love of the truth , that they might be saved . 19. In respect of this love the Word of God doth dwell plentifully in the faithfull , Colossians 3. 16. So as they are also transformed into the forme and fashion of it , Romans 6. 17. 20. Such an Hearing of the Word of God is the true , and proper worship of God. 1. Because it doth immediatly and directly bring spirituall honour to God , for although the act of hearing is most properly directed to our receiving of the Will of God , yet because in the manner of receiving we doe subject our consciences to God , therefore we give him that honour of power , and Divine truth in the aknowledgement whereof his religous worship is exercised . 2. Because it containeth a direct , and immediate , exercise of Faith , Hope , and Love , in which the worship of God doth most essentially consist . 21. Hence no word or sentence of men , ought to be mingled with the word of God , and propounded in the same manner with it , least by this meanes we doe in some sort worship men instead of God. 22. Unto this hearing that pride is most formally opposed whereby one doth so affect his owne excellency , that he will not be subject to the Will of God. For although this pride is contrary to humility of religion , and obedience , or obedience in generall , yet it seemeth to be most properly opposite to them in this act of religion : because a proud man , as he is such , is so far from subjecting himselfe to the will of another ; as to a Law , that he would have his own will in stead of a Law. Ierem. 13. 15. Heare and give eare : be not proud ; for the Lord hath spoken . Ier. 5. 5. They have broken the yoke , they have burst the bonds . 23. The proper act as it were of this pride is that contempt whereby one doth set at naught either God or the Will of God and observance of it , 2. Sam. 12. 9. Why hast thou despised the Word of the Lord , in doing that which is evill in his Eyes . 24. Hence pride is said to be the cause of all other sins , for a double reason . 1. Because all other sinnes are referred in a certaine manner to that excellency which is seene in pride as to an end . 2. Because pride casteth away from it selfe in contempt the government of the word , by the power whereof alone sin is avoyded . 25. Hence there is in every sin found some respect of pride , but especially in those which are committed upon deliberate counsell . 26. Hence also all consultation with the world ; flesh or wisdome of the flesh in those things which pertaine to religion , is opposed to the hearing of the Word . Romans 8. 7. Gal. 1. 16. 27. For as by pride men doe altogether reufse to subject themselves to the will of God : So by these consultations of those things which are not after God , they doe seeke to themselves as it were other Gods , to whom they may be subject . 28. The most accursed opposition to hearing of the word of God is in consulting with the Devills . Esay 8. 19. Deut. 18. 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15. Where a certaine religious Faith , and Hope due to God only is transferred either explicitly or implicitly to the enemies of God. 29. Hence it is that Faith is wont chiefly to be required in such consultations by those who are the masters of such Arts. 30. By vertue of this Faith there is a certaine covenant entred into with the Devill , with some religion ; if not openly and eypressively , at least secretly and implyedly . 31. But although one have not a direct intentation to aske counsell of the Devill , yet if he doe that which either of its owne nature , or by use and application which it hath doth infer a compellation of the Devill to receive his helpe or counsell , he is made partaker of the same sin . 32. Therefore all arts brought in by instinct of the Devill , for the knowing of secrets are in this respect to bee condemned . 33. All divination therefore which is neither grounded upon certaine revelation of God , not the course of nature ordained by God in things created , is to be condemned . 34. All applying of things or words either to predictions , or those operations to which they have no disposition , either by their nature , or Gods Ordinance , is to be condemned . 35. As the helpe of the Devill is sought by such like courses , they doe containe in themselves a certaine invocation of him , and so are opposed to calling upon God : but as certaine revelation is expected , or a submission of mind used to the receiving and executing his commands , so they are opposed to the hearing of the word of God. 36. This communion therefore with the Devill is not only in this respect unlawfull , because it is joyned with fraud and seducing , but also because of its own nature it is contrary to true religion . 37. For we have not civill communion or fellowship with the Devill : religious communion we cannot have , no not as some of old had with the good Angels , who are ministring spirits , for our good sent of God for that purpose . 38. Whatsoever therefore we doe with the Devill besides those things which pertaine to the resisting of him as the enemy of our soules , it makes to the violating of true religion , and is a certaine perverse religion . 39. If he seeme sometime to be subject to the command of men , by vertue of certaine inchantements , it is only a shew of subjection , that by that meanes he may more easily rule over men : therefore he doth not hinder , but only colour that religious subjection which men performe to him in that communion . 40. All those doe in part communicate with such sins , who by words , figures , & such like things of no sufficient vertue , doe desire to cure diseases in others , or suffer such things in themselves or others for that end . 41. Sympathies , and Antipathies , and specificall vertues which are found in some things are hereby differenced from such inchantements , in that the common experience of all men , doth acknowledge these : there is some Faith required in those ; but in these none . 42. A strong imagination doth peradventure concurre in many to make these meanes effectuall ; but that also doth often arise from a certaine religious Faith : neither can it effect any thing in parents for children , or in men for Cattell , without a certaine diabolicall operation accompanying it . 43. They that are most given to the hearing of the word , as they doe least of all care for such acts , so they doe receive the least fruit by them . CHAPTER IX . Of Prayer . 1. PRayer is a religious representing of our will before God , that God may be as it were affected with it . 2. It is an act of religion , because of its own nature it yeildeth to him that is prayed unto that sufficiency and efficiency of knowledge , power , and goodnesse which is proper to God. 3. Hence it cannot be directed to any other beside God only , without manifest idolatry . 4. It ariseth first from Faith. Rom. 10. 14. How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed ? Namely from that Faith whereby we doe believe that God is first omniscient , who knoweth all things , and so the inward affections and motions of our hearts , for in them chiefly the essence of Prayer doth consist : secondly , that he is omnipotent , who can doe what he will in fulfilling our desires ; thirdly , that he is the author and giver of every good thing : Fourthly , that he doth allow and accept our Prayer through Christ. 5. Hence all our Prayers are to be offered to God in the name and mediation of Christ , by the power of a justifying , Faith. Iohn 14. 13. 14. & 16. 23. Whatsoever ye shall aske of the Father in my name . 6. It ariseth also from that hope whereby we expect the fruit desired from our prayers from God. Rom. 8. 23. 26. We groane expecting the adoption : The spirit maketh request for us with groanes that cannot be expressed . 7. Lastly , it ariseth from Charity , whereby we desire both to partake of and celebrate the goodnesse of God. Psalme 34 4. 9. Magnifie the Lord with me , and let us extoll his name together . Tast and see that the Lord is good , blessed is the man that trusts in him . 8. Hence Charity to our neighbour also is necessarily required that Prayer be accepted of God. The fift petition of the Lords Prayer . 9. Prayer differs from hearing the word , in that hearing is conversant about the will of God , but Prayer about our will : in hearing the word we receive the Will of God , but in Prayer we offer our will to God , that it may be received by him . 10. But it is not a simple will or desire , but a representation of the will or the will exhibited and represented before God. For it is not sufficient to prayer , that we desire to have something , for so prophane men , because they doe most desire to have , should pray most ; but there is required also a desire to obtaine that of God , and a wil to seeke the same of him , and then a representing or insinuating of this desire before God. 11. But this representation is done first and essentially in the will it selfe , as it being converted to God , doth as it were by an act stretched forth , represent unto him its inclination and desire . 12. Hence the Prayers of the godly are called in the Scriptures desires , Psal. 10. 17. And unspeakeable groanes Rom. 8. 26. 13. In the second place and by way of signe ; this representation is made in the understanding , as it conceiving an inward word , doth expresse the affections of the will before God. 14. Hence the prayers of the faithfull are also called words , and speeches whereby they speake to God , not first and chiefly outwardly , but inwardly . Hos. 14. 2. Take unto you words , and turne unto the Lord. Say unto him , pardon , &c. 15. Prayer therefore is formally an act of the will : yet withall there is required to it both an antecedent act of the mind whereby we understand , what , of whom , for what , and how we must pray ; and a consequent act whereby we conceive and expresse with a certaine word of the mind , prayer it selfe . 16. Hence together with intention or the act of the will , there is also required attention in Prayer , both to God to whom we pray , and to the thing whereof we pray , and also to the Prayer it selfe ; for we must not only pray with the Spirit , but with understanding also . 1 Corinthians 14. 15. I will pray with the spirit , I but will pray with understanding also . 17. This representation must be submisse and humble , for otherwise it would not be a religious praying directed from a subject Creature to the highest God and Creator , but either a command of a superior to an inferior , or a familiar conference as it were , such as is among equalls . Gen. 18. 27. Behold now I would speake unto the Lord , although I am dust and ashes . Psalme 95. 6. Come let us bow , and fall downe , and bend the knees before the Lord that made us . 18. The generall end of Prayer is , that we may as it were affect or move GOD ; whence it is that the faithfull are said by their prayers as it were mightily to prevaile with God , Genesis 32. 28. Hos. 12. 4 , 5. And as it were to strike , Rom. 15. 30. 19. For although that difference is true which some put between those prayers which are directed to men , and those which are made to God : that they that pray to men doe affect those to whom they pray , and in some measure dispose them to that which they desire : but those who pray to God , doe not so much affect God as themselves , and dispose themselves to those things they desire : yet God is pleased so to commend the force and efficacy of Prayer to us , that he declares himselfe to be affected , and as it were moved with it . And that because our prayer is the meanes , by the interceding of which , and no otherwise , God will Communicate many things unto us , whence also they who aske some thing of GOD , are said to affoord helpe to effect it , 2. Cor. 2. 11. 20. For we doe not therefore pray to God that we may make knowne our desires to him not knowing them , who understands alwayes a far off . Psal. 139. 2. That is , when as yet they are not in our minds : neither that we may move him to our mind who was unwilling , with whom there is no change or shadow of turning . Iames 1. 17. But that we may by our prayer obtaine that of him which we believe he is willing to . 1. Iohn 5. 14. This is our confidence which we have towards God , that if we aske him any thing according to his will , he heareth us . 21. Hence the firmenesse and unchangeablenesse of Gods providence doth not take away , but establish the prayers of the faithfull , and the most sure apprehension of it by Faith doth not make the true believers slothfull , but doth more stir them up to pray . 1. Chr. 17. 25 , 26 , 27. Thou O my God , hast revealed to the eare of thy servant , that thou wilt build him an house . Therefore hath thy servant been bold to pray before thee , &c. 22. Hence also we must pray instantly and continually ; instantly , because our prayer is a necessary meanes for Gods glory , and our good . Continually , because such a disposition of will is never to be cast off , and the act of it also is daily to be exercised , as occasion is offered to us . 23. The adjuncts of Prayer are confession , and a promise made to God : for these two are alwayes either expresly or implicitly used in every acceptable Prayer to God , and in every part of it . 24. For because we doe by Prayer fly unto the mercy of God , as to the fountaine of all good , either communicated , or to be communicated to us , in so doing we confesse that we are miserable in our selves and destitute of all good , because also we endeavour as it were , to affect and move God by our desires ; therefore also we professe that our minds are sutably affected about the same things , and doe promise them to be so affected for time to come ; neither can such like affections be absent from our prayers , without a certaine mocking of GOD. 25. Confession is an humble and penitentiall acknowledgement of our offence , gultinesse and misery . Ps. 32. 5. 26. The end and use of this confession is . First , that God may be justified and may have glory in his judgements . Psa. 51. 6. Secondly , that we may be disposed to obtaine the glory of God. Psal. 3. 25. Thirdly , that the grace that is granted , may more clearely appeare . 27. The manner is divers , according to the diversity of sinners . For sins not knowen , are to be confessed generally . Psa. 19. 13. But knowen sins specially , even according to the nature and grievousnesse of every one , Ezra . 9. 14. 28. A promise required in Prayer is a testifying of a purpose agreeable to Prayer . 29. This purpose is a determination of the will to prosecute that with an earnest endeavour , which we pray to God that it may be , Psal. 119. 106. 112. Compared with the following verses . 30. But wee prosecute that wee pray for , both by those meanes which of their own nature are necessary to that end , and also by other meanes , the determination whereof depends upon contingent circumstances , and upon our election . 31. A promise of the latter kind made to God distinctly , and upon deliberate counsell , is by a certaine appropriation called a vow . 32. Hence every vow must be , First , of a thing neither impossible , nor simplie necessary , but which may be freely performed according to our pleasure by the ordinary favour of God. Secondly , of a thing neither evill nor vaine , but lawfull and good in respect of all circumstances . Thirdly , it must be referred only to God as the object to whom we vow , and to his honour as the prime end , although it may be ordered to ours , and others edification and use . 33. Prayer in respect of the manner is either ejaculatory , or a short lifting up of the desire , where the mind doth either not wholy , or not long attend Prayer . Psal. 129. 8. Nehem. 2. 4. Or a continued order of Praying . 34. That ought to be more frequent , as that which cannot be hindered by ordinary businesses ; but this must be at set times , as being more solemne , and not admitting the distraction of other thoughts . 35. But both of them is either mentall , or vocall . 36. Mentall is that which is performed in the will , mind , and affection , without any signe purposely adjoyned . Nehem. 2. 4. 1. Sam. 1. 13. 37. Vocall is that which draweth forth the inward desire of the mind even in words . Hos. 14. 2. 38. The voyce is oft times necessary in prayer to expresse , stirup , continue , and increase the inward affection of the mind : for although the affection ought to goe before the voyce , and the voyce to be conformable to the affection ; yet whilest that it is religiously expressed by the voyce , it hath a certaine reflexion upon the mind it selfe , whereby it is more enkindled , and getteth greater strength . The voyce also is necessary in its measure , that the body may together with the soule be exercised in this part of religion . 39. Hence therefore neither is that speech to be used which he that prayeth understandeth not , and whereby he cannot expresse his conceivings ; for such a repeating of unknowen words is not properly the speech of a man , because it is no more formed of the inward conceivings then those words which are sometime uttered by a Parrot , and so it cannot distinctly expresse the inward conceivings of the mind , in which prayer doth primarily consist . 40. Neither also must the speech be long , or repeating the same thing often . Mat. 6. 7. Unlesse it be out of the abundance of the heart ; for then neither long prayers , nor divers repeatings are vaine or to no purpose ; but most acceptable to God : as doth sufficiently appeare by approved examples of such prayers which are mentioned in the Scriptures . 41. Neither finally ought there to be such care of words which may any way diminish due attention , either to God , or to the subject matter , or to the inward affection of the mind . 42. In vocall prayer if it be solemne , there are also those gestures required which become the majesty of God , our basenesse , and the nature of the matter it selfe . 43. Vocall prayer is either in prose , or in Meter . 44. In meter singing is joyned , and therefore there must be more care of the speech and tone , then in prose . 45. But the melody of singing is ordained for a certaine spirituall delight , whereby the mind is detained in the meditation of the thing that is sung . 46. For there is a more distinct meditation comes between the word , and the lifting up of the heart , then in other prayers : so that the next and immediat fruit of a Psalme , is our edification in Faith and obedience . 47. Yet because the lifting up of the heart to God is together required , Simul & consequenter , and going along with the thing that is sung , and it is also the end of that meditation ; therefore we are said to sing in our heart to the Lord , Col. 3. 16. And Psalmes that are sung have the consideration of Prayers . 48. But because this religious melody hath the respect of prayers : therefore it is not so fit , that the decalogue , and other such like which doe not partake the nature of prayer be turned into Meter , and be sung in stead of Psalmes . 49. But because singing doth immediatly respect our edification , and also doth set forth in its own nature , a certaine gladnesse of the mind , Iames 5. 13. therefore the very same gestures which are meet in other prayers , are not required in such like exercises . 50. Secondly , prayer is either solitary , or with others . 51. In that which is had with others if it be prose , one goeth before in voyce , and the rest follow in affection , and Faith , which they ought to declare , in the end , by saying , Amen . Nehem. 8. 7. 1. Cor. 14. 16. 52. Hence , Alternatio precum enterchanging of prayers by Anthemes : distribution of parts betweene the Minister and People ; and repeating of words propounded by the Minister , by the subsequent voyce of the people , is not to be approved . 53. But in the melody of singing , because it tendeth to our mutuall edification , attention , and stirring up of pious affections among us one toward another , Col. 3. 16. Therefore all doe joyne their voyces together . 1. Chronicles 16. 35. Marc. 14. 26. 54. In those prayers which are had with others , such speech must be used which is understood of others . 1. Co. 14. 55. Hence that broken musick which excludes understanding , must be absent from those sacred exercises of piety at least which we have with others . 56. The kinds of prayer are two , Petition , and thanksgiving . Phil. 4. 6. In every thing let your requests be made knowne to God in prayers , and deprecation , with giving of thankes . 57. Petition is a prayer of that which is wanting , that we may obtaine it Matthew 7. 7. Aske , and it shall be given you : Seeke , and yee shall finde ; Knock , and it shall be opened to you . 58. Alwayes that which we aske is wanting , either wholy , or in part , or in our feeling , or finally in respect of the act , or in respect of the continuance of it . 59. Hence , a sence of our emptinesse and want , together with an apprehension of sufficiency , whereby our insufficiency may be supplied , is necessarily required to make a petition aright . 60. The vertue and efficacy of petition is not in deferring , or in satisfying , as the Papists would have it , but in impetration onely . 61. To impetrate is properly to have the force of a meanes to obtaine some good freely from another . 62. Therefore all good works , or all observance , although as it flowes from Faith , hath some power to obtaine blessings from God by vertue of that promise , whereby he appointeth a free reward to them ; whence also Reall Prayer distinguished from vocall & mentall , is called by some a good worke , although very improperly : yet petition , doth obtaine in a speciall manner , not only as it is a chiefe part of obedience , but also because it hath in its proper nature this end and use , as it is a formall act of Faith and hope , by which we receive all good things from God. 63. But this impetration doth not properly respect the justice of God , but his mercy and kindnesse . 64. Hence we receive every good thing we aske , not from the hand of justice , but grace . 65. Petition , because it doth most formally flow from Faith and Hope , therefore it is in the same manner conversant about good things to be asked as those vertues are conversant about their secundary objects , that is , those things which they apprehend , are to bee communicated to us from God. 66. Hence those things onely are to be asked absolutly which are necessary for Gods glory and our salvation : but other things with a secret subjection to the most wise disposing of God. 67. Hence both the manner , and particular time to communicate this or that upon us , ought not to be prescribed to God in our prayers ; yet it is lawfull to pray God to heare us speedily , Psalme 102. 3. Heare me speedily . Because hee hath promised to doe this , Luke 18. 8. Hee will avenge them quickly . Yet wee may not define the fit time of this hastening . 68. But because petition flowes also from Charity , hence those things also are to be desired , and asked in prayers , which doe most make to the celebration of the glory and goodnesse of God. 69. Hence also we aske not only for our selves , but for all other also , who either or may be pertakers with us of the same goodnesse of God. 1. Tim. 2. 1 , 2 , 3. 70. The Patriarchs and Prophets did not only in their blessings pray well when they uttered their desires , but also did promise well in the name of the Lord ; the Hebrew words are wont to containe both , Let God give , or God shall give . Gen. 27. 30. 71. Therefore although we may not peculiarly pray for the dead , because such prayer hath neither precept nor commendable example in Scriptures , nor finally any use or end : neither may we pray for all and every one living collectively that they may be saved ; because we know the contrary is determined by God ; yet we ought not wholly to reject any man living in particular from the communion of our prayers , neither for any enmity , nor for conjectures , or probable signes of reprobation . 72. Petition is twofold according to the respect of the object or thing which is asked for it is either Apprecation , or Deprecation . 73. Apprecation is petitioning for good things to be communicated . 74. Deprecation is petition for evill things to be removed . Intercession which is joyned to these two , 1. Tim. 2. 1. is a peculiar manner of deprecation , namely , when that evill which we desire to be removed is placed in some injury , done by men . 75. Unto deprecation there belongs , Complaints and lamentations , as adjuncts of it . 76. Complaint is a signification of our griefe , of miseries as they are injuriously inflicted by men . 77. Unto these complaints imprecation is sometime joyned , whereby we wish some evill to those who are authors of evill . But this is ordinarily no further lawfull , then as it hath the force of deprecation , for the removing some greater evill by that evill which we wish to them , but the propheticall imprecations were also predictions . 78. Lamentation is a signification of our griefe , of those miseries as they are sent by God. 79. Sometime fasting is added to deprecation as an outward adjunct . 80. Fasting is an abstinence from the helpes and comforts of this life , whereby humility is shewed as it were in a reall confession , and we are made the more fit to make more effectuall prayers . 1. Cor. 7. 5. Ioel 1. 14 , 15 , 16. Dan. 9. 2. 3. 81. Hence fasting considered by it selfe is not a good worke , and part of our obedience toward God , but as it disposeth us to make more free , ardent , and more continued Prayers . 82. Hence also the same measure and time of fasting is not equally profitable , and necessary to all and every one . 83. Finally hence that way of fasting is most religious , when the whole mind is so attent to seeke God , that thereby it is called a way from the thought and care of those things , which pertaine to the life present . 84. Thanksgiving is prayer , of those things which we have received , that the honour may be given to God. Ps. 50. 15. 23. I will deliver thee , that thou mayst glorifie me . He that offereth praise doth glorifie me . 85. It is Prayer no lesse then petition , because whilest we give thanks to God , we doe represent our will with a religious submission before God , that he may be as it were affected or moved , although not properly , to that end that we may receive something from God , but rather that we may refer something we have received unto him . 86. It is most properly of those things which we have received : because we must first be affected with the sence of a benefit , before wee can give thankes to GOD in respect of it . 87. Yet thankes must be given , not only for those things which we have actually and really received , but also for those things we apprehend by Faith and Hope ; partly because the promise it selfe of these things is a benefit , which in some sort is already said to be bestowed ; and partly because the things promised are apprehended with that certainty , that they doe affect the mind as things present . 88. Also that celebration of the praises of God belongs to thancksgiving , which is exercised about those perfections which are in God himselfe , and doe shine forth in his works ; but with a certaine respect to those things we have received , namely as those perfections are arguments that doe either illustrate that good which wee have received , or confirme the bestowing of it , Rev. 4. 8 , 9. Holy , holy , holy , Lord God Almighty — the living Creatures gave glory , and honour , and thanksgiving to him who sate upon the Throne . 89. Hence for the right performance of thanksgiving there is required . 1. A knowledge of the blessings of God. 2. An applying of them to our selves by Faith and Hope . 3. A due estimation of them , together with an affection beseeming . 90. The proper end of thanksgiving is to give the honour to God , for all those things which we have received . Psal. 50. 15. For if we so thinke of the good things we have received , that we either rest in them , or glory in our selves , or ascribe them only to second causes , then thanksgiving is corrupted . 91. Hence thanksgiving is a secundary end of every religious petition : for he that doth rightly aske any thing of God , doth not only aske therefore that he may receive , much lesse that he may spend it upon his lusts , Iames 4. 3. But that that which is received may be againe referred to the glory of God who gave it . 2. Cor. 1. 11. You helping together by prayer for us , that for the gift bestowed upon us by the meanes of many persons , thankes may be given by many on our behalfe . 92. Hence in every petition , thanksgiving for that benefit which is asked , is expresly or implicitly promised . 93. Hence thanksgiving in it selfe is more perfect and more noble then petition : because in petition oft-times our good is respected , but in giving of thanks Gods honour only . 94. Hence thanksgiving is more attributed to the Angells , and to the blessed Spirits in the Scriptures , then petition . 95. By this act we are said not only to praise , and celebrate God , but also to extoll , blesse , magnifie , and glorifie him , and the like : all which are so to to be understood , that they seth forth only a declaration , not a reall effecting of those things they make shew of . 96. If thanksgiving be more solemne , there must be sometimes a cheerfull solemnity joyned with it . Esth. 9. 19. For as a fasting when we deprecate a greater evill doth both cause , and testifie our humiliation to be the greater ; so in solemne joy for some speciall good communicated to us , outward mirth if it be moderate , and within the bounds of Temperance , doth make and testifie the same to be the greater . 97. Evills as evills can neither be the object of petition nor thansgiving : yet afflictions as they are so directed by God , that they doe worke together for our good , may have the respect of both . CHAPTER X. Of an Oath . 1. THere be two manners of petition to be used upon occasion , which were brought in by reason of mans infirmity : an Oath , and a Lot. 2. But because these two manners are brought in upon such occasion , therefore they must not be usually frequented , but then only to be used where humane necessity requireth , and a waighty and just cause is in hand . 3. An Oath is a requesting of Gods Testimony to confirme the truth of our testimony . Heb. 6. 13. 16. Men sweare by him who is the greater : and an Oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife . 4. An Oath became necessary after the fall of man , because man by 〈◊〉 had lost both that credit which ought to be given to his simple testimony , and that also which he ought to have given to the testimony of others . 5. That infirmity of man in giving credit to the testimony of others , is so great that it was in a māner necessary for God himselfe also to demeane himselfe to confirme his testimonies by the forme of an Oath . He. 6. 13. 17. Which was more then needed in respect of Gods faithfulnesse , but not in respect of humane infirmity . 6. Yet God seeing he hath not any greater or superior Judge , Heb. 6. 13. He cannot properly sweare , but this is prescribed to him metaphorically : because all that perfection of confirmation which is found in the Oathes of men , doth most perfectly agree to those testimonies of God. 7. But Gods Testimony is worthily called upon to confirme truth : because he is the highest truth who can neither deceive nor be deceived , Heb. 6. 18. It cannot be that God should lie . 8. Hence in an Oath the worship of religion is given to God , as he is both acknowledged the Author of truth , and to be conscious of all our roughts , as to whose eyes those things are naked and open which are most secret to all Creatures , & the rewarder of truth & falshood , and who provides for all things by an admirable providence , as being the living God. Deut. 6. 13 Feare the Lord thy God , and worship him , and sweare by his name . 9. Hence we may not sweare by any Creature , but by God alone , who only is omniscient , the only law giver , and rewarder of those things which pertaine to conscience , and finally to be only religiously worshipped . Mat. 5. 34. 35. & 23. 21. 22. Iames 5. 12. 10. Yet every thing considered in an Oath is not properly the worship of God , because it doth not directly tend to give honour to God : but to confirme the truth ; but that request which is made in an Oath is worship , and in that respect to sweare by the true God , doth sometime in Scripture set forth true worship . Deut. 6. 13. Esay 48. 1. And an Oath it selfe is wont to be called worship . 11. In this requesting of the testimony of God , he who sweares doth make himselfe subject to Gods vengeance and curse , if he give false testimony , that is , if wittingly he deceive . Hence in every Oath there is implicitly or expresly an imprecation or cursing contained , Nehem. 10. 30. 2. Cor. 1. 23. Entred into a curse and an Oath . I call God to witnesse against my soule . 12. Hence is that forme of swearing , which is very frequent in the old Testament . So doe God to me , and more also in which words there is a generall or indefinite curse contained , that the way of inflicting the evill may be committed to God. 13. Therefore there is so great religion of an Oath that it may admit no equivocation or mentall reservation ; which things may have their place in play or ligher Iesting , but cannot be used in the worship of God without great impiety . For this is nothing else but to mocke at GODS Iudgement . 14. Hence also there can no release , properly so called , commuting , or dispensation , and absolution from an Oath , come from man : although some oathes which were either unlawfull from the beginning , or afterward become so , may be by men pronounced to be void . 15. Because it is a testimony of a thing done , or to be done , therefore an Oath that confirmes a testimony is distinguished into an assertory , and promissory Oath . 16. An assertory Oath is of a thing past , or present . 2. Cor. 1. 23. A promissory Oath under which a comminatory is contained , is of a thing to come . 1. Samuel 20. 12 , 13 , 14. 17. An assertory Oath , because it is of a thing already done , doth not bind to doe any thing , but doth only confirme the truth of the thing done . 18. But this assertion doth immediatly respect the judgement of him that sweareth , being grounded on those arguments which are wont to be called infallible , so as an Oath that agrees with such a judgement , is to be accounted for true , although it should differ from the thing it selfe : because it doth not respect the thing it selfe , but by meanes of such a judgement : whence also the Romans did use that most considerate word I thinke , even then when being sworne they spake those things which they were sure of . 19. A promissory Oath hath in it the force of an assertory Oath , as it tes●…ifieth a present firme intention of the mind , but it doth moreover bind to doe that which is declared to be intended . 20. But it binds so far only as one can bind himselfe , that is , to that which both Defacto & dejure in deed and in right , he may performe , and so must be alwayes of a thing lawfull and possible . 21. Such an Oath bindeth to the fulfilling of it , although the Oath was unlawfull in respect of the manner , or the thing promised bring dammage with it to him that promised . Ios. 9. 19. Ps. 15. 4. 22. But if the Oath be against the Commandements of God , it doth not bind : because an Oath ought not to be a bond of iniquity . 23. Yet an Oath made in some manner against the command of God doth sometime bind , as when the Iewes to whom freedome was promised , did sweare to be subject to strangers into whose power they came . 24. A promissory Oath whereby something is promised to man only for his sake , doth cease to bind , if he to whom the promise is made , doth either remit or take away that fou●…dation whereupon it was grounded . 25. An Oath is lawfull and honest for Christians . 1. Because it is of the Law of nature , or morall Law which is not abrogated . 2. Because it pertaines to Gods honour , and Charity to our neighbour . 3. Because there are commendable examples of Oathes used even in the new . Testament . 2. Cor. 1. 23. Rev. 6. 10. 26. Christ in the fifth of Matthew doth not condemne every Oath , but such as are rash , indirect , and made by the Creatures . 27. Iames Chap. 5. Ver. 12. Doth condemne the same abuse of an Oath , and not all swearing , whereby his repeating the words of Christ he doth manifestly shew , that those words of Christ sweare not at all , doe make one sentence with those that follow ; neither by Heaven , &c. And so are to be understood as joyned together , not divided asunder . 28. Amen , Amen is not a forme of swearing , but only of a grave asseveration . Those words , Hebr. 6. 14. Surely blessing I will blesse thee , doe not containe the forme , but the matter only of that Oath which is , Gen. 22. 16. 17. neither doth the word , Amen , appeare there , either in the Greeke or Hebrew , as some have rashly imagined . 29. The words of an Oath are to be interpreted in the Court of conscience , according to the meaning of him that swore , if he dealt simply and candidly : if not , then according to his meaning , whom he would deceive , or to whom he sware . But in the outward Court the words of them that sweare , are to bee taken as they are commonly understood . 30. A perjured man is not to speake properly , but such an one , that either sweares against his conscience or witt●…ngly and willingly departs from that which he did lawfully sweare . 31. Faith that is confirmed by a lawfull Oath , is to be kept , the same circumstances remaining , even to enemies , theeves , and Pirates : for if the respect of the persons doth not make the Oath unlawfull : it cannot make it of no force . 32. An Oath that is extorted by feare , doth not cease to bind in that respect : because those acts which are said to be extorted from a man by feare , if they proceed from counsell , they are simply voluntary , although not absolutly Spontaneous , or of good will. 33. They that doe not use reason so as they cannot understand the nature of an Oath , are not capable of an Oath . 34. To require an Oath of him who will sweare by false Gods , is not of it selfe a sin . Gen. 31. 53. 35. An Oath of a Christian ma●… given concerning his innocency , which cannot be reprehended by any certaine arguments , ought to put an end to controversies pertaining thereto . Exod. 22. 11. Heb. 6. 16. 36. A simple Oath made only in words binds as the most solemne Oath . 37. That solemnity which is used in some places in touching and kissing a booke , is altogether of the same sort with the lifting up or stretching forth of the hand , that is , it signifies a consent to sweare , and to the Oath it selfe . 38. The putting of the hand under the thigh of him that required an Oath , Gen. 24. 2. was not for any mysticall significatiō of Christ , but for a signe of subjectiō . 39. Adjuring is ( to speake properly ) that whereby one doth draw another either to sweare , Gen. 24. 8. Or to that rel●…gion which is in an Oath . Numb . 5. 21. Matthew . 26. 63. 1. Thess. 5. 27. 40. Therefore it doth most properly pertaine to those who have power to require an Oath of others , although in a certaine proportion it is also extended to that religious obtestation , which inferiors sometime use towards their superiors , and equalls among themselves . 41. To adjure the Devills , is to exercise command over them , and so it is not lawfull for any to exercise adjuration toward them , unlesse he have received speciall power from God to that purpose . 42. Those exorcismes which were used before Baptisme even in the time of the Fathers , were superstitious . 43. The adjurings , or exorcisings of things without life , and consecrations of them to supernaturall operations and uses , such as the Papists use in their holy Water , Temples , Bells and the like , are superstitious inchantments . 44. The adjuring of a man to accuse himselfe for any crime objected ( which is used in that Oath which is called the Oath of Inquisition or Ex ●…fficio ) hath neither ground in the Scriptures , and is against the law of nature . 45. Neither is an indefinite adjuring to answer to all such things , as shall be demanded simply to be admitted . CHAPTER XI . Of a Lot. 1. A Lot is a requesting of a Divine testimony to decide some controversy , by the determining of an event to be manifested in a meere contingency . Pro. 16. 33. The Lot is cast into the lap : but the whole disposition of it is of the Lord. And 11 , 18. A Lot maketh contentions to cease , and decideth among the mighty . 2. We call it a request : because it hath that nature , that it expects that use to which it serves from God alone ; and in that respect it hath an immediate respect to his providence . 3. We define it by contingency , that we may avoid the error of those , who place the common consideration of a Lot in that manner of the efficient cause , whereby it is said to work by fortune . 4. For there are many fortuitous causes which doe altogether differ from the consideration of a Lot : as when he finds gold , who digging sought for coles : also there are many Lots wherein fortune is no acting cause , as when the Lot depends upon the flying of birds , or some such like effects , which is produced by a cause that workes of its owne power . 5. Neither can it be Logically defended , that the very cast of a Die , or some such like effect upon which depends the consideration of a Lot , is alwayes beside the intention or scope of the agent , which yet is necessarily required , to fortuitous chance . 6. But we doe not place a Lot simply in contingency , but in meere contingency : because there are three degrees of things contingent : some often happening , some seldome , and some so far as we can understand , equally having themselves on either part : for in other Contingents there is some place left to conjecture by art : but in meere contingency there is none . 7. It is not therefore a fortuitous manner of the efficient cause which is said to rule in Lots , but either that blind fortune which was made a g●…ddesse by prosane men , and placed in Heaven , or the speciall providence of God , working that way that is hidden to us . 8. But seeing that in every Lot there is sought the determination of some question or controversy , and it is sought by meere contingency , in it selfe and in respect of us , altogether undetermined ; it must needs be , that the very determination it selfe ( whatsoever the actuall intention of men shall be ) be from the nature of the thing alwayes sought from an higher power , having power to direct such contingencies , by certaine counsell : and so in very deed the use of a Lot is an appealing alwayes either to the true God , or to some faigned power , which is wont to be set forth by many by the name of fortune . 9. When therefore our Divines doe teach that there is a certaine extraordinary providence of God set over all Lots , they are not so to be taken , as if either those that used Lots did alwayes directly , and distinctly respect such a providence , or as if God did alwayes exercise such a providence : but that the Lot it selfe , of its own nature hath a certaine respect to the singular , and extraordinary providence of God in directing of an event meerly conting●…nt , and in this sence their sentence is most true . 10. For seeing that in a Lot some judgement is expected by the common consent of all , and there is no power of giving judgement in contingent events , neither is there any other fortune judging then the certaine providence of God , it must needs be that this judgement be in a singular manner expected , from Gods providence . 11. Neither can meere contingency it selfe have the respect of a principall cause in deciding any questio●… : neither can man to whom the event it selfe is meerly contingent , direct it to attaine such an end . It must needs be therefore that such direction be expected of some superior director . 12. Ad hereunto , that such is the order of proceeding in mans inquiry , that when men desire some questiō to be determined , & they have not certaine meanes in their power for this determination , they seek it from some superior power : unto which manner of proceeding the consideration of a Lot doth altogether agree . 13. Neither can it stand , that he that worketh by counsell , intending a certaine end and scope , by certaine reason , can subject his action , either to fortune or meere continge●…y as it is such : for so consell should be without knowledge , and indifferency undetermined should bee a meanes of a cause determined . 14. Such an expectation and respect to the singular providence of God is manifestly taught . Prov. 16. vers 33. Whilest the action of every man about a Lot , is affirmed to be bounded in meere contingency . The Lot is cast into the lap , and in accurate discerning the whole judgement is referred to GOD. But all the disposition of it is from the Lord. 15. For although all things are otherwise referred unto Gods providence in the Scriptures : yet nothing is wont to be referred unto it with such discerning , unlesse it have a certaine singular respect unto it . 16. Neither doth it any thing hinder , that the Hebrew word Mischphath is sometime wont to signifie another thing beside Iudgement : because it must alwayes be taken according to the subject matter ; and there is a certaine judgement given to Lots by all who describe the nature of them . 17. Hence therefore a Lot ought neither to be used rashly , nor in sporting or lighter matters , nor in those controversies which are either vainer , or can be decided fitly by other ordinary meanes . 18. Neither theresore it is to be used ordinarily or without speciall revelation , to divining , nor to consult of alright , nor ordinarily of a deed that is past , but of a division to be made , or of an election lawfull on both sides , which cannot otherwise be so fitly determined , that they whom it concernes would be pleased . 19. The opinion of them who defend playing Lots is sufficiently refuted by this one reason , that ( by the consent of all ) a Lot hath a naturall fitnesse to aske counsell of Gods providence in a speciall manner . For it cannot be that one and the same action of its own nature should be specially apt to so sacred an use , and yet withall should be applied to jests , and playes . 20. That reason whereby it is contended , that the use of a Lot is lawfull in light and playing matters , because it is lawfully used in those civill controversies which are of lesser moment , hath no consequence : for although those civill controversies in which a Lot hath place , of themselves are not great , yet are made very great by the consequences joyned with them or adhering to them : which cannot be affirmed of those spirring contentions . 21. The tithes of the living Creatures . Lev. 27. 32. The orders of priestly and Leviticall administrations , 1. Chron. 26. 13 , 14 , &c. Luc. 1. 9. Might bring with them great inconveniences , unlesse they had been determined by some Divine sentence : and in that respect they were appointed by Lot by Gods institution . 22. It doth not appeare from the nature of Lots , that they doe most agree to the lightest things : for although we may not expect Gods speciall determination unlesse we have before done so much as in us is to decide the question , propounded by ordinary meanes , yet by that our indeavour waightinesse is either not removed from the controversie it selfe , or not to be committed to a Lot. 23. The very nature of a Lot is holy , as of an Oath : therefore there is no need that it should receive speciall sanctification from any speciall institution . For although that contingency which is as it were the matter of a Lot , is not of its owne nature holy , as neither Bread nor Wine ought to be so esteemed ; yet in application to its use , it putteth on a certaine sanctity , as the words of an Oath , and the elements in the Sacraments . 24. It is indeed free for Christians to use the Creatures to those ends to which they are naturally apt , or made apt : But meere contingency hath no aptitude of it selfe to determine any question , neither doth it take any aptitude by the consent of them who use it to that end . For in those Lots which are called extraordinary , and are acknowledged to depend upon God , & not upon men ; the same consent is had in the same manner , and yet it addes nothing to a Lot. 25. None can shew that a Lot is indifferent , unlesse he shall first demonstrate that there is in it no speciall appealing to Gods providence . 26. Although also the matter of sporting things , is not tied to this or that kind of indifferent actions , yet it hath those bounds set to it selfe , that it can have no place in those things which doe singularly pertaine to communion with God. 27. It is altogether vaine which is objected , that a Lot often repeated will have a divers event : for neither is this likely , if a Lot can be rightly iterated , neither doth every appealing to Gods providnce necessarily bring with it his speciall operation : and yet God even out of order is read to have sometimes answered diversly to those , by whom he was unseasonably tempted , Numb . 22. 12. 20. Goe not with them : Arise , goe with them . 28. But much vainer it is to object in stead of an argument , that God cannot be drawen by us at our pleasure to exercise an extraordinary providence . For notwithstanding this , we may appeale to his extraordinary providence , when it pleaseth us . 29. Therefore playing at Dice is repugnant to religion , not only by the circumstances and by accident , but of its inward nature and in it selfe . 30. But under the name of the Dye are those playes also comprehended , which are grounded on mere contingency , although they be afterward governed by wit , industry or some art , as in Table , and Cards . 31. But those humane exercises which are grounded upon art , but are in part subject to casualty in the progresse , doe greatly differ from Dice . 32. Whereas men are wont , by playing at Dice to be stirred up to swearings , cursings , and blasphemies , more then in other exercises , this commeth partly from the nature of the play it selfe : because the Lo●… being often reiterated and often failing expectation , they thinke that that power which they imagine doth governe the Lot , is against them . 33. By the same reason also it comes to passe , that they that use those playes can scarse put an end or measure to them : because they who are inferior in the contention , have no reason to despaire of their Lot , and sodo persist in a pertinacious expectation of their wished successe . 34. Hence also those losses and inconveniences , by which other playes are wont to be made extrinsecally vitious , in di●… doe depend partly upon the veruy nature of the play . CHAPTER . XII . Oftempting of God. 1. TEmpting of God is in a singular manner opposed to hearing the word and Prayer . Psal. 95. 7 , 8 , 9. To day if yee will heare his voyce , harden not your heart , as in the provocation , as in the day of Tentation in the Wildernesse : where your fathers tempted me , proved me , and saw my workes . For seeing that in hearing the word and godly Prayer , we have communion with God , according to this will , if we seeke such like communion beyond his will , then we are properly said to tempt him . 2. To tempt God is to make triall of fome Divine perfection in an unlawfull manner . Psal. 95. 9. 3. This triall is sometime of the power of God , Psal. 78. 18. 19. They tempted God in their heart — and speaking against God , they said , Can God prepare a Table in the Wildernesse ? namely , when it is circumscribed by men , and bounds are set to it at their pleasure : at if he shall doe this or that , which they would have him , then let him be accounted omnipotent , otherwise not . Ps. 78. 41. Who tempted God , and limited the holy one of Israel . 4. Sometime triall is made of the Knowledge of God , as when men privily doe something doubting whether God know it or no , Ps. 94. 7. saying , the Lord seeth not , neither doth the God of Iacob regard . 5. Sometime it is of the presence of GOD. Exodus 17. 7. They tempted God , saying , Is the Lord among us or no ? 6. Sometime it is of the providence of God , when men leaving ordinary meanes appointed by God , doe yet expect that God should provide for them , at their desire , although he promised no such thing . Mat. 4. 7. 7. Sometime it is of the anger , justice and vengeance of God. 1. Cor. 10. 22. Doe we provoke the Lord to anger ? which kind of tempting is in all murmuring , and strife against God o●… those sent by God. 1. Cor. 10. 9. 10. Neither let us tempt Christ. Neither murmur yee ; whence Massah and Meribah were the names of the same place . Exodus 17. 7. 8. But tempting of God is sometime with an expresse intention to try God , as in unlawfull casting of Lots , and whensoever we presume that of God which he hath not promised . 9. Sometime it is with a secret and implied consent , namely when that is done which of it selfe and in its own nature tends to this , that God may be tried , although he that doth it thinke no such thing . 10. And this is done two wayes , First , when one willeth and expected any thing to be done , and in the meane while refuseth the meanes that are necessary for it : as they doe in naturall things who would have health or continuance of life , and reject medicines , or food : as they also in supernaturall things which would have grace and life , but neglect the Word of God , and Sacraments , with the like meanes of grace and salvation . Secondly , when one exposeth himselfe to danger without urgent necessity , from which he can in no wise or scarsly be delivered , except by a miracle from God : as they doe in naturall things often who seeke vaine glory in contemning death , and those in spirituall things who seeme as it were to love the occasions , and entisements to sinne . 11. This sinne doth oft times flow from doubting or unbeliefe : because he who seekes such triall of God , doth not sufficiently trust the revealed word of God : but will undertake a new way to know the will of God ; and so it is opposed to hearing the word , so far forth as it is to be received of us by Faith. 12. Sometime it flowes from despaire , when men not expecting the promises of God , by a disorderly hastening , will prescribe God , when and how he may satisfy their expectation : and so it is opposed to the hearing of the word , as it cherisheth divine hope in us . 13. Sometime also it flowes from a base esteeme and contempt of God : as when one playing and jesting will try whether God will manifest himselfe according to his desire : and so it is opposed to hearing of the word , as it hath in it a love , and fit esteeme of God. 14. It flowes also from a certaine arrogancy and pride , whereby we refusing to subject our wills to the Will of God , doe seeke to make his will subject to our lust . 15. But it comes most often from presumption , whereby one is confident that God will doe this , or that which he no where promised , or at least did not promise that he would doe in that manner and with those meanes that they expect ; whence also it is that every tempting of God is by some referred to presumption : and in respect of arrogancy it is opposed to prayer , wherein we doe humbly represent our will to God , that it may be performed by him as he pleaseth . 16. But it is alwayes opposed to some act of religion , wherby wee depend upon the will of God : because when we tempt God , we doe it that God may as it were depend upon our will. 17. To desire some speciall signe of God , with some speciall reason , inspiration , or instinct , is to tempt God , Matth : 16. 1. The Pharisees and Sadduc●…s tempting him , required him to shew them a signe from Heaven . 18. Yet to refuse a signe offered by God , is to tempt or weary him . Is. 7. 11 , 12 , 13. Aske a signe . I will not aske , neither will I tempt God. Yee weary my God. Humbly to seeke a signe of God about some particular necessary thing , which otherwise is not sufficiently manifested , a believer may sometime doe without sin . Gen. 15. 8. How shall I know that I shall inherit the Land ? 19. Proving or purging of a suspected offence by triall of hot Iron , scalding water and the like , are temptings of God : for there is a certaine miraculous shewing of the power of God expected or required in them to proove an hidden truth , without just cause : because there are other meanes appointed to find out mens faults , which also if they faile , such things may be unknowne without any fault . 20. Of the same kind are single Duells , or monomachies , which of old were permitted by publick authority , and are yet too much frequented : for in them the righteousnesse of the cause is committed to be decided by the singular providence of God from that successe which he is thought to give according to his Iustice , without any certaine and just reason . 21. Beside these temptings which doe properly pertaine to triall , there is also a tempting as it were of inducement , towards God , when there is required , or expected helpe from him to commit some hainous wickednesse . 20. Yet those inducements may fithly enough be referred to temptation of triall : because the Will of God is tried in them . They differ from others in this only , that that object about which the Will of God is tried , is an action in it selfe unlawfull , in which respect , the honour of God is specially hurt and violated : because together with the temptation there is joyned a certaine most foule mocking of God. 23. Tempting or proving of God is sometime taken in good part , and is commanded , Mat. 3. 10. Try me now in this , saith the Lord of Hosts . 24. But this tempting is an act of Faith , leading us to obey and practise those things which God hath commanded ; with expectation of that fruit and blessing which God hath promised . 25. This lawfull tempting of God doth put back all the tentations of the Devill . 26. That unlawfull tempting of God doth lay us open to the tentations of the Devill , neither are wee ever overcome by any tentation of the Devill , unlesse wee doe in a sort tempt God. CHAPTER XIII . Of instituted worship . 1. INstituted worship is the meanes ordained by the Will of God , to exercise and further naturall worship . 2. All such like meanes ordained of God are declared in the second Commandement , by forbidding all contrary meanes of worship devised by men , under the title of Graven and Image : which seeing they were of old the chiefe inventions of men corrupting the worship of God , they are most fitly ( by a Synechdoche frequent in the Decalogue ) put instead of all devises of mans wit pertaining to worship . 3. This worship doth not depend In specie , and immediatly upon the nature of God , or upon that honour w●…ch by vertue of our Creation we owe to God , but upon the most free institution of God. 4. Hence this worship was divers according to the divers constitution of the Church ; one befo●… Christ exhibited , and another after . 5. It is a meanes having relation to the naturall worship , otherwise it were not worship , because one cannot give that honour to God which is due to him , as touching the essence of the act any other way then by Faith , hope , and Love , whereby we doe receive from God with due subjection , those things he propounds to us to be received , & with the same subjectiō we offer to him those things which may be offered by us to his honour . But because the acts themselves are in a speciall manner exercised in those things , which God hath instituted for his honour , therefore there is in them a certaine secundary worship , and a certaine partaking of the former . 6. But it hath in respect to that naturall worship the affection of an effect , which existeth by vertue of the former : and of a meanes and instrument , whereby Faith , Hope , and Love , ( in which that worship is contained ) doe exercise their acts ; and of an adjuvant cause whereby they are furthered , and also of an adjunct to which thy are subjected . 7. But it is properly called worship , as it is a meanes and helping cause of that primary worship . 8. But because , the command of God being put , it depends and flowes from the primary worship of God , therefore it is oft perswaded , and urged by those arguments which are taken from the inward and essentiall manner of worshipping God , as in the second precept . They that love me , and keep by Commandements . Deut. 10. 12 , 13. What doth the Lord thy God require of thee , but that thou feare the Lord thy God , walke in all his wayes , & that thou love him , & worship the Lord thy God with all thy heart , and all thy soule : observing the precepts of the Lord , and his Statutes . 9. That rule therefore of interpreting the Scriptures which is wont to be delivered by some is not universally true ; that all those duties morall and immutable , which have morall and immutable reasons joyned to them ; except it be thus understood , that those duties doe follow upon those reasons , no speciall command coming betweene . Lev. 11. 44. I am the Lord your God , that sanctifie you , that ye may be holy , as I am holy ●…t defile not therefore your selves with any creeping thing . 10. No worship of this kind is lawfull , unlesse it hath God for the Author , and ordainer of it . Deut. 4. 2. & 12. 32. Keep you all things which I shall command you , Ad not to the word which command you , neither take from it , every thing which I command you observe to doe : ad not to it , nor take from it every thing which I command you observe to doe : ad not to it , nor take from . 1. Chron. 16. 13. Our Lord broke in upon us , because we did not seeke him aright . 11. That is declared in those words of the Commandement . Thou shalt not make to thy selfe : that is of thine own braine or judgement , for although that particle to thyselfe , doth sometimes either abound , or hath another force : yet here the most accurate brevity of these Commandements doth exclude redundancy , and it is manifest that the vanity of mans cogitations is excluded by other places of Scripture pertaining to the same thing . As Amos 5. 26. Which yee made to your selves . Numb . 15. 39. That yee follow not after your own heart and your own eyes , which when yee follow ; yee goe a whoring . 12. The same is also declared by that universality of the prohibition , which is explained in the Commandement by a distribution of the things which are in Heaven above , or in the Earth beneath , or in the Waters under the Earth . 13. For none beside God himselfe can either understand what will be acceptable to him : or can ad that vertue to any worship whereby , it may be made effectuall and profitable for us ; neither can there be any thing honorable to God , which comes not from him as the author of it , neither finally doe we read that such a power was at any time given to any man by God , to ordaine any worship at his own pleasure . Matthew 15. 9. In vaine doe thy worship me , ●…eaching for doctrines the precepts of men . 14. Hence implicitly and by interpretation of God himselfe , we make him our God , and give the honour due to God to him , whose authority or ordinances we subject our selves unto in religious worship . 15. In this respect also men are sometime said to worship the Devill , when they observe those worships which the Devill brought in . 1. Cor. 10. 20. Levit. 17. 7. Deut. 32. 17. 16. But we must observe that worship which God hath appointed with the same religion , as we receive his word or will , or call upon his name Deut. 6. 17 , 18. & 12. 25. 28. & 13. 18. & 28. 14. 17. The meanes which God hath ordained in this kind , some of them doe properly , and immediatly make to the exercising and furthering of Faith , Hope and Charity ; as publique and solemne preaching of the word , celebration of Baptisme , and the Lords Supper , and prayer . And some of them are meanes for the right performance of those former , as the combination of the faithfull into certaine Congregations or Churches , Election , Ordination , and Ministration of Ministers ordained by God , together with the care of Ecclesiasticall Discipline . 18. Those former are most properly the instituted worship of God ; yet the rest are also worship , not only in that generall respect , as all things are said to be acts of worship and religion , which doe any way flow from , or are guided by religion ; but also in their speciall nature , because the adequate end and use of them is , that God may be rightly worshipped . 19. All these therefore both in generall , and in speciall ought to be observed of us as they aré appointed by God ; for God must be worshipped by us with his own worship , totally and solely , nothing must here be added , taken away or changed . Deut. 12. 32. 20. That is a very empty distinction , whereby some goe about to excuse their additions . That only addition corrupting , and not addition conserving is forbidden ; because every addition as well as detraction is expresly opposed to observation , or conservation of the commands of God , as being a corruption . Deut. 12. 32. 21. Of like stampe also is that evasion whereby they say there is forbidden only addition of essentialls , and not of accidentalls : for first although there be accidents or certaine adjuncts of worship , yet there is no worship to be simply called accidentall , because it hath in it the very essence of worship . Secondly , as the least commands of God even to Iotaes and Titles are religiously to be observed , Mat. 5. 18. 19. So additions which seeme very small , are by the same reason to be rejected . Thirdly , Moses doth seale up even those lawes of the place of Divine worship , of the manner , of abstinence from blood , and the like which must needs be referred to accidentall worship if any such be , with this very caution of not adding , or taking away . Deut. 12. 32. 22. This observation is in a speciall manner called obedience , because by it we doe that which seemes right in the eyes of the Lord , although some other may seem righter in our eyes . Deut. 12. 25. 28. 23. There is opposed unto this instituted worship , as unlawfull , that will-worship which is devised by men . Mat. 15. 9. Col. 2. 23. 24. The sin which is committed in will-worship , is by a generall name called superstition . 25. Superstition is that whereby undue worship is yielded to God. 26. For in superstition God is alwayes the object , and the end in some measure , but the worship it selfe i●… unlawfull . 27. It is called undue worship , either in respect of the manner or measure , or in respect of the matter and substance of the worship . In the former manner the Pharises offended about the Sabboth , when they urged the observation of it as touching the outward rest , above the manner and measure appointed by God. And they also offended in the latter manner , in observing and urging their own traditions , Marc. 7. 8. 28. Hence superstition is called an excesse of religion , not in respect of the formall power of religion , because so none can be too religious ; but in respect unto the acts and meanes of religion . 29. This excesse is not only in those positive exercises , which consists in the use of things , but also in abstinence from the use of some things , as from meats , which are accounted uncleane and unlawfull , and the like . 30. Yet every abstinence , even from things lawfull , although they be counted unlawfull , is not superstition , to speake properly , unlesse there be some speciall worship and honour intended to God by that abstinence . 31. This indue worship is either properly opposed to that worship , wherein instituted worship is directly put forth and exercised , that is , in hearing the word celebration of the Sacraments , and prayer ; or to that which respects the meanes of it . 32. Unto the hearing of the word is opposed , first , A teaching by images devised by men . Deut. 4. 15. 16. Is. 40. 18. & 41. 29. Ierem. 10. 8. 15. Heb. 2. 18. Secondly , a vanting of traditions as they are propounded as rules of religion , Mat. 7. 8. 33. Religious teaching by Images is condemned , first , because they are not sanctified by God to that end : secondly , because they can neither represent to us God himselfe , nor the perfections of God ; thirdly , because they debase the soule , and turne away the attention from spirituall contemplation of the Will of God ; fourthly , because if they be once admitted into the exercises of worship , the worship it selfe by the perversnesse of mans wit , at least , in part , will be transferred to them : as it is declared in those words of the Commandement . Thou shalt not bow downe to them , nor worship them . 34. Of like kind with Images , are all those ceremonies , which are ordained by men for mysticall or religious signification . 35. For such ceremonies have no determinate power to teach , either by any power put into them by nature , or by divine institution : but they can receive none by humane institution , because man can effect this neither by commanding , seeing it is beyond his authority , nor by obtaining , seeing GOD hath promised no such thing to him that asketh . 36. Neither can men take to themselves any authority in ordaining such ceremonies , from that , that it is commanded to all Churches , that all things be done decently , and in order . 1. Cor. 14. 40. For neither the respect of order nor decency requires , that some holy things should be newly ordained , but that those which are ordained by God , be used in that manner , which is agreeable to their dignity ; neither doe order and decency pertaine to holy things only , but also to civill duties ; for confusion and indecency in both are vices opposite to that due manner which is required to the attaining the just end and use of them . 37. To the Sacraments are opposed . 1. Sacrifices properly so called , whether they be bloudy or unbloudy , as the Papists faine of their Masse : for after Christ exhibited , all old sacrifices are abrogated : neither is there any new ordinance , because the sacrifice of Christ being once offered we have no need of other types , then those which pertaine to the exhibition and sealing of Christ bestowed on us , which is sufficiently by Gods ordinance performed in the Sacraments , ( without Sacrifices . ) 38. Also the ordination and use of new seales , o●… ceremonies sealing some grace of God is opposed to the Sacraments : for it belongs to him to seale grace , to whom it belongs to give it . 39. Unto prayer is opposed that relative use of Images , whereby God is worshipped at them , or before them , although the worship is not referred to the Images themselves , as some say , subjectively , but objectively by them to GOD alone . 40. Superstition of this kind is called idolatry . Exod. 32. 5. Psal. 106. 20. Acts 7. 41. 41. If they be idolls , which are in themselves worshipped in stead of God , it is that idolatry which is against the first Commandement ; but when the tru●… God is worshipped at an Image , or in an Image , this i●… idolatry , which is against the second Commandement . 42. For although in respect of the intention of hi●… that worshippeth , he doth not offend in the primary or highest object , yet from the nature of the thing i●… selfe he alwayes offends against the formall worship o●… God , and interpretatively also a new God is faigne●… for the object , who is delighted with such worship , an●… religious worship is given also to the Image it selfe , although it be not done with that purpose that that worship be lastly bounded in the Image , but that it be by that directed also to God himselfe . 43. Hence we must not only shun this idolatry ' as well as that absolute idolatry ▪ which is against the first Commandement : but also the very idols , and idolothites , or the things that are dedicated to Idolls , and all the monuments properly so called of Idolls , 1. Iohn 5. 21. 1. Corinthians 8. 10. & 10. 18. 19. 21. 2. Cor. 12. 6. 26. Numbers 33. 52. Deut. 12. 2. 3. Exod. 23 , 13. 44. Superstition of the second kind is in humane formes of the Church , such as are Churches that are visibly integrally , and Organically , Oecumenicall , Provinciall , and Diocesan , brought in by men ; as also in the Hierarchy agreeable to them , and orders of religious persons , who are found among the Papists , and in functions , and censures which are exercised by them . 45. The audaciousnesse of those men is intolerable who either omit the second Commandement , or teach it ought to be so maimed , that it should be read now under the New Testament . Thou shalt not adore nor worship any likenesse , or Image . CHAPTER XIIII . Of the manner of Divine worship . THE adjuncts of worship especially to be observed are two : The manner which is contained in the third Commandement , and the time which is commanded in the fourth Commandement . 4. But these two are so adjuncts of religious worship , as that in a certaine secundary respect they partake the definition and nature of it , because by the observation of them not only that honour of God , which consists in the naturall and instituted worship of God is furthered ; but also a certaine speciall honour is yielded to him as far forth as they are joyned to the other , both by his command , and by a direct and immediate respect . 3. The manner of worship in generall is the lawfull use of all those things which pertaine to GOD. 4. But the lawfull use consists in this , that all thing●… which pertaine to worship be so handled , as is agreeable to the Majesty of God. 5. For whereas it is forbidden in the third Commandement , Thou shalt not take the name of God i●… vaine ; by the Name of God all those things are under stood , whereby God is made knowne to us , or re veales himselfe , as men are wont to be known one t●… another by their names : so that the Name of God co●… taines all those things which pertaine to the worship 〈◊〉 God , whether naturall , or instituted . Act. 9. 15. That h●… may beare my name among the Gentiles . Deut. 12. 5●… The place which the Lord shall chuse to place his na●… there . Mich. 4. 5. We will walke in the Name of t●… Lord our God. Mal. 1. 11. 12. My name shall be gr●… among the Gentiles . 6. But seeing to take this Name in vaine is either t●… take it rashly , that is either without any end propou●… ded , or without a just and fit end : or to take it in vain that is , not in that manner which is required to the j●… end , namely , the honour of God ; there is withall co●… manded that we sanctifie the Name of God , that i●… that we use all holy things in that manner which is s●… table to their holinesse and dignity . Isay 1. 13. 7. That sutable manner is , when those circumsta●… ces are used which the nature of religious things r●… quires . 8. We define this manner by circumstances ; beca●… the essentiall manner of virtues , and of the acts of r●… ligion is contained in the virtues and acts themselv●… and is directly commanded in the same precepts w●… them ; but that accidentall manner which is in circumstances , seeing it is in some sort separable from the acts of Religion , and yet is necessarily required to them , that they may be acceptable to God , is in a speciall manner commanded in this third Commandement . 9. These circumstances are either inward or outward . 10. The inward are either antecedent , or going before ; concomitant or accompanying with ; consequent , or following after . 11. The circumstances going before are a desire , and stirring up of the mind , or preparation in a due meditation of these things which pertaine to that holy thing , which is to be handled . Eccles. 5. 1. 2. Take heed to thy feet when thou entrest into the House of God : Bee not swift with thy mouth , and let not thy mind hasten to utter a thing before God. 12. But this preparation doth most properly pertaine to those acts of religion , which are more solemne : for meditation it selfe whereby the mind is stirred up , is an act of Religion , but it doth not require another preparation also before it , for so we should proceed without end : but those acts which are of their nature lesse perfect , ought to make way for the more perfect and more solemne acts . 13. Hence before publick and solemne hearing the word and prayer , private prayer is required , and also before private prayer , if it be solemne , there is required some meditation also of those things which pertaine to our prayers , whether in respect of God whom we pray unto , or in respect of our selves who are about to pray , or in respect of the things themselves which are to be asked . 14. The circumstances that are concomitant or that accompany with , are Reverence , and Devotion . 15. A certaine generall reverence of God is necessary to all obedience , which respects the authority of God that doth command ; but this reverence is proper to the acts of Religion , which hath respect to the holinesse of those things about which we are exercised . 16. This Reverence containes two things . 1. A due estimation of the excellency of such things . 2. A feare of too much familiarity , namely , whereby such things might be unworthily handled by us . 17. Devotion also containes two things . 1. A certaine singular readinesse to performe all those things which pertaine to the worship of God. Psal. 108. 23. O God , I will sing with a fixed heart . I will awake right early . 2. A sutable delight in performing those things . If. 58. 13. If thou shalt call the Sabbath a delight . 18. Hence also a greater care and of another kind must be had in hearing the Word of God , then in receiving the Edicts of Princes ; And in calling upon the Name of God then in supplications , which we make to men whomsoever . 19. The circumstances that follow after are two . 1. To retaine the force and tast as it were , of that worship in our minds . 2. To obtaine with all our endeavour , the end , and use of it . 20. The outward circumstances are those which pertaine to order and decency . 1. Cor. 14. 40. Let all things be done decently and in order . 21. But the generall rule of these is , that they be ordered in that manner which maketh most for edification . 1. Cor. 14. 26. 22. Of this nature are the circumstances of place , time , and the like , which are common adjuncts of religious and civill acts . 23. Therefore although such like circumstances are wont to be called of some rites , and religious or Ecclesiasticall ceremonies : Yet they have nothing in their nature , which is proper to religion , and therefore religious worship doth not so properly consist in them , however the holinesse of religious worship is in some sort violated by the neglect , and contempt of them : because that common respect of order and decency which doth equally agree to religious , and civill actions cannot be severed from religious worship , but the dignity and majesty thereof is in some sort diminished . 24. Such like circumstances therefore which of their own nature are civill or common , are not particularly commanded in the Scriptures , partly because they come into mens common sence , and partly because it would not stand with the dignity and majesty of the Law of God , that such things should be severally prescribed in it . For by this meanes many ridiculous things should have been provided for by a speciall Law , as for example , that in the Church assembly one should not place himselfe in anothers bosome , spit in anothers face , or should not make mouthes in holy actions . Yet they are to be accounted as commanded from God. 1. Because they are commanded in generall under the Law of order , decency and edification . 2. Because most of them doe necessarily follow from those things which are expresly appointed by God. For when God appointed that the faithfull of all sorts , should meet together to celebrate his name and worship , he did consequently ordaine that they should have a fit , and convenient place wherein they may meete together , and an houre also assigned at which they may be present together ; when also there is a Minister appointed by God , to teach others publickly , it is withall appointed that he have a seat , and that situation of his body , which is meet for such an action . 25. Those things therefore which pertaine to order and decency , are not so left to mens will , that they may under the name of that , obtrude what they please upon the Churches : but they are partly determined by the generall precepts of God , partly by the nature of the things themselves , and partly by those circumstances which doe offer themselves upon occasion . 26. For divers circumstances of order and decency are such , as though there be no publick institution of them , yet they ought to be observed of every one , neither can men forbid them without sin . 27. But those constitutions by which many circumstances of this kind are wont to be determined , about , place , time and the like , are rightly said to be by the best Divines partly Divine , and partly humane : because they are partly grounded upon the Will of God , in respect of the chiefe and primary reason of them , and they depend partly upon the prudence of men , in respect of particular observation of those things which are agreeable to the Will of God : yet so that if there be no error of man in making that determination , that constitution is to be held as simply Divine . For it is the Will of God , that the Church meet at that houre of the day , which ( all circumstances considered ) is most convenient . If therefore there be no error in observation of the circumstances , that houre which by their due consideration is assigned for meeting , must be acknowledged as if it were appointed by God. 28. The speciall manner of the worship of God must be specially determined , as the speciall nature of every religious action doth require . 29. Hitherto pertaineth the right manner of hearing the Word of God , calling upon his name , receiving the Sacraments , exercising Ecclesiasticall D●…scipline , and of performing all those severall things , which pertaine either to the naturall or instituted worship of God. Ezech. 33. 31. Mat. 13. 19. 1. Cor. 11. 27. 29. Esay 66. 5. 30. But because in Oathes the manner of swearing is wont to be chiefly respected , therefore ( not without all reason ) it is wont to be by many referred to this place in the third Commandement , although of its owne nature it pertaine to the first . Leviticus 19. 12. Mat. 5. 34. 2. Chron. 36. 13. 31. Contrary to this due manner in the generall is . 1. That vice which is called of some Acedia loathing , whereby one loatheth Divine or spirituall things . 2. Tim. 4. 3. Which is opposed to that desire , whereby we ought to have an appetite to spirituall things . 1. Pet. 2. 2. 32. 2. That slothfulnesse whereby one shunnes that cheerfulnesse and labour that is required to Divine things . Rom. 12. 11. Which is opposed to that stirring up and heat of mind , whereby Divine things are to be prosecuted . Rom. 12. 11. & Psal. 57 , 8 , 9. 33. 3. Neglect and contempt of holy things , and the abuse of the same to filthy sporting , and light matters , all which are opposed to that reverence due to holy things , Luc. 19. 46. 34. 4. Dulnesse and wandring of mind in exercises of worship . Heb. 5. 11. Ezech. 33. 31. And it is opposed to devotion , such as was in Cornelius , Act. 10. 2. 35. 5. Rashnesse or lightnesse in using , either the name , or titles of God , or those things which have some speciall respect to God. Ier. 23. 34. Luc. 13. 1. And it is opposed to that prosecuting of a just end , which ought to be present with reverence in the use , of such thi●…gs . 1. Cor. 11. 17. 36. 6. Forgetfulnesse . Iames 1. 24 , 25. Which is opposed to the receiving of fruit , and abiding of the vertue which ought to follow the acts of religion . 37. 7. Confusion , which is opposed to order and decency . 1. Cor. 14. 33. CHAPTER XV. Of the time of worship . 1. THE most solemne time of worship is now the first day of every week which is called the Lords day , Rev. 1. 10. 1. Cor. 16. 2. 2. And it is called the Lords Day , by the same reason that the holy Supper of the Eucharist is called the Lords Supper . 1. Cor. 11. 20. Namely because it was instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ , and it must be referted to the same Lord in the end and use of it . 3. It is necessary that some time be given for the worship of God , by the dictate of naturall reason : for man must needs have time for all , especially his outward actions ; neither can he conveniently attend Divine worship , unlesse for that time he cease from other workes . 4. Thus far therefore the time of worship falls upon the same precept with the worship it selfe ; for as when God created the whole world , he is said also to have created time together with it ; so also when he commanded , and ordained religious actions , he did also withall command and ordaine some time or necessary circumstance . 5. That some certaine day is to be ordained for the more solemne worship of God , this is also of morall naturall right , not unknowne to the very heathen , who had alwayes through all ages their set and solemne feast dayes . 6. That this solemne day ought to be one at least in a week or in the compasse of seven ; this belongs to positive Law , but yet it is altogether of unchangeable institution : so that in respect of our duty and obligation , it hath the very same force and reason with those that are of morall and naturall right , and so it is rightly said of the Schoolmen , to belong to morall right ; not of nature , but of Discipline . 7. That this institution was not ceremoniall , and temporall ; it appeares sufficiently by this , that it hath nothing proper to the Iewes , or to the time of the ceremoniall Law ; for none can , or dare deny , but that such determination might be made , at least for a morall reason and benefit , because although naturall reason doth not dictate the very same determination as necessary , yet it dictates it as convenient , as it doth apprehend it to be fit that the worship of God be frequently exercised , and it cannot but acknowledge this determination in respect of the frequency of the dayes to be in this respect convenient . 8. The same also is manifest by this that from the beginning of the Creation , when there was no place for ceremonies that had respect to Christ the Redeemer the seventh day , or one of seven was set apart for the worship of God , Gen. 2. 3. 9. For whereas some doe contend , that this was spoken by a prolepsis or anticipation ; or that the seventh day was at that time sanctified in the mind and purpose of God , not in execution : or that then there was a foundation laid of that sanctification to come ; and not the obligation or Law it selfe . This may be refuted by divers arguments . For 1. This anticipation never came into any mans mind , who was not before anticipated with prejudice about the observation of the Lords Day . The Iewes of old did never dreame of it ; whose received opinion was , that this feast was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among all Nations from the beginning of the World. Philo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 14. In the new Testament there is no such thing taught or declared . The authors themselves of this opinion doe grant it to be probable , that some observation of the seventh day , did begin from the beginning of the Creation . Suarez de diebus Fest. The best interpreters ( Luther , Calvin , &c. ) Whom none will affirme to have offended on that side in giving too much to the Lords Day , doe simply , and candidly acknowledge , that the seventh day was sanctified from the beginning of the World. 2. There can be no example given of such like anticipation in all the Scripture : for although the name of certaine places are sometime used , proleptically , especially in the booke of Genesis , yet there is no mention at all of such a prolepticall Institution , either in that booke , or in any other of the whole sacred Scripture . 3. The words and phrases of the very place evince the contrary . Gen. 2. 2 , 3. For the perfection of the Creation is twice joyned together with the sanctification of the seventh day in the very same manner and phrase , as the Creation both of other Creatures and of man himselfe , is joyned with their blessing . Genesis 1. 21. 22. 27. 28. 4. Neither the purpose of God , nor a naked foundation of the thing it selfe sufficeth , to ground and uphold such a phrase of Sanctification and Benediction . For by this reason it might be said , that God sanctified Water , Bread and Wine for the Sacraments of the New Covenant , from the time that he gave the promise of breaking the Serpents head by the seed of the woman . Genesis 3. 15. For then God did purpose to seale that covenant of grace by such seales , some foundation of which seales also was laid partly in the promise it selfe , and partly in the creation of those thi●…gs which might actually be used to such sealing . 5. From such a foundation laid in the first Crea●…ion , the Prophet gathers a perpetuall rule and Law. Malac. 2. 15. Did he not make one ? and why one ? To seeke a godly seed . So in like manner may we : did not God rest the seventh day ? and why the seventh day ? to sanctifie the seventh day to God. 6. Upon this very thing the arguing of the Apostle seemes to be grounded , Hebrews 4. 3 , 4 , 5 , 7 , 8 , 9. Which is thus . There was a double rest mentioned in the Old Testament , whereof the godly were made partakers in this life . One was of the Sabbath , and the other was of the Land of Canaan : but David Psalme 95. promissing rest , speaketh not of the rest of the Sabbath , because that was from the beginning of the World : nor of the rest in the Land of Canaan , because that was past , not to be expected . To day therefore he understands a certaine third rest , that is , eternall in Heaven . 10. Neither doth it any thing hinder this truth , that it is not recorded in the History of Genesis , that the observation of the seventh day was solemny kept by the first Patriarchs . For 1. All and every thing which was observed by them for a thousand and five hundred yeares , neither could nor ought to be particularly declared in so short a History as is that of Gensis . Also after the Law of the Sabbath delivered by Moses , there is no mention in the booke of Iudges and some other Histories , of the observation of it . 2. If this very thing be granted that the observation of this day was for the most part neglected , yet this ought no more to make the first institution doubtfull , then Polygamy of the same times can shew that the sacred Lawes of Wedlock were not equall in time with the very first mariage . 3. Before the promulgation of the Law in Mount Sinas , the observation of the Law is propounded and urged , not as a new thing , but ordained of old . Exodus 16. 24. 30. Which although it may be affirmed of sacrifices and some other ceremoniall observations , yet in the Sabbath , there seemes to be for the reasons before put , a certaine respect had unto the first institution , which was equall in time with mans Creation , which is also declared in the 30. Verse in that word of the time past , hath given you , &c. 4. Among the very Heathens , there were alwayes those foot-steps of the observation of the seventh day , that it is more then probable , that the observation of the seventh day was delivered them from those Patriarchs whose posterity they were . Iosephus in his last book against Appion , denies , That there can be found a nicity either of the Greekes or Barbarians , which had not taken the resting from labour on the seventh Day , into their own manners . Clemens Alexandrinus Lib. 5. Stromat . doth demonstrate the same thing also : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . That not only the Hebrewes , but the Greekes also observe the seventh Day . Euseb. de praeparatione Euangelica lib. 13. affirmeth , that not only the Hebrewes , but almost all as well Philosophers as Poëts , did know that the seventh day was more holy . Lampridius in Alexandro Severo , tells that on the seventh day , when he was in the City , he went up to the Capitoll and frequented the Temples . Neither is it far from this purpose that holy dayes were wont to be granted to children in Schooles on the seventh day . Lucianus in Pseudologista , Aulus Gellius . li. 13. cap. 2. And some heathen Doctors , were wont to dispute only upon the Sabbaths , as Suetonius relates of one Diogenes , lib. 3. Hesiod . lib. 2. Dierum . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Li●…s 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 5. The former forgetfulnesse or carelesnesse , and neglect of this day , is easily seene to be reproved by that same horratory word , which is used in the beginning of the fourth Commandement . Remember . 11. But the right , and morall perpetuall authority of this institution is most of all declared from this , that it is expresly commanded in the Decalogue ; for this is a most certaine rule , and received among all the best Divines ; That morall precepts were thus differenced from ceremonialls and Iudicalls , that all and onely moralls were publickly proclaimed before all the people of Israel from Mount Sinai , by the voyce of God himselfe , and afterward also written , and written againe as it were by the finger of God himselfe , and that in Tables of stone , to declare their perpetuall and unchangeable continuance ; Christ also doth expresly testifie that not one Iot , or tittle of this Law should perish . Matthew 5. 18. 12. That which is commanded in the fourth Commandement , is not indeed of a morall nature in the same degree and manner altogether with those things that are commanded , for the most part in all the other Commandements ; because it belongs to positive right , whence also it is , that whereas the three former Commandements were propounded negatively , by forbidding those vices unto which we are prone by the pravity of our nature , this fourth Commandement is first propounded affirmatively in declaring and commanding that which in this part pertaines unto our duty , and afterward negatively , by forbidding those things which are repugnant to this duty ; which also is in part the reason of that admonition which is specially prefixed before this precept , Remember the Sabbath day , that is , Remember to keepe this day , as it is explained , Deut. 5. 18. Because it may more easily be forgotten , seeing it belongs to positive right , then many other things which are more naturall . Yet this positive right upon which this ordinance is grounded , is Divine right , and in respect of man altogether unchangeable . 13. Those who turne this fourth Commandement into allegories of a cessation from sinnes , and from the troubles of this life , and such like , and thence doe faigne a fourefold , or a fivefold Sabbath , according to their manner , who play with Allegories , they attribute nothing at all to this member of the decalogue , which doth not as well , and much more properly agree to many Iewish ceremonies , which are now wholy abrogated . 14. But those that would have this precept ceremoniall ( as they would have the second to be also ) besides that they are sufficiently refuted , by those things which have beene spoken before , they contradict the expresse testimony of Scripture , which affirmes that ten words , or morall precepts are contained in the decalogue , Exod. 34. 18. Deut. 4. 13. & 10. 4. Where they leave only nine , or rather eight . 15. They who would have that only to be morall in this precept , that some time , or some certaine dayes , should be assigned to Divine worship , doe no more make this ordinance to be morall , then was the building of the Tabernacle and Temple among the Iewes . For by that very thing this was declared to all to be the perpetuall Will of God , that some fit place is alwayes to be appointed for Church meetings , and publick exercises of Divine worship : so that by this reason , there is no more a morall precept given touching some time of worship , then there is given touching the place , and so neither that indeed ( which only they leave in the fourth precept . ) Thou shalt observe Feast-dayes , ought any more to be put in the Decalogue then this , Thou shalt frequent the Temples . 16. Moreover , the yearely Feasts , new Moones , and the like ordinances , which were meerely ceremoniall , doe containe that generall equity also in them , and doe still teach us that some certaine and fit dayes ought to be appointed for publick worship : finally , by this reason God should by this Commandement command severall men , nothing at all : for seeing the institution of dayes by this opinion is only commanded immediatly , and it is not in the power of private men to ordaine these or those dayes for publick worship , by this , meanes nothing at all should be commanded but at their will who are in publick office : neither should any thing be commanded them in speciall , but only in generall , that they doe according to their wisdome in setting apart dayes to publicke worship , so that if it seeme good to them to appoint one day of twenty or thirty to this use , they cannot be reproved of any sin in this respect , as if they broke this Commandement . 17. If there were ever any thing ceremoniall in the Sabbath in respect of the very observation of the day , that is to be accounted for a thing added to it , or a constitution comming extrinsecally , beyond the nature of the Sabbath , and the first institution of it ; and so it nothing hinders but the institution of the seventh day was simply morall : for so there was a ceremoniall respect of some type added to some other Commandements , as in the authority of Fathers , and the first borne of Families , which pertaine to the first Commandement , there was a certaine adumbration of Christ , who is the first begotten among the Sons of God. 18. Neither yet doth it certainly appeare in the Scriptures , that there was any ceremony properly so called , or type , in the observation of the seventh day : for whereas Heb. 4. 9. there is mention made of a spirituall Sabbatisme , prefigured before by a type , it is under the respect of a type referred only to the rest promised in the Land of Cannaan , and by comparison of things like to the rest of God ; but in no sort , or in the least signification is it referred to the rest commanded in the fourth Commandement , as unto a type or shaddow . 19. But whereas in Exod. 31. 13. 17. And Ezech. 20. 20. The Sabbath is called a signe betweene God and his people , it cannot thence be made a type or representation of any future grace : Because 1. A signe doth often note the same that an argument , or instruction , as also the most learned interpreters doe note upon . Exodus 31. It is a signe between me , &c. that is , an instruction . So our mutuall love is a signe that we are the Disciples of Christ. Iohn 13. 35. But it is not a type . 2. The Sabbath in those places is not said to be a signe of some thing to come , but present , as every visible concomitant adjunct is a signe of the subject being present . For in the observation of the Sabbath there is a common , and publike profession of that communion which is between God and us : as therefore all solemn profession is a signe of that thing whereof it is a profession , so also the Sabbath is in that common respect called a signe . 20. And this is the most proper reason , why the observation of the Sabbath is so much urged , and the breaking of it so severely punished in the old Testament : namely because there was in the Sabbath a common and publike profession of all Religion ; for this Commandement as it is a close of the first Table of the Law , doth thus summarily containe the whole worship of God , whilest it commands a certaine day for all the exercises thereof . Esay 56. 2. 21. There were many ceremonies ordained about the observation of the Sabbath : but the observation of the Sabbath was no more made ceremoniall by them , then it was judiciall or politicall , because of those judiciall Lawes , whereby it was then provided that it should be celebrated most religiously . Exod. 31. 14. 22. That accommodation of the fourth Commandement unto the speciall state of the Iewes , which was in the observation of the seventh day from the beginning of the Creation , doth no more make the precept it selfe ceremoniall , then the promise of the Land of Canaan , made to the people of Israel , That thou mayst live long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee , makes the fift Commandement ceremoniall : or more then that Preface , I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt , makes all the Commandements ceremoniall . 23. It may indeed be granted that a more strict observation of the Sabbath was commanded in those dayes , applied to the time of Pedagogy and bondage , which is not of force in all ages ; yet this hinders not , but the observation it selfe is plainly morall and common to all ages . 24. Yet there can be nothing brought out of the Scriptures , which was at any time commanded about the strict observation of the Sabbath to the Iewes , which by the same reason doth not partaine to all Christians , except the kindling of fires , and preparing their ordinary food . Exod. 35. 3. & 16. 14. And those precepts seeme to have been speciall , and given upon particular occasion ; for there is nothing said about the kindling of fire , but in the building of the Tabernacle , which God would declare was not so holy a worke , but it might and ought to be intermitted on the Sabbath day . Neither is there any mention of the preparing of victualls , but when Manna was by a miracle sent from Heaven , which was also by a miracle preserved on the Sabbath day . And by the History of Christ it appeares very likely that he did approve of preparing victualls , done by kindling of a fire , upon the Sabbath day . For being invited by the Iewes to a feast which was had on the Sabbath day , he refused not to be present . Luc. 14. 1. &c. 25. Whereas the reason of the Sabbath doth sometime seem to be referred to the delivering of the people of Israel out of the captivity of Egypt , it doth not turne the Sabbath into a ceremony . For 1. All the Commandements are in some sort referred to the same deliverance , as appeares by the Preface of the decalogue . 2. It doth not appeare that the Sabbath it selfe had any singular relation to this deliverance , but that there is mention made of the deliverance , out of Egypt , Deut. 5. 15. For that reason onely , that seeing the Israelites had been servants before in Egypt , they ought the more readily and willingly grant this time of rest to their servants . 26. Whereas the last day of the weeke was of old observed ; this was anciently ordained by God from the time of the first Creation , because God did that day cease from the workes of Creation . 27. Whereas the last day of the weeke is now changed into the first day , this was not done by humane , but Divine authority . For he only can change the day of the Sabbath , who is Lord of the Sabbath , that is , Christ. Marc. 12. 8. Whence also that first day which succeeded , is properly called the Lords Day . 28. If this Lords Day be granted to have been of Apostolicall institution , yet that authority which it is Built upon , is neverthelesse divine ; because the Apostles were no lesse guided by the spirit in holy institutions , then in propounding the doctrine of the Gospell , either in word or writings . 29. Also seeing this institution was grounded upon no speciall occasion that was to continue for a time only , whereby it might be made temporary , it doth necessarily follow , that the minde of the Ordainers was , that the observation of this day should be of perpetuall and unchangeable right . 30. Yet it is more likely that Christ himselfe was the author of this institution in his owne person . 1. Because Christ was no lesse faithfull in ordering his whole house , or the Church of God , as touching all things that are generally necessary and usefull then was Moses , Heb. 3. 2. 6. But no Christian can with any reason deny that the observatiō of this day is generally profitable , & in some sort necessary for the Churches of Christ. 2. Because Christ himselfe did often appeare upon this very day to his Disciples gathered together in one place after the resurrection , Iohn 20. 19. 26. 3. Because hee powred out the holy Spirit upon them this very day , Acts 2. 4. In the practise of the Churches in the time of the Apostles when there is mention made of this observation of the first day , Acts 20. 7. 1. Cor. 16. 2. It is not remembred as some late Ordinance , but as a thing a good while received among all the Disciples of Christ. 5. The Apostles did in all things deliver those things to the Churches which they had received of Christ , 1. Cor. 11. 23. 6. This institution could not be deferred not one week after the death of Christ , and that law of one day in every week to be sanctified according to the determination of God himselfe remaine firme : which law hath beene demonstrated before to be of perpetuall right . For the Iewish Sabbath was in respect of the determination which it had to the seventh day abrogate in the death of Christ : For whereas it is read that the Apostles sometime after were present in the assemblies of the Iewes that day of the Sabbath , Acts 13. 14. & 16. 13. & 17. 2. & 18. 4. they did that chiefly in that respect , because then was the fittest occasion to preach the Gospell to the Iewes ; as also afterward the Apostle did greatly desire to be at Ierusalem on the day of Pentecost , Acts 20. 16. because at that time there was the greatest concourse of the Iewes to be in that place . 7. If the institution of the Lords day was deferred so long , till the Apostles had made a separation from the Iewes , and had their meetings apart , Acts 18. 6 , 7. & 19. 8. as some would have it ; then all that space of time which came betweene the death of Christ and this separation , which was above three yeares , the fourth Commandement had bound none to that observation of any day : because the Iewes day was already abolished , and by this opinion there was no new brought in the roome , and so there were only nine precepts in force all that time . 8. The reason it selfe of this change confirmes the same , which is by the consent of all referred to the resurrection of Christ : namely , because this day the creation of the new world or the world to come , Heb. 2. 5. in which all things were made new , 2. Cor. 5. 17. was perfected , so that God did now in Christ rising again from the dead , cease or rest from his greatest work . As therefore in the beginning of the creation , when God rested from his workes , he then blessed and sanctified that day wherein he did rest : so also it was meet that that very day wherein Christ did rest from his labours , himselfe also should sanctifie the same day . Neither is that easily to be rejected which is urged by some of the Ancients , out of Ps. 118. 24. This is the day which the Lord hath made ; for in that very place is treated of Christs resurrection , as Christ himself interprets , Mat. 21. 42. 9. It was also most meet that the day of worship in the New Testament should be ordained by him , by whom the worship it selfe was ordained : and from whom all blessing and grace is to be expected in all worship . 31. They who account the observation of the Lords day for a tradition not written , they are hereby sufficiently refuted . 1. Because there is no one thing which depends upon tradition not written of such moment , as is the observation of the Lords day , by common consent , and the consent of all Christians almost . 2. By this meanes there is a doore opened to bring in divers superstitions , and humane devices into the Church of God , or at least to prop them up when they are brought in . 3. Many among the Papists are ashamed of this invention : for although all the Papists to cloak their superstitions , are wont to give too much to Ecclesiasticall traditions , yet in the observation of the Lords day that impression of Divine authority appeares that it hath compelled not a few of them , to ascribe it not to any humane , but to Divine right . Bannes in 2. 2. q. 44. a. 1. Author supplementi adsummam Pisanam verb. Dominica ; Abbas in cap. licet defer . n. 3. Aug. ver . feria . n. 3. Silvester . ver . Dominica q. 1. 7. Alexander also the third Pope of Rome in the very Canon law , deferiis cap. licet affirmes , that the Scripture as well of the old as new Testament , hath specially deputed the seventh day for mans rest , that is ( as Suarez interprets de dieb . fest . cap. 1. ) both Testaments have approved the manner of deputing every seventh day of the week for the rest of man , which is to depute the seventh day formally , although materially the same was not alwayes deputed : and in this manner it is true that that seventh day in the old law was the Sabbath , and in the new is the Lords day . 4. They among themselves who account the Lords day among traditions doe account baptizing of children also , and that with greater shew in the same place and number . But all our Divines , who have answered the Papists touching those examples of traditions , do alwayes contend that those institutions and all other which are of the same profit and necessity , are to be found in the Scriptures themselves . 32. Those things which are wont to be brought on the contrary out of the Scriptures , Rom. 14. 5. Gal. 4. 10. Col. 2. 16. do nothing at all hinder this truth . For first , in all those places the observation of some day to religious use by the ordinance of Christ is no more condemned or denied , then the choise of some cerraine meat to a religious use by the ordinance of the same Christ : but no Christian is so void of all reason , that he would conclude out of those places , that the choise of bread and wine in the Lords Supper for a religious use , is either unlawfull , or not ordained by Christ : neither therefore can any thing be concluded from them against the observation of the Lords day by the use and institution of Christ. Secondly , the Apostle Rom. 14. doth expresly speake of that estimation of dayes , which did at that time breed offence among Christians ; but the observation of the Lords day which the Apostle himselfe teacheth , hath at that time taken place in all the Churches , 1. Cor. 16. 1. & 2. could not give any occasion of offence . Thirdly , it is most like that the Apostle in that place doth treat of chusing of dayes to eat or refuse certaine meats : for the question of that dispute is propounded verse 2. of meats onely : in the 5. and 6. verses , the esteeme of a duty is joyned with it as pertaining to the same thing , and afterward through all the rest of the Chapter he treats only of meats , making no mention of dayes . Fourthly , in that place to the Galatians , it is expresly treated of that observation of dayes , moneths , and yeares , which pertained to the bondage of weake and beggerly elements , Chap. 4. 9. but it was farre from the Apostle , and altogether strange to Christian religion so to account any precept of the Decalogue , or any ordinance of Christ. Fifthly , in Col. 2. it is specially & expresly treated of those Sabbaths which were of the same kinde with new Moones , and were ceremoniall shadowes of things to come in Christ : but the Sabbath commanded in the Decalogue and our Lords day are altogether of another nature , as hath been before demonstated . 33. Neither is Christian liberty at all diminished by this opinion , ( as some without cause do seeme to feare ) for it is not a liberty , but a licentiousnesse not Christian , if any think themselves freed from the observation of any precept of the Decalogue , or from the institutions of Christ : and experience also teacheth that licentiousnesse , and neglect of holy things doth more and more prevaile , where a due respect is not had of the Lords day . 34. Neither also was Adam subject to any bondage , because he was tyed to sanctifie the seventh day by a speciall observation . 35. But as the beginning of the old Sabbath was at the evening ; because the Creation also began at the evening , because the common masse was created before the light , and the cessation of the day from the work of Creation began also at the evening ; so also the beginning of the Lords day doth seeme to begin from the morning of that day , because the resurrection of Christ was betimes in the morning , Mark. 16. 9. Iohn 20. 1. 36. For the right observation of this day two things are necessary , rest , and the sanctification of this rest . 37. The rest which is required is a cessation from every worke which might hinder the exercises of Divine worship : we must therefore abstaine that day . 1. From all these works which are properly called servile : for seeing such works were of old by name excluded , in all other solemne feasts , Levit. 23. 7. 8. 25. 32. 36. Numb . 28. 25. much more were they excluded from the Sabbath . 38. But it is ridiculous by servile workes to understand sins or mercenary good workes , or done ( after the manner of servants ) for reward ( as some do understand them by a certaine Allegoricall sport : ) for sins are not forbidden and unlawfull at some certaine times , but alwayes and every where : neither doth it pertain to the fourth Commandement to deal with all sinnes to be forbidden ; although this may in some sence be granted that divers sinnes doe take some aggravation from thence if they be committed upon so holy a day , Isay 28. 4. those evill workes also which are done upon feare or hope , that is altogether servile , have in respect of their manner the same nature with other sins . 39. But servile workes are properly those , to the performance whereof servants or servile men are wont to be used , such as are mechanick workes , and all those to the performance whereof great labour of the body is required , as to plough , to dig , &c. 2. Besides th●…se workes there are forbidden also upon that day all workes that are ours : as is gathered from the opposite concession which is given in the fourth precept , S●… dayes shalt thou worke and do all thy work . 40. Whence we may gather with the words following , on the Sabbath day thou shalt doe no worke : that all those works are forbidden which are properly called ours , although they be not to speak strictly , servile , or mechanicall . 41. Now those are our workes which pertaine to the uses of this life , that is , which are exercised in naturall and civill things , and doe properly pertaine to our gaine and profit : of which kinde are those which of their owne nature are not servile but liberall , as studyings , exercises of liberall arts ; much more those which are common to free men and servants , as to Jorney , to handle civill causes , &c. 42. For so this phrase is explained , Esay 58. 3. Ye do that which delighteth you , that ye may exact all your labours , that is , ye do carefully your owne matters , Verse 13. doing thine owne wayes . But because Esayas in that Chapter doth also and chiefly treat of wicked actions , and those workes which are unlawfull at all times , as appeareth verse 6. Therefore some godly Divines do seeme to erre , who are wont to gather out of that place , that every word or thought that is humane , or pertaines to men , used on the Lords day , is to be accounted sinne : for all humane words , deeds , or thoughts upon that day whereof that Chapter handleth , ( whether it be the Sabbath properly called , or a solemne feast ) are not there judged to be impertinent , and in that respect simply reprehended ; but those only which are wont to concerne our gaine , either simply unlawfull or repugnant to holy exercises , as appeares verse 3. & 6. Concerning such servile and vulgar workes there is such a strict law , that upon the Sabbath day men may not go on in their work , no not in time of plowing and harvest simply ; that is , at those times which are most opportune and as it were necessary for mans life , Exod. 34. 21. Nor in those things which doe mediately and remotely pertaine to holy things , as was the building of the Tabernacle , Exod. 31. 13. Much lesse is it lawfull to enter into any ordinary journey , Exod. 16. or to frequent Marts or Faires , Nehem. 13. 43. Yet here are excepted ; 1. All those workes which belong to common honesty : for seeing at all other times we ought , so especially upon that day which is specially dedicated to Divine worship , to be have and carry our selves decently : all those things which doe simply partaine thereunto are understood to be permitted . 2. Those things which are imposed on us by some singular necessity , Mat. 12. 11. In which number notwithstanding those things are not to be accounted , which men make or faine to themselves as necessary : but those things which it appeares to be necessary and unavoidable , by the providence of God , and which we are not aware of , that is , when such a necessity urgeth as the Scripture it self allowes as a sufficient cause to do any ordinary thing . 3. All those works which do directly respect the worship and glory of God , Mat. 12. 5. Iohn 5. 8 , 9. For in that case those workes which are of their owne nature servile , do passe into the nature of holy actions , neither are they properly our workes , but Gods works . 44. This rest , although in it selfe absolutely considered , it is not , neither ever was a part of worship ; yet as it is commanded of God as a certaine necessary thing unto his worship , and is referred also to it , so far it is a part of that obedience which pertaines to religion and the worship of God. 45. The sanctification of this rest and day is a speciall applying of our selves to worship God , upon that day which is intimated in those phrases , He sanctified that day , and it is a Sabbath to the Lord thy God. 46. Here publick worship ought chiefly to be respected , whence also it is that the Sabbath is called an holy Convocation , Levit. 23. 13. Acts 13. 14. & 15. 23. & 16. 13. But that that publick convocation of the Church ought to be had both before and after noone upon the Lords day , it appeares sufficiently , by that double burnt-offering of the Sabbath , in the morning and the evening , Num. 28. 9. 47. But the rest of the day ought to be spent in exercises of piety : for although there was of old an offering peculiar to the Sabbath , yet the continuall or daily offering with his drink-offering was not to be omitted , Num. 28. 10. 48. Also the publick worship it selfe seeing it is most solemnely to be celebrated , doth necessarily require these exercises of reading the Scripture , meditation , prayer , holy conferences and contemplation of the workes of God : whereby we may be both more prepared to publick worship , and that worship may be made truly effectuall to us . 49. Contrary to his ordinance of the Lords day are all feast dayes , ordained by men , they being accounted for holy dayes , as the Lords day ought to be accounted . 50. For it is most agreeable with the first institution , and with the writings of the Apostles , that one only day in the week be sanctified . 51. The Iewes had no feast dayes rightly sanctified , but by divine institution . 52. Yet any dayes may be piously turned into occasion of furthering the worship of God. 53. Also when God by his speciall judgements cals to more solemne fasting , those dayes are to be accounted as it were for extraordinary Sabbaths : 54. Contrary also to the observation of this day and all transactions of businesse , exercises , feastings , sports , and such like , whereby the minde of man is this day drawn away from the exercises of religion . CHAPTER XVI . Of Iustice and Charity toward our neighbour . Thus much of Religion : Iustice followes , which is contained in the Second Table . 1. IUstice is a vertue whereby we are inclined to performe our duty due to our neighbour . So the duty of children towards their parents is said to be just , Ephes. 6. 1. And the duty of masters towards their servants is called right and equall , Col. 4. 1. And all those things which we owe to our neighbour , are performed in living justly . 2. But justice in this place is not taken most generally , as setting forth every duty to another : for so it containes even religion it selfe : for that justice which i●… said to be generall , is no other thing then vertue in generall ; as hath been before declared ; when we did shew that justice was the chiefe among the generall affections of vertue : neither must it be understood most particularly to respect the quantity either of the thing deserved or received , for so it containes only a few duties of the second table , namely those whereby like is returned for like : but it is here used in a certaine middle way , wherby it sets forth the mutuall duty between those who are bound by the same right ; in which sence it containes all the force of the second Table . 3. It hath for the object our neighbour , that is , every one whether man or Angell also , who is or may be with us pertaker of the same end and blessednesse , Luke 10. 36 , 37. 4. Hence neither holy men , whatsoever they shal be , nor Angels themselves can be a fit object of religion , or of that religious worship which is commanded in the first Table , but only of Iustice or of that dutie that is due to our neighbour which is contained in the second Table : whence also those arguments taken from the nature of the thing , doe exclude all adoration of the Creatures . Acts 10. 26. Rise , for I my selfe also am a man : Revel . 22. 9. See thou doe it nor , for I am thy fellow servant , and of thy brethren the Prophets , and of those that keepe the words of this Booke , worship God. Rev. 22. 9. 5. Buth in this number and name , every one is by proportion included even in respect of himselfe ; for every one is first a neighbour to himselfe , then to others . Whence also it is that there is no singular precept given whereby a man may be ordered toward himselfe : for whilest he is rightly ordered toward God , and toward his neighbour , he is also ordered toward himselfe ; but with this difference , that that disposition whereby any is made fit to performe his duty to God and his neighbour , pertaines to his perfection ; but he must also performe the same duties both to his neighbour and himselfe , ( but not to God , and himselfe . ) 6. But because that monner whereby duties are to be exercised toward our neighbour , is with respect and affection to their good ; hence this same vertue is called charity toward our neighbour . Matt. 22. 29. Marc. 12. 31. 7. In this charity there is alwayes love of union , of welpleasednesse and good will , as in that love which is toward God ; but there is also added oft times the consideration of mercy , when the misery of our neighbour is respected , which hath no place in our charity toward God. 8. But this band of Iustice and affection of Charity ought alwayes to flow , and be derived from Religion toward God ; for seeing Religion gives the chiefe honour to God , it causeth that obedience be given to his will in those things also which doe immediatly respect the Creatures ; whence all they who neglect their duty towards men , are denied to honour God , but rather doe contemne him . 1. Sam. 2. 30. Also charity towards God which is contained in Religion , doth of its own nature produce charity towards men , as they are in some sort partakers of the Image of God : whence also we are said to love God in men , and men in God , which is one reason of that phrase , beloved in the Lord. 9. Hence nothing is properly due to man which is contrary to Religion . Acts 4. 19. & 5. 29. Whether it be right in the sight of God to obey you rather then God , judge yee : we must obey God rather then men . 10. Hence also the truth of Religion cannot consist with the neglect of Iustice , and Charity toward our neighbour . Iames 1. 27. Religious worship , pure and undefiled before God and the Father , is this , to visit the fatherlesse , and widdowes in affliction . 1. Iohn 4. 20. 21. If any one say I love God , and hate his bzother , he is a lyar . This Commandement have wee from God , that he that loveth God , love his brother also . 11. Hence finally religion is best proved , and tried by Iustice , according to the frequent use of the Scripture , which argument notwithstanding doth serve much more certainly for negation , then affirmation , if it be understood of the outward workes & offices of Iustice : because such workes of Iustice may be sometime present , where true religion is wanting ; but if true religion be present , they cannot be wholly absent . 12. By the same reason also unjust workes doe more argue a man to be ungodly , then those which are just doe argue a godly man : whence the workes of the flesh are said to be manifest . Gal. 5. 19. Which is not affirmed of the fruits of the spirit , Verse 12. 13. The order of this charity is this , that God is first and chiefly to be loved by charity , and so is as it were the formall reason of this charity toward our neighbour : next after God we are bound to love our selves , namely with that charity which respects true blessednesse ; for loving God himselfe with love of union , we love our selves immediatly with that chiefe charity which respects our spirituall blessednesse : but we ought to love others whom we would have partakers of the same good with us , secondarily as it were ; moreover others may be deprived of this blessednesse without our fault , but we our selves cannot ; therefore we are more bound to will and seeke it for our selves then for others . 14. Hence it is that the love of our selves hath the force of a rule or measure unto the love of others : Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy selfe . 15. Hence it is never lawfull to commit any sin for anothers sake , although our offence may seeme small , and to be a chiefe good , which wee should seeke to another : for he that wittingly and willingly sinneth hateth his own soule . Prov. 8. 36. & 29. 24. He that sinneth against me , offereth violence to his own soule . He that partaketh with a thiefe , hateth himselfe , and he that hearing cursing declareth it not . 16. Among other men none indeed ought wholy to be removed from the embracing of our charity , who is capable of blessednesse ; for if we love God above all things , no enmities will so far prevaile with us , but we may love our very enemies for God. Mat. 5. 39. Rom. 12. 17. 1. Thess. 5. 15. 1. Pet. 3. 9. 17. But among men those are more to be loved then others , that come neerer to God , and in God to our selves . Galatians 6. 10. Let us doe good to all , but especially to the houshold of Faith. 18. But because they that believe , are more neere both to God , and to us also spiritually , then those who doe not as yet believe , therefore also are they more to bee beloved . 19. Yet this is so to be understood , that it be referred to the time present and the immediat affection ; for we may will the same good to some other as much or more in time to come , the grace of God and faith comming between ; in which sence that affection of the Apostle concerning the Israelites is to be taken . Rom. 9. 3. 20. If among those that are to be beloved there be no apparent disparity neither in respect of God , nor in respect of us , then they are equally to be beloved . 21. But if any apparent disparity appeare , either in their neerenesse to God or to our selves , then he who exceeds in any neerenesse , is more to be beloved , that is , when we cannot exercise the act of our love alike toward all , we are more bound to place our love on those whom God hath by some speciall neerenesse or communion commended to us , then on others . Therefore although we ought equally to will the salvation of others ; yet the exercise and care of this will is chiefly due to those , that are neere joyned to us in some speciall respect ; as a Souldier although he ought to wish well to all his fellow Souldiers , yet he is bound to take most care of those who are of the same band , and are next ad●…oyned in the same Ranke . This appeares in that example of Paul , who did more servently desire the conversion of the Israelites then of other Nations ; of which affection he gives this one reason , because they were his brethren , and and kindred according to the flesh . Rom. 9. 3. 22. Yet in this prerogative of charity we must wish to those that are neere unto us , rather those good things which pertaine to that conjunction , whereby they come neere unto us , as spirituall good things to those who are most spiritually joyned to us , and naturall good things to those with whom we have a naturall neerenesse ; not that those kind of good things are in our desires to be separated one from another , but because the very kind of conjunction , is as it were a bek from God whereby he stirs us up to bestow our paines chiefly in this or that kind . 23. Hence it followes , first . That kindred in bloud , Caeteris paribus other things answerable , are more to be beloved then strangers , in those things which pertaine to the good things of this life : and among those that are neere in blood , those that are the neerest to be most loved . 24. Secondly , that some speciall friend is more to be beloved , then an ordinary kinsman in bloud , at least in those things , which pertaine to the common duties of this life , because friendship may be such that it may make a neerer conjunction then consanguinity it selfe considered by it selfe . Prov. 18. 24. For a friend is neerer then a brother . 25. Thirdly , that parents are to be loved more then any friend , because the neernesse of parents is greater then of friends as touching the communicating of those things which are most intimate to us . 1. Tim. 5. 4. If any widow have children or nephewes , let them learne first to shew piety towards their own house , and to recompence their parents : for this is honest and acceptable in the sight of God. 26. Fourthly , that parents are more to be beloved then children , in those good things which ought to redound from the effect to the cause , as Honour , Esteeme , Reverence , Thankfulnesse and the like . But that children are more to be loved then parents in those things which are derived from the cause to the effect ; of which kind are , Maintenance , Promotion , Providence and the like . 27. Fifthly , that husb●…s and wifes are to be loved more then parents or children , in those things which pertaine to society and union of this life ; for that is the greatest neerenesse , whereof it is said , they shall be one flesh . Gen. 2. 24. Matthew 19. 5. Therefore shall a man leave his Father , and Mother , and shall cleave to his Wife , and they shall be one flesh . 28. Sixtly , that they that have deserved well of us are more to be beloved then others , and among thosesuch as have communicated spirituall good things to us are most to be beloved : let him that is taught in the word communicate to him that taught him , all good things , Gal. 6. 6. 29. Seventhly , that a community or whole society is more to be beloved then any nember of it , because the conjunction of a part with the whole is greater then with another part ; and therefore , that a prince whose life and safety is necessary or most profitable for the common good , is more to be beloved , then any or divers of the common people , nay more then our selves in temporall things . 2. Sam. 21. 17. Thou shalt goe no more with us to battell , least thou quench the light of Israel . Lament 4. 20. 30. There be two Acts of charity toward our neighbour : Prayer for his good , and working of it . Mat. 5. 44. Love your enemies , blesse them that curse you , doe good to them that hate you , and pray for them which hurt you and persecute you . 31. This Prayer as it respects the honour of God , pertaines to religion in the first Table : but as it respects the good of our neighbour , it pertaines to Iustice , and Charity toward our neighbour in the second Table . 32. We must pray for all those good things , which religion commands us to wish to him , whether they be spirituall , or corporall . 33. In this praying is included not only petition , but also giving of thankes , whereby we praise God for the good things which he hath bestowed on our neighbours . Romans 1. 8 , 9 , 10. 34. To his praying is opposed that imprecation which tends to the hurt of our neighbour , which is called cursing . Mat. 5. 44. 35. Working of good toward our neighbour is an endeavour , concerning him , tending to his good ; whence also it is called good deed . Matthew 5. 44. And love in deed . 1. Iohn 3. 18. 36. This working is distinguished from praying ; because although prayer be also an endeavour tending to the good of our neighbour , yet is not immediatly exercised about our neighbour , but is directed unto God. 37. Yet unto this working those endeavours must be referred which are exercised about other Creatures for our neighbours sake : for then there is an efficiency in our actions of the same reason , as if it were exercised immediatly about our neighbour himselfe . 38. Now this endeavour is either , by morall perswading , or reall effecting . 39. An indeavour of morall perswasion is in propounding of good to be performed with arguments by which he may be stirred up to it . 40. And this is by admonition , and good example . 41. This admonition is taken generally for any warning , which is used by words , whether it be to procure and performe good to our neighbours , or to drive away and make up any hurt . 42. Therefore it containes in it our duty to teach and admonish . Colos. 3. 16. To observe others that we may whet them to love and good workes . Heb. 10. 24. To exhort them also daily . Heb. 3. 13. To comfort them against sorrow and griefe . 1. Thess 4. 18. And to correct them in a brotherly manner , if they be overtaken with some offence . Gal. 6. 1. Rev. 19. 17. 43. But this brotherly correction is then to be used ; when we certainly know that the evill to be corrected is committed , when there is hope of some fruit , or good to follow upon our correction , either by the amendement of our brother that is fallen , or by preserving of others from partaking of the same ; lastly , when there is fit opportunity in respect of time , or person , and the circumstances . 44. Unto this admonition is opposed consent , or communion with others in their sins . Eph. 5. 7. 11. 45. One is said to be partaker of anothers sin nine wayes ; which are thus set down in Latine . Iussio , consilium , consensus , palpo , recursus , Participans , nutans , non obstans , non manifestans . That is summarily , consent is given to sinners , by counselling , defending , helping , permitting when we can hinder , and by holding our peace when we may profitable speak . Rom. 1. 32. 46. Good example is a representation of a good worke , whereby others may be stirred up to performe the like . 1. Tim. 4. 12. Tit. 2. 4. 7. Mat. 5. 16. 1. Pet. 2. 12. 47. To good example scandall is opposed . 1. Cor. 10. 32. 33. Give no offence to the Iewes , to the Gentiles , nor the Church of God. 48. A scandall is a representation of an evill worke whereby others may either be stirred up to sin ( whence it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or a cause of stumbling ) or to be hindred or slackned from doing good , ( whence it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a cause of weakning ) and that is properly called a scandall , 1. Cor. 8 , 9 , 10. Take heed that your lyberty be not an occasion of stumbling to the weake , &c. Rom. 14. 21. Wherein thy brother stumbleth , or is offended , or is made weake . 49. There is in every evill worke which is made known to others , the respect of a scandall . Mat. 18. 6 , 7 , 8. Whosoever shall be an offence . If thy hand , foot , eye cause thee to offend . If thy brother sin against thee . 50. There is also sometime a scandall in a worke of it selfe lawfull , if it be not expedient in respect of others . 1. Cor. 8. 13. If my meat offend my brother , I will never eat flesh , least I offend my brother . 51. But an indifferent thing is said to be expedient , or not expedient , when all circumstances considered , it maketh , or maketh not to the glory of God , and edification of our neighbour . 52. There is no humane authority that can make that action lawfull , whereby a scandall is given to our neighbour . 53. But then a scandall is said to be given : either when some manifest sin is committed , or at least that which hath evident shew of sin is committed , so that it becomes known to others ; or when that is rashly committed which is not necessary by Gods Command , and yet brings spirituall hurt to others : but much more if the perverting or troubling of our neighbour be by that very action directly intended . 54. But if there follow offence , not from the condition of our worke , but from the pure malice of others , then it is called an offence taken , as that of the Pharis●…es , which is not our sin , but of those who are offend●…d . Mat : 15. 12 , 13 , 14. Knowest thou not that the Pharisees were offended at that saying ? Let them alone : they be blind leaders of the blind . 55. But although this offence taken cannot be avoyded by us ; yet an offence given may and ought . For God never layes upon his a necessity of offending . 56. That scandall whereby one is said ( metaphorically ) to offend himselfe , or to give occasion of sinning to himselfe , is by proportion referred to an offence given . 57. A reall effecting or procuring the good of our neighbour , is when we our selves performe something which of it selfe tends to the good of our neighbour without his helpe comming between . Heb. 13. 16. To doe good , and to distribute forget not . 58. But although all acts of Iustice ought to have charity joyned to it , yet there are some wherein Iustice doth more shine forth , and others wherein charity doth more rule . 59. Hence that distinction ariseth whereby some offices are said to belong to Iustice strictly taken , and some belonging to charity ; of which difference and formall distribution we have Christ the author . Luke 11. 42. Ye passe by judgment and the love of God. 60. Those are the acts of Iustice which have in them the confideration of a debt and equality in respect of others . 61. Those are the acts of charity whereby the good of another is respected more then our debt . 62. The offices of Iustice , are before , and of straighter obligation then they which are of charity . 63. Hence we are more bound to pay our debts , then to give any thing of our own ; and he that offends another , is more bound to seeke reconciliation then he that is offended . 64. There is in many things a double respect of Iustice , one whereof respects the next end , and words of the Law , that bindeth , which is called Iustice in the most strict sence ; and the other , respects the remote end and reason of the Law which is called equity or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 65. The parts of this Iustice are two , one whereof gives to every one his own , and it is called distributive Iustice , the other restores to every one his own , and it may be called emendative Iustice. 66. Distributive Iustice cannot be rightly performed without a right judging of things and persons , and a meete comparison of things to things , and persons to persons , from whence ariseth that proportion which they call geometricall . 67. Unto distributive Iustice is opposed acception of persons , whereby one is preferred before another in the distribution of good due , without just cause . 68. Emendative Iustice is either Commutative , or Corrective . 69. Commutative Iustice is equality of the thing given , and received . 70. Corrective Iustice , presupposeth some Injustice , and it is either civill or criminall . 71. Civill doth chiefly correct the injustice of the cause . 72. Criminall doth chiefly correct the injustice of the person . 73. To corrective Iustice pertaineth revenge , and restitution . 74. Revenge is an act of corrective Iustice , whereby punishment is inflicted on him , who hath violated Iustice. 75. The end hereof ought to be the amendment or restraint of the offendor , quietnesse and admonition to others , and so the preserving of Iustice , and of the honour of God. Deut. 13. 11. & 17. 13. & 19. 20. & 21. 21. That all Israel may heare , and feare , and doe no such iniquity in the midst of thee . 76. Restitution is an act of corrective Iustice , whereby another is set againe into the possession of that thing of his own whereof he was unjustly deprived . 77. Hence an action binding to restitution must be against Justice strictly taken , and not against charity only . 78. To this injustice injury is opposed . 79. To charity is evill will opposed , whether it be formall by a direct intention or virtuall by interpretation . 80. Unto this ill will partaines unjust discord , which if it break forth into separation , especially in those things which pertaine to religion , it is properly called Schisme . CHAPTER XVII . Of the honour of our Neighbour . 1. IUstice toward our Neighbour doth either immediatly affect him or by meanes of some action . 2. Iustice which doth immediatly affect our Neighbour , doth either respect the degree of that condition in which our Neighbour is placed , or the condition it selfe absolutly considered . 3. As if respects the degree of it , it is called honour which is commanded in the fift Commandement : which is said to be the first Commandement with promise , Eph. 6. 2. Either because it is the first of the second Table , or because it is the first Commandement in all the Law that hath a singular and proper promise joyned to it . 4. Here society of men among themselves is supposed and established , private or oeconomick , and publick or politick , wherein one ought to serve another being joyned together in mutuall duties of Iustice and charity , that they may exercise and shew towards men that religion whereby they worship God. 5. Hence that solitary life which certaine Hermites have chosen to themselves as Angelicall , and others imbrace for other causes , is so farre from perfection , that unlesse it be perswaded by some extraordinary reason ( and that for a time only ) it is altogether contrary to the law and will of God. 6. But because humane society is as a foundation to all other offices of Iustice and charity which are commanded in the second table of the law : therefore those transgressions which do directly make to the disturbance , confusion and overthrow of this society , are more grievous sinnes , then the breaches of the severall precepts . 7. But although politicall society be established of God as well as Oeco●…omicall , yet as there is some certain form of this Oeconomicall ( as also of Ecclesiasticall society ) prescribed to all people , it is not so of politicall ; but it is left to their liberty , that ( so as they preserve their power whole ) they may ordaine that society , which makes most for the establishing of religion and justice among themselves . 8. And this is one reason why there is mention only of parents in the fifth precept ; because Oeconomicall society only ( which is plainly naturall ) should remaine one and the same throughout all ages , and nations : unto which that also is added , that this is the first degree , wherein is the fountaine and seminary of all society ; whence also the authority of all others in superiour power is set forth and mitigated by the name of Father , 2. Kings 2. 12. & 13. & 13 , 14. Gen. 41. 8. 43. 1. Sam. 24. 12. 1. Tim. 5. 1. 9. Honour is an acknowledgement of that dignity or excellency which is in another with a due testification of it . 10. It is called both an acknowledgement and testifying , because it consists neither in outward observance only , nor in inward only , but in both . 11. It is said to respect excellency or dignity , because we are not affected with reverence , but upon the apprehension of some excellency . 12. Hence that duty which is due to those who are placed above us in some eminency , is commonly and most properly set forth under the name of reverence : but by a synecdoche it sets forth every duty wherein the degree of dignity or excellency of another is respected , whether that degree be inequall in respect of us , or equall , Rom. 12. 10. In honour preferring one another , 1. Pet. 3. 7. Let men likewise dwell according to the knowledge of God , giving honour to the woman as to the weaker vessell ; according that 1. Pet. 2. 17. Honour all men . 13. But it hath the first place among those duties which are due to our neighbour ; First , because it comes neerest to the nature of religion and piety wherewith we worship God , whence also it is called religion or piety , not only by prophane authors , but sometime also in the Scriptures , 1. Tim. 5. 4. Let him learne first to shew piety to his owne family , &c. Secondly , because it is the bond and foundation of all other justice , which is to be performed to our neighbour : for by vertue of this duty of those degrees which it doth respect , men lead a quiet and peaceable life with all piety and honesty , 1. Tim. 2. 2. which doth also seeme to be the proper reason of that promise which is adjoyned to this fifth precept , that thou mayest prolong thy dayes upon earth , because without this mutuall observance of superiours and inferiours among themselves , it could not be expected that the life of man should abide in its state . 14. Honour , as it respects the knowledge and opinion of others of him that is to be honoured , is called fame , Eccles. 7. 1. or a good name , Phil. 4. 8. 15. Hence honour as it is the externall good of a man , doth not really differ from fame , but only in reason . 16. That office of honouring which we owe to all , is to preserve that state of dignity which they have , without being hurt . 17. Unto this office those vices are opposed whereby the fame . of our neighbour is hurt . 18. The good name of our neighbour is hurt when that estimation which ought to be had of him is diminished , 1. Cor. 4. 13. Being defamed we pray . 2. Cor. 6. 8. By honour and dishonour , by evill report and good report . 19. We may diminish it either with our selves conceiving ill of him without just cause , which is called rash judgement , Mat. 7. 1. 1. Cor. 4. 3. or with others also . 20. The good name of our neighbour is diminished with others , by words , deeds , gestures , or other signes . 21. This also is done sometime directly and formally , with an intention to hurt , and sometime virtually and indirectly , or of the nature of the thing , or by circumstances adjoyned . 22. When the fame of another is hurt by imputation of an evill of the fault or of punishment , if it be in his presence , it is called either a reproach , or derision , or a slander ; if it be in his absence , it is called detraction . 23. Detraction is directly exercised about the evill of our neighbour foure wayes . 1. When a fault is falsly layd upon him . 2. When a secret fault is discovered without a just cause . 3. When a true crime is too much beaten upon . 4. When the deed is not disallowed , but the intention is blamed . 24. It is indirectly exercised about the good of our neighbour foure wayes also . 1. Denying that good which is to be given to our neighbour . 2. Hiding it . 3. Lessening it . 4. By praising it coldly . 25. The former wayes are contained in his verse , Imponens , augens , manifestans , in mala vertens . 26. The latter in this verse , Qui negat aut minuit , tacuit , lau dat que remisse . 27. The good name of our neighbour is restored by retracting , or desiring pardon , or sometime also by recompensing of it . 28. The duties of h●…our , belong some to unequals , some to equals . 29. Among unequals , it belongs to superiours to excell in well deserving , but to inferiours to reverence and give thanks . 30. Inequality is either in some simple quality , or in authority and power . 31. Inequality in a simple quality , is either in respect of age , or in respect of gifts . 32. They that are above others in age , ought to go before them in grave example , Tit. 2. 4. That old women teach the yonger women to be sober . 33. They that excell in gifts , ought readily to impart the same to the profit of others , Rom. 1. 14. I am a debter both to the Grecians and Barbarians ; to the wise , and the unwise . 34. They that are above others in power , are those who have right to governe others , whence also power is wont to be called jurisdiction ; whose duty it is to administer justice and charity toward others in a certaine eminent way , according to that power which they have committed to them , Iob 29. 14. 1●… . I put on justice , and my judgement covered me as a robe , and as a Diadem . I was as eyes to the blinde , and as feet to the lame , Col. 4. 1. Masters , do that which is right and equall to your servants . 35. This justice is administred in charity , by protecting and ruling . 36. Protection is an application of power to defend others from evill , Isay 32. 2. And a man shall be as an hiding place from the winde , and a covert from the tempest , &c. Whereunto also pertaines that providence whereby they provide necessary things for them , 1. Tim. 5. 8. 37. Ruling is an application of power to further others in good , Romans 13. 4. He is the minister of God for thy good . 1. Tim. 2. 2. That we may leade a peaceable and quiet life in all godlinesse and honesty . 38. This ruling is exercised in directing and rewarding . 39. Direction is a propounding of that which is right and good , that it may be observed , Ephes. 6. 4. Fathers , bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. 40. Unto this direction pertaines the making and promulgating of good lawes in whatsoever society of men it be . 41. Rewarding is a recompencing of that obedience which is performed or denied to direction , 1. Pet. 2. 14. both to take vengeance on the wicked , and for the praise of them that do well . So Rom. 13. 42. Here distributive and emendative justice doth most shine forth : for although the justice in other men is the same , with that which is exercised in those superiour , yet it doth most shine forth if it be administred with a fit power . 43. Hence the right of revenging doth not properly belong to others then those that have super-eminent power , Rom. 13. 4. 1. Pet. 2. 14. by whom when it is rightly exercised , it is not the revenge of men , but of God , 2. Chro. 19. 6. Take heed what you do for ye judge not for men , but for the Lord , who will be with you in the judgement . 44. They that are in higher power , ought to provide for the commodities of them over whom they are set in respect of their soules , that they may have meanes of salvation , Ephes. 6. 4. In respect of their bodies , that they may have food , raiment , and fit dwelling . 45. And these are either private persons or publick . 46. Private , are the husband in respect of the wife , parents in respect of children , and master in respect of servants : where the power of the husband is moderated with a certaine equality : the power of the master is meerely commanding : but the paternall power is as it were mixt . 47. They that are in publick authority , are either ministers or magistrates . 48. But there is this difference betweene magistrates and ministers of the Church . 1. Magistracy , ( of this rather then of the other kinde ) is an ordinance from man : but the ordinance of ministers is from God , which is declared in the Scriptures , when the power of magistracy although it be ordained by God , Rom. 13. 1. yet it is called an humane creature , 1. Pet. 2. 13. which name doth not at all agree to the lawfull ministers of the Church . 2. Magistracy is an ordinance of God the Creator , and so belongs to all kind of men : but the Ecclesiasticall ministery is a gift and ordinance of Christ the Mediator , and so doth not properly and ordinarily perraine , but only to those who are of the Church of Christ. 3. A magistrate hath jurisdiction joyned to his government , and so ( if he be the supreme magistrate ) upon just cause he may make and abolish lawes , and commit jurisdiction to others : but th ministers of the Church ( considered in themselves ) are meerly mandatory , that have nothing of their own , but whatsoever they do lawfully , they do it as in Christs stead who commands them , and so can neither make lawes , nor commit that power which they have received to others . 4. It belongs to magistrates to procure the common good both spirituall and corporall of all those who are committed to their jurisdiction , by politick meanes , and a coercive power , 1. Tim. 2. 2. but it is ministers duties to procure their spirituall good who are committed to them by Ecclesiasticall meanes , Acts 20. 28. Heb. 13. 17. 49. But they cannot be exactly distinguished , in the things themselves , the persons and causes , about which they are occupied : for there is nothing , person , or cause so Ecclesiasticall , but in some respect it may pertaine to the jurisdiction of the magistrate ; neither is there any action so secular ( so it be done by a member of the Church ) but , so far as it respects obedience to God , it may pertaine to the taking notice of by the Church . 50. Therefore the exempting of Ecclesiasticall men ( as they are called ) from the jurisdiction of the civill magistrate , as also the unloosing then from obedience due to Magistrates , and Parents , brought in by Papists under a pretence of Religion and perfection , is altogether contrary to the perfect Law of GOD. 51. In respect of this ruling which comes from the power of superiors , there is due from inferiours , subjection and obedience . Hebrewes 13. 17. Obey your leaders , and submit your selves . 52. Subjection is an acknowledgment of their authority . 1. Pet. 2. 18. Eph. 5. 22. 53. Obedience is the performance of those things that are prescribed . Eph. 6. 1. 5. 54. This obedience ought alwayes to be limited according to the limits of power , which the superior commander hath . 55. Hence we must not obey men in those things which are against the command of God , for we must obey in the Lord , Eph. 6. 1. And in the feare of God. Col. 3. 22. Or also against the command of those superior persons who have greater authority then they . 56. Hence also that obedience must not be blinde , or without examination of the precept : but an inferior ought to enquire so far as is requisite for the matter in hand , whether the precept belawfull , convenient and binding . Acts 4. 19. 57. But if the precept be not lawfull then an enduring of the punishment wrongfully inflicted , hath the place and force of obedience . 1. Pet. 2. 19. 20. 58. In respect of the good that is communicated either by the gifts , or by the power of superiors , inferiors doe owe submissive thankfulnesse . 59. Thankfulnesse is a desire to recompence benefits received . 60. For it is a certaine welwishing affection , having respect and proportion , to the benefit of another , yet so that it must not be contained in the affection it selfe , but must be manifested in answerable indeavour . 61. Thankfulnesse indeed is the common duty of all men , who have received any benefit from others , but there is a certaine singular way of thankfulnesse , of inferiors towards superiors , which is declared in that word , when thankfulnesse is said to be submissive . 62. Hitherto pertaines the relieving of their necessity , whether they stand in need of substance , helpe , or counsell . Gen. 45. 9●… . 63. This thankfulnesse , which respects those by whose benefit we doe under God subsist , namely our parents , and country , or those who sustaine the same person with them , is called piety . 1. Tim. 5. 4. 64. The duty of equalls towards all their equalls is , that one prefer another in honour : Rom. 12. 10. Ephes. 5. 21. 65. Friendship is towards some that are joyned neerer in love and communion . Prov. 18. 24. 66. The beginning of all honour to be given to our Neighbour , especially of that which is due to superiors and equalls , is humility . 67. This humility as a vertue , whereby one doth so moderate his esteeme of himselfe , that he will not in any kind attribute any thing to himselfe above that which is meete for him . Phil. 2. 3. In humility of mind thinking every one better then himselfe . 68. Unto humility is opposed pride and envy . 69. Pride is an inordinate affection of a mans owne excellency . 70. This affectation of a mans own excellency if it be exercised about good things that we have , it is called boasting : if about those things which we would seeme to have , it is called arrogancy : if about the fame and esteeme which we seeke with others , it is called vaine glory : if about dignities , it is called ambition : if about the undertaking of matters , which are beyond our strength , it is called presumption . 71. Envy is a sorrow for the good of our Neighbour , because it seemes to diminish our own excellency . Num. 10. 29. 72. For if there be feare of anothers good , because wee see some evills like to come from thence either to others , or to our selves , it is not envy , but an honest feare , Prov. 28. 28. 73. If the cause of sadnesse be not that another hast good , but that we have not , and that good is to be wished for by us , then it is not envy , but emulation . Rom. 11. 14. 74. If the cause of sadnesse be the unworthinesse of him , who enjoys that good , then it is not properly envy , but indignation . Pro. 29. 2. 75. Yet all these affections if they exceed measure , are wont to be noted in the Scriptures under the name of envy . Psal. 37. vers . 1. 7. Pro. 3. 31. CHAPTER XVIII . Of humanity toward our Neighbour . 1. IUstice which respects the condition of our Neighbour absolutely considered , doth either respect the person of our Neighbour , or his outward commodities . 2. That which respects his person doth either respect his life , or his purity . 3. That which respects his life is humanity , and it is commanded in the sixt Commandement . For seeing here mans life is properly provided for , or as the Scripture speakes ; Gen. 9. 5 , 6. The soule of man and the bloud of man ; all that duty which is here handled is rightly set forth under the man : of humanity . 4. This Commandement doth not properly treat of the life of the brute Creatures , because they are in mans power , Gen. 9. 2. 3. Neither have they common society with man : yet because a fit disposition toward the life of man doth infer some respect to another image of his , which is found in other living Creatures : and cruelty against them is wont to declare a certaine inhumane disposition , or by little and little accustome to it : therefore clemency and inclemency towards the brute Creatures , doth , pertaine also hitherto as a certaine appendix . 5. Humanity is a vertue whereby we are inclined to preserve the life of our Neighbour , and quietnesse thereof by lawfull meanes . 6. But this is performed two wayes , namely by supplying things helpfull , and hindering things hurtfull . 7. But seeing the life of man which ought to be preserved is twofold , spirituall , and corporall , hence the duties of humanity are some spirituall , and some corporall . 8. The spirituall dutie is to doe all things according to our power , which may further the edification of our Neighbour . 9. Of this kind are , prayer ; good example and admonition , which are required of all . 10. For although these immediatly in regard of their next end , be generall duties of charity , yet mediatly and in respect of the remote end , they pertaine to the furtherance of the spirituall life of our Neighbour . Iames 5. 20. 11. There is the like reason , of ceasing from due offices pertaining to the salvation of our Neighbour , of consenting with other in their sins , and of offence given to them , which are sins opposed to those duties : for these doe alwayes hurt the spirituall life of our Neighbour , Ezec. 3. 18. & 13. 19. & 33. 6. 8. Rom. 14. 15. 1. Cor. 8. 11. 12. But although as the soule is more noble then the body , so the spirituall life is of greater price then the corporall ; and so those sins which doe make against the spirituall life of our Neighbour are greater , ( an equall comparison being made ) then those which hurt the body : yet they doe not so really pertaine to the hurting of our Neighbour : because hurting and bodily death it selfe is wont to be brought on men , by necessity of coaction : but spirituall death cannot be brought upon one by another unlesse he be in some sort willing and doe consent , so that is own action is the immediate cause of it . 13. Also it is required of superiors that have power , and authority , that they study to further the salvation of inferiors by their authority . 14. There be divers degrees of our duty toward the corporall life of our Neighbour , that it may be kept quiet and safe . 15. The first degree hereof is , in those vertues which doe keepe us far from any hurting of our Neighbour . 16. Of this kind , are Meekenesse , Patience , Long-suffering , and placablenesse , or pardoning of wrong . 17. Meekenesse is a vertue which doth moderate anger . Prov. 17. 17. 1. Cor. 13. 4. Numb . 12. 3. Now the man Moses was very meek ; above all men who were on the face of the Earth . Gal. 5. 22. The fruits of the spirit restraining of anger , goodnesse , gentlenesse . 18. Unto this is opposed , slownesse and wrath . 19. Slownesse is a want of Iust anger . 1. Sam. 12. 13. 20. Wrath is an inordinate stirring up of anger . Gen. 49. 7. Cursed be their anger because it was fierce , and their wrath because it was cruell . Eccles. 7. 10. Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry , for anger resteth in the bosome of fooles . 21. The degrees of wrath are , provoking of the mind waxing hot , and hatred . 22. Patience is a vertue which moderates anger that is stirred up by grievous wrongs . Luke 21. 19. Colossians 1. 11. 1. Thess. 5. 14. 23. Long-suffering is a continuance of patience , although it have beene long provoked . Proverbs 14. 29. & 15. 18. & 16. 32. 24. Placablenesse is a vertue whereby we doe easily forgive a wrong done to us . Mat. 18. 21. 22. Luc. 17. 3. 4. 25. The second degree of this duty is in those vertues , which doe cherish society of life , as , concord , and benevolence which hath joyned with it , curtesie , affability , and equanimity . 26. Concord , is a vertue whereby we doe easily agree with others in those things that are good . Philippians 1. 27. & 2. 2. & 4. 2. 27. Benevolence is a vertue whereby we wish all things prosperous to others . 1. Cor. 13. 4. Charity is kind . 28. Unto these are opposed discord , dissention and enmity , &c. Gal. 5. 20. 29. A third degree of this duty is in those endeavours whereby the life it selfe of our Neighbour , is defended , furthered , and cherished . 30. An indeavour to defend , promote , and cherish the life of our Neighbour , doth containe all those duties , whereby we may be conserving causes of the life of man. Prov. 24. 10. 31. Unto these are opposed all those sins , whereby the life of men is hurt , as fiercenesse , cruelty and the like . Pro. 20. 10. 32. All these are contained under the name of Homicide . 33. Homicide is the injust killing of a man. 34. Now that killing and hurting also is unjust , which is either not done by a just authority , that is , that that is publick , or which is equall to publick ; or not upon a just cause , or not in due order , or upon an intention that is not just ; for those foure conditions ought alwayes to concurre to a just killing ; if one of them be wanting , Homicide is committed . 35. Also rash anger must be referred to Homicide , so far forth as it tends to the hurting of the life of our Neighbour . Mat. 5. 22. Whosoever is angry with his brother unadvisedly . 36. But in those words it is given to understand that all anger is not condemned , for that only is reproved which is rash , that is , which hath no just cause , or observes no just measure . Otherwise the force of anger , as zeale of God , is often commended . Gen. 30. 2. Ex. 11. 8. & 16. 20. & 23. 19. Numb . 16. 15. & 31. 14. 2. Kings 13. 19. And hatred it selfe , Psalme 139. 21. 22. 37. This is for the most part peculiarly belonging to the sixt precept , that those things which are forbidden , may sometime ( in another consideration ) be not amisse , and sometime well and rightly done in obedience toward God. 38. So he that killeth another upon meere chance , to whom he gave no cause , whilest he is about a lawfull worke when and where it is lawfull , fit diligence being used , doth not sin . Deut. 19. 5. 39. Such also is the reason of a necessary defence , so as desire of revenge be wanting . For this is an unblameable defence granted to every one . 40. Sometime also God is obeyed by killing . Deut. 13. 9. Namely when it is done by authority , and command from God. 1. Sam. 15. 18. 19. 41. No man hath power from God , by common Law to kill that man of set purpose whose innocency he knoweth of . 42. Neither is there any power of man , which can give sufficient authority to any subject , to slay him , whom he knowes to be innocent , and not to deserve death . 43. Therefore a war can never be just on both sides , because there cannot be cause of death on both sides . 44. Neither is it lawfull in any war to intend their occasion who are not in some sort partakers of such like cause . 45. But if there be present a lawfull cause , together with a just authority and intention , and a just manner be used , the war it selfe , or warfare , is not against Religion , Iustice , or Charity , Num. 31. 3. 1. Sam. 18. 16. & 25. 28. 1. Chron. 5. 22. Luc. 3. 14. Rom. 13. 4. 1. Pet. 2. 14. 46. Also the same conditions observed , it is lawfull for those who have skill in weapons . 1. Chron. 5. 18. Psal. 143. 1. To offer and apply their help to lawfull Captaines ; to make war. Luc. 3. 14. 1. Cor. 9. 7. 47. No Law of God permits any one to kill himselfe . 48. Yet it is lawfull and just sometime for one to expose himselfe to certaine danger of death . 39. Nay sometime the case is wherein one may and ought to offer himselfe to death . Ionah 1. 12. CHAPTER XIX . Of Chastity . 1. IUstice which respects the purity of our Neighbour is Chastity . 2. Chastity is a vertue whereby the purity of his person is preserved in respect of those things which pertaine to generation . 1. Thess. 4. 3 , 4 , 5. 3. The parts of Chastity are two , shamefastnes and honesty . 4. Shamefastnesse is a part of chastity drawing back from impurity , which is in the same sence also called bashfulnesse . 5. Honesty is a part of chastity leading to those things , which become purity . 6. Shamefastnesse and honesty are radically in the inward choise of a man , but significatively in the outward conversation . 7. Hence chastity is chiefly named shamefastnesse , as it doth take away the outward signes of impurity : and it is called comlinesse , as it putteth the outward signes of purity . 8. Unto shamefastnesse , modesty is chiefly referred , and to comelinesse gravity . 9. Modesty is a vertue whereby we containe our selves within the bounds of fleshly desire . 10. Gravity is a vertue whereby the decorum of purity is observed . 11. Chastity is virginall , conjugall , or viduall . 12. But this distribution is not of the Genus into Species , but of the adjunct into his subjects . 13. For chastity is the fame in respect of the essence in all , but it admits some accidentall differences , according to the different states of those by whom it is observed . 14. For virginall is that which ought to be kept by a virgin untill she contract mariage . 1. Cor. 7. 34. 15. Conjugall is that which ought to be kept in wedlock , Tit. 2. 5. 16. Viduall is that which is to be kept by Widowes . 1. Tim. 5. 7. 17. Unto conjugall chastity mariage lawfully contracted and observance is referred . Mat. 19. 6. 1. Tim. 2. 14. Heb. 13. 4. 1. Pet. 3. 1 , 2 , 4. 18. For this is the difference between single estate and maried , that though chastity may and ought to be observed in single estate , yet single estate of it selfe maketh nothing to chastity : but wedlock hath both of it own nature a certaine purity in it selfe , as it is an ordinance of God , and also by vertue of that institution , it becomes a meanes , to preserve purity and chastity . 19. Mariage is the individuall conjunction of one man and one woman by lawfull consent , for a mutuall communion of their bodies , and society of life among themselves . 20. It is of one man with one woman , Genes . 2. 22. Malac. 2. 15. Mat. 19. 4 , 5. 1. Cor. 7. 2. Levit. 18. 18. 21. For that perfection of friendship , and mutuall offices , such as mariage is cannot be had but between one and one . 22. Therefore Polygamy , even that which was in use with the ancient Fathers , was alwayes a violation of the Lawes of Mariage , neither was it of old tolerated by God by any other dispensation , then that whereby he is wont to tolerate mens , infirmities , and ignorances , and to turne them to God. 23. To a lawfull consent is required first , that the persons to be joyned be fit : Secondly , that the consent it selfe be agreeable to the nature of the thing and the Law of God. 24. That the persons may be fit is required . 1. A just distance of blood , Levit. 18. 25. For neernesse of flesh hinders mariage by reason of a certaine speciall reverence due to our owne flesh , contrary to which is that conjugall familiarity which is signified in that phrase . Doe not uncover her nakednesse . Levit. 18. 6. 7. And following . 26. That distance of degrees , either of kindred or affinity , which is propounded , Levit. 18. to be observed , is of common and perpetuall right ; for the violation of it was among those abominations , wherewith the Gentiles themselves are said to have polluted the Land. Vers 37. 28. 27. Yet it is not in all things of such essentiall morall right , but it may admit exception , either upon meere necessity urging , as in the beginning of the world , or upon a speciall command of God. Deut. 25. 5. 28. Spirituall kindred or neernesse ( as they call it ) brought in by the Papists between him that baptiseth , or the God-father , and the God-son or God-daughter , as they call them baptised , as an impediment of lawfull matrimony , is an idle , and tyrannicall devise of superstition . 29. Secondly , there is also required in the person that is to contract Matrimony , ripenesse of age , 1. Cor. 7. 36. Which if it should be wanting , she could not contract other covenants of lesse moment , much lesse this so great a covenant . 30. That this consent be conformable to the nature of the things , there is required aforehand . 1. Consent of parents , if they be as yet in their power , 1. Cor. 7. 36 , 37 , 38. 31. 2. Consent also of the persons contracting ought to proceed from certaine & deliberate counsell , without compulsion or deceit . 32. This conjunction is said to be individuall , because from the nature of the thing it selfe , it hath the fame ends with the life of man , Rom. 7. 1 , 2 , 3. 1. Corinth . 7. 39. 33. They therefore that have concubines , who doe contract between themselves , for a time , doe not marry according to Gods ordinance and allowance , but doe filthily elude it . 34. Neither doth this perpetually depend upon the will only and covenant of the persons contracting : for then by consent of both parts , a covenant so begun may be unloosed again , as it useth to be between master and servant : but the rule and bond of this covenant is the institution of God , whence also it is in the Scriptures fometime called the covenant of God. Prov. 2. 17. 35. This institution of God whereby he establisheth the individuall fellowship of husband and wife , doth respect the good of mankind in a just conservation of it by a certaine education , and hereditary succession of children , which cannot be done without an individuall conjunction of parents . 36. Therefore lawfull marriage cannot be unloosed before death , without most grievous guilt of him who is the cause of it . 37. No not infidelity or heresie in either part doth give a just cause of separation . 1. Cor. 7. 12 , 13. 38. But if one party make separation with obstinate pertinacy , the other party in that case is freed . 1. Cor. 7. 15. 39. This conjunction is for the communication of bodies , because there is in marriage first sought an holy seed . Malac. 2. 15. And secondarily a remedy against carnall desires which are now since the fall in men , who have not a singular gift of continency , so unbridled , that ( unlesse they be helped by this remedy ) they doe as it were burne them , that is , make them unfit for pious duties , and make them run headlong to unlawfull and foule mixtures , 1. Cor. 7. 2 , 9. 40. Hence the body of the husband is said to be in the power of the wife , and the body of the wife in the power of the husband , so that they ought to give due benevolence one to another without defrauding , 1. Cor. 7. 3 , 4 , 5. 41. Hence also the vow of single life , as it takes place among the Papists , is not a vow of chastity , but of diabolicall presumption , a snare of the conscience , and the bond of impurity . 42. Also society of life , and that most intimate , for mutuall comfort and helpe , is among the ends of mariage : for seeing a man must leave his father and mother , and cleave to his wife , Gen. 3. 24. And seeing the woman is said to be made a meet help unto man. Gen. 2. 18. This helping society doth not only pertaine to the propogation of mankind : but it must be extented to all the duties of this life . 43. All these are mutuall between the husband and wife , and ought to be observed of equall right , as touching the essence or summe of the matter , yet so as that difference of degree which comes between the husband and the wife ( that the husband governe , and the wife obey ) be observed in all these things . 1. Pet. 3. 7. 1. Cor. 11. 7. 8. 9. 10. Eph. 5. 33. 44. Unto chastity luxury is opposed in a more strict sence , whereby it sets forth an unlawfull use of those things , which pertaine to generation , which in the same sence is called , uncleannesse inordinate affection , and evill concupiscence . Col. 3. 5. Lasciviousnesse . Rom. 13. 13. The disease of concupiscence 1. Thess 4. 5. 45. Unto Luxury are reckoned all the helping causes , effects , and signes of it as unchast lookes . Iob 3●… . 1. Pro. 9. 13. 2. Pet. 2. 14. Mat. 5. 28. Noddings , Kissings , Embracings , Touchings , Dancing , Showes , Songs , Gestures , and the like . Gal. 5. 15. 46. Unto the helping causes of Luxury are referred , Gluttony and Drunkennesse . Rom. 13. 13. Ezech. 16. 49. Prov. 23. 31. 33. 47. Unto the effects , and signes of it are referred lasciviousnes , and lacivious habit , Prov. 7. 11. And obscene speech . Eph. 5. 4. 48. The kinds of Luxury are . 1. Scortation , which is the mixture of a single man with a single woman , 1. Cor. 6. 16. Whether it be Stuprum , whordome , which is the deflouring of a woman otherwise honest : or fornication properly so called , which is the mixture with a dishonest woman , or a whore . 2. Adultery , when at least one of the persons offending is married or betrothed . 3. Incest , when those are mixed together which are neere in the flesh . 4. Rape , when force is added to Luxury . 5. Mixture against nature . 49. Adultery is most properly and essentially against marriage , the band and covenant whereof it breakes of it own nature ; and so is the proper and just cause of a divorce , which is not to be admitted for many other sins , although they be more grievous . 50. A just devorce doth dissolve the band it selfe of mariage . CHAPTER XX. Of commutative Iustice. 1. IUstice which respects the outward benefit of our Neighbour by a certaine appropriation is called commutative Iustice , because it is chiefly used in changings . 2. This Iustice is a vertue whereby every man 's own is given to him in externall commodities . 3. Now that is said to be every mans own , whereof he hath a lawfull dominion . 4. Dominion is a right to dispose perfectly of a matter so far as Lawes permit . Matth. 20. 15. 5. There be two parts of a perfect dominion , propriety and the use of it . Luc. 20. 9. & 10. 1. Cor. 9. 7. 6. Now these are sometimes separated , so as the propriety is in one , and the use for a time in the power of another . 7. This Iustice is exercised , in the getting and using . 8. The Iustice of getting depends upon the cause of the dominion . 9. The cause and reason of a dominion is called a title . 10. A just title is a just occupying , an inheritance , a gift , a reward , or a contract . 11. A just occupation is a lawfull taking of things which were belonging to no body before , yet may become some bodies . 12 Those things are said to belong to no body which are not possessed , neither are in any ones dominion . 13. In this sence all things are said to have been common in the beginning of the world , and also after the flood : because they belonged to no man by possession or peculiar dominion , and so were propounded in common to every one that did first take or occupie , whereunto also pertaines , that blessing of God upon man-kind . Gen. 1. 28. Fill the earth and subdue it , and beare rule over every beast , and over all foules of the Heaven , and over all the beasts that creepe upon the Earth , which is also repeated after the flood ; Be fruitfull , increase and fill the Earth . 14. Of the same condition also are now those Islands of the Sea , and parts also of the continent which were never inhabited . 15. Of the same right also are all those things which did once belong to somebody , but afterward ceased to belong to any , which are wont to be called things vacant or forsaken . 16. But things that are lost are not to be accounted with these , unlesse there have been due diligence used to find out the true owner : for otherwise although they be not corporally detained from another , yet in right , with will and mind they are possessed . 17. Hence those wares that to lighten the Ship are cast into the Sea , or are by some Ship wrak brought to shore , are not to be accounted for things vacant or forsaken . 18. Unto this occupying is captivity referred , which is an occupying caused by right of war justly undertaken . 19. An inheritance is a succeeding into the goods of another , by vertue of his just will , Levit. 25. 45. 46. Num. 27. 8. 9. 10. & 11. 20. A gift is a free bestowing of a good thing . 1. King 10. 10. & 13. 21. A reward is the recompencing of a worke done . 22. A contract as it pertaines to this place , is a communicating of a good thing upon an agreement binding to it : the forme of which is , I give , that thou mayest give , or I give that thou mayest doe , or I doe that thou mayest doe , or I doe that thou mayest give . 23. Unto possession by contract is to be referred . 1. Buying , when a thing is had upon a certaine price , 2. Letting , when the use of a thing is granted for a certaine reward . 3. Borrowing , when a thing is taken to be rendred freely againe , in the same , generalled mutuum : or to be restored in the same speciall , called commodatum , to which a pledge or depotum may be reckoned . 24. About these matters a lawfull occupation , or course of living , is conversant belonging to all men , except those who enjoy publike offices , of whom we have spoken before at the fift Commandement : for such occupations of life , although they doe from the nature of the thing pertaine to the common good , and ought to be thither directed by men ; yet they doe with all belong to the private good of this life in getting , and keeping the goods of this life . Eph. 4. 28. 2. Thess. 3. 11. 12. 25. All are bound who are not exercised in greater , offices , and doe not prepare themselves to them , to exercise some such occupation . 1. Tim. 5. 13. Gen. 3. 10. According to that of the Apostle , if any will not labour , let him not eat . 2. Thess. 3. 10. 26. Neither is it enough that one labour , unlesse he labour that which is good . Eph. 4. 28. That is , doe follow that occupation of life , which agrees with the will of God and the profit of men : studying quietnesse and diligence . 1. Thess. 4. 11. 12. & 2. Thess. 3. 12 Unto which are opposed slothfulnesse , voluntary beggery , vaine , curious , unclean arts : and an unnecessary care of other mens matters , which is called Busibodines . 27. But to what singular kind , of occupation every one ought to apply himselfe , that depends partly upon the inward endowments & inclinations which he hath . 1. Pet. 4. 10. And partly upon outward circumstances whereby he is caried more to one course of life then to another . 28. But because there is a singular providence of God exercised in directing such matters ; therefore every one is rightly said to be assigned to this or that kind of life , as it were by Gods reckning . 29. But although in respect of this divine providence such a speciall occupation of life is wont to be by proportion called by Divines a vocation : yet this is not so to be taken , as if that vulgar men were as well separated by God to their occupations , as a believing man is to live well , or a Minister of the word to fulfill the worke of the Ministery : for neither is there any where in the Scriptures , either any such thing declared , or the title it selfe of vocation , simply and properly given to any vulgar occupation . 30. For the Apostle , 1. Corinth . 7. 20. When he makes mention of vocation , doth not set forth any certaine occupation of this life , ( for circumcision , and uncircumcision , service and freedome , are not occupations of life or just callings ) but he distributes , as it were , the calling of the faithfull , by the subjects , when he shewes that some are called being servants , and some being free , as appeares Verse 24. Where he unfolds the variety of calling by that divers state and condition , in which the called are found , neither doth he there command that every one abide in that state in which he was called : for he permits a servant to aspire to freedome , Verse 21. But he teacheth that there is no difference of a free man and a servant , in respect of Christ and christian calling , Verse 22. 31. In the defect of such possessions poverty consists , and riches in the abundance of them , 1. Iohn 3. 1. 32. Riches lawfully gotten , though in their own nature they be not morall good things , yet they are good gifts of God. Prov. 22. 4. 33. And poverty hath the respect of a punishment or affliction , Prov. 21. 17. 34. Therefore there is no perfection , in casting away or forsaking riches , unlesse the speciall will of God require it . Acts 20. 25. 35. But euangelicall poverty which is spirituall , may consist with great riches , as in Abraham , Iob , &c. 36. Also propriety and distinction of dominions is the ordinance of God and approved of him . Prov. 22. 2. 2. Thess. 3. 12. 37. In this right of dominion both in getting and using commutative Iustice is exercised , the summe whereof is that we possesse our own , not anothers , and that without the hurt of others . 38. But the foundation of this Iustice is placed in the lawfull keeping of those things we have . 39. Unto this keeping is required parsimony and frugality , Prov. 21. 15. 40. Parsimony is a vertue whereby we make only honest and necessary expences . 41. Frugality is a vertue whereby we order our matters , with profit and benefit . 42. The perfection of this Iustice properly flowing from Charity is in Liberality . 43. Liberality is a vertue whereby we are inclined to communicate our commodity freely to others , by the Will of God. 2. Cor. 8. 14. Rom. 12. 13. Levit. 25. 35. Ps. 37. 19. 44. Unto liberality pertaines not only a free giving , under which is comprehended the forgiving of a debt : but also free lending . Luc. 6. 34. And hospitality , Rom. 12. 12. 1. Pet. 4. 9. 45. Almes properly so called doth consist in this liberality , when it is done upon taking pitty on the calamity of our Neighbour . 46. Theft in the larger signification is opposed to a just title of dominion . 47. Theft is an unjust taking away of that which is another mans against the will of the owner . Eph. 4. 28. 48. Taking away comprehends , taking , detaining , and damnifying . 49. A thing is said to be anothers , which is anothers , either in respect of propriety , power , or possession . 40. In divers causes the owner upon right of humanity is supposed to consent , to the bestowing of some part of his goods , although he hath not actually testified his consent , and then the respect of theft ceaseth . Deut. 23. 24. 25. 51. But seeing that which is another mans is taken away either secretly or by force : hence there are two kinds of this sin , namely theft specially so called , and Rapine or Robbery . Exod. 22. 1. Hos. 6. 8 , 9. Luc. 8. 21. 1. Cor. 6. 8 , 9. 52. Unto theft is referred all fraud which is used in buyings , or sellings , or in any other unlawfull getting . 53. Theft in the common wealth is Peculatus when things that belong to the community are taken away , and Annonae stagellatio , when the buying and selling of corne or other things is made deerer then is fit , by monopolies , or the like arts . 54. Unto rapine are referred oppression : Esay 3. 14. and extorsion . Luc. 3. 14. 1. Sam. 2. 12. 55. Unto parsimony and frugality is opposed profusion , which is an immoderate bestowing of those things which we have . 56. Unto liberality is opposed covetousnesse , which is an immoderate keeping of those things which we have , Prov. 11. 24. Or a greedy desire of those things wee have not , 1. Tim. 6. 9. CHAPTER XXI . Of telling Truth . Veracity . 1. IUstice which doth affect our Neighbour mediatly , is Veracity and contentation . For by that our Neighbour is affected , by meanes of his credit , and by this by meanes of some worke or action of ours belonging to some Commandement going before . 2. Veracity is a vertue , whereby we are inclined to observe truth in giving testimony , Mat. 23. 22. Eph. 4. 25. Psal. 15. 2. 3. Of this telling truth in giving testimony , the ninth precept doth properly handle , and not of those things only or chiefly which pertaine to the fame of our Neighbour ; For fame pertaines to that honour , the consideration whereof is had in the fift precept : neither is it to be put after riches and the profits of this life , whereof it was handled in the eight Commandement . Pro. 22. 1. Neither doth a testimony true or false pertaine to the same of others only , but also to their possessions , and life it selfe . Pro. 30. 14. 4. It is also manifest that the words themselves of this precept doe most directly respect proceeding in judgement , Numb . 35. 30. Deut. 17. 6. & 19. 15. In which places many other things are handled beside fame , although they ought also to be extended to all publick , politick , and sacred testimonies . 1. Cor. 15. 15. Iohn 1. 7. 8. 15. 19. 32. 34. 5. Hence actions in places of judgement , have not only approbation , but also direction from this precept ; namely that judgements ought alwayes to be grounded on fit testimony , ( unlesse there be that evidence of the matter which needs to witnesse ) or at least strong and violent ( as they call them ) presumptions , which are equall to testimonies . 6. The words of a testimony must alwayes be used in that sence as they are understood , or are thought to be understood by those to whom the witnesses endeavour to give credence , without equivocation , doubting , or mentall reservation . 7. Truth in a testimony is threefold . 1. When that which is said is conformable to the thing which is in hand . 2. When it is comformable . 3. When t is conformable both to the thing and to the mind . 8. The second truth is that which is most properly looked at in a testimony and in veracity : yet the third is required in those things , a certaine knowledge of which we are either bound or professe to have . 9. This veracity is in a simple assertion , or in a promise . 10. The truth of an assertion is alwayes thus farnecessary that if we affirme any thing , it doe consent with the mind and our judgement . 11. Also sometime an assertion it selfe is necessary when either Iustice or Charity requires it of us . 12. Iustice requires it in publick judgements of the Iudge , of the plaintife , the defendant , of the witnesse , of the advocate , the notary , and the proctor , and out of judgement when we are bound to beare witnesse by some speciall right . 13. Charity requires this when good comes to our Neighbour by it , without equivalent hurt to our selves or others . 14. Truth of a promise is called fidelity . 15. Fidelity is a vertue , whereby we are inclined to keepe constantly our credit given . 16. This Fidelity is the foundation of civill Iustice , and all agreements , and contracts : for a reciprocall promise is a contract . 17. To the truth of a testimony is opposed a Lye. Eph. 4. 25. 18. A lie is properly a testimony , whereby one pronounceth otherwise then is in his heart . Act. 5. Whence is that phrase in Scripture of a double heart , of a man that is a lyer . Psal. 12. 3. 19. But because a thing pronounced , doth not consist only in outward words , but chiefly in their sence ; therefore the same words which are true in one sence , in another sence become a lye . Mat. 26. 61. 20. Ironies , fables , jests , repeatings also of false things , and the like are not lies , because they are not testimonies ; and they are not testimonies because they are not confirmed by the credit and authority of the speaker . 21. An intention of deceiving , although it doe almost alwayes accompany a false testimony , yet it is not of the essence of it , neither is it necessarily required to a lie ; for although one know that he with whom he hath to doe cannot be deceived by his lie ; yet if he have an intention in speaking to affirme that which is false , he lyeth no lesse then if he had hope of deceiving . 22. An intention of hurting doth indeed increase the mischiefe of a lie : but it maketh not the nature of it : for if a man out of jesting or a desire to please and be officious , confirme that by his credit which he knowes to be false , it is a lie : pernicious of its own nature , if not others , yet to the author himselfe : as it is in those who are given to flatteries or boastings , or are delighted in confirming monstrous fables or fictions unto others . 23. An intention to speake that which is false , makes a lie , although that which is spoken be most true . 24. The asseveration of a thing incertaine for certaine , is accounted with a lie although we thinke it to be true . 25. Also that secrecy whereby one doth not speake the truth when Justice or Charity requires it , doth partake of the nature of a lie . 26. But when neither Iustice nor Charity requires to give testimony , then the truth or part of it may be concealed without sin . Ier. 38. 27. 27. Among lies , those are more hainous , in which the testimonie is more solemne , as in publick judgements , which are chiefly respected in the words of the ninth precept , in sacred matters , and in the like . Matth. 26. 59. 1. Cor. 15. 15. 28. Hence subscriptions , testimonies , or commendatory letters , given against the knowne truth are foule lies . 29. That dissembling which consists in deeds or signes , and not in words , is not properly a lie : unlesse the same either of their own nature , or by some certaine appointment , have the force and use of speech : as , 1. Sam. 20. 20. 21. 22. Mat. 26. 49. Because such deeds and signes that are not verball , have no certaine and determinate signification , so as they can have the force of a testimony . 30. Therefore such dissembling is sometime lawfull , as in warlike stratagems . Ios 8. 31. But it is made unlawfull when in respect of the end or manner , it fights with religion , Iustice or Charity . 32. Unto fidelity is opposed perfidy or unfaithfulnesse . 33. A lie is committed in a promise , if there be not an intention of doing that which is promised , unfaithfulnesse is committed , if there be not an answerable indeavour to performe the same : therefore a lie and unfaithfulnesse , may be joyned together , and they may be also severed . 34. When a testimony toward our Neighbour is confirmed by an oath , then the oath is an adjunct of that testimony : and although it doe in it selfe respect God only , yet in this use it respects our Neighbour also . 35. Therefore perjury in such a testimony is directly and immediatly a sin against reverence due to God : but mediatly it violates also that Iustice which is due to our Neighbour . 36. Asseveration is the manner of a testimony whereby the sincerity of the witnesse , and the certitude of knowledge which he hath of the thing witnessed , is declared : whence also it is not unfitly by some called a protestation , because it produceth a witnessing by explication . 37. Therefore in an asseveration there is not a second contestation comming to the former as there is in an oath : but an illustration of one and the same thing . 38. Neither is there any calling upon God in a mere asseveration , which is essentiall to an oath . 39. Yet an asseveration is not convenient but to the more grave testimonies , for it is as it were a middle degree between a simple testimony and an oath . 40. We must most of all abstaine from those asseveratioins our common speech , which have some shew of an oath . CHAPTER XXII . Of Contentation . 1. COntentation is a vertue , whereby the mind doth rest in that portion that God hath given him . 1. Tim. 6. 6. Heb. 13. 5. Phil. 4. 11. 2. This contentment is commanded in the tenth Commandement , as appeares by the words themselves , neither is it any way meet that this Commandement be referred to that inward and originall purity of righteousnesse , which is the fountaine of all obedience ; for that is not generally commanded in any one Commandement , but in all : neither doth it more pertaine to the second table which is the condition of this precept , then to the first . 3. Yet because of all vertues which are contained in the second table there is none more internall , or more intimate to primitive righteousnesse then contention , and we are as it were lead by the hand from this , to contemplate and seeke that : therefore that purity is not unfitly by occasion of this precept handled here . 4. Unto this contentation is joyned joy for the prosperity of our Neighbour as of our own . Rom. 12. 15. 5. In that contentment and joy consists the top and perfection of all charity toward our Neighbour . In which respect also contentment is in a certaine manner the perfection of godlinesse and a godly man. 1. Tim , 6. 6. For godlinesse is great gaine ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) with contentment , or producing the perfection of co●…tenment . 6. Hence it is commanded in the last precept according to that order which proceeds from the more imperfect to the more perfect , and from that which is more known to that which is lesse knowne . 7. For this is a duty most perfect , and most unknowne to us by nature , that whatsoever we conceive or will , it be joyned with the good of our Neighbours . 8. Therefore although this of its own nature hath the first place among duties to our Neighbour , as the foundation of all the rest , yet because it is last in having a being in man corrupted , therefore it is commanded in the last place . 9. Unto Contentation is opposed concupiscence . Heb. 13. 5. 10. But by concupiscence is not onderstood the power and faculty of lusting , and desiring which is naturall : nor the act or operation of that naturall faculty which is also naturall and lawfull , neither the whole inclination of our nature which is corrupt , which is not specially condemned in any one precept , but in the whole Law : nor all those chiefe actuall lusts which are inordinate , a great part whereof is contrary to religion and condemned in the first table ; nor lastly , all lusts which tend to the hurt of our Neighbour , for those which have a deliberate consent , and purpose of prosecuting joyned with them , are condemned in the severall Commandements : But that desire whereby the mind is first instigated , and tickled , with desire of the good things which are our Neighbours , although it be not yet come into the mind to get them by unlawfull meanes , 1. Kings 21. 2. Marc. 10. 19. 11. By reason of that affinity , or neere consanguinity which those first motions of injustice have with originall corruption , whence they doe arise , they are wont by many to be as it were confounded with it . But. 1. Originall sin , is as it were an inbred habit , perpetually dwelling in us , having it selfe in respect of the existence alwayes in the same manner ; whilest we live here ; but these morions are transient actions proceeding from that habit . 2. That sin dwelling in us , is no more originall , then a generall principle of all vitious actions , but those acts , which are condemned in this place are manifestly circumscribed , as having respect only to our neighbour . 12. The Apostle himselfe , Rom. 7. doth plainly open this precept by a Synecdoche of the operations of sin , for concupiscence , Ver. 7. is the same with the affections of sinners , Ver. 5. And with concupiscence effected by sin , Ver. 8. And so must necessarily be distinguished from sin dwelling in him . Ver. 7. 13. Neither is it any marvaile that the Pharisees ( of whom Paul was one ) did not acknowledge the first motions of concupiscence to be sins , seeing the same is yet stiffly denied by their cosen germans , the Papists . 14. They that divide this last precept of concupiscence into two , so as one is of coveting the house , and the other of coveting the wife , with that which followes in this matter . 1. They are forsaken of all reason . 2. They are constrained either to roote out altogether the second precept of the first Table , or to turne it at least into a needlesse appendix of the first , that they may seeme to retaine in some so●… the number of ten words , or rather ( which is evident in many or●… ) 〈◊〉 obs●…ring the force of the second precept , they may with some shew remove it from themselves , and their superstitions , they are constrained to teare in sunder this tenth precept . 3. They cannot certainly designe which is the ninth , and which is the tenth precept , because in the repetition of the Law , Deut. 5. 27. Coveting of the wife is put before the coveting of the house . 4. They can declare no distinct injustice , between these covetings , whence also it comes to passe , that they themselves in explaining the decalogue , doe alwayes joyne or rather confound te ninth and tenth precept . 5. The very words of the decalogue , doe expressely note one precept when they forbid one act . Thou shalt not cover , and one common object whatsoever is thy Neighbours . 15. There is referred to concupiscence as a cause , the inordinate love of our selves , which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 2. Tim. 3. 2. 16. This selfe-love is the foundation and originall , in a sort of all sins , not only against our neighbour , but also against God himselfe . 2. Tim. 3. 4. 17. This concupiscence is that which is distributed by Iohn , into that which is of the flesh , respecting those things which pertaine to food and lust , and into that which is of the eyes , respecting those things which pertaine to outward delight and profit : and into that which is of the pride of life , respecting those things which pertaine to the glory and pompe of this world . 1. Iohn 2. 16. 18. Unto joy and well-pleasednesse in the prosperity of our Neighbour is opposed , envy , or an evill eye , Mat. 20. 15. And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or rejoycing in the hurt of our Neighbour . Psal. 17. 3. 4. Obad. 12. 19. In this last precept that perfection of Iustice is commanded , which is in some sort explained throughout the whole 〈◊〉 ●…e : as in the first precept of the 〈◊〉 ●…e , all Religion is in a certaine manner commanded , so that in the first precept of the first table i●… contained that first and great Commandement , Thou shalt love God with all thy heart : and the second table like to this , thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy selfe , is contained in the last of the second Table . 20. From this perfection which shines forth in any one of these precepts it is manifest , that a perfect and accurate fullfilling of the Law , is impossible even to the faithfull , by that grace which is bestowed upon them in this life . For seeing ( as it is well said ) the rule and measure of our obedience is in affirmatives , Thou shalt love with all thy heart : and in negatives , Thou shalt not cover , both of which is impossible in this life , it doth necessarily follow , that none can exactly satisfie the Law. 21. In this life we know only in part , 1. Cor. 13. 9. And therefore we act only in part : we have received only the first fruits of the spirit . Rom. 8. 23. And therefore we cannot exactly observe a Law altogether spirituall . Rom. 7. 14. We carry about us flesh that lusteth against the spirit , Gal. 5. 17. Therefore we cannot obey without concupiscence , inclining and drawing another way . Finally we are not perfect , Phil. 3. Verse 12. We cannot therefore performe perfect obedience : but we have alwayes need to have that petition in the heart , and in the mouth , Forgive us our debts . 22. Yet it is truly and rightly said that the yoke of Christ is easy , and his burden light . Mat. 11. 30. And his Commandements are not grievous . 1. Iohn 5. 3. Because the Law is there considered . 1. As it is observed by the faithfull who delight in it . Rom. 7. 22. Psal. 119. 14. 16. Not as it ought to be observed ; for that observation brings rest unto the soules of the faithfull . Mat. 11. 29. Although imperfection cleaving to them is grievous and troublesome to them . 2. In respect of the spirit , not in respect of the flesh . Matthew 26. 41. 3. Remission of sin & of all imperfection which cleaves to our indeavours being joyned with it . 4. In comparison of the Letter of the Law which killeth . 5. A comparison also being had of the reward appointed by God to imperfect obedience begun : in which sence even all afflictions are counted light . 2. Cor. 4. 17. The easinesse therefore and lightnesse of the Law of God is not in the proportion of it to our strength : but in the grace of our Lord Iesus Christ , and the love of God together with the Communication of the Holy Spirit : which is with all those that love the Law God. Amen . FINIS 
A91309	----	Truth triumphing over falshood, antiquity over novelty. Or, The first part of a just and seasonable vindication of the undoubted ecclesiasticall iurisdiction, right, legislative, coercive power of Christian emperors, kings, magistrates, parliaments, in all matters of religion, church-government, discipline, ceremonies, manners: summoning of, presiding, moderating in councells, synods; and ratifying their canons, determinations, decrees: as likewise of lay-mens right both to sit and vote in councells; ... In refutation of Mr. Iohn Goodwins Innocencies Triumph: my deare brother Burtons Vindication of churches, commonly called Independent: and of all anti-monarchicall, anti-Parliamentall, anti-synodicall, and anarchicall paradoxes of papists, prelates, Anabaptists, Arminians, Socinians, Brownists, or Independents: whose old and new objections to the contrary, are here fully answered. / By William Prynne, of Lincolnes Inne, Esquire. Prynne, William, 1600-1669. 1645 Approx. 690 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 86 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2008-09 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A91309 Wing P4115 Thomason E259_1 ESTC R212479 99871087 99871087 159261 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A91309) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 159261) Images scanned from microfilm: (Thomason Tracts ; 44:E259[1]) Truth triumphing over falshood, antiquity over novelty. Or, The first part of a just and seasonable vindication of the undoubted ecclesiasticall iurisdiction, right, legislative, coercive power of Christian emperors, kings, magistrates, parliaments, in all matters of religion, church-government, discipline, ceremonies, manners: summoning of, presiding, moderating in councells, synods; and ratifying their canons, determinations, decrees: as likewise of lay-mens right both to sit and vote in councells; ... In refutation of Mr. Iohn Goodwins Innocencies Triumph: my deare brother Burtons Vindication of churches, commonly called Independent: and of all anti-monarchicall, anti-Parliamentall, anti-synodicall, and anarchicall paradoxes of papists, prelates, Anabaptists, Arminians, Socinians, Brownists, or Independents: whose old and new objections to the contrary, are here fully answered. / By William Prynne, of Lincolnes Inne, Esquire. Prynne, William, 1600-1669. [12], 156 p. Printed by John Dawson, and are to be sold by Michael Sparke, Senior, London, : 1645. At foot of title, above imprint: Decem. 3. 1644. It is ordered by the Committee of the House of Commons, concerning Printing, that this book, entituled, Truth triumphing over falsehood, antiquity over novelty. be printed by Mich. Sparke, Senior. John White. ["Truth triumphing over falsehood, antiquity over novelty." is enclosed in square brackets]. Annotation on Thomason copy: "January. 2d. 1644"; the 5 in imprint date crossed out. Reproduction of the original in the British Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Goodwin, John, 1594?-1665. -- Innocencies triumph. Puritans -- Controversial literature. Church and state -- England -- Early works to 1800. 2007-07 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2007-07 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2007-10 John Latta Sampled and proofread 2007-10 John Latta Text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion TRVTH TRIVMPHING OVER FALSHOOD , ANTIQVITY Over NOVELTY . OR , The First Part of A just and seasonable Vindication of the undoubted Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction , Right , Legislative , Coercive Power of Christian Emperors , Kings , Magistrates , Parliaments , in all matters of Religion , Church-Government , Discipline , Ceremonies , Manners : Summoning of , Presiding , Moderating in Councells , Synods ; and ratifying their Canons , Determinations , Decrees : As likewise of Lay-mens right both to sit and vote in Councells ; ( here proved to be anciently , and in truth none other but Parliaments , especially in England ) both by Scripture Texts , Presidents of all sorts , and the constant uninterrupted Practices , Examples , of the most eminent Emperors , Princes , Councells , Parliaments , Churches , and Christian States , ( especially of our owne ) in all ages since their embracing the Gospell . In Refutation of M r. Iohn Goodwins Innocencies Triumph : My deare brother Burtons Vindication of Churches , commonly called Independent : And of all Anti-Monarchicall , Anti-Parliamentall , Anti-Synodicall , and Anarchicall Paradoxes of Papists , Prelates , Anabaptists , Arminians , Socinians , Brownists , or Independents : Whose old and new Objections to the contrary , are here fully answered . By William Prynne , of Lincolnes Inne , Esquire . Jer. 6. 16. Thus saith the Lord , Stand yee in the wayes and see , and aske for the OLD PATHES , where is the GOOD WAY , and walk therein , and yee shall find rest for your soules : But they said , Wee will not walke therein . Luk. 5. 39. No man also having drunk OLD WINE , straightway desireth NEW : for he saith , THE OLD IS BETTER . Tertul. de Praescrip . adver . Haeres . Ex ipso ordine manifestatur , id esse Dominicum & Verum , quod sit priùs traditum ; id autem Extraneum & Falsum , quod sit posterius immissum . Decem. 3. 1644. It is Ordered by the Committee of the House of Commons , concerning Printing , that this Book , entituled , [ Truth Triumphing over Falshood , Antiquity over Novelty . ] be printed by Mich. Sparke , Senior . John White . London , Printed by John Dawson , and are to be sold by Michael Sparke , Senior , 1645. TO THE HIGH COVRT OF PARLIAMENT . Right Honourable , HAving had the Honour , through Gods assistance , to be a meane , though cordiall Instrument , of Vindicating The Soveraigne Power of Parliaments and Kingdomes , in all Civill or Military affaires which concerne the State , in Foure severall Volumes , against all Opposites whatsoeever ; which they have ( for the most part ) satisfied , or put to silence : I expected a Quietus est from all other Controversies , concerning the Iurisdiction of Parliaments , especially in Ecclesiasticall matters ; which most imagined had been put to eternall silence when our Lordly Prelates lost their Votes and Session in Parliament , by a publike Law : But ( alas ) I know not by what evill Genius , and Pythagorean Metempsychosis , the Anti-Parliamentary Soules , formerly dwelling in our defunct Prelates earthly Tabernacles , are transmigrated into , and revived in a New-Generation of men ( started up of late among us ) commonly known by the Name of INDEPENDENTS ; who , though for the most part really cordiall in their Affections , Actions to the Parliament and Church of England , ( for which , and for their piety they are to bee highly honoured ▪ ) yet some of them are of late become extremely derogatory , and destructive unto both , in their Anarchicall and Anti-Parliamentary Positions : For which , and for their late gathering of Independent Churches , contrary to Your Parliamentary Injunctions , they are to be justly blamed , as great disturbers of our publike Peace and Vnity . It is the observation of learned a Voetius and b Vedelius , That the Arminians in the Netherlands , for the advancing of their owne Faction , and more facill accomplishment of their private ill Designes , did before the Synod of Dort , and in the beginning thereof , exceedingly cry up the Power of the Civill Magistrate , and States of Holland , in Ecclesiasticall matters , both by Writing and Preaching ; ascribing to them the highest Jurisdiction and Power of giving ultimate Judgement in all Controversies of Faith , and Ecclesiasticall matters arising in the Church , as a Prerogative belonging immediately under Christ to them alone : And thereupon they appealed to the States , from the Ecclesiasticall Classes , as the proper Iudges of the Controversies they had raised in the Belgick Churches . But at last , after the Synod of Dort had determined against their Arminian Errors , and the c States established their Determinations , prohibiting the Preaching or Printing of any Arminian Tenets , with the private Independent Congregations and Conventicles of the Arminian Party , they presently altered both their opinions and practice ; crying downe the Authority of the States and Civill Magistrate , as fast as they had cryed it up , both in their d Apologies and Sermons ; contracting , yea denying them that very power which before they had so liberally measured ●ut unto them ; affirming , that the States had no power at all over their private Congregations : that it was not any right or part of their Office to obliege men , by their authorities , to the Decrees of Synods , however agreeable to the word of God ; and that they ought not to use any coactive Power or Authority in such cases , to obliege them to conformity . This Practice of the Arminians was , by e M r Thomas Edwards , by way of prediction , applied to the Independents , in these very tearmes : And it may be feared , however these Apologists NOW to ingratiate themselves , and being let alone in their Church-way , say , they give more to the Magistrates than the Presbyteriall , and that they professe to submit , and to be most willing to have recourse to the Magistrates Iudgement , and Cognizance , and Examination of Ecclesiasticall Causes ; yet when they shall come once to be crossed , and the Parliament , by the advice of the Assembly , to settle the Government of the Church , and by their Authority to bind them to things agreeable to the word , wee shall see then what they will say of the Magistrates Power . There are too many speeches already , since the Assembly , ( out of their feare how they may goe ) which have fallen from many Independents , THAT PROGNOSTICATE , THEY WILL DOE BY THE PARLIAMENT , AS THE REMONSTRANTS DID AFTER THE SYNOD OF DORT BY THE STATES . Which Prognostication hath fallen out accordingly . For since that time our Independents having felt the Pulses of the Assembly and Parliament bearing , but very gently , by way of debate , against their Anarchicall and Anomolous New-Way , ( derived from their good friends , the f German Anabaptists and g Separatists , and supported only with their Arguments , as I am fully able to demonstrate ; ) they have not only in Presse and Pulpit cryed up their Way , as the Onely Way , Kingdome , and Scepter of Christ ; and denyed all opposition in word , deed , or thought against it ; as a direct h FIGHTING AGAINST GOD ; and promoted it publikely and privately with all their Industry , Policy , Power ; setting up New Independent Congregations in every corner ; but even with open mouth , pen , hand , ( contrary to their former Solemne Vowes , Covenants , Protestations , which I feare they have over-much forgotten ) cryed downe , and fought against the very Ecclesiasticall Power , and Legislative Authority of the High Court of Parliament it self , and Supreme Temporall Magistrates : proclaiming not onely in their i Pulpits , but likewise in sundry late k Pamphlets , wherewith they have filled the World , That every particular Congregation of visible Saints , and Independent Church , is under the Government of Christ alone , as the ONELY Head , King , Governour , Law-giver of it ; and subject TO NO OTHER IVRISDICTION , then that of Christ , his word and Spirit . That NO POWER ON EARTH , NOR EARTHLY LAW-GIVERS MAY , CAN , OR OVGHT TO GIVE LAWES , FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF THIS REPVBLIKE , nor claime , nor exercise an Headship , or undertake the Government of this Body . That neither KINGS , NOR PARLIAMENTS , NOR SYNODS , have any Authority to prescribe Lawes or Rules for the Churches Government , to order the affaires of Christs Kingdome , or institute the Government of his Churches ; or to make coactive Lawes , in any Ecclesiasticall matters , to bind the conscience of any Church or Christian to outward conformity , or inflict any mulcts or penalties for contempt or disobedience ; Christ onely being the Lord of mens consciences , which ought to be left at liberty . That the Members of the Parliament are chosen but by a secular Root , by the Generality and Riffe Raffe of the world , Papists , Atheists , Drunkards , Swearers , Men voyd of the knowledge , feare , and grace of Christ : And therefore the Independent Brethren conceive as great AN IMPOSSIBILITY , that a Legitimate Ecclesiastick Power should , according to the mind of Christ , bee by them conferred upon any men , or that they should have any Power or Authority from Christ to nominate or appoint who shall bee the men , by vertue of such nomination or election , to enact Lawes and Statutes in matters of Religion , and to order under mulcts and penalties how men shall worship and serve God , as it is ( in Jobs expression ) to bring a cleane thing out of an uncleane . That the Parliaments claiming or exercising any such Ecclesiasticall Power , or others attributing of it to them , is a meanes to awaken the eye of Jealousie upon them , and seven times more destructive and under-mining of not onely their Power , but Honour , Peace , nd Safety also , than any thing that is found in the Independent Way , so ill entreated . That it is a claiming of the sacred and incommunicable Royalties of Heaven ; an accounting it no Robbery to make themselves equall with God ; and such an high provocation in the eyes of the Most High , as IF CONTINVED IN ( by the Parliament ) will kindle a fire in the brest of him whose name is Jealous , which will consume and devoure . Yea , one of them puts this Question , k If the whole Kingdome may deny obedience unto Popish Acts and Canons , or upon any other like just occasion , and they themselves bee Judges whether the occasion bee just or no ; Whether MAY NOT INDEPENDENTS , a part of the Kingdome onely , doe the like in all respects ? Or , Whether ought they , because a Lesser part of the Kingdome , yeeld obedience to Popish Acts and Canons , because a Major part approve of , and agree with a Parliament and Synod in approving them ? What if they should be for Popery again , Judaisme , or Turcisme ? t is no offence to make a Quere , nor impossible to come to passe ; the greatest part of those that chose our Parliament men being thought to be Popishly or Malignantly affected , &c. Putting divers such like Queries , destructive to the very fundamentall Power and Being of Parliaments ; and as bad or worse than the Popish Gun-powder Plot , to blow up the Soveraign Ecclesiastick , and Civill Authority of this High Court , in all succeeding Ages . These , with infinite other Anti-Parliamentall , Anti-Synodicall , and Anti-Monarchicall Paradoxes ( at which I professe I stand amazed ) have not onely dropped from the Lips , but Pens of sundry Independents , who have avowed them publikely in Print , with their Names affixed to their Bookes , even before the face of Your Right Honourable Parliamentary Assembly and Supreme Tribunall , in such open affront and high contempt of Your undoubted Rights , Power , Priviledges , ( which Your Honours and wee all are obliged , by Late Solemne Oathes , Covenants , Protestations , to defend , maintaine , with our very Lives and Estates ; and to discover , oppose all others who shall invade them , to our uttermost power ) as I am confident no Age , nor History can ever parallel , in the least measure ; the very Malignant Prelates , and Anti-Parliamentary Cavaliers , having not proceeded , in this kind , so farre as they : which I speake with deepest griefe of heart and spirit , out of Conscience of that common Vow and Covenant , ( which bindes mee to discover , oppugne , reveale , abhorre it ) and detestation of their most pernicious Assertions , not out of the least malice or hatred to any of their Persons . What the Independents end of publishing these desperate Anti-Parliamentary Paradoxes should be , unlesse to prepare their party and all others , as much as in them lies , utterly to reject whatever publike forme of Church-Government , Discipline , Reformation , and Directory of Worship , Your Honours by the advice of the Reverend Assembly shall establish in our Church for the future , after all your serious consultations , debates , paines , Prayers and Fastings about it ; and to set up their owne Anomolous Platforme , ( which * they averre is Christs Kingdome and Government ; and which may , upon probable and higher grounds than of reason , bee thought in time to overthrow , and put downe all other Governments whatsoever , and to stand up alone in their stead ; since Christs Kingdome shall stand up , when all opposite earthly Kingdomes , like earthen vessells , shall with an Iron Rod bee dashed in peeces : Which they close up with a Faxit Deus & festinet , ) in despight of Your Authority , and all humane Power whatsoever , I cannot conjecture . And their owne late printed Passages , with * Mr. Iohn Goodwins Sermon , ( that it would be more easie for him , and hee should rather yeeld to bee torne in pieces by wild horses , than submit to such a Government which proceeded from a Parliament , chosen by the Riffe-raffe of the world , &c. ) intimate and expresse as much . Which , what an high contempt it is against Your undoubted Power , and pious Ecclesiasticall proceedings , in Reforming , setling the Doctrine , Discipline , and Government of our Church , ( the grand desire and prayer of all wel-affected spirits ) I most humbly submit to Your saddest thoughts and deepest wisedomes , who have both Power and Authority in Your hands to suppresse , incomparable Prudence and Providence to prevent , these growing , dangerous Insolencies , before they become Masterlesse , or Epidemicall , past Your cure . Farre be it from my thoughts , to exasperate Your Power or Iustice against any Delinquents of this kind ; some whereof are so neare and deare unto mee , that it is my heaviest affliction to mention their extravagancies in this kind ; of which I trust they ( and all their followers ) will be now ashamed ; and a Brotherly Admonition to their Persons ( though their Writings undergoe the sharper Censure ) will I hope induce them , upon second thoughts , both to discerne , lament , recant their fore-mentioned Paradoxes , and abhorre themselves for them even in dust and ashes , ( as one of them a professeth hee will doe , in case hee be convinced : ) And then if they will not bee reclaimed , Fiat Iustitia ; better some should suffer , than all perish . My onely desire is , that Your Honours would have a speciall jealous care of preserving your owne undoubted Parliamentary Rights and Priviledges against these unparalleld publike Violations , Impeachments of them , and of the tranquility , safety of our Church and State , endangered by them . Toward the just defence whereof , I have ( with as much expedition as my many other distracting publike and private Imployments would permit ) contributed these my indigested Nocturnall Lucubrations , ( borrowed from the houres allotted to my necessary naturall rest ) in Vindication of the ancient and undoubted Ecclesiasticall Power and Iurisdiction of Parliaments , Christian Princes , and Magistrates ; ( which I have made good by sundry Divine , Historicall Presidents , and Authorities , in all Ages ) and answered all the chiefe Pretences , Objections of Papists , Prelates , Independents , Anabaptists , Separatists , and all others who oppugne them ; in such a manner as I hope will silence them for the present , and reforme them for the future . It was my primitive intention and desire to have published this Treatise complete at first ; but it swelling to a greater bulk than I expected , and my engagements in other publike services for the Common-weale retarding my speedy progresse herein , I have thereupon divided it into two Parts : the First whereof I here humbly tender to your Honourable Patronage , till God and oportunity enable mee to complete the Second ; of which there is lesse Necessity , since learned Mr. Samuel Rutherford , in his Due right of Presbyteries , and Mr. Thomas Edwards , in his Anti-Apologia , ( neither of them hitherto Answered by the Independents , and in truth unanswerable ) with Gulielmus Apollonius and the Wallacrian Ministers , Consideratio Quarundam Controversiarum , &c. quae in Angliae Regno hodie agitantur , newly published , will supply the present defect thereof ; and this First Part supply some particulars concerning the Ecclesiasticall Power of Parliaments , Christian Princes , Magistrates , Councells , which are wanting in them , and in laborious Sir Edward Cookes Fourth Institutes ; who hath recorded little or nothing concerning the Jurisdiction or Power of Parliaments in Ecclesiasticall affaires , and matters of Religion . Thus humbly submitting these my distracted subitane Collections , and Lucubrations , to Your Honourable favourable Acceptation ; and imploring the God of Verity , of Unity speedily to dissipate all our Errors , and comprimise all our unhappy Divisions ( which threaten ruine to us , if continued ) by Your most Religious Care , Wisedome , and indefatigable Endeavours , that so * wee may bee all like minded one towards another , and may with ONE MIND , and ONE MOVTH , ( in one Way , one Congregation ) glorifie God , even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ : I shall with my ferventest Orisons daily recommend Your Honourable Assembly , with all Your pious Endeavours for the Reforming , Setling of our Church , State , to his Divine Benediction ; and ever rest , Your Honours most humble , devoted Servant , William Prynne . To the Reader . CHristian Reader , I here present thee with Truth Triumphing over Falshood , Antiquity over Novelty ; to settle both thy Judgement and Practice , in these unsetled times , wherein the very Foundations of Parliaments , States , Churches , Government , are shaken and subverted , by some of our owne dear Friends , from whom wee least expected it . For my part , I take no pleasure in detecting my Brethrens nakednesse , Errors , Over-sights ; nor in disparaging their Worth or Writings ; yet I must needs acquaint thee , for thine owne good , to preserve thee from seducement , with some materiall Observations touching their Independent Treatises ; for which thou maist chance to give me thanks . First , That they all generally take that for granted , which they should prove and demonstrate to us : viz. That there is an exact and most absolute forme of Church-Government prescribed to all Churches in the Scripture ; from which no man must vary in the least title : And that the Independent Way it is , and no other . But when wee demand of them how they prove it ? or what that Way , Government , and Discipline is they contend for ? or in what plaine Scripture Texts they find it instituted and universally prescribed to all Nations , Churches ? or how they make good all their transcendent Encomiums of their New Way ? wee find them altogether silent or unsatisfactory : telling us onely a large story of the Patterne of the Tabernacle shewed to Moses in the Mount ; of the exact forme of the Temple shewed to David by the Spirit ; and of Ezekiels vision , and his and the Angels measuring of the Temple : Which are nothing to the point ; and meere impertinencies , fit to delude the ignorant injudicious vulgar ; who take their weake inferences thence for divine Oracles . Secondly , That they are extraordinary bold , confident , peremptory , copious in their affirmations and positions concerning their Way ; but very poore , lame , impotent , deficient in their proofes thereof : You must take their bare Assertions for undeniable Arguments , Proofes . Thirdly , That their whole Independent Fabricke is built either upon false Principles ; As , that every Church is a complete , absolute , independent body of it selfe ; subject onely unto Christ : That no humane Power upon earth hath any Right or Authority to prescribe any Rules or Orders to any particular Congregation : That just humane Lawes binde not the Conscience , in point of obedience : and the like . Or else upon false , or absurd Inferences from true Principles : As , that Christ is the King , Lord , Head , and Law-giver of his Church : Ergo , No man or humane Power may make Lawes or Canons , to regulate and order it , or any thing in it , but Christ alone . Fourthly , That to maintaine their New Way of Government , they are enforced to deny the undoubted Power and Jurisdiction of Parliaments , Councells , Synods , Kings , and Civill Magistrates , in Ecclesiasticall affaires ; and to maintaine such Paradoxes , Passages against their lawfull Authority , as , if duly pondered , may justly induce all Wel-affected persons to mistrust and abhorre their Way , as Anarchicall , and destructive to all Christian and humane Society . Fifthly , That they are constrained publikely to deny , that there is any * Nationall Church under the New Testament ; though they acknowledge one in the Old : Upon which ground they must of necessity likewise deny one Article of the Creed ; That there is a Catholike Church ; and themselves members of it , or of the Nationall Church of England . They pluck up the bounds and orderly distribution of all Parish Churches ; absolutely necessary to avoyd confusion ; to provide competent maintenance for Ministers ; to bring all to frequent the publike Ordinances : Warranted by Scripture ; wherein wee read not onely of distinct Synagogues , and Tribes under the Law , but Churches under the Gospel . Approved by the practice of all Christian Churches , ever since there were Christian Emperors , Princes ; and as necessary as distinct Families , Villages , Cities , Societies of men in civill respects ; yea observed in New-England it selfe , though now disliked in Old : and thereby bring in meere Ataxy and Confusion among us . Sixthly , They are constrained to wrest Scriptures against their meaning ; to invent many strange Apocryphall new shifts , Interpretations , Distinctions , to evade direct Scriptures and fundamentall Truths , never formerly questioned : They nullifie and slight Examples of the Old Testament , in all things that make against them ; and yet cry them up againe , when they make for them ; especially in the point of their * Church Covenant ; which they confesse , hath no ground at all in the New Testament , but onely in the Jewish Church under the Old. Which yet they will not admit a sufficient Proofe of a Nationall Church . Seventhly , They intricate , gain-say things which are cleare ; take things for granted , that are either false , or doubtfull ; confound things in generalities , which they should distinguish ; deny things that are apparently true ; yea , which is worst of any , not only affirming , but beleeving most things * with a reserve ; according to their present light ; to the posture of their present Judgement ; as they are yet informed ; with a liberty of altering or varying to morrow , from what they affirme or beleeve to day , upon new light discovered ; Which is in truth to bring a meere Skepticisme into Religion ; to play fast and loose with God and our owne Consciences ; to doubt all things ; firmely beleeve nothing ; to set up Opinion in the Throne and Place of Faith ; and in conclusion to introduce flat Atheisme . Eightly , They refuse Church-Communion with those who are not of their Way and Churches , excluding them from the Lords Table , and their very Children from Baptisme in their Churches , if they submit not to their Covenant and Way ; judging them all professed Enemies to the Kingdome and Government of Christ ; and so visibly without the Covenant of Grace : though never so Pious or Religious . Ninthly , Their very Principles teach disobedience to Parliaments , Synods , Princes , Magistrates , and all other Superiors , in all their just Lawes and Commands which concerne the Church or Religion ; dissolve all Relations , all Subordinations , and humane Society it selfe , as I have here fully manifested . Tenthly , They exceedingly magnifie their owne Way , Ministers , Writers , Opinions , Conceits ; despising and under-valuing all others , in a kind of Pharisaicall manner , not deeming them worthy their Church-Communion . Eleventhly , They have high conceits of their owne transcendent holinesse ; and under pretext of being more pious , pure , living more holily , and serving God more exactly than others , they doe ( without sufficient Grounds ) quite sever from all other Churches ; just like Popish Monkes , Hermites , Anchorites , Nunnes , Jesuites , and other Religious Orders , who separate themselves from others , under this very pretence of being more holy , and living more devout than others . Twelfthly , They pretend themselves the greatest Enemies of all others to Papists , Arminians , Anabaptists , Socinians , Sectaries , and yet concurre with them in their Opinions , Practices , Policies ; fighting against us with their very weapons . Of all which I thought good to advertise thee ( kind Reader ) lest thy good opinion of the Piety , and dignity of their Persons , ( worthy all due honour and respect ) should make thee swallow downe their dangerous Principles and Opinions without strict examination : Whereas , good mens Errors are most infectious , pernicious ; and so more carefully to be observed , avoyded . How farre they have swerved from Verity and Antiquity in sundry Particulars ; how fallacious and weake their principle Proofes and Arguments are , I have * here in part discovered ; and shall in due time ( if God say Amen ) put a Period to the other Part which is yet behinde . In the mean time , beseeching God to prosper these my impotent Endeavours to thine and the publike good , ( which I have principally published for the satisfaction of the Learned , and such who most seduce the Ignorant ) I shall dismisse thee with this wholesome Councell of God himselfe , Ephes . 4. 14 , 15 , 16. Henceforth be no more Children , tossed to and fro , and carried about with every wind of Doctrine , by the sleight of men , and cunning craftinesse , whereby they lye in wait to deceive : But speaking the truth in love , grow up into him in all things which is the Head , even Christ . From whom the whole Body fitly joyned together , and compacted by that which every joynt supplieth , according to the effectuall working in the measure of every part , maketh increase of the Body , unto the edifying of it selfe in love . Farewell . Errata . Faults escaped in some Copies : pag. 5. lin . 14. read Regis . p. 22. l. 24. Constitutions , r. Consistories . p. 25. l. 21. premissis . p. 61. l. 12. actaque . p. 65. l. 32. necesse . l. 34. receptat r. refrixerat . l. 46. dele to . p. 69. l. 5. Turlstan . p. 75. l. 31. inhibit . l. 34. resist . desist . p. 85. l. 22. the. p. 26. l. 31. ch . 1. p. 101. l. 1. servus . l. 12. universa . p. 108. l. 9. issue . p. 169. informe . p. 116. l. 36. Ministers . masters . p. 120. l. 9. 35. l. 24. with his . his owne . p. 135. l. 45. clear . p. 131. l. 22. Fourthly . Fifthly . l. 31. Foure . Five . Margin . p. 66. l. 21. 22. r. Incarnationis , Anno. p. 119. l. 1. Rom. 13. 1. p. 124. l. 3. 11. r. 18. Truth triumphing over Falshood , Antiquity over Novelty , &c. AS it is an unspeakable griefe and corrosive to my very soule , to enter into publike contestations with any of my Christian brethren , who professe the selfe-same faith together with me ; so it would be a far greater heart-breaking , and much sorer affliction to my spirit , to behold upstart groundlesse Errours triumphantly insulting over ancient orthodox Verities , and dragging them captives after their domineering chariots . This makes me once more take up the Sword and Buckler , not of Polemicall School-divinity , but Historicall Antiquity , to encounter those Adverse forces , which have taken up offensive armes , and waged open warre in many new-printed Pamphlets , against the lawfull Jurisdiction and soveraign authority of Christian Princes , Magistrates , Parliaments , assisted with the advice of Reverend Synods and Councels , in matters of Religion , church-government , Ecclesiasticall Lawes , Canons , Discipline : all which ( through Gods assistance ) I hope totally to rout and dissipate , in such sort that they shall never be able to make head againe , by this short suddain onset , which I have yet neither vacancy , nor time sufficient ( through the multitude of other publike avocations ) to prosecute to the full . I shall marshall my subitane collections of this nature under distinct Positive propositions , which I shall propound and prosecute in order . Sect. 1. Of the power of summoning Councels and Synods . 1 FIrst , I affirm , that the right and authority of calling or summoning Ecclesiasticall Assemblies , Councells , Synods , whether Generall Nationall , or Provinciall , to settle matters of Religion , Worship , Church-government , or constitute Ecclesiasticall Lawes , belongs not to Bishops , Ministers , or private Independent Congregations ; but to Princes , or supreme temporall Magistrates and Powers . This Proposition militating both against Papists , Brownists , Anabaptists , and some Independents , I shall ratifie by Scripture , and historicall presidents in all ages , as well forraigne as domestick , with brevitie and perspicuitie . 1. For Scripture-presidents and Authorities , we have Precepts to and Presidents of Moses , the prime civill-Magistrate among the Israelites . Num. 10. ● , 3 4. c. 8. 9. c. 20. 8 , 10. Exod. 35. 1 , 4. &c. Levit. 8. 3 , 4 , 5 , &c. c. 19. 2. Deut. 29. 2 , 3. c. 31. 2 , 3 , &c. 28. 29. 30 , &c. Of Joshua , c. 8. 33 , 35. c. 22. 11 , to 34. c. 23. 2 , to 16. c. 24. 1 , to 29. Of the chiefe Magistrates of the Israelites , Judg. 20. 1 , to 12. Of David King of Israel , 1 Chron. 13. 1 , to 6. c. 28. 1 , 2 , 3. c. 29. 1. to 26. Of King Solomon , 1 King. 8. 1 , 2 , 3. &c. 2 Chron. 5. 2. &c. Of King Asa , 2 Chron. 15. 8 , to 16. Of Jehoshaphat , 2 Chron. 20. 3 4 , 5. &c. Of Jehojada , 2 Chron. 23. 1 , to 20. Of King Joash , 2 Chron. 24. 4 , to 15. Of King Hezekiah , 2 Chron. 30. 1 , to 27. c. 31 , 1 , to 5. Of King Josiah , 2 Chron. 34. 29 , to the end . c. 35. 1 , to 20. Of Nehemiah , c. 8. 1. to 18. c. 9. 1 , &c. Of Mordecai and Esther , Esth . 9. 17 , to 32. And in defect of Christian Kings and Magistrates , the Apostles and whole Church , by mutuall consent assembled together in a Synod Acts 6. & 15. as the high-Priests , Scribes , and Elders , met together and assembled in their Sanhedrim by temporall authority , Matth. 26. 57. c. 27. 1. Mark 14. 51. 55. c. 15. 1. Luk. 22. 66. Acts 4. 5 , 6 , 7. c. 5. 21. to 42. c. 6. 12. c. 22. 30. c. 23. 1. 2. For forraigne historicall authorities in all ages and Churches of note . a Socrates Scholasticus records , That since the Emperours were first christian , the State of the Church hath hanged on them , and the greatest Councels have been , and be kept by their advice , yea by their summons , writs , and edicts . The first famous generall Councell of Nice was called by b Constantine the great , the first Christian Emperour . c Eusebius writes , that Constantine ( not the Pope ) gathered this generall Councell , and by honourable Writs called together the Bishops on every side , that they should hasten thither . d Theodoret , This great and holy Councell was gathered to Nicaea , by the grace of God , and by the godly Emperour Constantine . e Cassiodore , That the zeale of the Prince raised up that most famous Councell at Nicaea , who commanded the Bishops and their attendants to come to the Synod on publike Asses , Mules and Horses , which he provided for them . f Nicephorus Callisthus , That Constantine promulged that most famous Synod of Nice in Bithynia , and by his Letters summoned thither the Bishops of all places by a set day ; and among the rest Pope Julius , who by reason of his decrepite age sent Vitus his Presbyter for his Proxie : The like writes g Sozomen in the same words . The Councell of Rome under Pope Meltiades was convented by the same Constantines Writ : and here ( saith h Eusebius ) is a copy of the Emperours Writ , whereby he commanded a Councell of Bishops to be kept at Rome . And Saint i Hieroni , To stay certaine Ecclesiasticall dissentions , the Emperours writs caused as well the Bishops of the East as of the West to draw to Rome . Yea the Councell of k Orleance in France , and that of Tyrus ( removed from thence to Ierusalem by the Emperours Letters ) were both summoned by Constantines Writs . The second generall Councell of Constantinople was called by Theodosius the elder ; the Emperour ; write l Theodoret , m Sozomen , and n Nicephorus , commanded a Synod of Bishops to meet together in one place , out of the provinces of his Empire , to confirme the Decrees of the Nicene Councell ; and the Bishops therein wrote thus to the Emperour , We are come to Constantinople by your Majesties commission . The third generall Councell at Ephesus was congregated by the younger Theodosius , Ex edicto pietatis studiosissimorum Imperatorum sanctum & universale concilium Ephesi coactum , writes o Evagrius : with p Laurentius Surius : and the Bishops themselves in the prologue thereof , Cum ex pio edicto coacti essemus in Ephesiorum Metropoli . And so farre was Pope Leo from conceiving the right of calling Councels to belong to him , that he besought the Emperour Theodosius by an Epistle in these words , p We beseech your godly Majesty to grant our supplication , that you would command a Councell of Bishops to be holden within Italy : which Epistle not prevailing , he writes another to him in these words , q All our Churches , and all our Priests , beseech your Clemencie with sobs and teares , that you will command a generall Councell to be held within Italy : which yet he denied to grant , and summoned the same at Ephesus notwithstanding these intreaties . After which this same Pope intreated the Emperour Martianus , that it would please his Majestie to command a general Councell ; and r writ to the Clergy and people of Constantinople , to make suit with discreet and humble prayer , that our most gracious Emperour would vouchsafe to grant our request , in that we have desired a generall Councell . Yea St ſ Chrysostom being requested to do the like , writes thus to Pope Innocent , We went in and most humbly besought the most Christian Prince to call a Councell . In like manner t Sozomen records , that the Arrians besought the Emperour Constantius to command a Councell to be holden at Antioch ; and after this intreated him to summon another Councell at Millain : and that the Catholikes sent Hypatianus their Ambassadour to intreat the Emperour , that to redresse certaine errours they might have leave to meet together . So farre were they from redressing new errours ( much more then from framing , printing , Articles , Canons , Constitutions , Oaths and imposing new Rites and Ceremonies , as our Bishops lately did in their Episcopall Visitations ) that they durst not attempt to decree any thing positively against them without the Emperours speciall licence first obtained ; no not in a publike Councell , much lesse in a private Consistorie . But to proceed with generall Councels ; the fourth generall Councell at Chalcedon was assembled by the Emperours Valentinian and Martian , u Facta est Synodus ex decreto piissimorum ac fidelium Imperatorum Martiani & Valentiniani , saith the first Action of that Councell : This Councell was first summoned by these Emperours to be held at Nice , by severall Writs sent by them both to Pope Leo himselfe , ( who was cited thereunto , and sent his Proxie thither ) and to Anatolius Bishop of Constantinople , with other Writs to the holy Bishops in all places , recorded by x Surius : where they appearing at the day prefixed , they sent two other Writs unto them , to remove them from thence to Chalcedon , because they could not be present at Nicaea : whereupon y the holy and universall Councell came together at Chalcedon , secundum sacram praeceptionem , according to their sacred command . The fifth generall Councell at Constantinople was called by the Emperour Justinian : Imperator Justinianus sanctam quintam synodum Oecumenicam , Episcopis ecclesiarum omnium evocatis , coegit , writes z Nicephorus : and Justinian himselfe in his Letters to that Synod , recorded by * Surius , recites , that the Councell of Nice was congregated by Constantine ; the first Councell of Constantinople by Theodosius the elder ; the Councell of Ephesus by Theodosius the younger ; the Synod of Chalcedon by Martianus ; and then concludes , Ideo vocavimus vos ad regiam urbem , that he had therefore called them to the royall City to discusse the three chapters then in controversie , l and to decide them according to these former generall Councels resolutions ; yea , Pope Vigilius was cited to this Councell , to dispute together with the other Bishops there , concerning the three chapters . The sixt generall Councell of Constantinople was gathered together by Constantius Pogonatus , as m his own letters of summons testifie , and this passage in the first action of it : Conveniente quoque sancta et universali Synodo , qua secundum Imperialem sanctionem congregata est , in hac à Deo conservanda regia Urbe . The seventh generall Councell of Nice ( so termed by the Papists , though false , spurious , and hereticall ) was summoned by Irene the Empresse , and her sonne Constantine : n Conveniente sancta & oecumenica , hoc est universali Synodo , quae per gratiam divinam , piumque illorum Imperatorum , sanctè orbem terrarum gubernantium decretum congregata est in clarissima Nicensium metropoli ; are the words of the first action testifying the same . The eight oecumenicall Synod at Constantinople was called by o Basilius the Emperor ; in the Prologue and first Act whereof , there was produced a letter of Pope Adrians to this Emperor , in these words : Volumus per vestrae pietatis industriam Constantinopoli numerosum celebrare Concilium . As these first eight generall Councels were thus congregated by Christian Emperors , not Popes or Prelates , so likewise Nationall , provinciall Councels and Synods have been alwayes usually called , assembled by the Writs and Summons of Christian Emperors , Kings , Princes , not by Bishops , or private christians : Thus the severall p Councels of Sardice , Millaine , Ariminum , Nicomedia , and Seleucia were assembled by the Emperor Constantius his Writs & Mandates ; whence q Athanasius writes thus of the Synods of Ariminum , & Seleucia , the passages wherof he records at large : A● Imperatore Proefectisque Literae sequentes in omnem partem missae sunt , eos qui illuc ituri essent convocantes . The Councel of r Illyrium was called by Valentintan and Theodosius : ſ whence the Bishops in that Councel in their t Epistles to those Emperors give them thanks for their care and pains in assembling this Councell in these terms . Apud quem gratias agenus vobis Clementissimi Principes , qui ad removendas altercationes congregare studuistis sacerdotale Concilium , & Episcopis dignatione vestra honorific●ntiam reservastis , ut nemo deesset volens , nemo cogeretur invitus Itaque juxta Mansuetudinis vestrae statuta convenimus . Saint Ambrose Bishop of Millaine speaks thus in that Councell : Nos in occidentis parte constituti convenimus ad Aquilei●●seum civitatem juxta Imperatoris praeceptum . Palladius saith there likewise , Imperator noster Gratianus jussit Orientales venire , negas tu jussisse e●m ? Ipse Imperator nobis dixit , se Orientales jussisse venire . Ambrosius Episcopus dixit ; utique jussit . &c. The first● x Councel of Arelat about the yeare 314. was assembled . Constantini magni jussu . The first provinciall Councell of Agatha , was assembled v by the Kings permission , for whose long life the Councell prayed , ut qui nobis congregationis permiserat potestatem . The first Councell of Orleans was summoned by x Clodovick King of France as is evident by this Rescript of the Bishops of that Synod to him : Domino suo Catholica Ecclesiae filio Clodoveo gloriosissimo regi , omnes sacerdotes quos ad Concilium venire jvssistis : &c. Sacerdotes de rebus necessariis tractaturos in unum collegi jusseritis : The second Councell of Orleans was summoned by the precept of most glorious Kings . y Cum ex praeceptione gloriosissimorum regum in Aurelianensem urbem , Deo auxiliante convenimus ; say the Bishops in the prologue to their Canons in it . The Councell of Alebret met together z by the consent of their most glorious Lord and pious King Theodebertus ; The second Synod of Toures assembled together by the a connivence of King Arithbertus : The b fift Councell of Orleans was congregated by King Childebertus , together with the Councell of Paris , as their Prologues testifie . The third Councell of Toledo was summoned by King c Reccarredus , who , pro fidei suae sinceritate omnes regiminis suae Pontifices in unum convenire mandasset . The d first and second Councels of Mascon , with the Councell of Valentia were assembled by King Guntram : Ex evocatione gloriossssimi Regio Guntramni : juxta Imperium gloriosissimi Guntramni regis , say the Poems to these Synods Canons . The fourth Councell of Toledo was called by the diligence of the most religious e King Sisenandus , ut ejus jussis et imperiis , that by his precepts and commands , a common treatise of Ecclesiasticall discipline might be compiled therein . Whereupon in the close of the Councell they pray to Christ for this their King , cujus devotio nos ad hoc decretum salutiferum convocavit : The f fift and sixt Councells of Toledo were called by the Precept and writ of King Chintillanus : ex praecepto ejus et salutaribus hortamentis ; The first and second Councells of Bracara assembled together ex praecepto , et per ordinationem , by the precept and appointment of the most glorious g King Ariamirus . The seventh Councel of Toledo met together h studio , by the care and command of King Chindasiundus . The 8. 9. and 10. Councels of Toledo were congregated by the i command of King Recessuinthas : ejusque serenissimo jussn ac sanctissimo voto . The Councell of Cavailon was assembled k ex evocatione vel ordinatione , by the summons and appointment of King Clodouicke . The eleventh Councell of Toledo came together , l hortatu , by the exhortation and precept of King Vuambanus : The m 12. and 13. Councels of Toledo were summoned and celebrated ex glorioso jussu , by the glorious command of king Eringius . The French Synod Anno 642. was summoned by Charlemaine n Ego Carlomannus dux et Princeps Francorum , cum consilio servorum Dei et Optimatum meorum , Episcopos qui in regno meo sunt cum presbyteris ad Concilium et Synodum , pro timore Christi congregavi : The Synod of o Soissons was called by Childerick and Pipin ; and so was the Councell at the Pallace of Venis : gloriosissimus atque Deo religiosus illustris vir Pipinus rex Francorum , universos pene Galliarum Episcopos aggregari fecit ad Concilium Vernis palatium publicum . The p severall Synods and Councels of Aquisgan , ( or Aix ) Paris , Lions , and Tholouse were summoned by Lewis and Lothorius their Writs and Mandates , as the marginall authorities largely evidence . The q Councels of Frankford , Friuli , Arelat the fourth , Tovers , Cabilon the second : Mentz and Rheems were all called by Charls great ; who ( as Matthew Westminster and others write ) in the year 813. commanded five severall Councels to bee celebrated at once , the first at Mentz , the second at Rheemes , the third at Towers , the fourth at Cavailon , the fift at Arelat . The third Councell at Aquesgran was summoned r providentissimo et jussu salutifero of King Pipin , as were the two former by the wholsom command and most provident direction of his Father Lewis . The ſ Councels of Meaux and Medardum , by the consent and command of Charles the son of Lewis : The t Councell of Valentia , by the Emperor Lotharius his command : ex jussione praefati Principis reverendissimi trium provinciarum Episcopi in unum collecti residissent : The v Synod of Ticinum , and the Councell of Wormes , An. 868. were congregated by the Emperor Lewis the second : The x Synod of Colen Anno 887. by Charles the third his consent . The y Councell of Ments Anno 888. and of Triburby Arnulphus the Emperor : The z Councel of Ferrara by John Paleologus . The Provinciall Synod of Augusta Anno 1548. by the Emperor Charles the fift . a Cui hanc Synodorum congregandarum facultatem veluti olim Constantino Imperatori totius ●●re orbis acceptam ferunt , saith Otho the Popes own Legate . To these I might accumulate b the Synod at Tholetum Anno 525. congregated by the command of Richard King of the Wisi-Gothes . The Synod at Rome Anno 773. cited thither by Charles the great , to whom Pope Adrian and that whole Synod ( consisting of 154. religious Bishops and Abbots ) gave the right of chusing the Pope , and ordaining the Apostolicall See with sundry others : yea most of the Councels that I have met with in Surius , Binius , Crab , Merlin , Photius , Carranza , Syrmond , Bochellus , Spelman , Cresconius , Fulgentius , Ferrandus , and other collectors of Councels and Synods , have bin alwaies usually called by Emperors and Christian Princes ; That being most true which the Code of the Liberties of the French Church affirmes , d That most christian Kings in allages , have been accustomed according to the state of things hapning in their Realmes , to call Synods , and provinciall or Nationall Councels , for the ordering of Ecclesiasticall affaires ; as the forecited presidents with infinite other testifie ; & the forequoted Councels , Fathers , Popes , Historians , together with St. Hierom and Pope e Gregory the great resolve . Most false & impudently arrogant then are the assertions of Pope Marcellus , f Iulius , g Pelagius , Gregory , and Symmacus , ( if Gratian misreports not their positions ) as likewise h of Gratian , the Canonists , i Iesuits , and Popish Parasites who all sticke not to publish without shame or feare ; That the power of calling generall , nationall , and provinciall Councels , belongs properly to the Apostolicall See of Rome . That regularly no Synod ought to be called without the Popes authority : That it is no Councell but a Conventicle which is summoned without his authority ; And that all Councels without his authority , presence ( in person or by his Legates ) and ratification are meerly voyd and invalid ▪ Parodoxes , which all the premises , and the constant practise of all ages places sufficiently confute , yea and some learned Papists to k Nicolaus Cufanus determines the quite contrary in these very termes . The authority of a Councell doth not so depend of him by whom it was summoned , that unles it be summoned by the Pope it can be no Councell ; for so we should avoyd all the first eight generall Councels . For wee read they were summoned by Emperors , not by Popes . And the Pope of Rome , like other Patriarcks received the Emperors Majesties sacred commandements to come or send to Councels . If the Pope be negligent , or if hee say nay the Emperour may by his own authority summon Councels by way of command , to stay the wavering State of the Church . Hence we have one conclusion , that in generall Councels and making Lawes , the Bishop of Rome hath no such power as certain flatterers give him . Thus this learned Cardinall . Aeneas Sylvius , afterwards Pope Pius the second , is as point-blanck as he : l From these authorities ( writes he ) they thinke themselves wonderfully armed , who deny that Councels can be kept without the Popes consent : whose judgement if it should stand , as they woul have it , would draw the ruine of the Church with it . For what remedy shall there be if a criminous Pope should disturbe the Church , if he should destroy soules , if he should pervert the people with his ill example ; if finally he should teach things contrary to faith , and should fill his subjects with haereticall Doctrines ? Should we suffer all things to go to ruine with him ? But I , whiles I read over ancient Histories , while I consider the Acts of the Apostles , do not verily finde this custome , that Popes onely should call Councels . Neither afterwards , in the time of Constantine the great , and of other Emperors , when Councels should be called , there was no great account made of the Popes consent : Durandus De Concilio celebrando Parisiis . 1545. Tit. 1 , 2. Franciscus Zabarella Cardinall of Florence , de Schismate & Concilio p. 542 , 543 , 544 , & Theodoricus a Niem de Schismate c. 3. 5. 7. p. 154. confesse and teach , that it belongs to the Emperors to call Councels . The m Code of the Liberties of the French Church saith directly , Although generall Councels ought not to be called or kept without the Pope , nor any thing to be decreed and concluded in them but by his authority , by the Ecclesiastical rule ( made by Popes themselves ) yet notwithstanding in the French Church it hath been ever resolved , that the Pope is not thought to bee above a generall Councell , but is bound to keep its Decrees , Statutes , & Precepts , no lesse than the people of the Church , which is the Spouse of our Lord Iesus Christ , and which is especially presented by the Councel . Yea William Ranchin a famous French Lawyer , though a Papist , in his Review of the Councell of Trent , l. 1. c. 8. l. 3. c. 1. to 14. and l. 4. c. 1 , 2 , &c. not only avers , but copiously and irrefragably manifests by pregnant evidences , that Generall , Nationall , Provinciall Councels , Synods , in all Christian Nations , Kingdoms , Republikes have alwayes been constantly summoned by Emperors , Kings , and christian Princes ; and that neither the Pope , nor any Prelates or Ecclesiasticall persons whatsoever , have any lawfull power or authority to call them , unlesse it be by the speciall licence and authority of Kings and Emperours first obtained . The like is maintained and proved at large by Marsilius patavinus , Defensoris Pacis pars . 2. c. 21. to 27. Rabanus Maurus de Universo l , 5. c. 7. Ioannis Marius de Schismate et Conciliis pars . 2. c. 1. to 19. p. 507 , 508. by Carolus Molinaeus , in his learned praeface to his Commentary on the Edict of King Henry the second of France , Contra parvas Datas , et Abusus Curiae Romanae p. 14. to 27. by the resolutions of divers French Councels , Synods , and Edicts of Parliament , cited by Laurentius Bochellus , Decreta Eccles . Gal. l. 5. Tit. 20. cap. 17. 19 , 20 , 21. 29. 33 , 34 , 35. 38 , 39. 41. 43 , 44 , 45 , 46. & by the Code of the Liberty of the French Church ( there quoted ) resolving in these positive termes . Soliti sunt ab omni aeuo Reges Christianissimi , pro ratione rerum quae in Regno suo accidunt , habere Synodos , aut Concilia Provincialia aut Nationalia , in quibus inter alia ad statum Regni pertinontia , agitur etiam de Rebus ordinem & Disciplinam Ecclesiarum Regni sui spectantibus . Unde Regulae innumerae , Capitula , Leges , Ordinationes & Pragmaticae Sanctiones eorum Nominibus inscriptae prodierunt . Yea their n Franciscus Victoria holds , that at this day in certain cases a generall Councell may be called against the Popes minde , by the Emperor and Christian Princes , whether hee will or no. But although some Parasites of the Popes universall Monarchy , endeavour to entitle him to this prerogative royall of Christian Princes , to summon Synods and Councels , ( contrary to the Resolutions of these and infinite other Popish Authors , and the practise of most popish Realmes ) yet none of them entitle any other Bishops or Prelates to it but the Pope alone , unlesse it be by some speciall derivation from the Pope as his Legate ; so that Bishops cannot claime this power by any immediate inherent right , but by a dirivative power onely , either from the Pope or Christian Princes : and from the Pope , no English Prelates , Ministers can , or dare derive it . Thirdly , to proceed to our own English Synods and Councels , wee shall finde that the right of summoning them and of our Convocations hath alwayes beene an indubitable Prerogative of our Christian Kings or Parliaments , which I shall manifest . First by presidents . Secondly by Parliamentory resolutions . Thirdly by the Doctrine , Articles , and Writers of our Church . Fourthly by the determination of King James , King Charles , and our late Convocations . To begin first with Presidents , both before and since the Conquest : The great o Synod held at verolam Anno 446 , to suppresse the Pelagian heresie ; with another great Councell after that Anno 449 , to like purpose ; and the Councell of Wales Anno 465 , were summoned by the Kings and Peoples joint assents who together with the Clergie were present and voted in them . The p Synod of Worcester , and at Augustines Oke , under Augustine the first Arch-bishop of Canterbury Anno 603. was called Ethelberti Regis ope & auxilio , by the assistance or summons of King Ethelbert ; adjutorio usus Edelberti Regis , write some . So was the q Councell held at Canterbury Anno 605 in which both the Clergy and people were present . The r Synod of Streneshalch An. 664. under Oswy King of Northumberland , and Alchfrid his Son , who weee present at it , was summoned by their appointment , to decide the controversie , concerning the time of Easter , and other differences , Anno 693 King ſ Alfrick Synodum Episcoporum convocari fecit , caused a Synod of Bishops to be called together . Anno 694 , a t great Councell was summoned to meet at Becanceld by King Withred , who sate President therein , & praecepit convocari concilium : who likewise assembled and sate President in the grand Councell of Berghamsted , Anno 697. About the yeare 714 there was u a great Councell of the Bishops , Princes , Nobles , Earles , and of all the wise-men , Elders , and people of the Realme , under King Ina ; per praeceptum Regis Ina , by the precept of this King. An. 724 the x Synod of Northumberland was conveened authoritate & gratia Osredi , by the authority and favour of King Osred . The famous Councell of y Clovesho about the yeare 748 , was assembled , Ethelbaldi regis Merciorum auxilio , who sate President therein , and in a former Councell there held Anno 742. The z Councell of Calchuth An. 787 , was congregated by Offa King of Mercians , and Kenulfe King of West-Saxons , who together with their Bishops and Elders of the Land ( senioribus terrae ) were present at it . The a Councell of Clyffe An. 800 , was convented by King Cenulfe his authoritie and assent . b A Synod was assembled by King Edward the elder : about the yeare 905 , Rex praedictam Synodum congregavit , write the marginall Authors . c An. 948. a Councell and Parliament was summoned at London per regium edictum , by Aedred his royall edict ; the King and his Nobles , as well as the Bishops being present at it . The d Councell of Enham An. 1009. ab Ethelredo rege edictum , was called by King Ethelred . The e Councell of Winchester An. 1070. was summoned and celebrated by the procurement of William the Conquerour , f Rege procurante : so was the Synod at Westminster , An. 1075. Rex tandem Williesmus de negotiis agere constituens Ecclesiasticis An. 1075. apud Westmon●sterium Synodum coegit . This being the undoubted right of Kings in those dayes , caused Archbishop Anselme ( though a great stickler for the Popes and Prelates supremacie ) An. 1093. to move King William Rufus to command Councels to be revived after the ancient manner : g Jube ( ait ) si placet , Concilia ex antiquo usu renovari , quae perperam acta sunt in medium revocari : who after held a h Councell at Westminster . An. 1102. by King Henry 1. his assent , ipso annuente . The Councell at i Westminster , held by the Popes ●echerous Legate John de Crema An. 1125. was assembled Regis licencia , by the Kings owne licence : and the Councell of London An. 1129. summoned by this King. The Councell at Oxford against the Publicans was called by King Henry the second his Writ , Rex Episcopale praecepit concilium congregari , writes k Neubrigensis : So the l Synod of Cassels in Ireland for setling and reforming that Church , was congregated by King Henry the second his authoritie and command : The m Councell held by Hugo Cardinalis , the Popes Legat , at London under the same King An. 1176. was favore regio adjutus , called by the Kings favour and assistance . The Councell of n London under Otho the Popes Legate An. 1237. was summoned by King Henry the third his authoritie and consent : And all Synods , Councels , Convocations from that time till this present , have ever been summoned by the Kings speciall Writs for the most part , as is evident by Matthew Parkers o Antiquitates Ecclesiae Britannicae , and by these ensuing ancient Presidents following , remaining upon Record . Breve pro Convocat ' habenda apud Lincoln , Anno Dom. 1321. Ed. Reg. 16. Convocatio inchoata vigore brevis regii die Lunae proxim post fastum S. Sabiani & Sebastiani , An. Dom. 1369. Alia inchoat ' eodem An. 21. die Januarii . Convocat ' inchoat ' vigore brevis die Lunae proxim ' post festum Pent ' An. 1376. Convocat ' inchoat ' vigore brevis die Lunae 9. die Novembris An. 1377. Convocat ' inchoat ' 7. Maii An. Dom. 1382. quoad process . contra Haereticos . Convocat ' inchoat ' 18. Novemb. An. Dom. 1382. continuat ' ad 6. diem Janu. prox ' sequènt ' . Convocat ' inchoat ' 2 Decemb. An. 1383. contin ' ad 4. diem ejusdem mensis . Convocat ' inchoat ' 20. Maii An. Dom. 1384. contin ' ad festum Pent ' sequent . Convocat ' inchoat ' 1. Decem. 1384. contin ' ad diem Lunae prox ' post festum corp ' Christi . Convocat ' inchoat ' 6. Novem. 1385. contin ' ad 7. diem Decem. An. praedict . Convocat ' inchoat ' 5. Novem. 1386. contin ' ad 3. diem Decem. An. praedict . Convocat ' inchoat ' 26. Febr. 1387. contin ' ad 4. diem Martii sequent . Convocat ' inchoat ' 17. Octob. 1388. contin ' ad 22. diem Octob. praedict . Convocat ' inchoat ' 17. Apr. 1391. contin ' ad 21. diem Apr. praedict . Convocat ' inchoat ' 5. die Febr. 1394. contin ' ad 18. diem ejusdem mensis . Convocat ' inchoat ' 6. Maii , An. Dom. 1460. contin ' ad 15. diem Julii An. praedict . Convocat ' inchoat ' 6. Julii An. Dom. 1463. contin ' ad 18. diem Julii praedict . Convocat ' inchoat ' 21. Martii 1480. contin ' ad 15. diem Novem. 1481. Convocat ' inchoat ' 13. Febr. 1486. contin ' ad 27. diem Febr. praedict . Convocat ' inchoat ' 14. Ia●●ar . 1487. contin ' ad 27. diem Febr. praedict . The Presidents since these being more obvious and infinite , I pretermit . Indeed I finde some Convocations and Synods summoned without any speciall Writs yet extant which perchance are lost : however , though they were summoned without speciall Writs , yet it was alwayes by the Kings licence , privi●● , and assistance first obtained , or by former adjournments ; and not by virtue of any summons from the Pope , Arch-bishop of Canterbury , or any other Prelates , without or against the Kings command ; as some of the ensuing Presidents manifest in direct termes . Convocatio inchoata absque brevi mense Julii An. Dom. 1295. Convocatio inchoata absque brevi die alia dominica qua cantabatur officium laetare , eodem Anno. Convocat ' inchoat ' absque brevi die S. Hillarii An. Dom. 1297. Alia absque brevi pro defensione Ecclesiae cont ' Scotos , die S. Edmundi Regis eodem Anno. Convocat ' inchoat ' ad * instantiam Regis regressi à Flandriae inchoat ' festo Nativ ' S. Johannis Baptistae An. Dom. 1298. Convocat ' Concilii provincialis absque brevi inchoat ' 16. Maii An. Dom. 1356. Convocat ' Cleri Provinciae Cant ' ad supplicationem dom . Reg. inchoat ' die Mercurii proxim ' post dominicam qua cantatur officium misericordia Domini , in Ecclesia S. Brigittae Londin . An. Dom. 1356. Convocat ' inchoat ' absque brevi die Jovis prox post festum S. Georgii Martyris , 24. April . An. Dom. 1371. Convocat ' inchoat ' absque brevi 1. die Decemb. An. Dom. 1373. Convocat ' inchoat ' absque brevi 8. Febr. An. 1576. Convocat ' inchoat ' absque brevi 5. Novemb. An. Dom. 1377. Convocat ' inchoat ' absque brevi 9. Maii. 1379. Convocat ' inchoat ' absque brevi die Sabbat . proxim ' post festum Purificationis S. Mariae Virginis An. Dom. 1379. Convocat ' inchoat ' absque brevi 1. Decemb. An. Dom. 1380. Since this time I finde no Synod , Councell , or Convocation , ever summoned or assembled but by the Kings speciall Writs , yet extant among our Records , the particularizing whereof , being superfluous , I shall here omit . Secondly , our Acts of Parliament expresly resolve , that our Convocations , Synods , Councels , ought to be summoned onely by the Kings Writ . Hence the Statute of 8. H. 6. c. 1. recites , * That all the Clergie are to be called to the Convocation by the Kings Writ : and thereupon enacts , That they and their servants shall for ever hereafter fully use and enjoy such liberties and defence in comming , going , and tarrying , as the great men and Commonalty of England called to the Kings Parliament doe enjoy . Hence the whole Clergie of England in their submission in Parliament 25. H. 8. c. 19. & 27. H. 8. c. 15. made this acknowledgment ; e Whereas the Kings humble and obedient subjects the Clergie of the Realme of England . have acknowledged according to truth , THAT THE CONVOCATION OF THE SAME CLERGY IS , ALWAYES HATH BEEN , AND OUGHT TO BE ASSEMBLED ONLY BY THE KINGS WRIT , &c. And thereupon these Statutes among other things enact , according to this submission and Petition of the said Clergie , that they , ne any of them from henceforth should make , promulge , or execute any new Canons , &c. in their Convocations in times comming , which ALWAYES SHALL BE ASSEMBLED BY AUTHORITY OF THE KINGS WRIT , &c. A cleare confession and resolution , that Councels , Synods , and Convocations here in England , alwaies have been , are , and for ever hereafter ought to be called and summoned , ( not by the Popes or Prelates authority and citations ) but by the Kings royall authoritie and Writ . Hence the English Clergie in most Bills of their Subsidies since , as in 27. Eliz. c. 28. 29. Eliz. The Act of one Subsidie granted by the Clergie . 31. Eliz. c. 14. 35. Eliz. c. 12. 39. Eliz. c. 26. 43. Eliz. c. 17. 3. Jacobi c. 25. 7. Jacobi c. 22. 21. Jacobi c. 32. 1. Caroli c. 1. & 3. Caroli c. 6. have inserted this clause in the prologue of their Subsidies ; Vestrae serenissimae regiae Majestati ( or , sublimitati ) per praesens publicum instrumentum , sive has literas nostras testimoniales significamus & notum facimus , quod Praelati & Clerus nostrae Cantuariensis Provinciae IN SACRA SYNODO PROVINCIALI SIVE CONVOCATIONE , VIGORE ET AVTORITATE BREVIS REGII VESTRI IN EA PARTE NOBIS DIRECTI , in domo capitulari ECCLESIAE VESTRAE CATHEDRALIS divi Pauli London , vicesimo quarto die mensis Novembris Anno Dom. &c. inchoata & celebrata : to testifie , that their Synods Convocations are and ought to be summoned and held , only by virtue and authoritie of the Kings Royall Writ : and why not then their Visitations being in truth * Convocations and Synods ? Thirdly , the whole Church of England in the 39. Articles of Religion , ratified f by Parliament , and all Clergy-mens subscriptions to them ; as also by our present Soveraigns Declaration prefixt before them Anno 1628. Artic. 21. and the whole Church of Ireland in their Articles of Religion ▪ Anno 1615. Artic. 76. unanimously resolve , as an Article of Religion not to be questioned : That generall Councels ( and by the selfe-same reason Nationall and Provinciall ) may not be gathered together ( by Popes , Prelates , or any other , persons ) without the Commandement or will of Princes . Therefore the sole right of summoning them , belongs not to Popes or Prelates , but to Princes and other supreme temporall Magistrates . And as these Articles , so the learned Writers of our Church , as incomparable Bishop Jewell in the defence of the Apologie of the Church of England , part . 1. c. 9. Divis . 1. p 52 , 54. part . 6. c. 12. Divis . 2. p. 58● . to 592. Reply to Master Hardings answer Artic. 4. Divis . 19. and 26. p. 193. 212 , 213 , 214. Bishop Alley in his poore mans Library Tom. 2. Miscellanea Praelect . 1. f. 18 , 19 , 20. Bishop Bilson in his true difference between Christian subjection & unchristian rebellion , passim . Doctor William Whittakers Controversia 3 , de Conci●●s . Quaest . 2. p. 577. to 585. Doctor Willets Synopsis Papismi . Controversi . 3. Concerning generall Councels . Quaestion 2. Doctor John White his way to the true Church , sect . 29. n. 28. p. 111. Master Rogers his Analysis on the 21. Article Proposition 1. with g sundry others whom I pretermit , subscribe , and justifie this truth against all Romish opposites . And if these be not sufficient ; all the Reformed Churches in their several confessions , registred in the Harmony of confessions , & cited by Master Rogers in his Analysis of the 21 , Article ; with the whole Classe of their learned Writers unanimously resolve ; That the power of calling Councels , Convocations , Synods , belongs not to Popes or Prelates , but only to Christian Emperors , Kings , Princes , and other chief temporall Magistrates ; which our late famous King James , ( in the last place ) in his Letters Patents prefixed before the Canons and Ecclesiasticall Constitutions made in Convocation Anno 1603. ratifies to the full ; affirming , that the Synod and Convocation at that time held , was , and ought to bee summoned and called only by vertue of his royall Writ . The like is affirmed by our present Soveraigne King Charles in his Declaration before the 39. Articles , and in his Patents , Commissions , licenses for making the last new Canons 1640. and resolved in the first Canon thereof . From this 1. Proposition thus plentifully ratified by uncontrolable Presidents , and publike Authorities of whole Synods , Parliaments States , in all ages , which infinitely over-ballance the inconsiderable rash opinions of any private men , I shall deduce these Consectaries . 1. That the chiefest care of defending , propagating the true Religion , suppressing errors , haeresies , schismes , vices , and enacting Laws , Canons for this end , for the Churches peace Government and advancement of Gods true Worship , belongs to Christian Princes or supreme temporall Magistrates , and is an essentiall part of their duty ; because the right and trust of calling Synods Councels upon all such occasions , is thus originally vested in them . 2. That * Synods & Councels are very useful , necessary , profitable to the Churches of Christ if rightly ordered , else God himself , all Christian kingdoms states , Churches would not have invested Kings & supream civill Magistrates with such a power of convening them ; nor all Christian Kings , Emperors , but made so frequent use of this their power , not onely without opposition , but even with publike approbation ; yea such hath been the necessity and expediency of Synods and Councels in all Christian Churches in all ages , That the generall Councell of Nice An. 363 , the Councell of Antioch Can. 20. the first Councell of Constantinople Can. 3. the Councel of Africke Can. 18. the Councell of Chalcedon Can. 19. the third Councell of Toledo under King Reccaredus An. 600. cap. 18. the fourth Councell of Toledo under King Sisenandus An. 6●1 . the Greeke Synods collected by Martin Bishop of Bracara cap. 18. the second Councell of Arelat Can. 2. the third at the same place Can. 1. and the fourth , Can. 37. the second Synod of Towers . Can. 1. the fifth Councell of Orleans cap. 11. the Councell of Hereford under King Egfred , An. 670. the sixth Councell of Constantinople Can. 8. the Councell of Antricum Can. 7. the Councell of Mascon Can. 20. the Synod of Soissons under King Childeric ; the Councell under King Pepin at the Pallace of Vernis , An. 755. cap. 4. the Councell of Paris under Lewis , and Lothaire An. 829. the Councell of Meaux An. 845. cap. 32. yea the great Councell of Basill , An. 1331. with sundry other Councels , Decree , that a Synod or Councell shall be kept twice or thrice ( or at the least once ) every yeare , at a certaine time and place in every Province . That all Bishops and others unlesse hindered by sicknesse , or other inevitable occasions , should be present at it , and not depart from it till all businesses were ended and the Councell determined under paine of Excommunication , & that none should interrupt not keep back any necessary members from them . Therefore certainly they are both expedient and necessary for the Church ; not uselesse , antichristian , diabolicall , and pernicious to the Church , as some * Papists , Arminians , Socinians hertofore , and Independents now , scandalously , ignorantly , if not maliciously deeme them . Sect. 2. THat Bishops and Clergie-men when assembled in Councels , Synods , and Convocations by Christian Princes and Magistrates , have alwayes been limited and directed by them , not onely for the time and place of their meeting , but likewise for the manner and matter of their debates and proceedings : having no power , liberty to debate or determine any thing but what was first prescribed them by their summoners , or by their speciall Licence first obtained . With a touch of Princes and Laymens presiding , judging , voting in Synods and Councels . Secondly , As Bishops and Clergy-men cannot summon Councels or Convocations , not yet assembled together in them , but by the Princes and supreme temporall Magistrates authority , who alwayes appointed both the time and place of their meeting , continuance and dissolution ( as all ages , Authors attest ) so when they are lawfully met in Councels they cannot debate , determine any points of faith , nor yet frame any Ecclesiasticall Canons , Lawes , Constitutions in them , but by the Princes or Magistrates licence & direction that summoned them : who have always both abroad and at home , prescribed them either in generall or speciall termes , what things they should debate , treat of , and conclude in their Synods , confining them to such particulars , for the determination and ordering whereof , they were convened , as well as to the time and place of their assembling . This is evident by sundry Presidents . The first famous generall Councell of Nice , and the Bishops therein assembled , were thus licensed and limited by Constantine the great , who fate President in it , as a Eusebius with b others manifest at large : The Bishops assembled by him in the Synod of Tyrus , were limited likewise by him how to proceed , and what to treat of , as appears by c his letters to them ; wherein after he had exhorted them to peace and unity , he chargeth them not to delay , but to define the present controversies with al earnest endeavour , within those fitting bounds he there prescribed ; telling them , That he had sent Dionysius the Consull to admonish them of all things they were to do , and who ought to be present at their Synod , Maximè vero ut idem animadversor sit & custos conservandae aequalitatis & ordinis : but especially that he should be an observer and keeper of that aequability and order which he had prescribed to be observed in that Synod , d The Bishops assembled by Constantius his Edict in the Councell of Ariminum most humbly requested his Majesty , of his gracious favour and wonted clemency , to grant them license and lawfull favour firmely to persevere in those things which their ancestors had decreed , and that nothing might be diminished or added unto the old and ancient decrees . e In the Councell held at Seleucia summoned by Constantius precept it was commanded by this Emperors Edict that they should reason of the faith and Arrian opinions in the hearing of Leonas , a Layman of great authority and fame in the Emperours Court who was chief President in that Synod to order it ; who in the first day of its assembly , commanded , that every one should freely propose what pleased him best , touching the questions of faith there controverted : he and Laurocius Captaine of the Garrison in Isauria swaying that Councell , ordering what they should treat of , and how proceed . Yea Constantius himselfe ( as f Nicephorus records ) appointed both the Synods of Ariminum and Seleucia by his letters , that they should first of all decide the controversie of the profession of the faith ; afterwards deliberate of other Ecclesiasticall sanctions ; and after that of those Bisho●s that had been wrongfully deposed or banished . g The second generall Councell at Constantinople , was enjoyned by Theodosius the elder , who called it , to confirme the Decrees of the Councell of Nice , and to deliberate upon whom the See of Constantinople , then voyd , should be conferred . In the fourth generall Councell of Chalcedon , h Pulcheria the Empresse writes to Strategus Consul of Bithynia , to have a 〈◊〉 , that the Synod should observe all discipline and order , without commotion or contention ; and in this Councell divers of the Emperors great temporall i Officers and Senators of State , sate as chief Moderators , Governours , Iudges , ordering and directing the Bishops , who did nothing but by their advice and permission , according to the Emperor Martianus instructions , in his Oration in and to that Synod , and his Epistles to Count Elpidius . In this Councell k Dioscorus , Juvenalis , and Thalassius were condemned and put from their Bishopricks , by the Lay-Iudges , and many noble Senators presiding in it , who used this speech in that Councell concerning the debates of faith : We see , that touching the right Catholike faith , the next day wheron the Councell shall meet , there must be had a more diligent examination ; When all matters were ended , the Bishops and Councel remitted all their acts to the Emperours Majesty ; yea when the Senate and Emperor had concluded and published their Iudgements of the Councels determinations ; The Bishops of the East brake out into these acclamations , Iust and right is the Iudgement : Long life to the Senate , many yeares to the Emperour : acknowledging them the supream Iudges , as well in Ecclesiasticall Causes and matters of Religion , as in temporall affaires . Whence the Emperour l Theodosius writ thus to this Councell , Because we know the most magnificent Florentius a Nobleman , to be faithfull , and approved in the right faith ; Therefore we will , that he be present to heare the debates of the Synod , because the Disputation is concerning matters of faith ; he being one of the Iudges in this Councell . This Emperour m Theodosius , the better to bring his Churches unto unity ( then miserably distracted about matters of faith ) Commanded an assembly of the Bishops and best learned men to appeare before him , and to write several confessions of their faith , That himselfe might Iudge between them which faith was best . Having received their writings , he commanded publike prayers to be made , and himself also prayed both publikely and in private , that it would please God to assist him with his holy Spirit , and to make him able to Iudge justly ; then he perused and considered each Confession assunder by it self ; and in conclusion , alowed onely the Catholikes , and condemned the confession written by the Arrians and Eumonians , and tore them in pieces . n Theodosius the yonger sent his letters to Dioscorus the Patriark of Alexandria , in this , and in the second Councell of Ephesus with these words , o We decree , that the most holy Bishops meeting together , this vaine doubt may be discussed , and the true Catholik Faith confirmed ; Therfore your Holinesse bringing ten of the most reverend Metropolitanes that be within your Province , and ten other holy Bishops well accounted of for their learning and conversation , shall hasten withall speed to meet ( the rest ) at Ephesus by the first of August next , no Bishop besides the foresaid troubling the sacred Synod ; If any Bishop fayle to come to the place prefixed at the time appointed , he shall have no excuse neither with God , nor with us . As for Bishop Theodoret , whom we command to attend at home on his own Church , we determine , that he shall be none of our assembly , unlesse the whole Councell thinke good to have him one . But if any dissent , We command that the Synod fit without him , and dispatch those things which we have appointed them . And in his second letters to the same Bishop , Because we suspect that some of Nestorius favourers will do their best to be present at this Councell ; Therefore we thinke needfull to advertise you and the whole Synod , that not onely in respect of Theodoret , but of all others which have ought to do in your Councell , we give you the preheminence and chiefe authority . And those that adde or diminish any thing to or from the Nicene Fathers , and the Fathers since that assembled at Ephesus , We suffer them not to presume any thing in this sacred Synod , but will have them subjected to your Judgement , because we have appointed this Synod for that purpose . And in the very same Councel he likewise commanded ; p That those Bishops , who not long before sate in judgement upon Eutiches , should be present , but silent , and give no voices ( with the rest ) as Judges , but expect the common determination of all the rest of the sacred Fathers . And also commanded that they should neither say , neither do any thing in the sacred Councell , untill the right faith were considered . Yea the Emperour q Martian charged the 630. Bishops in this great Councell , That none of them should dare dispute of the Nativity of our Lord and Saviour Christ , otherwise that the 318. Fathers of Nice determined . And in the same Councell r Eusebius Bishop of Dorilaeum put up a supplication to the Emperours Martian and Valentinian : against Dioscorus Patriarke of Alexandria , with these words : In most humble wise we beseech your Majestie , that you will command the Reverend Bishop Dioscorus to answer to those things that we lay to his charge , for confirming a wicked heresie and deposing us unjustly ; directing your sacred Precept to an oecumenicall Councel of Bishops , to hear the matter between us and the said Dioscorus ; and then to certifie your Majesties of the whole cause , that you may doe therein what shall please your Graces . k Iustinian the Emperor limited the fift generall Councell of Constantinople and the Bishops in it , how they should proceed , and what they should treat of ( to wit , of the three Chapters ) by his letters to them ; and they there accord what the Emperor did specially command them to doe . l Constantius Pogonatus prescribed the sixt generall Councell of Constantinople called by him , to handle and define the Chapter delivered to them by his appointment , and to prove the same by holy generall Synods and Fathers : yea , himselfe sate President in that Councell , and directed it as he thought meet , as the beginning and end of every action of that Councell manifests ; Praesidente eodem piissimo & Christo dilecto magno Imperatore Constantino . Constantinus piissimus Imperator dixit , sufficit , &c. being frequent in it , and many of his temporall Lords and Officers sate there as Iudges with him . The m seventh generall Idolatrous Councell of Nice , was likewise regulated , directed by the Letters of Constantine and Irene , by Petronius the Proconsul , Theophilus an Earle of the Emperours retinue , and by Iohn his royall Porter and treasurer of his Army , with other Senators , who sate as chiefe Moderators in that Councell . n The eighth generall Councell was prescribed and directed how to proceed , and what to treat of , by the Emperour Basilius ; who caused his Princes & Nobles to sit in that Councell as principall directors , whose judgement the Popes Legates themselves in that Councell demanded , himselfe sitting sometimes in person therein as chiefe President . As all these generall Councels were thus regulated and directed by those Emperours that summoned them and debated , concluded nothing but by their speciall license and direction : so all other forecited Nationall and Provinciall Councels were likewise limited and directed by those Emperours and Kings that called them , as the fore-alleaged quotations evidence at large to such as will peruse them many of these Emperours , or their temporall deputies , sitting personally in them , as chiefe Presidents and Moderators . The Bishops in the first Councell of Orleance Anno 500 write thus to King Clodoveus , who summoned them ; o Al the Priests which ye have summoned to the Councell , and commanded to meet together to treat of necessary things , secundum vestrae voluntatis consultationem , ET TITULOS QVOS DEDISTIS , according to the consultation of your pleasure , and the Titles You have given us to consult of , we have deferred those things which seeme meet to us : so as if those things which we have concluded may likewise be approved to be right by your judgment , the consent of so great a King , and of a greater Lord may by his sentence and authority confirme the sentence of so many Clergy-men to be observed . Lo here the King prescribes this Councell particularly in writing what Articles they should treat of . In the p severall Councell of Basil , Florence , Lateran . Constans , Sennes and Trent , summoned by the Popes usurped authority , the Emperours , Kings , Dukes , and Princes , who sent any Bishops to those Councels , had their Embassadours and Agents ( though Lay-men ) present at them , swaying and directing them as they thought meet , though in some of them the Popes faction bare the greatest stroke as the severall Acts of these Councels testifie ; some of which made choice of those Princes for their Protectors against the Popes Tyrannie and usurpations , which they limited , decreeing a Councell to be above the Pope , and he to be bound by its determinations as well as others ; some Popes being accused , convented , and deprived by them , though they summoned them , or rather were enforced to call them by the Emperours and other Princes , against their wills To conclude with forraigne presidents , the late famous Synod of q Dort Anno 1618. was summoned by the Estates of the Netherlands , who enacted certaine Lawes and prescribed Articles to the Synod , according to which they should proceed ; appointing likewise divers Lay-men to sit in that Councel as their Delegates , commanding and enjoining them and every of them , in their name , and in their authority , to open the Synod , and in all and singular Sessions and Actions to be present in their name , so to compose and order all things with their prudence counsell and moderation , which belonged to their inspection and care , according to those speciall instructions they had given them , and the Articles they had framed for the ordering and holding of that Synod ; which had power to treat of order , or determine nothing , but what they had commission and licence from the States . In few words , the famous Lawyer William Ranchin ( though a Papist ) resolves and proves at large , in his Review of the Councell of Trent , l. 3. c. 10. That it belongs to Emperours and Kings to prescribe not onely the place , time , beginning , and ending , but the very forme of Councels proceedings , both in respect of persons , matters to be debated , and all other circumstances . As for Lay-mens presence , presidencie , and Votes in Councels , to give a little satisfaction herein in this Section , it is evident by the fore-cited Texts in the old Testament , and by Presidents in the New , ( as Acts 6. 1. to 8. c. 15. 4. 9. 22. to 30. c. 16 , 4. c. 21. 22. ) That Lay-men were not onely present , but had Votes and consents in the first Apostolicall Councels . In the a Councell of Ephesus , Candidianus , a Noble-man , was appointed by the Emperour to hold the Fathers there assembled to the points proposed , and to keepe every man in order , giving the chief directions therein . In the b French Synod under Childerick and Charleman Anno 742. In the Synod of Soissons Anno 744. c of Wormes Anno 787. of Meaux Anno 845. of Pistis Anno 863. of Tribur under King Arnulph , of d Paris under Philip Augustus , An. 1179 , and 1184. of e Vezelay under Lawes the young , of Paris under Philip the faire , called against Boniface the 8. of Bourges under Charles the seventh , which made the pragmatick sanction : of f Toledo 6. 8. & 12. of g Rome under Otho the first : of h Wormes under Henry the third : in the i Councell held in the South part of England An. 903. under King Edward and Raymond : k in the Councell of London under King Stephen An. 1150. these severall Kings , together with their Barons , Nobles , and other Lay-men , were present in all these Synods , Councells , as well as Clergie-men or Prelates , and gave consenting , confirming Votes to things debated , concluded in them : these Synods being in truth meere Parliaments , as I shall hereafter manifest . In the l Councell of Constance there were present not onely the Emperour , but divers Embassadours , Nobles , and Lay-men of great quality and condition ; to wit 24 Dukes , 140 Earles , divers Delegates of Cities and Corporations , divers learned Lawyers and Burgesses of Vniversities , who were not debarred from voices , and power of deliberating therein . In the first m Councell of pisa , there were present to the number of 400 Lay-men of note , delegates of Cities , Vniversities , States , Princes , and Doctors of Law ; who not only deposed two Anti-popes , and elected a third true Pope , but likewise treated of points of Divinity , and made many good ordinances for the Church of God. In the second Councell of Pisa there were many such Delegates , Doctors of Law , and Lay-men , well skilled in divine and humane matters . In the first Councell of Nice , there were present ( writes n Socrates ) many very learned Lay-men , and well skilled in disputation , who puzzled great Philosophers in matters of dispute . In the generall Councell at Reimes , holden by Pope Eugenius the third , there were a great company of Nobles as well as Bishops , as Neubrigensis l. 1. c. 19. records . In the o Lateran Councell held by Charles the great and Pope Adrian , and called principally by this Pope , the Councell was most solemnly held by 53 Ecclesiasticall persons , Bishops or Abbots , together with Judges , Magistrates , and Doctors of Law from all parts and also persons of all sorts and states of that City , and all the Clergie of the Church of Rome ; who made enquiry of the customes , lawes , and manners of that Church and Empire ; consulting also by what meanes heresies and seditions might be rooted out of the Apostolique See ; and treating of the dignity of the Senate and Empire of Rome , seeing that by reason of these things a false errour was spread over the whole world . In another Councell of p Lateran under Pope Leo and the Emperour Otho , the Pope himselfe in his Speech to the Emperour , confesseth , that that Councell consisted not onely of Clergy-men , but of Judges and Doctors of Law. That such may be competent and meet Judges in matters of Religion and Church-affaires , is evident by this notable passage of Cardinall q Jacobatius ( though a great stickler for the Popes and Prelates authorities ) that in a Synod holden before Constantine and Helena , where it was disputed , Whether the Jewish or Christian Law should be preferrred ? Craton a Philosopher who would not possesse any worldly goods , and Zenosimus , who never received present from any in the time of his Consulship , were appointed Iudges of this controversie : With which the saying of learned r John Gerson , Chancellour of Paris , accords , There was a time , when without any rashnesse or prejudice to faith , the controversies of faith were referred to the judgement of Pagan Philosophers ; who presupposing the faith of Christ to be such as it was confessed to be , however they did not beleeve it , yet they knew what would follow by evident and necessary consequence from it , and what was repugnant to it . Thus it was in the Councell of Nice , as is left unto us upon record . So likewise Eutropius , a Pagan Philosopher , was chosen JVDGE between ſ Origen and the Marcionites , who were condemned by him . If Pagan Philosopehrs then t much more Christian Laicks , endowed with learning and wisdome , may be fit Iudges of controversies of Religion and Ecclesiasticall affaires , and fit to have Votes in Synods : And that they have been so deemed in ancient times , is evident by one memorable history recorded by Possidonius , in the life of S. Augustine cap. 12 , 13 , 14. who not onely informes us , that Crispinus Bishop of Calamen , a Donatist , being accused before the Proconsull for an Hereticke , and for breaking the lawes against Hereticks ; and denying himselfe to be one , St Augustine and he debated the controversie three severall times before the Proconsull , in a great multitude of Christian people expecting the event , both at Carthage , and throughout all Africk ; and that Crispin at last was pronounced an Hereticke by the Proconsull by a judiciall sentence . After which there was a u generall meeting at Carthage , between all the Catholike Bishops and the Donatists , by the speciall command of the most glorious and religious Emperour Honorius who sent Marcellinus the Tribune and Notary into Africk , to bee Iudge in that Collation ; In which Conference the Donatists being throughly confuted and convinced of errour by the Catholikes , were condemned by the sentence of the Iudge : From which sentence they appealing to this Emperour were afterwards upon full hearing condemned by him , and declared Hereticks : Vpon which Appeale of theirs * St. Augustine descants thus : Is it peradventure not lawfull for the Emperour , or those whom the Emperour shall send , to give judgement in a matter of Religion ? Why then came your Embassadours to the Emperour ? why made they him the Iudge of their cause ? &c. The Act of Marcellinus his sentence against the Donatists runs thus : x To the end that apparent errour may undergoe the yoke of revealed truth , by the authority of this present Edict , I advise all men of what condition soever Land-lords , Stewards , and Farmers , as well which hold of the Crowne , as of private possessions , with the Ancients in all places , that not forgetting the Lawes , their owne dignity , honour , and safeguard , they doe their endevour to hinder all Conventicles of the Donatists , in all Townes whatsoever ; who shall bee bound to surrender up to the Catholikes those Churches which I allowed them of courtesie untill the day of sentence , without Commission from the Emperour . y Photius Bishop of Smyrnae being accused for an Heretick by the Councell there , was afterwards admitted to dispute with the Catholike Bishops ; in which dispute ( saith Sozomen ) certaine Iudges were ordained for Presidents of the Councell , who from that time forwards were accounted men of prime ranke in the palace , both for knowledg and dignity : after many objections and answers pro and con , Basil Bishop of Ancyra , who defended the doctrine of the Catholikes , got the victory , and Photinus was condemned and sent into banishment . Athanasius in his 2. Apologie , requests that the Emperours most godly and religious Majesty might have the hearing of his own and his churches cause ; for we have good hopes that his godlinesse understanding our reasons , will never condemne us . If this seem strange to any Romanist , that Lay-men should be competent Iudges in matters of Divinitie , and have voices in Councels , their owne Pope Nicholas his resolution in this very point may cease their wonder , who saith in downe-right termes , z Faith is catholike and common to all , as well to Lay-men as Priests , yea generally to all Christians ; ( he speaks it expresly of Lay-mens assisting in Councels ; ) therefore it is just and reasonable they should have voices in matters of faith , as well as Bishops and Clergy-men . I shall close up this with the resolution of a Marsilius of Padua , who expresly resolves , that Lay-men ( especially those who are pious and learned ) ought to be present in , and summoned to generall Councels as well as Clergie-men ; especially when the Clergie are either ignorant , corrupt , or erronious in their judgements , or scandalous in their lives . His reasons are these , First , because they have all as great an interest in the faith , and Churches good , as any Prelates , Popes , or Clergie-men : Secondly , because many of them are better learned and versed in the Scriptures and Antiquities then many Bishops and Clergie-men , yea more sound , and orthodoxe in their judgments then they : Thirdly , because they were present , and had voices in the Synod at Hierusalem even in the Apostles dayes , Acts 15. and in the purest first generall Councels , in which the Emperours with their Nobles and Officers assisted in the resolving of Scripture doubts : Fourthly , because the very Code of Isiodore , for the manner of holding Councels , hath this direction , b Deinde ingrediantur LAICI qui ELECTIONE CONCILII INTERESSE MERUERUNT ; Multò magis igitur qui fuerint literati , & in lege divina periti , quanquam non sacerdotes existant ; sic enim fecerunt Apostoli cum Senioribus , &c. If any desire further satisfaction in this point , let him consult William Ranchin his c Review of the Councell of Trent , ( who is copious and zealous in this point , though a Papist ) Bishop Jewels Defence of the Apologie , part 6. cap. 12. 13 14. 15. and the ensuing Sections . But to returne to the point proposed . As in the forecited Councels abroad , so in our Councels , Synods , and Convocations at home , as our Kings and their Nobles were usually present and president ( as I shall shew hereafter ) so the Prelates could debate propound , and conclude nothing without their privity and licence . Hence r Eadmerus records of King William the Conquerour , that all divine and humane things did expect his approbation , for he would not suffer any man living within any of his Dominions to receive the Bishop of Rome , as Apostolicall , unlesse he commanded him , nor yet to accept his Letters upon any termes if they had not been first shewed to him . Yea he did not suffer the Primate of his Kingdome , to wit the Arch-bishop of Canterbury or Dover , if he sate President in a generall Councell of Bishops gathered together to decree or prohibit any thing ; but those things which were sutable to his will , and had been first ordained by himselfe . William Rufus his sonne tooke the same jurisdiction on him , and challenged it as part of his Prerogative Royall . For when as ſ Anselme Arch-bishop of Canterbury moved him ; to command , if he pleased , Councels to be renued , according to the ancient use , because there had not been a generall Councell of Bishops in England since his comming to the Crowne , not in many yeares before : he gave him this reply : When I shall thinke fit , I will do something concerning these things , not at thine , but my owne pleasure . But of this I shall thinke some other time , and adds by way of scoffe ; but thou , whence speakest thou in a Councell ? After this , the King demanded of him , from what Pope he would receive his Pall ? he answered , from Urbane : which the King hearing , replyed , That he had not yet taken him for Apostolicall , neither had it been the Custome in his or his Fathers time , that any one should name a Pope in the Kingdome of England , without or besides his license or election ; and whosoever would wrest from him the power of this dignity , should do all one , as if he had endeavoured to take his Crown from him . If therefore thou recivest the same Vrban or aeny other for Pope in my Kingdome , or holdest him being received , thou doest against the faith and allegiance which thou owest to me , neither dost thou offend mee lesse in this , than if thou shouldest endeavour to take my Crown from me . Wherefore know , that thou shalt have no share or portion in my Kingdome , if I shall not see thee by open assertions to deny all subjection and obedience to Vrban , at my desire ; Which he refusing to doe , the Bishops and Noblemen sent to him from the King , told him ; Tha● the whole Kingdome complained against him , that he endeavoured to take away from their common Lord the dignity of his Empire and his Crowne : For whosoever deprives him of the customes of his Royall dignity , takes away his Crown and Kingdome together with it , for one cannot be decently enjoyed without the other . So little power had the Pope or Prelates here in England in those times . Anno 1234. there was a Councell held at Glocester , to which the King sent this Mandate , t Mandatum est omnibus Episcopis qui conventuri sunt apud Gloucestriam die Sabbati . in chrastino Sanctae Catharinae firmiter inhibendo , quod sicut Baronias sua quas do lege tenent diligunt , nullo modo praesumant Concilium tenere de aliquibus quae ad coronam Regis pertinent , vel quae personam Regis vel statum suum vel statum Concilii sui contingunt , scituri pro certò quod si fecerint , Rex inde se capiet ad Baronias suas . Teste Rege apud Hereford 23. Novembris &c. Anno 1237. in the Councel held at London under Otho the Popes Legate ; the King sent the Earle of Lincolne with others to the Legate sitting in Councell with an Inhibition in the Kings name v to determine of nothing against the Crowne and Dignity : Ut dicto Legato ( writes Matthew Paris ) ex parte Regis & Regni inhiberent , ne ibi contra Regiam coronam & dignitatem aliquid statuere attemptaret : and William de Reel , one of the Messengers remained in the Convocation house , to see this Inhibition observed , clothed in a Canonicall Cap and Surplis , the others departing thence . So in 26. Hen. 3. rot . 21. 9. E. 1. rot . 2. 11. E. 2. rot . 10 , 18. E. 3. rot . 21. in the Tower , and in * many other Records ; I finde a generall Prohibition usually directed to the Convocation the Prelates and Clergie therein ( such loyall subjects usually were they ) Ne quid attemptarent contra jus Regium : Ne quid statuant contra Regem in Concilio suo : Ne aliquid tentetur contra Coronam Regis in congregan●ione Cleri , &c. the King confining them of what to treat and conclude , of what not to entermeddle without his speciall license . Not to mention , That x our Kings have frequently prescribed the Convocation what Subsidies they should grant , and how they have handled them in case they refused to grant them : The Statute of 25. H. 8. c. 19. Records ; ` That the Clergie of the Realm of England , submitting themselves to the Kings Majesty , then promised in verbo Sacerdotii , that they would never from thenceforth presume to attempt , alleadge , claime , or put in ure , or enact , promulge , or execute any new Canons , Constitutions , Ordinance provinciall or other , by whatsoever other name they shall be called , in the Convocation , unlesse the Kings most Royall assent and Licence may to them he had to make , promulge , and execute the same , and that His Majesty doe give His most Royall assent and authority in that behalfe . And thereupon y enacts according to the sayd submission and petition of the Clergie that they ( assembled together in Convocation ) ne any of them ( to wit in their severall Visitations , Synods , Constitutions , Chapters ) from henceforth Shall presume to alleadge , claime , or put in ure any Constitutions or Ordinances provinciall or Synodals , or any other Canons nor shall Enact , Promulge or execute any such Canons , Constitutions or Ordinance provinciall , by what name or names they may be called in Convocation for time to come , unlesse the sayd Clergy may have the Kings most Royall assent and licence to make , promulge and execute such Canons , Constitutions and Ordinances provinciall or Synodall : upon pain of every one of the said Clergy doing the contrary to this , being thereof Convict , to suffer imprisonment , and make fine at the Kings will. Hence the whole Clergy of England in their Booke entituled The Institution of a Christian man dedicated to K. Henry the eight , Anno 1543. subscribed with all their names in a Convocation , Chapter , of Orders ; acknowledge this sovereign jurisdiction of the Prince over them , both in and out of Synods . After this , in the very height of Popery and the revivall of it in England in the first year of Queen * Mary , a Parliament and Convocation being summoned to re-establish Popery ; the Queen her selfe appointed and commanded a publike Disputation to be held at Pauls Church in London in the Convocation house about the matter of the Sacrament , which was accordingly held , and continued six whole dayes , many Earles , Lords , knights , Gentlemen , and divers of the Parliament , Court , and City being present at it : to the end that they might constitute Laws of the matters of Religion debated , which the Queen and Parliament might ratifie . The Disputation being ended ; The Queen sent a Writ to Bonner Bishop of London to dissolve the Convocation , which was done accordingly . So that this Convocation did nothing in matter of doctrine or discipline even in these times of Popery , but what the Queen did first direct and limit them . Queen Mary deceasing , and Queen Elizabeth ( a Protestant Princesse ) succeeding her , called a Parliament and Convocation to suppresse Popery , and re-establish the Protestant true Religion . To effect which with more facility , this pious v Queen , having heard of the diversity of opinions in maters of Religion among sundry of her loving Subjects , and being very desirous to have the same reduced to some godly and christian concord , by the advice of the Lords and others of the Privy Councell ( as well for the satisfaction of persons doubtfull , as also for the knowledge of the very truth in certain matters of difference ) commanded a convenient chosen number of the best learned of either part , to conferre together their opinions and reasons concerning three particular points that should be prescribed to them , thereby to come to some good and charitable agreement , with all convenient speed . Hereupon , nine of the learnedst Papists were chosen on the one side , and nine of the ablest Protestants on the other , to debate these three Propositions prescribed to them in writing . 1. It is against the word of God , and the custome of the ancient Church , to use a tongue unknown to the people , in common Prayer , and the administration of the Sacraments . 2. Every Church hath authority to appoint , take away , and change Ceremonies and Ecclesiasticall Rites , so the same be to edification . 3. It cannot be proved by the word of God , that there is in the Masse offered up a sacrifice propitiatory for the quick and the dead . It was further resolved by the Queens Majesty , that the conference on both parties should be in writing , for avoiding much altercation of words : that both sides should declare their minds , opinions and reasons in writing , and at the same day deliver them mutually one to the other , to be considered , and to return their answers thereto in writing by a certaine day . Immediately herupon , divers Nobles and States of the Realme , understanding that such a meeting and conference should be in certain matters , whereupon ( In the Court of Parliament consequently following , ) some Lawes might be grounded ; they made earnest request to her Majesty , that the parties of this conference might be ordered to put and read their Assertions in the English tongue , and that in the presence of them of the Nobility and of The Parliament House , for the better satisfaction and ordering of their owne judgements , to treat and conclude of such Lawes as might depend hereupon . This also being thought very reasonable , was signified to both parties , and so fully agreed upon ; and the day appointed for the first meeting to bee the Friday in the afternoone ( being the last of March ) at Westminster Church . At which day and place , both for good order , and for honor of the Conference , By the Queens Maiesties Commandement , the Lords and others of the privie Councell were present , and a great part of the Nobility also : The Lord Keeper and the rest of the Lords bearing chiefe sway in ordering this conference , as you may read at large in Master Fox , in the second dayes discourse . In this Conference , I shall onely observe two passages of the Protestant party . * The first , is the begining of their Prologue to their written Conference , in these words . For as much as it is thought good to the Queens most Excellent Majesty ( unto whom in the Lord all obedience is due ) that we should declare our Iudgement in writing upon certain Propositians ; We , as becometh us to do herein , most gladly obey . The next is , their third observation from the law of Justinian the Emperor , ( commanding all Bishops and Priests to celebrate the holy oblation and prayers in Baptisme with an audible voyce , &c. ) And let them know this , that if they neglect any of these things , the dreadfull judgement of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ shall fall upon you , neither will wee when wee know it , rest , and leave it unrevenged , viz. That this Emperour being a christian , did not only make Constitutions of Ecclesiasticall matters ; but also threatneth revenge and sharp punishment to the violaters of the same . Therefore they held he had an obliging power over his Subjects , and a coersiveauthority vested in him to enforce obedience to his Lawes : of which more hereafter . As this was the practise of this blessed pious Queen in the begining of her Raigne to prescribe to her Clergy in Convocation what they should treat off , and how . So it continued in use , and was punctually submitted to by all Convocations during her Raigne : and that not onely as a matter of complement , but of conscience , religion , and the established doctrine of the Church of England ; as you may read at large in Bishop Jewels Apology of the Church of England ; and in the Defence of his Apologie against Harding , part . 6. c. 9. to 16. p. 689. to 766. ( a learned full discourse to this purpose ) and in Bishop Bilsons true Difference between Christian Subjection , & unchristian Rebellion , the second part : ( to omit * all others who have handled this subject in her Raigne . ) It seemes therefore strange to me , that this which was reputed the true doctrine of the emmine●test learnedest writers & Reformers of this Church , and of the Church of England it selfe from the begining to the end of her happy Raign and ever since , should bee deemed meere Antichristian , Diabolicall , theomacall , and meer Popish doctrine now ; when as the contrary opinion is really such . Our late Soveraigne King James , in his z Letters Patents before the Ecclesiasticall Canons and Constitutions made in Convocation A● . 1603. recites , that he called that Convocation by his Writ , and that ●e did By severall Letters Patents under his Great Seale of England , the one dated the 11. of April , the other the 25. of Iune , in the first year of his Raigne , Give and grant full , free and lawfull liberty , power and Authority unto the sayd Clergy in their Convocation ( who without such a Patent and License could debate and conclude nothing , else it had been vaine and superfluours ) To conferre , Treat , Debate , Consider , Consult and agree , of and upon such Canons , Orders , Ordinances and Constitutions , as they shall thinke necessary , fit , and convenient , for the honour and service of Almighty God , and quiet of the Church , and the better government therof , &c. And our present Soveraign King Charles , in his a Declaration printed before the 39. Articles of the Church of England , ( made by the advise of so many of the Bishops as might conveniently be called , & twice printed by his speciall command , An. 1628. ) resolves in these very words , this point of his royall Prorogative derived from his Predecessors : That We are supreame Governour of the Church of England : and that If any difference arise about the externall policie concerning Iniunctions Canons , or other Constitutions whatsoever thereto belonging the Clergy in their Convocation ( not the Bishops in their Consistories , Visitations , or high Commissions ) is to order and settle them : having first obtained leave under Our broad Seale so to do , and We approving their said Ordinances and Constitutions ; provided , that none be made contrary to the Lawes and Customes of the Land. What power our Kings have excercised in Convocations to direct and limit them in all their proceedings , determinations , Canons in former ages , especially since 25. Hen. 8. c. 19. will appeare ; First by the forme of our Kings Writs for summoning a Convocation ; of which I shall give you onely one late president , agreeing in forme and substance with all former Writs of this kinde . CAROLVS Dei gratia , Angliae , Scotiae , Franciae , & Hiberniae Rex fidei defensor , &c. Reverendissimo in Christo Patri ac fideli Conciliari● Nostro Gulielmo , eadem gratia Cantur . A chiepis . totius Angliae Primati & Metropolitano , salutem . Quibusdam arduis & urgentibus negotiis Nos , securitatem & defensionem Ecclesiae Anglicanae , ac pacem & tranquilitatem , bonum publicum & Defensionem regni Nostri & subditorum Nostrorum ejusdem concernentibus Vobis in fide & dilectione quibus Nobis tenemini rogando mandamus quatenus remissis debito intuitu attentis & ponderatis , universos & singulos Episcopos vestrae Provinciae , ac Decanos Ecclesiarum Cathedralium , nec non Archidiaconos , Capitula & Collegia , totumque Cle●um cujuslibet diocesios ejusdem Provinciae , ad comparendum coram vobis in Ecclesia Catholica sancti Pauli London decimoquarto die Aprilis proximè futuro , vel alibi , prout melius expedire videritis , cum omni celeritate accommoda modo debito convocari facias , ad tractandum , consentiendum , & concludendum super premissis , & aliis quae tibi clarius exponentur tunc ibidem ex parte Nostra : Et hoc sicut Nos , & Statum Regni Nostri , ac honorem & utilitatem Ecclesiae praedictae diligitis nulla tenus omittatis . Teste meipso apud Westmonast . vicesimo die Februarii Anno regni Nostri quintodecimo . Secondly , by the forme of the Kings royall License commonly granted to the Convocation , before they may or can debate of any thing particularly , the forme whereof you may discerne in this subjoyned , directed to the last Convocation , 1640. CHARLES , By the Grace of God , King of England , Scotland , France , and Ireland , Defender of the Faith , &c. To all to whom these presents shall come greeting . Whereas in and by one Act of Parliament made at Westminster in the five and twentieth year of the Raigne of King Henry the Eighth , reciting ; That whereas the Kings humble and obedient Subjects the Clergie of this Realme of England , had not onely knowledged according to the truth , that the Convocation of the same Clergie were alwayes , had bin , and ought to bee assembled by the Kings Writ , but also submitting themselves to the Kings Majesty , had promised in verbo Sacerdotii that they would never from thenceforth presume to attempt , alledge , claime , or put in u●e , or enact , promulge , or execute any new Canons , Constitutions , Ordinances , provinciall or other , or by whatsoever other name they should bee called in the Convocation , unlesse the said Kings most Royall assent and license might to them be had , to make , promulge , and execute the same , and that the said King did give his most Royall assent and authority in that behalfe . It was therefore enacted by the authority of the sayd Parliament according to the said submission and Petition of the said Clergie ( amongst other things ) that they nor any of them from thenceforth should enact promulge , or execute any such Canons , Constitutions , or Ordinances provinciall , by whatsoever name or names they might be called in their Convocations in time comming , which alwayes shall bee assembled by authority of the Kings Writ , unlesse the same Clergie might have the Kings most Royall assent and license , to make , promulge , and execute such Canons , Constitutions , and Ordinances provinciall , or Synodall , upon pain of every one of the said . Clergie doing contrary to the said Act , and being thereof convict , to suffer imprisonment , and make fine at the Kings will , &c. Know ye , that We for divers urgent and waighty causes and considerations Vs thereunto especially moving , of Our especiall Grace , certaine knowledge and meere motion , have by vertue of Our Prerogative Royall , and supream authority in Causes Ecclesiasticall , given and granted , and by these presents do give and grant , full , free , and lawfull liberty , license , power , and authority unto the most Reverend Father in God , William Lord Arch-Bishop of Can●terbury , Primate of all England , and Metropolitan , President of this Convocation for the Province of Canterbury , and to the rest of the Bishops of the same Province , and to all Deans of Cathedrall Churches , Archdeacons , Chapters and Colledges , and the whole Clergy of every severall Diocesse within the said Province ; that they , or the greater number of them ( wherof the said President of the said Convocation to be alwayes one ) shall and may from time to time , during our will and pleasure propose , conferre , treat , debate , consider , consult and agree upon the exposition or alteration of any Canon or Canons now in force , and of , and upon such other new Canons , Orders , Ordinances and Constitutions , as they the said Lord Arch-bishop of Canterbury President of the said Convocation , and the rest of the said Bishops and other the Clergie of the same Province , or the greater number of them , ( wherof the sayd Lord Arch-bishop of Canterbury President of the said Convocation to be one ) shall thinke necessary , fit , and convenient , for the honor and service of Almighty God , the good and quiet of the Church , and the better government thereof , to be from time to time observed , performed , fulfilled and kept , as well by the sayd Lord Arch-bishop of Canterbury , the Bishops and their successors , and the rest of the whole Clergy of the sayd Province of Canterbury in their severall callings , offices , Functions , Ministeries , degrees and administrations , as also by all and every Deane of the Arches , and other Iudges of the sayd Arch-bishops Courts , Guardians of Spiritualties , Chancellors , Deans and Chapters , Archdeacons , Commissaries , Officialls , Registers , and all and every other Ecclesiasticall Officers , and their inferiour ministers whatsoever of the same Province of Canterbury , in their and every of their distinct Courts , and in the order and manner of their and every of their proceedings , and by all other persons within this Realme , as far as lawfully , being members of the Church , it may concerne them . And further to conferre , debate , treat , consider , consult and agree of and upon such other points , matters , causes and things , as we from time to time shall deliver or cause to be delivered unto the sayd Lord Archbishop of Canterbury President of the sayd Convocation in writing under Our Signe Manuell or privie Signet to be debated , concluded , consulted and concluded upon , the sayd Statute , or any other Statute , Act of Parliament , Proclamation , Provision or restraint heretofore had ; made , provided , or set forth , or any other cause , matter , or thing whatsoever to the contrary notwithstanding . And we do also by these Presents give and grant unto the sayd Lord Archbishop of Canterbury President of the sayd Convocation , and to the rest of the Bishops of the said Province of Canterbury , and to all Deanes of Cathedrall Churches Archdeacons , Chapter , and Colledges and the whole Clergy of every severall Diocesse within the said Province , full , free , and lawfull liberty , licence , power and authority , That they the sayd Lord Archbishop of Canterbury President of the sayd Convocation , and the rest of the sayd Bishops and other the Clergie of the same Province , or the greater number of them whereof the sayd President of the sayd Convocation to be one , all and every the sayd Canons , Orders , Ordinances , Constitutions , matters , Causes and things so by them from time to time conferred , treated , debated , considered , concluded , and agreed upon shall , and may set down in writing in such forme as heretofore hath been accustomed , and the same so set down in writing , to exhibite and deliver , or cause to be exhibited and delivered unto Us to the end that we upon mature consideration by us to be taken thereupon , may allow , approve , confirme and ratifie , or otherwise disallow , annihilate , and make voyd such , and so many of the sayd Canons Orders , Ordinances , Constitutions , matters , causes and things so to be by force of these Presents , considered , consulted and agreed upon , as wee shall thinke fit , requisite , and convenient . Provided alwayes , that the sayd Canons , Orders , Ordinances , Constitutions , matters , and things , or any of them so to be considered , consulted , or agreed upon as aforesaid , be not contrary or repugnant to the Liturgy established , or the Rubrick in it , or the nine and thirty Articles , or the Doctrine , Orders and Ceremonies of the Church of England already established . Provided also , and our expresse will and commandement is , That the sayd Canons , Orders , Ordinances , Constitutions , matters and things , or any of them so to be by force of these presents , considered , consulted , or agreed upon , shall not be of any force , effect , or validity in the Law , but only such and so many of them , and after such time as we by our Letters Patents under our great Seale of England , shall allow , approve and confirme the same , any thing before in these presents contained to the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding ; &c. In witnesse whereof We have caused these our Letters to be made Patents ; Witnesse Our selfe at Westminster the twelfth day of May in the sixteenth yeare of our Reigne . Per Regem Ipsum . Willys . To which I shall adde the Kings further Warrant , for making a particular Canon and Oath in the late Convocation . Charles R. MOst reverend Father in God , right trusty and right entirely beloved Councellour : Right reverend Fathers in God right trust and well-beloved : and trusty and well-beloved , We great you well . Whereas We out of our meere grace and favour , and for the good and peace of the Church , have granted to you our Arch-Bishop of Canterbury , free leave and licence under our great Seale of England , bearing date the twelfth of this instant May , to propose , treat , and conclude upon all such necessary Articles and Canons , which you shall finde fit to be ordered for the peace and government of this Church : Provided that you shall thereby have no power to meddle with nor alter any thing ratified and confirmed by Act of Parliament . And whereas we have further in that Licence which we have granted unto you , reserved power to our selfe to command you to propose , treat , and determine of any such thing or things as we shall recommend unto you under our Signe Manuall or Signet . These are therefore to will and require you to propose , treat , and conclude upon such a Canon , as may secure us and all our loving subjects against all growth and encrease of Popery in this our Kingdom ; as also of any hereticall or schismaticall opinions to the prejudice of the doctrine or discipline of this Church of England , established by Law : And that in this case you agree upon some Oath to be taken by your selves , and all the Clergie respectively , and by all which shall hereafter take upon them holy Orders , that they shall adhere constantly to the doctrine and discipline here established , and never give way ( for so much as can any way concerne them ) to any innovation or alteration thereof . And when you have made this Canon , and inserted this Oath , we require you to present it to us , that we may advise upon it ; and if upon mature consultation we approve it , we shall confirme it , and then give you power under our great Seale both to take the said Oath your selves , and to administer it to all such as the Canon appoints . Given under our Signet at our Court at White-hall the seventeenth day of May in the sixteenth yeere of our Reigne . To the most Reverend Father in God , our right trusty and right entirely beloved Councellour the Lord Arch-bishop of Canterbury , Primate and Metropolitane of all England : To the right Reverend Fathers in God , our right trusty and well-beloved the Lords Bishops ; and to our trusty and well-beloved the rest of the Clergie now assembled in Convocation . 3 ly . by the Kings letters Patents for Confirmation of those Canons after they were made & presented to be confirmed by him : In the first canon whereof they thus truly resolve . That a supream Power is given to this most excellent Order ( of Kings ) by God himself in the Scriptures , which is That Kings should rule and command in their severall dominions all persons of what rank or estate soever , whether Ecclesiasticall or Civill and that they should restrain and punish with the temporall sword all stubborn and wicked doers . The care of Gods Church is so committed to Kings in the Scripture , that they are commended when the Church keeps the right way , and taxed when it runs amisse , and therefore her government * belongs in chief unto Kings : For otherwise one man would be commended for anothers care , and taxed but for anothers negligence , which is not Gods way . The power to call and dissolve Councels both nationall and provincial is the true right of all Christian Kings within their own Realms or Territories : And when in the first times of Christs Church , Prelates used this power , 't was therefore onely because in those dayes they had no Christian Kings : And it was then so onely used as in times of persecution , that is , with supposition ( is case it were required ) of submitting their very lives unto the very laws and commands even of those pagan Princes , that they might not so muchas seem , to disturb their civil Government , which Christ came to confirm , but by no meanes to undermine . CHARLES , by the Grace of GOD , &c. Now for asmuch as the said Lord Arch-bishop of Canterbury , President of the said Convocation for the province of Canterbury , and the said Arch-bishop of Yorke , President of the said Convocation for the Province of Yorke , and others the said Bishops , Deans , Arch-deacons , Chapters and Colleges , with the rest of the Clergie , having met together respectively , at the time and places before mentioned respectively , and then and there , by vertue of Our said authority granted unto them , treated of , concluded , and agreed upon certaine Canons , Orders , Ordinances , and Constitutions , to the end and purpose by Vs , limited and prescribed unto them , & have thereupon offered and presented the same unto Vs most humbly desiring Vs to give our Royall assent unto the same , according to form of a certain Statute or Act of Parliament made in that behalfe in the 25th . yeer of the Reign of King Henry the eighth , and by Our said Prerogative Royall and Supream authority in Causes Ecclesiasticall , to ratifie by Our Letters Patents under Our great Seal of England , and to confirm the same , The Title and Tenour of them being word for word as ensueth . Wee of Our Princely inclination and Royall care for the maintenance of the present Estate and government of the Church of England by the Lawes of this Our Realme now setled and established , having diligently , with great contentment and comfort read and considered of all these their said Canons , Orders , Ordinances and Constitutions agreed upon , as is before expressed : And finding the same such as Wee are perswaded will be very profitable , not only to Our Clergy , but to the whole Church of this Our Kingdome , and to all the true Members of it ( if they be well observed ; ) Have therefore for Vs. Our Heires , and lawfull Successours , of Our especiall grace , certaine knowledge , and meere motion , given , and by th●se presents doe give Our Royall Assent , according to the forme of the said Statute or Act of Parliament aforesaid , to all and every of the said Canons , Orders , Ordinances and constitutions , and to all and every thing in them contained , as they are before written . And furthermore , We do not onely by our said Prerogative Royall , and supreme Authority in Causes Ecclesiasticall , ratifie , confirme , and establish , by these Our Letters Patents , the said Canons , Ordinances , and Constitutions , and all and every thing in them contained , as is aforesaid , but do likewise propound , publish , and straightly injoyne and command by Our said Authority , and by these Our Letters Patents , the same to be diligently observed , executed , and equally kept by all Our loving Subjects of this Our Kingdome , both within the Provinces of Canterbury and Yorke , in all points wherein they do or may concerne every or any of them , according to this Our will and pleasure hereby signified and expressed : And that likewise for the better observation of them , every Minister , by what name or title soever he be called , shall in the Parish Church or Chappell where he hath charge , read all the said Canons , Orders , Ordinances and Constitutions , at all such times , and in such manner as is prescribed in the said Canons , or any of them : The Booke of the said Canons to be provided at the charge of the Parish , betwixt this and the Feast of S. Michael the Arch-angell next ensuing , straightly charging and commanding all Archbishops , Bishops , and all other that exercise any Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction within this Realme , every man in his place to see and procure ( so much as in them lyeth ) all and every of the same Canons , Orders , Ordinances and Constitutions to be in all points duly observed , not sparing to execute the penalties in them severally mentioned upon any that shall wittingly or wilfully break or neglect to observe the same ; as they tender the honour of God , the peace of the Church , the tranquillity of the Kingdome , and their duties and service to Vs their King and Soveraigne . In witnesse whereof We have caused these Our Letters to be made Patents : Witnesse Our Selfe at Westminster , the thirtieth day of Iune , in the sixteenth yeare of Our Reigne . By all these Patents , with † others of like nature , directed to all our Convocations , by our Kings in former and latter times , by * Our present Parliaments manner of calling , limiting , directing , our present Assembly of Divines in all particulars of their proceedings and debates , appointing some eminent Members of both Houses to sit and consult together with them , and to certifie all their results and determinations to them , to be considered , rectified , rejected , or approved , by both Houses , as they in their wisdomes shall see cause : and by the fore-cited premises it is most apparent , that the Arch-bishops , Bishops , Clergy , and Convocation of England , assembled Synodically together ( much lesse then any particular Independent Minister or Congregation ) notwithstanding all their late printed vaunts , of their Ecclesiasticall soveraigne Iurisdiction by divine right , and power to prescribe and enjoyne Visitation-Oaths , Articles , new Rites and Ceremonies of their owne Inventions , both unto Ministers and people , ( which † they seconded with their practice to the insufferable grievance and oppression of the people ) are so farre from having any lawfull right ▪ power , and authority , to make , prescribe , any Ecclesiasticall Injunctions , Canons , Lawes , Rites , Ceremonies , or forme of Government to any of his Majesties Subjects , that though they be lawfully assembled together in a Provinciall or Nationall Synod by the Kings owne Writ , or Parliaments command , yet they cannot legally or of right * so much as treat , debate , consult of any Ecclesiasticall affaires without a speciall licence first obtained from the King or Parliament ; and then only of such generals or particulars as they shall prescribe them ; much lesse compile , enact , promulge , impose , or execute any Ecclesiasticall Canons , Lawes , Injunctions , Ordinances , Oaths , without their speciall approbation and ratification of them by their speciall Letters Patents under the great Seale , and by Act of Parliament too , as hath been lately resolved by unanimous consent of both Houses in the case of the condemned new booke of Canons . The like I have proved of the Bishops , Clergie , Councels , in other Christian Empires and Kingdomes . Where then is that immense Episcopall jurisdiction , authority , preheminence , superiority , power , in point of dominion , over and beyond that of ordinary Ministers , which our Lordly Prelats lately so much boasted of and pleaded for , as due unto them by no lesse then divine institution , ( if we may beleeve them ) not by the Grace , Patents , Grants , or connivence of Christian Princes ? Let these swelling ambitious Grandees , to abate this windy tumour , consider with themselves , that all their greatnesses piled together in a generall or Nationall Synod , ( though steepled with the Popes owne Chaire and three-forked Miter ) cannot so much as treat of , debate , dispute , determine any Church-affaires , much lesse constitute or promulge any new Ecclesiasticall Lawes , Canons , Articles , Ceremonies , Rites , &c. without the previous licence and permission of those temporall Princes and Powers that summon them ; nor yet exercise any manner of Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction whatsoever , more then the poorest Vicar and Curate breathing , that is a Minister lawfully ordained , without the Kings Letters Patents or Commission authorizing them , ( which erected their * Bishopricks , Diocesse , and Episcopall jurisdiction at the first , and must still support them , else they will fall to utter ruine ) and then all their pretended claimes and crackt title of jus divinum ; with all Independents , Anabaptists , Brownists , Anti-monarchicall , Anti-parliamentall fancies , concerning the jurisdiction and authority of their Independent Congregations , opposite to the premises ; will vanish into ayre . If any deeme the premised power of Christian Princes and Civill Magistrates , in limiting Synods and Councels thus , to be derogatorie to the lawfull authority of Bishops , Ministers , Synods , or Independent Churches : Ianswer , that it is not so , forthese ensuing reasons . First , because the a chiefe care of preserving the purity of Gods Worship , Ordinances , Religion , the Churches peace , prosperity , and of suppressing all heresies , errours , schismes , corruptions , superstitions contrary thereunto , is committed to Christian Princes and supreme temporall Magistrates , both by the Lawes of God , the constant acknowledgment , use , practice , constitutions , lawes , canons , of all Christian Empires , Kingdomes , Councels , Synods , in all ages ; and the b Coronation-Oaths of all Emperours , Kings , Princes , in the Christian World , which oblige them to discharge this trust , as the subsequent Sections will abundantly manifest . Therefore the power of directing Synods , Councels , in debating matters of controversie , making Lawes , Canons , &c. concerning all or any of the premises , and the confirming of them ought principally to belong to them . Secondly , because Christian Emperours , Kings , Princes , are the c supreme heads and Governours under Christ , in and over all Ecclesiasticall persons , Assemblies , Synods , Councels , Churches , within their owne Dominions , as well as temporall ( and our Kings of England are declared to be such by d severall Acts of Parliament , by the e Oaths of supremacy and Allegeance , which all ought to take ) within their respective Dominions : Therefore they ought of right to direct and order all manner of proceedings , in such Ecclesiasticall Assemblies , Synods ; it being the duty and just right of every Naturall and Politicke head to direct the members ; f as of the head of the family , to regulate and direct the family , wife , &c. by way of authority or jurisdiction , not they the head . Thirdly , because the Bishops and Clergy of our owne and other Realmes , have no Legislative power , or other Ecclesiasticall authority vested in them by the Word of God , but onely g to preach the Word , administer the Sacraments , and to binde or loose mens sinnes declaratively , by preaching or applying the Gospel to them , according as they finde them penitent or obstinate in their sinfull courses ; and no more of other Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction , then what is derived to them by our Kings , and the Lawes of this our Realme ; as is resolved in these expresse termes by the Statute of 37. H. 8. c. 17. The Arch-bishops , Bishops , Arch-deacons , and other Ecclesiasticall persons of this Realme , have no manner of Iurisdiction Ecclesiasticall , but by , under , and from the Kings royall Majestie , the onely and undoubtea supreme head of the Church of England and Ireland , to whom by holy Scripture all authority and power is wholly given to heare and determine all manner of causes Ecclesiasticall , and to correct all vice and sinne whatsoever ; and to such persons as his Majestie shall appoint thereunto . And by the Statute of 1. Ed. 6. c. 2. in these words , That all jurisdiction spirituall is derived and deducted from the Kings Majestie ( to all Bishops and Ecclesiasticall persons within England and Ireland ) as supreme head of these Churches and Realmes of England and Ireland , and so instly acknowledged by the Clergie of the said Realmes , and that all Courts Ecclesiasticall within the said two Realmes be kept by no other power or authority either forraigne or within the Realme , but by the authority of his most Excellent Majesty : whereupon it enacts , That all their Processe shall issue out under the Kings Seale , and in his Name and Stile , as in Writs originall and judiciall at the common Law : with which sundry other h Acts of Parliament concurre . Now the Kings and Lawes of this our Realme have given the Clergie assembled in Councels , Synods , and Convocations , no other but such a limited power and authority as is expressed in the fore-cited Statutes of 25. H. 3. c. 19. & 27. H. 8. c. 15. and mentioned in the premises . ) Therefore they neither can challenge nor pretend to claime any other but such a limited and confined authority ; the rather , because they are assembled to such meetings ( as our Assembly is now ) onely as advisers and assistants , not as Judges or Law-givers : Therefore the keeping of them to the fore-mentioned limits , can neither be an infringement or eclipsing of their just priviledges , or Christian liberty . Fourthly , because every particular Christian is to i try the spirits doctrines , and determinations of Ministers , by the Scriptures , whether they are of God or not ; and to beware , yea judge of false Teachers , doctrines , and no wayes to receive them , as the i Marginall Texts abundantly evidence , and all Orthodox Divines assert . Much more then are Christian Princes , ( the chief Defenders of the Christian faith ) to judge and determine of them ; therefore to give particular directions to , and in all Synods , Councels how to proceed , and what to treat of , for suppressing false Teachers , Heresies , Schisms , Errours advancing Religion , Truth , unity , and sincerity of Gods Worship , within their territories and Churches . Fifthly , because every soule ( as well k Bishops , Ministers , and all other Ecclesiasticall persons , as temporall subjects ) is and ought to be subject to Christian Princes , and the highest temporall powers , who are to provide for their spirituall as well as their temporall welfare : l Therefore they ought to be regulated and directed by them , when assembled by their Writs in Councels or Synods for their spirituall good . SECT . 3. Of Confirming , Ratifying the Canons , Decrees , and Resolutions of Councells , Synods , by Christian Princes , Peers , Parliaments , before they become valid or obligatory : Of the Presence and Power of Christian Princes , Nobles , and other Lay-men , in Councells . That many , or most Councells , Synods , in ancient and latter times ( especially in England ) were in truth meere Parliaments ; wherein Christian Princes , Nobles , Senators , and Lay-men met and voted , as well as Bishops , and other Ecclesiasticall persons . And that no Canons , Lawes , Articles , concerning Gods Worship , Religion , Church-Government , Ceremonies , were ever lawfully prescribed , or imposed on any Subjects of our Realme , but by Parliament only . THirdly , As Bishops and Clergy-men have no power at all to summon Councells , Synods , or Convocations , nor yet to treat , or conclude of any Ecclesiasticall Canons , or Constitutions in them , &c. without the speciall licences of Kings , under their Great Seals authorizing them ; so I shall next manifest , that when Councells , or Synods have , by vertue of their license , agreed on , and composed any such Articles , Canons , Constitutions , Orders , Ceremonies , &c. they cannot print , publish , promulge , impose , execute , or put them in ure , nor are they * of any binding force or authority , till they are approved , ratified , confirmed by Kings , and Christian Princes Subscriptions , Imperiall Edicts , Patents , Acts of State and Parliament ; and that most ancient Councells , Synods , were but Parliaments : wherein Kings , Nobles , and Lay-men were present , as well as Clergy-men . This I shall manifest by some Presidents , both abroad and at home , in all ages . To begin with Scripture Testimonies . c When all the whole Congregation of Israel , assembled by the summons of Joshua , had in their Convocation at Shechem made a Covenant , Ordinance , and Statute , that they would serve the Lord , and obey his voyce , Joshua being then their chiefe Governour , confirmed the same , by writing it in the Book of the Law of God , and erecting a great stone in the place , for a witnesse thereof . When the d Princes , and all the Congregation in Jerusalem , assembled by King Hezechiah , had took counsell together , and concluded to keep the Passeover in the second Moneth , because they could not doe it on the first , the King established their Decree , by his Proclamation and Letters . When the Jewes , upon e Mordecai his Letter to them , had in a publike Convocation ordained , and took upon them and their seed , to keep the feast of Purim throughout every generation , family , province , and city , in remembrance of their great deliverance from Hamans conspiracy against them , Queene Esther and Mordecai wrote with all authority , and confirmed this Feast and Decree , by their Letters , & the Decree of Esther . Yea , we read , that when the f Presidents , Governours , Princes , Counsellours , and Captains of King Darius , to entrap Daniel , moved him to establish a royall Statute , and make a firme Decree , that whosoever should aske a petition of any god or man for thirty dayes , save of the King , hee should bee cast into the Lyons denne : they brought this Decree to Darius to establish and signe , that it should not bee changed , requesting him to signe it , who did it accordingly ; else it had not been obligatory . And wee likewise find in g Scripture , that when as the King of Nineveh and his great men , upon Jonah his preaching , had made a Decree for a publike Fast , the King confirmed , and published it to bee observed , by his Proclamation . To come to Councells , under Christian Princes , and Emperours . The first famous Synod of Nice , with the Constitutions , Canons , and Decrees therein compiled , were h confirmed by the Imperiall Edicts of Constantine the Great , who sate President in it . Edictum quod quidem pondus habebat & autoritatem , cum hac Epistola Imperator in singulas misit Civitates ; writes i Eusebius : Who records further of him , k That hee confirmed , and consigned , by his authority , the Canons made by Bishops in publike Councells , that so it might not bee lawfull for the Princes of other Nations to abrogate the things which were decreed by them : Which had been invalid , without his Imperiall confirmation . * The Councell kept at Rome , under Pope Sylvester , was confirmed by the subscription of Constantine , and Helena his mother . The second generall Councell of Constantinople , after they had finished their Decrees and Canons , sent them with this Epistle to Theodosius the Elder , desiring him to ratifie them ; l In the beginning , verily , of our writing to your Piety , wee give thanks to God , who hath constituted the government of your Majesty , for the common peace of the Churches , and the CONFIRMATION of the true Faith : But giving God due thanks , wee likewise referre to your Majesty those necessary things which are acted in the sacred Councell ; to wit , that from the time wee assembled at Constantinople , by your Majesties command , wee have first of all renued our mutuall concord between us ; and after this , we have prescribed , and pronounced , as it were , certaine Conclusions or Canons , in which we have confirmed , and approved the faith of the Fathers assembled at Nice , and have rejected , with extreme execration and detestation , the preverse heresies , and wicked opinions which have sprung up against it . Moreover also , for the right setling and ordering of the state and discipline of the Churches , wee have enacted , and prescribed certaine Canons , all which wee have annexed to this our Writing . Wee therefore beseech your Clemency , ( VT PER LITERAS TVAE PIET ATIS RATVM ESSE IVBEAS CONFIRMES QVE CONCILII DECRETVM , ) that by your Majesties Letters you would command the Decree of the Councell to bee ratified , and confirme the same ; and , as you have honoured the Church with those Letters , by which you have called us together , so you would likewise CORROBORATE WITH YOVR DECREE AND SEALE , THE SVMME AND CONCLVSION OF THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE DECREED . And hereupon ( writes m Nicephorus ) CONSTITVTIONE QVO QVE IMPERATOR SANXIT , the Emperour enacted by his Constitution , that the authority of the Nicene Creed should bee firme and perpetuall ; and that all Churches in all places should bee committed to those who professed one Divinity of the Father , Son , and holy Ghost , in the subsistence of three Persons , of the same honour and glory : And likewise made a Law , that those who abhered from the profession of this faith , should not keep any Ecclesiasticall assemblies , nor should not presume thenceforth to preach concerning the Faith , nor have power to elect or consecrate any one : that they should bee banished out of the City and Country , fined , and have no communion with other Citizens , &c. Which Edicts of his are Registred verbatim by n Justinian . The Synod o of Ancyra sent Legates to Constantius , informing him , that Eudoxius did study to deprave the Faith , requesting him TO CONFIRME THOSE THINGS which were decreed at Sardice , Syrnium , and in other Synods . So the Catholike Bishops in the Councell of Ariminum , p write to the same Constantius , beseeching him to heare their Orators , who should declare unto him the Sentence of that their Councell in writing , and not to permit any innovation or change , but to suffer them to rest in those things which were lawfully defined , and decreed by their Ancestors ; and that nothing might be added to , or detracted from their Constitutions ; but that they all might remaine untouched and intire , as they were preserved by the piety of his Father , till that time . q The Councell of Africk , Can. 25. to 32 , 34 , 42 , 51 , 59 , 60. and the Bishops therein assembled , make divers petitions and requests to the Emperor Honorius , and the temporall Judges and Magistrates , to reforme Idolatry , suppresse the Donatists , and reform many abuses , by them complained of , by their Lawes and Edicts , and to ratifie their Canons against them , sending their Legates to the Emperor for that purpose . r The Bishops in the third generall Councell of Ephesus , write to Gallimar King of Persia , supplicating , and beseeching his Majesty , to ayd Religion , which was impugned , and speedily to correct their madnesse and tyranny that inclined to heresie : Yea , they ſ beseeched Theodosius the Emperor , that by his godly Letters hee would ratifie and confirme the Decree of the Councell : and Theodosius , of blessed memory , CONFIRMED ALL THINGS BY A GENERALL LAW , that were determined in that generall Councell ; saith the t first Action of the Councell of Chalcedon . Martianus the Emperor , in the fourth generall Councell of Chalcedon , speaks thus , u Wee , after the example of Constantine , have thought good to bee present in this Synod , TO CONFIRME THE FAITH , not to shew our power . Yea , this Emperor , in the close of that Councell , saith , x SACRO NOSTRAE SERENITATIS EDICTO VENERANDAM Synodum CONFIRMAMVS , By the holy Edict of our Majesty Wee confirme that Reverend Synod : Which hee ratified with this Edict , y Let no Clergy-man , Souldier , or any of any other condition , endeavour to treat of the Christian faith henceforth publikely , in assemblies met together , and hearing them , seeking from hence an occasion of tumult or perfidiousnesse ; For hee doth injury to the judgement of the most reverend Synod , if any shall strive to debate againe things once judged , and rightly ordered ; when as those things concerning the Christian faith , which are now controverted , are known to be defined by the Priests which met together at Chalcedon , by Our Precepts , and decreed according to the Apostolicall Expositions and Institutions of 318. holy Fathers , and of 150. more in this Royall City : For punishment shall not bee wanting to the contemners of this holy Law ; because they not onely goe against the Faith , truly expounded , but also prophane the holy mysteries to Jewes and Pagans , by this contention . Therefore , if hee be a Clerke , who shall publikely adventure to treat of Religion , let him be removed from the fellowship of Clergy-men : but if a Souldier , let him be spoyled of his Girdle : likewise others who are guilty of this crime , if they be Free-men , let them be banished out of this Royall City , and also by the Judiciary Power subjugated to competent punishments : but if they be Servants , let them be corrected with most severe chastisements . The Emperors Gratian , Valentinian , and Theodosius , by this Imperiall Edict , confirmed the Decrees of the first generall Councell of Nice , long after they were made , as Constantine the great had done at their enacting . z Vnius & Summi Dei Nomen ubique celebretur Niceneae Fidei dudum à majoribus traditae , & divinae Religionis testimonio atque affertione firmatae OBSERVANTIA SEMPER MANSVRA TENEAT , &c. Yea , Pope Leo himselfe , in a sundry Epistles , exhorts Theodosius , Leo , Martianus , the Emperors , and Pulcheria the Emperesse , to defend the Catholike Faith , concluded and defined in the Councells of Nice , Ephesus , and Chalcedon , against the Heretiques that opposed them : to ratifie and maintaine the Decrees of these Councells , by their Imperiall authority , to represse the Heretiques , and disanull the Constitutions of the 2. Councell of Ephesus , contrary to them , and not to suffer those things to be redebated , which their Fathers , according to the Apostles Doctrine , had confirmed ; nor yet to suffer those Heresies to spring up again , which they had condemned . A cleare Evidence that the Canons and Determinations of generall Councells are no wayes obligatory , and altogether invalid , unlesse ratified by Imperiall Edicts . In the b Councell of Chalcedon , Action 1. when some would have added an Explanation to the Canon of the Councell of Nice , the Egyptians , Orientalls , and the Bishops that consented with them , cryed out , Nemo suscepit adjectionem , nemo diminutionem : Quae in Nicca constituta sunt , teneant , Catholicus IMPERATOR HOC JVSSIT . After this , upon another occasion , the whole Synod saith , Quod Impertalis praecepit autoritas , omnibus modis observandum est : Justum est quae à piissimo Principe praecepta sunt , effectus mancipari . Et necesse nobis erit , in omnibus Imperatoris Christi amici cedere jussioni . Omnia referantur ad cognitionem clementiae Imperialis . Postulamus ejus referri clementiae : Et si jusserit criminali causa alterum pro altero decertare , & hoc suscipimus , praecipuè quia universalem praecepit fieri Synodum . Et necesse est majores causas in eum reservare Concilium . The c first generall Councell of Constantinople , with the Decrees and proceedings thereof , were ratified by the Imperiall Edicts of Justinian the Emperor , who summoned it , yea , swayed , and directed it what to doe , and how to proceed ; causing Pope Vigilius to give an account of his Faith therein , and ratifying the Faith , and Canons of the foure first generall Councells . In the third Councell of d Toledo , King Reccaredus , who summoned it , sate President therein , making two Orations to the Bishops assembled in it , exhibiting to them a Confession of the Christian Faith , subscribed by himselfe and his Queene Badda , with their owne hands , in these words , Ego Reccaredus Rex , fidem hanc sanctam & veram Confessionem , quam unà per totum orbem Catholica confitetur Ecclesia , corde retinens , ore affirmans , mea dextra , Deo protegente , subscripsi . Ego Badda gloriosa Regina , hanc fidem quam credidi & suscepi , manu mea de toto corde subscripsi . This Confession of the Faith , to which was annexed the Creeds of the Councells of Nice , Constantinople , and Chalcedon , the King commanded to be publikely read in the Councell , to the end that it might be examined , and confirmed therein ; which was done accordingly , all the Bishops in that Councell subscribing it ; and not onely they , but likewise the Presbyters and Deacons ; yea all the Nobles , Senators , and Elders of the whole Gothish Nation ; among whom were Gussinus , Fonsa , Afrila , Achila , Flavius , with other Noble-men , ET OMNES SENIORES GOTHORVM , ET TOTIVS GENTIS GOTHICAE ( who were present and had voyces in that Councell ) subscripserunt . After which Subscription of this Profession of the Faith , the King made another Oration to the Councell , commanding them to make certaine Canons for the Government of the Church , and Reformation of Manners ; De caetero autem prohibendis insolentium moribus ME A VOBIS CONSENTIENTE CLEMENTIA , sententiis terminate districtioribus , & firmiore disciplina , quae facienda non sunt , prohibete ; & ea quae fieri debent , immobili constitutione firmate . Whereupon they compiled 23. Canons ; the second of them , for the reciting of the Creed in all Churches every Lords day , hath this clause in it , CONSVLTV piissimi & gloriosissimi Reccardi Regis constituit Synodus : The eighth this , Jubente autem & consentiente Domino Reccaredo Rege , id praecepit Sacerdotale Concilium : The tenth this , Annuente gloriosissimo Domino nostro Reccaredo , hoc sanctum affirmat Concilium : The fourteenth this , Suggerente Concilio , id gloriosissimus Dominus noster Canonibus inserendum praecipit : The sixteenth this , Hoc cum consensu gloriosissimi Principis sancta Synodus ordinavit : The eighteenth this , Ex Decreto Reccaredi Regis , simul cum Sacerdotali Concilio : All badges , that those Canons were made by the Kings Direction , Counsell , Decree , and Command : Who ratified them all with this publike Edict , b Gloriosissimus Dominus Reccaredus Rex universis sub regimine nostrae potestatis consistentibus : Amatores nos sui faciens divina veritas , nostris principaliter sensibus inspiravit , ut causa instaurandae fidei ac disciplinae Ecclesiasticae Episcopos omnes Hispaniae nostro praesentari culmini juberemus . Praecedente autem diligenti & cauta deliberatione , sive quae ad fidem conveniunt , sive quae ad morum correctionem respiciunt , sensus maturitate & intelligentiae gravitate constant esse digesta . Nostra proinde autoritas id omnibus , ad regnum nostrum pertinentibus jubet , ut ea quae definita sunt in hoc sancto Concilio , habito in urbe Toletana anno regni nostri feliciter quarto , nulli contemnere liceat , nullus praeterire praesumat . Capitula enim quae nostris sensibus placita , & disciplinae congrua , à praesenti conscripta sunt Synodo , in omni autoritate , sive Clericorum , sive quorumcunque omnium , observentur & maneant . Then followes a Recapitulation of all the 23. Canons , and after them this clause , Has omnes Constitutiones Ecclesiasticas , quas summatim breviterque perstrinximus , sicut plenius in Canone continentur , manere perenni stabilitate sancimus . Si quis ergo Clericus aut Laicus , harum sanctionum obediens esse noluerit , si Episcopus , Presbyter , Diaconus aut Clericus fuerit , ab omni Concilio excommunicationi subjaceat : si verò Laicus fuerit , & honestioris loci persona est , medietatem facultatum suarum amittat , fisci juribus profuturam : si verò minoris loci persona est , amissione rerum suarum mulctatus , in exilium deputetur . Flavius Reccardus Rex hanc deliberationem , quam cum sancta definimus Synodo , CONFIRMANS SVBSCRIPSI : Then followes the Subscription of the Bishops and others : A pregnant testimony , that Bishops in Councells have no power at all to debate and determine any matters of Faith , or make any Ecclesiasticall Constitutions , but by the Princes License ; that all their Constitutions , Canons , and Determinations , without his Confirmation are invalid , and not binding : That Lay-men have definitive voyces in Councells , and have confirmed them with their Subscriptions ; and that Councells in ancient times were no other but Parliaments ; wherein the King , the Clergy , Nobles , and Elders of the people ( not the Clergy onely ) assembled , to make Lawes and Constitutions , and conclude of matters of Faith : Of which more anon , in its due place . The c Decrees and Canons of the first Councell of Matiiscon were ratified by the Royall Edict of King Guntramnus , who summoned it ; which begins and concludes in this manner , Guntramnus Rex Francorum omnibus Pontificibus , ac universis Sacerdotibus , & cunctis judicibus in regione nostra constitutis , &c. Cuncta ergo quae hujus Edicti tenore decrevimns , perpetualiter volumus custodiri ; quia in sancta Synodo Matisconensi haec omnia ( sicut nostis ) studuimus diffinire , quae praesenti autoritate vulgamus . Subscriptio Domini Guntramni Regis , data sub die 4. Idus Novemb. 24. Regni supra scripti Regis . The d fourth Councell of Toledo , after it had decreed Church affaires in 73. Canons , by King Sisenandus his command , who summoned his Bishops to Toledo , Aera . 681. VT EJVS IMPERIIS AT QVEjVSSIS communis ab ipsis agitaretur de quibusdam Ecclesiae disciplinis tractatus ; and entred into the Synod , cum magnificentissimis & nobilissimis viris , exhorting the Synod to pray for him , and to be mindfull of his Fathers Decrees , and to doe their diligence to confirme to him the Ecclesiasticall Lawes , and to correct those things , which , whiles they have come into use through negligence , have by usurpation procured a license to themselves against Ecclesiasticall manners : Which Synod rejoycing at these his admonitions , according to his and their owne desire , having made so many Canons concerning Religion and Church Discipline , close up their Constitutions with a Canon of State , concerning the Oath of allegiance of Subjects to their Prince , and their loyalty towards them in the carriage ; establishing the Title of Sisenandus , as lawfull , against all others claimes . Now all those Canons , as they were made by the License and Direction of this King , e ( cujus tanta devotio erga Deum exta●t , ut non solum in rebus humanis , sed etiam in causis divinis solicitus maneat , say this Councell , to his honour ; ) so they were likewise ratified by him , as appears by this close at the end of the Canons , f Definitis itaque his quae superius comprehensa sunt , ANNVENTE RELIGIOSISSIMO PRINCIPE ( cujus devotio nos ad hoc decretum salutiserum convocavit ) placuit deinde , nulla re impediente , a quolibet nostrum ea , quae constituta sunt , temerari , sed cuncta salubri consilio conservari : The g fourth Canon of this Councell shewes , that Judges and Lay-men may and ought to be present in Councells . In the * fifth Councell of Toledo , King Chintillanus , who summoned it , entred into the midst of the Synod , with the Nobles and Elders of his Palace , atque hanc institutionem , quam EX PRAECEPTO EJVS , & decreto nostro sancimus , divina inspiratione PRAEMISIT ; scilicet , ut in c●ncto regno à Deo sibi concesso , specialis & propria haec religiosa omni tempore teneatur observantia , &c. saith the Prologue and first Canon of the Councell : So that hee both prescribed and ratified the Canons of this Councell ; the 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , and 8. Canons whereof concerne the State , the King , his Crowne , Title , and Succession . The Canons of the h sixth Councell of Toledo , were ratified by King Chintillanus , with the assent of his Nobles and great men , who were present in it , as appears by the words of the 2 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19. Canons , which determine of State affaires , touching the King and Crowne , and confirme the Canons formerly made and ratified by the Kings consent , Cui omnium gubernatio superno constat delegata judicio ; but most apparently by the third Canon , Inspiramine summi Dei Excellentissimus & Christianissimus Princeps ardore fidei inflammatus , cùm regni sui Sacerdotibus praevaricationes & superstitiones Judaeorum eradicare elegit funditus , nec sinit degere in regno suo eum , qui non sit Catholicus : ob cujus fervorem fidei gratias Omnipotenti Domino coelorum agimus , &c. Quocirca consonam CVM EO corde & ore promulgamus Deo placituram sententiam , SIMVL ETIAM CVM SVORVM OPTIMATVM ILLVSTRIVMQVE VIRORVM CONSENSV ET DELIBERATIONE SANCIMVS : ( A cleare evidence that the Nobility and Gentry were present , and had voyces in that Councell , which was in nature of a Parliament , as the State Canons of it manifest . ) Vt quisquis succedentium temporum regni sortitus fuerit apicem , non ante conscendat regiam sedem , quàm inter reliqua conditionum sacramenta pollicitus fuerit , hanc se Catholicam non permissurum eos violare fidem , &c. In the i eighth Councell of Toledo ; King Recessuinthus , who called it , entred into the Synod in person , and made an elegant , pious Oration to the Prelates , and Nobles assembled in it ; after which hee exhibited a Roll of those things and Canons which hee desired to be publikely ratified in that Councell , written in his Royall name , comprising therein the confession of his faith , and ratifying the Faith and Constitutions of the foure first generall Councells ; which hee thus subscribed , In nomine Domini , Flavius Recessuinthus Rex , hanc fidei & bonae voluntatis meae deliberationem manu mea subscripsi . The twelfth Canon of this Councell concernes State businesses : and all those Canons were published , and ratified in the Kings name , as these words at the end of the twelfth Canon evidence , Hujus quoque sententiae fortitudine vel vigore decreti nostri seriem , quam in serenissimi Domini nostri Recessuinthi Regis EDIDIMVS NOMINE , pro rebus à divae memoriae Patre suo quolibet titulo conquisitis , decernimus omnino constare , &c. Yea , divers k Earles and Nobles subscribed their names , in ratification of the Canons of this Councell , as well as Bishops , as Odoacer , Osilo , Adulphus , Babilo , Ataculphus , Ellae , Paulus , Euuntius , Rucchila , Afrila , Venedmus , Faudila , Euredus , Cunsredus , Froila , with other Earles . This Councell published a Decree in the Kings name , concerning the right of the Crowne , and State Government , ( which manifests it to be a kind of Parliament , compacted as well of the Temporalty as the Clergy ) and King Recessuinthus , himselfe , promulgated a Law therein , in ratification of that decree of theirs ; both which are at large recorded by l Surius . The m ninth and tenth Councells of Toledo were called and confirmed by the same Recessuinthus , for whom the Prelates in these Councells oft-times give thanks to God ; doing all things by his direction , assent , and in his name , Opitulante miseratione divina , & gloriosissimi Recessuinthi Principis inhoerente voluntate religiosa . The eleventh Councell of Toledo was ratified by KingVvambanus , n Cujus hortatu aggregandi nobis facultas data est , & oportuna corrigendis praeparata est disciplina . Iste est ergo tenor fidei nostrae , qui & à capite copiosè profluxit , & à membris probatus gloriosè emicuit , saith the Prologue of the Bishops assembled in that Councell , and the sixteenth Canon of it . Constantinus Pogonatus , as hee called the o sixth generall Councell of Constantinople , by his writs , so hee sate President therein , with divers of his Nobles , Princes , Senators ; ordered , swayed , directed all things in it ; ratifying the Acts and Decrees thereof both by his Subscription and Imperiall Lawes . Hence wee so p often read in that Councell , these and the like passages , Praesidente eodem piissimo & Christo amabili Imperatore Constantino . Piissimus Imperator Constantinus dixit : sancta Synodus dixit . Quod & nunc à vestra serenitate piè jussum est , fiat : Constantinus piissimus Imperator , & sancta Synodus dixerunt . Constantinus piissimus Imperator dixit ; Sufficiunt & quae hodierna die relicta sunt ; reliqua verò in sequenti secretario religantur . Meminit vestra pietas & haec sancta Synodus . Residentibus quoque gloriosissimis Patriciis & Consulibus , ex latere venerandissimi , piissimi & Christi amatoris Imperatoris nostri Constantini . Gloriosissimi Judices dixerunt . Diversis vicibus in praesentia piissimi nostri Domini & magni Imperatoric & cuncti nostri Concilii interrogatus fuit . Gloriosi Judices dixerunt ; Sufficiunt , quae hodierna die acta sunt : Releguntur ista , &c. q Subscriptio piissimi & Christo dilecti Constantini Imperatoris , legimus , & subscripsimus . Constantinus piissimus Imperator dixit . Edicat sanctum & universale Concilium , si cum consensu omnium Episcoporum promulgata est definitio , quae ad praesens relicta est . Sanctum Concilium exclamavit . Omnes ità credimus ; Vna fides ; Omnes idipsum sentimus ; Omnes consentientes & amplectentes subscripsimus : Orthodoxe omnia credimus . Multos annos Imperatori , &c. Sancta Synodus exclamavit . Multos annos Imperatori ; Christo dilecto Imperatori multos annos . Pium & Christianum Imperatorem Domine conserva . ORTHODOXAM FIDEM TV CONFIRMASTI . Aeterna memoria Imperatori , aeternum permaneat vestrum Imperium . At the r end of the 18 th . Action of this Councell follow two Imperiall Edicts of Constantine Pogonatus , ratifying the Actions and Determinations thereof , under severe penalties : in the later of which he saith thus of his owne Subscription and Ratification of that Synod , In qua & Imperium nostrum subscripsit , & per pia dicta nostra COMPROBAVIT EAM . Pope Leo the second , in ſ his Epistle to this pious Emperor , highly approved and applauded this his piety , zeale , and princely care for advancing Religion , suppressing heresies and schismes , and for his Acts and proceedings in this generall Councell , testifying his assent thereto , as to a generall Councell , worthy to bee ranked with those other famous generall Councells held before it ; exhorting the whole Church of God securely to rejoyce , that God had raised her up such a Defender and Benefactor , cujus studio orthodoxa fides recollecto splendore toto orbe irradiat , fideles omnes gratiam referentes exultant , infideles moeror atque dejectio comprimit & confundit , Ecclesiae Christi de cunctis oppressionibus liberatae respirant , donis Imperialibus confoventur , principali praesidio muniuntur : So farre were Popes in those dayes from carping at Emperors proceedings in matters of Religion , and their Presidentship and presence in generall Councells . Neither did this Constantine onely , but likewise Justinian the second , his sonne , and Successor in the Empire , confirme the Decrees and Canons of this generall Synod , viz. those Canons in Trullus , with his Imperiall Edict ; causing all his Nobles , Senate , Bishops , Captaines , Souldiers , and others , to subscribe it , as himselfe records in his Letter to Pope John ; t In nomine Domini Dei & Salvatoris nostri Jesu Christi , Imperator Caesar Flavius Justinianus , fidelis in Jesu Christo , pacificus , pius , perpetum petuus Augustus , &c. Magnum studium , magnam sollicitudinem nos habentes pro stabilitate immaculatae Christianorum fidei , &c. Quia Synodalia gesta , eorumque definitionem , quam & instituere noscitur sanctum sextum Concilium , quod congregatum est in tempore sancta memoriae nostri Patris , in hanc à Deo conservandam regiam urbem , apud quosdam nostros Judices remiserunt . Neque omnino praevidimus alterum aliquem apud se detinere ea , sine nostra piissima Serenitate ; eo quod Nos copiosos misericordia noster Deus custodes constituit immaculatae Christianorum fidei : sed mox adduximus nostros Patres sanctissimos ac beatissimos Patriarchas , & * sacratissimum Senatum , verum etiam Deo amabiles Motropolitas & Episcopos , qui hîc in regia urbe commorantur ; & dcinceps Militantes incolas sancti Palatii , necnon & ex Collegiis popularibus , & ab excubitoribus : insuper etiam quosdam de Christo dilectis exercitibus , tam ab à Deo conservando Imperiali obsequio , quamque ab Orientali Thraciano , similiter & ab Armeniano , etiam ab exercitu Italiae , deinde ex Cabarisnianis , & Septensian●s , seu de Sardinia atque de Africano exercitu ; qui ad nostram pietatem ingressi sunt , & jussimus praefatas Synodaelium gestorum chartas in medium adduci , & CORAM SVPRADICTIS OMNIBVS LECTIONEM EORVM FIERI , OMNESQVE DILIGENTER AVDIENTES SIGNARE IPSAS FECIMVS : quorum auditorum universitas in nostris manibus eas praebuit chartas , ut debeamus nos tenendo inviolatas conservare ipsas , ut non licentia fuerit in quolibet tempore his , qui timorem Dei nolunt habere , aliquid corrumpere aut submutare ab his , quae inserta sunt in praenominatis Synodalibus gestis ; quas totas chart as benè definitas in temporibus sanctae memoriae nostrae Patris , ex probabilibus sanctis Patribus , qui propriae linguae & manuum fidem apud Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum verumque Deum existentem , confirmasse dignoscitur , & consitentes eam docuisse , nos speramus clementissimum nostrum Deum : quia usque dum noster spiritus statutus est ex Deo esse , in nobis ipsas chartas illibatas & incommutabiles semper conservabimus . These Canons , which were compiled by his command in that Synod after his Fathers decease , the Bishops sent unto him to peruse and ratifie , as appears by the last clause of their Oration to the Emperor , prefixed before them by way of a Preface ; q Propterea ergo tuae pietatis jussu in hac Dei observatrice & imperante urbe congressi , sacros Canones conscripsimus . Quamobrèm tuam Pietatem rogamus , eas quae prius in hac Dei observatrice Civitate à congregatis sub bonae memoriae Imperatore nostro Patribus editae sunt , voces tibi adducentes , ut quemadmodum Ecclesiae scriptis Ecclesiam bonorasti , sic & eorum quae per viros pios & synceros decreta sunt , finem obsignes . The resolution therefore of this generall Synod was , That they could make no Canons but by the Emperors license and command , nor promulge any but such as hee should first approve and confirme . The 12. and 13. Councells of Toledo , assembled by King Eringius , were in verity nought else but Parliaments : for first , the temporall Governours , Nobles , and Magistrates of all Spaine were present in them , r Praesto sunt religiosi provinciarum Rectores , & clarissimorum ordinum totius Hispaniae Duces , & illustres aulae regiae viri ; quos interesse huic sancto Concilio delegit nostra Sublimitas ; & clarissimi nostri Palatij Seniores , sublimiumque virorum Nobilitas , saith the Kings Instructions in both Councells ; and these had decisive voyces . Secondly , ſ the King in those Councells made two severall Speeches to them both , and gave to them severall writings , concerning such things as hee desired to have enacted ; commanding both the Nobles , Senators , Captaines , Courtiers , and Councells , as well as the Prelates in those two Councells , to draw those Scrolls hee gave them into severall Heads , Lawes , and Canons ; expunging every thing that was absurd , and correcting all things contrary to justice , both in those Scrolls , and in his Lawes ; prescribing them in generall Heads what Lawes to make , but referring the particular forming and penning of them to them . Thirdly , In those Councells hee desires them to rectifie and confirme the Lawes hee delivered them in Writing , ( many of which are meerly of State affaires , and temporall matters , concerning the Kings title to the Crowne , and the like : ) and when those Councells had made Lawes , Canons , and Constitutions , according to his directions in writing , hee then confirmed them both by his Royall Subscription and Edicts , in this manner , t In nomine Domini , Havius Eringius Rex : magna salus populi gentisque nostri ac regni conquiritur , si haec Synodalium decreta gestorum , sicut pie devotionis nostrae studio acta sunt , ita inconvulsibilis legis nostrae valido oraculo confirmentur : ut quod sercuissimo Celsitudinis nostrae jussu venerandis Patribus & clarissimis Palatij nostri Senioribus discreta titulorum exaratione est edictum , praesentis hujus legis nostrae edicto ab aemulis defendatur . Est enim haec ipsa definitio Canonum , sub isto notata ordine titulorum . Then follow the Acts , Canons , and Constitutions of the Councells , ( made by the Kings direction and assent , as most of the Canons , and the two Scrolls delivered by him to these two Councells manifest , ) with the Subscriptions of the Bishops and Nobles ; and then the Kings Edict of confirmation , which recites them , proceeds thus , Quibus omnibus Synodalibus gestis decretis atque peractis , & debitam reverentiam honoris impendimus , & patulum autoritatis nostrae vigorem his innectare properamus . Ideo praemissas has constitutiones Synodicas à praesenti die vel tempore , id est , ab octavo Calendas February , anno primo regni nostri , nullus audeat contemnere , nullus etiam praeterire , nemo earundem constitutionum audeat jura convellere , nullus temerator haec decreta subvertere . Nemo illicitator vel contemptor vigorem his institutionibus subtrahat , sed generaliter per cunctas regni nostri provincias haec Canonum instituta nostrae gloriae temporibus acta , & autoritatis debitae fastigio praepollebunt , & irrevocabili judiciorum exercitio , prout constituta sunt , celebria habebuntur . Si quis autem haec instituta contemnat , contemptorum se noverit damnari sententia ; id est , ut juxta voluntatem nestrae gloriae & excommunicatus à coetu nostro resiliat , & insuper partem decimam facultatis suae sisci partibus sociandam , amittat . Quod si nihil habuerit facultatis , unde praedictam compositionem exsolvere possit , absque alia infamia sui , quinquaginta oportebit eum ictibus verberari , ut semper infamis permaneat . Edita Lex in confirmatione Concilij Toletani sub die octavo Calendas Februarij , anno felicitèr primo regni gloriae nostrae . In nomine Domini Flavius Eringius Rex , hoc legis nostrae Edictum in CONFIRMATIONE HVJVS CONCILII PROMVLGATVM , SVBSCRIPSI . The Passages and Canons of both these Councells , duly considered , will manifest , That the Councells of Spaine , and others in those dayes , were nought else but Parliaments ; consisting as well of temporall Lords , Great men , Councellors , Magistrates , as of Bishops : That Princes then could not make Ecclesiasticall Canons and Constitutions to bind their Subjects , but in Parliament : and that the Bishops alone could not then make any such Canons or Lawes but in Parliament , with the concurrent consent and direction of the temporall Lords and Governours , the Kings license for that purpose first gained ; nor yet promulge them , without the Kings Letters Patents first obtained for their ratification . The u Canons of the Synod of France under Charlemain , An. 742. were ratified by his Edict , and set forth by him , in his owne name , being compiled by him in Parliament , ( as it seemes , his Nobles being present ) CONSILIO Sacerdotum ET OPTIMATVM MEORVM , with the counsell of his Priests and Nobles . The Constitutions and Canons of the Synod of f Soyssons , made by Prince Pepin , Consensu & Concilio Episcoporum sive Sacerdotum , & Comitum seu Optimatum Francorum , with the consent and counsell of the Bishops or Priests , and of the Nobles or Great men of France , were published by him in his owne name , with his Royall confirmation in writing , which concludes thus : Si quis contra hoc decretum , quod 23. Episcopi cum aliis Sacerdotibus vel servis Dei , unà cum consensu Principis Pepini , vel OPTIMATVM FRANCORUM CONSILIO CONSTITVERVNT , transgredi , vel legem irrumpere voluerit vel despexit , judicandus sit ab ipso Principe , vel Episcopis , vel Comitibus componat , secundum quod in lege scriptum est , unusquisque juxta ordinem suum . This Synod being no other but a Parliament , the temporall Lords having , voyces in it as well as Bishops . The Councell held at the Palace of Vernis , under the same King Pepin , Cap. 6. decreed by his consent , That there should bee two Synods kept every yeare ; the first of them in March , g Wheresoever the King should command , and in his presence : The King therefore was then President in their Synods , both to order them , and to controll , correct , or confirme their Canons , as hee thought meet . In the second Councell of h Nice , assembled by the Edict of Constantine and Irene his Mother , Petronius the glorious Proconsul , Theophylact an Earle imployed in the Emperors service , John the Kings Chamberlaine , and Treasurer of his Army , with other magnificent and illustrious Senators , sate as chiefe Auditors and Directors : The Emperor and his Mother likewise directed the Councell both what to treat of , what to read , and how to proceed ; and ratified the Decrees of that Idolatrous Councell ; the Synod craving their Imperiall assistance for the defence of truth , the suppression of heresies , schismes , reformation of abuses , and setling the peace of the Church , by their publike Lawes and Edicts yea , they desire their Majesties , to incline their eares to their most humble supplications , Ipsasque sacratissimas Imagines in pristino gradu constituere , ut omnes Christiani in universo mundo exultent , & magno laetantur gaudio ; Pope Adrian himselfe making this request unto them , in his Epistles Supplicatory , acknowledging the right both of summoning , ordering , and confirming Councells , to bee in them , not in himselfe . i Charles the Great and his Nobles were present in the Synod of Frankford ; summoned by his Writ and Edict ; yea , Charles late President in it ; Congregatis nobis in unum charitatis conventu , praecipiente , ET PRAESIDENTE piissimo & gloriosissimo Domino nostro Carolo Rege , write the Fathers of that Synod to the Prelates of Spaine , to whom Charles in this Synod writ an Epistle , and a profession of his faith , exhorting them to reforme their Errors and embrace the Truth . The Canons of the Synod of Theodon were k ratified by the Imperiall Edict of Charles the Great , Ludovicus Pius ET IMPERATORES , ET PENE OMNES GALLIAE PRINCIPES SVBSCRIPSERVNT , singuli singulas facientes cruces : The Emperors and almost all the Princes of France subscribing the Decrees of that Synod , after all persons in it had three severall times consented to them , by crying out a Placet ; and Te Deum being sung by the Clergy , after this subscription , the Synod dissolved : which was no other but a Parliament ; those Emperors and their Nobles being present , and having the chiefe voyces in it . The fourth Synod of Arles , under the same Charles , having drawn up 26. Canons , submits them to his Royall censure , to correct , disapprove , or ratifie them at his pleasure ; o Haec igitur sub brevitate , quae emendatione digna perspeximus , quàm brevissimè adnotavimus , & Domino Imperatori praesentanda decrevimus ; poscentes ejus Clementiam , ut si quid hîc minus est , ejus prudentia suppleatur ; si quid secus quàm se ratio habeat , ejus judicio emendetur ; si quid rationabilitèr taxatum est , ejus adjutorio , divina opitulante clementia , perficiatur : ( A memorable Submission ) All being nothing without his Royall confirmation . The Synod of Towers , summoned by the same Emperor , was commanded by him , both what Constitutions to make , & what things to consult of ; which they thus expresse , and submit to his censure , in the Prologue , and close of their Canons , p Quantum piissimi Imperatoris nostri excellens animus , divinae sapientiae fulgore sit irradiatus ad gubernandum rerum praesentium statum , ipsius Imperij sibi à Deo dati , liquidò testantur negocia : quae tanta sunt industria administrata , quantaque prudentia ordinata , qui sapiens ac intelligens est facile perspicere potest ; & eô praecipuè , quod hic toto animo invigilat , investigando quae ad pietatem & veram Religionem pertinent , quorum fructus hominem in bono beatitudinis collocat . His igitur intentus pios ac religiosos Dei Sacerdotes , Ecclesiae gubernacula in regno sibi divina largitate collato tenentes , saluberrimis exhortationibus admonuit , ut operam darent , & actionibus eminerent , quibus & se bene operando , & sibi commissos , verbis & exemplis instruendo regerent . Dissinitum itaque de locis & tempore , quando & ubi coadunari opus fuerit , & quod A TANTO PRINCIPE NOBIS INIVNCTVM EST , ad statuta loca convenimus : siquidem urbe Turonis congregati Episcopi , Abbates , & venerabilis Clerus , pro parvitate nostra , pauca quae ad tantum opus pertinere animadvertimus , & quae secundùm Canonicam regulam emendatione indigent , distinctè per capitula adnotavimus , SERENISSIMO IMPERATORI NOSTRO OSTENDENDA . Primò omnium , admonuimus generalitèr cunctos qui nostro conventui interfuêre , ut obedientes sunt Domino excellentissimo Imperatori nostro , & fidem quam ei promissam habent , inviolabilitèr conservare studeant , orationes quoque assiduas intentè fundere pro ejus incolumitate ac stabilitate , omnes se velle secundùm nostram admonitionem unanimitèr professi sunt . &c. And then they close up all their Canons with this Epilogue , Haec nos in conventu nostro ità ventilavimus : sed quomodo deinceps piissimo Principi nostro DE HIS AGENDVM PLACEBIT , NOS FIDELES IJVS FAMVLI , LIBENTI ANIMO AD NVTVM ET VOLVNT ATEM EIVS PARATI SVMVS . The second Councell of Cavaillon , under the same Charles , thus preface their Canons , which they submit to his correction and approbation ; q Auxiliante Domino nostro Jes●● Christo , atque imperante ferenissimo atque inclito Augusto Carolo , convenimus Episcopi & Abbates totius Galliae Lugdunensis in urbem Cabilonensem , & de quibusdam rebus in quibus nobis emendatione necessaria videbatur , quaedam capitula quae subter inserta sunt EIDEM DOMINO IMPERATORI PRAESENTANDA , ET AD EIVS SACRATISSIMVM IVDICIVM REFERENDA adnotavimus ; quate●s EIVS PRVDENTI EXAMINE EA , QVAE RATIONABILITER DECREVIMVS , CONFIRMENTVR : sicubi minùs aliquid egimus ILLIVS SAPIENTIA SVPPLEATVR . Then follow the Canons made in that Councell , by the Emperors direction and command , as is evident by the third Canon ; r Oportet etiam , VT SICVT DOMINVS IMPERATOR CAROLUS PRAECEPIT , scholas constituant , in quibus & literaria solertia disciplinae , & sacrae Scripturae documenta discantur . And then they thus conclude their Canons , Cap. 67. ſ Haec itaque pauca de pluribus , quae necessaria perspeximus , cum magna brevitate DOMINI IMPERATORIS PRVDENTI IVDICIO PRAESENTANDA , ADNOT AVIMVS . Caeterùm quid generalitèr in omnibus & ab omnibus sequendum sit , quidvè vitandum , qualitervè intra Ecclesiam sanctam sit vivendum , qui plenius nosse desiderat , sanctarum Scripturarum prata percurrere non desistat . The Councell of Mentz under Charles the great , summoned by his command , was no other but a Parliament ; t consisting of Bishops and Clergy-men , who ●ate together in one company ; of Abbats and Priors , who sate together in a second Classe ; of Earles and Judges , sitting together in a third Classe ; Convenit nobis de nostro communi Collegio Clericorum seu LAICORVM TRIES FACERE TVRMAS , sicut & fecimus , &c. Intertia denique turma SEDERVNT COMITES ET IVDICES IN MVNDANIS LEGIBVS DECERTANTES , vulgi justitias terminantes , &c. saith the Prologue of that Councell to the Emperor . The Ecclesiasticall Canons and Lawes concluded on therein , were made and approved by all three Companies ; IN HIS ITAQVE OMNIBVS PRIMO DECREVIMVS , &c. are the words of the same Prologue . And having finished the Canons , they thus submit them to the Emperors correction and approbation , with this Preface , u In nomine Patris & Filij & Spiritus Sancti : Gloriosissimo & Christianissimo Imperatori Carolo Augusto , verae Religionis Rectori , ac Defensori sanctae Dei Ecclesiae , unà cum prole sua , ejusque fidelibus vita & salus , honor & benedictio , cum victoria sine fine mansura . Almificae reverentiae vestrae patefacimus nos humilimi famuli ac missi vestri , &c. In his itaque omnibus primò decrevimus , &c. De his tamen omnibus VALDE INDIGEMVS ADIVTORIO VESTRO ATQVE SANA DOCTRINA , quae & nos jugiter admoneat , atque clementer erudiat , quatenus ea quae paucis subter substrinximus capitulis , * A VESTRA AVTORITATE FIRMENTVR , SI TAMEN VESTRA PIETAS ITA DIGNVM ESSE IVDICAVERIT . ET QVICQVID IN EIS EMENDATIONE DIGNVM REPERITVR , VESTRA MAGNIFICA IMPERIALIS DIGNITAS IVBEAT EMENDARI : ut ità emendata , nobis omnibus , & cunctae Christianae plebi & posteris nostris proficiunt ad vitam & salutem , & ad gloriam sempiternam , VOBIS QVE inde merces , & honor & laus & benedictio , ac beatitudo permaneat in omnes aeternitates seculi . Amen . This Councell therefore knew full well , that they could neither make , nor promulge any Canons or Constitutions , but by the Emperors license and consent ; and that all they did without his confirmation was invalid , and nothing worth . The Councell of Rhemes , Anno 813. x ( A Domino Carolo piissimo Caesare MORE PRISCORVM IMPERATORVM CONGREGATO , saith Surius , ) made severall Canons and Constitutions , which they intreat the Emperor to ratifie ; Witnesse the y 33 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44. Canons , wherein wee have these passages , Domini Imperatoris misericordia imploranda , ut victum & necessaria à sibi praelatis consequi possunt sanctimoniales , & vita illarum & castitas , secundùm fragilitatem sexus , diligenter provisa tueatur . Vt Dominus Imperator secundùm statutum bonae memoriae Domini Pepini , misericordiam faciat , nè solidi qui in lege habentur , per quadraginta denarios discurrant : ut in sua eleemosyna sirmiter statuat , nè quilibet in suum pergentibus servitium , ullatenùs prohibere audeat mansionem , neque aliis quibus necessitas incumbit : Vt ejus magnificum & cuncto imperio ejus suis & futuris temporibus firmetur capitulum , sive ab anno 30 , à quo adhuc testes haberi possunt , seu etiam ab illo , à quo felicissimum ejus sumpsit exordium , qualiter omnes lites & jurgia in sua misericordia terminum habere potuissent . Vt de falsis testibus , ejus simili modo piissimum firmetur capitulum , qualiter & hoc quod ille Bonomae statuit , firmissimum habeatur : & adhuc quaerantur , quatenùs in sua piissima misericordia , SI QVA NECESSARIA SVNT AVGEANTVR . All which Canons , standing at the Emperors courtesie to ratifie , prove undeniably , that without his approbation and confirmation they were meere nullities . Wherefore Aistulfus Archibishop of Mentz ( as z Bochellus informs mee ) spake thus in that Synod , SI PRINCIPI PLACVERIT ALIISQVE FIDELIBVS SVIS , ROGEMVS , VT CONCLAVDETVR ET SVBSCRIBATVR ; If it shall please the Prince and other his Nobles and Liege people , wee intreat that it may bee joyntly applauded and subscribed : ET CONLAVDATVM EST , ET SVBSCRIPTVM EST , * TAM A PRINCIPE QVAM A CAETERIS OMNIBVS ; And it was applauded and subscribed , as well by the Prince as by all others , So that the consent and subscription both of the Prince , the Peeres and Nobles , as well as of the Prelates , was requisite to confirme the Canons of Councells . The first Councell of Orleans , under King Clodoveus , thus prostitute their Canons to his censure and approbation ; a Domino suo Catholicae Ecclesiae filio Clodoveo gloriosissimo Regi , omnes Sacerdotes quos ad Concilium venire jussistis ; quia●tanta ad Religionis Catholicae cultum gloriosae fidei cura vos excitat , ut Sacerdotalis mentis affectu , Sacerdotes de rebus necessariis tractaturos in unum colligi jusseritis , SECVNDVM VESTRAE VOLVNTATIS CONSVLTATIONEM ET TITVLOS QVOS DEDISTIS , ea , quae nobis visa sunt , definitione respondimus , ità ut si ea , quae nos statuimus , ETIAM VESTRO RECTA ESSE IVDICIO COMPROBATVR , TANTI CONSENSVS REGIS AC DOMINI MAJORIS AVTORITATEM SERVANDAM ( majori autoritate servandae , saith Surius ) tantorum FIRMET SENTENTIA Sacerdotum . This Councell therefore deemed not their Canons firme and valid , unlesse ratified and confirmed by the Prince . The Councell of Paris , under Lewes and Lotharius , and all the Prelates in it , in their Epistle to these Princes , commend their Canons to their correction and ratification , in this manner , Nos fidelissimi as devotissimi salutis vestrae procuratores , juxta parvitatem sensùs nostri , prout brevitas temporis permisit , b SECVNDVM SANCTAM DEVOTIONEM ET ORDINATIONEM VESTRAM , de causis ad Religionem Christianam , nostrumque ministerium atque periculum pertinentibus ; necnon & de his quae ad nostram correctionem & emendationem pertinere perspeximus , sive de his , quae populis generaliter annuncianda & admonenda praevidimus , capitulatim in praecedentibus adnotavimus libellis , VESTRAEQVE SERENITATI LEGENDA , IMMO PROBANDA , OBTVLIMVS , &c. Et quanquam de his , quae praemissa sunt , vestro ardentissimo desiderio priùs satisfacere elegerimus , nequaquam tamen haec quae specialiter ad vestram personam , ministeriumque pertinere cognovimus , oblivioni tradimus , sed potiùs vestrae saluti prospicientes , nonnulla capitula necessaria in secundo hujus operis libello , ad nomen ministeriumque vestrum pertinentia , periculumque cavendum , solerti studio congessimus , & vobis familiariter admonitionis gratia , porrigenda devovimus ; ut ea diligenter inspiciendo , legendo & audiendo , apertè atque distinctè Vestra cognoscat Celsitudo , de quibus & pro quibus in memoratis conventibus nostris , secundùm virium nostrarum possibilitatem fideliter salubriterque egerimus . Hence this Councell humbly beseecheth these Princes , to establish divers things and Canons they propound unto them , in these supplicative words ; c l. 3. c. 8. to 27. Petimus humiliter Excellentiam vestram . Illud etiam specialiter necessarium Vestra suggerere Pietati duximus . Similiter etiam obnixè ac suppliciter vestrae Celsitudini suggerimus . Similiter & hoc à Vestra Pietate necessarium duximus expetendum . Illud quoque à vestra Pietate suppliciter flagitamus . Illud etiam obnixè Vestram sanctam piissimamque Devotionem suppliciter monendo deposcimus . Iterùm suppliciter admonendo vestrae suggerimus Serenitati . Postulamus etiam , ut Celsitudo vestra . Iterum monendo , Magnitudini vestrae suppliciter suggerimus . Similiter deposcimus . Rogamus etiam vestram Pietatem . Et hoc humiliter observando admonemus . d And lib. 1. cap. 50. De observatione diei Dominicae . Quapropter specialiter atque humiliter à Sacerdotibus Imperialis Celsitudo flagitanda est , ut ejus à Deo ordinata potestas , ob honorem & reverentiam tanti dici , cunctis motum incutiat , nè in hac sancta & venerabile die mercatus , & placita , & ruralia quaeque opera , necnon & quaslibet corrigationes ullius conditionis homines facere praesumant . And it concludes thus , e lib. 3. cap. 27. Porro de Episcopali libertate , quam , Deo annuente , VESTRO QVE ADMINICVLO SVFFRAGANTE , adipisci ad Dei servitium peragendum cupimus , suo in tempore VOBIS DICENDA , ATQVE VOBISCVM CONFERENDA RESERVAVIMVS . By all which it appeares , that this Councell could decree nothing but by the Emperors License ; and that all their Canons and Decrees were vaine and abortive without his ratification of them . The Synod of Aquisgran ( or Aix ) under Ludovicus Pius , Anno 833. hath almost the selfe-same words and passages ; being directed by this Emperor both what to treat of , and petitioning him to ratifie and put in execution what they decreed , as these passages manifest ; f Ibi de statu sanctae Dei Ecclesiae AD MONENTE Serenissimo atque totius religionis devatissimo praefato Imperatore , tractare coepissemus . Revolutis igitur A VESTRA NOBIS benignissima devotione , COLLATIS TRIBVS CAPITVLIS , id est , VT VENTILARENTVR , &c. Vestrum siquidem nihilominus supplici admonitione & affectu charitatis excellentiam , admonente , si quae sunt Ecclesiastici juris VESTRA PIISSIMA GVBERNATIONE ERIGENDA , VT PER VOS , VESTROSQVE Christianae Religionis commilitiones SVBLEVENTVR , &c. g Haec nos fideles & devotissimi famuli & Oratores vestri , juxta parvitatem sensus nostri , SECVNDVM SANCTAM ORDINATIONEM VESTRAM , de his quae ad nostram , & consacerdotorum subjectorumque nostrorum correctionem & emendationem pertinere perspeximus , &c. Sed nunc quia de his quae praemissa sunt , VESTRO ARDENTISSIMO DESIDERIO prius satisfacere studuimus : illud tamen quod ad vestram specialiter personam ministeriumque pertinere cognoscimus , nullatenus oblivioni tradidimus ; sed potius vestrae saluti prospicientes , nonnulla capitula necessaria fideliter collegimus , & VOBIS familiariter admonitionis gratia devoteque PORRIGENDA devovimus . Similiter quaedam ad filios vestros pertinentia , quaedam verò ad commilitones vestros non minùs pertinentia : Which Canons commonly begin thus , h Petimus humiliter vestram Excellentiam . Illud etiam specialiter necessarium vestrae suggerere Pietati duximus . Rogamus etiam vestram Pietatem propter divinam misericordiam , vestramque salutem . Et hoc humiliter admonemus . Innotescimus vobis , quod ea , quae IN CAPITVLIS VESTRIS NOBIS TRACTANDA COMMISISTIS , &c. Vestram intereà Deo amabilis Augustè petimus clementiam . Similiter est postulandum . Meminimus in posteriis conventibus nonnulla capitula ab Episcopis VESTRA ADMONITIONE FVISSE TRACTATA ATQVE STATVTA , pro necessitate & communi salute utrorumque ordinum Ecclesiasticorum scilicet & secularium , sed nescimus quibus impedientibus obstaculis quasi oblivioni tradita . Ideoque affectu devoto , supplici admonitione admonemus , & admonendo precamur , ne ista , quae nunc , licèt perpauca , praelibavimus ad statum sanctae Dei Ecclesiae , simili modo oblivioni tradantur , sed pro speculo omnibus inconvulsa habeantur atque conserventur , &c. The Synod of Mentz , under Rabanus Maurus , assembled by the command of Lodovicus Pius , sent all their Canons , with a Preface before them , to this Emperor ; wherein they have this notable passage touching Princes Jurisdiction Ecclesiasticall , i De Christianis verò Regibus & Imperatoribus non necesse est aliqua exempla ponere ; cùm omnes qui rectae fidei & sani dogmatis fuerint , à Constantino Imperatore , qui primus Imperatorum Christianum Religionem defendere , atque honorem Ecclesiarum Dei amplificare coepit , usque ad nos , semper in hoc studio solerter laboraverint , ut Ecclesia Dei pacem , & tranquillitatem haberet , quatenus cultus Dei incontaminatus foret , & servi ejus sine impedimento Deo delectabiliter deservirent . And at the end of their last k Canon , they conclude with this Petition to the Emperor , Haec verò quae VOBIS TRANSMISSA SVNT , PETIMVS , VT VESTRA AVTORITATE FIRMENTVR : Et si quis adversarius illis existere voluerit , praevalere non permittatur . Dei enim cooperatores vos esse debetis , & adjutores sanctae ejus Ecclesiae , quatenus Religio-Christiana incontaminatae temporibus regni vestri usque ad finem servetur . The Synod of Aix , under King Pepin , l sent the Canons and Admonitions they had made unto him , to read , approve , and execute , as the Preface and close of them , directed to him , manifest at large : Yea , lib. 3. cap. 27. they desire him , on their bended knees , that hee would look upon them with a favourable and acceptable eye , and that they might through his approbation bee profitable to himselfe , his subjects and people . The Synod of Melden , under Charles the younger , Anno 845. in the Prologue before the Canons , recites , That the Synod of Aredon was confirmed with the Subscription of King Charles , and of all the Clerks and Lay-men present in it ; m Quod idem inclytus Princeps & caeteri quique tam Ecclesiastici quam EX LAICALI ORDINE QVI ADFVERVNT VIRI MANV PROPRIA FIRMAVERVNT . That not long before , in the Synod of Meaux , divers Canons , there recited , were decreed by the King , the Clergy , and Nobles : Nuper ab eodem devotissimo Principe , unà cum sacro Ecclesiastico Ordine , ET ILLVSTRIVM VIRORVM NOBILITATE DECRETA SVNT . These two Councells were in nature of Parliaments , the King and his Nobles being present , having voyces in them , and subscribing them as well as the Prelates . In the n 2 , 5 , 12 , 26 , to 44. 76 , to 83 , 88 , 89. Canons of the Synod of Melden , wee find nothing but Supplications and Petitions to the King , to decree , and ratifie the things comprised in them : Petimus , suggerendum est , ut Regia magnificentia liberiorem libertatem Episcopis ad suum peragendum in corum parochiis ministerium , quàm hactenus habuissent , tribuat . Vt Principes juxta decreta Canonum per singulas provincias saltem bis aut semel in anno à Metropolitanis & Dioeoesanis Episcopis SYNODICE CONVENIRI CONCEDANT : ( Therefore they cannot doe it without their license . ) Vt Regia Majestas observare praecipiat , &c. Vt jus Ecclesiasticum & legem Canonicam nobis ita conservetis sicut Antecessores vestri . Vt Praecepta quae Avus & Pater vester Ecclesiis nobis commissis fecerunt & firmaverunt , stabilia conservaverunt , ETIAM VOS CONFIRMASTIS ET de caetero RATA CONSERVETIS . And they thus submit their Constitutions to the King , cap. 80. o Haec vestrae Christianae Devotioni verbis & scriptis protulimus : Vt autem Capitula , quae Domino Mediatore communiter decrevistis ET MANV PROPRIA CONFIRMASTIS , & nunc observatores VOS VERBIS PROMISISTIS , ut opere plentièr conservetis & adimpleatis , nunc etiam admonemus . Et Capitula Patris vestri fine rèfragatione de caetero conserventur , ac Capitulis vestrae Religioni , ab exiguitatis nostrae ministerio oblatis , HOC DIPLOMA , SI COMPLACET , ADNECTATVR . All which , are so many Synodall resolutions , that Canons made in Councells without Princes speciall ratifications , by their Subscriptions and Charters , are no wayes obligatory . In the Synod of Medardum , under Charles the sonne of Lodovick , who summoned and sate President in it , this King humbly and prudently propounded many things to bee defined and discussed therein , himselfe sitting there in person among the Bishops ; there being Lay-men likewise present in it ; The Canons in this Synod were made by this Kings direction and assent , and confirmed by his and the others voyces and Subscriptions . All which , these Passages of that Synod evidence : p Ipse quoque Rex adesse dignatus est , ut non solùm devotione Ecclesiae se filium esse ostenderet , verum etiam sicubi opus esset , protectorem Regia potestate monstraret . Cum itaque Praesules diversarum Ecclesiarum PIO REGE MVLTA humiliter & prudenter PROPONENTE , tractassent potiùs quaedam quàm diffinivissent , &c. Parte Cleri quae praesens erat AC LAICORVM , bonum ei testimonium perhibente , &c. Statuit q sancta Synodus ANNVENTE PIO PRINCIPE , ut idonei Legati dirigerentur , qui singulorum locorum statum solertissimè perscrutarentur ; & quae ipsi per se non valerent corrigere , judicio proximè futuri Concilij ET POTESTATI REGIAE REVELARENT . Obtentum est etiam à devotissimo Principe , ut incesti & quilibet alij perditi examen Episcoporum refugientes , per Judices publicos ad corum praesentiam deducantur , nè alterius illicebram peccandi nutriat impunitas vitiorum . Postremo praefixum est ab omnibus generaliter custodiendum ; NE VILLAE RES ECCLESIASTICAE ABSQVE REGIS COHIBENTIA COMMVTENTVR . ( A strong Canon in the behalfe of the Kings Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction . ) Et sic cunctis secundum regulam Ecclesiasticam canonicè & diligentèr patratis , decretum & judicatum est à sancta & venerabili Synodo , ASSENTIENTE ET FAVENTE Christianissimo & gloriosissimo REGE DOMINO CAROLO haec omnia GESTIS INSERI , & in conspectu Synodali relegi , ET RATA OMNIA JVDICATA CVNCTORVM MANIBVS ET SVBSCRIPTIONI CANONICA , PERPETVO inconvulsae & inviolabiliter permansura FIRMARI . The Councell of r Valens , Anno 855. summoned by the Mandate of Lotharius the Emperor , cap. 23. thus prayes his confirmation of the Canons therein compiled ; Quod judicium nostrum tàm necessarium & publicae disciplinae Ecclesiasticae defensioni omnino suppliciter postulamus , EJVSDEM PII PRINCIPIS AVTORITATE MVNIRI : Under which they annex the Edict of Constantine for the confirmation of the Judgements and Constitutions of Bishops . In the Synod of ſ Ticinum ( or Pauy ) under Lodovick the second ; this King sent both by word of mouth and writing , an Exhortation and Monition to the Synod , that was publikely related , and read in it : which the Synod drawing up into Canons , humbly desired him to ratifie , and to correct sundry abuses which they complained of : Which the King , PRAESENTIBVS OPTIMATIBVS SVIS , in the presence of his Nobles , ratified , both by word of mouth , and Royall Sanctions , beginning with a Statuimus , Sancimus ; and concluding thus : Haec olim saepe inculcata ET AVGVSTALI SANCTIONE NOSTRA PROMVLGATA , quia ex parte in aliquibus videntur neglecta hactenus , acriori ulcisci debuerant examine , &c. This Synod being in truth a Parliament , as the relation of it manifests . The t Councell of Pistis , Anno 863. under King Charles the Bald , is thus prefaced , Carolus gratia Dei Rex , & Episcopi , Abbates quoque & COMITES , ac caeteri in Christo renati FIDELES ex diversis Provinciis , &c. convenimus : Which proves , that Nobles and other Lay-men were present at it . Besides , it makes mention , that the Constitutions of the Councell of Valens were made with the consent of that Councell , by the Kings Precept , and by him commanded to bee proclaimed and kept by his Subjects , and to bee read and ratified in this Councell : the Constitutions whereof are made in the Kings , and published in the Kings and Councells names ; who both subscribed and ratified them , as this close of the Acts of that Councell witnesseth , u Vt autem haec quae observanda supra scripsimus ac praenominavimus , nunc & de caetero certiùs & expressiùs à Nobis atque à Successoribus inconvulsa serventum ; PROPRIIS MANIBVS HIS SVBSCRIBERE COMMVNI CONSENSV DECREVIMVS , ea conditione servatà , ut omnis in cunctis Ordinibus Lex Juris debiti , & honor ab omnibus obedienter & fideliter cooperante Domino conservetur , Post haec omnia relicta & collaudata COMMVNI CONSENSV DECREVIMVS , &c. The Councell of Wormes , Anno 868. assembled by the command of King Lodovick , applaudes this Princes great devotion , and care for Religion , in these termes , x Cujus tanta erga Deum devotio extat , ut non solùm in rebus humanis , VERVM ETIAM IN CAVSIS DIVINIS MAXIMAM SEMPER SOLLICITVDINEM GERAT : The Acts of which Councell were approved by him , The eighth generall Councell of Constantinople was y confirmed by the Subscriptions of the Emperors , Basilius , Constantine , and Leo , whose Princes and Nobles were present , and sate as chiefe Directors and Judges in it : And at the close of the Councell , Basilius himselfe , there present , demanded of the Synod , if they all consented to the Acts and Decrees of this Councell , and whether any of them did stick or doubt of any of them ? whereto they replyed , Omnibus placent quae lecta sunt : Omnes eisdem ipsis concordamus , omnes ita praedicamus ; omnes concinentes & consentientes prompte subscribimus ▪ After which they all subscribed ; and then the Emperors in the last place subscribed in this manner , Basilius , Constantinus , & Leo , perpetni Augusti , in Christo Deo sideles Principes Romanorum , & magni Imperatores , sanctam hanc & universalem Synodum SVSCIPIENTES , ET OMNIBVS QVAE AB IPSIS DEFINITA ET SCRIPTA SVNT , CONCORD ANTES , SVBSCRIPSIMVS MANV PROPRIA . In the Councell of Friburg , Anno 895. z Arnulphus the Emperor sate chiefe President : In which were present not onely Bishops and Abbats , but likewise all the Princes and Nobles of the Empire , with innumerable troops of Clergy-men and Lay-men , who all confirmed the Acts and Decrees thereof with their Subscriptions : Haec Subscriptio sacro-sanctae venerabili professione & condigna responsione innumerabilium circumstantium Presbyterorum ac Diaconorum , necnon & NOBILIVM LAICORVM CONFIRMATA ET LAVDABILITER APPROBATA ; as Surius relates it . In the great a Councell of Constance , the King of Romanes in his Imperiall Robes sate as President , accompanied with his Nobles , with the Ambassadors and Orators of all Nations , who had voyces in that Councell , and confirmed the Acts and Sessions thereof , both with their Suffrages and Subscriptions . Yea , Sigismund King of Romanes , upon the Petition of the Councell , by his Letters Patents and Proclamations under his Seale , tooke upon him the patronage and protection of the whole Councell and their Actions ; and justified and ratified all their Proceedings ; as the Fourteenth Session manifests , and sundry Passages in that Councell prove at large . In the Councell of Basil , not onely b divers Ambassadors and Nobles were present , but likewise Sigismund King of Romanes , Hungary and Bohemia , tooke the said Councell into his Protection against Pope Eugenius the Fourth ; the Councell likewise protecting him , and vacating all the Proces and Proceedings of the Pope against him and William Duke of Bavaria , another of their Protectors . Yea , the Decrees of this Councell were made , Assistente Domine Imperatore , in habitu Imperiali , by the assistance of the Emperor , who sate in that Councell in his Imperiall Robes , and confirmed the Acts and Decrees thereof with his golden Bulls and Edicts . In this Councell , many Epistles of the Emperor and other great Princes , both ordering and ratifying their Proceedings and Decrees , which were read publikely ; yea , the Determinations and Constitutions both of the Councels of Constance and Basil , were ratified by King Lewes of France , by Act of Parliament , 25. Januarij , Anno 1475. and after that , by another Act of Parliament at Paris , 25. Junij , Anno 1512. and by them enjoyned to bee strictly observed : both which Acts are recorded at large by c Bochellus , where hee who listeth may peruse them . In the Councell of Ferrara , d Joannes Palaeologus Emperor of Constantinople , sate as chiefe President , and divers Nobles with him ; yea , hee swayed and directed most things in it ; and most that spake therein directed their Speeches to him ; as every Page almost of the Acts of that Councell , and every Session , manifest : speaking and disputing ; Impetrata priùs ab Imperatore facultate dicendi : Imperatoris jussu . Si Serenissimo Imperatori placuerit , ea nunc libenter aggrediar . Imperator Serenissime vobis dico . Mitissimi Imperatoris jussu Orationem nostram prosequemur . e Imperator . Quisnam est Autor hujus voluminis ? And. Hermeus . Imper. Estne rationi congruum ●t in Synodo historiae innitantur ? And. Ad cognoscendum res gestas Serenissime Imperator , Historia uti debemus . Imp. Historiam illam in nostra Religione debemus suscipere , quam majores nostri probaverunt , aliam verò minimè . And. De Romanorum , aut Graecorum , aut Regum bello Historia , Mitissime Imperator , in Synodo nequaquam uti debemus , &c. Sed ( ut lubet ) Humanissime Imperator , omissis his , unde digressi sumus , revertamur . f Imper. Dicat Cardinalis . g Imperator jussit ut dissertores electi negocium prosequerentur . Ephesius Imperatoris jussu longam Orationem habuit . Consentiente Imperatore , &c. This Councell being adjourned to Florence , Julius the Cardinall there began it with this Oration , h Quoniam Imperator Mitissime , &c. after which followes a large Dialogue , in open Councell , between him and the Emperor ; in the close whereof , Imperatorem rogarunt , &c. Cui quidem sententiae Imperator acquiescens , voluit , ut statim disputatores ipsos seligerent , &c. In the 22. i Session of this Councell , the Emperor oft times speakes ; Haec ad propositum nequaquam spectare videntur , &c. Vt tibi Pater Ephesius morem gereret , huic questioni P. R. respondit . Verum in posterum ne verbum quidem de ea faciet , quandoquidem non tot de causis huc convenimus . De proposita Questione , necesse est , in praesentia disputare , de hac verò forsan alias . Ita quoque Nobis videtur . De hac Questione suo loco videbimus . Session 23. John the Popes Disputant saith , k Superiori Sessione Imperatoris Serenissimi jussu convenimus . Non ego , sed Serenissimus Imperator tibi legem imponere potest , saith hee to Marcus. The , Emperor in this Session spake oft , and gave the rule of the Synod , and commanded another Session to be held : Jussit ut iterum Sessio haberetur . And in the l last Session hee orders all , and rules the Rost among his Greciaus ; brings them to a unity with the Westerne Churches , concerning the point of the Procession of the Holy Ghost both from the Father and the Sonne : hee informes them , that hee being by Gods grace their Emperor , after the custome of his Predecessors , would rest satisfied with the Determination of this Councell ; and what it , or the major part of it should conclude , hee would to the uttermost of his Imperiall power ratifie , and defend : But ( saith hee ) I will not bee constrained by the Latines to adde any thing to our Sacred Creed , or to change any of the Ceremonies of our Church . And when the Greeks and Latines had accorded , and drawn up Letters of union , both in Greek and Latine , to which both parties should subscribe ; this Emperor , first of all for his party , subscribed in this manner : Ego Joannes Palaeologus , fidelis in Christo Rex , & Imperator Romanorum , subscripsi : And five Letters of Union being thus subscribed by him and the whole Synod , they were further ratified by the Popes and Emperors Seales . In the first m Session of this great Councell of Ferrara , the Pope would have placed the Emperor with his Greeks on the left hand , the Latine Clergy on the right , and himselfe would have sate in the midst ; but the Emperor withstood it , saying , Locum ipsum sibi potiùs quàm summo Pontifici convenire : That that place did rather belong to him than to the Pope : But after many contestations , they all accorded at last , that the Pope and his Clergy should sit on the right side , the Emperor and his Greeks on the left of the Church , one right over against the other , and neither Pope nor Emperor in the midst . In the Councell of Lateran , under Leo the tenth , there were divers n Ambassadors , Princes , Nobles , and Lay-men present in every Session : Sigismond King of Poland had his Ambassadors and Orators there , chosen by himselfe , his Princes , Lords Spirituall and Temporall , Nobles , and Commons in full Parliament ; who gave them full Power and Commission for them , and every of them , ( Pro Nobis ac Regnis , Dominiis , Principibus , Spiritualibus & Secularibus , Proceribus & Populis ditioni Nostrae Subjectis , ( saith their Commission under the Kings Seale , 10. Aprilis , Anno 1515. ) to treat of , handle conclude , agree , and determine of all things in their names and steads , that should bee propounded or handled in that Councell , concerning Religion , or the Church : Etiamsi talia forent quae mandatum exigerent magis speciale quàm praesentibus est insertum : Promising that they would ratifie , grant , confirme and establish whatever should be there done and acted by their Orators . Maximilian Duke of Millain , Francis Marquesse of Mantua , Stanislaus and John Dukes of Mazovia and Russia , sent Orators and Ambassadors to this Councell , with like Commissions under their Seales , to ratifie all things therin concluded in their steads ; recorded at large by o Surius , in the third Session of that Councell . And the like Commissions had the Ambassadors of Lewes King of France , Joachim Marquesse of Brandenburge , William Marquesse of Montferrat , Emanuel King of Portugall , Charles Duke of Savoy , and Maximilian the Emperor ; the Constitutions of Councells wherein the Pope sate President being not obligaotory , unlesse the Emperor , with other Christian Kings and Princes ratified them , by their Ambassadors , Orators , and Proctors , if absent from ; or by their Subscriptions and Seals , if present in them . In the p Councell of Lyons , Anno 1245. foure Noble-men chosen and sent by the King and Parliament of England , were present as Ambassadors : And the Bishops sent by the Church of England to the generall Councell of Pisa , Anno 1409. were elected and chosen by the whole Clergy of England , in their Convocation . q In the Councell of Basil , King Henry the Sixth of England had fourteene Ambassadors , Orators , Proctors , to whom and to the major part of them , hee gave as well a generall as speciall power and Mandate , in his name and stead , to bee present in that Councell , and therein to treat , conferre , and conclude , as well of those things which might concerne the Reformation of the Universall Church , in the Head , and in the Members ; as of those things which concerned the Supportation of the Orthodox Faith , and the Pacification of Kings and Princes ; as also of , and concerning a perpetuall Peace from Warre , between him and Charles of France , his Adversary : and also to treat , commune , and appoint , and moreover to assent , and , if need were , to disassent to those things which should there happen to bee decreed and ordained , according to the determination of the said Councell : Promising that hee would , bona fide , ratifie , approve , and confirme , all and every thing that should bee done , acted , or effected in the premises , or any of them , by his said Ambassadors , Orators , and Proctors , or the greatest part of them ; and that when hee should bee certified thereof , hee would see them duly executed , as farre as belonged to him , and to a Christian Prince . The Letters Patents themselves , dated the tenth of July , are recorded verbatim by r Master Selden , out of the Tables of France , 12. H. 6. memb . 2. A sufficient Testimony , that it belongs to Christian Princes , by themselves , their Ambassadors , Orators , or Proctors , to ratifie the Decrees of all Councells and Synods , and to disapprove and damne them , if they see cause . Whence King Henry of France , and the Parliament and Synod of Paris , Anno 1593. damned and disavowed divers of the Canons of the Councell of Trent , as prejudiciall to the Crown , Royall Justice , and liberty of the Church of France ; as ſ Bochellus relates at full . To conclude with Forraigne Presidents : The Conclusions , Constitutions , and Determinations of that late famous Synod of Dort , were ratified by the generall approbations and Edict of the Estates of the Low-Countries , under their hands and Seale : t Visis , cognitis , & maturè examinatis atque expensis , praedicto judicio & sententia Synodi ( say they , in their Charter of Approbation , ) ista plenè in omnibus approbavimus , confirmavimus , & rata habuimus ; approbamus , confirmamus , & rata habemus per praesentes . Volentes & statuentes , ut nulla alia Doctrina de quinque praedictis Doctrinae capitibus Ecclesiis horum regionum doceatur aut propagetur , praeter hanc , quae praedicto judicio sit conformis & consentanea , &c. Actum sub nostro Sigillo , Signatione Praesidis & Subscriptione nostri Graphiarij , Hagae Comitis , 2. Julij , Anno 1619. All these , with sundry other Forragine Testimonies , abundantly demonstrate , That the Constitutions , Canons , and Decrees of Councells , are of no binding force and power at all , unlesse confirmed by Emperors , Kings , Princes , Nobles Subscriptions , Edicts , Patents , Proclamations , and Acts of Parliament : and that most ancient Councells in forraigne parts were in truth but Parliaments . To passe from these to our owne domesticke Presidents : It is most apparent , by numerous punctuall Examples , that the Clergy of England alone , had never any lawfull Jurisdiction vested in them , to make binding Ecclesiasticall Lawes or Canons , in our Synods and Convocations , in any age , without our Kings , Nobles , and Parliaments assents and approbations : That all , or most of our ancient Councells , Synods , Convocations , were a nought else but Parliaments ; wherein our Kings , Nobles , Senators , and Commons were personally present , as well as Bishops or Clergy-men : And that all matters concerning Religion , Church-Government , Ceremonies , with all binding Lawes , Canons , Articles relating thereunto , have , since the first planting of Religion in this our Island till this present time , beene alwayes setled , resolved , confirmed , in , and by Parliaments ; or such Councells and Synods , wherein our Kings , Nobles , Commons were present , and had decisive Votes . It is the received opinion of all our Antiquaries and Historians , that b King Lucius was the first Christian King of this Island , and the first Prince in the world that embraced the Christian Faith. That about the yeare of our Lord 185. hee writing to Pope Elutherius , to send him the Romane and Imperiall Lawes , whereby to governe his people , ( then newly converted to Christ , ) the modest Pope returned him this answer ; You have requested the Romane and Caesarean Lawes to bee transmitted to you from Vs , which you would use in the Kingdome of Britaine : The Romane and Caesarean Lawes Wee may at all times reject ; but the Law of God by no meanes . You have lately , by Gods mercy , received the Law and Faith of Christ in the Kingdom of Britaine ; You have with you in the Realme both Testaments ; out of them , by Gods grace , PER CONSILIVM REGNI VESTRI , SVME LEGEM ; By the Councell of Your Realme , ( not of your Clergy or Prelates ) take a Law ; and by it , through Gods power , You may governe Your Realm of Britain : For You are Gods Vicar ( as c Bracton likewise stiles our Kings ) in Your Realme , &c. Lo here the Pope himselfe resolves , the King and great Councell of this Realme ( the Parliament , not Clergy or Convocation ) to bee the only proper makers of Lawes to govern the Church and Kingdom by . Anno 446. d Germanus and Lupus , two learned Bishops , being sent hither out of France , to suppresse the spreading , dangerous Pelagian Heresie , there was upon this occasion a Synod assembled at Verolam ; whereunto , a numerous multitude of men , together with their wives and children , repaired : ADERAT POPVLVS , EXPECTABATVR FVTVRVS IVDEX , The People were present , & expected to be the future Judge : Adstabant partes , dispari conditione consimiles . Indè divina fides ; hinc humana praesumptio : indè Christus ; hinc Pelagius , autor perversae pravitatis , &c. After a long dispute , Vanity is convinced , confounded ; perfidiousnesse refuted , being unable to answer the objections . POPVLVS ARBITER vix manus continet , JVDICIVM CVM CLAMORE CONTESTANDO , &c. The People being Arbitrator , scarce hold their hands , GIVING IVDGEMENT with a shout : These things thus acted , an innumerable company of both Sexes were converted to the Lord. In this first Synod , that wee read of , held within our Island , the People were present , as well as the Clergy , and that not only as Auditors , but Judges , giving the finall Sentence in this great controversie concerning Religion . Anno 449. There was another e British Councell , held by the said Germanus and Severus , MAGNOQVE Clericorum ET LAICORVM NVMERO , and a great number of Clergy-men and LAY-MEN , against the reviving Errors of Pelagius , and King Vortigerne 's incestuous marriage with his daughter ; OMNIVMQVE SENTENTIA pravitatum perversitas cum suis Autoribus condemnatur : So that the Laity , as well as the Clergy , gave Sentence in this Synod against this Heresie and the Authors of it . Nennius cap. 37. addes of this Councell , concerning Vortigerne , Dum conventa esset magna Synodus Clericorum ET LAICORVM in uno Concilio , &c. Ipse Rex maledictus est , & damnatur à beato Germano , & OMNI CONCILIO BRITONVM . So that Lay-men were present , and gave sentence together with the Clergy , in this second Synod held in this our Isle . About the yeare 612. f King Ethelbert , Genti suae Decreta Judiciorum ( as well in Ecclesiasticall as Temporall causes , ) juxta exempla Romanorum , CVM CONCILIO SAPENTVM INSTITVIT , &c. as Beda witnesseth . About the yeare 627. g Edwin King of Northumberland being perswaded to become a Christian , returned this answer , That he was about to conferre with his friends and COVNSELLORS concerning this thing , and that if they would agree in opinion with him , they would all be consecrated to Christ together in the Fountaine of life : Hee did as hee had said ; Habito enim CVM SAPIENTIBVS CONCILIO , For , holding a Councell with his wise-men , hee demanded severally of them all , What this Doctrine , which they had not hitherto heard of , and the new worship of the Deity which was preached , seemed to them ? And after some debate , Coifi declaring his opinion , that their former Religion had no vertue in it , and that the Christian was farre better , and to bee imbraced ; the rest of the Elders and Kings Counsellors concurred in opinion with him : Whereupon they resolved forthwith to anathematize , and burne with fire , the Altars and Temples they had consecrated , without fruit , with the Idols in them : Which done , King Edwin , with all the Nobles of his Nation , and very many of the common people , imbraced the Christian Faith , and were Baptized . Leo here , a Pagan King and his Parliament determine the Christian Religion to be truest ; and thereupon renounce their former Idolatry , and resolve to embrace the Christian Faith. In the yeare 663. there was a great Councell held at h Strenaeshale , to decide the controversie concerning the due time of keeping Easter : in which Councell , King Oswey and his sonne Alfred , with MANY NOBLES , Bishops , Clerks , and LAY-MEN were present . Colman and his Scottish Clergy maintained , that it ought to bee kept after the Jewish computation : Agilbert and his party held the contrary ; that it ought to bee observed at the time the Westerne Church solemnized it . The Councell being sate , King Oswey , who presided in it , before any debate of the Controversie , made a solemne Speech unto them , to this effect ; ( necessary for our times . ) That it behoved those who served one God , to hold one rule of living , and serving him ; and not to differ in the celebration of heavenly Sacraments , since they all expected one Kingdome in heaven : Therefore they should rather inquire , which was the truer tradition , and that this should bee commonly followed by all . Which said , hee commanded Bishop Colman to relate what Rite it was which hee observed , and whence it derived its originall : Which Colman doing , the King then commanded Bishop Wilfrid , who was of the contrary party , to declare his opinion , and the grounds of it ; which hee did : After long debate on either side , the King gave sentence for VVilfreds opinion , against Colman and his party , because St. Peter , who had the custody of Heaven Gates , did ( by Colmans owne confession ) keep Easter as VVilfred held they ought to doe . The King giving this resolution with his hands lifted up to heaven ; faverunt assidentes quique sive astantes majores , unà cum mediocribus , et abdicata minus perfecta institutione , ad ea quae meliora cognoverant sese transferre festinabant : all the great and meane Persons sitting and standing by concuring with the King , gave sentence against Coleman for VVilfred , and observed Easter accordingly ever after in their practice . Here we finde the Clergy men only the debaters , but the King , Nobles , and Commons the sole Judges and Resolvers of this Controversie , and that in a most eminent generall Nationall Councell . Anno 673. there was a Councell held at Hertford under Theodor Archbishop of Canterbury , praesentibus Episcopis Angliae ET REGIBVS ET MAGNATIBVS VNIVERSIS writes i Mathew Westminster , at which all the Bishops , Kings and great men of England were present . All these sitting together , Theodor propounded some Chapters ( or Canons concerning Church affaires ) before Them all , which were afterwards assented to and subscribed . Anno 684. k There was a Councell held neare the River of Alne sub praesentia Regis Egfridi : in the presence of King Egfrid , who sate president in it . Anno 692. King Ina made and published sundry notable ecclesiasticall laws concerning Religion & Church government , l and that in a Parliament or Councell , wherein the King , Nobels , Senators , and Elders of the people were present , as well as Bishops and Clergy men , Witnesse this preface to those Lawes of his . Ego Inas Dei beneficio Occiduorum Saxonum Rex suasu et instituto Conredi Patris mei , Heddae et Erkenvaldi Episcoporum meorum , omnium Senatorum meorum et natu majorum sapientum populi mei , in magna servorum Dei frequentia , religiesè studebam , tum animarum nostrarum saluti , tum communi Regni nostri conservationi , ut legittima nuptiarum faedera , justaque judicia per omnem ditionem nostram fundata , stabilitaque sint , atque ut nulli liceat imposterum Senatori , sive alteri cuivis in ditione nostra degenti , haec nostra antiquare judicia . m Anno 694. there was a great Councell held at Becanceld , wherein Withred King of Kent sate President , and Bertuald Archbishop of Britain , with Toby Bishop of Rochester , the Abbats , Abbesses , Presbiters , Deacons , DVKES , EARLES , all assembled together , deliberating about the state of the Churches in England . The King subscribed the Lawes there made for the liberties of the Church , in this manner . Ego Withredus auxilio Christi his Legibus constitutis Rex , pro Mo et Werburga Regina , itemque pro filio nostro Arico subscripsi . Anno 697. there was a n Councell held at Berghamsted in the 5th . yeare of the Reigne of Withred King of Kent , under Birtuald the high Priest of Britanny , Gybmund Bishop of Rochester , and all the Ecclesiasticall Orders , qui cum viris utique militaribus humanissimè et communi omnium assensu has l●ges decrevre , Cantuariorumque Iuribus et consuetudinibus prout sequitur addendas , edixere The Lawes are 28. in number , all concerning Ecclesiasticall matters , and are stiled in the Saxon Copy , Juditia Withredi , made in a Councel at Berghamsted , praesentibus omnibus Ordinibus illius gentis , cum viris quibusdam militaribus . So that this was no other but a Parliament , wherein the King , Nobles , Commons and Souldiers were present , as well as the Bishops , promulging and con●enting to these Lawes . About the yeare 712 o ●ae King of Westsex , assembled a great Councell of all his Bishops , PRINCES , NOBLES , EARLES , AND OF ALL THE WISEMEN , ALDERMEN , AND COMMONS OF THE WHOL REALM , wherein he made certain Ecclesiasticall Lawes concerning mariages , to suppresse all fornication and uncleanesse ; Exhortatione & doctrina , & per COMMVNE CONCILIVM & ASSENSVM OMNIVM Episcoporum & OMNIVM ALDERMANNORVM , PRINCIPVM , PRO●ERVM , COMITVM , & OMNIVM SAPIENTVM SENIORVM , & POPVLORVM TOTIVS REGNI ; ( or MVLTAQVE CONGREGATIONE SERVORVM DEI ) as some others render it . About the yeare 714 p Naitan King of Picts , received a letter from Abbot Celfred concerning the time of celebrating Easter , and Priests tonsure ; which he desired the King to cause to be observed throughout the Nation , over which God had made him Kings the King hereupon assembled a Councell of learned men , and of his Nobles ; and reading the said letter before them ; Rex surgens DEMEDIQ OPTIMATVM SUORUM CONSESSV , kneled downe upon his knees , giving thanks to God , that he had deserved to receive such a gift from the Land of England ; and professed , that he would have this forme of keeping Easter , and tonsure to be perpetually observed throughout his Realme : which was presently commanded by a royall Edict , to be put in publique execution and was accordingly performed . Anno 724. There was a q Synod held in Northumberland , by the Authority and favour of King Osred wherein wilfrid by the Kings favour got the superiority of his enemie . About foure yeares after , there was another Councell held at Worcester under Archbishop Bertuald by Pope Constantines advise , not only of Religious persons ; Sed etiam regni Procerum , But likewise of the Nobles of the Realme . r The Councell of Clovesho or Cliffe , Anno 747. Cui Concilio interfuerunt Ethelbaldus M●rciorum Rex , CVMOMNIBVS REGNI SVI PRINCIPIBVS ET DVCIBVS ; as well as the Bishops and Clergy , made sundry Ecclesiasticall Constitutions , consented to and approved by the King all the Princes , Dukes Nobles of his Kingdom , & not made or promulged by the Bishops only . At this Councell were present 33. Princes and Dukes . The Ecclesiasticall Canons in the Councell of Calchyth , ſ Anno 787. were made and confirmed by Offa King of Mercians , and the secular Princes and Senators of the Land therein assembled , as well as by the Ecclesiasticall Persons : Convenerunt Omnes Principes regionis ●tam Ecclesiastici quam Seculares &c. Tam REX QVAM PRINCIPESSVI , t CVMSENATORIBVS TERRAE DECRETA SIGNO CRVCIS FIRM AVERVNT . Anno 7●9 . a Pope Alrians Legates held a Councell at Chalchyth ; where Jambert Archbishop of Canterbury resigned part of his Archbishoprick to the Bishop of Litchfield , and Offa King of Mercians , who sate chiefe in it , caused his Sonne Egfride to be crowned King , it being in truth a Parliament , as well as a Synod , antiently and yet stiled a COVNCELL . Anno 793 u King Offa held a Councell at Verolam with Archbishop Humbert and his suffragans ; ET PRINCIPIBVS SVIS VNIVERSIS , and all his Princes ; where they consulted about , and resolved to build an Abbey to Saint A●ban , and to endow it with great priviledges , and that the King should goe to Rome about it , which he did ; Iuxta sententiam praedicti Concilii . Anno 794. at the x great Councell of Celichyth , there were present 9. Kings , 15. Bishops , and 20. Dukes , wherein the Reliques of Saint Alban were elevated , adorned , and a Monastery sounded to enshrine his bones : And the same yeare King Offa having assembled another Councell of his Bishops and Nobles at Verolam : REX VNANIMI OMNIVM CONSENSV et benevola voluntate beate Albano amplas contulit terras , et possessiones innumeras , Monachorum quoque conventum ad tumbam congregavit , &c. y Cyneulf King of Westsex about the yeare 796. writ a letter to Lullus Bishop of Mentz , una cum Episcopis meis , neenon CVM CATERVA SATRAPARVM ; to settle matters of Religion . In the z Councell of Clovesho under Kenulf King of Mercians An. 800. who summoned to that Synod Episcopos , DVCES , Abbates , & CVJVSCVNQVE ORDINISVIROS : there were severall Canons made concerning matters of faith and the lands and revenue of the Church . At the a Synod of Celichyth held on the sixth of August An. 816. under Kenulf King of Mercians , there were not onely Bishops , Abbots , Priests , and Deacons present in it , but the King himselfe cum suis Principibus , Ducibus & Optimatibus ; with his Princes , Dukes , Nobles , who made and published 11. Canons concerning matters of saith and Church affaires . Anno 822. there was a b Synodall Councell held at Clovesho under king Beornulfe , wherein this king sate President ; Archbishop Wilfred , with the rest of the Bishops and Abbots ; OMNIVMQVE DIGNITATVM OPTIMATIBVS Ecclesiasticarum scil . : & SAECVLARIVM PERSONARVM , being present in it , debated such things as concerned the profit and necessity of Churches , the rule and observance of a Monasticall life , and likewise the stability of the Realme . A cleare evidence it was both a Parliament and Synod too . Anno 824. There was another c Synodall Assembly held at Clovesho under the same king Beornulfe , and Wulfred Archbishop of Canterbury ; assidentibus Episcopis , Abbatibus , & PRINCIPIBVS . MERCIORVM VNIVERSIS & MVLTI SAPIENTISSIMI VIRI CONGREGATI : to determine certaine Controversies , and settle the lands of the Church , which they did accordingly ; the Acts of this Councell were subscribed by the king , his Dukes , & Nobles , as , well as by the Bishops as you may see in the close of it . Anno 833. there was a e Councell held at London the 26 of May which is intiuled Concilium Pan-Anglicum , a Cauncell of all England : wherein were present Egbert King of West-Saxons , and Withlasius King of Mercians both the Archbishops of England , with the Bishops and Nobles . In which they con●●ted not onely of Church affaires , but also about hindering the incursions of the Danes ; and confirmed divers Priviledges to the Abby of Crowland , by a Charter granted by this King in this Councel , subscribed by the King , Dukes , and other Laymen , as well as by Bishops and Abbots . Anno 838. I finde f Concilium Pan-Anglicum held at Kingston , wherein King Egbert and Ethelwolfe his Sonne sate Presidents , together with Ceolueth Archbishop , and the rest of the Bishops , & optimatibus Angliae and the chiefe men and Nobles at England , , wherein certain Charters of Lands given to the Church ( formerly accorded to by the Nobles ) were confirmed vnder pain of excommunication , and curses to the infringers of them . About which time g Keneth king of Scots , compiled and published certain Ecclesiasticall Lawes , intermixed with temporall , made in a Parliamentary Councell , not an Episcopall Synod . h Anno 851. there was a Councell held at Kingsbury , under Bertulph King of Mercia , praesentibus Ceolnotho Dorobernensi Archiepiscopo , caeterisque Regni Merciae Episcopis & Magnatibus ; and another Councell at Benningdon under this King about the same year , â Praelatis & Proceribus Regni sub Bertolpho Rege ; In both these ample possessions and priviledges were granted to the Abbots and Monks of England ; Vnanimi consensu totius praesentis Cancilii , pro Regni negotiis Congregati , the Charters being subscribed by Dukes , Lords , and temporall Officers , present in these Councels , as well as by Bishops or Abbots . An. 855. k There was a generall Councel of all England held at Winchester , Concilium V●ntoniae Pan-anglicum 5. Nov : Judic . 4. celebratum , praesentibus Aethelwulfo Rege Westsaxoniae , Beorredo Rege Merciae , & Edmundo Rege East-Anglorum , una cum Archiepiscopis Cantuariae , & Eborum , caeterisque totius Angliae Episcopis & Magnatibus ; in which King Aethelwulph by his royall Charter granted the tenth part of his lands and goods to the Church , cum coxsilio Episcoporum ac Principum meorum : Praesentibus & subscribentibus Archiepiscopis & Episcopis Angliae Vniversis , re●non Beorredo Rege Merciae & Edmundo Eastanglorum Rege , Abbatum , & Abbatissarum , Ducum , Comitium , Procerumquetotius terrae , aliorumque fidelium infintia multitudine , qui omnes Regium Chirographum landaverunt , Dignitates vero sua nomina subscripserunt . These Councels therefore were no other but Parliaments . The l Ecclesiasticall Lawes of king Alured Anno 887. were made in Parliament , and not in a Synod of Bishops ; Ex Consulto Sapientum ; Atque in ipsis discernendis ego Alredus Occiden alium Saxonum Rex , prudent●ssimeram è nostris confilio usus sum , atque eis omnibus placuit edici eorum observationem ; saith the Praeface to his Lawes . The m Ecclesiasticall Lawes of Alured ( or Alfred ) and Guthurne were accorded in a Councell , wherein these Kings and their people made a League . King Edward the elder n upon the letter of Pope Formosus ; congregavit Synodum SENATORVM , PROCERVM , POPVLORVM ET NOBILIVM Gent's Anglae in quae prasedebat Plegmundus Archiepiscopus . Tum sibi Rex cum suis , & Plegmundus Archiepiscopus salubre consilium iniverunt , and constituted and elected five Bishops in the Province of the Gevisi , where there were but two Bishopricks formerly , dividing those two Bishopricks into five , by a Parliament , not Synod . The Ecclesiasticall Lawes of King o Edward the elder and Guthurne An. 905. were made in Parliaments of the Lords and Commons , not Synods of the Clergie , as appeares by this Proeme . Haec ea sunt SENATVS-CONSVLTA ac instituta quae primo Aluredus & Guthurnus Reges , deinde Edovardus & Guthurnus Reges illis ipsis temporibus tulere , cum Pacis foedus Daci & Angli ferierunt ac sese mutuo an●plexi sunt ; quae postea a SAPIENTIBVS recitata saepius , atque ad communem Regni utilitatem aucta , atque amplificata sunt . The p Ecclesiasticall Lawes of King Aethelstan An. 928. were made in Parliament , not in a Convocation , as is evident by the temporall lawes mixed with them , made at the same time , and by chap. 9. Decreta cictaque sunt haec in celebri Gratanleano Concilio , cui Wulfhelmus interfuit Archiepiscopus , & cum eo Optimates & Sapientes ab Aethelstano evocati frequentissimi . The Ecclesiasticall lawes of q Hoel Dha the good King of all Wales , about the yeare 940. were made , not by the Ecclesiasticall persons onely , but by the Laiety too , hee summoning , sex Laicos viros auctoritate & scientia pollentes , six Laymen potent in authority and Learning out of every County , and then selecting out of them twelve Laicos doctissimos , & unum Clericum doctissimum qui vocabatur Blanguindus , ad instituendas sibi leges & usus , &c. 12. most learned Laymen , and but one learned Clerke , to compile Ecclesiasticall Lawes , for him and his people . The Ecclesiasticall Lawes r of King Edmund Anno 944. were made in a Parliament at London , as appeares by the temporall lawes joyned with them , and by the Proocme . Edmundus Rex ipso solenni Paschatis festo frequentem Londini tam Ecclesiasticorum quam LAICORVM caetum celebravit , &c. A sci entissimis , Regni mei in celebri tam Ecclesiasticorum quam LAICORVM frequentia studiose requisivisse , quo tandem pacto Christiana proveheretur fides . Atque NOBIS OMNIBVS commodissimum visum est . Edmundus Rex congregavit magnam Synodum Dei ordinis & SECVLI apud London &c. Ego Edmundus Rex mando & praecipio omni populo seniorum ac juvenum qui in regione mea sunt , ea quae investigans investigovi cum sapientibus Clericis & LAICIS . Anno 948. ſ There was a Councell as well of Lords and great men as Bishops and Abbots held in London . In festo Nativitatis beatae Mariae cum universi Magnates Regni per regium edictum summoniti tam Archiepiscopi , Episcopi , ac Abbate ; quam caeteri totius Regni Proceres & Optimates Londoniis convenissent , ad tractandum de negotiis publicis totius regni , consummatis Omnibus , the K. in this Parlia . granted a large Charter of lands & priviledges to the Abbey of Croyland : this Councell therefore was certainly no other but a Parliament . t An. 952. Ed●arus Rex tandem potior , emvocate ad Brandenfordiam Regni Concilio , Patris Edwini acta & decreta rescindit ; Ablatas Ecclesiis & Monasteriis opes restituit , &c. This no doubt was a Parliament . King E●gars Ecclesiasticall Lawes An. 967. have this Prologue which proves them made in full Parliament , v Leges quas Edgarus Rex FREQVENTI SENATV , ad Dei gloriam , regiae Majestatis ornamentum , ac Reipublicae utilitatem sanciunt . Hoc est institutum quod Edgarus Rex Consilio Sapientum suorum instituit , &c. Anno. 973. I finde a Councell held at x London under King Edgar , for the regulating of the Abbots and Monkes of Glastonbury , and setling of their priviledges , wherein King Edgar granted a Charter to this Abbey , CONCILIO OMNIVM PRIMATVM MEORVM ; subscribed by himselfe and Alfgina his Mother , Edward Clito his successor , Kmedius King of Scotland , Mascusus his Admirall , Dunstan Archbishop of Canterbury , Oswald Archbishop of Yorke , caeterisque Episcopis & OMNIBVS Regni PRIMATIBVS , with others of his officers . In the Councell of y Winchester An. 975. assembled to determine the great controversie , whether married Clerkes ought to bee preferred before monkes ? King Edgar and his Queen , Elferus Prince of Mercians , Ethelwin Duke of the East-Angles , Elfwold his kinsman , Archbishop Dunstan , cum cae . teris Episcopis , Abbatibus , &c. Brithnotho Comite , cum NOBJLITATE TOTIUS REGNS , were present to decide this difference . In the Councell of Calne Anno 977. called for the same purpose , there were present z praeter Episcopes & caeterum clerum , TOTIVS Angliae Majores Natu : Omnes aderant Aaglorum Optimates , Rege tamen ( propter teneram aetatem ) absente : There were at it , Praesules , PROCERES , EQVITES , NOBILES PARITER & IGNOBILES , Omnium ordinum conspicui , clarique viri , write our Historians . Anno 1005. a King Aethelred granted Lands and priviledges to the Monkes of Christ-Church in Canterbury by his Charter , confirmed and subscribed in a Parliamentall Councell , as well by his Nobles , as Prelates and Abbots , as you may read in the subscriptions themselves . Anno 1009. b There was a generall Councell at Eanham , Concilium Aenhamense generale seu Pan-anglieum Optimatibus celebratum : In this Councell there were thirty two Canons made , which begin thus , Haec sunt Constitutiones quaetulerunt Angli eruditi , eligerunt etiam & edixerunt , instanterque docuerunt observandas . This ( writes Spelman ) was doubtlesse a Parliament , Regium fuisse certum est Aenhamense Concilium , tum quod edicto Regis cogebatur , & de rebus statuit ad ecclesiasticos non pertinentibus , tum quod in festo habebatur Pentecostes , in quibus celebritatibus convocare Reges ex antiqun consuentudine , soliti orant Proceres suos utriusque ordinis ad festum Regium adornandum , & consilia Regni ineunda : yet its decrees are stiled SYNODALIA . The Ecclesiasticall lawes of king Aethelred Anno 1012. have this Inscription , c Haec instituerunt Rex Aethelredus , & SAPIENTES ejus apud Habam They were made in full Parliament , not in a Convocation of the Clergy , and intermixed with secular Lawes . The Councell of Winton under Canutus Anno 1021. begins thus , d Haec sunt statuta Canuti Regis Anglorum , &c. Venerando sapientum ejus Concilio , ad laudem & gloriam Dei , & sui regalitatem , & commune commodum . Rex Canutus anno regni sui 5. cunctos regni sui Praelatos , Proceresque ac Magnas ces ad suum convocans Parliamentum , in suo publico Parliamento , persistentibitpersonaliter in eodem Wolstano & Adelnodo A chiepiscopis , & Ailwine Episcope Elmhamense , & alijs Episcopis , ipsorum Suff aganeis , septem Ducibus , cum totidem Comitibus , nec non diversorum Monasteriorum , nounullis Abbatibus , cum quamplurimis gregarijs Militibus , ac cum populi multitudine copiosae , ac omnibus tunc in eodem Parliamento personaliter existentibus , votis Regijs unanimiter consentientibus , praeceptum & decretum fuit . Quod monasterium , sancti Edmundi , &c. sit ab omni jurisdictione Episcoporum Comitatus illius , ex tunc in perpetuum funditus liberum & exemptum , &c. This Councell was clearely a PARLIAMENT and so expresly stiled . The e Ecclesiasticall Laws of K. Knute , An. 1032. were made in Parliament , not in Convocation , as appeares by this proaeme . Consultum quod Canutus Aaglorum , Dacorum & Norvegiensium Rex , ex SAPIENTUM CONCILIO ad Dei immortalis Gloriam , Regiae Majestatis ornamentum , & Reip : utilitatem , Natalatijs Domini Nostri Jesu Christi diebus , Vintoniae sancivit : the Laws are in number 26. and intermixt with his secular Lawes made at the same time , Haec illa humana , atque politica sunt Jura , quae Sapientum adhibito consilio , per omnem Aagliam observari praecipio . So as this Councell clearely was a Parliament , not a Synod or Convocation . Anno 1066. There was a most famous f Councell or Assembly held at Westminster under King Edward the Confessor , in the last yeare of his Reigne , on the Feast of Christs Nativity : Praesentibus Rege & Confessore , Edgitha Regina , Stigando Archiepiscopo Cantuariae , Eldredo Archiepisc . Eboraci , caterisque Angliae Episcopis , Abbatibus , Capellanis Regis , COMITIBUS , MINISTRIS [ seu Thanis ] Regijs , & MILITIBUS , about the endowment , priviledges , and Sanctuary of Westminster Abby , then newly re-edified and consecrated : In which Councell the King granted severall Charters of priviledges to this Abbey ; which were consented unto , ratified , and subscribed , as well by the Dukes , Nobles , Officers , Knights and other Lay-men , as by the King Queen , Bishops , Abbots , and Clergy . By all these ancient Presidents before the Conquest , ( to which others might be added , ) it is most apparent , That all our prisline Synods , and Councells were nought else but Parliaments ; that our Kings , Nobles , Senators , Aldermen , Wisemen , Knights , and Commons , were usually present and voting in them , as members and Judges ; and that all our Ecclesiasticall Laws , Canons and Constitutions that were obligatory or binding , as well concerning matters of faith , Church-Government , discipline , as manners , were ever made , enacted , ratified in and by our Parliaments only , and not by the Bishops , or Clergy alone , or by the King and Clergy in meere Ecclesiasticall Synods , without the Nobles , Senators ; and Commons consents or Votes . Neither finde I any example or Author from King Lucius his Reigne to the Conquest , that either denyed the legislative or coercive power of such Councells and Parliaments , either in matters of doctrine , Discipline , Church Government , or manners ; but all readily and unanimously subscribed to it : enough to silence all novell opposits whatsoever , King * William the Conqueror as he was resolved in a Full Councell and Parliament , to bee Christs Vicar , and chiefe Governour of the Church within this Realme in these words ; * Rex , quia Vicarius summi regis est , ad hoc constituitur , ut regnum & Populum Domini , & super omina SANCTAM ECCLESI MREGAT ET DEFENDAT , &c. taken out of King Edward the Confessors Lawes , ( which he established and ratified ; ) * so he reformed the Ecclesiasticall Lawes and Canons of the Church in and by a Common Councell , and Parliament , as well of the Nobles , and Commons , as of the Prelates and Clergy , as is evident by this passage in the Manuscript Tables of Robert Winchelsy Arch-Bishop of Canterbury : WILLIELMUS Rex Angliae DE COMMUNI CONCILIO , Archiepiscoporum Abbatum , & OMNIUM PROCERUM REGNI SUI , Leges Episcopales , quae non berè , nec secundum Sanctorum Canonum praeceptae , fuerunt , sicut nec sunt his diebus , OBSERV AND AS IN CONCUSSE JUDICAVERIT , &c. And by this his rescript to Remigius Bishop of Lincolne , WILLIELMUS , Gratia Dei , * &c. Sciatis vos omnes , & caeteri mei fideles , qui in Angliamanent , quod Episcopales leges , quae non berè , nec secundum Sanctorum Canonum praecepta , usque ad mea tempora , in regno Anglorum fuerunt , COMMUNI CONCILIO , et consilio Archiepiscoporum meorum , & caeterorum Episcoporum & Abbatum , & OMNIUM PRINCIPUM REGNI MEIEMEND AND AS JUDICAVI . Proptereamando , & Regia authoritate praecipio ut nullus Episcopus vel Archidiaconus , de legibus Episcopalibus amplius in HUNDRET placita toneant , &c. In the f Councell of Rhoan , Anno 1073. William the Conqueror sate chiefe President . And decreed many things as well touching Ecclesiasticall Affaires , as the benefit of his new Kingdom of England , Among other things it was there decreed [ Judicatum est praesidente Rege Anglorum Gulielmo : writes Matthew Westminster ] the King himselfe being president , that Monkes who by force assaulted their Abbotts ( as the Monkes of Andoem had assaulted , and slaine their Abbot at that time , whiles hee was saying Masse ) in any Abbies , should there be thrust into prison for it , which before it seemes they could not be . This Councell was no other then a Parliament , diverse temporall Lawes , as well as Ecclesiasticall being enacted therein , and both ratified , approved by this King , g who ( as Eadmerus stories of him ) would not so much as suffer the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury ( Primate of all his Realme ) when hee sate President in a generall Councell of Bishops assembled together , to decree , or prohibite any thing , but such things as were suitable to his will , and had first been ordained by himselfe . In the Councell of h London under Lanfranks , An. 1075. Concessum est Regia MUNIFICENTIA , Synodali authoritate , Episcopis , de villis transire ad Civitates : By the Kings Royall munificence and the authority of the Synod , liberty was granted to Bishops , to remove from the Villages wherein they resided unto Cities : whereupon Herman Bishop of Schiroburne , removed to Salisbury . Stigand from Selescia removed to Chichester , Peter from Litehfield , removed to Chester , the King ratifying the constitution of the Synod , and ordering this removeall . An. 1093. King i William Rufus assembled a Councell of his Bishops , Abbots , and Nobility of the whole Kingdome , that they might ; By their common assent determiue and discusse , whether Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury could Keepe his faith to the King , or not , saving that faith , reverence and obedience which he owed to the Apostolike See of Rome , which he would by no means violate ? ( A weighty question surely of a loyall Prelate ; ) The Bishops , Abbots , and Nobility of the whole Kingdome almost , Ex Regia Sanctione , assembled at Rochingham Castle , on the fifth day of March at one a Clocke in the afternoone , to debate this businesse ; but the King commanded all things to be adjourned till the morrow , Quia Dies Dominica erat , because it was the Lords Day : an unmeet time to discusse such a businesse as this was . On the morrow , in medio Procorum & conglobatae multitudinis , eos & assistentem Monachorum , Clericorum , LAICORUM numerosam multitudinem , sic loquitur , &c. Lo here the Nobles , Commons , as well as the Bishops , Abbots and Clergie assembled in a Councell ( to wit a Parliament ) to determine a case of conscience , and that at Anselms request . This matter being long debated , and Anselme continuing refractory , the busines was defet●ed till after Whitsuntide . In the Councell of London under Lanfranke summoned by King William Rufus , Anno 1095. Vlstan Bishop of Worcester was deprived of his Bishopricke by the Kings sentence and verdict , quasi homo idiota , &c. Ipso rege consentiente & hoc dictante decernitur deponendus , saith k Matthew Paris , the King sitting chiefe president in it . In the Councell l of London Anno 1102. under Anselme , the King and his Nobles were present as well as the Bishops and Ahbots , that whatsoever was therein decreed , might be approved ratified and observed by the unanimous care and solicitud of both orders : For soit was necessary , A plain testimony that the Councells of England in antient times were no other but Parliaments , and that their Canons ound not any , unlesse confirmed by King and Parliament , At this Councell ( write Wil. Malmesbury & Eadmerus ) Anselme the Archbishop requesting it of the King , Primates Regni , the great men of the Kingdom were present quatenus quicquid ejusdem Concilii authoritate decerneretur VTRJVSQVE ORDINIS CONCORDI CVRA ET SOLJCITVDINE RATVM SERVARETVR , SJC ENIM NECSSE ERAT , quum multis retre annis Synodali cultura cessante , viciorum vepribus succrescentibus Christiana religionis fervor in Anglia nimis reripeat , which they thus preface out of Anselmes owne Copy and relation . Anno m 1102. quarto autem Praesulatus Paschalis Summi Pontificis , tertio Regni Henrici gloriosi regis Anglorum , ipso annuente celebratum est Concilium in ecclesia beati Petri in ●ccidentali parte juxta Londoniam sita , communi consensu Episcoporum , et Abbatum , et Principum totius regni . In this Councell held at Westminster , therewere 26. Canons compiled , some against Priests mariage and Wives , which when Giraldns Archbishop of Yorks , enjoyned his Clergie to observe ; all the Clergie of his Province refused to submit to them , being unwilling to part with their Wives , or to vow Chastity as some of those Canons enjoyned them : to the execution whereof , the great discord betweene the King and Anselme concerning the investitures of Bishops , being an obstacle , produced to this effect . Necanones hujus Synodi legum vim ac potestatem sortirentur That those Canons should not obtaine the force and power of Lawes . Anno. 1107. another n Councell was held under Anselme in King Henry the first his owne Palace , in which Councell The King assented and enacted , that from thenceforth no man should be invested into any Bishoprick or Abbie of England by the King or any Layman , by giving him a pastorall staffe , or a Ring . Proceres Regni , the Peeres of the Realme ( writes Eadmerus ) were called to this Councell , and the King assented to and ratified this Act , Astante multitudine , ac per Consilium Anselmi et Procerum Regni , the Commons standing by him , by the Councell of A●selme , and of the great men of the Realme . This Councell then was a Parliament , and this Canon assented to , both by the Commons , Peeres , and King , ●o make it valid . Not long after this King o Henry the first summoned another Councell about Easter , ad Curiam suam apud Londoniam cunctis Majoribus Regni , having assembled to his Court at London , not only his Archbishops and Bishops , but all the great men of his Kingdome , to suppresse the Marriages of Priests , contrary to the Canons of the Councell of London . Anno 1102. For the extirpation of which evill , the King Regali authoritate atque ; potentia fultos roboravit , by his royall Authority and power ratified those Canons , and thereupon Anselmo Archbishop of Canterbury , Thomas elect Archbishop of Yorke , and all the Bishops of England , Decreed in the presence of the said Glorious King Henry , Assensu omnium Baronum suorum , with the assent of all his Barons , that Priests and Deacons should live chastly and keepe no Women in their Houses ; but those who were of their neare kindred , as the Councell of Nice had defined ; this Canon being ratified both by the King and Peeres in Parliament to make it obligatory . In these three Councells under Archbishop Anselme ( a great stickler for the Popes and Clergies Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction ) we see the King and great men of the Realme were present , and ratified the Decrees and Canons therein concluded to make them valid and binding . Anno 1114 p King Henry the first commanded all the Bishops and Nobles of the Kingdome to meete together at his Court , whereupon a rumour was spred over all the Land , that the Archbishop of Canterbury was about to celebrate a generall Councell ( in presence of the Popes Legate ) and that he would promulge some new things , worthy so great a Councell , for the reformation of Christian Religion in every order : On the sixteenth of October they all met together in the Kings Pallace at Westminster , where the multitude which assembled together , at last perceived , that the tumour of celebrating a Councell , and of the reformation of Christianity was nothing so . There Anselme in the behalfe of the Pope , brought a letter directed from him to the King and Bishops , wherein hee taxeth the King for conferring Bishopricks ( claiming that right , as belonging to Peters See , ) for determining Ecclesiasticall matters , and the affaires of Bishops , without his or his Legats privity , which belong only to the Apostolike , Sea ; for stopping appeales to Rome , as also for calling and keeping Synodall Councells without his privity , when as it was unanimously ratified in the great councell of Nice consisting of 318 Bishops , that * no Councells ought to be summoned or kept without the privity of the Bishop of Rome : and for translating Bishops without his consent . Which letters much offending the Kings mind , he sent his Nuntioes by common consent , to Rome , to give the Pope an answer , and justifie his proceedings herein , as warranted by his Royall Prerogative . The same q yeare upon the thirteenth of Aprill , there was an Assembly held at Salisbury , of the Bishops , Abbots , and great men of all England , the Kings Writ compelling them to appeare there : where the King appointed William his sonne , lawfully begotten , to be heire to the Crowne , to which all the Nobles condescended , and presently tooke an oath of Allegeance to him , to be his men : But the Bishops and Abbotts swore only and gave their faith , that if he survived his Father , they would forthwith conferre both the Kingdome and Crowne of the Kingdome on him without any controversie or exception : In r August following one Anselm the Archbish . of Canterburyes kinsman came from Rome to King Henry , being then in Normandie , bringing the Popes Letters , which authorized him to exercise the Office of the Popes Legate , here in England : which in a short time being knowne in the Kingdome of England , the Bishops , Abbots , and Nobles admiring at it , assembled together at London about it , and certaine other things , ( the Queen being present ) to discusse the matter , Communi Concilio , in a common Councell : whereupon they all accorded , to send the Archbishop of Canterbury , whom it most concerned , to the King , to acquaint him with the ancient custome of the Kingdome , and the liberty thereof ; and if he thought fit , that he should goe likewise to Rome to annihilate This Novelty . Who comming accordingly to the King , found Anselme there expecting his passage into England , to exercise his Legatine office there . But King Henry ( the first ) not suffering any prejudice to happen to the ancient Customes of England , kept him from entring into England , & that not without presidents : For in the first yeare of this Kings Raigne ſ Guido Archbishop of Vienna came into England , having ( as he said ) the power Legatine of all England , by the precept and authoritie of the Apostolicall See : which being heard of throughout England , was admired by all men , all knowing , that it was a thing unheard of in Britaine , that any man except the Archbishop of Canterbury should take upon him to supply the Popes Apostolicall turnes . Wherefore as he came , so he returned , being received as a Legate by no man , nor exercising the Office of a Legate , in any thing . t After this , one Peter having obtained from the Pope a power Legatine over England , Ireland , France , and the Iland of the Orcades , at the same hereof all England was astonished ; the King sent the Bishop of Saint Davids , and another Clergie man beyond Sea to conduct him to him , enjoyning them , that after his entrance into England , they should not suffer him to enter into any Churches or Monasteries to lodge or eate : Being brought to the King , and honourably received by him , having declared the cause of his comming , the King answered him , that hee had now no leasure to minde so great a businesse , and that his Legatine power could not be established , and ratified but by the connivance and assent of the Bishops Abbots , Nobles and the Assembly of the whole Kingdome in Parliament : moreover hee affirmed , that he could not by any meanes willingly loose any of the Customes of his Country granted him by the Apostolicall See so long 〈…〉 lived ; whereof this was one of the chiefest and greatest , that hee made the kingdome of England free from all Legatine power . Whereunto Peter affented , and promised to doe his endeavour to have this priviledge preserved , and augmented : And so being gratified with rich presents , Ille qui Legati officio fungi in toto Britania venerat , nimirum , ab omni officio tali , cum ingenti Pompa , v●a qua venerat extra Angliam , a Rege missus est ; writes Eadmerus of him by way of derision . So little jurisdiction had the Popes Legates here in England in those dayes , who became an intollerable vexation , oppression to it in succeeding Ages , in the Reignes of King John , Henry the third , and others . In the Councell of Westminster under Iohn de Crema ( the Popes lecherous Legate , Ann. 1125. ) there were 17. Canons made , & ab omnibus confirmata , and confirmed by all there present : to wit by 20. Bishops , 40. Abbots , Cuminumera Cleri & Populi multitudine , with an innumerable multitude of the Clergie and people , who were present at it : as the Continuer u of Florentius Wigorniensis records , Among other things it was there decreed , that Priests should not from thence forth marry : That no married man should be made a Priest , and that those Priests who were married , should be either devorced from their wives or deprived of their livings ; Iohn de Crema there alleaging . That it was an unseemely thing for a Priest to rise up from the side of an Harlot ( so hee called Priests wives ) and to goe and to make the body of Christ . The Priests being much incensed at these Constitutions , and very angry with this Legate the chiefe Author of them , knowing him to be a leacherous companion , watched him so narrowly , that the very same night these Canons were ratified , though himselfe had that very day consecrated the Sacrament , and so made the body of his Saviour ( as hee thought ) they tooke him in bedde with a notable Where . In excuse of which falt of his ( which was very publike and notorious ) he said , that hee himselfe was no Priest , but a corrector of Priests , ( hee might better have alleadged , if his owne reason were good , that hee did it after hee had consecrated and made Christs body , not before it : ) and so he departed privily 〈◊〉 of England with shame , the Priests by this meanes keeping their Wives for a time , alleaging that it was better for them to lye with their own Wives , then with Where 's , or other mens , as this lecherous Legate did . In the yeare of our Lord 1127. y William Archbishop of Canterbury , by King Henry the first his assent , called a Councell at Saint Peters in Westminster of all the Bishops , Abbots and religious Persons of England : there flocked thither also , * Magnae multitudines Cloricorum , Laicorum , tam divitum quam mediocrium & factus est Conventus grandis et inestimabilis , saith the Historian ; Something 's were there debated , somethings determined , some things adjourned , some things by reason of the tumult of the raiging people cast out from the Audience of the Judges , but those things which were there decreed and established in the Councell it selfe by the consent of the Bishops , At they were there publikely Recited and received : I thought good ( saith he ) to note in this manner : Then he reites the Canons and constitutions of this Councell , and conclude thus : Auditis Concilii gestis consensum prebuit , authoritate Regia et potestatate conceffit et confirmavit Sta●ta Concili , &c. Having heard the Acts of the Councel read the K. assented to them , and by his regall authority and power passed and confirmed the statuts . ( or Canons ) of the Councell ; celebrated by William Archbishop of Canterbury , and Legate of the holy Church of Rome , at VVestminster . Anno 1138. King Stephen on the fourth of Aprill held a Councell at Northampton , z in which ●urstlain Archbishop of Yorke was Prefident , the Prelats , Abbotts , Earles , Barons , and all the Nobility of England , being present at it , The Bishoprick of Exeter then voyd by the death of William Warwast , one Robert an Arch-deacon was elected Bishop of that See , by the consent and suffrage of the Councell , which likewise nominated and chose two Monks to be Abbotts of VVincelcombe , and of Saint Maries in Yorke , being then vacant . The same yeare there was a Councell held at a London , wherein , Theobald was chosen Arch-bishop of Canterbury , Annuente Rege , by the Kings consent . Anno 1139. There was a Councell kept at b VVinchester under Henry Bishop of VVinchester , the Kings Brother and Legate to the Pope , where Theobald Archbishop of Canterbury and all the Bishops there present , ad pedes Regis devoluti sunt , &c. cast themselves downe at the Kings feet , most devoutly and earn estly beseeching him , to restore Roger Bishop of Salisbury and Alexander Bishop of Lincolne to their possessions ; and they would willingly pardon all the injuries the King had done them . But the King despising the venerable supplication of so many great Prelates , suffered them to obtaine no part of their request . In c the yeare of our Lord 1142. VVilliam Bishop of Lincolne , as some record or , VVilliam , or Henry Bishop of VVinchester as others calhim , held a Councell at London , at which King Stephen was present ; where in it was decreed , et Generaliter constitutum , and generally ordained . That he who violated a Church or Churchyard , or laid violent hands on any Priest or Religious person ; should be excommunicated , and not absolved , but by the Pope . The King , ( writes Nubrigensis ) Concilio Benigne interfuit , et favoris Regij Suffragium non negavit , was graciously present at the Councell , and denied not the suffrage o●his royall savor to its constitutions ; which without his confirmation had beene of no validitle . By vertue of which constitution ratified in this manner d If any laid violent hands on a Priest or Religious Person , he might sue in the Spirituall Court to have him excommunicated , and doe penance for it , but not for dammages , and no Prohibition could legally be granted to stay the proceedings there . Anno e 1152. There was a Synod held at London under Theobald Archbishop of Canterbury . In which King Stephen with Eustace his Sonne were present : The King required the Synod , to consent to create Eustace King , to which they could not be brought , being inhibited by the Popes Letters , and mandate to doe it . Therefore the King and Eustace incensed with anger , shutting them in and befieging them , did evermuch vex , and disquiet them , that they might effect that by feare and terror which they could not doe by authority and favour , And soe most of them were reduced to the Kings becke . But Theobald the Archibishop departing privity and most craftily out of the Synod , carried through the Thames in a Boate to the Sea side entered into a ship and passed into the parts beyond the Sea , with whose departure the King being much more disturbed , banished him againe with others , and confiscated all his goods . Anno 1159. There was a great f Scisme at Rome betweene Pope Alexander and Victor , concerning the Papacie , hereupon Frederick the Emperor assembled by his Writ the Bishops of Italie and Germanie together to Papia , to Councell , where the Emperor , his Dukes and Captaines were present : who swaying the Councell , Victor , to whom the Emperor inclined , was elected and declared to be the true Pope , and successor of Peter , and sentence given against Alexander by a Generall decree , as against a Scismaticke and rebell to God. Amplexus est Imperator cum omni frequentia Ducum et Procerum acta Concilij , panam non recipientibus comminatus , writes Neubrigensis . After which the Emperor solicited the illustrious Kings of France and England , by all meanes he could , that to perpetuate mutuall amity , they would consent to him in this ; they being inclined hereto , cautelously suspended their sentence untill they should more fully know the truth of so doubtfull a businesse , and thereupon they also called a famous Councell of Bishops and Nobles , out of both their Kingdomes in a fitting time and place , where the businesse was fully debated by Guido Cremensis on Victors part , and by Gulielmus Papiensis on Alexanders side ; In conspectu Regum , & Praesulum , coram universa quae convenerat multitudine cleri et opuli : In the presence of the Kings and Prelats , and before all the multitude of the Clergy and People there assembled ; where Papiensis pleaded Alexanders cause so well , and answered , retorted what ever the opposite partie had alleaged soe substantially , Vt neuter ulterius Princeps cunctaretur , repudiata parte Octaviani Dominum Alexandrum recipere , et cum Regnis sibi subditis ei de caetero in ijs quae Dei sunt , tanquam Patri parere . The forenamed Schismatickes , therefore departing with confusion and shame , Our Princes and Prelates ( Principes et Pontifices ) having solemnly pronounced a sentence of excommunication against the Schismatickes dissolved the Synod . Loe here both the Emperor , the Kings of England and France , with their Nobles as well as Prelates , present in a severall Councells , directing and determining this great controversie in them who was Peters rightfull successor ? ratefying and receiving him for Pope whom they conceived in their indifferent Judgments , to have the best title ; yea , the Laity had here their voyces as well as the Clergy ; & consented to the decrees of both Councells , So when there was a former Schisme between Clement & Vrban , concerning the Title of the Papacie , g VVilliam Rufus enquiring who had the best right , commanded Vrban to be reputed Apostolicall and true Pope throughout his Dominions , eique vice beati Petri , IN CHRISTIANA RELIGIONE ( not in any temporall affaires ) obedire : claiming this as a h part of his prerogative royall that none should acknowledge or receive any man , for Pope or Peters successor within his Kingdome , but by his election and authority , and him whom he should declare to be the man , accounting him no lesse then a Traitor that should deprive him of this right , which his Ancestors claimed and enjoyed . An. 1170. at the i request of King Hen : the 2d . two Cardinalls , Albert , and Theodine were sent into France from Rome , who having called a great Assembly of Ecclesiasticall persons and Noblemen within the Teritorries of the King , of England , they solemnly admitted the King to purge himselfe before them of the murther of Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury , which purgation the King there made , and submitted himselfe naked to Ecclesiasticall discipline . Anno 1175. k Richard Archbishop of Canterbury kept a great Councell at Westminster , to which almost all the Bishops and Abbots of the Province of Canterbury came , Et coram pranominatis Regibus , and before King Henry the second , and King Henry his Sonne , and the Bishops and Abbots ; Richard Archbishop of Canterbury standing in an high place , promulged certaine Decrees & Canons , concerning Clergy-men , the Eucharist , Tythes ( recorded by Hoveden ) to be firmely and inviolably observed by all his Provincials ; so that both the Kings assented to them , though they were but Collections of some Decrees out of former Councels . In the same yeare l King Henry the Father called another Councell at Windesore eight dayes after Michaelmas ; Praesentibus Rege & Filio , the King and his Sonne being present . Richard Archbishop of Canterbury , with the Bishops of England , and Laurence Archbishop of Dublin , Praesentibus etiam Comitibus & Baronibus Angliae , the Carles and Barons of England being also present . In which Councell ( being a meer Parliament ) there was a generall Concord made between King Henry the second , and Rodericke King of Conact in Ireland , and the King in that Councell gave the Bishoprick of Waterford to one Augustine an Irishman , whom he sent to Donatus Archbishop of Cassels to be Consecrated . Anno 1176. m King Henry the second assembled and held a great Councell at Nottingham , concerning the Statutes of his Kingdome , and before the King his Sonne , and the Archbishops , Bishops , Earles , and Barons of his Kingdom , communi omnium Concilio , by the common Councell of them all , he divided his Kingdome into sixe parts , through each of which he appointed three Iustices Itinerant , whom he caused to swear upon the holy Evangelists , that they should bona fide , and without any sinister intention keep , and cause the people of his Kingdom inviolably to observe the Articles of Assize , there renued and confirmed , recorded at large by Hoveden . To this Councell ( by the Kings command ) came William King of Scots , with all his Bishops , whom the King commanded by the fealty and Oath of Allegiance they had taken to him , to do the same subjection to the Church of England , which they ought to do , and were went to do in the times of his Predecessors . To whom they answered ; that they never had made any subjection ( or homage ) to the Church of England , nor ought so to do , To which n Roger Archbishop of York replyed ; That the Bishop of Glascow and of Candida Casa , or Whitterne , had in the time of his Predecessors been subject to the See of Yorke ; and for proofe hereof , he shewed divers priviledges of the Bishops of Rome , which made it appeare . To which Jocelin Bishop of Glascow answered ; That the Church of Glascow was a speciall Daughter of the Church of Rome , and exempt from all Archiepiscopall and Episcopall jurisdiction ; and if the Church of Yorke had any jurisdiction over the Church of Glascow at any time , it appeared that he deserved not to have any dominion over it for time to come . And because Richard Archbishop of Canterbury , endeavoured that the Church of Scotland should be subject to the Church of Canterbury , ( such was his ambition then ) he so crossed the King of England , That he permitted the Bishops of Scotland to return home , without making any subjection of themselves to the Church of England , as they had formerly done . Anno 1176. Hugo Cardinalis o ( Hoveden stiles him Hugozun ) the Popes Legate by the Kings permission and asistance called a generall Councell at London , in the midst of Lent , where the Archbishops of Canterbury and York and all the Bishops and Abbots of England , with a great number of Clergie-men assembling together ; the Cardinall sate on an high throne in the Chappell of the infirme Monkes of Westminster , and the Bishops and Abbots with him , every one in his place according to his order and dignity . But there arose a contention between the Archbishops of Canterbury and Yorke , which of them should sit at the right hand of the Cardinall ; And when as the Archbishop of Yorke would sit there , the Bishop of Canterburies servants rushed violently upon him , threw him down upon the ground , trampled on him with their feet , and brake his Miter : whereupon the Councel was dispersed , and the Cardinall flying to hide himselfe out of their sight , was so hindered , that he held no Councel . Both sides made appeales to the Pope and complained to the King of the injuries done unto them . So Hoveden . p Gulielmus Nubrigensis relates the story in these words , When the Cardinall assisted by the Kings favour had called together the Ecclesiasticall persons of both Provinces of Canterbury and Yorke to London , to celebrate a Councell of all England there ; on the day appointed for the beginning of his Councell , when all having taken their Robes and ensignes , were about to go in Procession to it , there fell out a vehement contention between the Archbishops themselves about the priority of place in the Councell : For that rule of the Apostle ( in honour preferring one another ) was so abrogated by the Bishops of our time , that neglecting their Pastorall diligence and care , Bishops , by how much the more stubbornly , by so much also the more vainly contend about Praecedencie , and almost all Episcopall Controversie is wholy conversant about the praerogative of their honours . In conclusion , Yorke comming soonest , praeoccupied the first seate ; alleadging , that the same belonged to him by the ancient decree of Saint Gregory , by which it is known to bee enacted , that of the Metropolitans of England , he should be accounted the chiefe , who was first ordained . But Canterbury having made a solemne complaint of the preoccupying of his place , as if he suffered prejudice , refused the second seate . Whereupon his subjects ( or Clerkes of his Province ) contending more fiercely for him , presently the simple contention of words , grew into a brauling . Yorke ( the adverse party being stronger ) was thrust with ignominy from the place he had so early taken , who exhibited his torne Myter to the Legate , as a signe of the injury offered to him , and cited Canterbury to the Apostolicall See. The Metropolitans therefore thus contending , and things thus disturbed , the Councell was not celebrated , but dissipated , and they who had assembled as called forth to a Councell , returned to their own homes . q Matthew Parker in his Antiquitates Ecclesiae Britannicae , out of Gervasins and Radulphus de Duceto , relates the story in these words : A Legate called Flugonius came into England from the Pope , at King Henry the seconds request , that hee might both separate Queene Eleaner from him by a Divorce , and comprimise the Controversie between the Archbishops of Canterbury and Yorke , touching the precedency which had continued for many successions of Bishops , and been oft times determined , but never finally ended till the Statute of 31 Hen. 8. cap. 10. such was the pride and ambition of these Arch-Prelates , whose more than civill contentions , for superiority our Historians have at large recorded to their infamy . ) This Legate assembled a Councell at Westminster in the Church of the infirme Monkes ; whither the Clergie of both Provinces plentifully assembled , and when the day of beginning the Councell was come , the Legate sitting on an high Throne , gave the right hand to the Archbishop of Canterbury . But Yorke hoping that the King would bee more propitious to him than to Canterbury , refused the left hand , and striving most impudently with his breech , to sit between the Legate and Canterbury , at last sate downe in the lap of his Primate . He had scarcee , touched Canterbury with his breech with which he strove to get the second place but he was shamefully reprehended both by many Bishops , and also by many Clerkes and Laymen . The Archbishop of Canterburies servants provoked with the indignity of this wicked fact , and the vehemencie of the just reproofe , pulling York out of their Lords bosome , and throwing him down on the ground , trampled him under their feet , and his Archiepiscopall Robes being most shamefully pulled off and torne , they buffeted him with their fists . But Canterbury , when as he could not call away nor hold off his servants , enraged with so great anger , departed out of the Councell , that at least hee might draw them away with him by his departure . The servants following their Master left Yorke lying prostrate on the ground environed with his torne Garments , At last Yorke fetching many deep and frequent sighes ariseth halfe dead , and goeth all bloody to the King , who with his son was present in the Councell ( the thing for which I principally relate the storie ) and makes his complaint against Canterbury . The King having received Yorks relation only , was at first in censed against Canterbury , but afterwards , the truth of his owne rashnesse and impudency being manifested , he dismissed Yorke , who departed from the King with disgrace , the most reviling him with clamors ; go go ( said they ) thou betrayer of Saint Thomas ; thy hands doe yet stinke with blood . But he , poore wretch , did now welter in his owne , not Thomas his blood . Hugocius among these tumults perplexed with feare , having pronounced a blessing , sodainly dissolved so unluckie a Councell , and appealled Canterbury to the Pope , as guilty of this battery : Yorke also did the like . At last Canterbury least he should be overwhelmed with appeales on both sides , submitted himselfe and his servants to the Popes protection , by appealing both the Legate and Yorke to Rome : so all equally appealed . But the next day Canterbury ( who knew the manner of the Pontificians ) pacified the Legate with gifts , and they thus reconciled , remitted their Appeales on both sides . Afterwards the Archbishop of Cant. and Geoffry of Ely ; were againe accused by the Bishop of York before the King , that in the Councell of Westminster they had laid violent hands on him ; which when they had denyed and purged themselves upon Oath , they were reconciled by the Kings command ; and by him a truce for five yeares was made between Canterbury and Yorke , who promised betweene themselves upon Oath , that they would firmely stand to the Arbiterment of the Bishops of Normandy and France , as well concerning this battery , as all other controversies depending between them ; And so this fray and Councell ended ; wherein you see the King , Prince , and Laymen were present , it being in truth a Parliament accompanied with a Convocation . Anno 1226. there was ſ a Synod held at London under Otho the Popes Legate where the King , with the Clergy . & Magnatibus Regni , and the great men of the Kingdome assembled , with many Bishops , Priests , & La●corum Turbis and Troops of Laymen : when they were all assembled . Otho read the Popes letters to them before them all , in which the Pope alleaged , that it was a most ancient scandall and reproach to the Church of Rome , that she was branded for coveteousnesse the roote of all evill , and in this especially , that no men could expedite any businesse in the Court of Rome , unlesse by disbursing great summes of money , and giving store of gifts ; but because the poverty of the Church of Rome was the cause of this scandall and infamy , her naturall sons ought to relieve the want of their Mother ; for unlesse we should receive gifts from you , and other good and honest men ; we should want necessaries to supply our lives , which would be altogether incongruous to the Roman dignity ; Therefore utterly to roote out this scandall , by the Councell of our Brethren , the Cardinalls of the holy Church of Rome , we have provided a certaine forme , to which if you will consent , you may free your Mother from scandall , and obtaine Justice in the Court of Rome without giving any bribes . Now the forme provided is this ; First of all , we desire two Prebends to be given us by all Cathedrall Churches , and out of Abbies , where the Monkes and Abbots have divers portions , of each one Monkes intire allowance , one from the Covent , another from the Abbott : which demand Otho urged the Bishops and Prelates to grant on the foresaid grounds : Who consulting together hereupon returned this their common Answere by Iohn Archdeacon of Bedford ; That those things he had propounded to them did specially concerne the King of England , and generally all the Patrons of Churches , Archbishops Suffragans , and Prelates of England , since therefore the King was then absent by reason of his infirmitie , and some Archbishops , Bishops and other Prelates were absent likewise , that in their absence they neither could nor ought to give any Answer . And upon these words uttered , came Iohn Lord Marshall of England and other Messengers from the King , strictly commanding all what held Baronies of the King in Capite , that that they should not obliege their lay Fee to the Church of Rome , whereby he might be deprived of the services due unto him . And so all returned to their owne home . The same yeare , there was another Councell assembled at Westminster under Stephen Langhton Archbishop of Canterbury about the same matter ; t To which the King conferring a part with some of the Nobles and Bishops , gave this Answer , that these things concern all Christendom , & because we are placed in the remotest parts of the world , when we shall see what other Kingdomes will say to these exactions , and shall have an example from them , the Pope shall finde us more ready to obey him . And so this Councell brake up . By both which presidents , it is evident , that Councells in those dayes were no other but Parliaments , the King , Nobles , and Commons being present in them , and that the Clergy alone could treat or conclude of nothing but by their concurring assents . Anno 1231. There was a great Synod of v Abbotts , Priors , Archdeacons with almost the whole Nobility , Masters and Clerks of the Realme , assembled at Saint Albans by the Popes Command , to celebrate a divorse betweene the Countesse of Essex and her Husband , if there were cause : This divorse was but an Ecclesiasticall matte● as the Canonists deemed it , yet both King , Nobles , and Commons , as well as Abbots and Clergy-men were present at it , and called to it by the Popes command . In the yeare of our Lord 1236. x there was a Councell of all the great men , Prelates and Clergie of the Realme summoned to meet at London by King Henry the third , under Othe the Popes Legate , which being assembled together at Paules , the second day thereof the King sent John Earle of Lincolne , Iohn the son of Jeffery , and William de Reele a Canon of Paules , to inhibit the Legate in the behalfe of the King and Kingdome , that he should not there Attempt or decree any thing against his Royall Crowne , and dignity . William Reele remained there to see this inhibition observed , the others departed . The next day folowing , the Legate supported with divine assistance & astantis concilij Suffragits et consensu and by the suffrages and consent of the Councel there present , to conserve and reforme the State Ecclesiasticall in the parts of England , besides other Canonicall institutions promulged certaine Canons digested into Chapters and Articles , which Edmond Archbishop of Canterbury , with divers others who departed from the Councell with little joy , resolved to nullifie and revoke , ( as not confirmed by the King the Lords and Commons for ought appeares ) which Otho understanding , writ to the Pope to ratifie them , who accordingly did it by his decretall Epistle . Anno 1288. y John Peckam Archbishop of Canterbury held a Provinciall Councell at Redding : in which he made five Constitutions , purposing to draw the conusance of Patronages of Churches anciently belonging to the Kings Court , to the Ecclesiasticall , to rescinde all Royall Prohibitions in suites depending in the Ecclesiasticall Court for goods and Chattels , and to inhibitu that Ecclesiasticall Judges should be thenceforth prohibited to proceed in them . But the King hearing of this designe , sent certain selected messengers both to the Archbishop and the whole Councell , commanding them with threats to resist , whence it came to passe , that the Archbishop wholy receeded from his presumption , and the Councell being dissolved , all the Prelates returned frustrate of their hope . 31. An. 1296. z Robert Winchelsee Archbishop of Canterbury held a Provinciall Councell at London , where the Clergy to disapoint the King of his Subsidies and Tenths ; decreed among other things , Ne quid inconsulto Papa Regibus a Clero solveretur ; That nothing should be payed to Kings without the Popes privity and consent . A right loyall Constitution worthy Prelates . The King having then called a Parliament to re-inburse his monyes spent in the Scottish Wars ; had a large Subsidie granted him by the Commons and Burgesses : But the Clergy neither offered , nor granted him any thing by reason of this their Constitution ; for confirmation whereof , the Archbishop had gotten the Popes Bull ; The King being moved therewith , proroged the Parliament to London , commanding the Clergy to be there on the first day of Saint Hilary , to give him a better answer ; The King in the mean time commanded all the Clergy mens Barnes , which were full of corne , to be sealed up with publike Seales ; which whiles his Officers were executing , the Archbishop commanded the Popes decree to be published in Cathedrall Churches ; inhibiting under pain of Excommunication , that no Tribute or ayd should be payd to the King , or to any secular Prince out of Ecclesiasticall livings or revenues ( an high straine of Papall usurpation and presumption : ) and when he and his Suffragans met in Pauls , they resolved to stand to their former Constitution , and to grant the King nothing . ( Such dutifull good Subjects were these lordly Prelates . ) Whereupon the King sending messengers to them , to demand a supply from them , they all returne him this answer ; It is sufficiently known that under God the Lord of all we have two Lords ; a spirituall , the Pope our Lord , and a temporall the King our Soveraigne : and though we are bound to obey both , yet we ought to obey our spirituall Lord more than our temporall . And therefore we intend to send a Legate to the Pope , that his leave first obtained , wee may give the King what he desires of us . The King receiving this answer , tooke it very disdainfully , that he should be thus mocked in his own Kingdome by the Pope and his Clergie ; and thereupon a thrust the Clergie out of the Parliament , and held a Councell with his Barons and Commons alone , and presently put all the Clergie out of his protection , that none of them should have power to sue any man in any of his Courts , but might be sued there by any of his subjects ; upon which all the Clergie but the Archbishop , were content to offer the King the fith part of their Ecclesiasticall goods , and the Archbishop persisting in his obstinacy , had all his temporalities , goods , Chattels seised into the Kings hands : Who yet would not yeeld , but pronounced them all excommunicate , who disobeyed the former constitution , which being made onely by the Clergy , and not ratified by King and Parliament , was held but a meere idle nullity , and audacious disobedient attempt , obliging neither King nor subject . Anno 1418. b A Provinciall Synod was held at London under Henry Chichely Archbishop of Canterbury : Where upon the motion of Robert Guilbert President of Merton Colledge in Oxford , and of Thomas Kington , it was decreed ; That the Patrons of Ecclesiasticall benefices when they fell voyd , should conferre them upon such who were Graduates in the Universities , having a respect of their degree and profession , according to the value of the living . This Constitution being propounded in the Congregation in the University to be there ratified , the Masters of Arts , Monks and Professors , who exceeded the Regents of the University in multitude , rejected and refused it , but K. Henry the fifth being addicted to learning . An. 1420. writ to the Synod then assembled at London , ( wherein the Chancellors both of Oxford and Cambridge petitioned that it might be received , though the Maisters of Art had refused to receive it ) to passe the Decree ( which some Friars there opposed , ) Judge in Parliamento postea confirmavit , and he afterwards confirmed the same in Parliament . Loe here a Constitution first made in a Synod or Convocation rejected in both Vniversities , because not then confirmed by the King in Parliament , to make it binding and efficatious for future times : a most pregnant evidence for proofe of that I now contend for . To cite more presidents of this nature in former ages , would be more tedious than necessary in so plaine a case ; I shall therefore passe from Councels and Synods to direct Acts of Parliament touching Religion and Church affaires . As high as we have any Acts of Parliament since the Conquest remaining on Record , We finde all Ecclesiasticall matters , and Church affaires setled , and ratified by speciall Acts of Parliament only , not by the Clergies Canons . The great Charter of England , first c granted by King Henry the first , ratified afterwards at Runing-Mead by King John , revived by King Henry the third in the ninth yeare of his Raigne , ( confirmed frequently by him afterwards ; by King Edward the first , in the 28th yeare of his Raigne , yea , by all or most of his successors , in speciall Acts of Parliament , by the Petition of Right : 3. Caroli ; ) begins thus , Know yee , that we to the honour of Almighty God , and for the salvation of the Soules of our Progenitors , and Successors Kings of England , to the advancement of holy Church , &c. First , We have granted to God , and by this our present Charter have confirmed for Vs , and our Heires for ever more ; that the Church of England shall be free , and have all her rights and liberties inviolable : And that all her elections shall bee free , &c. An. 1164. In February there was a d Parliament held at Clarindon , by King Henry the 2d . his command , who was there present ; where all the Archbishops , Bishops , Abbotts , Priors , Earles , Barons , Nobles , and great men of the Realm , made a Recognition or Recerd of part of the Customes and Liberties of the Kings Ancestors ; to wit , of King Henry the first , and others , which ought to be observed and kept by all men in the Realm , by reason of the dissention , and discords frequently emerging betweene the Clergy , and the Kings Iustices , and great men of the Realme : the substance whereof was conteined in these 16. Chapters recorded by Matthew Paris . 1. That if any controversie concerning the advowson and presentation of Churches should arise betweene Laymen , or betweene Laymen and Clergie men , it should bee heard and determined in the Court of our Lord the King. 2. That the Churches of the Fee of our Lord the King , could not bee given in perpetuity ( or appropiated ) without his grant or concession . 3. That Clergiemen accused of any thing , being summoned by the Kings Iustice , should come into the Kings Court to answer the same there ; that so the Kings Court might determine what was to bee answered there and what fit to be answered in the Ecclesiasticall Court ; that so the Iustice might send into the Court of holy Church , to see how the matter shall there be handled ; And if the Clarke shall be convict , or confesse the crime , that the Church from thenceforth ought not to protect him . 4. That it shall not be lawfull to the Archbishops , Bishops , and persons of the Realme to goe out of the Realme , without the Licence of our Lord the King ; and if they shall goe thence , if it shall please the King , they shall give him security , that neither in going nor in returning , nor in staying , they shall procure hurt or dammage to our Lord the King or the Realme . 5. That excommunicate persons ought not to give a pledge to remaine , ( vadium ad remanentiam ) nor to take an Oath , but onely to give a surety or pledge of standing to the judgment of the Church , where they are absolved . 6. That Laymen ought not to be accused , but by lawfull accusers & witnesses , in the presence of the Bishop , that the Arch-Deacon may not lose his right , nor any thing that he ought to have from thence . And if those who are accused shall be such that no man will or dares to accuse , the Sheriffe being required by the Bishop , shall sweare twelve lawfull men of the Vicenage or Town , before the Bishop , that they shall manifest the truth ( concerning such ) according to their Consciences . 7. No man who holds of the King in Capite , nor any of his Dominicall Ministers ( or house-hold servants ) shall be excommunicated , nor the Lands of any one of them put under interdict , unlesse our Lord the King ( if he bee within the Realme ) be first acquainted therewith , or his Iustice , if he shall be forth of the Realme : ( the reason then rendred was , lest the King should at unawares Kisse or admit to his Councell such an excommunicate person resorting to him , ) that so he may doe right concerning him ; and see that what appertaineth to the Kings Court , shall be there determined , and that what belongeth to the Ecclesiasticall Court may bee sent unto it , that it may bethere descided . 8. Concerning appeales , if they shall happen , they ought to proceed from the Arch-Deacon to the Bishop , from the Bishop to the Archbishop ; and if the Archbishop shall faile in exhibiting Iustice , they may appeale to our Lord the K. in the last place , and that by his precept the controversie may be ended in the Arch-Bishops Court , so that there ought to bee no further proceeding without the assent of our Lord the King. 10. If any be cited by the Arch-Deacon or Bishop for any offence , for which he ought to answer to them , and will not appeare upon their citations , it shall bee lawfull for them to put him under interdict , but they ought not to excommunicate him , till he be convented before the chiefe Officer of the King in that parish , that he may admonish him to appeare to give satisfaction , And if the Officer of the King shall faile therein he shall be in the Kings mercy , and from thenceforth the Bishop may with Ecclesiasticall Iustice curbe the party accused . 11. Archbishops , Bishops and all persons of the Realme , who hold of the King in Capite , may haue their possessions of the King as a Barony , and shall answer for them to the Justices and Ministers of the King , and shall follow , and doe all Royall Customes , and like other Barons , ought to bee present in judgments of the Kings Court , with the Barrons , untill it proceed to diminution of Members , or unto death . 12. When an Archbishopricke , Bishopricke , or Abbey , or Priory shall become voyde in the Kings Dominion , it ought to be in his hands , and he shall receive all the rents and issues thereof as the Dominicall rents , And what shall come to the Church is to bee disposed of , Our Lord the King ought to commend the best persons to the Church , and the election ought to be made in the Kings owne Chappel by assent of the King himself , and advise of such persons of the Realme , which he shall call unto him to do these things ; and there the person elected shall do his homage and fealty to the King , as to his Liege Lord , of life and members , and of terrene honour , saving his Order , before he shall be Consecrated . 13. If any of the Nobles of the Realme shall deny to do Iustice to any Archbishop , or Bishop , or Archdeacon concerning him or his , our Lord the King ought to do them Iustice . And if peradventure any shall deny to our Lord the King his right ; the Archbishops , Bishops , and Archdeacons ought to admonish him , that he may satisfie the King. 14. The Church or Churchyard ought not to detain the Chattels of those who are in forfeiture of the King , against the Iustice of the King , because they are the Kings owne , whether they bee found within or without the Church . 15. Pleas of Debts which shal be due either by interposition of an oath , or without oath , are in the Iustice of the King ( that is , triable in the Kings temporall Courts . 16. The Sonnes of Peasants ( or Villanies ) ought not to bee ordained ( Priests ) without assent of the Lord , in whose land they are knowne to bee borne . To this Recognition or Record of the Customs and Liberties of the Realm , the Archbishops , Bishops , Abbots , Priors , Clergy , with all the Earles , Barons , and Nobles swore , and firmly promised viva voce , in the word of truth , that they would keep and observe it to our Lord the King and to his Heirs , bona fide and without male engin for ever . His itaque gestis , potestas Laica in res & personas Ecclesiasticas , omnia pro libitu , Ecclesiastico jure contempto , tacentibus aut vix murmur antibus Episcopis , potius quam resistentibus , usurpabat ; writes Matthew Paris . Whereupon Thomas Becket then Archbishop of Canterbury , repenting of his oath to observe them , humbled and afflicted himselfe exceedingly with fasting and corporall pennace , yea he suspended himself from the office of the Altar , untill the Pope absolved him from his pretended offence and oath , which he readily obtained : After which Becket resusing to conforme himselfe to the King and these Lawes he had sworne to , departs secretly without the Kings license into Flanders , and from thence repaired to Pope Alexander at Sennes , who curteously entertained him ; and refused the demands of the Kings Embassadours , to do him justice against Becket , or to confirme these Lawes and ancient Customs of the Realm . Whereupon the King sent this ensuing Writ to every Sheriffe of England , * Praecipio tibi , quod si aliquis Clericus vel Laicus in Baliva tua , Romanam curiam appellaverit , eum capias , & firmiter teneas , donec voluntatem meam praecipiam , & omnes reditus Clericorum Archiepiscopi & possessiones saiseas in manum meam . Et omnium Clericorum qui cum Archiepiscopo sunt , Patres , Matres , Fratres , & Sorores ; Nepotes & Neptes , pones per salvos plegios , & catalla eorum , donec voluntatem meam inde praecipiam . Et hoc Breve tecum afferas , cum summonitus fueris Gilberto quoque que Londonensi Episcopo scripsit in haec verba . Nosti quam malè Thomas Cantuariensis Archiepiscopus operatus est adversum mo & regnum meum , & quam malè recesserit ; Et ideo mando tibi quod Clerici sui , qui detraxerunt honori meo & regni , qui circa●psum fuerunt , post fugam suam , non percipiant aliquid de reditibus suis quos habuerunt in Episcopatu tuo , nisi per me , nec habeant aliquod auxilium vel consilium a●te , Item Justitiariis suis significavit per literas sub hac forma . Si quis inventus fuerit ferens literas Domini Papae vel mandatum , aut Thomae Archiepiscopt , continens interdictum Christianitatis in Anglia , capiatur & retinetur , donec inde voluntatem meam praecipiam ; Item , nullus Clericus , Monachus , Canonicus vel conversus , vel alicujus religionis transfretare permittatur , nisi habeat Literas de reditu suo , Justitiarii vel nostras : Si quis aliter inventus fuerit , capiatur & retineatur , Nullus appellet ad Papam , neque ad Thomam Archiepiscopum , neque aliquod placitum ex eorum mandato teneatur , neque aliquod mandatum eorum in Anglia recipiatur , & si quis tenuexit , vel receperit , vel tractaverit , capiatur & retineatur ; Si Episcopi , Abbates , Clerici , vel Laici sententiam interdicti tenuerunt , sine dilatione a terra eijciantur & tota eorum Cognatio , Ita quod nihil de catallis suis secum ferant , sed catalla eorum & possessiones in manu nostra saisiantur ; Omnes Clerici , qui reditus habent , in Anglia , sint summoniti per omnes comitatus , ut infra tres Menses praecise ad reditus suos , sicut diligunt eos & amant , in Angliam redeant . Et si ad terminum praefixum non venerint , reditus eorum in manu nostra saisiantur . Episcopt Londoniensis & Norioensis summoneantur , quod sint eoram Justiciariis Nostris ad rectum faciendum , quod contra Statuta Regni , interdixerunt terram Hugonis Comitis , & in ipsum sententiam Anathematis intulerunt Denarii beati Petri colligantur , & serventur , quousque inde vobis Dominus Rex voluntatem suam praeceperit , Ecclesiam praeterea Cantuariensem , & omnia bona Archiepiscopi Rex , et suorum , consiscari praecepit . Et quod in nullius historiae legitur serie , totam ejus congnationem exilio ascriptam addixit , sine delectu conditionis , sexus aut aetatis . Et cum Ecclesia Catholica , oret pro haereticis , schismatieis & perfidis Judaeis , prohibitum est a Rege , ne quis Archiepiscopum , orationum suffragiis adjuvaret . Such Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction did the King then exercise . To what an unfortunate end this opposition brought this Archbishop Becket , our Historians at large record , and I have f else-where manifested . In King Henry the 3. his Raign , I finde these severall printed Acts of Parliament made concerning the Church , Bishops , Abbots , Clergymen , and Ecclesiasticall affaires , which you may peruse at pleasure . 9. H. 3. c. 1. 5. 18. 31. 33. 36 , 37. The Charter of the Forrest , 9. H. 3. c. 4. 11. 16. 20. H. 3. c. 9. 51. H. 3. c. 10. 12. 28. besides those Recorded by Matthew Paris . In King Edward the first his Raigne there were these Acts to like purpose . 3 E. 1. ( which begins with this Prologue , Because our Soveragine Lord the King had given power to redresse the State of the Realme , &c. for the common profit of holy Church , and of the Realme . And because the State of holy Church hath ever been kept , &c. ) c. 1 , 2. 46. 4 E. 1. c. 6. 7 E. 1. the Statute of Mor●main : 13. E. 1. c. 5. 19. 29. 31 , 32 , 33. 41 , 42 , 43. 48. Circumspecte agatis 13 E. 1. ( commonly called a Statute , though 19 E. 3. Fitz. Iurisdiction 28. it be adjudged none . ) The Statute upon the Writ of Consultation : 24 Ed. 1. The confirmation of the Charters of the Liberties of England . 25 E. 3. c. 4. 6. The Statute concerning certain Liberties granted to the Commons . The Statute of Carlisle 25. E. 1. ( See Cookes 5. Report of the Kings Ecclesiasticall Law , f. 13. ) 34. E. 1. c. 6. In King Edward the seconds dayes , I meet with the Statute of A●ticuli Cleri . 19 E. 2. which wholly concernes the Clergy , their Courts , Tythes , Rights . The Statute de Prerogativa Regis c. 1. 8. 10. 14 , 15. and Articles against the Kings Prohibition . In King Edward the third his Regency , I finde very many Statutes concerning the Clergie , and all kinde of Church affaires ; as namely , 1 E. 3. Stat , 2. c. 10 , 11. 4 E. 3. c. 6. 5 E. 3. c. 2. 9 E. 3. Stat. 2. c. 1. 14 E. 3. stat . 1. c. 1. 17. and stat . 3 made for the Clergy , the Prologue , and c. 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5. 15 E. 3. stat . 1. c. 1. 6. Parl. 3. c. 6. 18 E. 3. stat . 3. for the Clergie , c. 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7. 23 E. 3. c. 8. 25 E. 3. stat . 3 ! for the Clergie , c. 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8. 25 E. 3. stat . 6. of Provisions , 27 E. 3. stat . 1. c. 1. of Provisions . 28 E. 3. c. 14. 31 E. 3. stat . 1. c. 4. 11. 13 , 14. 36 E. 3. c. 8 , concerning Priests Salaries &c. 38 E. 3. stat . 2. against provisors and Appeales to Rome , c. 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 5. 45 E. 3. c. 3. 50 E. 3. c. 1. 4 , 5. To which I shall adde only this observation , That the prologues to the statutes of 1 E. 3. stat . 2. 2 E. 3 stat . 3. 28 E. 3. 38 E. 3. stat . 1. and 50 E. 3. with others , begin thus . To the honour of God , and of HOLY CHVRCH , and redresse of the oppressions of the people , &c. these ensuing Acts were made & granted : to testifie , that even in those dayes our Parliaments first began with matters of God and the Church , and settled them by Lawes as there was occasion , and then proceeded to temporall matters and grievances : the very Statute of Magna Charta , having the same prologue wherein you may discerne this method pursued , and in most subsequent Parliaments . I shall adde to these printed Acts 6 E. 3. num . 5. prohibiting Bishops to meddle in matters of the peace . 45 E. 3. num . 15. removing Bishops from all temporall Offices , 50 E. 3. num . 99. 103. complaining against popish Cardinals . 40 E. 3. num . 7 , 8. a notable Record against the Popes claime to the Kingdome of England , by vertue of K. Johns grant . 17 E. 3. num . 59 , 60. 18 E. 3. num . 59 , 60. 38 E. 3. num . 7. 50 E. 3. num . 85. 87 , 88. complaining against , yea restraining the Popes exactions and usurpations as the cause of all plagues . 50 E. 3. num . 46 , 47. complaining against the Canons of the Clergy , and 47 E. 3. num . 24. against Ordinaries incroaching upon the civill Iurisdiction . To proceed to King Richard the second , the Statutes in the first yeare of his Raigne have this Preface . Richard by the Grace of God , &c. Know that to the honour of God , and reverence of holy Church , for to nourish peace unity and concord in all the parts of the Realme , &c. We have ordained and established certain Statutes , &c. First it is agreed and established , that holy Church shall haue and enjoy all her rights , liberties , and franchises wholly and without blemish . &c. The confirmation of Magna Charta with other temporall Laws next follow ; & then c. 13 , 14 , 15. three Lawes for paying of Tythes , and freeing Clergymen from arrests during their exercising of divine Service . The second Parliament in ● . Rich. 2. hath the like prologue ; To the honour of God and holy Church , cap. 1 confirmes the franchises & liberties of the Church : 3. R. 2. C. 1 doth the like & c. 3. is a Statute against Provisions from Rome , to avoyd Nonresidency , to provide for instruction of the people by preaching , and reforme many abuses in the Church occasioned by provisions , made at the complaints , clamors and divers Petitions of the Kings Leige people delivered in divers Parliaments , to reforme these abuses , 5. R. 2. cap. 1. hath the like preface , c. 1. confirmes the Churches liberties , 5. R. 32. Parl. 2. c. 5. Is a Statute made at the Clergies motion to suppresse haresies , and Errors , contrary to the Christian faith , and to imprison haeretickes and erronious Preachers , till they justifie themselves according to the Law and reason of holy Church . 6 Rich. 2. Stat. 1. hath the like prologue , and c. 1. Ordaines and accords , that our holy Mother the Church of England have all her Liberties whole and unhurt , and the same fully enjoy and use . 7 Rich. 2. hath the same prologue , c. 8. the like confirmation of the Churches priviledges , and c. 12. prohibits Provisions from Rome . 8 Rich. 2. hath the like preface , and enacts in the first chapter . That holy Church have all her liberties , 9. R. 2. c , 4. 5. concerns Ordinaries , Priors dative , and perpetuall , and Preists , 10. R. 2. c. 1. saves pontificall dignity , and priviledge of holy Church , and cleares all in all things aforesaid , 11. R. 2. c. 3. declares , that Bishops ought not to be present or voting in Parliament in matters of blood , 1. 2. R. 2. c. 1. confirmes the Churches liberties Chap. 7. exempts pilgrimes from the punishments of Vagrants and c. 15. prohibits Provisions from any forraign power , 13. R. 2. recites , That the acts therein passed were to the honour of God and holy Church : &c. and c. 13. prohibits hunting on holy-dayes , and Priests to keepe Dogs , who have not livings to a certaine value c. 18 concernes the Bishop and Deane of Lincolne , and c. 29. Pilgrimes , 13. R. 2. Parl. 2. c. 23. provides for the election of Bishops , and all other ecclesiasticall dignities elective , and prohibits provisions , usurpations , citations , and Bulls of the Pope and Court of Rome under paine of a Praemunire , banishment , abjuration ; Imprisonment , Fine and ransome , 14. R. c. 2. Limits the exchanges of monyes to the Court of Rome , 15. R. 2. c. 2. 6. concernes forcible entries into Benefices , & Offices of holy Church , mortuaties to Religious persons , Popes Bulls , consecrations of Church-yeards and Appropriations of Churches , and Almes , 16. R. 2. c. 5 provides for presentations to Churches , against the Popes usurpations , Translations excommunications , Bulls , and Jurisdiction , under paine of a Praemunire , 21. R. 2 it prefaced : To the honour of God and holy Church : and c. 1. confirmes the Churches Liberties . In King Henry the 4th . his Parliaments , I finde , that the Prologues of the Statutes in 1. ● . 4. 7. 9. and 13. H. 4. begin thus ; To the honour of God and reverence of holy Church , &c. and the first Chapter in each of them is . That holy Church have and enjoy all her rights , liberties , and Franchises , entirely , and without imbleamishing . Then follow temporall Lawes . 2. H. 4. c. 3. 4. prohibits provisions of exemption from regular or ordinary obedience , granted to any religious persons from Reme , & Buls of exemption from payment of Tithes granted to the Religious of the Order of Cysteaux , under paine of a P●amunire : and Cap. 15. provides for the suppression of Sectaries , hereticall Preachers , Conventicles , heriticall Bookes , Schooles , and preservation of the Catholique faith : enacting , that Heritickes shall be imprisoned , abjured and in case of relapse , or obstinacy , burned , 4. H. 4. c. 2. 3. confirme all the Statutes formerly made in favour of the Church and Clergy , and for preservation of their liberties Cap. 12. concernes appropriations of Churches , Vicaridges , Ordinaries , the Bishop and Archdeacon of Ely , and other Religious persons , cap. 14. prohibits working or wages on holy-dayes , Cap. 17. enacts ; that none shall enter into Religion unlesse he be foureteene yeares of age without the Parents consent Cap. 22. concernes presentations to Benefices 5. H. 4. c. 11. 12. concerne Tithes , Chalices , and ornaments of holy Church , 6. H. 4. c. 1. prohibits provisions and the payment of first fruits , or exacted fees to Rome , under forfeiture of all their estates who offend herein , 7. H. 4. c. 6. inhibits Religious persons under paine of a Praemunire , to procure any exemption from payment of Tithes or any provisions from the Pope , 9. H. 4. c. 8. forbids provisions and translations from the Pope under paine of a Praemunire , and makes all elections of Archbishops , Bishops , Abbots , Prebends & Deans to be free , without any interruption from the Pope or King. 11. H. 4. c. 4 Prohibits unlawful games on Sundayes , and other holy dayes . 1. H. 5. c. 7. 8. prohibits the conferring of Ecclesiasticall living upon Aliens , and orders their benefices and the lands of Priors aliens to be seised in times of Warre , 2. H. 5. c. 1. provides for Ordinaries visitations of Hospitalls , and reformation of them after the lawes of the holy Church : Cap. 3. grants a prohibition to spirituall Courts , where they deny a Copy of the Lible , Chap. 7. for the preservation of the Christian faith , the Law of God and holy Church with in this Realme , and the punishment of Heresies and Hereticks enacts , that Hereticks shall be apprehended and imprisoned by Sheriffs , and upon conviction of Heresy , forseit their Lands and goods , and be burned . 2. H. 5. Parl. 2. c. 2. limits the wages of Curates and Parish Priests , 3. H. 5. c. 1. enacts , that holy Church have all her liberties and franchsies C. 3. concerns Abbots and Priors , C. 4. inhibits provisions from Rome under a Premiarie , C. 8. concernes Probate of Wills and r●gulates exorbitant fees for procuring them , C. 6. forbids the promotions of Irishmen to Beneficies or Ecclesiasticall dignities , 9. H. 5. c. 9. limits the manner of collecting Dismes by Archbishops , Bishops and their Agents . 2. H. 6. c. 1 confirmes the Churches liberties 6. H 6. c. 3. prohibits worke on , and wages for holy dayes , 8. H. 6. begins thus . To the Laud and honor of Almighty God , and of the holy Mother the Church , Ch. 1. provides for the priviledges of the Convocation , 10. H. 6. c. 11. limits how Bastardy shall be tryed between the Common and Canon Law , which differ therein : 15. H. 6. c. 7. concernes Abbots and Priots , 27. H. 6. c. 5. prohibits Faires and Merkets upon Sundayes and principle holy dayes , as a great prophanation of them , 28. H. 6. begins , To the honour of God and of holy Church , 33. H. 6. c. 6. concerns the exemption of the Abbot of Founteynes , and other Abbots and Priors , from Vexations sutes . 1. Ed. 4. is prefaced . To the honour of God and of holy Church , C. 1. containes in it many particulars concerning Bishops , Abbots , and Clergymen , 3. E. 4. hath the same prefaced , and 12. E. 4. c. 7 , prescribes excommunication 4. times a yeare to be denounced against the infringers of Magna Charta , as other Acts formerly did King Richard the 3d. prefaceth the Acts of his first Parliament in his 1. yeare thus . To the honour of God and of holy Church , c. 14. limits the maner of collecting the Clergies Dismes . King Henry the 7th . begins his Statutes in the 1. yeare of his Reigne ; To the honour of God and his holy Church : and Cap. 4. enables Archbishops , Bishops , and other Ordinaries to imprison Priests , Clerkes , and Religious persons for incontinency , which they could not doe before ; The Statutes of 2. 4. 11. 12. & 17. H. 7. ( as their Prologues attest ) were made , to the worship of God and holy Church , and for the common good of this Realme . The Statutes of An. 1. 3. 4. & all or most Parliaments in the Regine of King Henry the 8th . are prefaced . To the honour of God and holy Church , and for the Common Weale and profit of this Realme : In the Parliament of 21. H. 8. C-3 . 4. 13. there were Statutes made concerning Probat of VVi●s , taking of mortuaries by Priests or others , against Pluralities of Benefices , and taking of farmes by spirituall men , All of Ecclesiasticall Cognisance , 22. H. 8. c. 15. containes the Kings generall pardon to his spirituall Subjects , who were fallen into a Praemunire , by submitting to Cardinall Wolsies power Legatine , 23. H. 8. c. 1. abridgeth the power of Ordinaries and takes away the benefit of Clergy in some cases : ch . 9. enacts : That no man shall be cited into any ecclesiasticall Court , out of the Diocesse wherein he dwells , unlesse in certaine causes , ch . 10. settles the Law concerning feofements and assurances to the use of any Parish-Church or Chapell 24 H. 8. ch . 12. takes away all Appeales to Rome , and excellently sets forth the Kings supremacy as well in and over Ecclesiasticall causes and persons , as temporall ( as you may read at large in the Act it selfe ) denying , exploding the authority of the Pope and Sea of Rome , 25. H. 8. c. 14. conteines a Law for the punishment of HERESY and HERETIQVES . limiting the maner of proceeding against them , defining what shal be heresie , how it shall be punished , and abridging the Authority of the Bishops and Canon Law , ch . 16. concernes Pluralities , ch . 19. containes the submission of the Clergy & Convocation to the King ; declares the Kings supremacy in causes Ecclesiasticall , the impotency of the Clergy , or Convocation to make or promulge any Canons , or Ecclesiasticall constituti●ns , or to debate any thing in Convocation without his Royall Lycence and approbation : The Nullity and invalidity of the Canon Law : abolisheth all appeales to Rome ; and Authorizeth 32. persons , whereof halfe to be of the Clergy , the other halfe of THE LAITY , to survay the Canon Law , and to compile a body of the Canon Law to be authorized by the King under his Great Seale by vertue of this Act , for to be the only Canon Law , to be used within this Realme , Chap. 20. takes away the payment of any Annates o● first fruits to the Bishop of Rome , nullifies his usurped power , and Buls settles the forme of electing and consecrating Archbishops and Bishops within this Realme , and plentifully manifests the Kings and Parliaments Jurisdictions in Ecclesiasticall affaires , chap. 21. doth the like : exonerating the Kings Subjects from all exactions and Impositions heretofore payed to the Sea of Rome , and enabling the Archbishop of Canterbury and his Officers to grant all Licences and dispensations within the Realme , which were formerly granted at Rome only . The Statute is worthy perusall , consideration , fully demonstrating the power of the Parliament in Church affaires . 26. H. 8. c. 1. declares the Kings Highnesse to be supreme head of the Church of England under Christ , making it a part of his Royall Title , and to have Ecclesiasticall authority to redresse and reforme all Errors , Heresies and abuses in the Church , punishable by any spirituall or ecclesiasticall Law. Chap. 3. enacts ; The payment of the first fruits of all Dignities , Benefices , promotions spirituall , and tenthes to the King and his Heires , abolishing the Popes usurpations and authority herein , ch . 13. abolisheth sanctuarie in cases of High Treason . ch . 14. Authorizeth the nomination and consecration of suffragan Bishops in sundry places of this Realme , and both creates and limits their authority . chap. 15. takes away some exactions of spirituall men , within the Archdeaconry of Richmond , 27. H. 8. c. 8. limits , that the Kings spirituall Subjects shall pay no Tithes whiles they are in their first fruits ch . 15. authorizeth the King to nominate 32. persons halfe of the Clergy , the other of the Laity for the perusall and making of Ecclesiasticall Lawes , and manifests the Convocations invalidity to make such lawes or Canons , ch . 19. Limiteth and abolisheth Sanctuaries , and sanctuary persons , ch . 20. containes an Order touching the paying of Tithes throughout the Realme : ch . 21. Limits the maner of payment of Tythes within the City of London ch . 27. suppresseth divers Monasteries , Priories and Religious Houses , vesteth their revenues in the King , and erects the Court of Augmentations . 28. H. 8. ch . 10. extinguisheth thes authority of the Bishop of Rome , prescribes an Oath of abjuration of it and Popery together with the Popes usurpations and excellently sets forth the Kings supreamacy the Parliaments authority , in matters ecclesiasticall as you may read in the Act , worthy perusall ch . 11. enacts , Restitution of the first fruits in time of vacation to the next incumbent , ch . 13. compells spirituall persons to residence upon their livings , ch . 16. Releaseth such as have obtained pretended Licences and dispensations from the Sea of Rome , 31. H 8. c. 6. enables such as were Religious persons to purchase lands , & to sue and be sued in al maner of Actions , which they were disabled formerly to do by the Common & Canon Law , ch . 9. Enables the King to make Bishops by his Letters Patents only , and to erect new Bishopricks , which he did , ch . 13. disolves all Monasteries and religious Houses and vests them in the King , wherein you may behold much of the Kings and Parliaments power in Church businesses , ch . 14. For abolishing of diversity of opinions in matters of Religion ; most fully and exactly demonstrates ; the Kings and Parliaments jurisdictions in matters of Religion , as the whole Act sufficiently manifests , though the Articles therein defined were erronious , and the Act too cruell and bloudy 32. H. 8. cap. 8. provides for the true payment of Tythes and offerings chap. 10. containes the punishment of incontinent Priests , and of women offending with them , ch . 12. concernes Sanctuaries and the priviledges of Churches and Church-Yards , ch . 15. prescribes the manner of proceeding against Heretickes , and impugners of the Act , for abolishing of enormious opinions in Christian Religion , chap. 23 , 24. concernes Accounts of Bishops , and subsidies granted by the Clergie , chap. 25. Dispences the Kings marriage with the Lady Iane , chap. 24. Dissolves the Hospitalls of Saint Johns of Ierusalem , in England , and Ireland , for supporting and maintaining the supremacy and jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome , contrary to their duty and Allegiance , chap. 26. Intitled , An act concerning true opinions , and Declaration of Christs Religion , is most pregnant to our present purpose , which you may peruse , chap. 38. Concerning precontracts of marriages and degrees of consanguinity , is likewise a most punctuall Act for the Kings and Parliaments Ecclesiasticall power , and chap , 44. 45 , 47. good evidences of it , 33. H. 8. chap. 15. 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32. Enabling Religious persons to sue and bee sued ; severing the Bishopricks of CHESTER , and Isle of MAN from the jurisdiction of CANTERBURY to the See of Yorke : making the Church of Whitgate a Popish Church by it selfe , and severing it from the Parish of Over ; ( which I wish our Independents to observe , and to learne from this and other Acts , that no new Churches or Parishes can be erected legally but by act of Parliament , which none of their Churches are ) 34. and 35. H. 8. c. 1. intituled ; An act for The advancement of true Religion and For the abolishing of the contrary , is most pertinent to our purpose , and c. 15. 17 , 19 , 35. H. 8. c. 9. for ratification of the Kings stile , and Title of Defender of the Faith , and supreame head of the Church of England , and Ireland , ch . 6. Concerning the qualification of the Statute of the 6. Articles , c. 16. concerning the examination of the Canon Lawes , by 32. persons , halfe of the Clergie , and halfe of the temporalty , to be named by the Kings Majesty , during his life , to compile a body of the Canon Law to bee used in the Realme , 37. H. 8. c. 4. 12. but especially , ch . 17. That Doctors of civill Law may execute Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction , though Laymen , and married ( a Law worthy reading ) and chap. 21. For the union of Churches not exceeding the value of 5l . ( which could not be done but by Act of Parliament ) are all most pregnant evidences of the Kings and Parliaments indubitable Ecclesiasticall jurisdictions in matters of Discipline , Religion , Church-government , and all Church affaires whatsoever . The Statutes made in King Edward the 6. his Reigne are most punctuall and pegnant evidences hereof ; as namely , 1. Edw. 6. ch . 11. For administring the Sacrament in both kindes ( therein proved necessary by sundry Texts of Scripture ) and punishing such persons as shall unreverently speake against the Sacrament , with Temporall and Ecclesiasticall censures . ch . 2. concerning the election and creation of Bishops by the Kings Letters Patents , and what Processe and Seales they shall use ; declaring , that they have no Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction but meerely from the King , ch . 9. For uniting certaine Churches within the City of Yorke : ch . 12. which abolisheth Sanctuaries and Clergy in some cases , 2. and 3. E. 6. ch . 1. For the Vniformity of service , and the administration of the Sacraments throughout the Realme , ch . 13. For the true payment of Tythes , ch . 19. For abstinence from flesh , ch . 20. Concerning Recusants , ch . 23. For positive Lawes made against the Mariage of Priests , ch . 23. The repeale of a Statute touching Precontracts of Mariage : 3. and 4. E. 6. ch . 10. For the abolishing and putting away of diverse ( superstitious Popish ) Books and Images , chap. 11. That the Kings Majesty may nominate and appoint 32. persons ( halfe Clergy-men , and halfe Laymen ) to peruse and make Ecclesiasticall Lawes , ch . 12. For the manner of Ordaining Ecclesiasticall Ministers , and Consecrating Bishops , ch . 15. Against fond and phantasticall Prophecies , 5. and 6. E. 6. ch . 1. For the uniformity of Common Prayer , and administration of the Sacraments , ch . 3. For the keeping of Holy-dayes , and Fasting dayes , ch . 4. Against fighting and quarelling in Churches and Church-Yards , ch . 12. For the lawfulnesse of Priests Mariage and legitimation of their children , chap. 13. Touching Religious persons , and c. 23. Against Vsurie . All these are clearely Ecclesiasticall Acts , yet made by Parliament . The Statutes in Queene Maries Reigne , ( though of a different Religion from her brother , and a zealous Pontifician ) sufficiently evidence the jurisdiction of our Princes and Parliaments in matters of the Church and Religion : witnesse , 1. Mar. Parl. 1. Ses . 2. Chap. 2. Repealing diverse acts-made touching Religion in King Edward the 6. his Raigne , and setting up Masse , and the old Lyturgies againe , chap. 2. Against Offendors of Preachers , and other Ministers in the Church , or Church-Yard , or interrupting them in their Sermons , or saying Masse , under paine of imprisonment , fines and Ecclesiasticall censures , chap. 15. For re-edifying the parish Church of Saint Ellins in Stangate . 1. Mariae , Par. 2. c. 1. Declaring , That the Regall power of this Realme , is in the Queenes Majesty as fully and absolutely as ever it was in any of her most Noble Progenitors Kings of this Realme , chap. 3. Being an Act of Repeale of two severall acts in the 7. yeare of King Edward the 6. touching the dissolution of the Bishoprick of Durham , Chap. 9. Touching Ordinances , Rules , &c. in Cathedrall Churches and Schooles , c. 10. Repealing a statute for the uniting of the parish Churches of Onger and Greensted in the County of Essex , 1. and 2. Phil. and Mary , chap. 6. For the reviving of three Statutes made for the punishment Of Heresies ; and that with forseiture of Lands , imprisonment , and death in some cases , chap. 8. Intituled ; an Act repealing all Statutes , Articles , and provisions made against the See Apostolike of Rome since the 20. yeare of King H. 8. and restoring the Bishops with their Courts , offices , & the Pope himselfe to their former usurped jurisdictions in England ; ratifying this Popes very Bulles , and dispensations to make them valid ; and setling the whole affaires of the Church of England , chap. 9. 20. For the punishing of traiterous Sermons , and Prayers against the Queene , chap. 17. Concerning leases of some spirituall persons , and 2. and 3. Phil. and Mary , chap. 4. For the extinguishment of first fruits &c. All Ecclesiasticall Statutes . In Queen Elizabeths happy Raigne , there are sundry Statutes abundantly manifesting her own , and the Parliaments supreame Iurisdictions and Legislative power in matters of Religion , Church-government , Discipline , &c. as namely , 1 Eliz. c. 1. An Act restoring to the Crowne the ancient Jurisdiction OVER THE STATE ECCLESIASTICALL & SPIRITVALL , and abolishing all fortaigne power repugnant to the same : which gives the Queen , her heires and successors , all manner of Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction , in , and over all Ecclesiasticall persons and causes , and power to correct , redresse , and reform all manner of HERESIE , SCHISME , ERRORS , ABVSES & OFFENCES ECCLESIASTICALL : prescribes the oath of Supremacy ( which all are to take and most Independents have formerly taken ) wherein , they do utterly , testifie and declare in their consciences , that the Queen and her Successours are the onely supreame Governours of this Realme , and other their Dommions , as well IN ALL SPIRITVALL OR ECCLESIASTICALL THINGS OR CAVSES as temporall , &c. which jurisdiction of theirs , they sweare to their power to assist and defend : Which oath if any refuse to take , hee shall forseit all his Ecclesiasticall promotions and temporall offices . This Act likewise abolisheth the Popes jurisdiction , under pain of a praemunire and other mulcts against the maintainers of it : It determines what shall be adjudged HERESIE and what not ; namely , Only such matter and cause as heretofore hath been determined ordered , and adjudged to be heresie , by the authority of the Canonicall Scriptures o● by the first foure generall-Councels , or any of them ; or by any other generall Councell wherein the same was declared heresie , by the expresse and plain words of the Canonicall Scripture , or such as hereafter shall be ordered , IVDGED , OR DETERMINED TO BE HERESIE , BY THE HIGH COVRT OF PARLIAMENT OF THIS REALME ; with the assent of the Clergy in their Convocation : ( to wit , by way of assistance and advice cumulatively , not negatively , as if their assent were simply necessary . ) So as by this Act , the Parliament is made the sole proper Iudge , what is or shal be reputed & punished as heresie , what not , & how it shal be punished ; the highest point of Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction . Ch. 2. For the uniformity of Common prayer and service in the Church , and administration of the Sacraments , enjoyning conformity under temporall and Ecclesiasticall punishments , is an irrefragable proofe of the Parliaments Ecclesiasticall power in all Church matters and 1 Eliz. c. 3. 4. 6. 5 Eliz. c. 1. For the assurance of the Queens royall power over all States and Subjects within her Highnesse Dominions . ch . 23. For the due executing of Writs , de Excommunicato capiendo , ch . 28. For translating of the Bible and divine Service into the Welch tongue . 8 Eliz. c. 1. Declaring the manner of making and Corsecrating the Archbishops , Bishops , and Ministers of this Realm , to be good , lawfull , and perfect : ratifying the Booke of common Prayer , and of Ordination , together with the Queens Soveraigne Ecclesiasticall Authority . 13 Eliz. c. 2. Against the bringing in and putting in execution of Bulls and other instruments of the See of Rome , chap. 8. Against Usury ch . 19. concerning Dilapidations , c. 12. To reforme certain disorders touching Ministers of the Church , ratifying the 39. Articles of Religion , and enjoyning subscription thereunto , under penalties , losse of Benefices and other Ecclesiasticall penalties , Limiting likewise the age of such who are to be made Ministers . ch . 17. Concerning the Leases of Benefices , and Ecclesiasticall livings with Cure. 18. Eliz. c. 6. Concerning the taking away of Clergy , &c. 23 Eliz. c. 1. To retain the Queens Majesties subjects in their due obedience , made against Jesuits , Semenary Priests , and others receiving Orders from Rome , and the harbourers of them , under capitall penalties . 27. Eliz. c. 2. Against Jesuits , Seminary Priests , and such other disobedient persons . 29. Eliz. c. 6. Concerning Recusants . 31. Eliz. c. 1. Against Symony . 35 Eliz. c. 1. Against Seperatists and Schismaticks refusing conformity to our Church Service and Liturgie ; who are lyable to imprisonment , fines , and other penalties for it by the Law. ch . 2. For restraining Popish Recusants to some certaine plate of abode . 29 Eliz. c. 8. For confirmation of the Deprivation of divers Bishops and Deanes in the beginning of the Queens Raigne . ch . 22. Concerning the Bishop of Norwich , are plentifull evidences of what I plead for . In King James his Raigne I finde many Acts of Parliament asserting the Kings and Parliaments Ecclesiasticall jurisdictions , as 1 Jacobi c. 1● Concerning the Kings Title to the Crowne . ch . 2. Concerning Archbishopricks and Bishopricks . ch . 5. For the due execution of the Statutes against Jesuites , Seminary Priests , Recusants . ch . 12. Against second marriages till former wives or husbands bee dead . ch . 31. For building a new Church in Melcombe Regis , to be the Parish Church of Radepoll , and for making the Church of Radepoll a Chappell to it . 3 Jacobi c. 3. for a publick thanksgiving to Almighty God every yeare on the fift day of November , for the deliverance from the hellish Gunpowder treason . ch . 4. For the better discovering and suppressing of Popish Recusants ; which prescribes a new oath of Allegiance : ch . 5. To prevent and avoyd danger which may grow by Popish Recusants , which likewise prohibits the Importations of any Popish Books . Agnus Dei , Crucifixes , &c. ch . 20. To restraine abuses of Players . 21. Jacobi ch . 17. Against Usury . ch . 20. To prevent and reforme prophane swearing and cursing . The Statutes in King Charles his Raigne , are punctuall evidences of the Soveraign Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction of our Kings & Parliaments , in all which we find , not onely severall Committees appointed concerning Religion ( frequent in all Queene Elizabeths and King James their Parliaments ) but also sundry Statutes concerning Religion and Church-matters ; as namely , 1 Carols c. 1. For punishing divers abuses committed on the Lords day . 3 Caroli c. 1. For further reformation of divers abuses on the Lords day , ch . 2. To restraine the passing or sending of any to be Popishly bred beyond the Seas . But the severall Acts , Ordinances and Proceedings of this present Parliament , concerning all matters of Religion , Church government , and Ecclesiasticall affaires , are presidents beyond all exception : The Acts already passed , For suppressing the High-Commission ; disabling any Clergy-man to meddle with any temporall offices , or to be Justices of Peace ; The taking away of Bishops Votes , and their sitting in the House of Peers . The severall Acts , Votes , Ordinances which have passed both House for abolishing all new Canons Plaralities Non-residence ; punishing of scandalous Ministers ; Sanctifying the Lords day ; Keeping of Monethly and other Fasts ; Celebrating speciall dayes of thanksgiving for sundry Discoveries & Victories : Prohibiting the printing of erroneous books : Suppressing Antinomians , Socinians , Anabaptists , and other Sectaries ; Abolishing all Innovations , Superstitions , Idolatreus pictures , Images , Altars , Copes , Tapers , Royals , &c. Payment of Tythes , Probate of Wills , Ordination of Ministers ; and above all , their nominating and convening an Assembly of conscientious , pious , reverend , learned , orthodox Divines , to assist them in reforming all errors and corruptions in Doctrine , Worship , Government , Discipline , and establishing such a pure Worship and Church-government in our Realme , as shal be most agreeable to Gods Word ( wherein they have made a large progresse already , the Directory for Worship being now finished ; and we expect a full accomplishment of this much desired Worke , ere long . ) All these , with infinite other particulars , are a most satisfactory and unanswerable evidence of the Parliaments jurisdiction , and Legislative power in all matters of Religion , Worship , Government , Discipline , and other Ecclesiasticall things or proceedings whatsoever : none of which have ever been settled among us in any age in a legall and obligatory way , but onely in and by Parliaments . I shall close up these 〈◊〉 Domestick authorities with the Ordinance of both Houses of Parliament concerning the present Assembly of Divines ; ( wherein all may clearly discerne the jurisdiction of our Parliaments in all Church affaires , matters of Religion , and over the Assembly it selfe , ) together with the Instructions or Ruled prescribed to the Assembly ( which they have punctually observed , and submitted to ) not yet in print . An Ordinance of the Lords and Commons in Parliament , for the calling of an Assembly of learned and godly Divines , and others , to be consulted with , by the Parliament , for the setling of the Government and Liturgy of the Church of England . and for vindicating and clearing of the Doctrine of the said Church . from false uspertions , and interpretations . WHereas amongst the infinite blessings of Almighty God upon this Nation , none is , or can be more deate unto us , then the purity of our Religion , and for that as yet many things remaine in the Lyturgy , Discipline and Government of the Church , which doe necessarily require a further and more perfect reformation , then as yet hath been attained : And whereas it hath been declared and resolved by the Lords and Commons assmbled in Parliament , that the present Church-Government by Archbishops , Bishops , their Chancellors Commissaries , Deanes Deanes and Chapters . Archdeacons , and other Ecclesiasticall Officers depending upon the Hierarchy , is evill and justly offensive and bu●thensome to the Kingdome , a great impediment to reformation and growth of Religion , and very prejudicial to the state and government of this Kingdome and that therefore they are resolved that the same , shall be taken away , and that such a Government shall be setled in the Church as may be most agreeable to Gods holy Word , and most apt to procure and preserve the peace of the Church at home , and neerer agreement with the Church of Scotland , and other reformed Churches abroad , and for the better effecting hereof and for the vindicating , and clearing of the doctrine of the Church of England . from all false calumnies and aspersions , It is thought fit and necessary to call an Assembly of learned godly , and judicious Divines , who together with some members of both the Houses of Parliament are to consult and advise of such matters and things , touching the premises , as shall be proposed unto them by both or either of the Houses of Parliament and to give their advice and counsell therein to both or either of the said Houses , when and as often as they shall be thereunto requited . Be it therefore ordained by the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled , That all and every the person● hereafter in this present Ordinance named , that is to say , Algernon Earl of Northumberland . William Earle of Bedford , Phillip Earle of Pembroke and Montgemery , William Earle of Salisbury , Henry Earle of Holland Edward Earle of Manchester , William Lord Viscount Say and Seale Edward Lord Viscount Conway , Phillip Lord Wharton , Edward Lord Howard of Estr . John Selden Esquite . Francis Rows Esquire , Edmund Prideaux Esqui●e , Sir Henry Vane Knight Senior , Iohn Glyn Esquire , Recorder of London , Iohn White Esquire , Bouldstrode Whi●locke Esquire , Humphrey Salloway Esquire , Master Serjeant Wilde Oliver , Saint Iohn Esquire his Majesties Sollicitor , Sir Benjamin Rudyard Knight John Pym Esquier , Sir Iohn Clotworthy Knight , Iohn Maynard Esquire , Sir Henry Vane Knight , junior , William Pierpoint Esquiet , William Wheeler Esquier , Sir Thomas Barrington Knight , Walter-Young Esquier , Sir Iohn Euelin Knight Herbert Palmer of Ashwell Batchellor in Divinity , Oliver Boles of Sutton Batchellor in Divinity Henry Wilkinson of Waddesdon Batchellor in Divinity , Thomas Valentine of Chalsont Giles Batchellor in Divinity , D. William Twisse of Newbury ( with sundry other Divines mentioned in this Ordinance ) and such other person and persons , as shall be nominated and appointed by both Houses of Parliament , or so many of them as shall not be lefted by sicknesse or other necessary impediment , shall meet and assemble , and are hereby required and enjoyned upon summons signed by the Clerkes of both Houses of Parliament , left at their severall respective dwellings , to meete and assemble themselves at Westminster in the Chapell called King Henry the sevenths Chappell on the first day of July in the yeare of our Lord , one thousand six hundred fort●y three : and after the first meeting , being at least of the number of forty , shal from time to time sit & be removed from place to place and also that the said Assembly shall be dissolved in such manner as by both Houses of Parliament shall be directed ; And the said persons , or so many of them as shall be so Assembled , or sit , shall have power and Authority , and are hereby likewise enjoyned , from time to time during this present Parliament , or untill further Order be taken , by both the said Houses to con●erre and treat amongst themselves of such matters and things , touching and concerning the Liturgy , discipline and Government of the Church of England , or the vindicating and clearing of the doctrine of the same from all false aspertions and misconstructions . AS SHALL BE PROPOSED VNTO THEM BY BOTH OR EITHER OF THE SAID HOVSES OF PARLIAMENT , AND NO OTHER , and to deliver their opinions and advices of or touching the matters aforesaid , as shall be most agreeable to the Word of God. TO BOTH OR EITHER OF THE SAID HOVSES , FROM TIME TO TIME , IN SVCH MANNER AND SORT , AS BY BOTH OR EITHER OF THE SAID HOVSES OF PARLIAMENT , SHALL BE REQVIRED , and the same not to divulge by printing , writing , or otherwise , without the consent of both or either House of Parliament . And be it further ordained by the authority aforesaid , that William Twisse Doctor in Divinity , shall sit in the Chaire as Prolocutor of the said Assembly ; and if he happen to die or be letted by sickenesse or other necessary impediment , then such other person to be appointed in his place , as shall be agreed on , by both the said Houses of Parliament ; And in case , any difference of Opinion shall happen amongst the said persons so assembled , touching any the matters , that shall be proposed to them as aforesaid , that then they shall represent the same , together with the reasons thereof to both or either the said Houses respectively , to the end such further direction may be given therein , as shall be requisite in that behalfe . And be it further Ordained by the authority aforesaid , That for the Charges and expences of the said Divines , and every of them , in attending the said service , there shall be allowed unto every of them that shall so attend , during the time of their said attendance , and for ten dayes before and ten dayes after , the summe of foure shillings for every day , at the charges of the Common-wealth , at such time and in such manner as by both Houses of Parliament shall be appointed . And be it further Ordained , that all and every the sayd Divines so , as aforesaid , required and enjoyned to meet and assemble , shall be freed and acquitted of and from every offence , forfeiture , penalty , losse or damage which shall or may arise or grow by reason of any Non-residence or absence of them or any of them , from his or their , or any of their Church , Churches , or Cures , for , or in respect of their sayd attendance upon the sayd Service any Law or Stature enjoyning their attendance upon their respective Ministeries or Charges to the contrary thereof notwithstanding ; and if any of the persons before named shall happen to die before the sayd Assembly shall be dissolved by Order of both Houses of Parliament , then such other person or persons shall be nominated and placed in the roome and stead of such person and persons so dying , as by both the sayd Houses shall be thought fit and agreed upon : And every such person or persons so to bee named shall have the like Power and Authority , Freedome , and acquittall to all intents and purposes , and also all such wages and allowances for the said service , during the time of his or their attendance as to any other of the sayd persons in this Ordinance is by this Ordinance limited and appointed . Provided alwayes ; that this Ordinance or any thing therein contained , shall not give unto the persons aforesaid or any of them , nor shall they in this Assembly assume to exercise any Iurisdiction , Power , or Authority Ecclesiasticall whatsoever , or any other Power , then is herein particularly expressed . Some generall Rules for the Assembly , directed by the Lords and Commons in Parliament Assembled . 1. THat two Assessors be joyned to the Prolocutor to supply his place in case of absence or infirmity . 2. Two Scribes to be appointed to set down all proceedings , and these to be Divenes who are not Members of the Assembly , viz. Master Henry Rowberry , and Master Adoniran Byfeild . 3. Every Member at his first entrance into the Assembly , shall make a serious and solemne Protestation , not to maintain any thing but what he believes to be the truth , and to embrace Truth in sincerity when discovered to him . 4. No resolution to be given upon any question on the same day wherein it is first p●rpounded . 5. What any man undertakes to prove as necessary , he shall make good out of the Scriptures . 6. No man to proceed in any dispute after the Prolocuter hath enjoyned him silence ( unlesse the Assembly desire he may go on . ) 7. No man to bee denied to enter his dissent from the Assembl● , and his 〈◊〉 for it , in any point , after it hath beene first Debated in the Assembly , And thence ( if the dissenting party desire it ) to be sent to the Houses of Parliament by the Assembly ( not by any particular man or men in a private way ) when either House shall require it . All things agreed 〈◊〉 and prepared for the Parliament , to be openly read and allowed in the Assembly ( if the major part assent . ) Provided that the opinion of any persons dissenting and the reasons urged for it , be annexed thereunto ( if the Dissenters require it ) Together with Solutions ( if any were ) given in the Assembly to these Reasons . Jo : Browne Cler. Parliamentorum . Having thus sufficiently evidenced the authority and jurisdiction of Parliaments in matters of Religion , and Church affaires , by these numerous punctuall & irrefragable Presidents in all Ages ; give me leave to add these two considerations to them to demonstrate this their undoubted right and priviledge beyond all contradiction , and silence every adverse tongue , Pen , of all Papists , Anabaptists , Brownists , Separatists , or Independents whatsoever . First , that all our ancient and moderne a Writs for summoning a Parliament , have ever had this speciall clause in them . Pro quibusdam ardnis & ungentibus negotiis , Nos , statum , & defensionem Regni Angliae & ECCLESIAE ANGLICANAE , concernentibus , qu●ddam Parliamentum , &c. teneri ordinavaimus . From whence it is most apparent ; That the state and defence of the Church of England , and well ordering of the same , is one Principall end of summoning Parliaments and one maine part of the subject matters of our Parliaments , as Sir Edward Cooke resolves . 2ly That all & every of the pre●ended opposites to Parliaments Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction , hand formely ▪ and none especially in the present Parliament , addressed severall Petitions to this High and Honorable Court , for Reformation of the Church , suppression of haeresies , Errors , Idolatry , Popery , Superstition , Schismes , Prela●y , and establishing Gods true worship , Religion , Ordinances , Discipline , as to the most proper Iudicature Tribunall , Lawgiver in our Church , which they could resort unto , and not to the Convocation , or any other Assembly of Clergy-men alone , or Independent Congregation . To give you some few remarkable instances ( besides those formerly remembred ) instead of infinite others , which I pretermit for brevity . Our famous English Apostle , b Iohn Wickelesse , as he professedly maintained in K. Richard the second his Raigne ; That any Clergy-man , yea the Pope himselfe , might lawfully be reprehended accused and corrected by Lay-men , That the temporall Lords and Princes might lawfully and meritoriously take the possessions and Revenues from the Church , and from Ecclesiasticall persons offending habitually , &c. to the end they might reforme them ; And that they were obliged to reforme the Church and Prelates , under paine of being traitours to Iesus Christ : So likewise in the fifth year of this King he c Writ and sent to the Lords and great men assembled at London IN PARLIAMENT seven Propositions ; tending to the abolishing of the Popes usurped power and exactions ; to selfe the temporalities of Deli●●●ent Bishops ; to remove Bishops and Clergy-men from all secular imployments ; 〈◊〉 reforme the abuses of Excommunications , and imprisonments upon ( them ; ) to 〈◊〉 Transubstantiation , and reforme the Churches both to 〈…〉 the particulars whereof you may read at large in 〈◊〉 . And 〈◊〉 long after , his learned Disciple William 〈◊〉 ( a Marty● being unjustly condemned by the Bishop of Hereford for maintaining Wickliffes opinions , appealed to the King and Parliament against it ; and withall writ a pious d Letter to the Parliament ( recorded by Master Fox ) which concludes thus . Deare worshipfull Sirs in this world , Theseech you for Christs love as ye yet 〈◊〉 loven Gods Law and Truth ( that in these dayes is greatly borne abacke ) that they wollen vouchsafe these things that I send you written to Gods worship , to let them be shewed IN THE PARLIAMENT , as your wits can best conceive to most worship to our God , and to shewing of the truth , AND AMENDING OF HOLY CHVRCH . My conc●usions , and mine● appeale , and other true matters of Gods Law ( if any can finde in them error falsenesse or default , privet by the Law of Christ clearly to christian mens knowledge ) I shall revoke my wrong conceit , & by Gods law be amended ; more ready to hold with Gods law openly and privily with Gods grace , and nothing to hold , teach or maintain that is contrary to his Law. By which he made that very Parliament Iudges of his Doctrine had reformers of the Church , though for the most part Papists in those dayes . On the contrary side , the very Papists Prelates Clergy and Convocation in those times did likewise Petition the King and Parliament for suppression of haereticall opinions Preachers Bookes , Schooles , Conventi●les and the punishment and restraint of hereticks , sectaries , haereticall preachers and Schoolmasters ( as they deemed them ) and upon their prayer and importunity , the Statutes of 5. R. 2 〈…〉 5. ●2 H. 4. c. 15. ● H. 5. c. 7. ( to which the Commons never consented ▪ were made and 〈◊〉 to that purpose , as is evident by the very words of the Acts themselves ? Master Fox his Acts and Monuments vol. 1. Edi● 〈◊〉 p. 773. And it is as evident , that the Popish Commons Petition was the cause of the Statute of 25 H. 8. c. 14. For the punishment of heresie : and the Popish Clergyes importunity to King Henry the eight his motion to the Parliament , the occasion of the bloudy Statue of 31 H. 8. c. 14. 34. H. c. 8. 1. as the words of the Acts , and Master Fox demonstrate : both King and Clergy , Nobles and Commons even in these times of Popery deeming our parliaments the meetest Iudges , and only lawgivers for ordering Church affaires and matters of Religion . About the 37. yeare of King Henry the 〈◊〉 , Roderick Morse once a Grey 〈◊〉 , published a book in print , 〈◊〉 A complaint to the Parliament house of England , directed to the Parliament ; wherein he demonstrates many abuses and corruptions of the Church and Clergy of England in those dayes both in matter of Doctrine , Worship , Discipline , manners ; which he earnestly presseth , petitioneth the Parliament effectually to reforme by wholsome Lawes and Edicts as a thing most properly belonging to their place and Iurisdiction , as the whole booke manifests : which had been very absurd , had the Parliament been no , meer Iudge of Religion and Church affaires , and no 〈◊〉 Reformers of these abuses by Lawes and punishments , as some now repute them . In King Edward the sixt Queene Maries , and Queene Elizabeths severall Raignes , the Clergie and 〈◊〉 made their Petitions and addresses to the Parliament for setling , reforming , establishing all matters of Religion , Church-government and discipline as the forementioned Statutes , with multitudes of Petitions and bookes printed and dedicated to the Parliaments in their severall Raigns demonstrate ; especially 1. and 2. Phili. and Mary c. 6. 8. 1 Eliz. c. 1. 2. 4. 8. Eliz. c. 1. Two admonitions to the Parliament . Anno. 1572. Iohn Penry his supplication to the Parliament , and others . The Petitions to all the severall Parliaments in * King Iames his Raigne and our present Soveraignes , ( but more especially to this present Parliament ) from all sorts of people in every County of the Realme ; from Laity and Clergy , Protestants of all sorts , as well Presbyterians a● Independents , yea from Antinomians , Anabaptists , Brownists , and Schismatickes of all sorts , to reforme Religion , especially Church-government , set up the Ordinances and worship of God in their purity , and settle all matters of Doctrine , Discipline , Government by Act of Parliament as neere as might be to the word , by the assistance of a godly learned Assembly of Divines ; the daily calling of Ministers of all sorts upon , the Parliam . to pursue this work , the prayers of all piously affected to Almighty God both publickly and privately , to assist them extraordinarily from Heaven in this great weighty spirituall building ; together with the Assemblies submission of all their determinations to the Parliaments alteration , approbation or rejection , and the Independents own addresses , Petitions , & late tender of the reasons of their dissent from the Assembly to them ; is ( to my weak approbation ) a most irrefragable ▪ Argument and publicke acknowledgement of their undoubted right , and Legislative power in all Ecsiasticall affaires of what nature and quality soever ; and that all parties ought readily to submit to their just determinations in point of practise , and obedience in all these particulars , whereof they have thus unanimously and importunately from time to time petitioned them to be Iudges . There is no party or Sectary whatsoever , which hath formerly petitioned them in this kinde but would preach and write for universall obedience to that forme of Church-government the Parliament should settle and establish , provided it suited fully with their particular way which they judge the truest and most consonant to Scripture : and if they should once authorize or settle the Independents ( hitherto concealed ) way , I am confident they would all preach universall obedience & submission to it , under pain of contumacy haeresie , schisme , and the severest penalties Ecclesiasticall or civill since they write as much in effect already in their Pamphlets ; * and that this their way , may reasonably ( yea and upon higher terms then of reason ) be thought in time , that it cannot but overthrow all other sorts of Ecclesiasticall Government , and stand up it selfe in their stead . If then every side be of this minde in case the Parliament determine for their party , then why should not all be willingly concluded & satisfied with what they shall rightly determine , be it for or against their way , since they have all appealled to their judgements alike ; which must either be altogether fruitlesse and un-obliging to any , or els indifferently binde all to voluntary or enforced conformity . Add to this , that all or most of our opposites in this point of Parliaments juri●diction and Legislative power in Ecclesiasticall matters , have freely submitted themselves to the Protestation . Vow , and solemne Nationall Covenant imposed and prescribed by the Parliament , which enjoyne them under paine of highest Perjury , with their lives and estates to maintain and defend the ancient rights and priviledges of Parliament , and this we now debate as well as any other . That they have generally acknowledged and obeyed the Parliaments Iurisdiction in prescribing publick monethly Fasts , and others upon speciall occasions , with publicke dayes of thanksgiving ; together with their power and Ordinances to suppresse all prophanations of the Lords day , with many other abuses , Sects , Errors in Church affaires ; which hath for ever estopped them to quarrell or deny the Parliaments Legislative Iurisdiction in any other particulars of Church-government , Discipline , or Religion , which suite not with their humors or opinions . I shall conclude this point concerning Our own Parliaments Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction with the determination of our incomparable Jewell , which hath more reall worth and value in it , then the contrary opinion of thousands of opposites ( being alwayes hitherto reputed the received Doctrine of the Church of England ) and with Bishop Bilson , a very solid Writer . This reverend learned e Jewell in his Apologie hath this passage , concerning the establishment of the Protestant Religion among us , That the matter hath been treated in open PARLIAMENT , with long consultation , and before a notable SYNOD and CONVOCATION . Master ●●●ding his Antagonist An●●gonist , answering thereunto just as some Independen●● ; and others ( who protest they have abjured all Popery , though they follow it herein to an haires breadth ) do now : The Parliaments of these later dayes did make most of you , and yet how open was it for you ? had ye any pla●e at all in it ? were ye admitted within the doores ? or had ye any thing to do in that assembly ? Did they tarry many moneths about it ? had they Bishops ? had they Divines and the most learned to reason too and fro with all Liberty , & c. ? How many of the spirituall Lords ( a great part of the Parliament , and without all doubt the part which must be chiefly and only regarded when the questiones of Religion ) gave their voyce to your Gospell ? yea , which of them did not resist it , save 〈◊〉 alone & c ? If they will needs have their matters to depend of THEIR PARLIAMENT , let us not be blamed , if we call it PARLIAMENT RELIGION PARLIAMENT GOSPEL , PARLIAMENT FAITH : This learned Bishop returnes the ensuing reply to him : That the Parliament war summoned by royall Authority , confirmed and concluded in Order , as heretofore hath been used : That a Parliament might be held and Acts passed without the consent and agreement of Lords Spirituall ( for which he produceth sundry examples . ) Farther , whereas ye call the Doctrine of Christ that now by Gods great mercy , and to your great griefe , is universally and freely preached a PARLIAMENT RELIGION , and a PARLIAMENT GOSPEL ( for such sobriety becometh you well , and may stand you instead , when learning fayleth ) ye might have remembred , that Christ himselfe at the begining was universally received , and honoured through this Realme BY ASSENT OF PARLIAMENT ▪ and further , that WITHOUT PARLIAMENT , your POPE himselfe was never received , no not in the late time of Queen Mary : yea , and even then his Holinesse was clogged with PARLIAMENT CONDITIONS , that whatsoever had beene determined in Parliament , and was not repealed , were it never so contrary to 〈…〉 and Canons , should remain still inviolable , and stand in force . 〈…〉 Holinesse had gone home again . Such Master Harding is the Authority of a Parliament . Verily it Parliaments of Realmes be no Parliaments , then will your Pope be no Pope . Therefore as you now call the truth of God we professe , a Parliament Religion , and a Parliament Gospel , even so with 〈…〉 and gravity of speech , you might have sayd , our Fathers in old times had a Parliament Christ : And your late Father● and Brethren , had of late in the time of Queene Mary , a Parliament Faith , a Parliament 〈◊〉 , a Parliament Pope . Neither is it so strange a matter to see Ecclesiasticall causes debated in Parliament ; read the Lawes of King Inas King El●●ede , King Edward , King Ethelstan , King Edmond , King 〈◊〉 , King Canute , and ye shall finde , that our Godly Forefathers , the Princes and Peers of this Realme , never vouchsafed to entreat of matters of Peace , of Warre , or otherwise touching the Common State , before all controversies of Religion and causes Ecclesiasticall had beene concluded , King Canute in his Parliament holden at Winchester upon Christmas day after sundry Lawes and Orders made , touching the faith , the keeping of holy Dayes , publike prayers , learning of the Lords Prayer , receiving of the Communion thrice in the yeare , the manner and forme of Baptisme , fasting and other like matters of Religion , in the end thereof saith thus . Iam sequitur institutum Legum secularium : Now followeth an Order for temporall Lawes . Thirdly we see , that the Godly Catholique Princes in old times , thought is their duty , before all other offices of the Common weale , first to determine matters of Religion , and that even BY THE PARLIAMENTS OF THIS REALME . In a Parliament holden by King William the Conquerer it is written thus : The King , for as much as he is the Vicar of the highest King , is therefore appointed for this purpose , that he should Rule and defend the Kingdome and People of the Lord ; and above all things the holy Church : &c. Hereby it appeareth , that Kings and Princes are specially , and of purpose appointed by God , not only to defend , but also to Governe and Rule the holy Churh , How be it , if any imperfection shall appeare in the former Parliaments , we give God thankes for the same , that is : and trust , that for his owne names sake he will confirme what he hath begun . The hearts of Princes , and determinations of Parliaments , are in his hands : If any thing want , the arme of the Lord is not Shorted : he is able to supply the same . So our incomperable Iewell : enough to satisfie and silence all our Opposites , f Thomas Bilson Warden and afterwards Bish . of Winchester , bringing in the Prelates and Iesui●s objecting against our reformed Protestant Religion , that it was brought in and ratified , not by a Councell and Synod of the Clergy ; but by the Prince , ( Queene Elizabeth ) and the Parliament ; who ( say they ) had no power to determine or deliberate of those matters , returnes this answer : May not the Prince command for truth within hee Realme except your consents be first required and had● May not her Highnes serve Christ in making laws for Christ , without your likeing ? Claime you this interest and prerogative , that without you nothing shall be done in matters of Religion , by the Laws of God , or by the liberties of this Realme ? By the Lawes of the land you have no such priviledges : Parliaments have beene kept by the King and his Barons , the. Clergy wholy excluded , and their Acts and statutes good . And when the Bishops were present , their votes from the Conquest to this day were never negative ; By Gods Law you have nothing to do with making Lawes of Kingdoms or Common wealthes : You may teach , you may not command : persuasion is your part compulsion is the Princes . If Princes imbrace the truth , you must obey them . If they pursue truth , you must abide them . By what authority then claim you this Dominion over Princes , that their laws for Religion shall be voyde unles you consent , seeing they are the maintainers , establishers , and upholders of the faith , with publique power and positive Lawes ? which they and their Parliaments may make without a precedent councel of Clergy men to guid them ; as he there proves at large , by sundry presidents . If any Concurre not with me in this undoubted Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction of Christian Princes and Parliaments after all these pregnant testimonies , I must tell them in plaine english , they directly violate their late vow and Covenant , and symbol●e herein with Jesuites and Popish Prelates , whose doctrines they have abjured by their Nationall Covenant , and therefore cannot , may not ever hereafter emb●ace without the highest Perjury and plaine Apostacy unto Popery . I shall finish this Section of the Authority and power of Parliaments in matters of Religion , Church-government , Discipline and enacting Lawes in all and every of these particulars , with some forraigne presidents in the Parliaments , Diers , & Assemblyes of Estats in other Realme & republikes . Should I now relate unto you the many ecclesiasticall Laws of all sorts made in them , I might swell this Treatise into many folio volumes , I shal therefore only give you a brief touch & catalogue of some few , which the Studious may peruse & make use of at their leisure . For FRANCE ; you may survey the Decrees of King Childebert , debated and agreed by him and his people in a Parliament , de quibuscunque conditionibus , una cum Optimatibus nostris , c. 2. 4. & c. 15. For sanctifying the Lords Day , prohibiting the dressing of any but necessary food on it , & all Bodily labour under pecuniary mulcts . The ecclesiasticall laws of Charles the great , Ludovicus pius , & Charles the Bald , collected into one volum by Abbot Ansegisus , Benedictus Levita , Lindebrogus , & others , printed with some pettinent additions Parisijs , 1640. stiled g Capitula Regum , & Episcoporum , Maximeque OMNIVM NOBILIVM FRANCORVM ; were made , GENERALI CONSENSV PIDPLIVM SKORVM , ET GENERALI CONSVLTV , ET COMMVNI , CONCILIO by generall consent of the King Bishops and especially of the Nobles and states of France , in Common Councells , Parliaments and Assemblies of the estates . Who had so great a power in making rejecting Canons & ecclesiasticall Lawes , that when in the h yeare 846. the Bishops of France and their suffragans had in their Synods compiled certaine Canons by the command of Charles the Bald and tendered them to him as he had commanded in Sparna● a Village of the Church of Rhaemes , to peruse and approve ; the King , Dissidentibus regni sui PRIMORIBVS ab eorundem episcoporum admonition● by reason that the Nobles and other men of his Realme differed from the Bishops in opinion in most of those Canons , the King and Nobles , out of all their Canons or Chapters , haec tantum observanda & complacenda sibi colligerunt & Episcopis scripto tradiderunt , dicentes , NON AMPLIVS DE FORVM CAPJTVLIS ACCEPTASSE QVAM ISTA , ET ISTASE VELLECVM PRINCIPE OBSERVARE : which were Stiled Captule Regis CAROLI , & not the Bishops Canons . By which it is evident , that no ecclesiasticall lawes or Canons could be made in France to bind either Clergy or Laity , but such at the King , Nobles , Parliament , and three estates approved and confirmed , I shall add to this , that . Anno 1307. King Philip the 4. of France assembled a Parliament at Paris , wherein the Laity of France exhibited 65. Articles against the Clergy to regulate their jurisdiction and abuses , i which were there largely handled and debated , as you may read at leisure in Masters Fox ( who records the passages very fully ) & in the French Histories . What the Parliament & Estates in France have done & enacted in matters of Religion , Church-Government and discipline of ancient and latter times , you may read at large in Liurentius , Bochellus his Decreta Ecclesiae Gallicaiae , in Carolus Molinaeus Contra parvas Datas , &c. in William Ranchin , his Survay of the Councel of Trent : but above all , in Antonie Fontanon his Les Edicts et Ordonnances dos Royes de France , A Paris 1585. Tom. 4. throughout , wherein you may see an whole Folio volume of Ecclesiasticall Lawes and Edicts made by the Kings and Parliaments of France , to which ( for brevity ) I shall remit the Reader . For Spain , the forecited Councels of Toledo ( which were but Parliament and assemblies of the Estates ) The lawes of the Wisigothis , especially lib. 1● De removendis OMNIVM HAERETICORVM SECTIS exterms , & DE OMNIVM HAERETICORVM ATQVE IVDAEORVM ERRORIBVS AMPVTANDIS : which you may read at large in the third some of Hisp●● Illustrata : p. 992. to 1014. and in Fredericus Lindebrogus , his Codex Legum Antiquarum . France-furtii , 1613. p. 210 to 238. together with the Generall history of Spain , Joannes de Laet. Hispaniae Descriptio , Hieronimus Blanca Rerum Arragenensium Commentarius , will furnish us with sufficient Presidents of their Parliaments Iurisdiction in matters of Religion , and making Ecclesiasticall Lawes in all Church matters . For Bohemia : Georgius Bartholdus Pontanus , his Bohaemia pia , l. 7. De Rebus Gestis sub Ludovico Rege lib. 1. c. 8 , 9 , 10 , 12 , 24 , 25 , 21 , 29 , 30 , 31. lib. 2. c. 3 , to 24. l. 3. c. 2 , 6. l. 4. c , 1 , 711 , , 18 , 33 , 34. Pauli Geschinii Majestas Carolina , sine Constitutiones Caroli 4 Romani Imperatoris , quibus illo Regni●● Bohemiae firmandum ornandumque censuit Handviae 1607 , Rubr. 1. De fide Catholica ; Rub. 2 , 4 5. De hareticis , &c. Aeneas Sylvius , his Historia . 〈◊〉 Pauli Stranhii . Respub . Bohemiae : Master Fox his Acts and Monuments 〈…〉 & Grimstons Imperiall History , will furnish us with sundry Presidents , where their Kings and Parliaments have determined and settled matters of Religion and Church-government in that Kingdome , not Synods of their Clergy . For Denmarke , Hungary , Poland , and Sueden , the Lawes and Historians of these Kingdomes , abundantly testifie that their Parliaments and generall Assemblies of State , have alwayee settled matters of religion and Church-government . See Guagninus , Chromerus , Saxogrammaticus Pontanus , Chy●●● Rer um Ungarirarum Scriptores . For Italy , I find that Theodoricus King of Italy ; among his temporall Laws intiteled , Edictum Theodorici Regis , hath many Ecclesiasticall constitutions , intermixed , as cap. 26. 70. 71 168 , 125 , 143. and 174. De die Dominico , prohibiting arrests or citations thereon . The like I finde among the Lawes of the ( b ) Burgundians , made by Gundebald their K. by the advise and consent of his Nobles ( Coram positis Optimatibus nostris , universa pensavimus & iam nostra quam eorum sententia , mansuris in aeuum legibus sumpsimus statuta praescribi ) cap. 28. 44 , 45. 51. ● Additamenti primi , cap. 18. Additamentum , 2. cap. 12. Among the Lawes of the m Almains made in the time of King Chlotair , ( una cum Principibus suis , id sunt 33. Episcopis & 33. Ducibus & 72. Concitibus , vel cetero populo consti●●ta est , writes my Author ) I finde sundry Ecclesiasticall Lawes intermixed with temporall , as cap. 1. 24. and cap. 38. De eo qui die DOMINICO opera servilia fecerit : Which first enacts : Die dominico nemo opera servilia prasumat facere , quia hoc Lex prohibet ; & sacra Scriptura in omnibus contradicit : And then prescribes bast inadoing to a servant that shall worke on the Lords day ; and to a freeman after three admonitions , the forfeiture of the third part of his inheritance ; and for the 4th offence , perpetuall villainage : Quia noluit Deo vacare , in sempiernum servus perman●●● . In the Lawes of the n Bavarians , first compiled by King Theodoricus , by the advise of Wisemen skilfull in the Lawes : afterwards proceeded in by King Childebert , and Clothaire , and renued by King Dagobert , by advise of his Parliament , ( as this Preface to them attests : Hoc DECRETUM est apud Regem & Principes ejus ● apud CUNCTUM POPULUM CHRITIANUM qui intra Regnu●● 〈◊〉 consistunt ) I finde the first Title to bee , DE ECCLESIASTIC IS REBVS ; De libris legum justitutionum qua ad CLERVM pertinent : Concerning whom there were many very good Lawes enacted . I meet with sundry Lawes made by Tassilo Duke of Bavaria , Anno Do. 772. o Et per PRIMATES Imperij , unmerso CONSENTENTE MVLTITVDINE , &c. Est ab universis uno ore confirmatum , &c. Many of which Lawes are meerely Ecclesiasticall : As the first , for the honour and sanctifying of the LORDS DAY , Sicut in Lege Scriptum est , & in decretis Canonum , and cap. 2 , 3 , 4 , 6. De Popularibus legibus , cap. 10. 11 , 12 , 20. So also in the Aditions of Charles the Emperour to the Bavarian Lawes Addit . 1. c. 1. 8. and Addit . 2. cap. 7. 8 , 10. Among the p Lawes of the Saxons , cap , 2. sect . 8 , 9. There are some Lawes relating to the Church . In the q Prisons Laws , chap. 18. There is this Law concerning the LORDS DAY , Qui opus servile die Dominico fecerit , ultra Laubachi , sol : 12. in caeteris locis Prisiae 4. Sol. culpabilis indictum , Siseruus hoc fecerit , vapuletur , aut Dominus ejus 4. Solidos pro illo componet . Additio Sapientum ( to these Laws ) Tit. 1. and 12. Concerne the Church . Among the r Lawes of the Lombards , l. 1. tit . 2. chap. 2. lib. 2. tit . 8 , 38 , 39. lib. 3. tit . 1. De Episcopis & Clericis , tit . 3. De decimis . tit . 10. De Rect●●ibus Ecclesiarum , tit . 11. De Pontificibus , tit . 26. De excommunicatione and tit . 30. 32 , 40 , are wholly Ecclestasticall . ſ In the Lawes and Constitutions of those of Naple● and Sicily made in the yeare 1221. lib. r. tit . 1. 2. D● Haereticis & 〈◊〉 & eorum Receptoribus , Fauctoribus , &c. tit . 3. De Apostatis , tit . 5. De Crimine sacrilegij . tit . 7. De Decimis , and Tit. 29. 65 , 68. lib. 3. tit . 1. 2 , 3. 20 , 25 , 26 , 28 , 43 , 51 , 58 , 59. are meerely Ecclesiasticall concerning Religion , the Church , and Clergie . Not to mention the many Ecclesiasticall Lawers and edicts made by some of the Roman and Greeke Emperors , with the consent of their Senators , recorded in r Iustinian , in Codice Theodosij , lib. 16. throughout , and many of them inserted by Gratian himselfe into his Decrees and body of the Canon Law , and reduced under severall heads by Paulus Windeck in his Theologia Iuriscon●●●torum : & Canonum & Legum Consensus : Not to rehearse the many Lawes and edicts of the German Emperors Princes , Diets , touching Religion and Church affaires of all sorts , mentioned scatteringly in Abbas Us●eigensis , Sabellicus , Rerum Germanicarum Scriptures , Ioannes Aventinus Au●alium , Boyorum , Master Fox , Fasciculus Rerum expetendarum , Hermaennus 〈◊〉 . Grimstons Imperiall History , Constitutiones Imperat , Parisijs 1606. 〈◊〉 Comment ; Chytraus Chron : Saxoniae ; and Augustana Confessto fidei & Dictrina , Electorum , Principum , & Ordinum Imperij , atque corundem Theologorum qui Augustanam Confessionem amplectuntu● , subscribed by all the Protestant Princes , Dukes Earles , Barons , Councels , Senates & Senators of Germany : presented to the Emperor , and printed , yea reprinted , by all their speciall Commands , Lipsiae 1584. together with the severall Confession of all the Protestant Churches in Germany and elsewhere , recorded in the Harmony of Confessions ; which were made , published , established , by the severall Protestant States to Diets or Parliaments by common consent of the Nobles , Magistrates Senates , & Ministers of those Churches , not by the Clergy alone ) are a sufficient demonstration of their Ecclesiasticall legislative power and jurisdiction in all matters of Faith , Discipline , and Government . In few words , I dare averre , that there is never a forraigne Christian Empire , Kingdome or Republike in the world whether Protestant or Popish , but hath in their Parliaments , Diers Senates , made sundry Lawes concerning matters of Faith , Government , Discipline , Clergiemen , and all Ecclesiasticall affaires , yea for the establishment of that Religion , Church Government and Discipline in present use among them , as their severall Laws and Constitutions will abundantly manifest , to any who have vacancy to peruse them . I shall close up this Section , with some presidents of the Parliaments of Ireland , and Scotland , which have most affinity to the Parliaments of England . Among the printed Statutes of Ireland , collected by Master Belton : I mèet with these ensuing Ecclesiasticall Lawes made in the Parliaments of Ireland , 36. H. 6. c. 1. That Beneficed persons shall keep Residence , 7. E. 4. c. 2. 3. That none shall purchase Benefices from Rome , and that pardons made to such as purchase them thence shall be voyde , 10. H. 7. c. 5. Against provisors from Rome , 25. H. 8. c. 2. For uniting the Personage of Cantrim , to the Priory of Saint Peters , 28. H. 8. c. 5. That the King shall be supreame head of the Church of Ireland , ch . 8. and 26. For payment of first-fruits , ch . 13. Against the Authority of the Bishops of Rome and chap. 14. 17 , 18 , 23. For other Ecclesiasticall matters , 33. H. 8. c. 6. Conconcerning Mariages , cha . 12. For Tithes , chap. 14. For erecting of Vicaridges , 33. H. 8. Parl. 2. chap. 5. For suppressing religious houses , 2. Eliz : chap. 1. For restoring to the Crowne the ancient Iurisdiction , and the State Ecclesiasticall , and abolishing all forraigne power repugnant to the same , cha . 2. For the uniformity of Common prayer and service in the Church , chap. 3. Concerning , first fruits and Personages impropriate , c. 4. For the conferring and consecrating of Archbishops and Bishops : 11. Eliz. c. 6. and 13. Eliz. c. 6. with diverse others since . For Scotland , I finde many Ecclesiasticall Lawes concerning the Church , Church-men and all matters of Religion made in Parliament , and intermixed with their temporall Acts. To omit the u Ecclesiasticall Lawes of King Keneth , mixed with his Temporal , enacted about the Yeare of our Lord 844. In the Statutes of x K. William of Scotland made about the Yeare of our Lord 1170 : chap : 32. Is , For maintaining the true Religion , and the Rights and liberties of haly Kirke , chapter 34. Of the honesty of Clarkes , King Robert the first in his Parliament holden at Scone with his Bishops , Abbots , Priors Ea●i●s , Barons , and other Noblemen of his Realme , to the honour of God and haly Kirke , with common advise and consent of all the Prelates and Freeholders foresaide , and haile community in the 13. Yeare of his Raigne ( to wit Anno 1319 ) made a law , chapter 〈◊〉 . For the freedome of the Kirke and Kirkmen , and maintenance of true Religion : And the second Parliament of this King , chapter 1. Is , of Donation of Lands made to Religious persons : and chapter 14. Concernes Nunnes : Among the Statutes of King David the 2. the 12th chapter , is of Pilgranners ; and chapter 42. For freedome of holy Kirke . Not to mention all the statutes made in the Parliaments of Scotland in times of Popery , for advancing the Popes Authority , Masse , Prelacy , with sundry Doctrines and Ceremonies , abolished by subsequent Acts in times of Reformation ; I shall only give you a briefe account of some of their Acts of Parliament , since beginning of reformation in that Kingdome . I finde in Master John Knox his History of the reformation of the Church of Scotland , lib. 3 , pag : 56 , 57. in the London edition , ●644 . That in a Parliament held in Scotland : Anno 1543. there began question of the abolishing of certaine tyrannicall Acts made before , at the devotion of the Prelates , for the maintaining of their Kingdome of darknesse ; to wit : That under paine of Haeresy none should read any part of the Scripture in the vulgar Tongue , neither yet any Tractate or exposition of any place of Scripture : which Act , after great debate in Parliament betweene the Nobility , Commons , and Clergie , was wholly repealed ; and this Act of Parliament enacted : That it should be lawfull to every man to use the benefit of the Translations which then they had of the Old and New Testament , together with the benefis of other Treatises , containing wholsome doctrine , untill such time at the Prelates and other Church-men , should give and set forth unto them , a translation more correct . And so by Act of Parliament it was made free to all men , and women to reade the Scriptures in their vulgar tongue , and all Acts to the contrary abolished . This was no small victory of Christ Jesus , against the conjured enemies of his Verity . In the yeare * 155● of the Protestants in Scotland petitioned both the Queene Regent , and likewise the Lords Barons , Burgesses , assembled there in Parliament , for repeale of severall Lawes formerly made against Heritickes , for prayers in , their vulgar Tongue , frequent preaching or interpretation of the Scriptures , due administration of the Sacraments of Baptisme and the Lords Supper Reformation of the Church , Prelates and ecclesiasticall estate , their lives , Courts , and proceedings . And likewise entered a formall Protestation in the Parliament House . After this in the * yeare , 1560. The Protestant Barrons , Gentlemen Burgesses , and others of the Realme presented a large supplication to the Nobility 〈◊〉 States of Parliament then assembled ; wherein they desired ; the abolition of Idolatry , and such false Doctrin as w●e condemned by Gods word , by Act of that Parliament , and punishment to be appointed for the transgression : that the abuses and prosanations of the Sacraments of Jesus Christ , and of the true Discipline of the Church might be reformed . That the Popes usurped ecclesiasticall Authority might be abolished , and the Popish Clergy removed &c. Which application being read in the Audience of the whole Assembly ; the Batons Ministers & other Petitioners were thereupon commanded to draw into plaine and severall heads the summe of that Doctrine which they would maintaine , and desire the present Parliament to establish as wholsome true and only necessary to be beleived , and to be received within the Realme , which they willingly accepted , and within foure dayes presented a large Confession of the faith professed and beleived by the Protestants within the Realme of Scotland , consisting of 25. Articles : which were read in face of Parliament , and after ratified by the three States of this Realme , at Edinburgh the 17. of Iuly , 1560. and by the whole body of the Parliament ( which confession was againe ratified , Anno 1567. in the first Parliament of James the 6. ) After which there was an Act made against the Masse , and the sayers and heares thereof , and another Act : for the abolishing of the Pope and his usurped Authority in Scotland After this a forme of Church Government and discipline was presented to the Nobility to peruse ; but not then fully agreed on and setled . The like Petitions and , proceedings in ecclesiasticall affaires , I finde in the yeares , 1561. 1562. 1563. to 1580. 1581 1582. and that the Generall Assemblies of Scotland ( in nature of a Councell or Synod ) wherein they debated matters of Religion and Church-government , consisted not only of Ministers , but of Nobles , Gentlemen with other Laikes ; and that their resolutions and Acts were not thought obligatory unlesse ratified by special Acts of Parliament , by which they still petitioned they might be confirmed . Not to trouble the Reader over . long . I finde these ensuing ecclesiasticall Acts of Parliament in Scotland against provisions from Rome , Iam. 3. parl . 6. c. 43. Iam. 4. parl . 1. c. 4. parl . 5. c. 53. Iam. 5. paul 〈◊〉 . c. 119. Against Working , Gaming playing , haunting of Taverines , A●ch●uses , and using any sorvile worke on the SABOTH-DAY Iam. 4. parl . 6. c. 83. Iam , 6. parl . 6 : c. 70● parl . ●4 , c. 148 against Apostacy , Idolatry , Masse the Pope , Semeniary Priests ; Iesuites , uncommunicants , Popery : as Iam. 8. parl . 1. c. ● , 3 , 5. parl . 3. c. 1. 45 , 46. 55. parl . 4. c. 7 , 8. 35 parl● 7. c. 106. parl . 10. c. 24 , 27. parl . 12. c. 1 20. parl . 13. c. 60. parl . 14. c. 193. parl . 16. c. 17 , 18. parl . 19. c. 1. Against Adultery : Mat : parl . 5 ▪ c. 10. parl . 9. c. 74. Iam. 6. parl . 2. c. 14. parl . 7. c. 105 , with sundry others , which you may finde mentioned and recired in the 5 and 6 Acts of the second Parliament of King Charles at the Sessions holden at Edinburgh the eleventh day of Iune , 1640 & Regiam Majestat●● to which for brevity , 〈◊〉 referre the Reader . I shall conclude with , the Ecclesiasticall Acts made in the severall Sessions of the second Parliament of King Charles held at Edinburgh in the yeare 1640 , and 1642 , where in the presens government of the Church of Scotland , together with their profession of Faith , nationall Covenant , and all Ecclesiasticall matters whatsoever were fully settled and ratified . In the first Session of this Parliament , I finde these ensuing Ecclesiasticall 〈◊〉 enacted . Act. 4. 〈◊〉 the Ratification of the ACTS OF THE ASSEMBLY , which are recited in , and ratified approved , & perpetually confirmed by this law . Act. 5. Anent the Ratification of the Covenant , and of the Assemblies Supplication , Act of Councels and Act of Assymbly concerning the Covinant and confession of Faith ( formerly made and subscribed sundry times ) here in recited , and confirmed . In which Act sundry lawes formerly made against Popish Idolatry , superstitious Doctrine , Papists , Seminary priests , Iesuits , Papisticall Ceremonies , Masse , the Popes iurisdiction , the reformation of the Church , and maintenace of Gods true religion , are recapitulated , confirmed . Acts 6. Rescissory ; repealing divers former Acts concerning Archbishops , Bishops with other Prelates , their unjust jurisdiction and authority . Acts 7. For planting of Kirks unprovided with Ministers through the Patrons default . Acts 8. Anent admission of Ministers to Kirkes which belong to Bishopricks . Acts 9. discharging the going of Salt-pans and Milnes upon the Sabbath day . Acts 10. discharging , Salmon fishing upon the Sabbath day . Acts 11. Against Papists . Acts 12. discharging the Zule vacancy ( or Christmas ) Act 13. discharging Monday market in Edinburgh and elsewhere , as occasioning great prophanation of the Sunday , and distracting men from Gods publike worship and Service . Acts 14. For taking order with the abuse committed on the Sabbath day &c. Acts 15. Directing Letters of horning against excommunicated persons : to which I might adde Acts 16. 29 , 30. 32. 37 , 38 , having relation to the Church , and defence of Religion : And Session second of this Parliament , 1641. Acts 8. 9 10 , 11 , ( for abolishing the Monuments of Idolatry ) & 12. Anent Non-communicants and excommunicate persons , all printed ; besides sundry other Acts unprinted : are an abundant Evidence both of the Scottish & English Parliaments undoubted right jurisdiction , and authority in all matter of Religion , Discipline , and Church-government , maugre all inconsiderable late privateopinions to the contrary , by whomsoever broached . Section 4. Containing certain Corollaries from the premised Sections , against the Inpugners of Parliaments and Princes Legislative Power and Authority in matters of Church-government , Discipline , Religion : Together with a compleat Answer to Master Iohn Goodwins pretended Authorities , my deare Brother Burtons , and others Arguments to the contrary , in Iustificaetion of their Independent way , in some late Publications ; the substance whereof is here clearely refuted ; and this point among others , cleared ; That just humane Civill or Ecclesiasticall Lawes binde the conscience in point of obedience , And that there is no exact set forme of Church government universally prescribed in Scripture to all Churches . IN the precedent Sections , I have ( according to my solemne Covenant and Protestation ) abundantly cleared the ancient unquestionable Iurisdiction and Legislative Authority of our Kings and Parliaments in all matters of Religion , Church-government , Discipline , by multitudes of expresse Presidents in all Ages , and Authorities of all kindes : I shall in the next place Dissipate all those empty clouds of objections , which endeavour to obscure this clear-shining Verity ; by deducing some Corollaries from the premises , and then refuting the principle late objections against the same . The first Corollary is this : That Bishop Laudes desperate Positions , in his Anti-Parliamentary paper of Hopes and Feares , about calling a Parliament An. 1627. That Church-businesse is not fit for Parliaments : That the Parliament House , one or both , can be no competent Iudge in any point of Doctrine . That the Papists insult over us by this meanes , and call it Parliamentary Religion . That the King suffers by this as much or more than the Church : For in the Statute of submission of the Clergie , the King and the Convocation are Judges of all Ecclesiasticall Causes . An. 25 H. 8. c. 19. And why should the Parliament take this from either ? That he should have little hope of good successe in Parliament , till they leave medling with the Church . Are all dangerous false Positions , exceeding derogatory and destructive to the indubitable ancient Rights , priviledges , and power of our Parliaments , constantly exercised and enjoyed without dispute , even in the darkest times of Popery , and highest Ruffe of Pope , of Prelates ; and ever since the Reformation admitted without any opposition but by Popish Priests and Iesuits , * as the forequoted passages of Bishop Jewell , and Bishop Bilson , withall the premises manifest . Secondly , That Master John Goodwins late printed passages against the Ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Parliaments ( seconded in substance by some * other Independents ) viz. * That the generality and promiscuous multitude of the world , who have a right of nominating persons to Parliamentary trust and power , are but a SECVLAR ROOT , out of which the Independent Brethren CONCEIVE AN IMPOSSIBILITY that a spirituall extraction should be made : That a man may as well bring a cleane thing out of an uncleane ( in Iobs expression ) as make A SPIRITVALL EXTRACTION out of this SECVLAR ROOT , who have NO Authority nor power from Christ to nominate or appoint who shall be the men that shall order the affaires of Christs Kingdom or institute the government of his Church . That therefore there is AN IMPOSSIBILITY , that a legitimate Ecclesiasticall power , should according to the minde of Christ , or any precept or prefident of Scripture , be by them conferred VPON ANY MAN , OR THAT THE PERSONS SO ELECTED SHOVLD HAVE A POWER by vertue of such nomination or election TO ENACT LAWES OR STATVTES IN MATTERS OF RELIGION , and TO ORDER VNDER MVLCTS & PAENATIES , HOW MEN SHALL WORSHIP and SERVE GOD &c. Are diametrally opposite to the ancient priviledges and undoubted Ecclesiagicall Authority of Parliaments , which they pluck up by the very roots ; and altogether as bad as , if not far worse than Bishop Laudes , with whom he symbolizeth in this particular , ( which I have * elswhere answered & fully resuted . ) These Passages of his were first unseasonably vented by him in a Sermon in Colemanstreet , 25 February 1643. to what other end , unlesse to prepare his Auditors to slight or reject what ever forme of Church-government the Parliament should prescribe or settle , I cannot discerne ; for which ( with other particulars ) being questioned before the Committee for plundered Ministers , even pending the complaint there , he presumed to justifie them againe very unseasonably in the Pulpit on a solemne Fast day , and likewise in two printed Books to one wherof he prefixed his name , in high affront of that Committee which suspended him and contempt of the Parliaments Authority not to be paralleld in any age , by any person , for ought I finde . Which audaciousnesse of his , who pretended so much respect and honour to the Parliament heretofore , engaged me ( according to my Covenant and Protestation , ) to give a publicke answer in print to these scandalous passages , in vindication of the Parliaments indubitable Right and Priviledge , to intermeddle in and make Lawes for all Church matters ( as I have manifested by a cloud of witnesses in all ages in the foregoing Section ) and so farre incensed the Committee against him ; that they sequestred him from his living in Colemanstreet , for the very things I mentioned in my Full Reply , &c. and ordered the passages in his Sermon and Theomachia , to be specially reported to the House with all expedition , as an unsufferable affront , and presumptnons under mining of their Priviledges , which they could neither in honour , nor justice connive at , without exemplary punishment , and censure . And yet this Gentleman since this censure hath had the boldnesse in another Pamphlet of his ( to which hee hath prefixed his name ) Intituled INNOCENCIES TRIVMPH , ( an unfitting Title for a sequestred Nocent ) to deny those very matters of fact , which he voluntarily confessed in my hearing before the Committee for which he was sequestred ; and to justifie his forementioned scandalous passages , in such a daring way , as cannot bee paralleld . For first he professeth , p. 2. That he hath not denyed the least dram or scruple of that power ( belike he hath weighed it exactly in the scales ) which is truly Parliamentary , and consistent with the Word of the great and glorious God : of which misdemeanour he is not in the least measure conscious to himselfe as yet . This manifestes him incorrigible , impenitent after censure , proclaims him that which this whole Pamphlet vainly endeavours to acquit him from ; One who hath presumptuously undermined the undoubted Priviledges of Parliaments and here trebles in his former offences . Secondly , he averreth , that what he formerly preached and writ , was out of a loving , & tender affectionate jealousie over the Parliament , lest possibly they might dash their foot against that stone , by which all Rule , all Authority and power will one day be broken in pieces . So that if his tongue or pen , have in the least miscarried in this point , it was Error Amoris , not Amor erroris : he being extreamly jealous over the Parliament , lest they should touch with any Title or claime the most sacred and incommunicable Royalties and privilledges of Heaven , and so count it no robbery to make themselves equall to God : knowing most assuredly , that this is a most high provocation to the eyes of the most High , and IF CONTINUED IN , will kindle a fire in the breast of him , whose name is Iehovah , which will consume and devoure , &c. But good Sir , first , can any rationall man thinke ( though you should protest it ten thousand times over ) that such Anti-Parliamentary passages as yours are , should proceed from your love to Parliaments ? The blindest charity ( I feare ) will hardly credit it ; that a friend to Parliaments should thus successively Preach and Print against their jurisdiction , more desperatly than the worst Malignant , Royalist , Cavalier , or the Arch-Prelate himselfe , as you have apparently done . Secondly , If this proceeded from such affectionate jealousie over the Parliament : I pray what made you so strangely , if not ma●gnantly jealous over them , as to feare and presume , they might dash their feet against that stone by which all power shall bee broken in peeces ; claime the most sacred and incommunicable priviledges and royalties of Heaven to themselves , and count it no robbery to make themselves equall with God ? Did the Parliament ever give you the least colour or occasion of any such uncharitable , unchristian , that I say not detestable jealousie ? could you have harder or more jealous thoughts than these of the very Pope or Turke himselfe , or of that great Antichrist , * who exalts himselfe above all that is called God ? Can such jealousies as these issued from any but a rancorous or disaffected heart against Parliaments ? or did ever such execrable jealousies as these proceed from the heart , tongue , much lesse the pen of any Oxford Aulicus , or most venemous Malignant to our Parliament ? Doe their calling of an Assembly of most pious and conscientious Divines of all sorts , to reforme our Church , and conforme its Government , Discipline in all things as neere as possible to the Word of God , with all their religious proceedings in this kinde , infuse any such jealousie into you ? If not , then for shame retract these your groundlesse fanaticke jealousies of , and uncharitable hard thoughts against the Parliament ; else the world will censure you an Arch-Malignant , and the greatest Enemie to our Parliament that ever yet appeared openly in Presse or Pulpit , within the lines of Communication , if not without them to . Thirdly , had you had any just cause of such a jealousie , yet it had bin your duty to have privately informed your friends in Parliament with , it in a brotherly Christian way : but to publish these your brain-sick jealousies , and suspitions of them behind their backs in open Pulpit , and then to the whole world in print , of purpose , to make your Auditors , Readers jealous of them , as men who invaded the very incommunicable royalties and priviledges of heaven , and counted it no robbery to make themselves equall to God ; or to defame , or draw an odium or contempt upon them , and prepare the people before hand to oppose or reject whatsoever Church-Government they shall establish contrary to your Independent way ( for there can be no other reall end of these your Anti-parliamentary Sermons , writings ) is such a transcendent crime , and high affront against the Parliament , as you are never able to expiate ; and is so farre from extenuating that it aggravates your former offences beyond expression . Fourthly , Your last clause : And if continued , &c. intimates and speakes ●ound without any straining , that the Parliament for the present are guilty of dashing their foote against Christ the Rocke ; of claiming the most sacred and incommunicable royalties and priviledges of heaven , and making themselves equall to God : And that if they persevere in the course they have begun ( in reforming our Church , and setting up a Church Government according to the Word , different from your new way ) it is such an high provocation against the most high , as will kindle a fire in the brest of him whose name is Jehovah ; which will consume and devoure ; &c. Could all the Malignant and Prelaticall party in England lay a greater , wickeder or more unjust scandall in our Parliament then this , or more defame them then by such a false report ? enough to fire the whole Kingdome against them , as well as Gods wrath ? Certainly Master Goodwin , I must tell you freely without malice or uncharitablenes , ( and I beseech you pardon my zeale in this particular ) that your Iealousie and pen in this , was * set on fire of hell , rather then heaven , when you printed this passage , and what ever censure you deserve , I feare your Book demerits the fire , to purge out this drosse : yea all the late teares of Repentance you may shed , will not be sufficient to quench those unhappy flames of contention your late Sermons and Pamphlets have kindled in our Church and State , to omit your former Socinian Errors . Thirdly . Hee professeth , that in case he hath said or written any thing detractory to the undoubted priviledges of Parliament ; yet my Inditement against him , that he did it , PRESVMTVOVSLY , is such a charge , which men , whose ungrounded zeale hath not eaten out the heart of their Charity , cannot lightly but recharge with unreasonablenesse , and utter unlikely-hood . Sir , I dare affirme upon good grounds that you did this presumptuously , as I charge it ; * Grammarians , Lawyers and Divines informs us , that the Word Presumptuous , comes from the verbe , Praesumo ; which signifies , to forestall , to conceive before hand , to usurpe or take that upon him which belongs not to him ; to doe a thing before a man bee lawfully called to it , which belongs not properly to him , or to doe a thing boldly , confidently , or rashly without good grounds , or against Authority , or Lawes , or upon hopes of impunity . He that doth ought in any of these sences , may properly be said to do it PRESUMPTUOUSLY ; and that in * Scripture phrase , as well as in common parlance . To apply this to your crime . First , you preached and printed these passages , of purpose to forestall the Parliaments and Assemblies pious resolutions , to settle one uniforme Church-Government , and suppresse all private Coventicles of Sectaries or Anabaptists contrary to it . 2. To establish support that Independent way , which you had before hand without any lawful warrant , conceived , ere the Parliament had made choyce of , or setled any Church-Government for you ; as the whole Tenor of your Bookes and Sermons evidence . Thirdly , It was no lesse then high presumption in you , being a meere Divine , and a man altogether ignorant of , or unskilfull in the ancient Rights and Priviledges of our Parliament ( as your writings demonstrate , and your selfe intimate , p. 5. ) to undertake to determine and judge of them so peremptorily , and in such manner as you have done : When as if you had known any thing concerning the Rights of Parliaments , you might have learned this among other things ; That Divines are no competent Iudges of Parliaments Priviledges : That the Priviledges , Rights , and customes of our Parliaments , are only to be judged and determined by the Parliament it selfe , not in or by any other inferior Court , much lesse in a Pulpit That the power and jurisdiction of the Parliament for making of Lawes , is so transcendent and absolute , as it cannot bee confined to causes or persons within any bounds ; and that the state and defence of the Church of England is the very first matter and care of the Parliament of England ; as all the premised Presidents manifest , and Sir * Edward Cooke with others might have informed you . And for a man to undertake to judge of that which is above his power ; is expresly defined to bee presumption , by Richardus de Media villa in 3. Sententiar : Distinct , 26. and other Schoolemen on that place ; and by Summa Angelica , Tit. Praesumptus . Fourthly , You had no lawfull calling nor warrant from Gods Word , or our Lawes to handle the Iurisdictions and rights of Parliament in your pulpit , nor yet to dispute them in your writings in such a daring manner by way of opposition , or to encourage people to disobedience to its Ecclesiasticall Lawes and descitions : Therefore in this you were presumptuous , by the Scriptures owne definition , 2 Pet. 2. 10. Fourthly , after you were questioned before a Committee of Parliament for these very passages in your first Sermon , as exceeding scandalous & Derogatory to the Members and priviledges of Parliament , yet you in a daring manner , whiles you were under examination , audaciously preached over the same againe in substance in your Pulpit on a solemne Fast day , and published them with additions in no lesse then two printed Bookes : Yea since your very censure by the Committee for them , you have in a higher straine then ever , gone on to justifie them in print once more , in your Innocencies Triumph ; ( like an incorrigible delinquent ) wherein you slander the Parliament more then before , and shew your selfe a man * dispising Government ( at least any Church-Government , the Parliament shall establish not suitable to your fancy ) selfe-willed , and even speaking evill of Dignities in your forementioned clauses & others : Therefore in this regard you are superlatively presumptuous , by St. Peters resolution : Yea most men , whose ungrounded zeale to your new way hath not eaten out his braines , and reason too , must readily acknowledge it , notwithstanding your two reasons to the contrary : To wit , First , your former uninterrupted zeale to this Parliament and its cause : ( you meane perchance before you were an Independent , and since , whiles you thought it would embrace your new way ) which doth but aggravate your subsequent opposition in presse and Pulpit , against its undoubted jurisdiction . Secondly , The grounds and reasons you have given of your opinion ; ( which I shall examine in due place ) as if men might not do presumptuously against the lawfull power of Parliaments and civill Magistrates , as you have plentifully done , even with some colour of reason , as well as insanire cum ratione : which is all I shall answer to your reasons . Fourthly , Hee writes , Let Master Prynne , Or any other evict mee , of any wilfull or unwilfull violation of the priviledges of Parliament ( and I shall bee as willing as willingnesse it selfe can make me to further such a conviction ) and no man shall be more ready then I to crave their pardon , or undergoe their Justice ; nay , I shall repent my selfe and abhor my errour in dust and ashes . Certainely this your promised late Repentance ( which is yet contingent , and improbable , after so many publike offronts and oppositions against the power and proceedings of Parliament ) will bee a very poore recompence and satisfaction for all your former misdemeanors and scandalls to the Parliament ; yet late repentance being better then none at all ; I shall now challenge you to make good this your promise , since your owne Conscience and judgment cannot but informe you , I have written enough in the former Sections to evict and convince you and all the world besides , that you have not only violated , but denyed , oppugned those priviledges of Parliament in Ecclesiasticall affaires , which our owne Parliaments in all ages , and Parliamentary Assemblies in all other Kingdomes have unquestionably exercised , enjoyed without any such publique opposition as you have made against them . And if you now make not good your promise , few or none will ever credit you hereafter . 5ly . For the Authors you cite to justifie yourselfe ; they are miserably wrested and mistaken for the most part . The first you quote is Master Edwards : who maintaines point blancke against you throughout his Treatise , a * Legislative and coerceive power in Parliaments and civil Majestrates , even in Church-affaires and matters of Religion , in the very pages you quote , and else where Therefore you palpably abuse the Author and Reader in quoting him to the contrary , who is so point-blancke against you . For the passage you quote out of his Page , 256. The Parliament interposeth no Authority to determine what government shall be : whence you inferre ( p. 7. ) Therefore his opinion appeares to be , either that the Parliament hath No authority , or at least intends not to make use of it , in determining a government . It was written only with reference to that present time , the Parliament having at that time when he writ ( during the Assemblies debate and consultation ) interposed no Authority to determine what government shall be : yet before that it had declared the old prelaticall Lordly government to be abolished , and called an Assembly to advise with about a New. But to inferre from thence as you doe : Therefore his opinion is , either that the Parliament hath no Authority , or at least intends not to make use of it in determining a Government , Is an inference quite contrary to the next ensuing words , and pages ; to the whole scope of the Authors Booke ; * Humbly submitted to the Honourable houses of Parliament : contrary to his expresse words : p. 138. 281. to all his reasons against Toleration of your Way , and to the Parliaments intent in calling the Assembly to assist them in determining and setling a Church-government agreable to Gods word . Be ashamed therefore of this grosse perversion of your first Authors passages , diametrally contrary to this meaning . Your Passages out of Master Hayward , Bishop Iewell , Master Fox , Mr. Calvin , Iacobus Acontius , Junius , Peter Martyr , and Gulielmus Appolonius , make nothing at all against the Legislative Authority of Parliaments , in matters of Religion and Church government , and have no a●●inity with your Passages , words , most of them ( & Bishop Iewel especially as I have * already proved , vindicating ) propugning the very ecclesiastical power of Parliaments which you oppugne Indeed some of their words seeme to diminish the Coercive power of Majestrat●s , & enforcing of mens consciences in matters of Religion , which I shal answer in due place , and manifest how you abuse the Authors herein as well as Mr. Edwards ( not hitherto answered by any of your party , ) but how they militat against the jurisdiction of Parliaments in making Lawes touching Religion , discipline and Church-government , I am yet to seeke . For the Passages he aleageth out of the Divines of Scotland , That the Prince or Majestrate , may not make or publish any Ecclesiasticall Law without the free assent of the Clergy , &c. That he may not by HIMSELFE define or direct such matters , nor make any Lawes therein : That the King hath not a Nomotheticke Legislative Power in matters ecclesiasticall in a constitute Church . That the ordinary power of the King is not to make Ecclesiasticall Lawes . &c. I Answer , 1. That their only meaning ( if I mistake not ) in these passages is , that the Prince or chiefe civill Majestrate of HIMSELFE , without a Parliament , or without the assistance and consent of his Nobles , Commons , Clergy , cannot legally make any ecclesiasticall Lawes to obliege his people : upon which reason our Brethren of Scotl. rejected the late * New service booke and Canons , and our selves the late Canons & &c Oath ( which Canterbury wold have obtruded on us ) because they were made and prescribed only by the Kings Authority and the Prelates or Convocations , not the Parliaments ; upon which very reason the Parliaments of both Kingdomes have respectively adjudged both one and other illegall . But that the King , or supreame temporall Majestrates assisted by a Parliament and Orthdox Divines , may not make binding ecclesiasticall Lawes ; or that their or our Parliaments have not a reall Legislative power in any matters ecclesiastike ( the only point controversed ) is directly contrary both to the constant Doctrine and Practise of our Brethren and their Church used ever since the Reformation , & to the proceedings of their last Parliaments and generall Assemblies as I have * formerly manifested . You may therefore blush , at this your perverting of their meaning as if they held , that the Parliaments , of England or Scotland had no power to make Ecclesiasticall Lawes for Religion or Church gouernment ; when as their Bookes , Actions , addresses to our present Parliament , their presence , assistance in our Assembly , proclaimes the contrary : And the very publique Confession of faith professed and subscribed in their Church Anno 1560 Chap. 14 ( since confirmed by severall Acts of Parliament ) doth the like . But admit all those Authors really ( as not one of them is in verity ) opposite to the Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction , and Legislative power of Parliaments , yet the unanimous practise and resolution of all Christian Realmes , Synods Parliaments , in all ages , contrary to their private novell opinions , is sufficient infinitly to overbalance them in the Judgements of all prudent men . And thus much for Mr. Goodwins Innocencies tryumph , as to the present point . I shall next apply my selfe to Answer such Objections as my deare Brother , Master Henry Burton , hath lately made against the premises ; in his Vindication to my 12. Queeres touching Church-Government , & my Independency examined . His first and principall Objection is this , a That every particular Church now , b consisting of visible Saints , is under Christ as the SOLE Head , King , Governour , Law-giver of it : and so is subject to no other jurisdiction then that of Christ , his Spirit , his Word : We hold , that every particular Church is under Christs Government , as the SOLE Head King , Lord , & Governour thereof That it is a spirituall House , whose only builder and Governour is Christ , and not man. A spirituall Kingdome , whose only King is Christ , and not man. A spirituall Republique , whose only Law-giver is Christ , and not man. A spirituall Corporation , whose only head is Christ and not man. That no man , nor power on earth , hath a Kingly power over this Kingdome . That no earthly Law-givers may give Lawes to this Kingdome or Republique . That no man may claime or exercise a head-ship over this body . That no man can or ought to take the Government of this Communion of Saints . That * men may not appoint , limit , constitute what Congregations of all sorts they please , to be Churches of Christ , as Nations and Parishes . That Christ is King over every mans conscience , so that no power on earth , may sit with him in this his Thror , &c. yea so as no human power not Law may intermeddle to prescribe rules for the Government or formes of this Church of Christ . That the Children of those Parents who will not thus acknowledge Christ to be their only King and Law-giver , and are ashamed or afraid to be thus in Covenant with Christ , ( in the Independents way ) as their King , are not to be baptized ; such Parents not being within the Covenant . ( A very hard and uncharitable censure of all Churches , Persons , who are not Independent ) That Christ is the ONLY Potentate Law-giver , Lord , King , Governour over Churches , and not men . Not Councells or Senates : That this is Christs Royall Prerogative which is incommunicable to ANY or All the powers on earth . That Christ hath not delegated his Kingly Office , to any Princes , Magistrates PARLIAMENTS to set up any forme of Worship , of Church-Government , who have no authority to make Lawes to rule or binde any particular Churches : and if they make any such they shall be apt to transgresse them : but yet men must take heed how they punish them for that transgression with any enseresciderdum , or Club-law . This is the summe and ( oft repeted ) Argument of my deare Brothers Booke . To give a satisfactory Answer to this Objection ; I shall first demand of my dear Brother : what he meanes by this frequently incultated assertion ; That every particular Church is under Christ as the only Head , King , Lawgiver , Lord and Governour thereof , &c. and that none ought to have any power , rule or Jurisdiction in the Church but Christ alone ? If he intends , that he is the only immediate HEAD , KING , Law-giver , and Governour , as he clearely doth , I desire some solid scripture proofes for it , since he produceth none to evince it ; the rather , because it is quite contrary to sundry expres Texts , which stile Kings , Majestrates , Ministers b Heigher powers , Rulers , Overseers , Fathers , Nursing - Fathers , Pastors , , of & over their Churches , people flocks , who are ever enjoyned to obey & submit unto them ; yea c Rulers of the Templ , Congregation Church Rulers , Chife Rulers of the Synagogu : ●ay sometimes d Gods sitting upon Gods , throne , to whom men must yeeld obedience for the Lords sake , as to Gods & Christs Vicegerents and Embassadours . Yea Brother , your selfe informe us out of Scripture , pag. 51. That the members of Christs body are Superiour , and inferiour ; as Pastors , Teachers , Teaching and RVLING Elders , Helps , GOVERNMENTS Bishops ( or OVERSEERS ) &c. If Christ then be the onely Head , King , Ruler , Shephard , Governour of his Church , and none else , in that sense you object ; what will become of these Pastors , Ruling-Elders , Governours Overseers , which you averre , Christ hath fixed in his Churches ? What will become of those Independent Ministers , who take upon them ( like absolute kings Popes , Lawgivers ) to erect gather new Chruches of their own forming , and prescribe both Lawes , Rules , Covenants , to them which Christ never made ? Brother , you must expunge the 1 Tim. 5. 17 , f Let the Elders that RULE well , be counted worthy of double honour : Rom. 13. 1. Let every soule BEE SVBIECT to the HIGHER POWERS , &c. even for CONSCIENCE SAKE : Tit. 3. 1. Put them in minde to be subject to Principalities and Powers , to obey Magistrates , &c. Heb. 12. 17. Obey them that have THE RULE OVER YOU , and SVBMIT your selves , for they watch for your soules , as they that must give an account , &c. Remember , Salute all them that have the RVLE OVER YOV : Acts 20. 28. Take heed to the floke over which the Holy Ghost hath made you OVERSEERS ( or Bishops ) to feed the Church of , God which he hath purchased with his bloud . Rom. 12. 8. HE that RVLETH let him do it with diligence . 2 Chron. 9. 8. Blessed be the Lord thy God , who delighted in thee to set thee VPON HIS THRONE , to BE KING FOR THE LORD THY GOD , &c. with infinite other Texts ; yea the very names of Kings , Princes , Governours , Elders , Rulers , Magistrates , Overseers , Bishops , Teachers , Fathers , Pastors , Masters , &c. out of the Bible ; and all Christian States , Churches , if you will make Christ alone , the only immediate King , Ruler , Governour , Lawgiver of his Church , in the sence you here object it : and that no person nor humane power whatsoever , hath or ought to have any rule , power , or jurisdiction in or over the Churches & people of God. But if you meane no more , but that Christ is the g onely supreame Head , King , Lord , Governour , Lawgiver , Pastor , and Ruler of his Church ; and that all other Kings , Princes , Magistrates , Rulers , Pastors , Ministers , Governours are subordinate unto him , as to the King of Kings , Lord of Lords , and chiefe Shepheard of his flock● : your proposition is true , but your conclusion miserably false ; that therfore there are no subordinate Kings , Magistrates , Rulers , Pastors , Governours , Lawgivers under him , to rule , governe , order , instruct , direct his Churches and people ; which the forequoted Texts , your owne experience , reason , and the whole world will contradict . Secondly , I shall demand of my Brother , how he proves all his forementioned Paradoxes concerning Christ and the Church , in the sense he propounds them ? Or , that his own , or other Independent Churches lately gathered , erected by no other but by men , and consederated by a new Covenant , framed by men , not Christ : h to be built governed , ordered onely by Christ , and not men ? to be the spirituall Kingdome of Christ , &c. whole onely King , Governour , Head , is Christ and not man ? Or in what Text he can shew me any particular Independent Church stiled , Christs spirituall Kingdom and Republike ? I find it prophesied . Revl . 11. 15. That when the seventh Angel foundeth , The KINGDOMES of this World ( which must be meant of Nationall Churches which you deny , not of Particular Congregations , which are no such Kingdoms ) shall become the Kingdomes of the Lord and of his Christ . i That all the ends of the World shall turne unto the Lord , and all the kindreds of the Nations shall worship before him : for THE KINGDOME is the Lords , and he is the Governour among the NATIONS : k That ALL NATIONS shall serve and worship before him : That he shall have DOMINION from sea to sea , and from the Rivers to the ends of the earth l That all DOMINIONS shall serve and obey him : That the KINGDOMES of the earth shall sing unto the Lord , &c. ( All pregnant proofs of Nationall Churches , which should serve and obey Christ : ) But that Independent particular Congregations of visible Saints , and they only should be Christs Kingdom , Republick , and Governed immediately by him , rests yet on my Brothers part to make proofe of , when he is able . Thirdly , I shall request my Brothers to satisfie me & others , by that Texts he can make good these Paradoxes of his ; That m those who will not submit to his Independent Church-government , Covenant , & become members of such Churches , have no interest in the Covenant . Sacraments , or Seal of the Covenant , or right to any Church-Communion . That they are not within the Covenant visibly ; and therefore their Children not visibly to bee baptized ; That they professe not Christ to be their King , and are afraid , or ashamed to be in Covenant with Christ as their King ? &c. Do not these uncharitable Paradoxes ( good Brother ) un-Church , un-Saint all Christians and reformed Churches whatsoever , which submit not to your new way ? excluding both them and their Children from the Covenant and Seales of Grace , and all Church-communion , at least in and among your Congregations , as professed enemies to the Kingdome and Soveraignty of Christ ? Is not this the very language , Doctrine of the Antichristian Church of Rome : who vaunts herself the onely true Church of Christ , out of which there is no salvation , un-Churching all Churches , and un-Saincting all Christians but their owne professed members , as haeretickes , Schismaticks and enemies to Christ ? yea , is it not an higher strain of spirituall pride and uncharitable Behaviour against your brethren then ever the Donatists or Nouatians broached ? I beseech you deare Brother , in the bowels of Christ , to consider and recant these harsh passages , which you can never justifie before God or men and have given great offence to many who cordially affect you . These generall questions being demanded , I shall next addresse my selfe to a more particular answer of the premised Objection , by reducing it into these Logical arguments , which wil best detect the fallacies imbecillities of it . The first is this . Christ is the only immediate supreame King , Head Ruler and Governour of every particular Church : Ergo , no Kings Parliaments , Councels , Synode , n or any human Power can make any Lawes , Rules , Canons for the setling of Religion or reforming , Governing , well ordering of any particular Churches of Christ . This is the summe of all my Brothers Passages . I answer that this is a meere Independent Argument ; which will introduce a world of absurdities if admitted ; as I shall cleare by these following Instances . 1. The Scripture is expresse n That God himselfe is King yea a great King , over all the earth ; That Christ is the ONLY Potentate ; the King of Kings and Lord of Lords yea a great King over all Gods : That all the Kingdomes and Nations of the earth are the Lords and that he giveth them to whomsoever he will● That his kingdome ruleth over all . That o his is the greatnes , the Kingdom the power and the glory and the Majesty : that all that is in the Heaven and in the Earth are his : that he is exalted as head over all and raigneth over all , That he is Lord and King of all as well of their bodies , estates , as soules and consciences . Ergo , ( By my Brothers forme of Arguing . ) No Kings , Parliaments Potentates Rulers Kingdoms Republikes , ought to make any Lawes for the government of their Realmes publikes , Nations , Corporations , or the ordering of mens persons or temporall estates but God and Christ alone ; and all particular Kingdomes , Societies , States , Corporations , Families , are and ought to be immediatly subject to no King , Majestrat , Parliament , or human power whatsoever , even in temporall things , but only to God and Christ . 2ly . God is more frequently stiled in Scripture p The Lord of HOSTS and God of BATTLE , then he is called the only King of his Church ; ( a Title you can hardly show me in direct termes in sacred writ : ) Yea , his power and providence principally appeares in mannnaging and disposing all occurrences and particulars concerning Hosts , Armies Battles , as your Brother Burroughs in his Glorious name of the Lord of Hosts , hath largely manifested , Ergo ( by this Logicke ) No King , Parliament , Generall , Captaine or Councell of Warre may or ought to make or prescribe any Martiall Lawes for the regulating governing , mustering Marshaling , or disciplyning of their Hosts , but God alone . 3ly . Christ is our only q Soveraigne Lord , Master , Father , Ergo no Landlord Master , Father , ought to prescribe any Lawes , Rules , orders for the better Government of their Tenants , servants , families , Children , but Christ alone , by your argumentation . 4ly . Christ is the r chiefe Shepherd , Bishop , Prophet . Teacher and Instructor of his Church , Ergo none ought ( by your reasoning ) to seed , teach or instruct the Church and people of God , but Christ alone : We must have no Ministers , teaching Elders Pastors , Teachers to instruct Vs henceforth ; who are but men and not Christ himselfe . 5ly . Christ is the only ſ Mediator , Advocate , Intercessor for his Church and people , Ergo none ought by their Prayers and t intercessions to soltcite the throne of Grace for the peace , prosperity , reformation and deliverance of Christs Churches , and people , but Christ alone . Ministers must not pray for their people , nor Saints one for another , noreither of them for the whole Church of God ; if your Argumentation be solid . 6ly . If this argument stand firme , then marke the inevitable consequences of it . Independent Subjects will argue with their Princes , Majestrates Superiors , thus . Christ is our only King , Head , Lord. Therefore we must not be subject to any Lawes and commands what soever , but only to the lawes and precepts of Christ , Wives , Children servants will reason thus ; Christ is our onely Head , Husband , King , Lord , Father , Master . Therefore we will not , we ought not to be subject to any of the Lawes , Orders , precepts of our Husbands , Parents , Ministers , but only to the immediate Rules , Laws , edicts of Christ himselfe . Mutinous or Independent Souldiers will thus argue with their Generalls and Commanders . Christ is our only Captaine , Generall and our Lord of Hosts , Ergo we will be commanded ; conducted ordered by none but Christ , not by any other Captain or Generall whatsoever . Nay people and every member of your Independent Congregations upon any discontent wil thus dispute with their Ministers Ruling Elders Congregations . Christ is our only head King , lawgiver . Judg. Therefore neither Councels Synods , nor any Independent Ministers or Congregations may prescribe any Laws , covenants , Orders , or directions to us , or exercise any jurisdiction eclesiasticall over us , or passe any censures upon us , but only Christ himselfe : Brother , if such Antimonarchicall , Antiparliamentall , and Anarchicall Logicke and Divinity be ever taught and beleeved in the world ( which cutts asunder the nerues , and dissolves the very foundation of all Governments and Relations whatsoever whether naturall , civill , or Ecclesiasticall ) what an horrible confusion , will be immediatly produced , to the utter distruction of all Kingdomes , Republiques , Churches , Families , Societies , Corporations in the World let all prudent men Judge . Yet this is the dangerous , Logicke , this the Foundation stone whereon your whole Independent fabrick is built , the absurdities and ill consequences whereof , I trust all will now at last discerne . Secondly , I answer , That though Christ be the only King and supream Law-giver of his Church ; yet it followes not thence , that therfore no Parliament or humane power may or can make Lawes to order or governe the Churches and people of God by , but onely Christ . For ( Brother ) * your selfe will grant . 1. That y Parliaments , Kings , and Synods may and ought to make Lawes to supposse and punish all manner of Idolatry , superstition , Impietie , prophanenesses , corruptions , Heresies , Doctrines , Opinions , and exorbitances whatsoever in their Churches , Ministers , people , that are contrary to the Word of God , the Lawes Doctrine , Government of Christ , or tending to the depravation , disturbance , or prejudice of the Church and Gospell . Secondly , they may publish Lawes and Canons to settle and establish the true Confession of the Christian saith , the sincere Ordinances of God , and such a true worship , Church-Government , and Discipline which is most consonant to his Word , throughout all Churches in their respective jurisdictions ; yea compell Ministers to doe their duties , and people diligently to repaire to all the Ordinances of God , to sanctifie the Lords day , and to observe extraordinary dayes of humiliation , and thanksgiving upon extraordinary occasions . Thirdly , They may enact Lawes and Ordinances to settle the places and times of publike Worship , and all necessary circumstances w ch concern the same , not peremptorily determined in the Scriptures , & concerning Church assemblies . Fourthly , They may enact Laws for the maintenance of Ministers of all necessary Church Officers , and for prayer , preaching reading the Word , administring receaving the Lords Supper , concerning ordination , Mariage , siging fasting , excommunication , agreeable to the Word of God. This I presume all will grant and my Brother will not deny : which is all I contend for . Therfore Christs being the only King , Head , Ruler , and Lawgiver of his Church , is no impediment to Kings , Parliaments , by advise of Synods , to enact such Lawes as these ; and so the Argument a meere Independent Nonsequitur . Thirdly , Christ is the z King , Lord , Head , and Lawgiver of every private Christian or Member of a Congregation , as well as of every particular , or of the whole Catholik Church ; and so a by your determination ) he is subject to no other jurisdiction then that of Christ , his Spirit and Word : Yet I hope b you will grant ; that every Independent Congregation , hath a true jurisdiction and power over every particular member of it , yea a legislative power to prescribe a speciall covenant and such Ecclesiasticall Rules , Orders , as the whole Congregation shall thinke meet , to which they must submit , under paine of excommunication , suspension , Non-communion , and denying baptisme to their Infants , as you plainly intimate , ( pag. 44. 45 ▪ 46 , 62 , 63. ) Therefore these titles and Prerogatives of Christ , doe not deprive particular Churches of the power of prescribing covenants , Orders , Rules , and Canons to their Members ; much lesse then whole Synods , Councells , Parliaments , of farre greater wisdom power Authority then particular Churches : And if private Churches may thus oblige their Members , then much more may Parliaments , Councells , all particular Churches within their jurisdictions : And so much in answer of this grand argument . The second is this . * Christ is the full and sole King , raigning in the heart and conscience of every true Beleever , He only is King over every mans Conscience , so as no man nor power on earth may sit with him in this his Throne . Therefore no Parliament , Councell , nor human power may prescribe Laws for the Government or ordering of the Church , for then of necessity man should be Lord over the Conscience , which is the highest presumption against the most high . I answer , That this argument is grounded upon a very sandy foundation ; and upon this controversed question , both among Divines , and Casuists ; Whether Ecclesiasticall or Civill human Laws made and ratified by the supreame civill Magistrates & Parliament , bind & necessarily oblige us to obedience in point of conscience , in case they be not contrary to Gods Word , for if they be , all grant they c do not bind to obedience in point of Conscience . My Brother here holds the Negative , as an indisputable Maxime , That these Laws bind not the conscience , in point of Obedience to them : A very dangerous , false , unsound Position , tending to meere Anarchy , and contempt of all humane Lawes and lawfull Authority in Church or State : And for my own part , I clearely hold the Affirmative to be an undoubted truth . This question is largly debated and held affirmatively by learned Paraeus , Explicatio Dubiorum in c. 13. ad Romanos , Dubium 7. pag. 1413. to 1446. by Musculus , Peter Martyr , Marlorat , and Doctor d Willet in their Commentaries on Rom. 13 , with other Protestants on this Text , by Ursinus : in Exposit : secundi Praecepti , p. 299. by Theodoret ; Ambrose , Beda , Anselme , and generally most ancient and modern Commentators on that Text by Alexander Alensis : Summa Theologiae : Pars. 2. qu : 120. Artic 2. 3 , 4. ( with whom all other Shoolemen generally concurre : ) Paulus Windek : Canonum & Legum Consensus & Dissensus cap. 4. p. 12. Stapleton * : in Antid : p. 783. Bellarmine , l. 3. c. 9. De Laicis , Pererius : Disp : 2. Num. 8. by Saint Augustine in Epist : 54. ad Macedonium , and in Tit. Psal . 70. by Saint Bernard , Tract : de Praecepto & Dispensat : With infinite others . Indeed Master Calvin , Instit : lib. 3. c. 9. Sect. 15. 18. and lib. 4. c. 10. Sect. 3. 4 , 5. Beza , in Notis : ad Rom. 13. Sibrandus , De Pontif : Romano , l. 8. c. 7. and some others seemingly hold the contrary , yet not generally of all , but of some particular humane Lawes , I shall briefly lay downe the truth of the affirmative part , out of Pareus and Doctor Willet . in these insuing Propositions , and then propound the Affirmative , and answer the Negative arguments in their Order , to vindicate this truth , now most opposed , when it is most necessary both to be discovered and obeyed . The Propositions are these . That all just Civill , Ecclesiasticall , or Oeconomicall Laws and Ordinances made by the King and Parliament , or by lawfull Magistrates , Parents , Masters , Tutors , Superiors , which concerne the duties of the first or second Table , do bind the Conscience , of themselves , and that simply , both in generall , and particular : That all good Laws made for the determining of any necessary circumstances of Gods Worship , or necessary and profitable for keeping the Commandements of the first and second Table , the advancement of Gods Honour and Service , the propagation of the Gospell , the peace and well ordering of the Church , State , Family ; the performance of the externall publike or private exercises of Religion ; Or to avoyd scandalls , Schismes , Errors , Innovations , Corruptions in the Church , or to bring men to the Ordinances and knowledge of the truth , doe of themselves binde the Conscience , at least in generall , because they tend to the observation of the morall Law , which wee are bound in Conscience to obey . That particular civill and Ecclesiasticall Laws , wherby the temporall Law givers not only signifie what is to be done , but likewise seriously intend to command it , and to obliege the infringers to an offence , doe in particular , and by themselves bind the Conscience under paine of sin and offence of God. That other particular Lawes may bind the Conscience , though not of themselves in regard of the thing commanded ; yet by accident , when by their violation the Order , Peace , or government of the Church or State is disturbed , the authority of the Law-givers and Magistrates dispised , or just scandall given to the Church , State , or any weake brethren . The Arguments to prove these positions follow . 1. Those Laws to which men must be obedient and subject even for Conscience sake , and that by Gods own command , must necessarily binde the Concience . But to such Ecclesiasticall and Civill Lawes , as are sore-specified , men must bee obedient and subject , not only for wrath , but even for Conscience sake , Rom. 13. 1 , 2 , 5. Therefore they must necessarily binde the Conscience . 2. Those Lawes whose violation drawes both a temporall and spirituall offence , guilt , and condemnation upon the infringers of them , must needs obliege the conscience , because conscience is sensible of the offence or sinne committed , and dreads the punishment of it . But the violating of such humane Laws as are forementioned , drawes e both a temporall and Civill Offence , Guilt and judgment upon men , as the Apostle , yea every mans Conscience , and experience determines . Ergo , they binde the Conscience . Those Lawes and Ordinances which God Himselfe enjoynes us to obey even for the Lords sake ; must of necessity bind the Conscience , to ready obedience , because God Himselfe . ( the Soveraigne and supreame Lord of the Conscience ) commands us to obey them . But God Himselfe enjoynes us to obey the foresaid Lawes and Ordinances of men even for the Lords sake , Romans 13. 1 , 3 , 5. 1 Pet. 2. 14 , 15 , 16. Ergo , they bind the Conscience . 4. Every Supreame Power , Lawgiver , Magistrate in commanding such things and making such Laws as aforesaid , is but f Gods owne Deputy , Ordinance , Minister , Vicegerent ; in obeying whom wee obey , and in contemning whose Edicts , we contemne even God Himselfe , from whom they derive their Authority , Rom. 13. 1 , 2. 1 Pet. 2. 14 ▪ 15 , 16. Ephes . 6. 5 , 6 , 7. Col. 3. 22 , 23 , 24. Therefore their just Laws must needs oblige the Conscience , as being in some sence the very Ordinances and Lawes of God Himselfe , according to that resolution of Saint g Bernard . Sive Deus sive homo , Vicarius Dei , mandatum quodcunque tradiderit , pari profecto obsequendum est cura , pari reverentia deferendum , ubi tamen Deo contraria non praecipit homo : Which h Augustine thus seconds . In eare sola filius non debet obedire Patri suo , si aliquod Pater ipsius jusserit contra Dominum Deum ipsius . Ubi enim hoc jubet Pater quod contra Dominum non sit , sic audiendus est quomodo Deus , quia obedire Patri jussit Deus : which he proves by Gods blessing of the RECABITES for obeying their Fathers command in not drinking Wine Jer. 25. Vpon this very ground , Wives are commanded to submit themselves to their owne Husbands , as UNTO THE LORD ; To bee subject to them , in every thing as the Church is to Christ , Eph. 5. 22 , 24. Col. 3. 8. i Servants are commanded to bee obedient to their Masters according to the flesh , with feare and trembling and singlenesse of heart , as unto Christ . Not with eye service as men pleasers , but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart ; with good will doing service as Vnto the Lord not to men : knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doth , he shall receive from the Lord , for YEE SERVE ( herein ) THE LORD CHRIST . If servants in obeying their Masters , Children their Parents , Wives their Husbands lawfull commands serve and obey , the Lord Christ Himselfe : as the Scripture positively resolves , then Christian subjects and Churches in obeying the lawfull Ecclesiasticall or Civill Lawes of their Princes and Parliaments , obey and serve Christ Himselfe therein , and so doe they who enact them ; and not commit the highest presumption that can bee against the most Highest , as my Brother objects , without any authority but with his Ipse dixi . Fifthly , Paul did endeavour and exercise himselfe to keepe a good Conscience alwayes both towards God and Man ; ( by obeying the just Laws and commands of man , as well as of God ; as some Interprets expound it ) Acts 24. 16. Yea * Peter commands servants to be subject to their Masters with all feare , not only to the good and gentle , but also to the froward ; and even for CONSCIENCE TOWARDS GOOD , to endure griefe , and suffer wrongfully from them : and by the 1 Peter 3. 16. We are injoyned to have a GOOD CONSCIENCE Towards men who speake evill of us : Whence thus I argue . If a good Conscience must bee carefully exercised and kept as well toward the lawfull precepts and lawes of Man as of God , then certainly they binde the Conscience as well as the Law of God : else what had conscience to do with them ? But the supposition is most evident by the former texts ; Therefore the deduction thence . Sixthly , If such Lawes should not bind the conscience and inward man to the cheerfull practicall obedience of them ; but only the purse and outward man , the obedience to them would bee lame or slavish ; the Lawes Nugatory , and contemptible , the end of the Laws ( which is cheerefull obedence to them for the advancement of Gods glory , and the publike good of Church and State ) frustrated ; and the contempt of them no sinne at all , against the fifth Commandement , and the precepts of obedience to the higher Powers , Magistrates , and Rulers over us as all Expositors on the 5th . Commandement resolve it is . 7. The violating of such just Civill and Ecclesiasticall Lawes as these will cause , violating whereof a tender true in lightned conscience will m checke a man for , and accuse him , as guilty of an offence : Therefore , They must certainely oblige the Conscience , else it would not checke at such a violation , and acquit and cheere a man in case of ready Obedience ; as every mans experience can attest , if hee narrowly watch his conscience , in case it be not feared . Eighthly , Disobedience to the just edicts , Lawes of Magistrates , Governours Parents , Naturall , Civill , or Ecclesiasticall , are particularly n branded both in the Old and New Testament , at hainous sin● , and capitall offences punishable in some cases , with imprisonment , banishment , confiscation of goods and death it selfe : And on the contrary , chearful obedience to them is not only o commanded but commended by God Himselfe , in , by , and for whom they rule and command , as the marginall Scriptures fully manifest : Therefore undoubtedly they binde the Conscience . And so all Parliaments , Law-givers ever held and believed , else they would never take care or pains to enact or publish Lawes . Finally , Princes , Magistrates , and Parliaments , may and oft-times do prescribe solemn Oathes and Covenants to their people , to observe both Gods just Laws , and their own to , as is clear by the [*] Marginall Texts : by 28 H. 8. c. 10. 1 Eliz. c. 1. 3 Jac. c. 4. which prescribe , an oath of abjuration of the Popes Authority ; the oathes of Supremacy and Allegiance , with infinite other Acts , enjoyning sundry other oathes : and by the late Protestation , Vow , and Nationall Covenant , made and imposed upon all by the present Parliament . Now these oaths and Covenants do without all controversie [*] binde the Conscience to observance and obedience in the highest degree ; Therefore questionlesse these their oaths , Laws , Covenants binde the Conscience ; els we might with safe Conscience refuse and violate them at pleasure , which none dares affirme they may , who hath any sparkle of Conscience remaining in him . I shall now propound and answer the principall contrary Objections , which are these . 1. It is , contrary to Christian liberty , and a plaine tyranny , that humane Lawes should obliege the Conscience , Christ having freed us from all humane Ceremonies Lawes , obligations ; and the Scripture enjoyning us , q to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free , p and not to be again entangled with the yoake of Bondage : Not to be the servants of men : Not to be subject to Ordinances , as touch not , tast not , handle not ( which all are to perish with the using ) after the commandements and Doctrines of men : If therefore humane Lawes should binde the Conscience , Christian liberty would be destroyed , and tyranny over consciences introduced . 1. Answer ; 1. That it is no wayes repugnant to , but very consistent with Christian liberty , to be obliged to obey al honest , just necessary , Lawes , all decent , and convenient , things which may advance Gods glory , worship , the peace , wee le or prosperity of Church , State , our own felicity , and are consonant not repugnant to Gods Law : Neither do the objected scriptures extend to such Lawes or Edicts at these . 2. That Christian liberty which Christ hath purchased for us is not an exemption or freedome from the obedience of humane Laws , but from the r dominion and power of sinne , the yoake and bondage of the Ceremonial Law [ſ] abolished by Christs death , from the exact performance and condemning power of the morall Law , not from obedience to it , and from placeing inherent holines o● any matter of Religion , worship , conscientiousnes in things meerely indifferent in themselves , as Mr. t Calvin with others , who write Deliberitate christiana , with most Commentators on the Galathians resolve : yet Magistrates may command such things to be done or not done , for 〈◊〉 , order , peace , and other publicke ends , ( so as they place no inherent holinesse , religion or worship in them ) and Christians are bound to obey them therein , without infringement of their Christian Liberty . Thirdly , As to the Texts objected . The first of them is meant v of the Ceremoniall Law , and morrall to , so farre forth as to seeke justification by it , or to be under the rigour and condemning power of it ; Not of just humane Laws . The next is intended onely of● men-pleasers , who flatter men in their lusts , pleasures , errors , or obey their unjust commands repugnant to the will of God ; not of obeying the just Lawes or precepts of Kings , Parliaments , Magistrates , Parents , Masters and other superiors , for then there shall be no servants , no subjection or obedience at all to superiors in this world , and this Text should repeale the 5. Commandement , with all other precepts of obedience , given to subjects , wives , children , servants , if thus expounded , For that of the Colossians 2. 20 , 21 , 22. it appeares by verse 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , &c. that it is spoken onely of the Ceremoniall Law , and of that Ceremonial holynes or intrinsicall uncleannes which some did put between meats and drink●s , which were indifferent in themselves , as is most cleare by comparing it with Acts 10. 10. to 16. Rom. 14. 2 , 3 to 23. 2 Cor. 8. 1 Tim. 4. 3 , 4 , 5. Therefore it makes nothing against the Ecclesiasticall or Civill Lawes of Princes and Parliaments , who may command abstinence from flesh and such particular things , creatures , at certaine times , for lawfull civill ends , which we are obliged to obey ; though not out of any religious or superstitious respect , as if the creature it selfe were unlawfull at such times by any divine precept , or in its owne nature , x our Statutes and Homylies concerning Fishdayes define . The second Objection is this , That the civill power is temporall , and the end of civill Lawes externall or temporall peace and order . Therefore they binde not the Conscience . I Answer , That the end of Ecclesiasticall Lawes is not meerly temporall , but spirituall and Ecclesiasticall : Therefore the objection is not solid . 2ly . Admit the power he but temporall , inregard of the object or end , yet internall and outward obedience to those Laws is the principall thing intended in them , which none can with safe conscience deny , where the Laws are just & necessary . The third is , That Magistrates , Parliaments and their Lawes , have nothing to do with mens consciences , which they cannot judge or discerne , but onely with th●● outward actions : Therefore they cannot binde the conscience . I answer , that though Majestrats have nothing to do with nor can judg of mens consciences or opinions simply considered in themselves & concealed , yet they have to do withal their external actions flowing from , & regulated by their consciences and opinions ; Therefore they may binde the conscience as it is Practicall , & punish Atheists , Heritickes * Papists , Idolaters , when they openly appear to be such . 2ly , The very Law Of God z hindes the conscience to obey all iust commands of higher powers ; therefore such commands even by vertue of Gods owne precept , oblige the conscience to internall obedience , as wel as the body to externall . The 4th . is , That Princes and temporall Majestrates cannot inflict inward and spirituall , but only temporall and externall punishments . Therefore they cannot binde the conscience . I Answer , that men may binde and deliver others over to such punishments as they cannot immediatly inflict : The a Church may deliver men over even for ecclesiasticall offences to the secular power , which they cannot exercise , and to temporall punishment which they cannot inflict : yea they may deliuer ( a● they hold ) men ever unto b Sathan , and to the judgement of God at the last day , which they cannot actually execute : Majestrates doe frequently punish the breach of Gods Laws with temporall punishments , yet by this Gods Lawes become not temporall and unobligatory to the conscience : So God on the other side may and doth 〈◊〉 the violation of just humane Lawes with spirituall and eternall punishments ( Majestrates being but his Vicegerents , Deputies , and the contempt of their just Lawes , a c contempt of God himselfe , ) Therefore the Argument holds not . The 5th . Objection is this ; that the conscience only respects God : therefore nothing can binde it but Gods owne Law , which is spirituall . I Answer , That the conscience respects as well men as God , Act. 24. 16 , therefore the just Lawes of men ( as I have proved ) as well as of God , 2ly . The conscience looks upon the just Laws and precepts of men , not meerly as human Lawes , but as proceeding from the Ministers and Vicegerents of God himselfe whom they represent , and whom God himselfe frequently enjoynes us to obey . The 6th . Is this c No one man , and by consequence not all mens consciences in the world may or can Iudge another mans conscience ; who standeth or falleth 〈◊〉 his owne Master : Rom. 14. 4. 16. Ergo they cannot make Lawes to binde the conscience . I Answer , first , that this text speakes only of privat Christians Judging one another in things indifferent ( as meates , holy dayes &c. ) when and where there is neither law of God nor man , inhibiting the free use or refusall of them , at the whole Chapter manifests . Therefore it makes nothing against necessary ecclesiastical● Laws , Canons obliging men to obedience , even in point of conscience . 2ly , The Apostle expresly concludes in this very Chap. v. 14. to 23. That in case of giving scandal and offence to weak Brethren , we ought to abstaine from the very use of lawful & indifferent things , even out of conscience of the scandall & hurt don thereby , not simply of the things themselves , though there be no law of God or man restraining or altering the indifferency or lawfulnes thereof & that without any impeachment of Christian liberty . Therefore when necessary or convenient things meerly indifferent in their nature , are enjoyned by Superiors just Laws , or inconvenient indifferent things prohibited for the publick good or peace , they ought much more to be submitted to without impeachment of christian liberty , out of Conscience of the Law , and scandall which would follow the volation thereof ; and in obedience to the generall Law of God , which commands obedience to such Lawes . The 7. Objection is this : There is one Lawgiver which is able to save and to destroy , ( to wit God● who art thou that judgest another , Iam. 4. 12. Ergo none can make laws to bind the conscience , but God. I answer 1. that there is but one supream absolut Lawgiver which is God. Is . 33. 2. wch excluds not subordinat ones . 2ly . The Apostle saith not , that there is ONLY one law-giver , that can save and destroy : neither will the words infallibly conclude , there is but one such : since humane law-givers can make Lawes to save or destroy , the lives , bodyes and Estates of men ( as appeares by * Scripture , and the Lawes of all Nations ) though not their Soules , as they are meare humane Lawes ; but only collaterally , as the wilful contempts and violations of them are sins & breaches of the very * law of God prescribing obedience to those Lawes , in which sence they may secondarily destroy the very soules of men . Thirdly , This Text takes not away the power of making necessary temp●rall or Ecclesiasticall Laws ( for then no such Lawes could possibly be made by any ) But the meaning of the Apostle is this ; That onely God the Supreame Law-giver , is able by his Law to make any indifferent lawfull thing , necessary or unlawfull , in it selfe , in point of Religion or conscience ; and to change the meere indifferency of it , into a thing simply good or evil : and not humane Law-givers . Therefore we should not judge or condemne one another in the use or neglect of those things which God himselfe hath left indifferent , where there is no circumstance of scandall , or contempt of humane Lawes to engage us to use , or not to use them . But it reacheth not to such humane Lawes , Civill , or Ecclesiasticall , which command or prohibit things agreeable to the rules of Gods Word ; or things necessary and expedient for Order , Decency , Peace , avoyding of scandall and other mischiefes ; which Lawes ( as Doctor Willet himselfe , who makes this objection affirmes ) do binde the conscience , notwithstanding this objected Text. And thus much for my Brothers first generall Objection . His second is this , i That the Scripture holds forth , and Christ in the New-Testament presoribes and layes down unto us , but ONLY ONE ( and that a most compleat and exact ) forme of Church government and Discipline , which ought not to be altered or varied from in the least title , being a part of the Gospel , and must be BUT ONE and THE SAME in all Nations , Churches in all ages throughout the World , & precisely observed by all Churches without the least variation . That the Independent way alone is this divine unalterable Evangelicall platforme . Therefore nor King nor Parliament ( though assisted with a Synod of most pious , and learned orthodox Divines ) justly may or can of right , make any Ecclesiasticall binding Lawes for the government or Discipline of the Churches of Christ within their Jurisdictions ; it being indeed a meere adding to the Word of God , prohibited under a curse . Deut. 4. 2. c. 12. 22. Prov. 30. 6. Rev. 22. 18 , 19. Thus my deare Brother , and other Independents Argue , with more confidence than evidence of Scripture . To which I answer first : That though Christ and his Apostles have instituted in the Gospel all necessary Church-Officers , as * Evangelical Bishops , Elders , Ministers ; Deacons , Pastors , Teachers , &c. and likewise given some general rules for the Government , and Discipline of his Church , yet he hath neither instituted nor prescribed any such unalterable compleat exact forme of Church-government and Discipline in all ages and Churches , in the New Testament , as is pretended by many , not evidenced by any . My reasons are these : First , Because no such exact and punctuall platforme is or can be clearly demonstrated to us nor discovered by us in the Scripture upon most diligent scrutiny : Quod non lego , non credo : hath alwayes been reputed a solid Argument in matters of Divinity and divine institutions . The Apostle Heb. 7. 13. 14. argues thus negatively even in the point of Christs Priesthood : because Moses spake nothing of the Tribe of Iudah concerning Priesthood : And God himselfe argues thus , Deut. 9. 12. 15. Ye saw no manner of similitude , therefore ye shall make no likenesse or image of me . I may safely argue negatively in like sort . The Scripture speaks nothing of such an exact universall Platforme : and we see no image or similitude of it in the Gospel : Therefore there is no such . Secondly , Independents have been frequently pressed to shew us any such exactform of Church-government instituted , and generally prescribed to all ages , Churches in the Bible : yet none of them , nor my dear Brother , have hitherto been able to shew it , though they have oft-times promised it . Therefore we presume there is no such . Shew us but some cleare Texts to manifest it , and we will believe you without more dispute : till then , though you were [*] Angels from Heaven , we dare not credit you , without a word to build on . 3ly , Because some Independents themselves ( & one [*] Anonymous who hath published a malicious Answer to me full of virulency against Presbytery & the Scots ) positively deny any such universall platforme , concurring fully with me in opinion . Fourthly , Because the Churches of God , ever since the Apostles dayes have in severall Nations , Republikes , States and Conditions had different formes of Government , Discipline , Ceremonies , administrations in some particulars ( as the Independent Congregations of Brownists , Anabaptists , Familists , &c. differ in sundry things of moment among themselves ) and yet have ever beene reputed true Churches of Christ . The Churches of England , Scotland , France , Geneva , Germany , Aethiopia , Russia , Greece , Bohemia , and the Netherlands vary one from another in their Government , Discipline Rites , Ceremonies , & in some points of Doctrine , and are not Independent : yet none of our Brethren ( I suppose ) will be so uncharitable , as to deem them all Antichristian , opposers of the Kingdome and Government of Christ , and no true Churches ; as they must of necessity be , if Church-government be a part of the Gospel , & one uniform unalterable Government universally prescribed to them all . Fiftly , Because the Gospel never intended to subvert , diminish , crosse , or destroy the lawfull civill politicall Governments , Lawes , Customes of Kingdomes , Nations , Republikes , ( which are Gods l own Ordinance , as well as Churchgovernment ) since one Ordinance of God doth not crosse or thwart another . Now the lawfull Governments , Customes , Manners of most Nations , Kingdoms , Republiks , being various & different one from another , & the Gospel to be equally preached to them all & some , Church-government erected among them all : and the condition of the Church ( whiles militant in this world ) being as full of changes as the Moone ; sometimes tossed with the boysterous waves , & almost drowned in the flouds of affliction ; Sometimes totally ecelipsed and driven into the wildernesse in one place , yet slourishing or lesse troubled in another : Othertimes in a prosperous peaceable condition . Sometimes under Pagan or impious Princes and Magistrates , other whiles under more or lesse pious Christian Kings and Governours : sometimes in a more pure light some , otherwhiles in a more corrupt & ignorant condition ; Sometimes over-growne with haeresies , schismes , Innovations ; other-times holding forth the truth more clearly , and purging out of all errors : sometimes requiring a o more sharpe and rigorous Discipline , other-times a more milde and gentle : Yea some Nations being more barbarous , fierce , obstinat , vitious , proner to some kinde of vices , sins , corruptions then others , and so needing a Discipline , Government , somewhat discrepant from those who are more civell and ingenious ; Some using one gesture of prayer , adoration administring the Sacrament some another : as some bowing , others kneeling , others prostration , some knocking of the breasts , some bare-headed , others covered some vayled , others unvayled ; some sitting at the Lords Supper in one manner , others in another , Some kneeling , others standing ; some using dipping , others sprinkling , others washing in baptisme ; some one kinde of tongue , tone , tune , gesture in singing , Preaching , Praying , others another : ( which is all I meant in my first and second Queries , by the manners and customes of the people ; which my deare Brother mis-interprets as meant of their superstitious and corrupt customes , not their civill , which I onely intended . ) Some one forme of Temples , Churches , Tables , Pulpits , Chalices , Vestments , others another ; and all Nations not having the selfe-same opinion , judgement of the lawfulnes or conveniency of one sort of Church-government , as of another ; I conceive there was a kinde of necessity under the Gospel , of leaving divets things in Church-government and Discipline , more indeffinite and arbittary then under the Leviticall Law , given onely to the Iewish Nation and that not for perperuity , but till the Gospel came p which see them free from that yoake of bondage , and left them and all other beleevers at greater liberty than before . This I conceive to be the true reason , why there is no such precise universall set forme of Church-government and Discipline , punctually prese●bed without the least variation to all Nations Churches in the New Testament , as you say was to the Israelites in the old . 6ly . The Government and Discipline of the Churches of Christ hath bin alwayes more or lesse variable in every age , and never continued uniforme , constant , unalterable in any age as the fundamentall Doctrines of the Church have done . We are able to produce q Professors of the Doctrines maintained in the Protestant Churches in all ages the Doctrine of the Gospel being universally the same and unalterable . But no creature is able to demonstrate a succession of any one kind of Church-government & discipline in all ages or Churches , be it Presbyteriall , Episcopall , or mixt of both , much lesse any series of Independent Churches . Therefore certainly there is no such universall divine set forme of Church-government and Discipline , essentiall to the being of a true Church , prescribed in the Scriptures , as some have fancied ; for then it would have had a being in some part or other of the world in all ages , as well as the Doctrine of the Gospel and the Sacraments . 7ly . All Independents reach , that there is no set forme of publick Prayer , Liturgy , preaching , administring the sacrament in every particular , nor yet of the matter or fashion of Churches , Tables , Chancels , Vestments , Gestures of Worship prescribed to all Churches , Nations , in all ages , without variation , yea they reject all set formes of publike Prayers , administration of the Sacraments and Liturgies in Churches as Antichristian , unlawfull , or unexpedient at the least , though they can hardly prove them such . If then there be no set forme of publique Prayers , Liturgy , Preaching , administring the Sacraments &c. prescribed to all Churches in al ages without any variation , and every Minister be 〈◊〉 at large to use his owne Method and manner of Praying , Preaching , administring the Sacraments , Chatechising as Independents affirme , provided it be generally consonant to the word ; Let them render me a solid reason ( if they can ) why there should be only one universall unalterable divineforme of Church-Government and Discipline precisely imposed on all Churches , Nations , ages alike , without the least variation : else they must of necessity grant as great a liberty and indefinitenes in the one as other ; and that there may be as many different formes of Church-Government and Discipline , as of preaching , praying , Singing of Psalmes administring the Sacraments &c. provided they be all decent & agreeable to the generall rules of Scripture , though not particularly prescribed therin . 8ly . All grant there is no immutable universall set forme of Civill Government prescribed to all Nations , Republickes , Cities , Families , Christian or Ethenicall , 〈◊〉 they have a liberty left them to elect what civil government they by publique consent shall deem most convenient : provided it be generally agreeable to Gods Word , which hath prescribed generall rules applicable to all civill Governments , actions , as well as Ecclesiasticall , and spirituall , though no one Government in particular : And why the Government of the CHVRCH MILITANT should be more particularly uniformly , unalterably , said down in scripture , then the Government of Christian Kingdoms , Nations , states under the Gospel ; ( which leaves both of them equally undetermined r since both of them were alike limited among the Israelites under the Law , no rational man cangive any solid reason ; Christ being ſ King of Kings , & Lord of Lords , yea a great King over all the Earth ; the only Potentate and Lord of Kingdoms , Nations , Republiques and of mens bodyes , estates , as well as t KING and Lord of his Church Saints or of mens soules and consciences . 9ly . There was not only one uniforme Church-government at first under the Gospell , in all Churches no not in the Apostles times : for in the originall gathering and planting of the Christian Churches , they had at first only u Apostles & Brethren no Elders , or Deacons : After that , their Churches increasing , they proceeded to elect , ordain e Deacons in the Churches of Ierusalem , and afterwards some other Churches ( though not in all for ought we read ) Not long after the Apostls ordained f Elders in Churches , which had none at first : after that g Widowes in some Churches , not in all . In the primitive Churches , some Congregations , had h Apostle s , Evangelists , Prophets , workers of miracles , Healers by miraculous extraordinary gifts of healing , men endued with diversities of Tongues , Interpretation of Tongues , GOVERNMENTS . ( that is , men gifted with an extraordinary faculty of Governing Churches ; ) all which the Scriptures & many Divines distinguish . Other Churches at that time had none of these Officers or members ; and all Churches have beene deprived of them since those dayes , these Officers not being perpetuall , but temporary , as all acknowledge though Christ might have continued a succession of them still , had he pleased Therefore the Government and Officers of all Churches not being de facto one and the selfesame in all particulars in the very Primitive times , as well as since , it can never be proved to be of divine right but one & the sel same in al succeeding ages , without the least variation , since it was not so in the Apostles days . 10ly . The Apostles speech , 1. Cor. 12. 4 , 5. 6. &c. There are diversities of gifts , but the same spirit ; and there are differences of administrations but the same Lord ; and there are diversities of operations but the same God , which worketh all in all : compared with v. 8. to 13. & ch . 9. v. 19. to 24. I made my selfe servant unto all , that I might gaine all . And unto the Jew I became as a Jew , that I might gaine the Jew ; to them that are under the Law , as under the Law , that I might gaine the Jew ; to them that are under the Law , To them that are without Law as without Law , that I might gaine them that are without Law. To the weake I became as weake , that I might gaine the weake . I am made all things to all men , that I might by all meanes save some : paralleld with Acts : 15. 1. 2. 5. 6. to 32. & Ch. 21. 18. to 30. by which it is evident , that many Churches of the Iewes , and those in Jerusalem did still rotain the use of Circum●ition , purification & other Iewish Rites , Ceremonies , which the Churches of the Gentiles ( by the Apostles owne resolutions ) WERE NOT TO OBSERUE . And with Acts c. 2. to cap. 22. where it expresly appeares , that the Apostles and other Christians equally frequented the Iewish Temple & Synagogues ( conforming themselves to the Orders & discipline thereof ) and their owne private Assemblie : & Cougregations , consisting all of professed Christians : Wil expresly clear it , that all particular Churches Congregations in the Apostles times had not one and the selfe same Church-government , Orders , Ceremonies : Therefore it is most cleare , there is no such uniforme general government or discipline necessarily prescribed in the Gospel , unto al , without the least variation , as is objected . Eleventhly , It must be granted to me , till disproved ; that before the Law , from Adams Creation till Moses , there was no one universall set forme of Church Government and discipline enjoyned to be observed by all the world , from which none might vary in any particular . That under the Law it selfe there was one forme of Government , Worship , Discipline , Ceremonies , and Solemnities to be observed in the Wildernesse , i another in the Lind of Canaan ; One forme in and under the Tabernacle revealed by God , described by Moses ; another in and under the Temple , shewed by God and appointed by * David and Salomon : Yea the * second Temple and its Ornaments services differed somwhat from the first , and all of them expired when the Gospell came ; If then there were no one universall constant forme of Church-Government , Discipline , before and under the Law it selfe : then by parity of reason ( till direct Scripture proofes be produced to the contraty ) there neither is nor can be any such under the Gospell . Twelfthly , The Scripture ( as all must acknowledge ) gives not many particular , but mostly * generall Rules for the Government , and regulating of our thoughts , words , actions , lives Children , Servants , Families , callings , the fashion of our apparell , gestures , eating , drinking , sleep &c. Yea the promises and threatnings in it are for the most part generall , and indefinite , yet applyable to every particular person , and occasion : If then there be for the most part only generall Rules , precepts , ( which admit some Latitude and variety in particulars ) prescribed to us for the very ordering and regulating of our thoughts , words , actions , lives , apparell , meat , drinke , &c. Then certainely there are but generall Rules and Precepts given us for the Government , & Discipline of the Churches , which admit varieties of Government , discipline in sundry particulars ( so as they agree in the generall with the Word , and bee not repugnant to it ) as well as the generall Rules for regulating our words , thoughts , actions conversations , callings , apparell , meat , drinke and family Governments , admit of variety , which more immediately concerne every man , then the more remote , and generall Government of the Church . But against this my Brother Burton Objects . 1. That God in the Old Testament did give this charge to Moses : See that thou doe all things according to the patterne shewed thee in the Mount , Hee must not vary ONE PIN ; And when the Temple was built , God was so exact in this , that he would not leave it to David himselfe , though both a King and a Prophet , and a man after Gods owne heart , to set up what worship he pleased in the Temple , but God gave him an exact patterne of all , and that not only by his Spirit , but in writing ; that he might neither adde to nor omit IN THE LEAST TITLE , 1 Chron. 28. And it was never left to the Kings of Judah , to doe the least thing in point of Reformation , but onely to see , that the Priests doe all strictly according to the prescript rule of the Law , 2 Chron. 31. Now was the great Law-giver so strict under the Old Testament , and is hee growne over remisse under the New ? In Ezechiels vision of the Temple or Church under the Gospell , Ezechiell . 43. 10 , 11. Wee read of a patterne , of every particular thing belonging to the House of God , exactly set downe and measured by Gods speciall rule and direction , Ergo There is a most exact rule set down for the Government of all Churches under the Gospell in all particulars , even to a Pin from which they must not vary in the least point or title : Else a sluce would be opened to drowne the whole world in supestition and error . I have elsewhere given a full answer to this common objection , and manifested the absurdity of it , to which my Brother hath not given the least reply ; and ( because much insisted on ) I shall once againe answer it here with some additions . My Brothers first Argument from the premises , if turned into a logicall forme , is this . God in the Old Testament shewed and prescribed to Moses in the Mount , an exact patterne of the Tabernacle and its implements , from which hee must not vary in one Pin , or Title . Ergo , He hath prescribed an exact uniforme , universall modell of Church-Government , and Discipline under the Gospell for all Churches , Nations , Ages whatsoever , from which they must not vary in the least Pin , or Title . What an Independent argument this is , will appeare ; First by considering , that the Tabernacle ( as all well know ) was no part of the Congregation or living Church of the Israelites , ( made up onely of Circumcised persons , of which our present controversie , concerning Church-Government is meant , ) but only the place wherein the Israelites met to Worship God during their Pilgrimage in the Wildernesse , which Tabernacle ceased when the Temple was built , and the Arke placed therein , it being in truth nought else , but a materiall moveable Temple , answerable to our Churches , Chappell 's , and places of publike meeting for Gods Worship now , but only in its moveablenesse : The like may be said of Salomons materiall Temple : what Argument can then be deduced thence to prove such an exact forme of Church Government setled under the Gospell as is objected , I can not conjecture . Brother , I beseech you tell me in good earnest what you think of these following Arguments which may be retorted on you from this patterne , with far more probability and reason then this objected . First , God in the old Testament prescribed the * height , length , breadth , compasse , form and materials of which the Tabernacle , Arke , Altar , Curtaines , Candlesticks , Sockets , Rings Staves , and every pin , vessell , utensill belonging to the Tabernacle should be made , and expressed the same most punctually in writing , commanding Moses to make all of them according to the patterne shewed him , and not to vary in one Pinne : as you may read , Exod. cap. 25. to c. 40. Ergo , Christ in the New-Testament hath a punctually prescribed to all Christians , nations , in as direct words , the expresse form , matter dimensions , portraiture of all Christian Churches , Temples , Chappell 's , and all Tables , Chalices , Pulpits , Pues with other Appurtenances to them belonging , from which they must not vary in one pin or title . Secondly , God in the Old Testament appointed particularly and by name , who should build the Tabernacle , and make all the Implements , sur●ure there belonging ; and appointed by name , B●zaliel , and Aholiah , to be the chiefe workmen ; And every wisehearted man and cunning Artificer , imployed in this building , this Architecture , whom God himselfe endued with speciall skill , wisdome and ability for this work , ( not any Priest or Levite ) Exod. 31. 1. to 10. chap. 35 , 30. to 31. c. 36. 1. 2 , 3. &c. c. 37. to 40. Ergo , none but those Artificers , whom God doth immediately name and endow with extraordinary gifts from Heaven ; None but Embroyderers , Gold-Smiths , Carpenters , Ioyners , Carvers , Masons , ( not Ministers , Presbyters , Deacons or Evangelicall Pastors ) must under the Gospell , build up the spirituall Churches of Christ , and settle the true Government and Discipline thereof . Thirdly , The very frame , fashion , Colour and materialls of the holy Garments which * Aron and his Sons should weare when they came to minister before the Lord , were expresly set downe , and the use of them enjoyned under paine of death , in the Old Testament , and were a part of the patterne shewed to MOSES in the Mount , from which hee might not vary in one Pin , or Title , Exodus c. 28. and 29. and 39. and 40. Ergo , The very forme , fashion , matter , and coulour of all Ministers , Elders , Deacons Garments in which they should minister , is as punctually prescribed and limited under like penalties in the Gospell , from which they must not vary . Fourthly , The Tabernacle and Temple too , under the Law were made and built by the hands of men , and were onely corporall , not spirituall buildings in the spirits of men . Ergo , the Church under the Gospell is such to : And then what will becom of your strange determinations . p. 49. 50. That the Church is a spirituall house , whose ONLY BUILDER is Christ , and NOT MAN &c. Fourthly , This patterne in the Mount , was shewed and delivered by god , only to Moses the Temporall Magistrate , not to Aaron , or the Priests ; and he was to make and see all things made according to this patterne without the least variation ; by the helpe of Bezaliel and other lay-Artificers . Ergo , the framing , setling of Church-government & Discipline under the Gospell , belongs wholly or principally to the supreame temporall Majestrates , and to such Lay Artificers , as they shall please to take to their assistance ; Not to Bishops , Presbyters , Ministers , or any Ecclesiasticall , persons . Brother , If you grant all these foure Arguments absurd , false , or incoherent , as I presume you will , then by the selfe same reason , your owne Argument must much more be so . And therefore I beseech you now at last to consider , on what false sandy ground and absurd Inconsequencies your Independent Churches are built . Secondly , I pray inform me , Brother , if you are able : If there be such an exact apparent unalterable forme of Church-government prescribed under the Gospell , as there was of the Tabernacle , Altar , Temple in the Old , in all particulars ; why the one is not as clearely and punctually set downe without any obscurity in the New Testament , as the other is in the Old ? If you can shew us any such unalterable forme intirely delineated all together in precise , direct termes in the one , as we can shew you to in the other , the controversie would bee ended without more dispute . But since this cannot bee done ; and your selfe confesse in your Margin p. 6. ( which contradicts and subverts your Text ) We doe not say the same things are prescribed under the Gospell , NOR DOTH IT COME TO SUCH CIRCUMSTANTIALS ; but we say , ( and I say so to ) what it prescribeth , ●s to be kept ( and so say all , but what that i● is the question : ) and page 5. in the Margin , Not but we grant AVARIETIE in the method and maner of preaching the Gospell in point of circumstance , so as the substance be kept , &c. SO IN CHURCH GOVERNMENT whereas you averre , Moses and David might not in the building of the Tabernacle and Temple VARY IN ONE PIN OR TITLE , in your Text : I shall thence retort the Argument here upon you thus . The forme of the Government of the Church under the Gospell , is not so fully or particularly held forth , in direct termes in the New Testament , as the patterne of the Tabernacle and Temple was in the Old : Neither is there any such precept in the New , not to vary in the ●east Title from any frame or patterne of Church-government therein prescribed , as therewas for not varying from their patternes in the Old. Therefore there is no such exact punctuall forme of Church-Government therein instituted or prescribed , as is pretended . Thirdly , Admit the Argument true ; yet then the great question remaines unresolved , Whether your Independent forme onely , bee this patterne in the Mount prescribed in the New Testament ? This I am certaine neither the patterne of the Tabernacle , Altar , Temple , nor Ezechiels measuring of the Temple will ever be able to evidence , neither by way of argument , nor illustration ; And therefore you may doe well to insist no more upon them , unlesse you will make the world swallow downe this Independent Logick & Divinity . Moses had a patterne of the Tabernacle shewed to him in the Mount and David the patterne of the Temple shewed him by the Spirit , both of them put into writing ; and Ezechiell did set down the patterne and frame of the Temple , and measured it exactly , Ergo the Independent New-invented Government is as exactly de●ineated and set downe in the New Testament as these in the Old ; yea the onely way , and Government of Christ , from which none must vary in the least Title . The second Argument from David & the Temple , That he gave Solomon an exact patterne of the Porch , Chambers , Vessels , Mercy-seats , Treasuries , and whole Fabrick of the Temple , not only by the Spirit , but in writing , from which he might not vary in one title , Ergo there is a set forme of Church-government and Disciplin prescribed in the Gospel and the Independent it : Receives the same Answer , and is as incoherent as the first , wherefore I shall passe it by with these briefe observations . 1. That this Patterne was shewed by the Spirit to David , and by him delivered in writing , to his Son King Solomon , ( the supream temporall Magistrate , who built the Temple and followed this Patterne ) not to the High-Priest , or any other Priests or Levites ; who were to be k ordered directed , by David and Solomon ( not they by them ) in the services of the Temple . Therefore if any good conclusion can bee deduced hence , it will be this ; That under the Gospel the ordering , settling of the Government ; Discipline and Ministers of the Church , belongs to the supreame temporall Magistrate , as it did under the Law , not to the Priests , or every particular Independent Congregation who now usurpe this royal uthority without warrant or president ▪ Secondly , This patterne was exactly set downe in writing ( as you object ) distinctly by it selfe * and delivered unto Solomon to follow , But you can shew no written pattern , for your Independent , or any other precise universall setteforme of Church-government or Discipline delivered unto any particular person , Church or Nation , under the Gospell , nor distinctly set downe by it selfe in the New Testament , Therefore there is no such prescript forme . Thirdly , This Patterne * was principally of the materialls fabricke , Altar , Porch , Chambers Vessells and furniture of the Temple not of the Government of the Church and Congregation , neither was there one fillable in it concerning Ecclesiastical Discipline , or Church Censures : Therefore you can only apply it to materiall Churches under the Gospell , and inferre thence , Ergo there is a prescript patterne of the materialls , forme , fashion , Porches , Chambers , Vessels , yea Altars , for all our Churches , Chappell 's given and prescribed to us in writing in the New Testament ( if you can shew us where ) as there was to Solomon of the materiall Temple , in the old , not of the Discipline and Government of the living Temples , or Congregations of Christian men , the only Church whose fabrick , Government and Discipline is now in question . Fourthly , When the Temple was built and consecrated the Priests , and peoples services , Ceremonies , * attendance in and about the Tabernacle wholly ceased ; though appointed by God : and soe the very Forme , Ceremonies and services of the Church under the Law , were both various and changable : yea , when the first Temple was destroyed , the Temple-services ceased , till the second Temple was built , † much different and inferior improportion , beauty , Ornaments , materialls , & some services from the former , all the services whereof expired e by Christs death and were abolished soone after upon the destruction of Ierusalem , If this president , then , of the Temple , hath any weight , it is to sway the ballance on my side ; that there is no one unversall unalterable set form of Church government in all particulars prescribed to all Churches under the Gospell , f but such as admits of some variations and changes , as the Tabernacle , Temples & their services did , provided they be suitable to the generall rules of Gods word , and not repugnant therunto . The third g argument , That h Ezechiell saw the patterne of the Temple in a vison & measured it with the parts , Chambers , Court , Altars , & Implements thereof , in all their dimensions , and was to shew them to the people ; which house was a Type of the Church under the Gospell , ( as is said not proved . ) Ergo , there is a set forme of Church-government held out and shewed to us under the Gospell , i and the Independent Platforme it ; Wants bones to support , and sinewes to knit it together : For ▪ first , his measuring and vision was only of the Iewish Temple and no other , which was but one , not of their Synogogues ( much lesse , of our materiall Christian Churches now ) which were many , Acts 15. 21. Ps . 74. 8. 2ly This vision and measuring was not of the Government , but only of the fabricke Chambers Court , Altar , of the material Temple , long since abolished : and our Churches under the Gospel neither have nor ought to have any such Chambers , Porch , dimentions , courts altars , Implements as that Temple had , or as Ezechiel saw or measured . If then this vision prove nothing for set formes or patterns of materiall Churches , Porches , Churchyeards , Altars , ( not yet for the use of Altars ) under the Gospell , as you will grant , I am confident they can prove lesse then nothing for any such set forme of Church-government and discipline as is pretended , which Ezechiell saw not in his vision , nor ever shewed to the people , and yet appeares not fully in the New Testament . Perhaps Bishop Mountague from this vision and the two former Patterns , deduced , his * Assize of surplesses and paterne of the new Altars Rules , &c. prescribed to be enquired of in his Visitation Articles ; But I hope my deare Brother can not spie out any such vision , nor deduce any such conclusion from this Text , nor from that of measuring the * Temple , & Altar in the Revelation , which I have * elswhere answered , and shall here omit . The 4th . * Argument from Dutr. 4. 2. c. 12. 31. Proverb . 30. 6. Reu. 22. 19. That God hath prohibited any addition to the Booke of sacred Scripture under a plague , and heavy punishment Ergo there is a set forme of Church-government and discipline prescribed in the Gospell , which none may vary from by addition or diminuition . Is a meere Non-sequitur . For first , these Texts speake only of Additions to the Bookes , Doctrine , Histories & Prophesies of the Canonicall Scriptures then written ( as my Brother acknowledgeth , and the Texts infallibly prove ) not of any Church-government Discipline , Ceremonies under the Gospell , not so much as mentioned or imagined in them , Therefore ( Brother ) you doe very ill for to wrest these Scriptures thus against their sence and meaning , 2ly . Brother , you know , that God himselfe after the writing of the Booke of Deuteronomie & the Proveths , caused divers other Bookes of Canonicall Scriptures in the old , and the whole New Testament to be written , for the further benefit and Instruction of his Church ; Yea many Additions were made to the service of God in the Temple not mentioned by Moses , without infringing these Texts , therefore your citing of them , without any limitation , is very impertinent . 3ly . I feare Brother , that those who hold , there is an absolute set forme of Church-goverment prescribed in the word to all Churches , though they cannot shew it , and yet cry up their Independent way , l as the very Government , discipline , Kingdome , and Ordinance of Christ himselfe , though they neither prove nor demonstrate it ; are far more guilty of this sinne , of transegressing these texts , by Adding to Gods word ; then those who deny it are , of adding to , or detracting from it . Take heed therefore ( I pray ) of this sin your selfe , which you would fasten upon others . You know who are most guilty of this va●ting cry , The m Temple of the Lord , the Temple of the Lord , the Temple of the Lord are these , when yet they were but lying words : & which party boastes most of the Divinity of their way : your whole Book sursets of this in every Page , without one solid text , to warrant what you so frequently & over-confidently affirme . Wherefore this Argument returns wholy on your self . My q Brothers 3. Objection is from the 1 Cor. 7. 17. So ordaine I in all Churches 1. Cor. 16. 1. Now concerning the collection the Saints , as I have given order to the Churches of Galatia , SO ALSO DO YE : Every first day of the weeke . ( or some one day of the weeke , or weekly , as some translate , and the * phrase will beare it ) let every one of you lay BY HIMSELFE in store , as God hath prospered him ; that there be no gatherings when I come Act 14. 25. And when they had ordained them Elders in EVERY CHVRCH . From which Authorities only and no other in the New Testament , he inferrs , That there is but ONE , and the selfe same forme of Churchgovernment and Discipline prescribed to all Churches in the world in all ages , without the least liberty of varying one from another , or from the forme pretended to be thus prescribed . But ( deare Brother ) what will you say if none of these Scriptures prove any such conclusion , but the contrary ? have you not then injured the Readers , and truth hereby ? Heare then , how you are mistaken in them . The question ( you know ) is not concerning Precepts , Doctrines or Rules of faith , which are the selfe same to all Persons , Churches Ages , and binde all alike ; but only of Church-Government & disciplin : But hath your first and principall text , any relation thereunto ? No verily , but to a meere privat case of conscience then undescided ; Whether a beleeving Wife might depart from an unbeleeving Husband , or a beleeving Husband from an unbeleeving wife without mutuall consent , if the unbeleever were willing to cohabit with the other ? This was the case of conscience then in question at Corinth , and propounded specially to the Apostle , to whom they Wrote for resolution v. 1. To this the Apostle gives a final desciton in the negative , shewing sundry reasons for it , v. 10. to 16. & then v. 17. he concludes , As the Lord hath called every one so let him walke , AND SO ORDAINI IN AL CHVRCHES . Now what , Brother , is this private case of conscience to one set forme of Church Disciplin or Government ? doth the Apostle say ; that this he ordained to be the very same in all Churches ? no verily , there is no such mention or intention , in the Text : or Chapter so that the true deduction from hence will be but this absurd Nonsequitur . The Apostle by the determination of Gods spirit ordained in every Church , that Beleeving Wives or Husbands , should not forsake their unbeleeving Consorts if they desired to cohabit with them : Ergo he ordained one and the selfe-same unalterable set forme of Church-government and Discipline in all Churches whatsoever . Your 2d . text , makes cleane against you : For first , the Apostle 1. Cor. 16. 1. 2. doth not say , that he gave order for a collection in all Churches alike : but only in the Churches of Galatia : and there were many Churches else besides them ; Therefore this extends only to particular Churches , not to all . And so no proofe of any one universall Government of Discipline prescribed alike to all Secondly , It was an order only upon a particular emergent transient occasion , which might seldome or never happen againe , to wit , The o present necessity of the Saints at Ierusalem , in respect of a dearth and famine there . To argue therefore an universall standing Church-government and Discipline from a particular transient occasion , not permanent and lasting but contingent and temporany , for this particular time and occasion only , is very incongruous . Thirdly , The Apostle here prescribed no publique duty relating to Church-government , or Discipline , nor yet to be performed in the open Congregation ( for then there might have beene some vigor in the Text ) but but only a voluntary preparatory benevolence to be weekly laide apart in private according to Gods blessing on every mans estates , as is cleane by the words Vpon the first day of the Week , [ or wekely ] Let * every one of you lay a part BY HIMSELFE [ not contribute publiquely in the Church ] in store as God hath prospered him ; that so there may be no collections when I come : Therefore this Action hath no relation at all to Church-government , Discipline , or ought to be done publikly in the Church . Fourthly , This collection and the maner of it , for every man to lay aside by himselfe some thing weekely , according as God hath prospered him , was only a preparatory extraordinary collection ; as the last clause ( that there may be no collections when I come ) and the very words import . Therefore it can be no president for an ordinary , constant , unalterable universall Church-government and discipline established in all Churches . 5ly . ( Which takes of all , and turnes its edg against my Brother ) It is & must be confessed , that this is no binding precept nor president , in point of collections themselves , much lesse then in other things . For 〈◊〉 demand of my Brother , 1. Whether this text did simply bind all the Corinthians to a weekely preparatory contribution towards the poore Brethrens necessities that were in Jerusalem , so as they might not deny or vary from it ? it being rather a bare advise then a peremptory precept & a meere voluntary charitable action , as is cleare by comparing it with Act. 13 , 28. 29. 30. Rom. 15. 25. 26. 2 Cor. 8. & 9. 1. to 15. especially v. 7. Every man according as he hath purposed in his heart so let him give , not grudgingly as of necessity : for God loveth a cheareful giver . 2. Whether they were necessarily tied to make privat contributions , only on the first day of the week & no other ? or had they not a liberty notwithstanding this order to do it on any other week day , as wel as on the first ? or every day , or every fortnight or 10. dayes , if they pleased , as their particular occasions and conditions administred abillity or opportunity for such a charitable worke ? 3ly . Whether this prescript forme of collection ( admitting it obligatory during this occasion ) did bind any Church but this of Corinth , and those of Galatia only ? or whether it obliged all other Churches then , or simply binds all Churches now to this forme of preparatory or privat contributions , or not ? If you say , no , then you yeeld the cause : since this president binds no Churches now to any punctuall , imitation . Therefore it is no proofe at all for any one divine universall unvariable forme of Church-government and discipline in all ages prescribed by Scripture : If you say , yea , then all Christians , Congregations in the world ( & your Independent to ) offend against this the Apostles divine institution in not retaining this form of privat collections , by segregating something for the use of the poore Sai●ts on every Lords day , or weekly , & in suffering publique gatherings for the poore in Churches on Lecture dayes , or week-day fasts , whereas these were no such collections , but only laying somthing up in private , by way of preparatory Charity against the Apostles comming , who would then receive every mans particular Charity by itselfe , and not trouble them with any publike collections . In one word : No Churches , nor Independent Congregations hold themselves strictly obliged to this forme of collection , ( which was not publique but private , every man by himselfe ) but all hould they may with safe conscience vary from it . Therefore ( if this collection be a part of Church-government or Discipline under the Gospell as you make it ) this Government , Disciplin is both mutable and arbitrable in this particular ; and so by consequence in others to , as occasions and conditions of the Church do vary . Your third Text of Acts 14. 23. When they had ordained them Elders in every Church : proves nothing for what you alledge it . For first , it extends not to all Churches then planted in the World , but onely to every Church in Derbie , Lystra , Iconium , Antioch , to which every Church relates , as is cleare by comparing it with the three preceding and following verses ; whence the Argument from this Text can be but this : The Apostles , ordained Elders in every Church at Derbe , Lystra , Iconium , and Antioch ( and so in every City in Creete Tit. 1. 5. ) Ergo in all Churches throughout the world . Which is no infallible inference . They might do it in all or most Cities where the Congregations were great , yet not in Villages or lesser places , where the number of Beleevers was but small . Secondly , This proues there were Elders ordained by the Apostles in many , if not most Churches : But yet it concludes not infallibly , that there must of necessity bee Elders ordained by those who are no Apostles in all Churches . There were such Elders then , Ergo there must of necessity be such now in every Church , unlesse there be a direct precept enjoyning them for perpetuity , is no infallible Argument . Thirdly , Admit it generall and binding unto all ; yet this proves onely that there ought by Apostolicall president and institution to be Elders ( not one but more ) in all Churches : what then becomes of some of your Independent Churches which have none ( as Master Simsons had none in Holland ) and as no new Independent Churches in or about London had , when they were first gathered . These certainly were no true Churches of Christ by this rule , because they wanted Elders . Fourthly , This Text speakes onely in the generall , that they ordained Elders in every Church , But what sort of Elders they were , Ruling , or Preaching Elders onely , or such who did both Rule and Preach : or in what manner they were ordained , whether by lifting up of hands onely to chuse them , and no more ; or by laying hands upon them , or by the Apostles owne imposition of hands only as Apostles , or joyning with others as ordinary Ministers , or in any other form , is not expressed ; So that this Text onely informes us , that there were Elders ordained in every Church ; but determines nothing of their office , or in what manner or form they were ordained : Therefore it concludes nothing for any exact compleat , unalterable , universall forme of Church-government in all particulars , prescribed to all Churches ; ordaining of Elders , being onely one part of Church-government , not the whol ; & no part of Discipline & that left very indefinitely in respect of the manner and forme , which the Scripture hath not by any direct precept or president reduced to an unalterable certainty , but rather left Arbitrary and indefinite , as will appeare by comparing Num. 8. 10. Acts 1 23. 24. 25. 26. c. 6. 5. 6. c. 14. 23. 1 Cor. 4. 14. c. 5. 17. 22. 2 Tim. 1. 6. 1 Tim. 4. 14. Tit. 1. 5. It being a great Controversie at this day : whether imposition of hands be now simply necessary in the ordination of Presbyters , Deacons , or Lay-Elders ? or whether it be but an arbitrary ceremony which may be omitted without prejudice , if there be cause ? whether it belonged to the Apostles onely as Apostles , or as Presbyters ? whether it be appropriated to Preaching Elders onely , as such ? or to ruling Elders as well as they , or to the [†] whol Church or Congregation , and such as they shall appoint ? Or to Arch-bishops , and Bishops only as such ? as many held of late , though now that question is out of date . So as neither of these Texts in severall , nor any , nor all three of them conjoyned , prove any such conclusion , or universall set forme of Church-government and Discipline , for all Churches , as is pretended . My Brothers 4. Objection is , [†] The every particular Congregation , is a compleate intire absolute spirituall Republike , Corporation , Body , and City of God of it self , and of absolute authority within it self , subject to no other Jurisdiction then that of Christ , his Word and Spirit , and not to any other particular Congregation , Synod , or Nationall Church , or humane power whatsoever . Therefore the Parliament and Assembly can make no Canons nor Rules to binde it , nor presc●ibe any Church-government or Discipline to it . Brother , this is the summe of your whole Book , and it grieves me to see so many strange Parodoxes piled up together to support an Independent Fabrick , by one of your yeares and Iudgement . Give me leave therefore to discover your manifold over-sights in this particular by such demonstrations , as you shall not be able to gain say . First then , I say that the whole Church of Christ is * but one intire Mysticall Body , whereof Christ is the supreame Spirituall Head and Governour , and all particular Churches only members of this intire Body ; as the head , hand , feet , are members of the Naturall Body , not absolute bodies of themselves ; as every house or Parish in a City is a member of the whol City ; Every Company or Regiment in an Army a member of that Realme , not absolute bodies , Cities , Armies , Kingdomes of themselves . That this is truth , we have sundry expresse Resolutions of Scripture in positive tearms , as the 1 Cor. 12. 12 , 13 , 14. 26. 27. ( and in truth the whole Chapter ) Ephes . ● . 22 , 23. c. 2. 14. 15. to the end c. 4. 11. to 17. c. 5. 23. to 33. Col. 1. 18. 24. c. 2. 17. 19. which you may peruse at leisure , Ephes . 4. 3. to 7. Endeavouring to keepe the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace : For there is ONE BODY , one Spirit , one Lord , one Faith , one Baptisme . One God and Father of all , who is above all and through all , and in all . And John 17. 20. 21. 23. Neither pray I for these alone , but for them also which shall believe on me through their word : THAT THEY ALL MAY BE ONE , as thou father art one , and I am in thee ; that they also MAY BE ONE IN US , and may be made perfect IN ONE . Hence the Scripture usually expresseth the whol Catholike Church of Christ ( which allages hitherto have believed to be but one , so far as to make it an r Article of their Creed ) under singular titles ; as the Church t A WOMAN , v MY LOVE , MY DOVE , my Sister , my Spouse , a Garden , a x Vineyard , y a City , a Congregation an Assembly , Sion , Jerusalem an z House , a a Flocke , a b Body , and the like ; to note it ; unity , that it is but ONE intire spirituall Corporation , though distributed into severall particular Congregations scattered ●ver the face of the whole World. This being an indubitable verity , strikes off the head of your Galiah , and subverts the very foundation of Independent Congregations , which would be absolute and compleat spirituall Bodies within themselves , and no members of a Catholike or Nationall Church . Secondly , If all the particular Churches in the World , bee in reality but one intire Body and Church of Christ , then by the self-same reason likewise all the particular Congregations within one Nation , Kingdome , Republike ( united in one civill Corporation under one Head , and temporall government ) are but one and the selfe-same Church , and members one of another ; not absolute Independent Congregations of themselves , subordinate to no other : even as all the particular persons in a House make up but one Family ; all the particular Houses , Parishes in a City , but one City ; all the severall Cities , & Counties in a Kingdome , one Realme ; and all the Nations on the earth , but one world of men . These cleare principles of Divinity , Policy , Nature , experience , none can or may deny , unlesse he hath lost his sences , or means to subvert all humane Relations and Societies . And my [†] Brother acknowledging the whole Nation of the Jewes to be but one intire Nationall Church , though divided into sundry Synagogues and particular Congregations , as is evident by Acts 15. 24. FOR MOSES OF OLD TIME hath IN EVERY CITY them that Preach him , being read in THE SYNAGOGVES EVERY SABBATH DAY , compared with Psa . 74. 8. Matth. 6. 2. 5. c. 7. 1. 8. c. 9. 35. c. 23. 34. Mark. 1. 21. 23. 29. 39 ▪ c. 3. 1. n. 5. 22. Luke . 4. 15. to 44. c. 13. 10. c. 21. 12. John 6. 59. c. 9. 22. c. 18. 20. c. 10. 2 ▪ Acts 9. 2. 20. c. 13. 5. 14. 42. c. 14. 1. c. 17. 1. 10. c. 18. 4. 7. 13. 26. c. 19. 8. c. 22. 12. ) must of necessity subscribe to this conclusion issuing naturally from it ; that all particular Congregations in any one Christian Realm , Nation , Republike , are but one intire Church , though divided into severall squadrons for necessity and conveniency ; as one house is into many Roomes , one City into many Streets , Parishes , companies , wards ; one Kingdome into divers Counties , Provinces . One Parliament into severall Houses , & Sub-Committees as there is occasion ; one Armie into severall Regiments , Brigades , Companies , Troopes . Thirdly , It is at clear as Noonday : That in all Civill , or Ecclesiasticall Corporations , Congregations or Societies of men united into one common Politique Body , the whol body or greater part , hath by the Law of God , Nature Nations a lawful inherent jurisdiction over every particular member , or lesser part to make Laws and common Rules to obliege them for the safety , peace & benefit of the whol Body : In all Parliaments , Councels of State or War , Cities , Corporations , Societies , Courts of Iustice , Chapters Committees , yea in all elections of Magistrates , Ministers , Knights or Burgesses of Parliament , Majors of Cities , Masters Wardens of Companies ; heads or fellows of Colledges , Church-wardens , and the like , the whol Body or major voyce bindes the lesser number , & all the whol body ever over-rules the parts : And it must needs be so , els there could be no Rule , Order , Government in any of them , if one member only or the lesser part should over-rule and prescribe Lawes unto the whole or greater part , not they to them . The like rule holds firme , and hath ever taken place 〈…〉 ●●mall generall Nation Provinciall , Parochiall or Congregation 〈…〉 Synods Convocations . Assemblies or meetings , in all matters of 〈…〉 Discipline , Government Lawes , Rules , Edicts , Censure Descition , 〈…〉 . Yea in Independent Churches themselves , the Votes , Orders , 〈◊〉 determinations of the whole or major part of the Congregation , binde all the other dissenting ▪ as well as consenting members ; neither will any Independent Congregation admit of any into their new society , but such who shall first submit to the Covenant , Orders , Government , Rules and Discipline that Congregation , or the major part thereof hath elected established . Fourthly , It is a principle of the Law of Nature , and common Reason , which all Republikes , Churches , Societies of men in every age till this present , have admitted , that the Lawes , Ordinances , Decrees , of the greatest Civill or Ecclesiasticall Assemblies , where the whole Realme , Republike , Church , or Nation , are personally , or representatively present by their deputies or Proxies , obliege all inferiour Corporations , Societies , Churches , Congregations , Persons , within their severall Iurisdictions , to submission and reall obedience , especially when just and agreeable to Gods Word , or at least to passive ( whiles in force ) where unjust or contrary to the Word . Hence the publike Laws Ordinances Edicts , of Parliaments and general Assemblies of the Estates , have in all Kingdomes , Ages , without the least dispute , oblieged , regulated all Corporations . Societies , Persons , within their severall jurisdictions , because they are the Representative Body and supreame power of those Realms , where all are virtually present and consenting , when all , or the major part at least assent . Hence the whole World have ever held the determioations , Creeds , Canons , Decrees , of Oeumenicall , Nationall , or Provinciall Councels , ratified by Emperors , Kings , and Parliaments , obligatory in point of jurisdiction to all Churches , persons within their jurisdictions . And in truth , the chiefe end , use of Parliaments , Councels , Synods m ( approved by God , and the higher powers ordained by him : ) is not to advise , admonish , perswade , debate , n or deliver their opinions of doubts , errors , mischiefes ; for this every private man hath power to do , and containes no stampe of p jurisdistion , Power , or Authority in it ; But authoritatively to prescribe Lawes , Canons , Rules , and determinations , oblieging otherrs to obedience under paine of exemplary censures and penalties . Sixthly . It cannot be gainsayd ; but every man and woman in the world , considered meerly as such , or as single persons stript of all their naturall , civill , or Ecclesiasticall relations , are of equall Authority , and have no jurisdiction , power , or superiority at all one over another , no more than fellow servants , fellow Citizens , or neighbors out of office have over one another : yet look upon the selfe-same persons as they stand cloathed with their severall Relations , as members of a family , Corporation , City , Kingdome , Church , and their very relations , make them subordinate and lyable to sundry superiour jurisdictions ▪ not only by way of counsell but command . Thus children , servants , wives , Pulpits are by a naturall relation ( established by a Morall q Law and sundry divine Precepts ) subject to all the just Lawes , Orders , commands of their Parents , Masters Husbands , not onely by way of Counsell or advise , which they may obey or reject at pleasure ; but of Iurisdiction and Authority ; so farre as to be enforced to obedience , and justly punished for disobedience or neglect , according to the quality of the offence and contempt . Thus inferiours of all sorts , in a politicke relation onely ( as subjects to their Princes , to all subordinate Magistrates Officers , in their respective places of power ▪ Kingdomes to their Parliaments , Cities to their Majors , Aldermen , and Common-Councell ; Companies to their Masters , Wardens and Assistants ; Souldiers to their Generals , Commanders of all Rankes ; Schollars to their Tutors , Colledges to their Rectors , mariners to their Masters ) both by the Law of God Nature , Nations & Dictat of common reason , are subject to all just orders Mandates of these their superiours , to which they must yeeld obedience● under paine of such punishments as are answerable to their contempt and disobedience . The same rule and reason holds as firmely in all Ecclesiasticall Relations : Take severall private Christians as Christians , or severall Parishes or Congregations , as they are such ; and it is certain one of them hath no Iurisdiction nor power at all over another in any Ecclesiasticall matters , either to prescribe Lawes to , or inflict censures upon one another ; but only a power to exhort , admonish , reprove , advise , or assist one another in a brotherly way . But yet looke upon the selfe-same particular persons , Churches , as Members of a Parochiall or Nationall Church , and then in this Relation they are and ought to be subject to the just rules , precepts , Canons , Orders of the Ministers , and whole Congregation of which they are Actuall Members , even in point of conscience ; and every particular Church , must and ought readily to submit to the just Canons , Constitutions , Orders , determinations Ecclesiasticall Censures of the whole . Representative Nationall , or Provinciall Church , Councell , ●ynod , ratified by Authority of Parliament , in a Regular way , under paine of Ob●inacy , Contempt , Disobedience and exemplary punishment ; there being the selfe-same reason and equity for severall combined Churches in a Councel Synod Presbytery to have a coe●cive power over every particular Church within their limits as for any particular Congregation , to claim or exerise a jurisdiction in point of direction or correction , over any or every particular member of it . Our Independents no doubt will grant , that if two or three severall Congregations unite themselves into one Church , they do by vertue of this union , become all lyable to the Iurisdiction , Canons , Orders Determinations , Censures of that one Church ; and those , who whiles divided , had no authority nor power , but onely of their owne members , have by this union a Iurisdiction over the Members of all these Churches , thus eonjoyned into one : As it is with several persons united into one Corporation Society , Church , or when severall powers Or jurisdictions meet and joyne together in one , as the Parliaments , Commissioners , Armies of two Provinces , Kingdome in one Parliament Councel Army ; the Lords , Commons , Knights and Burgesses of every County , Citty , Town , and Burrough in both Realmes in one Parliament , they have by this their union the whole power and authority of both united Kingdomes , Armies , Parliaments . and a joynt Iurisdiction over both , which they had not before whiles seperated ; even as a Major or King hath when as severall Cities , Townes , Villages , Kingdoms ( as our ancient Saxon Heptarchy ) are all conjoyned into one City , Realm , and therby subordinated to one new Iurisdiction . If this then must be yeelded to me ; it will inevitably follow by the selfe-same reason , that severall particular Churches being united together in one Synod , Councell , Assembly , Parliament or Presbytery , ( even for this very end and purpose to prescribe such generall Canons , erect such a uniforme Church-government and Discipline for the publicke peace and benefit of the Church , as shall equally binde all Churches victually present and combined in it ) must have a lawfull Iuridicall , Legislative power in them to make such Laws , Canons as shall binde all particular Congregations , not onely as advises , or brotherly counsels , but as * vigorous Lawes , which subject the particular persons , or Churches , who transgresse or contemne them to condigne punishment : as the reasons , Scriptures formerly alleaged , to prove that humane Lawes obliege the conscience in point of obedience , abundantly demonstrate . These uncontrolable verities , never yet so much as doubted in any Age till this , clearely discover the falsity , and vanity of my Brothers objection , to which I will give this further direct answer . 1. I deny , that every particular Church or Congregation in a Christian State , where there are many adjacent Churches under the selfe same Civill Government , is an absolute compleat , independent Body , City , or Republike of it selfe , ( as is objected ) to all intents and purposes , without dependency on , or relation , or subordination to any other . True it is , that in some respects , so far as concerns its own private interest , it is a compleate body , having a Minister Elders , Members , Ordinances , Prayers , preaching , Sacraments , reading of the Word maintenance , and the like , of its owne , within it selfe ; ( yetso ; as not simply to exclude all others from preaching or communicating with them , when there is occasion : ) and in this regard the definition of a Church ; given in out [†] Homilies and by others : ( That it is a company of men outwardly professing the faith of Christ , wherein the Word of God is syncerely preached , and the Sacraments duly administred ) belongs unto it . But yet it followes not hereupon , that it is either an absolute , or Independent Church , or a compleate body in all respects , exempt from all superior jurisdiction , but a dependent , subordinate Congregation , and a meere Member in respect of the Nationall , Provinciall or Catholike Church . For as every private person , familie , Corpotion , Society , City considered in themselves , are compleate , perfect men , bodies , Societies &c. but in relation to the Families , Kingdoms , Cities , Republikes wherin they are , meete dependent , subordinate parts , & Members of the whole common body , to whose just Laws , & commands they are all equally subject : or as every particular persons , families , or corporations interests in their owne persons , liberties , lands , estates , Children , servants , is good and absolute against all other private persons or corporations , who have no power to deprive them of them but yet subordinate to the publike interest and power of the whole kingdom , Pa●●ia . who may command or dispose of them upon all just occasions for the safety and service of that common bodywhere of they are all Members , which may give Laws ( of common right ) to all , and deprive them of all private interests , priviledges for the publike good ; Salus popul● , being Suprema lex , to which all Privadoes must submit . So it is with every particular Christian , Congregation ; As a private Christian , or Church , they have a private compleatnesse , absolutenesse , and Ordinances within themselves , of which no other particular Christian or Church can deprive them , not judicially question them for : But yet this private Christian as a Member of a Congregation , and this particular Congregation , as a Member of the Nationall and Catholik Church of Christ , are neither absolute , not independent , but subordinate to the other Churches , Synodically assembled , to the supreame Councell of Parliament , ( the representative Church and State of England , ) who may prescribe Laws unto them , and to the Civil Magistrate , who may both censure & correct them to . For example , if any particular Congregation , or any Pastor , or Member of it , shall abuse or exceed their private power , to the oppression of any of the●● owne Members , or injury of their neighbour Churches ; as by separating from their communion , without just cause ; erecting a new private forme of Church-Government or Discipline in opposition to other Churches of the same , or other Realms without publike authority , to the engendring of schi●mes ; or broach any hereticall seditious , Erronious Doctrines , as some now do : set up Idolatry , supersition , innovations , or falfe worship ; abuse or prophane the Sacraments ; become licencious , vitious or scandalous in their lives ; injure their owne Members without giving them satisfaction or reliefe : entertaine all sorts of Sectaries ; deny communion in Sacraments or other Ordinances with the Members of their neighbour Churches , who desire it upon just occasions ; debarre any of their Members from the Lords Supper , or their Children from Baptisme without just cause ; be unable to resolve doubts and controversies in Religion betweene Minister and people , or Members ; or to judge of doubtfull cases ; Vsu●pe more power then is meet to the impeaching of the Magistrates Authority ; wants meanes to raise monyes to provide an able Minister , or defray their necessary Church expences ; or invades the Rights of other Neighbour Churches , or refuseth obedience to such publike Ecclesiassticall Lawes which tend to the peace and unity of the whole Nationall Church : In all these cases , and others which concerne the Nationall or whol Catholike Church in general or other neighbouring Churches in particular no particular Church is an absolute or Independent body of it self , but only a subordinate Member , Subject to the Lawes , Ordinances , Determinations , censures of the whole Church of that Nation , combined in Parliament , and to Nationall , Provinciall Synods and Presbyteries , established by common consent in Parliament , as well as every Member of a Family , City , Society Kingdom , Army , or Realm , is subordinate to the whol Family City , Army , Realm , which no reasonable creature or Consciencious person can or dares deny . Secondly , I answer : That this very argument , is a most dangerous seditious Par●dox , destructive to all Republikes , and Societies of men ; A Cockatrice fit to be crushed in the shell , ere it prove a devouring Serpent to Church and State , as you may discerne by these instances in my Brothers way of arguing ; For may not any Independent Company , 〈◊〉 Regiment or Brigade , in our Armies argue just in this very straine ? Every Company , Troop , Regiment , Brigade , is a compleate body of it selfe , having an its owne necessary Officers , and Commanders ; Therefore we will not joyne with or submit to the commands Orders Military Lawes or directions of my Lord Generall , the councell of Warre , or any superior Officer ; but bee ruled commanded only by our selves and ▪ and the Parliaments own immediate commands , to which we are onely subject . Any Independent Family Streete , parish , Company , or Ward only in the City , argue thus ; we are an absolute compleate body , family , street , parish , company , Ward within our selves ; Therefore we will not , wee may not be governed , directed , commanded or censured by my Lord Major , the Court of Aldermen , or Common Councell ; but only by and within our selves , Any Independent child servant , Wife , or Member of any such Congregation alleage , I am an absolute Man , Woman , Christian of my selfe : Therefore I may not . I will not be commanded governed , overruled , obliged corrected by my Parents , Master , Husband , or that Congregation of which I am a Member , but only by my selfe : Any independent County , City , Committee , or Court of Justice argue : Wee are a compleate County , City , Committee , Court in and of our selves ? Ergo , Wee neither will , nor must submit to any Lawes or Ordinances of the high Court of Parliament : Yea every Colledge in our Vniversities dispute thus ; We are a compleate Colledge and corporation within our selves , Ergo , the Chancellor , Vicechancellor , Convocation , Congregation , and whole Vniversity have no Authority , to controle , judge , or order us . Brother , if such Arguments as these should be once admitted ( as they now begin to grow very rise in all places ) I referre to your saddest thoughts , what will become of all our Armies , Parishes , Cities , Churches , Families , Parliaments , Kingdome in a short space ? Will they not all be dissipated , dissolved in a moment , and nought but a Chaos of confusion , disobedience , Schisme , Anarchy , and disorder , cover their faces ? I beseech you therefore consider and retract this new monstrous Logick and Divinity which cuts in sunder all relations , and subverts the very pillars , foundations of all Government , Order , Peace , Vnity , both in Church and State , But my Brother Objects 3. things to make good his Argument . 1. That if there were no other particular Church in the world then one , as that of Abrahams family should it not be a compleat Church , untill there were other Churches ; on whose jurisdiction it should depend ? I answer yes : But this is not the case , nor question : We in our Realme ( blessed be God ) have in all parts , not only one particular christian family , church ; but many thousand Parochiall Churches , Congregations as our very Almanacks as well as Cosmographers will informe you . What then , Brother , will you inferre from this sole Church in Abrahams family , to our Churches now ? Will you argue , Abraham in his dayes had a compleat absolute Independent Church in his own family onely . Ergo now there ought to be such an Independent absolute Church in every family ? ( at least , where there is a sufficient number requisite to make up a ministeriall body ) as you interpret it ▪ what then will become of your congregationall Churches , and our Parochial , consisting of many great families ? they must by this new Doctrine , divide themselves presently into so many families , or Independent Churches , as there are great families in them ; and then I hope , the * Master of the family onely , not an Independent Minister must be their Paster and Ruler , as Abraham was in his , and then farewell the office of Minister , ( which some of your Lay Elders exercise without scruple , denying the very calling of Ministers ) and all our Churches too , Brother , will you argue thus ? Adam was a compleat and absolute man alone ; therefore he needed not a helper or wife , or family to be joyned to him . Suppose you should take a single person , who formerly lived alone by and of himselfe , without relation to , or communion with any other men , like a Popish Hermite or Anchorite , into your family , Church ; or incorporate him into this City , or any company in it : will you say that because this man was absolute , and under no command at first , Ergo he must continue so still in your family , Church , this City , and his company ; and neither you , nor any of them may , or can of right enact any thing to controle him ? I trow not : When there were only single Families , living remote from others in the world , they were absolute and compleate Churches , Republikes of themselves ; but when these single families multiplyed , and combined themselves into Villages , Cities , Provinces , Republikes ; Kingdomes , they thereby lost their pristine liberty , absolutenesse , independencie , compleatnesse , and of intire small bodies , Churches , Republikes , became onely parts and members of those larger ones to which they were thus combined . So it is with particular Mother Churches , when there was but one particular Church in the world , or in one State or Kingdome ( the case of all the first Churches planted by the Apostles ) without any Neighbour Churches to combine with , this Church being under no superiour Christian Magistrates , was absolute and independent in it selfe , there being no other Church to joyne with . But if this one Church through the encrease of Christians shall swell so great , as to spread it selfe over all the City , or Republike wherein it is , and so upon necessity must divide it selfe into sundry particular Congregations , then all these Churches being under one and the selfe-same Republike , and united together under one supreame , Civill Magistrate , as members of the same Nation , Kingdom , City , Republike , and of the self-same nationall , or Provinciall Church , doe thereupon lose their absolutenes and Independency , and become subject to the Power , Lawes , Canons , Determinations , Government , and Discipline of the whole Nationall Church and Kingdome , of which they are but members ; which to preserve publike peace , unity , order , amity , ought constantly to be governed by the self-same generall Ecclesiasticall Lawes , setled by the common consent of all their severall National Synods , and Parliaments , as Civill Lawes are , which oblige all . But this saith my a Brother in the second place , takes away the lawfull Jurisdiction and rights of particular Churches : Ergo it is not to be admitted . I answer first : By the like reason you may argue ; the joyning of many particular persons into one family , of divers families into one Parish , of sundry Parishes into one City , of divers Citie into one State ; of sundry States and Kingdomes into one Monarchy or Empire : of divers Companies and Regiments into one Army ; of sundry Knights , Citizens . Burgess●● , and Peeres , into one Parliament , and many Ministers into one Synod , deprives them of their Independency , their particular Rights , Interests , and subjects them to a new superiour power , Iurisdiction , command , and to their publicke Lawes and Ordinances ; Ergo it is unlawfull , intollerable , and such Corporations , Republicks , Kingdomes , Empires , Parliaments , Synods , ought not to be : If this be a good consequence , you will subvert all humane Societies , Corporations , Republicks , Synods , Parliaments , Independent Churches , and Families to by like reason . ● . This takes not away the lawfull rights of particular Congregations , but rather improves them for their owne particular , and the publick good : for ( Brother ) I pray informe me , which is best of the two , for a particular Church , or Corporation to be subject only to such Lawes , Rules , Government and Discipline , as shall be made , decreed , declared most agreeable to the Word of God , and fit to be generally received in all Churches , by an b whole Parliament and Assembly of the most wise , ablest , and best experienced Christians , Nobles , Divines , after long debate and consideration ; or by the private rash Opinions , and perchance passions , humours , of two or three private persons , perhaps directed , swayed by particuler interests , relations , ends ? Which is justest , safest , or most remote from Tyrannicall , Arbitrary and Papall Government , for Churches , States , Persons , to be all confined to certaine publicke Lawes and Canons , enacted by common consent in Parliament , limiting who shall be admitted to , who secluded from the Congregation , Sacrament , communion of Saints , &c. and for what causes , offences , in certaine , &c. then to be left Arbitrary to the meer mercy , wills , determinations of the Ministers and Elders of every particular Congregation , or to the pleasures of Princes , or some few temporall Magistrates , without any Lawes or limits to restrain them ? We all hold it the greatest happinesse , freedome of our Kingdom , and the chiefest part of our Priviledge , which we enjoy as free-men of England c That we neither may , nor can be legally bound by any Lawes , Canons , Taxes , or Commands , but only such as are made and imposed on us by full consent in Parliament : and not subject to the meere Arbitrary Lawes , Ordinances , wills , commands of our Princes , Magistrates , Iudges , Prelates , or any other private men . And shall it be then held the slavery , injury , and not rather the liberty or priviledge of particular Churches , and their members , to be subject only to such Ecclesiasticall Rules , Canons , Orders , Covenants , Government and Discipline as shall be publickly agreed on , consented to , and setled in Parliament ( to which all Churches , Christians shall be equally obliged without exemption ( then to be left at six and seven , to what Rules , Covenants , Orders , Censures , Government , Discipline , every private Minister , Eldership , or every major part of a congregation shall arbitrarily prescribe unto their members as suitable to the Word ? No doubt he that hath a doubtfull case in Law , would rather have the advice of many solid Lawyers then one ; he that is sicke in body , will give more credit to the opinion of the whole Colledge of Physitians upon debate , then to one or two Doctors , or Apothecaries . Whence the policies of all States , Churches in all Ages , have reserved the power of making Lawes , and setling matters of greatest moment to their most generall Councells , Parliaments , and Assemblies , not to Cabinet Counsells or Vesteries . Brother , it is , a true rule of d Aristotle ; that men are better governed by Laws , which continue constant , inpartiall , inflexible , then by Men whose lusts , passions , interests and private ends , doe for the most part byasse them awry ; holds as well in Ecclesiasticall , as civill Constitutions . Therefore this legislative power and Jurisdiction of Parliaments , and Synods , over particular Churches is so farre from being a prejudice or slavery to them , that it is as great a priviledge and freedome , as our Parliaments are to our Kingdomes , which onely make binding Lawes for all , and the only meanes to free us from an arbitrary Government . The third thing my x Brother objects is : That all these Churches where the Apostles Preached were of absolute Authority among themselves , respectively , and equall one to another ; not one of them having jurisdiction over another . ( The seven Churches of Asia , the Churches of Ephesus , Corinth , Antioch , &c. exercising all jurisdiction within themselves alone , not being subordinate to themselves or any other , as others object . ) And in the Primitive Churches next after Christ for two hundred yeares or more , the Government was almost popular , and every Church had equall power of ordaining and casting out their Minister , and were independent one of another , as appeares by the Centurists . Cent. 1. c. 7. Tit de Conso●iatione Ecclesiarum , and De Synodis privatis . To this I answer . 1. That there is no such thing in the first Century , my Brother quotes , nor any thing in the second , but that one particular Church , and Bishop , was not then Lord and soveraign over another ; but it saith not , they were not subject to the determinations of publick Synods . 2. That none of the Churches planted by the Apostles were absolute , and Independent as you pretend . For first they were all subject to the Apostles rules and directions , both Churches , Ministers , Elders , as is evident by the whole History of the Acts , and all the Epistles written to those Churches after they were planted , prescribing Rules , and Directions to them for to follow ; by Pauls sending for the Elders of the Church of Ephesus to him , to Miletus , and giving them there a charge concerning themselves and their flockes , Acts 20. 15. to 36. by ● . Cor. 11. 18. That which commeth upon me daily , the care of all the Churches , &c. 1 Cor. 11. 34. The rest will I set in order when I come ; by his commanding them to deliver the incestuous Corinthian to Sathan , 1 Cor. 5. 4 , 5. & Tit. 1. 5 , 6. Therefore they were not Independent or absolute in themselves , but subordinate to the Apostles . 2. Though they were not subordinate immediately one to another , as one single Parish Church now , is not subordinate to another particular Church ; nor the Churches of one City , Republike , Kingdom , subordinate to another ; yet they were all subject to a Parliament , Synod , or combination of many Churches in cases of differences , new opinions , &c. which concern the purity of Religion , the suppressing of Schismes , the common Peace or weale of all Churches , in which all have equall interest , as is cleare by the f Synodicall determination and decrees of the Apostles Elders , and Brethren at Ierusalem , who sent Decrees to all the Churches of the Gentiles to observe , Acts 15. throughout , &c. 21. 24 , 25. which is thus expressed , Ch. 16. v. 4 , 5. And as they went through the Cities they delivered them , THE DECREES FOR TO KEEPE THAT WERE ORDAINED OF THE APOSTLES AND ELDERS WHICH WERE AT HIERVSALEM . ( And marke the happy fruites and effects of those Decrees ) And so was the Church established in the Faith , and increased in number daily . It was well there were no Independents then ; they would have quarrelled both this Synod and its Decrees , as * they doe most strangly now , or sought for to avoyd this unavoydable president , & argued as some doe now . What , we are Independent Congregations , absolute and compleate within our selves , what hath the Church or Synod at Jerusalem to doe to make Decrees for us to keepe , who are under Christ alone as our onely King , Head , Governour , Law-giver ; not under Apostles , Elders , Synods , or any other Church , who may not Lord it over us ? Hence then I argue , that the Churches then were not Independent , because they thus readily embraced , submitted to the observation of these Synodall Decrees , which our Independent Churches will not stoop to ; saying , Their Churches are absolute intirely their owne g who is Lord over them ? Adde to this , that the Apostle in the 1 Cor. 11. 15. argues the unlawfulnesse of womens praying without vailes , and of mens wearing long haire ( ad never longer in England then now ) in the Church of Corinth , from the very custome of other Churches . Neverthelesse ( saith he ) if any man seens to be contentious ( in opposing the premises ) we have no such custome , NEITHER THE CHVRCHES OF CHRIST : where Paul from the custome of all other Churches of Christ , condemnes the irregularity of some in the Church of Corinth : whence I argue . If the lawful , laudable customes only of all other or most of the Churches of Christ ought to oblige a sister Church , that is singular , and different from them , to uniformity with them , in things convenient and just , as this Text manifests , then by like reason the just Decrees , and Canons of many Churches combined , ought to oblige particular Churches which are under their precincts . 3. Though the Church of Corinth did not exercise Jurisdiction , or claime a power over the Church of Philippi , nor one of the seven Churches exercise a Jurisdiction over the other , as they were single Churches , and under severall civill Government , whose Magistrates then were not Christians ; yet Paul , John , and the other Apostles held a jurisdiction over them , as their Epistles to them manifest , and they all combined in a Synod , had power by their Deputies one over another not as particular Churches , but as a Synod wherein they were all combined ; as the second Century , cap. 7. Master Rutherford his due Right of Presbitires , Art. 15. p. 355. to 480. to whom I sha ; ; refer the Reader : My Brothers Argument therefore is but this in substance . The Church of Sepulchres hath no jurisdiction over Saint Androwes , nor the Church of Pauls over Westminster , not the Church of England over the Church of France , or Scotland : Ergo a generall Councell , or Nationall Synod , wherein these Churches are all combined hath no juridiction or legislative Authority over them , nor any other particular congregation under their precincts . A doughty Argument , much like this in effect . The Burrough of Westminster hath no jurisdiction nor power to make binding Lawes for the Burrough of Southwarke ; not the county of Kent for the county of Middlesex , nor any one City , County or Burrough in England power to prescribe Lawes to one another Ergo all these counties , cities , burroughs assembled in Parliament , in their Knights , and Burgesses , have no power to make Lawes to bind any of them , nor the Kingdome . And what then becomes of our Parliaments Authority , and legislative power , if this kind of logick be admitted ? 4. My h Brother & other Independents generally grant , that every Congregation may and ought to give an account of their actions , censures , proceedings , and opinions to another private Church ; therefore they are not absolute nor simply Independent in regard of other particuler Churches , much lesse then in respect of an whole Nationall Synod , Parliament or Presbitery ; which reason i others having largely prosecuted , I shall but touch . 5. I demand , whether every particular Church or Congregation whatsoever , be such an absolute , compleat , independent body in it selfe , subject only unto Christ , &c. or only independent Churches and congregations ? If Independent only , I pray shew your Magna Charta for such a peculier priviledge , which no Churches else enjoy or challenge but onely yours . If all particuler Churches enjoy this priviledge , then marke the consequence : Papists , Arminians , Anabaptists , Sociniaas , Antinomians , Arrians , Familists , ( and as one Master Williams an Independent affirmes , in Print , Mahumetans , Iewes , and all the severall Sects of Religions in the world , mustered up by Master Samuel Purchas in his Pilgrimage and Voyages , ) must be absolute and Independent to ; nor may any Magistrates , Parliament , Synod , make Lawes to regulate , reclaime , suppresse , or punish them , because they are subject to none but to Christ , and accountable onely to him , and their consciences free ; then * every Sectary , Schismaticke , Hereticke what soever may gather and set up an Independent Church , of three or foure families , persons in a corner ; and neither King , Parliament , nor Presbiteries may question , or suppresse them , because they are immediatly subject to none but Christ . Then persons questioned , excommunicated by their congregations , or such members of your Churches , who either feare your censure or fall into any pett , or humour against your Ministers , Elders , Government , may set up a new Church of their owne , and so avoyd both your jurisdiction and censures . In one word , this absurd Paradox would open a large guppe to all Errours , Heresies , all Sectaries , Schismaticks impious practises and opinions , without the least impunity , restraint , or meanes of reformation . 6. This conceit ( derived onely from the k Pope himself , who claimes this priviledge , that he is subject and accountable to none but Christ himselfe in spirituall things , and is an Independent Church within himselfe , as the Iesuites with others affirme ) makes every Independent Church or Minister a meere Pope , subject and accomptable to Christ alone . I beseech you therefore ( Deare Brother ) tell me , how you can be said to renounce the Pope , Popery , Antichrist , and abolish them out of our Realme , to your utmost power , according to your Vow and Covenant ; when as you banish onely one Pope , and set up many , in making every Independent Minister and Congregation , a meer Antichristian Pope l exalting it above all that is called God , as immediately subiect to none but Christ . My m Brothers fifth Objection is : That Christ should be very unfaithfull , carelesse , and leave his Church to six and seven , if he had not prescribed as exact a Church Government and Discipline for it under the Law , as under the Gospel . And we should have a mad world ( he should say Church ) if it were left to Christian Princes , Civill States or Parliaments , to set up such a Church-government and Discipline , as they should conceive were most suiteable to Gods Word , and the Lawes and customes of the Realm , and manners of their people . I Answer 1. In generall , In generall , that this is onely words , not proofes ; matters of fact ( as this now controverted is ) must be ever proved by reall visible demonstrations , not farre-fetched inferences , fancies , probabilities , suggestions , or pretended inconveniences of our owne devising . Therefore ( Brother ) trouble not the world any more with inferences , or illustrations of what is not , but produce some down-right Scripture proofes of what really is : what Philip spake in one sence to our Saviour n Shew us the Father and it sufficeth us ; I shall say to you , shew us your Church-Government deliniated , prescribed to all Churches in Scripture , in all particulars wherein we differ , and it shall suffice us ; but your Inferences from the Tabernacle , Temple , Ezechiels vision & these objected inconveniences , neither will nor can satisfie any man who hath any science , conscience or reason to guide his choise . 2. I answer ; That Christ hath not been so extreamly negligent or carelesse as to leave his Church under the Gospel at six and seven , though he hath not been so exact in prescribing , or establishing a set forme of Church-Government and Discipline under the Gospel , as he was in the Old Testament , in setting downe the patterne of the Tabernacle , Arke , Temple , under the Law , as you object . For Brother , your selfe acknowledge in your Margent , pag. 5. 6. ( upon second thoughts ) that he hath not done it , though you affirme the contrary in your Text ; Wil you I pray argue , that Christ is more carelesse of his Church under the Gospel then under the Law , because the manner and time of Circumcision ; eating the Passeover , consecrating of Priests , with all their accoutrements ; the forme of the Tabernacle , Temple , with all the Services , Sacrifices thereto belonging , are more exactly and particularly set downe and prescribed in the Old Testament , then the manner , time , or forme of Baptisme , administring and receiving the Lords Supper , ordination of Ministers , the model or fashion of our Churches , and their necessary furniture are in the New : or because the use of solemne Vowes and Covenants ( your great Diana ) the manner of solemnizing Fasts , sanctifying the Sabbath , Feastivalls , Nationall Assemblies , &c. are more exactly delineated and prescribed in the Old Testament , then the New ? Or , which soares higher ; was Christ more carelesse of his Church before then under the Law , because he gave them not the Law in writing as he did in after times ? or carelesse of the Church under the Law , because he gave them not the Gospel then , but Law alone ? Brother , your self acknowledge , that Christ hath left his Churches , childrens consciences more free under the Gospel , then they were under the Law , o exempting them from the Ceremoniall Law , and all humane Ordinances , to which they were formerly obliged . Is he therefore carelesse , or unfaithfull ? I beseech you Brother , take heede how you cast dirt in Christs owne face by such strained inferences ; or charge your Brother with no lesse then p Heresie , or hereticall Doctrin , by such extravagant inferences , and incoherent Arguments : for fear you dishonour both your Master and your self . 3. Though Christ hath left no absolute exact forme of Church-Government in Scripture for all Churches and Ages , yet he hath left his q Word , to be a light to the feete , and a Lanthorne to the pathes of all his Saints and Churches ; and said downe such generall Presidents , rules , and directions therein , as may serve for ordering , directing , and regulating of all Churches herein ; yea he hath given us some more particular rules for some things which concerne the Government of his Churches , The Scripture hath r generall Rules for our faith , life , manners , thoughts , words , actions , apparell , eating , drinking , praying , preaching , receiving the Sacrament , &c. applicable to all particular cases and occurrences concerning them , though not particular punctuall rules for deciding all those cases of conscience , and controversies that frequently arise concerning them : yet Christ is not unfaithfull , because he hath left his Church sufficient rules , and meanes of salvation in generall or particular , to bring it safe to heaven . 4 The providing of godly and faithfull ſ Ministers , Magistrates , and Governours of the Church , to put good Laws , Disciplin , and Government in execution , is a great part of Christs charge and care , as well as providing his Word , and a Government for his Church . Will you charge Christ then with negligence , and leaving his Church to six and seven , because every Minister of Christ hath not the selfe-same measure of gifts , and endowments to discharge his Ministery ? or , because some Ministers are more negligent in their places then others ; and some sheep are t left oft-times without a Shepheard , or committed to a Iudas , a Thiefe ; or to Wolve● , false Teachers , Seducers , which teare , and devoure instead of feeding them ? or because he set not up , and maintained this forme of Church Government you now contend for as his , and none else beside , in all Churches for so many hundred yeares together , but reserved this honour in this latter age to some of you , ( or rather to the Anabaptists and Brownists , your Predecessors herein ) to advance it . Brother , you may easily discerne by this , where your owne pretended inconveniences , and inferences will drive you at the last , if you rely upon them ; I beseech you therefore ( as a loving Brother ) to forbeare them for the future . 4. Whereas you object , * We should have a mad world of it if Civill States , Magistrates , Kings and Parliaments should set up such a Government 〈◊〉 they conceived to be agreeable to Gods Word , and the good Lawes and Customes of their Realmes . I answer . 1. That it is your own position , v that every particular man and Church ought to walke according to the rule of their own consciences , and judgement , not anothers , Christ only being Lord of their consciences . If then a whole Kingdome , Parliament , Church , or Realme shall conceive , and be perswaded in their consciences , that such and such a Church Government is most consonant to Gods Word , most suiteable to their condition , and therefore shall upon solemne debate , after much seeking of God by Prayer and Fasting , make choise of this government before another , as by electing a Presbyteriall , rejecting an Independent way ; What madnesse , or inconvenience , meer slavery , tyranny , humane inv●ntions , superstitions , or corruption will this introduce ? Shall they be Hereticks presently for such a choise , as x you define them ? Shall private men have more liberty of choise , or conscience then whole Nations , Synods , Parliaments ; or more wisedome , temper , knowledge , discretion , conscience then they ? Indeed I have read of one Parliament stiled the y Mad , and another the z unlearned , because there were no Lawyers in it : and no doubt both Parliaments , Councells , Synods , generall Assemblies may , and doe sometimes erre , and that grosly , as well as private persons or congregations . But doubtlesse all reasonable men will and must acknowledge , * that two are better then one ; a whole Court of Iustice lesse liable to errour and corruption then a particul●r Judge ; a whole Parliament then a Committee ; an whole Synod then a private Conventicle or congregation : Then tell me in sober sadnesse ( good Brother ) whether your Independent Assertion . * That every particular Minister hath power to gather , and set up a Church of his owne , Independent from any other , and to choose such a Discipline , Government to themselves as they CONCEIVE to be most suiteable to Gods Word ( though in truth it be not so , but a meer CONCEITE , as I feare your New way is . ) That particular Christians have power to unite themselves into a Church , and elect a Minister and Government of their owne choise , most agreeable , as they thinke , to the Word . And that every Sect and Person ought to have free liberty of conscience in the exercise of what they beleeve : Or my Position , be likely est to produce more madnesse in the world , or mischiefes in the Church ? Certainely it will be a madder world ( and Church too indeed ) when every private Minister and Christian may follow their owne opinions , fancies , crochets , waies , every Sectary set up his owne congregation , sect , and vent his owne erronious schismaticall Opinions without control : when every man shall have priviledge to doe * What seemes right in his owne eyes , as if there were no King in Israel , no Parliament in England : when every Anabaptist , Enthusiast , or brainsick Melancholico , shall not only build Churches in the ayre , different from all others , but set them up openly in our Cities , Counties , Kingdomes , without impediment , in contempt of Lawes , Parliaments , all Civill or Ecclesiasticall Authority ( as too many I feare doe now , and I hope the High Court of Parliament will remedy it in due time ) because they deem their owne fancies , Gospel ; their owne Juventions , Christs Oracles . Certainly the world , and Church will both be mad in good earnest , when such a licentiousnesse shall be proclaimed under the Notion of Christian Liberty , & every mans own private way , christned with the Name of Christs Kingdom , &c. though it hath small affinity with it . The God of peace , order , of his infinite mercie preserve us safe from this Maniaca Insania , this deadly madnesse into which we are running , and hath already desperately seized upon the Braines and hearts of many . My n Brothers sixth Objection is this , That Parliaments , Councells , Synods are not now infallible , but subject unto errour , many of them having erred , and that grosly in former and late times : That neither Parliament , nor Assembly can now say , as that Synod , Act. 15. 28. It seemeth good to us , and to the Holy Ghost , they being not endued with an infallible spirit . Therefore they can make no binding Determinations , Lawes , Canons , Decrees in any Ecclesiasticall matters , to oblige any particular Churches or christians . Good Brother ( writes he ) for all your punctuall quotations of that Scripture , Acts 15. you doe not all this while tell us that which is the maine of all , which we finde in the 28. verse . IT SEEMED GOOD TO THE HOLY GHOST and Vs , to lay upon you no other burthen then these necessary things . Now , Brother , we challenge you to shew us ANY PARLIAMENT , COVNCELL , SYNOD , EVER SINCE THE APOSTLES , that could or can say thus , It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and Vs , to determine controversies of Religion , to make and impose Lawes to bind all men , &c. Shew this to us at this time , and we will obey But if you cannot , AS YOV NEVER CAN , never let any man presse upon us that Scripture , that Synod WHICH HATH NO PARALELL in the whole world , and so is NO PRESIDENT , PATTERNE , FOR ANY COVNCELL , SYNOD , PARLIAMENT . Thus my Brother Burton concludes hence with abundance of confidence . But sweet Brother , let not him who putteth on his harnesse , boast as he that puts it off : receive your Answer first , and then be as vainly confident as you will 〈◊〉 your obtuse Argument afterwards , which I shall thus retort upon you . First ( I suppose ) you will grant , That the Apostles d Preached , ( as well a writ and determined ) by an infallible spirit , and by the Holy Ghosts Divine inspiration , when as neither your self , nor any other Independent , nor Presbiterial● Minister can infallibly thus Preach , write , or determine at this day : Ergo Brother ( by your Argument ) neither you , nor any other Minister must henceforth Preach unto , nor determine any Controversies of Religion , or Church-government at this day , being not guided by any infallible Spirit , and because you may possibly erre , and cannot say as the Apostles did , it seemes good to the Holy Ghost , and to us ; and then Brother , of what value are all your Sermons , Books , and confident asseverations of the Divinity of your Independent way ? your Disciples and congregation may make wast paper of them , instead of reading them , as the Oracles of God a some ignorants perchance esteem them . 2. Christ and his Apostle , when they ordained Elders , and laid their hands upon them , did usually e give them the holy Ghost , and gift of tongues ( who fel upon the parties ordained , and those to whom they Preached ) and to those whom they f Baptized ( as the marginall texts assure us ) which no Ministers nor Elders can do now : Ergo no Ministers may or can now ordain any Ministers by imposition of hands , nor baptize any children or men , nor preach the Gospel to any , because they cannot give them the gifts of Tongues , nor cause the Holy Ghost to fall upon them , as Christ and the Apostles did . 3. g Moses gave no civill nor judiciall Laws to the Israelites under the Law , but such as he received immediately from God by an infallible Spirit . Ergo Kings and Parliaments at this day can make no civill temporall Lawes to governe their people by , because they receive them not immediately from God , by an infallible spirit . 4. Christ sent none to Preach the Gospel , or administer the Sacraments , but such whom himself , immediatly called , ordained , furnished miraculously with gifts of tongues , and with the Holy Ghost , ( A priviledge peculier to the Apostles , and some few others in their daies , not communicable to any ordinary Ministers ) and made Elders , and Bishops by the Holy Ghost . h Ergo No Ministers but such who are thus immediately enabled , endued and ordained by the Holy Ghost , may or ought to preach the Gospel : And then where are all your Independent Ministers , and Lay-preachers ? I hope Brother by this time , you most renounce your Argument as absurd , or else your Preaching , Church , Ministery , at least your writings , will be little valued , which now you see are not infallible . 2. A possibility of erring , or some actuall errours in Councells , Synods , Parliaments , are no good grounds of rejecting all their determinations , Lawes . Edicts , but only such as are apparently erronious and repugnant to the Scripture . Such i indeed you may disobey , but to all others you k must submit , even in point of conscience , as I have formerly proved . If you deny this , then marke the consequence of your deniall . Ministers may , and sometimes actually doe erre , both in their preaching and writing ; and I doubt Brother it is , or may be your own case : Ergo people must neither obey nor believe any thing they preach or write , but contemne all : Parliaments , Princes , Magistrates , Elders , Parents , Masters , Tutors of all sorts may , and oft-times actually doe swerve from truth , and Iustice in some of their Lawes , Orders , Precepts , commands , and Iudgements : Ergo their subjects , wives , children , husbands , schollars , pupills must receive no Lawes , Orders , Commands , or instructions from them , nor yet obey them in any thing which they shall prescribe . Brother you may as rationally argue l in many things we offend all : Ergo we must not endeavour to doe any thing that is good ; Or conclude , in many things , and in making Lawes we erre all ; Therefore we must obey no humane Ecclesiasticall or civill Laws in which we can discern no apparent error . Brother , will you m drink no wine at all , as the Apostle gives Timothy advise to do , because some have dranke poyson in it , and you perchance may doe so to ? Or shall none adventure to marry a good wife or husband , because so many have met with bad ? Answer me these questions , and then you need no other answer to what you object , but your own reply to them . 3. Admit Synods , Councells , Parliaments have sometimes erred out of humane frailty ; yet this is a most certaine truth , that they are not so apt or prone to erre , ( having more helpes , meanes , assistances to keep them from erring , when they n are met together in the Name and feare of God ) as private men , or Conventi●les of persons lesse learned , lesse experienced , they being more able to discover and bolt out truthes by debate then they . This is the ground why Solomon concludes , o That two are better then on● p that in the multitude of Councellors there is safety ; why the greatest points of Religion and State , have in all ages been debated , resolved not in Conclaves , Conventicles , Chambers , Closets ; but in generall or nationall Councell● , Assemblies , Parliaments , as the most effectuall meanes to discover , suppresse errours , heresies , and resolve doubts ; for which we have an unanswerable pregnant president in the Old Testament , 2 Chron. 30. 1. to the end : where King Hezechiah , with all the Princes and Congregation of Israel and Iudah ( assembled in full Parliament at Ierusalem ) upon solemn debate resolved , AND ESTABLISHED A DECREE , to keep the Passeover in the second moneth , because they could not keepe it in the first , the Priests and people being not sufficiently sanctified : And another in the New : in the Chapter objected ( Acts 15. ) where the Apostles themselves assemble a full Synod to debate and resolve the great contr●versie raised in the Church , concerning the necessity of Circumcision . This then being an indubitable Verity , it is most certaine , that Parliaments , Generall , or Nationall Synods , and Councells , are the fittest of all others to make Lawes and Canons for all civill and Ecclesiasticall matters in State or Church , because they are least subject to errour . And therefore there is great reason all their Lawes , Canons , Edicts should be obeyed as just and good , but such wherein there is apparant errour , and pregnant contrariety to the Scrip●●re . 4. All determinations of men not immediatly directed by an infallible spirit ●ven in Church-affaires , ought not to be condemned but submitted to : since Paul resolved some things of his kind by his owne private spirit vvithout the spirit of God , especially inspiring him ; to which yet we all submit , as is clear by 1. Cor. 7. ● . 11 , to 40. For that clause concerning the holy Ghost I shall give you a very full answer to it , First it is cleare by Acts 15. 6. 7. 12 , 13. 22 , 23. that those who used this expression : It seemed good to the holy Ghost , and to us ; were q not only Apostles indued with in infallible spirit : but likevvise the ELDERS , BRETHREN , AND WHOLE CHURCH ( OR Synod ) then assembled at Ierusalem . Now Brother you cannot say nor prove , that all the Elders , Brethren , and whole Church of Ierusalem were infallibly inspired : yet they all used this Language then , as well as the Apostles ; therefore by the self same Reason , Parliaments , Synods , Councells , may do it now , especially where they ●arnestly seck to God for the Holy Ghosts direction , assistance , ayde , by fasting and prayer ▪ Secondly , God hath commanded all Christians earnestly to r pray for , and hath ſ promised to give the holy Ghost and his Spirit to those that ask him : yea , the Scripture is expresse , that the Holy Ghost and Spirit doth not only sanctifie , comfort , live , dwell , and abide in the hearts , soules of Christs Ministers and people for ever ; but v avers that their very bodies are the Temples of the holy Ghost which dwelleth in them , that x he shall lead his Church and people into all truth : why therfore they may not now say when Assembled in Parliament , or a Synod with sincere hearts , desirous to reforme and settle Church-government , as near as may be to the Scripture ; It seemes good to the Holy Ghost and us ( especially when they have found an extraordinary providence and assistance from Heaven , which they have importuned in the work ) as well as the Apostles , Elders , and Brethren then ; since we and they have y all one and the self same spirit ( though in a different measure ) by which spirit we are all Baptized into one body ; and have all been made to drinke into ONE SPIRIT . I cannot discerne . Thirdly , all Christians are expresly commanded , to z pray in the Holy Ghost ; to pray in the Spirit , and sing in the Spirit , in which duties the Spirit helpeth our infirmities : yea the Scriptures are direct ; that Christians are not only a Regenerated , quickned , sanctified by the Holy Ghost , and Spirit of Christ , and receive the earnest and first fruits thereof ; b but that they are lead by the Spirit , Walk in the Spirit , live in the Spirit , worship God in the Spirit , speak and blesse God in the Spirit ; yea it is the great c promise under the Gospel , that God will powre out his spirit upon all flesh : that they shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost , and be d filled with him , whence we read that Steven , and sundry others who were not Apostle● , were filled with the Holy Ghost , full of the Holy Ghost , partakers of the holy Ghost ; and I hope Brother , you and all other godly Ministers do both pray , and preach in , through , and by the Holy Ghost , and spirit of Christ : yea I doubt not but you inform your new Proselites , Members , how by the spirits direction you gathered your Independent Church ; prescribed them your new Covenant , Discipline , Government , that you exhort , teach , instruct , comfort wounded soules , and resolve their scrupulous consciences doubts , by the assistance and guidance of the Holy Ghost ; else all you doe , say , prescribe , resolve , is to little purpose ; and the work of your Ministry wil be very unprofitable ; disclaim but this , and all your new Congregation will soone disclaim you for their Minister , they and we accounting all those who either do or cannot pray and preach in and by the spirit of God , with some good evidence , and demonstration thereof e unsavery ●alt , fit for nothing but to be cast out and trampled under 〈◊〉 of all men , as many hundreds of such have been so served of late . If then all this be undenyable Scripture and experimentall Truth : why a Parliament of Godly Religious Lords and Commons , with an Assembly of Reverend Divines , now assisted with the prayers of all godly people , to settle a Church-Government , Discipline , Worship , according to the will and word of Christ in all things , may not engrave this Motto : ( It seemeth good to the Holy Ghost , and to us , to order and settle things thus , &c. ) on all their determinations , resolutions , ( as Councels have usually done in former time , from this very Te●t ) you cannot re●der the least dram of reason . If you alledge ( which is all that can be f Objected ) that perchance all or the greatest part of the Parliament , and Assembly are not i●dued with the sanctifying spirit of God , therefore they cannot use this Language . I answer , First , this is * onely known to God , not you , who onely kn●weth who are his , and hath made you no Iudges of their hear●s ; whose persons for the most part ( I dare say ) you do not ●●miliarly know . Secondly , admit there may be some few among them , who have not Gods sanctifying spirit ; yet I doubt not but very many , if not the major part of them have , as their zealous actions and proceedings evidence to all the World , in despite of all jealou●ies , or 〈◊〉 ; and the 〈◊〉 or a great part being such ; they may now as wel use this expression , 〈◊〉 the Apostles , Brethr●n , and whole Synod of Ierusalem , whom you dare not ●ver to be all reall Saints , endued with the infallible and sanctifying spirit of God : So as , Brother , you might well have forb●rn , that sco●●e you put upon our Assembly and Parliament : A Cardinall in the C●●clave at Viterbium , after almost 3. yeers agitation [ As g many yeers * AS WE HAVE BEEN ABOVT TO SET VP A REFORMATION , AND THE FOVNDATION NOT YET LAID ] each Cardinall ambitiously aspiring to be the Pope , one of them r●se up , and said , Domine , &c , Let us uncover the roos of this chamber , seeing that the Holy Ghost cannot get in unto us through so many Tiles : which I will not aggravate . Thirdly , it is h your own Dogmaticall Resolution , That in the Synod at Jerusalem , onely the Apostles were guided by the Holy Ghost and an infallible spirit , not all the Elders , Synod , and Brethren , who did but give their consent to those Decrees , as Softines , Tychicus , Timothy , and other Brethren joyned with Paul in his 〈◊〉 Therefore because the Apostles who had the leading Votes , were thus guided , and they consented , they all joyned in this Language , It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and us . If then the Major or leading part of the Parliament and Assembly be now indued with Gods Holy Spirit ; they may all by like reason joyne in the same Dialect , because they consent to what those determine and ●nact , who are assisted and guided by the Spirit . 4. God many times for the benefit of his Church doth indue unregenerate men with extraordinary gifts , though not with saving gr●●●s of his spirit , and make them Prophets , propagators of his Truth ; as is clear by the examples of i Ba●●●● k Saul , amongst the Prophets , l Caiphas , m Gama●●● , Iudas , and infinite others , by daily experience as wel Ministers and People ; as he made use of o Cyrus , Darius , Artaxerxes with other heathen Princes to build his Temple , and restore his worship in it ; and therefore admit the most you can imagine of the members of the Parliament and Assembly ( which deserve the highest , honourable , christian respect our hearts or tongues can yeeld them ) there being at least some true Nathaniels and Stephens among them , filled with the Holy Ghost , and so many armies of prayers in the spirit daily sent up unto Heaven , to bring downe the spirit of truth and holinesse upon all their Persons and Resolutions ; we cannot but in christian charity expect and beleeve , that all they resolve on may have , It seemed good to the Holy Ghost , and us , inscribed on its front , until the contrary shal evidently appeare . Therefore there is not the least shadow of reason rendred by you , but that you and yours should make good what you have promised in the objected passage : p Shew this to us and WE WILL OBEY . And thus Deare Brother ( seeing truth is ●●earest to you and me , and that which I hope we both unfainedly aime at ) I have fully and freely answered all your pretended Objections against the Ecclesiastical legislative power and Iurisdiction of Parliaments , Councels ; yea the substance of your whole Vindication , in defence of the Independent way , in such sort as I trust will fully satisfie both your self and others whom you have misled . If I shal be so happy as to heare from you , That I have won my Brother , and reclaimed him from an 〈◊〉 dangerous By-path ▪ I shall exceedingly rejoyce in it , and blesse God for it ; and you and I shal most joyfully depart from off the publick Theatre like q Cecilius , Octavius , and Menucius Felix , 〈◊〉 hac sati hilaresque dicessimus ; Caecilius quod crediderat , Octavius gaudens quod vicerit ; Et ego , quod hic crediderit , & hic vicerit . What else remaines of this Treatice , shal by Gods assistance be supplyed in due season . In the meane time , I shall implore the blessing of Heaven upon this for our States and Churches 〈◊〉 . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A91309-e430 a Select . Disputat . de Quaest . in quibus sit Potestas Ecclesiastica . Thes . 1. 4 , & 5. b De Episcopatu Constantini Magni . p. 3. 4 , 5 , 6. c See Acta Synodi Dod● . p. 3●5 , 326 , 327 d Apologiae . c. 25. See Episcopius Disput . 32. Thes . 4. Mr. Rutherfords , Due Right of Presbyteries . p. 343 , 344 , 345 357 , 358 , 359. e Anti-apol●gia . p. 157 , 158. f See Lac●● Osiander his 〈◊〉 Controversiarum cum Anabaptistis . g See Mr Rob●●sons Apology h See Mr. Iohn Goodwins Theomachia , and Innocencies Triumph . i Mr. Iohn Goodwins Sermon , Febr. 25. 1643. k Reply to A. S. Mr. Iohn Goodwins Theomachia : and Inocencies Triumph . An Answer to Mr. William Prins Twelve Questions . My Brother Burtons Vindication . p. 5. 6. &c. k An Answer to Mr. Prynnes 12 , Queres . p. 24. & 2. * Reply to A. S. p. 111. Mr. Burtons Vindication . p. 54. 71. * Feb. 15 1643. a Mr. Goodwin in his Innocencies Triumph . p. 5. * Rom. 15. 5. 6. Notes for div A91309-e2760 * Vindication . p. 30 , 31. * Vindication . pag. 28. * See Mr. Rutherford p. 369 , 370. * ● Sect. 4. Notes for div A91309-e4220 a Eccles hist . l. 5. prooemio . b Surius Concil . Tom. 1. p. 334. c De vita Constantini l. 3. c. 6. d Eccles . hist . l. 1. c. 16. e Tripartita hist . l. 2. c. 21. f Eccles . hist . l. 8. c. 14. col . 377. a. See Rabanus Maurus de Vniverso l. 5. c. 7. g Hist . l 1. c. 16. l. 3. c. 7. l. 4. c 6. h Eccles . hist . l. 10. c. 5. i In Epitaphio Paulae . k Euseb . hist . l. 10. c. 15. Socrates Scholast . Eccles . hist . l. 1 c. 28. 33. Eusebius de vita Constantini l. 4. c. 41 , 42 , 43. l Hist . l. 5. c. 7. m Hist . l. 7. c. 7. n Hist . l. 12 c. 10. Sarius Tom. 1. p. 482 o Eccles . hist . l 1. c. 3. p Concil . Tom. 1. p. 607. Tom. 2. p. 31. 75. 79. 88. 96. & Tom. 1. p. 600. Niceph. Eccl. hist . l. 14 c. 34. p Leo Epist . 9. ad Theodosium . q Epist . 14. See Epist . 13. 44. 50. 58. almost to the same purpose . r Epist . 23. ſ Epist . 1. ad Innocentium . t L. 4. c. 22. l. 6. c. 7. Socrates Scholast . l. 2. c. 7. Theodoret . l. 2. c. 1● . u Surius Concil . Tom. 2. p. 11. 25. 31. 152 103. 106. 120. 106. x Ibid. p. 8 , 9. 10. y Surius ibid. p. 10. 11. z Eccles . hist . l. 17. c. 27. * Concil . Tom. 2. p 494 , 495 , 496. l Surius . Tom. 2. p. 498 , 499. 500. 501 , 502 m Apud Surium : Concil . Tom. 2. p. 900 901 , 902. n Surius Concil . Tom. 3. p. 8. o Surius Ibidem . p. 531. 539. p Theodoret. hist l. 4. c. 4. 7 , 8 , 9. Socrates hist . l. 2. c. 37. Nicephorus hist l. 9. c. 33. Surius Tom. 1. p 432. q De Synodis Arin●●a : & Seleuc. r Theodoret. hist . l. 4. c. 7. 8. 9. ſ Eccles . hist . l. 11. c. 30. t Su●ius Tom. 1 p. 472. 474. x Spelman Concil . p. 39. v Surius Tom. 2. p. 372. x Surius Concil . Tom. 1. p. 711. y Surius Tom. 2. p. 633. z Surius . Tom. 2. p. 633. a Surius ibid. p. 642. b Surius ibid. p. 650. 654. c Surius ibid p. 668. d Surius Tom. 2. p. 678. 681. 682. e Surius ibid. p. 727. 738. f Surius ibid. p. 7. 39. 741. g Surius ibid. p. 746. 749. h Surius ibid. p. 759. i Surius ibid. p. 854. 867. 870. k Surius ibid. p. 875. l Surius ibid. p. 880. m Surius Tom. 3. p. 1 , 2 , 8 , 9. n Surius Tom. 3. p. 39. o Surius ibid. p. 40. 4. p Surius ibid. p. 293. 318. 359. 361. 409. 421. Carolus Molineus . Comment . ad Edictum . Hen. 2. contra parvas Datas & abusus Curiae Romanae . p. 15. Matth. West An. 826. Vspergensis p , 180. q Surius Tom. 3. p. 237. 257. 271. 274. 278. 286. 291. Math. Westm . Flores hist . An. 813. r Surius Tom. 3. p. 431. ſ Surius ibid. 454. 468 469. t Surius ibid. p. 475. v Surius ibid. p. 481. x Surius ibid. p. 544. y Surius ibid. 546 , 547 , 555 z Surius Tom. 4. p. 366. a Surius Tom. 4. p. 797 , 798. b Matth. Westm . Flo. Hist . An. 595. d Apud Bochellum Dec●●●a Eccles . G●ll. l 5. Tit. 20. c. 34. p. 905. e Apologia 2. Adversus Ruffinum . f Epist . l. 4. Epist . 34. g Distinct . 37. h Ibidem , and the Canonists glosses on that Distinction Summa Angelica Tit. Concilium . i Harding Contur . part . 5 , c. 6. Sect. 3. Bellarmin : De Conciliis Contr. 2 , 3. with others . k De Concordia Cathol . l. 2. c. 12. l De Concil . Basil : lib. 1. m Bochellus Decreta Ecclesiae Gallicanae l. 5. Tit : 20. c. 35. n Relect. 4. p. 161. o Be●la Eccles . Hist . l. 1. c. 17. & 21. Matth. Westm . An. 449. 465. Spelmanni Concil . p. 48 , 49 60. p Spelmanui Concil . p. 104 Matth. West . An. 603. Beda ●ccles . Aist . l. 2. c. 2 Antiq. Eccl. Brit. p. 3. Speeds Chron p. 286. q Spelman . p. 126 , 127. r Beda Eccles . Hist . l. 3. c. 21. Spelman . p. 14● . ſ Willielmus Malms . De Gest● Pontif. l. 3. Antiqu. Eccles . 〈◊〉 . p. 18. 19. t Spelman p. 189 , 191 , 194 u Spelman p. 219 : x Malmsb. de Gestis Pontif. l. 3. in vita Widfridi Antiq . Eccl. Brit. p. 19. y Matth. West . An. 718. p. 27● Malm●b . de Gest . Pontif. l. 1. p. 197. Antiq. Eccles . Brit. p. 21. Spelman p. 230 , 242 , 245. z Spelman p. 292. a Spelman p. 318. b Spel. p. 387 Matth. Westm . An. 905. Antiq . Eccl. Brit. p. 43. c Spelman p. 428. d Spelman p. 510. e Matth. West An. 1070. pars 2. p. 3. f Matth. Paris Hist . Angl. An. 1075. p. 19. g Eadmerus hist . nov . l. 1. p. 24. h Eadm . Hist . nov . l 3. p. 65. i Matth. Paris hist . Angl. p. 67 , 68. k Histor . l. 2. c. 13. l Giraldus Cambrens . l. 2. c. 33 , 34. Will. Neubrigensis Hist . l. 3. c. 9. Speeds Chron. p. 516. m Neubrigensis l. 2. c. 13. Hoveden An●al . pars post . p. 500. Antiq. Eccl. Brit. p. 125. n Matth. Paris p. 430 , 431. o P. 282 , 362 , 377 , 389 , 399 , 401. * Nota. * See Cromptons Jurisdiction of Courts f. 4. a. e See Antiqu. Eccles . Brit. p. 376 , 380 , 398. E●dmerus hist . Novorum l. 5. p. 109 , 117. * 25. H. 8. c. 19 21. 28. H. 8. c. 10. 2. & 3. E. 6 c. 1. 1. Eliz. c. 2. Jo. Seldeni ad Edam . Notae p. 165. Isiodor . Hisp . Orig. l. 8. c. 15. Canons 1571. p. 10 , 22. f 13 Eliz. c. 12. g Dr. Field of the Church b. 5. c. 52 , 53. Dr. Fulk and Master Cartwrights Answer to the Rhemish Testament , on 〈◊〉 15. 6. Sect. 5. to 12. Dr. Craken●●rpe his Vigilius Dormi●ans . * See Mr● Rutherford his due right of Presbyteries c. 6. sect . 1. p. 342. 393. Ioan Seldeni spicileg . & Notae in Eadmerum p. 166 167. Surius Tom. 1. Concil p. 342. Tom. 1. p. 407. Tom. 3. p. 488. 574. 575. 732. Tom. 2. p. 203. 675. 728 754. 603. 605 641 , 642 , 643 892. 595. 713 1042. 715. 685. Gratian distinct . 18. Iuo Carnot . Decret . pars . 40. 241. 243. 244. Spel. Concil . Tom. 1. p. 153. Tom. 3. p. 24. 4. 42. 406. Tom. 4 p. 44. * See M. Rutherfords d●e rights of Presbytery p. 343. 344. a De ●ita Constantini : l 3. c. 10. 12. 13. b Nicephotus Callithus Eccles . hist . l. 8. c. 16. 17. c Eusebius de vita Const . ●tini l. 4. c. 42. Socrates Scholast . Eccles . hist . l. 1 c. 28. 33 , 34. ● Euseb . Eccles . hist . l. 10. c. 5. ● Bish Iewels defence of the Apology p. 〈…〉 . 741. 742. d Socra . Scho. Ec●les hist . l. 2 c. 3● . p. 281. Nic●phorus Eccles . hist . l. 9. c. 40. e 〈◊〉 . eccles . hist . l. 2. c. 39. in the Greeke 〈◊〉 in the English . Nicepho . l. 9. c. 43. f Eccles . hist . l. 9. c. 38. p. 523. g Nicephotus Eccles hist . 〈◊〉 12 c. 10. Surius Tom. 1. p. 481. h Surius Tom. 2. p. 9. i Actio . 1. Surius Tom. 2. p. 11. 14 , 15. 18 , 19 , 38 , 24 , 25. 54 , 55 , 138. 148. 164 , 165. 167. 535. 168. 170 180. 184 , 185 197. 207. 212 k Act. 1. p. 831 Evagrius l. 2. c. 4. Iewells defence of the Apology par● . 6. c. 14. di●●if . 1. p. 745. 746. 747. l Liberatus c. 11. Iewell ibid. p. 751. m Socrat. Scholast . l. 5. c. 10. Sozom. l. 7. c. 10. Iewels defence of the Apologie c. 13. p. 744. n Actio prima Surius Concil . Tom 2. p. 16. 18 , 19 , 619. Tom. 1. Act. Concilii Ephesini c. 25. Sozomen l. 4. c. 15. o Imperatoris Epist . ad Dioscorum ibid. p Imperatoris Co●monitorium ad Elpidium . Comitem Sacri Consistorii : Ibid. p. 18. q Oratio Martiani ad Synodum ibid ● . 37 , &c. r Epist . Euseb●i ad Imperatores . k Su●i●s Tom. 2. p. 444 , to 498 , 502. l Surius ibid. p. 901 , 903 , 904 , 905 , 906 , 907 , 908. m Surius Tom. 3. p. 49. 50. 51. 55 : n Surius ibid. p. 539. to 543. o Bochell●● Decret . eccles . Gal l. 5. Tit. 20. c. 17. p. 9 or Surius Tom. 2. p. 371. p Surius Concil . Tom 4. p. 2 5 , 6 , 27 , 28 , to 33 , 41 , 42 , 56 , 72 , 103 , 104 , 105 , 257 , to 262 , 325 , to 364 , 416 , 417 418 , 467 , 542 543 , 551 , 553 562 , 571 , 584 , 585 , 595 , 596 597 , 598 , 607 609 , 610 , 613 624 , 626 , 647 653 , 662 , 668 690 , 691 , 694 896 , 901 , 902 903 , 905 , 929 , 930 , 939 , 996. Tom. 3. p. 776 778 , 784 , 787 788 , 794 , 798 802 , 817 , 821 823 , 830 , 833 852. ● . Seldeni ad E●dmaium Notae p. 213 , 214. q Acta Synodi Do●dre●●● Praefatio ad Ecclesias , & Sessio 2 , 4 , p. 9 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18. a Acta Concil . Ephes . Tom. 1. c. 12. 32. b See Surius , Binius , Crab , and Syrmond , in these Councels , Ranchins Review l : 1. c. 8. c Regino sub An. 787. d Rigardus de gestis Philip. August . sub An. 1179. & 1200. Jean le Maire en le 2. party de la devision des schismes . Martinus Polonus . e Jean Bou●het en la 4. partie des Annales d' Aqui●aine . f Surius , Binius , Crab. g Luitprandius rerum per Europ gest . l. 6 c. 6 , 10 , 11. h Martinus Polonus in Hen. 3. sub An. 1058. i Matth. West An. 905. k Nubrigensis l. 1. c. ult . See l. ● . c. 25. l Chron. Pauli ●angii An. 1417. Petro 〈◊〉 en la vita de Sigismundo . m Apologia Concil 2. Pisani . Mediolani per Co●ardum Ponticum impres . An. 1552. & Acta Concil . Pisani 2. n Eccles . hist . l. 1. c. 5. vid Act● Concil Nicen. Ruffi●us l. 1. c. 3. Nicephorus C●l . Eccl. hist . l. 8. c. 14 , 15. o Theodoricus à Niem tract . de Privilegiis & Ju●ibus Imperat. p. 785. p Idem ibidem . q Lib. 2. de Concil . art . 6. r Will. Ranchin Survey of the Councell of Trent l. 2. c. 8. p. 37. ſ In Dialogo cum Marcionitis . t See my Epistle to the Reader before my Perpetuity Edit . 2. And Epist . Ded. to Cozens cozening Devotions . u Augustin . Tom. 7. pars 1. de collat . cum Donatistis lib. * Contr. Epist . Parmen . l. 1. Tom. 7. pars 1. x August . ibid & Ranchin p. 3● . y Sozomen l. 4. c. 5. z Epist . ad Micha●lem Imperatorem . Gratian distinct . 96. a Defensor . ●acis l. 2 c. 20. b Page 239 , 240. c Lib. 2. c. 8. r Histor . novorum . l. 1. p. 6. ſ Eadmarus ibid. p. 24 , 25 , 26 , 28. t Ex Rotu●o Patent . An. 18. H. 3. m. 17. Cookes Institutes on Lit. f. 97. a. v Ne contra authoritatem potestatemque suam regiam quicq●am decerneret aut tractaret : Antiquitates Eccles . Brit. p 163 Matth. Paris hist . Major . p. 432. * Cookes Institutes part . 4. p 322. 323. x Antiqu. Ecclesiae Brit. p. 210 , 211 , 212. 209. Thomas VValsingham . Ypodigma Neustriae . An. 1297. p. 83. 〈◊〉 Acts and Monuments , p. 320 , 321. y 25. H. 8. c. 19 27. H. 8. c. 15. * Fox Acts & Monuments Vol. 3. Edit . 1641. p. 19. to 30. where the whole Disputation is related . v Fox Vol. 3. p. 979. to 988. Nota. * Novel . Const● . 113. * 〈◊〉 Bridges 〈◊〉 supremacy 〈◊〉 Ch●istian Princes , over all Persons throughout their Dominions . London , 1573 Haddon Cont● . Osorium l. 3. p. ●89 . et alibi . z Canons and Constitutions , 1603. the Patent before them . a Declaration before the 39. Articles printed at London , 1●28 . Note . Note . Note . Note . * NOTE . † See Q. Elizabeth Letters Patents to confirme the Canons made 1597. * See all the Ordinances and Orders of both Houses concerning the present Assembly . † See the Arch-bishop 〈◊〉 Canterburies 〈…〉 Bishop Mountagues , Bishop Juxons , Archdeacon Fasks , and others late Visitation Oathes , Articles , of strange nature . * See 25. H. 8. c. 19. 27. H S. c. 15. Dr Fi●la of the Church l. 5. c. 53. * 24. H. 8. c. 12 31. H. 8. c. 9. 1. Ed 6. c. 2. 37. H. 8. c. 17. a See Sect 3 , 4 , 5 , 6. The Harmony of Confessions Sect. 19. 28. H. c. 10. 37. H. 8. c. 17. 1. Eliz. c. 1 , 2. The institution of a Christian man dedicated to King Henry the 8. by all the Clergy in Convocation , cha . ●f Orders . Justinian Cod. l. 1. Tit. 4. 8. Niceph. Calisth . Dedicat. hist . suae . ad Andronicum Imperat. Mr John Hales Oration to Q. Elizabeth . Fox Vol. 3. p. 976 , &c. b Leges Edovardi Confes . Lex 17. Fox Vol. 1. p. 174. c Bish . Jewels defence of the Apology part 6. c. 11. to 15. Bish . Bilsons True difference &c. part 2. d 24. H 8. c. 12. 25. H. 8. c. 19 , 21. 26 H 8 c. 1 , 3. 27. H. 8. c. 15. 28. H. 8. 7 , 10. 31. H. 8 c 10 , 14. 32. H. 8 c. 22 , 24 , 26. 33. H. 8. c. 29 , 34. & 35. H. 8. c. 17 , 19. 35. H. 8. c. 1 , 3. 37. H. 8. c. 17. 1. Ed. 6. c. 2. 1. Eliz. c. 1 , 2. 8. Eliz. c. e 1. Eliz. c. 1. 3. Jac c. 4 , 5. f Judg. 11. 8 , to 15. Ephes . 5. 22 , 23 , 24. 1 Cor. 11. 3 , to 12. g Matth. 18. 〈…〉 Ma●k 10. 15. h 25. E. 1 the statute of Carlile . 24. H. 8. c. 12. 25. H. 8. c. 19 , 21. 26. H. 8 c. 1 , 3. 27. H. 8 c. 15. 1. Eliz c. 1 S. Eliz. c. 1. i Acts 17. 11. M●tth . 7. 15. c 24. 23 , 24 , 25 , 26. 1 Joh. 4 1. 2 Joh. 7 , to 12. Col. 2. 8 , 18 , 19. Phil. 3. 2 1 Thes . 5. 2● . Gal. 1. 6 , 7 , 8 , 9. 1 Cor. 10. 15. c. 11. 13. i Acts 17. 11. M●tth . 7. 15. c 24. 23 , 24 , 25 , 26. 1 Joh. 4 1. 2 Joh. 7 , to 12. Col. 2. 8 , 18 , 19. Phil. 3. 2 1 Thes . 5. 2● . Gal. 1. 6 , 7 , 8 , 9. 1 Cor. 10. 15. c. 11. 13. k See Chrysostom Theodoret . Theophylact . in Rom. 1● . Dr Ora●●nthorp of the Popes temporall Monarchy . l Paraeus in Rom. 13. dub . 5. See Dr Wil●et and Peter Martyr ibid. * See Mar●●lius Patavinus , Defensoris Pacis , pars 2. cap. 21. 28. c Iosh . 24. 24 , 25 , 26 , 27. d 2 Chron. 30. 1. to 7. e Esther 3. 20. to 32. f Dan. 6. 5. to 11. g Ionah 3. 5 , 7. h Nicephor . C●●●ist . Eccl●s . Hist , l. 8. c. 7. 25. Eusebius Pamph De Vita Constartini , l. 3 c. 12 , 14 , 15 16 , 17 , 18. i Ibid c. 19. See Ni●ephor . l. 8 c. 26. k Euseb . De Vi●d Constantini , l 4 c. 17. * Subscripserunt & Augustus Constantinus & mater ejus Helena Surius Tom. 1. p 362. cap. 2● . l Surius Co●cil . T. 1. p ●17 6. Sozo● Eccles . Hist . l 4. c. 13. Centur. Magdeburg 4. col 851. m Ecclesiast . Hist l. 12 c. 13. Surius Concil . Tom. 1. p. 48● , 484. Socrates Scholast . Hist . ● . 5. ● . 8 , 10. n Codicis l. 1. Tit. De Haereticis . Lex 2. 136 fol. 23. Tit. 4. de Summa Trinitate Lex . 2. o Sozomen Ecc●es . Hist . l 4● c 13. Centur. Magdeburg 4. Col. 538. p Surius Tom 1. p. 434 , 435. Niceph. Eccles . Hist . l. 9 c. 40 , 41. Socrates Scholasticus Eccles . Hist . l. 2. cap. 37. q Surius Concil . Tom. 1. p. 577 , 578 , 579 , 581 , 582. r Surius ibid. p. 616 , 617. ſ Willets Synopsis Papismi , 3. Generall Controversie , Quest 4. p. 136. t Sur Tom. 2. p 19. 134 , 135. B●shop Jewels Reply to Harding . Artic. 4. p. 213. u Sur. Tom. 2 p. 10. 14. x Act. 3. Sur. ibid p. 134. y Sur. ibid. p 133 , 134. Jull●●ian Codici● . l. 1. Tit. 4. de Summa Trinitate , Lex 3●● . Surius Tom. 1. p. 85 , 86 , 87 , 134 , ●36 , 215 , 216 , 219 , to 274 , sparsim , are the like Decrees and Letters of theirs , confirming this Councell . z Jus●iniani Codex l. 1. tit . 4. De Summa Trinitate . Lex 2. fol. 3 , 4. a Epist . 7 , 9 , 12 , 13 , 16 , 17 , 23 , 24 , 29 , 31 , 33 , 36 , 37 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 52 , 53 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 62 , 67 , 68 , 71 , 72 , 73 , 95. b Sur. Tom 2 p. 25 , 38 , 55 , 58 66 , 67 , 95 , 106. c Sur. Concil . Tom. 2. p. 462 , 491 , 494 , 496 , 497 , 500 , 502 , 521 , 529 , 530. d Sur Concil . Tom. 2. p. 668 , 669 , 670 , to 677. b Surius Tom. 2. p. 676. NOTA. A Coercive Law under severe penalties . c Sur. Tom 2. p. 686 , 687. d Sur. Tom. 2 p. 727. e Ibid. p. 727 f Ibid p. 738 g Ibid. p. 728. * Surius ibid. p. 739. h Sur. Tom. 2 p. 741 , to 746. i Sur Tom. 2. p. 854 , 855 , 857 863 , 864. k Ibid. p. 864. l Ibid p. 864 865 , 866. m Sur Tom. 2. p. 867 , 870 , 872 , 873 , 874. n Sur. Ibid. p. 880. 887. o Surius Concil . Tom. 2. p 899 to 940. sparsim . p Ibid. p 902 904 , 906 , 907 , 908 , 928 , 929 , 930 , 931 , 932 , 934 , 935 , 936 , 939 , 944 , 945 , 947 , 964 , 965 , 966 , 967 , 980. 981 , 983 , 984 , 987 , 990 , 991 , 992 , 993 , 998 , 1000 , to 1013 1016 , to 1030. q Ibid. p. 1021 1022. r Ibid p. 1025 to 1031. ſ Ibid. p. 1031 1032 , 1033. t Ibid. p. 1034 * Note . q Sur. Tom. 2 p. 1039. r Sur. Tom. 3. p. 2 , 10. ſ Sur. ibid. p. 1. to 12. t Surius ibid. pag. 2. 9. NOTA. u Sur. Tom. 3 p. 39 , 40. f Sur. Tom. 3. p. 40 , 41. g Vbicunque Dominus Rex jusserit , IN EIVS PRAESENTIA . Sur. Tom. 3. p. 42. h Sur. Tom. 3. p. 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 56 , 60 , 61 , 64 , 65 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 78 , 79 , 80 , 90 , 91 , 92 , 93 , 95 , 127 , 128 13● , 138 , 140 , 182 , 183 , 187 , 188 , 189. i Sur. Tom. 3● . p. 232 , 238 , 247 to 252. k Sur. Tom. 3. p. ●70 . o Sur. Tom. 3. p. 27. Bochellus Decreta Eccles . Gal lib. 5. Tit. 20. cap. 19. p. 901. p Sur. Tom. 3. p. 274 , 278. Bochellus Decr. Eccles . Gal. l. 5. Tit. 20. cap. 20. p. 901. q Sur. Tom. 3 p 278 , 279. Bochel●us Decreta Eccles . Gal. l. 5. T it ●0 . cap. 21. p. 901. r Ibid. p 279. ſ Ibid p. 284 , 285. t Sur. Tom. 3. p. 285. u Surius ibid. pag. ●85 . * I wish our Independents would be so subm●ssive , and tractable in words and deeds , as those in these and other Councells were . x Sur. Tom. 3. ● . 291. y Ibid p. 193. z Ecclesiae Gallicanae Decretorum Additamenta . ad tit . 20 l. 5 p. 1371. * Suri●s Tom. ● . p 372. a Bochel●us Decreta Eccles . Gal. l. 5. Tit. 20. cap. 17. p. 901. b Sur. Tom. 3 p. 402 , 415. c Ibid p. 405 , 406 , 407 , 408. d Ibid. p. 385 e Ibid. p. 409. 420. f Surius ibid. p 409 , 410 , 415 , 417 , 419 , 420 , 421. g Pars 〈◊〉 c 15 , 16. p. 415. h Pars 2. c. 5 , 6 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 16 25 Ibid. p. 417 , 419 , 420 , 421. i Sur. Tom. 3. p. 422. NOTA. k Cap. 31. Ibid p 428. l Sur Tom. 3. p. 4●1 , 492 , 493. m Sur. Tom. ● p. 453 , 454. n Sur. Ibid. p. 455 , 457. 459 , 460 , 461 , 467 , 468. o Ibid. p. 468. p Sur. Tom. 3. p. 469 , 470 , 474. q Ibid. cap. 4 , 8 , 9. p. 470. r Sur. Tom. 3. p. 475. ſ Sur. Tom. 3. p. 480 , 482 , 483. t Sur. Tom. 3. p 486 , 489. u Ibid. p. 491. x Sur. Tom. 3. p. 520. y Sur. Tom. 3. p. 538 , 539 , 543 , 544. z Sur. Tom. 3. p. 555 , 556 , 558. a Sessio 4. to 37. Surius Tom. 3. p. 774 , 775 , 776 , 777 , 778 , 787 , 788 , 789 , 794 , 798 , 802 , 817 , 821 , 823 , 830 , 831 , 833 , 852 , 923 , to 930. b Sessio 1. Surius Tom. 4. p. 2 , 5. Sess . 8 , 9. p. 27. Sess . 13 , 14. p. 39 , 40 , 41 , 42. Sess . 19. p. 56 Sess 24. p. 70 , 71 , 72 , 153 , to 262. 325. to 364. c Decret . Eccles . Gal lib. 5. Tit. 20. cap. 38 , 39. p. 905 , 906. d Sur. Tom. 4 p 366 , 369 , 370 373 , 374 , 376 , 378 , 383 , 386 , 392 , 407 , 418. e Sess . 7. Sur. ibid p. 392. f Sess . 11. ibid. p. 404. g Sess . 14 , 16. Ibid. p. 413 , 414 , 415. h Sessio 17. Ibid. p. 413. to 419. i Ibid p. 442 , 443. k Ibid. p. 448. 449 , 453 , 454 , 455 , 456 , 457. l Ibid. p. 457. to 470. m Sur. Tom. 4. p. 366. n Sur. Tom. 4. p. 542 , 543 , 551 , 553 , 562 , 571 , 584 , 585 , 595 , 596 , 597 , 598 , 623 , 624 , 647 , 653 , 668 , 689 , 690 , 691 , 694 , 695. o Ibid. p. 595. to 599. 607. to 611 , 624 , 653 , 662 , 691 , 692. p Thomas Walsingham Ypodigma Neustriae . An. 1245 pag. 60. q Idem An. 1409. p. 173. See Roger Hoveden . An. 1179. p. 581. Eadwer . Hist . Novorum . l. 5. p. ●24 & Jo● Seldeni Notae Ib p. 213 , 〈◊〉 . r Ad Eadmerum Notae . p. 214. ſ Decreta Eccles . Gal. l. 5. Tit. 20. cap. 43 , 44 , 45. p. 907. to 918. t Acta Synodi . pag. 325 , 326 , 327. a Syelmanni Con●● . p. 5. 9. b Spelmanni Concil . p. 34. Jac Vsser . De Britannie . Eccles . Primord . cap 6 pag. 101. Harrison . Descript . of Brit. l. 1. c. 9. Guliel . Lombard . Arch. Godwin . Of the Conversion of Brit. p. 33 , 34. Holinshed , Fox , and others . c Lib. 1. c. 8. l. 2. c. 14. Rex , cum sit DEI VICARIVS . Selden . Analect . l. 1. c. 6. Jac. Vsser . De Brit. Eccles . Primordiis . p. 104. d Beda Eccles . Hist . l. 1. cap. 17. Matth. Westm . Anno 446. Spelman . Concil . p. 8. cum aliis . e Beda Eccles . Hist . l 1. c. 21. Matth. Westm Anno 449. Spelman . pag. 49. f Beda Eccles . Hist . l. 2. cap. 5. g Beda Eccles . Hist . l. 2. c. 12 , 13 , 14. Huntingdon . Hist . l. 3. p. 1328 h Beda Eccles . Hist . l. 3. cap. 25. Matth. Westm . Anno 663. Fox Acts & Mon 1610. p. 111 , 112 , Speeds History of great Brit. p. 295 , 296. Spelm. Concil . p. 146. to 150. with infinite others . i Matthew Westm . et Flor. Wigorn An. 673. k Florentius . Wigorn. Anno 884. p. 254. l Gul. Lambardi : Archaion Spelman-Concil . p. 182. 183. Seldens Titles of honor : part 2. c. 5. Sect. 6. p. 632. m Spelmanni Concilia . p. 189. 191. n Spelman Concil . p. 194. o Spelman . p. 〈◊〉 . p Beda Eccles . Hist . l. 21 , 22 , Spelm Concil . p. ●26 . q Antiqu. Eccles . B●it . p. 〈◊〉 , 20. r Wil. Mat●esbur de Gest . Angliae Pontisel . 1. p. 197. Antiqu. Eccles . Bri● p. 12 ſ Spelman● Concil . p. 242 ●45 : t Spelmanni Concil p. 293 300 , 301 a Math. Wostm : Anno 789 u Spelman Concil . p. 31● . x Spelman ; Concil . p. 313. 714. y Bonifac. Mog . Epist . 112. Seldens Titles of Honour , part . 1. c. 5. p. 631. z Spelman Concil . p. 318. a Spelman Concil . p. 327. 328. b Spelman p. 332. c Spelman p. 334 , 335 e Ingulphi Hist p. 855. 859. Spelman Concil . p. 336. to 340. f 〈…〉 p. 340 g ●lector Boetius l. 10. Spel. p. 340 , 341 , 342. h 〈…〉 p. 858. Spelmanni Concil . p 344. k Mala 〈…〉 l. 2. c. 2. ●ngulphi . hist . Math. Westm . An. 854. Flocentius Wigorni his An. 855. ●p . l. p. 348. 350. Seldens Titles of Honour p. 633. c. 5 sect . 6 p. 633. l Spelman Concil . p. 363 Lambardi Archaion . m Spelman p. 375. Lamb. Archaion . n Spelman p 387. Math. Westm . Anno 〈◊〉 Matinsh . de Gestis Regu● Angl. l 2. c 13. Antiqu Eccles . Brit. p. 19 20 , 43. o Lambard . Archaion . Spelman p. 390. p Lamberd Archa 3. n. Spelman p. 396. 410. q Spelman p. 408. r Lambardi Archaion . Spelman p. 419. 421. 423. 424. ſ Ingulphi hist . p. 874. Spelman Concil . p. 428. Mr. Selden● Titles of Honour part . 2. c. 5. p. 633. t Spelman p. 431. v Lamberdi Arehaion . Spelman p. 419. 424. x Spelman p. 483. y Spelman p. 49● . Matth. 〈◊〉 An. 975. z Hoveden Annal. pars prior . An. 977 p. 427. Hu●indon . hist . l. 5. p. 357 Antiqu. Eccl. Brit. p 59 , 60 Spelman p. 494. Horent . Wigorninesis an 977. p. 361 Fox Acts and Monuments p. 433. a Spelman p. 504 , 507 , 508 599. b Spelman p. ●10 513. 525. 529. Malm. De Gestis Regum l. 2. c. 11. c ●ambardi Archaion . Spelman p. 530. d Spelman p. 534. e Lambar ; Archai : Spelman , p. 539. 552 , 566. f Spelman : Concilia p. 627 , 631. * Bish : Iewels defence of the Apology , part 6 : c. 2. p. 645 Leges Si Edwardi : c. 17. Lambardi Archaton Fox Acts and Monuments , Vol 1. p. 214. Cooks : 5 Rep. De tura Regis Ecclesiast : fao * 〈…〉 p. 168. * 〈…〉 memb : 〈◊〉 Num : 5 〈◊〉 5 Seldeni 〈◊〉 merum : 〈◊〉 p. 168. Hist : of tithes c. 14. Sect. 1. ●ax Acts and Monuments l. 3. p. 135. ● . 1. p. 154. * ●●bardi Arch non Jo : 〈◊〉 : ad Ead●●rum , Notae p. 173 , 189. f Math : 〈◊〉 An : 1073. p. 5. Sigebertus Gemb : Ch●onog : An : 1073 1●74 . Antiqu●tates Reeles : Brit : p. 96. 97. 1073. g Hist . Novotum lib : 1. p. 6. h Malmesb : dr Gestis Pon●●f : Anglōrum p : 214. 215. 1075. 1093. i Eadmerus Hist : Noverum : lib. 1. p. 26. to 31. k Historia Angl. p. 190. l Hadmerue Histor : Novorum l. 3. p. 6● . Willielmu● Malm●●bury de Gestis pontif . Anglorum l. 1. p 228. 〈◊〉 Annal. pars prior p. 469. Math. Westm . An. 1102. p. 23. Antiquitares Ecclesiae Brit. p. 104 105. m Jotnal : Histor Antiqui : Ecclesiae Brit. p. 105. n Matth. Pa●is Histor Angl. Anno 1107. p. 25. 26. Roger ●oveden Annal. pars 1. p. 60. Eadmerus Hist : Novorum l. 4. p. 91. o Eadmerus Hist . l. 4. p. 94. 95. Haec sunt statuta de Archid●aconibus● &c. qua Dominicae incarnat A●iouis 1108. statue●●nt Ansel . Co●tuar●ensis Archiepiscoput , Thomas Ebor , acensi● Archiepisco●us electus & cum eo alii Episcopi Anglia● In presentia gloriosi Regis , Henrici , essensu Comitum et Baronum suo●um , ●atutum est 〈◊〉 Regeni Haveden Anal● pars prior p. 472. p Eadmerus Hist . l. 5. p. 114 , 115. 116. 〈◊〉 p. 49 , 50 , 51. * A meere ●orgery and untruth , See Section ● . q Eadmer●● Ibidem p. 117. 1114. r Ibid. p. 1●8 . ſ Eadmerus Hist . Novorum l. 3. p. 58. Note . t Eadmerus Hist. l. 6. p. 137. 138. 1125. u An. 1125 p. 499 , 500. See R●ger Hoveden Annal : parspr●orp . 478 Math : Westm : Anno : 1125. p. 31. Mathew Paris , An : 1125 p. 67. Henry Huntindon Hist . l. 7. p. 382. Cum eadem di●●●●pus Christi con●ecisset Meretrice post Vesperam interceptuo est . Res apertissima negari non potuit , celari non decuit , Summ● honor ubique habitus in summum dedecus versus est , &c. write our Popish , Monke● . See John Bale , his Acts of English Votaries Holingshe●d , Speed and others . y Continuatio ad Florentium Wigorni●sem p. 503. 504. 505. z Continuatio●●● Flore●tium Wigorniensem p. 519 a Roger Hoveden An●al . pars prior An. 1138. p. 485. b Hoveden Ibid. Anno 1139 484. c Mathew Westm . Anno 1142. p. 28. Mathew . Paris An. 1142. p. 76 Roger Hoveden , Anno 1142. p. 488. Gulielmus Neubrigensis l. 1. c. 18. p. 27 d Artic. Cler. c. 3 , 22 As● . 70. 11. H. 4 , 88 , 20 : E , 4 , 10 , b. 22 , E. 4 , 20 , 12 H 7. 22 , 23 C. ●4 . report f●o Fitz. Na : Br●s : 51 , k , 52 , m. 53. ● e Antiqu : Eccles Bri● p , 117 : f Nubrigensis Hist . l. 2 , c , 9 , p. 112. 113. 113. See Ioannis Marius , Zaberel : & Theodoricus a Niem de Schismate . g Eadmerus Hist . Novorum l. 2. p. 23 33. h Eadmerus Hist . l. 2. p. 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 30 , 31 , 32. i Gulielmns Nubrigensis Rer. Angl. l. 1. c. 25. k Hoveden Annal. pars . posterior An. 1175. p. 542. Speeds Hist . of great Britaine p. 521. 1175 l Hoveden ib. p. 546. , 547. Antiquitates Ecclesiae Brit. p. 94 , 95. 1175 m Hoveden ibid. An. 1176 p. 548 , 549 , 550. 1176 n See Eadmerus hist . Novor● . l. 4. p. 97 l. 5. p. 139 , to 135. Malmesbury de Gestis Pontif. Anglor : l. 3. p. 272 273. o Annal. part posterior An. 1176. p , 550 1176 p Hist . l. 3. c. 1. p 210 , 211. q In vita Richardi . p , 125 , 126 ſ Math. Westm . Anno 1226 p. 118. 119. 126. Math Paris An 1226. p. 316. Antiquitates Ecclesiae Brit. pi 153. 154. t Math. Paris p. 319. Antiquitates Ecclesiae . Brit. p. 119. 120. v Math. Paris . Hist . Angl. An. 1231. p. 359. 1231. x Matth. Paris An. 1136. p. 431 , 432 , 433. Math. Westm . An. n. 237. p. 146. Antiquitates Ecclesiae Brit. p. 163 , 164. 1236. 1288 y Antiquit. Ecclesiae Brit. p. 205. Se loannis de Aton Constit . Provinciales f. 139 , 131. 1296 z Antiquit. Eccl●siae Brit. p. 209 , 210 , 211. Matthew Westminster An. 1295 , 1296 , 1297. p. 408. 409. 410. Thomas Washingham Ypodigma Neustriae . An. 1296 , 1297. a See Fox Acts and Monuments p. 388. Bishop Iewels defence of the Apology of the Church of England , part . 6. c. 2. divis . 1. p. 522 habito Rex cum suis Baronibus Parliamento & Clero . excluso , Statutum est , &c. b Antiquitates Ecclesiae Brit. p. 314 , 315. 1418 c See Sir Edw : Cookes Institutes on Magna Charta c. 1. Matthew Paris , p. 53. 249 , 296. King Henry the 1. and 2. d Matthew Paris , p. 96. 97 , 98 , 99. See Eadmerus , Houeden , Hollingshed , Speed Daniel , in the life of King Henry the 2d . and Antiqu. Ecclesiae Brit : and Godwin , in the life of Becket . * Matthew Paris ibid. f The Antipathy of the English Lordly Prelacy &c. part . 1. p. 17. to 29. K. Henry 3. K. Edw. 1. K. Edw. 2. K. Edw. 3. K. Rich. 2. K. Henry 4. K. Henry 5. K. Henry 6. K. Ed. 4. K. Rich. 3. K. Henry 7. K. Henry 8. K. Edward the 6th . Q. Mary . Q. Elizabeth . K. James . K. Charles . a Crompton Iurisdiction f. 1. 2. Con● 4. Institut● p. 9. b Walsingham Hist Angliae p. 188. 204. to 210. 302. to 307. Fox Acts and Monuments vol. 1. p. 556. to 570. c Walsingham Hist . Angl. p. 302 , 303. d Acts and Monuments vol. 1. p. 618 , 619 , 620. * See Boanerges o● the Supplication of the Ministers of Scotland to the high Court of Parliament of England . Master Henry Burton his Israels Fast : the Epistle Dedicatory . The Petition of the Lincolnshi●e Ministers , &c. * Redly to A. ● . p. 111. See my Brother Burtons Vindication , p. 44 , 45. 60 , 51 , 62. e Part. 6. c. 2. Divis . 1. p. 641 , 643 , 654 ●●5 . f The true difference betweene Christian subjection and unchristian Rebellion . part . 3 p. 540. 541. 4●2 . 543. NOTA. FRANCE . Fredericus Lindebrogus Codex Legum Antiquarum g See the Title p. 1. Ad● dit 4. f. 304. & Hinemari Epist . ad Epis . copos quosdam Franciae et Ludovico Regi , And Fridericus Lindebrogus , Codex Legum Antiquarum p. 322. &c. h Caroli Magni &c. Capitula p. 328. 329 Fridericus Lindebrogus Codex legum Antiquarum p. 1193. 1196. 1197. i Acts and Monuments vol. 1. p. 461. to 478. Edit . 164. Spaine . Bohamia . Denmarke . Italy . Frederic●● Lindebrogus : Cod : Legum Antiquarum . m Ib. f. 363. n Ib. f. 400. Fridericus Lindeb ogus Ibid. f. 265. 166. o Ib. f 439. p Ib. f. 442. q Ibid. f. 498 591. r Ibid. f. ſ Ib. 694. r Codicis , l 1. Tit. 1. to 12. Novel : Const : 3. 5 , 6. 16 , 37. 42 , 67. 77 , 83 79 , 123 , 131 , 132 , 133 , 141 144 , 146 , 1●● 117. Ireland . Scotland . u Hector B●ethius lib. 10. Spelman Concil : p. 340. 342. x See Regiam Majestatem : Or Auld laws & constitutions of Scotland collected by Sir Iohn Skene , printed at Edinburgh , 16●9 . * Knox History of the Reformation of Religion in the Realme of Scotland l. 3. p. 127. to 135. * Ibidem p. 250. 251. to 278. See the Doctrine and Discipline of the Kirke of Scotland , Le●●e lib. 10. Buchanon . Hist . l. 16. 17. 18. * Page 96. 97. 98. * See my Brother Burtons Vindication , p. 69. * ● Theomachia ● 48. 49. 50 , Reply to A. S. p. 81. 22. and his Sermon in Feb. 25. 1643. * A full Reply , &c. p. 21. to 24 Page 4 , 5. * ● . Thes . 2. Iam. 3. 6. * See Master Walkers and Mr. Roburrowes answer to them . Page 3. Answer . * Calepine , Holioke , Calvim , Lexicon Juridicum , Summa Angelica , Tit : Praesumptio : Media v●lla , Aquinas , and others . * Exod. 21. 14. Num. 15. 30. Deut. 1. 43. c. 17. 28. c. 18. 20. 22. Psal 19. 13. 2 Pet. 2. 10. * In his 4. Institutes c. 1. Of the High-Court of Parliament , and Camden , Holinshed , Vowell Sir Thomas Smith , concerning Parliaments . * 2 Pet. 2. 10 12. 1 Tim. 3. 2 , 4 , 5. Page 5. * Page 156. to 183. 237. 237. 238. 280. to 307. * See his Title Page 15. 15 Page 9 to 14. * Here p , 96. 97. 98. Page 9. 11. ANSWER . * See the Articles of the Scotish Commissioners against Canterbury . * Page 102 , 103. 104. a Object . 1. b In this Vindi●ation p. 1. 2 ●8 , 42. 48. 51. 52. 53. 60. 6● . 71. * Yet Independents though men , may and now doe it . Answer . b Rom. 13. 1 , 2 , 3. Tit. 3 , 1. 1 Tim. 2 , 2 , 1. 2 , 13 , 14 , Act. 20. 28 , Heb. 13 , 7 , 17 , 1 Cor 4 , 15. 1 ▪ Iohn 2 , 13 , Isay 49 , 23 , Psa 8 , 16 , Ps . 78 , 70 , 71 , 72 , c Acts 18. 7 , 17 , ● , 13 , 15 , Mark 5. 22. Lu. 8 , 41. 49. d Exod , 22. 28. c. 16 , 22. c. 34 , Exod 7 , 1 , Ps . 28 , 1 , 6 , Iohn 10 , 34 , 35 , Cor 8 , 1 5 2. Chron. 9 , 8. f 1 Tim. 5 , 17 Phil. 1 , 2 , 1 Cor. 12 , 28 g Dan. 1. 7. 27. Luke 1. 23. 1 Tim. 6. 15. Is● 9. 6. 7. Psal . 22. 28. Psal . 103 19. 〈◊〉 . 21. Ephes . 4. 5. 1 Cor. 8. 5 , 6. h Pag. 49. 50. i Psa . 22. 27 , 28 Psa . 2. 8. k Psa . 72. 11. Psa . 86. 9 ▪ Rom. 15. 4. l Dan. 7. 27. m Pag. 44 , 45 ▪ 46. 62. 63. Argu. 1. Answer . n Ps . 10. 16. Ps . 29 , 10 , Ps . 44 , 4 , Ps . 47. 2. 6 , 7 Ps 84. 3. Ps . 89. 18 , Ps . 95 , 3 , Ps . 98 , 6 , Ps . Ps . 149 , 2 , 1 Tim. 1 , 17 , c. 6. 15 , 16 , Rev. 15 , 3 , c. 17 , 14 , c. 19. 16. Psal . 22 , 18 , Ps . 103. 19. Isay 9. 7. Dan. 4 , 32. Math 10 , 13 , c. 1. 1. 25. n Ps . 10. 16. Ps . 29 , 10 , Ps . 44 , 4 , Ps . 47. 2. 6 , 7 Ps 84. 3. Ps . 89. 18 , Ps . 95 , 3 , Ps . 98 , 6 , Ps . Ps . 149 , 2 , 1 Tim. 1 , 17 , c. 6. 15 , 16 , Rev. 15 , 3 , c. 17 , 14 , c. 19. 16. Psal . 22 , 18 , Ps . 103. 19. Isay 9. 7. Dan. 4 , 32. Math 10 , 13 , c. 1. 1. 25. o 1 Chron. 29. 11 , 12 13. Dan. 5 , 11 , c. 4 , 17 , 25. p 1. Sam. 1. 11. p. 20. 10. p. 46. ● . Exod. 15. 3. & infinit other texts , 1. Sam. 17. 47. Psal . 24. 8. q Isa . 9. 67. Iohn 13. 9. Acts 2. 36. c. 10. 36. Rom. 14. 6. 7. 8 9. Mat. 6 9. 14. 15. c. 23. 3. 10. Mat. 1. 6. r 1. Pet. 1. 25. c 5. 4. Iohn 10. 16. 12. 16. Acts. 3. 22. 23. c. 7. 37 Iohn 6. 45. Isay . 54. 13. ſ 1. Tim. 2 ▪ 5. 1. Iohn 2. 1. 2. Rom. 8-34 . Pet. 7. 25. t 1 Tim. 2 , 1 , 2 , 3. Isah . 59. 11 , 12. Ier. 27. 18 c. 36. 25 , Rom. 2. Psal . 122. 6 * See Vindication , p. 3940 70. where this is in a manner confessed . y See Pareus in Rom. 13 Dub. 7. 8 and D. Willet on Rom. 13. Cant. 6. 7. Doctor Davenant his Praelectiones . De Judice & Norma fides cap. 14. Bishop Iewels Defence of the Apology part 6. cap. 1. 2. 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15. Bish . Bi●sons true difference , &c. part . 2. Fridericus Lindebrogus Codex Legum Antiquarum ; Lambardi Archaion : Master Rutherfords : Due Right of Presbyteries cap. Sect. 5. and p. 355. to 480 , &c. z Psal . 5. 2. Psal . 145. 1. Iohn 20. 13 , 28. 1. Cor. 11. 3. a Page 18. b See this confessed , pag. 45. 46 , 62. and elsewhere . * A●gn . 2. Vindication pag. 50. 51. Answ . 1. c Acts 4. 18 19 , 20. c. 5. 28 , 29. Dan. 1. 8. to 17. c. 2. 5. to 17. c. 6. 5 , to 28. See Gratian causa 11. qu. 3. d C●●tr . 7. p. 617. * The Papists and we differ some what de modo , or manner of binding ▪ e Rom. 1. 2. 3. 4 , 5 , 6. See Paraeus and Willet on the place . f Rom. 13. 1. 2 , 3 , 4. 2 Chron. 9. 8. Deut. 1. 17. g De Praecepto & Dispensat . h In Tit : Psal . 70. i Ephes . 6. 5. 6 , 7 , 8. Col. 3. 22 , 23 , 24. 1 Tim. 6. 1 , 2. 1 Pet. 2. 18. Eph. 5. 2. to 9. Col. 3. 10. to 26. ● 1 Pet. 2. 18. 19. ● Rom. 13. 1 , 2 Heb. 13. 7 , 17 Tit. 3. 1 , 1. Heb. 13. 7 , 17 Tit. 3. 1 , 1. Pet. 2. 15 , 16 17 * 1 Pet. 2. 18. 19. 20. m Iohn 8. 9. Rom. 2. 15. c. 9 , 1. 1 Cor. 1. 12. Heb. 10 ▪ 2. n Iosh 1. 16. 17. 18. Ex●ra 7. 26. Rom. 1. 30. 2 Tim. 3. 2. 4. 2 Pet. 2. 10. Iude 8. o Exod. 20. 14 Ephes . 6. 1●2 . Col. 3. 2. to 25. Ier. 35. thronghout . [*] Gen. 24. 2. to 10. Iosh 2. 17. 20 1 Sam. 14 , 26 , 27. 2 Chron. 15 , 12 , 13 , 14 , c. 23 , 3 c. 34 , 30 to 33 Ezra 10 , 3. Neh. 9 , 38 , &c. 10. Neh. 9 , 29 , 30. [*] Gen. 24 , 2 , to 67. Numb . 30 , 2 , to 15 Iosh . 2. 18 , 19 , 20. Iudg. 21 , 5 ▪ 6. 1 Kings 2 , 43 , 44. Eccles . 8 , 2. Ezek 17 , 16 , to 20. Eccl. 5 , 4 , 5 , 6 Object . q Gal. 5. 1. c. 1 10. Col. 2. 16. to 22. p See Paraeus in Rom. 13. Dub. 7. Answer . r Rom. 6 , 1 , to 23. Iohn 8 , 34 [ſ] Col. 2. 14 , 15 , 16. Acts 10 & 15. 1 Tim. 4. 3 , 4 , 5. Rom. 14. 1. 1 Cor. 8. t Insti . lib. 3. c. 19. Aretius de Adiapheris Locus . v See I●ther , Calvin , Marlorat , and others on these Texts ▪ x 〈…〉 . 19. 4 , Elix c. 5. Objest . 2. Answ . Object . 3. Answer . * See 23 , Eliz. c. 1 , 35 , Eliz. c. 1 , 2 z Rom. 13. 1. 2 1 Pet 2 , 15 , 16 Tit 3 , 1 Object . 4. Answer . a See Fox Acts & Monuments passim The writs de Haretico Com●urendo & Excommunicato Capiend● . b 1 Cor. 5. 5 1 Tim. 1. 20 , 1 Cor. 16. 22. c Acts 3. 4. Rom 13. 1 2. Lu. 10 16. 1 Thes . 4. 6. 7. 8. Objection 5. Answer . Objection 6. c Vindication p. 40. Answer . Objection 7. Answer . * 〈◊〉 1 , 11. 1 Sam : 11 , 7. Ezra 7 , 26 , Dan : 2 , 5 , c : 3 , 19 , c : 6 , 24 , Math : 10 , 28. Luke 12 , 4 , 5 * 1 Thes . 4. 6. 8 Rom : 1 , 30 , 31 〈◊〉 . Objection 2. i Vindication . ● , 4 , 5 , 6 , 9 , 34 35 , ●● . Answer . * Phil : 1 , 1. Eph 4 , 11 , 12. 1 Cor. 12 , 28 , 29 [*] Gal : 1 , 8. [*] 〈◊〉 An Answer to Master William Prynnes 12 Questions p , 2. Christ hath not perempto●ily prescribed one and the selfe-same 〈◊〉 of Ecclesiasticall Government to all Nations : The 〈◊〉 to blame are such who go about to prescribe one throughout whole kingdomes , &c. l Rom. 13. 1 , 2. Prov. 8 , 15. o 1 Cor 4 , 21 , 〈◊〉 , 12 , 13 , Gal 16 , 1 , 2 , Tim 2 , 25 , 26 p Col. 51 , 2 Acts 15 , 1 , to 30. Col 2. 14 , to 23 q See Catalogus Testium V●ritatis , Dr. White , Doctor Webbe Dr. Abbot , Doctor Featly , and others . r Deutr , 17. 14. ●0 20. 2 Sam 23. 3. ſ 1 Tim 6 15. Rev. 17. 14. c. 19. 16. Psal . 22. 28 Ps 4. 7 2 , 7. 1 Chron. 29. 11 to 17. Dan. 2. 21 27 1 Cor. 19 26. Ps . 24. ● t Rev. 15. 3. u Acts 1. 13. 14. 15. 26. c. 2. 41. 4● . 46. e Acts 6 〈◊〉 . 1 , 1 , 1 Tim 3 8 , to 14 f 1 Tim. 3. 1. to 8 c 5. 17. Tit. 1 5. 6. 7. Iam. 5 18. 1. Pet. 5. 1 2. ●●il l. 1. Acts 11. 30. c. 14 23. c. 15. 2. 22. 23. 46 c. 16. 4. c 20. 19. 28. c. 21. 18. g 1 Tim. 5. 3. to 15. Acts. 6. ● . h Acts 4 11. 12 1 Cor. 12. 4. to 33. Act. 21 2 Tim. 4 , 5 , Rom. 12 6 , 7 , 8 , Acts 21. 10 ● Cor. ●4 . 29. 〈…〉 . i Exod. 12. 25. to 30. c. 23. 14. to 20. Levit. 14. 35 , 35. c. 19. 23. to 56. c. 23 , 10 ●o 20. c. 25 , 5 to 42. * 1 Chron. 28 29. 2 Chron. cap. 31. 2 , 3 , chap. 1. to 9. Ezra 3. Hog . 2. 3 , &c. * 1 Chron. 28 ▪ 29. 2 Chron. cap. 31. 2 , 3. chap. 1. to 9. Ezra● . Hog . 2. 3 , &c. * See Eph. c. 5 and 6 Col. c. 3 & 4. 1 Thes . 5. P●●l . 4. 8. Iam. c. 1. and 4 1 Pet. c. 2 ▪ and 3. 1 Cor. 10 , 31 32. Rom. 12. and 13. Object . 1. Vindication , p. 5 , 6 , &c. Answer . * I wonder my Brother and Independents alleage not the forme and dimensions of the Arke , prescribed by God to Noah , Gen. ● . 14 , 15. and ●hap . 7 , 5. It being a Type of the Church as well as the Pa●terne of the Taberna●le and Tem●le . * Levit. 16. 4. 23 , 24 , 32. Argument ● . Vindication pag. 6. Answer . k 1 Chro. 15. chap. 16 , 37. to 43 , cha 28 13 2 2 Chro. ● . chap. 8. 14 ▪ chap. ●1 , 2 , 3. Ezra . 6. 18. * 1 Chro. 〈◊〉 11 , 12 , 13 * 1 Chron. 16 ▪ ● . 37 , to 45 , 〈…〉 11 21 , 2 Chr● 5 , c 31 , 2 , 3 ▪ * Isay . 2 , 3 , Es●a , 3. † 1 Chron. 28. 11 , 12 , 13 e Ezra 3 , 10. 12 , Aag 2 , 3 to 10. f Col. 2 , 13 , to 23 , Acts 15. g Rev. 11. 1. 2 Argument 3 h Ezech ●3 , 10 , 11 , &c. i Vindication . p. 3. * Of what 〈◊〉 is your ●●●plesse ? 〈…〉 1636. * Rev. 11. 1. 2 * A full Re●● . 6 * Argument 4 Vindication p. 34. Answer . l See the Reply to A. S. m M Goodwins Theomachia , and his 2 B●okes since : My Brother 〈◊〉 Vindication . 〈◊〉 4. 7 Object . 3. q Vindication p , 7 , to 22 , 24 49 , 50 , 58 , 60 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Answer . o Acts 11. 28. 29. 30. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 [†] See Numb . 8. 80. Object . [†] Vindication pag. 18. 19 , 20 ▪ 42 , 50 , 58 , 59. Answer . * See Guliel●●s Apollonius , cap. 3. 6. r Ephes . 1. 22. 23. c. 5. 23. 10. 33. t Rev. 12. 1. to 7. v Can. 2. 6. 9. c. 2. 14. ● . 4. 10 , 11 , 12 , 15 , 16. c. 5. 1. x Cant. 8. 12. Isa . 5. 1. to 10. Matth : 10. 1. ● . 10. y Psal . ●●2 . Heb. 12. ●2 . Rev. 21. 2 to 24. 1 Pet. 2 6. z 1 Pet. 2. 5 , c. 4. 17. 1 Tim. 4. 15. a Acts 20. 28. Ioh. 10 3 , to 17. b 1 Cor. 12. 12. 27 Eph. 1. 22 , 23. [†] Vindication page 30 , 31. Gulielmus Apollonius chap 3. 6. m See here Sect. 1. 3. n Rom. 13. 1 , 2 ▪ p See Master Rutherford , his due Rights of Presbyteries , Sect. 15. p. Gulielmus Apollonius , c. 3. and 6. See Section 3 ● Acts 15. Rom. 13. 1. 2 q Exod. 20. Ephes . 5. 20. to 30. c. 6 , 1. to 9 * See Guliel●us Apolloni●● , cap. 6. [†] For 〈◊〉 part 2. ●bject . 1. Vindication page 18. Answer . * See Dr. Fi●● o● the Church , l. 1. c. 1 , 2. Gen. 4. 3 , 4 , 5. Heb. 11. 4. 〈◊〉 5. 8. ●● . 18 19. c. 22. 2. to 15. a Object . 2. Vindication , p. 18 , &c. Answ . b Pro. 11. 14. Eccles . 4. 9 , 10 , 11 , 12. c Fortesoue de Laudibas logum Angliae . c. 36. Magna Charta , c. 29. The Petition of Right . 3 Carol. See ●udge Crookes a●d Huttons Arguments concerning Ship-money . d Polit. l. 3. c. 7. 11 , 12. x Vindication , p. 1● . Object . 3. Answ . f Ser Cent. 2 c. 7. Guliclmus , Appolonius , c. 3 6. * Reply to A. ● p. 70. to 73. Vi●dication ● 65. to 70. g Pag. 12. 4. See Gulicimus Appollonius . h Page 42. to . v. 6. 57. The Apologeticall Narration , see Master Edwards Antapologia , p. 126 , 127. to 151. i Mr - Edwards , Mr. Rutherford , Dr. Sicward . * An Answer to Mr. Prynnes 12. Queres . p. 2 3. avers , this in direct termes . k Aluarus Pelagius de planctu . Eccles . 1. Artic. 6. 13 , 31 , 34 , 35 , 37. Augustinus Triumphans . Cassaneus Catalogus gloriae Mundi p. 7. 4. cons●d . l 2 Thes . 2. Obiect 5. m Vindication . p. 33. to 37 Answ . n Ioh. 14. 8. o See Christ on his Thron . The Protestation protested and Vindication passim . p Vindication , p. 8. q Psalm . 1●9 . 105. 2 Tim. 3. 15. ●6 , 17. r Gal. 6. 16 Ephes . c. p. 5 , & 6. 1 Tim. ● . 3. 1 Cor. 10. 31 , 32 , 33. Phil. 4. 8 , 9. 1 Pet. 2 , 3. Rom. 12. 13. ſ Mat. 9. 3● Ephes . 4. 11. 12. 13. 2 Chron. 9. 8. Ier. 3. 15. c. 23. 4. Ezech. 34. 5. & Zach. 10. t Mat. 9. 36 Iohn 10. Acts 20. 29. 2 Pet. 2. 1. to 20. 1 Tim. 4. 1. to 2 Tim. 3. to 10. Object . 4. * Vindication . p. 7. Answ . v Vindication , p. 51. 70. x Page 8. y Parliamentorum insanum . Matthew Paris Hist . Angl. in z Parliamentum Indoctorum . Thomas Walsingham , Hist . Angliae An. 400. p. 414 Speed p. 775. Sir Edward Cookes 4. Institutes , ch . 1. * Eccles . 4. 9. * Vindication , p. 56. to 60. An Answer to Mr. Prynnes 12 questions . p. 2 , 3. * Iudges 17. 6. c. 18. 1. c. 31. 25. n Vindication , p. 16. 32 66 , 68 , 69. Object . 6. Answ . d 2 Pet. 1. 〈◊〉 Mat 26. 19. 20. 1 Cor. 14. 37. 1 Pet. 4. 11. e Iohn 20. 22 , 23. Acts 2 , ● & 15. to 20. Acts 11. 15. 〈◊〉 . c. 13. 1. to 5. c. 19. 1. to 7. f Mat. 3. 11. Acts 10. 34. to 4● . 〈◊〉 1. 15 , 16 , 17. c. 15. 8. c. ●9 . 1. to 7. g See Exod. 20. & Deut. 2. to 20. &c , Levit . and Numbers throughout . h See Mat. 10 5 , ● . 28. 19 , 20. Mat. 1● . 15 , 16 Acts 20. 28. c. 13. 2 Rom. 1. 1. 1 Cor. 1. 1 Gal. 1. 1. See. ( ● ) before . i Acts 4. 19 20. c. 5. 28 , 29 , &c. k Rom. 13. 1 to 7. 1 Pet. 2. 15 , 16. l Iam. 3. 2. m 1 Tim. 5. ●3 . n Mat. 18. 20 Iohn 16. 15. o Eccles : 4 3 to 13. p Prov. 11. 14 q Vindication . p , 6● , r Luk 11. 13 ſ Rom. 15. 16 Tit. 3. 5. 2 Thes . 2. c. 13. versa 1 , 2. & Iohn , 14. 16. Heb. 6. 4. Ephes . 2. 22. Iam. 4. 5. 2 Iohn . 4. 13. Rom. 8. 12. 2 Tim. 1. 14. v 1 Cor. 6. 19. x Ioh. 16. 15 y 1 Cor. 12. 6 to 14. 1 Cor. 1. 12 z Iude 20 , Rom. 9. 23. 26 , 27 : Eph : 6 : 18 : a Ioh : 3. 5 : 6. 8 : Eph : 1 : 13 : 2 Cor : 5 : 5 : 1 Cor : 14 ▪ 14 : 11 : 16 : b Gal : 5 : 16 : 18 : 25 : c Acts 2 : 17 : Ioel 2 : 28 : d Luke ● : 15 ▪ 35 : 41 : c. 2 : 25 : Acts 2 : 33 : 38 c : 4 : 31 : c : 6 : 3 : 5 ▪ c : 7 : 55 : c. 9 ▪ 11 : c : 10. 47 : c. 11 : 15 16. c : 13 : 9 : 52 : Rom : 6 : 5 : and 6 : 4 : Iohn 7 ▪ 39 : c : 15 : 26 : e Mat : 5 : 13 : Mar. 9 : 49 , 50. Object . 3. f See Mr : Goodwint Thromichia : p. 48 : 49 : 50 : and his Serm : Feb. 25 : 1643 : * 2. Chron. 6. 30. 2 , Tim , 2 , 19 ▪ Answ . g Vindication : p. 16. * It is well Brother you have so be st●●red your selfe , as not only to have founded but built a Church in far lesse space : h Vindication p : 68 : i Numb . 22 : & 23 & 24 : k 1 Sam : 10 , 11 , 121 l Iohn 11 : 49 : to 53 : m Acts 5 , & Ioh : 6 : 70 : 71 : o 2 Cron : 36 : 22 , 23 : Ezr : 1 ● to 9 : c : 3. 76. 5 : 13 : to 17 : c : 6 : 3. to 14 : c : 7 : 7 : to 121 c : 8 : 1 : Esay 44 , 28 : p Vindication , p. 69 : q M●nucij Felicis , Octavius , at the end : 
A05817	----	The practise of pietie directing a Christian how to walke that he may please God. Bayly, Lewis, d. 1631. 1613 Approx. 959 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 536 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-03 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A05817 STC 1602 ESTC S1173 21539817 ocm 21539817 24763 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A05817) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 24763) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1475-1640 ; 1720:6) The practise of pietie directing a Christian how to walke that he may please God. Bayly, Lewis, d. 1631. Elstracke, Renold, fl. 1590-1630. The third edition / [36], 1031, [1] p. Printed for Iohn Hodgets, London : 1613. Engraved illustrated t.p. Dedication signed: Lewes Bayly. "Grauen by Renold Elstrak." Marginal notes. Errata: p. [1] at end. Signatures: *⁸ A-2X¹². Numerous errors in paging. Reproduction of original in the British Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Piety. Christian life -- Anglican authors. Puritans -- Doctrines. 2004-09 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2004-11 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2004-12 Emma (Leeson) Huber Sampled and proofread 2004-12 Emma (Leeson) Huber Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-01 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion TO THE HIGH AND mighty Prince CHARLES , Prince of WALES . CHRIST IESVS , the a PRINCE of Princes , blesse your Highnesse with length of dayes , and an increase of all Graces , which may make you truely prosperous in this life , and eternally happy in that which is to come . Ionathan shot b three Arrowes to driue Dauid further off from Sauls furie : and this is the third Epistle which I haue written to draw your Highnesse neerer to Gods fauour , by directing your heart to beginne ( like Iosiah ) in your c youth to seeke after the GOD of DAVID ( and of IACOB ) your Father : Not , but that I know , that your Highnesse doth this without mine admonition ; but because I * would with the Apostle , haue you , to d abound in euery Grace , in faith and knowledge , and in all diligence , and in your loue to Gods Seruice and true Religion . Neuer was there more neede of plaine and vnfained Admonitions : for the Comicke in that saying seemes but to haue prophesied of our times , Obsequium amicos , veritas odium parit . And no maruell ; seeing that wee are fallen into the dregges of Time , which being the last , must needes be the worst dayes . And how can there be worse , seeing Vanitie knowes not how to be vainer , nor Wickednesse how to be more wicked ? And whereas heretofore those haue beene counted most holy , who haue shewed themselues most zealous in their Religion : they are now reputed most discreet , who can make the least profession of their Faith. And that these are the last daies , appeares euidently ; because that Securitie of mens eternall state hath so ouerwhelmed ( as CHRIST fore-told it should ) all sorts : that most who now liue , are become louers of pleasures more then louers of God. And of those who pretend to loue GOD. O GOD , what sanctified hart can but bleede to beholde how seldome they come to prayers ? how irreuerently they heare Gods Word ? what strangers they are at the Lords Table ? what assiduous spectators they are at Stage-playes ? where being Christians , they can sport themselues to heare the Vassals of the * Diuell scoffing Religion , and blasphemously abusing phrases of holy Scripture on their Stages : as familiarly as they vse their Tabacco-pipes in their bibbing-houses . So that he who would now adayes seeke in most Christians , for the power , shall scarse almost finde the very shew of godlinesse . Neuer was there more sinning , neuer lesse remorse for sinne . Neuer was the Iudge neerer to come , neuer was there so little preparation for his comming . And if the Bride-groome should now come ; how many ( who thinke themselues wise enough , and full of all knowledge ) would be found foolish Virgines , without one droppe of the Oyle of sauing Faith in their lamps ? For the greatest wisedome of most men in this age ; consists in being wise , first , to deceiue others , and in the end , to deceiue themselues . And if sometimes some good Booke haps into their hands ; or some good motion comes into their heads , whereby they are put in minde to consider the vncertaintie of this life present ; or how weake assurance they haue of eternall life if this were ended : and how they haue some secret sinnes , for which they must needes repent here , or be punished for them in Hell hereafter ▪ Securitie then forthwith whispers the Hypocrite in the Eare , that though it be fit to thinke of these things ; yet , It is not yet time , and that hee is yet young enough ( though hee cannot but know that many millions as young as himselfe , are already in hell , for want of timely Repentance , ) Presumption warrants him in the other Eare , that hee may haue time hereafter at his leasure to repent : and that howsoeuer others dye , yet hee is farre enough from death , and therefore may boldly take yet a longer time to enioy his sweete pleasures , and to encrease his vvealth and greatnesse . And hereupon , like Salomons Sluggard , he yeelds himselfe to a little more sleepe , a little more slumber , a little more folding of the hands to sleepe in his former sinnes : till at last ; Despayre ( Securities ougly hand-maide ) comes in vnlooked for , & shewes him his Houre-glasse , dolefully telling him , that his time is past , and that nothing now remaines but to dye and be damn'd . Let not this seeme strange to any , for too many haue found it too true : & more without more grace , are like to be thus soothed to their end ; and in the end snared to their endlesse perdition . In my desire therefore of the common saluation ; but especially of your Highnesse euerlasting Welfare : I haue endeuoured to extract out of the Chaos of endlesse Controuersies , the olde Practise of true PIETIE , which flourished before these Controuersies were hatched ; which my poore labours in a short while comes now forth againe the third time , vnder the gracious protection of your Highnesse fauour ; and by their entertainment seeme not to be altogether vnwelcome to the Church of Christ. If to be pious , hath in all ages beene held true honour ; how much more honourable is it , in so impious an age , to be the true Patrone and Patterne of Pietie ? Pietie made Dauid , Salomon , Iehosaphat , Ezechias , Iosias , Zerubbabel , Constantine , Theodosidus , Edward the 6. Queene Elizabeth , Prince Henry , and other religious Princes , to be so honoured : that their names ( since their deaths ) smels in the Church of GOD , like a precious oyntment , and their remembrance is sweet as Hony in all mouthes , and as Musicke at a banquet of Wine : when as the liues of others , who haue beene godlesse and irreligious Princes ; doe rot and stinke in the memory of Gods people . And what honour is it for great men to haue great titles on earth ; when God counts their Names vnworthy to be written in his Booke of life in heauen ? It is Pietie that enbalmes a Prince his good name , and make his face to shine before men , and glorifieth his Soule among Angels . For as Moses face by often talking with GOD shined in the eyes of the People : so by frequent praying ( which is our talking with God ) and hearing the Word ( which is Gods speaking vnto vs ) we shall be changed from glory to glory , by the Spirit of the Lord , to the Image of the Lord. And seeing this life is vncertaine to all ; ( especially to Princes ) What argument is more fit both for Princes and People to study ; then that which teacheth sinfull man to deny himselfe by mortifying his corruption : that hee may enioy Christ the Author of his saluation ? To renounce these false and momentanie pleasures of the world , that he may attaine to the true and eternall ioyes of Heauen ? & to make them truely honourable before God in Piety , who are now onely honourable before men in vanitie ? What charges soeuer wee spend in earthly vanities , for the most part , they eyther dye before vs , or wee shortly die after them : but what we spend , like * Mary , in the Practise of Pietie , shall remaine our true memoriall for euer . For , a Pietie hath the promise of this life , and of that which shall neuer end . But b without Pietie ▪ there is no internal comfort to be found in Conscience , nor externall peace to be looked for in the World , nor any eternall happinesse to be hoped for in Heauen . How can Pietie but promise to her selfe a zealous Patrone of your Highnesse , being the sole Sonne and Heyre of so gracious and great a Monarch , who is not onely the defender of the faith by Title : but also a defender of the Faith in truth , as the Christian World hath taken notice , by his learned confuting of Bellarmines ouer-spreading Heresies : and his suppressing in the blade of Vorstius Athean blasphemies ? And how easie it is for your Highnesse to equall , if not to exceede all that went before you in Grace and greatnesse , if you doe but set your heart to seeke and to serue God , considering how religiously your Highnesse hath beene educated by godly and vertuous Gouernours and Tutors : as also that you liue in such a time , wherin Gods prouidence and the Kings religious care , haue placed ouer this Church ( to the vnspeakeable comfort thereof ) another venerable Iehoiada , that doth good in our Israel , both towards God , and towards his house : of whom your Highnesse at all times , in all doubts , may learne the sinceritie of Religion , for the Saluation of your inward Soule , and the vvisest counsell for the direction of your outward state . And let that Exhortation of Dauid to his Sonne Salomon be euer in your Princely minde . And thou Salomon my Sonne , know thou the GOD of thy Father , and serue him with a perfect heart , and with a willing minde : for the LORD searcheth all hearts , and vnderstandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts : if thou seeke him , hee will be found of thee , but if thou forsake him , hee vvill cast thee off for euer . To helpe you the better to seeke and to serue this GOD Almightie , who must be your chiefe Protector in life , and onely Comfort in death : I here once againe , on my bended knees , offer my olde Mite new stampt into your Highnesse hands : daily for your Highnesse offering vp vnto the most HIGH , my humblest prayers , that as you grow in age and stature : so you may ( like your Master ) encrease in Wisedome and fauour , with God and all good men . This suite will I neuer cease : In all other matters I will euer rest Your Highnesse humble Seruant , during life , to be commanded . Lewes Bayly . Ad CAROLVM Principem . TOlle Malos , extolle Pios , cognosce Teipsum . Sacra tene , Paci consule , disce pati . To the deuout READER . I Had not purposed to enlarge the last Edition , saue that the importunitie of many deuoutly disposed , preuailed with mee , to adde some points , and to amplifie others . To satisfie whose godly requests , I haue done my best indeuour : and with all finished all that I entend in this argument . If thou shalt hereby reape any more profit , giue God the more praise : and remember him in thy Prayers , who hath vowed both his life and his labours to further thy saluation as his owne . Farewell in the Lord Iesus . The chiefe Contents of this BOOKE . 1 A Plaine description of God , in respect of his Essence , Persons , and Attributes : so farre as euery Christian should competently endeuour to learne and know : with sundry sweet obseruations and meditations therupon . page 5 2 Meditations setting forth the miseries of a man in life and death , that is not reconciled to God in Christ. page 75 3 Meditations of the blessed state both in life and death , of a man that is reconciled to GOD in Christ : wherein thou shalt finde not a few things worthy the reading and obseruation . page 131 4 Meditations on 7. hinderances which keepe back a sinner from the Practise of Pietie : necessary to be read of all , but especially of carnall Gospellers in this age . 222 5 How to begin the morning with piou● M●ditations and prayers . 300 6 How to reade the Bible with profit & ease once ouer euery yeere . 310 7 A Morning prayer . 320 Another shorter Prayer for the Morning . 343 Another briefe Morning Prayer . 352 8 Meditations how to walk with God al the day . 355 Especially how to guide thy thoughts . ibid. Thy words . 368 Thy Actions . 379 9 Meditations for the Euening . 397 10 An Euening Prayer . 405 Another shorter euening Prayer . 420 11 Things to be meditated vpon as thou art going to bed . 426 12 Meditations for a godly Householder . 430 13 A morning prayer for a Familie . 438 14 Holy Meditations and Graces before and after dinner and supper . 450 15 Rules to be obserued in singing of Psalmes . 464 16 Euening Prayer for a Familie . 468 17 A religious discourse of the Sabbath day , wherein is proued , that the Sabbath was altered from the seauenth to the first day of the weeke , not by humane ordinance , but by Christ himselfe & his Apostles : that the fourth Commandement is perpetuall and Morall vnder the new Testament , as well as vnder the old . And the true manner of sanctifying the Sabbath day is described out of the word of God. 481 18 A Morning Prayer for the Sabbath day . 581 19 An Euening Prayer for the Sabbath day . 614 20 Meditations of the true manner of Fasting and giuing of Almes , out of the word of God. 625 21 The right manner of holy Feasting . 661 22 Holy and deuout Meditations of the worthy & reuerent receiuing of the Lords Supper . 664 23 An humble Confession of sinnes before the holy Communion . 748 24 A sweet Soliloquie to be said a little before the receiuing of the holy Sacrament . 753 25 A Prayer to be said after the receiuing of the holy Sacrament . 773 26 Meditations how to behaue thy selfe in the time of sicknesse . 794 27 A Prayer when one beginnes to be sicke . 797 28 Directions for making thy Will , and setting thy house in order . 809 29 A Prayer before taking of Physicke . 818 30 Meditations for one that is recouered from sicknesse . 842 And a thanksgiuing . 847 31 Meditations for the sick , taken from the ends of Gods chastisements . 822 32 Meditations for one that is like to dye . 856 33 A Prayer to be said of one that is like to die . 872 34 Comfortable Meditations against despaire . 879 35 Directions for those who come to visite the sicke . 909 36 A Prayer to be said for the sicke . 916 And choise scriptures to be read vnto him . 924 37 Consolations against impatiencie in sicknes . 926 38 Consolations against the feare of death . 933 39 7. sanctified thoughts , and so many spirituall sighes , fit for a sicke man that is like to dye . 942 40 Of the comfortable vse of true Absolution , and receiuing of the Lords Supper , to the faithfull and penitent before they depart this life , if they may conueniently be had . 956 41 The last speech of a godly man dying . 976 42 Meditations of Martyrdome : wherein is proued that those who dye for Popery cannot be Christs Martyrs . 979 43 A diuine Colloquie twixt Christ , and the Soule , concerning the vertue and efficacie of his dolorous passion . 995 44 The Soules Soliloquie vnto Christ her Sauiour . 1017 THE PRACTISE OF PIETIE . Directing a CHRISTIAN how to walke , that hee may please GOD. WHo euer thou art , that lookest into this Booke , neuer vndertake to read it : vnlesse thou first resoluest to become from thy heart , an vnfained Practitioner of Pietie . Yet reade it , and that speedily : least before thou hast read it ouer , God ( by some vnexpected death ) cut thee off , for thine inueterate Impietie . The practise of Pietie consists 1 In knowing 1 The essence of God , & that , in respect of 1 The diuers manner of being therin , which are 3. persons 1 Father . 2 Sonne . 3 H. Ghost . 2 The Attributes therof , which are , either , Nominall : or , Reall , 1 Absolute , 1 Simplenes . 2 Infinitenes . 2 Relatiue , 1 Life . 2 Vnderstanding . 3 Will. 4 Power 5 Maiestie . 2 Thy owne selfe , in respect of thy state of 1 Corruption . 2 Renouation . 2 In glorifying God aright , 1 By thy life , in dedicating thy selfe deuoutly to serue him . Ordinarily , 1 Priuately in thine owne person . 2 Publikely , 1 With thy familie euery day . 2 With the Church on the Sabboth day . Extraordinarily , by Fasting . Feasting . 2 By thy death in dying 1 In the Lord. 2 For the Lord. VNlesse that a man doth truely know God , hee neyther can , nor will worship him aright : for , how can a man loue him , whom hee knoweth not ? and vvho will worship him , whose helpe a man thinkes he needeth not ? and how shall a man seeke remedie by Grace , who neuer vnderstood his miserie by Nature ? Therefore ( saith the a Apostle ) Hee that commeth to God , must beleeue that God is , and that he is a rewarder of them that seeke him . And for as much as there can be no true Pietie , without the knowledge of GOD : nor any good practise without the knowledge of a mans owne selfe : wee will therefore lay downe the knowledge of Gods Maiestie , and mans miserie , as the first and chiefest grounds of the practise of Pietie . A plaine Description of the Essence and Attributes of GOD , out of the holy Scriptures , so far forth as euery CHRISTIAN must competently know , and necessarily beleeue , that will be saued . ALthough no Creature can define vvhat God is , because hee is a incomprehensible , and b dwelling in inaccessible light : yet it hath pleased his Maiestie , to reueale himselfe in his Word vnto vs , so farre , as our weake capacitie can best conceiue him . Thus : God , is that c one d spirituall and e infinitely f perfect g essence , whose beeing is h of himselfe eternally . In the Diuine Essence , we are to consider two things : first , the diuers manner of being therein : secondly , the Attributes thereof . The diuers manner of being therein , are called 1) Persons . A Person is a 2) distinct subsistence of the 3) whole God-head . There are 4) three Diuine Persons , the Father , the Sonne and the Holy Ghost . These three Persons are not three seuerall substances , but three distinct subsistences , or three diuer● manner of beeings of * one and the same Substance , and Diuine Essence . So that a Person in the God-head , is an indiuiduall vnderstanding , and incommunicable Subsistence , liuing of it selfe , and not sustained by another . In the vnitie of the God-head , there is a i pluralitie , which is not accidentall , ( for GOD is a most pure act , and admits no accidents : ) nor essentiall : ( for God is one essence onely , ) but * personall . The Persons in this one essence are but three . In this § Mysterie there is alius & alius , another and another : but not aliud & aliud , another thing , and another thing . The Diuine Essence in it selfe , is neyther diuided nor distinguished . But the three Persons in the diuine Essence , are distinguished among themselues three manner of wayes : 1 By their Names . 2 By their Order . 3 By their Actions . 1 By their Names , thus : THe first Person is named the Father : first , in respect of his k naturall Sonne Christ : secondly , in respect of the Elect , his l adopted sons , that is , those , who being not his sonnes by Nature , are made his Sonnes by Grace . The second Person is named the m Sonne , because hee is n begotten of his o Fathers substance or nature : and he is called the Word : first , because the p conception of a word in mans minde is the neerest thing , that in some sort can shadow vnto vs the manner how hee is eternally begotten of his Fathers substance : and in this respect he is also called the Wisedome of his Father , Prou. 8.12 . Secondly , because that by q him , the Father hath from the beginning declared his Will for our saluation : hence called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Person speaking , with or by the Fathers . Thirdly , because hee is the chi●fe r argument of all the Word of God , or that Word whereof GOD spake when he promised the blessed Seede to the Fathers , vnder the old Testament . The third Person is named the s holy Ghost : first , because hee is t spirituall without a body : secondly , because hee is spired , and as it were , breathed from both the u Father and the Sonne , that is , proceedeth from them both . And he is called holy , both because he is x holy in his owne nature , and also the immediate y sanctifier of all Gods Elect people . 2 By their Order , thus : THe Persons of the God-head are eyther the Father , or those vvhich are * of the Father . The Father is the a first person of the glorious Trinitie , * hauing neyther his beeing nor beginning of any other , but of himselfe , begetting his Sonne and together vvith his Sonne , sending forth the Holy Ghost from euerlasting . The Persons which are of the Father , are those , who in respect of their Personall existence haue the whole Diuine Essence aeternally communicated vnto them from the Father ; and those are either from the Father alone , as the Son , or from the Father and the Sonne , as the Holy Ghost . The Sonne is the second person of the glorious Trinitie , and the onely begotten Sonne of his Father , not by Grace , but by Nature : hauing his b beeing of the Father alone , and the whole beeing of his Father , by an eternall and incomprehensible generation : and with the Father , sendeth forth the Holy Ghost . In respect of his absolute Essence , he is of himselfe , but in respect of his Person , hee is by an eternall generation of his Father . For the Essence doth not beget an Essence , but the c person of the Father begetteth the Person of the Sonne , and so he is God of God , and hath from his Father the beginning of his Person and Order , but not of Essence and time . The holy Ghost is the third Person of the blessed Trinitie , d proceeding and sent forth , equally from * both the Father and the Sonne , by an eternall and incomprehensible spiration : For as the Sonne receiueth the whole diuine essence by generation ; so the H. Ghost receiueth it wholy by spiration . This Order betwixt the three persons appeares , in that the Father begetting must in order be before the Sonne begotten , and the Father and Sonne , before the Holy Ghost proceeding from both . This Order serues to set forth vnto vs two things : first , the manner how the Trinitie worketh in their externall actions : as that the Father worketh of himselfe , by the Sonne and the holy Ghost : the Sonne from the Father , by the holy Ghost : the holy Ghost from the Father and the Sonne . Secondly , to distinguish the first and immediate beginning from vvhich those externall and common action do flow . Hence it is that for as much as the Father is the fountaine and originall of the Trinitie : the beginning of all externall working , the * Name of God in relation , and the title of Creator in the Creede , are giuen in a speciall manner to the Father : Our Redemption to the Sonne : and our Sanctification to the person of the Holy Ghost , as the immediate agents of these actions . And this also is the cause why the Sonne , as he is Mediator , referreth all things to the * Father , not to the Holy Ghost ; and that the Scripture so often saith , that we are * reconciled to the Father . This diuine order or oeconomie excepted , there is neyther first nor last , neyther superioritie nor inferioritie among the three Persons , but for Nature they are coessentiall , for Dignitie coequall , for Time coeternall . The whole diuine Essence , is in euery one of the three Persons ; but it was incarnated * onely , in the second Person of the Word , and not in the Person of the Father , or of the H●ly Ghost , for three reasons . First , that GOD the Father might the rather set forth the greatnesse of his loue to Mankinde ; in giuing his first , and onely begotten Son to be incarnated , and to suffer death for mans saluation . Secondly , that hee vvho was in his Diuinitie the Son of GOD , should be in his Humanitie the Sonne of Man : lest the name of Sonne should passe vnto another : vvho by his eternall natiuitie was not the Sonne . Thirdly , because it vvas meetest that that Person , who is the substantiall Image of his eternal Father , should restore in vs the spirituall Image of GOD , which we had lost . In the Incarnation , the God-head was not turned into the Man-hood , nor the Man-hood into the God-head : but the God-head as it is the second Person or Word , assumed vnto it the Man-hood , that is , the whole nature of man , body and soule ; and all the naturall properties and infirmities therof , sinne excepted . The second Person tooke not vpon him the Person of man : but the Nature of man. So that the humane nature hath no personall subsistence of it owne , ( for then there should be two Persons in Christ : ) but it subsisteth in the Word , the second Person : for , as the soule and body makes but one Person of Man , so the God-head and Man-hood makes but one Person of Christ. The two natures of the God-head and Man-hood , are so really vnited by a Personall vnion , that as they can neuer be separated asunder , so are they not * confounded ; but remaine still distinguished by their seuerall and essentiall proprieties , which they had before they were vnited . As for example , the infinit●nesse of the Diuine is not communicated to the human● nature , nor the finitenesse of the Humane , to the Diuine nature . Yet by reason of this personall vnion , there is such a communion of the proprieties of both natures : that , that which is proper to the one is sometimes attributed to the other Nature : As that God purchased the Church , with his owne bloud : And , that he will iudge the world by that man , whom he hath appointed . Hence also it is , that though the Humanitie of Christ be a created , and therefore a finite and limited nature , and cannot be euery where present by actuall position , or locall extension according to his * naturall being : yet because it hath communicated vnto it , the personall subsistence of the Sonne of God , which is infinite and without limitation ; and is so vnited with God , that it is no where seuered from God : the body of Christ in respect of his * personall being , may rightly bee said , to be euery where . 3 The Actions by which the three Persons be distinguished . THe Actions are of two sorts : either Eternall , respecting the Creatures , and those are after a sort common to euery one of the three Persons : or Internall , respecting the Persons onely amongst themselues , and are altogether incommunicable . The Externall and communicable Actions of the three Persons , are these . The creation of the World , peculiarly belonging to God the Father : The redemption of the Church , to God the Sonne : And the sanctification of the Elect , to God the holy Ghost . But because the a Father created and still gouerneth the World by the Sonne in the holy Ghost ; therefore these external actions are indifferently , in b Scripture , oftentimes ascribed to each of the three Persons , and therefore called communicable and diuided Actions . The Internall and incommunicable Actions or proprieties of the three Persons , are these : 1 To beget : and that belongeth onely to the Father ; who is neither made , created , nor begotten of any . 2 To be begotten : and that belongeth only to the Sonne , who is of the Father alone , not made , nor created , but begotten . 3 To proceede from both : and that belongeth onely to the holy Ghost , who is of the Father and the Sonne , neither made , created , nor begotten but proceeding . So that when wee say , that the diuine essence is in the Father vnbegotten : in the Sonne begotten : and in the Holy Ghost proceeding : wee make not three Essences , but onely shew , the diuers maners of subsisting , by which the same most simple , eternall & vnbegottē Essence subsisteth in each Person : * namely , that it is not in the Father by generation : that it is in the Sonne , communicated from the father by generation : and in the holy Ghost , communicated from both the Father and the Sonne by proceeding . These are incommunicable Actions , and doe make ; not an Essentiall , accidental , or rationall , but a reall distinction betwixt the three Persons . So that he who is the Father in the Trinity , is not the Son : he who is the Son in the Trinity , is not the Father : hee who is the holy Ghost in the Trinity , is neither the Sonne nor the Father , but the Spirit proceeding from both : though there is but one and the same Essence common to * all three . As therefore wee beleeue that the Father is God , the Sonne is God , and the holy Ghost is God : so we likewise beleeue that God is the Father , God is the Sonne , and God is the holy Ghost . But by reason of this reall distinction : the Person of the one , is not , nor neuer can be , the person of the other . The three Persons therefore of the Godhead , doe not differ from the Essence but * formally : but they differ really one from an other , and so are distinguished by their hypostaticall proprieties . As the Father is God begetting God the Sonne : the Sonne is God begotten of God the Father : and the holy Ghost is God proceeding from both God the Father and God the Sonne . Hence it is , that the Scriptures vse the name of God two manner of waies . Either Essentially , and then it signifieth the three Persons coniointly : or * Personally , and then by a Synecdoche it signifieth but one of the three Persons in the God-head . As the Father , 1 Tim. 2.5 . or the Sonne , Act. 20.28 . 1 Tim. 3.16 . or the holy Ghost Act. 5.4 . 2 Cor. 6.16 . And because the diuine Essence ( common to all the three persons ) is but one , wee call the same Vnity . And because there bee three distinct Persons in this one indiuisible essence : we call the same Trinity . * So that this Vnity in Trinity , and Trinity in Vnity is a holy * mystery : rather to bee religiously adored by faith , then * curiously searched by reason , further then God hath reuealed in his word . Thus farre of the diuers manner of being in the Diuine Essence : now of the Attributes thereof . ATtributes are certaine descriptions of the Diuine Essence , deliuered in the Scriptures , according to the weakenesse of our * capacitie , to helpe vs the better to vnderstand the nature of Gods Essence , and to discerne it from all other essences . The Attributes of GOD are of two sorts , eyther nominall , or reall . The nominall Attributes are of three sorts : first , those which signifie Gods Essence : secondly , the Persons in the Essence : thirdly , those which signifie his essentiall workes . Of the first sort is the name * Iehouah , or rather a Iehueh , which signifieth eternall being of himselfe , in vvhom being without all beginning and end , all other beeings both beginne and end . Isay 42.8 . Psal. 83.18 . GOD tels Moses , Exod. 6.3 . that he was not knowne to Abraham , Isaac and Iacob , by his name Iehouah . ( Not , but that they knew this to be the name of God : for they vsed it in all their prayers , but ) because they liued not to see , God effecting indeede , that which he promised them ; in graciously deliuering their Seede out of Aegypt , and in giuing them the reall possession of Canaans Land ; and so to be not onely God Almightie , by whom all things were made , but also performing indeede to the Children that vvhich hee promised in his Word to the Fathers , vvhich this name Iehouah especially signifieth . And for this cause Moses cals GOD first Iehouah , when the vniuersall Creation had his absolute beeing , Gen. 2.4 . and this admirable name is grauen on the Decalogues fore-head , which vvas pronounced vpon the Israelites deliuerance , to be the rule of righteousnesse , after vvhich they should serue their Deliuerer in the promised Land. This Name is so full of diuine mysteries , that the Iewes holde it a sinne to pronounce it : but if it be no sinne to write it , why should it be vnlawfull to pronounce it ? This holy Name of GOD teacheth vs : First , what GOD is in himselfe , namely , An aeternall being of himselfe . Secondly , how he is vnto others , because that from him all other creatures haue receiued their beeing . Thirdly , that we may confidently beleeue his promises : for he is named Iehouah , not onely in respect of beeing , and causing all things to bee ; but especially , in respect of his gratious promises vvhich without faile he will fulfill in his appointed time , and so causeth that to be which was not before . And so this name is a golden pledge vnto vs , that because he hath promised , hee will surely vpon a our Repentance forgiue vs all our sinnes , at the time of death b receiue our Soules , and in the Resurrection c raise vp our Bodies in glory to Life euerlasting . The second Name denoting Gods Essence is , Eheieh ; but once read Exod. 3.14 . of the same roote that Iehouah is ; and signifieth I am , or I will be : for when Moses asked God by what name hee should call him , GOD then named himselfe , Eheieh Ascher Eheieh ; I am that I am : or , I will be that I will be : signifying that he is an eternall , vnchangeable , beeing : For seeing euery creature is temporarie and mutable , no creature can say , Ero qui ero , I will be that I will be . This name in the New Testament is giuen to our Lord Christ , when he is called Alpha and Omega , The beginning and the ending , * which is , which was , & which is to come . The Almightie , Apoc. 1.8 . For all time past and to come is aye present before God. And to this Name , Christ himselfe alludeth , Iohn 8.58 . Before Abraham was , I am . This Name should teach vs likewise to haue alwayes present in our mindes , our first Creation , present corruption , and future Glorification : and not content our selues , with I was good , or I will be good , but to be good presently , that when euer God sends for vs , hee may finde vs prepared for him . The third Name is Iah , which as it comes of the same roote , so is it the contract of Iehouah , and signifieth Lord , because hee is the beginning and beeing of beeings . It is a * Name , for the most part , ascribed vnto GOD when some notable deliuerance or benefit comes to passe according to his former promise : and therefore all creatures in heauen and earth are commanded to celebrate and praise GOD in this name Iah . The fourth is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Lord : vsed often in the New Testament : for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , signifieth , I am . Hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth the first essence of a thing , or Authoritie . When it is absolutely giuen to GOD , it answereth to the Hebrew name Iehouah , and so translated by the seauentie Interpreters : for God is so a Lord , that he is of * himselfe Lord , and Lord of all . This Name should alwayes put vs in remembrance to * obey his Commandements , and to feare his iudgements , and submit our selues to his blessed will and pleasure , saying with Eli , It is the Lord ; let him doe what seemeth him good . 1 Sam. 3.18 . The fift is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , God , 600. times vsed in the New Testament : & of profane Writers commonly . It is deriued * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , because hee runnes through , and compasseth all things : or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifieth , to burne and kindle : for God is light , and the Author both of Heate , Light , and Life , in all creatures , eyther immediately of himselfe , or mediately by secondary causes . The name is vsed either improperly , or properly . Improperly , when it is giuen eyther figuratiuely to Magistrates , or falsly to Idols . But when it is properly and absolutely taken ; it signifieth the eternall Essence of GOD , being aboue all things , and through all things , giuing life and light to all Creatures , and preseruing and gouerning them , in their wonderfull frame and order . * God seeth all , in all places : let vs therefore euery where take heede what wee doe in his sight . Thus farre the names which signifieth Gods Essence . The Name which signifieth the Persons in the Essence is chiefely one , Elohim . Elohim signifieth the mighty Iudges : It is a name of the Plurall number , to expresse the Trinitie of Persons in Vnitie of Essence . And to this purpose , the holy Ghost beginneth the holy Bible with this plurall name of God , ioyned with a Verbe of the singular number ; as Elohim barae , Dij creauit , * The mightie Gods , or , all the three Persons in the God-head created . The Iewes also note in the Verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , bara , consisting of three Letters , the Mysterie of the Trinitie . By 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Ben , the Son ; by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Resh Ruah , the Spirit ; by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Aleph Ab , the Father . But this holy Mysterie is more clearely taught by Moses , Gen. 3.22 . And Iehouah Elohim , said , Behold the man is become as One of 〈◊〉 . And Gen. 19.24 . Iehouah rayned vpon Sodome and vpon Gomorha brimstone and fire , from Iehouah out of Heauen : * that is , God the Sonne from God the Father , who hath committed all iudgement vnto the Son , Iohn 5.22 . See Psal. 33.6 . Isa. 63.9.10 . The Singular number of Elohim is Eloah , deriued of Alah , he swore , because that in all waightie causes , when necessitie requireth an oath to decide the truth , we are onely to sweare by the Name of God , which is the great and righteous Iudge of Heauen and Earth . This Name Eloah is but seldome vsed , as Abac. 3.3 . Iob. 4.9 . Iob. 12.4 . and 15.8.36.2 . Psal. 18.32 . Psal. 114.7 . Once it hath a Noune plurall ioyned to it . Iob. 35.10 . None saith , where is Eloah Gosai , the Almightie my Makers ? to note the Mysterie of the eternall Trinitie . Many times also Elohim the , plurall number , is ioyned with a verb plurall , to expresse more emphatically this mysterie , as Gen. 35.7 . 2 Sam. 7.23 . * I●sh . 24.19 . Ier. 10.10 . Elohim is also sometime Tropically giuen to Magistrates , because they are Gods Vicegerents : as to Moses , Exod. 7.1 . Iehouah said vnto Moses , I haue made thee Elohim to Pharaoh , that is , I haue appointed thee an Embassadour to represent the Person of the true Three-one , GOD , and to deliuer his message and will vnto Pharaoh . As oft therefore as we read , or heare this name Elohim , it should put vs in minde to consider , that in one diuine Essence , there are three distinct Persons , and that God is Iehouah Elohim . Now followes the names which signifie Gods essentiall workes , which are these fiue especially . 1 EL , which is as much as the strong God , * and teacheth vs that God is not only most strong and fortitude it selfe , in his owne essence : but also that it is hee that giueth all strength and power to all other creatures . Therefore Christ is called , Isay 9.6 . El Gibbor , the strong , most mightie , God. Let not Gods children feare the power of enemies , for El , our God , is more strong then they . 2 Schaddai . * That is , Omnipotent . By this name God vsually stiled himselfe to the Patriarches , I am El Schaddai , the strong God , almighty . Because he is perfectlie able to defend his seruants from all euill : to blesse them with all spirituall and temporall blessings , and to performe all his promises , which hee hath made vnto them for this life , and that which is to come . This name belongeth onely to the God-head , and to no creature , no not to the humanity of Christ. This may teach vs with the Patriarches , to put our whole confidence in God , and not to doubt of the true performance of his promises . 3 * Adonai . My Lord. This name , as the Massorets note , is found 134 ▪ times in the old Testament . Analogically it is giuen to cretures : * but properly it belongeth to God alone . It is vsed Malachy 1.6 . in the plurall number , to note the mystery of the holy Trinity . If I be Adonim , Lords , where is my feare ? Ani the singular , Adonim the plurall number . This name is giuen to Chirst Dan. 9.17 . Cause thy face to shine vpon thy sanctuary that is desolate , for ADONAI ( the Lord Christ ) his sake . The hearing of this holy name may teach euery man to obey Gods Commandements , to feare him alone , to suffer none besides him to raigne in his conscience , to lay hold by a perticular hand of faith vpon his word and promise , and to chalenge God in Christ to be his God , that he may say with Thomas Thou art my Lord and my God. 4 Is Helion : that is , most High. Psal. 9.2 . Psal. 91 9. Psal. 92.9 . Dan. 4 17.24.25.34 . Acts 7.48 . This name , Gabriel giueth vnto God ; telling the Virgin Mary that the childe which should bee borne of her should bee the sonne of the most High , Luk. 1.32 . This teacheth that God in his essence and glory exceedeth infinitly all creatures in heauen and earth . Secondly , that no man should be proud of any earthly honour or greatnesse . * Thirdly , if wee desire true dignity , to labour to haue communion with God , in grace and glory . 5 Abba , a Syriake name , signifying , Father , Rom. 8.15 . This is sometimes vsed essentially , as in the Lords praier . Secondly , personally , as Matth. 11.25 . For God is Christs father by nature , & Christians by adoption and grace . Christ is called the euerlasting Father , Isay 9.6 . because hee regenerates vs vnder the New Testament . God is also called the Father of light , Iames 1.17 . because God dwelleth in inaccessible light , 1. Tim. 6.16 . and is the author not onely of the Sunnes light , but also of all the light , both of naturall reason , and supernaturall grace , Which lighteth euery man that commeth into the world . This name teacheth vs , that all the giftes which we receiue from God , proceede from his meere fatherly loue . Secondly , that we should loue him againe , as deere children . Thirdly , that we may in all our needes and troubles be bold to call vpon him as a Father , for his helpe and succour . Thus should wee not heare of the sacred names of God , but we should thereby be put in minde of his goodnesse vnto vs , and of our duties vnto him . And then should wee finde how comfortable a thing it is to doe euery thing in the name of God. A phrase vsuall in euery mans tongue : but the true comfort thereof ( through ignorance ) knowne to few mens hearts . It is a great wisdome , and an vnspeakeable matter for the strengthning of a Christians faith , to know how in the mediation of Christ to inuocate God by such a name , as whereby hee hath manifested himselfe , to bee most willing and best able to help and succour him in his present neede or aduersitie . The ardent desire of knowing God is the surest testimony of our loue to God , and of Gods fauour to vs. Because he hath set his loue vpon me , therefore will I deliuer him : I will set him on high , because hee hath knowne my name : hee shall call vpon me and I will answere him , &c. and it is a great strengthning of faith , with vnderstanding , to beginne euery action in the name of God. Thus farre of the nominall Attributes . The reall Attributes are of two sorts : either absolute , or relatiue . The absolute Attributes are such which cannot in any sort agree to any creature , but to God alone . These are two : Simplenesse , and Infinitenesse . Simplenesse , is that whereby God is void of all compoposition , diuision , multiplication , accidents , or parts compounding , either sensible , or intelligible : so that what euer he is , he is the same Essentially . It hinders not Gods simplenesse that he is three , because God is three , not by composition of parts , but by coexistence of Persons . * Infinitenesse is that , whereby all things in God are void of all measure , limitation , and bonds , aboue and beneath , before and after . From these two doe necessarily flow three other Absolute attributes . 1 Vnmeasurablenesse , or vbiquitie , whereby he is of infinite extension , a filling heauen and Earth , containing all places , and not contained of any space , place , or bounds , and being no where absent , is euery where present . There are foure degrees of Gods presence : the first is vniuersall , by which God is repletiuely euery where , inclusiuely no where . Secondly , Speciall , by which God is said to be in heauen , because that b there his power , wisedome , and goodnesse , is in a more excellent manner seene and enioyed : as also because that vsually hee doth from thence poure both his blessings and iudgements . Thirdly , more speciall , by which God b dwelleth in his Saints . Fourthly , most speciall , and altogether singular , by which the whole fulnesse of the God-head c dwelleth in Christ bodilie . 2 Vnchangeablenesse , whereby God is void of all change : both in respect of his d essence and e will. 3 Eternitie , whereby God is without beginning of dayes or end of time : and without all bounds of f praecession or succession . Thus farre of the absolute Attributes ; now of the Relatiue , or such which haue reference to the Creatures . Those are fiue : 1 Life : 2 Vnderstanding : 3 Will : 4 Power : 5 Maiestie . 1 THE Life of God is that by which , as by a most pure and perpetuall act , hee not onely liueth of himselfe ; but is also , that euer , and ouer-flowing fountaine of Life , from which , all creatures deriue their a liues : so as that in him , they liue , moue , breathe , and haue their beeing . And because onely his Life differs from his * Essence ; therefore GOD is said onely to haue immortalitie , 1 Tim. 6.16 . 2 The Vnderstanding or Knowledge of GOD , is that whereby ( by one pure act ) he most perfectly b knoweth in himselfe all things that euer were , are , or shall be : Yea , the thoughts and imaginations of all mens hearts . This Knowledge of God , is eyther generall , by which God knoweth simply all things eternally , the good by himselfe , the euill by the good opposite to it : imposing to things contingent the Lot of contingencie ; and to things necessary , the Law of necessitie . And thus knowing all things in and of himselfe , he is the cause of all the knowledge that is in all , both men and Angels . Secondly , speciall , called the knowledge of approbation , by which hee perticularly knoweth , and gratiously acknowledgeth onely his Elect for his owne . * Vnderstanding also contaynes the Wisedome of God , by which hee most wisely created all things of nothing , in number , measure , and waight , & still ruleth & disposeth them to serue his owne most holy purpose and glory . 3 The Will of God is that whereby of c necessitie hee willeth himselfe , as the soueraigne good : and ( by willing himselfe ) willeth most d freely all other good things which are out of himselfe . * The Will of God , though in it selfe it be but one , as is his Essence , yet in respect of the diuersitie of obiects and effects it is called in the Scriptures by diuers names : as , 1 Loue , whereby is meant Gods eternal a good-will , whereby hee ordeineth his elect to bee freely saued through Christ , and b bestoweth on them all necessary graces , for this life & that to come , taking pleasure in their persons and seruice . 2 Iustice * is Gods constant will , whereby hee d recompenceth men and * Angels , according to their workes : punishing the impenitent according to their deserts , called the iustice of his wrath : and e rewarding the faithful according to his promises , called the Iustice of his grace . 3 Mercy , which is Gods meere good-wil , and ready affection to forgiue a penitent sinner notwithstanding all his sinnes and ill deserts . 4 Goodnesse , g whereby God willingly communicateth his good with his creatures : and because hee communicates it freely , it is termed Grace . 5 Truth , whereby h God willeth constantly those things , which he willeth : effecting , and performing all things , which he hath spoken in his appointed time . 6 Patience , whereby God willingly forbeareth to punish the wicked so long as it may stand with his Iustice , and vntill their sinnes i bee ripened . 7 Holinesse , k wherby Gods nature is separated from all prophanesse : and abhorreth all filthynesse : and so being wholly pure in himselfe , delighteth in the inward and outward purity and chastity , of his seruants , which hee infuseth into them . 8 Anger , l wherby is meant Gods most certaine and iust will , in chastening the elect , and in reuenging and punishing the reprobate for the iniuries they offer to him and his chosen : and when GOD will punish with rigor , and seuerity , then it is termed Wrath , m temporall to the elect : n eternall to the Reprobates . 4 The Power of God is that whereby he m can simply and freely doe whatsoeuer he will , that is agreeable to his nature , and whereby ( as he hath made , ) so he still ruleth heauen , and earth and all things therein . This Almighty power of God is either absolute , by which hee can will and doe more then he willeth or doth . Matth. 3.9 . & 20.53 . Rom. 9.18 . Or actuall , by which God doth indeed whatsoeuer hee will , and hindreth whatsoeuer he will not haue done . Psalm . 115.3 . 5 Maiestie is that by which God of his owne absolute and free authoritie n raigneth and ruleth as Lord and King , ouer all creatures , visible and inuisible . Hauing both the right and propriety in all things , as o from whom and for whom , are all things : as also such a plenitude of power , that he can pardon the offences of all whom hee p will haue spared , and subdue all his Enemies whom hee will haue q plagued and destroied , without being bound to render to any creature a reason of his doing : but making his owne most holy and iust will , his onely most perfect and eternall law . From all these attributes ariseth one , which is Gods soueraigne Blessednesse , or perfection . Blessednesse is that r perfect and vnmeasurable possession of ioy and glory , which God hath in himselfe for euer : and is the cause of all the blisse and perfection that euery creature enioieth in his measure . There are other Attributes figuratiuely and improperly ascribed vnto God , in the holy Scriptures , as by an Anthropomorphosis , the members of a man , eies , eares , nosthrils , mouth , hands , feete , &c. or the senses and actions of man , as seeing , hearing , smelling , working , walking , striking , &c. By an Anthropopatheia the affections and passions of a man , as gladnesse , griefe , ioy , sorrow , loue , hatred , &c. Or by an Analogia , as when he is named a Lion , a rocke , a tower , a Buckler , &c. Whose signification euery * commentary will expresse . Of all these Attributes wee must hold these generall Rules . 1 NO Attributes can sufficiently expresse the Essence of GOD , because it is infinite and ineffable . Whatsoeuer therefore is spoken of God , is not God : but serueth rather to helpe our weake vnderstanding , to conceiue in our reason , and to vtter in our speech the Maiestie of his Diuine Nature : so farre as hee hath vouchsafed to reueale himselfe vnto vs in his Word . 2 All the Attributes of God belong to euery of the three Persons , as well as to the Essence it selfe , with the limitation of a Personall proprietie : as the Mercy of the Father is Mercy begetting : the Mercy of the Sonne is Mercy begotten : the Mercy of the Holy Ghost is Mercy proceeding : and so of the rest . 3 The Essentiall Attributes of God differ not from his Essence . Because they are so in the Essence , that they are the very Essence it selfe . * In God therefore there is nothing , which is not eyther his Essence or a Person . 4 The Essentiall Attributes of GOD differ not Essentially , nor really one from another ( because whatsoeuer is in God , is one most simple Essence , and one admits no diuision , ) but onely in our reason and vnderstanding , which being not able to know earthly things , by one simple Act , without the help of many distinct acts , must of necessitie haue the helpe of many distinct Acts , to know the incomprehensible GOD. Therefore ( to speake properly , ) there are not in God many Attributes , but * one onely , which is nothing else but the Diuine Essence it selfe , by vvhat Attribute soeuer you call it . But in respect of our reason they are said to be so many different Attributes , for our a Vnderstanding conceiues by the name of Mercy a thing differing from that which is called Iustice. The Essentiall Attributes of God are not therefore really inseparable . 5 The Essentiall Attributes of GOD are not parts or qualities of the diuine Essence , nor 1) Accidents in the Essence , as in a Subiect : but the very 2) whole and entire Essence of God. So that euery such Attribute is not aliud & aliud , another and another thing , but one and the same thing . There are therefore no Quantities in God , by which hee may be said to be so much and so much : nor Qualities , by which he may be said to be such and such : but (3) whatsoeuer God is , hee is such and the same by his Essence . By his Essence hee is wise , and therefore Wisedome it selfe : by his Essence hee is God , and therefore Goodnesse it selfe : by his Essence hee is mercifull , and therefore Mercy it selfe : by his Essence hee is iust , and therefore Iustice it selfe , &c. In a word , GOD is great , without Quantitie : good , true , and iust without Qualitie : mercifull without passion : an Act without motion : euery-where present without site : without time the first and the last : the Lord of all Creatures , from whom all receiue themselues , and all the good they haue ; yet neyther needeth nor receiueth hee any encrease of goodnes or happinesse from any other . This is the plaine description of God , so farre as hee hath reuealed himselfe to vs in his Word . This Doctrine ( of all others ) euery true Practitioner of Pietie , must competently know , and necessarily beleeue for foure speciall vses . 1 That wee may discerne our true and onely God , from all false Gods and Idols : for this description of God , is properly * knowne onely to his Church , in whom he hath thus graciously manifested himselfe . 2 To possesse our hearts with a greater awe of his Maiestie , whilest we admire him for his simplenesse and infinitenesse : adore him for his vnmeasurablenesse , vnchangeablenesse , and eternitie : seeke wisedome from his vnderstanding and knowledge : submit our selues to his blessed will and pleasure : loue him , for his loue , mercy , goodnesse , and patience : trust to his Word , because of his truth : feare him for his power , Iustice and anger : reuerence him for his holinesse : and praise him for his blessednesse : and to depend all our life on him , who is the onely author of our life , beeing , and all the good things which wee haue . 3 To stirre vs vp to imitate the Diuine Spirit in his holy Attributes : and to beare ( in some measure ) the Image of his Wisedome , Loue , Goodnes , Iustice , Mercy , Truth , Patience , Zeale , and Anger against sinne , that we may be wise , louing , iust , mercifull , true , patient , and zealous , as our God is . 4 Lastly , that wee may in our Prayers and Meditations conceiue aright of his diuine Maiestie , and not according to those grosse and blasphemous imaginations which naturally arise in mens braines : as when they conceiue GOD to be like an old man sitting in a chaire : and the blessed Trinitie to be like that tripartitae Idoll , which Papists haue painted in their Church-windowes . When therefore thou art to pray vnto God , let thine heart speake vnto him , as to that a eternall , b infinite , c almightie , d holy , e wise , f iust , g mercifull , h Spirit , and most i perfect , k indiuisible Essence of three ssuerall Persons , Father , Sonne , and holy Ghost : who being l present in all places , m ruleth Heauen and Earth , vnderstandeth n all mens harts , o knoweth all mens miseries , and is onely p able to bestow on vs all graces which we want , and to deliuer all penitent sinners ( who with faithfull harts seeke for Christs sake , his help ) out of all their afflictions and troubles whatsoeuer . The ignorance of this true knowledge of GOD , makes many to make an Idoll of the true God ; and is the onely cause why so many doe professe all other parts of Gods worship and religion , with so much irreuerence and hypocrisie , whereas if they did truely know GOD , they durst not but come to his holy Seruice ; and comming , serue him with feare and reuerence : for so farre doth a man feare God as he knoweth him ; and then doth a man truely know God , when hee ioynes practise to speculation . And that is ; First , when a man doth so acknowledge and celebrate Gods Maiestie , as hee hath reuealed himselfe in his word . Secondly , when from the true and liuely sense of Gods Attributes there is bred in a mans heart a loue , awe , and confidence in God : for saith God himselfe ; If I be a Father , where is my honour ? If I be a Lord , where is my feare ? O taste and see that the Lord ●s good , saith Dauid . Hee that hath not by experience tasted his goodnes , knowes not how good hee is . Hee ( saith Iohn ) that saith he knoweth God , and keepeth not his Commandements , is a lyer , and the truth is not in him . So farre therefore as wee imitate God in his Goodnesse , Loue , Iustice , Mercy , Patience , and other Attributes , so farre doe vvee know him . Thirdly , when with inward groanes and the serious desires of our hearts , wee long to attaine to the perfect and plenarie knowledge of his Maiestie in the life which is to come . Lastly , this discouers how few there are who doe truely know God : for no man knoweth God , but hee that loueth him ; and how can a man choose but loue him , being the soueraigne good , if hee knew him ? Seeing the nature of God is to enamour men with the loue of her goodnesse ; and whosoeuer loueth any thing more then God , is not worthy of God : and such is euery one , who setles the loue and rest of his heart vpon any thing besides God. If therefore thou dost beleeue that God is Almighty , why dost thou feare Diuels and enemies , and not confidently trust in God , and craue his helpe in all troubles & dangers ? If thou beleeuest that God is infinite , how darest thou prouoke him to anger ? If thou beleeuest that God is simple , with what heart canst thou dissemble and play the hypocrite ? If thou beleeuest that God is the Soueraigne good , why is not thy heart more setled vpon him , then on all Worldly goods ? If thou dost indeede beleeue , that God is a iust Iudge , how darest thou liue so securely in sinne without repentance ? If thou dost truely beleeue that God is most wise , why dost not thou referre the euents of crosses and disgraces vnto him , vvho knoweth how to turne all things to the best vnto them that loue him ? If thou art perswaded that God is true , why dost thou doubt of his promises ? And if thou beleeuest that God is beautie and * Perfection it selfe , why dost not thou make him alone the chiefe end of all thine affections and desires ? for , if thou louest beautie , hee is most faire . If thou desirest riches , hee is most wealthy : if thou seekest Wisedome , hee is most wise . Whatsoeuer excellencie thou hast seene in any creature , it is nothing but a sparkle of that which is in infinite * perfection in GOD : and when in Heauen wee shall haue an Immediate communion vvith God , wee shall haue them all perfectly in him , communicated vnto vs. Briefely , in all goodnesse he is all in all . * Loue that one good God : and thou shalt loue him , in whom all the good of goodnesse consisteth . He that would therfore attaine to the sauing knowledge of God , must learne to know him by loue . For God is loue , and a the knowledge of the loue of God passeth all knowledge . For all knowledge besides to know b how to loue God , and to serue him onely : is nothing , vpon Salomons credit , but vanitie of vanities , and vexation of spirit . Kindle therfore , O my c Lady , nay rather , * O my Lord Charity , the loue of thy selfe in my soule , especially , seeing it was thy good pleasure : that being d reconciled by the blood of Christ , I should be brought , by the knowledge of thy grace , to the communion of thy Glory : wherein onely consists my soueraigne good , and happinesse for euer . Thus by the light of his owne word we haue seene the backe parts of Iehoua Elohim , the eternall Trinity : whom to worship , is true Piety : whom to beleeue , is sauing faith and veritie . And vnto whom , from all creatures in heauen and earth , bee all praise , dominion and Glory for euer , Amen . Thus farre of the knowlege of God. Now of the knowlege of a Man selfe . And first of the state of his miserie and corruption without renouation by CHRIST . Meditations of the misery of a Man , not reconciled to GOD in Christ. O Wretched man , where shall I beginne to describe thine endlesse miserie ! who art condemned as sonne as conceiued , and adiudged to eternall death , before thou wast borne to a temporall life . A beginning indeed I finde , but no end of thy miseries : for when Adam and Eue being created after Gods owne Image , and placed in Paradise , that they and their posterity might liue in a blessed state of life immortall , hauing dominion of all earthly creatures , and onely restrained from the fruit of one tree , as a signe of their subiection to their Almightie Creator . Though God forbad them this one small thing , vnder the penalty of eternal death ; yet they beleeued the diuels word before the word of God , making God ( as much as in them lay ) a lyer . And so being vnthankefull for all the benefits which God bestowed on them , they became male-contented with their present state , as if God had dealt enuiously , or nigardly with them : and beleeued that the Diuel would make them pertakers of farre more glorious things , then euer God had bestowed vpon them : and in their pride they fell into high treason against the most high , and disdayning to be Gods subiects , they affected blasphemously to bee Gods themselues equals vnto God. Hence , till they repented , ( losing Gods Image ) they became like vnto the Diuell : and so all their posterity , as a traiterous broode ( whilest they remaine impenitent , like thee , ) are subiect in this life to all cursed miseries , and in the life to come , to the euerlasting fire prepared for the Diuel and his Angels . Lay then aside for a while thy doating vanities , and take a view with me of thy dolefull miseries ; which daily suruayed : I doubt not but that thou wilt conclude , that it is far better neuer to haue natures being : then not to be by grace a Practicioner of religious Pietie . Consider therfore thy misery . 1 In thy life . 2 In thy death . 3 After death . In thy life . 1 The miseries accompanying thy body . 2 The miseries which deforme thy soule . In thy death , the miseries which shall oppresse thy body and soule . After death , the miseries which ouerwhelme both body and soule together in Hell. And first let vs take a view of those miseries which accompanie thy body according to the foure ages of thy life . 1 Infancy 2 Youth . 3 Manhood . 4 Olde age . Meditations of the misery of Infancy . WHat wast thou being an Infant , but a bruit , hauing the shape of a man ? was not thy body conceiued in the heate of lust , the secret of shame , and staine of originall sinne ? And thus wast thou cast naked vpon the earth , all imbrued in the blood of filthinesse , ( fithy indeed ; when the Sonne of God , who disdained not to take on him mans nature , and the infirmities thereof : yet thought it vnbeseeming his Holines to be conceiued after the sinfull maner of mans conception . ) So that thy mother was ashamed to let thee know the manner thereof . What cause then hast thou to boast of thy birth , which was a cursed paine to thy mother , and to thy selfe the entrance into a troublesome life ? the greatnesse of which miseries , because thou couldst not vtter in words : thou didst expresse ( as well as thou couldest ) in weaping teares . 2 Meditations of the miseries of youth . WHat is Youth but an vntamted beast ? all whose actions are rash and rude , not capable of good counsell when it is giuen , and Ape-like delighting in nothing but in toies and bables ? Therefore thou no sooner beganst to haue a little strength and discretion , but foorthwith thou wast kept vnder the rodde , and feare of parents and masters : as if thou hadst beene borne to liue vnder the discipline of others , rather then at the disposition of thine owne will. No tired Horse , was euer more willing to be rid of his burthen ; than thou wast to get out of the seruile state of this bondage . A state not worth the description . 3 Meditations of the miseries of Man-hood . WHat is Mans-state , but a Sea , wherein ( as waues ) one trouble ariseth in the necke of another ? the latter worse then the former . No sooner diddest thou enter into the affaires of this world , but thou wast enwrapped about with a cloud of miseries . Thy Flesh prouokes thee to lust , the World allures thee to pleasures , and the Diuell tempts thee to all kinde of sinnes : feares of enemies affrights thee , suites in Law doe vexe thee , wrongs of ill neighbours do oppresse thee , cares for Wife and Children doe consume thee , and disquietnesse twixt open foes and false friends , doe in a manner confound thee : Sinne stings thee within , Sathan layes snares before thee , Conscience of sinnes past , dogges behinde thee ▪ Now aduersitie on thy left hand frets thee ; anone prosperitie on thy right hand flatters thee : ouer thy head Gods vengeance due to thy sinnes is ready to fall vpon thee ; and vnder thy feete Hell-mouth is ready to swallow thee vp . And in this miserable estate , whither wilt thou goe for rest and comfort ? the house is full of cares , the field full of toyle ; the country of rudenesse , the citie of factions ; the Court of enuy , the Church of sects , the Sea of pirates , the Land of robbers . Or in what state wilt thou liue ? seeing wealth is enuied , and pouertie is contemned ; wit is distrusted , and simplicitie is derided ; Superstition is mocked , and Religion is suspected ; vice is aduanced , and vertue is disgraced ? Oh with what a body of sinne art thou compassed about in a world of wickednesse ? What are thine Eyes , but windowes to behold vanities ? What are thine Eares , but floud-gates to let in the streame of iniquitie ? what are thy Senses , but matches to giue fire to thy lusts ? what is thine Heart , but the Anuill , whereon Sathan hath forged the ougly shape of all lewde affections ? Art thou nobly descended ? thou must put thy selfe in peril of forraine wars to get the reputation of earthly Honour , oft times hazard thy life in a desperate combate , to auoid the aspersion of a Coward . Art thou borne in meane estate ? Lord I what paines and druggerie must thou endure at home , and abroad to get maintenance ? and all perhaps scarce sufficient to serue thy necessitie ? and when after much seruice and labour , a man hath got something ; how litttle certaintie is there in that which is gotten ? seeing thou seest by daily experience , that he who was rich yesterday , is to day a begger : hee that yesterday was in health , to day is sicke : he that yesterday was merry and laughed , hath cause to day to mourne and weepe : hee that yesterday vvas in fauour , to day is in disgrace , and he who yesterday was aliue , to day is dead : and thou knowest not how soone , nor in what manner thou shalt die thy selfe . And who can enumerate the losses , crosses , griefes , disgraces , sicknesses , and calamities , which are incident to sinfull man ? To speake nothing of the death of friends and children , which oft times seemes to be vnto vs farre more bitter then present death it selfe . 4 Meditations of the misery of old age . WHat is old age , but the receptacle of all maladies ? for if thy lot be to draw thy dayes to a long date ; in comes olde-bald-headed age , stooping vnder dotage , with his wrinckled face , rotten teeth , and stinking breath : iesty with choler , withered with drynesse , dimmed vvith blindnesse , absurded with deafenesse , ouerwhelmed with sicknesse , and bowed together with weaknesse : hauing no vse of any sense , but of the sense of paine : which so racketh euery member of his body , that it neuer easeth him of griefe , till hee hath throwne him downe to his graue . Thus farre of the miseries , which accompanie the body : Now of the miseries , which accompany chiefly the soule in this life . Meditations of the miserie of the soule in this life . THe miserie of thy Soule will more euidently appeare , if thou wilt but consider : 1 The felicitie shee hath lost . 2 The misery which shee hath pulled vpon her selfe by sinne . 1 The Felicitie lost was first the fruition of the Image of God , whereby the soule was like vnto GOD in a knowledge , enabling her perfectly to vnderstand the reuealed will of GOD. Secondly , true Holinesse , by which shee was free from all prophane errour . Thirdly , Righteousnes , whereby she was able to incline all her naturall powers , and to frame vprightly all her actions proceeding from those powers . With the losse of this diuine Image , shee lost the Loue of GOD , and the blessed communion which she had with his Maiestie ; wherein consisted her life and happinesse . If the losse of earthly riches vexe thee so much , how should the losse of this diuine treasure perplexe thee much more ? 2 The Misery which shee pulled vpon her selfe consists in two things : 1 Sinfulnesse . 2 Cursednesse . 1 Sinfulnesse , is an vniuersall corruption both of her Nature and Actions : for her a Nature is infected with a pronenesse to euery sinne continually , the b Minde is stuffed with vanitie , the c Vnderstanding is darkened with ignorance , the d Will affecteth nothing but vile & vaine things : All her e Actions are euill ; yea this deformitie is so violent , that oftentimes in the regenerated soule , the Appetite will not obey the gouernment of Reason : and the Will wandreth after , and yeelds consent to sinfull motions . How great then is the violence of the Appetite and Will in the reprobate Soule , which still remaines in her naturall corruption ? Hence it is , that thy wretched Soule is so deformed with sinne , defiled with lust , polluted with filthinesse , outraged with passions , ouer-carryed with affections , pining with Enuy , ouercharged with gluttony ; surquedred with drunkennes , boyling with reuenge , transported with rage , and the glorious Image of GOD , transformed to the ougly shape of the f Diuell , so farre ; as it once g repented the Lord that euer he made man. From the former , flowes the other part of the Soules misery , called h cursednesse , wherof there are two degrees . 1 In part . 2 In the fulnesse thereof . 1 Cursednesse in part is that which is inflicted vpon the Soule in life and death , and is common to her with the body . The Cursednesse of the soule in life is the wrath of God , which lyeth vpon such a creature , so farre , as that all things , not onely calamities , but also very i blessings , and k graces turne to ruine . l Terrour of Conscience driues him from from GOD , and his seruice , that he dares not come to his presence and ordinances ; but is m giuen vp to the n slauerie of Sathan , and to his owne lusts and vile affections . This is the Cursednesse of the Soule in life ; now followes the Cursednesse of the Soule and body in death . Meditations of the misery , of the body and soule in death . AFter that the aged man hath conflicted vvith long sicknesse ; and hauing endured the brunt of paine , should now expect some ease : in comes Death , Natures slaughter-man , Gods curse and Hels purueyor , and lookes the olde man grimme and blacke in the face : and neither pitying his age , nor regarding his long-endured dolours ) will not be hyred to forbeare , eyther for siluer or gold : nay , he will not take , to spare his life , skin for skin , and all that the olde man hath , but batters all the principall parts of his body , and arrests him to appeare before the terrible Iudge . And as thinking that the olde man will not dispatch to goe with him fast enough : Lord , how many darts of calamities doth he shoot through him , stitches , aches , crampes , feauers , obstructions , rhewmes , flegme , collicke , stone , wind , &c. Oh what a ghastly sight it is , to see him then in his bed , when Death hath giuen him his mortall wound ! what a cold sweat ouer-runnes all his body ? what a trembling possesseth all his members ? the head shooteth , the face waxeth pale , the nose blacke , the , neather law-bone hangeth down , the eye-strings breake the tongue faltreth , the breath shortneth , and smelleth earthy , the throate ratleth , and at euery gaspe the heart-strings are ready to breake asunder . Now the miserable Soule sensibly perceiueth her earthly body to beginne to dye : for as towards the dissolution of the vniuersall frame of the great world ; the Sunne shall be turned into darknesse , the Moone into bloud , and the Stars shall fall from heauen : the Ayre shall be full of stormes , & flashing Meteors , the Erath shall tremble , and the Sea shall roare , and mens hearts shall faile for feare , expecting the end of such sorrowfull beginnings : So towards the dissolution of man , ( which is the little world ) his Eyes , which are as the Sunne and Moone lose their light , and see nothing but bloud-guiltinesse of sinne : the rest of the Senses , as lesser Starres , doe one after another faile and fall : his Minde , Reason , and Memorie , as heauenly powers of his Soule , are shaken with fearefull stormes of despaire , and first flashings of Hell-fire : his earthly body beginnes to shake and tremble , and the humours like an ouer-flowing Sea roare and rattle in his throate , still expecting the wofull ends of these dreadfull beginnings . Whilest he is thus summoned to appeare at the great Assizes of Gods Iudgement , behold , a Quarter-Sessions , and Gaole-deliuery is held within himselfe , where Reason sits as Iudge , the Diuell puts in a Bill of inditement , as large as that Booke of Zacharie , wherein is alledged all thy euill deeds that euer thou hast committed , and all the good deedes that euer thou hast omitted : and all the curses and iudgements that are due to euery sinne . Thine owne Conscience shall accuse thee , and thy Memory shall giue bitter euidence , and Death stands at the Barre ready , as a cruell Executioner to dispatch thee . If thou shalt thus condemne thy selfe , how shalt thou escape the iust condemnation of God , who knowes all thy misdeeds better then thy selfe ? Faine wouldest thou put out of thy minde , the remembrance of thy wicked deeds , that trouble thee : but they flow faster into thy remembrance , and they will not be put away , but cry vnto thee , Wee are thy workes , and we will follow thee . And whilest thy Soule is thus within , out of peace and order , thy children , wife , and friends , trouble thee as fast , to haue thee put thy goods in order ; some crying , some crauing , some pittying , some cheering , all like Flesh-flies , helping to make thy sorrowes more sorrowfull . Now the Diuels , who are come from hell , to fetch away thy soule , beginne to appeare to her , and wait , as soone as she comes forth , to take her , and carry her away . Stay she would within , but that shee feeles the body beginne by degrees to dye : and ready like a ruinous house to fall vpon her head . Fearefull shee is to come forth , because of those Hell-hounds which wait for her comming . Oh , shee that spent so many dayes and nights in vaine and idle pastimes , would now giue the whole world , if she had it , for one howres delay , that shee might haue space to repent , and reconcile her selfe vnto GOD. But it cannot be , because her Body which ioyned with her in the actions of sin , is altogether now vnfit to ioyne with her in the exercise of repentance ; & Repentance must be of the whole man. Now she seeth that all her pleasures are gone , as if they had neuer beene : and that but onely torments remaine , which neuer shall haue end of being . Who can sufficiently expresse her remorse for her sinnes past , her anguish for her present miserie , and her terror for the torments to come ? In this extremitie , shee lookes euery where for help , and shee findes her selfe euery way helplesse . Thus in her greatest miserie ( desirous to heare the least word of comfort ) shee directs this , or the like speech vnto her Eyes ; O Eyes , who in times past were so quicke-sighted , can yee spie no comfort , nor any way , how I might escape this dreadfull danger ? But the Eye-strings are broken , they cannot see the Candle that burneth before him : nor discerne whether it be day or night . The Soule ( finding no comfort in the Eyes ) speakes to the eares . O earaes , who were wont to recreate your selues , with hearing new , pleasant discourses , and Musickes sweetest harmonie ; can you heare any newes or tydings of the least comfort for mee ? The Eares are eyther so deafe that they cannot heare at all : or the sense of hearing is growne so weake , that it cannot endure to heare his dearest friends to speake . And why should those eares heare any tydings of ioy in Death , who could neuer abide to heare the glad Tydings of the Gospell in his life ? The Eare can minister no comfort . Then shee intimates her griefe vnto the Tongue . O Tongue who wast wont to brag it out vvith the brauest ; where are now thy bigge and daring words ? now ( in my greatest need ) canst thou speake nothing in my defence ? Canst thou neyther daun● these Enemies with threatning wordes , nor entreat them vvith faire speeches ? Alas , the Tongue two dayes agoe , lay speechlesse : it cannot in his greatest extremitie , either call for a little drincke , or desire a friend to take away with his finger the flegme , that is ready to choake him . Finding here no hope of helpe , shee speakes vnto the feete . Where are yee , O feet , which sometime were so nimble in running ? can you carry me no where out of this dangerous place ? The feete are stone dead already : If they be not stird they cannot stirre . Then shee directs her speech vnto her hands . O hands , who haue beene so often approued for manhood , in peace and warre ? and wherewith I haue so often defended my selfe , and offended my foes ; neuer had I more need then now . Death lookes mee grimme in the face , and kils mee : Hellish fiends waile about my bed to deuoure mee : helpe now , or I perish for euer . Alas the hands are so weake , and doe so tremble , that they cannot reach to the mouth a spoonefull of supping , to releeue languishing nature . The wretched soule seeing her selfe thus desolate , and altogether destitute of friēds , helpe , and comfort ; and knowing that within an houre shee must be in euerlasting paines : retires her selfe to the heart ( which of all members is Primum viuens , & vltimum moriens ) from whence , shee makes this dolefull lamentation , with her selfe . O miserable caitiffe that I am ! How doe the Sorrowes of death compasse me ! How doe the floudes of Belial make me afraid ! Now haue indeed , the snares both of the first and second death ouertaken me at once ! Oh how sodainlie hath death stollen vpon me with insensible degrees ? Like the Sunne which the eie perceiues not to mooue , though it bee most swift of motion . How doth Death wreake on me his spite , without pitty ! The GOD of mercie hath vtterly forsaken me , and the Deuill , who knowes no mercy waites for to take me . How often haue I been warned of this dolefull day , by the faithfull Preachers of Gods word . and I made but a iest thereat ? What profit haue I now of all my pride ▪ fine house , and faire apparell ? what 's become of the sweet relish of all my delicious fare ? All the wordly goods which I so carefully gathered , would I now giue for a good conscience which I so carelesly neglected . And what ioy remaines now , of all my former fleshly pleasures , wherein I placed my cheefe delight ? Those foolish pleasures were but deceitfull dreames , and now they are past like vanishing shadowes : but to thinke of those eternall paines , which I must endure for those short pleasures ; paines me an Hell before I enter into Hell. Yet iustly I confesse , as I haue deserued I am serued ; that being made after Gods Image a reasonable soule , able to iudge mine owne estate , and hauing mercy so often offered , and I entreated to receiue it ; I neglected Gods grace , and preferred the pleasures of sin , before the religious care of pleasing GOD : lewdly spending my short time , without considering what accounts I should make of my last end . And now all the pleasures of my life being put together , counteruaile not the lest part of my present paines . My ioies were but momentany , and gone before I could scarse enioy them : my miseries are eternall , and neuer shall know end . Oh that I had spent the houres that I consumed , in carding , dicing , playing , and other vile exercises , in reading the Scriptures , in hearing Sermons , in receiuing the Communion , in weeping for my sins , in fasting , watching , praying , and in preparing my soule , that I might haue now departed in the assured hope , of euerlasting saluation . Oh that I were now to beginne my life againe ! how would I contemne the world and the vanities thereof ! how religiouslie and purely , would I leade my life ! how would I frequent the Church , and sanctifie the Lords day . If Satan should offer me all the treasures , pleasures , and promotions of this world ; he should neuer entice mee to forget these terrors of this last dreadfull houre . But O corrupt carkasse , and stinking carrion ! How hath the Deuil deluded vs : and how haue we serued and deceiued each other ? and pulled swift damnation vpon vs both ? Now is my case more miserable then the beast that perisheth in a ditch for I must goe to answere , before the iudgement seate , of the righteous Iudge of heauen and earth : where I shall haue none to speake for mee : and these wicked fiends , who are priuy to al my euil deeds , will accuse me , and I cannot excuse my selfe . My owne heart already condemnes mee , I must needes therefore be damned before his iudgment seat : and from thence be carried by these infernall fiendes , into that horrible prison of endlesse torments , and vtter darkenesse : where I shall neuer more see light , that first most excellent thing that God made . I who gloried heretofore , in being a libertine , am now inclosed in the very clawes of Satan : as the trembling Partriges within the griping talents of the rauenenous Falcon. Where shall I logde to night ? and who shall be my companions ? Oh horror to thinke ! Griefe to consider ! Oh cursed be the day wherein I was borne , & let not the day wherin my mother bare me be blessed . Cursed be the man that shewed my Father , saying , a child is borne vnto thee , and comforted him . Cursed be that man because he slew mee not . Oh that my mother might haue beene my graue , or her wombe a perpetual conception ! How is it that I came forth of the wombe to endure these hellish sorrowes ! and that my daies should thus end with eternall shame ! Cursed be the day that I was first vnited to so lewd a body : O that I had but so much fauour as that I might neuer see thee more : Our parting is bitter and dolefull : but our meeting againe , to receiue at that dreadfull day , the fulnesse of our deserued vengeance , will be farre more terrible and intollerable . But what meane I thus ( by too late lamentation ) to seeke to prolong time ? My lost houre is come : I heare the heart strings breake : this filthy house of clay fals on my head : heere is neither hope , helpe , nor place of any longer abiding . And must I needes be gon ? Then filthy carkase : Oh filthy carkasse with fareill , farewell , I leaue thee ; And so all-trembling shee commeth foorth , and foorthwith is seised vpon by Infernall fiendes , who carry her with violence torrents simil● to the bottomlesse lake , that burneth , with fire and brimstone . Where she is kept as a prisoner in torments , till the generall iudgement of the great day . The loathsome carkase is afterwards laid in the graue . In which action for the most part the dead bury the dead , that is , They who are dead in sinne , bury them , who are dead for sinne . And thus the godlesse and vnregenerated wordling who made earth his Paradice , his belly his God , his lust his law , as in his life he sowed vanitie : so he is now dead , and reapeth misery . In his prosperity he neglected to serue GOD : In his aduersity GOD refuseth to saue him . And the Deuill whom he long serued , now at length paies him his wages . Detestable was his life , damnable his death . The Deuill hath his soule , the graue hath his carkasse : in which pit of corruption , den of death , and dungeon of sorrow : let vs leaue the miserable caitiffe , rotting with his mouth full of earth , his belly full of wormes , and his carkasse ful of stench ; expecting a fearefull resurrection , when his shall be reunited with the soule , that as they sinned together : so they may be eternally tormented together . Thus farre of the miseries of the soule and body in death which is but cursednesse in part : Now followes the fulnesse cursednesse : which is the misery of the soule and body after death . Meditations of the misery of a man after death , which is the fulnesse of Cursednesse . THe fulnesse , ( when it fals vpon a Creature , not able to beare the burnt thereof ) presseth him down to that bottomlesse a deepe of the endlesse b wrath of Almightie God : which is called the c damnation of hell . This fulnesse of cursednesse is either particular or generall . Particular , or that which in a lesse measure of fulnesse , lighteth vpon the d Soule , immediately as soone as shee is separated from the body : For , in the very instant of dissolution , she is in the sight and presence of God. For , when she ceaseth to see with the organe of fleshly eyes , she seeth after a spirituall manner , like Stephen , who saw the glory of GOD , and Iesus standing at his right hand : or , as a man , who being blinde-borne , and miraculously restored to his sight , would see the Sunne , which hee neuer saw before . And there by the testimonie of her owne Conscience , Christ the righteous Iudge , vvho knoweth all things : maketh her , by his omnipresent power to vnderstand the doome and Iudgement that is due vnto her sinnes , and what must be her eternall state . And in this manner standing in the sight of Heauen , not fit for her vncleannesse to come into Heauen ; shee is said , to stand before the throne of God. And so forthwith she is carried by the euill Angels , who came to fetch her , with violence into Hell , where shee is kept as in a Prison , in euerlasting paines and chaynes ; vnder darknesse , vnto the Iudgement of the great day : But not in that extremitie of torments , which she shall finally receiue at the last day . The generall fulnes of cursednesse , is in a e greater measure of fulnesse , which shall be inflicted vpon both thy f Soule and Body , when ( by the mighty power of Christ the supreame Iudge of heauen and earth : ) the one shall be brought out of Hell , and the other out of the Graue , as Prisoners , to receiue their dreadfull doome , according to their euill deedes . How shall the Reprobate , by the roaring of the Sea , the quaking of the Earth , the trembling of the Powers of Heauen , and terrours of heauenly Signes be driuen , at the worlds end , to their wits end ! Oh , vvhat a vvofull Salutation will there be , betwixt the damned Soule and Body , at their revniting at that terrible day ! O sincke of Sinne , O lumpe of Filthinesse ( will the Soule say vnto her Body , ) how am I compelled to re-enter vnto thee , not as an habitation to rest , but as a Prison to be tormented together ? How doest thou appeare in my sight like Iephtes Daughter , to my greater torment ? Would God thou hadst perpetually rotted in thy graue , that I might neuer haue seene thee againe ! How shall wee be confounded together , to heare , before God , Angels , and Men , laid open all those secret sinnes , which wee committed together ! Haue I lost Heauen , for the loue of such a stinking Carrion ? Art thou the flesh for whose pleasures I haue yeelded to commit so many Fornications ? O filthy B●lly ! how became I such a foule , as to make thee my God ? How madde was I for momentanie ioyes , to incurre these torments of eternall paines ? yee Rockes and Mountaines , why skirpe yee so like Rams , Psal. 114.4 . and will not fall vpon mee , to hide mee from the face of him that comes to sit on yonder Throne ; for the great day of his wrath is come , and vvho shall be able to stand ? Apoc. 6.16.17 . Why tremblest thou thus , O Earth , at the presence of the Lord , and vvilt not open thy mouth and swallow mee vp , as thou diddest Korah , that I be seene no more ? O damned Furies ! I would yee might vvithout delay , teare me in pieces , on condition that you vvould teare me vnto nothing ! But whilest thou art thus in vaine bewailing thy miserie , the Angels hale thee violently away from the brincke of thy Graue , to some place neere the Tribunall seate of Christ ; where being as a cursed Goate , separated to stand beneath , on earth , as on the left hand of the Iudge , Christ , shall rippe vp all the benefits he bestowed on thee , and the torments hee suffered for thee , and all the good deedes which thou omitted , and all the vngratefull villanies which thou didst commit against him , and his holy Lawes . Within thee thine owne conscience ( more then a thousand witnesses ) shall accuse thee : the Diuels vvho tempted thee to all thy lewdnesse , shall on the one side , testifie vvith thy Conscience against thee : and on the other side , shall stand the holy Saints and Angels approuing Christs Iustice , and detesting so filthy a creature . Behinde thee an hydeous noyse of innumerable fellow-damned Reprobates tarrying for thy company . Before thee all the world h burning in flaming fire . Aboue thee , an irefull Iudge of deserued vengeance , ready to pronounce his sentence vpon thee . Beneath thee , the fiery & sulphureous mouth of the bottomlesse pit , gaping to receiue thee . In this wofull estate to hide thy selfe will be impossible : ( for on that condition thou vvouldest i wish that the greatest Rocke might fall vpon thee : ) to appeare will be intollerable , and yet thou must stand forth , to receiue with other reprobates this thy sentence : Depart from mee yee cursed , into euerlasting fire , prepared for the Diuell and his Angels . Depart from mee . ] there is a separation from all ioy and happinesse . Yee cursed , ] there is a blacke and direfull Excommunication . Into fire , ] there is the crueltie of paine . Euerlasting , ] there is the perpetuitie of punishment . Prepared for the Diuell and his Angels . ] Here are thy infernall tormenting , and tormented companions . O terrible Sentence ! from which the condemned cannot escape : which being pronounced , cannot possibly be with-stood : against which a man cannot except ; and from which a man can no where appeale . So that to the damned , nothing remaines but hellish torments , which knows neyther ease of paine , nor end of time . From this Iudgement-seate thou must be thrust by Angels , ( together vvith all the damned Diuels and Reprobates ) into the bottomlesse Lake of vtter darknesse , that perpetually burnes with fire and Brimstone . Whereunto , as they shall be thrust , there shall be such weeping , woes , and wailing , that the cry of the company of Core , Dathan , & Abiram when the earth swallowed them vp , was nothing comparable to this howling ; nay , it vvill seeme vnto thee a Hell , before thou goest into hell , but to heare it . Into vvhich bottomlesse Lake after that thou art once plunged , thou shalt euer be falling downe , and neuer meet a bottome : and in it , thou shalt euer lament , and none shall pittie thee : thou shalt alwaies weepe , for the paine of fire , and yet gnash thy teeth for the extremitie of colde : thou shalt weepe to thinke that thy miseries are past remedie : thou shalt weepe to thinke , that to repent is to no purpose : thou shalt weepe to thinke , how for the shadowes of short pleasures , thou hast incurred these sorrowes of eternall paines : thou shalt weepe to see how that weeping it selfe can nothing preuaile : yea , in weeping thou shalt weepe more teares , then there is water in the Sea ; for the water of the Sea is finite , but the weeping of a Reprobate shall be infinite . There thy lasciuious Eyes shall be afflicted vvith sights of ghastly Spirits : thy curious Eares shall be affrighted with hydeous noyse of howling diuels , and the gnashing teeth of damned Reprobates : thy dainty Nose shall be cloyed with noysome stench of Sulphur : thy delicate Taste shall be pained with intollerable hunger : thy drunken Throate shall be parched vvith vnquenchable thirst : thy Minde shall be tormented , to thinke how for the loue of abortiue pleasures , which perished ere they budded , thou so foolishly lost Heauens ioyes , and incurred hellish paines , which last beyond eternitie : thy Conscience , shall euer sting thee like an Adder , vvhen thou thinkest how often Christ by his Preachers , offered the remission of sinnes , and the Kingdome of Heauen , freely vnto thee , if thou wouldest but beleeue and repent : and how easily thou mightest haue obtained mercy in those dayes ; how neere thou vvast many times to haue repented , and yet diddest suffer the deuil and the world to keepe thee stil in impenitency : and how the day of mercy is now past , and wil neuer dawne againe . How shall thy vnderstanding be racked , to consider , how for momentany riches , thou hast lost the eternall treasure , and changed heauens felicity , for hels misery ! where euery part of thy body without intermission of paine shall be continually tormented alike . In these hellish torments , thou shalt be for euer depriued of the beatificall sight of GOD , wherein consists the soueraigne good , and life of the soule . Thou shalt neuer see light , nor the lest sight of ioy , but lye in a perpetuall prison of v●ter darkenesse : where shall be no order but horror : no voice but of blas●h●mers , & howlers : no noise but of torturers and tortured : no societie but of the Deuill and his Angels , who being tormented themselues , shall haue no other ease but to wreake their furie in tormenting thee . Where shall be punishment without pitty : misery without mercy : sorrow without succour : crying without comfort : mischiefe without measure : torment without ease : where the worme dyeth not , and the fire is neuer qu●nched : where the wrath of God shall sease vpon thy soule and body as the flame of fire doth on the lumpe of pitch or brimestone : in which flame thou shalt euer be burning and neuer consumed : euer dying and neuer dead : euer rowing in the panges of death , and neuer ridde of those panges , nor knowing end of thy paines : So that after thou hast endured them so many thousand yeeres as there are grasse on the Earth , or sands on the Sea-shore , thou art no nearer to haue an end of thy torments , then thou vvast the first day that thou wast cast into them : yea , so farre are they from ending , that they are euer but beginning . But if after a thousand times so many thousand yeeres , thy damned soule could but conceiue a hope , that those her torments should haue an end , this would be some comfort to thinke , that at length an end vvill come . But as oft as the Minde thinketh of this word Neuer , it is as another Hell , in the middest of Hell. This thought shall force the damned to cry , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as much as if they should say , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , O Lord , not euer , not euer , torment vs thus ; but their Conscience , shall answere them , as an Eccho , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , euer , euer . Hence shall arise their dolefull 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , woe , and alas for euermore ! This is that second death , the generall perfect fulnesse of all cursednesse and misery : vvhich euery damned reprobate must suffer , so long as GOD and his Saints shall enioy blisse and felicitie in heauen for euermore . Thus farre of the miserie of man in his state of corruption , vnlesse that he be renued by Grace in Christ. Now followes the knowledge of Mans selfe in respect of his state of regeneration by Christ. Meditations of the state of a Christian reconciled to GOD in Christ. NOw let vs see , how happie a godly man is , in his state of renouation , being reconciled to GOD in Christ. The godly man whose corrupt nature is renued by grace in Christ , and become a new creature : is blessed in a three-fold respect First , in his life . Secondly , in his death . Thirdly , after death . 1 His blessednesse during this life is but in part , and that consists in seuen things . 1 Because , he is conceiued of the a spirit , in the wombe of his b mother , the Church : and is c borne not of blood , nor of the will of the flesh , nor of the will of man but of GOD , who in Christ is his d father . So that the e Image of God his father is renewed in him euery day more and more . 2 He hath , for the merits of Christs sufferings , all his sinnes , originall and actuall , with the guilt and punishment belonging to them , f freely and fully forgiuen vnto him . And all the g righteousnesse of Christ as freely and fully imputed vnto him : and so God is h reconciled vnto him : and i aprooueth him as righteous in his sight and account . 3 Hee is freed from Satans k bondage , and is made a l brother of Christ , a fellow m heire of his heauenly kingdome , and a spirituall n King and Priest , to offer vp o spirituall sacrifices to GOD by Iesus Christ. 4 God spareth him as a man spareth his owne sonne that serueth him . And this sparing consists . In 1 Not taking notice of euery fault , but bearing with his infirmities , Exod. 34.6.7 . A louing father , will not cast his childe out of dores in his sicknesse . 2 Not making his punishment when hee is chastened , as great as his deserts . Psalm . 103.10 . 3 Chastening him moderately , when he seeth , that he will not by any other meanes , be reclaimed . 2 Sam. 7.14.15 . 1 Cor. 11.32 . 4 Graciously accepting his endeauours , notwithstanding the imperfection of his obedience ; and so preferring the willingnesse of the minde , more then the worthinesse , of the worke . 2 Cor. 8.12 . 5 Turning the curses , which he deserued to crosses and to fatherly corrections : yea all a things , all b calamities of this life , c death it selfe ; d yea his very sinnes vnto his good . 5 God giues him his holy spirit , which 1 e Sanctifieth him by degrees throughout : f so that he doth more and more die to sinne , and liue to righteousnesse . 2 Assures him of his g adoption , and that he is by grace the childe of God. 3 Encourageth him to come with h boldnesse and confidence , into the presence of GOD 4 Moueth him without feare , to say vnto him Abba Father . 5 Powreth into his heart the gift of sanctified praier . 6 Perswadeth him , that both he and his praiers are accepted and heard of God , for Christ his Mediators sake . 7 Fils him with 1 Peace of conscience . 2 Ioy in the holy Ghost in comparison wherof : all earthly ioyes , seeme vil● & vaine vnto him . 6 He hath a recouery of his a soueraignty ouer the creatures which he lost by Adams fall : & from thence free b liberty of vsing all things , which God hath not c restrained , so that he may vse them with a good d conscience . For to all things in heauen and earth he hath a sure e title in this life , and he shall haue the plenary and peaceable f possession of them , in the life to come . Hence it is that all Reprobates are but vsurpers of all that they possesse : and haue no g place of their owne but Hell. 7 He hath the assurance of Gods Fatherly care , and protection , day and night ouer him ; which care consisteth in three things . 1 In prouiding all things necessary for his soule and body , concerning this life and that which is to come : so that he shal be sure , euer , either to haue enough : or patience to be content with that he hath . 2 In that God giues his holy Angels , as his ministers , a charge : to attend vpon him alwaies for his good : yea in danger , to pitch their tents about him for his safty where euer hee be . Yea Gods protection , shall defend him as a cloud by day , and as a pillar of fire by night , and his prouidence shall hedge him frō the power of the Deuill . 3 In that the eyes of the Lord are vpon him , and his eares continually open to see his state , and to heare his complaint , and in his good time , to deliuer him out of all his troubles . Thus farre of the blessed estate of the godly , and Regenerated man in this life : Now of his blessed estate in death . 2 Meditations of the blessed estate of a regenerate man in his death . WHen GOD sends death as his messenger , for the regenerated man , hee meetes him halfe the way to heauen : for his a conuersation , and b affection is there before him . Death is neyther strange nor fearefull vnto him : not strange , because he c dyed daily : not fearefull , because vvhilest hee liued , hee vvas dead , and his life vvas d hid with Christ in God. To dye , vnto him therefore , is nothing else in effect , but to e rest from his labour in this world , to goe f home to his g fathers house , vnto the h citie of the liuing God , the heauenly Ierusalem , to an innumerable company of Angels , to the generall assembly and Church of the first borne , to God the Iudge of all , and to the Spirits of iust men made perfect , and to Iesus the Mediator of the new Testament . Whilest his Body is sicke , his Minde is sound : for , God i maketh all his bed in his sicknesse , and strengtheneth him with faith and patience , vpon his bed of sorrow ; and when hee begins to enter into the way of all the world , hee giueth ( like k Iacob , Moses , and Ioshua ) to his Children and friends , godly exhortations and counsailes , to serue the true GOD , to worship him truely all the dayes of their life . His blessed soule breatheth nothing but blessings , and such speeches as sauours a sanctified spirit . As his outward man decayeth , so his inward man increaseth , and vvaxeth stronger . When the speech of his tongue faultreth , the sighes of his heart speaketh louder vnto GOD : when the sight of the Eyes faileth , the Holy Ghost illuminates him inwardly vvith aboundance of spiritual light . His soule feareth not n but is bold to goe out of the body , and to dwell with her Lord. Hee sigheth out with Paul o cupio dissolui , I desire to be dissolued and to be with Christ. And with p Dauid , As the Hart panteth after the water-brookes , so panteth my soule after thee O God. My Soule thristeth for God , for the liuing God : when shall I come and appeare before God. Hee prayeth vvith the Saints , q How long O Lord , which art holy and true ! r Come Lord Iesus , come quickely . And vvhen the s appointed time of his dissolution is come , knowing that hee goeth to his t Father and Redeemer in the peace of a good Conscience , and the assured perswasion of the forgiuenesse of all his sinnes , in the bloud of the Lambe : hee sings with blessed old Simeon his u Nunc dimittis : Lord , now lettest thou thy Seruant depart in peace , &c. And surrenders vp his Soule as it were with his owne hands , into the hands of his heauenly Father , saying vvith Dauid : x Into thy hands O Father I commend my Soule , for thou hast redeemed me O Lord thou God of truth , And saying with Stephen , y Lord Iesu receiue my spirit . Hee no sooner yeelds vp his sacred Ghost , but immediately the z holy Angels , who attended vpon him from his birth , vnto his death a : carry and accompany his Soule into Heauen , as they did the Soule of Lazarus into Abrahams bosome , b which is the Kingdome of Heauen , whither onely good Angels , and good workes , doe accompany the Soule : the one to deliuer their c charge , the other to receiue their d reward . The Body in conuenient time , as the sanctified e Temple of the holy Ghost : the f members of Christ , nourished by his Body , the g price of the bloud of the Sonne of God , is by his fellow-brethren reuerently laid to h sleepe , in his graue , as in the bed of Christ : in an assured hope , to i awake in the resurrection of the iust , at the last day , to be pertaker vvith the Soule , of life and glory euerlasting . And in this respect not onely the Soules , but the very Bodies of the faithfull also are termed blessed . Thus farre the blessednesse of the soule and body of the regenerated man in death . Now let vs see the blessednesse of his soule and body after death . 3 Meditations , of the blessed estate of the regenerated man after death . THis state hath three degrees : 1 From the day of Death , to the Resurrection . 2 From the Resurrection , to the pronouncing of the Sentence . 3 After the Sentence , which lasts eternally . As soone as euer the regenerated man hath yeelded vp his Soule vnto Christ , the holy Angels take her into their custodie , and immediately a carry her into Heauen , and there presents her b before Christ , where shee is crowned with a c Crowne of righteousnesse and glory ; not which she hath deserued by her good workes , but vvhich God hath promised of his free goodnesse , to all those , vvho of loue , haue in this life vnfainedly serued him , and sought his glory . Oh! what ioy vvill it be to thy Soule , vvhich vvas vvont to see but miserie , and sinners , now to behold the face of the God of Glory ? yea , to see Christ vvell comming thee as soone as thou art presented before him by the holy Angels , vvith an Euge bone serue ! Well done , and well-come good and faithfull seruant , &c. enter into thy masters ioy ! And vvhat ioy vvill this be , to behold thousand thousands of Cherubims , Seraphims , Angels , Thrones , Dominions , Principalities , Powers : All the holy Patriarkes , Priests , Prophets , Apostles , Martyrs , Professors , and all the Soules of thy Friends , Parents , Husbands , Wiues , Children , and the rest of Gods Saints , who departed before thee in the true Faith of Christ , standing before Gods Throne in blisse and glory ? If the Queene of Sheba , beholding the glory and attendance giuen to Salomon , as it were rauished therwith , brake out and said , Happy are thy men , happy are these thy Seruants , which stand euer before thee , and heare thy Wisedome ! How shall thy Soule be rauished to see her selfe by grace admitted to stand vvith this glorious companie ? to behold the blessed Face of Christ , and to heare all the Treasures of his diuine Wisedome ? How shalt thou reioyce to see so many thousand thousands wel-comming thee into their heauenly Societie ? for as they all reioyced at thy conuersion ; so vvill they now be much more ioyful to behold thy Coronation ; and to see thee receiue thy Crowne which vvas laid vp for thee against thy comming . For there the crowne of Martyrdome , shall be put on the head of a Martyr : vvho for Christs Gospell sake endured torments : the Crowne of virginitie on the head of a Virgin , vvhich subdued Concupiscence : the Crowne of Pietie and Chastitie on the head of them , who sincerely professed Christ , and kept their wedlocke-bed vndefiled : the Crowne of Good-workes on the good Almes-giuers head , vvho liberally relieued the poore : the Crowne of incorruptible glory on the head of those Pastors , vvho by their preaching and good example , haue conuerted soules from the corruption of sinne , to glorifie God in holinesse of life . Who can sufficiently expresse the reioycing of this heauenly Company , to see thee thus crowned with glory , arrayed with the shining Roabe of righteousnesse , and to behold the Palme of victory put into thy hand ? Oh what gratulation will there be , that thou hast escaped all the miseries of the World , the snares of the Diuell , the paines of Hell , and obtained with them thy eternall rest and happinesse ? for there euery one ioyeth as much in anothers happinesse as in his owne , because hee shall see him as much loued of GOD as himselfe . Yea they haue as many distinct ioyes , as they haue compartners of their ioy . And in this ioyfull and blessed : state , the Soule resteth with Christ in Heauen , till the Resurrection , when as the number of her Fellow-seruants and Brethren be fulfilled , which the Lord termeth but a little season . The second degree of mans blessednesse after death , is from the Resurrection to the pronouncing of the finall sentence . For at the last day : 1 The Elementary Heauens , Earth , and all things therein , shall be a dissolued , and purified with fire . 2 At the b sound of the last Trumpet , or voyce of Christ , the Archangell , the very same bodies , which the Elect had before , ( though turned to dust and earth : ) shall arise againe ; and in the same instant euery mans soule shall re-enter into his owne body , by vertue of the Resurrection of Christ , their head , and be made aliue , and rise out of their graues , as if they did but awake out of their beds . And howsoeuer Tyrants bemangled their bodies in pieces , or consumed them to ashes : yet shall the Elect finde it true at that day , that not an haire of their head is perished . 3 They shall come forth out of their graues like so many Iosephs out of Prison , or Daniels out of the Lyons Dens , or Ionahs out of Whales bellies . 4 All the bodies of the Elect being thus made aliue , shall arise in that f perfection of nature , whereunto they should haue attained by their naturall temperment , if no impediment had hindered : and in that vigor of age , that a perfect man is at , about three and thirtie yeeres old , each in their * proper sexe . Whereunto Diuines thinke the Apostle alludeth , when he saith , g till wee all come vnto a perfect man , vnto the measure of the age ( or stature ) of the fulnes of Christ. Whatsoeuer imperfection vvas before in the body ( as blindnesse , lamenesse , crooke●nesse ) shall then be done away . Iacob shall not halt , nor Isaac be blinde , nor Leah bleare-eyed , nor Mephibosheth be lame : for if Dauid would not haue the blinde and lame to come into his house , much lesse will Christ haue blindnesse and lamenesse to dwell in his heauenly Habitation . Christ made all the blinde to see , the dumbe to speake , the deafe to heare , the lame to walke , &c. that came to him , to seeke his grace on earth : much more will hee heale all their imperfections , whom hee will admit to his glory in Heauen . Among those Tribes there is not one feeble : but the lame man shall leape as an Hart , and the dumbe mans tongue shall sing . And it is very probable , that seeing GOD created our first Parents , not infants or olde men , but of a perfect age or stature : the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or new creation from death , shall euery way be more perfect then the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or first frame of a man from which , he fell into the state of the dead . Neither is it like that Infancy being imperfection , and olde age corruption can well stand with the state of a perfect glorified body . 5 The bodies of the Elect being thus raised shall haue foure most excellent and supernaturall quallities . For 1 They shall be raised in power , wherby they shall for euer be freed , from all wants , and weakenesse , and enabled to continue , without the vse of meate , drinke , sleepe , and other former helps . 2 In incorruption , whereby they shall neuer be subiect , to any manner of imperfections , blemish , sickenesse or death . 3 In Glory , whereby their bodies shal shine as bright as the Sunne in the firmament ▪ and which being made transparant , their soules shall shine through , farre more glorious then their bodies . Three glimses of which glory was seene . First , in Moses face : Secondly , in the transfiguration : Thirdly , in Stephens countenance . Three instances , and assurances of the glorification of our bodies at that glorious day . Then shall Dauid lay aside , his Shepheards weede , and put on the roabe of the Kings sonne Iesus , not Ionathan . Then euery true Mordecai , who mourned vnder the Sakecloth of this corrupt flesh , shall be arrayed with the Kings royall apparell , and haue the Crowne royall set vpon his head , that all the world may see : how it shall be done to him , whom the King of kings delighteth to honour . If now the rising of one Sun makes the morning so glorious , how glorious shall that day be , when innumerable million of millions of bodies of Saints and Angels , shall appeare more glorious , then the brightnesse of the Sunne ? the body of Christ in glory surpassing all . 4 In Agility , whereby our bodies shall be able to ascend , and to meete the Lord at his glorious comming in the ayre ; as Eagles flying vnto their blessed Carkase . To this agility of the Saints , glorious bodies , the Prophet alludes , saying : They shall renewe their strength : they shall mount vp with winges as Eagles : they shall runne and not be weary , they shall walke , and not faint . And to this state , may that saying of Wisdome be referred : In the time of their vision they shall shine and runne too and fro , as sparkes among the stubble . And in respect of these foure qualities , Paul calleth the raised bodies of the Elect Spiri●ual● : for they shall be spirituall in qualities , but the same still in substance . And howsoeuer sinne and corruption makes a man in this state of mortality , lower then Angels ; a yet surely when God shall thus Crowne him with glory and honour , I cannot see , how man shall be any thing inferiour to Angels . For are they Spirits ? So is Man also in respect of his soule : yea more then this , they shall haue also a spirituall Body Fashioned like vnto the glorious body of the Lord Iesus Christ , in whom , mans nature is exalted by a personall vnion , into the glory of the Godhead , and indiuiduall society of the blessed Trinity . An honor which he neuer vouchsafed Angels . And in this respect man hath a prerogatiue aboue them . Nay they are but spirits appointed to be ministers vnto the Elect and as many of them who at the first disdained this office and would not keep their first standing were for their pride , hurled into hell . This lesseneth not the dignity of Angels : but extols the greatnesse of Gods loue to Mankinde . But as for all the Elect , who at that second and sodaine comming of Christ shall be found quicke and liuing ; The * fire that shall burne vp the corruption of the world , and the workes therein , shall in a a moment , in the twinkling of an eye ouertake them as it b findes them , either grinding in the mill of prouision , or walking in the fields of pleasure , or lying in the bed of ease : and so burning vp their drosse , and corruption , of mortall make them immortall bodies : and this change shall be vnto them in stead of death . Then shall the Soule with ioyfulnesse greete her body , saying : Oh well met againe , my deare sister , How sweet is thy voice ! how comely is thy countenance , hauing lyen hid so long in the clifts of the rockes , and in the secret places of the graue ! Thou art indeed an habitation fit , not onely for me to dwell in ; but such as the Holy Ghost thinkes meete to reside in , as his Temple for euer . The Winter of our affliction is now past : the storme of our misery is blowne ouer , and gone . The Bodies of our Elect Brethren appeare more glorious , then the Lilly flowers on the earth ; the time of singing Hallelu●ah is come ; and the voyce of the Trumpet is heard in the Land. Thou hast beene my Yo●ke-fellow in the Lords labours , and companion in persecutions and wrongs , for Christ and his Gospels sake ; now shall we enter together , into our Masters ioy : as thou hast borne with mee the crosse , so shalt thou now weare with mee the Crowne : as thou hast with mee sowed plenteously in teares , so shalt thou reape with mee aboundantly in ioy . O blessed , aye blessed be that GOD , who ( vvhen yonder reprobates spent their whole time in Pride , fleshly lusts , eating , drinking and profane vanities ) gaue vs grace to ioyne together , in watching , fasting , praying , reading the Scriptures , keeping his Sabboths , hearing Sermons , receiuing the holy Communion , relieuing the Poore , exercising in all humilitie the workes of Pietie to God , and vvalking conscionably in the duties of our calling towards men . Thou shalt , anone , heare no mention of thy sinnes , for they are remitted and couered ; but euery good worke vvhich thou hast done for the Lords sake , shall be rehearsed and rewarded . Cheere vp thy heart , for thy Iudge is flesh of thy flesh , and bone of thy bone . Lift vp thy head , behold these glorious Angels , like so many Gabriels , flying towards vs , to tell vs , that the day of our Redemption is come , and to conuey vs in the clouds , to meete our Redeemer in the Ayre . Loe they are at hand , arise therefore my Doue , my Loue , my faire One , and come away : and so like Roes , or young Harts , they runne with Angels towards Christ , ouer the trembling mountaines of B●ther . 6 Both quicke and dead being thus reuiued and glorified , shall forth-with by the ministery of Gods holy Angels , be gathered from all the quarters and parts of the world , and caught vp together in the Clouds , to meet the Lord in the Ayre , and so shall come with him , as a part of his glorious traine , to iudge the Reprobates and euill Angels . The twelue Apostles shall sit vpon twelue Thrones , next Christ , to iudge the twelue Tribes , who refused to heare the Gospell , preached by their Ministerie . And all the Saints in honour and order , shall stand next vnto them , as Iudges also : to iudge the euill Angels and earthly-minded men . And as euery of them , receiued grace in this life , to be more zealous of his glory , and more faithfull in his Seruice then others : so shall their glory and reward be greater then others , in that day . The place whither they shall be gathered vnto Christ , and where Christ shal sit in Iudgement shall be in the Ayre , ouer the valley of Iehosaphat , by mount Oliuet , neere vnto Ierusalem , East-ward from the Temple , as it is probable for foure reasons . 1 Because the holy Scripture seemes to intimate so much in plaine wordes . I will gather all Nations into the valley of Iehosaphat , and pleade with them there . Cause thy mightie ones , to come downe , O Lord : let the Heathen be wakened : and come vp to the valley of Iehosaphat ; for there will I sit to iudge all the Heathen round about . Iehosaphat signifieth the Lord will iudge . And this valley was so called from the great victory vvhich the LORD gaue a Iehosaphat and his people ouer the Ammonites , Miabites , and Inhabitants of Mount Seir. Which victory was a Type of the finall victory which Christ the supreame Iudge , shall giue his Elect , ouer all their Enemies in that place at the last day , as all the Iewes interprete it . See Zach. 14.4 5. Psal. 51.1.2 . &c. all agreeing , that the place shall be thereabouts . 2 Because , that as Christ was * there-abouts crucified , and put to open shame ; so ouer that place his glorious Throne should be erected in the Ayre : when hee shall appeare in Iudgement to manifest his Maiestie and glory : for it is meete that Christ should in that place iudge the world with righteous Iudgement , where he himselfe was vniustly iudged and condemned . 3 Because , that seeing the Angels shall be sent to gather together the Elect from the foure windes , from one end of heauen to the other . It is most probable that the place whither they shall be gathered to , shall be neere Ierusalem , and the valley of Iehosaphat , which * Cosmographers describe to be in the middest of the superficies of the Earth I ▪ the termini a quibus , be the foure parts of the World , the terminus ad quem , must be about the Center . 4 Because the Angels tolde the Disciples , that as they saw Christ ascend from Mount Oliuet , which is ouer the valley of Iehosaphat , so hee shall in like maner come downe from Heauen : This is the opinion of Aquinas , and all the Schoolemen , except Lombard , and Alexander Hales . 7 Lastly , when Christ is set in his glorious Throne , and all the many thousands of his Saints and Angels , shining more bright then so many Sunnes in glory , sitting about him : and the body of Christ in glory and brightnesse surpassing them all : ( The Reprobates being separated , and remaining beneath vpon the earth ; for the right hand signifieth a blessed , the left hand a cursed estate : ) Christ will first pronounce the sentence of absolution , and blisse vpon the Elect : first , because he will thereby increase the griefe of the reprobate that shall heare it : secondly , to shew himselfe more prone to Mercy then to Iudgement . And thus from his Throne of Maiestie in the Ayre , hee shall in the sight and hearing of all the world , pronounce vnto his Elect. Come ye blessed of my Father , inherit the kingdome prepared for you from the beginning of the world , for , &c. Come yee . ] Here is our blessed vnion with Christ , and by him , with the whole Trinitie . Blessed . ] Here is our absolution from all sinnes , and our plenary endowment with all grace and happinesse . Of my Father . ] Here is the Author , from whom , by Christ proceeds our felicitie . Inherit . ] Here is our Adoption . The Kingdome . ] Behold our Birth-right and possession . Prepared . ] See Gods Fatherly care for his chosen . From the Foundation of the world . ] O the free , eternall , and vnchangeable Election of GOD ! How much are those soules bound to loue GOD , who of his meere good-will and pleasure , chose and loued them before they * had done either good or euill . For , I was hungry , &c ] O the Goodnesse of Christ , who takes notice of all the good-workes of his Children to reward them ! How great is his loue to poore Christians , who takes euery worke of mercy done to them , for his sake , as if it had beene done to himselfe ! Come yee to me , in whom yee haue beleeued , * before yee saw me , and whom yee haue loued , and sought for with so much deuotion , and through so many tribulations . Come now , from labour to rest : from disgrace , to glory : from the iawes of death to the ioyes of eternall Life . For my sake yee haue beene * rai●ed vpon , reuiled , and cursed . But now it shall appeare to all those cursed Esaus , that you are the true Iacobs , that shall receiue your heauenly Fathers blessing , and blessed shall you be . Your * fathers ▪ mothers , and neerest kindred forsooke , and cast you off , for my Truths sake , which you maintained : but now * my Father will be vnto you a Father , and you shall be his Sonnes and Daughters for euer . You were cast out of your lands and liuings , and forsoke all for my sake , and the Gospell : But that it may appeare that you haue not lost your gaine , but gained by your losse : in stead of an earthly inheritance and possessions , you shall possesse with mee the inheritance of my heauenly Kingdome : where you shall be for loue , sonnes ; for birth-right , heires ; for dignitie , Kings ; for holinesse , Priests : and you may be bold to enter into the possession thereof now , because my Father prepared and kept it for you , euer since the first foundation of the world was laid . Immediately , after this Sentence of absolution and benediction , euery one receiueth his crowne , which Christ the righteous Iudge puts vpon their heads ; as the reward which hee hath promised of his grace and mercy vnto the faith and good workes of all them that loued that his appearing . Then euery one taking his Crowne from his Head , shall lay it downe as it were at the Feete of Christ , and prostrating themselues , shall with one heart and voyce , in an heauenly sort and consort , say , Praise , and Honour , and Glory , and Power , and Thankes be vnto thee , O blessed Lambe , who sittest vpon the Throne , wast killed , and hast redeemed vs to God by thy bloud , out of euery kindred , and tongue , and people , and nation ; and hast made vs vnto our God , Kings and Priests , to raigne with thee in thy Kingdome for euermore . Amen . Then shall they sit in their Thrones and order , as Iudges of the Reprobates , and euill Angels : by approuing , and giuing testimony to the righteous sentence and iudgement of Christ the supreame Iudge . After the pronouncing of the Reprobates sentence and condemnation , Christ vvill performe two solemne Actions . 1 The presenting of all the Elect vnto his Father , Behold O righteous Father , these are they whom thou gauest mee , I haue kept them , and none of them is lost . I gaue them thy Word , and they beleeued it , and the world hated them , because they were not of the world , euen as I was not of the world . And now Father , I will that those whom thou hast giuen mee , be with me where I am , that they may behold my glory , which thou hast giuen me , and that I may be in them , and thou in mee , that they may be made perfect in one , that the world may know that thou hast sent me , and that thou hast loued them , as thou hast loued me . 2 Christ , shall deliuer vp the Kingdome to GOD , euen the Father , that is , shall cease to execute his office of Mediatorship , whereby as he is King , Priest , Prophet , and supreame head of the Church , hee suppressed his Enemies , and ruled his faithfull people , by his Spirit , Word , and Sacraments . So that his Kingdome of grace ouer his Church , in this world ceasing ; hee shall rule immediately as hee is GOD , equall vvith the Father , and the holy Ghost , in his Kingdome of Glory for euermore : not that the dignitie of his Manhood shall be any thing diminished , but that the glory of his Godhead shall be more manifested : so that as hee is God , hee shall from thence forth , in all fulnesse without all externall meanes , rule all in all . From this Tribunall seate , Christ shall arise , and vvith all his glorious Company of Elect Angels and Saints , he shall goe vp triumphantly , in order and array vnto the heauen of Heauens , with such a heauenly noise and Musicke , that now may that Song of Dauid be truely verified , God is gone vp with a triumph , the Lord with the sound of the Trumpets . Sing praises to God , sing praises , sing prayses vnto our King , sing praises ; for God is the King of all the Earth , he is greatly to be exalted . And that Marriage song of Iohn : Let vs be glad and reioyce , and giue honour to him , for the Marriage of the Lambe is come , and his Wife hath made her selfe ready , Alleluiah ; for the Lord God omnipotent raigneth . The third and last Degree of the blessed state , of a regenerated man after death , beginnes after the pronouncing of the Sentence , and lasteth eternally without all end . Meditations of the blessed estate of a regenerated Man , in heauen ; after he hath receiued his sentence of Absolution , before the Tribunall seate of Christ , at the last day of Iudgement . HEere my Meditation lazeleth , and my Penne falleth out of my hand : the one being not able to conceiue : nor the other to describe that most excellent blisse , and eternall weight of glory ( whereof all the afflictions of this present life are not worthy ) which all the Elect shall with the blessed Trinity enioy : from that time that they shall be receiued with Christ as ioynt heires into that euerlasting Kingdome of ioy . Notwithstanding , we may take a scantling thereof , thus . The holy Scriptures set foorth ( to our capacity ) the glorie of our eternall and heauenly life after death , in foure respects : 1 Of the Place . 2 Of the Obiect . 3 Of the Prerogatiues of the Elect there . 4 Of the effects of those Prerogatiues . 1 Of the Place . THe place is the a Heauen of Heauens , or the b third Heauen , called Paradise , whither Christ , ( in his humane nature , ) ascended farre aboue all visible heauens . The Bridgroomes chamber , which by the firmament , as by an azured curtaine spangled with glittering starres and glorious planets , is hid : that wee cannot behold it with these corruptible eyes of flesh . The holy Ghost ( framing himselfe to our weakenesse ) describes the glory of that place , which no man can estimate , by such things as are most precious in the estimation of man. And therefore likeneth it to a great and a holy City , named the heauenly Ierusalem . Where onely God , and his people , who are saued , and written in the Lambes booke doe inhabite : all built of pure gold , like vnto cleare glasse , or Chrystall : the walles of Iasper stone : the foundations of the wals , with twelue manner of precious stones : hauing twelue gates , each built of one pearle : three gates towards each of the foure corner● of the world : and at each gate an Angell , ( as so many Porters ) that no vncleane thing should enter into it . It is foure square , therefore perfect , the length , the breadth , and height of it are equall , 12000. furlongs euery way , therefore glorious and spacious . Through the middest of her streets euer runneth a pure Riuer of the water of life , as cleare as Christall , therefore wholesome . And of either side of the riuer is the Tree of life , euer growing , which beares twelue manner of fruits , and giues fruit euery moneth , therefore fruitfull : and the leaues of the tree is health to the Nations , therefore healthy . There is therefore no place so glorious by creation , so beautifull with delectation , so rich in possession , so comfortable for habitation . For there the King , is Christ : the law , is loue : the honour , verity : the peace , felicity : the life , eternity . There is light without darknesse ; mirth without sadnesse ; health without sicknesse ; wealth without want ; credit without disgrace ; beauty without blemish ; ease without labour ; riches without rust ; blessednesse without miserie ; and consolation that neuer knoweth ende . How truely may we cry out ( with Dauid ) of this Citie , Glorious things are spoken of thee , O thou City of God! and yet all these things are spoken , but according to the weakenesse of our capacity . For heauen exceedeth al this in glory , so farre : as that no tongue is able to expresse : nor heart of man to conceiue the glory thereof : as witnesseth Paul who was in it and sawe it . O let vs not then dote so much vpon these woedden cottages , and houses of moulding clay , which are but the tents of vngodlinesse and habitation of sinners : but let let vs looke rather , and long for this heauenly City , whose builder and maker is God : which he ( who is not ashamed to be called our God ) hath prepared for vs. 2 Of the Obiect . THE blisseful and glorious obiect of all intellectuall , and reasonable creatures in heauen , is the God-head , in Trinity of Persons ; without which there is neither ioy , nor felicity : but the very fulnesse of ioy consisteth in enioying the same . This Obiect wee shall enioy two waies . 1 By a beatificall vision of God. 2 By possessing an immediate communion with his diuine nature . The a beatificall vision of GOD is that onely that can content the infinite minde of man. b For euery thing tendeth to his center . GOD is the center of the soule : therfore ( like Noahs Doue ) shee cannot rest , nor ioy , till shee returne and enioy him . All that GOD bestowed vpon Moses , could not satisfie his minde , vnlesse hee might see the face of GOD. Therefore the whole Church praieth so earnestly : God be merciful vnto vs , and blesse vs & cause his face to shine vpon vs. When Paul once had seen this blessed sight , he ( euer after ) counted al the riches , and glory of the world , ( in respect of it ) to be but dung . And all his life after was but a sighing out ( cupio dissolui ) I desire to be dissolued , and to be with Christ. And Christ prayed for all his Elect in his last prayer : that they might obtaine this blessed vision . Father , I will that they which thou hast giuen me be ( where ? ) euen where I am . ( To what end ? ) that they may behold that my glory , &c. If Moses face did so shine when he had beene with GOD but fourty daies : and seene but his backe parts ; how shall wee shine , when we shall see him face to face for euer ? and know him as we are known , and as he is ? Then shall the soule no longer be termed Marah , bitternesse , but Naomi , beautifulnesse : for the Lord shall turne her short bitternesse , to eternall beauty and blessednesse . Ruth 1.20 . The second meanes to enioy this obiect , is , by hauing an immediate , and an eternall communion with GOD in heauen . This we haue , first , by being ( as members of Christ ) vnited to his manhood : and by the manhood ( personally vnited to the word ) we are vnited to him , as he is GOD : and ( by his Godhead ) to the whole Trinity . Reprobates at the last day shall see GOD ( as a iust Iudge ) to punish them : but ( for lacke of this Communion ) they shall haue neither grace with him , nor glory from him . For want of this communion ; the Diuels ( when they saw Christ ) cried out , Quid nobis te cum ? What haue we to doe with thee , O Sonne of the most high God ? But ( by vertue of this Communion ) the penitent soule may boldly goe and say vnto Christ , as Ruth vnto B●az : ) Spread , O Christ , the wing of the garment of thy mercy ouer thine handmaide : for thou art my kinsman . This Communion God promised Abraham , when hee gaue him himselfe for his great reward . And Christ praieth for his whole Church to obtaine it . This communion Saint Paul expresseth in one word , saying : that God shall be all in all vnto vs. Indeed , God is now all in all vnto vs : but by meanes , and in a small measure . But in heauen , God himselfe immediatly , ( in fulnesse of measure , without all meanes ) will be vnto vs all the good things , that our soules and bodie● can wish or desire . He himselfe will be saluation , and ioy to our soules : life and health to our bodies : beauty to our eyes : musicke to our eares : honey to our mouthes : perfume to our nostrils : meat to our bellies : light to our vnderstandings : contentment to our willes ; and delight to our hearts ; and what can be lacking ▪ where GOD himselfe , will be the soule of our soules ? Yea all the strength , wit , pleasures , vertues , colours , beauties , harmony , & goodnesse , that are in men , beasts , fishes , fowles , trees , hearbes , and all creatures , are nothing but sparkles of those things , which are in infinite perfection in GOD. And in him we shall enioy them , in a farre more perfect , and blessed manner . Hee himselfe will then supply ●hei● vse : nay , the best creatures ( vvhich serue vs now ) shall not haue the honour , to serue vs then . There will be no neede of the Sunne , nor of the Moone , to shine in that Citie : for , the glory of God doth light it . No more will there be any neede , or vse , of any creature , when we shall enioy the Creator himselfe . When therefore wee behold any thing that is excellent in any Creatures , let vs say to our selues ; how much more excellent is hee vvho gaue them this excellencie ! When wee behold the wisedome of men who ouer-rule creatures stronger then themselues ; out-runne the Sunne and Moone in discourse prescribing many yeeres before , in what courses they shall be eclipsed : let vs say to our selues , how admirable is the wisedome of GOD , who made men so wise ! When we consider the strength of Whales and Elephants , the tempests of Windes , & terror of Thunder ; let vs say to our selues , how strong , how mighty , how terrible is that GOD that makes these mighty & fearefull Creatures ! When wee taste things that are delicately sweete , let vs say to our selues , oh , how sweete is that GOD , from vvhom all these Creatures haue receiued this sweetnesse ! When we behold the admirable colours which are in Flowers and Birds , and the louely beauty of Women , let vs say , how faire is that GOD that made these so faire ! And if our louing GOD hath thus prouided vs so many excellent delights , for our passage through this Bochim , or valley of teares ! what are those pleasures which he hath prepared for vs , when wee shall enter into the pallace of our Masters ioy ! How shall our Soules be there rauished with the loue of so louely a GOD ! So glorious is the obiect of heauenly Saints ! So amiable is the sight of our gratious Sauiour ! 3 Of the Prerogatiues which the Elect shall enioy in Heauen . BY reason of this communion with GOD , the elect in Heauen shall haue foure super-excellent prerogatiues . 1 They shall haue the Kingdome of heauen for their inheritance : and they shall be free Denizons of the heauenly Ierusalem . S. Paul ( by being a free citizen of Rome ) escaped whipping ; but they , who are once free Citizens of the heauenly Ierusalem , shall euer be freed from the whips of eternall torments . For this freedome vvas bought for vs , not with a great summe of money , but with the precious bloud of the Sonne of God. 2 They shall be all Kings and Priests . Spirituall Kings , to raigne vvith Christ , and to triumph ouer Sathan , the World , and Reprobates : and spirituall Priests , to offer vnto God the spirituall Sacrifice of Praise and Thankesgiuing for euermore . And therefore they are said to vveare both Crownes and Roabes . Oh what a comfort is this to poore Parents , that haue many Children ! If they breede them vp in the feare of God to be true Christians : then are they Parents to so many Kings and Priests . 3 Their bodies shall shine as the brightnesse of the Sun in the Firmament : like the glorious Body of CHRIST , which shined brighter then the Sunne at noone , when it appeared to Paul. A glimpse of which glorious brightnesse appeared in the bodies of Moses and Elias transfigured with our Lord in the holy Mount. Therefore ( saith the Apostle ) it shall rise a glorious body ; yea , a spirituall body , not in substance , but in qualitie : preserued by spirituall meanes , and hauing ( as an Angell ) agilitie to ascend or descend . Oh vvhat an honour is it that our bodies ( falling more vile then a carrion ) should thus arise in glory , like vnto the body of the Sonne of God! 4 Lastly , they ( together with all the holy Angels ) there , keepe ( without any labour to distract them ) a perpetuall Sabbath , to the glory , honour , and praise of the aye-blessed Trinitie , for the creating , redeeming , and and sanctifying of the church : and for his power , wisedome , iustice , mercy , and goodnes , in the gouernment of Heauen and Earth . When thou hearest a sweet Consort of Musicke , meditate how happy thou shalt be , when ( vvith the Quire of heauenly Angels and Saints ) thou shalt sing a part in that spirituall Alleluiah , on that eternall blessed Sabbath , where there shall be such varietie of pleasures , and satietie of ioyes ; as neuer know tediousnesse in doing , nor end in delighting . 4 Of the effects of those prerogatiues . From these prerogatiues there will arise to the Elect in heauen , fiue notable effects . 1 THey shall know GOD , vvith a perfect knowledge , so farre as Creatures can possibly comprehend the Creator . For there wee shall see ; the Word , the Creatour ; and in the Word , all creatures that by the Word were created : so that wee shall not neede to learne of the things which were made ; the knowledge of him by whom all things were made . The excellentest creatures in this life , are but as a darke vaile , drawne betwixt GOD and vs : but when this vaile shall be drawne aside ; then shall we see GOD face to face , and know him as wee are knowne . We shall know the power of the Father , the wisdome of the Sonne , the grace of the holy Ghost ; and the indiuisible nature of the blessed Trinity . And in him we shall know not onely all our friends ( who dyed in the faith of Christ ) but also all the faithfull that euer were , or shall be : For , 1 Chirst tels the Iewes , that they shall see , Abraham ; Isaac , and Iacob , and all the Prophets , in the kingdome of God : therefore wee shall know them . 2 Adam in his innocency knew Eue to be bone of his bone , and flesh of his flesh , assoone as he awaked . Much more then shall we know our kindred , when we shall awake perfected and glorified in the resurrection . 3 The Apostles knew Christ after his resurrection and the Saints which rose with him , and appeared in the holy City . 4 Peter , Iames , and Iohn , knew Moses and Elias in the transfiguration : how much more shall wee know one an other , when wee shall be all glorified ? 5 Diues knew Lazarus in Abrahams bosome : much more shall the Elect know one another in heauen . 6 Christ saith , that the twelue Apostles shall sit vpon twelue thrones , to iudge ( at that day ) the 12. Tribes : therfore they shal be known , and consequently the rest of the Saints . 7 Paul saith , that at that day we shall know as wee are knowne of God : and Augustine ( out of this place ) comforteth a Widow , assuring her , that as in this life , shee saw her husband with externall eyes ; so in the life to come , shee should know his heart , and what were all his thoughts and imaginations . Then husbands and wiues , looke to your actions and thoughts : For all shall be made manifest one day . See 1. Cor. 4.5 . 8 The faithfull in the old Testament , are said to be gathered to their Fathers : therefore the knowledge of our friends remaines . 9 Loue neuer falleth away : therefore knowledge , the ground thereof , remaines in another life . 10 Because the last day shall be a declaration of the iust iudgement of God : when he shall reward euery man acording to his workes : and if euery mans work be brought to light , much more the worker . And if wicked men shall account for euery idle word , much more shall the idle speakers themselues bee knowne . And if the persons be not knowne , in vaine are the workes made manifest . Therefore ( saith the Apostle ) Euery man shall appeare , to account for the worke that hee hath done in his body , &c. See Wisdome Chapter 5.1 . Though the respect of diuersities of degrees , and callings in Magistracy , Ministry , and Oeconomy shall cease ; yea Christ shall then cease to rule , as he is Mediator , and rule all in all , as hee is God equall with the Father , and the holy Ghost . The greatest knowledge that men can attaine vnto in this life , comes as farre short of the knowledge which wee shall haue in heauen : as the knowledge of a childe , that cannot yet speake plaine , is to the knoweldge of the greatest Philosopher in the World. They who thirst for knowledge ; let them long to be students of this Vniuersity . For all the light by which wee know any thing in this world , is nothing but the very shadow of God : but when we shall know GOD in heauen , wee shall , in him , know the manner of the worke of the creation , the mysteries of the worke of our Redemption : yea , so much knowledge as a Creature can possibly conceiue and comprehend of the Creator and his works . But whilest wee are in this life , wee may say with Iob. How little a portion heare wee of him ? And assure our selues with Syracides , that There are hid yet greater things then these be , and that wee haue seene but a few of Gods works . 2 They shall loue God with as perfect and absolute loue , as possibly a creature can doe . The manner of louing God , is to loue him for himselfe : the measure , is to loue him without measure . For in this life ( knowing God but in part ) we loue him but in part : but when the Elect in heauen shall fully know God , then they will perfectly loue God. And ( for the infinite causes of loue , which thy shall know to be in him ) they shall be infinitly rauish't with the loue of him . 3 They shall be filled with all manner of diuine pleasures . At thy right hand ( saith Dauid ) there are pleasures for euermore : Yea , they shall drinke ( saith he ) out of the riuer of pleasures . For assoone as the soule is admitted into the actuall fruition of the beatificall presence of God : shee hath all the goodnesse , beauty , glory , and perfection of all creatures ( in all the world ) vnited together , and at once presented vnto her in the sight of God. If any be in loue , there they shall enioy that which is more amiable : if any delight in fairenesse , the fairest beauty is but a dusty shadow to that : he that delights in Pleasures shall there finde infinite varieties , without either interruption of griefe , or distraction of paine : Hee that loueth honour , shal there enioy it , without the disgrace of cankred enuy ; he that loueth treasure , shall there possesse it ▪ and neuer be beguiled of it . There they shal haue knowledge , void of all ignorance : health , that no sickenes shall impaire : and life , that no death can determine . In a word looke how farre this wide world , surpasseth for light , pleasures , & comfort , the darke and narrow womb wherin thou wast conceiued a childe : so much doth the world to come exceede in ioyes , solace , & consolation , this present world . Now happy then shall wee be , when this life is chāged , & we thither translated 4 They shal be replenished with an vnspeakeable ioy . In thy presence ( saith Dauid is the fulnesse of ioy . And this ioy shall arise , chiefly from the vision of God : and partly from the sight of all the holy Angels , and blessed soules of iust and perfect men , who are in blisse and glory with him . But especially from the blissefull sight of Iesus the Mediator of the New Testament , our Emmanuel , God made man. His sight will be the chiefe cause of our blisse , and ioy . If the Israelites in Ierusalem so showted for ioy that the earth rang againe , to see Salomon crowned ; how shall the Elect reioice in heauen to see Christ the true Salomon adorned with glory ? If Iohn Baptist at his presence did leape in his mothers wombe for ioy ; how shall wee exult for ioy , when he will be not onely with vs , but in vs in heauen ? If the wise men reioyced so greatly to finde him , a Babe , lying in a manger ; how great shall the ioy of the Elect bee , to see him sit ( as as King ) in his celestiall throne ? If Simeon was so glad to see him , an Infant , in the Temple presented by the hands of the Priest ; how great shall our ioy be to see him a King , ruling all things at the right hand of his Father ? If Ioseph and Mary were so ioyfull to finde him in the middest of the Doctors in the Temple ; how glad shal our soules be to see him sitting as Lord among Angels in heauen ? This is that ioy of our Master , which ( as the Apostle saith ) the eye hath not seene , the eare hath not heard , nor the heart of man can conceiue : which because it cannot enter into vs , vvee shall enter it . 5 Lastly , they shall enioy this blissefull and glorious estate for euermore . Therefore it is tearmed euerlasting life : and Christ saith , that our ioy shall no man take from vs. All other ioyes ( be they neuer so great ) haue an end . Assuerus Feast lasted an hundred and eightie dayes ; but hee , and it , and all his ioyes are gone . For mortall man to be assumed to heauenly glory , to be associated to Angels , to be satiated with all delights and ioyes , ( but for a time ) were much : but to enioy them for euer , without intermission of end , who can heare it , and not admire it ! who can muse of it , and not be amazed at it ! All the Saints of Christ ( as soone as they felt once but a true taste of these eternall ioyes ) counted all the riches and pleasures of this life to be but a losse and dung in respect of that . And therefore ( with vncessant prayers , fasting , almes-deedes , teares , faith , and good life ) they laboured to acertaine themselues of this eternall life : and ( for the loue thereof , ) they b willingly eyther solde , or parted with all their earthly goods and possessions . Christ calleth all Christians Merchants , Luke 19. and eternall life a precious pearle , which a wise Merchant will purchase , though it cost him all that hee hath . Mat. 13. Alexander hearing the report of the great riches of the Eastern country , diuided forth-with among his Captaines and Souldiers , all his Kingdome of Macedonia : Hephoestion asking him what hee meant in so doing ; Alexander answered , that he preferred the riches of India , ( whereof hee hoped shortly to be Master ) before all that his Father Philip left him in Macedonia . And should not Christians then preferre the eternall riches of Heauen , so greatly renowned , ( vvhich they shall enioy ere long ) before the corruptible trash of the earth , which last but for a season ? Abraham and Sarah left their owne Country and possessions , to c looke for a Citie , whose builder and maker is God , and therefore bought no land , but onely a place of buriall . Dauid preferreth d one day in this place , before a thousand else-where : yea , to be a doore-keeper in the house of God , rather then to dwell in the richest tabernacles of wickednesse . Elias earnestly e besought the Lord to receiue his soule into his Kingdome ; and went willingly ( though in f a fiery Chariot ) thither . Paul ( hauing once seene heauen ) continually g desired to be dissolued , that hee might be with Christ. Peter ( hauing spyed but a glimpse of that eternall glory in the Mount , ) wished , that hee might dwell there all the dayes of his life , saying , h Master , it is good for vs to be here . How much better doth Peter now thinke it to be in heauen it selfe ? Christ ( a little before his death ) prayeth his Father i to receiue him into that excellent glory . And the Apostle witnesseth , that ( k for the ioy which was set before him ) he endured the Crosse , and despised the shame . If a man did but once see those ioyes , ( if it were possible , ) hee would endure an hundred deaths to enioy that happinesse but one day . S. Augustine saith , that he would be content , to endure the torments of hell to gaine this ioy , rather then to lose it . Ignatius ( Paules Scholler ) being threatned ( as hee vvas going to suffer , ) vvith the crueltie of torments , answered with great courage of Faith : Fire , Gallowes , Beasts , breaking of my bones , quartering of my members , crushing of my body , all the torments of the Diuell together , let them come vpon me , so I may enioy my Lord Iesus and his Kingdome . The like constancie shewed Polycarpe , who could not by any terrors of any kinde of death , be moued to deny Christ in the least measure . With the like resolution answered Basil his persecutors , when they would terrifie him with death ; I will neuer ( said hee ) feare death , which can doe no more then restore mee to him that made me . If Ruth left her owne country , and followed Naomi her Mother in Law , to goe and dwell with her in the Land of Canaan , ( which was but a type of heauen , ) onely vpon the fame which she heard of the God of Israell ( though shee had no promise of any portion therein , ) how shouldest thou follow thy holy mother the Church , to go vnto Christ into the heauenly Canaan , wherin God hath giuen thee an eternall inheritance , assured by an holy Couenant made in the words of God , signed with the bloud of his Sonne , and sealed with his Spirit and Sacraments ? This shall be thine eternall happinesse in the Kingdome of heauen , where thy life shall be a communion with the blessed Trinitie , thy ioy the presence of the Lambe , thy exercise singing , thy ditty Alleluiah , thy consorts , Saints and Angels : where youth flourisheth that neuer waxeth olde ; Beautie lasteth that neuer fadeth ; loue aboundeth that neuer cooleth ; health continueth that neuer slaketh ; and life remaineth , that neuer endeth . Meditations directing a Christian how to apply to himselfe , without delay , the fore-said knowledge of GOD and himselfe . THou seest therefore O man , how wretched and cursed thy state is , by corruption of nature , without Christ : insomuch that whereas the Scriptures doe liken wicked men , vnto Lyons , Beares , Buls , Horses , Dogges , and such like sauage Creatures in their liues : it is certaine , that the condition of an vnregenerated man , is in his death more vile then a Dogge , or the filthiest Creature in the world : for the Beast ( being made but for mans vse ) when hee dyeth endeth all his miseries with his death . But man endued with a reasonable and an immortall Soule , made after Gods Image , to serue God , when hee ends the miseries of this life , must account for all his misdeedes , and begin to endure those miseries that neuer shall know end . No creature but man is liable to yeeld at his death an account for his life . The bruite Creatures , not hauing reason , shall not be required to make any account for their deedes : and good Angels , though they haue reason , yet shall they yeeld no account , because they haue no sinne . And as for euill Angels , they are , without all hope , already condemned ; so that they neede not make any further accounts . Man onely in his death , must be Gods accountant for his life . On the other side , thou seest ( O Man ) how happy and blessed thy estate is , being truely reconciled vnto GOD in Christ , in that through the restauration of Gods Image , and thy restitution into thy soueraigntie ouer other Creatures , thou art in this life little inferiour to the Angels , and shalt be in the life to come equall to the Angels ; yea , in respect of thy Nature , exalted , by a personall vnion to the Sonne of God , and by him , to the glory of the Trinitie : superiour to the Angels : a Fellow-Brother with Angels in spirituall grace and euerlasting glory . Thou hast seene how glorious and perfect GOD is , and how that all thy chiefe blisse and happinesse consisteth in hauing an eternall communion with his Maiestie . Now therefore ( O impenitent Sinner ) in the bowels of Christ Iesus I entreat thee ; nay , I coniure thee , as thou tenderest thy owne saluation , seriously to consider with mee , how false , how vaine , how vile are those things , which still retaine and chaine thee in this wretched and cursed estate , wherein thou liuest : and doe hinder thee from the fauour of God , and the hope of eternall life and happinesse . Meditations on the hinderances , which keepe backe a sinner from rhe practise of Pietie . THose Hinderances are chiefely seauen . I. An ignorant mistaking of the true meaning of certaine places of the holy Scripture , and some other chiefe grounds of Christian Religion . The Scriptures mistaken are these . 1 Ezek. 33.14.16 . At what time soeuer a sinner repenteth him of his sinne , I will blot out all , &c. Hence the carnall Christian gathereth : That he may repent when hee will. It is true : Whensoeuer a sinner doth repent , GOD will forgiue : but the text saith not , that a sinner may repent whensoeuer he will , but when GOD will giue him grace . Many ( saith the Scripture ) when they would haue repented were reiected ; and could not repent , though they sought it carefully with teares . What comfort yeelds this Text to thee , who hast not repented , nor knowest whether thou shalt haue grace to repent heereafter ? 2 Math. 11.26 . Come vnto mee all you that labour and are heauy laden , and I wil giue you rest . Hence the lewdest man collects , that he may come vnto Christ when he list . But he must know ; That no man euer comes to Christ , but hee , who ( as Peter saith ) Hauing knowne the way of righteousnesse , hath escaped the pollutions of the world , through the knowledge of our Lord & Sauiour Iesus Christ. To come vnto Christ is to repent and beleeue . And this no man can doe , except his heauenly father draweth him by his grace . 3 Rom. 8.1 . There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Iesus . True. But they are such , who walke not after the flesh ( as thou dost ) but after the spirit , which thou diddest neuer yet resolue to doe . 4 1 Tim. 1.15 . Christ Iesus came into the world to saue sinners , &c. True. But such sinners vvho like Paul are conuerted from their wicked life : not like thee , who still continuest in thy lewdnesse . For that Grace of God which bringeth saluation vnto all men , teacheth vs , that denying vngodlinesse and wordly lusts : we should liue soberly , righteously , and godly in this present world . 5 Prou. 23.26 . A iust man falleth seauen times in a day , and riseth , &c. [ In a day ] is not in the Text : Which meanes not falling into sinne , but falling into trouble , which his malicious enemie plots against the iust : and from which GOD deliuers him ▪ And though it meant falling in , and rising out of sinne ; what is this to thee ? whose falles all men may see euery day : but neither God nor man can at any time see thy rising againe , by repentance ? 6 Isay 64.6 . All our righteousnes are as filthy rags . Hence the carnall Christian gathers : That seeing the best workes of the best Saints are no better ; then his are good enough : and therefore hee needes not much grieue , that his deuotions are so imperfect . But Isay meanes not in this place , the righteous work● of the Regenerate , as feruent praiers in the name of God : charitable almes from the bowels of mercy : suffring in the G●spels defence , the spoile of goods , and spilling of blood , and such workes , which Paul calles the fruit of the spirit . But the Prophet making an humble confession in the name of the Iewish Church , when she had fallen from GOD to Idolatry , acknowledgeth that whilest they were by their filthy sinnes separated from GOD , as leapers are by their infected sores and polluted cloathes from men : their chiefest righteousnesse could not be but abhominable in his sight . And though our best works compared with Christs righteousnesse are no better then vncleane ragges ; yet in Gods acceptation , for Christs sake , they are called a white rayment , yea , b pure fine linnen and shining , farre vnlike thy c Leopards spots , and d filthy garments . 7 Iam. 3.2 . In many things we sinne all . True. But Gods children sinnes not in all things as thou doest , without either bridling their lusts , or mortifying their corruptions . And though the reliques of sinne , remaines in the dearest children of God , that they had neede dayly to cry , Our Father which art in heauen , forgiue vs our trespasses . Yet in the New e Testament none are properly called Sinners , but the vnregenerate . But the Regenerate , in respect of their zealous endeuour to serue God in vnfained holinesse , are euery where called Saints . Insomuch that Saint Iohn saith , that whosoeuer is borne of God sinneth not . That is , liueth not in wilfull filthinesse , suffring sinne to raigne in him as thou doest . Deceiue not thy selfe with the name of a Christian : vvhosoeuer liueth in any custommary grosse sinne , he liueth not in the state of Grace . Let therefore , saith Paul , euery one that nameth the name of Christ , depart from iniquity . The Regenerate sinne , but of frailty , they repent , and God doth pardon : therefore they sinne not to death . The Reprobate sinne maliciously , wilfully , and delight therin so that by their good will sinne shall leaue them before they will leaue it . They will not repent , and God will not pardon . Therefore their sinnes are mortall , saith Saint Iohn : Or rather immortall , as saith S. Paul , Rom. 2.5 . It is no excuse therefore to say wee are all sinners . True Christians thou seest are all Saints . 8 Luk. 23 43. The Thiefe conuerted , at the last gaspe was receiued to Paradice : What then ? If I may haue but time to say when I am dying , Lord haue mercy vpon me , I shall likewise be saued . But what if thou shalt not ? And yet many in that day shal● say , Lord , Lord , and the Lord will not knowe them . The Thiefe was saued , for he repented ; but his fellow had no grace , to repent , and was damned ▪ Beware therefore , lest trusting to late Repentance at thy last end on earth : thou be not driuen to repent too late , without ende in Hell. 9 1 Ioh. 1. The blood of Iesus Christ cleanseth vs from all sinne , And 1 Ioh. 2.1 . If any man si●ne we ha●e an Aduocate with the Father , Iesus Christ the righteous , &c. O comfortable ! But heere what Saint Iohn saith in the same place , My little children these things write I vnto you that yee sinne not . If therefore thou leauest thy sinne , these comforts are thine : else they belong not to thee . 10 Rom. 5.20 . Where sinne abounded , Grace did abound much more . O sweet ! But heare what Paul addeth . What shall wee say then ? shall we continue in sinne that Grace may abound ? God forbid . How shall we that are dead to sinne liue any longer therein ? Rom. 6.1.2 . This place teacheth vs not to presume : but that we should not despaire . None therefore of these promises , promiseth any grace to any : but to the penitent heart . The grounds of Religion mistaken are . 1 From the doctrine of Iustification by faith onely : a carnal Christian gathereth : That good workes are not necessary ▪ he commends others , that do good works , but he perswads himself , that he shall be saued by his faith , without doing any such matters . But he shold know that though good works are not necessary to Iustification : yet they are necessary to saluation ; for , We are Gods workemanship , created in Christ Iesus vnto good workes , which God hath predestinated that wee should walke in them . Whosoeuer therfore in yeres of discretion , bringeth not forth good works , after he is called , he cannot besaued : neither was he euer predestinated to life eternal . Therefore the Scripturs saith , that Christ wil reward euery mā according to his works . Christ respects in the Angels of the 7. Churches nothing but their works . And at the last day he will giue the heauenly Inheritance onely to them who haue done good workes ; a in feeding the hungry , cloathing the naked , &c. At that day , b Righteousnesse shall weare the Crowne . No righteousnesse , no Crowne : No good workes ( according to a mans talent ) no reward from God : vnlesse it be c vengeance . To be rich in good workes is the surest foundation of our assurance d to obtaine eternall life . For good workes are the true fruits of a true faith which apprehendeth Christ and his obedience , vnto Saluation . And no other faith e auaileth in Christ but that which worketh by loue . And but in the act of Iustification , that Faith which onely iustifieth , is * neuer onely , but euer accompanied with good workes , as the Tree with his fruits , the Sun with his light , the Fire vvith his heate , and Water with his moisture : and that faith which doth not iustifie her selfe by good workes before Men , is but f a dead Faith , which vvill neuer iustifie a mans soule before God. But a iustifying faith , g purifieth the heart , and h sanctifieth the whole man throughout . II. From the doctrine of Gods eternall i Predestination and vnchangeable decree , hee gathereth , that if hee be predestinated to be saued , hee cannot but be saued : if to be damned , no meanes can doe any good . Therefore all vvorkes of Pi●tie are but in vaine : but hee should learne , that God hath predestinated to the means as well as to the end . Whom therefore GOD hath predestinated to be saued , which is the b end , hee hath likewise predestinated to be first called , iustified , and made conformable to the image of his Son , which is the c meanes . And they ( saith d Peter ) who are elect vnto saluation , are also elect vnto the sanctification of the spirit . If therefore vpon thy calling , thou conformest thy selfe to the Word and Example of Christ thy Master , & obeyest the good motions of the holy Spirit in leauing sinne , and liuing a godly life : then assure thy selfe , that thou art one of those , who are infallibly predestinated to euerlasting saluation . If otherwise , blame not Gods predestination , but thine owne sinne , and rebellion . Doe thou but returne vnto God , and God will gratiously receiue thee , as the Father did the prodigall Sonne , and by thy conuersion it shall appeare both to e Angels and f Men , that thou didst belong to his Election . If thou wilt not , why should God saue thee ? III. When a carnall Christian heares , that man hath not free-will vnto good , he looseth the reynes to his owne corrupt will : as though it lay not in him to bridle or to subdue it . Implicitely , making God the authour of sinne , in suffering man to runne into this necessitie . But hee should know , that GOD gaue Adam free-will to stand in his * integritie if hee would : but man abusing his free-will , lost both himselfe and it . Since the Fall , Man in his state of corruption , hath Free-will to euill , but not to good : for , in this state , b we are not ( saith the Apostle ) sufficient to think a good thought . And God is not bound to restore vs what wee lost so wretchedly , and make no more care to recouer againe . But , as soone as a man is regenerated , the Grace of God freeth his will vnto good , so that hee doth all the good things hee doth , with a Free-will : for so the Apostle saith , that c God of his owne good pleasure , worketh both the will and the deede in vs , who ( as the Apostle expoundeth ) d cleance our selues from all filthinesse of the flesh and spirit , and finish our sanctification in the feare of God. And in this state , euery true Christian hath Free-will , and as hee increaseth in grace , so doth his will in freedome : for e when the Sonne shall make vs free , then shall wee be free indeede : and , f where the Spirit of the Lord is , there is libertie : for the holy Spirit drawes their mindes , not by coaction , but by the cordes of Loue , Can. 1.4 . by illuminating their mindes to know the truth ; by changing their hearts to loue the knowne truth , and by enabling euery one of them , according to the measure of grace which hee hath receiued , to doe the good which he loueth . But thou wilt not vse the freedome of thy will so farre as GOD hath freed it : for thou dost many times wilfully against Gods Law , to the hazard of thy Soule ; that , which if the Kings Law forbad vnder the penaltie of death , or losse of thy worldly state thou wouldest not doe . Make not therefore thy want of free-will vnto good to be so much the cause of thy sinne , as thy want of a louing heart to serue thy heauenly Father . IIII. When the naturall man heares , that no man since the fall , is able to fulfill the Law of God , and to keepe all his Commandements : He boldly presumes to sinne as others doe : hee contents himselfe with a few good thoughts : and if hee be not altogether as bad as the worst , hee concludes that hee is as truely regenerate as the best . And euery voluntary refusall of doing good , or withstanding euill , he counts the impossibilitie of the Law. But he should learne that though since the Fall ▪ no man but Christ , who was both God and man , did or can perfectly fulfill the whole Law. yet euery true Christian , as soone as hee is regenerated , begins to keepe all Gods Commandements in truth , though hee cannot in absolute perfection . Thus with Dauid , they g apply their hearts to fulfill Gods Commandements alwayes vnto the end . And then the h Spirit of grace vvhich was promised to be more aboundantly poured forth vnder the Gospel , helpeth them in their good endeuours and assisteth them to doe vvhat he commands them to doe . And in so doing , GOD accepteth their i good will and endeuour , in stead of perfect fulfilling of the Law , supplying out of the merits of Christ , who fulfilled the Law for vs , whatsoeuer wanteth in our obedience . And in this respect S. Iohn saith , that k Gods commandements are not burdenous . And S. Paul saith , l I am able to doe all things through the helpe of him that strengthneth me . And Z●chary and Elizabeth are said , m to walk● in all the Commandements of the Lord , without reproofe . Hereupon CHRIST n commends to his Disciples , the care of keeping his Commandements , as the trueest testimonie of our loue vnto him . So farre therefore doth a man loue Christ , as he makes conscience to walk in his Commandements : and the more vnto Christ is our loue , the lesse will our paines seeme in keeping his Law. The Lawes curse which vnder the Olde Testament was so terrible , is vnder the New , by the death of Christ , abolished to the regenerate . The rigor which made it so vnpossible to our nature before , is now to the new borne , so mollified by the Spirit , that it seemes facile and easie . The Apostles indeede pressed on the vnconuerted Iewes and Gentiles the impossibilitie of keeping the Law , by abilitie of nature corrupted . But when they haue to doe with regenerated Christians , they require to the Law ( which is the rule of righteousnesse ) true h obedience in word and deede : the i mortifying of their members : the k crucifying of the flesh , with the affections and lusts thereof : l resurrection to newnesse of life : m walking in the spirit : n ouercomming of the world by faith . So that though no man can say as CHRIST , o which of you can rebuke me of sinne ? yet euery regenerated Christian can say of himselfe , which of you can rebuke mee of being an Adulterer , whoremonger , swearer , drunkard , theefe , vsurer , oppressor , proud , malicious , couetous , profaner of the holy Saboth , a Lyer , a neglecter of Gods publike Seruice , and such like grosse sinnes ! else hee is no true Christian. When a man casts off the conscience of being ruled by Gods Law , then GOD p giues him ouer to be led by his owne lusts , the surest signe of a reprobate sense . Thus the Law vvhich since the Fall , no man by his owne naturall abilitie can fulfill : is fulfilled in truth of euery regenerated Christian , through the gratious assistance of q Christs holy Spirit . And this Spirit GOD will r giue to euery Christian that will pray for it , and incline his heart to keepe his Lawes . V. When the vnregenerated man heares that GOD delighteth more in the inward minde then in the outward man. Then he faineth vvith himselfe , that all outward reuerence and profession is but eyther superstitious or superfluous . Hence it is that hee seldome kneeleth in the Church : that hee puts on his hat at singing of Psalmes , and the publike Prayers , vvhich the profane varlet would not offer to doe , in the presence of a Prince or a Noble-man . And so that hee keepe his minde vnto GOD , hee thinkes hee may fashion himselfe , in other things , to the World. Hee diuides his thoughts , and giues so much to GOD , and so much to his owne lusts : yea , hee will deuide with GOD the Sabboth ▪ and vvill giue him almost the one halfe , and spend the other wholy in his owne pleasures . But know , ô carnall man , that Almightie GOD will not be serued by halfes , because hee hath created and redeemed the whole man. And as GOD detests the seruice of the outward man , without the inward heart , as Hypocrisie : so hee counts the inward seruice without all externall reuerence , to be meere profanenesse ; hee requireth both in his worship . In prayer fore bowe thy knees , in witnesse of thy humiliation : lift vp thine eyes and thy hands in testimonie of thy confidence : hang down thy head , & smite thy breasts in token of thy contrition , but especially call vpon God with a sincere heart : serue him holy , serue him wholy , serue him onely , for GOD and the Prince of this world , are two contrary Masters , and therefore no man can possibly serue both . VI. The vnregenerated Christian , holdes the hearing of the Gospell preached to be but an indifferent matter , which he may vse or not vse at his pleasure : but whosoeuer thou art , that will be assured in thy heart that thou art one of Christs elect sheepe ; thou must make a speciall care and conscience ( if possibly thou canst ) to heare Gods word preached : For first , the preaching of the Gospell is the chiefe ordinary meanes which GOD hath appointed to conuert the soules of all that hee hath * predestinated to be saued : therefore it is called a the power of God vnto saluation , to euery one that beleeueth . And where this diuine ordinance is not , b the people perish : and whosoeuer shall refuse it , c it shall be more tollerable for the Land of S●dome and Gomorrha in the day of Iudgement then for those people . Secondly , the preaching of the Gospel is the d standard or ensigne of Christ ; to which all Souldiers and elect people must assemble themselues . When this Ensigne is displayed , as vpon the Lords day , hee is none of Christs people , that e flockes not vnto it : neyther shall any drop of the f raine of his Grace light on their soules . Thirdly , it is the ordinary meanes , by which the holy Ghost g begetteth Faith in our hearts , without * which wee cannot please God. If the hearing of Christs voyce be the chiefe marke of Christs elect h sheepe , and of the i Bridegroomes friend ; then must it be a fearefull marke of a reprobate k Goate , eyther to neglect or contemne to heare the preaching of the Gospell . Let no man thinke this position foolish , for l by this foolishnesse of preaching it pleaseth GOD to saue them which beleeue . Their state is therefore fearefull , who liue in peace , vvithout caring for the preaching of the Gospell . Can men looke for Gods Mercy , and despise his meanes ? m He ( saith Christ of the Preachers of his Gospell ) that despiseth you , despiseth mee . n Hee that is of God , heareth Gods words : yee therefore heare them not , because ye are not of God. Had not the o Israelites heard Phineas message , they had neuer wept . Had not the Baptist p preached , the Iewes had neuer mourned . Had not they who crucified Christ heard Peters q Sermon , their hearts had neuer beene pricked . Had not the Nineuites heard Ionas r preaching , they had neuer repented , and if thou wilt not s heare and t repent , thou shalt neuer be saued . VII . The opinion that the Sacraments are but bare signes & seales of Gods promise and grace vnto vs , doth not a little hinder Pietie ; whereas indeede , they are seales as well of our Seruice and obedience vnto GOD : which seruice if wee performe not vnto him , the Sacraments seale no grace vnto vs. But if wee receiue them vpon the resolution , to be his faithfull and penitent Seruants ; then the Sacraments doe not onely signifie and ●ffer , but also seale and exhibite indeede the inward spirituall grace , vvhich they outwardly promise and repr●sent . And to this ende Baptisme is called the u washing of regeneration , and renewing of the Holy Ghost : and the Lords Supper , x The communion of the body and bloud of Christ. Were this truth beleeued , the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper would be oftner , and with greater reuerence receiued . VIII . The last and not the least blocke , whereat Pietie stumbleth in the course of Religion , is by adorning vices with the names of Vertues : as to call drunken carowsing , drinking of health ; spilling innocent bloud , valor ; Gluttonie , hospitalitie ; Couet●ousnesse , thriftinesse ; Whoredome , louing a Mistresse ; Symonie , gratu●●● ; Pride , gracefulnesse ; dissembling , complement ; children of Belial , good-fellowes ; Wrath , hastinesse ; ribauldry , mirth : So on the other side to call Sobrietie in words and actions , Hypocrisie ; Almes-deedes , vaine-glory ; Deuotion , Superstition ; Zeale in Religion , Puritanisme ; Humilitie , crouching ; scruple of Conscience , precisenesse , &c. and whilest thus wee call euill , good , and good euill ; true Pietie is much hindered in her progresse . And thus much of the first hinderance of Pietie , by mistaking the true sense of some speciall places of Scripture , and grounds of Christian Religion . The second hinderance of Pietie . 2 The euill example of great persons . The practise of of whose prophane liues they preferre for their imitation , before the precepts of Gods holy word . So that when they see the greatest mē in the state , & many chiefe Gentlemen in their Countrey to make neither care nor conscience to heare Sermons , to receiue the Communion , nor to sanctifie the Lords Sabbaths , &c. But to be swearers , adulterers , carowsers , oppressours , &c. Then they thinke , that the vsing of these holy ordinances are not matters of so great moment : for if they were ; such great and wise men would not set so little by them . Heereupon they thinke that Religion is not a matter of necessity . And therefore where they should like Christians rowe against the streame of impiety towards heauen : they suffer themselues to be carried with the multitude downe right to Hell , thinking it impossible that God will suffer so many to be damned . Whereas if the God of this world had not blinded the eies of their minds : the holy Scriptures would teach them , that a Not many wise men , after the flesh , not many mighty , not many noble are called , &c. but that for the most part , the b poore receiue the Gospell , and that c fewe rich men shall be saued . And , That howsoeuer many are called , yet the chosen are but few . d Neither did the multitude euer saue any from damnation . As God hath aduanced men in greatnesse aboue others , : so doth God expect that they in religion and piety should goe before others : otherwise greatnesse abused in the time of their stewardship , shal turn to their greater condemnation in the day of their accounts . At what time , sinfull great and mighty men ▪ aswell as the poorest slaues and bondmen : shall wish that the rockes and mountaines shall fal vpon them , and hide them from the presence of the Iudge , and from his iust deserued wrath . It will prooue but a miserable solace , to haue a great company of great men partakers with thee of thine eternall torments . The multitude of sinners doth not extenuate but aggrauate sinne , as in Sodome . Better it is therefore , with a few to be saued in the Arke : then with the whole world to be drowned in the floud . Walke with the few goodly , in the Scriptures narrow path to heauen : but crowde not with the godlesse multitude in the broad way to hell . Let not the examples of irreligious great men , hinder thy repentance : for their greatnesse cannot at that day exempt themselues from their owne most grieuous punishments . The third hinderance of Pietie . 3 The long escaping of deserued punishment in this life . Because sentence ( saith Salomon ) is not speedily executed against an euill worker , therefore the hearts of the children of men are fully set in them to doe euill , not knowing that the bountifulnesse of God leadeth them to repentance . h But when his patience is abused , and mans sinnes are ripened : his Iustice will at once both i beginne and make an ende of the sinner : and hee will recompence the slownesse of his delay with the grieuousnesse of his punishment . Though they were suffered to runne on the score all the daies of their life : yet they shall be sure to pay the vtmost farthing at the day of their death . And whilest they suppose themselues , to be free from iudgement ; they are already smitten with the heauiest of Gods Iugdements , a a heart that cannot repent The stone in the r●ines or bladder , is a greeuous paine that kils many a mans body : but there is no disease to the stone in the heart , whereof b Nabal dyed , and killeth millions of Soules . They refuse the triall of Christ and his Crosse : but they are stoned by hels executioner to eternall death . Because many Nobles and Gentlemen are not smitten with present Iudgements , for their outragious Swearing , Adultery , drunkennesse , oppression , prophanesse of the Sabbath , and disgraceful neglect of Gods worship and seruice : they beginne to doubt of diuine prouidence and i●stice . Both which two eyes , they would as willingly put out in God : as the Philistims boared out the eyes of Sampson . It is greatly therefore to be feared ; lest they will prouoke the Lord to cry out against them , as Sampson against the Philistimes . By neglecting the Law , and walking after their owne hearts , they put out , as much as in them lieth , the eies of my Prouidence and iustice . Leade me therefore to those chiefe pillars , vvhereupon the Realme standeth : that I may pull the Realme , vpon their heads , and be at once auenged of them for my two eies ! Let not Gods patience hinder thy repentance : but because he is so patient , therfore doe thou the rather repent . The fourth hinderance of Pietie . 4 The presumption of Gods mercy . For when men are iustly conuinced of their sinnes , forthwith they betake themselues to this shield , Christ is mercifull : so that euery sinner makes Christ the Patrone of his sinne : as though hee had come into the world , to bolster sinne ; and not to destroy the workes of the Diuel . Herevpon the carnall Christian presumeth that though hee continueth a while longer in his sinne : God will not shorten his daies . But what is this but to be an Implicite Atheist ? Doubting that either GOD seeth not his sinnes , or if he doth , that he is not Iust. For if hee beleeueth that God is iust ▪ how can he thinke that God , who for sinne so seuerely punisheth others , can loue him who still loueth to continue in sinne . True it is , Christ is mercifull ; But to whom ? onely to them that repent and turne from iniquity in Iacob . But if any man blesse himselfe in his heart , saying , I shall haue peace , although I walke according to the stubbornnesse of mine owne heart , thus adding drunkennesse to thirst , The Lord will not be mercifull to him , &c. O madde men ! who dare blesse themselues when God pronounceth them accursed . * Looke therefore how farre thou art from finding repentance in thy self : so farre art thou from any assurance of finding mercy in Christ. Let therefore the wicked forsake his waies , and the vnrighteous his owne imaginations , and returne vnto the Lord , and hee will haue mercy vpon him : and to our God , for hee is very ready to forgiue . Despaire is nothing so dangerous as presumption . For we reade not in al the Scriptures of aboue three or foure whom roaring Despaire ouerthrew : But secure Presumption , hath sent millions to perdition , without any noise . As therefore the Damsels of Israel sang in their daunces , Saul hath kild his thousands , and Dauid his tenne thousands : so may I say , that despaire of Gods mercy hath damned thousands , but the presumption of Gods mercy hath damned tenne thousands , and sent them quicke to hell , where now they remaine in eternall torments , without all helpe of ease , or hope of redemption . God spared the thiefe , but not his fellow . God spared one , that no man might despaire : God spared but one , that no man should presume . Ioyfull assurance to a sinner that repents : no comfort to him that remaines impenitent . God is infinite in mercy but to them onely , who turne from their sinnes to serue him in holinesse : without which no man shall see the Lord. Heb. 12.14 . To keepe thee therefore from the hinderance of presumption , remember ; that as Christ is a Sauiour , so Moses is an accuser . Liue therefore , as though there were no Gospel : die as though there were no law . Passe thy life as though thou wert vnder the conduct of Moses : depart this life , as if thou knewest none but Christ , and him crucified . Presume not if thou wilt not perish : Repent if thou wilt be saued . The fift hinderance of Pietie . 5 Euill company , commonly termed . Good fellowes : but indeede the Diuels chiefe instruments , to hinder a wretched sinner from repentance and pietie . The first signe of Gods fauour to a sinner is , to giue him grace to forsake euill companions , such who wilfully continue in sin , contemne the meanes of their calling : gibing at the sincerity of profession in others : and shaming Christian religion by their owne prophane liues . These sit in the seate of the Scorners . For as soone as God admits a sinner to be one of his people ; he bids him , Come out of Babylon . Euery lewde company is a Babylon . Out of which let euery child of God either keepe himselfe , or if hee be in ; thinke that hee heares his fathers voice sounding in his eare . Come out of Babylon my childe ? As soone as Christ looked in mercy vpon Peter , hee went out of the company that was in the high Priests Hall , and wept bitterly , for his offence . Dauid vowing vpon recouery a new life , said : Away from me all you workers of iniquity , &c. As if it were vnpossible to become a new man : till he he had shaken of all old ill companions . The truest proofe of a mans religion , is the quallity of his companions ? Profane companions are the chiefe enemies of Piety , and quellers of holy motions . Many a time is , poore Christ , ( offering to bee new borne in thee ) thrust into the stable : when these lewde companions , by their drinking , playes , and iests take vp all the best roomes in the Inne of thy heart . Oh , let not the company of earthly sinners hinder thee from the societie of heauenly Saints and Angels . The sixt hinderance of Pietie . 6. A conceited feare , least the practise of Pietie should make a man ( especially a yong man ) to waxe too sad ▪ and pensiue , whereas indeed none can better ioy , nor haue more cause to reioyce , then the pious and religious Christian. For as soone as they are e iustified by faith , they haue peace with God , then which there can be no greater ioy . Besides , they haue already the Kingd●me of grace descended into their hearts , as an assurance that ( in Gods good time ) they shall ascend into his Kingdome of glory . This kingdome of grace consists in three things : First , Righteousnesse ; for hauing Christs righteousnesse to iustifie them before GOD , they endeuour to liue righteously before Men : Secondly , Peace ; for the peace of conscience inseparably followeth a righteous conuersation : Thirdly , the ioy of the holy Ghost , which ioy is onely felt in the Peace of a good Conscience , and is so great ; that it a passeth all vnderstanding : no tongue can expresse it , no heart can conceiue it , but onely hee that feeles it . This is that fulnesse of ioy , which b CHRIST promised his Disciples , in the middest of their troubles , a ioy that no man could take from them : the feeling of this ioy , Dauid vpon his repentance begged so earnestly at the hands of GOD , c Restore me to the ioy of thy saluation . And if Angels in Heauen d reioyce so much at the conuersion of a sinner ? the ioy of a sinner conuerted must needes be exceeding great in his owne heart . It is e worldly sorrow that snowes so timely vpon mens heads , and fils the furrowes of their hearts with the sorrowes of death . The godly sorrow of the godly ( vvhen GOD thinkes it meete to try them , ) causeth in them Repentance , not to be repented of : for it doth but further their saluation . And in all such tribulation , they shall be sure to haue the Holy Ghost to be their f Comforter , who vvill g make our consolations to abound through Christ , as the suffrings of Christ shall abound in vs. But whilest a man liueth in impietie , he hath h no peace , saith Isay : his i laughter is but madnesse , ( saith Salomon : his riches are but k clay , saith Abakkuk : nay , the Apostle esteemes them no better then l dung , in comparison of the pious mans treasure : all his m ioyes shall end in woes , saith Christ. Let not therefore this false feare hinder thee from the practise of pietie . Better it is to goe sickly , with Lazarus , to Heauen , then full of mirth and pleasure , with Diues , to Hell. Better is it to mourne for a time with men , then to be tormented for euer with Diuels . The seauenth hinderance of Pietie . 7. And lastly , The hope of long life : for , were it possible that a wicked liuer thought this yeere to be his last yeere ; this moueth , his last moneth ; this weeke , his last weeke ; but that hee would change and amend his wicked life ? no verely , he would vse the best meanes to repent , and to become a new man. But as the rich man in the Gospell promised himselfe many yeeres to liue in ease , mirth and fulnesse , when hee had not one night to liue longer : so many wicked Epicures falsely promise themselues the age of many yeeres , when the thread of their life is already almost drawne out to an end . So Ieremie ascribes the cause of the Iewes sinnes and calamities to this , that she remembred not her last end . The longest space twixt a mans comming by the wombe , and going by the graue , is but short : for man that is borne of a woman hath but a short time to liue : Hee hath but a few dayes , & those full of nothing but troubles . And , except the practise of Pietie ; how much better is the state of the childe , that yesterday vvas baptised , and to day is buried , then Methusalems , who liued nine hundred sixtie nine yeeres , and then dyed ? of the two ; happier the Babe , because hee had lesse sinne , and fewer sorrowes . And what now remaines of both but a bare remembrance ? What trust should a man repose in long life ? seeing the whole life of man is nothing but a lingring death : so that as the Apostle protests , a man dyeth daily ? Hearke in thine eare , O secure fellow ; thy life is but a puffe of breath in thy nostrels , trust not to it : thy Soule dwels in a house of clay , that will fall ere it be long : as may appeare by the dimnesse of thy eyes , the deafenesse of thy eares , the wrinckles in thy cheekes , the rottennesse of thy teeth , the weakenesse of thy sinewes , the trembling of thy hands , the Kalender in thy bones , the shortnesse of thy sleepe , and euery gray haire , as so many Summoners , bids thee prepare for thy long home . Come , let vs in the meane while vvalke to thy fathers Coffin : breake open the lidde , see here , how that Corruption is thy Father , and the Worme thy Mother and Sister : seest thou how these are ? so must thou be ere long : foole , thou knowest not how soone . Thy Houre-glasse runneth apace , and in all places , death in the meane while wayteth for thee . The whole life of man , saue what is spent in Gods seruice , is but a foolerie : for a man liues forty yeeres before hee knowes himselfe to be a foole , and by that time hee seeth his folly his life is finished . Hearke Husbandman , before thou seest many more crops of haruest , thy selfe shalt be ripe , and Death will cut thee downe with his Syckle . Heark Trades-man , ere many sixe moneths goes ouer , thy last moneth will come on , after which thou shalt trace away , and trade no longer . Hearke most graue Iudge , within a few Tearmes , the terme of thy life approcheth , wherein thou shalt cease to iudge others , and goe thy selfe to be iudged . Hearke , ô man of God that goest to the Pulpit , preach this Sermon , as if it were the last thou shouldest make to thy people . Hearke Noble-man , lay aside the high conceit of thy Honour ! Death ere it be long , * vvill lay thine Honour in the dust , and make thee as base as the earth that thou treadest vnder thy feet . Hearke thou that now readest this Booke , assure thy selfe ere it be long , there vvill be but two holes where now thy two eyes are placed , and others shall reade the truth of this lesson vpon thy bare skull , which now thou readest in this little Booke . How soone I know not : but this I am sure of ; that a thy time is appointed , thy b moneths are determined , thy c dayes are numbred , and thy very d last houre is limited , beyond which thou shalt not passe : for then , the e first borne of Death , mounted on his f pale Horse , shall alight at thy doore : and notwithstanding all thy Wealth , thy Honour , and the teares of thy dearest friends , will carry thee away bound hand and foote , as his prisoner : and keepe thy body vnder a loade of earth , vntill that day come : vvherein thou must be brought forth to g receiue according to the things which thou hast done in that body , whether it be good or euill . Oh , let not then the false , hope of an vncertaine long life hinder thee , from becomming a present Practizer of religious Pietie . GOD h offereth grace to day , but who promiseth to morrow ? There are now in hell many young-men , vvho had purposed to repent in their olde age , but Death cut them off in their impenitencie , ere euer they could attaine to the time they set for their repentance . The longer a man runnes in a disease , the harder it is to be cured : for custome of sin breedes hardnesse of heart : and the impediments vvhich hinder thee from repenting now , will hinder thee more when thou art more aged . A wise man being to goe a farre and foule iourney , will not lay the heauiest burthen vpon the weakest horse . And with what conscience canst thou lay , the great load of repentance , on thy feeble and tyred old age ? Whereas now in thy chiefest strength thou canst not lift it , but art ready to stagger vnder it . Is it wisdome for him that is to saile a long and dangerous voyage , to lye playing and sleeping whilest the winde serueth , and the Sea is calme , the shippe sound , the Pilote well , the Marriners strong : and then to set foorth when the windes are contrary , the weather tempestuous , the Sea raging , the Ship rotten , the Pilote sicke , and the Sailers languishing ? Therefore , O sinfull soule , beginne now thy conuersion to God , whilest life , health , strength , and youth lasteth : before those a yeeres draw nigh , whē as thou shalt say , I haue no pleasure in them . GOD euer required in his seruice , the b first borne ; and the c first fruits , and those to be offered vnto him without delay . So iust d Abel offered vnto GOD his firstlings , and fattest lambes , and reason good ; that the best Lord should be first , & best , serued . All Gods seruants should therefore e remember to serue their Creator in the daies of their youth , and f earely in the morning , like Abraham , to sacrifice vnto GOD the yong Isaak of their age . g Yee shall not see my face ( saith Ioseph to his brethren ) except you bring your yonger brother with you . And how shalt thou looke in the face of Iesus ; if thou giuest thy younger yeeres to the Diuell , and bringest him nothing but thy blinde , lame , and decrepit old age ? h Offer it vnto thy Prince , saith Malachy . If he will not accept such a one to serue him ? how shall the Prince of Princes admit such a one to be his seruant ? If the i King of Babel would haue young men well fauoured , and such as had ability in them , to stand in his palace ; shall the King of heauen haue none to stand in his Courts but the blinde and lame , such as the soule of Dauid hated ? Thinkest thou , k when thou hast serued Satan with thy prime yeeres , to satisfie God with thy dogge daies ? Take heede lest God turne thee ouer to thy olde master againe . That as thou hast all the daies of thy life , done his worke : so hee may in the ende pay thee thy wages . Is that a fit time , to vndertake by the serious exercises of repentance , which is the worke of workes , to turne thy sinnefull Soule to GOD , when thou art not able with all thy strength to turne thy weary bones , on thy soft bed ? If thou findest it so hard a matter now ? thou shalt finde it farre harder then . For thy sinne will waxe stronger , thy strength will grow weaker , thy conscience will clog thee , paine will distracte thee , the feare of death will amaze thee , and the visitation of friends will so disturbe thee : that if thou be not furnished aforehand with store of faith , patience and consolation : thou shalt not be able either to meditate thy selfe , or to heare the words of comfort from others , nor to pray alone , nor to ioyne with others who pray for thee . It may bee thou shalt be taken with a dumbe palsey , or such a deadly senslessenesse ; that thou shalt neither remember God , nor thinke vpon thine owne estate . And doest thou not well deserue that God should forget to saue thee in thy death : vvho art so vnmindefull now to serue him in thy life ? The feare of death , will driue many at that time to cry , Lord , Lord : but Christ protesteth that hee will not then know them for his . Yea many shal then like Esau with teares seeke to repent : and yet finde no place to repentance . For man hath not free-wil to repent , when he will , but when God will giue him grace . And if Mercy shewed her selfe so inexo●able , that shee would not open her gates to so tender suiters as ▪ Virgins , to so earnest suiters as knockers , because they knocked too late : How thinkest thou , that shee will euer suffer thee to enter her gates , being so impure a wretch , that neuer thinketh to leaue sinne , till sinne first leaueth thee : and didst neuer yet knocke with thine owne fistes vpon the breasts of a penitent heart ? And iustly doth her Grace deny to open the gates of Heauen when thou knockest in thine aduersitie ; who in thy prosperitie wouldest not suffer Christ , whilest he knocked , to enter at in the dore of thy heart . Trust not eyther late Repentance , or long life : not late repentance , because it is much to be feared ; least that the Repentance vvhich the feare of death enforceth , dyes with a man dying . And the Hypocrite vvho deceiued others in his life , may deceiue himselfe in his death . GOD accepteth none but free-will Offerings , and the repentance that pleaseth him must be voluntarie , and not of constraint . Not long life , for old age will fall vpon the necke of youth ; and as nothing is more sure then Death : so nothing is more vncertaine then the time of dying . Yea , oft-times when ripenesse of sinne , is hastned by outragiousnesse of sinning , GOD sodainly cutteth off such vicious liuers , eyther with the sword intemperatenes , luxurie , surfeit , or some other fearefull manner of sicknes . Maist thou not see that it is the euill Spirit that perswades thee to deferre thy Repentance till olde age , when Experience tels thee , that not one of a thousand that takes thy course , doe euer attaine vnto it ? Let Gods holy Spirit moue thee not to giue thy selfe any longer to eate and drinke with the drunken , least thy Master send Death for thee , in a day when thou lookest not for him , and in an houre that thou art not aware of , and so sodainely cut thee off , and appoint thee thy portion with the Hypocrites , where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth . But if thou louest a long life , feare GOD , and long for life euerlasting . The longest life here when it is come to the period , will appeare to haue beene , but as a b tale that is tolde , a c vanishing vapour , a flitting d shadow , a seeming e dreame , a glorious flower , growing and f flourishing in the g morning , but in the euening cut downe and withered , or like a weauers h shittle , which by winding here and there , swiftly vnwindeth it selfe to an end . It is but a i moment , saith Saint Paul. O then the madnesse of man ! that for a moment of sinful k pleasure wil hazard the losse of an l eternall waight of glory ! These are the seuen chiefe hinderers of Pietie vvhich must be cast out like Mary Magdalens seauen Diuels , before euer thou canst become a true practizer of Pietie : or haue any sound hope to enioy either fauour from CHRIST by grace , or fellowship with him in glory . The Conclusion . TO conclude all : for as much as thou seest , that without Christ , thou art but a slaue of sinne , Deaths vassall , and wormes meate , vvhose thoughts are vaine , vvhose deedes are vile , whose pleasures haue scarse beginnings , whose miseries neuer knowes end : vvhat wise man would incurre these hellish torments , though hee might by liuing in sinne , purchase to himselfe for a time , the Empire of Augustus , the riches of Croesus , the pleasures of Salomon , the policie of Achitophel , the voluptuous fare , and fine apparrell of Diues ? for what should it auaile a man ( as our Sauiour saith ) to winne the whole world , for a time ; and then to lose his soule in Hell for euer . And seeing that likewise thou seest how great is thy happinesse in Christ , and how vaine are the hinderances that debarre thee from the same : beware ( as the Apostle exhorteth ) of the deceitfulnesse of sinne . For that sinne which seemes now to be so pleasing to thy corrupt nature , vvill one day proue the bitterest enemie to thy distressed soule : and in the meane while harden vnawares thine impenitent heart . Sinne as a Serpent seemes beautifull to the eye : but take heede of the sting behinde : whose venemous effects if thou knewest ; thou wouldest as carefully flye from sinne as from a Serpent : for , 1 Sinne did neuer any man good , and the more sinne a man hath committed , the more odious hee hath made himselfe to GOD , the more hatefull to all good men . 2 Sinne brought vpon thee all the euils , crosses , losses , disgraces , & sicknesse , that euer befell thee : Fooles ( saith Dauid ) by reason of their transgressions , and because of their iniquities are afflicted . Ieremy in lamenting manner asketh the question ; Wherefore is the liuing man sorrowfull ? The holy Ghost answereth him ; Man suffereth for his sinne . Hereupon the Prophet takes vp that doleful out-cry against sinne , as the cause of all their miseries , woe now vnto vs that euer we haue sinned ! 3 If thou dost not speedily repent thee of thy sins , they wil bring vpon thee yet farre greater plagues , losses , crosses , shame and Iudgements , then euer hitherto befell thee . Reade Leuit. 26.18 . &c. Deut. 28.15 . &c. 4 And lastly , if thou wilt not cast off thy sinne ▪ GOD when the measure of thine iniquitie is full , will cast thee off for thy sinne : for , as hee is iust , so hee hath power to kill and cast into hell all hardened and impenitent sinners . If therfore thou wilt auoide the cursed effects of sinne in this life , and the eternall wrath due therto in the world to come ; and be assured that thou art not one of those who are giuen ouer to a reprobate sense ; Let then ( ô Sinner ) my counsell be acceptable vnto thee : breake off thy sinnes by righteousnesse , and thine iniquities by shewing mercy towards the poore : oh let there , at length , be an healing of thine error . Nathan vsed but one Parable , and Dauid was conuerted . Ionas preached but once to Niniuie , and the whole Citie repented . CHRIST looked but once on Peter , and hee went out and wept bitterly . And now , that thou art oft & so louingly entreated , not by a Prophet , but by Christ , the Lord of Prophets ; yea , that GOD himselfe , by his Ambassadours doth pray thee to be reconciled vnto him ; leaue off thine adulterie , with Dauid ; repent of thy sinnes , like a true Niniuite ; and whilest Christ looketh in mercy vpon thee , leaue thy wicked companions , and weepe bitterly for thine offences . Content not thy selfe with that formall Religion , which vnregenerated men haue framed to themselues , in stead of sincere deuotion : for , in the multitude of opinions most men haue almost lost the practise of true religion . Think not that thou art a Christian good enough , because thou dost as the most , and art not so bad as the worst . No man is so wicked , that hee is addicted to all kinde of vices , ( for there is an Antipathie twixt some vices : ) But remember that Christ saith , except your righteousnesse shall exceede the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisies , yee shall in no case enter into the kingdome of Heauen . Consider with thy selfe how farre thou commest short of the Pharisies , in fasting , praying , frequenting the Church , and in giuing of Almes . Thinke with thy selfe how many Pagant , who neuer knew Baptisme , yet in morall vertues and honestie of life doe goe farre beyond thee . Where is then the life of Christ thy Master ? and how farre art thou from being a true Christian ? If thou dost willingly yeeld to liue in any one grosse sinne , thou canst not haue a regenerated Soule : though thou reformest thy selfe like Herod from many other vices . A true Christian must haue respect to walke , in the truth of his heart , in all the Commandements of GOD alike : for , saith Saint Iames , he that shall offend in one point of the Law ( wilfully ) it guiltie of all . And Peter bids vs , lay aside ( not some , but ) all malice , guile , and hypocrisies , &c. One sin is enough to damne a mans Soule , without Repentance : dreame not to goe to heauen , by any neerer or easier vvay then Christ hath trained vnto vs in his Word . The way to Heauen is not easie or common , but straite and narrow ; yea , so narrow , that Christ protesteth , that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdome of Heauen , and that those who enter are but few : and that those few , cannot get in but by striuing : and that some of those vvho striue to enter in , shall not be able . This all Gods Saints ( whilest they here liued ) knew well ; when with so often fastings , so earnest prayers , so frequent hearing the word , and receiuing the sacraments , and with such abundance of t●ares , they deuoutly begged at the hands of GOD , for Christs sake , to be receiued into his Kingdome . If thou wilt not beleeue this truth , I assure thee that the Diuell which perswades thee now that it is easie to attaine Heauen , will tell thee hereafter , that it is the hardest businesse in the world . If therefore thou art desirous to purchase sound assurance of saluation to thy Soule , and to goe the right and safe way to Heauen , get forth-with like a wise Virgin , the Oyle of Pietie in the Lampe of thy Conuersation : that thou maist be in a continuall readinesse to meete the Bride-groome , vvhether hee commeth by Death , or by Iudgement . Which that thou maist the better doe , let this be thy daily practise . How a priuate man must beginne the morning with Pietie . AS soone as euer thou awakest in the morning , keepe the doore of thy heart fast shut , that no earthly thought may enter , before that GOD be come in first , and let him before all others , haue the * first place therein . So all euill thoughts , either will not dare to come in ; or shall the easier be kept out : and the heart vvill more sauour of Pietie and godlinesse all the day after . But if thy heart be not at thy first waking , filled with some meditations of GOD , and his Word , and dressed like the Lampe in the Tabernacle euery morning and euening , with the oyle Oliue , of Gods word , and perfumed with the sweet incense of praier . Satan vvill attempt to fill it with vvorldly cares , or fleshly desires , so that it vvill grow vnfit for the seruice of God : all the day after sending foorth nothing but the stench of corrupt and lying vvordes , and of rash and blasphemous oathes . Beginne therefore euery daies worke , with Gods word and prayer . And offer vp vnto God vpon the Alter of a a contrite heart , the b groanes of thy spirit , and the c calues of thy lippes , as thy morning sacrifice , and the first fruits of the day , and as soone as thou awakest say vnto him thus . A short Soliloquie when one first wakes in the Morning . MY soule waiteth on thee , O Lord , more then the morning-watch watcheth for the morning . O God therefore be mercifull vnto mee , and blesse me , and cause thy face to shine vpon me : fill me with thy mercy this morning , so shal I reioice and be glad all my daies . Meditations for the Morning . Then Meditate . 1 HOw Almighty GOD , can ( in the resurrection ) as easily raise vp thy body out of the graue , from the sleepe of death : as hee hath this morning wakened thee in thy bed , out of the sleepe of nature . At the dawning of which resurrecti●n day , Christ shall come to be glorified in his Saints : and euery one of the bodies of the thousands of his Saints , being fashioned like vnto his glorious body , shal shine as bright as the Sunne . All the Angels shining likewise in their glory , the body of Christ surpassing them all in splendor and glory , and the God-head excelling it . If the rising of one Sunne , make the morning skie so glorious ; what a bright shining and glorious morning will that be , when so many thousand thousands of bodies , farre brighter then the Sunne , shall appeare & accompany Christ as his glorious traine , comming to keepe his generall Session of righteousnesse , and to iudge the wicked Angels , and all vngodly men ? And let not any transitory profit pleasure or vaine-glory , of this day : cause thee to lose thy part , and portion of the eternall blisse and glory of tha● day , which is properly tearmed the resurrection of the iust . Beasts haue bodilie eies , to see the ordinary light of the day : but endeauour thou , with the eies of faith , to foresee the glorious light of this day . 2 That thou knowest not how neere the euill spirit ( which night and day like a roaring Lyon walketh about , seeking to deuoure thee ) was vnto thee whilest thou sleptst , and wast not able to helpe thy selfe : and that thou knowest not what mischiefe he would haue done to thee , had not God hedged thee and thine , with his euer-waking prouidence , and guarded thee with his holy and blessed Angels . 3 If thou hearest the Cocke crow , remember Peter to imitate him : and call to minde that Cocke-crowing sound of the last Trumpet , which shall waken thee from the dead . And consider in what case thou art ▪ if it sounded now : and become such , as thou wouldest wish to be then . Lest at that day thou wilt wish ; that thou hadst neuer seene this : yea , curse the day of thy naturall birth , for want of being new borne , by spirituall grace . * When the Cocke crowes the Thiefe despaires of his hope , and giues ouer his nights enterprize : So the Diuell ceaseth to tempt or attempt any further , when he heares the deuoute Soule wakening her selfe with morning prayer . 4 Remember that Almighty God is about thy bed , and seeth thy downe lying and thy vprising , vnderstandeth thy thoughts , and is acquainted with all thy wayes . Remember likewise , that his holy Angels who guarded and watched ouer thee all night , doe also behold how thou vvakest and risest . Doe all things therefore as in the awefull presence of GOD : and in the sight of his holy Angels . 5 As thou art putting on thine apparell , remember , that they were first giuen as couerings of shame , being the filthy effect of sinne : and that they are made but of the offals and excrements of dead beasts . Therefore , whether thou respect the stuffe , or the first institution : thou hast so little cause to be proude of them , that thou hast great cause to be humbled at the sight and wearing of them : seeing the richest apparels are but fine couers of the foulest shame . Meditate rather , that as thine apparell serues to couer thy shame , and to fence thy bodie from cold : so thou shouldest be as carefull to couer thy soule with that wedding garment , which is the righteousnesse of Christ , ( and because apprehended by our faith , called the righteousnesse of the Saints . ) Lest whilest vvee are richly apparelled in the sight of men , vve be not found to walke naked ( so that all our filthynesse be seene ) in the sight of God. But that with his righteousnesse as vvith a roabe vvee may couer our selues from perpetuall shame , and shield our soules from that fiery colde that vvill procure infernal weeping and gnashing of teeth . And withall consider how blessed a people vvere our Nation if euery silken suite did couer a sanctified soule , and yet a man would thinke that on whom God bestowed most of these outward blessings , of them he should receiue greatest inward thankes . But if it proue otherwise ; their reckoning vvill prooue the heauier in the day of their accounts . 6 Consider , how Gods mercy is renewed vnto thee euery morning , in giuing thee , as it vvere , a new life , and in causing the Sunne after his vncessant race , to rise againe to giue thee light . Let not then this glorious light burne in vaine : but preuent rather ( as oft as thou canst ) the Sunne rising , to giue GOD thankes , and kneeling downe at thy bed side , salute him at the day-spring vvith some deuoute Anteluc●num , or morning Soliloquie : containing an humble confession of thy sinne● , the pardon of all thy faults : a thanksgiuing for all his benefit , and a crauing of his gracious protection to his Church , thy selfe , and all that doe belong vnto thee . Briefe directions how to reade the holy Scriptures , once euery yeere ouer , with ease , profit , and reuerence . BVT forasmuch that as Faith is the soule , so reading and meditating of the word of God , are the Parents of Praier : Therefore before thou prayest in the Morning , first reade a Chapter in the Word of GOD : then Meditate a while vvith thy selfe how many excellent things thou canst remember out of it : As first , what good counsels or exhortations to good workes , and to holy life . Secondly , what threatnings of iudgements against such and such a sinne : and what fearefull example of Gods punishment or vengeance vpon such and such sinners . Thirdly , what blessings GOD promiseth to patience , chastity , mercy , almes-deedes , zeale in his seruice , charity , faith , and trust in God , and such like Christian vertues . Fourthly , what gracious deliuerance GOD hath wrought , and what speciall blessings hee hath bestowed vpon them who were his true and zealous seruants . Fiftly , apply these things to thine owne heart , and reade not these Chapters as matters of Historicall discourse : but as if they were so many Letters or Epistles sent downe from God out of Heauen vnto thee : for whatsoeuer is written , is written for our learning . Rom. 15.4 . Sixtly , reade them therefore with that reuerence , as if GOD himselfe stood by , and spake these vvords vnto thee , to excite thee to those vertues , to diswade thee from those vices : assuring thy selfe , that if such sinnes ( as thou readest there ) be found in thee without Repentance , the like plagues will fall vpon thee : but if thou dost practise the like Pietie , and vertuous deede● ; the like blessings shall come vnto thee and thine . In a word ▪ apply all that thou readest in the holy Scripture , to one of these two head● chiefely ; eyther to confirme thy Faith , or to encrease thy Repentance for as susti●e & abstine , beare & forbeare , was the Epitome of a good Philosopher● life : so creda & resipi●●● , beleeue and repent , is the whole summe of a true Christians profession . One Chapter thus read with vnderstanding , and meditated with application , will better feed and comfort thy soule , then fiue read and runne ouer without marking their scope or sense , or making any vse thereof to thine owne selfe . If in this manner thou shalt reade three Chapters euery day : one in the morning , another at noone , and the third at night , ( reading so many Psalmes in stead of a Chapter , as our Church Liturgie appoints for Morning or Euening Prayers ) thou shalt reade ouer all the Canonicall a Scripture in a yeere , except sixe Chapters , which thou maist adde to the taske of the last day of the yeere . The reading of the Bible in order will helpe thee the better to vnderstand both the History and scope of the holy Scripture . And as for the b Apocrypha , being but penned by mans spirit , thou maist reade them at thy pleasure , but beleeue them so farre as they agree with the Canonicall Scripture , which is endited by the Holy Ghost . But it may be thou wilt say , that thy businesse will not admit thee so much time , as to reade euery morning a Chapter , &c. O man remember that thy life is but short , and that all this businesse is but for the vse of this short life : but saluation or damnatio● is euerlasting . Rise vp therefore euery morning by so much time the earlier : defraud thy foggie flesh of so much sleepe ; but rob not thy Soule of her food , nor GOD of his Seruice . And serue the Almighty duely whilest thou hast time and health . Hauing thus reade thy Chapter , as thou art about to pray , remember : that God is a God of c holinesse , whereof hee warneth vs by repeating so often , d Be yee holy , for I am holy . And when hee deuoured , with a sodaine fire , Nadab and Abihu for offering vnto him Incense vvith e strange fire , ( like those now a-dayes , vvho offer prayers from hearts fraught vvith the fire of lusts and mal●●e : ) the Lord vvould giue no other reason of his Iudgements but this , I will be sanctified in them that come neere mee : as if hee should haue said ; If I cannot be sanctified by them , who are my Seruants , in seruing mee with that Holinesse that they should : I will be sanctified on them , by confounding them vvith my iust iudgements , which their lewdnesse doth deserue . God therefore cannot abide any wilfull vncleannesse , or filthinesse in them who serue him : insomuch that he commaunded the Israelites that when they were in Campe against their Enemies , they should digge a hole with a paddle , and couer their excrements : his reason is , for the Lord thy God walketh in the middest of thy Campe , to deliuer thee , and to giue thee thine Enemies before thee : therefore thy Hoast shall be holy that hee see no filthy thing in thee , and turne away from thee . If he will haue men to be so holy in time of warre in the Field , how much more holinesse expecteth he at our hands in time of peace , in our houses ? therefore saith Zophar in Iob : If thou prepare thine heart , and stretch out thine hand towards GOD to pray : if iniquitie be in thy hand , put it farre away , and let no wickednesse dwell in thy Tabernacle . For , as Esay saith , If there be any vncleannesse in our hands , ( that is , any sinne whereof we haue not repented ) though wee stretch out our hands vnto him , and make many Prayers , the Lord will hide his eyes from vs , and will not heare our prayers . Therefore before thou prayest , let GOD see that thy heart is sorrowfull for thy sinne : and that thy minde is resolued through the assistance of his grace to amend thy faults . And then hauing washed thy selfe , and adorned thy body with apparell which beseemeth thy calling , and the Image of GOD , which thou bearest : shut thy chamber-doore , and kneele downe at thy bed-side , or some other conuenient place , and in reuerent manner lifting vp thy heart , together with thy hands and eyes , as in the presence of GOD who seeth the inward intention of thy soule , offer vp vnto God from the Altar of a contrite heart , thy Prayer , as a Morning Sacrifice , through the mediation of Christ , in these , or the like wordes . A Prayer for the Morning . O Most mighty and glorious GOD , full of incomprehensible power , and Maiestie , whose glory the very Heauen of Heauens is not able to containe : looke downe from heauen vpon me thine vnworthy Seruant , who here prostate my selfe at the foote-stoole of thy Throne of Grace . But looke vpon mee O Father , through the merits and mediation of Iesus Christ , thy beloued Sonne , in whom onely thou art well pleased . For of my selfe , I am not worthy to stand in thy presence , or to speake with mine vncleane lips , to so holy a God as thou art . For , thou knowest that in sin I was conceiued and borne , and that I haue liued , euer since in iniquitie : so that I haue broken all thy holy Commandements by sinfull motions , vncleane thoughts , euill wordes , & wicked workes , omitting many of those duties of pietie which thou requirest for thy seruice , and committing many of those vices , which thou vnder the penaltie of thy displeasure , hast forbidden . [ Here thou maist confesse vnto God thy secret sinnes which doe most burden thy conscience : with the circumstances , of the time , place , person , and manner how it was committed , saying , But more especially O Lord , I doe here with griefe of heart confesse vnto thee , &c. ] And for these my sinnes , O Lord , I stand here guiltie of thy curse , with all the miseries of this life , and euerlasting torments in hell fire , when this wretched life is ended , if thou shouldest deale vvith mee according to my deserts . Yea , Lord , I confesse , that it is thy mercy which endureth for euer , and thy compassion which neuer failes : that is the cause , that I haue not beene long agoe consumed . But with thee O Lord , there is mercy , and plenteous redemption . In the multitude therefore of thy mercy , and confidence in Christs merits , I entreate thy diuine Maiestie that thou wouldest not enter into iudgement with thy Seruant , neyther be extreame , to marke what I haue hitherto done amisse for if thou doest , then no flesh can be iustified in thy sight , nor any liuing stand in thy presence . But be thou mercifull vnto mee , and wash away all the vncleannesse of my sinne , with the merits of that precious bloud , which Iesus Christ hath shed for me . And seeing that hee hath borne the burden of that curse which was due to my transgressions . O LORD deliuer me from my sinnes , and from all those Iudgements which hang ouer my head , as due vnto mee for them . And separate them , as farre from thy presence , as the East is from the West : burie them in the buriall of Christ ; that they may neuer haue power to rise vp against mee , to shame me in this life , or to condemne me in the world which is to come . And I beseech thee , O Lord , not onely to wash away my sinnes with the bloud of thine immaculate Lambe ; but also to purge my heart , by thy holy spirit , from the drosse of my natural corruption : that I may feele thy spirit , more and more killing my sinne , in the power and practise thereof : so that I may with more freedome of minde , and liberty of will , serue thee the euerliuing God , in righteousnesse and holinesse this day . And giue me grace that by the direction and assistance of the same thy holie spirit , I may perseuere , to be thy faithfull and vnfained seruant vnto my liues ende : that when this mortall life is ended I may be made a partaker of immortality , and euerlasting happinesse in thy heauenly kingdome . In the meane time , O Lord , whilest it is thy blessed will and pleasure , that I may continue to spend , and end that small number and remnant of daies , which thou hast appointed for me to liue in this vale of misery : Teach mee so to number my daies , that I may apply my heart vnto wisdome : and as thou dost adde daies vnto my life ; so , good Lord , I beseech thee , adde repentance and amendment to my daies : that as I growe in yeeres , so I may encrease in grace , and fauour with thee , and all thy people . And to this end ; giue vnto me a supply of all those graces , which thou knowest to be wanting in me , and necessary for me , with an increase of all those good gifts , whervvith thou hast already endued me : that so I may be the better enabled , to leade such a godly life and honest conuersation , as that thy name may thereby be gloryfied , others may take good example by me , and my soule may more cheerefully feed on the peace of a good conscience , and bee more replenished with the ioy of the holy Ghost . And heere , O Lord , according to my bounden duty , I giue thee most humble and hearty thankes , for all those blessings , which of thy goodnesse thou hast bestowed vpon mee . And namely , for that thou hast of thy free loue according to thine eternall purpose , elected me , before the foundation of the world was laid , vnto saluation in Iesus Christ : for that thou hast created mee after thine owne Image , and hast begunne to restore that in mee , vvhich vvas lost in our first Parents : for that thou hast effectually called me by the working of thy spirit , in the preaching of the Gospell , and the receiuing of thy Sacraments , to the knowledge of thy sauing grace , and obedience of thy blessed will : for that thou hast bought and redeemed me vvith the blood of thine onely begotten Sonne , from the torments of Hell , and thrall of Satan : for that thou hast by faith in Christ , freely iustified me , vvho am by nature the childe of wrath : for that thou hast in good measure sanctified mee by thy holy spirit , and giuest me so large a time to repent , together with the meanes of repentance . I thanke thee likewise good Lord , for my life , health wealth , foode , raiment , peace , prosperity and plenty : and for that thou hast preserued me this night , from all perils and dangers of body and soule , and hast brought me safe to the beginning of this day . And as thou hast now vvakened my body from sleepe ; so I beseech thee waken my soule from sinne and carnall security : and as thou hast caused the light of the day , to shine in my bodily eies , so good Lord , cause the light of thy word , and holy spirit to illuminate my heart : and giue me grace as one of thy children of light , to walke in all holy obedience before thy face this day , and that I may endeauour to keepe faith and a cleere conscience towards thee , and towards all men , in all my thoughts , words , and dealings . And so , good Lord , blesse all my studies and actions , which I shall take in hand this day : as that they may tend to thy glory , the good of others , and the comfort of mine owne soule and conscience in that day , when I shall make my finall accounts vnto thee for them . O my God , keepe thy seruant , that I doe no euill vnto any man this day : and let it be thy blessed will , not to suffer the Diuell , nor his wicked Angels , nor any of his euill members , or my malicious enemies to haue any power to doe mee hurt or violence . But let the eye of thy holy prouidence watch ouer me , for good , and not for euill , and command thy holy Angels to pitch their tents round about me , for my defence and safetie , in my going out and comming in , as thou hast promised they should doe about them that feare thy name : for , into thy hands , O Father , I doe heere commend my soule , and body , my actions , and all that euer I haue , to bee guided , defended , and protected by thee : being assured that whatsoeuer thou takest into thy custody , cannot perish , nor suffer any hurt or harme . And if I at any time this day , shall through frailtie , forget thee ; yet Lord , I beseech thee , doe thou in mercy remember me . And I pray not vnto thee , O Father , for my selfe alone , but I beseech thee also be merciful vnto thy whole Church , and chosen people , wheresoeuer they liue vpon the face of the earth . Defend them from the rage and tyranny of the Diuel , the world , and Antichrist . Giue thy Gospell a free and a ioyfull passage through the world , for the conuersion of those , who belong to thine election and kingdome . Blesse the Churches and kingdomes wherein wee liue , with the continuance of peace , iustice , and true Religion . Defend the Kings Maiesty from all his enemies , and grant him a long life , in health , and all happinesse to raigne ouer vs. Blesse the Queene , Prince Charles , the Prince Palatine of Rhene ▪ and the Gratious Lady Elizabeth his Wife . Increase in them all heroycall gifts , and spirituall graces , which may make them fit for those places , for which thou hast ordained them . Direct all the Nobilitie , Bishops , Ministers , and Magistrats of this Church & common-wealth , to gouerne the commons in true Religion , iustice , obedience , and tranquillity . Be mercifull vnto all the Brethren which feare thee and call vpon thy name . And comfort as many among them as are sicke , and comfortlesse in body or in minde : especially , be fauourable to all such as suffer any trouble or persecution for the testimonie of thy truth , and holy Gospell . And giue them a gracious deliuerance out of al their troubles , which way it shall seeme best to thy wisdome : for the glory of thy Name , the further enlarging of the truth , and the more ample encrease of their owne comfort and consolation . Hasten thy comming , O blessed Sauiour , and end these sinnefull daies , and giue me grace , that like a wise Virgin I may be prepared with oyle in my Lampe , to meete thee the sweet Bride-groome of my Soule at thy comming , whether it be by the day of death or of iudgement : And then , Lord , Iesus , come when thou wilt : euen Lord Iesus come quickelie ! These , and all other graces which thou knowest needefull and necessary for me this day and euermore , I humbly beg and craue at thy hands , O father , giuing thee thy glory , in that forme of Praier , which Christ himselfe hath taught me to say vnto thee . Our Father which art in heauen , Hallowed be thy name , &c. Meditations . IF when thou art about to pray , Satan shall suggest that thy praiers are too long , and that therefore it were better either to omit praiers , or else to cut them shorter : meditate that praier is thy spirituall sacrifice , wherewith God is wel pleased . And therefore it is so displeasing to the Diuel and so irkesome to thy flesh . Bend therefore thy Affections ( will they , nill they ) to so holy an exercise : assuring thy selfe , that it doth by so much the more please God , by how much the more it is vnpleasing to thy flesh . 2 Forget not how the holy Ghost , puts it downe as a speciall note of reprobates , They call not vpon the Lord , They call not vpon God. And when Eliphaz supposed that Iob had cast off the feare of God , and that God had cast Iob out of his fauour ; hee chargeth him that hee restrained prayer before God : making that a sure note of the one , and a sufficient cause of the other . On the other side , that GOD hath promised that whosoeuer shall call on his Name shall be saued . It is certaine , that hee who maketh no conscience of the dutie of Prayer , hath no grace of the holy Spirit in him . For the spirit of Grace and of Prayer , are one , and therefore Grace and Prayer goe together . But he that can from a penitent heart , morning and euening pray vnto GOD : it is sure , that he hath his measure of grace in this world : and he shall haue his portion of glory in the life which is to come . 3 Remember , that as loathing of meate , and painefulnesse of speaking , are two Symptomes of a sicke body : so irkesomnesse of praying when thou talkest with GOD , and carelesnesse in hearing , when GOD , by his Word , speakes vnto thee : are two sure signes of a sicke soule . 4 Call to minde the zealous deuotion of the Christians in the Primitiue Church : who spent many vvhole nights and vigils in watching and praying for the forgiuenesse of their sinnes : and that they might be found readie at the comming of Christ. And how that Dauid vvas not content to pray at morning , at euening , and at noone : but hee would also rise vp at mid-night to pray vnto GOD. And if CHRIST did chide his Disciples , because they would not watch vvith him one houre in praying ; vvhat chiding dost thou deserue , who thinkest it too long to continue in Prayer but one quarter of an houre ? If thou hast spent diuers houres in seeing a vaine Maske or a Play ; yea , whole dayes and nights in carding and dicing , to please thy flesh , be ashamed to thinke a Prayer of a quarter of an houre long , to be too long an exercise for the seruice of GOD. 5 Consider , that if the Papists in their blinde superstition , doe in an vnknowne , and therefore a vnedifying Tongue , ( fit onely for the children of b mysticall Babylon ) mutter ouer vpon their c Beades , euery morning and euening , so many scores of Aue-Maries , Pater-nosters , and Idolatrous Prayers : how shall they , in their superstitious deuotion , rise vp in Iudgement against thee , professing thy selfe to be a true Worshipper of Christ ? If that thou thinkest these Prayers to be too long a taske , being shorter for quantitie then theirs , but farre more profitable for qualitie , tending onely to Gods glory , and thy good , and so compiled of Scripture - phrase , as that thou maist speake to God , as well in his owne h●ly words , as in thine owne natiue language ? Be ashamed , that Papists in their superstitious worshipping of Creatures , should shew themselues more deuout then thou , in the sincere worshipping of the true and d onely God. And indeede , a prayer in priuate deuotion , should be one e continued speech , rather then many broken fragments . 6 Lastly , when such thoughts come into thy head , eyther to keepe thee from prayer , or to distract thee in praying : remember that those are the Fowles which the euill one sends to deuoure the good Seede , and the carkeises of thy spirituall Sacrifices : but endeuour , with Abraham , to driue them away . Yet notwithstanding , if thou perceiuest at some times , that thy spirits are dull , and thy minde not apt for Prayer , and holy deuotion : striue not too much for that time ; but humbling thy selfe at the sense of thine infirmity and dulnesse , knowing that God accepteth the willing minde ( though it be oppressed with the heauinesse of the flesh , ) endeauour the next time , to recompense this dulnesse , by redoubling thy zeale , and for the time present commend thy Soule to God in this or the like short Prayer . Another shorter Morning Prayer . O MOST gracious GOD , and mercifull Father , I thine vnworthy Seruant , do here acknowledge , that as I haue beene borne in sinne , so I haue liued in iniquitie , and broken euery one of thy Commandements , in thought , word , and deede , following the desires of mine owne will , and lusts of my flesh , not caring to be gouerned by thy holy Word and Spirit : and therefore I haue iustly deserued all shame and miserie in this life , and euerlasting cond●mnation in Hell-fire , if thou shouldest but deale with mee , according to thy Iustice , and my desert . Wherefore , O Heauenly Father , I beseech thee for thy Sonne Iesus Christ , his sake , and for the merits of that bitter death and bloudy Passion ▪ which I beleeue that he hath suffered for mee : that thou wouldest pardon and forgiue vnto me all my sins , and deliuer me from the shame and vengeance , vvhich is due vnto mee for them . And send thy holy Spirit into my heart , which may assure mee , that thou art my Father , and that I am thy childe , and that thou louest mee with an vnchangeable loue : and let the same thy good Spirit leade mee in thy truth , and crucifie in me more and more all worldly and carnall lusts , that my sinnes may more and more dye in mee ; and that I may serue thee in vnfained righteousnesse and holinesse this day , and all the dayes of my life : that when this mortall life is ended , I may through thy mercy in Christ , be made a partaker of euerlasting glory in thy heauenly Kingdome . And here , O Lord , from the bottome of my hart , I thanke thee for al thy blessings which thou hast bestowed vpon my soule and body : for electing mee in thy loue , redeeming mee by thy Sonne , sanctifying mee by thy Spirit , and preseruing me from my youth vp , vntill this present day and houre by thy most gracious prouidence . I thanke thee more specially , for that thou hast defended mee this night , from all perils and dangers , and hast brought me safe to the beginning of this day . And now ( good Lord ) I beseech thee , keepe me this day from all euill that may hurt me , and from falling to any grosse sinne , that should offend thee . Set thy feare before mine eyes , and let thy Spirit so rule my heart , that all that I shall thinke , doe , or speake this day , may tend to thy glory , the good of others , and the peace of mine owne Conscience . And to this end , I commend my selfe , and all my wayes and actions , together with all that do belong vnto me , vnto thy gratious direction and protection , praying thee to keepe both them and mee from all euill : and to giue a blessing to all our honest labours and endeuours . Defend thy whole Church from the tyranny of the World , and of Antichrist : Preserue our gracious King from all conspiracies and treasons : grant him a long and prosperous raigne ouer vs. Blesse the Queene , Prince Charles , the Prince Palatine of Rhene , and the vertuous Lady Elizabeth : endue them vvith thy grace , and defend them from all euill . Blesse all our Ministers and Magistrates , with those graces and gifts , which thou knowest necessary for their places . Be fauourable to all that feare thee , and tremble at thy Iudgements : comfort all those that are sicke and comf●rtlesse . Lord● keepe mee in a continuall readinesse , by Faith and Repentance , for my last end : that whether I liue or dye , I may be found thine owne , to thine eternall glory , and mine euerlasting saluation : through Iesus Christ my onely Sauiour . In whose blessed Name , I beg these mercies at thy hands , and giue vnto thee thy praise and glory in that Prayer , which hee hath sanctified with his owne lips , saying , Our Father which art in heauen , &c. Further Meditations , to stir vs vp to praier in the Morning . THinke not any businesse or haste ( though neuer so great ) a sufficient excuse to omit Praier in the Morning , but meditate : 1 That the greater thy businesse is ; by so much the more neede thou hast to pray , for Gods good-speed and blessing thereon : seeing it is certaine ; that nothing can prosper without his blessing . 2 That many a man , when hee thought himselfe surest hath beene soonest crossed : so maiest thou . 3 That many a man hath gone out of his dore , and neuer come in againe . Many a man who arose well and liuelie in the morning : hath beene seene a dead man ere night . So may it befall thee . And if thou bee so carefull before thou goest abroad to drinke , to fence thy body from ill ayres ; how much more carefull shouldest thou be to pray , to perserue thy soule from euill temptations ? 4 That the time spent in prayer , neuer hindereth : but furthereth , and prospereth a mans iourney and businesse . 5 That in going abroad into the world , thou goest into a forrest full of vnknown dangers ; where thou shalt meet many bryars to teare thy good name : many snares to trap thy life , and many hunters to deuoure thy soule . It is a field of pleasant grasse , but ful of poysonous serpents . Aduenture not therefore to go nak●● among these briars , till thou hast prayed Christ to clothe thee with his righteousnesse : nor to passe through these snares and ambushments , till thou hast praied for Gods prouidence to be thy guide ; nor to walke barefoote through this snakie field ; till hauing thy feete shod with the preparation of the Gospell of peace : thou hast praied to haue still the brasen Serpent , in the eye of thy faith : that so if thou commest not home holier ; thou maiest be sure , not to returne worser , then when thou wentest out of dores . Therefore though thy haste be neuer so much , or thy businesse neuer so great ; yet goe not about it , nor out of thy dores : till thou hast at least vsed this or the like short prayer . A briefe Prayer for the Morning . O Merciful father for Iesus Christ his sake , I beseech thee forgiue me all my knowne and secret sins , which in thought , word , or deede , I haue cōmitted against thy diuine Maiesty . And deliuer me from al those iudgements , which are due vnto mee for them , and sanctifie my heart with thy holy spirit , that I may hence foorth leade a more godly and religious life . And heere ( O Lord ) I praise thy holy name , for that thou hast refreshed me this night with moderate sleepe and rest : I beseech thee likewise , defend me this day from all perils and dangers of body and soule . And to this end I commend my selfe , and all my actions vnto thy blessed protection and gouernment : beseeching thee that whether I liue or die . I may liue and die to thy glory , and the saluation of my poore soule , which thou hast bought with thy precious bloud . Blesse me therefore , O Lord , in my goying out and comming in : and grant that whatsoeuer I shall thinke , speake , or take in hand this day ; may tend to the glory of thy name , the good of others , and the comfort of mine owne conscience , when I shall come to make before thee my last accounts . Grant , this O heauenly father , for Iesus Christ thy Sonnes fake : In whose blessed name I giue thee thy glory , and beg at thy hands all other graces , which thou seest to be needfull for mee this day and euer , in that praier which Christ himselfe hath taught me , saying : Our Father which art in heauen , &c. Meditations , directing a Christian , how he may walke all the day with God , like Enoch . HAuing thus beg●n , keep all the day after , as diligent a watch as thou canst , ouer all thy thoughts , words , and actions ; which thou maiest easily doe , by crauing the assistance of Gods holy spirit , and obseruing these few rules . First , for thy thoughts , 1 BE carefull to suppresse euery sinne in the a first motion . Dash b Babylons children , whilest they are young , against the stones . Tread betimes the c Cockatrice egge , lest it breake out into a Serp●nt . Let sinne be to the heart a stranger , not a home-dweller . Take heede of falling oft into the same sin , lest the custome of sinning , * take away the conscience of sinne , and then shalt thou waxe so impudently wicked , that thou wilt neither feare God , nor reuerence man. 2 Suffer not thy minde to feedde it selfe vpon any imagination , which is either vnpossible for thee to doe , or vnprofitable , if it be done : but rather thinke of the vvorlds vanitie , to contemne it ; of death , to expect it ; of iudgement , to auoide it ; of hell , to escape it ; and of heauen , to desire it . 3 Desire not to fulfill thy minde in all things : but learne to deny thy selfe those desires ( though neuer so pleasing to thy nature ) which being attained ; will draw either , scandall on thy Religion , or hatred to thy Person . Consider in euery thing the ende , before thou attempt the Action . 4 Labour daily more and more to see thine owne misery , through vnbeleefe , selfe-loue , and wilfull breaches of Gods law : and the necessity of Gods mercy through the merits of Christs passion , to be such : that if thou wert demanded , What is the vilest creature vpon the earth ? thy Conscience may answere ; mine owne selfe , by reason of my great sinnes : And that if on the other side thou wert asked , What thou esteemest to be the most precious thing in the world ? Thy heart might answere , One drop of Christs blood , to wash away my sinnes . And as thou tendrest the saluation of thy soule , liue not in any wilfull filthinesse . For true faith and the purpose of sinning can neuer stand together . 5 Approue thy selfe to be a true seruant of Christ , not onely in thy generall calling , as in the frequent vse of the Word and Sacraments : but also in thy particular , in making conscience to eschue euery knowne sinne : and to obey God in euery one of his commandements : like Iosiah , who turned to God with all his heart , according to all the Law of Moses . And Zacharie and Elizabeth , who walked in all the commandements of God without reproofe . But if at any time through frailty , thou slippest into any sinne : Lye not in it , but speedily rise out of it by vnfained repentance . Praying for pardon til thy conscience be pacified , thy hatred of sinne increased , and thy purpose of amendement confirmed . 6 Beware of affecting popularitie by adulation : the end neuer proues good . And though attayned by due desert ; yet mannage it wisely : lest it prooue more dangerous then contempt . For States desire but to keepe downe whom they contemne for their vnworthinesse : but to cut off whom they enuy for their greatness● . He therefore is truely prudent ; who ( considering the premises ) neither affecteth , nor neglecteth popularity . But in any wise , take heede of harbouring a * discontented minde , for it may worke thee more woe , then thou art aware of . It is a speciall mercy , in the multitude of so many blessings , as thou doest enioy , to haue some crosses . God giues thee many blessings , lest through want ( being his childe ) thou shouldest despaire : And hee sends thee some crosses , lest by too much prosperity ( playing the foole ) thou shouldest presume . Many who haue mounted to great dignities , would haue contented themselues with * meaner : had they knowne their a great dangers : Loue therefore competencie , rather then eminencie . And in all thy will haue euer an eye to Gods will , least thy self-action , turnes to thine owne destruction . Happy the man , who in this short life is least knowne of the world : so that hee doth truely know God and himselfe ! Whatsoeuer crosse therefore thou hast to discontent thee ; remember , that it is lesse then thy sinnes haue deserued . Count therefore Christ thy chiefest ioy , and sinne thy greatest griefe : estimate no want to the want of Grace , nor any losse to the losse of Gods fauour : And then the discontentment for outward things shall the lesse perplexe thine inward minde . And as oft as Sathan shall offer any motion of discontentment to thy minde , remember Saint Pauls admonition , Wee brought nothing into this World , and it is certaine that wee can carry nothing out . And hauing foode and raiment , let vs be therewith content : But they that will be rich fall into temptation , and a snare , and into many foolish and hurtfull lusts , which drowne men in destruction and perdition . Pray therefore with wise Agur : O Lord , giue me neyther pouertie nor riches : feede mee with foode conuenient for mee , least I be too full and deny thee , and say , Who is the Lord ? Or least I be poore and steale , and take the Name of my God in vaine . 7 Bestow no more thought vpon worldly things then thou needes must , for the discharge of thy place , and the maintenance of thine estate : but still let thy care be greater for * heauenly then earthly things : and be more grieued for a a dishonour done to GOD , then for an iniurie offered to thy selfe : But if any priuate iniurie be offered vnto thee ; beare it , as a Christian , with Patience . Neuer was an innocent man wronged , but if patiently hee bare his crosse , he * ouercame in the end . But thy good name in the meane while is wounded : beare that also with Patience . And hee that at the last day will giue thy Body a Resurrection , will as sure in his good time grant a resurrection to thy good name . If impatiently thou frettest and vexest at thy wrongs , the hurt which thou doest thy selfe , is more then that which thine Enemie can doe vnto thee . Neither canst thou more reioyce him , then to heare that it throughly vexeth thee . But if thou canst shew Patience on earth , GOD will shew himselfe iust from Heauen . Pray for him , for , if thou be a good man thy selfe , thou canst not but reioyce , if thou shouldest see thy worst enemie to become a good man too . But if hee still continueth in his malice , and increaseth in his mischiefe , giue thou thy selfe vnto Prayer , committing thy selfe , and commending thy cause vnto the Righteous Iudge of Heauen and Earth , saying with Ieremy , O Lord of hoasts , that iudgest righteously , and tryest the reynes and the heart : vengeance is thine , and vnto thee haue I opened my cause . In the meane while , waite ( with Dauid ) on the Lord : Be of good courage and hee shall comfort thine heart . 8 The more others commend thee for any excellent act , be thou the more humble in thine owne thoughts . Affect not the vaine praises of men : the blessed Virgin was troubled when shee was truely praised of an Angell . They shall be praised of Angels in Heauen , who haue eschewed the praises of men on Earth . Neyther needest thou praise thy selfe : deale but vprightly , b others vvill doe that for thee . Be not thou curious to know other mens doings , but rather be carefull that no man knowes any ill dealings by thee . 9 Esteeme no sinne little , for the curse of GOD is due to the least : and the least would haue damned thee , had not the Sonne of God dyed for thee . Bewaile therefore the miserie of thine owne state : and as occasion is ministred , c mourne for the iniquitie of the time . Pray to God to amend it , and be not thou one of them that make it worse . 10 Lastly , thinke often of the d shortnesse of thy life , and certaintie of Death : and wish rather a good life then a long . For , as one day of mans life is to be preferred before the longest age of a Stagge or Rauen : so one day spent religiously , is to be higher valued then a mans * whole life that is consumed in profanenesse . Cast ouer therefore once euery day , the number of thy dayes , by substracting those that are past ( as being vanished like yesternights dreame , ) contracting them that are to come ( sith the one halfe must be slept out , the rest made vncomfortable by the troubles of the world , thine owne sicknesse , and the death of friends : ) counting * onely the present day thine ; which spend , as if thou wert to spend no more . Secondly , for thy Words . 1 REmember , that thou must answere for euery a idle word : that in b multiloquie , the wisest man shall ouer-shoote himselfe . Auoid therefore all tedious and idle talke , whereof seldome ariseth comfort , many times repentance : especially beware of rash answeres , when the tongue out-runs the minde . The word was thine whilest thou keptst it in : it is * anothers as soone as it is out . O the shame , when a man 's owne tongue shall be produced a witnesse , to the confusion of his owne face ! Let then thy wordes be few , but aduised : fore-thinke whether that which thou art to speake , be fit to be spoken : affirme no more then what thou knowest to be true , and be rather c silent , then speake to an ill , or to no purpose . 2 Let thy heart and tongue euer goe together in honestie and truth : hate d dissembling and lying in another , detest it in thy selfe , or GOD will detest thee for it : for he hateth the lyar , and his father the Diuell alike . And if once thou be discouered to make no conscience of lying , no man will beleeue thee when thou speakest a truth , but if thou louest truth , more credit will be giuen to thy word , then to a liars oath . Great is the possession which Sathan hath in those , who are so accustomed to lying , that they will lie , though they get nothing by it themselues , nor are not compelled vnto it by others . Let not thine anger remaine , when thou seest the cause remoued : and euer distinguish twixt him that offendeth of f infirmitie , or against his will , and him who offendeth g maliciously , and of set purpose : let the one haue pittie , the other iustice . 3 Keepe thy speech as cleane from all obsenitie , as thou vvouldest thy meate from poyson : and let thy talke be h gracious , that hee that heares thee , may grow better by thee : and be euer more earnest vvhen thou i speakest of Religion , then when thou talkest of worldly matters . If thou perceiuest that thou hast erred , perseuere not in thine errour : reioyce to finde the truth , and magnifie it . Study therefore three things especially , to vnderstand well , to say well , and to doe well . And when thou meetest with Gods Children , be sure to make some holy aduantage by them : learne of them all the good that thou canst , and communicate vvith them all the good things that thou knowest . The more good thou teachest others , the more will God still k minister vnto thee . For , as the gifts of men by much vsing doe perish and decrease : so the gifts of God by much vsing doe the more grow and increase , like the l Widowes Pitcher of Oyle , vvhich , the more it poured to fill other vessels , the more it vvas still replenished in it selfe . 4 Beware that you beleeue not all that is told you , & that you tell not m all that you heare : for if you doe , you shall not long enioy true friends , nor euer want great troubles . Therefore in accusations be first assured of the truth , then censure . And as thou tenderest the reputation of an honest heart : neuer let malice in hatred make thee to reueale that which loue in friendship bound thee a long time to conceale . But for feare of such afterclaps , obserue two things . First , Though thou hast many acquaintance ; yet make not any thy familiar friend , but he that truly * feares God. Such a one thou neuer needest to feare . For though you should in some particulers fall out : yet Christian loue , the maine ground of your friendship will neuer fall away , and the feare of God will neuer suffer him to doe thee any villainy . Secondly , doe nothing in the sight of a ciuill friend , for which thou canst not be safe vnlesse it be concealed : nor any thing for which ( if iust cause be offered ) thou needest feare him , if hee proues thine vniust enemie . If thou hast done any thing amisse , aske God forgiuenesse , and perswade thy selfe rather then thy friend to keepe thine own counsell . For bee assured that what friendship soeuer is grounded vpon any other cause then true Religion ; if euer that cause faile , the friendship falleth off : And the rather ; because that as GOD breedes among men , Truth , Peace , and Amity , that we should liue to doe one another good : so the Diuell daily soweth falshood , discord , and enmity , to cause ( if hee can ) the deerest friendes to deuour one another . 5 Make not a iest of another mans infirmity : remember thine own . Abhorre the froathy wi● of a filthy nature , whose braines hauing once conceiued an odde scoffe : his minde , trauels ( as a woman with childe ) till he be deliuered of it . Yea , hee had rather lose his best friend then his worstiest . But if thou be disposed to be merry ; haue a special care to three things . First , That thy mirth be not against Religion . Secondly , that it be not against Charity . Thirdly , that it be not against Chastity , and then be as merry as thou canst ; onely in the Lord. 6 Reioyce not at the fall of thine enemy ; for no man knoweth what shall be the manner of thine owne ende . But be more * glad to see the worst mans amendement , then his punishment . Hate no man for feare lest Christ loues him : who will not take it well , that thou shouldest hate whom he loueth . Christ loued thee when thou wast his enemy : by the merits therefore of his blood , hee requireth thee for his sake to loue thine enemy . Deny him ( being a christian ) if thou darest . He asketh but forgiuenes for forgiuenes . The forgiuenesse of an 100. pence , for the forgiuenesse of ten thousand talents . The 60 hundred thousand crownes , for tenne crownes . Petty forgiuenesse of man , for the infinite forgiuenes of Almighty God. Though thou thinkest thine enemie vnworthy to be forgiuen : yet Christ is worthy to be obeied . 7 Whether the glory of GOD , or good of thy neighbour doth require it ? Speake the truth , and feare not the face of man. The frowne of a Prince may sometimes be the fauour of God. Neither shall flattery still hold in credit , nor truth alway continue in disgrace . 8 Euer thinke him a true friend , who tels thee secretly and plainely of thy faults . Hee that seeth thee offend , & tels thee not of thy fault ; either flatters thee for fauour or dares not displease thee for feare . Miserable is his case , who when hee needes , hath none to admonish him . Reprehension , be it iust , be it vniust ; come it from the mouth of a friend , or of a foe ; it neuer doth a wise man harme . For if it be true ; thou hast a warning to amend : if it be false ; thou hast a caueat what to auoide . So euery way , it makes a wise man better or warier . But if thou canst not endure to be reprehended ; do then nothing worthy of reprehension . 9 Speake not of God , but with feare and reuerence , and as in his sight and hearing . For seeing we are not worthy to vse his holy Name in our mouthes : much lesse ought wee to abuse it vainely in our talke . But ordinarily , to vse it , in vaine , rash , or false oathes ▪ is an vndoubted signe of a soule , that neuer truely feared GOD. Pray therefore with Dauid , when thou art to speake in any matter that may moue passion : Set a watch , O Lord , before my mouth : and keepe the dore of my lips . 10 Lastly , in a praising , be discreet , in b * saluting , curteous in c admonishing , friendly , in d forgiuing , mercifull , in e promising , faithfull , and bountifull in f recompensing good seruice : making not the rewards of vertue , the gifts of fauour . Thirdly , for thy actions . 1 DOe no euill , though thou mightest , for GOD will not suffer the least sinne ( without bitter repentance ) to escape vnpunished . Leaue not vndone any good that thou canst . But doe nothing without a calling , nor any thing in thy calling , till thou haue first taken counsell at Gods Word , of the lawfulnesse thereof , and praied for his blessing vpon thy endeauour , and then doe it , in the name of God , with cheerefulnesse of heart , committing the successe vnto him ; in whose power it is , to blesse with his grace , whatsoeuer businesse is intended to his glory . 2 When thou art tempted to doe an euill worke , remember that Satan is where his businesse is . Let not the child of God be the instrument of so base a slaue : hate the worke , if thou abhorrest the author . Aske thy conscience these two questions ; Would I haue another to doe this vnto mee ? What shall I answere Christ in the day of my accounts ? If contrary to my knowledge and conscience , I shall doe this wickednesse , and sinne against him ? And remember with Ioseph , that though no man seeth : yet GOD seeth all . Fly therefore with Ioseph from all sinnes , as well those which are secret in the sight of GOD , as those that are manifest in the eyes of men . For GOD as hee is iust , without speedy repentance , will bring thy secret sinnes , as he did Dauids , To the open light , before all Israel , and before the Sunne . Be therefore as much afraid of secret sinnes , as of open shame . And so auoid all in generall , as that thou doest not allow to thy selfe any one particuler , or darling sinne which the corruption of thy nature could best agree withall : For the crafty Diuell can hold a mans soule as fast by one , as by many sins ; and faster by that one which doth please thee , then by all those which beginne to be abhominable vnto thee . And as thou desirest to auoide a sinne : so be careful to shunne the * occasion . 3 In effecting good actions , which are within the compasse of thy calling , distrust not Gods prouidence , though thou see the meanes , either wanting or weake . And if meanes doe offer themselues , be sure that they bee lawfull : and hauing gotten lawfull meanes , take heede that thou relye not more vpon them , then vpon God himselfe . Labour , in a lawfull calling , is Gods ordinary means by which hee blesseth his children with outward things Pray therefore for GODS blessing vpon his own meanes . In earthly businesse , beare an heauenly minde : doe thou thy best endeauour , and commit the whole successe to the fore-ordaining wisdome of Almighty God. Neuer thinke to thriue by those meanes which God hath accursed . That will not in the ende prooue gaine which is gotten with the losse of thy soule . In all therefore both actions and meanes , endeauour , with Paul , to haue alway a cleare conscience towards God , and towards men . Looke to your selues what conscience ye haue , For conscience shall damne , and conscience shall saue . 4 Loue all good things for Gods sake : but God for his owne sake . Whilest thou holdest GOD thy friend , thou needest not feare who is thine enemy : for either God will make thine enemy to become thy friend , or will bridle him that hee cannot hurt thee . No man is ouerthrown by his enemy , vnlesse that first his sinne haue preuailed ouer him , and God hath left him to himselfe . Hee that would therefore be safe from the feare of his enemies , and liue still in the fauour of his God : let him redeem the folly of the time past with serious Repentance : looke to the time present with religious diligēce , and take heede to the time to come with carefull prouidence . 5 Giue euery man the honour due to his place , but honour a man more for his goodnesse , then for his greatnes . And of whomsoeuer thou hast receiued a benefit , vnto him ( as GOD shall enable thee ) remember to be thankfull . Acknowledge it louingly vnto men , and pray for him heartily vnto God , and count euery blessing receiued from God , as a pledge of his eternall loue , and a spur to a godly life . 6 Be not proud for any externall vvorldly goods , nor for any internall spirituall gifts . Not for externall goods , because that as they came lately , so they will shortly be gone againe , their losse therefore is the lesse to be grieued at . Not for any internall gifts , for as GOD gaue them , so will hee likewise take them away : If ( forgetting the giuer ) thou shalt abuse his gifts , to puffe vp thine heart with a pride of thine owne worth : and to contemne others , for whose good Almightie God bestowed those gifts vpon thee . Hast thou any one vertue that moues thee to be selfe-conceited ? thou hast twenty vices that may better vilifie thee in thine owne eies . Be the same in the sight of God , who beholds thy heart , that thou seemest to be in the eyes of men that see thy face . Content not thy selfe with an outward good name , when thy Conscience shall inwardly tell thee it is vndeserued , and therefore none of thine . A deserued good name for any thing , but for godlinesse , lasts little , and is lesse worth . In all the holy Scriptures I neuer read of an Hypocrites repentance : and no wonder , for whereas after sinne , conuersion is left as a meanes to cure all other sinners ; what mean●● remaines to recouer him who hath conuerted conuersion it selfe into sinne ? Woe therefore vnto the Soule that is not , & yet stil seeme religious . 7 Marke the fearefull ends of notorious euill men , to abhorre their vvicked actions ; marke the life of the godly , that thou maist imitate it : and his blessed end , that it may comfort thee . Obey thy betters , obserue the wise , accompany the honest , and loue the religious . And seeing the corrupt nature of man is prone to hypocrisie : beware that thou vse not the exercise of religion , as matters of course and custome , without care and conscience , to grow more holy and de●out thereby . Obserue therefore how by the continuall vse of Gods meanes , thou feelest thy speciall corruptions weakened , and thy sanctification more and more increased : and make no more shew of holinesse outwardly to the world , then thou hast in the sight of God inwardly in thine heart . 8 Endeuour to rule those who liue vnder thine authoritie , rather by loue then by feare : for to rule by * loue is easie and safe , but tyranny is euer accompanied vvith care and a terror . Oppression will force the oppressed to take any aduantage to shake off the yoake that they are not able to beare : neyther will Gods iustice suffer the sway that grounded on Tyrannie long to continue . Remember that though by b humane ordinance they serue thee ; yet by a more peculiar right , they are c Gods Seruants . Yea , now being Christians , not as thy Seruants , but aboue Seruants , brethren beloued in the Lord. Rule therefore ouer * Christians , being a Christian , in loue and mercy , like Christ thy Master . 9 Remember that of all actions , none makes a Magistrate more like God ( whose vice-gerent hee is : ) then in doing Iustice iustly , for the due execution whereof : First , haue euer an open eare to the iust complaints of vniust dealings . Secondly , so lend one eare to the accuser , as that thou keepe the other for the accused : for * hee that decreeth for eyther part , before both be heard , the decree may be iust , but himselfe is vniust . Thirdly , in hearing both parts , incline not to the right hand of affection , or to the left of hatred : as to beleeue arguments of perswasion for a friend , before arguments concluding for a foe . Fourthly , denie not Iustice , which is Regia mensura , to the meanest Subiect : but let the cause of the poore and needy come in equal ballance with the rich and mightie . If thou perceiuest on the one side in a cause , the high hils of cunning aduantages , powerfull combination , and violent prosecution : and on the other side , the low valleyes of pouertie , simplicitie , and desolation : prepare thy way ( as GOD doth ) to iudgement , by * raising valleyes , and taking downe hils , equalling in equalitie : that so thou maist lay the foundation of thy sentence vpon an ●euen ground . In matters of right and wrong twixt party and party , let thy conscience be carefull rather Ius dicere to pronounce the Law that is made , secundum allegata & probata , rather then Ius dare , to make a Law of thine owne , vpon the authoritie of sic volo , sic iubeo , fearing that fearefull malediction : Cursed be hee that remoueth his neighbours land-marke . In tryals of life and death , let Iudges like Elohim , in Iustice , remember mercy , and so cast the seuere eye of Iustice vpon the fact , as that they looke with the pittifull eye of Mercy vpon the Malefactor , wresting the fauour of Law to the fauour of life , where grace promiseth amendment : but if Iustice requireth that * one rather then vnitie must perish , and that a rotten member must be a cut off , to saue the whole body from putrifiing ; fiat Iustitia . But whilest thou art pronouncing the sentence of Iudgement on another , remember that thine owne iudgement hangs ouer thine head . In all causes therfore iudge aright , for thou shalt be sure to finde a righteous Iudge , before vvhom thou must shortly appeare to be iudged thy selfe : at what time thou maist leaue to thy Friend , this for thine Epitaph : Nuper eram Iudex , iam Iudicis ante Tribunal Subsistens , paueo : iudicor ipse modò . Many ( I know not vpon what grounds ) seeme to be much agrieued vvith the Lawes of the Land : but wiser men may answere them with the Apostle , nos scimus bonam esse Legem , modò Iudex ea legitimè vtatur ; Wee know that the Law is good , if a man vse it lawfully . And he shall be vnto me a righteous Iudge ; whose heart neyther corruption of bribes , feare of foes , nor fauour of friends can with-draw from the conscionable practise of these precepts . And to that rare and venerable Iudge , I say with Iehosaphat : Be of courage , and doe Iustice , and the Lord will be with the good . 10 Lastly , make not an occupation of any recreation . The longest vse of pleasure is but short : but the paines of pleasure abused are eternall . Vse therefore lawfull recreation , so farre forth , as it makes thee the fitter in body and minde , to doe more chearefully the seruice of God , and the duties of thy calling . Thy worke is great , thy time is but short . And hee who will recompence euery man according to his workes , standeth at the doore . Thinke how much worke is behinde , how slow thou hast vvrought in the time which is past , and what a reckoning thou shouldest make , if thy Master should call thee this day to thine accounts . Be therefore carefull hence-forth , to make the most aduantage of thy short time that remaines , as a man vvould of an olde Lease that were neere expiring : and when thou disposest to recreate thy selfe , remember how small a time is allotted for thy life : and that therefore much of that , is not to be consumed , in idlenesse , sports , playes , and toyish vanities : seeing the whole is but a short while , though it be all spent in doing the best good that thou canst : for , a man was not created for sports , playes , and recreation : but zealously to serue GOD in Religion , and conscionably to serue his neighbour in his vocation , and by both to acertaine himselfe of eternall saluation . Esteeme therefore the losse of * time , one of the greatest losses . Redeeme it carefully , to spend it wisely : that when that time commeth , that thou maiest be no longer a steward on earth ; thy Master may welcome thee , with an Euge bone serue , and giue thee a better in Heauen , where thou shalt ioyfully enioy thy Masters ioyes for euermore . Meditations for the Euening . At Euening , when thou preparest thy selfe to take thy rest , meditate on these few points . 1 THat seeing thy daies are numbred , there is one more of thy number spent : and thou art now the neerer to thy ende by a day . 2 Sit downe a while before thou goest to bed and consider with thy selfe what memorable thing thou hast seene , heard , or read that day more then thou sawest , heardest or knewest before , and make thy best vse of them ; but especially , call to minde , what sinne thou hast committed that day against GOD or Man : and what good thou hast omitted : and humble thy selfe for both : If thou findest that thou hast done any goodnesse , * acknowledge it to be Gods grace , and giue him the glory , and count that day lost , wherein thou hast not done some good . 3 If by frailty or strong temptation , thou shalt perceiue , that thou hast committed any grieuous sinne or fault ; presume not to sleepe till thou haue vpon thy knees , made a perticular reconciliation with God in Christ for the same : both by confessing the fault , and by feruent praying , for the pardon of the same . Thus making thy score euen with Christ euery night , thou shalt haue the lesse to account for ; when thou art to make thy finall reckoning , before his Maiesty in the Iudgement day . 4 If thou haue fallen out with any in the day , let not the Sunne goe downe on thine anger that night . If thy conscience tels thee that thou hast wronged him , acknowledge thine offence , and * entreate him to forgiue thee . If hee haue wronged thee , offer him reconciliation , and if hee will not be reconciled , yet do thou from thy heart forgiue him , Matth. 5.23 : But in any case presume not to be thine owne reuenger . For in so doing thou doest God a double iniury : First , in offering to take his sword of Iustice out of his hand as though he were not iust : hauing reserued the execution of vengeance to himselfe . Secondly , in vsurping authority ouer his seruant , without referring the cause to his hearing and censure , being his and thy Master . Besides , thou art too partiall to be a Reuenger . For if thou be to execute reuenge on thy selfe , thou wilt doe it too lightly ; if on thy enemy , too heauily . It belongeth therefore to God to reuenge ; to thee to forgiue . And in testimony that thou hast freely forgiuen him , pray vnto God for the forgiuenesse of his fault , and the amendment of his life : and the next time that occasion is offered ( and it lyes in thy power ) doe him good , and reioyce in doing it : for hee that doth good to his enemies , shewes himselfe the childe of GOD ; and his reward is with GOD his Father . 5 Vse not sleepe as a meanes , to satiate the foggy lithernesse of thy flesh : but as a medicine to refresh thy tyred senses and members . Sufficient sleepe quickeneth the minde , and reuiueth the body : but immoderate sleepe dulleth the one , and fatneth the other . 6 Remember that many goe to bed , and neuer rise againe ; till they be wakened and raised vp by the fearefull sound of the last trumpet . But he that sleepeth and wakeneth with praier ; sleepeth and wakeneth with Christ. If therefore thou desirest to sleepe securely , and safely , yeeld vp thy selfe into the hands of God , whilest thou art waking , and so goe to bed with a reuerence of Gods maiesty , and consideration of thine owne misery , which thou maiest imprint in thy heart in some measure , by these meanes and the like meditations . Read a Chapter in the same order as was prescribed in the morning : and when thou hast done , kneele downe on both thy knees at thy bed side , or some other conuenient place in thy Chamber , and lifting vp thy heart , thine eyes and hands to thy heauenly Father , in the name and mediation of his holy Sonne IESVS , pray vnto him , if thou haue the gift of praier . 1 Confessing thy sinnes , especially those which thou hast committed that day . 2 Caruing most earnestly ( for Christ his sake ) pardon and forgiuenesse for them . 3 Requesting the assistance of his holy spirit , for amendment of life . 4 In giuing thankes for benefits receiued , especially for thy preseruation that day . 5 Praying for rest and protection that night . 6 Remembring the state of the Church , the King , and the Royall Posterity , our Ministers and Magistrates , and all our brethren visited or persecuted . 7 Lastly , commending thy selfe and all thine to his gracious custody . All which thou maiest do in these or the like words . A praier for the Euening . O Most gracious God , and louing Father , who art about my bed , and knowest my down lying , and mine vprising , and art neere vnto all that call vpon thee , in truth and sincerity , I wetched sinner doe beseech thee , to looke vpon me with the eies of thy mercy , and not to behold mee as I am in my selfe : For then thou shalt see but an vncleane and defiled creature , conceiued in sinne , and liuing in iniquity : so that I am ashamed to lift vp mine eies to heauen , knowing how grieuously I haue sinned against heauen , and before thee : For , O Lord , I haue transgressed al thy commandements and righteous lawes , not onely through negligence and infirmity , but oftentimes through wilfull presumption , contrary to my knowledge : yea , contrary to the motions of thy holy spirit reclaiming me from them , so that I haue wounded my conscience , and grieued thy holy spirit , by whom thou hast sealed mee to the day of redemption . Thou hast consecrated my soule and body , to be the temples of the holy Ghost : I wretched sinner haue defiled both , vvith all manner of pollution and vncleannesse . My eyes in taking pleasure to behold vanitie , mine eares in hearing impure and vnchaste speeches , my tongue in leasing and euill speaking : my hands are so ful of impuritie , that I am ashamed to lift them vp vnto thee : and my feet haue carried mee after mine owne wayes : my vnderstanding and reasoning which are so quicke in all earthly matters , are only blinde , and stupide , when I come to meditate or discourse of spirituall and heauenly things : my memory , which should be the treasurie of all goodnesse , is not so apt to remember any thing , as those things vvhich are vile and vaine . Yea , Lord , by wofull experience I finde , that naturally , all the imaginations of the thoughts of mine heart , are only euill continually . And these my sinnes are more in number then the haires which grow vpon mine head , and they haue growne ouer me like a loathsome leprie : that from the crowne of my head to the sole of my feet , there remaines no part vvhich they haue not infected . They make mee seeme vile in mine owne eyes ; how much more abhominable must I then appeare in thy sight ? And the custome of sinning hath almost taken away the conscience of sinne , & pulled vpon me such dulnesse of sense and hardnesse of hart ; that thy iudgements denounced against my sinnes , by the faithfull Preachers of thy Word doe not terrifie me to returne vnto thee by vnfained repentance for them . And if thou Lord , shouldst but deale with me , according to thy iustice and my desert , I should vtterly be confounded and condemned . But seeing that of thine infinite mercie thou hast spared mee so long , and still waitest for my repentance : I humbly beseech thee , for the bitter death and bloudy Passion● sake , which Iesus Christ hath suffered for mee : that thou wouldest pardon , and forgiue vnto mee all my sinnes and offences , and open vnto mee that euer-streaming fountaine of the bloud of Christ , which thou hast promised to open vnder the New Testament , to the penitent of the house of Dauid : that all my sinnes and vncleannesse may be so bathed in his bloud , buried in his death , and hid in his wounds : that they neuer be more seene , to shame me in this life , or to condemne mee before thy Iudgement-seate , in the world which is to come . And forasmuch , O Lord , as thou knowest , that it is not in man to turne his owne heart , vnlesse thou doest first giue him grace to conuert : And seeing that it is as easie with thee to make me righteous and holy , as to bid mee to be such : O my God , giue mee grace , to doe what thou commandest , and then command what thou wilt , and thou shalt finde me willing to doe thy blessed will. And to this end , giue vnto me thine holy spirit , which thou hast promise● to giue to the worlds end , vnto all thine elect people . And let the same thy holy spirit , purge my heart , heale my corruption , sanctifie my nature , and consecrate my soule and body , that they may become the Temples of the holy Ghost , to serue thee in righteousnesse and holinesse all the dayes of my life . That when by the direction & assistance of thy holy spirit , I shall finish my course in this short and transitory life ; I may cheerefully leaue this world , and resigne my Soule into thy Fatherly hands , in the assured confidence of enioying euerlasting life with thee , in thine Heauenly Kingdome , which thou hast prepared for thine elect Saints , who loue the Lord Iesus , and expect his appearing . In the meane while , O Father , I beseech thee , let thy holy spirit worke in mee such a serious repentance , as that I may with teares lament my sinnes past , vvith griefe of heart be humbled for my sinnes present , and vvith all mine endeuour resist the like filthy sinnes in time to come . And let the same thy holy spirit likewise keepe mee in the vnitie of thy Church . Leade mee in the truth of thy Word , and preserue me that I neuer swarue from the same to Poperie , nor any other error or false worship . And let thy Spirit open mine eyes more and more , to see the wondrous things of thy Law : and open my lips , that my mouth may daily defend thy Truth , and set forth thy Praise . Increase in me those good gifts , which of thy me●cy thou hast already bestowed vpon mee , and giue vnto mee a patient spirit , a chaste heart , a contented minde , pure affections , wife behauiour , and all other graces which thou seest to be necessary for me : to gouerne my heart in thy feare , and to guide all my life in thy fauour : that whether I liue or dye , I may liue and dye vnto thee , who art my God , and my Redeemer . And here ( O Lord ) according as I am bound , I render vnto thee from the Altar of my humblest heart , all possible thankes for all those blessings and benefits , which so graciously & plentifully , thou hast bestowed vpon my soule and body , for this life , and for that which is to come : namely , for mine Election , Creation , Redemption , Vocation , Iustification , Sanctification , and Preseruation from my childe-hoode , vntill this present day and houre : and for the firme hope which thou hast giuen me of my Glorification . Likewise for my health , wealth , food , raiment , and prosperitie : and more especially , for that thou hast defended mee this day now past , from all perils and dangers , both of body and soule , furnishing mee with all necessary good things that I stand in neede of . And as thou hast ordained the day for man to trauaile in , and the night for him to take his rest : so I beseech thee , sanctifie vnto mee this nights rest and sleepe , that I may enioy the same , as thy sweet blessing and benefit . That so this dull and wearied body of mine , being refreshed with moderate sleepe and rest : I may be the better enabled to vvalke before thee , doing all such good workes ▪ as thou hast appointed : when it shall please thee by thy diuine power to waken mee the next morning . And whilest I sleepe ; doe thou , O Lord , who art the keeper of Israel , that neuer slumbrest nor sleepest , watch ouer mee in thy holy prouidence , to protect mee from all danger , so that neyther the euill Angels of Sathan , nor any wicked enemy , may haue any power to doe me any harme or euill . And to this end , giue a charge vnto thy holy Angels , that they at thine appointment , may pitch their tents round about me , for my defence and safetie : as thou hast promised that they should doe about them that feare thy Name . And knowing that thy name is a strong tower of defence vnto all those that trust therein ; I here recommend my selfe and all that doe belong vnto me , vnto thy holy protection and custodie . If it be thy blessed will to call for me in my sleepe : O Lord , for Christ his sake , haue mercy vpon me , and receiue my soule into thy heauenly Kingdome . And if it be thy blessed pleasure to adde more dayes vnto my life , O Lord , adde more amendement vnto my dayes : and weane my mind from the loue of the world , and worldly vanities : and cause mee more and more to settle my conuersation on Heauen and heauenly things . And perfect daily in mee , that good worke which thou hast begun , to the glory of thy Name , and the saluation of my sinfull Soule . O Lord , I beseech thee likewise , saue and defend from all euill and danger , thy whole Church , the Kings Maiestie , the Queene , the Prince Charles , together with the Princely Count Palatine of Rhene , and the religious Princesse Elizabeth his Wife : keepe them all in the sinceritie of thy Truth , and prosper them in all grace and happinesse . Blesse the Nobilitie , Ministers , and Magistrates of these Churches & Kingdomes , each of them with those graces , which are expedient for their place and calling . And be thou , ô Lord , a comfort and consolation to all thy people , whom thou hast thought meete to visit vvith any kinde of sicknesse , crosse , or calamitie . Hasten , O Father , the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ. Make mee euer mindfull of my last end , and of the reckoning that I am to make vnto thee therein . And in the meane while , carefull , so to follow Christ in the regeneration during this life , as that with Christ I may haue a portion in the resurrection of the iust , when this mortall life is ended . These graces , and all other blessings , which thou , O Father , knowest to be requisite and necessary for me , I humbly beg and craue at thy hands in the Name and mediation of Iesus Christ thy Sonne , and in that forme of Prayer , which hee himselfe hath taught me to say vnto thee . Our Father which art in Heauen , &c. Another shorter Euening Prayer . O Eternall GOD , and heauenly father , if I were not taught and assured by the promises of thy Gospell , and the examples of Peter , Magdalene , the Publicane , the Prodigall childe , and many other penitent sinners : that thou art so full of compassion , and so ready to forgiue the greatest sinners , who are heauiest laden with sinne , at what time soeuer they returne vnto thee with penitent hearts , lamenting their sinnes , and imploring thy grace : I should despaire for mine owne sinnes , and be vtterly discouraged , from presuming to come vnto thy presence : considering the hardnesse of my heart , the vnrulinesse of my affections , and the vncleannesse of my conuersation : by meanes whereof I haue transgressed all thy lawes , and deserued thy curse , which might cause my body to be smitten with some fearefull disease , my soule to languish with the death of sinne , my good name to be traduced with scandalous reproaches , and make mine estate lyable to all manner of crosses , and casualities . And I confesse , Lord , that thy mercy is the cause that I haue not beene long agoe confounded . But , O my God , as thy mercy onely staied thy iudgement from falling vpon mee hitherto ; so I humbly beseech thee , in the bowels of the mercy , of Iesus Christ , in whom onely thou art well pleased , that thou wilt not deale with mee according to my deserts , but that thou wouldest freely and fully , remit vnto mee all my sinnes and transgressions : and that thou wouldest washe them cleane from me , vvith the vertue of that most precious blood , which thy sonne Iesus Christ hath shed for me , For hee alone is the Phisition , and his bloud onely is the medicine that can heale my sickenesse . And he is the true brazen Serpent , that can cure that poison wherewith the firy Serpents of my sinnes , haue stung and poisoned my sicke and wounded soule . And giue mee I beseech thee thine holy spirit , which may assure me of mine adoption , and that may confirme my faith : encrease my repentance , enlighten my vnderstanding , purifie my heart , rectifie my will and affections , and so sanctifie me throughout : that my whole body , soule , and spirit may be kept vnblameable vntill the glorious comming of my Lord Iesus Christ. And now , O Lord , I giue thee hearty thankes and praise , for that thou hast this day preserued me from all harmes and perils , notwithstanding all my sinnes and ill deserts . And I beseech thee likewise defend me this night from the roaring Lion , which night and day seeketh to deuoure me . Watch thou , O Lord , ouer me this night , to keepe mee from his temptations and tyrannie : and let thy mercy shield me from his vnappeaseable rage and malice . And to this end , I commend my selfe into thy hands , and protection ; beseeching thee , O my Lord and God , not to suffer Satan , nor any of his euill members , to haue power to doe vnto me any hurt or violence this night . And grant , good Lord , that whether I sleepe or wake : liue or die : I may sleepe , wake , liue , and die vnto thee , and to the glory of thy name , and the saluation of my soule . Lord blesse and defend all thy chosen people euery where ▪ Graunt our King a long & happy raigne ouer vs. Blesse the Queene , Prince Charles , the Prince Palatine of Rhene , and the vertuous Princesse Elizabeth his wife , together with all our Magistrates , and Ministers : comfort them who are in any misery , neede , or sickenesse : Good Lord , giue me grace to be one of those wise Virgins , which may haue my heart prepared like a Lampe furnished with the Oyle of Faith , and light of good works , to meet the Lord Iesus the sweet bridegroome of my soule , at his second and sodaine comming in glory . Grant this good Father , for Christ Iesus sake , my only Sauiour and Mediator , in whose blessed name , and in whose owne words I call vpon thee as he hath taught me . Our Father which &c. Afterwards say . Thy grace O Lord Iesus Christ , thy loue O heauenly Father , thy comfort and consolation , O Holy and blessed spirit , be with me , and dwell in my heart this night and euermore . Amen . Then rising vp in a holy reuerence , meditate as thou art putting off thy cloathes . Things to be Meditated vpon , as thou art putting off thy cloathes . 1 THat the day is comming when thou must be as barely vnstript of al that thou hast in the world , as thou art now of thy cloathes ; thou hast therefore heere , but the vse of all things , as a Steward for a time , and that vpon accounts . Whilest therefore thou art trusted with this Stewardship , be wise and faithfull . 2 When thou seest thy bed , let it put thee in minde of thy graue ; which is now the bed of Christ : For Christ by laying his holy body to rest three daies and three nights in the graue ; hath sanctified , and as it were warmed it for the bodies of his Saints to rest and sleepe in till the morning of the resurrection : So that now vnto the faithfull , Death is but a sweet sleepe , and the graue but Christs bed , where their bodies rest and sleepe in peace : vntill the ioyfull morning of the Resurrection day shall dawne vnto them . Let therefore thy bed-cloathes represent vnto thee , the mould of the earth that shall couer thee : thy sh●etes , thy winding sheete : thy sleepe , thy death : thy waking , thy resurrection . And being laid downe in thy bed when thou perceiuest sleep to approach : say , I will lay mee downe and sleepe in peace , for thou Lord onely makest mee dwell in safety . Thus religiously opening euery Morning thy heart , and shutting it vp againe euery Euening with the word of God and praier , as it were vvith a locke and key : and so beginning ▪ the day with GODS worship , continuing it in his feare , and ending it in his fauour : thou shalt be sure to finde the blessing of GOD vpon all thy daies labours and good endeauours : and at night thou mayest assure thy selfe thou shalt sleepe safely and sweetly in the armes of thy heauenly Fathers prouidence . Thus farre of the Piety which euery Christian in priuate ought to Practise euery day . Now followeth that which ( he being a Housholder ) must practise publikely with his Family . Meditations for Houshold Piety . 1 IF thou be called to the gouernment of a Familie , thou must not hold it sufficient to serue GOD , and liue vprightly in thine owne person : vnlesse thou cause all vnder thy charge to doe the same with thee . For the performance of this dutie God was so well pleased with Abraham , that he would not hide from him his counsell . For ( saith GOD ) I know him that he will command his sons and his houshold after him ; that they keepe the way of the Lord , to doe righteousnesse and iudgement , that the Lord may bring vpon Abraham , that he hath spoken vnto him . And Abraham had 318. men seruants ; which were thus borne and Catechized in his house . With whose helpe hee rescued also his Nephew L●t from the captiuity of his enemies . And religiously valiant Iosuah protesteth before all the people , that if they all would fall away from the true worship of GOD , yet that hee and his house would serue the Lord. And GOD himselfe giues a speciall charge to all householders that they do instruct their Family in his word , and traine them vp in his feare and seruice . These words which I command thee this day shall be in thy heart , and thou shalt wh●● them continually vpon thy children , and shalt talke of them , when thou tarriest in thine house , and as thou walkest by the way , and when thou lyest downe , and when thou risest vp , &c. Thou shalt feare the Lord thy God and serue him . Dauid according to this Law had so ordered his Family , That no deceitful person should dwell in his house , but such as would serue God and walke in his way . And religious Hester had taught her Maydes to serue GOD in fasting and prayer . And the more to further thy family in the zeale of Religion : settle euer thy chiefest affection on those , whom thou shalt perceiue to be best addicted to true religion . This also will turne to thine owne aduantage in a double respect . First , GOD will the rather blesse and prosper the labour and handy worke of such godly Seruants . For Laban perceiued that God blessed him for Iacobs sake : And Potiphar saw , that the Lord made all that Ioseph did to prosper in his hand ; yea , when innocent Ioseph vvas cast into prison , his Keeper saw that whatsoeuer he did , the Lord made it to prosper : and therefore the Keeper committed all the charge of the Prisoners into Iosephs hand . Secondly , the truer a man doth serue God , the faithfuller he will serue thee . 2 If euery Housholder were thus carefull , according to his duetie , to bring vp his Children and Familie in the seruice and feare of God in his owne house , then the house of God should be better filled , and the Lords Table more frequented euery Sabbath day ; and the Pastors publike preaching and labour would take more effect then it doth . The streetes of Townes and Cities , would not abound with so many drunkards , swearers , whoremongers , & prophane scorners of true Pietie and Religion . Westminster-Hall would not be so full of contentions , wrangling suites , and vnchristian debates : and the Prisons vvould not be euery Sessions , so full of theeues , robbers , traytors , and murtherers . But alas , most Housholders make no other vse of their Seruants , then they doe of their beasts . Whilest they may haue their bodies to doe their seruice , they care not if their Soules serue the Diuell . Yet the common complaint is ; that faithfull and good seruants are scarce to be found . True ; but the reason is , because there are so many prophane and irreligious Masters : for , the example and instruction of a godly and religious Master , will make a good and a faithfull seruant , as may witnesse the examples of Abraham , Ioshua , Dauid , Cornelius , &c. who had good seruants , because they were religious masters , such as were carefull to make their seruants Gods seruants . It is the chiefe labour and care of most men , to raise and to aduance their house ; yet let them rise vp earely & lye downe late , and eate the bread of carefulnesse , all vvill be but in vaine , for except the Lord build a house ( that is , raise vp a familie ) they labour in vaine . For GOD hath sealed this as an irreuocable Decree , that he will poure his wrath vpon the Families that call not vpon his Name : yea , God will take the wicked , and plucke him out of his Tabernacle , and roote him out of the land , &c. Yea , when his iniquities are full ; he will make the Land to spue out euery Canaanite . Religion then , and the Seruice of God in a Family , is the best building and surest entailing of house and Land to a man and his posteritie : for the righteous man shall inherit the land , and dwell therein for euer . As therefore if thou desirest to haue the blessing of God vpon thy selfe and vpon thy familie : eyther before or after thine owne priuate deuotion , call euery morning all thy familie to some conuenient roome ; and first , eyther reade thy selfe vnto them a Chapter in the word of God , or cause it to be read distinctly by some other . If leasure serue , thou maist * admonish them of some remarkeable good notes ; and then kneeling downe with them in reuerent sort , as is before described , pray with them in this manner . Morning Prayer for a Familie . O Lord our GOD and heauenly father , who art the onely Creator & Gouernour of Heauen and Earth , and all things therein contained , we confesse that wee are vnworthy to appeare in thy sight and presence , considering our manifold sinnes vvhich wee haue committed against Heauen , and before thee : and how that wee haue beene borne in sinne , and doe daily breake thy holy Lawes and Commandements , contrary to our knowledge and Consciences , albeit that we know that thou art our Creator , who hast made vs ; our Redeemer , who hast bought vs with the bloud of thine onely begotten Sonne ; and our Comforter , who bestowest vpon vs all the good and holy graces , which wee enioy in our soules and bodies . And if thou shouldest but deale with vs , as our vvickednesse and vnthankfulnesse haue deserued ; what other thing might vve , O Lord , expect from thee , but shame and confusion in this life , and in the vvorld to come wrath and euerlasting condemnation ? Yet , O Lord , in the obedience of thy Commandement , and in the confidence which wee haue in thy vnspeakeable and endlesse mercy in thy Sonne , our Sauiour Iesus Christ : we thy poore Seruants appealing from thy Throne of Iustice ( where wee are iustly lost and condemned ) to thy throne of Grace ( where mercy raigneth to pardon abounding sinne : ) doe from the bottome of our hearts most humbly beseech thee to remit and forgiue vnto vs all our offences and misdeedes , that by the vertue of the precious bloud of IESVS CHRIST , thine innocent Lambe , which hee so aboundantly shed to take away the sinnes of the world : all our sins both originall and actuall , may be so clensed and washed from vs , as that they may neuer be laid to our charge , nor neuer haue power to rise vp in Iudgement against vs. And we beseech thee , good Father , for Christ his death and passions sake : that thou wilt not suffer to fall vpon vs that fearefull curse and vengeance , which thy Law hath threatned , and our sins haue iustly deserued . And for as much , O Lord , as wee are taught by thy word , that Idolaters , Adulterers , couetous men , contentious persons , drunkards , gluttons , and such like inordinate liuers , shall not inherite the kingdome of God : poure the grace of thy holy spirit into our harts , whereby we may be enlightened to see the filthinesse of our sinnes , to abhorre them : and may be more and more stirred vp to liue in newnesse of life , and loue of thy Maiestie ; so that vvee may daily encrease in the obedience of thy word , and in a conscionable care of keeping thy Commandements . And now , O Lord , vvee render vnto thee most heartie thanks , for that thou hast elected , created , redeemed , called , iustified and sanctified vs in good measure in this life , and giuen vs an assured hope that thou vvilt glorifie vs in thy heauenly Kingdome , vvhen this mortall life is ended . Likewise vve thanke thee for our life , health , wealth , libertie , prosperitie , and peace , especially , ô Lord , for the continuance of thy holy Gospell among vs , and for sparing vs so long , and granting vs so gracious a time of Repentance . Also vve praise thee , for all other thy mercies bestowed vpon vs ; more especially , for preseruing vs this night past , from all dangers , that might haue befallen our soules or bodies . And seeing thou hast now brought vs safe to the beginning of this day , vve beseech thee , protect and direct vs in the same . Blesse and defend vs in our going out and comming in , this day and euermore . Shield vs , O LORD , from the temptations of the Diuell , and grant vs the custodie of thy holy Angels to defend and direct vs in all our wayes . And to this end , wee recommend our selues , and all those that belong vnto vs , and are abroad from vs , into thy hands , and almightie tuition . Lord defend them from all euill , prosper them in all graces , and fill them with thy goodnesse . Preserue vs likewise this day , from falling into any grosse sinne , especially those vvhereunto our natures are most prone . Set a watch before the doore of our lips , that vve offend not thy Maiestie , by any rash or false oathes ; or by any lewde or lying speeches : giue vnto vs patient mindes , pure and chast hearts , and all other graces of thy Spirit , vvhich thou knowest to be needfull for vs , that vvee may the better be enabled to serue thee in holinesse and righteousnesse . And seeing that all mans labour without thy blessing is in vaine ; blesse euery one of vs in our seuerall places and callings , direct thou the works of our hands vpon vs , euen prosper thou our handy-worke ; ( for except thou guide vs vvith thy grace , our endeuours can haue no good successe . ) And prouide for vs all things which thou , O Father . knowest to bee needfull for euery one of vs in our soules and bodies this day . And grant that wee may so passe through the pilgrimage of this short life ; that our hearts being not setled vpon any transitorie things , which we meete with , in the way : our soules may euery day bee more and more rauished with the loue of our home , and thine euerlasting Kingdome . Defend likewise , O Lord , thy vniuersall Church , and euery particuler member thereof : especially wee beseech thee to continue the peace and prosperity of these Churches and Kingdomes wherein wee liue . Preserue and defend from all euils and dangers , our gracious King , the Queene , our hopefull Prince Charles , together with the Princely Palsgraue of Rhene , and religious Princesse Elizabeth his wife . Multiply their daies in blisse and felicity : and afterwards crowne them with euerlasting ioy and glory . Blesse all our Ministers and Magistrates with all graces needful for their places , and gouerne thou them , that they may gouerne vs , in peace and godlinesse . And of thy mercy , O Lord , comfort all our brethren that are destressed , sicke , or any way comfortlesse , especially those who are afflicted either with an euill conscience , because they haue sinned against thy word , or for a good conscience , because they will not sinne against thy truth . Make the first to know , that not one drop of the blood of Christ , was a drop of vengeance , but all drops of grace , powerfull to procure pardon vpon repentance , for the greatest sinnes of the chiefest sinner in the world . And for the other , let not , O Lord , thy long sufferance either too much discourage them , or too much encourage their enemies : but grant them patience in suffering , and a gracious and speedy deliuerance , which way may stand best with their comfort and thy glory . Giue euery one of vs grace , to be alwaies mindefull of his last end , and to be prepared with faith and repentance , as with a wedding garment against the time that thou shalt call for vs out of this sinnefull world . And that in the meane while , we may so in all things , and aboue all things , seeke thy glory , that when this mortall life is ended , wee may then be made partakers of immortality , and life eternall , in thy most blessed and glorious Kingdome . These and all other graces , which thou , O Father , seest to be necessary for vs , and for thy whole Church , wee humbly begge and craue at thy hands ; concluding this our imperfect prayer , in that absolute forme of prayer , which Christ himselfe hath taught vs , saying : Our Father , &c. After Prayers , let euery one of thy Houshold ( taking in the feare of GOD , such a breakefast or refreshing as is fit ) depart : the children to Schoole , the seruants to their worke , euery one to his office , the Master and Mistresse of the Family to their callings , or to some honest exercises for recreation as they thinke fit . The Practise of Piety at meales and the manner of feeding in the feare of God. BEfore dinner and supper , when the Table is couered , ponder with thy selfe vpon these Meditations : to worke a deeper impression in thy heart of Gods fatherly prouidence and goodnes towards thee . Meditations before dinner and supper . 1 MEditate that hunger is like the sicknesse called a Woolfe : which if thou doest not feed ; vvill deuoure thee , and eate thee vp : and that meat and drink , are but as Physicke , or meanes which GOD hath ordained , to releeue and cure this naturall infirmity , and necessitie of man. Vse therefore to eate and to drinke , rather to sustaine and refresh the weakenesse of nature ; then to satisfie the sensuality and delights of the flesh . Eate therefore to liue , but liue not to eate . A Skauenger , whose liuing is to empty ; is to be preferred before him , that liueth but to fill Priuies . There is no seruice so * base ; as for a man to be a slaue to his bellie . The Apostle termeth such , Belly-gods , Phil. 3.19 . Therefore wee may boldly terme them as the Scriptures doe other Idols , * Gillulim , Dungy gods . Hab. 2.18.19 . 2 King. 17.12 . And as no one action ( Gods ordinance excepted ) makes a man more to resemble a beast , then eating or drinking : so the abuse of eating and drinking to surfeiting , drunkennesse , and spewing ; makes a man more vile then a beast . 2 Meditate of the omnipotency of GOD who made all these creatures of nothing : of his wisdome , who feedeth so many infinite creatures through the vniuersal world , maintaining all their liues , which he hath giuen them : which surpasseth the wisdome of all the Angels in heauen : and of his clemency and goodnesse , in feeding also his very enemies . 3 Meditate , how many sorts of creatures , as beasts , fish , and fowle , haue lost their liues , to become foode to nourish thee : and how Gods prouidence from remote places , hath brought al these portions together on thy Table , for thy nourishment : and how by these dead creatures he maintaines thee in health and life . 4 Meditate , that seeing thou hast so many pledges of Gods fatherly bounty , goodnesse , and mercy towards thee , as there are dishes of meat on thy Table : Oh suffer not in such a place , so gracious a God , to be abused by scurrilitie , ribauldry , or swearing : or thy * fellow brother , by disgracefull backebiting , taunting or slandering . 5 Meditate , how that thy Master Iesus Christ did neuer eate any foode ▪ but first he blessed the creatures , and gaue thankes to his heauenly Father for the same . And after his last Supper , wee read that he sung a Psalme . For this was the commandement of God. When thou hast eaten and filled thy selfe , thou shalt blesse the Lord thy God , &c. This was the practise of the Prophets . For , The people would not eate at their feast , till Samuel came to blesse their meate . And saith Ioel to Gods people , You shall eate and be satisfied , and praise the name of the Lord your God. This also was the practise of the Apostles . For Saint Paul in the ship , gaue thankes before meate . In the presence of all the people that were therein . Imitate thou therefore in so holy an action , so blessed a Master , and so many worthy Presidents that haue followed him , and gone before thee . It may bee ; because thou hast neuer vsed to giue thankes at meales , therefore thou art now ashamed to beginne . Thinke it no shame to doe what Christ did : but bee rather ashamed that thou hast so long neglected so Christian a duty . And if the Sonne of God gaue his Father such great thankes for a dinner of Barly bread and broyled fish ; what thankes should such a sinfull man as thou art , render vnto GOD , for such va●ietie of good and daintie cheare ? how many a true Christian would be glad to fill his belly with the morsels which thou refusest , and doe lacke that which thou leauest ? How hardly doe others labour for that which they eate , and thou hast thy food prouided for thee , without eyther care or labour ? To conclude , if Pagan Idolaters at their feasts , were accustomed to praise their false Gods ; what a shame is it for a Christian , at his dinners and suppers , not to praise the true GOD , in whom we liue , moue , and haue our beeing ? 6 Meditate , that thy body which thou doest now so daintily feede , must be ( thou knowest not how soone ) meate for Wormes : When thou shalt say to Corruption , thou art my Father , and to the Worme , thou art my Mother , and my Sister . 7 Meditate , how that many a mans Table is made his snare : so that through his intemperancie and vnthankefulnesse , the meate which should nourish his body , kils him with a surfeit : insomuch , that more are killed vvith this snare , then vvith the sword . And seeing that since the Curse , the vse ( as of all creatures , so likewise ) of meat and drinke , is vnto vs vncleane , till the same be sanctified by the Word of God and Prayer : and that man liueth not by bread onely , but by the Word of Gods ordinance , and his blessing , which is called the staffe of bread : Sit not therefore downe to eate , before you pray , and rise not , before you giue God thankes . Feed to suffice Nature , yet rise with an appetite : and remember thy poore christian brethren , who suffer hunger , and want those good things wherwith thou dost abound . These things , or some of them premeditated : ( if there be not a Samuel present ) lift vp with all comely reuerence , thy heart with thy hands and eyes , vnto the great Creator and Feeder of all Creatures , and before meate pray vnto him thus : Grace before meate . O Most gracious GOD , and louing Father , who feedest all Creatures liuing , which depend vpon thy diuine Prouidence : wee beseech thee , sanctifie these creatures , which thou hast ordained for vs : giue them vertue to nourish our bodies , in life and health : and giue vs grace , to receiue them soberly and thankefully , as from thy hands : that so in the strength of these and other thy blessings , vvee may walke in the vprightnesse of our hearts , before thy face , this day , and all the dayes of our liues : Through Iesus Christ , our LORD and onely Sauiour . Amen . Or thus . MOst gracious God , and mercifull Father , wee beseech thee sanctifie these Creatures to our vse : make them healthfull for our nourishment ; and vs thankefull for all thy blessings , through Christ our Lord and onely Sauiour . Amen . Another Grace before meate . O Eternall GOD , in whom we liue , moue , and haue our being , wee beseech thee blesse vnto thy Seruants , these Creatures , that in the strength thereof , we may liue to the setting forth of thy praise and glory , through Iesus Christ our Lord and onely Sauiour . Amen . After euery meale , be carefull of thy selfe and Familie , as Iob was for himselfe , and his Children , Iob 1.4 . least that in the chearefulnesse of eating and drinking , some speech hath slipped out , which might be eyther offensiue to God , or iniurious to Man : And therefore with the like comely gesture and reuerence giue thankes vnto God , and pray in this manner . BLessed be thy holy name O Lord our GOD , for these thy good benefits , wherewith thou hast so plentifully at this time refreshed our bodies ; O Lord vouchsafe likewise to feede our soules , with the spirituall food● of thy holy Word and spirit vnto life euerlasting . Lord defend and saue thy vvhole Church : our gracious King , & Queene , our Noble Prince , the Prince Palatine of Rhene , and the Lady Elizabeth his Wife : Forgiue vs our sinnes , and vnthankefulnesse , passe by our manifold infirmities , make vs all mindfull of our last ends , and of the reckoning that wee are to make to thee therein . And in the meane , while grant vnto vs health , peace , and truth , in Iesus Christ our Lord , and onely Sauiour . Or thus . BLessed be thy holy name ( O Lord ) for these thy good benefits , vvherewith thou hast refreshed vs at this time . Lord , forgiue vs all our sinnes and frailties , saue & defend thy whole Church , our King , Queene , and royall posteritie , and grant vs health , peace , and truth in Christ our onely Sauiour . Amen . Or thus . WE giue thee thanks ( O heauenly Father , for feeding our bodies so gratiously with thy good Creatures , to this temporall life : beseeching thee likewise to feede our soules with thy holy Word vnto life euerlasting . Defend ( O Lord ) thine vniuersall Church , the King , Queene , and their royall Posteritie , and graunt vs continuance of thy grace and mercy in Christ our onely Sauiour . Amen . The Practise of Pietie at Euening . At euening when the due time of repairing to rest approacheth , call together againe all thy Family . Reade a Chapter in the same manner that was prescribed in the morning . Then ( in the holy imitation of our Lord and his Disciples ) sing a Psalme . But in singing of Psalmes eyther after Supper , or at any other time , obserue these Rules . Rules to be obserued in singing of Psalmes 1 BEware of singing diuine Psalmes for an ordinary recreation ; as doe men of impure spirits , vvho sing holy Psalmes intermingled with prophane Ballads . They are Gods word , take them not in thy mouth in vaine . 2 Remember to sing Dauids Psalmes with Dauids spirit . 3 Practise Saint Pauls rule : I will sing with the spirit , but I will sing with the vnderstanding also . 4 As you sing vncouer your heads , and behaue your selues in comely reuerence , as in the sight of God , singing to God , in Gods owne words . But be sure that the matter makes more melodie in your hearts , then the Musicke in your eares : for the singing with a grace in our hearts , is that which the Lord is delighted withall , according to that olde verse : Non vox , sed votum , non musica chordula , sed cor : Non clamans , sed amans , psallit in aure Dei. T' is not the voyce , but vow : Sound hart , not sounding string : True zeale , not outward show , That in Gods eare doth ring . 5 Thou maist , if thou thinke good , sing all the Psalmes ouer in order : for all are most diuine and comfortable . But if thou vvilt chuse some speciall Psalmes , as more fit for some times and purposes : and such as by the oft vsage , thy people may the easilier commit to memorie : Then sing , In the Morning , Psal. 3.5.16.22.144 . In the Euening , Psal. 4.127.141 . For mercy after a sinne committed , 51.103 . In sicknesse or heauinesse , Psal. 6.13.88.90 91.137.146 . When thou art recouered , Psal. 30.32 . On the Sabbath day , Psal. 19.92.95 . In time of ioy , Psal. 80.98.107.136.145 . Before Sermon , Psal. 1.12.147 . The 1. and 5. Part of the 119. After Sermon , any Psalme , which concerneth the chiefe argument of the Sermon . At the Communion , Psal. 22.23.103.111.113 . For spirituall solace , Psal. 15.19.25.46.67.112.116 . After wrong and disgrace receiued , Psal. 42.69.70.140.144 . After the Psalme , all kneeling downe in reuerend manner , as is before described , let the Father of the Familie ( or the chiefest in his absence , ) pray thus . Euening Prayer for a Familie . O Eternall GOD , and most graciour Father , wee thine vnworthy Seruants , here assembled , doe cast downe our selues , at the foote-stoole of thy grace , acknowledgeing that wee haue inherited our Fathers corruption , and actually in thought , word and deed , transgressed all thy holy commandements . So that in vs naturally , there dwelleth nothing that is good : for our hearts are full of secret pride , anger , impatiency , dissembling , lying , lust , vanity , prophanenesse , distrust , too much loue of our selues , and the world , too little loue of thee , and thy Kingdome : but empty and voide of faith , loue , patience , and euery spirituall grace . If thou therefore shouldest but enter into iudgement with vs , and search out our naturall corruptions , and obserue all the cursed fruits and effects that we haue deriued from thence : Satan might iustly challenge vs for his owne , and wee could not expect any thing from thy Maiestie , but thy wrath , and our condemnation , which we haue long agoe deserued . But good Father , for Iesus Christ thy deare Sonnes sake , in whom onely thou art well pleased , and for the merits of that bitter death , and bloody passion , which wee beleeue that he hath suffered for vs : haue mercy vpon vs , pardon and forgiue vs all our sinnes , and free vs from the shame and confusion which are due vnto vs for them : that they may neuer seaze vpon vs to our confusion in this life , nor to our condemnation in the world which is to come . And forasmuch as thou hast created vs to serue thee , as all other creatures to serue vs : so wee beseech thee inspire thy holy Spirit into our hearts that by his illumination and effectuall working , we may haue the inward sight , and feeling of our sinnes and naturall corruptions , and that wee may not be blinded in them through custome , as the Reprobates are : but that wee may more and more loath them , and be heartily grieued for them , endeauouring by the vse of al good meanes to ouercome and get out of them . Oh let me feele the power of Christs death , killing sinne in our mortall bodies , and the vertue of his resurrection , raising vp our soules to newnesse of life . Conuert our hearts , subdue our affections , regenerate our mindes , and purifie our nature ; and suffer vs not to be drowned in the streame of those filthy vices and sinfull pleasures of this time , wherewith thousands are caried headlong to eternall destruction : but dayly frame vs more and more to the likenesse of thy Sonne Iesus Christ , that in righteousnesse and true holinesse wee may so serue and glorifie thee : that liuing in thy feare , and dying in thy fauour , we may in thine appointed time attaine to the blessed resurrection of the iust , vnto eternal life . In the meane while , O Lord , increase our faith in the sweet promises of the Gospell , and our repentance from dead workes , the assurance of our hope in thy promises , our feare of thy name , the hatred of all our sinnes , and our loue vnto thy children ; especially those whom we shall see to stand in neede of our helpe and comfort . That so by the fruits of piety and a righteous life ; we may bee assured that thy holy spirit doth dwell in vs , and that wee are thy children by grace and adoption . And grant vs good Father the continuance of health , peace , maintenance , and all other outward things : so farre forth , as thy diuine wisdome shall thinke meet and necessary for euery one of vs. And heere . O Lord , according to our bounden dutie ▪ we confesse that thou hast beene exceeding mercifull vnto vs all , in things of this life : but infinitely more mercifull in the things of a better life : and therefore wee doe heere from our very soules render vnto thee all humble and hearty thankes for all thy blessings and benefits bestowed vpon our soules & bodies : acknowledging thee to be that Father of lights , from whom we haue receiued all these good and perfect gifts ; and vnto thee alone for them , wee ascribe to be due , all glory , honour , and praise , both now and euermore . But more especially , wee praise thy diuine maiesty , for that thou hast defended vs this day from all perils and dangers : so that none of those iudgements ( which our sinnes haue deserued ) haue fallen vpon any one of vs. Good Lord , forgiue vs the sinnes , which this day wee haue committed against thy diuine Maiesty , and our Brethren : and for Christ his sake , be reconciled vnto vs for them . And wee beseech thee likewise of the same thine infinite goodnesse and mercy , to defend and protect vs , and all that belong vnto vs , this night , from all danger of fire , robbery , terrours of euill Angels , or any other feare or perill , which for our sinnes might iustly fall vpon vs. And that wee may be safe vnder the shadow of thy wings ; we heere commend our bodies and soules and all that wee haue , vnto thine Almighty protection . Lord blesse and defend both vs and them from all euill . And whilest wee sleepe doe thou , O Father , who neuer slumbrest nor sleepest , watch ouer thy children , and giue a charge to thy holy Angels , to pitch their tents round about our house and dwelling , to guard vs from all dangers . That sleeping with thee wee may in the next morning be wakned by thee ; and so being refreshed with moderate sleepe , we may be the fitter , to set foorth thy glory in the conscionable duties of our callings . And we beseech thee , O Lord , to bee mercifull likewise to thy whole Church , and to continue the tranquillity of these Kingdomes wherin we liue , turning from vs those plagues which the crying sinnes of this Nation doe cry for . Preserue our religious King Iames , from all dangers and conspiracies , blesse and prosper the Queene , our hopefull Prince Charles , The Princely Palsgraue of Rhene , and the gracious Princesse Elizabeth his deare wife : all our Magistrates and Ministers , all that feare thee , and call vpon thy name , all our Christian brethren and sisters , that suffer sickenesse or any other affliction or misery : especially those who any where doe suffer persecution for the testimony of the holy Gospell , grant them patience to beare thy crosse , and deliuerance , when , and which way , it shall seeme best to thy diuine wisdome . And Lord , suffer vs neuer to forget our last endes , and those reckonings , which then we must render vnto thee ; In health and prosperity , make vs mindefull of sickenesse , and of the euill day that is behinde : that these things may not ouertake vs as a snare , but that we may in good measure , likewise Virgins , be found prepared for the comming of Christ , the sweet bridegroome of our soules . And now , O Lord most holy and iust , we confesse that there is no cause , why thou , ( who art so much displeased with sinne ) shouldest heare the praier of sinners : but for his sake onely who suffered for sinne and sinned not . In the onely mediation therefore of thine eternall Sonne Iesus our Lord and Sauiour , wee humbly begge these , and all other graces which thou knowest to be needfull for vs , shutting vp those our imperfect requests , in that most holy praier , vvhich Christ himselfe hath taught vs to say vnto thee . Our Father , &c. Thy grace , O Lord Iesus Christ , thy loue O heauenly Father , thy comfort and consolation , O holy and blessed Spirit , be with vs , and remaine with vs this night and for euermore . Amen . Then saluting one another , as becommeth Christians who are the vessels of Grace , and temples of the holy Ghost . Let them in the feare of God depart euery one to his rest : vsing some of the former priuate meditations for Euening . Thus farre of the Householders publike practise of Piety , with his Family euery day . Now followeth his practise of Piety , with the Church on the Saboth day . Meditations of the true manner of practising Pietie on the Sabbath day . ALmighty God will haue himselfe worshipped , not onely in a priuate manner , by priuate persons and Families : but also in a more publike sort , of all the godly ioyned together in a visible Church : that by this meanes he may be knowne not onely to be God and Lord of euery singular person ; but also of the Creatures of the whole vniuersall world . Quest. But why doe not we Christians , vnder the new , keepe the Sabbath on the same seauenth day , vvhereon it was kept vnder the Old Testament ? I answere : because that our Lord Iesus , who is the Lord of the Sabbath , and whom the Law it selfe commands vs to heare , did alter it from that seauenth day to this first day of the vveeke , whereon wee keepe the Sabbath . For the holy Euangelist notes ; that our Lord came into the middest of the holy assembly , on the two first dayes of the two weekes immediately following his Resurrection , and then blessed the Church , breathed on the Apostles the holy Ghost , and gaue them the ministeriall Keyes and power of binding and remitting sinnes . And so it is most probable he did in a solemne manner , euery first day of the weeke , during the fortie dayes hee continued on earth betweene his Resurrection and Ascention , ( for the fiftieth day after , being the first of the weeke , the Apostles were assembled , ) during which time hee gaue Commandements vnto the Apostles , and * spake vnto them those things which appertaine to the Kingdome of God , that is , instructed them , how they should throughout the Churches ( vvhich were to be conuerted ) change the Sabbath to the Lords day : the bodily sacrifices of beasts to the spirituall sacrifices of praise , prayer , and contrite hearts : the a Leuiticall Priesthood of the Law , to the Christian Ministry of the Gospell : the Iewish Temples and Sinagogues , to Churches and Oratories : the olde Sacraments of Circumcision and Passeouer , to Baptisme and the Lords Supper , &c. as may appeare by the like phrase , Acts 19.8 . and Acts 28.23 . Col. 4.11 . put for the whole summe of Pauls doctrine , by which was wrought all these changes where it tooke effect . So that as Christ vvas fortie dayes instructing Moses in Sinai , what hee should teach , and how hee should rule the Church vnder the Law : So hee continued fortie dayes teaching his Disciples in Sion what they should preach , and how they should gouerne the Church vnder the Gospell . And seeing it is manifest that within those fortie dayes , Christ appointed vvhat Ministers should teach , and how they should gouerne his Church to the worlds end ; it is not to be doubted , but that vvithin those fortie dayes hee likewise ordayned on what day they should keepe their Sabbath , and ordinarily doe the vvorkes of their Ministerie , especially seeing that vnder the olde Testament , GOD shewed himselfe as carefull both by his Morall and Ceremoniall Law , to prescribe the time , as well as the matter of his vvorship . Neyther is it a thing to be omitted , that the Lord , a who hath times and seasons in his owne power , appointed this first day of the weeke , to be the very day b wherein hee sent downe from heauen the holy Ghost vpon the Apostles , so that vpon that day they first beganne , and euer after continued the publike exercising of their Ministerie , in the c preaching of the Word , the d administration of the Sacraments , and the e loosing of the sinnes of penitent sinners : vpon these and the like grounds , f Athanasius plainly affirmeth , that the Sabbath day was changed by the Lord himselfe . As therefore our Communion is tearmed the Lords Supper , because it vvas instituted of the Lord , for the remembrance of his death : so the Christian Sabbath is called the g Lords day , because it was ordained of the Lord , for the memoriall of his Resurrection . And as the Name of the h Lord honoureth the one , so doth it the other . And as the Lord of the Sabbath , by his royall prerogatiue , and transcendent authority could ; so hee had also reason to change the holy ▪ Sabbath from the seauenth day to this , whereon wee keepe it . For as concerning that seauenth day , wee followed the sixe dayes , wherein God finished the Creation ; there was no such precise institution , or necessitie of sanctifying it perpetually ; but such , as by the same authoritie , or vpon greater reason and occasion , it might very well be changed and altered vnto some other seauenth day . For the Commandement doth * not say , Remember to keepe holy the seauenth day , next following the sixt day of the creation , or this , or that seauenth day : but indefinitely remember that thou keepe holy a seauenth day . And to speake properly , as wee take a day for the distinction of time , called eyther a day naturall , consisting of 24. houres , or a day artificiall , consisting of 12. houres , from Sun-rising , to Sun-setting : and withall consider the Sun standing still at noone , in Ioshuahs time , the space of a whole day : and the Sunne going backe tenne degrees , viz. fiue houres , ( almost halfe an artificiall day ) in Ezechias time : the Iewes themselues could not keepe their Sabbath vpon that precise and iust distinction of time , called at the first , the seuenth day from the Creation . Adde hereunto that in respect of the diuersitie of Meridians , and the vnequall rising and setting of the Sunne , euery day varyeth in some places , a quarter , in some halfe , in other , a whole day : Therefore , the Iewish seauenth day cannot precisely be kept at the same instant of time , euery where in the world . Now , our Lord Iesus hauing authoritie as Lord ouer the Sabbath , had likewise novv farre greater reason and occasion to translate the Sabbath from the Iewish seauenth day , vnto the seauenth day , whereon Christians doe keepe the Sabbath . 1 Because , that by his Resurrection from the dead , there is wrought a new spirituall creation of the World : without which all the sonnes of Adam had beene turned to euerlasting destruction , and all the workes of the first creation had ministred no consolation vnto vs. And in respect of this new spirituall Creation , the Scripture saith , that a Olde things are passed away , and all things are become new : b new creatures , c new people , d new men , e new knowledge , f new Testamant , g new Commandement , h new names , i new vvay , k new song , l new garment , new Wine , new vessels , m new Ierusalem , n new Heauen , and a new Earth . And therefore of necessitie there must be in stead of the olde a new o Sabbath day , to honour and praise our Redeemer , and to meditate vpon the vvorke of our Redemption , and to shew the new change of the olde Testament . 3 Because that on this day , Christ rested from all the sufferings of his Passion , and finished the glorious Worke of our Redemption . If therefore the finishing of the work of the first Creation , whereby GOD mightily manifested himselfe vnto his creatures , deserued a Sabbath for to solemnize the memoriall of so great a worke , to the honor of the vvorker , and therefore cals it mine holy Day : much more doth the new creation of the world , effected by the resurrection of Christ , ( whereby he mightily declared himselfe to be the Sonne of God , ) deserue a Sabbath , for the perpetuall commemoration thereof , to the honor of Christ , and therefore worthily called the Lords day . For , as the deliuerance out of the captiuitie of Babilon , being greater , tooke away the name from the deliuerance out of the bondage of Egipt : so the day whereon Christ finished the redemption of the world , did more iustly deserue to haue the Sabath kept on it : then on that day , wherein GOD ceased from creating the world . As therefore in the Creation the first day wherein it was finished , was consecrated for a Sabbath : so in the time of Redemption , the first day wherein it was perfected must be dedicated to a holy rest . But still a seuenth day kept according to Gods morall cōmandement . The Iewes kept the last day of the weeke , beginning their Sabath with the night , when GOD rested : but Christians honour the Lord better , on the first day of the weeke , beginning the Sabath with the day , when the Lord arose . They kept their Sabath in remembrance of the worlds Creation : but Christians celebrate it in memoriall of the worlds redemption : yea the Lords day being the first of the Creation and Redemption , puts vs in minde , both of the making of the olde , and redeeming of the new world . As therefore vnder the old Testament , God by the glorie consisting of 7. Lampes , 7. Branches , &c. putting them in remembrance of the Creations , light , and Sabbaths rest : So vnder the new Testament , Christ the true light of the world approaceth in the middest of the 7. Lampes , and 7. golden candlestickes , to put vs in minde to honour our redeemer in the light of the Gospell on the Lords seuenth day of rest . And seeing the Redemption , both for might and mercie , so farre exceedeth the creation ; it stood with great reason , that the greater worke should carie the honour of the day . Neither doth the honourable title of the Lords day , diminish the glory of the Sabbath : but rather being added , augments the dignity thereof : as the name Israel added , vnto Iacob , made the Patriarch the more renowned . The reason taken from the example of Gods resting , from the worke of the creation of the world : continued in force , till the Sonne of God ceased from the worke of the Redemption of the world , and then the former gaue place to the latter . 4 Because it was foretold in the olde Testament that the Sabath should be kept vnder the New Testament on the first day of the weeke . For , first , in the 110. Psalme , which is a Prophesie of Christ and his kingdome ; it is plainely foretold : that there should be a solemne day of Assembling , wherein all Christs people should willingly come together in the beauty of holinesse . Insomuch that no raine ( of peace ) shall be vpon those Families that in that feast will not goe vp to Ierusalem ( the Church ) to worship the King , the Lord of Hoasts . Now on what day this holy feast , and assembly should bee kept ; Dauid sheweth plainlie in Psal. 118. which was a prophesie of Christ , as appeares , Matth. 21.42 . Act. 4.11 . Ephes. 2.20 . as also by the consent of all the Iewes , as Ierome witnesseth . For shewing how Christ by his ignominious death , should be as a stone reiected of the builders or chiefe rulers of Iudea , and yet by this glorious resurrection should become the chiefe stone of the corner : hee wisheth the whole Church to keepe holy that day , wherupon Christ should effect this wonderful worke , saying : This is the day which the Lord hath made , let vs reioyce & be glad in it . And seeing that vpon this day , that which Peter saith of Christ appeareth to be true , That God made him both Lord and and Christ. Acts 2.36 . And therefore the whole Church vnder the New Testament , must celebrate the day of Christs resurrection . Rabbi Bachay also saw by the fall of Adam on the 6. day , that on the same day Messias should finish the worke of mans redemption . And alluding to the speech of Boaz to Ruth : Sleepe vnto the morning , that Messias should rest in his graue all their Sabbath day . And he gathereth from that Speech , Gen. 1. on the first day : Let there be light , that the Messias should rise on the First day of the weeke , from death to life , and cause the spirituall light of the Gospell to enlighten the world , that lay in the shadow of darkenesse and death . The Hebrew author of the Booke called Sedar Olam Rabba , cap. 7. recordeth many memorable things which were done vpon the first day of the weeke , as so many types that the chiefe worship of God should vnder the New Testament be celebrated vpon this day . As , That on this day the cloude of Gods Maiesty first sate vpon his people . Aaron and his children , first executed their Priesthood . God first solemnly blessed his people . The Princes of his people first offered publikely vnto God. The first day , wherein fire descended from heauen . The first day of the world , of the yeere , of moneths of the weeke , &c. All shadowing that it should be first and chiefe holy-day of the New Testament . Saint Austen prooueth by diuers places and reasons , * out of the holy Scripture , that the Fathers , and all the holy Prophets vnder the Old Testament , did foresee and know that our Lords day was shadowed by their 8. day of Circumcision . And , that the Sabath should be changed from the 7. day to the 8. or first day of the weeke . And * Iunius out of Cyprian saith , that Circumcision was commanded on the 8. day , as a Sacrament of the 8. day , when Christ should arise from the dead . The Councell Foro Iuliense , affirmes that Esay Prophesied of the keeping of the Sabath vpon the first day of the weeke . If this mystery was so clearely seene by the Fathers vnder the shaddowes of the Old Testament : sure the God of this world hath deepely blinded their mindes who cannot see the truth thereof vnder the shining light of the Gospell . Therefore this change of the Sabath day vnder the New , was nothing but a fulfilling of that which was prefigured and foreprophesied vnder the old Testament . 5 According to their Lords minde and commandement , and the derection of the holy Ghost , which alway assisted them in their Ministeriall office : the Apostles in all the Christian Churches ( which they planted ) ordained : that the Christians should keepe the holy Sabath , vpon that seauenth day which is the first day of the weeke . a Concerning the gathering for the Saints , as I haue ordained in the Churches of Galatia , so doe yee also . Euery first day of the weeke , &c. b When ye come together in the Church ▪ ( being the Lords day ) to eate the Lord Supper , c to remember and shew the Lords death till he come , &c. In which words note . 1 That the Apostle ordained this day to bee kept holy , therefore a diuine Institution . 2 That the day is named the first day of the weeke , therefore not the Iewish seauenth , or any other . 3 Euery first day of the weeke , which sheweth a perpetuity . 4 That it was ordained in the Churches of Galatia , as well as of Corinth , and hee setled one vniforme order in all the a Churches of the Saints , therefore it was vniuersall . 5 That the exercises of this day were * collections for the poore ( which appeares by Act. 2.42 . and Iustine Martyrs testimony Apolog. 2. were gathered in the holy Assembly after ) Prayers , Preaching of the Word , and administration of the Sacraments , therefore it was spirituall . 6 That he will haue the collection ( though necessary ) remoued , against his comming lest it should hinider his preaching : but not their holy meeting on the Lords day , for it vvas the time ordained for the publike worship of the Lord , which argueth a necessity . And in the same Epistle , Saint Paul protesteth , that he deliuered them none other ordinance , or doctrine , but what hee had receiued of the Lord. Insomuch that hee chargeth them , that If any man thinke himselfe to bee a Prophet , or spirituall , let him acknowledge that the things that I write vnto you , are the commandements of the Lord. But he wrote vnto them , and ordained among them , to keepe their Sabbath on the first day of the weeke : therefore to keepe the Sabbath on that day , is the very commandement of the Lord. And how can hee be , eyther a true Prophet , or haue any grace of Gods Spirit in his heart , who seeing so clearely the Lords day to haue beene instituted and ordained by the Apostles ; vvill not acknowledge the keeping holy of the Lords day , to be a Commandement of the Lord ? The Iewes confesse this change of the Sabbath , to haue beene made by the Apostles , Pet. Alphons . in Dialog . contr . Iudaeos , tit . 12. they are therefore more blinde and sottish then the Iewes , who prophanely denie it . At Troas likewise Saint Paul , together with seauen of the chiefe Euangelists of the Church , Sopater , Aristarchus , Secundus , Gayus , Timotheus , Tichicus , and Trophimus , and all the Christians that were there , kept the holy Sabbath on the first day of the weeke , in praying , preaching , and receiuing the Lords Supper . And as it is a thing to be noted , that Luke saith not , that the Disciples were sent for to heare Paul preach , but the Disciples being come together to breake bread vpon the first day of the weeke , that is , to be partakers of the holy Communion , at what time the Lords death vvas by the preaching of the word shewed , 1 Cor. 11.26 . Paul preached vnto them ; &c. And that none kept these meetings but Christians , who onely are called Disciples , Act. 11.26 . But at Philippi , vvhere as yet there were no Disciples , Paul is said to goe on their Sabbath day , to the place where the Iewes and their Proselites were wont to pray , and there preached vnto them , Acts 16.12.13 . so that it is as cleare as the Sun , that it vvas the Christians vsuall manner to a passe ouer the Iewish seauenth day , and to keepe the Sabbath : and their holy meetings , on the first day of the vveeke . And why doth S. Iohn call this the Lords day ; but because it was a day knowne to be generally kept holy to the honour of the Lord Iesus , who rose from death to life vpon that day , throughout all the Churches which the Apostles planted ? Which , Saint Iohn calleth the b Lords day , the rather , to stirre vp Christians , to a thankefull remembrance of their Redemption by Christ his Resurrection from the dead . And vvith the day , the blessing of the Sabbath is likewise translated to the Lords day : because that all the sanctification belonging to this new world is in CHRIST , and from him conuayed to Christians . And because there cannot come a greater authoritie then that of Christ and his Apostles : nor the like cause , as the new creation of the vvorld ; therefore the Sabbath can neuer be altered from this day , to any other , vvhilest this vvorld lasteth . Adde hereunto how the Scripture noteth , that in the first planting & setling of the Church ; nothing was done , but by the speciall order and direction of the Apostles , 1 Cor. 11.34 . 1 Cor. 14.36.37 . Tit. 1.5 . Acts 15.6.24 . and the Apostles did nothing , but what they had vvarrant for from Christ , 1 Cor. 11.23 . To sanctifie then the Sabboth on the seauenth day , is not a ceremoniall Law abrogated : but the morall , and perpetuall Law of God perfected . So that the same perpetuall Commaundement , which bound the Iewes to keepe the Sabbath on that seauenth day , to celebrate the worlds creation : bindes Christians to solemnize the Sabbath on this seauenth day , in memoriall of the worlds Redemption : for , the fourth Commandement , being a Morall Law , requireth a seauenth day , to be kept holy for euer . And the Moralitie of this , as of the rest of the Commandements , is more religiously to be kept of vs vnder the Gospel , then of the Iewes vnder the Law : by how much we ( in Baptisme ) haue made a more speciall Couenant vvith God , to keepe his Commandements : and God hath couenanted vvith vs , to free vs from the Curse , and to assist vs vvith his spirit to keepe his Lawes . And that this Commandement of the Sabbath ( as vvell as the other nine ) is Morall and perpetuall , may plainely appeare by these reasons . Tenne Reasons demonstrating the commandement of the Sabbath to be Morall . 1 BEcause all the reasons of this Commandement , are morall and perpetuall . And God hath bound vs to the obedience of this Commandement , with more forcible reasons then to any of the rest . First , because he did fore-see , that irreligious men , vvould eyther more carelesly neglect , or more boldly breake this Commandement , then any other . Secondly , because that in the practise of this Commandement , the keeping of all the other consisteth : vvhich makes GOD so often complaine , that all his worship is neglected , or ouer-throwne , when the Sabbath is eyther * neglected or transgressed . It vvould make a man amazed ( saith Mr. Caluin , ) to consider how eft , and vvith what zeale & protestation , God requireth all that will be his people , to sanctifie the seauenth day . Yea , how the God of mercy mercilesly punisheth the breach of this Commandement with cruell death : as though it were the summe of his vvhole honour and seruice . And it is certaine ; that hee who makes no conscience to breake the Sabbath ; will not ( to serue his turne ) make any conscience , to breake any of the other Commandements : so hee may doe it , without discredit of his reputation , or danger of mans law . Therefore God placed this Commandement in the middest of the two Tables : because the keeping of it is the best helpe , to the keeping of all the rest . The conscionable keeping of the Sabbath , is the Mother of all Religion , and good discipline in the Church . Take away the Sabbath , and let euery man serue God when hee listeth ; and vvhat vvill shortly become of Religion , and that peace , and order , which God will haue to be kept in his Church ? The Sabbath day is Gods Market day , for the weekes prouision , wherein hee vvill haue vs to come vnto him , and buy of him , without siluer or money , the Bread of Angels , and Water of life , the Wine of the Sacraments , and Milke of the Word , to feede our Soules : tryed Gold , to enrich our Faith : precious eye-salue , to heale our spirituall blindenesse : and the white rayment of Christs righteousnesse , to couer our filthy nakednesse . Hee is not farre from true Pietie , who makes conscience to keepe the Sabbath day : but he who can dispense with his conscience , to breake the Sabbath for his owne profit or pleasure : his heart neuer yet felt , what eyther the feare of God , or true Religion meaneth . For , of this Commandement may that speech of S. Iames be verified ; he that faileth in one , is guiltie of all . Seeing therefore that GOD hath fenced this Commandement vvith so many morall reasons , it is euident , that the Commandement it selfe is morall . 2 Because it vvas commanded of GOD to Adam in his Innocencie : vvhilest ( holding his happinesse , not by Faith in Christs Merits , but by Obedience to Gods Law : ) hee needed no Ceremonie , shadowing the Redemption of Christ. A Sabbath therefore of a seauenth day cannot be simply a Ceremonie , but an essentiall part of Gods worship , enioyned vnto man vvhen there vvas but one condition of all men . And if it was necessary for our first Parents to haue a Sabbath day , to serue GOD in their perfection , much more neede their Posteritie to keepe the Sabbath in the state of their corruption . And seeing God himselfe kept this day holy , how can that man be holy , that doth wilfully prophane it ? 3 Because it is one of the commandements which God spake with his owne mouth , and twice vvrote with his owne Fingers in Tables of stone , to signifie their authoritie and perpetuitie . All that God wrote , were morall and perpetuall commandements , and those are reckoned tenne in number . If this were now but an abrogated ceremony , then there were but nine commandements . The Ceremoniall that were to be abrogated by Christ , were written all by Moses . But this of the Sabbath , with the other nine , written by GOD himselfe , were put into the Arke , where no Ceremoniall Law was put , to shew that they should bee the perpetuall rules of the Church ; yet such , as none could perfectly fulfill and keepe , but onely Christ. 4 Because Christ professeth , that hee came not to destroy the morall law : and that the least of them should not bee abrogated in his kingdome of the new Testament . Insomuch , that Whosoeuer breaketh one of the least of these tenne commandements , and teacheth men so : hee should be called the least in the kingdome of heauen , that is , hee should haue no place in his Church . Now the Morall Law commandeth one day of seuen to bee perpetually kept a holy Sabbath . And Christ himselfe expresly mentioneth the the keeping of a Sabbath among his Christians , at the destruction of Ierusalem , about 42. yeeres after his Resurrection . By which time , all the Mosaical ceremonies ( except eating of bloud , and things strangled ) were by a publike decree of all the Apostles quite abolished , and abrogated in Christian Churches . And therefore Christ adomonished his Disciples , to pray that their flight bee not in the Winter , nor on the Sabbath day . Not in the winter ; for that ( by reason of the foulnesse of the waies and weather ) their flight should be more painefull and troublesome vnto them : not vpon the Sabath ; because it would bee more grieuous to their hearts , to spend that day in toyling to saue their liues : which the Lord had commanded to be spent in holy exercises , to comfort their soules . Now if the sanctifying of the Sabaoth on this day had bene but ceremoniall : it had beene no griefe to haue fled on this day no more then on any other day of the weeke . But in that Christ doth tender so much this feare and griefe of being driuen to flye on the Sabath day : and therefore wisheth his to pray vnto God to preuent such an occasion : hee plainely demonstrates , that the obseruation of the Sabbath is no abrogated ceremony , but a Morall commandement , confirmed and established by Christ among Christians . If you would know the day whereupon Christ appointed Christians to keepe the Sabbath ; Saint Iohn will tell you that it was on the Lords day . Apoc. 1.10 . If you will know on what day of the weeke that was ; Saint Paul will tell you , that it was on euery first day of the weeke . 1 Cor. 16.1 . As Christ admonished , so Christians pray , and according to their praiers ; GOD ( a little before the warres beganne , ) warneth by an Oracle , all the Christians in Ierusalem to departe thence , and to goe to Pella , a little Towne beyond Iorden : and so to escape the wrath of GOD , that should fall vpon that City and Nation . If then a Christian should not , without griefe of heart , flye for the safety of his life on the Lords day : with what ioy or comfort can a true Christian neglect the holy exercises of Gods worship in the Church , to spend the greatest part of the Lords day in prophane and carnall sports or seruile labour ? And seeing the destruction of Ierusalem was both a type and an assurance of the destruction of the world : who seeeth not , but that the holy Sabbath must continue , till the very end of the world ? 5 Because that all the ceremoniall Law was inioyned to the Iewes onely , and not to the Gentiles : but this commandement of the holy Sabbath ( as Matrimony ) was instituted of God in the state of innocency , when there was but one state of all men : and therfore inioyned to the Gentiles , as well as to the Iewes . So that all Magistrates and Housholders were commanded to constraine all strangers ( as well as their own Subiects and Family ) to obserue the holy Sabath , as appeares by the fourth commandement , and practise of Nehemiah . All the Ceremonies were a partition wall to separate Iewes and Gentiles . But seeing the Gentiles are bound to keepe this commandement as well as the Iewes ; it is euident , that it is no Iewish ceremony . And seeing the same authority , is for the Sabbath , that is for marriage ; a man may as well say , that marriage is but a ceremonial law , as the Sabath . And remember that where mariage is termed but once the couenant of GOD , because instituted by GOD in the beginning : So the Sabbath is euery where called the Sabbath of the Lord thy God , because ordained by God in the same beginning , both of time , state , and perpetuity : therefore not ceremoniall . The corruption of our nature found in the manifest opposition of wicked men , and in the secret vnwillingnesse of good men to sanctifie sincerely the Sabbath , sufficiently demonstrateth , that the commandement of the Sabbath is spirituall and morall . 7 Because that as God by a perpetuall decree , made the the Sunne , the Moone , and other lights in the Firmament of Heauen , not onely to diuide the day from the night , but also to bee for a signes , and for b seasons , and for c daies , and for d yeeres : so hee ordained in the Church on Earth , the holy Sabbath to be not onely the appointed season for his solemne worship : but also the perpetual rule and measure of time . So that as seauen daies make a weeke , foure weekes a moneth , twelue moneths a yeere : so seuen yeeres make a Sabbath of yeeres : seuen Sabbaths of yeeres a Iubilie : or 80. Iubilies , or 4000 yeeres , or after Ezechiel , 4000 cubits the whole time of the old Testament , til Christ by his Baptisme and preaching began the state of the new Testament . Neither can I here passe ouer without admiration , how the Sacrament of circumcision continued in the Church 39. Iubilies , from Abraham , to whom it was first giuen , vnto the Baptisme of Christ in Iordan : which was iust so many Iubilies ( after Bucholcerus compt ) as the world had continued before from Adam to the birth of Abraham . Moses began his Ministry in the 80. yeere of his age : Christ enters vpon his Office in the 80. Iubile of the worlds age . Ioseph was 30. yeere olde , when he began to rule ouer Egypt . Gen. 41.46 . and the Leuites began to serue in the Tabernacle at 30. yeeres old : so Christ likewise to answere these figures , beganne his Ministrie in the 30. Iubile of Moses , and when he began to be 30. yeeres of age . Luk. 3.23 . in the middest of Daniels last weeke : and so ( continuing his ministry on earth 3. yeeres and a halfe ) finished our redemption , and Daniels period , by his innocent death vpon the Crosse. The most of all the great alterations , and strange accidents , which fell out in the Church , came to passe , either in a Sabaticall yeere , or in a yeere of Iubilie . For example . The 70. weekes of Daniel beginning the first yeere of Cyrus , and 3430. yeere of the World , containe so many yeers , as the world did weekes of yeeres vnto that time : and so many weekes of yeeres , as the world had lasted Iubilies . Daniels 70. weekes of yeeres contained 490. single yeeres , the World before that time 490. weekes or Sabbaths of yeeres . Daniels period , 70. weekes , the worlds 70. Iubilies : So that to comfort the Church for their 70. yeeres captiuity which they had now , according to Ieremies Prophesie endured in Babylon : Gabriel tels Daniel , that at the ende of 70. weekes or Sabbaths of yeeres , that is , 70. times seuen yeeres , or 490. yeeres , their eternall redemption from hell , should be effected by the death of Christ , as sure as they were now redeemed from the Captiuitie of Babilon . This period of Daniel , containing 70. Sabbaths , or 10. Iubilies of yeeres , beganne at the first libertie granted the Iewes by Cyrus , in the first yeere of his raigne ouer the Babilonians , mentioned Hezr . 1.1 . and ends iustly at the time that Christ dyed vpon the Crosse. From the death of Christ , or the last ende of Daniels weekes , to the 71. yeere of Christ , the world is measured by seauen seales , or seauen Sabbaths of yeeres , making one compleate Iubilie . From the end of those 7. seales the World is measured to her end by * 7 : Trumpets , each containing 245. yeeres ( as some coniecture about 440. yeeres hence , the truth vvill appeare . ) Enoch the seauenth from Adam , hauing liued so many yeeres , as there are dayes in the yeere , 365. vvas translated of God in a Sabbaticall yeere . Moses the seauenth from Abraham , as an other En●ch , is buried of God , but borne in a Sabbaticall yeere of the world 2373. and in the 777. yeere since the Floud ( after Broughtons Computation ) is saued , as a new Noah , in a Reede Arke , and liueth a Builder of the Church , so long as Noah was building the arke 120. yeeres . The promise was made to Abraham in a Sabbaticall yeere , being the 2023. of the World. The sixt yeere of Iosua , being the 2500. yeere from the Creation of the world ; wherein the Land was possessed , & diuided among the Children of Israel , was a Sabbaticall yeere , and the * 50. Iubilie from the Creation of the world . At this yeere Moses beginnes his Iubilie , by vvhich , as with a chaine of 30. linckes , he tyeth the parting of Canaans possession to the Israelites , by Ioshua : to the opening of the Kingdome of Heauen to all beleeuers by Iesus . And so carryeth the Church of the Iewes , by a * ioyfull streame of Iubilies from the Type to the substance , from Canaan to Heauen , from Ioshua to Iesus : for , Christ at the end of Moses 30. Iubilies , and the beginning of the 30. yeere of his age : at his Baptisme openeth heauen , and giues the clearest vision of the blessed Trinitie , that was seene since the world began . And by the siluer Trumpet of his Gospell , proclaimes , according to the Prophesie of Isay , eternall redemption to all that repent and beleeue in him . And the yeere of our Sauiour Christs birth being the 3948. of the World , vvas at the ende of a Sabbaticall yeere , and the * 524. Septenarie of the World. Moses maketh the common age of all men , to be tenne times seauen , Psal. 90. & euery seauenth yeere commonly produceth some notable a change or accident in mans life : And no wonder ; for as Hypocrates affirmeth , that a child in his mothers wombe , on the seauenth day of his conception , hath all his members finished , and from that day groweth to the perfection of birth : which is alwayes eyther the ninth or seauenth moneth . At seauen yeeres old , the childe casts his teeth , and receiues new . And euery seauenth yeere after there is some alteration or change in mans life : especially , at nine times seauen , the Clymactericke yeere , which by experience is found to haue been fatall to many of those learned * men who haue beene the chiefest lights of the world . And if they escaped that yeere , yet most of them haue departed this life in a septenary yeere . Lamech dyed in the yeere of his life 777. Methusalem , the longest liuer of the sonnes of men , died when hee began to enter his 900. and 70. yeere . Abraham dyed , when hee had liued 25. times 7. yeeres . Iacob when hee had liued 21. times 7. yeeres . Dauid after hee had liued tenne times 7. yeeres . So did Galen , so did Petrarch ( who as Bodin noteth ) dyed on the same day of the yeere that hee vvas borne : so did the Maiden-Queene * Elizabeth , of blessed and neuer dying memorie , vvho came into this world the Eue of the Natiuitie of the blessed Virgin Mary : and went out of this world , on the Eue of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary . Hypocrates dyed in his 15. septenarie . Hierome and Isocrates in their 13. Plinie Bartolus and Caesar ▪ in their 8. septenarie . And Iohannes de temporibus , vvho liued 361. yeeres dyed in the 53. septenary of his life . The like might be obserued of innumerable others . And indeed the whole life of a man is measured by the Sabbath : for , how many yeeres soeuer a man liueth here : yet his life is but a life of 7. dayes , multiplied , so that in the number of 7. there is a mysticall perfection , which our vnderstanding cannot attaine vnto . All which diuine disposition of admirable things , so oft by seauens : call vpon vs to a continuall meditation of the blessed seauenth day Sabbath , in knowing and worshipping GOD in this life : that so from Sabbath to Sabbath , wee may be translated to the eternall glorious Sabbath of rest and blisse in the life to come . By the consideration wherof , any man that looketh into the holy Historie , may easily perceiue : that the whole course of the world is drawne and guided by a certaine chaine of Gods prouidence , disposing all things in number measure , and waight . All times are therefore measured by the Sabbath : so that time and the Sabbath can neuer be separated . And the Angell sweares , that this measuring of time shall continue , till , that Time shall be no more . And as the Sabbath had his first institution in the first Booke of the Scriptures , so hath it its confirmation in the last : and as this Booke doth authorise this day , so this day graceth the Booke : in that the matter thereof was reuealed vpon so holy a day ; the Lords reuelation vpon the Lords day . As well therefore may they pull the Sunne , Moone and Stars out of the heauens , as abolish the holy Sabbath ( times meterod ) out of the Church : seeing the Sabbath is ordained in the Church , ( as well as the Sunne and Moone in the Firmament ) for the distinction of times . 8 Because that the whole Church , by an * vniuersall consent , euer since the Apostles time , haue still held the commandement of the Sabbath , to be the morall and perpetuall Law of God , and the keeping of the Sabbath on the first day of the weeke , to be the institution of Christ and his Apostles . The Synode called Synodus Coloniensis saith , that the Lords day hath beene famous in the Church euer since the Apostles time . Ignatius Bishop of Antioch , liuing in S. Iohns time , saith , Let euery one that loueth Christ , keepe holy the Lords day , renowned by his Resurrection , which is the Queene of dayes , in which death is ouercome , and life is sprung vp in Christ. Iustine Martyr , vvho liued not long after him , sheweth , how the Christians kept their Sabbath on the Lords day , as we doe . Origen , who liued about 180. yeeres after Christ , shewes the reason why the Sabbath is translated to the Lords day . Augustine saith , that the Lords day was declared vnto the Church by the Resurrection of the Lord vpon that day . Et ex illo caepit habere festiuitatem suam , and by Christ it was first ordained to be kept holy . And in another place , that the Apostles appointed the Lords day to be kept with all religious solemnitie , because that vpon that day our Redeemer rose from the dead , which also is therefore called the Lords day . As therefore Dauid said of the Citie of God , so may I say of the Lords day , Glorious things are spoken of the day of the Lord ▪ for it vvas the birth-day of the vvorld , the first day vvherein all Creatures beganne to haue being . In it Light was drawne out of darknesse . In it the Law vvas giuen on Mount Sinai . In it the Lord rose from death to life . In it the Saints came out of their graues , assuring that on it Christians should rise to newnesse of life . In it the Holy Ghost descended vpon the Apostles . And it is very probable that on the seauenth day when the 7. Trumpets haue blowne : the cursed Iericho of this world shall fall , and our true Iesus shall giue vs the promised possession of the heauenly Canaan . He that would see the vniforme consent of Antiquity and practise of the Primitiue Church in this point , let him reade Eusebius Ecclesisticall history Lib. 4. cap. 23. Tertullian , lib. de Idololatria , cap. 14. Chrysost. Serm. 5. de resurrectione . Consti●●● . Apost . lib. 7. cap. 37. Cyrill in Iohan. lib. 12. cap. 58. Of this iudgement are all the sound new writers : see Fox on the Apoc. 1.10 . Bucer . in Mat 12.11 . Gualt . in Malach. 3. hom . 23. Fulke on the Rhemish Test. Apo. 1.10 Chem. Exam. Conc. Trid. par . 4. de diebus festis . Wolph . Chronol . lib. 2. cap. 1. * Armin Thes. in 4. precept . and innumerable others . Learned Iunius shal speake for al. Quamobr●m cum dies dominicus , &c. Wherefore seeing the Lords day is both by the fact of Christ , viz. his ( resurrection , and of often appearing to his Disciples vpon that day ) by the example and institution of the Apostles , and by the continuall practise of the Ancient Church , and by the testimony of the Scripture , obserued and substituted into the place of the Iewish Sabbath : Inepté faciunt , they doe foolishly , who say that the obseruation of the Lords day is of Tradition , and not from the Scripture , that by this meanes they might establish the traditions of men . And againe , The cause of this change is the resurrection of Christ , and the benefit of the restoring of the Church by Christ , the remembrance of which benefit did succeede into the place of the memory of the creation , Non humana traditione , sed Christi ipsius obseruatione & instituto , not by the tradition of man , but by the obseruation and appointment of Christ , who both on the day of his resurrection , and on euery eight day after vnto his ascention into heauen did appeare vnto his Disciples , and came into their assemblies . 9 Because that the Lord himselfe expoundeth the end of the Sabath , to bee a signe and document for euer , betwixt him and his people , that he is Iehouah , by whom they are sanctified : and therefore must only of thē be worshipped : and vpon the paine of death chargeth his people for euer to keep this memoriall vnuiolated . But this end is morall and perpetuall . Therefore the Sabath is morall and perpetuall . What God hath perpetually sanctified , Let ●● man euer presume to make common or prophane . Vpon this ground it is that the Commandement termes this day , the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. And GOD himselfe cals it his holy day . And vpon the same ground likewise , the old● Testament consecrated all their Sabaths and Holy daies , to the worship and honour of God alone . To dedicate therefore a Sabbath to the honour of any creature is grosse Idolatry . For the first Table makes it a part of Gods worship to haue a Sabbath to his honour . So doth Leuit. 23.3.37.38 . &c. and Ezek. 20.20 . Neh. 9.14 . the Sabbath is put for the whole worship of GOD. And our Sauiour teacheth , that We must worship the Lord God onely . Matth. 4. and therefore keep a Sabbath to the onely honour of GOD. The holy Ghost notes it as one of Ieroboams greatest sinnes : That he ordained a feast from the deuise of his owne heart . 1 King. 12.33 . And God threatneth to visit Israel for keeping the daies of Baalim : That is , of Lords , as Papists doe of Saints Hos. 2.13 . but saith , that such forget him . And so indeede none are lesse carefull in keeping the Lords Sabbath : then they who are most superstitious obseruers of mens holy daies . The Church of Rome therefore commits grosse Idolatry . First , in taking vpon her to ordayne Sabbaths , which belongs onely vnto the Lord of the Sabbath to doe . Secondly , in dedicating those Holy-daies to the honour of Creatures , which in effect is to make them sanctifying Gods. Thirdly , in tying to these daies Gods worship , Praiers , fasting , and merit . Fourthly , in exacting on these daies of mens inuention , a greater measure of solemnity and sanctification , then vpon the Lords day , which is Gods commandement , which in effect is to preferre Antichrist before Christ. Our Church hath iustly abolished all superstitious and Idolatrous Feasts : and onely retaines a few holy dayes to the honour of God alone , and easing of seruants . Deut 5.14 . though long custome forceth to vse the olde names , for ciuill distinction : as Luke vsed the profane names of Castor and Pollux . Act. 28.11 . and Christians of Fortunatus . 1 Cor. 16.17 . Mercurius ▪ Rom. 16.14 . and Iewes of Mardocheus day . 2 Macab . 15.37 . 10 Lastly , the examples of Gods Iudgements on Sabbath-breakers may sufficiently seale vnto them , whose hearts are not seared , how wrathfully Almighty God is displeased with them , who are wilfull profaners of the Lords day . The Lord ( who is otherwise the GOD of mercy ) commanded Moses to stone to death the man who of a presumptuous minde would openly goe to gather sticks on the Sabbath day . The fact was small . True ; but his sinne was the greater , that ( for so small an occasion ) would presume to breake so great a commandement . Nichanor ▪ offering to fight against the Iewes , on the Sabath day , was slaine himselfe , and 35000. of his men . A husband man grinding Corne vpon the Lords day , had his Meale burned to ashes . Another carrying Corne on this day , had his Barne and all his Corne therein burnt with fire from Heauen the next night after . Also a certaine Nobleman ( prophaning the Sabbath vsually in hunting ) had a child by his wife with a head like a dogge , and with eares and chaps , crying like a hound . A couetous flaxe-wife at Kinstat in France , An. 1559. vsing with hir maids to work at her trade on the Lords day , it seemed vnto them that fire issued out of the Flaxe , but did no harme : the next Sabbath it tooke fire indeed , but was quickely quenched ; but not taking warning by this , the third Sunday after it tooke fire againe , burnt the house ▪ and so scorched the wretched woman with 2. of her children , that they died the next day : but through Gods mercy a childe in the cradle was taken out of the fire aliue and vnhurt . On the 13 , of Ianuary , Anno Dom. 1582. being the Lords day , the Scaffolds fell in Paris Garden , vnder the people at a Beare-baiting , so that 8. were suddenly slaine , innumerable hurt & maimed . A warning to such who take more pleasure , on the Lords day , to be in a Theatre beholding carnall sports : then to be in the Church seruing God with the spirituall wo●●●s of Piety . Many fearefull examples of Gods iudgements by fire , haue in our daies been shewed vpon diuers Towns , where the prophanation of the Lords day hath beene openly countenanced . Stratford vpon Auon was twice on the same day-twelue-moneth ( being the Lords day ) almost consumed with fire : chiefly for prophaning the Lords Sabbaths , and for contemning his Word in the mouth of his faithfull Ministers . Teuerton in Deuonshire ( whose remembrance makes my heart bleed ) was often times admonished by her godly Preacher , that GOD vvould bring some heauie Iudgement on the Towne for their horrible prophanat●●n of the Lords day , occasioned ▪ chiefely , by their Market on the day following . Not long after his death , on the third of Aprill . Anno Domini 1598. GOD , in lesse then halfe an houre , consumed with a sodaine and fearefull fire , the whole Towne , except onely the Church , the Court-house , and the Almes-houses , or a few poore peoples dwellings , vvhere a man might haue seene 400. dwelling houses all at once on fire , and aboue 50. persons consumed with the flame . ( And now againe , since the last Edition of this Booke , on the fift of August last , 1612. ) 14. yeeres since the former fire , ) the vvhole Towne was againe fired , and consumed , except some 30. houses of poore people , with the ●choole-house , and Almes-houses . They are blinde , vvho see not in ●his the Finger of GOD. God grant them grace , when it is next built , to change their Market-day , and to remoue all occasions of prophaning the Lords day . Let other townes remember the Towre of Siloe , L●ke 13.4 ▪ and take warning by their neighbours chastisements , feare Gods threatnings , Ierem. ●7 . 27 . and beleeue Gods Prophets , if they will prosper , 1 Chron. 20.20 . Many other examples of Gods Iudgements might be alledged : but if these are not sufficient to terrifie thy hart from the wilfull prophanation of the Lords day : proceede in thy prophanation , it may be the Lord will make thee the next example to teach others to keepe his Sabbath● better . Hee punisheth some in this life , to signifie how hee vvill plague all wilfull transgresso●● of his Sabbaths at the last day . Thus vvee haue proued that the Commandement of the Sabbath is Morall , and that the change of it , from the seauenth to the first day of the weeke , vvas instituted by the authoritie of Christ , and of his Apostles . But as in promulgating of the Law , diuers Ceremonies peculiar to the Iewes were annexed , the rather to bind that people to the more carefull performance thereof , as to the first Commandement , their deliuerance from Aegipt , shadowing their redemption from Hell : to the fift Commandement , length of dayes in Canaan , typing eternall life in heauen : to the sixt Commandement , abstinence from bloud and things strangled , figuring the care to abstaine from all kinde of Murther : and to the whole Law , the Ceremonie of * Partchment-Lace , putting them in mind to keepe within the limits of the Law. So likewise to the fourth Commandement were added some Ceremonies vvhich peculiarly belonged to the Iewes , and to no other people ; as first , the double a Sacrifices appointed for them on the Sabbath day , shadowing how GOD will be serued on the Sabbath with greater obedience then on the vveeke dayes : Secondly , the b rigid and strict ceasing from making of fire , c dressing of meate , and all bodily labour , both d remembring them of their full deliuerance by Moses conduct from the fiery Furnaces and slauery of Egipt vpon e that day : as also shadowing vnto them the eternall Redemption of their soules from Hell , by the death of Christ. Thirdly , the keeping of the Sabbath vpon the precise seauenth day , in order of the creation , shadowing to the Iewes that Christ by his death and resting on their Sabbath in the graue , should bring them rest and ease from the burden and yoake of the Legall Ceremonies , which neyther they , nor their Fathers were able to beare , Acts 15.10 . Col. 2.16.17 . And howsoeuer in Paradise before mans Fall , the keeping of the Sabbath on the seauenth day of the creation , was not a Ceremonie but an Argument of perfection : yet after the fall it became Ceremoniall , and subiect to change in respect of the restauration by Christ. As mans life before the Fall , being immortall , became afterwards mortall : and nakednesse being an ornament before , became afterwards a shame : and Marriage became a type of the Mysticall vnion betwixt CHRIST , and his Church , Ephes. 6. And to fulfill these Ceremonies , ( added for the Iewes sake vnto the Sabbath , ) Christ at his death rested in the graue all the Iewish Sabbath day : and by that rest fulfilled all those ceremoniall accessaries . Now as the ceasing of the Ceremonies annexed to the 1.5 . & 6. Commandements , and to Marriage , did not abolish those Commandements , and Marriage ; nor cause them to cease from being the perpetuall rules of Gods worship , and mans righteousnesse : no more did the abrogating of the Ceremonies annexed to the Sabbath , abolish the moralitie of the Commandement of the Sabbath , so that though the Ceremonies be abolished , by the accesse of the Substance ; and the Shadow ouer-shadowed by the Body , which is Christ : yet the holy rest which was commanded and kept , before eyther the Iewes were a people , or those Ceremonies annexed to the Sabbath : still continueth as Gods perpetuall Law , whereby all the posteritie of Adam are bound to rest from their ordinarie businesse , that they may wholy spend euery seauenth day in the solemne worship and onely seruice of GOD their Creator and Redeemer , but in the substance of the fourth Commandement , there is not found one word of any Ceremonie . The chiefe obiections against the moralitie of the Sabbath are three . 1 That of Paul to the Galathians , Ye obserue dayes and moneths , and times , and yeeres , &c. But there the Apostle condemnes not the morall Sabbath , vvhich wee call the Lords day ; and which he himselfe ordained according to Christs commandement , in the same Churches of Galatia and Corinth , & kept himselfe in other Churches : but he speakes of the Iewish daies and times , and yeeres , and the keeping of the Sabbath on the seauenth day from the Creation , which he tearmeth shadowes of things to come , abolished now by Christ the body , and in the Law are called sabbaths ; but distinguished from the morall Sabbaths . 2 That of Paul to the Colossians , let no man therfore condemne you in meate or drinke , or in respect of an Holy-day , or of the new moone , or of the Sabbath dayes . But here the Apostle meaneth the Iewish ceremoniall Sabbaths , not the Christian Lords day , as before . 3 That of the same Apostle to the Romanes , This man esteemeth one day aboue another day ; and another counteth euery day alike , &c. But Saint Paul makes no such account . For the question there , is not betweene Iew & Gentiles , but betweene the stronger and weaker Christian . The stronger esteemed one day aboue another , as appeares , in that there vvas a day both commanded and receiued in the Church , euery where knowne and honoured by the name of the Lords day . And therefore Paul saith here , that hee that obserued this day , obserued it vnto the Lord. The obseruation whereof ; because of the change of the Iewish seuenth day : some weake Christians ( as many now a dayes ) thought not so necessary : so that if men ( because the Iewish day is abrogated ) will not honour and keepe holy the Lords day , but count it like other dayes : it is an argument , saith the Apostle , of their weaknesse whose infirmitie must be borne , till they haue time to be further instructed and perswaded . Other obiections are friuolous , and not worth the answering . The true manner of keeping holy the Lords day . NOW the sanctifying of the Sabbath consists in two things . First , In resting from all seruile and common businesse , pertaining to our naturall life . Secondly , In consecrating that rest wholy to the seruice of God , and the vse of those holy meanes which belong to our spirituall life . For the first . 1 The seruile and common workes from which wee are to cease , are generally all ciuill workes , from the * least to the greatest : More particularly . First , from all the workes of our calling , though it were reaping in the time of haruest . Secondly , from carrying burthens , as Carryers doe : or riding abroad for profit , or for pleasure : GOD hath commanded that the beasts should rest on the Sabbath day , because all occasion of trauailing or labouring vvith them should be cut off from man. GOD giues them that day a rest ▪ and he that , without necessitie , depriues them of their rest on the Lords day : the groanes of the poore tyred beasts , shall in the day of the Lord rise vp in Iudgement against him . Likewise such as spend the greatest part of this day , in trimming , painting , and pampering of themselues , like Iezabels , doing the Diuels worke vpon Gods day . Thirdly , from keeping of Fayres ●r Markets , which for the most part God punisheth with pestilence , fire , and strange flouds . Fourthly , from studying any books , or science , but the holy Scriptures , & Diuinity . For our studie must be , to bee rauished in spirit vpon the Lords day . In a word , Thou must on that day cease in thy calling to doe thy worke : that the Lord by his calling , may doe his worke in thee . For whatsoeuer is gotten by common working on this day , shall neuer be blessed of the Lord : but it will prooue like Achans golde , which being got contrary to the Lords commandement , brought the fire of Gods curse , vpon all the rest which hee had lawfully gotten . And if Christ scourged them out as theeues , who bought and sold in his Temple ; ( which was but a ceremony shortly to be abrogated : ) is it to bee thought , that hee will euer suffer those to escape vnpunished , who contrary to his commandement buy and sell on the Sabbath day , which is his perpetuall law ? Christ calleth such sacrilegious Theeues ; and as well may they steale the Communion C●p from the Lords Table : as steale from GOD , the chiefest part of the Lords day , to consume it in their owne lasts . Such shall one day finde , the Iudgements of God , heauier then the opinions of men . Fiftly , from all recreations , and sports which at other times are lawfull : for if lawfull workes be forbidden on this day ; much more lawfull sports which do more steale away our affections , from the contemplation of heauenly things , then any bodily worke or labour . Neither can there bee vnto a man that delighteth in the Lord ; any greater del●ght or recreation , then the sanctifying of the Lords day . For can there be any greater ioy for a person condemned , then to come to his Prince his house to haue his pardon sealed ? For one that is deadly sicke , to come to a Phisitian that can cure him ? Or for a Prodigall childe that fed on the huskes of Swine , to bee admitted to eate the bread of life at his Fathers Table ? Or for him who feares for sinne , the tydings of death to come to heare from God the assurance of eternall life ? If thou wilt allow thy selfe , or thy seruant recreation ; allow it in the sixe daies which are thine : not on the Lords day which is neither thine nor theirs . No bodily receation therefore , is to bee vsed on this day : but so farre , as it may helpe the soule to doe more cheerefully the seruice of the Lord. Sixtly , from grosse feeding , liberall drinking of wine , or strong drinke , which may make vs either drowsi● , or vnapt to serue GOD with our hearts and mindes . Seuenthly , from all talking about wordly things , which hindreth the sanctifying of the Sabbath , more then working : seeing one may worke alone , but cannot talke but with others . He that keepes the Sabbath , onely by resting from his ordinary worke , keepes it but as a beast . But rest on this day , is so farre commanded to Christians , as it is an helpe to sanctification : and labour so farre forbidden , as it is an impediment to the outward and inward worship of GOD. If then those recreations , which are lawfull at other times , are on the Sabbath not allowed ; much more those that are altogether at all times vnlawfull . Who without mourning can endure to see ▪ how in most places ; Christians keepe the Lords day : as if they celebrated a feast rather to Bacchus , then to the honour of the Lord Iesus , the Sauiour and Redeemer of the world ? For hauing serued God , but an houre , in outward shew ; they spend the rest of the Lords day in sitting downe to eate and drinke , and rising vp to play : First , balasting their bellies with eating , and drinking : and then feeding their lusts with playing and dancing . Against which prophanation , all holy Diuines , both old and new , haue in their times most bitterly inueighed . Insomuch , that August . affirmeth , that it was better to plough then to dance vpon the Sabbath day . Now , in the name of Almighty God , ( who rested , hauing created Heauen and Earth : ) and of his eternall Sonne Iesus , the Redeemer of his Church , ( who shall shortly come , on the dreadfull day of doome , to iudge all men according to the obedience which they haue shewed to his commandements . ) I require thee , who readest these words , as thou wilt answere before the face of Christ , and all his holy Angels at that day ? that thou better weigh and consider , whether dauncing , stage-playing , masking , carding , dicing , tabling , chesse-playing , bowling , shooting , Beare-baiting , carowsing , tippling , and such other fooleries of Robbin-Hood , Morrice-daunces , Wakes , and May-games , be exercises that GOD will blesse and allowe on the Sabbath day ? And seeing that no action ought to bee done that day , but such , as whereby we either blesse God , or looke to receiue a blessing from God ; how darest thou doe those things on that blessed day , on which thou darest not to pray to God to bestow a blessing on it to thy vse ? Heare this and tremble at this , O prophane youth , of a prophane age ! O heart all frozen , and voide of the feeling of the grace of God! that hauing euery day in sixe , euery houre in euery day , euery minute in euery houre , so tasted the sweet mercy of thy God in Christ , vvithout which thou haddest perished euery moment ! Yet canst not finde in thy corrupt and irreligious heart to spend in thy Masters seruice that one day of the weeke , which he hath reserued for his owne praise and worship ! Let men in defence of their prophanenesse , obiect what they will ; and answere what the Diuell puts in their mouthes ; yet I would wish them to remember , that seeing it is an ancient Tradition in the Church , that the Lords second comming shall be vpon the Lords day , how little ioy they should haue , to be ouertaken in those carnall sports , to please themselues : when their Master should finde them in spirituall exercises seruing him ? The prophanest wretch would then wish , rather to be taken kneeling at prayers in the Church : then skipping like a Goate in a daunce . If this cannot moue ; yet I would wish our impure gallants to remember , that whilest they thus daunce on the Lords day , contrary to the Lords commandement : they doe but daunce about the pits brinke : and they know not which of them shall first fall therein . Whereinto being once fallen without repentance : no greatnesse can exempt them from the vengeance of that great GOD , whose commandement ( contrary to their knowledge and conscience ) they doe thus presumptuously transgresse . If then Gods commandement cannot deterre thee ; nor Gods word aduise thee : I say no more , but what Saint Iohn said before me , * he which is filthy , let him be filthy still . For the second . 2 The consecration of the Sabbaths rest consists in performing three sorts of duties . First , before ▪ Secondly , at : Thirdly , after the publike exercises of the Church . The duties to be performed before the publike exercises are . 1 To giue ouer working betimes on the Eue , that thy body may bee the more refreshed and thy minde the better fitted to sanctifie the Sabbath on the next day . For want of this preparation thy selfe and thy seruants being tyred with labour and watching the night before : are so heauy , that when you should be seruing God , and hearing what his spirit saith vnto the Church for your soules instruction ; you cannot holde vp your heads for sleeping : to the dishonour of God , the offence of the church , and the shame of your selues : therfore the Lord commands vs not only to keepe holy : but also to remember afore-hand the Sabbath day , to keepe it holy , by preparing our harts , & remouing all busines , that might hinder vs to consecrate it as a glorious day vnto the Lord. Therefore , vvhereas the Lord in the other Commandements , doth but eyther bid or forbid : hee doth both in this commandement , and that with a speciall memorandum . As if a Master should charge his Seruant , to looke well vnto tenne things of great trust ; but to haue a more speciall care to remember one of those ten for diuers vvaightie reasons : should not a faithfull Seruant , that loues his Maste● , shew a more speciall care vnto that thing abou● all other businesse ? Thus Moses taught the people ouer-night to remember the Sabbath , and it vvas a holy custome among our fore fathers , when at the ringing to Prayer on the Eue before : the Husbandman would giue ouer his labour in the field , and the Tradesman his worke in the Shoppe , and goe to Euening Prayer in the Church , to prepare their soules : that their minds might more cheerefully attend Gods worship on the Sabbath day . 2 To possess● that night , thy vessell in holinesse and honour : that thou maist present thy Soule more purely in the sight of GOD the next morning . 3 To rise vp earely in the morning on the Sabbath day . Be carefull therefore to rise sooner on this day , then on other dayes : by how much the seruice of GOD is to be preferred before all earthly businesses . For there is no Master to serue so good as God : and in the end , no worke shall be better rewarded then his seruice . 4 When thou art vp , consider with thy selfe what an impure sinner thou art ; and into what an holy place thou goest to appeare , before the most holy GOD , vvho seeth thy heart , and hateth all impuritie and hypocrisie . Examine thy selfe therefore before thou goest to Church , what grieuous sinnes thou hast committed the weeke past ; confesse them vnto God , and earnestly pray for the pardon and forgiuenesse of them . And so reconcile thy selfe with God in Christ : Renew thy vowes to vvalke more conscionably , and pray for an increase of those graces , which thou hast , and a supply of those which thou wantest . But especially pray , that thou maist haue Grace to heare the Word of God read and preached vvith profit : and that thou maist receiue the holy Sacrament vvith comfort ( If it be a Communion day : ) that God by his holy Spirit vvould assist the Preacher to speake something that may ●ill thy sinne , and comfort thy soule : which thou maist doe in this or the like sort . A Morning Prayer for the Sabbath day . O Lord most high , O God eternall , all whose Workes are glorious , and whose Thoughts are very deepe : there can be no better thing , then to praise thy Name , and to declare thy louing kindnesse in the morning , on thy holy and blessed Sabbath day . For it is thy will and commandement , that wee should sanctifie this day in thy seruice and prayse : and in the thankefull remembrance , as of the creation of the World by the power of thy Word : so of the redemption of mankind by the death of thy Sonne . Thine ( O Lord ) I confesse , is greatnesse , and power , and glory , and victory , and praise , for all that is in heauen and earth is thine : Thine is thy Kingdome , O Lord , and thou excellest as head ouer all : both riches and honour come of thee , and thou raignest ouer all , and in thine hand is power and strength , and in thine hand it is to make great , and to giue grace vnto all . Now therefore O my God , I praise thy glorious Name : that whereas I a wretched sinner , hauing so many vvayes prouoked thy Maiesty to anger and displeasure : thou notwithstanding ( of thy fauour and goodnes , passing by my prophanenesse and infirmities , ) hast vouchsafed to adde this Sabbath againe , vnto the number of my dayes . And vouchsafe O heauenly Father , for the merits of Iesus Christ thy Sonne ( whose glorious Resurrection thy whole Church celebrateth this day : ) to pardon and forgiue mee , all my sins and misdeeds . Especially , O Lord , [ * ] clense my soule from those filthy sinnes , with the bloud of thy most pure and vndefiled Lambe , which taketh away the sinnes of the world . And let thy holy Spirit more and more subdue my corruptions , that I may be renewed after thine owne Image , to serue thee in newnesse of life , and holinesse of conuersation . And as of thy mercy , thou hast brought me to the beginning of this blessed day : so I beseech thee , make it a day of Reconciliation , betwixt my sinfull soule , and thy Diuine Maiestie . Giue mee grace to make it a day of Repentance vnto thee , that thy goodnesse may seale it to be a day of pardon vnto me : and that I may remember , that the keeping holy of this day , is a Commandement which thine owne finger hath vvritten . That on this day , I might meditate on thy glorious workes of our Creation and Redemption : and learne how to know and to keepe , all the rest of thy holy Lawes and Commandements . And when anon , I shall with the rest of the holy Assembly , appeare before thy presence in thy house ; to offer vnto thee our morning sacrifice of praise and Prayer : and to heare what thy Spirit , by the preaching of thy Word , shall speake vnto thy Seruant : Oh let not my sinnes stand as a Cloud to stoppe my Prayers ▪ from ascending vnto thee ; or to keepe backe thy Grace from descending , by thy Word , into my heart . I know O Lord , and tremble to thinke , that three parts of the good Seede falles vpon bad ground . O let not my heart be like the High-way , which through hardnesse , and want of true vnderstanding , receiues not the Seede , till the euill one commeth , and catcheth it away : nor like to the stony ground , which hearing with ioy for a time , falleth away as soone as persecution ariseth for thy Gospels sake : nor like to the thorny ground , which by the cares of this world , and the deceitfulnesse of riches , choaketh the Word which it heareth , and makes it altogether vnfruitfull : but that like vnto the good ground , I may heare thy Word , with an honest and good heart ; vnderstand it , and keepe it , and bring forth fruit with patience , in that measure that thy Wisedome shall thinke meete for thy glory , and mine euerlasting comfort . Open likewise I beseech thee O Lord , the doore of vtterance vnto thy faithfull Seruant , whom thou hast sent vnto vs to open our eyes that wee may turne from darkenesse to light , and from the power of Sathan , vnto God ; that wee may receiue forgiuenesse of sinnes , and inheritance among them which are sanctified by Faith in Christ. And giue me grace to submit my selfe vnto his Ministerie , as well when hee terrifieth mee with iudgements ; as when hee comforteth mee with thy Mercies . And that I may haue him in singular loue for his workes sake ; because hee watcheth for my soule as he that must giue an account for the same vnto his Master . And giue mee grace to behaue my selfe in the holy Congregation , with comelinesse and reuerence , as in thy presence , and in the sight of thy holy Angels . Keepe mee from drowsinesse and sleeping , and from all vvandering thoughts , and worldly imaginations : sanctifie my Memorie , that it may be apt to receiue and firme to remember those good and profitable doctrines , which shall be taught vnto vs out of thy Word . And that through the assistance of thy holy spirit , I may put the same lessons in practise for my direction in prosperity , for my consolation in misery , for the amendment of my life , and the glory of thy Name . And that this day , which godlesse and prophane persons spend in there owne lusts and pleasures ▪ I ( as one of thy obedient seruants ) may make my chiefe delight to consecrate it to thy glory and honour , not doing mine owne waies , nor seeking mine owne will , nor speaking a vaine word : but that ceasing from the workes of sinne , as well as from the workes of mine ordinary calling : I may through thy blessing , feele in my heart the beginning of that eternall Sabbath , which in vnspeakeable ioy and glory , I shall celebrate with thy Saints and Angels , to thy praise and worshippe in thy heauenly kingdome for euermore . All which I humbly craue at thy hands , in the name and mediation of my Lord Iesus ; in that forme of prayer which he hath taught me . Our Father which art in Heauen , &c. Hauing thus in priuate prepared thine owne soule , if thou hast the charge of a Family , call all thy houshold together , reade a Chapter , and pray as in the weeke dayes ; but remember so to dispatch these priuate preparations and duties , as that thou and thy family may be in the Church , before the beginning of praiers . Else your priuate exercises are rather an hinderance then a preparation . And as thou ( and thy houshold ) doe goe in all reuerence towards the Church ; let euery one meditate thus with himselfe . Things to be Meditated as thou goest to the Church . 1 THat thou art going to the Court of the Lord , and to speake with the great GOD by Praier ; and to heare his Maiesty speake vnto thee by his Word : and to receiue his blessing on thy soule , and thy honest labour in the sixe daies last past . 2 Say with thy selfe by the way , As the Heart braieth for the Riuers of water , so panteth my soule after thee , O God. My soule thirsteth for God , euen for the liuing God : When shall I come and appeare before the presence of God ? For , a day in thy Courts is better then a thousand other where . I had rather be a doore-keeper in the House of my God , then to dwell in the Tabernacles of wickednesse . Therefore I will come into thy House in the multitude of thy mercies , and in thy feare will I worship toward thine holy Temple . 3 As thou entrest into the Church , say ; How fearefull is this place ? this is 〈◊〉 other but the house of GOD ; this is the gate of Heauen . Surely , the Lord is in this place . God is in this people indeed , and prostrating with thy face downeward , being come to thy place , say , O Lord , I haue loued the habitation of thy house , & the place where thy honor dwelleth : One thing therefore haue I desired of thee , that I will require , euen that I may dwell in thy house al the daies of my life , to behold thy beauty , and to visit thy temple , therefore will I offer in thy Tabernacle sacrifices of ioy , I will sing and praise the Lord. Hearken vnto my voice , O Lord , when I cry ; haue mercy also vpon mee , and heare mee . Doubtlesse , kindnesse , and mercy shall follow mee all the dayes of my life , and I shall remaine a long season in the house of the Lord. And this is that preparation or looking to our feete , whereto Salomon aduiseth vs , before we enter into the House of GOD. The second sort of duties , which are to be performed , at the time of the holy Assembly . WHen praiers begin , lay aside thine own priuate Meditations ; and let thine heart ioine with the Minister , and the whole Church , as being one body of Christ ; and because that GOD is the God of order , he will haue all things to bee done in the Church , with one heart and accord : and the exercises of the Church are common and publike . It is therefore an ignorant pride , for a man to thinke his owne priuate praiers more effectuall , then the publike prayers of the whole Church . Salomon therefore aduiseth a man not to bee rash , to vtter a thing in the Church before GOD. Pray therefore when the Church prayeth , sing when they sing , and in the action of kneeling , standing , sitting , and such indifferent ceremonies ( for the auoyding of scandall , the continuance of charity and in testimony of thine obedience ) * conforme thy selfe to the manner of the Church wherein thou liuest . Whilest the Preacher is expounding and applying the word of the Lord : looke vpon him ; for it is a great helpe to stirre vp thine attention , and to keepe thee from wandring thoughts , so the eyes of all that were in the Synagogues , are said to be fastned on Christ whilest he preached : and that all the people hanged vpon him when they heard him . Remember that thou art there as one of Christs Disciples , to learne the knowledge of saluation , by the remission of sinnes , through the tender mercy God. Luk. 77. Be not therefore in the Schoole of Christ , like an idle boy in a Grammar schoole , that often heareth , but neuer learneth his lesson : and still goeth to Schoole , but profiteth nothing . Thou hatest it in a childe ; Christ detesteth it in thee . To the end therefore , that thou maiest the better profit by hearing , marke : 1 The coherence and explication of the Text. 2 The chiefe summe or scope of the holy Ghost in that Text. 3 The diuision or parts of the Text. 4 The doctrines , and in euery doctrine , the proofes , the reasons , and vses thereof . A method of all others , easiest for the people ( being accustomed thereto ) to helpe them to remember the Sermon ; and therefore much wished to be put in practise of all faithfull Pastors , who desire to edifie their people in the knowledge of God , and his true Religion . If the Preachers method be too curious or confused ; then labour to remember . 1 How many things hee taught , which thou knewest not before ; and be thankefull . 2 What sinnes hee reproued , whereof thy conscience tels thee that thou art guilty ; and therefore must bee amended . 3 What vertues he exhorteth vnto , which are not so perfect in thee ; and therefore endeauour to practise them with more zeale and diligence . But in hearing , apply euery speech as spoken to thy selfe , rather by GOD then by man : and labour not so much to heare the words of the Preacher sounding in thine eare : as to feele the operation of the spirit , working in thy heart : therefore it is said so often , Let him that hath an eare , heare what the spirit speakes to the Church . And , did not our hearts burxe within vs , whilest hee opened vnto vs the Scriptures ? And thus to heare the Word , hath a blessing promised thereto . It is the acceptablest sacrificing of our selues vnto God. It is the surest note of Christs Saints . The truest marke of Christs sheepe : the apparantest signe of Gods elect : the very blood as it were , which vniteth vs to bee the spirituall kindred , brethren and sisters of the Sonne of God. This is the best Art of memory for a good hearer . When the Sermon is ended . 1 Beware thou depart not like the nine Leapers , till that for thine instruction , to sauing health ; thou hast returned thankes and praise to GOD by an after prayer , and singing of a Psalme : and when the blessing is pronounced ▪ stand vp to receiue thy part therein , and heare it ; as if Christ himselfe ( whose Minister hee is ) did pronounce the same vnto thee , for in this case it is true , Hee that heareth you , heareth mee : and the Sabbath day is blessed , because GOD hath appointed it to be the day , wherin by the mouth of his Ministers , hee will blesse his people , which heare his word , and glorifie his Name . For though the Sabbath day in it selfe be no more blessed then the other sixe dayes ; yet ( because the Lord hath appointed it to holy vses aboue others ) it doth as farre excell the other dayes of the weeke , as the consecrated bread ( which wee receiue at the Lord Table ) doth the common Bread which wee eate at our owne Table . 2 If it be a Communion day , draw neere to the Lords Table , in the Wedding Garment of a faithfull and penitent heart , to be partaker of so holy a banquet . And vvhen Baptisme is to be administred , stay and behold it with all reuerent attention , that so thou maist , First , shew thy reuerence to Gods ordinance . Secondly , that thou maist the better consider thine owne ingraffing into the visible body of Christs Church : and how thou performest the vowes of thy new Couenant . Thirdly , that thou maist repay thy debts in praying for the Infant , which is to be baptized ( as other Christians did in the like case for thee : ) that God would giue him the inward effects of Baptisme by his Bloud and Spirit . Four'thly , that thou maist assist the Church in praising God for graffing another member into his Mysticall Body . Fiftly , that thou maist proue whether the effects of Christs death killeth sinne in thee ; and whether thou be raised to newnesse of life by the vertue of his Resurrection : and so to be humbled for wants , and to be thankefull for his grace . Sixtly , to shew thy selfe to be a Free-man of Christs Corporation : hauing a voyce or consent in the admission of others into that holy society . 3 If there be any Collection for the poore , freely without grudging , bestow thine Almes as GOD hath blessed thee with abilitie . And thus farre of the duties to be performed in the holy assembly . Now of the third sort of duties after the holy Assembly . AS thou returnest home , or when thou art entered into thy house , meditate a little vvhile vpon those things , vvhich thou hast heard . And as the cleane beasts which chew the cudde : so must thou bring againe to thy remembrance , that vvhich thou hast heard in the Church . And then kneeling downe , turne all to a prayer , beseeching GOD to giue such a blessing to those things , which thou hast heard : that they may be a direction to thy life ; and a consolation vnto thy Soule : for till the Word be made thus our owne ; and as it were close hidden in our hearts , wee are in danger , least Sathan steale it away , and we shall receiue no profit thereby . And when thou goest to dinner , in that reuerend and thankfull manner before prescribed ; remember according to thine abilitie to haue one or more poore Christians , whose hungry bowels may be refreshed with thy meate : imitating holy Iob , who protested that hee did neuer eate his morsels alone , without the good companie of the poore and fatherlesse : this is the Commandement of Christ our Master , Luke 14.13 . Or at least-wise , send some part of thy dinner to the poore , who lies sicke in the backe-lane without any food . For this will bring a blessing vpon all thy workes and labours ; and it will one day more reioyce thy soule ; then it doth now refresh his body , when Christ shall say vnto thee , O blessed child of God! I was : an hungred , and thou gauest not ●eate , &c. And forasmuch as thou hast done it for my sake , to the least of these my Brethren , I take it in as good part , as if thou hadst done it to mine owne self . When dinner is ended , and the Lord praised ; call thy familie together examine what they haue learned in the Sermon : commend them that doe well , yet discourage not them whose memories or capacities are weaker : but rather helpe them , for their will and mindes may be as good . Turne to the proofes which the Preacher alledged , and rub those good things ouer their memories againe . Then sing a Psalme or more . If time permit , thou maist teach and examine them in some part of the Catechisme , conferring euery point with the proofes of the holy Scripture . This will both encrease our knowledge , and sha●pen our memory : seeing by experience wee finde , that in euery trade , they who are most exercised , are euer best expert . But in any wise , remember so to dispose all these priuate exercises , as that thou maist be with the first in the holy congregation at the Euening exercise ; where behaue thy selfe in the like deuotion and reuerence , as was prescribed for the holy Exercise of the morning . After Euening Prayer , and at thy Supper , behaue thy selfe , in the like religious and holy manner , as was formerly prescribed . And eyther before , or after Supper , if the season of the yeere and weather doth serue : 1 Walke into the fields , and meditate vpon the Workes of God : for in euery creature thou maist read , as in an open Booke , the Wisedome , Power , Prouidence , and Goodnesse of Almightie God : and how that none is able to make all these things in the varietie of their formes , vertues , beauties , life , motions , and qualities , but our most glorious God. 2 Consider how gracious hee is that made all these things to serue vs. 3 Take occasion hereby , to stirre vp both thy selfe and others , to admire and adore his Power , Wisedome , and Goodnesse : and to thinke what vngratefull wretches we are , if wee vvill not ( in all obedience ) serue and honour him . 4 If any neighbour be sicke , or in any heauinesse , goe to visite him . If any be fallen at variance , helpe to reconcile them . To conclude , three sorts of vvorkes may lawfully be done on the Sabbath day . 1 Workes of Pietie , which eyther directly concerne the Seruice of God , though they be performed by bodily labour : as vnder the Law , the Priests did labour in killing , and dressing the Sacrifices , and burning them on the Altar . And Christians vnder the Gospell , when they trauaile farre to the places of Gods Worship : it is but a Sabbath dayes iourney , like to that of the Shunamite , vvho trauailed from home , to heare the Prophet on the Sabbath day , because she had no teaching neere her owne dwelling . And the Preacher , though he laboureth in the sweate of his browes , to the wearying of his body , yet he doth but a Sabbath dayes worke . For the holy end sanctifieth the worke , as the temple did the Gold , or the Altar the gift thereon . Or else such bodily labour , whereby the people of God are assembled to his worship , as the sounding of Trumpets vnder the Law , or the ringing of Bels vnder the Gospell . 2 Workes of Charitie , as to a saue the life of a man , or b of a beast , to c fodder , water , and dresse Cattell . To make honest d prouision of meate and drincke , to refresh our selues , and to e relieue the poore : to visite the sicke , to make f collections for the poore , and such like . 3 Workes of necessitie , not fained , but present and imminent , and such as could not be preuented before , nor cannot be deferred vnto another day . As to resist the inuasion of Enemies , or the robberies of Theeues , to quench the rage of Fire : and for Physitians to stanch , or let bloud , or to cure any other desperate disease : and for Mid-wiues to helpe women in labour : Mariners may doe their labour : Souldiers being assailed may fight : and * Posts may ride for the publique good , and such like . On these or the like occasions , a man may lawfully vvorke . Yea , and vvhen they are called , they may vpon any of these occasions , goe out of the Church , and from the holy exercises of the Word and Sacraments : prouided alwayes , that they bee humbled , that such occasions falles out vpon that day and time : And that they take no Money for their paines on that day , but onely for their stuffe , as in the feare of God , & conscience of his commandement . When the time of rest approacheth , retire thy selfe to some priuate place : and knowing , that in the state of corruption no man liuing can sanctifie a Sabbath in that Spirituall manner that hee should : but that hee commits many breaches thereof , in his thoughts , words , and deedes : humbly craue pardon for thy defects , and reconcile thy selfe vnto God , with this , or the like , Euening Sacrifice . A priuate Euening Prayer for the Lords day . O a Holy , holy , holy , Lord God of Sabbaoth ! Suffer me who am but b dust & ashes , to speake vnto thy most glorious Maiestie . I know that thou art a c consuming fire . I acknowledge that I am but withered d stubble , my e sinnes are in my sight , and Sathan f stands at my right hand to accuse me for them . I come not to excuse , but to g iudge my selfe worthy of all those Iudgements , which thy iustice might most iustly inflict vpon mee a wretched creature , for my sinnes and transgressions . The number of them is so great , the nature of them is so grieuous , that they make me seeme vile in mine owne eies , how much more loathsome in thy sight ? I confesse they make mee so farre from being worthy to be called thy Sonne , that I am altogether vnworthy to haue the name of thy meanest seruant . And if thou shouldest but recompence mee according to my desert , the earth ( as weary of such a sinfull burthen ) should open her mouth and swallow mee vp , like one of Dathans family , into the bottomlesse pit of hel . For if thou didst not spare the naturall branches , those Angels of glorious excellency ; but hurledst them downe from the heauenly habitations , into the paines of hellish darkenesse , to be kept vnto damnation , when they sinned but once against thy Maiesty ? and didst expell our first Parents out of Paradice , when they did but transgresse one of thy lawes ? Alas , what vengeance may I expect , who haue not offended in one sinne onely , heaping dayly sinne vpon sinne , without any true repentance , drinking iniquity as it were water , euer powring in , but neuer powring out any filthynesse : and haue trangressed not one , but all thy holy lawes and commandements . Yea this present day , which thou hast straightly commanded mee to keep holy , to thy praise and worship , I haue not so religiously kept and obserued , nor prepared my soule in that holynesse and chastitie of heart , as was fit , to meete thy blessed Maiesty in the holy assembly of thy Saints . I haue not attended to the preaching of thy word , nor to the administration of thy Sacraments , with that humility , reuerence , and deuotion , that I should . For though I was present at those holy exercises in my body ; yet Lord I was ouertaken with much drowsinesse ; and when I was awake , my minde was so distracted and carried away with vaine and wordly thoughts : that my soule seemed to bee absent , and out of the Church . I haue not so duely ( as I should ) meditated with my selfe , nor conferred with my Family , vpon those good instructions , which we haue heard and receiued out of thy holy word , by the publike Ministry . For default whereof , Sathan hath stolne the most part of these instructions out of my heart : and I wretched creature haue forgotten them , as though they had neuer beene heard . And my family doth not thriue in knowledge and sanctification vnder my gouernment as they should . Though I know , where many of my poore brethren liue in want and necessitie , and some in paine , and comfortlesse : yet I haue not remembred to relieue , the one with my almes , nor the other with consolations : but I haue feasted my selfe , and satisfied mine owne lusts . I haue spent the most part of the day , in idle talke , vaine sports , and exercises : Yea Lord I haue &c. * And for all these my sinnes , my conscience cries guilty , thy law condemnes me : and I am in thy hand to receiue the sentence and curse that is due to the wilfull breach of so holy a commandement . But what if I am by thy Law condemned ? yet , Lord , thy Gospell assures me that thy mercy is aboue all thy workes : that thy grace transcendes thy Law : and thy goodnesse delighteth there to raigne , vvhere sinnes doe most abound . in the multitude therefore of thy mercies and merits of Iesus Christ my Sauiour , I beseech thee O Lord ( who despisest not the sighing of a contrite heart , nor desirest the death of a penitent sinner ) to pardon and forgiue me all those my sins , and all the errours of this day , and of my whole life : and free my soule from that curse and iudgement which is due vnto mee for them . Thou that didst iustifie the contrite Publican for foure words of confession , and receiuedst the Prodigall childe ( when hee had spent all the stocke of thy grace ) into fauour vpon his repentance : pardon my sinnes likewise , O Lord , and suffer me not to perish for my trangressions . Oh spare me and receiue me into thy fauour againe . Wilt thou O Lord reiect me , who hast receiued all Publicans , harlots , and sinners , that vpon repentance sued to thee for grace ? Shall I alone bee excluded from thy mercy ? Farre be it from me to thinke so : For thou art the same GOD of mercy vnto mee , that thou wast vnto them , and thy compassions neuer faile . Wherfore O Lord deale not with mee after my merits , but according to thy great mercy . Execute not thy seuere iustice against mee a sinner : but exercise thy long sufferance in forbearing thine owne creature . I haue nothing to present vnto thee for a satisfaction , but onely the bloudy wounds , and bitter death and passion , which thy blessed Sonne , my onely Sauiour hath suffered for mee . Him ( in whom onely thou art well pleased . ) I offer vnto thee for all my sinnes , wherewith thou art displeased . Hee is my Mediatour , the request of whose bloud , speaking better things then that of Abel , thy mercy can neuer gaine-say . Illuminate my vnderstanding , and sanctifie my heart with thy holy spirit that may bring to my remembrance , all those good and profitable lessons , which this day , and at other times haue beene taught me out of thy holy word ; that I may remember thy commandements , to keepe them ; thy iudgements , to auoyde them ; and thy sweet promises , to relye vpon them in time of misery and distresse . And now , O Lord , I resigne my selfe to thy most holy will : Oh receiue mee into thy fauour : and so draw me by thy grace vnto thy selfe , that I may as well be thine by loue and imitation , as by calling and creation . And giue me grace so to keepe holy thy Sabbaths in this life : as that ( when this life is ended ) I may with all thy Saints and Angels , celebrate an eternall Sabbath of ioyes , and praise , to the honour of thy most glorious name , in thy heauenly Kingdome for euermore . Amen . And then calling thy family together ; shut vp the Sabbath with the Meditations and Prayers before prescribed for thy Family . And the Lord will giue thee that night a more sweet and quiet rest then ordinary , and prosper thee the better in all the labours of the weeke following . Thus farre of the ordinary practise of Piety , both in priuate and publike . Now followeth the extraordinary Practise of Piety , whereby God is glorified in our liues . THe extraordinary practise of Piety consists , eyther in Fasting , or in Feasting . 1 Of the Practise of Pietie in Fasting . There are diuers kindes of Fasting : First , a constrained Fast , as vvhen men eyther haue not foode to eate , as in the a Famine of Samaria . or hauing foode cannot eate it for heauinesse or sickenesse , as it befell them who were in the b Ship with Saint Paul. This is rather Famine , then Fasting . Secondly , A naturall Fast , which wee vnder-take Physically for the health of our body . Thirdly , * A ciuile Fast , which the Magistrate enioyneth for the better maintenance of the Common-wealth , that by vsing Fish as well as Flesh , there may be greater plenty of both . Fourthly ▪ A miraculous Fast , as the fortie dayes fast of Moses and Elias , the types : and of Christ the substance . This is rather to be admired , then imitated . Fiftly , A daily Fast , when a man is carefull to vse the creatures of GOD with such moderation ; that hee is not made heauier , but more cheerefull , to serue God , and to doe the duties of his calling . This is specially to be obserued , of c Ministers and Iudges . Sixtly , A religious Fast , which a man voluntarily vndertakes , to make his body and soule the fitter to pray more feruently vnto GOD , vpon some extraordinarie occasion . And of this fast onely wee are to treate . The Religious Fast is of two sorts , eyther priuate or publike . 1 Of a priuate Fast. THat vvee may rightly performe a priuate Fast , foure things are to be obserued : first , the Author : secondly the Time , and Occasion : thirdly , the Manner : fourthly , the Ends of priuate Fasting . 1 Of the Author . The first that ordained Fasting was God himselfe in Paradise : and it was the first Law that God made , in commanding Adam to abstaine from eating the forbidden fruit . GOD would not pronounce nor write his Law without Fasting , and in his Law commands all his people to Fast. So doth our Sauiour Christ teach all his Disciples vnder the New Testament likewise . By religious Fasting a man comes neerest the life of * Angels , and to do Gods will on earth , as it is done in heauen . Yea , Nature seemeth to teach man this duty , in giuing him a little mouth , and a narrower throaete : for , Nature is content with a little , Grace with lesse . Neyther doth Nature and Grace agree in any one act better , then in this exercise of religious Fasting : for it strengtheneth the memory , and cleareth the minde : illuminateth the vnderstanding , and bridleth the affections : mortifieth the flesh , and preserueth chastitie : preuenteth sicknesse , and continueth health : it deliuereth from euils , and procureth all kinde of blessings . By breaking this Fast ▪ the Serpent ouer-threw the first Adam , so that hee lost Paradise . But by keeping a Fast the second Adam vanquished the Serpent , and restored vs into Heauen . Fasting was she who couered No●h safe in the Arke : whom Intemperance vncouered , and left starke naked in the Vineyard . By fasting Lot quenched the flame of Sodome , whom drunkennesse scorched with the fire of Incest . Religious Fasting and talking vvith GOD , made Moses face to shine before men : when Idolatrous eating and drinking caused the Israelites to appeare abhominable in the sight of GOD. It rapt Elias in an Angelicall Coach to Heauen : when voluptuous Ahab was sent in a bloudy Chariot to Hell. It made . Herod beleeue that Iohn Baptist should liue after death by a blessed resurrection : when after an intemperate life hee could promise nothing to himselfe , but eternall death and destruction . O diuine Ordinance of a diuine Author ! 2 Of the Time. The holy Scripture appoints no time vnder the new Testament to fast : but leaues it vnto Christians owne free choyse , Rom. 14.3 . 1 Cor. 7.5 . to fast as occasions shall be offered vnto them , Mat. 9.15 . As when a man becomes an humble and earnest suiter vnto God for the pardon of some grosse sinne committed , or for the preuention of some sinne , whereunto a man feeles himselfe by Sathan sollicited : or to obtaine some speciall blessing which hee wants : or to auert some Iudgement , which a man feares , or is already fallen vpon himselfe or others : or lastly , to subdue his flesh vnto his spirit , that hee may more cheerefully poure forth his Soule vnto God by prayer . Vpon these occasions a man may fast a a day or b longer , as his occasion requires , and the consti●u●ion of his body , and other needfull affayres will permit . 3 Of the manner of a priuate Fast. The true manner of performing a priuate Fast , consists partly in outward , partly in inward actions . The outward Actions are to abstaine , for the time that wee fast , First , from all c worldly businesse and labour , making our fasting day as it were a Sabbath day ; Leuit. 23.28 . for worldly businesse will distract our mindes from holy deuotion . Secondly , from all manner of foode ; yea , from d bread and water , so farre as health will permit : 1 That so we may acknowledge our owne indignitie , as being vnworthy both of life , & all the meanes for the maintenance thereof . 2. That by afflicting the body the soule which followeth the constitution thereof , may be the more humbled . 3. That so wee may take a godly e reuenge vpon our selues , for abusing our libertie in the vse of Gods Creatures . 4. That by the hunger of our bodies , through want of these earthly things , our Soules may learne to hunger more eagerly after spirituall and heauenly foode . 5. To put vs in minde that as vvee abstaine from foode which is lawfull : so wee should much more abstaine from * Sinne , which is altogether vnlawfull . Thirdly , from good and costly f Apparell : that as the abuse of these puffes vs vp with pride ; so the laying aside their lawfull vse may witnesse our humilitie . And to this end in auncient times they vsed ( especially in publike Fasts ) to put g on Sacke-cloath , or other course apparell . The equitie hereof stil remaineth ; especially in publike Fasts , at what time to come into the Assembly vvith starched bands , crisped haire , braue apparell , and decked with ●lowers or perfumes , argueth a Soule that is neyther humbled before GOD , nor euer knew the true vse of so holy an exercise . Fourthly , from the full measure of h ordinary sleepe . That thou maist that vvay also humble the body : and that thy soule may watch and pray to be prepared for the comming of Christ. And if thou vvilt breake thy-sleepe earely and late for worldly gaine : how much more shouldest thou doe it for the seruice of God ? And if Ahab ( in imitation of the godly ) did in his fast lie in Sacke-cloath to breake his sleepe by night ; what shall wee thinke of those , vvho on a fasting day will yeeld themselues to sleepe in the open Church . Fiftly , and lastly , from all outward pleasures of our senses . So that as it was not the * throate onely that sinned , so must not the throate onely be punished : and therefore vve must endeuour to make our eyes ( as at all times ) so especially on that day to fast from beholding vanities : our eares from hearing mirth or Musicke , but such as may moue to mourne : our nostrils from pleasant smels : our tongues from lying , dissembling and slandering : yea , the vse of the Marriage bed must be omitted in a religious reuerence of the diuine Maiestie . That so nothing may hinder our true humiliation , but that all may be signes that vve are vnfainedly humbled . Thus much of the outward manner . 2 The inward manner of Fasting consists in two things . 1. Repentance . 2. Prayer . Repentance hath two parts . 1. Penitencie for sinnes past : 2. Amendement of life in time to come . This penitency consists in 3. things . First , an inward insight of sinne , and sense of miserie . Secondly , a bewailing of thy vile estate . Thirdlie , an humble and particuler confession of all thy knowne sinnes . 1 Of the inward insight of sinne ▪ and sense of miserie . This sense and insight will be effected in thee . First , by considering thy sinnes , especially thy grosse sinnes , according to the circumstances of the time when , place where , manner how , and person with whom it was committed . Secondly , the Maiesty of God against whom it was done : and the rather because thou didest such things against him , since he became a Father vnto thee , and bestowed so many sweet blessings in bountifull manner vpon thee . Thirdly , in considering the curses which GOD hath threatned for thy sinne : how grieuously GOD hath plagued others for the same faults ; and how that no mea●es in heauen or earth , could deliuer thee from being eternally damned for them ; had not the Sonne of God , so louingly dyed for thee . Lastly , that if GOD loues thee , hee must chasten thee ere it be long with some grieuous affliction , vnlesse thou doest preuent him by speedy and vnfained repentance . Let these and the like considerations , so pricke thy heart with sorrow : that melting for remorse within thee : it may be dissolued into a fountaine of teares , trickling downe thy mournfull cheekes . This mourning is the beginning of true fasting : and therefore oft times , * put for fasting ; the first and principall part , for the whole action . 2 Of the bewailing of thine owne estate . Bewailing or lamentation , is the powring out of the inward mourning of the heart , by the outward moanes of the voice ▪ and teares of the eyes . With such filial earnestnesse and importunity in prayer , as our heauenly father well pleased . Nay , when it is the fruits of his spirit , and the effects of our faith , hee cannot be displeased with it . For if hee heard the moanes which extremity wrung from Ismael and Hagar ; and heareth the cry of the young Rauens , and roaring of Lyons ; how much rather will hee heare the mournefull lamentation which his owne children make vnto him in their miserie ? 3 Of the humble confession of sinnes . In this action thou must deale plainely with God , and acknowledge all thine offences not onely in generall but also in particuler : this hath been the manner of all Gods children in their fasts : First , because that without Confession thou hast no promise of mercy , or forgiuenesse of sinnes . Secondly , that so thou maiest acknowledge GOD to be iust , and thy selfe vnrighteous . Thirdly , that by the numbring of thy sinnes , thy heart may be the more humbled and pulled downe . Fourthly , that it may appeare , that thou art truely penitent : for till GOD hath giuen thee grace to repent ; thou wilt be more ashamed to confesse thy fault , then to commit thy sinne . The plainer thou dealest in this respect with God ; the more gracious will GOD deale with thee , for if thou do●st acknowledge thy sinnes , God is faithfull and iust to forgiue thee thy sinnes : and the bloud of Iesus Christ his sonne will cleanse thee from all thy sinnes . To helpe thee the better to performe these 3. parts of penitency , thou maist diligently reade such Chapters and portions of the holy Scriptures ; as doe chiefly concerne thy particuler sinnes : that thou maiest see Gods curse and iudgements on others for the like sinnes , and bee the more humbled thy selfe . Thus farre of the first part of Repentance , which is Penitencie . The other Part , which is Amendement of life : consists , First , in deuoute Prayer . Secondly , in deuoute Actions . The deuout Prayer , which we make in time of fasting , is either , Deprecation of euill , or crauing needefull good things . Deprecation of euil is , when thou beseechest GOD , for Christ thy mediator sake , to pardon vnto thee those sins which thou hast confessed , and to turne from thee those Iudgements which are due vnto thee for thy sinnes . And as Benhadad , because hee heard , That the King of Israel was mercyful , prostrated himselfe vnto him with a Rope about his necke ; so because thou knowest that the King of heauen is mercifull : cast downe thy selfe in his presence , in all true signes of humiliation ( especially , seeing he calleth vpon thee to come vnto him in thy troubles ) and doubtlesse thou shall finde him mercifull . The Crauing of needefull good things , is , First , a feruent and faithfull begging of God to seale , by his spirit , in thy heart , the assurance of the forgiuenesse of all thy sins ? Secondly , to renewe thy heart by the holy Ghost , so that sinne may daily decay , and righteousnesse more and more increase in thee . Lastly , in desiring a supply of faith , patience , chastity , and all other graces which thou wa●●est : and an increase of those which God of his mercy hath bestowed vpon thee already . Thus farre of Prayer in fasting . The deuoute Actions in fasting , are two . First Auoiding euill . Secondly , doing good . 1 Of auoiding euill . This Abstinence from euill , is that which is chiefly signified by thy abstinence from foode , &c. and is the cheife ende of fasting , as the Niniuites very well knew . A day of fast , and not fasting from sinne the Lord abhorreth . It is not the vacuity of the stomacke : but the * puritie of the heart that GOD respecteth . If therefore thou wouldest haue God to turne from thee the euill of affliction : thou must first turne away from thy selfe , the euill of transgression . And vvithout this fasting from euil , thy fast sauours more noysome to God , then thy breath doth to man. This made God so often to reiect the fast of the Iewes . And as thou must endeauour to auoide all sinne ; so especially that sinne wherewith thou hast prouoked God , either to shake his rod at thee , or already to lay his chastening hand vpon thee . And doe this with a resolution , by the assistance of Gods grace , neuer to commit those sins againe . * For vvhat shall it profit a man by abstinence to humble his body ; if his minde swels with pride ? Or to forbeare wine , and strong drinke , and to be drunke with wrath and malice ? Or to let no flesh goe into thy belly , when lies , slanders , and ribauldrie ( vvhich are vvorse then any meate ) comes out at thy mouth . To abstaine from meate , and to doe mischiefe , is the Diuels fast , vvho doth euill , and is euer hungry . 2 Of doing good workes . The * good workes vvhich as a Christian thou must doe euery day , but especially , on thy fasting day : are either the workes of Piety to GOD , or the works of Charity tovvards thy brethren . First , the workes of Pietie to GOD , are the Practise of all the former duties , in the sincerity of a good Conscience , and in the sight of GOD. Secondly , the worke● of Charity towards our brethren ; are , forgiuing wrongs , remitting debts to the poore that are not vvell able to pay : but especially in giuing Almes to the poore , that vvant reliefe and sustenance . Else wee shall * vnder pretence of godlinesse , practise miserablenesse , like those who will pinch their owne bellies to defraud their labouring Seruants of their due allowance . As therefore Christ ioyned Fasting , Prayer , and Almes together in precept : so must thou ioyne them together , with Cornelius , in practise . And therefore be sure to giue at the least so much to the * poore , on thy Fasting day : as thou vvouldest haue spent in thine owne diet , if thou haddest not fasted that day . And remember , that he that soweth plenteously shall reape plenteously , and that this is a speciall sowing day . Let thy Fasting so afflict thee , that it may refresh a poore Christian , and reioyce that thou hast dined and supped in another : or rather that thou hast feasted hungry Christ in his poore members . In giuing Almes obserue two things : first , the Rules : secondly , the Rewards . 1 Rules in giuing of Almes , and doing good workes . 1 They must be done in obedience of Gods Commandements . Not because wee thinke it to be good , but because God requireth vs to do such and such a good deed : for such a obedience of the worker , God preferreth before all Sacrifices , and the greatest workes . 2 They must proceede from b Faith , else they cannot please God : nay , without faith the most specious workes are but * shining sinnes , and Pharisies Almes . 3 Thou must not thinke by thy good vvorkes and Almes , to merit Heauen : for in vaine had the Sonne of GOD shed his bloud , if Heauen could haue beene purchased eyther for Money or Meate . Thou must therefore seeke Heauens possession by the purchase of Christs bloud , not by the merits of thine owne workes . For c eternall life is the gift of GOD through Iesus Christ. Yet euery true Christian that beleeues to be saued , and hopes to come to heauen , must doe good workes ( as the Apostle saith ) for necessary vses , which are foure . First , that d God may be glorified : Secondly , that thou maist shew thy selfe e thankefull for thy Redemption . Thirdly , that thou maist f make sure thine Election vnto thy selfe . Fourthly , that thou maist g winne others , by thy holy deuotion , to thinke the better of thy Christian profession . And for these vses wee are said to be h Gods Workemanship , created in Christ Iesus vnto good work , and that God hath ordained vs to walke in . 4 Thou must not giue thine almes to impudent Vagabonds , vvho liue in wilfull idlenesse and filthinesse : but to the religious and honest poore , who are eyther sicke , or olde that they cannot worke : or such who vvorke , but their vvorke cannot competently maintaine them , seeke out these in the backe Lanes , and relieue them . But if thou meetest one that asketh an Almes for Iesus sake , and knowest him not to be vnworthy , deny him not : for it is better to giue vnto tenne Counterfeits , then to suffer Christ to goe , in one poore Saint , vnrelieued . Looke not on the Person , but giue thine Almes as vnto Christ in the partie . 2 Of the Rewards of Almes-deedes and good workes . 1 Almes are a speciall meanes to moue God in mercie to turne away his i temporall Iudgements from vs : vvhen wee by a true Faith , ( that sheweth it selfe by such fruits ) doe returne vnto him . 2 Mercifull Almes-givers k shall be the Children of the Highest : and be like GOD their Father , who is the l Father of Mercies . They shall be his m Stewards to dispose his goods ; his Hands , to distribute his Almes : and if it be so great an honour to be the Kings Almner ? how much greater is it to be the God of heauens Almes-giuer ? 3 When all this World shall forsake vs , then onely good Workes and good Angels shall accompany vs : the one to n receiue their reward , the other to deliuer● their o charge . 4 Liberalitie in Almes de●des is our p surest foundation in this life , that wee shall obtaine in eternall life a liberal reward through the Mercy and Merits of Christ. Lastly , by Almes deedes wee feede and relieue Christ in his Members : and q Christ at the last day will acknowledge our loue , and reward vs in his Mercy : and then it shall appeare that what vvee gaue to the poore , vvas not lost , but r lent vnto the Lord. What greater motiues can a Christian wish , to excite him to be a liberall Almes-giuer ? Thus farre of the Manner of Fasting : Now follow the Ends. 3 Of the Ends of Fasting . The true ends of Fasting , are not to merit Gods fauour or eternall life ( for that vve haue onely of the gift of God through Christ. ) Nor to place Religion in bodily abstinence ( for fasting in it selfe , is not the worship of GOD , but an helpe to further vs the better to worship GOD. ) But the true ends of fasting are three : First , to subdue our s flesh to the Spirit : but not so to t weaken our bodies , as that wee are made vnfit to doe the necessarie duties of our calling . A good man ( saith Salomon ) is mercifull to his beast , Prou. 12.10 . much more to his owne body . Secondly , that we may more deuoutly contemplate Gods holy Will , and feruently u poure forth our soules vnto him by prayer : for as there are some kinde of Diuels , so there are also some kinde of sinnes , which cannot be subdued but by Fasting , ioyned vnto prayer , Mat. 17.22 . Thirdly , that by our x serious humiliation , and iudging of our selues ; we may escape the Iudgement of the Lord ; not for the merit of our fasting ( which is none : ) but for the Mercy of God , who hath promised to remoue his iudgements from vs : vvhen wee by Fasting , doe vnfainedly humble our selues vnto him . And indeede no Childe of God euer conscionably vsed this holy exercise , but in the end hee obtained his request at the hand of GOD , both in receiuing graces , which hee wanted ; as appeares in the examples of y Annah , z Iehosaphat , a Nehemiah , b Daniel , c Esdra , d Hester : as also in turning away Iudgements threatned , or fallen vpon him : as may be seene in the examples of the e Israelites , the f Niniuites , g Rehoboam , h Acha● , i Ezechia , k Manasses . Hee who gaue his deare Sonne from heauen to the death , to ransome vs when wee were his Enemies : thinks nothing too deere on Earth , to bestow vpon vs , vvhen vve humble our selues , being made his reconciled Friends and Children . Thus farre of the priuate Fast. 2 Of the publique Fast. A Publike Fast is , when by the a authoritie of the Magistrate , eyther the whole Church , within his dominion , or some speciall congregation ( whom it concerneth ) doe assemble themselues together , to performe the fore-mentioned duties of Humiliation , eyther for the b remouing of some publique calamitie , threatned or already inflicted vpon them , as the sword , inuasion , famine , pestilence , or other fearefull sicknesse : or else for the obtaining of some publique blessing , for the good of the c Church , as to craue the assistance of his holy Spirit , in the election and ordination of fit and able Pastors , &c. or , for the tryall of truth , and execution of Iustice in matters of difficultie and great importance , &c. When any euill is to be remoued , the d Pastors are to lay open vnto the people , by the euidence of Gods Word , the sinnes which were the speciall causes of that calamitie : call vpon them to repent , and publish vnto them the mercies of God in Christ , vpon their Repentance . The people must heare the voice of Gods Messengers with hartie sorrow for their sinnes ; earnestly begge Pardon in Christ , and promise vnfained amend●ment of their life . When any blessing is to be obtained , the Pastors must lay open to the people the necessitie of that blessing , and the goodnesse of GOD , vvho giueth such graces for the good of men . The People must deuoutly pray vnto GOD , for bestowing of that Grace , and that hee would blesse his owne meanes , to his owne glory , and the good of his Church . And when the holy Exercise is done , let euery Christian haue a special care , according to his abilitie , to e remember the poore . And whosoeuer ( when iust occasion is offered ) vseth not this holy exercise of Fasting , hee may iustly suspect , that his heart neuer yet felt the power of true Christianitie . So much of Fasting . Now followeth the exercise of holy feasting . 2 Of the Practise of Piety in holy Feasting . HOLY Feasting is a solemne thankesgiuing ( appointed by authority ) to be rendred vnto God on some speciall day , for some extraordinary blessings , or deliuerances receiued . Such among the Iewes , was the Feast of the Passeouer , to remember to praise God for their deliuerance out of Egypts bondage : or the feast of Purim , to giue thankes for their deliuerance from Hamans conspiracie . Such among vs are the 5. of August , to praise God for deliuering our gracious King , from the bloudy conspiracy of the Traiterous Gowries . And the 5. of Nouember , to praise God for the deliuerance of the King and the whole State , from the Popish Gunpowder Treason . Such feasts are to be celebrated by a publike rehearsall of those speciall benefits , by spirituall Psalmes , and daunces , by mutuall feasting , and sending presents euery man to his neighbour , and by giuing gifts to the poore . But forasmuch as the benefit of our Redemption was the greatest that man needed from God ; or that God euer bestowed vpon man : and that the Lords Supper is left by our Redeemer as the chiefest memoriall of our Redemption : euery Christian should account this holy Supper his cheefest and ioyfullest feast in this world . And seeing that as it ministreth to worthy partakers the greatest assurance which they haue of their sa●●ation : so it pulleth temporall Iudgements on the bodies , and ( without Repentance ) eternall damnation on the soules of them who receiue it vnworthily . Let vs see how a Christian may best fit himselfe , to be a due partaker of so holy a feast , and to be a worthy guest at so sacred a Supper . Meditations concerning the due manner of practising Piety , in receiuing the holy Supper of the Lord. THough no man liuing is of himself worthy to be a guest at so holy a banquet ; yet it pleaseth GOD of his grace to accept him for a worthy receiuer , who endeauoureth to receiue that holy mystery , with that competent measure of reuerence that he hath prescribed in his word . He that would receiue this holy Sacrament with due reuerence must conscionably performe 3. sorts of duties . First , those which are to be● one before he receiueth . Secondly , those that are to be done in the receiuing . Thirdly , those that are to be done after that hee hath receiued the Sacrament . The first is called , Preparation , the second , Meditation , the third , Action or Practise . 1 Of Preparation . That a Christian ought necessarily to prepare himselfe before he presume to be a partaker of the holy Communion , may euidently appeare by 5. reasons . First , because it is Gods commandement . For if hee commanded vnder the paine of death that none vncircumcised should eate the paschall Lambe : nor any circumcised vnder 4. daies preparation : how much greater preparation doth hee require , of him that comes to receiue the Sacrament of his body and bloud , which as it succeedeth , so doth it exceed by many degrees the Sacrament of the Passeouer . Secondly , because the example of Christ teacheth vs so much : for he washed his Disciples feet before hee admitted them to eate of his Supper . Signifying how thou shouldest lay aside , all vnpurenesse of heart and vncleannesse of life , and be furnished with humility and charity , before thou presumest to taste of his holy Supper . Thirdly , because it is the counsell of the holy Ghost . Let euery man examine himselfe , and so let him eate , &c. And if a man when he is to eate with an earthly Prince , must consider diligently , what is before him ; and put a knife to his throate , rather th●n commit any rudenesse . How much more oughtest thou to prepare thy soule , that thou maiest behaue thy selfe with all feare and reuerence when thou art to feast at the holy Table of the Prince of Princes ? Fourthly , because it hath beene euer the practise of all Gods Saints , to vse holy preparation , before they would meddle with diuine Mysteries . Dauid would not goe neere to Gods Altar , till he had first washed his handes in innocency . Much lesse shouldest thou without due preparation , approach to the Lords Table ? Ahimelech would not giue , nor Dauid and his men would not eate the shew-bread but on condition that their vessels were holy ; how much lesse shouldest thou presume to eate the Lords bread , or rather the bread which is the Lord , vnlesse the vessell of thy heart bee first clensed by repentance ? And if the Lord required Ioshuah ( as he had done Moses before ) to put off his shooes , in reuerence of his holinesse , who was present in that place , where hee appeared , with a sword in his hand , for the destruction of his enemies ; how much rather shouldst thou put off all the affections of thine earthly conuersation , when thou commest neere that place where Christ appeareth to the eye of thy faith , with woundes in his hands and side , for the redemption of his friends ? And for this cause it is said , That the Lambes wife hath made her selfe ready for his mariage . Prepare therefore thy selfe , if thou wilt in this life be betrothed vnto Christ by Sacramentall grace : or in heauen married vnto him by eternall glory . Fiftly , because that God hath euer smitten with fearefull iudgements , those who haue presumed to vse his holy ordinances without due feare and preparation . God set a flaming sword in a Cherubins hand , to smite our first Parents being defiled with sinne , if they should attempt to goe into Paradise to eate the Sacrament of the tree of life . Feare thou therefore to be smitten with the sword of Gods vengeance . If thou presumest to goe to the Church with an vnpenitent heart , to eat the Sacrament of the Lord of life . God smote 50000. of the Bethshemites for looking irreuerently into his Arke , and kild Vzza with sudden death , for but rash touching of the Arke , and smote Vziah with a Leapry for medling with the Priests office , which pertained not vnto him . The feare of such a stroake made Ezechias so earnestly to pray vnto God , that he would not smite the people that wanted time to prepare themselues as they should to eate the Passeouer , and it is said , that the Lord heard Ezechiah , and haled the people , intimating that had it not beene for Ezechias prayer , the Lord had smitten the people for their want of due preparation . And the man vvho came to the Marriage-feast , without his wedding-garment , or examining of himselfe , vvas examined of another , and thereupon bound hand and foote and cast into vtter darkenesse , Mat. 22.12 . And Saint Paul tels the Corinthians , that for vvant of this preparation in examining and iudging themselues , before they did eate the Lords Supper , God had sent that fearefull sicknesse among them wherof some were then sicke , others weeke , and many falne asleepe , that is , taken away by temporall d●●th . Insomuch that the Apostle saith ; that euery vnworthy receiuer ea●es his owne Iudgement , temporall if he repents , eternall if he repents not : and that in so hainous a measure , as if he were guilty of the very body and blood of the Lord , whereof this Sacrament is a holy signe and seale . And Princes punish the indignity offered to their great seale , in as deep a measure as that which is done to their owne Persons whom it representeth : and how hainous the guiltinesse of Christs bloud is , may appeare by the misery of the Iewes euer since they wished his bloud to be on them and their Children . But then thou wilt say . It were safer to abstaine from comming at all to the holy Communion . Not so ; for God hath threatned to punish the wilful neglect of his sacraments , with eternal damnation both of body and soule . And it is the Commaundement of Christ ; Take , eate , doe this in remembrance of mee : and he vvill haue his Commandement vnder the penaltie of his Curse obeyed . And seeing that this Sacrament was the greatest token of Christs loue , which hee left at his end to his friends , whom he loued to the end : Therefore the neglect and contempt of this Sacrament , must argue the contempt and neglect of his loue and bloud-shedding , then which no sinne in 〈◊〉 account can seeme more hainous . Nothing hinders vvhy thou maist not come freely to the Lords Table ; but because thou hadst rather vvant the loue of God , then leaue thy filthy sinnes . Oh come , but come a guest prepared for the Lords Table ; seeing they are blessed , who are called to the Lambes Supper . O come , but come prepared ; because the efficacie of this Sacrament is receiued according to the proportion of the Faith of the Receiuer . This preparation consists in the serious consideration of three things : first , of the Worthinesse of the Sacrament , which is tearmed ●o discerne the Lords Body : secondly , of thine owne Vnworthinesse , vvhich is to iudge thy selfe : thirdly , of the meanes , whereby thou maist become a worthy Receiuer , called communication of the Lords body . 1 Of the worthinesse of the Sacrament . THE worthinesse of this Sacrament is considered three vvayes : first , by the Maiestie of the Author ordaining : secondly , by the Preciousnesse of the Parts whereof it consisteth : thirdly , by the Excellencie of the Ends for which it vvas ordained . 1 Of the Author of the Sacrament . The Author was not any Saint or Angell , but our Lord Iesus the eternall Sonne of God : for it pertaineth to Christ onely , vnder the New Testament to institute a Sacrament , because hee onely can promise and performe the grace that it signifieth . And we are charged to * heare no voyce but his in the church . How sacred should vvee esteeme the Ordinance that proceedeth from so diuine an Author ! 2 Of the parts of the Sacrament . The parts of this blessed Sacrament are three : first , the Earthly signes signifying : secondly , the diuine Word sanctifying : thirdly , the heauenly graces signified . First , the earthly Signes are a Bread and Wine , in number two , but one in vse . Secondly , the diuine Word , is the word of Christs Institution , pronounced with praiers and blessings , by a b lawfull Minister . The Bread and Wine without the word are nothing but as they were before , but when the Word commeth to those Elements , then they are made a Sacrament , and GOD is present with his owne ordinance , and ready to performe whatsoeuer hee doth promise . The diuine wordes of blessing doe not change or annihilate the * substance of the bread and wine : ( for if their substance did not remaine , it could be no Sacrament : ) but it changeth them in vse and in name . For , that which was before but common bread and wine to nourish mens Bodyes , is after the blessing destinated to an holy vse , for the feeding of the Soules of Christians : and where before they were called but Bread and Wine ; they are now called by the name of those holy things which they signifie , The body and bloud of Christ , the better to draw our minds from those outward Elements to the heauenly graces , vvhich by the sight of our bodies they represent to the spiritual eyes of our faith . Neyther did CHRIST direct these wordes , This is my Body , this is my Bloud , to the Bread and Wine , but to his Disciples , as appeares by the vvordes going before ; Take yee , eate yee . Neyther is the Bread his Body , but in the same sense that the Cup is the New Testament , viz. by a Sacramentall Metonymie . And Marke notes plainely , that the wordes , This is my Bloud , &c. was not pronounced by our Sauiour till after that all his Disciples had drunken of the Cup. Mar. 14.23.24 . And afterwards in respect of the naturall substance thereof , hee cals that the fruit of the vine , which in respect of the spirituall signification thereof ▪ he had before tearmed his Bloud , verse 25. After the manner of tearming all Sacraments . And Christ bids vs , not to MAKE him , but to doe this in remembrance of him , and hee bids vs eate , not simply his body , but his body as it was then broken , and his bloud shed : which Saint Paul expounds to be but the Communion of Christs body , and the c communion of his bloud , that is , an effectuall pledge that vvee are partakers of Christ , and of all the merits of his body and bloud . And by the frequent vse of this Communion , Paul will haue vs to d make a shew of the Lords death till he come e from heauen : and till vve , as f Eagles , shall be caught vp into the g Ayre to meete him who is the blessed Carkeis and life of our soules . Thirdly , the spirituall graces are likewise two , the Body of Christ , as it was ( with the feeling of Gods anger due to vs ) crucified : and his bloud as it was ( in the like sort ) shed for the remission of our sinnes . They are also in number two , but in vse one , viz. whole Christ , with all his benefits offered to all , and giuen indeede to the faithfull . These are the three internall parts of this blessed Sacrament , the Signe , the Word , and the Grace . The Signe without this Word , or this Word without the Signe , can doe nothing : and both conioyned are vnprofitable without the Grace signified : but all three concurring make an effectuall Sacrament to a worthy Receiuer . Some receiue the outward signe without the spirituall grace , as Iudas , who ( as Austen saith ) receiued the bread of the Lord , but not the Bread which was the Lord. Some receiue the spirituall grace without the outward signe as the Saint-Theefe on the Crosse , and innumerable of the faithfull , who dying desire it , but cannot receiue it through some externall impediments : but the worthy Receiuers to their comfort receiue both in the Lords Supper . Christ chose Bread and Wine , ( rather then any other Elements ) to be the outward signes in this blessed Sacrament : first , because they are easiest for all sorts to attaine vnto : secondly , to teach vs , that as mans temporall life is chiefely nourished by * bread , and cherished by wine : so are our soules by his body and bloud sustained and quickned vnto eternall life . Hee appointed Wine vvith the Bread , to be the outward signe in this Sacrament , to teach vs : first , that as the perfect nourishment of mans Body consists both of meate and drinke : so Christ is vnto our soules not in part but in perfection both saluation and nourishment : secondly , that by seeing the Sacramentall Wine apart from the Bread , wee should remember how all his precious bloud was spild out of his blessed body for the remission of our sinnes . The outward Signes the Pastor giues in the Church , and thou dost eate vvith the mouth of thy body : the spirituall grace Christ reacheth from Heauen , and thou must eate it with the mouth of thy Faith. 3 Of the Ends for which this holy Sacrament was ordained . The excellent and admirable Ends or fruits , for vvhich this blessed Sacrament vvas ordayned , are seauen . Of the first end of the Lords Supper . 1 To keepe Christians in a continuall a remembrance of that propitiatory sacrifice , which Christ once for all offered by his death vpon the crosse to reconcile vs vnto GOD. Doe this ( saith Christ ) in remembrance of me . And ( saith the Apostle ) As oft as yee shall eat this bread , and drinke this cup , yee doe shew the Lords death , till hee come . And he saith , that ( by this Sacrament , and the preaching of the word ) Iesus Christ was so euidently set forth before the eies of the Galathians as if he had beene crucified among them . For the whole action representeth Christs death : the breaking of the bread blessed , the crucifying of his blessed body , and the pouring forth of the sanctified wine , the shedding of his holy bloud . Christ was once in himselfe really offered : but as oft as this Sacrament is celebrated : so oft is hee spiritually offered by the faithful . Hence the Lords Supper is called a propitiatorie sacrifice , not preperly and really , but * figuratiuely , because it is a memoriall of that propitiatory Sacrifice , which Christ offered vpon the Crosse. And to distinguish it from that reall sacrifice , the Fathers call it the a vnbloudy Sacrifice . It is also called the Eucharist , because that the Church in this action offereth vnto God the sacrifice of praise and thankesgiuing for her redemption , effected by the true and onely expiatory sacrifice of Christ vpon the Crosse. If the sight of Moabs King , sacrificing on his walles his owne sonne to moue his gods to rescue his life , 2 King. 3.27 . mooued the assayling Kings to such pitty , that they ceast their assault , and raised their siege ; how should the spirituall sight of God the Father , sacrificing on the Crosse his onely begotten sonne , to saue thy soule , mooue thee to loue God thy Redeemer : and to leaue sinne that could not in iustice be expiated by any meaner ransome ? Of the second end of the Lords Supper . 2 To confirme our faith , for God by this Sacrament doth signifie and seale vnto vs from heauen , that according to the promise and new couenant which he hath made in Christ , he will truely receiue into his grace and mercy all penitent beleeuers who duely receiue this holy Sacrament : and that for the merits of the death and passion of Christ , hee will as verily forgiue them all their sinnes : as they are made partakers of this Sacrament . In this respect the holy Sacrament is called , the seale of the new Couenant and remission of sins . In our greatest doubts , wee may therefore , receiuing this Sacrament , vndoubtedly say with Sampsons mother , If the Lord would kill vs , hee would not haue receiued a burnt offering and a meat-offering at our hands , neither would he haue shewed all these things , nor would at this time haue told vs such things as these . Of the 3. ende of the Lords Supper . 3 To bee a pledge and symbole of the most neere & effectuall communion which Christians haue with Christ. The cuppe of blessing which we blesse , is it not the communion of the blood of Christ ? The bread which we breake , is it not the communion of the body of Christ ? that is , a most effectuall signe and pledge of our Communion with Christ. This vnion is called , abiding in vs ; ioyning to the Lord ; dwelling in our hearts : and set forth in the holy Scriptures , by diuers Similies . First of the Vine and branches , Secondly , of the head and body . Thirdly , of the foundation and building . Fourthly , of one Loafe confected of many graines . Fiftly , of the matrimoniall vnion twixt man and wife , and such like . And it is threefold betwixt Christ and Christians . The first is naturall , betwixt our humane nature , and Christs diuine nature in the person of the vvord . The second is mysticall , betwixt our persons absent from the Lord , and the person of Christ God and Man , into one mysticall body . The third is celestiall , betwixt our persons present with the Lord , and the person of Christ in a body glorified ; these three coniunctions depend each vpon other . For had not our nature beene first hypostatically vnited to the nature of GOD in the second person ; wee could neuer haue been vnited to Christ in a mysticall body . And if wee be not in this life ( though absent ) vnited to Christ by a mysticall vnion ; wee shall neuer haue communion of glory with him in his heauenly presence . The mysticall communion ( chiefly heere meant ) is wrought betwixt Christ and vs by the Spirit of Christ apprehending vs , and by our faith ( stirred vp by the same spirit ) apprehending Christ againe . Both which , Saint Paul doth most liuely expresse , I follow after , If that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Iesus . How can hee fall away that holdeth , and is so firmely holden ? This vnion he shall best vnderstand in his minde , who doth most feele it in his heart . But of all other times this vnion is best felt and most confirmed ; when wee doe duely receiue the Lords Supper . For then we shall sensibly feele our hearts knit vnto Christ , and the desires of our soules drawn by faith and the holy Ghost , as by the cordes of loue , neerer and neerer to his holinesse . From this Communion with Christ there followeth to the faithfull many vnspeakeable benefits . As first , Christ tooke by imputation al their sinnes and guiltinesse vpon him to satisfie Gods iustice for them : and he freely giues , by imputation , vnto vs all , his righteousnesse in this life , and all his right vnto eternall life when this is ended . And counteth all the good or ill that is done vnto vs , as done vnto his owne person . Secondly , their floweth from Christs nature into our nature , vnited to him , the liuely spirit , and breath of grace , which renueth vs to a spirituall life , and so sanctifieth our mindes , wils , and affections , that wee dayly growe more and more conformable to the Image of Christ. Thirdly , hee bestoweth vpon them all sauing graces , necessary to attaine eternall life , as the sense of Gods loue , the assurance of our election , with regeneration , iustification , and grace to doe good workes , till we come to liue with him in his heauenly kingdome . This should teach all true Christians to keepe themselues as the vndefiled members of Christs holy body , and to beware of all vncleanenesse and filthynesse , knowing that they liue in Christ , or rather that Christ liueth in them . From this vnion with Christ , ( sealed vnto vs by the Lords Supper ) Saint Paul draweth arguments to withdraw the Corinthians from the pollution both of Idolatry 1 Cor. 10.16 . and Adultery . 1 Cor. 16.15.16 . &c. Lastly , from the former Communion twixt Christ and Christians , there flowes an other communion twixt Christians among themselues . Which is also liuely represented by the Sacrament of the Lords Supper : in that the whole Church being many , doe all communicate of one bread , in that holy action . We being many are one bread and one body : for wee are all partakers of that one bread ; that , as the bread which we eate in the Sacrament is but one though it be confected of many graines ; so all the faithfull , though they be many , yet are they but one mysticall body , vnder one head , which is Christ. Our Sauiour praied 5. times in that prayer which hee made after his last Supper , that his Disciples might bee one : to teach vs at once , how much this vnity pleaseth him . This vnion betwixt the faithfull , is so ample , that no distance of place can part it ; so strong that death cannot dissolue it ; so durable , that time cannot weare it out ; so effectual , that it breeds a feruent loue betwixt those who neuer saw one anothers face . And this coniunction of Soules , is termed the Communion of Saints , which Christs effecteth by 7. speciall meanes . First , by gouerning them all by one and the same holy Spirit . Secondly , by enduing them all with one and the same faith . Thirdly , by shedding abroad his owne a loue into all their hearts . Fiftly , by b regenerating them all by one and the same Baptisme . Sixtly , by c nourishing them all with one and the same spirituall foode . Seauenthly , by being one d quickning Head ▪ of that one Body of his Church , vvhich hee reconciled to GOD in the body of his flesh . Hence it vvas that the multitude of Beleeuers in the Primitiue e Church 〈◊〉 of one heart , and of one soule , in truth , affection , and compassion . And this should teach Christ 〈◊〉 to loue one another , seeing they are all members of the same holy and mysticall body , vvhereof Christ is He●d . And therefore they should haue all a Christian Sympathie , and fellow-feeling , to reioyce one in anothers ioy , to condole one in anothers griefe , to beare vvith one anothers infirmitie , and mutually to relieue one anothers wants . Of the fourth end of the Lords Supper . 4 To feede the Soules of the faithfull in the assured hope of life euerlasting : for this Sacrament is a Signe and pledge vnto as many as shall receiue the same according to Christs Institution , that hee vvill according to his promise , by the vertue of his crucified body and bloud as verily feede our soules to lie eternall , as our bodies are by Bread and Wine nourished to this temporall life . And to this end Christ in the action of the Sacrament , really giueth his very body and bloud to euery faithfull Receiuer . Therefore the Sacrament is called the Communion of the Body and Bloud of the Lord. And communication is not of things absent but present : neyther were it the Lords Supper , if the Lords Body and Bloud vvere not there . Christ is verily present in the Sacrament , by a double vnion : vvhereof the first is spirituall , twixt Christ and the worthy Receiuer : the second is Sacramentall , twixt the body and bloud of Christ , and the outward Signes in the Sacrament . The former is wrought by meanes that the same holy Spirit dwelling in Christ and in the Faithfull , * incorporateth the Faithfull , as Members , vnto Christ their Head , and so makes them one vvith Christ , and pertakers of all the Graces , Life , Holinesse , and eternall Glory , vvhich is in him : as sure and as verily as they heare the wordes of the promise , and are partakers of the outward Signes of the holy Sacrament . Hence it is that the vvill of Christ , is a true Christians vvill : and the Christians life is Christ vvho liueth in him . Gal. 2.20 . If you looke to the things that are vnited ; this Vnion is essentiall : If to the Truth of this Vnion ; it is reall . If to the manner how it is wrought , it is spirituall . It is not our Faith , that makes the Body and Bloud of Christ to be present : but the Spirit of Christ dwelling in him and vs. Our Faith doth but receiue and apply vnto our Soules those heauenly graces which are offered in the Sacrament . The other , being the Sacramentall Vnion , is not a Phisicall or locall , but a spirituall coniunction of the earthly Signes , vvhich are Bread and Wine , vvith the heauenly Graces , which are the Body and Bloud of Christ in the act of receiuing : as if by a mutuall relation , they vvere but one and the same thing . Hence it is , that in the same * instant of time , that the worthy Receiuer eateth vvith his mouth the Bread and Wine of the Lord : hee eateth also vvith the mouth of his Faith , the very Body and Bloud of Christ. Not that Christ is brought downe from Heauen to the Sacrament ; but that the holy Spirit by the Sacrament , lifts vp his minde vnto Christ , not by any locall mutation , but by a deuout affection : so that in the * holy contemplation of Faith , hee is at that present with Christ , and Christ with him . And thus beleeuing and meditating how Christ his Body vvas crucified , and his precious Bloud shed for the remission of his sinnes , and the reconciliation of his Soule vnto GOD : his Soule is hereby more effectually fed in the assurance of eternall Life , then Bread and Wine can nourish his body to this temporall life . There must be therefore of necessitie in the sacrament , both the outward signes , to be visibly seene with the eyes of the body : and the Body and Bloud of Christ to be spiritually discerned with the Eye of Faith. But the forme how the Holy Ghost makes the Body of Christ being absent from vs in place , to be present vvith vs by our vnion , S. Paul tearmes A great Mysterie , such as our vnderstanding cannot worthily comprehend . The Sacramentall Bread and Wine therefore are not bare signifying Signes , but such as vvherewith Christ doth indeede exhibite and giue to euery worthy Recei●er , not onely his diuine vertue and efficacie : but also his very Body and Bloud , as verely , as hee gaue to his Disciples the Holy Ghost , by the signe of his sacred Breath : or Health to the diseased , by the word of his Mouth , or touch of his hand or garment . And the apprehension by faith is more forcible , then the exquisitest comprehension of Sense or Reason . To conclude this point : this holy Sacrament is that Blessed Bread , vvhich being eaten , opened the Eyes of the a Emauites that they knew Christ. This is that Lordly Cup , by vvhich b wee are all made to drinke into one Spirit . This is that Rocke flowing with c hony , that reuiueth the fainting spirits of euery true Ionathan , that tastes it vvith the mouth of Faith. This is that d Barly Loafe , vvhich tumbling from aboue , strikes downe the Tents of the Midianites of infernall darkenesse . Elias Angelicall e Cake and Water preserued him fortie dayes in Horeb : and f Manna ( Angels foode , ) fed the Israelites forty yeeres in the Wildernesse : but this is that g True Bread of life , and heauenly Manna , which if vvee shall duely eate , will nourish our Soules for euer vnto life h eternall . How should then our Soules make vnto Christ that request from a spirituall desire , which the Capernaites did from a carnall motion ; i Lord euermore giue vs this Bread ! The fift end of the Lords Supper . 5 To be an assured pledge vnto vs of our Resurrection . The Resurrection of a Christian is two-folde ; first ▪ the a spirituall Resurrection of our Soules , in this life , from the death of Sinne , called the first Resurrection : because that by the Trumpet-voyce of Christ , in the preaching of the Gospell , we are raysed from the death of sinne , to the life of grace : b Blessed and holy is he ( saith Saint Iohn ) who hath part in the first Resurrection , for on such the second death hath no power . The * Lords Supper is both a meane and a pledge vnto vs of this spi●rituall and first Resurrection . c Hee that eateth mee , euen hee shall liue by mee . And then are we fit Guests to d sit at the Table with Christ , when like Lazarus ▪ wee are raysed from the death of sinne to newnesse of life . The truth of this first resurrection vvill appeare by the motion vvherewith they are internally moued : for if , when thou art moued to the duties of Religion , and practise of Pietie , thy heart answereth , vvith Samuell , Here I am , Speake Lord for thy seruant heareth . And vvith Dauid , O God my heart is ready . And vvith Paul ; Lord , what wilt thou haue mee to doe ? Then surely thou art raysed from the death of sinne , and hast thy part in the first Resurrection : but if thou remainest ignorant of the true grounds of Religion , and findest in thy selfe a kinde of secret loathing of the exercises thereof , and must be drawne , as it were against thy will , to doe the workes of Pietie , &c. then surely thou hast but a name that thou liuest , but thou art dead , as Christ tolde the Angell of the Church of Sardis , and thy Soule is but as salt to keepe thy body from stincking . Secondly , the corporall Resurrection of our bodies at the last day which is called the second resurrection , which freeth vs from the first death . Hee that eateth my flesh , and drinketh my blood , hath eternall life , and I will raise him vp at the last day . For this Sacrament a signifieth and sealeth vnto vs that Christ died and rose againe for vs , and that his b flesh quickneth and nourisheth vs vnto eternall life , and that therefore our bodies shall surely be raised to eternall life at the last day . For seeing our head is risen , all the members of the body shall likewise surely rise againe . For how can those bodies which ( being the weapons of Righteousnesse , Rom. 16 13. Temples of the holy Ghost , 1 Cor. 6.19 . and Members of Christ. ) haue bin * fedde and nourished vvith the body and blood of the Lord of life : but be raised vp againe at the last day ? And this is the cause that the bodies of the Saints , being dead are so reuerently buried and laid to sleepe in the Lord. And their buriall places are termed , the beddes and dormitories of the Saints . The reprobates shall arise at the last day . But by the Almighty power of Christ , as he is Iudge , bringing them as malefactors out of the goale , to receiue their sentence , and deserued execution : but the Elect shall arise by vertue of Christs resurrecti●n , and of the Communion which they haue with him , as with their head . And his resurrection is the * cause , and assurance of ours . The a Resurrection of Christ , is a Christians particuler faith : the Resurrection of the dead , is the childe of Gods chiefest confidence . Therefore Christians in the Primitiue Church , were wont to salute one another in the morning with these phrases . * The Lord is risen : and the other would answere , True. The Lord is risen indeede . The sixt end of the Lords Supper . 6 To seale vnto vs the assurance of euerlasting life . Oh what more wished or loued then life ? Or what doe all men more , either feare , or abhorre , then death ? Yet is this first death nothing if it be compared with the second death ; neither is this life any thing worth in comparison of the life to come . If therefore thou desirest to be assured of eternall life , prepare thy selfe to be a worthy receiuer of this blessed Sacrament . For our Sauiour assureth vs , That if any man eate of this bread , he shall liue for euer : and the bread that I will giue , is my flesh , which I will giue for the life of the world . Hee therefore who duely eateth of this holy Sacrament , may truely say , not onely , Credo vitam aeternam , I beleeue the life euerlasting : but also , Edo vitam aeternam , I eate life euerlasting . And indeed this is the true tree of life ▪ which GOD hath planted in the middest of the Paradise of the Church . And whereof hee hath promised to giue euery one that ouercommeth , to eate . And this tree of life by infinite degrees excelleth the tree of life , that grew in the Paradise of Eden ; for that had his roote , in the earth , this from heauen ; that gaue but life to the body , this to the soule , that did but preserue the life of the liuing , this restoreth life to the dead . The leaues of this tree healeth the Nation of beleeuers , and it yeelds euery moneth a new manner of fruit , which nourisheth them to life euerlasting . Oh , blessed are they who often eate of this Sacrament ! at lest , once euery moneth , taste anew of this renewing fruit , which Christ hath prepared for vs at his Table to heale our infirmities , and to confirme our beleefe of life euerlasting ▪ The seauenth end of the Lords Supper . 7 To binde all Christians , as it were , by an oath of fidelity , to serue the one onely true God : and to admit no other propitiatory sacrifice for sinnes but that one reall sacrifice which by his death , Christ once offered , and by which he finished the sacrifice of the Law , and effected eternall redemption and righteousnesse , for all beleeuers . And so to remaine for euer a publike marke of profession , to distinguish Christians from all sects and false religions . And seeing that in the Masse , there is a strange Christ adored , not hee that was borne of the Vigin Marie : but one that is made of a wafer Cake : and that the offering vp of this breaden-god is thrust vpon the Church ; as a propitiatorie sacrifice for the Quicke and the dead : all true Christians vpon the danger of wilfull periury before the Lord chiefe-Iustice of heauen and earth are to detest the Masse , as that Idoll of indignation which is most derogatory to the all-sufficient World-sauing-merits of Christs death and passion . For by receiuing the Sacrament of the Lords Supper , we al sweare that all reall sacrifices are ended by our Lords death : and that his body and bloud once crucified and shed , is the perpetuall food and nourishment of our Soules . 2. How to consider thine owne vnworthinesse . A Man shall best perceiue his owne vnworthinesse by examining his life according to the tenne Commandements of Almighty GOD. Search therefore what duties thou hast omitted , and what vices thou hast committed , contrary to euery one of the Commandements : remembring that without repentance and Gods mercy in Christ , the Curse of God ( containing all the miseries of this life , and euerlasting torments in Hel fire when this is ended ) is due to the breach of the least of Gods commandements . And hauing taken a due surueigh both of thy sins & miseries , retire to some secret place , and there putting thy selfe in the sight of the Iudge as a guilty malefactor standing at the Barre to receiue his sentence , bowing thy knees to the earth , smiting thy breast with thy fists and bedewing thy cheekes with thy teares , confesse thy sins , and humbly aske him mercie and forgiuenesse , in these or the like wordes . An humble Confession of sins to be made vnto God before the receiuing of the holy Communion . O GOD and heauenly Father , when I consider the goodnesse which thou hast euer shewed vnto me , and the wickednesse which I haue committed against heauen and against thee , I am ashamed of my selfe , and confusion seemes to couer my face as a vaile : for which of thy commandements haue I not transgressed ? Oh Lord , I stand heere guilty of the breach of all thy holy Lawes . For the loue of my heart hath not so entirely cleaued vnto thy Maiesty as to vaine and earthly things : * I haue not feared thy iudgements to deterre me from sinnes , nor trusted to thy promises , to keepe from doubting of my temporall , or from despairing of mine eternall state . * I haue made the rule of thy diuine worship , to be what my minde thought fit , not what thy word prescribed : finding my heart more proane to remember my blessed Sauiour in a painted picture of mans deuise : rather then to behold him crucified in his Word and Sacraments after his owne ordinance . Where * I should neuer vse thy name ( whereat all knees doe bow ) but with religious reuerence , nor any part of thy worship , without due preparation and zeale : I haue blasphemously abused thy holy name to rash and customary oathes , yea I haue vsed oathes by thy sacred name , as false couers of my filthy sinnes . And I haue been present at thy seruice oft times more for ceremony then conscience , and to please men , more then to please thee , my gracious GOD. * Where I should sanctifie thy Sabath day , by being present at the publike exercises of the Church , and by meditating priuately on the word and workes of GOD , and by visiting the sicke , and relieuing of my poore brethren . Alas , I haue thought those holy Exercises a burden , because they hindred my vaine sports : yea , I haue spent many of thy Sabbaths , in my owne prophane pleasures , without being present at any part of thy diuine worship . Where I should haue giuen all due reuerence to my Naturall , Ecclesiasticall , and Politique Parents , I haue not shewed that measure of duetie and affection to my Parents which their care and kindnesse hath deserued . I haue not had thy Ministers in such singular loue for their workes sake , as I ought , but I haue taunted at their zeale , and hated them because they reproued mee iustly . And I haue carryed my selfe contemptuously against my Magistrates & Ministers , though I knew that it is thine ordinance , that I should be obedient vnto them . Where I should be * slow to wrath , and a ready to forgiue offences , and not suffered the Sunne to goe downe vpon my wrath , but to doe good for euill , louing my very enemies for thy sake : I alas , for one sory word haue burst out into open rage , & harbouring thoughts of mischiefe in my heart , I haue preferred to feede on mine owne malice , rather then to eate of thy holy Supper . Where I should keepe my minde from all filthy lusts , and my body from all vncleannesse : O Lord , I haue defiled both , and made my heart a Cage of all impure thoughts , and my minde a very Stie of the vncleane Spirit . Yea , the remedie which thou Lord hast ordained for continencie , could not containe me vvithin the bounds of Chastitie : for by doating on beautie , whose ground is but dust , Sathan hath bewitched my flesh to lust after strange flesh . Where I should haue liued in vprightnesse , giuing euery man his due : being contented vvith mine owne estate : and liuing conscionably in my lawfull calling , should be ready ( according to mine abilitie ) to lend and giue vnto the poore : ô Lord , I haue by oppression , extortion , Bribes , cauilation , and other indirect dealings vnder pretence of my Calling and Office , robbed and purloyned from my fellow Christians : yea , I haue deceiued and suffered Christ where I vvas trusted , many a time , in his poore members , to stand hungry , cold , & naked at my dore , and hungry , cold , and naked to goe away succourlesse , as hee came : and when the leanenesse of his cheekes pleaded pitty , the hardnes of my hart , would shew no compassion . Where I should haue made conscience to speake the truth in simplicitie , vvithout any falshood , prudently iudging aright , and charitably construing all things in the best part : and should haue defended the good name and credit of my neighbour : alas ( vile wretch that I am ) I haue belyed and slaundered my fellow-Brother , and as soone as I heard an ill report , I made my tongue the instrument of the Diuell , to blazon that abroad vnto others , before I knew the truth of it my selfe . I was so farre from speaking a good word , in defence of his good name : that it tickled my heart in secret , to heare one that I enuied , to be taxed with such a blemish , though I knew that otherwise , the graces of God shined in him ▪ in aboundant measure . I made ●ests of officious , and aduantage of pernitious lyes : herein shewing my selfe a right Cretian , rather then an vpright Christian. And lastly ( O Lord ) where I should haue rested fully contented vvith that portion which thy Maiestie thought meetest to bestow vpon me in this Pilgrimage : and reioyced in an others good , as in mine owne : Alas my life hath beene nothing else but a greedy lusting after this neighbours house , and that neighbours land : yea , secretly vvishing such a man dead , that I might haue his liuing or office , coueting rather those things which thou hast bestowed on another , rather then being thankefull for that which thou hast giuen vnto my selfe . Thus I O Lord , who am a carnall sinner , and sold vnder sinne , haue transgressed all thy holy and spiritual commandements from the first to the last , from the greatest vnto the least , and here I stand guiltie before thy Iudgement-seate of all the breaches of all thy lawes , and therefore lyable to thy Curse , and to all the miseries that Iustice can poure forth vpon so cursed a creature . And whither shall I goe for deliuerance from this miserie ? Angels blush at my rebellion , and will not helpe mee . Men are guilty of the like transgression , and cannot helpe themselues . Shall I then despaire vvith Caine , or make away my selfe with Iudas ? No Lord : for that were but to end the miseries of this life , and to beginne the endlesse torments of Hell : I will rather appeale to thy Throane of Grace , where Mercy raignes to pardon abounding sinnes , and out of the depth of my miseries , I will cry , with Dauid , for the depth of thy mercies . Though thou shouldest kill me with afflictions ; yet will I , like Iob , put my trust in thee . Though thou shouldest drowne me in the Sea of thy displeasure , with Ionas , yet will I catch such hold on thy Mercy , that I will be taken vp dead , clasping her with both my hands . And though thou shouldest cast mee into the bowels of Hell , as Ionas into the Belly of the Whale : yet from thence would I cry vnto thee ; O God the Father of Heauen , O Iesus Christ the Redeemer of the World , O Holy Ghost my Sanctifier , three Persons , and one eternall God , haue mercy vpon mee a miserable sinner . And seeing the goodnesse of thine owne nature first moued thee to send thine onely begotten Son , to dye for my sinnes , that by his death I might be reconciled to thy Maiestie : O reiect not now my penitent Soule , who being displeased with her selfe for sinne , desireth to returne to serue and please thee in newnesse of life , and reach from Heauen thy helping hand to saue mee thy poore seruant , who am ( like Peter ) ready to sincke in the Sea of my sinnes and miserie . Wash away the multitude of my sinnes , with the merits of that bloud which I beleeue that thou hast so abundantly shed for penitent sinners . And now that I am to receiue this day the blessed Sacrament of thy precious body and bloud ; O Lord I beseech thee , let thy holy Spirit , by thy Sacrament , seale vnto my soule , that by the merits of thy Death and Passion all my sinnes are so freely and fully remitted and forgiuen , that the curses and Iudgements which my sins haue deserued , may neuer haue power eyther to confound me in this life , or to condemne me in the world which is to come . For my stedfast faith is , that thou hast dyed for my sinnes , and risen againe for my iustification . This I beleeue , O Lord helpe mine vnbeliefe . Worke in mee likewise I beseech thee , an vnfained Repentance , that I may heartily bewaile my former sins , and loath them , and serue thee hence forth in newnesse of life , and greater measure of holy deuotion . And let my soule neuer forget the infinite loue of so sweete a Sauiour , that hath laid downe his life to redeeme so vile a Sinner . And grant Lord that hauing receiued these seales and pledges of my Communion with thee ; thou maist henceforth so dwell by thy Spirit in mee , that I so liue by Faith in thee : and that I may walke all the dayes of my life , in godlinesse and pietie towards thee , and in Christian loue and charitie towards all my neighbours : that liuing in thy feare , I may dye in thy fauour , and after death be made partaker of eternall life , through Iesus Christ , my Lord and onely Sauiour . Amen . 3 Of the meanes whereby thou maist become a worthy Receiuer . THese Meanes are dueties of two sorts ; the former respecting GOD , the later our Neighbour : Those vvhich respect GOD are three ; first , sound knowledge : secondly , true faith : thirdly , vnfained repentance . That which respecteth our neighbour is but one , sincere Charitie . 1 Of sound knowledge requisite in a worthy communicant . Sound knowledge is a sanctified vnderstanding of the first Principles of Religion . As first , of the Trinity of Persons in the vnity of the Godhead . Secondly , of the Creation of Man and his fall . Thirdly , of the curse and misery due to sinne . Fourthly , of the natures and offices of Christ , and redemption by faith in his death : especially of the doctrine of the Sacraments sealing the same vnto vs. For as an house cannot be built vnlesse the foundation bee first laid ; no more can Religion stand , vnlesse it bee first grounded vpon the certaine knowledge of Gods word . Secondly , if wee know not Gods will , we can neither beleeue nor doe the same . For as wordly businesses , cannot be done , but by them who haue skill therein ; so without knowledge must men be much more ignorant in diuine and spirituall matters . And yet in temporall things , a man may doe much by the light of nature . But in religious mysteries , the more we relye vpon naturall reason , the further we are from comprehending spirituall truth . Which discouers the feareful estate of those who receiue without knowledge , and the more fearefull estate of those Pastors who minister vnto them without Catechising . 2 Of sincere faith , required to make a worthy communicant . Sincere faith is not a bare knowledge of the Scriptures , & first grounds of Religion , ( for that ; Diuels and Reprobates haue in an excellent measure , and doe beleeue it and tremble . ) But a true perswasion , as of all those things whatsoeuer the Lord hath reuealed in his word : so also a particular application vnto a mans owne soule , of all the promises of mercy which God hath made in Christ to all beleeuing sinners . And consequently , that Christ and all his merits doe belong vnto him as well as to any other . For first , if wee haue not the righteousnesse of Faith , the Sacrament seales nothing vnto vs , and euery man in the Lords Supper , receiueth so much as hee beleeueth . Secondly , because that without Faith we communicating on earth , cannot apprehend Christ in heauen . For as he dwelleth in vs by faith , so by faith , we must likewise eate him . Thirdly , because that without faith wee cannot be perswaded in our consciences that our receiuing is acceptable vnto God. 3 Of vnfained repentance requisite for a true Communicant . True Repentance is a holy change of the minde , when vpon the feeling sight of Gods mercy , and of a mans owne misery , hee turneth from all his known and secret sinnes to serue God in holinesse and righteousnesse , all the rest of his daies . For as he that is glutted with meat is not apt to eat bread : so hee that is stuffed with sinnes , is not fit to receiue Christ. And a conscience defiled with wilfull filthinesse , makes the vse of all holy things vnholy vnto vs. Our sacrificed spotlesse Passeouer cannot bee eaten with the sowre leauen of malice and wickednes , saith Paul , 1 Cor. 5.8 . Neither can the olde bottles of our corrupt and impure consciences , retaine the new wine of Christs precious bloud , as our Sauiour saith , Mar. 2.22 . Wee must therefore truely repent , if we will bee worthy partakers . 2 The duties to be performed in respect of our neighbour , is Charity . Charity is a hearty forgiuing of others who haue offended vs , and after reconciliation , an outward vnfained testifying of the inward affections of our hearts by gestures , words , and deeds , as oft as we meete , and occasion is offred . For first , without loue to our neighbour , no sacrifice is acceptable vnto GOD. Secondly , because one chiefe end wherefore the Lords Supper was ordained , is , to confirme Christians loue one towards an other . Thirdly , no man can assure himselfe that his owne sinnes are forgiuen of God , if his heart cannot yeelde to forgiue the faults of men that haue offended him . Thus farre of the first sort of duties which we are to performe before wee come to the Lords Table , called Preparation . 2 Of the second sort of duties which a worthy Communicant is to performe at the receiuing of the Lords Supper , called Meditation . THis exercise of spirituall Meditation consists in diuers points . First , when the Sermon is ended , and the banquet of the Lords Supper begins to be celebrated : meditate with thy selfe how thou art inuited by Christ , to be a guest at his holy table , and how louingly he inuiteth thee ; Hoe , euery one that thirsteth , come yee to the waters of life , &c. Come , buy wine and milke , without money , and without price , eate yee that which is good , let your soule delight it selfe in fatnesse . Take ye , eate ye , This is my body , which was broken for you , drinke yee all of this , for this is my blood which was shed for the remission of your sinnes . What greater honor can be vouchsafed then to be admitted to sit at the Lords own Table ? What better fare can be affoorded then to feede of the Lords owne body and bloud . If Dauid thought it to be the greatest fauour that he could shew vnto good Barzalla● , for all the kindenesse that hee shewed vnto him in his troubles , to offer him , That he should feed with him at his owne Table in Ierusalem ; how much greater fauour ought we to account it , when Christ doth indeede feede vs in the Church , at his owne Table , and that with his owne most holy body and bloud ? Secondly , as Abraham , vvhen hee vvent ●p to thy Mount , to sacrifice Isaak his Sonne , left his Seruants beneath in the Valley : so vvhen thou commest to the Spirituall Sacrifice of the Lords Supper , lay aside all earthly thoughts and cogitations : that thou maist wholy contemplate of Christ , and offer vp thy Soule vnto him , vvho sacrificed both his Soule and Body for thee . Thirdly , meditate vvith thy selfe , how precious and venerable is the Body and Bloud of the Sonne of God , vvho is the Ruler of Heauen and Earth , the Lord , at vvhose becke the Angels tremble : and by whom both the quicke and dead shall be iudged at the last day , and thou among the rest . And how that it is hee , who hauing beene crucified for thy sinnes , offereth now to be receiued by faith into thy soule . On the other side consider how sinfull a Creature thou art : how altogether vnworthy of so holy a Guest : how ill deseruing to taste of such sacred foode ; hauing beene conceiued in filthinesse , and wallowing euer since in the mire of Iniquitie : bearing the Name of a Christian , but doing the Workes of the Diuell ; adoring CHRIST , with an , * Aue Rex , in thy mouth , but spitting Oathes in his face , and crucifying him anew vvith thy gracelesse actions . Fourthly , ponder then with what face darest thou offer to touch so holy a body with such defiled hands ; or to drinke such precious blood , with so lewde and lying a mouth : or to lodge so blessed a guest , in so vncleane a stable ? For if the Bethshemites vvere slaine for but looking irreuerently , into the Arke of the olde Testament , what Iudgement mayest thou iustly expect ; who with such i●●ure eies and heart art come to see and receiue the Arke of the New Testament , in which dwelleth all the fulnesse of the God-head , bodily ? If Vzza for but touching ( though not without zeale ) the Arke of the Couenant was stricken with sudden death . What stroake of diuine Iudgement maiest thou not feare ; that so rudely with vncleane hands , doest presume to handle the Arke of the eternall Testament , wherein is hid all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge ? If Iohn Baptist ( the holiest man that was borne of a woman ) thought himselfe vnworthy to beare his shooes ; O Lord , how vnworthy is such a prophane wretch , as thou art : to eate his holy flesh , and to drinke his precious bloud ! If the blessed Apostle S. Peter , seeing but a glympse of Christs Almightie Power ; thought himselfe vnworthy to stand in the same B●ate with him ; how vnworthy art thou to sit with Christ , at the same Table , where thou maist behold the infinitenesse of his Grace and Mercy displayed ? If the Centurion thought that the roofe of his house was not vvorthy to harbour so diuine a Guest ; what roome can there be fit vnder thy ribs for Christs holinesse to dwell in ? If the bloud-issued sicke woman feared to touch the Hemme of his Garment ; how shouldest thou tremble to eate his flesh , and to drinke his all-healing bloud ? Yet if thou commest humbly in Faith , Repentance , and Charitie , abhorring thy sins past , and purposing vnfainedly to amend thy life henceforth : let not thy former sinnes affright thee : for they shall be neuer laid vnto thy charge : and this Sacrament shall seale vnto thy Soule , that all thy sinnes , and the Iudgements due vnto them , are fully pardoned , and cleane washed away by the bloud of Christ. For , this Sacrament vvas not ordained for them who are perfect ; but to helpe penitent sinners vnto perfection : Christ came not to call the righteous , but sinners to repentance . And he saith , that the whole neede not the Physitian , but they that are sicke . Those hath Christ called , and when they came , them hath hee euer helped . Witnesse the whole Gospell which testifieth : that not one sinner , vvho came to Christ for mercy , went euer away vvithout his errand . Bathe thou likewise thy sicke Soule in this fountaine of Christs bloud , and doubtlesse according to his promise , Zach. 13.1 . thou shalt be healed of all thy sinnes and vncleannesse . Not sinners therefore , but they who are vnwilling to repent of their sinnes , are debarred this Sacrament . Fiftly , meditate , that Christ left this Sacrament vnto vs , as the chiefest token & pledge of his loue , not when wee vvould haue made him a King , Iohn 6.15 . ( which might haue seemed a requitall of kindnesse ) but vvhen Iudas and the High Priest were conspiring his death ( therefore vvholy of his meere fauour . ) When Nathan would shew Dauid how entirely the poore man loued his sheepe , that was killed by the rich man : hee gaue her ( said hee ) to eate of his owne morsels , and of his owne Cup to drinke : 2 Sam. 12.3 . and must not then the loue of Christ to his Church be vnspeakeable , when hee giues her his owne flesh to eate , and his owne bloud to drinke , for her spirituall and eternall nourishment ? If then there be any loue in thine heart ; take the Cuppe of saluation into thy hand , and pledge his loue with loue againe . Psal. 116.11 . Sixtly , when the Minister beginneth the holy consecration of the Sacrament , then lay aside all praying , reading , and all other cogitations whatsoeuer ; and settle thy meditation onely vpon those holy actions and rites , which according to Christs Institution , are vsed in and about the holy Sacrament . For it hath pleased God ( considering our weaknesse ) to appoint those rites as meanes the better to lift vp our mindes to the serious contemplation of his heauenly graces . When therefore thou seest the Minister putting apart Bread and Wine on the Lords Table , and consecrating them by Prayers and the rehearsall of Christs Institution , to be a holy Sacrament of the blessed Body and Bloud of Christ : then meditate , how GOD the Father of his meere loue to mankinde , set apart , and sealed his onely begotten Sonne , to be the all-sufficient meanes , and onely Mediator , to redeeme vs from sinne , and to reconcile vs to his grace , and to bring vs to his Glory . When thou seest the Minister breake the Bread , being blessed ; thou must meditate that Iesus Christ the eternall Sonne of GOD was put to death , and his blessed Soule and Body ( vvith the sense of Gods anger ) broken asunder , for thy sinnes , as verely , as thou now seest the holy Sacrament to be broken before thine eyes . And withall call to minde the hainousnesse of thy sinnes , and the greatnesse of Gods hatred against the same : seeing Gods Iustice could not be satisfied but by such a Sacrifice . When the Minister hath blessed and broken the Sacrament , and is addressing himselfe to distribute it : then meditate , The King ( who is the Master of the feast ) stands at the Table , to see his guests , and looketh vpon thee , whether thou hast on thee thy Wedding garment : thinke also that all the holy a Angels who attend vpon the Elect in the Church , and b doe desire to behold the celebration of these holy Mysteries , doe obserue thy reuerence and behauiour . Let thy Soule therefore whilest the Minister bringeth the Sacrament vnto thee , offer this or the like short Prayer vnto Christ. A sweet Soliloquie to be said betwixt the Consecration and receiuing of the Sacrament . IS it true indeed that GOD will dwell on earth ? behold the Heauen , and the Heauen of Heauens are not able to containe thee , how much more vnable is the soule of such a sinfull c●itife as I am to receiue thee ? But seeing it is thy blessed pleasure to come thus , to a suppe with me , and to b dwell in mee : I cannot for ioy but burst out and say , What is man that thou art so mindfull of him , and the Sonne of man that thou so regardest him ? What fauour soeuer thou vouchsafest mee in the abundance of thy Grace ; I will freely confesse what I am in the wretchednesse of my Nature . I am in a vvord ; a carnall Creature , vvhose very soule is c sold vnder sinne : a wretched man compassed about with d a body of death : yet Lord seeing thou e callest , here I come ; and seeing thou callest sinners , I haue thrust my selfe in among the rest ; and seeing thou callest all with their heauiest loades , I see no reason why I should stay behinde . O Lord I am sicke , and whither should I goe but vnto thee the Physitian of my Soule ? Thou hast cured many , but neuer didst thou meete vvith a more miserable patient : for I am more leaprous then Gehazi , more vncleane then Magdalene , more blinde in Soule , then Bartimeus vvas in Body : for I haue liued all this while and neuer seene the true light of thy Word . My Soule runnes with a greater fluxe of sinne , then vvas the Hemorisse issue of bloud . Mephiboseth was not more lame to goe , then my soule is to walke after thee in loue . Ieroboams Arme was not more withered to strike the Prophet , then my hand is maimed to relieue the poore . Cure me O Lord , and thou shalt doe as great a worke as in curing them all . And though I haue all their sinnes and sores ; yet Lord so abundant is thy grace ; so great is thy skill ; that if thou wilt , thou canst with a word , forgiue the one , and heale the other . And vvhy should I doubt of thy good will , when to saue mee will cost thee now but one louing smile , vvho shewedst thy selfe so willing to redeem me , though it should cost thee all thy heart bloud , and now offerest so gratiously vnto mee the assured pledge of my redemption , by thy bloud ? Who am I O Lord God ? and what is my merit that thou hast bought me with so deare a price ? It is meerely thy mercie ; and I O Lord am not worthy the least of all thy mercies : much lesse to be a partaker of this holy Sacrament , the greatest Pledge of the greatest mercy that euer thou diddest bestow vpon those sonnes of men , whom thou louest . How might I in respect of mine owne vnworthynesse , cry out for feare at the sight of thy holy Sacrament , as the Philistimes did , when they saw the Arke of God come into the assembly . Woe now vnto me a sinner ; But that thy Angel doth comfort me , as he did the women . Feare thou not , for I know that thou seekest Iesus which was crucified . It is thou indeed that my soule seeketh after . And heere thou offerest thy selfe vnto me in thy blessed Sacrament . If therefore ELIZABETH thought her selfe so much honoured at thy presence , in the wombe of thy blessed mother that the babe sprange in her bellie for ioy ; how should my soule leape within mee for ioy , now that thou commest by thy holy Sacrament , to dwell in my heart for euer ? Oh what an honour is this that not the mother of my Lord , but my Lord himselfe should come thus to visit me ? Indeede , Lord , I confesse with the faithfull Centurion ; that I am not worthy that thou shouldest come vnder my roofe : and that if thou didst but speake the word onely , my soule should be saued . Yet seeing it hath pleased the riches of thy grace for the better strengthning of my weakenesse ; to seale thy mercy vnto mee by thy visible signe , as well as by thy visible word . In all thankefull humili●y my soule speakes vnto thee with the blessed Virgin. Behold the handmaide of the Lord , be it vnto me according to thy word . Knocke thou , Lord , by thy word and Sacraments at the doore of my heart , and I will like the Publicane with both my fists knocke at my breast , as fast as I can that thou maiest enter in : and if the dore will not open fast enough ; breake it open , O Lord , by thine Almighty power , and then enter in and dwell there for euer : that I may haue cause with Zacheus to acknowledge that this day saluation is come into my house . And cast out of me , whatsoeuer shall be offensiue vnto thee : for I resigne the whole possession of my heart vnto thy sacred Maiestie , entreating that I may not liue henceforth , but that thou maist liue in mee , speake in me , worke in me , and so to gouerne me by thy spirit that nothing may be pleasing vnto me , but that which is acceptable vnto thee . That finishing my course in the life of grace , I may afterwards liue with thee for euer in thy kingdome of glory . Grant this , O Lord Iesu , for the merits of thy death and bloodshedding . Amen . When the Minister bringeth towards thee the bread thus blessed and broken ; and offering it vnto thee , bids thee , Take eate , &c. Then meditate that Christ himselfe commeth vnto thee , & both offreth and giueth indeed vnto thy faith , his very body & blood with al the merits of his death and passion ▪ to feed thy soule vnto eternal life : as surely as the minister offereth & giueth the outward signes that feeds thy body vnto this temporall life . The bread of the Lord is giuen by the Minister but the bread which is the Lord is giuen by Christ himselfe . When thou takest the bread at the Ministers hand to eate it , then rouse vp thy soule to apprehend Christ by faith , & to apply his merits to heale thy miseries . Embrace him as sweetly with thy faith in the Sacrament : as euer Simeon hugde him with his armes in his swadling clouts . When thou eatest the bread , imagine that thou seest Christ hanging vpon the Crosse , and by his vnspeakeable torments , fully satisfying Gods iustice for thy sinnes and striue to be as verily pertaker of the spirituall grace , as of the elementall signes . For the truth is not absent from the signe , neither doth Christ deceiue , when he saith , This is my body , but he giueth himselfe indeede to euery soule that spiritually receiues him by faith . For as ours is the same Supper which Christ administred : so is the same Christ verily present at his owne Supper , not by any Papall * Transubstantiation , but by a Sacramentall participation , whereby he doth truly feede the faithfull vnto eternall life : not by comming downe out of heauen vnto thee ; but by lifting thee vp from the earth vnto him . According to that old saying , Sursum corda . Lift vp your hearts , and where the carkase is thither will the Eagles res●●t . Mat. 24 When thou seest the wine brought vnto thee apart from the bread : then remember that the bloud of Iesus Christ was as verily separated from his body vpon the Crosse for the remission of thy sinnes . And that this is the seale of that new couenant which GOD hath made to forgiue all the sinnes of al penitent sinners that beleeue the merits of his blood●heding . For the wine is not a Sacrament of Christs blood contained in his ●eines : but as it was shed out of his body vpon the Crosse for the remission of the sinnes of all that beleeue in him . As thou drinkest the wine , and pourest it out of the Cup into thy stomacke ; meditate and beleeue that by the merits of that bloud vvhich Christ shed vpon the Crosse , all thy sinnes are as verely forgiuen , as thou hast now drunke this Sacramentall Wine , and hast it in thy stomach . And in the instant of drinking settle thy meditation vpon Christ ▪ as he hanged vpon the Crosse : as if like Mary and Iohn , thou did see him nailed , and his bloud running downe his blessed side out of that gastfull wound vvhich the Speare made in his innocent heart : wishing thy mouth closed to his side , that thou mightest receiue that precious bloud before it fell to the dustie earth . And yet the actuall drinking of that reall bloud with thy mouth ; vvould be nothing so * effectuall , as this Sacramentall drinking of that bloud , spiritually by Faith. For one of the Souldiers might haue drunke that , and beene still a reprobate : but vvhosoeuer drinketh it spiritually by Faith in the Sacrament , shall surely haue the Remission of his sinnes , and Life euerlasting . As thou feelest the Sacramentall Wine vvhich thou hast drunke , warming thy cold stomach : so endeuour to feele the Holy Ghost cherishing thy soule in the ioyfull assurance of the forgiuenesse of all thy sinnes , by the merits of the bloud of Christ. And to this end God giueth euery faithfull soule together with the Sacramentall bloud , the holy Ghost to drinke . Wee are all made to drinke into one Spirit . And so lift vp thy minde from the contemplation of Christ , as hee vvas crucified vpon the Crosse : to consider how hee now sits in glory at the right hand of his Father , making intercession for thee : by presenting to his Father , the vnualuable me●its of his death , which hee once suffered for thee : to appease his Iustice for the sins which thou dost daily commit against him . After thou hast eaten and drunke both the Bread and Wine : labour that as those Sacramentall Signes do turne to the nourishment of thy body , and by the digestion of heate become one with thy substance : so by the operation of Faith and the Holy Ghost thou maist become one vvith Christ , and Christ with thee : and so maist feele thy Communion with Christ confirmed and encreased daily more and more . That as it is vnpossible to separate the Bread and Wine digested into the bloud and substance of thy body : so it may be more vnpossible to part Christ from thy Soule , or thy Soule from Christ. Lastly , as the Bread of the Sacrament , though confected of many graines ; yet makes but one Bread : so must thou remember , that though all the faithfull are many : yet are they all but one Mysticall Body , whereof Christ is Head. And therefore thou must loue euery Christian as thy selfe , and a member of thy body . Thus farre of the duties to be done at the receiuing of the holy Sacrament , called Meditation . 3 Of the duties which we are to performe after receiuing of the holy Communion , called Action , or Practise . THe duetie vvhich vvee are to performe after the receiuing of the L●rds Supper , is called Action or Practise : without vvhich all the rest will minister vnto vs no comfort . This Action consists of two sorts of duties : first , such as wee are to performe in the Church : or else , after that we are gone home . Those that we are to performe in the Church , are either seuerall , from our owne soules : or else , ioyntly , vvith the Congregation . The seuerall duties which thou must performe from thine owne Soule are three : first , thou must be carefull ( that forasmuch as Christ now dwelleth in thee , therefore ) to entertaine him in a cleane heart , and with pure affections ; for , the most holy will be holy with the holy : for if Ioseph of Arimathia when hee had begged of Pilate his dead body to burie it , vvrapped it in sweete odours , and fine linnen , and laid it in a new Tombe : how much more shouldest thou lodge Christ in a new heart , and perfume his roomes vvith the odoriferous Incense of Prayers , and all pure affections . If God required Moses to prouide a pot of pure gold to keepe the Manna that fell in the Wildernesse : what a pure heart shouldest thou prouide to retaine this diuine Manna that is come downe from Heauen . And as thou camest sorrowing like Ioseph and Mary to seeke Christ in the Temple , so now hauing there found him in the middest of his Word and Sacraments , be carefull with ioy to carry him home with thee as they did . And if the man that found but his lost Sheepe reioyced so much ; how canst thou hauing found the Sauiour of the World but reioyce much more ? Secondly , thou must offer the Sacrifice of a priuate thankes-giuing vnto God for this inestimable grace and mercy : for as this action is common vnto the whole Church : so is it applyed particularly to euery one of the faithfull in the Church , and for this particular mercy , euery Soule must ioyfully offer vp a particular Sacrifice of Thankes-giuing . For if the Wise-men reioyced so much when they saw the Star which conducted them vnto Christ ; and worshipped him so deuoutly vvhen hee lay , a Babe , in the Manger , and offered vnto him their Gold , Myrrhe , and Frankinsence : how much more shouldest thou reioyce now that thou hast both seene and receiued this Sacrament , vvhich guideth thy Soule vnto him , where hee sitteth at the right hand of his father in glory ? And thither lifting vp thy heart , adore him , and offer vp vnto him the Gold of a pure Faith , the Myrrhe of a mortified heart , and this or the like sweete Incense of Prayer and Thankes-giuing . A Prayer to be said after the receiuing of the Communion . WHat shall I render vnto thee ( O blessed Sauiour ) for all these blessings , which thou hast so graciously bestowed vpon my Soule ? how can I sufficiently thanke thee , vvhen I can scarse expresse them ? Where thou mightest haue made mee a Beast , thou madest mee a man after thine owne Image . When by sinne I had lost both thine Image , and my selfe : thou didst renew in mee thine Image by thy Spirit : and diddest redeeme my Soule by thy bloud againe : and now thou hast giuen vnto mee thy Seale and pledge of my Redemption ; nay , thou hast giuen thy selfe vnto mee O blessed Redeemer . Oh what an inestimable treasure of riches , and ouer-flowing Fountaine of grace hath hee got vvho hath gained thee ! No man euer touched thee by Faith , but thou didst heale him by Grace , for thou art the Author of Saluation , the remedy of all euils , the medicine of the sicke , the life of the quicke , and the resurrection of the dead . Seemed it a small matter vnto thee to appoint thy holy Angels to attend vpon so vile a Creature as I am ; but that thou wouldest enter thy selfe into my Soule , there to preserue , nourish and cherish mee vnto life euerlasting ? If the carkeis of the dead Prophet could reuiue a dead man that touched it ; how much more shall the liuing body of the Lord of all Prophets , quicken the faithfull , in vvhose heart he dwelleth ? And if thou wilt raise my body at the last day out of the dust ; how much more vvilt thou now reuiue my Soule vvhich thou hast sanctified with thy Spirit , and purified with thy bloud ? Oh Lord , what could I more desire , or what couldest thou more bestow vpon mee , then to giue me thy body for meate , thy bloud for drinke , and to lay downe thy Soule for the price of my Redemption ? Thou Lord enduredst the paine , and I doe reape the profit : I receiued Pardon , and thou diddest beare the punishment . Thy teares vvere my bathe , thy wounds my weale , and the iniustice done to thee , satisfied for the Iudgement which vvas due to mee . Thus by thy birth thou art become my Brother , by thy death my ransome , by thy mercy my reward , and by thy Sacrament my nourishment . O diuine foode , by which the sonnes of men are transformed into the sonnes of God : so that mans nature dyeth , and Gods nature liueth and ruleth in vs. Indeede all Creatures vvondered that the Creator would be enclosed nine moneths in the Virgins wombe , ( though her wombe being replenished vvith the Holy Ghost , vvas more splendide then the starry Firmament . ) But that thou shouldest thus humble thy selfe to dwell for euer in my heart , which thou foundst more vncleane then a dung-hill : It is able to make all the Creatures in heauen and earth to stand amazed : But seeing it is thy free grace and meere pleasure thus to enter and to dwell in my heart , I vvould to GOD that I had so pure a heart , as my heart could wish to entertaine thee . And who is fit to entertaine Christ ? or who though inuited would not choose , vvith Mary , rather to kneele at thy feete , then presume to sit with thee at the Table ? Though I want a pure heart for thee to dwell in , yet weeping eyes shall neuer be vvanting to vvash thy blessed feete , and to lament my filthy sinnes . And albeit I cannot weepe so many teares as may suffice to wash thy holy feete , yet Lord it is sufficient that thou hast shed bloud enough to clense my sinfull Soule . And I am fully ( O Lord ) assured that all the daintie fare wherewith the disdainfull Pharisie entertained thee at his Table , did not so much please thee as those teares which penitent Mary poured vnder the table . I would therefore wish vvith Ieremie , that my head were a fountaine of teares , that seeing I can by no meanes yeeld sufficient thankes for thy loue to mee ; yet I might by continuall teares , testifie my loue vnto thee . And though no man is vvorthy of so infinite a grace : yet this is my comfort , that he is worthy whom thou in fauour accountest worthy . And seeing that now of thy meere grace thou hast counted mee ( among others thy chosen ) worthy of this vnspeakeable fauor , & sealed by thy Sacrament the assurance of thy loue and the forgiuenes of my sins : O Lord confirme thy fauour vnto thy Seruant ; and say of mee as Isaac did of Iacob , I haue blessed him , therefore hee shall be blessed . And that I may say vnto thee , vvith Dauid , Thou O Lord hast blessed my Soule , and made it thy house , and it shall be blessed for euer . And seeing it pleased thee to blesse the house of Obed-edom , and all his houshold , whilest the Arke of the Lord remained in his house : I doubt not but thou wilt much more blesse my Soule and Body , and all that doe belong vnto mee , now that it hath pleased thy Maiestie of thine owne good will to enter vnder my roofe , and to dwell for euer in my poore Cottage . Blesse me , O Lord , so , that my sinnes may wholy be remitted , by thy blood , my conscience sanctified by thy spirit , my minde enlightned by thy truth , my heart guided by thy spirit , and my will , in all things , subdued to thy blessed will and pleasure . Blesse mee with all graces which I want , and increase in me those good gifts which thou hast already bestowed vpon me . And seeing that I hold thee not by the armes , as Iacob , wrestling without mee ; but inwardly dwelling by faith within me : surely , Lord , I will neuer let thee goe , except thou blesse me , and giue mee a new name , a new heart , a new spirit , & strength by the power of God to preuaile ouer sinne and Sathan . And I beseech thee , O Lord , desire not to depart from me as thou didst from Iacob because the day breaketh , and thy grace beginneth to dawn and appeare . But I from my soule , humbly with the Emmauites , entreat thee O sweet Iesu to abide with me , because it drawneth towards night . For the night of temptation , the night of tribulatiō , yea my last long night of death appeareth , O blessed Sauiour , stay with me therefore now and euer . And if thy presence goe not home with mee , carry mee not from hence . Goe with me and liue with me , and let neither death nor life seperat● mee from thee . Driue me from my selfe , draw me vnto thee . Let me be sicke , but sound in thee , and in my weakenesse let thy strength appeare . Let me seeme as dead , that thou alone maiest be seene to liue in me , so that all my membres , may be but instruments to act thy motions . Set me as a seale vpon thine heart , and let thy zeale be setled vpon mine , that I may bee out of loue with all : that I may be onely in loue with thee . And grant , O Lord , that as thou now vouchsafest me this fauour to sit at thy table to receiue this Sacrament in thy house of grace : so I may hereafter through thy mercy , be receiued to eate and drinke at thy table in thy kingdome of glory . And for thy mercy , I doe here with the 4. beasts and 24. Elders cast my selfe downe before thy throane of Grace , acknowledging that it is thou that hast redeemed me with thy blood , and that saluation commeth onely from thee . And therefore , vnto thee I doe yeeld all praise and glory , and wisdome , and thanks , and honour , and power , and might , and maiestie , O my Lord , and my God , for euermore . Amen . Thirdly , seeing Christ hath sacrificed himselfe for thee : ( and all that thou canst giue is too little ) therefore thou must offer thy selfe to bee a liuing , holy , and acceptable sacrifice vnto God : by seruing him in righteousnesse and holinesse all thy daies . Thus Tertullian witnesseth , that in his time , a Christian was knowne from an other man , onely by the holinesse and vprightnesse of his life . 2 Of the duties which we are to doe after the Communion , ioyntly with the Congregation . THe duties to be performed ioyntly with the Church , are three . First , publike thankesgiuing , both by praiers and singing of Psalmes , thus Christ himselfe and his Apostles did . Secondly , Ioyning with the church , in giuing ( euery man according to his ability ) toward the reliefe of the poore . This was the manner of the Primitiue Churches to make a Collections and * Loue-feasts after the Lords Supper , for the reliefe of the poore Christians . Thirdly , When thankes and praise is ended : then with all reuerence to stand vp , and to receiue the blessing of God , by the mouth of his Minister , and to receiue it , as if thou diddest heare God himselfe pronouncing it vnto thee from heauen . For by * their blessing , God doth blesse his people . Thus farre of the duties to be practised in the Church . The duties which thou art to practise after that thou art departed home , are three . First , to obserue diligently , whether thou hast truely receiued CHRIST in the Sacrament . Which thou maiest thus easily perceiue : for seeing his flesh is meat indeed , and his blood is drinke indeede , and that he is so full of grace , that no man euer touched him by faith , but he receiued vertue from him . It cannot possibly be , that if thou hast eaten his flesh , or drunke his blood , but thou shalt receiue grace and power to bee clensed from thy sinnes and filthynesse . For if the Hemorise , that did but touch his garment , had her bloody issue that continued so long , forthwith stanched : How much more will the bloody issue of thy sinne , be stanched , if thou then hast truely eaten and drunke the very flesh and blood of Christ ? But if thy issue still runneth , thou maist iustly suspect , thou hast neuer yet truely touched Christ. Secondly , Seeing thou hast now reconciled thy selfe to GOD , and renewed thy Couenant , and vowed newnesse and amendment of life . Thou must therefore haue a special care , that thou doest not yeeld to commit thy form●r sinnes any more : knowing that the vncleane spirit , if euer he can get into thy Soule againe , after that it is swept and garnished : hee will enter forcible possession with 7. other Diuels worse then himselfe : So that the end of that man shall bee worse then his beginning . Be yee not therefore like the Dogge that returnes to his vomi● , or the washed sow that walloweth in the mire againe . And returne not to thy malice , like to the Adder , who laying aside her poyson while shee drinkes , takes it vp againe when shee hath done . But when either the Diuel or thy flesh shall offer to tempt and mooue thee to relapse into thy former sinnes : answere them as the Spouse doth in the Canticles , I haue put off my coate ( of my former corruption ) how shall I put it on ? I haue washed my feete how shall I defile them againe ? Lastly if euer thou hast found either ioy or comfort in receiuing the holy Sacrament ; let it appeare by thy eager desire of receiuing it often againe . For the body of Christ as i● was annointed with the oyle of gladnesse aboue his fellowes : so doth it yeelde a sweeter sauour then all the oyntments of the world . The fragrant smell whereof , allureth all soules who haue once tasted the sweetnesse thereof , euer after to desire oftner to taste thereof againe . Because of the sauour of thy good oyntment , therefore doe the Virgins loue thee . O taste therefore and often see how good the Lord is , saith Dauid ; This is the commandement of CHRIST himselfe , Doe this in remembrance of me , and in doing this thou shalt shew thy selfe best mindefull and thankefull for his death . For as oft as yee shall eate this bread and drinke this cup , yee shall shew the Lords death vntil he come . And let this bee the chiefe ende whereunto , both thy receiuing and liuing tendeth : that thou maiest be a holy Christian , zealous of good workes , purged from sinne , to liue soberly , righteously and godly in this present world ; that thou maiest be acceptable to God , profitable to thy brethren , and comfortable vnto thine own soule . Thus farre of the manner of glorifying God in thy life . Now followeth the Practise of Piety in glorifying God in the time of sickenesse , and when thou art called , to die in the Lord. AS soone as thou perceiuest thy selfe to be visited with any sicknesse ; meditate with thy selfe : 1 That misery commeth not forth of the dust : neither doth affliction spring out of the earth . Sicknesse comes not by hap or chance , ( as the Philistimes supposed that their Mise and Emeroides came : ) but from mans wickednesse , vvhich as sparkles breaketh out . Man suffereth ( saith Ieremie , ) for his sinnes . Fooles ( saith Dauid ) by reason of their transgressions , and because of their iniquities are afflicted . As therefore Salomon aduised a man to carry himselfe towards an earthly Prince : If the spirit of him that ruleth , rise vp against thee : leaue not thy place , for gentlenesse pacifieth great sins : so counsell I thee , to deale with the Prince of Princes : If the spirit of him , that ruleth heauen and earth rise vp against thee , let not thy heart despaire ; for repentance pacifieth great sins . And whosoeuer returneth in his affliction , to the Lord God of Israel , and seekes him , he will be found of him . 2 Shut too thy Chamber doore : Examine thine owne Heart vpon thy bed . Search and try thy wayes : Search as diligently for thy capitall sinne ( as Ioshua did for Achan ) till thou findest it : for albeit GOD , when he beginneth to chasten his Children , hath respect to all their sinnes : yet vvhen his anger is incensed : he chiefely taketh occasion to chasten , and enter vvith them into Iudgement , for some one grieuous sinne , wherein they haue liued without Repentance . 3 When thou hast thus considered all thy sinnes , put thy selfe before the Iudgement seate of God , as a fellon or murtherer standing at the Bar of an earthly Iudge : and with griefe and sorrow of heart confesse vnto God all thy knowne sinnes , especially thy Capitall offences , wherewith GOD is chiefely displeased . Lay them open , with all the circumstances of the time , place , and manner how they were committed ; as may most serue to aggrauate the hainousnesse of thy sinnes , and to shew the contrition of thy heart for the same . Lift vp thine hand , and acknowledge thy selfe before the righteous Iudge of heauen and earth , guilty of eternall death and damnation , for those thy hainous sinnes and transgressions . And hauing thus accused and iudged thy selfe ; cast downe thy selfe before the Foote-stoole of his Throne of Grace : assuring thy selfe , that whatsoeuer the Kings of Israel be ; yet the GOD of Israel is a mercifull God. And cry vnto him from a penitent and faithfull heart , for mercy and forgiuenesse : as eager , and earnest , as euer thou knewest a malefactor , being to receiue his sentence , crying vnto the Iudge for fauour , and pardon : vowing amendement of life , and ( by the assistance of his Grace ) neuer to commit the like sinne any more . All vvhich thou maist doe in these or the like words . A Prayer when one begins to be sicke . O Most righteous Iudge , yet in Iesus Christ , my gracious Father : I wretched sinner , doe here returne vnto thee ( though driuen with paine and sicknesse , ) like the prodigall childe , with want and hunger . I acknowledge that this sicknesse and paine comes not by blinde chance or fortune : but by thy diuine prouidence and speciall appointment . It is the stroke of thy heauie hand , vvhich my sinnes haue iustly deserued : and the things that I feared are now fallen vpon mee . Yet I doe vvell perceiue , that in wrath thou remembrest mercie : When I consider how many , and how hainous are my sinnes , and how few and easie are thy corrections . Thou mightest haue strucken me with some fearefull and sodaine death , vvhereby I should not haue had eyther time or space to haue called vpon thee for grace and mercy ; and so I should haue perished in my sinnes , and beene for euer condemned in Hell. But thou O Lord visitest mee vvith such a Fatherly chastisement , as thou vsest to visit thy dearest children , whom thou best louest ; giuing mee ( by this sicknesse ) both warning and time to repent , and to sue vnto thee for grace and pardon . I take not therefore , O Lord , this thy visitation , as any signe of thy wrath or hatred , but as an assured pledge and token of thy fauour and louing kindnes , whereby thou dost vvith thy temporall Iudgements ; draw mee to iudge my selfe , and to repent of my wicked life , that I should not be condemned with the godlesse and vnpenitent vvorld . For thy holy Word assures mee , that whom thou louest , thou thus chastenest : and that thou scourgest euery Sonne that thou receiuest . That if I endure thy chastening , thou offerest thy selfe vnto me as vnto a sonne , and that all that continue in sinne ▪ and yet escape without correction , whereof all thy Children are partakers , are Bastards , and not sonnes , and that thou chastenest mee for my profit , that I may be a partaker of thy holinesse . O Lord , how full of goodnesse is thy nature , that hast dealt with mee so gratiously in the time of my health and prosperitie ; and now being prouoked by my sinnes and vnthankefulnesse , hast such fatherly and profitable ends , in inflicting vpon me this sicknesse and correction . I confesse Lord , that thou doest iustly afflict my body with sicknesse ; for my soule was sicke before of long prosperitie , and surfetted with ease , peace , plentie and fulnesse of bread . And now , O Lord , I lament and mourne for my sinnes , I acknowledge my wickednesse , and mine iniquities are alwayes in my sight . Oh what a vvretched sinner am I , void of all goodnesse by nature , and full of euill by sinfull custome ! Oh what a world of sinne haue I committed against thee , whilest thy long sufferance expected my conuersion , and thy blessings wooed mee to repentance ! Yet O my God , seeing it is thy propertie more to respect the goodnesse of thine owne nature , then the deserts of sinners : I beseech thee , O Father , for thy Sonne Iesus Christ his sake , and for the merits of that all-sauing death , which he hath voluntarily suffered , for all which beleeue in him : haue mercy vpon me according to the multitude of thy mercies ; turne thy face away from my sinnes , and blot out all mine iniquitie : cast me not out of thy presence , neither reward mee according to my deserts : for if thou doest reiect mee , who will receiue me ? or who will succour me , if thou dost forsake mee ? But thou , O Lord , art the helper of the helplesse , and in thee the fatherlesse findeth mercy : for though my sinnes be exceeding great , yet thy mercy , O Lord , farre exceedeth them all : neither can I commit so many as thy Grace can remit and pardon . Wash therefore , O Christ , my sins with the vertue of thy pretious bloud ; especially , those sinnes , vvhich from a penitent heart I haue confessed vnto thee : but chiefely O Lord , for Christ his sake forgiue mee [ * ] . And seeing that of thy loue thou diddest lay downe thy life for my ransome , vvhen I vvas thine enemie : Oh saue now the price of thine owne bloud , vvhen it shall cost thee but a smile vpon mee , or a gratious appearance in thy Fathers sight in my behalfe . Reconcile mee once againe , O mercifull Mediatour , vnto thy Father ; for though there be nothing in mee that can please him , yet I know that in thee and for thy sake , hee is well pleased with all , whom thou acceptest and louest . And if it be thy blessed vvill , remoue this sickenesse from mee , and restore mee to my former health againe ; that I may liue longer to set forth thy glory , and to be a comfort to my Friends , vvhich depend vpon mee ; and procure to my selfe a more setled assurance of that heauenly inheritance , vvhich thou hast prepared for mee . And then Lord , thou shalt see how religiously and wisely I shall redeeme the time , which heretofore I haue so lewdly and prophanely spent : and to the end that I may the sooner and the easier be deliuered from this paine and sicknes : direct mee , O Lord , I beseech thee , by thy diuine prouidence , to such a Physitian and helper : as that ( by thy blessing vpon thy meanes ) I may recouer my former health and welfare againe . And good Lord vouchsafe , that as thou hast sent this sicknesse vnto mee ; so thou wouldest likewise be pleased to send thy holy spirit into my heart , whereby this present sicknesse may be sanctified vnto me : that I may vse it as thy schoole , wherein I may learne to know the greatnesse of my misery and the riches of thy mercy : that I may be so humbled at the one , that I despaire not of the other : and that I may so renounce all confidence of helpe in my selfe , or in any other creature : that I may onely put the whole rest of my saluation in thy all sufficient merits . And forasmuch as thou knowest Lord , how weake a vessell I am , full of frailty and imperfections ; and that by nature I am angry and froward vnder euery crosse and affliction : O Lord , who art the giuer of all good gifts , arme me with patience to endure thy blessed will and pleasure : and of thy mercy lay no more vpon me , then I shall be able to endure and suffer . Giue me grace to behaue my selfe in all patience , loue and meekenesse , vnto those that shall come and visit mee , that I may thankefully receiue , and willingly embrace all good counsels & consolations from them , and that they may likewise see in me such good examples of patience , and heare from me such godly lessons of comfort , as may bee arguments of my Christian faith and profession ; and instructions vnto them how to behaue themselues , when it shal please thee to visit them with the like affliction or sickenesse . I know , O Lord , I haue deserued to die ; and I desire not longer to liue then to amend my wicked life , and in some better measure to set forth thy glory . Therefore , O Father , if it bee thy blessed will , restore mee to health againe , and grant me a longer life . But if thou hast according to thine eternall decree ) appointed by this sickenesse , to call for mee out of this transitory life : I resigne my selfe into thy hands , and holy pleasure : thy blessed will be done , whether it be by life or by death . Onely , I beseech thee , of thy mercy forgiue mee all my sinnes , and prepare my poore soule , that by a true faith and vnfeigned repentance , sh●e may bee ready against the time , that thou shalt call for her out of my sicke and sinfull body . O heauenly Father , who art the hearer of prayers , heare thou in heauen this my prayer ; and in this extremity grant me these requests , not for any worthinesse that is in me , but for the merits of thy beloued Sonne Iesus , my onely Sauiour and Mediator : for whose sake thou hast promised to heare vs , and to grant whatsoeuer we shall aske of thee in his Name . In his name therefore , and in his owne words I conclude this my vnperfect Prayer , saying : Our Father which art in Heauen , &c. Hauing thus reconciled thy selfe with GOD in Christ : 1 Let thy next care be to set thy house in order , as Isay aduised king Ezechias , making thy last Will and Testament ( if it bee not already made . ) If it be made ; then peruse it , confirme it , and for auoyding all doubts and contention , publish it before witnesses , ( that if God call for thee out of this life ) it may stand in force and vnalterable , as thy last Will and Testament , and so deliuer it locked , or sealed , vp in some Boxe , to the keeping of a faithfull friend , in the presence of honest witnesses . 2 But in making thy Testament take a religious Diuines aduise , how to bestow thy beneuolence : and some honest Lawyers counsell to contriue it according to Law. Dispatch this , before thy sickenesse doth encrease , and thy memory decay , lest otherwise thy Testament prooues a dotement : and another mans fancy , rather then thy will. 3 To preuent many inconueniences , let me recommend to thy discretion two things . 1 If God haue blessed thee with any competent state of wealth ; make thy Will in thy health time . It will neither put thee further from thy goods , nor hasten thee sooner to thy death : but it will bee a great ease to thy minde in freeing thee from a great trouble , when thou shalt haue most need of quiet : for when thy house is set in order , thou shalt be better enabled to set thy soule in order , and to dispose of thy iourney towards GOD. 2 If thou hast children , giue to euery one of them a portion , according to thine ability , in thy life time ; that thy life may seeme an ease , and not a yoake vnto them : yet so giue ; as that thy children may still bee beholding vnto thee , and not thou vnto them . But if thou keepe all in thy hands whilest thou liuest : they may thanke death and not thee for the portion that thou leauest them . If thou hast no children , and the Lord haue blessed thee with a great portion of the goods of this world ; and if thou meane to bestow them vpon any charitable or pious vses : put not ouer that good worke to the trust of others ; seeing thou seest how most of other mens Executors , prooue almost Executioners . And if friends be so vnfaithfull in a mans life ? How much greater cause hast thou to distrust their fidelity after thy death ? Lamentable experience sheweth , how many d●admens Wils , haue of late , either beene quite concealed , vtterly ouerthrowne , or by cauils and quirckes of Law frustrated or altered : whereas by the Law of God , the will of the dead should not be violated : but all his godly intentions conscionably performed and fulfilled , as in the sight of God : Who in the day of the Resurrection , will bee a iust Iudge , both of the quicke and dead . And if any thing should hap in his Will to be ambiguous or doubtfull it should be * construed , as it might come neerest to the honour of GOD , and the honest intention of the Testator . But let the vengeance due to such vnchristian deedes , light on the Actors that doe them : not on the kingdome wherein they are suffered to be done . And let other Rich men bee warned by such wretched examples not to * marry their mindes to their money : as that they will doe no good with their goodes till death diuorceth them . Considering therefore the shortnesse of thine owne life and the vncertainety of others iust dealings after thy death , in these vniust daies : Let me aduise thee ( whom GOD hath blessed with ability , and an intent to doe good ) to become in thy life time thine owne Administrator ; make thine owne handes thine Executors , and thine owne eies thy ouerseers ; cause thy lanthorne to giue her light before thee , and not behinde thee : giue God the glory , and thou shalt receiue of him in due time the reward , which of his grace & mercy he hath promised to thy good workes . 4 Hauing thus set thy house and soule in order ( if the determined number of thy daies be not expired ) God will either haue mercy vpon thee , and say , Spare him ( O killing malady ) that he goe not downe into the pit ; for I haue receiued a reconciliation . Or els , his Fatherly prouidence will direct thee to such a Physitian and to such meanes , as that by his blessing vpon their endeauours : thou shalt recouer , and bee restored to thy former health againe . But in any wise ▪ take heede ; that thou nor none for thee , send vnto sorcerers , wisards , ●harmers , or enchaunters for helpe : for this were to leaue the God of Israel , and to goe to Baalzebub the God of Ekron for helpe , as did wicked Ahaziah , and to breake thy vow which thou hast made with the blessed Trinity in thy Baptisme : and bee sure that GOD will neuer giue a blessing by those meanes which he hath accursed . But if hee permits Satan to cure thy body , feare lest it tend to the damnation of thy soule , thou art tried : beware . 5 When thou hast sent for the Physitian , take heede that thou put not thy trust rather in the Physitian , then in the Lord , as Aza did ; of whom it is said , that hee sought not the Lord in his disease , but to the Physitians : which is a kinde of Idolatrie , that will increase the Lords anger , and make the Physicke receiued vneffectuall . Vse therefore the Physitian as Gods Instrument , and Physicke , as Gods meanes . And seeing it is not lawfull without Prayer to vse ordinarie foode , 1 Tim. 4.4 . much lesse extraordinary . Physicke ( whose good effect depends vpon the blessing of GOD. ) Before thou takest thy Physicke , pray therefore heartily vnto GOD , to blesse it vnto thy vse , in these or the like vvords . A Prayer before taking of Physicke . O Mercifull Father , who art the Lord of health , and of sickenesse , of life , and of death : who killest , and makest aliue : who bringest downe to the graue , and raisest vp againe : I come vnto thee , as to the onely Physitian , who canst cure my soule from sinne , and my body from sicknesse . I desire neither life nor death , but referre my selfe to thy most holy will. For , though wee must needes dye , and bring dead our liues are as water spilt on the ground , which cannot be gathered vp againe . Yet hath thy gratious prouidence ( whilest life remaineth ) appointed meanes , vvhich thou vvilt haue thy children to vse ; and ( by the lawfull vse thereof ) to expect thy blessing vpon thine owne meanes , to the curing of their sicknesse , and restitution of their health . And now O Lord , in this my necessitie , I haue , according to thine ordinance , sent for thy seruant ( the Physitian ) vvho hath prepared for mee this Physicke which I receiue , as meanes sent from thy fatherly hand . I beseech thee therefore , that as by thy blessing on a lumpe of dry figs , thou didst heale Ezekias sore , that he recouered : and by seauen times washing in the Riuer of Iordane , didst clense Naaman the Syrian of his Leprosie : and diddest restore the man that was blinde from his birth , by annoynting his eyes with clay and spittle , and sending him to wash in the poole of Siloam : and by touching the hand of Peters wiues mother , didst cure her of her Feauer : and didst restore the Woman that touched the hemme of thy Garment , from her bloudy issue : So it would please thee of thine infinite goodnesse and mercy , to sanctifie this Physicke to my vse , and to giue such a blessing vnto it , that it may ( if it be thy will and pleasure ) remoue this my sickenesse and paine , and restore mee to health and strength againe . But if the number of those dayes , vvhich thou hast appointed for me to liue in this vale of misery be at an end ; and that thou hast sent this sickenesse as thy Messenger , to call for mee out of this mortall life : then Lord let thy blessed will be done : for I submit my will to thy most holy pleasure . Onely I beseech thee ; encrease my Faith and patience , and let thy gra●e and mercy be neuer wanting vnto mee : but in the midst of all extremities , assist mee with thy holy Spirit , that I may willingly and chearefully resigne vp my Soule , ( the price of thine owne bloud , ) into thy most gracious hands and custodie . Grant this , O Father , for Iesus Christ his sake ; to whom , vvith thee , and the holy Ghost , be all honour and glory , both now and euermore , Amen . Meditations for the sicke . WHilest thy sicknes remaineth , vse often ( for thy comfort , ) these few Meditations ; taken from the ends , wherefore GOD sendeth afflictions to his children . Those are tenne . 1 That by afflictions , God may not onely * correct our sinnes past : but also vvorke in vs , a deeper loathing of our naturall corruption ; and so preuent vs from falling into many other sins , which otherwise vvee would commit : like a good Father , vvho suffers his tender Babe to scorch his finger in a candle , that hee may the rather learne to beware of falling into a greater fire . So that the childe of God may say with Dauid , It is good for me that I haue beene afflicted , that I may learne thy Statutes : for , before I was afflicted , I went astray , but now I keepe thy Word . And indeede ( saith S. Paul ) wee are chastened of the Lord , because wee should not be condemned with the World. With one Crosse God maketh two cures : the chastisement of sinnes past , the preuention of sinne to come . For though the eternall punishment of sinne ( as it proceedeth from Iustice , ) is fully pardoned in the sacrifice of Christ : yet vvee are not ( without serious iudging of our selues ) exempted from the temporall chastisement of sinne ; for this proceedeth onely from the loue of God , for our good . And this is the reason , that when Nathan told Dauid , from the Lord , that his sinnes were forgiuen : yet that the Sword ( of chastisement ) should not depart from his house : and that his Childe should surely die . For GOD , like a skilfull Physitian , seeing the soule to be poysoned vvith the setling of sinne ; and knowing that the raigning of the Flesh vvill proue the ruine of the Spirit : ministreth the bitter pill of affliction , vvhereby the reliques of sinne is purged , and the soule more soundly cured : the flesh is subdued , and the spirit is sanctified : Oh the odiousnesse of sinne , vvhich causeth God to chasten so seuerely his Children , whom otherwise hee loueth so deerely ! 2 God sendeth affliction , to seale vnto vs our Adoption : for euery Childe whom God loueth hee correcteth : And hee is a Bastard that is not corrected . Yea , it is a sure note ▪ that where GOD seeth sinne , and smites not : he there detests , and loues not . Therefore it is said , that hee * suffered the vvicked Sonnes of Eli , to continue in their sinnes without correction , because the Lord would slay them . On the a other side , there is no surer token of Gods fatherly loue and care : then to be corrected with some crosse , as oft as vvee commit any sinfull crime . Affliction therefore is a seale of Adoption , no signe of Reprobation . For , the purest Corne is cleanest fanned , the finest Gold is oftest tryed , the sweetest Grape is hardest pressed , and the truest Christian heauiest crossed . 3 God sendeth affliction , to weane our hearts , from too much louing this World and worldly vanities : and to cause vs the more earnestly to desire and long for * eternall life . For as the Children of Israel ( had they not beene ill entreated in Aegipt ) vvould neuer haue beene so willing to goe towards Canaan : so ( were it not for the crosses and afflictions of this life , ) Gods Children would not so heartilie long , and willingly desire for the Kingdome of Heauen . For wee see many Epicures that vvould be content to forgoe heauen , on condition that they might still enioy their earthly pleasures ; and ( hauing neuer tasted the ioyes of a better : ) how loath are they to depart this life ? whereas the * Apostle ( that saw Heauens glory ) tels vs : that there is no more comparison twixt the ioyes of eternall life , and the pleasures of this world , then there is betwixt the filthiest dung and the pleasantest meate : or betwixt the stinkingst dung-hill , and the fairest bed-chamber . As therefore a louing Nursse puts Worme-wood , or Mustard , on the breast , to make the childe the rather to forsake the dug : so GOD mixeth sometimes affliction , with the pleasures and prosperitie of this life ; least ( like the Children of this generation ) they should forget God , and fall into too much loue of this present euill vvorld ; and so by riches grow proud : by fame ; insolent : by libertie , vvanton : and spurne with their heele against the Lord , when they waxe fat . For , if Gods children loue the vvorld so well , when ( like a curst stepmother ) shee misvseth and strikes vs ; how should vvee loue this harlot if shee smiled vpon vs , and stroaked vs , as shee doth her owne worldly Brats ? Thus doth GOD ( like a wise and louing Father ) embitter with crosses the pleasures of this life , to his children : that finding in this earthly state no true nor permanent ioyes ) they might sigh & long for eternall life , where firme and euerlasting ioyes are onely to be found . 4 By affliction and sicknesse ▪ God exerciseth his children , and the graces which hee bestoweth vpon them . He refineth , and trieth their faith , as the Goldsmith doth his gold , in * the furnace , to make it shine more glistering , & bright : he stirreth vs vp to pray more 〈…〉 , and zealously : and proueth what patience we haue learned all this while in his * schoole . The like experience he maketh of our hope , loue , and all the rest of our Christian vertues : which without this triall , would rust , like iron vnexercised ; or corrupt , like standing waters that either haue no current : or else are not powred from vessell to vessell : whose taste remaineth and whose sent is not changed . And rather then a man should keepe still the sent of his corrupted nature , to damnation ; who would not wish to be changed from state to state , by crosses and sickenesse to saluation ? For as the Camomill which is troden , groweth best and smelleth most fragrant : and as the fish is sweetest that liues in the saltest waters : so those soules are most pretious vnto Christ , who are most exercised and afflicted with his Crosse. 5 God sendeth affliction , to demonstrate vnto the world , the truenesse of his childrens loue and seruice . Euery hypocrite will serue GOD , whilest he prospereth and blesseth him : as the Diuel falsly accused Iob to haue done : but who ( saue his louing childe ) will loue and serue him in aduersity ; when GOD seemeth to bee angry and displeased with him ? yea ▪ and cleaue vnto him most inseperably ; when hee seemeth ( with the greatest frown , and disgrace ) to reiect a man , and to cast him out of his fauour ? yea , when he seemeth to wound and kill as an enemy ; yet then to say with Iob , Though thou Lord kill me , yet will I put my trust in thee . The louing , and seruing of God , and trusting in his mercy in the time of our correction and misery : is the truest note of an vnfained child , and seruant of the Lord. 6 Sanctified affliction , is a singular helpe to further our true conuersion : and to driue vs home by repentance to our heauenly Father . In their affliction ( saith the Lord ) they will seeke mee diligently . Aegypts burdens made Israel cry vnto GOD. Dauids troubles made him pray . Hezekias sickenesse made him to weepe and miserie droue the Prodigall childe , to returne and sue for his Fathers grace and mercy . Yea , wee reade of many in the Gospell , that ( by sickenesses and affliction ) were driuen to come into CHRIST ; vvho ( if they had health and prosperity , as others ; ) would haue ( like others ) neglected , or contemned their Sauiour : and neuer haue sought vnto him for his sauing health , and grace . For as the Arke of Noah ; the higher it was tossed with the floud , the neerer it mounted towards heauen : so the sanctified Soule , the more it is exercised vvith affliction , the neerer it is listed towards GOD. Oh blessed is that crosse , that draweth a sinner to * come ( vpon the knees of his heart ) vnto Christ , to confesse his owne misery , and to implore his endlesse mercy ! Oh blessed , aye blessed bee that Christ , that neuer refuseth the sinner , that commeth vnto him , though weather-driuen by affliction and miserie ! 7 Afflictions worke in vs , pittie and compassion towards our fellow-brethren , that bee in distresse and misery : whereby wee learne to haue a fellow-feeling of their calamities : and to condole their estate , as if wee suffered with them . And for this cause CHRIST himselfe would suffer , and bee tempted in all things , like vnto vs ( sinne onely excepted : ) that he might be a mercifull high Priest , touched with the feeling of our infirmities . For none can so hartily bemone the misery of another ; as he who first suffered himselfe the same affliction . Hereupon a sinner in miserie , may boldly say vnto Christ : Non ignare mali miseris succurrito Christe . Our frailty , sith O Christ , thou didst perceiue : Condole our state , who still in frailties cleaue . 8 God vseth our sicknesses , and afflictions , as meanes and examples , both to * manifest vnto others the faith and vertues which hee hath bestowed vpon vs : as also to strengthen those who haue not receiued so great a measure of faith as wee . For there can bee no greater encouragement to a weake Christian ; then to behold a true professour , ( in the extreamest sickenesse of his body , supported with greater patience , and consolation in his soule . And the comfortable and blessed departure of such a man will arme him against the feare of death , and assure him : that the hope of the godlie , is a farre more pretious thing , then that flesh and bloud can vnderstand , or mortall eyes beholde , in this vale of misery . And were it not that wee did see many of those whom we know to be the vndoubted children of GOD , to haue endured such affliction and calamities before vs. The greatnesse of the miseries and crosses which oft times wee endure , would make vs doubt whether we be the children of GOD or no. And to this purpose Saint Iames saith , GOD made Iob and the Prophets , an example of suffering aduersity , and of long patience . 9 By afflictions GOD makes vs conformable to the Image of Christ his sonne , who being the Captaine of our saluation , was made perfect through sufferings . And therefore he first bare the Crosse in shame , before hee was crowned with glory : and did first taste gall , before he did eate the honey combe : and was first derided , king of the Iewes by the Souldiers in the High priests hal : before he was saluted , King of glory , by the Angles in his Fathers Courte . And the more liuely , our heauenly Father shal perceiue the image of his naturall Son to appeare in vs , the better he will loue vs ; and when wee haue , for a time , borne his likenesse in his sufferings , and fought and ouercome : we shall be crowned by Christ , and with Christ sit in his throne , and of Christ receiue the pretious white stone and morning starre , that shal make vs shine like Christ for euer in his glory . 10 Lastly , that the godly may bee humbled in respect of their owne state and misery : and God glorified by deliuering them out of their troubles and afflictions , when we call vpon him for his helpe and succour . For though that there is no man so pure , but if the Lord will straightly marke iniquities ; hee shall finde in him iust cause to punish him for his sin : Yet the Lord in mercy , doth * not alwaies in the affliction of his children respect their sinnes : but sometimes layeth afflictions and crosses vpon them for his glories sake . Thus our Sauiour Christ told his Disciples , that the man was not borne blind , for his owne , or his Parents sinnes : but that the worke of God should be shewed on him . So hee told them likewise , that Lazarus sickenesse was not vnto the death , but for the glory of God. O the vnspeakeable goodnesse of God , which turneth those afflictions , which are the shame and punishment due to our sinnes , to bee the subiect of his honour and glory ! These are the blessed , and profitable endes , wherefore God sendeth sickenesse and afflictions vpon his children , whereby it may plainely appeare , that afflictions are not signes either of Gods hatred , or of our reprobation : but rather tokens and pledges of his fatherly loue vnto his children whom he loueth : and therefore chasteneth them in this life , where , vpon repentance , there remaines hope of pardon : rather then to referre the punishment to that life where there is no hope of pardon , nor ende of punishment . For this cause the Christians in the * Primitiue Church were wont to giue God great thankes for afflicting them in this life : So the Apostles reioyced , that they were counted worthy to suffer for Christs name . Act. 5.41 . And the Christian Hebrewes suffered with ioy the spoiling of their goods , knowing that they had in heauen a better , and an induring substance . Heb. 10.34 . And in respect of these holy endes , the Apostle saith , That though no affliction for the present seemeth ioyous , but grieuous : yet afterwards it bringeth the quiet fruit of righteousnesse , to them who are thereby exercised . Pray therefore heartily , that as God hath sent vnto thee this sickenesse , so it would please him to come himselfe vnto thee , with thy sickenesse : by teaching thee to make those sanctifyed vses of it , for which hee hath inflicted the same vpon thee . Meditation for one , that is recouered from sickenesse . IF GOD hath of his mercy heard thy prayers , and restored thee to thy health againe , consider vvith thy selfe . 1 That thou hast now receiued from GOD , as it were another life . Spend it therefore , to the honour of God , in newnesse of life . Let thy sinne die with thy sickenesse : but liue thou by grace to holinesse . 2 Be not the more secure , that thou art restored to health : neither insult in thy selfe , that thou hast escaped death : but thinke rather , that GOD ( seeing how vnprepared thou wast : ) hath of his mercy heard thy prayer , spared thee , and giuen thee some little longer time of respite ; that thou maiest both amend thy life , and put thy selfe in a better readinesse against the time that he shall call for thee , without further delay , out of this world . For though thou hast escaped this ; It may be , thou shalt not escape the next sickensse . 3 Consider how fearefull a reckoning thou haddest made ; before the Iudgement seat of Christ by this time , if thou haddest dyed of this sicknesse . Spend therefore the time that remaines , so ; as that thou maiest be able to make a more cheerefull account of thy life , when it must be expired indeed . 4 Put not farre off the day of death : thou knowest not for all this , how neere it is at hand : and ( being so fairely warned ) be wiser : for if thou be taken vnprouided , the next time thy excuse will be lesse , and thy iudgement greater . 5 Remember , that thou hast vowed amendment , and newnesse of life . Thou hast vowed a vow vnto God , defer not to pay it : for hee delighteth not in fooles ; pay therefore that thou hast vowed . The vncleane spirit is cast out : Oh let him not re-enter with seuen worse then himselfe . Thou hast sighed out the groanes of contrition : thou hast wept the teares of repentance : thou art washed in the poole of Bethesda , streaming with fiue bloudy wounds , not of a troubling Angell : but of the Angell of Gods presence , troubled with the wrath due to thy sinnes : who descended into hell , to restore thee to sauing health , and heauen . Returne not now with the Dogge to thine owne vomit : nor like the washed sow , to wallow againe in the mire of thy former sinnes , and vncleannesse : lest being intangled , and ouercome againe with the filthinesse of sinne ( which now thou hast escaped ) thy latter ende prooue worse then thy first beginning . Twice therefore doth our Sauiour Christ giue the same cautionary warning to healed sinners . First , to the man cured of his 38 yeeres disease : Behold , thou art made whole : sinne no more , lest a worse thing fall vnto thee . Secondly , to the woman taken in adultery : Neither doe I condemne thee : Goe thy way and sinne no more . Teaching vs , how dangerous a thing it is , to relapse and fall againe , into the former excesse of riot . Take heede therefore vnto thy wayes , and pray for grace , that thou maiest apply thy heart vnto wisdome : during that small number of dayes , which yet remaine behinde . And for thy present mercy and health ; imitate the thankefull Leaper , and returne vnto God this , or the like thanksgiuing . A thankesgiuing to be said of one that is recouered from sickenesse O Gracious and mercifull Father , who art the Lord of health , and sickenesse , of life and of death : who killest , and makest aliue : who bringest downe to the graue , and raisest vp againe : who art the onely preseruer of all those that trust in thee . I thy poore and vnworthy seruant ( hauing now by experience of my painefull sicknesse ) felt the gieuousnesse of misery due vnto sinne ; and the greatnesse of thy mercy in forgiuing sinners : and perceiuing with what a fatherly compassiion thou hast heard my prayers , and restored me to my health and strength againe : ) doe heere ( vpon the bended knees of my heart ) returne ( with the thankefull Leaper ) to acknowledge thee alone to bee the God of my health and saluation ; and to giue thee the praise and glory for my strength and deliuerance , out of that grieuous disease and malady : and for thus turning my mourning into mirth ; my sickenesse into health : and my death into life . My sinnes deserued punishments , and thou hast corrected me , but hast not giuen me ouer vnto death . I looked ( from the day to the night ) when thou wouldest make an end of me : I did chatter like a Crane , or a Swallow : I mourned ( as a Doue ) when the bitternesse of sickenesse oppressed me : I lifted vp mine eies vnto thee , O Lord , and thou didst comfort me , for thou didst cast all my sinnes behinde thy backe ; and didst deliuer my soule from the pit of corruption : and when I found no helpe in my selfe , nor in any other creature , ( saying , I am depriued of the residue of my yeeres , I shall see man no more , among the inhabitants of the world ) then didst thou restore mee to health againe , and gauest life vnto mee : I found thee , O Lord , ready to saue me . And now , Lord , I confesse ▪ that I can neuer yeelde vnto thee such a measure of thanks , as thou hast ( for this benefit ) deserued at my hands . And ( seeing that I can neuer bee able to repay thy goodnes with acceptable work● : ) Oh that I could with Mary Magdalen testifie the ●oue and thankfulnes of my heart , with abounding teares ! Oh , what shall I be able to render vnto thee , O Lord , for al these benefits which thou hast bestowed vpon my soule ! Surely as in my sickenesse , when I had nothing else to giue vnto thee ; I offered Christ and his merits vnto thee as a ransome for my sins : so being now restored by thy grace vnto my health and strength ; and hauing no better thing to giue , behold , O Lord , I doe heere offer vp my selfe vnto thee , beseeching thee so to assist mee with thy holy spirit , that the remainder of my life may wholly be spent in setting foorth thy praise and glory . O Lord , forgiue mee my former follies and vnthankefulnesse , that I was not more careful to loue thee according to thy goodnesse : nor to serue thee , according to thy will ; nor to obey thee , according to thy commandements ; nor to thanke thee , according to thy benefits . And seeing thou knowest that of my selfe I am not sufficient , so much as to thinke a good thought ( much lesse to doe that which is good , and acceptable in thy sight : ) assist mee with thy grace and holy spirit , that I may ( in my prosperity ) as deuoutely spend my health in thy seruice : as I was eranest in my sickenesse to beg it at thy hands . And suffer mee neuer to forget eyther this thy mercy , in restoring mee to my health ; or those vowes and promises , which I haue made vnto thee in my sickenesse . With my new health , renew in me , O Lord , a right spirit , which may free mee from the slauery of sinne , and establish my heart in the seruice of grace . Worke in mee a greater detestation of all sinnes ( which were the causes of thy anger and my sicknesse ) and increase my faith in Jesus Christ , who is the author of my health and saluation . Let thy good spirit leade me in the way , that I should walke , and teach me to deny all vngodlines , and worldly lusts , & to liue soberly , righteously and godly in this world : that others by my example may thinke better of thy truth . And sith this time ( which I haue yet to liue ) is but a little respite and small remnant of daies , which cannot long continue : teach me , O my God , so to number my daies , that I may apply my heart to that spiritual wisdome , which directeth to saluation . And to this end make me more zealous then I haue beene in religion , more deuout in praier , more feruent in spirit , more carefull to heare and profit by the preaching of thy Gospell , more helpefull to my poore brethren , more watchfull ouer my waies , more faithfull in my calling , and euery way more aboundant in all good workes . Let me ( in the ioyfull time of prosperity ) feare the euill day of affliction : in the time of health , thinke of sicknesse : in the time of sickenesse make my selfe ready for death ; and when death approcheth , prepare my selfe for iudgement . Let my whole life be an expressing thankfulnesse vnto thee for thy grace and mercy . And therefore , O Lord , I do here from the very bottome of my heart , together with the thousand thousands of Angels , the foure beasts and twenty foure Elders , and al the creatures in Heauen , and on the Earth acknowledge to be due vnto thee , O Father , which sitteth vpon the throne , and to the Lambe , thy Sonne , who sitteth at thy right hand : and to the holy spirit , which proceedeth from both : the holy Trinitie of persons in vnity of substance , all praise , honour , glory and power , from this time forth , and for euermore . Amen . Meditations for one that is like to die . IF thy sickenesse be like to encrease vnto death , then meditate on three things : First , how graciously God dealeth with thee . Secondly , from what euils death wil free thee . Thirdly , what good death will bring vnto thee . First , concerning Gods fauourable dealing with thee : 1 Meditate , that God vseth this chastisement of thy body , but as a Medicine to cure thy soule , by drawing thee ( who art sicke in sin ) to come by repentance vnto Christ ( thy Physitian ) to haue thy soule healed . 2 That the sorest sickenes or painefullest disease , which thou canst endure , is nothing , if it be compared to those dolours and paines which Iesus Christ thy Sauiour hath suffred for thee : when in a bloody sweat , he endured the wrath of God , the paines of hell ▪ and a cursed death which was due to thy sinnes . Iustly therefore may he vse those words of Ieremy , Behold and see , if there be any sorrow like vnto my sorrow , which is done vnto mee , wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce wrath . Hath the sonne of God endured so much for thy redemption ; and wilt not thou a sinful man , endure a little sicknesse for his pleasure ? especially when it is for thy good ? 3 That when thy sicknes and disease is at the extreamest , yet it is lesse and easier then thy sinnes haue deserued . Let thine owne conscience iudge whether thou hast not deserued worse then all that thou doest suffer . Murmure not therefore , but considering thy manifold and grieuous sinnes : thanke God that thou art not plagued with far more grieuous punishments . Thinke how willingly the damned in hell would endure thy extreamest paines a 1000. yeeres , on condition that they had but thy hope to be saued , ( and after so many yeeres ) to be eased of their eternal torments . And seeing that it is his mercy that thou art not rather consumed then corrected ; how canst thou but beare patiently his temporall correction ; seeing the ende is to saue thee from eternall condemnation ? 4 That nothing commeth to passe in this case vnto thee , but such as ordinarily befell to others thy brethren , who ( being the beloued and vndoubted seruants of GOD , when they liued on earth : ) are now most blessed and glorious Saints ▪ with Christ in Heauen , as Iob , Dauid , Lazarus , &c. They groaned for a time , as thou doest , vnder the like burthen : but they are now deliuered from all their miseries , troubles , and calamities . And so likewise ere long , ( if thou wilt patiently tarry the Lords leisure , ) thou shalt also bee deliuered from thy sicknesse and paine : either by restitution to thy former health , with Iob , or ( which is farre better ) by being receiued to heauenly rest , vvith Lazarus . 5 Lastly , that God hath not giuen thee ouer into the hand of thine enemie to bee punished and disgraced ; but ( being thy louing Father ) he correcteth thee with his owne mercifull hand . When Dauid had his wishe to choose his own chastisement : hee chose rather to be corrected by the hand of GOD , then by any other meanes . Let vs fall into the handes of the Lord , for his mercies are great , and let mee not fall into the hand of man. Who will not take any affliction in good part , when it commeth from the hand of God ; from whom though no affliction seemeth ioyous for the present ) wee know nothing commeth but what is good . The consideration heereof made Dauid to endure Shemeis cursed railing , with greater patience , and to correct himselfe another time for his impatiencie . I should not haue opened my mouth , because thou didst it : and Iob to reprooue the vnaduised speech of his wife , thou speakest like a foolish woman : What ? shal we receiue good at the hand of God , and not receiue euill ? And though the cup of Gods wrath due to our sinnes , was such a horrour to our Sauiours humane nature ; that hee earnestly prayed that it might passe from him : yet ( when he considered that it was reached vnto him by the hand and will of his Father , ) hee willingly submitted himselfe to drinke it to the very dregs thereof . Nothing will more arme thee with patience in thy sickenesse , then to see , that it commeth from the hand of our heauenly father : who would neuer send it , but that he seeth it to bee vnto thee both needfull and profitable . The 2. sort of Meditations are to consider from what euils death will free thee . IT freeth thee from a corruptible body , which was conceiued in the witnesse of flesh , the heare of lust , the staine of sinne , and borne in the blood of filthynesse : a li●ing prison of the soule , a liuely instrument of sinne , ● very sacke of stinking dung : the excrements of whose nostrils , eares , pores , and other passages ( duely considered ) will seeme more loathsome then the vncleanest sinke or vault . Insomuch that whereas trees and plants , bring foorth leaues , flowers , fruits , and sweet smels ; mans body brings foorth naturally nothing but lice , wormes , rottennesse and filthy stench . His affections are altogether corrupted ; and the imaginations of his heart are onely euill continually . Hence it is that the vngodly is not satisfied with prophannesse , nor the voluptuous with pleasures , nor the ambitious with preferments , nor the curious with precisenes nor the malicious with reuenge , nor the lecherous with vncleannesse , nor the couetous with gaine , nor the drunkard with drinking . New passions and fashions doe daily grow : new feares and afflictions doe still arise : heere wrath lies in waite ; there vaine-glory vexeth : heere pride lifts vp , there disgrace casts downe ; and euery one waiteth who shall arise in the ruine of another . Now a man is priuily stung with backbiters , like fiery Serpents : anon , hee is in danger to be openly deuoured by his enemies , like Daniels Lyons . And a godly man , where ere he liueth , shall euer be vexed ( like Lot ) with Sodomes vncleannesse . 2 Death brings vnto the godly an end of sinning , and of all the miseries which are due vnto sinne : So that after death there shall be no more sorrow , nor crying : neither shall there bee any more paine ; for GOD shall wipe away all teares from our eyes : yea , by death we are separated from the company of wicked men , and GOD , taketh away mercifull and righteous men from the euill to come . So he dealt with Iosiah , I will gather thee to thy Fathers and thou shalt be put in thy graue in peace ; and thine eyes shall not see all the euill which I will bring vpon this place . And God hides them for a while in the graue , vntill the indignation passe ouer . So that , as Paradise is the Heauen of the soules ioy : so the graue may be tearmed , the hauen of the bodies rest . 3 Whereas this wicked body liues in a world of wickednesse , so that the poore soule cannot looke out at the eye and not be infected : nor heare by the eare , and not bee distracted : nor smell at the nostrils , and not be tainted : nor taste with the tongue , and be allured : nor touch by the hand and not be defiled : and euery sense vpon euery temptation is ready to betray the soule . By death the soule shall be deliuered from this thraldome , and this corruptible body shall put on incorruption , and this mortall immortality , 1 Cor. 15.53 . Oh blessed ! thrice blessed be that death in the Lord ! which deliuers vs out of so euill a world ; and freeth vs from such a body of bondage and corruption ! The 3. sort of Meditations to consider what good death will bring vnto thee . 1 DEath bringeth the godly mans soule to enioy an immediate communion with the blessed Trinitie in euerlasting blisse and glorie . 2 It translates his soule from the miseries of this world , the contagion of sinne , and society of sinners , to the Citie of the liuing God , the celestiall Hierusalem , and to the company of innumerable Angels . And to the assembly and congregation of the first borne , which are written in Heauen , and to God the Iudge of all , and to the soules of iust men made perfect , and to Iesus the Mediatour of the new Couenant . 3 Death putteth the soule into the actuall and full possession of all the inheritance and happinesse , which Christ hath either promised vnto thee in his word , or purchased for thee by his bloud . This is the good and happinesse whereunto a blessed death will bring thee . And what truly religious Christian that is young , would not wish himselfe olde , that his appointed time might the sooner approach to enter into this celestiall Paradise ? where thou maiest exchange thy brasse for gold ; thy vanity for felicity ; thy vilenesse for honour ; thy bondage for freedome ; thy lease for an inheritance ; and thy mortall stat● for an immortall life . Hee that doth not daily desire this blessednesse aboue all things : of all others he is lesse worthy to enioy it . If a Cato Vticensis , and Cleombrotus , b two heathen men ( reading Platoes booke of the Immortality of the soule : ) did voluntarily , the one breake his necke : the other runne vpon his sword , that they might the sooner ( as they thought ) haue enioyed those ioyes ; What a shame is it for Christians ( knowing those things in a more excellent measure and manner out of Gods owne booke ) not to bee willing to enter into these heauenly ioyes ? especially when their Master cals for them thither . If therefore there be in thee any loue of God , or desire of thine owne happinesse or saluation ; when the time of thy departing draweth neere ; that time , I say , and manner of death , which GOD in his vnchangeable counsell , hath appointed and determined before thou wast borne : yeeld and surrender vp ( willingly and cheerefully thy soule into the mercifull hand of Iesus Christ thy Sauiour . And to this ende when thine end is come ; as the Angell in the sight of Manoah and his wife , ascended from the Altar vp to heauen in the flame of the sacrifice : so endeauour thou that thy Soule in the sight of thy friends , may from the Altar of a contrite heart , ascend vp to heauen , in the sweete perfume , of this or the like spirituall sacrifice of Praier . A Prayer for a sicke man , when he is tolde that he is not a man for this world : but must prepare himselfe to goe vnto GOD. O Heauenly Father , who art the Lord God of the spirits of all flesh , and hast made vs these soules , and hast appointed vs the time , as to come into this world , so ( hauing finished our course ) to goe out of the same : The number of my daies , vvhich thou hast determined , are now expired ; and I am come to that vtmost bound , which thou hast appointed , beyond which I cannot passe . I know O Lord , that if thou entrest into iudgement , no flesh can bee iustifyed in thy sight : And I , O Lord , of all others should appeare most impure and vniust ; for I haue not fought that good fight , for the defence of thy faith and religion , with that zeal and constancy that I should : but for feare of displeasing the world . I haue giuen ●ay vnto sinnes and errours , and for desire to please my flesh , I haue broken all thy commandements , in thought , word and deede : so that my sinnes haue taken such hold on me , that I am not able to looke vp , and they are moe in number then the haires of my head . If thou wilt straightly marke mine iniquiti●s , O Lord , where shall I stand ? If thou waighest me in the ballance , I shall be found too light : For I am voide of all righteousnesse that might merit thy mercy ; and loaden with all iniquities , that most iustly deserue thy heauiest wrath . But O my Lord , and my GOD , for Iesus Christ thy Sonnes sake , in whom only thou art wel pleased with all penitent and beleeuing sinners , take pitty and compassion vpon mee , who am the chiefe of sinners : blot out all my sinnes out of thy remembrance , and wash away all my transgressions out of thy sight , with the pretious bloud of thy Sonne , which I beleeue that he ( as an vndefiled Lambe hath shed for the clensing of my sinnes . In this faith I liued , in this faith I die ; beleeuing that Iesus Christ died for my sinnes , and rose againe for my iustification . And seeing that he hath endured that death , and borne the burthen of that Iudgement which was due vnto my sinnes ; O Father , for his death , and passions sake , now ( that I am comming to appeare before thy Iudgement seat ) acquite and deliuer me from that fearfull Iudgement , which my sinnes haue iustly deserued . And performe with me that gracious , and comfortable promise , which thou hast made in thy Gospell : That whosoeuer beleeueth in thee hath euerlasting life , and shall not come into Iudgement , but shall passe from death vnto life . Strengthen , O CHRIST , my faith , that I may put the whole confidence of my saluation in the merits of thy obedience and blood . Encrease O holy Spirit , my patience , lay no more vpon me then I am able to beare : and enable mee to beare so much as shall stand with thy blessed will , and pleasure . O blessed Trinity in vnity , my Creator , Redeemer , and Sanctifier , vouchsafe that as my outward man doth decay : so my inward man may more & more by thy grace and consolation encrease , and gather strength . O Sauiour , put my soule in a readinesse , that ( like a wise Virgin , hauing the wedding Garment of thy righteousnesse , and holinesse : ) shee may be ready to meete thee at thy comming with oyle in her lampe . Marrie her vnto thy selfe , that shee may bee one with thee in euerlasting loue and fellowship . O Lord reproue Sathan , and chase him away . Deliuer my soule from the power of the dogge . Saue me from the Lions mouth . I thanke thee , O Lord , for all thy blessings both spirituall and temporall bestowed vpon me ; especially for my Redemption by the death of my Sauiour Christ. I thanke thee that thou hast protected me with thy holy Angel● from my youth vp vntil now . Lord I beseech thee , giue them a charge to attend vpon me , till thou callest for my soule ; and then to carry her ( as they did the soule of Lazarus ) into thy heauenly kingdome . And as the time of my departure shall approach neerer vnto me : so grant , O Lord , that my soule may drawe neerer vnto thee . And that I may ioyfully commend her into thy hands , as into the hands of a louing Father , and mercifull Redeemer ; and at that instant , O Lord , graciously receiue my spirit . All which that I may doe , assist me , I beseech thee with thy grace ; and let thy holy spirit continue with me vnto the end , and in the end , for Iesus Christ his sake , thy Sonne , my Lord , and onely Sauiour ; In whose name I giue thee thy glory , and begge these things at thy hand , in that prayer , which he himselfe hath taught me . Our Father , &c. Meditations against despaire , or doubting of Gods mercy . IT is found by continuall experience , that neere the time of death , ( when the children of GOD are weakest : ) then Sathan makes the greatest flourish of his strength : and assailes them with his strongest temptations . For hee knoweth that either he must now or neuer preuaile : for if their soules once get to heauen ; he shall neuer v●xe nor trouble them any more . And therefore he will now bestirre himselfe as much as he can , and labour to set before their eyes all the grosse sinnes which euer they committed , and the iudgements of God which are due vnto them ; thereby to driue them if he can , to despaire , which is a grieuouser sinne then all the sinnes that they committed , or hee can accuse them of . If Sathan therefore trouble thy conscience , more towards thy death then in thy life time ; 1 Confesse thy sins vnto GOD , not onely in generall , but also in particular . 2 Make satisfaction vnto those men , whom thou hast wronged , if thou bee able . And if thou doest iniuriously or fraudulently detaine or keepe in thy possession , any lands or goods , that of right doe belong vnto any Widow , or Fatherlesse childe : presume not as thou tenderest thy soules health ; to looke Christ the righteous Iudge in the face : vnlesse thou doest first make a restitution thereof to the right owners . For the Law of God vnder the penalty of his curse , requireth thee , to restore whatsoeuer was giuen thee to keepe , or which was committed to thy trust , or whatsoeuer by robbery , or violent oppression thou tookest from thy neighbour , with a fift part for amends added to the principall . And vnlesse that like Zacheus thou doest make restitution of such goods and lands according to Gods law ; thou canst neuer truly repent : and without true Repentance thou canst neuer bee saued . But though by the temptation of the Diuell thou hast done wrong and iniury : yet if thou doest truly repent and make restitution to thy power , the Lord hath promised to bee mercifull vnto thee , to heare the praiers of his faithfull ministers for thee , to forgiue thee thy trespasse and sinne : and to receiue thy soule in the merits of Christs blood , as a Lambe without blemish . 3 Aske GOD for Christ his sake pardon and forgiuenesse . And then these troubles of minde are no discouragements , but rather comforts : exercises , not punishments . They are assurances vnto thee , that thou art in the right way : for the way to Heauen is by the gates of Hell : that is , by suffering paines in the body , and such doubtings in the minde , that thy estate in this life being euery way made bitter , the ioyes of eternall life may relish vnto thee better and more sweet . If Satan tell thee , that thou hast no faith , because thou hast no feeling , meditate , 1 That the truest faith hath oftentimes the least feeling and greatest doubts ; but so long as thou hatest such doubtings , they shall not be laide vnto thy charge : for they belong to the flesh , from which thou art diuorced . When thy flesh shall perish , thy weake inward man , which hates them , and loues the Lord Iesus , shall be saued . 2 That it is a better faith to beleeue without feeling then with feeling . The least faith ( so much as a graine of mustard seed , so much as is in an infant baptized ) is inough to saue the soule , which loueth CHRIST , and beleeueth in him . 3 That the child of God , which desireth to fe●le the assurance of Gods fauour , shall haue his desire , when God shall see it to bee for his good : for God hath promised to giue them the water of life , who thirst for it . Wee haue an example in * Master Glouer , the holy Martyr , who could haue no comfortable feeling till hee came to the sight of the stake ; and then cryed out , and clapped his hands for ioy to his friend , saying , O Austen , hee is come , he is come ; meaning the feeling ioy of faith and the holy Ghost . Tarry therefore the Lord● leasure , be strong , and he shall comfort thine heart . If Sathan shall aggrauate vnto thee the greatnesse , the multitude , and hainousnesse of thy sinnes ; meditate , 1 That vpon true repentance it is as easie with GOD to forgiue the greatest sinne as the least ; and he is as willing , to forgiue many , as to pardon one . And his mercy shineth more in pardoning great sinners then small offenders ; as appeares in the examples of Manasses , Magdalene , Peter , Paul , &c. And where sinne most abounded , there doth his grace reioyce to abound much more . 2 That GOD did neuer forsake any man , till that a man did first forsake GOD ; as appeares in the examples of Caine , Saul , Achitophel , Ahazia , Iudas , &c. 3 That God calleth all , euen those sinners who are heauy laden with sinne ; and that he did neuer deny his mercy to any sinner that asked his mercy with a penitent heart . This the history of the Gospel witnesseth : There came vnto Christ all sorts of sicke sinners : the blinde , lame , hal● , leapers ; such as were sicke of palsies , dropsies , bloudy flixes ; such as were lunaticks , and possessed with vncleane spirits , and Diuels . Yet of all those , not one that came and asked his mercie and helpe , went away without his errant . If mercy hee asked , mercy he found , were his sinne neuer so great , were his disease neuer so grieuous . Nay he offered and gaue his mercy to many , who neuer asked it ( being moued onely with the bowels of his owne compassion , and the sight of their misery ) as to the woman of Samaria , the widow of Naim , and to the sicke-man that lay at the poole of Bethesda , who had beene 38. yeeres sicke . If he thus willingly gaue his mercy to them that did not aske it , and was found of them ( as the Prophet saith ) that sought him not ; will he deny mercy vnto thee who doest so earnestly pray for it with teares ? and doest like the poore Publican , so ha●tily knocke for it with penitent fists vpon a brused and broken heart ? Especially when thou prayest to thy Father in the name and mediation of Christ , for whose sake he hath promised to grant whatsoeuer wee shall aske of him : as sure as GOD is true hee will not . Though Nin●uies-sinnes had prouoked the Lord to send out his sentēce against them ; yet vpon their repentance , hee called it againe , and spared the Citie : how much more if thou likewise repentest , will he spare thee ; seeing his sentence is not yet gone forth against thee ? If hee deferred the Iudgement all Ahabs dayes , for the externall shew onely vvhich hee made of Humiliation : how much more vvill hee cleane turne away his vengeance , if thou wilt vnfainedly repent of thy sinne , and returne vnto him for Grace and Mercie ? He offered his mercy vnto Caine ( vvho murthered his innocent Brother ; ) If thou dost well shalt thou not be accepted ? as if hee should haue said , If thou wilt leaue thy enuie and malice , and offer vnto mee from a faithfull and contrite heart , both thou and thine Oblation also shall be acceptable vnto mee . And to Iudas ( that so treacherously betrayed him ) in calling him friend , a sweete appellation of loue : and vvhen Iudas offered , hee willingly consented vvith that mouth ( wherein neuer was found guile ) to kisse those dissembling lips , vnder which lurked the poyson of Aspes . Had Iudas apprehended this word friend out of the mouth of Christ , as Benhadad did the vvord Brother from the mouth of Achab ; doubtlesse Iudas should haue found the God of Israel , more mercifull then Benhadad found the King of Israel . But God vvas * more displeased with Caine for despairing of his mercy , then for murthering his Brother : and vvith a Iudas for hanging himselfe , then for betraying his Master : in that they would make the sinnes of mortall men , greater then the infinite mercy of the eternall GOD : or as if they could be more sinnefull then GOD was mercifull . Whereas the least drop of Christs bloud is of more merit to procure Gods mercy for thy saluation : then all the sinnes ( that thou hast committed ) can be of force , to prouoke his wrath to thy damnation . If Sathan shall suggest , that all this is true of Gods mercy , but that it doth not belong vnto thee , because that thy sinnes are greater then other mens , as being sinnes of knowledge , and of many yeares continuance ; and such as whereby others haue beene vndone : and all ( for the most part ) committed wilfully and presumptuously against God and thy conscience . And therefore though he will be mercifull vnto others , yet he will not be mercifull vnto thee ; meditate 1 That many ( who are now in heauen most blessed and glorious Saints ) committed in the same kinde kinde ( vvhen they liued on earth ) as great , and greater sinnes then euer thou hast committed , and continued before they repented , in those sinnes as long as euer thou hast done . As therefore all their sins , and the continuance in them could not hinder gods mercy vpon their repentance , from forgiuing their sins , and receiuing them into fauour : no more shall thy sins and continuance therein , hinder him from being mercifull vnto thee , if thou dost repent as they did : yea , vpon thy repentance euery one of their examples is a pledge that hee vvill doe the same vnto thee that hee did vnto them . For , as the least sinne in Gods Iustice without Repentance is damnable : so the greatest sinne vpon repentance is in his Mercy pardonable . Thy greatest and inueteratest sinnes are but the sinnes of a man : but the least of his mercies is the mercy of God. Because thou knowest thine owne sinnes ; thou doubtest whether they shall be pardoned . Marke how this doubtfull case is resolued by GOD himselfe . Many in Isayes daies thought ( as thou dost ) that they had continued so long in sinne , that it was too late for them now to seeke to returne vnto GOD for grace and mercy . But GOD answereth them ; Seeke yee the Lord whilest he may be found : call yee vpon him whilest hee is neere . As if hee had said ; Whilest life lasteth , and my Word is preached , I am neere to be found of all that seeke mee , and pray vnto mee . The people reply : But vvee O Lord are grieuous sinners , and therefore dare not presume to call vpon thy Name , or to come neere thine Holinesse . To this the LORD answereth : Let the wicked forsake his way , and the man of iniquitie his thoughts : and let him returne vnto mee , and I will haue mercy vpon him , and be his God ; and I will pardon him aboundantly . But wee would thinke ( say the people ) that if our sinnes vvere but ordinarie sinnes , this promise of mercy might belong vnto vs. But because our sinnes are so great , and of such long continuance , therefore vve feare least vvhen wee appeare before GOD he vvill reiect vs. To this GOD answereth againe : My thoughts ( of mercy ) are not your thoughts , neyther are your wayes ( of pardoning ) my wayes : for as the Heauens are higher then the Earth , so are my wayes higher then your wayes , and my thoughts then your thoughts . If therefore euery Sinner in the World were a world of such sinners as thou art : doe thou but yet ( what GOD bids thee ) repent and beleeue , and the bloud of Iesus Christ , being the bloud of God , will clense both thee and them from all your sinnes . 2 That as God did foresee all the sinnes which the world should commit , and yet all those could not hinder him from louing the world : so , That hee gaue his onely begotten Sonne to the death , to saue as many of the world as would beleeue and repent : much lesse shall thy sinnes ( being the sinnes of the least Member of the vvorld ) be able to hinder GOD from louing thy soule , and forgiuing thy sinnes , if thou dost repent and beleeue . 3 That if hee loued thee so deare ( vvhen thou vvast his enemie ) that hee paid for thee so deare a price as the spilling of his heart bloud ; how can he now but be gracious vnto thee , when to saue thee , vvill cost him but the casting of a gracious looke vpon thee ? Looke not thou therefore to the greatnesse of thy sinnes , but to the infinitenesse of his mercy , which is so surpassing great , that if thou puttest all thine owne grieuous sinnes together , and adde vnto those the sins of Caine and Iudas , and put vnto them all the sinnes of all the Reprobates in the world ( doubtlesse , it would be a huge heape . ) Yet compare this huge heape vvith the infinite Mercy of GOD , and there will be no more comparison betwixt them : then betwixt the least Mole-hill , and the greatest Mountaine in a Country . The cry of the grieuousest sinnes that euer wee read of , could neuer reach vp higher then vnto heauen , as the cry of the sinnes of Sodome ; but the Mercy of God ( saith Dauid ) reacheth vp higher then the Heauens , and so ouer-toppeth all our sinnes . And if his mercy be greater then all his workes , it must needes be greater then all thy sinnes . And so long as his mercy is greater then the sinnes of the whole world , doe thou but repent , there is no doubt of pardon . If Sathan shall obiect , that thou hast many times vowed to repent , and hast made a shew of Repentance for the time , and yet didst fall to the same sinnes againe , and againe , and that all thy Repentance was but fained , and a mocking of God. And that seeing thou hast so often broken thy vowes , therfore God hath with-drawn his mercy , and hath changed his loue , &c. meditate , 1 That though this were true ( which indeede is haynous ) yet it is no sufficient cause vvhy thou shouldest despaire ; seeing that this is the common case of all the Children of God in this life , vvho vow so oft to forb●are some sinnes : a till perceiuing their weakenesse not able to performe it , then vow that they will vow no more . Their vowes shew the desires of their spirituall man ; their breakings , the weakenesse of their corrupt flesh . And our oft slips to the same sinnes Christ fore-saw : vvhen hee taught vs to pray daily , O Father , forgiue vs our trespasses . And why doth Christ enioyne thee ( who art but sinfull man ) to forgiue thy brother seauen times in a day , if hee shall returne seauen times in a day , and say , it repenteth mee ? But to assure thee that hee ( being the God of mercy and goodnesse it selfe ) will forgiue vnto thee , thy seuenty times seuen folde sinnes a day , which thou hast committed against him , if thou returne vnto him by true repentance ? The Israelites were cured by looking ( though with weake eies ) on the brasen Serpent , as oft as they were stung by the fiery Serpent in the wildernesse : to assure thee that vpon thy teares of repentance , thou shalt be recouered by faith in Christ , as oft as thou art wounded to death by Sinne. 2 That thy saluation is grounded , not vpon the constancy of thine obedience ; but vpon the firmenesse of Gods couenant . Though thou variest with GOD , and the couenant bee broken on thy behalfe , yet it is firme on Gods part ; and therefore all is safe enough if thou wilt returne ; for there is no variablenesse with him , neither shadow of change . He hath locked vp thy saluation , and made it sure in his owne vnchangeable purpose ; and hath deliuered to thy keeping the keyes , which are * Faith and Repentance ; and whilest thou hast them , thou maiest perswade thy selfe that thy saluation is sure and safe : For , whom God loueth , hee loueth to the end , and neuer repenteth of bestowing his loue on them who repent and beleeue . Lastly , if Satan shall perswade thee , that thou hast been doubting a long time , and that it is best for thee now to despaire ; seeing thy sinnes encrease , and thy iudgements draweth neere ; meditate , 1 That no sinne ( though neuer so great ) should bee a cause to moue any Christian to despaire , so long as Gods mercy , by so many millions of degrees is greater : and that euery penitent and beleeuing sinner , hath the pardon of all his sinnes confirmed by the Word and Oath of GOD ; two immutable things wherein it is vnpossible that God should lye . His Word is that at what time soeuer , a sinner , whosoeuer , doth repent of his sin whatsoeuer , ( for both time , & sinnes , and sinners are indefinite ) from the bottome of his heart ; God will blot forth all his sinnes out of his remembra●ce , that they shall be mentioned vnto him no more . If we will not take his word ( which GOD forbid wee should doubt of ) he hath giuen vs his oath : As I liue , I desire not the death of the wicked , but that the wicked turne from his way and liue : as if he had said ; Will yee not beleeue my word ? I sweare by my life , that I delight not to damne any sinner for his sinnes , but rather to saue him vpon his conuersion and repentance . The meditation hereof , moued Tertullian to exclaime : Oh , how happy are wee , when God sweareth that hee will not our damnation ! Oh , what miserable wretches are wee , if wee will not beleeue God , when he sweareth this truth vnto vs ! Listen , O drooping spirit , whose soule is assailed with waues of faithlesse despaire : how happy were it to see many like thee , and Hezechias ? ( who mourne like doues for the sence of sinne , and chatter like Cranes and Swallowes for the feare of Gods anger ) rather then to behold many who die like beasts without any feeling of their owne estate , or any feare of Gods wrath , or tribunall seate , before which they are to appeare ? Comfort thy selfe , O languishing soule ; for if this earth hath any for whom Christ spilt his bloud on the Crosse ? thou assuredly art one . Cheere vp therfore thy selfe . in the all-sufficient attonement of the bloud of the Lambe ▪ which speaketh better things then that of Abel . And pray for those , who neuer yet obtained the grace , to haue such a sense with detestation of sinne . Thou art one indeed , for whom Christ dyed ; and from whom a wounded spirit ( iudging rather according to his feeling , then his faith ) hath wrung that dolefull voice of Christ , My God , my God , why hast thou forsaken me ? And doubt not but ere long thou shalt as truely raigne with him , as now thou doest suffer with him : for Yea and Amen hath spoken it . No sinne barres a man from saluation but onely incredulity , and impenitencie : nothing makes the sin against the holy Ghost vnpardonable , but want of repentance . Thy vnfained desire to repent , is as acceptable vnto God , as the perfectst repentance , that thou couldest wish to performe vnto him . Meditate on these Euangelicall comforts , and thou shalt see that in the very agony of death ; GOD will so assist thee with his spirit , that when Sa●an looketh for the greatest victory he shall receiue the foulest foile : yea when the eye-strings are broken , that thou canst not see the light , Iesus Christ will appeare vnto thee to comfort thy soule , and his holy Angels will carry thee into his heauenly kingdome . Then shall thy friends behold thee like Manoahs Angell doing wonders indeed ; when they shall see a fraile man in his greatest weakenesse ( by the meere assistance of Gods Spirit ) ouercomming the strength of sin , the bitternesse of death , and all the power of Satan ; and in the fire of Faith , and perfume of Praier , ascend vp with Angels victoriously into Heauen . An admonition to them who come to visit the sicke . THey who come to visit the sicke must haue a speciall care not to stand dumbe and staring in the sicke persons face to disquiet him ; nor yet to speake idly , and to aske vnprofitable questions as most doe . If they see therefore that the sicke party is like to die , let them not dissemble : but louingly , and discreetly admonish him of his weakenesse , and to prepare for eternall life . One houre well spent , when a mans life is almost out-spent : may gaine a man the assurance of eternal life . Sooth him not vvith the vaine hope of this life : least thou betray his soule to eternall death . Admonish him plainely of his estate , and aske him briefly , these or the like questions . Questions to be asked of a sicke man , that is like to die . DOest thou beleeue that Almighty God the Trinity of Persons in vnity of Essence , hath by his power , made heauen and earth , and all things therein ? and that he doth still by his diuine prouidence gouerne the same So that nothing comes to passe in the world , nor to thy selfe : but what his diuine hand and counsell had determined before to be done . Doest thou confesse that thou hast transgressed , and broken the holy commandements of Almighty God , in thought , word , and deede ; and hast deserued for breaking his holy lawes , the Curse of God , which containeth all the miseries of this life , and euerlasting torments in Hell fire , when this life is ended , if so be that GOD should deale with thee according to thy deserts ? 3 Art thou not sorry in thy heart , that thou hast so broken his Lawes , and neglected his seruice , and worship : and so much followed the world , and thine owne vaine pleasures ? And wouldest thou not leade a holier life , if thou wert to begin againe ? 4 Doest thou not from thy heart desire to be reconciled vnto GOD in Iesus Christ his blessed sonne thy Mediator : who is at the right hand of God in heauen , now appearing for thee in the sight of God , and making request vnto him for thy Soule ? 5 Doest thou renounce all confidence in all other Mediators or Intercessors , Saints or Angels , beleeuing that Iesus Christ the only Mediator of the new Testament , is able perfectly to saue them that come vnto God by him , seeing he euer liueth to make intercession for them ? And wilt thou with Dauid say vnto Christ ; Whom haue I in heauen but thee ? And there is none vpon earth that I desire besides thee ? 6 Doest thou confidently beleeue and hope to be saued , by the onely merits of that bloody death and passion which thy Sauiour Iesus Christ hath suffered for thee ? not putting any hope of saluation in thine owne merits : nor in any other meanes or creatures ? being assuredly perswaded ; that there is not saluation in any other : And that there is none other name vnder heauen , whereby thou must be saued . 7 Doest thou heartily forgiue all vvrongs , and offences done or offered vnto thee , by any manner of person whatsoeuer ? And doest thou as willingly ( from thy heart ) aske forgiuenesse of them , whom thou hast grieuously wronged in word or deede ? And dost thou cast out of thy heart , all malice and hatred , which thou hast borne to any body ; that thou maist appeare before the face of Christ ( the Prince of Peace ) in perfect loue and charitie ? 8 Doth thy Conscience tell thee of any thing , which thou hast wrongfully taken , and dost still with-hold , from any Widow or fatherlesse children , or from any other person whomsoeuer ? Be assured that vnlesse thou shalt restore , like Zacheus , those goods and Land ( if thou be able , ) thou canst not truely repent , and without true repentance thou canst not be saued , nor looke CHRIST in the face when thou shalt appeare before his Iudgement-seate . 9 Doest thou firmely beleeue , that thy body shall be raised vp out of the Graue , at the sound of the last Trumpet ? And that thy body and soule shall be vnited together againe in the Resurrection day , to appeare before the Lord Iesus Christ ; and thence to goe vvith him into the Kingdome of Heauen , to liue in euerlasting blisse and glory ? If the sicke party shall answere to all these questions like a faithfull Christian ▪ then let all , who are present , ioyne together and pray for him , in these or the like words . A Prayer to be said for the sicke , by them who visite him . O Mercifull Father , who art the Lord , and giuer of life , and to whom belongs the issues of death : we thy children here assembled , doe acknowledge , that ( in respect of our manifolde sinnes ) vvee are not worthy to aske any blessing for our selues at thy hands : much lesse to become suiters to thy Maiestie , in the behalfe of others : yet because thou hast commanded vs to pray one for another , especially for the sicke : and hast promised that the prayers of the righteous shall auaile much with thee . In the Obedience therefore of thy Commandement ; and confidence of thy gracious promise , we are bold to become humble suiters , vnto thy diuine Maiestie , in the behalfe of this our deere Brother ( or Sister ) vvhom thou hast visited vvith the chastisement of thine owne fatherly hand . Wee could gladly wish the restitution of his health , and a longer continuance of his life , and Christian Fellowship amongst vs : but for as much , as it appeareth ( as farre as wee can discerne : ) that thou hast appointed by this visitation , to call for him out of this mortall life : wee submit our wils to thy blessed will : and humbly entreate for Iesus Christ his sake , and the merits of his bitter death and Passion ( which hee hath suffered for him ) that thou wouldst pardon , and forgiue vnto him all his sinnes : as vvell that wherein he was conceiued and borne , as also all the offences and transgressions , which euer since , to this day and houre , hee hath committed in thought , word , and deede , against thy diuine Maiestie . Cast them behinde thy back : remoue them as farre from thy presence , as the East is from the West . Blot them out of thy remembrance : lay them not to his charge : vvash them away vvith the bloud of Christ , that they may no more be seene : and deliuer him from all the Iudgements which are due vnto him for his sinnes , that they may neuer trouble his conscience , nor rise in iudgement against his Soule : and impute vnto him the righteousnesse of Iesus Christ , wherby hee may appeare righteous in thy sight . And in his extremitie at this time , vvee beseech thee looke downe from heauen vpon him , with those Eyes of Grace , and compassion , wherewith thou art vvont to looke vpon thy Children in their affliction , and miserie . Pittie thy wounded seruant , like the good Samaritane ; for here is a sicke Soule , that needeth the helpe of such a heauenly Physitian . O Lord encrease his Faith , that hee may beleeue that Christ dyed for him , and that his bloud cleanseth him from all his sinnes : and eyther asswage his paine , or else encrease his patience , to endure thy blessed vvill and pleasure . And good Lord , lay no more vpon him , then thou shalt enable him to beare . Heaue him vp vnto thy selfe , with those sighes and groanes , vvhich cannot be expressed . Make him now to feele vvhat is the hope of his Calling : and vvhat is the exceeding greatnesse of thy Mercy , and power towards them that beleeue in thee . And in his weakenesse , O Lord , shew thou thy strength . Defend him against the suggestions and temptations of Sathan , : who ( as hee hath all his life time ) will now in his weakenesse especially seeke to assaile him , and to deuoure him . Oh saue his soule ; and reproue Satan , & command thy holy Angels to be about him , to aide him , & to chase away all euill , & malignant Spirits farre from him . Make him more and more , to loath this world , and to desire to be loosed , and to be with Christ. And when that good houre and time shall come ( wherein thou hast determined to call for him out of this present life ) giue him grace peaceably and ioyfully to yeeld vp his Soule into thy mercifull hands , and doe thou receiue her into thy mercy , and let thy blessed Angels carry her into thy Kingdome . Make his last houre his best houre : his last words his best words : and his last thoughts his best thoughts . And when the sight of his eyes are gone , and his tongue shall faile to doe his office , graunt ( O Lord ) that his Soule may ( with Stephen ) behold Iesus Christ in Heauen ready to receiue him , and that thy Spirit within him , may make requests for him , with sighes , which cannot be expressed . Teach vs in him to reade and see our owne end and mortalitie : and therefore to be carefull to prepare our selues for our last ends , and put our selues in a readidinesse against the time that thou shalt call for vs in the like manner . Thus Lord wee recommend this our deare Brother ( or Sister ) thy sicke Seruant , vnto thy eternall grace , and mercie in that Prayer , vvhich Christ our Sauiour hath taught vnto vs. Our Father which art in Heauen , &c. Thy Grace , O Lord Iesus Christ : thy loue , O heauenly Father : thy comfort and consolation , O holy Spirit , be with vs all , and especially with this thy sicke seruant , to the end , and in the end . Amen . Let them reade often vnto the sicke , some speciall Chapters of the holy Scriptures : as , The three first Chapters of the Booke of Iob. The 34. Chapter of Deutronomie . The two last Chapters of Ioshua . The 17. Chapter of the first of Kings . The 2.4 . and 13. Chapters of the second of Kings . The 14. and 19. Chapters of Iob. The 38.40 . and 65. Chapters of Isay. The Historie of the Passion of Christ. The 8. Chapter to the Romanes . The 15. Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians . The 4. of the first Epistle to the Thessalonians . The 5. Chapter of the second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians . The first and last Chapters of S. Iames. The 11. and 12. to the Hebrewes . The first Epistle of Peter . The three first and the three last Chapters of the Reuelation , or some of these . And so exhorting the sicke partie to waite vpon God by faith and patience , till he send for him ; and praying the Lord to send them a ioyfull meeting in the Kingdome of Heauen , and a blessed Resurrection at the last day ; they may depart at their pleasure , in the peace of God. Consolations against Impatiencie in sicknesse . IF in thy sicknesse by extremitie of paine thou be driuen to Impatiencie ; meditate , 1 That thy sinnes haue deserued the paines of Hell : therefore thou maist vvith greater patience , endure these fatherly corrections . 2 That these are the scourges of thy Heauenly Father , and the rod in his hand . If thou diddest suffer with reuerence being a child , the correction of thy earthly Parents ; how much rather shouldest thou now subiect thy selfe , ( being the child of God ) to the chastisements of thy heauenly Father , seeing it is for thine eternall good ? 3 That Christ suffered in his Soule and body farre grieuouser paines for thee , therefore thou must more vvillingly suffer his blessed pleasure for thine owne good . Therefore saith Peter , Christ suffered for you , leauing you an example , that ye should follow his steps . And , Let vs ( saith Saint Paul ) runne with ioy the race that is set before vs , looking vnto Iesus the author and finisher of our Faith , who for the ioy that was set before him , endured the Crosse , &c. 4 That these afflictions , which now you suffer , are none other but such which are accomplished in your Brethren , that are in the world , as witnesseth Peter : Yea , Iobs afflictions were farre more grieuous . There is not one of the Saints , vvhich now are at rest in heauenly ioyes , but endured as much as you doe before they went thither : yea , many of them willingly suffered all the torments that Tyrants could inflict vpon them , that they might come to those Heauenly ioyes whereunto you are now called . And you haue a promise , that the God of all grace , after that you haue suffered a while , will make you perfect , stablish , strengthen , and settle you . And that God of his fidelitie will not suffer you to be tempted aboue that you are able : but will with the temptation also make a way to escape , that yee may be able to beare it . 5 That God hath determined the time when thy affliction shall end , as vvell as the time when it beganne : Thirty eight yeeres were appointed to the sicke man at Bethesda's Poole . Twelue yeeres to the Woman with the bloudy Issue . Three Moneths to Moses . Tenne dayes tribulation to the Angell of the Church of Smyrna : Three dayes plague to Dauid . Yea , the number of the godly mans teares are registred in Gods Booke , and the quantitie kept in his bottle . The time of our troubles ( saith Christ ) is but a modicum . Gods Anger lasts but a Moment ( saith Dauid . ) A little season ( saith the Lord ) and therefore cals all the time of our paine , but the houre of sorrow . Dauid , for the swiftnesse thereof , compares our present trouble to a Brooke . And Athanasius to a Shower . Compare the longest misery that man endures in this life , to the eternitie of heauenly Ioyes , and they vvill appeare to be nothing . And as the sight of a Sonne safe borne , makes the Mother forget all her former deadly paine : so the sight of Christ in Heauen , vvho was borne for thee , will make all these pangs of death , to be quite forgotten , as if they had neuer been ; like Stephen , who as soone as hee saw Christ , forgat his owne woundes , with the horrour of the Graue , and terrour of the stones , and sweetly yeelded his Soule into the hands of his Sauiour . Forget thine owne paine , thinke of Christs wounds . Be faithfull vnto the death , and hee will giue thee the Crowne of eternall life . 6 That you are now called to Repetitions in Christs Schoole , to see how much Faith , Patience , and godlinesse you haue learned all this while ; and whether you can , like Iob , receiue at the hand of God some euill , as vvell as you haue hitherto receiued a great deale of good ? as therefore you haue alwayes prayed , Thy Will be done , so be not now offended at this which is done by his holy will. 7 That all things shall worke together for the best to them that loue God , insomuch that neyther death , nor life , nor Angels , nor Principalities , nor Powers , &c. shall be able to separate vs from the loue of God , which is in Iesus Christ our Lord. Assure your selfe that euery pang is a preuention of the paines of Hell ; euery respite an earnest of heauens Rest : and how many stripes doe you esteeme Heauen worth ? As your life hath beene a comfort to others , so giue your Friends a Christian example to dye , and deceiue the Diuell , as Iob did . It is but the Crosse of Christ sent before to crucifie the loue of this vvorld in thee : that thou maist goe eternally to liue with Christ , who was crucified for thee . As thou art therefore a true Christian , take vp , like Simon of Cyrene , with both thy armes his holy Crosse , carry it after him , vnto him : thy paines will shortly passe , thy ioyes shall neuer passe away . Consolations against the feare of Death . IF in the time of thy sickenesse , thou findest thy selfe fearefull to dye ; meditate , 1 That it argueth a dastardly minde to feare that which is not . For in the church of Christ there is no Death , Isay 25.7.8 . And Whosoeuer liueth and beleeueth in Christ shall neuer dye , Iohn 11.26 . Let them feare death , vvho liue vvithout Christ , Christians dye not , but when they please GOD they are like Enoch translated vnto GOD : Their paines are but Eliahs fiery Charriot to carry them vp to heauen : or like Lazarus sores sending them to Abrahams bosome . In a word , if thou be one of them that like Lazarus louest Iesus , thy sicknesse is not vnto thee death , but for the glory of God : who of his loue changeth thy liuing death to an euerlasting life . And if many Heathen men , as Socrates , Curtius , Seneca , &c. dyed willingly ( when they might haue liued , ) in hope of the immortalitie of the Soule ; vvilt thou being trayned so long in Christs Schoole , and now called to the Marriage Supper of the blessed Lambe , Apoc. 10.7 . be one of those Guests that refuse to goe to that Ioyfull Banquet ? God forbid . 2 Remember that thy aboade here is but the second degree of thy life : for after thou hadst first liued nine moneths in thy Mothers wombe , thou wast of necessitie driuen thence to liue here in a second degree of life . And when that number of moneths which GOD hath determined for this life , are expired , thou must likewise leaue this , and and passe to a third degree in the other World , vvhich neuer ends . Which to them that liue and die in the Lord , surpasseth as farre this kinde of life , as this doth that which one liues in his mothers wombe . To this last and excellentest degree of life , through this doore passed Christ himselfe , and all his Saints that were before thee , and so shall all the rest after them and thee . Why shouldest thou feare that vvhich is common to all Gods Elect ? Why should that be vncouth to thee , vvhich was so welcome to all them . Feare not death ; for it is the Exodus of a bad , but the Genesis of a better World : the end of a temporall , but the beginning of an eternall life . 3 Consider , that there are but three things that can make death so fearefull vnto thee : first , the losse thou hast thereby : secondly , the paine that is therein . Thirdly , the terrible effects which followes after . All these are but false fires , and causlesse feares . For the first ; if thou leauest here vncertaine goods which theeues may rob ; thou shalt finde in heauen a true treasure that can neuer be taken away : these were but lent thee as a Steward vpon accounts : those shall be giuen thee as thy reward for euer . If thou leauest a louing Wife , thou shalt be marryed to Christ which is more louely . If thou leauest Children and Friends , thou shalt there find all thy religiously Ancestors and children departed : yea , Christ , and all his blessed Saints and Angels , and as many of thy Children as be Gods children , shal thither follow after thee . Thou leauest an earthly possession , & a house of clay , and thou shalt enioy an Heauenly inheritance and Mansion of Glory , vvhich is purchased , prepared and reserued for thee ▪ What hast thou lost ? Nay , is not death vnto thee gaine ? goe home ! goe home ! and wee will follow after thee . Secondly , for the paine in Death ; the feare of Death more pain●s many then the very pangs of death : for many a Christian dyes without any great pang or paines . Pitch the Anchor of thy hope on the firme grou●● of the Word of God , vvho hath promised in thy weaknesse to perfect his strength : and not to suffer thee to be tempted aboue that thou art able to beare . And Christ will shortly turne all thy temp●rall paines to his eternall ioyes . Lastly , as for the terrible effects , which follow after death , they belong not vnto thee , being a Member of Christ , for Christ by his death hath taken away the sting of death to the faithfull : so that now there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus . And Christ hath protested that he that beleeueth in him hath euerlasting life , and shall not come into condemnation , but hath passed from death vnto life . Hereupon the holy Spirit from Heauen saith , Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord , and that from thenceforth they rest from their labours , and their workes doe follow them . In respect therfore of the faithfull , death is swallowed vp into victorie , and his sting , which is sinne and the punishment thereof , is taken away by Christ. Hence death is called in respect of our bodies , a sleepe , and rest : In respect of our soules , a going to our heauenly Father : a departing in peace : a remouing from this body to goe to the Lord : a dissolution of soule and body to be with Christ. What shall I say ? Precious in the sig●●t of the Lord is the death of his Saints . These paines are but thy throwes and trauell to bring foorth Eternall Life . And who would not passe through Hell to goe to Paradise ? much more through death . There is nothing after death that thou needest feare ; not thy sinnes , because Christ hath paid thy ransome : not the Iudge , for hee is thy louing Brother : not the Graue , for it is the Lords Bed : not Hell , for thy Redeemer keeps the Keyes : not the Diuell , for Gods holy Angels pitch their Tents about thee , and will not leaue thee till they bring thee to Heauen . Thou wast neuer neerer Eternall life , glorifie therefore Christ by a blessed death . Say chearfully , Come Lord Iesu , for thy Seruant commeth vnto thee , I am willing , Lord helpe my weakenesse . Seauen sanctified thoughts , and mournefull sighes of a sicke man , ready to die . NOW for as much as God of his infinite mercy , doth so temper our paine and sickenesse , that we are not alwaies oppressed with extremitie : but giues vs in the midst of our extremities some respite , to ease and refresh our selues ; thou must haue an especiall care ( considering how short a time thou hast , eyther for euer to lose , or to obtaine Heauen ) to make vse of euery breathing-time , which God doth afford thee : and during that little time of ease , to gather strength against the fits of greater anguish . Therefore in these times of relaxation & ease , vse some of these short thoughts and sighes . The first thought . SEeing euery man enters into this life in Teares , passeth it in sweate , and ends it in sorrow ; ah what is there in it , that a man should desire to liue any longer to it ! oh what a folly is it , that vvhen the Mariner roweth with all his force to arriue at the wished Port ; and that the Traueller neuer testeth , till hee come to his iourneyes end ; wee feare to discrie our Port ; and therefore would put backe our Barke , to be longer tossed in this continual Tempest , we weepe to see our iourneyes end ; and therefore desire our iourney to be lengthened , that vvee might be more tyred with a foule and cumbersome way . The spirituall sigh thereupon . O Lord , this life is but a troublesome Pilgrimage : few in dayes , but full in euils ; and I am weary of it , by reason of my sinnes . Let me therefore ( O Lord ) entreate thy Maiestie in this my bed of sickenesse : as Elias did vnder the Iuniper tree in his affliction ; It is now enough , O Lord , that I haue liued so long in this vale of miserie ; take my f●ule into thy mercifull hands , for I am no better then my Fathers . The second thought . THinke with what a body of sinne thou art loaden ; vvhat great ciuill warres are contayned in a little world ; the flesh fighting against the spirit : Passion against Reason : Earth against Heauen : and the world within thee , ●anding it selfe for the world without thee ; and that but one onely meane remaines to end this conflict , Death : which ( in Gods appoynted time ) will seperate thy Spirit , from thy flesh : the pure and regenerate part of thy soule , from that part which is impure and vnregenerated ▪ The spirituall sigh vpon the second thought . O Wretched man that I am , who shall deliuer me from the body of this death ! O my sweete Sauiour Iesus Christ , thou hast redeemed me with thy precious bloud . And because thou hast deliuered my soule from sinne , mine eyes from teares , and my feete from falling . I doe here , from the very bottome of my heart , ascribe the vvhole praise and glory of my Saluation , to thy onely grace and mercy , saying ( vvith the holy Apostle : ) Thankes be vnto GOD , which hath giuen mee the victorie , through our Lord Iesus Christ. The third thought . THinke how it behooues thee , to be assured that thy soule is Christs : for death hath taken sufficient gages to assure himselfe of thy body in that all thy senses beginne already to dye , saue onely the sense of paine : but sith the beginning of thy being beganne with paine : meruaile the lesse , if thy end conclude with dolours . But if these temporall dolours ( which onely afflict the body ) be so painefull : O Lord who can endure the deuouring fire ? who can abide the euerlasting burning ? The spirituall sigh vpon the third thought . O Lord Iesus Christ , the Sonne of the liuing GOD , vvho art the onely Physitian , that canst ease my body from paine , and restore my Soule to life eternall : put thy Passion , Crosse , and death betwixt my Soule and thy Iudgement : and let the merits of thy Obedience stand betwixt thy Fathers Iustice , and my disobedience : and from these bodily paines receiue my soule into thine euerlasting peace : for I cry vnto thee with Stephen , Lord Iesu receiue my spirit . The fourth thought . THinke that the worst that death can doe , is but to send thy soule sooner , then thy flesh would be willing , to Christ and his heauenly ioyes : Remember that that worst , is thy best hope . The worst therefore of death , is rather a helpe then a harme . The spirituall sigh vpon the fourth thought . O Lord Iesus Christ , the Sauiour of all them that put their trust in thee : forsake not him that in misery flieth vnto thy grace for succour and mercy . Oh sound that sweet voyce in the eares of my soule , which thou spokest vnto the penitent theefe on the Crosse , this day thou shalt be with mee in Paradise ; For I , O Lord ▪ doe ( with the Apostle ) from my soule speake vnto thee , I desire to be dissolued and to bee with Christ. The fifth thought . THink ( if thou fearest to dye ) that in Mount Sion there is no death : for he that beleeueth in Christ shall neuer die . And if thou desirest to liue ; without doubt the life eternall ( whereunto this death is but a passage ) surpasseth all . There doe all the faithfull departed ( hauing ended their miseries ) liue with Christ in ioyes : and thither shall all the godly , which suruiue , be gathered out of their troubles , to enioy with him eternall rest . The spirituall sigh on the fift thought . O Lord , thou seest the malice of Satan , who ( not contenting himselfe , 〈…〉 all the da●es and nights of our life , to seek our destruction ) shewes himselfe most b●siest , when thy children are weakest , and neerest to their end . O Lord , reprooue him , and prese●ue my Soule . Hee seekes to terrifie me with death , which my sins haue deserued , but let thy holy spirit comfort my soule , with the assurance of eternall life , which thy blood hath purchased . Asswage my pain , encrease my patience , and ( if it be thy blessed will ) end my troubles ; for my soule beseecheth thee with olde blessed Simeon , L●rd , now let me thy seruant depart in peace , according to thy word . The sixth thought . THink with thy selfe , what a blessing God hath bestowed vpon thee ▪ aboue many millions of the world , that whereas they are either Pagans , who worship not the true GOD : or Idolaters who worship the true GOD falsely . Thou hast liued in a true Christian Church , and hast grace to dye in the true Christian faith , and to be buried in the sepulchres of Gods seruants , who all waite for the hope of Israel , the raising of their bodies in the resurrection of the iust . The spirituall sigh vpon the sixt thought , O Lord Iesus Christ , who art the resurrection , and the life , in whom whosoeuer beleeueth , shall liue , though hee were dead , I beleeue , that whosoeuer liueth and beleeueth in thee , shall neuer dye . I know that I shall rise againe in the resurrection , at the last day : for I am sure that thou my Redeemer , liuest . And though that after my death wormes destroy this body , yet I shall see thee , my Lord , and my God , in this flesh . Grant therefore , O CHRIST , for thy bitter death and passions sake , that at that day I may bee one of them to whom thou wilt pronounce that ioyfull sentence ; Come yee blessed of my Father , inherit the Kingdome prepared for you before the foundation of the world . The seauenth thought . THinke with thy selfe , how Christ endured for thee a cursed death , and the wrath of God , which was due vnto thy sinnes , and what terrible paines and cruell torments the Apostles and Martyrs haue voluntarily suffered for the defence of Christs faith , when they might haue liued by dissembling or denying him : how much more willing shouldest thou be to depart in the faith of Christ , hauing lesse paines to torment thee , and more meanes to comfort thee ? The spirituall sigh vpon the seauenth thought . O Lord , my sinnes haue deserued the paines of hell , and eternall death ; much more these fatherly corrections wherewith thou doest afflict me ▪ But O blessed Lambe of God , which takest away the sinnes of the world , haue mercy vpon me , and wash away all my filthy sinnes with thy most precious blood : and receiue my soule into thy heauenly kingdome ; for into thy hand● , O Father , I commend my spirit , and thou hast redeemed me , O Lord , thou God of truth ? The sicke person ought now to send for some Godly and Religious Pastor . IN any wise , remember ( if conueniently it may be ) to send for some godly and religious Pastor , not onely to pray for thee at thy death ( for GOD in such a case hath promised to beare the Praiers of the righteous a Prophets , and b Elders of the Church ) But also vpon thy confession and vnfaigned repentance to absolue thee of thy sinnes . For as Christ hath giuen him a calling to c baptize thee vnto repentance for the remission of thy sinnes : so hath he likewise giuen him a calling and d power , and e authority ( vpon repentance ) ●o absolue thee from thy sinnes . f I will giue thee the keyes of the Kingdome of Heauen : and whatsoeuer thou shalt bind vpon earth , shal be bound in heauen : and whatsoeuer thou shalt loose on earth , shall be l●●sed in heauen . And againe , Verily , I say vnto you , whatsoeuer yee bind in earth shall be ●ound in heauen : whatsoeuer yee loose in earth , shall be loosed in heauen . And againe , receiue yee the holy Ghost : whosoeuer sinnes yeare● 〈◊〉 , they are remitted vnto them : and whosoeuer sinnes yee retaine , they are retained . This doctrine was as ancient in the Church of God as Iob , for Elihu tels him , That when God strikes a man with malady ●n his bed , so that his soule draweth neere the graue , and his life to the buri●rs . If there be● any messenger with him , or an interpreter , one of a thousand , to declare vnto man his righteousnesse , then will hee haue mercy vpon him , &c. And answerable heereunto ( saith Saint Iames ) if the sicke 〈◊〉 committed sinnes ( vpon his repentance , and the praier of the Elders ) they shall be forgiuen him . These haue power ●o shut heauen , and to deliuer ( the scandalous impenitent sinner ) 〈◊〉 Satan . For the weapon● of their war fa●● , are 〈◊〉 carnall , but mighty , through God , to cast downe ▪ &c. and to haue vengeance in readinesse against all disobedience . They haue the key of loosing , therefore the power of absoluing . The Bishops , and Pastors of the Church , doe not forgiue sinnes by any absolute power of their owne ( for so onely Christ their master forgiueth sinnes ) but ministerially , as the seruants of Christ , and stewards , to whose fidelity their Lord and Master hath committed his keyes ; and that is , when they doe declare and pronounce either publikely or priuately by the word of God ▪ what bindeth ▪ what looseth , and the 〈◊〉 of God to penitent 〈◊〉 : or his iudgement to impenitent and obstinate person● : and so doe apply the generall promise● or threatnings to the penitent or impenitent . For CHRIST from heauen doth by them ( as by his Ministers on Earth ) declare whom hee remitteth and bindeth , and to whom he will open the gates of heauen , and against whom he will shut them . And therefore it is not said , whose sinne yee signifie to be remitted , but whose sinnes yee remit : they then doe remit sinnes , because Christ by their ministry 〈…〉 ▪ a● Christ by his Disciples lo●sed : Lazarus , Iob. ●● . 44 . And as no water could wash away 〈…〉 , but the waters of 〈…〉 ( though other riuers 〈◊〉 cleare ) because the promise ▪ was annexed vnto the 〈◊〉 of Iordane , and not of ●●ther Riuers : so though another man may pronounce the same words : yet haue they not the like efficacie and power to worke on the conscience , as vvhen they are pronounced from the mouth of Christs Ministers , because that the * promise is annexed to the Word of God in their mouthes : for them hath he a chosen , b separated , and c set apart for this worke , and to them hee hath committed the d ministerie and word of reconciliation , by their holy e calling and f ordination they haue receiued the g holy Ghost , and the Ministeriall power of binding and loosing . They are font forth of the holy Ghost , for this worke wherunto he hath called them . And Christ giues his Ministers power to forgiue sins to the penitent , in the same words that he teacheth vs in the Lords Prayer to desire God to forgiue vs our sins : to assure all penitent sinners , that God by his Ministers absolution doth fully , through the merits of Christs bloud , forgiue them all their sinnes . So that what Christ decreeth in heauen , in foro Iudicij , the same hee declareth on earth by his reconciling Ministers , in foro paenitentiae : So that as GOD hath reconciled the world to himselfe by Iesus Christ : so hath he ( saith the Apostle ) giuen vnto vs the ministery of this reconciliation . Hee that sent them to baptise , saying , Goe and teach all nations baptising them , &c. sent them also to remit sinnes , saying , As my Father sent mee so send 〈…〉 , whosoeuer sinnes yee remit , they are remitted vnto them , &c. As therefore none can baptise , ( though he vse the same Water & words ) but onely the lawfull Minister , whom Christ hath called and authorised to this diuine and Ministeriall Function . So though others may comfort vvith good words ; yet none can absolue from sinne , but onely those , to whom Christ hath committed the holy ministerie and word of reconciliation : and of their absolution Christ speaketh , he that heareth you heareth me . In a doubtfull title thou wilt aske the counsell of thy skilfull Lawyer : in perill of sickenesse thou wilt know the aduise of thy learned Physitian : and is there no danger in dread of damnation , for a sinner to be his owne Iudge ? Iudicious Caluin teacheth this point of doctrine most plainely , Etsi omnes mutuò nos debeamus consolari , &c. Although ( saith he ) we ought to comfort and confirme one another in the confidence of Gods mercy , yet we see that the Ministers are appointed as witnesses and sureties to acertaine our consciences of the remission of sinnes : insomuch , as they are said to remit sinnes , and to loose soules . Let euery faithfull man therefore remember , that it is his duty ( if inwardly he be vexed and afflicted with the sence of his sins ) not to neglect that Remedy which is offered vnto him by the Lord , to wit , that ( for the easing of his Conscience , ) he make priuate confession of his sinnes vnto his Pastor ; and that he desire his priuate indeuour for the application of some comfort vnto his soule : whose office it is ( both publikely and priuately ) to administer Euangelicall Consolation to Gods people . Beza highly * commendeth this practise ; and Luther saith , that he had rather lose 1000. worlds , then suffer priuate confession to be thrust out of the Church . Our church hath euer most a soundly maintained the truth of this doctrine ; but most iustly abolished the tyrannous and Antichristian abuse of Popish auricular confession , vvhich they thrust vpon the Soules of Christians , as an Expiatorie Sacrifice , and a merito●ious satisfaction for sinne : racking their Consciences to confesse , when they feele no distresse , and to enumerate all their sinnes , which is impossible ; that by this meanes they might diue into the secrets of all men , which oft times hath proued pernitious not onely to priuate persons , but also to publike states . But the truth of Gods vvord is , that no person , hauing receiued Orders in the Church of Rome , can truely absolue a sinner : for the Keyes of absolution are two , the one is the Key of Authoritie , and that onely * Christ hath : the other is the Key of Ministerie ; and this hee a giues to his Ministers , who are therefore called , the Ministers of Christ : The b Stewards of Gods Mysteries : The c Ambassadours of reconciliation , Bishops , Pastors , Elders , &c. But Christ neuer ordayned in the New Testament , any Order of sacrificing Priests , neyther is the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which properly signifieth Sacerdos , or sacrificing Priest , giuen to any Officer of Christ , in all the New Testament . Neyther doe we reade in all the New Testament , of any who confessed himselfe to a Priest , but Iudas . Neyther is there any reall Priest of the New Testament , but onely Christ. Neyther is there any part of his Priesthood , to be now accomplished on Earth , but that which hee fulfilleth in Heauen , by making intercession for vs. Seeing therefore Christ neuer ordayned any Order of sacrificing Priests : and that Popish Priests scorne the name of Ministers of the Gospell , to whom onely Christ committed his Keyes , it necessarily followeth , that no Popish Priest can truely eyther excommunicate or absolue any sinner , or haue any lawfull right to meddle with Christs Keyes . But the Antichristian abuse of this diuine Ordinance , should not abolish the lawfull vse thereof twixt Christians and their Pastors in cases of distresse of Conscience , for which it was chiefely ordayned . And verily there is not any meanes more excellent to humble a proud heart , nor to raise vp an humble spirit , then this spirituall conference betwixt the Pastors and the People committed to their charge . If any sinne therefore troubleth thy conscience , confesse it to Gods Minister : aske his counsell , and if thou dost truely repent , receiue his Absolution . And then doubt not in foro Conscientiae , but thy sinnes be as verily forgiuen on earth ▪ as if thou didst heare Christ himselfe in foro iudicij , pronouncing them to be forgiuen in Heauen . Qui vos audit , me audit , hee that heareth you , heareth mee . Try this , and tell mee whether thou shalt not finde more ease in thy Conscience , then can be expressed in words . Did prophane men consider the dignitie of this diuine calling : they would the more honour the Calling , and reuerence Persons . The sicke man ( hauing thus eased his Conscience , and receiued his Absolution ) may doe well ( hauing a conuenient number of faithfull Christians ioyning with him ) to receiue the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper , to encourage him in his Faith , to discourage the Diuell in his assaults . In this respect the a Councell of Nice tearmeth this Sacrament , Viaticum , the soules prouision for her iourney . And albeit the Lords Supper be an Ecclesiasticall action , yet for as much as our Lord ( the first institutor ) celebrated it in a b priuate house , and that Saint c Paul tearmeth the houses of Christians , the Churches of Christ. And that d Christ himselfe hath promised to be in the middest of the faithfull , where but two or three are gathered together in his Name . I see no reason , but if Christians desire it ( vvhen they are not through sickenesse able to come to the church ) but that they should receiue , and Pastors ought to administer vnto them the Sacraments at home . Hee sheweth more simplicitie then knowledge , who thinks that this sauours of a priuate Masse . For a Masse is called priuate , not because it is said in a priuate house , but because ( as Bishop a Iewel teacheth out of b Aquinas ) the Priest receiueth the Sacrament himselfe alone without distribution made vnto others , and then it is priuate ; although the vvhole Parish be present and looke vpon him . There is as much difference betweene such a Communion , and the Antichristian Idol of a priuate Masse , as there is betwixt Heauen and Hell. For at a Communion in a priuate family vpon such an extraordinary occasion , Christ his institution is obserued : Many faithfull brethren meet together , and tarry one for anoth●r : Christ his death is remembred and shewed ; and the Minister , together with the faithfull , and the sicke party , do communicate . Master Caluin saith , That he doth very willingly admit administring of the Communion to them that are sicke , when the case and opportunity so requireth . And in a another place hee saith , That hee hath many waighty reasons to compell him not to deny the Lords Supper vnto the sicke . Yet I would wish all Christians to vse to receiue often ( in their health ) especially once euery moneth with the whole Church ; for then they shall not neede so much to assemble their friends vpon such an occasion , nor so much to be troubled themselues for want of the Sacrament . For as Master Perkins saith very well , The fruit and efficacy of the Sacrament is not to be restrained to the time of receiuing : but it extends it selfe to the whole time of mans life afterward : the efficacy whereof , did men throughly vnderstand : they should not neede to be often exhorted to receiue it . Pastores omnes hic exorat●s vellem , vt in huius controuersiae statum penitius introspiciant : nec fideles ex hac vita migrantes , & panem vitae petentes ; viatico suo fraudari sina●t , ne lugubris ista in ●ijs adimpleatur lamentatio : Parv●li panem petunt , & non sit qui frangat eis . As therefore when a wicked liuer dyeth he may say to death , as Ahab said to Eliah , Hast thou found me , O mine enemy ? So on the other side when it is told a penitent sinner that death knocks at the doore , and beginnes to looke him in the face ; he may say of death , as Dauid said of Ahimaaz , Let him come , and welcome , for he is a good man , and commeth with good tidings : he is the messenger of Christ , and bringeth vnto me the ioyfull newes of eternall life . And as the Redde Sea was a gulfe to drowne the Aegyptians to destruction , but a passage to the Israelites to conuey them to Canaans possession : so death to the wicked , is a sincke to hell and condemnation ; but to the godly the gate to euerlasting life and saluation . And one day of a * blessed death , will make an amends for all the sorrowes of a bitter life . When therefore thou perceiuest thy soule departing from thy body pray with thy tongue if thou canst ; else pray in thy heart and minde these words , fixing the eyes of thy soule vpon Iesus Christ thy Sauiour . A Prayer at the yeelding vp of the Ghost . O Lambe of God , which by thy blood hast taken away the sinnes of the world , haue mercy vpon me a sinner . Lord Iesu receiue my spirit . Amen . When the sicke party is departing , Let the faithfull that are present kneele downe and commend his Soule to God in these or the like words . O Gratious God and mercifull father , who art our refuge and strength , and a very present helpe in trouble ; lift vp the light of thy fauorable countenance at this instant vpon thy seruant , that now commeth to appeare in thy presence . Wash away , good Lord , all his sinnes by the merits of Christ Iesus blood , that ●ho● may neuer bee laide to his charge . Increase his faith , preserue and keepe safe his soule from the danger of the Diuell and his wicked Angels . Comfort him with thy holy spirit , cause him now to feele that thou art his louing Father , and that hee is thy childe by Adoption and Grace . Saue , O Christ , the price of thine owne blood , and suffer him not to be lost whom thou hast bought so dearely . Receiue his Soule as thou didst the penitent theefe into thy heauenly Paradise . Let thy blessed Angels conduct him thither as they carried the soule of Lazarus , and grant vnto him a ioyfull resurrection at the last day . O 〈◊〉 , heare vs for him , and heare thine owne Sonne , our onely Mediator that sits at thy right hand : for him and vs all , euen for the merits of that bitter death and passion which he hath suffered for vs : In confidence whereof we now recommend his soule into thy fatherly hands , in that blessed prayer , which our Sauiour hath taught vs in all times of our troubles to say vnto thee : Our Father , &c. Thus farre of the Practise of Piety in dying in the Lord. Now followeth the Practise of Piety in dying for the Lord. THE Practise of Piety in dying for the Lord , is termed Martyrdome . Martyrdome , is the testimony which a Christian beareth to the doctrine of the Gospell , by enduring any kinde of death : to inuite many , and to confirme all , to embrace the truth thereof . To this kinde of death , Christ hath promised a crowne : Be thou faithfull vnto the death , and I will giue thee the crowne of life . Which promise the Church so firmely beleeued , that they termed Martyrdome it selfe , a crowne : and God to animate Christians to this excellent prize , would by a prediction that Stephen , the first Christian Martyr should haue his name of a crowne . Of Martyrdome there are three kindes . First , Sola voluntate , in will onely : as Iohn the Euangelist , who ( being boyled in a Cauldron of oyle ) came out rather annointed then sod : and dyed of old age at Ephesus . Secondly , Solo opere , in deede onely : as the innocents of Bethleem . Thirdly , Voluntate & opere , both in will , and deede : as in the Primitiue Church , Stephen , Polycarpus , Ignatius Laurentius , Romanus , A●tiochianus , and thousands . And in our daies , Cranmer , Latimer , Ho●per , Ridley , Farrar , Bradford , Philpot , Sanders Glouer , Tailor , and others innumerable , whose fierie zeale to Gods truth , brought them to the flames of Martyrdome to seale Christs faith . It is not the cruelty of the death : but the innocency and holinesse of the cause that maketh a Martyr ; neither is an erronious conscience a sufficient warrant to suffer Martyrdome : because Science in Gods word must direct conscience in mans heart ; for they who killed the Apostles , in their erronious consciences thought they did God good seruice . And Paul of zeale breathed out slaughters against the Lords Saints : Now whether the cause of our Seminary Priests and Iesuits , be so holy , true and innocent ; as that it may warrant their conscience to suffer death , & to hazzard their eternall saluation thereon ; let Pauls Epistle written to the Ancient Christian Romans , ( but against our new Antichristian Romanes ) bee iudge : And it will plainely appeare , that the doctrine which Saint Paul taught to the ancient Church of Rome is ex diametro opposite in ●6 fundamentall points of true Religion : to that which the new Church of Rome teacheth and maintaineth ? For Saint Paul taught the Primitiue Church of Rome : 1 That our election is of Gods free grace , and not ex operibus praeuisit . Rom. 9.11 . Rom. 11.5.6 . 2 That we are iustified by faith only without good works . Rom. 3.20.28 . Rom. 4.2 . &c. Rom. 1.17 . 3 That the good works of the Regenerate , are not of their owne condignity meritorious , nor such as can deserue heauen . Rom. 8.18 . Rom. 11.6 . Rom. 6.23 . 4 That those bookes onely are Gods Oracles and Canonicall Scripture which were committed to the custody and credit of the Iewes . Rom. 3.2 . Rom. 1.2 . Rom. 16.16 . such were neuer the Apocrypha . 5 That the holy Scriptures haue Gods authority . * Rom. 9.17 . Rom. 4.3 . Rom. conferd . Rom. 11.3.2 . conferd with Gal. 3.22 . Therefore aboue the authority of the Church . 6 That all , aswell Laity as Clergy that will be saued , must familiarly read or know the holy scriptures , Rom. 15.4 . Rom. 10.1.2.8 . Rom. 16.26 . 7 That all Images made of the true God are very Idols . Rom. 1.23 , and Rom. 2.22 . conferd . 8 That to bowe the knee religiously to an Image , or to vvorship any Creature , is meere Idolatry , Rom. 11.4 . and a lying seruic● . Rom. 1.25 . 9 That we must not pray vnto any but to GOD onely , in vvhom we beleeue , Rom. 10.13.14 . Rom. 8.15.27 . therefore not to Saints and Angels . 10 That Christ is our onely Intercessor in Heauen . Rom. 8.34 . Rom. 5.2 . Rom. 16.27 . 11 That the onely Sacrifice of Christians , is nothing but the spirituall sacrificing of their Soules and Bodies to serue GOD in holinesse and righteousnesse . Rom. 12.1 . Rom. 15.16 . Therefore no reall sacrificing of Christ in the Masse . 12 That the religious worship called dulia , as well as l●t●i● , belongeth to God alone . Rom. 1.9 . Rom. 12.11 . Rom. 16.18 . conferd . 13 That all Christians are to pray vnto God in their owne natiue language . Rom. 14.11 . 14 That wee haue not of our selues , in the state of corruption , freewill vnto good , Rom. 7.18 . &c. Rom. 9.16 . 15 That Concupiscence in the Regenerate , is sinne , Rom. 7.7.8.10 . 16 That the Sacraments doe not conferre grace ex opere operato , but signe and seale that it is conferred already vnto vs. Rom. 4.11.12 . Rom. 2.28.29 . 17 That euery true beleeuing Christian may in this life be assured of his saluation . Rom. 8.9.16.35 &c. 18 That no man in this life since Adams Fall , can perfectly fulfill the Commandements of God. Rom. 7.10 . &c. Rom. 3.19 . &c. Rom. 11.32 . 19 That to place Religion in the difference of meates and dayes is superstition . Rom. 14 3.5.6.17 23. 20 That the imputed righteousnesse of Christ , is that onely that makes vs iust before God. Rom. 4.9.17.23 . 21 That Christs flesh was made of the Seede of Dauid , by Incarnation : not of a wafer-cake by Transubstantiation . Rom. 1.3 . 22 That all true Christians are Saints : and not those whom the Pope onely doth canonize . Rom. 1.7 . Rom. 8.27 . Rom. 15.31 . Rom. 16.2 . and 15. Rom. 15.25 . &c. 23 That Ipse , Christ , the God of Peace : and not Ips● , the Woman , should bruise the Serpents head . Rom. 16.20 . 24 That euery Soule must of conscience be subiect , and pay Tribute to the Higher Powers , that is , the Magistrates which beare the sword . Rom. 13 1.2 . &c. and therefore the Pope and all Prelates must be subiect to their Emperour , Kings , & Magistrates , vnlesse they will bring damnation vpon their Soules , as Traitors , that resist God and his Ordinance . Rom. 13.2 . 25 That Paul ( not Peter ) vvas ordayned by the grace of God to be the chiefe Apostle of the Gentiles , and consequently of Rome , the chiefe * Citie of the Gentiles . Rom. 15.15.16.19.20 &c. Rom. 11.13 . Rom. 16.4 . 26 That the Church of Rome may erre and fall away from the true Faith : as well as the Church of Ierusalem , or any other particular Church . Rom. 11.20.21.22 . And seeing the new vpstart Church of Rome teacheth in all these , and in innumerable other points cleane contrary to that which the Apostles taught the Primitiue Romanes ; let GOD and this Epistle iudge betwixt them and vs , whether of vs both stand● in the true auncient Catholike Faith , which the Apostle taught the old Romanes . And whether wee haue not done well to depart from them , so farre as they haue departed from the Apostles doctrine : and whether it be not better to returne to S. Pauls truth , then still to continue in Romes error . And if this be true ; then let Iesuites and Seminary Priests take heede and feare , least it be not faith , but faction : not truth , but treason : not religion , but rebellion , beginning at Tyber , and ending at Tyburne , vvhich is the cause of their deaths . And being sent from a troublesome Apostaticall See , rather then from a peaceable Apostolicall Seate ; because they cannot be suffered to perswade Subiect , to breake their Oathes , and to with-draw their Alleageance from their Soueraigne ; to raise rebellion ; to moue inuasion ; to stab and poyson Queenes ; to kill and murther Kings ; to blow vp whole States with Gun-powder , they desperately cast away their owne bodies to be hanged and quartered : and ( their soules saued if they belong to GOD ) I wish such honour to all his Saints that sends them . And I haue iust cause to feare , that the miracles of Lypsius two Ladyes , Bluntstones Boy , Garnets Straw , and the Maides fiery Apron ▪ will not suffice to cleare , that these men are not murtherers of themselues , rather then Martyrs of Christ. And with what Conscience can any Papist count Garnet a Martyr , vvhen his owne Conscience forced him to confesse , that it was for treason , and not for Religion that hee dyed ? But if the Priests of such a Gun-powder Gospell be Martyrs ; I maruell who are Murtherers ? If they be Saints , who are Scythians ? and who are Canibals , if they be Catholikes ? But leauing these ; let vs ( to whose fidelitie the Lord hath committed his true faith , as a precious deposit●● ) pray vnto GOD : that vvee may leade a holy life , answerable to our holy Faith , in Pietie to Christ , and obedience to our King : that if our Sauiour , shall euer count vs worthy that honour , to suffer martyrdome for his Gospels sake : be it by open burning at the Stake , as in Queene Maries dayes : or by secret murthering , as in the Inquisition house : or by outragious massacring , as in the Parrisian Mat●ens : ) we may haue Grace to pray for the assistance of his holy Spirit , so to strengthen our frailty , and to defend his cause : as that vvee may seale vvith our deaths the Euangelicall truth which wee haue professed in our liues . That in the dayes of our liues , we may be blessed by his Word : In the day of death , be blessed in the Lord : and in the day of Iudgement be the blessed of his Father . Euen so , grant Lord IESVS . Amen . A diuine Colloquie betweene the Soule and her Sauiour , concerning the effectuall merits of his dolorous passion . Soule . LORD , wherefore didst thou a wash thy Disciples feet ? Chr. To teach thee how thou shouldest prepare thy selfe to come to my Supper . S. Lord , why wouldest thou wash them b thy selfe ? C. To teach thee Humilitie , if thou wilt be my Disciple . S. Lord , wherefore didst thou before thy death c institute thy last Supper ? C. That thou mightest the better remember my death ▪ and be assured , that all the merits thereof are thine . S. Lord , wherfore wouldest thou goe t● such a place , where d Iudas knew to finde thee ? C. That thou mightest know , that I went as willingly to suffer for thy sinne , as euer thou went est to any place to commit a sinne . S. Lord , wherefore wouldest thou beginne thy Passion in a Garden ? C. Because that in a Garden thy sinne tooke first beginning . S. Lord , wherefore did thy three select Disciples e fall so fast a sleepe , when thou beganst to fall into thy agony ? C. To shew that I alone wrought the worke of thy Redemption . S. Lord , why were there so many plots and snares layed for thee ? C. That I might make thee to escape all the snares of thy ghostly hunter . S. Lord , why wouldest thou suffer Iudas ( betraying thee ) to kisse thee ? C. That by enduring the words of dissembling lips : I might there begin to expiate sin where Satan first brought it into the world . S. Lord , why wouldest thou be sold for 30. peeces of siluer ? C. That I might free thee from perpetuall bondage . S. Lord , why didst thou pray with such strong crying and teares ? C. That I might quench the furie of Gods iustice , which was so fiercely kindled against thee . S. Lord , why wast thou so afraid , and cast into such an agony ? C. That suffering the wrath due to thy sinnes , thou mightest be more secure in thy death , and finde more comfort in thy crosses . S. Lord , wherefore didst thou pray so oft and so earnest that the Cup might passe from thee ? C. That thou mightest perceiue the horror of that curse and wrath , which being due to thy sinnes , I was then to drinke and endure for thee . S. Lord , wherefore didst thou after thy wish submit thy will to the will of thy father ? C. To teach thee what thou shouldest doe in all thy afflictions : and how willingly thou shouldest yeeld to beare with patience , that crosse , which thou seest to come from the iust hand of thy heauenly Father . S. Lord , wherefore diddest thou sweat such drops of water and bloud ? C. That I might cleanse thee from thy staines , and bloudy spots . S. Lord , why wouldest thou be taken , when thou mightest haue escaped thine enemies ? C. That thy spirituall enemies should not take thee , and cast thee into the prison of vtter darkenesse . S. Lord , wherefore wouldest thou be forsaken of all thy Disciples ? C. That I might reconcile thee vnto God , of whom thou wast forsaken for thy sinnes . S. Lord , wherfore wouldest thou stand to be apprehended alone ? C. To shew thee that my loue of thy saluation , was more then the loue of all my Disciples . S. Lord , wherefore was the young man caught by the Souldiers , and onstript of his linnen , who came out of his bed , hearing the stir at thy apprehension , and leading to the high Priest ? C. To shew their outrage in apprehending me , and my power in preseruing out of their outragious hands , all my Disciples , who otherwise had been worse handled by them , then was that young man. S. Lord , wherefore wouldest thou be bound ? C. That I might lose the cordes of thine iniquities . S. Lord , why wast thou denied of Peter ? C. That I might confesse thee before my Father , and thou mightest learne ; that there is no trust in man , and that Saluation ▪ proceedes of my meere mercy . S. Lord , wherefore wouldest thou bring Peter to repentance by the crowing of a cocke ? C. That none should despise the meanes which God hath appointed for their conuersion , though they seeme neuer so meane . S. Lord , wherefore diddest thou at the Cock-crowing turne and looke vpon Peter ? C. Because thou mightest know , that without the helpe of my grace , no meanes can turne a sinner vnto God when he is once falne from him . S. Lord , wherefore wast thou couered with a purple roabe ? C. That thou mightest perceiue that it was I , that did away thy Scarlet sinnes . S. Lord , wherefore wouldest thou be crowned with thornes ? C. That by wearing thorns , the first fruits of the curse , it might appeare : that it is I which takes away the sinnes and curse of the world , and crownes thee vvith the crowne of life and glory . S. Lord , why was a Reede put into thine hand ? C. That it might appeare that I came not to breake the brused Reede . S. Lord , wherefore wast thou mocked of the Iewes ? C. That thou mightest insult ouer Diuels , who otherwise would haue mocked thee , as the Philistims did Sampson . S. Lord , wherfore wouldest thou haue thy blessed face defiled with spittle ? C. That I might clense thy face from the shame of sinne ? S. Wherfore Lord , were thine eyes hood-winkt with a vaile ? C. That thy spiritual blindnesse being remoued , thou mightest behold the face of my Father in heauen . S. Lord , wherefore did they b●ffet thee with fists , and beat thee with staues ? C. That thou mightest be freed from the stroakes , and tearings of infernall fiends . S. Lord , wherefore wouldest thou be reuiled ? C. That God might speake peace vnto thee , by his word and spirit . S. Lord , wherefore was thy face disfigured with blowes and bloud ? C. That thy face might shine glorious as the Angels in heauen . S. Lord , wherefore wouldst thou be so cruelly scourged ? C. That thou mightest be freed from the sting of conscience , and whips of euerlasting torments . S. Lord , wherefore wouldest thou be arraigned at Pilats barre ? C. That thou mightest at the last day be acquited before my iudgement seat . S. Lord , wherefore wouldest thou be falsly accused ? C. That thou shouldest not he iustly condemned . S. Lord , wherefore wast thou turned ouer to be condemned by a str●nge Iudge ▪ C. That thou being redeemed from the captiuity of a hellish Tyrant : mightest bee restored to God , whose owne thou ar● by right . S. Wherefore , O Christ , didst thou acknowledge that Pilate had power ouer thee from aboue ? C. That Antichrist vnder pretence of being my Vicar , should not exalt himselfe aboue all Principalities and Powers . S. Lord , why wouldest thou suffer thy passion vnder Pontius Pilate being a Romane , President to Caesar of Rome ? C. To shew that the Caesarian and ●ontifician policie of Rome should chiefely persecute my Church and crucifie me in my members . S. But why , O Lord wouldest thou be condemned ? C. That the law being condemned in me , thou mightest not be condemned by it . S. But why wast thou condemned ; seeing nothing could be pro●ed against thee ? C. That thou mightest know , that it was not for my fault , but for thine that I suffered . S. Lord , wherefore wast thou led , to suffer out of the City ? C. That I might bring thee to rest , in the heauenly Citie . S. Lord , why did the Iewes compell Simon of Cyrene , comming out of the field to carrie thy Crosse. C. To shew the weak●nesse , whereunto the burthen of thy sinnes brought me : and what must be euery Christans case , which goeth out of the field of this world , toward the heauenly Ierusalem . S. Lord , why wast thou vnstripped of thy garments ? C. That thou mightest see , how I forsooke all to redeeme thee . S. Lord , wherefore wouldest thou be lift vp vpon a Crosse ? C. That I might lift thee vp with me to heauen . S. Lord , wherefore diddest thou hang vpon a cursed tree ? C. That I might satisfie for the sin committed , in eating the forbidden fruit of a tree . S. Lord , wherefore wouldest thou hang betweene two theeues ? C. That thou my deare soule mightest haue place in the midst of heauenly Angels . S. Lord , wherefore were thy hands and feete nayled to the Crosse ? C. To enlarge thy hands to doe the workes of righteousnesse , and to set thy feete at libertie , to walke in the wayes of peace . S. Lord , wherefore did they crucifie thee in Golgotha , the place of dead mens souls ? C. To assure thee that my death is life vnto the dead . S. Lord , why did 〈◊〉 the Souldiers diuide thy seamelesse coate ? C. To shew that my church is one ; vvithout rent of Schisme . S. Lord , wherefore didst thou taste vinegar and gall ? C. That thou mightest eate the bread of Angels , and drinke the water of life . S. Lord , why saidst thou ( vpon the Crosse ) It is finished ▪ C. That thou mightest know that by my death , the Law was fulfilled , and thy redemption effected . S. Lord , why didst thou cry out vpon the Crosse , My God my God , why hast thou forsaken me ? C. Least thou being forsaken of God , shouldest haue beene driuen to cry in the paines of hell , Woe and alas for euermore . S. Lord , wherefore was there such a 〈◊〉 darknesse , when thou didst suffer ▪ and cry out ●n the Crosse ? C. That thou mightest see an Image of those Hellish p●in●● which I 〈…〉 deliuer thee from 〈◊〉 lesse paines of Hell , and euerlasting chaines of darknesse . S. Lord , why wouldest thou haue thin● 〈…〉 bread ? C. That I might embrace thee more louingly my sweet soule . S. Lo●d , how 〈◊〉 th● theefe that neuer wrought good before , obtaine Paradise vpon so short repentance ? C. That thou maist see the power of my death , to forgiue them that repent , that no sinner needs despaire . S. Lord , why did not the other Theefe which hanged as neere thee , obtaine the like mercy ? C. Because I leaue whom I will to harden themselues in their lewdnesse to destruction , that all should feare , and none presume . S. Lord , wherefore didst thou cry with such a loud and strong voyce , in yeelding vp the ghost ? C. That it might appeare that no man tooke my life from me , but that I laid it downe of my selfe . S. Lord , wherefore didst thou commend thy Soule into thy Fathers hands ? C. To teach thee vvhat thou shouldest doe , being to depart this life . S. Lord , wherefore did the vaile of the Temple rend in twaine at thy death ? C. To shew that the Leuiticall Law , should be no longer a partition-wall betweene Iewes and Gentiles : and that the way to Heauen is now open to all beleeuers . S. Lord , wherefore did the Earth quake , and the Stones cleaue at thy death ? C. For horror to beare her Lord dying , and to vpbraid the cruell hardnesse of sinners hearts . S. Lord , wherefore did not the Souldiers breake thy Legs , as they did the Theeues who hanged at thy right and left hand ? C. That thou mightest know , that they had not power to doe any more vnto mee , then the Scripture had fore-tolde that they should doe , and I should suffer to saue thee . S. Lord , wherefore was thy side opened with a Speare ? C. That thou mightest haue a way to come neerer my heart . S. Lord , wherefore ranne there out of thy pierced side bloud and water ? C. To assure thee that I was slaine in deede , seeing my heart-bloud gushed out , and the water which compassed my heart flowed forth after it , which once spilt , man must needes dye . S. Lord , wherefore ranne the bloud first by * it selfe , and the water afterwards by it selfe , out of thy blessed wound ? C. To assure thee of two things : first , that by my Blood shedding , Iustification and Sanctification were effected to saue thee : secondly , that my Spirit by the conscionable vse of the Water in Baptisme , and bloud of the Eucharist will effect in thee righteousnesse and holinesse by which thou shalt glorifie mee . S. Lord , wherefore did the graues open at thy death ? C. To signifie that Death by my death had now receiued his deaths wound , and was ouercome . S. Lord , wherefore wouldst thou be buried ? C. That thy sinnes might neuer rise vp in Iudgement against thee . S. Lord , wherefore wouldest thou be buryed by two such honourable Senators , as Nichodemus and Ioseph of A●imathia ? C. That the truth of my death ( the cause of thy life ) might more euidently appeare vnto all . S. Lord , wherefore wast thou buryed in a new sepulchre , wherein was neuer man laid before ? C. That it might appeare that I , and not another arose , & that by mine owne power , not by anothers vertue , like him vvho reuiued at the touching of Elishaes bones . S. Lord , wherefore didst thou raise vp thy body againe ? C. That thou maist be assured that thy sins are discharged , & that thou art iustified . S. Lord , wherefore did so many bodies of thy Saints ( which slept ) arise at thy Resurrection ? C. To giue an assurance that all the Saints shall arise , by the vertue of my Resurrection at the last day . S. Lord , what shall I render vnto thee for all these benefits ? C. Loue thy Creator , and become a new creature . The Soules Soliloquie , rauished in contemplating the Passions of her Lord. WHat hadst thou done , ô my sweete Sauiour , and ay●-blessed Redeemer ? that thou wast thus betrayed of Iudas , sold to the Iewes , apprehended as a Malefactor , and led bound as a Lambe to the slaughter ? What euill hadst thou committed , that thou shouldest be thus openly arraigned , accused , falsly and vniustly condemned before Annas and Caiaphas , the Iewish Priests , at the Iudgement-Seate of Pilate the Romane President ? What was thine offence ? or to vvhom didst thou euer wrong ? that thou shouldest be thus pittifully scourged with whips , crowned vvith thornes , scoffed with flouts , reuiled with words , buffeted with fists , and beaten with staues ? O Lord , what didst thou deserue , to haue thy blessed face spat vpon , and couered as it were with shame ? to haue thy garments parted , thy hands and feete nailed to the Crosse ? to be lifted vp vpon the cursed Tree , to be crucified among Theeues , and made to taste gall and vineger ? and in thy deadly extremitie , to endure such a sea of Gods wrath , that made thee to cry out , as if thou hadst beene forsaken of God thy Father ? yea , to haue thy innocent heart pierced with a cruell Speare , and thy precious bloud to be spilt out before thy blessed Mothers eyes ? Sweet Sauiour , how much vvast thou tormented to endure all this ! seeing I am so much amazed but to thinke vpon it ! I enquire for thine offence , but I can finde none in thee : No , not so much as guile to haue beene found in thy Mouth . Thine enemies are challenged , and none of them dare rebuke thee of sinne : thine accusers ( that are suborned ) agree not in their witnesse : the Iudge that condemnes thee , openly cleareth thine Innocencie : his Wife sends him word , that shee was warned in a dreame , that thou wast a iust man , and therefore should take heede of doing iniustice vnto thee . The Centurion that executes thee , confesseth thee of a truth , to be both a iust man , and the very Sonne of God. The theefe that hanged with thee , iustifieth thee , that thou hast done nothing amisse . What is the cause then , O LORD , of this thy cruell Ignominie , Passion , and Death ? I , O Lord , I am the cause of these thy sorrowes : my sinnes wrought thy shame , mine iniquities are the occasion of thy iniuries . I haue committed the fault , and thou art plagued for the offence : I am guiltie , and thou art arraigned : I committed the sinne , and thou sufferedst the death ; I haue done the crime , and thou hangest on the Crosse. Oh the deepenesse of Gods loue ! Oh the the wonderfull disposition of heauenly grace ! Oh the vnmeasurable measure of diuine mercy ! The wicked transgresseth , and the iust is punished : the guilty is let scape , and the innocent is arraigned : the malefactor is acquitted , and the harmelesse condemned : what the euill man deserueth , the good man suffereth : the seruant doth the fault , the Master endures the stroakes : What shall I say ? Man sinneth ; and God dieth . O Son of God! Who can sufficiently expresse thy loue ? or commend thy piety ? or extoll thy praise ? I was proud , and thou art humbled : I was disobedient , and thou becammest obedient . I did eat the forbidden fruit , and thou didst hang on the cursed tree : I played the glutton , and thou diddest fast : euill concupiscence drew me to eate the pleasant apple , and perfect charity led thee to drinke of the bitter cup : I assaied the sweetnesse of the fruit , and thou diddest taste the bitternesse of the gall . Foolish Eue smiled , when I laughed : but blessed Mary wept , when thy heart bled and dyed . O my God , heere I see thy goodnesse , and my badnesse : thy iustice , and my iniustice : the impiety of my flesh , the piety of thy nature . And now , O blessed Lord , that thou hast endured all this for my sake ; What shall I render vnto thee for all thy benefits bestowed vpon me , a sinfull soule ? Indeede , Lord , I acknowledge that I owe thee already for my creation , more then I am able to pay : for I am in that respect , bound with all my powers , and affections to loue and to adore thee . If I owed my selfe vnto thee , for giuing me my selfe in my creation , what shall I now render vnto thee , for giuing thy selfe for me to so cruell a death to procure my Redemption ? Great was the benefit that thou wouldest create mee of nothing ; but what tongue can sufficiently expresse the greatnesse of this grace : that thou didst redeeme mee with so deere a price , when I was worse then nothing ? Surely , O Lord , if I cannot pay the thanks which I owe thee ; ( and who can pay thee , who bestowest thy graces , without either respect of merit , or regard of measure . ) It is the aboundance of thy blessings that makes me such a bankerupt : that I am so farre vnable to pay the principall , that I cannot possibly pay , so much as the interest of thy loue . But , O my Lord , thou knowest that since the losse of thine image ) by the fall of my first vnhappy parents ) I cannot loue thee with all my might , and my minde as I should . Therefore as thou didst first cast thy loue vpon mee , when I was a childe of wrath , and the lumpe of the lost and condemned world ; so now , I beseech thee , shed abroad thy loue by thy spirit , through all my faculties and affections : that though I can neuer pay thee in that measure of loue , which thou hast deserued : yet I may endeauour to repay thee in such a manner , as thou vouchsafest to accept in mercy ; that I may in truth of heart , loue my neighbour for thy sake , and loue thee aboue all for thine owne sake . Let nothing be pleasant vnto me , but that which is pleasing vnto thee . And , sweet Sauiour , suffer me neuer to be lost nor cast away whom thou hast bought so dearely , with thine own most precious blood . O Lord , let me neuer forget thine infinite loue , and this vnspeakeable benefit of my redemption , without which it had beene better for me neuer to haue been , then to haue any being . And seeing that thou hast vouchsafed me the assistance of thy holy spirit : suffer me , O heauenly Father , who art the Father of spirits , in the mediation of thy Sonne , to speake a few words in the eares of my Lord. If thou , O Father , despisest mee for mine iniquities , as I haue deserued ; yet be mercifull vnto me for the merits of thy Sonne , who so much for me hath suffered . What if thou seest nothing in me but misery , which might moue anger and passion ? Yet behold the merits of thy Sonne , and thou shalt see enough to moue thee to mercy and compassion . Behold the mystery of his incarnation , and remit the misery of my transgression . And as oft as the wounds of thy Sonne appeare in thy sight ; Oh let the woes of my sinnes be hid from thy presence . As oft as the rednesse of his bloud glisters in thine eyes , Oh let the guiltinesse of my sinnes bee blotted out of thy Booke . The wantonnesse of my flesh prouoked thee vnto wrath , Oh let the chastitie of his flesh perswade thee vnto mercy , that as my flesh seduced me to sinne , so his flesh may reduce me vnto thy fauour . My disobedience hath deserued a great reuenge , but his obedience merits a greater waight of mercy : for what can man deserue to suffer , which GOD made man , cannot merit to haue forgiuen ? When I consider the greatnesse of thy passion , then doe I see the truenesse of that saying , that Iesus Christ came into the world to saue the chiefest sinners . Dar'st thou , then O Caine , say , that thy sins are greater then may be forgiuen ? Thou liest like a murderer . The mercies of one Christ are able to forgiue a whole world of Caines , if they will beleeue and repent . The sinnes of all sinners are finite , the mercies of GOD are infinite . Therefore , O Father , for the bitter death and blody passion sake , which thy son Iesus Christ hath suffered for me ; and I haue now remembred vnto thee : pardon and forgiue thou vnto me all my sins , and deliuer me from the curse and vengeance , which they haue iustly deserued . And through his merites , make me , O Lord , a partaker of thy mercy . It is thy mercy that I so earnestly knocke for . Neither shal mine importunity cease to call and knocke , with the man that would borrow the loaues : vntill thou arise and open vnto me thy gates of grace . And if thou wilt not bestow on me the loaues , yet ▪ O Lord , deny mee not the crummes of thy mercy , and those shal suffice thy hungry handmaide . And seeing thou requirest nothing for all thy benefits , but that I loue thee in the truth of my inward heart ( whereof a n●w creature is the truest outward testimony ) and that it is as easie for thee to make me a new creature , as to bid me to be such . Create in me , O Christ , a new heart , and renew in me a right spirit : and then thou shalt see ( how mortifying old Adam and his corrupt lusts ) I wil serue thee as thy new creature ; in a new life , after a new way ; with a new tongue , and new manners , with new words and new works , to the glory of thy Name , and the winning of other sinfull soules vnto thy Faith by my deuoute example . Keepe me for euer , O my Sauiour , from the torments of Hell , and tyranny of the Diuell . And when I am to depart this life , send thy holy Angels to carry mee , as they did the soule of Lazarus into thy kingdome . Receiue me then into that most ioyful paradise , which thou didst promise vnto the penitent theefe : which at his last gaspe vpon the Crosse , so deuoutly begged thy mercy and admission into thy kingdome : Grant this , O Christ , for thine owne names sake : to whom ( as it is most due ) I ascribe all glory , and honour , praise , and dominion , both now and for euer . Amen . FINIS . Errata . GEntle Reader , some faults haue escaped vnespied , they are not many . Where thou meetest them , lend thy helping hand to mend them , these few especially : Page 49. line 18. read differs not pag. 3●3 in 〈◊〉 Ego● , Ego ▪ pag. 63● ▪ last line , as 〈…〉 pag. 68● . li. 16. for internall re● integrall . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A05817-e10 a 1 Tim. 6.15 . Apoc. 17.14 . b 1 Sam. 20 20. c 2 Chron. 34.3 ▪ * Qui monet vt facias quod iam facis : ipse monendo , laudat , & hortatu cōprobat actae suo . d Cor. 8.7 . Mat. 25.1 . &c. 2 Tim. 3.4 * Exemplū accidit Domino test● ▪ mu●ieris quae Theatrum ae●●ij● , & inde cum Daemonio redij● Itaque in e●orcismo cùm oneraretur immundus spiritus , quod ausus est fide●em aggredi : constantèr & iustissimè quidem ( inquit ) feci , in meo eam inueni . Tert. de spect . lib. cap. 26. Therefore Tertullian in cap. 26. cals the Stage diaboli Ecclesiam , and cathedram pestilentiarum . Iam 5 9. Apo. 22.20 . Mat. 25.8 . Prou. 6.10 . Iude ver . 3 Eccles. 7.3 Ecclus. 49.1 . Exod. 34.29.30 . 2 Cor. 3.18 * Mat. 26.13 a 1 Tim. 4 8. b Principibus ad salutem so a satis verae est Pietas : abs que illa verò nihil est vel exercitus , vel im●eratoris fortitudo , vel apparatus reliquus Zozom . Eccle. hist. lib. 9. cap. 1 The Honourable Sir. Robert Carey Knight , and the religious Lady Carey his Wife . Mr. Thomas Murray . Sir Iames Fullerton . 2 Chron. 24.16 . 1 Chron. 28.9 . Luk. 2.52 . Notes for div A05817-e5460 Tum Deum amare libet , cum persuasum habemus ipsum esse Optimum Maximum , vbique , praesentem , omnia in nobis efficientem , eum in quo viuimus , mouemur , sumus . Bucer . in Ps. 115. a Heb. 11.6 . Danda in primis opera est , vt Deum norimus , quotquot foelices esse volumus . Quid noscis , si teipsum nescis ? a Psal. 145.3 b 1 Tim. 6.16 . c Deut. 1.4 . & 4.35 . & 32.39 . & 6.4 . Isay 45.5.6.7.8 . 1 Cor. 8.4 . Ephes. 4.5.6 1 Tim. 2.5 . d Ioh. 4.24 . 2 Cor. 3.17 . e 1 Kin. 8.27 Psal. 147.5 . f Deut. 32.4 g Exod. 3.14 h 1 Cor. 8.6 . Act. 17.25 . Rom. 11.36 . 1) Heb. 1.3 . 2) Ioh. 1.1 . Ioh. 5.31.37 Ioh. 14.16 . 3) Col. 2.9 . Iohn 14.9 . 4) Gen. 1.26 3.22 . & 11 7. Exod. 20.2 . Hose . 1.4.7 . Isa. 63 9.10 . Zach. 3.2 . Hag. 2.5.6 . 1 Iohn 5.7 . Mat. 3.16.17 & 28.19 . Ioh. 14.26 . 2 Cor. 13.13 * Singula sunt in singulis , & omnia in singulis , & singula in omnibus , et vnum omnia . Aug. lib. 6. de Trinit . cap. vlt. i Gen. 1.26 . & 3.22 . & 11.7 . Isay 6.8 . * Personae diuinitatis distinguntur personaliter , siue . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . § Deus est indiuisè , vnus in Trinitate , & inconfusè trinus in vnitate , Iustin. in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . k Mat. 11.27 Mat. 3.17 . l Isa. 63.16 . Eph. 3.14.15 m Pro. 30.4 . n Psal. 2.7 , Heb. 1.5 . o Heb. 1.3 . Phil. 2.6 . p Basil. sup . 1 Johan . Sicut mens cogitando in seipsam reflectitur , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 internam gignit : ita mens illa aeterna , quae est Deus Pater , in seipsum intelligendo reflexa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aeternum , modo ineffabili genuit . Et sicut exterior 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 interioris effigi●s quasi est : ●ita . aetern● ille 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aeterni Patris imago est & maiestatis character , Heb. 1.3 . q Iohn 1.18 . Jraen . lib. 4. cap. 14 ▪ r Act. 10.43 . Heb. 1.1 . Lu. 24.27 . Ioh. 5.45 . Act. 3.22.23.24 . s Isa. 63.10 . 2 Cor. 13.13 t Ioh. 4.24 . 2 Cor. 3.17 . u Ioh. 20.21 22. Gal. 4.6 . Ioh. 15.26 . x 1 Pet. 1.15.16 . y 2 Cor. 3.18 . 1 Thes. 5.23 1 Pet. 1.2 . * Origo essentiae in diuinis nulla est , origo Personari● locum habet in Filio , & Spiritu sancto . Pater enim est prior Filio non tempore sed ordine , Alsted . a Mat. 28.19 1 Iohn . 5.7 . * Ideo dicitur Pater 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . b Filius Dei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , quoad essentiam absolutam , est quidē a seipso , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : sed ratione 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , siue Esse personalis per aeternam generationem à Patre existit ; ideoque non est , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ioh. 6.38.17 Ioh. 5.19 . Mich. 5.2 . Iohn 1.1 . c Psal. 2.7 . Hebr. 1.5 . Aliud est habere Essentia diuinam à seipso ; & habere essentia diuinam à seipsa existentem : remota ●●●relatione ad Patrem , sola restat Essentia quae est a seipsa : hinc Filius dicitur principiatus , non essentia● Thom. S●m . pag. 1. q. 33. d Ioh. 15.26 Ioh. 16.15 . Therefore , Rom. 8.9 . the H. Ghost is called the Spirit of Christ. * Spiritus S. à Patre & à Filio procedit , tanquā ab vno & eodem principio , in duabus taentùm personis subsistente , non autem tanqu● a duobus ac diuersis principijs . * Hinc Dei nomen saepe in Scripturis Patri 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ●ribuitur . Iohn 14.1 . Rom. 8.3 . 1 Cor. 8.6 . 1 Cor. 15.24 * Mat. 11.25 26.27 . Ioh. 5.19.20 21 22.23 . Iohn 11.41.42 . Ioh. 12.49 . * 2 Cor. 5 18 &c. * Incarnatio verbi propriè non Patri nec Spirituis . nisi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 competit . Damas. 1. de ortho . fid . c. 13 Impleuit carnem Christi Pater & spiritus S. sed maiestate non susceptione . Aug. serm . 3. de Temp. Ioh 3.16 . Rom. 8.32 . & 5.8.10 . Hoc mirum foedus s●mper mens cogitet , vno hoc est ne dubi●a foedere , parta 〈◊〉 . Melanct. Vt qui erat 〈◊〉 diuinitate Dei filius ▪ fieret in humanitate hominis filius ; ne nomen fili● ad alterum transiret , qui non esset aetern● natiuitate filius . Aug. Congruebat filium assumere humaenam naturá ; vt haec pe●sona ●uae est substantialis imago aeterni Patris , restitueret imaginem Dei in nobis corruptam . Athan. Heb. 2.17.18 Heb. 4.15 . Jnfirmitatis merae priuationis , non pratiae dispositionis . Humana natura est distinctum , indiuiduum à natura diuina , etsi non sit distincta persona . Kecker . Syst. Theol. lib. 3. pag. 315. Vniri Hypostaticè Deum & hominem , nihil est aliud quam naturā humanā non habere propriam existentiam , sed assumptam esse a Verbo aeterno , ad ipsam verbi subsistentiam . Bellarm. de Incarn . lib. 3. cap. 8. * Saluis & distinctis manentibus proprietatibus , naturae tam assumentis , quam assumptae . Act. 20.28 . Act. 17.31 . D. Field of the Church Booke 3. chap. 35. * Secundum esse naturale Christus non est vbique . * Secundum esse personale Christus est vbique . In operibus ad extra ; tres personae operantur simul , seruato ordine personarū in operando . a Rom. 11.36 b As Redemption . Act. 20.28 . and Sanctification , 1 Pet. 1.2 . to the Father . Creation Ioh. 1.3 . and Sanctification 1 Cor. 1.2 . to the Sonne . Creation Psal. 33.6 . and Redemption Ephes. 4 30. to the holy Ghost . Ioyntly all to each . 1 Cor. 6.11 . Opera Trinitatis ad extrae indiuisa , ad intùs diuisae . Personae nomen , non est aliquid ab essentia abstractum ac seperatum . Faius Thes. disp . 2. Persona est ipsa essentia diuina contracta , ad certum & peculiarem subsistendi modū . Zanchius * Persona gignit , & gignitur , Essentia nec gignit nec gignitur , sed communicatur . Alsted . * Quum vnum cogito , trium incomprehensibili luce inuoluor Nazianz. * Quamuis persona cum Essentia non sit omninò idem , non tamen ab ea est omninò aliud . Differt n. non numero , quia sic in diuinis foret quaternitas , non re quia essentia de personis praedicatur sed formaliter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , siue ratione ratiocinante nò ratiocinatae Essentia diuina non differt a personis vt res a rebꝰ , sed vt res a suis modis : nam in deo non est res & res , sed res & modus rei . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nomen Dei essentialiter positum , non minus Filium & Spiritum S. quam patrem designat * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Sacramentū hoc venerandum , non scrutandum , quomodo pluralita● sit in vnitate & vnitas in pluralitate . Scrutari hoc temeritas est , credere pietas , nosce vero vita aeterna . Bern. * Neque ad loquendum dignè de Deo lingua sufficit , neque ad percipiendum intellectus praeualet , magis ergo glorificare nos conuenit Deum , quod talis est , qui & intellectum transcendit & cognitionis initium superat . Chrisost. Hom. 2. Heb. 1. * De Deo loqui etiam vera periculosissimum est . Arnobius . * Lingua , mente , & cogitatione horresco , quoties de Deo sermonem habeo . Nazianz. * Condescendit nobis Deus : vt nos consurgamus ei . Aug. de spec . c. 112. * Exod. 15.3 ab Hauah , vel Haiah , Esse : nam ita Deus est à seipso , vt sit suura esse , et 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Omnes huius nominis literae sunt spirituales , vt denotetur Deū esse spiritum . P. Mart. loc . com . cap. 11. a Montan. de arc . serm . c. 1. Jehouah non habet plurale , & in Scripturis soli vero Deo tribuitur . Locus Exod. 6.3 intelligendus est de gradibus diuinarum patesactionum . Gerard. loc . 3. de Nat. dei . Ex vsu scripturae res tunc dicuntur fieri , quando fiunt manifestae : Sic dicitur Spiritus sanctus nondum erat , id est , nondum innotuerat . Alsted . Lex . Theol. cap. 2. Quod licet scribere , effari cur non liceret ? Theod. in Epit. Ens aeternū . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Tons est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Jn promissionibus Iehouah est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . a Isa. 55.7 . b Ioh. 12.26 Ioh. 14.2.3 . c Ioh. 6.40 . Ioh. 11.25 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Deus est causa causarum , & ens en●●ū . * Psal. 68.19 . Psal. 102.18 . Ps. 106.1.48 Psal. 111.1 . &c. Ps. 112.1 . &c Psa. 113.1.9 . Psal. 115.17.18 . Psal. 116.19 Ps. 118.5.14 Psa. 135.3.4 Iunius in Eirenico . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Polan . Synt. Theol. lib. 2. cap. 6. * Mal. 1.6 . * Plato in Cratylo . Zanchius . Deus est lux 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Ioh. 10.34 . 1 Cor. 8.5 . * Incūbit nobis necessitas rectè viuendi : cum omnia quae facimus facta sint corara oculis Judicis cuncta videntis . Boētius . Nomen Elohim est personarū , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Alsted . Quum Elohim de ● na Persona dicitur Synecdochicè dictū est , propter Essentiae vnicatem . Iuni● . * The like you may reade , Deut. 6.4 . Iosh. 24.19 . * Sic Marcus Arethusius in S●●irniensi Concilio sanctè exposuit . Socrat. Eccl. Hist. lib. 2. cap. 30. This place well vrged had grinded Arrius in peeces . * Elohim Kedoschim Hi● , Dii sancti ipse . * Hence Eli in Hebrew , as Mat. 27.46 . and Eloi in the Syriake , as Mar. 15.34 . both signfie , My God. 2. Chr. 32.8 . * The 70. turnes it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is deriued of Dai , sufficiency , and the relatiue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the same that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or of Schad a Dugge , because God feedes his children with sufficiency of all grace , as the louing mrther the child with the milke of her breasts . * A name compounded of A● , My , Adon , Lord. Adon deriuatur ab Eden , basis , quia Deus est fundamentū & sus●●●ator omnium creaturar●● . Hinc Adon Dominus cui ●ei domesti●●e curae 〈◊〉 , & e● tanqua columnae innititur . * Quando de creatu is vsurpatur Adonai est Iod cum patach : sed de creatore cum cametz . Ab , Adonai manasse videtur Ethnicorum . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . So the diuel stiled Christ the Son of God the most High. Luke 8.28 . * For what is earthly , greatnesse compared to Gods Highnesse . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Of whose substance the light of the Sunne is but a shadow . Iohn 1.9 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Of whose substance the light of the Sunne is but a shadow . Iohn 1.9 . Psal. 91.14.15 . Intelligentiae habent aliquid simile materiae , aliquid simile formae , Solus Deus simplex est , in quo nihil in potentia , sed in actu omnia , imò ipse purus primus , medius , vltimus actus . Scal. Exerc. 6. Sect. 2. Iustin. Martyr . quaest . 129. ad Orthodoxos . * Intelligentiae , cum sint entia alia ab infinito Ente , finita esse necesse est . Nam duo infinita nequeunt esse , neque i● natura , neque extra naturam . Essent n. duo principia prima . Scal. Exerc. 359. Sect. 3. a Act. 7.48 . Psal. 145. Iob. 11.7 . &c. 1 King. 8.27 2 Chron. 2.5.6 . Ps. 139.6 . &c Ier. 23.23.24 . Deus est vbique , non ita vt in dimidia parte sit dimidim , aut tanquam in maiore parte maior Dei pars sit , in minore minor : sed vbique totu● , & in seipso totus est . Aug. Deus est intellectualis Sphaera , cui ut centrum est vbique circumferentia vero nusquam . Trismegist . b Psal. 19.1 . Hos. 2.21 . b 1 Cor. 3.16 & 6.19 . 2 Cor. 6.16 c Col. 2.8 . d Rom. 1.23 . Isa. 40.28 . Psal. 102.27 . &c. e Apoc. 1.8 . 1 Sam. 15.29 Num. 23.19 . Mal. 3.6 . Rom. 11.29 . Iam. 1.18 . Poenitentia cum de Deo enunciatur non affectum in Deo. sed effectum Dei in hominibus significat . Alsted . f Isa. 44.6 . Lam. 5.19 . Dan. 6.26 . Heb. 1.12 . Apoc. 4.8 . Creaturae quaedam aeternae sunt à posteriori : à priori solus Deus ▪ est aeternus . Alsted . Lex . Theol. cap. 2. a Act. 17.25.28 . Act. 14.15 . Psal. 42.2 . Psal. 36.9 . Ioh. 5.26 . Heb. 3.12 . * Hence it is that as God is called of the Hebrews Eheie , so likewise Echeie : and as of the Grecians , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : and as of the Latines primum Ens , so also primum viuens : for to be , and to liue , is all one and the same in GOD. b 1 Kin. 8.39 Psal. 44.21 . Psal. 139.2 . &c. Ier. 17.10 . and 20.12 . Luke 16.15 . Act. 1.24 . Heb. 4.12 . Rom. 11.33 and 16.17 . 1 Tim. 2.19 . Mat. 7.13 . * Intellectus sciētia & sapientia in deo non distingūtur . Tilen . Nā sapientia in homine est habitus intellectui impressus , qui de deo dici nō debet , cuius intellectꝰ est ipsa sapiētia . Keck . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Hes. li. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Sap. Hence the Platonicks terme God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , all-eye , seeing all . c 1 Tim. 2.5 . Rom. 9.19 . Eph. 1.5 . d Deus voluntate sua cuncta constituit . Trism . in 4. dial . Pim. Hinc Orpheus Deū vocat necessitatem , ratione sc●●nferiorū , quod omnia ipsi parere cogantur . * Voluntas Dei semper impletur , aut de nobis aut à nobis . De no●is impletur , sed tamen nō implemus eam quando peccamus , ● nobis impletur quando bonum facimus . Aug. Enchir. cap. 100. Rom. 9.11.13 Iom . 1.21 . a 1 Ioh. 3.1 . b Psal. 45.7 . Gen. 4.4 . * Norma· Iustitiae diuinae , est Dei v●luntas , Quia enim vult , ideo est Justum , non quia iustum ideo vult , Ephes. 1.11 . d Rom. 2.5 . &c. 2 Th. 1.6 . &c. 2 Tim. 4.8 . Deu. 7.9.10 . * Deus principiū & sinē & media rerum omnium tenens , rectaque linea incedēs , è vestigio habet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diuinae legis vindicem simul vt quicquā sāctionū eius praetermissum est . Arist. lib. de mundo . e Rom. 9.15.16 . Ezek. 16.6 . Psal. 103 8. &c. Tit. 3.4 . Semper inuenies Deum benigniorem quam te culpabiliorem . Ser. 11 ▪ Ber. Vindictae gladiū miscrecordiae oleo s●mper accuit . Nice . lib. 17. ca. 3. g Psa. 145.7.9.16 Mat. 19.17 . In creaturis multa inueniuntur bona , ergo creator multo magis est bonus : Imò 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ipsū bonū . h Iosh. 13.14 Psal. 146.6 . Num. 23.19 . Veritas est harmonia tum intellectus & verborum cum rebus , tum etiam rerum ipsarum cum Idaeis , in mente diuina . Keckerm . Veritas Dei in verbis , fides Dei dicitur , quod certò fiant , quae ab ipso dicta sunt . Item constantia , quia sententiam non mutat . Polan . i 2 Pet. 3.9 . Rom. 2.4 . Gen. 15.16 . Ad poenam tardus , Deus est ad praemia velox . Sed pensare solet vi grauiore moram . k 1 Pet. 1.15 . 1 Thes. 4.3 . Heb. 12.14 . Mat. 15.8 . Quanta sanctitas Dei ! ad cuius aspectum , sancti Angeli oculos prae fua tenuitate alis velantes clamant Sanctus , Sanctus , Sanctus Iehoua Tzabaoah . Isai 6.2.3 . l Psa. 106.23 29.40.41 . Num. 25.11 . Jra Dei non est aliud quā voluntas puniendi . Aug. 15. de Ciuit. dei cap. 25. Anselm . lib. 7 , cap. 6. Cur Deus hom . Furor & ira in Deo , non passionem mentis , sed vltionis acerbitatē , notant Carth. in Apo. ca. 19. m 2 Cor. 19.2 n 1 Thes. 1.10 . m Gen 17.1 Psal. 115.3 Math. 11.26 Ephes. 1.11 . Mat. 8.2 . Deus potest omnia quae contradictionem nonimplecant . Aqui . 1 quaest . 25. art . 3.4 . Omnipotentia excludit omnes defectus , quae sunt im potentiae seu posse mentiri mori , peccare , &c. n Chr. 29.11 12. 2 Sam. 7.22 . Apo. 5.12.13 o 1 Chr. 29.14 . hinc deus dicitur , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p Rom. 9.15 Ionas 4.11 . q Luk. 19 27. Psal. 2.9 . Psal 110.1 . r Deus est Schaddai siue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non solum quia Ipse nihil desiderat , sed etiam quia nihil in eo desiderari potest . Creaturas fecit perfectas in suo quasque genere : ergo ipse perfecti Ti●ꝰ est in se & per se. Scal. Exer. 146. sect . 2. Mar. 14.61 . Act. 17.25 . Rom. 11.35.36 . 1 Tim. 6.15 . Mat. 25.34 . Iam. 1.17 . * See Mr. Wilsons Dictionarie of the Bible , most profitable for this purpose . Attributae omnia propter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . singulis diuinitatis personis competunt . * In deo nihil est quod non sit ipse Deus . Zanch. * Omnia in diuinis sunt vnum , ibi nō obuiat relationis oppositio . a Attributa Dei omnia ita in ipso sunt , vt sint ipsum , ita insunt , vt nihil antecedat , nihil subsequatur , sed ex intellectione nostra ( quae perquā vmbratilis est ) alia alijs priùs animo comprehenduntur . Scaliger . Ex. 365. sect . 6. 1) Quae de Deo dicuntur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , relatione ad creaturas , & sic secundum accidens : non exprimunt mutationem in diuina essentia ▪ sed in creaturis factam . Negātur ergo de Deo accidentia realia , non autem predicata accidentalia . 2) Omnia quae in Deo sunt , ita insunt , vt sint ipse Deus . (3) Essentia diuina identificat sibi omnia , quae sunt in diuinis . Biel. sup . 1. sent , d. 1. q. 5. Exhibet omnia accipit nihil , ipsum igitur bonū , est Deus ipse semper . Trismeg . ser. 2. Pim. * Psal. 147.19 20. Ier. 10.25 . a Psal. 90.2 . b 1 Kin. 8.27 . c Gen. 17.1 . Iob. 15.25 . d Isa. 6.3 . Apoc. 4.8 . and 15.4 . e Rom. 11.33 and 16.17 . f Ex. 34.6.7 . Psal. 108.4 . and 103.11 . and 145.8.9 g Deut. 32.4 Gen. 8.25 . Psal. 145.17 . h Ioh. 4.24 . i Deut 32.4 . k 1 Ioh. 5.7 . Mat. 3.16 . Mat. 28.19 . 2 Cor. vlt. vlt l 1 Kin. 8 27. Psal. 139.2 . Ier. 23 23. m Isa. 40.26.28 . Dan. 4.32 . n 1 Kin. 8.39 Ier. 17.10 . o Isa. 63.16 . p 1 Sam. 10.19 . Mat. 11.28 . Mal. 1.6 . Psal. 34.9 . 1 Ioh. 2.4 . 1 Ioh. 2.15 . Rom. 8.28 . * Si te habeam solum san● ruat arduus aether , Tellus rupta suo dissilia●que loco . * Creata omnia perfecti ▪ sunt in Deo , quā in seipsis· Dionis . de diuin . cap. 5. * Ama vnum illud bonum in quo omne bonū & sufficit . Ansel. in prosol . cap. 25. 1 Ioh. 4.8 . a Ephe. 3.19 b Kemp. de-Imit . Chri. cap. 1. c Eccl. 1.2.17 * Domina , immò Dominus Charitas . Bernr . d Rom. 5.9.10 . Ioh. 17.3.22 . 1 Cor. 15.28 Dammatus anteqaam natus . Aug. a Col. 3.10 . Rom. 12.2 . a Ephe. 2.3 . Gen. 6.5 . b Rom. 12.2 . Eph. 4.17 . c 1 Cor. 2.14 d Phil. 2.3 . e Rom. 3.12 . Rom. 7.19 . f Ioh. 8.44 . g Gen. 6.6 . h Deu. 27.26 . Gal. 3.10 . Psal. 119.21 i Rom. 2.4.5 Ier. 28.13 . k Isa. 28.13 . l Gen. 3.8.10 and 4.14 . Heb. 2.15 . m Rom. 1.21 24.26 . n Eph. 2.2 . Col. 1.13 . Iob 1. Zach. 5.2 . Ezech. 2.10 . 1 Ioh. 3.20 . Luk. 12.20 . Prosopopaeia . The doleful lamentation of the reprobate Soule , at the point of death . 2 Sam. 22.5 . Apoc. 21.8 . Iud. ver . 6. 1 Pet. 3.19 . a Luk. 8.28 . & 16.23 . b Thes. 1.10 . c Mat. 23.33 d Luk. 16.22 23. 1 Pet. 3.19 . Iud. ver . 6.7 . Act. 7.5 . Postquam anima de corpore est egressa : subitò Iudicium Christi de se latū cognoscit . Aug. lib. 2. de anim . & eius orig . cap. 4 Hier. Ep. ad Pannat . Anima damnata continuò inuaditur á Damonibus qui crudelissime eam rapientes ad in●ernum deducunt . Cyril . Alex. in o●at . de exit . anim . Mat. 5.34 . and 23.22 . Luk. 12.20 . Luke 16.22.23 . 1 Pet. 3.19 . Iude Ver. 7. Luke 16.24 . Luk. 8.31 . e 2 Pet. 2.4.9 Iude ver . 6. Apo. 11.18 . f Dan. 12.2 . Ioh. 5.28.29 Apoc. 20.13 Mat. 24.29 . Luke 21.24.25 . The damned soules Apostrophe to her body at their second meeting . Mat. 13.41 . Mat. 24.31 . h Anselm . lib. Meditat. i Apoc. 6.16.17 . Bonauent . postill . Dom. 3. post Pent. Serm. 2. Apoc. 21.8 . Bonauent . Mar. 9. a Ioh. 3.5 . b Gal. 4.26 . c Ioh. 1.13 . d Gal. 4.6.7 . 2 Cor. 6.18 . e Eph. 4.23.24 Col. 3.10 . f Rom. 4.8.25 . Rom. 8.1.2 . 1 Pet. 2.24 . g Rom. 4.5.19 . h 2 Cor. 5.29 i Rom. 8.33.34 . k Act. 26.18 Ephes. 2.2 . l Ioh. 20.17 Rom. 8.29 . m Rom. 8.17 n Apo. 1.6 . o Pet. 2.5 . Mal. 3.17 . a Rom. 8.28 . b Psa. 89.32.33 . Psal. 119.71 . Heb. 12.10 . 2 Cor. 12.7 . c 1 Cor. 3.22 & 15.54.55 . Heb. 2.14.15 . d Luk. 22.31 32 Ps. 51.13.14 Ro. 5.20.21 . e 1 Thes. 5.23 . 1 Pet. 1.2 . f Rom. 8.9.10 . g Rom. 8.16 h Heb. 4.10 . Ephes. 3.12 . Gal. 4.6 . Rom. 8.15.16 Zach. 12.10 . Rom. 8.16.27 Rom. 5.1 . & 14.17 . Rom. 5.3 & 14.17 . a Psa. 8.5 . &c. Heb. 2.7.8 . b 1 Cor. 9.1 . Rom. 14.14 . 1 Tim. 4.2 . &c. c 1 Cor. 9.19 21 d 1 Cor. 3.22 23 Heb. 2.7 . e 1 Cor. 3.22 f Mat. 25.34 1 Pet. 1.4 . g Act. 1.25 . Mat. 6.32 . 2 Cor. 12.14 Psal. 23. Psa. 34.9.10 . Heb. 1.14 . Psal. 34.7 . Psal. 91.11 . Isai. 4.5 . Iob 1.10 . Psal. 34.15 . Gen. 7. ● . Psal. 34.19 . a Phil. 3.20 . b Col. 3.2 . c 1 Cor. 15.31 d Col. 3.3 . e Apoc. 14. f 2 Cor. 5.6 . g Ioh. 14.1 . h Heb. 12.22 &c. i Psal. 41.3 . k Gen. 49. n 2 Cor. 5 8. o Phil. 1.23 . p Psal. 42.2 . q Apoc. 6.10 r Apo. 22.20 s Iob 14.5 . t Psal. 31.5 . u Luke 2.29 Psal. 37.37 . Isa : 57.2 . x Psal. 31.5 . y Acts 7.59 . z Mat. 18.10 Act. 12.15 . and 27.23 . a Luk. 16.22 b Mat. 8.11 . Luk. 13.28 . Act. 15.10.11 . Ephe. 1.10 . Heb. 11.9.10.16 . and 12.22.23 . Luk. 19.9 . and 9.31 . c Psal. 91.11 . Heb. 1.14 . d Apo. 14.13 and 22.12 . e 1 Cor. 19. f 1 Cor. 6.15 Mat. 26.26 . g 1 Cor. 6.20 1 Pet. 1.19 . h 1 Thes. 4.14 Acts 7.6 . and 8.2 . i Dan. 12.2 . Ioh. 5.28.29 Luke 14.14 . 1 Thes. 4.16.17 . Apoc. 14.13 . Apoc. 14.13 a Luk. 16.22 b Heb. 1.14 . and 12.24 . c Tim. 4.8 . Apoc. 2.10 . 1 Pet. 5. Col. 1.16 . Ephes. 1.21 . 1 King. 10.8 . Luke 15. 1 Tim. 4.8 . Apoc. 7.9 . Apoc. 7.9 . a 2 Pet. 3.10 12.13 . b 1 Cor. 15.52 1 Thes. 4.16 Ioh. 5.28 . Ezech. 37. Rom. 8.11 . Rom. 5.17 . 1 Cor. 15.21 Phil. 3.10.11 1 Thes. 4.14 . Mat. 10.30 . Dan. 4.12 . 1 Thes. 4.14 . Par est potestas Dei ad instituendos & restituendos homines . Athenagor . f Isa. 65.20 . * Tertul. de resurrect . cap. 6. Hier. Ep. 27. & 61. Aug. lib. 22. de Ciuit. Dei , cap. 17. & omnes● Theologi in 4. sent . dist . 44. g Ephe. 4.13 Ita communiter credunt Theologi in 4 Sent. dist . 44. Vide Aug. d. Ciuit. Dei lib. 22. cap. 15. & 16. Psal. 105.37 . Isa. 35.6 . 1 Cor. 15.43 ▪ 1 Cor. 15.42 . Isa. 65.20 . Aug. Ench. cap. 90. Mat. 13.43 . Dan. 12.3 . Luk. 9.31 . Zach. 9.16 . 1 Thes. 4.17 . Exod. 34.27 Mat. 17. Act. 6.15 . 1 Sam. 18.4 . Hest. 6.8 . Vbi volet Spiritus , ibi erit & corpus . Aug. Mat. 24.28 . Esai . 40.31 . Wisd. 3.7 . 1 Cor. 15.46 〈◊〉 p●st resurrectionem erūt corpora , non quia corpora esse desiste●t , sed quia spiritu viuificāte subsistent . Aug. lib. 13. de ciuit . dei . cap. 22. a Psal. 8.5 . Phil. 3.21 . Heb. 2.16 . Heb. 1.14 . Pas● . 9.11 . Iude ves . 6. 2. Pet. 4. * 2 Pet. 3.10.11.12 . a 1 Cor. 15.52 . b Luk. 17.34 The Elect Soules Apostrophe to her Body at their first meeting in the resurrection . Can. 2.14 . Psal. 32.1 . Dan. 9.21 . &c. Luke 21.28 . Can. 2.1.3 . Verse 17. Luke 17.34.35.36 . 1 Thes. 4.17 1 Cor. 6.1.3 . 1 Cor. 6.2.3 Apo. 22.12 . Rom. 26.2 . 2 Cor. 9.6 . Iohn 14.1 . 1 Thes. 4.17 . Ioel 3.1.2 . &c. Ver. 11.12 . a 2 Chron. 20.29 . * Neare this valley was mount Moriah , where Abraham sacrificed Isaak . Gen. 22. Iacob saw Angels ascending and descending on a Ladder Gen. 28. The Angell put vp his sword and fire from heauen burnt D. Sacrifice in Araunah● floore . 2 Sam. 24. Salomon builded the Temple , 2 Chron. 3.1 . Christ preached the gospell , sufferd his passion , and entered into his glory . Carth. in Gen. 28. * The Sea beyond Iordan towards Tyrus , cutteth the middest of the world . And Ezekiel saith of Ierusalem , In medio gentiū posui eam . That from Zion as frō a center , the Law should be published to all Nations , and there all nations shall be iudged according to the Law. Rom. 2.12 . Acts 1.11 . Richardus de villa noua . Thom. in 4. Sent. dist . 47.48 . Mat. 25.31 . Iude ver . 14. Apoc. 20.11 12. &c. Mat. 19.28 . Hillar . in . Can. 28. Anselm . in Mat. cap. 25. Psal. 145.9 . Isa. 28.21 . Ad poenas tardus Deus est , ad praemia velox . Mat. 25.4 . * Rom. 9.11 . * Ioh. 20.29 . 1 Pet. 1.8 . * Mat. 5.11 . * Psal. 27.10 ▪ Mat. 19.29 . * Ioh. 20.17 . 2 Cor. 6.18 . 2 Tim. 4.8 . 1 Pet. 5.4 . Apoc. 4.4 . Apoc. 4.10 . Apoc. 5. 1 Cor. 6.1.2.3 . &c. Mat. 19.18 . Ioh. 17.12.14.23.24 . Ioh. 12.16 . 1 Cor. 15.24 Psal. 47.5.6 . 7. 9. 2 Cor. 4.17 . Rom. 8.18 . Rom. 8.17 . a 1 King. 8. b 2 Cor. 12.2 . ● . Psal. 19.5 . Mat. 25.10 . Aoc. 21.2 . &c. Verse 24. & 27. Ver. 18. Ver. 11. Ver. 19.20 . Ver. 21. Ver. 13. Ver. 12. Ver. 27. Ver. 16. Apo. 22.1.2 . Psal. 87.3 . 2 Cor. 12.4 . 1 Cor. 2.9 . Heb. 11.10 . Heb. 11.16 . a Visio Dei beatifica solà est summ●● bonum nostrū Aug. lib. de Trinit . cap. 13. b ●●cisti nos domine ad te : inquietum igitur est cor nostrum donec requiescat in te . Aug. Conf. lib. 1. cap. 1. Exod. 33.13 &c. Psal. 67.1 . & 80.19 . Phil. 3.8.11 . Phil. 1.23 . Ioh. 17.24 . Exod. 34.29 Exod. 33 23. 1 Cor. 13.12 2 Cor. 3.18 . 1 Ioh. 3.2 . Mark. 5.7 . Ruth . 3.9 . Gen. 15.1 . Ioh. 17.20.21 . 1 Cor. 15.28 Anima animae erit Deꝰ . Ber● . Non potest summus rerū conditor in se non habere , quae rebus a se conditis dedit : quemadmodùm sol astris . Hugo lib. 4. de anima cap. 15 Apoc. 21.23 Seneca de beneficijs . lib. 2. cap. 29. Iudg. 2.5 . Mat. 25. 1 Pet. 1.4 . Ephes. 2.19 . Hebr. 12.22 . Act. 22.26 . Act. 22.28 . 1 Pet. 1.18 . Apoc. 5.10 . 1 Pet. 2.9 . Rom. 16.10 . 1 Pet. 2.5 . Heb. 13.15 . Mat. 13.43 . Phil. 3.21 . Act. 22.6 . Luke 9.31 . Marke 9.3 . 1 Cor. 15.43 . Ver. 44. 1 Thes. 4.1 . 1 Cor. 1.12 . Aug. soliloq . cap. 36. Nihil natum in terra , nihil ignotum in coelo . 1 Cor. 13.12 2 Cor. 3.16 . Res verae sunt in mundo inuisibili , in mundo visibili vmbrae rerum . Her. Luk. 13.28 . Gen. 2.23 . Mat. 27.53 . Mat. 17.4 . Luk. 16.23 . Mat. 19.28 . 1 Cor. 6.2.3 . 1 Cor. 13.12 August . ad Italicam viduam . Epist. 6 Gen. 25. & 35. 2 King. 22. 1 Cor. 13.8 . Rom. 2.5 . Apo. 22.12 . Eccl. 12.14 . Rom. 2.16 . Mat. 12.36 . 2 Cor. 5.10 . 1 Cor. 15.24 28. 1 Cor. 13.11 Lumen est vmbra Dei & Deus est lumen lumenis . Plato . Poli. 6. Iob 26.14 . Ecclus. 42.32 . 1 Cor. 13.12 . Psal. 16.11 . Psal. 36.8 . Psal. 16.11 . Heb. 12.24 . 1 Reg. 1.40 . Luk. 1.44 . Ioh. 17.23 . Mat. 2.10 . Luk. 2.28 . Luk. 2.46 . Facilius dicere possum● , quid ibi non sit , quam quid ibi sit . Aug. de symb . lib. 3. 1 Cor. 2.9 . Mat. 25.21 . Ioh. 16.22 . Hest. 1.4 . a Phil. 3.8 . b Act. 2.45 . Plutar. Apoth●g . Regum . c Heb. 11.10 15.16 . d Psal. 84.10 . e 1 Reg. 19.4 f 2 Reg. 2.15 g Phil. 1.23 . h Mat. 17.4 . i Ioh. 17.5 . k Heb. 12.2 . Serm. 31. de Sanctu . Hier. in Catalogo . Iren. lib. 5. cont . Valen. Euseb. lib. 4. cap. 16. Nazianz. de de vita Basil. Ruth 1.16 . Heb. 12.17 . Luk. 13.24.27 . 2 Pet. 2.20.21 . Isa. 1.18 . Ioh. 6.35 . Ioh. 6.44 . Tit. 2.11.12 . Psal. 34.14 . Gal. 5.22 . a Apo. 3.8 . b Apo. 19.8 . c Ier. 13.23 . d Zach. 3.4 . e Gal. 2.15 . Rom. 5.8 . Ioh. 9.31 . 1 Ioh. 3.9 . 1 Ioh. 5.18 . 2 Tim. 2.19 . 1 Ioh. 5.16 . Ibid. Math. 7 22.23 . Ephes. 2.10 . Fulk . Rhem. Test : Annot. on Eph. 2.12 . Rom. 2.6 . 2 Cor. 9.6 . Apo. 22.12 . Apo. 2. & 3. a Mat. 25. b 2 Tim. 4.8 . c Rom. 2.8 . d 1 Tim. 6.19 e Gal. 5.6 . * Fides sola non est sola . Fides sola iustificat , vt oculus solus videt . f Iam. 2.26 . g Act. 15.9 . h Act. 16.18 1 Thes. 5.23 . i Mat. 25.34 . Ephe. 1.4 . Eccles 3.14 . b 1 Pet. 1.16 c Rom. 8.29.30 . Iohn 15.16 . d 1 Pet. 1.2 . Noli te in deo primum quaerere , sed in Christo , in quo si te per fidem inueneris , certus esto , te esse electum . e Luk. 15.10 f Verse 24. * Magna● hom . liberi arbitris vires , cum conderetur accepit : sed eas p●ccando amisit . Aug. de . spirit . & lit . cap. 3. Eccles. 7.29 . Ecclus. 15.14 Homo malè vtens libero suo arbitrio , & se , & liberū suum arbitrium perdidit . Aug. Ench. ad Laur. cap. 30 b 2 Cor. 3.5 . Per lapsum , arbitrii libertas in naturalibꝰ manca , in supernaturalibus amissa est . donec gratia restituatur . c Phil. 2.12.13 . Actiagimus , The will is passiue in receiuing the first grace , afterward actiue in all goodnesse . d 2 Cor. 7.1 . e Ioh. 8.36 . Liberum arbitrium , non nisi gratia Dei efficitur . liberū . Aug. ad Colos. c. 7. f Cor. 3.17 Voluntas humana non libertate gratiā consequitur , sed gratia libertatem . Aug. de grat . cap. 8. g Ps. 119.112 h Ioel. 2.28.29 . Zach. 12.10 . Quod iubet , iuuat . Aug. i 2 Cor. 8.12 k 1 Ioh. 5.3 . l Phil. 4.15 . m Luk. 1.6 . n Ioh. 15.10 h Rom. 15.18 i Col. 3.5 . k Gal. 5.24 . Rom. 6.12.13 . l Rom. 6.4.5 Rom. 8.11 . m Gal. 5.25 . n 1 Ioh. 5.4 . o Iohn 8.46 . p Rom. 1.24 28. q Rom. 8.9 . &c. Augustinus optat vt 〈◊〉 ●agnoscat posse legem praestari per gratiam Christi , & pacem fore edicit . r Luk. 11.13 Iames 1.5 . Deus magis delectatur affectu quam effectu . Amb. Mat. 6.1 . * Acts 13.48 . a Rom. 1.16 . b Pro. 29.18 c Mat. 10.25 d Isa. 11.12 . e Isa. 2 2.3 . f Zach. 14.17 g Rom. 10.14 * Heb. 11.6 . h Ioh. 10 . 27· i Ioh. 3.29 . k Hebr. 2.3 . Ioh. 8.47 . l 1 Cor. 1.21 m Lu. 10.16 . n Iohn 8.47 o Iudg. 2.1 . &c. p Luke 7.32.33 . q Acts 2.37 . r Iohn 3.5 . s Pro. 28.9 . t Luke 13.5 . u Tit. 3.5 . x 1 Cor. 10.16 . a 1 Cor. 1.26 b Ioh. 11.5 . c Mat. 19.23.24 . d Mat. 22. Apoc. 6.15.16 , & c· Potentes Potenter cruciabuntur . Sap. Mat. 7.13 . Exo , 23.2 . Eccl. 8.11 . h Rom. 2.4 . 2 Pet. 3.10 . i ● Sam. 3.12 . Ezek. 39.8 . a Rom. 2.5 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Cor poenitere nescium . b 1 Sam. 25.37 . Iudg. 16..21 Iudg. 16.26 . &c. 1 Ioh. 3.3 . Isai. 59.20 . Deut. 29.19 . * Non delinquenti , sed peccata ●elinquenti condonat· Deus . Isai. 55.7 . 1 Sam. Me●●endū est ne te occidat spes : & cum multum speres de misericordia , incidas in Iudicium . Aug. Luk. 23. Latronis exemplum , non est exemplum imitationis sed consolationis . Ioh. 5.45 . Qui dat poenitenti veniam , non dabit peccanti poenitentiam . Aug. Apoc. 18.4 . Luk. 22.62 . Psal. 6.8 . Luk. 2. e Rom. 5.2 . Rom. 14.17 a Phil. 4.7 . b Ioh. 16.24 . Verse 22. c Psal. 51.12 d Luke 15.7.10 . e 2 Cor. 7.10 f Iohn 14.16.17 . g 2 Cor. 1.5 h Isa. 57.21 i Eccles. 2.2 . k Abak . 2.6 . l Phil. 3.8 . m Luk. 6.25 . Fleres si scires vnum tua tempora menseni . Rides quum non sit forsitan vna dies . T. Morus . Luke 12.19.20 . Lam. 1.9 . Iob 14.1 . Quotidiè morimur , quotidiè enim demitur pars vitae , & tunc quoque cū crescimus vitae decrescit . Viues . 1 Cor. 15.31 Isa. 2 . 2● . Iob. 17.14 . Homo est fatuus vsque ad 4● . annum , deinde vbi agnouit se esse fatuum vita consumpta est . Luther . * Sceptra ligonibꝰ aequat . a Iob 14.14 b Iob 14.5 . c Psal. 90.12 Dan. 5.26 . Stat sua cuique dies . Virg. d Ioh. 11.9 . and Iohn 13 1. e Iob 17.13 . f Apoc. 6.8 . g 2 Cor. 5.10 h Psal. 95. Heb. 3. Poenitenti veniam spospondit , sed viuendi in crastinum non spospondit . Chrysost. Nemo tam diuos habuit fauentes crastinum vt possit sibi polliceri . Senec. Heb. 3.13 . a Eccl. 12.1 . b Exod. 13.2 c Exo. 22.29 e Eccl. 12.12 f Gen. 22.3 . g Gen. 43.3 . h Mal. 1.8 . i Dan. 1.4 . k 2 Sam. 5.8 . Mat. 7.22 . Heb. 12.17 . Mat. 25.11.12 . Apoc. 3.10 . Nascentes morimur , finisque ab origine pendet : Et pubescentes iuncta senecta premit . Manil. Nequities vitae non sine● esse senem . Mat. 27.49 . a Deu. 30 . 1● Prou. 3.2 . Psal. 34.11 . &c. b Psal. 90.9 . c Iames 4.14 d Ps. 109.23 . e Psal. 76.5 . Psal. 90.5 . f 1 Pet. 1.24 g Psal. 90.6 . h Isa. 38.12 . i 2 Cor. 4.17 k Heb. 11.25 l 2 Cor. 4.17 Ma●ke 16.9 . Luke 8.2 . Hebr. 3.13 . Psal. 107.17 Lam. 3.39 . Lam. 5.16 . Gen. 15.16 . Dan. 4.27 . 2 Sam. 12.13 Ionas 3.5 . &c. Luke 22.62 . 2 Cor. 5.20 . Mat. 5.20 . Mark. 6.20 . Iames 2.10 . 1 Pet. 2.1 . Mat. 7.14 . Mat. 19.23 . Mat. 7.14 . and 22.14 . Luk. 13.24 . Mat. 25.1 . &c. * Primitiae oris & cordis Deo offerendae . Ambr. in Psal. 119. Exo. 27.20.21 . Exo. 30.6.7 . Psal. 141.2 . a Psal. 51. b Rom. 8. c Hos. 13.2 . Psal. 130.6 . Psal. 67.1 . Psal. 90.14 . 2 Thes. 1.10 Iude ver . 14 Phil. 3.21 . Math. 13.43 . & 17.2 . Luk. 9.31 . Act. 17.31 1 Cor. 6.3 . Iude ver . 15. Luk. 14.14 . 1 Pet. 5.8 . Iob 1.7 . Iob 1.10 . Psal. 121.4 . Psal. 34.7 . & 91.11 . Gen. 32.1.2 . 2 King. 6.16 Luk. 22.61.62 . Ier. 20.14 . Iob 3.1 . Tit. 3.5 . * Gallo canente suas Latro relinquit Insidias &c , Ambr. Hexam . lib. 5. cap. 24. Psa. 139.2.3 . Gen. 31.55 . & 32.1.2 . Psal. 91.5.11 Act. 12.11 . Mat. 22.11 . Rom. 13.14 . 1 Cor. 1.30 . Phil. 3.9 . Apoc. 19.18 Epes . 4.24 . Apoc. 16.15 Mat. 22.13 . Luk. 12.48 . Lamen . 3.23 Psal. 19.5 . Wisd. 15.20 Epicteti dict . a In the Canonicall Bookes of the old Testament , there are 931. Chapters , but distributing the 150. Psalmes into 60. parts , thou shal● finde but 841. which being added to 260. ( the number of the Chapters in the new Testament ) will amount to 1101. diuiding which by three into 365. ( the number of the dayes of the yeere ) there will remaine but sixe ▪ which thou maist dispose of as is prescribed . b Hos viginti duos libros lege , cum Apocriphis verò nihil habeas negotii : ha● tantùm studiosè meditare Scripturas , quas in Ecclesia considentèr legimus . Multò prudentiores te & religiosiores fuerunt Apostoli & primi Episcopi veritatis duces , qui nobis eas tradiderunt . Tu igitur cum sis filius Ecclesi● ▪ non transgrediaris illius terminos . Ac veteris Testamenti ( vt dictum est ) viginti duos meditare libros , Cyrillus Hierosolymitan Catechis . 4. c Exod. ●6 . 36 . d Leuit. 21.44 . and 19.2 . and 20.7 . 1 Pet. 1.5 . e Leuit. 10.1.2 . Verse 3. Deu. 23.13.14 . Iob 11.13.14 . Isa. 1.15 . 1 King. 8.72 Psal. 132.7 . Heb. 4.16 . Dan. 9.18 . Mat. 3.17 . Esay 6.5 . Psal. 51.5 . Gen. 6.5 . Mat 15.19 . Mat. 12.34 . Psal. 14.1.2 . Dan. 9.10 . Dan. 9.11 . Leuit. 26.14 &c. Deut. 27.26 . Dan 9.11 . Gal. 3.10 . Esdr. 9.13 . Lam. 3.22 . Psal. 130.4 . Psal. 5.7 . Psal. 13.5 . Psal. 143.2 . Ezech. 36.25 . 1 Ioh. 1.9 . Gal. 3.13 . Psal. 103.12 . Col. 2.12.13 Eph. 2.5.6 . Iohn 1.29 . Psal. 51.7.10 Gal. 4.24.25 Luk. 1.74.75 Mat. 24.13 . Psal. 90.12 . Rom. 14.17 . Ephes. 1.4 . Mat. 25.34 . Gen. 9.6 . Ephes. 4.24 . Col. 3.10 . Rom. 8.28 . Mat. 22.3 . Rom. 1.16 . Ro. 16.25.26 1 Pet. 1.18.19 . Apoc. 5.9 . Rom. 3.28 . Gal. 2.16 . Ephes. 2.3 . 1 Cor. 6.11 . 1 Pet. 1.2 . 2 Pet. 3.9 . Ephes. 5.14 . Luk. 16.8 . Phil. 2.15 . Act. 24.16 . 2 Cor. 5.10 . Zach. 3.2 . Psal. 34.7 . Psal. 91.11 . Psal. 31.5 . Luk. 23.46 . Neh. 13.31 . Psa. 51.18.19 . Isa. 39.8 . Psal. 72.1.15 1 Tim. 2.2 . Hest. 6.10 . 1 Tim. 2 , 2. Iam. 5.15 . Heb. 13.3 . 1 Cor. 10.13 2 Tim. 2.9 . 2 Cor. 1.5 . &c. Mar. 25.1.2 . &c. Apoc. 22.20 . Heb. 13.15.16 . Psal. 14.4 . Psal. 53.4 . Iob 15.4 . Rom. 10.13 . Zach. 12.10 . Ps. 55.16.17 . Psal. 119.62 . Mat. 26.40 . a 1 Cor. 14.15 . and 16.26.37 . b Gen. 11.7.9 Apoc. 17.5 . c A superstition , Quae filo insertis numerat sua murmura baccis . Mant. Alphons . lib. 4. d Ioh. 17.3 . e Vox continuata , non concisa & rupta , vt battologia vitetur . Perkin . de vnic . ration . conci . cap. 10. Matth. 13.4.19 . Gen. 25.11 . Mat. 26.41 . 1 Cor. 8.12 . Quem dies vidit veniens superbum : Hunc dies vidit fugiens iacentem . Senec. Nescis quid vesper serus vehat . Varro Rom. 11.16 . Phil. 2.3 . Prou. 27.2 . a Eph. 4.23 . Mat. 15.18.19 . b Psal. 137.9 c Isa 59.5 . 2 Sam. 12 4. * Qui conscientiae curā ab●iciunt nec homines reuerentur nec Deum . Prou. 6.14 . Zach. 8.17 . 1 Kin. 13.25 Luk. 1.6 . * Socrates in forum egressus , quam multis egeo inquit , non egeo . Non est ergo pauper qui caret , sed qui eget . * Dimidium plus toto . Hesiod . a Feriunt summos fulmina ●ontes . Hor. Tangūt magnos tristia fata deos , Ouid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Qui notus nimis omnibus , ignotus moritur sibi . Senec. 1 Tim. 6.7.8 9. Insaniae damnandi sunt qui tam multa tam anxiè congerunt , quum sit tam paucis opus . Viues . Pro. 30.8.9 . Viuitur exiguo meliùs . Claud. Tim. 6.8.9 . Gen. 28.20 . * Col. 3.1.2 . Phil. 3.20 . a Ios. 7.9 . Psal. 139.21 . &c. * Nobile vincendi genus est patientia , vincit qui patitur : si vis vincere , disce pati . Optima iniuriae vltio est obliuio : efficit enim , vt animū vret , nec magis Ledet , quam si facta non esset . Ier. 11.20 . Psal. 27.14 . Ne verbis quod se●s ostentes ▪ sed rebus te ostende s●●re . b Psal. 49.18 . c Ezek. 9.4 . Psal. 69.9.10 Mark. 3.5 . d Heu fugiunt fraeno non remorante dies ! Psal. 90.9.10.15 . Non quam d●ù , sed quam benè . * Fuit , non vixit . Senec. Non refer● quanta sit vitae diuturnitas , sed qualis sit administratio . Viues . Tota vita d●es vnus , vt mirum sit homines non exsatiari iisdem toties redeuntibus . * Non potest praesentem diem rectè vi●ere ●s , qui se non eam quasi vltimam victurum esse cogitat . a Mat. 12.36 b Pro. 17.27 & 10.19 . Dixisse saepe paenituit , tacuisse verò nunquam . * Nescet vox missa reuerti . Quam periculosum illud , lingua quo vadis ? Nescit paenitenda loqui , qui proferenda priù● s●o tradidit examini . Cassiod . lib , 10. Ep. 4. c Iames 1.19 Consultiùs est tacere quam ineptè loqui . d 1 Pet. 2.1 . Psal. 3.2 . Si mendacē te norint , nemo tibi credet , etiamsi affirmes verissima . Arist. Odi tanquam amaturus . f Prou. 6.30 . Acts 3.17 . 1 Tim. 1.13 . g Psal. 59.5 . Psal. 101.7 . h Eph. 4.29 . Psal. 1.2 . Prou. 31.26 . Pii est actos reddere pios . i Psal. 139.21 Psal. 69.9 . Si verum audias silentio protinùs reuerere , illique tanquam diuinae rei assurgito . k Marke 4.24.25 . l 2 King. 4.2 . m Eccle. 3.7 Luke 2.19 . Arcanum tibi creditum fideliùs custodi quum depositam pecuniam . * Vera amicitia tantummodo est inter bonos . Mali nec inter se amici sunt , nec cum bonis . Ciuilem Amicum sic habeas vt putes posse innimicum fieri . Quod taceri vis , prior ipse taceas . Bellum non est hominum , sed ( quod verbum sonat ) belluarū & vitiis non hominibus gerendum . Ephes. 5.4 . Psal. 15.3 . Irridere pium n●fas , impium immane , hominem inhumanum . Nemo videtur sibi tam vilis , vt irrideri mereatur . Phil. 4.4 . Pro. 24.17 * Valentinianus Imp. cum supplitio mortis aliquis afficiendus esset , aiebat se malle ad vitam reuocare . Crudelis animi est alienis malis gaudere , & non misereri cōmunem naturam . Rom. 5.8.10 Ephes. 2.4 . Mat. 18.24.28 . Psal. 119. Nec mendacii vtilitas est diuturna , nec veritatis damnum diu nocet . Reprehensio semper vel meliores vel cautiores nos reddit . Si reprehendi fers aegrè reprehendenda ne seceris . Leu. 19.22 . Deu. 28.58 . Rom. 9.5 . Eccle. 5.1.5 . Psal. 239.4.7 Qui facile in sertis iurat in iocis iurabit , qui in iocis , & in mendacio . Viues . Psal. 141.3 . a 1 Pet. 5.12 b Ro. 12.10 * Affabilitas & comitas res funt nullius impendii , amicitias tamen magnas conglutinant 〈◊〉 exhibitae , dissoluunt praetermissae . c 1 Thes. 5.26.14 d 2 Thess. 3.15 . Leui. 19.17 . e Psa. 15.4 . Eze. 17.15 . f Deu. 15.13 14. Ps. 119.101 . 1 Cor. 7.2 . 1 Sam. 30.8 . 1 Cor. 7.5 . Imminet semper occasioni suae diabolus . Greg. Mat. 7.12 . Luk. 16.2 . 2 Cor. 6.2 . 2 Cor. 5.10 . Gen. 39.9.11 . &c. 2 Sam. 12.12 Luk. 8.17 . & 12.2 . * Pro. 5.8 . & 6.27 . Omnis peccandi occasio vitandae est , nam qui amat periculum peribit in illo . Ecclus. 3. Iudg. 7.2.7 . Mat. 16.26 . Hic muru● ahen●n● esto , nil conscire sibi nulla pallescere culpa . Horat. Act. 24.16 . Psa. 118.6.7 Rom. 8.31 . Pro. 16.7 . Ge. 32.4 . &c Gen. 31.7.29.42 Exod. 32.25 . Num. 14.42.43 . &c. Psal. 27.11.12.13 . Nil iuuat bonum nomen re clamante Conscientia . Num. 23.10 . Psal. 37.35.36.37 . 1 Cor. 1.28 . Isa. 58.5.6 . Mat. 23.27.28 . Psal. 51.6 . * Ama & impera . Blando vi● latet imperio . Ausonius . a Qui terret plus ille timet , sors illa Tyranno conuenit . Claud. de instit . prin . b Pet. 2.13 . c Leuit. 25. ●55 . Philem. v. 16 1 Cor. 9.5 . * Si Pericle● quotiès clamidem indueret , apud se dicere consueu●t , Attende Pericles . quod ges●atu●us es imperium in liberos Athen●●nses ? Plat. in Apotheg . Quanto magis tu , qu●tiès authoritatem exerciturus es apud teip●um dicere de●●res ? Memento ó homo quod imperiū geris in liberatos Christianos . * Qui statuit aliquid parte inaudita altera aequum licet statuerit , haud aequus fuit . Sen. in Med. Iudicious Sir Fr. Bacons Essaies of Iudicature . * Luk. 3.4.5 . Isay 40.3 . 2 Chron. 19.10 . Deut. 27.17 . Abak . 3.2 . * Meliùs vt pereat vnus , quam vt pereat vmtas . a Ense rescindendum ne pars syncera trahatur . 1 Tim. 1.8 . 2 Chron. 19 11. Prou. 21.17 . Phil. 4.8 . Vita breuis opusque multū , operarii pigri , & vrget Pater familius . Rabbin . Apotheg . Apoc. 22.12 Iames 5.9 . * Nihil est aliud temp●●s quam vita , quam vnusquisque tantum , se amare profitetur , quam rei nullus magis sit prodigus quam temporis . Eph. 5.16 . Luke 16.2 . Mat. 25.21 . Psalm . 90. Iob 14.5 . Viue memor quam sis eui breuis . Hor. * Heu Perdidi diem ! Tit. Vesp. Apothegm . Nullus sine linea dies . Epes . 4.26 . * Non turpe est veniam precari , turpe est Deum aut hominem habere inimicum . Mihi vindicta dicit Dominus . Rom. 12.19 . Non est tibi i●s inseruum alienum im● in conseruum tuum . Cui semel ignoueris cura vt ille sentiat bona fide id esse actum & si qua in re illi iuuare potes ex periatur te amicum . Viues . Mat. 3.39 . Rom. 12.20 . Id vite tempus ; quod sonino impenditur , non est vita . Vita enim vigilia est . Psal. 139.23 . Psal. 145.18 . Psal. 51.5 . Hezr . 9.6 . Luk. 15.18 . Dan. 9.11 . Ephes. 4.30 . Psal. 119.37 . Isa. 6.5 . Isa. 1.15 . Rom. 3.15.16 . Gen. 6.5 . Psal. 40.12 . Isai. 1.6 . 2 Sam. 5.22 . 1 Ioh. 3.20 . Zach. 13.1 . Ier. 20.23 . Da Domine quod iubes , & iube quod vis August . Mat. 28.20 . Iohn 16.13 1 Cor. 3.16.17 . Luke 1.74 . Act. 13.65 . 2 Tim. 4.7 . Psa. 31.5 . Mat. 25.34 . 2 Tim. 4.8 . Psal. 119.18 . Psal. 51.15 . Psal. 19.14 . Psal. 121.4 . Apoc. 12.7 . Psal. 34.7 . Prou. 18.10 . Apoc. 6.10.22.20 . Mat. 19.28 . Luke 14.14 . Luke 22.61 Luke 7.47 . Luke 18.14 . Luke 15.20 . Psal. 103.8 . Mat. 11.28 . Ezech. 18.21.22 . &c. Deut. 27.26 . Gal. 3.10 . Lam. 3.22 . Mal. 3.6 . Col. 3.12 . Mat. 3.17 . Psal. 15.7 . Psal. 28.4 . Hos. 13.5 . Isa. 1.16.18 . Mat. 9.12 . 1 Ioh. 1.7 . Ioh. 3.14 . Gal. 4.5.6 . 1 Thes. 5.23 . 1 Pet. 5.8 . Psal. 31.5 . Math. 25.2 . Nudus in hunc mundū veni simul hìnc quoquè nudus abibo . Luk. 16.2 . Math. 24.25 . Iob 17.13 . Vt somnus mortis ; sic lectus imago sepulchri . Mat. 12.40 . 1 Thes. 4.14 . Isa. 57.2 . Isa. 26.20 . Psal. 4.8 . Gen. 18.17.19 . Gen. 14.14 . Iosh. 24.15 . Deut. 6.7.93 Psal. 101.6 . Hest. ● . 16 . Gen. 30.27 . Gen. 39.3 . Gen. 39.22.23 . Psal. 127.1.2 Ier. 10.25 . Psal. 52.5 . Gen. 15.16 . Leu. 18.25 . Psal. 3.7.29 . * Origen would haue the Word expounded in Christian houses . Hom. 9. in Leuit. Augustine saith , that which the Preacher is in the Pulpit , the same the householder is in the house . Hoc me docuisti , vt quemadmodum medicamenta , sic alimenta sumpturus accedam . Aug. lib. 10. Confess . * Maior sum & ad maiora genitus , quam vt mancipiū sim mei corporis . Senec. * Of Galal , which signifieth mans Dung , as Eze. 4.17.15 . Heb. 11.3 . Psal. 145.15.16 . Math. 5.14.45 . &c. Act. 14.17 . Hanc ob caeusam Gentiles mensas sacra & festa nominabant . Viues . * Saint Austen had writen ouer his table . Quisquis amat dictis absentûm rodere samam , hanc mensam vetitam nouerit esse sibi . Possid . de vita Aug. Luk. 9.16 . Matth. 14.19 . & 15.36 . Mar. 6.41 . & 8.6 . Luk. 24. Ioh. 6.11 . Mar. 26.30 . Deut. 1.10 . 1 Sam. 9.13 . Ioel. 2.26 . Act. 27.35 . Ioh. 6.9 . & 21.9 . Dan. 5.1.4 . Acts 17.28 . Ioh 17.14 . Psal. 69.22 . Gen. 3.17 . 1 Tim. 4.4.5 . Mat. 4.4 . Leuit. 26.26 Ezch. 4.16 . and 5.16 . 1 Sam. 9.13 . Mat. 14.6 . Luke 24.30 . 1 Cor. 10.1 . Rom. 14.6 . 1 Thes. 5.18 . Eccle. 10.17 Luke 21.34 . Eccle. 31.20 Nehe. 6.10 . Amos 6.6 . 1 Sam. 9.13 . Mat. 14.19 . Psal. 104.27 Ioel 1.20 . Psal. 147.9 . Iob 39.3 . 1 Tim. 4.5 . 1 Reg. ●9 . 8 . Mat. 22.43 . 1 Cor· 14.15 1 Cor. 11.4 . Ephes. 5.19 . Col. 3.16 . Mat. 3.17 . Rom. 6.6 . Phil. 3.10 . Rom. 8.29 . Ephes. 4.24 . Iam. 1.17 . Psal. 78.49 . Psal. 91.5 . Psal , 91 . 5· Gen. 32.2 . 2 King. 6.16 17. Psal. 91.11.12 . Heb. 1.14 . Luk. 21.35 . Mat. 25.2 . &c. Mat. 12.1 . Deut. 18.18.19 . Ioh. 20.19 . verse 26. * Acts 1.2.3 . Cyril bids vs note , that S. Iohn doth not simply set downe the manner of Christs appearing vnto Thomas , but also the circumstance of the time , ( post dies octo ) whence hee concludes thus ; Diem igitur octauum Dominicū diem esse necesse est . Cyril . in Iohan. lib. 12. cap. 58. a Heb. 7.11.12 Ephes. 4.8.11.12.13 . Ephes. 4.1.11.12 . a Acts 1.7 . b Act. 2.1 . &c. c Act. 2.14 . d Act. 2.38.41.42 . e Act. 2.31.39 f Athan. in front . specio hom . de sem . g Apoc. 1.10 The Scripture of the new Test. giues not this honourable title to any thing but onely to the blessed Sabbath and holy Supper . For as he substituted the Lords Supper in stead of the Passeouer : so did hee the Lords day in the Iewish Sabbaths roome . h 1 Cor. 11.20 . * H. Wolphii Cronolog . de Temp. lib. 2. cap. 1 pag. 92 Legis substātia est , sex diebus terrenis negotiis incumbere , septima diuino cul●ui dare operam . Iosh. 10.12.13 . 2 King. 20.11 . Christoph. Heluic . Syst. contr . Theol. cum Iudaeis cap. de Sab. Mat. 12.8 . Isa. 65.17 . &c. Isay 66.22 . Psal. 90.3 . a 2 Cor. 5.17 b Gal. 6.15 . c 1 Pet. 2.10 d Ephe. 4.24 . e Col. 3.10 . f Mat. 26.28 g Ioh. 13.14 h Apoc. 2.17 i Heb. 10.20 k Apoc. 3.9 . l Luke 5.36 m Apoc. 21. n 2 Pet. 3.13 o Isa. 66.22 . Heb. 4.9 . Isa. 58.13 . Rom. 1.4 . Apoc. 1.10 . Ier. 23.7.8 . Gen. 2.2 . Leuit. 23.32 . Neh. 13.19 . Mat. 28.1 . Act. 20.7.11 Exod. 25.31 Apo. 1.13 . Gen. 32.28 . Psal. 110.3 . Zach. 14.17 . Psal. 118.24 . Zohar vpon Gen. fol. 21 H. Broughton . Require of Consent . pag. 50.51 . Ex H. Wolphii Cron. de temp . lib. 2. cap. 1. * Aug. Epist ad Januar. 119. cap. 13. * Sacramentum hoc fuit die● illius octaui , quo dominus resurrexit ad iustificationem nostram &c. vt scribit ad Fidum Ciprianu● . lib. 3. ep . 10. Iun. in Gen. 17.12 . 2 Cor. 4.4 . a 1 Cor. 16.1.2 . b The Syriack translation hath Quū congregamini , non sicut iustū est in die domini nostri , commeditis & bibetis . The Arabian translation also hath thus . Non comeditis & bibitis pro vt vere , diebus domini nostri decet , & Beza witnesseth , that in one ancient Greeke copy there is read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords day added to euery first day , &c. c 1 Cor. 11 20.25.26 . a 1 Cor. 14.33 . * As the phrase of breaking of bread , comprehendeth al other exercises of religiō . Act. 26.7 . So this phrase , of laying by in store , comprehendeth al the other exercises of the Sabath , and why should the Apostle require the collections to be made on the first day of the weeke , but because that on this day the holy assembly were held in the the Apostles time . 1 Cor. 11.33 & 15.1.2 . 1 Cor. 14.37 Acts 20.4.5.6 . &c. a Acts 21.4 . &c. b Apoc. 1.10 Mos Christianus , &c. It is the manner of Christians to call it the Lords day , Beda in Luc. cap. 24.1 . Heb. 2.5 . Heb 2.11 . and 5.9 . * Ier. 17.22 . Ezech. 20.19.20.21.24 Ezec. 23.38 . Nehe. 9.14 . Ex. Bodin de Repub. lib. 4. cap. 2. 1 Cor. 14.33 40. Esa. 55.1.2 . Apoc. 3.18 . Iames ▪ 2.9 . Gen. 2 ▪ 3. Exod. 34.1 . &c. Deut. 4.13 . Deut. 4.4 . 1 Reg. 8.9 . Heb. 9.4 . Rom. 5.17 . Matth. 5.19 . Acts 15.20.24.28.21 . Mat. 24.20 . Euseb. hist. Eccles. lib. 3. cap. 5. It is probable that this oracle was that voice ( migremus hinc ) which with an earthquake was heard by night in the temple mentioned by Iosephus de bello Iudaico lib. 7. cap. 12. Mat. 24.35 . Isa. 56.6 . Nehem. 13.11 . &c. Eph. 2.14 . Pro 2.17 . Mat. 19.6.8 . Nitimur in vetitum . Hor. Rom. 7.14 . Gen. 1.14 . Iob. 9.9 . Iob 38.31 . Amos 5.8 . a To distinguish twixt Spring and Haruest , Summer and Winter and to foreshew Iudgements to come . b Moaedim sig . Sacred times appointed for Gods holy worship , hauing special significations and promises . c One of the 7. daies of the week from the other . d Solar , Sabbatary , and Iubilie . Ex. 23 11.12 . Index Chron. apup Anno Mundi . 1998. After M. Rob. Pont. his computation . Treatise of the last decaying age of the world , published Anno Dom. 1600. R. Pont. tr . of the last age , pag. 17. Ier. 25.11.12 Hezr . 1.1 . * Apoc. 8.2 . and 9.7 . Napier on the Apoc. Proposition 6.8.9 . & hi● Resolution Apoc. 5. Pont. Of the last age of the world . pag. 12. Buchol . 2. Index Chron. Broughton . Consent . A.M. 2430. Deut. 34. Pont. ibid. & Scaliger . Bucholzer . * Pont. p. 21. Buch. Index Cronol . apud A.M. 2500. * Iubilie , some deriue of trumpets or Rammes-hornes , wherewith the Iubilie was sounded : others from Jubal , a streame , because they carry vs to the death of Christ , the author of our eternall rest & ioy . Isay 61. Luke 4. * Pont. of the last decaying age of the world . pag. 12.13.21 a Expertum est in plerisque omnibus 63. annum cum periculo & clad● aliqua venire , aut corporis morbique grauioris aut vitae interitus , aut animi agritudinis . Agellius lib. 1.15 . c. 7. Augustus in ep . ad Cai●n nepotem exultat s● 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comm●●em sen●orum omnium 63. euasisse , Bodin . de Repub. lib. 4. cap. 2. * Aristotle , Cicero , Bernard , Bocace , Erasmus , Luther , Melancthon , Sturmi●s , &c. * She was , she is ( what can there more be said ? ) In earth the first , in heauen the second Maide . Bodin . Bucholz . Climax vitae virorum ferè septenariis aut nouenariis , Faeminarum verò senariis d finitur . Bodin . de Rep. lib. 4. cap. 2. Wisd. 11.17 Wolph . praem . chron . Apoc. 10.6 . Tempus est rerū mundanarum duratio extrinsecu● obseruata H. Wolph . Chron. cap. 1. Tempus cum mundo caepit , & una desiturum est , ibid. Gen. 2.3 . Apoc. 1.10 . * Si quid horū tota die per orbem frequentat Ecclesia . Nam hoc quin ita saciendum sit disputare : insolentissimae insaniae est . August . Ep. 118. ad Ian. Synod . Col. part . 9. cap. 9. Ignat. ad Magnes . Apolo . 2. Origen . homilia 7. super Exod. 1. Epistol . ad Ianuar. 119. cap. 13. & ad Cassul . Epi. 86. August . de temp . Ser. 251. Psal. 87.3 . Aug. de temp . ser. 251. & 154. Conc. Const. Can. 8. Wolphius Chron. lib. 2. cap. 1. Muss . Bipont . postill . Dom. Pasc. Mat. 27.52 . Codoman . A●nat . An. Mun● . 2515. Iosh. 6.13 . Apo. 10.7 . Aug. ad Casulan ep . 86. & ad Ianuar . 119. cap. 13. Aug. Serm. de temp . 251. & 154. & Conc. 6. Constant . cau . 8. * Non dubi●amus quin variè apud Christianos Sabbathum violetur , non abstinendo ab iis quae aliis diebus licita sunt . Armin. Iunius praelect in Gen. 2.3 . Exod. 31.13 14. &c. Ezek. 20.12.20 . Ezek. 46.1.2.3 . &c. Exod. 35.2 . Armin. disput . Theolog. in praecep . 4. Thes. 14. Act. 10.15 . Isa. 58.13 . Read H. Wolphins Cronolog . de Temp. lib. 2. cap. 4 pag. 118. and cap. 7. pag. 140. &c. Num. 5.32 . 2 Mac. 27.28 Cent. Magdol . 12. cap. 6 Discip. de tempore . Ser. 117. Tho. Cantiprat . lib. 2. de apib . Tympi● . admiran . vindict . diu . Theus . hist. Iohan Finc . lib. 3. de miraculis . Stowes A. bridgement Anno 1582. Discite iam moniti Dominum non temnere Christum . Whilest the Preachers cryed in the church , prophanenesse , prophanenesse ▪ Gaine would not suffer them to heare : therefore when they cryed fire , fire in the streets , God would not suffer any to helpe . * Numb . 15.38 . a Num. 28.9.10 . b Exo. 35.2.3 c Exo. 16.23 . d Deu. 5.15 . e It was the Sabbath day , on which Moses and the Children of Israel sang to God , whē Pharaoh and his hoast , were drowned in the sea Exod. 15. See Trem. & Iun. notes on Deu. 5.15 & on Exod. 12.15 . Obiect . ● . Gal. 4.10 . 1 Cor. 16.1 . and 14.37 . Act. 20.7 . Col. 2.17 . Leuit. 23.37 38. Obiect . 2. Col. 2.16 . Obiect . 3. Rom. 14.5 . Rom. 15.1 . Apoc. 1.10 . * Exo. 31.29 30. Exod. 31.12 13. Exod. 31.15 &c. Exod. 34.21 Nehe. 13.15 Ier. 17.21.22.27 . Deut. 5.14 . Rom. 8 . 22· Deut. 25. ● . ● Cor. 9.9 . Neh. 15.15.16.19 . Apoc. 1.19 . Isa. 58.13.14 . Psal 37.4 . Ephes. 5.18.19 . Rom. 12.11 . Deut. 28.47 . Isa. 58.13 . 1 Cor. 10.7 . Exod. 32.6.18.19 . Melius enim arare quam saltare in Sabato . Aug. in tit . Psal. 91. Act. 17.31 . Rom. 2.12 . &c. 2 Thes. ● . 8 . &c. Lactan. lib. 7. cap. 19. Apo. 12.11 . * This was the last and heauiest curse that Saint Iohn wished spirituall Babylon . Apo. 2. & 3. Isa. 56.2 . &c. and 58.13 . &c. Exod. 16.23 &c. Exod. 19.15 1 Cor. 7.5 . Gen. 35.2 . 1 Thes. 4.4 . 1 Sam. 21.5 Exod. 19.16 Psal. 92.2 . Eccles. 417. Col. 4.3 . Psal. 91.1.2.5 . 1 Chron. 29 11. &c. * Here thou maist confesse whatsoeuer sinne of the last weeke clogs thy conscience . Iohn 1.29 . Mat. 13.1 . & Luke 8.25 . Col. 4.3 . Act. 26.18 . 1 Thes. 5.13 Heb. 13.17 . 1 Cor. 11.10 Eph. 3.10 . 1 Pet. 1.12 . Esa. 58.13 . Esa. 66.23 . Psal. 104.4 . Psal. 42.1.2 . Psal. 84.10 Psal. 5.8 . Gen. 28.26.17 . 1 Cor. 14.25 Psal. 26.8 . Psal. 27.4 . Psal. 27.6 . Psal. 23.6 . Eccl. 4.17 . 1 Cor. 12.12 Act. 2.2.46 . & 4.32 , Eccle. 5.1 . Eze. 46.10 . Psal. 110.3 . * Cum Romam venio , Jeiuno Sabbato : cum hîc sum , non Ieiuno . Sic & tu , ad quam fortè Ecclesiam veneris , eius morem serua , si cuiquā non vis esse scandalo , nec quēquam tibi . Amb. consil . August . ep . ad Ianuar. Luk. 4.20 . Luk. 19.48 . Isa. 2.3 . Act. 10.33 . 1 Chr. 17.25 Gal. 4.14 . 1 Thes. 2.13 . Apoc. 2.7 . Luk. 24.32 . Luk. 11.28 . Rom. 15.16 . Deut. 33.3 . Ioh. 10.27 . Ioh. 8.47 . & 18.37 . Luk. 8.21 . Mark. 3.35 . Eze. 46.10 . Luk. 10.16 . Numb . 6.23.27 . 1 Cor. 16.1 . 2 Cor. 9.5.6.7 . &c. Leuit. 11.3 . Psal. 119.11 . Mat. 13.19 . Iob 31.17.18 . Hest. 9.22 . Deut. 15.10 . &c. Mat. 25.35 . &c. 40. If thou be a priuate man either performe these holy duties by thy selfe , or ioyne with some godly Familie in the performance of them . Acts 17.11 . Heb. 5.14 . Mat. 26.30 . Iam. 5.13 . Deut. 6.7.20 Heb. 6.1 . Heb. 5.14 . Psal. 92.5 . & 19.1 . &c. & 8.1.3 . &c. Rom. 1.19.20 . Praesentem narrat quaelibet Herba Deum . Isay 40.26 . Psal. 8. Mat. 25.35 . Iames 5.14 . &c. Mat. 12.5 . Act. 1.12 . 2 Reg. 4.22 . Mat. 23.17.19 . Num. 10.2.3 a 1 Reg. 19.8 Marke 3.4 . b Math. 12.11 . c Luk. 13.15 d Mat. 12.1 . e Hest. 9.22 . 1 Cor. 11.22.34 . f 1 Cor. 16.1 * Nuncius praecepti excipitur à Sabbato . Iud. Coment . sup . Num. 13 3. a Isai. 6.3 . b Gen. 18.27 c Heb. 12.29 . d Iob 21.18 e Psal. 51.3 . f Zach. 3.1.1 g 1 Cor. 11.31 . 2 Sam. 6.22 . Luk. 15.21 . Psal. 106.17 . 2 Pet. 2.4 . Gen. 3.23 . Rom. 2.5 . Iob 15.16 . * Here confesse whatsoeuer fault thou hast done that day by omission or commission , and then fetching from thy heart a deep sigh , say . Psal. 145.9 . Iam. 2.13 . Rom. 5.20 . Eze. 33.11 . Luk. 1.18 . &c. Mat. 21.31.32 . Lam. 3.22 . Heb. 12.24 . Ieiunium . 1 Coactum . a 2 Kin. 6.26 b Acts 27.33 2 Physicum . Nihil periculosiùs habitudine corporis extremè bona : detrahenda sunt ergo per Ieiunium redundantia , ne natura suo podere fracta succumbat . Basil. hom . 1. * 3 Politicum . 4 Miraculosum . 5 Quotidianum . c Tim. 3.3 . Tit. 2.3 . Pro. 31.4.5 . 6 Religiosum . 2 Cor. 6.4.6 Ieiunium in Paradiso praescriptū est : reuerere igitùr I●iunii canitiem . Basil. hom . 1. de Ieiun . Exo. 19. & 3. Leuit. 23. Mat. 6.17 . and 9.15 . * Qui ieiunat Angelorum ritu viuit : & dum paucissimis contentus est similitudinem cum illis assequitur . Basil. hom . 1. de Ieiun . Naturae o● paruum & gu●tur arct●̄ homini dedit . Quamdiù ieiunauit Adam , in Paradis● suit , comedit , & erectus est . Hierom. Praeceptum esse Ieiunium video , quibus autem diebus non oporteat ieiunare , & quibus oporteat , praecepto Domini vel Apostolorum non inuenio definitum . August . ad Cassulan . Ep. 86. Indifferenter ieiunandum , ex arbitrio , non ex imperio nouae disciplinae , pro temporibus & causis vniuscuiusque . Tert. aduers. Psychic . Montanus haereticus primus erat qui ieiuniorum leges praescripsit . Eus. Eccl. hist. li. 5. cap. 18. ex Apollon . a Leu. 23.32 . Iosh. 7.6 . 2 Sam. 3.35 . b Hest. 4.16 . c Leuit. 23.28.36 . Ioel 1.14 . and 2.15 . d 2 Sam. 3.35 Hezra 10.6 . Dan ▪ 10.3 . Ester 4.16 . Acts 9.9 . e 2 Cor. 7.11 * Quid prodest vacuare corpus ab escis , & animam replere peccatis ? Aug. de temp . serm . 46. f Exo. 33.5.6 g Hest. 4.1.2 Ionas 3.5.6 Ioel 1.13 . Mat. 11.21 . h 2 Sam. 12.16 . Ioel 1.13 . Hest. 4.3 . 1 Kin. 21.27 . * Si sola gula peccauit , sola ieiunet & sufficit : Si vero peccauerunt & mēbra caetera , cùr non ieiunent & ipsa ? Bern. serm . Quadrag . 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Mat. 9.15 . Can the children mourne then shall they fast . And Marke and Luke for mourne haue fast . Examples Psa. 6. & 22. & 38. & 79. & Ieremies Lamentions Ioel. 2.12.17 Ier. 31.18.19.20 . Gen. 21.17 . Iob 39.3 . Psal. 147.9 . Psal. 104.21 . 1 Sam. 7. Ezr. 9. & Dan. 9. Neh. 1. Prou. 28.13 . Ps. 32.3 . &c. Psal. 51.4 . 1 Ioh. 1.7.9 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 1 Ring . 20.31 . Psal. 50.15 . Phil. 4.6 . 1 Tim. 5.5 . Non possum ferre iniquitatem , & interdicti diem . Isai. 1.13 . Ion. 3 8.10 . * Pulchrum est corporis ieiunium , cū sit animus à vitiis ieiunus Hierom. ad Ce lant . Ep. 14. Ieiuna à malis actibus abstine à malis sermonibus contine à cogitationibus pessimis . Cyril . in Leu. cap. 10. Isa. 58.2 . &c Zach. 7.5.7 . * Quid prodest tenuari corpus abstinentia , si animus intumescit superbia ? Vinum non bibere , & ira inebriari ? Carnibus non vesci ; & de ore omni esca sordidiùs egredi maled●ctum aut mendacium . Maximus Epūs . Qui cibis abstinent & mala agunt daemones imitantur , quibus culpa adest & cibus deest . Isidor . * Vis orationem tuam volare ad culum ? Fac illi duas alas , ieiunium & eleemosynam . Aug. Isa. 58.6 . &c Isay 58.6 . &c. Zach. 7.9.10 . * Qui ieiunat vt parcat , non ad Dei gloriam ieiunat , sed substantiae suae parcit . Chrysost. in Mat. Mat. 6. Act. 10.30.31 . * Non Deo , sed sibi ieiunat qui quae ●d tempus subtrahit , non inopibus subtrahit : sed ventri postmodum offerenda custodit . Greg. in Pastor . ca. 44. 2 Cor. 9.6 . Ieiunium tuum te casliget , sed alterum laetificet . Aug. ser. de temp . 64. Accipiat esuricus Christus , quod ieiuna●s minus accepit Christianus . Aug. de temp . ser. 157 Beatus qui ieiunat , vt alat pauperem : imitatur enim Christū , qui animam suam posui● pro fratribus suis. Cyril . in Leuit. lib. 10. a 1 Sam. 15.22 . b Heb. 11.6 . Rom. 14.23 . * Splendida peccata . August . c Rom. 6. vlt. d 1 Cor. 10.31 . 2 Cor. 8.19 . Phil. 1.11 . e Luk. 1.74.75 . f 2 Pet. 1.10 . g Mat. 5.16 . Isa. 61.9 . h Ephes. 2.10 i Dan. 4.24 . k Luk. 6.35.36 . l 2 Cor. 1.3 . m Luk. 16.1 . n Apo. 14.13 o Luk. 16.22 Psal. 91.11 . Heb. 1. ●4 . p 1 Tim. 6.19 q Mat. 25. r Pro. 19.17 . s Esd. 8.21 . 1 Cor. 9.17 . t 1 Tim. 5.23 Ieiunium orationem roborat , oratio sanctificat Ieiunium Bern. ser. de Jeiun . u Ioel. 1.17 . Nehem. 4. Luke 2.37 . 1 Cor. 7.5 . x Ioel 2.18.19 . 1 Cor. 11. y 1 Sam. 7. z 2 Chro. 20 a Nehem. 1. b Dan 9. c Esdr. 8.23 . d Hest. 9. e 1 Sam 7.6 . f Ionah . 3. g 2 Chron. 12.5 7. &c. h 1 King. 21. i 2 Chron. 32.26 . k 2 Cor. 33.18.19 . a Ionah 3.7 . 2 Chro. 20.3 Ezra 8.21 . b 1 Sam. 7.5.6 Ioel 2.15 . 2 Chron. 20 Ionah . 3. Hest. 4. c Exod. 19. Esdr. 8. Acts 1. & 13 & 14. d Ioel. 1.14 . Nehem. 8. e Isa. 58.7.10 2 Cor. 9.7 . Gal. 2.10 . Exod. 12. & 15. Hest. 9.19.22 . 2 Thes. 1.11 . Col. 1.12 . Luk. 20.35 . Apo. 3.4 . Exo. 12.48 . Exod. 12.6 . Ioh. 13.5 . 1 Cor. 11.28 Pro. 23.1.2 . Psal. 26.6 . 1 Sam. 21.4 . Exod. 3.5 . Iosh. 5.15 . Apoc 19.7 . Gen. 3.24 . 1 Sam. 6. 1 Sam. 21. 2 Chr. 26.18 &c. 2 Chr. 30.18 &c. 1 Cor. 11.29 1 Cor. 11.29 1 Cor. 11.29 Vers. 27. Mat. 27.25 . Numb . 9.13 . Heb. 2.3 . Mat. 26. 1 Cor. 11. Iohn 13.1 . Heb. 10.28.29 . Apoc. 19.9 . Efficacia Eucharistiae non aequaeliter se habet , quoaed omnes fideles , sed pro ratione fidei communicantium . Origen . * Mat. 17.5 . a 1 Cor. 11.23 . &c. Prou. 9.5 . b Heb. 5.4 . Num. 16.40 . 1 Cor. 10.16 Eucharistiae Sacramentū non de aliorū manu , quam praesidentium sumimus , Tert. lib. de Coron , cap. 3. * Qui est à terra panis percipiens vocationem Domini , non iam communis panis est , sed Eucharistia , ex duabus rebus constans , terrenâ & coelesti . Iren. lib. 4. cap. 30. Per Sacramentum corporis & sanguinis Domini diuinae efficimur consortes naturae , & tamen esse nō desinit substantia vel natura panis & vini . Gelasius cont . Eutic . Christus visibilia symbolae corporis & sanguinis appellatione honorauit , non naturam mutans , sed gratiam naturae ad●ciens . Theodoret. Dialog . 1. c 1 Cor 10.16 . d 1 Cor. 11.26 . e Acts 3.21 . Acts 1.11 . Heb. 8.21 . f Mat. 24.27 28. g 1 Thes. 4.17 . * Dauid cals Bread the strength of mans heart , Psal. 104.15 . Isay , the stay of bread , Chap. 3.1 . Ezechiel , the staffe of bread . Chap. 4.16 . Homer , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . a Mat. 26.16 1 Cor. 11.26 1 Cor. 11.26 Gal. 3.1 . Heb. 9.26 . & 10.12 . & 1.3 . Quotidiè nobis Christus crucifigitur . Aug. in Psa. 95. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . a Incruentum sacrificium . If it be vnbloudy , because it is voide of bloud , thē is it not Chrs. naturall body : If because it is offred without shedding of bloud , then is it not auaileable for the remission of sinnes . Heb. 9.22 . Christo cum patre & spir . Sancto sacrificiū panis & vini in fide & charitate ▪ sancta Ecclesia Catholicae offerre non cessat . Aug. de fid . ad Pet. diac . cap. 19. Cum frangitur hostia dū sanguis de calice in ora fidelium funditur quid aliud quam Dominici corporis in cruce immolatio eiusque sanguinis de latere effusio designatur ? Can. dist . 2. de conse cap. cū frangitur . 37. Rom. 4.11 . Mat. 26.28 . 1 Cor. 11.25 Iudg. 13.23 . 1 Cor. 10.16 Ioh. 14.16.23 . 1 Cor. 6.17 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Eph. 3.17 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Ioh. 15.5 . Eph. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 6.35 . Col. 1.18 . Rom. 12.4.5 Eph. 2.19.20 . 1 Cor. 10.17 Eph. 5.31.32 Apo. 21.2 . Phil. 3.12 . 2 Cor. 5.21 . Rom. 4.25 . 1 Pet. 2.24 . Phil. 3.9 . Mat. 25.35 . Act. 9.4 . Mat. 25.45 . Zach. 2.8 . Eph. 4.23.24 Rom. 8.29 . 2 Cor. 3.18 . Ioh. 15.5 . Ioh. 1.16 . 2 Cor. 8.1.4 6.7.19 . 1 Cor. 10.17 Ioh. 17.11.21.22.23.26 2 Cor. 4.13 . Eph. 4.5 . a Rom. 5.5 . b Tit. 3.5 . Ephe. 4.5 . c 1 Cor. 10.17 . 1 Cor. 11.33 d Col. 1.18 . and 22. e Act. 4.32 . 1 Cor. 10.16 * Haec ( s●corpus & sanguis Domini ) accepta atque hausta , id efficiunt , vt & nos in Christo , & Christus in nobis sit . Hil. lib. 8 de Trin. I am corpus Christi meo corpori sociatum est , & sanguis eius meas ornauit genas . B. Agn●tis doct . apud Ambros. * Corpus non adest cū pane 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , id est , simul loco , sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , id est● simul tempore . * Fidem mitte in Coelum , & eum in terris tanquàm praesentem tenuisti . Aug. Epist. 3. ad Volus. Ephes. 5.32 . a Luk. 24.30.31 . b 1 Cor. 12.13 . c 1 Sam. 14.27 . d Iudg. 7.13 . e 1 King. 19.6.7 . f Psal. 78.24.25 . Num. 16.35 . g Iohn 6.32.33.49.50 . h Ioh. 6.51.58 . i Iohn 6.34 . a Iohn 5.25 . Rom. 6.4.5.11 . b Apoc. 20.6 * Hinc apud priscos Sacramentum Baptism● appellabatur , salus , Sacramentum verò Dominici corporis , vita . Aug. lib. 1. de peccatorum meritis . c. 14. c Iohn 6.57 . d Iohn 12.2 1 Sam. 3.10 . Psal. 108.1 . Acts 9.6 . Apo. 3.1 . Ioh. 6.45 . a Hinc panis & vinum à veteribus nominantur symbola resurrectionis . Canon Nicaenus . b Ioh. 6.51 . Caro Christi non in sese sed in verbo ipsi hypostaticè vnito viui●●ca est . Cyr. in Ioh. 10.13 . Et quia est propria caro verbi , cuncta viuifica●●is . Synod . Eph. directa fide ad Regina● . Viu●si●at 1. ratione merit● obedien●i , a quia Christi ●aro pro cred●●tib●s oblata fuit in sacrificium . 2. ratione copulationis nostrae cum Christo , quia non possumus ad Deum vit fontem pertingere , 〈◊〉 carne illa Christi mediante , & quatenus carni illi quasi membra sumus insit● . Caro non prod●st . Ioh. 6.63 . ●i . carnalis opinio non conueniens cum mysterio mandacationis carnis Christi . * Quomodo negane carnem capacem esse resurrectionis , quae sanguine & corpore Christi nutritur ? Irenaeus lib. 4. cap. 34. * Christi resurrectio in qua nostrae innititur communis resurrectionis fide iussor est . Theod. a Mortuum esse Christum etiam Pagani credunt : resurrexisse vero propriae fides est christianorum . Aug. lib. 16. cont . Faust. cap. 19. Tota fiduciae Christianorū est resurrectio mortuorum . Tertul. lib. 5 de resur . Carn . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Omnium terribilium terribilissimum mors . Arist. Ioh. 6.51 . Apoc. 2.7 . Apoc. 22.6 . Milites sacramento erant iurati & obstricti ad praestandam soli Imperatori fidelitat●m & obedientiam . Cicero . Deut. 27.26 . Gal. 3.10 . Luk. 15. * The 1. Commandement . Deut. 6.5 . Mat. 22.37.38 . Leuit. 19.14 . Psal. 22.5.6 . Psal. 38.8 . * The 2. Commandement . Deut. 12.32 . Mat. 15.9 . Gal. 3.1 . * The 3 Commandement . Phil. 2.10 . Eccl. 4.17 . 1 King. 19.10 . Ier. 5.2 . Heere confesse thy rash & false swearing . * The 4. Commandement . Act. 20.7 . 1 Cor. 16.2 . Here confesse thy trauelling on the sabbath , and thy leauing the holy exercise , to goe to sporting or feasting . The 5. Commandement . 1 Thes. 5.13 Gal. 4.15 . Here confesse thy disobedience to thy Parents , Ministers Magistrates , Masters or Tutors . The 6. Commandement . * Pro. 19.11 . a Eph. 4.31 . Mat. 5.44 . Here confesse thy hastines & fury : & if thou hast beene any way the cause of any mans death vniustly or cruelly . The 7. Commandement . 1 Thes. 4.3 . &c. Rom. 6.13 . Here confesse vnto God thy secret pollusions , fornication or adulterie , if Sathan hath so farre preuailed ouer thee . The 8. Commandement . Ephes. 4.28 . Luke 6.34.35 . Leuit. 25.35 Here confesse if thou hast secretly stolne or openly robbed any thing , or hast detained from any fatherlesse childe that which is his by right . The 9. Commandement . Zach. 8.16 . Mat. 10.16 . 1 Cor. 13.7 . Mat. 1.18.19 Psal. 50.20 . Psal. 15.3 . Here confesse if thou hast belyed or slaundered thy neighbour , or not spoken the truth to cleare his innocencie , when thou wast called thereto . Tit. 1.12 . The 10. Commandement . Heb. 13.5 . 1 Tim. 6.6 . Phil. 4.11.12 Rom. 7. Heb. 4. Psal. 130.1 . Iob. 1.12 . Ion. 2.2 . Rom. 4. vlt. Heb. 6.1.2 . Ioh. 17.3 . 1 Tim. 2.4 . 1 Cor. 11.29 2 Cor. 13.5 . 1 Cor. 2.14 . Rom. 8.7 . Iam. 3.19 . Heb. 4.2 . Rom. 4.11 . Ephes. 3.17 . Heb. 11.6 . Rom. 14.23 . Isa. 55.7 . Ezech 33.11 Act. 26.19 . Act. 3.19 . Luk. 1.74.75 Ha. 2.13.14 . Tit. 1.15 . Mat. 5.23.24 . Ioh. 13.14.34.35 . Mat. 6.12.14.15 . & 18.35 . Matth. 22. 1 Pet. 1. Isa. 55.1.2 . Mat. 26.26.27.28 . &c. 2 Sam. 19.33 Gen. 22.5 . * Haile King Col. 2.3.9 . 2 Sam. 6.7 . Mat. 3.11 . Mat. 8.8 . Mat. 9.12.13 Mat. 11.28 . Mat. 22.11 . This wedding Garment is righteousnesse and true holinesse . Apoc. 19.8 . Ephe. 4.24 . a 1 Cor. 11.10 . Ephes. 1. vlt. b 1 Pet. 1.12 . 1 King. 8.27 a Apo. 3.20 . b Ioh. 14.23 c Rom. 7.14 d Verse 24. e Mat. 9.13 . Mat. 11.28 . 2 Sam. 7.18 . Gen. 32.10 . 1 Sam. 4.7 . Mat. 28.5 . Lu. 2.43.44 . Matth. 8.8 . Luk. 1.38 . Apo. 3.20 . Luk. 18.13 . Luk. 19.9 . Sacramentū requirit sacram mentem . * Christ cals it his body , not the signe of his body , because this Sacrament was instituted not only to signifie but also to communicate the spirituall graces that they represent . And by the signes to draw our mindes ▪ to the graces signified . So Euthimius in Mat. 26. Non dixit dominus , haec sutu signa corporis mei sed hoc est corpus meum . Oportet ergo non ad naturam eorum , quae proposita sunt aspicere , sed ad ipsorum virtutem & gratiam . Non hoc corpus quod videtis manducaturi estis : et bibituri illum sanguinem quem fusuri sunt , qui me crucifigent . Sacramentū aliquod vobis commendaui : spiritualitèr intellectum viuificabit vos . Aug. in Psal. 98. speaking in the person of Christ. The Disciples did not eate Christ corporally and substantially in the first institution no more do we in the reiteration of the same Supper . Mat. 26.28 . * If remission of sinnes and eternall life had bin appropriated to the drinking of the reall bloud , doubtlesse Iohn and Mary would haue made meanes to haue drunke it . But Iohn ascribes the vertue to beleeuing that it was shed . 1 Cor. 12.13 Rom. 8.34 . Heb. 7.25 . Heb. 9.24 . 1 Cor. 10.17 Vnus est panis communi notione Sacramenti , non autem necessario vnus numero . Psal. 18.26 . Sancta non nisi sanctè & sanctis . Luke 2.46 . Luke 15.6 . 2 King. 13.21 Gen. 27.33 . 1 Chron. 1● . 27 . 2 Sam. 6.11.12 . Gen. 32.24 . &c. Exod. 33.14 Cant. 8.6 . Luk. 22.30 Apo. 5.9 . Apoc. 7.10.11.12 . Rom. 12.1 . Luk. 17.5 . Ma● . 26 30. Which is probable to haue beene the 113. Psalme . 1 Cor. 16.1 . Heb. 13.16 . Rom. 15.25 . * Qui copiosiores sunt & volunt , pro arbitrio quisqus suo quod visum est , contribuunt : & quod ita colligitur , apud praepositum deponitur : atque inde ille opitulatur pupillis & viduis & qui propter morbum aut aliquam aliam causam egent &c. Iustin. Martyr . Apolog. 2. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Lucrum est pietatis nomine facere sumptum . Tertul. Apo. adu . Gent. cap. 39. Num. 6.23.27 . Ioh. 6.65 . Mar. 5.29 . Mat. 12.44 . &c. 2 Pet. 2.22 . Cant. 5 3. Psal. 45.7 Heb. 1.9 . Cant. 1.3 . Psal. 34.8 . Scio Romae hanc esse consuetudinem vt fideles semper Christi corpus accipiant Hier. Apol. adu . Iouin . Quotidie communionē Eucharistiae percipere , nec laudo , nec reprehendo . Omnibus Dominicis diebus communicandum sua●leo & hortor , s● mens sine affectu peccandi sit . Aug ( vel potius Genadius ) lib. de Eccl. dogm . cap. 53. Tit. 2.12.14 . Iob 5.6 . 1 Sam. 6.9 . Lam. 3.39 . Psal. 107.17 Eccles. 10.4 2 Chro. 15.4 Mat. 6.6 . Psal. 4.4 . Lam. 3.40 . Iosh. 7.16 . &c. Prou. 28.30 . Psal. 99.5 . Heb. 4.10 . 1 Reg. 20 . 3● Iob. 3.25 . Habak . 3.2 . 1 Cor. 11.31 Heb. 12.6.7 . &c. Ezech. 16.49 Psal. 51.1 . Verse 11. Psal. 25.7 . Hos. 14.4 . * Here name that sinne , which most troubleth thy conscience . Mat. 3.17 . Ephes. 5.16 . Iam. 1.17 . Ioh. 3.27 . 1 Cor. 10.13 Psal. 31.5 . Psalm . 65.2 . 1 King. 39.8 Ioh. 16.23 . Isay 38.1 . Gal. 3.15 . Heb. 9.17 . 2 Cor. 5.10 . Eccl. 12.14 . Rom. 2.15 . 1 Cor. 4.5 . Act. 17.31.32 . * Voluntas testatoris magis inspicienda est quam verba . l. cum virum § sani . C. de fidei cum ff . ad leg . Fal. l. ●i . ff . ad Treb. l. vbi . § te rogo . * Matrimonium inter aurum & Arcam , diuortium inter deum & animam . Aug. Faelix quem faciunt aliena periculae cautum . Gal. 6.9 . Math. 10.42 Mar. 9 41. Mar. 25.40 . Luk. 14.14 . & 18.22 . 1 Cor. 15.58 Apo. 14.13 . Iob. 14.5 . Iob. 33.24 . 2 King. 20.7 . 2 King. 5.7.8.10 . Ioh. 9.7 . 2 Reg. 1.2.3 Leu. 20.6 . Deu. 18.10 . &c. 2 Thes. 2.10 Deut. 13.3 . 1 Chr. 16.12 Isa. 1.5.6 . Ier. 8.22 . 1 Sam. 2.6 . 2 Sam. 14.14 Isay 38.21 . 1 King. 5.14 . Iohn 9.6.7 . Mat. 8.15 . Mat. 8.20 . &c. Iob 14. * Deus suos percutit vt emend●t . Hier. Com. in Esa. lib. 6. Deus calamitates infligit , non extingue re sed castigare nos cupiens . Basil. ser. 3. in diuites . Psal. 119.71 . Psal. 119.67 . 1 Cor. 11.32 2 Sam. 12.10 Verse 13. Heb. 12.6.7.8 . * Ad mala seruantur non moritura mali . 1 Sam. 2.25 . a Namque fauor nimiùs non est fauor , ira sedingēs : At fauor in magno saep● dolore latet . Bill . Anthol . sacr . * Crebris tribulationibus Ecclesiam suam Dominus exercet : ne si cuncta temporalia fortè prosperè currant , incolatu praesentis exili● delectàta , minùs coelestem patriam suspiret . Beda in Cant. Mundanus affectus praesentia amat , temporalia cumulat , spiritualia negligit , & cum totus se spargit ●n imis , nil potest amare de summis . Iustin. Patriarch . de disc . monast . cap. 4. * 2 Cor. 12. Phil. 3.8 . Ne sancti viri aliqua elatione in hac vita superbiant , quibusdam tentationibus reprimuntur . Eucher . in li. Reg. Deut. 32.15 . 1 Pet. 1.7 . * Vt igne purgati & ab admixtione vit●orum carnabum defecati , solēdeant , examinatae innocentiae clari●ate . Hi●●r . in Psal. 5● . * Schola crucis schola lucis . Gubernator in tempestate dignoscitur in aci● nules probatur , delicata iactatio est : cum periculū non est : conflictatio in aduersis , probatio est est veritatis . Cypr. ser. 4. de Immor . Ier. 48.11 . Iob. 1.9.10 . Iob. 13.15 . Hos. 5.15 . Exod. 3.7 . Psal. 86.7 . Isai. 38.2.3 . Luk. 15.16 . &c. * Deut non delectatur poenis nostris sed confessionem quaerit erroris . Alb. in Psal. 4. Peniten . Heb. 13.3 . Heb. 4.15 & 2.18 . & 5.8.9 . * Sinit Deus iustum incidere in calamitates , vt virtutem quae in illo latebat , aliis apertam manifestamque faciat . Damasc . li. 2. de Orth. ca. 29. Rom. 8.18 . 1 Pet. 4.13 . Heb. 2.10 . Heb. 2.7 . Mat. 27.34 . Luk. 24.42 . Fauos post mella gustauit . Tertul. lib. de Coron . milit . cap. 24. Psal. 24.7 . 2 Tim. 4.7.8 Apo. 3.21 . Apo. 2.17.18 . Phil. 3.21 . Ideò tentantur Sancti , vt ipsi se agnoscant . Primas . Esse se magnarum viriū homo crederet si m●llum vnquam earu●dem virium defectum sentiret . Gre. lib. 2. Moral . Iob. Psal. 130.3 . * In his quae patimur nullum contra Deum murmur cordi nostro subrepat : quia ad quid hoc creator noster oper●tur ignotum est Greg. ep . 31. Ioh. 9.3 . Ioh. 11.4 . Malum pa●● malum non est : malum facere malum est . Chrys. de Prod. Iuda . * Cum v●xamur , ac praemimur , tum maximo gratias agimus indulgentissimo Patri , quod corruptelam nostrā non patitur longius procedere , sed plagis ac verberibus emendat . Lactan. lib. 5 cap. 23. Heb. 12.11 . Eccl. 5.3 . Mat. 12 43. &c. Ioh. 5.2.4 . Isai. 63.9 . Luk. 14.33 . 2 Pet. 2.20.22 . Ioh. 5.14 . Ioh. 8.11 . 1 Pet. 4.4 . Psal. 90.12 . 1 Sam. 2.6 . Isa. 38.9 . &c. Rom. 12.1 . T it 2.12 . Psal. 90 . 1● . Apoc. 5.11 . &c. Mar. 9.12 . Luk. 22.44 . Psal. 88.7 . Isai. 53.4 . Psal. 18.5 . Heb. 5.7 . Gal. 3.13 . Lam. 1.12 . Dum legimus vel audimus quot & quanta ille sine culpa sustinuit , intelligimus nos peccatores omnia debere libenter sustinere . Theo. in 5. cap. ad Rom. Lam. 3 22. 1 Cor. 11.32 Heb. 11.35 . &c. 1 Pet. 5.9 . 2 Sam. 24.14 Heb. 12.11 . 2 Sam. 16.6.10 . Psal. 39.9 . Iob. 2 . 10· Mat. 26.39 . Vers. 42. Psal. 14.1 . Gen. 6.5 . Rom. 6.7 . Apo. 21.4 . Isa. 57.1 . 2 King. 22.20 . Esa. 26.20 . 1 Ioh. 5.19 . Heb. 12.22.23.24 . a Plut. in vit . Catonis b Cic. Tusc. quaest . lib. 1. Vel de praecipiti venias in Tartara saxo , vt qui Socraticum de nece legit opus . Ouid. in Ibin . Mat. 25.21 . Luk. 13.19.20 . Num. 16.22 . Num. 27.16 . Ier. 38.16 . Act. 13.25.36 . 2 Tim. 4.7 . Psal. 90.12 . Iob. 14.5.14 . & 16.22 . & 21.21 . Luk. 22.53 . Psal. 143.2 . 2 Tim. 4.7 . Psal. 43.12 . Psal. 130.3 . Dan. 5.27 . Mat. 11.28 . Math. 3.17 . 1 Tim. 1.15 . Ezec. 18.22 . Psal. 51.7 . 1 Pet. 1.19 . Ioh. 1.29 . Rom. 4.25 . 1 Cor. 15.3.4 . 1 Pet. 2.24 . Ioh. 5.24 . Luk. 17.5 . 1 Cor. 10.13 Mat. 25.4 . Mat. 22.11 . Apoc. 19.8 . Apoc. 19 7. Ioh. 17.22 . Zach. 3 2. Ps. 12.20.21 . Mat. 18.8 . Heb. 1.14 . Luk. 16.22 . Math. 8.11 . Luk. 13.28 . Ephes. 1.10 . Act. 15.11 . Psal. 31.4 . Act. 7.59 . Satans first stratagem , in time of death . The defeature . Leuit. 6.2.3.4 . &c. Nū . 5.6.7.8 Non remittitur peccatum nisi restituatur ablatum . Luk. 19.8.3 . Eze. 15.3.12 16. Mich. 6.10.11 . Luk. 13.3 . Ier. 18.7 . Act. 2.38 . Act. 8.22 . 2 Pet. 3 i9 . Gen. 20.7 . Iam. 5.14.15 16. Leuit. 6.6.7 . Satans second assault . The Christians encounter . Psal. 7.19 . Mark. 9.24 . Math. 17. &c. Mat. 14.31 . Mat. 14.31 . Iob. 13.15.16 . Mat. 17.20 . Mat. 10.14 . Apoc. 2.6 . Isai. 55.1 . * Fox Act. & Monum . Fol. 1555. in the last edition . Psal. 27.16 . Satans third assault . The encounter . 1 Tim. 1.15 . Rom. 5.20 . Mat. 11.28 . Ioh. 5.56 . Luk. 7.13 . Isai. 65.1 . Rom. 10.20 . Ioh. 14.14 . Nouit Dominus mutare sententiam , si tu noueris emendare vitam . Aug. in Psal. 50. Gen. 4.7 . Mat. 26.50 . 1 Pet. 2.22 . Psal. 140.3 . Mat. 26.50 . 1 King. 20.32.33 . Verse 31. * Iudas non tam scelus , quam desperatio fecit , penitùs interire . Aug. li. de vtil . paenit . a Sceleratior omnibus , ô Iuda extitisti , quem non paenitentia duxit ad Dominum , sed desperatio traxit ad laqueum . Leo. Sathans third assault . The encounter . 1 Tim. 1.16 . Isa. 55.6.7.8 Acts 20.28 . 1 Iohn 1.7 . Iohn 3.16 . Rom. 5.8.3 . Gen. 19.13 . Psal. 108.4 . Psal. 145.9 . Sathans fourth assault . The encounter . a I remember ( saith Luther ) that Staupitius was wont to tell me , Ego plus quam millies Deo voui , &c : I haue more then a thousand times vowed vnto God , that I would mend my life , but I could neuer performe my vow . Henceforth I will make no such vow , because I verily know that I cannot keepe it . Vnlesse therefore God will be mercifull vnto me for Christ his sake , and graunt me a blessed departure out of this wretched life , all my vowes and good workes will stand me in no stead . This is the state of the deerest children of God in this life . Read Luther on Ga●a● . Chap. 5. Luk. 17.3.4 . Mat. 18.21.22 . Num. 21.9 . Post lachrymas gemitusque graues clemen●●a Christi , Confestim est oculos ante locanda tuos . Iam. 1.17 . Rom. 8.28 . Rom. 9.11 . * By these Keies Peter opened heauen to himselfe : and afterwards with the rest of the Apostles vnto others . Luc. 22.62 . Luk. 24.47 . &c. Ioh. 20.21 . & Ioh. 13.1 . Rom. 11.29 . Rom. 8.39 . Satans fift assault . Heb. 6.18 . Eze. 18.22 . D. King , B. of Lo●d . his Lectures on Ionas . Eze. 33.11 . O faelices nos , quorum causà turat Deus ! O miserrimos nos sine Deo quidem iuranti credimus ! Tertul . Isa. 38.14 . Heb. 12.24 . Mat. 27.46 . 2 Tim. 2.11 . 2 Cor. 1.20 . Apoc. 3.14 . Heb. 6.6 . Luk. 16.22 . Rom. 8.34 . Heb. 9.24 . Heb 9.15 . 1 Tim. 2.5 . Heb. 7.25 . Psal. 73.25 . Acts 4.12 . Acts 10.43 . Esa. 26.20 . Isay 9.6 . Heb. 12.14 . Iames 5. Psal. 103. Rom. 6.26 . Heb. 12.9 . Vir dolorum . Isa. 53.3 . 1 Pet. 2.21 . Heb. 12.1.2 . 1 Pet. 5.9 . S. Romitus cum quotannis graui morbo tentaretur a Deo , doluit , quod vno anno liber esset , acsi a Deo tunc desertus fu●sset . Vit. Patr. 2. p. c. 148. 1 Pet. 5.10 . 1 Cor. 10.13 Iohn 5. Matth. 9. Exod. 2.2 . Apoc. 2. 2 Sam. 24. Psal. 56. Modicum & videbo vos . Iohn 16.16 . Psal. 30. Apoc. 6.11 . Iosh. 1.6 . Psal. 110.7 . Nubecula est , citò transibit . Iohn 16.21 . Act. 7. Apoc. 2.10 . Ioh. 2.10 . Rom. 8.28 . Verse 38. 39. Morbus non malis adnumerandus , quia multis vtilitèr accidit . Basil. in Hexam . Morbus est vtilis quaedā institutio quae docet caduca aspernere , & coelestia spirare . Nazian . a● Philagrium . Gen. 5.24 . 1 King. 2.11 12. Luke 26.23 . Iohn 11. Iohn 14. Mors praesentis vitae exitus , & introitus melioris . Bern. in Ep. ad Rom. Mat. 6.19.20 . Iohn 14.1 . 2 Cor. 5.1 . Timor mortis ipsa morte peior . 2 Cor. 12.9 1 Cor. 10.13 Rom. 8.1 . Iohn 5.24 . 1 Cor. 15. 1 Thes. 4. Isay 26. Apoc. 14. Iohn 14.1 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Luke 2. 2 Cor. 5. Phil. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Mors porta gloriae . Greg. Ianua vitae . Bernar. Gen. 47.9 . 1 Reg. 19.4 Rom. 7.24 . Iames 4.1 . Gal. 5.17 . Rom. 1.24 . 1 Pet. 2. Apoc. 5.9 . Psal. 116.8 . 1 Cor. 15.57 Psal. 145.9 . Isay 33.14 . Acts 7.59 . Luk. 23.43 . Phil. 1.23 . Isai. 25.7.8 . Ioh. 11.25 . 1 Pet. 5.8 . Luk. 2.29 . Act. 26.6.7 . Luc. 14.14 . Ioh. 11.25.26 . Vers. 24. Iob. 19.25.26 . Mat. 25.34 . Gal. 3.13 . Lam. 7.12 . Ioh. 1.29 . Apoc. 5.1 . Luk. 23.42 . Psal. 31.5 . a Gen. 20.7 . Ier. 18.20 . & 15.1 . Eze. 14.14 . 1 Sam. 9.7 . & 12.19.23 . b Iam. 5.14.5.16 . c Mark. 1.4 . Act. 19.4 . d 1 Cor. 5.4 . e 2 Cor. 10.8 f Mat. 16.19 Mat. 18.18 . Ioh. 20.22.23 . Iob. 33.23 . Iam. 5.17.18 . Apoc. 11.6 . 1 Cor. 5.5 . 1 Cor. 10.3 . &c. Mark. 2.7 . M●nistri peccata remittunt non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 1 Cor. 5.4 . 1 Cor. 4.1.2 . Act. 13.38 . To this end saith Basil , in Ascet. c. 13. Christus omnibus Pastoribus & Doctoribus , Ecclesiae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aequalem tribuit potestatem cuius signum est , quod omnes ex aequo ligant & soluunt , vt Petrus , Papists dare not denie this . Quilib●● sacerdos ( quantum est ex virtute clauium ) habet potestatem indifferenter in omnes . In supplement . Tohmae . 4.6 . Vers. ●0 . * Iohn 20.22.23 . a Act. 1.24 . b Act. 13.2 . c Rom. 1.1 . d 2 Cor. 5.18.19 . e Act. 13.2 . 1 Cor. 1.1 . Heb. 5.4 . f Tit. 1.5 . g Iohn 20.22.23 . Act. 13.4.2 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Iohn 20.23 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Luke 11.4 . 2 Cor. 5.18 Iohn 20.21.23 . 2 Cor. 2.7.10 Heb. 5.4 . 2 Cor. 5.18.19 . Luk. 10.16 . Lib. 3. Instit. cap. 4. sect . 12. * In Antith . Papatus & Christianismi . vol. 1. fol. 66. Luther tom . 6. fol. 109. & s●aq . a Witnesse our liturgie . D. Holland absolued D. Rainolds at his death : who not being able to speake , kissed the hand wherewith he was absolued . * Apoc. 3.7 . Mar. 2.7 . Luke 5.21 . a Mat. 16.19 b 1 Cor. 4.1 . c 2 Cor. 5.20 Ministerii clauis duplex est , vna scientia discernendi . 1 Cor. 12.10 1 Ioh. 4.1 . Ier. 15.19 . alia est potestas ligandi & absoluendi . Iohn 20. Mat. 27.4 . Heb. 7.24.27.28 . Heb. 8.4 . Heb. 7.25 . Luke 10 . 1● . a Conc. Nice . Canon . 12. b Mat. 29.18 Luke 22.12 . c Rom. 16.5 Philem. v. 2. d Mat. 18.20 a Iewel against Harding . Artic. 1 of priuate Masse . fol. 4. b I● Massis priuatis suffic●t si vnus sit praesens , scilicet Minister , qui populi totius personam gerit . Aquin. par . 3. quaest . 38. art . 5. De coenae administratione itae sentio , libenter admittendum esse hunc morem , vt apud aegrotos celebretur Communio , cum itares & opportunitas feret . Epist. 51 a Cur caenam aegrotis negandam esse non arbitror , multa & graues causae me impellun● Epist. 361. Perkins right way of dying well . Admonitio ad Pastores . Lam. 4.4 . 2 King. 21.20 . 2 Sam. 18.27 Vt moriare pius , viuere disce piè . * Summum hominis bonum bonus ex hac vita exitus . Ioh. 1.29 . Luk. 18.13 . Psal. 46.1 . Psal. 4.6 . 1 Ioh. 1.7 . Rom. 8.34 . 2 Cor. 12.15 Sanguis Martyrum semen ecclesiae . Apoc. 2.10 . Martires acceperum non dederunt coronas . Leo. Martyrio coronatus . Eus. vsually . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Apoc. 2.10 . Bern. Ser. in ●est . Innoc. Frid. Nausea . in vlt. Iohan. Flores hist. ad an . 95. Matth. 2. Act. 7. Acts and Monument . 1 Pet. 2.19 . Causa non passio facis Martyrem . Aug. Ep. 61. Non mortes , sed mores . Boys . Tho. Aquin. 1.2 . quest . 19. art . 6. Ioh. 16.2 . Act. 9.1 . Phil. 3.6 . Epistola ad Romanos , is now Epistola in Romanos . * Note , that the Scripture saith , and God saith : the Scripture concludeth and God concludeth , is all one with Paul. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Hauing reference to what hee spake before , Rom. 1.13 . of Images . * It seemes by Rom. 15.20.29 . & the whole last Chapter , that the Christians who were in Rome before Paul came thither , were conuerted by those Preachers whom hee had sent thither before him : for he cals ● them his helpers , ver . 3.9 . kinsmen , ve . 7.13 fellow-prisoners , ver . 7. the first fruits of Acha●a , where hee had preached , ver . 5. all familiar to him , and to Tertius , who writ the Epistle , ver . 22. And therefore they came so ioyfully to mee to Paul at the Market of Appius , hearing that he was comming towards Rome . Act. ●8 . 15 . Psal. 149.9 . Vt Alexandri causa tis qui illam scire cuptunt patefiat : Iudicatus est Ephesi ab Aemilio Frontino Proconsule , non propter professionis nomen , sed propter perpetrata latrocinia , cum iam esset praenaricator ( & proditor . ) Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. 5. cap. 18. 1 Tim. 6.20 . Prou. 24.21 . 1 Pet. 2.17 . Acts 5.41 . Luke 11.28 . Apoc. 14.13 Mat. 25.34 . Apoc. 22.20 a Iohn 13.4 . b Iohn 13.14 . c Luk. 22.19 d Iohn 18.2 . Iohn 18.1 . Gen. 1.3 . e Mat. 26.40 . Isai. 63.5 . Mat. 26.4 . Psal. 91.3 . Math. 26.40 Gen. 3.4.5 . Mat. 27.3 . Mat. 26.39 . Heb. 5.7 . Luk. 22.44 . Mat. 26.39.42.44 . Gal. 3.13 . Luk. 22.44 . Luk. 22.54 . Mat. 5.25 . Mat. 22.13 . Math. 26.56 Ioh. 18.8 . Mar. 14.51.52 . Mat. 27.2 . Luke 22.57 ▪ Luke 22.60 . Luk. 22.61 . Ioh. 19.5 . Isai. 18. Mat. 27.29 . 1 Pet. 5. Apoc. 2.10 . Mat. 27.29 . Mat. 12.20 . Mat. 27.29 . Iudg. 16.25 . Mat. 26.27 . Mat. 14.65 . Mat. 18.20 . Mat. 27.30 . Mat. 27.39 . Ioh. 19.3 . Isay 53.2 . Mat. 13.43 . Mat. 22.30 . Iohn 19.1 . Mark. 14.53 Luke 23.2 . Mat. 27.2 . Iohn 19.11 . Tit. 3.1 . Rom. 13 1. 1 Pet. 2.13.14 . Luk. 23. ●1 . 2 . Ioh. 19.12 . &c. Note well Apo. 11.8 . & Apo. 17.5.6.24 . Ioh. 19.16 . Luk. 23.24 Rom. 8.3 . Mat. 27.24 . Ioh. 19.6 . Mat. 27.33 . Heb. 13.12 . Luk. 23.26 . Mat. 27.32 . Ioh. 19.23 . Luke 23. Luke 23.33 Gen. 2.17 . Luke 23.33 . Psal. 22.16 . Iohn 20.25 . Mat. 27.33 . Ioh. 19.24 . Mat. 27.34 . Ioh. 19.30 . Rom. 10.4 . 2 Cor. 3.13 . Ioh. 19.34 . Mat. 27.45 . 2 Pet. 2.4 . Iud. vers . 6. Ioh. 19.23 . Luke 23.43 . Luk. 23.39 . Rom. 9.18.22 . Mat. 26.50 . Iohn 10.18 . Luk. 23.46 . Ioh. 13.1 . Mat. 27.51 . Ephes 2.14 . Heb. 10.19.20 . Mat. 27.51 . Exod. 12.46 Psal. 34.21 . Zach. 12.10 . Ioh. 20.34 . Ioh. 19.34 . There is about mans heart a skin called Pericardū containing water which cooles and moistens the heart , least it shold be scorched with continual motion . This skin once pierced , man cannot line . Columb . Anatom . lib. 7. Horst . de nat . human . lib. 1. exerc . 8. q. 5. * 1 Ioh. 5.6 . Mat. 27.52 . Mat. 27.60 . Mat. 27.57 . Iohn 19.39.40 . Ioh. 19.4 . Mat. 27.60 . 2 King. 13.21 . Mat. 28.6 . Rom. 4.25 . Mat. 27.52.53 . Acts 17.31 . Psal. 116.11 . Gal. 6.15 . 1 Pet. 2.22 . Iohn 1.46 . Mat. 27.19 . 
A27107	----	The practice of piety directing a Christian how to walk, that he may please God / amplified by the author Bayly, Lewis, d. 1631. 1695 Approx. 923 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 244 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-03 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A27107 Wing B1502 ESTC R29026 10793945 ocm 10793945 45943 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A27107) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 45943) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1415:20) The practice of piety directing a Christian how to walk, that he may please God / amplified by the author Bayly, Lewis, d. 1631. [17], 566 p. Printed for Edward Brewster, London : 1695. Engraved t.p. Epistle dedicatory signed: Lewes Baily. Reproduction of original in the British Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Piety. Christian life -- Anglican authors. Puritans -- Apologetic works. 2004-09 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2004-09 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2004-10 John Latta Sampled and proofread 2004-10 John Latta Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-01 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE PRACTICE OF PIETY : Directing a Christian how to walk , that he may please God. Amplified by the Author . Piety hath the Promise . 1 Tim. 4. 8. London , Printed for Edward Brewster , 1695. Lately Printed a very usefull Book : To be sold by Edward Brewster , at the Crane in St. Paul's Church-Yard . viz. THE Mirror of Martyrs , First and Second Part , lively Expressing ( in a short view ) the force of their Faith , the fervency of their Love , the wisdom of their Sayings , the patience of their Sufferings , &c. with their Prayers and Preparation for their last farewell ; As also , Exercitations and Meditations &c. wherein the chief Duties of the Christian Religion are opened and apply'd ; By Samuel Tompson . M. A. late of Magdalen-Hall , Oxon. TO THE High and Mighty Prince CHARLES , Prince of WALES . CHrist Jesus , the * Prince of Princes , bless your Highness with length of Days , and an increase of all Graces ; which may make you truly prosperous in this life , and eternally happy in that which is to come . Jonathan shot † three Arrows , to drive David further off from Saul 's fury : And this is the third Epistle which I have written to draw your Highness nearer to God's favour , by directing your heart to begin ( like Josiah ) in your * youth to seek after the God David , ( and of Jacob ) your Father . Not but that I know , that your Highness doth this without mine admonition ; but because I * would with the Apostle have you to abound in every grace , in faith and knowledge , and in all diligence , and in your love to Gods Service and true Religion . Never was there more need of plain and unfeigned admonition : for the Comick , in that saying , seems but to have prophesied of our times , Obsequium amicos , veritas odium parit . And no marvel , seeing that we are fallen into the dregs of Time , which being the last , must needs be the worst days . And how can there be worse , seeing Vanity knows not how to be vainer , nor Wickedness how to be more wicked ? And whereas heretofore those have been counted most holy , who have shewed themselves most zealous in their Religion ; they are now reputed most discreet , who can make the least profession of their Faith. And that these are the last days , appears evidently ; because the security of mens eternal state hath so overwhelmed ( as Christ foretold it should ) all sorts : that most who now live , are become lovers of pleasures , more than lovers of God : and of those who pretend to love God , O God! what sanctified heart can but bleed , to behold how seldom they come to prayers ? how irreverently they hear God's Word ? what strangers they are at the Lord's Table : what assiduous spectators they are at Stage-plays ? where ( being Christians ) they can sport themselves to hear the Vassals of the * Devil scoffing religion , and blasphemously abusing Phrases of holy Scripture on their Stages , as familiarly as they use their Tobacco-pipes in their bibing-houses . So that he who would now ●days seek in most Christians for the power , shall scarce almost find the very shew of godliness . Never was there more sinning , never less remorse for sin . Never was the Judge † nearer to come , never was there so little preparation for his coming . And if the Bridegroom should now come , how many ( who think them selves wise enough , and full of all knowledge ) would be found foolish Virgins , without one drop of the Oil of saving Faith in their Lamps ? For the greatest Wisdom of most Men in this Age , consists in being wise ; first , to deceive others , and in the end to deceive themselves . And if sometimes some good Book haps into their hands , or some good motion cometh into their heads , whereby they are put in mind to consider the uncertainty of this life present ; or how weak assurance they have of eternal life if this were ended : and how they have some secret sins , for which they must needs repent here , or be punished for them in Hell hereafter ; Security then forthwith whispers the Hypocrite in the Ear , that though it be fit to think of these things , yet , It is not yet time ; and that he is yet young enough ( though he cannot but know , that many millions as young as himself are already in Hell , for want of timely repentance . ) Presumption warranteth him in the other Ear , that he may have time hereafter , at his leisure , to repent : and that howsoever others die , yet he is far enough from death , and therefore may boldly take yet a longer time , to enjoy his sweet pleasures , and to encrease his wealth and greatness : And hereupon ( like Solomon's sluggard ) he yields himself to a little more sleep , a little more slumber , a little more folding of the hands to sleep , in his former sins ; till at last Despair ( Security's ugly hand maid ) comes in unlooked for , and shews him his Hour-glass ; dolefully telling him , that his time is past : and that nothing now remains but to die , and ●e damned . Let not this seem strange to any , for too many have found it too true ; and more with out more grace , are like to be thus sooth'd to their end ; and in the end , snared to their endless perdition . In my desire therefore of the common salvation ; but especially of your Highness's everlasting welfare , I have endeavoured to extract ( out of the chaos of endless controversies ) the old Practice of true Piety , which flourished before these Controversies were hatched : which my poor labours ( in a short while ) come now forth again , the 42. time , under the gracious protection of your Highness's favour ; and by their entertainment seem not to be altogether unwelcome to the Church of Christ. If to be pious , hath in all ages been held the truest honour : how much more honourable is it , in so impious an age , to be the true Patron and Pattern of Piety ? Piety made David , Solomon , Jehoshaphat , Ezechias , Josias , Zerubbabel , Constantine , Theodosius , Edward the VI. Queen Elizabeth , Prince Henry , and other religious Princes to be so honoured , that their Names ( since their deaths ) smell in the Church of God like a precious oynment , and their remembrances sweet as honey in all mouths , and as Musick at a Banquet of Wine : when as the lips of others who have been godless and irreligious Princes , do ●ot and stink in the memory of God's People . And what honour is it for great Men to have great Titles on Earth , when God counts their names unworthy to be * written in his Book of life in Heaven ? It is Piety that embalms a Prince his good name , and makes his face to shine before Men , and glorifies his soul among Angels . For as Moses his face , by often talking with God , shined in the eyes of the People , so by frequent praying ( which is our talking with God ) and hearing the Word , ( which is God's speaking unto us ) we shall be changed from glory to glory , by the Spirit of the Lord , to the Image of the Lord. And seeing this life is uncertain to all , ( especially to Princes ) what argument is more fit , both for Princes and People to study , than that which ●eacheth sinful man to deny himself by mortifying his corruption ▪ ●hat he may enjoy Christ , the Author of his salvation : to renounce these false and momentary pleasures of the world ; that he may attain to the true and eternal joys of heaven : And to make them truly honourable before God in Piety , who are now only honourable before Men in vanity ? What charges soever we spend in earthly vanities ; for the most part , they either die before us , or we shortly die after them : But what we spend like * Mary in the Practice of Piety , shall remain our true memorial for ever . For , † Piety hath the promise of this life , and of that which shall never end . But * without Piety there is no internal comfort to be found in Conscience , no● external Peace to be looked for in the World , nor any eternal happiness to be hoped for in Heaven . How can Piety but promise to her self 〈◊〉 zealous Patron of your Highness being the sole Son and Heir of 〈◊〉 gracious and great a Monarch who is not only the Defender of the Faith by title , but also a Defende● of the Faith in truth , as the Christian World hath taken notice by hi● learned confuting of Bellarmine ever spreading Heresies , and his suppressing in the blade of Vorstius ' s Athean blasphemies ? and ●ow easie is it for your Highness to equal ( if not exceed ) all that were before you in Grace and Greatness ? if you do but set your heart to seek , and to serve God , considering how religiously your Highness hath been educated by godly and vertuous * Governours and Tutors : as also that you live in such a time , wherein God's Providence , and the King 's Religious Care have placed over this Church ( to the unspeakable comfort thereof ) another venerable Jehoiada ▪ † that doth good in our Israel both towards God and towards his House : of whom your Highness at all times in all doubts may learn the sincerity of Religion , for the Salvation of your inward Soul ; and the wisest counsel for the direction of your outward state : And to excite you the rather , to the zealo●s Practice of divine Piety ; often suppose with your self , that your Highness hears your Religious Father James , speaking unto you , as sometimes holy David spake to his Son Solomon : And thou Charles my Son , know thou the God of thy Father , and serve him with a perfect heart , and with a willing mind : for the Lord searcheth all hearts , and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts : i● thou seek him , he will be found of thee : but if thou forsake him , he will cast thee off for ever . To help you the better to seek and serve this God Almighty , who must be your chief Protector in life , and only comfort in death : I here once again , on my bended knees , offer my old Mite new stampt into your Highness's● hands : daily for your Highness offering up unto the most High , my humblest prayers ; that as you grow in age and stature , so you may ( like your Master Christ ) increase in wisdom and favour with God and all good men . This suit will I never cease : in all other matters I will ever rest , Your Highness humble Servant , during life to be commanded , LEWES BAILY AD CAROLUM PRINCIPEM . Tolle Malos , extolle Pious , cognosce Teipsum ; Sacra tene , Paci consule , disce pati . ADVERTISEMENT . This Book being now exactly Corrected , and purged from many Thousand Faults , which have escaped former Impressions , is now also printed in a fair large Roman Character , for the Use and Benefit of Aged Persons ; and to be sold by Edward Brewster , at the Crane in St. Paul's Church-yard . 1695. The 42. Edition . TO THE Devout Reader . I Had not purposed to enlarge the last Edition , save that the importunity of many devoutly disposed , prevailed with me , to add some points , and to amplifie others . To satisfie whose godly requests , I have done my best endeavour , and withal finished all that I intend in this argument . If thou shalt hereby reap any more profit , give God the more praise : And remember him in thy Prayers , who hath vowed both his life and his labours , to further thy Salvation as his own . Farewell in the Lord JESUS . THE CHIEF CONTENTS Of this Book . 1. A Plain description of God , in respect of his Essence , Persons and Attributes , so far as every Christian should competently endeavour to learn and know : with sundry sweet Observations and Meditations thereupon . Page 4 2. Meditations setting forth the miseries of man in his life and death , that is not reconciled to God in Christ. 37 3. Meditations of the blessed state both in life and death , of a man that is reconciled to God in Christ : Wherein thou shalt find not a few things worthy the reading and observation . 63 4. Meditations on seven hindrances , which keep back a sinner from the Practice of Piety ; necessary to be read of all , but especially of carnal Gospellers in these times . 104 5. How to begin the Morning with pious Meditations and Prayers . 138 6. How to read the Bible with profit and ease once over every year . 143 7. A Morning Prayer . 217 Another shorter Prayer for the Morning . 157 Another brief Morning Prayer . 161 8. Meditations how to walk with God all the day . 162 Especially how to guide thy Thoughts . ibid Thy Words . 168 Thy Actions . 173 9. Meditations for the Evening . 185 10. An Evening Prayer . 189 Another shorter Evening Prayer . 195 11. Things to be meditated upon , as thou art going to bed . 198 12. Meditations for a godly Housholder . 200 13. A Morning Prayer for a Family . 203 14. Holy Meditations and Graces , before and after dinner and supper . 209 15. Rules to be observed in singing of Psalms . 215 16. An Evening Prayer for a Family . 217 17. A Religious Discourse of the Sabbath Day , wherein is proved that the Sabbath was altered from the seventh to the first day of the week , not by humane ordinance , but by Christ himself and his Apostles : that the fourth Commandment is perpetual and moral under the New Testament , as well as under the old . And the true manner of sanctifying the Sabbath Day is described out of the Word of God. 222 18. A Morning Prayer for the Sabbath Day . 267 19. An Evening Prayer for the Sabbath Day . 282 20. Meditations of the true manner of Fasting , and giving of Alms , out of the Word of God. 287 21. The right manner of holy Feasting 303 22. Holy and devout Meditations of the worthy and reverent receiving of the Lord's Supper . 305 23. An humble Confession of sins before the holy Communion . 330 24. A sweet Soliloquy to be said a little before the receiving of the holy Sacrament . 345 25. A Prayer to be said after the receiving of the holy Sacrament . 353 26. Meditations how to behave thy self in the time of sickness . 363 27. A Prayer when one begins to be sick . 365 28. Directions for making thy Will , and setting thy House in order . 371 29. A Prayer before the taking of Physick . 375 30. Meditations for one that is recover'd from sickness . 386. And a Thanksgiving . 390 31. Meditations for the sick , taken from the end of God's chastisements . 394. 32. Meditations for one that is like to die . 396 33. A Prayer to be said of one that is like to die . 399 34. Comfortable Meditations against despair . 402 35. Directions for those who come to visit the sick . 415 36. A Prayer to be said for the sick by those who visit him . 418 And choice Scriptures to be read unto him . 421 , 422 37. Consolations against impatiency in sickness . ibid. 38. Consolations against the fear of death . 425 39. Seven sanctified Thoughts , and so many spiritual Sighs , fit for a sick Man that is like to die . 429 40. Of the comfortable use of true Absolution , and receiving of the Lord's Supper , to the faithful and penitent , before they depart this Life , if they may conveniently be had . 435 41. The last speech of a godly Man , dying . 444 42. Meditations of Martyrdom ; wherein is proved , that those who die for Popery cannot be Christ's Martyrs . 445 43. A Divine Colloquy betwixt Christ and the Soul , concerning the virtue and efficacy of his dolorous Passion . 452 44. The Soul's Soliloquy unto Christ her Saviour . 461 THE PRACTICE OF PIETY . Directing a Christian how to walk , that he may please God. WHo ever thou art that lookest into this Book , never undertake to read it ; unless thou first resolvest to become from thine heart , an unfeigned Practitioner of Piety . Yet read it , and that speedily , lest before thou hast read it over , God ( by some unexpected death ) cut thee off , for thine inveterate Impiety . The Practice of Piety consists 1. In knowing 1. The Essence of God , & that in respect of 1. The diverse manner of being therein , which are three Persons . 1 The Father . 2. The Son. 3. Holy Ghost . 2. The Attributes thereof , which are either Nominal or 1. Absolute , 1. Simpleness . 2. Infiniteness . 2. Relative , 1. Life . 2. Understanding 3. Will. 4. Power . 5. Majesty . Real , 2. Thy own self in respect of thy state of 1. Corruption . 2. Renovation . 2. In glorifying God aright 1. By thy life , in dedicating thy self devoutly to serve him , Ordinarily , 1. Privately , in thine own Person . 2. Publickly , 1. With thy Family every day . 2. With the Church on the Sabbath day . Extraordinarily , by Fasting . Feasting . 2. By thy death , in dying 1. In the Lord. 2. For the Lord. Unless that a Man doth truly know God , he neither can nor will worship him aright : for how can a Man * love him , whom he knoweth not ? and who will worship him , whose help a Man thinks he needeth not ? and how shall a Man seek remedy by Grace , who never understood his misery by Nature ? Therefore saith ( the † Apostle ) He that cometh to God , must believe that God is , and that he is a rewarder of them that seek him . And for as much as there can be no true Piety , without the knowledge of God ; nor any good practice , without the knowledge of a Man 's own self : we will therefore lay down the knowledge of God's Majesty , and Man's Misery , as the first and chiefest grounds of the Practice of Piety . A PLAIN DESCRIPTION OF THE Essence and Attributes of GOD , out of the Holy Scripture , so far forth as every Christian must competently know , and necessarily believe , that will be saved . ALthough no Creature can define what God is , because he is a incomprehensible , and b dwelling in inaccessible light : yet it hath pleased his Majesty , to reveal himself in his Word unto us , so far as our weak capacity can best conceive him . Thus : God is that c one d spiritual and e infinitely f perfect g Essence , whose Being is h of himself eternally . In the Divine Essence , we are to consider two things . First , the diverse manner of being therein : Secondly , the Attributes thereof . The diverse manner of being therein , are called i Persons . A person is a k distinct subsistence of l the whole God-head . There are m three Divine Persons , the Father , the Son , and the Holy Ghost : these Three Persons are not Three several Substances , b●t Three distinct Subsistences ; or Three divers manner of Beings , of n one and the same substance , and Divine Essence . So that a Person in the God-head , is an individual understanding , and incommunicable Subsistence , living of it self , and not sustained by another . In the unity of the God-head , there is a * plurality , which is not accidental , ( for God is a most pure act , and admits no accidents : ) nor essential , ( for God is one Essence only ) but † personally . The Persons in this one Essence are but three . In this * Mystery there is alius & alius , another and another : But not aliud & aliud , another thing and another thing . The Divine Essence in it self is neither divided nor distinguished . But the Three Persons in the Divine Essence are distinguished among themselves Three manner of ways . 1. By their Names . 2. By their Order . 3. By their Actions . 1. By their Names , thus : THE first Person is named the Father ; first , in respect of his a natural Son Christ : secondly , in respect of the Elect , his b adopted sons ; that is , those who being not his sons by Nature , are made his sons by Grace . The second Person is named the c Son because he is d begotten of his e Father's substance , or nature ; and he is called the Word : First , because the f conception of a word in man's mind , is the nearest thing , that in some sort can shadow unto us the manner how he is eternally begotten of his Father's substance : and in this respect he is also called the wisdom of his Father , Prov. 8. 12. Secondly , because that by g him , the Father hath from the beginning declared his will for our salvation : hence he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Person speaking , with , or by the Father . Thirdly , because he is the chief h argument of all the Word of God ; or that Word , whereof God spake , when he promised the blessed See● to the Fathers , under the Old Testament . The Third Person is named the i Holy Ghost : First , because he is k spiritual without a body : secondly , because he is spired , and , as it were , breathed from both the l Father and the Son , that is , proproceedeth from them both . And he is called holy , both because he is x holy in his own nature , and also the immediate y sanctifier of all God's Elect people . 2. By their Order ; thus , THe Persons of the God-head are either the Father , or those which are a of the Father , The Father is the b first Person in the glorious Trinity , c having neither his being nor beginning of any other , but of himself begetting his Son , and together with his Son , sending forth the Holy Ghost from everlasting . The Persons which are of the Father , are those , who in respect of their personal existence have the whole Divine Essence , eternally communicated unto them from the Father . And those are either from the Father alone , as the Son ; or from the Father and the Son , as the holy Ghost . The Son is the second Person of the glorious Trinity , and the only begotten Son of his Fa●●● , not by Grace , but by Nature ; having his d being of the Father alone , and the whole being of his Father , by an eternal , and incomprehensible generation : and with the Father , sendeth forth the holy Ghost . In respect of his absolute Essence , he is of himself , but in respect of his Person , he is by an eternal generation , of his Father . For the Essence doth not be get an Essence , but the e Person of the Fath● begetteth the Person of the Son , and 〈◊〉 he is God of God , and hath from his F●●ther the beginning of his Person and O●●der , but not of Essence and Time. The Holy Ghost is the third Person of 〈◊〉 blessed Trinity , f proceeding and sent fort● equally from g both the Father and the Sword● by an eternal and incomprehensible spir●●tion : For as the Son receiveth the who divine Essence by generation ; so the h● Ghost receiveth it wholly by spiration . This Order betwixt the three Perso● appears , in that the Father begetting , mu● in order be before the Son begotten ; an● the Father and Son , before the holy Gh● proceeding from both . This Order serves to set forth unto two things : First , the manner how t● Trinity worketh in their external ac●●ons : as that the Father worketh of hi●self , by the Son and the holy Ghost ; t● Son from the Father , by the holy Ghos● and holy Ghost , from the 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 Son. Secondly , To distinguish the 〈◊〉 and immediate beginning , from whi● those external and common actions flow . Hence it is , that forasmuch the Father is the fountain and original the Trinity , the beginning of all ext●●nal working ; the a Name of God in re●tion , and the title of Creator in ● Creed , are given in a special manner to the Father ; our Redemption to the Son , and our Sanctification to the Person of the Holy Ghost , as the immediate Agents of those actions . And this also is the cause , why the Son , as he is Mediator , referreth all things to the b Father , not to the Holy Ghost ; and that the Scripture so often saith , that we are c reconciled to the Father . This divine Order or Oeconomy excepted , there is neither first nor last , neither superiority nor inferiority among the Three Persons , but for nature they are co-essential , for dignity co-equal , for time co-eternal . The whole divine Essence is in every one of the Three Persons ; but it was incarna●ed , d only in the Second Person of the Word , and not in the Person of the Father , or of the holy Ghost , for Three Reasons . First , That God the Father might the rather set forth the greatness of his love to Mankind , in giving his first and only begotten Son , to be incarnated , and to suffer death or Man's salvation . Secondly , e That he who was in his Di●inity the Son of God , should be in his Humanity the Son of Man : lest the Name ●f Son should pass unto another , who by ●is Eternal Nativity was not the Son. Thirdly , because it was d meetest that that person who is the substantial Image of his eternal Father , should restore in us the spiritual Image of God , which we had lost . In the Incarnation , the God-head was not turned into the Manhood , nor the Manhood into the God-head : but the God-head , as it is the second Person , or Word , assumed unto it the Manhood , that is the whole nature of man , body and soul ; and all the natural properties and e infirmities thereof , sin excepted . The second person took not upon him the f person of man , but the nature of man. So that the g humane nature hath no personal subsistence of its own , ( for then there should be two Persons in Christ ; ) but it subsisteth in the Word , the second Person . For , as the soul and body make but one person of Man ; so the God-head and Manhood make but one Person of Christ. The two Natures of the God-head and Manhood are so really united by a personal union , that as they can never be separated asunder , so are they never h confounded ; but remain still distinguished by their several and essential properties , which they had before they were united . As for example ; the infiniteness of the divine is not communicated to the humane Nature ; nor the finiteness of the humane , to the divine nature . Yet by reason of this personal union , there is such a communion of the properties of both Natures , that that which is proper to the one , is sometimes attributed to the other Nature . As that God i purchased the Church with his own blood : And k that he will judge the world by that Man whom he hath appointed . Hence also it is , that tho' the humanity of Christ be a created , and therefore a finite and limited Nature , and cannot be every where present , by actual position , or local extension , according to his l natural being : yet because it hath communicated unto it the personal subsistence of the Son of God , which is infinite , and without limitation ; and so is united with God , that it is no where severed from God ; the body of Christ , in respect of his m personal being , may rightly be said to be every where . 3. The Actions by which the Three Persons be distinguished . THe actions are of Two sorts ; either External , respecting the creatures ; and those are after a sort common to everyone of the three persons : or internal , respecting the persons only amongst themselves , and are altogether incommunicable . The External and commu●icable Actions of the Three Persons are these : The creation of the World , peculiarly belonging to God the Father : The redemption of the Church to God the Son : And the sanctification of the Elect to God the holy Ghost . But because the a Father created , and still governeth the world by the Son in the holy Ghost , therefore these external actions are indifferently in b Scripture , oftentimes ascribed to each of the Three Persons , and therefore called communicable and divided Actions . The internal and incommunicable Actions , or Properties of the Three Persons are these : 1. To beget ; and that belongeth only to the Father : who is neither made , created nor begotten of any . 2. To be begotten , and that belongeth only to the Son , who is of the Father alone , not made , nor created , but begotten . 3. To proceed from both : and that belongeth only to the holy Ghost , who is of the Father and the Son ; neither made , nor created , nor begotten , but proceeding . So that when we say , that the Divine Essence is in the Father unbegotten ; in the Son begotten ; and in the holy Ghost proceeding ; we make not Three Essences , but only shew the divers manners of subsisting , by which the same most simple , eternal , and unbegotten Essence subsisteth in each Person : namely , that it is not in the Father by generation : that it is in the Son communicated from the Father by generation : and in the holy Ghost communicated from both the ●ather and the Son by proceeding . These are incommunicable Actions ; and ●o make , not an essential , accidental , or ●ational , but a real distinction betwixt the ●hree persons . So that he who is the Father ●n the Trinity , is not the Son : He who ●s the Son in the Trinity , is not the Fa●her : He who is the holy Ghost in the Tri●ity , is neither the Son , nor the Father , ●ut the Spirit , proceeding from both ; ●hough there is but one and the same Essence common to * all three . As there●ore we believe , that the Father is God , he Son is God , and the Holy Ghost is God : ●o we likewise believe that God is the Fa●her , God is the Son , and God is the Holy Ghost . But by reason of this real distinction ; the Person of the one , is not , nor ever can be , the Person of the other . The three Persons therefore of the Godhead , do not differ from the Essence , but † formally : but they differ really one from another , a●d so are distinguished by their hypostatical proprieties . As the Father is God , begetting God the Son : the Son is God , begotten of God the Father : and the holy Ghost is God , proceeding from both God the Father , and God the Son. Hence it is that the Scriptures use the name of God two manner of ways : Either Essentially , and then it signifieth the c three Persons conjointly ; or d Personally , and then by a Synecdoche it signifieth but one of the three Persons in the God-head . As the Father , 1 Tim. 2. 5. or the Son , Act. 20. 28. 1 Tim. 3. 16. or the holy Ghost , Acts 5. 4. 2 Cor. 6. 16. And because the Divine Essence ( common to all the three Persons , ) is but one , we call the same , Vnity . But because there be three distinct Persons in this one indivisible Essence , we call the same Trinity e So that this Vnity in Trinity , and Trinity , in Vnity , is a holy f Mystery : rather to be religiously adored by faith , than g curiously searched by reason , further than God hath revealed in his Word . Thus far of the diverse manner of being in the Divine Essence : now of the Attributes thereof . ATtributes are certain descriptions of the Divine Essence , delivered in the Scriptures , according to the weakness of of our h capacity , to help us the better to understand the nature of God's Essence , and to discern it from all other Essences . The Attributes of God are of two sorts , either nominal or real . The Nominal Attributes are of Three sorts : 1. Those which signifie God's Essence : 2. The Persons in the Essence . 3. Those which signifie his Essential works . Of the first sort , is the Name a Jehovah or rather b Jehueh , which signifieth eternal being of himself ; in whom being without all beginning and end , all other beings both begin and end , Isa. 42 8. Psal 83. 18. God tells Moses , Exod. 6. 3. That he was not known to Abraham , Isaac and Jacob , by his Name Jehovah . Not but that they knew this to be the Name of God : ( for they used it in all their Prayers ) but because they lived not to see God c effecting indeed , that which he promised them ; in graciously delivering their ●eed out of Egypt , and in giving them the real possession of Canaan's Land ; and so to be not only God Almighty , by whom all things were made ; but also performing indeed to the Children , that which he promised in his word to the Fathers , which this Name Jehovah especially signifieth . And for this cause , Moses calls God first Jehovah , when the universal creation had its absolute being , Gen. 2. 4. And this Admirable Name is graven on the Decalogues forehead which was pronounced upon the Israelites deliverance , to be the Rule of Righteousness : after which they should serve their Deliverer in the promised Land. This Name is so full of Divine Mysteries , that the Jews hold it a sin to pronounce it ; but if it be * no sin to write it , why should it be unlawful to pronounce it ? This holy Name of God teacheth us : First , What God is in himself , namely , † an eternal being of himself . Secondly , How he is unto others , because that from him all other Creatures have received their being . Thirdly , That we may confidently believe his promises : for he is named Jehovah , not only in respect of being , and causing all things to be ; but especially in respect of his gracious promises , which without fail he will fulfil in his appointed time , and so cause that to be , which was not before . And so this Name is a golden pledge unto us , that because he hath promised , he will surely upon a our repentance forgive us all our sins ; at the time o● death , b receive our Souls ; and in the resurrection c raise up our Bodies in glory to life everlasting . The second Name denoting God's Essence , is Ehejeh ; but once read , Exod. 3. 14 of the same root that JEHOVAH is : and signifieth . I AM , or I WILL BE ▪ for when Moses asked God by what Name he should call him , God then named himself , Ehejeh Asher Ehejeh ; I am tha● I am : or I will be that I will be : signifying , that he is an eternal , unchangeable Being : for seeing every Creature is temporary and mutable ; no Creature can say , Ero qui ero , I will be that I will be . This name in the New Testament is given to our Lord Christ , when he is called Alpha and Omega ; The beginning and the ending , † which is , which was , and which is to come ; The Almighty , Apoc. 1. 8. For all time past and to come , is aye present before God. And to this name , Christ himself alludeth , Joh 8. 58. Before Abraham was , I AM. This Name should teach us likewise to have always present in our minds our first Creation , present Corruption , and future Glorification ; and not content our selves with I was good , or I will be good , but to be good presently ; that when ever God sends for us , he may find us prepared for him . The third name is Jah , which as it comes of the same root , so is it the contract of Jehovah , and signifieth Lord , because he is the * beginning and Being of Beings . It is a a name for the most part , ascribed unto God , when some notable deliverance or benefit comes to pass according to his former promise : and therefore all Creatures in Heaven and Earth , are commanded to celebrate and praise God in this Name Jah . The fourth is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Lord , used often in the New Testament : for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , signifieth I am . Hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , signifieth the first Essence of a thing , or authority , when it is absolutely given to God , it answereth to the Hebrew name Jehovah , and is so translated by the seventy Interpreters : for God is so a Lord , that he is of a himself Lord of all . This Name should always put us in remembrance to b obey his Commandments , and to fear his Judgments , and submit our selves to his blessed Will and Pleasure , saying with Eli , It is the Lord , let him do what seemeth him good , 1 Sam. 3. 18. The fifth is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , God , 600 times used in the New Testament : and of prophane Wri●ers commonly . It is derived c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , because he runs thorow and compasseth all things : or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifieth to burn and kindle : for God is Light and the Author both of Heat , d Light , and Life , in all Creatures , either immediately of himself ; or mediately by secondary causes . This name i● used either improperly , or properly . Improperly , when it is given either figuratively , to Magistrates , or falsely to Idols . But when it is properly and absolutely taken , it signifieth the Eternal Essence of God , being above all things , and through all things : giving life and light to all creatures , and preserving and governing them , in their wonderful frame and order . God seeth all in all places : Let us therefore every where take heed what we do in his sight . Thus far of the names which signifie God's Essence . The name which signifieth the Persons in the Essence , is chiefly one , * Elohim . Elohim signifieth the mighty Judges : it is a name of the plural number , to express the Trinity of Persons in † Vnity of Essence . And to this purpose the holy Ghost beginneth the holy Bible with this plural Name of God , joyned with a Verb of the singular number ; as Elohim Bara , Dii creavit . f The mighty Gods , or all the three Persons in the God-head , created . The Jews also note in the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bara consisting of three Letters , the mystery of the Trinity , by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beth , Ben , the Son : by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Resh , Ruach , the Spirit , by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aleph , Ab , the Father . But this holy mystery is more clearly taught by Moses , Gen. 3. 23 And Jehovah Elohim said , Behold , the Man is become as one of us . And Gen. 19. 24. Jehovah rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrha , b●imstone and fire from Jehovah out of Heaven : g that is God the Son , from God the Father , who hath committed all judgment unto the Son , John 5. 22. See Psal. 33. 6. Isa. 6. 8 , 9 , 10. The singular number of Elohim is Eloah , derived of Alah , he swore ; because that in all weighty causes , when necessity requireth an Oath to decide the Truth , we are only to swear by the Name of God which is the great and righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth . This Name Eloah is but seldom used , as Hab. 3. 3. Job 4. 9. Job 12. 4. and 15. 8. 36. 2. Psal. 18. 32. Psal. 114. 7. Once it hath a Noun plural joyned to it , a Job 35. 10. None saith , Where is Eloah Gosai , the Almighty my Maker ? to note the mystery of the eternal Trinity . Many times also Elohim , the plural number , is joyned with a Verb singular , to express more emphatically this Mystery , Gen. 35. 7. 2. Sam. 7. 23. b Josh. 24. 19. Jer. 10. 10. Elohim is also sometime Tropically given to Magistrates , because they are God's Vice-gerents , as to Moses , Exod. 7. 1. Jehovah said unto Moses , I have made thee Elohim to Pharoah , that is , I have appointed thee an Ambassador to represent the person of the true three one God , and to deliver his message and will unto Pharoah . As oft therefore as we read or hear this name Elohim , it should put us in mind to consider , that in one divine Essence there are three distinct Persons , and that God is Jehovah Elohim . Now follow the Names which signifie God's Essential Works , which are these five especially . 1. EL , which is as much as the strong God , c and reacheth us , that God is not only most strong , and fortitude it self in his own Essence : but also that it is he , that giveth all strength and power to all other Creatures . Therefore Christ is called , Isai. 9. 6. El Gibbor , The strong most mighty God. Let not God's Children fear the power of enemies , for El our God is more strong than they . 2. Shaddai , * That is , Omnipotent . By this Name , God usually stiled himself to the Patriarchs , I am El Shaddai , the strong God , Almighty . Because he is perfectly able to defend his servants from all evil : to bless them with all spiritual and temporal blessings , and to perform all his promises which he hath made unto them for this life , and that which is to come . This name belongeth only to the Godhead , and to no creature , no , not to the humanity of Christ. This may teach us with the Patriarchs , to put our whole confidence in God , and not to doubt of the true performance of his promises . 3. † Adon●i , My Lord. This name , as the Masorets note , is found 134 ▪ times in the Old Testament . Analogically it is given to Creatures , but properly it belongeth to God alone . It is used , Malach. 1. 6. in the plural number , to note the mystery of the holy Trinity . If I be Adonim , Lords , where is my fear ? Adoni the singular : Adonim the plural number . This Name is given to Christ , Dan 9. 16. Cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate , for Adoni , ( the Lord Christ ) his sake . The hearing of this Holy Mame , may teach every Man to obey God's Commandments , to fear him alone , to suffer none besides him to reign in his Conscience , to lay hold ( by a particular hand of faith ) upon his Word and Promise , and to challenge God in Christ to be his God , that he may say with Thomas , Thou art my Lord and my God. 4. Helion , that is , most high . Psal. 9. 2. Psal 91. 9. and 92. 9. Dan. 4. 17 , 24 , 25 , 34. Act 7. 48. This Name Gabriel giveth unto God , telling the virgin Mary , that the child which should be born of her , should be the † Son of the most High Luke 1. 32. This teacheth , that God in his Essence and glory exceedeth infinitely all creatures in Heaven and Earth . Secondly , that no Man should be proud of any earthly honour or greatness . * Thirdly , if we desire true dignity , to labour to have communion with God in grace and glory . 5. Abba , a Syriack Name , signifying Father , Rom. 8. 15. This is sometimes used Essentially , as in the Lord's Prayer . Secondly , Personally , as Mat. 11. 25. For God is Christ's Father by Nature , and Christians by Adoption and Grace . Christ is called the everlasting Father , Isa. 9. 6. because he regenerates us under the New Testament . God is also called † the Father of lights , Jam. 1. 17. because God dwelleth in inaccessible light , 1 Tim. 6. 16. and is the Author , not only of the Son 's light , but also of all the light , both of natural reason , and supernatural grace , b Which lighteneth every Man that cometh into the World. This name teacheth us , that all the gifts which we receive from God , proceed from his mere Fatherly Love. Secondly , that we should love him again as dear Children . Thirdly , That we may in all our needs and troubles , be bold to call upon him as a Father , for his help and succour . Thus should we not hear of the sacred names of God , but we should thereby be put in mind of his goodness unto us , and of our duties unto him . And then should we find how comfortable a thing it is , to do every thing in the Name of God. A phrase usual in every man's tongue : but the true comfort thereof ( through ignorance ) known to few men's hearts . It is a great Wisdom , and an unspeakable matter for the strengthening of a Christian's Faith , to know how in the mediation of Christ , to invocate God by such a Name , as whereby he hath manifested himself to be most willing and best able to help and succour him in his prese●t need or adversity . The ardent desire of knowing God , is the surest testimony of our love to God , and of Gods favour to us . c Because he hath set his love upon me , therefore will I deilver him ; I will set him on high , because he hath known my name : he shall call upon me , and I will answer him , &c. And it is a great strengthening of faith , with understanding to begin every action in the Name of God. Thus far of the nominal Attributes . The real Attributes are of two sorts : either absolute or relative . The absolute Attributes are such , which cannot in any sort agree to any Creature , but to God alone . These are two : simpleness and infiniteness . a Simpleness is that whereby God is void of all composition , division , multiplication , accidents , or parts compounding , either sensible , or intelligible : so that whatever he is , he is the same essentially . It hinders not God's simpleness that he is three : because God is three , not by composition of parts , but by co-existence of Persons . b Infiniteness is that whereby all things in God are void of all measure , limitation , and bounds above and beneath , before and after . From these two do necessarily flow three other Absolute Attributes . 1. Vnmeasurableness , or ubiquity , whereby he is of infinite extension , c filling heaven and earth , containing all places , and not contained of any space , place , or bounds , and being no where absent , is every where present . There are four degrees of God's ●resence : the first is universal , by which God is repletively , every where ; inclusively , no where . Secondly , Special , by which God is said to be in Heaven , because that * there his Power , Wisdom and Goodness , is in a more excellent manner seen and enjoyed : as also because that usually he doth from ●hence pour forth his Blessings and Judgments . Thirdly , more special , by which God b dwelleth in his Saints . Fourthly , more special , and altogether singular , by which the whole fulness of the Godhead c dwelleth in Christ bodily . 2. Vnchangeableness , whereby God is void of all change , both in respect of his d Essence and e Will. 3. Eternity , whereby God is without beginning of days , or end of time ; and without all bounds of f precession , or succession . Thus far of the absolute Attributes ; now of the relative , or such which have reference to the Creatures . Those are five . 1. Life . 2. Vnderstanding . 3. Will. 4. Power . 5. Majesty . 1. THe Life of God is that , by which , as by a most pure and perpetual Act , he not only liveth of himself , but is also that ever and over-flowing Fountain of life , from which all Creatures derive their g lives , so as that in him , they live , move breath , and have their being . And because only his Life differs not from his h Essence therefore God is said only to have Immortality , 1 Tim. 6. 16. 2. The Vnderstanding , or Knowledge of God , is that whereby ( by one pure act ) he most perfectly i knoweth in himself all things that ever were , are , or shall be : Yea , the thoughts and imaginations of Mens hearts . This Knowledge of God is either general , by which God knoweth simply all things eternally , the good by himself , the evil by the good opposite to it ; imposing to things contingent , the Lot of contingency ; and to things necessary , the Law of necessity . And thus knowing all things in , and of himself , he is the cause of all the knowledge that is in all , both Men and Angels . Or secondly , special , called the knowledge of approbation , by which he particularly knoweth , and graciously acknowledgeth only his Elect for his own . k Vnderstanding also contains the Wisdom of God , by which he most wisely created all things of nothing , in number , measure , and weight , and still ruleth and disposeth them to serve his own most holy purpose and glory . 3. The Will of God is that , whereby of c necessity he willeth himself , as the soveraign good : and ( by willing himself ) willeth most d freely e all other good things which are out of himself . The Will of God , though in it self it be but one , as in his Essence , yet in respect of the diversity of Objects and Effects , it is call'd in the Scriptures by divers names , as , 1. Love , whereby is meant God's eternal f good Will , whereby he ordaineth his Elect to be freely saved through Christ , and g bestoweth on them all necessary graces for this life , and that to come , h taking pleasure in their persons and services . 2. Justice i is Gods constant Will whereby he k recompenseth Men and Angels , according to their works , l punishing the impenitent according to their deserts , called the justice of his wrath : and m rewarding the faithful , according to his promises , called the justice of his Grace . 3. Mercy , which is n God's mere Good Will , and ready affection to forgive a penitent sinner , notwithstanding all his sins and ill deserts . 4. Goodness , o whereby God willingly communicateth his good with his Creatures : and because he communicates it freely , it is termed grace . 5. Truth , whereby p God willeth constantly those things which he willeth : effecting and performing all things , which he hath spoken , in his appointed time . 6. Patience , whereby God willingly forbeareth to punish the wicked , so long as it may stand with his justice , and until their q sins be ripened . Ad poenam tardus Deus est , ad praemia velox . Sed pensare solet vi graviore moram . 7. Holiness , r whereby God's Nature is separated from all prophaneness : and abhorreth all filthiness : and so being wholly pure in himself , delighteth in the inward and outward purity and chastity of his servants , which he infuseth into them . 8. Anger , s whereby is meant God's most certain and just Will in chastening the Elect , and in revenging and punishing the Reprobate , for the injuries they offer to him and his chosen : and when God will punish with rigour and severity , then it is termed Wrath t temporal to the Elect , u eternal to the Reprobates . 4. The Power of God is that whereby he m can simply and freely do whatsoever he will , that is agreeable to his nature : and whereby ( as he hath made , so ) he still ruleth heaven and earth , and all things therein . This Almighty power of God is either absolute , by which he can will , and do more than he willeth or doth , Matth. 3. 9. and 20. 53. Rom. 9. 18. Or actual , by which God doth indeed whatsoever he will , and hindreth whatsoever he will not have done , Psal. 115. 3. 5. Majesty is that , by which God of his own absolute and free authority n reigneth and ruleth , as Lord and King , over all Creatures visible , and invisible ▪ having both the right and propriety in all things : as o from whom , and for whom , are all things : as also such a plenitude of Power , that he can pardon the offences of all whom he p will have spared ; and subdue all his Enemies , whom he will have q plagued and destroyed , without being bound to render to any Creature a reason of his doing : but making his own most holy and just Will , his only most perfect and eternal Law. From all these Attributes ariseth one , which is God's soveraign blessedness or perfection . Blessedness is that b perfect and unmeasurable possession of joy and glory , which God hath in himself for ever : and is the cause of all the bliss and perfection , that every creature enjoys in its measure . There are other Attributes figuratively and improperly ascribed unto God , in the Holy Scriptures , as by an Anthropomorphosis , the members of a man , eyes , ears , Nostrils , mouth , hands , feet , &c. or the senses and actions of man , as seeing , hearing , smelling , working , walking , striking , &c. By an Antropopatheia , the affections , and passions of a man , as gladness , grief , joy , sorrow , love , hatred , &c. or by an Analogie , as when he is named a Lyon , a Rock , a Tower , a Buckler , &c. Whose signification every † Commentary will express . Of all these Attributes we must hold these general Rules . NO Attribute can sufficiently express the Essence of God , because it is infinite and ineffable . Whatsoever therefore is spoken of GOD is not GOD ; but serveth rather to help ●ur weak Understanding , to conceive in ●u● Reason , and to utter in our Speech ●he Majesty of his Divine Nature , so far as ●e hath vouchsafed to reveal himself unto ●s in his Word . 2. All the Attributes of God belong to very of the three Persons , as well as to the Essence it self , with the limitations of a ●ersonal propriety . As the mercy of the Father is mercy begetting ; the mercy of the ●on is mercy begotten ; the mercy of the H. ●host is mercy proceeding , and so of the rest . 3. The Essential Attributes of God dif●er not from his Essence , because they are ●o in the Essence , that they are the very Essence it self . * In God therefore there ●s nothing which is not either his Essence ●r Person . 4. The Essential Attributes of God dif●er not Essentially or Really one from ano●her ( because whatsoever is in God , is ●ne most simple Essence , and one admits no ●ivision ) but only in our reason and under●●anding , which being not able to know ●arthly things by one simple Act , without ●he help of many distinct Acts , must of ●ecessity have the help of many distinct Acts to know the incomprehensible GOD. Therefore ( to speak properly ) there are ●ot in God many Attributes , but † one only , which is nothing else but the Divine Es●ence it self , by what Attributes soever you all it . But in respect of our reason , they ●re said to be so many different Attributes , for ●ur understanding conceives by the name of c mercy , a thing differing from that which is called justice . The Essential Attributes of God are not therefore reall● separate . 5. The Essential Attributes of God are no parts or qualities of the Divine Essence nor d Accidents in the Essence , nor a Subject : but the very e whole and entire Essence of God. So that every such Attribute is no aliud & aliud , another and another thing but one and the same thing . There are therefore no Quantities in God by which he may be said to be so much , and so much , nor Qualities by which he may be said to be such and such : but f whatsoever God is , He is such , and the same by his Essence . By his Essence he is wise , and therefore Wisdom it self : By his Essence he is good and therefore Goodness it self ; by his Essence he is merciful , and therefore Mercy it self : By his Essence he is just , and therefore Justice it self , &c. In a word , God is grea● without quantity ; good , true , and just without quality ; merciful without passion ; a● act without motion ; every where present without sight ; without time , the fi●st , and the last : the Lord of all Creatures , from whom all g receive themselves , and a● the good they have ; yet neither needed nor receiveth he any increase of goodnes● or happiness from any other . This is the plain description of God so far as he hath revealed himself to us in his Word This Doctrine ( of all other ) every true Practitioner of Piety must competently know and necessarily believe , for four special uses . 1. That we may discernour true and only God , from all false Gods and Idols ; for the Description of God is properly a known only to his Church , in whom he hath thus graciously manifested himself . 2. To possess our hearts with a greater awe of his Majesty , whilst we admire him ●or his simpleness and infiniteness ; adore him for his unmeasurableness , unchangeableness , and Eternity ; seek wisdom from his under●tanding and knowledge ; submit our selves to his blessed will and pleasure ; love him for his ●ove , mercy , goodness , and patience ; trust to his word because of his truth ; fear him for his Power , Justice , and Anger , reverence him ●or his Holiness , and praise him for his Bles●edness , and to depend all our life on him , who is the only Author of our Life , Being , ●nd all the good things we have . 3. To stir us up to imitate the Divine ●pirit in his holy Attributes , and to bear in some measure ) the image of his Wis●om , Love , Goodness , Justice , Mercy , Truth , ●atience , Zeal , and Anger against sin , that ●e may be wise , loving , just , merciful , true , ●atient , and zealous , as our God is . 4. Lastly , That we may in our Prayers ●nd Meditations , conceive aright of his Di●●ne Majesty , and not according to those ●●oss and blasphemous imaginations which naturally arise in Mens Brains : as whe● they conceive God to be like an old Man sitting in a Chair ; and the blessed Trinity to b● like that tripartite Idol , which Papists hav● painted in their Church-Windows . When therefore thou art to pray unt● God , let thine Heart speak unto him , as t● that a Eternal , b Infinite , c Almighty , d Holy e Wise , f Just , g Merciful , h Spirit , and mo● i Perfect , k indivisible Essence of three sever●● Persons , Father , Son , and Holy Ghost ; w● being l present in all places , m ruleth Heave● and Earth , understandeth n all mens heart knoweth all mens miseries , and is only able bestow on us all graces which we want , and deliver all penitent sinners , who with faithf● hearts seek ( for Christ's sake ) his help out all their afflictions and troubles whatsoever . The ignorance of this true knowledg● of God , maketh many to make an Idol the True God , and is the only cause w●● so many do profess all other parts of God Worship and Religion , with so much irrverence and hypocrisie ; whereas if they d● truly know God , they durst not but co●● to his holy Service , and coming , serve hi● with fear and reverence ; for so far do a Man fear God , as he knows him ; a● then doth a Man truly know God , wh● he joyns practice to speculation : And th● is , First , When a Man doth so acknowled and celebrate God's Majesty , as he 〈◊〉 revealed himself in his Word . Secondly , When from the true and li●● sense of God's Attributes , there is bred in ● Man 's heart a love , awe , and confidence in God ; for , saith God himself , If I be a Father , where is my honour ? If I be a Lord , where is my fear ? O taste and see , that the Lord is good , saith David . He that hath not by experience tasted his goodness , knoweth not how good he is . He ( saith John ) that saith he knoweth God , and keepeth not his Commandments , is a lyar , and the truth is not ●n him . So far therefore as we imitate 〈◊〉 in his Goodness , Love , Justice , Mercy , Patience , and other Attributes , so far do we know him . Thirdly , When with inward groans , and ●he serious desires of our hearts , we long ●o attain to the perfect and plenary know●edge of his Majesty in the life which is to come . Lastly , This discovers how few there ●re who do truly know God ; for no Man knoweth God , but he that loveth him ; and how can a Man chuse but love him , being the sovereign good , if he know him ; seeing the Nature of God is to enamour with ●he Love of his Goodness ? And whosoever ●oveth any thing more than God ▪ is not worthy of God : and such is every one , who ●ettles the love and rest of his heart upon ●ny thing besides God. If therefore thou ●●ost believe that God is Almights , why ●●ost thou fear Devils and Enemies , and not confidently trust in God , and crave his help in all thy troubles and dangers ? If ●hou believest that God is Infinite , how darest thou provoke him to Anger ? If thou believest that God is simple , with what Heart canst thou dissemble , and play the Hypocrite ? If thou believest that God is the sovereign Good , why is not thy heart more settled upon him than on all worldly good ? If thou dost indeed believe that God is a just Judge , how darest thou live so securely in sin , without Repentance ? If thou dost truly believe that God is most wise , why dost thou not referr the Events of Crosses and Disgraces unto him , 〈◊〉 knows how to turn all things to the best unto them that love him ? If thou art perswaded that God is true , why dost thou doubt of his promises ? And if thou believest that God is Beauty , and a perfection it self , why dost not thou make him alone the chief end of all thy Affections and Desires ? For if thou lovest Beauty , He is most fair ; if thou desirest Riches he is most wealthy ; if thou seekest Wisdom , He is most wise . Whatsoever excellency thou hast seen in any Creature , it is nothing but a sparkle of that which is in infinite b Perfection in God : And when in Heaven we shall have an immediate Communion with God , we shall have them all perfectly in him communicated unto us . Briefly in all goodness , he is all in all . c Love that one good God , and thou shalt love him in whom all the good of goodness consisteth . He that would therefore attain to the saving knowledge of God , must learn to know him by love . For God is Love , and a the knowledge of the Love of God passeth all knowledge . For all knowledge , besides to know b how to love God , and to serve him only , is nothing upon Solomon's credit , but c vanity of vanities , and vexation of spirit . Kindle therefore , O my d Lady , nay rather , O my Lord Charity , the love of thy self in my Soul ; especially , seeing it was thy good pleasure , that being e reconciled by the blood of Christ , I should be brought by the knowledge of thy grace , to the Communion of thy glory , wherein only consists my soveraign good and happiness for ever . Thus by the light of his own word we have seen the back parts of JEHOVAH Elohim , the eternal Trinity , whom to believe is saving faith and verity , and unto whom from all Creatures in Heaven and Earth be all Praise , Dominion , and Glory for ever . Amen . Thus far of the Knowledge of God ; now of the Knowledge of a Man's self . And first of the state of his misery and corruption , without renovation by Christ. Meditations of the misery of a man not reconciled to God in Christ. O Wretched man ! where shall I begin to describe thine endless misery ? who art condemned as soon as conceived : and adjudged to eternal Death , before thou wast born to a temporal Life● A beginning Indeed I find , but no end of thy miseries . For when Adam and Eve bei●g created after God's own Image , and placed in Paradise , that they and their Posterity might live in a blessed state of Life Immortal , having dominion over all earthly Creatures , and only restrained from the Fruit of one Tree , as a sign of their subjection to the Almighty Creator , tho' God forbad them this one small thing under the penalty of eternal Death ; yet they believed the Devil's Word before the Word of God , making God ( as much as in them lay ) a Lyar. And so being unthankful for all the benefits which God bestowed on them , they became male-content with their present state , as if God had dealt enviously or niggardly with them , and believed that the Devil would make them pertakers of far more glorious things than ever God had bestowed upon them ; and in their pride they fell into High Treason against the most High , and disdaining to be God's Subjects , they affected blasphemously to be Gods themselves , Equals unto God. Hence , till they repented , ( losing God's Image ) they became like unto the Devil ; and so all their posterity , as a traiterous brood , ( whilst they remain impenitent like thee ) are subject in this life to all cursed miseries , and in the life to come , to the everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels . Lay the aside for a while thy doting vanities , and take the view with me of thy doleful miseries , which duly survey'd , I doubt not but that thou wilt conclude , that it is far better never to have Natures Being , than not to be by Grace a Practitioner of Religious Piety . Consider therefore thy misery . 1. In thy Life . 2. In thy Death . 3. After Death in thy Life . 1. The miseries accompanying thy Body . 2. the miseries which deform thy Soul. In thy Death , The miseries which shall oppress thy Body and Soul. After Death , The miseries which overwhelm both Body and Soul together in Hell. And first let us take a view of those miseries which accompany the Body according to the four Ages of thy Life . 1. Infancy . 2. Youth . 3. Manhood . 4. Old Age. Meditations of the Miseries of Infancy . WHAT wast thou , being an Infant but a Brute , having the shape of a Man ? Was not thy body conceived in the heat of Lust , the secret of shame and stain of Original Sin ? And thus wast thou cast naked upon the ●arth , all embrewed in the blood of filthiness ; ( filthy indeed , when the Son of God , who disdained not to take on him Man's Nature and the Infirmities thereof , yet thought it unbeseeming his Holiness to be conceived after the sinful manner of Man's Conception ) so that thy Mother was ashamed to let thee know the manner thereof ; what cause then hast thou to boast of thy Birth , which was a cursed pain to thy Mother , and to thy self the entrance into a troublesome life ? the greatness of which miseries , because thou couldst not utter in words , thou didst express ( as well as thou couldst ) in weeping tears . 2. Meditations of the Miseries of Youth . WHat is Youth , but an untamed Beast ; all whose Actions are rash and rude , not capable of good Counsel when it is given , and Ape-like , delighting in nothing but in Toys and Babies ? Therefore thou no sooner beganest to have a little strength and discretion , but forthwith thou wast kept under the Rod , and fear of Parents and Masters : as if thou hadst been born to live under the Discipline of others , rather than at the Disposition of thine own will. No tired Horse was ever more willing to be rid of his Burthen , than thou wast to get out of the servile state of this Bondage . A state not worthy the Description . 3. Meditations of the Miseries of Manhood . WHat 's Man's Estate but a Sea , wherein ( as Waves ) one trouble ariseth in the neck of another ; the latter worse than the former ? No sooner didst thou enter into the Affairs of this World , but thou wast inwrapped about with a cloud of miseries . Thy flesh provokes thee to lust , the world allures thee to pleasures , and the Devil tempts thee to all kind of Sins ; fears of Enemies affright thee , suits in Law do vex thee , wrongs of ill Neighbours do oppress thee , cares for Wife and Children do consume thee , and disquietness betwixt open Foes and false Friends do in a manner confound thee : Sin stings thee within : Satan lays snares before thee . Conscience of sins past doggeth behind thee . Now Adversity on the left-hand frets thee , anon Prosperity on the right-hand flatters thee ; over thy head GOD's vengeance due to thy sin , is ready to fall upon thee ; and under thy feet Hell's Mouth is ready to swallow thee up . And in this miserable estate whither wilt thou go for rest and comfort ? The House is full of cares , the Field full of toil , the country of rudeness , the City of Factions , the Court of Envy , the Church of Sects , the Sea of Pyrates , the Land of Robbers . Or in what state wilt thou live ? Seeing Wealth is envied , and Poverty contemned ; Wit is destru●ted , and Simplicity is derided ; Superstition is mocked , and Religion is suspected ; Vice is advanced and Virtue is disgraced O with what a body of Sin art thou compassed about in a World of Wickedness ? What are thine Eyes but Windows to behold Vanities ? What are thine Ears but flood gates to let in the streams of Iniquity ? What are thy Senses , but matches to give fire to thy lusts ? What is thine Heart but the Anvil , whereon Satan hath forged the ugly shape of all lewd affections ? Art thou nobly descended , thou must put thy self in peril of Foreign Wars , to get the Reputation of earthly honour ; oft-times hazard thy life in a desperate Combate , to avoid the aspersion of a Coward . Art thou born in mean estate ? Lord ! what pains and drudgery must thou endure at home and abroad to get maintenance ? and all perhaps scarce sufficient to serve thy necessity ; and when ( after much service and labour ) a man hath got something , how little certainty is there in that which is gotten ? seeing thou seest by daily Experience , that he who was rich yesterday , is to day a begger ; he that yesterday was in health , to day is sick ; he that yesterday was merry and laughed , hath cause to day to mourn and weep ; he that yesterday was in favour , to day is in disgrace ; and he who yesterday was alive , to day is dead : And thou knowest not how soon , nor in what manner thou shalt die thy self . And who can enumerate the Losses , Crosses , Griefs , Disgraces , Sicknesses and calamities , which are incident to sinful man ? To speak nothing of the death of Friends and Children , which oft-times seem to be unto us far more bitter than present Death it self . Meditations of the Miseries of Old Age. WHat is Old Age , but the receptacle of all Maladies ? For if thy Lot be to draw thy days to a long date , in comes old bald-headed Age , stooping under dot age , with his wrinkled Face , rotten teeth , and stinking breath , teasty with choler , wither'd with dryness , dim'd with blindness , obscured with dea●ness , over-whelm'd with sickness , and bowed together with weakness , having no use of any Sense but of the Sense of pain ; which so racketh every member of his body , that it never easeth him of grief till it hath thrown him down to his Grave . Thus far of the Miseries which accompany the body . Now of the Miseries which accompany chiefly the Soul in this Life . Meditations of the Miseries of the Soul in this Life . THE Misery of thy Soul will more evidently appear , if thou wilt but consider . 1. The felicity she hath lost . 2. The misery which she hath pulled upon her self by sin . 1. The felicity lost , was first the Fruition of the image of God , whereby the Soul was like unto God in * knowledge , enabling her perfectly to understand † the revealed Will of God. Secondly , True holyness , by which she was fre● from all prophane error . Thirdly , Righteousness , whereby she was able to incline all her natural powers , and to frame uprightly all her Actions , proceeding from those powers : With the loss of this Divine Image she lost the love of God , and the blessed Communion which she had with his Majesty , wherein consisteth her life and happiness , if the loss of Earthly Riches vex thee so much , how should not the loss of this Divine Treasure perplex thee much more ; 2. The misery , which she pulled upon her self , consists in two things : 1. Sinfulness . 2. Cursedness . 1. Sinfulness is an universal corruption , both of Her Nature and Actions : for Her a Nature is infected with a proneness to every sin continually , the b Mind is stuffed with Vanity , the c Vnderstanding is darkned with Ignorance , the d Will affecteth nothing but vile and vain things : All Her e Actions ●re evil ; yea , this deformity is so violent , that oftentimes in the regenerate Soul the Appetite will not obey the government of Reason and the Will wandreth after , and yields consent to sinful motions . How great then is the violenc● of the Appetite and Will in the Reprobate Soul , which still remains in her natural corruption ! hence it is , that thy wretched Soul is so deformed with Sin , defiled with Lust polluted with Filthiness , outraged with Passions , overcarried with Affections , pining with Envy , overcharged with Gluttony , surfeited with Drunkenness , boiling with Revenge , transported with Rage , and the glorious Image of God transformed into the ugly shape of the a Devil , so far as it once b repented the Lord that he ever made Man. From the former flows the other part , of the Soul's Miseries , called c Cursedness whereof there are two degrees . 1. In part . 2. In fullness thereof . 1. Cursedness in part is that which is inflicted upon the Soul in life and death , and is common to her with the Body . The Cursedness of the Soul in Life is the wrath of God , which lieth upon such a Creature so far , as that all things , not only Calamities , but also very d Blessings , and e Graces , turn to ruine . f Terror of Conscience drives him from God and his service , that he dares not come to his Presence and Ordinances ; but is g given up to the h slavery of Satan , and to his own Lusts , and vile Affections . This is the Cursedness of the Soul in life ; Now follows the Cursedness of the Soul and Body in Death . Meditations of the Misery of the Body and Soul in Death . AFter that the aged man hath conflicted with long sickness , and having indured the brunt of pain , should now expect some ease , in comes Death ( nature's slaughter-man , God's Curse and Hell's Purveyor ) and looks the Old Man grim , and black in the face ; and neither pitying his age , nor regarding his long endured dolours , will not be hired to forbear either for silver or gold ; nay , he will not take , to spare his life , Skin for Skin , aud all that the old Man hath , but batters all the principal parts of his Body , and arrests him to appear before the terrible Judge . And as thinking that the Old man will not dispatch to go with him fast enough , Lord ! how many darts of Calamities doth he shoot through him , Stiches , Aches , Cramps , Fevers , Obstructions , Rheums , Flegm , Cholick , Stone , Wind , &c. O what a ghastly sight it is , to see him then in his Bed , when Death hath given him his mortal wound ! what a cold sweat over-runs all his body ! what a trembling possesseth all his Members ! the Head shooteth , the Face waxeth pale , the Nose black , the n●ther Jaw-bone hangeth down , the Eye-strings break , the Tongue faltereth , the Breath shortneth and smelleth earthly , the Thro●t ●a●ti●th , and at every Gasp the Heart-strings are ready to break asunder . Now the miserable Soul sensibly perceiv●● her Earthly Body to begin to die ; For ●owards the dissolution of the universal Frame of the great World , the Sun 〈◊〉 be turned into Darkness , the Moon into Blood , and the Stars shall fall from Heaven , the Air shall be full of Storms , and flashing Meteors , the Earth shall tremble , and the Sea shall roar , and mens hearts shall fail for fear , expecting the end of such sorrowful beginnings : So towards the dissolution of Man ( which is the little World ) his Eyes , which are as the Sun and Moon , lose their light , and see nothing but blood-guiltiness of Sin : The rest of the Senses , as lesser Stars , do one after another fail and fall ; his Mind , Reason and Memory , as heavenly powers of his Soul , are shaken with fearful storms of Despair , and fierce flashing of Hell-fire ; his earthly body beginneth to shake and tremble , and the humours , like an overflowing Sea , roar and rattle in his Throat , still expecting the woful End of these dreadful beginnings . Whilst he is thus summoned to appear at the Great Assizes of God's Judgment● behold a Quarter-Sessions , and Gaol-Delivery , is held within himself , where Reason sits as Judge , the Devil puts in a Bill of Indictment , as large as that Book of Zechary , wherein are alledged all thy evil deeds that ever thou hast committed , and all the good deeds that ever thou hast omitted , and all the Curses and Judgments that are due to every sin . Thine own Conscience shall accuse thee , and thy Memory shall give bitter Evidence , and Death stands at the Bar ready , as a cruel Executioner , to dispatch thee . If thou shalt thus condemn thy self , how shalt thou escape the Just Condemnation of God , who knows all thy misdeeds better than thy self ? Fain wouldst thou put out of thy mind the remembrance of the wicked deeds that trouble thee : but they flow faster into thy remembrance , and they will not be put away , but cry unto thee , We are thy works , and we will follow thee : and whilst thy soul is thus within , out of peace and order , thy Children , Wife , and Friends , trouble thee as fast , to have thee put thy goods in order ; some crying , some craving , some pitying , some chearing ; all like Flesh-Flies , helping to make thy sorrows more sorrowful . Now the Devils , who are come from Hell to fetch away thy Soul , begin to appear to her , and wait , as soon as she cometh forth to take her and carry her away . Stay she would within , but that she feels the body begin by degrees to die , and ready , like a ruinous House , to fall upon her head . Fearful she is to come forth , because of those Hell-hounds which wait for her coming . O she that spent so many days and nights in vain and idle pastimes , would now give the whole world , if she had it , for one hour . delay , that she might have space to repent , and reconcile her self unto God. But it cannot be , because her body which joyned with her in the Action of sin is altogether now unfit to joyn with her in the exercise of repentance , and repentance must be of the whole Man. Now she seeth that all her pleasures are gone as if they had never been ; and that but only torments remain , which never shall have an end of being . Who can sufficiently express her remorse for her sins past , her anguish for her present Misery , and her terror for her torments to come ? In this Extremity she looketh every where for help , and findeth her self every way helpless . Thus in her greatest misery ( desirous to hear the least word of comfort ) she directs this , or the like Speech unto her Eyes : O Eyes , who in times past were so quick-sighted , can ye spy no Comfort , nor any way how I might escape this dreadful danger ? But the Eye-strings are broken , they cannot see the Candle that burneth before them , nor discern whether it be Day or Night . The Soul ( finding no comfort in the Eyes ) speaketh to the Ears : O Ears , who were wont to recreate your selves , with hearing new pleasant Discourses , and Musicks sweetest Harmony , can you hear any news or tidings of the least Comfort for me ? The Ears are either so deaf , that they cannot hear at all , or the sense of hearing is grown so weak , that it cannot endure to hear his dearest Friends to speak . And why should those Ears hear any tidings of Joy in Death , who could never abide to hear the glad tidings of the Gospel in this life ? The Ear can minister no comfort . Then she intimates her grief unto the Tongue : O Tongue , who wast wont to brag it out with the bravest , where are now thy big and daring words ? now ( in my greatest need ) canst thou speak nothing in my defence ? Canst thou neither daunt these Enemies with threatning words , nor entreat them with fair speeches ? Alas , the Tongue two days ago lay speechless ! It cannot in his greatest extremity either call for a little drink , or desire a Friend to take away with his finger the flegm that is ready to choak him . Finding here no hope of help , she speaks unto the Feet ; where are ye , O Feet , which sometime were so nimble in running , can you carry me no where out of this dangerous place ? the Feet are stone-dead already : if they be not stirred , they cannot stir . Then she directs her Speech unto her Hands : O Hands , who have been so often approved for Manhood , in peace and war , and wherewith I have so often defended my self , and offended my Foes ; never had I more need than now . Death looks me grim in the face , and kills me : Hellish Fiends wait about my Bed to devour me : help now , or I perish for ever Alas ▪ the Hands are so weak , and do so tremble , that they cannot reach to the Mouth a Spoonful of supping to relieve languishing Nature . The wretched Soul seeing her self thus desolate and altogether destitute of friends , help , and comfort , and knowing that within an Hour she must be in everlasting pains , retires her self to the Heart ( which of all Members is primum vivens , and ultimum moriens ) from whence she makes this doleful lamentation with her self . O miserable Caitiff that I am ! How do the sorrows of Death compass me ! How do the floods of Belial make me afraid ! Now have indeed the snares both of the first and second death overtaken me at once . O how suddenly hath Death stollen upon me with insensible degrees ! like the Sun which the Eye perceives not to move , though it be most swift of motion . How doth Death wreak on me his spite without pity ! The God of mercy hath utterly forsaken me ; and the Devil , who knows no mercy , waits for to take me . How often have I been warned of this doleful Day by the faithful Preachers of God's Word , and I made but a Jest thereat ? What profit have I now of all my Pride , fine House , and brave Apparel ? What 's become of the sweet Relish of all my delicious Fare ? all the worldly Goods which I so carefully gathered , would I now give for a good Conscience , which I so carelesly neglected ! and what Joy remains now of all my former fleshly Pleasures , wherein I placed my chief delight ? those foolish Pleasures were but deceitful Dreams , and now they are past , like vanishing shadows ; but to think of those Eternal Pains , which I must endure for those short Pleasures , pains me as Hell before I enter into Hell. Yet justly I confess , as I have deserved , I am served , that being made after God's Image , a reasonable Soul , able to judge of mine own Estate and having Mercy so often offered , and I intreated to receive it ; I neglected God's Grace , and preferred the pleasures of sin before the religious care of pleasing God : lewdly spending my short time , without considering what Accounts I should make at my last end . And now all the Pleasures of my Life being put together , countervail not the least part of my present Pains : My Joys were but moment any , and gone before I could scarce enjoy them : My Miseries are eternal , and never shall know end . O that I had spent the Hours that I consumed in carding , diceing , playing , and other vile exercises , in reading the Scriptures , in hearing Sermons , in receiving the Communion , in weeping for my Sins , in fasting , watching , praying , and in preparing my Soul , that I might have now departed in the assured hope of everlasting Salvation ! O that I were now to begin my Life again , how would I contemn the world and the vanities thereof ! How religiously , and purely would I lead my Life ! How would I frequent the Church , and sanctifie the Lord's-Day ! If Satan should offer me all the treasures , pleasures , and promotions of this world , he should never intice me to forget these Terrors of this last dreadful Hour . But , O corrupt Carkase and stinking Carrion ! How hath the Devil deluded us , and how have we served and deceived each other , and pulled swift Damnation upon us both ! Now is my case more miserable than the Beast that perisheth in a Ditch : For I must go to answer before the Judgment-seat of the righteous Judge of Heaven and Eart●● 〈◊〉 I shall have none to speak for 〈◊〉 and these wicked Fiends , who are privy 〈◊〉 my evil deeds , will accuse me , and I cannot excuse my self . My own heart already condemns me , I must needs therefore be dain●ed before his Judgment-seat ; and from thence be carried by these Infernal Fiends , into that horrible Prison of endless torments and utter darkness , where I shall never more see light , that first most excellent thing that God made . I who gloried heretofore in being a Libertine , am now inclosed in the very Claws of Satan , as the trembling Partridge is within the griping talons of the ravenous Faulcon , Where shall I lodge to night , and who shall be my Companions ? O horror to think ! O grief to consider ! O cursed be the day wherein I was born , and let not the day wherein my Mother bare me be blessed . Cursed be the Man that shewed my Father , saying , A Child is born unto thee , and comforted him . Cursed be that man , because he slew me not . O that my Mother might have been my Grave , or her Womb a perpetual Conception ! How is it that I came forth of the Womb to endure these hellish sorrows ! and that my days should thus end with eternal shame ? Cursed be the day that I was first united to so lewd a body : O that I had but so much favour , as that I might never see thee more ! Our parting is bitter and doleful , but our meeting again , to receive at that dreadful Day , the fulness of our deserved vengeance , will be far more terrible and intolerable . But what mean I thus ( by too late lamentation ) to seek to prolong time ? My last hour is come , I hear the heart-strings break ; this filthy house of Clay falls on my Head , here is neither hope , help , nor place of any longer abiding . And must I needs be gone ? thou filthy Carcass ; O filthy Carcass , with fare ill , fare well , I leave thee . And so all trembling she cometh forth ; and forthwith is seized upon by Infernal Fiends , who carry her with a violence , torrenti simili , to the bottomless Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone , where she is kept as a Prisoner , in torments , till the general Judgment of the great Day . The loathsome Carcass is afterwards laid in the Grave . In which action , for the most part , the dead bury the dead ; that is , they who are dead in sin , bury them who are dead for sin . And thus the godless and unregenerate worldling , who made Earth his Paradise , his Belly his God , his Lust his Law ; as in his life he sowed vanity , so he is now dead , and reapeth misery . In his prosperity he neglected to serve God ; in his adversity God refuseth to save him : And the Devil , whom he long served , now at length pays him his wages . Detestable was his life , damnable his death : The Devil hath his Soul , the Grave hath his Carcass ; in which Pit of Corruption , Den of Death , and Dungeon of Sorrow , let us leave the miserable Caitiff , rotting with his Mouth full of Earth , his Belly full of Worms , and his Carcass full of Stench ; expecting a fearful Resurrection when it shall be re-united with the Soul , that as they sinned together , so they may be eternally tormented together . Thus far of the miseries of the Soul and Body in Death , which is but cursedness in part : Now follows the fulness of cursedness , which is the misery of the Soul and Body after Death . Meditations of the misery of man after death , which is the fulness of Cursedness . THe fulness of cursedness ( when it falls upon a Creature , not able to bear the brunt thereof ) presseth him down to that bottomless a deep of the endless b wrath of Almighty God ; which is called the c damnation of Hell. This fulness of cursedness is either particular or general . Particular , is that which in a less measure of fulness lighteth upon the d Soul immediately as soon as she is separated from the Body . For , in the very instant of dissolution , she is in the sight and presence of God. For when she ceaseth to see with the organ of fleshly eyes , she seeth after a spiritual manner , like Stephen , who e saw the glory of God , and Jesus standing at his right hand : Or as a Man , who being born blind , and miraculously restored to his sight should see the Sun , which he never saw before . And thereby the testimony of her own Conscience , Christ the righteous Judge , who knoweth all things , makes her by his omnipresent Power , to understand the doom and judgment that is due unto her sins , and what must be her eternal a state . And in this manner standing in the sight of Heaven , not fit for her uncleanness to come into Heaven , she is said to stand before the Throne of God. And so forthwith she is b carried by the evil angels , how came to fetch her with violence into Hell , where she is kept as in a Prison , in everlasting pains and chains , under darkness , unto the Judgment of the great Day : But not in that extremity of torments which she shall finally receive at the last Day . The general fulness of cursedness is in a c greater measure of fulness , which shall be inflicted upon both thy d soul and body , when ( by the mighty power of Christ the supreme Judge of heaven and earth ) the one shall be brought out of Hell , and the other out of the Grave , as Prisoners to receive their dreadful doom , according to their evil deeds . How shall the reprobate by the roaring of the Sea , the quaking of the earth , the trembling of the e Powers of heaven , and terrours of heavenly signs , be driven at the worlds end , to their wits end ! Oh , what a woful salutation will there be , betwixt the damned Soul and Body , at their re-uniting at that terrible Day ! O sink of Sin , O lump of Filthiness , ( will the Soul say unto her Body ) how am I compelled to re-enter into thee , not as into an habitation to rest , but as a Prison to be tormented together ! how dost thou appear in my sight like Jephthah's Daughter to my greater torment ! Would GOD thou hadst perpetually rotted in the grave , that I might never have seen thee again ! How shall we be confounded together , to hear before God , Angels , and Men , laid open all those secret sins , which we committed together ! Have I lost Heaven for the love of such a stinking Carrion ? Art thou the flesh , for whose pleasures I have yielded to commit so many fornications ? O filthy Belly , how became I such a Fool as to make thee my God! How mad was I for momentany joys , to incur these torments of eternal pains ! Ye rocks and mountains , why skip ye so like rams , Psalm 144. 4. and will not fall upon me , to hide me from the face of him that comes to sit on yonder throne ; for the great day of his wrath is come , and who shall be able to stand ? Rev. 6. 16 , 17. Why tremblest thou thus , Earth , at the presence of the Lord , and wilt not open thy Mouth and swallow me up , as thou didst Korah , that I be seen no more ? O damned furies ! I would ye might without delay tear me in pieces , on condition that you would tear me into nothing ! But whilst thou art thus in vain bewailing thy misery , the Angels hale thee violently away from the brink of the Grave , to some place near the Tribunal Seat of Christ , where being as a cursed Goat separated to stand beneath on Earth , as on * the left-hand of the Judge ; Christ shall rip up all the benefits he bestowed on thee , and the torments he suffered for thee , and all the good deeds which thou hast omitted , and all the ungrateful villainies which thou didst commit against him and his holy Laws . Within thee , thine own Conscience ( more than a Thousand Witnesses ) shall accuse thee ; the Devils who tempted thee to all thy lewdness , shall on the one side testifie with thy Conscience against thee ; and on the other side , shall stand the holy Saints and Angels , approving Christ's Justice , and detesting so filthy a Creature ; behind thee an hideous noise of innumerable fellow-damned Reprobates tarrying for thy company . Before thee † all the World burning in flaming fire ; above thee an ireful Judge of deserved Vengeance , ready to pronounce his Sentence upon thee ; beneath thee , the fiery and sulphureous mouth of the bottomless pit , gaping to receive thee . In this woful estate , to hide thy self will be impossible ; ( for on that condition , thou wouldst wish that the greatest Rock might fall upon thee ) to appear will be intolerable , and yet thou must stand forth , to receive , with other Reprobates , this thy Sentence , * Depart from me ye cursed , into everlasting fire , prepared for the devil and his angels . Depart from me ] There is a separation from all joy and happiness . Ye cursed ] There is a black and direful Excommunication . Into fire ] There is the cruelty of Fain . Everlasting ] There is the perpetuity of punishment . Prepared for the Devil and his Angels . ] Here are thy infernal tormenting and tormented Companions . O terrible Sentence ! from which the condemned cannot escape ; which being pronounced , cannot possibly be withstood : against which a Man cannot except , and from which a Man can no where appeal : so that to the damned nothing remains but hellish torments , which know neither ease of pain , nor end of time . From this Judgment-seat thou must be thrust by Angels ( together with all the damned Devils and Reprobates ) into the bottomless lake of utter darkness , that perpetually burneth with fire and brimstone . Whereunto as thou shalt be thrust , there shall be such weeping woes and wailing , that the cry of the company of Korah , Dathan and Abiram , when the earth swallowed them up , was nothing comparable to this howling ; nay , it will seem unto thee an Hell before thou goest into Hell , but to hear it . Into which bottomless lake after that thou art once plunged , thou shalt ever be falling down , and never meet a bottom ; and in it thou shalt ever lament , and none shall pity thee ; thou shalt always weep for pain of the Fire , and yet gnash thy Teeth , for the extremity of Cold ; thou shalt weep to think that thy miseries are past remedy : thou shalt weep to think , that to repent is to no purpose : thou shalt weep to think , how for the shadows of short pleasures thou hast incurred these sorrows of eternal pains : thou shalt weep to see how that weeping it self can nothing prevail ; yea , in weeping , thou shalt weep more tears than there is water in the Sea , for the water of the Sea is finite , but the weeping of a Reprobate shall be infinite . There thy lascivious Eyes shall be afflicted with sights of ghastly Spirits , thy curious Ears shall be affrighted with hideous noise of howling Devils , and the gnashing Teeth of damned Reprobates ; thy dainty Nose shall be cloyed with noisom stench of Sulphur ; thy delicate Taste shall be pined with intolerable hunger ; thy drunken Throat shall be parched with unquenchable thirst ; thy Mind shall be tormented to think how for the love of abortive pleasures , which perished ere they budded , thou so foolishly lost Heaven's Joys , and incurredst Hellish Pains , which last beyond Eternity . Thy Conscience shall ever sting thee like an Adder , when thou thinkest how often Christ by his Preachers offered the Remission of Sins , and the Kingdom of Heaven freely unto thee , if thou wouldest but Believe and Repent ; and how easily thou mightest have obtained mercy in those days ; how near thou wast many times to have repented , and yet didst suffer the Devil and the World to keep thee still in impenitency , and how the day of mercy is now past , and will never dawn again . How shall thy understanding be racked to consider , how for momentany Riches thou hast lost eternal Treasure , and changed Heaven's felicity for Hell's misery ; where every part of thy Body , without intermission of pain , shall be continually tormented alike ! In these Hellish Torments , thou shalt be for ever deprived of the beatifical sight of GOD , wherein consisteth the sovereign good and life of the Soul. Thou shalt never see Light , nor the least sight of Joy , but lie in a perpetual Prison of utter Darkness , where shall be no Order , but Horrour ; no Voice , but of Blasphemers and Howlers ; no Noise but of Torturers and tortured ; no Society , but of the Devil and his Angels , who being tormented themselves , shall have no other ease , but to wreak their Fury in tormenting thee : Where shall be punishment without Pity ; misery , without mercy ; sorrow , without succour ; crying , without comfort ; mischief , without measure ; torment , without ease ; where the Worm dieth not , and the Fire is never quenched ; where the Wrath of God shall seize upon the Soul and Body , as the flame of fire doth on the lump of Pitch or Brimstone . In which flame thou shalt ever be burning , and never consumed ; ever dying , and never dead ; ever roaring in the pangs of Death , and never rid of those pangs , nor knowing end of thy pains . So that after thou hast endured them so many thousand years as there are Grass on the Earth , or Sands on the Sea-shore , thou art no nearer to have an end of thy torments , than thou wast the first day that thou wast cast into them ; yea , so far are they from ending , that they are ever but beginning . But if after a thousand times so many thousand years , thy damned Soul could but conceive a hope that those her torments should have an end , this would be some Comfort , to think that at length an end will come : But as oft as the Mind thinketh of this word Never , it is as another Hell in the midst of Hell. This thought shall force the damned to cry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as much as if they should say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , O Lord , not ever , not ever , torment us thus . But their Consciences shall answer them as an Echo , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ever , ever . Hence shall arise their doleful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , wo and alas for evermore . This is that second Death , the general perfect fulness of all cursedness , and misery , which every damned Reprobate must suffer , so long as GOD and his Saints shall enjoy bliss and felicity in Heaven for evermore . Thus far of the misery of Man in his state of corruption , unless he be renewed by Grace in Christ. Now followeth the knowledge of Man's self , in respect of his state of Regeneration by Christ. Meditations of the State of a Christian reconciled to God in Christ. NOw let us see how happy a Godly man is in his state of renovation , being reconciled to God in Christ. The godly Man , whose corrupt Nature is renewed by grace in Christ , and become a new creature , is blessed in a threefold respect . First , in his Life . Secondly , in his Death . Thirdly , after Death . 1. His blessedness during his Life is but in part , and that consists in seven things . 1. Because he is conceived of the g Spirit in the womb of his Mother the Church , and is h born not of blood , nor of the will of the flesh , nor of the will of man , but of God , who in Christ is his i Father . So that the k Image of God his Father is renewed in him every day more and more . 2. He hath , for the Merits of Christ's Sufferings , all his sins , original and actual , with the guilt and punishment belonging to l them , freely and fully forgiven unto him . And all the m righteousness of Christ as freely and fully imputed unto him : and so n God is reconciled unto him , and o approveth him as righteous in his sight and account . 3. He is freed from Satan's p bondage ; and ●s made a q brother of Christ , a r fellow-heir of his Heavenly Kingdom , and a s spiritual King and Priest , to offer up t spiritual sacrifices to God by Jesus Christ. 4. God spareth him as a Man spareth his own Son that serveth him . And this sparing consists , In 1. Not taking notice of every fault , but bearing with his infirmities , Exod. 34. Verse 6 , 7. A loving Father will not cast his Child out of doors in his Sickness . 2. No● making his punishment when he is chastned , as great as his deserts , Psal. 103. 10. 3. Chastning him moderately , when he seeth that he will not by any other means be reclaimed , 2 Samuel 7. Verse 14 , 15. 1 Cor. 11. 32. 4. Graciously accepting his Endeavours , notwithstanding the imperfection of his obedience , and so preferring the willingness of his mind before the worthiness of his work , 2 Cor. 8. 12. 5. Turning the curses which he deserved , to crosses and fartherly corrections ; yea , all a things , all b calamities of this life , c Death it self , yea , his d very sins unto his good . 5. God gives him his Holy Spirit . which 1. e Sanctifieth him by Degrees throughout ; f so that he doth more and more die to sin , and live to righteousness . 2. Assures him of his g Adoption and that he is by Grace the Child of God. 3. Encourageth him to come with * boldness and confidence into the presence of God. 4. Moveth him without fear to say unto him , † Abba Father . 5. Poureth into his heart the gift of sanctified Prayer . 6. Perswadeth him , that both he and his Prayers are accepted and heard of God for Christ his Mediator's sake . 7. Fills him with 1. c Peace of Conscience . 2. d Joy in the holy Ghost , in comparison whereof all earthly joys seem vile and vain unto him . 6. He hath a recovery of his e sovereignty over the creatures , which he lost by Adam's fall : and from thence f free liberty of using all things which God hath not g restrained , so that he may use them with a good h conscience . For to all things in Heaven and Earth he hath a sure i title in this life ; and he shall have the Plenary and peaceable k possession of them in the life to come . Hence it is that all Reprobates are but usurpers of all that they possess , and have no l place of their own but Hell. 7. He hath the assurance of God's Fatherly care and protection day and night over him ; which care consists in three things : 1. In * providing all things necessary for his Soul and Body concerning this life , and that which is to come ; so that he shall be sure ever , either to have enough , or patience to be content with that he hath . 2. In that God gives his Holy Angels as † Ministers a charge to attend upon him always for his good ; yea , in danger , to pitch their Tents about him for his safety , where ever he be : Yea , GOD's Protection shall defend him as a * cloud by day , and as a pillar of fire by night : and his providence † shall hedge him , from the power of the Devil . 3. In that * the eyes of the Lord are upon him , and his ears continually open , to see his state , and to hear his complaint ; and in his good time † to deliver him out of all his troubles . Thus far of the blessed Estate of the Godly and Regenerate Man in this life . Now of his blessed Estate in Death . 2. Meditations of the blessed Estate of a Regenerate Man in his Death . WHen GOD sends Death as his Messenger , for the Regenerate Man , he meets him half the way to Heaven , for his a conversation , and b affection is there before him , Death is neither strange nor fearful unto him . Not strange , because he c died daily ; not fearful because whilst he lived , he was dead ; and his life was d hid with God in Christ. To die , unto him therefore , is nothing else in effect , but e to rest from his labour in this world , to go f home to his g Father's house , unto the h City of the living God , the heavenly Jerusalem , to an innumerable company of Angels , to the general assembly and Church of the first-born , to God the Judge of all , and to the spirits of just Men made perfect , and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant . Whilst his body is sick , his mind is sound ; for God i maketh all his bed in his sickness , and strengtheneth him with Faith and Patience upon his bed of sorrow : And when he begins to enter into the way of all the World , he giveth ( like k Jacob , Moses , and Joshua ) to his Children and Friends godly Exhortations and Counsels to serve the true God , to worship him truly all the days of their life . His blessed Soul breatheth nothing but blessings , and such speeches as savour a sanctified spirit . As his outward man decayeth , so his inward man increaseth and waxeth stronger . When the speech of his Tongue faltereth , the sighs of his heart speak louder unto God ; when the sight of the eyes faileth , the Holy Ghost illuminates him inwardly with abundance of spiritual light . His Soul feareth not , l but is bold to go out of the Body , and to dwell with her Lord. He sigheth out with Paul , a Cupio dissolvi , I desire to to be dissolved , and to be with Christ. And with David , b As the heart panteth after the water-brooks , so panteth my Soul after thee , O God. My soul thirsteth for God , for the living God ? when shall I come and appear before God. He prayeth with the Saints , c How long , O Lord , which art holy and true ? d Come Lord JESVS , come quickly . And when the e appointed time of his dissolution is come , knowing that he goeth to his f Father and redeemer in the peace of a good Conscience , and the assured perswasion of the forgiveness of all his sins , in the blood of the Lamb , he sings with blessed old Simeon his g Nunc dimittis ; Lord , now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace , &c. And surrenders up his Soul , as it were with his own hands , into the hands of his heavenly Father , saying , with David , h Into thy hands , O Father , I commend my Soul , for thou hast redeemed me O Lord , thou God of truth . And saying with Stephen , i Lord Jesus receive my spirit . He no sooner yields up his sacred Ghost , but immediately the k holy Angels , who attended upon him from his Birth , unto his Death , l carry and accompany his Soul into Heaven , as they did the Soul of Lazarus into Abraham's bosom , which is the m Kingdom of Heaven , whither only good Angels and good works do accompany the Soul ; the one to deliver their n charge , the other to receive their o reward . The Body in convenient time , as the sanctified a Temple of the Holy Ghost , the b Members of Christ , nourished by his c Body , the d price of the blood of the Son of God , is by his fellow Brethren reverently laid to e sleep in his grave , as in the Bed of Christ , in an assured hope to f awake in the Resurrection of the Just , at the last Day , to be partaker with the Soul of life and glory everlasting . And in this respect not only the Souls , but the very Bodies of the Faithful also are termed blessed . Thus far of the Blessedness of the Soul and Body of the regenerate Man in death . Now let us see the Blessedness of his Soul and Body after death . 3. Meditations of the Blessed Estate of the Regenerate Man after Death . THis Estate hath Three Degrees . 1. From the Day of Death to the Resurrection . 2. From the Resurrection to the pronouncing of the Sentence . 3. After the Sentence which lasts eternally . As soon as ever the regenerate Man hath yielded up his Soul unto Christ , the holy Angels take her into their Custody , and immediately g carry her into Heaven , and there present her h before Christ , where she is crowned with a i Crown of Righteousness and Glory ; not which she hath deserved by her good works , but which God hath promised of his free goodness to all those who of love have in this life unfeignedly served him , and sought his glory . Oh , what joy will it be to thy Soul ! which was wont to see nothing but misery and sinners , now to behold the face of the God of glory ; yea , to see Christ welcoming thee , as soon as thou art presented before him by the holy Angels , with an Euge , bone serve ! well done , and welcome , good and faithful servant , &c. enter into thy Master's joy . And what joy will this be , to behold thousand thousands of Cherubims , Seraphims , Angels , Thrones , Dominions , Principalities , Powers ? All the holy Patriarchs , Priests , Prophets , Apostles , Martyrs , Confessors , and all the Souls of thy Friends , Parents , Husbands , Wives , Children , and the rest of God's Saints , who departed before thee in the true Faith of Christ , standing before God's Throne in bliss and glory ? If the Queen of Sheba beholding the glory and attendance given to Solomon , as it were ravished therewith , brake out and said ; Happy are thy men , happy are these thy servants which stand ever before thee and hear thy wisdom ! How shall thy soul be ravished to see her self by grace admitted to stand with this glorious Company ! to behold the Blessed face of Christ , and to hear all the Treasures of his Divine Wisdom ! How shalt thou rejoyce to see so many thousand thousands welcoming thee into their Heavenly Society ! for as they all rejoyced at thy Conversion , so will they now be much more joyful to behold thy Coronation : and to see thee receive thy Crown , which was laid up for thee against thy coming . For there the Crown of martyrdom shall be put on the head of a Martyr , who for Christ's Gospel-sake endured Torments ; the Crown of Virginity on the head of a Virgin , who subdued concupiscence ; the Crown of Piety and Chastity on the head of them , who sincerely professed Christ , and kept their wedlock-bed undefiled ; the Crown of good works on the good Alms-giver's head , who liberally relieved the Poor ; the Crown of incorruptible glory on the head of those Pastors , who by their preaching and good example , have converted Souls from the corruption of sin , to glorifie God in holiness of life . Who can sufficiently express the rejoycing of this heavenly company , to see thee thus crowned with glory , arraied with the shining robe of righteousness , and to behold the Palm of Victory put into thy hand ? Oh , what gratulation will there be , that thou hast escaped all the miseries of the World , the snares of the Devil , the pains of Hell , and obtained with them thy eternal rest and happiness ? For there every one joyeth as much in another's happiness , as in his own , because he shall see him as much loved of God as himself . Yea , they have as many distinct joys , as they have co-partners of their joy . And in this joyful and blessed state , the Soul resteth with Christ in Heaven , till the Resurrection ; when as the number of her fellow servants and brethren be fulfilled , which the Lord termeth but a little season . The second degree of Man's Blessedness after Death , is from the Resurrection to the pronouncing of the final Sentence . For at the last day , 1. The Elementary Heavens , Earth , and all things therein , shall be a dissolved , and purified with Fire . 2. At the b sound of the last Trumpet , or voice of Christ , the Archangel , the very same Bodies , which the Elect had before ( though turned to Dust and Earth ) shall arise again . And in the same instant , every Man's Soul shall re-enter into his own Body by virtue of the c resurrection of Christ their Head , and be d made alive , and rise out of their Graves , as if they did but awake out of their beds ; and howsoever Tyran's be mangled their Bodies in pieces , or consumed them to ashes , yet shall the Elect find it true at that day , that not an hair of their head is perished . 3. They shall come forth out of their Graves , like so many Josephs out of Prison , or Daniels out of the Lion's Den , or Jonahs out of the Whale's Belly . 4. All the Bodies of the Elect being thus made alive , shall arise in that e perfection of Nature , whereunto they should have attained by their natural temperament , if no impediment had hindred ; and in that vigour of age , that a perfect Man is at about 33 years old , each in their a proper sex . Whereunto Divines think the Apostle alludeth , when he saith , b Till we all come unto a perfect man , unto the measure of the age ( or stature ) of the fulness of Christ. Whatsoever imperfection was before in the Body , ( as blindness , lameness , crookedness ) shall then be done away . Jacob shall not halt , nor Isaac be blind , nor Leah bleer-ey'd , nor Mephibosheth be lame ; for if David would not have the blind and lame to come into his House , much less will Christ have blindness and lameness to dwell in his heavenly Habitation . Christ made all the blind to see , the dumb to speak , the deaf to hear , the lame to walk , &c. that came to him to seek his grace on Earth : much more will he heal all their imperfections , whom he will admit to his glory in Heaven . Among those Tribes , there is not one feeble , but the lame man shall leap as an Hart , and the dumb man's tongue shall sing : And it is very probable , that seeing God Created our first Parents , not Infants , or old Men , but of a perfect age or stature : the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or new Creation from Death , shall every where be more perfect than the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or first frame of Man , from which he fell into the state of the dead . Neither is it like that infancy , being imperfection , and old age corruption , can well stand with the state of a perfect glorified Body . 5. The Bodies of the Elect being thus raised , shall have four most excellent and supernatural qualities : For , 1. They shall be raised in Power , whereby they shall for ever be freed from all wants and weaknesses , and enabled to continue without the use of Meat , Drink , Sleep , and other former helps . 2. In Incorruption , whereby they shall never be subject to any manner of Imperfections , Blemish , Sickness , or Death . 3. In * Glory , whereby their Bodies shall shine as bright as the Sun in the Firmament , and which being made transparent , their Souls shall shine through , far more glorious than their Bodies . Three glimpses of which Glory were seen : First , In † Moses's Face : Secondly , In the * Transfiguration : Thirdly , In Stephen's † Countenance . Three Instances and Assurances of the glorification of our Bodies at that glorious Day . Then shall David lay aside his Shepherd's Weed , and put on the Robe of the King's Son Jesus , not Jonathan's . Then every true Mordecai , ( who mourned under the Sackeloth of this corrupt Flesh ) shall be arrayed with the King 's Royal Apparel , and have the Crown Royal set upon his Head , that all the World may see how it shall be done to him whom the King of Kings delighteth to honour . If now the rising of one Sun makes the morning so glorious ; how glorious shall that Day be when innumerable Millions of Millions of Bodies of Saints and Angels shall appear more glorious than the brightness of the Sun ! the Body of Christ in glory surpassing all . 4. In * Agility , whereby our bodies shall be able to ascend and meet the Lord at his glorious coming in the Air , as Eagles flying unto their Blessed Carcass . To this Agility of the Saints glorious Bodies , the Prophet alludes , saying , † They shall renew their strength : They shall mount up with wings as Eagles : They shall run and not be weary : They shall walk and not faint . And to this state may that saying of Wisdom be referred ; In the time of their Vision , they shall shine , and run to and fro , as sparks amongst the stubble . And in respect of these four Qualities , * Paul calleth the raised bodies of the Elect , Spiritual ; for they shall be spiritual in qualities , but the same still in substance . And howsoever sin and corruption make a Man in this state of Mortality lower than Angels ; yet surely when God shall thus crown him with glory and honour , I cannot see how Man shall be any thing inferiour to Angels : For , are they Spirits ? so is Man also in respect of his Soul ; yea more than this ; they shall have also a spiritual body , fashioned like unto the glorious body of the Lord Jesus Christ , in whom Man's Nature is exalted by a personal Vnion , into the Glory of the Godhead , and individual Society of the Blessed Trinity ; an Honour which he never vouchsafed Angels . And in this respect Man hath a Prerogative above them ▪ Nay , they are but Spirits appointed to be Ministers unto the Elect : and as many of them , who at the first disdained this Office , and would not keep their * first standing , were for their pride † hurried into Hell. This lesseneth not the Dignity of Angels , but extols the greatness of God's love to Mankind . But as for all the Elect , who at that second and sudden coming of Christ , shall be found quick and living , the a fire that shall burn up the corruption of the world , and the works therein , shall in a b moment , in the twinkling of an Eye , overtake them , as it c finds them , either grinding , in the Mill of Provision , or walking in the Fields of pleasure , or lying in the bed of ease ; and so ( burning up their dross and corruption ) of Mortal make them Immortal Bodies : and this change shall be unto them instead of Death . Then shall the Soul with joyfulness greet her Body , saying , O well met again my dear Sister . How sweet is thy Voice ! How comely is thy countenance having lain hid so long in the Clefts of the Rocks , and in the secret places of the grave ! thou art indeed an habitation fit , not only for me to dwell in , but such as the H. Ghost thinks meet to reside in , as his Temple for ever . The Winter of our affliction is now past ; the storm of our misery is blown over and gone . The Bodies of our Elect Brethren appear more glorious than the Lily-flowers on the Earth : the time of singing Hallelujahs is come , and the voice of the Trumpet is heard in the Land. Thou hast been my Yoke-fellow in the Lord's labours , and companion in persecutions and wrongs for Christ and his Gospel sake ; now shall we enter together into our Master's Joy. As thou hast born with me the Cross , so shalt thou now wear with me the Crown . As thou hast with me sowed plenteously in tears , so shalt thou reap with me abundantly in joy . O blessed , ay blessed be that God! who ( when yonder Reprobates spent their whole time in Pride , fleshly Lusts , eating , drinking , and prophane Vanities ) gave us grace to join together in watching , fasting , praying , reading the Scriptures , keeping his Sabbaths , hearing Sermons , receiving the holy Communion , relieving the Poor , exercising ( in all humility ) the works of Piety to God , and walking conscionably in the Duties of our calling towards Men. Thou shalt anon hear no mention of thy sins , for they are remitted and covered , but every good work , which thou hast done for the Lord's sake , shall be rehearsed , and rewarded . Chear up thy heart , for thy Judge is flesh of thy flesh , and bone of thy bone . Lift up thy head , behold these glorious Angels , like so many Gabriels flying towards us , to tell us , That the day of our Redemption is come , and to convey us in the Clouds , to meet our Redeemer in the Air. Lo , they are at hand : Arise therefore , my Dove , my Love , my fair One , and come away . And so like Roes or young Harts , they run with Angels towards Christ over the trembling Mountains of Bether . 6. Both quick and dead being thus revived and glo●●fied , shall forthwith ( by the ministry of God's holy Angels ) be gathered from all the quarters and parts of the world , and caught up together in the Clouds , to meet the Lord in the Air , and so shall come with him , as a part of his glorious Train , to judge the Reprobates and evil Angels . The twelve Apostles shall sit upon twelve thrones ( next Christ ) to judge the twelve Tribes , ( who refused to hear the Gospel preached by their Ministry ) and all the Saints ( in● honour and order ) shall stand next unto them , as Judges also , to judge the evil Angels and earthly-minded Men. And as every of them received grace in this life , to be more zealous of his glory , and more faithful in his service than others : so shall their glory and reward be greater than others in that Day . The place whither they shall be gathered unto Christ , and where Christ shall sit in judgment , shall be in the * Air over the Valley of Jehoshaphat , by Mount Olivet , near unto Jerusalem , Eastward from the Temple as it is probable for four reasons . 1. Because the holy Scripture see●s to intimate so much in plain words , a I wi● gather all Nations into the valley of Jehosha●phat , and plead with them there . b Cause thy mighty one to come down , O Lord , let the heathen be wakened , and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat ; for there will I sit to judge a● the heathen round about . Jehoshaphat signifieth , the Lord will judge . And this Valley was so called , from the great c victory which the Lord gave d Jehoshaphat , and his people over the Ammonites , Moabites , and inhabitants of Mount Seir. Which victory was a type of the final victory , which Christ , ●he supream Judge shall give his Elect over ●ll their enemies in that place , at the last ●ay , as all the Jews interpret it . See Zech. ● . 4 , 5. Psalm 51. 1 , 2 , &c. all agreeing ●●at the place shall be thereabouts . 2. Because that as Christ was therea●●uts crucified , and put to open shame ; ●● over that place his glorious Throne ●hould be erected in the Air , when he ●●all appear in Judgment , to manifest his Majesty and Glory . For it is meet that ●●st should in that place judge the ●orld with righteous Judgment , where ● himself was unjustly judged and con●mned . 3. Because that seeing the Angels shall ● sent to gather together the elect from the ●●●r winds , from one end of heaven to the other ; it is most probable , that the place whither they shall be gathered to , shall be near Jerusalem , and the Vally of Jehoshaphat ; which a Cosmographers describe to be in the midst of the supersicies of the Earth ; if the termini à quibus be the four parts of the world , the terminus ad quem must be about the Center . 4. Because the Angels told the Disciples , that as they saw b Christ ascend from Mount Olivet , which is over the Vally of Jehoshaphat , so he shall in like manner come down from Heaven . This is the opinion of c Aquinas and all the Schoolmen , except Lombard and Alexander Hales . 5. Lastly , When Christ is set in his glorious d Throne , and all the e many Thousands of his Saints , and Angels , shining more bright than so many Suns in glory , sitting about him ; and the Body of Christ in glory and brightness surpassing them all : the Reprobates bei●g separate and remaining beneath upon the earth ( for the right-hand signifies a blessed , the left-hand a cursed estate ) Christ will first pronounce the sentence of absolution , and bliss upon the Elect : First , because he will thereby increase the grief of the Reprobate that shall hear it . Secondly , to shew himself more pro●e to f mercy than to Judgment . And thus from his Throne of Majesty in the Air , he shall ( in the sight and hearing of all the World ) p●onounce unto his Elect , Come ye blessed of my Father , and inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world , &c. Come ye ] Here is our blessed Vnion with Christ , and by him with the whole Trinity Blessed ] Here is our absolution from all sins , and our plenary Endowments with all Grace and Happiness . Of my Father ] Here is the Author , from whom by Christ proceeds our Felicity . Inherit ] Here is our Adoption ▪ The Kingdom ] Behold our Birth-right and Poss●ssion . Prepared ] See God's Fatherly Care for his chosen . From the foundation of the World ] O the free , Eternal , unchangeable Election of God! How much are those Souls bound to love God , who of his meer good Will and Pleasure , chose and loved them , before they had done either good or evil ? For I was hungry , &c. ] O the goodness of Christ , who takes notice of all the good works of his Children to reward them ! How great is his love to poor Christians , who takes every work of mercy done to them for his sake , as if it had been done to himself : Come ye to me , in whom ye have believed , before ye saw me , and whom ye have loved and sought for with so much devotion , and through so many tribulations : Come now , from labour to rest , from disgrace to glory , from the jaws of Death , to the joys of eternal Life ; For my sake ye have been railed upon , reviled and cursed . But now it shall appear to all those cursed Esau's , that you are the ●rue Jacobs , that shall receive your heavenly Father's blessing ; and blessed shall you be . Your fathers , mothers , and nearest kindred forsook and cast you off , for my truth's sake , which you maintained ; but now my Father will be unto you a Father , and you shall be his Sons and Daughters for ever . You were cast out of your lands and livings , and forsook all for my sake and the gospels ; but that it may appear that you have no● lost your gain , but gained by your loss , instead of an earthly inheritance and possession , you shall poss●ss with me the i●heritance of my heavenly kingdom ; where you shall be for love , sons ; for birth-right , heirs ; for dignity , kings ; for holiness , priests ; and you may be bold to enter into the possession thereof now , because my Father prepared and kept it for you ever since the first foundation of the World was laid . Immediately after this sentence of Absolution and Benediction , every one receiveth his crown , which Christ the righteous Judge pu●s upon their Heads , as the reward which he hath promised of his Grace and Mercy , unto the Faith and good Works of all them that loved that his appearing . Then every one taking his crown from his head , shall lay it down ( as it were ) at the feet of Christ ; and prostrating themselves , shall with one heart and voice , in an heavenly sort and consort say , Praise and Honour , and Glory , and Power , and Thanks be unto thee , O blessed Lamb , who sittest upon the Throne , wert killed , and hast redeemed us to God by thy Blood , out of every Kindred , and Tongue , and People , and Nation , and hast made us unto our God , Kings and Priests , to reign with thee in thy Kingdom for evermore . Amen . Then shall they sit in their Thrones and Orders , as Judges of the Reprobates , and evil Angels , by approving a●d giving testimony to the righteous Sentence and Judgment of Christ the Supreme Judge . After the pronouncing of the Reprobates Sentence and Condemnation , Christ will perform two solemn Actions . 1. The presenting of all the Elect unto his Father : Behold , O righteous Father , these are they whom thou gavest me , I have kept them , and none of them is lost . I gave them thy word , and they believed it , and the world hated them , because they were not of the world , even as I was not of the world . And now , Father , I will that those whom thou hast given me , be with me where I am , that they may behold my glory , which thou hast given me ; and that I may be in them , and thou in me , that they may be made perfect in one : that the world may know that thou hast sent me ; and that thou hast loved them , as thou hast loved me . 2. Christ shall deliver up the Kingdom to God , even the Father ; that is , shall cease to execute his office of Mediatorship , whereby as he is King , Priest , Prophet , and supreme Head of the Church , he suppressed his Enemies , and ruled his faithful People by his Spirit , Word , and Sacra●●●ts . So that his Kingdom of Grace over his Church in this World ceasing , he shall 〈◊〉 immediately as he is God equal with ●he Father and the H. Ghost , in his Kingdom of Glory for evermore . Not that the dignity of his Manhood shall be any thing diminished , but that the glory of his Godhead shall be more manifested ; so that as he is God , he shall from thenceforth in all fulness , without all external means , rule all in all . From this Tribunal-seat Christ shall arise , and with all his glorious company of Elect Angels and Saints , he shall go up triumphantly in order and aray unto the Heaven of Heavens , with such an heavenly noise and musick , that now may that song of David be truly verified , God is gone up with a triumph , the Lord with the sound of the trumpets . Sing praises to God , sing praises , sing praises unto our King , sing praises : for God is King of all the earth , he is greatly to be exalted . And that Marriage-song of John , Let us be glad and rejoyce , and give honour to him : for the marriage of the Lamb is come , and his wife hath made her self ready . Allelujah ; for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth . The Third and last degree of the blessed state of a Regenerate Man after Death , begins after the pronouncing of the Sentence , and lasteth eternally without all end . Meditations of the blessed estate of a Regenera●e Man in Heaven , after he hath received his sentence of Absolution , before the Tribunal-Seat of Christ , at the last day of Judgment . Here my Meditation dazeleth , and my Pen falleth out of my hand ; the one being not able to conceive , nor the other to describe that most 〈…〉 and eternal weight of glory ( whereof all the afflictions of this present life are 〈…〉 ) which all the Elect shall with the blessed Trinity , enjoy from that time that they shall be received with Christ , as joint heirs i●to that everlasting Kingdom of Joy. Notwithstanding , we may take a scantling thereof , thus : The Holy Scriptures set ●orth ( to our capacity ) the glory of our eternal and heavenly life after Death in four respects . 1. Of the Place . 2. Of the Object . 3. Of the Prerogatives of the Elect there . 4. Of the effects of those Prerogatives . 1. Of the Place . THE place is the Heaven of Heavens , or the third Heaven called Paradise , whither Christ ( in his humane Nature ) ascended far●above all visible heavens . The Bridegromes chamber , which by the firmament , at by an azured curtain spangled with glittering stars and glorious planets , is bid , that we cannot behold it with these corrup●ible eyes of Flesh. The Holy Ghost ( framing himself to our weakness ) describes the glory of that place , ( which no man can estimate ) by such things as are most precious in the estimation of Man. And therefore likeneth it to a great and a holy City , named the a heavenly Jerusalem , where only God and his people ( b who are saved and written in the Lamb's book ) do inhabit , all built c of pure gold , like unto clear glass , or crystal : the walls of jasper-stone , the foundations of the walls garnished with twelve manner of precious stones , having d twelve gates each built of one pearl : e three gates towards each of the four corners of the world , and at each gate a● . f Angel ( as so many Porters ) that g no unclean thing should enter into it . It is h four square , therefore perfect : the length , the breadth , and heighth of it are equal , 12000 ●urlongs every way ; therefore glorious and spacious . Through i the midst of her streets ever r●nneth the pure river of the Water of Life , as clear as crystal ; therefore wholesome . k And on either side the river is the tree of Life , ever growing ; which beareth twelve manner of fruits , and gives fruit every month ; therefore fruitful . And the leaves of Tree are health to the Nations : Therefore healthy . There is therefore no place so glorious by Creation , so beautiful with delectation , so rich in possession , so comfortable for habitation . For there the Ki●g is Christ ; the law , is Love ; the honour , Verity ; the peace , Felicity ; the life , Eternity . There is Light , without darkness ; Mir●h , without sadness ; Health , without sickness ; Wealth , without want ; Credit , without disgrace ; Beauty , without blemish ; Ease , without labour ; Riches , without rust ; Blessedness , without misery ; and Consolation that never knows end● How truly may we cry out ( with David ) of this City , * Glorious things are spoken of thee , O th●● City of God : and yet all these things are spoken but according to the weakness of our capacity● For Heaven exceedeth all this in glory , so far , as that † no tongue is able to express , nor heart of man to conceive the glory thereof : as witnesseth S. Paul , who was in it , and saw it . O let us no● then do●e so much upon these wooden cottages , and houses of mo●ldring clay , which are but tents of ungodliness , and habitations of Sinners , 〈◊〉 let us look rather , and long for this heavenly city , * whose builder and maker is God , which he ( who is not ashamed to be called our God ) ●ath prepared for us . 2. Of the Object . THe blissful and glorious object of all intellectual and reasonable Creatures in Heaven , is the Godhead , in trinity of Persons , without which there is neither jo● , nor felicity , but the very fulness of joy consisteth in enjoying the same . This Object we shall enjoy two ways : 1. By a Beatisical Vision of God. 2. By possessing an immediate communion with this Divine Nature . The a beatifical vision of God is that only that can content the infinite mind of Man. b For every thing tendeth to its center : God is the center of the Soul : therefore ( like Noah's Dove ) she cannot rest nor joy , till she return and enjoy him . All that God bestowed upon Moses , could not satisfie his mind , unless he might c see the face of God. Therefore the whole Church prayeth so earnestly ; d God be merciful unto us , and cause his face to shine upon us . When Paul once had seen this blessed sight , he ( ever after ) counted all the riches and glory of the World ( in respect of it ) to be but e dung : and all his life after was but a sighing out , ( Cupio dissolvi , f I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ. And Christ prayed for all his Elect in his last Prayer , that they might obtain this blessed Vision ; Father I will that they which thou hast given me , be ( Where ? ) even where I am : To what ●nd ? that they may behold that my glory , &c. If Moses's face did so shine when he had been with God but forty days , and seen but his back-parts ; how shall we shine when we shall see him face to face for ever ? and know him as we are known , and as be is ? Then shall the Soul no longer , be ●ermed Mar●h , bitterness , but Naomi , beautifulness : for the Lord shall turn her short bitterness to eternal beauty and blessedness , Ruth 1. 20. The second means to enjoy this object is by having an immediate and an eternal Communion with God in heaven . This we have , first by being ( as members of Christ ) united to his Manhood , and by the Manhood ( personally united to the World ) we are united to him , as he is God : and ( by his God-head ) to the whole Trinity . Reprobates at the last day shall see God ( as a just Judge ) to punish them ; but ( for lack of this Communion ) they shall have neither grace with him , nor glory from him . For want of this Communion , the Devils ( when they saw Christ ) cryed out Quid nobis tecum ? what have we to do with thee , ●O Son of the most high God ? but ( by virtue of this Communion ) the pe●itent So●l may boldly go and say unto Christ , ( as Ruth unto Boaz : ) Spread , O Christ , the wing of the garment of thy mercy over thine handmaid ; for thou art my kinsman . This Communion God promised Abraham , when he gave him himself for his great reward ; And Christ prayeth for his whole Church to obtain it . This Communion Saint Paul expresseth in one word , saying , That God shall be all in all unto us . Indeed God is now all in all unto us ; but by means , and in a sm●ll measure● But in ●eaven , God himself immediately ( in fulness of measure , without all 〈◊〉 ) will be unto us all the good things ▪ 〈◊〉 sou● and bodies can with or desire . He 〈◊〉 self will be salvation and joy to our souls , life and health to our bodies , beauty to our eyes , musick to our ears , honey to our mouths , perfume to our nostrils , meat to our bellies , light to our understanding , contentment to our wills , and delight to our hearts ; And what can be lacking , where God himself will be the a soul of our souls ? Yea all the strength , wit , pleasures , vertues , colours , beauties , harmony and goodness that are in men , beasts , fishes , fowls , trees , herbs , and all creatures are b nothing but sparkles of those things , which are in infinite perfection in God. And in him we shall enjoy them in a far more perfect and blessed manner . He himself will then supply their use ; nay , the best creatures ( which serve us now ) shall not have the honour to serve us then . There will be c no need of the Sun , nor of the Moon to shine in that City , for the glory of God doth light it . No more will there be any need or use of any Creature , when we shall enjoy the Creator himself . When therefore we behold any thing that is excellent in any creatures , let us say to our selves ; how much more excellent is he , who gave them this excellency ? when we behold the wisdom of men , who over-rule creatures , stronger than themselves ; out-run the Sun and Moon in d●scourse , prescribing many years before , in what courses they shall be d eclipsed , let us say to our selves , How admirable is the wisdom of God , who made men so wise ! when we consider the strength of Whales and Elephants , the tempest of Winds , and terrour of Thunder , let us say to our selves , how strong , how mighty , how terrible is that God , that makes these mighty and fearful Creatures ! when we taste things that are delicately sweet , let us say to our selves , O how sweet is that God , from whom all these creatures have received their sweetness ! when we behold the admirable colours , which are in Flowers and Birds , and the lovely beauty of Women , let us say , how fair is that God , that made these so fair ! And if our loving God hath thus provided us so many excellent delights , for our passage through this a B●chi● , or valley of tears , what are th●se p●easures which he hath prepared for us , when we shall enter into the palace of our Master's j●y ! How shall our souls be there ra●●shed with the love of so lovely a God! So glorious is the object of heavenly Saints ; so amiable is the sight of our gracious Savi●ur . 3. Of the Prerogatives which the Elect shall enjoy in heaven . BY reason of this Communion wi●h God , the Elect in heaven shall have four super excell●nt prerogatives 1. They shall have the ●●●gdom of Heaven for their b inh●r●tance , and they 〈◊〉 be free c De●izons of the heavenl● Jerusalem . S. Paul ( by being a free d C●tizen of Rome , escaped whipping ; but they who are once free Citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem , shall ever be freed from the whips of eternal torments . For this freedom was bought for us , not with a great sum of money , but with the precious blood of the Son of God , 2. They shall be all Kings and Priests , spiritual Kings to reign with CHRIST , and to triumph over Satan , the World and Reprobates ; and spiritual Priests , to offer unto God the spiritual sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving for evermore . And therefore they are said to wear both Crowns and Robes . Oh what a comfort is this to poor Parents , that have many Children ! if they breed them up in the fear of God , and to be true Christians : then are they Parents to so many Kings and Priests . 3. Their bodies shall shine as the brightness of the Sun in the Firmament , like the glorious body of Christ , which shined brighter than the Sun at Noon , when it appeared to Saint Paul. A glimpse of which glorious brightness appeared in the bodies of M●ses and Elias , trans●●ured with the Lord in the holy Mount. Therefore ( saith the Apostle ) i● shall rise a glorious body , yea , a spiritual body ; not in substance , but in quality ; preserved by spiritual means , and h●ving ( as an Angel ) agility to ascend or descend . O what an honour is it , that our bodies ( falling more vile than a carrion ) should thus arise in glory like unto the body of the Son of God! 4. Lastly , they ( together with all the holy Angels ) there , keep ( without any labour to distract them ) a perpetual Sabbath , to the glory , honour and praise of the ever blessed Trinity , for the creating , redeeming , and sanctifying of the Church : And for his Power , Wisdom , Justice , Mercy and Goodness , in the Government of Heaven and Earth . When thou hearest a sweet Consort of Musick , meditate how happy thou shalt be , when ( with the Choire of heavenly Angels and Saints ) thou shalt sing a part in that spiritual Hallelujah in that eternal blessed Sabbath ; where there shall be such variety of Pleasures , and satiety of Joys , as neither know tediousness in doing , nor end in delighting . 4. Of the Effects of these Prerogatives . From these Prerogatives there will arise to the Elect in Heaven , five notable Effects . 1. THey shall know God with a perfect knowledge , of far as Creatures can possibly comprehend the Creator . For there we shall see , the Word , the Creator ; and in the Word , all Creatures that ●by the Word were created ; so that we shall not need to learn ( of the thing● which were roade ) the knowledge of him by whom all things were made . The excellentest Creatures in this life are but as a a dark veil , drawn betwixt God and us ; but when this veil shall be drawn aside , then shall we see God b face to face , and know him as we are known . We shall know the Power of the Father , the Wisdom of the Son , the Grace of the Holy Ghost , and the indivisible Nature of the blessed Trinity . And in him we shall know not only all our friends , ( who died in the faith of Christ ) but also all the faithful that ever were or shall be . For , 1. c Christ tells the Jews , that they shall see Abraham , Isaac , and Jacob , and all the Prophet● , in the kingdom of God ; therefore we shall know them . 2. d Adam in his Innocency knew Eve to be Bone of his Bone , and Flesh of his Flesh , as soon as he awaked ; much more then shall we know our Kindred , when we shall awake perfected and glorified in the Resurrection . 3. The Apostles knew e Christ after his Resurrection , and the Saints which rose with him , and appeared in the holy City . 4. f Peter , James and John knew Moses and Elias in the transfiguration ; how much more shall we know one another , when we shall be all glorified ? 5. g Dives knew L●zarus in Abraham's Bosom , much more shall the Elect know one another in Heaven . 6. h Christ saith , that the twelve Apostles shall sit upon twelve thrones to judge ( at that day ) the twelve Tribes , therefore they a shall be known , and consequently the rest of the Saints . 7. Saint Paul saith , that at that day b we shall know as we are known of God ; and c Augustin ( out of this place ) comforteth a Widow , assuring her , that as in this life , she saw her Husband with externa● eyes , so in the life to come , she should know his heart , and what were all his thoughts and imaginations . Then Husbands and Wives look to your actions and thoughts , for all shall be made manifest one day . See 1 Cor. 4. 5. 8. The faithful in the Old Testament are said to be d gathered to their Fathers ; Therefore the knowledge of our Friends remains . 9. e Love never falleth away ; therefore knowledge , the ground thereof , remains in another life . 10. Because the last day shall be a f declaration of the just judgment of God , when he shall reward every man according to his works ; and if every man's work be brought to light , much more the worker . And if wicked men shall account for every g idle word , much more shall the idle speakers themselves be known . And if the Persons be not known , in vain are the works made manifest . Therefore ( saith the Apostle ) h every man shall appear to account for the work that he hath done in his body , &c. See Wisdom , ch . 5. ver . 1. Though the respect of diversities of degrees and callings in Magistracy , Ministry ; and Oeconomy shall cease ; yea , Christ shall then cease to rule , as he is Mediator ; and rule all in all , as he is God , equal with the Father and the Holy Ghost . The greatest knowledge that man can attain unto in this life , comes as far short of the knowledge which we shall have in Heaven , as the knowledge of a child that cannot yet speak plain , comes of the knowledge of the greatest Philosopher in the World. They who thirst after knowledge , let them long to be Students of this V●iversity . For all the light by which we know any thing in this World , is nothing but the very shadow of God ; but when we shall know God in Heaven , we shall ( in him ) know the manner of the work of the Creation , the mysteries of the work of our Redemption ; yea , so much knowledge as a Creature can possibly conceive and comprehend of the Creator , and his work . But whilst we are in this life , we may say with Job , How little a portion hear we of him ? And assure our selves with Syracides , that , There are hid yet greater things than these be , and that we have s●e● but a few of God's works . 2. They shall love God with as perfect and absolute a love , as possibly a creature can do . The manner of loving God , is to love him for himself ; the measure is to love him without measure . For in this life ( knowing God but in part ) we love him but in part ; but when the Elect in Heaven shall fully know God , then they will perfectly love God. And for the infinite causes of love ( which they shall know to be in him ) they shall be infinitely ravished with the love of him . 3. They shall be filled with all manner of divine pleasures . At thy right hand ( saith David ) there are pleasures for evermore ; yea , They shall drink ( saith he ) out of the river of pleasures . For as soon as the Soul is admitted into the actual fruition of the beatifical Essence of God , she hath all the goodness , beauty , glory , and perfection of all Creatures ( in all the World ) united together , and at once presented unto her in the sight of God. If any be in love , there they shall enjoy that which is more amiable . If any delight in fairness , the fairest beauty is but a dusty shadow to that ; he that delights in pleasures , shall there find infinite varieties , without either interruption of grief , or distraction of pain ; he that loveth Honour , shall there enjoy it , without the disgrace of cankered envy ; he that loveth treasure , shall there possess it , and never be beguiled of it . There they shall have knowledge void of all ignorance ; health that no sickness shall impair ; and life that no death can determine . In a word , look how far this wide world surpasseth for light , pleasures , and comforts , the dark and narrow womb wherein thou wast conceived a child , so much doth the World to come exceed in joys , solace , and consolation , this present World. How happy then shall we be , when this life is changed , and we translated thither ? 4. They shall be replenished with an unspeakable joy ; a In thy pres●nce ( saith David ) is the fulness of joy ; and this joy shall arise chiefly from the vision of God , and partly from the sight of all the holy Angels , and blessed Souls of just and perfect Men who are in bliss and glory with him . But especially from the blissful sight of Jesus , the Mediator of the New Testament , our b Emanuel , God made Man. His sight will be the chief cause of our bliss and joy . If the c Israelites in Jerusalem so shouted for joy , that the earth rang again , to see Solomon crowned , how shall the Elect rejoyce in Heaven , to see Christ ( the true Solomon ) adorned with glory ? If John Baptist at his presence did d leap in his mothers womb for joy , how shall we exult for joy , when he will be , not only with us , but e in us in heaven ? If the wise men rejoyced so greatly to find him , a f Babe lying in a manger , how great shall the joy of the Elect be , to see him sit ( as a King ) in his celestial Throne ? If g Simeon was glad to see him an Infant in the Temple , presented by the hands of the Priests , how great shall our joy be , to see him a King , ruling all things at the right hand of his Father ? If h Joseph and Mary were so joyful to find him in the midst of the Doctors , in the Temple , how glad shall our Souls be , to see him sitting as Lord amongst Angels in Heaven ? This is that joy of our Master , which ( as the Apostle saith ) i the eye hath not seen , the ear hath not heard , nor the heart of man can conceive ; which because it cannot enter into us , we shall enter into it . 5. Lastly , They shall enjoy this blissful and glorious estate for evermore Therefore it is termed everlasting life ; and Christ saith , a that our joy no man shall take from us . All other joys ( be they never so great ) have an end . b Ahasuerus's Feast lasted an hundred and eighty days ; but he , and it , and all his joys , are gone . For mortal man to be assumed to heavenly glory , to be associated to Angels , to be satiated with an delights and joys , ( but for a time ) were much : but to enjoy them for ever , without intermission of end , who can hear it , and not admire it ; who can muse of it , and not ●e amazed at it ? All the Saints of Christ ( as soon as they felt once but a true taste of these eternal joys ) counted all the c riches and pleasures of this life to be but loss and dung , in respect of that . And therefore ( with uncessant prayers , fastings , alms-deeds , tears , faith , and good life ) they laboured to ascertain themselves of this eternal life ; and ( for the love thereof ) they d willingly either sold , or parted with all their earthly goods and possessions . Christ calleth all Christians , Merchants , Luke 19. and Eternal Life , a precious Pearl , which a wise Merchant will purchase , tho' it cost him all that he hath , Matth. 13. e Alexander hearing the report of the great riches of the Eastern Country , divided forthwith among his Captains and Soldiers , all his Kingdom of Macedonia . He phaestion asking him what he meant in so doing ? Alexander answered , That he preferr'd the riches of India ( whereof he hoped shortly to be master ) before all that his Father Philip had left him in Macedonia . And should not Christians then preferr the eternal riches of Heaven , so greatly renowned ( which they shall enjoy ere long ) before the corruptible trash of the Earth , which lasts but for a season ? Abraham and Sarah left their own Country and Possessions , to a look for a City , whose builder and maker is God ; and therefore bought no Land , but only a place of Burial . David preferred one day in this place before a thousand elsewhere ; yea , b to be a door-keeper in the house of God , rather than to dwell in the richest Tabernacles of wickedness . c Elias earnestly besought the Lord to receive his Soul into his Kingdom , and went willingly ( tho in a d fiery Chariot ) thither● St. Paul ( having once seen Heaven ) continually e desired to be dissolved , that he might be with Christ. St. Peter ( having espied but a glimpse of that eternal glory in the Mount ) wished ●hat he might dwell there all the days of his life ; saying , f Master , it is good for us to be here . How much better doth Peter now think it to be in Heaven it self ? Christ ( a little before his death ) prayeth his Father to receive him into that excellent Glory . And the Apostle witnesseth , that a for the joy which was set before him , he endured the Cross , and despised the shame . If a Man did but once see those joys ( if it were possible ) he would endure a hundred deaths to enjoy that happiness but one day . Saint b Augustine saith , That he would be content to endure the torments of hell to gain this joy rather than to lose it . Ignatius ( St. Paul's Scholar ) Being threatned ( as he was going to suffer ) with the cruelty of Torments , answered with great courage of Faith ; c Fire , Gallows , Beasts , breaking of my bones , quartering of my members , crushing of my body , all the torments of the devil together , let them come upon me , so I may enjoy my Lord Jesus and his Kingdom . The same constancy shewed d Polycarp , who could not by any terrours of any kind of death be moved to deny Christ in the least measure . With the like resolution answered e Basil his persecutors ▪ when they would terrifie him with death ; I will never ( said he ) fear Death , which can do no more than restore me to him that made me . If f Ruth left her own Country , and followed Na●●i her Mother-in-law ▪ to go and dwell with her in the land of Canaan ( which was by a type of Heaven ) only upon the fame which she heard of the God of Israel , ( though she had no promise of any portion therein ) how shouldst thou follow thy holy Mother the Chruch , to go unto Christ , into the heavenly Canaan ; wherein God hath given thee an eternal inheritance assured by an holy Covena●t , made in the word of God , signed with the Blood of his Son , and sealed with his Spirit and Sacraments ; this shall be rhine eternal happiness in the Kingdom of Heaven , where thy life shall be a communion with the blessed Trinity ; thy joy , the presence of the Lamb ; thy exercise , singing ; thy ditty , hallelujah ; thy consorts , Saints and Angels ; where youth fl●urisheth , that never waxeth old ; beauty lasteth , that never fadeth ; love aboundeth , that never cooleth ; health continueth that never slacketh ; and ●ife remaineth , that never endeth . Meditations directing a Christian how to apply to himself without delay , the aforesaid knowledge of God and himself . THou seest therefore , O Man , how wretched and cursed thy state is , by corruption of ●●ture , without Christ ; insomuch , that whereas the Scriptures do liken wicked men unto Lions , Bears , Bulls , Horses , Dogs , and such like savage Creatures in their lives ; it is certain , that the condition of an unregenerate man , is in his Death more vile than a Dog , or the filthiest Creature in the World. For the Beast ( being made but for Man's use ) when he dieth , endeth all his miseries with his death . But Man ( endued with a reasonable ; and immortal soul , made after God's image , to serve God ) when he ends the miseries of this life , must account for all his misdeeds , and begin to endure these miseries that never shall know end . No creature but man is liable to yield at his death an account for his life . The brute creatures , not having reason , shall not be required to make any account for their deeds ; and good Angels , tho' they have reason , yet shall they yield no account because they have no sin . And as for evil Angels , they are without all hope already condemned , so that they need not make any further accounts ; Man only in his death must be God's accountant for his life . On the other side , thou seest ( O Man ) how happy and blessed thy estate is being truly reconciled unto God in Christ , in that ( through the restauration of God's Image , and thy restitution into thy soveraignty over other creatures ) thou art in this life little inferiour to the Angels ; and shall be in the life to come equal to the Angels . Yea , ( in respect of thy Nature , exalted by a personal Vnion to the Son of God , and by him to the glory of the Trinity ) superior to the Angels ; a Fellow-Brother with Angels , in spiritual Grace , and everlasting Glory . Thou hast seen how glorious and perfect God is , and how that all thy chief bliss and happiness consisteth in having an eternal Communion with his Majesty . Now therefore ( O impenitent sinner ) in the bowels of Christ Jesus I intreat thee ; nay , I conjure thee as thou tenderest thy own salvation , seriously to Consider with me , how false , how vain , how vile are those things which still retain and chain thee in this wretched and cursed estate wherein thou livest ; and do hinder thee from the favour of God , and the hope of eternal life and happiness . Meditations on the hindrances which keep back a Sinner from the Practice of Piety . THose hindrances are chiefly seven . 1. An ignorant mistaking of the true meaning of certain places of the holy Scriptures , and some other chief grounds of Christian Religion . The Scriptures mistaken are these . 1. Ezek. 33. 13 , 16. At what time soever a sinner repenteth him of his sin , I will blot out all , &c. Hence the carnal Christian gathereth , that he may repent when he will. It is true , whensoever a sinner doth repent , God will forgive , but the Text saith not , that a sinner may repent whensoever he will , but when God will give him Grace . Many ( saith the Scripture ) when they would have repented , were rejected , and could not repent , tho' they sought it carefully with tears . What comfort yields this Text to thee , who hast not repented , nor knowest whether thou shalt have grace to repent hereafter ? 2. Matth. 11. 26. Come unto me all you that labour and are heavy laden , and I will give you rest . Hence the lewdest man collects that he may come unto Christ when he list . But he must know , that no man ever comes to Christ but he who ( as Peter saith ) Having known the way of righteousness , hath escaped the pollutions of this world through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To * come unto Christ is to repent and believe ; and this no man can do , unless his heavenly † Father draweth him by his grace . 3. Rom 8. 1. There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus . True , but they are such , who walk not after the flesh , ( as thou dost ) but after the Spirit , which thou didst never yet resolve to do . 4. 1 Tim. 1. 15. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners , &c. True , but such sinners , who like St. Paul , are converted from their wicked life ; not like thee , who still continuest in thy lewdness . For that Grace of God , which bringeth salvation unto all men , teacheth us , that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts , we should live soberly , righteously , and godly in this present world . 5. Prov. 24. 16. A just man falleth seven times in a day , and riseth , &c. [ In a day ] is not in the Text ; which means not falling into sin , but falling into trouble , which his malicious enemy plots against the just , and from which God * delivers him . And though it meant falling in , and rising out of sin ; what is this to thee whose falls all men may see every day , but neither God , nor Man , can at any time see thy rising again by repentance . 6. Isa. 64. 6. All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags . Hence the Carnal Christian gathers ; that , seeing the best works of the best Saints are no better , then his are good enough ; and therefore he needs not much grieve that his devotions are so imperfect . But Isaiah means not in this place the righteous Works of the Regenerate ; as fervent Prayers in the name of God ; charitable Alms from the bowels of mercy ; suffering in the Gospel's defence , the spoil of Goods , and spilling of Blood , and such works , which Saint Paul calls the fruits of the Spirit : But the Prophet making an humble confession in the name of the Jewish Church , when she had fallen from God to Idolatry , acknowledgeth , that whilst they were by their filthy sins separated from God , as Lepers are by their infected sores and polluted cloaths from Men , their chiefest Righteousness could not but be abominable in his sight . And though our best works , compared with Christ's righteousness , are no better than unclean rags ; yet in God's acceptation for Christ's sake they are called a white rayment ; yea , b pure sine linen , and shining ; far unlike the c Leopard's spots and d filthy garments . 7. James ● . 2. In many things we sin all : True , but God's Children sin not in all things , as thou dost , without either bridling their lusts or mortifying their corruptions ; and though the relicks of sin remain in the dearest children of God , that they had need daily to cry , Our Father which art in heaven , forgive us our trespasses ; yet * in the New Testament , none are properly called Sinners , but the unregenerate ; but the Regenerate in respect of their Zealous endeavour to serve God in unfeigned holiness are every where called Saints : Insomuch that St. John saith , that whosoever is born of God sinneth not ; that is , liveth not in wilful filthiness , suffering sin to reign in him , as thou dost . Deceive not thy self with the name of a Christian ; whosoever liveth in any customary gross sin , he liveth not in the state of grace . Let therefore ( saith St. Paul ) every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity . The regenerate sin but upon ●railty ; they repent , and God doth pardon ; therefore they † sin not to death . The Reprobate sin maliciously , sinfully , and delight there in , so that by their good will , sin shall leave them before they leave it . They will not repent , and God will not pardon . Therefore their sins are mortal ( saith St. John ) or rather immortal , as saith St. Paul , Rom. 2. 5. It is no excuse therefore to say , we are all sinners . True Christians , thou seest , are all Saints . 8. Luke 23. 43. The Thief converted at the last gasp was received to Paradise ; what then ? If I may have but time to say when I am dying , Lord , have mercy upon me , I shall likewise be saved . But what if thou shalt not ? And yet many in that day shall say , Lord , Lord ; and the Lord will not know them . The Thief was saved , for he repented ; but his fellow had no grace to repent , and was damned . Beware therefore lest trusting to too late repentance , at thy last end on Earth , thou be not driven to repent too late without end in Hell. 9. 1 John 1. 7. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin . And 1 John 2. 1. If any man sin , we have an Advocate with the Father , Jesus Christ the righteous , &c. Oh comfortable ! But hear what S● . John saith in the same place ; My little children , these things write I unto you , that ye sin not . If therefore thou leavest thy sin , these Comforts are thine , else they belong not to thee . 10. Rom. 5. 20. Where sin abounded , grace did abound much more . O sweet ! But hear what St. Paul addeth ; What shall we say then ? shall we continue in sin , that grace may abound ? God forbid . How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein ? Rom. 6. 1 , 2. This place teacheth us not to presume ; but that we should not despair . None therefore of these Promises , promiseth any grace to any , but to the penitent heart . The grounds of Religion mistaken , are these : 1. From the Doctrine of Justification by Faith only ; a carnal Christian gathereth , That good works are not necessary . He commends others that do good works , but he persuades himself that he shall be saved by his Faith , without doing any such matter . But he should know , that though good works are not necessary to justification , yet they are necessary to salvation , for we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works , which God hath predestinated , that we should walk in them . Whosoever therefore in years of discretion bringeth not forth good works , after he is called , he cannot be saved , neither was he ever predestinated to life eternal , Therefore the Scripture saith ▪ that * Christ will reward every man according to his works ; Christ respects in the Angels of the seven Churches nothing but their works , and at the last day he will give the heavenly inheritance only to them who have done good works , a in feeding the hungry , clothing the naked , &c ▪ At that day b righteousness shall wear the Crown . No righteousness , no crown , no good works ( according to a man's talent ) no reward from God , unless it be c vengeance . To be rich in good works , is the surest foundation of our assurance d to obtain eternal li●e . For good works are the true fruits of a true faith , which apprehendeth Christ and his obedience unto salvation . And no other faith e availeth in Christ , but that which worketh by love , and ( but in the act of justification ) that faith which only justifieth is * never alone , but ever accompanied with good works , as the Tree with his fruits , the Sun with his light , the fire with his heat , the water with his moisture . And the faith which doth not justifie her self by good works before men , is but a f dead faith , which will never justifie a man's soul before God. But a justifying faith g purifieth the heart , and h sanctifieth the whole man throughout . II From the Doctrine of God's eternal i Predestination , and unchangeable Decree , he gathereth , that if he be predestinated to be saved , he cannot but be saved ; if to be damned , no means can do any good . Therefore all works of Piety are but in vain But he should learn , that God hath predestinated to the means , as well as to the end . Whom therefore God hath predestinated to be saved , which is the k end , he hath likewise predestinated to be first called , justified , and made conformable to the Image of his Son , which is the l means . And the , ( saith St. m Peter ) who are elect unto salvation , are also elect unto the sanctification of the spirit . If therefore upon thy calling thou conformest thy self to the Word and Example of Christ thy Master , and obeyest the good motions of the Holy Spirit , in leaving sin , and living a godly life ; then assure thy self , that thou art one of those who are infallibly predestinated to everlasting salvation . If otherwise , blame not God's predestination , but thine own sin and rebellion . Do thou but return unto God , and God will graciously receive thee , as the Father did the prodigal Son ; and by thy conversion it shall appear , both to n Angels and o Men , that thou didst belong to his Election . If thou wilt not , why should God save thee ? III. When a carnal Christian hears that Man hath not free will unto good , he looseth the reins to his own corrupt will , as tho' it lay not in him to bridle , or to subdue it ; Implicitly making God the Author of sin in suffering Man to run into this necessity . But he should know , that God gave Adam free-will , to stand in his a integrity if he would ; Man abusing his free-will , lost both himself and it . Since the Fall , Man in his state of corruption hath free-will to evil , but not to good ; for in this state b we are not ( saith the Apostle ) sufficient to think a good thought . And God is not bound to restore us what we lost so wretchedly , and take no more care to recover again . But as soon as a Man is regenerated , the grace of God freeth his will unto good , so that he doth all the good things he doth with a free-will : For so the Apostle saith , That c God of his own good pleasure , worketh both the will and the deed in us ; who ( as the Apostle expoundeth ) d cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit , and finish our sanctification in the fear of God. And in this state every true Christian hath free-will ; and as he increaseth in grace , so doth his will in freedom ; for e when the Son shall make us free , then shall we be free indeed , and f where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty : for the holy spirit draws their minds not by coaction , but by the Cords of Love , Cant. 1. 4. by illuminating their minds to know the truth ; by changing their hearts to love the known truth ; and by enabling every one of them ( according to the measure of grace which he hath received ) to do the good which he loveth ; but thou wilt not use the freedom of thy will so far as God hath freed it ; for thou dost many times wilfully ( against God's Law , to the hazard of thy Soul ) that which ( if the King's Laws forbid under the penalty of death , or loss of thy worldly Estate ) thou wouldst not do . Make not therefore thy want of free-will unto good to be so much the cause of thy sin , as thy want of a loving heart to serve thy heavenly Father . IV. When the natural man hears that no man ( since the Fall ) is able to fulfil the Law of God , and keep all his Commandments , he boldly presumes to sin , as others do ; he contents himself with a few good thoughts ; and if he be not altogether as bad as the worst , he concludes , that he is as truly regenerate as the best . And every voluntary refusal of doing good , or withstanding evil , he counts the impossibility of the Law. But he should learn that though ( since the Fall ) no man but Christ , who was both God and Man , did or can perfectly fulfil the whole Law ; yet every true Christian , as soon as he is regenerated , begins to keep all God's Commandments in truth , though he cannot in absolute perfection . Thus with David , they g apply their hearts to fulfil God's Commandments always unto the end . And then the h spirit of grace , which was promised to be more abundantly poured forth under the Gospel , helpeth them in their good endeavours , and assisteth them , to do what he commands them to do . And in so doing God accepteth their ( a ) good will and endeavour , instead of perfect fulfilling of the Law , supplying out of the merits of Christ , who fulfilled the Law for us , whatsoever wanteth in our obedience . And in this respect Saint John saith , that b God's Commandments are not burthenous . And St. Paul saith , c I am able to do all things through the help of him that strengtheneth me . And Zachary and Elizabeth are said to walk d in all the Commandments of the Lord without reproof . Hereupon Christ e commends to his Disciples , the care of his keeping of his Commandments , as the truest testimony of our love unto him . So far therefore doth a Man love Christ , as he makes conscience to walk in his Commandmen●s , and the more unto Christ is our love , the less will our pains seem in keeping his Law. The Laws curse ( which under the Old Testament was so terrible ) is , under the New ( by the Death of Christ ) abolished to the regenerate ; the rigour which made it so impossible to our Nature before , is now to the new born so mollified by the spirit that it seems facil and easie The Apostles indeed pressed on the unconverted Jews and Gentiles , the impossibility of keeping the Law by ability of Nature corrupted . But when they have to do with regenerate Christians , they require to the Law ( which is the Rule of righteousness ) true a obedience in word and deed ; the b mortifying of their members ; the c crucifying of the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof , d resurrection to newness of life , e walking in the spirit , f overcoming of the world by faith ; so that tho' no Man can say as Christ , g Which of you can rebuke me of sin ! yet every regenerate Christian can say of himself , which of you can rebuke me of being an Adulterer , Whoremonger , Swearer , Drunkard , Thief , Vsurer , Oppressor , Proud , Malicious , Covetous , Prophaner of the holy Sabbath , a Lyar , a neglecter of God's Publick service , and such like gross sins ? else he is no true Christian. When a man casts off the conscience of being ruled by God's Law , then God h gives him over to be led by his own lusts , the surest sign of a Reprobate sense . Thus the Law , which since the fall , no man by his own natural ability can fulfil , is fulfilled in truth , of every true regenerate Christian , through the gracious assistance of i Christ's Holy Spirit . And this Spirit God will k give to every Christian that will pray for it , and incline his heart to keep his Laws . V. When the unregenerate man hears that God l delights more in the inward mind , than in the outward man : then he feigneth with himself , that all outward reverence and profession is but either superstitious , or superfluous . Hence it is that he seldom kneeleth in the Church ; that he puts on his Hat at singing of Psalms , and the publick Prayers ; which the prophane Varlet would not offer to do in the presence of a Prince or Noble man. And so that he keep his mind unto God , he thinks he may fashion himself ( in other things ) to the world . He divides his thoughts , and gives so much to God , and so much to his own lusts ; yea , he will divide with God the Sabbath , and will give him almost the one half , and spend the other wholly in his own pleasures . But know , O carnal Man , that Almighty God will not be served by halfs , because he hath created and redeemed the whole Man. And as God detests the service of the outward man without the inward heart , as hypocrisie ? so he counts the inward service without all external reverence , to be meer prophaneness : he requireth both in his worship . In prayer therefore bow thy knees in witness of thy humiliation : lift up thine eyes and thy hand , in testimony of thy confidence , hang dow● thy head , and smite thy brest , in token of thy contrition ; but especially call upon God with a sincere heart , serve him holily , serve him wholly , serve him only ; for God and the Prince of this world , are two contrary † masters , and therefore no man can possibly serve both . VI. The unregenerate Christian holds the hearing of the Gospel preached , to be but an indifferent matter , which he may use or not use at his pleasure ; but whosoever thou art , that will be assured in thy heart that thou art one of Christ's Elect Sheep ; thou must have a special care and conscience ( if possibly thou canst ) to hear God's Word Preached . For first the preaching of the Gospel is the chief ordinary means which God hath appointed to convert the souls of all that he hath a predestinated to be saved ; therefore it is called b the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth . And where this Divine Ordinance is not , the c people perish , and whosoever shall refuse it , d it shall be more tolerable for the Land of Sodom and Gomorrah , in the day of Judgment , than for those people . Secondly , the preaching of the Gospel is the e Standard or Ensign of Christ , to which all Soldiers and Elect People must assemble themselves ; when this Ensign is displayed ; as upon the Lord's Day , he is none of Christ's People , that f flocks not unto it ; neither shall any drop of the g rain of his Grace light on their souls . Thirdly , it is the ordinary means by which the Holy Ghost h begetteth faith in our hearts , without i which we cannot please God. If the hearing of Christ's voice be the chief Mark of Christ's Elect k sheep and of the l Bridegrooms friends , then must it be a fearful mark of a reprobate m goat either to neglect or contemn to hear the preaching of the Gospel . Let no man think this position foolish , n for by this foolishness of preaching , it pleaseth God to save them which believe . Their state is therefore fearful , who live in peace without caring for the preaching of the Gospel . Can men look for God's mercy and desp●●s his means ? a He ( saith Christ of the Preachers of his Gospel ) that despiseth you despiseth me . b He that is of God , heareth God's Word ; ye therefore hear them not , because ye are not of God. Had not the c Israelites heard Phineas's message , they had never wept . Had not the Baptist preached , the Jews had never d mourned . Had not they who crucified Christ , heard Peter's Sermon , their hearts had never been e pricked . Had not the Ninevites heard Jonas f preaching , they had never repented ; and if thou wilt not g hear and h repent , thou shalt never be saved . VII . The opinion that the Sacraments are but bare signs and seals of God's promise and grace unto us , doth not a little hinder Piety ; whereas indeed , they are seals as well of our service and obedience unto God ; which service , if we perform not unto him , the Sacraments seal no Grace unto us . But if we receive them upon the resolution to be his faithful and penitent servants , then the Sacraments do not only signifie and offer , but also seal and exhibit indeed , the inward spiritual grace ; which they outwardly promise and represent ; and to this end Baptism is called the i washing of Regeneration , and renewing of the Holy Ghost ; and the Lord's Supper , k The Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ. Were this truth believed , the holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper would be oftener and with greater revere●ce received . VIII . The last , and not the least block whereat Piety stumbleth in the course of Religion , is by adorning Vices with the names of Vertues , as to call drunken carousing , drinking of healths ; spilling innocent blood , Valour ; Gluttony , Hospitality ; Covetousness Thriftiness ; Whoredom , loving a Mistress ; Simony , Gratuity ; Pride , Gracefulness ; Dissembling , Complement ; Children of Belial , Good Fellows ; Wrath , Hastiness ; Ribaldry , Mirth . So on the other side , to call Sobriety in words and actions , Hypocrisie ; Alms-deeds , Vain-glory ; Devotion , Superstition ; Zeal in Religion , Puritanism ; Humility , Crouching ; scruple of Conscience , Preciseness , &c. And whilst thus we call evil good , and good evil , true Piety is much hindred in her progress . And thus much of the first hindrance of Piety , by mistaking the true sence of some special places of Scripture , and grounds of Christian Religion . The second hindrance of Piety . 2. The evil example of great Persons . The practice of whose prophane lives they preferr for their imitation , before the Precepts of God's holy Word . So that when they see the greatest Men in the State , and many chief Gentlemen in their Country , to make neither care nor Conscience to hear Sermons , to receive the Communion , nor to sanctifie the Lord's Sabbath , &c. but to be Swearers , Adulterers , Carousers , Oppressors , &c. Then they think that the using of these holy Ordinances , are not matters of so great moment ; for if they were , such great and wise Men would not set so little by them . Hereupon they think , that Religion is not a matter of necessity . And therefore where they should ( like Christians ) row against the stream of impiety towards Heaven , they suffer themselves to be carried with the multitude down right into Hell , thinking it impossi●le that God will suffer so many to be damned : Whereas , if the good of this world had not blinded the eyes of their minds , the Holy Scriptures would teach them , that a Not many wise men after the flesh , not many mighty , not many noble are called , &c. but that for the most part the b poor receive the Gospel ; and that c few rich men shall be saved . And that howsoever many are called , yet the chosen are but few . d Neither did the multitude ever save any from damnation . As God hath advanced men in greatness above others , so doth God expect , that they in Religion and Piety should go before others ; otherwise greatness abused ( in the time of their Stewardship ) shall turn to their greater condemnation in the day of their accounts . At what time sinful great and mighty men , as well as the poorest slaves and bond-men , shall wish , that the Rocks and Mountains may fall upon them , and hide them from the presence of the Judge , and from his just deserved wrath . It will prove but a miserable solace , to have a great company of great Men partakers with thee , of thine eternal torments . The multitude of sinners , doth not extenuate , but aggravate sin , as in Sodom . Better it is therefore with a few to be saved in the Ark , than with the whole world to be drowned in the flood . Walk with the few godly in the Scriptures narrow path to Heaven ; but crownd not with the godless multitude , in the broad way to Hell. Let not the examples of irreligious great men hinder thy repentance ; for their greatness cannot at that day exempt themselves from their own most grievous punishment . The third hindrance of Piety . 3. The long escape of diserved punishment in this life . Because sentance ( saith Solomon ) is not speedily executed against an evil worker ; therefore the hearts of the children of men are fully set in them to do evil , not knowing that the bou●tifulness of God a leadeth them to repentance . But when his patience is abused , and man's sins are ripened , his Justice will at once both b begin and make an end of the sinner ; and he will recompence the slowness of his delay with the grievousness of his punishment . Though they were suffered to run on the score all the days of their life ; yet they shall be sure to pay the utmost farthing at the day of their death . And whilst they suppose themselves to be free from Judgment , they are already smitten with the Heaviest of God's Judgments , a c heart that cannot repent . The stone in the reins or bladder , is a grievous pain that kills many a man's body ; but there is no disease to the stone in the heart , whereof * Nabal died , and which killeth millions of Souls . They refuse the trial of Christ and his Cross ; but they are stoned by Hell's Executioner to eternal death . Because many Nobles and Gentlemen are not smitten with present judgment , for their outrageous Swearing , Adultery , Drunkenness , Oppression , prophaning of the Sabbath , and disgraceful neglect of God's Worship and Service , they begin to doubt of Divine Providence and Justice . Both which two Eyes , they would as willingly put out in God , as the Philistines bored out the eyes of Sampson . It is greatly therefore to be feared lest they will provoke the Lord to cry out against them , as Sampson against the Philistines . By neglecting the Law , and walking after their own hearts , they put out , ( as much as in them lieth ) the eyes of my Providence and Justice . Lead me therefore to these chief Pillars , whereupon the Realm standeth , that I may pull the Realm upon their heads , and be at once avenged on them for my two eyes . Let not God's patience hinder thy repentance ; but because he is so patient , therefore do thou the rather repent . The fourth hindrance of Piety . 4. The presumption of God's mercy . For when Men are justly convinced of their sins , forthwith they betake themselves to this Shield , Christ is merciful ; so that every sinner makes Christ the Patron of his sin ; as though he had come into the world to bolster sin , and not to destroy the works of the Devil . Hereupon the carnal Christian presumeth , that though he continueth a while longer in his sin , God will not shorten his days . But what is this but to be an implicite Atheist ? Doubting that either God seeth not his sins ; or if he doth , that he is not just ; for if he believeth that God is just , how can he think that God , who for sin so severely punisheth others , can love him who still loveth to continue in sin ? True it is , Christ is merciful ; but to whom ? only to them that repent and turn from iniquity in Jacob. But if any man bless himself in his heart , saying , I shall have peace , although I walk according to the stubbornness of mine own heart , thus , adding drunkenness to thirst ; the Lord will not be merciful unto him , &c. O mad Men ! who dare bless themselves , when God pronounceth them accursed ? Look therefore how far thou art from finding repentance in thy self ; so far art thou from any assurance of finding mercy in Christ. Let therefore the wicked forsake his ways , and the unrighteous his own imaginations , and return unto the Lord , and he will have mercy upon him ; and to our God , for he is very ready to forgive . Despair is nothing so dangerous as presumption : For we read not in all the Scriptures of above three or four , whom roaring Despair overthrew ; but secure Presumption hath sent millions to perdition without any noise . As therefore the Damosels of Israel sang in their Dances : Saul hath killed his thousands , and David his ten thousands , so may I say , that despair of God's mercy hath damned thousands , but the a presumption of God's mercy hath damned ten thousands , and sent them quick to Hell , where now they remain in eternal torments , without all help or ease , or hope of redemption . God spared the b Thief , but not his fellow ; God spared one , that no Man might despair ; God spared but one , that no Man should presume . Joyful assurance to a Sinner that repents ; no comfort to him that remains impenitent . God is infinite in mercy , but to them only , who turn from their sins to serve him in holiness , without which no man shall see the Lord , Heb. 12. 14. To keep thee therefore from the hinderance of presumption , remember , that as Christ is a Saviour , so c Moses is an Accuser . Live therefore , as though there were no Gospel ; die , as though there were no Law. Pass thy life , as though thou wert under the conduct of Moses ; depart this life , as if thou knewest none but Christ , and him crucified . Presume not , if thou wilt not perish ; d Repent , if thou wilt be saved . The fifth hinderance of Pie●y . 5. Evil company ▪ commonly term'd good fellows : but indeed , the Devil 's chief instruments to hinder a wretched Sinner from repentance and Piety . The first sign of God's favour to a Sinner , is to give him grace to forsake evil companions ; such who wilfully continue in sin , contemn the means of their Calling , gibing at the sincerity of profession in others , and shaming Christian Religion by their own prophane lives . These sit in the seat of the scorners . For as soon as God admits a sinner to be one of his People , he bids him , Come out of Babylon . Every lewd company is a Babylon out of which , let every child of God either keep himself ; or , if he be in , think that he hears his Father's voice sounding in his ears , Come out of Babylon , my child . As soon as Christ looked in mercy upon Peter , he went out of the company that was in the High-Priest's Hall , and wept bitterly for his offence . David vowing ( upon recovery ) a new life said , Away from me all ye workers of iniquity , &c. As if it were impossible to become a new man , till he had shaken off all old ill Companions . The truest proof of a man's Religion , is the quality of his companions . Prophane companions are the chief enemies of Piety , and quellers of holy motions . Many a time is poor Christ ( offering to be new born in thee ) thrust into the Stable ; when these lewd companions by their drinking , plays , and jests , take up all the best Rooms in the Inn of thy heart . Oh let not the company of earthly sinners hinder thee from the Society of heavenly Saints and Angels . The sixth hindrance of Piety . 6. A conceited fear , least the practice of Piety should make a Man ( especially a young Man ) to wax too sad and pensive ; whereas indeed none can better joy , nor have more cause to rejoyce , than pious and religious Christians . For as soon as they are justified by faith , they have peace with God , than which there can be no greater joy . Besides , they have already the Kingdom of grace descended into their hear●s , as an assurance that ( in God's good time ) they shall ascend into his Kingdom of glory . This Kingdom of grace consists in three things : First , Righteousness , for having Christ's righteousness to justifie them before God , they endeavour to live righteously before men . Secondly , Peace , for the peace of conscience inseparably followeth a righteous conversation . Thirdly , the joy of the Holy Ghost , which joy is only felt in the peace of a good conscience ; and is so great , that it passeth all understanding . No tongue can express it , no heart can conceive it , but only he that feels it . This is that fulness of joy which Christ promised his Disciples , in the midst of their troubles , a joy that no man could take from them . The feeling of this joy , David upon his repentance begged so earnestly at the hands of God ; Restore me to the joy of thy salvation . And if the Angels in Heaven rejoyce so much at the conversion of a sinner , the joy of a sinner converted must needs be exceeding great in his own heart . It is worldly sorrow that snows so timely upon men's heads , and fills the furrows of their hearts , with the sorrows of death . The godly sorrow of the Godly ( when God thinks it meet to try them ) causeth in them repentance not to be repented of ; for it doth but further their salvation ; and in all such tribulation , they shall be sure to have the Holy Ghost to be their a Comforter ; who will b make our consolation to abound through Christ , as the sufferings of Christ shall abound in us . but whilest a man liveth in impiety , he hath ( c ) no peace , saith Esay ; d his laughter is but madness ( saith Solomon ) his riches are but e clay ( saith Habbakkuk ) nay , the Apostle accounts them no better than f dung , in comparison of the pious man's treasure ; all his joys shall end in woes , saith Christ. Let not therefore this false fear hinder thee from the practice of Piety . Better it is to go sickly ( with Lazarous ) to Heaven , than full of mirth and pleasure with Dives to Hell. Better it is to mourn for a time with men , than to be tormented for ever with Devils . The seventh hindrance of Piety . 7. And lastly , the hope of long life : for were it possible that a wicked liver thought this year to be his last year ; this month his last month ; this week his last week ; but that he would change and amend his wicked life ? no verily , he would use the best means to repent , and to become a new man. But as the rich man in the g Gospel promised himself many years to live in mirth , ease , and fulness , when he had not one night to live longer ; so , many wicked Epicures falsly promise themselves the age of many years , when the thread of their life is already almost drawn out to an end . So Jeremy ascribes the cause of the Jews sins and calamities to this , that she remembered not her last end . The longest space betwixt a man's coming by the womb , and going by the grave is but short , for man that is born of a woman , hath but a short time to live : He hath but a few days , and those full of nothing but troubles . And except the Practice of Piety , how much better is the state of the child that yesterday was baptized , and to day is buried , than Methusalem's , who lived nine hundred sixty nine years and then died ? of the two , happier the Babe ; because he had less sin and fewer sorrows . And what now remains of both , but a bare remembrance ? What trust should a man repose in long life ? seeing the whole life of man is nothing but a lingring death : so that as the Apostle protests . ( a a man dieth daily . Hark in thine ear , O secure fellow ; thy life is but a b puff of breath in thy nostrils , trust not to it . Thy Soul dwells in a house of clay , that will fall ere it be long ; as may appear by the dimness of thy eyes the deafness of thy ears , the wrinkles in thy cheeks , the rottenness of thy teeth , the weakness of thy sinews , the trembling of thy hands , the kalender in thy bones , the shortness of thy sleep , and every gray hair , as so many Summoners , bids thee prepare for thy long home . Come , let us in the mean while walk to thy Fathers Coffin : break open the lid , see here , how that corruption is thy Father , and the worm thy Mother and Sister : seest thou how these are ? so must thou be ere long : fool ! thou knowest not how soon , Thy Hour-glass runneth apace , and in all places , Death in the mean while waiteth for thee . The whole life of man ( save what is spent in God's service ) is but a foolery : for a man lives forty years before he knows himself to be a fool : and by that time he seeth his folly , his life is finished . Hark , Husbandman , before thou seest many more crops of Harvest , thy self shall be ripe , and Death will cut thee down with his sickle . Hark , Tradseman , ere many six months go over , thy last month will come on ; after which thou shalt trace away and trade no longer . Hark , most grave Judge , within a few terms , the term of thy life approacheth , wherein thou shalt cease to judge others , and go thy self to be judged . Hark , O man of God , that goest to the Pulpit , preach this Sermon , as it were thy last that thou shouldest make to thy people . Hark , Noble man , lay aside the high conceit of thy honour , Death , ere it be long * will lay thine honour in the dust , and make thee as base as the Earth that thou treadest under thy feet ▪ Hark , thou that now readest this book , assure thy self ere it be long there will be but two holes where now thy two eyes are placed ; and others shall read the truth of this lesson upon thy bare Skull , which now thou readest in this little book ; how soon I know not , but this I am sure of ; a that thy time is appointed , thy b months are determined , thy c days are numbred , and thy very d last hour is limited , beyond which thou shalt not pass ; For then , the first-horn of death mounted on his e pale horse , shall alight at thy door ; and ( notwithstanding all thy wealth and honour , and the tears of thy dearest friends ) will carry thee away bound hand and foot , as his Prisoner , and keep thy body under a load of earth , until that day come , wherein thou must be brought forth to f receive according to the things which thou hast done in the body , whether it be good or evil . O let not then the false hope of an uncertain long life hinder thee from becoming a present Practiser of religious Piety ! God g offereth grace to day , but who promiseth to morrow ? there are now in Hell many young Men , who had purposed to repent in their old age , but Death cut them off in their impenitency , ere ever they could attain to the time they set for their repentance . The longer a man runs in a disease , the harder it is to be cured ; for custom of sin breeds hardness of heart ; and the impediments which hinder thee from repenting now , will hinder thee more when thou art more aged . A wise Man being to go a far and foul journey , will not lay the heaviest burthen upon the weakest horse . And with what conscience canst thou lay the great load of repentance on thy feeble and tired old age , whereas now in thy chiefest strength thou canst not lift it , but art ready to stagger under it . Is it wisdom for him that is to sail a long and dangerous Voyage , to lie playing and sleeping , whilst the Wind serveth and the Sea is calm , the Ship sound , the Pilot well , Mariners strong ; and then set forth when the Winds are contrary , the Weather tempestuous , the Sea raging , the Ship rotten , the Pilot sick , and the Sailers languishing ? Therefore , ( O sinful Soul ) begin now thy conversion to God , whilst life , health , strength , and youth last : before , those † years draw nigh , when thou shalt say , I have no pleasure in them . God ever required in his service , the b first-boorn ; and the c first-fruits ; and those to be ●ffered unto him without delay . So just d Abel offered unto God his firstlings , and fattest Lambs : and reason good , that the best Lord should be first , and best served . All God's servants should therefore , e remember to serve their Creator in the days of their youth ; and f early in the morning , like Abraham , to sacrifice unto God the Young Isaac of their Age. g Ye shall not see my face ( saith Joseph to his Brethren ) except you bring your younger brother with you . And how shalt thou look in the face of Jesus , if thou givest thy younger years to the devil , and bringest him nothing but thy blind , lame , and decrepid old age ? Offer it unto thy h Prince , saith Malachy . If he will not accept such a one to serve him , how shall the Prince of Princes admit such a one to be his servant ? If the King of Babel would have young men ( well favoured , and such as had ability in them ) to stand in his palace , shall the King of Heaven have none to stand in his Courts , but the blind the lame , such as the soul of David hated ? Thinkest thou when thou hast served Satan with thy prime years , to satisfie God with thy dotage ? take heed l●st God turn thee over to thy old Master again : that as thou hast all the days of thy life done his Work , so he may in the end pay thee thy Wages . Is that time fit to undertake by the serious exercises of repentance ( which is the work of works ) to turn thy sinful soul to God , when thou art not able with all thy strength to turn thy weary bones on thy soft bed ? If thou find'st it so hard a matter now , thou shalt find it far harder then . For thy sin will wax stronger , thy strength will grow weaker , thy conscience will clog thee , pain will distract thee , the fear of death will amaze thee , and the visitation of friends will so disturb thee , that if thou be not furnished afore-hand with store of faith , patience and consolation , thou shalt not be able either to medi●ate thy self , or to hear the word of comfort from others ; not to pray alone , nor to joyn with others who pray for thee . It may be thou shalt be taken with a dumb palsie , or such a deadly senselesness , that thou shall neither remember God , nor think upon thine own estate , and dost thou not well deserve , that God should forget to save thee in thy death , who art so unmindful now to serve him in thy life ? the fear of Death , will drive many at that time to cry , Lord , Lord , but Christ protesteth that he will not then know them for his : Yea , many shall then ( like Esau ) with tears seek to repent , and yet find no place of repentance . For Man hath not free-will to repent when he will , but when God will give him grace . And if Mercy shewed her self so inexorable , that she would not open her gates to so tender suitors as Virgins , to so earnest suitors as kne●kers , because they knocked too late ; How thinkest thou that she will ever suffer thee to enter her gates , being so impure a wretch , that n●ver thinkest to leave sin , till sin first leaveth thee , and didst never yet knock with thine own fists upon the breasts of a penitent heart ? and justly doth her grace deny to open the gates of Heaven , when thou knockest in thine adversity , who in thy prosperity wouldest not suffer Christ whilst he knocked , to enter in at the door of thy heart . Trust not either late repentance , or long life ; not late repentance , because it is much to be feared , lest that the repentance , which the fear of Death enforceth , dies with a man dying . And the Hypocrite , who deceived others in his life , may deceive himself in his death . God accepteth none but free-will offerings , and the repentance that pleaseth him must be voluntary , and not of constraint . Not long life † for old age will fall upon the neck of youth : and as nothing is more sure than Death , so nothing is more uncertain than the time of dying . Yea often times when ripeness of sin is hastened by outragiousness of sinning , God suddenly cutteth off such vicious livers , either with the sword , intemperateness , luxury , surfeit , or some other fearful manner of sickness Mayst thou not see , that it is the evil spirit that persuades thee to deferr thy repentance till old Age , when experience tells thee , that not one of a thousand that takes thy course doth ever attain unto it ? Let Goa's holy Spirit move thee , not to give thy self any longer † to eat and drink with the drunken , lest thy master send death for thee in a day when thou lookest not for him , and in an hour that thou art not aware of : and so suddenly cut thee off , and appoint thee thy portion with the h●pocrites , where shall be weeping a●d gnashing of teeth . But if thou lovest a long life , fear God , and long for life everlasting . The longest life here , when it is come to the Period , will appear to have been but as a b tale that is told , a c vanishing vapour , a flitting d shadow , a seeming e dream , a glorious f flower , growing and flourishing in the g morning , but in the evening cut down and withered ; or like a h Weavers shuttle , which by winding here and there swiftly unwinded it self to an end . It is but a i moment , saith St. Paul. O then the madness of Man ! that for a moment of k sinful pleasure , will hazard the loss of an l Eternal weight of glory . These are the seven chief hinderers of Piety , which must be cast out like Mary Magdalen 's seven Devils , before ever thou canst become a true Practicer of Piety , or have any sound hope to enjoy either favour from Christ by grace , or fellowship with him in glory . The Conclusion . TO conclude all : for as much as thou seest , that without Christ , thou art but a slave of sin , Death's Vassal , and Worms Meat ; whose thoughts are vain , whose deeds are vile , whose pleasures have scarce beginnings , whose miseries never know end ; what wise Man would incurr these hel●ish torments , tho' he might by living in sin , purchase to himself for a time the Empire of Augustus , the riches of Croesus , the pleasures of Solomon , the policy of Achitophel , the voluptuous fair , and fine apparel of Dives ? for what should it avail a Man ( as our Saviour saith ) to win the whole world far a time , and then to lose his soul in hell for ever ? And seeing that likewise thou seest how great is thy happiness in Christ ; and how vain are the hindrances that debar thee from the same ; b●ware ( as the Apostle exhorteth ) of the deceitfulness of sin . For that sin which seems now to be so pleasing to thy corrupt nature , will one day prove the bitterest enemy to thy distressed soul ; and in the mean while harden ( unawares ) thine impenitent heart . Sin ( as a Serpent ) seems beautiful to the eye ; but take heed of the sting behind ; whose venomous Effects if thou knewest , thou wouldest as carefully fly from sin , as from a Serpent : For , 1. Sin did never any Man good : and the more sin a Man hath committed , the more odious he hath made himself to God , the more hateful to all good Men. 2. Sin brought upon thee all the evil , crosses , losses , disgraces , and sicknesses , that ever befel thee . Fools ( saith David ) by reason of their transgressions , and because of their iniquities , are afflicted . Jeremy , in lamenting manner , asketh the question ; Wherefore is the living man sorrowful ? The Holy Ghost answereth him ; Man suffereth for his sin . Hereupon the Prophet takes up that doleful out-cry against sin , as the cause of all their miseries , Wo now unto us that ever we have sinned . 3 If thou dost not speedily repent thee of thy sins , they will bring upon thee yet far greater plagues , losses , crosses , shame and judgments , than ever hitherto befel thee . Read Levit. 26. ver . 18 , &c. Deut. 28 ▪ 15 , &c. 4. And lastly , if thou wilt not cast off thy sin ; God ( when the measure of thine iniquity is full ) will cast thee off for thy sin : for as he is just , so he hath power to kill and cast into hell all hardened and impenitent sinners . If therefore thou wilt avoid the cursed effects of sin in this life , and the eternal wrath due thereto in the world to come , and be assured that thou art not one of those who are given over to a reprobate sense ; Let then ( O sinner ) my counsel be acceptable unto thee : break off thy sins by righteousness and thine iniquities by shewing mercy towards the poor : O let there ( at length ) be an healing of thine error ! Nathan used but one Parable , and David was converted ; Jonas preached but once to Nineveh , and the whole City repented : Christ looked but once on Peter , and be went out , and wept bitterly . And now , that thou art oft , and so lovingly intreated , not by a Prophet , but by Christ the Lord of Prophets ; yea , that God himself , by his Embassadors , doth pray thee to be reconciled unto him ; leave off thine adultery , with David ; repent of thy sins like a true Ninevite , and whilst Christ looketh in mercy upon thee , leave thy wicked companions , and weep bitterly for thine offences . Content not thy self with that formal Religion , which unregenerated Men have framed to themselves instead of sincere devotion : for in the multitude of Opinions most Men have almost lost the practice of true Religion . Think not that thou art a Christian good enough , because thou dost as the most , and art not so bad as the worst . No Man is so wicked , that he is addicted to all kind of vices ( for there is an antipathy betwixt some vices ; ) but remember that Christ saith , Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees , ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of Heaven . Consider with thy self how far thou comest short of the Pharises in Fasting , Praying , frequenting the Church , and in giving of Alms : Think with thy self how many Pagans , who never knew Baptism , yet in moral virtues , and honesty of life , do go far beyond thee . Where is then the life of Christ thy Master ? and how far art thou from being a true Christian , if thou dost willingly yield to live in any one gross sin ? thou canst not have a regenerated soul , tho' thou reformest thy self like Herod , from many other Vices . A true Christian must have respect to walk in the truth of his heart , in all the Commandments of God alike , for ( saith St. James ) He that shall offend in one point of the Law ( wilfully ) is guilty of all . And Peter bids us lay aside ( not some , but ) all malice , guile and hypocrisies , &c. One sin is enough to damn a Man's Soul without repentance : dream not to go to Heaven by any nearer , or easier way than Christ hath traced unto us in his word . The way to Heaven is not easie or common , but * strait and narrow ; yea , so narrow , that Christ protesteth , that b a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven ▪ and that those who enter are but a c few ; and that those few cannot get in but by d striving , and that some of those who strive to enter in shall not be able . This all God's Saints ( whilst they here lived ) knew well : when with so often fastings , so earnest prayers ; so frequent hearing the Word , and receiving the Sacraments and wi●h such abundance of tears they devou●ly begged at the hands of God for Christ's sake to be received into his Kingdom . If thou wilt not believe this truth , I assure thee , that the Devil , which perswades thee now , that it is easie to attain Heaven , will tell thee hereafter , that it is the hardest business in the world . If therefore thou art desirous to purchase sound assurance of salvation to thy Soul , and to go the right and safe way to Heaven , get forthwith ( like a wise Virgin ) the Oyl of Piety in the lamp of thy conversation , that thou maist be in a continual readiness to meet the Bridegroom , whether he cometh by Death , or by Judgment . Which that thou mayest the better do , let this be thy daily practice . How a private man must begin the morning with Piety . AS soon as ever thou awakest in the Morning , keep the door of thy heart fast shut , that no earthly thought may enter , before that God be come in first : and let him ( before all others ) have the † first place therein . So all evil thoughts , either will not dare to come in , or shall the easier be kept out : and the heart wil● more favour of piety and godliness all 〈◊〉 day after . But if thy heart be not ( at thy first waking ) filled with some M●d●a●ions of God , and his Word ; and d●ested like the * lamp in thae Tabernacle , every morning and evening , with the Oyl Olive of God's Word ; and perfumed with the sweet * Incense of Prayer : Satan will attempt to fill it with worldly cares , or fleshly desires , so that it will grow unfit for the service of God all the day after , sending forth nothing but the stench of corrupt and lying words , and of rash and blasphemous Oaths . Begin therefore every days work with God's Word and Prayer . And offer up unto God upon the Altar of a b contrite heart , the c groans of thy spirit , and the d calves of thy lips , as thy morning sacrifice , and the first-fruits of the day : and as soon as thou awakest , say unto him thus . A short Soliloquy , when one first wakes in the Morning . MY Soul waiteth on thee , O Lord , more than the Morning Watch watcheth for the Morning . O God therefore be merciful unto me , and bless me , and cause thy face to shine upon me : fi●l me with th● Mercy this Morning , so shall I rejoyce and be glad all my days . Meditations for the Morning . Then Meditate , 1. HOw Almighty God can ( in the Resurrection ) as easily raise up thy b●dy out of he grave , from the sleep of death , as he hath this Morning wakened thee in thy bed out of the sleep of nature . At the dawning of which Resurrection day Christ a shall come to be glorified in his Saints , and every one of the bodies of the b thousands of his Saints ( being c fashioned like unto his glorious body ) shall shine as bright as the d Sun. All the Angels shining likewise in their glory , the Body of Christ surpassing them all in splendor and glory ; and the Godhead excelling it . If the rising of one Sun makes the Morning-Sky so glorious , what a bright-shining and glorious Morning will that be , when so many thousand thousands of Bodies , far brighter than the Sun , shall appear and accompany Christ as hi● glorious ●ra● , coming to keep his general Sessions of e Righteousness , and to judge the wicked f Angels , and all g ungodly Men ? and let not any transitory profit , pleasure , or vain glory of this day , cause thee to lose thy part and portion of the eternal bliss and glory of that Day , which is properly termed the Resurrection of the Just. Beasts have bodily eyes to see the ordinary light of the day ; but endeavour thou with the eyes of Faith , to fore-see the glorious light of that Day . 2. That thou knowest not how near the evil spirit ( which night and day like a roaring Lion , walketh about seeking to devour thee ) was unto thee whilst thou slept'st , and wast not able to help thy self , and that thou knowest not what Mischief ▪ he would have done to thee , had not God h hedged thee and thine , with his i ever-waking providence , and guarded thee with his holy and blessed k Angels . 3. If thou hearest the Cock crow , remember * P●ter to imitate him ; and call to mind that Cock-crowing sound of the last Trumpet , which shall waken thee from the dead , and consider in what case thou wert , if it sounded now : and become such , as thou wouldst with to be then , lest at that day thou wilt wish that thou hadst never seen this ; yea , b curse the day of thy natural birth , for want of being c new born by spiritual grace . † When the Cock crows , the Thief despairs of his hope , and gives over his nights enterprise : So the Devil ceaseth to tempt or attemp● any further , when he hears the devout Soul wakening her self with Morning-Prayer . 4. Remember that Almighty God is about thy bed , and seeth thy down-lying and thy up-rising , understandeth thy thoughts , and is acquainted with all thy ways . Remember likewise , that his Holy Angels , who guarded and watched over thee all night , do also behold how thou d wakest and risest . Do all things therefore as in the awful presence of God , and in the sight of his holy e Angels . 5. As thou art putting on thine apparel , remember that they were first given as coverings of shame , being the filthy effect of sin ; and that they were made but of the offails and excrements of dead Beasts Therefore , whether thou respect the stuff or the first institution thou hast so little cause to be proud of them , that thou hast great cause to be humbled at the sight and wearing of them : seeing the richest apparel are but fine covers of the foulest shame . Meditate rather , That as thine apparel serves to cover thy shame , and to fence thy body from cold : so thou shouldest be as careful to cover thy soul with that a wedding-garment , which is the b righteousness of Christ , and ( because apprehended by our faith ) called the righteousness of the Saints : Lest whilest we are richly apparalled in the sight of Men , we be not found to walk c naked ( so that all our filthiness be seen ) in ●he sight of God. But that with his righteousness ( as with a Robe ) we may cover our selves from perpetual shame ; and shield our Souls from that fiery cold that will procure eternal weeping and gnashing of Teeth . And withal , consider how blessed a people were our Nation , if every silken suit did cover a sanctified Soul. And yet a Man would think , that on whom God bestowed most of these outward blessings , of them he sh●uld receive greatest inward thanks . But if it prove otherwise , their reckoning will prove the heavier in the day of their accounts . 6. Consider , how God's Mercy is renewed unto thee every Morning , in giving thee ( as it were ) a new life : and in causing the Sun after his uncessant Race , to rise again to give thee light . Let not then his glorious light burn in vain : but prevent rather ( as often as thou canst ) the Sun-rising , to give God thanks : and kneeling down at thy bed-side , salute him at the day-spring , with some devout Antelucanum , or Morning - Soliloqui : containing an humble confession of thy sins , the pardon of all thy faults , a thanksgiving for all his benefits , and a craving of his gracious protection to his Church , thy self , and all that do belong unto thee . Brief directions how to read the Holy Scriptures once every year over , with ease , profit , and reverence . BUt for as much , that as faith is the soul , so reading and meditating of the Word of God , are the Parents of Prayers : therefore before thou prayest in the Morning , first , read a Chapter in the word of God ; then meditate a while with thy self how many excellent things thou canst remember out of it . As first : what good counsels or exhortations to good works , and to holy life . Second what threatnings of judgments against such and such a sin : and what fearful examples of Gods punishment or vengeance upon such and such sinners . Thirdly , what blessings God promiseth to patience , chastity , mercy , alms-deed , zeal in his service , charity , faith , and trust in God and such like Christian vertues . Fourthly , what gracious deliverances God hath wrought , and what sp●cial blessings he hath bestowed upon them , who were his true and zealous servants . Fifthly , Apply these things to thine own heart , and read not these Chapters , as matters of Historical discourse : but as if they were so many Letters or Epistles sent down from God out of Heaven unto thee : for whatsoever is w●itten , is written for our learning , Rom 15. 4. Sixthly , Read them therefore with that reverence , as if God himself stood by , and spake these words unto thee , to excite thee to those virtues ; to dissuade thee from those vices ; assuring thy self , that if such sins ( as thou readest there ) be found in thee without repentance , the like plagues will fall upon thee ; but if thou doest practise the like piet ▪ and vertuous deeds , the like blessi●gs shall come unto thee and thine . In a word , apply all that thou readest in H Scripture , to one of these two heads chiefly ; either to confirm thy faith ; or to increase thy repentance ; for as Sustine & Abstine , bear and forbear , was the Epitome of a good Philosopher's life , so Crede & Resipisee , believe and repent , is the whole sum of a true Christian's profession . One Chapter thus read with understanding , and meditated with application , will better feed and comfort thy soul , than five read and run over without marking their scope or sense , or making any use thereof to thine own self . If in this manner thou shalt read three Chapters every day ; one in the Morning , and another at Noon , and the third at Night ( reading so many Psalms instead of a Chapter as our Church Liturgy appoints for morning or evening Prayers ) thou shalt read over all the Canonical a Scripture in a year , except six Chapters , which thou maist add to the task of the last day of the year . The reading of the Bible in order will help thee the better to understand both the History and scope of the H. Scripture . And as for the b Apocrypha , being but penned by Man's spirit , thou maist read them at thy pleasure , but believe them so far as they agree with the Canonical Scripture , which is indited by the Holy Ghost . But it may be thou wilt say , that thy business will not permit thee so much time , as to read every morning a Chapter , &c. O Man , remember that thy life is but short , and that all this business is but for the use of this short life ; but salvation or damnation is everlasting . Rise up therefore every morning by so much time the earlier ; defraud thy foggy flesh of so much sleep , but rob not thy soul of her food , nor God of his service ; and serve the Almighty duly whilst thou hast time and health . Having thus read thy Chapter , as thou art about to pray , remember that God is a God of c holiness , whereof he warneth us by repeating so often , d Be ye holy , for I am holy . And when he devoured with a sudden fire , Nadab and Abihu , for offering unto him incense with * strange fire , ( like those now-a-days , who offer Prayers from hearts fraught with the fire of lust and malice : ) the Lord would give no other reason of his judgment but this , I will be sanctified in them that come near me . As if he should have said , If I cannot be sanctified by them who are my servants , in serving me with that holiness that they should , I will be sanctified on them , by confounding them with my just judgments , which , their lewdness doth deserve . God therefore cannot abide any wilful uncleanness , or filthiness in them , who serve him : insomuch that he commanded the Israelites , That when they were in Camp against their Enemies , they should dig a hole with a paddle , and cover their excrements : his reason is , For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst o● thy Camp , to deliver th●e , and to give thee thine Enemies before thee : therefore thy host shall be holy , that he see no filthy thing in thee , and turn away from thee . If he will have Men to be so holy in time of war in the Field , how much more holiness expecteth he at our hands in time of peace in our houses ? therefore saith Zophar in Job : If thou prepare thine heart and stretch out thine hand towards God to pray : if iniquity be in thy hand , put it far away , and let no wickedness dwell in thy Tabernacle . For , as Esay saith , If there be any uncleanness in our hands , ( that is , any sin whereof we have not repented ) tho' we stretch not our hands unto him , and make many prayers , the Lord will hide his eyes from us , and will not hear our prayers . Therefore before thou prayest , let God see that thy heart is sorrowful for thy sin : and that thy mind is resolved ( through the assistance of his grace ) to amend thy faults . And then having washed thy self , and adorned thy body with appar●l which beseemeth thy calling , and the Image of God , which thou bearest ; shut thy chamber-door , and kneel down at thy bed-side , or some other convenient place , and in reverent manner lifting up thy heart , together with thy hands and eyes , as in the presence of God , who seeth the inward intention of thy soul , offer up unto God from the Altar of a contrite heart , thy prayer as a morning-sacrifice , through the mediation of Christ , in these or the like words . A Prayer for the Morning . O Most mighty and glorious God , full of incomprehensible Power and Majesty , whose glory the very heaven of heavens is not able to contain : look down from heaven upon me , thine unworthy servant , who here prostrate my self at the a footstool of thy b Throne of Grace . But look upon me , O Father , through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ , c thy beloved Son , in whom only thou art well pleased . For , of my self , I am not worthy to stand in thy presence , or to speak with mine unclean a lips to so holy a God as thou art . For thou know'st that in b sin I was conceived and born , and that I have lived ever since in iniquity : so that I have broken all thy holy Commandments by sinful motions , unclean c thoughts , evil words , and wicked works d omitting many of those duties of Piety which thou requirest for thy service , and committing many of those vices , which thou ( under the penalty of thy displeasure ) hast forbidden . [ Here thou maist confess unto God thy secret sins , which do most burthen thy conscience : with the circumstances of the time , place , person and manner , how it was committed , saying , But more especially , O Lord , I do here , with grief of heart , confess unto thee , &c. ] And for these my sins , O Lord , I stand here guilty of thy curse , with all the miseries of this life , and everlasting torments in hell fire , when this wretched life is ended ▪ if thou shouldest deal with me according to my deserts . Yea , Lord , I confess , that it is thy mercy which endureth for ever , and thy compassion which never fails , that is the cause that I have not been long ago consumed . But with thee , O Lord , there is mercy and plenteous redemption . In the mutitude therefore of thy Mercy , and confidence in Christ's Merits , I intreat thy divine Majesty , that thou wouldst not enter into judgment with thy servant , neither be extreme to mark what I have hitherto done amiss : for if thou dost , then then can no flesh be justified in thy sight , nor any living stand in thy presence . But be thou merciful unto me , and wash away all the uncleanness of my sin , with the merits of that precious blood , which Jesus Christ hath shed for me . And seeing that he hath born the burthen of that curse , which was due to my transgressions . O Lord , deliver me from my sins , and from all those judgments which hang over my head , as due unto me for them : and separate them as far from thy presence , as the East is from the West : bury them in the burial of Christ , that they may never have power to rise up against me to shame me in this life , or to condemn me in the world which is to come . And I beseech thee , O Lord , not only to wash away my sins with the blood of thine immaculate Lamb ; but also to purge my heart , by thy holy Spirit , from the dross of my natural corruption : that I may feel thy Spirit ▪ more and more killing my sin in the power and practice thereof : so that I may with more freedom of mind , and liberty of will serve thee the everlasting God in righteousness and holiness this day . And give me grace , that by the direction and assistance of the same thy holy Spirit , I may presevere to be thy faithful and unfeigned servant unto my life's end : that when this mortal life is ended , I may be made a partaker of immortality , and everlasting happiness in thy heavenly kingdom . In the mean time , O Lord , whilst it is thy blessed will and pleasure , that I may continue to spend , and end that small number and remnant of days , which thou hast appointed for me to live in this vale of misery : Teach me so to number my days , that I may apply my heart unto wisdom : and as thou dost add days unto my life ; so , good Lord , I beseech thee , add repentance and amendment to my days , that as I grow in years , so may I increase in grace , and favour with thee , and all thy people . And to this end , give unto me a supply of all those graces which thou knowest to be wanting in me , and necessary for me with an increase of all those good gifts , wherewith thou hast already endowed me ; that so I may be the better enabled to lead such a godly life , and honest conversation , as that thy Name may thereby be glorified , others may take good example by me , and my soul may more chearfully feed on the peace of a good conscience , and be more replenished with the joy of the Holy Ghost . And hear , O Lord , according to my bounded duty , I give thee most humble and hearty thanks , for all those Bessings which of thy goodness thou hast bestowed upon me . And namely , for that thou hast of thy free love , according to thine eternal purpose , elected me before the foundation of the world was laid , unto salvation in Jesus Christ : for that thou hast created me after thine own Image , and hast begun to restore that in me , which was lost in our first Parents : for that thou hast effectually called me by the working of thy Spirit , in the preaching of the Gospel , and receiving of the Sacrament , to the knowledge of thy saving grace and c obedience of thy blessed will for that thou hast bought and redeemed me with the blood of thine only begotten Son , from the torments of Hell , amd thrall of Satan ; for that thou hast by faith in d Christ freely justified me , who am by nature the Child of wrath : for that thou hast in good measure sanctified me by thy holy Spirit , and given me so large a time to repent , together with the means of repentance . I thank thee likewise , good Lord , for my life , health , wealth , food , raiment , peace , prosperity and plenty : and for that thou hast preserved me this night from all perils and dangers of body and soul , and hast brought me lafe to the beginning of this day . And as thou hast now wakned my body from sleep ; so I beseech thee waken my soul from sin , and carnal security : and as thou hast caused the light of the day to shine in my bodily eyes ; so good Lord , cause the light of thy Word and holy Spirit , to illuminate my heart : and give me grace , as one of thy children of light , to walk in all holy obedience before thy face this day : and that I may endeavour to keep faith and a clear conscience towards thee , and towards all men , in all my thoughts words and dealings . And so , good Lord , bless all my studies and actions , which I shall take in hand this day ; as that they may tend to thy glory , the good of others , and the comfort of mine own Soul and Conscience in that day , when I shall make my final accounts unto thee for them . Oh my God , keep thy servant , that I do no evil unto any man this day : and let it be thy blessed will , not to suffer the Devil , nor his wicked Angels , nor any of his evil Members , or any malicious enemies , to have any power to do me any hurt or violence . But let the eye of thy holy providence watch over me for good and not for evil : and command thy holy Angels to pitch their Tents round about me , for my defence and safety , in me going out , and coming in , as thou hast promised they should do about them that fear thy Name . For , into thy hands O Father , I do here commend my soul , and body , my actions , and all that ever I have , to be guided , defended , and protected by thee : being assured , that whatsoever thou takest into thy custody cannot perish , nor suffer any hurt or harm . And if I at any time this day , shall through frailty forget thee ; yet Lord , I beseech thee , do thou in mercy remember me . And I pray not unto thee , O Father , for my self alone , but I beseech thee also be merciful unto thy whole Church , and chosen people , wheresoever they live upon the face of the earth . Defend them from the Rage and Tyranny of the Devil , the World and Antichrist . Give thy Gospel a free and a joyful passage through the world , for the conversion of those who belong to thine Election and Kingdom . Bless the Churches and Kingdoms ( wherein we live ) with the continuance of Peace , Justice , and true Religion . Defend the King's Majesty from all his Enemies , and grant him a long life in health , and all happiness to reign over us . Bless our gracious Queen Mary , Prince Charles , the Lady Mary , the Lady Elizabeth and her Princely Issue . Increase in them all heroical gifts , and spiritual graces , which may make them fit for those places , for which thou hast ordained them . Direct all the Nobility , Bishops , Ministers , and Magistrates of this Church and Common-wealth , to govern the Commons in true religion , justice , obedience , and tranquility . Be merciful unto all the Brethren which fear thee , and call upon thy name ; and comfort as many among them as are sick , and comfortless in body , or mind : especially be favourable to all such as suffer any trouble or persecution for the testimony of thy truth , and holy Gospel : And give them a gracious deliverance out of all their troubles , which way it shall seem best to thy Wisdom ; for the glory of thy Name , the further enlarging of the truth , and the more ample increase of their own Comfort and Consolation . Hasten thy coming , O blessed Saviour , and end these sinful days . And give me grace , that like a wife Virgin , I may be prepared with oil in my Lamp , to meet thee the sweet Bridegroom of my Soul at thy coming ; whether it be by the day of Death , or of Judgment : and then , Lord Jesus , come when thou wilt ; even Lord Jesus come quickly . These and all other graces which thou knowest needful and necessary for me , this day and evermore , I humbly beg and crave at thy hands , O Father : giving thee thy glory , in that form of Prayer , which Christ himself hath taught me to say unto thee . Our Father which art in heaven , hallowed be thy Name , &c. Meditations to stir us up to Morning Prayer . IF when thou art about to pray , Satan shall suggest that thy Prayers are too long , and that therefore it were better either to omit Prayers , or else to cut them shorter : meditate , that Prayer is thy spiritual sacrifice , wherewith God is well pleased ; and therefore it is so displeasing to the Devil , and so irksome to thy Flesh. Bend therefore thy Affections ( will they , nill thy ) to so holy an exercise ; assuring thy self , that it doth by so much the more please God , by how much the more it is unpleasing to thy flesh . 2. Forget not how the Holy Ghost puts at down as a special note of reprobates : they call not upon the Lord , they call not upon God. And when Eliphaz supposed that Job had cast off the fear of God , and tha● God had cast Job out of his favour , he chargeth him that he restrained prayer 〈◊〉 God : making that a sure none of the 〈◊〉 and a sufficient cause of the other . On the other side , that God hath promised , that whosoever shall call on his name shall be saved . It is certain , that he who maketh no conscience of the duty of Prayer , hath no grace of the holy Spirit in him . For the spirit of grace and of prayer , are one : And therefore Grace and Prayer go together . But he that can from a penitent heart ( morning and evening ) pray unto God , it is sure , that he hath his measure of grace in this world ; and he shall have his portion of glory in the life which is to come . 3. Remember , that as loathing of meat and painfulness of speaking , are two symptoms of a sick body : So irkesomness of praying when thou talkest with God , and carelesness in hearing , when God , by his Word , speaks unto thee , are two sure signs of a sick Soul. 4. Call to mind the zealous devotions of the Christians in the Primitive Church , who spent many whole nights and vigils in watching and praying for the forgiveness of their sins ; and that they might be found ready at the coming of Christ. And how that David was not concent a to pray at Morning , at Evening , and at Noon , but he would also b rise up at midnight to pray unto God. And if Christ did chide his Disciples , because they would not c watch with him one hour in praying , what chiding dost thou deserve , who thinkest it too long to continue in prayer but one quarter of an hour ? If thou hast spent divers hours in seeing a vain Mask ; or Play ; yea , whole days and nights in carding and dicing , to please thy flesh ; be ashamed to think a Prayer of a quarter of an hour long , to be too long an exercise for the service of God. 5. Consider , that if the Papists in their blind superstition , do in an unknown , and therefore * unedifying Tongue ( fit only for the Children of b mystical Babylon ) mutter over upon their c Beads , every morning and evening , so many scores of Ave-Maries , Pater-Nosters , and idolatrous prayers : how shall they in their superstitious devotion , rise up in judgment against thee , professing thy self to be a true worshipper of Christ ? If that thou thinkest these Prayers to be too long a task , being shorter for quantity than theirs , but far more profitable for quality , tending only to God's glory , and thy good ; and so compiled of Scripture phrase , as that thou may'st speak to God , as well in his own holy words , as in thine own native language . Be ashamed , that Papists in their superstitious worshipping of creatures , should shew themselves more devout than thou , in the sincere worshipping of the true and d only God. And indeed , a prayer in private devotion , should be one e continued speech , rather than many broken fragments . 6. Lastly , When such thoughts come into thy head , either to keep thee from prayer , or to distract thee in praying : remember that those are the f Fowls which the evil one sends to devour the good seed , and the carcases of thy spiritual Sacrifices : but endeavour , with g Abraham to drive them away . Yet notwithstanding , if thou perceivest at some times , that thy spirits are dull , and thy mind not apt for Prayer , and holy devotion : strive not too much for that time ; but humbling thy self at the sense of thine infirmity and dulness , knowing that God accepteth the h willing mind ( tho' it be oppressed with the heaviness of the flesh ) endeavour the next time , to recompence this dulness , by redoubling the zeal , and for the time present , commend thy soul to God in this or the like short Prayer . Another shorter Morning Prayer . O Most gracious God , and merciful Father , I thine unworthy Servant do here acknowledge , that as I have been born in sin , so I have lived in iniquity , and broken every one of thy Commandments , in thought , word and deed , following the desires of mine own will , and lusts of my flesh , not caring to be governed by thy holy Word and Spirit : and therefore I have justly deserved all shame and misery in this life , and everlasting condemnation in hell-fire , if thou shouldest but deal with me according to thy Justice , and my desert . Wherefore , O heavenly Father , I beseech thee , ( for thy Son Jesus Christ his sake , and for the Merits of that bitter Death , and bloody Passion , which I believe that he hath suffered for me ) that thou wouldest pardon , and forgive unto me all my sins , and deliver me from the shame and vengeance , which is due to me for them : And send thy Holy Spirit into my heart , which may assure me that thou art my Father , and that I am thy Child , and that thou lovest me with an unchangeable love ; and let the same thy good Spirit lead me in thy truth , and crucifie in me more and more , all worldly and carnal lusts , that my sins may more and more die in me ; and that I may serve thee in unfeigned righteousness and holiness this day , and all the days of my life : That when this mortal life is ended , I may ( through thy mercy in CHRIST ) be made partaker of everlasting glory in thy heavenly Kingdom . And here , O Lord , from the bottom of my heart I thank thee for all thy blessings which thou hast bestowed upon my soul and body , for electing me in thy love , redeeming me by thy Son , sanctifying me by thy Spirit , and , preserving me from my youth up , until this present day and hour , by thy most gracious providence . I tha●k thee more especially for that thou hast defended me this night from all perils and dangers , and hast brought me safe to the beginning of this day . And now ( good Lord ) I beseech thee , keep me this day from all evil , that may hurt me , and from falli●g into any gross sin that should offend thee . Set thy fear before mine eyes , and let thy spirit so rule my heart , that all that I shall think , do or speak this day , may tend to thy glory , the good of others , and the peace of mine own conscience . And to this end I commend my self , and all my ways and actions , together with all that do belong unto me , unto thy gracious direction and protection ; praying thee to keep both them and me from all evil : and to give a blessing to all our honest labours and endeavours . Defend thy whole Church from the tyranny of the world , and of Antichrist : Preserve our gracious King from all conspiracies and treasons : grant him a long and prosperous reign over us . Bless our gracious Queen Mary , Prince Charles , the Lady Ma●● , the Lady Elizabeth and her Princely ●●sue : endue them with thy grace , and defend them from all evil . Bless all our Ministers and Magistrates , with those graces and gifts , which thou knowest necessary for their places . Be favourable to all that fear thee , and tremble at thy judgments : comfort all those that are sick and comfortless . Lord , keep me in a continual readiness , by faith and repentance , ●or my last end : that whether I live or die , I may be found thine own , to thine eternal glory , and mine everlasting salvation , through Jesus Christ my only Saviour . In whose blessed name I beg these mercies at thy hands , and give unto thee thy praise and glory , in that pra●er , which he hath sanctifyed with his own lips , saving , Our Father which art in Heaven , hall●●●d be thy Name , &c. Further Meditations , to stir us up to Prayer in the Morning . THink not any business or haste ( though never so great ) a sufficient excuse to omit prayer in the Morning , but meditate : 1. That the greater thy business is , by so much the more need thou hast to pray for God's good speed and blessing thereon : seeing it is certain , that nothing can prosper without his blessing . 2. That many a Man , when he thought himself surest , hath been soonest crossed , so maist thou . 3. That many a Man hath gone out of his door , and never come in again . Many a Man who rose well and lively in the morning , hath been seen a dead Man ere night . So may it befal thee : and if thou be so careful , before thou goest abroad , to drink , to fence thy body from ill airs ; how much more careful shouldest thou be to pray , to preserve thy soul from evil temptations ? 4. That the time spent in prayer never hindreth , but furthereth and prospereth a Man's journey and business . 5. That in going abroad into the world , thou goest into a Forest full of unknown dangers , where thou shalt meet many briars , to tear thy good name ; many snares , to crap thy life ; and my hunters , to devour thy Soul. It is a Field of pleasant Grass , but full of poisonous Serpents . Adventure not therefore to go naked amongst these briars , till thou hast prayed Christ to clothe thee with his righteousness : nor to pass thorow these snares and ambushments , till thou hast prayed for God's providence to be thy guide : nor to walk barefoot through this snaky field , till having thy feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace , thou hast prayed to have still the brazen Serpent in the eyes of thy faith ; that so if thou comest not home holier , thou maist be sure not to return worser than when thou wentest out of door . Therefore tho' thy haste be never so much , or thy business never so great ; yet go not about it , nor out of thy doors , till thou hast at least used this , or the like short Prayer . A brief Prayer for the Morning . O Merciful Father , for Jesus Christ his sake , I beseech thee , forgive me all my known and secret sins , which in thought , word or deed , I have committed against thy Divine Majesty , and deliver me from all those judgments , which are due unto me for them : and sanctifie my heart with thy holy Spirit , that I may henceforth lead a more godly and religious life . And hear ( O Lord ) I praise thy holy name , for that thou hast refreshed me this night with moderate sleep and rest . I beseech thee likewise defend m● this day from all perils and dangers of body and soul. And to this end I commend my self , and all my actions un●o thy blessed protection and government : beseeching thee , that whether I live or die , I may live and die to thy glory , and the salvation of my poor soul , which thou hast bought with thy precious Blood. Bless me therefore , O Lord , in my going out , and coming in ; and grant that whatsoever I shall think , speak , or take in hand this day , may tend to the glory of thy name , the good of others , and the comfort of mine own conscience , when I shall come to make before thee my last accounts . Grant this , O heavenly Father , for Jesus Christ thy Son's sake : In whose blessed Name I give thee thy glory , and beg at thy hands all other graces which thou seest to be needful for me , this day and ever , in that prayer which Christ himself hath taught me , saying : Our Father , &c. Meditations , directing a Christian , how he may walk all the day with God like Enoch . HAving thus begun , keep all the day after as diligent a watch as thou canst , over all thy thoughts , words , and actions , which thou maiest easily do , by craving the assistance of God's holy Spirit , and observing these few rules . First , for thy thoughts . 1. BE a careful to suppress every sin in the first motion Dash b Babylon's children , ( whilst they are young ) against the stones Tread ( Betimes ) c the Cockatrice's egg , lest it break out into a Serpent . Let sin be to thy heart a stranger , not a home-dweller . Take heed of falling oft into the same sin , lest the custom of sinning † take away the conscience of sin , and then shalt thou was so impudently wicked , that thou wilt neither fear God nor reverence Man. 2. Suffer not thy mind to feed it self upon any imagination . * which is either impossible for thee to do , or unprofitable , if it be done : but rather think of the world's vanity , to contemn it ; of death , to expect it : of judgment , to avoid it ; of Hell , to escape it , and of Heaven , to desire it . 3. Desire not to fulfil thy mind in all things ; but learn to deny thy self those desires ( tho' never so pleasing to thy nature ) which being attained , will draw either scandal on thy Religion , or hatred to thy Person . Consider in every thing the end before thou attempt the Action . 4. Labour daily more and more to see thine own miseri , through unbelief , self-love , and wilful Breaches of God's Law : and the necessity of God's mercy through the merits of Christ's Passion , to be such ; that if thou wert demanded , What is the vilest creature upon earth ? Thy Conscience may answer , Mine own self by reason of my great sins : and that if on the other side thou wert asked , What thou esteemest to be the m●st precious thing in the world ? thy heart might answer , One drop of Christ's blood , to wash away my sins . And as thou tenderest the salvation of thy soul , live not in any wilful filthiness . For true faith and the purpose of sinning , can never stand together . 5. Approve thy self to be a true servant of Christ , not only in thy general Calling , as in the frequent use of the Word and Sacraments ; but also in thy particular , in making conscience to eschew every known sin , and to obey God in every one of his Commandments ; like Josias * who turned to God with all his heart , according to all the law of Moses : and Zachary and Elizabeth , who walked in all the Commandments of God without reproof But if at any time through frailty , thou slippest into any sin , lie not in it , but speedily rise out of it by unfeigned repentance ; praying for pardo● , till thy conscience be pacified , thy hatred of sin encreased , and thy purpose of amendment confirmed . 6. Beware of affecting Popularity by adulation : the end never proves good ; and though attained by due deserts , yet manage it wisely , lest it prove more dangerous than contempt . For States desire but to keep down , whom they contemn for their unworthiness , but to cut off , whom they envy for their greatness : He therefore is truly prudent who ( considering the premises ) neither affecteth nor neglecteth popularity . But in any wise take heed of harbouring a † discontented mind ; for it may work thee more woe than thou art aware of . It is a special mercy , in the multitude of so many blessings , as thou dost enjoy , to have some crosses . God gives thee many blessings , lest through want ( being his child ) thou shouldst despair : and he sends thee some crosses , lest by too much prosperity ( playing the fool ) thou shouldst presume . Many who have mounted to great dignities , would have contented themselves with a meaner , had they known their b great dangers : affect therefore competency , rather than eminency . And in all thy will , have ever an eye to God's will , lest thy self-action turn to thine own destruction . Happy the Man , who in this short life is c least known of the World , so that he doth truly know God , and himself ! whatsoever cross therefore thou hast to discontent thee , remember , that it is less than thy sins have deserved . Count therefore Christ ▪ thy chiefest joy , and sin thy greatest grief : esteem no want , to the want of Grace ; nor any loss , to the loss of God's favour : and then the discontentment for outward means shall the less perplex thine inward mind . And as oft as Satan shall offer any motion of discontentment to thy mind , remember Saint Paul's admonition , We brought nothing into this world , and it is certain , that we can carry nothing out . And having food and raiment , let us be therewith content . But they that will be rich fall into temptation , and a snare , and into many foolish and hurtful lusts , which drown men in destruction and perdition . Pray therefore with wise d Agur : O Lord , give me neither poverty nor riches : feed me with food convenient for me , lest I be too full , and deny thee , and say , Who is the Lord ? or , lest I be poor , and steal , and take the Name of my God in vain . 7. Bestow no more thought upon worldly things than thou needs must , for the discharge of thy place , and the a maintenance of thy estate : but still let thy care be greater for * heavenly , than earthly things : and be more grieved for a b dishonour done to God , than for an injury offered to thy self : but if any private injury be offered unto thee , bear it as a Christian , with patience . Never was an innocent man wronged , but if he patiently bare his cross , he † overcame in the end . But thy good name in the mean while is wounded : bear that also with patience . For he that at the last day will give thy body a resurrection ; will as sure in his good time , grant a resurrection to thy good name . If impatiently thou fretrest and vexest at thy wrongs , the hurt which thou dost thy self , is more than that which thine enemy can do unto thee . Neither canst thou more rejoyce him , than to hear that it thorowly vexeth thee . But if thou canst shew , patience on earth , God will shew himself just from heaven . Pray for him ; for , if thou be a good man thy self , thou canst not but rejoyce , if thou shouldest see thy worst enemy to become a good man too . But if he still continueth in his malice , and encreaseth in his mischief , give thou thy self unto Prayer , committing thy self , and commending thy cause unto the righteous Judge of heaven and earth , saying with Jeremy ; O Lord of host that judgest righteously , and triest the reins and the heart : vengeance is thine , and unto thee have I opened my cause . In the mean while wait ( with David ) on the Lord : be of good-courage , and he shall comfort thine heart . 8. The more others commend thee for an excellent act , be thou the more humble in thine own thoughts . Affect not the vain praises of men : the blessed Virgin was troubled when she was truly praised of an Angel. They shall be praised of Angels in heaven , who have eschew'd the praises of Men on Earth . Neither need'st thou praise thy self ; deal but uprightly , * others will do that for thee . Be not thou curious to know other mens doings , but rather be careful that no man know any ill dealings by thee . 9. Esteem no sin little , for the curse of God is due to the least ; and the least would have damned thee , had not the Son of God died for thee . Bewail therefore the misery of thine own state : and as occasion is minist●ed c ●orn for the iniquity of the time . Pray to God to amend it , and be not thou one of them that make it worse . 10. Lastly , Think often of the d shortness of thy life , and certainty of death : and wish rather a good life than a long . For , as one day of Man's life is to be preferred before the longest age of a Stag , or Raven ? so one day spend religiously , is to be higher valued , that a man's * whole life that is consumed in prophaneness . Cast over therefore once every day , the number of thy days , by substracting those that are past ( as being vanished like yester-nights dream ) contracting them that are to come , ( since the one half must be slept out , the rest made uncomfortable , by the troubles of the World , thine own sickness , and the death of friends : ) counting † only the present day thine ; which spend , as if thou wert to spend no more . Secondly , For thy Words , 1. REmember , that thou must answer for every a idle word : that in b multiloquy , the wisest man shall over-shoot himself . Avoid therefore all tedious and idle talk , whereof seldom ariseth comfort , many times c repentance ; especially beware of rash answers , when the tongue out-runs the mind . The word was thine whilst thou kept'st it in : it is d anothers as soon as it is out . O the shame , when a man 's own tongue shall be produced a witness , to the confusion of his own face ! Let then thy words be few , but advised : forethink whether that which thou art to speak , be e fit to be spoken : affirm no more than what thou knowest to be true ; and be rather f silent , than speak to an ill , or to no purpose . 2. Let thy heart and tongue ever go together in honesty and truth ; hate d dissembling and lying in another , detest it in thy self , or God will detest thee for it : for he hateth a lyer , and his father the Devil alike . And if once thou be discovered to make no conscience of lying , no Man will believe thee when thou speakest a truth : but if thou lovest truth , more credit will be given to thy word , than to a lyers oath . Great is the possession which Satan hath in those , who are so accustomed to lying , that they will lye though they get nothing by it themselves , nor are not compelled unto it by others . Let not thine anger remain , when thou seest the cause removed : and ever distinguish 'twixt him that offendeth of f infirmity ( or against his will ) and him who offendeth g maliciously , and of set purpose : let the one have pity , the other justice . 3. Keep thy speech as clean from all obscenity , as thou would'st thy meat from poyson : and let thy talk be h gracious , that he that hears thee , may grow better by thee : and be ever more earnest when thou i speakest of Religion , than when thou talkest of worldly matters . If thou perceivest that thou hast erred , persevere not in thine errour : rejoyce to find the truth , and * magnifie it . Study therefore three things especially ; to understand well , to say well , and to do well . And when thou meetest with God's children , be sure to make some holy advantage by them : learn of them , all the good that thou canst ; and communicate with them , all the good things that thou knowest . The more good thou teachest others , the more will God still k minister unto thee . For , as the gifts of Men , by much using , do perish and decrease : So the gifts of God , by much using , do the more grow and increase ; like the l widow's pitcher of Oil , which the more it poured to fill other vessels , the more it was still replenished in it self . 4. Beware that you believe not all that is told you , and that you tell not m all that you hear : for if you do , you shall not long enjoy true friends , nor ever want great troubles . Therefore in accusations , be first assured of the truth , then censure . And as thou tenderest the reputation of an honest heart ; never let malice in hatred , make thee to reveal that which love in friendship bound thee a long time to conceal . But for fear of such after-claps , observe two things . First , though thou hast many acquaintance ; yet make not any thy familiar friend , but he that truly * fears God : Such a one , thou never needest to fear . For though you should in some particulars fall out , yet Christian love , the main ground of your friendship , will never fall away ; and the fear of God will never suffer him to do thee any villany . Secondly , do nothing in the sight of a † civil friend , for which thou canst not be safe , unless it be concealed , nor any thing , for which ( if just cause be offered ) thou need'st fear him , if he proves thine unjust enemy . If thou hast done any thing amiss , ask God forgiveness , and persuade thy self rather than thy friend , to * keep thine own counsel . For be assured , that what friendship soever is grounded upon any other cause than true Religion ; if ever that cause fail , the friendship falleth off : and the rather , because that as God breeds among men , Truth , Peace and Amity , that we should live to do one another good ; so the Devil daily soweth falshood , * discord and enmity , to cause ( if he can ) the dearest friends to devour one another . 5. Make not a † jest of another man's infirmity : remember thine own . Abhor the frothy wit of a filthy nature , whose brains having once conceived an odd scoff , his mind travails ( as a woman with child ) till he be delivered of it . Yea , he had rather lose his best friend , than his worst jest But if thou be disposed to be * merry , have a special care to three things : 1. That thy mirth be not against Religion ; 2. That it be not against Charity ; 3. That it be not against Chastity , and then be as merry as thou canst , only in the Lord. 6. Rejoyce not at the fall of thine enemy , for thou knowest not what shall be the manner of , thine own end . But be more † glad to see the worst man's amendment , than his punishment . Hate no Man , for fear lest Christ loves him , who will not take it well , that thou shouldest hate whom he loveth , Christ a loved thee , when thou wast his Enemy : by the merits therefore of his blood , he requireth thee , for his sake , to love thine Enemy . Deny him ( being a Christian ) if thou darest . He asketh but forgiveness for forgiveness . The forgiveness of 100 pence , for the forgiveness of ten thousand talents ; of 60 hundred thousand Crowns , for ten Crowns ; petty forgiveness of Man , for the infinite forgiveness of Almighty GOD. Though thou think'st thine Enemy unworthy to be forgiven ; yet Christ is worthy to be obeyed . 7. When the glory of God , or good of thy Neighbour doth require it ; speak the truth , and fear not the face of Man. The frown of a Prince may sometimes be the favour of God. * Neither shall flattery still hold in credit , nor truth alway continue in disgrace . 8. Ever think him a true friend , who tells thee secretly and plainly of thy faults . He that sees thee offend , and tells thee not of thy fault , either flatters thee for favour , or dares not displease thee for fear . Miserable is his case , who when he needs , hath none to admonish him . Reprehension , be it just , be it unjust ; come it from the mouth of a friend , or of a foe , it never doth a wise Man harm . For if it be true ; thou hast a warning to amend ; if it be false , thou hast a Caveat what to avoid . So every way it makes a wise man better or warier . But * if thou canst not endure to be reprehended , do then nothing worthy of reprehension . 9. Speak not of God , but with a fear and reverence , and as in his sight and hearing . For seeing we are not worthy to use his holy Name in our Mouths : † much less ought we to abuse it vainly in our Talk , But ordinarily to use it in vain , rash , or false Oaths , is an undoubted sign of a soul that never truly feared God. Pray therefore with David , when thou art to speak in any matter that may move passion : b Set a watch , O Lord , before my mouth , and keep the door of my lips . 10. Lastly , in c praising be discreet : in d * saluting , courteous ; in e admonishing , friendly ; in forgiving , merciful ; in f promising , faithful ; and bountiful in g recompensing good service : making not the rewards of virtue the gifts of favour . Thirdly , for thy Actions . 1. DO no evil , tho' thou mightest : for God will not suffer the h least sin ( without bitter repentance ) to escape unpunished . Leave not undone any good that thou canst . But do nothing without a calling , nor any thing in thy calling , till thou hast first taken i council of God's Word , of the lawfulness thereof , and prayed for his blessings upon thy endeavour ; and then do it in the name of God , with chearfulness of heart , committing the success unto him ; in whose power it is , to bless with his grace , whatsoever business is intended to his glory . 2. When thou art tempted to do an evil work , remember that Satan is where his business is . Let not the child of God be the instrument of so base a slave : hate the Work if thou abhorrest the Author . Ask thy Conscience these two questions : Would I have another to do this unto me ? What shall I answer Christ in the day of my a accounts , if contrary to my knowledge and conscience , I shall do this wickedness , and sin against him ? and remember with Joseph , b that though no man seeth , yet God seeth all . Fly therefore ( with Joseph ) from all sins , as well those that are secret in the sight of God , as those that are manifest in the the eyes of Men. For God as he is just , without speedy repentance , will bring thy secret sins , as he did David's to the open light , before all Israel , and before the Sun. Be therefore as much afraid of secret sins , as of open shame . And so avoid all in general , as that thou dost not allow to the self any one particular , or darling sin , which the corruption of thy Nature could best agree withall : For the crafty devil can hold a man's soul as fast by one , as by many sins : and faster by that one which doth please thee , than by all those which begin to be abominable unto thee . And as thou de●●●est to avoid a sin ; so be careful to shun the * the occasion . 3. In effecting good actions which are within the compass of thy calling , distrust not God's Providence , tho' thou see the means either wanting or weak . And if means do offer themselves , be sure that they be lawful : and having gotten lawful means , take heed that thou rely not more upon them than upon God himself . Labour in a lawful calling , is God's ordinary means , by which he blesseth his children with outwards things . Pray therefore for God's blessing upon his own means . In earthly business , bear an heavenly mind : do thou thy best endeavour , and commit the whole success to the fore-ordaining wisdom of Almighty God. Never think to thrive by those means which God hath accursed . That will not in the end prove gain , which is gotten with the loss of thy Soul. In all therefore both actions and means , endeavour with Paul , to have alway a clear conscience towards God , and towards men . Look to your selves , what conscience ye have : For conscience shall damn , and conscience shall save . 4. Love all good things for God's sake : but God for his own sake . Whilst thou holdest God thy friend , thou needest not a fear who is thine enemy : for either God will make thine enemy to become thy b friend , or will c bridle him that he cannot hurt thee . No man is d overthrown by his enemy , unless that first his sin have prevailed over him , and God hath left him to himself ; he that would therefore be safe from the fear of his enemies , and live still in the favour of his God ; let him redeem the folly of the time past with serious repentance , look to the time present with religious diligence , and take heed to the time to come with careful providence . 5. Give every man the honour due to his place ; but honour a man more for his goodness , than for his greatness . And of whomsoever thou hast received a benefit , unto him ( as God shall enable thee ) remember to be thankful . Acknowledge it lovingly unto Men , and pray for him heartily unto God : and count every blessing received from God as a pledge of his eternal love , and a spur to a godly life . 6. Be not proud for any external worldly goods , nor for any internal spiritual gifts . Not for external goods , because , that as they came lately , so they will shortly be gone again ; their loss therefore is the less to be grieved at . Not for any internal gifts : for as God gave them , so will he likewise take them away , if ( forgetting the giver ) thou shalt abuse his gifts , to puff up thine heart with a pride of thine own worth ; and contemn others , for whose good Almighty God bestowed those gifts upon thee . Hast thou any one vertus that moves thee to be self-conceited ? thou hast twenty vices that may better vilisie thee in thine own eyes . Be the * same in the sight of God , who beholds thy heart , that thou seemest to be in the eyes of Men , that see thy face . Content not thy self with * an outward good n●mè , when thy Conscience shall inwardly tell thee it is undeserved , and therefore none of thine . A deserved good name for any thing , but for godliness , lasts little , and is less worth . In all the holy Scriptures , I never read of an Hypocrite's repentance : and no wonder ; for whereas after sin conversion is left as a means , to cure all other sinners , what means remain to recover him who hath converted conversion it self into sin ? Wo therefore unto the Soul that is not , and yet still seemeth religious . 7. Mark the fearful ends of notorious evil Men , to abhor their wicked actions ; mark the life of the godly , that thou maist imitate it ; and his blessed † end , that it may comfort thee . Obey thy betters , observe the wise , accompany the honest , and love the religious . And seeing the corrupt nature of man is prone to hypocrisie , beware that thou use not the exercise of Religion , as matters of course and custom , without care and conscience , to grow more holy and devout thereby . Observe therefore how by the continual use of God's means , thou feelest thy special corruptions weakened , and thy sanctification more and more encreased : and * make no more shew of holiness outwardly to the world , than thou hast in the sight of God inwardly in thine heart . 8. Endeavour to rule those who live under thine authority , rather by love than by fear , for to rule by † love is easie and safe , but tyranny is ever accompanied with care and b terror . Oppression will force the oppressed to take any advantage , to shake off the Yoke that they are not able to bear : neither will God's Justice suffer the sway that is grounded on Tyranny long to continue . Remember that tho' by c humane ordinance they serve thee , yet by a more peculiar right they are d God's servants . Yea , now being Christians , e not as thy servants , but above servants , * brethren beloved in the Lord. Rule therefore over f Christians , ( being a Christian ) in love and mercy , like Christ thy Master . 9. Remember , that of all actions none makes a Magistrate more like God , ( whose Vice-gerent he is ) than doing Justice justly . For the due execution whereof : First , have ever an open ear to the just complaints of unjust dealings . Secondly , so lend one ear to the Accuser , as that thou keep the other for the accused : for g he that decreeth for either part , before both be heard , the decree may be just , but himself is unjust . Thirdly , in hearing both parts , incline not to the right-hand of affection , or to the left of hatred : as to believe arguments of perswasion for a friend , before arguments concluding for a foe . Fourthly , deny not Justice , which is Regia mensura , to the meanest Subject : but let the Cause of the poor and needy come in equal balance with the rich and mighty . If thou perceivest on the one side in a cause , the * high hills of cunning advantage , powerful combination , and violent prosecution ; and on the other side , the low valleys of poverty , simplicity , and desolation : prepare thy way ( as God doth ) to judgment , by † raising Valleys , and taking down Hills , equally inequality : that so thou maist lay the Foundation of thy sentence upon an even ground . In matters of right and wrong 'twixt party and party , let thy Conscience be careful , rather * Jus dicere , to pronounce the Law that is made , secundùm allegata & probata ; than Jus dare , to make a Law of thine own , upon the authority of sic volo , si jubeo , fearing that fearful Malediction , Cursed be he that removeth his Neighbour's Land-Mark . In Trials of Life and Death , let Judges , like Elohim , in justice remember mercy ; and so cast the severe Eye of Justice upon the Fact , as that they look with the pitiful eye of Mercy upon the Malefactor , wresting the favour of Law , to the favour of Life , where Grace promiseth amendment : but if Justice requireth , that † one rather than unity , must perish , and that a rotten member must be * cut off , to save the whole body from putrefying ; fiat Justitia . But whilst thou art pronouncing the sentence of judgment on another , remember that thine own judgment hangs over thy head . In all causes therefore judge aright ; for thou shalt be sure to find a righteous Judge , before whom thou must shortly appear to be judged thy self : at what time thou maist leave to thy friend this for thine Epitaph : Nuper eram Judex , jam judicis ante tribunal Subsistens , paveo : judicor ipse modo . Many ( I know not upon what grounds ) seem to be much aggrieved with the Laws of the Land , but wiser men may answer them with the Apostle , Nos scimus bonam esse legem , modo Judex eâ legitimè utatur ; We know that the law is good , if a man use it lawfully . And he shall be unto me a righteous Judge , whose heart neither corruption of bribes , fear of foes , nor favour of friends can withdraw from the conscionable practice of these precepts . And to that rare and venerable Judge , I say with Jehoshaphat : Be of courage , and do justice , and the Lord will be with the good . 10. Lastly , Make not an occupation of any recreation . The longest use of pleasure is but short : but the pains of pleasure abused , are eternal . * Use therefore lawful recreation , so far forth , as it makes thee the fitter in body and mind , to do more chearfully the service of God and the duties of thy calling . † Thy work is great , thy time is but short . And he who will b recompence every man according to his works , standeth at the door . Think how much work is behind , how slow thou hast wrought in the time which is past ; and what a reckoning thou should'st make , if thy master should call thee this day to thine accounts . Be therefore careful henceforth to make the most advantage of thy short time that remains , as a man would of an old lease , that were near expiring : and when thou disposest to recreate thy self , remember how small a time is allotted for thy life ; and that therefore much of that is not to be consumed in idleness , sports , plays , and toyish vanities , seeing the whole is but a short while , though it be all spent in doing the best good that thou canst : for Man was not created for sports , plays and recreation ; but zealously to serve God in Religion , and conscionably to serve his neighbour in his vocation , and by both to ascertain himself of eternal salvation . Esteem therefore the loss of * time , one of the greatest losses . Redeem it carefully , to spend it wisely : that when that time cometh that a thou mayest be no longer a Steward on earth , thy master may welcome thee with an b Euge bone serve , and give thee a better in heaven ; where thou shalt joyfully enjoy thy Master's joy for evermore . Meditations for the Evening . At Evening when thou preparest thy self to take thy rest , meditate on these few points 1. THat seeing thy days are numbred , there is one more of thy number spent : and thou art now the nearer to thy end by a day . 2. Sit down a while before thou goest to bed , and consider with thy self what memorable thing thou hast seen , heard , or read that day , more than thou sawest , heard'st , or knewest before ; and make thy best use of them ; but especially , call to mind , what sin thou hast committed that day against God or Man , and what good thou hast omitted ; and humble thy self for both . If thou findest that thou hast done any goodness , acknowledge it to be God's grace , and give him the glory : and count that day * lost wherein thou hast not done some good . 3. If by frailty or strong tentation , thou shalt perceive that thou hast committed any grievous sin or fault ; presume not to sleep , till thou hast upon thy knees , made a particular reconciliation with God in Christ for the same : both by confessing the fault , and by fervent praying for the pardon of the same . Thus making thy score even with Christ every night , thou shalt have the less to account for , when thou art to make thy final reckoning before his Majesty in the Judgment day . 4. If thou hast fallen out with any in the day , let not the Sun go down in thine anger that night . If thy conscience tells thee that thou hast wronged him , acknowledge thine offence , and * entreat him to forgive thee . If he have wronged thee , offer him reconciliation ; and if he will not be reconciled , yet do thou from thy heart forgive him , Mat. 5. 23. But in any case presume not to be thine own revenger . For in so doing thou do'st God a double injury : First , in offering to take the Sword of Justice out of his hand , as though he were not just , having reserved the execution of a vengeance to himself . Secondly , in usurping authority over his b servant , without referring the cause to his hearing and censure , being his , and thy Master . Besides , thou art too partial to be a Revenger . For if thou be to execute revenge on thy self , thou wilt do it too lightly ; if on thy enemy , too heavily . It belongeth therefore to God to revenge ; to thee to forgive . And in testimony that thou hast freely † forgiven him , pray unto God for the forgiveness of his fault , and the amendment of his life ; and the next time that occasion is offered , ( and it lies in thy power ) do him good , and rejoyce in doing it : for he that doth good to his c enemies , shews himself the child of God ; and his reward is with God his Father . 5. Use not sleep as a means to satiate the foggy litherness of thy flesh ; but as a medicine to refresh thy tired Senses and Members : sufficient sleep quickneth the mind , and reviveth the body ; but immoderate sleep dulleth the one , and fatneth the other . 6. Remember that many go to bed , and never rise again , till they be wakened a●d raised up by the fearful sound of the last trumpet . But he that sleepeth and wakeneth with prayer , sleepeth and wakeneth with Christ. If therefore thou desirest to sleep securely , and safely , yield up thy self into the hands of God , whilst thou art waking : and so go to bed , with a reverence of God's Majesty , and consideration of thine own misery , which thou maist imprint in thy heart in some measure , by these and the like meditations . Read a Chapter in the same order as was prescribed in the morning : and when thou hast done , kneel down on both thy knees at thy bed-side , or some other convenient place in thy Chamber , and lifting up thy heart , thine eyes and hands , to thy heavenly Father , in the name and mediation of his holy Son Jesus ; pray unto him , if thou hast the gift of Prayer . 1. Confessing thy sins , especially those which thou hast committed that day . 2. Craving most earnestly ( for Christ his sake ) pardon and forgiveness for them . 3. Requesting the assistance of his Holy Spirit for amendment of life . 4. In Giving thanks for benefits received , especially for thy preservation that day . 5. Praying for rest and protection that night . 6. Remembering the state of the Church , the King , and the Royal Posterity , our Ministers and Magistrates , and all our Brethren visited or persecuted . 7. Lastly , commending thy self and all thine to his gracious custody . All which thou maist do in these or the like words . A Prayer for the Evening , O Most gracious God , and loving Father , who art about my bed , and knowest my down-lying , and mine up-rising , and art near unto all that call upon thee , in truth and sincerity ; I wretched sinner do beseech thee , to look upon me with the eyes of thy mercy , and not to behold me as I am in my self : For then thou shalt see but an unclean and defiled creature , conceived in sin , and living in iniquity : so that I am ashamed to lift up mine eyes to heaven , knowing how grievously I have sinned against heaven and before thee : For , O Lord , I have transgressed all thy Commandments and righteous Laws , not only through negligence and infirmity , but oftentimes through willful presumption , contrary to my knowledge : yea contrary to the motions of thy Holy spirit reclaiming me from them : so that I have wounded my conscience , and grieved thy Holy Spirit , by whom thou hast sealed me to the day of redemption . Thou hast consecrated my soul and body , to be the temples of the Holy Ghost : I wretched sinner have defiled both , with all manner of pollution and uncleanness . My eyes in taking pleasure to a behold vanity ; mine ears , in hearing impure and unchaste speeches ; my b tongue , in leasing and evil speaking ; my c hands are so full of impurity , that I am ashamed to lift them up unto thee ; and my d feet have carried me after mine own ways ; my understanding and reasoning , which are so quick in all earthly matters , are only blind and stupid , when I come to meditate or discourse of spiritual and heavenly things ; my memory , which should be the treasury of all goodness , is not so apt to remember any thing , as those things which are vile and vain . Yea Lord , by woful experience I find that naturally , all the imaginations of the thoughts of mine heart are only evil continually . And these my sins are more in number than the hairs upon mine head , and they have grown over me like a loathsom leprosie , that from the Crown of my head to the sole of my feet , there remains no part which they have not infected . They make me seem vile in mine own eyes : how much more abominable must I then appear in thy sight ? And the custom of sinning hath almost taken away the conscience of sin , and pulled upon me such dullness of sense , and hardness of heart , that thy judgments denounced against my sins , by the faithful Preachers of thy Word , do not terrifie me to return unto thee by unfeigned repentance for them . And if thou , Lord , shouldest but deal with me , according to thy justice , and my desert , I should utterly be confounded and condemned . But seeing that of thine infinite mercy ▪ thou hast spared me so long , and still waitest for my repentance : I humbly beseech thee , for the bitter death and bloody passion sake , which Jesus Christ hath suffered for me , that thou wouldest pardon and forgive unto me all my sins and offences , and open unto me that ever streaming fountain of the blood of Christ , which thou hast promised to open under the New Testament , to the penitent of the house of David , that all my sins and uncleanness may be so bathed in his blood , buried in his death , and hid in his wounds ; that they may never be more seen , to shame me in this life , or to condemn me before thy Judgment-seat in the World which is to come . And for as much , O Lord , as thou know'st that it is not in man to turn his own heart , unless thou dost first give him grace to convert ; and seeing that it is as easie with thee to make me righteous and holy as to bid me to be such : O my God , give me grace to do what thou commandest , and then command what thou wilt , and thou shalt find me willing to do thy blessed will. And to this end give unto me thine Holy Spirit , which thou hast promised to give ( to the world's end ) unto all thine Elect people . And let the same thy holy Spirit purge my heart , heal my corruption , sanctifie my nature , and consecrate my soul and body ; that they may become the a temples of the Holy Ghost , to serve thee in b righteousness and holiness all the days of my life ; that when ( by the direction and assistance of thy holy Spirit ) I shall c finish my course in this short and transitory life , I may chearfully leave this world and resign my d soul into thy Fatherly hands , in the assured confidence of enjoying everlasting life with thee , in thine heavenly e Kingdom , which thou hast prepared for thine elect Saints , who love the Lord Jesus , and f expect his appearing . In the mean while , O Father , I beseech thee , let thy holy Spirit work in me such a serious repentance , as that I may with tears lament my sins past , with grief of heart be humble for my sins present , and with all mine endeavour , resist the like filthy sins in time to come . And let the same thy holy Spirit likewise keep me in the Vnity of thy Church , lead me in the truth of thy Word , and preserve me , that I never swerve from the same , to Popery nor any other errour or false worship . And let thy Spirit open mine eyes more and more , to see the wondrous things of thy Law : and open my lips , that my mouth may daily defend thy truth , and set forth thy praise ▪ Increase in me those good gifts , which of thy mercy thou hast already bestowed upon me , and give unto me a patient spirit , a chast heart , a contented mind , pure affections , wise behaviour , and all other graces which thou feest to be necessary for me ; to govern my heart in thy fear , and to guide all my life in thy favour : that whether I live or die , I may live and die unto thee , who art my God and my Redeemer . And here ( O Lord ) according as I am bound I render unto thee from the Altar of my humblest heart , all possible thanks , for all those blessings and benefits , which so graciously and plentuously thou hast bestowed upon my soul and body , for this life , and for that which is to come : namely , for mine Election , Creation , Redemption , Vocation , Justification , Sanctification , and Preservation from my child-hood until this present day and hour : and for the firm hope which thou hast given me of my Glorification . Likewise for my health , wealth , food , raiment , and prosperity : and more especially , for that thou hast defended me this day now past , from all perils and dangers , both of body and soul , furnishing me with all necessary good things , that I stand in need of . And as thou hast ordained the day for man to travel in , and the night for him to take his rest : so I beseech thee , sanctifie unto me this night's rest and sleep , that I may enjoy the same , as thy sweet blessing and benefit . That so this dull and wearied body of mine , being refreshed with moderate sleep and rest , I may be the better enabled to walk before thee , doing all such good works , as thou hast appointed , when it shall please thee , by thy divine Power , to waken me the next morning . And whilst I sleep , do thou , O Lord , who art the keeper of Israel , that neither slamberest nor sleepest , watch over me in thy holy providence , to protect me from all dangers ; so that neither the evil Angels of Satan , nor any wicked enemy , may have any power to do me any harm , or evil . And to this end give a charge unto thy holy Angels , that they at ( thine appointment ) may pitch their tents round about me , for my defence and safety : as thou hast promised that they should do about them that fear thy name . And knowing that thy name is a strong Tower of defence unto all those that trust therein , I here recommend my self ( and all that do belong unto me ) unto thy holy protection and custody . If it be thy blessed will to call for me in my sleep ; O Lord , for Christ his sake , have mercy upon me , and receive my soul into thy heavenly kingdom . And if it be thy blessed pleasure to add more days unto my Life ; O Lord , add more amendment unto my days : and wean my mind from the love of the world , and worldly vanities ; and cause me more and more to settle my conversation on heaven , and heavenly things . And perfect daily in me that good work which thou hast begun , to the glory of thy Name , and the salvation of my sinful soul. O Lord , I beseech thee likewise , save and defend from all evil and danger , thy whole Church , our King Charles , Queen Mary , the noble and hopeful Prince Charles , with the rest of the Royal Progeny , the religious Lady Elizabeth , the King 's only Sister , and her Princely Issue : keep them all in the sincerity of thy Truth , and prosper them in all grace and happiness . Bless the Nobility , Ministers , and Magistrates of these Churches and Kingdoms , each of them with those graces which are expedient for their place and calling . And be thou , O Lord , a comfort and consolation to all thy people whom thou hast thought meet to visit with any kind of sickness , cross or calamity . Hasten , O Father the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Make me ever mindful of my last end , and of the reckoning that I am to make unto thee therein ▪ and in the mean while , careful so to fo●●ow Christ in the regeneration during this life , as that with Christ I may have a portion in the resurrection of the just , when this mortal life is ended . These graces , and all other blessings which thou , O Father , knowest to be requisite and necessary for me , I humbly beg and crave at thy hands , in the name and meditation of Jesus Christ thy Son , and in that form of Prayer , which he himself hath taught me to say unto thee , Our Father which art in Heaven , &c. Another short Evening Prayer . O Eternal God , and heavenly Father , if I were not taught and assured by the promises of thy Gospel , and the examples of a Peter , b Mary Magdalen , the c Publican , d the Prodigal child , and many other penitent sinners ; that thou art so e full of Compassion , and so ready to forgive the greatest sinners , who are f heaviest laden with sin , at what g time soever they return unto thee with penitent hearts , lamenting their sins , and imploring thy grace : I should despair for mine own sins , and be utterly discouraged from presuming to come into thy presence ; considering the hardness of my heart , the unruliness of my affections , and the uncleanness of my conversation , by means whereof I have trangressed all thy laws , and deserved thy h curse , which might cause my body to be smitten with some fearful disease , my soul to languish with the death of sin , my good name to be traduced with scandalous reproaches , and make mine estate liable to all manner of crosses and casualties And I confess , O Lord , that thy mercy is the cause that I have not been long ago confounded . But , O my God , as thy mercy only staied thy judgment from falling upon me hitherto ; so I humbly beseech thee , in the a bowels of the mercy of Jesus Christ , ( b in whom only thou art well pleased ) that thou wilt not deal with me c according to my deserts , but that thou wouldst d freely and fully remit unto me all my sins and transgressions : and that thou wouldst e wash them clean from me , with the vertue of that most precious blood , which thy Son Jesus Christ hath shed for me . For he alone is the f Ph●sician , and his blood only is the g medicine that ean heal my sickness . And he is the true h brazen Serpent , that can cure that poison , wherewith the fiery Serpent of my sins have stung and poisoned my sick and wounded soul. And give me , I beseech thee , thine holy Spirit , which may assure me of mine adoption , and that may confirm my faith , encrease my repentance , enlighten my understanding , purifie my heart , rectifie my will and affections , and so sanctifie me ●hroughout , that my whole body , soul , and spi●it , may be kept unblameable until the glorious ●oming of my Lord Jesus Christ. And now , O Lord , I give thee most hearty thanks , ●nd praise , for that thou hast this day preserved me from all harms and perils , notwithstanding all my sins and ill deserts . And I beseech thee likewise defend me ●his night from the roaring Lyon , which ●ight and day seeketh to devour me . Watch ●hou , O Lord , over me this night , to keep ●e from his temptations and tyranny ; and ●et thy mercy shield me from his unappea●ble rage and malice . And to this end , I ●ommend my self into thy hands and pro●ection , beseeching thee , O my Lord and God , not to suffer Satan , nor any of his e●il members , to have power to do unto me ●ny hurt or violence this night . And grant , ●ood Lord , that whether I sleep or wake , ●ve or die , I may sleep , wake , live and die ●nto thee , and to the glory of thy name , ●nd the salvation of my soul. Lord bless ●nd defend all thy chosen People every ●here . Grant our King a long and happy ●eign over us . Bless our gracious Queen Mary , with their Princely Progeny , the ●ady Elizabeth , the King 's only Sister , and ●er Princely Issue ; together with all our ●agistrates and Ministers : comfort them ●ho are in misery , need , or sickness : good ●ord give me grace to be one of those ●ise Virgins , which may have my heart ●repared like a Lamp furnished with the 〈◊〉 of faith , and light of good works , to meet the Lord Jesus the sweet Bridegroom of my soul , this second and sudden coming in glory . Grant this , good Father , for Christ Jesus sake , my only Saviour and Mediator , in whose blessed Name , and in whose own words , I call upon thee , as he hath taught me . Our Father , which art , &c. Afterwards say , Thy Grace , O Lord Jesus Christ ; thy love , O heavenly Father ; thy comfort and consolation , O holy and blessed Spirit , be with me , and dwell in my heart , this night , and evermore . Amen . Then rising up in a holy Reverence , meditate as thou art putting off thy Clothes . Things to be meditated upon , as thou art putting off thy Clothes . 1. THat the day is coming , when thou must be as barely unstript of al● that thou hast in the World , as thou ar● now of thy Clothes : thou hast therefore here , but the use of all things , as a a Steward , for a time , and that upon accounts Whilst therefore thou art trusted with thi● Stewardship , b be wise and faithful . 2. When thou seest thy Bed , let it pu● thee in mind of thy * grave , which is now the bed of Christ : for Christ ( by laying hi● holy body to rest three days and three nights in the † grave ) hath sanctified , an● ( as it were ) warmed it for the bodies o● his Saints , to rest and * sleep in , till th● morning of the Resurrection : so that now unto the faithful , death is but a sweet sleep ; and the grave is but Christ's * bed , where their bodies rest and sleep in peace , until the joyful morning of the Resurrection-day shall dawn unto them . Let therefore thy Bed-clothes represent unto thee the mould of the Earth that shall cover thee ; thy sheets , thy winding sheet ; thy sleep , thy death ; thy waking , thy resurrection . And being laid down in thy bed , when thou perceivest sleep to approach , say , I will lay me down and sleep in peace , for thou , Lord , only makest me dwell in safety . Thus religiously opening every Morning thy heart , and shutting it up again every Evening , with the Word of God and Prayer , as it were with a Lock and Key , and so beginning the day with God's Worship , continuing it in his fear , and ending it in his favour : thou shalt be sure to find the blessing of God upon all thy days labours and good endeavours : and at night thou maist assure thy self , thou shalt sleep safely and sweetly in the arms of thy heavenly Father's providence . Thus far of the Piety which every Christian in private , ought to practise every day . Now followeth that , which he ( being an Housholder ) must practise publickly with his Family . Meditations for Houshold Piety . 1. IF thou beest called to the government of a Family , thou must not hold it sufficient to serve God , and live uprightly in thine own person , unless thou causest all under thy charge to do the same with thee . For the performance of this duty , God was so well pleased with Abraham , that he would not hide from him his counsel . For ( saith God ) I know him , that he will command his sons , and his houshold after him , that they keep the way of the Lord , to do righteousness and judgment , that the Lord may bring upon Abraham , that he hath spoken unto him . And Abraham had 318 Men servants , which were thus born and catechized in his house . With whose help he rescued also his Nephew Lot from the captivity of his Enemies . And religiously valiant Joshua protesteth before all the people , That if they all would fall away from the true Worship of God , yet that he and his house would serve the Lord. And God himself gives a special charge to all Housholders , that they do instruct their Family in his Word , and train them up in his fear and service . These words which I command thee this day , shall be in thy heart , and thou shalt whet them continually upon thy Children , and shalt talk of them when thou tarriest in thine house , and as thou walkest by the way , and when thou liest down , and when thou risest up , &c. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God , and serve him . David according to this Law , had so ordered his Family , That no deceitful person should dwell in his house , but such as would serve God and walk in his way : and religious Esther had taught her Maids to serve God in fasting and prayer . And ( the more to further thy family in the zeal of religion ) settle ever thy chiefest affection on those whom thou shalt perceive to be best addicted to true Religion . This also will turn to thine own advantage in a double respect . First , God will the rather bless and prosper the labour and handy-work of such godly servants . For Laban perceived , that God blessed him for Jacob's sake : And Potiphar saw , that the Lord made all that Jeseph did , to prosper : in his hand : yea , when innocent Joseph was cast into prison his keeper saw , that whatsoever he did , the Lord made it to prosper : and therefore the keeper committed all the charge of the Prisoners into Joseph's hand . 2. The trulier a man doth serve God , the faithfullier he will serve thee . 2. If every Houshoulder were thus careful , according to his duty , to bring up his Children and Family in the service and fear of God in his own house , then the house of God would be better filled , and the Lord's Table more frequented every Sabbath day ; and the Pastor's publick preaching and labour , would take more effect than it doth . The streets of Towns and Cities would not abound with so many drunkards , swearers , whore-mongers , and prophane scorners of true Piety and Religion . Westminister-Hall would not be so full of contentions , wrangling suits , and unchristian debates : and the prisons would not be every Sessions so full of Thieves , Robbers , Traitors , and Murtherers . But ( alas ) most Housholders make no other use of their Servants , than they do of their Beasts . Whilst they may have their Bodies to do their service , they care not if their Souls serve the Devil . Yet the common complaint is , that faithful and good servants are scarce to be found . True , but the reason is , because there are so many prophane and irreligious Masters : for , the example and instruction of a Godly and Religious Master , will make a good and a faithful servant , as may witness the examples of Abraham , Joshua , David , Cornelius , &c. who had good servants , because they were religious Masters , such as were careful to make their servants God's servants . It is the chief labour and care of most men , to raise , and to advance their house ; yet let them a rise up early , and lie down late , and eat the bread of carefulness , all will be but in vain ; for except the Lord build an house , ( that is , raise up a Family ) they labour in vain . For God hath sealed this as an irrevocable decree , That he will b pour his wrath upon the Families that call not upon his name : yea , c God will take the wicked , and pluck him out of his tabernacle , and root him out of the land , &c. Yea , when his d iniquities are full , he will make e the land to spue out every Canaanite . Religion then , and the Service of God in a Family , is the best building , and surest entailing of House and Land , to a Man and his Posterity ; for the righteous Man shall inherit the Land , and dwell therein for ever . As therefore thou desirest to have the blessing of God upon thy self , and upon thy family ; either before or after thy own private devotions , call every morning all thy family to some convenient room ; and first , either read thy self unto them a Chapter in the Word of God , or cause it to be read distinctly by some other . If leisure serve , thou maist * admonish them of some remarkable notes ; and then kneeling down with them in reverent sort , as is before described , pray with them in this manner . Morning Prayer for a Family . O Lord our God and heavenly Father , who art the only Creator and Governour of heaven and earth , and all things therein contained , we confess that we are unworthy to appear in thy sight and presence , considering our manifold sins , which we have committed against heaven and before thee : and how that we have been born in sin , and do daily break thy holy Laws and Commandments , contrary to our knowledge and consciences ; albeit that we know that thou art our Creator , who hast made us ; our Redeemer , who hast bought us with the blood of thine only begotten Son ; and our Comforter , who bestowest upon us all the good and holy graces , which we enjoy in our souls and bodies . And if thou should'st but deal with us as our wickedness and unthankfulness have deserved , what other thing might we ( O Lord ) expect from thee , but shame and confusion in this life , and in the World to come , wrath and everlasting condemnation ? Yet , O Lord , in the obedience of thy Commandment , and in the confidence which we have in thy unspeakable and endless mercy in thy Son , our Saviour Jesus Christ : we thy poor servants , appealing from thy Throne of Justice , ( where we are justly lost and condemned ) to thy Throne of grace ( where mercy reigneth , to pardon abounding sin ) do from the bottom of our hearts most humbly beseech thee , to remit and forgive unto us all our offences and misdeeds ; that by the virtue of the precious blood of Jesus Christ , thine innocent Lamb , which he so abundantly shed ( to take away the sins of the world , ) all our sins , both original and actual , may be so cleansed and washed from us , as that they may never be laid to our charge , nor ever have power to rise up in judgment against us . And we beseech thee , good Father● for Christ his death and passions sake , tha● thou wilt not suffer to fall upon us tha● fearful curse and vengeance , which thy la●● hath threatned , and our sins have justly deserved . And for as much , O Lord , as we ar● taught by thy word , that Idolaters , Adulterrers , covetous Men , contentious Persons , Drunkards , Gluttons , and such like inordinate livers , shall not inherit the kingdom of God ; pour the grace of thy Holy Spirit into our hearts , whereby we may be enlightned to see the filthiness of our sins , to abhor them : and may be more and more stirred up to live in newness of life , and love of thy Majesty ; so that we may daily increase in the obedience of thy Word , and in a conscionable care of keeping thy Commandments . And now , O Lord , we render unto thee most hearty thanks , for that thou hast elected , created , redeemed , called , justified , and sanctified us in good measure in this life , and given us an assured hope , that thou wilt glorifie us in thy heavenly kingdom , when this mortal life is ended . Likewise we thank thee for our life , health , wealth , liberty , prosperity , and peace : especially , O Lord , for the continuance of thy holy Gospel among us , and for sparing us so long , and granting us so gracious a time of repentance . Also we praise thee , for all other thy mercies bestowed upon us ; more especially , for preserving us this night past , from all dangers that might have befaln our souls or bodies . And seeing thou hast now brought us safe to the beginning of this day , we beseech thee protect and direct us in the same . Bless and defend us in our going out and coming in , this day and evermore . Shield us , O Lord , from the temptations of the Devil , and grant us the custody of thy holy Angels , to defend and direct us in all our ways . And to this end , we recommend our selves , and all those that belong unto us , and are abroad from us , into thy hands , and Almighty tuition . Lord , defend them from all evil , prosper them in all graces , and fill them with thy goodness . Preserve us likewise this day , from falling into any gross sin , especially those whereunto our Natures are most prone . Set a watch before the door of our lips , that we offend not thy Majesty by any rash or false Oaths , or by any lewd or lying Speeches : give unto us patient Minds , pure and chaste Hearts , and all other graces of thy Spirit , which thou knowest to be needful for us ; that we may the better be enabled to serve thee in holiness and righteousness . And seeing that all Man's labour without thy blessing is in vain , bless every one of us in our several places , and callings , direct thou the work of our hands upon us , even prosper thou our handy-work ; ( for except thou guide us with thy grace , our endeavours can have no good success . ) And provide for us all things which thou , O Father , knowest to be needful for every one of us , in our Souls and Bodies this day . And grant that we may so pass through the pilgrimage of this short life ; that our hearts being not setled upon any transitory things , which we meet with in the way , our Souls may every day be more and more ravished with the love of our home , and thine everlasting Kingdom . Defend likewise , O Lord , thy universal Church , and every particular Member thereof : especially we beseech thee to continue the peace and prosperity of these Churches , and Kingdoms wherein we live . Preserve and defend from all evils and dangers , our gracious King Charles , Queen Mary , the noble and hopeful Prince Charles , with the rest of the Royal Progeny ; the Lady Elizabeth , the King 's only Sister , and her Princely Issue : Multiply their days in bliss and felicity , and afterwards crown them with everlasting Joy and Glory Bless all our Ministers , and Magistrates , with all graces needful for their places ; and govern thou them , that they may govern us in peace and godliness : and of thy mercy , O Lord , comfort all our brethren that are distressed , sick , or any way comfortless , especially those who are afflicted either with an evil conscience , because they have sinned against thy Word , or for a good conscience , because they will not sin against thy truth . Make the first to know , that not one drop of the blood of Christ , was a drop of vengeance , but all drops of grace , powerful to procure pardon upon repentance , for the greatest sins of the chiefest sinner in the World. And for the other , let not , O Lord , thy long sufferance either too much discourage them , or too much incourage their enemies : but grant them patience in suffering , and a gracious and speedy deliverance , which way may stand best with their comfort , and thy glory . Give every one of us grace , to be always mindful of his last end , and to be prepared with faith and repentance , as with a wedding garment , against the time that thou shalt call for us out of this sinful World. And that in the mean while we may so in all things , and above all things , seek thy Glory , that when this mortal life is ended , we may then be made partakers of immortality , and life eternal , in thy most blessed and glorious Kingdom . These and all other graces which thou , O Father , seest to be necessary for us , and for thy whole Church , we humbly beg and crave at thy hands : concluding this our imperfect prayer , in that absolute form of prayer which Christ himself hath taught us , saying , Our Father , &c. After prayers , let every one of thy Houshold ( taking in the fear of God such a breakfast or refreshing as is fit ) depart : the children to School , the servants to their work ; every one to his office , the Master and Mistress of the Family to their callings , or to some honest exercises for recreation , as they think fit . The Practice of Piety at meals , and the manner of feeding . BEfore Dinner and Supper , when the Table is covered , ponder with thy self upon these Meditations , to work a deeper impression in thy heart , of God's fatherly providence and goodness towards thee . Meditations before Dinner and Supper . 1. MEditate that Hunger is like the sickness called a Wolf , which if thou dost not ●eed , will devour thee , and eat thee up ; and that meat and drink , are but as * physick , or means which God hath ordained , to relieve and cure this natural infirmity , and necessity of Man. Use therefore to eat and to drink , rather to sustain and refresh the weakness of nature , than to satisfie the sensuality and delights of the flesh . Eat therefore to live , but live not to eat . A Scavenger whose living is to empty , is to be preferred before him that liveth but to fill Privies . There is no service so † base , as for a man to be a slave to his belly . The Apostle termeth such , Belly-Gods , Phil. 3. 19. Therefore we may boldly term them , as the Scriptures do other idols , * Gillulim , Dungy gods , Hab. 2. 18 , 19. 2 King. 17. 12. And as no one action ( God's ordinances excepted ) makes a man more to resemble a beast , than eating and drinking : so the abuse of eating and drinking to surfeiting , drunkenness and spewing , makes a man more vile than a beast . 2. Meditate on the omnipoten●● of God , a who made all these creatures of nothing : of his wisdom , who b feedeth so many infinite Creatures through the universal World , maintaining all their lives , which he hath given them ; which surpasseth the wisdom of all the Angels in heaven : and of his clemency and goodness , in feeding also his very enemies . 3. Meditate , how many sorts of Creatures , as beasts , fish , and fowl , have lost their lives , to become food to nourish thee : and how God's Providence from remote places hath brought all these portions together on thy table , for thy nourishment ; and how by these dead creatures he maintains thee in health and life . 4. Meditate , that seeing thou hast so many † pledges of God's fatherly bounty , goodness and mercy towards thee , as there are dishes of meat on thy Table ; Oh suffer not in such a place , so gracious a God to be abused by scurrility , ribauldry , or swearing : or thy * fellow brother , by disgraceful back-biting , taunting , or slandering . 5. Meditate , how that thy Master Jesus Christ did never eat any food , but first he blessed the Creatures , and gave a thanks to his heavenly Father for the same . And after his last Supper , we read that he sung a b Psalm . For this was the Commandment of God , c When thau hast eaten and filled thy self , thou shalt bless the Lord thy God , &c. This was the Practice of the Prophets : For d people would not eat at their feast , till Samuel came to bless their meat . And saith Joel to God's people : e Ye shall eat and be satisfied , and praise the Name of the Lord your God. This also was the practice of the f Apostles . For St. Paul in the ship , gave thanks before meat , in the presence of all the people that were therein . Imitate thou therefore in so holy an action , so blessed a Master , and so many worthy Precedents that have followed him , and gone before thee . It may be because thou hast never used to give thanks at meals , therefore thou art now ashamed to begin . Think it no shame to do what Christ did ; but be rather ashamed that thou hast so long neglected so Christian a duty . And if the Son of God gave his Father such great thanks for a dinner of barley bread , and broiled fish ; what thanks should such a sinful man as thou art , render unto God , for such variety of good and dainty cheer ? How many a true Christian would be glad to fill his belly with the morsels which thou refusest ; and do lack that which thou leavest ? How hardly do others labour for that which they eat , and thou hast thy food provided for thee , without either care or labour ? To conclude , if Pagan Idolaters at their Feasts were accustomed to praise their false Gods ; what a shame is it for a Christian , ( at his dinners and suppers ) not to praise the true God , in whom we live , move , and have our being ? 6. Meditate , that thy body , which thou dost now so daintily feed , must be ( thou knowest not how soon ) meat for worms : When thou shalt say to corruption , thou art my Father ; and to the Worm , thou art my Mother and my Sister . 7. Meditate , how that many a Man's table is made his snare : so that through his intemperance and unthankfulness , the meat which should nourish his body , kills him with a surfeit : insomuch , that more are killed with this * snare , than with the sword . And seeing that since the Curse , the use ( as of all creatures , so likewise ) of meat and drink , is unto us unclean , till the same be † sanctified by the Word of God , and Prayer : and that man liveth not by b bread only , but by the Word of God's Ordinance ; and his blessing , which is called the c staff of bread . Sit not therefore down to eat , before you d pray , and rise not before you give God e thanks . Feed to suffice f nature , yet rise with an appetite ; and remember thy poor Christian g brethren , who suffer hunger , and want those good things , wherewith thou dost abound . These things , or some of them premeditated , ( if there be not a h Samuel present ) i lift up with all comely reverence , thy heart with thy hands and eyes , unto the great Creator and Feeder of all Creatures , and before Meat , pray unto him thus : Grace before Meat . O Most gracious God , and loving Father , who feedest a all creatures living , which b depend upon thy divine providence ; we beseech the c sanctifie these creatures , which thou hast ordained for us ; give them virtue to nourish our bodies in life and health : and give us grace to receive them soberly and thankfully , as from thy hands ; that so in the d strength of these and other thy blessings , we may walk in the uprightness of our hearts , before thy face , this day , and all the days of our lives , through Jesus Christ , our Lord and only Saviour . Amen . Or thus . MOst gracious God and merciful Father , we beseech thee sanctifie these Creatures to our use , make them healthful for our nourishment ; and us thankful for all thy blessings , through Christ our Lord and only Saviour . Amen . Another Grace before Meat . O Eternal God , in whom we live , move , and have our being , we beseech thee bless unto thy Servants these Creatures , that in the strength of them we may live , to the setting forth of thy praise , and glory , through Jesus Christ our Lord and only Saviour . Amen . After every meal be careful of thy self and family , as Job was for himself , and his Children , Job 1. 4. lest that in the chearfulness of eating and drinking , some speech hath slipped out , which might be either offensive to God or injurious to man ; and therefore with the like comely g●sture and reverence give thanks unto God , and p●ay in this manner . BLessed be thy holy Name , O Lord , our God , for these thy good benefits , wherewith thou hast so plentifully at this time refreshed our bodies : O Lord , vouchsafe likewise to feed our souls with the spiritual food of thy holy Word and Spirit unto life everlasting . Lord , defend and save thy whole Church , our gracious King Charles , Queen Mary , the noble and hopeful Prince Charles , with the rest of the royal progeny ; the Lady Elizabeth , the Kings only Sister , and her Princely issue : Forgive us our sins , and unthankfulness , pass by our manifold infirmities , make us all mindful of our last end , and of the reckoning that we are to make to thee therein , and in the mean while grant unto us health , peace , and truth , in Jesus Christ , our Lord , and only Saviour . Amen . Or thus : BLessed be thy Holy name , ( O Lord ) for these thy good benefits , wherewith thou hast refreshed us at this time . Lord forgive us all our sins and frailties : save and defend thy whole Church , our King , and his Royal posterity , and grant us health , peace , and truth , in Christ our only Saviour . Amen . Or thus : WE give thee thanks ( O heavenly Father ) for feeding our bodies so graciously with thy good creatures to this temporal life : beseeching thee likewise to feed our souls with thy holy Word unto life everlasting . Defend ( O Lord ) thine universal Church , the King , and his royal Posterity , and grant us continuance of thy grace and mercy , in Christ our only Saviour . Amen . The Practice of Piety at Evening . At Evening , when the due time of repairing to rest approacheth , call together again all thy Family . Read a Chapter in the same manner , that was prescribed in the morning ▪ Then ( in holy imitation of our Lord , and his Disciples ) sing a Psalm . But in singing of Psalms , either after Supper , or at any other time , observe these rules . Rules to be observed in singing of Psalm . 1. BEware of singing divine Psalms for an ordinary recreation ; as do men of impure Spirits , who sing holy Psalms , intermingled with prophane Ballads . They are God's Word , take them not in thy mouth in vain . 2 Remember to sing David's Psalms , with David's Spirit . 3. Practise Saint Paul's rule , a I will sing with the spirit , but I will sing with the understanding also . 4. As you sing , b uncover your heads and behave your selves in comely reverence , as in the sight of God , singing to God , in God's own words : but be sure that the matter make more c melody in your hearts , than the Musick in your ear : for the singing with grace in our hearts , is that which the Lord is delighted withal , according to that old verse : Non vox , sed votum , non musica cordula , sed cor : Non clamans , sed amans psallit in aure Dei. 'T is not the voice , but vow ; Sound heart , not sounding string ; True zeal , not outward show , That in God's ear doth ring . 5. Thou maiest ( if thou thinkest good ) sing all the Psalms over in order : for all are most divine , and comfortable But if thou wilt chuse some special Psalms , as more fit for some times and purposes ; and such , as by the oft usage , thy people may the easilier commit to memory ; Then sing , In the Morning , Psal. 3. 5. 16. 22. 144. In the Evening , Psal. 4. 127. 141. For mercy after a sin committed , Psal 51. 103. In sickness , or heaviness , Psal. 6. 13. 89. 90. 91. 137. 146. When thou art recovered , Psal. 30. 32. On the Sabbath day , Psal. 19. 92. 95. In time of joy , Psal. 80. 98. 107. 136. 145. Before Sermon , Psal. 1. 12. 147. the 1. and 5. Part of the 119. After Sermon , any Psalm which concerneth the chief argument of the Sermon At the Communion , Psal. 22. 23. 103. 111. 116. For spiritual solace , Psal. 15. 19. 25. 46. 67. 112. 116. After wrong and disgrace received , Psal. 42. 69. 70. 140. 144. After the Psalm , all kneeling down in reverent manner ( as is before described ) let the Father of the Family ( or the chiefest in his absence ) pray thus . Evening Prayer for a Family . O Eternal God , and most gracious Father , we thine unworthy Servants , here assembled , do cast down our selves at the footstool of thy grace , acknowledging that we have inherited our Fathers corruption , and actually in thought , word and deed , transgressed all thy holy Commandments , so that in us naturally there dwelleth nothing that is good : for our hearts are full of secret pride , anger , impatience , dissembling , lying , lust , vanity , prophan●ness , distru●● , too much love of our selves and the World , too little love of thee and thy Kingdom ; but empty and void of faith , love , patience , and every spiritual grace . If thou therefore shouldst but enter into judgment with us , and search out our natural corruption , and observe all the cursed fruits and effects that we have derived from thence , Satan might justly challenge us for his own , and we could no● expect any thing from thy Majesty , but thy wrath , and our condemnation , which we have long ago deserved . But , good Father , for Jesus Christ , thy dear Son's sake , in whom only thou art well pleased ; and for the merits of that bitter death , and bloody passion , which we believe that he hath suffered for us : have mercy upon us , pardon and forgive us all our sins , and free us from the shame and confusion which are due unto us for them ; that they may never seize upon us to our confusion in this life , nor to our condemnation in the world which is to come . And for as much as thou hast created us to serve thee , as all other Creatures to serve us : so we beseech thee inspire thy holy Spirit into our hearts , that by his illumination and effectual working , we may have the inward sight and feeling of our sins , and natural corruptions ; and that we may not be blinded in them through custom , as the Reprobates are , but that we may more and more loath them , and be heartily grieved for them , endeavouring by the use of all good means to overcome and get out of them . O let us feel the Power of Christ's Death , killing sin in our mortal Bodies : and the vertue of his Resurrection , raising up our Souls to newness of life . Convert our hearts , subdue our affections , regenerate our minds , and purifie our nature ; and suffer us not to be drowned in the stream of those filthy vices and sinful pleasures of th●s time , where with thousands are carried headlong to eternal destruction : but daily frame us more and more to the likeness of thy Son Jesus Christ , that in righteousness and true holiness , we may so serve and glorifie thee , that living in thy fear and dying in thy favour , we may , in thine appointed time , attain to the blessed resurrection of the just , unto eternal life . In the mean while , O Lord increase our faith in the sweet promises of the Gospel , and our repentance from dead works , the assurance of our hope in thy promises , our fear of thy name , the hatred of all our sins , and our love unto thy children , especially those whom we shall see to stand in need of our help and comfort : that so , by the fruits of Piety and a righteous life ; we may be assured that thy Holy Spirit doth dwell in us , and that we are thy Children by Grace and Adoption . And grant us , good Father , the continuance of health , peace , maintenance , and all other outward things , so far forth as thy Divine Wisdom shall think meet and necessary for every one of us . And here , O Lord , according to our bounden duty , we confess that thou hast been exceeding merciful unto us all , in things of this life ; but infinitely more merciful in the things of a better life : and therefore we do here from our very souls , render unto thee all humble and hearty thanks , for all thy blessings and benefits bestowed upon our souls and bodies : acknowledging thee to be that Father of lights , from whom we have received all those good and perfect gifts : and unto thee alone for them , we ascribe to be due all glory , honour and praise , both now and evermore . But more especially , we praise thy divine Majesty , for that thou hast defended us this day from all perils and dangers● so that none of those judgments ( which our sins have deserved ) have fall'n upon any one of us . Good Lord , forgive us the sins which this day we have committed against thy Divine Majesty , and our brethren , & for Christ his sake be reconciled unto us for them . And we beseech thee likewise of the same thine infinite goodness and mercy , to defend and protect us , and all that belong unto us , this night , from all dangers of fire , robberry , terrours of evil angels , or any other fear or peril , which for our sins might justly fall upon us . And that we may be safe under the shadow of thy wings , we here commend our Bodies and Souls , and all that we have , unto thine Almighty protection . Lord bless and defend both us and them from all evil . And whilst we sleep , do thou , O Father , ( who never slumberest nor sleepest ) watch over thy Children , and give a charge to thy Holy Angels , to pitch their tents round about our House and Dwelling , to g●ard us from all dangers : that sleeping wi●h thee , we may in the next morning be awakened by thee ; and so being re●reshed with moderate sleep , we may be the fitter to set forth thy glory in the conscionable duties of our callings . And we beseech thee , O Lord , to be merciful likewise to thy whole Church , and to continue the tranquility of these Kingdoms , wherein we live , turning from us those plagues which the crying sins of this Nation do cry for . Preserve our Religious King Charles , Queen Mary , the Noble and Hopeful Prince Charles , with the rest of the Royal Progeny , the religious Lady Elizabeth , the King 's only Sister , and her Princely Issue : all our Magistrates and Ministers , all that fear thee , and call upon thy Name , all our Christian Brethren and Sisters , that suffer sickness , or any other affliction or misery : especially those who any where do suffer persecution for the testimony of thy holy Gospel ; grant them patience to bear thy cross , and deliverance , when , and which way it shall seem best to thy Divine Wisdom . And , Lord , suffer us never to forget our last end , and those reckonings which then we must render unto thee . In health and prosperity , m●ke us mindful of sickness , and of the evil day that is behind , that these things may not overtake us as a 〈◊〉 , but that we may in good measure , like wise Virgins , be found prepared for the coming of Christ , the sweet Bridegroom of our Souls . And now , O Lord , most holy and just , we co●fess that there is no cause ▪ why thou ( who art so much displeased with sin ) shouldest hear the prayer of sinners : but for his sake only who suffered for sin , and sinned not ▪ In the only mediation therefore of thine eternal Son Jesus our Lord and Saviour , we humbly beg these , and all other graces which thou knowest to be needful for us , shutting up these our imperfect requests , in that most holy Prayer , which Christ himself hath taught us to say unto thee , Our Father , &c. Thy grace , O Lord Jesus Christ ; thy love , O heavenly Father ; thy comfort and consolation , O holy and blessed Spirit , be with us , and remain with us this night , and for evermore . Amen . Then saluting one another , as becometh Christians , who are the Vessels of grace , and Temples of the holy Ghost , let them in the fear of God depart every one to his rest : using some of the former private Meditations for Evening . Thus far of the Housholder's publick Practice of Piety , with his Family , every day . Now followeth his Practice of Piety with the Church on the Sabbath-day . Meditations of the true manner of practising Piety on the Sabbath-day . ALmighty God will have himself worshipped , not only in a private manner , by private Persons and Families ; but also in a more publick sort , of all the godly joyned together in a visible Church : that by this means he may be known not only to be the God and Lord of every singular Person ; but also of the Creatures of the whole universal World. Quest. But why do not we Christians , under the New , keep the Sabbath on the same seventh day , whereon it was kept under the Old Testament ? I answer : because that our Lord Jesus ( who is the † Lord of the Sabbath , and whom the Law it self commands us to hear ) did alter it from that seventh day , to this first day of the Week , whereon we keep the Sabbath . For the holy Evangelist notes : that our Lord came into the midst of the holy Assembly , on the two first days of the two Weeks immediately following his Resurrection , and then blessed the Church , breathed on the Apostles the Holy Ghost , and gave them the ministerial keys , and power of binding and remitting sins . And so it is most probable he did in a solemn manner every first-day of the week , during the forty days he continued on earth , between his Resurrection and Ascension ( for the fiftieth day after , being the first day of the week , the Apostles were assembled ) during which time he gave Commandments unto the Apostles , and * spake unto them those things which appertain to the Kingdom of God ; that is , instructed them , how they should throughout the Churches ( which were to be converted ) change the Sabbath to the Lord's-Day ; the bodily sacrifices of beasts , to the spiritual sacrifices of Praise , Prayer and contrite Hearts ; the † Levitical Priesthood of the Law , to the Christian Ministery of the Gospel ; the Jewish Temples and Synagogues , to Churches and Oratories ; the Old Sacraments of Circumcision and Passover , to Baptism and the Lord's Supper , &c. as may appear by the like Phrase , Acts 19. 8. and Acts 28. 23. Col. 4. 11. put for the whole sum of Paul's Doctrine , by which were wrought all these changes , where it took effect . So that as Christ was forty days instructing Moses in Sinai , what he should teach and how he should rule the Church under the Law : so he continued forty days teaching his Disciples in Sion , what they should preach , and how they should govern the Church under the Gospel . And seeing it is manifest , that within those forty days , Christ appointed what Ministers should teach , and how they should govern his Church to the world's end ; it is not to be doubted , but that within those forty days , he likewise ordained on what day they should keep their Sabbath , and ordinarily to the works of their Ministery ; especially seeing that under the Old Testament God shewed himself as careful both by his Moral and Ceremonial Law , to prescribe the time as well as the matter of his Worship . Neither is it a thing to be omitted , that the Lord , a who hath times and seasons in his own power , appointed this first day of the week , to be the very day , b wherein he sent down from Heaven the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles , so that upon that day they first began , and ever after continued the publick exercising of their Ministery , in the c preaching of the Word , the d administration of the Sacraments , and the e loosing of the sins of penitent sinners . Upon these and the like grounds , f Athanasius plainly affirmeth , that the Sabbath day was changed by the Lord himself . As therefore our Communion is termed the Lord's Supper , because it was instituted of the Lord , for the remembrance of his death : so the Christian Sabbath is called of the g Lord's day , because it was ordained of the Lord , for the memorial of his Resurrection . And as the Name of the h Lord honoureth the one , so doth it the other : and as the Lord of the Sabbath , by his royal Prerogative , and transcendent authority , could , so he had also reason , to change the Holy Sabbath from the seventh day to this , whereon we keep it . For as concerning the seventh day ; which followed the six days , wherein God finished the Creation ; there was no such precise institution , or necessity of sanctifying it perpetually , but such , as by the same authority , or upon greater reason and occasion , it might very well be changed and altered unto some other seventh day . For the Commandment doth * not say , Remember to keep hnly the seventh day , next following the sixth day of the Creation , or this or that seventh day : but indefinitely , Remember that thou keep holy † a seventh day . And to speak properly , as we take a day for the distinction of time , called either a day natural , consisting of 24 hours , or a day artificial , consisting of 12 hours , from Sun-rising , to Sun-setting : and withal consider the Sun standing still at noon , in Joshuah's time , the space of a whole day ; and the Sun going back ten degrees , ( viz. five hours , almost half an artificial day ) in Ezekiah's time , the Jews themselves could not keep their Sabbath upon that precise and just distinction of time , called at the first , the seventh day from the Creation . Add hereunto , that in respect of the diversity of Meridians , and the unequal rising and setting of the Sun , every day varieth in some places a quarter , in some half . in others a whole day : Therefore the Jewish seventh day cannot precisely be kept at the same instant of time , every where in the World. Now , our Lord Jesus having authority , as Lord over the Sabbath , had likewise now far greater reason and occasion to translate the Sabbath from the Jewish seventh day , unto the seventh day whereon Christians do keep the Sabbath . 1. Because that by his Resurrection from the dead , there is wrought a new spiritual Creation of the World : without which all the Sons of Adam had been turned to everlasting destruction , and all the works of the first creation had ministred no consolation unto us . 2. And in respect of this new spiritual Creation , the Scripture saith , that a Old things are passed away , and all things are become new : b new Creatures , c new People , d new men , e new knowledge , f new Testament , g new commandment , h new names , i new way , k new song , l new garment , new wine , new vessels , m new Jerusalem , n new Heaven and a new earth . And therefore of necessity there must be instead of the old , a new o Sabbath day , to honour and praise our Redeemer , and to meditate upon the work of our redemption , and to shew the new change of the old Testament . 3. Because that on this day Christ rested from all the sufferings of his Passion , and finished the glorious work of our Redemption . If therefore the finishing of the work of the first Creation , whereby God mightily manifested himself unto his creatures , deserved a Sabbath for to solemnize the memorial of so great a work , to the honour of the worker ; and therefore calls it mine holy-day : much more doth the new Creatition of the world , effected by the resurrection of Christ , ( whereby he mightly declared himself to be the Son of God ) deserve a Sabbath , for the perpetual commemoration thereof , to the honour of Christ , and therefore worthily called the Lord's day . For , as the deliverance out of the Captivity of Babylon , being greater , took away the name from the deliverance out of the Bondage of Egypt : so the day whereon Christ finished the redemption of the world , did more justly deserve to have the Sabbath kept on it , than on that day , whereon God ceased from creating the world . As therefore in the Creation , the first day wherein it was finished , was consecrated for a Sabbath : so in the time of Redemption ; the first day wherein it was perfected , must be dedicated to a holy rest ; but still a seventh day kept according to God's moral Commandment . The Jews kept the last day of the week , beginning their Sabbath with the * night , when God rested : but Christians honour the Lord better , on the a first day of the week , b beginning the Sabbath with the day when the Lord arose . They kept their Sabbath in remembrance of the World's Creation : but Christians celebrate it in memorial of the World's Redemption : yea , the Lord's-day being the first of the Creation and Redemption , puts us in mind , both of the making of the old , and redeeming of the new World. As therefore under the old Testament , God , by the glory consisting of seven Lamps , seven Branches , &c. put them in remembrance of the Creation , Light , and Sabbath's ●est : So under the New Testament , Christ , the true light of the world , appeareth in the midst of the 7 lamp● , and seven golden candle-sticks , to put us in min● to honour our Redeemer in in the light of the Gospel of the Lord's seventh day of rest . And seeing the Redemption , both for might and mercy , so f●r exceedeth the C●cation ; it stood with great reason , thee the greater work should carry the honour of the day . Neither doth he honourable title of the Lord's-day diminish the glory of the Sabbath ; but rather , being added , augments the dignity thereof ; as the name of Israel added unto Jacob , made the Patriarch the more renowned . The reason taken from the example of God's resting from the work of the Creation of the World , continued in force , till the Son of God ceased from the work of the Redemption of the World , and then the former gave place to the latter . 4. Because it was foretold in the Old Testament , that the Sabbath should be kept ( under the New Testament ) on the first-day of the week . For , first , in the 110 Psalm , which is a Prophecy of Christ , and his Kingdom , it is plainly foretold , that there should be a solemn day of assembling , wherein all Christ's people should willingly come together in the beauty of holiness . Insomuch that no rain ( of peace ) shall be upon those Families , that in the feast will not go up to Jerusalem ( the Church ) to worship the King , the Lord of hosts . Now on what day this holy Feast , and Assembly should be kept , David sheweth plainly , in Psal. 118 which was a prophecy of Christ , as appears , Mat. 21. 42 , Acts 4. 11. Ephes. 2. 20. as also by the consent of all the Jews , as Jerom witnesseth . For , shewing how Christ , by his ignominious death , should be as a stone rejected of the Builders , or chief Rulers of Judea , and yet by his glorious Resurrection , should become the chief st●ne of the Corner : he wisheth the whole Church to keep holy that day , whereupon Christ should effect this wonderful work , saying , This is the day which the Lord hath made , let us rejoyce and be glad in it . And seeing that upon this day , that which Peter saith of Christ , appeareth to be true , That God made him both Lord and Christ , Acts 2. 36. therefore the whole Church under the New Testament , must celebrate the day of Christ's Resurrection . Rabby Bachay also saw by the fall of Adam on the sixth day , that on the same day the Messias should finish the work of man's redemption : And alluding to the speech of Boaz to Ruth , sleep unto the Morning , that Messias should rest in his grave all their Sabbath-day . And he gathereth from that speech , Gen. 1. on the first day , Let their be light , that the Messias should rise on the first day of the week , from death to life , and cause the spiritual light of the Gospel to enlighten the World , that lay in the shadow of darkness and death . The Hebrew Author of the Book called , Sedar Olam Rabbi cap. 7. recordeth many memorable things , which were done upon the first day of the week , as so many Types , that the chief worship of God should ( under the New Testament , ) be celebrated upon this day . As , that on this day the cloud of God's Majesty first sate upon his people . Aaron and his Children first executed their Priesthood . God first solemnly blessed his people . The Princes of his people first offered publickly unto God. The first day , wherein fire descended from heaven . The first day of the World , of the Year , of the Month , of the week , &c. All shadowing that it should be the first and chief holy-day of the New Testament . St. Augustine proveth by divers places and reasons , out of the holy Scripture , that the Fathers , and all the holy Prophets under the Old Testament , did foresee and know that our Lord's-day was shadowed by their eighth day of Circumcision . And that the Sabbath should be changed from the seventh day to the eighth , or first day of the week . And Junius , out of Cyprian , saith , that * Circumcision was commanded on the eighth day , as a Sacrament of the eighth day , when Christ should arise from the dead . The Council Foro-Juliense affirms , That Esay prophesied of the keeping of the Sabbath upon the first day of the week . If this Mystery was so clearly seen by the Fathers , under the shadows of the Old Testament : sure , the God of this World hath deeply blinded their minds , who cannot see the Truth thereof under the † shining light of the Gospel . Therefore this change of the Sabbath-day , under the New , was nothing but a fulfilling of that which was prefigured and fore-prophesied under the Old Testament . 5. According to their Lord's Mind and Commandment , and the direction of the Holy Ghost , ( which alway assisted them in their Ministerial Office , ) the Apostles in all the Christian Churches , ( which they planted ) ordained that the Christians should keep the holy Sabbath , upon that seventh Day , which is the first Day of the week ; a Concerning the gathering for the Saints , as I have ordained in the Churches of Galatia , so do ye also . Every first-day of the week , &c. b When ye come together in the Church ( being the Lord's-day ) to eat the Lord's-Supper , c to remember and shew the Lord's death till he come , &c. In which words note : 1. That the Apostle ordained this Day to be kept holy : therefore a divine Institution . 2. That the Day is named the first-day of the week , therefore not the Jewish seventh , or any other . 3. Every first-day of the week , which sheweth a perpetuity . 4. That it was ordained in the Churches of Galatia , as well as of Corinth , and he settled one uniform order in all the d Churches of the Saints , therefore it was universal . 5. That the exercises of this day were * Collections for the poor ( which appears by Acts 2. 42. and Justin Martyr's testimony , Apolog. 2. ) which were gathered in the holy Assembly after Prayer , preaching of the Word ; and Administration of the Sacraments ; therefore it was spiritual . 6. That he will have the Collection ( tho' necessity ) removed against his coming , lest it should hinder his preaching : but not their holy meeting on the Lord's-day ; for it was the time ordained for the publick worship of the Lord ; which argueth a necessity . And in the same Epistle , St. Paul protesteth , that he d●livered them none other Ordinance , or Doctrine , but what he had received of the Lord. Insomuch that he cha●geth them , that if any man think himself to be a prophet or Spiritual , let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you , are the commandments of the Lord. But he wrote unto them , and ordained among them , to keep their Sabbath on the first day of the Week : therefore to keep the Sabbath on that day , is the very commandment of the Lord. And how can he be either a true Prophet , or have any grace of God's Spirit in his heart , who seeing so clearly the Lord's day to have been i●●●●tuted and ordained by the Apostles , will not acknowledge the keeping holy of the Lord's day , to be a Commendment of the Lord ? The Jews confess this change of the Sabbath to have been made by the Apostles . Peter Alphon. in Dialog . contra Judae●s , tit . 12. They are therefore more blind and sottish than the Jews , who prophanely deny it . A● Troas likewise St. Paul , together with seven of the Chief Evangell●●s of the Church , Sosipater , Aristarchus , Secundus , Gaius , Timotheus , Tychicus , and Trophimus , and all the Christians that were there , kept the holy Sabbath on the first day of the week , in praying , preaching , and receiving the Lord's-Supper . And it is a thing to be noted , That Luke saith not , that the Disciples were sent to hear Paul preach , but the Disciples being come together to break bread upon the first day of the week ; that is , to be partakers of the holy Communion , at what time the Lord's death was by the preaching of the Word shewed , 1 Cor. 11. 26. Paul preached unto them , &c. And that none kept those meetings but Christians , who only are called Disciples , Act. 11. 26. But at Philippi , whereas yet there were no Disciples , Paul is said to go on their Sabbath day , to the place where the Jews and their Proselytes were wont to pray , and there preached unto them , Acts 16. 12 , 13. so that it is as clear as the Sun , that it was the Christians usual manner , to a pass over the Jewish seventh day , and to keep the Sabbath , and their holy meetings on the first day of the week . And why doth S. John call this the Lord's day ; but because it was a day known to be generally kept holy , to the honour of the Lord Jesus ( who rose from death to life upon that day ) throughout all the Churches which the Apostles planted ? Which S. John called the b Lord's day , the rather to stir up Christians to a thankful remembrance of their Redemption , by Christ his Resurrection from the dead . And with the day , the blessing of the Sabbath is likewise translated to the Lord's day : because that all the sanctification belonging to this new world is in Christ , and from him conveyed to Christians . And because there cannot come a greater authority , than that of Christ and his Apostles , nor the like cause , as the new Creation of the world : therefore the Sabbath can never be altered from this day to any other , whilst this world lasteth . Add hereunto , how the Scripture noteth , that in the first planting and setling of the Church nothing was done , but by the special order and direction of the Apostles , 1 Cor. 11. 34. 1 Cor. 14. 36 , 37. Tit. 1. 5. Act. 15. 6 , 24. and the Apostles did nothing but what they had warrant for from Christ , 1 Cor. 11. 23. To sanctifie then the Sabbath on the seventh Day , is not a ceremonial Law abrogated : but the moral and perpetual law of God perfected . So that the same perpetual Commandment which bound the Jews to keep the Sabbath on that seventh day , to celebrate the World's Creation ; binds Christians to solemnize the Subbath on this seventh day , in memorial of the World's Redemption : for the fourth Commandment , being a Moral Law , requireth a seventh day , to be kept holy for ever . And the Morality of this , as of the rest of the Commandments , is more religiously to be kept of us under the Gospel , than of the Jews under the Law ; by how much we ( in Baptism ) have made a more special Covenant with God , to keep his Commandments : and God hath covenanted with us , to free us from the curse , and to assist us with his Spirit to keep his Laws . And that this Commandment of the Sabbath ( as well as the other nine ) is Moral and perpetual , may plainly appear by these reasons . Ten reasons demonstrating the Commandment of the Sabbath to be Moral . 1. BEcause all the reasons of this Commandment , are moral and perpetual : And God hath bound us to the obedience of this Commandment , with more forcible reasons than to any of the rest . First , because he did foresee , that irreligious men would either more carelesly neglect , or more boldly break this Commandment , than any other . Secondly , because that in the practice of this Commandment , the keeping of all the other consisteth : which makes God so often complain , that all his worship is neglected , or overthrown , when the Sabbath is either * neglected or transgressed . It would make a man amazed ( saith Mr. † Calvin ) to consider how oft , and with what zeal and protestation , God requireth all ( that will be his people ) to sanctifie the seventh day ; yea , how the God of Mercy , mercilesly punisheth the breach of this Commandment with cruel death ? as though it were the sum of his whole honour and service . And it is certain , that he who makes no conscience to break the Sabbath , will not ( to serve his turn ) make any Conscience to break any of the other Commandments , so he may do it without discredit of his reputation , or danger of Man's Law. Therefore God placed this Commandment , in the midst of the Two Tables ; because the keeping of it , is the best help to the keeping of all the rest . The conscionable keeping of the Sabbath , is the Mother of all religion , and good discipline in the Church . Take away the Sabbath , and let every man serve God when he listeth ; and what will shortly become of Religion , and that peace and order , which God will have to be kept in his Church ? the Sabbath day is God's Market-day , for the weeks provision ; wherein He will have us to come unto him , and buy of him without silver or money , the Bread of Angels , and Water of Life , the Wine of the Sacrament , and Milk of the Word to feed our souls ; tryed gold , to enrich our faith ; precious E●e-salve , ●o heal our spiritual blindness ; and the white raiment of Christ's righteousness , to cover our silchy nakedness . He is not far from true Piety , who makes conscience to keep the Sabbath day : but he who can dis●ence with his conscience to break the Sabbath for his own profit or pleasure , his heart never yet felt , what either the fear of God , or true 〈…〉 For of this 〈…〉 speech of S. James 〈…〉 faileth in one , is guilty of all , seeing therefore that God hath fenced this commandment with so many moral reasons , it is evident that the Commandment it self is moral . 2. Because it was commanded of God to Adam in his Innocency : whilst ( holding his happiness not by faith in Christ's merits , but by obedience to God's Law ) he needed no ceremony , shadowing the redemption of Christ. A Sabbath therefore of a seventh day cannot be simply a ceremony , but an Essential part of God's worship , enjoyned unto Man , when there was but one condition of all men . And if it was necessary for our first Parents to have a Sabbath day , to serve God in their perfection ; much more need their posterity to keep the Sabbath in the stare of their corruption . And seeing God himself kept this day holy , how can that man be holy , that doth wilfully prophane it ? 3. Because it is one of the Commandments which God spake with his own mouth , and twice a wrote with his own fingers in Tables of stone , to signifie their authority and perpetuity . All that God wrote , were moral and perpetual Commandments , and those are reckoned Ten in number . If this were now but an abrogated Ceremony , then there were but nine Commandments ; the Ceremonial that were to be abrogated by Christ , were written all by Moses . But this of the Sabbath , with the other nine , written by God himself , were put into the Ark , where no Ceremonial Law was put , to shew , that they should be the perpetual Rules of the Church , yet such as none could perfectly fulfil and keep , but only Christ. 4. Because Christ professeth , that he came not to destroy the moral Law : and that the least of them should not be abrogated in his kingdom of the New Testament . Insomuch that whosoever breaketh one of the least of these ten Commandments , and teacheth men so , he should be called the least in the Kingdom of heaven ; that is , he should have no place in his Church . Now the Moral Law commandeth one day of seven to be perpetually kept a holy Sabbath . And Christ himself expresly mentioneth the keeping of a Sabbath among his Christians , at the destruction of Jerusalem , about 42. years after his resurrection . By which time , all the Mosaical ceremonies ( except eating of blood , and things strangled ) were by a publick Decree of all the Apostles quite abolished , and abrogated in Christian Churches . And therefore Christ admonished his Disciples , to pray that their flight be not in the winter , nor on the Sabbath day . Not in the winter ; for that ( by reason of the foulness of the ways and weather ) their flight should be more painful and troublsome unto them : not upon the Sabbath , because it would be more grievous to their hearts , to spend that day in toiling to save their lives , which the Lord had commanded to be spent in holy exercises , to comfort their souls . Now if the sanctifying of the Sabbath on this day had been but ceremonial , it had been no grief to have fled on this day , any more than on any other day of the week . But in that Christ doth tender so much this fear and grief of being driven to fly on the Sabbath day , and therefore wisheth his , to pray unto God to prevent such an occasion : he plainly demonstrates , that the observation of the Sabbath is no abrogated Ceremony , but a Moral Commandment , confirmed and established by Christ among Christians . If you would know the day whereupon Christ appointed Christians to keep the Sabbath S. John will tell you , that is was on the Lord's day , Rev. 1. 10. If you will know on what day of the week that was , S. Paul will tell you , that it was on every first day of the week , 1 Cor. 16. 1. As Christ admonished , so Christians prayed , and according to their prayers , God , ( a little before the wars began ) warned by an * Oracle , all the Christians in Jerusalem , to depart thence and to go to Pella a little town beyond Jordan : and so to escape the wrath of God , that should fell upon that City and Nation . If then a Christian should not without grief of heart , fly for the safety of his life on the Lord's day , with what joy or comfort can a true Christian neglect the holy exercises of God's worship in the Church , to spend the greatest part of the Lord's day in prophane and carnal sp●rts , or servile labour ? And seeing the destruction of Jerusalem , was hath a † 〈◊〉 , and an assurance of the destruction of the World , who seeth not , but that the holy Sabbath must continue till the very end of the world ? 5. Because that all the Ceremonial Law was enjoyned to the Jews only , and not to the Gentiles ; but this Commandment of the holy Sabbath , ( as Matrimo●y ) was instituted of God in the stare of innocency , when there was but one state of all men : and therefore enjoyned to the Gentiles , as well as to the Jews : So that all Magistrates and Housholders were commanded , to constrain all strangers ( as well as their own Subjects , and Family ) to observe the holy Sabbath , as appears by the fourth Commandment , and practice of Nehemiah , All the Ceremonies were a partition wall to separate Jews and Gentiles : But seeing the Gentiles are bound to keep this Commandment as well as the Jews ; it is evident that it is no Jewish ceremony . And seeing the same authority is for the Sabbath that is for marriage : a man may as well say , that marriage is but a ceremonial Law , as the Sabbath . And remember , that whereas marriage is termed but once the * coven●●● of God , because instituted by God in the b beginning : the Sabbath is every where called the Sabbath of the Lord thy God , because ordained by God in the same beginning , both of time , state and perpetuity : therefore not Ceremonial . 6. The corruption of our nature found in the * manifest opposition of wicked men , and in the secret unwillingness of good men to sanctifie sincerely the Sabbath , sufficiently demonstrateth , that the Commandment of the Sabbath is spiritual and moral . 7. Because that as God by a perpetual decree , made the c Sun , the Moon , and d other lights in the Firmament of Heaven , not only to divided the day from the night , but also to be for e signs , and for f seasons , and for g days , and for h years : so he ordained in the Church on Earth , the holy Sabbath to be not only the appointed season , for his solemn Worship , but also the perpetual rule and measure of time . So that as seven days make a week , four weeks a month , 12 months a year : so seven years make a Sabbath of years : seven Sabbaths of years , a Jubilee ; 80 Jubilees , or 4000 years , or after Ezekiel , 4000 cubits , the whole time of the Old Testament , till Christ by his Baptism and Preaching , began the state of the New Testament . Neither can I here pass over without Admiration , how the Sacrament of Circumcision continued in the Church 39 Jubilees from Abraham , to whom it was first given , unto the Baptism of Christ in Jordan : which was just so many Jubilees ( after * Bucholcer's account ) as the world had continued before from Adam , to the birth of Abraham . Moses began his Ministry in the 80 year of his age . Christ enters upon his Office in the 80 Jubilee of the World's Age ; Joseph was thirty years old , when he began to rule over Egypt , Gen. 41. 46. and the Levites began to serve in the Tabernacle at thirty Years old : so Christ likewise to answer these figures , began his ministry in the Thirtieth Jubilee of Moses ; and when he began to be thirty years of age , Luke 3. 23. in the midst of Daniel's last week ; and so ( continuing his ministry on Earth Three years and a half ) finished our Redemption , and Daniel's Period , by his innocent death upon the Cross. The most of all the great alterations , and strange accidents , which fell out in the Church came to pass either in a Sabbatical year , or in a year of Jubilee . For example : The seventy weeks of Daniel beginning the first year of Cyrus , and the 3439. year of the world , contain so many years , as the world did weeks of years unto that time : and so many weeks of years , as the world had lasted Jubilees . Daniel's seventy weeks of years , contain four hundred and ninety single years : the world before that time , 490 weeks or sabbaths of years . Daniel's Period 70 weeks , the world's 70 Jubilees : so that to comfort the Church for their 70 years captivity , which they had now according to Jeremy's prophecy , endured in Babylon , Gabriel tells Daniel , That at the end of 70 weeks , or Sabbaths of years , that is 70 times seven years , or 490 years , their eternal Redemption from Hell , should be effected by the death of Christ , as sure as they were now redeemed from the captivity of Babylon . This period of Daniel containing 70 Sabbaths , or 10 Jubilees of years , began at the first liberty granted the Jews by Cyrus in the first year of his Reign over the Babylonians , mentioned Ezra 1. 1. and ends justly at the time that Christ died upon the Cross. From the death of Christ , or the last end of Daniel's weeks , to the seventy and one year of Christ the world is measured by seven Seals , or seven Sabbaths of years , making one compleat Jubilee . From the end of those seven Seals , the World is measured to her end by a seven Trumpets , each containing 245 years ( as some conjecture , about 440 years hence , the truth will appear : ) Enoch the seventh from Alam , having lived so many years , as there are days in the year , 365 , was translated of God in a Sabbatical year , b Moses the seventh from Abraham , as another Enoch is buried of God , but born in a Sabbatical year of the World 2373 , and in the 777 year since the Flood ( after c Broughton's Computation ) is saved ▪ as a new Noah in a reed Ark , and lived a builder of the Church , so long as Noah was building the Ark ●●0 years . The promise was made to Abraham in a Sabbatical year , being the 2223 year of the World. The sixth year of Joshua , being 2500 years from the Creation of the World , wherein the land was possessed , and divided among the children of Israel , was a Sabbatical year , and the † 50 Jubilee from the Creation of the World. At this year Moses begins his Jubilee , by which ( as with a chain of thirty links ) he tieth the p●rting of Canaan's possession to the Israelites by Joshua , to the opening of the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers by Jesus . And so carrieth the Church of the Jews , by a b joyful stream of Jubilees from the Type to the substance , from Canaan to Heaven , from Jeshua to Jesus : for Christ at the end of M●ses's thirty Jubilees , and the beginning of the thirtieth year of his age , at his Baptism openeth Heaven , and gives the clearest Vision of the blessed Trinity , that was seen since the world began . And by the silver Trumpet of his Gospel proclaims , according to the Prophecy of c Esay , eternal red●mption to all that repent and believe in him . And the year of our Saviour Christ's birth , being the 3948 of the World , was at the end of a Sabbatical year , and the * 564 Septenary of the World. Moses maketh the common age of all men , to be ten times seven , Psal. 90. and every seventh year commonly produceth some notable † change or accident in Man's life : And no wonder , for as Hippocrates affirmeth , a Child in his Mother's womb , on the seventh day of his conception , hath all his members finished , and from that day groweth to the perfection of birth ; which is always either the ninth , or seventh month . At seven years old the Child casts his teeth , and receives new . And every seventh year after , there is some alteration or change in man's life , especially at nine times seven , the Clymacterick year , which by experience is found to have been fatal to many of those learned * men , who have been the chiefest Lights of the World. And if they escaped that year , yet most of them have departed this Life , in a septenary year . Lamech died in the year of his life 777. Methusalem , the longest liver of the Sons of Men , died when he began to enter his 900 and 70 year . Abraham died , when he had lived 25 times seven years . Jacob when he had lived 21 times seven years David , after he had lived ten times seven years . So did Galen , so did Petrarch , who ( as Bodin noteth ) died on the same day of the year that he was born : so did the Maiden Queen † ELIZABETH , of blessed and never-dying Memory who came into this world on the Eve of the Nativity of the blessed Virgin Mary ; and went out of this world on the Eve of the Annunciation of the blessed Virgin Mary . Hippocrates died in the 15th septenary . Hierom and Isocrates in their 13. Pliny , Bartolus , and Casar in their 8 septenary . And Johannes de temporibus , who lived 361 years , died in the 53d septenary of his life . The like might be observed of innumerable others . And indeed the whole life of a man is measured by the Sabbath : for , how many years soever man liveth here ; yet his life is but a life of seven days , multiplied : so that in the number of 7 there is a mystical perfection , which our understanding cannot attain unto . All which Divine Disposition of admirable things , so oft by sevens , calls upon us to a continual Meditation of the blessed seventh-day Sabbath , in knowing and worshipping God in this life : that so from Sabbath to Sabbath , we may be translated to the eternal glorious Sabbath of rest and bliss , in the life to come . By the consideration whereof , any man that looketh into the holy History , may easily perceive , that the whole course of the World is drawn , and guided by a certain chain of God's providence , a disposing all things in number , measure , and weight . All times are therefore measured by the Sabbath : so that Time and the Sabbath can never be separated . And the b Angel swears , that this measuring of c time shall continue , till that time shall be no more . And as the Sabbath had its † first institution in the first Book of the Scriptures , so hath it its confirmation in the last : and as this Book doth d authorize this day ; so this day graceth the Book ; in that the matter thereof was revealed upon so holy a day ; the Lord's revelation upon the e Lord's Day . As well therefore may they pull the Sun , Moon , and Stars out of the Heavens , as abolish the Holy Sabbath ( times meet-rod ) out of the Chruch : seeing the Sabbath is ordained in the Church ( as well as the Sun and Moon in the Firmament ) for the distinction of times . 8. Because that the whole Church , by an * Universal consent , ever since the Apostles time , have still held the Commandment of the Sabbath , to be the moral and perpetual Law of God ; and the keeping of the Sabbath on the first day of the week , to be the institution of Christ and his Apostles . The † Synod , called Synodus Coloniensis , saith , that the Lord's-day hath been famous in the Church ever since the Apostles time . * Ignatius Bishop of Antioch living in St. John's time , saith , Let every one that loveth Christ , keep holy the Lord's-day , renowned by his Resurrection ; which is the Queen of days , in which death is overcome , and life is sprung up in Christ. Justin Martyr , who lived not long after him , sheweth how the Christians kept their Sabbath on the Lord's-day , as we do . Origen , who lived about 1●0 years after Christ , shews the reason why the Sabbath is translated to the Lord's-day . Augustin saith , That the Lord's-day was declared unto the Church by the Resurrection of the Lord upon that day . Et ex illo e●●pit habere festivitatem suam . and by Christ it was first ordained to be kept holy . And in another place , That the Apostles appointed the Lord's-day to be kept with all religious solemnity , because that upon that day our Redeemer rose from the dead , which also is therefore called the Lord's-day . As therefore a David said of the City of God , so may I say of the Lord's-day , b Glorious things are spoken of the day of the Lord : for it was the birth-day of the World , the first day wherein all Creatures began to have being . In it light was drawn out of darkness . In it the Law was given on Mount Sinai . In it the Lord rose from death to life . In it the c Saints came out of their graves , assuring that on it Christians should rise to newness of life . In it the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles . And it is very probable , that on the seventh day , when the d seven Trumpets have blown , the cursed e Jerich● of this World shall fall , and our true Jesus shall give us the promised possession of the heavenly Canaan . ●e that would see the uniform consent of Antiquiry , and practice of the Primitive Church in this point , let him read * Eusebius ' s Ecclesiastical History , Lib. 4 c 23 , Tertullian lib. de Idololat●●a , cap. 14. Chr●s . Serm. 5. de resurrection Constitut. † Apal . l. cap. 37. C●●il . in J●ham l. 12. c. ●8 . Of this Ju●gment are all the found new Writers : see ●ox on Rev. 1. 10. Bucer in Mat. 12. 1● . Gualt . in Malach. 3. h●m . 23. ●ulk on the R●emish Testam . Apoc. 1. 10. Chem. Exa●● . Conc. T●●d . par . 4. de diebus festis , Wolph . Chron. lib. 2. cap. 1. * Armin , Thes in 4 praecept . and innumerable others . † Learned Junius shall speak for all : Qua●●brem c●●m dies ●●minicus , &c. Wherefore seeing the Lord's day is both the fast of Christ ( viz. his resurrection , and often appearing to his Disciples upon that day ) by the example and institution of the Apostles , and by the continual practice of the ancient Church , and by the testimony of the Scripture , observed and substituted into the place of the Jewish Sabbath : Ineptè faciunt , they do foolishly , who say , that the observation of the Lord's day is of Tradition , and not from the Scripture , that by this means they might establish the Traditions of Men. And again , the cause of this change is the resurrection of Christ , and the benefit of the restoring of the Church by Christ , the remembrance of which benefit did succeed into the place of the memory of the creation . Non humanâ traditione , sed Christi ipsius observatione & instituto ; Not by the tradition of Man , but by the observation and appointment of Christ , who both on the day of his resurrection and on every 8th day after , unto his ascension into heaven , did appear unto his Disciples , and came into their assemblies . 9. Because that the Lord himself expoundeth the end of the Sabbath to be a * sign and document for ever , betwixt him and his people , that he is Jehovah , by whom they are sanctified ; and therefore must only of them be † worshiped : and upon the pain of death chargeth his people for ever to keep this memorial * unviolated . But this end is moral and perpetual : Therefore the Sabbath is moral and perpetual . What † God hath perpetually sanctified , let no man ever presume to make common or prophane . Upon this ground it is , that the Commandment terms this day , the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. And God himself calls it , his holy day . And upon the same ground likewise , the Old Testament consecrated all their Sabbaths and holy days , to the worship and honour of God alone . To dedicate therefore a Sabbath to the honour of any creature , is gross Idolatry . For the first Table makes it a part of God's Worship , to have a Sabbath to his honour : so doth Levit. 23. 3 , 37 , 38 , &c. and Ezek. 20. 20. Neh 9. 14. the Sabbath is put for the whole worship of God. And our Saviour teacheth , that We must Worship the Lord God only , Mat. 4. 10. and therefore keep a Sabbath to the only honour of God. The Holy Ghost notes it as one of Jeroboam's greatest sins , that he ordained a Feast from the device of his own heart , 1 Kings 12. 33. And God threatneth to visit Israel for keeping the days of Baalim ; That is , of Lords , as Papists do of Saints , Hos. 2. 13. but saith , that such forget him . And so indeed none are less careful , in keeping the Lord's Sabbath , than they , who are most * superstitious observers of mens holy days . The Church of Rome therefore commits gross Idolatry . First , in taking upon her to ordain Sabbaths , which belongs only unto the Lord of the Sabbath to do . Secondly , in dedicating those holy days to the honour of Creatures , which in effect is to make them sanctifying Gods. Thirdly , In tying to these days , God's Worship , Prayers , Fasting and Merit . Fourthly , In exacting on these days of mens invention , a greater measure of solemnity and sanctification , than upon the Lord's day , which is God's Commandment : which in effect is to preferr Antichrist before Christ. Our Church hath justly abolished all superstitious and idolatrous Feasts ; and only retains a few Holy-days , to the Honour of God alone , and easing of Servants , Deut. 5. 14. tho' long custom forceth to use the old Names , for civil distinction : as Luke used the prophane Names of Castor and Pollux , Acts 28. 11. and Christians of Fortunatus , 1 Cor. 16. 17. Mercurius , Rom. 16. 14. and Jews of Mardochaeus's day , 2 Maccab. 15. 37. 10. Lastly , The Examples of God's Judgments on Sabbath-breakers , may sufficiently seal unto them , whose Hearts are not seared , how wrathfully Almighty God is displeased with them , who are wilful prophaners of the Lord's day . The Lord ( who is otherwise the God of mercy ) commanded Moses to stone to death the man , who ( of a presumptuous mind ) would openly go to gather sticks on the Sabbath day . The fact was small : true , but his sin was the greater , that ( for so small an occasion ) would presume to break so great a Commandment . Nicanor offering to fight against the Jews on the Sabbath day , was slain himself and thirty five thousand of his men . A Husbandman grinding Corn upon the Lord's-day , had his Mill burned to ashes . Another carrying Corn on this day , had his Barn , and all his Corn therein burnt with fire from Heaven the next night after . Also a certain Noble man ( prophaning the Sabbath usually in hunting ) had a Child by his Wife with a head like a Dog , and with Ears and Chaps , crying like a Hound . A covetous Flax-wife at Kinstat in France , Anno 1559 , using with her maids to work at her Trade on the Lord's-day , it seemed unto them that fire issued out of the Flax , but did no harm : the next Sabbath it took fire indeed , but was quickly quenched ; but not taking warning by this , the third Sunday after it took fire again , burnt the House , and so scorched the wretched Woman , with two of her Children , that they died the next day : but ( through God's mercy ) a Child in the Cradle was taken out of the fire alive and unhurt . On the 13th of January , An. Dom. 1582 , being the Lord's-day , the Scaffolds sell in Paris Garden under the People , at a Bear-baiting , so that eight were suddenly slain , innumerable hurt and maimed . A warning to such , who take more pleasure on the Lord's-day , to be in a Theatre beholding carnal sports ; than to be in the Church serving God with the spiritual works of Piety . Many fearful examples of God's Judgments by fire , have in our days been shewed upon divers Towns , where the prophanation of the Lord's day hath been openly countenanced . Stratford upon Avon was twice on the same day twelve-month ( being the Lord's-day ) almost consumed with fire : chiefly for prophaning the Lord's-Sabbaths , and for contemning his Word in the mouth of his faithful Ministers . Teverton in Devonshire , ( whose remembrance makes my heart bleed ) was oftentimes admonished by her godly Preacher , that God would bring some heavy Judgment on the Town , for their horrible † prophanation of the Lord's-day , occasioned chiefly by their Market on the day following . Not long after his death , on the third of April , Anno Dom. 1598 , God ( in less than half an hour ) consumed , with a sudden and fearful fire , the whole Town , except only the Church , the Court-house , and the Alms-houses , or a few poor Peoples dwellings ; where a man might have seen 400 dwelling-houses all at once on fire , and above fifty Persons consumed with the flame . And now again , since the former Edition of this Book , on the fifth of August last , 1612 , ( fourteen years since the former fire ) the whole Tow● was again fired , and consumed , except some thirty houses of poor people , with the School-house , and Alms-houses : they are blind , who see not in this the finger of God. God grant them grace when it is next built , to change their Market-day , and to remove all occasions of prophaning the Lord's-day . Let other Towns remember the Tower of Siloe , Luke 13. 4. and take warning by their neighbours chastisements , fear God's threatning , Jer. ●7 . 27. and believe God's Prophets , if they will prosper , 1 Chron. 20. 20. Many other examples of God's judgments might be alledged ; but if these are not sufficient to terrifie thy heart from the wilful prophanation of the Lord's-day , proceed in thy prophanation ; it may be the Lord will make thee the next example , to teach others to keep his Sabbaths ●etter . He punisheth some in this life , to signifie how he will plague all wilful transgressors of his Sabbaths at the last day . Thus we have proved , that the Commandment of the Sabbath is Moral , and that the change of it from the seventh to the first day of the week , was instituted by the authority of Christ , and of his Apostles . But as in promulgating of the Law , divers Ceremonies , peculiar to the Jews , were annexed , the rather to bind that people to the more careful performance thereof , as to the first Commandment , their deliverance from Egypt , shadowing their redemption from hell ; to the fifth Commandment , length of days in Canaan typifying eternal life in heaven ; to the sixth Commandment , abstinence from blood and things strangled , figuring the care to abstain from all kind of Murther ; and to the whole Law , the Ceremony of * Parchment lace , putting them in mind to keep within the limits of the Law. so likewise to the fourth Commandment were added some ceremonies , which peculiarly belonged to the Jews , and to no other people ; as first , the double † Sacrifices appointed for them on the Sabbath day , shadowing how God will be served on the Sabbath , with greater obedience , than on the week days . 2 The b rigid and strict ceasing from making of fire , c dressing of meat , and all bodily labour , both remembring d them of their full deliverance by Moses's conduct from the fiery Furnaces , and slavery of Egypt , upon e that day ; as also shadowing unto them the eternal redemption of their souls from Hell , by the death of Christ. 3. The keeping of the Sabbath upon the precise seventh day in order of the creation ; shadowing to the Jews , that Christ by his death , and resting on their Sabbath , in the grave , should bring them rest and ease , from the burthen and yoke of the Legal Ceremonies , which neither they , nor their Fathers were able to bear , Act. 15. 10. Col. 2. 16 , 17. And howsoever in Paradise before Man's Fall , the keeping of the Sabbath on the seventh day of the Creation , was not a Ceremony , but an Argument of perfection : yet after the Fall , it became Ceremonial , and subject to change in respect of the Restauration by Christ. As man's life before the fall being immortal , became afterwards mortal ; and nakedness being an ornament before , became afterwards a shame ; and Marriage became a type of the Mystical Vnion betwixt Christ and his Church , Ephes. 5. and to fulfill the Ceremonies ( added for the Jews sake unto the Sabbath ) Christ at his Death rested in the Grave all the Jewish Sabbath day : and by that rest fulfilled all those Ceremonial Accessaries . Now as the ceasing of the Ceremonies annexed to the 1 , 5 , and 6 Commandments , and to Marriage , did not abolish those Commandments and Marriage ; nor cause them to cease from being the perpetual Rules of God's worship , and man's righteousness ; no more did the abrogating of the Ceremonies annexed to the Sabbath , abolish the morality of the Commandment of the Sabbath : so that though the Ceremonies be abolished , by the access of the Substance ; and the Shadow over-shadowed by the Body , ( which is Christ ) yet the holy rest ( which was commanded and kept , before either the Jews were a people , or those Ceremonies annexed to the Sabbath ) still continueth as God's perpetual Law , whereby all the Posterity of Adam are bound to rest from their ordinary business , that they may wholly spend every seventh day in the solemn Worship , and only Service of GOD their Creator and Redeemer ; but in the substance of the fourth Commandment , there is not found one word of any Ceremony . The chief Objections against the Morality of the Sabbath are Three : 1. That of Paul to the Galatians , Ye observe days , and months , and times , and years , &c. But there the Apostle condemns not the moral Sabbath , ( which we call the Lord's day ; and which he himself ordained according to Christ's Commandment , in the same Churches of Galatia and Corinth , and kept himself in other Churches ) but he speaks of the Jewish days , and times , and years , and the keeping of the Sabbath on the seventh day from the Creation , which he termeth shadows of things to come , abolished now by Christ the body ; and in the Law are called Sabbaths , but distinguished from the moral Sabbaths . 2. That of Paul to the Colossians : Let no man therefore condemn you in meat or drink , or in respect of an holy-day , or of the new-moon , or of the Sabbath-days . But here the Apostle meaneth the Jewish ceremonial Sabbaths , not the Christians Lord's day , as before . 3. That of the same Apostle to the Romans , This man esteemeth one day above another day ; and another counteth every day alike , &c. But S. Paul makes no such account . For the question there is not between Jews and Gentiles , but between the stronger and weaker Christians . The stronger esteemed one day above another , as appears in that there was a day both commanded and received in the Church every where known and honoured by the name of the Lord's day . And therefore Paul saith here , that he that observeth this day , observeth it unto the Lord. The observation whereof , because of the change of the Jewish seventh day , some weak Christians , ( as many now adays ) thought not so necessary : so that if men ( because the Jewish day is abrogated ) will not honour and keep holy the Lord's day , but count it like other days ; it is an Argument ( saith the Apostle ) of their weakness , whose infirmity must be born , till they have time to be further instructed and perswaded . Other objections are frivolous , and not worth the answering . The true manner of keeping holy the Lord's Day . NOW the sanctifying of the Sabbath consists in two things . First , In resting from all servile and common business pertaining to our natural life . Secondly , In consecrating that rest wholly to the Service of God , and the use of those holy means which belong to our spiritual life . For the first . 1. The servile and common works , from which we are to cease , are generally all civil works from the * least to the greatest More particularly ; First , from all the works of our Calling , though it were reaping in the time of harvest . Secondly , from carrying burthens , as Carriers do ; or riding abroad for profit , or for pleasure : God hath commanded that the beasts should rest on the Sabbath day , because all occasions of travelling or labouring with them should be cut off from man. God gives them that day a rest ; and he that without necessity , deprives them of their rest on the Lord's day , the groans of the poor tyr'd Beasts shall in the day of the Lord rise up in judgment against him . Likewise such as spend the greatest part of this day in trimming , painting and painpering of themselves , like Jezabels , doing the devil's work upon God's day . Thirdly , from keeping of Fairs , or Markets , which for the most part God punisheth with Pestilence , Fire , and strange Floods . Fourthly , from studying any Books of Science , but the holy Scriptures and Divinity . For our study must be to be ravished in spirit upon the Lord's day . In a word , thou must on that day cease in thy calling to do thy work : that the Lord by his Calling , may do his work in thee . For whatsoever is gotten by common working on this day shall never be blessed of the Lord : but it will prove like Achan's Gold , which being got contrary to the Lord's Commandment , brought the fire of God's curse upon all the rest which he had lawfully gotten . And if Christ scourged them out as thieves , who bought and sold in his Temple , ( which was but a Ceremony shortly to be abrogated ) is it to be thought , that he will ever suffer those to escape unpunished who ( contrary to his Commandment ) buy and sell on the Sabbath day , which is his perpetual Law ? Christ calleth such , sacrilegious Thieves ; and as well may they steal the Communion Cup from the Lord's Table , as steal from God , the chiefest part of the Lord's day , to consume it in their own lusts . Such shall one day find the judgments of God heavier than the opinions of Men. Fifthly , from all recreations and sports , which at other times are lawful : for if lawful works be forbidden on this day ; much more lawful sports , which do more steal away our affections from the contemplation of heavenly things , than any bodily work or Labour . Neither can there be unto a man ( that delighteth in the Lord ) any greater delight or recreation , than the sanctifying of the Lord's day , For can there be any greater joy for a person condemned , than to come to his Prince his house to have his Pardon sealed ? for one that is deadly sick to come to a Physician that can cure him ? or for a prodigal child that fed on the husks of swine , to be admitted to eat the bread of life , at his father's table ? or for him who fears for sin the tidings of death , to come , to hear from God the assurance of eternal life ? If thou wilt allow thy self , or thy servant recreation , allow it in the six days which are thine : not on the Lord's day , which is neither thine nor theirs . No bodily recreation therefore is to be used on this day ; but so far as it may help the soul to do more chearfully the service of God. Sixthly , from gross feeding , liberal drinking of Wine , or strong Drink ; which may make us either drowsie , or unapt to serve God with our hearts and minds . Seventhly , From all talking about worldly things , which hindereth the sanctifying of the Sabbath , more than working : seeing one may work alone , but cannot talk but with others . He that keeps the Sabbath , only by resting from his ordinary work , keeps it but as a Beast . But rest on this day , is so far commanded to Christians , as it is an help to sanctification : and labour so far forbidden , as it is an impediment to the outward and inward worship of God. If then those recreation's which are lawful at other times , are on the Sabbath not allowed ; much more those that are altogether at all times unlawful . Who without mourning can endure to see Christians keep the Lord's day , as if they celebrated ● feast rather to Bacchus , than to the honour of the Lord Jesus , the Saviour and Redeemer of the world ? for having served God but an hour in outward shew , they spend the rest of the Lord's day in sitting down to eat and drink , and rising up to play ; First balasting their bellies with ea●ing and drinking ; and then feeding their lusts with playing and dancing . Against which prophanations all holy Divines , both old and new , have in their times most bitterly inveighed . Insomuch that Augustine affirmeth , that it was better to plough than to dance on the Sabbath day . Now in the Name of Almighty God , ( who rested , having created Heaven and Earth ) and of his eternal Son Jesus , the Redeemer of his Church , who shall shortly come , on the dreadful day of D●om , to judge all men according to the obedience which they have shewed to his commandments : I require thee , who readest these words , as thou wilt answer before the face of Christ , and all his holy Angels at that day , that thou better weigh and consider , whether Dancing , Stage-playing , Masking , Carding , Diceing , Tabling , Chess-playing , Bowling , Shooting , Bear-baiting , Carousing , Tipling , and such other fooleries of Robbin Hood , Morice-dances , Wakes , and Ma●-games , be Exercises that God will bless and allow on the Sabbath day . And seeing that no action ought to be done that day , but such as whereby we either bless God , or look to receive a blessing from God ; how darest thou do those things on that blessed day , on which thou darest not to pray to God to bestow a blessing on it to thy use ? Hear this and tremble at this , O prophane youth , of a prophane age ! O heart all frozen , and void of the feeling of the grace of God! that having every day in six , every hour in every day , every minute in every hour , so tasted the sweet mercy of thy God in Christ , without which thou hadst perished every moment ; Yet canst not find in thy corrupt and irreligious heart , to spend in thy Masters service that one day of the week , which he hath reserved for his own praise and worship . Let men in defence of their prophaneness , object what they will , and answer what the Devil puts in their mouths : yet I would wish them to remember , that seeing it is an ancient Tradition in the Church , that the Lord's second coming shall be upon the Lord's day ; how little joy they should have to be overtaken in those carnal sports , to please themselves , when their Masters should find them in spiritual Exercises , serving him ? The prophane Wretch would then wish rather to be taken kneeling at prayers in the Church , than skipping like a Goat in a dance . If this cannot move , yet I would wish our impare gallants to remember , that whilst they thus dance on the Lord's day ( contrary to the Lord's Commandment ) they do but dance about the pits brink ; and they know not which of them shall first fall therein . Where to being once fallen without repentance , no greatness can exempt them from the vengeance of that great God , whose Commandment ( contrary to their knowledge and conscience ) they do thus presumptuously transgress . If then God's Commandment cannot deterr thee ; nor God's Word advise thee ; I say no more , but what St. John said before me , He which is filthy , let him be filthy still . For the second . 2. The consecration of the Sabbath's rest consists in performing three sorts of duties . First , before ; Secondly , at ; Thirdly , after the publick exercises of the Church . The Duties to be performed before the publick exercises , are , 1. To give over working betimes on the Eve , that thy body may be the more refreshed , and thy mind the better ●itted to sanctifie the Sabbath on the next day . For want of this preparation , thy self and thy servants being tyred with labour and watching the night before , are so heavy , that when you should be serving God , and hearing what his Spirit saith unto the Church for your Soul's instruction , you cannot hold up your heads for sleeping ; to the dishonour of God , the offence of the Church , and the shame of your selves : Therefore the Lord commands us not only to keep holy , but also to remember afore-hand the Sabbath day , to keep it holy , by preparing our hearts and removing all business that might hinder us to consecrate it , as a glorious day unto the Lord. Therefore whereas the Lord in the other Commandments , doth but either bid or forbid ; he doth both in this Commandment , and that with a special memorandum : As if a Master should charge his servant to look well unto ten things of great trust , but to have a more special care to remember one of those Ten , for divers weighty reasons ; should not a faithful Servan● that loves his Master , shew a more special care unto that thing above all other businesses ? Thus Moses taught the People o'er night to remember the Sabbath : and it was a Holy custom among our forefathers , when at the ringing to Prayer on the Eve before , the Husbandman would give over his labour in the field , and the T●adesman his work in the Shop , and go to Evening Prayer in the Church , to prepare their souls , that their minds might more chearfully attend God's worship on the Sabbath day 2. To possess that night thy vessel in holiness and honour , that thou maist present thy soul more purely in the sight of God the next morning . 3. To rise up early in the morning on the Sabbath day . Be careful therefore to rise sooner on this day , than on other days : by how much the service of God is to be preferred before all earthly businesses . For there is no Master to serve so good as God : and in the end , no work shall be better rewarded than his service . 4. When thou art up , consider with thy self , what an impure sinner thou art , and into what an holy place thou goest to appear , before the most holy God , who seeth thy heart , and hateth all impurity and hypocrisie . Examine thy self therefore before thou goest to church , what grievous sins thou hast committed the week past ; confess them unto God , and earnestly pray for the pardon and forgiveness of them , and so reconcile thy self with God in Christ. Renew thy vows to walk more conscionably , and pray for an increase of those graces which thou hast , and a supply of those which thou wantest . But especially pray , that thou maist have Grace to hear the word of God read and preached with profit : and that thou maist receive the holy Sacrament with comfort ( if it be Communion day ) that God by his Holy Spirit would assist the Preacher to speak something that may kill thy sin , and comfort thy soul , which thou maist do in this or the like sort . A morning Prayer for the Sabbath-day . O Lord most high , O God eternal , all whose works are glorious , and whose thoughts are very deep : there can be no better thing than to praise thy Name , and to declare thy loving kindness in the morning , on thy holy and blessed Sabbath day . For it is thy Will and Commandment , that we should sancti●ie this day in thy service and praise : and in the thankful remembrance , as of the creation of the world by the power of thy Word ; so of the redemption of Mankind by the death of thy Son. Thine ( O Lord ) I confess , is greatness , and power , and glory , and victory , and praise : for all that is in heaven and earth is thine : Thine is the Kingdom , O Lord , and thou excellest as head over all . Both riches and honour come of thee , and thou reignest over all , and in thine hand is power and strength ; and in thine hand it is to make great , and to give grace unto all . Now therefore , O my God , I praise thy glorious Name , that whereas I a wretched sinner , having so many ways provoked thy Majesty to anger and displeasure ; thou notwithstanding , of thy favour and goodness , ( passing by my prophaneness and infirmities ) hast vouchsafed to add this Sabbath again unto the number of my days . And vouchsafe , O heavenly Father , for the merits of Jesus Christ thy Son ( whose glorious resurrection thy whole Church celebrateth this day ) to pardon and forgive me all my sins and misdeeds . Especially , O Lord , * cleanse my soul from those filthy sins , with the blood of thy most pure and undefiled Lamb , which taketh away the sins of the † world . And let thy Holy Spirit more and more subdue my corruptions , that I may be renewed after thine own Image , to serve thee in newness of life , and holiness of conversation . And as of thy mercy , thou hast brought me to the beginning of this blessed day ; so I do beseech thee , make it a day of Reconciliation , betwixt my sinful Soul , and thy Divine Majesty . Give me grace to make it a day of Repentance unto thee , that thy goodness may seal i● to be a day of pardon unto me : and that I may remember , that the keeping holy of this day , is a Commandment which thine own finger hath written . That on this day , I might meditate on thy glorious works of our Creation and Redemption , and learn how to know and to keep all the rest of thy holy Laws and Commandments . And when anon , I shall with the rest of the holy Assembly , appear before thy Presence in thy House , to offer unto thee our Morning Sacrifice of praise and Prayer ; and to hear what thy Spirit , by the preaching of thy Word , shall speak unto thy servant : Oh let not my sins stand as a Cloud , to stop my Prayers from ascending unto thee ; or to keep back thy grace from descending by thy Word , into my heart . I know , O Lord , and tremble to think , that three parts of the good seed falls upon bad ground . O let not my heart be like the high-way , which through hardness , and want of true understanding , receives not the seed , till the evil one cometh , and catcheth it away : nor like to the stony ground , which heareth with joy for a time , but falleth away as soon as persecution ariseth for the Gospel's sake : nor like the thorny ground , which by the cares of this world , and the deceitfulness of riches , choaketh the Word which it heareth , and makes it altogether unfruitful : but th●t like unto the good ground , I may hear thy Word , with an honest and good heart , understand it , and keep it , and bring forth fruit with patience , in that measure that thy Wisdom shall think meet for thy glory , and mine everlasting comfort . Open likewise , I beseech thee ; O Lord , the door of utterance , unto thy faithful servant , whom thou hast sent unto us to open our Eyes , that we may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God : that we may receive forgiveness of sins , and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith in Christ. And give me grace to submit my self unto his Ministery , as well when he terri●ieth me with judgments , as when he comforteth me with thy Mercies And that I may have him in a singular love for his works sake ; because he b watcheth for my soul , as he that must give an account for the same unto his Master . And give me grace to behave my self in the holy Congregation with comeliness and reverence , as in thy presence , and in the sight of thy holy c Angels . Keep me from drowsiness and sleeping , and from all wandring thoughts , and worldly ▪ imaginations : sanctifie my Memory , that it may be apt to receive , and firm to remember those good and profitable doctrines , which shall be taught unto us out of thy Word . And that through the assistance of thy holy Spirit , I may put the same Lessons in practice , for my direction in Prosperity , for my consolation in Misery , for the amendment of my Life , and the glory of thy Name . And that this day , which godless and prophane Persons spend in their own Lusts and Pleasures , I ( as one of thy obedient Servants ) may make my chief delight to consecrate to thy glory and honour , not doing mine ▪ own ways , nor seeking mine own will , nor speaking a vain word : but that ceasing from the works of sin , as well as from the works of mine ordinary calling , I may through thy blessing , feel in my heart the beginning of that eternal Sabbath , which in unspeakable joy and glory I shall celebrate with Saints and Angels , to thy praise and worship , in thy heavenly Kingdom for evermore . All which I humbly crave at thy hands , in the name and mediation of my Lord Jesus , in that form of Prayer which he hath taught me : Our Father which art in Heaven , &c. Having thus in private prepared thine own soul , if thou has● the charge of a Family , call all thy Houshold together , read a Chapter , and pray as in the week-days : but remember so to dispatch these private preparations and duties , as that thou and thy family may be in the Church before the beginning of Prayers . Else your private exercises are rather an hindran●e than a preparation . And as thou ( and thy Houshold ) do go in all reverence towards the Church , let every one meditate thus with himself . Things to be meditated as thou goest to the Church . 1. That thou art going to the Court of the Lord , and to speak with the great God by prayer ; and to hear his Majesty speak unto thee by his Word : and to receive his blessing on thy soul , and thy honest labour , in the six days last past . 2. Say with thy self by the way , As the Hart brayeth for the rivers of water , so panteth my soul after thee , O God. My soul thirstest for God , even for the living God : when shall I come and appear before the presence of God ? for a day in thy courts is better than a thousand other where . I had rather be a door-keeper in the House of my God , than to dwell in the Tabernacles of wickedness . Therefore I will come into thy House in the multitude of thy mercies , and in thy fear will I worship toward thine holy Temple . 3. As thou enterest into the Church , say , How fearful is this place ! this is none other but the house of God , this is the gate of Heaven . Surely , the Lord is in this place : God is in this people indeed . And prostrating with thy face downward , being come to thy place , say , O Lord , I have loved the habitation of thy house , and the place where thy Honour dwelleth : One thing therefore have I desired of thee , that I will require , even that I may dwell in thy house all the days of my life , to behold thy beauty , and to visit thy Temple : Therefore will I offer in thy Tabernacle sacrifices of joy , I will sing and praise of the Lord. Harken unto my voice , O Lord , when I cry ; have mercy also upon me , and hear me . Doubtless , kindness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life , and I shall remain a long season in the house of the Lord. And this is that preparation , or looking to our feet , whereto Solomon adviseth us , before we enter into the House of God. The second sort of Duties , which are to be performed at the time of the holy Assembly . WHen Prayers begin , lay aside thine own private meditations ; and let thine heart joyn with the Minister , and the whole Church , as being one body of Christ ; and because that God is the God of order , he will have all things to be done in the Church with a one heart and accord : and the exercises of the Church are b common and publick . It is therefore an ignorant pride , for a man to think his own private prayers more effectual than the publick prayers of the whole Church . Solomon therefore adviseth a man not to be rash , to utter a thing in the Church before God. Pray therefore when the Church prayeth , si●g when they sing , and in the action of kneeling , standi●g , sitting , and such indifferent ceremonies ( for the avoiding of scandal , the continuance of Charity , and in testimony of thine obedience ) † conform thy self to the manner of the Church wherein thou livest . Whilest the Preacher is expounding and applying the Word of the Lord , look upon him ; for it is a great help to stir up thine attention , and to keep thee from wandering thoughts : so a the Eyes of all that were in the Synagogues , are said to be fastened on Christ whilst he preached : and that b all the people hanged upon him when they heard him Remember that thou art there as one of Christ's Disciples , to learn the knowledge of Salvation , by the remission of sins , through the tender mercy of God , Luke 1. ver . 77. Be not therefore in the School of Christ , like an idle boy in a Grammar School , that often heareth , but never learneth his lesson : and still goeth to School , but pro●iteth nothing . Thou hatest it in a child . Christ detesteth it in thee . To the end therefore , that thou maist the better profit by hearing , mark ; 1. The Coherence and Explication of the Text. 2. The chief Sum or Scope of the Holy Ghost in that Text. 3. The division or parts of the Text. 4. The doctrines ; and in every doctrine the proofs , the reasons and the uses thereof . A method of all others , easiest for the people ( being accustomed thereto ) to help them to remember the Sermon . and therefore much wished to be put in practice of all faithful Pastors , who desire to edifie their people in the knowledge of God , and his true Religion . If the Preacher's method be too curious or confused , then labour to remember . 1. How many things he taught , which thou knewest not before : and be thankful . 2. What sins he reproved , whereof thy conscience tells thee that thou art guilty ; and therefore must be amended . 3. What Vertues he exhorteth unto , which are not so perfect in thee , and therefore endeavour to practice them with more zeal and diligence . But in hearing , apply every speech as spoken to thy self , rather by * God than by Man : and labour not so much to hear the words of the Preacher sounding in thine ear , as to feel the opperation of the Spirit working in thy heart . Therefore it is said so often , † Let him that hath an ear , hear what the Spirit speaks to the Church . And , Did not our hearts burn within as , whilst he opened unto us the Scriptures ? And thus to hear the Word , hath a a blessing promised thereto . It is the acceptablest b sacrificing of our selves unto God. It is the c surest note of Christ's Saints ; the d truest mark of Christ's sheep ; the e apparentest sign of God's Elect ; the very blood , as it were , which uniteth us to be the f spiritual kindred , brethren and sisters of the Son of God. This is the best art of Memory for a good hearer . When the Sermon is ended , 1. Beware thou depart not like the nine lepers , till that for thine instruction to saving health , thou hast returned thanks and praise to God by an after-prayer , and singing of a Psalm . And when the blessing is pronounced , stand up to receive thy part therein , and hear it , as if Christ himself ( whose Minister he is ) did pronounce the same unto thee ; for in this case it is true ; He that heareth you , heareth me : and the Sabbath-day is blessed , because God hath appointed it to be the day , wherein by the Mouth of his Ministers , he will bless his people , which hear his word , and glorifie his Name . For tho' the Sabbath-day in it self be no more blessed than the other six days ; yet ( because the Lord hath appointed it to holy uses above others ) it doth as far excel the other days of the week , as the consecrated bread , ( which we receive at the Lord's Table ) doth the common bread which we eat at our own Table . 2. If it be a Communion-day , draw near to the Lord's Table in the Wedding-Garment of a faithful and penitent heart to be partaker of so holy a banquet . And when Baptism is to be administred , stay and behold it with all reverent attention , that so thou maist , First , shew thy reverence to God's Ordinance : Secondly , that thou maist the better consider thine own ingrafting into the visible body of Christ's Church : and how thou performest the vows of the new Covenant . Thirdly , that thou maist repay thy debts in praying for the infant which is to be baptized ( as other Christians did in the like case for thee ) that God would give him the inward effects of Baptism , by his Blood and Spirit . Fourthly , that thou maist assist the Church in praising God for grafting another Member into his mystical Body . Fifthly , That thou maist prove whether the effects of Christ's death killeth sin in thee , and whether thou be raised to newness of life , by the virtue of his Resurrection : and so to be humbled for thy wants , and to be thankful for his graces . Sixthly , to shew thy self to be a freeman of Christ's Corporation : having a voice or consent in the admission of others into that Holy Society . 3. If there be any Collection for the poor , freely without grudging bestow thine Alms , as God hath blessed thee with ability . And thus far of the duties to be performed in the Holy Assembly . Now of the third sort of Duties after the Holy Assembly . AS thou returnest home , or when thou art entred into thy house , meditate a little while upon those things which thou hast heard . And as the clean Beasts which chew the Cud , so must thou bring again to thy remembrance , that which thou hast heard in the Church . And then kneeling down , turn all to a prayer , beseeching God to give such a blessing to those things which thou hast heard , that they may be a direction to thy life , and a consolation unto thy Soul. For till the Word be made thus our own , and as it were , close hidden in our hearts : we are in danger lest Satan steal it away , and we shall receive no profit thereby . And when thou goest to dinner , in that reverend and thankful manner before prescribed , remember according to thine ability , to have one or more poor Christians , whose hungry bowels may be refreshed with thy meat : imitating holy Job , who protested , that he did never eat his morsels alone , without the good company of the poor and fatherless ; That is the Commandment of Christ our Master , Luke 14. 13. Or at leastwise , send some part of thy Dinner to the poor , who lie sick in the back-lane , without any food . For this will bring a blessing upon all thy works and labours : and it will one day more rejoyce thy Soul , than it doth now refresh his Body , when Christ shall say unto thee , O blessed child of God , I was an hungered , and thou gavest me meat , &c And for as much as thou hast done it for my sake to the least of these my brethren , I take it in as good part , as if thou hadst done it to mine own self . When dinner is ended , and the Lord praised , call thy † Family together , a examine what they have learned in the Sermon : commend them that do well ▪ yet discourage not them whose memories or capacities are weaker : but rather help them , for their will and minds may be as good . Turn to the proofs , which the Preacher alledged , and a rub those good things over their memories again . Then sing a b Psalm or more . If time permit , thou maist teach and examine them in some part of the c Catechism : conferring every point with the proofs of the Holy Scripture . This will both increase our knowledge , and sharpen our memory : seeing by experience we find , that in every Trade they who are most exercised , are ever best expert . But in any wise , remember so to dispose all these private exercises , as that thou maist be with the first in the holy Congregation at the Evening Exercise ; where behave thy self in the like devo●●●n and reverence , as was prescribed for the holy Exercise of the Morning . After Evening Prayer , and at thy Supper , behave thy self in the like religious and holy manner , as was formerly prescribed . And either before or after Supper , if the season of the year and weather do serve . 1. Walk into the fields , and meditate upon the Works of God : for in every Creature thou maist read , as in an open Book , the Wisdom , Power , Providence and Goodness of Almighty God. And how that none is able to make d all these things in the variety of their forms , virtues , beauties , life ▪ motions and qualities , but our most glorious God. 2. Consider how gracious he is , that made all these things to serve us . 3. Take occasion hereby to stir up both thy self and others , to admire and adore his Power , Wisdom , and Goodness : and to think what ungrateful wretches we are , if we will not ( in all obedience ) serve and honour him . 4. If any neighbour be sick , or in any heaviness , go to visit him . If any be faln at variance , help to reconcile them . To conclude , three sorts of works may lawfully be done on the Sabbath-day . ● . Works of Piety , which either directly concern the service of God , tho' they be performed by bodily labour : as under the Law , the Priests did lab●ur in killing and dressing of Sacrifices , and burning them on the Altar . And Christians under the Gospel , when they travel far to the places of God's worship ; it is but a Sabbath-day's journey , like to that of the Shunamite , who travelled from home , to hear the Prophet on the Sabbath day , because she had no teaching near her own dwelling . And the Preacher , tho' he laboureth in the sweat of his brows , to the wearying of his body , yet he doth but a Sabbath-day's work . For the holy end sanctifieth the work , as the Temple did the Gold , or the Altar the Gift thereon . Or else such bodily labour , whereby the People of God are assembled to his worship : as the sounding of Trumpets under the Law , or the ringing of Bells under the Gospel . 2. Works of Charity , as to a save the life of a man , or b of a beast ; to c fodder , water , and dress Cattle : to make honest d provision of meat and drink , to e refresh our selves , and to relieve the poor : to visit the sick , to make f collections for the poor , and such like . 3. Works of necessity , not feigned , but present and imminent , and such as could not be prevented before , nor can be deferred unto another day . As to resist the invasion of enemies , or the robberies of thieves , to quench the rage of fire ; and for Physicians to stanch , or let blood ; or to cure any other desperate disease ; and for Midwives to help Women in labour : Mariners may do their labour : Soldiers being assailed , may fight ; and * P●st may ride for the publick good , and such like . On these or the like occasions , a man may lawfully work . Yea , and when they are called , they may upon any of these occasions , go out of the Church , and from the holy exercises of the Word and Sacraments : provided always , that they be humbled , that such occasions fall out upon that day 〈…〉 ; and that they take no Money for their pains on that day , but only for their stuff , as in the fear of God , and conscience of his Commandment . When the time of Rest approacheth , retire thy self to some private place : and knowing , that in the state of Corruption no man living can sanctifie a Sabbath in that spiritual manner that he should ; but that he commits many breaches thereof , in his Thoughts , Words , and Deeds ; humbly crave pardon for thy defects , and reconcile thy self unto God , with this , or the like Evening Sacrifice . A Private Evening Prayer for the Lord's-day . O Holy , * Holy , Holy Lord God of Sabbath , suffer me , who am but b dust and ashes , to speak unto thy most glorious Maj●sty . I know that thou art a c consuming ●ire ; I acknowledge that I am but withered d stubble . My e sins are in thy sight , and Satan f stands at my right-hand to accuse me for them ; I come not to excuse , but to g judg my self worthy of all those judgments , which thy Justice might most justly inflict upon me a wretched Creature , for my sins and transgressions . The Number of them is so great , the Nature of them is so grievous , that they make me seem vile in mine own eyes , how much more loathsome in thy sight ? I confess they make me so far from being worthy to be called thy Son , that I am altogether unworthy to have the Name of thy meanest Servant . And if thou shouldest but recompence me according to my desert , the Earth ( as weary of such a sinful burthen ) should open her mouth , and swallow me up , like one of Dathan's Family , into the bettomless pit of Hell. For if thou didst not spare the natural branches , those Angels of glorious Excellency , but hurldst them down from the heavenly Habitations , into the pains of hellish darkness , to be kept unto damnation , when they sinned but once against thy Majesty ; and didst expel our first Parents out of Paradise , when they did but transgress one of thy Laws : alas , what vengeance may I expect , who have not offended in one sin only , heaping daily un upon sin , without any true repentance , drinking iniquity as it were water , ever pouring in , but never pouring out any filthyness ; and have transgressed not one , but all thy holy laws and commandments ! Yea , this present day , which thou hast straitly commanded me to keep holy , to thy praise and worship , I have not so religiously kept and observed , nor prepared my soul in that holiness and chastity of heart , as was fit to mee● thy blessed Majesty in the holy assembly of the Saints . I have not attended to the preaching of thy Word , nor to the administration of thy Sacraments with that humility , reverence , and devotion that I should . For tho' I was present at those holy exercises in my body , yet Lord , I was overtaken with much drowsiness . And when I was awake , my mind was so distracted and carried away with vain and worldly thoughts , that my ●oul seemed to be absent , and o●● of the Church . I have not so duly ( as I should ) meditated with my self , nor conferred with my Family , upon those good instru●ctions which we have heard and received out of thy holy Word , by the publick Ministry . For default whereof , Satan hath stoln the most part of those instructions out of my heart , and I wretched creature have forgotten them , as though they had never been heard . And my family doth not thrive in knowledge and sanctification under my government , as they should . Though I know where many of my poor brethren live in want and necessity , and some in pain , and comfortless ; yet I have not remembred to relieve the one with my Alms , nor the other with Consolations : but I have feasted my self , and satisfied mine own Lusts. I have spent the most part of the day in idle talk , vain sports and exercises : Yea , Lord I have , &c. * And for all these my sins my Conscience cries guilty , thy Law condemns me , and I am in thy hand to receive the sentence and curse that is due to the wilful breach of so holy a Commandment . But what if I am by thy Law condemned ? Yet , Lord , thy Gospel assures me , that thy mercy is above all thy works : that thy grace transcends thy Law ; and thy goodness delighteth there to reign , where sins do most † abound . In the multitude therefore of thy Mercies , and for the Merits of Jesus Christ my Saviour , I beseech thee , O Lord ( who despiseth not the sighings of a contrite heart , nor desirest the death of a penitent sinner ) to pardon and forgive me all those my sins , and all the errors of this day , and of my whole life ; and free my soul from that curse and Judgment which is due unto me for them . Thou that didst justifie the contrite Publican for Four Words of confession , and received'st the Prodigal Child ( when he had spent all the stock of thy grace ) into favour upon his repentance : pardon my sins likewise , O Lord , and suffer me not to perish for my transgressions . O spare me , and receive me into thy favour again . Wil● thou ( O Lord ) reject me , who hast received all Publicans , Harlots , and Sinners , that upon repentance sued to thee for grace ? Shall I alone be excluded from thy mercy ? Far be it from me to think so , for thou art the same God of mercy unto me that thou wast unto them , and thy compassions never fail . Wherefore , O Lord , deal not with me after my merits , but according to thy great mercy . Execute ●ot thy severe Justice against me a sinner , but exercise thy long-sufferance in forbearing thine own creature . I have nothing to present unto thee for a satisfaction , but only those Bloody Wounds , bitter Death and Passion , which thy blessed Son , my only Saviour , hath suffered for me . Him ( in whom only thou art well pleased ) I offer unto thee for all my sins , wherewith thou art displeased . Him my Mediator , the Request of whose Blood , speaking better things than that of Abel , thy mercy can never gain-say . Illuminate my understanding , and sanctifie my heart with thy holy Spirit that it may bring to my remembrance all those good and profitable lessons , which this day and at other times have been taught me out of thy holy Word ; that I may remember thy Commandments to keep them , thy Judgments to avoid them , a●d thy sweet Promises to rely upon them in time of misery and distress . And now , O Lord , I resign my self to thy most holy Will : O receive me into thy favour ; and so draw me by thy grace unto thy self , that I may as well be thine by love and imitation , as by calling and creation , and give me grace so to keep holy thy Sabbaths in this life ; as that ( when this life is ended ) I may with all thy Saints and Angels , celebrate an eternal Sabbath of joys and praise , to the honour of thy most glorious Name , in thy heavenly Kingdom , for evermore . Amen . And then calling thy Family together , shut up the Sabbath with the Meditations and Prayers before prescribed for thy Family . And the Lord will give thee 〈◊〉 Night a more sweet and quiet rest than ordinary , and prosper thee the better in all the labours of the week following . Thus far of the ordinary Practice of Piety , both in private and publick . Now followeth the extraordinary practice of Piety , whereby God is glorified in our lives . THe extraordinary Practice of Piety consists either in fasting or feasting . 1. Of the Practice of Piety in Fasting . There are divers kinds of fasting . First , a constrained Fast , as when men either have not food to ear , as in the a Famine of Samaria : or having food cannot eat it for heaviness or sickness , as it befel them who where in the b Ship with St. Paul. This is rather Famine than Fasting . Secondly , c A natural Fast , which we under●ake Physically for the health of our body . Thirdly , d A civil Fast , which the Magistrate enjoyneth for the better main●●nance of the Common-wealth , that by 〈◊〉 Fish as well as Fl●sh , there may be greater plenty of both . Fourthly , e A miraculous Fast , as the forty days fast of Moses and Elias , the Types ; and of Christ , the substance . This is rather to be admired than imitated . Fifthly , f A daily Fast , when a man is careful to use the Creatures of God wit● such moderation , that he is n●t m●de heavier , but more g chearful , to serve God and to do the duties of his calling , This is especially to be observed of ministers and h Judges . Sixthly , i A religious Fast , which a man voluntarily undertakes , to make his body and soul the fitter to pray more fervently unto God , upon some extraordinary occasion . And of this Fast only we are to treat . The Religious Fast is of Two sorts , either private or publick . 1. Of a Private Fast. THat we may rightly perform a private Fast , Four things are to be observed : First the Author : Secondly , the Time and Occasion : Thirdly the Manner : Fourthly , the Ends of private Fasting . 1. Of the Author . The first that ordained Fasting , was God himself in a Paradise : and it was the first Law that God made , in commanding Adam to abstain from eating the forbidden fruit . God would not pronounce nor write his b Law without fasting , and in his Law commands all his people to fast . So doth our c Saviour Christ teach all his Disciples under the New Testament likewise . By religious fasting a man comes nearest the life of d Angels , and to do God's will on Earth , as it is done in Heaven . Yea , Nature seemeth to teach man this duty , in giving him a e li●tle mouth , and a n●rrower throat ; for Nature is content with a little , Grace with less . Neither doth Nature and Grace agree in any one act better than in this Excercise of Religious Fasting ; for it strengtheneth the memory , and cleareth the mind ; illuminateth the understanding , and bridleth the Affections ; mortifieth the flesh , and preserveth Chastity ; preventeth sickness , and continueth health ; it delivereth from evils , and procureth all kind of blessings . By breaking this Fast , the Serpent overthrew the first a Adam , so that he lost Paradise . But by keeping a Fast , the second Adam vanquished the Serpent , and restored us into Heaven . Fasting was she who covered Noah safe in the Ark , whom Intemperance uncovered , and left stark naked in the Vineyard . By fasting , Lot quenched the flame of Sodom , whom Drunkenness scorched with the fire of Incest . Religious Fasting and talking with God , made Moses's Face to shine before Men ; when Idolatrous eating and drinking ca●sed the Israelites to appear abominable in the sight of God. It rapt Elias in an Angelical Coach to Heaven ; when voluptuous Ahab was sent in a Bloody Chariot to Hell. It made Herod believe that John Baptist should live after death by a blessed Res●rrection , when after an intemperate life , he could promise nothing to himself , but eternal death and destruction . O divine Ordinance of a divine Author ! 2. Of the Time. The b holy Scripture appoints no Time under the New Testament to fast ; but but leaves it unto Christians own free choice , Rom. 14. 3. 1 Cor. 7. 5. to fast as occasion shall be offered unto them , Mat. 9. 15. As when a man becomes an humble and earnest suiter unto God for the pardon of some gross sin committed ; or for the * prevention of some sin , whereunto a man feels himself by Satan sollicited : or to obtain some special blessing which he wants : or to avert some Judgment which a man fears , or is already faln upon himself or others : Or , lastly to subdue his flesh unto his spirit , that he may more chearfully pour forth his soul unto God by prayer . Upon these occasions a man may fast a a day or b longer , as his occasion requiees , and the constitution of his body , and other needful affairs will permit . 3. Of the manner of a private Fast. The true manner of performing a private fast , consists partly in outward , partly in inward actions . The outward actions are , to abstain , for the time that we fast : First , from all c worldly business and labour , making our fasting day , as it were a Sabbath day , Lev. 23. 28. for worldly business will distract our minds from holy devotion . Secondly , from all manner of food , yea , from d bread and water , so far as health will permit : 1. That so we may acknowledge our own indignity , as being unworthy both of life , and all the means for the maintenance thereof . 2. That by afflicting the Body , the Soul , which fol●loweth the constitution there●f , may be the more humbled . 3. That so we may take a godly e revenge upon our selves , for abusing our liberty in the use of God's Creatures . 4. That by the hunger of our Bodies , through want of these earthly things , our Souls may learn to hunger more eagerly after spiritual and heavenly food . 5. To put us in mind , that as we abstain from food which is lawful , so we should much more abstain from * Sin , which is altogether unlawful . Thirdly , From good and costly f apparel ; that as the abuse of these puffs us up with pride ; so the laying aside their lawful use may witness our humility . And to this end in ancient times they used ( especially in publick Fasts ) to put g on Sackcloth , or other course Apparel . The Equity hereof still remaineth ; especially in publick Fasts , at what time to come into the Assembly with starched Bands , crisped Hair , brave Apparel , and decked with Flowers or Perfumes , argueth a Soul that is neither humble before God , nor ever knew the true use of so holy an exercise . Fourthly , From the full measure of h ordinary sleep . That thou maist that way also humble thy Body : and that thy Soul may watch and pray , to be prepared for the coming of Christ. And if thou wilt break thy sleep early and late for worldly gain : how much more should'st thou do it for the service of God ? And if a Ahab ( in imitation of the godly ) did in his fast lie in such-cloth , to break his sleep by night ; what shall we think of those who on a fasting-day will yield themselves to sleep in the open Church ? Fifthly and lastly , From all outward pleasures of our senses . So that as it was not the * throat only that sinned , so must not the throat only be punished : and therefore we must endeavour to make our eyes ( as at all times , so ) especially on that day , to fast from beholding vanities ; our ears from hearing Mirth or Musick , but such as may move to mour● ; our n●strils from pleasant smell : our tongues from lying , dissembling , and slandering ; yea , the use of the Marriage b●d must be omitted in a religious reverence of the Divine Majesty , that so nothing may hinder our true Humiliation , but that all may be signs that we are unfeignedly humble . Thus much of the outward manner . The inward manner of fasting consists in Two things : 1. Repentance . 2. Prayer . Repentance hath Two Parts : 1. a Penite●cy for sins past . 2. b Amendment of life in time to come . This Penitency consists in Three things : First , an inward insight of sin , and sense of misery . Secondly , a bewailing of thy vile estate . Thirdly , an humble and particular confession of all thy known sins . 1. Of the inward insight of sin , and s●●se of misery . This sense and insight will be effected in thee : First , by considering thy sins , especially thy gross sins , according to the circumstances of the time when , place where , manner how , and persons with whom it was committed . Secondly , the Majesty of God against whom it was done : and the rather , because thou didst such things against him since he became a Father unto thee , and bestowed so many sweet blessings , in bountiful manner upon thee , Thirdly , in considering the curses which God hath threatned for thy sin : how grievously God hath plagued others for the same fault , and how that no means in Heaven or Earth could deliver thee from being eternally damned for them , had not the son of God so lovingly died for thee Lastly , That if God loves thee , he must chasten thee ere it be long , with some grievous affliction ; unless thou dost prevent him by speedy and unfeigned repentance . Let these and the like considerations , so prick thy heart with sorrow , that melting for remorse within thee , it may be dissolved into a fountain of tears , trickling down thy mournful Cheeks . This mourning is the beginning of true fasting , and therefore oft-times * put for fasting , the first and principal part for the whole action . 2. Of the bewailing of thine own estate . b Bewailing or lamentation , is the pouring out of the inward mourning of the heart , by the outward means of the voice , and tears of the eyes . With such filial earnestness and importunity in prayer , is our heavenly Father well pleased . Nay , when it is the fruit of his Spirit , and the effect of our faith , he cannot be displeased with it . For if he heard the moans which extremity wrong from c Ismael and Hagar ; and heareth the cry of the d young ravens , and roaring of e Lyons , how much rather will he hear the mournful lamentations which his own Children make unto him in their misery ? 3. Of the humble confession of sins . In this action thou must deal plainly with God , and acknowledge all the sins thou knowest , not only in general , but also in particular . This hath been the manner of all God's Children in their Fasts : first , because that without Confession thou hast no promise of mercy or forgiveness of sins . Secondly , That so thou maist acknowledge God to be just , and thy self unrighteous . Thirdly , That by the numbring of thy sins , thy heart may be the more humbled and pulled down . Fourthly , That it may appear , that thou art truly penitent : for till God hath given thee grace to repent , thou wilt be more ashamed to confess thy fault , than to commit thy sin . The plainer thou deale●● in this respect with God , the more graciously will God deal with thee : for if thou dost acknowledge thy sins , God is faithful and just to forgive thee thy sins : and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son shall clearse thee from all thy sins . To help thee the better to perform these three parts of Penitency , thou must diligently read such Chapters and Portions of the holy Scriptures , as do chiefly concern thy particular sins : that thou maist see God's curse and judgments on others for the like sins , and be the more humbled thy self . Thus far of the first part of Repentance , which is penitency . The other part which is Amendment of life , consists ; First , in devout Prayer : Secondly , in devout Actions This devout Prayer , which we make in time of Fasting , in either deprecation of evil , or craving needful good things . Deprecation of evil , is , when thou beseech●st GOD for Christ the Mediator's sake , to pardon unto thee those sins which thou hast confessed , and to turn from thee those judgments which are due unto there for thy sins . And as Benhadad , because the heard , That the King of Israel was merciful , prostrated himself unto him with a r●pe about his neck ; so because thou knowest that the King of Heaven is merciful , cast down thy self in his presence , in all true signs of humiliation ( especially , seeing h● calleth upon thee to come unto him in thy troubles ) and doubtless thou shalt find him most merciful . The craving of needful good things , is ▪ First , a fervent and faithful begging of God , to seal by his Spirit in thy heart , the assurance of the forgiveness of all thy sins . Secondly , to renew thy heart by the Holy Ghost , so that sin may daily decay , and righteousness more and more increase in thee . Lastly , in desiring a supply of faith , patience , chastity , and all other graces which thou wantest : and an increase of those which God of his mercy hath bestowed upon thee already . Thus far of Prayer in Fasting . The devout actions in Fasting , are two . First , Avoiding evil . Secondly , Doing good . 1. Of avoiding Evil. This Abstinence from evil , is that which is chiefly signified by thy Abstinence from food , &c. and is the chief end of fasting , as the † Ninevites very well knew . A day of fast , and not fasting from sin , the Lord abhorreth . It is not the vacuity of the stomach , but the * purity of the heart that God respecteth . If therefore thou wouldest have God to turn from thee the † evil of Affliction ; thou must first turn away from thy self the evil of transgression . And without this fasting from evil , thy Fast favours more noisom to God , than thy breath doth to Man. This made God so often to reject the Fast of the a Jews . And as thou must endeavour to avoid all sin ; so especially that sin wherewith thou hast provoked God , either to shake his rod at thee , or already to lay his chastening hand upon thee . And do this with a resolution , by the assistance of God's grace , never to commit those sins again . For * what shall it profit a man by abstinence to humble his body , if his mind swell with pride ? Or to forbear Wine and strong drink , and to be drunk with wrath and malice ? Or to let no flesh go into the Belly , when lyes , slanders , and ribauldry ( which are worse than any meat ) come out of the mouth ? To abstain from * meat , and to do mischief , is the Devil 's fast , who doth evil , and is ever hungry . 2. Of doing good works . The † good works which as a Christian thou must do every day , but especially on thy Fasting-day , are either the works of Piety to God , or the works of Charity towards thy brethren . 1. The works of Piety to God , are the practice of all the former duties , in the sincerity of a good Conscience , and in the sight of God. 2. The works of Charity towards our Brethren are , a forgiving wrongs , remitting debts to the poor that are not well able to pay : but especially in giving alms to the poor , that want relief and sustenance . Else we shall * under pretence of godliness , practice miserableness : like those , who will pinch their own bellies , to defraud their labouring servants of their due allowance . As therefore Christ joyned Fasting , Prayer , and Alms together , in Precept , ●o must thou joyn them together , like Cornelius , in practice . And therefore be sure to give at the least so much to the * poor , on thy Fasting-day , as thou wouldest have spent in thine own dyet , if thou hadst not fasted that day . And remember that he that b soweth plenteously , shall reap plenteously ; and that this is a special sowing day . Let thy Fasting so † afflict thee , that it may refresh a poor Christian ; and rejoyce that thou hast dined and supped in another ; or rather , that thou hast c feasted hungry Christ , in his poor Members . In giving Alms , observe Two things : First , the Rules , Secondly , the Rewards . 1. Rules in giving of Alms , and doing good works . 1. They must be done in obedience to God's Commandments : not because we think it to be good , but because God requireth us to do such and such a good deed : for such a obedience of the worker God preferreth before all sacrifices , and the greatest works . 2. They must proceed from b faith , else they cannot please God : nay without faith the most specious works are but shining sins , and Ph●rifees Alms. 3. Thou must not think by thy good Works and Alms , to merit heaven : for in vain had the Son of God shed his Blood , if Heaven could have been purchased either for Money or Meat . Thou must therefore seek Heaven's Possession by the purchase of Christ's Blood , not by the merits of thine own works . For * eternal Life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ. Yet every true Christian that believes to be saved , and hopes to come to Heaven , must do good works ( as the Apostle saith ) for necessary uses , which are four . First , That d God may be glorified , Secondly , That thou mayest shew thy self e thankful for thy Redemption . Thirdly , That thou maist f make sure thine Election unto thy self . Fourthly , That thou mayest g win others , by thy holy devotion , to think the better of thy Christian profession . And for these uses we are said to be h God's Workmanship , created in Christ Jesus unto good works , and that God hath ordained us to walk in them . 4. Thou must not give thine Alms to impudent Vagabonds , who live in wilful idleness and filthiness , but to the religious and honest Poor , who are either sick , or so old that they cannot work ; or such who work , but their work cannot competently maintain them : Seek out those in the back L●nes , and relieve them . But if thou m●etest one that asketh an Alms for Jesus sake , and knowest him not to be unworthy , deny him not ; for it is better to give unto ten Counterfeits , than to suffer Christ to go , in one poor Saint unrelieved . Look not on the Person , but give thy Alms as unto Christ in the Party . 2. Of the Rewards of Alms-deeds and Good works . 1. Alms are a special means to move God in mercy to turn away his i temporal judgments from us : when we by a true Faith ( that sheweth it self by such fruits ) do return unto him . 2. Merciful - Alms givers k shall be the Children of the Highest , and be like God their Father , who is the l Father of mercies . They shall be his m Stewards to dispose his Goods ; his Hands , to distribute his Alms : and if it be so great an honour to be the King's Almoner , how much greater is it to be the God of Heavens Alms-giver ? 3. When all this World shall forsake us , then only good Works and good Angels shall accompany us , the one to n receive their reward the other to deliver their o charge . 4. Liberty in Alms-deeds is our p surest foundation , that we shall obtain in eternal life , a liberal reward , through the Mercy and Merits of Christ. Lastly , By Alms-deeds we feed and relieve Christ in his Members ; and q Christ at the last day will acknowledge our love , and reward us in his mercy : and then it shall appear , that what we gave to the poor , was not lost , but r lent unto the Lord What greater motives can a Christian wish , to excite him to be a liberal Alms-giver ? Thus far of the Manner of Fasting . Now follow the Ends. 3. Of the Ends of Fasting . The true Ends of Fasting are not to merit God's favour , or eternal life ( for that we have only of the gift of God through Christ ) nor to place Religion in bodily abstinence ( for Fasting in it self is not the worship of God , but an help to further us the better to worship God ; ) But the true Ends of Fasting are Three : First , To subdue our f Flesh to the Spirit : but not so to t weaken our Bodies , as that we are made unfit to do the necessary Duties of our Calling . A good man ( saith Solomon ) is merciful to his beast , Prov. 12. verse 10. much more to his own body . Secondly , That we may more devoutly contemplate God's holy Will , and fervently u pour forth our Souls unto him by prayer : for as there are some kind of Devils , so there are also some kind of Sins , which cannot be subdued but by Fasting , joyned unto Prayer , Matth. 17. 22. Thirdly , That by our x serious humiliation , and judging of our selves , we may escape the judgment of the Lord ; not for the merit of our Fasting ( which is none ) but for the mercy of God , who hath promised to remove his judgments from us , when we by Fasting do unseignedly humble our selves before him . And indeed no Child of God ever conscionably used this holy exercise , but in the end he obtained his request at the hand of God : both in receiving graces which he wanted , as appears in the examples of y Hannah , z Jehosaphat , a Nehemiah , b Daniel , c Esdras , d Esther ; as also in turning away judgments threatned , or faln upon him , as may be seen in the examples of the e Israelites , the f Ninevites , g Rehoboam , h Ahab , i Hezekiah , k Manasses . He who gave his dear Son from Heaven to the Death , to ransom us when we were his enemies , thinks nothing too dear on Earth to bestow upon us , when we humble our selves , being made his reconciled Friends and Children . Thus far of the private Fast. 2. Of the publick Fast. A Publick Fast is , when by the * Authority of the Magistrate , either the whole Church within his Dominion , or some special Congregation ( whom it concerneth ) do assemble themselves together , to perform the forementioned duties of Humiliation : either for the removing of some publick . b calamity threatned , or already inflicted upon them , as the sword , invasion , famine , pestilence , or other fearful sickness : or else for the obtaining of some publick blessing , for the good of the c Church , as to crave the assistance of his holy Spirit , in the election and ordination of fit and able Pastors , &c. or , for the tryal of Truth , and execution of Justice , in matters of difficulty and great importance , &c. When any evil is to be removed , the d Pastors are to lay open unto the People , by the evidence of God's Word , the sins which were the special causes of that Calamity : call upon them to repent , and publish unto them the mercies of God in Christ upon their Repentance . The People must hear the Voice of God's Messengers with hearty sorrow for their sins ; earnestly beg pardon in Christ , and promise unfeigned amendment of their life . When any blessing is to be obtained , the Pastors must lay open to the People the necessity of that blessing , and the goodness of God who giveth such graces for the good of Men. The people must devoutly pray unto God for bestowing of that grace , and that he would bless his own means to his own glory , and the good of his Church . And when the holy Exercise is done , let every Christian have a special care , according to his ability , to e remember the poor . And whosoever ( when just occasion is offered , ) useth not this holy Exercise of Fasting , he may justly suspect , that his heart never yet felt the power of true Christianity . So much of Fasting . Now followeth the exercise of holy Feasting . Of the Practice of Piety in Holy Feasting . HOLY Feasting is a solemn Thanksgiving , ( appointed by Authority ) to be rendred unto God on some special day , for some extraordinary blessings or deliverances received . Such among the Jews was the Feast of the Passover , to remember to praise God for their deliverance out of Egypt's bondage : or the Feast of Purim , to give thanks for their deliverance from Haman's conspiracy . Such amongst us are the fifth of August , to praise God for delivering our Gracious King from the bloody conspiracy of the traiterous Gowries . And the fifth of November , to praise God for the deliverance of the King and the whole State , from the Popish Gun-powder Treason . Such Feasts are to be celebrated by a publick rehearsal of those special benefits , by spiritual Psalms and Dances , by mutual feasting , and sending presents every man to his Neighbour , and by giving gifts to the poor . But forasmuch as the benefit of our Redemption was the greatest that Man needed from God , or that God ever bestowed upon Man ; and that the Lord's-Supper is left by our Redeemer , as the chiefest memorial of our Redemption : every Christian should account this holy Supper , his chiefest and joyfullest Feast in this World. And seeing that as it ministreth to worthy partakers , the greatest assurance which they have of their salvation ; so it pulleth temporal judgments on the Bodies , and ( without repentance ) eternal damnation on the Souls of them who receive it unworthily : Let us see how a Christian may best sit himself to be a due partaker of so holy a feast ; and to be a worthy Guest at so sacred a Supper . Meditations concerning the due manner of practising Piety , in receiving the Holy Supper of the Lord. THough no man living is of himself worthy to be a Guest at so holy a Banquet ; yet it pleaseth God of his grace to accept him for a worthy receiver , who endeavoureth to receive that holy mystery with that competent measure of reverence that he hath prescribed in his Word . He that would receive this holy Sacrament with due reverence , must conscionably perform three sorts of duties . First , those which are to be done before he receiveth . Secondly , those that are to be done in the receiving . Thirdly , those that are to be done after that he hath received the Sacrament . The first is called Preparation , the second Meditation , the third Action or Practice . Of Preparation . That a Christian ought necessarily to prepare himself before he presume to be a partaker of the holy Communion , may evidently appear by five Reasons . First , Because it is God's Commandment . For if he commanded under the pain of death , that none uncircumcised should eat the Paschal Lamb ; nor any circumcised under four days preparation : how much greater preparation doth he require of him , that comes to receive the Sacrament of his Body and Blood , which as it succeedeth , so doth it exceed by many degrees the Sacrament of the Passover . Secondly , Because the Examples of Christ teacheth us so much ; for he washed his Disciples F●et before he admitted them to eat of this Supper , signifying how thou shouldest lay aside all unpureness of heart , and uncleanness of life , and be furnished with humility and charity , before thou presumest to taste of this holy Supper . Thirdly , because it is the counsel of the Holy Ghost ; Let every man examine himself , and so let him eat , &c. And if a man when he is to eat with an earthly Prince , must consider diligently what is before him , and put a Knife to his Throat , rather than commit any Rudeness ; how much more oughtest thou to prepare thy soul , that thou mayest behave thy self with all fear and reverence , when thou art to feast at the holy Table of the Prince of Princes ? Fourthly , Because it hath been ever the practice of all GOD's Saints to use holy preparation before they would meddle with divine Mysteries . David would not go near to God's Altar , till he had first washed his hands in innocency ; much less shouldest thou without due preparation , approach to the Lord's Table . Abimelech would not give , nor David and his Men would not eat the Shew-bread , but on condition that their Vessels were holy : How much less should'st thou presume to eat the Lord's Bread , or rather the Bread which is the Lord , unless the Vessel of thy heart be first cleansed by repentance ? And if the Lord required Joshua ( as he had done Moses before ) to put off his shooes , in reverence of his Holiness , who was present in that place , where he appeared with his sword in his hand for the destruction of his Enemies : how much rather should'st thou put off all the affections of thine earthly conversation , when thou comest near that place , where CHRIST appeareth to the Eye of thy Faith , with Wounds in his hands and side , for the Redemption of his Friends ? And for this cause it is said , That the Lamb's Wife hath made her self ready for the marriage . Prepare therefore thy self , if thou wilt in this life be betrothed unto Christ by Sacramental Grace , or in Heaven married unto him by Eternal Glory . Fifthly , Because that God hath ever smitten with fearful Judgments , those who have presumed to use his holy Ordinances without due fear and preparation . God set a flaming ▪ Sword in a Cherubim's hand to smite our first Parents , being defiled with Sin , if they should attempt to go into Paradise , to eat the Sacrament of the Tree of Life . Fear thou therefore to be smitten with the Sword of God's vengeance , if thou presumest to go to the Church with an impenitent heart , to eat the Sacrament of the Lord of Life . God smote fifty thousand of the * Bethshemites for looking irreverently into his Ark , and kill'd b Vzza with sudden death , for but rash touching of the Ark , and smote c Vzziah with a Leprosie for medling with the Priests Office , which pertained not unto him . The fear of such a stroke made Hezekiah so earnestly to pray unto God , that he would not smite the People that wanted time to prepare themselves as they should , to eat the Passover ; and it is said , that the Lord heard Hezekiah , and healed the people : Intimating , that had it not been for Hezekiah's Prayer , the Lord had smitten the People for their want of due preparation . And the man who came to the Marriage-Feast without his Wedding-garment , or examining of himself , was examined of another : and thereupon bound hand and foot , and cast into utter darkness , Matth. 22. 12. And St. Paul tells the Corinthians , that for want of this preparation in examining and judging themselves , before they did eat the Lord's-Supper , God had sent that fearful sickness among them , whereof some were then sick , others weak , and many fallen asleep ; that is , taken away by temporal death . Insomuch that the Apostle saith , that every unworthy receiver eats his own judgment ; temporal , if he repents ; eternal , if he repents not : and that in so hainous a measure ; as if he were guilty of the very Body and Blood of the Lord , whereof this Sacrament is a holy sign and seal . And Princes punish the Indignity offered to their Great Seal , in as deep a measure , as that which is done to their own Persons , whom it representeth . And how hainous the guiltiness of Christ's Blood is , may appear by the misery of the Jews ever since they wished His Blood to be on them and their Children . But then thou wilt say , It were safer to abstain from coming at all to the holy Communion : Not so , for God hath threatned to punish the a wilful neglect of his Sacraments with eternal damnation both of Body and Soul. And it is the Commandment of Christ ; Take , eat , do this in remembrance of me : And he will have his Commandment , under the penalty of his Curse , obeyed . And seeing that this Sacrament was the greatest Token of Christ's love , which he left at his end to his friends whom he loved to the end , therefore the neglect and contempt of this Sacrament must argue the contempt and neglect of his love and blood-shedding : than which no sin in God's account can seem more hainous . Nothing hinders why thou maist not come freely to the Lord's Table , but because thou hadst rather want the love of God , than leave thy filthy sins . Oh come , but come a Guest prepared for the Lord's Table ; seeing they are blessed , who are called to the Lambs Supper . O come , but come prepared ; because the efficacy of this Sacrament is received according to the proportion of the Faith of the Receiver . This preparation consists in the serious consideration of three things : First , of the worthiness of the Sacrament , which is termed , to discern the Lord's Body . Secondly , of thine own unworthiness , which is to judge thy self . Thirdly of the means , whereby thou mayest become a worthy Receiver , called Communication of the Lord's Body . 1. Of the worthiness of the Sacrament . THE worthiness of this Sacrament is considered three ways : First by the Majesty of the Author ordaining . Secondly , by the preciousness of the Parts whereof it consisteth . Thirdly , by the excellency of the Ends for which it was ordained . 1. Of the Author of the Sacrament . The Author was not any Saint or Angel , but our Lord Jesus , the eternal Son of God. For it pertaineth to Christ only under the New Testament , to institute a Sacrament , because he only can promise and perform the grace that it signifieth . And we are charged to hear no voice but his in his Church . How sacred should we esteem the Ordinance that proceedeth from so Divine an Author . 2. Of the parts of the Sacrament . The parts of this blessed Sacrament are three . First , the earthly signs signifying . Secondly , the Divine Word Sanctifying Thirdly , the Heavenly Graces signified . First , the Earthly signs are * Bread and Wine , in number two , but one in use . Secondly , the Divine Word , is the Word of Christ's Institution ; pronounced with prayers and blessings by a b lawful Minister . The Bread and Wine without the Word are nothing , but as they were before : but when the Word cometh to those Elements , then they are made a Sacrament : and God is present with his own ordinance , and ready to perform whatsoever he doth promise . The Divine Words of blessing do not change or annihilate the * substance of the Bread and Wine : ( for if their substance did not remain , it could be no Sacrament : ) but it changeth them in use and in name : For , that which was before but common Bread and Wine to nourish mens Bodies ; is after the blessing destinated to an holy use , for the feeding of the Souls of Christians . And where before they were called but Bread and Wine ; they are now called by the name of those holy things which they signifie , The Body and Blood of Christ ; the better to draw our minds from those outward Elements to the Heavenly Graces , which by the sight of our bodies they represent to the spiritual eyes of our Faith. Neither did Christ direct these words , This is my body This is my blood , to the Bread and Wine ; but to his Disciples , as appears by the words going before , Take ye , eat ye , Neither is the Bread his Body , but in the same sense that the Cup is the New Testament , viz. by a Sacramental Metonymie . And Mark notes plainly , that the words This is my Blood , &c. were not pronounced by our Saviour , till after that all his Disciples had drunk of the Cup. Mark 14. 23 , 24. And afterwards , in respect of the natural substance thereof , he calls that the fruit of the Vine , which in respect of the spiritual signification thereof , he had before termed his Blood , verse 25. after the manner of terming all Sacraments . And Christ bids us not to make him , but to do this in remembrance of him ; and he bids us eat not simply his Body , but his Body as it was then broken , and his Blood shed . Which S. Paul expounds to be but the Communion of Christ's Body and the c Communion of his Blood ; that is , an effectual Pledge that we are 〈…〉 of Christ , and of all the Merits of his Body and Blood. And by the frequent use of this Communion , Paul will have us to d make a shew of the Lord's death till he come e from Heaven , and till we , as f Eagles , shall be caught up into the air , to meet him who is the blessed Carkase and Life of our Souls . Thirdly , The spiritual Graces are likewise two ; the Body of Christ , as it was with the feeling of God's anger due to us , crucified : and his blood , as it was ( in the like sort ) shed for the remission of their sins . They are also in number two , but in use one , viz. whole Christ ; with all his benefits offered to all , and given indeed to the faithful . These are the Three integral parts of this blessed Sacrament , the Sign , the Word , and the Grace . The Sign without the Word , or the Word without the Sign , can do nothing , and both conjoyned are unprofitable without the Grace signified : but all Three concurring , make an effectual Sacrament to a worthy Receiver . Some receive the outward Sign without the spiritual Grace , as Judas , who ( as Austin saith ) received * the bread of the Lord , but not the bread which was the Lord. Some receive the spiritual Grace without the outward Sign , as the Saint-Thief on the Cross ; and innumerable of the faithful , who dying desire it , but cannot receive it through some external impediments : but the worthy Receivers to their comfort receive both in the Lord's-Supper . Christ chose Bread and Wine ( rather than any other Elements ) to be the outward Signs in this blessed Sacrament : first , because they are easiest for all sorts to attain unto : Secondly , to teach us , that as man's temporal life is chiefly nourished by † bread , and cherished by wine ; so are our Souls by his body and blood sustained and quickned unto eternal Life . Christ appointed Wine with the Bread to be the outward Signs in this Sacrament , to teach us : first , that as the perfect nourishment of Man's Body consists both of meat and drink : so Christ is unto our Souls not in part , but in perfection , both salvation and nourishment . Secondly , that by seeing the Sacramental Wine apart from the Bread , we should remember how all his precious blood was spilt out of his blessed body for the remission of our sins . The outward signs the Pastor gives in the Church , and thou dost eat with the mouth of thy body : the spiritual grace Christ reacheth from Heaven , and thou must eat it with the mouth of thy Faith. 3. Of the Ends for which this holy Sacrament was ordained . The excellent and admirable Ends or Fruits , for which this blessed Sacrament was ordained , are seven . Of the first End of the Lord's-Supper . 1. To keep Christians in a continual † remembrance of that propitiatory sacrifice , which Christ once for all , offered by his death upon the Cross , to reconcile us unto God. * Do this ( saith Christ ) in remembrance of me . And ( saith the Apostle ) b As oft as ye shall eat this bread and drink this cup , ye do shew the Lord's death till he come . And he saith , that ( by this Sacrament , and the Preaching of the Word ) c Jesus Christ was so evidently set forth before the eyes of the Galatians , as if he had been crucified among them : for the whole action representeth Christ's death ; the breaking of the bread , blessed the crucifying of his blessed body : and the pouring forth of the sanctifyed wine , the shedding of his holy blood . Christ was once in himself * really offered : but as oft as the Sacrament is celebrated : so oft is he spiritually offered by the faithful . Hence the Lord's Supper is called a propitiatory Sacrifice , not properly or really , but † figuratively , because it is a memorial of that propitiatory Sacrifice , which Christ offered upon the Cross. And to distinguish it from that real Sacrifice , the Fathers call it the * a unbloody Sacrifice . It is also called the Eucharist , because that the Church in this Action , offereth unto God the Sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving for her Redemption ; effected by the true and only expiatory Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross. If the sight of Moab's King sacrificing on his walls his own son , to move his Gods to rescue his , 2 King. 3. 27. moved the assailing Kings to such pity , that they ceas'd the assault , and raised their siege : how should the spiritual sight of God the Father , b sacrificing on the Cross his only begotten Son , to save thy soul , move thee to love God thy Redeemer , and to leave sin , that could not in justice be expiated by any meaner ransom ? Of the second end of the Lord's Supper . 2. To confirm our Faith : For God by this Sacrament doth signifie and seal unto us from Heaven ; that according to the promise and new covenant which he hath made in Christ , he will truly receive into his grace and mercy all penitent believers , who duly receive this holy Sacrament ; and that for the merits of the death and passion of Christ , he will as verily forgive them all their sins , as they are made partakers of this Sacrament . In this respect the holy Sacrament is called , * The seal of the new Covenant and remission of sins . In our greatest doubts we may therefore , receiving this Sacrament , undoubtedly say with Samson's Mother , * If the Lord would kill us , he would not have received a burnt-offering and a meat-offering at our hands , neither would he have shewed us all these things , nor would at this time have told us such things as these . Of the third end of the Lord's Supper . 3. To be a pledge and symbol of the most near and effectual communion which Christians have with Christ. † the Cup of blessing , which we bless , is it not the communion of the blood of Christ ? the bread which we break , is it not the Communion of the body of Christ ? that is a most effectual sign and pledge of our Communion with Christ ? This union is called b abiding in us , c joyning to the Lord , d dwelling in our hearts : and set forth in the holy Scriptures by divers Similes . 1. Of the † Vine and branches . 2. Of the * head and body . 3. Of the a foundation and building . 4. Of one b Loaf , confected of many Grains . 5. Of the c matrimonial union 'twixt Man and Wife , and such like . And it is threefold betwixt Christ and Christians . The first is natural , betwixt our Humane Nature , and Christ's Divine Nature , in the Person of the Word : The second is mystical , betwixt our Persons absent from the Lord , and the Person of Christ , God and Man , in one mystical Body . The third is celestial , betwixt our Persons present with the Lord , and the Person of Christ in a body glorified . These three Conjunctions depend each upon other . For , had not our Nature been first Hypostatically united to the Nature of God in the second Person , we could never have been united to Christ in a Mystical Body . And if we be not in this life ( though absent ) united to Christ by a Mystical Union , we shall never have Communion of glory with him in his heavenly Presence . The Mystical Vnion ( chiefly here meant ) is wrought betwixt Christ and us by the Spirit of Christ apprehending us : and by our faith ( stirred up by the same Spirit ) apprehending Christ again . Both which St. Paul doth most lively express : I follow after , if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus . How can he fall away that holdeth , and is so firmly holden ? This Union he shall best understand in his mind , who doth most feel it in his heart . But of all other times , this Union is best felt , and most confirmed , when we duly receive the Lord's-Supper . For then we shall sensibly feel our hearts knit unto Christ , and the desires of our souls drawn by Faith and the Holy Ghost , as by the cords of love , nearer and nearer to his holiness . From this Communion with Christ , there follow to the faithful many unspeakable benefits . As first , Christ took by imputation all their * sins and guiltiness upon him , to satisfie God's Justice for them ; and he freely gives , by imputation , unto us all his b righteousness in this life , and all his right unto eternal life when this is ended : and counteth all the good or ill that is done unto us , as done unto his c own person . Secondly , There floweth from Christ's Nature into our Nature , united to him , the lively spirit and breath of grace , which d reneweth us to a spiritual life : and so sanctifieth our minds , wills , and affections , that we daily grow more and more e conformable to the Image of Christ. Thirdly , He bestoweth upon them all saving f graces , necessary to attain eternal life , as the sense of God's love , the assurance of our election , with regeneration , justification , and grace to do good works : till we come to live with him in his heavenly Kingdom . This should teach all true Christians to keep themselves as the undefiled members of Christ's holy body , and to beware of all uncleanness and filthiness : knowing that they live in Christ , or rather , that Christ liveth in them . From this Vnion with Christ ( sealed unto us by the Lord's-Supper ) St. Paul draweth arguments , to withdraw the Corinthians from the pollution both of Idolatry , 1 Cor. 10. 16. and Adultery , 1 Cor. 16. 15 , 16. Lastly , From the former Communion 'twixt Christ and Christians , there flows another Communion 'twixt Christians among themselves . Which is also lively represented by the Sacrament of the Lord's-Supper : in that the whole Church being many , do all communicate of one Bread , in that holy action , We being many , are one bread and one body ; for we are all partakers of that one Bread : that as the Bread which we eat in the Sacrament , is but one , tho' it be confected of many Grains ; so all the faithful , tho' they be many , yet are they but one mystical body , under one head , which is Christ. Our Saviour prayed five times in that Prayer which he made after his last Supper , that his Disciples might be one : to teach us at once , how much this Vnity pleaseth him . This Vnion betwixt the faithful , is so ample , that no distance of place can part it ; so strong , that death cannot dissolve it ; so durable , that time cannot wear it out ; so effectual , that it breeds a fervent love betwixt those who never saw one anothers face . And this conjunction of Souls is termed , the Communion of Saints , which Christ effecteth by six special means . First , by governing them all by one and the same holy † Spirit . Secondly , by enduring them all with one and the same * Faith. Thirdly , by shedding abroad his own a love into all their hearts . Fourthly , by b regenerating them all by one and the same Baptism . Fifthly , by c nourishing them all with one and the same spiritual food . Sixthly , by being one d quickning Head of that one body of his Church , which he e reconciled to God in the body of his flesh . Hence it was , that the multitude of believers in the Primitive f Church , were of one heart and of one soul , in truth , affection , and compassion . And this should teach Christians to love one another ; seeing they are all members of the same holy and mystical Body , whereof Christ is Head. And therefore they should have all a Christian sympathy , and fellow feelling , to rejoyce one in anothers joy , to condole one in anothers grief , to bear with one anothers infirmity : and mutually to relieve one anothers wants . Of the fourth end of the Lord's Supper . 4. To feed the Souls of the faithful , in the assured hope of life everlasting . For this Sacrament , is a sign and pledge unto as many as shall receive the same according to Christ's Institution ; that he will according to his promise , by the vertue of his crucified body and blood , as verily feed our souls to life eternal , as our bodies are by Bread and Wine nourished to this temporal life . And to this end Christ in the action of the Sacrament * really giveth his very Body and Blood to every faithful Receiver . Therefore the Sacrament , is called the a Communion of the body and blood of the Lord. And b Communication is not of things absent , but present : neither were it the Lord's Supper , if the Lord's Body and Blood were not there . Christ is verily present in the Sacrament , by a double Vnion ; whereof the first is spiritual , 'twixt Christ and the worthy Receiver ; the second is Sacramental , 'twixt the Body and Blood of Christ , and the outward signs in the Sacrament . The former is wrought by means that the same holy Spirit , dwelling in Christ and in the Faithful c incorporateth the Faithful , as Members unto Christ their Head , and so makes them one with Christ , and partakers of all the Graces , Holiness , and eternal Glory , which is in him : as sure and as verily as they hear the words of the promise , and are partakers of the outwards signs of the holy Sacrament . Hence it is , that the Will of Christ is a true Christians will : and the Christians life is Christ who liveth in him , Gal. 2. 20. If you look to the things that are united , this Union is essential ; if to the truth of this Union , it is real ; if to the manner how it is wrought , it is spiritual . It is not our Faith , that makes the Body and Blood of Christ to be present ; but the Spirit of Christ dwelling in him and us . Our Father doth but receive and apply unto our Souls those heavenly Graces which are offered in the Sacrament . The other , being the Sacramental Vnion , is not a Physical or Local , but a Spiritual conjunction of the earthly signs , which are Bread and Wine , with the heavenly Graces , which are the Body and Blood of Christ in the act of receiving : as if by a mutual relation they were but one and the same thing . Hence it is , that in the same * instant of time that the worthy Receiver eateth with his mouth the Bread and Wine of the Lord , he eateth also with the mouth of his Faith , the very Body and Blood of Christ. Not that † Christ is brought down from Heaven to the Sacrament , but that the holy Spirit by the Sacrament lifts up his mind unto Christ ; not by any local mutation , but by a devout affection ; so that in the holy b contemplation of Faith , he is at that present with Christ , and Christ with him . And thus believing and meditating how Christ his Body was crucified , and his precious blood shed for the remission of his sins , and the reconciliation of his Soul unto God : his Soul is hereby more effectually fed in the assurance of eternal Life , than Bread and Wine can nourish his Body to this Temporal life . There must be therefore of necessity in the Sacrament both the outward signs to be visibly seen with the eyes of the Body , and the Body and Blood of Christ , to be spiritually discerned with the Eye of Faith. But the form , how the Holy Ghost makes the Body of Christ , being absent from us in place , to be present with us by our union , S. Paul terms a † great mystery , such as our understanding cannot worthily comprehend . The Sacramental Bread and Wine therefore are not bare signifying signs , but such as wherewith Christ doth indeed exhibite and give to every worthy Receiver * not only his divine virtue and efficacy , but also his very Body and Blood , as verily as he gave to his Disciples the Holy Ghost , by the sign of his sacred breath , or health to the diseased , by the Word of his mouth , or touch of his hand or garment . And the apprehension by faith is more forcible than the exquisitest comprehension of Sense or Reason . To conclude this point , this holy Sacrament is that blessed Bread , which being eaten , opened the eyes of the a Emauites that they knew Christ. This is that Lordly Cup , by which b we are all made to drink into one Spirit . This is that Rock flowing with c honey , that reviveth the fainting spirits of every true Jonathan , that tasts it with the mouth of Faith. This is that d barley loaf , which tumbling from above , strikes down the tents of the Midianites of infernal darkness . Elias's Angelical e Cake and Water preserved him forty days in Horeb : and f Manna ( Angels food ) fed the Israelites forty years in the wilderness : but this is that g true Bread of life , and heavenly Manna , which if we shall duely eat , will nourish our souls for ever unto life h eternal . How should then our Souls make unto Christ th●t request from a spiritual desire , which the Capernaites did from a carnal motion ? i Lord , evermore give us this bread ? The fifth end of the Lords Supper . 5. To be an assured pledge unto us of our Resurrection . The Resurrection of a Christian is Twofold , First the a spiritual Resurrection of our Souls in this life , from the death of sin , called the first Resurrection : because that by the Trumpet-voice of Christ , in the preaching of the Gospel , we are raised from the death of sin , to the life of Grace : b Blessed and holy is he ( saith St. John ) who hath part in the first Resurrection : for on such the second death hath no power : The * Lord's Supper is both a mean and a pledge unto us , of this spiritual and first Resurrection . c He that eateth me , even he shall live by me . And then we are fit guests to sit d at the table with Christ , when like Lazarus , we are raised from the death of sin , to newness of life , The truth of this first Resurrection will appear by the motion wherewith they are internally moved : for if , when thou art moved to the duties of Religion , and practice of Piety , thy heart answereth with Samuel : e Here I am , speak Lord , for thy servant heareth ; and with David , f O God , my heart is ready . And with g Paul , Lord what wilt thou have me to do ? Then surely , thou art raised from the death of sin , and hast thy part in the first Resurrection ; but if thou remainest ignorant of the true grounds of Religion , and findest in thy self a kind of secret loathing of the exercises thereof , and must be drawn , as it were against thy will , to do the works of Piety , &c. then surely thou hast but a name that thou livest , but thou art dead , as Christ told the Angel of the Church of Sardis , and thy soul is but as salt to keep thy body from stinking . 2. The corporal resurrection of our bodies at the last day , which is called the second resurrection , which freeth us from the first death . h He that eateth my flesh , and drinketh my blood , hath eterra● life , and I ●id raise him up at the last day . For this Sacrament signifieth and fealeth unto us that Christ died and rose again for us , and that his b flesh quickeneth and nourisheth us unto eternal life , and that therefore our bodies shall surely be raised to eternal life at the last day . For seeing our head is risen , all the members of the body shall likewise surely rise again . For how can those bodies which ( being th● weapons of righteousness , Rom. 16. 13. Temples of the Holy Ghost , 1 Cor. 6. 19 and members of Christ ) have been * fed and nourished with the Body and Blood of the Lord of life , but be raised up again at the last day ? And this is the cause that the bodies of the Saints , being dead , are so reverently buried and laid to sleep in the Lord. And their burial places are termed the c beds and dormitories of the Saints . The Reprobates shall arise at the last day ; but by the Almighty Power of Christ , as he is Judge , bringing them as malefactors out of the Gaol , to receive their sentence and deserved execution : but the Elect shall arise by virtue of Christ's Resurrection , and of the Communion which they have with him , as with their Head. And his Resurrection is the † cause and assurance of ours . The d Resurrection of Christ is a Christian 's particular faith : the Resurrection of the dead , is the Child of God's chiefest confidence . Therefore Christians in the Primitive Church , were wont to salute one another in the Morning with these Phrases : * The Lord is risen : and the other would answer , True , the Lord is risen indeed . The sixth end of the Lord's Supper . 6. To seal unto us the assurance of everlasting Life . Oh what more wished or loved than life ? Or what do all men naturally more , either fear or abhor , than death ? Yet is this first death nothing , if it be compared with the second death : neither is this Life any thing worth , in comparison of the Life to come . If therefore thou desirest to be assured of eternal life , prepare thy self to be a worthy receiver of this blessed Sacrament . For our Saviour assureth us , That if any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever : and the bread that I will give , is my flesh , which I will give for the life of the world . He therefore who duly eateth of this holy Sacrament , may truly say , not only , Credo vitam eternam , I believe life everlasting ; but also , Edo vitam eternam , I eat life everlasting . And indeed this is the true Tree of life , which God hath planted in the midst of the Paradise of the Church : And whereof he hath promised to give every one that overcometh to eat . And this Tree of life , by infinite degrees excelleth the Tree of life that grew in the Paradise of Eden ; for that had his root in the Earth , this from Heaven : that gave bu● life to the Body , this to the Soul ; that did but preserve the life of the living , this restoreth life to the dead . The leaves of this tree heal the nations of believers , and it yields every month a new manner of fruit which nourisheth them to life everlasting . Oh , blessed are they who often eat of this Sacrament ! at least , once every month , taste anew of this renewing fruit , which Christ hath prepared for us at his Table to heal our infirmities , and to confirm our belief of life everlasting . Of the seventh end of the Lord's-Supper . 7. To bind all Christians , as it were , by an * oath of fidelity , to serve the one only true God ; and to admit no other propitiatony sacrifice for sins , but that one real sacrifice , which by his death Christ once offered , and by which he finish●d the sacrifices of the Law , and effected eternal Redemption and Righteousness for all believers . And so to remain for ever a publick mark of profession , to distinguish Christians from all Sects and false Religions . And seeing that in the M●ss there is a strange Christ adored , not he that was born of the Virgin Mary , but one that is made of a Wafer Cake ; and that the offering up of this breaden god is thrust upon the Church , as a Propitiatory S●crifice for the quick and the dead : all true Christians upon the danger of wilful perjury before the Lord Chief Justice of heaven and earth , are to detest the Mass , as the Idol of Indignation , which is most derogatory to the all-sufficient world-saving merits of Christ's Death and Passion . For by receiving the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper , we all swear that all real Sacrifices are ended by our Lord's death , and that his body and blood once crucified and shed , is the perpetual food and nourishment of our Souls . 2. How to consider thine own unworthiness . A Man shall best perceive his own unworthiness , by examining his life according to the Ten Commandments of Almighty God. Search therefore what duties thou hast omitted , and what vices thou hast committed , contrary to every one of the Commandments : remembring , that without repentance , and God's mercy in Christ , the * Curse of God ( containing all the miseries of this life ▪ and everlasting torments in hell fire , when this is ended ) is due to the breach of the least of God's Commandments . And having taken a due survey both of thy sins and miseries , retire to some secret place , and there putting thy self in the sight of the Judge , as a guilty malefactor standing at the Bar to receive his Sentence , bowing thy knees to the earth , smiting thy breast with thy fists , and ●edewing thy cheeks with thy tears , confess thy sins and humbly ask him mercy and forgiveness , in these or the like words . An humble confession of sins , to be made unto God before the receiving of the holy Communion . O God and heavenly Father , when I consider the goodness which thou hast ever shewed unto me , and the wickedness which I have committed against heaven and against thee , I am ashamed of my self , and confusion seems to cover my face as a veil ; for which of thy Commandments have I not transgressed ? O Lord , I stand here guilty of the breach of all thy holy Laws . For the love of my heart hath not so intirely cleaved unto thy * Majesty as to vain and earthly things : I have not feared thy judgments to deterr me from sins , nor trusted to thy promises , to keep me from doubting of my temporal , or from despairing of mine eternal state . I have made the rule of thy † divine worship , to be what my mind thought fit , not what thy Word prescribed ; finding my heart more prone to remember my blessed Saviour in a painted Picture of Man's device , rather than to be behold him crucified in his Word and Sacraments , after his own ordinance . Where * I should never use thy Name ( whereat all knees do bow ) but with religious reverence ; nor any part of thy worship , without due preparation and zeal : I have blasphemously abused thy holy Name to rash and customary oaths ; yea , I have used oaths by thy sacred name , as false covers of my filthy sins . And I have been present at thy Service oft-times more for ceremony than conscience , and to please Men more than to please thee my gracious God. Where I should sanctifie thy † Sabbath-day , by being present at * the publick exercises of the Church , and by meditating privately on the word and works of God , and by visiting the sick and a relieving of my poor brethren : alas I have thought those holy Exercises a burden , because they hindred my vain sports : yea , I have spent many of thy Sabbaths in my own b prophane Pleasures , without being present at any part of thy divine worship . Where I should have given all due reverence to my c Natural , Ecclesiastical , and Politick Parents , I have not shewed that measure of duty and affection to my Parents , which their care and kindness hath deserved . I have not had thy Ministers in such singular d love for their works sake , as I ought : but I have taunted at their zeal , and hated them because they reproved me justly . And I have carried my self contemptuously against thy e M●gistrates and Ministers , though I knew that it is 〈◊〉 ordinance , that I should be obedient unto them . f Where I should be g sl●w to wrath , and h ready to forgive offences , and not 〈◊〉 the Sun to go down upon my wrath , but to 〈◊〉 good for evil , loving my very enemies for thy sake : I , alas , for one sorry word , have burst out into open rage ; and harbouring thoughts of mischief in my heart , I have preferred to feed on mine own malice , rather than to eat of thy holy Supper , Where I should keep my Mind from all filthy lusts , and my Body from all uncleanness : O Lord , I have defiled both , and made my Heart a Cage of all impure thoughts , and my Mind a very st●e of the unclean Spirit . Yea , the remedy which thou ( Lord ) hast ordained for incontinency , could not contain me within the bounds of Chastity : for by doting on beauty , whose grounds is but dust , Satan hath bewitched my flesh to lust after strange flesh . Where I should have lived in uprightness , giv●ng every Man his due , being contented with mine own Estate , and living cons●ionably in my lawful Calling , should be ready ( according to mine Ability ) to lend and a give unto the Poor : O Lord , I have by oppression , extortion , bribes , cavillation , and other indirect dealings , under pretence of my Calling and Office , robbed and purloined from my fellow Christians : yea , I have received and suffered Christ , where I was trusted , many a time , in his poor members , to stand hungry , cold and naked at my Door , and hungry , cold and naked to go away succourless , as he came ; and when the leanness of his checks pleaded pity , the hardness of my heart would shew no compassion . Where I should have made conscience to a speak the truth in simplicity , without any falsehood ; b prudently imaging aright , and charitably con●●●ing all things in the best part ; and should have defended the c good name and credit of my Neighbour : alas , ( vile wretch that I am ) I have belyed and d slandered my fellow-brother , and as soon as I heard an ill report , I made my tongue the Instrument of the Devil , to blazon that abroad unto others , before I knew the truth of it my self . I was so far from speaking a good word , in defence of his good name ; that it tickled my heart in secret to hear one that I envied , to be taxed with such a blemish : tho' I knew that otherwise the graces of God shined in him in abundant measure . I made jests of officious , and advantage of pernicious lies : herein shewing my self a right * Certain , rather than an upright Christian . And lastly ( O Lord ) where I should have rested † fully contented with that portion which thy Majesty thought m●●r●st to bestow upon me in this Pilgrimage ; and rejoyced in anothers good as in mine own : alas my life hath been nothing else but a greedy lusting after this Neighbours house , and that Neighbours land ; yea , secretly wishing such a man dead , that I might have his living or office , cov●●i●g rather those things which thou hast bestowed on another , rather than being thankful for that which thou hast given unto my self . Thus I , O Lord , who am a carnal sinner , and sold under sin , have transgressed all thy holy and spiritual Commandments , from the first to the last , from the greatest unto the least : and hear I stand guilty before thy Judgment-seat , of all the breaches of all thy laws ; and therefore liable to thy curse , and to all the miseries that Justice can pour forth upon so cursed a creature . And whether shall I go for deliverance from this misery ? Angels blush at my Rebellion , and will not help me : Men are guilty of the like transgression , and cannot help themselves . Shall I then despair with Cain , or make away my self with Judas ? No , Lord , for that were but to end the miseries of this life , and to begin the endless torments of hell : I will rather appeal to thy Throne of Grace , where mercy reigns to pardon abounding sins ; and out of the depth of my miseries , I will cry with * David , for the depth of thy mercies . Though thou shouldest kill me with afflictions , yet will I , like Job , b put my trust in thee . Though thou shouldest drown me in the Sea of thy displeasure , with Jonas , yet will I catch such hold on thy Mercy , that I will be taken up dead , clasping her with both my hands . And though thou shouldest cast me into the bowels of Hell , as Jonas into the belly of the Whale : yet from thence would I cry unto thee ; O God the Father of heaven , O Jesus Christ the Redeemer of the World , O Holy Ghost my Sanctifier , three Persons , and one eternal God , have mercy upon me a miserable sinner . And seeing the goodness of thine own Nature first moved thee to send thine only begotten Son to die for my sins , that by his Death I might be reconciled to thy Majesty : O reject not now my penitent Soul , who being displeased with her self for sin , desireth to return to serve and please thee in newness of life ; and reach from Heaven thy helping hand to save me thy poor servant who am ( like Peter ) ready to sink in the Sea of my sins and misery . Wash away the multitude of my sins with the merits of that Blood which I believe that thou hast so abundantly shed for penitent sinners . And now that I am to receive this day the blessed Sacrament of thy precious Body and Blood ; O Lord I beseech thee , let thy holy Spirit , by thy Sacrament , seal unto my soul , that by the merits of thy Death and Passion , all my sins are so freely and fully remitted and forgiven , that the curses and judgments which my sins have deserved , may never have power either to confound me in this life , or to condemn me in the world which is to come . For my stedfast faith is , that thou hast died for my sins , and risen again for my justification . This I believe , O Lord , help mine unbelief . Work in me likewise , I beseech thee , an unfeigned repentance , that I may hear●ily bewail my former sins , and loath them , and serve thee henceforth in newness of life , and greater measure of holy devotion . And let my soul never forget the infinite love of so sweet a Saviour , that hath laid down his life to redeem so vile a sinner . And grant , Lord , that having received these seals and pledges of my Communion with thee , thou maiest henceforth so dwell by the Spirit in me , and I so live by faith in thee , that I may carefully walk all the days of my li●e , in godliness and piety towards thee , and in Christian love and charity towards all my Neighbours : that living in thy fear I may die in thy favour , and after death he made partaker of eternal life through Jesus Christ , my Lord and only Saviour . Amen . 3. Of the means whereby thou maiest become a worthy Receiver . THese means are duties of Two sorts : the former respecting God ; the latter our Neighbour Those which respect God , are Three : First sound Knowledge : Secondly , true Faith : Thirdly , unfeigned Repentance . That which respecteth our Neighbour , is but one sincere Charity . 1. of sound Knowledge , requisite in a worthy Communicant . Sound a Knowledge is a sanctified understanding of the first Principles of Religion . As first , Of the Trinity of Persons in the unity of the God-head . Secondly , Of the creation of Man , and his Fall. Thirdly , Of the curse and misery due to sin . Fourthly , Of the Natures and Offices of Christ , and redemption by faith in his death , especially of the doctrine of the Sacraments , sealing the same unto us . For as an house cannot be built unless the foundation he first laid ; so no more can Religion stand , unless it be first grounded upon the certain knowledge of God's Word . Secondly , If we know not God's Will , we can neither believe nor do the same . For as worldly businesses cannot be done but by them who have skill therein ; so without knowledge must men be much more ignorant in divine and spiritual matters . And yet in temporal things a Man may do much by the light of nature : but in religious misteries , the more we rely upon * natural reason , the further we are from comprehending spiritual Truth . Which discovers the fearful estate of those who receive without knowledge , and the more fearful estate of those Pastors who minister unto them without Catechising . 2. Of sincere Faith , required to make a worthy Communicant . Sincere Faith is not a bare knowledge of the Scriptures , and first grounds of Religion , ( for that Devils and Reprobate have in an excellent measure , and do believe it and tremble ) but a true persuasion as of all those things whatsoever , the Lord hath revealed in his Word ; so also a particural applications unto a man 's own soul of all the promises of mercy which God hath made in Christ to all believing sinners . And consequently , the Christ and all his merits do belong unto him as well as to any other . For first if we have not the righteousness of Faith , the Sacrament seals nothing unto us ; and every man in the Lord's Supper receiveth so much as he believeth . Secondly , because that without Faith we communicating on earth , cannot apprehend Christ in Heaven . For as he dwelleth in us by Faith , so by faith we must likewise eat him . Thirdly , because that without faith we cannot be perswaded in our consciences , that our receiving is acceptable unto God. 3. Of unfeigned Repentance requisite a for true Communicant . True Repentance is a holy change of the mind , when upon the feeling sight of God's mercy , and of a man 's own misery , he turneth from all his known and secret sins , to serve God in holiness and righteousness all the rest of his days . For as he that is glutted with meat , is not apt to eat bread : so he that is stuffed with sins , is not sit to receive Christ. And a conscience defiled with wilful filthiness , makes the use of all holy things unholy unto us . Our sacrificed spotless Passover cannot be eaten with the sowre leaven of malice and wickedness , saith Paul , 1 Cor. 5. 8. Neither can the old Bottles of our corrupt and impure Consciences , retain the new Wine of Christ's precious Blood , as our Saviour saith , Mar. 2. 22. We must therefore truly repent , if we will be worthy partakers . 4. The duty to be performed in respect of our Neighbour , is Charity . Charity is a hearty forgiving of others , who have offended us , and after reconciliation , an outward unfeigned testifying of the inward affections of our hearts by gestures , words , and deeds as oft as we meet , and occasion is offered . For first , without love to our Neighbour , no Sacrifice is acceptable unto God. Secondly , because one chief end wherefore the Lord's Supper was ordained , is to confirm Christians love one towards another . Thirdly , no man can assure himself that his own sins are forgiven of God , if his heart cannot yield to forgive the faults of men that have offended him . Thus far of the first sort of Duties which we are to perform before we come to the Lord's Table , called Preparation . 2. Of the Second sort of Duties which a worthy Communicant is to perform at the receiving of the Lord's Supper , called Meditation . THis Exercise of spiritual Meditation consist in divers Points . First when the Sermon is ended , and the Banquet of the Lord's Supper begins to be celebrated , meditate with thy self how thou art invited by Christ to be a Guest at his Holy Table , and how lovingly he inviteth thee ; * Ho , every one that thirsteth , come ye to the waters of life , &c. Come , buy wine and milk , without money , and without price : eat ye that which is good , let your soul delight it self in fatness . b Take ye , eat ye : This is my body , which was broken for you ; drink ye all of this : for this is my blood which was shed for the remission of your sins . What greater honour can be vouchsafed than to be admitted to sit at the Lord● own Table ; What better fare can be afforded , than to feed on the Lord 's own Body and Blood ? If David thought it to be the greatest favour that he could shew unto good Barzillai , for all the kindness that he shewed unto him in his Troubles , to offer him , that he should feed with him at his own Table in Jerusalem : how much greater favour ought we to account it , When Christ doth indeed feed us in the Church at his own Table , and that with his own most holy Body and Blood ? Secondly , As Abraham , when he went up to the mount , to sacrifice Isaac his Son , left his Servants beneath in the Valley : so when thou comest to the spiritual sacrifice of the Lord's Supper , lay aside all earthly thoughts and cogitations ; that thou maiest wholly contemplate of Christ , and offer up thy Soul unto him , who sacrificed both his Soul and Body for thee . Thirdly , Meditate with thy self , how precious and venerable is the Body and Blood of the Son of God , who is the Ruler of Heaven and Earth , the Lord , at whose beck the Angels tremble , and by whom both the quick and dead shall be judged at the last day , and thou among the ●est . And how that it is he , who having been crucified for thy sins , offereth now to be received by faith into thy s●ul . On the other side , consider how sinful a Creature thou art : how altogether unworthy of so holy a Guest : how ill deserving to taste of such sacred food , having been conceived in filthiness , and wallowing ever since in the mire of iniquity : bearing the Name of a Christian , but doing the works of the Devil ; adoring Christ with an * Ave Rex in thy mouth , but spitting Oaths in his face , and crucifying him anew with thy graceless actions . Fourthly , Ponder then with what face darest thou offer to touch so holy a Body with such defiled hands ? or to drink such precious blood with so lewd and lying a mouth ? or to lodge so blessed a Guest in so uncle an a stable ? For if the Bethshemites were slain , for but looking irreverently into the Ark of the old Testament , what Judgment maist thou justly expect , who with such impure Eyes and Heart , art come to see and receive the Ark of the New Testament , in which dwelleth all the fulness of the God-head , bodily ? If Vzzah for but touching ( though not without zeal ) the Ark of the Covenant , was stricken with sudden death ; what stroke of divine Judgment mayst thou not fear , that so rudely , with unclean hands , dost presume to handle the Ark of the Eternal Testament ; wherein are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge . If John Baptist ( the holiest man that was born of a Woman ) thought himself unworthy to bear his shooes ; O Lord , how unworthy is such a Prophane Wretch , as thou art , to eat his holy Flesh , and to drink his precious Blood. If the blessed Apostle Saint Peter , seeing but a glimpse of Christ's Almighty Power , thought himself unworthy to stand in the same Boat with him ; how unworthy art thou to sit with Christ at the same Table , where thou mayest behold the infiniteness of his Grace and Mercy displayed ? If the Centurion thought that the roof of his house was not worthy to harbour so Divine a Guest ; what room can there be fit under thy ribs for Christ's holiness to dwell in ? If the Blood-issued sick Woman feared to touch the hem of his garment ; how should'st thou tremble to eat his flesh , and to drink his all-healing Blood ? Yet if thou comest humbly , in Faith , Repentance , and Charity , abhorring thy sins past , and purposing unfeignedly to amend thy life henceforth , let not thy former sins affright thee , for they shall never be laid unto thy charge ; and this Sacrament shall seal unto thy Soul that all thy sins , and the Judgments due unto them , are fully pardoned , a●d clean washed away by the Blood of Christ. For this Sacrament was not ordained for them who are perfect , but to help penitent sinners unto perfection . Christ came not to call the righteous , but sinners to repentance . And he saith , that the whole need not the Physician , but they that are sick . Those hath Christ called ; and when they came , them hath he ever helped . Witness the whole Gospel , which testifieth , that not one Sinner who came to Christ for mercy , went ever away without his errand . Bathe thou likewise thy sick Soul in this fountain of Christ's Blood , and doubtless , according to his promise , Zach. 13. 1. thou shalt be healed of thy sins and uncleanness . Not Sinners therefore , but they who are unwilling to repent of their sins , are debarred this Sacrament . Fifthly , Meditate , that Christ left this Sacrament unto us as the chief token and pledge of his love , not when we would have made him a King , John 6. 15 , ( which might have seemed a requital of kindness ) but when Judas and the High-Priests were conspiring his Death ( therefore wholly of his mere favour . ) When Nathan would shew David how intirely the poor man loved his sheep that was killed by the rich man , He gave her ( saith he ) to eat of his own Morsels , and of his own Cup to drink , 2 Sam. 12. 3. and must not then the love of Christ to his Church be unspeakable , when he gives her his own flesh to eat , and his own blood to drink , for her spiritual and eternal nourishment ? If then there be any love in thine heart , take the Cup of Salvation into thy hand , and pledge his love with love again , Psal. 116. 11. Sixthly , when the Minister beginneth the holy Consecration of the Sacrament , then lay aside all praying , reading , and all other cogitations whatsoever ; and settle thy Meditations only upon those holy actions and rites , which according to Christ's institution , are used in and about the holy Sacrament : For it hath pleased God ( considering our weakness ) to appoint those rites as means the better to lift up our Minds to the serious contemplation of his Heavenly Graces . When therefore thou seest the Minister putting apart Bread and Wine on the Lord's-Table ; and consecrating them by Prayers , and the rehearsal of Christ's Institution , to be a holy Sacrament of the blessed Body and Blood of Christ ; then meditate how God the Father , of his mere love to Mankind , set apart , and sealed his only begotten Son , to be the all-sufficient means , and only Mediator , to redeem us from sin , and to reconcile us to his grace , and to bring us to his glory . When thou seest the Minister break the Bread , being blessed , thou must meditate , that Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God was put to death , and his blessed Soul and Body ( with the sense of God's anger ) broken asunder for thy sins , as verily as thou now seest the holy Sacrament to be broken before thine eyes . And withal call to mind the heinousness of thy sins , and the greatness of God's hatred against the same , seeing God's Justice could not be satisfied but by such a Sacrifice . When the Minister hath blessed and broken the Sacrament , and is addressing himself to distribute it : then meditate , That the King ( who is the Master of the Feast ) stands at the Table to see his guests ; and looketh upon thee , whether thou hast on thee thy * Wedding-Garment . Think also , that all the holy † A●gels that attend upon the Elect in the Church , and b do desire to behold the celebration of these hol● mysteries , do observe thy reverence and behaviour . Let thy soul therefore , whilst the Minister bringeth the Sacrament unto thee , offer this , or the like short Soliloquy unto Christ. A sweet Soliloquy to be said betwixt the consecration and receiving of the Sacrament . IS it true indeed , that God will dwell on earth ? Behold the heaven , and the heaven of heavens are not able to contain thee : how much more unable i● the soul of ●uch a sinful Caitiff as I am , to receive thee ? But seeing it is thy blessed pleasure to come thus to † sup with me , and to b dwell in me : I cannot for joy but burst out and say , What is man that thou art so mindful of him , and the son of man , that thou so regardest him ? What favour soever thou vouchsafest me in the abundance of thy Grace , I will freely confess what I am , in the wretchedness of my Nature : I am , in a word , a carnal Creature ; whose very soul is b sold under sin , a wretched man , compassed about with c a body of Death : Yet Lord , seeing thou d callest , here I come ; and seeing thou callest sinners , I have thrust my self in among the rest ; and seeing thou callest all with their heaviest loads , I see no reason why I should stay behind . O Lord , I am sick , and whither should I go , but unto thee the Physician of my Soul ? Thou hast cured many , but never didst thou meet with a more miserable Patient ; for I am more leprous than Gehazi , more unclean than Magdalen , more blind in Soul than Bartimeus was in Body ; for I have lived all this while , and never seen the true light of thy Word : my soul runs with a greater flux of sin , than was the Hemorrhoise Issue of blood ; Mephibosheth was not more lame to go , than my Soul is to walk after thee in love ; Jeroboam's Arm was not more withered to strike the Prophet , than my Hand is maimed to relieve the Poor . Cure me , O Lord , and thou shalt do as great a work as in curing them all . And though I have all their Sins and Sores ; yet , Lord , so abundant is thy grace , so great is thy skill , that if thou wilt , thou canst with a word , forgive the one , and heal the other : and why should I doubt of thy good will ; when to save me , will cost thee now but one loving smile ; who didst shew thy self so willing to redeem me though it should cost thee all thy heart-blood : and now offerest so graciously unto me the assured pledge of my Redemption , by thy blood ? Who am I , O Lord God ? and what is my merit , that thou hast bought me with so dear a price ? It is merely thy mercy ; and I , O Lord , am not worthy the least of all thy mercies : much less to be partaker of this holy Sacrament , the greatest pledge of the greatest mercy , that ever thou didst bestow upon those sons of men whom thou lovest . How might I in respect of mine own unworthiness , cry out for fear at the sight of thy holy Sacrament , as the Philistines did , when they saw the Ark of God come into the Assembly ? Wo now unto me a sinner ; but that thy Angel doth comfort me , as he did the woman : Fear thou not for I know that thou seekest Jesus which was crucified . It is thou indeed that my soul seeketh after . And here thou offerest thy self unto me in thy blessed Sacrament . If therefore Elizabeth thought her self so much honoured at thy presence in the Womb of thy blessed Mother , that the babe sprang in her belly for joy ; how should my soul leap within me for joy , now that thou comest by the holy Sacrament , to dwell in my heart for ever ? Oh what an honour is this , not that the Mother of my Lord , but my Lord himself , should come thus to visit me ! Indeed , Lord , I confess with the faithful * Centurion , that I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof : and that if thou didst but speak the word only , my soul should be saved : yet seeing it hath pleased the riches of thy grace , for the better strengthning of my weakness , to seal thy mercy unto me , by thy visible sign , as well as by thy visible word ; in all thankful humility my soul speaks unto thee with the blessed Virgin : a Behold the handmaid of the Lord , be it unto me according to thy Word . b Knock thou , Lord , by thy Word and Sacraments at the door of my heart ; and I will , like the c Publican , with both my fists , knock at my breast , as fast as I can , that thou mayest enter in : and if the door will not open fast enough , break it open , O Lord , by thine Almighty Power , and then enter in , and dwell there for ever , that I may have cause with Zaccheus , to acknowledge , that d this day salvation is come into mine house . And cast out of me whatsoever shall be offensive unto thee ; for I resign the whole Possession of my heart unto thy sacred Majesty , intreating , that I may not live henceforth , but that thou mayst live in me , speak 〈◊〉 me , walk in me : and so govern me by thy Spirit , that nothing may be pleasing unto me , but that which is acceptable unto thee . That finishing my course in the life of grace , I may afterwards live with thee for ever in the Kingdom of Glory . Grant this , O Lord Jesus , for the merits of thy death and blood shedding . Amen . When the Minister bringeth towards thee the bread thus blessed and broken ; and offering it unto thee , bids thee , Take , eat , &c. then meditate that Christ himself cometh unto thee , and both offereth and giveth indeed unto thy faith , his very Body and Blood , with all the merits of his death and passion , to feed thy Soul unto eternal life : as surely as the Minister offereth and giveth the outward signs , that feed thy Body unto this temporal life . The Bread of the Lord is given by the Minister , but the Bread which is the Lord , is given by Christ himself . When thou takest the Bread at the Ministers hand to eat it , then rouze up thy Soul to apprehend Christ by faith ; and to apply his merits to heal thy miseries . Embrace him as sweetly with thy faith in the Sacrament , as ever Simeon hugged him with his arms in his swadling clouts . As thou eatest the Bread , imagine that thou seest Christ hanging upon t●● Cross , and by his unspeakable tormen●● fully satisfying God's Justice for thy sins , and strive to be as verily partaker of the spiritual grace , as of the Elemental signs . For , the truth is not absent from the sign ; neither doth Christ deceive , when he saith , This is my Body : but he giveth himself indeed to every Soul that spiritually receives him by Faith. For as ours is the same Supper which Christ administ●red : so is the same Christ verily present at his own Supper ; not by any Papal * Transubstantiation , but by a Sacramental Participiation , whereby he doth truly feed the faithful unto eternal life : not by coming down out of Heaven unto thee , but by lifting thee up from the Earth unto him . According to that old saying , Sursum corda ; lift up your hearts : And , where the carcase is , thither will the Eagles resort , Matth. 24. When thou seest the Wine brought unto thee apart from the Bread , then remember that the Blood of Jesus Christ was as verily separated from his Body upon the Cross , for the remission of thy sins : And that this is the seal of the new Covenant , which God hath made to forgive all the sins of all penitent sinners that believe in the merits of his blood shedding . For the Wine is not a Sacrament of Christ's Blood contained in his Veins , but as it was shed out of his Body upon the cross for the remission of the sins of all that believe in him . As thou drinkest the Wine and pourest it out of the Cup into thy Stomach , meditate and believe , that by the merits of that Blood , which Christ shed upon the Cross , all thy sins are as verily forgiven , as thou hast now drunk this Sacramental Wine , and hast it in thy stomach . And in the instant of drinking , settle thy meditation upon Christ , as he hanged upon the Cross ; as if like Mary and John , thou didst see him nailed , and his Blood running down his blessed side , out of that gastly wound , which the Spear made in his innocent heart : wishing thy mouth closed to his side , that thou mightest receive that precious Blood before it fell to the dusty Earth . And yet the actual drinking of that real Blood with thy mouth , would be nothing so † effectual , as this Sacramental drinking of that blood spiritually by Faith. For one of the Souldiers might have drunk that , and been still a reprobate : but whosoever drinketh it spiritually by Faith in the Sacrament , shall surely have the Remission of his sins , and life everlasting . As thou feelest the Sacramental Wine which thou hast drunk , warming thy cold stomach ; so endeavour to feel the Holy Ghost cherishing thy Soul in the joyful assurance of the forgiveness of all thy sins , by the merit of the blood of Christ. And to this end God giveth every faithful Soul , together with the Sacramental Blood , the Holy Ghost to drink . * We are all made to drink into one Spirit . And so lift up thy mind from the contemplation of Christ , as he was crucified upon the Cross , to consider how he now † sits in glory at the right hand of his Father , making * intercession for thee , by presenting to his Father the unvaluable merits of his death , which he once suffered for thee , to appease his Justice for the sins which thou dost daily commit against him . After thou hast eaten and drunk both the Bread and Wine , labour that as those Sacramental Signs do turn to the nourishment of thy body , and by the digestion of heat become one with thy substance : so by the operation of Faith , and the Holy Ghost , thou maist become one with Christ , and Christ with thee : and so maist feel thy Communion with Christ confirmed and increased daily more and more . That as it is impossible to separate the Bread and Wine digested into the blood and substance of thy body : so it may be more impossible to part Christ from thy Soul , or thy Soul from Christ. Lastly , As the Bread of the Sacrament , though confected of many Grains , yet makes but one Bread : so must thou remember , that though all the faithful are many ; yet are they all but one mystical Body , whereof Christ is Head. And therefore thou must love every Christian as thy self , and a member of thy body . Thus far of the duties to be done at the receiving of the holy Sacrament , called Meditation . 3. Of the duties which we are to perform after receiving of the holy Communion called Action or Practice . THE duty which we are to perform after the receiving of the Lord's Supper , is called Action or Practice : without which all the rest will minister unto us no comfort . The Action consists of Two sorts of duties : First , such as we are to perform in the Church , or else , after that we are gone home . Those that we are to perform in the Church , are either several from our own souls : or else joyntly with the Congregation . The several duties which thou must perform from thine own Soul , are Three : First , Thou must be careful ( that forasmuch as Christ now dwelleth in thee , therefore ) to entertain him in a clean heart , and with pure affections ; for the * most holy will be holy with the holy : for if Joseph of Arimathea , when he had begged of Pilate his dead body , to bury it , wrapped it in sweet odours , and fine Linen , and laid it in a new Tomb ; how much more shouldest thou lodge Christ in a new heart , and perfume his Rooms with the odoriferous incense of Prayers , and all pure affections ? If God required Moses to provide a Pot of pure gold to keep the Manna that fell in the Wilderness : what a pure heart shouldst thou provide to receive this divine Manna , that is come down from Heaven ? And as thou camest sorrowing like Joseph and Mary , to seek Christ in the Temple : so now having there found him in the midst of his Word and Sacraments , be careful with joy to carry him home with thee , as they did . And if the man that found but his lost sheep , rejoyced so much ; how canst thou , having found the Saviour of the World , but rejoyce much more ? Secondly , Thou must offer the Sacrifice of a private thanksgiving unto God , for this inestimable grace and mercy : for as this action is common unto the whole Church ; so is it applied particularly to every one of the faithful in the Church ; and for this particular mercy , every soul must joyfully offer up a particular Sacrifice of Thanksgiving . For if the Wise Men rejoyced so much when they saw the Star , which conducted them unto Christ ; and worshipped him so devoutly when he lay a Babe , in the Manger ; and offered unto him their Gold , Myrrhe , and Frankincense : how much more shouldest thou rejoyce , now that thou hast both seen and received this Sacrament , which guideth thy soul unto him , where he sitteth at the right hand of his Father in glory ? And thither lifting up thy heart , adore him , and offer up unto him the gold of a pure Faith , the Myrrhe of a mortified heart , and this or the like sweet incense of Prayer and Thanksgiving . A Prayer to be said after the receiving of the Communion . WHAT shall I render unto thee ( O blessed Saviour ) for all these blessings which thou hast so graciously bestowed upon my Soul ? How can I sufficiently thank thee , when I can scarce express them ? Where thou mightest have made me a Beast , thou madest me a Man after thine own Image . When by sin I had lost both thine Image , and my self , thou didst renew in me thine Image by thy Spirit , and didst redeem my Soul by thy Blood again : and now thou hast given unto me thy Seal and Pledge of my Redemtion ; nay , thou hast given thy self unto me , O blessed Redeemer . Oh what an inestimable treasure of riches , and overflowing Fountain of grace hath he got who hath gained thee ! No man ever touched thee by Faith , but thou didst heal him by Grace ; for thou art the Author of Salvation , the remedy of all evils , the medicine of the sick , the life of the quick ; and the resurrection of the dead . Seemed it a small matter unto thee to appoint thy holy Angels to attend upon so vile a Creature as I am ; but that thou would'st enter thy self into my Soul , there to preserve , nourish and cherish me unto life everlasting . If the carcase of the dead Prophet could revive a dead man that touched it ; how much more shall the living body of the Lord of all Prophets , quicken the faithful , in whose heart he dwelleth ? And if thou wilt raise my body at the last day out of the dust ; how much more wilt thou now revive my Soul which thou hast sanctified with thy Spirit , and purified with thy blood ? O Lord , what could I more desire , or what couldest thou more bestow upon me , than to give me thy body for meat , thy blood for drink , and to lay down thy Soul for the price of my Redemption ? Thou Lord enduredst the pain , and I do reap the profit : I received pardon , and thou didst bear the punishment . Thy tears were my bath , thy wounds my weal ▪ and the injustice done to thee , satisfied for the Judgment which was due to me . Thus by thy birth thou art become my Brother , by thy death my ransom , by thy mercy my reward , and by thy Sacrament my nourishment . O divine ●ood , by which the sons of men are transformed into the sons of God : so that man's nature dieth , and God's nature liveth and ruleth in us . Indeed , all Creatures wondred that the Creator would be inclosed nine Months in the Virgins Womb ; ( though her Womb being replenished with the Holy Ghost , was more splendid than the Starry Firmament : ) but that thou should'st thus humble thy self to dwell for ever in my heart , which thou foundest more unclean than a Dunghill , it is able to make all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth to stand amazed . But seeing it is thy free Grace and meer pleasure thus to enter and to dwell in my heart , I would to God , that I had so pure a heart as my heart could wish , to entertain thee . And who is fit to entertain Christ ? or who , though invited , would not chuse with Mary rather to kneel at thy feet , than presume to sit with thee at thy Table ? Though I want a pure heart for thee to dwell in , yet weeping eyes shall never be wanting to wash thy blessed feet , and to lament my filthy sins . And albeit I cannot weep so many tears as may suffice to wash thy holy feet ; yet , Lord , it is sufficient that thou hast shed Blood enough to cleanse my sinful So●l . And I am fully ( O Lord ) assured , that all the 〈◊〉 ▪ fare wherewith the disdainfull Pha●isee entertained thee at his Table , did not so much please thee , as those tears which penitent Mary poured under the ●●ble . I would therefore wish with Jeremy , that my head were a fountain of tears : that seeing I can by no means yield sufficient thanks for thy love to me ; yet I might by continual Tears , testifie my love unto thee . And though no man is worthy of so infinite a grace : yet this is my comfort , That he is worthy whom thou in favour accountest worthy . And seeing that now of thy mere grace thou hast counted me ( among others thy chosen ) worthy of this unspeakable favour , and sealed by thy Sacrament the assurance of thy love , and the forgiveness of my sins : O Lord , confirm thy favour unto thy Servant : and say of me as Isaac did of Jacob , I have blessed him , therefore he shall be blessed . And that I may say unto thee with David , Thou , O Lord , hast blessed my Soul , and made it thy house , and it shall be blessed for ever And seeing it pleased thee to bless the house of Obed-edom and all his houshold whilest the Ark of the Lord remained in his house : I doubt not but thou wilt much more bless my soul and body , and all that do belong unto me , now that it hath pleased thy Majesty of thine own good will to enter under my roof , and to dwell for ever in my poor cottage . Bless me , O Lord , so , that my sins , may wholly be remitted by thy Blood , my conscience sanctified by thy Spirit , my mind enlightned by thy Truth , my Heart guided by thy Spirit and my Will , in all things , subdued , to thy blessed Will and Pleasure . Bless me with all graces which I want , and increase in me those good gifts which thou hast already bestowed upon me . And seeing that I hold thee not by the arms , as Jacob wrestling without me ; but inwardly dwelling by Faith within me : surely , Lord , I will never let thee go , except thou bless me , and give me a new name , a new heart , a new spirit , and strength by the power of God to prevail over sin and Satan . And I beseech thee , O Lord , desire not to depart from me , as thou didst from Jacob , because the day breaketh , and thy grace beginneth to dawn and appear : But I from my soul , humbly with the Emmauites , intreat thee . O sweet Jesus , to abide with me , because it draweth towards night . For the night of temptation , the night of tribulation ; yea , my last long night of death approacheth , O blessed Saviour , stay with me therefore now and ever . And if thy presence go not home with me , carry me not from hence Go with me , and live with me , and let neither death nor life separate me from thee . Drive me from my self , draw me unto thee . Let me be sick , but sound in thee ; and in my weakness let thy strength appear . Let me seem as dead , that thou alone mayest be seen to live in me : so that all my members may be but instruments to act thy motions . Set me as a seal upon thine heart ; and let thy zeal be setled upon mine , that I may be out of love with all , that I may be only in love with thee . And grant , O Lord , that as thou now vouchsafest me this favour to sit at thy Table , to receive this Sacrament in thy house of grace : so I may hereafter through thy mercy , be received to ● eat and drink at thy Table in thy kingdom of Glory . And for thy mercy , I do here with the four beasts , and twenty four Elders , cast my self down before thy Throne of Grace ; acknowledging , that it is thou that hast a redeemed with thy blood , and that salvation cometh only from thee . And therefore unto thee b I do yield all praise , and glory , and wisdom , and thanks , and honour , and power , and might , and Majesty , O my Lord , and my God , for evermore . Amen . Thirdly , Seeing Christ hath sacrificed himself for thee ( and all that thou canst give , is too little ) therefore thou must offer thy self to be a living , holy , and acceptable sacrifice unto God ; by serving him in * righteousness and holiness all thy days . Thus Iertullian witnesseth , that in his time a Christian was known from another man , only by the holiness and uprightness of his life . 2. Of the duties which we are to do after the Communion joyntly with the Congregation . THE duties to be performed joyntly with the Church , are Three . First , publick thanksgiving , both by Prayers , and a singing of Psalms ; Thus Christ himself and his Apostles did . Secondly , joining with the Church , b in giving ( every man according to his ability ) towards the relief of the poor . This was the manner of the Primitive Churches , to make Collections and * Love Feasts after the Lord's Supper , for the relief of the poor Christians . Thirdly , when thanks and praise is ended , then with all reverence to stand up , and to receive the blessing of God , by the mouth of his Minister ; and to receive it , as if thou didst hear God himself pronouncing it unto thee from Heaven . For by their blessing , God doth bless his people . Thus far of the Duties to be practised in the Church . The Duties which thou art to practise after that thou art departed home , are three . First , to observe diligently , whether thou hast truly received Christ in the Sacrament . Which thou maist thus easily perceive : for seeing his flesh is meat indeed , and his blood is drink indeed , and that he is so full of grace , that no man ever touched him by faith , but he received virtue from him ; it cannot possibly be , that if thou hast eaten his flesh , or drunk his blood , but thou shalt receive grace and power to be cleansed from thy sins and filthiness . For if the Hemorrhoise that did but touch his garment , had her bloody issue that continued so long , forthwith stanched ; how much more will the bloody issue of thy sin be stanched , if thou then hast truly eaten and drunk the very flesh and blood of Christ ? But if thy issue still runneth , thou maist justly suspect thou hast never yet truly touched Christ ? Secondly , seeing thou hast now reconciled thy self to God , and renewed thy Covenant , and vowed newness and amendment of life ; thou must therefore have a special care , that thou dost not yield to commit thy former sins any more : knowing that the * unclean spirit , if ever he can get into thy Soul again , after that it is swept and garnished : he will enter forcible possession with seven other devils worse than himself : So that the end of that man shall be worse than his beginning . Be ye not therefore like the Dog † that returns to his vomit , or the washed Sow that walloweth in the mire again . And return not to thy malice , like to the Adder , who laying aside her poyson while she drinks , takes it up again when she hath done . But when either the devil or thy flesh shall offer to tempt and move thee to relapse into thy former sins , answer them as the Spouse doth in the Canticles , a I have put off my coat ( of my former corruption ) how shall I put it on ? I have washed my feet , how shall I defile them again ? Lastly , If ever thou hast found either joy or comfort in receiving the holy Sacrament ; let it appear by the eager desire of receiving it † often again . For the Body of Christ as it was b anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows ; so doth it yield a sweeter savour than all the ointments of the world : The fragrant smell whereof allureth all Souls who have once tasted the sweetness thereof , ever after to desire oftner to taste thereof again . c Because of the savour of thy good Ointments , therefore do the Virgins love thee . O d taste therefore often , and see how good the Lord is , saith David . This is the Commandment of Christ himself , Do this in remembrance of me ; and in doing this , thou shalt shew thy self best mindful and thankful for his death . For as oft as ye shall eat this bread and drink this cup , ye shall shew the Lord's death until he came . And let this be the chief end whereunto both thy receiving and living tendeth : that thou maist be a holy Christian , zelous of good works , purged from sin , to live soberly , righteously , and godly in this present world ; that thou mayst be acceptable to God , profitable to thy brethren , and comfortable unto thine own soul. Thus far of the manner of glorifying God in thy life . Now followeth the Practice of Piety in glorifying God in the time of sickness , and when thou art called to die in the Lord. AS soon as thou perceivest thy self to be visited with any sickness , meditate with thy self . 1. That misery cometh not forth of the dust ; neither doth affliction spring out of the earth . Sickness comes not by hap or chance ( as the Philistines supposed that their Mice and Emrods came , ) but from mans wickedness , which as sparkles breaketh out . Man suffereth ( saith a Jeremy ) for his sins . Fools ( saith b David ) by reason of their transgressions , and because of their iniquities are afflicted . As therefore Solomon adviseth a man to carry himself towards an earthly Prince ; If the Spirit of him that ruleth , rise up against thee , leave not thy place ; for gentleness pacifieth great sins : so counsel I thee to deal with the Prince of Princes : If the spirit of him that ruleth heaven and earth , rise up against thee , let not thy heart despair , for repentance pacifieth great sins . And who soever returneth in his affliction to the Lord God of Israel , and seeks him , he will be found of him . 2. c Shut to thy Chamber door ; d Examine thine own heart upon thy bed ; e search and try thy ways . Search as diligently for thy capital sin , as f Joshua did for Achan , till thou findest it : For albeit God , when he beginneth to chasten his Children , hath respect to all their sins : yet when his anger is incensed , he chiefly taketh occasion to chasten , and enter with them into judgment , for some one grievous sin , wherein they have lived without Repentance . 3. When thou hast thus considered all thy sins , put thy self before the Judgment-Seat of God , as a Felon or Murtherer , standing at the Bar of an earthly Judge : and with grief and sorrow of heart confess unto God all thy known sins , especially thy Capital Offences , wherewith God is chiefly displeased . Lay them open , with all the circumstances of the time , place , and manner how they were committed , as may most serve to aggravate the hainousness of thy sins , and to shew the contrition of thy heart for the same . Lift up thine hand , and acknowledge thy self before the righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth , guilty of eternal death and damnation , for those thy hainous sins and transgressions . And having thus accused and judged thy self : cast down thy self before the † Fcotstool of his Throne of grace : assuring thy self , that whatsoever the * Kings of Israel be , yet the God of Israel is a merciful God : And cry unto him from a penitent and faithful heart , for mercy and forgiveness , as eagerly and earnestly , as ever thou knewest a malefactor , being to receive his sentence , crying unto the Judge for favour and pardon ; vowing amendment of life , and ( by the assistance of his grace ) never to commit the like sin any more . All which thou maist do in these or the like words . A Prayer when one begins to be sick . O Most righteous Judge , yet in JESUS CHRIST my gracious Father : I wretched sinner do here return unto thee ( though driven with pain and sickness ) like the prodigal Child with want and hunger . I acknowledge that this sickness and pai● comes not by blind chance or fortune , but by thy divine providence , and special appointment . It is the stroke of thy heavy hand , which my sins have justly deserved : and the things that I feared , are now faln upon me . Yet I do well perceive , that in wrath thou remembrest mercy , when I consider how many , and how hainous are my sins , and how few and easie are thy corrections . Thou mightest have strucken me with some fearful and sudden death , whereby I should not have had either time or space to have called upon thee for grace and mercy ; and so I should have perished in my sins , and have been for ever condemned in hell . But thou , O Lord , visitest me with such a fatherly chastisement , as thou usest to visit thy dearest Children whom thou best lovest : giving me ( by this sicknes ) both warning and time to repent , and to sue unto thee for grace and pardon . I take not therefore , O Lord , this thy visitation , as any sign of thy wrath or hatred ; but as an assured pledge , and token of thy favour and loving kindness , whereby thou dost with thy temporal Judgments draw me to judge my self , and to repent of my wicked life , that I should not be condemned with the godless and unrepentant World. For thy holy Word assures me , that whom thou lovest , thou thus chastenest : and that thou scourgest every son that thou receivest . That if I endure thy chastening , thou offerest thy self unto me as unto a son : and that all that continue in sin , and yet escape without correction ( whereof all thy children are partakers ) are bastards and not sons ; and that thou chastenest me for my profit , that I may be a partaker of thy holiness . O Lord , how full of goodness is thy Nature , that hast dealt with me so graciously in the time of my health and prosperity : and now being provoked by my sins and unthankfulness , hast such fatherly and profitable ends , in inflicting upon me this sickness and correction ! I confess , Lord , that thou dost justly afflict my Body with sickness , for my Soul was sick before of a long prosperity , and surfeited with ease , peace , plenty , and fulness of bread . And now , O Lord , I lament and mourn for my sins : I acknowledge my wickedness , and mine iniquities are always in my sight . Oh , what a wretched sinner am I , void of all goodness by nature , and full of evil by sinful custom ! Oh , what a world of sin have I committed against thee , whilst thy long-sufferance expected my conversion , and thy blessings wooed me to repentance ! Yet , O my God , seeing it is thy property more to respect the goodness of thine own nature , than the deserts of sinners , I beseech thee , O Father , for thy Son Jesus Christ his sake , and for the merits of that all saving death which he hath voluntarily suffered for all which believe in him , Have mercy upon me , according to the multitude of thy mercies ; turn thy face away from my sins , and blot out all mine iniquities : Cast me not out of thy presence , † neither reward me according to my deserts : For if thou dost reject me , who will receive me ? or who will succour me , if thou dost forsake , me ? But thou , O Lord , art the helper of the helpless : and in thee the fatherless findeth mercy : for though my sins be exceeding great , yet thy mercy , O Lord , far exceedeth them all : neither can I commit so many , as thy grace can remit and pardon . Wash therefore , O Christ my sins with the vertue of thy precious Blood , especially those sins , which from a penitent heart I have confessed unto thee : but chiefly , O Lord , for Christ his sake forgive me * . And seeing that of thy love thou didst lay down thy life for my ransom , when I was thine enemy : Oh save now the price of thine own Blood , when it shall cost thee but a smile upon me , or a gracious appearance in thy Father's sight in my behalf . Reconcile me once again , O merciful Mediator , unto thy Father : for though there be nothing in me that can please him : yet I know that in thee , and for thy sake , he is well pleased with all whom thou acceptest and lovest . And if it be thy blessed Will , remove this sicknes from me , and restore me to my former health again ; that I may live longer to set forth thy glory and to be a comfort to my friends which depend upon me ; and to procure to my self a more setled assurance of that heavenly inheritance which thou hast prepared for me . And then , Lord , thou shalt see how religiously and wisely I shall redeem the time , which heretofore I have so lewdly and prophanely spent . And to the end , that I may the sooner and the easier be delivered from this pain and sickness , direct me , O Lord , I beseech thee , by thy divine providence , to such a Physician and helper , as that ( by thy blessing upon the means ) I may recover my former health and welfare again . And , good Lord , vouchsafe , that as thou hast sent this sickness unto me , so thou wouldst likewise be pleased to send thy holy Spirit into my heart , whereby this present sickness may be sanctified unto me : that I may use it as thy School , wherein I may learn to know the greatness of my misery , and the riches of thy mercy ; that I may be so humbled at the one , that I despair not of the other : and that I may so renounce all confidence of help in my self , or in any other creature ; that I may only put the whole rest of my salvation in thy all sufficient merits . And forasmuch as thou knowest , Lord , how weak a vessel I am , full of frailty and imperfections : and that by Nature I am angry and froward under every Cross and Affliction : O Lord , who art the giver of all good gifts , arm me with patience to endure thy blessed will and pleasure , and of thy mercy lay no more upon me , than I shall be able to endure and suffer . Give me grace to behave my self in all patience , love , and meekness , unto those that shall come and visit me ; that I may thankfully receive , and willingly embrace all good counsels and consolations from them : and that they may likewise see in me such a good example of Patience , and hear from me such godly lessons of comfort , as may be arguments of my Christian faith and profession , and instructions unto them , how to behave themselves when it shall please thee to visit them , with the like affliction of sickness . I know , O Lord , I have deserved to die ; and I desire not longer to live , than to amend my wicked life , and in some better measure to set forth thy glory . Therefore , O Father , if it be thy blessed will , restore me to health again , and grant me a longer life . But if thou hast , according to thine eternal decree , appointed by this sickness to call for me out of this transitory life ; I resign my self into thy hands , and holy pleasure ; thy blessed will be done , whether it be by life or by death . Only I beseech thee of thy mercy forgive me all my sins , and prepare my poor soul , that by a true faith , and unfeigned repentance , she may be ready against the time that thou shalt call for her out of my sick and sinful body . O heavenly Father , who art the hearer of prayers , hear thou in heaven this my prayer ; and in this extremity grant me these requests : not for any worthiness that is in me , but for the merits of thy beloved Son Jesus , my only Saviour and Mediator ; for whose sake thou hast promised to hear us , and to grant whatsoever we shall ask of thee in his Name . In his Name therefore and in his own words , I conclude this my imperfect Prayer , saying , Our Father which art in Heaven , Hallowed by thy Name , &c. Having thus reconciled thy self unto God in Christ ; 1. Let thy next care be to set thy House in order , as Esay advised King Hezekias : making thy last Will and Testament , ( if it be not already made . ) If it be made , then peruse it , confirm it , and for avoiding all doubts and contention , publish it before Wittnesses , that ( if God call for thee out of this life ) it may stand in force and unalterable , as thy last Will and Testament , and so deliver it locked or sealed up in some Box , to the keeping of a faithful Friend , in the presence of honest Witnesses . 2. But in making thy Testament , take a Religious Divine's Advice , how to bestow thy Benevolence ; and some honest Law●er 's counsel , to continue it according to Law. Dispatch this before thy sickness doth ●●crease , and thy memory decay : lest otherwise thy Testament prove a dotement , and so be another man's fancy , rather than thy Will. 3. To prevent many inconveniences , let me recommend to thy discretion two things . 1. If God hath blessed thee with any competent state of wealth , make thy Will in thy health-time . It will neither put thee farther from thy goods , nor hasten thee sooner to thy Death : but it will be a greater ease to thy mind in freeing thee from a great trouble when thou shalt have most need of quiet ; for when thy House is set in order , thou shalt be better enabled to set thy Soul in order , and to dispose of thy Journey towards God. 2. If thou hast Children , give to every one of them a Portion , according to thy ability , in thy life-time ; that thy life may seem an ease , and not a yoak unto them ; yet so give , as that thy Children may still be beholden unto thee , and no● thou unto them . But if thou keep all i● thy hands whilst thou livest , they may thank Death , and not thee for the portion that thou leavest them . If thou hast n● Children , and the Lord hath blest the● with a great portion of the goods of thi● World , and if thou meanest to bestow them upon any charitable or pious uses put not over that good work to the trus● of others , seeing thou seest how most o● other mens Executors prove almost Exe●cutioners . And if Friends be so unfaithfu●● in a man's life , how much greater caus● hast thou to distrust their fidelity afte● thy death ? Lamentable experience sheweth how many dead men's Wills have of la● either been quite concealed , utterly overthrown , or by cavils and quirks of Law , frustrated or altered : whereas by the Law of God , the will of the dead should not be * violated ; but all his godly intentions conscionably performed and fulfilled , as in the sight of God , who in the Day of the Resurrection , will be a just Judge both of the quick and dead . And if any thing should hap in his Will to be ambiguous or doubtful , it should be * construed as it might come nearest to the Honour of God , and the honest Intention of the Testator . But let the vengeance due to such unchristian Deeds , light on the Actors that do them , not on the Kingdom wherein they are suffered to be done . And let other rich Men be warned by such wretched examples not so to † marry their Minds to their Money ; as that they will do no good with their Goods , till Death divorceth them . Considering therefore the shortness of thine own life , and the uncertainty of others just dealing after thy death , in these unjust days : let me advise thee ( whom God hath blessed with ability and an intent to do good ) to become in thy life time , thine own Administrator : make thine own Hands thine Executors , and thine own Eyes thy Over-seers ; cause thy Lanthorn to give her light before thee , and not behind thee : give God the Glory , and thou shalt receive of him in a due time the b reward , which of his grace and mercy he hath promised to thy good works . 4. Having thus set thy House and Soul in order ( if the c determined number of thy days be not expired ) God will either have mercy upon thee , and say , d Spare him ( O killing Malady ) that he go not down into the pit , for I have received a reconciliation : Or else , his Fatherly providence will direct thee to such a Physician , and to such e means , as that by his blessing upon their endeavours thou shalt recover , and be restored to thy former Health again . But in any wise , take heed that thou , nor none for thee , send unto Sorcerers , Wizards , Charmers , or Inchanters for help : for this were to leave the God of Israel , and to go to * Baal-zebub , the God of Ekron , for help , as did wicked Ahaziah , and to break thy Vow which thou hast made with the blessed Trinity in thy Baptism : and be sure that God will never give a Blessing by those means which he hath accursed ; but if he permit Satan to cure thy Body , fear lest it tend to the damnation of thy Soul. Thou art † tried , beware . 5. When thou hast sent for the Physician , take heed that thou put not thy trust rather in the Physician than in the Lord , as Asa did ; of whom it is said , that he sought not to the Lord in his Disease , but to the Physician : which is a kind of Idolatry , that will increase the Lord's anger , and make the Physick received uneffectual . Use therefore the Physician as God's Instrument , and Physick as God's Means . And seeing it is not lawful without Prayer to use ordinary food , 1 Tim. 4. 4. much less extraordinary Physick ( whose good effect depends upon the blessing of God ) before thou takest thy Physick , pray therefore heartily unto God to bless it unto thy use , in these or the like words . A Prayer before taking of Physick . O Merciful Father , who art the Lord of health , and of sickness , of life , and of death ; who killest , and makest alive ; who bringest down to the grave , and raisest up again : I come unto thee as to the only Physician , who canst cure my Soul from sin , and my Body from sickness . I desire neither life nor death , but refer my self to thy most holy Will. For , tho' we must needs die , and being dead , our lives are as water spilt on the ground , which cannot be gather'd up again : yet hath thy gracious Providence ( whilst li●● remaineth ) appointed means which thou wilt have thy Children to use ; and ( by the lawful use thereof ) to expect thy blessing upon thine own means , to the curing of their sickness , and restitution of their health . A●d now , O Lord , in this my necessity , I have according to thine Ordinance , se●t for thy Servant ( the Physician ) who hath prepared for me this Physick , which I receive as means sent from thy fatherly hand : I beseech thee therefore , that as by thy blessing on a l●●p of dry Figs , thou didst heal Hezekiah's sore , that he recovered ; and by seven times washing in the river of Jordan didst cleanse Naaman the Syrian of his Leprosie , and didst restore the Man that was blind from his birth , by anointing his Eyes with Clay and Spittle , and sending him to wash in the Pool of Siloam ; and by touching the hand of Peter's Wife's Mother , didst cure her of her Fever ; and didst restore the Woman that touched the hem of thy Garment , from her bloody Issue : So it would please thee of thine infinite goodness and mercy , to sanctifie this Physick to my use , and to give such a blessing unto it , that it may ( if it be thy Will and Pleasure ) remove this my sickness and ●ain , and restore me to health and strength again . But if the number of those days which thou hast appointed for me , to live in this Vale of misery , be at an end ; and that thou hast sent this sickness , as thy Messenger , to call me out of this mortal life , then , Lord , let thy blessed will be done ; for I submit my will to thy most holy Pleasure . Only I beseech thee , increase my faith and patience , and let thy grace and mercy be never wanting unto me ; but in the midst of all extremities , assist me with thy Holy Spirit , that I may willingly and chearfully resign up my Soul ( the price of thine own Blood ) into thy most gracious hands and custody . ) Grant this , O Father , for Jesus Christ his sake , to whom with thee , and the Holy Ghost , be all honour and glory , both now and evermore . Amen . Meditations for the sick . WHilst thy sickness remaineth , use often ( for thy comfort ) these few Meditations , taken from the ends wherefore God sendeth afflictions to his Children . Those are ten . 1. That by afflictions God may not only * correct our sins past , but also work in us a deeper loathing of our natural corruption ; and so prevent us from falling into many other sins , which otherwise we would commit : like a good Father , who suffereth his tender Babe to scorch his finger in a candle , that he may the rather learn to beware of falling into a greater fire . So● that the Child of God may say with David , a It is good for me that I have been afflicted , that I may learn thy statutes , for b before I was afflicted I went astray , but now I keep thy word . And indeed ( saith St. Paul ) c We are chastened of the Lord , because we should not be condemned with the World. With one Cross God maketh two Cures : the chastisement of sins past , and the prevention of sin to come . For though the eternal punishment of sin ( as it proceedeth from Justice ) is fully pardoned in the Sacrifice of Christ , yet we are not ( without serious judging of our selves ) exempted from the temporal chastisement of sin : for this proceedeth only from the love of God , for our good . And this is the reason that when Nathan told David , from the Lord , that his sins were forgiven , yet that the a Sword ( of Chastisement ) should not depart from his house , and that b his Child should surely die . For God like a skilful Physician , seeing the Soul to be porsoned with the setling of sin ; and knowing that the reigning of the flesh will prove the ruine of the Spirit , ministereth the bitter Pill of affliction , whereby the reliques of sin are purged , and the Soul ●ore soundly cured ; the Flesh is subdued , and the Spirit is sanctified . Oh the odiousness of sin , which causeth God to chasten so severely his Children , whom otherwise he loveth so dearly . 2. God sendeth affliction , to seal unto us our Adoption : for every child whom God loveth , he correcteth : And he is a Bastard that is not corrected . Yea , it is a sure note , that where God seeth sin and sinites not , there he detests and loves not . Therefore it is said that he * suffered the wicked sons of Ely to continue in their sins without correction , because the Lord would stay them . O● the c other side , there is no surer token of God's fatherly love and care , than to be corrected with some Cross , as oft as we commit any sinful crime . Affliction therefore is a seal of Adoption , no sign of Reprobation . For the purest Corn is cleanest ●anned , the finest Gold is of●est tryed , and the sweetest Grape is hardest pressed , and the truest Christian heaviest crossed . 3. God sendeth affliction , to wean our hearts from too much loving this world and wordly vanities ; and to cause us the more earnestly to desire and long for * Eternal Life . For as the Children of Israel ( had they not been ill intreated in Egyp● ) would never have been so willing to go towards Canaan : so ( were it not for the crosses and afflictions of this life ) God's Children would not so heartily long , and willingly desire for the Kingdom of Heaven . For , we see many Epicures that would be content to forego Heaven , on condition that they might still enjoy their earthly Pleasures ; and ( having never tasted the joys of a better ) how loth are they to depart this life ? Whereas the Apostle ( that saw * Heavens glory● ) tells us , that there is no more comparison betwixt the joys of eternal life , and the Pleas●res of this world , than there is betwixt the filthiest dung and the pleasantest meat ; or betwixt the stinkingest † Dunghill , and the fairest Bed Chamber . As therefore a loving Nurse puts 〈◊〉 or Mustard on the Breast , to make the Child the rather to forsake the 〈◊〉 : so God mixeth sometimes ● affliction with the pleasures and prosperity of 〈…〉 , lest ( like the Children of this 〈◊〉 ration ) they should forg●● God , and fall into too much love of this 〈◊〉 sent evil World ; and so by Riches grow proud ; by Fame insolent ; 〈◊〉 ●iberty wanton , and † 〈…〉 against the Lord , when they 〈◊〉 . For if God's Children love the World so well when ( like a curst Step-mother ) she mis●seth and strikes us , how should we love this Harlot , if she smiled upon us , and stroaked us , as she doth her own worldly Brats ? Thus doth God ( like a wise and loving Father ) embitter with crosses the pleasures of this life to his Children , that ( finding in this earthly state no true and permanent joys ) they might sigh and long for eternal life , where firm and everlasting joys are only to be found . 4. By affliction and sickness God exerciseth his Children , and the Graces which he bestoweth upon them . He refineth and tryeth their faith , as the Goldsmith doth his Gold in the * Furnace , to make it shine more glistering and bright ; he stirreth us up to pray more diligently and zealously , and proveth what patience we have learned all this while in his † School . The like Experience he maketh of our Hope , Love , and all the rest of our Christian Vertues : which without this Trial , would rust like Iron unexercised , or corrupt like standing Waters , that either have no current , or else are not a poured from Vessel to Vessel ; whose taste remaineth , and whose scent is not changed . And rather than a Man should keep still the scent of his corrupt Nature to damnation ; who would not wish to be changed from state to state , by crosses and sickness to salvation ? For as the Camomile which is t●odden , groweth best , and smelleth most fragrant ; and as the Fish is sweetest that lives in the saltest Waters , so those Souls are most precious unto Christ , who are most exercised and afflicted with his Cross. 5. God sendeth afflictions , to demonstrate unto the world , the trueness of his Childrens love and service . Every Hypocrite will serve God whilst he prospereth and blesseth him , as the Devil falsly accuseth Job to have done ; but who ( save his loving Child ) will love and serve him in adversity , when God seemeth to be angry and displeased with him ? yea , and cleave unto him most inseparably , when he seemeth ( with the greatest frown and disgrace ) to reject a Man , and to cast him out of his favour ? yea , when he seemeth to wound and kill as an enemy : yea , then to say with Job : Though thou Lord kill me , yet will I put my trust in thee . The loving and the serving of God , and trusting in his mercy in the time of our correction and misery , is the truest note of an unfeigned Child and Servant of the Lord. 9. Sanctified affliction is a singular help to further our true Conversion , and to drive us home by Repentance to our heavenly Father . In their affliction ( saith the Lord ) they will seek me diligently . Egypts burthens made a Israel cry unto God. b David's troubles made him pray . c Hezekiah's sickness made him to weep , and misery drove the d prodigal Child to return and sue for his Father's grace and mercy . Yea , we read of many in the Gospel , that by sicknesses and afflictions were driven to c●me unto Christ , who , if they had had health and prosperity , as others , would have ( like others ) neglected or contemn'd their Saviour , and never have sought unto him for his saving health and grace . For as the Ark of Noah , the higher it was tossed with the Flood , the nearer it mounted towards Heaven : so the sanctified Soul , the more it is exercised with affliction , the nearer it is lifted towards God O blessed is that Cross that draweth a sinner to * come ( upon the knees of his heart ) unto Christ , to confess his own misery , and to implore his endless mercy ! Oh blessed , ever blessed be that Christ , that never refuseth the sinner that cometh unto him , though weather-driven by affliction and misery . 7. Affliction worketh in us pity and compassion towards our fellow brethren , that be in distress and misery ; whereby we learn to have a fellow-feeling of their Calamities , and to condole their estate , as if we suffer'd with them . And for this cause Christ himself would suffer , and be tempted in all things like unto us ( sin only excepted ) that he might be a merciful High Priest , touched with the feeling of our infirmities . For none can so heartily bemoan the misery of another , as he who first suffered himself the same affliction . Hereupon a Sinner in misery may boldly say unto Christ , Non ignare mali , miseris succurito Christe . Our frailty sith ( O Christ ) thou didst perceive , Condole our state , who still in frailty cleave . 8. God useth our sicknesses and afflictions , as means and examples both to * manifest unto others the faith and vertues which he hath bestowed upon us , as also to strengthen those who have not received so great a measure of Faith as we . For there can be no greater encouragement to a weak Christian , than behold a true Professor ( in the extreamest sickness of his Body ) supported with greater patience and consolation in his Soul. And the comfortable and blessed departure of such a man will arm him against the fear of death , and assure him that the hope of the godly is a far more precious thing than that flesh and blood can understand , or mortal eyes behold in this vale of misery . And were it not that we did see many of those whom we know to be the undoubted Children of God , to have endured such afflictions and calamities before us ; the greatness of the miseries and crosses which oft-times we endure , would make us doubt whether we be the Children of God or no. And to this purpose St. James saith , God made Job and the Prophets an example of suffering adversity , and of long patience . 9. By a afflictions God makes us conformable to the Image of Christ his Son , who being the b Captain of our Salvation was made perfect through sufferings . And therefore he first bare the Cross in shame , before he was c crowned with glory ; and did first taste d gall before he did eat the e honey-comb : and was first derided , King of the Jews , by the Soldiers in the High-Priests Hall , before he was saluted f King of Glory , by the angels in his Father's Court. And the more lively our Heavenly Father shall perceive the Image of his natural Son to appear in us , the better he will love us ; and when we have , for a time , born his likeness in his sufferings , and * fought and † overcome , we shall be crowned by Christ ; and with Christ sit on his Throne , and of Christ receive the * precious white Stone and morning Star , that shall make us g shine like Christ for ever in his Glory . 10. Lastly , That the godly may be humbled in respect of their own state and misery ; and God glorified by delivering them out of their Troubles and Afflictions , when they call upon him for his help and succour . For though there be no Man so pure , but if the Lord will straitly a mark Iniquities , he shall find in him just cause to punish him for his sin : yet the Lord in mercy doth † not always in the affliction of his Children , respect their sins , but sometimes layeth afflictions and crosses upon them for his glories sake . Thus our Saviour Christ told his Disciples , That the man was not born blind for his own or his Parents sin : but that the work of God should be shewed on him . So he told them likewise , that Lazarus's sickness was not unto the death , but for the glory of God. O the unspeakable goodness of God , which turneth those afflictions , which are the shame and punishment due to our sins , to be the subject of his honour and glory . These are the blessed and profitable ends , wherefore God sendeth sickness and affliction upon his Children ; whereby it may plainly appear , that afflictions are not signs either of God's hatred , or of our reprobation ; but rather tokens and pledges of his fatherly love unto his Children , whom he loveth , and therefore chasteneth them in this life , where upon repentance , there remains hope of pardon ; rather than to refer the punishment to that life , where there is no hope of pardon , nor end of punishment . For this cause , the Christians in the * Primitive Church , were wont to give God great thanks , for afflicting them in this life . So the Apostles rejoyced , that they were counted worthy to suffer for Christ's Name , Acts 5. 41. And the Christian Hebrews suffered with joy the spoiling of their goods , knowing that they had in Heaven a better , and an enduring substance , Heb. 10. 34. And in respect of those holy Ends , the Apostle saith , † That though no affliction for the present seemeth joyous , but grievous ; yet afterwards it bringeth the quiet fruit of righteousness to them who are thereby exercised . Pray therefore heartily , that as God hath sent unto thee this sickness , so it would please him to come himself unto thee with thy sickness ; by teaching thee to make those sanctified uses of it , for which he hath inflicted the same upon thee . Meditations for one that is recovered from Sickness . IF God hath of his mercy heard thy Prayers , and restored thee to thy health again , consider with thy self , 1. That thou hast now received from God , as it were , another life . Spend it therefore to the honour of God , in newness of life . Let thy sin die with thy sickness : but live thou by grace to holiness . 2. Be not the more secure , that thou art restored to health , neither insult in thy self , that thou hast escaped Death ; but think rather , that God ( seeing how unprepared thou wast ) hath of his mercy heard thy Prayer , spared thee , and given thee some little longer time of respite ; that thou maist both amend thy life , and put thy self in a better readiness against the time that he shall call for thee without further delay , out of this World. For though thou hast escaped this , it may be thou shalt not escape the next sickness . 3. Consider how fearful a reckoning thou hadst made before the Judgment-seat of Christ , by this time , if thou hadst died of this Sickness : Spend therefore the time that remains , so , as that thou mayst be able to make a more chearful account of thy life , when it must be expired indeed . 4. Put not far off the day of Death , thou knowest not for all this how near it is at hand ; and being so fairly warned , be wiser . For if thou be taken unprovided the next time , thy excuse will be less , and thy Judgment greater . 5. Remember that thou hast vowed amendment and newness of life . Thou hast vowed a vow unto God , defer not to pay it : for he delighteth not in fools ; pay therefore that thou hast vowed . The unclean Spirit is cast out ; O let him not re-enter with seven worse than himself . Thou hast sighed out the groans of Contrition , thou hast wept the tears of Repent●nce ; thou are washed in the Pool of B●thesda , streaming with five bloody Wounds , not of a a troubling angel , but of the b Angel of God's presence , troubled with the wrath due to thy sins ; who descended into Hell , to restore thee to saving health , and Heaven . Return not c now , with the Dog , to thine own vomit , nor like the washed Sow , to wallow again in the mire of thy former sins and uncleanness ; lest d being intangled and overcome again with the filthiness of sin , ( which now thou hast escaped ) thy latter end prove worse than thy first beginning . Twice therefore doth our Saviour Christ give the same cautionary warning to healed Sinners . First , To the Man cured of his 38 years desease ; Behold thou art made whole , sin no more , lest a worse thing fall upon thee . Secondly , to the woman taken in adultery ; Neither do I condemn thee : Go thy way and sin no more . Teaching us , how dangerous a thing it is , to relapse and fall again into the former * excess of Riot . Take heed therefore unto thy ways ; and pray for grace , that thou mayest apply thy heart unto wisdom , during that small number of days which yet remain behind . And for thy present mercy and health received , imitate the thankful Leper , and return unto God this , or the like Thanksgiving . A Thanksgiving to be said of one that is recovered from sickness . O Gracious and merciful Father , who art the Lord of Health and Sickness , of Life and of Death : who killest , and makest alive ; who bringest down to the Grave and raisest up again ; who art the only preserver of all those that trust in thee , I thy poor and unworthy Servant , having now ( by experience of my painful sickness ) felt the grievousness of misery due unto sin , and the greatness of thy mercy in forgiving sinners , and perceiving with what a fatherly compassion thou hast heard my Prayers , and restored me to my health and strength again ; do here ( upon the bended knees of my heart ) return ( with the thankful Leper ) to acknowledge thee alone to be the God of my health and salvation : and to give thee the praise and glory for my strength and deliverance out of that grievous Disease and Malady : and for thus turning my mourning into mirth , my sickness into health , and my death into life . My sins deserved punishment , and thou hast corrected me , but hast not given me over unto death . † I looked ( from the day to the night ) when thou would'st make an end of me : I did chatter like a Crane or a Swallow : I mourned ( as a Dove ) when the bitterness of sickness oppressed me : I lifted up mine eyes unto thee , O Lord , and thou didst comfort me , for thou didst cast all my sins behind thy back , and didst deliver my soul from the pit of corruption ; and when I found no help in my self , nor in any other creature ( saying , I am deprived of the residue of my years , I shall see man no more among the Inhabitants of the World ) then didst thou restore me to health again , and gavest life unto me ; I found thee , O Lord , ready to save me . And now , Lord , I confess , that I can never yield unto thee such a measure of thanks , as thou hast ( for this benefit ) deserved at my hands . And ( seeing that I can never be able to repay thy goodness with acceptable works ) O that I could with Mary Magdalen testifie the love and thankfulness of my heart , with abounding tears ! O , what shall I be able to render unto thee , O Lord , for all these benefits which thou bestowedst upon my Soul ! Surely , as in my Sickness , when I had nothing else to give unto thee , I offered Christ and his merits unto thee as a Ransom for my sins ; so being now restored by thy Grace unto my health and strength , and having no better thing to give ; behold , O Lord , I do here offer up my self unto thee , beseeching thee so to assist me with thy Holy Spirit , that the remainder of my life may be wholly spent in setting forth thy praise and glory . O Lord forgive me my former follies and unthankfulness , that I was no more careful to love thee , according to thy goodness , nor to serve thee , according to thy Will ; nor to obey thee , according to thy Commandments ; nor to thank thee , according to thy Benefits . And seeing thou knowest , that of my self I am not sufficient so much as to think a good thought ( much less to do that which is good and acceptable in thy sight ; ) assist me with thy grace and holy Spirit , that I may ( in my prosperity ) as devoutly spend my health in thy service , as I was earnest in my sickness to beg it at thy hands . And suffer me never to forget either this thy mercy , in restoring me to my health , or those Vows and Promises which I have made unto thee in my sickness . With my new health , renew in me , O Lord , a right Spirit : which may free me from the slavery of sin , and establish my heart in the service of grace . Work in me a greater detestation of all sins ( which were the causes of thy anger , and my sickness ) and increase my Faith in Jesus Christ , who is the Author of my health and salvation . Let thy good Spirit lead me in the way that I should walk ; and teach me to deny all ungodliness , and worldly lusts , and to live soberly , righteously , and godly in this world , that others by my Example may think better of thy Truth . And sith this time ( which I have yet to live ) is but a little respite and small remnant of days , which cannot long continue ; Teach me , O my God , so to number my days , that I may apply my heart to that spiritual wisdom which directeth to salvation . And to this end make me more zealous than I have been in Religion , more devout in Prayer , more servent in Spirit , more careful to hear and profit by the preaching of thy Gospel , more helpful to my poor Brethren , more watchful over my ways , more faithful in my calling , and every way more abundant in all good works . Let me ( in the joyful time of prosperity ) fear the evil day of affliction ; in the time of health , think on sickness ; in the time of sickness , make my self ready for death ; and when death approacheth , prepare my self for Judgment . Let my whole life be an expressing thankfulness unto thee for thy Grace and Mercy . And therefore , O Lord , I do here from the very bottom of my heart , together with the thousand thousands of Angels , the four Beasts , and twent● four Elders , and all the creatures in heave● and on the earth , acknowledge to be due unt● thee , O Father , which sittest upon the Throne● and to the Lamb , thy Son , who sitteth at th● right hand , and to the Holy Spirit , which proceedeth from both ; the holy Trinity 〈◊〉 Persons in unity of substance ; all prais● honour , glory , and power , from this tim● forth and for evermore . Amen . Meditations for one that is like to die . IF thy Sickness be like to encrease unto Death , then meditate on Three things● First , how graciously God dealeth with thee● Secondly , from what evils Death will fre● thee . Thirdly , what good Death will brin● unto thee . First , Concerning God's favourable dealing with thee . 1. Meditate , That God useth this chastisement of thy Body , but as a Medicine to cure thy Soul , by drawing thee ( who ar● sick in Sin ) to come by Repentance unto Christ ( thy Physician ) to have thy So●● healed . 2. That the sorest Sickness , or painfulle●● Disease which thou canst endure , is n●●thing , if it be compared to those dolours and pains which Jesus Christ thy Saviour hath suffered for thee : when in a a bloody sweat , he endured the b wrath of God , the pains of c hell , and a d cursed death which was due to thy sins . Justly therefore may I use those words of Jeremy , Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow , which is done unto me , wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce wrath . Hath the Son of God endured so much for thy redemption , and wilt not thou a sinful man endure a little sickness for his pleasure ; especially when it is for thy good ? 3. That when thy sickness and disease is at the extreamest , yet it is less and easier than thy sins have deserved . Let thine own Conscience judge whether thou hast not deserved worse than all that thou dost suffer . Murmur not therefore , but considering thy manifold and grievous sins , thank God that thou art not plagued with far more grievous punishments . Think how willingly the damned in Hell would endure the extreamest pains a thousand years , on condition that they had but the hope to be saved , and ( after so many years ) to be eased of their eternal torments . And seeing that it is his mercy that thou art not rather consumed than corrected ; how canst thou but bear patiently his temporal correction , seeing the end is to save thee from eternal damnation ? 4. That nothing cometh to pass in this case unto thee , but such as ordinarily befell to others thy Brethren ; who ( being the beloved and undoubted servants of God when they lived on earth ) are now most blessed and glorious Saints with Christ in Heaven : as Job , David , Lazarus , &c. They groaned for a time , as thou dost , under the like burthen ; but they are now delivered from all their miseries , troubles , and calamities . And so likewise ere long ( if thou wilt patiently tarry the Lord's leisure ) thou shalt also be delivered from thy sickness and pain , either by restitution to thy former health , with Job ; or ( which is far better ) by being received to heavenly rest , with Lazarus . 5. Lastly , that God hath not given thee over into the hand of thine Enemy , to be punished and disgraced ; but ( being thy loving Father ) he correcteth thee with his own merciful hand . When David had his wish , to chuse his own chastisement , he chose rather to be corrected by the hand of God , than by any other means ; Let us fall into the hand of the Lord , for his mercies are great , and let me not fall into the hand of man. Who will not take any affliction in good part , when it cometh from the hand of God , from whom ( though no Affliction seemeth joyous for the present ) we know nothing cometh but what is good ? The confideration hereof made David to endure Shimei's cursed railing with greater patience , and to correct himself another time for his impatiency ; I should not have opened my mouth , because thou didst it : and Job , to reprove the unadvised speech of his Wife ! Thou speakest like a foolish Woman ; What ? shall we receive good at the hand of God , and not receive evil ? And though the Cup of God's wrath due to our sins , was such a horror to our Saviour's humane nature , that he earnestly prayed that it might pass from him ; yet ( when he considered that it was reached unto him by the hand and will of his Father ) he willingly submitted himself to drink it to the very dregs thereof . Nothing will more arm thee with Patience in thy sickness , than to see that it cometh from the hand of thy heavenly Father , who would never send it , but that he sees it to be unto thee both needful and profitable . The second sort of Meditations are , to consider from what evils death will free thee . IT freeth thee from a corruptible Body , which was conceived in the weakness of flesh , the heat of lust , the stain of sin , and born in the blood of filthiness , a livi●g Prison of thy Soul , a lively instrument of ●in , a very sack of stinking dung : the ex●●ements of whose Nostrils , Ears , Pores , and ●ther passages ( duly considered ) will seem more loathsome than the uncleanest sink ●r vault . Insomuch that whereas Trees and Plants bring forth Leaves , Flowers , Fruits , ●nd sweet smells ; man's body brings forth ●●turally nothing but Lice , Worms , Rotten●ss and filthy stinks . His affections are al●ogether corrupted : and the imaginations 〈◊〉 heart are only evil continually . Hence 〈◊〉 is that the ungodly is not satisfied with prophaneness , nor the voluptuous with pleasures , nor the ambitious with perferments , nor the curious with preciseness , nor the malicious with revenge , nor the leacherous with uncleanness , nor the covetous with gain , nor the drunkard with drinking . New passions and fashions do daily grow : new Fears and Afflictions do still arise ; here Wrath lies in wait , there Vain-glory vexeth : here pride lifts up , there disgrace casts down ; and every one waiteth who shal● arise in the ruine of another . Now a Ma● is privily stung with Back-biters like fiery Serpents , anon he is in danger to be openly devoured of his enemies , like Daniel's Lions● And a godly man where ere he liveth shall ever be vexed ( like Lot ) with Sodom's uncleanness . 2. Death brings unto the godly an end of * sinning , and of all the miseries which ar● due unto sin : so that after Death there sha●● be no more sorrow , nor crying ; neither shal● there be any more pain , for God shall wipe a● way all tears from their eyes . Yea , by death we are separated from the company of wick●ed Men , and God taketh away merciful 〈◊〉 righteous men from the evil to come . So 〈◊〉 dealt with Josiah : I will gather thee to th● Fathers : and thou shalt be put into thy gr●● in peace , and thine eyes shall not see all the 〈◊〉 which I will bring upon this place ▪ And Go● hides them for a while in the grave , untill 〈◊〉 indignation pass over . So that as Paradise 〈◊〉 the Heaven of the soul's joy ; so the Gra●● may be term'd the Heaven of the bodies 〈◊〉 3. Whereas this wicked Body lives in a world of wickedness , so that the poor Soul cannot look out at the Eye , and not be infected ; nor hear by the Ear , and not be distracted ; nor smell at the Nostrils , and not be tainted ; nor taste with the Tongue , and not be allured ; nor touch by the Hand , and not be defiled ; and every sense upon every temptation is ready to betray the Soul ; by death the Soul shall be delivered from this Thraldom , and this corruptible body shall put on incorruption , and this mortal immortality , 1 Cor. 15. 53. O blessed , thrice blessed be that Death in the Lord , which delivers us out of so evil a World , and freeth us from such a body of bondage and corruption . The third sort of Meditations are , to consider what good Death will bring unto thee . 1. DEATH bringeth the godly Man's Soul to enjoy an immediate Communion with the blessed Trinity in everlast●ng bliss and glory . 2. It translates the Soul from the Mise●ies of this world , the contagion of sin , and ●●ciety of Sinners , to the City of the living ●ed , the Celestial Jerusalem , and the com●any of innumerable Angels , and to the assem●ly and congregation of the first-born , which 〈◊〉 written in Heaven , and to God the Judge 〈◊〉 all , and to the Souls of just Men made per●ect , and to Jesus the Mediator of the new ●ovenant . 3. Death putteth the Soul into the aactual and full possession of all the inheritance and happiness which Christ hath either promised unto thee in his Word , or purchased for thee by his blood . This is the good and happiness whereunto a blessed death will bring thee . And what truly Religious Christian that is young , would not wish himself old , that his appointed time might the sooner approach to enter into this celestial Paradise ; where thou maist exchange thy Brass for Gold , thy Vanity for Felicity , thy Vileness for Honour , thy Bondage for Freedom , thy Lease for an Inheritance , and thy mortal State for an immortal Life ? He that doth not daily desire this blessedness above all things , of all others he is less worthy to enjoy it . If † Cato Vticensis , and Cleombrotus , two Heathen-men , ( reading Plato's Book o● the Immortality of the Soul ) did voluntarily , the one break his Neck , the other run upon his Sword , that they might th● sooner ( as they thought ) have enjoyed those joys : what a shame is it for Christian● ( knowing those things in a more excellent measure and manner out of God's ow● Book ) not to be willing to enter into these heavenly Joys ? especially when their Master calls for them thither . If therefor● there be in thee any love of God , or desir● of thine own happiness or salvation , whe● the time of thy departing draweth near● that time , I say , and manner of Death which God in his unchangeable Counsel hath appointed , and determined be●fore thou wast born ; yield and surrender up ( willingly and chearfully ) thy Soul into the merciful hands of Jesus Christ thy Saviour . And to this end , when the time is come , as the Angel in the ●ight of Manoah and his Wife , ascended from the Altar up to heaven in the flame of the sacrifice , so endeavour thou , that thy spirit in the sight of thy friends , may from the altar of a contrite heart , ascend up to Heaven , in the sweet perfume of this or the like spiritual Sacrifice of Prayer . A Prayer for a sick Man , when he is told that he is not a Man for this World , but must prepare himself to go unto God. O Heavenly Father , who art * the Lord God of the spirits of all flesh , and hast made us these souls , and h●st b appointed us the time , as to come into this World , so ( having finished our c course ) to go out of the same : the d number of my days which thou hast e determined , are now expired , and I am come to the utmost bounds which thou hast appointed , beyond which I cannot pass . I know ( O Lord ) that if thou enterest into judgment , no flesh can be justified in thy sight : And I ( O Lord ) of all others should appear most impure and unjust ; for I have not fought that good ●ight for the defence of thy Faith and Religion , with that zeal and constancy that I should : but for fear of displeasing the World , I have given way unto sins and errours ; and for desire to please my flesh , I have broken all thy Commandments , in thought , word , and deed ; so that my sins have taken such hold on me , that I am not able to look up , and they are more in number than the hairs on my head . † If thou wilt straitly mark mine iniquities , O Lord , where shall I stand ? * if thou weighest me in the balance , I shall be found too light . For I am void of all righteousness , that might merit thy mercy ; and loaden with all iniquities that most justly deserve thy heaviest wrath . Bu● , O my Lord , and my God , for Jesus Christ thy Son's sake , in whom only thou art well pleased with all penitent and believing sinners ; take pity and compassion upon me , who am the a chief of sinners . Blot out all my sins out of thy * remembrance , and b wash away all my transgressions out of thy sight , with the c precious blood of thy Son , which I believe that he ( as an undefiled d Lamb ) hath shed for the cleansing of my sins . In this faith I lived ; in this faith I die : believing that e Jesus Christ died for my sins , and rose again for my justification . And seeing that he hath endured that Death , and f born the burthen of that Judgment , which was due unto my sins ; O Father , for his Death and Passion 's sake , now ( that I am coming to appear before thy Judgment-seat ) acquit and deliver me from that fearful Judgment , which my sins have justly deserved . And perform unto me that gracious and comfortable Promise which thou hast made in thy Gospel : That whosoever believeth in thee , hath everlasting life , and shall not come into Judgment , but shall pass from death unto life . Strengthen , O Christ , my Faith that I may put the whole confidence of my salvation in the merits of thy obedience and Blood. Encrease , O holy Spirit , my patience , lay no more upon me than I am able to bear : and enable me to bear so much , as shall stand with thy blessed will and pleasure . O blessed Trinity in Unity , my Creator , Redeemer , and Sanctifier , vouchsafe , that as my outward man doth decay ; so my inward man may more and more by thy grace and consolation , increase and gather strength . O Saviour , put my Soul in a readiness , that ( like a a wise Virgin , having the b Wedding Garment of thy Righteousness and holiness ) she may be ready to meet thee at thy comming , with Oyl in her Lamp c Marry her unto thy self ; that she may be d one with thee in everlasting love and fellowship O Lord , e reprove Satan , and chase him away : f Deliver my soul from the power of the Dog. Save me from the Lyon's mouth . I thank thee , O Lord , for all thy blessings both spiritual and temporal , bestowed upon me : especially for my Redemption by the death of my Saviour Christ. I thank thee that thou hast protected me with thy holy * Angels from my youth up until now . Lord , I beseech thee give them a charge to attend upon me till thou callest for my soul ; and then to carry her ( as they did the soul of a Lazarus ) into thy Heavenly b Kingdom . And as the time of my departure shall approach nearer unto me , so grant , O Lord , that my Soul may draw nearer unto thee , and that I may joy fully commend my Soul into thy hands , as into the hands of a loving Father , and merciful c Redeemer , and at that instant d O Lord graciously receive my Spirit . All which that I may do , assist me I beseech thee , with thy Grace : and let thy holy spirit continue with me unto the end , and in the end , for Jesus Christ his sake , thy Son my Lord , and only Saviour : In whose Name I give thee the glory , and beg these things at thy hand , in that Prayer which Christ himself hath ●aught me , saying , Our Father which art in Heaven , &c. Meditations against Despair , or doubting of God's Mercy . IT is found by continual experience that near the time of Death ( when the Children of God are weakest ) then Satan makes the greatest flourish of his strength , and assails them with his strongest temptations . For he knoweth that either he must now or never prevail : for if their souls once go to Heaven , he shall never vex nor trouble them any more . And therefore he will now bestir himself as much as he can , and labour to set before their eyes all the gross sins which ever they committed , and the Judgments of God which are due unto them : thereby to drive them , if he can , unto despair , which is a grievouser sin than all the sins hat they committed , or he can accuse them of . If Satan therefore trouble thy Conscience more towards thy death , than in thy life ; 1. Confess thy sins unto God , not only in general , but also in particular . 2. Make satisfaction unto those Men , whom thou hast wronged , if thou be●st able . And if thou dost injuriously or fraudulently detain or keep in thy possession , any Lands or Goods , that of right do belong to any Widow , or Fatherless Child , presume not , as thou tenderest thy Soul's health , to look Christ the righteous Judge in the face , unless thou dost first make a restitution thereof to the right owners ; for the Law of God under the penalty of his curse , requireth thee to * restore whatsoever was given thee to keep , or which was committed to thy trust , or whatsoever by robbery , or violent oppression , thou tookest from thy neighbour , with a fifth part for amends added to the principal . And unless that like Zaccheus thou dost make † restit●tion of such Goods and Lands , according to God's Law , thou canst never truly repent , and without true Repentance , thou canst never be saved . But though by the temptation of the Devil , thou hast done wrong and injury ; yet if thou dost truly b repent and make restitution to thy power , the Lord hath promised to be merciful unto thee , to hear the c Prayers of his faithful Ministers for thee , to forgive thee thy trespass and sin , and to receive thy Soul in the Merits of Christ's Blood , as a Lamb without blemish . 3. Ask God for Christ his sake pardon and forgiveness . And then these troubles of mind are no Discouragements , but rather Comforts : Exercises , not Punishments . They are assurances unto thee , that thou art in the right way : for the way to Heaven is by the gates of Hell : that is , by suffering pains in the body , and such doubtings in the mind , that thy estate in this life being every way made bitter , the joys of eternal life may relish unto thee better and more sweet . If Satan tell thee that thou hast no Faith , because thou hast no feeling ; Meditate , 1. That the truest Faith hath oftentimes the least feeling , and greatest doubts ; but so long as thou hatest such doubtings , they shall not be laid unto thy charge ; for they belong to the flesh from which thou art divorced . When thy flesh shall perish , thy weak inward man , which hates them , and loves the Lord Jesus , shall be saved . 2. That it is a better Faith to believe without feeling , than with feeling . The least Faith ( so much as a grain of Mustard-seed , so much as is in an Infant baptized ) is enough to save the Soul which loveth Christ , and believeth in him . 3. That the Child of God which desireth to feel the assurance of God's favour , shall have his desire , when God shall see it to be for his good : For God hath promised to give them the a Water of Life , who thirst for it , we have an example in * Mr. Glover the holy Martyr , who could have no comfortable feeling till he came to the sight of the Stake : and then cryed out and clapped his hands for joy to his Friends , saying , O Austin , he is come , he is come ; meaning the feeling joy of Faith , and the Holy Ghost . Tarry therefore the Lord's leisure : be strong , and he shall comfort thine heart . If Satan shall aggravate unto thee the greatness , the multitude , and hainousness of thy sins ; meditate , 1. That upon true Repentance it is as easie with God to forgive the greatest sin , as the least ; and he is as willing to forgive many , as to pardon one . And his mercy shineth more in pardoning great sinners , than small offenders ; as appears in the Examples of Manasses , Magdalen , Peter , Paul , &c. And where sin most aboundeth , there doth his Grace rejoyce to abound much more . 2. That God did never forsake any man , till a man did first forsake God , as appears in the examples of Cain , Saul , Achitophel , Ahazia , Judas , &c. 3. That God calleth all , even those sinners who were heavy laden with sin , and that he did never deny his mercy to any sinner that asked his mercy with a penitent heart . This the history of the Gospel witnesseth : There came unto Christ all sorts of sick sinners ; the blind , lame , halt , Lepers ; such as were sick of Palsies , Dropsies , Bloody-fluxes ; such as were Lunatick , and possessed with unclean Spirits and Devils : Yet of all these , not one that came and asked his mercy and help , went away without his errand : If mercy he asked , mercy he found , were his sin never so great , were his Disease never so grievous . Nay , he offered and gave his mercy to many that never asked it , ( being moved only with the Bowels of his own compassion , and the sight of their misery ) as to the woman of Samaria , the widow of Naim , and to the sick man that lay at the Pool of Bethesda , who had been 38 years sick . If he thus willingly gave his mercy to them that did not ask it , and was found of them ( as the a Prophet saith ) that sought him not ; will he deny mercy unto thee , who dost so earnestly pray for it with Tears ; and dost like the poor Publican , so heartily knock for it , with penitent fists upon a bruised and broken heart ? Especially when thou prayest to thy Father , in the name and mediation of Christ , for whose sake he hath promised to grant whatsoever we shall ask of him ; as sure as God is true , he will not . Though Nineve's sins had provoked the Lord to send out his sentence against them , yet upon their repentance he recalled it again and spared the City : how much more if thou likewise repentest , will he spare thee , seeing his sentence is not yet gone forth against thee ? if he deferred the judgments all Ahab's days , for the external shew only which he made of humiliation ; how much more will he clean turn away his vengeance , if thou wilt unfeignedly repent of thy sin , and return unto him for grace and mercy ? He offered his mercy unto Cain ( who murthered his innocent Brother . ) If thou dost well , shalt thou not be accepted ? As if he should have said , if thou wilt leave thy envy and malice , and offer unto me from a faithful and contrite heart , both thou and thine Oblation also shall be acceptable unto me . And to Judas ( that so treacherously betray'd him ) in calling him a friend , a sweet appellation of love : and when Judas offered , he willingly consented with that mouth ( wherein never was found b guile ) to kiss those dissembling lips , under which lurked the c poyson of Asps. Had Judas apprehended this word friend out of the mouth of Christ , as Benhadad did the word Brother from the mouth of Ahab , doubtless Judas should have found the God of Israel more merciful than Benhadad found the King of Israel . But God was * more displeased with Cain for despairing of his mercy , than for murthering his Brother , and with a Judas for hanging himself , than for betraying his Master in that they would make the sins of mortal men greater than ●he Infinite mercy of the eternal God ; or as if they could be more sinful than God was merciful . Whereas the least drop of Christ's Blood is of more merit to procure God's mercy for thy salvation , than all the sins ( that thou hast committed ) can be of force to provoke his wrath to thy damnation . If Satan shall suggest , that all this is true of God's mercy , but that it doth not belong unto thee , because thy sins are greater than other mens , as being sins of knowledge , and of many years continuance , and such as whereby others have been undone : and all ( for the most part ) ●ommitted wilfully and presumptuously against God and thy Conscience . And therefore though he will be merciful unto others , yet he will not be merciful unto thee ; Meditate . 1. That many ( who are now in Heaven most blessed and glorious Saints ) committed in the same kind ( when they lived on earth ) as great and greater sins then ever thou hast committed , and continued ( before they repented ) in those sins as long as ever thou hast done . As therefore all their sins and the continuance in them , could not hinder God's mercy upon their repentance , from forgiving their sins , and receiving them into favour ; no more shall thy sins and continuance therein hinder him from being merciful unto thee , if thou dost repent as they did : yea , upon thy Repentance , every one of their examples is a pledge that he will do the same unto thee that he did unto them . For as the least sin in God's Justice without repentance is damnable ; so the greatest sin upon repentance is in his mercy pardonable . Thy greatest and inveteratest sins are but the sins of a man , but the least of his Mercies is the mercy of God. Because thou knowest thine own sins , thou doubtest whether they shall be pardoned . Mark how this doubtful case is resolved by Good himself . Many in Isaiah's days , thought ( as thou dost ) that they had continued so long in sin , that it was too late for them now to seek to return unto God for Grace and Mercy . But God answereth them , Seek ye the Lord whilst he may be found : call ye upon him whilst he is near . As if he had said , whilst life lasteth , and my Word is preached , I am near to be found of all that seek me , and pray unto me . The People reply : But we ( O Lord ) are grievous sinners , and therefore dare not presume to call upon thy Name , or to come near thine Holiness To this the Lord answereth , Let the wicked forsake his way , and the man of iniquity his thoughts : and let him return unto me , and I will have mercy upon him , and to his God , and I will pardon him abundantly . But we would think ( say the people ) that if our sins were but ordinary sins , this promise of Mercy might belong unto us : But because our sins are so great , and of such long continuance , therefore we fear lest when we appear before God , he will reject us . To this God answereth again : My thoughts ( of mercy ) are not your thoughts , neither are your ways ( of pardoning ) my ways : for as the heavens are higher than the earth , so are my ways higher than your ways , and my thoughts than your thoughts . If therefore every sinner in the world were a world of such sinners as thou art ; do thou but yet ( what God bids thee ) repent and believe , and the † Blood of Jesus Christ , being the Blood of God , will cleanse both thee , and them from all your sins . 2. That as God did foresee all the sins which the world should commit , and yet all those could not hinder him from loving the world , so that he gave his only begotten Son to death , to save as many of the world , as would believe and repent : much less shall thy sins ( being the sins of the least member of the world ) be able to hinder God from loving thy soul , and forgiving thy sins , if thou dost repent and believe . 3. That if he loved thee so dearly ( when thou wast his Enemy ) that he payed for thee so dear a price as the spilling of his heart blood ; how can he now but be gracious unto thee , when to save thee will cost him but the casting of a gracious look upon thee ? Look nor thou therefore to the greatness of thy sins , but to the infiniteness of his mercy , which is so surpassing great , that if thou puttest all thine own grievous sins together , and addest unto those the sins of Cain and Judas , and puttest unto them all the sins of all the Reprobates in the World ( doubtless it would be a huge heap ) yet compare this huge heap with the infinite mercy of God , and there will be no more comparison betwixt them , than betwixt the least Mole-hill & the greatest Mountain in a Country . The cry of the grievous est sins that ever we read of , could never reach up higher than unto Heaven , as the cry of the sins of Sodom : but the mercy of God ( saith David ) reacheth up higher than the Heavens , and so overtoppeth all our sins . And if his Mercy be greater than all his works , it must needs be greater that all thy sins . And so long as his mercy is greater than the sins of the whole world , do thou but repent , there is do doubt of pardon . If * ●●tan shall object , that thou hast many times vowed to repent , and hast made a shew of repentance for the time , and yet didst fall to the same sins again and again ; and that all thy repentance was but feigned , and a mocking of God. And that seeing thou hast so often broken thy vow , therefore God hath withdrawn his mercy , and hath changed his love , &c. medi●ate , 1. † . That though this were true ( which indeed is hainous ) yet it is no sufficient cause why thou shouldst despair ; seeing that this is the common case of all the Children of God in this life , who vow so oft to forbear some sin a till perceiving their weakness nor able to perform it , they vow that they will vow no more . Their Vows shew the desires of their spiritual Man ; their breaking , the weakness of their corrupt flesh . And our oft slips into the same sins , Christ foresaw , when he taught us to pray daily ; Our Father , forgive us our trespasses . And why doth Christ enjoyn thee ( who art but a sinful man ) to forgive thy brother seven times in a day , if he shall return seven times in a day , and say , it repenteth me ? But to assure thee that he ( being the God of mercy and goodness it self ) will forgive unto thee thy seventy times seven-fold sins a day which thou hast committed against him , if thou return unto him by tru● Repentance . The Israelites were cured by looking ( though with weak eyes ) on the Brazen Serpent , as oft as they were stung by the fiery Serpent in the Wilderness : to assure thee that upon thy tears of repentance , thou shalt be recovered by ●aith in Christ as often as thou are wounded to death by sin . 2. That thy salvation is grounded , not upon the constancy of thine obedience , but upon the firmness of God's Covenant . Though thou variest with God , and the Covenant be broken on thy behalf , yet it is firm on God's part ; and therefore all is safe enough if thou wilt return ; for there is no a variableness with him , neither shadow of change . He hath locked up thy salvation , and made it sure in his own b unchangeable purpose ; and hath delivered to thy keeping the keys , which are * Faith and repentance ; and whilst thou hast them , thou mayst perswade thy self that thy salvation is su●e and safe ; For whom God c loveth , he loveth to the end , and never d repenteth of bestowing his love on them who repent and believe . Lastly , If Satan shall perswade thee that thou hast been doubting a long time , and that it 's best for thee now to despair , seeing thy sins increase , and thy judgment draweth near ; meditate , 1. That no sin ( though never so great ) should be a cause to move any Christian to despair , so long as God's mercy by so many millions of degrees is greater : and that every penitent and believing Sinner hath the pardon of all his sins confirmed by the Word and Oath of God ; * two immutable things , wherein it is impossible that God should lye . His Word is , that at what time soever a sinner , whosoever , doth repent of his sin , whatsoever , ( for both time , and sins , and sinners are indefinite ) from the bottom of his heart , b God will blot forth all his sins out of his remembrance , that they shall be mentioned unto him no more . If we will not take his word ( which God forbid we should doubt of ) he hath given us his Oath : As I live , I desire not the death of the wicked , but that the wicked turn from his way and live . As if he had said , will ye not believe my Word ? I swear by my life , that I delight not to damn any sinner for his sins , but rather to save him upon his conversion and repentance . The meditation hereof moved Tertullian to exclaim : O how happy are we , when God sweareth that he wills not our damnation ! O what miserable wretches are we , if we will not believe God when he sweareth this truth unto us ! Listen , O drooping Spirit , whose soul is assailed with ways of faithless despair ; how happy were it to see many like thee , and Hezekiah ? ( who mourn like Doves for the sense of sin , and chatter like Cranes and Swallows for the fear of God's anger ) rather than to behold many who die like Beasts without any feeling of their own estate , or any fear of God's wrath , or Tribunal Seat , before which they are to appear ? Comfort thy self , O languishing soul ; for if this earth hath any for whom Christ spilt his blood on the Cross , thou assuredly art one Chear up therefore thy self in the all-sufficient atonement of the blood of the Lamb , which speaketh better things than that of Abel . And pray for those , who never yet obtained the grace to have such a sense and detestation of sin . Thou art one indeed , for whom Christ died , and from whom a wounded spirit ( judging rather according to his feeling than his faith ) hath wrung that doleful voice of Christ , a My God , my God , why hast thou forsaken me ? And doubt not but ere long thou shalt as truly b reign with him as now thou dost suffer with him , for c Yea and d Amen hath spoken it . No sin bars a man from salvation , but only Incredulity and Impenitency : nothing makes the sin against the Holy Ghost unpardonable , but want of repentance . Thy unfeigned desire to repent , is as acceptable unto God , as the perfectest repentance that thou couldest wish to p●r●orm unto him . Meditate upon these Evangelical comforts , and thou shalt see that in the very agon● of death God will so assist thee with his spirit , that when Satan looketh for the greatest victory , he shall receive the foulest foil ; yea , when thy eye-strings are broken , that thou canst not see the light , Jesus Christ will appear unto thee to comfort thy Soul , and his Holy Angels will carry thee into his Heavenly Kingdom . Then shall thy Friends behold thee , like * Manoah's Angel , doing wonders indeed , when they shall see a frail man in his greatest weakness ( by the mere assistance of God's Spirit ) overcoming the strength of sin , the bitterness of death , and all the power of Satan ; and in the fire of Faith , and perfume of Prayer , ascend up with Angels victoriously into Heaven . An Admonition to them who come to visit the sick . THey who come to visit the sick , must have a special care not to stand dumb and staring in the sick person's face to disquiet him ; nor yet to speak idly , and to ask unprofitable questions , as most do . If they see therefore that the sick party is like to die , let them not dissemble ; but lovingly and discreetly admonish him of his weakness , and to prepare for eternal life . One hour well spent , when a man's life is almost out-spent , may gain a man the assurance of eternal life . Sooth him not with the vain hope of this life , lest thou betray his Soul to eternal death . Admonish him plainly of his estate , and ask him briefly these or the like Questions . Questions to be asked of a sick Man , that is like to die . DOst thou believe that Almighty God , the Trinity of Persons in Unity of Essence , hath by his Power made Heaven and Earth , and all things therein ? and that he doth still by his Divine Providence govern the same ? So that nothing comes to pass in the world , nor to thy self , but what his divine hand and counsel had determined before to be done . 2. Dost thou confess that thou hast transgressed and broken the holy Commandments of Almighty God , in thought , word , and deed ? and hast deserved for breaking his holy Laws , the Curse of God , which containeth all the miseries of this life , and everlasting torments in Hell fire , when this life is ended , if so be that God should deal with thee according to thy deserts . 3. Art thou not sorry in thy heart , that thou hast so broken his Laws , and neglected his Service and Worship , and so much followed the world , and thine own vain pleasures ? And would'st thou not lead a holier life , if thou wert to begin again ? 4. Dost thou not from thy heart desire to be reconciled unto God in Jesus Christ his blessed Son , thy Mediator , who is * at the right hand of God in heaven , o now appearing for thee in the sight of God , and making request unto him for thy Soul ? 5. Dost thou renounce all confidence in all other Mediators , or Intercessors , Saints or Angels , believing that Jesus Christ the only Mediator of the New Testament , is able perfectly to save them that come unto God by him , seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them ? And wilt thou with David say unto Christ , whom have I in heaven but thee ? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee . 6. Dost thou confidently believe and hope to be saved by the only merits of that bloody death and passion , which thy Saviour Jesus Christ hath suffered for thee ? not putting any hope of Salvation in thine own Merits , nor in any other means or Creatures , being assuredly perswaded , that there is no salvation in any other ; and that there is none other name under Heaven , whereby thou must be saved . 7. Dost thou heartily forgive all wrongs and offences done or offered unto thee , by any manner of Person whatsoever ? And dost thou as willingly ( from thy heart ) ask forgiveness of them whom thou hast grievously wronged in word or deed ? And dost thou cast out of thy heart all malice and hatred , which thou hast born to any body ; that thou mayest appear before the Face o● Christ ( the Prince of Peace ) in perfect love and charity . 8. Doth thy Conscience tell thee of any thing , which thou hast wrongfully taken , and dost still withhold , from any widow or fatherless Children , or from any other persons whomsoever ? Be assured , that unless thou shalt restore , like Zaccheus , those goods and lands ( if thou be'st able ) thou canst not truly repent : and without true Repentance thou canst not be saved , nor look Christ in the face when thou shalt appear before his Judgment-seat . 9. Dost thou firmly believe that thy body shall be raised up out of the Grave , at the sound of the last Trumpet ? and that thy Body and Soul shall be united together again in the Resurrection Day , to appear before the Lord Jesus Christ , and thence to go with him into the Kingdom of Heaven , to live in everlasting bliss and glory ? If the sick party shall answer to all these questions like a faithful Christian , then let all who are present , joyn together and pray for him , in these , or the like words . A Prayer to be said for the sick by them who visit him . O Merciful Father , who art the Lord , and giver of life , and to whom belong the issues of Death ; we thy Children here assembled , do acknowledge , that ( in respect of our manifold sins ) we are not worthy to ask any blessing for our selves at thy hands , much less to become suiters unto thy Majesty in the behalf of others ; yet because thou hast commanded us to pray one for another , especially for the sick and hast promised that the Prayers of the righteous shall avail much with thee : in obedience therefore to thy Commandment , and confidence of thy gracious Promise , we are bold to become humble Suiters to thy Divine Majesty in the behalf of this our dear Brother ( or Sister ) whom thou hast hast visited with the Chastisement of thine own fatherly hand . We could gladly wish the Restitution of his health and a longer continuance of his life and Christian ●ellowship amongst us : but forasmuch as it ●ppeareth ( as far as we can discern ) that ●hou hast appointed by this visitation , to ●●ll for him out of this mortal life ; we sub●it our wills to thy blessed will , and hum●ly intreat for Jesus Christ his sake , and ●e merits of his bitter death and passion which he hath suffered for him ) that ●ou would'st pardon and forgive unto ●im all his sins : as well that wherein he ●as conceived and born , as also all the offen●es and transgressions , which ever since , to ●his day and hour , he hath committed in ●hought , word , and deed , against thy Divine ●ajesty . Cast them behind thy back , re●ive them as far from thy presence , as the East ● from the West . Blot them out of thy re●embrance ; lay them not to his charge ; ●ash them away with the Blood of Christ , ●hat they may no more be seen : and deli●er him from all the Judgments which are ●ue unto him for his sins , that they may ●ever trouble his conscience , nor rise in ●udgment against his Soul ; and impute un●o him the righteousness of Jesus Christ , whereby he may appear righteous in thy ●●ght . And in his extremity at this time we ●eseech the look down from heaven up●n him with those eyes of grace and com●assion wherewith thou art wont to look ●pon thy children in their affliction and misery . Pity thy wounded Servant , like ●he good Samaritan : for here is a sick soul ●hat needeth the help of such a heaven●● Physician . O Lord increase his Faith , that he may believe that Christ died for him , and that his blood cleans●th him from all his sins : and either asswage his pain , or else increase his patience , to endure thy blessed will and pleasure . And good Lord , lay no more upon him than thou shalt enable him to bear . Heave him up unto thy self with those sighs a●d groans which cannot be expressed . Make him now to feel what is the hope of his Calling , and what is the exceeding greatness of thy Mercy and Power towards them that believe in thee . And in his weakness , O Lord , shew thou thy strength ▪ Defend him against the suggestions and temptations of Satan ; who ( as he hath all his life time ) will now in his weakness especially seek to assail him and to devour him . O save his Soul , and reprove Satan , and command thy holy Angels to be about him , to aid him , and to chase away all evil and malignant Spirits far from him . Make him more and more to loath this world , and to desire to be loosed , and to be with Christ. And when that good hour and time shall come ( wherein thou hast determined to call for him out of this present life ) give him grace peacefully and joyfully to yield up his soul into thy merciful hands , and do thou receive her into thy mercy , and let thy blessed Angels carry her into thy kingdom . Make his last hour his best hour , his last words his best words , and his last thoughts his best thoughts . And when the sight of his eyes is gone , and his tongue shall fail to do its office , grant , O Lord ▪ that his Soul may ( with Stephen ) behold Jesus Christ in Heaven ready to receive him : and that thy Spirit within him may make request for him with sighs which cannot be expressed . Teach us in him to read and see our own end and mortality : and therefore to be careful to prepare our selves for our last ends , and put our selves in a readiness against the time that thou shalt call for us in the like manner . Thus , Lord , we recommend this our dear Brother ( or Sister ) thy sick servant unto thy eternal Grace and Mercy , in that Prayer which Christ our Saviour hath taught us , saying , Our Father which art in heaven , &c. Thy grace , O Lord Jesus Christ , thy love , O heavenly Father , thy comfort and consolation , O holy Spirit , be with us all , and especially with this thy sick servant , to the end , and in the end . Amen . Let them read often unto the sick some special Chapters of the holy Scripture : as , The three first Chapters of the Book of Job . The 14. and 19. Chapters of Job . The 34. Chapter of Deuteronomy . The two last Chapters of Joshua ▪ The 17. Chapter of the first of Kings . The 2 , 4 , and 12. Chapters of the Second of Kings . The 38 , 40 , and 65. Chapters of Isaiah . The History of the Passion of Christ. The 8. Chapter of the Romans . The 15. Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians . The fourth of the first Epistle to the Thessalonians . The fifth Chapter of the second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians . The first and last Chapters of St. James . The 11 and 12 to the Hebrews . The first Epistle of Peter . The three first and the three last Chapters of the Revelations , or some of these . And so exhorting the sick party to wait upon God by faith and patience , till he send for him ; and praying the Lord to send them a joyful meeting in the Kingdom of Heaven , and a blessed Resurrection at the last day ; they may depart at their pleasure in the Peace of God. Consolations against impatience in sickness . IF in thy sickness by extremity of pain , thou be driven to impatience , meditate , 1. That thy sins have deserved the pains of hell ; therefore thou maist with greater patience endure these fatherly Corrections . 2. That these are the scourges of thy heavenly Father , and the rod is in his hand . If thou didst suffer with reverence being a child , the correction of thy earthly Parents , how much rather should'st thou now subject thy self ( being the Child of God ) to ●he chastis●ment of thy heavenly Father , seeing it is for thine eternal good ? 3. That * Christ suffered in his soul and body far grievo ser pains for thee , therefore thou must more willingly suffer his blessed pleasure for thine own good . Therefore saith Peter , b Christ suffered for you , leaving you an example , that ye should follow hi● steps . And , c Let us ( saith S. Pau● , run with joy the race that is set before us , looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith , who for the joy that was set before him , endured the Cross , &c. 4. That these afflictions which now you suffer , are none other , but such as d are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world , as witnesseth Peter : Yea , Job's afflictions were far more grievous . There is not one of the Saints which now are at rest in heavenly joys , but endured as much as you do , before they went thither : yea , ●●ny of them willingly suffered all the torments that Tyrants could inflict upon them , that they might come to those heavenly 〈◊〉 whereunto you are now called . And you have a promise , that * the God of a●l grace , after that you have suffered a while , will make you perfect , stablish , strengthen , and settle you . And that b God of his fidelity , will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able ; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape , that ye may be able to bear it . 5. That God hath determined the time when thy affliction shall end , as well as the time when it began , 38 years were appointed the sick man at † Be●hesda's Pool Twelve Years to the Woman with the b bloody Issue● Three months to c Moses . Ten days tribulation to the d Angel of the Church of Smyrna . Three days plague to e David . Yea , the number of the godly man's tears are registred in f God's book , and the quantity kept in his bottle , The time of our trouble ( saith Christ ) is but a a Modicum . God's Anger lasts but a b moment ( saith David . ) A little c season , ( saith the Lord ) and therefore calls all the time of our pain , but the d hour of sorrow . Da●id , for the swiftness thereof , compares our present trouble to a e Book ; and * A●●anasius to a Shower . Compare the longest misery that Man endures in this 〈◊〉 , to the eternity of heavenly joys , and they will appear to be nothing . And as the sight of a Son safe born , makes the M●ther forget all her former deadly pain : so the sight of Christ in Heaven , who was born for thee , will make all these pangs of death to be quite forgotten , as if they had never been : like Stephen , who as soon as he saw Christ , forgat his own wounds , with the horror of the grave , and terror of the stones ; and sweetly yielded his soul into the hands of his Saviour . Forget thine own pain , think of Christ's wounds , * Be faithful unto the death , and he will give thee the Crown of eternal life . 6. That you are now called to Repetitions in Christ's School ; to see how much Faith , Patience , and Godliness you have learned all this while : and whether you can , like Job , † receive at the hand of God some evil , as well as you have hitherto received a great deal of good ? As therefore you have always prayed , Thy will be done ; so be not now offended at this which is done by his holy will. 7. That b all things shall work together for the best to them that love God : Insomuch that neither Death , nor Life , nor Angels , nor Principalities , nor Powers , &c. shall be able to separate us from the love of God , which is in Jesus Christ our Lord. Assure your self that every pang is a prevention of the pains of hell : every res●ite an earnest of Heavens rest , and how many stripes do you esteem heaven worth ? As your life hath been a comfort to others ; so give your friends a Christian example to die , and deceive the Devil as Job did . It is but the ●●oss of Christ sent before to crucifie the love of the World in thee ; that thou m●●st go eternally to live with Christ who was crucified for thee . As thou art therefore a true Christian , take up ( like Simon of Cyr●n● ) with both thy arms his holy Cross , carry it after him , 〈◊〉 him ; thy pains will shortly pass , thy joys shall never pass away . Consolations against the fear of Death . IF in the time of thy sickness , thou findest thy self fearful to die , meditate , 1. That it argueth a dastardly mind to fear that which is nor : For in the Church of Christ there is no death , Isa. 25. 7 , 8. And whosoever liveth and believeth in Christ shall never die . Job 11. 26. Let them fear death , who live without Christ. Christians die not : but when they please God , they are like 〈◊〉 translated unto God. Their pains are but Elijah's fiery chariot to carry them up to heaven : or like Lazar●●'s sores , sending them to Abraham's Bosom . In a word , if thou be one of them that like Lazarus , lovest Jesus , thy sickness is not unto the death , but for the glory of God , who of his love changeth thy living death to an everlasting life And if mans heathen men , as Socrat●s C●●tiu● , Seneca , &c. died willing●● ( when they might have lived ) in h●pe of the immortality of the soul : wilt thou , being trai●●d so lo●g in Ch●●st's Sch●ol , ( and now c●ll●d to the Marriage Supper of the blessed L●●h , Rev. 19 7. ) be one of those Guests th●● refuse to go to that joyful banquet ? God forbid . 2 Remember that thy abode here is but the second degree of thy life : for after thou hadst first lived nine Months in thy Mothers Womb , thou wast of necessity driven thence to live here in a second degree of life . And when that number of months which God hath determined for this life , are expired ; thou must likewise leave this , and pass to a third degree in the other world , which never ends . Which to them that live and die in the Lord , surpasseth as far this kind of life , as this doth that which one lives in his Mothers Womb. To this last and excellentest degree of life , through this door passed Christ himself , and all his Saints that were before thee : and so shall all the rest after them and thee . Why shouldst thou fear that which is common to all God's Elect ? Why should that be uncouth to thee , which was so welcom to all them ? Fear not death , for as it is the Exodus of a bad , so it is the Genesis of a better World : the end of a temporal , but the beginning of an eternal life . 3. Consider that there are but three things that can make death so fearful unto thee : 1. The loss thou hast thereby : 2. The pain that is therein : 3. The terrible effects which follow after . All these are but false ●res , and causeless fears . For the first , if thou leavest here uncertain goods which Thieves may rob , thou shalt find in heaven a true Treasure , that can never be taken away : these were but lent thee as a Steward upon accounts ; those shall be given thee as thy reward for ever . If thou leaves● a lo●ing Wise , thou shalt be married to Christ which is more lovely . If thou leavest Children and Friends , thou shalt there find all thy religious Ancestors and Children departed : yea , Christ , and all his blessed Saints and Angels . and as many of thy Children as be God's Children , shall thither follow after thee . Thou leavest an earthly p●ssession , and a house of clay ; and thou shalt enjoy an heavenly inheritance and mansion of glory : which is purchased , prepared , and reserved for thee . What hast thou lost ? Nay , is not death unto thee gain ? Go home , go 〈◊〉 , and we will follow after thee . Secondly , For the pain in death ; the fear of death more pains many than the very pa●gs of death ; for many a Christian dies without any great pangs or pains . ●itch the 〈◊〉 of thy Hope on the firm ground of the Wo●d of God , who hath promised a in thy weakness to perfect his strength , and b not to suffer thee to be tempted above that thou art able to bear . And Christ will shortly turn all thy temporal pains to his eternal joys . Lastly , As for the terrible effects which follow after death , they belong not unto thee being a member of Christ ; for Christ by his death hath taken away the sting of death to the faithful ; so that now there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus . And Christ hath protested , that he that believeth in him , hath everlasting life , and shall not come into condemnation , but ha●● passed from death unto life . Hereupon the holy Spirit from Heaven saith . Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord : and that from thenceforth they rest from their labours , and their works do follow them . In respect therefore of the faithful , death is swallowed up in victory : and his sting , which is sin , and the punishment thereof , is taken away by Christ. Hence death is called in respect of our bodies , a b sleep and rest : In respect of our Souls , a going to our heavenly Father , a c departing in peace , a removing from this body to go to the Lord ; a d dissolving of soul and body to be with Christ. What shall I say ? Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints . These pains are but thy throes and travail to bring forth eternal life . And who would not pass through Hell to go to Paradise ? much more through death ? There is nothing after death that thou needest fea● ; not thy sins● because Chr●st hath payed thy ransom ; not the Judge , for h● is thy loving brother ; not the grave , 〈◊〉 i● is the Lord's bed ; not he , for thy Redeem●r keeps the keys ; not the Devil , for God's holy Angels pitch their Tents about thee , and will not leave thee , till they bring thee to Heaven . Thou wast never 〈◊〉 et●●nal life : glorifie therefore . ●●ist by a blessed ●eath . Say cheerfully , Come Lord Jesus , 〈◊〉 thy Servant cometh unto thee : I am willing , Lord help my weakness . Seven sanctified Thoughts , and mournful Sighs of a sick Man , ready to die NOW forasmuch as God of his infinite mercy doth so temper ou● pain and sickness , that we are not always oppressed with extremity , but gives us in the midst of our extremities some ●espite to ease and refresh our selves , thou m●st have an esp●cial ca●e ( consid●ring how short a 〈◊〉 thou hast , either for ever to lose , or to obtain Heaven ) to make use of every breathing time which God doth afford th● : and during that 〈…〉 time of ease , 〈…〉 roweth with all his force to arrive at the wished Port ; and that the Traveller never resteth till he come to his Journeys end ; we fear to descry our Port ; and therefore would put back our Bark to be longer tossed in this continual tempest ? We weep to see our jorneys end ; and therefore desire our journey to be lengthened , that we might be more tired with a foul and cumbersome way . The Spiritual Sigh thereupon . O Lord this life is but a troublesome pilgrimage ; few in days , but full in evils : and I am weary of it , by reason of my sins . Let me therefore ( O Lord ) intreat thy Majesty , in this my bed of sickness , as Elias did under the Juniper tree in his affliction : It is now enough , O Lord , that I have lived so long in this vale of misery ; take my soul into thy merciful hands , for I am no better than my Fathers . The Second Thought . THink with what a * body of sin thou art loaden , what great civil wars are contained in a b little world ; the c flesh fighting against the Spirit , Passion against Reason , Earth against Heaven ; and the World within thee bending it self for the World without thee ; and that but 〈◊〉 only means remains to end this conflict● death , which ( in God's appointed time ) will separate thy spirit from thy flesh ; the pure and regenerate part of thy Soul , from that part which is impure and unregenerated . The spiritual Sigh upon the second Thought . OWretched man that I am , who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? O my sweet Saviour Jesus Christ , thou hast redeemed me with thy precious blood . And be cause thou hast delivered my soul from sin , min● eyes from tears , and my feet from falling ; I do here from the very bottom of my heart , ascribe the whole praise and glory of my salvation , to thy only grace and mercy , saying ( with the holy Apostle ) * Thanks be unto God , which hath given me the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. The Third Thought . THink how it behoves thee to be assured that thy soul is Christ's ; for death hath taken sufficient gages to assure himself of thy bod● , in that all thy senses be all ready to die , save only the sense of pain : but sith the beginning of thy being began with p●in ; marvel the less it thy end conclude with dolours . But if these temporal dolours ( which only afflict the body ) be so painful : O Lord , who can endure the devouring fire ? who can abide the everlasting burning ? The spiritual Sigh upon the third Thought . O Lord Jesus Christ , the Son of the living God who art the only Physician that ca●st ease my body from pain , and restore my soul to life eternal : put thy 〈◊〉 , Cross and Death , betwixt my 〈◊〉 and thy Judgments : and let the merits of thy obedience stand betwixt thy Father's justice and my disobedience : and from these bodily pains receive my Soul i●to thine everlasting peace : for I cry unto thee with Stephen , Lord Jesus receive my Spirit . The Fourth Thought . THink that the worst that Death can do , is but to send thy Soul sooner than thy flesh would be willing , to Christ and his heavenly Joys : remember that that Christ is thy best hope . ●he worst therefore of death , is rather a help than a harm ▪ The spiritual Sigh upon the Fourth Thought . O Lord Jesus Christ , the Saviour of all them that put their trust in thee , f●rsake ●or him that in misery fl●●●h unto thy grace● f●● succour and mercy ; Oh sound that sweet Voice in the ears of my Soul , which thou spakest unto the penitent thief on the cross , This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise . For I , O Lord , do ( with the Apostle ) from my Soul speak unto thee , I desire to be dissolved , and to be with Christ. The Fifth Thought . THi●k , ( if thou fearest to die ) That in Mount S●on there is no Death , for ●e that believeth in Christ , shall never die . And if thou desirest to live , without 〈◊〉 , the life eternal ( whereunto this 〈…〉 their miseries ) live with Christ in joys ▪ and thither shall all the godly , which survive , be gathered out of their troubles , to enjoy with him eternal rest . The Spiritual Sigh on the Fifth Thought . O Lord , thou seest the malice of Satan , who ( not contenting himself , like a roaring Lion all the days and nights of our life , to seek our destruction ) shews himself busiest , when thy Children are weakest , and nearest to their end : O Lord reprove him , and preserve my Soul. He seeks to terrifie me with death , which my sins have deserved : but let thy Holy Spirit com●ort my Soul with the assurance of eternal life , which thy Blood hath purchased . Asswage my pain , increase my patience , and ( if it be thy blessed will ) end my troubles : for my Soul beseecheth thee with old blessed Simeon , Lord , now let me thy servant depart in peace , according to thy word . The Sixth Thought . THink with thy self what a blessing God hath bestowed upon thee above many millions in the world : that whereas they are either Pagans , who worship not the true God ; or Idolaters , who worship the true God falsly : thou hast lived in a true Christian Church , and hast grace to die in the true Christian Faith , and to be buried in the Sepulchre of God's Servants ; who all wait for the hope of Israel , and raising of their Bodies in the resurrection of the Just. The spiritual Sigh upon the sixth Thought . O Lord Jesus Christ , who art * the Resurrection , and the life , in whom whosoever believeth , shall live , tho' he were dead : I believe that whosover liveth and believeth in thee , shall never die . b I know that I shall rise again in the Resurrection of the last day : c for I am sure , that thou my Redeemer livest . And tho' that after my death worms destroy this body ; yet I shall see thee , my Lord , and my God , in this flesh . Grant therefore , O Christ , for thy bitter death and passions sake , that at that day I may be one of them to whom thou wilt pronounce that joyful sentence : Come ye blessed of my Father , inherit the Kingdom prepared for you before the foundation of the world . The Seventh Thought . THink with thy self how Christ endured for thee a † cursed death , and the wrath of God , which was due unto thy sins ; and what terrible pains and cruel torments the Apostles and Martyrs have voluntarily suffered for the Defence of Christ's Faith , when they might have lived by dissembling or denying him : how much more wil●ing should'st thou be to depart in the ●aith of Christ , having 〈◊〉 pains to torment thee , and ●ere 〈◊〉 to comfort thee ? The spiritual sigh upon the seventh Thought . O Lord , my sins have deserved the pains of Hell , and eternal death ; much more these fatherly corrections wherewith thou dost afflict me : But , O † blessed Lamb of God , which takest away the sins of the world , have mercy upon me , and * wash away all my filthy sins with thy most precious blood , and b receive my soul into thy heavenly Kingdom ; for c into thy hands , O Father , I commend my spirit , and thou hast redeemed me , O Lord , thou God of truth . The sick Person ought now to send for some godly and religious Pastor . IN any wise remember ( if conveniently it may be ) to send for some godly and religious Pastor : not only to pray for thee at thy death ( for God in such a ca●e hath promised to hear the prayers of the righteous d Prophets , and e Elders of the Church ) but also upon thy confession and unfeigned Repentance to absolve thee of thy sins . For as Christ hath given him a calling to f baptize thee unto repentance for the remission of thy sins : so hath he likewise given him a calling , and g power , and h authority ( upon repentance ) to absolve thee from the sins . * I will give thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven : and whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth , shall be bound in heaven : and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth , shall be loosed in heaven . And again , i Verily , I say unto you , whatsoever ye bind on earth , shall be bound in heaven : and whatsoever ye l●ose on earth , shall be loosed in heaven . And again , Receive ye the holy Ghost : whose soevever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them , and whose soever sins ye retain , they are retained . This Doctrine was as ancient in the Church of God as Job , for Elihu tells him , That when God strikes a man with mal●dy on his bed , so that his soul draweth near the grace , and his life to the burie●● : if there be any messenger with him , or an interpreter , one of a thousand , to declare unto man his righteousness , then will ●e have mercy upon him , &c. and answerable hereunto ( saith St. James ) if the sick have committed sins ( upon his repentance , and the Prayers of the Elders ) they shall be forgiven him . These have power to shut Heaven , and to * deliver ( the scandalous impenitent sinner ) to Satan : For , b the weapons of their warfare are not carnal , but mighty , through God , to cast down , &c. and to have vengeance in readiness against all disobedience . They have the c key of loosing , therefore the power of absolving . The Bishops and Pastors of the Church , do not forgive sin by any d absolute power of their own ( for so only Christ the●r Master forgive ▪ 〈◊〉 ) but e ministerially , as the se●vants of Christ , and St●wards , to whose fidelity their Lord and Master ●ath committed his Keys , and that is , when they do declare and pronounce , either publickly , or privately , by the Word of God , what bindeth , what looseth , and the me●cie●● of God to penitent sinners , or his Judgments to impenitent and obstinate persons , and so do apply the general promises or threatnings to the penitent or impenitent . For Christ from Heaven doth by them ( as by his Ministers on Earth ) declare whom he remitteth and bindeth , and to whom he will open the gates of heaven , and against whom he will shut them . And therefore it is not said , Whose sins ye signifie to be remitted , but whose sins ye remit . They then do remit sins , because Christ by their Ministry remitteth sins , as Christ by his Disciples loosed Lazar●s , Joh. 11. 44. And as no water could wash away Naaman's Leprosie , but the waters of Jordan , ( tho' other Rivers were as clear ) because the promise was annexed unto the water of Jordan , and not of other Rivers : so tho' another Man may pronounce the same words , yet have they not the like efficacy and power to work on the conscience , as when they are pronounced from the Mouth of Christ's Ministers , because the * promise is annexed to the Word of God in their mouths : for them hath he a chosen , b separated , and c s●t apart for this work , and to them he hath committed the d ministry and word of reconciliation : by their holy e calling and f ordination they have received the g holy Ghost , and the ministerial power of binding and loosing . They are sent forth of the h holy Ghost for this work , whereunto he hath called them . And Christ gives his Ministers power to forgive sins to the penitent in the * same words that he teacheth us in the Lord's Prayer , to desire God to forgive us our sins : to assure all penitent sinners , that God by his Minister's absolution doth fully , through the merits of Christ's Blood , forgive them all their sins . So that what Christ decreeth in heaven , in ●oro ju ●icii , the same he declareth on earth by his reconciling Ministers , in foro poenitentie : so ●hat as God hath reconciled the world to himself by Jesus Christ : so hath he ( saith the Apostle ) given unto us the ministry of this reconciliation . He that sent them to baptize , saying , Go and teach all nations , baptizing them , &c. sent them also to remit sins , saying , As my Father sent me , so send I you : whosesoever sins ye remit , they are remitted unto them , &c. As therefore none can baptize , ( tho' he use the same water and words ) but only the lawful Minister , which Christ hath called and authorized to this Divine and Ministerial Function : so tho' others may comfort with good words ; yet none can * absolve from sin , but only those , to whom Christ ●ath committed the holy † Ministry and Word of reconciliation : and of their absolution Christ speaketh , He that heareth you , heareth me . In a doubtful Title thou wilt ask the Counsel of a skilful Lawyer ; In peril of sickness thou wilt know the Advice of the learned Physician : and is there no danger in dread of damnation , for a sinner to be his own Judge ? Judicious Calvin teacheth this point of Doctrine most plainly ; Etsi omnes mutuo ●●s debeamus consolari , &c. Altho ( saith he ) ●e ought to comfort and confirm one another ●n the confidence of God's Mercy ; yet we see that the Ministers are appointed as witnesses and sureties to ascertain our Consciences of the ●emission of sins : insomuch , as they are said tyremit sins , and to loose souls . Let every faithful man therefore remember , that it is his duty ( if inwardly he be vexed and afflicted with the sense of his sins ) not to neglect that remedy which is offered unto him by the Lord , to wit , that ( for the easing of his conscience ) he make private confession of his sins unto his Pastor ; and that he desire his private endeavour for the application of some comfort unto his soul : whose office it is ( both publickly and privately ) to administer Evangelical Consolation to God's People . Beza highly * commendeth this practice : and † Luther saith , That he had rather lose a thousand worlds than su●●er private confession to be thrust out of the Church . Our Church hath ever most a soundly maintained the truth of this Doctrine ; but most justly abolished the Tyrannous and Antichristian abuse of Popish Auricular Confession ; which they thrust upon the souls of Christians , as an expiatory Sacrifice , and a meritorious satisfaction for sin : racking their Consciences to confess , when they feel no distress , and to enumerate all their sins , which is impos●ible : That by this means they might dive into the secrets of all Men , which oft-times hath proved pernicious , not only to private Persons , but also to publick Estates . But the truth of God's Word is , that no person having received Orders in the Church of Rome , can truly absolve a sinner : for the Keys of Absolution are Two ; the one is the Key of Authority , and that only * Christ hath ; the other is the Key of Ministry , and this he a gives to his Ministers who are therefore called , the b Ministers of Christ , the Stewards of God's Mysteries , the c Ambassadors of Reconciliation , Bishops , Pastors , Elders , &c. But Christ never ordained in the new Testament any order of sacrificing Priests : neither is the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which properly signifieth Sacerdos , or sacrificing Priest , given to any officer of Christ , in all the New Testament : Neither do we read in all the new Testament , of any , who confessed himself to a Priest , but d Judas . Neither is there any real Priest in the New Testament , but only e Christ. Neither is there any part of his Priesthood to be now accomplished on f Earth , but that which he fulfilleth in Heaven , by making intercession for us . Seeing therefore Christ never ordained any order of sacrificing Priest , and that Popish Priests scorn the name of Ministers of the Gospel , to whom only Christ committed his Keys : it necessarily followeth , that no Popish Priest can truly either excommunicate or absolve any sinner , or have any lawful right to meddle with Christ's Keys . But the Antichristian abuse of this Divine Ordinance should not abolish the lawful ●se thereof betwixt Christians and their Pastors in cases of distress of conscience , for which it was chiefly ordained . And verily , there is not any means more excellent to humble a proud heart , nor ●o raise up an humble spirit , than this spiritual conference betwixt the Pastors and the People committed to their charge . If any sin therefore troubleth thy Conscience , confess it to God's Minister , ask his counsel , and if thou dost truly repent , receive his absolution . And then doubt not in foro Conscientiae , but thy sins be as verily forgiven on earth , as if thou didst hear Christ himself in foro judicii , pronouncing them to be forgiven in heaven . Qui vos audit , me audit ; he that heareth you , heareth me . Try this , and tell me whether thou shalt not ●ind more ease in thy Conscience than can be expressed in words . Did prophane Men consider the dignity of this Divine Calling , they would the more honour the Calling , and reverence the Persons . The sick Man ( having thus eased his Conscience , and received his absolution ) may do well ( having a convenient number of faithful Christians joyned with him to receive the holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper ; to encourage him in his Faith and to discourage the Devil in his assaults . In this respect the Council of Nice termeth this Sacrament , Viaticum , the Soul's pro●ision for her journey . And albeit the Lord's Supper be an Ecclesiastical action , yet forasmuch as our Lord ( the first instituter ) celebrated it in a b private house , and that c St. Paul termeth the houses of Christians , the Churches of Christ , and that d Christ himself hath promised to be in the midst of the faithful , where but two or three are gathered together in his Name : I see no reason , but if Christians desire it ( when they are not , through sickness , able to come to the Church ) but that they should receive , and Pastors ought to administer unto them the Sacrament at home . He sheweth more simplicity than knowledge , who thinks that this savours of a Private Mass. For a Mass is called private , not because it is said in a private house , but because ( as Bishop a Jewel teacheth out of b Aquinas ) the Priest reciveth the Sacrament himself alone , without distribution made unto others , and then it is private although the whole Parish be present and look upon him . There is as much difference between such a Communion , and the Antichristian Idol of a private Mass , as there is betwixt Heaven and Hell. For at a Communion in a private Family upon such an extraordinary occasion , Christ his Institution is observed . Many faithful Brethren meet together , and tarry one for another . Christ his Death is remembred and shewed , and the Minister together with the faithful , and the sick party to communicate . Mr. Calvin * saith , That he doth very willingly admit administring of the Communion to them that are sick , when the case and opportunity so requireth . And in * another place he saith , That he hath many weighty reasons to compel him not to deny the Lord's Supper unto the sick . Yet , I would wish all Christians to use to receive often ( in their health ) especially once every Month with the whole Church ; for then they shall not need so much to assemble their friends upon such an occasion , nor so much to be troubled themselves for want of the Sacrament . For as M. Perkins saith very well , The fruit a●d efficacy of the Sacrament is not to be restrained to the time of receiving ; but it extends it self to the whole time of man's life afterwards : the efficacy whereof , did men throughly understand , they should not need to be so often exhorted to receive it . Pastores omnes hic exoratos vellem , ut in hujus controversiae stat●m penitiùs introspiciant ; nec fideles ex hac vita migrantes , & panem vitae petentes , viatico suo fraudari sin●nt , nè lugubris ista in iis adimpleatur lamentatio : Parvuli panem petunt , & non sit qui f●●ngat eis . As therefore when a wicked liver dieth , he may say to death , as Ahab said to Elijah , Hast thou found me , O mine enemy ? So on the other side , wh●● it is told a penitent sinner , that Dea●● knocks at the door , and begins to look him in the face , he may s●● of Death , as David said of Ahimaaz , Let him come and welcome , for he is a good man , and cometh with good tidings : he is the messeng●● of Christ , and bringeth unto me the joyful 〈◊〉 of eternal life . And , as the Red Sea was a gulf to drown the Eg●ptians to destruction ; but a passage to the Israelites , to convey them to Canaan's possession : so death to the wicked is a sink to hell and condemnation ; but to the godly , the gate to everlasting life and salvation . And one day of a * blessed death will make amends for all the sorrows of a bitter life . When therefore thou perceivest thy soul departing from thy body , pray with thy Tongue if thou canst , else pray in thy heart and mind , these words , fixing the eyes of thy soul upon Jesus Christ thy Saviour . A Prayer at the yielding up of the Ghost . O Lamb of God , which by thy blood hast taken away the sins of the world : have mercy upon me a sinner , Lord Jesus receive my Spirit . Amen . When the sick party is departing , let the faithful that are present kneel down and commend his soul to God , in these or the like words . O Gracious God , and merciful Father , who art our refuge and strength , and a very present help in trouble ; lift up the light of thy favourable countenance at this Instant upon thy servant , that now cometh to appear in thy presence : wash away , good Lord , all his sins , by the merits of Christ Jesus's blood , that they may never be laid to his charge . Increase his faith , preserve and keep safe his soul from the danger of the Devil and his Wicked Angels . Comfort him with thy Holy Spirit , cause him now to feel that thou art his loving Father , and that he is thy child by Adoption and Grace . Save , O Christ , the price of thine own blood ; and suffer him not to be lost , whom thou hast bought so dearly . Receive his soul , as thou didst the penitent thief , into thy heavenly Paradise . Let thy blessed Angels conduct him thither , as they carried the soul of La●arus ; and grant unto him a joyful resurrection at the last day . O Father , hear us for him , and hear thine own Son , our only Mediator , that sits at thy right hand , for him and us all ; even for the merits of that bitter death and passion which he hath suffered for us . In confidence whereof , we now recommend his soul into thy fatherly hands , in that blessed Prayer , which our Saviour hath taught us in all times of our troubles to say unto thee : Our Father , &c. Thus far of the Practice of Piety in dying in the Lord. Now followeth the Practice of Piety in dying for the Lord. THE Practice of Piety in dying for the Lord , is termed Martyrdom . Martyrdom is the testimony which a Christian beareth to the Doctrine of the Gospel , by enduring any kind of death : to invite many , and to confirm all , to embrace the truth thereof . To this kind of death , Christ hath promised a Crown : a Be thou faithful unto the death , and I will give thee the Crown of life . Which promise the Church so firmly believed , that they termed martyrdom it self a Crown . And God to animate Christians to this excellent prize , would , by a prediction , that b Stephen , the first Christian Martyr , should have his name of a Crown . Of Martyrdom there are Three kinds . 1. Solâ voluntate , in will only , as John the Evangelist , who ( being boiled in a Cauldron of Oil ) came out rather annointed than sod : and died of old age at Ephesus . 2. Solo opere , in deed only : as the Innocents of c Bethlehem . 3. Voluntate & opere , both in will and deed , as in the Primitive Church , Stephen , Polycarpus , Ignatius , Laurentius , Romanus , Antiochianus , and thousands . And in our days , Cranmer , Latimer , Hooper , Ridley , Farrar , Bradford , Philpot , Sanders , Glover , Taylor , and others innumerable , whose fiery zeal to God's Truth , brought them to the flames of Martyrdom ; to seal Christ's Faith. It is not the cruelty of the death , but the innocency and holiness of the cause , that maketh a Martyr . Neither is an erroneous Conscience a sufficient warrant to suffer Martyrdom : because Science in God's Word , must direct Conscience in man's heart . For they who killed the Apostles , in their erroneous Consciences , thought they did God good service : and Paul of zeal breathed out * slaughters against the Lord's Saints . Now whether the cause of our Seminary Priests and Jesuits be so holy , true , and innocent , as that it may warrant their Conscience to suffer death , and to hazard their eternal salvation thereon , let Paul's Epistle written to the ancient Christian Romans ( but against our new Antichristian Romans ) be judge . And it will plainly appear , that the Doctrine which St. Paul taught to the ancient Church of Rome , is ex diametro opposite in 26 fundamental points of true Religion , to that which the new Church of Rome teacheth and maintaineth . For St. Paul taught the Primitive Church of Rome , 1. That our Election is of God's free Grace , and not ex operibus praevisis , Rom. 9. 11. Rom. 11. 5 , 6. 2. That we are justified before God by faith only , without good works , Rom. 3. 20 , 28. Rom. 4. 2 , &c. Rom. 1. 17. 3. That the good works of the regenerate , are not of their own condignity meritorious , nor such as can deserve Heaven , Rom. 8. 18. Rom. 11. 6. Rom. 6. 23. 4. That these Books only are God's Oracles and Canonical Scripture , which were committed to the custody and credit of the Jews , Rom. 3. 2. Rom. 1. 2. Rom. 16. 26. such were never the Apocrypha . 5. That the Holy Scriptures have God's authority , * Rom. 9. 17. Rom. 3. 4. Rom. 11. 32. conferred with Gal. 3. 22. Therefore above the authority of the Church . 6. That all , as well Laity as Clergy that will be saved , must familiarly read or know the Holy Scripture , Rom. 15. 4. Rom. 10. 1 , 2 , 8. Rom. 16. 26. 7. That all Images made of the true God are very Idols , R. 1. 23. & R. 2. 22. conferr'd . 8. That to bow the knee religiously to an Image , or to worship any Creature is meer Idolatry , R. 11. 4. and a lying service , R. 1. 25. 9. That we must not pray unto any but to God only , in whom we believe , Rom. 10. 13 , 14. Rom. 8. 15 , 27. therefore not to Saints and Angels . 10. That Christ is our only intercessor in Heaven , Rom. 8. 34 , Rom. 5. 2 Rom. 16. 27. 11. That the only Sacrifice of Christians , is nothing but the spiritual Sacrificing of their souls and bodies to serve God in holiness and righteousness , R. 12. 1 R. 15. 16. therefore no real sacrificing of Christ in the Mass. 12. That the religious worship called dulia , as well as latria , belongeth to God alone , Rom. 1. 9. Rom. 12. 11. R. 16. 18. conferr'd . 13. That all Christians are to pray unto God in their own native language , R. 14. 11. 14. That we have not of our selves , in the state of corruption , free will unto good , Rom. 7. 18 , &c. Rom. 9. 16. 15. That Concupiscence in the regenerate , is sin , Rom. 7. 7 , 8 , 10. 16. That the Sacraments do not confer grace ex opere operato , but sign and seal that ●t is conferred already unto us , Rom. 4. 11 , 12. Rom. 2. 28 , 29. 17. That every true believing Christian may in this life be assured of his salvation , Rom. 8. 9 , 16 , 35 , &c. 18. That no man in this life , since Adam's fall , can perfectly fulfil the Commandments of God , Rom. 7. 10 , &c. Rom. 3. 19 , &c. Rom. 11. 32. 19. That to place Religion in the difference of meats and days , is superstition , Rom. 14. 3. 5 , 6 , 17 , 23. 20. That the imputed righteousness of Christ , is that only that makes us just before God , Rom. 4. 9 , 17 , 23. 21. That Christ's flesh was made of the Seed of David , by Inca●nation ; not of a Wafer Cake , by Transubstantiation . Rom. 1. 3. 22. That all true Christians are Saints , and not those whom the Pope only doth Canonize , Rom. 1. 7. Rom , 8. 27. Rom. 15. 31. Rom. 16. 2. and 15. Rom. 15. 25. 23. That Ipse , Christ , the God of Peace : and not Ipsa , the Woman , should bruise the Serpent's Head , Rom. 16. 20. 24. That every soul must of conscience be subject , and pay Tribute to the higher powers , that is , the magistrates which bear the Sword , Rom. 13. 1 , 2. &c. and therefore the Pope and all Prelates must be subject to their Emperors , Kings and Magistrates , unless they will bring damnation upon their souls , as Traitors , that resist God and his Ordinance , Rom. 13. 2. 25. That Paul ( not Peter ) was ordained by the grace of God , to be the chief Apostle of the Gentiles , and consequently of Rome , the chief City of the Gentiles , * Rom. 15. 15 , 16 , 19 , 20 , &c. Rom 11. 14. Rom. 16. 4. 26. That the Church of Rome may err , and fall away from the true Faith , as well as the Church of Jerusalem , or any other particular Church , Rom. 11. 20 , 21 , 22. And seeing the new upstart Church of Rome teacheth in all these , and in innumerable other points , clean contrary to that which the Apostle taught the Primitive Romans , let God and this Epistle judge betwixt them and us , whether of us both stands in the true ancient Catholick Faith , which the Apostle taught the old Romans ? And whether we have not done well to depart from them , so far as they have departed from the Apostles Doctrine ? And whether it be not better to return to St. Paul's Truth , than still to continue in Rome's Error ? And if this be true , then let Jesuites and Seminary Priests take heed and fear , lest it be not faith , but faction ; not truth , but treason ; not Religion , but Rebellion , beginning at Tiber , and ending at Tyburn , which is the cause of their deaths . And being sent from a troublesome Apostatical See , rather than from a peaceable Apostolical Seat , because they cannot be suffered to perswade Subjects to break their Oaths , and to withdraw their Allegiance from their Sovereign , to raise Rebellion , to move Invasion , to stab and poison Queens , to kill and murther Kings , to blow up whole States with Gun powder , they desperately cast away their own bodies to be hanged & quartered ; and ( their souls saved , if they belong to God ) I wish such honour to all his Saints that sends them . And I have just cause to fear , that the miracles of a Lipsius's Two Ladies , Blunstone's Boy , Garnet's Straw , and the Maid's fiery Apron , will not suffice to clear that these men are not Murtherers of themselves , rather than Martyrs of Christ. And with what conscience can any Papist count Garnet a Martyr , when his own conscience forced him to con●ess , that it was for Treason , and not for Religion that he died ? But if the Priests of such a Gunpowder Gospel be Martyrs , I marvel who are Murtherers ? if they be Saints , who are Scythians ? & who are Canibals , if they be Catholicks ? But leaving these , if they will be filthy to their filthiness still , let us ( to whose fidelity the Lord hath committed his true faith , as a precious † depositum ) pray unto God , that we 〈◊〉 lead a holy life , answerable to our holy faith in piety to Christ , and obedience to o●r King ; that if our Saviour shall ever count us * worthy that honour to suffer Martyrdom for his Gospel's sake : be it by open burning at the stake , as in Q. Mary's days ; or by secret murthering , as in the Inquisition-house ; or by outragious massacring , as in the Parisians Mattens ; in being blown up with Gun-powder , as was intended in the Parliament-House : we may have grace to pray for the assistance of his holy Spirit , so to strengthen our frailty , and to defend his cause ; as that we may seal with our deaths the evangelical truth which we have professed in our lives . That in the days of our lives we may be † blessed by his word in the day of Death , be blessed in the Lord , and in the day of judgment be the h blessed of his Father , * Even so grant , Lord Jesus . Amen . A Divine Colloquy betwixt the Soul and her Saviour , concerning the effectual merits of his dolorous Passion . Soul. LOrd , wherefore didst thou wash thy Disciples feet ? Christ , To teach thee how thou shouldest prepare thy self to come to my Supper . S. Lord , why would'st thou wash them b thy self ? C. To teach thee humility , if thou wilt be my Disciple . S. Lord , wherefore didst thou before thy death c institute thy last Supper ? C. That thou mightest the better remember my death , and be assured that all the merits thereof are thine . S. Lord , wherefore would'st thou go to such a place , where d Judas knew to find thee ? C. That thou mightest know that I went as willingly to suffer for thy sin , as ever thou wentest to any place to commit a sin . S. Lord , wherefore would'st thou begin thy passion in a a Garden ? C. Because that in a b Garden thy sin took first beginning . S. Lord , wherefore did thy three select Disciples , c fall so fast asleep , when thou beganst to fall into thy agony ? C. To shew , that I d alone wrought the work of thy Redemption . S. Lord , why were there so many e plots and snares laid for thee ? C. That I might make thee to escape all the snares of thy Ghostly Hunter . S. Lord , why would'st thou suffer Judas ( betraying thee ) to kiss thee ? C. That by enduring the words of dissembling Lips , I might there begin to expiate sin , where 〈◊〉 find brought it into the world . S. Lord , why would'st thee be sold for thi●ty pieces of Silver ? C. That I might free thee from perpetual bondage . S. Lord , why didst thou pray with such str●ng crying and tears ? C. That I might 〈◊〉 the fury of God's Justice , which was so fiercely kindled against thee . S. Lord , why wast thou so afraid , and cast ●nto such an A●●ny ? C. That 〈◊〉 the ●rath due to thy sins , thou mightest be more secure in thy de●●h , and 〈◊〉 more comfort in thy crosse . S. Lord , wher●f●re 〈…〉 and so earnestly , 〈…〉 〈◊〉 thee ? C. That 〈…〉 the horrour of that curse●● 〈…〉 being due to thy sin , I was 〈…〉 and endure for thee . S. Lord , wherefore didst thou after 〈◊〉 wish , submit thy will unto the wi● 〈…〉 ? C. To teach thee what thou 〈…〉 do in all thy afflictions : and how willingly thou should'st yield to bear with 〈◊〉 that Cross which thou seest to come from the just hand of thy heavenly Father . S. Lord , wherefore dist thou 〈…〉 drops of water and blood ? C. That I might cleanse thee from thy stains and 〈…〉 S. Lord , why would'st thou be taken , 〈◊〉 thou mightest have escaped thine Enemies ? C. That thy spiritual enemies should not take thee , and cast thee into the prison of a utter darkness . S. Lord , wherefore would'st thou be b forsaken of all thy Disciples ? C. That I might reconcile thee unto God , of whom thou wast forsaken for thy sins . S. Lord , wherefore wouldst thou stand to be apprehended alone ? C. To shew thee , that my love of thy salvation was more than the love of all my Disciples . S. Lord , wherefore was the young man caught by the soldiers , and unstrip'd of his linen , who came out of his bed , hearing the stir at thy apprehension , and leading to the high Priest ? C. To shew their outrage in apprehending me , and my power in preserving out of their outragious hands , all my Disciples , who otherwise had been worse handled by them , than was that young man. S. Lord , wherefore would'st thou be bound ? C. That I might loose the Cords of thine iniquities . S. Lord , why wast thou denied of Peter ? C. that I might confess thee before my Father , and thou mightest learn , that there is no trust in man , and that salvation proceeds of my meer mercy . S. Lord , wherefore would'st thou bring Peter to repentance by the crowing of a Cock ? C. That none should despise the means which God hath appointed for their conversion , tho' they seem never so mean. S. Lord , wherefore didst thou at the Cock-crowing turn and look upon Peter ? C. Because thou might'st know , that without the help of my grace no means can turn a sinner unto God , when he is once fallen from him S. Lord , wherefore wast thou cover'd with a purple robe ? C. That thou might'st perceive that it was I that did away thy scarlet sins . S. Lord , wherefore would'st thou be crown'd with thorns ? C. That by wearing thorns , the first fruits of the Curse , it might appear , that it is I which take away the sins and curse of the world , and crown thee with the a Crown of life and glory . S. Lord , why was a b reed put into thy hand ? C. That it might appear that I came not to c break the bruised reed . S. Lord , wherefore wast thou d mock'd of the Jews ? C. That thou mightest insult over Devils , who otherwise would have mocked thee as the Philistines did Samson . S. Lord , wherefore would'st thou have thy blessed face defiled with e spittle ? C. That I might cleanse thy face from the shame of sin . S. Wherefore , Lord , were thine eyes hood-winkt with a veil ? C. That thy spiritual blindness being removed , thou mightest behold the face of my Father in heaven . S. Lord , wherefore did they a buffet thee with fists , and beat thee with b slaves ? C. That thou mightest be freed from the stroaks and tearings of infernal fiends . S. Lord , wherefore would'st thou be reviled ? C. That God might speak peace unto thee by his Word and Spirit . S. Lord , wherefore was thy c face disfigur'd with blows and blood ? C. That thy face might shine glorious as the d Angels in heaven . S. Lord , wherefore would'st thou be so ●●●elly e sc●urged ? C. That thou mightest be freed from the sting of Conscience , and whips of everlasting torments . S. Lord , wherefore would'st thou be arraigned at Pilate's Bar ? C. That thou mightest at the last day be acquitted before my Judgment-seat . S. Lord , wherefore would'st thou be falsly accused ? C. That thou should'st not be justly condemned . S. Lord , where wast thou turned over to be condemned by a strange Judge ? C. That thou being redeemed from the cap●ivity of a hellish Tyrant , mightest be restored to God , whose own thou art by right . S. Wherefore , O Christ , didst thou acknowledge , that Pilate had power over thee from above ? C. That Antichrist , under pretence of being my Vicar , should not exalt himself above all a Principalities and Powers . S. Lord , why would'st thou suffer thy Passion under b Pontius Pilate , being a Roman President to Caesar of Rome ? C. To shew , that the Caesarian and Pontifician Polity of * Rome , should chiefly persecute my Church , and crucifie me in my members . S. But why Lord would'st thou be condemn'd ? C. That the Law being condemned in me thou mightest not be condemned by it . S. But why wast thou condemned seeing nothing could be proved against thee ? C. That thou might'st know , that it was not for my faults but for thine that I suffered . S. Lord , wherefore wast thou led to suffer out of the city ? C. That I might bring thee to rest in the heavenly City . S. Lord , why did the Jews compel Simon of Cyrene , coming out of the field , to carry thy Cross ? C. To shew the weakness whereunto the burden of thy sins brought me : and what must be every Christians case , which goeth out of the field of this world , toward the heavenly Jerusalem . S. Lord , why wast thou unstripped of thy garments ? C. That thou mightest see how I forsook all to redeem thee . S. Lord , wherefore would'st thou be li●t up upon a Cross ? C. That I might lift thee up with me to Heaven . S. Lord , wherefore didst thou hang upon a cursed tree ? C. That I might satisfie for thy sin committed in eati●g the forbidden fruit of a Tree . S. Lord , wherefore would'st thou hang between two thieves ? C. That thou my dear Soul might'st have place in the midst of heavenly Angels . S. Lord , wherefore were thy hands and feet nailed to the Cross ? C. To enlarge thy hands to do the works of righteousness : and to set thy feet at liberty , to walk in the ways of Peace . S. Lord , wherefore did they crucifie thee in Golgo●ha , the place of dead mens sculls ? C. To assure thee that my death is life unto the dead . S. Lord , why did not the Soldiers divide thy seamless coat ? C. To shew that my Church is one without rent or schism . S. Lord , wherefore didst thou taste Vinegar and Gall ? C. That thou mightest eat the bread of Angels , and drink the water of life . S. Lord , why saidst thou upon the Cross , It is finished ? C. That thou mightest know , that by my death the a Law was fulfilled , and thy Redemption effected . S. Lord , why didst thou cry out upon the Cross , b My God , my God , why hast thou forsaken me ? C. Lest thou being forsaken of God , shouldst have been driven to cry in the pains of Hell , Wo and alas for evermore . S. Lord , wherefore was there such a general c darkness when thou didst suffer and cry out on the Cross ? C. That thou mightest see an Image of those hellish pains which I suffered , to deliver thee from the endless pains of Hell , and everlasting chains of darkness . S. Lord , why would'st thou have thine arms nailed abroad ? C. That I might embrace thee more lovingly , my sweet Soul. S. Lord , why did the Thief , that * never wrought good before , obtain Paradise upon so short repentance ? C. That thou maist see the power of my death to forgive them that repent , that no sinner needs despair . S. Lord , why did not the other Thief which hanged as near thee , obtain the like mercy ? C. because I leave whom I will , to harden themselves in their lewdness , to destruction , that all should fear , and none presume . S. Lord , wherefore didst thou cry with such a loud and strong voice in yielding up the ghost ? C. That it might appear that no man took my life from me , but that I said it down of my self . S. Lord , wherefore didst thou commend thy soul into thy Father's hands ? C. To teach thee what thou should'st do , being to * depart this life . S. Lord , wherefore did the veil of the Temple rent in twain at thy death ? C. To shew that the Levitical Law should be no longer a a partition-wall between Jews and Gentiles , and that the way to Heaven is now open to all believers . S. Lord , wherefore did the b earth quake , and the Stones cleave at thy Death ? C. For horror to bear her Lord dying : and to upbraid the cruel hardness of sinners hearts . S. Lord , wherefore did not the Soldiers break thy Legs , as they did the thieves who hanged at thy right and left hand ? C. That thou mightest know , that they had not power to do any more unto me than the Scripture had foretold that they should do , and I should suffer to save thee . S. Lord , wherefore was thy side opened with a Spear ? C. That thou mightest have a way to come nearer unto my heart . S. Lord , wherefore ran there out of thy precious side blood and water ? C. To assure thee , that I was slain indeed , seeing my heart-blood gushed out , and the a water which compassed my heart , flowed forth after it , which once spilt , man must needs die . S. Lord , wherefore ran the blood first by * it self , and the water afterwards by it self , out of thy blessed wound ? C. To assure thee of two things : 1. That by my blood-shedding Justification and Sanctification were effected to save thee . Secondly , that my Spirit by the conscionable use of the water in Baptism , and blood in the Eucharist , will effect in thee righteousness and holiness , by which thou shalt glorifie me . S. Lord , wherefore did the b graves open at thy death ? C. To signifie , that Death , by my death , had now received his death's-wound , and was overcome . S. Lord , wherefore woud'st thou be buried ? C. That thy sins might never rise up to Judgment against thee . S Lord , wherefore woud'st thou be buried by two such honourable Senators , as Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea ? C. That the Truth of my Death ( the Cause of thy life ) might more evidently appear unto all . S. Lord , wherefore wast thou buried in a new Sepulchre , wherein was never laid man before ? C. That it might appear that I , and not another arose ; and that by my own power , not by another's vertue ; like him who reviv'd at the touching of Elisha's Bones . S. Lord , wherefore didst thou raise up thy body again ? C. That thou mayst be assured that thy sins are discharged , and that thou art justified . S. Lord , wherefore did so many bodies of thy Saints ( which slept ) arise at thy Resurrection ? C. To give an assurance , that all the Saints shall arise , by the virtue of my Resurrection at the last day . S. Lord , what shall I render unto thee for all these benefits ? C. Love thy Creator , and become a new creature . The Soul's Soliloquy , ravished in contemplation of the Passion of our Lord. WHat hadst thou done , O my sweet Saviour , and ever blessed Redeemer , that thou wast thus betrayed of Judas , sold of the Jews , apprehended as a Malefactor , and led bound as a Lamb to the slaughter ? What evil hadst thou committed , that thou shouldest be thus openly arraigned , accused falsly , and unjustly condemned before Annas and Caiaphas , the Jewish Priests , at the judgment-seat of Pilate , the Roman President ? What was thine offence ? or to whom didst thou ever wrong ? that thou shouldest be thus pitifully scourged with whips , crowned with thorns , scoffed with flouts , reviled with words , buffeted with fists , and beaten with staves ? O Lord , what didst thou deserve to have thy blessed face spit upon , and covered as it were with shame ? to have thy Garments parted , thy hands and feet nailed to the Cross ? To be lifted up upon the cursed Tree , to be crucified among Thieves , and made to taste Gall and Vinegar : and in thy deadly extremity , to endure such a Sea of God's wrath , that made thee to cry out , as if thou hadst been forsaken of God thy Father ? yea , to have thy innocent heart pierced with a cruel spear , and thy precious blood to be spilt before thy blessed mothers eyes ? Sweet Saviour , how much wast thou tormented to endure all this , seeing I am so much amazed but to think upon it ! I enquire for thine offence , but I can find none in thee ; no , not so much as guile to have-been found in thy mouth . Thy enemies are challenged , and none of them dare rebuke thee of sin ; thy accusers ( that are suborn'd ) agree not in their witness , the Judg that condemns thee , openly cleareth thy innocency , his wife sends him word she was warned in a dream that thou wast a just Man , and therefore should take heed of doing injustice unto thee . The Centurion that executed thee , confessed thee of a truth to be both a just man , and the very Son of God. The thief that hanged with thee justifieth thee , that thou hast done nothing amiss . What is the cause then , O Lord , of this thy cruel ignominy , passion , and death ? I , O Lord , I am the cause of these thy sorrows , my sins wrought thy shame , my iniquities are the occasion of thy injuries . I have committed the fault , and thou art plagued for the offence ; I am guilty , and thou art arraigned ; I committed the sin , and thou suffer'st the death ; I have done the crime , & thou hangedst on the Cross : Oh the deepness of God's love ! Oh the wonderful disposition of heavenly grace ! Oh the unmeasurable measure of divine mercy ! the wicked transgresseth & the just is punished ; the guilty is let escape , and the innocent is arraigned ; the malefactor is acquitted , and the harmless condemned : what the evil man deserveth , the good man suffereth ; the servant doth the fault , the master endures the strokes . What shall I say ? Man sinneth , and God dieth . O Son of God! who can sufficiently express thy love , or commend thy pity , or extol thy praise ? I was proud , & thou art humbled ; I was disobedient , and thou becam'st obedient ; I did eat the forbidden fruit , & thou didst hang on the cursed tree ; I plaid the glutton , and thou didst fast , evil concupiscence drew me to eat the pleasa●● apple , and perfect charity led thee to drink of the bitter cup ; I assayed the sweetness of the fruit , and thou didst taste the bitterness of the gall . Foolish Eve smiled when I laughed ; but blessed Mary wept when thy heart bled & died O my God , here I see thy goodness and my badness , thy justice and my injustice , the impiety of my flesh , and the piety of thy nature . And now , O blessed Lord , thou hast endured all this for my sake ; what shall I render unto thee for all thy benefits bestowed upon me a sinful soul ? Indeed , Lord , I acknowledge , that I owe thee already for my creation more than I am able to pay : for I am in that respect bound , with all my powers and affections to love and adore thee . If I owed my self unto thee for giving me my self in my creation , what shall I now render to thee for giving thy self for me to so cruel a death , to procure my Redemption ? Great was the benefit that thou wouldest create me of nothing : but what tongue can express the greatness of this grace , that thou didst redeem me with so dear a price when I was worse than nothing ? Surely , Lord , if I cannot pay the thanks I owe thee ( and who can pay thee , who bestowest thy graces without respect of merit or regard of measure ? ) it is the abundance of thy blessings that makes me such a bankrupt , that I am so far unable to pay the principal , that I cannot possibly pay so much as the interest of thy love . But , O my Lord , thou knowest , that since the loss of thine Image ( by the fall of my first unhappy Parents ) I cannot love thee with all my might , and mind , as I should : therefore as thou didst first cast thy love upon me , when I was a child of wrath , and a lump of the lost and condemned world ; so now , I beseech thee , shed abroad thy love by thy Spirit through all my faculties and affections , that though I can never pay thee in that measure of love which thou hast deserved , yet I may endeavour to repay thee in such a manner , as thou vouchsafest to accept in mercy : that I may in truth of heart love my neighbour for thy sake , and love thee above all , for thine own sake . Let nothing be pleasant unto me , but that which is pleasing unto thee And sweet Saviour , suffer me never to be lost or cast away , whom thou hast bought so dearly with thine own most precious blood . O Lord , let me never forget thine infinite love , and this unspeakable benefit of my Redemption : without which , it had been better for me never to have been , than to have any being And seeing that thou hast vouchsafed me the assistance of thy holy Spirit ; suffer me , O heavenly Father , who art the Father of Spirits , in the meditation of thy Son , to speak a few words in the ears of my Lord. If thou , O Father , despisest me for mine iniquities , as I have deserved ; yet be merciful unto me for the merits of thy Son , who so much for me hath suffered . What if thou seest nothing in me but misery , which might move anger and passion ? Yet behold the merits of thy Son , and thou shalt see enough to move thee to mercy and compassion . Behold the mystery of his incarnation , and remit the misery of my transgression . And as oft as the wounds of thy Son appear in thy sight ; O let the woes of my sins be hid from thy presence . As oft as the redness of his blood glisters in thine eyes , O let the guiltiness of my sins be blotted out of thy Book . The wantonness of my flesh provoked thee unto wrath , O let the chastity of his flesh perswade thee to mercy : that as my flesh seduced me to sin , so his flesh may reduce me unto thy favour , My disobedience hath deserved a great revenge , but his obedience merits a greater weight of mercy : for what can man deserve to suffer , which God made man , cannot merit to have forgiven ? When I consider the greatness of thy passion , then do I see the trueness of that saying : That Christ came into the world to save the chiefest sinners . D●rest thou . O Cain , say that thy sins are greater than may be forgiven ? Thou l●est like a murtherer ; the mercies of one Christ are able to forgive a world of Cains , if they 'll believe & repent . The sins of all sinners are finite the mercies of God are infinite . Therefore , O Father , for the death and passions sake , which thy Son Jesu ; Christ hath suffer'd for me , & I have now remembred to thee , pardon and forgive thou unto me all my sins , & deliver me from the curse & vengeance which they have justly deserved , & through his merits make me , O Lord , a partaker of thy mercy . It is thy mercy that I so earnestly knock for : neither shall mine importunity cease to call and knock , with the man that would borrow the loaves , until thou arise , and open unto me thy gates of grace . And if thou wilt not bestow on me thy loaves , yet , O Lord , deny me not the crums of thy mercy , and those shall suffice thy hungry hand-mind . And seeing thou req●i est nothing for thy benefits , but that I love thee in the truth of my inward heart ( whereof a new creature is the truest outward testimony ) and that it is as easie for thee to make me a new creature , as to bid me to be such : create in me , O Christ , a new heart , and renew in me a right spirit , and then thou shalt see how ( mortifying old Adam , and his corrupt lust ) I will serve thee as thy new creature , in a new life , after a new way , with a new tongue , and new manners , with new words , and new works , to the glory of thy Name , and the winning other sinful souls unto thy Faith , by my devout example . Keep me for ever , O my Saviour , from the torments of hell , and tyranny of the Devil . And when I am to depart this life send thy holy Angels to carry me , as they did the soul of Lazarus , into thy Kingdom . Receive me into that joyful Paradise , which thou didst promise to th● penitent thief , which at his last gasp upon the Cross so devoutly begg'd thy mercy and admission into thy Kingdom . Grant this , O Christ , for thy own Name 's sake , to whom ( as is most due ) I ascribe all glory and honour , praise and dominion , both now and for ever . Amen . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A27107-e240 * 1 Tim. 6. 15. Rev. 12. 13. † 1 Sam. 20. 20. * 2 Chron. 34. 3. * Qui monet ut facias , quod jam facis , ipse mone● do Laudat , & hortatu comprobat acta suo . 2 Cor. 8. 7. Matth. 15. 1. 2. Tim. 2. 4. * Exemplum accidit ▪ mulieris , Domino teste , quae Theatrum adiit , & inde cum daemonio ●●diit . Itaque in exorcismo cùm oneraretur immundus spiritus quod ausus est fidelem aggredi : constanter & justissimè quidem ( inquit ) feci : In meo eam inveni . Tert. de spect ▪ lib. cap. 26. Therefore Tert. in cap. 6. calls the Stage , Diaboli Ecclesiam , & Cathedram postilentiarum . † Jam. 5. 9. Rev. 11. 20. Matth 25. 8. Prov. 6. 10. Jude ver . 3. Eccles. 7. 1. Eccles. 4. 21. * Luk. 10. 20. Rev. 17. 8. Exod. 34. 29 , 30. 2 Cor. 3. 18. * Matth. 26. 13. † 1 Tim. 4. 8. * Principibus ad salutem sola satìs vera est pietas , absque illâ verò nihil est vel exercitus , vel Imperato●is fortitudo , vel apparatus reliquus Zozom . Eccles. Hist. lib. 9. c. 1. * The Honourable Sir Robert Cary Knight , and the religi●●●s Lady Cary his Wife . Mr. Thomas Murray ▪ Sir James Full●rton . † 2 Chron. 24. 16 The gracious Archbishop● of Cant 〈◊〉 . 1 Chr. 28. 9. Notes for div A27107-e3960 * Tum Deum amare libet , cùm persuasum habemus ipsum esse optimum maximum , ubique praesentem , omnia in nobis efficientem , eum in quo vivimus , movemus , sumus . Bucer in Psal. 115. † Heb. 11. 6. Danda imprimis opera est , ut Deum nôrimus , quotquot foelices esse volumus . Quid noscis si teipsum nescis ? a Psal. 14. 3. 3. b 1 Tim. 6. 16. c Deut. 14. & 4. 35. & 32. 39. & . 6. 4. Isa. 45. 5 , 6 , 7 , 8. 1 Cor. 8. 4. Eph. 4. 5 , 6. 1 Tim. 2. 5. d Joh. 4. 24. 2 Cor. 3. 17. e 1 Kin. 8. 17. Psal. 147. 5. f Deut. 32. 4. g Exod. 3. 14. h 1 Cor. 8. 6. Act. 17. 25. Rom. 11. 36. i Heb. 1. 3. k Joh. 1. 1. & 5. 31 , 37. & 14. 16. l Col. 2. 9. Joh. 14. 9. m Gen. 1. 26. 3. 22. & 11. 7. Exod. 20. 2. Hos. 1. 4 , 7. Isa. 63. 9. 10. Zach. 3. 2. Hag 2. 5 , 6. 1 Joh. 5. 7. Mat. 3. 16 , 17. & 28. 19. Joh. 14. 26. 2 Cor. 13. 13. n Singula . sunt in singulis , & omnia in singulis , & singula in omnibus , & unum omnia . Aug. lib. 6. de Trin. cap. ult . * Gen. 1. 26. & 3. 22. & 11 , 7. Isa. 6. 8. † Personae Divinitatis distinguuntur personaliter , sive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * Deus est in divise unus in Trinitate & inconfuse trinus in unitate . Justin. a Mat. 11. 27. Mat. 3. 17. b Isa. 63. 16. Eph 3. 14 , 15. c Prov. 30. 4. d Psal. 2. 7. e Heb. 1. 3. Phil. 2. 6. f Basil. sup . 5. Joh●n . Sicut mens cogitando in seipsam reflectitur , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 internum gignit : ita mens illa aeterna , quae est Deus pater , in seipsam intelligendo reflexa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aeternum modo ineffabili genuit : Et sicut exterior 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 interioris effigies quasi est : ita aeternus ille 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aeterni Patris imago est , & majestatis character . Heb. 1. 3. g Joh 1. 18. Iren. l. 4. c. 14. h Act. 10. 43. Heb. 1. 1. Luk. 24. 27. Joh. 5. 45. Act. 3. 22 , 23 , 24. i Isa. 63. 10. 2 Cor. 13. 14. k 1 Joh. 4 ▪ 13. 2 Cor. 3. 17. l Joh. 20. 21 , 22. Gal. 4. 6. x 1 Pet. 1. 15 , 16. y 2 Cor. 3. 18. 1 Thes. 5. 23. 1 Pet. 1. 2. a Origo essentiae in divinis n●ll● est : origo personarum locum habet in Filio , & Spiritu sancto , Pater enim est prior Filio , non tempore , sed ordine● Alst. b Mat 28. 19. 1 Joh. 5. 7. c Ideo dicitur Pater , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , d Filius Dei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , quoad essenti●m , absolut●m , est quidep● à ●●ipso & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sed ratio●e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sive ess perso●alis per at●●nam g●nerationem à Patre existit : ideoque non est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . John 6. ●8 . 27. John 5. 19. Mic. 5. 1. Joh. 1. 1. e Psal. 2. 7. Heb. 1. 5. Aliud est habere Essentiam divinam à seipso : & habere essentiam divinam à seipsa existentem : remotâ enim relatione ad Patrem sola restat Essentia quae est à seipsa : hinc Filius dicitur princi●atus non essentiatus . Th. Sum ▪ pag. q. 33. f Joh. 15. 26. Joh. 16. 15. Therefore Rom. 8. 9. The Holy Ghost is called the Spirit of Christ. g Spiritus S. ● Pat●e & à Filio procedit , tanquam ab uno & eodem principio , in duabus tantùm personis subsistente , non autem tanquam à duobus ac diversis Principiis . a Hinc Dei men saepe in scripturis Patri 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tribuitur , Joh. 14 ▪ Rom. 8. 3. 1 Cor. 8. 6 ▪ 1 Cor. 15. 24. b Mat. 11. 25 , 26 , 27. Joh. 5. 19 , 20 ▪ 21 , 22 , 23. Joh. 11. 41 , 42 ▪ Joh. 12. 49. c 2 Cor. 5. 18 , &c. d Incarnatio verbi propri● non Patri●ec Spiritui sancto , nisi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 compe●it . Damas. 1. de o●tho . sid . c 13. Implevit carnem Christi Pat●r & Spiritus S. sed maj●stat●no● susceptione . Aug. serm . 3. de Temp. Joh. 3. 16. Rom. 8. 12. ●nd 5. 8 , 10. Hoc mirum foedus semper mens cogit●t , uno hoc tu ne ●ubita foedere parta salus . Melan. e Ut. q●i erat in divinitete Dei fi●●s , ficret in humanitate hominis filius , neunomen filii ad alterum ansiret , qui non esset aeterna nativitate filius . Aug. d Congruebat filium assumere humanam naturam , ut haec persona quaeest substantialis imago aeterni Patris restitueret imaginem Dei in nobis corruptam . Athan. e Heb. 3. 17 , 18. Heb. 4. 15. Infirmitates merae privationis , non pravae dispositionis . f Humana natura est distinctum individuum à natura divina , etsi non sit distincta Persona . Keck . Syst. Theol. lib. 3. p. 119. g Uniti Hypostaticè Deum & homiem , nihil est aliud quam naturam humanam non habere propriam existentiam , sed assumptam esse à Verbo aeterno , ad ipsam verbi subsistentiam . Bellar. de incarnat . ●ib . 3. cap. 8. h Salvis & distinctis manentibus proprietatibus natu●ae tam assumentis , quam assumptae . i Act. 20 ▪ 28 k Act. 7. 31. Dr. Field of the Church , book 3. c. 35. l Secundum esse naturale Christus non est ubique . m Secundum esse perso●a le Christus est ubique . In operibus ad ext●●● 〈◊〉 personae o●●●rantur sim●d servato ordine personarum in operando . a Rom. 11. 36. b As redemption , Act. 20 ▪ 28. and sanctification , 1 Pet. 1 ▪ 2. to the Father , Creation , 1 Jon. 3. and Sanctification , 1 Cor. 1. 2. to the Son Creation , Psal. 33. 6. and Redemption , Eph. 4. 30. to the Holy Ghost . Joyntly all to each , 1 Cor. 6. 11. Opera Trinitatis ad extra indivisa , ad intùs divisa . Perio●ae nomen ▪ non est aliquid ab essentia abstractum , ac separatum . Fai●s Thes. disp . 2. Persona est ipsa essentia divina contracta ad certum & peculiarem subsistendi modum . Zanch. Persona gignit & gignitur : Essentia nec gignit , nec gignitur , sed communicatur . Alsted . * Quum unum cogito , trium incomprehensibili luce involvor . Nazian † Quamvis persona cum Essentia non sit omnino id●m , non tamen ab ●a est omnino aliud . Diff●rt enim non numero , quia s●● in divinis fo●et quaternit●s ; non●re , quia essentia de personis praedicatur , sed formaliter , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sive ratione ratio●inante : Essentia divi● a non differt à p●rso●is , ut res à rebus , sed ut res à suis modis , ●am in D●o non est res & res , sed res & modus r●i . c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ●omen Dei sentialiter ositum ▪ ●n minus ●●lium & ●piritum ●anctum , 〈◊〉 pa●rem ●●signat ▪ d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sacranentum ho●●enerandum ●on scrutandum , quomodo ●luralitas ●ic in unitate ● unitas in ●luralitate . Scrutari hoc temeritas est , credere pietas , nôsse verò vita aeterna . Bern. e Neque ad loquendum dignè de Deo lingua sufficit , neque ●d percip●end●m intellectus p●evakt : magis ergo glorificare nos convenit Deum , quòd talis est , qui & intellectum transcendit , & ognitionis initium saperat . Chrysost. Hom. 2. Heb. f De Deo loqui etiam verè periculosissimum est . Arnob. g Ling●â , mente , & cogitatione horresco , quoti●e de Deo sermonem habeo . Naz. h ●ondescendit nobis Deus , ut nos consurgamus ●i . Aug. de pec . c. 11. a Exod. 15. ● Ab Havah vel Hajah , Esse : nam ita Deus est ●s●ipso , ut si●suum ●sse ● . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Omnes huj●s non ▪ i●is lit● rae sunt spiritales , ut denotetur Deum esse spiritum . P. Mart. loc . com cap. 11. P. Mon●an . de arc . serm . c ▪ 1. b Jehovah non habet plurale , & i●●scripturis sol●vero Deo tri●buitur . c Locus Exod 6. 3. int●l● ge●dus est de gradibus ●ivinarum p●●●factionum . Ge● . loc . 3. de Nat Dei. Ex usu scripturae res tunc dicuntur ●e●i , quando fiunt manifestae : Sic dicitur , Spi●itus Sanctus nondun erat , id est , nondum innotuerat , Alsted . Lex Theol. cap. 2. * Quod licet scribere , effari cur non liceret ? Theod. in Epit. † E●s aeternum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ●ons est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . In promissionibus Jehovah est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . a Isa. 55. 7. b Joh. 12. 26. Joh. 14. 2 , 3. c Job ▪ 6. 40. Joh. 11. 5. † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * Deus est causa causarum & Ens●entium . a Psal. 68. 19 Psal. 101. 18. Psal. 106. 1 , 48. Ps. 111. 1 , &c. Ps. 112. 1 , &c. Psal. 113. 1 , 9. Psal. 115. 17 , 18. Psal. 116. 19. Psal. 118. 5 , 14. Psal. 125. 34. Junius in Eirenico . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Polan . Synt. Theol. 1. 2 c. 6. b Mal. 1. 6. c Plato in Cr●●ylo . Hin●●●ll ●d Virgil. Deum namque ire per omnes Terrasque tractu q●e maris . Zanch. d D●use ●●ux . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * Nomen Elohim est personarum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Alsted . † Quum Elohim de una persona dicitur , Synecdochicè dictum est , propter Essentiae unitatem . Junius . f The like you may read , Deut. 6. 4. Josn. 24. 19. g Sic Marcus Arethusius in Smyrnensi concilio sancte exposuit . Socrat. Eccles . Hist. l. 2. c. 30. a This pla●e well urged , had grinded Arius in pieces . b Elohim Kedoschim Hii , Dii sancti ipse . c Hence Ei in Hebrew , as Mat. 27. 46. and Eloi in the Syriack , as Mar. 15. 31. doth signifie my God. 2 Chr. 32. 8. * The 70 t●rns it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; It is derived of Dai sufficiency , and the Relative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the same that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or of S●ad , a Dug , because God feeds his children with sufficiency of all grace , as the loving Mother , the Child , with the Milk of her Breasts , † A name compounded of Ai , My , & Adon , Lord. ●don derivatur ab Eden , basis , quia Deus est fundamentum & susten●ator omnium creaturarum . Hinc Adon , Dominus , cui rei domesticae cura incumbit , & ei tanquam columnae innititur . Quando de creaturis usurpatur Adonai , est Iod cum p●tach : sed de Creatore cum cametz . Ab Adonai manâsse videtur Ethnicorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . So the Devil stiled Christ the Son of God the most High , Luke 8. 28. * For what is earthly greatness , compared to God's Highness ? † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Of whose substance the light of the Sun is but a shadow . b Joh. 1. 9. c Psal. 91. 14 , 15. a Intelligentiae habent aliquid simile materiae , aliquid simile formae . Solus Deus simplex est , in quo nihil in potentia , sed in actu omnia , imò ipse purus , primus , medius , ultimus actus . Scal. Exerc. 6. Sect. 2. Just. Martyr . qu. 129. ad Orthodoxos . b Intelligentiae , cum sint entia alia ab infinito ●nte , finita esse necesse est : nam , duo infinita nequeunt esse ▪ neque in natura , neque extra ▪ naturam . Essent n. duo principia prima . Scal. Exerc. 359. Sect. 3. c Acts 7. 48. Psalm 145. Job 11. 7 , &c. 2 Chron. 2. 5 , 6. Psalm 139. 5 , &c. Jer. 2● . 23 , 24. Deus est ubique , non ita ut in dimidia parte sit dimidius , aut tanquam in majore parte major Dei pars sit , in minore minor ; sed ubique totus , & in seipso totus est . Aug. Deus est intellectualis Sph●ra , cujus centrum est ubique , circumferentia verò nusquam . Trism . * Psal. 19. 1. Hos. 2. 21. b 1 Cor. 3. 16. & 6. 19. 2 Cor. 6. 16. c Col. 2. 8. d Rom. 1. 23. Isa. 44. 28. Psalm 102. 27 , &c. e Rev. 1. 8. 1 Sam 15. 29. Num. 23. 19. Mal. 3. 6. Rom. 11. 29. Jam. 1. 18. Poenitentia cùm de Deo enunciatur , non affectum in Deo , sed effectum Dei in hominibus significat . Alsted . f Isa. 44. 6. Jam. 5. 19. Dan. 6. 26. Heb. 12. Rev. 4. 8. Creaturae quaedam aeternae sunt à posteriori : à priori solus , Deus est aeternus . Alsted . Lex Theol. cap. 2. g Act 17. 25 28. Act 14. 15. Psal. 42. 2. Psal. 36. 19. Joh. 5. 26. Heb. 3. 12. h Hence it is that as God is called of the Hebrews E●heie , so likewise Echeie : and as of the Grecians , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : and of the Latines , primum ens , so also primum vivens : for to be , and to live is a ●one and the same in God. i 1 Kin. 8 39 Psal. 44. 21. Ps. 139. 1 , &c. Jer. 17. 10. and 20. 12. 〈◊〉 1● . 15. Act 1. 24. Heb. 4. 12. Rom. 11. 33. and 6. 17. 1 Tim. 2. 19. Mat. 7. 12. k Intellectus , scientia , & sapientia in Deo non disting●untur , Til●n . N●m s●pientia in ●omine est habitus intellectui impressu , qui de Deo di●i n●n debet , cuj●s , intellectus est ipsa sapientia , Keckerm . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Hes. lib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Sap. Hence the Platonicks term God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , all-eye , seeing all . c 1 Tim. 2. 5 Rom. 9. 19. Ephes. 1. 5. d Deus voluntate sua cuncta constituit Trism in 4. Dial. Plin. Hinc Orpheus Deum vocat necessitatem , ratione sc. inferiorum , quod omnia ipsi parere c●gantur . e Voluntas Dei semper impletur , aut de nobis , aut a nobis . De nobis impletur , sed tamen non implemus eam , quando peccamus ; à nobis impletur , quando bonum facimus . Aug. Ench. c. 100 Ro. 9. 11 , 13 Jam. 1. 21. f 1 Joh. 3. 1. g Psal 45. 7. h Gen. 4. 4. i Norma justitiae divinae est Dei voluntas . Quia enim vult , ideo est justum ; non quia justum , ideo vult , Eph. 1. 11. k Rom. 2. 5. 2 Thes 1. 6 , &c. 2 Tim. 4 8. Deut. 7. 9 , 10. l Deus principium & ●inem & media rerum omnium tenens , rectaque lineâ ●●edens è vestigio habet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 divinae legis vindicem , simul ut quicquam Sanctionism ejus praetermissum est . Aristot. lib. de mundo . m Rom. 9. 15 , 16. Ezek. 16. 6. n Psal. 103. 8 , &c. Tit. 3. 4. Semper invenies Deum benigniorem quam te culpabiliorem . Serm. 11. Bern. Vindictae gladium , misericordiae oleo semper acuit . Niceph. lib. 17. cap. 3. o Psal. 1 45. 7 , 9 , 16. Mat. 16. 17. In creaturis multa inveniuntur bona , ergo Creator multo magis est bonus . Imo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ipsum bonum . p Josh. 13. 14. Psal. 149. 6. Num. 23. 19. Veritas est harmonia tum intellectus & verborum cum rebus , tum etiam rerum ipsarum cum Idci● in mente divina . Keck . Veritas Dei in verbis , fides Dei dicitur , quòd certò fiant , quae ab ipso dicta sunt . Item constantia , quiasententiam non mutat . Polon . q 2 Pet. 3. 9. Rom. 2. 4. Gen. 5. 16. r 1 Pet. 1. 5. 1 Thes. 4. 3. Heb. 12. 14. Mar. 15. 9. Quanta sancitias Dei , ad cujus aspectum sancti Angeli oculos pro sua tenuitate alis velantes clamant , Sanctus , Sanctus , Sanctus Jehovah Zabaoth ! Isa. 6. 23. s Psal. 106. 23. 29. 40 , 41. Num. 25. 11. Ira Dei non est aliud , quam voluntas puniendi . Aug. 15. de civit . Dei , cap. 15. Ansel. lib. 7. cap. 6. Cur Deus Hom. Furor & ira in Deo non passionem mentis , sed ultionis acerbitatem notant . Carth. in Apoc. 19. t 1 Cor. 19. 2. u 1 Thess. 1. 10. m Gen. 17. 1. Psal. 115. 3. Mat. 11. 26. Eph. 1. 11. Mat. 8. 2. Deus potest omnia quae contradictionem non implicant . Aqu. 1. qu. 25. art . 3 , 4. Omnipotentia ex●ludit omnes d●fectus , qui sunt impotentia , s●u , p●sse mentiri , mori , peccare , &c. n 1 Chron. 29. 11 , 12. 2 Sam. 7. 22. Rev. 5. 12 , 13. o 1 Chron. 29. 14. Hinc Deut dicitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p Rom. 9. 15. Joh. 4. 11. q Luke 19 , 17. Psalm 2. 9. Psalm 110. 1. b Deus est Schaddai siv● 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non solum quia ipse nihil desiderat , sed etiam quia nihil in eo desiderari potest . Creaturas fecit perfectas in suo quasque genere , ●rgo ipse perfectissimus est in se & per se. Scal. Exerc. 146. Section 2. Mark. 14. 61. † See Master Wilson's Dictionary of the Bible , most profitable for this purpose . Act. 17. 25. Rom. 11. 35. 36. 1 Tim. 6. 15. Matth. 25. 34. Jam. 1. 17. Attributa omnia propter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , singulis divinitatis personis competunt . * In Deo nihil est , quod non ●it ipse Deus . Zanch. † Omnia in divinis sunt unum . ibi non ob●●● 〈◊〉 oppositio● . c Attributa Dei omnia ita in ipso sunt ut sint ipsum : ita insunt , ut nihil antecedat , nihil subsequatur , sed ex intellectione nostra ( quae tanquam umbra illis est ) alia aliis prius animo comprehenduntur . Scal. Ex. 365. Sect. 6. d Quae de Deo dicuntur . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Relatione ad creaturas & sic secundum accidens , non exprimunt mutationem in divina essentia , sed in creaturis factam . Negantur ergo de Deo accidentia realia , non autem praedicam accidentalia . e Omnia quae in Deo sunt , ita insunt , ut sint ipse De●● f Essentia Divina identificat sibi omnia quae sunt in divinis . Bi●● sup . 1. Sent. d. 1. q. 5. g Exhibet omnia , accipit nihil . Ipsum igi● bonum est Deus ipse semper . Tris. Serm. 2. Plin. a Psal. 147. 19 , 20. Jer. 10. 25. a Psal. 90. 2. b 1 Kin. 8. 27. c Gen. 17. 1. Job 15. 25. d Isa. 6. 3. e Rev. 4. 8. & 15. 4. f Rom. 11. 33. & 16 17. Deut 31. 4. Psal. 145. 27. g Psa. 103. 11. & 145. 8 , 9. h Joh. 4. 24. i Deut. 32. 4. k 1 Joh. 5. 7. Mat. 3. 16. Mat. 28. 19. 2 Cor. 13. 14. l 1 Kin. 8. 27. Jer. 23. 24. m Dan. 4. 32 ▪ n 1 Kin. 8. 30. Jer. 17. 10. Acts 2. 24. Psal. 34. 9. 1 John 2. 4. Rom. 8. 28. a Si te habeam solum , sane ruat ardu●s a●ther , tellus r●pta suo dissiliatque loco . b Creata omnia perfectius sunt in Deo quam in seipsis . Dion . de Divin . c. 8. c Ama●unum illud bonum in quo omne bonum , est & sufficit . Ansel. in Prof. c. 25. a Eph. 1. 19. 1 John 4. b Kem. de im . Christ. c. 1. c Eccles. 1. 17. d Domina , immo dominus charitas . Bern. e Rom. 5. 9. 10. John 17. 3. 22. 1 Cor. 15. 3. Damnatus antequam natus . Aug ▪ * Col. 3. 10. † Rom. 12. 2 a Epes . 2. 3. Gen. 6 5. b Rom. 12. 2. Ephes. 4. 17. c 1 Cor. 2. 14. d Phil 2. 3. e Rom. 3. 12. a John 8. 44 b Gen. 6. 6. c Deut. 27. 36 Gal. 3. 10. Psal. 119. 21 d Rom. 2. 4 , 5. J●● . 28. 13. e Isa. 28. 13. f Gen. 3. 8 , 10. and 4 14. Heb. 2. 15. g Rom. 1. 21 , 24 , 2● . h Eph. 2. 2. Col. 1. 13. Job 1. Zech. 5. 2. Exek . 2. 10. 1 Joh. 3. 20. Luke 12. 20. Prosopop●●i● The doleful lamentation of the reprob●te Soul at the point of death . 2 Sam. 22. 5. Rev. 21. 8. Jude 5. 6. 1 Pet. 3. 19. a Luke 8. 28. & 16. 23 b 1 Thess. 1. 10. c Mat. 23. 33. d Luke 16. 22 , 23. 1 Pet. 3. 19. Jude ver . 6 , 7. e Acts 7. 5. a Postquam anima de corpore est egressa , subito judicium Christi de se latum cognoscit . Aug. l. 1. de anim & èjus orig . c. 4. Hier. Fp. ad Pannat . b Anima damnata continuò invaditur à daemonibus , qui crudelissimè eam rapientes ad infernum deducunt . Cyril . Alex. in Orat. de exit . anim . Matth. 5. 34. & 23. 21. Luke 12. 20. Luke 16. 22 , 23. 1 Pet. 3. 19. Jude ver . 6. Luke 16. 24 c 2 Pet. 2. 9. Jude ver . 7. Rev. 11. 18. d Joh. 5. 28 , 29. Rev. 20. 13. e Mat. 24. 29. Luke 21. 24 , 25. The damn● Soal● apostrophe to the Body at their second meeting . Ma● 13. 41. * Mat. 25. 33. † Ansel. Militat . * Rev. 6. 16 , 17. Bonavent . Postil . Dom. ● . post Pent. Serm. 2. Rev. 21. 8. Bonavent . Matth. 9. g John 3. 5. h Joh 1. 1. i Gal. 4. 6 , 7. 2 Cor. 9. 8. k Eph. 4. 2 , 3 , 13. Col. 3. 10. l Rom. 4. 8 , 25. Rom. 8. 1 , 2. 1 Pet. 2. 24. m Rom. 4. 5 , 19. n 2 Cor. 5 19. o Rom. 8. 23. 24. p Acts 16. 18. Eph. 2. 2. q John 20. 17. r Rom. 8. 20. Rom. 8. 17. s Rev. 1. 6. t 1 Pet. 2. 5. Mal. 3. 17. a Rom. 8. 28. b Psal. 89. 31 , 33. Psal 119. 71. Heb. 12. 10. 2 Cor. 12. 7. c 1 Cor 15. 54 , 55 , Heb. 2. 14 , 15 d Luke 22. 31 , 32. Ps. 51 13 , 14. Rom. 5. 20 , 21. e 1 Thess. 5. 23. f Rom. 8. 5 , 10. g Rom. 8. 16 * Heb. 4. 16. Eph. 3. 12. † Gal. 4. 6. Rom. 8. 15 , 16. c Rom. 5. 1 , & 14. 17. d Rom. 14. 17. e Psal. 8. 5. &c. Heb. 2. 7 , 8. f Rom. 14. 14. 1 Tim. 4. 2 , &c. g 1 Cor. 9. 19 , 20. h 1 Cor. 3. 22 , 23. Heb. 1. 7. i 1 Cor. 3. 22. k Mat. 25. 34 l Pet. 1. 4. Act. 1. 25 * Mat. 6. 32. 2 Cor. 12. 14. Psalm 23. Psal. 34 ▪ 9 , 10. † Heb. 1. 14. Psal. 34. 7. Psal. 91. 11. * Isa. 4. 5. † Job 1. 10. * Psal. 34. 15. Gen. 7. 1. † Psal. 34. 19 ▪ a Phil. 3. 20. b Col. 3. 2. c 1 Cor. 1. 31. d Col. 3. 3. e Rev. 14. 13 f 2 Cor. 5. 6. g Joh. 14. 2. h Heb. 12. 22 , &c. i Psal. 41. 3. k Gen. 49. l 2 Cor. 5. 8. a Phil. 1. 23. b Psal. 42. 2. c Rev. 6. 10. d Rev. 22. 10. e Job 14. 5. f Ps. 31. 5. g Luk. 2. 29. Ps. 37. 37. Isa. 57. 2. h Psal. 31. 5. i Acts 7. 59. k Mat 18. 10. Act. 12. 15. & 27. 23. l Luke 16. 22. m Mat. 8. 11. Luk. 12. 28. Acts 15. 10 , 11. Eph. 1. 10. Heb. 11. 9. 10. 16. & 12. 22 , 23. Luke 19. 9. & 9. 31. n Ps. 91. 11. Heb. 1. 14. o Rev. 14. 13. & 22. 12. a 1 Cor. 6. 19. b 1 Cor. 6. 15. c Mat. 26. 26. d 1 Cor. 6. 20. 1 Pet. 1. 19 ▪ e 1 Thes 4. 14. Acts 7. 6. and 8. 2. f Dan. 12. 2 Joh. 5. 28 , 29. Luke 14 14. 1 Thess. 4. 16 , 17. Rev. 14. 13. g Luk. 16. 2. h Heb. 1. 14 and 12. 24 i 2 Tim 4. 8 Rev. 2. 10. 1 Pet. 5. 4. Col. 1. 6. Ephes. 1. 22. 1 King. 10. 8. Luke 15. 1 Tim. 4. 8. Rev. 7. 9. Rev. 7. 9. a 2 Pet. 3. 10 , 12 , 13. b 1 Cor. 15. 52. 1 Thess. 4. 16. Joh. 5. 28. Ezek. 37. 7 , 8 , &c. c Rom. 8. 11. Phil. 3. 10 , 11. 1 Thess. 4. 14. d Rom. 5. 17. 1 Cor. 15. 22. Mat. 19. 30. 1 Thess. 4. 14. Dan. 6. 23. Par est potestas Dei ad instituendos , & restituendos homines . Athenagor . e Isa , 65. 20. a Tertul. de Resurrect . c. 6. Hier. Epist. 27 & 61. Aug. lib. 12. de civit . Dei , cap. 17. & omnes Theologi in 4 Sent. dist . 1. 44. b Eph. 4. 13. Ita communiter credunt Theologi in 4. Sent. dist . 44. Vide Aug. de Civit. Dei lib. 22. c. 15. & 16. Psal. 105. 37. Isa. 35. 6. 1 Cor. 15. 43. 1 Cor. 15. 41. Isa. 65. 20. Aug. Ench. cap. 90. * Mat. 13. 43. Luke 9. 31. 1 Thess. 4. 17. † Exod. 34. 29 * Mat. 17. 2. † Act. 6. 15. 1 Sam. 18. 4. Hest. 6. 4. * Ubi volet spiritus , ibi ●rit & corpus . August . Mat. 24. 28. † Isa. 40. 31. Wisd. 3. 7. * 1 Cor. 15. 46. Spiritualia post resurrectionem erunt corpora , non quia corpora esse desistant , sed quia spiritu vivificante subsistunt . Aug. lib. 13. de civit . Dei cap. 22. Psal. 8. 5. Phil. 3. 21. Heb. 2. 16. Heb. 1. 14. Psal. 91. 11. * Jude ver . 6. † 2 Pet. 2. 4. a 2 Pet. 3. 10 , 11 , 12. b 1 Cor. 15. 51. c Luk. 17. 31. The Elect Souls apostrophe to the Body , at their first meeting in the Resurrection . Cant. 2 ▪ 14. Psalm 32. 1. Dan. 9. 21 , &c. Luke 21. 28. Cant. 2. 1 , 3. Verse 17. Luke 17. 34 , 35 , 36. 1 Thess. 4. 17. 1 Cor. 6. 1 , 3. 1 Cor. 6. 2 , 3. Rev. 22. 12. 2 Cor. 9. 6. * 1 Thess. 4. 17. a Joel 3. 1 , 2. b Ver. 11 , 12. c 2 Chron ▪ 30 ▪ d Near this Valley was Mount Moriah , where Abraham sacrificed Isaac , Gen. 22. Jacob saw Angels ascending and descending on a ladder , Gen. ● . The Angel put up his Sword , and fire from Heaven burnt the sacrifice in Araunah 's flo●r , 2 Sam. 24. Solomon builded the Temple . 2 Chro. 3. 1. Christ preached the Gospel ▪ sa●●ere● his p●●●●on and 〈◊〉 into his g●● 〈◊〉 in Gen. ●● . a The Sea beyond Jordan towards Tyrus cutteth the midst of the World. And Ez●e● . saith of Jerusalem , In medio gentium posui eam , That from Si●n , as from a Cent●r , the Law should be published to all Nations , and there all Nations shall be judged according to the Law. Rom. 2. 12. b ●cts 1. 11. c Richard. de Villa nova Tho● 〈…〉 47 , 48. d 〈…〉 e 〈…〉 f 〈…〉 28. 21. Ad 〈◊〉 tardus Deus est , ad praemia v●lox . Mat. 25. 34. Rom. 9. 3. J●h . 20. 29. 1 Pet. 1. 8. Mat. 5. 11. Psal. 27. 10. Mat. 19. 29. Joh. 20. 17. 2 Cor. 6. 18. 2 Tim. 4. 8. ● Pet ▪ 5. 4. Rev. 4. 10. 1 Cor. 6. 1 , 2 , 3 , &c. Mat. 19. 13. John 17. 13. 14 , 23 , 24. 1 Cor. 15. 24. Psalm 47. 5 , 6 , 7 , 8. Rev. 19. 6 , 7. 2 Cor. 4. 17. R●m . ● . 1● . Rom. ● . 17. 〈…〉 Psalm 19. 5. Mat. 25. 10. a Rev. 21. 2 , &c. b Ver. 24. ●nd 27. c ● Ver. 18. Ver. 11. Ver. 19 , 20. d Ver. 21. e Ver. 13. f Ver. 12. g Ver. 27. h Ver. 16. i Rev. 22. 1. k Ver. 2. * Psal. 87. 3. † 2 Cor. 12. 4 ▪ 1 Cor. 2. 5. * Heb. 11. 10. Heb. 11. 6. a Visio Dei beatifica sola est summum bonum nostrum . Aug. 1. de Trin. c. 13. b Fecisti nos dominead te : inquietum igitur est cor nostrum , donec req●i●●cat in te , Aug. Consol. 1. c. 1. &c. c Ex. 33. 13. d Psal. 67. 1. and 80. 1. e Phil. 3. 8 , 11. f Phil. 1. 23. ●ohn 17. 14. ●xod . 34. ●9 Exod. 33. ●1 1 Cor. 13. 12. 2 Cor. 3. 1● . 1 John 3. 2. Mark 5. 7. Ruth 3. 9. Gen. 15. 1. John 17. 20 , 21. 1 Cor. 15. 28. a Anima anim●e erit Deus . Bern. b Non potest summus rerum conditor in se non habere quae rebus à se conditis dedit : quemadmodum sol astris ▪ Hugo ▪ l. 4. de anim . c. 15. c Rev. 21. 23. d Sene●a de beneficiis , l. 2. c. 19. a Judg. 2. 5. b Mat. 25. 1 Pet. 1. 4. c ●ph . 2 1 Heb. 1● d Act. ● Acts 22. 28. 1 Pet. 1. 18. Rev. 5. 10. 1 Pet 2. 9. Rom. 16. 10 1 Pet. 2. 5. Heb. 13. 15. Mat. 13. 43. Phil. 3. 21. Acts 12. 6. Luke 9 31. Mark 9. 30. 1 Cor. 15. 43. Ver. 44. 1 Thess. 4. 2. 1 Cor. 1. 10. Aug soliloq cap. 36. Nihil no●●m in 〈…〉 . a 1 Cor. 13. 12 b 2 Cor. 3. 16. Res verae sunt in mundo invisibili ▪ in mundo visibili umbrae rerum . Herm. c Luk. 13. 28. d Gen. 2. 23. e Mat. 27. 33. f Mat. 17. 4. g Luk. 16. 23. h Mat. 19. 28. a 1 Cor. 6. 2 ▪ 3. b 1 Cor. 13. 12. c August ad I●alicam viduam . Ep. 6. d Gen. 25. 35. 2 King. 22. e 1 Cor. 13. 8. f Rom. 2. 5. Rev. 22. 12. Eccles. 12. 14. Rom. 2. 16. g Mat. 12. 36. h 2 Cor. 5. 10. 1 Cor. 15. 24 , 28. 1 Cor. 13. 11. Lumen est umbra Dei , & Deus est lumen luminis . Plato . Poly. 6. Job 26. 24. Ecclus. 42. 32. 1 Cor. 13. 12. Psal. 16. 11. Psal. 36. 8. a Psal. 16. 11. b Heb. 12. 24. c 1 Kin. 1. 40 d Luke 1. 44. e Joh. 17. 22. f Mat. 2. 10. g Luke 2. 28. h Luke 2. 46. i Facilius dicerepossumus quid ibi non sit , quam quid ibi sit . Aug. de sym. lib. 3. 1 Cor. 2. 5. Mat. 25. 21. a Joh. 16. 22. b Hest. 1. 3. c Phil. 3. 8. d Acts 2. 45. e Plutarch . Apoph . Regum . a Heb. 11. 10 , 15 , 16. b Psal. 84. 10. c 1 Kin. 19. 4. d 2 Kin 11. 5. e Phil. 1. 23 f Mat. 17. 4. John 17. 5. a Heb. 11. 2. b Serm. 31. de Sanctis . c Hieron . in Catalog ▪ Iren. l. 3. contra Valent. d Eus●b . l. 4. cap. 16. e Nazian . de vit . Basil. f Ruth 1. 16. Heb. 12. 17 , Luk. 13. 24 , ●7 . 2 Pet. 2. 20 , 22. * Isa. 1. 18. John 6. 35. † Joh. 6. 44. Tit. 2. 11 , 12. * Psal. 34. 19. Gal. 5. 22. a Rev , 3. 18. b Rev. 19. 8. c Jer. 13 23. d Zech. 3. 4. * Gal. 1. 15. Rom. 5. 8. John 9. ●1 . 1 John ● 9. 1 John 5. 18 2 Tim. 2. 19. † 1 John 5. 16. Ibid. Mat. 2. 27. Eph. 2. 10. Fulk Rhem ▪ Test Ann. in Eph. 2. 2. * Rom. 26. 2 Cor. 9. 6. Rev. 22. 12. Rev. 2. 2. a Mat. 25. b 2 Tim. 4. 8. c Rom. 2. 8. d 1 Tim. 6. 15. e Gal. 5. 6. * Fides sola non est sola : Fides sole justificat . ●t oculus solus videt . f mes 2. 16. g Acts 15. 9. h Acts ▪ 16. 18. i ●hes . 5. 23 ●at . 25. 34. ●phes . 1. 4. ●ccles . 3. 14. k 1 Pet. 1. 9. l Rom. 8. 29 , ● . John 15. 16. m 1 Pet. 1. 2. Nolite in Deo primum quae●ere , sed in Christo in quo si te per fidem inve●e is , certus esto , t● esse electum n Luk. 15. 10. o Ver. 24. a Magnas homo liberi arbit●ii vires cum conderetur accepit , sed eas peccando amisit . Aug. de spirit & lit . cap. 3. Eccles 7. 29. Homo male utens libero suo arbittio , & se & liberum suum arbi●●ium perdi●i● . Aug. Ench. ad Laur. cap. 30. b 2 Cor. 3. 5. Per lapsum arbit●ii libertas in natur●libus 〈◊〉 , in supernaturalibus an issa est , donec gratia r●stituatur . c Phil 2. 12. 13. Acti agimus The wil is p●s●ve in receiving the first gr●ce , 〈…〉 active in all goodness . d 2 Cor 7. 1. e John 8. 36. 〈…〉 gratia . Dei eft●●itur liberum . Aug. ad Col. c ▪ 17. f 2 〈◊〉 3. 17. Voluntas humana non libertate gratiam consequitur , sed gratia libertatem . Aug. le grat . g Psalm 119. 112. h Joel 2. 28 , 29. Zech. 12. 10. Quod jubet , juvat . Aug. a 2 Cor. 8. 12. b 1 John 5. 3. c Phil. 4. 13. d Luk. 1. 16. e John 15. 10. a Rom. 15. 18. b Col. 3. 5. c Gal. 5. 24. Rom. 6. 12 , 13 d Rom. 6. 4. 5. Rom. 8. 11. e Gal. 5. 25. f 1 John 5. 4. g John 8. 46. h Rom. 1. 24 , 28. i Rom. 8. 9 , &c Aug ●ptat ut Pelagias agnos●at posse legem praestari per grati●m Christi & pacem fore edicit . k Luk. 11. 13. ●ames 1. 5. l Deus magis ●electatur eff●●tin quam affecta Amb. † Mat. 6. 24. a Act. 13. 48. b Rom. 1. 16. c Prov. 22. 18. d Mat. 10. 22. e Isa. 11. 1. f Isa. 2. 2 , 3. g Zach. 14. 1● . h Rom. 10. 14. i Heb. 11. 6. k Joh. 10. 27. l John 3. 29. m Heb. 2. 3. John 8. 47. n 1 Cor. 1. 11. a Luke 10. 16. b John 8. 47. c Judg. 2. 1 , &c. d Luke 7. 32 , 33. e Acts 2. 37. f Jon. 3. 5. g Prov. 28. 9. h Luk. 13. 5. i Tit. 3. 5. k 1 Cor. 10. 16. a 1 Cor. 1. 26. b Mat. 11. 5. c Mat 19. 23 , 24. d Mat. 22. 14. Potentes . potenter cruciabuntur . Sap. Rev. 6. 15 , 16 , &c. Mat. 7. 15. Exod. 23. 2. Eccles. 8. 11. a Rom. 2. 4. 2 Pet. 3. 10. b 1 Sam. 3. 12. Ezek. 39. 8. c Rom. 2. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cor poenitere nescium . * 1 Sam. 25. 17. Judges 16. 12. Judges 16. 26 , &c. 1 John 3. 8. Isa. 59. 20. Deut. 29. 19. Non delinquenti , sed peccata relinquenti condonat Deus . Isa. 55. 7. 1 Sam. 18. 7. a Metuendum est ne te occidat spes ; & cum multum speres de misericordia , incidas in judicium . Aug. b Luke 23. 43. Latronis exemplum non est exemplum imitationis sed consolationis . c John 5. 45. d Qui dat p●●nitenti v●niam non dabit pecc●nti poenit●●tiam . Aug. Psalm 1. 1. Rev. 18. 4. Luke 22. 2. Psalm 6. 8. Luke 2. 7. Rom , 5. 2. Rom. 14 , 17. Phil. 4. 7. Joh. 16. 24. Verse 22. Psal. 51. 12. Luk. 15. 7 , 10. 2 Cor. 7. 10. a Joh. 14. 16 , 17. b 2 Cor. 1. 5. c Isa. 57. 21. d Eccles. 2. 2. e Heb. 2. 6. f Phil. 3. 8. Luke 6. 25. Fl●res is scires unum tua temporamen●em ; Rides quum non sit forsitan una dies Th. Mor. g Luke 12. 19 , 20. Lam. 1. 9. Lam. 1. 9. Joh 14. 1. a Quotidie morimur : quotidie enim demitur pars vitae ▪ & tunc quoque cum crescimus , vita decrescit . Vives 1 Cor 15. 31. b Isa ▪ 2. 22. Job 17. 14. Homo est fatuus usque ad 40 annum , deinde ubi agnovit se esse fatuum , vita consumpta est . Luth. * Mors sceptra ligonibus aequat . a Job 14. 14. b Job 14. 5. c Psal. 90 1● Dan. 5. 26. Stat sua cuique dies Virg. d 11. 8. e Rev. 6. 8. f 2 Cor. 5. 10 g Psal. 95. 7. Heb. 3. 7. P●●nitenti veniam spospondit , sed vivendi in crastinum non spospondit , Chrysost ▪ Nemo tam divos habuit Faventes , crastinum ut possit sibi polliceri , Senec . Heb. 3. 13. † Eccl. 12. 1. b Exod. 13. 2. c Ex. 22. 29. d Gen. 4. 4. e Eccl. 12. 12. f Gen. 22. 3. g Gen. 43. 3. h Mal. 1. 8. Dan. 1. 4. 2 Sam. 5. 8. Mat. 7. 22. Heb. 12. 17. Mat. 25. 11. Rev. 3. 20. † Nascentes morimur sinisque ab origine pendet , Et pubescentes juncta senecta premit Manil. Nequities vitae non sinit esse sen●m . † Mat. 27. 49 , 50 , 51. a Deut. 30. 16. Prov. 3. 2. Psal. 34. ●1 &c. b Psal. 90. 9. c James 4. 14. d Psal. 109. 23. e Psal. 76. 5. f Psal. 90 5. 1 Pet. 1 ▪ ●4 . g Psal. 90. 6. h Isa. 38. 12. i 2 Cer. 4. 17. k Heb 11. 25. l 2 Cor. 4 17. Mat. 16. 9. Luke 8. 2. Heb. 3. 13. Psal. 107. 17. Lam. 3. 20. Lam. 5. 16. Gen. 15. 16. Dan. 4. 27. 2 Sam. 12. 13. Jonas 3. 5 , &c. Luke 22. 62. 2 Cor. 5. 20. Mat. 5. 20. Mar. 6. 20. James 2. 10. 1 Pet. 2. 1. * Mat 7. 14. b Mat. 19 23. c Mat. 7. 14. and 22. 14. d Luk. 13. 24. Mat. 25. 1. † Primitiae oris & cordi Deo off●r●●dae . Amb in Psal. 119. * Exod. 27. 20 , 21. * Exod. 30. 6 , 7. b Psal. 51. 17. c Rom 8. 22. d Hos. 13. 2. Psal. 130. 6. Psal. 67. 1. Psal. 90. 14. a 2 Thes. 1. 10. b Jude v. 14. c Phil. 3. 21. d Mat. 13. 43. 17. 2. Luke 9. 31. e Act. 17. 31. f 1 Cor. 6. 3. g Jude v. 15. Luke 14. 14. 1 Per. 5. 8. Job . 1. 7. h Joh. 1. 10. i Psal. 121. 4. k Psal. 34. 7. Gen. 32. 1 , 2. 2 King. 6. 16. * Luke 22. 61 , 62. b Jer. 20. 14. Job 3. 1. c Tit. 3. 5. † Galio canente suas Latro relinquit infidias , &c. Ambr. H●xam . l. 5. cap. 25. Psal. 139. 2 , 3. d Gen. 31. 55. & 32. 1 , 2. e Ps. 91. 5 , ●● ▪ Acrs 12. 11 a Mat. 22. 11. b Rom. 13 14. 1 Cor. 1. 30. Phil. 3. 9. Rev. 19. 8. Eph. 4. 24. c R●v . 16. 15. Mat. 22. 13. Luke 12. 48. ●am . 3. 23. ●sal . 19. 5. Wis. 15. 20. Epictet . dict . a In the Canonical Books of the Old Testament there are 931 Chapters , but distributing the 150 Psalms into 60 parts , thou shalt find but 841 , which being added to 260 ( the number of the Chapters in the New Testament ) will amount to 1101 , dividing which by three into ●65 , ( the number of the days of the Year ) there will remain but six , which thou maist dispose of as is prescribed . b Hos viginti duos libros lege ; cum Apocryphis verò nihil habeas nego●●i : has tantùm studiosè meditare Scripturas , quas in Ecclesia confiden●●r legimus Multo prudentiores te & religiosi●res fuerunt Apostoli & primi Episcopi veritatis duces , qui nobis e●s tradiderunt . Tu igitur cum sis filius Ecclesiae , non transgrediaris illius terminos . Ac Vet Testamenti ( ut dictum est ) viginti duos meditare libros . Cyrillus Hierosolymitan . Catechef . 4. c Exod. 26. 36. d Lev. 21. 44. & 19. 2. & 20. 7. * Lev. 10. 2. Ver. 3. Deut. 23. 13 , 14. Job 11. 13 , 14. Isa. 1. 15. 1 Kin. 8. 27. a Psal. 132. 7. b Heb. 4. 16. Dan. 9. 18. c Mat. 3. 17. a Isa. 6. 5. b Psal. 51. 5. c Gen. 6. 5. Mat. 15. 19. Mat. 12. 34. Psal. 140. 1 , 2. d Dan. 9. 10. Dan. 9. 11. Levit. 26. 14 , &c. Deut. 27. 26. Dan. 9. 11. Gal. 3. 10. Esd. 6. 13. Lam. 3. 22. Psal. 130 7. Psal. 5. 7. Psal. 13. 5. Psal. 143. 2. Ezek. 36. 25. 1 John 1 , 9. Gal. 3. 13. Psal. 103. 12. Col. 2. 12 , 13. Eph. 2. 5. 6. John 1. 29. Psal. 51. 7 , 10. Gal. 4. 24 , 25. Luke 1. 74 , 75. Mat. 24. 13. Psal. 90. 12. Rom. 14. 17. Eph. 1. 4. Mat. 23. 34. Gen. 9. 6. Eph. 4. 24. Col. 3. 10. Rom. 8. 28. Mat. 22. 3. c 1 Pet. 2. 18 ▪ 19. Rev. 5. 9. d Rom. 3. 28 Gal. 2. 16. Eph. 1. 3. 1 Cor. 6. 11. 1 Pet. 1. 2. 2 Pet. 3. 9. Eph. 5. 13. Luke 16. 8. Phil. 2. 15. Act. 24. 16. Zach. 3. 2. Psal. 34. 7. Psal. 91. 11. Psal. 31. 5. Luk. 23. 46. Neh. 13. 31. Psa. 51. 18 , 19 Isa. 39. 8. Psal. 72 15. 1 Tim. 2. 2. 1 Tim. 2. 2. Jam. 5. 15. Heb. 11. 36. 1. Cor. 10. 13. 2 Tim. 2. 9. 2 Corinth . 1. 6 , &c. Mat. 25. 1 , 2 , &c. Rev. 22. 20. Heb. 13. 15 , 16. Psalm 14. 4. Psal. 53. 4. Job 15. 4. Rom. 10. 13. Zach. 12. 10. a Psalm 55. 16 , 17. b Psal. 119. 62. c Mat 26. 40. * 1 Cor. 14. 14. b Gen. 11. 79. Rev. 17. 5. c A superstition . Qui filo insertis numerant sua murmura baccis . Mant. Alphons . lib. 4. d Joh. 17. 3. e Vox continuata , non concila & rupta ut battologia vitetur . Perkins de unic . ration . conc . c. 10. f Mat. 13. 4 , 19. g Gen. 25. 11. h Mat 26. 31. 2 Cor. 8. 12 Quem dies vidit veniens superbum : Hunc dies vidit fugiens jacentem . Senec. Nescis quid vesper serus vel●●t . Varro . Rom. 8. 26. a Eph. 4. 27. b Psal. 1●7 . 9. c Isa 50. 5. † Qui couscientiae curam abjiciunt nec homines reverentur nec Deum . * Zach. 8. 17. Prov. 6. 14. * 2 Kin. 23. 25. Luke 1. 6. † Socrates in forum egressus , quam multis ego , inquit . non egeo ! Non est ergo pauper . qui caret , sed qui eget . a Dimidium plus toto . Hesiod . b Feriunt summos fulmina montes . Horat. Tangunt magnos tristia fota deos . Ovid. c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Qui notus nimis omnibus ▪ ignotus moritur sibi . Sen. 1 Tim. 6. 7 , 8 , 9. Insaniae damnandi sunt , qui tam multa tam anxiè congerunt , qu●m ●it tan paucis opus vives . d Prov. 30. 8 , 9 a 1 Tim 6. 8 , 9. Gen. 28. 20. * Col. 3. 1 , 2. Phil. 3. 20. b Jos. 7. 9. Psal. 139. 21 , &c. † Nobile vincendi genus est patientia : vincit . Qui patitur : si vis vincere , disce pati . Optima injuriae ultio est oblivio , efficit enim ut animam levet , nec magis laedat ▪ quam si facta non esset . J●r . 11. 20. Ne 〈◊〉 quod scis ostentes , sed rebus te ostende scite . * Psal. 49. 18. c Ezek. 9. 4. Psal. 69 9 , 10. Mark. 3. 5. d Heu fugiu●t fraeno non remorante dies . Psal. 90. 9 , 10 15. Non quàm diu sed quàm bene . * Fuit , non vixit . Sen. Non refert quanta sit vitae diuturnitas , sed qualis sit administratio . Vives . Tota vita dies unus ut mirum sit homines non exsatiari iisdem toties redeuntibus . † Non potest praesentem diem rectè vivere is , qui se non eam quasi ultimam victurum esse cogitat . a Mat. 12. 36. b Prov. 10. 19. c Dixisse saepe poenituit , tacuisse verò nunquam . d Nescit vox missa reverti Quam periculosum illud , Lingua quò vadis ? e Nescit poenitenda loqui , qui proferenda priùs suo tradidit examini Cassiod . lib. 10. Epist. 4. f Jam. 1 19. Consultius est tacere quam ineptè loqui . d 1 Pet. 2. 1. Psal. 3. 2. Si mendacem te nôrint , nemo tibi credet etiamsi affirmes verissima . Arist f Odi tanquàm amaturus . Prov. 6. 30. Acts 3. 17. 1 Tim. 1. 13. g Psal. 59. 3 , 5. Psal. 101. 7. h Eph. 4. 29. Psal. 1. 2. Prov. 31. 26. Pii est alios reddere pios . i Psal. 139. 21. Psal. 69. 9. * Si verum audias silentio protinus reverere , illique tanquam divinae rei assurgito . k Mark 4. 24 , 25. l 2 Kin. 4. 2. m Eccl. 3. 7. Luke 2. 19. Arcanum tibi creditum fideliùs custodi , quam depositam p●euniam . * Vera amicitia tantummodo est inter bonos . Mali nec inter se amici sunt , nec cum bonis . † Civilem amicum sic habeas , ut putes posse inimicum fieri . * Quod taceri vis , prior ipse taceas . * Bellum non est hominum sed ( quod verbum sonat ) belluarum & cum vitiis non hominibus gerendum . Eph. 5. 4. Psal. 15. 3. † Irridere pium nefas : impium , immane : hominem , inhumanum . * Nemo videtur sibi tam vilis , ut irrideri merearur . Phil. 4. 4. Prov. 23. 17. † Valentinianus Imp. 〈…〉 liquis afficlendus esset ▪ aiebat 〈◊〉 malli● ad vita●● 〈…〉 animi est alionis malis 〈◊〉 , & non misereri communem naturam . a Rom. 5. 8 , 10. Eph. 2. 4. Mat. 18. 24 , 28. Psal. 1. 19. * Nec mendacii utilitas est diuturna nec veritatis damnum diu nocet . Reprehensio semper vel meliores vel cautiores nos teddit . * Si reprehendi fers aegrè reprehendenda ne feceris . a Deut. 28. 58. † Qui facilè in seriis jurat in jocis jurabit : qui in jocis & in mendacio . Vives b Psal. 141. 3 , c 1 Pet. 5. 12. d Rom. 12. 10. * Affabilitas & comitas sunt nullius impendii , amicitias tamen magnas conglutinant exhibita , dissolvunt praetermissa . 1 Thes. 5. 26 , 41. e 2 Thes. 3. 5. Rev. 19. 17. f Psal. 15. 4. g Deut. 15. 13. 14. h Ps. 119. 101. i 1 Sam. 30. 8. 1 Cor. 7. 5. Imminet semper occasioni suaediabolus . Greg. Mat. 7 , 12. a Luke 16. 2. 2 Cor. 6. 2. 2 Cor. 5. 10. b Gen. 39. 9 , 11 , &c. 2 Sam. 12. 12. Luke 8. 17. and 12. 2. Prov. 5. 8 , * Omnis peccandi 〈◊〉 vi●enda est ; 〈…〉 at peri●●●m per 〈◊〉 in illo Eccl. 3 , Judg. 7. 7. Mat. 16. 26. Hic murus ahaeneus est● nil conscire sibi , nulla pallescere culpa . Horat. Act. 24. 16. a Psal. 118 , 6 , 7. Rom. 8. 31. Prov. 16. 7. b Gen. 32. 3 , &c. c Gen. 31 , 7. d Numb . 14. 42 , 43. &c. Psal. 27. 11 , 12 , 13. * Tu rectè vives , si curas esse quod audis . Hor. p. ad Quint. * Nil juv●t bonum nomen , reclamante conscientiâ . † Num. 23. 10. Psal. 37. 35 , 36 , 37. * Isa. 58. 5 , 6 , Mat. 23. 27 , 28. Psal. 51. 56. † Ama & impera . Blando vis latet impetio . Aug. b Qui terret , plus ille timet : sors illa Tyranno convenit . Claud. de instit . prin . c 1 Pet. 2. 13. d Lev. 25. 55. e Philem. 16. * 1 Cor. 9. 5. f Si Pericles , quoties chlamydem indueret , apud se dicere consuevit , Attende , Pericles , quòd gestaturus es imperium in liberos Athenienses . Plut. in Apophth . Quanto magis tu , quoties authortatem ●xercitaturus ●s apud ●eipsum , dicere deberes , Memento , homo , quòd imperium geris in liberatos Christianos . g Qui statuit aliquid parte inaudit● alter● , aequum licet statuer●● , haud aequ●s fuerit● Sen. in Med. * Judicious Sir Francis Bacon's Essay of Jndicature . † Luk. 3. 4 , 5. Isaiah 40. 3. * 2 Chr. 19. 10. Deu. 27. 17. Hab. 5. 1. † Melius ut pereat unus , quàm ut pereat unitas . * Ense recidendum , ne pars sincera trahatur . 1 Tim. 1. 8. 2 Chr. 19. 11. * Prov. 21. 17. Phil. 4. 8. † Vita brevis opusque multum operarii pigri , & urget Pater-familias . Rabb . Apophtheg . b Rev. 22. 12. Jam. 5. 9. * Nihil est aliud tempus , quàm vita , quam unusquisque tantum se amare profitetur ; quum rei nullius magis fit prodigus qu●m temporis . Eph. 5. 16. a Luke 16 ▪ 2. b Mat. 25. 21. Psal. 90. Job 14. 5. Vive memor quàm sis aevi brevis . Hor. * He● perdidi diem . Tit-Vesp . Apophthegm . Nullus sine linea dies . Eph. 4. 26. * Non turpe est veniam precari ; turpe est deum aut hominem habere inimicum . a Mihi vindicta , dicit Dominus . Rom. 12. 19. b Non est tibi jus in servum alienum , imò in conservum tuum . † Cui semel ignoveris , cu●a ut ille sentiat bona fide id esse actu● & si qua in r● illum juvare potes , experiatur te amicum . V●ves . c Mat. 3. 39. Rom. 12. 20. In vita , tempus quod tomno impenditur , no● est vita . Vita enim vigilia est . Psal. 139. 2 , 3. Psal. 145. 18. Psal. 51. 5. Luk. 18. 13. Luk. 15. 18. Dan. 9. 11. Eph. 4. 30. a Psal. 11● . 3● . b Isa. 6. 5. c Isa. 1. 15. d Rom. 3. 15 , 16. Gen. 6. 5 , Psal. 40. 12. Isaiah 1. 6. 2 Sam. 6. 22. Zach. 13. 1. Jer. 20. 23. Da Domine quod jubes , & jube quod vis . Aug. Mat. 28. 20. John 16. 13. a 1 Cor. 3. 16 , 17. b Luk. 1. 74 , 75. c 2 Tim 4 ▪ 7. d Psal. 31. 5. e Mat. 25. 34. f 2 Tim. 4. 8. Psal. 119. 18. Psal. 51. 15. Psal. 19. 14. Psal. 121. 4. Rev. 12. 7. Psal. 34. 7. Prov. 18. 10. Rev. 6. 10 , 22 , 23. Matth. 19. 28. Luke 14. 14 a Luk. 22. 61. b Luk. 7. 47. c Luk 18. 14. d Luk. 15. 20. e Psal. 103. 8 f Mat. 11. 28. g Ezek. 18. 21 , 22 , &c. h Deut. 27. 26. Gal. 3. 10. Lam. 3 , 22. Mat. 3 , 6. a Col. 3. 12. b Mat. 3. 17. c Psal. 28 , 4. d Hos. 13. 5. e Isa. 1. 16 , 18. f Mat. 9. 12. g 1 Joh. 1. 7. h Joh. 3. 14. Gal. 4. 5 , 7. 1 Thess. 5. 23. 1 Pet. 5. 8. Psal. 31. 5. Mat. 25. 2. Nudus in hunc mundum veni , nudus quoque abibo . a Luke 16. 2. b Mat. 24. 2. * Job 17. 13. Ut somnus mortis , sic lectus imago sepulchri . † Mat. 12. 40. * 1 Thes 4. 14. * Isa. 57. 2. Isa. 26. 20. Psal. 4. 8. Gen. 18. 17 , 19. Gen. 14. 14. Josh. 24. 15. Deut 6. 6 , 7. Psal. 101. 6 , 7. Esther 4. 16. Gen. 30. 27. Gen. 39. 3. Gen. 39. 22. 23. a Psal. 127. 1 , 2. b Jer. 10. 25. c Psal. 52. 5 d Gen. 15. 16. e Lev. 18. 25. Psal. 37. 29. * Origen would have the word expounded in Christian houses . Hom. 9. In Rev. Augustine saith , that what the Preacher is in the Pulpit , the same the Housholder is in the house . * Hoc me docuisti , ut quem●dmod●m medicamenta sic , alimenta sumpturus acc●dam . Aug. l. 10. Conf. † Major sum & ad majora genitus . qu●m ut t●●●cipium 〈◊〉 mei corporis . Senec. * Of Galal . which signifieth man's Dung , as Ezek. 4. 17 , 15. a Heb. 11. 3. b Psal. 145. 15 , 16. ●atth . 5. 5 , &c. ct . 14. 17. † Hanc ob causam Gen●les mens●s ●cras & festa ●●inab n● . ●i●es . * St. Austin had written 〈◊〉 his able : Quisquis amat dictis abs●nt●m ●d●re amicum , Hanc mensam vecitam noverit esse sibi . Poss●d . de vi●a Aug. a Luk. 9. 16. Mat. 14. 19. & 15. 36. Mark 6. 41. & 8. 6. Luk. 24. 30. Joh. 6. 11. b Mat. 26. 30. Mar 14. 26. c Deut. 8. 10. d 1 Sam. 9. 13. e Joel 2. 26. f Act. 27. 35. Joh. 6. 9 , 11. Dan. 5. 1 , 4. Act. 17. 28. ●ob 1● 14. Psal. 69. 22. * Gen. 3. 17. † 1 Tim. 4. 4 , 5. b Mat. 4. 4. c Lev ▪ 26. 26. Ezek. 4. 16. and 5. 16. d 1 Sam. 9. 13. Mat. 14. 19. Luk. 24. 30. 2 Cor. 10. 16. e Rom. 14. 6. 1 Thes. 5. 18. f Eccl. 10. 1● . Luk. 21. 3● . g Neh 5 17. Amos 6. 6. h 1 Sam. 9. 13 i Mat. 14. 19. a Psal 10. 17. b Joel 1. 10. Psal. 147. 9 c 1 Tim. 4. 5. d 1 King. 13. 8. Mat. 12. 43. a 1 Cor. 14. 15. b 1 Cor. 11. 4. c Eph. 5. 19. Col. 3. 16. Mat. 3. 17. Rom. 6. 6. Phil. 3. 10. Rom. 8. 29. Eph 4. 24. Jam. 1. 17. Psal. 78. 49. Psal. 91. 5. Gen. 32. 2. 2 King. 6. 16 , 17. Psal. 91. 11 , 12. Luk. 21. ●5 . Mat. 25. 3● . ●● . † Mat. 12. 8. Deut. 18. 18 , 19. John 20. 22. * Act. 1. 2 , 3. Cyril bids us note , that St. John doth not simply set down the manner of Christ's appearing unto Thomas , but also the circumstance of the time ( post dies octo ) whence he concludes thus , Diem igitur octavum Dominicam diem esse necesse est . Cyril in Johan . lib. 12. cap. 58. † Heb. 7. 11 , 12. Eph. 4. 8 , 11 , 12. a Act. 1. 7. b Act. 2. 1 , &c. c Act. 2. 1 , 4. d Act. 2. 38 , 41 , 42. e Act. 2. 38. f Athan , in frontispicio hom , defent . g Rev. 1. 10. The Scripture of the New Testament , gives not this honourable title to any thing , but only to the blessed Sabbath , and holy Supper . For as he substituted the Lord's Supper in stead of the Passover , so did he the Lord's day , in the Jewish Sabbath's ro●m . h 1 Cor. 11. 20. * Wolphii Chronolog . de Tem. l. cap. 1. p. 92. † Legis substantia est sex diebus , terr●nis negotiis incumb●re ; septimâ , divino cultui dare operam Josh. 10. 12 , 13. 2 Kin. 20. 11. Christoph. Helvic . Syst. Cont. Theol. cum Judaeis c. de Sab. Mat. 12. 8. Isaiah 65. 17 , &c. Isaiah 66. 22. Psal. 90. 2. a 2 Cor. 5. 17. b Gal. 6. 15. c 1 Pet. 2. 10. d Eph. 4. 24. e Col. 3. 10. f Mat. 26. 28. g Joh. 12. 14. h Rev. 2. 17. i Heb. 10. 10. k Rev. 3. 9. l Luk. 5. 36 , 37. m Rev. 21. 2. n 2 Pet. 3. 13. Isa. 66. 22. o Heb. 4. 9. Isa. 58. 13. Rom. 1. 4. Rev. 1. 10. Jer. 23. 7 , 8. * Gen. 2. 2. ●ev . 23. 32. N●h . 13. 19. a Mat. 28. 1. b Act. 20. 7 , 11. Exod. 25. 31 Rev. 1. 13. Gen. 23. 28. Psal. 110. 3. Zach. 14. 27. Psal. 118. 24. Zohar . upon Gen. fol. 21. H. Broughton Require of Consent 49 , 50 , 51. Ex H. Wolphii . Chron. de Temp. lib. 2. cap. 2. Augustir . Epist . ad Januar . 119. c. 3. * Sacramentum hoc fuit diei illius octavi quo Dominus resurrexit ad justificationem nostram , &c. ut scribit ad Fidum Cyprianus , l. 3. Epist. 10. Jan. in Gen. 17. 12. † 2 Cor. 4. 4. a 1 Cor. 16. 1 , 2. b The Syriack translation hath , Quum congr●ga●i●● non 〈◊〉 justum est , in die Domini nostri comeditis & bibitis . The Arabian translation also hath it thus : Non comeditis & bibitis ●word , verè di●bus Domini nostri de ce●●nd Beza witnesseth , that in one ancient Greek Copy , there is read , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord's-day , added to every first-day , &c. c 1 Cor. 11. 20 , 25 , 26. d 1 Cor. 14. 33. * As the Phrase of breaking of Bread comprehendeth all other Exercises of Religion , Acts 20. 7. So this Phrase of laying by in store , comprehendeth all the other exercises of the Sabbath : And why should the Apostle require the Collections to be made on the first-day of the week , but because that on this day the holy Assembly was held in the Apostles time ? 1 Cor. 11. ●● . 1 Cor. 14. 3● . 〈…〉 , &c. a Acts 21. 4 , &c. b Rev. 1. 10. Mos Christianus , &c. It is the manner of Christians , to call it the Lord's day . Bed. in Luc. cap. 41. Heb. 2. 5. * Jer. 15. 22. Ezek. 20 19 , 20 , 21 , 24. Ezek. 23. 38. Neh. 9 4. † Ex Bodin . le Repub. l. 4. c. 2. 1 Cor , 14. 33. 40. Isa. 55. 1 , 2. Rev. ● . 18. J●m . ● . 1● . Gen. 2. 3. a Exod. 34. 1. &c. Deut. 4. 13. Deut. 4. 2. 1 King. 8. 9. Heb. 9. 4. Mat. 5. 17. Verse 19. Act , ●● . 10 , 20 , 21 , 24 , 28. Mat. 24. 20. * Euseb hist. Eccl. l. 3. c. 5. It is probable that this Oracle was that voice ( M●gr●nus hinc ) which with in earthquake was heard by ●ight in the Temple . ●ention●● by Josephus , 〈…〉 l. 7. c. 12. † 〈◊〉 . 24. 35. Isa. 56. 6. Nehem. 13. 1● , &c. Eph. 2. 14. * Prov. 2. 17. b Mat. 19. 6 , 8. * Nitimur in vetitum . Hor. c Gen. 1. 18. d Job 9. 9. Job 38. 31. Amos 5. 8. e To distinguish 'twixt Spring and Harvest , Summer & Winter , and to foreshew Judgments to come f Moadim . fig. Sacred times appointed for God's holy worship having special significations & promises . g One of the seven days of the week from the other . h Solar . Sabbatarian and Jubilee . Exod. 23. 11 , 12. * Index Chr. apud An. Mundi 1968. After Mr. Rob. Pont. his computation . Treatise of the last decaying age of the World , publish'd An. Dom. 1600. R. Pont. treat . of the last age , p. 17. Jer 25. 11 , 12. Rev. 5. 1. a Rev. 8. 2. and 9. 7. Napier on the Apoc. Proposition 6 , 8 , 9. and his Resolution . b Pont. of the last age of the World , p. 12. Buchol . 2. Index Chr. c Broughton's consent A. M. 1430. Deu. 31. Pont ibid. & S●aliger . Buchol . † Pont. p. 21. Buch. Chro. apad A. M. 2500. b Jubilee some derive ●f trumpe●s ●r Ra●is 〈◊〉 , wherewith the Jubilee was found●d : others from Ju●●l , a ●●ream , because they carry us to th● death of Christ , the ●uth●r of our eternal rest and joy . c Isa. 61. 1. Luk. 4. 18. * Pont. of the last decaying age of the World , p. 12. 13. 21. † Expertum ●st in plerisque omnibus 63. annum cum periculo & cl●le aliqua venire , aut corporis morbique gravioris , aut vitae interitûs , aut animi aegritudinis . Aul. Gell. lib. 1. 15. c. 7. August . in Ep. ad Caium Nepotem , exultat se Climactera , communem saniorum omnium 63. evasisse . Bodin . de Repub. l. 4. c. 2. * Aristotle , Cicero , Bernard . Bocace , Erasmus , Luther , Melancthon . Sturmius . † She was , she is ( what can there more be said ? ) In Earth the First , in Heaven the second Maid . Bodin . Bucholc . Climax vitae virorum ferè septenariis , aut novenariis , faeminarum verò senariis definitur . Bodin . de Rep. lib. 4. c. 2. a Wis. 1 1. 17. Wolph . Prooem . Chron. b Rev. 10. 6. c Tempus est rerum mundanarum duratio extrinsecus observata . † H. Wolph . Chron. c. 1. Tempus cum mundo coepit , & una desisturum est , ibid. d Gen. 2. 3. e Rev. 1. 10. * Si quid h●rum t●to die per othem frequentat Ecclesia . Nam hoc quin ita faciendum sit disp ●tare insol● 〈◊〉 infani●● est . Aug. Epist. 1 8. ad Jau . † Synod . Col part . 9. c. ● . * Ignat. ad . Magnes . Apol. 2. Origen . homilia 7. super Exod. 1. Epist. ad Januar . 〈◊〉 . c. 13. & ad Casal . Epist. ●6 . August . de temp . ser. 251. a Psal. 87. 3. b Aug. de temp . ser. 152. & 154. Conc. Const. Can. 8. Wolphios Chr lib. 1. c. 10. Must. ●ipont . post Dom. Pasc. c Mat. 27. 52. Cedoman . Annal. An. Mund. 2515. d Rev. 10. 7. e Jo●h . 6. 13. * Aug. ad Cas● am . ●p . 86 & ad Ja●●ar . 119. c. 19. † Aug Ser. de temp . 151. & 15● & Conc. ● . Constant. can . 8. * Non dubitamas quin v●riè apud Christi●nos ●●●bathum 〈…〉 do 〈…〉 aliis , diebus 〈…〉 . 〈◊〉 . † 〈◊〉 Prae 〈◊〉 in Gen. 2. 3. * Exod. 31. 13 , 14 , &c. Ezek. 2● . 12 , 20. † Ezek , 46. 1. 2 , 3 , &c. * Exod 35. 2. Armin. disp . Theolog. in praecept 4. Thes. 14. † Act. 10. 15. Isa. 58. 13. * Read H. Wolphius Chron. de . Temp. l. 2. cap. 4. p. 118. &c 7. p. 140 , &c. Num. 15. 32. 2 Mac. 8. 28. Cent. Mag. de l. 12. c. 6. Disp. de Tempore , Ser. 117. Tho. Cantiprat . lib. 2. de apid . Timpii . admiran . vindict . div . Theat . hist. Johan . Finc . lib. 3. de miraculis . Stow's Abridgment , An. 1582. Discite jam moniti Dominum non temnere Christum . † Whilst the Preachers ●ied in the Church prophaneness , prophaneness , Gain would not suffer them ●hear : ●herefore when they ●ried , Fire , fire , in the street , God would not suffer any ●o help . * Num. 15. 38. † Num. 28. 9 , 10. b Exod. 35. 2 , 3. c Exod. 16. 23. d Deut. 5. 16. e It was the Sabbath day , on which Moses , and the Children of Israel sang to God , when Pharaoh and his host were drowned in the Sea , Ex. 15. See Trem. & Jun. notes on Deut. 5. 15. and on Exod. 12. 15. Object . 1. Gal. 4. 10. 1 Cor. 16. 1. & 14. 37. Act. 20. 7. Col. 2. 17. Lev. 23. 37 , 38. Object . 2. Col. 2. 16. Object . 3. Rom. 14. 5. Rom. 15. 1. * Exod. 31. 12 , 13. Exod. 31. 15 , &c. Exod. 34. 21. Neh. 13. 15. Jer. 17. 21 , 22 , 27. Deut. 5. 14. Rom. 8. 22. Deut. 25. 4. 1 Cor. 9. 9. Neh. 13. 15 , 16 , 19. Rev. 1. 10. Isa. 58. 13 , 14. Psal. 37. 4. Eph. 5. 18 , 19. Rom. 12. 11. Deut. 28. 47. 1 Cor. 10. 7. Exod. 32. 6 , 18 , 19. Melius enim ●rare quàm sal●are in sabbato . Aug. in ●it . Psal. 91 Act. 17. 31. Rom. 2. 12 , &c. 2 Thes. 2. 8 , &c. Lactan , lib. 7. cap. 1. Rev. 22. 11. This was the last and heaviest curse , that St. John wished spiritual Babylon . Rev. 2 ▪ & 3. Isa. 56. 2. &c. and 58. 13 , &c. Exod 16. 33 , &c. 1 Cor. 7. 5. Gen 35. 2. 1 Thess. 4. 4. 1 Sam. 21. 5. Exod. 19. 15. Col. 4. 3. Psal , 92. 1 , 2 , 5. 1 Cor. 29. 11 , &c. * Here thou maist confess whatsoever sin of the last week , clogs thy conscience . † Joh. 1. 29. Matth. 13. 4 , &c. Luk. 8. 5 , &c Col. 4. 3. Acts 26. 18. a 1 Thess. 5. 13. b Heb. 13. 17. c 1 Cor. 11. 10. Eph. 3. 10. 1 Pet. 1. 12. Isai. 58. 13. Psal. 100. 4. Psal. 42. 1 , 2. Psal. 84. 10. Psal. 5. 7. Gen. 28. 16 , 17. 1 Cor. 14. 25. Psal. 26. 8. Psal. 27. 4. Verse 6. Psal. 23. 6. Eccl. 5. 1. 1 Cor. 12. 12. a Act. 2. 1 , 46. b Chap. 4. 32. Eccles. 5. 1. Ezek. 46. 10 ▪ Psal. 110. 3. † Cùm Romam venio jejuno Sabbato : cùm hic sum , non jejuno . Sic & 〈◊〉 ad quam fortè Ecclesiam veneris , ejus morem serva si cuiquam non vis esse scandalo , nec quenquam tibi . Amb. consi . August . Epist. ad Januar . a Luk. 4. 20. b Luk. 19. 48. * Isa. 2. 3. Act. 10. 33. Gal. 4. 14. 1 Thes. 2. 13 ▪ † Rev. 2. 7. Luke . 24. 32 ▪ a Luk. 11. 28. b Rom. 15. 16 ▪ c Deut. 33. 3 ▪ d Joh. 10. 4. e Joh. 8. 47. and 18. ●7 . f Luke 1 ▪ 21. Mark 3. 35. Ezek. 46. 10. Luke ▪ 10. 16. Numb . 6. 23 , 27. 1 Cor. 16. 1. 2 Cor. 9. 5 , 6 , 7 , &c. Lev. 11. 3. Psal. 119. 11. Mat. 13. 19. Job 31. 17 , 18. Hest. 9. 22. Deut. 15. 10 , &c. Matth. 25. 35 , &c. † If thou be a private man , ●ither perf●rm these holy d●ties by thy self or joyn with some godly Family in the performance of them . a Act. 17. 11. ●eb . 5. 14. a Deut. 6. 7. b Mat. 26. 30. Jam. 5. 13. c Heb. 6. 1. Heb. 5. 14. Psal 〈…〉 & 19 ▪ 1 , &c. & 8. 1 , 3. &c. Rom. 1. 19 ▪ 20. P●esentem narrat quaelibet herba Deum . d Isa. 40. 26. ●salm 8. Mat. 25. 36. 〈◊〉 5. 14 , &c. Mat. 12. 5. Acts 1. 12. 2 King. 4. 22. Mat. 23. 17 , 19. Num. 10 ▪ 2 , 3. 1 King. 19. 8. a Mark 3. 4. b Mat. 12. 11 ▪ c Luk. 13. 15 ▪ d Mat. 12. 1. e 1 Cor. 11. 22. 34. f 1 Cor. 16. 1. * Nuncius pr●ceps excipitur à Sabbato . Jud. Comment . s●p . Num. 13. 3. * Isa. 6. 1 , 3. b Gen. 18. 27. c Heb. 12. 29. d Job 21. 18. e Psal. 91. 3. f Z●ch . 3. 1 , ● . g 1 Cor. 21. 31. 2 Sam. 6. 22. Luke 15. 21. Psal. 106. 17. 2 Pet. 2. 4. Gen. 3. 23. Rom. 2. 5. Job 15. 16. * Here confess whatsoever fault thou hast done that day by omission or commission , and then fetching from thy heart a deep sigh , say , † Rom. 5. ●0 . Luke 18. 13. Mat. 21. 31 , 32. Heb. 12. 24 Jejunium 1. Co●ctum . a 2 Kin. 6 25. b Act. ●● . ●3 . c 2. Physi●●●n Nihil p●riculosius habitudire corporis extr●mè bona : det●ahenda sunt ergo per jej●nium 〈…〉 fracta 〈…〉 d 3. ●●liticum . e 4 ●iracul●●●m . f 5 〈…〉 g 〈…〉 33. ●● 2. 3. h ●rov . 31. 4 , 5. i 6. Religio●●● . ● Cor. 6. 4 , 5. a Jejunium in Paradiso praescriptum est reverere igitur jejunii canitiem . Basil. hom . c. de jejun . b Lev. 23. c Mat. 6. 17. and 9. 15. d Qui jej●nat , Angelorum ritu vivit , & dam paucissi● is contentus est ; similitudinem cum illis assequicur . Bas. hom . de jejuniis . e Natura os parvum , & gutter ●ar●tum homini dedit . a Quamdiu jej●navit Adam , in Paradiso f●it ; com●dit , & ejectus est . Hieron . b Praeceptum esse 〈◊〉 video , quibus autem non di●bus opo●t●a● jej●nare , & quibus , opo●teat pr●●cepto Domini vel Apostolor 〈◊〉 inve●iod● sinitum . Aug ad Cassal . Epist. ●6 . * Indifferenter jejunandum , ex arbitrio , non ex impe●io 〈◊〉 discipl●●● pro temporibus , & 〈◊〉 uniuscujus●●● . Tert. adver . 〈…〉 cus primus erat qui 〈◊〉 leges 〈…〉 Hist. lib. 5. cap. 1● . ex Appolton . a Lev. 23. 32. Josh. 7. 6. b H●st . 4. 1● . c Lev. 23. 28 , 36. Joel . 1. 14. and 2. 15. d 2 Sam. 3. 35. Ezra . 10. 6. Dan. 10. 3. Esther 4. 16. Acts 9. 9. e 2 Cor. 7. 11 * Q●id prodest vacuare corpus ab escis , & animum ●epl●re peccatis ? Aug. de tem . Ser. 46. f Exod. 33. 5 , 6. g F●●th . 4. 1 , 2. J●h . 3. 5 , 6. Joel 1. 13. M●t. 11. 21. h 2 Sam. 12. 16 ▪ Joel 1. 13. Esth. 4. 3. a 1 King. 21. 27. * Si sola gula peccavit sola jejanet ; & su●●icit : Si veverò peccaverunt & membra caetera , cur non jejunent & ipsa ▪ Bern. Serm. Quadrag . 3. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 9. 15. Can the children mourn ? then shall they fast : And M●rk and Luke for mourn , have fast . Examples , Psal. 6. and 22 and 38 , and 79. and J●remy's Lament . * Joel 2. 12 , 17. b Jer. 31. 18 , 19 , 20. c Gen. 21. 17. d Psal. 147. 9. e Psa. 104. 21. 1 Sam 7. 6. Ez●k . 9. 4. D●n . 9. Neh. 1. Prov. 28. 13. Psal. 32. 5. Psal. 51. 4. 1 Joh 1 , 7 , 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Kin. 20 31. Psal 50. 15. Phil. 1. 6. 1 Tim. 1. 5. † Joh 38. 10. * P●lch●●am est corporis jej●ni●m , cùm sit animas à vi●iis jejunus Hierad Celant . 〈◊〉 . 14. † Jejuna à malis actibus , abstineà malis sermo●ibus , conti●e à cogita●ionibus p●●●mis . ●yril . in Lev. Cap. 10. a Isa. 58. 2 , &c. Zach. 7. 5. Non pos●●● 〈◊〉 iniquitatem & interdictionem . Isa. 1. 13. * Q●id prodest tenuari corpus abstinentiâ , si animus intumescit superbiâ ? Vinum non bibere , & irâ inebriari ? Carnibus non vesci , & de ore omni escâ sordidius egredi maledictum aut mendatium ? Maximus Epist † Qui cibis abstinent , & mala agunt daemones i●●it●●tur quibus culpa adest , & cibus deest . Isid. Vis orati●nem tuam volare ad coelum ? Fac illi duas alas , Jejunium & E●eemosynum . Aug. a Isa. 58. 6. &c. Zach. 7. 9 , 10. * Qui●jej nat ut parcat , n●n ad D●igl●●●m jejunat , sed substantiae suae parcit . Chrysost. i● Mat. 5. Act. 10. 30. Act. 10 30. * Non D●o sed ●bi jejunat , qui q●● ad t●mpus subtrahit , nonin op●●us subtrahit , sed ventri postmodum offecenda custodit . Greg. M Past. c. 44. b 2 Cor. 9. 6. † Jejuniam tuam te castig●t , sed alterum laetisicat . Aug. Ser. de temp . 64. c Accipiat esuriens Christus quod jejunans minùs accipit Cristianus . Aug. d●●t●m . Ser. 157. Be●tus qui jejunat ut alat paup● rem : imitatur enim Christum , qui ani●●m sua● posuit pro statribus suis ●yril . in 〈◊〉 lib. 10. a 1 Sa. 15. 22 b Heb. 11. 6. Rom. 14. 2. Splendi la peccata . Aug. * Rom. 6. ult ▪ d 1 Cor. 10. 31. 2 Cor. 8. 19. Phil 1. 11. e Luk. 1. 74 , 75. f 2 Pet. 1. 10. g Mat. 5. 16. Isa 61. 9. h Eph. 2. 10. i Dan. 4. 27. k Luke 6. 35 , 36. l 2 Cor. 1. 3. m Luk. 16. 1. n Rev. 14. 13. o Luk. 16. 22. Psal. 91. 11. Heb. 1. 14. p 1 Tim. 6. 19. q Mat. 25. r Prov. 19. 17. f Esd. 8. 2. t 1 Tim. 5. 23. Jejunium orationem roborat , oratio fanctificat Jejunium . Bern. Ser. de Jejun . u Joel 2. 17. Luke 2. 37. 1 Cor. 7. 5. x Joel 2. 18 , 19. 1 Cor. 12. y 1 Sam. 1. 7. z 2 Chr. 20. a Neh. 1. b Dan. 9. c Esd. 8. 23. d Esth. 9. e 1 Sam. 7. 6. f Jonah 3. g 2 Chr. 12. 5 , 7 , &c. h 1 King. 21. i 2 Chr. 32. k 2 Chron. 33. 18 , 19. * Jon. 3. 7. 2 Chr. 20 3. Ezra 8. 21. b 1 Sam. 7. 5 , 6. Joel 2. 15. 2 Chron. 20. Jonah 3. 5. Esth. 4. 16. c Exod. 19. Esdras 8. Act. 1. 13 , 14. d Joel 1. 14. Nehem. 8. e Isa. 58. 7 , 10 2 Cor. 9. 7. Gal. 2. 10. Exod. 12. 15. Esth. 9. 19 , 21. 2 Thess. 1. 11. Col. 1. 12. Luke . 20. 35. Apoc. 3. 4. Exod. 12. 48. Joh. 13. 5. 1 Cor. 11. 28. Prov. 23. 1 , ● . Psal. 26. 6. 1 Sam. 21. 4. Exod. 3. 5. Josh. 5. 15. Rev. 19. 7. Gen. 3. 24. * 1 Sam. 6. 19. b 1 Chr. 13. 9 , &c. c 2 Chron. 26. 19. 1 Cor. 11. 28. Verse 30. Verse 29. Verse 27. Mat. 27. 25. a Num. 9. 13. Heb. 2. 9. Mat. 26. 26. 1 Cor. 11. 24. Joh. 13. 1. Heb. 10. 29. Rev. 19. 9. Efficacia Eucharistiae non equaliter se habet quo ad omnes fideles sed pro ratione fidei communicantium . Origen . Mat. 17. 5. 1 Cor. 11. 23 , &c. Prov. 9. 5. b Heb. 5. 4. Num. 16. 40. 1 Cor. 10. 16. Eucaristiae Sacramentum non de aliorum manu quàm praesidentium sumimus Tert. l de Coron . c. 3. * qui est à terra panis percipiens vocationem Domini , non jam communis panis est , sed Eucharistia ex duabus rebus constans , terrena & coel●sti . Iren. lib. 4. cap. 34 Per Sacramentum corporis & sanguinis Domini divinae ●fficimur consortes naturae & tamen esse non desinit substantia vel natura panis & vini . Gelasius contra Eu●yc . Christus visibilia symbola , corporis & sanguinis appellatione honoravit , non naturam mutans , sed gratiam naturae adjiciens Theodoret . Dial. 1. c 1 Cor. 10. 16. d 1 Cor. 11. 26 e Act. 3. 21. Act. 1. 11. f Mat. 24. 27 , 28. * Panem Domini , non panem Dominum . Aug. † David calls bread the strength of man's heart , Psal. 104 15 , Esay , the stay of Bread , cap. 3. 1. Ezekiel , the staff of Bread , cap 4. 16. Homer . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . † Mat. 26. 26. * Luk. 22. 19. b 1 Cor. 11. 26. c Gal. 3. 1. * Heb. 9. 26 and 10. 12. Quotidie nobis Christus crucisigitur . Aug. in Psal. 95. † Metonymicus . a Incruentum sacrificium . If it be unbloody ; because it is void of blood : then it is not Christ's natural body : If because it is offered without shedding of blood , then it is not available for the remission of sins , Heb. 9. 21. Christo cum patre & Spiritu sancto sacrificium panis & vini in fide & charitate sancta Ecclesia Catholica offerre non cessat . Aug. de fid . ad Pet. diac . cap. 19. b Cum frangitur hostia , dum sanguis de calice in ore fidelium funditur , quid aliud quàm Dominici corporis in cruce immolatio ejusque sanguinis de latere effusio designatur ? Can. dist . 2. de consec cum frangitur . 37. * Rom. 4. 11. Mat. 26. 28. 1 Cor. 11. 25. * Judg 13. 23. † 1 Cor. 10. 16. b Joh. 14. 16. 23. c 1 Cor. 6. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . d Eph. 3. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . † Joh. 15. 5. Eph. 3. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * Eph. 5. 23. Col. 1. 18. Rom. 12. 4 , 5. a Eph. 2. 19 , 20. b 1 Cor. 10. 17. c Eph. 5. 31 , 32. Rev. 21. 2. Phil. 3. 12. * Rom. 4. 25. b Phil. 3. 9. c Mat. 25. 35. Acts 9. 4. Mat. 15. 45. Zach. 2. 18. d Eph. 4 23 , 24. e Rom. 8. 29. 2 Cor. 3. 18. f Joh. 15. 5. Joh. 1. 16. 2 Cor. 8. 1 , 4 , 6 , 7 , 19. 1 Cor. 10. 17. Joh. 17. 11 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 26. † 1 Cor. 12. 13. * Eph. 4. 5. a Rom. 5. 5. b Tit. 3. 5. Eph. 4. 5. c 1 Cor. 10. 17. 1 Cor. 11. 33. d Col. 1. 18. e Verse 22. f Act. 4. 32. * Audio quid verba sonent , neque enim mortis tantùm ac resurrectionis suae beneficium nobis offert Christus , sed corpus ipsum in quo passus est ac resurrexit . Concludo , realiter , h●c est verè nobis in c●●na dari Christi corpus , ut sit animis nostris in cibum salutarem . Calvin in Com. in 1 Cor. 11. 25. a 1 Cor. 10. 16. b Quod se nobis communicat , id fit arcanà spiritûs sancti virtute , qu●e res locorum distantià se junctas , ac procul dissitas non modò aggregate , sed co-adunare in unum potest . Calv. In 1 Cor. 11. 25. c Haec ( sc. corpus & sanguis Domini ) accepta atque hausta , id efficiunt , ut & nos in Christo & Christus in nobis sit . Hil. lib. 8. de Trin. Jam corpus Christi meo corpori sociatum est , & sanguis ejus meas ornavit genas . B. Agnetis dict . apud Amb. * Corpus non adest , cum pane , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , id est simul loco , sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est , simul tempore . † Quum coena c●●l●stis sit actio , minimè absurdum est Christum in coelo manentem à nobis recipi . Cal. in 1 Cor. 11. 25. b Fidem mitte in coelum , & eum in terris tanquam praesentem tenuisti . Aug. Ep. 3. ad Vol. Fidem quum dico non intelligo quamlibet opinionem s●d siduciam qua quum audis panem tesseram esse corporis Christi , non dubitas impleri à Domino , quod verba sonant : corpus quod nequaquam cernis spirituale esse tibi a●●mentum , vimque ex Christi carne vivificam in nos per Spiritum ●●●ndi . Calvin . ibid. † Eph. 5. 32 * Ego tunc nos demum participare Christi bonis agnosco postquam Christum ipsum obtinemus . Obtinetur non tantum quum pro nobis factum fuisse victimam credimus : sed dum in nobis habitat , dum ejus sumus membra , ex carne ejus , dum in unem denique & vitam & substantiam ( ut ita loquar ) cum ipso coalescimus . Calv. ibid. a Luke 24. 30 , 31. b 1 Cor. 12. 13. c 1 Sam. 14. 27. d Judg. 7. 13 , e 1 King. 19 6 , 7 , 8. f Psal. 78. 24 , 25. Exod. 16. 35. g Joh. 6. 32 , 35 , 49 , 50. h Joh. 6. 51 , 58. i Joh. 6. 34. a Joh. 5. 25. Rom. 6. 4 , 5 , 12. b Rev. 20. 6. * Hinc apud priscos Sacramentum baptismi appellabatur , Salus , Sacramen●●m verò Dominici corporis , Vita . Aug. lib. 1 de peccatorum me●i●i● c. 14. c Joh. 6. 57. d Joh. 12. 2. e 1 Sam. 3. 10. f Psal. 108. 1. g Acts 9. 6. Rev. 3. 1. h Joh. 6. 54. b Hinc panis & vinum à veteribus nominantur symbola resurrectionis Conc. Nicaec . Joh. 6. 51. Caro Christi non in ●ese , sed in verbo ipsi hypostati●è unito , vivifica est . Cyr. in Joh. 10. 13. Ft quia est propria caro verbi cuncta vivificantis . Synod . Eph. directa fide ad R●ginas . Vivificat 1. Ratione meriti obedientiae , quia Christi caro pro credentibus oblata fuit in sacrificium ; 2 Ratione copulationis nostrae cum Christo , quia non possumus ad Deum vitae fontem pertingere , nisi carne illa Christi mediante , & quatenus carni illi quasi membra sumus insiti . Caro non prodest . Joh. 6. 63. i. carnalis opinio non conveniens cum mysterio manducationis carnis Christi . * Quomodo negant carnem capacem esse resurrectionis quae sanguine & corpore Christi nutritur ? Iren. Lib. 4. Cap. 34. c Isa. 26. 19. 20. † Christi resurrectio in qua nostra inititur , communis resurrectionis Fide jussor est . Theod. d Mortuum esse Christum etiam Pagani credunt : resurrexisse verò propria Fides est Christianorum . Aug. l. 16. contra Faust. cap. 19. Tota fiducia Christianorum est resurrectio mortuorum . Tert. l. 5 de resur . Carn . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈…〉 ●●mum mo●s Arist. Joh. 6. 51. Rev. 2. 7. Rev. 22. 2. * Militus Sacramento erant 〈◊〉 & obst●●●●i ad pr●●standam soli ●●peratori ●●delitatem & obedientiam . * Deu. 27. 26 Gal. 3. 10. Luke 15. 21. The first Commandment . Deut. 6. 5. Psal. 22. 5 , 6. Psal. 38. 8. † The second ment . Deut. 12. 32. Mat. 15. 9. Gal. 3. 1. * The third Commandment . Phil. 2. 10. 1 Kin. 19. 10. Jer. 5. 2. He●r confess thy rash and false swearing . † The fourth Commandment , * Act 20. 7. a 1 Cor. 16. 2. b Here confess thy travelling on the Sabbath , and thy leaving the holy exercise , to go to sporting o● feasting . c The fifth Commandment . d 1 Thes 5. 1● Gal. 4. 15. e Here confess thy disob● 〈…〉 . f 〈…〉 g 〈…〉 h 〈…〉 The seventh Commandment . 1 Thess 4. 3 , &c. Rom. 6. 13. Here confess unto God thy secret Pollutions , Fornication , or Adultery , if Satan hath so f●r prevailed over thee . The eighth Commandment . a Eph. 4. 28. Luk. 6. 34 , 35. Lev. 25. 35. Here confess if thou hast secretly stoln , or openly obbed any thing , or hast detained from any fatherless Child that which is his by right . a Z●ch 8. 16. Mat 10. 16. The ninth commandment . b 〈…〉 . 13. 7. c Mat. 1. 18 , 1● . d Psal. 50 20. P●●l 15. 3. 〈◊〉 confess if tho● hast ●●lyed or s●●dered thy neighbour or not spoken the truth to cl●ar his 〈◊〉 , when thou ●●st called thereto . * Tit. 1. 12. † The tenth 〈◊〉 Heb. 1● . 5. ● Tim 6 6. Phil. 4. 11 , 12. Heb. 4. ult . * Psal. 130. 1. b Job 13. 12. Jonah 2. 2. Rom. 4. ult . a Heb. 6. 1 , 2. John 17. 3. 1 Tim. 2. 4. 2 Cor. 13. 5. * 1 Cor. 2. 14. Rom. 8. 7. ●●m 2. 19. Heb. 4. 2. Rom. 4. 11. Eph. 3. 17. Heb. 11. 6. Rom. 14. 23. Isaiah 55. 7. Ezek. 33. 11. Act. 26. 29. Act. 3. 19. Luk. 1. 74 , 75. Heb. 2. 13. 14. Tit. 1. 15. Mat. 5. 23 , 24. John 13. 14. 34 , 35. Mat. 6. 12 , 14 , 15. and 18 , 35. * Isa. 55. 1 , 2. b Mat. 26. 26 , 27 , 28 , &c. 2 Sam. 19. 33. Gen. 22. 5. * ●ail King. Col , 2. 3 , 9. 2 Sam. 6. 7. Mat. 3. 11. Mat. 8. 8. Mat. 9. 12 , 13 Mat. 11. 28. Mat. 22. 11. * This Wedding Garment is righteousness and true holiness R●v . 19. 8. Eph. 4. 24. † 1 Cor. 11. 10. b 1 Pet. 1. 12. 1 King. 8. 27. † Rev. 3. 20. b Joh. 14. 23 b Rom. 7. 14. c verse 24. d Mat. 9. 13. Mat. 11. 28. 2 Sam. 7. 18. Gen. 32. 10. 1 Sam. 5. 7. Mat. 28. 5. Luk. 1. 43 , 44. * Matth. 8. 8. a Luke 1. 38 b Rev. 3. 20. c Luk. 18. 13. d Luk. 19. 9. Sacramentum requi●it sacram ment●m . * Christ calls it his Body , not the sign of his Body ; because this Sacrament was instituted not only to signifie , but also to communicate the spiritual graces that they represent : and by the signs to draw our minds to the graces signified . So Euthymius in Matth. 19. Non dixit Dominus , Haec sunt signa corporis mei , sed , Hoc est corpus meum . Oportet ergo non ad naturam ●orum quae proposita sunt aspicere , sed ad ipsorum virtutem & gratiam . Non hoc corpus quod videtis manducaturi estis , & bibituti illum sanguinem quem fusuri sunt qui me crucisigent . Sacramentum aliquid vobis commendat ; spiritualiter intelle●tum vivificabit vos . August . in Psal. 98. speaking in the person of Christ. The Disciples did not eat Christ corporally and substantially in the first Institution ; no more do we in reiteration of the same Supper . Mat. 26. 28. † If remission of sins and eternal life had been appropriated to the drinking of the real Blood , doubtless John & Mary would have made means to have drunk it : But J●hn ascri●es the vertue to believing that it was s●ed . * 1. Cor. 12 , 13. † 〈…〉 . * Heb. 7. 25. Heb. 9. 24. 1 Cor. 10 17. 〈◊〉 est pa●is comm●ni notione Sacramenti , non autem necessa●iò ●nus ●umero . * Psal. 18. 26. Sancta non nisi sanctè & sanctis . Luk. 2. 46. Luk. 15. 6. 2 Kin. 13. 21. Gen. 27. 33. 1 Chron. 17. 27. 2 Sam. 6. 11 , 12. Gen. 32. 24 , &c. Exod. 33. 14 Cant. 8. 6. Luk. 22. 30. a Rev. 5. 9. b Chap. 7. 10 , 11 , 12. Rom. 12. 1. * Luk. 1. 75. a Mat. 26. 30. Which is probable to have ●een the 123. Psal. b 1 Cor. 16. 1. Rom. 15. 25. Qui c●piosio●es sunt & volunt pro arbitrio quisque suo quod visum est contrib●●●nt : & quod it● o●igitur apud pr●positum deponitur , atque inde ille opitulatur pupills & vi●●is , & qui propter mo●bum aut aliquam aliam causam egent , &c. Justin , Martyr . Apolog. 2. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Lucrum est pietatis nomine facere sumptum . Tert. Apol. adv . Gen. c. 39. Num. 6. 23 , 27. Joh. 6. 55. Mark. 5. 29. * Matth. 12. 43 , &c. † 2 Pet. 2. 22. a Cant. 5. 3. † Scio Romae hanc esse consuetudinem , ut fideles semper Christi corpus accipiant . Hier. Apol. adv . Jovin . Quotidie communionem Eucharistiae percipere non laudo , nec reprehendo . Omnibus Dominicis diebus communicandum suadeo & hortor , si mens sine affectu peccandi sit . Aug. ( vel potius Gennadius ) lib. de Ec. Dogm . c. 53. b Psal. 45. 7. Heb. 1. 9. c Cant. 1. 3. d Psal. 34. 8. Tit. 2. 12 , 14 Job . 5. 6. 1 Sam. 6. 9. a Lam. 3. 39. b Psal. 107. 17. Eceles . 10. 4. 2 Chron. 15. 4. c Mat. 6. 6. d Psal. 4. 4. e Lam. 3. 40. f Joshua 7. 16 , &c. † Psal. ●9 . 5. ●●b . 4. 16. * 1 King. 20. 31. Job 3. 25. Hab. 3. 2. 1 Cor. 11. 13. Heb. 12. 6 , 7. &c. Psal. 51. 3. Psal. 51. 1. Verse 11. † Psal. 28. 4. Hos. 14. 3. * Here name that sin which most troubleth thy conscience . Mat. 3. 17. Eph. 5. 16. Jam. 1. 17. Joh. 3. 27. 1 Cor. 10. 13. Psal. 31. 5. Psal. 65. 2. 1. Kin. 8. 39. Joh. 16. 23. Isa. 38. 1. * Gal. 3. 15. Heb. 9. 17. a 2 Cor. 5. 10. Eccl. 12. 14. Rom. 2. 15. 1 Cor. 4. 5. * Voluntas testatoris magis inspicienda est quàm verba , l. cum virum sect . sani . C. de fidei , cum ff . ad leg . Fal. l. si ff . ad Treb. l. ubi sect . te rogo . † Matrimonium inter Aurum & Arcam , divortium inter Deum & Animam . Aug. Foelix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum . a Gal. 6. 9. b Mar. 10. 42. Mar. 9. 41. Matth. 25. 34 , &c. Luk. 14. 14. & 18. 22. 1 Cor. 15. 58. Rev. 14. 13. c Job . 14. 5. d Job 33. 24. e 2 Kin. 20. 7. 2. King. 5. 7 , 8 , 10. Joh. 9. 7. * 2 King , 1. 2 , 3. Lev. 20. 6. Deut. 18. 10 , &c. † Deut. 13. 3. 2 Chron. 16. 12. Jer. 8. 22. 1 Sam. 2. 6. 2 Sam. 14. 14 〈…〉 ● King. 5. 14. ●h . 9. 6 , 7. Ma● . 8. 15. Matth. 9. ●0 , &c. Job 14. 5. * Deus suo● Percutit ut emendet . Hier . Com● in Esa. 1. 6. D●us calamitates infligit , non ex●inguere , sed castigare nos cupiens Basil Jerm . 3. in divites . a Psal. 119. 71. b Psal. 119. 67. c 1 Cor. 11. 32. a 2 Sam. 12. 10. b Verse 14. ●eb . 12. 6 , 7 , 8. * Ad 〈◊〉 servant●r non 〈◊〉 ●●di . 1 Sam. ● . 25. c 〈◊〉 favor 〈◊〉 non ●st favor , ira sed ingens . At favor in magno s●●pe dolore late● Basil . Antho. ●a●r . * Cr●bris tribulationibus Ecclesiam suam Dominus exercet : nè si cun●ta temporalia fortè prosperè currant ; incolatu praesentis exilii delectata , minùs coelestem patriam suspiret . Beda in Cant. Mundanus affectus praesentia amat , temporal●a cumulat , spiritulia ●●ligit , & cum totus se sp●r git in imis , nil potest amare de sum mis. Justin. Patriarch . ●● di●● menast . cap. 4. * ● Cor. 12. 4. † Phil. 3. 8. ●●●aucti 〈◊〉 aliquà 〈◊〉 in 〈…〉 , qui basdam ten●●●ionibus 〈◊〉 ●●ch . in 1. Reg. † Deut 32. 15. * 1 Pet. 1. 7. Ut igne purgati & ab admixtione viti●rum carnalium defaecati , splend●ant exanimatae innocentiae claritate . Hilar . in Psal. 95. † Schola crucis , schola lucis . Gubernator in tempestate dignoscitur , in acie miles probatur : delicata jactatio est , cùm periculum non est : conflictatio in adversis , probatio est veritatis . 〈◊〉 Su● . 1 de ●m . a Jer. 48. 11. Job 1. 9 , 10. Job 13. 15. Hos. 5. 15. a Exod. 3. 7. b Psal. 86. 7. c Isa 38. 2 , 3. d Luke 15. 16 , &c. * Deus non delectatur poenis nostris , sed confessionem quaerit erroris . Alb. in Psalm . 4. Poenitent . Heb. 13. 3. Heb. 4. 15. & 2. 18. & 5. 8 , 9. * Sinit Deus justum incidere in calamitates , ut virtutem quae in illo lateb●t , aliis ap●rtam manifestamque faciat . Dam. l. 2. de Orth. cap. 29. a Rom. 8. 18. 1 Pet. 4. 14. b Heb. 2. 10. c Heb. 2 ▪ 7. d Mat. 27. 34. e Luk. 24. 42. Favus post mella guftavit . Ter. lib. de Coron . milit . c. 24. f Psal. 24. 7. * 2 Tim. 4. 7 , 8. † Rev. 3. 21. * Rev. 2. 17. g Phil. 3. 21. Ideo tentantur Sancti , ut ipsi se agnoscant . Primas . Esse se magnarumvirium homo crederet , si nullum unquam eárundem virium defectum sentiret . Greg. l. 2. Moral . Job . a Psal 130. 3. † In his quae patimur , nullum contra Deum murmur cordi nostro subrepat : quia ad quod hoc Creator noster operetur , ignot●m est . Greg. Epist. 31. John 9. 3. John 11. 4 Malum pati malum non est : malum facere malum est . Chrys. de Prod. Ind. * Cum vexamur ac premimur , tum maximas gratias agimus indulgentissimo Patri , quod corruptelam nostram non patitur longius procedere , sed plagis ac verberibus emendat . † Heb 12. 11. Lact. lib. 5. cap. 23. Eccles. 5. 4. Mat 12. 45. a Joh. 5. 4. b Isa. 63. 9. c 2 Pet. 2. 22. d Verse 20. John 5. 14. John 8. 11. * 1 Pet. 4. 4. Psal. 90. 12. 1 Sam. 2. 6. † Isai. 38. 9 , &c. Rom. 12. 1. Tit. 2. 12. Psal. 90. 12. Rev. 5. 12 , &c. Matth. 9. 12. a Luk. 22. 44. b Psal. 88. 7. Isa. 53. 6. c Psal. 18. 5. d Heb. 5. 7. Gal. 3. 13. Lam. 1. 12. Dum legimus vel audimus quot & quanta ille sine culpa sustinuit , intelligimus nos peccatores omnia debere libenter sustinere . Theod. ad 5. Cap. in Rom. Lam. 3. 22. 1 Cor. 11. 32. Heb. 11. 1 Pet. 5. 2. 2 Sam. 24. 14. Heb. 12. 11. 2 Sam. 16. 9 , 10. Psal. 39. 9. Job 2. 10. Job 2. 10. Mat. 26. 39. Verse 42. Psal. 14. 1. Gen. 6. 5. * Rom. 6. 7. Rev. 21. 4. Isa. 57. 1. 2 Kin. 22. 20. Isa. 26. 20. Heb. 12. 22 , 23 , 24. † Plut. in vit . Cat. Cic. Tus. quaest l. 1 V●l de praecipiti venias in Tartara saxo , Ut qui Socracicum de ne●e l●git op●s . Ovid. in Itin. Mat. 25. 21. Judg. 13. 19. 20. * Num. 16 22. Num. 27. 16. b Jer. 38. 16. Act. 17. 25 , 26. c 2 Tim. 4. 7. d Psal. 90. 12. e J●b 14 5. 1● . & 16. Luk 2● . 53. Psal. 143 2. 2 Tim. 4. 7. Psal. 40. 12. † Psal. 130. 3. * Dan. 5. 27. Mat. 11. 21. Mat. 3. 17. a 1 Tim. 1. 15. * Ez●k 18. 22. b Psal. 51. 7. c 1 Pet. 1. 19. d John 1. 29. e Rom. 4. 25. 1 Cor. 15. 3. 4. f 1 Pet. 2. 24. Joh. 5. 24. Luk. 17. 5. 1 Cor. 10. 13. a Mat. 25. 4. b Mat. 22. 11. Rev. 19. 8. c Rev. 19. 7. d Joh. 17. 22. e Zech. 3. 2. f Psal. 22. 20 , 21. * Mat. 18. 10. Heb. 1. 4. a Luk. 16. 22. b Mat. 8. 11. Luk. 3. 18. c Eph. 1. 10. Act. 15. 11. d Act. 7. 59. Satan's first stratagem in time of death . The defeature . * Lev. 6. 2 , 3 , 4 , &c. Nu● 5. 6 , 7 , 8. Non remittitur peccatum , nisi restituatur ablutum . † Luk. 19. 8 , 9. Mic. 6 10 , 11. b Jet . 18 7. Act. 2. 38. Act 8. 22. c Gen. 20 7. J●m 5. 14 , 15. 16. Lev. 6. 6 , 7. Satan's second assault . Tbe Christian's encounter . Mar. 9. 24. Mat. 14. 31. Job 13. 15. Mat. 17. 20. a Rev. 21. 6. Isa. 55. 1. * Fox Acts. & Monum . Psal. 27. 14. Satan's third assault . The encounter . 1 Tim. 1. 15. Rom. 5. 20 Mat. 11. 28. Joh. 4. Luk. 7. 13. a Isa. 65. 1. Rom. 10. 20 Joh. 14. 14. Novit Dominus mutare sententiam si tu noveris ●mendare vitam . Aug. in Psal. 50. Gen. 4. 7. a Mat. 26. 50. b 1 Pet. 2. 22. c Psal. 140. 3. 1 King. 20. 32 , 33. Verse 34. * ●udam non tam ●●●lus quam desperatio fecit penitus interire . Aug. li. de util . poenit . a S●●leration omnibus O Juda extitisti quem non poen●tentia duxit ad Dominum , sed desperatio traxit ad laqueum . Leo. Satan's fourth assault . The encounter . 1 Tim. 1. 16. Isa. 55. 6 , 7 , 8 , 9. † Act. 20. 28. 1 Joh. 1. 7. Joh. 3. 16. Rom. 5. 8 , 9. Gen. 19. 13. Psal. 108. 4. Psal. 145. 9. * Satan's fifth assault . † The encounter . a I remember ( saith Luther that Staupitius was wont to tell me , Ego plus quàm millies Deo vovi , &c. I have more than a thousand times vowed unto God , that I would mend my life , but I could never perform my vow . Henceforth I will make no such vow , because I verily know that I cannot keep it . Unless therefore God will be merciful unto me for Christ his sake , and grant me a blessed departure out of this wretched life all my vows and good works will stand me in no stead . This is the state of the dearest Children of God in this life . Read Luther on Galat. 5. Luke . 17. 3 , 4. Mat. 18. 21. 22. Num. 21. 9. Post lachrymas gemitusque graves clementia Christi confestim est , occulos ante locanda tuos . a Jam. 1. 17. b Rom , 8. 28. Rom. 9. 11. * By these Keys Peter opened Heaven to himself , and afterwards with the rest of the Apostles , unto others , Luk. 22. 62. Luk. 24. 47. &c. Joh 20. 21. c Joh. 13. 1. d Rom. 11. 29. Rom. 8. 30. Satan's sixth assault . * Heb. 6. 18. b Ezek. 18. 22. Dr. King of Lond●n , his Lectures on Jonah . Ezek. 33. 11. O foelices nos quorum causa jurat Deus ! O miserrimos nos si non Deo quidem juranti credimus ? Tertul. Isa. 38. 14. Heb. 12. 24. a Mat. 27. 46. b 2 Tim. 2. 11. c 2 Cor. 1. 20. d Rev. 3. 14. Heb. 6. 6. Luke 16. 22. * Judg. 13. 1. * Rom. 8. 54. o Heb 9. ●4 . Heb. 9. 11. 1 Tim. 2. 5. Heb. 7. 25. Psal. 73. 25. Act. 4. 1. Act , 10. 43. Isa. 9. 6. Heb. 12. 14. James 5. Psal. 103. 12. Rom. 8. 26. Heb. 12. 9. * Vir dolorum . 〈◊〉 . 53. 3. b 1 Pet. 2. 21 c Heb. 12. 1 , 2. d 1 Pet. 5 9. S. 〈…〉 . * 1 Pet 5. 10. b 1 Cor. 10. 13. † Joh. 5. 5. b Mat. 9. 20. c Exod. 2. 2. d Rev. 2. 10. e 2 Sam. 24 13. f Psal. 56. 8. a Modicum & 〈…〉 Joh. 16. 16. b Psalm ●● . c 〈…〉 . d J●h 16. 21 , e Ps●l . 11● . 7. * 〈…〉 . Joh. 16. 21. Acts 7. * Rev. 2. 10. † Job 2. 10. b Rom. 9. 28 , 38 39 Morbus non 〈◊〉 lis● ad nu●● 〈…〉 , m●l●is 〈…〉 Basil in ●●xam . Morbus est ●tilis 〈◊〉 institu●io , qu●e 〈…〉 care . 〈…〉 . Gen. 5. 24. 2 King. 2● 11 , 12. Luk 16. 23 Joh. 11. 4. Job 14. 5. Mors praesentis vit●e exitus & introitus melioris . Ber. in Epist. ad Rom. Mat. 6. 19 , 20. 2 Cor. 5. 1. John 14. 2. 〈…〉 . a 2 Cor. 12. 9. b 1 Cor. 10. 13. Rom. 8. 1. Joh. 5. 24. 1 Cor. 15. 54. b 1 Thess. 4. 13. Isai. 26. Rev. 14. c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Luk. 2. 29. d 2 Cor. 5. Phil. 1. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Mors port● gloriae . Gr●g . Janua vitae . Bernard . Gen. 17. 9. ● Kin. 19. 4. * Rom. 7. 24. b Iam. 4. 1. c Gal. 5. 17. Rom. 7. 24. Rev. 5. 9. Psal. 116 8. Psal. 145. * 1 Cor. 15. 57. Isa. 33. 14. Acts 7. 59. Luke 23. 42. ●hil . 1. 23. 〈◊〉 . 25. 7 , 8. John 11. 25. 1 Pet. 5. 8. Luk. 2. 29. Acts 16. 6 , 7 Luk. 1● . 1● . * Joh. 11. 25 , 26. b Verse 24. c Job . 19. 25 , 26. Mat. 25. 34. † Gal. 3. 13. † Joh. 1. 29. * Rev. 1. 5. b Luk. 23. 4● . c Psal. 31. 5. d Gen. 20. 7. Jer. 18. ●0 . and 15. 1. 1 Sam. 12. 19 , 23. e Jam. 5. 14 , 15 , 16. f Mark 1. 4. Acts 19. 4. g 1 Cor. 5. 4. h 2 Cor. 10 8 * Mat. 16. 19. i Mat. 18. 18. Joh. 20. 2● . 23. Job 33. 19 , 22 , 23 , 24. James 5. 15. Rev. 11. 6. * 1 Cor ●5 . 5. b 2 Cor. 10. 4 , &c. c Mat. 16. 19 Ministri p●cca●a ●emittunt ●on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . d 1 Cor. 5. 4. e 1 Cor 4. 1 , 2. Act. 13. 38. To this end ●ith Pas●l ▪ i●●sc . c. 13. Ch●istus omn●bus Pasto●●bes & De●●o●ibus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈…〉 quòd omnes ex aequo ligant & solv●nt , ut Pet●●s . Papists dare not deny this . Quilibet s●ce●dos ●quantum est ex virtute clavium ) habet potestat●m indiffer●nter in omnes . In supplement . Thom●● 4. 6. 〈◊〉 10. * Joh. 20. 22 , 23. a Act. 1. 24. b Acts 13. 2. c Rom. 1. 1. d 2 Cor. 5. 18 , 19. e Act. 13. 2. 1 Cor. 1. 1. Heb. 5. 4. f Tit. 1. 5. g Joh. 20. 22 , 2● . h Act. 13. 2 , 4. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Jo● . ●0 . ●3 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 2 Cor. 5. 18. Joh. 20. 21 , 23. * 2 Cor. 2. 7 , 10. Heb. 5. 41. † 2 Cor. 5. 18 , 19. Luk. 10. 16. ●ib . 3. Instit. cap. 4. S●●t . 12. * In Antith . P●p●tus & Christi nismi vol. 1. fol. 66. † Luther tom . ● . fol. 109. & 〈◊〉 ▪ a Witness 〈…〉 being able to speak , kissed the hand ●herewith he was 〈◊〉 . * Rev. 3. 7. Mar. 2. 7. Luk. 5. 21. a Mat. 16. 19. b 1 Cor. 4. 1. c 2 Cor. 5. 20 ▪ Ministerii clavis duplex est , un●●scientia discernendi , ( 1 Cor. 12. 10 1 Joh 4. 1. ) Alia est potestas li gandi & absolvendi . Joh. 20. 23. d Mat. 27. 4. e Heb. ● . 24 , 27 , 28. f Heb. 8. 4. Heb. 7. 15. Luk. 10 16. Concil . Nic. Can. 12. b Mat. 26. 18. Luk. 22. 12. c Rom. 16. 5. Phil●m . v. 2. d Mat. 18. 2● a Jewel against Harding Artic. 1. of private Mass. fol. 4. b In missis privatis sufficit si unus sit praesens , scilicet Minister , qui populi totius personam gerit . Aquin. part . 3 q. 38 art . 5. * De coenae administratione ita sentio , libenter ad●itt●ndum esse . hunc morem ut apud aegro●os celebretur communio , cum ita res & opportunitas ●eret Ep. 51. * Cur coena● aeg●otis ●eg●nd m●sse non arbitrer , mult●e & g●aves 〈◊〉 me imp●llunt . Ep. 31. 1. Perkins his right way to dying well Admonitio ad Pastores . Lam ▪ 4. 4. 1 Kin. 21. 20. 2 Sam. 18. ●7 . Ut mo●i●●e pius , vivere disce pi● . * Summum hominis bonum , bonus ex h●c vitâ exitus . John 1. 29. Luk. 18. 13. Psal. 46. 1. Psal. 4. 6. 1 John 1. 7. Rom. 8. 31. Sanguis martyrum semen Ecclesiae . Martyres acc●perunt , non dederunt coron●s . Leo. Martyrio 〈…〉 usually . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Rev. 2. 1● . 〈…〉 in f●st . 〈…〉 invit . Johan Flo●es Hist. ad An. 65. b Acts 7. c Matth. 2. Acts and Monuments . 1 Pet. 2. 19. ●ausa , non pass●o , facit Martyrem . Aug. Ep 61 Non mortes ●d mores , ●r . Boys . Tho. Aquin. 1 , 2. quaest . 17. art . 6. Joh 16. 2. * Acts 9. 1. Phil. 3. 6. Epistola ad Romanos , is now Epistola in Romanos . * Note that the Scripture saith , God saith , and the Scripture concludeth , is all one with Paul. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Having reference to what he spake before . Rom. 1. 23. Of Images . * It seems by Rom. 15. ●0 , 29. and the whole last Chapter , that the Christians who were in Rome before Paul came thither , were converted by those Preachers whom he had sent thith●r bef●re him : for he calls them his helpers , v. 3 , 9. kinsmen , v. 7 , 13. fellow-prisoners , v. 7. the first fruits of Achaia , where he had preached v. 7. all familiar to him , and to Tertius , who writ the Epistle , v. 22. And therefore they came so joyfully to meet Paul 〈◊〉 App●i Forum , hearing that he was coming towards Rome , Acts 28. 15. Psal. 149. 9. a Ut Alexandri causa iis qui ill●m scire cupiunt pate●●t : judicatus est Ephesi ab AEmilio Frontino Proconsule , non propter professionis nomen , sed propter perpetrata latr●●cinia , cùm j●m esset , prevaricator ( & pr●ditor ) Eu●eb . Hist. Eccles lib. 4. cap. 18. † 1 Tim. 6. 20 Prov. 24. 21 1 Pe● . 2. 17. * Acts 5. 41. † Luk. 11. 28. Rev. 14. 13. h Mat. 25. 34. * Rev. 22. ●0 . b Joh. 13. 14. c Luke 22. 19. ●0 . d Joh. 18. 2. a Joh. 18. 1. b Gen. 3. 3. c Mat. 26. 40. d Isa. 63. 5. e Mat. 26. 4. Psal. 124. 7. Mat. 20. 19. 〈…〉 〈…〉 〈…〉 〈…〉 Luke . 22. ●● . 〈…〉 〈…〉 〈…〉 〈…〉 〈…〉 〈…〉 Mat. 5. 25. a Mat. 22. 13. b Mat. 26. 56. Joh. 13. 8. Mark 14. 51. 52. Mat. 27. 2. Luk. 22. 57 , 58. 60. Mat. 26. 74. 75. Luk. 22. 61. Joh. 19. 5. Isa. 1. 18. Mat. 27. 29. a 1 Pet. 5. 4. Rev. 2. 10. b Mat 27. 29. c Mat. 12. 20. d Mat. 27. 29. Judg. 16. 25. e Mat. 27. 30. Mark 14. 65. a Mat. 26. 67. b Mat. 27. 30. Mat. 27. 39. c Joh. 19. 3. Isa. 50. 6. d Mat. 22. 50. e John 19. 1. Mark 15 1. Luk. 23. 2. Mat. 27. 2. Joh. 19. 11. a Tit. 3. 1. Rom. 13. 1. 1 Pet. 2. 13. 14. b Luk. 23. 1 , 2. Joh. 19. 13 , &c. * Note well Rev. 11. 8. and Rev. 17. 5 , 6. Joh. 19. 16. Luk. 23. 24. Rom. 8. 3. Mat. 27. 24. Joh. 19. 6. Mat. 27. 33. H●b . 13. 12. Luk. ●3 . 26. Mat. 27. 32. Joh. 19. 23. Luk. 23. 33. Ibid. Gen. 2. 17. Luk. 23. 33. Psal. 22. 16. Joh. 20. 25. Mat. 27. ●3 . Joh. 19. 24. Mat. 27. 34. John 19. 30. a Rom. 10. 4. 2 Cor. 3. 13. b Mar. 15. 34. c Mat. 27. 45. 2 Pet. 2. 4. Jude v. 6. * Luk. 23. 43. Luk. 23. 39. Rom. 9. 18. Mat. 27. 50. John 10. 18. Luk. 23. 46. * Joh. 13. 1. Mat. 27 51. a Eph. 2. 14. Heb. 10. 19. 20. b Mat. 27. 51. Exod. 12. 46. Joh. 19. 33. Joh. 19. 34. a There is about man's heart a skin call'd Pericardium , containing water , which cools and moistens the heart , lest it should be scorched with continualmotion . This skin once pierced , man cannot live Columb . Anatom . l. 7. Horst . de nat . human . l. 1. exerc . 8. q. 5. * 1 Joh. 5. 6. b Mat. 27. 52. Mat. 27. 60. Mat. 27. 57. Joh. 19. 39 , 40. Joh. 19. 41. Mat. 27. 60. 2 Kin. 13. 21. Mat. 28. 6. Rom. 4. 25. Mat. 27. 52 , 53. Act. 17. 31. Psal. 116. 1● Gal. 6. 17. Mat. 27. 19. 
A62040	----	The works of George Swinnock, M.A. containing these several treatises ... Works. 1665. Swinnock, George, 1627-1673. 1665 Approx. 1697 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 471 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A62040 Wing S6264 ESTC R7231 12567979 ocm 12567979 63388 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A62040) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 63388) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 703:28) The works of George Swinnock, M.A. containing these several treatises ... Works. 1665. Swinnock, George, 1627-1673. [42], 877, [7] p. Printed by J.B. for Tho. Parkhurst ..., London : 1665. Errata: prelim. p. [41]. Includes bibliographical references. Advertisement: p. [14]-[17] at end. "An alphabetical table ..." [i.e. index]: p. [1]-[13] at end. Reproduction of original in British Library. (from t.p.) The Christian mans calling, First part, wherein a Christian is directed how to carry himself in religious duties, natural actions, particular vocation, family direction, his own recreation -- Second part, The Christian directed to perform his duty as parent, child, husband, wife, master, servant, and in the conditions of prosperity and adversity --Third part, Directing a Christian to perform his duty, in his dealings with all men, in the choice of his companions, in evil company, in good company, in solitude, on a week-day from morning to night, in visiting the sick, on a dying bed -- Heaven and Hell epitomized, or, The true Christian characterized -- Door of salvation opened, by the key of regeneration -- Fading of the flesh, and flourishing of faith -- A valedictory sermon, on Act. 20. 32. -- Men are Gods, on Psal. 82. 6, 7. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. 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Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Puritans. Theology -- Early works to 1800. Theology -- History -- 17th century. 2000-00 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2001-09 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2002-10 Emma (Leeson) Huber Sampled and proofread 2002-10 Emma (Leeson) Huber Text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-12 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE WORKS OF GEORGE SVVINNOCK , M. A. CONTAINING These several Treatises . VIZ. The Christian Mans Calling , First Part. Wherein a Christian is directed how to carry himself in Religious Duties , Natural Actions , Particular Vocation , Family Direction , his own Recreation . Second Part , The Christian directed to perform his duty , as Parent , Child , Husband , Wife , Master , Servant ; and in the conditions of Prosperity and Adversity . Third Part , Directing a Christian to perform his duty , in his Dealings with all men , in the Choice of his Companions , in Evil Company , in Good Company , in Solitude , on a Week-day from Morning to Night , in Visiting the sick , on a Dying Bed. Heaven and Hell Epitomized , or the true Christian Characterized . Door of Salvation opened , by the Key of Regeneration . Fading of the Flesh , and Flourishing of Faith. A Valedictory Sermon , on Act. 20. 32. Men are Gods , on Psal. 82. 6,7 . LONDON , Printed by I. B. for Tho. Parkhurst , at the ●hree Crowns , at the lower end of Cheap side , over-against the great Conduit . 1665. CLARISSIMO VIRO , RICHARDO HAMPDEN , DE Hampden , in Comitatu Bucks , Armigero ; SVPREMI SENATVS Regni Anglicani Membro Dignissimo : NEC NON , NOBILISSIMAE DOMINAE , LAETITIAE HAMPDEN , Conjugi Pientissimae ; In perpetuum Summae gratitudinis monumentum , Debitae observantiae testimonium , Sinceri amoris symbolum , Hanc tertiam , de nobili 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exercitio , partem D. D. D. Georgius Swinnock . Obnixe rogans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ut in illos & omnigenam felicitatem in praesenti , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in futuro seculo conferre velit . THE EPISTLE TO THE READER . SUch is the beauty of Holiness , the excellency of Divine Nature , and the reasonableness , and righteousness of the Service of God ; as also the necessity of Mans devoting himself wholly to it , that were not his understanding , which is the Sun in the lesser world , strangely ●●uffled with clouds ; his will , which as the Moon , borroweth its light from it , full of spots and changes , and desperately bent upon evil ; his affections as stars of malevolent influence , brutishly enslaved to his sensual appetite ; and his whole nature deplorably vitiated , it were impossible for him , to turn his back upon the authority , commands , and threatnings of his Maker ; to trample on the bowels , and blood , and intreaties of his Redeemer ; to despise the motions , and perswasions , and assistance of the holy Spirit , in order to his recovery out of that bottomless gulph of misery , into which he hath plunged himself , and his restauration to a state of purity and eternal happiness ; and there would be no such need of calling so frequently and fervently , and of crying so urgently and earnestly to him , to exercise himself unto godliness . As he that is an Atheist in his principles , and denyeth the being of such a thing as Religion , must deny his very senses , since his eyes , and ears , and taste , and feeling , do all loudly Preach a deity to him ; So he that is an Atheist in his practices , and denyeth the making Religion his business , must deny his reason , and debase himself into a Beast ; for common understanding , notwithstanding its great loss by the fall , will inform him that he is made for higher things then the service of a brutish flesh , and the pursuit of earthly fading enjoyments , and that the worship of his God ( the Fountain of his being , and well-spring of his happiness ) as most sutable to his spiritual nature , as most conducing to his own advancement , interest and perfection , is most worthy of all his heart , and soul , and strength , and of all his time , and care , and labour . But alas the sad fruit of mans apostacy , in the depravation of his nature , abundantly manifesteth it self to every eye that is not stark blind . As an old disease , doth not onely afflict the part of its proper residence , and by its habitual abode there , make a continual diminution of the strength ; but also makes a path and Channel for the humours to run thither , which by continual defluction , dig an open passage , and prevail above all the natural power of resistance : So hath Original sin debauched the mind , and made it think crooked things straight , and straight things crooked , loathsom things lovely , and lovely things loathsom ; perverted the will , and made it as a diseased stomach , to call for , and eat unwholsom meat , against his own reason ; enthralled his affections , to sensuality and brutishness ; chained the whole man , and delivered it up to the law of sin , and laid those strengths of reason and conscience in fetters , by which it might be hindered in its vicious inclinations , and course of prophaness . Hence it comes to pass , that neither the beauty of grace , nor equity of living to God , nor the absolute necessity of mans exercising himself to godliness , will prevail with him . So great is the glory and amiableness of the New Creation , that not onely the Saints who are indued with wisdom from above , and can judge aright , esteem it above their honours , and riches , and relations , and lives , and rejoyce in it as their peculiar priviledge and highest dignitie ; but even Angels , behold it with admiration , and look on their own purity , and conformity to the divine nature and pleasure , as their greatest perfection . Nay , God himself , whose being is the pattern , and whose will is the rule of holiness , is ravished and enamoured with it , as that which is the travail of the soul of his dear son , the immediate work of his own spirit , and the end , and glory , and master-piece of all the works of his hands ; Yet this heavenly off-spring , this divine image , this supernatural beam of light , this resemblance and picture of Gods own perfections , this royal attire of the celestial Courtiers , which rendereth the poorest and meanest Christian , more noble and excellent then his highest , and richest , ungodly Neighbour , and makes him more glorious then a clear skie , bespangled with the shining stars , or an imperial Diadem , sparkling with the richest Diamonds , is the scorn and derision of the blind unworthy world ; That as Salvian complained in his days , Si honoratior quispiam religioni se applicuerit , illico honoratus esse desistit ; si fuerit sublimis , fit despicabilis , ●i splendidissimus , fit vilissimus ; si totus honoris , fit totus injuria , &c. If a noble person betake himself to religion , he is presently degraded , and all his former fame , and honour , and renown , turned into disgrace , contempt , and contumely ; and men are forced to be vicious , lest they should be counted vile . Foolish wormes , pretended Christians , are like persecuting Pagans , who could think and speak well of some of the Saints , onely their Religion they judged , like Coperas , turned all their Wine into Ink , gave a dash to all their vertues and excellencies . Bonus vir Cajus Sejus sed malus , tanquam quod Christianus , was the Heathens voice in Tertullians time . Blind Beetles , men admire fancies , shadows , nothings , and trample on true worth and real excellency ; As the Egyptians , if they met with a Cat or Crocodile , bowed down to it , and worshipped it , when they passed by the great Luminaries of Heaven without admiration : So these beholding the poor mean treasures , and fleeting honours of this world , bow down the knees of their souls to them , and worship them , but pass by the beautiful Image of the blessed God , the unsearchable riches in Christ , and the glory to be revealed , without any respect or regard . So reasonable and righteous is mans devoting himself to the worship of the blessed and most high God , that he cannot without manifest injustice , as well as ingratitude and folly , deny the exercising himself to godliness . Unless man were his own Maker● he cannot have any title to become his own Master , Psa. 119. 73. The Redeemers title to us is certain , and clear , and unquestionable , whether we own it or no , and all the while we keep any thing from him , or deny subjection to him , we rob him of his right ; Ye are not your own , but ●ought with a price , therefore glorifie God in your bodies , and spirits , which are Gods , 1 Cor. 6. ult . The Slave is not his own man , but his who redeemed him , though his proud and stubborn spirit may refuse to acknowledge it . Man is not in the condition of those persons who are servants by compact and agreement , for a year , or so long as they think fit , and upon their own terms ; but like those whom the Romans took in War , over whose persons and estates they had an absolute dominion , as well as a right to their works and service . Though the Commands of Christ , are all holy , just , and good , as profitable for man , as honourable for himself , yet he hath absolute authority over man , and all that he hath , and may command him what he pleaseth . As Laban said to Iacob , These daughters are my daughters , these sons are my sons , these cattel are my cattel , and all thou seest is mine : So the Redeemer , by vertue of the price he laid down , his most precious blood , may say to every man , This soul is my soul , this body is my body , this estate is my estate , these children and friends are my children and friends , this name , and credit , and interest , is mine , and all thou haste is mine . Yet alas , men ●●o will give their Relations their due , strangers their due , enemies their due , nay , according to their Proverb , the very Devil his due , and far more then his due , will not give Iesus Christ his due ; but against all justice and righteousness , rob and wrong him of that which is his own , and dearly bought too , Rom. 14.7 , 8. For whether we live , we live unto the Lord , and whether we dye , we dye unto the Lord ; whether therefore we live or dye , we are the Lords . For to this end , Christ both dyed , and rose , and revived , that he might be Lord both of the dead and living . So absolute is the necessity of mans making Religion his business , that upon his diligence or negligence herein , his eternal salvation or damnation doth depend . If any man will be Christs Disciple , he must deny himself , disclaim all title , and disown all right to himself , have nothing more to do with himself , as upon his own account , and make an unfaigned , unreserved dedication of himself , and all that he hath to the honour and interest of his Redeemer . Sanctification is a separation from all common to sacred uses , and this must be done with all the heart , and soul , and strength , in the whole course of the life , by all that will escape the wrath to come ; God commandeth men to strive to enter in at the straight gate , to work out their salvations with fear and trembling , to be holy as he is holy , in all manner of conversation ; and his word is like the Law of the Medes and Persians , which cannot be altered . He hath enjoyned nothing but what his infinite wisdom saw fit , and he is resolved not to vary the least tittle , not to abate the least farthing of the price he hath set . Foolish men are so besotted by their deceitful hearts , and befooled by the Devil , that they complement with Religion , and onely give it an outside formal salute , instead of cordial embraces , and real entertainment . They deal with religion , as Anacharsis saith the Athenians dealt with money , using it for no other end but to number and cast up accounts with , whereas it might have served them for excellent purposes . So they use Religion onely for a shew , for fashion , for custom , and are satisfied with an hypocritical way of Worshipping God , and think to put God off therewith , whereas it would serve them for high and honourable ends , it would if entertained in the power and life of it , elevate the Christian above this beggarly world , enable him to combat with , and conquer his sturdy stubborn lusts , and the power and policy of Hell , help him to a conversation in Heaven , to converse and communion with the Father , and Jesus Christ his Son , and dress his soul for a blessed eternity . Reader , If thou art unacquainted with this high and honourable , this worthy and noble Calling of Christianity ; I shall appeal to thy reason and conscience , in the tender of some questions , possibly one or other of them may prevail with thee to bind thy self Apprentice to it . As a Fowler , according to the different nature of his game , contrives and appropriates his stratagems , that some he catcheth with light , as Larks with a glass and day nets ; some with baits , as Pigeons with pease ; some with frights , as Blackbirds with a low-bell ; some with company , as Ducks with decoy fowl . So I shall endeavour to suit my questions to thy temper , whatever it be , that if either the light of reason , or the bait of unconceiveable and infinite profit , or the frights of dreadful threatnings and comminations , or the company of Christ the captain of our salvation and all his followers and Souldiers , who marched to Heaven in this way , will win upon thee , I may perswade thee to make Religion thy business . O that being crafty , I might catch thee with holy guile ! To this end I beseech thee to weigh the questions , again , and again , as thou readest them , and to dart up thy prayers to Heaven for a blessing on them , that thou mayst not reject the counsel of God against thy own soul , but hearken to counsel , receive instruction , and be wise for thy latter end . 1. Is not that worthy to be made thy business , upon which the true comfort and joy of thy life , during thy whole pilgrimage doth depend ? Comfort is the cream , the top of life , joy is the flower , the honey , the life of life ; Life without comfort , without delight is a living death . If the body be disquieted with diseases , and aches , and pains , the soul as a tender Husband sympathizing with his bride , though the patient be heir of a Kingdom , and commander of large dominions , yet all creatures to him are unsavoury morsels , and as an aguish pallat , he can taste , can rellish nothing ; Iob in distress speaks in such a mans dilect , Why is light given to him that is in misery , and life to the bitter in soul ? Job 3. 20. Light is one of the most excellent things that God hath made , and is therefore used by the Holy Ghost to set out not onely the Word of God , and the Work of Godliness , Psa. 119. 105. 1 Iohn 1. 7. but also Christ , and Heaven , and God himself , 1 Ioh. 9. 1 Colos. 12. 1 Iohn 1. 5. Life is the Apex , the highest stair , the top-stone , the choisest of all temporal mercies ; There is no flower in natures garden for beauty or excellency comparable to it ; therefore men if brought to the pinch will part with all to redeem this ; Skin for skin , all that a man hath will he give for his life . The loss of life is the chiefest outward loss , and esteemed the greatest satisfaction to justice or nature . The desire of life is indeed the greatest earthly blessing , the most loyal people can desire for their loving Prince ; Let the King live ; but light and life as precious pearls as they are , become burdens most toylsom and tedious to men without comfort . Joy to life , is as the form to the matter , which animates and actuates it , and makes it sp●ightful and lively ; Why is light given to one in misery , and life to the bitter in soul ? Now Reader , It is Religion that is the comfort of thy life , by bringing thee to him who is the life of all thy comforts . Other things can never su●e , and so can never satisfie and therefore can never truly refresh or rejoyce the soul of man ; The body may sooner be fed and preserved with Air and Wind , as the soul filled with the whole world . They who swim down , with a full stream of outward good things , who have waters of a full cup wrung out to them , and have more then heart can wish , though they be Masters of hidden and bottomless mines , as the Spanish Ambassadour boasted of his Soveraigns treasures in the Indies ; though they have thousands and millions of heads bare , and knees bowing to them , and are mounted to the loftiest pinacle of honour , and fame , and renown ; though their garments are of finest silk , sented with the sweetest perfumes , embroydered by the most skilful Artist , and enamelled with the richest jewels , though their food be the most choice and luscious delicates , the most mellifluous Nectar , that earth , air , and water can afford , and though their bodies be in the most perfect state of health , and thereby enabled to extract the quintessence of all this , and so rellish it in the highest degree , yet all this is not able to give them the least dram of true delight , the smallest crum of true comfort . In the midst of their sufficiency ( such Monarchs ) are in straights ; They may possess much , but enjoy nothing ; Their faces some●times are featured with laughter , when at the same time their souls are in little ease ; In the midst of mirth their hearts are sorrowful , and the end of that mirth is heaviness . As some Plumbs that are sweet and luscious in the outward part , but have bitter kernels ; so the most rich and honourable sinners , in the midst of their mirth , and gigling , and sports , have inward gripes , which like Leaven , sowreth the whole lump of their enjoyments . Haman , though exalted to the highest seat next the Throne in the Persian Court , and had the command of him who commanded one hundred and twenty seven Provinces , yet had an aking heart , and a worm gnawing his inwards , that he cryeth out , All this avails me nothing , &c. The Worlds greatest darlings , whom she dandleth most upon her knees , and to whom she granteth her sweetest kisses , are but at best like a curious marble chimney-piece , glorious and shining without , but full of soot and blackness within . God did at first for mans fall judge the earth to bring forth Briars and Thorns , and all the fruit it beareth will be piercing and paining , what ever men fancy to themselves . But Reader , though the curse of the earth be Thistles and Thorns , yet the blessing of Heaven is light and joy . Though the World be empty and vain , and vexatious ; yet Religion is full , and filling the soul with content and comfort . Observe the very formal nature of it ; The Kingdom of God ( i. e. Religion ) consisteth not in meats and drinks , but in righteousness , and peace , and joy in the Holy Ghost , Rom. 14. 17. Peace and joy is the heart-chearing wine which groweth upon this vine ; A good conscience is a continual feast ; Natural things must be brought to their center before they can enjoy rest ; and how can it be expected that spiritual beings can enjoy true repose , but in their centre the Father of spirits ! That peace which passeth all understanding , that joy which is unspeakable and full of glory , are the true and legitimate children of the power of godliness . Outward things and formes , like Glow-worms , may be glistering , but they are not warming ; T is the power of Religion , like the Sun , that brings refreshing light , and enlivening heat along with it . The wicked is snared in his wickedness , but the righteous sing & rejoyce . 2. Is not that worthy to be made thy business , in which thou hast to do with an insinite , glorious , and jealous Majesty ? If men are serious about the concernments of a Father , or Master , or Noble-man , or King , how serious should they be about the concernments of a God ? I must tell thee Reader , that thou hast every moment of thy life to do with the great God. Whether thou art eating , or drinking , or walking , or buying , or selling , or ploughing , or sowing , or reaping ( as well as when thou art praying or hearing , or reading , or meditating ) thou haste still to do with God. In all companies , in all thy relations , in all natural actions , in all civil transactions , at all seasons , thou haste more to do with God then with any creature , then with all the creatures ; And is his work to be slighted or dallied with , or slubbered over ? Is it good playing or toying with his interest and concerns , in whose hand is thy breath , and life , and all that thou hast ? Dost thou not know that his eyes is ever upon thee , that his arm is able to reach and revenge him on thee when he pleaseth ; that he looks on himself as worthy to be observed and pleased , in all thy thoughts , and words , and deeds ? and wilt thou dare him to his face , and provoke him before his eyes , and cast him behind thy back , as not deserving to be minded or regarded ? Is his fury so light a burden , or his favour so little a blessing , that thou art so indifferent unto either ? Ah didst thou but know what a God thou hast to deal with , in every part , and passage , and moment of thy life ; how sweet his love is , far better then life ; how bitter his wrath is , more dreadful then death ; didst thou know how great a good , how blessed a friend , how high an honour , how choice an happiness , how rich a cordial , how vast a treasure he is to them that make his service their business ; didst thou know how powerful an enemy , how intolerable his anger is , what a Lion g●eedy of his prey , what a consuming fire he is to them that do his work by halfes and negligently ; didst thou know him as the saved in heaven know him , to be an hive of sweetness , a river of pleasure ; or as the damned in hell know him , to be a sea of wormwood , meeting thee as a Bear robbed of her whelps : O what wouldst thou then think of making religion thy business ! speak Friend in thy conscience ; wouldst thou then live without him in the world , and leave him out as one unconcerned in the several passages of thy conversation ? Wouldst thou then put him off with the skin , and shell , and carkasse of religion , as if he were an Idol , and had eyes , and saw not ; and ears , and heard not ; instead of an hearty dedication of thy self , and all thou hast to his service ? Wouldst thou then eat or drink , or buy , or sell , or do any thing without asking his leave , and begging his blessing , and observing the rules and commands which he hath prescribed thee ? Or wouldst thou not rather do all things as in his presence , according to his precepts , and as may be most for his praise , believing that he is not a God to be dallied with ? 3. Is not that worthy to be made thy business , which is the end of thy being and preservation , and of all the mercies that thou enjoyest , and of all the cost and charge which the Great God is night and day at with thee ? For what end dost thou think the Great and Glorious God formed thy body so couriously in the womb , and animated it with an heaven-born soul ? but that thou mightst be made capable of admiring his excellencies , adoring his perfections , and obeying his precepts . Canst thou be so foolish as to think that he created thee to despise his dominion , and break his laws , and dishonour his name , and walk contrary to him in thy conversation ? Wherefore dost thou imagine God doth preserve thee in thy being , afford thee health , and strength , and sleep , and food , and raiment , and friends , and respect , and protect thee in thy outgoings , and incomings , and defend thee from invisible enemies , who are continually waiting to destroy thee , and have power enough to drag thee into hell every moment , b●t are onely restrained by his almighty arm ; but that thou mightest by these streams be led upward to the fountain , imploy these talents as a faithfull Steward for the honour of thy Master , and by these gifts , tokens of his love be perswaded to own and acknowledge the giver ? Canst thou b● so sottish as to think that he bestoweth these favours upon thee , that thou shouldst walk after the flesh and embrace the present world , or to strengthen thee in thy treasons , and rebellions against him ? To what purpose dost thou imagine , he bestoweth on thee his Gospel , his Ministers , his Sabbaths , his Ordinances , many golden seasons of grace ? but to help and enable thee to draw nigh to him , to seek out after him , to desire him , and delight in him , as thy onely happiness and heaven ? Surely thou canst not be so brutish , as to conceive that he giveth thee all this ( as women give babies to children ) to play and toy with ; or ( as the Dutch are reported to have sent powder and shot for money to the Spaniards ) to fight against him with ? Doth not the Husbandman who takes care by dunging , and ploughing , and sowing , and harrowing to manu●e his ground , expect that it will bring forth the greater crop , and so recompence his cost , that the profit which he shall receive by it at harvest will answer all his pains ? When a Father is at a great charge in the nurture and education of his child , providing him Tutors , or sending him first to some considerable Schools for a good while , next to the University , then to the Inns of Court ? is it not his ●rd● that his Son may be an honour to him , contin●● his name with credit , and be a prop and suppo●● to his family ? And canst thou think that the only wise God , to whom all Men are absolute , and Angels comparative fools , is at such infinite cost and charge with thee upon any other account , then that thou mayst be serviceable to his interest , advance his kingdom , and make his praise glorious ; by a pious , gracious , and exemplary conversation , and by making his service thy business ? 4. Is not that worthy to be made thy business , which is the elevation , and advancement , and perfection of thine heaven-born immortal soul ? The advancement and restauration of a Prince , and one nobly born to his kingdom and birth-right , is much more deserving our care , and pains , and treasure , and blood , then the exaltation of a beggar from the dunghil . The soul of man is royally descended , begotten of God ; holiness is its restauration to its original glory , and primitive perfection , which it lost by the fall , and therefore is worthy of all our cost , and care , and study , and labour . Thy soul Reader , is of unconceivable value and excellency ; 1. As it is immediately created by God , without any pre-existing matter . 2. As it is of an immaterial and spiritual nature . 3. As it is capable of the image , and life , and love , and fruition of God himself . 4. As it is immortal , and of eternal duration ; though years , and ages , and generations , and time have an end , the soul hath no end . 5. As it is the bottom in which the body and its everlasting good is embarqued . 6. As it is the standard and measure of all our outward excellencies ; as friends , and health , and food , and life , and riches , and honour , and ministers , and ordinances , are more or less worth , as they are more or less serviceable to the soul. Now grace and godliness is the honour , and elevation , and excellency of the soul ; it is soul-beauty , Cant. 4. 1. it is soul-wisdom , Prov. 4. 7. it is soul-riches , Luk. 12. 21. it is soul-glory , soul-comfort , soul-food , soul-raiment , soul rest . O how worthy is that form which animates , and elevates the soul of man , as its subject and matter ! He that addeth honour to a puissant King , must be high and honoura●le indeed . That which is the form of our form , and the soul of our soul , that exalteth and honoureth so noble a piece , must needs deserve to be our only business . 5. Is not that worthy to be made thy business , which was the great design and end of the blessed Redeemers birth , life , death , burial , ascension and intercession ? No man , unless worse then distracted , can possibly conceive that the glorious God , whose wisdom is unsearchable , and love to his Son unquestionable , would send his onely begotten Son out of his bosome ; or that Christ in whom were all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge , would give himself to be born so meanly , to live so poorly , to die so painfully , to be disgraced , reviled , buffetted , scourged , crucified for any thing that was not superlatively eminent , and deserved to be the main work , and business of every man in this world . The greatness of the price , the blood of God , doth to every rational understanding fully speak the preciousness of the pearl . Now how clear and plain is it in the word of truth , that the Redeemer gave himself to redeem us from all iniquity , and to purifie unto himself a peculiar people , zealous of goodworks ? Tit. 2. 14. That being delivered out of the hands of our enemies , we might serve him in holiness and righteousness all our days . Surely Reader , that which the Son of God , who thought it no robbery to be equal with God , thought worthy the taking on himself the form of a servant , and the suffering , the spite , and malice of men , the wrath and rage of devils , and the frowns and fury of his father , to purchase for thee , doth deserve to be minded and regarded by thee , as thee onely thing thou followest after , and setst thy self about during thy pilgrimage . Alas , All the pains , and labour , and watching , and working , and time , and strength , and lives of all the men in the world , are not equivalent to one drop of the blood of Christ , or the least degree of his humiliation ; and wilt thou deny to make that thy business , for which he shed so much blood , and laid down his life ? 6. Is not that worthy to be made thy business , which is the peculiar work of the Holy Ghost , and for which the Spirit is infused into the hearts of men ? The worth of the Father doth speak the desert of the Child . Though men who pretend to honour the Father for his work of Creation , and to admire the Son for his work of Redemption , blasphemously deride and wretchly , slight sanctification , which is the work of the Spirit , yet undoubtedly the work of the Spirit is no whit inferiour to either ; nay , is the beauty and glory both of Creation and Redemption , as being the end and perfection of both . The Father created the world in order to the new creation by the Spirit , as that choice work man ship which he resolved should bring him in the largest revenue of praise and honour . T is the new heavens wherein dwelleth righteousness , that doth most declare the glory of God and the Firmament ( of sparkling graces ) that sheweth forth his most choice and curious handi-work . Sanctification is the travel of the Sons soul , a spiritual sacred life , the great end of his death ; The Son redeemed man from slavery , to sin and Satan , and unto the service of righteousness , by layino down the price thereof , his own most precious blood . One of the Sons main works , was to purchase the re-impression of Gods Image on man ; the actual performance of which , is the peculiar office of the Spirit ; hence he tells us , Ioh. 14. I go away that the comforter may come , and again , Ioh. 6. The Spirit was not yet given , ( i. e. so plentifully and universally ) because Iesus was not yet glorified . And therefore we read , that in few days after his ascension , to acquaint us what was one main end and fruit of his death and suffering ; he powreth down the holy Ghost in an extraordinary manner and measure . So that Creation , the work of the Father , doth as it were provide the matter , the wax . Redemption the work of the Son , buyeth the Image of God ; the Seal and Sanctification , the work of the Spirit stampeth it on the soul. Now Reader , doth not the Sanctification of the Soul deserve to be thy main business , when it is the curious work of the holy Spirit ; as that which the Fathers eye was chiafly on in thy Creation , and the Sons in thy Redemption . Is not that worthy to be made thy business , which addeth a real worth to every thing , and without which nothing is of worth or value ? Every one will grant , that what is so richly excellent , as to ennoble and add an intrinsick value to whatsoever it is affixed ; and the lack of which maketh every thing ( be they in other respects never so precious ) low and mean , must needs deserve to be our business . Truely Friend , such is holiness ; it makes the word of God a precious word , more to be embraced then gold , yea , then much fine gold . The Ordinances of God , precious Ordinances ; the people of God , a precious people , the excellent of the earth . What is the reason that some , in the account of him who is best able to judge , though they be never so rich or beautiful , or high and honourable in the world , are called Dross , Chaff , Stubble , Dust , Filth , Vessels of dishonour ; and counted Dogs , Swine , Vermine , Serpents , Cockatrices , but want of holiness ? What is the reason that some , though poor and despised , and mean , and houseless , and friendless , are esteemed ( by him who can best discern true worth ) The glory of the World , the glory of Christ , a Royal Diadem , a Royal Priesthood ; higher then the Kings of the earth , more excellent then their Neighbours ; Princes in all lands , such of whom the world is not worthy ? but because they are godly persons , an holy people . Why are some Angels advanced to the highest Heavens , waiting always in the presence of the King of Kings , honoured to be his Ministers and Deputies in the Government of this lower world ; when other Angels are thrown down into the lowest Hell , for ever banished the Celestial Court , and bound in chains of darkness , as prisoners to the day of execution ? but holiness in the former , and want of it in the latter . 8. Is not that worthy to be made thy business , which will and can refresh and revive thee in an hour of death , and enable thee to sing and triumph at the approach of the King of terrors ? The Master of Moral Philosophy tells us , that its worth the while for a man to be all the time he lives , learning how to dye well . The unerring spirit of God acquaints us , that it ought to be our great work to be wise for our latter end . Doubtless it must be a rich costly cordial indeed , and deserves not a little time and pains , and charge to prepare , which can keep a man from fainting in such a day of extremity ; wherein our honours , and treasures , friends , wives , children , nay , our flesh and hearts will fail and forsake us . That cannot be of mean worth , which can make a man encounter his last enemy with courage and conquest ; at the sight of which , Kings , and Captains , and Nobles , and the greatest Warriers have trembled , as leaves with the wind , and their hearts melted as grease before the fire . Now Reader , Godliness is that wine which will cause thee to sing at the approach of this Goliah , and enable thee as Leviathan , to laugh at the shaking of his spear ; when whole hosts of others , without Godliness , flie like Cowards before it , and would give all they are worth to avoid fighting with it . Heark what a challenge the godly sends to this adversary , daring it to meet him in the field ; O death where is thy sting ! O grave where is thy victory ! the sting of death is sin , and the strength of sin is the Law ; But thanks be to God , who hath given us the victory through our Lord Iesus Christ , 1 Cor. 15. 57 , 58. The Naturalists tell us of a precious stone called Ceraunias , that glisters most when the Skie is Cloudy , and over-cast with darkness . Godliness friend , will cast the greatest lustre on thee , and put the greatest comfort in thee , when thy time of trouble and day of death is come . This , this is the friend that is born for the day of adversity ; Therefore the sweet singer of Israel having this with him , promiseth ; Though he walk in the valley of the shadow of death , he will fear none ill , Psal. 23. 9. Is not that worthy to be made thy business , which will help thee to comfort and confidence at a dreadful day of judgement , and cause thee to lift up thy head with joy , when thousands and millions shall weep and wail . The day of judgement will be a terrible day indeed ; the judge will come in flaming sire , a fire devouring before him and behind him , a flame burning . His tribunal , will be a tribunal of fire ; Out of his mouth did proceed a fiery Law , and by that law of fire he will try men for their eternal lives and deaths . The earth at that day , will be consumed with fire , and the elements melt with fervent heat . If the cry of fire , firè , in the night now , be so dreadfull , and doth so afright and amaze us , though it be but in one house , and possible not very near us ; how dreadful will that day be , when we shall see the whole world in a flame , and the Judge coming in flaming fire to pronounce our eternal dooms ! Who can abide the day of his coming ! or who can stand when he appeareth ! Then the Kings , and Captains , and Nobles , and Mighty Men will call to the rocks to fall on them , and to the hills to hide them , from the face that sitteth in the Throne , and from the wrath of the Lamb , Rev. 6. 15. O Reader , of what worth is that which will help thee , as the three Children , to sing in the midst of so many flaming fiery furnaces , and preserve thee from being hurt , or so much as toucht therewith ! Truely Godliness will do this for thee , it will turn this day of the perdition of ungodly men into a day of redemption to thee ; As true Gold is not consumed by the hottest fire , and the Salamander can live in the greatest flames ; so the godly man , in the midst of all those fires and flames , will live and flourish though millions of ungodly ones are scorched and tortured . As he is a King now reigning over his stubborn lusts and unruly passions ; that will be his Coronation day , wherein he will appear before the whole world in all his glory and royalty . As he is a Husbandman now sowing to the Spirit ; that will be his Harvest-day , wherein he shall reap the fruit of all his prayers , and tears , and watchings , and fastings , and labour , and sufferings . As he is compared to a Virgin , betrothed to Christ , now keeping his garments white and clean , and devoting himself to the service and honour , and commands of his Lord ; that will be his Marriage day , wherein he shall be arrayed in fine linnen , the righteousness of the Saints , adorned with the jewels of perfect graces , and solemnly espoused to the King of Saints , the heir of all things , and the fairest of ten thousands , the Lord Jesus Christ. As he is a servant , now doing not his own , but the will of his Master in Heaven , and finishing his work ; that will be the day wherein his Indentures will expire , and he shall enjoy the glorious , liberty of the Sons of God. As he is a Son , now yielding reverence and obedience to the Father of Spirits , that will be the day wherein he shall be declared to be of full age , and enjoy his portion and inheritance . As he is a Souldier now fighting the good fight of faith , warring a good warfare , enduring much hardship as a good souldier of Iesus Christ ; that will be the day wherein he shall be called off the guard , discharged of those tiresome , toylsome duties , incumbent on him in this life , and receive his garland , a Crown of everlasting life . Little dost thou conceive Reader , the worth of Godliness at that day . Godliness will then be honoured and admired , not onely by them that have it , and rejoyce in it ; but also by the most prophane and carnal wretches , and those who now despise and deride it . Then the blind world who now shut their eyes and will not see , and the atheistical world who harden their hearts and will not believe , shall return , and discern , and see , and believe a difference between the godly and ungodly ; between them that fear the Lord , and them that fear him not . O friend , what wouldst thou give at that day , that godliness had been thy business at this day ! Godliness will make the judge the Lord Jesus Christ thy friend ; the Father , by whose authority he fits the King of all Nations , thy friend ; the Iustices who will be upon the bench ( for he shall come with thousands of his Saints ) thy friends ; Godliness would make the law , by which thou art to be tryed , thy friend ; Godliness would make thy conscience , which is to be brought in as the evid●nce , thy friend ; Godliness would strike dumb all thy accusers , Satan , thy corruptions , and suffer none of them to hurt thee as thy foes . And is not Godliness worthy to be made thy business which will do all this for thee ? 10. Is not that worthy to be made thy business which will do thee good to eternity ? The fool is for good for many years , but a wise man is for goods that will last to eternity . In worldly matters we value those houses and goods highest which will last longest ; We will give much more for the fee-simple or inheritance for ever of a dwelling or lands , then for a term of few years , or for a lease for life , though we can enjoy them but during life . O why should it not be thus in spirituals ! Why should we not set the greatest price , and take the most pains , for that which is not for years , or ages , but for ever ; for that which we may enjoy , and have full solid comfort in to eternity ? No good that is eternal can be little ; if it be but an humane friend whom thou lovest , to enjoy him for ever , or a bodily health to enjoy it for ever , or near relations to enjoy them for ever , will infinitely advance the price and raise the value of them ; but to enjoy a God for ever , the blessed Saviour for ever , the comforting Spirit for ever , fullness of joy for ever , rivers of pleasures for ever , and exceeding weight of glory for ever , a crown , a kingdom , an inheritance for ever , which is the fruit of Godliness , what tongue can declare , what mind can apprehend the worth of these ! Alas , frailty is such a flaw in all earthly tenures , that it do●h exceedingly abate their value , and should our affections to them . Who would esteem much of that flower which flourisheth and looks lovely in the morning , but perisheth and is withered at night ? How little are those things worth which are to day mine , and to morrow anothers , which make themselves wings , and as birds flye away , are no sooner in sight , but almost as soon out of sight ? Though all the works and creatures of God are excellent , and admirable in their degrees and places , yet some are of far more worth then others , because of their nearer relation to our spiritual souls , and their eternal duration . When I look upon honours , and applause , and respect in the world , methinks its worth is little ; for I can see through that air ; it is but a breath , a blast that quickly passeth away . When I look upon houses , and lands , and silver , and gold , I may well judge their price low ; for there is a worm that will eat out and consume the strongest timberd-dwelling , and gold and silver are corruptable things . Riches are not for ever . When I look upon my Wife and Children , in whom I have through mercy much comfort and contentment ; yet their value , as natural relations , is small ; for so they shall not be mine for ever ; and therefore they that have wives , are commanded to be as though they had none . But when I look upon grace , upon godliness , upon religion , upon the Image of God ; O of what in●●nite worth , and price , and value are they , because they are lasting , they are everlasting , they are mine for ever ! When honours , and crowns , and robes , and scepters are but for a few days ; when stately pallaces , and costly mannors , and treasures , gold and pearl are but for a short time ; when the most lovely , and loving wives , and husbands , and sons , and daughters , and friends are frail and fading , The fear of the Lord is clean , enduring for ever . Godliness is the good part that ( when thy relations , and possessions , and all the good thing of this life shall be taken from thee ) shall never be taken from thee . Reader , what an argument is here to provoke thee to spend , and be spent , to imploy all thy time , and strength , and talents , to sell all for this pearl when it is of so great price ; that when all other priviledges , excellencies , royal or noble births , high breedings , preferments , favours with Great men , riches , pleasures , will onely as brass of leathren money , be currant in some Countries in this beggarly earth , it will enrich thee and enliven thee , refresh and rejoyce thee for ever ! 11. Is not that worthy to be made thy business , which all men , even the greatest enemies to it , will sooner or later , heartily and earnestly wish had been their business ? We have an usual saying , that what one speaketh , may be false and light ; and what two speak may be false and vain ; and what three speak may be so ; but what all speak and agree in , must have something of truth and weight in it . And again we say , Vox populi est vox dei , The voice of all the people is an oracle ; Though as Christ said of himself , so I may say of Godliness , God himself beareth witness of it , and his witness is true , and it needeth not testimony from man ; yet as he made use of the testimony of Iohn to convince the Jews of their desperate wickedness and inexcusableness , in not submitting to his precepts , and accepting him as a Saviour : So may I improve the witness of the whole world on the behalf of Godliness to convince thee ( Reader ) of thy folly and sinfullness in neglecting it , and to shew thee how inexcusable thou wilt be found at the day of Christ , if thou dost not presently set upon it , and make it thy business ? It s evident that many men , whose hearts are full of opposition to the ways of God , and whose lives are a flat contradiction to his Word and Will , do yet in their extremity seek him early , and cry to him earnestly , and flie to Godliness as the only shelter in a storm , and safest anchor in a tempest . The most prophane and atheistical wretches , who have in their works defied God himself , and in their words blasphemously derided godly men and godliness ; when they have been brought low by sickness , and entred within the borders of the King of terrours , and have some apprehensions upon their spirits that they must go the way of all the earth ; then ( as Naturalists observe of the dying Cuckoe ) they change their note , send for godly Ministers , godly Christians , desire them to pray with them , to pray for them , hearken diligently to their serious instructions , wish with all their hearts , and would give their highest honours , and richest treasures , and imperial diadems , and kingdoms if they have any , and all they are worth , that they had made Godliness their business ; and promise if God will spare them , and lengthen their lives but a few days upon earth , that they will have no work , no calling , no employment , no design , but how to please God , and obey his counsel , and submit to his Spirit , and follow after holiness , and prepare their souls for heaven . O then Godliness is godliness indeed , and grace is grace indeed . Then they call and cry as the foolish Virgins to the wise , Give us of your oyl , for our lamps are gone out . O give us grace , give us godliness in the power of it , for all our formal , out side , lazy serving of God is come to nothing . The Serpent that is crooked all her life time , when dying stretcheth her self straight . As Dionisius on his death , when he heard Thales discoursing excellently about the nature and worth of Moral Philosophy , Cursed his pastimes , and sports , and foolish pleasures that had taken him off , and diverted him from the study of so worthy a subject : So these lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God , whose lives are little else then brutish delights in a circle , or a diversion from one pleasure to another ; whose business now is to mock at piety , and persecute the pious , when they come to be thrown by a disease on their beds , and their consciences begin to accuse them for their neglect of Godliness , and to convince them of its absolute necessity ; and they have some fears to be overthro●n by death ; then they curse their hauks , and hounds , and games , and cups , and companions , and sensual delights that hindered them from making religion their business . Experience testifieth this frequently in many parts of the Nation , where the consciences of dying sinners are not seared with a red hot iron . Some wish this whilst they live , either under some great affliction , or on a dying bed ; nay , I am perswaded , that most wicked men that live under the Gospel in their prosperity , even when they have the world at will , in the midst of their sensual delights , have inward conviction that the course they take will prove cursed in the end , and have some velleities or weak desires ( though overruled by carnal head-strong affections ) that they could leave those vanities , and make religion their business : But all wicked men after death , when they come into the other world , will wish in earnest , with all their hearts and souls , that they had minded nothing but the service of God , and exercising themselves unto godliness . There , there it is , that the whole world that now lyeth in wickedness , and will not believe the word and wisdom of their Maker , will all set their hands and seals to the truth of that which I am now endeavouring to evince . When God sends his Officer , death , to arrest sinners , for the vaste summs which they owe to his justice for their breach of his laws , and this Serjeant according to command from the King of Kings , executes his writ , and delivers his prisoner to the Divels , Gods Iaylors ; and they seize as so many roaring Lions on the poor trembling prey , and hale them to their own den , hell ; that dungeon of eternal darkness , where sinners see and are assured that all their meat , must be flakes of fire and brimstone ; and all their drink , a cup of pure wrath without mixture ; and all their Musick , howling , and weeping , and wailing , and gnashing of teeth ; and all their rest , torments day and night for ever and ever ; and all their Companions frightful Devils , and a cursed crew of damned wretches , and all this to come upon them for not making religion their business whilst they were on earth ; Then O then they will wish with all their souls and strengths , again and again , that they had minded the Christian mans calling , and made religion their business whilst they were in this world ! though they had been slaves , or beggars , or vagabonds , and had lived in poverty , and disgrace , and prisons , and fetters during their whole pilgrimage . Now Reader , if the witness of one enemy be a double testimony , what is the witness of all the enemies of God and Godliness , on the behalf of the Lord , and his ways against themselves ? Shall it not prevail with thee to set speedily , and diligently about the work of Christianity ? Ah how dumb wilt thou be struck another day , if thou wilt not believe either God , or good men , or thy conscience , or thy companions , or all the world ? 12. and Lastly , Is not that worthy to be made thy business , upon which thine eternal life or death , salvation or damnation doth depend ? Consider it friend , here is salvation and damnation before thee ; eternal salvation , and eternal damnation ; and they depend upon thy making religion thy business , or neglect of it . O what weight is there in these few words ! Make religion thy business , and thou art eternally blessed ; be formal and careless about it , and thou art cursed for ever ; upon the one and the other turneth thine eternal estate . The Almighty God hath under his own hand , set down this making religion thy business to be the onely terms upon which heaven shall be had ; and it is impossible to alter or abate his price , Ioh. 6. 27. Mat. 6. 33. Philp. 2. 12. Canst thou be so foolish as to think that Christ , and happiness , and eternal life can be obtained upon easier conditions , whea he must make God a liar , and the Gospel a lie ? ( which the Divel himself is not so wicked as to think possible ) who arriveth at the port of bliss without exercising himself to Godliness ? The promises ever since the world was , had the same conditions , and ever will whilst the world shall endure ? The Gospel is therefore called the everlasting Gospel , because it will continue without the least change or alteration the same for ever . Thou mayst be confident that God doth not as some indiscret Citizens , ask much more for his eternal glory and life men then he intendeth to take . I say again ponder it , for this argument hath more in it then thine understanding can possibly conceive or imagine . Is not that worthy to become thy business , and main work in this world , upon which thine everlasting weal or wo , thine endless estate in the other world doth depend ? Reader , if that doth not deserve all thy time , and pains , and soul , and heart , and infinitely more , upon which unchangable joy or eternal torments hang , then I am sure nothing doth . Alas all the things of this world , whether about food , or raiment , or houses , or lands , or wives , or children ; nay , and life it self , are but toys , and trifles , and shadows , and nothings , to an everlasting condition in the other world . O that thou wert but able to conceive what it is to be eternally in fullness of pleasure , or eternally in extremity of pain , to be frying in flames for ever , or bathing in rivers of delight for ever ! To enjoy God in his ordinances , though it be but imperfectly , and in a low degree ; one hour , one day , how sweet is it ? His tabernacles are highly amiable upon that account , One day in thy Courts is better then a thousand elswhere : But to enjoy God fully , immediately , and for ever too , O how superlatively , how infinitely pleasant and delightful will it be ! To be in Gods lower house , though but a little time , under some pious powerful Minister , how reviving , and refreshing is it ? But to dwell in his upper house for ever , O blessed are they that dwell in that house , they always praise thee ! The eternal presence of God will cause an eternal absence of all evil , and an eternal confluence of all good . O Reader , who will not work hard , labour much , exercise himself to Godliness night and day ? do any thing that God commandeth , suffer any thing that God inflicteth , forbear any thing that God forbiddeth , to be saved eternally , to be infinitely blessed in the fruition of God for ever ? Surely its worth the while , to obey the counsel of God in order to ete●nal salvation . On the other side , eternal damnatian , how dreadful is it ! if it be but the scratch of a pin for ever , or a little ach of the head . for ever , it wo●ld be very doleful ; but a violent head-ach or tooth-ach , or fits of the collick , or stone for ever , oh how intolerable would they be ? But ah ! how terrible is the wrath of God for ever , darkness of darkness for ever , the fire of hell for ever , to which all the wracks and torments in this life are next to nothing ? Ah who can dwell in everlasting burnings ? I suppose thou woulst avoid thy wicked companions , and forbear thy sinful courses , do any thing thou couldst , rather then to boyl in a furnace of scalding water for a thousand years ; nay , one year ; and wilt thou not make religion thy business , when otherwise God himself hath told thee , thou shalt boil in a furnace of scalding wrath , infinitely worse then scalding lead for ever , ever , ever ? Consider what thou hast read , and the Lord give thee understanding that thou mayst be wise to eternal salvation . Reader , these twelve Questions being proposed , I desire thee to answer them to him , before whom thou shalt answer ere long , for all the motions of thy heart , and passages of thy whole life ; and I shall not detain thee longer in the passage , though it be much larger then I intended when I first put pen to paper about it . If thy soul receive any profit by it , I shall not repent of my pains , only beg thy prayers ; that thou mayst , is the desire of Thine and the Churches Servant in the blessed Saviour , GEORGE SWINNOCK . Reader , The Authors absence from the Press , hath caused many mistakes in the English , Latine , and Greek , both in the Margin and Body of the Book ; the most material of those that are in the Body of the Book are corrected to thy hand , thy Pen must correct or Candour excuse the rest . Vale. ERRATA . PAge 3. l. 30. for of the , r. and the. p. 7. l. 19. add is unrighteous . p. 60. l. 6. for the , r. thy . p. 64. l. 13. add to the honour . p. 116. l. 11. for chattered , r. clattered . p. 118. l. 2. add of . p. 122. l. 24. for detectable , r. delectable . p. 123. l. 4. r. grace , l. 5. for to● r. paint . p. 125. l 22. r. did not stir . p. 130. l. 25. guest , r. grief . p. 187. l. 13. conversation● r conversion p. 195. l. 14. for nor any , r. and any . p. 232. l. 5. r. indirect . p. 227. l. ult . For Ieroboam , r. Rehoboam . p. 286. l. 23. for sweetness , r. sweetned . p. 462. l. ult . for regenerate , r. vegetative . p. 519. l. 2. adorned , r. adored . p. 595. l. 10. Haman , r. Heman . p. 606. l. 3. ends , r. friends . p. 641. l. 29. for desired , r. deserved . p. 653. l. 31. r. inspera●am . p. 656. l 24. for one , r. none , p. 721. l. 32. For conscience , r. confidence . p. 748. l. 16. for monstrous , r. menstruous . p. 769. l. 31. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 816. l. 15. for promises , r. premises . There is extant of this Reverend Authors these following Treaties . The Christian-mans Calling ; or , a Treatise of making Religion ones Business , wherein the Nature and Necessity of it is discovered ; as also the Christian directed how he may perform it in Religious Duties , Natural Actions , his particular Vocation , his Family Directions , and his own Recreation ; to be read in Families for their instruction and Edification . The first Part. The second Part , Wherein a Christian is directed how to perform his duty in the Relations of Parents , Children , Husband , Wives , Masters , Servants , and in the Condition of Prosperity and Adversity . This third Part , Di●ecting a Christian to perform his duty in his Dealings with all men , in the choice of his Companions , in Evil Company , in good Company , in Solitude , on a Week-day , from morning to night , in visiting the sick , and on a dying bed , with Means Directing , and Motives perswading thereunto . The Door of Salvation opened by the Key of Regeneration ; or a Treatise containing the Nature , Necessity , Marks and means of Regeneration , as also the duty of the Regenerate . Heaven and Hell Epitomized , or the true Christian characterized . The Fading of the Flesh ; and Flourishing of Faith ; or one Cast for Eternity , with the only way to T●row it Well ; as also the Gracious Persons incomparable Portion . T●e beauty of Magistracy , in an Exposition of the 82. Psalm , where in set forth the necessity , Utility , Dignity , Duty and Morality of Magistrates . 1 TIM . 4. 7. But refuse Prophane and old VVives Fables , and exercise thy self unto Godliness . [ And Exercise thy self unto Godliness . ] The Preface . THe life of Man is not seldom in the Word of God compared to a Walk ; The womb is the place whence he first ( in the morning of his age ) sets out , and his actions are the several steps , by which he is alwayes hastening to his journeys end , the Grave , that common Inn of resort . The life of a Christian is called a walking in the light , a walking in the Law , because his motion is regular , and his whole race by rule . He must have a divine word for all his works , and a precept from God for all his practices ; Scripture is the Compass by which he steereth , and the square by which he buildeth ; Hence he is said to walk with God , because he walketh according to his Commands , and his example ; he doth not walk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Man , 1 Cor. 3. 3. but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to his measure , as God willeth , and as God walketh . Further , the holy life of a Saint is compared to an orderly walking in these two respects . First , In regard of his gradual proficiency ; He doth not stand still , but gets ground by his steps . They go from strength to strength , Psa. 84. 4. From faith to faith , Rom. 1. 17. He is ever going forward in Heavens way , and never thinks of sitting down till he comes to his Fathers House . Sometimes indeed he is so straightned that he can onely creep ; at other times he is inlarged that he can run , but at all times he is going on towards perfection . The light of his holiness , though at first but glimering , is always growing , and shines brighter and brighter till perfect day . Pro. 4. 18. Secondly , In regard of his uniforme perseverance . It is not taking a step or two in a way , which denominateth a man a Walker , but a continued motion ; It is not one or two good Actions , but a good conversation which will speak a man to be a right Christian. A true beleiver like the heavenly Orbes , is constant and unwearied in his motion and actings . An Expositor observeth of Enoch , that it s twice said of him , He walked with God , Gen. 5. 22 , and 24. to shew that as he first began to walk and profit in Gods path , so he alwayes continued profiting to the end . No man is judged healthy by a flushing colour in his face , but by a good complexion . God esteemeth none holy for a particular carriage , but for a general course ; A sinner in some few acts may be very good ; Iudas Repenteth ; Cain Sacrifiseth ; The Scribes Pray and Fast ; and yet all were very false ; In the most deadly diseases , there may be some intermissions , and some good prognosticks . A Saint in some few acts may be very bad : Noah is Drunk ; David defileth his Neighbours Wife ; And Peter denyeth his best fri●nd ; yet these persons were heavens favourites ; The best Gold must have some grains of allowance . Sheep may fall into the mire , but Swine love night and day to wallow in it . A Christian may stumble , nay he may fall , but he gets up and walks on in the way of Gods Commandements ; the bent of his heart is right , and the scope of his life is straight , and thence he is deemed sincere . It is the Character of the Christian to be constant in his gracious course . If you would speak with the Tradesman , you may meet him in his Shop ; The Farmers usual walk is in the Fields ; He that hath business with the Merchant , expecteth him in his Counting-house , or amongst his Goods ; And he that looketh for the Christian , shall not fayl to finde him with his God. Whether he be alone or in company , abroad or in his Family , buying or selling , feeding himself , or visiting others , he doth all as in his Gods presence , and in all aimeth at his praise . As the Sap of a Tree riseth up from the root , not onely to the body , but also to the branches of the smallest twigs ; so grace in a Saint springeth up from his heart , and floweth out not only in his spiritual and higher , but also in his civil and lower actions . How the Saint may make godliness his business , in Religious Actions ( as in praying , hearing , receiving the Lords Supper , and Sanctification of the Lords day ) in natural Actions , in his recreations , in his particular calling , and in the government of his family , I have largely discovered in the First Part of The Christian-Mans Calling . The Second Part will help believers in the Relations ( of Husbands and Wives , Parents and Children , Masters and Servants ) and in the Conditions of Prosperity and Adversity . Reader , The design of this Treatise is to direct thee further in this continual exercise of Piety ; it divideth it self into these particulars . I shall herein First , Endeavour to discover wherein the nature of Godliness consisteth ; 1. In thy Dealings with all men . 2. In all Companies , whether Good or Bad , and therein I shall speak both to thy Choice of Companions , and Carriage in Company . 3. In Solitariness . 4. On a Week-day , from morning to night . 5. In Visiting the sick . 6. On a Dying Bed. Secondly , I shall offer thee some Means which will be helpful to thee in this business . Thirdly , I shall annex some Motives to stir thee up to this high and gainful Calling . I begin with the first . CHAP. I. How a Christian may exercise himself to Godliness in his Dealings with all men . As also a Good Wish about that Particular . FIrst , Thy duty is to make Religion thy business in thy Dealings with all men . True Godliness payeth its dues to men , as well as its duty to God , nay it cannot do the latter without the former ; Upon these two poles all Religion turnes , and upon these two feet it walketh . That Mans holiness is lame ; which always keeps home and doth not walk abroad and visit his Neighbours . It s a sign of a sickly temper for a man to sit always brooding in a Chimney-Corner , and not to dare to stir out of doors . Sure I am , thy Religion is of a sad distempered constitution , whatsoever hopes it may give of healthiness in Family duties , if it goeth no farther , and doth not appear in the open air of thy converses with strangers . Religion bindeth the Christian to his good behaviour towards all men ; True holiness will provide things honest , not onely in the sight of God , but also in the sight of all men , 2 Cor. 8. 21. The Kings Coin hath his superscription without the ring , as well as his Image within it . The Saints civil as well as his spiritual actions have divine impression stamped on them , and he is walking with God in his trading with men . As thy heart must be pure , so thy hands must be clean , or thou canst never reach heaven , Psa. 24. 3 , 4. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord ? and who shall stand in his holy place ? He that hath clean hands , and a pure heart . To be voyd of conscience in thy civil actions , speaks thee to have no right to the beatifical vision ; he that comes short of Heathens , must needs come short of Heaven . And truly to be careless in making Godliness thy business in them , will very much hinder thy progress in holiness ; If all the passages of the body be not open , there is no thriving in health . The Ostrich is very swift , and said to outrun the horse . He mocketh the Horse and the Rider ; but what is the reason ? truly this , he hath two helps of speed , his Wings and his Feet , whereas other creatures have but one ; the Hawk hath wings , the Hare and Horse have feet , but he hath and useth both Wings and Feet , and hence is so nimble in his flight . The right Christian maketh haste and runneth the way of Gods commandments , because he doth use not only the wings of Religious performances for that end , but also the feet of his ordinary actions . When some are only for holy duties , and others onely for honest dealings , he outstrips them all , marrying them both together , and making them like Husband and Wife , serviceable each to other . T is true , his piety is the Husband which hath the command and dominion ; but his dealings with men as a dutiful wife , further his weal by their obedience and subjection . No Christian ever made more haste in Heavens way then Paul , I laboured more abundantly then they all ( saith he ) but how came it about ? VVhy , through divine assistance , he exercised himself to keep a conscience void of offence both towards God and towards all men . The stream must needs be the swifter for the meeting and uniting of the waters of grace out of both those channels . The bark which covereth the tree , seemeth to be of little worth , compared with the body of the tree ; yet if that be peeled off , the tree dyeth . Though righteous dealings seem to be but the bark and outside of Religion , yet if once thou castest them off , thy Religion , as thriving as thou thoughtst it to be , will quickly wither and come to nothing ; the heart-blood of thy godliness may be let out by a wound in thy hand . I shall lay down a Motive or two to quicken thee to conscienciousness in thy dealings with all men , and then acquaint thee wherein it consisteth . SECT . I. FIrst , Consider , It s a sure sign of Hypocrisie to be unrighteous and careless in civil dealings , how consciencious soever thou mayst seem to be in sacred duties . He that seems righteous towards men ; and is irreligious towards God , is but an honest Heathen ; and he that seems religious towards God , and unrighteous towards men , is but a dissembling Christian . To make Conscience of one duty , and not of another , is to make true conscience of neither . The soul that ever had Communion with God above , comes down like Moses out of the Mount , with both Tables in his hands , the second as well as the first , and the first as well as the second . One stone in a Mill , one oare in a Boat will do little good ; there must be two , or no work can be done . A perfect man consisteth of two essential parts , a Soul and a body ; though the soul● be the principal , and doth specificate the compound , yet the body is so necessary , that without it none can be a compleat man. A Christian that is ( evangelically ) perfect , is also made up of these two parts , Holiness and Righteousness ; though holiness be the chief , as that which doth difference the Saint , yet righteousness is so requisite , that there can be no true Christian without it . The holy Apostle argueth the purity of his conscience , from the honesty of his conversation . We trust that we have a good conscience , in all things , willing to live honestly . The goodness of the Fruit will commend the Tree . 1. Their honesty was visible , to live honestly ; not onely to mean well , and think honestly , or to talk , but to live honestly . 2. Their honesty was universal ; In all things ( not in one or two particulars ) willing to live honestly . Visibility , and universality , are Popish marks of a true Church , and Protestant marks of a true Christian . An Hypocritical Iehu may do some things ; a Murderous Herod may do many things ; but an upright Paul is in all things willing to live honestly . A Ship that is not of the right make , cannot sayl trim ; and a Clock whose Spring is faulty , will not always go true ; so a person of unsound principles , cannot be constant and even in his practices . The Religion of those that are inwardly rotten , is like a fire in some cold climates , which doth almost fry a man before , when at the same time he is freezing behind ; they are zealous in some things , as holy duties , which are cheap ; and cold in other things , especially when they cross their profit or credit ; as the Mount Helga is covered with Snow on one side , when it burneth and casteth out cynders on the other side ; but the holiness of them that are sound at heart , is like the natural heat , which though it resort most to the vitals of sacred performances , yet as need is , it warmeth , and hath an influence upon all the outward parts of civil transactions . It may be said of true sanctity , as of the Sun , there is nothing hid from the heat thereof , Psa. 19. 5. When all the parts of the body have their due nourishment distributed to them , it s a sign of an healthy temper . As the Saint is discribed somtimes by a clean heart , Psa. 73. 1. Mat. 5. 8. so also sometimes by clean hands , Iob. 17. 9. because he hath both ; the holiness of his heart , is seen at his fingers ends ; He is as the Ark pitched within and without with the same ; as he is sometimes characterised by sacred duties , Psa. 24. 6. and 119. Rev. 1. 3. so at other times by righteous dealings , Psa. 15. Isai. 58. because he mindeth both ; if either be separated from the man , you kill the Christian ; for though he may be a man without either , he cannot be a Christian without both . The Greek Word for Sincerity , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is very elegant , and signifieth ( quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) such a trial as is made of things by the Sun-light : as the Eagle , according to Aristotle , bringeth her young to the Sun , to try whether they are Spurious or Legitimate ; so the actions of a sincere Christian will endure the open Air , the light of the Sun ; He is as the street of the New Ierusalem ; transparent glass , all one without , and within , you may see through him . He dares appeal both to God and men for the holiness and righteousness of his conversation ; Ye are witnesses , and God also , how holily and justly we have had our conversation in the world , 1 Thes. 2. 10. Reader , never please thy self in the name of a Christian , if thou hast not the nature of Christianity , which giveth God and Man their due ; T is not the great sound of a Professor , nor the loud noise of holy performances , that will speak thee sincere , if thou makest not conscience of thy carriage towards thy Neighbours . The Sadduces derive their name from Zeduchim or Zadducaeus a just man ; but the worst men saith the Historian , got the best names . The Alcaron of the Turks , hath its name from brightness ( Al in the Arabick being as much as Karan in the Hebrew , to shine or cast forth a brightness ) when t is full of darkness , and fraught with falshoods . T will be little comfort to thee , though the world commond thee for a holy man , if God condemn thee for an Hypocrite ; Doth not the word of truth tell thee , that they who are partial in the Law , have no part in the Gospel ; and that none are justified by Christ , but those that are just towards Christians ? Do not think thy spiritual constitution to be sound , if plague-sores break out on thy body . The Gods , saith Aristotle , do not so much respect the costliness of the Sacrifice , as the conversation of the Sacrificer . Sure I am , the true God rejects those prayers , seem they never so glorious , where the Petitioner is unrighteous ; All thy Oblations will be vain , if thy conversation be vicious ; the sweetest Incense is unsavoury , if the hands that offer it be filthy ; Bring no more vain Oblations , Incense is an abomination to me ; the New Moones , and Sabbaths , the calling of Assemblies , I cannot away , it is iniquity , even the solemn meeting . Tour new Moons , and your solemn Feasts my soul hateth , they are a trouble unto me , I am weary to bear them ; And when ye spread forrh your hands , I will hide mine eyes from you ; Yea , when you make many prayers , I will not hear . But what is the reason that all these Ordinances which were of Gods own appointment , are thus rejected ? Your HANDS are full of blood , Isa. 1. 13 , 14 , 15. An unclean hand tainteth whatsoever it toucheth . Secondly , 2 Consider , The Credit of Religion is engaged in thy publique dealings . More eyes are upon us when we walk abroad , then when we are at home , and therefore it concerns us to be handsome in our habits , and very circumspect in our carriage . A Professour may be rotten-hearted in holy duties , and the world never the wiser , they are ignorant of it , and so do not disgrace Religion for it ; but if he be once unrighteous in his dealings , the whole Country will quickly ring of it , and cry him up for a Cheat , and his Religion for a cozenage . God indeed looks most to our hearts , whether they be sound , and accordingly esteemeth of our performances ; but men look onely to our hands , whether they be clean , and accordingly judge of our profession . If the servants of religion behave themselves unseemly , their Mistress shall be sure to bear the blame . When David had defiled Bathsheba , the name of God was blasphemed . A Saint cannot do evil before men , but he occasions sinners to speak evil of God. If there be any spots on a Christians Coat , the world will soon spie them , and be ready in scorn to ask Christ himself , as the Patriarchs did Iacob , See whether this be thy Sons coat or no ? To look high by thy profession , and live low and basely in thy practices , will betray both thy self and the Gospel to scorn and derision . Augustin confess●th there were many such in his time , who professing the Christian Religion , did by their licentious lives give great scandal , and with them the Maniches were wont to reproach the whole Church of Christ , though the Church did disown them ; and though she could not reclaim them , she did disclaim them . Aug. de moribus Ecclesiae . Cap. 34. The wicked first watch for a godly mans fall , and then are big with blasphemy against Godliness ; Like Miners , they work hard , though unseen , to blow up a Saints name . The Psalmist tells us , They compassed us in our steps , they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth , Psa. 17. 11. It s an allusion to Hunters , who go poring on the ground , to find the print of the Hares claws , when their Dogs are at a loss in their sent . So Satans agents go with their eyes bowing down , marking the Saints footsteps , to find out if it be possible , where they have slipped or stepped awry , that their blood-hounds may follow both their persons and their profession with loud cryes , and fresh noise ; The baggage world is both desirous and industrious to scarr that face , and to spie the least blemish in it , that is fairer then her self . If the Christian be once defiled , Christianity it self will quickly be defamed ; Though sins in secret duties have their aggravations , yet sins in our publique dealings do in a three-fold respect exceed them . 1. These are scandalous to the good , which those are not ; The children of God weep bitterly , when they hear that others walk disorderly . Their hearts bewail their brethrens wickedness ; now wouldst thou sadden the Spirit of a Saint ? Alas , they have grief enough from their enemies , and shall they be wounded in the house of their friends ? 2. They are infectious to the bad , which secret sins are not . Thy sins are like St. Pauls in London , on high● for the gaze of the World ; but thy vertues as St. Faith under ground , they do not note them . How soon will the World plead a Christians sinful act , to excuse and justifie their own sinful habits ! They are like ravenous birds , that flie over sweet and pleasant flowers , and pitch onely upon unsavoury carcasses ; they take little notice of thy graces , but will be sure to mind thy vices ; The Philosopher saith , that the Fleeces of such Sheep as are killed by the Wolf , are most apt to breed Lice ; one of Christs Sheep , foiled by Satan , in the eyes of men doth much mischief . Now will it not trouble thee that these unclean fowles should pick that from thee , which will feed and nourish their filthy natures ? Alas , they move fast enough towards Hell with the tide of their own evil hearts , and shall the wind of thy example make them sayl more swiftly ? 3. Thy open sins , occasion the wicked to speak ill of God , which secret sins do not . The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles , through you , saith the Apostle , to the Romans , Rom. 2. 24. Christians ought to be shields to ward off those blows of reproach , which would fall on the name of God ; how unchristian are they then that are swords in the hands of the wicked , wherewith the name of God is wounded . Truly , an unrighteous professour is such a one ; If thou studiest to do thy God disservice , and to bring on his blessed name dishonour , thou canst not do it sooner then by unjust actions , under the livery of an high profession . The Divel himself cannot dress a man in a more ridiculous habit , to make both him and his Master the scorn of the Company , then by putting on him a coat patcht up of divers peices , and contrary colours ; a glorious name of a Saint , and the unrighteous works of a reprobate . Friend , beware how thou behavest thy self in the world . The Snow makes a fair shew to the eye , but being melted it makes a dangerous flood . They who make a fair shew in the flesh , by walking offensively may cause such a deluge as may drown the souls of others , and give many a dash at the name of God himself . The Indians would not hear of Heaven , when they were told that the Spaniards ( whom they had found to be barbarous and bloody , ) went thither ; The Iews are hardened in their emnity against Christ , by the evil lives of pretended Chistians . Epiphanius saith , that in his days many avoided the Christians company , because of the looseness of some mens conversation . When some beasts have blown on grass , others will not eat of it for a good while after . ●ts no wonder that Religion finds so few greedy of her service , when her work is so much disparaged by those that already seem to be her servants . Men will easily be discouraged from travailing in that rode which is haunted with Theeves and robbers . Either walk up to thy calling , or lay thy calling down ; why shouldst thou give conscience cause to say to thee truly ( what Michael did to David falsly ) thou hast made thy self like one of the vile and base fellows of the earth ? SECT . II. AS to the exercising thy self to Godliness in thy dealings with all men , it consisteth partly in the manner of thy dealings , partly in the principle of thy dealing , and partly in the end thou propoundest in thy dealings . First , Be careful in thy carriage towards others as to the maner of it , that it be righteous , meek and courteous . 1. Be righteous in thy dealings with all men . Righteousness strictly taken is a vertue , which guideth and ordereth the whole man for the good of his neighbour , as the understanding to conceive , the Will to chose , the affections to love and desire , and the whole man to act and do what may tend to the welfare of others . This righteousness is of so great concernment to godliness , that it is sometimes put by a Synechdoche for the whole of Religion , 1 Ioh. 3. 7. He that doth righteousness , is righteous ; so Rom. 6. 17. And the Christian is denominated from this part of Christianity , Gen. 7. 1. And the Lord said unto Noah , Come thou and all thy house into the Ark , for thee have I seen righteous before me ; so Psa. 5. ult . For thou Lord wilt bless the righteous . The Moral Philosophers tell us that justice is the sum and Epitome of all vertues ; the Divines will inform us that righteousness ( largely taken ) is the string upon which all the graces hang ; if that be broken or snapt asunder , they all fall off and are lost . I must tell thee ( Christian ) that civil righteousness is as really necessary as sacred . He that seemeth righteous towards God , and is unrighteous towards men , is unrighteous both to God and Man. I say , be righteous in thy dealing with all men . Viz. Let thy righteousness be real and universal ; Commntative & Distributive . Be righteous in thy action● , expressions , and towards all persons . 1. Be righteous in thy works or Actions . Deal with men as one that in all hath to do with God. If thou art a Christian , thou art a Law to thy self , thou hast not onely a Law without thee ( the Word of God ) but a Law within thee , and so darest not transgress . Thy double hedge may well prevent thy wandring . Alas , what do those unruly beasts get , whom no fence can keep in , but a more speedy slaughter ! It s said of an unrighteous man , his own counsel shall cast him out , Job 18. 7. Unjust men think by their craft to cast others down , but their own counsel will cast themselves out ; Out ! out of what ? Out of their houses ; for such dwellings are built upon powder , and a spark of wrath sooner or later will blow them up , Psa. 37. 9 , 10 Out of their lands and possessions , for some providence or other ( as Fla●ius Vespasianus served his proling Officers ) will press such Spunges hard , and squeeze out all their impure water , which they have so greedily sucked in . Out of their Shops and all earthly comforts , for such wealth is b●t like the flesh which the Eagle fetcht from the Altar with a coal in it , which fires and consumes the whole nest , Hab. 2. 9. And which is worst of all , their counsel will at last cast them out of heaven ; God himself hath lockt the gate of bliss against them , and with all their craft and counsel they shall not be able to pick it open . 1 Cor. 6. 9 , 10. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. It w as a true saying of Bishop Latimer , when one told him , The Cutler had cozened him , in making him pay as much more for his Knife as it was worth ; No ( saith he ) he hath not cozened me , but his own conscience . That Knife cut deep into the poor Cutlers soul , and made wider gaps then he was aware of ; O how foolish is man to conceive that by fraud he shall keep himself up , when God himself saith , that his own counsel shall cast him down ! Reader , If thou art one that like Balaam lovest the wages of unrighteousness , bethink thy self speedily ; for thy wealth unjustly gotten , will like Achans wedge of Gold , cleave thy soul in sunder . Righteousness in thy works must appear both in buying and in selling . Be righteous in buying . Take heed lest thou layest out thy money to purchase endless misery . Some have bought places to bury their bodies in , but more have bought those commodities which have swallowed up their souls . Injustice in buying , is a Canker which will eat up , and waste the most durable wares . An unjust Chapman , like Phocion , payeth for that poison which kills him , and buyeth his own bane . A true Christian , will in buying as well as selling use a conscience . Austin relates a story of an Histrionical Mountebank , who to gain spectatours , promised if they would come the next day , he would tell them what every ones heart desired . When they all flocked about him at the time appointed , expecting the performance of his word , he told them , This is the desire of every of your hearts , to sell dear and buy cheap ; but it s a sign he was an Emperick by the falseness of his bill ; for a good man would buy as dear as he selleth . His buying and selling are like two scales , that hang in an equal poize . In buying do not work either upon the ignorance or the poverty of the Seller . Do not take advantage by the Sellers ignorance . This would be as bad as to lead the blind out of the way , 1 Thes. 4. 6. Let no man go beyond , or over reach another in any matter , because that the Lord is the avenger of all-such . Mark , Reader , Those that over-reach men , are within the reach of a sin-revenging God ; Some persons will boast of their going beyond others in bargains , but they have more cause to bewayl it , unless they could go beyond the line of Gods power and anger . It s an ordinary saying , but sinful , A man may buy as cheap as he can . Austin tells us , A certain man ( himself I suppose he meaneth ) was offered a book by an unskilful Stationer , at a price not half the worth of it ; he took the book , but gave him the just price , according to its full value . Sure I am , those wares which are half bought , through a cunning Chapmans out-witting the silly tradesman , are half stolen . It is naught , it is naught , saith the buyer , but when he is gone his way , then he boasteth , Pro. 20. 14. but hath more reason to weep , for his subtle words , how cheap soever he buyeth , will make it an hard pennyworth in the end . He makes the best Market , that like holy David payeth the full just price . Nay ( saith he , of Ornans threshing floor ) but I will buy it for the full price , 1 Chron. 21. 22 , 24. Ahab never bought a dearer purchase then Naboths Vineyard , for which he paid not one penny . Do not work upon the Sellers poverty . This is to grind the faces of the poor , and great oppression ; It is no mean sin in many rich Citizens , who take advantage on the necessity of poor tradesmen . The poor man must sell , or his Family starve ; the rich man knoweth it , and will buy but at such a rate , that the other with all his labour shall not earn his own bread . God made the rich to releive , but these ( I must be bold to say ) rob the poor . It s an ill way for any to raise themselves higher in the world by trampling poor men under their feet . God hath sometimes made their houses , ( as high and as firm as they were ) to fall down upon their heads , who have thus sucked out the blood of poor mens hearts . Some will tell us , They do no wrong herein ; for if poor men will not take their money , they may let it alone , they do not force them . Reader , if thy soul be died with this crimson sin , I shall onely ask thee this question ; Is this to love thy Neighbour as thy self ? If thou hadst a Wife and several small Children , and the providence of God had called thee to this poor mans condition ; wouldst thou be contented to work hard a whole week , and when thou wast compelled to fell thy wares to buy food for thy family , to receive ( the money for materials deducted ) but six pence or twelve pence for all thy pains ? Let thy own conscience be judge in this ease : Is not this , for men to live like fish , the greater devouring the lesser ? I have heard a Country Mercer say ( who is now in heaven ) that several times , when poor men have brought lace , or ribands , or other ware to him , he hath tried how low he could beat the price , and because of their necessities , he hath brought them to allow their commodities for less then the very materials cost them ; but after he had so done , he durst not but give them a just equitable price ; his conscience would not suffer him to make them suffer , because their poverty necessitated them to sell. And truly where men act otherwise , though their consciences may be quiet , because asleep , yet they have no true rest , and the time will come that conscience will awake to their wo. When some of the Jews had bought Lands and Vineyards of their brethren at an under rate , they being forced to Mortgage them to get bread , Nehemiah rebukes them severely for working upon others extremity ; and desires God to shake every man out of his possession , who did not make restitution , Nehem. 5. 2 , 3 , 4 , 12 , 13. Such wealth to a man , is like Ionah to the Whale ; though he swallow it down , yet he will finde it too hard a Morsel to digest , and have no ease till he hath restored and vomited it up again . Be righteous in thy payments . Pay what thou agreest , and pay it in good money . Pay what thou contractest for . If thou buyest wares with an intention not to pay , thou stealest them ; and truly such wealth will melt away like Wax before the Sun. Such ill gotten goods , will as commodities in a damp Cellar , moulder and come to nothing . He that hath any such riches , saith Chrysostom , must speedily away with it , or else he locketh up a Theif in his Counting-house , which will carry all away , and if he look not the better to it , his precious soul also . He is notoriously unrighteous , that like the Harpie ( which hath its name in Hebrew from injustice ) seizeth upon all he can meet with as prey . Mark , Reader , how pious honest Iacob was in this particular ; when the Patriarchs had bought Corn in Egypt , and given their money to them that sold it , yet when upon their return he found the money in their sacks ; Take ( saith he ) the money that was brought again , in the mouth of your sacks , carry it again in your hands ; peradventure it was an oversight , Gen. 43. 12. How many would have concealed the money , stopt the mouth of their consciences with the first payment , and have kept it now as lawful prize ; but Iacobs conscience was more tender mouthed . Let thy payments be in good Money . It s Treason against the King to make bad money , and its Treason against the King of Kings ( knowingly ) to pay brass money ; If thou dischargest thy debt in adulterate coyn , thou contractest a greater debt on thy soul , and defilest thy conscience . He that putteth God off with false service , is a spiritual Hypocrite ; He that puts men off with false silver , is a civil Hypocrite ; Such a mans conscience is farther from being currant then his Coin. And Abraham weighed to Ephron , the silver which he had named in the audience of the Sons of Heth , four hundred shekels of silver , currant money with the Merchant , Gen. 23. 16. He that makes light payments , may well expect heavy judgements . SECT . III. Be righteous in selling . Be careful whilst thou sellest thy wares to men , that thou dost not therewith sell thy soul to Satan . Believe it , thou wilt follow thy calling to sad purpose , if thou forgoest thine inward peace for a little outward profit . Be righteous in the substance of what thou sellest , and that in regard of its quality and quantity . In regard of its quality ; Put not bad ware for good into any mans hand . God can see the rottenness of thy stuffs and heart too , under thy false glosses , and for all thy false lights . Thou sayst , Caveat emptor , Let the buyer beware ; but God saith , Caveat venditor , Let the seller be careful that he keep a good conscience . To sell men what is full of flaws and defective , for what is sound and sufficient , will make a greater flaw in thy conscience then thou art aware of ; If thou partest with thy goods and thy honesty together , though for a great sum , thou wilt be but a poor gainer . Thou wilt ask possibly whither every man be bound to reveal the faults of what he selleth , supposing that he knoweth them . I Answer , that every man is bound , either to discover them , or else to take no more for his wares or beasts then they are worth ( at a Market-price ) with those defects . It s clear , that its sinful to use tricks and arts to hide those faults from the eyes of the Chapman ; for such deeds are done purposely to deceive . I would also know Reader , whether thou dealest herein , as thou wouldst willingly be dealt with ; Wouldst thou be glad to pay double , or half as much more as a commodity is worth ? Be righteous in the substance of what thou sellest , in regard of its quantity . We have a common saying ; Weight and Measure are Heavens treasure . It s certain , A false ballance is abomination to the Lord , a just weight is his delight , Prov. 11. 1. The righteous Lord , hateth unrighteousness , but his countenance beholdeth the just . They wrong themselves most , who rob others of their right ; He hatcheth a Cockatrice egge , who sits brooding on ill-gotten goods , and ( like Agrippina to Nero ) bringeth forth and gives life to that which will be his death . The jealous God is very punctual in this particular . Ye shall do no unrighteousness , in Iudgement , in Mete-yard , in Weight , or in Measure . Iust Balances , just Weights , a just Ephah , and a just Hin shall ●e have ; I am the Lord your God , which brought you out of the Land of Egypt , Lev. 19. 35 , 36. God is pleased to count up all in his command , that they might not have the least colour of excuse for cozening in any thing . Nay , he loatheth so much , false Weights and Measures in their hands , that he will not allow them to be in their houses . Thou shalt not have in thy bag , divers weights , a great and a small . Thou shalt not have in thy house , divers Measures , a great and a small . But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight ; a perfect and just measure shalt thou have , Deut. 25. 13 , 14 , 15. Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers Weights ; in the Hebrew it is a stone and a stone , because the Jews did not make their weights of Iron or Lead , or any Mettal that would canker and wax too light , but they made them of the clear stony Rock , or of Glass ; They might not have an unjust Weight or Measure in their Houses , because some not knowing them to be defective , might use them , and deceive others . The face of Ephraims sin was visible , under all the Masks which he used to hide it ; He is a Merchant , the ballances of deceit are in his hand , he loveth to oppress . And Ephraim said , Yet I am become rich , I have found me out substance ; in all my labour they shall finde none iniquity in me , that were sin , Hos. 12. 7 , 8. Here is 1. His Calling , that was Honourable . He is a Merchant ; When some accused a young Gentleman for staining his Family by his employment , and dishonouring the Noble house of which he descended : Apollonius stood forth in his defence ; Ye talk ( saith he ) of a dangerous Trade , and truly such is the life of Merchants , they travail into forraign parts , run great hazards , make many ill bargains , and sometimes are bought and sold themselves , and all this they venture to serve their Country , and ought they not to be highly esteemed ? Ephraim was a Merchant ; but how unsutable were his practices , to his high and honourable Profession ? for observe . 2. His Cozenage , that was abominable . The ballances of deceit are in his hand , he loveth to oppress . When a buyer comes for a commodity , he weigheth it out fairly in the ballance , but he hath a deceitful bag of weights , or a deceitful beam . He dares not cozen openly for shame , but he doth covertly with the sleights and mysteries of his calling ; but to rob by fraud in a Shop or Ware-house , is as bad as to rob by force upon the road . Both are Thieves , and the former in some respect the greater , as more dissembling in their dealings , and more frequent in their thefts . These Cheats that do it cunningly , as Rabbits , making holes under ground , and so think themselves secure , will at last be fereted out and slain . 3. His Case and Cover of his sin . I am become rich , I have found me out substance ; in all my labour they shall find none iniquity ; As if his riches did prove him to be righteous , and his prosperity had argued him free from all impiety . Whereas God suffereth many like ravenous birds , to build their Nests on high with stollen materials , intending at last by some fierce blast of providence to bring them down , and destroy the whole brood . Thieves seldome finde joy in their new purchases , but never stability . Geese , say some , if they chance to take hold of a root with their bill , they will bite and pull so long to have it , that many times they break their necks before they leave their hold . So unjust men , by their greediness to inrich , usually ruine themselves ; such goods are like the Fox which Plutarch mentions the Lacedemonian boy to have stollen , and rather then he would be discovered , put it into his breeches , but it quickly did tear out his bowels . Be righteous in the manner of thy selling . The Seller may not exact upon the Buyers necessity , but sell by the rule of equity . I am not bound to sell cheap , because I buy cheap , neither may I sell dear because I buy dear . Not my buying or selling , so much as the price of the Market should be my standard . Though I conceive a Market rate to be most righteous , yet its wicked by keeping in commodities to raise the Market . He that with-holdeth Corn , the people shall curse him , Prov. 11. 26. Such a man like a corrupt imposthumated member , would draw all the nourishment to himself , and cares not though the other parts of the body perish , but the people shall curse him . This Oak which will suffer no small trees to thrive neer it , will in time fall with the breath of so many curses . Probably you would know whether a Tradesman , that knoweth such and such commodities will fall very much ( by Letters which mention several Ships comming home laden with them , or some other way ) may not sell off his own wares at the present price , and hide his news from his Country Customers ? Reader , I shall answer it with a question not much unlike it in an Heathen Author , expecting that Christians should not be excelled by Heathen . A man brings a Ship of Corn from Alexandria to Rhodes ( saith Cicero ) in a time of great Famine , he may have for it what pri●e he pleaseth ; he knoweth of many more Ships which will be there the next day , may he conceal this from the Rhodians ? No , saith the Orator . And what sayest thou Reader ? In all thy Contracts , Purchases , and Sales , cast an eye upon that golden rule , mentioned by our Saviour , Mat. 7. 12. Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you , do ye even so to them ; for this is the Law and the Prophets ; This is the Royal Law , the golden Rule , the Kings High-way , and the standard of all righteousness . Whatsoever in a well ordered judgement thou wouldst have others do to thee and thine , do the sam● to them and theirs , supposing conditions alike ; for this is the sum and epitome of all that is delivered in the Law and the Prophets , concerning thy carriage towards others . Hierom commended this saying to a holy woman , to be written on her heart , as an abridgement of all righteousness . Lactantius saith , It s the root and foundation of all equity . Severus the Emperor had often this saying in his mouth , and caused it to be proclaimed by the Cryer , as often as he punished a Souldier for injuring any other . It s very profitable for a Christian in his dealings with others , to make frequent appeals to his own Conscience . Would I be dealt thus with , were I as this man is , or as this woman ? Would I be willing to have this measure measured to me or mine ? Would I be glad to be served so as I serve others ? Is this to love my Neighbour as my self . Reader , such serious Soliloquies may prevent much unrighteousness . Though Charity begins at home in regard of order , yet not in regard of time ; for a man no sooner loves himself aright , but he loves his Neighbour as himself . That Proverb came from the Devil , Every man for himself , and God for us all . For God saith , Let no man seek his own , but every man anothers wealth : And again , Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self , 1 Cor. 10. 24. Gal. 5. 24. He is but a beast that preyeth for himself alone . Inanimate creatures are beneficial to others ; Fire , Ayr , Earth , Water , are all serviceable to others beside and more then to themselves . How soon would the frame of nature be dissolved , if every thing should be confined within the narrow compass of self ! Water moveth downward , Fire upward naturally , yet both will cross their own nature to prevent a Vacuum , and preserve the Vniverse . Besides , I must tell thee that the Subjects house , as well as the Kings Throne , is preserved by righteousness ; That speech of Nevessan the Lawyer , is contrary to Scripture , He that will not venture his body , shall never be valiant ; and he that will not venture his soul , shall never be rich . Righteousness , not Robbery , is the way to Riches . He goeth the farthest way about , that endeavours to increase his strength by sucking others blood , or to get an estate by injustice . Nay , he takes a contrary course , for he pulls down on his head the Divine curse ; which like an Hectick Feaver , will cause an irrecoverable Consumption of all his comforts , both temporal and spiritual . Such treasures and owners are like the Canaanites to the Land ; the Land will groan , till it spue them out . Treasures of wickedness profit nothing , Prov. 10. 2. Observe Reader , 1. The Excellency of these Comforts in themselves ; they are Treasures , that is , heaps of outward good thing ; the word includeth a multitude ; for one or two will not make a treasure ; and a multitude of precious things for an heap of sand or coales or dust , is not a treasure , but of silver or gold , or some excellent earthly things . It is here in the plural , Treasures , Noting the greatest confluence of worldly comforts . Note , 2. The impiety of the owners , they are treasures of wickedness . The Purchaser got them by sinful practices . They were brought into his house slily at some back door ; He was both the receiver and the theif . Treasures of wickedness , because gotten by wicked ways , and imployed to wicked ends . There is an English Proverb , which too many English men have made good ; That which is got over the Devils back , is usually spent under the Devils belly . When sin is the Parent that begets riches , it many times hath this recompence , that they are wholly at its service and command . 3. The vanity of those treasures , they profit nothing ; Treasures of wickedness profit nothing . They are unable to chear the mind , to cure the diseases of the body , muchless to heal the wounds of the soul , or to bribe the flames of Hell. Alas ! they are so far from profiting , that they are infinitely prejudicial . Such Powder-Masters are blown up wi●h their own ware . These loads sink the bearers into the unquenchable lake . The Philosopher tells us of the Sea-mew , or Sea-Eagle ( called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , because she seeketh for her prey in the waters ) that she will often seize on her prey , though it be more then she can bear , and falleth down headlong with it into the deep , and so perisheth ; This Fowl is a fit embleme of the unrighteous person , for he graspeth those heavy possessions which press him down into the pit of perdition . They that will be rich ( that resolve on it , whether God will or no , and by any means , whether right or wrong ) fall into temptations , and a snare , and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition , 1 Tim. 6. 9. They that will be rich . Men that scrape an estate together unjustly , are frequently said in the Word of God , to get it in haste , to make haste to be rich , because such will not stay Gods time , nor wait in his way , till he send them in wealth , but must have it presently , and care not though it be unrighteously ; But as we say ; Matches made in haste , are repented at leasure ; So truly , riches got in haste , are often lamented for ever . It s most true here , The more haste the less speed ; Food hastily eaten , is seldom so well digested as what is eaten leasurably ; He that maketh haste to be rich , shall not be innocent ; He that maketh haste to be rich , hath an evil eye , and considereth not that poverty shall come upon him , Prov. 28. 20 , 22. Sometimes God suffereth a cruel hand , to pluck the stolen feathers of this unclean Bird , and then he is left bare whilst he liveth ; sometimes he is hurried away in the prime and pride of his age to Hell , from his goods which he got in haste ; As the Lizards eggs are hatcht in six moneths , and yet the old one never liveth to see them , saith the Naturalist . Fair and softly goes far . None thrive so well as those that stay Gods leasure , and expect wealth in his way . Titus Vespasian stamped in his Coin a Dolphin and an Anchor , with this Impress , Sat cito , si sat bene . Soon enough , if well enough . A Dolphin outstrips the Ship , that 's soon enough ; And an Anchor stayeth the Ship , that 's well enough ; So both together make , soon enough , if well enough ; And of this Prince it is reported , Abstinuit alieno si quis unquam . If ever any was free from injuring others , he was the man. None are more guilty of unrighteousness , then those that huddle up riches in haste . They are most harmless who are contented to live in hope , and to wait patiently on God. That wealth which is gotten well enough , is gotten soon enough ; All other is worse then an abortive birth , that comes before the time . That fruit which is soon ripe , will be soon rotten . An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning , but the end thereof shall not be blessed , Prov. 20. 21. As Hony over liberally eaten , though it be sweet and pleasant at first , yet afterwards , causeth strange vomitings and sad g●ipings in the stomach and belly ; so an estate overhastily gotten , though it may cause a smile in thy countenance , and rejoyce thy carnal part at the beginning , yet will afterwards cause dreadful gripings in thy conscience , be a Vulture gnawing at thy heart , and its latter end be cursed to thee and thine . I have read of a Philosopher , who bought a pair of shoes upon trust , the Shoe-maker dieth , the Pythagorean rejoyceth , and thinks his shoes clear gaines ; but a while after , his conscience twitches him , and will allow him no rest , because of his robbery ; he repaires to the house of the dead , and casts in his money , saying , There , take thy due ; Thou livest to me , though dead to all besides . He that carrieth such luggage on his back all day , must expect to find his conscience galled to purpose at night . O Friend , take heed of setting thine inestim●ble soul to sale for a little corruptible silver . If it will not profit thee to gain the whole world and lose thy own soul ; surely , t will not advantage thee to gain a small pittance of it , and lose thy soul. Thou rakest , and runnest , and it may be cozenest and cheatest , to leave thy child a considerable estate ; I must tell thee , thy Son is little beholden to thee for leaving him a gay knife to cut his Throat with ; a gaudy suit with the Plague in it ; a great stately dwelling haunted with Divels ; a large portion with the curse of God : No man in his wits would give one hair of his head to be made thine heir , wert thou worth thousands . The Devil himself , though he will thank thee for getting it so unjustly , yet he would not thank thee , if thou shouldst bequeath him all thy ill gotten goods ; No , he doth not love the curse of God so well : Thou wouldst shew thy self a more loving Father , in leaving thy Son a Bottle and a Basket to beg with from door to door , then the greatest heap of such riches . Besides , What comfort will it be to thee , for thy Son to live in honour , and bath himself in carnal pleasure , with that wealth which thou hast unjustly scraped together , when thou art frying in unquenchable flames for thy injustice ! Thy Children are rejoycing with thy silver , and the Devils are revelling with thy soul at the same season ; Canst thou think that the contentment of thy posterity , will in the least abate thy torments ? It may be thou pleasest thy self with an intention of giving somewhat in thy Will to the poor , and so to pay thy debts to God , with the Devils goods , with that coyn which hath the Image and Superscription of the Prince of darkness on it ; and art thou so mad as to think that it will be acceptable ? I tell thee , God hates robbery for a sacrifice , and thy stollen goods for a burnt Offering . The Great Sultan , as giddy as he was , with the noysome fumes of Mahomets Alchoran , was yet so well in his wits , as to tell his Bashaw ( who perswaded him to build an Hospital with the wealth he had unjustly taken from the Persian Merchants ) That to despose his money to releive the poor , would not please God ; but to restore it to the right owners , would be acceptable ; Will a King thank that man who robs his honest Subjects of an hundred pound upon the road , and then thinks to make amends , by paying half a Crown out of it towards his service . Thou canst not groundedly hope , that thy unrighteousness should be remitted , until thy Mammon of unrighteousness be restored by the Law of God , as well as of men Debts must be paid first , and then Legacies ; Iustice must be first minded and then Charity . It may be thou chearest thy heart with the thoughts of an honourable burial ; it delights thee to think , how when thy Will is open , people will applaud thee for the large provision thou makest therein for thy children , with what a great Company thou shalt be attended to thy grave , and what a costly Monument shall be erected to thy Memory . Well! since thou art so much joyed with a curious Tomb , I shall take the pains to write thine Epitaph ( and if thou hast a spark of true love to thy soul , thou wilt think of it whilst thou livest ) Here lies Interred , one that to make his Children Gentlemen on earth for a few days , made himself a Beggar in Hell to all eternity . He was one that to gain a little earthly treasure , of which he hath now taken an everlasting farewel ; sold his precious soul , and the endless blisseful fruition of the blessed God. Did ever fool buy so dear , or sell so cheap ! O look on him , and learn to be righteous . SECT . IV. SEcondly , Be righteous in thy Words and Expressions , as well as in thy Works . The Christians tongue should be his hearts interpreter , and reveal its mind and meaning ; and the Christians hand should justifie his tongue , by turning his words into deeds : Though the right Christian is not a worshipper of Mercury , to whom tongues were only offered in sacrifice ; yet with the Athenians he doth speak well , as with the Lacedemonians do well . The Burgesse of the new Ierusalem is known by this livery ; He walketh uprightly , worketh righteousness , and speaketh the truth in his heart ; He sweareth to his own hurt , and changeth not , Psal. 15. 2 , 4. First , He speaketh the truth in his heart ; His speech is the genuine and natural off-spring of his heart ; there is a great resemblance between the Child and the Parent ; That language which is confused , and not to be understood , speaks not a Citizen of Sion , but a builder of Babel or Babylon . When the words are spurious , and not the hearts own ; like Abimelech , they destroy the Family of which they descend ; sometimes that tongue cuts the owners throat . The getting of treasure by a lying tongue , is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death , Prov. 21. 6. The deceitful tongue seeketh death , though not intentionally , yet euentually ; The Saints words and thoughts are univocal , they speak as they think ; and are like clarified honey , clear to the bottom ; his heart is the Mine , his mind frameth the matter , and his tongue is the shop that exposeth it to publique view . Secondly , He sweareth to his own hurt , and changeth not . His hand will make good his lawful promises , how much soever they shall be to his prejudice . There is a Symmetry between his hand and his tongue ; he is slow to promise , not hasty to enter into bonds , but being once engaged , he will be sure to perform . He dares not falsifie his word , knowing that his God was an earwitness . It was the saying of Lysander , That if the Lyons skin would not serve ( to cozen with ) the foxes must be sowed to it , and that Children were to be deceived with toyes , and men with Oaths ; but this Fox himself was at last taken in a trap , and slain at the foot of the Theban Walkes . The Justice of God will some time or other seize upon such unjust men ; False conceptions are as dangerous to the souls of men , as to the bodies of women . The Romans built a Temple to the Goddess Fidelity , and offered sacrifice to her image , so highly did they esteem of faithfulness . Attilius Regulus , their General against the Carthaginians , being taken Prisoner and sent to Rome with conditions of peace , upon his word to return , if the Terms were not accepted , judging the conditions dishonourable , he disswaded the Romans from embracing them , and went back to his enemies according to his promise , though he knew beforehand , that upon his return they would presently put him to death . The Prisoner that got from Hannibal by eluding his Oath , was by the Senate apprehended and sent back again , saith Livie . Attica ●●des , was free , or sure hold ; and Atticus testis , one that keeps touch , because the Athenians were so faithful to their words . What a shame is it then for Christians , to regard their Promises and Oaths no more then their old cloaths , which they throw by , when they have made what use of them they desire . Such men do much wound their Credit ( that after a little knowledge of such Nullifidians , none will trust them ) but much more their consciences . The deceitful and bloody are joyned together , Psa. 5. 6. He that is deceitful to others , is bloody to himself ; he may rase others skin , but he wrongs his own soul , and draweth his own heart-blood . Machiavel as bad as he was , would not allow fraud to lodge , save in Souldiers Tents . The jealous God hath made himself known to be a God of truth in accomplishing his threatings on those that have affirmed and attested such lyes . One Ann Averies Widow ( in the days of Queen Elizabeth ) having bought six pound of Tow in a Shop in Woodstreet , falsly said that she had paid for it , and swore to it , but she presently fell down and dyed to the terrour of all such unrighteous and perjured persons . The trade indeed of lying , hath crept almost into all trades , as if it were the only way to get a livelyhood , when it hath deprived some of their lives , Act. 5. 7 , 8. A lying tongue is one of the six things which the Lord hates , Prov. 6. 17. The Scripture speaks of such persons , that their own tongues shall fall upon them , meaning to destroy them , as Benaiah fell on Ioab , and Davids Souldier on the Amalekite ; for so the Phrase is frequently taken , Psa. 64. 8. 1 King. 2. 29 , 30. 2 Sam. 1. 15. Reader , Be so true to thy own soul , as to put away lying , and to speak the truth to thy Neighbors , Eph. 4. 25. Do not delude thy self with mental Reservations , or Iesuitical AEquivocation , but let thy words and thoughts joyn in consort . A Christian should be like Chrystal , the same all over , and visible throughout . As our cloaths represent the proportion of our bodies , so should our words , the proportion of our minds ; T was an unpolitique precept which Lewis the eleventh of France gave his Son , when he charged him to learn no more Latine then what would teach him to dissemble ; Deceit is a gin that men set often to catch serpents , which when they have caught , sting themselves . Cleomenes , King of Lacedemonia , who making Truce with the Argives for seven days , and fell upon their Quarters in the night , was repelled by the Argive Women , and afterwards banished into Egypt , where he miserably slew hiself . Promises are ( as it were ) the Connection and Ligaments of the several parts in the body Politique ; if they be once broken asunder and losed , the whole will quickly be dissolved . Such men are like to some fruits , which by their luscious smell , and delightful colour , invite a man to eat , but prove unsavoury and unwholsome . He that had onely natures moonlight to see by , could say , Perditissimi est hominis , fallere eum , qui laesus non esset , nisi credidisset ; None but the most villainous will deceive him , who had been safe if he had not trusted , saith Cicero . Thy righteousness must extend to all , according to their several places and relations . That righteousness which is real , will be universal ; Render therefore to all their due , tribute to whom tribute is due , custom to whom custome , fear to whom fear , honour to whom honour , Rom. 13. 7. He that is just in his Actions , hath a due respect to all persons , whether Superiors , or Equals , or Inferiors . He who is righteous to his fellow-Subjects , and wrongs his Soveraign in his Custom or Tribute , is a Rebel against the Crown and Dignity of Iesus Christ. He is undutiful to the King of Nations , who payeth not his due to the King of that Nation in which he liveth . Render ( saith Christ ) to Caesar the things that are Caesars , and to God , the things that are Gods. Hierom on that place doth well observe , that the name of Caesar is not proper , but Appellative , because from the first Roman Emperor , Iulius Caesar , all his Successors were so called ; Hereby Christ intimates that Tribute belongs to every person cloathed with the supreme power ; And Gerrhard in his Harmony saith , that our Saviour doth particularly in that Text understand Tiberius , that monster of men , enjoyning payment of Tribute to that persecuting Prince . How great then is their crime , who cheat a King that is a Christian ? Such unnatural Members must expect to fare the worse for impoverishing their Head. The wealth of a Political Father , is both a credit and support to his Children . If the Root be kept without water , the branches must needs wither . The Ancients emblemed a just man , by one with a pair of ballances in one hand , a sword in another , and both his eyes shut , to dispense impartially to all Iustice , both commutative and distributive ; A Magi●strate must distribute justice to every one a like . He may see a difference in causes , but no difference in persons . When righteousness reigneth , it s said to run down like water , and as a mighty stream Amos. 5. 24. Now water is as free for the poor as the rich , the stream runs down by the meanest Cot●tage , as much as by the Princes Court ; Righteousness must be as common as water , as universal as a stream ; David reigned over all Israel , and executed Iustice , and judgment to all his people , 2 Sam. 8. 15. His righteousness was as large as his realm , to all his people . SECT . V. SEcondly , As to the manner of thy dealings , thy duty is to be courteous as well as righteous . Some men soil the lustre of their justice , and hinder the honour it might bring to the Gospel by the crabbedness of their carriage . A rugged unhewn piece of Timber disgraceth , when a neat smooth one crediteth the building . One end of our dealings with men ( as I shall shew by and by ) most be to gain them to mind godliness , which end will be much furthered by an affable conversation . Men delight not to walk in rugged ways , nor to deal with rugged men ; As curious Flowers draw the eyes , and rare Musick the ears , so doth courtesie allure the hearts of men after it . He that pleaseth all men in all things ( indifferent ) is the likeliest to save some , 1 Cor. 10. ult . It was the affable carriage of Titus amongst other things , which made him the delight of mankind . It s said of Iulius Caesar , that he overcame their affections by his humanity , whose persons he had before subdued by his power and policy ; He gloried in nothing so much as in pardoning his Enemies , and gratifying his friends ; saith Austin . They who durst speak to Caesar saith Marius , were ignorant of his greatness , and they which durst not , were ignorant of his goodness . We may gain their love by soft words , who would hate us , if we went about to ravish them , or to lay violent hands on them . Alexander won the love of his Souldiers by calling them Fellow-Footmen ; Courtesie , like the loadstone , will draw even Iron to it . Pharoah an Heathen was full of Courtesie , and though a King condescended much in his carriage towards Iacob , Abraham is noted not onely for his faith in God and holiness , but also for his discreet familiarity , and affable behaviour towards men , Gen. 47. 8 , 9. Gen. 23. 7. Our blessed Saviour is therefore said to come eating and drinking , because of the sweetness and attractiveness of his conversation . This Lord of Glory in all his converses , had a comely and winning grace . They who are truly noble , are ever affable ; those that like the Persian , keep up state , are but according to the French dialect ( of their haughty upstarts ) gentle Villains . Contempt or arrogancy is a weed that ever groweth in dunghils ; T is from the rankness of the soyl , that it hath its height and haughtiness ; They are but windy Spirits , that bubble thus above others ; t is the froth onely that gets always to the top of the water . It s a Divine Command , Be Courteous ( 1 Pet. 3.8 . ) the word signifieth , Friendly-minded , studious to do such things as are grateful to others . Obedience to this command is cheap , and costeth nothing , which whosoever denyeth , will certainly never obey those precepts which will put him to charge ; He who denyeth men a good look , will not at Gods call , lay down his life for the Gospel . The Romans , be●ause they would not have any defrauded of civil respect , retained Admonitors ( called Nomenclatores ) who should suggest the name and quality of every one they encountered , that so he might be saluted in a conformable stile . We read in Scripture frequently of Salutations sent to and from the Saints , Rom. 16. God never intended that when men put on Christianity , they should put off civility . Those Quakers who like Idols , have eyes and see not , mo●ths and speak not , are so far from being invested ( above others , as they pretend ) with the divine nature , that they are even divested of the humane nature . The very Turks salutation to him they meet , is Salaum aleek , Peace be to thee ; and the reply is , Aleek salaum , To thee be peace also . When Boaz came into his field , The Lord be with you , saith he to his Reapers ; The Lord bless thee , say they to him . Indeed , Christ commands his Disciples , Salute no man , Luk. 10. 4. But the occasion of this prohibition is considerable . The Disciples were sent about business of importance and expedition ; and the salutations Christ speaks off , are in the nature of those which we call Complements , a filling up of precious time with needless toys and trifles . As if Christ had said , Your work is of weight , and requires haste , do not therefore loyter , by standing to talk with any by the way , but mind your business . It is not intended by a Master who gives his Servant such a charge , that therefore he must not put off his hat , or bid any Good Morrow , or ask their Neighbours how they do , for ever after . The same Law-giver doth command Salutations by his o●n mouth ; Into what house ye enter , say , Peace be to this house , Luk. 10. 5 , 6. and also commends it to us by his Ministers , 1 Cor. 16. Col. 4. 10 , 14. We may not bid them God Speed , whom we see imployed about the Divels designes , least we be partakers of their evill deeds ; but if we know not their actions to be bad , our charity must hope the best . He that hath but common Humanity , must needs be a Civilian . Though nature be a Crab-stock , yet if she be but graffed by education , this will be part of her sweet fruit . 3. As thy duty is to be righteous and courteous , so also to be meek in thy dealings with men . Courtesie is a good Servant to wait upon meekness as its Master ; both together are no small credit to a Professour : He that is highest in godliness , is fullest of meekness ; the purest Gold is soonest melted , and they are usually the best blades that will bend well ; the Lion of Iudah for courage , was a Lamb for condescension . The Saint must learn of his Saviour to be meek and lowly in heart . The passionate man is one of Lucifers Disciples , and followeth him in his fall from Heaven . This meekness ( I speak of it in relation to man as its object ) is a vertue by which we moderate our passions , and keep them in subjection , least we should wrong our Neighbours ; Patience is sister to meekness , and humility is its mother . The Passions of our minds are like the winds in the air , if they lye still , the Ship must lie still too , or at least make but small speed ; if they be too boysterous , they endanger the dashing the vessel upon a Rock , or casting it upon the Quicksands ; but when they blow moderately , between a still calm , and a violent storm , they are most helpful to the Mariners . Our affections are of no use if they be suffered to sleep , and do not rise at all ; for then though the name of God himself be shot at , they will not hear the murdering piece ; Such meekness is worse then mopishness ; God did not give the soul these wings in vain . On the other side , if our affections are tempestuous , and rise too high , they threaten to overturn both our selves and our Neighbours . A passionate man , is like the torrid zone , too hot for any to deal with him , or to dwel neer him . The work therefore of meekness , is to keep the affections within their bounds ; so to moderate this fire , that it may warm , not flame out to burn it self and others . He that is inebriated with passion , is unfit for any action ; like Sampsons Foxes , he scattereth fire-bands abroad to the hurt of all that are neer him . Alexander in his anger flies upon his best friend ; Parmenio himself must perish by that Wild-fire ; Catos best Emperor was he qui potuit imperare affectus , that could keep his own passions in subjection . When one said he was a wise King , that was kind to his friends , and sharp to his enemies ; another said , He was a wiser Prince , that could retain his Friends in love , and make his enemies like them . The Spirit of God gives us a mark to know a wise and noble man by ; Who is a wise man , and endued with knowledge amongst you ? Let him shew out of a good conversation , his works with meekness of wisdom , Jam. 3. 13. Two particulars offer themselves to our view out of this verse . 1. That meekness is a sign of a wise man. The world counts them onely the brave spirits , that scorn to suffer the least affront , and who will repay a single injury with double interest ; but these in Gods accounts are fools . What a fool is he that suffereth ( his passion ) that which should be his servant to become his master , and to tyrannize over him ? What a fool is he that perceiving a Musket discharged , will not stoop a little , or fall down a while to avoid the Bullet , but keep his place and height , to the loss of his life ? Truly , such a fool is he that will never yeild to anothers wra●h . Is not he a fool , that seeing a fire in his neighbours house , anger in his Neighbours heart , is so far from helping to quench it by the water of mildness , that he throweth more fuel on it , and increaseth its flame , even to the burning down of his own ? is not he a fool , that ventureth his inestimable soul , at every trifling cast , and runneth headlong upon the greatest hazards ? Surely 't is not without reason , the wise man speaks so often of a fools wrath , and that Anger resteth in the bosome of fooles , Prov. 27. 3. and 17. 12. &c. A wise man deferreth his anger , least it burn with too hot a flame ; Prov. 29. 11. He will draw back the brands , least the fire exceeding its bounds , should consume him ; How many have been thrown , nay utterly over-thrown , by laying the reins upon the neck of their brutish passions , when their persons would have been safe , had but their passions been curbed ? Charles the sixth , King of France , was mad for anger , and desire of revenge on the Duke of Brittain . Excess of wrath cost Ajax his life , if the Poet may be beleived . Sylla in the height of fury vomited up his blood and his breath together , saith the Historian . When such winds blow , they raise black and dark clouds . A furious man hath few friends ; like Ismael , his hand is against every man , and every mans hand is against him . The Herons name in Hebrew signifieth to be angry , and it s observed , scarce any fowl hath so many foes ; the Eagle preyeth upon her , the Fox catcheth her in the night , the Hawk destroyeth her eggs ; How foolish is the Bee that loseth her life , and her sting together , she puts another to a little pain , but how dearly doth she pay for it ? The greatest conquest is to overcome our selves , and the vilest bondage to be our own slaves , Prov. 16. 32. He that is most mild , is most manly . It sullied the glory of all Caesars valour and victories , that he was his own vassal . It is the glory of a man , to pass by offences . Those Dogs which were presented to Alexander , by the King of Albany , were counted the best in the world , and upon this account , because they were so noble as not to stir at all , when small beasts were brought to encounter them ; and through an overflowing of courage● would never fight , save with Lions and Elephants . Those men , without question , are far from true worth , and most ignoble , who upon every supposed petty wrong , flie to the common Law , or Civil War for revenge . By the Laws of England a Noble man hath this priviledge , that he cannot be bound to the peace , because it s supposed that a Noble person will scorn to engage himself in quarrels , but keep the peace without a Bond. It is the base and vile bramble , the fruit of the earths curse , that teareth and renteth what is next it . Plutarch reports of a falling out between two famous Philosophers , Aristippus and AEschines , and how after some time , Aristippus went to AEschines , saying , Shall we not be friends before we be a Table-talk to all the town ? Yea , with all my heart , saith AEschines . Remember then ( saith Aristippus ) that thrugh I am your Elder , yet I sued for peace . True replieth the other , I acknowledge you the better and worthier man ; for I began the strife , but you the peace . In this Pagan glass , many Christians may see their own deformities ; for even Heathen agree with Scripture in this first particular , That they are most wise and prudent , who are most meek and peaceable . 2. The other which floweth from the forementioned verse , is , That the Christians meekness must be mixt with wisdom . The Apostle calls it meekness of wisdom ; meekness opposeth fury in our own quarrel , not zeal in Gods cause . The same Spirit that appeared in the forme of a Dove ; appeared also in the form of fiery tongues . It may be my duty to be silent when I am wronged ; but its sinful , not to speak when God is reproached . Though I may compound for my own debts , yet I have no power to compound for anothers . It s a singular mark of a Saint , to be wet Tinder , when men strike fire at himself ; and touch-wood , when men strike at God ; The meekest man upon the face of the earth , was the fullest of fury in the cause of Heaven , Numb . 12. 2. Exod. 32. A skilful Musitian knoweth when to strike a string of a lower sound , when of an higher . A wise Christian knoweth when to abate , when to increase his heats . Naturalists observe of Bees , that they will ordinarily suffer any prejudice , when they are far from their Hives , and their own particular is onely concerned ; but when they are neer their Hives , that their Common wealth is engaged in their combats , they are furious and will lose their lives , or conquer . Thy work O Christian , is not to abate the least of Gods due ; but to pocket up many private injuries , and to forgive thy personal debts . Be not like some , as cold in Gods cause as if they had neither sense nor life ; and as hot in their own , as if their work were to make good the opinion of Democritus , that the soul is of the nature of fire , nothing else but an hot subtle body , dispersing it self into fiery atomes . Excess of fury , is a spiritual frenzy , and its ill for them who come within the biting of such mad beasts . I have reast of Themistocles , that having an House to let , he pasted on the Door , Here is an House to be hired , that hath a good Neighbour ; It s a great comfort to dwell by a pious and meek person , but no small cross to live neer the peevish and passionate ; A meek man is a good Neighbour in these respects . For 1. He is so far from wronging others , that he will forgive those that wrong him . He is not onely contrary to them , who like furious Curs , fall upon every one that passeth by , without the least cause , but also if he be wronged , he never studieth revenge , though he may seek sometimes for Iustice. The world hath learned of the Divel to offer injuries , and he hath learned of God to suffer injuries . He dares not usurpe Gods Throne , but leaves his cause to the Judge of all men , Lev. 19. 18. He knoweth also that good men must have their grains of allowance ; and Children of the same Father , are too prone to quarrel ; therefore he beareth both with the bad , and the good ; with the former for Christs sake ; with the latter , because they are Christs seed . Now such a one is a good Neighbour ; Calvin said , though Luther should call him Satan , yet he would honour Luther as a faithful servant of God. It s reported of Cato , that when a rash bold fellow struck him in the Bath , and some time after , came to ask him pardon , he had forgot that he had been injured , Melius putavit non agnoscere , quam ignoscere , saith Seneca . He scorned to approach so neer revenge , as acknowledge that he had been wronged . It s below a generous Moralist to take notice of petty affronts ; He kils such slimy wormes , by trampling on them . The Christian upon a better consideration , destroyeth those vermine with the foot of contempt . He hath experience what millions of pounds are forgiven him by God , and therefore out of gratitude cannot but pardon some few pence to man. Forgiving one another , as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you , Ephes. 4. 32. He knoweth that he needeth favour from others for his offences against them ; he doth not always walk so carefully , but some time or other he hath bespattered those that went neer him , and it s but just that he should allow that pardon which he expecteth , (b) Eccles. 7.21,22 . Tit. 3. 2 , 3. Shewing all meekness towards all men ; for we our selves were sometimes foolish , living in malice and envy , hateful , and hating one another . The Lacedemonians were wont to pray in their publique service , that the Gods would enable them to bear private wrongs with patience . 2. A meek person will part with much of his right to buy his peace . Where he may not wrong his family too much , nor dishonour his God , he will yeild far to preserve or purchase a friend . Though his priviledge be superior , yet he can be contented to hold the stirrup to others , and give them place ; Abraham was the Elder and the Nobler man , yet he offereth Lot his choice of the Country , and was willing to take what he would leave . SECT . VI. SEcondly , If thou wouldst exercise thy self to godliness in thy dealings with all men , look not onely to the manner of thy dealing , but also to the principle . Thy righteous , courteous , and meek carriage must proceed from obedience to Gods command . Many of the Heathen ( as thou hast heard ) were just in their contracts , they would as soon die as deceive ; Now how wouldst thou know whether thou exceedest them , but by a principle of Conscience , from which thou actest . If Pagans and Christians be found travelling in the same path , the onely way to difference them , i● to enquire , whence they both sat out , and whither they are going ; what is the principle from which they act , and what is the end of their journey ? According to the principle of a man , such is his end ; If the Barrel of the Musquet be crooked , it will never carry the Bullet right ; therefore thy principle must especially be minded . There be many things that move orderly , and yet their motion is not from a principle of life ; as a Mill moveth by reason of the water , yet is no living creature . An outward principle of custome or fashion or glory , may make a man just and patient in his actings ; many do the things commanded , not because they are commanded , but upon some sinister account . Morality and Christianity , differ specifically ; the Moralist worketh from nature , a little refined by study or education ; the Christian from nature , throughly renewed by the Holy Ghost . Where this spring is wanting , no motion can be true ; be the fruit never so fair to the eye , if the root whence it groweth be not good , it will be unpleasant and distastful . Laban at the last , was just in his agreement with Iacob , but shame , not conscience , was the curb that held him in . Such dealings like fruits which are ripened by art and force , are not kindly , neither be they acceptable to the heavenly taste . Indeed , all such righteousness is unrighteousness , and all such persons , though they are just to men , and do them no wrong , yet are unjust to God , and deprive him of his right . The true Christians righteousness towards men , proceedeth from the fear of his God. The former Governours ( saith Nehemiah ) were chargeable unto the people , and had taken of them bread and wine ; besides , forty Shekels of silver ; yea , even their Servants bare rule over the people ; but this did not I , because of the fear of God ; Nehem. 5. 9 , 15. The dread of the most high , was the hedge which kept him within his bounds . Look therefore friend to the ground of thy dealings . Nothing will be commendable in Gods eye , which doth not flow from his awe ; if the desire to keep up thy name , or to please thy Neighbour ( whose good word thou valuest ) be the main reason of thy righteousness , thou servest thy self , but not thy God. He is a false servant , who payeth the debts his Master appointeth him , but more in his own name , and lest he should be counted a Cheat , then because of his Masters command . Thou art a true servant , if therefore thou darest not deceive men , because thou dreadest the just and jealous God. Ioseph encourageth his brethren to expect fair dealings from him upon this ground ; Do this and live , for I fear God , Gen. 42. 18. i. e. Ye need not fear unrighteous actions at my hands , since the fear of God is in my heart . As long as this guard is set upon me , I shall do violence to no man. It was a prety answer of Xenophons , when Laelius told him that he was a timerous fellow , because he durst not play at Dice with him ; Very timerous indeed , and fearful to do evil . Thirdly , If thou wouldst exercise thy self to Godliness in thy dealings with men , let thine end and aim in thy dealings be good . Have an eye in them , not onely to thine own temporal good ( this is low and mean ) but chiefly to the glory of God , and the spiritual good of thy self and others . Christians must not deal together as Indians , meerly for trade and outward advantage ; It s but a beggarly calling to trade onely for the dirt and pebbles of worldly profit ; but its high and honourable to be a Merchant for the Diamonds and Pearls of spiritual riches . The Heathen and the Christian both , may meet in the manner of their dealings , but they part in their ends . The Thief and the honest Country-man are both found riding in the same road , but they have different ends therein , and that distinguisheth them . He is a Dwarf indeed , and looks very low , whose eye in such actions is wholly upon earth . True Saints sore aloft , and have more noble designes in their ordinary dealings , Mat. 5. 16. Like the Moon , they enlighten others with their borrowed brightness , and endeavour to their power to reflect their beams back to the Sun , the Fountain of their light . How ungratefully doth he slink away , that dieth and returneth no glory to his Father , neither raiseth up any seed to his elder Brother ; I seek not mine own profit , but the profit of many , that they may be saved , saith St. Paul , 1 Cor. 10. 33. He hath cause to fear his own going to heaven , who would go thither alone . True favourites desire their King may have many Loyal Subjects ; Every creature almost is of an assimulating nature ; Fire turneth what comes neer it into fire . Earth changeth what we commit to it , into Earth . Water moistens what it meets with . Stones grow , and spread in the veins of the earth ; Even Flowers and Hearbs will be scattering their seed for the increase of their kind . Good men cannot but desire & endeavour that all they converse with might be like themselves in goodness . The first blessing which God bestowed on man after his creation , was this , Be fruitful & multiply . How industrious are Christs enemies to spread their poison , and draw men from their allegiance to him ! I have read of a Jew who turned Turk , how shortly after , in buying Gr●pes , he fell out with a Turk , and beat him soundly ; Whereupon a certain Jew asked the abused Turk , why he would suffer himself to be so much wronged . The Turk answered , You shall beat me as much , if you will turn Mussul-man ; It s too visible , that Romes agents are also sufficiently active to make Proselytes to their idolatries ; and wilt thou sit still and do nothing towards the gaining of subjects to thy Lord and Saviour ? Holy David was more diligent to enlarge the borders of Christs , then of his own kingdom ; He would blaze Gods honour and power before the highest , and not shrink for shame , Psa. 119. And the success of his industry is considerable . Though great Fish are seldom caught by such Angles , yet King Hiram came to be converted to God by his converse with David . It s likely Reader , thou dealest with sinners ; thy first care must be that thou mayst not partake of their sins . It s reported that at Belgrade in Hungary , Danubius and Sava , two famous Rivers , the one pure , the other filthy meet , and yet their waters mingle no more then water and oyl , not that either float above the other , but both joyn unmixed , so that neer the middle of the River , saith my Author , I have gone in a Boat and tasted the Danow , as clear as a Spring , and putting my hand an inch further , I have taken of the Sava , as troubled as a street channel , tasting the gravel in my teeth ; thus they run together unmingled sixty miles . So shouldst thou in thy contracts and dealings with the wicked , keep thy self pure and undefiled . Thy next care must be , to make them better ; A meek gracious carriage may win them to Christ. Some Fish have been caught with a Golden Hook ; Sometimes by parting with a little of thy right , by losing a little silver , thou mayst gain a precious soul ; He that always stands strictly and stifly upon his right , may thereby wrong both God and his Gospel . Heavenly mindedness , shining in a Christians dealings with prophane men , hath such a beauty in it , that it attracteth at the first sight the eyes of every beholder , like the sudden appearance of a Candle in a dark room . As we have opportunity , let us do good unto all men , Gal. 6. 10. An opportunity to do good to others , is a great mercy to our selves . The Oyl of grace like the Widows , 2 King. 4. 6. increaseth by powring out ; an opportunity is a special season , which God affordeth us , for the benefit of our own and others souls ; When time and helps meet and marty , their off-spring is opportunity . Thou dealest with those at one time , whom thou mayst never see again ; possibly their hearts being big with sin , they bring forth in thy presence , either swearing , or slandering , or mocking at holiness ; now God gives thee an opportunity , by a prudent affectionate reproof , and by serious savoury advice , to kill those brats of Hell , as soon as they are born , and to make the Parents barren in regard of such a cursed brood for ever after , which if thou neglectest , thou shalt never have again . The Bird of opportunity is usually upon the wing , she flieth away of a sudden , and we never fee her again ; therefore whilst thou hast her , make the best use of her . Thou thinkest ( it may be ) that thy counsel to such men would be but cast away , as pure water in a nasty sink ; but do thy work , which is to endavour their conversion , and leave the success , which is Gods work to him . Benhadads Souldier drew a Bow at a venture , and his Arrow pierced within the joynts of the Harness , and slew Ahab ; the man shot the Arrow at he knew not who , but God levelled it at the King , amongst all the company . Do thou draw the Bow , according to thy duty , and God may so direct the Arrow of admonition , as to make it enter the sinners heart , and let out the very life of his sin . Sometimes things are done best on a sudden ; Tiberius was happier in his extempore speeches , then those which he made upon study and premeditation . Thou mayst as Philip to the Eunuch , fall in with a person on a sudden ( whom thou never sawest before , nor shalt ever see again ) and by seasonable counsel be instrumental to his eternal comfort ; It may be thou meetest with such as do believe ; then thy care must be to build them up ; Saints must be Land-mark● to direct others in the way to life . Apollos was a stranger to Aquila and Priscilla , but coming into his company , they expounded to him the way of God more perfectly , Act. 18. 25. The members of the mystical body must be helpful to one another . Christians , with whomsoever they converse ought to endeavour either their gaining to , or growing up in Jesus Christ. Alexanders body was of so exact and rare a constitution ( saith the Historian ) that it perfumed every place where he came . The gracious soul being it self filled with spikenard and Calamus , and Cassia , and all sweet spices , may well leave a sweet savour among the persons with whom he converseth . They are dead and withered grains of Corn , out of which there doth not one ear spring up . A Good Wish of a Christian in Relation to his dealings with all men , wherein the former Heads are applied . THe Living and Eternal God , whose I am , and whom I am infinitely bound to serve ; whose unquestionable dominion over me , calleth for universal subjection from me ; having commanded me in his word , to be holy as he is holy , in all manner of conversation , and to walk by rule in my commerce with men , as well as in my immediate converses with his glorious Majesty ; I wish in general , that I may make Religion my business , not onely in my sacred duties , but also in my civil dealings ; that I may trade with God in divine performances , as if men saw me , and traffique with men in humane affairs , as knowing that God beholdeth me , and herein dayly exercise my self to keep a conscience void of offence towards God , and towards all men . I Wish in particular , that my earthly actions may never clash with , or incroach upon my heavenly calling , that I may not endanger the loss of Religion in the throng and crowd of outward dealings ; but may be so limitted and directed therein by Gods Law , that all my works may be ●orship , and when I am labouring for my body and family , I may be furthering the good of my soul , and my eternal felicity ; that as my chief natural quality , Reason , commandeth in my lower actions of eating and drinking ; so my supernatural excellency , Religion , may bear sway in every passage of my life . Lord , who hast given me a perfect rule , and appointed me to order my life in all things according to it ; be pleased to write all thy laws in my heart , that I may be tender of both Tables ; love thee with all my soul and strength , and love my Neighbour as my self , for thy sake . If one link of the golden chain of thy commands be broken , the whole is dissolved ; they love one another too well to part company ; where one precept is wilfully despised , all are disobeyed ; Thou hast said it , He that breaks one , is guilty of all . O enable me to be as universal in my conformity and duty , as thou art in thy mercy and bounty ; for then shall I not be ashamed , when I shall have respect to all thy Commandements . I Wish that the soundness and integrity of my heart , may appear in the cleaneness and purity of my hands ; The sound will speak what Mettal the Bell is of ; the Flowers that shew themselves above ground , will declare the nature of the root , which lieth hid ; How often doth the face discover the faults of the vital parts ? If my tongue and speech be double , my spirit cannot be single ; If my actions be unrighteous , my inward man must needs be irreligious ; How grossely do I delude my self , if I presume that I am holy , because I mind the first Table , if I be dishonest , and live in the breach of the second ? when there is so much Religion in the duties of the second Table , that there can be no Religion without them ; My deceitful heart is apt to suggest that it s but a small matter , If I should supplant my Brother , and that there is no such need of care in my ordinary outward carriage : But my Soveraign , to whom I have sworn Allegiance , hath told me in the word of truth ( Mat. 23. 23. ) that justice and mercy are the weighty matters of the Law , and hath commanded me , ( Micah . 6. 8. ) to do justly , and to love mercy throughout my whole life . O that I might never allow my self in the breach of those precepts , which in the worlds blind judgment are the least of his commands ; and by my pattern teach men so , lest I be found at last , the least in the Kingdom of Heaven . Lord , thou hast enjoyned me , to keep thy Law as the Apple of mine eye ( Prov. 7. ) I know , a small thing will pain , a little dust will offend mine eye ; but thy Law is infinitely more tender ; thy Word forbids and condemneth the smallest wandring , the very conception of sin , in a vain thought ; much more its birth in an unrighteous action , is abominable and odious to it ; Thou hast commanded me to keep thy Precepts diligently ; O that my ways were directed to keep all thy Commandements ! Though I abound , and am never so strict in thine Ordinances , if I be careless and loose in my Contracts with men , thou canst espie the evil constitution of my soul , notwithstanding such painting ; Thou canst see the rottenness of my heart , in the rottenness of my wares , under the false gloss I put upon them ; And if thy moral precept find not obedience with me , my spiritual performances will never find acceptance with thee . The Pie , a speckled Bird , whose Feathers were white and black , was unclean . Should I seem pious in those duties which concern thy worship , and yet be perverse in my dealings with men , I am in thy judgement a wicked person . Thou hast said of such , Shall I count them pure with the wicked ballances , and with the bag of deceitful weights ? Micah . 6. 11. If there be iniquity in my hands , there is hypocrisie in my heart ; How clearly doth a person that picketh and chooseth his food , ( liking this , and loathing that , though ne●er so wholsom ) prove a foul stomach ; and how fully do I demonstrate secret filth in my inward parts , if I pick and choose amongst ( the food of my soul ) the precepts ! When the soul is clean and sound , every command will be sweet ; if my heart be sincere , all my dealings will be square . O let me never be like those Pharises , who made long prayers for a cover , that they might prey the more closely upon their Neighbours ; but let thy spirit in my heart , send up the sap of grace into every branch of my life , that all the passages thereof may abound in the fruits of righteousness , and I may esteem all thy precepts , concerning all things , to be right . I Wish that the glory of Religion may be so dear to my heart , 2 that I may render it amiable to the eyes of others , by walking every way sutable to my profession ; The name of my God is holy and reverend , and shall I offer it to reproach ? Some write that the Iews would not foul their mouths with that unclean word of blaspeming God , but always expressed it by a contrary word of blessing God ; If it were so execrable that they hated to speak it , shall I be so vile as to act it ? It were a sin to wrong a man of his good name ; what is it then to rob my God ? If I dress my self in the livery of Christ , and in that habit wallow in the mire of unrighteous dealings , I give up the blessed Redeemer to the scorn and derision of the world . Every one that nameth the name of Christ , should depart from iniquity . The colours of Christ which I wear , cause many to look upon me ; Every professor is like a City on an Hill , visible to all ; Spots are sooner seen in scarlet , then in sackcloth ; Blots appear fouler in a strict professour , then in a loose and prophane person . None wonders to see swine dirty ; but to see the Ermins beautiful skin bemired , is prodigious . How watchful are the wicked to observe my wandrings ! All my familiars watch for my halting , they mark my steps when they watch for my soul , If they can sinde the least tincture of falseness in my words , or colour of unfaithfulness in my works , they soon make it much greater , looking on it through the Spectacles of malice . How quick do they post it abroad , and publish it amongst their companions ! I hear the defaming of many , fear on every side ; Report , say they , and we will report it . What a shame was it , that the Great Turk should take the violated Covenant of the Hungarian King , out of his boso●e , and present it to the blessed God , as the act of those that wore his livery , and prosest them selves his servants ? When those that should be the beauty of Israel , are slain in the high places , and ( those that by their profession are ) the mighty , fall in the streets , they soon tell it in Gath , and publish it in Askelon ; the Daughters of the Philistines rejoyce , the Sons of the uncircumcised triumph ; then the banks of blasphemy are broken down , and the floods of scoffs and scorns come pouring in . And when they went among the Heathen , they prophaned my holy name , when they said to them ; These are the people of the Lord. How doth the World conclude , Surely the Parents are very bad , whom their own Children discommend so much ! Certainly there is little love or power , or faithfulness in their Father , when his own Sons dare not trust him for a little food , but go up and down to steal and filch from others ! O how ordinary is it for the prophane to throw the dirt of professours sins on the face of their profession ! None give such wounds to the credit of the blessed God , as some who pretend to be his own children . The higher the place is whence a stone fals , the deeper it pierceth● No blows more mortal then those of a Thunder-bolt . My profession is high ; if my practices be vile and base , I strike religion to the very heart ; O let me never be so vile a Traytor , as by my sordid courses ( like Judas ) to betray the holy Iesus to the buffetings and mockings of his adversaries ; Why should I harden the bad by my sinful shifts in their wickedness ? Shall I be the Divels broker to put off those rotten wares for him , of cozening and cheating , which otherwise might lie upon his hands ? Why should I sadden the good ? Shall I cause them to hang down their heads with sorrow as the Patriarchs did theirs , when the cup was found in Benjamins sack ? Lord , thou art tender of the Reputation of thy chosen , and hast many a time wrought wonderfully for their renown and credit ; When the wicked world hath blown upon their names , endeavouring to blast them and make them unsavoury , thou hast magnified thy power to vindicate their honour ; And shall I make thy glorious name contemptible , when thou makest my vile name honourable ? Can I be so void of love to thy Majesty , as to tread upon that name of thine , that is more worth then Heaven and Earth ? Besides , Many a season I have pleaded thy name in prayer , and that with success . My voice hath been in the behalf of my own soul ; For thy names sake pardon mine iniquity , for it is great ; Thou art my Rock and my Fortress , therefore for thy names sake , lead me and guide me : When thou haste answered me , Behold I , even I am he that blotteth out thine iniquities , for my names sake ; I will defer my anger for mine names sake , and for my praise will I refrain for thee , that I cut thee not off . O how many a blessing hath thy name been , both the Oratour to procure , and the Messenger to bring ! when many others have treated to little purpose , that , that hath been the undeniable Ambassadour to prevail for peace and pardon . Thy name hath been by shelter in many a storm , and my supply in many a straight ; and shall I be an enemy to that which is so great a friend to me ? Can I be so unworthy as to cause others to trample this great favourite at heavens Court under their feet ? Hath not the polluting thy name been the argument which I have sometimes used for the perdition of thine enemies ! I have cried to thee , Remember this , that the enemy hath reproached , O Lord , and that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name ; and shall I be guilty of that which I plead as a reason for others ruine ! Again , My dayly prayer is , Hallowed be thy name , and shall my practices give my prayer the lye , and prophane it ! Should I cheat and cozen as the men of the world , my great profession would cause my sin , like a Cart heavy laden , to make deep furrows , into which many might trip and fall . How ordinary is it for Egyptians to follow the dark side of the Israelites Pillar to their perdition ? Foolish man that I am , is not the burthen of my own sins already intolerable , and shall I add to them by being partaker of other mens sins ! Is the River of wrath due to me , so low , so little , that I must invite streams from every place to swell it into an Ocean ! O that for my own sake , for the sake of other men , and especially for thy sake , I may order all my ways by thy word ! Lord , preserve me by thy Spirit , that I may never lay a stumbling block before the wicked , nor as the unbeleiving spies , by my distrust of thy providence , and using indirect courses to releive my family , bring an ill report upon the good Land. Assist me that I may look not onely to the power of Religion , but also the honour of Religion ; Let thy grace ever accompany me , and enable me to keep a conscience void of guile before thee , and a conversation so void of guilt before men , that whereas they speak against me as an evil doer , they may be ashamed at this day , and may by my good works , which they shall behold , glorifie God in the day of visitation . I Wish that I may look to the righteousness of my actions , as well as to the righteousness of my person , and never think that my house can be firm , if it be built upon the rotten foundation of injustice . My God hath said , Wo be to him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness , and his Chambers by wrong . As high as my house is raised , and as sure as it is seated , the breath of this curse will blow it down . Though my estate seem never so fair , yet how easily and how speedily may this scorching curse cause it to fade , and to wither in my hand as a flower ! Have not mine eyes beheld the ruines of some stately dwellings , which have been built upon rapine ! Unrighteousness , like Rabbits in some Countrys , hath undermined the foundations , and overturned the buildings ; and shall mine escape ? Whether I will believe it or no ● My God hath spoken , that unjust gain will prove my own loss , and he will see it accomplished . Whatsoever fine terms I may call my cheating by , as an Art in my Trade , or the Mystery of my Calling , yet my God counts it Theft , and me for it but a Thief . Though I may put a fair colour upon my false dealing , yet he forbids it under the plain censure of stealing ; Thou shalt not steal . And O how great a Theif am I , if I be guilty of this in my ordinary dealings ! I wrong my Neighbours that trade with me , and that most Hypocritically , under the pretence of doing them right . To kill a man in the field by force is wicked ; but to poison him at my Table by fraud is worse , because in this latter I pretend friendship . To rob on the High-way by open power is greivous ; but to rob in my Shop by this hellish policy is more odious , for I wrong one that is my friend , and in such a way , that he hath no means to help himself . The Righteous God saith , My hands are full of blood , not onely when I murther a mans person , and take away his life , but also when I injure a mans portion and take away his lively-hood . Such unjust persons must expect sore punishments ; The Law of man punisheth Cheats in some measure ; but the Law of the jealous God , is more severe to such Iuglers as endeavour to unglue the whole worlds frame , knit together onely by commerce and contracts . I rob my own family as well as my Neighbours . He that is greedy of gain , troubleth his own house . False dealing like Fire consumes what comes near it . My Children were better be left beggars , then heirs of those riches which I have got by robbery . What is well gotten , will fa●e the worse for the Neighbourhood of my ill gotten wealth . This as a rotten sheep will infect the sound flock . Whilst I am digging deep , to lay the foundation of my house sure , I do but lay in barrels of powder to blow it up . I rob my own soul most of all by my unrighteousness ; How ill is that gain which causeth the loss of my God! How cheap do I sell those wares with which I buy endless and intollerable wo ! How dear do I buy that silver , for which I sell my inestimable soul and salvation ! Ah what an ill Market doth he make ; that puts off his soul at any price ! If it be unprofitable to gain the whole world and lose my own soul , what a fool , what a mad man am I to set my soul to sale for a very small part of the world ! Into what a miserable Dilemma doth my deceitful dealing bring me ! Either I must repent and vomit it up , which will tear and wrack my very heart , or else I must burn for ever in hell ! O that I might never ●e so bereaved of my wits , as to touch or meddle with such distracting wealth . Lord , thou hast informed me , that , A little which the righteous man hath , is better then the possessions of many wicked ; that better is a little with righteousness , then great revenues without right . I know that the comfort of my life doth not depend upon a confluence of outward good things , but upon thy love and good-will towards me ; Let me rather choose the greatest want , then riches from Satans hands and in Hells way ; Be thou pleased to sparkle my little with the precious diamond of thy love , and then t will be better indeed then the riches of many wicked ; yea , more worth then all the World. I Wish that in my buying and selling , I might ever have an eye to the ballance of the Sanctuary . My person must be tried by Scripture at the last day , for my everlasting life and death ; and shall not my actions be squared by it at this day ? How sad a bargain should I make , if I should buy my own bane ? What a dreadful trade should I drive , to sell ( like that Son of Perdition ) the incomparable Saviour for a little corruptible silver ? Is that wealth worth getting , which will make way for eternal want ? Though my heapes swell never so much by unlawful means , yet t is but like the swelling of the dropsie , a presage of death . O my soul , what will it avail thee to be rich here , and to be a beggar hereafter , and that for ever ? Thou pretendest to purity , but thy God tells thee that holiness and righteousness are like Husband and Wife , joyned by him together , and none may part them asunder . Thou art unsound in all thy sacred duties , if thou art unrighteous in thy civil dealings : When the unjust dealer is cast into the unquenchable fire , what will become of the great Professour ? What is the hope of the Hypocrite , though he hath gained , when God shall take away his soul ? Iob 27. 8. When the Thief is taken and carried to the Goal , all the money he hath stollen is taken from him . When Death seiseth thee , and sendeth thee to the Prison of Hell , all thy ill gotten goods must be left behind . When thou art lost eternally , what will become of thy unjust gains ? Thy Children may be ranting with it on Earth , and thou art roaring for it in Hell. Ah! what dear contracts dost thou make , to sell thy present peace , and thy future endless joy , for a little perishing pelfe ? The comfort of thy life now consisteth in communion with thy God ; but he that saith , He hath fellowship with God , and walketh in darkness , is a lyar ? 1 Ioh. 1. 6. Thy God hates to taste of those Waters which run out of such mus●y Vessels ; Muchless will he suffer any of such rotten hearts , and stinking breaths , to draw neer to him in Heaven ; Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God ? 1 Cor. 6. 9. No such Cattel shall ever come into the Celestial Court. Unrighteous Heathens shall be shut out of Heaven ; and surely then unrighteous Christians shall be cast into the lowest Hell. O let the fear of thy God ever possess thee , that the love of this World may never pollute thee ; Manifest thy love to thy Saviour , by loving thy Neighbour as thy self . Blessed God , who lovest righteousness , and hatest iniquity , the Scepter of whose Kingdom is a righteous Scepter , who wilt render unto every man his righteousness ; and who hast appeared to me by that grace which teacheth me to deny all ungodliness , and worldly lusts , and to live righteously in this present evil world ; Let thy good Spirit fill me with all the fruits of righteousness ; Do thou so lead me in the paths of equity , for thy names sake , that I may follow after righteousness , and inherit a ●ure reward . I Wish that I may be righteous in every relation wherein I stand , and towards all persons with whom I deal , that I may give to Superiours the things that are theirs , to Inferiours the things that are theirs , lest by denying either I rob all ; My God is no respecter of persons , but just in all his ways , and righteous in all his works . When shall I imitate his blessed Majesty ? He tells me , Blessed are they that keep judgment , and he that doth righteousness at all times ; If I expect the blessing propounded , I must mind the righteousness enjoyned , and that is to be righteous at all seasons . O my soul , what encouragement hast thou to do justly upon all occasions ! thy righteousness shall have a large recompence . Thy Children may fare the better ; The just man walketh in his integrity , and his Children are blessed after him : Nay , thy whole Family ; The voice of joy and Salvation is in the Tabernacle of the righteous ; Whereas thou mayst fear that thy plain dealing may bring thee and thine to poverty ; thou bast his promise , that he will make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous : Above all , thou thy self wilt have the greatest solace . Thy righteousness shall answer for thee in time to come ; and whereas the dishonest wealth of others is a corroding worm to gnaw their consciences ; thy justice will afford thee present comfort . In the transgression of an evil man there is a snare ; but the righteous doth sing and rejoyce , Prov. 29. 6. Ah! who would not sow righteousness , when he shall certainly reap so much mercy ! Though others , as if they had pitchy hands , take to themselves whatsoever they touch , to the defiling of their own souls , and like whirlpools suck in all that comes neer them , to their own destruction ; do thou mete out all thy dealings by that royal measure ; Whatsoever thou wouldst that men should do to thee , do the same to them , for this is the Law and the Prophets . When thou art buying , or selling , or about any bargain with thy Neighbour , reflect upon thy self ; Would I be glad to be thus dealt with ? Were I in this mans case , would I be willing that he should serve me as I serve him ? Am I as plain-hearted , as true , as just in my carriage towards him , as I would desire him to be in his trading with me ? Would I be contented to be defrauded ? should I take it well to be defamed ? Is this action of mine such , as I could be contented to receive the like ? Do I in this business love my Neighbour as my self ? Lord , who hast promised that the righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance in this world , and shall shine as the Sun in the other world ; and who hast put the unrighteous and lovers of themselves in the front of that black list , which is for the unquenchable fire ; do thou deliver me out of the hands of mine enemies , that I may serve thee in holiness and righteousness all the days of my life . I Wish that I may mind righteousness in my words , as well as in my works , and not dare to hide deceitful and foul intentions under fair and fawning expressions . To say what is true , and to be true to what I say , is the property of a true Christian ; My God is a God that cannot lye ; his people are a people that will not lye . If I therefore be found a lyar , how unlike am I both to God and his people ; Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord , but they that deal truly are his delight ; Though lying lips may be perfumed with sweet words to men , yet God smells the stench and loatheth the ill savour of those rotten inwards whence they proceed . And though truth may beget hatred from men , such sweet breath is his love and delight . He is the God of truth ; His Law is the truth ; His Gospel is the word of truth ; His Son is the true and faithful Witness . O that truth of heart , truth of words , and truth in deeds , may be all in me , which are so agreeable to the true God , and so acceptable to the God of truth ! Can that tongue lye so loud to men , which even now called so loud on God ? Shall those hands be filching in my Neighbours pocket , which were so lately lifted up to Heaven in prayer ? Is my speech given me for my glory , and shall it be the driveling of a Divel that father of lyes ? Lord , let me in all my dealings chuse rather to be a loser then a lyar ; and let that be my character which thou hast given of the Citizens of Sion , that I may never lift up my soul to vanity , nor swear deceitfully , but walk uprightly , work righteousness , and speak the truth in my heart . I Wish that I may be Courteous as well as Righteous , towards all with whom I converse ; 2 Humanity is a debt which I owe to all mankind ; why should I therefore as some proud men , dam up , and contract my civility into so narrow a compass , that it shall swell into flittery towards my Superiors , and not suffer one drop to descend towards Inferiors ! I would not as Formalists in fashion of habits , or outward Vesture , discover the lightness of a carnal mind ; Nor like Hypocrites , by composed actions , or artificial gesture , manifest the looseness of a frothy spirit ; but as a prudent , yet serious Christian be so affable in my carriage , that I may be the more acceptable in my counsel , for the good of others souls . Humanity doth cast a lustre , to attract the eyes and hearts of others . Courtesie is commendable , and an adorning adjunct to sanctity . Holiness is honoured by the attendance of this Hand-maid . Grace is rendered more lovely , when t is accompanied with a kind nature . T is pity that Jewel should not ever be in this soft Velvet Cabinet . One end of my trading must be to commend to others the excellency of spiritual wares , and to encourage them to buy the truth ; but if my behaviour be morose and unkind , I shall fright men from being my customers ; and inflict on my self part of Nebuchadnezars penalty , separate my self from amongst men , by forcing them to withdraw from me . If my language be fierce , and my looks frowning , I may deter men from my company , but shall never allure them to Christ. Where the carriage is sowre and pouting , the Counsel will never be sweet and prevalent . O that I might never disadvantage Religion by any rugged disposition , but by the kindness of my nature may do a real kindness to grace , and become all things to all men , if by any means I might save some . Yet I would not be so courteous to others , as to be discourteous to my self ; I mean , be so courteous to sinners , as to comply with them in their sins ; T is far better that the World should count me uncivil , then the Lord should esteem me ungodly . Let me be an enemy to their corruptions , when I shew my self most friendly to their persons , and never be so much a Courtier , as to forget that I am a Christian . Lord , who hast commanded thy people to be kindly affected one towards another , teach me to shew the true affection of my heart , in the kindness of my tongue and hand ; courtesie is as salt , and dryeth those ill humours which are distastful to others , and will make my counsel the more savoury ; Thine Angels themselves used salutations in their occasional converses with Mortals ; give me to do thy will on earth , as it is done by those Noble Courtiers in Heaven ; for I believe that they were in Heaven , when they were discoursing with thy chosen on Earth ; Grant me so much gracious good manners , as by my prayers to send the next man I meet , even all I deal with , to thee . Let me bestow the almes of some hearty ejaculation , as well as the outward expressions of The Lord be with you , upon them : Yea , let me for thy sake be kind and gentle to all men , that I may draw them to thy self : Yet suffer me not to be so friendly in my words , as to have fellowship with any in their wickedness , but helpe me to dispence even my civilities by a standard measure , least what I intend as shy Net to take others souls , prove Satans trap to catch mine . I Wish that I may be both so just as not to offer injuries to others , and also so meek as to suffer with patience what others offer to me . 3 The world will never leave its old haunt of persecuting them that are holy . It s natural for Wolves to hate and devour Sheep ; If I were of the world , I should be one of its darlings , for the World loveth its own . My God hath called me from it , and chosen me out of it , therefore it hates me . I need not marvail at its malice , when it did spit its venome at the Author of its being , and took away life from him , who gave life to it . The Servant is not above his Master , nor must the Disciple look to fare better then his Lord. If the soft Pillow of meekness be not laid on my back , I shall never bear the burthens of their calumnies , and cruelties with the least comfort ; What pain doth such Vinegar cause , when it meets with the raw wound of an impatient spirit ! The more mad the world is , the more meek I had need to be , if I would enjoy my self . Besides , there may be ●allings out amongst the best friends . Good men are not all of the same stature , nor all of the same temper . Some are like broken bones , if but toucht they fret and fling . How full are some of jealousies and suspicions , which would soon be increased by my passions ; and that spark which might be extinguished by my lenity , is blown into a flame by my fury ! Some are sickly and in constant pain , others are under some smarting providence ; some offend me upon mistake , and though others should do it out of malice , yet even they also call for my pity , more then my passion : The best have need of pardon from man , as well as God ; and shall I , who want it more then others , not allow it to others ? Alas , what harme do I get by others heats ? The Air when beaten is not injured , no not so much as divided , but returnes to its place , and becomes thicker then before . The sharpest words cannot wound me , if I do not put my hand to the weapon . All those tongue-squibs of reproach which the malevolent world throw at me , will go out alone , and die of themselves if I do not revive them . My well-grounded patience will as a walking staff ; preserve me from many a fall , whilst I travail in rugged ways . The distracted world indeed judgeth him the bravest fellow , that will not pocket up the least affronts ; but the wisest man that ever was ; nay , the onely wise God , tells me . The patient in spirit is better then the proud in spirit ; O my soul , whom wilt thou believe ? the world that long since hath lost its wits , and must ere long for its phrensie be fettered with the chains of everlasting darkness , in the Bridewel of the bottomless pit ; or that God to whom Angels themselves are comparative fools ! O be not hasty to be angry , for anger resteth in the bosome of fools . What a fool art thou to break thy own bones , to give another a smart blow ! A furious man is like Tamar , who to be revenged of her father in Law , defiled him and her self with incest . Revenge is a Thief that steals away a mans estate for the Lawyers . It is of the nature of the Viper , and eats out the bowels of that wealth which gave it birth . What a fool am I to defame my self ! That rancour and spleen which I spit at others , is like his that spits against the wind , driven back into my own face , to the besmearing of my credit amongst all that are judicious . What a fool am I to destroy my own grace , my own peace ! What flowers of holiness will grow where such locusts abound ? What fruits of righteousness can thrive in such a scorching Climate ? What good work can be done within doors , if the house be in a flame ? How unfit is a man in a passion , to go to God in prayer ? surely , no more then a person that comes reaking and sooted from a kell , is for the presence of his Prince . I must not expect to meet God in a duty , if my spirit be in a fury . A righteous man falling down before the wicked , is like a troubled Fountain , Prov. 25. 26. I seldom fall down more fouly before wicked men , then when I render reviling for reviling , and revenge for revenge ; but then how unfit am I to fall down in holy duties before my God! for I am as a troubled fountain ; and if men will not drink of the water of a fountain , ( though in it self pure and wholsom ) when it is troubled and muddy ; can I think that my God will drink of that vessel that runs thick ! O that I might never , because others are my enemies in defaming me , become my own enemy in defiling my own soul , and hindering it of that comfort which it might have in divine communion . Lord , who art the God of peace , let me be known to be one of thine , by being a Son of peace ; Enable me to pass on like a wise Travailer , in the way of thy Commandements , and not to be stirred at the barking of those Dogs that pursue me with open mouth . My confident neglect will soonest make them quiet ; let me never break the peace , but in the quarrel of truth ; Give me for peace sake sometimes to part with my right , but never with my righteousness ; Let the same mind be in me , which was in Christ Jesus ; Teach me from him to be meek and lowly in heart , and yet to be eaten up with the zeal of thy house . Make me willing to suffer , but not to have thy name suffer . Grant me to follow peace with all men , and holiness . O bestow on me that wisdom from above , which is first Pure , then Peaceable , Gentle , and ( though hardly provoked , yet ) easie to be intreated . 2 I Wish that those beautiful children of righteousness , courtesie , and meekness in my carriage , may have the Spirit of God for their Parent ; I mean , that the fear of my God may be the principle from which they flow . I shall lose the race , how well soever I run , if I do not set out at the right place . Men look onely to my practices , and accordingly judge of my principle ; if my life be without fault , their charity tells them that my heart is without fraud ; but Gods eye is on my principle , and accordingly he judgeth of my practices ; if my affections be not gracious , he knoweth that my actions cannot be righteous . My God knoweth me thorough and thorough ; He spieth the rottenness and crawling vermine , that are in the bowels of a painted Sepulchre . If I be like a Peach with a craggy stone in my heart , under the cover of a velvet Coat , he understandeth it altogether ; I may cozen the dark eyes of men , who when they behold the inoffensiveness of my life , and the height of my profession , are ready to cry out of me , as Samuel of Eliab , when he saw the comeliness of his countenance , and the height of his stature , Surely the Lords annointed is before him ; but I cannot deceive God ; he seeth not as man seeth ; for man looketh on the outward appearance , but the Lord looketh on the heart . Alas , if I have no more to shew for my title to Heaven , then a fair outside , what have I more then an Hypocrite , nay then some Heathen ! A few flourishes in a Paper or Parchment , is but a poor evidence for an inheritance . How many be there in the World , who as some revelling Gallants , by their gay cloaths , and gaudy attire , speak that they are worth thousands , when they have not a penny in their pockets ; who by their outward conversations seem to be rich in grace , when indeed like Laodicea , they are poor and miserable , and blind and naked ! O that all my fruits of righteousness , might grow upon the root of holiness , and spring from a renewed nature ! then and not till then , they will be acceptable to my Saviour ; then my beloved will come into his Garden , and eat his pleasant fruits ; I would be mindful of these moral duties , because my God commandeth them , and as knowing that I ca●not be religious , if I be not righteous . Though the sensitive soul may be without the rational , as in Beasts ; yet the rational soul is never without the sensitive ; Though righteousness towards men may be without holiness ; yet holiness before God is never without righteousness before men . Lord , thou expectest and commandest that I should act both for thee , and from thee ; Thou valuest the Vessel , not by the ballast of a few good actions , which an Heathen may gather up at any Port , but by the fraught of a sanctified heart , which is peculiar to thy chosen ; Let my obedience to the second Table , arise from my Conscience of the first table ; that whilst the righteous , friendly and meek carriage of others , that runneth along amongst those with whom they converse , is little better then puddle water in thine esteem , because it proceedeth from the sinks of their natural and defiled hearts , justice may not onely in my actions run down like water , and meekness in my conversation , like a mighty stream , but be so fed with and flow from the Spring of thy holy Spirit , dwelling in my heart , that it may be delightful , and of worth in thy sight . I Wish that I may design somewhat for my God in all my dealings with men , 3 and carry my self the more sweetly and circumspectly , that I may gain their affections , and thereby win them to the greater love and liking of Religion . Christianity is my calling , and where-ever I go , my duty bindeth me to be always furthering it . It was one Article which I sealed to , when I first entred my self Christs servant , to endeavour the making others Proselytes to his service ; and if I neglect it , I am unfaithful to my Master , and forfeit my Indenture . My Pattern may with some be very prevalent . If I shine with a vertuous life , I am as a light-house set by the Sea-side , whereby Mariners sail aright , and avoid dangers ; but if I pretend high , and walk loosely , as a false Lanthorn , I shipwrack those that trust me . My holy life is a good Lecture of holiness to others , which if written in a fair character , will invite those with whom I converse , both to read it , and to learn it ; My advice may to others be very advantagious . If in the morning I s●w the seed of some savoury counsel , and in the evening with-hold not my hand ; though carnal reason tells me it is cast away upon barren earth , which will make no return , yet my God can cause it to spring up richly . Possibly other particular callings may depend on mine , and thereby many persons for their lively-hoods , under God on me ; Now what an opportunity of doing them good , of serving my Lord , and of furthering my own account is put into my hands ! How willing are these who have their dependance on me , to model themselves to such a form as will best suit my temper ! Though they are as hard as Rocks to others , they are as soft as Wax to me ; and shall not I labour to imprint the Image of my God upon them ! O that by those cords which bind their civil interest ; I might draw them to a consideration of their spiritual estates , and let them know that there is but one way of approving themselves to God and me ? How false am I , if I do not improve the ground I have got in the hearts or hands of any for the honour of my Master ? Inlightned souls are all liberal to disperse their rays for the good of others . How busie are most men to propagate that quality which is predominant in them ! The Scholar would have his companion learned ; the Courtier his associate handsom in his carriage ; the Souldier his Comrade Valiant ; and shall not I endeavour that my friends be vertuous ? Nay , how diligent are the Devils Agents , to spread the poyson of vice amongst all with whom they converse ? Though they find sin already thriving , yet they think it not enough to nourish those ill weeds which grow so fast of themselves , but even sow new seeds of oaths and cozening , and prophaness , as if their mutual commerce did oblige them to diffuse their venome to each other , and as if it were a dishonour to the Tradesman , to go to Hell without his Customers and Chapmen , O my soul ! dost thou not blush at thy own backwardness in bringing souls to thy God , ●hen the Emissaries of Hell are so forward ? Do they devise wickedness continually ( Prov. 6. 14. ) search out iniquity ; yea , accomplish a diligent search ( Psa. 64. 6. ) leave no means untried , no ways unattempted , but study and search narrowly for fit seasons , when they may convey their infections to others , and communicate their plague-sores with the greatest success ; and wilt not thou as a liberal man , devise liberal things , sit down and contrive how thou mayst give counsel to poor sinners , administer comfort to poor Saints , to the best advantage of their souls ? Shall Satan go about , seeking whom he may devour , and wilt not thou go about seeking whom thou mayst recover out of the snares of the Devil ? Though grace sets bounds to thy Conscience , yet it doth not to the Love of thy God. If the love of thy God be without limits , will not thy desires and endeavours to exalt him be as large ? It s his favour to trust thee with any Talents for his honour . Opportunities of doing him service ( which now and then he affordeth thee ) are precious ; the stump of time remaineth , when the branches of opportunity are lopt off . In times of scarcity , men pick up all the grains of corn that none be lost ; he that in a dearth gives his corn to his beasts , is himself a brute . Seasons for the advancement of thy Saviour , and the soul advantage of thy brother , are rare , and wilt thou throw them away upon vain talk , and needless toys ? David could say , Is there none left of the house of Saul , to whom I may shew kindness for Ionathans sake ? And mayst not thou say , Is there none left of the houshold of f●ith , or belonging to it , though now aliens from it , to whom I may shew kindness for Jesus sake ? Ah Lord ! whence is it that my soul is so backward in sending beggers to thy gate ? Am I ashamed to let the World know how much I am indebted , and what bountiful almes I have there received ? Art thou so bad a Master , that I should blush to tell others to whom I belong ; or affraid that if I should commend thee to them , and send them to thee , they would find me false ? Surely to sit at thy feet , and to wait at thy Gate , is infinitely more honourable and comfortable then to sit on the highest worldly throne , and to be waited on by the greatest earthly Princes . What then are the fetters that hinder me from running to invite others to thy Gospel-feast ? Do I fear that thy house will not hold us all , or that the inheritance of thy Saints , being divided amongst so many , the lesser share will fall to me ? No , I beleive that in my Fathers House are many mansions ; that there is room enough and to spare for all thy righteous ones ; and that my sight of thee , the true Sun , will never be the less pleasing and refreshing , though millions of worlds should enjoy thee . If ever it be true , t will be there , The more the merrier . An innumerable company , which all thy creatures cannot number , may draw water with joy out of the Well of salvation , and yet there not be one drop the less . Where still is the fault , that I am so unfruitful , and do not encourage others to enter themselves in thy family ? Am I the fig-tree which thou hast cursed and said to , Never fruit grow on thee more ? Or , Is it not rather my wicked heart of unbeleif that tells me , Godliness is grown with most but a dead commodity , and if I offer to put it into my Chapmans hands , my own wares will go off the worse ? How often hath it suggested to me , that to commend truth to my customers , will be the way to lose my trade ; that I must not follow holiness too close at the heels , lest it dash out my brains ; that it is to no purpose to perswade men to godliness , and that I do but lose my labour in all my counsels and admonitions to others ! This unbeleif , Lord , is the traytour which is such an enemy to the Crown and Scepter of thy dear Son ; O let it please thy Majesty to execute it speedily . Why should this Worm lye gnawing at the root , and hinder my soul from glorifying thee , by bringing forth much fruit ? Is not my soul a Vine of thine own planting ? Thou broughtest her out of Egypt , a state of bondage and slavery to Sin and Satan● and she is come up from the Wilderness , leaning upon her Beloved . Why doth this Boar of the Wood waste her , and this Wild Beast of the field devour her , even this evil heart of unbeleif , whereby she departs away from the living God ? Return I beseech thee O God of Hosts , look down from Heaven , and behold , and visi● this Vine , fence it by thine Almighty power , prune it by thy providence , water it with the showres of thy grace , and so quicken it with the beams of thy favour , that it may bring forth much fruit to thy glory . I Wish that I may like Enoch , walk so with my God in all my actions , whilst I walk amongst men , that in thy good time my soul may be translated , and I may not see death , either as the wicked in this World do with terrour , or as the damned in the other World do , in torment to their everlasting woe . Lord , thou art Jehovah Tsidkenu , the Lord my righteousness ; be pleased to cloath my person with the robe of thy Sons imputed righteousness , that my nakedness may not appear before Men and Angels , to my eternal shame ; let all my actions be covered with the garment of thy Spirits imparted righteousness , that they may be acceptable and amiable in thine eye . Let thy grace so fill my heart , that godliness may be visible in my hands , and I may thereby draw others towards Heaven . Thou hast said , Behold I make all things new ; what wilt thou then do with this old corrupt nature of mine ? O Renew that , or nothing will be new to my comfort . O God create a clean heart , and renew a right Spirit within me . I know the time will come that thou wilt create new Heavens and new Earth , wherein shall dwell righteousness . My body is the Earth , and my soul is the Heaven which thou hast already made ; but might thy servant prevail with thy Majesty to create my soul thy new Heavens , and my body thy new Earth , wherein may dwell righteousness , how infinitely should I be bound t● thy distinguishing mercy ! Thy hands have made me , and fashioned me ; O give me understanding , that I may keep thy Commandements ; Were my soul bespangled with the glorious stars of thy graces , and my body embroydered and curiously wrought , so as to be the Temple of thy Spirit , then indeed thou mightest re●lect upon what thou hadst made with complacency ; for behold it would be very good : Hast thou not made the great World for man , and the little World ( Man ) for thy self ? When shall I be so pure as to invite thy presence , and so sanctified , as to be set apart ( from all others , and to be ) only for thy service ? O make it appear that I am thy workmanship , created in Christ Jesus unto good works , which tho● hast before ordained that I should walk in them . If thou pleasest to set forth this Heaven and Earth , this little Epitome of the creation , in a new edition , I know it would be done in so fair a Character , as to delight thine eyes , and to ravi●h the hearts of all that behold it . T is confest the Copy was perfect when it came out of thy hands ; there was no unrighteousness or impatience , not the least blot or blemish in it ; but my Parents who transmitted the book to the world , through their unfaithfulness , filled it from the beginning to the end with errors . Adam begat a Son in his own likeness , after his Image . The first sheet went off the press ( through his cursed falseness and negligence ) imperfect , and full of faults , and the many millions that followed , have still retained the same defects . Yet Lord , since thy Son was at the cost of a new impression ; Let it please thee for his sake to be at the pains of correct●ing this volume so effectually , that those who look into it , may read righteousness , courtesie , meekness , faith , humility , patience , heavenly-mindedness , printed in so large a Letter , free from the former errors , that they may so like it as to embrace and imitate it . O then I shall be assured that at the general Resurrection , when thy last hand shall pass on me , and I shall be published in the newest and last edition , none of those blots and blurs wherewith I have defiled it , shall be found in it ; but thy Image shall be printed on me in such a lovely Character , and in so perfect a manner , that thou wilt delight in me , and I in thee , for ever and ever , Amen . CHAP. II. How Christians may exercise themselves to Godliness , in the Choice of their Companions . SEcondly , Thy duty is to make Religion thy business , and to exercise thy self to Godliness in relation to thy Company . Man ( saith the Great Philosoper ) is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , natures good-fellow ( as one Englisheth it ) a creature in love with Company . Cosmographers observe , that the farthest Islands of the World are so seated , that there is none so remote , but that from some shore of it , another Island or Continent may be discovered ; as if nature hereby invited Countries to mutual commerce . God never intended that the World should be a wilderness , nor the chief inhabitants thereof , as barbarous Beasts , to live alone lurking in their Monks● and Nuns , and Hermits , who under pretence of Sanctity , sequester themselves from all society , are so far from more holiness , and being better Christians then others , that they seem to have put off the very humane nature , and not to be so much as Men. Vnclean , nasty persons , love to be always private , and by their good will , would neither see● nor be seen of others . Birds of Prey flye always alone ; and Ravenous Brutes come not abroad till others are retired , Psa. 104. 23. Our very senses speak that God would have us sociable ; nay , it s the natural voice of our tongues ; for our speech , and hearing , and sight , would be in a great degree lost , and our Makers end in giving us those Organs and Instruments for converse much frustrated , if every man should immure himself in his own Cell . The graces and spiritual riches of Saints , would in some measure be useless , if they did not deal with some to whom they might distribute them . The Law of man condemneth ingrossers of external goods ; and the Law of God condemneth ingrossers of spiritual good things . They who study to Monopolize all to themselves , undo others . As the World shall never want poor men , that the wealthy may always have objects of Charity , and opportunities of laying out , and improving those talents which are committed to their trust ; so the world shall never be without needy Christians , that those who are rich in grace , may have fit objects , and occasions of imploying their gifts . The Moralists axiom is right , Omne bonum quo communius eo melius ; Every good thing is so much the better ; as it hath many sharers in it . In this sense there is a truth in that ; It is not good for man to be alone . Not that it was a formal evil , but inconvenient . Infinite wisdom hath so dispenced his gifts and graces , that no man is so sterile , but he hath something wherewith to profit others , nor any man so furnished and fruitful , but he standeth in need of others help ; The Head cannot say to the Foot ( much-less the Foot to the Head ) I have no need of thee . The King himself , who seemeth to have least want , cannot subsist without the meanest workmen , even them that grind at the Mill ; The King is served by the field , Eccles. 5. 9. Company is both comfortable and profitable . The Fellican avoideth other Birds , and keeps alone , but her tone is always sorrowful . Christians walk more merrily in the way of Gods commandments , when they have many fellow Travellers ; Christian discourse doth so inchant the hearts of the passengers , that Gods statutes are their songs in the house of their Pilgrimage . A Partner , though it be in misery , is a mercy ; and to have one to sympathize with us in our sufferings , is no small ease . The way to prevent the flying in peices of these Vessels , filled with the most piercing sorrows , is to give them vent , by opening our selves to others . This made David bewayl the want of such friends ; My lovers , and my friends stand aloof from my sore , and my kinsmen stand afar off . Heman sings , or rather sighs to the same doleful Tune ; Lover and friend hast thou put far from me , and mine acquaintance into darkness , Psa. 38. 11. and 88. ult . Besides , there is as much profit as comfort in Companions . The Vulgar read that which we translate Company , Job 16. 7. The members of my body ; because Associates as members of the same body , are serviceable to one another , as the several parts of the same building , they help to bear up each other in their proper places , which if divided , would all fall to peices . They never walk long , being soon weary , whoever walk alone . Many Houses in the City have such weak walls , and are so slightly built , that if they stood se●eral in the open fields , they would not stand a year , an high wind would easily tumble them down , which now standing in streets together , receiving support from , and returning it to others , continue many scores of years . Thus many Christians would be easily overthrown by the storms of temptations , were they single and solitary , who resist them with courage , and come off with Victory , being assisted with their Companions . But this benefit ariseth not from every Companion ; Some are like Coals , which instead of warming us , do black , nay burn us . It s better to travail alone , then with a Thief ; Better is a blank , then an ill filling ; bad humors infect the blood , and evil men infect the soul ; It s better ( though it be melancholy ) to travail alone , then with them who lye in wayt for our blood ; He is no better then distracted , who knowingly goeth with them that will lead him into by-paths to his ruine . Though God did not like that Adam should be alone , but intended him a Companion , yet it was such a one as was a meet help . Beasts were no fit Companions for Adam , nor those whom God calleth and counteth Beasts for Christians . Cato being desited by a voluptuous wretch , that he might live with him , answered , Cum eo vivere non possum qui palatum magis sapit quam cor , I care not for living with him that hath more skill in his meat , then in his mind . Therefore Reader , I shall 1. Speak to the Choice of thy Companions . 2. To thy Carriage in Company . In order to the first particular , I would offer thee some Motives , that I may quicken thee to care in thy Choice , and then direct thee about it . SECT . I. FIrst , Consider , Of what concernment the choice of thy Companions is to thee ; They will either be great helps , or great hindrances , according as thy choice is right or wrong . Antisthenes wondered at the folly of those who were curious in buying but an earthen dish , to see that it had no cracks , and careless in the choice of friends , to take them with the flaws of vice . A friend is called , the friend of our bosom ; A Companion is taken into our bosom ; and surely men had need to be wary and wise , what they take into their bosomes ; whether Saints or Serpents , a Disciple or a Devil . We can converse freqently with nothing , but it is insensibly assimulating us to its own predominant quality . Waters vary their savour according to the veins of the soil through which they slide ; Brutes alter their natures answerable to the Climates in which they live . Men are apt to be changed for the better or worse , according to the conditions of them with whom they daily converse ; the election therefore of our Companions is one of the weightiest actions of our lives , our future good or hurt dependeth so much upon it . It s an excellent speech of Chrysostom , If men good and bad be joyned together in a special band of society , they either quickly part , or usually become alike . This made the Mother of Alexander , the twenty sixth Emperour of Rome , keep a guard of men continually about him , that no vicious persons might come to him to corrupt him . If thy Choice be bad , thou art in a double danger of sin and suffering . 1. Thou art in danger of being drawn to sin . They who dwell in AEthiophia , quickly change their skins into a black colour . It s ill and unwholsom for our souls to breath in an Infectious Ayr. Looking-glasses that are very clear and clean , are quickly obscured and dimmed with the foul breath of such as blow upon them . The River Hypanis , famous for the sweetness of its water , by receiving the bitter waters of the Fountain Erampes is poysoned . Ioseph learned the Court phrase , to swear by the life of Pharoah , by his living amongst them whose tongues were tipt with such language . David was brought to feign himself frantick , and to dissemble , as if he could have fought against Gods Favourites , and sheathed his Sword in the bowels of his friends , by associating with uncircumcised Achish . If Peter needlesly thrust himself amongst the High-Priests servants , how soon is he taught even with a Curse and an Oath to deny his Master ? Men like Children , come in time to speak the wicked language and cursed dialects too of the Country and Company in which they dwell . Make no friendship with an angry man , and with a furious man thou shalt not go , saith the Wise man : But Mark Reader , his Reason , lest thou learn his ways , and get a snare to thy soul ; The love of friends may quickly breed a love to their faults ; and so by getting a friend , thou gettest a snare to thy soul , Prov. 22. 24 , 25. If thou wouldst avoid the contagion of sin , avoid all needless communion with sinners . He who walks much in the Sun , is tanned insensibly . Wicked men will be likelier to make thee worse , then thou to make them better . Israel could not bring Egypt to Worship the true God , but Egypt brought Israel to offer sacrifice to their false God. T was from them that the Jews sucked that poison which cost both them and their posterity so dear ; The golden Calf was first fashioned in the Iron furnace . The Tyrant Mezentius tied the living bodies of the Captives to the dead ; the dead stunk up the living , but the living could not quicken the dead . Lewd men are continual weights , pressing down others to wickedness . How few live in Venice but grow lecherous ? or in Spain but become proud ? or in France , and are not fantastick ? or among the Dutch and do not drink in both their deceitfulness , and their drunkenness ? It s natural for men to put on the fashions , be they never so wicked , of the Country or Company wherein they abide . It s said of Rome , He that goeth thither once , shall see an evil man ; if he like so well as to go a second time , he shall gain his acquaintance ; but if he go a third time , he shall bring him home with him . The mind like Iacobs Sheep receiveth the tincture and colour of those objects that are presented to it . Sin is a Gangreen , which if it seiseth one part , quickly spreadeth and infecteth the other parts which are near it , 2 Tim. 2. 17. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump , whether it be the leaven of error , or of scandal , 1 Cor. 5. 7. Gal. 5. 9. Sinners are plague-Sores , ( as the 70. read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pests , Psa. 1. 1. which we translate scorners ) that convey the Contagion to all their Companions . A little wormwood will imbitter much hony , and one sinner destroyeth much good , Eccles 9. 18. Of a certain Prince of Germany t is said , Esset alius si esset apud alios ; He would have been a better person , if he had but been with better Companions . An unclean Leprous person under the Law , tainted whatever he touched ; therefore God would have him distinguished by his bald head , his torn habit , and his habitation apart , that all might avoid him . And what is the Gospel of it , but that men should avoid the scandalous infectious sinner , lest they be defiled with his sin . The Nicopolites so hated the braying of an Ass , that for that cause they would not endure the noise of a Trumpet . Reader , if thou hatest every false way according to thy duty , if ever sin be loathsom to thee , I doubt not but thou wilt be far from loving the cup in which this cursed potion is , I mean the sinners company . Those that company much with Dogs , may well swarm with fleas . God tels Israel , Thou shalt not make a Covenant with them ( meaning the Canaanites ) they shall not dwell in thy land , lest they make thee sin against me ; Exod. 23. 32 , 33. There is great prevalency in evil patterns ; Evil precepts perswade , but evil patterns compel men to sin ; lest they make thee sin against me . The Pelagian error is , that no sin came in by propagation , but all by imitation ; but it is an experienced truth , that sin is much spread and increased by example . It s common to sin for company , and that Cup usually goeth round , and is handed from one to another . At least , evil Company will abate the good in thee . The Herb of grace will never thrive in such a cold soyl . How poorly doth the good Corn grow , which is compassed about with Weeds ! Cordials and Restoratives will do little good to the natural body , whilst it aboundeth with ill humours . Ordinances and duties are little effectual to our souls , whilst Christians are distempered with such noxious inmates . It s said of the Mountain Kadish , that whatsoever Vine be planted near it , it causeth it to wither and dye . It s exceeding rare for Saints to thrive near such pull-backs . It s difficult , even to a miracle , to keep Gods Commandments , and evil Company too ; therefore when David would marry himself to Gods Commands , to love them , and live with them , for better for worse , all his days , he is forced to give a Bill of Divorce to wicked Companions , knowing that otherwise the match could never be made . Depart from me ye workers of iniquity , for I will keep the Commandments of my God , Psa. 119. 115. As if he had said , Be it known unto you , O sinners , that I am striking an hearty Covenant with Gods Commands , I like them so well , that I am resolved to give my self up to them , and to please them well in all things , which I can never do unless ye depart ; ye are like a strumpet which will steal away the love from the true Wife ; I cannot as I ought , obey my Gods precepts whilst ye abide in my presence ; therefore depart from me ye workers of iniquity , for I will keep the Commandments of my God. Sometimes Saints are ashamed to shew themselves whose Servants they are , sometimes they are afraid of giving offence to their Friends , or Neighbours of the Synagogue of Satan ; some snare or other , the great Soul-hunter catcheth them in , when he finds them amongst his own , that they shall refrain their mouths from all 〈◊〉 while the wicked is before them , Psa. 39. 3. They who touch the fish called Torpedo , lose their senses , and finde their Members so benummd for a time that they cannot stir them . How often hath spiritual sense been taken away , and grace been as it were in a swoon by the noisom vapors , and filthy exhalations that have arisen from ungodly companions ! How many of them like the Pine-tree with their shadow , hinder all other from growing near them ! A Conjurer in Tindals presence , could not shew his Cheats , but confest there was some godly man in the room that hindered him . A Christian who thrusteth himself into vain fellows Company , cannot do the good , shew the grace he should , and may acknowledge ungodly persons to be the cause . A tender person used to warm chambers , coming into the open air , finds his members chilled and unfit for action . O what a damp hath many a Christian found to come upon his spirit , by his conversing with those that are wholly carnal ! Antisthenes would frequently say , I● was a great oversight in men that would purge their Wheat from Darnel , not to purge their Common-wealth from lewd persons . 2. Further , thou art in danger of suffering , as well as of sinning with them . The Wheat hath many a blow , for being amongst the Chaff . The Gold would not be put into the fire , if it were not for the dross with which it is mingled . God loves his Saints so well , that he sometimes saveth sinn●rs temporally for their sakes ; Holy Paul was the plank upon which all that sailed with him got safe ●o shore ; the grass in the Allies , fares the better for the watering which the Gardiner bestoweth on his flowers in the banks ; Israel is a blessing in the Land of Assyria , Isa. 19. 24. The whole world will stand the longer , because Christians bear up the Pillars thereof ; but God hates sinners so much that even his own people being amongst them have suffered temporally with them . Lot chose wicked Sodom for a pleasant habitation ; but what did he get by it , when he was captivated with its inhabitants , and afterwards forced to leave that wealth ( which drew him to love it ) to the destroying flames ? Iosiah though peerless for his piety , was not spared when he joyned with the Assyrian , but his League with them cost him his life . When two are parties in a Bond , though one be the principal , both may justly be cast into Prison . It s ill being in a Felo●s company , when the Officer of justice overtakes him ; he may come to suffer for the Treason , who ha●bours and abetteth the Traytor . A Companion of fools shall be destroyed , Prov. 13 : 20. The Apostle St. Iohn ( saith the Ecclesiastical Historian ) finding Cerinthus a blasphemous Heretick in the Bath , and some others as bad as he , departed away presently , lest divine vengeance should finde them together . Nay , the very Heathen had some sense how unsafe it was to associate with vicious men . When Bias was in a ship amongst a wicked crew , and a storm arising , they cried aloud for mercy , he had them hold their peace , and not let the Gods know they were there , lest the Ship should be sunk , and all perish for their sakes . When the great Ordnance of wrath shattereth a wicked man in peices , the force of it may strike down those that are next him . We command you brethren , saith the Apostle , in the name of our Lord Iesus Christ , that ye withdraw your selves from every brother who walketh disorderly , 2 Thes. 3. 6. The word withdraw is an allusion to Mariners heedfulness to avoid Rocks and Sands , lest they should be ruined by them . They who would not shipwrack themselves , must decline both sinners courses and company . The Psalmist would not eat of their dish , lest he should pay their reckoning ; Let me not eat of their dainties , nor drink of their cup. He durst not be so familiar as to feed with them , lest he should afterwards fare as they . Friend , as thou wouldst not suffer with sinners , take heed of sitting with them . It s enough to bring a man into suspicion at Court , to be intimate with one whom the King hates . Intireness with wicked persons ( saith one ) is one of the strongest chains of Hell , and binds us to a participation both of sin and punishment . When the Deer pierced with the Arrow , and pursued by the hounds , runneth to the Herd for shelter , they will not admit her amongst them , out of a principle of self-preservation , lest the Dogs in fetching her out , should fall on them . If thou wouldst not have divine judgements to attach thee , beware of being found amongst them who are markt out for vengeance . Come out from her my people , that ye be not partakers of her sins , and that ye receive not of her plagues , Rev. 18. 4. T was dangerous being near those who were to be cast into the fiery furnace ( which Nebuchad●ezzer had made , ) the men that took them up were scorched to death . Clemens Alexandrinus tells it as the Worlds saying , If a Fish that is taken break the snare and get away , no other of that kind is taken that day . How many that through mercy have been given to ill company , and broke the snares , have told us the mischeif thereof afterward ; Let their example make thee fearful of such ●nares . Some tell us that Swallows would not flie into Thebes , because their walls were so often beleagured ; and wilt thou run into that company , which is always besieged with Gods thundering curse ? O take heed with whom thou strikest friendship ; for when the breath of Gods anger overturneth the house of the Drunkard , or Swearer , the houses of their next ( though best ) Neighbours may fare the worse for its fall . Let me give thee the same advice which Physitians do their friends , touching persons infected with the plague , Cito , Longe , Tarde ; speedily shun their company ; Flie far away from them , let it be long ( even till their sores be healed ) before thou returnest to them again ; for it may be truly said of evil companions , what one saith of Rumny Marsh ; It s bad in Winter , hurtful in Summer , good never . If thy Choice be good , it will redound very much to thine advantage ; It s no small happiness to have him for thy friend , who is a favou●ite in Heavens Court. Elisha offered it as a great kindness to his courteous Host , Shall I speak for thee to the King ? This favour thou mayst expect in a greater measure from thy Christian friend ; He will speak for thee to the King of Kings ; and send many a rich venture for thee into the other World , whence the return will be certain , and the gain superabundant . O t is good to have an interest in that heart , which hath an interest in Heaven . The great Apostle begs hard , as upon his knees , for a share in the Saints prayers ; Seldom haste thou heard a starving beggar so importunate for a piece of bread , as he is to be a partner in their joynt stock , Rom. 15. 30. I beseech you brethren for the Lord Iesus Christs sake , and for the love of the Spirit , that ye strive together in your prayers to God for me . And wha●s the reason ? Truly Paul knew that united force was stronger , that such persons prayers would be prevalent Ambassadours to obtain the errand they were sent about . The Father who denyeth or delayeth a single child , when several of them together desire favour , granteth it speedily . It s hard to turn stones into bread , to fetch meat out of the eater , affliction ; yet the Saints prayers have been helpful to do it ; I know that this ( i. e. great tribulation ) shall turn to my salvation through your prayers , Phil. 1. 19. A good Companion is a rare jewel , and of great value . It s observable that Moses proceeding by degrees , ascendeth at last to the highest step of persons that may win upon us , and nameth friends as the top of all , and dearer then all Relations ; If thy Brother , or Son , or Daughter , or Wife , or Friend , which lyeth in thy bosome , which is as thine own soul , Deut. 13. 6. A godly friend is a choice book , out of which we may learn many excellent things , and a precious treasure , whereby our souls may be inriched with vertue . He that walketh with the wise , shall be wise , Prov. 13. 20. They who walk with them that are strong-sented with grace , must needs receive somewhat of its savour . The very sight of that holiness which shineth brightly in their works , will kindle thy spirit , and enlarge thy mind with an honest emulation of their worth . If ( as some credibly relate of Persina the Ethiopian Queen , by seeing the fair Picture of Perseus and Andromeda , she was delivered of a fair Child , ) the frequent view of a fair Picture , hath such an operation upon the body , as to cause an AEgyptian Woman to bring forth a beautiful Child ; Surely thy constant beholding the amiable Image of the blessed God , in thy pious companion , may have such an energy on thy soul , as to assimulate thee to its own nature , and help thee to bring forth a lovely issue , a Iedediah , whom the Lord loveth . The ground is the more fruitful , which is near such Trees of righteousness , for the dunging and dressing which the good Husbandman bestoweth on them . When a friend of Phocions would have cast himself away , Phocion suffered him not , saying , I was made thy friend for this purpose . Reader , If thou hast any truth of grace , thou wilt above all things in the World value Gods presence ; but if thou wouldst find him , it must be amongst his people ; they are his habitation where he always resides . Ioseph and Mary sought Jesus amongst his Kindred . If thy soul have any longing after the holy Jesus , the best way to find him is amongst his Disciples , for they onely are his kindred ; He stretched forth his hands towards his Disciples , saying , Behold my Mother and my Brethren ; For whosoever shall do the Will of my Father which is in Heaven , the same is my Brother , and Sister , and Mother , Mat. 12. ult . Luk. 2. 44. Secondly , Consider ; The choice of thy Companions will discover thy condition ; It s a Spanish Proverb , Dime con quiem andis y dezirte he quiem ere 's ; Tell me with whom thou goest , and I will tell thee what thou art . Sylla shewed the vileness and viciousness of his disposition , by his companions , which were , Roscius , a maker of Common Plays , Sorax , a Prince of Scoffers , and Metrobius a singing man. It s easie to know to what house some persons belong , by their usual walking with those of the same family , either Children or Servants . It will be manifest to others , whether thou appertainest to the Houshold of God , or the Synagogue of Satan , by those with whom thou delightest to associate . The Sheep of Christ do not love the Company of unclean and unsavoury Goats . Augustus Caesar found out the temper of his two Daughters , by observing their company at a publique shew , where much people were present ; at which time his Daughter Livia discoursed with grave and prudent Senatours , and his Daughter Iulia joyned with loose and riotous persons . The Lacedemonians enquiring after the dispositions of their children sent abroad to school ; onely demanded of their Masters to what play-fellows they were linked , whether those who were studious and serious , or such as were wanton and vicious , not doubting but they were sutable to them in their natures , whose fellowship they fancied . Many if they walked alone , would be thought by reason of their rich cloaths , men of better estate then they are , and others meaner then they are , by reason of their mean attire ; who yet both are discerned of what rank they be by thir companions . Dulce quidem dulci se adjungit , amaraque amaris , Acre perinde acri accessit , salsum quoque salso . It s said of the Apostles , that being dismist from the Council , they went 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to their own , or to their proper and peculiar ( friends , ) so the Original ; we translate it , to their own company , because Saints are a select Corporation by themselves , their priviledge or Charter is peculiar , and so are their Companions , and the persons interested in it . The Citizens of Sion are a distinct company from the rest of the World , and when they can get loose from their Persecutors , they go to them of their own livery . The Disciples were amongst the High-Priests and wicked men , by constraint , and to their greif ; but amongst their own onely , out of choice , and with their good-will . Birds of a Feather will flock together . Servants of the same Lord , if faithful , will joyn with their fellows , and not with the servants of his Enemy . Abraham sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange Country , dwelling in Tabernacles ( not with the Canaanites , the Natives , though he dwelt amongst them , but ) with Isaac and Iacob , the heirs with him of the same promise , Heb. 11.9 . When a man comes into an Inn , you may give a notable guess for what place he intends , by the Company he inquires after ; His Question , ( Do you know of any travailing towards London ? I should he heartily glad of their company , ) will speak his mind and his course ; If he hear of any bound for another coast , he regards them not ; but if he know of any honest passengers that are to ride in the same road , and set out for the same City with himself , he sends to them , and begs the favour of their good company . This World is an Inn , all men are in some sense Pilgrims and Strangers , they have no abiding place here ; now the Company they enquire after , and delight in , whether those that walk in the broad way of the flesh , or those who walk in the narrow way of the Spirit , will declare whether they are going towards Heaven , or towards Hell. A wicked man will not desire the company of them who walk in a contrary way , nor a Saint delight in their society who go cross to his journey . Can two walk together except they be agreed ? They who walk together , are supposed to have one will , because they are seen to have one way , Amos 3. 3. When Elihu would prove Iob to be bad , this is his argument , He goeth in Company with the workers of iniquity , and walketh with wicked men , Job 34. 8. If Job did not follow their ungodly calling of working iniquity , or acting sin with art , as the word signifieth , you would not find him so much in their Company ; His doctrine was true , though his application of it was false ; A godly man may fall into wicked company by chance , but he never walks with such out of choice ; He may be necessitated to dwell with them , but he cannot delight in them . To Associate with the prophane , is proper to the prophane ; As soon as Paul was sanctified , this was almost one of the first signs it appeared by , And Paul assayed to joyn himself to the Disciples , Act. 9. 26. He that before was for the company of the High-Priests , and Persecutors of the Saints , when once converted , is for the company of the Saints , though persecuted . He who before as one mad with rage , breathed out nothing but prisons and slaughter against them ; being now inlightned to see the beauty of their persons , and the excellency of their communion , assayeth to joyn himself to them . The young Patridges hatched under a Hen , go for a time along with her Chickens , and keep them company , scraping in the earth together ; but when they are grown up , and their wings fit for the purpose , they mount up into the Air , and seek for Birds of their own nature . A Christian before his conversion is brought up under the Prince of darkness , and walketh in company with his cursed Crew , according to the course of the World ; but when the Spirit changeth his disposition , he quickly changeth his Companions , and delighteth onely in the Saints that are on earth . He that would not be found amongst sinners in the other World , must take heed that he do not frequent their company in this . Those whom the Constable finds wandring with vagrants , may be sent with them to the House of Correction . Lord , said a good Woman on her death-bed , when in some doubt of her salvation , Send me not to Hell amongst wicked men , for thou knowest I never loved their Company all my life long ; David deprecates their future doom upon the like ground , and argueth it as a sign of his sincerity , I have not sat with vain persons , neither will I go in with dissemblers ; I have hated the Congregation of evil doers , and will not sit with 〈◊〉 wicked ; O gather not my soul with sinners , Psa. 26. 4 , 5 , 9. i. e. Lord , I have not loved the wicked so well as to sit with them for a little time , and shall I live with them for ever ? I have not layn amongst them rotting on the earth ; and wilt thou gather my soul with those sticks for the unquenchable fire of Hell ? Lord , I have been so far from liking , that thou knowest I have loathed the Congregation of evil doers ; Do not I hate them that hate thee ? Yea , I hate them with perfect hatred ; and shall thy friend fare as thy foes ? I appeal to thy Majesty , that my great comfort is in thy chosen . I rejoyce onely to be amongst thy Children here , and shall I be excluded their company hereafter ? O do not gather my soul with sinners , for the Wine-press of thine eternal anger . Marcion the Heretick , seeing Polycarp , wondred that he would not own him ; Do you not know me Polycarp ; yea , saith Polycarp , Scio te esse primogenitum Diaboli ; I know thee to be the first-born of the Devil , and so despised him . SECT . II. THirdly , 3 Consider that there can be no true friendship betwixt a Godly and a Wicked person ; therefore it concerneth thee to be the more wary in thy choice . He that in factions hath an eye to power , in friendship will have an eye to vertue . Friendship , according to the Philosopher , is own soul in two bodies , but how can they ever be of one soul , that are as different as Air and Earth ; and as contrary as Fire and Water ? All true love is , motus animi ad fruendum Deo propter ipsum ; se & proximo propter Deum ; A motion of the sa●●● , towards the enjoyment of God for himself , himself and his neighbours for Gods sake ; so that he can never truly love man , who doth not love his Maker . God is the onely foundation upon which we can build friendship , therefore such as live without him , cannot love us in him . That building which is loose without this foundation , can never stand long . A wicked man may call that profession he maketh to to his Brother , by the name of love ; but Heathens can tell us that vertue alone is the hand which can twist the cords of love ; that other combinations are but a confederacy , and all other conjunctions in Hypocrisie . T is impossible that vitiated nature should move any other way then the principle of self carrieth it , which is directly opposite to true friendship ; Unfaigned love , saith Aristotle , is a benevolent affection , willing good to another for his own sake . How then canst thou expect the comfort of a friend from him who steereth wholly by the compass of self ? He saith he loves thee ; I am sure his lust hath more of his heart then thou hast ; either then thou must love the Dog , his brutish lust , or he will tell thee shortly thou dost not love the Master . If ever thou happenest to touch on his sore place , to tell him of his fault ( which thou art bound to do , if thou wilt be faithful to God , to him , and to thy own soul ) he will soon kick up thy friendship , and publish to the World , that thou art an uncivil , sawcy , and unintolerable person ; Such are like unwholsom meat , which can neither be detained in the stomach without danger of diseases nor cast up without pain . By patching up a friendship with a carnal man , thou bringest thy self to this miserable plunge , either thou must turn Caterer for his flesh , purvey for his sensual appetite , and provide the air of flattery ( a more hellish wind then any the Laplanders sell ) to feed the Camelion of his pride , or else snap the bones and ligaments of friendship in sunder , which will not be done without some pain and regret on each part . Cardan tells us that he would never rend a false friendship in peices , but fairly pick the threads by which it was sown together ; but this is hard to do . O what folly is it to make choice of him whom thou canst not keep ( for thy friend ) without Gods disfavoru ! Reader , If thine end be good in desiring Companions , thou wilt be wholly frustrated in it , unless thou art wise in thy choice . Canst thou think that he can love thee sincerely , who is Hypocritical in his love to his own soul ? Ionathan was a true friend , and loved David as his own soul. So t is said of Basil and Nazianzen , Anima una inclusa , in duobus corporibus ; A wicked man quickly love thee as his own soul , but not in Ionathans sense ; He loved David as his own soul , according to a renewed and spiritual light , as one that saw the worth of his soul , and his eye affected his heart ; but a wicked man hath no love to his own soul in this sense ; he loveth ( or rather seemeth to love it , by carking and caring to please and pamper it , for indeed he hateth ) his dying flesh , but he careth not at all for his everliving spirit , mindeth not whether it sink or swim for ever ; Now is it likely that he should be a faithfull friend to thee , to direct thee in thy doubts , reprove thee for thy faults , who is such a cruel enemy to himself ; Such a one may scare Birds , but he will never secure a Christian ; As the Dolphin in a calm Sea , he is never from the sides of the Ship ; but if a tempest arise , he is gone ; He may indeed shroud his private aims under the cloak of friendship , but this the very Moralist will tell thee , non est amicitia , sed mercatura , is onely to make a trade and merchandise of one another . There may be fire in the Pan , when there is none in the Barrel of the piece ; there may be a profession of love in his words , but there is no love in his heart . I cannot more fitly compare such a mans friendship , then to some plants in Rivers , which have broad leaves at the top of the water , but scarce any root at all . He may make a great shew of love , and tell thee , you shall never know what I will do for you ( and then he speaks true ) but his high building hath no bases , his great profession hath no root , and therefore is rotten . To be brief Reader , thou wilt easily grant that there can be no true friendship betwixt a man and a beast , their natures being so differing ; I must tell thee , t is more impossible for true friendship to be betwixt a true Christian and a carnal person ; for their natures are more differing . The beast and a prophane man differ indeed , yet are not contrary , nay they are so much alike , that the sensual appetite is the predominant quality and commander in cheif in both ; onely beasts are innocent Subjects to it , as breaking no Law thereby ; but man , by being a Slave to that Usurper , is a Traytour to his supreme Lord , and to his Viceroy within him . Reason ; but a Saint and a wicked man are contrary , consider them from head to foot , they stand both in defiance against each other . Their understandings are contrary ; the one is light , the other is darkness ; the one judgeth sin to be the greatest and most abominable evil , the other judgeth it to be a pleasant eligible good . Their wills are contrary , the one is a resolved Souldier under the Captain of his salvation , fully set to lose his life , before he will give up his cause , or leave his colours ; the other is a sworn Officer under the Prince of the powers of the Air ( an implacable enemy to the former General ) and stoutly bent to dye , nay be damned rather then desert him ; Their affections are contrary ; the affections of the on● as fire ascend upward , are set on things above ; the affections of the other , like earth , tend downwards , and are set on things below ; what the one loves above his life , the other hates unto death ; what the one forsakes as worse then Poyson , the other followeth after as his onely portion . Are these two Reader , like to agree , and to be ( as friends should ) of one heart , and of one soul ? Idem velle & idem nolle est vera amicitia , saith the Oratour . T is true friendship to Will and Nill the same things ; what kind of friendship must that be then between those that always will and nill contrary things ? Let thy own reason be judge ; if likeness be the ground of love , what love can there be amongst them that are wholly unlike ? O let no● any carnal interest sway thee to choofe Sodom for the place of thy habitation , much less to accept of Gods Foe to be thy bosome friend● ; for what communion hath light with darkness ? or what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness ? and what concord hath Christ with Belial ? or what part hath he that beleiveth with an infidel ? 2 Cor. 6. 14 , 15. Like as the Elements , according to Empedocles opinion , are always at strife together , but specially those that are neerest ; so godly and evil men are always at odds , but those especially that are nearest . The Horse hath a natural emnity against the Camel , and the Camel against the Horse ; Therefore Cyrus being to fight with the Babylonians , who excelled in Horses , used as many Camels as he could get . The sinner is like the Horse , altogether unclean ; the Christian like the Camel ( that cheweth the cud , though he divideth not the hoofe ) is parly clean , partly unclean , now there being an enmity betwixt these , there can never be any society . The Feathers of Eagles , say Naturalists , will not mingle with the feathers of any ohter Fowls . Many complain of the treachery of their friends , and say ( as Queen Elizabeth ) that in trust they have found treason ; but most of these men have greatest cause ( if all things be duly weighed ) to complain of themselves for making no better choice ; He is right served in all mens judgements , who hath his liquor running out , which he puts into a leaking Vessel , or riven Dish . SECT . III. I Come now to shew wherein the power of godliness consisteth , or how a man maketh Religion his business in the choice of his Companions . First , Be as careful as thou canst , that the persons thou choosest for thy Companions , be such as fear God. The man in the Gospel was possessed with the Devil , who dwelt amongst the Tombs , and conversed with Graves and Carcasses : Thou art far from walking after the good spirit , if thou choosest to converse with open Sepulchres , and such as are dead in sins and trespasses . God will not shake the wicked by the hand ( as the vulgar read , Iob 8. 20. ) neither must the godly man. David proves the sincerity of his course , by his care to avoid suc● society ; I have walked in thy truth , I have not sat with vain persons , Psa. 26. 5. 6. There is a twofold truth ; 1. Truth of Doctrine . Thy Law is the truth , free from all dross of corruption , and falshood o● error . 2. Truth of affection , or of the inward parts ; this may be called thy truth , or Gods truth ( though man be the subject of it ) partly because it proceedeth from him , partly because it is so pleasant to him , in which respect a broken heart is called the sacrifice of God , Psa. 51. 6. As if he had said ; I could not have walked in the power of Religion , and in integrity , if I had associated with vile and vain company ; I could never have walked in thy precepts , if I had sat with vain persons . Observe the phrase , I have not sat with vain persons . 1. Sitting is a posture of choice ; it s at a mans liberty , whether he will sit or stand . 2. Sitting is a posture of pleasure ; men sit for their ease , and with delight ; therefore the glorified are said , to sit in heavenly places , Eph. 2. 6. 3. Sitting is a posture of staying or abiding , 2 King. 5. 3. standing is a posture of going , but sitting of staying ; The blessed , who shall for ever be with the Lord and his chosen , are mentioned to sit down with Abraham , Isaac , and Iacob , in the Kingdom of Heaven , Mat. 8. 11. David in neither of these senses , durst sit with vain persons ; He might ( as his occasions required ) use their Company , but durst not knowingly choose such Company ; They could not be the object of his election , who were not the object of his affection ; I hate the congregation of evil doers , saith he in verse 7. As sitting is a posture of pleasure , he did not sit with vain persons . He was sometimes amongst them to his sorrow , but not to his solace . They were to him , as the Canaanites to the Israelites , pricks in his eyes , and thornes in his sides . Wo is me , for I dwell in Meshech , and my habitation is in the Tents of Kedar , Psa. 120. 5 , 6. It caused grief , not gladness , that he was forced to be amongst the prophane . Again , He might stand amongst them , but durst not ( unless necessitated , as a Prisoner kept by force in a Prison ) sit with them . A godly man may go to such persons as we do sometimes to felons in a Gaol , about business , but he likes not to stay in such a nasty place . It s said of the Lyzard , an unclean Bird , that she liveth in Graves and such places of corruption ; But the Dove a clean creature , loves to build and lie clean . Though ●he sinner , like Satan , delights in herds of Swine ; the Saint disesteemeth a vile person , and honoureth them that fear the Lord , Psa. 15. 4. The Burgess of the new Ierusalem ( saith one upon that Text ) reprobos reprobat , & probos probat , he rejecteth the vicious , and though they may be great and high , counteth them but vile , Elisha was so far from bestowing his love , that he thought an evil King not to deserve a look . As the Lord liveth , were it not that I regard the presence of Iehosaphat the King of Iudah , I would not look towards thee , nor see thee , saith the Prophet to the King of Israel , 2 King. 3. 14. That unerring pattern , our blessed Saviour , did not judge wicked Herod worthy of one word . Then Herod questioned with him in many words , but he answered him nothing , Luk. 23. 9. But the true Christian honoureth them that fear the Lord , though he disesteemeth the wicked . Saints are Gods jewels , and therefore must needs be of great price with them that have any judgement . Ingo an antient King of the Draves , at a Feast , sets his Pagan Nobles in his Hall below , and entertained a company of poor Christians at his own Table in his Presence Chamber , in the most Royal manner , and with the costliest chear that might be ; and when this different dealing was wondered at by his Peers , he gave them this Reason , I do this act , not as King of the Draves , but as King of another World , where these poor men shall be my Companions and fellow-Princes ; David was a great Soveraign , yet the Saints onely were his Associates ; Let them that fear thee , turn unto me , and such as keep thy righteous judgements . They who but touched the carcasses of men ( and wicked men are but moving carcasses ) were unclean seven days , Numb . 19. 11. The flesh that toucheth any unclean thing , shall not be eaten , Levit. 7. 19. God commanded the Jews , Thou shalt not let thy Cattel gender with a diverse kind ; Thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled Seed ; neither shall a Garment mingled of linnen and wollen come upon thee , Lev. 19. 19. This indeed taken literally , was ceremonial to them , and is vanished with their Commonwealth ; but taken mystically , there is something in it which is moral , and binding to us , namely , that God abhors mixtures of good and bad persons , more then of different things , and the Apostle applieth it to the same purpose . Reader , if God hath opened thine eyes , thou seest that Saints are lovely , though low ; and precious , though poor ; I am black but comely , O ye Daughters of Jerusalem , as the Tents of Kedar , Cant. 1. 5. Kedar signifieth black , and the Tents of Kedar were of hair-cloth , ( made of Goats hair , ) wherein they dwelt . Here the Church ( which elsewhere is called the Tents of Iacob , Jer. 30. 18. ) is for her persecutions , and pilgrimage , and poverty compared to the Tents of Kedar , saith Aynsworth ; but I suppose there is one thing more in it , and that is as the Church did resemble the Tents of Kedar in her outward condition , so also in her inside . The Tents of Kedar were stored with gold , pleasant odours , and jewels within . O how glorious is the Kings daughter within ! her inward ornaments are infinitely more worth then wrought , then choice gold . Dost thou not behold the Saints vertues under their vail , their beauty under their black Cypress ? How they are a Crown of Glory , a Royal Diadem , Princes in all his Lands , higher then the Kings of the earth , more excellent then their richest , wisest , and most honourable Neighbours , the Lords portion , his peculiar people , his Privy-Councellors , his Children , his Love and Delight , and doth not thine understanding prise them , thy will choose them , and thy affections cling and close with them ? Surely such persons are worthy to be thy Companions . Christians must resemble the Loadstone , to attract that only to them , which is of some worth ; and not like the Iett , draw stubble and hay and straw , to which wicked men are compared . To the Saints that are in the Earth , and to the excellent , in whom is all my delight , saith that man after God● own heart . Further , It s thy interest to choose them only for thy friends . Others will one time or other prove false . Those men will stick closer then a brother ; Greet them that love us in the faith , such love will be firm , Tit. 3. 15. Ungodly men may be about us as Mice in a Barn , whilst something is to be had , but when all the Corn is gone , they are gone too ; If thou ceasest to give , they will cease to love . When the weather is foul ( as Swallows , though they chatterd about our Chimneys , and chatterd in our Chambers ) they will take their flight , and leave nothing behind but dirt and dung , as the pledge of their friendship . Hamans friends , who when he was in favour were ready to kiss his feet , no sooner saw the King incensed against him , but they are as ready to cover his face , and help him to an Halter . There is no faith in that Man , who hath no fear of the great God. SECT . IV. SEcondly , If thou wouldst manifest godliness in the choice of thy Companions , thy care must be not onely to choose such as are godly , but also to choose them , because they are godly . As Godliness must be a ruling quality in them that are chosen , so it must be the ground of thy choice . A man may keep company with godly men , because they live near him , or because they are related to him , or because they are wise , learned , or ingenuous persons , or because they may do , or have done him a courtesie , and yet not put forth the least grain of godliness in it . When Gods grace in them is the onely ground of our choice , and Gods Image on them , the cheif Loadstone of our love , then we exercise our selves to godliness in the choice of our Companions . If I love my Neighbour , and like his company , because he resembleth me in his feature , or in his nature , or because he is a mild , meek , peaceable man , or because I expect some kindness from him ; herein I shew my love to my self , but none to my God , and therefore nothing of godliness . Laban delighted to have Iacob with him , and would by no means hear of his departure , he sets him to be chief over his flock , he bendeth and boweth to him , he flattereth and fawneth on him , though his servant and underling , and who so much as Iacob in his books ! but mark the ground of all : And Laban said unto him , I pray thee if I have found favour in thy sight , tarry ; for I have learned by experience that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake , Gen. 30. 27 He loved Iacob fo● himself , or rather loved himself in Iacob ; he courted him not because he was a good man , but because he was a good servant ; herein was nothing of Religion ; As the Jews followed Christ , not for the miracle , but for the meat , Joh. 6. Such men love others for the outward goods they bring to them , not for the grace or godliness they see in them ; for if they were not holy , they would desire their Company ; This is faigned , and not the love the Apostle speaks of , 1 Pet. 1. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the unfaigned love of the brethren , or love without dissimulation . The voice of a worldling in the choice of a friend , is much like that of Ioram to Iehu ; Is it peace Iehu ? Is it wealth ? Is it honour ? Is it power ? then be thou my friend . But the voice a Christian , is like that of Iehu to Ionadab ; Is thy heart right as mine is ? Is there the fear of God , truth of grace in thy heart ? then give me thy hand , come up into the Chariot , be thou my friend . The Choice of a Christian must flow from another fountain then worldly profit ; namely , the amiableness of the Image of Christ in the person . The heat and light of a wicked mans love , as a lamp is fed with , and floweth from some earthly substance , and is extinguished when that is denyed ; but the heat and light of a Saints friendship , as the solary rays , springeth from an heavenly cause , and therefore will continue . The Apostle speaketh of love out of a pure heart , 1 Tim. 1. 5. That i● pure love , a pure stream , which ariseth from a pure heart , a pure spring ; that is , not onely the grace of God , secret in a Christian , but the grace of God , seen in his Companion whom he loveth . It is clearly visible , that many associate with Christians , not for their vertues , but at a venture , they were possibly the first they fell in league with , or upon some other respect ; for they know others as high in holiness whom they slight , nay possibly hate , whereas he that loveth grace in one , loveth grace in all . It s an infallible sign of a crooked nature ( saith Cicero ) to be affected with none but Praetors and great men . It s little sign I am sure of grace , to joyn onely wi●h those Saints that are rich or high in the World. If thou admirest holiness in scarlet , and robes , and contemnest it in sackcloth and russet ; I must tell thee thou art grosly deceived ; for thou admirest the Scarlet , and honour , not the holiness at all . I do not deny but amongst Christians , a man ( that hath the opportunity ) may choose out some , rather then others to be his most intimate companions ; Christ , though he loved all his Disciples , yet had one especially , the beloved Disciple , who leaned on Iesus bosome ; Amongst all the Apostles , he vouchsafed to three onely the favour of his extraordinary friendship . When he raised up the Rulers daughter , he suffered none to go in , save Peter , Iames , and Ioh● . When he was transfigured , he took up with him , onely Peter , Iames and Iohn ; In his bitter and bloody Agony , these three were taken out from the rest . Luk. 8. 51. Mat. 17. 5. and 26. 37. But if I might advise thee Reader , in such a Choice , I would give thee these two Cautions . First , That thou prefer those whom God prefers ; I mean such as have most grace ; It s a sign of a Coward to choose a weak enemy , and its a sign of little grace to choose the weakest Christian friends ; He that hath most of Gods heart , deserveth most of thine ; I am ready to think , that Peter , Iames , and Iohn , that had more of Christs love then the rest , had more of his Likeness and Image then the rest . I confess some respect in the choice of a bosome friend , ought to be had to his prudence . Some men ( though holy ) are indiscreet , and in point of secrets are like Sives , can keep nothing committed to them , but let all run thorough . A blab of secrets , is a Traytour to society , as one that causeth much dissention . It s good to try him whom we intend for a bosome friend , before we trust him ; As men prove their Vessels with Water , before they fill them with Wine . If we finde them leaking , they will be useless as to that purpose ; Too many are like the Dead Sea , in which nothing , saith Aristotle , sinks to the bottom , but every thing thrown into it , swims at the top , and is in sight . Nakedness in mind , is as well a blemish , as nakedness in body . It s wonderful folly , which some persons manifest in stripping themselves naked before every one , and unbosoming themselves whoever stands by . Pictures that have no Curtains before them , gather much dust , and so do those minds that are ever open and exposed to every mans view . Others are like the Sea , full of wealth and worth , of great abilities in spiritual things , but there is no coming at it , they are so concealed , that none is ever like to be the better for it . Those golden Mines that are never known , enrich none . There are a middle sort of Christians between these , that like a secret box in a Cabinet , is not seen without some difflculty , but as occasion is , it is opened , and then many jewels of rare value appear . The Bow that is hardest to bend , doth the most service , for it sendeth forth the Arrow with the greatest force . The Nut that is hard to crack , hath the best kernel . These Christians may as likely as any , be thy bosome friends . Though some respect I confess may be had to sutableness of disposition in him whom thou choosest for an intimate friend . As in marriage , so in friendship , its best when there is some equality and likeness in pairs , as of Tongs , or Gloves , there must be a parity ; Such friendship founded both in grace and nature , is like to be lasting . 2. That in prefering some , thou castest no contempt upon others . The smallest piece of pea●l is worthy of esteem , the little violet is pleasant . The poorest Christian , he that hath the least grace , deserveth our love and observance . Christ takes notice of two mites , of a little strength , of some good thing , and shall not we ? Math. 12. 43. Rev. 3. 8. 1 King. 13. 14. Babes in Christ being unable to help themselves , have most need of good Nurses ; Weak Saints , who can hardly go alone , do most want an helping hand . A Saint that is mean , as well as a mean Saint , must be countenanced . It s good to countenance godliness in the rich , but its evil not to encourage it in the poor . Our love must like the oyntment , powred on Aarons head , which ran down , not onely to his beard , but to the very skirts of his garment , be drawn out to the highest , and fall down on the lowest Saints ; David by this shewed the life and truth of his love . I am a Companion of all that fear thee , and keep thy Statutes , Psa. 119. 63. Of all . None that hath thy fear , but shall find me their friend . Though I am their King , and above the highest , yet for thy sake I can chearfully be Companion to the lowest . SECT . V. THirdly , In thy Choice have respect to spiritual ends , and accordingly improve it . Attend , and intend thy own and thy Companions soul-good in it . F●iendship hath a key to the heart , which it may use , n●t only to let it self into its secrets , but also to introduce its own conceptions . He hath a great advantage of perswading another to , and encouraging him in holiness , who is already entertained as his friend into his heart . Where the person is so acceptable , the instruction will be the more welcome ; We carry others sometimes along with us , to our friends houses , and they are kindly entertained for our sakes . Now to improve this interest , any other way then on Gods behalf is sacriledge . How abominable were it then to use this key for the bringing in of theivish lusts , and murderers upon him ! There is no nearer union then of intimate friends , they are one soul ; he then that loves himself , and knoweth grace to be his own greatest perfection , must needs endeavour that his friend may have a large portion of it . Persons of quality have a great delight to adorn and beautifie the places where they inhabit , and loath to live in dirty f●ies , or nasty dungeons . True Friends dwell in each other ; the soul is ( saith one ) not so much where it liveth , as where it loveth ; how delectable then must it needs be , for them to seek the embellishing and embroydering those hearts with holiness , in which they have taken up their abode ? Love is apt to transport us , so far as to imitate the errors of those whom we affect , like unskilful painters , who express onely the wrinkles and blemishes of a face , not being able to reach its beauty ; Without Question , this love if rightly improved , would be more prevalent to make thy friend ambitious to resemble thee in vertue , in regard of the amiableness of vertue in it self , and its great advantage above error ; T is clear , that grace hath a much more ravishing and delectable appearance then vice , in all her paint , and dawbery even when she is lookt upon through the Divels Opticks . A good friend in this respect is of much worth ; therefore Alexander , when one desired to see his treasure , shewed him not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not his Talents of Silver , but his Friends . And Menander counted him a happy man , that had but the shadow of one . Though fortune hath shewed me many favours saith Plutarch , that deserve I should be thankful to her for them , yet there is none that maketh me so much bound to her as the love and good will my brother Timon doth bear to me in all things . God hath caused many wants and weaknesses in us , that we may be needful to one another ; and purposely given diversity of gifts and graces , that we may be helpful to each other . No Nations have all the commodities they use of their own growth , but need trading with others for their supply . Beleivers cannot keep house well without borrowing from their Neighbours . There is that which every joynt supplyeth , according to the effectual working in the measure of every part , Ephes. 4. 10. If our Christian communion be not imployed for this end , we are slothful servants , hiding our Talents in a Napkin ; if to a contrary end , we are miserable Alchymists , and extract Poison out of a Cordial . Countries that are joyned together in a strict league , often grow rich by mutual traffique ; Christians have found by experience , that mutual commerce well imployed , hath brought them in very great gains . Paul himself , that was of a great spiritual estate , and much given to Hospitality , and feeding hungry Christians , yet expected sometimes to be entertained at his poor Neighbours Tables . He writes to the ●omans , that he hopes to be filled with their Company , Rom. 15. 24. Filled or feasted with some heavenly repast , by their Company . O t is lovely and happy when two friends are like Moses and Aaron ; He shall be to thee instead of a mouth , and thou to him instead of God , Exod. 4. 16. Where their love is shewn by edifying and building up one another in holiness . This were some prelibation of Heaven , where those lines of love which stretch themselves to every port of the Circumference do all meet in God , as their Centure . But I shall speak more to this in the fourth Chapter . I shall conclude this particular with an answer to two Objections . Object . 1. Christ commandeth us to love our enemies , and what love do we shew , if we turn our backs always upon them , and banish them our Company ? Besides , we are commanded to do good to all , I am bound to seek my wicked Neighbours salvation , and to love my Neighbours as my self , Lev. 19. 18. which how can I do if I always shun him ? Again , If I should avoid all that are carnal , I must untie the bonds of my relations , which God and nature forbid , and cast up my calling , which I am commanded to mind . Answ. In Answer to these things , I shall first lay down one or two Distinctions , and then some Positions . 1. Distinct. There are sinners of several formes in Satans School . Some that learn too much the lesson he sets them , but quarrel not with the Scholars of a contrary Master ; though they are ungracious , yet they are not out-ragious , these are wild Beasts in a Cage , or in Chains , that a man may sometimes take notice of without any hurt . Others do not onely study the lectures he sets them , be they never so full of blasphemie and debaucherie ; but seek to make Proselites , and cast scorn and contempt upon all piety , and rail at those that will not learn their black art ; these are in his upper form , and have proceeded from standing in the way of sinners , to sitting in the seat of the scornful , and will be ready in a short time to be sent to Hell , the onely Academy to which he prefers his Scholars ; these are worse then the Dogs of Egypt , they when the Israelites marched towards Canaan , not stir their tongues , but these bark at all that sets out for Heaven . Many who had risings and spots in the skin of the flesh , were not to be judged unclean , and shut out of the Camp , but those that had the scab spreading much in the skin ( typifying those whose sinful courses were gaining and growing upon themselves or others , Levit. 3. 3 , 4 , 8. ) they were to be thrust out of the Camp. 2. Distinct. It is one thing to come into wicked mens company , as a mans occasions or relations require , and it is another thing to choose such company ; David was frequently amongst the bad , but his delight and joy was onely amongst the good . An Acquaintance is one thing , and a Companion is another thing . Acquaintance is the Herd ; A companion is the particular one , culled out of it for a special friend . It s one thing to have intimate familiarity , and another thing to have common and civil commerce with such men . 1. Position . To love my Neighbour as my self , doth not infer an equality , but the quality of my love . A Christian must love all men truly , but is not bound to love all men equally . The greatest degree of our love is limited by God himself ( next to his blessed Majesty and our selves ) to these two objects , the houshold of faith , and our own houshold , not excluding others , but preferring these , fo● even within our selves , there is a difference in our love ; we love our head , and heart , and other vital parts , with a closer affection then those outward integral parts that are not of so great concernment to us . I may therefore love every man as my self , and yet love some above others , and my own soul above all . Exemplar potius est exemplato . The example is before the thing exemplified . If a man is bound to love another as himself , he must needs love himself first , and more then another . Thy love to them , may cause thee to hope that thou mayst convert them , but thy love to thy self should make thee fear lest they should pervert thee . 2. Position . A Christian is bound to avoid all needless society with wicked men . Mark , I say needless ; When our Relations command it , as amongst Husbands and Wives , and Parents and Children , or our Vocations call for it , then it is necessary . Those precepts that enjoyn us to forbear their company , are to be understood when we have no call to it . We may Trade with wicked men , we must perform all moral duties to our Kindred , and acts of courtesie and charity to the worst of our enemies , so we be careful to keep our selves from their corruptions , and use their company no longer then the discharge of those duties doth require . When by admitting their persons , we cannot avoid their vices , we must deny both . 3. Position . Christians should as God gives them opportunity , if there be any hope of doing good , endeavour to reform men , before they wholly reject their company ; Nay , and pray for their welfare after they have refused them for Companions . It s small kindness to shut up a man that hath the plague , lest he should infect others , and to use no means for his own cure . If I finde that a man is desperately bent in wickedness , that Religion is the object of his laughter , and to give him any serious counsel , is to cast Pearl before Swine ; I must judge such Ishmaels and Esaus , unworthy of humane society ; but it s a very hard case to shut a man up in a Coffin , and bury him before he be quite dead● Sometimes vicious men are in distress , and a godly man hath a call from God to do him some charitable office ; here the Christian may have less fear of receiving hurt from them . Afflictions are bonds , and these beasts in Chains are not so unruly ; Pauls Viper benummed with cold did not sting him ; Here a Christian hath also more hope of doing good to them . The hard mettal , when in the fire , may receive impressions . Men will take that Physick willingly in their sickness , which they refused in health . 4. Position . A Christian may love a wicked man sincerely , though he wholly shun his society . He may affect him with a love of pity , though not of complacency ; He may shew his love by powring out his heart in petitions to God for him . Though a Saint deny a scandalous sinner his presence , yet he doth not deny him his pity , nor his prayers ; Nay , our Non-Communion may be a means of their conversion ; If any obey not the word , have no company with him ; that he may be ashamed , 2 Thes. 3. 14. Shame and Confusion , is a good step towards Conversion ; A wicked mans presence burdens a Saint , and a godly mans presence hardens a sinner . Surely thinks he , I am , if not praise worthy , yet tolerable , and not very bad , since such a good man is so much with me . They who did eat and drink in Christs presence on Earth , wondered much to be excluded from his Heavenly Banquet , Math. 7. 23. Hymeneus and Alexander were excluded Christian society , that they might learn , not to blaspheme , 1 Tim. 1. 20. This wounding is the way to healing , ●t makes prophane men bethink themselves ; when sober persons avoid their presence . Object . 2. Did not Iesus Christ accompany with wicked men ? Can I follow a better pattern ? or can any pretend to more purity ? Is not Christ upon this account called a friend of Publicans and Sinners ? Answ. 1. I Answer , More generally . All our Saviours actions are for our instruction , but all are not for our imitation . Christ indeed hath left us an example , that we should follow his steps , but not in all the prints of his feet . Christ did nothing amiss , but he that shall undertake to do in all things as he did , will follow him too close , and do many things amiss . It may be commendable to imitate my Soveraign , but it is possible enough to do it so far as to be guilty of treason by it . Some of Christs actions were done by him as man , others were done by him as Mediatour , or God-man ; In many of these latter we cannot imitate him , in others we may not . Who can work Miracles , forgive Sins , &c. as Christ did ? Who may appoint Apostles , constitute Laws for the Church , &c. as Christ did ? Answ. 2. More particularly , Christ had a Call , which all others have not , to go amongst wicked men . Where should a Physitian be , but amongst his Patients ? to deal with such is his calling . Christ came to call sinners to repentance , to heal their vitiated natures , and therefore it was necessary he should associate with them . He went amongst them , not as a friend to their sins , but as a Physitian to their souls ; How should he otherwise have cast out Devils , cured their sicknesses , and proved his Deity to their faces ? An Ambassadour being commissionated by his Prince , may do that , which if an ordinary Subject should do , may cost him his life . Abraham might ( having liberty from God ) stand still and behold Sodom flaming , when Lot might not so much as cast an eye , or have a glance towards it . Christ was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel , and so he went to them in discharge of his Errand and Mission ; He had also a Commission under his Fathers Hand and Seal , Luk. 4. 18. Iob. 6. 27. Answ. 3. Christ had no tinder about him to take fire , being conceived without sin ; but we are little else then dry tinder , and therefore have cause to avoid the least spark . The Prince of this world cometh , saith Christ , and findeth nothing in me . He cometh with his baits , but there is nothing in me , that will be nibling at them . Besides , his Deity was a perfect Antidote against all infection ; As the beams of the Sun , he could be in filthy places , and amongst defiling persons , and not receive the least pollution ; when we have such unhealthful souls , that we are ready to receive the contagion from the least infectious breath ; Our corrupt nature is like fire , which if there be any infection in the room , draweth it straight to it self . Answ. 4. Christ did not choose the Company of Publicans and Sinners , though he was often amongst them . A Physitian is not in a Pest-house wi●h delight , though his own pity , and their misery may call him thither . Sinners were the guest , Saints onely the delight of Christ ; wicked men had his company , but the Disciples onely were his Companions ; He was intimate with none but beleivers ; others were his care , they his comfort . It was to them he said , I have not called you servants , but friends ; for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doth , but I have called you friends ; for all things that I have heard of the Father , I have made known unto you , Joh. 15. 15 , 16. To Conclude , Reader , Be not thou envious against evil men , neither desire to be with them . Charity forbids the former , and Christianity the latter . Love to them must preserve thee from envy , but love to thy self must keep thee from keeping them company . When ever providence calleth thee amongst them , make them thy fear , not thy familiars ; For their heart studieth destruction , and their lips talk of mischief , Prov. 24. 1 , 2. 1. Society in evil we may not hold , no not with the best men , Ephes. 5. 7 , 11. Si cum malis , non tamen in malis , Psa. 141.4 . 2. Society in good ( i. e. in sacris ) in the Worship of God , we may hold with the worst men , Math. 23. 1 , 2. and 21. 12 , 13. 3. Society in things indifferent we may have with all men , as in civil commerce , and Offices of humanity , Gen. 23. 1 Cor. 10. 27. A Good Wish of a Christian ; about the Choice of his Companions , wherein the former particulars are Applied . THe blessed and glorious God , the Father of mercies , and fountain of all communion , of whom the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named , who hath sufficiently evidenced the good of Companions , in saying , It is not good for man to be alone , and who hath sanctified society by his own example , in creating Angels and Men , not onely for mutual comfort , in the fruition of each other , but also that his sacred Majesty , and those Heaven-born spirits might have fellowship together , as intimate friends , and especially in that infinite complacency which he had in his beloved Son , and his Son in him from all eternity , who was dayly his delight , rejoycing always before him . Having made me rational , and thereby meet for converse with men ; Religious , and thereby capable of communion with Christians ; I Wish that I may never abuse his kindness by shutting up my self as Monks and Nuns in Cells or Cloisters , or as some melancholy persons , in a Closet or Chamber ; but may know both how to be alone , and how to be in company , and be so sensible of his love in affording me fellow-travailers , that my journey to my Fathers house may be the more pleasant , that I may accept it thankefully , and improve it faithfully to his own praise . My God suffereth my spiritual wants , that I may look for help ( under him ) from others wealth , and he affords me spiritual riches , that I might be able to supply others poverty . It s his pleasure , that none of his Children ( though to some he gives liberal estates , to all a competency ) should be able to live without being beholding to their Neighbours . Though privacy hath fewer incitations to evil , company hath more provocations to good , by so much ●s doing good , is better then not doing evil . Let me prefer society before solitariness ; Yet Lord , let me never be a good-fellow in the Worlds sense , to joyn with all sorts ; but let my fellowship be with them that have fellowship with thee . Though I may have bad acquaintance , let me not have a bad Companion , whatsoever commerce I may have with sinners , let my communion be onely with thy Majesty , and thy Saints . O let them that fear thee , turn unto me , and such as keep thy righteous judgements , Psal. 119. 79. I Wish that the consideration of the great influence which Companions will have upon me , to hinder or help me in the way of holiness , may make me the more prudent in my choice . Though there be some quicksets of grace in the soyl of my heart , yet these evil weeds may endanger their death , at least will prejudice their growth . How often hath ill company , as an East-wind , nipt and destroyed those buds , which gave hopes of becoming in time , good and wholsom fruit ? If the fire of my godliness be not extinguished ( no thanks for that to my self ) yet it s sure to be abated by these waters . My spiritual life is maintained onely by that provision which my God is pleased daily to send me in , and can I expect that he should send supplies into his enemies qua●ters ? What man will send goodly Furniture into his house , untill the dust and rubbish be cast out ? With what reason can I look for succour from Heaven , when I run my self into the jaws of Hell ? Though others that are found out by their grand foe , may receive help from God , and come off with conquest , yet if I go to seek out the temper ( for where can I sooner find him , then in his house ? ) amongst his own Children , I shall have little pity , and may well expect to be foiled in the fight . Again , How doth Familiarity with what is evil , make it less frightful ! Children are much startled at some creatures , which when they are accustomed to , they are not at all afraid of . Possibly my anger against sin at present is very hot , but evil company is a drugge that will much allay the heat of that Simple . The filthiest disease , is not so loathsom in a Wife , or Child , as in a Stranger ; nor in an intimate friend , as in another . If there be not a due distance betwixt the ●isive faculty and the object , there can be no true sight ; If the sin be too near me ( in a friend that lyeth in my bosome ) I cannot behold its ugliness and deformity , its hainous , hateful nature . I doubt not but that poysonous Apple which had eternal death at its core , would have been far more loathsom and detestable in Adams eyes ( much less would it have been so lovely and acceptable ) had he seen it in any other hands , then of his dearest and onely Companion on earth . O that since he was wounded by the hand of his nearest and most intimate friend , who had the breastplate of compleat righteousness , and perfection of grace for his shield ; I might never dare to thrust my self amongst such enemies , who am ( compared with him ) wholly naked and unarmed . I am apt to think that I can secure my self against their shot ; but alas the long and often playing of the Cannon , will batter the strongest wall . A continual dropping will pierce a stone . Doth not experience tell me that it s no hard matter to give such a weakling as I am a fall ? And is it likely that I should stand fast in so slippery a place ? My God asketh me , Can a man take fire in his bosome , and his cloaths not be burnt ? Can one go upon coals , and his feet not be burnt ? My cloaths ( notwithstanding all my care to the contrary ) will smell of the Coals , and my feet will blister with the fire . My God tells me , that sin is a Canker , a Gangreen ; and experience teacheth how spreading and infectious sinners are , 2 Tim. 2. 17. I may think to make them better , but they are more likely to make me worse . Sickness is catching , but not health ; the rotten sheep infect the sound , but the sound sheep do not cure the rotten . Solomons bosome Companions , drew his heart from his God , but I read not of any one of them , whose heart he drew to his God. If Pitch be but toucht it desileth , but Fullers-Earth doth not so soon cleanse . If Israel once joyn themselves to Baal-Peor , they quickly eat the offerings of the dead , and bow down to their Idols . It s as ordinary to put on other mens faults , as their outward fashions . One Corah did but kindle the fire of rebellion , and presently two hundred and fifty Captains brought wood to increase its flame , to their own destruction . If I know of any that have infectious diseases , love to my body will not suffer me to drink of their Cup , or to sit at their Table ; and when I know of them that have such contagious spiritual sicknesses , shall not love to my soul move me to forbear their society ? Lord , my prayer hath often been , Lead me not into temptation ; shall I run into temptation ? thou knowest how prone I am , should I walk with wicked persons , to walk in their wicked paths ; and hast therefore laid thy strict command upon me , Enter not into the path of the wicked , and go not in the way of evil men ; Avoid it , pass not by it , turn from it , and pass away ( Prov. 4. 14 , 15. ) keep me from hazarding this frail Potsherd ( my flesh ) upon the Rock of evil company , from venturing amongst those vipe●s , lest I be stung . Enable me to avoid the Congregation of evil doers , and keep me from going with the wicked , lest I learn their ways , and get a snare to my soul. I Wish that I may be the more fearful of joyning with sinners , lest my God joyn me with them in their sufferings . It is evil and woful to be found in that house , which is all over in a flame ; The anger of my God , is worse then a consuming fire , and shall I associate with them that are always under his fury ? When a City is taken by storm in the night , the sword makes no difference ( amongst the Inhabitants ) betwixt friends and foes . What safety can I expect in being near them that are far from Gods Law and Love ? Wicked men are dross , they have no good mettal in them ; they are neither fit vessels to serve , nor currant mony to inrich me ; but though I be Gold , if mingled with such Dross , I must look to be melted . If the Stork accompany the Cranes , it s no wonder if she be taken in the fame Net. Jehosaphat was a good man , yet for joyning with the wicked ; wrath came upon him from the Lord ( 2 Chron. 19. 2. ) If I follow him in his sin , shall I be free ? All that sailed in the Ship , fared the worse for one disobedient Jonah ; his company cost them the loss of their lading , and was like to have cost them their lives . The whole body of Israel fell before their enemies , because wicked Achan stood amongst them . O my soul● dost thou think then to afford such thy presence , and not to share in their punishment ? Consider with seriousness what thy God saith ; Depart from the Tabernacle of these wicked men , and touch nothing of theirs , lest ye be consumed in their sins . Wouldst thou for any carnal profit , be found amongst those persons who are every moment in danger of the bottomless pit ? The Earth clave asunder that was under them , and swallowed them up , their houses , goods , and all that appertained to them . O what man , unless bereft of his wits , would be one hour contentedly in the company of these Corahs , that are always liable to Gods curse ? Let the great use thou makest of such dreadful Doctrines be , not to partake of their sins , so much as by thy presence , that thou mayst not partake of their plagues . And they that were round about them , fled at the cry of them ; for they said , Let us be gone quickly , lest the earth swallow up us also , Numb . 16. 26. and 31. 34. Lord , Thine Enemies enjoy many mercies , through their Neighbourhood to thy Friends ; thou art so loving a Father , that the servants of sin , whom thou countest no better then Dogs , do fare much the better for that bountiful Table which thou keepest for thine own Children ; the Dogs have eaten the crums which fall from the Childrens Table ; The Tares continue the longer in the field , and the sickle of thy justice doth not yet cut them down for the unquenchable fire , because the Wheat is amongst them ; but thy Saints have suffered much outward misery , for their nearness to sinners ; thou art such an holy jealous God , thine hatred of sin is so infinite , that when the fire of thv wrath hath consumed unbeleivers , some sparks of it have lighted on their best Neighbours ; when the hand of thy fury hath fallen heavy on the workers of iniquity , thy Chosen sitting by them , have been sensible of the blow . My prayer hath often been , Remove thy stroke away from me ; and my Complaint , for I am consumed by the blow of thine hand ; I tremble to think of the frownes of thy face ; but surely the weight of thy hand would sink me indeed . O guard thy servant so powerfully by thy grace , that I may avoid all appearance of evil ; As I would avoid thy batteries , let me avoid the Camp of thine enemies , and keep me from giving them the least countenance , that I may not be wrapt up in their vengeance . I Wish that the great gain which I may get by good Companions , may make me the more diligent to find them out . Though it s no small unhappiness to be joyned to them that are ever standing under the spout of the Lords fury ; yet it s blessed to be near them that are always under the dropings of divine favour . Christ is always present with his people , and therefore I may say with Peter , It is good to be there . When a King comes to visit one of his Peers , all the family oftentimes tasteth of his bounty , but the Noblemans Relations of his grace and love ; he converseth with them , and they with him . If Sinners are the better for the Neighbourhood of the Saints , and for their sakes , God lets his Enemies experience his goodness ; surely Beleivers shall be the better for the Neighbour hood of their Brethren , and shall have experience of special good-will . I cannot conceive the kindnesses which may be done for me by these Friends at Court. Their interest is great in the blessed and glorious Potentate ; The King is not he ( as was once said in another sense ) that can deny them any thing . Whatsoever they ask the Father in Christs name , he will do it for them ; When guilt flieth in my face , and I dare not appear , or when through the prevalency of temptation , I cannot pour out a prayer , they will appear for me , put up my suits , and that with success ; If I be dull , they may quicken me ; If I am in doubts , they may resolve me ; If I wander , they will be faithful in acquainting me with my faults to reduce me ; If I walk uprightly , they will be helpful , by administring Heavenly Cordials to encourage me . A faithful friend , will be my second self , and love me as his own soul. When I faint he will endeavour to revive me ; When I fall he will do his utmost to recover me ; He will rejoyce with me in my joys , and sympathize with me in my sufferings , in every condition to his power be a futable consolation . O that the value and vertue of this Pearl , may make me esteem it at an high price , and the more wary that I be not cheated in my Choice ! Lord , thou hast ordained the communion of Saints to be for mutual comfort and counsel , let me choose those for my friends , that will be faithful to their own , and to my soul. I Wish that I may manifest to my own conscience , 2 the truth of my conversion by my Companions , and that I am passed from death to life , because I joyn with , and love the brethren . Beasts flock together ; Sinners joyn hand in hand ; and Saints are of the same heart , and walk together towards the same Heaven . My Associates will discover my nature , whether Vertue or Vice be my Master ; My Comrades will speak to what Captain I belong . If I joyn with the black Regiment of the Prince of Darkness , it s a sign I am an enemy to the Lord of Hosts . The members of Christs Mystical Body go in company ; It s presumed they are unchast Women , who company with known Harlots ; and it s supposed they are dishonest men , who are familiar with Theives ; If Christ and grace be predominant in me , I cannot like and love their enemies ; An holy soul cannot delight in prophane sinners . gold● will unite it self with the substance of gold , but not incorporate with dross ; An heart truly good , cannot brook those that are evil ; All creatures desire to joyn with such as are of the same nature ; Fish , Fowls , Birds , Beasts , all , every one strive to be with them that are of the same species ; Confederacy in sin , is the livery by which the black guard of Hell is distinguished from the rest of the rational creatures ; True friendship is the Cognisance of true Christians ; By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples , if ye love one another . Love is the badge of the houshold of faith , which witnesseth to what Lord they appertain . Where love is in truth to their persons , there will be a delight in their presence ; For what is love , but a motion of the soul towards , and its complacency in the object beloved ; In vain do I pretend my self a Disciple without sincere love , which is the life of a Disciple . Love to my God is the soul of Religion , which keeps it in being , in motion ; without this , the whole body of it decayeth and dyeth ; All my performances , if this be lacking , are but as an unsavoury Corpse , without either loveliness or life . Love to my brethren , is the sign of Religion , which ever sheweth it self at the door , where the substance is within . He that loveth him that begetteth , must needs love him also that is begotten ; The Child is acceptable for the Fathers sake ; The Picture is amiable , because of the Person it representeth . O how grossely do they delude their souls , that think they love the Head , when they hate and despise the Members ; that say they affect and prize Christ above their lives , when they reject and persecute Christians to the very death . Lord● thou hast told me , He that loveth not his Brother , abideth in death . All thy Children are my Brethren , they have the same Father , the same Mother ; O suffer me not to give conscience cause to witness against me , that I am in a state of death , of damnation , for want of this brotherly affection ; but grant that the hot beams of thy love may so warm my heart , that I may be always reflecting back love to thy self and thy Saints , as an evidence of my eternal salvation . I Wish that I may consider whom I choose for my Companions , 3 least I be disappointed in the ends of Company , My God intendeth society to be helpful to his people in the best things ; But they are never likely to further me in holiness , who walk in the broad way that leadeth to Hell ; Satans Servants will not teach me to do the Lords work ; That friendship is ill made , which is soon broken ; no band can hold him who is a stranger to Religion ; Where there is no fear of God in the heart , there can be no true friendship ; They who are two in disposition , will scarce be one in affection ; Where there is no true likeness , there can be no true love ; Can two walk together , unless they be agreed ? Grace is the onely Cement which conglutinates hearts , and maketh true friends ; A brutish Sinner and a Beleiver are contrary each to other . An unjust man is abominable to the just ; and he that is upright in his way is abominable to the wicked ; the Eagle hath perpetual emnity with Serpents , and Dragons , and their seed ; So hath the Eagle-eyed Christian with the seed of the Serpent ; Beasts hate fire , and so do those whom God calleth Foxes , and Lions , and Bulls , the fire of grace that burneth in a Saints heart , and flameth out in his life ; Lambs and Wolves , Doves and Ravens , cannot unite . Jerusalem and Babylon , Sion and Sodom , can never be compact and at unity toge●her . Can I expect love from that person that hath none for his own soul , nor for the blessed God ? Can contraries meet , and not fight ? Is there any hope of an amicable conjunction betwixt them that are not onely differing but opposite ? I am born of God , he is of his Father the Devil ; My work is to do the will of my Father in Heaven ; his work is to do the lusts of the wicked one . Self is the Byass by which he moveth ; Scripture i● the Compass by which I sail ; I am travailing towards heaven , he is hastening to hell ; and is it possible for us to have one heart ? O that no worldly advantage might make me ever strive to strike a Covenant with them , to whom I am thus contrary . They must needs be false to me , that are made up of unfaithfulness . A true friend is another self ; a vicious man cannot be a true friend , because he is never himself . Sometimes he is drunk with passion , and so loseth his guide , and leaveth the dictates of reason ; those servants are often in rebellion , and th●n like the troubled Sea , he casteth up mire and dirt ; In his fury he will strike at friends or foes , and discover what he knows , and more many times ; Passion is an high Feaver , wherein men talk idly ; therefore the wise man gives a special Caution against such Companions ; Make no friendship with an angry man , and with a furious man thou shalt not go . Sometimes he is overcome with wine , and then the Beast in him , puts the curb into the mouth of reason , and hath the command of it . A Drunken man , hath Nebuchadnezzars brutish heart , and is fit onely to graze with Cattel ; Clitus is killed by his drunken Master , and such a one speaketh and doth he knows not what ; He speaks what he should forget , and forgets what he hath spoke . The Drunkards mind and stomach are alike , neither can retain what they receive . Solomon likewise sets a brand at this mans door , to discourage every sober man from coming there ; Be not amongst Winebibbers , amongst riotous eaters of flesh . Always he hath some lust or other lording it over him , and according as their interests lead him , so he acteth , that his friend must expect no more of him , then they can spare , and is such a person like to prove a Cordial friend ? He may abound in frothy words , but I must expect no faithful deeds from him , if ever I come to sufferings ; like a Drum in a Battel , he may make a great sound , but will act nothing for my succour ; like a Cipher , though now in my prosperity he stands for thousands , in my adversity he will stand for nothing ; Such a friend will be like a familiar Devil , which forsakes the Witch when she is in Fetters ; How much shall I miss of my expected help from him , when I am brought into hardships ! As a Lemon , he may be hot without , but is altogether cold and cooling within ; O that I might never manifest so much folly , as to choose him for my friend , whose principles will teach him to be false ; He so often changeth his dwelling for his own end and interest , that I shall not know where to find him , when I stand in most need . As a Flie , he will tarry no longer in the Kitchen , then there is grease to feed him ; I am but his Pond , which he will use whilst there is any water ; but when dry , I shall hear no more of him . Lord , how far would thine end of society be frustrated , and my hopes of comfort in companions be disappointed , should I choose him who is ruled neither by Religion nor Reason ? I beseech thee let my lot fall amongst those persons that are filled with the fruits of thy Spirit , for they onely will be faithful to the true and holy ends for which thou hast ordained friendship . Preserve me from walking in the counsel of the ungodly , and standing in the way of sinners , lest being found in their Company , I come to inherit their curses . 1 I Wish that I may like Paul , joyn my self to the Disciples , and be in League onely with them who are joyned to the Lord , in an everlasting Covenant , never to be forgotten ; I profess my self to be a follower of God ; My God hath set apart him that is godly for himself , ( Psa. 4. 3. ) If the godly man be the object of my Gods choice , he may well be of mine . If he be separated for his service , he is without question worthy of my society ? Surely there is some value in those vessels , which are meet for the Masters use . Common and ordinary things are not fit for a Princes Table ; Neither is every person meet for a Kings presence . They are specially qualified with parts and abilities , that stand before Great men . Pharoah would have none but men of activity to serve him , in tending his Cattel . Nebuchadnezzar would have Children in whom was no blemish , but well-favoured , and skilful in all wisdom , and cunning in knowledge , and understanding sciences , and such as had ability in them , ( Dan. 1.4 . ) to stand in the Kings Palace ; What manner of men are those then , whom the glorious God hath chosen to wait upon him ? There cannot but be rare perfections in them that are set a part to shew forth all his praise . He is infinitely wise , and would not honour them so much that are not of eminent worth . O my soul , what a Loadstone is here , to draw forth thy love towards the Saints ! Thy constant , thy loving , thy best friend , sets an high price upon them . All the world b●sides , is a wild Wilderness to him ; they onely are his Garden wherein he delights , and wilt not thou walk there with him , amongst such fragrant Flowers , and pleasant Fruits ? He esteems others but as dust , they are his jewels . Observe what he tells thee , The heart of a wicked man is little worth , but the tongue of the righteous is as choice silver . The heart of man includes the understanding , will , and affections , the soul , and all its faculties , and is the noblest part of man , it is the fountain of life , the spring of motion , the seat of his Empire and Regiment ; nay , the Commander in chief , that ordereth and disposeth of all at pleasure ; yet this heart , which is the most excellent part , in a wicked man is of small price , it is little worth , nay , is worse then naught ; but the tongue ( a far inferiour member ) of the righteous , is ( no mean mettal ) as choise silver , and makes a most delightful sound . Wilt not thou joyn thy self to these excellent ones ? If their tongues be as choice silver , surely their hearts do infinitely excel fine gold ? Nay , are more precious then rubies ; The Topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal them , neither shall they be exchanged for jewels of fine Gold ? Who would not be greedy of acquaintance , with men of such surpassing eminence ? It would bewray extream want of wisdom , not to be ambitious of communion with persons of such worth . Besides , Should I joyn with others , I choose them that are my Gods enemies . It is not onely ingratitude , but treason , to countenance them that are traytours against the Crown and Dignity of Iesus Christ. T was a sharp and cutting reproof , which Jehu gave to King Jehosaphat ; I Wish I may never give cause for the like to me ; Shouldst thou help ●he ungodly , and love them that hate the Lord ? My God counts my enemies his enemies , and hates them that hate me , and shall I esteem his enemies my friends , and love those that hate him ! Wicked men are a generation of Vipers , they hiss at godliness , and spit their poison at God himself . They stretch out their hands against God , and strengthen themselves against the Almighty , Iob 15. I shew but small kindness to the God of all my comforts , if I take his foes to be my friends . Once more , I disgrace my birth , my breeding , I dishonour my profession , my Prince , if I accompany with wicked persons . It s below a great Heir to company with beggars . It s a discredit to a King , to be taken up with Porters . A Companion of riotous men , shameth his Father on Earth Prov. 28. 7. A companion of vicious men shameth his Father in Heaven . It speaketh his education to be very mean , and his expectation to be low , both which reflect upon his Father . O that I might never disgrace my Gods goodness , in the cost and charge he hath been at with me , by choosing the scullions and filth of the World , to be my companions , nor disparage my own judgment in refusing the excellent of the earth , and them that are Princes in all Lands ; Lord , thy people are thy portion , Jacob is the lot of thine inheritance , they are precious in thy sight , and honourable , for thou hast loved them , they are fair in thine eyes , and altogether lovely ; Help thy poor servant to resemble thy Majesty ; Give me spiritual eyes to see their beauty , and let my soul be so ravished with that comliness in them , which thy Spirit hath put upon them , that those which are a Royal Priesthood , a chosen generation , a peculiar people , higher then the Kings of the Earth , the glory of Christ , and a Royal Diadem in thine hand , may be the delight of mine eyes , the joy of my heart , and my fellow-travailers towards that house not made with hands , but eternal in the heavens . I Wish that the Commands of my God may be the warrant of my election ; 2 and the beautiful Image of my God , may be the onely Motive of my affection to his chosen ; Should I shew favour to the Saints , and not with respect to the fear of my God in them , I manifest no sanctity ; It is possible for me to love the man , and yet hate the Christian in the same person . How frequent is it to love men that are godly , and yet not to love godliness ? Potiphar respected Joseph , a good man , but not for his goodness sake ; he preferred him as a good servant to him , not as a good Subject to God. The Children of Heth honoured Abraham for the sake of his riches , or courtesie , not upon the account of his righteousness , and piety . Abimelech struck a Covenant with Isaac , as a good Neighbour , not as a Believer . It is one thing to love peace , and another thing to love purity ; this latter is proper to a Christian , the former competible to Heathen ; O that my love might never as Labans●o ●o Jacob , be mercenary , carried out towards any of Gods people , more for the good I get by them , then for the good that is in them . How unsuitable is such a love to the Divine nature , and how unworthy of my profession ? If I love them for their wealth or their bounty , I love their riches not them , or rather , I love my self , and neither them nor any thing of theirs . This is self-love , not Saint-love ; If their persons were stript of those Ornaments , wherewith they are now cloathed , such love would languish and dye . Should these be the wheels , upon which my love moves , when they are wanting , my love will stand still ; such friendship is but like a fire of straw , which burns brightly whilst it hath matter to feed upon , but that being neglected , it is extinguished and turned into ashes . O my soul , consider what foundation thy love is built on , lest it appear to be feighned ; If thou lovest men for their parts , or for thy own profit , thou dost not love thy Saviour in them , but thy carnal self , and thereby dost evidence thine Hypocrisie more then thy sincerity . It is not all kindness to Saints , nor all joyning with Christian society , which is a● act or sign of sanctity . The Baptist had fair respect from Herod , and yet the King could take off his Head. The Barbarians shewed great courtesie to Paul and his companions , but not the least Christianity . Thy God commandeth thee to love the brotherhood , that is , to love them as brethen , not as kind , or wise , or great , or wealthy ; and to love the whole fraternity and brood of thy Father , not this or that brother . O do thou in the choice of thy familiars , look over those natural or civil excellencies , which in●inite wisdom bestoweth onely upon some , and mind chiefly that super-natural quality , which is truly praise-worthy , and inherent in all . Thy God hath chosen the poor of the World , and he is no respecter of persons . O do thou follow his honourable pattern , and let the poor , the mean , the lowest members of Christ be lovely and amiable in thine eye . Choose godliness in all , and then thou wilt refuse none , but choose all that are godly . Though the holiness of some be but as the smoaking flax , do not thou choak but cherish it . Lord , thou hast a tender respect for thy little children and babes in Christ ; it is thy pleasure that thy little ones should not be offended , th●t such as are weak in the faith , should be received ; cause thy servant to love all thy Saints , and to be able to say , with that man after ●hine own heart , I am a Companion of all that fear thee , and keep thy S●atutes , Psa. 119. 63. I Wish that my end in the Choice of my Companions may be principally to further my own , 3 and their everlasting peace . If I use any company upon other accounts , I frustrate my God , I cozen my own soul ; For me and others to unite in sin , would be a conspiracy against Heaven , and too lively a re●semblance of those Governours of Hell , whose only work is to draw others to , and to encourage them in wickedness . For us to joyn in gratifying the flesh , and purveying for our appetites , and passing away the time , that it may be less tedious , would be a confederacy against the Spirit , and but a more cleanly and neat acting of the part of Beasts , who understand no other happiness , then to feed and sport together ; For us to accompany onely about worldly imployments , to get an insight into commodities , and callings , that we might be wiser to buy and sell , or to hear and tell news , this would become a Turk , and were but a cutting [ time ] the most precious commodity of all to waste . For us to associate , barely to increase our knowledge , and widen the windows of our understandings , or to quicken and raise our fancies , and enlarge our natural parts and endowments , even this would be but a transcript of the lives of the most refined Heathen , who were ignorant of the true weight and worth of eternal concernments ; But to meet together as Christ did with his Apostles , to discourse about the things appertaining to the Kingdom of God , to provoke one another to love , and to good works , to admonish , advise , encourage , and comfort , and to build up one another in the most holy faith , this is a work worthy of a Christian , and becoming them that are called to be Saints . O that my Gods end may be much in my mind , when I converse with any of his chosen , that all our conjunctions may be fruitful in holiness ; Christians are choice Tutors , and rare Masters , by whom many precious things may be learned ; my God hath lent them me for a little while , and intendeth shortly to send for them home ; why should I loyter or trifle with them , when such excellent Lessons are given me by them ! Lord , I know within a few days I shall be deprived of these and all other helps ; O help thy most unworthy creature , in that little time that he doth enjoy them , to make the most , the best improvement of them , to love them as my own soul , and to do them the greatest service I can ; enable both them and me to be fellow-workers , and fellow-helpers unto thy Kingdom , that when we come thither , they may bless thee for me , and I may bless thee for them , and all of us may bless thee for thy dear Son , and thy blessed self , for ever and ever . Finally , I Wish that I , who am a Pilgrim and stranger in this earth , may joyn my self not with the natives , the men of the World , whose portion is in this life , by whose company I am sure to contract either guilt or greif , but with my fellow sojourners , who are travailing with me towards the same Heaven . Though I love the wicked with a love of pity , I would love onely the Saints with a love of delight . Let my choice be of them now , with whom I would choose to be for ever . O let me joyn with those on earth , and that in discoursing of thy gracious word , and glorious works , with whom I hope to joyn in Heaven , in admiring thy boundless perfections , and giving thee everlasting praise . Lord , if there be such comfort in thy chosen , and their voices be so lovely , and their faces so comely here below in the estate of their minority , when they are black with the worlds calumnies and cruelties , and besmeared with their own corruptions , what delight will there be in them above , when they shall come to their full age , be parted from all their defilements , and be perfectly adorned with thine Image ? How lovely will their voices be , when they shall joyn with thy Celestial quire , in singing HallelUjahs , and in running division on thine infinite attributes and excellencies ? How comely will their faces be , when they shall be freed from all the freckles and spots of sin , and so see thee , as to be fully like thee ? O if grace in its infancy be so ravishing , what will it be in its maturity ? If the morning of holiness be so glorious , how glorious will it be in its noon-day lustre ? Lord , if my soul rejoyce so much in thy Saints , who shine onely as stars , in their several Orbes , with a borrowed light , what joy may I have in thy self , the true Sun ? O cause thy servant so to glorifie thee in my choice of Companions , and in my carriage in all Companies , that I may come at last to enjoy immediate communion with thy beautiful Saints , and thy blessed Majesty , World without end , Amen . CHAP. III. How a Christian may exercise himself to Godliness , in evil Company . HAving spoken to the Choice of Companions ; I proceed ( Reader ) to thy Carriage in Company , and first in evil Company . Though evil men are not to be the object of a Christians choice or delight , yet he must sometimes fall into their Company , or go out of the world , 1 Cor. 5. 10. Our Relations , or Vocations , or Offices of Charity , which we owe to the worst of men , will command our presence now and then amongst them ; Civil commerce with them is lawf●l , though intimate communion be sinful . It s certain , the less we have of their society , the more of safety ; but because civility , and our necessities require us sometimes to be with them , Christianity must help us ( as a glass-window , to let in the light , and keep out the rain , ) to get what good we may , and to prevent the hurt they intend . God in the first creation separated the light from the darkness , and so must the godly man amongst wicked persons . Swine will be cleanly in a fair Meadow ; Sinners civil sometime● in the society of Saints ; but Christians must keep their garments unspotted , when they walk in dirty places , and amongst defiled persons . Godliness will be thy best armour to ward off those blows , and hinder those wounds , which those sons of violence and villany would cause in thee . A wise Physitian , whatsoever diseased Patients he goeth amongst , will take some preservative , but if he be to go into a Pest-house , an Antidote . It will be a sign of an excellent complexion , if thou canst walk ( as occasion is ) in the Sun , and not be tanned . The Romans had a Law , that every one , where ever he went , should wear a badge of his profession , or trade , either on his garment , or in his hat , that he might be known . Christianity must be owned in every company , as that which is our great and worthy calling . The Nobleman carrieth his Garter , or George with him in all places , because he esteems them his g●ory and honour , and if he be of the blood royal , he desireth that all may take notice of it . O what an honour and happiness is it to be a Christian , to be related to Iesus Christ , and how willing shouldst thou be to own and acknowledge it as the badge of thine honour , amongst all persons● He is a base servant that is ashamed of his Lords livery . It s said of the Teal , a certain wild Beast i● AEthiopia , that he hath two hornes of a Cubit long , which he moveth as he pleaseth , either both forward to offend his enemy , or both backward to defend himself , or one forward , and the other backward to both uses at once . A Christian in evil company should be as wise as a Serpent , that he do not bring himself into suffering , but yet as innocent as a Dove , that others do not draw him to sin . Walk as prudently as thou canst , onely walk piously . Use as much caution as thou wilt , but be sure thou keepest a good conscience . The Apostle gives a special precept for our pious carriage in such Company , Walk wisely towards them that are without , Col. 4. 5. In which words the qualification of the act , and the specification of the subject are considerable . 1. The qualification of the act , walk wisely , that is , graciously , Grace is Wisdom . To fear God is wisdom , and to depart from evil is understanding ; He who walketh in the Law of the Lord , and according to the rule of the word , is the wise walker , Job 28. 28. Psa. 119. 1. Gal. 16. 16. Whatsoever our company be , we must walk by precept , not by pattern ; He may be a good Courtier , but he is a bad Christian ; that alters and orders his carriage according to his company ; If like Musicians , we play no lessons , but what the company calls for , and what pleaseth them , our musick will be harsh and jarring in Gods ears ; If I please men , saith Paul , I am not the servant of Christ , Gal. 1. 10. He walks foolishly , that to please a few weak dying Men , displeaseth the jealous and Almighty God ; He walks wisely , who will be sure who ever be offended , to please him , upon whose favour his life and all his comforts depend . 2. The specification of the Subject ; towards them that are without . Wicked men are said to be without ; 1. Because they are visibly without the Church ; scandalous sinners proclaim to the world , that they are not so much as visible members of Christ. What have I to do , to judge them that are without ? Do not ye judge them that are within ? but them that are without God judgeth , 1 Corinth . 5. 12 , 13. 2. Because they are really without God and Christ ; God may be in their mouths , and they may call him Father , but he is far from their hearts , and will never own them fo● his Children ; That at that time ye were without Christ , and with out God in the world , Ephes. 2. 12. 3. Because they shall go at last without Heaven . This followeth from the former ; They being visibly without the Church , and really without God and Christ , must needs be without Heaven . Without are Dogs , Children onely are within doors , Rev. 22. 15. Luk. 13. 25. The manner of the Apostles expression is worth our observation , he saith not , Walk with them ; No , they ought not to be our Companions , but walk wisely towards them ; Let them be the object of your caution ; as if he had said , I know your callings , or relations , or some occasions or other will bring you into the Company of many that are not Members of the Church Militant , and shall be excluded the Church Triumphant ; but take heed to your selves , that ye keep good consciences in such company , that ye defile not your own souls , by being partaker of their sins ; be watchful that ye give no offence to them , and that ye take no infection from them . Walk wisely towards them that are without . SECT . I. FRiend , to quicken thee to the greater caution , I shall offer thee these two thoughts . First , Consider that evil Company is very infectious ; Wicked men like the Crocodile , slime the way to make thee fall , and when thou art down suck out ( as it were ) thy blood , and with it , fatten their insulting envy . Thy experience tells thee , that they are industrious to make men wicked and wretched . Such is the corruption of our nature , and the nature of our corruption , that we are sooner polluted by the wicked , then they purified and amended by us ; as the good Corn is rather soiled by the bad , then the smutty made bright by the good . The fresh waters run into the Sea , yet they do not sweeten , but are made brackish by it . Our sinful hearts , as Onions , if there be any infection in the room , are apt to draw all to themselves ; We may hope to save them , when they may destroy us . How many have leaped into the waters to save others from drowning , and been drowned with them ? Wholesom Planets , if in conjunction with those that are malevolent , are of bad influence ; It s recorded by the Holy Ghost , concerning the Israelites , They were mingled among the Heathen , and learned their ways , Psa. 106. 35. They who joyn with wicked persons , are prone to learn their wicked practices ; Evil men are as Mildew to the good Corn , which makes it black . It s an encouragement to men , to walk in bad and by-ways , when they have Company with them . Sinners are compared to dust , that breeds vermine in houses ; to Sepulchres , which send forth noisom vapours ; and to thorns and briars , that pierce and pain such as meddle with them ; can they be too wary then that handle them ? Luk. 15. 8. Rom. 3. 13. Heb. 6. 8. The Owl is a Night bird , and altogether for darkness , but they that Hawk for Birds , make a Stale of her , and whilst the silly Birds are wondering at her , catch and kill them . The Divel , who makes it his work to take and destroy souls , doth often make use of ungodly men as Stales to further his defignes . Sampson was too hard for the Philistines when they opposed him by force , but when they procured Delilah , a wicked companion to tempt him , by that fraud they prevailed against him . The reason ( according to some ) why our Saviour forbad the Disciple to go and bury his Father was ( not out of aversness to civil , much-less to natural respect , but ) left his corrupt Kindred , who might be present at the Funeral , should corrupt him again , and so he should dye with them . When the Raven went out of the Ark , it returned not again , meeting ( as is supposed ) with some dead carcasses by the way . The Caprimulgus or Goat-sucker , flieth upon the Goats and sucketh them , that their milk drieth up , and they are afterwards blind . I write these things Reader , to make thee more careful in such company . If thou wouldst keep thy graces lively and flaming amongst such damps , and waters of wickedness , thy watchfulness must be more then ordinary ; The more stones lie in thy way , the greater must thy caution be if thou wouldst not stumble . A Common Pilot may serve in a Calm Sea , but he that would steer a Vessel right in a Tempestuous Ocean , amidst Rocks and Quick-sands , had need to be eminent both for skill and care . Secondly , Consider it is possible for thee , not onely to keep thy self from waxing worse , but to be the better for evil company . I speak not this to encourage thee to cast thy self into temptations , but to q●icken thee to the more care , when God calleth thee among them . The Weesel is an unclean creature , and many ways hurt●ul , yet it devoureth Mice ( whence its named in Latine Mustela ) and so is usef●l . Unclean sinners , that are intentionally pernicious , may be providentially profitable to the Saints . Some creatures can draw nourishment from hard bones ; A Saint may suck honey out of dry and bitter herbs . The wise God would not send evil things ( as afflictions ) but for the good of his chosen , nor suffer evil persons , but for their profit . Pluck not up the Tares , lest the Wheat be pulled up also , Math. 13. The good Husbandman makes an hedge of unfruitful Plants , as Briars and Crab trees , and other barren Trees , to defend the Vineyard from Cattel , and the good Trees in it from harm ; The Lyon , as cruel as he was , defended the old Prophets body . God left some Canaanites amongst the Iews , lest the Beasts of the Field should over-run the Country , Exod. 23. 29. God leaves some wicked ones amongst his chosen in this World , to keep under their brutish lusts , which otherwise might undo them . The Lees are helpful to preserve the Wine ; and the Chaff is useful to preserve the Corn ; Vermine are good against the Iaundise ; The Taunts and Scoffs of evil men , have sometimes been instrumental to cure good men of their spiritual diseases ; The Sword of an enemy may let out thy rank blood ; Iason had his Imposthume opened , and so healed , by a blow that he received in the Wars from his enemies , which his friends the Physitians could not cure . Those tongues which have been as sharp as Razors , piercing the Christians good Name , have proved instrumental to heal their depraved natures ; The more the wicked twit thee with thy weaknesses , the more they may quicken thee to watchfulness . Thou wantest ( possibly ) a faithful friend to admonish thee , therefore God sendeth thee furious enemies to cast thy fa●lts in thy teeth , and if now thou dischargest thy duty , thou mayst hope that their malice shall be a Medicine to increase thine inward health and welfare . A Fool loseth the improvement of his Friends , but a Wise man can make an advantage of his enemies . As the Herb called Ros Solis , though the heat of the Sun lye upon it all day , yet the hotter the Sun is , the moyster it is ; So the Christian is the more softned and tender , when others are hardened , and bitter against godliness . SECT . II. I Proceed now , to shew wherein the Exercise of Godliness in evil Company consisteth . First , if thou wouldst exercise thy self to Godliness in evil society , Labour to keep thy self unspotted from their sins : Ungodly men are called filthy , and compared to Swine , that are apt to defile all that have to do with them ; They ( as the Night ) are dark and full of unwholsom vapours ; it concerns thee therefore to be well fenced , that thy spiritual health may not be impared by them . Be careful that they hurt thee not either inwardly or outwardly . Thou art in a double danger amongst sinners ; thou art in danger of having thy soul wounded , and also of having thy name and estate blasted . There is a necessity therefore of a double guard ; of a guard upon thy soul , that it may not be wronged , and of a guard upon thy tongue , that thy outward comforts may not be ruined . I say , 1. Be watchful over thy soul , that thou contractest no guilt . It s hard to be near those that are dirty and defiled , and yet to keep our Garments unspotted and clean . Wicked men as Diers and Painters , who use colours , are usually besmeared themselves in their hands and habits , and they also besmear others . The Lake of Sodom is called Asphaltides , or the Dead Sea , because of the venemous vapours which arise out of it , insomuch that Birds which flye over it , fall down dead , and beasts that drink of it sicken and dye . Some men have found evil society as poisonous to their souls , as brutes have found the Dead Sea to their bodies . Pope Nicholas the thirds Concubine , by looking on a Bear frequently , was brought abed of a Monster . Thy frequent vision of their wicked actions , may cause too great a likeness in thy conversation . But the Saint should resemble the Carbuncle , which being cast into the fire , is nowhit defiled or impaired thereby , but therein shines most brightly ; If it be closed fast ( say some ) in a ring of Lead , and cast into the fire , we may see the Lead molten , but the Carbuncle not so much as mollified , or in the least blemished Thy watchfulness ( friend ) must be great , if thou wouldst keep thy self unspotted from the World , Jam. 1. ult . Rust will fret into the hardest steel , but not into the Emerald ; Sin will fi●d speedy acceptance with a prophane sinner , but not with a preciou● Saint . Ioseph kept his Chastity , though often in the company of his wanton Mistress ; Lot did not lose his sanctity , though he dwelt amongst ungodly Sodomites ; The Arch-Angel disputed with the Arch-Divel , yet was not infected by his poisonous breath ; Satan did set upon the blessed Saviour , but could not fasten the least sin upon him . Naturalists tell us , that the Diamond if true , will lie in the ●ire and not consume ; the Herb Narcissus , or Yellow Crowbellies , flowreth in February , and keepeth its Flower under the Snow . The Olive Tree , in the midst of the Flood , kept its branches green . The Christian ought so to converse with the wicked , that his grace may neither waste , nor his conscience be wounded . Thy Duty is , as Cloaths well dyed , to keep thy colour in all Weathers ; and as a good constitution , to retain thy spiritual health , in the most unwholsome Aires . The Apostle writes to the Corinthians , 1 Cor. 5. 11. Not to company with any that are called brethren , and are fornicators , or covetous , or idolaters , or railers , or drunkards , or extortioners . The word in the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , both in the 9 , and 11. verse , which signifieth , not to mingle with them . They may be amongst them , but they may not mingle with them ; that which mingleth with any filthy thing , receiveth of its filth , and though it were pure before , is polluted thereby ; The people of God ought not in this sense to mingle with the world , but to keep themselves , though not untoucht , yet untainted . It s storied that the Rivers of Peru , run into the main Sea , twenty or thirty miles , and yet are not mingled with the Sea , but continue fresh water ; So the River Rodanus , is said to run purely through the Lake Lemanus without mixture of waters ; It s also reported of the River Dee in Merionithshire in Wales , that running through Pimbe Meer , it remaineth entire , and mingleth not with the waters of the Lake . Thus should the people of God , those Chrystal streams ( though they are necessitated sometimes to meet with , ) keep themselves entire , and not mingle with the puddle water of unclean persons . Pliny reports of a Family near Rome , that could walk on live coals and not be burnt . It s honourable to keep thy self pure among them that are evangelically perfect ; but to preserve thy self from pollution amongst them that are prophane , is Heroical ; It s the excellency of a Christian , to hold on his course without slipping or falling , when many rubs and hinderances are laid in his way ; And it s the glory of grace , to keep its beauty and lustre , notwithstanding the attempts of the World , and the Wicked one to soil it . It was a notable speech of the Souldier that Erasmus speaks of , who being told of a numerous Army coming against him , answered , Tanto plus gloriae referemus , quanto sunt plures quos superabimus ; The more famous our opposition , the more illustrious our Conquest ; That Great Commander had never been so renowned , if he had not eaten his way over the Alpes , that were supposed inaccessible . The greater our difficulties , and the more greivous our enemies , the greater our valour , and the more glorious our victory . That expression concerning Asia , hath some worth , Though it be no praise , never to have seen it ; yet to have lived soberly and temperately in it , is praise-worthy indeed . The Holy Ghost giveth thee wholsom counsel , Be not partaker of other mens sins , keep thy self pure , 1 Tim. 5. 22. It may be Reader , thou art called sometimes amongst Swearing , Drunken , and Ungodly persons ; Well , thou art in more danger then in a Pest-house ; therefore look well to thy self ; Satan thinks , though he could not conquer thee amongst the Saints , that now he hath caught thee amongst a Company of venemous Serpents , one or other of them will sting thee , and then he hope● to overthrow thee ; Watch thy self narrowly , if thou wouldst be safe ; Be not partaker of other mens sins ; It may be as bad to have communion with others sins ; as to commit sin in thy own person ; He that is Surety for another , is as liable to the debt as the Principal , and we count him most foolish that takes anothers debt upon himself . Indeed , Satan hath this for his comfort , that hereby he hath the more in bonds to the Laws Curse . Three ways thou mayst partake of those sins which are committed in thy Company . I shall not speak of thy commanding men to sin ; so David was guilty of Vriahs death , though the Sword of the Ammonites slew him , ● Sam. 12. 3. Nor of counselling men to sin ; so Ionacia● was guilty of Ammons incest , 2 Sam. 16. 21. Nor of com●ending others for sin ; so a man may be accessory 〈◊〉 the fact , Rom. 1. 32. Psa. 10. 9. Nor of setting others a bad example ; so Ieroboam was guilty of the Idolatry of the Iews ; but of those ways , whereby Christians are usually guilty of others sins , when they are amongst the wicked . 1. By Compliance ; If when thou seest or hearest others sin , thou dost inwardly approve it , thou art partaker of it . He that consents , though but in his thoughts to anothers fraud , is before God a Felon . Paul before his conversion , was consenting to the death of the Protomartyr , Act. 8. 1. and after his conversion , he pleads guilty of the Murder , Act. 22. 20. It may be Reader , when thou hearest lascivious stories , or sinful witty jestings , or tales of slie subtile cheats , or the like , thou dost secretly applaud and approve them ; I tell thee thou art partaker of them ; If thou hast an heart in the sin , thou hast an hand in the sin ; Thy affecting it , makes thee as really guilty , as if thou didst act it . Nay , I must tell thee , the greatest guilt ariseth from the fullest consent of the Will. It s possible for the approver to be more guilty then the actor . 2. By Silence , or not reproving sin . A man may sin by speaking , and he may sin by silence . This silence , when sin is com●i●ted , speaks thy consent to it . It was a speech 〈…〉 , That he had often repented of speaking , but never of holding his peace ; but there is a sinful holding the peace , as well as a sinful speaking ; It s bad to hold the breath long . Nicodemus , though he was at first fearful , and wore the badge of his profession under his cloak ( out of sight ) yet when he was amongst the enemies of Christ , he took courage , and would not by his silence betray his Saviour , and wrong his own soul , Ioh. 7. 50 , 51. It s a sign of little love , to see men wounding by Oaths and Blasphemies , or Scoffs and Jears our best friend , and not to wish them to forbear , and do our utmost to take them off . Dion writes of Severus , that he was careful what he did , but careless what he heard ; but the good Christian is careful of the latter , as well as the former ; knowing that sin may enter in at that Casement , and remembring that the Cannon Bullet which split the Vessel , in which all the hopes of mankind were embarqued , was shot in at that Port-hole . The Crocodile , because he hath no use of a tongue , living always in the waters , hath none ; but God hath given Man a tongue , and calls it his glory , Psa. 16. 9. with Act. 2. 26. partly because speech is one thing , wherein men excel Beasts ; Brute creatures can make a noise , but man onely articulate his voice , partly because it is given him to glorifie God withal ; It is pity he should ever open his lips , whose mouth will not shew forth Gods praise . Thou canst usually no way better clear thy self , then by condemning the sin to the very face of the sinner . As the World thinks of God when he is silent , and doth not destroy them with the breath of his mouth ; so the wicked think of the godly , when they are silent and do not open their mouths to reprove them ; These things thou didst , and I kept silence , thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thy self , Psa. 50. 21. Silence in the presence of sin , implyeth a liking of it ; though thou sayst not Euge ( saith Austin ) yet if thou sayst not Apage , there is a mutual approbation ; Nay , he goeth farther and saith , Pejor es tacendo quam ille convitiando , thy silence is more dangerous to thee then his sin to him . But I shall speak more largely to this duty of reproving , before I conclude this Chapter . 3. Thou mayst be partaker of others sins , by Provoking them to sin . Our Lord is said to be crucified at Rome , Rev. 11. 8. because he was sentenced by a Roman Iudge , executed by Roman Souldiers , and put to death by authority of the Roman Empire ; yet the Murder of Christ is all along in Scripture charged on the Iews . Peter preaching to them saith , whom by wicked hands ye have taken and slain ; and Stephen expresly , Of whom ye have been the Betrayers and Murderers ; because , though the Execution of it was from the Romans , yet the Provocation to it , was from the Iews , Act. 2. 23. and 7. 52. That which is committed by our Instigation , is ours by just Imputation . I fear many good men are partakers of others sins in this sense , either by stirring up others that are passionate to anger , or by inciting some that have been guilty of handsom ( in the worlds judgment ) cheats , to relate and boast of them ; For its little difference whether men hold the sack open , or fill it , both are guilty . SECT . III. SEcondly , If thou wouldst exercise thy self to Godliness in evil Company , Do not needlesly expose thy self to sufferings ; He is but a fool , that will lay his life in anothers lap without a call ; Christ did not commit himself to the Iews , because he knew their hearts ; and we are not lightly to commit our selves to any , because we know not their hearts . Set a watch before thy tongue , lest it make thy throat thy Sepulchre , a Grave to bury thy estate and outward comforts in . It s a sin in many Christians , that they know not when to be silent . The wise man tels us , there is a time to speak , and a time to keep silence , Eccles. 3.7 . This is a great part of Christian prudence , to understand when to keep silence ; It s much harder to learn to be silent , then to learn to speak . Though we must not as some Turks , be always dumb ( perpetuum silentium tenent ut muti ) yet we ought sometimes to hold our breath in . Therefore the prudent shall keep silence , for it is an evil time , Amos 5. 13. 1. Their cross was weighty ; It was an evil time , a time of much danger and difficulty ; Sin abounded , Sinners were enraged , God was provoked , and the Godly oppressed . 2. Their carriage was wise ; They shall keep silence . The words may have a two fold exposition ; 1. If they be taken in relation to God ( as some think ) they speak the patient submission of the faithful , in that evil day , to the divine providence and pleasure . 2. If they be taken in relation to men ( as others expound them ) they speak the prudent conversation of the gracious in that day of persecution ; they shall not causlesly throw themselves into greater miseries , but shall keep all due silence to avoid needless sufferings . Indeed thy care must be to own Christ ever , and to profess him publiquely when thou art called to it ; but as thy policy should not eat up thy zeal , so thy zeal must not eat up thy wisdom ; I would not discourage thee from confessing the Lord Jesus ; yet I must tell thee that thou art not bound to proclaim in all companies , of what judgement thou art , nor what Church Government thou wouldst choose , not what society thou meetest in , &c. Nay , thou art bound to the contrary . He that hath a good mixture of zeal and prudence , is like a fire on the hearth , of much use and service ; but zeal without discretion , is like fire on the top of the Chimney , which often doth much mischief . Zeal to a Christian is like an Wind●●lling ●●lling the sails of a Ship , which unless it be ballasted with discretion , doth but the sooner overturn it . Abdias a Bishop , raised a dreadful storm of persecution by his intemperate zeal ; I doubt not but the whole company of beleivers in some Nations , have suffered through the indiscreet heats of some particular persons . Zeal in a man , is like wings to a Bird , or mettle to an Horse ; but the bridle of discretion is requisite , as the Poe●s fable that Minerva put a golden bridle on Pegasus , lest he should flie too fast . Bernard hath a good saying , Discretion without Zeal is slow-paced , and Zeal without Discretion is heady ; let therefore Zeal , spur on discretion , and Discretion rein in Zeal . Paul was full of heavenly fire ; it s said of him , when he came to Athens and beheld their Idolatry , that his spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was stirred within him , Act. 17. 16. yet it is worthy our observation , though he preached much against Idols in general , yet he pleads not at all against Diana in particular , the Goddess of whom the Athenians were so foolishly fond ; his zeal moved him to oppose Idolatry to his power ; but his prudence directed him to forbear particular invectives against Diana , and to do it in such a way as might be ( in probability ) most profitable for them , and least dangerous to himself ; The rash zeal of some godly persons , hath set others at a further distance from piety . When every unskilful Phaeton takes upon him to drive the Chariot of the Sun , t is no wonder that the whole World be in a flame . Geese ( say some ) when they flie over Taurus , keep stones in their mouths , lest by their gagling● they should discover themselves to the Eagles which are amongst the Mountains , waiting there to take them . It were well for some persons , if they could keep their mouths with a Bridle , whilst the wicked are amongst them , who wait and watch to destroy them . Reader ; I would be understood rightly , I do not intend by any thing I have wri●ten , to incite thee to take all courses , good or bad , to avoid suffering , but to diswade thee from bringing thy self into suffering ; Grace may teach thee not to choose sin , and both grace and nature teach thee not to choose suffering ; Follow the Lamb wherever he goeth , and whithersoever he calleth thee ; but take heed of going before him , lest he leave thee to suffer at thy own charges ; He that will take a Bear by the Tooth , or a Mad Dog by the Ear , may thank himself if he be well bitten . It s too ordinary for some Christians , when wicked men give them a few good words , and pretend a little good-will , to open their minds fully and freely to them , even to the hazard of their own liberties and lives ; but such do not consider the Counsel which God gives them ; Trust ye not in a friend ( muchless in an enemy , as every wicked man is to the godly ) put ye not confidence in a Guide ( though he may be full of power , and policy , and promises ) keep the door of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosome , ( lest as Sampsons Wife , she tell all to thy undoing ) Mich. 7. 5. Every smooth face , and smiling countenance , is not to be trusted ; Kisses do sometimes betray us . When the tongues of some cry Ave , they threaten a Vae , saith Austin . They come ( Psa. 118. 12. ) about me like Bees , with honey in their mouths● and a sting in their tails ; As Butchers , they claw the Ox about the ribs , that they may have the fairer blow at his head ; The Pellican swalloweth shell-fish , and warmeth them in her stomach , but it is to make them gape , that she may pick them out of the shels ( where they are safe whilst they are shut ) and devour them . Thus some ungodly men frequently warm Christians with fl●tteries , to make them ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to Aristophanes expression of a fool ) Gapers , and to utter all they know and think ; that they may make a prey of them . Friend , Do not onely look on wicked men as gins to intangle thy soul , but also as snares to intrap thy livelihood and life . It was the complaint of Luther , A falsis amicis plus est mihi periculi quam a toto Papatu , That he was in more danger by reason of false friends , then by the Pope and all his Hierarchy . As Conies , those unclean creatures , are dangerous about the places where they lurk ; The Island Majorica was overthrown ( according to Historians ) by the digging of Conies ; So unlean men , even by their crouching under thee , may undermine and overthrow thee . Consider their hatred of thee ( notwithstanding all their shew of love ) is real and inward ; and of all wounds , those which ●rancle inwardly are most to be feared . The Devil confest Christ , yet hated him to the death ; and his children do all take after him . It s ●aid of Antoninus Geta , that he would always shew most love , where he intended to bereave of life ; therefore men were more afraid of his favour , then of his anger . Antigonus kept a Priest on purpose to pray and offer up sacrifice to the gods , that they would preserve him from his seeming friends . There may be some profit of that Italian Proverb , The Lord deliver us from our friends , we will watch our selves over our enemies , that they do not hurt us . Solomon gives thee a good caution , in his Character of a fool and a wise man ; A Fool uttereth all his mind , but a Wise Man keepeth it in till afterwards , Prov. 29. 11. And those words of Hugo Victorinus have much weight in them , and are somewhat near Solomons , There is a time when nothing is to be spoken , there is a time when something , but no time when all things are to be spoken . Especially if thou hast found a man false once , beware of him the second time ; He deserves to break his shins , that stumbleth twice at one stone . That Proverb of the Italians is worthy of consideration ; If a man deceive me once , it is his own fault ; if a second time , it is my fault ; He had need to sit sure , who backs that Horse which hath once cast his Rider . Thirdly , If thou wouldst exercise thy self to Godliness in evil company , Be sure thou dost not disown thy profession , and deny Iesus Christ. Though it behoveth thee to walk wisely , because sinners lye in wait to destroy thy life ; yet be careful thou dost not walk wickedly , for sin lyeth in wait to destroy thy soul. It may consist with grace , not always openly to proclaim thy profession , yet i●s a graceless part at any time to deny it . T was a blot to Nicodemus , that he was a Night-bird . If the honour of Christ be engaged , and by thy silence the Gospel will suffer , then not to publish what thou art , is a sin . The light of Religion ought not to be carried in a Dark Lanthorn , and to be shewn onely , when thy own interest will permit , and at other times to be hid ; Christ tells us , Who●oever shall deny me before men , him will I deny before my Father which is in Heaven , Mat. 10. 33. Not to confess Christ openly when thou art called to it , is to deny him . And expect the same measure from Christ in the other world , which thou givest to him in this ; How justly will he be disowned for a servant hereafter , that was ashamed to own so Noble a Master here ? And how dreadful will his condition be , whom Christ shall deny before his Father ! All thy happiness depends upon his confessing thee ; If he disclaim thee , Divels will lay claim to thee , and theirs thou shalt be for ever . It concerns thee therefore to confess Christ , how dear soever it may cost , and to own Religion in all companies ; for thou mayst truly say what an honest man did ( being occasionally in a Pyrates Ship when t was searcht , and the Pyrates cryed out , Wo be to us if we be known , ( he said ) Wo be to me if I be not known . There are a sort of men , that like Mercury , the Good-fellow Planet , are according to their company , good if with the good , bad if in conjunction with bad ; but the true Christian hath not so learned Christ. He who like the Mariner , changeth his course upon the change of the weather , is but an unsound Professour . We read of some that feared the Lord , and served graven Images , 2 King. 17. 41. They divided themselves between the true God and Idols ; As the Jewish Children , which spake half Hebrew , and half in the language of Ashdod , ( Nehem. 13. 24. ) and as some Gentlemen that speak Italian , when they are amongst Italians ; French amongst French men ; and order their language answerable to their associates . So some that would be called Christians , change themselves both for words and deeds , into the nature of their Companions . Amongst the godly they own God , but amongst the wicked they deny him ; They alter their colour as the Sole ( say Naturalists ) according to that which is nearest , and expose the Name of God , rather then their own , to contempt . Beza saith of Baldwinus , that he had , Religionem ephemeram , A Religion for every day ; Some men have a deportment sutable to all with whom they converse , resembling such as are sinful , and dissembling with them that are holy . These are either ashamed or afraid of Christ , both which are unreasonable . 1. Some will not own him out of shame , though he be the glory of his people Israel ; The Paint of women in some Countries , is the Dung of the Crocodile , and their sweet powder the excrement of a Cat ; yet people can esteem these their honour ; The Drunkard can boast of his strength to drink ; The cunning Cheat of his deceitful doings ; And alas many Christians are ashamed of Christ. O how unworthy is it , that wicked men should glory in their shame , and good men be ashamed of their glory ! that the scum of Hell should be prided in , and the Soveraign of Heaven be esteemed a disgrace ! that some should with brows of brass , boast of the ugly Monster , begotten of Satan ; and others not dare to own the fairest of ten thousands , and the onely begotten of the Father ! It s reported of Aristotles Daughter , that being asked what colour was best , she should answer the blush colour ; Diogenes was wont to say , that Blushing was the colour of vertue . How ever this colour may be commendable on other occasions , its abominable in the cause of Christ ; David saith , I will speak of thy judgements before Kings , and will not be ashamed , Psa. 119. 46. Neither the greatness of their power , nor the brightness of their splendour , shall make me bashful and ashamed to own thee . Shame doth excellently become sin , but it s wholly unbecoming the blessed Saviour , Rom. 6. 21. Mark. 8. 38. 2. Some will not own Christ out of fear ; As an Owl peeps at the Sun out of a B●rn , but dares not come near it ; So some peep at the Sun of righteousness , but stand aloof , as if they were more afraid to be nigh God then the Devil ; This made Peter deny his Master ; How daunted have many been , to look danger in the face ; He who had sometimes courage enough , to take a Lion by the beard ; lost his colour , and changed his behaviour before wicked Achish . Slavish fear is a great foe to Godliness ; The Great Philosopher gives this reason why the Camelion changeth colour so frequently ; he being a fearful creature , swelleth by drawing in the air , hereby his skin is pent in and made smooth , and more apt to receive the colour of those objects that are next him . They who are fearful of suffering , will easily if their company require it , change their colour , and disown their Saviour . Timerous creatures will run into any unclean places for shelter , when a magnanimous spirit in a good cause will defie death it self . He who fears his skin , is no friend to his soul , but will defile the latter to defend the former . Fear surprising the heart , takes it away , and makes the Christian weak ; and then 't is no wonder if the smallest blow conquer him , and like a Reed he bend with the least blast of wind ; but how unreasonable is it that any should be afraid to own the blessed Saviour , when in sticking close to him is their only safety ! Nothing can hurt thee but sin , t is that alone which exposeth thee to injuries and miseries ; if thou fearest that , thou needest fear nothing else . What a foolish bargain dost thou make , by denying Christ to make wicked and weak men thy seeming friends , and the jealous God thy real enemy ? Is not he distracted , who to avoid the scratch of a pin , layeth himself open to the shatering of a Cannon ? And art thou not worse , if to avoid the fury of poor Mortals , thou incurrest the wrath of the Almighty ? Remember that the fearful are the first in the black list for the eternal fire , Rev. 21. 8. and do not play the Coward as Furius Fulvius , to sound a retreat , when thou shouldst as a man of courage sound an Alarm . The Mulberry tree is esteemed the wisest of all Trees , because it onely bringeth forth its leaves after the cold frosts be past ; but in Christianity he is a fool , who dares not profess himself a Christian till dangers be over . St. Austin in his Confessions , relates a story of one Victorinus , who being converted , because he had many great friends that were Heathens , durst not own Christ publiquely , but went to Simplicianus and whispered him in the ear , I am a Christian ; but Simplicianus answered him , Vix credo , nec deputabo te inter Christianos , &c. I do not beleive it , nor will count thee a Christian , till I see thee profess it openly . Victorinus at first derided this answer , but afterwards considering the words of our Saviour , Mark 8. 38. he acknowledged it openly . It is very dangerous to walk in the dark . Saints are children of the light , and should have their light shining before others ; Lewis the eleventh of France , was better at carnal politicks , then real piety , who desired his Son might learn no more then this , He who cannot counterfeit , must not wear a Crown . SECT . IV. FOurthly , Labour to get some good by such as are evil ; The precious stone Amyanthon , being cast into the fire , is made the more clear and pure ; A skilful Naturalist , will make some use of the most venemous Hearbs and Serpents ; A gracious person may improve the vilest sinners company to his own spiritual profit . As wicked men are helpful to the temporal good , so often to the eternal good of Gods people ; Like Leaves , though they are nothing worth in themselves , yet they keep the good fruit from blasting , and hereby are instrumental to its further Growth and Ripening . Ismenias the Theban Musitian , taught his Scholars , not onely by shewing them such as struck a clean stroak , with , Do so , but also by shewing them such as bungled at it , with , Do not so . Antigenidas thought men would like better , and contend the more for skil , if they heard untuneable notes . Satan intendeth wicked men as dirt and earth , onely to besmear and defile them , but God outshoots him in his own bow , and makes them as Fullers-earth , to purge and purifie them ; As poisonous as they are in their own nature , through the Correctives of the Spirit , they become not only not hurtful , but helpful to the beleiver . Ungodly men are compared to dung and filth , which we know , being applied to the good Trees , makes them more fruitful . That slime and mudde , which the overflowing of Nilus carrie●h along with it in the Summer Solftice , causeth Egypt to bring forth abundantly . The Graces of Saints have increased , even by the abominations and oppositions of sinners . Lots hatred of sin was the greater , by viewing the unclean conversations of the Sodomites . The Serpent Tyrus , saith Brittenbacchus , is so venemous , that there is no remedy against its bitings , but by cutting off the member ; yet even of this there is a Treacle made , which serveth for excellent purposes . Though the flesh of the Vulture ( saith Pliny ) be unwholsom and unmeet for meat , yet it is most medicinable ; an Oyntment made of the fat of it , is specially strengthning to the sinews . Though ungodly men are ill food , and not fit to be our ordinary constant diet , yet they may be good Physick and profitable , when necessity compelleth us to use them . A deboice , lewd Master may teach a Scholar many good lessons ; If God send us to School to the Beasts of the field , Job 12. 7. Ask the Beasts , and they shall teach thee ; I know no reason but much good may be learned from these brutes in the shape of men . Some tell us that gold was extracted out of Ennius his dung . Thou mayst Reader , through the help of the Spirit , get that which is better then Gold , out of these noysom and loathsom persons . The smell of Trefoil , is often stronger in a moist and cloudy dark season , then in fair weather ; So should the savour of a Saints graces , be most fragrant amongst evil Companions . 1. Let thy zeal be the more inflamed ; zeal is the heat or intention of the af●ections ; It is an holy warmth , whereby our love and anger are drawn out to the utmost for God and his glory ; Now our love to God and his ways , and our hatred of wickedness should be encreased , because of ungodly men ; cloudy and dark colours in a table , make those that are fresh and lively to appear more beautiful ; others sins should make God and Godliness more amiable in thine eyes . Thy heart should take fire , by striking on such cold flints ; David by an holy Antiperistasis , did kindle from others coldness , Psal. 119. 39. My zeal hath consumed me , because mine enemies have forgotten thy word . Cold blasts make a fire to flame the higher , and burn ●he hotter : A true child hearing others speak faintly , is the more fervent in the commendation of his Father ; Because the wicked forsake thy law ; therefore I love thy commandments above gold , yea , above much ●ine gold , Psa. 119. 127. Do others in thy presence declare their loathing of Gods pre●cepts ? do thou love them the more . Do they trample them under their feet ? do thou prize them at the greater rate ; Truly , the more they dishonou● God by their swearing and scoffing at Godliness , the more reason thou hast to honour him . Phineas is Sainted in Gods Calendar , for being zealous in Gods Cause ; as Varnish addeth a lustre to all colours , and makes them amiable , so zeal addeth a beauty to all our services , and makes them the more acceptable . The Spirit of God works like fire , and if it dwell in thee , t will make thee fervent in Spirit . How little sign have they of their Saintships , who can hear sinners belch out their blasphemies against God , and tear the precious body of Christ in peices with Oaths , and yet are as sensless as stocks and stones as if they had no relation to God and Christ ? The redeemed of the Lord are a zealous people . Tit. 2. 14. Thou art but false in thy profession of friendship , if thou canst behold others abusing thy friend and sit still . Ah , what true Christian can see hellish lusts embraced publiquely , and the glorious Lord disowned openly , and not loath the former , and love the latter the more for it ! The Grecians would bring their children to hate drunkenness , by shewing them Drunkards wallowing in their vomits , what loathsom persons they were in such conditions . Good examples are provocations to holiness , Mal. 3. 8. Bad examples may work a detestation of vice , Deut. 18. 9. Ephes. 4. 17. Wise men have more to learn of fools , then fools of wise men , said Cato . That Trumpet which is filled only with wind , may encourage and awaken a living man to the battle ; That person who is dead in sin , may rouse up a sleepy , yet living Christian , and raise his affections more towards God. 2. Let thy heart be the more inlarged in thankfulness ; Dost thou behold the prophane , glorying in their pollutions ? Dost thou see sinners abusing Gods creatures ? Dost thou discern ungodly ones making a mock of sin ; jearing at holiness , and riding post to Hell ; how should thy heart be raised in thankefulness to thy dearest Redeemer , that thou dost not run with them to the same excess of riot , and in the same road of eternal ruine ? Every time thou comest into such company , and observest their wicked courses , thou mayst well pity such deluded souls , and praise thy gracious Saviour . Mayst thou not think thus with thy self ; Lo here are those that play with the eternal fire , and sport with the Almighties fury , that dance merrily over the bottomless pit , and take pleasure in the way to endless pains , that are wholly regardless of God and Christ , and Heaven , and their unchangeable estates in t●e other world ; I was as bad as the worst of them , or at least , I had slept as deep into that mire of prophaness , and equalled or exceeded them in all manner of impiety , if free grace had not with-held and prevented me . I have the same root of bitterness , and had doubtless brought forth the same cursed fruits , if the hand of mercy had not new grafted me ; What thanks do I owe to my Redeemer , who makes me to differ , and what cause have I to love and laud , to please and praise him , world without end ! O friend , if the Israelites blessed God for their preservation from those waters in which the Egyptians were drowned ; hast not thou cause to give thanks for preservation from that wickedness in which others are damned ? 3. Thy care and watchfulness should be the more increased . The falls and failings of others , should be Sea-marks , and give thee warning to avoid those rocks and shallows , if thou wouldst avoid shipwrack . Thou hast the same poisonous seed , therefore take heed , lest thou committest the same sin . These things ( saith the Apostle ) were written for our example , to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they did , 1 Cor. 10. 6 , 16. All these things happened unto them for examples , and they were written for our admonition . As the sins and sufferings of others are recorded for our instruction , so God lets them be acted before our eyes for our admonition . If he that walketh before me falleth and breaketh his neck , I have the more reason to ponder the paths of my feet ; If a fire break out in one house , every wise man will look the more to his own . If enemies be near the walls , the Garrison will be the more diligent to keep watch and ward . Ah how foolish is that Mariner , who beholdeth a Ship before him , cast away upon some Rock , and doth not steer his course with the greater care ? Thus the Sword of Goliah , may be serviceable to a David , and those weapons of unrighteousness , which are designed for our destruction , may be helpful to our preservation . Those Kites that destroy Chickens , do also eat up offals of Beasts , and many noisom things , which otherwise would infect the Air ; whence , say some , it s a Law in England , that near a Market Town they should not be kill'd . Unclean Beasts are serviceable to men , and unclean men may be helpful to Christians . SECT . V. FIfthly , Endeavour their reformation . Thy duty is as a good Physitian , to loath the noisom disease , but to pity and strive to recover the Patient . What difference is there betwixt thee and a carnal person , if thou sufferest him to die , and offerest not thy help for his cure ! Thy Father doth good to all , he causeth his Sun to shine on the just , and on the unjust . O Remember that thou art his Son , and that his pattern is worthy of imitation . That piece of Iron , which is rub'd with the Loadstone , will draw another peice of Iron ; We read of Magnetical Rocks in some Islands , that draw all Ships to them , which have Iron Pins , and hold them so fast that they are not able to stir . Shew that thou hast been toucht with the Spirit , that the Spirit of God dwelleth in thee , by thy endeavours to draw others to God. Christ never sat at Table with any sinners , but he made better chear then he found ; If he sat with the prophane , he did convert them ; if with the pious , he did confirm them , Luk. 7. Be not discouraged at the weakness of thy gifts , or the small degree of thy graces , but consider that the event of the enterprize depends upon him who sets thee a work , and that its all one to him , whether he have great means , or small means , or no means . A poor contemptible Flie , may hinder an Elephant from sleeping ; a poor upright Christian , may awaken great sinners out of their spiritual sleep and lethargy . A little Boat may land a man at a large continent . A weak believer may help a soul to Heaven . Endeavour to reform them these three ways . 1. By wholsom Counsel . Every place thou comest into , should be like Libnah , in which the Israelites pitcht , a place of Frankincense , perfumed by thy presence . The breath of a man serves him both to cool his broth when hot , and warm his fingers when cold ; The breath of a Christian should serve to put some warmth into them that are cold Heaven-ward , and to cool and slack them that are hot Hell ward . An wholsom tongue is a Tree of life , Prov. 15. 12. Thy tongue should be like the Tree of life in Eden , of which he that did eat was to live for ever , Gen. 3. 22. or like that Tree of life in the midst of the street , which bare twelve manner of Fruit , and the Leaves of the Tree were for the healing of the Nations , Rev. 22. 2. I have read of a person who led a dissolute life , and was so wrought upon by the Counsel of a good man , that he turned over a new Leaf ; and when his Companions asked the ground of that change , which they soon observed in him , and why he would not walk along with them in his old wicked ways ; he answered them , I am busie , meditating and reading in a little book , which hath but three leaves in it , so that I have no leasure so much as to think of any other business ; In the first leaf , which is red , I meditate on the passion of my Lord Iesus Christ , and of that precious blood which he shed for the remission of my sins ; In the second leaf , which is white , I meditate on the unspeakable joys of Heaven , purchased for me by the death of my Redeemer ; In the third leaf , which is black , I meditate on the intolerable torments of Hell provided and kept in store for the wicked and ungodly . Prudent and pious advice , may bring wandring sinners home to Christs fold . There is a special art in baiting the hook aright , so as thou mayst take sinners ere they are aware , I being crafty , caught you with guile , 2 Cor. 12. 16. It s possible ●hou art amongst men that are moral and civil , yet unsanctified ; by commending civility , yet discovering its insufficiency , thou mayst beat them out of their rotten holds , and cause them to run to Christ for help , Mat. 5. 20. It may be thou meetest with those that are openly prophane ; by bringing in wisely an example of Gods judgements on such persons , thou mayst fright them from such lewd practices . Sometimes thou mayst turn earthly discourse by degrees into heavenly , and spread a Table , and set a running banquet before them , which they never thought of . Do they ask ( for ●ant of other discourse ) what news ? After some prudent preface , answer them , that thou canst tell them good news from a far Country , which is worthy of all acceptation , namely , That Iesus Christ came into the world to save sinners . Do they ask how such and such do ? acquaint them concerning their bodily welfare ; and if it may be done conveniently , that the health of the soul is most to be enquired after , as that which is of greatest weight and worth . Do they ask into the price of Commodities ? thou mayst thereby raise their hearts to the Wine and Milk which is to be bought of Christ , without money and without price . This is true Alchimy , and will turn all into Gold. What heavenly fruit did our Redeemer gather from such earthly trees ? When the Pharises spake of eating with defiled , that is , unwashen hands , he told them of inward defilements , and what danger there was in unwashen hearts , Mat. 15. 20. When the Woman of Samaria came to draw Water , how soon doth he lift up his discourse to living Water , of which whosoever drinketh shall never thirst ! John 4. 21. When the multitude followed him for the Loaves , he improves that occasion to quicken them to labour for the meat which endureth unto everlasting life , John 6. 25 , 26 , 27. Thus thou mayst Reader , distil cordial water out of dregs and lees . 2. Endeavour to reform them by thy gracious carriage in their Company . A Christian is Gods Iewel ( Mal. 3. 17. ) and should always cast a radiancy and lustre before the eyes of others ; but especially amongst them that are wicked : He is double guilty who ●●lks disorderly amidst his Masters enemies . Saints ●●ould like Diamonds , sparkle gloriously in a Ditch , and as Stars , shine the brighter in cold nights ; Be blameless and harmless , without rebuke , shining as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse Generation , Phil. 2. 15. Beleivers should , like lights hung out in the City , shine so brightly , as to prevent others wandring and stumbling ; The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , such lights as the Sun , Moon , and Stars are , which do not keep their light to themselves , but communicate it to others . This gracious conversation is often profitable to the conviction of others . They who as the Atlantes , are ready to curse the Sun , because it scorcheth them with its beams , to hate the light because it discovereth their deeds of darkness , may nevertheless in their consciences be so convinced of its beauty and glory , that they may turn Persians , to admire and adore it . Shew thy self a pattern of good works , that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed , having no evil thing to say of you , Tit. 2. 7 , 8. 1 Pet. 3. 15 , 16. Grace doth powerfully , though silently , oppose and overthrow Prophaness ; It forceth reverence from its bitterest enemies . The righteousness of Noah condemned the old World ; The holiness of the Baptist , did obtain respect from wicked Herod ; How did the Magnanimous Sanctity of the three Worthies , triumph in the conscience of Nebuchadnezar ? and the innocency of Daniel in the soul of Darius ? Many a sinner hath been struck dumb , by the exemplary and heroick faith and patience of the Saints . Such a gracious carriage is sometimes helpful to the conversation of others . They who stood out against the Word of God , have been won by the Works of Men. Sanctified actions are unanswerable Syllogismes , and effectual demonstrations . Though the ears have been shut against pious precepts , the heart it self hath been opened to a gracious pattern . Abstain from fleshly lusts , and have your conversations honest , that whereas they speak evil of you as evil doers , they ma● by your good works which they behold , glorifie God in the day of visitation , 1 Pet. 2. 11 , 12. Good works are a means , not onely of silencing , but even of sanctifying evil workers ; and hereby those who spake evil of the children , come to glorifie the father . An holy life is a real confutation of unholy lusts ; and whereas counsel may perswade , this compelleth the sinner , either to embrace sanctity , or to live condemned of himself . Lewis the twelfth of France , hearing ill of the Waldenses , sent some to observe and pry into their lives , who returning , told the King , That they were free from all scandal , sanctified the Sabbath , baptized and chatechised their children ; Whereupon the King their enemy swore that they were better men then himself , or any of his Subjects . The Church of God is compared to a Vineyard , Luk. 20. 9. Pliny tells us that the smell of a Vineyard is such , that it drives away all Serpents and venemous creatures . The lives of Gods people should be spotless and exemplary , that their enemies , as in Tertullians days , may honour them for their holiness . Of Bueer it was said , He so lived , that his friends could not sufficiently praise him , nor his enemies justly blame him ; So should every child of God. SECT . VI. 3. ENdeavour to reform them by faithful reprehension . Reprehension is like a Dam , which though it cause the waters to swell , stops its violent course ; As Thunder , it purifieth the air , which otherwise would putrifie . When thou comest amongst vicious persons , thy spirit as Pauls amongst the Idolatrous Athenians , must be stirred within thee , and thy zeal must appear in reproving the offendors , or else as a Pearl in a Toads ●ead , it will be of no use . Servetus condemned Zwinglius for his heat and harshness ; but he answered , In other things I will be meek and mild , but not in blaspemies against Christ. Good blood will not belie it self , but when occasion is offered , shew it self ; The zeal of Gods house did eat the Redeemer up , and he whipt the buyers and sellers out of the Temple ; In the cause of God , saith Luther , I am and ever shall be stout and stern ; herein I take upon me this Motto , Nulli cedo , I give place to none . That expression of Austin hath weight in it , Qui non zelat non amat , He hath no love to God , who hath no zeal for God ; and truly he hath little love to his Neighbour ; Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart , thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy Neighbour , and not suffer sin upon him , Lev. 9. 17. First , Here is no priviledge as to persons , either reproving , or offending . 1. Reproving , Thou shalt rebuke ; It s to be done in our own persons , and not by a proxy . 2. Offending , thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy Neighbour ; All are our Neighbours , made of the same earth ( bone of our bone , flesh of our flesh , ) capable of the same heaven . God excludes none , but offers both his grace and glory universally . Whosoever will , let him , &c. Rev. 22. 17. Secondly , No dispensation granted as to crimes . Thou shalt not suffer sin upon him ; If it be a sin , it must not be suffered . Thirdly , No pleading of any excuse ; thou shalt in any wise rebuke him , and not hate him . To suffer any in unholiness , is a sign of hatred ; and such seeming charity is the greatest cruelty ; Besides , whilst we let such men alone in their prophaness , we provoke God against our selves . Iohn the Baptist rebuked Herod ; Nathan reproved David ; and Latimer Henry the eighth ; though the offendors were potent and high , yet the ministers of God would not fear their faces , but freely tell them of their faults : Nay , some Heathen have had courage enough to check the greatest for their crimes . How plain was Seneca in reproving Nero ; Diogenes in reproving Alexander , and Zeno Nearchus ! It s said of Suetonius , that in writing the lives of the twelve Caesars , he took the same liberty in declaring their vices , which they took to commit them ; and shall not Christians be as bold to check sin , as others are to act it ? Reader , what love dost thou show to thy Neighbour , if thou seest him wounding and piercing his inestimable soul , and thou dost not endeavour ( though against his will , ) to hold his hand ? If thou shouldst see him take a Knife to stab himself at the heart , thou wouldst not stay to ask his leave , or fear his anger , but do thy utmost to hinder him ; and canst thou see him destroying his soul , and not seek to prevent him ? That pity without question is the best , which relateth to the better part . There was a barbarous Law among the Lacedemonians , That no man should tell his Neighbour any ill news that befel him , but every one should be left in process of time to find it out himself . Alas , what will become of poor sinners , if none should tell them what they are doing , whither they are going , till they come to find it in the place of torments ! Were love burning in our hearts ( as fire was in the Temple ) or were our faces towards one another ( like those Cherubims which covered the Mercy Seat with their wings ) we should not onely , not lie in sin our selves , but also endeavour that others should not die in their sins ; That person who refused to smite his Neighbour , when commanded in the name of the Lord , was slain by a Lion , 1 King. 20. 35. If we refuse to smite sin , Gods wrath will smite us . Because this duty is of such concernment , I shall give thee some few brief directions . 1. Be sure that which thou reprovest be a sin , and not a lawful or indifferent thing . Some shew much heat , but little holiness in keeping a great stir about nothing . The Israelites raised a great Army to fight against their Brethren , upon a supposition that they had built an Altar for sacrifice , Iosh. 22. 16. Eli was mistaken in chiding Hannah for drunkenness , and thinking she was not sober , because she was almost overwhelmed with sorrow , 1 Sam. 2. T is dangerous to apply corroding medicines , upon supposition that the person hath a festered sore ; or to cut a man for the stone , who is not troubled with that distemper ; It were better by much to be silent , then to cry out against that which we cannot by Scripture prove to be sin . He that reproves the deed , will do more hurt then good , if he be not able to convince the doer , Tit. 1. 9. To some it may be said , as Iob to his friends , who accused him of Hypocrisie , because of his calamity ; as if the stick could not be straight , because t was brought to the fire ; How forcible are right words ! but what doth your arguing reprove ? Job 6. 25. Right words have great weight ; naked truth will be too hard for armed error ; but what power have mistaken or misapplied arguments ? what doth such arguing reprove ? Such arguings seldom reprove any but the arguer , and him they always reprove . 2. Reprove seriously ; Reproof is an edged tool , and must not be jested wi●h ; Cold Reproofs are like the noise of Cannons a great way off , nothing affrighting us . He that reproves sin merrily , as one that takes a pride to shew his wit , and make the company laugh , will destroy the sinner instead of the sin . There are those that spit out their friends with their tongues , and laugh them into enemies ; Sharpness and acuteness doth ill in sportful festivals , but it becomes purging potions : Lightness is commendable is nothing , but worst in things that are weighty ; A vain jesting admonition is like rubbing a person with a poisoned Oyl , which spreads the more for being put into such a fleeting suppleness . The Areopagites banished Stilpo , for proving by his Sophistry that Minerva was no Goddess , alledging this for their reason , that it was not safe for any to dally with things that were Divine . Reproof is strong Physick , and worketh many times to purpose , and therefore is not to be given in jest ; Sin , which is the object of it , is not to be played with ; nor Hell its consequent , a jesting matter . Titus 1. 13. The Apostle enjoynes Titus to reprove sharply ; the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cuttingly , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they may be sound in the faith ; He that mindeth his Patients health , will not toy or trifle , or play with his mortal diseases ; the flesh must feel the plaister , or it will never eat up the corruption in it . Shouldst thou apply an healing plaister to skin the wound aloft , when there is need of a corrosive to take away the dead flesh , thou wouldst be false and unfaithful to thy friend . When the water was bitter , and the ground barren , Elisha cast a cruse of Salt into it , and it healed both . Reproof like Salt , must have in it both sharpness and savouriness ; Alas , how fierce is that wrath , how hot is that fire to which poor sinners are liable ? and wilt thou sport with their souls , and joyn with them in making a mock of sin ? Saints must be zealous , not onely in good works , but also in reproving evil workers . The Command is , Cry aloud , spare not , lift up thy voice like a Trumpet , and shew my people their trangression , and the house of Jacob their sin , Isa. 58. 1. This belongs in some sense to every member , as well as to the Minister . They must reprove sin powerfully ; cry aloud , lift up thy voice as a trumpet ; particularly , shew my people their transgression , and the house of Jacob their sin ; Admonition without serious Application , is like an Arrow with too many Feathers , which though we level at the Mark , is taken by the Wind , and carried quite from it . Some men shoot their Reprehensions , like Pellets through a Trunk , with no more strength then will kill a Sparrow ; those make sinners beleive that sin is no such dreadful evil , and the wrath of God no such frightful end . He that would hit the mark , and recover the sinner , must draw his arrow of Reproof home . Reproof must be powerful ; the hammer of the word breaks not the heart , if it be lightly layd on ; If the flesh doth not feel the plaister , it will hardly be healed by it . It must also be so particular , that the offendor may think himself concerned . Some in reproof will seem to aim at the sinner , but so order it , that their arrows shall be sure to miss him . As Domitian , when a Boy held for a mark afar off , his hand spread , with his fingers severed , he shot his arrows so , that all hit the empty spaces between his fingers ; Be the reproof never so gracious , the Plaister never so good , it will be ineffectual if not applied to the Patient , 2 Sam. 12. 7. Act. 2. 36 , 37. 3. Reprove seasonably ; Reprehension is not necessary or convenient at all seasons ; Admonition is like Physick , rather profitable then pleasant ; Now the best Physick may be thrown away , if a fit time of giving it be not observed ; Some unskilful Physitians have wronged their Patients , in administring sutable potions out of season ; It s a great part of Christian prudence , to discern the fittest time of lancing spiritual sores ; if they be taken when they are ripe , the corrupt matter may be all let out , and the party be the healthier whilst he liveth ; but if before they be ripe , it will not be so well . A fool will always be talking , and is ready to burst if he may not have vent ; but a wise man will keep a word for afterward , Prov. 29. He will neither run before an opportunity , nor neglect to follow after it ; many a fair child is spoiled by an untimely birth ; and good duty , prejudiced by an unseasonable performance . Sometimes a sudden reproof , upon the commission of the sin , hath reformed the sinner ; but this is not always safe . When men are rebuked before their Companions , their hearts are usually enraged against the Reprover , suspecting him to intend their disparagement rather then their amendment . Besides , when their spirits are hot , and their minds drunk with passion , they are apter to beat the Christian , then to hear his Counsel . When a person is in a violent Fever , it s not good to give him Physick , its safest to stay till the fit be abated or over . Abigal would not tell Nabal of his danger till he was sober . Some small fish are twicht up with the violence of a sudden pull , when the like action would break the line whereon a great one hangs . But I would not be understood Reader , to encourage thee in the least , under pretence of deferring it till a fitter day , to omit the duty ; if there be no probability of a better season , nor any hope of doing good , after some ejaculations to Heaven for assistance and success , take the present opportunity . Fabius conquered by delaying , but Caesar overcame by expedition . Though it s not ordinarily so good to sow Corn when the Wind is high , yet the Husbandman will rather do it in such weather , then not at all , or then to want his harvest . As the Bird often flieth away , whilst the Fowler still seeks to get nearer and nearer her ; so doth a season of advantaging our brethrens souls , whilst we wait still for a fitter ; It s thy duty therefore to take hold of the present , where thou hast no likelihood of another , and to improve the first good opportunity , rather then to adventure the loss of all , by expecting a better . 4. Reprove prudently ; A Christians wisdom in the matter of his reproof , will very much further its working . As an ear-ring of gold , and an ornament of fine gold , so is a wise reprover to an obedient ear , Prov. 25. 12. A wise reprover is a credit to the Reproved . It s an honor to be wounded thus by one that is wise . Some men would receive blows with more patience , if they were given them with more prudence ; None so likely to find an obedient hearing , as they that are wise in reproving ; the best ear will hardly brook foolish speaking ; there is a way to make men take down their bitter potions before they are aware . The recovering of a fallen sinner , is the setting of a bone in joynt , which requireth much skill and dexterity ; Every Mountebank is not fit to undertake this ask . First , Have respect to the person whom thou reprovest . Secondly , Have respect to the crime for which thou reprovest . First , Respect is to be had to the person , both as to his condition and his disposition . 1. To his condition and quality ; Though the sins of Superiours may , nay must be reproved , by those that have a call to it , yet not in that bold manner which is allowable to our equals , nor without some acknowledgement of that reverence which is due to their Callings and Conditions ; Rebuke not an Elder , but intreat him as a Father , 1 Tim. 5. 1. When Daniel was to interpret Nebuchadnezzars dream , and to acquaint him with his danger , observe with what respectful language he cloatheth his dreadful message , Dan. 4. 19 , 24 , 27. The Prophets that spake so boldly to their Princes , were commanded & commissioned by God what to say ; Though Superiors ought to be reproved , yet they ought not to be reviled . Paul ( as I conceive ) acknowledged his passion , when he had spoken irreverently to the high Priest , I wist not brethren , that he was the High Priest ; I did not consider as I ought , to whom I spake , Act. 23. 5. It will not excuse us to give ill words , though we receive ill wounds from Magistrates ; Is it fit to say to a King , thou art wicked , and to Princes , ye are ungodly ? Job 34. 18. Though this Text doth not silence all from acquainting Kings with their faults , muchless justifie any that shall daub them with their flatteries , 1 King. 18. 18. 2 King. 3. 13. yet it proves that Princes must be spoken to respectfully , because of their places . Superiors may be amended by exhortation , equals by friendly admonition , inferiors by severe reprehension . Secondly , Respect is to be had to the disposition of the offendor● some in their fainting fits are recovered easily , with throwing some cold water in their faces ; others must be beaten or rubbed very hard ; Some men are like Briars , you may handle them gently without harm , but if you grasp them hard they will fetch blood ; Others as Nettles , if dealt with roughly , do the less wrong ; Iude 22 , 23. And of some have compassion , making a difference , and others save with fear ; Some are like tiled houses , that can admit a brand of fire to fall on them , and not be burnt ; yet some again are covered with light dry straw , which with the least touch will kindle and flame about your ears . By scruing strings moderately , we may make good Musick , but if too high we break them ; All the strings of a Viol are not of equal strength , nor will endure to be wound up to the same pitch ; we may sooth a Lion into bondage , but sooner hew him in peices , then beat him into a chain . A difference ought to be observed between party and party ; an Exhortation will do more with some , then a severe Commination with others ; The sturdy Oak will not be so easily bowed as the Gentle Willow ; Elisha recovered the dead Child with a kiss , but Lazarus was restored to life with a loud strong voice ; Reproof must be warily given ; for t is like a Razor , whose edge is keen , and therefore the sooner rebated ; It s dangerous to give a medicine stronger then the disease and constitution of the Patient require ; A gentle fire makes the best distilled waters . Respect is to be had also to their faults ; Wise Physitians will distinguish between a Pimple and a Plague-sore ; Those that sin of infirmity , are to be admonished more mildly then they that sin obstinately ; who would give as great a blow to kill a Flie as to kill an Ox ; Old festered sores must be handled in a rougher manner then green wounds , Phil. 3. 15. Tit. 3. 10. Ordinary Physick will serve for a distemper newly begun , but a chronical disease must have harsher and stronger Purges ; Some offend ignorantly , others out of contumacy ; Some offend out of weakness , being overborn by a sudden passion ; others of premeditated contrived wickedness and perverseness ; some sins are of a lower nature , of lesser moment and influence upon others ; other sins overthrow the foundations of Christianity , and devour the vitals of Religion ; Now according to the nature of the disease , and constitution of the Patients , must the prescription be for their cure . Though all sins have one price for their satisfaction , yet not one way for their reprehension ; If the Linnen be but a little foul , ordinary rubbing may serve ; but if it be died with dirt , it must have the more . Our Saviour called Herod , Fox ; the Master of the Synagogue , Hypocrite ; the Scribes and Pharises , Vipers . St. Stephen calls the Iews , Traytours and Murtherers ; cutting reproofs are for notorious offenders ; a weak dose will but stir up , not purge away their noxious humours . 5. Reprove compassionately ; Soft words , and hard arguments do well together . Passion will heat the sinners blood , but compassion heal his conscience ; our reprehension may be sharp , but our spirits must be meek ; The Probe that searcheth the wound , will put the Patient to less pain , and do the more good , if covered with soft lint . Those who oppose themselves , are to be instructed in meekness , 2 Tim. 2. 25. There is a rigid austerity , which is apt to creep into , and corrupt our reproofs ; Mollifying Oyntments are oft instrumental to abate great swellings ; The Iron of Napthalies shooes were dipt in Oyl . Reproof should be as Oyls or Ointments , gently rub'd in by the warm fire of love . The Chirurgion that setteth the bone , stroketh the part ; If love do not play its part in this Scene , we do but act a Tragedy . The more thou canst perswade him of thy affection , the better will he take thy reprehension ; The sweetest kisses of an enemy are rejected with disdain , but even the wounds of a friend are received with applause , Prov. 27. 6. Such as in reproving shew their anger more then their love , rather exasperate then heal ; Of all seasons the Chirurgion had need to be sober , and farthest from being drunk with passion , when he is to cut off a gangren'd member . The Reprover should have a Lions stout heart , or he will not be faithful , and a Ladies soft hand , or he is not like to be successeful ; Holy Paul , speaking of his coming to reprove some delinquents amongst the Corinthians , tells them , And lest when I come again , my God will humble me among you , and that I shall bewail many who have sinned , 2 Cor. 6. ult . He that would gather fruit , must pluck the Bough gently towards him ; if too hard , he may break it ; A Reprover is like one that is taking a mote out of his brothers eye ; now this must be done very tenderly . For this purpose it would be convenient ( where it may be ) that reproofs be given privately . We administer Physick to persons in their Chamber ; He that proclaims anothers crimes up and down the Country , wrongs his own soul , in walking contrary to the command ( first tell him his fault between him and thee , Mat. 18. 15 , 16. ) and he wrongs his Neighbour in hardning him hereby in his sin ; for this man thinks the sinner designeth to reproach , not to reform ; therefore he throweth the reproof with indignation back in his face . Socrates at a Banquet , falling out with one of his friends , twitted him with his faults , How much better had this been done in private ? said Plato ; And had you not done better to have told me so privately ? said Socrates . Qui peccant coram omnibus , coram omnibus corripiendi sunt , ut omnes timeant . Qui secreto pecavit in te , secreto corripe ; Nam si solu● nosti , & eum vis coram aliis arguere , non es corrector , sed Proditor , Aug. de verb domini . If thy brother offend thee , saith Christ , tell him of it between thee and him , Mat. 5. Others crimes are not to be cried at a Market ; Private reproof is the best grave to bury private faults in ; The Plaister should not be larger then the sore ; Our Saviour did not tell the woman of Samaria of her wickedness whilst the Disciples were with him , but when he had sent them away , Ioh. 4. For this end it is also fit that reproof be given , with as little reflection as may be on the person reproved . If there be any thing in him worthy of praise , do not pass it by ; We take Pills the better when they are well guilt ; Children lick up their medicines the more freely , when they are sprinkled with a little sugar ; A faithful Historian , will relate mens vertues , as well as their vices . They are of a dunghil brood , that fasten onely upon galled backs , and ulcerous sores , and take no notice of the sound flesh ; Wise Commanders , when their Souldiers are making a dishonourable Retreat , do not presently upbraid them with cowardise , but often by mentioning their former heroick courage , or their Ancestors noble carriage , inflame them with a desire to continue their repute and credit . Good Nurses , when children fall first , help them up , and speak them fair , and then chide them ; This were an excellent art to draw them to God , whom thou couldst not drive ; shame will not let such be angry with those that deal so equally the rod and crown . Sometimes indirect reprehension hath wrought much good . A man may by a Parable , or an History pertinent to the purpose , convince a sinners conscience , and not openly injure his credit . Paul in his Sermon to Felix , seemed to shoot at random , not naming any , but his Arrow pierced that unrighteous Prince to the quick . The Sun keeps the world in good temperature by moving in an oblique circle , not directly with the highest heavens , nor directly contrary , but fetching a compass a little over-thwart . The Saint may keep the Sinner from that heat and rage , which is apt to boil under reproof , by fetching a little compass about . The reproof may sometimes be given in our own persons , and declaring how ill it would have been for us to have run into such riotous courses ; So the Apostle Paul reprehended the Sectmakers in Corinth , by transferring it to himself and Apollo , 2 Cor. 4. 6. A wise Reprover , in this is like a good Fencer , who though he strike one part , yet none that stand by could perceive by his eye , or the carriage of his arm , that he aimed at that more then the rest . We esteem it a singular commendation in a Chirurgion , when he can cure a wound in the face , and leave no scar behind ; Indeed , some wounds are so great that this cannot be done , yet a good Chirurgion will always endeavour it , and leave as little a scar as possibly he can . Pliny tells us of one Martia , who had the Child in the womb kill'd by lightning , and yet she her self was unhurt . It s excellent when a Boanerges can so cast forth lightning , as to kill sin in his conscience , and not hurt the sinner in his repute . To avoid this , it was ordained among the Lacedemonians , that every transgressour should be his own corrector ; for his punishment was to compass the Altar , finging an invective made against himself . It s a singular credit to the Christian , if he can open , and so heal mens sores , as not to leave any brand upon their persons : We read that God appointed Snuff-dishes , as well as Snuffers , for the Lamps of the Tabernacle , and both to be of pure gold , Exod. 37. 23. The Snuffers noted , that those who check any fault in others , should be free themselves ; The Snuff-dishes noted , that those crimes which we reprove , we should forgive and remit . The R●bbies say , that those Snuff dishes were filled with Sand , to bury the Snuffs in ; He who snuffs a Candle , and throws the snuff about the Room , gives offence to more by the ill savour he makes , then content by his care and diligence . There is hardly any work of Christianity , which requires more wisdom then this of Admonition . The temper and quality of the persons , the nature and difference of the crimes , the manner and way of delivering the reproof , the fittest season for it ought all to be seriously and diligently considered . The rebuke of sin is aptly resembled to the fishing for Whales ; the mark is big enough , one can hardly miss hitting ; but if there be not Sea-room enough , and line enough , and a dexterity in letting out that line , he that fixeth his harping-iron in the Whale , endangers both Himself and his Boat. Reproof strikes an Iron ( as it were ) into the conscience of the Offendour , which makes him struggle and strive to draw the Reprover into the Sea , to bring him into disgrace and contempt ; but if the line be prudently handled , and not pull'd too strait nor too q●ick , the sinner may be dr●wn to the Reprover and saved . I confess this duty of reproving , is an hard and unpleasing task , because truth ordinarily begets hatred , but it s far better that men should hate thee for the discharge of thy duty , then that God should hate thee for the neglect of it ; It s much easier to endure their rage for a short time , then the Lords wrath for ever . If the perfons reproved , have any true love to themselves , they will love thee ; and truly that mans love is little worth , who hath none for his own soul. Therefore Reader , obey Gods precept , and leave the event to his providence ; Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness , but rather reprove them , Ephes. 5. 11. If thou canst advantage and gain their souls , they will give thee thanks ; if not , thy God will ; and surely his thanks are not to be esteemed at a low rate . It hath many times been experienced , that faithful reprehensions have procured ( though present ill-will , yet ) respect afterwards . Dean Colet , for delivering his conscience , by way of reproof , before Henry the eighth , at the siege of Tourney , was questioned by the Privy Counsellors , but within a short time he got a large interest in the Kings heart , by the discharge of his duty . He that rebuketh a man , shall afterwards find more favour then he that flattereth with his tongue , Prov. 28. 23. The sick patient , who at present wrangleth with his Physitian for his bitter potions , doth afterwards ( when he findeth the happy effect of it in his heal●h and recovery ) both thank and reward him . Though thou meetest with an ungrateful return in his passion , yet thou mayst when that cloud is dispersed , expect a more serene and pleasing requital ; However the best way to lose a friend ( if thou canst not keep him and a good conscience too ) is by seeking by thy love and faithfulness to save him . Sixthly , Mourn for those sins which thou canst not amend ; Those sins which thou canst not beat down with a stream of truth , do thou overcome with a flood of tears ; When others kindled a fire of lust , David drew water and poured it out before the Lord ; Rivers of tears run down mine eys , because the wicked forsake thy law , Psa. 119. 135. Mark the intension of Davids passion , upon the disobedience of wicked persons ; Sighs are an ordinary sign of grief , but tears a far greater ; What sorrow was then in Davids heart , when not onely tears , but rivers of tears , ran down his eyes ? S●rely the Fountain of sorrow was very full and deep , when the streams did run so fast and freely . Others guilt calleth aloud to thee for grief . Do they wound their souls by sin ? do thou wound thy own soul with sorrow ? Alas ! how is it possible thou canst be amongst them that dishonour the blessed God , grieve his holy Spirit , and break his righteous Commands , and not have thine heart broken ? Lot vexed his righteous soul with the unclean conversation of the Sodomites , 2 Pet. 2. 8. Unless thou hast lost thy spiritual sent , thou canst not endure the stench of their filthy unsavoury breath , without much perplexity and trouble . I remembred the transgressors , and was greived , because they kept not thy Law , Psa. 119. 158. He that hath any part of the new man in himself , must needs be offended at the old man in others . It s presumed he is of a dishonest mind , who is not offended at the cheats and thefts of others ; Every creature is disturbed at that which is contrary to its own nature . If grace be the object of my joy and delight , sin must needs be the object of my grief and sorrow ; My soul shall weep in secret for your pride , saith Ieremiah , Jer. 13. 17. Reader , If thou lovest thy God with all thine heart , thou cast not but mourn that others should hate him , and walk contrary to him . We grieve as truly for wrongs done to those whom we sincerely affect , as for injuries done to our selves . When one of Darius his Eunuches , saw Alexander the G●eat , setting his foot and trampling upon a Table , that had been highly esteemed by his Master , he fell a weeping ; Of which when Alexander asked the reason , he answered , I weep to see that which my Master esteemed at so high a rate , made thy foot-stool . A gracious person cannot hear , or see the Son of God , the Word of God , and the People of God , which his God prizeth at an high rate , vilified , trampled under foot , and slighted by wicked men , but he falls a weeping . My tears have been my meat day and night , while they say unto me continually , Where is thy God ? Psa. 42. 3. The dishonour of his God went nearer to his heart was very sad at that season . Because others did eat the bread of violence , and drink the wine of deceit , he did eat his bread with tears , and mingle his drink with weeping . As when they were sick he fasted , so when they sinned he prayed and mourned . Hasten out of evil company , if thou hast no hopes of doing good . That Company may well be to thee as the torrid Zone , where wickedness sits in the chair , and Religion is made a foot-stool . Though thou mayst pass through such a Climate as thy occasions require , yet it s not safe to dwell in so unwholsom an air ; Men that are forced to walk by unsavoury carcasses , hold their breath , and hasten away as soon as they can . It s ill being an Inhabitant in any place where God is an Exile . A little before the destruction of Ierusalem , there was a vo●ce heard in the Temple very terrible , Migremus hinc , let us go hence ; That were a good Motto for Christians in ill-company ; Let us go hence ; Let such men know , as Manlius Torquatus told the Romans , that as they cannot bear thy strictness , so thou canst not endure their looseness sake heed of staying in any place needlesly , out of which thy God is gone before thee ; Go from the presence of a foolish man , when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge , Prov. 14. 7. Running away , was the means Ioseph used against the wicked allurements of his Mistriss . It s not cowardise , but true courage , to turn the back upon sin and sinners . It doth often reflect upon our credits to be amongst wicked men ( AEschinus in the Comaedian , blusht when he saw his Father knock at the door of an infamous woman ) but it will reflect upon our consciences to continue amongst them when our business with them is done . The Apostle Peter with many words did exhort and testifie saying , save your selves from this untoward generation , Act. 2. 40. It appears to be a business of no small concernment and weight , that the Apostle should use so many words about it . Wise men will not spend their time or breath in vain ; they do not send more messengers about any work then the consequence and worth of it requireth ; Besides , as Beza observeth upon the place , he interposeth Gods authority , and chargeth them in his name to save or guard themselves from such ill Companions . What hast thou to do with them that scorn to have any thing to do with God ? The King may well frown on those , and deny to converse with them that converse with Traytours in no relation to his service . Rebeccah must leave her Fathers and Brothers House , if she will be joyned to Isaac ; Hearken O Daughter , and consider , a●d encline thine ear , forget also thine own people , and thy Fathers House ; so shall the King greatly desire thy beauty , Psal. 45. 10 , 11. A Good Wish concerning a Christians carriage in evil Company ; Wherein the former heads are applied . THe Mighty Possessour of Heaven and Earth , who governeth the World with infinite wisdom , and allotteth to all the Children of men , their several Callings and Habitations ; having permitted the chaff to continue amongst the Corn , and appointed the tares to remain amongst the wheat till the great Harvest day ; and calling me sometimes by his providence , to deal with prophane and vicious persons : I Wish I may be so sensible how difficult it is to be safe amongst such defilers and destroyers of souls , that I may walk with the more caution , when ever I walk in such company , and make them my fear , not my familiar● , and rather my care then my Companions . I know that I must go out of the world , if I will go away from the wicked . Ill humours will be amongst good in the body ; Sins will be amongst graces in the soul , and sinners will be amongst Saints on this Earth . I am but a stranger here , they are men of the world ; I must therefore expect , as Lot in Sodom , to be both vexed with their unclean conversations , and tempted to their violent corruptions ; my God calleth them Foxes for their craft , Lions for their cruelty , and a generation of Vipers for their rage and venome ; In what danger therefore is my soul of being deceived and devoured by them ? How certainly will these ravenous beasts tear me in peices , unless I stand upon my guard , and the Keeper of Israel undertake my protection ! Lord , since it is not thy pleasure to free me from their Company , grant me such help from thy good spirit , that I may be free from their contagion ; Though I may sit at the same table with them , as my occasions or relations require , let me never eat of their dish , nor feed on their dainties ; I pray not that thou shouldst take me out of the world , but that thou shouldst keep me from the evil ; keep me from the snares which they lay for me , and from the gins of the workers of iniquity ; Let the wicked rather fall into their own Nets , whilst that I withal escape . I Wish that the sense of my danger may keep me from being secure , and make me the more sedulous in the discharge of my duty ; Sound eyes are apt to fall a watering , by beholding and looking on sore eyes . Dry Flax is not more apt to take fire , then my vicious nature to be inflamed ; the wet sheet of watchfulness is a good preservative ; He had need to have much grace , who would not learn others vice . It s hard to touch pitch and not be defiled ; Vngodly men are Satans blood-hounds , with which he hunteth my soul. How many hath he drawn into the pit of perdition by such Cart-rope● ? They are his strongest chains wherewith he binds men now to his own work , and at last ( as their wages ) hales them to Hell. Fruits of hotter Countries , transplanted into colder Climates , do not seldom die , through the chilling nips of the air , and the unsutableness of the soyl wherein they are planted ; there may be grace in my soul ready to flame heavenward , which may be soon quenched , by the putrid fogs of evil companions ; I know my God can keep mee ( as he did the three Children in the fiery furnace ) amongst them that are set on fire of Hell , from being sienged , or so much as having the sent of the fire on me ; but I know also , that then I must keep his way and be watchful ; O that I might keep my heart with such diligence , that as the Christal , I may touch those Toads , and not be poisoned ; yea , that as a true Diamond in a ditch , I may sparkle with holiness , and shine brightly amongst defiled persons . How natural is it to resemble their faults , whose faces I am wholly unlike ? I am apt like a Snow-ball , to carry away the dirt I am rolled upon , and as an Ape , to imitate those amongst whom I am , in their folly , and to sin for company , rather then to be singular . But though the Loadstone can draw Iron , yet it cannot draw gold ; Lightning may smite the dead Oak , but not the green and fresh Laurel ; though corrupt nature follow a multitude to do evil , yet grace through the help of the Spirit is invincible . Why may not my soul , like Moses bush in the midst of fire , be kept from consuming ; and as Gideons fleece , be moyst , when all the earth about it is dry ; O that I might as Fish , retain my freshness in the saltest waters ; and never savour others vices , or follow their steps , who depart from the Commandements of my God. Lord , whose promise is to thy Disciples , They shall take up Serpents , and if they drink any deadly thing , it shall not hurt them , ( Mark 16. 18. ) Is it not thine own hand writing ? and canst thou fail of fulfilling it ? O let thy powerful presence accompany me , whithersoever thy providence calleth me ; Let thy preventing grace preserve me from receiving harm , and thy quickening mercy enable me to do good , that whereas thine enemies are apt to speak evil of me as an evil doer , they may be ashamed , who falsly accuse my good conversation in Christ , 1 Pet. 3. 16. 2 I Wish that I may be so far from receiving prejudice , that I may be profited by the worst of those with whom I associate . As my God created nothing in vain , so he permits nothing , but to some good purpose . T is true , wicked men are Dogs , ( Mat. 7. 12. ) prone to faun on me , that they may defile me ; but even of Dogs there may be a good use ; The Flock is the more safe from Wolves , and the House from Theives through their watchfulness . They are dust , apt to breed vermine , but some creatures live upon it as their Aliment , and in it as their Element , and the basest rubbish , may be serviceable about the foundation of a building . The Guts and Garbage of some beasts are food to others . Doth not experience teach us , that many Fowls draw nourishment from unclean and filthy Carcasses ? Why may not my stomach be so good , and my spiritual constitution so strong , as to concoct such unwholsom food ? Lycurgus taught the Lacedemonians vertue , not onely by the pattern of their Sober Ephori , but also of the drunken Helots their slaves ; Poisons are as necessary as the best diet , if they be in the hands of him who is able to improve and prepare them . Beer is the better , the more lively and brisk for the grouns that are in the same vessel with it . O that my graces might be the more quick and active for the lees of others vices ; that their sins might increase my sanctity ; both in making me more thankful to him who maketh me to differ , and more watchful over my self , lest I fall from my own stedfastness . The Mariners are directed in their sailings by Rocks and Shelves , as well as by the Northern star ; My God instructeth Jonah by the shadow of a Weed . Go to the Pismire thou sluggard , consider her provident ways , and be wise to follow them . Observe the men of this world ; O my soul , consider their wicked ways , and be wise to avoid them . Ask these beasts of the earth , and they will teach thee , nay shame thee . How unwearied are they in the pursuit of the world ! how diligent about their works of darkness ! how often do they lose their sleep to do mischief , and neglect their food and callings to indulge their fleshly lusts , whilst thou , whose Master is the Lord of Glory , whose service is the onely freedom , and whose recompence will be infinite , art loytering and lazing upon the bed of security ! O that thou mayst learn industry about the concernments of heaven and eternity , from others industry about the affairs of this earth for a few days ; and take shame to thy self , that Satans Servants should be more forward to gratifie their Soul-destroyer , then thou art to please the blessed Saviour ! Lord , it is thy prerogative to cause light out of darkness , and to bring good out of evil ; teach thy servant to gather figs from these thistles , and to be the better because others are so bad ; Because the wicked forsake thy law , ther●fore let me love thy commandements above gold ; yea ; above much fine gold . I Wish that though in pursuance of my calling , I do afford my ●ompany to sinners , I may never bear them company in their sins . True Gold will not change its colour or nature for the hottest fire . The Rock keeps its place , and is immoveable , notwithstanding the continual dashing of the water . The earth is not hurt , either by the heat of Summer , or cold of Winter ; Though much dirt be flung at a post well oyled , it will not stick . My God hath enjoyned me ; Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness ; Whence I learn these three things ; 1. That sin is a work of darkness ; The Prince of darkness is its Father ; It s his natural off-spring , therefore called the work of the Devil , Iohn 8. 44. A dark heart is its Mother , there it s conceived , thence it s brought forth ; In dark holes these vermine breed and swarm ( Ephes. 4. 18. Hos. 4. 1 , 2 , 3. 2 Cor. 4. 4. ) It s portion is utter darkness , blackness of darkness for ever ; all its inheritance lieth in darkness , and the shadow of death . 2. I learn that the works of darkness are unfruitful ; The sinner makes a sad market of all his wicked wares ; He soweth vice , and reapeth vanity ; promiseth himself much pleasure , and sindeth it wholly unprofitable ; What fruit had ye in those things , whereof ye are now ashamed ? for the end of those things is death ; O what a frightful monster is this miscreant ; It hath fruitlesness in the beginning , shame in the middle , and death in the conclusion . 3. I learn that I onght not to have fellowship with these unfruitful works of darkness ; Indeed , I have little reason , if I consider the two former particulars , yet how prone am I to it , either by my silence when they sin ; or by my secret complyance with them in their sin ! My corrupted heart is like Touch-wood , ready to take fire by the least spark . When others are bold to blaspheme God , I am apt through an ungodly bashfulness to hold my peace , little considering that I must one day answer as well for my sinful silence , as for every idle word . It s my duty to hold the jewel of my faith fast , lest Satan steal it from me ; to hold my profession to the end , lest by leaving my Colours , I lose my Crown ; but not to hold my peace in the quarrel of truth , lest by suffering sin in others , I wrong my own soul ; Where is my love to others , if I stand still whilst they destroy themselves ? It may well break the strings of my tongue ( as of the Son of Cyrus ) when sin ( like the Persian ) is ready to kill my Father , or Brother , or Neighbour ; Evil men are like Traytours , with whom if we act , or conceal , we are guilty . Where is my love to my self , if I take others intolerable burthens on my own back ? Sin is a load , too heavy for the stoutest , for the strongest to carry . Should I by my silence give consent to others Oaths , or Lyes , or Ieers at godliness and godly men ; I become a party in their bonds , and liable to make satisfaction for their debts , and may expect every moment when divine justice should Arrest me for them . O my soul ! what answer dost thou give to these Arguments ? Wouldst thou for all the World be one moment under the guilt of the least sin ! Didst thou never feel its weight , and water thy couch with tears by reason of it ? Hast thou not sighed out mournfully to God , There is no rest in my flesh , because of thine anger , nor quiet in my bones , because of my sin ? And wilt thou for fear of mens displeasure , incur the infinite Gods anger ? and to avoid ( at most ) a raze in thy flesh , admit a wide gash in thy conscience ? O that I might have more love to my self , and more respect for my neighbour , then to suffer sin upon him , through my cowardly silence , or to joyn with him by any inward complyance , lest both be involved in the same vengeance . Lord , the supplies of thy Spirit is the onely preservative against all infections ; be pleased to afford it to me , that I may keep my self pure in the most prophane society , and no way be partaker of other mens sin . 2 I wish that I may always make the choice of Moses , rather to suffer affliction with the people of God , then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season ; yet that I may never , through my rash zeal , or indiscreet medling with others matters , or imprudent opening my mind to every seeming friend , bring my self into suffering . I have trials and troubles enough from others , I need not be the procurer of any to my self . I am every way surrounded with foes , and shall I not be my own friend ? The World is my profest and dangerous enemy , for his sake who hath chosen me out of the world ; because it cannot reach the Master , it wrangleth with , and abuseth his servants ; He that is not its child ( but born from above ) must not expect to be its darling , but rather to be assaulted with its rage and revenge ; The Devil is my sworn and deadly adversary , always ready to put forth his utmost power and policy for my ruine . His Empire is large , his Subjects all at his service , and all his forces shall be used to make me suffer . Besides , my God is pleased sometimes , for the trial of my graces , and the purging out my corruptions , to cast me into manifold tribulations ; since I have then , so many assaults and afflictions from others , I have small cause to afflict my self . I desire that I may try before I trust , and not unlook the Cabinet of my heart before all , lest some prove Thieves . It s too ordinary for wicked ones , like Executioners , with one hand to embrace a man , and with the other to pluck out his bowels ; They may creep , and cringe , and fawn , and flatter , and as Crows , peck out my eys with praises , that they may afterwards more securely make a prey of me ; They as the Spies sent by the Scribes to Christ , feign themselves to be good men , that they might entrap him in his talk , Luk. 20. 20. Should I believe all that may pretend love , I may quickly be bereaved of my lively-hood and life . Companions of my secrets , are like locks that belong to an house ; whilst they are strong and close , they preserve me in safety ; but weak and open , they expose to danger , and make me a prey to others . My foolish freedom of declaring my mind , may , like the Devil in the possessed person , cast me sometimes into the fire , and sometimes into the water . Though many seemed to believe on Christ , he did not commit himself to them , because he knew all men ( Ioh. 2. 21. ) Though many seem to affect me , I may not commit ●y self to them , because I know no man. They who as Moses rod , seem at present to be a staff to support and stay me , may by and by prove Serpents to sting me . O that I might imitate my Saviour in his Politicks , as well as in his Piety , and not through my folly , put my outward comforts into the hands of them that hate me , and lay my self at their mercy . I would as my God calleth me , own my Saviour in every company , and never deny him , who witnessed before Pontius Pilate a good confession for me ; but I desire that the feet of my zeal may always be directed by the eyes of knowledge and discretion , lest the faster and the farther they carry me , the more I wander to my wo. My God tells me , He that keepeth his mouth , keepeth his life ; but he that openeth wide his lips , shall be destroyed , Prov. 13. 3. Bees , though engaged in hot skirmishes with other ●nsects , use not their stings ordinarily , but when they are transported with rage , and blinded with passion , then they use them to their own certain ruine and destruction . No less injurious is the fire of zeal to my self and others , where it is not bounded by wisdom . I fear many servants of God have felt the wrath of some men ( in a greater degree then they otherwise would , ) through the immoderate heats of some few Saints . If under colour of hatred against sin , I fall foul upon persons , or instead of reproving sin the work of the Devil , revile Magistracy , and the Ordinance of God , I may expect to suffer , and with little comfort , because as an evil doer . Zeal is like Granado's , and other fire-works , which if not well lookt to , and ordered , they do more hurt to them that cast them , then to t●e enemy . O that I might behave my self wisely in a perfect way , and behave my self prudently in the path of piety , that I may never be so foolish , as with the silly flye , to burn my self in the candle of wicked mens power , nor yet so unfaithful as to forsake my Captain , when he calleth me to fight the good fight of faith ; Let my ambition be , to be high in my Gods favour , and to have a large share in that eternal weight of glory above ; Let my care be here below to study peace , and to meddle with my own business ( O how much lyeth upon my hands every day in reference to my everlasting concernments ) to affect rather quietness from the World , then acquaintance with it , and to pass through it as a Pilgrim and stranger , with as little noise and no●ice as I can . Lord , whatsoever tribulation I meet with in the world , give me peace in thy Son ; make me as wise as a Serpent , as innocent as a Dove , that those who watch either to defile me in spirituals , or destroy me in civils , may be disappointed ; Let me not trust in man , whose words may be softer then Oyl , when war is in his heart , but let my whole confidence be fixt on thy self ; how freely may I unbosome my self to thee , without the least fear ! How willing art thou to hear ! How a●ble to help ! How true to all that trust thee ! thy faithfulness never faileth ; Thou art good , a strong hold in the day of adversity , and knowest them that trust in thee I Wish that I may Confess Christ , whatsoever it may cost me , 3 and though not thrust my self into danger , yet never betray my cause , or break through any Command , to avoid the cruelest death . It s common with the Hypocrite , as the Snail , to look what weather is abroad , and if that be stormy , to pull in his horns and hide his head . The Hedghog alters his hole according to the wind ; The swallow changeth his nest according to the season . The Bird Piralis takes the colour of any cloth on which she sits . There is a Tree ( say some Naturalists ) which opens and spreads its leaves when any come to it , and shuts them at their departure from it . The flies will abound in a sunshiny day , but if once it be cloudy , they vanish . When Christ rides to Jerusalem in triumph , many cry Hosanna , who when he is taken and tryed for his life , cry Crucifie , Crucifie . The Jacinct is changed with the Air ; in a clear season its bright , but if the air be overcast , its darksom . The unsound Christian is often sutable to his Company ; if they own godliness , it shall have his good word ; if they disrelish it , he can spit in the face of it ; But pure Coral keeps its native lustre , and will receive no colouring . The upright soul is constant in his profession , and changeth not his behaviour according to his Companions . Oh that I might never through shame or fear , disown him who hath already acknowledged me . Alas ! I have that in me , which he might well count a disgrace to him ; I am his creature , and so infinitely his Inferiour ; The vilest beggar is not near so much below the most potent Emperour , as I am in this respect to the Great God , and my Saviour ; The whole Creation is to him as nothing ; yea less then nothing , and vanity ; what then am I poor silly worm , that lie groveling in this earth ! I am a sinner , and thereby his disparagement and dishonour ; If a sober Master be ashamed of a deboice drunken servant ; much more may the holy Jesus , be ashamed of me an unholy wretch , and trayterous rebel , against his Crown and Dignity ; yet for all this distance , for all his difference , he is graciously pleased to acknowledge me , and shall not I own him ? If I be ashamed of him , I am a shame to him . But why should I be ashamed of Christ ? The object of shame is some evil which hath guilt or filth in it ; but he knew no sin , though he was made sin for me , that I might become the righteousness of God in him ; He was a Lamb without spot and blemish ; None of his malicious enemies could convince him of sin ; He is so far from being the object of shame , that he is infinitely worthy to be my boast and glory ; He is the Prince of life , the Lord of glory , the King of Kings , the Fountain of all excellency and perfection ; The highest Emperors have gloried in being his Vassals ; Angels count it their honour to serve the meanest of his Servants ; and shall I think it a disgrace to be one of his Attendants ? O that I might be ashamed of my sins , loath my self for all my abominations , be often confounded , because I bear the reproach of my youth ; but in no company , be it never so great or prophane , be ashamed of him who is the blessed and onely Potentate , and the glory of his people Israel . Again , Why should I out of fear disown my Saviour ? Is there any safety but in sanctity ? Whilst I travail in the Kings High-way , I have a promise of protection , but if I leave that upon any pretence , I run my self into peril and perdition . Those that when called to fight , flie from their colours , die without mercy . What can I expect , if I leave the Captain of my Salvation , but Marshal Law , even eternal death ? I may , possibly , by my cowardise , keep my skin whole , but I wound my conscience ; I sink my soul , to save my body ; as Lot , prostitute my Daughter , my dearest off-spring , that will abide with me for ever , to save my guests , which lodge with me for a night , and will be gone from me in the morning . What is it I fear , that I should be guilty of so hainous a fault ? Is it the worlds frowns and fury ? Why , Its kindness is killing , and therefore its cruelty is healing . If my God see it good , he can and will defend me from the worlds cruelty , without my denying Christ , and in direct courses ; and if it be his will , that I suffer for well-doing , I may commit the keeping of my soul to him , as to a faithful Creator . Certainly there is nothing to be gotten by the Worlds love , and nothing ( worth ought ) to be lost by its hatred . Why then should I seek that love which cannot help me , or fear that hate which cannot hurt me ? If I should be so foolish as to love it for loving me , my God would hate me for loving it . Do not I know that the friendship of the World is enmity against God ; If I loath it for hating me , it cannot injure me for loathing it . Let it then hate me , I will forgive it , but if it love me , I will not requite it ; for since its love is hurtful , and its hate harmless , I may well contemn its fury , and hate its favour ; Lord , thou hast commanded me , neither to love the worlds smiles , nor to fear its frowns ; I acknowledge that its allurements have been too prevalent in gaining my love , and its affrightments too powerful in causing my fear ; O that thy exceeding rich and precious promises , might make me despise all its glorious proffers ; and faith in thy threatnings , stablish my heart against all its childish bug-beares ; The fear of man bringeth a snare , but he that trusteth in thee is sure ; Let the dread of thy Majesty swallow up ( as Moses rod the Egyptians ) all fear of men . And since thy truth hath no need of my lye , thy power hath no need of my sin to preserve me safe , let me never break over the hedge of any of thy precepts , to avoid an afflicting providence , but in a way of well-doing , commit my ways unto the Lord , and my thoughts shall be established . Suffer me never to say , a confederacy to them , to whom thine enemies say , a confederacy , neither to fear their fear , but to sanctifie thee the Lord of Hosts , and to make thee my fear continually . I Wish that since my God intends in all his providences , my spiritual and eternal good , 4 I may gain something by those that are most graceless ; and though Satan purposeth my defilement in my converses with them , yet they may prove my profit and advantage ; That blowing which seems to disperse the flames , and trouble the fire , doth make it burn the more clear ; The waters of others opposition , may increase my spiritual heat ; A dull Whet-stone may set an edge upon a Knife ; A mean , vile Porter , may bring me a considerable present ; Black coals may scour and make Iron Vessels bright ; Ashes cast upon fire , put it not out , but are helpful to preserve it all night against the morning , which would otherwise be consumed . Why may not my soul find some Pearl in the Heads of these Toads , and get some spirital riches , by trading with them for temporal ? Naturalists tell me , its wholsom for a flock of Sheep , to have some Goats amongst them , their bad sent being Physical to preserve the Sheep from the Shakings ; Surely then , the presence of ungodly men , may sometimes be profitable for me , and prevent that lightness and vanity which I am too apt to discover in every company ; Though I am loose amongst my friends , and it be my sorrow , I had need to be serious amongst mine enemies , lest I become their scorn . Frankincense put into the fire , giveth the greater perfume ; Civet doth not lose its savour , but is the sweeter in a sink ; O that my soul might draw the nearer to God , because others depart farther from him ; and do him the more service , and be the more diligent at his work , because they are so unworthy and wicked . Executioners and Hangmen are helpful to a Country , to free them from those Felons and Murderers that would destroy the Inhabitants ; My sins may receive their deaths wounds , through the hands of them who have no true love to me . My Pride may well be abated , because of their prophaness ; Free grace alone makes me to differ ; I had been as bad as the worst of them , if infinite mercy had not preserved me ; I shall be as bad , if boundless love do not prevent me : to God alone therefore belongs the glory . Possibly , they may sometimes twit me with my faults , and herein they may prove my friends . Every man hath need of a Monitor ; My friends too often are cowardly , and afraid to tell me my errors , lest they should give offence ; my en●mies will speak their minds freely , if they know any thing amiss by me , and so do me a great kindness ; Myrrhe though bitter , may heal wounds , and preserve from putrefaction ; so may the taunts and gibes of ungodly men , cure my inward sores , and make me watchful against future wandring . T was a worthy speech of the Macedonian King Philip , when he was told that Nicanor spake evil of him , I believe he is honest , and I fear I have deserved it . I may also be the better for wicked mens counsel as well as their carping , if I have but the wit to follow it so far as it is good ; Evil Joab gave good counsel to David , and had he desisted upon it from numbring the people , it might have saved the lives of some thousands ; It is ordinary indeed to value the advice by the person , and thereby it becomes unprofitable ; But is silk the less precious , because it s spun by vile worms ? Are Roses the less sweet , because they grow amongst briers and brambles ? Silver and Gold are not the worse by being taken out of the lowest element , the Earth . That Wine may strengthen and refresh my nature , which is drawn out of a wooden or wormeaten caske . O that I might take the counsel of the worst , in that which is good , and refuse the counsel of the best , in that which is evil ! Lord , thou canst command that these stones of wicked men be made bread to nourish my soul ; teach me by their falls to walk more humbly with thee , and to cleave more fast to thy Son , through whose strength alone I stand ; Blessed be thy justice , which hath made them examples to me , and blessed be thy mercy , that hath not made me an example to them . I Wish that whilst my God calleth me among them , 5 I may do good to them , as well as receive good from them , that I may as Musk , cast a fragrancy amongst such course and foul linnen . Though I hate their sins , yet I am bound to love and pity their souls . T is true , they are vile and vicious , they work iniquity , they walk after the flesh , they walk contrary to God , and bid him depart from them ; But may I not say , Father forgive them , they know not what they do ! Did they know him , they would not by their sins crucifie afresh the Lord of glory . It s no wonder that blind men should wander out of the right way , that those who have been kept in Dungeons all their days , should be contented with the poor Rush-candles of creature comforts , and never desire nor enquire after the Sun of Righteousness . Alas , the God of this World hath blinded their minds , lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ , who is the Image of God , should shine unto them . He knoweth , that did they but see the grace they abuse , the love they despise , the excellency and certainty of that Salvation which they neglect , and the extremity and endlesness of that misery which they are hastening to , they would quickly turn about , and mind the things which concern their everlasting peace ; therefore he holds his black hand over their eyes , and so they are alienated from the life of God , through the ignorance that is in them . O what pity should I have for such ignorant persons , as are running hoodwinkt to Hell ! If to him that is afflicted pity should be shewn , what pity doth he call for who is all over infected with sin , and every moment in danger of everlasting death ? Can I be troubled to behold the blind , or the lame , or the sick , and have I no bowels for those souls that lye weltring in their blood ! Besides , the time was , that I had as low thoughts of God and his ways , and as high thoughts of the flesh and the world as they ; I was once in their condition , a servant of sin , an heir of wrath , and therefore I owe them the more compassion . Those that have been sensible of the Stone , or Gout , or Tooth-ach , are the more pitiful towards them that are affected with the same pain . My God bids me to be gentle , shewing all meekness towards all men , ( Tit. 3. 2 , 3. ) Because I my self was sometimes disobedient , deceived , and serving divers lusts and pleasures . When I was wallowing in my uncleanness , and priding my self in my pollutions , the heart of my God was turned towards me , and the hand of mercy open to me . O my soul , shall not that infinite perdition to which thou wast obnoxious , and that infinite compassion of which thou hast tasted , prevail with thee to pity others ! O that thou wert so affected with the misery thou hast deserved , and that rich love and grace which thou hast received ; that thou mightest seriously and studiously endeavour by thy affectionate counsel , pious carriage , and prudent admonition , that others may be partakers of the same mercy and grace ; if my carriage be unblameable , my counsel and reproof will be the more acceptable ; wholsom meat , often is distastful , coming out of nasty hands . A bad liver cannot be a good counsellor , or bold reprover ; such a man must speak softly for fear of awaking his own guilty ●onscience . If the Bell be crackt , the sound must needs be jarring . I desire that I may be as bold to reprove as others are to commit sin ; yet that I may be so prudent , as never to reproach the sinner when I reprove the sin , lest I break their heads instead of their hearts , and make them flie in my face , instead of falling down at Gods feet ; Bone-setters must deal very warily , and Physick is given with great advice , and in dangerous diseases not without a consultation . I would distinguish between crimes , and not fall upon any ( as the Syrians did on Gilead , Amos. 1. 3. ) with a flail of Iron , when a small wand may do the work , nor ( as Jeroboam threatened Israel ) chastise them with Scorpions , who may be reformed with Whips . It was not the heat , but the cool of the day , when my God came down to reprove Adam ; The wrath of man worke●h not the righteousness of God ; It s in vain to undertake to cast out Satan with Satan , or sin with sin . I must turn anger out of my nature , but I must not turn my nature into anger . Yet , let me be serious , not light in all my admonitions ; It s ill playing or jesting with one that is destroying and damning himself ; Would it not stick close to me another day , should I laugh at them at this day , that are going into the place of weeping , and wailing , and gnashing of teeth ? My frothy carriage would as Hazaels cloth dipt in water , instead of recovering , stifle my brother to death . Physick works best when its warm ; I must love my Neighbour as my self . True self-love will throw the first stone at its own sin . I may not suffer sin in my self , therefore not in my neighbour . Lord , thou hast commanded me in any wise to rebuke my neighbour , and not to suffer sin upon him . I confess , it s an unpleasing work to rake into sores and ulcers ; If I lance festred wounds , I make the Patients angry by putting them to pain ; and O how averse is my wicked heart to such a task ! I am prone to fear their ill-will more then thine , and rather to let them rot in the hony of flattery , then preserve and save them by faithful admonition . How backward is my cowardly spirit to undertake the work ? how many excuses will it plead for its neglect ? When through grace I have overcome those lets and hinderances , how flatteringly and unfaithfully do I go about it ? rather stroaking the sinner , then striking the sin . O pardon my omissions of this duty , and all my falseness in the performance of it ! Let thy Spirit so encourage me , that I may not fear the faces of men ; so direct me , that affectionately , prudently , and zealously I may admonish them that go astray ; and O do thou so prosper and bless , that I may bring them home to thy flock and fold . I Wish that I may unfaignedly bewail others wickedness , 6 and lament that dishonour to my God , which I cannot hinder . It s an ill sign of my Sonship , for others to blaspheme the name of my father , and me to be insensible . Adoption is ever accompanied with filial affection . If I expect the priviledges , I must ensure the properties of a Child . Nature will teach me to be troubled for affronts that are offered to the Father of my flesh , and will not grace enable me to be greived at the dirt which wicked men throw in the ●ace of the Father of Spirits . Again , I must not look for freedom from others sufferings , unle●● I lay to heart their sins . The mourners in Sion , are those that in a common calamity are markt for safety , Ezek. 9. The destroying Angel will take me to be as gu●lty as others , if it fixd me without grief , and so wrap me up in their punishments ; my God himself , judgeth me infected with those sins , for which I am not afflicted ; and can I then think to escape ? O that my head were water , and mine eyes fountains of tears , that I might weep day and night , for the iniquity and misery of dying gasping sinners ! Lord , thou canst fetch water out of this rocky heart , and open the sluces of my eyes ; Break my heart , because others break thy Commands ; When others kindle the fire of thine anger , help thy serv●nt to draw water , and poure it out before thee . Let me be so far from seeing others provoke the eyes of thy glory without sorrow , that when ever I remember the transgressours I may be greived , because they forsake thy statutes ; Let rivers of tears run down mine eyes , when the wicked forsake thy Law. I cannot for my life so carry my self , but I shall sometimes fall amongst wicked men . Whilst I am amongst them I endanger my soul , either by complying with , or conniving at them in their evil actions . There is no safety in evil society . Such Pitch is apt to defile my conscience ; Who can expect to come off without loss from such Cheats and Juglers ? It is the peevish industry of wickedness to find or make a fellow . Besides , they are Children of the world , whose friendship is enmity against my God ; they are Children of disobedience , therefore contrary to my new nature , and so must needs be uncomfortable to me ; Children of the Devil , therefore Traytors against Christ , and so abominable to my God. I cannot be certain , not to meet with evil companions , but I will be careful not to be their consorts . I would willingly sort my self with such as should either teach me vertue , or learn of me to avoid vice . And if my Companion cannot make me better , nor I him good , let me rather leave him ill , then he should make we worse . Though if I depart from ●hem , the world will judge me proud , yet should I stay with them needlesly , my God would count me prophane ; and is it not better that men accuse me falsly , then God condemne me justly ? What need I care what men think , so God approve ! T is to his judgement that I must stand or fall for ever . It is likely that those who cannot defile my conscience , will injure my credit , and publish to their fellows that I am a precise fool ; But this is my comfort , there is a time coming , when innocency will cause the greatest boldness ; and freedom from sin , will do me more service , and be infinitely more worth , then the highest renown that ever mortal acquired . Lord , thy people in this world , are as Lillies among Thorns ; The Canaanites of the Land , are Thornes in the eyes , and Pricks in the sides of thy true Israelites . Wo is me that I dwell in Meshech , and my habitation is in the Tents of Kedar ; My soul hath long dwelt with them that hate peace . They like not me , because I am not like to them , and count my Company not good , because it is not bad , and I dare not sin with them . They are mine enemies , because I follow the thing that good is ! O how black are their tongues with railing , and their hearts with rage , against them who dare not provoke thee as much as themselves ! I am ready to say now , upon the view of their abominations , and the hearing their Oaths and Curses , and Blasphemies ; Cursed be their anger for it is fierce , and their rage , for it is cruel ; O my soul , enter not thou into their secrets ; mine honour be not thou united unto them ; for in their anger they seek to destroy souls , and in their self-will they dig pits to cause others to fall . Because they cannot defile the brethren , they defame the brother-hood , and disgrace them whom they cannot deceive . Let the heat of their lust increase my longing after that place where there is no Judas among thine Apostles , no Demas among thy Disciples , where all the Society will be of one mouth and mind , of one heart and way , where all the Company● will joyn in consort , and the whole Celestial Q●ire tune their strings and raise their voices to the highest pitch in sounding thine excellencies , and singing thy praises without sin or ceasing . There will be no Tobias , to indict thy children of Treason against men , for their faithfulness to thee ; There will be no Ahab to accuse thy best servants , as troublers of the state , for reproving the Idolatries and enormities of the Church ; There will be no Balaam trying his hellish tricks , to make thy people a prey to their bodily foes , and a provocation by their sins to thy Majesty ; There will be no Tares in that Field , no Straw in that Barn , no Vessels of dishonour in that House ; Into it can in no wise enter any thing that defileth , or is unclean . The Company there will be ( not tempting me to wickedness , or taxing me with preciseness , but ) part of my felicity . O what an happy day will it be , when all prophane Esaus , and scoffing Ishmaels , shall be cast out of the House , and I shall sit down with Abraham , Isaac , and Iacob , and with none but the holy of the Lord in the Kingdom of Heaven ! Holy Father , let the skirt of thy mercy cover all my iniquities and failings in evil company , and grant that my carriage amongst such persons ( whilst I am through thy providence forced to be amongst them ) may be so pious and gracious ; that at that great Harvest-day , when thou wilt separate the chaff from the good corn , and burn it up with unquenchable fire , I may be wholly free from their vicious infections , and vexatious presence ; and associate with the Spirits of just men made perfect , an innumerable company of Angels , the General Assembly and Church of the first born , and enjoy them all in , and with thy blessed self , for ever and ever , Amen . CHAP. IV. How Christians may exercise themselves to Godliness , in good Company ; With a Good Wish about that Particular . HAving dispatched the Christians carriage in evil , I proceed to his behaviour in good Company . The Communion of Saints is the most desirable and delectable society that the whole creation affordeth . God himself is pleased to delight in the Assembles of his people ; He loveth the gates of Zion ( where they met together ) above all the dwellings of Jacob , Psa. 87. 2. The evil spirit is for solitariness , he walketh in solitary places , seeking rest , Mat. 12. But God is for society , he dwelleth among his children , and bestoweth his choicest comforts upon the Congregations of his poor . The Father provideth the greatest cheer , and maketh the best feast when many of his Children come together to wait upon him , though each coming singly is welcome to his Table . The Spirit of God fell down in an extraordinary measure upon the Primitive Christians , when they were gathered together in one place , and with one consent , Act. 2. 1 , 2. Naturalists tell us that strife and quarrelling among the Bees , is a sign that the Queen-Bee is about to leave the Hive and be gone . It s plain , that when the Disciples were scattered , every man to his ow● 〈◊〉 the Lord ●●su● w●s leaving them● but when they were met together with one accord , then he came unto them and said , Peace be unto you , receive ye the Holy Ghost , Joh. 20. God cannot affect contentious spirits ; he would not appear in a blustring wind , or in an earth-quak , but in a still low voice ; when the difference between Abraham and Lot was over , then God appeared to Abraham , Gen. 13. 14. As God delights in the company of his Children , Isa : 62. 4. Thou shalt be called Hephzibah , i.e. my delight is in her , so the Saints delight in communion with one another ; things of like Nature , desire to be joyned together . Love the consequent of likeness , hath an attractive power , and covets the presence of the party beloved ; Balm put into the Bee hives , causeth the Bees to come together , and others to come to them . Grace like fire , soders together those that before differed . Hence , Saints are like Doves , they flie in troops to their windows , Isa. 60. 8. Though the Pellicane be a melancholly Bird , and naturally inclineth to desarts , yet when they remove their places , they go in companies , and the first stay for the last , as they flie over the Mountains , Isa. 34. 11● Eph. 2. 14. Though Saints love sometimes to be solitary , as having secret business with their God , yet they do not forsake the assembling themselves together . That verse , Psa. 84. 7. which we read , they go from strength to strength , every one of them in Sion appearing before God , Iunius reads it , and so it is in the Hebrew , They go from Company to Company ; as they went up to Jerusalem , they went in troopes and companies ; Possibly we translate it strength , because much of our safety consisteth in good society . He that travails alone , is ea●ily made a prey , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , One man is no man ; Even Counties that have been large , have drawn themselves into Associations , for mutual and common defence . Hebron , which was a type of the Church , takes its name from Cabar , to accompany , and thence Chebron or Hebron , a pleasant or delectable society . The Saints are all (a) One Family , One Houshold , (b) One Body , (c) One Sheep-fold , (d) One Brother-hood , (e) One Building , one Vine-yard , one Army , one Spouse ; to shew that oneness which ought to be in affection among them . Christ tells us of his Spouse , Cant. 6.9 . My Dove is one , the onely one of her Mother ; Hence the Primitive Christians , though some thousands , are said to be of one heart , and of one soul ; of one heart in unity of affection , and of one soul in unity of judgement , Act. 4. 32. In Tertullians time the Heathen admired the Christians for their love , saying , Look how the Christians love one another . Jerusalem is a City compact together , at unity within it self , Psa. 122. 3. Babel was confounded by diversity of tongues ; and the Citizens of Zion are confirmed by being of the same mind and mouth , by speaking all the same thing . O how many arguments doth the Spirit of God use to perswade them to oneness and unity . He tels them , they have one Father , Rom. 8. 14. One Mother , Gal. 4. 26. that they are begotten by the same immortal seed , 1 Pet. 1. 23. and nourished by the same milk , 1 Pet. 2. 2. He calls them co-workers in the same labours , co-heirs of the same life , Rom. 16. 3. and 8. 17. Stones of the same building , then which there cannot be a more firm connexion ; and branches of the same Vine , then which there cannot be a more inherent inoculation . How Pathetically doth the loving Redeemer exhort his Disciples to love and oneness ! He giveth them his precept ; A new Commandement give I unto you , that ye love one another ; not but that it was an old duty , but because envy and malice had prevailed so much among the Jews , that to love was a new thing . Again , This is my commandment , that ye love one another , as if there were nothing else that he required but this , or as if this of all the Commandments was that which Jesus loved best . He sets before them his own pattern , As I have loved you , so ought ye to love one another . The love of Christ should prevail with Christians to lay down their lives for him , and shall it not prevail to lay down their strifes among themselves ? Further , How affectionately doth he pray to his Father to bestow this blessing upon them ? That they all may be one , as thou Father art in me , and I in thee , that they also may be one in us . And the glory which thou hast given me , I have given them , that they may be one , even as we are one ; I in them , and thou in me , that they may be made perfect in one , and that the world may know that thou hast sent me , and hast loved them as thou hast loved me , i. e. Father , did we ever fall out ? was there ever any discord between us ? why then should they that are thine and mine , disagree ! Ioh. 17. 21,22,23 . Mark these three particulars about this prayer . 1. The Petitioner , that is Christ , who was the wisdom of the Father , in him dwelt the treasures of wisdom and knowledge : He fully understood what request would be most advantagious for his people . Besides , he was the Head and Husband of his Church , naturally caring for her welfare as his own , and so his love would prompt him to desire what his wisdom saw most conducing to her happiness . 2. The repetition of his petition ; He begs the same boon of his Father four times in three verses ; He had the Spirit without measure , and so could not be guilty of vain ta●tologies . Surely then that which Christ ( whose wisdom was unsearchable , and whose love to his beyond all compare ) doth press with so much earnestness and instance , must needs be of very great weight and consequence . 3. The particular season of this petition , for unity , or the subject of it . He had in the former part of his prayer confined himself within the narrow compass of the Apostles ; but in the 20. v. having made a perfect transition from them to all believers , word● he is importunate with his Father for their union and unity . When the dearest Redeemer puts the whole company of believers together both Jews and Gentiles , that were at that present , or ever should be in the world , he pitcheth upon this as the most eminent petition he could put up for them . It is not That they all may be enriched , or honoured upon earth ; nay it is not That they all may be adopted , sanctified and saved ; but , That they all may be one as we are one ; as if the whole Kingdom of Grace and Glory did consist in this , and as if this once obtained , all were done that was needful for them . Besides , he makes this the visible character of their Christianity , that badge which would publish to all they met their relation to Christ ; By this shall all men know ye are my Disciples , if ye love one another ; this is the livery which will speak to what Master ye belong . By this , not by casting out Devils , but by casting out Discord ; not by releiving one another occasionally , but by loving each other fervently , shall all men know ye are my Disciples . The differences amongst Christians can never be sufficiently lamented ; That they who are all near to God , should behold one another afar off ; and they who are all acquainted with Christ , should be unacquainted among themselves . Iob laments this fault in his three friends , These ten times have ye reproached me ; are ye not ashamed that ye have made your selves strange unto me ? Job . 19.3 . That they who are brethren , begotten of the same Father , born of the same Mother , fed at the same Table , educated under the same Tutor , attended with the same Servants , arrayed with the same Garments , and heirs of the same Inheritance , should be strange to one another , is a great , a gross shame . Many hundred Devils can agree together in one man , and yet in some parts not ten Christians can agree together in one house . One of the Fathers was so much affected with the divisions of Christians that he profest himself ready to let out his heart blood to cement them together . Both the honour of Religion and our own interest do both command us to unite . It was no small reflection on Christians that Mahomets great champion should have cause to say , I shall sooner see my fingers all of a length , then Christians all of a mind . T is true , till we have all one eye , we shall never in all things be of one judgement ; but must a small difference in opinion cause such a distance in affection ? Must we make the Devils and enemies of Christ musick by our discords ? when the foes of God and our own souls are in sight of us , shall we be fighting to make them sport , and to give them an opportunity to destroy us ? The wicked of the world warm themselves by that fire of division which the heats of some weak Christians kindle . It is observable that the Spirit of God , mentioning the contention between the herdsmen of Abrahams cattel , and the herdsmen of Lots cattel , immediately subjoyns in the same verse , And the Canaanite and the Perezite dwelt then in the land , Gen. 13.7 . Some think to shew the occasion of the difference betwixt them , their cattel increasing so much , and those Nations dwelling among them , they had not sufficient room and therefore wrangled . Others think that latter clause is inserted , to shew the hainous aggravation of their sin : It had been bad enough to have quarrelled where none but Saint● had been in company and spectators of their strife ; but it s much worse to fall out in the midst of their enemies ; hereby they expose their profession to derision , and their persons to destruction . Plutarch observes that Dion calmed the boisterous spirits of his mutinous Souldiers , by saying Your enemies yonder ( pointing to the Castle of Syracusa , which he then besieged ) behold your mutinous behaviour : And shall neither the eyes of men nor Angels , nor of God himself , which always observes the strifes and contentions amongst his children , prevail with them to put a way envying , and variance , and emulation , and wrath , and perswade them to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace ! The foolish Cranes by fighting beat down one another , and so are taken : Civil dissentions make Christians a prey . Neither men nor devils ( which God hath used as his Officers and Constables to punish them ) had ever had such power over them , had they but kept the King of Heavens peace . Surely , for the divisions of Sion there ought to be great searchings of heart . O when shall we see the day that those glorious Gospel-promises and Prophesies shall be accomplished ! The Wolf also shall dwell with the Lamb , and the Leopard shall lie down with the Kid , the Calf , and the young Lion , and the fatling together , and a little child shall lead them . And the Cow and the Bear shall feed , their young ones shall lie down together ; and the lion shall eat straw with the Ox ; And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the Asp , and the weaned child shall put his hand to the Cockatrice den . They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain , saith the Lord , Isa. 11.6,7,8,9 . Isa. 65. ult . One would think that heart-sprung pathetical exhortation of the Apostle should sound a retreat , and call Christians off from their violent and virulent pursuit of each other ; If there be ther●fore any consolation in Christ , if ●ny comfort of love , if any fellowship of the Spirit , if any bowels and mercies , Fulfill ye my joy , that ye be like minded , having the same love , being of one accord , of one minde , Phil. 3. 1. 2. Reader , I shall give thee two or three Motives to quicken thee to mind and frequent the Company of good men ; then acquaint thee wherein the exercising thy self to godliness in such Company consisteth . SECT . I. FIrst , Consider the extraordinary good of Christian society . The Children of God are like Ambergreece , sweetest in composition . When Flower is added to Flower , and many tyed together , the Posie is the more pleasant . Company is in it self eligible ; Banishment is esteemed a civil death , and counted a punishment but one remove from a natural death . Hence , how much hath it been bewailed , not onely by a Cain ; Thou hast driven me this day from the face of the earth , Gen. 4. 14. but even by a David ; I am like a Pellican of the Wilderness , I am like an Owl of the Desart ; I watch , and am as a Sparrow alone upon the house top , Psa. 102. 6 , 7. But how much worth is the society of the Saints ? Christian society is like an Arch-building , wherein every stone upholds its fellow , which if it should not , the whole would suddenly fall . One hand , saith Euripides , can make but weak defence ; but as our Latine Proverb is , Multorum manibus grande levatur onus , Many hands make light work . Several Horses may draw that weight with ease , which one is not able to stir . Saints help each other , as the several parts of the building ; the Foundation bears up the Walls , the Walls bear up the Roof , the Rafters bear up the Laths , the Laths bear up the Tiles ; Hence it is esteemed a priviledge to a Town or City to be made a Corporation . And Merchants manage their callings , not onely more orderly , but also more successfully , when they are once made a company . Surely Paul would never have sent some hundred miles for Timothy , if his company had not been of great value . Dr. Taylor blessed God that ever he came into Prison , to be acquainted with that Angel of God John Bradford . One sinner is a Devil to another , tempting and provoking each other to wickedness ; Therefore the Philosopher , seeing two vicious persons together , cryed out ; See how the Viper is borrowing poison of the Asp ! But one Saint is an Angel to another , perswading and encouraging one another to holiness . They take sweet counsel together , and go to the house of God in company . The Patriarchs removed their Habitations for the benefit of water-springs . Every Saint is in some sense a Well of living water ; and did men but know their worth , they would delight more to be with them . Sure I am , he that hath such a good Neighbour , shall never want a Good-morrow . As a Pomander Ball cast into a Censer , will fill the whole house with its pleasant savour , so a Christian will endeavour to perfume all that come near him . How pleasant then is the favour arising from many Christians in company together ! The society of the Prophets is able to make even a Saul to prophesie ; The Pleiades , which are the seven stars , joyned in one constellation , ( Canst thou bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades ? Job 38. 31. ) help one another in their work , which is to bring on the Spring , the best season of the year ; Christians in consort are an abridgement of Heaven , shining like a Firmament of bright Stars , not one malevolent aspect among them , and they all conspire together , to further a spring and new shoot of grace , the best of blessings in each others hearts . As Sincerity is the heart of Religion , so society is the breath of Religion , it helps to preserve it alive . The spiritual life of the Philippians , did upon their first quickening , appear by this , and t was also very helpful for their continuance and increase , Phil. 1. 5. No Christians are so full , but they stand in need of their fellows ; He that had as large a stock of grace as any since Christ , yet could not live without commerce with others , Rom. 15. 24. The goodliest house may want a shoar . The Shunamite , though she told the Prophet she dwelt among her own people , and therefore needed not any to speak for her to the King , was glad to receive that kindness by the hands of the Servant , which she denyed to accept from his Master . I shall mention the advantage of good Company , in five particulars . First , By good Company , sinful souls have been converted . A crooked Bough , joyned to a strait one , groweth strait ; Latimer was converted from Popery , by the good Company and Conference of Master Bilney . The Daughters of Ierusalem , came to be in love with the Bridegroom , by being in company with his Bride ; by being acquainted with the Church , they became enamoured with Christ. At first they wondered at her fondness of him , that she was so impatient till she had found him ( Cant. 5. 8 , 9. ) but they had not been long with her , before the heat of her love had warmed them with the same earnest desire and longings . Whither is thy beloved gone , O thou fairest among women ? whither is thy beloved turned aside , that we may seek him with thee ! Cant. 6.1 . They that come where oyntments and sweet spices are stirring , carry away some of the savour . One live coal may set a whole stack on fire ; Evil Company , like the River Melas in Baeotia , makes all the sheep that drink of it black ; but Good Company , rather like Clitumnus in Italy , makes them that drink of it white . Saul , by being in Company with a wise Servant , was brought to hear of a Kingdom ; He that walketh with wise men , shall be wise , Prov. 13. 20. This made Algerius the Italian Martyr , say , I had rather be in Prison with Cato a wise man , of whom I might learn some good , then in the Senate-house with Caesar. As one Circle caused by a stone thrown into the water , begets a second , and that a third ; And as one Rain-bow begets another , and they two together beget a third ; so one Christian helps to beget another to Christ , and they two joyning , turn more from the errors of their ways . Holiness like an Elixar , by contraction , if any disposition in the mettal , will render it of the same property . The Indians were brought to embrace the Christian faith , by the holy conference and company of Edesins and Frumentius , two private Christians . Secondly , By good company pious souls have been confirmed . Whilst Latimer and Ridley lived , they kept up Cranmer by intercourse of letters . Christian conference is a great help to perseverance . The staff of bonds was the Jews beauty and safety , Zach. 11.14 . Company causeth courage ; the beams of joy are the hotter for reflection . Ipse aspectus viri boni delectat , saith the Moralist , The very countenance of a good man makes us chearful . Our sight of him is reviving to us . When Paul saw the brethren , he blessed God , and took courage , Act. 28. 15. When many Mariners pull at a rope together , they strive with the more alacrity ; therefore Christ sent his Disciples by two and two , Mark 6.7 . When Ionathan went against the Philistines , he would take his Armour-bearer along with him . The blessed Jesus going into the Garden to his bitter , bloody Agony , chose Peter , Iames and Iohn to accompany him . The great Apostle expected comfort from the Ro●mans company , and hoped to confirm them by his ; For I long to see you , that I might impart unto you some spiritual gift , to the end ye may be established . The closer the stones of the Edifice are joyned together , the stronger is the Building ; That I might be comforted together with you , by the mutual faith both of you and me . Grace is the Oyl of gladness , and the more of this oyl , the more of gladness ; when Pauls faith and the Romans met in one channel , such a river of oyl would be a river of pleasure : The union of such flames could not but become a good fire , to refresh and rejoyce their hearts : Iob. 41.16 . As it s said of Leviathan , that his scales are his pride , i.e. his streng●h in which he boasteth ; and the reason of it is rendred , One is so near to another that no air can come betweeu them ; They are joyned one to another they stick together , that they cannot be sundred : So it may be said of the people of God , Their unity will be their security ; when one is so near to another that no enemy can come between them , when they are joyned one to another and stick together that they cannot be sundred , then it may be said of them as of him , In their neck remaineth strength , and sorrow is turned into joy before them , ver . 21. Secondly , By good company erring Saints have been recovered . Holy David lay sleeping in his sin till his good friend Nathan jogged and awakened him . Many a one hath been roused out of his spiritual lethargy by private admonition . Hence saith Solomon , Two are better then one , because they have a good reward for their labour . For if they fall , the one will lift up his fellow ; but wo to him that is alone when he falleth , for he hath not another to help him up , Eccles. 4. 9 , 10. Men that are troubled with the Falling-sickness , are sometimes carried away and die with their distemper , it seising upon them when none is with them ; but when they fall amongst company , by rubbing and chaffing them they often come to themselves again . Every scandalous sin especially is a kind of Falling-sickness , very dangerous to the soul ; its ill therefore for them that are overtaken with it and have none with them by serious admonition to recover them out of it . I have read of a Minister that in the night had a sudden motion to go visit a certain neighbour , and though he argued with himself the unseasonableness of the time , and his ignorance of any cause for such an action ; yet the impulse upon him was so strong that he could not withstand it ; so going to that friends house late in the night , he found none at home save the Master of the house . Truly , ( saith the Minister to him ) I am come to your house thus late , but I know not to what end , nor for what purpose . Yea ( saith the man of the house ) but God knoweth ; for I have made away , through my prophaneness , so many childrens portions , and here is the rope in my pocket , with which I was going to hang my self . But what , replied the Minister , if I can tell you of one that made away with more portions , and yet was saved ? Who was that ? said the Neighbour . Adam , saith the Minister , who as a publique person , was intrusted with the stock of all his posterity , and prodigally wasted them , yet was saved . Thus by his serious and seasonable counsel , he stayed the man from his purpose , and was , probably , instrumental for much spiritual good to him . Fourthly , By good Company , dull Christians have been quickened . Two cold things , steel and flint , smitten together , send forth fire . When two lye together they have warmth , but how can one be warm alone ? Eccles. 4. 11. When David was old , and his natural heat decayed , they got a young damsel to lye neer him , and to put some warmth into him ; Cold Christians have been heated , by being near others that have been glowing coals . When Silas and Timothens came from Macedonia , Paul was pressed in Spirit ; before , he was warm , but then in a light flame , Act. 18. 5. Some men of weak stomachs , have fed the more for seeing others fall so heartily to their meat . As Iron sharpeneth Iron , so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend , Prov. 27. 17. Some interpret the words thus , Rub Iron against Iron , and it giveth an edge unto it ; so if a man lye often grating upon his friend , by unkind usage , it will sharpen his countenance to discontent , and make his spirit keen and angry ; and to make good this exposition , they observe , that the wise man doth not say , so a friend sharpeneth , &c. but , so a man ; because , by his unworthy carriage , he puts off the nature of a friend , and therefore doth not deserve the name● But I rather incline to the other interpretation ; As Iron sharpeneth Iron ; Rub one file against another , and though before they were dull and blunt , they both become thereby bright and sharp ; So friends that are heavy and backward , and over-run with rust , for want of use , by mutual conference and communion , they become lively , quick , and keen , about spiritual things . Christian society , like rubbing Iron against Iron , takes away that rust which made them so dull and unactive , and sets a spiritual edge upon them . Vrbanus Regius , an eminent Dutch Divine , meeting with Luther about Goburg , he spent a whole day in conference with him , of which himself writeth , that he never had a more quickening , comforting day all his life time . Fifthly , By good Company , much sin hath been prevented ; Christian society is like the pulse , which ariseth from the heart , and hath a double Motion , of contraction , and dilatation , both for the expelling of noxious fumes , through the insensible pores of the flesh , and for the drawing in of cool air to refresh the heart and vital parts . It s useful to increase grace ; Sothern-wood groweth best in Gardens where its first planted ; Grace shoots up most in Gods Vineyard , amongst his Plants ; The out-lying Dear , that leave the Herd , seldom thrive . Those parts dye that are severed from the body . It s useful to prevent vice . That deformed Harlot hath been ashamed to appear in such honest Company . The Romans durst not call for their obscene Plays in Catos presence . When David was like to be slain , Abishai came and rescued him ; good company hath prevented the Christians falling from Christ. Peter confest Christ among the holy Apostles , though he denyed him among the ungodly Servants of the High Priest. If one prevail against a man , two shall withstand him , and a threefold cord is not easily broken , Eccles. 4. 12. Two streams united into one channel , may bear up a Vessel of some burthen . Iunius being much tempted to Atheism , profest himself very much helpt against it , by discoursing with a plain Countryman near Florence . Naturally , saith Chrysostom , A man hath but one head to advise him , one tongue to speak for him , two hands to work , two feet to walk , and two eyes to see for him . Now , saith he , had a man that skill and cunning , to make that one head many , and that one tongue many , and so his eyes , and feet , and hands many , he would hardly be circumvented by any carnal policy . Good Company doth this , it makes that one head many , that one tongue many , those two hands , eyes , feet , many ; for Saints study for others good as well as their own ; their eyes , their tongues , their hands and feet are always imployed for the benefit of their companions . Now in many Counsellours there is much safety . He that hath many eyes to watch for him , is likeliest to be kept from falling . No Vessels are in such hope of security , and to be defended from Pyrates , as those that sail with so strong a Convoy . As God hath set conscience to watch over the inner man , and by reason of that help we avoid much unholiness ; so God hath set Christians to watch over one anothers outward man ; and truly , these eyes being over us , may prevent the commission of much evil . The society of Saints , is sometimes in Scripture compared to a Garden ; It hath fruits and drugs in it , of all sorts , some for food , some for Physick , some for corrosives , some for Cordials , some to warm the frozen Saints , some to cool the fiery sinner , some are profitable for one purpose , some for another ; For as we have many members in one body , and all members have not the same office ; So we being many , are one body in Christ , and we all members one of another , Rom. 12. 5 , 6. A company of Christians , is a great Fair , where all sorts of provision , both for necessity and delight , is to be had . Hence Satan is so busie and diligent , if it be possible , to prevent Christian Communion , I was coming once and again , but Satan hindered me , 1 Thes. 2. 18. And his servants have learned this of their hellish Master . Iulian the Apostate , and the Heathen Emperours banished Christians into Islands where they could not have access one to another , being suspicious that their mutual communion would tend much to their mutual comfort and confirmation . Bradford was accused to do more hurt in prison , by his Letters and Speeches , then in the Pulpit by his Preaching . One Christian cometh to another , as Paul to his Romans , with the fulness of the blessings of the Gospel of Christ. Therefore as Cato would often make division amongst his Servants , judging their union to tend to his disadvantage ; so Satan soweth discord amongst Christians , knowing their concord would tend to the throwing down his Kingdom . Surely , of all fellowships , this is the onely good fellowship ; Next to communion with God , there is no communion like the communion of Saint●● The World doth but catechrestically name their rabble of drunken , swearing , and riotous wretches , * Good Fellows ; No otherwise then the Atheistical Popes are termed Pii , the greedy cormorants called Innocents , and the earthly Muck worms Caelestines . The conjunction of sinners , is a combination with Divels ; The Prince of darkness is the head of their league , and they all wear his black colours . But the communion of Saints is a fellowship with God , he is the foundation of their union ; These things write I unto you ; that ye may have fellowship with us , and truly our fellowship is with the Father , and Iesus Christ his Son , 1 Joh. 1. 3. What fellowship can in any respect compare with theirs , who have fellowship , not only with Christians , the highest and most excellent of Men , or with Angels , the noblest and most honourable of creatures , but even with God himself , the Fountain and Ocean of all honour and perfection ! O how happy is that company which hath his presence ! how amiable is that Council which hath such a President ! and how desireable is their amity , who are united under this blessed and glorious Potentate ! May it not be said of such Companions , what Zeba and Zal●unna spake of Gideons brethren , Each one resembled the child of a King ? Judg. 8. 18. Their Parentage is so great , their society is so gracious , and their priviledges are so glorious , that if a man purchase his freedom of a Company in one of our Cities , at so dear a rate ; what should he not give or do to be free of this Corporation ? He that hath but an eye of faith to see the glory ●nd magnificence of this Society , may well express himself , as Titus the Emperour , when he saw the remainder of the Sanctum Sanctorum , Now I well perceive that this is none other then the house of God , and the dwelling of the God of Heaven ; neither was it for naught that the Iews stood so earnestly in the defence thereof ; For great is the glory of this Temple ; The splendour thereof is without compare . SECT . II. 2 SEcondly , Consider , Wicked men joyn together to advance the Kingdom of Satan , and to provoke one another to lewdness and wickedness ; and shall not Saints unite to exalt the interest of Christ , and to provoke one another to love and to good works ? There is so much monstrous emnity in the hearts of carnal ones , against God and holiness , that when the tide of their own lusts , and the stream of their headstrong passions would carry them swiftly towards Hell , yet as if this were too little , they hoise up sail and help one another forward with the strong winds of provocation . They encourage themselves in an evil matter , they commune of laying wait privily , Psa. 64. 5. As Sampsons Foxes , they joyn tayl to tayl , with their firebrands to burn up the good Corn ; As Simeon and Levi , they are brethren in iniquity , the instruments of cruelty are in their habitations ; Shall they as Ananias and Saphira , agree together to tempt the Spi●it of the Lord ? and shall not Saints agree together to please the Spirit of the Lord ? Surely , if sinners have their Come with us , let us lay wait for blood , let us all have one purse ; Saints may well ●ave their , Come let us go up to the House of the Lord , Come let us walk in the light of the Lord , ●sa . 2. 5. Come let us joyn our selves to the Lord , in a Covenant not to be forgotten . It is confiderable , that though sinners differ never so much amongst themselves , yet they can unite against the Lord and his chosen . Herod and Pilate , before at odds , can comply as friends , and joyn together against the Lord Christ. As Dogs of differing colours , disagreeing bigness , and of several kinds , that sometimes for bones and scrap● fight and mangle and tear one another , can with one voice , and cry , and consent , pursue the poor innocent Hare ; So the Kennel of Sathans Hell-hounds , though sometimes they quarrel among themselves , about the honours and riches of this world , and are ready to rent one another in peices , yet can , with open mouth , and full cry , all joyn to persecute the harmless Lambs of Christ. We read of such different mettal , such a speckled rabble gathered together against Israel , that one would think the diversity of their Countries , Constitutions , Customes , Languages , Lusts , should have kept them from melting and running into one piece ; Yet , Lo , they all unite against Gods people ; They take crafty counsel against thy people ; They consult against thy hidden ones ; They have said , Come let us cut them off from being a Nation , that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance ; For they have consulted together with one consent , they are confederate against thee . The Tabernacles of Edom , and the Ishmaelites , of Moab and the Hagarens , Gebal and Ammon and Amalek , the Philistines , and the Inhabitants of Tyre , Assur also is joyned with them , and they have holpen the Children of Lot , Psalm 83. 3 , to 9. Shall such a cursed crew agree together to pull down Sion , and not the blessed Company of Gods Children unite to build it up ? O! how shameful is it , that Satans black Regiment , should with one consent watch for us , as the Dragon for the Man-child , to devour us ; And as Herod for the Babes of Bethlehem , to destroy us ; And that we should not watch over one another for our safety and defence ! It may well be our grief , that the Children of this World , are wiser in their Generation then the Children of Light. T is true , the combination of wicked men is no true union : but rather a conspiracy against God , and against their own souls . Satan serving them , by drawing them into this league , and making them to be of one hellish heart , infinitely worse then Scyron and Procrustes , famous Robbers in Attica , served the poor Travellers , why by cutting short the taller , and stretching out the lesser , brought all to an even length with their bed of brass ; Yet such a confederacy may well move us to pity such distracted ones , and doth too much reflect upon us for our dissentions . Thirdly , 3 Consider the backwardness of our own hearts to any good , and the need we have of all helps to quicken them towards heaven . How averse are our souls to any thing that is spiritual ! How many excuses , pretences , delays will they make ! To sin man needs no Tutor ; he can ride post to Hell without a spur ; but how backward to do that work which he must do or be undone for ever ! The stone is not more untoward to flye , nor lead to swim , then our carnal hearts to exercise any grace , or perform any duty incumbent on us : Our head-strong passions hurry us , our worldly interests byass us , and our desperately wicked hearts draw us from God and Heaven . If the wood be green , there is need of constant blowing , or the fire will go out ; when the iron is so dull , it must go often to the Whetstone , or little work can be done with it . It s no wonder that the Spirit of God useth precept upon precept , line upon line , here a little and there a little , when man is like the wilde Asses colt , so blockish and dull to understand Gods way , and so backward and heavy to walk in it . How much are we in the dark about the ways , and Word , and Truths of God! and how apt through mistakes to stumble and fall , calling evil good , and good evill ! and do we not want their company who carry a light , a lanthorn with them ? How often do we flatter our selves that we are rich in grace , and in the favour of God , when its little so , looking on our selves through the false spectacles of self-love ? and doth it not behove us to be much in their society who will set before us a true looking-glass , wherein we may behold the native countenance of our souls without any fraud or falshood ? We are full of doubts , and want counsel ; and Physitians that are able themselves , will in their own cases ask advice of others . We are liable to many sorrows , and want comfort ; and who can give it us better then those who fetch all their cordial waters out of Scripture ? We are apt to slumber and nod , and neglect our spiritual watch ; the flesh is drowsie , and the cares of the world fume up into our heads , and incline us to sleep ; what then will become of us if we have none to jog and awaken us ? It will go but ill with the new man , if whilst he hath so many enemies to hurt him , he hath never a friend to help him ; Exhort one another daily , lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin , Heb. 3. 13. I have somewhere read of a King , that having many servants , some wise , some indiscreet , some profitable , some unprofitable , was asked why he would keep those foolish unprofitable fellows . To which he answered , I need the other , and these need me , and so I will have them all about me . I am sure weak Christians need the strong ; its ill for a tottering house to have no prop ; and strong Christians may need the weak ; That knife which is best mettal , may sometimes need a dull Whetstone ; The smallest wheel , nay , pin in a Watch is necessary ; and so each needing the other , there is great need they should hold together ; While there is flesh and spirit combating within us , and the worse so potent and likely to conquer , we shall want all manner of Auxiliaries to relieve the better part . Fourthly , 4 Consider The evil of neglecting Christian Communion ; I know the Children of God must sometimes be solitary , there are some duties which cannot otherwise be performed , and some callings which cannot otherwise be followed ; but as there are seasons for solitariness , so also for society ; to forbear the society of Saints without a necessary cause , is a sin , and bringeth great disadvantage , both upon our selves and others . 1. Upon our selves , we lose those helps which God hath afforded for the edification of our souls . Fire laid abroad , q●ickly abateth , nay , goeth out , when if it be raked up together , it continueth and increaseth . I suppose the Spirit of God is so exact in registring the absence of Thomas from the Apostles company , when Christ vouchsafed them his personal and gracious presence , and the sad fit of unbelief which he fell into upon it , partly , as a warning to all Christians , that they lose not such seasons , as they love their immortal souls , Ioh. 20. 24 , 25. But Thomas one of the twelve , was not there when Iesus came ; The other Disciples therefore said unto him , We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them , Except I shall see in his hands , the print of the Nails , and put my fingers into the print of the Nails , and thrust my hand into his side , I will not believe . Had Thomas been present when the Lord appeared , how strongly might he have withstood Satans assaults against his faith ! His senses had been sufficient to have confuted the father of lies , and helpful to have quencht his fiery darts ; but by his absence how dangerously was he shaken in that fundamental truth ! Satan hath a wonderful advantage of that person whom he meets ( without any warrant from God ) alone . If I travail alone between Sun and Sun , I have the Law for my protection , that if I be robbed , I may recover my loss of the Country ; but if at other times , it is at my own peril . If I be alone at the call of my God , either when secret duties , or my particular calling require it , and my grand enemy set upon me , I may expect help from him whose work I am about ; but if when he commandeth me to associate with his people , I needlesly wander from them , and any hurt befal me , I must thank my self , and look for no reparation at his hands . It is observable , that the house of Iobs Eldest Son , which was the grave wherein all his children were buried , stood alone ; otherwise the wind from the Wilderness , could not have smote the four corners thereof . O t is dangerous to be solitary , when God requires thy company amongst his chosen . There is a wo to him that is alone , such a man shall be sure to have Satan for his companion . He is ever ready to assault , when none is neer to assist . Eve was tempted with too much success when she was alone , without her Husband ; Dinah gadding from her fathers house , was defiled ; Ioseph was then assaulted , when the whole Family was gone , save the instrument of the assault ; How soon are straglers snapt up , when those that march with the body of the Army are safe ! Pyrates lye skulking to find a Vessel sailing alone , when those that sail in company are a convoy to each other ; They who separate , are soon seduced . The Cormorant , or Sea-Eagle hath this property , that she will not seise upon the fish in the water , when they are in sholes , but when single she makes them her prey . Solitude is not more hurtful to the body then to the soul , and to nature then to grace . When David was an exile from the society of the Israelites , and wandred abroad , he fell into diffidence and distrust , nay , into hard and blasphemous thoughts of God ; as if he had forgotten to be gracious , as if he himself had cleansed his heart in vain ; He then said , in his haste , that all men ( even Samuel who had anointed him to the Kingdom , and promised him from God , that he should be King ) were lyars . It is a disadvantage to others . When Saints do not meet together , their love cooleth , nay , contentions frequently follow , to the hardening of the wicked , and the discouraging of the weak . The Temple or body of Christ is not built up with blows and Schismes . The parts of the Temple were framed and squared in Lebanon ; at the rearing of it up in Zion , there was no noise either of Axe or Hammer ; Babel it self could not be built by divided tongues , muchless Sion by divided hearts . When Christians divide and separate , weak beginners know not what to do , whom to follow , but are ready to say with Cicero , when Caesar and Pompey were at odds ; Quem fugiam scio , quem sequar nescio ; I know whom to flie , but I know not whom to follow . O how dreadful are the consequents of such civil wars ! Discord is not without cause described by the great Italian to be cloathed with a garment of divers colours , made up of patches , and they rent , cut , and torn , her lap f●ll of writs , citations , processes , and arrests , attended onely wi●h Clarks , Scriveners , Atturneys and Lawyers ; but she was followed with bitter clamours , and diswal howlings . Melancthon perswading the Protestants in his time to peace , tells them a parabolical story of the Dogs and Wolves , who were meeting to fight one against another ; The Wolves sent out their Scout to know the strength of their adversaries . The Scout returns , and tells the Wolves , that indeed the Dogs exceeded them in number , but they need not fear them ; for he had observed , they were not like one another ; Besides , they marched as if they were offended rather with themselves , then their enemies , grinning and snarling , yea , biting and tearing one another ; therefore let us not be discouraged , but march on resolutely . Dissention amongst men , brings destruction on men . A Kingdom divided against it self , cannot stand . They who imbodied to●●●her , may be able to overcome thousands , divided and taken singly may be overthrown by a very few . The hardest Adamant , if once broken , flieth into such small dust , that its scarce discernable , and so cometh to nothing . The people of God have not seldom made themselves a prey to Persecutours , by their heart burnings and divisions ; When the Town is once set on fire by the Granadoes shot in from them that besiege it , the enemies hope to take it with the more ease . Naturalists tell us , that a Punice stone , cast into the waters , though it be never so big , whilst it remains entire , and the parts hold together , t will swim above the water , but break it once in peices , and every part sinks to the bottom . Truly , such often times is the state of the faithful . They , who holding together are safe , and as a bundle of st●ves , not to be bowed , when parted and taken singly are easily broken . It is the Shepherds observation , that when Sheep Butt one against another ; it s a sign of foul weather , and of an approaching storm ; We have too much cause to fear that the Schismes and Conten●ions in the Church of God at this day , do portend some heavy judgement to hang over our heads . SECT . III. 1 I Shall now direct thee Reader , how 〈◊〉 ●xercise thy self to godliness in Christian Company . First , I must give thee a Word of Caution ; Take heed of those sins which Christians when they accompany together are most prone to . Saints are apt to be secure , as thinking themselves safe , when they are as they imagine , among none but themselves ; But truly , seeming honest men , may deceive us sooner then known cheats , because we are apt to con●ide in the former , when we fear and take heed of the latter . The Plague may soonest be conveyed through perfumed linnen . Satan tempted Eve in the forme of a Serpent ; but when he sets upon Christ , whom he knew hard to be conquered , he sets upon him in the shape of a Dove ; None so fit as a Peter to perswade him to pity himself . As God can send us a Pearl in a Toads Head , bring light out of darkness , and enable us to get good by polluted persons ; So Satan like Hanibal can convey poison through a gold ring , bring darkness out of light , and make us the worse for the Company of the best Christians . The society of the godly , is like the Shop of an Apothecary , in which there are many Cordial Iulips , Purging Potions , and Wholsom Drugs , but also some poisonous , which need strong correctives , and therefore they must be the object of our caution , as well as of our choice . There are two or three things which Christians when they meet together , too frequently erre in , against which I would advise thee ; In mis-spending time , censuring the good , a●d backbiting the bad . 1. Take heed of mispending that season ; 1 Time is in it self of great price , and ought to be redeemed ; but Opportunity is of greater value , and t is infinite pity to cut such a precious commodity to waste . It s ordinary , even with good men when they meet , though it relate nothing to their callings or concernments , to be talking chiefly of corn and cattel , and markets , and fayrs , and forraign transactions , as if they had not a God , a Christ , a soul , an eternal estate to be minding each other of . Our words are the servants of our reason , and to send more then will performe our business , or to send them upon unnecessary and trifling errands , argueth vanity and folly . Have we not the country to which we are all travailing , the purity and pleasantness of the way thither , the excellency and certainty of our reward there to talk about ? St. Bernard complained that in his time , Christians were faulty in this particular , Nihil de scripturis , nihil de salute agitur animarum , sed nugae & risus , & verba proferuntur in ventum ; Not a word of the Scriptures , nothing of your eternal salvation , but trifles and laughter , and words as light as the wind take up the time . Some spend their time in nice Questions , as what Christ disputed of amongst the Doctors ? where Paradise stood ? in what part of the world is local Hell ? What became of Moses body ? how many orders and degrees of elect Spirits ? These curious persons , the further they go , the nearer they approach a Sun that blinds them . Others in circumstantial c●ntroversies , when in the interim the essentials of Religion are laid by ; Such talk is but a wasting time , and those that sweat at it , are but laborious loyterers , like those that take great pains to crack or cleave a date stone , which when they have done , affords them no Kernel . Would it not be counted a peice of great folly , for a man that had a wound neer some vital part , to be very busie in laying a plaister upon his scratcht finger , while the other lay unregarded ? Were it not a peice of strange madness , when the enemy is at the walls , and the town every moment in danger of being stormed , the Bullets flying thick about the streets , for the people within to be sitting still and consulting , whether a Musquet would carry further then a Trunk , or whether more are killed with Bullets or Arrows ? Truly , such folly , such madness , is it to imploy our selves about needless discourse about the world , or superficial circumstantial things , when our inestimable souls are continually in danger of being surprised and slain . The Apostle reproveth such as spent their time about fables and endless genealogies ( that is things frivolous , and besides our work of Christianity , though not false or directly opposite to it ) which minister Questions rather then godly edifying , 1 Tim. 1. 5. To prevent this , Reader , Offer some serious discourse , either by way of Position or Question . Thy profit by good company , doth very much depend upon thy self . Thy Question or Position is the fire which draweth out , either the quintessence or dregs of things . It may be there is one in thy company rich in grace , in gifts ; these are the treasure of the soul , but if ever thou wouldst be the better for it , thou must open it by the Key of some savoury question or sentence . An ordinary person by some practical question , may lay the foundation for a goodly fabrick of rich and excellent discourse . A little water poured into a Pump may fetch up many Buckets full . A small Lacquey may call us to a costly Banquet . Ferus on Matthew affirmeth , that it was the practice of the Monks , to meet together once in a week , and to acquaint each other with their temptations , the means of resistance , and the issue thereof ; I believe , if Christians were more open-hearted , in declaring to one another the state of their souls , their experiences in point of loss or gain in spirituals , and sense of Gods favour or anger , &c. it would much tend , not onely to the honour of God , but also to the defeating of our great enemy , and our own mutual advantage . Satan hath many wiles where-with to wrong and destroy souls ; he proceedeth many times in the same method with several Christians ; now when one acquainteth another with the snares he laid to catch him , and the way he took to avoid it , hereby the other is fore-warned and fore-armed ; fore-warned to expect that such a trap should be laid for him , and fore-armed how to avoid it . An Almanack , Calculated for London , without any sensible error , may serve the whole Kingdom . That which hath been one Saints condition or temptation , may be any Saints ; and that way which one hath taken to escape a peril , or improve a providence , may be useful and helpful to any of the Saints . Some tell us the Art of medicines was thus perfected . When any one met with an Herb , and discovered the vertue of it by any accident , he did post it up in some publique place ; and if any were sick or diseased , he was laid in some common passage , that every passenger might communicate the best Receipt he knew for that distemper ; and so the Physitians skill was compleated , by a collection of those posted Experiences and Receipts . I cannot but think that our souls would be more safe , and our spiritual sicknesses less dangerous , if Christians were more free in revealing what means have , through the assistance of the Spirit , been instrumental for their recovery out of their inward distempers , and the preservation of their health . 2 2. Take heed of censuring the good ; This is another sin , that even good men are guilty of when they meet together ; Some no sooner creep into the Cradle of Profession , but immediately they leap out of it , into the Chair of Censure ; If a Christian do stumble , he saith he falls , and so carrieth it up and down ; He always greatens others , and lessens his own sins . Things in a mist , seem bigger to us , then in a fair day , by reason of the indisposedness of the air or medium ; He looks on the sins of others , through the mist of envy , and so makes them bigger then they are ; He beholds his own sins , as God doth himself afar off , or as things on a Steeple , which seem small and little . Because some persons are not of his party , therefore they are in the bond of iniquity , saith the Censorious man. Thus the Romans judged others not Saints , because they were not exactly of their own size , Rom. 14. 3. If good men are brought to the fire of affliction , it is , saith he , because they bear not good fruit , and are fit for nothing but fuel . Thus Iobs friends judged him an Hypocrite , and without armour of proof , because he was the Mark at which the Arrows of the Almighty were levelled , Job . 4. 5 , 6 , 7. If a good man step awry , he tells others positively that his whole way and course is wrong . From his failing in one action the Censurer condemneth his whole conversation , as feigned and fraudulent ; as if the best gold did not need some grains of allowance , and the brightest burning Taper had not some smoke with it ; He judgeth according to appearance , and doth not judge righteous judgement ; When an action is doubtful , and admits of a good or bad construction , to be sure he will take it in the worst sense . He never meets with an ambiguous text , but he makes a bad comment on it . If Christ associate with Zacheus ( though not for communion with him in his sins , but for the conversion of his ●oul , ) he will presently cry him up for a Wine-bibber , a Glutton , and a friend of Publicans and Sinners ; In this , and in all the rest he judgeth without judgement ; For indeed it is from want of judgement , that the heaviest judgement comes . O how sad is it , that those who believe a day of judgement , should walk so contrary to the rule of their Iudge ! Mat. 7. 1. 1 Cor. 4. 5. Jam. 3. 1. The Dogs were kinder then such Men , for they licked the sores of honest Lazaru● ; but these rub and fret the sores of Godly men , by publishing them to others . It s our duty to mourn for the sins of good men ; Lest when I come , my God will humble me , saith Paul , for them that have sinned ; how contrary are they to Christianity , that are glad they have somewhat to talk of ! I cannot esteem them Christians , that think their feast wanteth musick , unless the Baptist Head be brought in a Charger at the first course ; A desire to disgrace others , never sprang from grace ; It s ill to enquire into others actions , that we might have matter to draw up a bill of Indictment against them ; Like those who in reading Books , mark onely the faults ; or such as take more pleasure in beholding a Monster then a perfect Man , such is a censorious person ; But it● a swinish property to feed upon excrements . They have too much affinity to the old Serpent , that can pick nourishment out of poison . Have not all men business enough of their own , without raking into others graves ; But as the Fish Sepiae darken the waters , that they may escape the Net ; so they darken the credit of others , that they may escape the net of censure , which is due to themselves . These men are usually eagle-eyed abroad , but as blind as Moles at home ; The most vicious , are ever the most suspicious ; As Galileus looked through his Prospective-glass to find Mountains in the Moon , so these examine others lives , and search their actions as narrowly as Laban did Iacobs stuff , to find matter of accusation . But as it s Fabled of old Lamia , that she had eyes like unto spectacles , which she might take out and put in at her pleasure , and that as soon as she came into her house , she always locked them up in her coffer , and sat down to spinning as blind as a Beetle , and that when she went abroad , she put them into her head , and would very curiously behold what other men did . So the Censurer is so quick-sighted abroad , that he can see the moats in others eyes , but so blind within doors , that he cannot see the beam in his own . Some of these men have a fine way of censuring and condemning others by commending them , that you will not easily discern their envy or ill-will , because of the throng and press of their subtle praises . They will set forth a Christian , eminent for grace , with many and large flourishes of commendation , but after all , in two or three words , dash out all they had spoken , and leave a blot in the room ; As the Holy Ghost saith , truly of Naaman ; He was a Mighty man , Captain of the Syrian Host , but a Leper . So they of a Saint , whose worth they cannot for shame deny ; He hath great parts , many excellent guifts , large abilities , but I wish the root of the matter were in him , or , but he knoweth them too well , or , but he is covetous or proud ; as the Smith that shoeth an Horse , and pretendeth therein to do him a kindness , but pricks him in shooing him , and therefore had better have let him alone ; This one flie of But , &c. mars the whole Pot of Oyntment . The Censurer with that short Knife , stabs his Neighbours fame to the heart . Reader , I beseech thee , both for thy own sake , and the Gospels , to be tender of the repute and credit of Saints ; A good mans name , is like a Milk white Ball , which exceedingly gathers soil by tossing , and therefore is to be sparingly talked of ; Words reported again , have another sound , and many times another sense ; Besides , one Dog sets many others a barking . Talk of his failings as low as thou wilt , the world is quick of hearing , and they take the size of all Christians cloaths , by the measure of the weakest ; Thy charity should clap a Plaister , supposing there be a real wound , and cover it with the hand of privacy , to keep it from the open air . The Egyptian who carried something wound up in a Napkin , answered discreetly to him that asked , What it was ? It is covered , to the end that no man might see ; Truly , if we know of others failings and infirmities , we should hide them with the mantle of love , and not shew them to any , but in relation to the offendors good and recovery ; for why should a fallen brother have cause to complain , I am wounded in the house of my friends , had it been an enemy I could have born it , but it was thou O man , my friend , mine equal , and my acquaintance ! Apelles drew Antigonus , who had but one eye , half-faced , whereby that blemish was hid , so should Christians their brethren . The wise man tells us , the worth of a good name is above all wealth , Eccles. 7. 1. A good name is better then precious Oyntment . What a great theif is he then , that robs his Neighbour of it ! Our rash judging others , like the Rams-horns before Iericho , may blow down that with a blast , which we cannot build up again while we live . An ill report is soon raised , but not so soon laid ; It usually like the Crocodile , groweth whilst it continueth . Our tears should be the grave to bury our Neighbours failings in , and not our mouths a grave to bury their names in . That one act of Alexander , merits eternal memory , who having read a Letter with his favourite Hephestion , wherein his mother calumniated Antipater , he presently took his Signet from his finger , and oppressed Hephestions lips with it , conjuring him ( as it were ) to seal up his lips , and not once to open them , in revealing anothers disgrace . Suppose the person I censure be really evil , yet my duty is to do what I can to amend , not to divulge his errors ; But if he be good , I dishonour God by disgracing his Friend , and shall be sure to pay for it , either in tears or torment . How shall I be able to stand in that day , when men shall give an account of all their hard speeches ? and what shall I answer , when God shall ask me as once he did Aaron and Miriam , Wast thou not afraid to speak against my Servant Moses ? 3. Take heed of back-biting the bad . When Men speak evil of others that are absent , before many , purposely to defame and disgrace them , this is back-biting and condemned by God , though what we speak of them be true ; Doeg spake nothing but truth of David and Abimelech ; yet the Scripture calls him a lying and deceitful tongue , Psa. 52. Somtimes it may be a duty to reveal others deeds of darkness , as when these two things concur . 1. That we have cause for it . When what we mention is naked truth , and the sin not any ways rendred more ugly and deformed , by misconstructions or aggravations ; And , 2. When we have a call to it , as when we are desired to mention what we know of others , by them that have good ground to enquire after them , or when through ignorance of such things , others may be deceived in them , or when we are lawfully required before a Magistrate , to testifie our knowledge of such persons or actions ; I may add a third , and that is , When our desires and ends are purely to get our hearts affected with the dishonour that is done to God by their wickedness , and the danger and misery of their own souls ; This is supposed to be the subject matter of the Saints discourse , Mal. 3. 16. when in evil days they spake often one to another . But for men to make it their business to publish others prophaness , this is prophane ; Thou shalt not go up and down as a Tale-bearer among thy people , Lev. 19. 16. The word for Tale-bearer in the Hebrew , is Bakel , and signifieth a Pedlar , which fitly sets forth the property of a Back-biter ; The Pedlar goeth up and down the Country offring his wares at every door , very willing to put them off ; he takes them up at one place , and never ceaseth travailing till he hath sold them at another . So the back-biter catcheth up an evil report of a man at one house , and cannot rest till he is at some other house to tell it again , offering to vend it at a very low rate , to any man that will take it off his hands ; Nay , he is so full , that he is ready to burst , if none will allow him vent . He is bigg with child , and can find no ease , till anothers ears be the Midwife to deliver him of such a deformed Monster . But this is opposite to the rule by which we should walk , Tit. 2. 3. Our God commandeth us , Speak evil of no man ; Not of good men , for they are Gods portion ; not of bad men , for so is Gods precept ; This unchristian course of some professors , hath procured them many a mischief , and brought up an ill report upon them all . The sinner is apt to say of such , as Ahab of Micaiah , I hate him , for he never speaks well of me . And thus instead of saving their neighbours souls , which ought to be the work of every Christian , they harden them in their sins , and help to deepen their condemnations . Without doubt , that time which men spend in reporting others wickedness , would be far better imployed , in confessing and be wailing their own ; It will prove at last but an evil means to raise our own names higher , by pulling down others , and building on their ruines● ; and to relate their vices as a foil to render our vertues more beautiful and glorious ; Let not the evil speaker be established in the earth ; Evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him , Psa. 140. 11. He that plotteth to pluck up others names , doth it with an intent to plant his own the surer ; but he shall not be established in the earth , saith God. He judgeth himself safe , because others cannot stand before him , or are disabled by reason of the disgrace he hath brought on them to oppose him ; But evil ( like a pack of ravenous hounds ) shall ( with open mouth ) bunt ( this butting Stagg ) and ( sooner or later ) overthrow him . It was wise counsel which Diogenes gave the Emperour ; Take heed , saith he , of two sorts of beasts in thy Court , both which bite dangerously , the tame Beast , the Flatterer ; and the wild Beast , the Back-biter : Well might he call them Beasts ; for a Man-like Spirit scornes to be so brutish , as to claw the itching eares of others with flatteries , and hates to be so currish and cowardly , as to bite them behind their backs ; David would have no such to be his Servants , Psa. 101. 6 , 7. The Back-biter hath this sad unhappiness , that he wounds three with one Arrow of his viperous tongue , Himself , his Hearer , and his Neighbour he speaks of . 1. Himself ; for such weapons recoyl and flie upon him that dischargeth them . The Holy Ghost compareth a back-biting tongue to a sharp sword ; and indeed , like Sauls sword , it may be the death of the owner ; God joyns this sin with Murder , Lev. 19. 16. to note , saith one , that the Back-biter is a Man-slayer , and surely such a one shall not escape vengeance . 2. His Hearer ; The Receiver is as bad as the Thief . If there were no Tale-hearer , there would be no Tale-bearer ; Some are fitly compared to Brass Pots , though they are great , you may carry them by the ears , which way you please . It s an excellent expression of Solomon ; As the North-wind drives away Rain , so doth an angry countenance a Back-biting tongue , Prov. 25. 23. It s a memorable saying of Bernard ; The Detractour , and willing hearer of it , do both carry the Divel abo●t them ; the one carrieth him in his tongue , the other in his ear . It was the wish of Plautus , that there were a Law for the hanging of Tale-bearers by the Tongue , and Tale-bearers by the Ears . 3. The Person he speaketh of ; He that takes away a mans name , leaves him little for this world worth keeping . This evil tongue is fitly compared to an arrow , for it wounds a man even afar off . As secret poison works incurable effects , many times before it is discerned , so doth a back-biting tongue . A man were better , like him one of the Antients mentions , carry a stone in his mouth three years , to prevent much babling , then be guilty one hour of back-biting . SECT . IV. SEcondly , If Christians would exercise themselves to godliness , 2 they must be serviceable to the good of each other . The Temple was built in Solomons time , by men of all sorts ; There is not the meanest Christian , but may do somewhat in his place , towards the building of the Spiritual Temple ; The Communion of Saints , consisteth in three things . 1. In a mutual Communication of their graces and gifts ; Grace is given us , not onely for our selves , but also for the good of the Saints , 1 Cor. 12. 5 , 6. There are diversities of gifts , but the same Spirit ; differences of administration , but the same Lord ; diversities of operation , but the same God , which worketh all in all ; But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal . The water of life is like a common stream , for the benefit of many . 2. In a mutual joyning in the ordinances of God , Act. 2. 43. The Servants of the same Lord , wait upon him , sometimes singly , sometimes in company . There are set seasons , wherein they all meet together to attend him , though when they are parted they are all about his business ; And the same day there were added to the Church three thousand souls ; And they continued stedfastly in the Apostles , Doctrine and Fellowship , and breaking of Bread , and Prayer . 3. In mutual serviceableness each to other . Every man is a Steward to manage his abilities for others good , and to improve his Talents for his Masters glory ; Now if our stock were our own , that we were the Proprietors , to let it lie still would argue us guilty of much folly ; but when it is altogether anothers , and we are but factours for him , to neglect the improvement of it , speaks us arrant theives , and guilty of unfaithfulness ; As every man hath received the gift , even so minister the same one to another , as good Stewards of the manifold grace of God , 1 Pet. 4. 10. It s but an ill property of the Swan , that she cannot endure the Goose should come neer her , to take part of her food . Though it might be a fault in the Church of Syracuse , what Hilary mentions , that by a Law there was a community of outward goods ; yet I am sure it is none , that there should be a community of spiritual gifts . Wicked men are said to be of the night , but Saints of the day ; now as the day enlightens and warms all it shines on , calls them to their work , to their walk , and helpeth to prevent their fa●ls and wandring ; even so should the Saints , In love serve one another , Gal. 5. 13. Such a man is of the earth ( is right earth , that standeth on its own center ) who is wholly for himself . All things that have affinity with the Heavens , move upon the Centre of another which they benefit . The Bramble which receiveth all good , and keepeth it to it self , piercing instead of pleasuring those that come neer it , will be cast ere long into the Fire . It is said of one , as all the encomium could justly be given him , Sibi natus , sibi vixit , sibi mortuus , sibi damnatus ; He was born to himself , he lived to himself he died to himself , and he was damned to himself . We have a common saying , He that is not good to himself ; is good to no body ; and it s as true again , He that is good onely to himself , is as good as no body ; It was the voice of a cursed Cain , Am I my brothers Keeper ? The voice of the blessed Apostle , Consider one another , to provoke to love ; Exhort one another whilst its called to day ; Let no man seek his own , but every one his brothers good , to edification , Phil. 2. 4. Heb. 10. 34. A Company of Christians , like the Plants in Paradise , should impart an aromatical savour each to other ; A friend must shew himself friendly , saith Solomon , Prov. 18. But how ? By endeavouring to make his friends better . It was a commendable property , which some mention in Socrates , That he always studied how he might better the minds of his Familiars . And Seneca , when the Scholars of Theophrastus had shewed him two men , that were intimate friends , whereof the one was very rich , and the other very poor , he said to them , If they be friends , how comes it to pass that the one is so poor , and the other so rich ? Intimating , that had there been any true friendship , the rich man would have imparted of his goods to the poor man. As true love cannot stand without communicating of our temporal riches , so neither without imparting of our spiritual , for the supply of others necessities ; If there be love in feasting one anothers bodies , there is much more in feeding each others souls ; And if to distribute and communicate of our earthly treasures we must not forget , for with such sacrifice God is well pleased ; then to distribute and communicate of our heavenly treasures we must be more forward , because with such Sacrifice God is better pleased . Besides , it is an encouragement to Christians , that they do not diminish , but increase their spiritual stocks by trading . He were not a man that would not do another a courtesie , when by doing it he should do himself no injury . How bad is he then that will not benefit his Neighbour , when thereby he doth a real kindness to himself ? Money laid up , rather wasteth with rust , then increaseth ; but Money laid out , brings in considerable profit . To him that hath shall be given . When the Servant that had received five Talents , traded and gained five more , Take the Talent , saith Christ , from the unprofitable servant , and give it to him that hath gained five ; our Communication to others , is no diminution , but an addition to our selves . Live coals are made the hotter for those near them , which they enlivened . The truth is , there is no Vsury so lawful as of spiritual riches , nor is there any so profitable ; Our use upon use , which almost doubleth the principal in seven years , is nothing to this ; O Christians , therefore lose not a tide , a market , an opportunity , if possible ; hereby , though your beginnings be small , your latter end shall wonderfully increase ; Many that have begun with very little , have by trading thus , come to dye worth thousands . Before I come to shew wherein Christians should be serviceable each to other , I must a little explain my self , lest I should seem to allow that which the Word of God forbids , namely , that every private Christian ought to be a Preacher : Such a tenent would cut asunder the nerves and ligaments of this society , which is Order . Every star must give light in its own and proper sphere . 1. There is an authorative , publick counselling , admonishing , &c. which belongeth only to Pastors lawfully called . Observe what the holy Ghost saith , Are all Apostles ? Are all Prophets ? Are all Pastors ? Are all Teachers ? No , all are not gifted for it . It would much reflect upon the King of Heaven to send servants upon such weighty errands , that were unfit for them , and did rather render their business ridiculous . It s no easie thing for a person to be qualified for a publick preacher : The great Apostle cryeth out , Who is sufficient for these things ? though the voyce of ignorant men is , Who is not sufficient for these things ? Besides all are not called to it . It is not gifts and parts that will make a Subject an Officer at home , or an Ambassador abroad , but a Commission from his Prince ; Let no man take this honour upon him , unless he be called of God , as was Aaron . There be many works which private Christians may not meddle with , as to consecrate things , to constitute Ecclesiastical laws , to excommunicate , to receive in those that are cast out , to administer the Sacraments , &c. But those works which they may and ought to do , as , to exhort , advise , admonish , comfort , &c. they must do them as private members , not as publick Officers in the name or stead of Christ , and to private members , not to the Church . 2. There is a private charitative counselling , comforting , admonishing others ; this may belong to any Christian , so he keep within his own place , and carry himself therein according to Divine commands ; for God hath made no man a Treasurer , but every man a Steward of those talents with which he is intrusted . Hence the Apostle frequently commandeth believers to mind these duties , Gal. 6.1 . Heb. 3. 13. 1 Peter 4. 11. But in these Christians must keep within their bounds ; as fixed Stars give light to others , continuing still in their own orbs ; and not as Planets ( according to some ) wander up and down out of their places . The members of the body do not intrude into each others office . Vzzah's upholding the Ark , when shaken , though questionless out of a good design , yet was the cause of his death , and instead of furthering it , hindred its march towards the place of its rest . Private Christians ought to be serviceable to each other in these particulars . 1. In instructing the ignorant ; Among Christians there are many who have but ignorant heads , though they have holy hearts ; though for the time they have enjoyed the means , they might have been teachers of others , yet themselves had need to be taught the first principles of the oracles of God ; Now the work of knowing men must be to instruct such ; though they be dull and heavy , we should bear with them , and condescend to them . St. Austin said he would speak false latine if his bearers understood it better then true . By many blows we make a nail enter into an hard board ; by precept upon precept , and line upon line , we may beat truths into the heads of them that are very dull . Iobs friend tells him , Behold thou hast instructed many , Job 4. 3. In this sense Iob was eyes to the blind , and feet to the lame ; eyes to prevent their wandring in a wrong way , and feet to prevent their stumbling in the right way . David was no Priest yet he would teach others Gods precepts ; When he had once tasted Gods love , others should taste some honey dropping from his lips ; Then will I teach transgressors thy ways , and sinners shall be converted unto thee , Psal. 51. It is a noble Work for Christians that have abilities and understanding to take some pains to teach and instruct them that are ignorant . They cannot worship God as they ought because they are unacquainted with his Word and Will. How can a servant please his Master that doth not know his pleasure ? They cannot do the good they should , because they know not their duty : They who are almost quite blinde will do but little work . They are more open to temptation both from evil men and the evil one , because of their ignorance . It s as easie to give a child poison as wholesom milk , because it hath not wisdom to discern the difference : It s not hard to put the poison of error into their mouths , who are but babes in understanding . When the quick-sighted walk steadly , these dark-sighted persons walk stumblingly in the way of Gods commandments . O do what thou canst Reader to inform such poor creatures in the truths of God ; for as the Eunuch said to Philip , How should they understand unless some one guide them ? We count it worthy and honourable to teach others some curious Art , or high calling ; sure I am there is a day coming , when to have taught one poor Christian how to serve God better , and to honour him more , will cause more comfort , and bring more credit , then the instructing thousands in the greatest and deepest mysteries of Nature or Art. 2. By quickening the slothful . The Eagle loveth her young , yet when they are ready for flight , and lye lazing in their nest , she will pierce and prick them with her claws , to make them flye abroad : Love to others souls should stir us up to rouze drowsie Christians out of their spiritual slumbers , and lethargies . One Bell man that is stirring at midnight , by crying Fire , Fire , awakens hundreds that were fast asleep in a short time : One lively active believer , acquainting men with the jealousie and justice of God , and his severe proceedings against secure persons , who neglect their spiritual watch , may quickly call them from their beds to their watch and work . Consider one another , saith the Apostle , to provoke one another to love and to good works , Heb. 10.24 . The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is , Consider ●ne another into a Paroxysm , a violent heat of an Ague or Fever , to make each other fervent and fiery in love and good works . Consider one anothers backwardness and dulness , and provoke one another to your duties and that with diligence . Consider one anothers states and conditions , and provoke one another to a sutable seriousness in working out your salvations . Consider one anothers hinderances , and temptations , and weaknesses , and provoke one another to love and to good works . Christians should say to one another , as Iudah to Simeon his brother , Come up with me into my lot , that I may fight against the Canaanites , and I will go up with thee into thy lot : Help me by jogging and awakening me if I sleep , and I will do as much for thee , Iudg. 1.13 . And encourage one another as Ioab his brother Abishai , 2 Sam. 10. 11,12 . And he said , If the Syrians be too strong for me , then thou shalt help me ; but if the children of Ammon be too strong for thee , then I will come and help thee . Be of good courage , and let us play the men for our people , and the Cities of our God : And the Lord do that which seemeth him good . Thus the children of God should bespeak each other , If the world be too hard for thee , I will endeavour to assist thee , by discovering the vanity of its shallow allurements , and the foolery of its skin deep affrightments ; If the Devil or Flesh be too hard for me , thou shalt do thy utmost to succour me in withstanding their batterie● , and repelling their poisonous and fiery darts . Onely let us be of good courage , let us watch , stand fast in the faith , quit our selves like men for our God , and our Redeemer , and our souls , and our eternal sal●ations , and the Lord will be found faithful , who hath assured us that he will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able . 3. By comforting the sorrowful . Christians should have a Cordial in store for them that are fainting ; a cup of wine for the heavy in heart , and be able to speak a word in season to him that is weary ; Com●fort the feeble ; i. e. the sick at heart , such as are ready to sink under the weight of sin , and are frighted with the apprehension of the eternal fire , 1 Thess. 5. 14. Amalek is branded with a mark of infamy , and was followed with a curse and slaughter from God , for falling upon the faint and feeble ones of Israel , Deut. 25.18 . God cannot endure it , he cannot bear it , that his weak sickly ones should be wronged . He is tender of them himself ; he carrieth his lambs in his arms , Isa. 40. 11. and others must do so too , or he will make them rue it . The world doth as the herd , push the wounded Deer out of their company ; but Saints endeavour to bind up the broken in heart , to comfort them , as Paul commands his Corinthians , lest they be swallowed up of too much sorrow , 1 Cor. 2.14 . The Husbandman doth mind his young tender trees in a special manner above them that are grown up and strong , because such are in more danger of breaking , and bruising , and other hurt then grown trees ; so that besides the wall or common fence a●bout the Orchard , he makes a special fence with bushes and stakes about these , and gives them more choice nourishment , and more frequent watering ; God is most choice of his little ones , his weak children . When Israel was a child I loved him , I drew him with the cords of love , and with the bands of a man , Hos. 11. 1 , 3. Christians must imitate God in this● and be followers of him as dear children . Wherefore lift up the hands that hang down , and the feeble knees , Hebr. 12.12 . The Martyrs in prison , by discoursing on the promises shook off their carnal se●ters . Holy Bradford made his dark dungeon by this means lightsom to his fellow-prisoners . Luther profest Melancthon very helpful to him against his inward doubts , as he was to Melancthon against his frights about the publick state of the Church . A friend is born for the day of adversity : And t is pity he was ever born , that denieth to do that for which he was born . It appertaines especally to the office of a friend , saith Seneca , to asswage his friends grief by speech ; to drive away his sadness by chearfulness ; and to refresh him with his very presence . When women travail they carry frequently with them strong waters , and if one fainteth or is sick , she that hath those cordial waters prayeth her to take some for her ease and comfort . The Apostle prepareth for the Christian , choice and rare cordials in 1 Thess. 4. about the six last verses , and then wisheth them to make use of them for their mutual good ; Wherefore comfort one another with these words . 4. By admonishing the sinful . Saints , like Clocks made up of curious wheels and engines , are soon discomposed , and therefore often want some workman to set them in order again . A good man if his friend follow vertue , will be a Father to encourage him ; if he be full of doubts , will be a Minister to direct him ; but if he follow vice , will be a Magistrate to correct him . Christians must allow one another for their infirmities , but not allow one another in their infirmities . If a brother be overtaken with a fault , restore such a one with the spirit of meekness , Gal. 6.1 . Which words are very emphatical , and point to us . 1. The nature of his fall ; he is overtaken with a fault , he doth not overtake the fault . He is rather passive of it , then active in it . A sinner like Ahab , sells himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord ; but a brother , like Paul is sold under sin . It s proper to the wicked to be voluntiers in this unholy war against God. Saints fight not , except they be prest . The Christian is drawn to iniquity by cords of vanity , the other draweth iniquity with cords of vanity . 2. The duty of his friend , restore such a one . It s 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an allusion to Chirurgions , who set bones out of joynt , though they put their Patients to pain , and make them angry at present . So must Christians endeavour the joynting of their brethren , whose souls are out of order , though at present they have little thanks for their labour . This courtesie we owe to our brothers Ox or Ass , much more to his Soul , Exod. 22. 4. It s a strict command , warn the unruly , 1 Thes. 5. 14. though most men draw back , when they are called to this burthen , that fallen brethren lie under the same misery that Travellers do , to find many Hosts , but few Friends , and may cry out , as Lewis the eleventh of France , I have plenty of all things , but such as will tell me my faults . 3. The manner how this friendly part must be performed , with the spirit of meekness ; The bitterness of reprehension is much sweetness , by the pleasingness of our expressions . Gentle sores are but anguisht with too hard a pressure . Though Swine are driven with violence , yet Children that wander , are gently led home . According to the wound must the plaister be more or less searching . Christ reproves Martha mildly , Martha , Martha , thou art careful and troubled about many things , but he rebuked Peter sharply , Get thee behind me Satan . The Apostle writing to the Romans , commendeth them highly , that they were able to admonish one another , Rom. 15. 14. They had piety and grace enough to perform the duty , notwithstanding the arguments of ill will , or loss in estate , or other evils which the flesh suggested to the contrary ; and they had prudence and discretion enough to perform the duty , so as it might most probably be profitable : But how unlike are Christians in our days , to those in the Primitive times ! Admonition is a Lyon which few dare come near , for fear it will tear them in peices ; We carry our selves rather like Machiavels Scholars , who taught his followers , if their friend were up to the knees in water , to lend him their hand to help him out , and so if he were up to the waste , but if he were up to the chin , then to lay their hand on his head , and duck him under , that he rise no more . How many that should reprove others , have their mouths stopt , as the Dogs by the Thief , with a piece of bread , some kindness or other ! Or else as Erasmus saith of Harpocrates , they hold their finger in their mouths , and are affraid of giving offence ; they are rather like the reflection of a Looking-glass , ready to imitate others sinful gestures and actions , then rebuke them for them ; There is no reprover in the gate . Nay Heathen exceed in this many of us ; The Great Philosopher tells us , That is true love , which to profit and do good to us , feareth not to offend us ; and that it is one of the chiefest offices of friendship , to admonish . Euripides exhorts men to get such friends as would not spare to displease them , saying , Friends are like new wines , those that are harsh and sowr keep best , the sweet are not lasting . Phocian told Antipater , Thou shalt not have me for thy Friend and Flatterer too . Diogenes when men called him Dog , for his severe kind of reproving ; would Answer , Dogs bite their enemies , but I my friends for their good ; And are we so hardly drawn to this duty ? O how justly might the Lord reprove us cuttingly , and set our sins in order before our eyes , to our comdemnation , for our backwardness to reprove others to their humiliation . We have most of us cause with Reverend Mr. Robert Bolton , to confess and bewayl our neglect herein . SECT . V. FIfthly , By bearing each others infirmities . Christians like the clearest fire , will have some smoak , whereby they are apt to offend each others eyes , and to cause anger . The best and most pious , may sometimes be peevish . Those brethren that love sincerely , may too often quarrel ; True Members of the same body , may by some accident be dis-joynted ; Though contentions argue them to have flesh , yet they may arise where there is spirit . Therefore the Holy Ghost commandeth , Bear one anothers burthens , and so fulfil the Law of Christ ; Here is the Commandment enjoyned , and the Argument whereby it is enforced , Galat. 6. 2. First , The Precept ; Bear one anothers burthens . There is a threefold burden that Christians must bear for each other . I. The civil burthens of their miseries and sufferings ; Have a fellow-feeling with them in their afflictions ; Who is weak , and I am not weak ? Who is afflicted , and I burn not ? saith holy Paul. Herod and his men of War , will set a persecuted Christ at naught ; The Chief Priests and Elders will mock him when he hangs upon the Cross , Luk. 23. 11. Mat. 27. 4. Edom rejoyced in the day of Ierusalem's trouble , they cryed Aha , so would we have it ; But the true seed of Iacob , sigh for others sorrows , they weep with them that weep ; Remember them that are in bonds , as bound with them , and them that suffer adversity ; If one part of the natural body be in pain , the other parts are sensible of it ; When one branch of a Tree is torn and mangled in Summer , the other branches are affected with it , and out of Sympathy ( as it were ) will not thrive so well as formerly . If one person of a family be sick , how much do his relations from a principle of nature , lay to heart his pain and illness ! Christians are all members of the same body , branches of the same vine , children of the same family , and it would be monstrous and unnatural for them , not to feel each others miseries , and suffer in each others sufferings . II. The Spiritual burthen of their iniquities and sins ; Whether more immediately against God. Though we must not bear with them in their sins , yet we must help to bear their sins with them . We ought to sit on the same floor with them that are fallen down , and to mourn with them , and for them , and to bear some of the weight ; This temper was so eminent in Ambrose , he would so plentifully weep with the sinning party , that a Great Commander under Theodosius beholding it , cried out , This man is onely worthy the name of a Bishop . As Stags when they swim over a River , to feed in some Meadow , they swim in a row , and lay their heads over one anothers backs , bearing the weight of one anothers horns , and when the first is weary , another taketh his room , and so they do it by course . So Christians must be willing to bear each others weight , whilst they are passing through those boistrous waters , till they land at their glorious eternal harbour . Or whether their sins are immediately against our selves ; If the teeth bite the tongue , that seeketh no revenge . When the feet through their slipping , throw the body upon the ground , it riseth up , and all is well . Some Christians are of such weak stomachs , that they can digest nothing that looks like an unkindness or injury ; But it s the glory of a man to pass by offences . Cyprian saith , to bear with affronts , is a ray of Divinity . A noble-spirited man will disdain to take notice of pet●y dis-respects , he will over-come contempt by contempt . But an heaven-born Christian hath higher principles , and more sublime motives to forgive his offending brother . I Paul , the Prisoner of the Lord , beseech you to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called , with all lowliness and meekness , with a long-suffering , forbearing one another in love , Ephes. 4. 1 , 2. And be ye kind one to another , tender-hearted , forgiving one another , even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you , verse ult . It is reported of Cosroes the Persian King , that he caused a Throne to be made for him , like Heaven , with the Sun , Moon , and Stars , artificially placed above it , and under his feet thick and black clouds , and high winds and tempests . He that would have an Heaven here , I mean , enjoy God , and himself , must of necessity trample these under his feet . It is good advice which Bernard gives in such a case ; Dost thou hear that a brother hath said or done somewhat that reflecteth upon thee , or is injurious to thee ? then saith he ; 1. Be hard to believe it . He should have a loud tongue , that can make thee to hear such a report . I would give him little thanks ( in case the honour of God were not concerned ) that were the messenger to bring me such a sowr present ; his pains would deserve but a poor reward , that brought me tidings of a discourtesie to rob me of my charity . The evidence shall be very clear , or I will write Ignoramus upon his Bill of Indictment ; But if the thing be so plain that it cannot be denyed , then saith he , 2. Excuse his intent and purpose . Think with thy self , Possibly he had a good end in it . He spake as he heard , or he did what he did upon some good ground and account . Though the action seem to savour of injury , yet certainly in his intention there was no evil . Had I his eyes , I should see his end was right and honest ; But if there should be no reason for hope , that his purpose was good , then saith he , 3. Think he did it ignorantly ; that had he known the consequence , he would not have been guilty of such a crime . Surely the man thought no hurt , he spake on a sudden , such words came out of his mouth before he was aware , or he would never have spoken them ; I my self in an heat , might have been as harsh . When high winds blow , storms will follow . 4. If thou canst not be perswaded but the injury was wittingly offered , then think , He was overcome with some great temptation . There were extraordinary fumes at that instant flying up into his head , which made him talk idly , and of which now he may be repenting before the Lord. The strong man was too hard for the weak Christian. Flesh and blood was easily conquered by Principalities & Powers ; I may well forgive him , his sin will cost him sorrow enough before his Father smile on him . III. The Natural burthen ( as I may call it , though it hath a relation to spiritual , but not fully in the former sense ) of their infirmities . Some by reason of bad instruments , are but bunglars at their work ; They have naturally understandings very dull to receive , and memories very slow to retain spiritual things . They have ill constitutions of body , and thereby the worse frames of soul , and the more apt to be peevish and fretful ; Now we exhort you brethren , that ye support the weak , and be patient towards all men , 1 Thes. 5. 14. All the persons in Gods family , are not of the same height and strength : though some are Old Men and Fathers , and others are Young and strong ; yet some are little Children , Babes in Christ ; some can go alone , or with a little help , if you hold them but by their leading-strings ; but others must be carried in arms , and will require much love and patience to overcome their childish frowardness . Christ winks at their weaknesses , who hath most reason to be moved with them ; though his disciples were raw , and dull , and slow to believe and understand , yet he bears with them . Nay , though when he was watching for them , and in his bloody sweat , his whole body being in a goar blood , under the weight of their and others sins on his back , and they lay sleeping and snoring , and could not watch with him one hour , he doth not fall fiercely upon them , but calmly asketh them , Could ye not watch with me one hour ? and afterwards excuseth it for them , First , From the natural cause ; There heads were full at that time of● fumes ; Their eyes were heavy with sorrow . They were full of grief for their dear Master , and their sorrow hindring the digestion of their food , filled them with vapours , which ascending to their brains inclined them to sleep . Secondly , From the Moral cause ; they would , but they could not . The Spirit indeed is willing , but the flesh is weak ; there better part would move more swiftly , and do any thing at my call and command , but their flesh draweth back , and makes them drive heavily . It s no wonder that their pace is so slow , when like the snail , they have such an house , such an hinderance upon their backs ; The spirit is willing , but the flesh is weak . Who can think of this infinite grace of the blessed Redeemer in making such an Apologie for them , whom he had such cause to be full of fury against , and not be incited to imitate so admirable a pattern ! There is another famous instance in the Old Testament , and that is Gods patience towards peevish Ionah , by which all may see how much he bears with his froward children . First Ionah runs from his business ; God sends him to Niniveh , he will go to Tarshish ; here was plain rebellion against his Soveraign . One would have expected that the jealous God should have given him a Traytors wages , and when he was at Sea have suffered the Ocean of waters to have swallowed up his body , and the Ocean of fire and wrath , his soul ; but loe , he cannot permit his Ionah to perish ; he will rather whip him to his work , then let him wander to his ruine . But how gentle is the rod ? God cannot forget the love of a Father , though Ionah forget the duty of a childe , but will rather work a miracle , and make the devourer his Saviour , then Ionah shall miscarry . T is true , he was tossed with a violent tempest and thrown over-board , but God provided him a shelter before the storm , and prepared a Whale to swallow him down , not for his destruction , but his deliverance ; And the Lord spake to the fish , and it vomited up Jonah upon the dry land . Well now , the childe is brought home , you will look that he should make some recompence for his former disobedience , by his faithfulness and diligence for the future ; that the danger he had been in , the death he had so narrowly escaped , the miracle which had been wrought for him , and the extraordinary mercy he had so lately received , should have melted him wholly into Gods mould , and have made him , like Abraham , to have come up wholly to Gods foot . But alas he addeth sin to sin , and neither mercy nor misery prevail with him to know himself . Indeed he undertakes the journey and message he was called to upon a second command , but as unwillingly as the Bear goeth to the stake . After he had pronounced a sentence of death upon the Ninivites , and shewed them a warrant under the high Gods hand and seal for their speedy execution ; how ill doth he take it , that upon their humble petition a Reprieve should be granted them ? he frets inwardly against God , and through the exceeding heat of his heart his tongue blisters with casting Gods mercy in his teeth . He was wrath for that in which he had cause to rejoyce : His love to his brethren might have made him glad of their escape , and his love to his God should have quieted him in all his wise and holy proceedings ; But it displeased Jonah exceedingly , and he was very angry , and he prayed unto the Lord : O Lord , was not this my saying in my Country ? for I knew that thou art a gracions God , &c. Therefore O Lord take away my life . He quarrels with Gods providence , and he doth as it were twit God with ( that which is the glory of all his Attributes and actions , and the best friend the poor children of men have ) his Grace and Pity , desiring rather the destruction of above sixscore thousand persons , then that himself , by the blind ignorant world , should be reckoned a false Prophet . Behold impatience in its largest dimensions ! Ionah will dye , because so many thousands are allowed out of infinite kindness to live . O what a nest of vermine was in the womb of this disobedience ! Here is pride both in preferring his own will before Gods , and in his unwillingness to suffer a little in his repute in the eye of the people : Here was passion to the height , and that against God himself : Here was murmuring against sparing mercy , and the Divine pleasure : Here was unbelief , as if God could not repair his name , and repay him for the loss of his credit : Here was uncharitableness and want of love towards the poor Ninivites , whose condition called for the deepest compassion . What answer can be judged tart enough to such a passionate prayer ? What language can be too harsh , what carriage can be too heavy towards such a cross-grain'd child ? It s abominable for any man to contend with his Maker . It s bad for servants to strive with their Master ; or children to resist their Father , though both these are their fellow-creatures : But for any to contend with God , whose dominion over us is unquestionable , and their dependance on him indispensable , between whom and them there is an infinite distance , is infinitely worse : But for Ionah , not onely a man , but a new man , a child of God , a Prophet of the Lord , that should have taught others by his precepts and by his pattern , to submit to the severest Divine pleasure , one that had been signalized above others with eminent and distinguishing favours , both for this and the other world , to flie thus in Gods face , is worst of all . Surely , no punishment can exceed the desert of such peevishness , such passion : Some dreadful thunder cannot but be expected , as the consequent of such hot weather . But hear O heavens , give ear O earth , and be astonished at the calm milde voyce of the Great God ; And the Lord said unto Ionah , Ionah , dost thou well to be angry ? Mark what love sounds in this language ? Such an affectionate voyce after such gross disobedience might make even marble to weep ; and as that voyce from heaven , turn a Saul into a Paul. Could the fondest and most indulgent Father in the world be more meek , more milde in his expression ! He appeals to Ionah's conscience whether such behaviour was answerable to his Oath of Allegiance ; Dost thou well to be angry ? Is this passion sutable to that submission which thou owest to me and my Providences ! Eli said as much to his wicked sons ; It is not a good report which I hear of you my sons , &c. when God was so incens●d against him for his mildness , that he sends him an ear-tickling and an heart trembling message : And yet God himself is so favourable and compassionate to one whose sin admitted of greater aggravations in some respects then those of Eli's sons , ( Ionah sinned after such a miraculous salvation , and that against chusing , calling , pardoning , saving love , which Eli's sons did not ; ) nay , and when the Malefactor upon the reading of this gentle Indictment to him , instead of pleading guilty , and begging a Psalm of mercy , had stubbornly and obstinately justified himself ; God who might have awarded judgement against him according to law , still forbeareth him , and when his pathetical words would not reclaim him , he trieth if a miraculous work will reduce him to his allegiance . O the tenderness of God towards his froward Children ! I have sometimes wondred at his infinite patience towards so disobedient a Prophet ; but alas , I experience it daily in his superabundant grace and goodness towards my own soul , notwithstanding my greater provocations . Reader , by all this thou mayst see what cause thou hast to bear with thy fellow-Christians , when God beareth with his creatures , notwithstanding those multiplied affronts and dis-respects , which they offer to his glorious holy and infinite Majesty . Secondly , We may observe in the foregoing Text , the prevailing Argument to this Precept ; And so fulfil the Law of Christ. This was the great Law which Christ commanded so frequenty , so affectionately , and the Apostle mentioneth it here , as if it were the onely Law , or all the Law , because this love is the fulfilling of the whole Law ; As if he had said , O my Galathians , if ye have any love to Christ , and would evidence it to your selves and others , let there be no bitterness , nor envyings , nor heart burnings amongst you , but love your Neigbours as your selves , suffer with them in their sufferings ; let their sore eyes and tears for sin , set your eyes a watering ; pardon them , though they may offend and provoke you ; bear with them , notwithstanding their passion and peevishness ; for hereby ye will obey that great Law , which is indeed the whole Law containing your duty toward your brother , or that Law which the heart of Christ was so infinitely set upon , that he will have it called his Law , the Law of Christ ; ●his is my commandment , that ye love one another . Though he was the Churches onely Law-giver , and so all the commandments enjoyned her were his ; yet as amongst all the Disciples there was one that had most of his heart , and was called the Disciple whom Iesus loved ; so possibly amongst all the commendments , that of love had most of his heart , and may fitly be called the commandment which Iesus loved . My commandment ; the Law of Christ. O how sweet is the musick , when Saints joyn thus in consort ! and how harsh is the sound of jarring strings ! a mutual yeilding and forbearance is no small help to our peace and safety . There is a story of two Goats , which may excellently illustrate the benefit of this duty . They both met on a narrow bridge , under which a very deep and fierce stream did glide ; there was no going blindly back , neither could they pass forward for the narrowness of the Bridge ; Now had they fought for their passage , they had been certain both to perish ; this therefore they did , they agreed that the one should lye down , and the other go over him , and by this means both their lives were preserved . Whilst Christians are fighting like some small chickens , they are a prey to Kites , and other ravenous creatures . In quietness shall be their strength ( Isa. 30. 15. ) is true in this , as well as other senses . SECT . VI. THirdly , 3 Christians ought in good Company , not onely to do what good they can to each other , but also to receive what good they may from each other ; God sets up such candles , not for us to play , but to work by . The strongest Christian may gain by the weakest ; A small brimstone match , may help to light a great Torch ; A servant may sometimes think of a way to inlarge his imprisoned Master , when his Master dreams not of it . Every loop or pin was helpful to the Tabernacle ; An homely digger that is poor , doth sometimes discover rich Mines , which wealthy Merchants took no notice of . Apollo , one mighty in the Scriptures , is content to learn of an Handy-craft man ; Cordials are not to be refused , because brought to us in a wooden spoon . Who ever sent away silver or gold , because brought to him in a bag of Leather ? The Moon though she be but small , and seated in a lower Orb then the stars of the first magnitude , and though she hath her spots and imperfections , yet she lends an useful light to men , prevents their stumbling and wandring out of their way , and produceth here and there a motion subordinate and obedient to an heavenly influence ; when those luminaries that are above her in place , are below her in use and service : Proud men disdain to take poor Saints advice , as if wisdom had forsaken all commerce with inferiour persons , and taken up her abode onely in stately Palaces . Upon this score Darius ( instead of the thanks which he owed ) payed Charidemus with no less then death for his good counsel ; But it s the folly as well as the arrogancy of some , rather to ascend to a dangerous height , then descend at the call of one below them ; O how mad is he that will rather run on in hazardous paths to his ruine , then turn back and retreat at the desire of one that is his inferiour ! And such proud Christians have this usually for their reward of God , that when the humble that will stoop to take up jewels at the feet of the meanest are enriched , they get nothing by godly conference . We give no relief to them that go gorgeously attired , and brag of their own large revenues . There lieth a great deal of wealth and worth in some obscure and neglected Christians ; men do not more usually trample upon the golden veins of earth in America , then conceited persons trample on the spiritual riches in poor Christians ; but a wise man will better himself by his enemies , much more by his godly friends , both in taking their counsel and receiving their admonition , if occasion be . 1. In Taking counsel ; It was said of Demosthenes , that he was better at praising vertue , then practising it . We must write by that Copy which we set others . It was the speech of a Philosopher , That its the easiest thing in the world to give good counsel , and the hardest thing to take it . Iobs friends , though falsly , taxed him as guilty of this crime , Iob 4. 3 , 4 , 5. Behold thou hast instructed many , and strengthened the weak hands ; Thy words have up holden him that was falling , and thou hast strengthned the feeble knees ; But now it is come upon thee and thou faintest , it toucheth thee and thou art troubled . Doctor Preston confessed on his death-bed , that he found it difficult to take that Physick which he had often administred to others . But all Christians must and will endeavour it ; Solomon makes it the mark of a prudent man ; The way of a fool is right in his own eyes , but he that hearkeneth to counsel is wise , Prov. 11. 15. When out of self-conceit we refuse others advice , we bewray our own pride and folly . Quintilian said of some , They might have proved excellent Scholars , if they had not thought themselves so already ; this is true of too many in our days ; They might have proved excellent Christians , if they had not thought themselves too good to learn ; He that every day layeth up something , though but little , will in time have a good stock . 2. In Receiving admonition . The stomach of man naturally riseth against this bitter Physick , though it conduceth so much to his health ; Faithful reproof is the awakening a man out of sleep , and such are very apt to be angry . The Hedg-hog brusleth up her prickles , and will pierce if it be possible those that come to take hold of her . There are two things that cause men to rage against reproof . 1. Guilt of the sin objected . Guilt makes men angry when they are searched , and like Horses that are g●lled , to kick , if they be but touched . They hate , saith the Holy Ghost , him that reproveth in the gate . The easiest medicines , and mildest waters , are troublesome to sore eyes . Praxaspes having reproved Cambyses for his drunkenness , did so exasperate him , that he shot the Son of the Reprover through the heart , to confute the Father by shewing the steadiness of his hand . Though you stir one that hath a boyl never so gently , yet he will fret and fume . Ahab conscious of his own filth and wickedness , hates Michaiah for telling him the truth . There is s●arce a more probable sign , that the crime objected is true , then wrath and bitterness against the person that chargeth us with it . Children that have cankers , will not suffer honey to come near their mouths , as sweet as it is . Though men are bold to sin , even to the face of God , yet they are so proud , that they would not have it visible to the eye of a man ; therefore when by their admonitions they find that they are discovered , they wrangle and quarre● . 2. Love to sin makes men impatient under reproof . T was Davids fondness of Absolon , that made him so strict in his charge to his Captains concerning him , Deal gently with the young man Absolon , for my ●ake . T is love of lust , that makes us so desirous it should be spared , and so passionate when it is pierced by a reproof . A man may gather that sin to be his Dalilah , which he will suffer none to hurt . Eglebert King of West Saxons , slew Earl Cambra for telling him of his faults , but it was because his sin was dearer to him then his soul. When a persons sin is to him as the apple of his eye , no wonder if he be offended at any that shall touch it . Solomon calls reproofs ear-rings ; I am sure they are ill bestowed on such uncircumcised ears , Prov. 25. 12. But Grace will teach a Christian contentedly to take those potions that are wholsom , though they be not toothsom . It is holy Davids expression , Let the righteous smite me , it shall be a kindness , and let him reprove me , it shall be an excellent Oyl ; it shall not break my head , Psa. 141. 5. Faithful reproof is a token of love , and therefore may well be esteemed a kindness . Such wounding of a friend is healing , and so David might well call it an excellent Oyl . And he did not onely say so , ( which is easie and ordinary ) but acted accordingly ; He did not as the Papists , who highly commend holy water , but turn away their faces , when it comes to be sprinkled on them . When he had by sin , and continuance in it , so gangrend his flesh , and corrupted himself , that he was in danger of death , he suffered his sores to be throughly searched without regret . Nathan was the Chirurgion whom God imployed to search that wound which had divers months been festring in his soul ; and truly he did not dally with his patient , though he were a Prince , but thrust his instrument to the bottom ; yet whatever pain it put him to , he took it patiently , and was so far from being angry with the Prophet , that he made him one of his Privy Council . T is a sign of a polluted nature , for a man like a Serpent , if he be but toucht , to gather poison , and vomit it up at the party . Rebuke a scorner and he will hate thee ; Rebuke a wise man and he will love thee . Pride scorns a corrector , and thinks it a disgrace to amend upon anothers desire ; hence it hates him that endeavours it : Amos for reproving the golden calves was accused by Amaziah , the chief Priests of the Idols of Bethel , and struck by Vriah the son of that Amaziah with a spear on the head , whereof he died , saith Buntingus Itenerar . Sacr. But reprove a wise man and he will love thee . Austin notes it as a sign of grace in his friend Alipius , that he received his reproof so well . Paul rebuked Peter sharply , and that before a considerable Company of Peters friends , yet he loved not Paul the less for it ; for in his Epistle which was written some time after that contest , and after the Epistle to the Galathians which records it , he makes honourable mention of Pauls writings , and of that very Epistle among the rest ( 2 Pet. 3. 15 , 16. ) and calleth him his beloved brother . As they who love their sins , hate the reprover ; so they that hate their sins , love him . When Isaiah had declared from God a dreadful threatning against Hezekiah for his pride , he doth not flie out into a passion against the Prophet , but submits with Good is the word of the Lord , which thou hast spoken . T is said of Gerson the great Chancellour of France , that he rejoyced in nothing more then a friendly reprehension . And it is storied of our Richard the first , that he would be admonished by a poor Hermit . Alphonsus King of Arragon , being asked what company he liked best ; answered , Books , for they , saith he , without fear and flattery , will tell me my faults faithfully . Faithful are the wounds of a friend , but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful . A loving reproof is a wound in love , the wound of a friend ; and therefore we must bestow our anger upon our faults ; that deserve the reproof , not upon our friends that give the reproof . How foolish is he that breaks his own head , & then rageth at his friend for endeavouring to cure it . Ahab quarrels with Elijah , as the Incendiary of Israel , for reproving their Idolatries ; when alas like AEtna , that flame arose out of their own bowels , which threatned to reduce them to ashes . Some of the Heathen were so sensible of their proness to erre , and to be partial in their own cases , when they had erred , that they both kindly accepted reproofs , and earnestly desired a Reprover . It is reported of Alexander , that having had a Philosopher a long time with him , he should say to him , Recede a me ; prorsus consortium tuum nolo , quod cum tanto tempore , mecum degeris nunquam me de vitio aliquo increpasti ; Be gone from me , I will have none of thy company , for thou hast lived long with me , and couldst not but observe some failings in me , yet thou hast not reproved me of any . And Augustus Cesar for this cause did much lament the death of Varro , because thereby he was deprived of one that would deal faithfully with him when he offended . Yet as they say , some roses are too tender to endure the strength of the smell of Wormwood ; so some Christians that its hoped are sound , cannot without wry mouths , and angry faces , drink down this bitter liquor . Asa was a good man , yet time was when he imprisoned a Prophet for bringing him an admonition from God. One would have thought that the King would have bid the servant welcome for his Masters sake ; but truly a prison was all the reward he had for his pains . It was the speech of a wise and experienced Christian , That he never was acquainted throughly with any one , but first he displeased him by admonishing him of his faults : But as light stuff and rubbish kindleth sooner then solid and more substantial wood ; so they are the weaker and less wise Christians that are so soon fired into a pet and passion , if but told of their errors . T is childishness to be unwilling to take bitter medicines . A prudent person will rather permit cupping-glasses and corrosives to be applied to his body , then suffer his distemper to reign and kill him . The sharpest fruit is most profitable and wholsom . The Lemon is more tart , yet is more excellent then the Orange , which delighteth the taste . Reader , is it not better to be awakened by a rousing reproof , then to sleep the sleep of death ? and wilt thou be angry with thy friend for doing thee that courtesie ? Is it not better for thy familiar companion to tell thee meekly of thy miscarriages , and call thee to repentance , then for God to reprove thee , and set thy sins in order before thine eyes ? When God uttered his voyce , the Heavens thundered , the mountains smoaked , and Moses himself trembled . The voice of the Lord is powerful , the voyce of the Lord is full of majesty ; the voyce of the Lord breaketh the Cedars , yea , the Cedars of Lebanon ; the voyce of the Lord shaketh the wilderness , yea it shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh ; How wilt thou then endure the thundring of such a Cannon , a reproof for thy sins from the Almighty God , at whose rebuke the earth quakes , the rocks are rent in pieces , and the foundations of the world are moved ! The Israelites said unto Moses , Speak thou to us , and we will hear ; but let not God speak , lest we dye , Exod. 20. 19. Truly so mayst thou say to thy companion , Speak thou to me of my offences , deal plainly with me about any thing that thou seest amiss in me , and I will hear thee ; but let not God speak to me lest I dye , lest his voyce strike me down , strike me dead . There is an absolute necessity of thy sense of , and sorrow for thy sins . This ordinarily must be wrought in thee , either by admonition from man , or by some severe rebuke from God. Consider seriously therefore , whether it be not easier to take a faithful check from thy fellow creature , then to be called to repentance by some dreadful judgement from the jealous God. O t is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God ; for our God is a consuming fire . One thing more Reader is considerable ; It is not enough to take a reproof with patience , but also to be awakened by reproof to repentance . It s a dreadful aggravation of sin to continue in it after thou art convinced of it . Such impudence is followed with fearful vengeance . He that being often reproved heardeneth his heart , shall suddenly be destroyed , and that without remedy , Pro. 29. 1. 4 Fourthly , Christians if they would exercise themselves to Godliness in good company , must rejoyce in each others grace and good . True love will rejoyce in the welfare of another , as its own ; Peter beholding those eminent Graces in Paul , did not repine that a brighter star was risen which would eclipse his splendour , but glorified God in Paul , and gave him the right-hand of fellowship . It s a prophane Esau that hates a Iacob for having obtained his Fathers blessing beyond himself . Envy is from the evil one . Saul who was without God , eyed and hated David for slaying more of Gods enemies , and obtaining thereby greater renown then himself could . Yet alas , the spirit which dwelleth in the best , lusteth to envy : Corrupt nature will shew it self if it be possible at this window . There are some Countries , as Candie , that have ( Naturalists tell us ) no poison ; but there is not any Christian without a spice of this sin . Ioshua is ready to envy them that seemed by their light to darken his Master . Cantharides a venemous worm , usually breedeth in Wheat when it is ripe ; the highest Christians , as the greatest Favourites at Court , are usually the greatest objects of envy . But O t is a sign of a weak eye not to behold the sunshine of others holiness without pain . The holy Apostle is enlarged in thanksgiving to God for the faith , and love , and patience of the Thessalonians , and their grace was ● strong cordial to revive him in his sorrows and distress . We give thanks to God for you all ; Remembring without ceasing , your work of faith , and labour of love , and patience of hope in our Lord Iesus Christ. We were comforted over you , in all our afflictions and distresse by your faith . Nay , he was so far from grieving at others graces , that he professeth the joy of his life did very much depend upon their perseverance in piety ; For now we live , if ye stand fast in the Lord ; As if he had said , Our life will be but a death in regard of sorrow and grief , it will be so doleful a being , that it will not deserve the name of a life , if ye should once be loose and wandring from the Lord , 1 Thes. 1. 2 , 3 , 4. 2 Thes. 3. 6 , 7 , 8. 1 Colos. 12. Grace cannot but desire and delight in its like . He that truly loves his God , will rejoyce in his brothers graces , because they tend to his Fathers glory ; and he that truly loves his brother , will be glad at his grace , because it tends so exceedingly to his brothers good . Pedaretus when he could not be admitted to be one of the three hundred , among the Spartans , went home , rejoycing that his Country had three hundred better men then himself . Surely then , Christians when they behold others sparkling with grace , and shining as lights in the World , should rejoyce that the blessed God hath some that can do him more service , and bring him more glory then themselves . Good Wish about a Christians Carriage in Good Company , wherein the former heads are applied . THe Father of mercies , and onely wise God , who hath appointed ●he way in which I should walk , during the time of my Pilgrimage , and understandeth the multitudes of rubs and hinderances that I shall encounter with , the power and policy of those enemies which will beset me therein , as also how weak I am , and unable to hold out ; how weary I shall soon be , and ready to give over if I should travail alone , having out of his boundless grace and goodness , called me to the communion of Saints , that I might be directed by their counsel , and encouraged by their company , notwithstanding all opposition , to run the ways of his commandements : I Wish that I may esteem his precept herein as my glorious priviledge , improve their society to the greatest advantage , both for my own welfare , and my Gods honour and delight , to converse with those brethren here , with whom I hope to dwell in my Fathers house for ever ; What an inestimable dignity doth my God invest me with , in imposing on me so sweet a duty ! How wretchedly ungrateful should I be , if his paths should not be the more pleasant to me for such companions ! The worth and riches of this society , may well invite me to trade with them , and give me hopes of profiting by them . All the companions on earth , of the highest Callings , are but a rabbel of Cennel-rakers , to this noble society . The Prince of this Senate is the Heir of all things , the blessed and glorious Potentate ; such a Soveraign , whose dominion is universal , from Sea to Sea , whose Kingdom is eternal , throughout all Generations , and even the highest have gloried in being his Subjects . The Charter and Priviledges of this Society , are the inestimable Covenant of Grace , exceeding great and precious Promises , wherein pardon of sin , peace of conscience , new natures , adoption , justification , the love of the blessed God and eternal life are granted to them , and entailed on them for ever . The Servants of this Corporation , are all the creatures , in their several places , striving which shall do them the greatest kindness ; They are in league with the stones of the field ; and the beasts of the field , ( though never so ravenous by nature ) are at peace with them ; The glorious Angels pitch their Tents about them , and count it their honour to wait upon them , both living and dying . The Livery in which this company is attired , is the Royal Robes of Christs righteousness , which renders them without spot or wrinkle , and far more beautiful and amiable then Adam in his estate of unspotted innocency . Their Garments smell of Myr●he , Aloes , and Cassin , and for their richness infinitely surpa●● that cloathing which is of wrought gold . Their food is hidden Manna , such meat as endureth to eternal life , the bread that came down from Heaven , the flesh of the Son of God , which is meat indeed , and the blood of the Son of God , which is drink indeed . Their inheritance is a Kingdom that cannot be shaken , a Crown of life , Rivers of pleasures , an eternal weight of glory . Some Societies have boasted , that Kings and Lords have been Free of their Company ; the King of Kings , and Lord of Lords , is both Freee and Head of this Society ; they are his Hephzibah , his delight ; his Segullah , his peculiar treasure . Ah! who would not have communion with them whose communion is with the Father , and Jesus Christ his Son ! Lord , let my ambition be to be enrolled a Citizen of Sion , and to walk amongst them , worthy of that vocation wherewith thou hast called me , since the communion of thy Saints here , is some weak resemblance of Heaven , where all thy chosen shall glorifie and worship thee without fault and faintness ; teach me to hallow thy name , by doing thy will on earth , as it is in heaven . I Wish that the gain which I am sure to reap by joyning with Christians in their common stock , may make me more diligent at this spiritual trade . The greatest priviledges are granted to Corporations , not to particular persons ; The greatest victories are obtainted by Regiments and Brigades , not by Souldiers engaged singly against their enemies . That Oyntment which yeilded so grateful a savour as to delight God himself , was compounded of several spices , Exod. 30. 23 , 24 , 25. My God hath ordained the communion of the faithful , for the building up one another in their most holy faith ; and if I expect his blessing , it must be in his own way . The body thrives best when all the members concur to perform their distinct and proper offices , for the good of the whole . Men make the most ravishing musick , when many joyn in consort . The two Disciples travelling together , found the blessed Jesus to make a third , and to warm their hearts with the fire of his heavenly Doctrine . How many vessels going in company have returned in safety , richly laden with the unsearchable riches in Christ ! If I am in doubts , good Companions will advise and direct my feet in the ways of peace . If I fit in darkness , and see no light , by their counsel and comfort , I may learn the way out of the mist. If I am perplexed in any labyrinths , they may help me to unty that knot of which I have been labouring long in v●in to find an end ; If I be falling , they will be props to support me ; if I wander , they will be guides to reduce me ; if I be dull , they will be whet-stones to quicken me ; if I do well , they will be fathers to encourage me ; whatever my want be , they will endeavour to supply me ; and whatever my condition be , they will be like-minded , both weeping with me in my sorrows , and rejoycing with me in my joys ; Besides , if I expect the presence of my God , who is rich in mercy , and the God of all consolations , where can I find him sooner then in his Temple ! they are the Temple of God , and I will dwell in them . His Saints on Earth , are his lesser Heaven , wherein he takes up his abode . O my soul , what an Argument is here , to perswade thee to fellowship with the Saints ! Theirs is the onely good fellowship ; Their Communion is a Conjunction in the service of thy God , and tendeth abundantly to thy spiritual advantage and edification ; Thy Redeemer calls them the light of the world , and they will guide thee in the way which he hath cast up ; The salt of the earth , and they will preserve thee from corruption ; Their conversations are living Commentaries upon that word which is thy rule , and so will both plainly teach thee thy duty , and powerfully provoke thee to do it . Their expressions will by savoury , and help thee to learn the language of Canaan . The tongue of the just is a tree of life , and beareth excellent fruit . The lips of the righteous feed many ; Besides , amongst these Children , thou mayst be sure to meet with the everlasting Father . Where two or three are gathered together in my name , I will be in the midst of them . Though but two or three , that the wicked despise them for their paucity though two or three ; never so low and mean , that the world scorns them for their poverty ; yet if gathered together in his name , they shall not fail of his presence ; Surely nothing will prevail more with a faithful Spouse , to joyn with any company , then this , She shall meet with her beloved Husband amongst them . O , of what great price is this one promise , I will be in the midst of them ! His presence like the nearer approaches of the Sun in the Spring , will refresh their hearts with the warm beams of his love , when they are chill , and almost dead with the cold of frights and fears , and cause in their souls a new shooting of grace , that notwithstanding any foregoing winter of barrenness , they shall now abound in the fruits of righteousness . What can they , or thou , O my soul , want , which his presence will not supply ? Art thou laden with sin ? he can give thee rest ; art thou full of sorrows ? he is the con●olation of Israel ; art thou poor in grace ? with him is durable riches and righteousness ; art thou dull and dead in spirituals ? he is the Lord of life , and can quicken thee ; He hath power enough to subdue all thy lusts , he hath wisdom enough to resolve all thy doubts , he hath grace enough to pity all thy weaknesses , and mercy enough to pardon all thy unworthiness ; He is able to save to the uttermost ; Nay , thou hast not only his Promise to meet thee in his Garden , amongst his people , but thou hast also his Performance of it , for thine encouragement ; Then the same day at evening , being the first day of the week , when the doors were shut , where the Disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews , came Jesus and stood in the midst , and saith unto them , Peace be unto you . And when he had so said , he shewd unto them his hands and his side ; then were the Disciples glad when they had seen the Lord ; Then said Iesus unto them again , Peace be unto you ; As my Father hath sent me , so send I you ; And he breathed on them , and said , Receive ye the Holy Ghost . O the value of those Jewels which are lockt up in this Cabinet ! All the Crowns and Scepters of the world , had they been thrown in amongst the Disciples , could not have caused the thousandth part of that comfort , nor have brought any degree of that profit , which the Disciples had by the presence of the holy Jesus . Consider his words , Peace be unto you ; peace be unto you . Never did sweeter words , or more melodious musick , ever sound in humane ears . What tidings could be more welcom to them that had known the terrors of an angry God , and felt the curses of his righteous Law ? Didst thou never see a poor debtor arrested by severe Serjeants , and hailed to the Goal ( in which nasty miserable place he was like to continue whilst he lived ) with wringing of hands , and watering of cheeks , and doleful screeches , and afterwards upon the payment of his debts by some loving Surety , with what clapping of hands , and gladness of heart he was enlarged ! If so , thou hadst some poor resembl●nce of that exuberancy of joy which the Disciples felt when they saw the Lord , and heard those blessed words , Peace be unto you . They were all liable every moment to the arrest of divine justice , for those vast sums which they owed to the Holy and Jealous God , and in continual danger to be hurried by Divels his Officers to the Prison of Hell , whence they could never have come out . Now his appearance to them did evidence that the Law was satisfied , that all their debts were discharged , in that the Surety who took upon him the payment of them , was by order of the Iudge released . What news could find more acceptance with those that dreaded the fury of the Lord more then death , and esteemed his favour far before life , then that which did speak him reconciled to them ! And farther , observe the work of the blessed Redeemer ; And he breathed on them , Receive ye the Holy Ghost ; As if he had said , I know your unbeleiving hearts will think the news of a reconciled God , and of peace with him , too good to be true ; behold therefore his love-token ; Receive the earnest of his favour , his holy Spirit , who knoweth his mind fully , and was at the Council-Table of Heaven , when all your names were engrost in the book of life , and all the methods of grace and good-will towards poor sinners were debated and concluded , and is sent to you on purpose to reveal them to you , and assure you of them , and therefore is an unquestionable evidence that he is at one with you . This O my soul , was the blessed Heavenly Banquet , which the Redeemer entertained his Disciples with when they met together ; and wouldst thou miss such a feast for all the World ? Lord , thou lovest the Assemblies of thy Saints ; they are the habitations of thy glorious Majesty , and the place where thine honour dwelleth ; There thou makest the largest discoveries of thy self , and grantest the fullest communications of thy grace . O let me take sweet counsel with thy people , and go to serve and honour thee in their company . I Wish that the Confederacy of the wicked in sin , 2 may provoke me to a league with the Israel of God , for a free trade and commerce in holiness . Shall they whose lusts are often contrary , and set them at variance , unite against God and his holy ways ! and shall not we , whose graces are ever alike , and of a cementing nature , not joyn together for God and his Worship ? Do they conspire to defile and destroy each others souls , as if vitiated nature did not lead them fast enough to sin , or as if they could not run singly quick enough to Hell ! and shall not we encourage one another in the Worship of the living God , and provoke one another to love and to good works ? O how much do the servants of Satan by their conjunctions in evil , shame the Children of God for their backwardness in good . Their Master is the Prince of darkness , a cruel Tyrant , a roaring Lyon , that goeth about , seeking whom he may devour ; Their work is far worse then any Turkish slavery , its bondage to corruption● the service of unrighteousness ; the diversity and contrariety of their Lords , their lusts tearing them as it were in pe●●es , for the promoting of their particular interests ; Their wages is the vengeance of the eternal fire , the worm that never dieth , and the fire that never goeth out , after all their vassallage to their barbarous Masters , and hardships which they have been put to , in making provision for , and gratifying such opposite furies , they are recompenced with extremity , and eternity of torments ; yet they can unite their hearts , and hands , and heads , for the advancement of so hellish a Lord , about the prosecution of so base and divelish a work , and to earn so miserable a reward ; when the Souldiers of Christ , whose Captain is the Lord of Hosts , the most courteous and compassionate General , whose combats and contests which they are called to , are Noble and Heroick , and whose Crown and Garland will be beyond all comparison and apprehension , blessed and glorious , do rather fight against themselves , then against their enemies , or for their endless happine● ! Ah foolish Christians , who hath bewitched us ! May we not well blush that Satan should even out-boast the living God , in the unity of his Subjects , that the children of this world should be wiser in their generation then the children of light ! Alas , is it a time for Mariners to be quarreling , when their enemies are joyned in discharging their Cannons against them , and the Bullets flie thick amongst them ! Is it a time for Christians to be wrangling , when their Adversaries are united in a confederacy to destroy them all ! Lord , thou hast promised that thy people , in the days of the Gospel , shall no more envy one another ; that the Wolf and the La●b shall feed together , and the Lion shall eat straw like the Bullock , and dust shall be the Serpents meat ; that they shall not hurt nor destroy in all thy holy mountain . Thy dear Son , when leaving an ungrateful World , left Peace as one legacy to his Children , not onely peace with thee , but also among themselves , thou knowest how much his heart was set upon it , when he begd so hard , so earnestly , so affectionately of thee this blessing , a little before he went to lay down the price of it ; Let it please thee for thy Promise sake , to make all thine of one heart , and one way ; for because thou hast spoken it , therefore hath thy servant found in his heart to pray this prayer before thee this day . Let it please thee for thy Sons sake ( whom thou hearest always ) to take away all envyings and wrath , and emulation , and strife , out of the hearts of thy people , and heal thy Sion in its breaches , for thou seest it shaketh . I Wish that the injury I do my self by unnecessary solitariness , 2 may make me the more in love with good society ; My God hath told me , Wo to him that is alone ; David was alone , when Satan drew him to defile his Neighbours Wife . Whilst the Sheep flock together , they are safe , as being under the Shepherds eye ; but if one stragle from the rest , it s quickly a prey to the ravenous Wolf ; It s no hard matter to rob that house that stands far from Neighbours . The cruel Pyrate Satan , watcheth for those Vessels that sail without a convoy . The order is observable in the narration of Demas his Apostacy , Demas hath left us , and hath embraced this present World. He first left the Company of the faithful , and then openly denyed the faith . Christian conference is a good help to perseverance ; but they that forsake the communion of Saints , will quickly disown the profession of sanctity . If Rabbits keep within the Pales amongst their fellows , there is Law to secure them against the violence of strangers ; but if any wander from the Warren , they are a lawful prize for any man , and prey to any Dog. What an ill case is he in , that travelling in a dark night falls , and hath none to help him up ; that wanders , and hath none to shew him the right way ; that is set upon by Theives and Murderers , and hath none near him , to defend and secure him ! Such is the condition of those that neglect the communion of Saints . Hence it is that our great and sworn enemy raiseth the dust of dissention and strife amongst Christians , to make them keep aloof from each other , knowing that much of their welfare and safety doth depend upon their keeping together ; He knoweth its best fishing in troubled waters . O my soul ! Now thou beholdest in these wicked days the high winds of divisions and passions amongst the Children of God , how ready they are to Martyr one anothers names , and it s to be feared to Murther one anothers bodies , if infinite power did not over-rule and prevent it , thou mayst gather assuredly that Satan was the Conjurer to raise them . I have read of a Tree , that if some of the boughs of it be cast into a Ship , they cause a mutiny betwixt the Passengers and Mariners , to the ruine of both . Dost thou not think that Satan hath cast some such branches into the Vessel of the Church at this day , that instead of uniting their strength against him and his Kingdom , and instead of joyning their power to improve every gale for their furtherance towards their blissful Haven , they might fall together by the ears , destroy one another , and save their enemies a labour ! O that for the divisions of Sion I could have great searchings , great sorrows of heart ! Lord , thy Saints in the Primitive times , were famous for their love to each other . Their very enemies would with admiration cry out ; See how the Christians love one another ! Thy Jerusalem heretofore was a City compact together , at unity within it self ; Why is it now divided , and the walls broken down , and the inhabitants all in all in an uprore , that all that go by waste it , and laugh at it , saying , Is this the beautiful City ! Is this the Church of Christ ! Aha! so would we have it . O look down from Heaven and pity mount Sion , where thou wast wont to dwell . Should thy children fall out by the way , to the gratifying thine enemies , dishonouring thy name , and wounding their own souls ? Should the members of the same body , cut , and lance , and tear each other ? Though Dogs and Wolves , the wicked of the world , tear out one anothers bowels , yet the Sheep of Christ should live together in love . How long shall it be , before thou biddest ( with a word of power ) thy people return from pursuing their brethren ? Shall the Sword devour for ever ? Thou knowest it will be bitterness in the end . For thy names sake unite the hearts of all thy chosen , not onely by faith to thy dear Son , but also by unfaigned and forbearing love , each to other . I Wish that my great coldness and backwardness to what is good , 4 may invite me to associate with them who will warm and quicken me . How averse is my flesh to every work of Christianity ? how weak is my spirit in their performance ? how untowardly doth it enter upon them ? how formally doth it go through with them ? my carriage in them is wholly unsutable to their weight and worth , and what need then do I stand in , of help from others ? As in a material house the walls need support from the strong timber , and the timber needs even the nails and spikes to fasten it together : So in the Spiritual Temple , the weak Christians need the strong to support and uphold them , and the strong need the weak , if for nothing else , yet to call forth those gifts of counselling , and that grace of pity , and compassion which they owe to them . If the strongest want each other , that the eye , the most knowing Christian , cannot say to the hand , the most active , I have no need of thee ; much more do those that are weak want supply and support from others . Nature teacheth me this lesson ; The weakest creatures amongst Fish , or Fowls , or Beasts , go usually in flocks and Companies . The Ivy and Vine , and Hop , not being able to bear up themselves , will by a natural instinct , ●ling about the Tree , or Pole , or Hedge , or Wall that is near them . Were I but as sensible of my own weakness as I ought to be , I should both earnestly desire , and heartily accept the assistance of others . It is the Wisdom of my God , to let none of his Children have all things about them , or a sufficiency to live of themselves , without being beholden to their Neighbours ; to invite and necessitate them to mutual commerce . Those that are very able to advise others , do yet in their own cases take advice from others . The Lawyer will not trust himself in a case of his own estate , nor the Physitian in a distemper in his own body , but will both desire counsel and direction from their friends . A stander by doth many times see more then an actor , and is more fit to judge the action then the Agent . We are too near our selves to see our own doings , and to be right in our judgements of our selves ; Those that stand at a due distance from us , see more clearly , and judge more truly . Self-love so blinds us , that we judge those diseases not unpleasing in our selves , which we loath in others . O that I might be so affected both with my ignorance of the right way , and my proneness to allow my self in my wandrings , that I may make use of those Guides which free grace affordeth me . Lord , give me such sense of my unskilfulness in the wiles and devices of Satan , of the deceitfulness and desperate wickedness of my own heart , and of my inability to steer the vessel of my soul aright amongst those shelves , and sands , and storms , which I am sure to encounter that I may take up those Pilots which thou providest for me at every Port , and so at last arrive in safety at thy glorious City . I Wish that I may watch my self amongst the godly , as well as amongst the wicked , lest Satan do me that injury by a friend , which he could not by an enemy ; Davids familiar fri●nd conspired his ruine ; the Son of David was betrayed with a kiss from his friend ; and though my charity to my friends , for●ids me to think them as bad as either , yet my charity to my self , commands me to stand upon my guard . Anglers for Fish , do frequently catch one fish with another , as the greater with the smaller . Sure I am , Satan is subtile enough to bait his hook with that which is most likely to take , and hath too often caught one Christian with another . The best friends are but men , and have flesh in them as well as Spirit ; and what know I but the wicked one may tempt them to tempt me , as not ignorant of their prevalency over me ! None was so likely to deceive the Prophet of the Lord , as the Old Prophet , that pretended a commission from the same power , and himself a Servant of the same Master . Who can so probably perswade me to a work of darkness , as he that is , or at least transformes himself into an Angel of light ! Besides , I am apt to be the more careless , when I am amongst ( them that I judge ) true Christians . In a crowd , where Cheats usually resort , and execute their hellish Trade , I look to my money ; but when I am amongst them whom I suppose to be honest , I think that care needless , and so may the easier be deceived . Lord , thou hast commanded me to keep my heart with all diligence ; I acknowledge I have been too secure , when amongst thy Saints , as beleiving their work to be onely to advance thine ( not Satans ) interest , in the World. O give me to Consider that when the Sons of God gather together , Satan is also amongst them , and he is both policick and active to defile me , that he may destroy me ; that I may even amongst them , watch and pray , and so not enter into temptation . I Wish that I may never spend my precious time amongst Christians , 1 as the Athenians ( who never understood the worth of that commodity , used to waste it ) onely in telling and hearing of n●ws , but as Christ amongst his Disciples , in discoursing of things pertaining to the Kingdom of God. 1 O what pity is it , that a thing of such infinite value should be spoiled and laid out to little purpose ! I s●ould befool him that should throw down pails of Bezerwater , to wash common sinks or gutturs , which would serve for such excellent use as to comfort our vitals , and to refresh and revive drooping and fainting Spirits ; Who would not abhor that vanity of Nero , in shooing his Horses with precious gold , and causing that costly mettal to be trampled under foot in the dirt , which was worthy to be the materials of a Crown , for the highest ●ead on earth ! Am not I a greater fool then the former , and more vain then the latter , if I spend that time ( which is infinitely more costly then gold or Bezer , as having relation to eternity ) wholly in worldly talk , which might be imployed in declaring and admiring the boundless perfections of the blessed God , in furthering that curious work of grace , in my own and others souls , and in preparing us for our unchangeable bliss in the other World ? My God hath not onely a book of remembrance for every good word , but also a book of observance and account for every idle word . Lord , within a few days , I shall go the way that I shall not return ; thine Angel may say concerning me , That time shall be no more ; Thou wilt never trust me with another life , nor afford me another day of grace ; this is the onely time that I shall have to provide against the coming of my Lord. Nay , whilst I live , thou mayst part me from thy people , and deny me that happy priviledge of their society that I now enjoy ; For the Lords sake help me to work whilst it is day , and to walk whilst it is light , because the night is coming , wherein I can neither work nor walk . 2 I Wish that my tongue may never be so set on fire of Hell , as to speak evil of those that are the Heirs of Heaven . It were better for me to be sick and solitary in my bed , then to be censuring or reflecting upon the Lords Servants . The Divels themselves ( though for their own ends ) could sometimes speak of righteous ones with a seeming awe and reverence . These men are the Servants of the most High God , and shew unto us the way of salvation ; And shall I at any time , be worse then a Divel at some times ! Such impotency in my tongue would be too great a sign of impurity in my heart . Those that have a blemish in their eyes , judge the Skie to be ever cloudy . Caligula , who was a Monster of obscenity and uncleanness , thought there was never a chaste person in the World. T is usual with the wicked ( measuring others by themselves ) to judge all to be ungodly ; They render others to be deformed , that their own faces might be esteemed the more fair . Or as the Lapwing , they hope by their false cries against the godly , to divert strangers from finding the nest of their own filthiness . They would have all good men thought to be evil , that themselves who are fullest of evil might be thought good ; But though the seed of the Serpent spit their poison against the seed of the woman , should I do so who am one of their brethren ? How bad is that Bird that defileth its own nest ? How foolish , as well as sinful , is that Child that disgraceth and defameth his own Family ? If I speak evil of any of the Saints , I speak evil of my self , and of the Master whom they serve . Though Christ was not upon earth in Enochs days , yet he tells me that he will judge the slanderers of the Saints , as blasphemers of himself ; Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints , to execute judgement upon all , and to convince them of their hard speeches , which ungodly sinners have spoken against him , Iude , vers . 15. It is Satans title , to be the accuser of the Brethren ; and my God calleth such men as are guilty of it , by no better name then Devils , 2 Tim. 3. 3. Tit. 3. 2. Would I be willing to resemble the Prince of darkness , or can I do it and escape punishment ! O t is dangerous to abuse the King of Heavens Favourites ; Such Arrows of slander and censure , shot out of Satans Bow by my hand against the Saints , would as a Shaft shot against a Stone , rebound upon me , and hurt not the Stone or Saint , but him that shot it ; He that snuffeth a candle with his bare fingers , doth foul , if not burn his fingers , but makes the Candle to burn the more brightly ; If I censure the Children of God , I defile my own conscience , but do not make them the less glorious . O my soul● consider what thy God hath said , Cursed is he that smiteth his Neighbour secretly ; And all the people shall say , Amen . Thou mayst smite thy Neighbour as really , and as dangerously with thy tongue , as with thy hand . The wages of both is a Curse from God , from all the People ; Surely the breath of so many , would blow down the strongest person , the strongest dwelling ; Though the causeless curse shall not come , yet when God and Men both see cause for it , and say Amen to it , there is no way to avoid it . I may build upon my profession , as if that would secure me against such a stormy wind , but it will prove a rotten founda●ion . My God hath told me , What hast thou to do to take my Covenant in thy mouth ; Thou givest thy mouth to evil , and thy tongue frameth deceit ; Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother , and slanderest thine own Mothers Son ; No pretence whatsoever can prevent my punishment ; But I will reprove thee , and set thy sins in order before thee ; If God once undertake to reprove , it will be cutting , it will be killing . O let me tremble to think of tearing the names of any of Gods people , lest my God tear me in peices , when there is none to deliver me ! Psa. 50. 16 , 17 , 21 , 22. How irrational as well as irreligious is it for me to spend my time in censuring others ! If they be guilty of erring , they do but shew themselves to be Men , not Angels ; Am I so foolish as to expect Heaven upon Earth , perfection in a polluted and polluting World ! If I my self were without sin , then I might throw the first stone . The actions of the best are but a miscellay of good and evil . Moses himself , like the Pillar that conducted him , had his dark side . The cleanest Corn , even after threshing and winnowing , will have some soil in it . There is a tincture of corruption that stains all mankind ; Otherwise there are some graces that would rust for want of use , and be given in vain . What wise man will despise or deny a Mine to be Gold , because it hath some dross or bad earth with it ? or will throw away a Beast , and say it is not good meat , because it hath guts and garbage in it ? The Vermine of sin , may sometimes craul in a cleanly holy person , though they be not allowed there ; One act will not prove an habit , nor a few bad actions a bad person . If every sin unsaint a man , Satan will challenge the whole race of mankind as his own peculiar . When I see the course rather good then evil , my charity commandeth me not to think the man other then a Christian ; Besides , How frequent is it for the malicious world to lay down false reports of the Saints , and shall I be their Pedler to take them up , and cry their rotten deceitful wares up and down the Country ? The Priest under the Law , was not to judge presently of the Plague of Leprosie , but to shut the person suspected up seven days , and then to view him , and if the case were not clear , to shut him up seven days more , and after that , seven days more , before he was condemned ; and what is the Gospel of this , but to condemn rash censuring of any , much more of the godly ? Hath not my God told me , He that answereth a matter before he heareth it , it is a folly and shame to him ? Prov. 18. 13. Lord , thou understandeth what an unruly member my tongue is , how hard to be kept within the bounds of sobriety towards my self , or charity towards others . O be pleased to undertake for me , and keep thou the door of my lips . It is not good to speak evil of those whom I know bad ; but it s much worse to speak evil of those who may prove good . Should I declare others failings upon certain knowledge , it sheweth some want of charity , but should I publish their faults upon a bare supposition , it would argue a want of honesty . O let me rather erre on the right hand , in my charitable thoughts of those that are bad , then on the left , in my censorious opinion of those that are good ; For though he may be evil that speaks good of others upon knowledge , yet he can never be good himself , that speaks evil of others upon suspicion . 3 I Wish that I may be so far from speaking ill of them that are good , that I may rather be silent , then without a just cause and call speak ill of them that are evil . Though the wicked like Dogs , fall upon the Sheep of Christ with open mouth , and strive to bury their good names in the open Sepulchre of their wide throats ; yet the Sheep of Christ do rather suffer their rage with patience , then render reviling for reviling . My God hath commanded me , to bless them that curse me , and to pray for them that despitefully use me ; and how contrary am I to his Precept , if I pay them in their own coin , and open my mouth in backbiting them , because they are forward to slander me ? It is enough for them that have not a God to undertake their cause , and revenge their quarrels , to do it themselves . If I be one of Christs members , he reckoneth all the wrongs offered to me , as done to himself , and he will one day vindicate his own honour and mine to the full , when the sinner shall answer for all his treasonable expressions , with Hell flames about his ears ; The tongue that now is blistered with blasphemies against God and his people , at that day will be in a light flame , and beg in vain with Dives , for a little water to cool it . I may therefore be quiet in all such cases , and commit my cause to him that judgeth righteously . He that is robbed , may not seek for reparation from the Country , if the Felon at the Assizes be Convicted and Executed . I need not fear but the Iudge of the whole earth , will at the general Assize , do justice upon those Thieves that steal away my credit and good name , and so in the mean time may well be contented . He that is sure of double interest hereafter , may with the more comfort forbear his money at present . Besides , by declaring his faults , onely to fill up a void space of time , I injure both him and my self , whether my report be true or false ; if my report be false , I wrong him , by slandering and murdering his name undeservedly ; and I wrong my self , by contracting the guilt of so great a sin : If the report be true , I walk contrary to Gods com●mand , speak evil of no man , and so de●ile my own soul , and set him at a further distance from Religion , hardening his heart against any future reproof , as judging it to proceed from malice , and so I do what lyeth in my power to destroy his soul. Besides all this , I may injure my hearers , and make them accessary to my sin . Lord , thou hast given me my tongue , that it might be a trumpet to sound thine honour , and that therewith I might speak good of thy name , and not to speak evil of others . O let my glory sing of thee , and not be silent ; open thou my lips , and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise ; but let me prefer an unprofitable silence , before sinful speaking ; Help me to take heed to my ways ; that I offend not with my tongue , and to keep my mouth with a bridle , that I may not wander from thy Commandments . 2 I Wish that I may to the utmost of my power , be serviceable to the souls of my fellow-members . The members of the natural body , are not idle or unprofitable , but give and receive nourishment for the increase of the whole body ; They do not seek themselves , or their particular interests apart , but the good of the whole , and their own profit in relation thereunto ; Nay , the eye watcheth for all the members , and helpeth to adorn them , and not it self ; the hands work to maintain and cover the whole , remaining themselves naked ; Why should it not be thus in my Saviours mystical body ? My God hath given me and others , graces and gifts for that purpose , and commanded me , Occupy till I come ; and should I suffer them to rust , for want of use , I should be found at last but an unprofitable servant . The several creatures , whether superiour or inferiour , do all instruct me by their patterns in this lesson of improving my talents , and forbid me to bury them in the grave of idleness . If I look up to the highest heavens , I may see with an eye of faith , those Sons of God , Angels , his diligent Servants and putting forth those abilities which they have received , both for the glory of their Creatour , and the good of their fellow-creatures . Though they are the eldest house , and ( compared with us ) the first born of the creation , yet they do not as the eldest sons of some men , plead that priviledge to patronage and cloak sloth and idleness ; but as they have higher and more noble natures , so they are more active and industrious then others , as appears both by bearing their parts in the celestial quire , and in being ministring spirits for the good of them that are heirs of salvation . If I look to the natural Heavens , there with an eye of sense I may see the great Candle , and Luminary of the World , not folding up those rayes and cherishing vertues which he hath received , but communicating them freely for the warming and refreshing terrestrial bodies , though he gains nothing by it , but is many times requited with the darkning his glory by earthly vapours . If I look lower , I may observe the earth even wasting and wearing out her self to nourish and inrich others ; She hath received a power of fructifying , and giving sap to that which groweth upon her , and loe like a tender Nurse , how liberally doth she give that milk to all that hang on her breasts , though it tend to her own weakening ? The various inanimate and irrational creatures , that are upon the earth are serviceable one to another in their places , and are in continual and regular motion to those ends for which they were designed . The most venemous creatures are useful , not onely to their fellows of the same rank , but to man their Master . Nay , if I descend lower , and look into Hell , I may believe the Devils not to be idle and unprofitable to each other● but to conspire together in one , and to be at all times busie and stirring for the propagating of their poison ; They go too and fro in the earth , seeking how they may dishonour the name of the glorious God , and destroy immortal souls . O my soul , what sayst thou to these patterns , to these presidents ! Shall irrational creatures advantage others , and wilt thou monopolize all to thy self ? Dost thou not see how they are all in their stations profitable to man , even to the worst of men ? The Fish and Fowles , and some beasts feed him , the Sheep , and wormes● and Bever cloath him , the Horse and Mule carry him ; and wilt thou be worse then the Horse and Mule , which have no understanding ? Shall inanimate creatures be helpful to others , and wilt thou live onely to thy self ? The Fire consumes it self to warm others ; the Candle destroyeth it self to enlighten others ; Salt wasteth it self to season others ; the Fountain sendeth forth its streams to refresh others ; the Sun , Moon and Stars , exercise those powers with which they are endowed , to direct and enliven others ; and shall these creatures which have neither reason nor sense , rise up in judgement to condemne thee ? Do the best and highest of the creation count it no disparagement , but an honour and preferment , to serve the Spouse of Christ , and wilt thou shrink back , and not wait on her in thy place ? Surely thou art dull indeed , if so many Masters cannot teach thee this lesson . Thou art blind to purpose , if thou dost not see thy duty , when it s Printed in so large a Letter , in so many Volumes . Thou canst not open thine eyes , but thou beholdest this Precept , and that in the likeliest way of learning it , examples . Look upwards , the heavens are thy tutors , they are unwearied in their motion , for the good of the Vniverse ; look downwards , and the Devils will teach thee not to jarr with thy fellows , but to uni●e with them , and endeavour their comfort ; look inwards , and the parts of the body may be thy Master , they conjoyn for the good of each other ; the eye seeth , the ear heareth , the mouth eateth , the stomach digesteth , the hands work , the feet walk , for the welfare of the whole ; look outwards , and the earth may be thy monitour , that is fruitful , not for its own , but others benefit ; And art thou not ashamed to be barren ? Lord , it is thy will , that as I have received the gift , even so I should minister to others as a good Stewa●d of the manifold grace of God ; Keep thy servant from ingrossing those spiritual riches to himself , which thou hast given him for the releif of thy poor . O let me never eat my morsels alone , but according to my estate , cloath thy naked ones , and feed the hungry with good things . When I was blind , thou didst send an Ananias to me , saying , Brother , the Lord Jesus , that great Physitian , hath sent me unto thee , that thou mightest receive thy sight , and be filled with the holy Ghost ; And immediately the scales fell from mine eyes , and I saw the things that concerned my peace ; and shall not I pity others ignorance , and with meekness instruct them in the way of life ! How dull was I of understanding ? how slow to conceive and believe spiritual things ? yet thou didst bear with me patiently , and didst give me Precept upon Precept , and line upon line . Why should not I bear with my fellows , since thou didst bear with one infinitely thine inferiour ! Thou hast enlivened me when I was dead ; enlightned me , when I sat in darkness , and saw no light ; supported me in my weaknesses , and supplied me in all my wants and necessities . O strengthen me , that since I am acquainted with the sweetness of thy love , and the greatness of thy power , I may communicate my experiences , and improve my gifts for the counselling , quickening and comforting of others . 2 I Wish that my God would so strengthen my back , that I may bear with patience the burthens of my brethren ; I know unkindnesses will happen between the nearest relations , and between the dearest friends . Whilst there is flesh in us , there will be failings and fallings out among us ; Till we come to that place where there is perfect purity , there can be no hope of perfect peace ; But how contrary am I to my God , if I do not forbear and forgive them that offend me ? Am I better then God ? I● unkindness to me , in any measure so hainous as unkindness to God ? Their engagements to me , are nothing comparable to their engagements to God , and therefore the least wrong to God , is infinitely greater and more hainous , then the greatest that can be done to me ; Yet my God winketh at the weaknesses , and passeth by the peevishness of his people ; He seeth no iniquity in Iacob , nor transgression in Israel , though they offer daily affronts and disrespects to him , and that after their sorrow for former miscarriages , and promises of amendment , yet he doth not destroy , but is patient towards them ; and shall not I be merciful , as my Heavenly Father is merciful ? Besides , I have offended God , much more then my Brother can offend me . I need not say , according to the Worldlings vain pleas and pretences , The injury is great , therefore I cannot pass it by . My offences against my God , are of an higher nature , and a more bloody colour ; yet I hope he forgiveth me . Or , This is not the first time , he hath often abused me thus ; How often have I sinned against my God! my sins are more then the haires of my head , they are more then can be numbred , yet he forgiveth me freely and frequently , he multiplieth pardons , as I multiply transgressions ; Or , But this is expresly contrary to his duty ; And is not my disobedience against God , contrary to that which I ought to do ? is it not expresly against his dominion over me , and that Allegiance which I owe to him ? Or , I am his Superiour . Surely , God is mine much more ; O the infinite distance that is between the boundless Majesty of Heaven ; and a poor slimy worm● If the whole creation be nothing to him , what then am I to him ! Or , But I will have nothing to do with him , I value not his favour , I live by him , not upon him . Doth thy God live upon thee ? hath he any need of thee ? is he any debtor to thee ? wouldst thou be glad he should upon this reason say , He will have nothing to do with thee , to protect , or preserve , or pardon , or save thee , because he can live without thee ? When for all thy iniquities and offences against him , and his soveraignty over thee , and independence on thee , he beareth with thee , and forbeareth thee , oughtest thou not to forbear and forgive others ? Again , Thou mayst put this question to thy self , Have not I wronged others ? Doth not the righteous God now pay me in my own coin ? May I not say , as Adonibezek , As I have done to others , so God hath requited me ? Nay , possibly others offend me ignorantly unawares , or through some violent temptation , but I have offended others knowingly , wilfully , and upon weaker inducements . O what cause have I to forgive , who am so prone to offend ! Lord , teach me to obey thy precept , in forbearing my brethren that offend me , and so to imitate that blessed pattern of thy Majesty , who art pleased daily to requite evil with good , that I may be able , comfortably to pray , Forgive me my trespasses , as I forgive them that trespass against me . 3 I Wish that I may , according to my poor ability , be helpful to the weak and tender members of Christ , by administring Cordials , sutable to their conditions . My duty is , not onely to counsel the doubtful , but also to comfort the sorrowful ; If I saw a body fainting and drooping , I were bound to afford it what assistance I could , and not to hide mine eyes from mine own flesh ; Doth not my Neighbours soul , as far more precious , call for more pity , and command my help to my power ! If one Sheep be sick , many others will flock about him , and in an hot day , after their manner refresh him , by keeping the scorching Sun from him . The Sheep of Christ should have more sense of others misery , and more knowledge of the means relating to their recovery , and shall they be less diligent for others health ? To him that is afflicted , pity should be shewn ; if I deny this , I forsake the fear of the Almighty ; How tender was my Redeemer of broken bones , and sorrowful Saints ! When he arose from the dead , he appeared first to mournful Mary , and then takes special care that penitent Peter have speedy notice of that blessed news , Go tell my Disciples and Peter that I am risen . They that have smarted with inward wounds themselves , have the more reason to compassionate others in their sorrows ; Lord , the time hath been , that thou didst cast me into the deep , into the midst of the Seas , thy Floods compassed me about , all thy Billows , and thy Waves passed over me ; I roared by reason of the anguish of my Spirit , under the sense of thy wrath , and the curse of thy Law. The weight of my sins lay heavy upon my conscience , and I was even sinking under them into the bottomless pit . The sorrows of death compassed me about , the pains of Hell ga● hold of me , I found trouble and sorrow ; I knew not which way to turn , nor whither to go for any ease or releif ; If I said , My Friends should help me , or my Possessions abate my grief , I soon found them all miserable comforters , and Physitians of no value ; If I said , My bed should comfort me , and my Couch ease my complaint , then thou didst scare me with Dreams , and terrifie me with Visions . All the creatures were unable to afford me any succour ; When I lay thus half dead , they all as the Priest and Levite passed by on the other side ; they had neither pity enough for such dreadful wounds , nor power enough to work their cure ; Then called I upon the Name of the Lord , O Lord , I beseech thee deliver my soul out of the belly of Hell , cried I unto thee , and ●hou didst hear my voice ; For thou hast delivered my Soul from Death , mine Eyes from Tears , and my Feet from falling . Thou wast the good Samaritan , that hadst compassion on me , that didst bind up my wounds , pouring in Oyl and Wine , and undertake my cure ; Thou didst send a Barnabas , a Son of Consolation to me , to proclaim liberty to me a poor captive , and the opening of the Prison to me that was bound . How beautiful were his feet , that brought the glad ridings of peace to my poor soul ? O that I might be able to support the weak , and comfort the feeble-minded , God! 4 I Wish that I may be both faithful and wise , to recover a fallen Brother out of his sin and error ; Jonathan , a true friend of David , promised to tell him if there were any danger , and accordingly warned him , whereby he saved his life . I profess my self a lover of my Christian Companions , but I am false in my profession , if I suffer sin to lye upon them . Yet I confess it is a difficult work to perform this duty in a right manner . The best plaister may be ineffectual , if it be not fitly applied ; I can seldom with Moses seek to unit● quarrelling Christians , but one of them with the Hebrew , is ready to quarrel with me , and say , Who made thee a Ruler , or a Judge over us ? Men are seldom more touchy then when their sores are searched ; and therefore he that would not have their wounds to bring them into a Fever or Fury , must handle them with much wariness ; I desire that Wisdom , Courage , and Love , may be the ingredients of which all my medicines may be compounded . Wisdom , that I may observe the quality and temper of the Offendour , the nature of his offence , and the sittest season and manner of administring the reproof ; the quality of the person , if he be my Superiour , that I may do it with reverence , rather exhorting and beseeching , the plainly rebuking ; The temper of the offendour ; if he be of a fierce nature , that I may so manage my work with meekness , as when I am endeavouring to heal his distemper , I may not increase it ; The nature of the offence , If the sin be small , that I may not make it great , by giving stronger medicines then the disease requires ; The season of reproving , that I may not give open rebuke for private offences , but observe my Saviours r●le , If thy Brother offend thee , tell him his fault between him and thee . The presence of many , may make him take up an unjust defence , who in private would have taken upon him a just shame ; The open air makes sores to wrankle ; the more publique rebukes are for Magistrates and Courts of Justice to give . Possibly , it may be my suspicion more then any real fault , as in the case of the Blessed Virgin and Joseph , and then what wrong should I do him , to accuse innocency before a multitude ? The manner of delivering it , that I may give him his due praise , as well us his deserved reproof ; This will somewhat allay his passion , and make my reproof the more prevalent . The Iron when heated red hot in the fire , is bent and beaten afterwards without breaking which way the Smith pleaseth . When I have heated him hot with the fire of commendation , I may then beat upon him with reproof in greater hopes of success ; I would desire courage also , that I may deal faithfully , and not skin over a wound that hath dead flesh at the bottom . Should I dally , I destroy the Patient ; If the Of●endour be so bold as to dare God , why should I be so bashful as to fear him ! Love , that he may discern my affection to his soul , in my detestation of his sin . If he suspect me to bear ill-will in my heart , he will throw my potion in my face ; What man will take Physick from an enemy ? Lord , shouldst thou suffer me to go on in sin , and not call me back though by a severe admonition , it were a sign thou didst hate me . Thou didst never strike Ephraim worse , then when thou didst forbear to strike at all , but saidst , Ephraim is joyned to Idols , let him alone ; Should I not seek to pluck my brother out of the fire of sin , into which he is fallen , but suffer him to lye there , I hate him , and am in thine esteem a murderer . O deliver me from such blood-guiltiness , thou God of my salvation . Let thy good Spirit so strengthen and direct me , when ever thou callest me to this duty , that I may do it with zeal to thine honour , not daring to jest with such an edged tool as sin is , and with love and wisdom , that if by any means , I may bring back a wandring sheep to thy fold . 3 I Wish that I may receive , as well as do good , by all my converses with those that are good . Christians are trees of righteousness , planted in Gods Vineyard , and it s my own fault if I gather not some good fruit from them . My God tells me , The lips of the righteous feed many ; 1 if then I rise hungry from the Table , it s a sign I am sullen and will not eat ; My Father delights to see his Children distributing their spiritual food ( as the Disciples the Loaves and Fish to the multitude ) amongst their brethren , till they all are filled ; He hath acquainted me , that its an argument of wisdom to receive , and folly to refuse counsel ; Give instruction to a wise man , and he will be yet wiser , teach a just man , and he will increase in learning , Prov. 9. 9. The holy Apostle , though high in the School of Christ , and in the uppermost Form , yet hoped to learn somwhat from those that were far meaner Scholars . He writes to the Romans , that he hopes to be filled with their Company . They that are Dwarfes in Religion , may do service to the tallest , if they be willing to accept it . A Rush Candle may give me some light , if I do not wilfully shut mine eyes ; A brazen Bell may call me to prayer as well as one of silver , if I do not stop mine ears . The smallest and meanest creatures , were serviceable to the Great God against the Egyptians ; and shall my proud heart refuse the help of mean Christians , against the enemies of my salvation ? Did a Damsel possessed with a Devil , bring her Master much temporal gain , and may not a poor servant , filled with the holy Spirit , bring me much spiritual gain ? What ? or , who am I ? that none must teach me , but those that are eminent in grace and gifts ? I am sure I have nothing ( that good is , ) but what I have received , and this pride of my heart is too great an evidence that I am but poor in holiness . Those branches that are fullest laden , bend most downward . Those trees that abound in clusters of fruit , do not disdain to receive sap from the mean earth , which every Beast trampleth on . It s no wonder if a soul decline in strength , that refuseth its food , because it s not brought by the Steward , but by some inferiour person of the Family . If Satan can keep me in this proud humour , he doth not doubt but to keep me in a starving condition , and to hinder the efficacy of all means for my growth in grace . When this Dropsie once seiseth upon my vitals , I may expect a Consumption of my whole body . Lord , it were my duty to hear thy voice , though it were through the mouth of a Balaam ; thou hast sometimes conveyed the water of life through these Pipes of Lead , and sent considerable presents to thy chosen , by contemptible messengers ; O suffer me not to be wise i● mine own eyes , and thereby to turn away mine ears from the words of them that are endued with spiritual wisdom ; but cause me to hear counsel , and receive instruction , that I may be wise for my latter end . 2 I Wish that I may be so much my own friend , as to esteem a bitter admonition better then the sweetest flattery , and never quarrel at any , for waking me out of my spiritual Lethargy . The World indeed is full of them that rage at such as would prevent their ruine , choosing rather to have their wounds fester , though they kill them ; then be searched throughly to recover them ; Their words to their Neighbours , are like the Jews to the Prophets , Prophesie not unto us right things , Prophesie unto us smooth things , Prophesie deceits , Isa. 30. 10. And their works are like theirs too ; If a Stephen deal but faithfully with them , and tell them of their faults , they are presently cut to the heart , and gnash at him with their teeth ; Their bones are so out of order , that the smallest disturbance makes them fret and fume . Like Owles , if any offer to lay hold on them , they soon make him feel their claws ; Rebuke a scorner and he will hate thee ; But I have not so learned Christ ; Though Toads are no sooner toucht , but they swell and are ready to spit out their poison in the face of him that hindleth them , yet Sheep will be felt and shorn , and suffer their sores to be drest with patience . Though fools hate him that reproveth in the gate ; yet , rebuke a wise man and he will love thee , saith God , Prov. 9. 8. O that I might never be so void of love to my fallen brother , as not to give him a serious reproof , nor so void of love to my self , as not to receive a serious reproof . The nipping frosts , though not so pleasant , are as profitable as the Summer sunshine . I deceive my self , if I judge no liquor wholsom but what is toothsom . There is no probable way of curing some diseases , but by Blisters , and ●●pping-glasses , and painful medicines ; Is it not better for me to accept an admonition and amend , then to walk on in a wicked way to my destruction ? Will it not be much easier for me to bear a rebuke given in love , and with meekness from my fellow-creature , then to provoke the Iealous God , with eyes full of fury , to take me by the throat , and ask me , what I am doing ! How I dare thus slight his Laws , and contradict his Will ! O how can my heart endure , or my hands be strong , in the day that he shall deal with me ! Well might my God say , He that hateth reproof is brutish . Lord , let me never be so much a beast , as to lye snoring in a nasty kennel of filth , and when any come to wake me , flie in their faces ; but let me prefer a sharp admonition , before the smoothest deceits . When any praise me for the good in me , cause me to suspect my self ; when any reprove me for the evil in me , let me accept it with thanks ; Make me able to say with that sweet singer of Israel , Let the righteous smite me , it shall be a kindness ; and let him reprove me , and it shall be an excellent oyl , it shall not break my head . I Wish that I may by no means repine , 4 but always rejoyce at the gifts and graces of others . If the other members of the body thrive , the heart doth not grieve , but is glad at it . It s ordinary for younger brothers , to boast and glory in the large estate , and great possessions which their elder brothers have left them by their Fathers . Why should not my soul be joyful at the great share of spiritual riches , which the onely wise God hath given some of my brethren ? If a man love sweet smels , the greater degree of them he observeth in any place , the mo●e he is refreshed with them . He that delights in Pictures , if he see one in a room , exactly and exquisitely drawn , above all the rest , that shall have more of his eye and his heart . Is not grace compared to sweet Oynments ? and shall not I be comforted the more for the greatness of its savour ? Is not the Image of my God amiable in mine eye ? and ought I not to delight most in that Copy which is nearest the Original ? Surely , if I envy any their spiritual excellencies , I shew my self too like a Child of the Devil ; There is hardly any worm that gnaweth that unclean spirit more painfully , then the grace which God gives his Children ; Their sins are his utmost joy , their graces are his extream greif . Would I be found in Satans livery at the last ? O that I might be so far from murmuring at that double portion of the Spirit , which my God bestoweth upon some of his people , that I might bless God heartily for it , and beg of God to add to it an hundred fold , how great soever it is . The pretty Birds sing the more merrily , the higher the Sun mounteth in the Heavens . I have cause to be the more chearful , the nearer any ascend to Heaven , and the higher they mount in holiness . My love to my God , to my Brother , nay to my self , all command me to it . My love to my God ; He that loves his Soverain , will rejoyce that he hath any Subjects eminent above others for duty and loyalty : They that have much spiritual strength , will do my God much spiritual service . The more grace they have , the more glory they bring to God ; It s an honour to the Father of Spirits , when his Children keep open house , according to their estates , cloathing the naked , feeding the hungry soul , and relieving liberally such as are in want ; I am no Christian if I be not tender of my Gods honour , and joyful when that is exalted in the World. Besides , Love to my brother should quicken me to this duty If I love him as my self , I shall both grieve at his soul-losses , and rejoyce at his spiritual gains ; Love delighteth in the welfare of the party loved ; The hotter the beames of grace are in the party beloved , the more they rejoyce the heart of the lover . Why should any mans eye be evil towards his Brother , because Gods is good to him ? Have others the less , because some have so much ? Or , is it not my own fault , that I am not as holy and gracious as he ? God is a Fountain of grace , always running over , but he derives it to us according to our capacities ; If I go to the Well of Salvation , and receive but little of the water of life , I may know the cause ; my Vessel was no bigger . Nay , Love to my self , may make me glad at others gifts and graces . The greater the Saints estate is , the more he will reliev● others ; As the Earth ; though it sucketh in so much water as will give her self a competent refreshment , conveyeth many springs through her veins , for the cherishing and refreshment of others . So the Saints do not onely advantage their own , but also others souls ; Lord , though in Hell there be little else but murmuring and repining at the good of thy chosen , yet in Heaven there is no emptiness in themselves , no envying at others ; every Saint there hath his joy doubled for anothers joy , and is glorified in anothers glory ; Suffer not thy Servant to make his heart a little Hell , by filling it with grief at the good of thy chosen ; But , O make it thy lesser Heaven ; be thou pleased to dwell in it , and then I shall begin the work of eternity in time , magnifie and bless thee for thy love to them , and praise and bless them for their likeness to thee . Finally , I Wish that I may so carry my self , in all my converses with the Children of God here , that I may meet them in the Fathers house , and sit down with them at the Supper of the Lamb. Lord , if Communion with thy Saints be so pleasant and delightful on earth , how pleasant and delightful will it be in Heaven ! Here my communion with them is imperfect , my flesh will not suffer me to receive the good I might from them , nor their flesh allow them to do the good they might to me ; But there shall be no evil , no occasion of evil , no appearance of evil ; no sin shall clog the chariots of our souls , no flesh shall fetter us from running to embrace and delight in each other ; but all shall be free to rejoyce and refresh one another . Every Saint shall be , as it were , a fountain of Communion in the sweetest manner● and fullest measure ; from every one shall flow Ri●ers of water of life , and every one enlarged to rellish and receive . If Jonathan beholding a little grace in David on earth , loved him as his own soul , how doth he love him in Heaven ? Here our Communion is much lamed by the defects in our bodily organs ; we cannot impart our minds without our members , which being defective , make our Communion so ; but there we shall be as Angels , seeing each other without eyes , hearing each other without ears , and embracing each other without hands ; Here our Communion is interrupted , our particular callings , our eating , our drinking , our sleeping , our many occasions call us from it ; But there is no calling but our general calling of worshipping and enjoying our God ; no feeding but on the tree of life , that groweth in the midst of Paradise ; no drinking but of the Rivers of Gods own pleasures ; and no night , no sleeping , but that rest which remaineth for the people of God. O what darkness , what night can be there , where all the righteous shall shine infinitely brighter then the Sun in his noon day lust●e . Here our Communion is hindered by the differences that frequently arise ● like Children of the same Father , we quarrel and wrangle ; but there they will all be like-minded , having the same love , being of one accord , and one judgement ; There indeed Jerusalem is a City compact together , and at unity within it self ; There Pauls desire is granted , that they all speak the same thing , they are one in affection , one in opinion , aud one in expression ; There Christs prayer is granted , Father , that they may be one as we are one , as thou Father art in me , and I in thee , that they may be one in us ; If it be so good and pleasant a thing for brethren here , to dwell together in unity , and it be as a precious Oyntment , and as the Dew which descended upon the Mountains of Sion ; where the Lord commanded his blessing , even life for ever . How good and pleasant will it be for those to dwell together in perfect unity there , where the consolation of Christ is perfect , the fellowship of the Spirit entire , the comfort of love compleat ? no crying , no complaining , no angry word , no frowning look , no suspicious thought ; But as old Gryneus said , There Zwinglius and Luther are well agreed . Our Communion here is but with a few , we are acquainted but with few , and our communion is not so large as our acquaintance ; we have seen but few , we have heard but of few , and we have discoursed with fewer . There are but few in the Counties , in the Kingdom where we live , and many of them are wholly unknown to us ; But There is a glorious Company of Patriarchs , Prophets , Apostles , a noble Army of Martyrs , a numberless number of Saints , of all Countries , Callings , Conditions , Relations ; a thousand thousand , are before him , and ten thousand times ten thousand , minister to him ; If Peter when he saw but two of the Children of God in glory with Christ on Earth , cryed out , Master , It is good to be here ; How good will it be to be There , where there shall be a great multitude , which no man can number , of all Nations , and Kindreds , and People , and Tongues , standing before the Throne , and before the Lamb , cloathed with white robes , and Palmes in their hands , and crying with a loud voice , Salvation unto our God , that sitteth upon the throne , and to the Lamb for ever . O what a blessed time , or rather eternity will that be , when I shall fully understand what the Communion of Saints meaneth ! If Solomon could say of militant Saints , As Oyntment and perfume rejoyce the heart , so doth the sweetness of a mans friend by hearty counsel ; How much better might he speak it of Saints triumphant ? What is the sweetness and joy of that society● where every soul is a bed of spices , an Orchyard of Pomgranats , a Cabinet of perfumes , for their mutual delight and refreshment ! If David was so taken with the beauty of the Church in this World , notwithstanding her blackness , by reason of corruption and affliction , that he saith , If I forget thee , O Ierusalem , let my right hand forget her cunning ; If I do not remember thee , let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth , if I prefer not Ierusalem before my chief joy ; How much is he taken with the Spouse of Christ There , where it is granted unto her to be arrayed in fine linnen , pure and white , which is the righteousness of the Saints , not onely imputed , but also inherent , to be cloathed with the embroydered graces of the holy spirit , perfect knowledge , perfect love , perfect joy , and all the beauties of holiness , without the least spot or wrinkle , or any such thing ! there indeed he prefers Jerusalem before his chief joy , wh●lst he beholds her all fair , compleatly conformed to Christ , with such a peculiar resemblance of his glory , as if the name of Christ was written on her fore-head , and her spiritual affinity and kindred manifested thereby . Surely it is a lovely communion , when Saints sit down together at the Lords Table , in this world , and partake of his last Supper , when they see , and hear , and taste , the true pledges of their Fathers infinite grace , and read their Redeemers boundless love , written by himself in his own blood . Their hearts have many a time been so ravished therewith , that they have wished the ordinance might have lasted longer , and that Christ would have lain so all night between their breasts ; But O how infinitely short is this Communion , of that which ●hey shall have in glory , when they shall be called to the Marriage supper of the Lamb , when they shall eat of the hidden Manna , and drink of the new wine in their Fathers Kingdom ! then , then indeed every one may say , I sit under his shadow with great delight , and his fruit is sweet unto my taste ; without question that Communion which Adam had with Eve , that short time which they continued in innocency , was exceeding sweet . She was to him as a Crown of glory , a meet help , and the delight of his eyes ; What a ●air Bride was she whom God himself drest , and deckt with all the ornaments of grace ! What joy must there needs be at that Wedding which was celebrated in Paradise , covered with the curious Tapestry of th●se pleasant trees , which the very han● of the most High had planted , and delighted with the ra●ishing noats of those pretty Quitisters which Infinite Wisdom had taught to sing at the Marriage feast● where there was a perfect likeness and love between the Maried Persons , where there was not the least evil , or shew of evil to allay their joy , and especia●●y where the God of all consolation was fully and f●●ourably present , as Master of the Feast ! Adam could not but esteem her his loving Hind , and pleasant R●e , his sweet yoke-fellow , and pleasant play-fellow , the partner and sweetner of all his comforts , he could not but he satisfied with her breasts , and ravished with her love . But even this is far inferiour to the communion of the Saints above ; There , in heaven are more glorious bands , and sweeter knots of loving fellowship ; then that of Marriage , the attire of the Bride is far richer , the beauty of the Bride far greater , the wedding chamber is the heavenly Paradise , the melody made there will be by celestial Courtiers , Angels themselves ; and there the Fountain whence all joy floweth will run more freely , and he will turn that water which Adam had below into the richest wine . Lord , I acknowledge to thy glory , that I have sometimes been refreshed with the company of thy chosen in this world , I have seen thee in them , and heard thee by them , yet how little good have I got by them , in comparison of what I might and ought ? Pardon all my weaknesses , and do thou so supply my spiritual wants , that I may both love more and improve better the society of thy Saints here , that so when thou callest me from this imperfect communion with some few , I may be carried to Abrahams bosome , and enjoy perfect fellowship with those thousands that are before thee , where thou art visible in all , every one being thy temple , and every heart being the altar , upon which the fire of thy love is ever burning . O let me praise thee in that great congregation , and my glory sing of thee before much people ; for there shall those that mourned for Sion be filled with comfort , and rejoyce for ever with Ierusalem , they shall be born upon her sides , and dandled upon her knees , they shall suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolation , they shall milk out , and be delighted with the abundance of her glory , Amen . CHAP. V. How a Christian should exercise himself to Godliness in Solitariness ; As also a Good Wish about that Particular . THirdly , Thy duty is to exercise thy self to Godliness in Solitude . A gracious person is not onely consciencious in company , but also when he is alone ; His whole life is nothing else but a walking with his God. When I awake I am still with thee , saith David , Psa. 139. 18. He no sooner opened the eyes of his body in the morning , but he was lifting up the eyes of his mind to Heaven ; When he was alone in his bed , he was in company with his God. As God was still with him , so he was still with God ; Nevertheless I am continually with thee , Psa. 73. True sanctity is visible in secresie to him that is Omniscient . The Saint is many times most busie when he hath nothing to do , and may say more truly then Scipio the African , Nunquam minus solus , quam cum solus , I am never less alone , then when alone . The pulse of the body beats as well in solitariness , as in company , and so doth the pulse of the gracious soul towards his God and Saviour . It s said of Domitian , that he did one hour in a day sequester himself from all persons , to no purpose , for it was to catch flies , which was the original of that answer , to one that asked , Whether any body were with the Emperour , Ne mus●a quidem ; No , not so much as a flie . A Believer hath business of great weight , when he withdraweth from the press of the world , it is that he might draw nearer to the Lord. Isaac goeth into the Fields to meditate of God , Christ goeth into the Mountain apart to pray to God. Daniel to the Rivers side ; Peter to the house top ; The Church to the secret place of the stairs , and all to enjoy communion with their God , Gen. 26. Mark 1. 35. Cant. 2. 4. Dan. 8. 2. and 10. 4. Act. 10. A Saint therefore sequestreth himself from the noise and clamour of company , and worldly businesses , that he might have the more free and intimate converse with his Redeemer . A forced banishment from Men , to dwell among Beasts , hath been bewailed as a great misery ; but a free retirement from creatures , to enjoy more of the blessed God , is a great felicity . Woodrow , an hearb of an extraordinary pleasant smell , delighteth in dark and shadowy places . So the Christian , who in company refresheth others with the fragrancy of his graces , loveth sometimes to be obscure and in secret . Many of the Heathen were so affected with the vanity and vexation of the world , that they wil●lingly left their pleasures and preferments in Courts , to live privately in the Country . Sylla Felix , laid aside his dictatourship , to lead a retired life . Dioclesians two and twenty years raigne , could not make him out of love with a solitary life , but he voluntarily left the Empire , and could not be prevailed with to reassume it , though he was threatned to it . Demosthenes would shave his beard half off , and all his hair from his head , to necessitate his stay within doors , and his abode amongst his Books . Thales left the affairs of state , that he might have time for Contemplation . Cato in his old age , wi●hdrew from Rome , to live as he used to say , out of the crowd of the world ; And the Romans were so much convinced of his prudence herein , that as they passed by his house to which he retired , they would ordinarily cry out , Iste solus scit vivere ; This man alone knoweth how to live . Old Similis having lived long in the Wars , and afterwards for seven years devoting himself to solitariness , when he died left this Epitaph behind , Here lieth old Similis , yet one that lived but seven years . Hiero the Tyrant of Syracuse , gave over his Kingdom , to live a solitary life . Others out of a deep melancholly , have avoided all society , and delighted onely like the Shrick Owl and Bittern , in desolate places and Monuments of the dead , Zeph. 2. 14. Socrates in his Ecclesiastical History ( Lib. 4. Cap. 18. ) speaks of some , so strangely averse to all correspondence with men , that they have immuted themselves in Cels and Silence , for sixty and ninety years together , even as long as they lived . But Reader , I would not advise thee to such continued retirement , nor to any at all upon such low , mean grounds . Those voluntary sequestrations of deluded Votaries amongst the Papists from humane society , are I dare say , as unacceptable to God , as uncomfortable to themselves . Such solitary persons , bring little comfort to their own souls , little honour to God , and do no good at all to others . By how much as doing God great service , is better then doing him little ; as doing good to many , is better then doing good onely to my self , so much is Company before solitariness . But the most publique Christians have their times for privacy ; It s no mean misery , to be either always alone , or never alone ; He that is always crowded with Company , can neither enjoy himself , nor his God as he ought . SECT . I. I Shall first lay down some Motives , and then shew wherein we should exercise our selves to Godliness when we are alone . 1. To quicken thee to exercise thy self to godliness in solitude . Consider , The benefit of solitude ; well improved solitude is a good opportunity for godliness . Seneca was wont to say , that he seldom went into company , that he came not home worse then he went out . Society , as it hath much gain , so much perplexity ; Solitude is a release to the soul that was imprisoned in Company . To be much in Company tires and wearies us ; We are prone to count it a bondage , and the persons we associate with , our fetters ; Retiring seasonably from them , sets us at liberty , and giveth us freedom to mount up to Heaven at our pleasure . Scipio would tell his friends , I have never better company , then when I have no company , for then can I freely entertain my own thoughts , and converse with all the learned that have been in former ages . Hierom speaks better , Sapiens nunquam solus esse potest ●abet ; enim secum omnes qui sunt & qui fuerunt boni — & si bominum sit inopia , loquitur cum Deo. A wise man can never be alone , for he hath ever with him all the good men that are , or have been , and if he find any want of men , he can converse with God. It was a custome among the Indians , when their King went to bed , to pray with piping acclamations , that he might have happy dreams , and withal , consult well for the good of his Subjects ; As if● the silent , secret night had been a friend to wisdom . One of the best Kings that ever the world had , tells us , My reins instruct me in the night season , Psa. 16. 7. The sensual worldling is a stranger to such secrecy : It hath in some respects an advantage of society , it hath not those clamours nor distractions with it , which hinder us in our heavenly trade ; As it hath fewer allurements to good , so it hath fewer impediments of good , and fewer suggestions to evil , and truly the grand Argument to good , which is , instar omnium , is not wanting to it ; It hath the presence of God. Every godly man may say in a sense , as Christ did , when his Disciples were to leave him alone , I am not alone , because the Father is with me , Joh. 16. 32. It is reported of Numa , that after the death of his Wife Tatia , he left the City , and gave himself wholly to walk in Fields and Woods , consecrated to the gods , and thence was said to enjoy the goddess Egeria , and that she made him her Husband . Plut. in vit . Num. Though such stories are fabulous , yet its true of the Christian , that he enjoyeth much of his God when he is out of the worlds crowd . Lovers give and return the sweetest kisses and embraces , when they are together in secret . Isaac and Rebeckah thought themselves in secret , when they sported together . David had his Sweet-meats , and Heavenly Iunkets in the night , when the eyes of others were closed , and saw not the Charger which was sent from above , for his spiritual refreshment . His solitary meditations brought him more solace and comfort then the whole creation could , afford him ; When I meditate on thee in my bed , and think of thee in the night watches ; My soul is filled with marrow and fatness , Psa. 63. 6. Communion with God in secret , is an Heaven upon Earth ; What food can compare with the hidden Manna ? Some persons have excellent banquets in their Closets ; That bread which the Saints eat in secret , how pleasant is it ? Ah what stranger can imagine the joy , the melody , which even the secret tears of the Saints cause ! Believers find rich mines of silver and gold in solitary places , they fetch up precious jewels out of secret holes , out of the bottom of the Ocean , where are no inhabitants . Naturalists observe that those fish are sweetest which lye hid . Saints have often sweet joy and refreshment in secret , they have meat to eat which the world knoweth not of . The Fig-tree , Olive , and Vine , would not leave their sweetness , fatness , and chearfulness , to be Kings over other trees . They that know what it is to enjoy God in secret , would not leave it or lose it to be Kings or Commanders over the whole World , Iudg. 9. 11,12,13 . One place where the Israelites pitched in their passage to Canaan , was called Iothatha , from Iatab and Batha , a pleasant Wilderness , or delectable Desart . A Christian hath many such stations in his travails to the Heavenly Canaan ; When he is in a Wilderness alone , out of the noise of Pharoahs Court , and free from the clamours , and complainings of Gods Israel , by reason of Epyptian Task-masters ; he hath the Pillar , the extraordinary presence of his God , which abundantly satisfieth and rejoyceth his soul. The highest Princes sometimes give their largest gifts to their favourites in private , to prevent that envy which publique notice or knowledge of them might occasion . Some Saints give their largest almes in secret , that their left hand scarce knoweth what their right hand doth ; The great and holy God sendeth many a rich present , giveth many a large almes to his indigent friends when there is none by , to witness his bounty and charity . In the dead time of the night , when deep sleep seiseth on men , the earth receiveth many pleasant refreshing showres ; The Children of God have many costly Collations , and much curious Musick , when no eye but their own seeth or tasteth the former , and no ear save theirs heareth the latter . The Prophet Hosea represents God thus , speaking of his people , Behold I will allure her , and bring her into the Wilderness , and speak comfortably unto her , Hos. 2. 14. Gods method is marvellous , he brings his Church into a Wilderness , and then turns it into a Canaan , causing it to flow with Milk and Honey . By Wilderness some understand a sorrowful , and others a solitary condition ; but then God appears to her , the God of all consolation , for he speaks comfortably to her . He that chid her when she was in the crowd of the world , saying as they said , and doing as they did ; when he hath her alone , reflecting upon her sins , and recollecting her self , will speak friendly and comfortably to her ; In the Hebrew it is , I will speak to her heart ; and surely his powerful satable speech will banish all her heaviness . This invisible trade , brings in visible profit and comfort . Secret correspondence with allies , is most difficult , but exceeding gainful and delightful . Some curious mysteries are like Mines sprung under ground , the less they are known , the more efficacious and effectual they are . The open air or breath of men would soil the beauty and lustre of exact pictures . Christ calls his Spouse out of the worlds view and light , when he intends her the fullest seals of his love ; Come my beloved , let us go forth into the fields ; let us lodge in the Villages , let us get up early to the Vineyards , there will I give thee my loves , Cant. 7. 11 , 12. Mark , There in the Fields where no eye beholdeth the sweet meeting of our lips●● the close embraces of our armes , the intimate conjunction of our hearts ; there I will give thee my loves . Kings do not unbosome and open their hearts before a multitude . The favourite is acquainted with the richest secrets of state in were● ( saith Iob ) as in the days of my youth , when the secret of God was with my Tabernacle , Job 29. 4. As if he had said , ( according to some ) O that I were as in my former days , when God was secretly in my family , and gave me familiar visits , which the World took no notice of ; when I had many reviving soliloquies about God , and refreshing colloquies with him . The Egyptian Laws placed the Image of silence in all those Temples where the Image of Se●apis their god stood , as if they might expect most of her favour , when they approached her privately , with as little noise as might be . Addresses to the true God in secret have been accompanied with great successe . 2 2. Consider , If thou dost not exercise thy self to godliness in solitude , thou wilt be in great danger of running into sin , and contracting guilt on thy soul ; The benefit of solitude rightly improved , may afford us comfort , but the danger of it commandeth our caution . A man in solitariness may be secure , because he seeth no visible enemies , but he is not therefore safe . We are no sooner alone , but armies of evil thoughts present themselves to us , and they will by force quarter with us , if the lodging rooms of our hearts be not taken up beforehand ; When the Virgin is alone , then she is in most danger of being ravisht . In our solitude we should not be without fear of spiritual rapes ; Our danger will appear , if we consider three particulars . 1. Our minds are restless , and will be employed either upon what is good● or upon what is evil . The mind of man is as a Mill-wheel , continually turning about , and drenching in the waters ; Our hearts are as a stirring child , that cannot endure to sit still . No Virgin hath so many Suitors for her love , as our minds for their thoughts . The Sun may as soon be stopped from his race , as the heart from its thinking . We are all in this respect like the Sea , which cannot rest , ever in motion ; Is not he a foolish miller , that turnes the water which should grind his Corn , into the High-way , where it doth no good ? And is not he a foolish Christian , that imployeth those thoughts about needless ●oy's , which should help to provide him spiritual food ? As the natural heat will be ever working ; if it have not food to digest , it will prey upon the spirits , and destroy it self ; so the mind of man will be always busie ; if not in thinking of the excellencies of God , or the love of Christ , or the beauty and necessity of holiness , then in speculative wantonness , or contemplative wickedness , in ambitious fancies , or revengeful desires ; We are like a Boat swimming against tide , there is no standing still ; if the Oar be left that we go not forward , the Tide will carry us strongly backward ; If the ground be not sown with good seed , it will of it self bring forth evil weeds . 2. Satan is subtle , and will not be wanting to fight us , when he finds us alone , and without any seconds to assist us . The Raven , which is called the Devils Bird , is observed to haunt Deserts , and solitary places ; When the Spirit of God would speak a Ci●ty desolate , and without Inhabitants , he tells us , The Raven shall dwell in it . When Satan was to enter the List against Christ , and would try his utmost power and policy to overcome him , he takes him to a Mountain alone , Mat. 4. 8. The Scripture to shew the valour and strength of Christ , sets out his conquest and victory over the Devil on his own Dunghil in the Wilderness . When Christs Lambs are in the Desert alone , they may soon be a prey to this roaring Lion. Satan is a cunning suitor , and will be sure to watch the time when the Parents are from home , to wooe the Daughter , and steal away her affections . He that takes his leave of men , to withdraw himself , may be confident the Divel will come , though more bold then welcome , and sit with him . When we know of the coming of so bad a gnest , is it not good policy to forestal him , by f●●ling the house before-hand with loving and beloved friends ? 3. Our own ●arnal hearts will strive to improve our solitude to draw us to sin . The Wife that lyeth in the bosome , takes the opportunity of the night , when she is alone with her Husband , to draw him to her mind , and to bend him to her will ; though she were afraid or ashamed to mention or motion her evil desires before others , yet in secrecy she hath courage enough to do it , and often with success . Our flesh is nearer to us then our wives , more intimate with us , more powerful over us ; how frequently doth it draw us to those sins in secret , which it dares not be so bold as to whisper to us in publique ? They devise mischeif on their beds , Psa. 36. 4. When the good man is from home , and gone a journey , then the whorish woman commits adultery with strangers . Reader , thou canst no sooner be alone , but thy corrupt heart will send thee many in wanton and theevish thoughts to bear thee company ; they will come as Lot● daugters to him to the dead time of the night , and defile thy soul , and thou shalt like Lot , not know when they came in , nor when they went away . Thou little thinkest how subtle thy wicked thoughts are , how easily they will wind themselves into and out of thy mind , without giving warning , or being taken notice of . As the Serpent crept into Paradise secretly , so do sinful thoughts into our hearts ; They conspire together against us as the adversaries of Iudah , and do as good as say ; They shall neither know , nor see , till we come in the midst of them , and cause the work ( of exercising themselves to godliness ) to cease , Neh. 4. 11. As Gods Spirit hath filled his Prophets with excellent Revelations and visions in the night or day , when they have been alone ; so our flesh filleth us with loathsome atheistical blasphemous thoughts oftentimes when we are by our selves . Children never dirty their hands and faces , or defile their cloaths more then when they get alone , from Parents and Servants . When thou art in solitude , thou hast no humane friend to watch over thee , and therefore haste the more need to watch narrowly over thy self . No Town hath such need of a Warder , no Peers gate of a Porter to keep out nasty beggers , as thy heart hath of watch and ward to keep out wicked thoughts . SECT . II. THirdly , Consider , 3 The exercising thy self to godliness in solitude , will be a probable evidence of thy uprightness . Men are wi●h-held in company from doing evil by the iron curb of fear or shame , and provoked to do good by the golden spurs of praise or profit ; but in solitariness there are not such rub● in the way of lust to hinder our passage , nor such baits in the way of holiness to encourage our progress . The naked lineaments , and natural thoughts of the soul are best discerned in secret . The darkest night may afford us light enough to see our selves by ; when outward objects and occasions do not interpose to hinder our sight or discompose our souls . No mans temper can be discovered by his carriage in a crowd of affairs , no more then his countenance in a troubled water . When the mind is stated in a due repose , it bewrayeth her truest affections , which in the midst of business , she either doth not shew , or not observe . If many servants , and several masters be together , busie and active , we can hardly tell to what Masters the particular servants belong ; but when the Masters be alone , and walk singly , their servants attend on them , and are known . Our Affections are the servants of our souls , both rational , and sensual ; whilst both these Masters are employed , as in company it sometimes falls out , and they wait , it s not easie to judge which they serve ; in solitude one takes upon it self the government , and then its visible what attendants it hath . As it s said of grief , Ille dolet vere qui sine teste dole● , He grieves truly , that weeps , without a witness ; so it may be said of godliness , he is sincere in his godliness , who is godly in secret . The best characters , and truest pictures which can be drawn of the minds of men , are to be taken from the bent of their thoug●ts , rather then from their works ; Wicked men cannot do the mischief they conceive , for lack of the Midwifery of fit instruments and opportunities to bring it forth ; Good men are unable to act all the good they would , because they want power and ability for Execution ; As Paul acknowledgeth that he was better at willing then performing ; but every man hath liberty to devise and meditate , to study and contrive what he will● Though a mans hand or actions may be over awed and over-ruled against his own will , yet his heart and thoughts cannot . As he thinks in his heart ( saith the wise man ) so is he , Pov. 13. 7. Practice● may be swayed by outward ends , but the thoughts are always genuine and natural . Violence may cause the former , but love carrieth the latter in its own way . Hence good men have been signalized for Saints , from the holiness of their thoughts . ( They thought upon his name , they meditate in his law day and night , and they have even appealed to God with comfort , upon their confidence of their uprightness , from the goodness of their thoughts , Try me O God , and know my thoughts , ) as being the purest and most unfeigned issues of the soul , Mal. 3. 17. Psalm 1. and such as have least danger of infection from forreign aimes . It s observable also , that wicked men are set forth by this secret mark , They devise mischief , they imagine wickedness ; the thoughts and imaginations of his ●eart are evil ; God is not in all his thoughts ; because , as Adam begat a son after his own likeness , so doth the heart of every man beget thoughts according to its own likeness , whether it be spiritual or carnal . The Bowl runs as the Bias inclines it . The Ship moves as the R●dder steereth it ; and the mind thinketh according to the predominancy of vice or vertue in it ; The more the fire of grace burns clear in the soul , the more of these sparks will ascend towards Heaven . The more earthly a soul is , the more his thoughts will tend downward , the more he will mind earthly things , Philip. 3. 17 , 18. Naturalists tell us of the Gnomon , commonly called the Mariners needle , that it always will turn to the North●star ; though it be closed and shut up in a Coffer of Wood or Gold , yet it loseth not its nature ; So the true Christian is always looking to the star of Iacob , whether he be shut up in a Prison , or shut himself up in his Closet , he is ever longing after Jesus Christ. A true lover delights most to visit his friend alone , when he can enjoy privacy with him . Our blessed Saviour doth not without cause call the Pharisees Hypocrites , though they fa●ted and prayed , and gave much almes , because they performed those duties chiefly , if not onely in company , and to be seen of men . The applause of others , was the weight that set their clocks a going ; when that was taken off ( as when they were alone , ) they stood still . Therefore Christ adviseth his Apostles to take another course , if they would evidence the truth of their Christianity . Enter into thy closet , shut thy door , and pray to thy father in secret . One fervent prayer in secret , will speak more for our sincerity then many in publique , Mat. 6. ●●it . When a Prince passeth by in the streets , then all , even strangers will flock about him , and look upon him ; but his Wife and Children think not this enough , but follow him home , and are not satisfied , unless they can enjoy him there . A false Christian , and one that is a stranger to God , if he have but a superficial view of him in his Courts , is pleased ; but the true believer , and one that is nigh to him in Christ , must have retired converses with him in his Closet , or he is not contented . SECT . III. I Come now to shew how a Christian should exercise himself to godliness in Solitude . 1. If thou wouldst exercise thy self to godliness when thou art alone , 1 guard thy heart against vain thoughts ; This is the first work to be done , without which all that I have to commend to thee will be in vain . It s to no purpose to expect that a glass should be filled with costly wine , when it s filled already with puddle water . When the house before-hand was taken up by strangers , there was not room for Christ himself in the Inne . If such flies be suffered and allowed in our hearts , they will spoil our best pots of Oyntment . Some persons , though poor , when they are solitary , delight in the fancies and imaginations of great preferments , and pleasures , and riches , as if they were real ; whereas they are the meer Chimera's and Fictions of their own brains , and have no existence , but in their thoughts . No wonder our Saviour saith , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Out of the heart of man proceedeth madness , Mark 7.21,22 . Such thoughts are distracted thoughts , and sutable to those that are out of their wits , who please themselves in thinking that their filthy holes in Bedlam , are stately Palaces , that their nasty rags are royal robes , that their iron fetters are chaines of gold , and the feathers stuck in their caps are imperial Crowns . As the Spanish Page , in an high distemper of fancy , imagined himself to be some great Emperour , and was maintained in that humour by his Lord ; so some foolish men build these Castles in the air , and then allow themselves a lodging in them . Others please themselves in the thoughts of sinful sports , or cheats , or unclean acts , and sit brooding on such Cockatrice eggs with great delight . It is their meat and drink to roul those sugard-plums under their tongues . Though they cannot act sin outwardly , for want of strength of body , or a fit opportunity , yet they act sin inwardly with great love and complacency . As Players in a Comedy , they act their parts in private , in order to a more exact performance of them in publique . Others entertain themselves with needless and useless thoughts , such as tend neither to the informing the mind , nor reforming the heart or life : Like vagrants , a man meets with these in every place , but can neither tell whence they come , nor whither they go ; they have neither a good cause , nor do they produce any good effect . Such thoughts might be in a Davids heart , but they were the object of his hate , Psa. 119. 103. I hate vain thoughts ; The best Christians heart here , is like Solomons ships , which brought home , not onely Gold and Silver , but also Apes and Peacoks ; it hath not onely spiritual and heavenly , but also vain and foolish thoughts ; But these latter are there as a disease , or poison in the body , the object of his grief and abhorrency , not of his love and complacency . Though we cannot keep vain thoughts from knocking at the door of our hearts , nor from entering in sometimes , yet we may forbear bidding them welcome , or giving them entertainment . How long shall vain thoughts lodge within thee ? Jerem. 4. 14. It s bad to let them sit down with us , though but for an hour , but its worse to let them lye or lodge with us . It s better to receive the greatest Theives into our houses , then vain thoughts into our hearts . Iohn Husse seeking to reclaim a very prophane wretch , was told by him , that his giving way to wicked wanton thoughts , was the original of all those hideous births of impiety , which he was guilty of in his life ; Husse answered him , That though he could not keep evil thoughts from courting him , yet he might keep them from marrying him ; as ( saith he ) though I cannot keep the Birds from flying over my head , yet I can keep them from building their nests in my hair . Christian , be careful when thou art out of Company as well as in it , for these guests will visit thee as soon ever as thou art alone , and if thou shouldst not frown upon them , they will turn thy solitude into a crowd , as Hierom found Rome in a Wilderness . The Heathen Cicero , employed his solitude to better purpose then most seeming Christians . I being weary , saith he , of living amongst wicked men , with whom all places in a manner swarm , betake my self to solitariness , as much as I can ; yet that none may think I trifle away my time idly , to say no more , let my Books speak how I employ my self . Yet alas , when many Christians are retired out of the crowd and throng of worldly men , they suffer worldly things to crowd and throng so abundantly in their hearts , that as it was said of Ephraim , strangers devour their strength , earthly things , though tending to no profit , waste their time , and devour their thoughts , which as Reuben , are the excellency of dignity , and the excellency of strength . SECT . IV. 2 SEcondly , If thou wouldst exercise thy self to godliness in solitude , labour to spiritualize earthly things . I must say , this is one of the most excellent and enriching arts in Christianity ; Though these occasional thoughts resemble lightning , as well in the suddenness of their journey , as the vastness of their way , being able to reach from one end of Heaven unto the other , yet such light gains , with quick returnes , make an heavy purse . He that hath learned this mystery , is the true Chymist , he leaves the dregs and lees of things , and extracts the substance and quintessence of them . He hath better then Midas Wish , he turns all he toucheth into better then gold . Many a great Scholar begs with rare notions of the nature of silver , and gold , and pearls , when some Merchants who never saw Mine , or Furnance , or read Book concerning them , hath his Coffers full of them . The Rabbies of the world , were they able like Solomon , to speak of all plants from the Cedar to the Hysope ; and of all Beasts and Fish , and Fowl , nay , and of all creatures in a Physical and Philosophical way , are not comparable to the illiterate Countryman who can read his God in them , and improve them for his spiritual advantage . Luther relates a story of two Cardinals riding to the Council at Constance , how by the way they heard a shepherd weeping and crying out sadly , upon which they turned aside to know what was the matter , and found the shepherd looking upon an ugly Toad : They asked him the ground of his lamentation ; He answered , I cannot but weep to consider the goodness of God , that he did not make me such a loathsom creature , and my own unthankefulness , that I should be no more sensible of it . At which one of the Cardinals was so affected , that he fell from his horse in a swoon , and coming again afterwards to himself , told his Brother ; Well said St. Austin , Indocti rapiunt coelum , &c. The unlearned take heaven by violence , whilst we with all our parts and learning wallow in the mire of the earth and flesh . Natural beings are as spades , wherewith we may open the mines , and dig out spiritual riches . He that hath a gracious fancy , may like the Bee suck honey from every flower in the garden of the creation , and climb up by the stairs of the meanest creature to the Supream and Infinite Creator . All objects to a wise Christian may be wings to mount him up to heaven . As the old Romans when they saw the blew stones thought of Olympus , so the holy person by every work is elevated to admire some excellency in the workman . There is a threefold aspect which men cast upon the Works of God , according to the difference of their eyes , or the degrees of their understandings . 1. Ordinary and vulgar persons , who differ little from Brutes , and behold the face of nature as beasts do a picture , onely viewing the outside and surface of it rudely and superficially , never considering any art or curiosity in it . As the Horse and Mule which have no understanding , they view and drink of the streams , but mind not the purity or clarity of the water or the fountain whence it floweth ; these look on Gods works at best , but as passengers on a clock to know the time of the day , but take no notice of the wheels and poises , and their several motions and contrivances . 2. Schollars and Philosophers , who go a step higher and view this picture somewhat exactly , as Artists contemplating its curious wormanship , its proper colours , comely features , and rare composure of the whole with admiration . As Nicotratus that told the Country man who wondred at his wondring at the exact piece of Helena drawn by Zeuxis , If thou hadst my eyes thou wouldst be affected as I am . 3. Christians and spiritual men , who move above the Philosopher and most skilful Naturalists in their own sphere , these look on the face of nature with a spiritual eye , as a lover on the Picture of her beloved , delighting more in the resemblance then the table ; contemplating the matchless Power , embroidered Wisdom , and infinite Goodness of their God which appear in his creatures . These are the men that can turn the stones and dirt of the streets , yea the snakes and serpents of the earth into bread for their souls ; if they should be denied the Scripture ( which God forbid ) they can fetch spiritual food out of the creature . The Heron findeth her food in lakes and rivers , and picks it out with her long bill where other birds can get none : So saith Hesychius , the Christian by meditation can get food for his soul , where others that understand not this duty starve . Our blessed Saviour teacheth us to see the face of heavenly things in earthly glasses , and to make a ladder of the creatures whereby we may ascend to heaven in our thoughts . He hath set us a pattern that we should follow his steps : What honey of profit and pleasure doth he t●ach us to draw from all the flowers and weeds too that grow in the garden of the Creation ! He instructeth his Disciples by Lillies growing , and seed sown in the field ; by trees and vines in the Orchard and Vineyard , by pearls , treasure , tares , leven , mustardseed , water , bread , nets , fish , salt , oyl , lamps , and as at Cana in Galilee turns all this water into wine , as well for their imitation as information . A mean Scaffold may serve to rear up a goodly building ; and an ordinary creature may afford matter for excellent meditations . God likens himself to many , to shew that there is something of him in all ; He compares himself to a Builder , to a Buckler , to a Castle , a Captain , to a Fortress , to a Fountain of living water , to an helper , to health , to an Habitation , to Light , to Life , to a rocke , a refuge a reward , to a shadow , a shelter , a shield , to a Lion , an Eagle , a Leopard , a Bear , to fire , dew , a moth , the Sun , and why ? but to teach us to read him in his creatures ; In Heaven the Christian shall know God and all the creatures in him , but on earth we must learn to know him by them . God hath given us three Books , which we ought to be studying whilst we are living . The Booke of Conscience , the Booke of Scripture , and the Book of the Creature ; In the Book of Conscience we may read our selves , in the Book of the creature we may read God , in the Book of Scripture we may read both God and our selves . The great God sets us excellent lectures in the volume of the creation . Though this Book hath but three leaves in it , Heaven , Earth , Sea , yet it teacheth us many rare lessons ; If we think of the visible Heaven , and behold those great lights of the world ; how swiftly they move in their proper orbes ; how unwearied they are in their perpetual courses ; how they fail not a minute of their appointed time , nor wander an inch out of their designed way ; how they divide the day and night , and the several seasons of the year ; how they bless the earth with their smiling aspects , and keep the inhabitants of this lower world from finding it a Dungeon by their enlightning beams ; we may therein discover the wisdom and power of its maker , and cry out with David , Psa. 19. 1. and 8. 2 , 3. The Heavens declare the glory of God , and the firmament sheweth his handy-works ; When I consider the heavens , the work of thy singers , the Moon and Stars which thou hast made ; What is man that thou art mindful of him , or the son of man , that thou dost thus visit him ? O Lord , our Lord , how excellent is thy name in all the earth ? and thy glory above the heavens ! What rare fruit may a soul gather from these celestial trees ! if the porch of Heaven be such a curious piece , the work of his fingers , i. e. an elaborate piece of embroidery , how curious is the Palace within ! If the outward Court be so glorious , how glorious is the holy of holies ! If light be so sweet , and it be so pleasant a thing to behold the Sun , how sweet is the light of my Gods countenance , and how pleasant is it to behold the Sun of righteousness ! O what a blessed day will that be , when the light of the Moon shall be as the light of the Sun , and the light of the Sun as the light of seven days , when all beleivers shall shine as the Sun in the firmament of their Father ! Lord , thou speakest to the Sun , and it riseth not , to the Moon , and it standeth still ; Why should not thy Servant be as obedient to thy command , even when it is against my natural depraved course ! O speak but as powerfully to thy poor creature , and he will as readily obey thy pleasure ! If we look a little lower , to the clouds , and meditate on them in their natural cause ; thin vapours exhaled by the Sun , in their principal use , to drop fatness on the earth , in the tenuity and smalness of their bodies , the weight and greatness of their burdens , the waters in them being like lusty children , encompassed onely with a tender film ; how they are tossed too and fro , hurried hither and thither with tempestuous winds , and yet burst not in pieces through lack of vent , nor sink under the heaviness of their load , nor leak out one drop , till the hand of their Master unstop their bottles ; may well admire that infinite invisible power that upholds and governs them , and say as Eliphaz of their author ; He doth great things , and unsearchable , marvellous things without number ; for he giveth rain upon the earth , and sendeth water upon the fields , Job 5. 9 , 10. What excellent water may I distil with the limbiks of the clouds ! If the favour of a Prince , be as a cloud of the latter rain ( Prov. 16. 15. ) so refreshing and comforting , what is the favour of the King of Kings ! As the clouds mask the Sun from the ●ight of Mortals , so doth sin hide the smiling countenance of my God from the view of my poor soul. As the Cloud is consumed and vanisheth away , so he that goeth down to the grave , shall come-up no more ; If showres from above make the earth soft and fruitful ; surely the showres of heavens grace would make my hard and barren heart both tender and abundant in holiness ; Lord , whilst I am in my journey towards my heavenly Canaan , let thy good spirit be my pillar of cloud to direct me ; Suffer me not to be as a cloud without water ; Do but say unto me , I have blotted out thy transgressions as a thick cloud , and I will bless thee for ever . If we look to the earth and view her well , though she hath been called , and counted the vilest and grossest of the elements , we shall finde her a glorious body , and not in the least degree a disparagement or disgrace to her maker . Take her inside , and she is curiously and wonderfully made . Her Center like the heart is seated in the most convenient place , for the benefit of every part ; Her several channels under ground , as so many veins , do convey her pure , though pale blood , for the animating and actuating ( as it were ) every member ; Though her wealth lyeth deep , and much of it was never discovered to any mortal , yet what rare jewels , and rich mettals have been seen in her very guts and garbage ; Take he● ●●●side and that cloathing will be found better then of wrought gold ; Her Garment is richer in any part of it , then Solomon in all his royalty ; The fine linnen of Egypt , silks of Persia , and curious works of Turkey , are exceedingly inferior to her daily attire ; She is covered with the costly curious A●ras of Hearbs , and Plants and Flowers ; embroydered with variety of all sorts of colours , perfumed with the most fragrant and delightful odours ; She is attended by Birds and Beasts of several orders , that all in their proper ranks , move too and fro , acknowledging their engagements to her ; O who is like that God that hath made himself such a foot-stool ! If his foot-stool be so glorious , how glorious is his throne ! But besides all this , he that shall ponder the fruitfulness and fecundity of her Womb , her unweariedness in bringing forth , her wonderful care of her off-spring , in bringing them up , providing them all , though of different kinds , food sutable to each of their natures whilst they live , and receiving them kindly into her bosome and embraces when they die , and all else are weary of them , may well cry out by way of admiration ; O Lord , the earth is full of thy goodness , The earth is full of thy glory ! What rich mines may I dig out of the bowels of the earth ? when my God is angry , the earth shakes and trembleth , and the foundations thereof are moved ; and shall not my flesh tremble for fear of the God of the whole earth , and my soul be afraid of his righteous judgements ! His hand hath laid the foundation of the earth , and his right hand hath spanned the Heavens ● when he calls they stand up together , and shall not I hear his call , and obey his command ! Lord , if the earth be thine , and the fulness thereof , the world and all that dwell therein ; Whos 's then am I ? Surely thine ; O help me to disown all title to my self , to quit all my interest in my self , and to live as one that is not his own , but the Lords ; the earth is full of thy riches , let my heart be full of thy righteousness , and that will turn earth to me into heaven , whilst I am full of thy likeness and thy love . If we consider the Ocean , that amazeth a beholder with its fierce countenance , and seems to have neither banks nor bottom ; how it threatens the earth with its boysterous billows , as if it intended to swallow it up in a moment , and yet when it hath swoln it self to the height of its pride , and its insulting waves have shewed their teeth , how soon it retreats , like a coward , as if it were afraid of the smallest worm , and had already outgone its bounds and commission ! what innumerable Fish , both small and great , take up their chambers in the waters , and finde their food in the jaws of that devourer ! what multitudes of massy Vessels she fetcheth off from one Island , and carrieth upon her back as a Porter his burthen , and sets them down safe at another ; how she playeth with them , what frights she puts them in by the way , as men do little children , tossing them up to heaven , and then throwing them down again , as if her belly should be the certain place of their burial , and after all her frowns and fury , refresheth them with her smiles and favour , and doth but prepare them thereby to salute their harbour with the greater joy and gladness ! how she sendeth out of her store-house provision , for the several families of the world , furnishing the several pipes and aquaeducts of the earth with fresh springs and streams , for the comfort of Man and Beasts ; If we but confider these things , what cause shall we have to say with the Psalmist , They that go down into Ships , see his wonders in the deep , and with those Mariners , What manner of man is this , whom the Winds and the Seas obey ? What manner of God is this , who gathereth the waters of the Sea together , and layeth up the Floods in store-houses , who shutteth in the Ocean with bars and doors , and saith , Hitherto shalt thou come , and no further , and here shall thy proud waves be stayed , who puts a bridle in the jaws of such a monster , and when she threatens nothing but death and destruction puls her in , and makes her retreat to her own den without doing the least hurt ? O what a God is this , whom the rugged blustring winds , and raging boistrous seas obey ! What excellent conclusions may a Christian gather from such premises ! Do the Winds and Seas obey God as stubborn and surly as they are , and shall not I obey him ? Are they kept within their banks , and shall not I be kept within my bounds ? Lord , thou stillest the noise of the Seas , the noise of the Waters , and the tumults of the people ; O why dost thou not quiet the headstrong passions in my breast ? Thou observest how they roar and make a noise continually , what frightful stormes they raise within me ; If thou wouldst but say to them in their height and heat ; Peace , be still , there would presently ensue a calm . O suffer not these high winds to overturn me , nor these swelling waters to overwhelm me ; I am even ready to sink , save me Master , or I perish . Thus a Christian may consider the works of God either collectively or severally , both in their insides and outsides , to his marvellous advantage . As the Rabbies say of the Word , I may say of the Works of God , Turn it over , and over , and over again , for all is in it ; Turn them over , and over , and over again , for all is in them . There is wisdom in them , in their variety , diversity of natures , subordination and serviceableness each to other ; O Lord , how marvellous are thy works ? in wisdom hast thou made them all . There is Power in bringing with a breath the whole Creation out of the barren womb of nothing ; He spake and it was done , he commanded and it stood fast . There is Mercy in providing so bountifully for every of his creatures , The whole earth is full of thy goodness . There is Faithfulness in upholding all things in their being ; Thy faithfulness is unto all generations , thou hast established the earth , and it abideth ; yea mercy and truth meet together . Thy mercy , O Lord , is in the heavens ; and thy truth reacheth unto the clouds . Every of Gods works is so profitable , that as the Aromatick fruit , not onely the kernel is a Nutmg , but the skin of it is Mace. As in a fair suit of Arras , though the hangings never appear to their full advantage , but when they are opened in all their dimensions , and seen together ; yet a small shread may assure you of the excellency of the colours , and richness of the stuff ; So though the Divine Perfections would appear most in their beauty and glory , if we were able at one view to behold the whole world in its several eminencies and beauties , yet a little part of it may speak the worth and richness of the whole . It was an honest speech of a Monk , who being asked how he could endure that life without the pleasure of books ? answered , The nature of the creatures is my library , wherein when I please I can muse upon Gods deep Oracles . The Egyptians were instructed by Characters and Hieroglyphicks ; by something presented to the eye , notions were represented to the understanding . Reader , it is thy priviledge that thou mayst perform this duty in any place : No sight , no sound but may afford matter for meditation . If thou walkest in thy garden thou mayst turn it into an Eden by delightful meditations ; Dost thou behold the flowers standing in their ranks , what a goodly shew they make ? thou mayst think what a lovely ●ight it is to see Christians contînuing in those several places and stations in which God hath set them . Some flowers open and shut with the sun ; so doth the Christian observe the shining and withdrawing of the Sun of righteousness . Some flowers dye , having a worm gnawing their root ; so will all hypocrites wither and come to nothing , notwithstanding their gaudy shew . Flowers are tender things , and must be charily lookt to , or they fade away , so Saints , if the Spirit of God were not choyce of them , and ever watchful over them , would perish . How lovely are flowers to the eye ? how pleasant to the taste ? how soft to the touch ? what ornaments to an house ? How amiable are the children of God to those that have eyes to see his image on them ? how fragrant is the smell of their Spiknard , and Calamus , and Cassia ? what a grace are they to any Family or Society ? Dost thou walk into thy Garden to observe how thy flowers thrive ? so Jesus Christ goeth into his garden to see how his plants flowrish : Thou wilt not allow any weeds or barren flowers in thy Garden ; and Jesus Christ will not permit such wicked unprofitable ones in his Church . Flowers are lovely and beautiful one day , and withered and fallen off the stalk the next ; so man is a comely living creature one day , and a deformed corps the next . Thus a Saint may make every flower like the Gilly-flower , cordial to him . If thou walke●t by a River , thou mayst change the water there into spirits by meditation . How fitly may thy thoughts be raised by that object , to the cleansing , refreshing properties of the Word of God , to the water of life , to the Well of salvation , to the river , whose streams make glad the City of God , to the rivers of pleasures at Gods right hand for evermore ! The same water , which being liquid , is penetrated with an horse hair , will bear the horse himself when hard frozen : So those threats and judgements of God which penetrate deep into the tender consciences of the regenerate , enter not at all into the hearts of carnal men , hardned by custom in sin ; and hence thou mayst gather the reason whence the sword of the Word , that in some divideth the joynts and marrow , in others glanceth only , or reboundeth , not making the least din● or impression upon their frozen adamantine hearts . If thou art eating and drinking , thou mayst feed thy soul as well as thy body , by meditating on the meat that endureth to everlasting life , on that flesh which is meat indeed , and that blood which is drink indeed . Thou mayst think , if my outward man need food , and without it cannot subsist , surely spiritual food is as needful for my inward man , and without it that will starve ; If a famine of bread and water be so dreadful , that the tongues of men cleave under it to the roof of their mouths , and their countenances become as black as a coal , how dreadful is a famine of the Word of the Lord ! If natural food be so pleasant and savoury to my taste , surely spiritual food is sweeter then the honey and the honey comb . If all the labour of man be for his belly , what labour doth the soul deserve ? If the ordinances of my God now are so pleasant to me , that my soul is even filled as with marrow and fatness , and refreshed as with Wine on the Lees , well refined , what a blessed day will it be , when I shall eat bread in the Kingdom of Heaven , and drink new wine in my Fathers Kingdom ! O blessed are they that are called to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. If thou beholdest thy candle , thou mayst consider how that light which makes small shew in the day , yeilds a glorious lustre in the night , not because the Candle hath then more light , but because the Air hath then more darkness ; so that holiness and grace which in a day of prosperity and life seems of small worth and price , in a night of adversity and death , will be of infinite value : Or thus , I set up this candle to help and direct me about my business ; so God sets up the candle of my life , and affords me the light of his word for me to work out my salvation , not to play by them : Or thus , this candle is spending it self for my good ; so I should be willing to spend and be spent for the good of others souls : Or , this Candle is always consuming , and will at last be quite wasted ; so is my life daily wearing away , and ere long will be quite extinguished : The great Candles whilst they burn , make the greater light , but when they go ou● leave the greater stench ; So ungodly men , the greater they are , the more they shine with glory whilst they live ; but when they die , leave the more stinking savour behind them . If thou art putting off thy cloaths , thou mayst ponder thy duty to put off the old man , which is corrupt according to his deceitful lusts , and to put off the works of darkness ; as also that ere long thou shalt put off thine earthly taberna●le . Art thou lying down in thy bed ? thou mayst think of thy grave , wherein thou must shortly lye down , and never rise up till the morning of the resurrection . Is the night dark ? thou mayst meditate thence on the darkness of thy mind naturally , of the works of darkness , of the blackness of darkness for ever . Ah! what a dark dungeon is Hell , where not the least spark of light appears , though so much fire ! My night will end , but sinners evening will find no morning . If a bed be so refreshing to my wearied body , how refreshing is a Redeemer to a wearied soul ? How lovingly he inviteth me , Come to me all that are weary , I will give you rest ! and how refreshing will tha God! When thou wakest in the morning , thou mayst say with the Psalmist , When I awake , I shall be satisfied with thy likeness ; or , When I awake I am still with thee ; or , rouse thy self up with , Awake to righteousness and sin not ; Awake thou that sleepest , arise and call upon thy God. When thou art rising , thou mayst meditate on the Churches garment of needle work , the fine linnen of the Saints righteousness , thy putting on the new man , created after God , in righteousness and true holiness , thy putting on that most excellent cloathing which is for warmth , for ornament , and defence , the Lord Iesus Christ. Dost thou look on the glass to dress thy self ? think of the glass of Gods law , how necessary it is daily to look into it , for the discovery of thy spiritual spots and filth . Dost thou wash thy hands ? O wash thy heart from wickedness , and forget not that great laver of the blood of Jesus Christ. Doth thy stomach call for some food ? think of thy spiritual appetite , and how savoury it will make the dainties of Gods house to thee . They did all eat of the same spiritual meat , and they did all drink the same spiritual drink ; they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them , and that rock was Christ. Art thou to go about buying or selling , or worldly bargains ? take some thoughts of buying that one Pearl of great price , which the wise Merchant sold all he had to purchase , of buying that gold of grace , and fine linnen of the Saints righteousness , Mat. 13. 44. Rev. 3. 18. Amongst all thy gains and gettings , consider What will it profit a man to gain the whole world , and lose his own soul , or what will a man give in exchange for his soul ! If the gaining a little silver or gold be worth so much time and pains , how much is holiness and heaven worth ? surely ten thousand times more . Art thou in the day to take a journey , thou mayst consider , I am but a Pilgrim and Stranger in this earth ; I am every day travelling towards my long home ; I have no abiding City here , but look for one that is to come , whose Builder and Maker is God ; O that I could prepare for it , and daily make some progress towards it . Art thou to spend the day in thy Shop , or fields , and about many businesses ? think on that of Christ ; Martha , Martha , Thou art careful and troubled about many things , but one thing is needful , and Mary hath chosen the good part , which shall never be taken from her . This Reader , were an excellent improvement of thy time in solitude , by such occasional meditations , which are obvious to ordinary understandings . SECT . V. 3 THirdly , If thou wouldst exercise thy self to godliness in solitude ; Mind solemn and set meditation . In the former head I advised thee to Occasional , in this , to Deliberate meditation . Hereby thou wilt not onely prevent those covetous , ambitious , lascivious thoughts , which otherwise might crowd in upon thee , and pollute thee , but also exceedingly further thy soul in holiness . Occasional meditations do some good , but these much more , as making a greater impression upon the soul , and abiding longer with it . They differ as a taste and a full meal , as a sip and a good draught . Occasional meditations are like loving strangers , that afford us a visit , but are quickly gone . Deliberate meditations are as inhabitants that dwell with us , and are longer helpful to us . The former as the morning dew , do somewhat moysten and refresh the earth , but quickly passeth away ; The latter as a good showre , soaks deep , and continueth long . Because this is of great weight , I shall acquaint thee what solemn meditation is , and then give thee a pattern of it . Solemn meditation is a serious applying the mind to some sacred subject , till the affections be warmed and quickened , and the resolution heightned and strengthned thereby , against what is evil , and for that which is good . There are five things in this description . 1. It is an application of the mind ; The understanding must be awake about this duty , it is not a work to be done sleeping . If the mind be not stirring , the affections will be nodding . The understanding in this , is ( as it were ) the Master-workman , if that be out of the way , or missing , the servants of the affections will be idle , and stand still . T is by this Sun that heat is conveyed to the lower world Darkness like the night is accompanied with damps and cold . The Chariot of light is attended with warming and quickening beams . 2. It is a serious applying the mind . Too quick digestion breeds crudities in the mind as well as in the body , and doth often more distemper then nourish . There must be a retentive faculty to hold fast that which nature receiveth , until a through concoction be wrought , or little strength will be gotten by it . Hereby it differeth from occasional meditation , which is sudden and soon vanisheth ; this calls at the door , salutes us , and takes its leave ; that comes in and stays some time with us . Occasional meditation is transient , like the dogs of Nilus , that lap and are gone ; set meditation is permanent , it ( as the Spouse beg'd of Christ ) lodgeth all night between the breasts . This duty cannot be done unless the mind be kept close to it ; the person that is negligent , cannot do this work of the Lord. Things of importance are not to be hudled up in haste . Loose thoughts , as loose garments , hinder us in our business . We need as much our hearts united to think of God , as to fear God. Short glances do little good , it is the abiding influence of the sun that turns the earth into silver and golden mettal . It is not once dipping the stuff into the Dy-fat , but frequent doing it , that giveth the pure scarlet colour . The true Mithridate , which is so cordial and opening , is long a making . The yellow wax lyeth long in the beams of th● Sun before it changeth its colour , and attaineth a virgin-like whitness and purity . He that rides post , though he wearies himself in travelling from place to place , is less able to give an account of the Country through which he passeth , then he that is more slow in his course but more constant in his abode ; Omnis festinatio caeca est , saith Seneca . T is much blowing that makes the green wood to flame . 3. It is about some sacred subject . As good meat and drink breed good blood , so good subjects will breed good thoughts . There is abundant matter for our meditation ; as the Nature or Attributes of God , the States and Offices of Christ , the three-fold state of man , the four last things , the vanity of the creature , the sinfulness of sin , and the love and fulness of the blessed Saviour , the Divine Word and Works ; out of these we may chuse somtimes one thing , sometimes another to be the particular subject of our thoughts , Exo. 15.11 . Ps. 1.1 . and 119.148 . Pro. 6.22 . 1 Tim. 4. 13. To undertake more then one at a time , will deprive us of the benefit of all . Too much food will rather destroy then encrease the natural heat : A little wood may help that fire to burn , which a great quaintity would smother . Whilst the Dog runs after two Hares , now after one , and presently after the other , he loseth both . Many subjects , as a press or crowd of people do but hinder one another . Those streams are strongest which are most united . Greediness of appetite , and receiving too much food weakeneth digestion . Simples are most operative , mixtures and compositions are often used to allay their force . When thou hast fixt upon the subject , meditate ( if it may be ) on its causes , properties , effects , titles , comparisons , testimonies , contraries , all will help to illustrate the subject , and to quicken and advantage thee ; they do all as so many several windows let in those beams which both enlighten the mind and warm the affections : but they must be considered in their places and methodically . The parts of a Watch jumbled together serve for no use , but each in their order make a rare and useful peice . 4. It is that the affections may be warmed and quickned : Our hearts and affections should answer out thoughts , as the eccho the voyce , and the wax the character in the seal . If our meditations do not better our hearts , they do nothing : Whilst they swim in the mind , as light things floating on the waters , they are unprofitable , but when they sink down into the affections , as heavy and weighty things , making sutable and real impressions there , then they attain their end . Our design in meditation must be rather to cleanse our hearts , then to clear our heads . Whilst I was musing the fire burned . We strike fire by meditation to kindle our affections . This application of the thoughts to the heart is like the natural heat which digesteth the food , and turneth it into good nourishment . When we are meditating on the sinfulness of sin . In its nature , its contrariety to God , his being , his law , his honour ; its opposition to our own souls , their present purity and peace , their future glory and bliss . In its causes , Satan the wicked one its Father , the corrupt heart of man its Mother . In its properties ; how defiling it is , filthiness it self ; how infectious it is , overspreading the whole man , polluting all his natural , civil , spiritual actions , making his praying , hearing , singing an abomination ; how deceiving it is , pretending meat , and intending murder . In its effects ; the curse of God on all the creatures evident by the vanity in them , the vexation they bring with them , in the anger of God on sinners , apparent in those temporal punishments , spiritual judgements , and eternal ●orments which he inflicteth on them ; I say , when we meditate on this we should endeavour to get our hearts broken for sin , ashamed of sin , and fired with indignation against sin . O what a wretch am I ( should the soul think ) to harbour such a Traytor against my Soveraign ! What a fool am I to hug such a serpent in my bosom ! What sorrow for it can be sufficient ! What hatred of it is enough ! What watchfulness against it , what self abhorrency , because I have loved it , and lived in it , can equal its desert ! O that I could weep bitterly for the commission of it , and watch narrowly for the prevention of it , and pray-fervently ●or pardon of it , and power against it ! How much am I bound to God for his patience towards so great a sinner ! How infinitely am I engaged to Christ for taking upon him my sins ! T was infinite condescention in him to take upon him my nature ; but O what humiliation was it to take upon him my sins ! What life can answer such love ? what thankefulness should I render for such , grace such goodness ! The close applying of our meditations to our hearts , is like the applying and rubbing in oyl on a benummed joynt , which recovers it to its due sense . He that omits it , doth as a chapman that praiseth ware and cheapens it , but doth not buy it , and so is never the better for it . David proceeds from meditation of Gods works , to application of his thoughts , Psal. 8.2,3,4 . When I consider the heavens , the work of thy fingers , &c. What is man that thou art mindful of him , and the son of man that thou dost thus visit him ? 5. It is a serious applying of some sacred subject that his resolutions may be strengthned against evill , and ●or good . The Christian must not onely pray his good thoughts , but practice them ; he must not lock them up in his mind , but lay them out in his life . A Council of war or of State is wholly useless if there be none to execute what they determine . That Kingdom flourisheth best where faithful execution followeth sound advisements : Therefore the Heathen pronounced that City ●afe which had the heads of old men for consideration , and the ●ands of young men for execution . Action without consideration , is usually lame and defective , consideration without action is lost and abortive . Though meditation , like Rachel , be more fair ; execution , like Leah , is most fruitful . The beasts under the law were unclean which did not both chew the cud , and divide the hoof . Ruminatio ad sapientiam , fissa ungula pertinet ad mores ; Chewing the cud signifieth meditation , dividing the hoof an holy conversation , without which the former will be unprofitable , saith Austin . Reader , Hast thou thought of the beauty and excellency of holiness , in its nature , its conformity to the pure nature , and holy commands of the blessed God , in its causes , the Spirit of God its principal efficient , the holy Scriptures its instrumental ; In its names , it s the image of God , the divine nature , light , life , the travel of Christs soul , grace , glory , the Kingdom of heaven : In its effects or fruits ; how it renders thee amiable in Gods eye , hath the promise of his ear , is entituled to pardon , peace , joy , adoption , growth in grace , perseverance to the end , and the exceeding and eternal weight of glory , and hast applied this so close to thy heart , that thou hast been really affected with its worth , and wished thy self enriched with that jewel , though thou wert a beggar all thy life ; and resolved with thy self , Well , I will watch , and weep , and hear , and pray , both fervently and frequently for holiness ; I will follow God up and down , and never leave him till he sanctifieth my soul ! Now I say to thee , as Nathan to David , when he told him of his thoughts and resolution of building a temple ; Do all that is in thine heart , for God is with thee , 2 Chron. 17.2 . or as God to Moses , concerning the Jews ; They have well spoken all that they have said ; O that there were an heart in them to keep my commandments ! It s well thou art brought to any good purposes ; but it will be ill if they be not followed with performances . Good intentions without suitable actions , is but a false conception ; or like a piece charged without a bullet , which may make a noise , but doth no good , no execution . Indeed there is no way better to evidence the sincerity of thy intentions , then by answerable actions . David was good at this , I thought on my wayes , there was his serious consideration ; and turned my feet to thy testimonies , there is his holy conversation . So again , I will meditate on thy precepts , and will have respect to thy testimonies . T is in vain to pretend , that like Moses , we go into the mount of contemplation , and converse with God , unless we come down as he did with our faces shining , our conversations more splendent with holiness . This , saith the cheif of the Philosophers , will a man to perfect happiness , if to his contemplation he joyn a constant imitation of God in wisdom , justice and holiness . Thus I have dispatched those five particulars in meditations ; The first three are but one ( though for methods sake to help the Reader , I spake to them severally ) and are usually called Cogitation , the other two Application and Resolution ; Cogitation provides food , Application eats it , Resolution digests it , and gets strength from it ; Cogitation cuts out the sute , Application makes it up ; Resolution puts it on and wears it ; Cogitation betters the judgement , Application the affections , and Resolution the life . It s confest , this duty of set meditation is as hard as rare , and as uneasie as extraordinary , but experience teacheth that the profit makes ab●nd●nt recompence for our pains in the performance of it . Besides , as Milstones grind hard at first , but being used to it , they grind easily , and make good flower ; so the Christian wholly disused to this duty , at first may find it some what difficult , but afterwards both facile and fruitful . Reader , to help thee herein , I shall give thee an example , though I would desire thee to remember that the advantage of meditation is rather to be fel● then read ; He that can paint Spikenard , or Musk , or Roses , in their proper colours , cannot with all his Art , draw their pleasant savo●r , that is beyond the skill of his pencil . Let us , O my soul , a little retire out of the worlds company , to converse with the word of thy God. I cannot but hope the malefactour hath an high esteem for that Psalm of mercy , without which he had lost his life . I have reason to believe that thou hast no mean value for that Gospel of grace , and the graece of that Gospel , without which thou hadst lost thy soul , thy God , thy joy , thy delight , thine all , and that for ever ; yet sure I am , the price thou sets on it , is far inferiour , to the worth of this Pearl , and besides , I have observed of late ( whe●her partly because of its constancy with thee , things common , though never so necessary and excellent , being less valued then meaner things that are rare , or cheifly because of thy old seeming friend , or rather real enemy , thy flesh within thee , that never speaks well of it , because of its contrariety to the word , from which it hath received its deaths-wound , and therefore would die as the Thies on the Cross , spitting out its venome and malice at it , or what ever be the cause , I perceive too much ) thou beginnest to decline in thy respect to it , what else doth thy backwardness to read it , thy carelesness in minding what thou dost read , and thy neglegence in practicing it signifie ; Therefore let us take a turn or two together , and argue the case , lest it be argued against thee in an higher Court , to thy cost , and I charge thee before the dreadful God , at whose judgement seat thou art to stand or fall for ever , that thou attend to me seriously , and not dare to give me the slip , till the whole be debated , for it is not a vain thing , but i● for thy life . What is this Word which thou art so prone to despise ? Consider it , O my soul , First , in its Causes , and then tell me whether the child be not worthy of love and esteem in the superlative degree for his parents sake . 1 1. It s Principal Efficient cause , is the glorious and supreme Majesty of Heaven and Earth , the Spring and Fountain of all excellency and perfection ; All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. It s the Word of the Lord , the Breath of his Mouth , the Law of his Lips ; whoever were the Pens or Scribes , his Mind indicted , and his Hand wrot every sentence in it . What a word must that be , which is the result of infinite● wisdom ? How precious are those Tables which are the writing of God himself ? How glorious is that beam of light which was darted from this Sun to whom a whole Firmament of Suns were worse then perfect darkness ? If the breath of a man be so sweet that his doctrine drop as the rain , and his speech distil as the dew ; If the heart of a man can indict a good matter , and his tongue resemble the pen of a ready writer ; O what is the speech of the tongue of a God! Never man spake as he spake , his enemies themselves being judges . The Queen of Sheba came from the utmost parts of the earth , to hear the wisdom of Solomon , and blessed those Servants that waited at his Table and heard his wisdom ; But loe , O my soul ! A greater then Solomon is here ; How blessed are they that wait at his Gates , and that watch at the Posts of his doors ! 2 2. The Pen-men and Scribes of it were men of choice gifts and graces . Some of them were like Saul , higher by the head and Shoulders then their brethren in the fear and favour of God ; As Moses the meekest man upon the face of the earth ; David the sweet singer of Israel , a man after Gods own heart ; Solomon , who excelled in wisdom all that were before him , or came after him ; Isaiah of the Blood-Royal , an Evangelical Prophet , or Prophetical Evangelist , whose prophesie is clean and clear , and curiously garnished with all kind of Rhetorick ; Iohn the beloved Disciple that leaned on the bosome of Iesus ; Paul who was wrapt up into the third Heavens , and as famous for active and passive obedience , as any in the world in his days ; All of them were men extraordinarily inspired , and assisted by the Spirit of God. Not onely the notions , but the very phrases and words were imprinted on them , and infused into them by God himself . The writings of some Naturalists have been bought at a great price , and thought worthy to be presented to great Princes ; but the best of them , ( though the Prophesie of the Sybills , which the Heathen so highly esteemed , be included ) is but a bundle of folly and vanity to this book ; Prophesie came not of old time by the will of men , but Holy Men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost . O how excellent must that Scripture be , of which such incomparable persons were the Pen-men or Aman●enses , and to whom the infinite wisdom of God , did dictate every word ? 3. The matter of them is heavenly and divine , 3 the epitome of all equity and righteousness , the compendium of whatsoever is fit to be beleived or practiced . The Scripture is a perfect rule , both for faith and manners ; It informeth us fully in our carriage towards God , and towards men ; how we ought to walk in all relations and conditions ; it forbiddeth evil , all evil , in the very thoughts ; it commandeth good , whatsoever is good , in the whole course of our lives ; It speaketh of such things as are far above reason , and yet nothing that is contrary to reason . The truths delivered in it , are many of them such as no humane or created capacity could have possibly invented , yet such as are all agreeable to a rational understanding . It would have exceeded the wisdom of an Angel● to have thought of such a sweet mixture of justice and mercy , as is discovered in the Gospel , about the redemption of fallen man ; It teacheth the nature and excellency of God , the trinity of persons , the unity of essence , the immensity of all his attributes , how he is infinite in his being , wisdom , knowledge , holiness , mercy , and faithfulness ; how he is a pure act , without the least passion ; a perfect being , uncapable of any addition ; eternal , without either beginning or ending ; immutable , without the least alteration ; incomprehensible , beyond all co●ceptions ; omnipresent , without any circumscription ; It instructeth us in the person , and offices , and states of the blessed Redeemer , how he being the Son of God , was partaker of the humane nature , that the Sons of men might be partakers of the divine nature . How God and Man were united in one person , that Man and God might be united in one Covenant ; How the eternal God married our natures , that he might exalt his boundless grace in marrying our persons ; How man was the debtor , God-man the surety , who made satisfaction to God the Creditour . How he was born of a mean woman , that we might be born of the most high God ; he was tempted , that he might conquer Satan for us , and succour us when tempted by him ; what a life he led , filled with miracles and miseries ; what a death he died , embittered with shame and pain , and all that we might be exalted to eternal honour and pleasure . How he triumphed over Death , the Grave , the Curse of the Law , Satan and Hell , in his Resurrection , and ascended into Heaven , leading Captivity Captive ; appears in his Fathers presence , pleading his death , as the prise of his Chosens fafety and life , sitteth at his right hand , and ever liveth to make intercession for us . Its precepts excel all the commands , and Statutes , and Laws , that ever were in the World , in purity and justice , and goodness , much more then the Firmament of Stars , doth a Wisp of Straws ; Its promises are exceeding great and precious , of special efficacy , superlative excellency , and unquestionable certainty . In a word , the Scripture hath all in it , requisite either for counsel or comfort , for necessity or delight , for knowledge or action , for direction in life , or consolation in death . 3. The form of the Scripture renders it worthy my highest esteem , 3 and hottest affection . 1. It s inward form is , 1 That perfect correspondence and agreement between the commands and promises laid down in the word , and that infallible and certain truth of Gods own understanding . The books of men are sutable to their minds , and their minds being but in part sanctified , their works must be answerably imperfect ; but the Lords understanding being infinitely pure and true , his word must bear some proportion to it . God is truth , without the least shadow of error ; holy , without the least tittle of mixture ; hence his word is certain , without the smallest colour for doubts ; Thy law is the truth ; pure , not admitting of the least sin or darkness ; Thy word is very pure , therefore doth thy servant love it . Because of its exact conformity to the eternal will of God , it s called his word . As a man maketh known his mind by his words , so doth God ; hence it s called the mind of God , Pro. 1. 23. The Word of God , 1 Pet. 1. 15. The counsel of God , Act. 20. 27. The Oracles of God , Rom. 3. 2. The Law of God , Psalm 1. 2. Not onely in regard of its Author , which is the divine wisdom , but also in regard of its matter , which is the divine will. 2 2. It s outward form is both plain and difficult ; according to Gregory , so shallow that lambs may wade in it , and so deep that Elephants may swim in it . It s stile is so plain as to encourage the most unlearned , and yet so difficult as to exercise the greatest Scholars , and most profound Rabbies . To those that are babes in understanding , the Scripture is milk ; to them that are men in knowledge , the word is strong meat ; It s therefore called light , the nature of which , is both to discover it self and other things also . Thy word is a light to my feet , and a lanthorn to my paths ; It s a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn , and the day-star arise in our hearts , Psa. 119. 105. 1 Pet. 1. 19. It is plain in regard of fundamentals and things necessary to be known and done . What we are to believe concerning God , the mediatour , our own estate of innocency , apostacy , recovery ; what we are to practise in order to salvation , are all perspicuous and clear to ordinary capacities . Though there be some whose eyes the god of this world hath blinded , lest the light of the glorious Gospel should shine upon them ; yet all wisdomes ways are plain to him that understandeth , 2 Cor. 4.4 . Pro. 8. 9. The Scripture sheweth the greatest simplicity , both in words and phrases and figures , that the weakest need not be afraid of searching into it . There is such obscurity also in things not absolutely necessary to salvation , that the deepest understandings need not be ashamed of reading and studying it . Peter affirmes that in the Epistles of Paul , there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , some things hard to be understood . There are such abstruse texts in the word of God , that no man can make a certain comment on them . The Jews themselves confessed that in the latter end of Ezekiel , there are many things mentioned which are beyond all their apprehensions , against which , and all other difficulties in the Old Testament , they comfort themselves according to the expression of the woman of Samaria , Messias venturus est qui nobis annunciabit omnia ; The Messias will come and tell us all things ; Now the wise God seeth fit to let some truths in Scripture be dark . 1. To shame us for our ignorance , which is the fruit of our fall from him . The pride and height of man is laid low , by the profound and hard places in the Word of God. 2. To quicken us to diligence , in reading and meditating , and comparing Scripture with Scripture . The deeper a mine of gold lyeth in the earth , the harder we must labour to dig it out . 3. To raise our price of the Word of God ; We are apt to slight things that are easie and ordinary , and to value things at the highest , that cost us dearest . 4. To provoke us to pray to God , that he would give us his key , whereby we may unlock this cabinet of precious Jewels . He onely that made the Scripture can best acquaint us with his mind in the Scripture ; therefore David intreated divine light , that he might understand the divine Law , Psa. 119. 18. Open mine eyes , that I may see the wonder●ful things of thy Law. 4 4. The final cause of the word , will speak it full of value and worth . Namely , the glory of the great God , and the salvation of lost man. The honour of God shines more brightly then the Meridian Sun , through the whole Heaven of the Scripture . The Scripture exalteth God in regard of his infinite nature and being , his transcendent excellencies and perfections , his eternal decree , his works of creation and providence . It advanceth God in all his attributes , declaring to us , 1. His wisdom , how he is the onely wise God ; the foolishness of God , is wiser then the wisdom of men ; yea , that Angels themselves are fools to him . His understanding is infinite . 2. His Power , how he is mighty in strength , the Almighty God , to him nothing is impossible , doth what ever he pleaseth , can do more then he will do . 3. His mercy , how he is full of mercy , rich in mercy , the Father of mercys , hath multitudes of tender mercies , his mercy endureth for ever , hath an heighth , and depth , and length , and breadth in it which none can reach . 4. His Iustice , how he fails not the least in the performance of his promises , and accomplishment of his threatnings ; how he will by no means clear the guilty , not the greatest of his favourites , not for the least of their offences ; how he hath manifested his justice in the deluge brought on the old world , in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah , in his carriage towards Apostate Angels , rebellious Israelites , his own chosen people , and the Med●atour his own Son , when he took upon him mans sin ; in the instruments of eternal death , which he hath prepared in Hell for sinners , and the solemn triumph which justice shall have at the great day , and to all eternity in the other world . 5. His holiness , how he loaths sin with the greatest abhorrency , cannot behold the least iniquity , shoots the arrows of his vengeance against its actours and authors ; will be sanctified in ( or upon ) all that approach him , is terrible in his holy places , forbiddeth the least complyance with sin , though but in a sudden thought , and makes it his end in his providences , ordinances , the gift of his Son , his Spirit , to make men holy . I might shew how it exalteth him in all his properties , but I pass on . It glorifieth him in every part of it . Its precepts and commands speak his purity and dominion , its promises and covenant speak his boundless mercy and compassion , its threatnings and comminations speak his justice and jealousie , its prophesies and predictions speak his wisdom and omniscience . The Scripture tendeth also to the eternal good of men . It is helpful to beget a soul to Christ ; Of his own will begat he us again by the Word of truth . The Word of grace is instrumental for the conveyance of grace , Act. 2.37 . Rom. 10. 14. It is helpful to build the soul up in Christ ; as new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word , that ye may grow thereby , 1 Pet. 2. 2. Grace is increased by the same means , by which it is generated ; as the same Sun that begets some living creatures is helpful for their growth . The Word of God , of stones raiseth up children to Abraham , and of Children maketh Young men and Fathers . It is so penned , that all sorts of persons , all ranks of Christians may be directed into the way of truth , and guided by it in the way of life . It is able to make us wise to salvation : To shew the path of life , 2 Tim. 3. 15. Psa. 16. 11. As Ioshua , it leads the Israelites into Canaan . All Scripture is given by inspiration of God , and is profitable . 1. For Doctrine , Where Scripture hath not a tongue to speak , I must not have an ear to hear . Scriptura est regula fidei , Scripture is the rule of faith ; Hence the Doctrine of the Apostles and Prophets is called a foundation , Ephes. 2. 20. 2. For reproof . It is the hammer of Heresies ; Ignorance of Scripture , is one main cause of error ; Ye err not knowing the Scripture . By this sword of the Spirit Christ vanquished Satan , Mat. 4. 4. and the Jews , Ioh. 5.45 . and Sadduces , Mat. 22.29 . Lapidandi sunt haeretici sacrarum literarum argumentis ; Hereticks are to be stoned with Scripture arguments , saith Athanasius . The Word of God hi●s that unclean bird in the eye , and wounds it mortally . 3. For correction of manners ; The sword of the Word pierceth the sinners conscience ; like Christ to the woman of Samaria , It tells him all that ever he did , and makes him smite upon his thigh , and say , What have I done ? Scripture is a glass which sheweth him the spots that are in the face of his heart and life . 4. For instruction in righteousness . It is the way in which we should walk , the rule of our spiritual race : What is written on some Psalms , may be written on every Psalm and Chapter in the whole Bible , Maschil , or Psalm for instruction . Its precepts teach us what to follow , its prohibitions tell us what to forsake ; Its promises are to allure us to sanctity , its threatnings to affright us from sin ; the good example of the Saints speaketh as Christ to Peter , Follow thou me ; the wicked actions and ends of sinners cry aloud , as Abner to Ioab , Knowest thou not that it will be bitterness in the end ? 5. For comfort : There is no such cordial for a fainting spirit , as a promise in the Word . The Gospel in the Greek , is glad tidings , and not without cause ; This is my comfort in my affliction , for thy word hath quickned me . When souls have been ready to despair under the sense of their wickedness , and to sink in deep waters , the Word of God hath held them up by the chin , and preserved them from drowning ; Vnless thy law had been my delight , I had perished in mine affliction . 6. For salvation ; the Word is called the Kingdom of heaven ; partly because it revealeth Gods thoughts of such an inestimable happiness to the children of men . The celestial Canaan was terra incognita till that discovered it ; He hath brought life and immortality to light by the Gospel ; partly because it prepares the soul for heaven ; the Word sanctifieth and so saveth precious souls . By filling us with grace , it fitteth us for glory , Rom. 1.16 . Ioh. 17.17 . Partly because it is the seed of heaven . As the Harvest is potentially in the seed , and a tall Oke potentially in an acorn ; so heaven and eternal life is potentially in the Word of life . It is called The grace of God that bringeth salvation . It bringeth salvation to men , and it bringeth men to salvation . 2 Secondly , Consider it , O my soul , in its properties , they will also speak its preciousness . 1. It is pure and holy , there are some dregs that will appear in the exactest writings of the best men , when they have been shaken by a critical hand ; but none could ever justly fasten the least filth upon the holy Scriptures . The Word of Christ is like the Spouse of Christ ; There is no spot in it . The Alcoran of Mahomet , alloweth Polygamy , promiseth sensual pleasures as the reward of his servants ; but the Scripture winketh not at the least sin , no not so much as in a motion of the heart , or a glance of the eye , and its promises are also pure and spiritual . The Doctrine of the wisest Heathen , and Philosophers , were a mixture of good and bad ; Theft was no fault amongst Lycurgus Laws , but if done slily commended highly ; Aristotle permitted revenge , and obscene jesting , which Scripture expresly forbids ; Thy word is very pure ; The words of the Lord are pure words , as silver tried in a furnace of earth , purified seven times ; There is not the least dross of evil or error in it ; 1. It s principal Author is the original and exemplar of all holiness , his nature is the pattern , and his will the rule of purity , Exod. 15. 4. Isa. 6. 3. 2. The Scribes of it were holy men , moved and actuated by the Holy Ghost . 3. It s effect is to sanctifie and make holy , Ye are clean , through the word that I have given you . 4. The matter of it is holy ; Its commanding part is holy ; The Law is holy , just , and good , Rom. 7. 12. It s assertory part is holy , what it affirmes to be , is ; what it denyeth to be , is not , Psa. 19. 7. It s promissory part is holy , both formaliter in its own nature , and effective in its end and fruit ; It s Historical part is holy ; other books are properly called prophane Histories , in distinction from this . The Scriptures expressions are pure , of the most impure actions ; He knew her no more , men with men doing what is unseemly , Gen. 38. 26. Rom. 1. 27. 2. It is powerful ; As fire it can melt the hardest mettal ; As an Hammer , it can break the most stony heart , Ier. 23. 29. 1. It is powerful for Conviction ; It sets mens sins before their eyes , and makes them behold their ugliness and deformity , whether they will or no ; It tells the sinner as Elisha concerning the Syrian King , to the King of Israel , what he doth and saith in his bed-●hamber , in the retiring room of his heart ; It makes the spirit of the stoutest sinner to tre●ble , as the leaves with the wind , and though he strives to put off his quaking fits by some humane cordials , yet he finds his soul-Ague still continuing upon him . Sturdy Murderers of Christ spring in trembling , and an earthly Felix quakes under the power of this word ; This voice of the Lord is powerful , it ●hakes the Cedars of Lebanon . The batteries of the word have shaken the sensless conscience , and shattered the flinty h●art in peices . 2. It is powerful for conversion ; It is able to change the nature , and turn an heart of stone , into an heart of flesh ; It hath many a time inlightned dark minds to see the things which they never saw , enlivened dead souls , and enabled them to stand up from the dead . The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul ; It hath dispossessed the strong man , cast him out of his strong holds , wherein he had raigned many years , and subdued the soul to another Lord and Soveraign . What hath been said of God , may be said of the Word in the hand of the Spirit ; Who ever resisted its will ? How powerful is that word which can make the proudest creature that scorned former reproofs and precepts , threatnings and judgements , to cry and weep bitterly like a child under the rod ; that can create the new creature , the choicest of Gods works ! By the word of the Lord are the ( new ) Heavens ( wherein dwelleth righteousness ) made , and all the ( glorious ) host thereof , ( of sparkling graces ) by the breath of his mouth . 3. It s powerful for conquering spiritual enemies ; The noble victories atchieved by the Lords Worthies , are most of them obtained by this sword of the Spirit ; Whole armies of sins have been discomfited and forced to flie before the face of this weapon . God hews these by his Prophets , and slays them by the word of his mouth . This word like the rod in the hand of Moses , worketh wonderfully for the destruction of such Egyptian enemies . Satan is another enemy of the Christians , but as powerful and as politique as he is , he falls down like lightening from heaven before the preaching of the word . This sword hath so wounded that Leviathan , that destroyer of souls , that he can never recover himself ; They overcame him ( i. e. the Devil ) by the blood of the Lamb , and the word of their testimony , Rev. 12. 11. In a word , it must needs be strong , for it is the power of God to salvation ; The rod of his strength , Rom. 1. 16. Psa. 110. 2. 3. It is perfect , It contains in it all that is necessary and sufficient for our eternal salvation . It is a full and compleat rule and measure both of things to be believed and practised ; it will admit no addition , because it is defective in nothing ; it will suffer no diminution , for it is redundant in nothing ; If any man shall add unto it , God shall add anto his plagues ; If any man shall take away from the words of this book , God shall take away his part out of the book of life . Jesus Christ , who was the great Teacher sent from God , was faithful in his office , and gave his Church whatsoever Precepts or Doctrines were needful for her , in order to her endless good . He tells us , Whatsoever I have heard of the Father , I have made known unto you , Joh. 15. 15. And his Apostle speaks to the same purpose , Act. 20. 21. I have not shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel of God. Besides , it is able to make the man of God perfect , and throughly furnished unto every good word , which it could never do , if it were not perfect it self . Nil dat quod non habet , Nothing can give that which it hath not in it self , either formally or virtually . Traditions are no way necessary to compleat the Canon of Scripture ; Since God did reveal his will in writing , every age had that revealed to it which was sufficient for that age , to make such as then lived wise to salvation ; but as God was pleased to reveal more , the latter did assist us in the understanding of the former ; ●herefore so long as any truth was necessary to be more fully known , he inspi●ed holy men to do it , and the compleating of the divine Canon , was reserved for Christ and his Apostles , Ioh. 15. 15. and 7. 8. and 6. 13. Act. 20. 27. Gal. 1. 6 , 7 , 8. 4. It is true and certain . Not a tittle of it shall fail ; It is cal●ed truth , the truth , thy truth , the Scripture of truth , the word of truth , the Gospel of truth , a more sure word , the comparative for the superlative , the most sure word ; Christ prefers it before information from the dead , the Apostle before Revelation from Angels , or auy other way whatsoever . 1. The Precepts of it are true , they are perfectly agreeable to the mind of the speaker , Thou art near O Lord , and all thy commandments are truth , Psa. 119. 5. The words of men may be true , but the word of God onely is truth ; There is no error , no mixture in it , t is therefore called sincere milk , 1 Pet. 2. 2. 2. The Promises of it are true . They are accomplished to the least particle of them . Hence they are called the sure mercies of David . The Promises of God are unquestionable , because their speaker is unchangeable , and one for whom it is impossible to lie ; They are sure hold , and will eat their way through all the Alpes of opposition ; Not one good thing ha●h failed , of all that the Lord our God hath promised , Joshua 21. 45. 3. The Histories of it are true ; Whatsoever is written in it of the first or second Adam , of any persons , or nations , is exactly true ; ●here never was fuch an impartial historian as the inditer of the word . This is the Book which hath no Errata's in it . 4. The threatnings are true . The sinner shall as certainly feel them , as he reads or hears them . He shall as surely be damned , as if he were already damned , therefore he is said to be condemned already , to speak its certainty . He shall find the gnawing worm , and the eternal fire as unquestionably as if he felt them at this hour ; hence God appeals to the consciences of the Jews whether though the Prophets died , his threatnings ( which were denounced by those Prophets ) did not live , and take hold of them , Zach. 1.5 . 5 It s true in the Predictions and Prophesies . The predictions of the Israelties distress in Egypt four hundred years , and deliverance thence ; of their possessing Canaan , of Cyrus birth , of the Jews redemption out of the Babylonish captivity , of the four Monarchies , and of Christs coming in the flesh , his mean birth , afflicted life , death , buriall , ascention , are all already accomplished : Those Prophesies in Daniel and Revelation concerning the future estate of the Church , the ruine of Pope and Turk , the vocation of the Jews , and the glorious and pure condition of the people of God in the latter days , shall all to a tittle be fulfilled . It s observable therefore that some predictions that were or are future are set down in the present tense , To us a son is born ; Babylon the great is fallen , is fallen ; to assure us that they shall be as certainly fulfilled as if they were fulfilled already , Isa. 9. 6. Rev. 18. 6. It is the rule of all truth . Other Books are true no farther then they are agreeable and commensurable to this . All other sayings and writings are to be tried by this touchstone ; It is not what sense saith , or what reason saith , or what Fathers say , or what General Councils say , or what Traditions say , or what Customs say , but what Scripture saith that is to be the rule of faith and life . Whatsoever is contrary to Scripture , or beside Scripture , or not rationally deducible from Scripture is to be rejected as spurious and adulterate ; To the Law and to the Testimonies , if they speak not according to this it is because there is no light ( no truth ) in● them . Isa. 8.20 . 3. Consider it , O my soul , in its names , 3 and they will speak much to the excellency of its nature . What is this Word which thy thoughts are now upon ? It is called a Scripture , or b Scriptures by an Antonomasie or excellency of phrase , as the most worthy writings that ever saw the light ; It is called the c Word of God , both in regard of its efficient cause , which is the d Spirit of God ; the e material cause , which is the mind of God ; the f final cause , which is the glory of God ; It is called g the Law of the Lord , h the law of liberty , i the law of saith , k a law● l a royal law , m the book of the law , n the book of the Lord , o the book of life , p the Gospel of peace , q the Gospel of God , r the Gospel of Gods grace , s the counsel of God , t the charge of God , the u breath of God , x the mouth of God , y the oath of God , z the Oracles of God , a the paths of God , b the wisdom of God ; c It is called a thing● d the good part , e the key of knowledge , f the key of Heaven , g tidings of salvation , h glad tidings of peace , i a good way , k a perfect way , l a narrow way . Many other tit●es it hath which shew the excellency of this Word of truth . 4. Consider it , O my soul , in its comparisons , 4 which will shew thee somewhat of its perfections ; Whereunto is this Word resembled ? it is resembled to light , to a lamp . Solomon tells us , The commandment is a lamp , and the law is light . T is likely he learned it of his father ; Thy word is a light to my feet and a lanthorn to my paths , saith David , Prov. 6 23. Psal. 119. 105. 1. It is light for its clarity and beauty ; Light is the ornament of the world , which is most incorporeal of all corporeal beings , therefore termed spiritual . Though it discovers all the pollutions of the earth , yet it is not polluted therewith . The word is the glory of this lower world ; The law is spiritual , and its beauty is not faided , nor its purity stained by all the filth of false doctrines and heresies which have been cast into the face of it , from the beginning of the world to this day ; The word of the Lord abideth for ever . 2. Light is pleasant and delightful ; darkness is affrighting and dreadful , but light is refreshing and reviving ; Light is sweet , and it is a pleasant thing for the eyes to behold the sun , Eccles. 11.7 . The word of God is sweet , and its a pleasant thing with the eyes of faith to behold the glorious sun of divine truths . The eye is not more affected with curious sights , nor the ear with ravishing musick , nor the pallate with rare meats , then a spiritualized understanding with spiritual truths . David found not onely delight in the singular , but delights in the plural number , all sorts and degrees of delights in the word of God ; Trouble and anguish have taken hold of me , but thy commandments are my delights . His delights in the Law of God were so rare and ravishing , that they quite extinguished all sensual delights , as the light of the day the light of a candle , and drowned the noise of all his crosses and troubles by their loud and amazing melody . Chrysostom compares the Scripture to a pleasant Garden , wherein every flower yeilds a fragrant savour . Ambrose to a feast , wherein every book is a dainty dish , affording food both pleasant and wholsom . 3. Light discovereth and maketh things manifest . The night conceals things , and the day reveals them ; That which maketh manifest is light , Ephes. 5. 13. Light discovers things in their proper shapes and colours , whether beauties or deformities ; When the Sun appeareth , we see the dust in corners , and dirt in Ditches , which before lay hid . The word of God maketh a discovery of an unknown world of sin in the heart of man , and the great mystery of iniquity which lay hid there . I was alive without the Law , but when the commandment came , sin revived , and I dyed , Rom. 7. 9. The faults , and spots , and defects of his duties , were visible by the light of the word ; All things are naked and open before it ; It is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart , Heb. 4. 12. The word sheweth the beauty of holiness , the love and loveliness of the Redeemer . 4. Light directs us how and where to walk . In the night we wander and go out of the way , we stumble and fall , but the day helpeth us both to see our way , and to walk in it without stumbling . If any man walk in the day , he stumbleth not , because he seeth the light of this world , Iohn 11. 9. The word of God doth preserve us from sin , and guide our feet in the way of peace , Luk. 1. 73. It is our Pole●st●r as we are Mariners ; our Pillar of fire , as we are travellers ; The Law of God is in his heart , none of his steps shall slide , Psa. 37. 31. Our feet by the light of the word are preserved from falling , and our steps from sliding , Psalm 119. 105. 5. Light scattereth darkness ; As the Sun where it ariseth , and displayeth its beames , dispelleth mists and clounds , causeth an alteration in the face of the Air , and makes the shadows to flie before it , that they cry like Iacob to the Angel , Let me go , for the day breaketh ; so the light of the word scattereth that darkness which was before upon the minds of men . 1. It dispelleth the darkness of error , Mat. 22.29 . Naked Truth , conquereth Armed Error ; and Little David with his small stones out of the silver streams of the Sanctuary , the great Goliah of Heresie ; With this , silly women have confuted and conquered profound Doctors , notwithstanding their deep and intricate arguments , and have wounded them as mortally as that woman without weapons , did Abimilech , that great Captain , with a Milstone . 2. It dispelleth the darkness of ignorance . The word is the key of knowledge , and openeth the door that lets us into the treasures of wisdom and knowledge . It is that precious eye-salve , with which our blind eyes being anointed see . It is sent to open the eyes of the blind , and to turn men from darkness to light ; When the word comes , the people that sat in darkness see a great light , Act. 26. 18. Mat. 4. 16. 3. It dispelleth the darkness of prophaness ; this weapon of the word stabbeth lust under its fifth rib , and letteth out the very heart blood of it . The Devil puts off his rotten wares in the dark shops of Heathen and unbelieving and unchristian Christians ; but where the word hath arisen upon any soul , it discerneth his cheat , and is too wise to be cozened by him . By what means may a young man cleanse his way ? By taking heed thereto according to thy word , Psa. 119.9 . The word is resembled to Rain , to Water , to Dew . Moses tells the Israelites , My Doctrine shall drop as the Rain , and my speech distil as the Dew . Christ calls it the water of life , Joh. 6. 35. 1. Rain is from above . God keeps that key under his own girdle ; Can any of the vanities of the Heathen cause Rain ? Art not thou he ? Jer. 14. 22. Man may speak long enough to the clo●ds before they will distil one drop ; but if God command those bottles , they are presently unstopped and poure down in abundance ; He covereth the Heavens with Clouds , and prepareth Rain for the earth , Psa. 147. 8. Thus the Word of God came down from above ; Every of the Pen-men of it , might have spoken as David , The Spirit of the Lord spake by me , 2. Sam. 23. 2. It did immediately inspire me what particulars to utter , and in what phrases to deliver them . That which is said of some of the Prophesies , may be said of every Book , and of every Chapter and Verse in every Book ; Thus saith the Lord ; The word of the Lord , which came to Amos ; The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it . It is all one to say , The Scripture saith , and God saith . Compare Rom. 4. 3. and 10. 11. with Rom. 9. 25. and Heb. 4.3 . and Gal. 3. 21. with Rom. 11. 32. Some observe that the word which Moses useth for Doctrine dropping like Rain , signifieth received Doctrine , because the Doctrine in the word , is received from God , not devised by men , Deut. 32. 2. I received from the Lord , that which I also delivered unto you , 1 Cor. 11. 32. 2. Rain is mollifying and softning ; When the earth hath been like Brass and Iron under our feet , by long drought , or hard frosts , a few good showres supple it , and make it tender ; Therefore David speaking of the earth , saith , Thou makest it soft with showres , Psa. 65. 10. So the heart of man is compared to a stone , to a rock , to a flint , to an adamant , the hardest of stones , for its hardness hath been suppled and softned by the word . The Jews that had imbrued their hands in the blood of Christ , had certainly very hard hearts . The thought of such a murder would have made a deep impression upon any conscience , that were not seared with a red hot Iron , yet this word preached , melted them as hard mettal as they were ; When they heard these things , they were pricked to the heart ; Peters Sermon , like Moses rod , fetcht water out of the Rock , Act. 2. 37. David upon the disorder and intemperance of his soul , in the matter of Vriah , had an hard swelling , which continued and increased upon him several moneths ; yet when Nathan comes and gently baths it with this Oyl of the Word , it groweth soft and tender , as appeareth by the title of Psa. 51. A Psalm of David , when Nathan the Prophet came to him , after he had gone in to Bathsheba . 3. Rain maketh the earth fruitful , therefore some call it the earths Husband , because it helps the earth to bring forth ; He watereth the hills from his chambers , the earth is satisfied with his works ; he causeth the grass to grow for the earth , and hearbs for the service of man , Psal. 104. 13,14 . so Psal. 65.9,10,11,12 . So the Word of God turns that heart which was as a barren wilderness into a fruitful meadow , 1 Pet. 2. 2. 4. Rain reviveth and refresheth the earth ; when the earth is chopt and faint , when it gaspeth and is weary , a showre of rain recovers and refresheth it ; the Psalmist tells us that upon such droppings from above the pastures and valleys shout for joy , they also sing , Psa. 65.13 . Thus the Christian scorc●ed with the apprehension of Gods wrath due to him for sin , draweth all his comfort and refreshment out of those wells of salvation , the promises of the word . When conscience is sore and raw through the wounds sin hath made in it , and the weight of guilt that lieth continually grating upon it ; He sendeth his word and health them , Psal. 107.20 . David had experience what an healing medicine the Word was ; In the multitude of my thoughts within me , thy comforts delight my soul. When Philip had preached the word to the Eunuch , he went away rejoycing . That milk which runs from the breasts of the two Testaments is never sucked with the mouth of faith without abundant satisfaction ; that wine which which is drawn from the pipes of the promises , rejoyceth the heart of man indeed : These things are written that your joy may be full . The Saint never sits at a fuller table of joy , then when he is feasting on the dainties of the Gospel . O my soul , how many thoughts mightst thou spend about those several things to which the word is aptly and excellently resembled ! It is compared to Armour , to a tree of life , to a portion , to milk , to strong meat , to pastures , to seed , to an ornament of grace , to rest , to a Crown of glory , to hidden treasures , to gold tried in the fire , to a glass , to oyl and oyntment , all which as so many curious colours well laid , may help thee to admire and prize more the beauty of that face which they resemble and represent . Glorious things are spoken of thee , O thou Word of God : Many books have done vertuously , have acted famously for the overthrow of sin and Satan , for the advancement of Christ and holiness , but thou hast excelled them all . Thou hast changed Lions into Lambs , Ravens into Doves , Beasts into Men , and Men into Angels ; thou hast subdued head-strong passions , mortified natural and riveted corruptions , tore up old and sturdy lusts by the roots , conquered Principalities and Powers , led captivity captive ; and turned the world upside down . By thee wonders are wrought , the blind restored to their sight , the dead raised , the deaf hear , the dumb speak , the Lepers are cleansed , and the poor have the Gospel preached to them , and are changed into the nature of it ; where thou ridest conquering and to conquer , the whole world runneth after thee ; Thy neck is like the Tower of David , builded for an Armoury , wherein there hang a thousand bucklers , all shields of mighty men . Thy weapons are not carnal , but spiritual , and mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds , casting down imaginations , and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God , and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. By thee , poor , weak and contemptible men have subdued Kingdoms , wrought righteousness , obtained the promises , stopped the mouths of roaring lions , quenched the violence of hellish fire , escaped the edge of Hereticks and persecutors sword , out of weakness were made strong , waxed valiant in sight , turned to flight Armies of the Aliens . Thou hast not onely like Saul , slain thy thousands , but with David thy ten thousands ; thou hast broken the serpents head , destroyed the great Leviathan . tramplest on Scorpions and Vipers , and nothing can hurt thee . Thou bringeth heaven down to earth , and carriest earth up to heaven . Thou are the joyful message from a far country , the river whose streams make glad the City of God. Infinite Wisdom contrived thee , Infinite Truth proclaimed thee , and infinite Goodness discovered thee ; The Father indited thee , the Son confirmed thee , and the Spirit revealed thee to the children of men . The Countries and Kingdoms of the earth were overwhelmed with worse then Egyptian darkness , till thou didst arise upon them , and with thy glorious beams enlighten and enliven them ; by thee fools have been made wise , sinners made Saints , ignorant men have been instructed , wandring men reduced , weak ones confirmed , and lost ones saved . By thee the heavens were established , the foundations of the earth formed , the sorrowful are comforted , the scandalous reformed , the needy relieved , and the righteousness of God revealed : Thou art eyes to the blind , and ●eet to the lame , and food to the hungry , and rest to the weary , and physick to the sick , and life to the dying . The ablest Historian will infinitely fall short in describing thy heroick deeds ; None can declare thy noble acts , or display half thy praise . Angels may well pry into thee with admiration and astonishment , and make the contents of thy Chapters , the subject of their songs , and substance of their Halelujah● to all eternity . When that heavenly host preached on earth , thou wert their Text , be thou their triumph in heaven for ever . O thou savour of life , thou living water , thou well of salvation , thou tidings of great joy to all Nations , thou ministration of righteousness , thou mystery of godliness , thou mine of unsearchable riches , thou way of holiness , thou word of the kingdom , that thou wert written on the tables of my heart , and graven with a pen of iron , and the point of a diamond on that rock for ever ! Thou wast once written on tables of stone with the hand of God himself ; how precious was that book wherein every leaf was immediately of Gods making , and every line in it of Gods writing ! My heart is an heart of stone ( I find it by too much experience ) but if thou wert engraven on it 't would be a precious stone ; its price would be far above Rubies , the Onyx , and the Saphire should not be valued with it ; the Gold and the Chrystal should not equal it , neither should it be exchanged for Coral or Pearls . O that I were manifestly declared to be the Epistle of Christ , written not with ink , but with the Spirit of the living God , known and read of all men . O that my soul were the house , and thou the inhabitant for ever . O that the word of Christ might dwell richly within me , that I were able to say with holy David , I delight to do thy will O God , thy law is within my heart , or in the midst of my bowels . Thou art the Oracles of God , all thy sayings are faithful and true , and worthy of all acceptation ; when , O when shall I give it them ! Thou art worthy of the eye ; Blessed is he that readeth the words of this Prophesie , Rev. 1. 3. Thou art worthy of the ear ; Blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it ; Thou art worthy of the heart ; O that I could hide thee in mine heart that I might not sin against the Lord ; Thou art a counsellor to the doubting , a comforter to the distressed ; Thou art health to the navel , and marrow to the bones , an ornament of grace unto the head , and a chain of gold about the neck ; They that walk in thy ways are safe , and their feet do not stumble ; Thou teachest in the ways of wisdom , and thou leadest in right paths ; O that my ways were directed to keep all thy commandements , for thy steps tend to holiness , and thy Paths take hold of Heaven . O my soul , is it possible for thee to hear the excellency of Scripture , thus opened to thee , and not to burn in love to it ! Hast thou been all this while in such an hot bath , and still cold and shivering ! Hast thou felt its power , tasted its savour , seen its beauty , often heard its awakening voice , and known its universal vertue , and dost thou yet doubt its divinity , or question its excellency ! Surely , if ever thou shouldst again through unbelief belief ask it the same question , which the Scribes did Christ , when they beheld his miraculous actions ; By what authority dost thou these things , or who gave thee this authority ? thou mayst answer thy self in the words of the man born blind ( and then seeing ) to the Jews ; Is it not strange , or , This is a marvellous thing , that thou knowest not whence it is , yet it hath opened thine eyes , Joh. 9. 30. Was there not a night of dread and horror with thee , when thou didst sit in darkness , and in the shadow of death , till this sun did arise , with light and life under its wings . O cry out with the Psalmist , I will never forget thy precepts , for by them thou hast quickened me . I was wallowing in my filth , weltring in my blood , rotting in the grave of corruption , till thou didst say unto me , Live ; yea , till thou didst say unto me , Live : Thy voice is powerful , overcoming all opposition . The love revealed in thee is wonderful , far surpassing the love of woman . Thy promises are exceeding great and precious , more to be desired then gold , yea , then much fine gold . Thy Maker may well prevail for thine acceptance . Who would not reverence the issue for the Authors sake ; Surely , that coin deserves esteem , which hath that Kings Image and Superscription on it . The matter in thee merits respect ; Thou art a Love-letter from God to his creature , revealing his eternal thoughts of good will , publishing his acts of grace and oblivion to all traytors and rebels in arms against his Majesty , upon condition they will throw down their weapons , and become Loyal Subjects for the future ; Thou art the Churches Charter , containing all the priviledges which the blessed Jesus purchased for her . What wise man would not value the deeds and evidences which speak and give a right to pardon , love , grace , joy , peace , and the undefiled inheritance for ever ! When thou comest to a soul , salvation comes to that soul ; Thou art always attended with a rich train of all sorts of comforts ; The good tidings thou bringest , and great blessings thou conveyest where ever thou comest , may well make thee welcome . I may well say un●o thee , beholding the bracelets and ear-rings , wherewith thou adornest the Spouse of the true Isaac , as Laban to Abrahams servant ; Come in thou blessed of the Lord , why standest thou without , I have prepared lodging for thee ? If I am bound to bless my God for the natural lights which he hath made , the greater to rule the day , and the lesser to rule the night , because thereby it appears that his mercy endureth for ever , Psa. 136. 7 , 8 , 9. How much am I bound to bless him for the spiritual light of his word , that true , that marvellous light which shineth in a dark place , till the eternal day dawn ! O what mercy , what mercy enduring for ever is there in every leaf , in every verse , in every line of that sacred Book ! If Regeneration be a mercy , to be partaker of the divine nature , the stamping the lovely Image of the glorious God upon thee , then the word is a mercy , for that is the seal in the hand of the Spirit , which imprinte●h it on thee , Iames 1. 18. Is faith a mercy , that shield of the soul , whereby it quencheth the fiery darts of the Devil , that Ladder by which the soul mounteth to Heaven , and converseth daily with its Lord and Master ? then the word is a mercy , for faith comes by hearing , the word is the door of faith , Rom. 10. 14. Act. 14. 27. If repentance be a mercy , those second and best thoughts of the soul , that recovery of the man to his wits and right mind , then the word is a mercy , for t is the voice of Christ in the word , that casteth the Devil of impenitency and sensuality out of the heart , ( where it raigned and raged , sending out fire and flames , like AEtna , for many years ) and makes the man like him in the Gospel ( out of whom the Devil was cast ) to sit at Iesus his feet in his right mind , bitterly weeping and mourning for his former folly and madness ; T is the hot beams of love that shine in the Gospel , that thaw the frozen spirits . Is hope a mercy , ●hat Helmet of salvation which defendeth the head of Christians from Swords and Musquets , the souls of Saints from the darts and dangers of temptations , those Bladders of the soul , which keep it from sinking in deep waters ? then the word is a mercy , for we through patience and comfort of the Scripture , have hope , Rom. 15. 4. Hope had never lookt out at the window , longing for the coming of its beloved , if the word had not come before as a faithful Messenger , and brought certain news that he was upon the way . Are pardon , reconciliation with God , adoption , growth in grace , yea , Heaven it self a mercy ? then the word is a mercy ; All those Jewels are lockt up in that Cabinet . Man durst not have presumed , he could not have conceived that the glorious jealous God should ever have such infinite respect for such wretches and rebels , if he had not found it written with his own hand in the word . T is on the waters of the sanctuary , that the Saint saileth safely through the Sea of this world to the Port of salvation . There was no visible bridge laid over the Gulf of Gods wrath , for sinners to pass into the Kingdom of grace here , and glory hereafter , till the Gospel erected one . O my soul , what honour can be high enough , what love hot enough , for the holy Scriptures ! 1. Consider the preciousness of them in the eyes of good men , and the love they had for them . Iob preferred them before food , before his necessary food ; Solomon before ornaments of gold , crowns of glory ; Paul before all other Doctrines , though Preached by Angels ; David before the honey , and the honey comb , great spoils , thousands of gold and silver , all riches ; And when he ceaseth to compare , beginneth to admire i●s worth , Wonderful are thy testimonies ; And his own fervent affection to it , O how love I thy law , it is my meditation all the day . 2. The price paid for it . It cost the blood of thy beloved ; well may the Scriptures be called Testaments , they were both sprinkled with blood , and made valid by the death of the Testatour , Heb. 9. 15 , 16 , 17. And for this cause he is the mediatour of the New Testament , that by means of death for the redemption of transgressions that were under the first Testament ; they which were called , might receive the promise of eternal inheritance ; For where a Testament is , there must of necessity also be the death of the Testator ; For a Testament is of force after men are dead , otherwise it is of no strength at all whilst the testator liveth . 3. The pearl hid in it . The Lord Jesus Christ is the matter as well as the Author of it . Well may it be called the Word of Christ. Search the Scripture for they are they that testifie of me . He was the substance of the Law , and he is the sum of the Gospel : Thou hadst not known sin but for the Law , nor the Saviour , but for the Gospel . When David considered the kindness he had rece●ved from Ionathan , he said to his servants , Is there none left of the house of Saul that I may shew kindness to , for Jonathans sake . He could not but in gratitude study some return suitable to that good will of his dear friend . Great is the kindness I have received from the Scripture ; What wilt thou say , what wilt thou do , O my soul , for this Word of thy God! O swear unto the Lord , and vow unto the mighty God of Jacob ; surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house , I will not go up into my bed , I will not give sleep to mine eyes , nor slumber to mine eye●lids , until I ●inde out a place for the law of the Lord , and an habitation for the Gospel of the God of Jacob. Wilt thou not willingly , O my soul , rather then this worthy guest should lie without doors , take it into thy heart ! O that thou wert the ark wherein the two Tables , the two Testaments might be laid up for ever . Lord I will through thy strength ponder all thy sayings in my heart , and make them the rule of my life ; I will delight in●thy law , and meditate therein day and night . I will give diligence to reading , be frequent in hearing , and uniform and coustant in obedience to it . I will teach it diligently my children , and talk of it when I sit in mine house , and when I walk by the way , when I lye down , and when I rise up , I will bind it for a sign upon my hand , it shall be as a frontlet between mine eyes ; I will make thy statutes my songs in the house of my pilgrimage , I will rejoyce in thy testimonies more then they that find great spoils ; I will chuse thy statutes as my heritage for ever , for they are the joy of my heart ; I will delight in the law of God after the inner man. I will incline my heart to keep thy statutes always unto the end ; I have sworn and I will perform , that I will keep thy righteous judgements . But ah Lord , what do I say ! I have even cast thy law behind my back , I have broken thy bands asunder , and cast thy cords from me : My carnal mind is not subject to the law of God , neither indeed can be ; I can of my self break thy law , but onely through thy strength keep it ; I have gone astray like a lost sheep , O seek thy servant and I will keep thy statutes . Be surety for thy servant for good , that I may observe thy precepts : I am a stranger in this earth , hide not thy commandments from me . Incline my heart unto thy testimonies , and not unto covetousness . Make me to go in the path of thy commandments , for therein do I delight . Teach me O Lord the way of thy statutes , and I will keep it unto the end . Gi●e me understanding and I shall keep thy law ; yea I shall keep it with my whole heart . Thou art good , and dost good ; O teach me thy statutes . Thy hands have made me and fashioned me ; O give me understanding that I may keep thy commandments . I will run the way of thy commandments , when thou shalt inlarge my heart . O send out thy light and thy truth ; let them lead me , let them bring me unto thy holy hill , unto thy heavenly habitation . Then will I go into the presence of God , even of God my exceeding joy : Yea upon the harp will I praise thee , O God my God for ever . Fourthly , If thou woulst exercise thy self to godliness in Solitude , Accustom thy self to soliloquies , I mean to conference with thy self . He needs never be idle that hath so much business to do with his own soul. It was a famous answer which Antistenes gave when he was asked what fruit he reaped by all his studies ; By them , saith he , I have learned both to live and talk with my self . Soliloquies are the best disputes ; every good man is best company for himself of all the creatures . Holy David enjoyneth this to others ; Commune with your own hearts upon your bed and be still , Selah , Psal. 4.4 . Commune with your own hearts ; when ye have none to speak with , talk to your selves . Ask your selves for what end ye were made , what lives ye have lead , what times ye have lost , what love ye have abused , what wrath ye have deserved ? Call your selves to a reckoning , how ye have improved your talents , how true or false ye have been to your ●rust , what provision ye have laid in for an hour of death , what preparation ye have made for a great day of account . Vpon your beds : Secresie is the best opportunity for this duty . The silent night is a good time for this speech . When we have no outward objects to disturb us , and to call our eyes ( as the fools eyes are always ) to the ends of the earth ; then our eyes , as the eyes of the wise may be in our heads ; and then our minds , like the windows in Solomons Temple , may be broad inwards . The most successful searches have been made in the night season ; the soul is then wholly shut up in the earthly house of the body , and hath no visits from strangers to disquiet its thoughts . Physicians have judged dreams a probable sign whereby they might find out the distempers of the body . Surely then the bed is no bad place ●o examine and search into the state of the soul. And be still : Self-communion will much help to curb your head-strong , ungodly passions . Serious consideration , like the casting up of earth amongst Bees , will allay inordinate affections , when they are full of fury , and make such an hideous noise . Though sensual appetites and unruly desires , are as the people of Ephesus , in an uproar , pleading for their former priviledge , and expecting their wonted provision , as in the days of their predominancy , if conscience use its authority , commanding them in Gods name , whose officer it is , to keep the Kings peace , and argue it with them , as the Town-Clark of Ephesus , We are in danger to be called in question for this days uproar , there being no cause whereby we may give an account of this days concourse , all is frequently by this means husht , and the tumult appeased without any further mischief . Selah : This signifieth elevation , or lifting up either the mind or voyce or both . For the matter of it , it importeth , 1. An Asseveration of a thing so to be . Hence the Chaldee Paraphrast , and some other Hebrews have turned it For ever ; The foregoing assertions are true , and shall be so for ever . 2. An Admiration at it ; Such truths call both for our assent and wonder . Selah is affixed by way of Emphasis , to note the excellency of the thing asserted , and the impression it should make upon our spirits . As David enjoyned this duty to others , so he practised it himself , Psa. 77. 6. I call to remembrance my song in the night , I commune with mine own heart , and my spirit made diligent search . He communed with his own heart , was not a stranger at home . Indeed , an Hypocrite , as the Philosopher speaks of a vicious person , is not friends with himself , but endeavours more to avoid himself then any others , and is never in so bad company , as when he is alone , for then he is forced to keep company with himself . Where conscience is an abused and incensed Judge , t is no wonder that a guilty malefactour would flie from its presence . The servant that hath rioted all day , is unwilling his Master should reckon with him at night ; The Heathen ( persecutors ) would not hear the Christians , because their cause would have appeared so just that nature it self would have justified them . The ungodly will not for a contrary reason hear the indictments which conscience prefers against them , because their cause will appear so bad , that they cannot avoid condemning themselves . It may be said of whorish hearts , as of the Harlot , Her feet abide not within her house . But the sincere Christian , that allows himself in no sin , delights to commune with his own soul , and when he is debating things with his own conscience , esteems himself in good company . He had rather ( Gods deputy ) conscience , should admonish him to contrition , then that God himself should do it to his confusion . According to the Apostles Doctrine , Every one of us must give account of himself to God ; therefore every one of us , must take account of himself befare-hand . It will be but a sad account which some will give at the great Audit-day , when conscience shall confess against them , They made me keeper of others vineyards , but my own vineyard have I not kept ; And it is but a poor trade that they drive at present , who make little use of their Shop-books . The greatest Merchants , and the most thriving , are much in their Counting-house . 5. In solitude , accustom thy self to secret ejaculations and converses with God. Lovers cast many a glance at each other , when they are at a distance , and are deprived of set meetings . A little Boat may do us some considerable service , when we have not time to make ready a great Vessel . The casting of our eyes and hearts up to Heaven , will bring Heaven down to us ; My meditations of him shall be sweet , Psa. 104. 34. Secret ejaculations have meat in their mouths , and will abundantly requite such as entertain them . If they be much in our bosomes , as Abishag in Davids , they will cherish us , and put warmth into us . They are sweet , in the day , like the Black-bird , cheering us with their pleasant noats , and do also afford us wi●h the Nightingale , songs in the night . A true Israelite may enjoy more of his God in a Wilderness , then in an earthly Canaan . Christians are nearest their heaven , when farthest from the Earth . What care I how much I am in solitude , so I may but enjoy his desirable society . Ah how foolish are those persons that neglect the improvement of this glorious priviledge ! They that like swine , can look every way but upward , may well lie rooting in the earth , desiring no more then fleshly pleasures , because they know no better . Surely , the company of my God is of such weighty consequence and universal influence , that I need no other , I can have none to equal it . The society of my best friends , for all their love to me , and tenderness of me , is but as the company of Snakes and Serpents , to the company of my God. They have not pity enough for the thousandth part of my misery , nor power enough to answer in any degree my necessities ; Their hearts are infinitely short of my Gods ( his love to me , like his being , is boundless ) but their hands come far short of their hearts ; though they are not unwilling , they are unable to relieve me . How often have I told them of my doleful case , and distressed condition in vain , when thereby I have rather added to their afflictions , then lessened my own ? But my God is all-sufficient , both for pity and power , he hath bowels and mercy enough for my greatest sufferings and sorrows ; and strength and might enough for my support and succour ; My best friends are waspish , and upon a small cause are ready to snap asunder their friendship , when my Gods good will everlasting , and thongh he scourge me , he will is never remove his loving kindness from me ; What need I those puddle streams , whilst I have this Well of living water ? O let me enjoy him more , though I never enjoy fr●end more . Because I shall have opportunity to speak more to soul conferences , and also to converse with God in secret duties , in other parts of this Treatise , I shall speak no more in this place . A Good Wish about the exercising our selves to Godliness in Solitude , wherein the former particulars are applied . THe blessed and infinite wise God , who made my soul for himself , and knoweth it will never be satisfied without himself , commanding me in all company to converse with his sacred Majesty , and calling me sometimes to solitude , that being freed from worldly distractions , I might have more of his society ; I Wish that my nature may be so sutable to his holy being , and my love so great to his gracious presence , that though his providence should cast me alone into a Prison , yet enjoying his favour there , I may esteem it sweeter and pleasanter then the stateliest Palace . It is both his precept and my priviledge , that in the greatest company I should be alone to him ; and in my greatest solitude , in company with him . There is not the most solitary place I can come into , nor the least moment of my life , but I have still business with my God , and such as is neither easie , nor of mean concernment . All my transactions with men about House , or Land , or Food , or Cloaths , or the most neces●ary things of this present life , are nothing to my businesse with God about my unchangeable being in the other world . If they were all laid in the ballance with this , they would be found infinitely lighter then vanity and nothing . My understanding is ready to be overwhelmed with the apprehension of an endless eternal state . All my business with meat , or drink , or sleep , or family , or friends , or mercies , or afflictions , nay , or the means of grace , or ordinances themselves , is no more worth or desireable , then they tend to the furthering my everlasting good . All other things are but as passengers , to which I may afford a short salute , but it is my home , where I must abide for ever , that my heart must be always set upon ; and it is my God , upon whom this blissful endless life depends , that I have most cause to be ever with ; O my soul , by this thou mayst gather with whom to deal , and about what to trade when thou art alone ; tell me not henceforward , in the words of the lazy worldling , I am idle , for I have nothing to do ; Hast thou pardon of sin , the Image of thy God , an interest in thy Redeemer , freedom from sin , the Law , the wrath to come , a title to life and salvation , to get and secure , without which thou shalt be a firebrand of hell for ever , and hast thou any while , any time to be idle ? Hast thou that high , that holy , that weighty work of worshipping and glorifying the great God of Heaven and Earth , and of working out thy own salvation , and yet hast thou nothing to do ! O that I might never hear such language in thy thoughts , much less read it in thy life , when thou hast so much business of absolute necessity to be done , lying upon thy hands , that if all the Angels in Heaven should offer thee their help , unless the Son of God himself do assist , thou canst not dispatch it in many millions of ages ! Lord , I am thine , absolutely thine , universally thine ; all I am is thine , all I have is thine ; O when shall I live as thine ! I have no business but with thee , and for thee ; O that I could live wholly to thee ; I confess it is thine infinite gra●e to suffer such a worm as I am , to converse with thy glorious Majesty ; that Heaven should thus stoop to earth , and the most holy condescend to so great , so greivous a sinner ; O affect my heart with thy kindness herein , and so fill me with thy blessed spirit , that as thou art ever with me , whether I am alone , or in company , so when I awake , I may be still with thee . I Wish that I may esteem solitude , when my God calls me to it , a gracious opportunity , for more united and intimate converses with his Majesty . How often hath the company of men distracted my spirit , and hindered me from having my conversation in Heaven ! Their mi●apprehensins , and carnal interests , and predominant passions do frequently bring such prejudice to their associates , that none would be over fond of their honey , who hath once felt their stings . If I converse with wicked men , I hear their Oaths , and Blasphemies , and Ribbaldry , their Mocks , and Taunts , and Ieers , against God and his people ; I see their intemperance and prophaneness , and injustice , and oppression , and persecution of them that fear the Lord ; I can read in their wicked language , and cursed carriage , their bitterness , and rage , and emnity against their Maker and Redeemer ; I may behold the body of Christ wounded , and his pretious blood trampled on , the law , and love , and worship , and honour , of the blessed God , scorned and despised , and such vileness and wickedness committed in an hour , as shall be bewailed and lamented for ever . Such sights as these call for my deepest sorrow , and the best that I can get by such company , is inward trouble , and abundant grief ; but it s many to one if they do not make me either directly or indirectly to contract real guilt . O what pleasure can I take to be in a room filled with smoke , which will certainly wring tears from mine eyes , and probably smut and defile me ; If I converse with good men , though their company in many respects be desireable , and I have found it to be profitable , and I would prize them whom God esteemeth , and love them that have his beautiful Image , and with whom I must live for ever ; yet how many things are in them to allay the vertue and benefit of their society ! Their peevishness , and pa●sion , and pride , and selfishness which are still too much in them ; the difference of their judgements , and dispositions , causeth their company to be far the l●ss eligible and lovely ; Besides , their readiness and activeness to propagate their errors , and their power and prevalency to draw others to joyn with them in their wandrings from the truth , doth not a little abate of that comfort and delight , which I might have in them ; Again , their miseries , and wants , and necessities , which are many , and great , and urgent , which I am wholly unable to relieve or remedy , call me to tears and weeping ; Once more , their slips , and falls , and weaknesses and back-slidings which I must observe , and reprove , and bewail , are far from being occasions of joy or pleasure to me . They are at best , as we say of Children , certain cares , and uncertain comforts ; Though they are roses , they have prickles , which offend , as well as their pleasant smell to refresh us ; the truest friend I have , may occasion me as much trouble as comfort . When I travail with a chearful good Companion , I promise my self much delight in my journey , but anon he falls and wounds himself , or tires , or proves sick and unable to go further , and instead of going forward , I must stay to attend on him , and thus instead of being my help , he becomes my hinderance . Indeed I have the more cause to bear with it in another , not knowing how soon it may be my own case ; but however these accidents which too often fall out , as they speak the benefit of it to one , so also the perplexity and trouble of it to another . If I converse with great or rich men , what disdainful looks do they give me ? at what a distance do they behold me ? It s hard to obtain the liberty of speaking to them ; but if I would obtain their favour t will cost me more then it did the cheif Captain for his Roman freedom ; Vnless I can gratifie their lusts , I must not expect their love . If I can drink , and swear , and curse , and roar at their hellish rate ( it may be ) they will afford me a good word ; but alas what man in his wits , would pay for their best words so dear a price ? Their friendship can hardly be got without a breach with my God ; and what wise man would lose the good will of the Lord for the gain of the whole world ? When I have by many friends , and with much ●●fficulty , and even danger to my soul procured their favour , how little am I the better for it ! The most rotten tree is not so hollow ; for as cunning wrestlers , they will get within me to give me a fall ; the wind it self is not more wavering then they are ; except I can be contented to be their foot-stool , that by their treading on me , they may be lifted higher in the world , I must expect to be quite cast by . It s possible wbilst they may make some use of me to decoy and trepan others , or to raise and advance themselves , they may carry me upon their shoulders as men do their Ladders , when there is hopes thereby of climbing to their desired height , but when that is done , or if the Ladder prove too short , they will throw it upon the ground , If I will not always be some way or other m●king provision for their flesh , I shall be dismist with the brand of an unworthy fellow . If I converse with mean and poor men , I find but little comfort in their company , I see their poverty , and indigency , and hunger , and nakedness , which I cannot help or prevent , I heard their cries , and groans , and complaints , by reason of oppressing Landlords , or tyrannical revengeful Neighbours , or unfaithful Friends , or distempered Bodies , all which affect my soul , and grieve me to the heart , that I am ready to sit in the dust , and cry , and groan , and mourn with them ; Let me go where I will to converse with any , in this wilderness of the world , I find little but briars , and brakes , and thorns , and thistles , and matter of sorrow and lamentation ; but when I retire alone to converse with my God , I am freed from those distracting clamours and vexations , cries and disturbing noise , and might , could I but leave an ungrateful unbelieving heart behind me , find in him an Heaven ●pon Earth ; I may with Moses go up to Mount Pisgah , and take a view with the prospective glass of faith , of Palestine , and that goodly land flowing with milk and honey . I may enter into the suburbs of the new Jerusalem , taste some clusters of the Grapes of Canaan , and view as in a glass those celestial beauties and glories which I hope one day to see face to face , and to be partaker of● O my soul , what needst thou care how much the world scorns thy company , or to what place thy God see fit to banish thee ! if thou canst but as Zacheus , when gotten out of the crowd , climb up into the Sycamore of meditation , and obtain a sight of thy Saviour ; If he want no company who is with the King , surely thou mayst deny all the company on earth for the King of Kings ! Look how lovingly he invites thee to take a turn or two with him alone in the fields ; Come my beloved , let us go forth into the fields , there I will give thee my loves ; Hast thou not many a time sighed out to him , O kiss me with the kisses of thy lips , for thy love is better then wine ; Lo , he tells thee the place where he will answer thy petition ; There will I give thee my loves . Thy bridegroom is bashful , and desirous to satisfie thy longings in secret ; Isaac met his bride in the fields , and thou mayst meet thy beloved when thou turnest aside from the world , to entertain thy self in solitude . O how pleasant should solitude be to thee for his sake ? What matters it , whether thou art driven , or who be the whips that drive thee , when thou art driven farther from men , to be nearer the Lord Iesus Christ ! A loving Husband is instead of all company to a faithful Spouse . Is not Christ dearer to thee then all the world ? be not thou dejected , though thou shouldst be turned as he was , into a Wilderness , but expect an Angel , even the Angel of the Covenant , to be sent from Heaven for thy comfort . Lord , it is my support , that wherever I am , thou art continually with me ; O that I were able to say , I am continually with thee ; I would willingly with Jacob , leave all my company to meet thee alone● , so I might but as he did weep in secret , and make supplication , so as to prevail with thee for thy blessing . Though I should sind cause to say with David , Lovers and friends stand aloof from me ; and with Job , My friends scorn me ; yet if thou pleasest , by parting me from them , to draw me nearer to thy self , and to afford me more of thy quickening , cheering presence , I shall account their absence a desireable advantage ; The best society without thee , is as a barren desart , and an howling wilderness ; the greatest solitariness with thee , is as a fruitful Country and delectable Canaan ; How precious are thy thoughts ( my thoughts of thee ) to me O God ; Let me rather dwel alone in a Prison with thy company , then in a Pallace without thee . 2 I Wish that I may be the more careful of my carriage in secret , lest what I intend as an opportunity for my Gods service , should prove a season and advantage for Satan ; The body must be lookt to narrowly , when it comes out of an hot Bath , lest the Poors being open , it should take cold . The soul must be carefully tended , when it comes from Christian communion , lest in solitude it lose what it hath gained in good company . When the Countryman hath been at Market and filled his Purse , he is in most danger of robbing as he goeth home alone . The Tempter will be sure to be present with me , whoever be absent ; He walks to and fro in the earth , and whilst I am in his Circuit , I must expect his company ; Though he be more bold then welcome , and though I deny his desires , defie his works , and resist him , and sometimes foil him , yet he will still attend to sollicite me to folly ; wherever I go , he will find me out ; and whatever I do , I must expect him at my elbow ; he hath a double advantage of me in solitude , partly in that I have no visible second to assist me ; he hopes when I am alone , t is a good time to set upon me , and that he is strong enough by force to ravish and defile me ; Partly , in that shame which restrains from sin in publique , hath no place , no prevalency in private . He will tell me that secresie may be a curtain to hide my sins from the worlds eye , of which I am so much afraid . As Josephs Mistress , he will cry , Come lie with me , be bold to sin , to take thy pleasure , for here is no man present to know it , or to reveal it to thy disgrace . And for God , he hath forgotten , he hideth his face , he will never see it ; How shall God know ? can he judge through the dark Cloud ? Thick Clouds are a covering to him , that he doth not see , and he walketh in the circuit os Heaven . But O my soul , thy double danger calleth upon thee to be the more vigilant and diligent in minding thy duty . When thou hast no humane friend to watch over thee , thou art the more concerned to watch over thy self . They that live far from Neighbours , are the more liable to Thieves , and therefore if wise , will make up that want by extraordinary watchfulness , and a greater provision of armour and weapons ; If one Devil be too hard a match for many secure Christians , how unable will one single Christian be , to encounter with many , with a Legion of Devils ! Shouldst thou be idle in solitude , or suffer thy thoughts to wander , expect more then good Company , and such as will employ thee about works of darkness . Besides , Consider , Though thy thoughts are mantled from the view of men , yet thy God knoweth thy thoughts a far off , long before thou thinkest them , and will judge the secrets of mens hearts , according to his Gospel ; He that numbereth the stars of Heaven , numbereth all the thoughts of thy heart ; I know the things that come into your mind , O house of Israel , every one of them , Ezek. 11. 5. And he that punisheth men for wicked deeds , doth not let them escape for their evil thoughts ; Hear O earth , behold I will bring upon this people , the fruit of their thoughts , Ier. 6. 19. Nay , thy God will scourge men both for and by their thoughts ; accusing thoughts are stinging vipers ; That worm of conscience which will ever ever gnaw the sinners heart , to his unconceiveable misery , is bred in his thoughts ; O therefore wash thy heart from wickedness , let not vain thoughts lodge within thee . Remember also O my soul , if thy most retired thoughts are legible to thy God , then thy secret actions are all open and visible to his eye . Never presume upon sin , in hope of secrecy ; for though thou mayst cover the candle of creatures with a bushel ; yet thou canst not the glorious sun of righteousness ; nothing is hid from his sight ; There is no darkness nor shadow of death , where the workers of iniquity can hide themselves . Lord , thou hast told me , There is nothing hid which shall not be revealed , nor secret which shall not be made known ; I confess my wicked heart is apt to argue impunity from secrecy , and to think I am invisible to thee , because thou art invisible to the eye of my sense ; O affect my heart so throughly with thine Omniscience and Omnipresence , that ● may keep thy precepts , because all my ways ( whether inward or outward ) are before thee . I Wish that I may have this comfortable evidence of my sincerity , by the conscienciousness of my behaviour in secret . 3 The lineaments and features of the body , are be●t discovered in the night , when it s stripped naked of those garments which in the day time covered it , and were not wholly answerable to the proportion of its several parts ; The shape and countenance of the soul , is much better revealed when it retires from the world , and is freed from these objects and businesses which hurried it hither and thither ( possibly ) much differing from its own inclination . There is no right judging of the Patient by his water , till it is setled ; nor true discovery of the state of a Christian by his heart , till it be quiet and composed . When men are busie upon the stage of the world , surrounded with spectators , they put on habits● and act not their own , but the parts of others , and so are not easily known , who or what they are ; but he that followeth them into the retiring room , where they undress themselves , may soon discover them . The frame and bent of my heart in private , to sin or holiness , will speak its temper , whether good or bad . The soul is not at such liberty to vent it self , and to manifest its genius and disposition in its outward actions , as in its inward motions and meditations ; External acts , may flow from external principles , which as a Team of Horse , draw the Cart after it by force , but internal thoughts ever flow from an internal principle , which as the natural and proper off-spring of the mind , discover what its parent is ; The Laws of men , the fear of punishment , the hope of reward may tye my hands in company ; but it s nothing but the fear of my God can bind my heart to its good behaviour in secret . My thoughts are not liable to an arraignment at any earthy Bar , nor my person to any arrest from men , ●or any tumult or disorder in them , because the Law of the Magistrate can take no cognizance of them , they being locked up from all humane eyes in the privy cabinet of my heart . Though I am limited in my words , not to speak what I will , and also in my works , not to do what I will , by reason of that shame , or penalty , or ill-will from friends or superiours , which dishonest actions , and unseemly expressions may bring upon me ; yet my thoughts in this sense are free , I may think what I will , notwithstanding any of these considerations . Again , outward actions , both good and bad , materially considered , are common both to Sinners and Saints . What good duties are there , but as to the matter of them , wicked men may perform them as well as the godly ! Abstinence from gross sins , praying , fasting , hearing , reading , almes-giving , have been practised by some Hypocrites , in a larger measure then by some sincere Christians ; On the other side . There are ●ew sins so great , but some of the Children of God , have at some time or other been guilty of them . Gluttony , Drunkenness , Fornication , Incest , Murder , &c. have been committed by them that were truly sanctified ; where then lieth the difference between them , so much as in their usual and predominant thoughts ? Once more , my God judgeth of my actions by my thoughts , and therefore by them I may well judge of my spiritual condition , Isa. 10. 7. Gen. 22. 16 , 17. Lord , I have often heard out of thy word , Where the treasure is , there will the heart be also ; I know every man will be frequent in thinking of that which he esteems his happiness and treasure . The Covetous wretch hugs and embraceth his wealth in his heart and thoughts , when it is out of his sight , and in other mens hands ; the Adulterer pleaseth himself in the meditation of his wanton dalliances with his foolish Minion , when he hath no opportunity for the execution of his lust ; the Proud man fancieth himself in a fools Paradise , whilst he imagineth multitudes waiting upon him , in the Presence Chamber of his crazie brain with their bare heads , their bended knees , admiring and applauding the worth of his person , the vastness of his parts , and himself as the only epitome of all perfections . O give me that character of thy children , to meditate in thy Law day and night . Let my thoughts be conversant about those riches that are not liable to rust , those pleasures which satisfie a rational soul , and that honour which is from God ; give me to know that my treasure is in Heaven , with thy self , in thy Son , by having my heart , and my conversation there also . I Wish that when ever I sequester my self from worldly business , I might leave all my finful and worldly thoughts behind me . 1 There can no work of concernment be done in secret , unless these disturbers be absent . Should I entertain such guests , I forbid Christ my Company . Vicious thoughts are his sworn enemies , and he will not dwel in the same heart , in the same house with them ; If I desire him to sit upon the throne of my heart , I must give him leave to cast down every imagination , and to bring every thought to the obedience of himself ; Places that are full of vermine , are not fit for a Princes presence ; Vain and unnecessary thoughts about lawful objects , are strangers , though not sworn enemies , and will give my best friend distast . Though a noble person should come to give me a visit , if he should hear me debasing my self to converse needlesly with inconsiderable impertinent fellows , I may look that he should passe by without calling in ; Christ loves not to be entertained in a room full of dust-heaps and cobwebs . If vain thoughts lodge within , the blessed Jesus will stand without ; Gold and Clay will not mingle ; If these mists arise , and these clouds interpose , they will hinder my sight of the true Sun. Besides , My works will be answerable to my thoughts ; if my thoughts be wicked or fruitless , so will my actions be . My hands are but the Midwife , to bring my thoughts , the conception of my heart , into the world . My thoughts are the seed that lyeth in the ground out of sight ; my works are the crop which is visible to others ; according to the seed , whether good or bad , such will the crop be . If men be so careful to get the purest , the cleanest , and the best seed for their fields , that their harvest may be the more to their advantage ; how much doth it concern me that my heart be sown with pure and holy thoughts , that my crop may tend both to my credit and comfort ! Lord , there is no good seed but what comes out of thy garner . I confess , the piercing thorns of vicious thoughts , and the fruitless weeds of vain thoughts , are all the natural product of my heart . O let thy good spirit plow up the fallow ground of my soul , and scatter in it such seeds of grace and holiness , that my life may be answerable to thy Gospel , and at my death I may be translated to thy glory . I Wish that I may in solitude , 2 when I have no men to discourse with , converse with other creatures , and spell the name of my creatour out of them . It is my priviledge , that I may with Sampson , get honey and sweetness by occasional meditation , out of the carcass of every creature ; The whole world is a great vast library , and every creature in it a several Book , wherein he that runs may read , the power , and goodness , and infinite perfections of its Maker ; Every object is as a Bell , which if but turned , makes a report of the great Gods honour and renown . Some have compared the Creation to a musical instrument ; sure I am , every individual in it , is a string , which if toucht by serious consideration , will loudly and sweetly proclaim its Authors praise ; He that hath much stock , may well trade high ; They who by every sight , by every sound , by every thing felt or tasted , are minded of their Father and Fountain , may well be taken up with frequent apprehensions and admirations of him ; For the invisible things of him from the Creation of the world , are clearly seen , being understood by the things that are made , even his eternal power and God head , Rom. 1. 20. The Highest and Lowest , the Kings and Worms , the Sun and Stone , the Cedar and Hysop , the smallest inanimate & irrational creatures read to me dumb lectures of my Gods might and love ; they are so many Masters to instruct me , though silently , in his greatness and wisdom . The world below is a glass , in which I may see the world above . The works of God are the Shepherds Calender , the Plow-mans Alphabet , the King of Heavens Divinity Professors , and why not my Catholique Preachers ? Certainly those several varieties , choice rarities , and excellent contrivances which appear in them , were made as well for my inward soul , as outward senses , and chiefly for my soul through my senses . The word of God is food for faith , and so may the works of God nourish faith by sense . Faith seeth God in himself , sense seeth God in his creatures , and thereby may be helpful to faith . Take a view O my soul of thy beloved in those pictures , which are always before thee , representing his glorious and eminent perfections ; Ah , how strange is it , that he who is so near to thy senses , should be so far from thy thoughts ! Try a little what wholsom cordial water thou canst distil out of these hearbs and flowers that grow in this earthly Eden , by the fire of meditation ; Ask now the Beasts , and they shall teach thee : and the Fowls of the air , and they shall tell thee ; or , speak to the earth , and it shall teach thee ; or the Fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee ; Who knoweth not in all these , that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this ! Iob 12.7,8,9 . Thou needst not judge the attributes and excellencis of God , or the work he requireth of thee , so mysterious● that none but men of extraordinary parts can reach or teach them . Though the longest line of created understanding cannot fathom his bottomless perfections , & though his commandments be exceeding broad , yet the meanest creatures do after a sort teach thee his wisdom and power , and thy duty and carriage ; Ask now the Beasts , and they shall teach thee ; As brutish as they are , they may instruct thee in many rare lessons . They will teach thee , 1. Gratitude and thankfulness to thy Maker and preserver ; The Ox knoweth his owner , and the Ass his masters crib , but Israel doth not know , Isa. 1.2 . If the dullest of Beasts , the Ox and Ass acknowledge their Master , how shouldst thou thy benefactour ? 2. Dependance on the Fountain of thy being ; If they depend on him for provision , wilt not thou ? Jezreel cryeth to the Corn , Wine and Oyl to nourish her ; these cry to the earth , the earth cryeth to the heavens , the heavens cry to God , upon whom they depend , Hos. 2. 19. The eyes of all wait upon thee , and thou satisfiest the desire of every living thing ; He giveth to the beasts their food , and to the young ravens that cry , Psalm 145. 15. and 147. 9. If the great House keeper of the world be so careful to fodder his Cattle , surely , thou mayst believe that he will not starve his children . 3. The dread and awe of thy God ; When the Lyon roareth , all the Beasts of the Forrest tremble . What fear should possess thee , when thy God is incensed , and uttereth his terrible voice in his threatnings ! Thy flesh may well tremble for fear of him , and thou hast good cause to be afraid of his righteous judgements . 4. Providence and Diligence in thy place and calling ; Go to the Pismire thou sluggard , consider her ways and be wise ; she provideth her meat in the summer , and gathereth her food in the harvest , Pro. 6.6,8 . If she be so wise as to know her season , and to improve it , how inexcusable wilt thou be , if thou shouldst neglect it ? 5. Innocency ; The Sheep will suffer many injuries and offer none . He went as a sheep to the slaughter , dumb before the shearer , and opened not his mouth . 6. Wisdom and Prudence ; The Serpent will if possible , secure her head , what ever part of her be wounded ; Now the Serpent was more subtil then any Beast of the field ; The Christian must be careful to secure his faith ; be wise as Serpents ; Ask the Fowles of the air , and they will tell thee ; how many truths , O my soul , will the very Birds chatter out to thee ? They will tell thee , 1. Concerning thy God , his goodness and mercy ; Are not two Sparrows sold for a farthing , and yet not one of them falleth to the ground , without thy Fathers providence , Mat. 6. His providence reacheth the meanest creatures . 2. Concerning the wicked one , his cunning and policy ; As the Eagle , when she seiseth on the carcass , will first peck out the eyes , and then feed on its flesh ; So Satan first blindeth the mind , and then leads them hood-winkt to hell ; As the Eagle carrieth the shelfish into the Air , onely that he might break them by their fall , and devour them ; so the Devil by his costly courtesie , advanceth many to their destruction , Pro. 1. 32. As Birds are caught with several baits by the Fowler , some with chaff , some with corn , some with day-nets , some with a lowbel , so the Arch-Fowler hath various ways to seduce and catch poor souls , ye are not ignorant of his devices . 3. Concerning thy self , they will tell thee , 1. That heavenly-mindedness , is the onely way to chearfulness . Birds sing most , when they are got above the earth ; The pretty Bed-brest doth chant it as merrily in September , the beginning of Winter , as in March , the approach of Summer . Thou mayst give as chearful entertainment to hoary frosts , as to warming beams , to the declining Sun of adversity , as to the rising Sun of Prosperity , if thy conversation be in heaven . 2. That simple souls are soon seduced and slain ; when the Larkers day-net is spread in a fair morning , and himself is whirling his artificial motion , by the reflecting lustre of the Sun on the wheeling instrument , not onely the merry Lark , and fearful Pigeon , are dazeled and drawn with admiration ; but stouter Birds of prey , the Merlin and Hobby are invited to stoop , and gazing on the outward form , lose themselves . So when Satan spreadeth his day-net of pleasure and honour , he allures not onely Heathens and Indians , but even unsound and secure Christians ; As the Birds that are caught in the snare , so are the Sons of men snared in an evil time , Eccles. 9. 12. 3. That those that would conquer their spiritual enemies , must be full of courage and valour . The Kite is , Andax in minimis , timidus in magnis ; bold in dealing with t●me fowl , as Chickens and Ducks , but cowardly in medling with wild ones , that will not yield . Give not place to the Devil ; Resist the Devil and he will flee from you . 4. The misery and mischief of contention . The Hawk thinks constantly to make a prey of the Heron , but sometimes the Heron , when she cannot by any winding shifts get above the Hawk , nor by bemuting his feathers make him flag-winged , resumeth courage out of necessity , and strikes the Hawk through the gorge with his Bill , and so have both been seen to fall down dead together . So rich men many times presume that they may oppress their inferiours at their pleasure ; but the event of their strifes and law-suits ( after all their turnings and winding Meanders in the Law , sought out to get above each other ) hath proved the undoing of both . 5. The unreasonableness of diffidence and distrust . They will teach thee a lesson of faith , and help to banish our fears ; Behold the Fowles of the Air , for they Sow not , neither do they Reap nor gather into Barns , yet your heavenly Father feedeth them ; are ye not much better then they ? Mat. 6. 28. 6. The observation of times and seasons . It s thy prudence to take notice of the stormes of judgements , and sunshine of mercy . The Stork in the Heaven knoweth her appointed times , and the Turtle and the Crane , and the Swallow , observe the time of their coming , but my people know not the judgement of the Lord , Ier. 8. 7. 7. The pains thou shouldst take for spiritual food ; the fowles of the Air will flye far for meat ; Where the carcass is , there will the Eagles be gathered together . No labour should be thought too great for the meat that endureth to eternal life . 8. The regard thou shouldst have to the preservation and safety of thy self and Family ; They build on high , and make their nests on the tops and small twigs of trees , and will spare it out of their own mouths , to feed their young . He who provides not for his Family , is not onely worse then an Infidel , but also worse then the very Birds of the Air. O my soul , proceed farther , Speak to the earth and it shall teach thee , 1. A lesson of Humility . Thou art but breathing earth , enlivened dust , as vile as the dirt that every Beast of the field trampleth on . Behold , I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord , who am but dust and ashes ! Gen. 18. 27. 2. A lecture of thy frailty , that thine earthly tabernacle will ere long fall to the ground ; Dust thou art , and to dust thou shalt return . 3. A lesson of fruitfulness ; It bringeth forth thirty , forty , sixty , an hundred for one ; And Isaac sowed in the Land , and had an hundred fold increase . 4. A lesson of faith and trust in God. The earth hangs on nothing , it hangs in the thin air , where an Hair-ball , nay a straw , will not stay without a support , Job 26. 7. He hangeth the Earth upon nothing . Once more , And the fishes of the Sea shall declare unto thee . Though they are mute Masters , yet they are great Teachers ; They declare unto thee , 1. The Affection and communion that ought to be amongst Saints ; Fish of the same kind flock together in Sholes ; The Greek word for Fish is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is derived as some think , from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to come , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be carried with force and violence , so the Fish swim in troops with great force . The safety of Saints consisteth much in their society . 2. The misery of want of government . The greater Fish devour the lesser ; The Pike feed upon Roach ; Thou makest men like Fishes of the Sea that have no government , Hab. 1. 14. So Men without Magistrates , like Canibals , feed on each other . 3. The folly of men that take not warning by others . Silly fish are caught by the Angle or Net , and carried to the fire , yet they that remain are still greedy of the bait ; Satan takes some sinners with the snares and baits of his temptations , jerks them out of the water of life , and casteth them into the unquenchable fire , yet those that survive are as ready to hearken to his suggestions , as if there were no such thing , Eccles. 9. 12. 2 Tim. 2. 26. For man knoweth not his time , as the fishes that are taken in an evil Net , and as the birds that are caught in the snare ; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time , when it falleth suddenly upon them . That they may recover themselves out of the snares of the Devil , who are taken captive at his will. 4. The subtile malice of Satan ; When thou seest the Fisher baiting his hook , thou mayst think of the policy of the Devil , who sugars over his poisoned hooks with seeming profit and pleasures . Eves Apple was candied over with Divine knowledge ; Ye shall be as Gods , knowing good and evil . 5. The multitude of Believers that are begotten by the Gospel ; When the Psalmist speaks of the Sea , he saith , Wherein are things creeping innumerable , both small and great Beasts , Psa. 104. 25. The Latine , Piscis , cometh of the Calde word , Push , which signifieth , to multiply and increa●e , for nothing multiplieth more then Fish ; So the great increase of Christians under the Gospel , is compared to the number of the fish of the great Sea , Ezek. 47. 9. And there shall be a very grea● multitude of fish , because these waters shall come thither , for they shall be healed , &c. 6. The duty of men to abide in their places . Fishes do not change their element ; Birds are somtimes aloft in the air , sometimes below on the earth , but Fish keep always i● the water ; Let every man abide in the same vocation wherein he is called , 1 Cor. 7. 20. 7. The benefit of abounding in holiness ; Fishes are then sweetest and acceptable to the pallat , when they begin to be with spawn ; The fruitful Christian is most pleasing to God ; Herein is my Father glorified , if ye bring forth much fruit , Ioh. 15. 8. 8. The noisomness of sin ; Fish cannot abide any ill savour ; When the Pump of the ship is emptied , they flie from the stench and smell of that nasty water ; hating the garment spotted with the flesh , Iude 23. 9. The necessity of faith and holiness ; No Fish were counted clean , but such as had Fins and Scales ; The Fins guide the fish , the Scales are a defence and ornament to them ; Faith is a Christians guide , and good Works his garment . As the Fish by the Fins are raised from the mud to the top of the water , so faith lifteth the soul from earth to heaven ; It is the evidence of things not seen ; Good works are as Scales , a shield to a Christian , and are not unfitly called the Breast plate of righteousness . Thus , O my soul , though thou couldst not read a line in any Printed book , thou mightest read many good lessons in this natural book . Even things without mouths can Preach and speak thy Makers praise and pleasure ; Their voices are heard in every language , and their words go to the end of the world , Psa. 19. 4. Wheresoever O my soul , thou goest , thou mayst by meditation get some steps nearer thine eternal weal ; Art thou walking ? Consider , thou art but a sojourner and traveller in this world ; thy life is a continued mo●ion , thy way is the Son of God , thy home is the Fathers House , thy motion is painful , thy way is perfect , and thy home will be full of pleasure . Why shouldst thou wander and come wide , or loyter and come short of Heaven ! O be sure to walk in the right way , and be content to travail hard , that thy sa●e way may find its end in solace , and thy painful walk make thy home more welcome . Art thou walking in thine Orchyard , thou mayst from every tree , as a Text , gather many profitable doctrines and inferences ; Take a turn or two among the Trees , and thou mayst find much wholsom fruit on them . 1. Some Trees are profitable for one purpose , some for another , some to quench thirst , some to comfort and refresh the inward parts , &c. so the Children of God are diversly serviceable , according to the different gifts bestowed on them by the Holy Ghost . 2. Every living fruit tree , is in some measure fruit●ul ; though some bring forth more fruit , some less , yet all bring forth some ; All living Christians are thriving and bearing fruit , though some are more eminent for growth and proficiency in grace , yet all bring forth fruits worthy of repentance . The Hypocrite like a dead stake in an Hedge , continueth at a stay , is without good fruit , nay groweth more rotten every moneth then other ; but the true Saint , like the living Tree , the longer he continueth rooted in Christ , the more abundant he is in the work of the Lord. 3. The best Trees have a winter , wherein they seem to be dead and barren , yet they have their life and sap at that time remaining in the root ; Christians under desertions and temptations may be judged by themselves and others to be dead and undone , but even at such seasons their life is hid with Christ in God ; Though they may fall fouly , they cannot fall finally . 4. Fruit-trees are tossed and shaken by the wind , but there is no danger of their overturning or death , whilst their root remains firm in the earth . Saints may be stirred and tossed by the high winds of Satans and the worlds temptations , but can never be overthrown , because they are rooted in Christ. Grace may be shaken in , but never out of their souls . 5. The winter which the Trees suffer in frosts and snow , and the continuance of their sapunder ground , is profitable for them , and helpful to their greater growth in Spring ; So the various and severest providences of God towards his people , are serviceable to their good ; and their seeming declensions , in order to their greater growth ; As Children under a fit of an Ague , they may at present be weakened and stand at a stay , but afterward they shoot up the more . 6. The fruits of trees are harsh and little worth till they are grafted ; so the fruits of all by nature are wild and unpleasant to God , till they are grafted into Christ. 7. Those trees that stand most in the Sun , bring forth the sweetest and the largest fruit ; So those believers that live nearest God by an holy communion , do the more abound in the fruits of righteousness , and their fruits are the more acceptable , springing from a principle of love to God. 8. The more the boughs are laden , the more they bow down to the earth ; so the more abundant any are in holiness , the more humble and lowly they will be . 9. The Husbandman chuseth what plants he pleaseth to bring into his Orchyard , and his grafting of them , and care about them , makes the difference between them and others ; So God chuseth whom he pleaseth , out of the wilderness and waste of the world , and his grafting them by regeneration , and conduct of them by his Spirit , distinguisheth them from all the rest of the earth . 10. The Leaves drop from the Trees in the beginning of Autumn ; Such is the friendship of this world , whilst the sap of wealth and honour lasteth with me , and whilst I enjoy a summer of prosperity , my friends swarm in abundance , but in the winter of adversity they will leave me naked ; O how miserable is that person , who hath no friends but of this world ! How happy is he that hath the sap of grace , which will remain with him in the coldest winter ! Thus , O my soul , whilst thou art walking with regenerate creatures , thou mayst better thy spiritual senses , and walk with thy Creator . O how may thy thoughts be raised to the trees that are planted in the house of the Lord , and flourish in the Courts of thy God , that are planted by the Rivers of waters , and bring forth their fruit in due season ! Lord , I confess thy goodness in giving me so many ushers , yet alas my dull and blockish heart , to this day hath not learnt those lessons which thou hast set me by them ; Vnless thou , who art the chief Master of the Assemblies , undertake the work , all will be in vain ; Thy creatures are as burning glasses , they cannot make the Sun to shine , but when it doth vouchsafe its heavenly beams , they help to increase both light and heat . It s thine own promise that all Sions Children shall be taught of God ; Let it please thee to undertake the tuition and instruction of thine untoward Scholar ; O do thou spiritualize my heart , and then I shall spiritualize all the works of thine hand , do thou enlighten me so powerfully by thy blessed Spirit , that I may turn every spark into a candle and every candle into a star , and every star into a Sun ; and by the light of all be enabled to see more of thy beautiful face , and blessed perfections . I Wish that I may not onely taste by occasional , 3 but make a full meal , by set and serious meditation of that food which may God provideth for my soul ; If a drop , a little be reviving and strengthening , surely a good draught will yeild me more comfort and profit . If ever it be true it s here , the best is at the bottom . That rare object which upon a transient view gives me some delight upon a permanent vision , will afford more pleasure . If my meat abide in my body , it will afford me the better nourishment . Fluxes in the mind , as in the outward man , are arguments and authors of weakness ; The milk must be set some time before it will turn into Cream ; The longer Physick remains within me , t●e more operative it will be . The flame of Davids extraordinary affection to Gods Law , was kindled at the hot fire of his constant meditation . O how love I thy Law ! it is my meditation all the day . His love was hot burning coals ; He speaks not barely by way of affirmation , I love thy law ; and by way interrogation , How love I thy Law ? but also by way of Admiration ; O how love I thy Law ! But his abiding thoughts on it were the warm beams , which beating constantly upon him , put him into such a violent heat ; It is my meditation all the day . As the Hen by sitting on her eggs some weeks , warmeth them and hatcheth young ones , so may I by applying savoury subjects home to my soul , and brooding some considerable time on them , bring forth new affections and new actions . Though my affections seem as dead as the Shunamites son , by stretching my thoughts thus on them , I shall warm and enliven them . Many blows drive a nail to the head , many thoughts settle a truth on the heart . O that I might not onely at some times exchange a few words with the subject of my meditation occasionally , as I do with a friend passing by my door , but also at set times invite it , as Lot did the Angels , to stay with me all night , being confident it will pay me bountifully ( as they him ) for my charges in its entertainment . Yet I would not onely have my affections renewed , but also my actions reformed by my meditations . If I meditate what is good to be done , and do not the good meditated on , I lose my labour , and take much pains to no purpose ; Cogitation is the sowing of the seed ; Action is the springing of it up ; the former is hidden and under ground , the latter is visible , and many are the better for it ; If the seed should still lye buried in the earth , it is but lost and thrown away , t is the springing of it up that causeth the Harvest ; Meditation is the womb of my actions ; action is the Midwife of my meditations ; An evil and imperfect conception , if it hath the favour of a birth , yet the mind is but delivered of a monster , and of that which had better been stifled in the womb , then ever seen the light . A good and perfect conception , if it want strength for its birth , perisheth and comes to nothing ; like Ephraim , It playeth the part of an unwise Son , and stayeth in the place of the breaking forth of Children ; Its pity that such conceptions should prove abortive , or such beautiful children be still-born . Lord , thou hast appointed me to meditate seriously on thy statutes , and those excellent subjects contained in them . I confess my heart is unwilling to this needful and gainful work , and apt to be unfaithful in the management of this sacred duty ; If thou pleasest not to lay thy charge upon it , and to use thy power over it , it will either wholly omit it , or perform it to no purpose ; Why should it not dwell now upon thee by meditation , with whom I hope to dwell for ever ! What unspeakable joy might I receive in and from thy self , could I but get above this earth and flesh ! O who will bring me into that strong City not made with hands ! Who will lead me into thy holy hill of Sion by meditation ! Wilt not thou O God ? Grant me thy Spirit I beseech thee , that my spirit which lives upon thee may be united in thinking of thee , and may live wholly to thee . O my soul , now thou art spending thy self in Wishes , set upon the work , and turn thy prayers into practice for an example and pattern to others , and for thy profit . There is one Attribute of thy God to which thou art infinitely indebted and beholden for every moments abode on this side the unquenchable sire , even his Patience and long-suffering . Ah where hadst thou been at this hour , had not that Attribute stood thy friend ! Let the kindness thou hast received from it encourage thee to a serious consideration of it . Old acquaintance and former courtesies may well plead and prevail also with thee to afford it entertainment for some time in thy thoughts . 1 What is this Patience of thy God to whi●h thou art so much engaged ? It is his gracious will , wher●by he beareth long , and forbeareth his sinful creatures . It is that Attribute whereby he beareth their reproach , and forbeareth revenge . It is sometimes called slowness to anger , Psal. 103. ● . He is not easily overcome by the provocations of men , but striveth to overcome them by his patience : A small matter doth not incense him to anger ; he is not presently put into a fury , and his wrath is not easily heightned into revenge . Thou wast a trangressor from the womb ; for mine name sake I will defer mine anger , and refrain for thee , that I cut thee not off , Isa. 48. 8,9 . It is sometimes called long-suffering , Exod. 34. 6. He expecteth and waiteth a long time for the repentance of sinners . He doth not onely pity our misery , which is his mercy , and notwithstanding all our wickedness and unworthiness load us with benefits , which is his grace , but also bear many days , many years with our infirmities , which is his long-suffering . Men are transgressors in the womb , before they are able to go they go astray ; yet after a thousand and thousand affronts from the womb to the tomb he bears with them ; Forty years long was I grieved with this generation . Infants , or green wood , are fit fuel for the eternal fire , yet he forbears rotten Okes , and old sinners . They owe an infinite debt to Iustice , and are liable every moment to the prison of Hell ; but Patience stoppeth the arrest of destruction● Rom. 9.12 . This Patience of thy God is amplified by considering , 1. How odious sin is to him ; the evil of sin never obtained a good look from God ; Thou art of purer eyes then to behold iniquity . He seeth all sins with an eye of observation , but he seeth no sin with an eye of approbation . T is not out of any love to sin that he is so long-suffering towards sinners , for sin is the object of his anger and dislike ; He is angry with sinners every day . Sin is the object of his wrath , which is anger boyled up to its greatest heat ; The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighttousness and ungodliness of men . Nay it s the object of his hatred , which is the highest degree of detestation ; Hatred is abhorrency heightned to an implacability . Bare anger might be appeased , wrath might be pacified , but hatred is irreconcileable ; The foolish shall not stand in thy sight , thou hatest all workers of iniquity . Six things doth the Lord hate , yea seven are an abomination to him . There is an antipathy in his nature against the smallest sin , as sin is contrary to his being , law , and honour ; though he be so perfect a God , that no sin can be hurtful to him , yet he is so pure a God , that every sin is hateful to him . Therefore the Scripture speaking of God , after the manner of men , represents it as offensive to every of his senses . It grates his ears , and thence he complains of the cry of Sodom ; It provoketh his eyes , and hence it is said , Evil cannot stand in thy sight , neither canst thou behold the workers of iniquity ; It oppresseth his feeling , wherefore he ●s said to be pressed with ●in , as a Cart is pressed with sheaves ; It displeaseth his smell , and so he calleth sinners rotten car●●sses , open sepulchres , that send forth noisom savours . He proclaimes to the world the offensiveness of sin to his sacred Majesty by the names he gives it in his royal Law , wherein ●e forbids it ; He calls it dung , mire , vomit , filth , superfluity of naughtiness , filthiness , a menstruous cloth , a plague , an issue , an ulcer ; And yet though sin be thus infinitely loathsom and odious to him , he bears with men that are all over infected with it in the highest degree . 2 2. The condition of sinners . His patience is much heightned by considering who they are that distaste and provoke him with their sins ; they are his creatures , the work of his hands . They rebel against him who were made , and are every day maintained by him . They forget him that formed them , and fight against the fountain of their beings . They are his obliged creatures ; such on whom he hath laid millions of engagements : They cannot speak a word , or think a thought , or fetch their breath without him ; they live every moment wholly upon his mercy . Hear O Heaven , give ear O earth ! he hath nourished and brought up children , and they have rebelled against him . He is daily multiplying mercies on them , and yet they are daily multiplying iniquities against him ; they are creatures full of enmity against him ; they sin against him out of hatred of him : The carnal mind is enmity against God ; If it could lay a plot to take away the life of God , it hath malice enough to put it in execution . Hence there appears little reason why he should pity or spare them . If a man find his enemy , will he let him go ? yet God is patient towards them . 3. The multitude and greatness of sins and sinners . He cannot look down from heaven but every moment he beholds millions of transgressors proclaiming war against him , walking contrary to him , and provoking him before his face . The whole world is a field wherein the inhabitants are continually with drums beating , and colours flying with brazen foreheads and stubborn hearts , letting flie whole volleys of sins and impieties against heaven . Their whole work is to stretch out their hands against God , and strengthen themselves against the Almighty . From the highest to the lowest they disown his authority , deny his dominion , deface his image , dishonour his name , despise his laws , scorn his love , and mo●k at his threatnings . All sin , and come short of the glory of God. The whole earth is a kind of hell in regard of blasphemy and pollutions , and all manner of provo●ations . His pure eyes behold the Devil-worship amongst Heathen , the Imposter-worship amongst Turks , the Idol-worship amongst Papists , and the belly and flesh-worship amongst Protestants . He seeth in the Rich , oppression , atheism , swearing , cursing , pride , persecution of others ; in the Poor , envying , murmuring , carnal-mindedness , drunkenness and ignorance ; in the Young , head strong passions , uncleaness , youthful lusts ; in the Ancient , impatience , covetousness , prophaness . He understandeth the several hearts of men , so many sinks of sin ; and the several lives of men , so many treasons and conspiracies against his Being and Law ; and so many men in the world , so many monsters of wickedness : Though he enjoyn them his Precepts , they cast them behind their backs ; though he would allure them by his Promises , they scorn them as Babies to fool children withal ; though he would affright them with his comminations and threatnings , they laugh at the shaking of those spears , and look on all his words no better then wind . Though he endeavours by his works to reclaim them from their wickedness , sometimes loading them with his benefits , that his goodness might lead them to repentance ; sometimes scourging them in measure , that they might not be condemned with the world , yet they slight his favour , are not afraid of his fury , and by their impenitency , and continuance in sin dare him to his very face . He sendeth his Ministers to tell them of their danger , he sets up Conscience within them to mind them of their duty , he hangs up others before them as spectacles of his wrath , that they might take warning , and escape destruction ; and yet they laugh at Ministers for their weeping over them , check Conscience for its boldness to check them , and think themselves wiser then to be frighted with the scarecrows of Gods judgements on others . They sin against ●is Wisdom , his Power , his Goodness , his Faithfulness , his Patience , his Providence , his Ordinances , his Son , his Spirit , his Law , his Gospel , their own Promises and engagements , the voyce and cry of his Vicegerent within them , and that day after day , and this throughout the whole earth , and yet notwithstanding all these high affronts and notorious indignities repeated and continued every moment , he beareth with them . The meekest man in the world , no not all the men in the world have patience enough for one sinner ; what patience then hath God that beareth so much with a world of sinners ! It is the saying of one , If but any tender-hearted man should sit one hour in the Throne of God Almighty , and look down upon the earth , as God doth continually , and see what abominations are done in that hour , he would undoubtedly the next set all the world on fire . O how patient is that God that beareth with it so many years ! The meekest man upon earth could not endure the ●rowardness of one people , and they the best people in the world ; the peevishness of the Jews drove him into that passion , for which he was excluded the earthly Canaan . How meek and patient then is God who beareth the evil manners of all the nations of the world , the greatest part of which make it their work to spit their venome , and malice , and blasphemy in his face every day ! The whole world is a volume in every leaf , and in every line of which , Patience , Meekness , Gentleness , Long-suffering , Forbearance are written in broad letters . 4. How he knoweth all their sins . He doth not forbear sinners from ignorance of their sins ; he seeth and knoweth all things . All the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord , and he pondreth all his goings . His eyes behold , and his eye-lids try the children of men . Men bear with others , because they know not their secret treasons , and heart-rebellions ; but God knoweth all the wickedness that is committed in the world , He telleth man his thoughts . All secret sins are publick to him : All men are naked and open to him . He knoweth every thought , word and action of every man as exactly as if he had none but him to mind . His knowledge is infinite ; he knoweth all the sins of all men clearly ; they are as visible to his eye as if they were written with the brightest sun-beam on the clearest chrystal . He knoweth all the sins of men distinctly , not in a confused heap or lump , but one by one ; knoweth all the sins of all men every moment . All the sins that are , that ever were , or that ever shall be , are continually in his eye and view . 5. How he is able to revenge himself every moment . David did bear with Joab because the sons of Zerviah were too hard for him : He was a tender plant that was scarce rooted , and feared to be overturned by their fury ; but God beareth with sinners though he be Almighty , and can do all things . He can as easily turn the sinner into hell , as tell him of hell ; he can blow the sinner with his breath into the bottomless pit : By the blast of God they perish , by the breath of his nostrils they are consumed . The most secret sin is within the sight of his countenance , and the strongest sinner within the reach of his vengeance . This is wonderful indeed ; he is infinite in patience , who is infinite in power : The Lord is slow to anger , and great in power , saith the Prophet , Nahum . 1. He that can in a moment speak the whole Creation into nothing , beareth many years with his rebellious provoking Creatures . The Lord looked upon the Egyptians and troubled them . It s an easie matter to look ; especially for him that made the eye . A glance of his eye will overthrow the proudest , stoutest sinner . Men are great in anger , who are little in power ; their hearts are good , I should say bad enough , speedily to ruine such as offend them ; but their hands are weak and straitned , that we may thank their want of power , not their patience for our preservation ; But God who is all power , is all patience ; he that can spurn the whole world into endless wo , more easily then all the men of the world can spurn a foot-ball into the water , forbeareth them year after year . 6. He doth not onely forbear , but also do men good . His goodness towards them is positive as well as privative ; he upholds them in their beings , protects them in their goings , supports them by his power , supplieth them by his providence , as well as forbear them by his patience . His enemies are hungry , he feeds them ; they are thirsty , he gives them drink . He gives them that corn , and wine , and oyl which they bestow on Baal ; he bestows on them those mercies with which they fight against him ; he blesseth them with life , health , strength , food , raiment , sleep , reason , friends , peace , liberty , riches , honours , the Gospel , Sermons , Sabbaths , offers of pardon and life , whilst they persist in their provocations against him . He is at infinite cost and charge night and day , in sending provision into the camp of his enemies . 7. He woeth us to be reconciled . He doth not onely command and enjoyn rebellious man to throw down his weapons of unrighteousness , but even prayeth and entreateth him with much importunity , to accept of peace and pardon ; As though God did beseech you by us , we pray you in Christs stead , be ye reconciled to God. He is earnest and instant by his Ministers , by the motions of his spirit , by the calls and convictions of conscience , that he might perswade miserable men to be happy , 2 Cor. 5. 15 , 20. 2 Chron. 36. 15 , Isaiah 65. 2. and 42. 14. I have stretched out my hand all the day long to a rebellious house , that have walked in a way that is not good . 8. He doth all this , without any expectation of advantage to himself ; He gains not by our holiness , neither is he a loser by our wickedness ; The arrows of sin are always too short to reach him , and he is so high that he is far above our highest service , our blessings and praises ; infinite perfection admits of no addition ; Can a man be profitable to God , as he that is wise may be profitable to himself ? Is it any pleasure to the Almighty , that thou art righteous , or is it gain to him that thou makest thy ways perfect ? He begs as hard as if it were for his own life , but it is wholly for ours ; He loseth not the least , if we be lost ; he saves nothing by our salvation ; It s all one to the Sun whether men open their eyes and are refreshed with its light , or shut their eyes and behold nothing of its glorious splendour . 9. He forbeareth us , who is infinitely our Superior ; It were much for a King to bear with a affronts from a vile Beggar ; but it s infinitely more for the King of Kings to bear with indignities and treasons , and malice , and hatred , from his vile creatures . O the patience of a God! man cannot suffer a disrespect from his fellow ; but God doth from them that are infinitely his inferiours . The Apostles were good men , yet upon a little disrespect from some of the same make and mold with themselves , they presently call for fire from heaven ; what patience and goodness is then in God , who beareth with such innumerable and notorious affronts , from his Slaves and Vassals , from them that in comparison of him are much lesse then nothing ! 10. He warneth before he striketh ; He threatens that he might not punish , and thundereth with his voice , that he might not overthrow us with his hand ; He shoots off his warning peices , that he might spare his murthering peices . Men that are set upon revenge , are silent . When Absolon resolved on the destruction of Ammon , he spake not a word to him , either good or bad ; but God tells men fully what is intended against them by his justice , that it might be prevented by their fitness for mercy . That bitterest cup of threatnings , hath the sweet of love at the bottom . 11. He punisheth temporally , that he might spare eternally ; When he is forced to strike , he ●seth the rod , that he might not use the ax ; We are chastened of the Lord , that we might not be condemned with the world ; He forceth tears in this world , to prevent eternal weeping ; how many a mans way doth he hedge up with thorns , that he might not find the path to eternal death . 12. He is thus patient towards men , who did not wait at all on Angels ; The Angels were more noble creatures , and able to have done him more and better service then man ; yet when they sinned , he did not wait a moment for their repentance ; but he stretcheth out his hand all the day long to man ; He that would not wait upon disloyal Courtiers , waits upon rebellious Beggers . Consider the causes of it . The moving cause , is his own gracious nature ; Men forbear punishing Malefectours , sometimes because they are related to them , sometimes from hope of advantage by them , sometimes because they are afraid of them ; but God forbears none upon any such grounds . His goodness is the onely string that tieth his hand from striking ; Yea , many years didst thou forbear them , for thou art a gracious and a merciful God , Neh. 9. 30 , 31. The Final Cause is manifold . 1. That he might exalt his great name ; It s light straw , that upon the least spark takes fire ; The discretion of a man deferreth his anger , and it s his glory to pass by infirmities ; Mean and low spirits are most peevish and passionate ; Sickly and weak persons , are observed to be the most impatient ; God makes his power known , when he endureth with much long suffering , the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction ; He intendeth the advancement of his praise , in the lengthening of his patience ; For my names sake will I defer mine anger ; for my praise will I refrain for thee , that I out thee not off , Isa. 48. 2. That sinners might amend ; He is patient , that men might not perish ; The Lord is not slack , as some men count slackness , but is long suffering to us-ward , not willing that any should perish , but that all should come to repentance ; He defers their execution , that they might sue out their pardons . The Lord waiteth ( not that he might be blessed in himself , but ) that he may be gracious to sinners . 3. That impenitent sinners might be left without excuse . If sinners that are turned out of the womb into hell , will justifie God ; surely those up●on whom he waited twenty , or thirty , or forty , or fifty years for their conversion , will condemn themselves ; if all mouths shall be stopped , then they that tasted so largely of forbearing mercy , may well be silent . O how little will they have to say for themselves upon whom grace waited so many years , knocking hard at the door of their hearts for acceptance , and they refused to open to it , or bid it come in . How justly will they suffer long in the other world , to whom God was so long-suffering to no purpose in this world , Rom. 4. 2. How fully , O my soul , doth the Scripture mention this patience of thy God! The Lord passed by , and proclaimed his name , the Lord , the Lord God , gracious , long suffering . Though sinners trie his patience by their heaven-daring provocations , yet the Lord is gratious , slow to anger , and of great kindness ; Oftentimes they do their utmost to kindle the fire of his anger , but many a time turned he away his anger , and did not stir up all his wrath . What monuments of his patience , hath he reared up in his word ! It is also written in broad letters in his works ; He bore with the Iews , after their unparalleld murder of his own Son , above forty years . The old world had larger experiences of his ●orbearance ; My Spirit shall not always strive with man , yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years . The Egyptians , though cruel persecutors of his own people , that were as dear to him as the apple of his eye , yet were suffered four hundered years ; He beareth with men , till he can no longer forbear ; The woman with child is forced , though she hold out long , to fall in labour at last ; I have long time holden my peace , I have been still , and refrained my self ; now will I cry like a travailing woman , Isa. 42. 14. O thou dear friend of mankind , that thou wert imprinted in my thoughts , engraven in my heart , and always before mine eyes ! O my soul , Consider this long suffering of thy God , till thou tastest some rellish of its sweetness ; This name of thy God , is as oyntment poured out , which yeildeth a refreshing fragrancy ; Hath it been all thy days so near thee , and done so much for thee , and wilt thou not give it some warm entertainment within thee ? Hast thou not infinite cause to cry out , God! As soon as thou wast conceived , thou wast corrupted ; before thou wast born , sin w●● brought forth in thee ; thy God might have turned thee out of thy mothers belly , into the belly of hell ; divels might have been the Midwife to deliver thy mother of such a monster , and their dungeon of darkness the first place in which thou didst breath ; yet he who might have caused eternal death to have trodden upon the heels of thy natural birth , spared thee . Had he then suffered the roaring lions , his executioners , to have dragged thee to their own den , he had got himself glory , and prevented much dishonour , which thou hast since brought to his name . As thou didst grow up , sin grew up in thee , and patience grew up with thee . Numberless ha●● thine iniquities been , and his advantages for thy destruction , yet he hath forborn thee . What hath he got by all his long-suffering towards thee ? He might have ruined thee , to his eternal honour ; but his forbearance hath seemed to impair the revenues of heaven . Wicked men question his power , and good men quarrel with his providence , and all because of his patience ; When some sinners are hanged on Gibbets , as spectacles of his justice , others are kept in the more awe ; but if judgement be not speedily executed , the hearts of the Sons of men are set in them to do mischief . The thanks that are usually paid him for his patience , are indignities and affronts ; The sleeping of vengeance , occasioneth the awakening of sin . Besides , their thoughts of him are the more prophane as well as their actions ; If he be patient towards the sinner , he is judged a party in the sin ; These things thou didst , and I kept silence , thou thoughtst that I was altogether such a one as thy self ; Because he is silent , they judge him consenting ; O my soul , may not thy God be well called , the God of all patience , when he aboundeth so much in it , though he be so great a loser by it ! Was not the patience of thy Redeemer on earth wonderful , in bearing such mockings , smitings on the cheek , spittings in his face , scourgings on his back ; But thy Redeemer in Heaven endureth more affronts every moment against his divine nature , then he did all his time of abode in this world , against his humane nature ; O why art thou no more warmed with it , and wondering at it ; Even a Saul was so affected with the forbearance of David , that he should spare his enemy when he had him in his hands , and might as easily have cut his throat as the skirt of his garment , that he lift up his voice and wept . And art not thou affected with the patience of thy God , in whose hand is thy life , and breath , and all thy comforts , who can with a glance of his eye , turn thee into the fiery furnace , against whom thou art an open traytour , and profest rebel , that he should spare thee so many years , and instead of heaping up judgements on thee , lade thee with his benefits ! Consider , 1. He is not patient towards all men , as he hath been towards thee . Some have found justice arresting them immediatly upon their contracting of new debts , and haling them presently to hell , upon the commission of their sin . There are those of the Serpents brood , that have been crushed in the egge , and others that have stayed longer , have been ripe for ruine , before they had attained their full age . Though the Creditour hath forborn thee five hundred talents , yet he hath not forborn some others five hundred pence ; wrath hath sometimes followed sin so close● , that it hath lodged where sin supped : Gehezis leprosie and lie were contemporary ; Absolons life and treason against his Father expired to●gether ; A sudden Thunder-bolt from Heaven , hath struck some into Hell without any fore-runner to give warning of it , yet thy God hath spared thee . 2. He that forbore thee who hast so often offended him , did not forbear Angels a moment , after they had once offended ; Behold the severity and goodness of God! towards Angels , the highest and noblest house of the creatures severity ; towards thee goodness ; He that stated those excellent natures in an irrecoverable condition of wo and misery upon their first fault , hath born with , and forborn thee after millions of affronts . 3. He that spares thee , did not spare his own Son ; The Son of God did no sooner stand in the place of sinners , but it pleased the Lord to bruise him , and to put him to grief , and to make his soul an offering for sin . Though he were free from sin , he was a man of sorrows , and thou who art little else then sin , hast not so much as tasted what such sorrows are ; Thy God hath forborn thee , a monster of rebellion and wickedness , when he would not in the least forbear him who was a miracle of obedience and dutifulness ; Nay , he did not spare him , that he might spare thee , and would not forbear him , because he intended to forbear thee . Wonder , O my soul , at this transcendent grace and goodness ; Is it possible for thee to consider how a sudden Arrow hath shot others dead on thy right and left hand ! how Angels themselves , upon their first breach of the divine law , were without any pity or forbearance reserved in chains of darkness , to the judgement of the great day ! Nay , how the Son of Gods boundless love , who never offended him , for becoming onely a surety for others sins , was without the least forb●arance arrested and forced to pay the utmost farthing ! and that thou who art a lump of lust , a sink of sin , an old enemy and traytour against the crown and dignity of the King of Heaven , after thousands and millions of provocations against Law and Gospel , Light and Love , Precepts and Promises , art to this day spared ! Canst thou I say , consider all this , and not be transported into an high and holy passion of love and admiration , at such unparalled patience ! Thou mayst well say with the holy Apostle , In me Jesus Christ hath shewed forth all long-suffering and patience , for an example to them that should hereafter believe on him unto life eternal . O my soul , what dost thou think of these things ! was ever patience represented in such lively , lovely colours ? Thou mayst now fully satisfie thy self in the reason of thine abode so many years on this side the unquenchable lake . Dost thou ask , Why was I not cut off from the womb , and hurried through the light of this world , to blackness of darkness for ever ? I answer , because thy God is patient . Dost thou ask , Though I was not as a poisonous viper , crusht to death ( as soon as brought forth ) with the foot of divine wrath , for the venome which was in me ; yet when I put it forth to the injury of others , and did spit it in the face of God himself , why was I spared ? I answer , because God is patient . Thou sinnest often , every day , every hour , in every thought , in every word , in every deed , and he spares as often , because He is patient . Thou reade●t of a season when the patience of the Saints doth especially triumph , Here is the faith and patience of the Saints ; This world is the stage , and this life is the time wherein the patience of thy God doth act its part , to the amazement of all judicious spectatours ; Here is the faithfulness and patience of thy God. O that I could affect and admire it , embrace and entertain it according to its worth ! O that my heart were filled with its warmth , my tongue with its praise , and my life with its end ! O thou that art so much in favour with God , and so great a friend to men , that thou wert engraven upon the palms of my hands , and thy walls were ever before me ! O that thy noble deeds , and what wonders thou hast wrought for the children of men , were written for the generations to come , that the people yet unborn might praise the Lord ! When , O when shall this patience of my God make a suitable impression upon my spirit ! I live upon it , I live by it , I had been a fire-brand of Hell at this moment , had it not been for it , yet how great a stranger am I to it ! It goeth with me when I walk abroad , it abides with me when I stay at home , it followeth me up and down day and night ; I am beholden to it for my life and all my mercies , for my present enjoyments , and future expectations ; yet● alas how little am I affected with it ! I wonder at the patience of some choice Christians , that hold their tongues when others revile them , and their hands when others assault them , and do not wonder at the patience of my God , when their injuries are nothing to his , either for nature or number ; and their patience to his far less then the smallest Drop to the Ocean . O my soul , how wilt thou be able to answer for this sensless stupidity ! Must the Candles of creatures be gazed at with amazement , and thy God alone be neglected ! Is a beam of the Sun worthy of such admiration , and not its glorious body worthy of much more ? Wilt thou not value a pearl of such infinite price , and disesteem all the meekness and forbearance of men , in comparison of the patience of thy God ? O where is thy judgement , that thou val●est so little such unsearchable riches , that thou dost not cry out , O the height , and depth , and length , and bredth of the forbearance of God ? Where are thy affections , that they do not cling about it , cleave to it , close with it , delight in its presence , and desire its continuance ? Where is thy heart , that it doth not taste its sweetness , smell its savour , love its gracious Author , and meditate on its precious nature , and pleasant effects night and day ? Where are my spiritual senses , that they are not conversant about so worthy an object ? I cannot open mine eyes , but I may behold it in every thing that is visible : The food , and raiment , and life , and health , and strength , and liberty , that I and others enjoy , present the patience of God unto me . Every friend I converse with , every drunkard and unclean person and atheist , yea , every man I meet , tells me , God is patient . The Oaths , and Curses , and Murthers ; and Adulteries , and Blasphemies , and Prophaness of wicked men cry aloud in mine ears , that God is patient . The persecutions , and oppressions , and prayers , and cries , and tears of good men , proclaim to my conscience , that God is patient . The Sabbaths and Ordinances , and seasons of grace , and offers of pardon and life , which both good and bad enjoy , speak plainly and distinctly , The Lord is patient . O that mine eyes could see it , mine ears hear it , my mouth taste it , my mind discern it , and my soul rell●sh it in all these ! O thou beautiful beam , darted from the Sun of Righteousness , that callest poor mortals to life , when they are at the brink of death , thou that art the wonder of glorious Angels , and glorified Saints , be thou unto me as a bundle of myrrhe , and a cluster of camphire always unto me ; let me love thee much for my own sake , because thou hast done so much for me , but most for the Lords sake , because he is all in all unto me . Well O my soul , how wilt thou requite the kindness thou hast received from this Patience of thy God! When Ahashuerus an Heathen had read and considered how Mordecai had saved his life , by discovering the two trayrours that sought to lay hands on the King , he cried out , What honour hath been done to Mordecai for this ? and could take no rest till he had given him some signal honour . Thou hast read ( for thy whole life is a Book written within , and without with it ) how the Patience of thy God hath saved thy life , the life of thy soul , when sin and Satan conspired together to take it away ; now wilt thou not say within thy self , What honour hath been done to the patience of God for this ? and be unsatisfied till thou hast done it some honour , for this good office it hath done thee . What love doth that friend deserve who saves thy life ! What esteem doth that hand of pity merit , that keeps thee out of the bottomless pit ! What thanks is that Messenger worthy of , that brings thee ( a condemned sinner ) certain news of a reprieve , and great hopes of a pardon ! Surely the respect thou owest to the patience of God ( which doth as much for thee as all this ) should be very great , especially considering thy disrespects formerly to the God of Patience have been very grievous . Lord , I acknowledge I have formerly much abused thy patience , u●ing it as an encouragement to prophaness , and turning thy grace into wantoness ; but now through thy strength , I will no longer despise the riches of thy forbearance , but be led through thy goodness to repentance . I know thou intendest it as a City of refuge to the penitent , not as a sanctuary to the presumptuous . O let me never make it a pillow for an hard heart , but a plaister for a wounded spirit . Let this servant of thine , and friend of mine obtain his errand , and accomplish the end for which thou hast sent him . Thou sparest me here that thou might spare me hereafter ; thou waitest upon me that thou mightst be gracious unto me ; and art long-suffering , because not willing that any should perish , but that all might come to repentance . O that therefore I might wait upon thee in all thy providences and ordinances for grace , that so thy long-suffering may be unto me salvation ! Thou hast told me , Though the sinner live an hundred years , and God prolong his days , yet it shall not go well with the wicked . His preservation is but a reservation to the sorer and greater destruction . Though thou sufferest long , thou wilt not suffer always ; and when thou strikest impenitent ones , the slowness of thy pace will be recompenced in the heaviness of thy hand . The longer the child of vengeance is in the womb of the threatning , the bigger it groweth , and the more pain it will put the sinner to , when it cometh to the birth of its execution . O how dreadful will my doom be , when thou comest to reckon with me for all thy patience , if I do not at this day prevent it by repentance ! If thy patience do not now make me bend , hereafter it will make me bleed ; It s a sweet friend , but a bitter enemy ; No fury like that which is extracted out of abused patience . T were far better to be sent from the Mothers breasts to everlasting burnings , then to live many years at the charge of patience , and then to die impenitent ; If I cause thee to suffer long now in vain , thou wilt cause me to suffer long in the other world , and the more dreadfully for thy long-suffering in this . Since thou art gracious and merciful , slow to anger , and of great kindness , O take me not away in thy long-suffering ; but give me to mind in this day of thy patience , the things that concern mine everlasting peace , that I may to eternity give thee honour and praise for thy wondrous and boundless patience , Amen . CHAP. VI. How a Christian may exercise himself to Godliness , on a Week-day from Morning to Night . FOurthly , Thy duty is to exercise thy self to Godliness , every Week-day . I have spoken in the first part , how a Christian may make Religion his business on a Lords-day ; I shall therefore in this place discover how he may do it on a Week-day . Every day with a godly man is an holy Sabbath to the Lord ; Godliness is not his holy days , or high days , but every days work ; and his exercise every part of every day ; I have enclined my heart to keep thy statutes ( not by fits and starts , but ) always unto the end , Psa. 119. 112. The Flower called Heliotropium or Turn-sol , turneth its face towards the Sun from morning to night , so doth the true Christian towards the Sun of righteousness . The Command of God is , Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long , Prov. 23. 17. And the carriage of holy men is answerable hereunto ; The twelve Tribes served God instantly day and night , Act. 26. 7. As the Angels , though they are imployed up and down in the world for the service of the Saints , yet they always behold the face of their Father ; so the Children of God , though they are occupied about civil and natural actions , are called hither and thither as their occasions are , yet they pass the whole time of their so●journing here in fear . That Watch is naught that goeth onely at first winding up , and standeth still all the day after ; that mans religion is little worth that , like Ep●raims goodness , is as a morning cloud or dew , which vanisheth away ere noon . The Rivers run ever towards the Sea , notwithstanding that hills , and rocks , and mountains interpose and force them to their winding Maeanders ; nay their compass about is not without profit , for they water those grounds in their passage through which they seemed to wander . The person that hath the living water of grace in him is always tending towards the Ocean of his happiness , notwithstanding his seeming diversions , by his worldly actions , and particular vocation ; nay he is doing good , and serving his God and his soul , as well as his family and body in those interjections . The wheel of a chariot , though it be in motion all the day , and turning about on the ground , yet it s but a small part of it that toucheth the earth at one time , the greatest part of it is always above it ; so the true Christian , though he be all the day busie about earthly affairs , yet it s but his body , his lesser part that is employed about them ; his soul , his affections , which are his greatest part are always about them . SECT . I. I Shall first offer thee two quickening Motives , and then acquaint thee wherein thy daily exercise to Godliness consisteth . 1 First , Consider , Any day may be thy last day , and therefore every day should be an holy day with thee ; I mean , not an holy day for play or recreat●on , but for the work of Religion . He that knoweth not how soon his Master will come and reckon with him , had need to be always employed about his Masters business : Because there is no time of life in which thou art secure from death , therefore every day of thy life thou oughtest to be about thy duty ; Prov. 27.1 . Boast not thy self of to morrow , thou knowest not what a day may bring forth . Every day is big-bellied , and hath more in the womb of it then any man knoweth ; he that salutes the morning with a smiling aspect , may bid the world good night for ever before the evening . The candle of thy life may be blown out on a sudden before its half burnt out . The Poets fable that Death and Cupid lodging together at an Inn exchanged arrows , whereby it hath since come to pass , that old men ●●ote , and young men die . Death cometh up to the young and strong ; old and weak men go down to Death . Thou mayst be called forth to that war in which there is no discharge , and not have an hours warning to prepare thy self for a march . Sturdy trees are overturned by an unexpected wind , lusty men by violent feavers , or outward accidents ; our enemies are strong , our earthly houses weak , the coming of our Landlord is unknown , the lease of our lives is uncertain , we are every moment liable to be ejected , and shall we not be so employed that our Lord when he comes may find us well-doing ? I remember I have in some Author read , that the invention of clocks was not primarily to mind us of the Suns posting in the heavens , but of our Lives passing on earth . It was Calvins reason for his unweariedness in his studies , when his friends urged against it the injury it did his body , Would ye have my Lord when he cometh find me idle ? It will be woful for that servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find doing evil , or doing nothing . But and if that servant say in his heart , My Lord delayeth his coming , and shall begin to beat the men-servants and maidens , and to eat , and drink , and be drunken ; The Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him , and in an hour when he is not aware , and will cut him asunder , and will appoint him his portion with unbelievers , Luk. 12. 45 , 46. In which words we may observe , 1. The sin of the unfaithful servant . 2. The severity of his Lord. In the sin , we may take notice ; 1. Of the nature of ; He b●ats his fellow-servants , and eats and drinks , and is drunken ; He gives himself up to all manner of wickedness ; He is unrighteous to his fellow-servants , he beats them ; and unfaithful to his Master , he abuseth his goods , he eats and drinks and is drunken . Sin doth not lie skulking in the ●ecret trenches of his heart , but appeareth boldly in the open field of his life . T is a sign an enemy hath great power when he sheweth himself openly . 2. The occasion of it ; His Plea for it ; His Lord delayeth his coming ; Because he hath not a speedy reward , he layeth aside all good works ; because of Gods gracious forbearance , he argueth a general acquittance for all his evil works . He makes bold to riot , because he is not called to a speedy reckoning . We tremble not at the noise of those Cannons which we fancy to be a great way off . That which is lookt upon at a distance seems small , and so is despised , though the same beheld near appears great , and terrifieth us . In the severity of the Lord , we may read , 1. How sore his judgement is ; He shall cut him asunder , and give him his portion among unbeleivers ; These two expressions speak the dreadfulness of his doom , though no words can speak fully how woful it is ; He shall cut him asunder ; An allusion to some tortures then in use amongst the Heathen , to shew the exquisite pain which his body shall suffer ; And give him his portion among unbeleivers . Because the hottest Hell is reserved for such , ( The wrath of God abideth on them , Joh. 3. ult . ) to note the extream punishment which his soul shall undergo . 2. How sudden it is ; unexpected evils are most dreadful ; The Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him . Sudden frights overwhelm the spirits ; Those miseries which seen at some distance , have been entertained with patience , surprising men on a sudden , have ●triken them into despair ; Death comes sometimes like a Thief up into our windows ; coming in at the door is ordinary , but coming in at the window is unlookt for , Ier. 19. 21. As the snare secretly and unexpectedly seiseth the silly Bird , so doth a day of death the simple Children of men , Luk. 21. 35. Our Saviour speaks of his coming in the second or third watch of the night ( which the Jews called , Intempestum & Gallietnium ) not in the first and fourth ) because saith Theophilact , they are the dead time of the night , when men are in their soundest sleep , to shew us how suddenly and unexpectedly he shall surprise most men , Luk. 12. 38. Reader , This present days work may be the last act of thy life , it behoveth thee therefore to do it well . When thou art in thy Closet , thou mayst think with thy self , I may possibly never pray more , never read the word of God more ; how reverently , uprightly , graciously , should I therefore pray and read ? When thou art eating or drinking , or refreshing nature , thou mayst consider , for ought I know , this may be the last time that I may use these creatures of God , how fearful should I be of abusing them ? how should I eat my bread as before the Lord. When thou art in thy Shop , or about thy calling , thou mayst ponder this ; Possibly my last sand is running , and I must this day bid adieu for ever to Wares and Shops , and Flocks and Fields , and all civil commerce ; O how heavenly should I be about these earthly affairs ! How spiritual about these temporal things ! Who would not do his last work well ! Ah how holy should he be at all times , who hath cause every moment to expect the coming of an holy and jealous God , to call him to an account ! Secondly , 2 Consider , Gods eye is all the day long upon thee , and therefore thou hadst need to be all the day long in his a●e . It was a frequent speech of Seneca , Vbicunque eo , quodcunque ago , Demetrium circumfero ; Wheresoever I go , whatsoever I do , I carry Demetrius along with me ; Thou mayst upon better grounds say ; Whatsoever I think , or speak , or act , wheresoever I go , whither to my Closet , or Shop , or Field , or Neighbours Houses , I have an holy jealous God along with me . Thou mayst write over every room which thou enterest into , Thou God seest me , and call it by the like name which Hagar did the Well , Beer●la-haroi ; The Well of him that liveth and seeth me : Thou hast in all the passages of the day , that God with thee , who takes notice of , and will reckon with thee for every passage ; Thou mayst call every place thou comest into , Bethel , or Penuel , I have seen God in this house , or , God is in this place . He is not like Iupiter of Creet , whom some pictured without ears , and publish never to be at leasure to take notice of small matters . He is all eye , all ear ; He observeth the greatest , the smallest things and actions ; As the Optick vertue in the eye , he seeth all , and is seen of none ; Cicero tells us , the King of Lydaea had a ring , which when he turned the head of it to the palm of his hand , he was invisible to others , and yet others were visible to him . The eyes of the Lord are in every place , beholding the evil and the good , though none hath seen God at any time , nor can see him . As a well-drawn picture , which way soever you turn your self , it seems to have its eye still upon you , and to follow you ; God doth that really , which the Picture doth seemingly ; he beholds every person , and every action , with so direct a face , as if he beheld none or nothing else . Reader , It concerns thee to be every day pious , who art all the day long in so holy a Gods presence ; I have kept thy precepts , saith David , for all my ways are before thee , Psa. 119. 68. The Scholar will ply his Book when his Master is present , though he play and prate in his absence . The Thief will not steal when the Iudge looketh on ; He that was accused to force the Queen before the Kings face , had a Gallows for his end . If the eye of good or great men will prevail with us to be handsom and comely in our behaviour and carriage ; how holy should they always be , that are ever in the presence of the infinite God , who is cloathed with Majesty , as with a garment , and who is so holy , that the Heavens are unclean in his sight ! If a King sitting upon his throne , s●attereth evil with his eye , how much more should the eye of a God! Prov. 15. The Sun locally in Heaven , is virtually on Earth ; its light , heat , influence over-spreadeth the face of Sea and Land ; He that shuts his eyes , and will not see the light of it , doth feel its heat and influence ; Its presence scattereth Clouds , and Mists , and Fogs ; Though Gods glorious and most joyful presence be in Heaven , his real , essential and gratious presence is on earth ; they who put out the eyes of their reason and conscience , and will not see him , do yet feel him in their beings and bles●ings , for in him they live and move and have their beings ; Shall not his presence disperse those clouds of sin , which would obscure his glory , and hinder the light of his countenance from shining on us ? SECT . II. AS to the exercising thy self to Godliness on a week-day ; though what I have write in former Chapters , in this and the two former Parts , hath much prevented me , yet I shall commend to the Reader , six particulars . First , Begin the day with God ; Never expect a good day , unless you begin with a good duty ; He hath the best good-morrow , who meets Ged first in the morning . Though some sunshiny mornings are overcast before night , yet the Heavens are usually all day clear to him that sets out early in the way of Gods commandements . The mind retains a tincture all day , of its first serious exercise in the morning . When the right Watch or Clock is wound up well in the morning , it will be regularly going and moving all day after . He that loseth his heart in the morning in a throng of worldly affairs , seldom finds it to purpose in any part of the day ; It was the hono●r of Rusticu● , that though Letters were brought him from Caesar , he refused to open them till the Philosopher had done his lecture ; Surely the worship of the blessed God is of more worth in it self , and of more concernment to us , then any moral Philosophical Doctrines to him , or any affairs whatsoever , and therefore ought to be first minded and performed . As soon as thou awakest , lift up thine heart to Heaven ; Great and Noble persons are usually first served . Though others that are our inferiours wait out leisure , our Superiours have the precedency of our time ; Let the first Messenger thou sendest forth , be sent to the Lord of thy life , to present thy humble service and thanks to him for his providence over thee and the rest , and refreshment he hath afforded thee the last night . Thou mayst say with the Psalmi●t , I laid me down and slept , I awaked , for the Lord sustained me ; For except the Lord keepeth the City , the watchman waketh but in vain . He giveth his beloved sleep , Psa. 3. 5. and 127. 1 , 2. Be mindful also in some short ejaculation , to beg his guidance , protection , and blessing all the ensuing day . For 't is he that can make an hedge about thee , thine house and all that thou hast ; If he bless the work of thine hands , thy substance will increase in the Land , Iob 1. 10. This small taste of ejaculatory prayer , will quicken thine appetite after a full meal of ●et and solemn devotion ; If thou canst after this keep thy mind intent , whilst thou art dressing thy self on some divine subject , thou wilt be much the more fit for thy secret duties , and in a fair way to walk with thy God all the day . The next thing I would advise thee to , or rather C●rist enjoyneth ; Enter into thy Closet , and when thou hast shut thy Door , pray to thy Father which is in secret , and thy Father which seeth in secret , shall reward thee openly : Here is , 1. A Precept to secret prayer , Pray to thy Father in secret ; The Priest was every morning to renew the Fire on the Altar , and to offer Sacrifice ; And they offered burnt-offerings unto the Lord , even burnt-offerings morning and Evening ; And they offered the daily burnt-offerings offerings by number , according to the custome , as the duty of every day required , Ezra . 3. 3 , 4. So also in Davids time , Asaph and his Brethren ministred before the Ark continually , as every days work required , 1 Chron. 16. 33. Solomon took after his Father , 2 Chron. 8. 14. And what is the substance of those shadows , but that Christians who are a spiritual Priest-hood , should every day have their solemn Morning and Evening addresses to God , and offer up holy sacrifices , acceptable to God in Iesus Christ. Davids purpose was to be early at prayer . O God , my voice shalt thou hear in the morning , in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee , and will look up . And his practice was answerable ; I prevented the dawning of the morning , and cried , Psa. 5. 3. and 119. 147. He was up before the day , and risen and at work before the Sun ; Nay , he tells God , In the morning shall my prayer prevent thee ; As if he would be at his prayer before God were stirring and going abroad ; But surely we cannot rise so early but God is awake before us , for he that keepeth Israel , never slumbereth nor sleepeth ; His eyes are ever waking , who holdeth sometimes , our eyes waking ; But David meaneth rather , that his prayers should prevent Gods servants , his severest or most solacing providences , not God himself ; He would send a Messenger with Petitions or Thanksgivings to God , before God should send any Messenger with good or bad tidings to him ; he would be too early either for crosses or comforts . 2. The Promise to secret Prayer ; And thy Father which seeth in secret , shall reward thee openly ; God heard Paul in the Dungeon , as well as Peter on the House top ; The Sun of Righteousness looks as well into the narrow Closet Casement , as into the large Church Windows ; Secret prayers are audible to him that made the ear ; As he bottleth up our secret tears , so he registreth our secret prayers ; Though the Ark was close on every side , that every man might not look into it , yet it had a Window open to Heaven . As the Flowers open themselves in the morning , to take in the sweet influences of the Sun , so should the Christian open his heart in the morning , to receive a blessing from the Father of lights . Mary went early in the morning , to the Sepulchre of Jesus , and had the honour and favour to have the first sight of him , after his resurrection ; Many a Saint hath had a blessed vision of the glorified Saviour in a morning prayer . Knowest thou not , O man , saith Ambrose , that thou owest the first fruits of thine heart and voice to God ? therefore meet the Lord at the Sun rise , that the Sun rising may find thee ready . It s reported of Cardinal Wolsey , that though he was Lord Chancellour , and had great and weighty employments , yet he would not go abroad any morning , before he had heard two Masses ; I wish the Popish Mattin● did not shame● the Protestants for their sluggishness , and their frequent omissions . T is much that some should be so diligent at their blind devotion , which comes to nothing , and others that have experience , how profitable their spiritual trade is , so backward to it , and careless about it . Gods mercies prevent us early , and therefore our prayers should prevent him . His going forth is prepared as the morning , he satisfieth us early with his mercies , that we may rejoyce and be glad all our days , Hosea 6. 3. Psa. 90. 14. If his mercies are renewed on us every morning , our acknowledgements may well be renewed unto him . Every favour makes us debtors , and all the pay he expects is thanks ; If any man should every morning send us ( who have little of our own to live upon . ) very considerable presents , we should esteem our selves very uncivil and unworthy , if we should not as often return him our service and thanks , and sense of his kindness . How great and how many are the mercies with which our God loadeth us every morning , and are we not sordidly ungrateful if we neglect the acknowledgement of them ! Our ordinary mercies are of extraordinary merit , and deserve hearty thanks . The damned ( could we speak with them ) would tell us , that life , a naked abode on this side Hell , were an infinite mercy . The si●k , and such as are troubled with continual Aches , or tortured with the Stone , or Gout , or Collick , would tell us that health is a great mercy . The Blind , and Lame , and Deaf , would tell us that Limbs and Senses are a great mercy ; The Hungry , and Naked , and Houseless , and Friendless , would tell us that Food and Raiment , and Habitations , and Friends , are great mercies ; Poor Prisoners , and such as are vexed with cruel Wars , and forced to flie before their enemies , will tell us that liberty and peace are great mercies . The Saints in Heaven , could we speak with them , would tell us , the Patience of God , the Gospel of our Salvation , the tenders of Grace , are inestimable mercies , and do not all these , which every morning are ( notwithstanding our notorious abuse , and frequent forfeitures ) renewed upon us , deserve our solemn and sincere thanks every morning ? The Jews , some tell us , are bound to say over an hundred Benedictions every day , and among the rest these two , when they go out in the morning ; Blessed be he that created the greater light , and when they come in at evening , Blessed be he that caused darkness ; David was frequent at this duty , I will bless the Lord at all times , his praise shall be continually in my mouth . Seven times a day do I praise thee , because of thy righteous judgements , Psa. 34. 1. and 119. 164. It is a Motto , say some , often repeated in Mercers Chappel , Think , and Thank . Our many wants and necessities , command us to be every morning at Heavens Gate for supply ; We are needy indigent creatures , and must get our living wholly by begging ; all the day long , we want forbearing , preserving , supporting mercy . It must be Divine power , that must enable us to follow our callings , to stir or move about our business , that must defend and protect us in our out-goings and incomings , and prosper and succeed our undertakings ; God alone can shield us from spiritual and corporal enemies , that can supply us with inward and outward good things , and surely such blessings are worth asking . They who will have mercies that are not of the growth of their own Country , Earth , must send thither ( to Heaven ) where they are to be had . Prayer , like the Patriarchs , and Solomons good House-wife , fetcheth our food from far ; As the Merchants Ships , it supplieth us with commodities of all sorts , from forraign Countries . No mercies hang on so low a bough , as to be pulled to us , and gathered by our own armes , therefore it behoveth us to beg , Give us this day our daily bread ; Besides our dangers and difficulties every day are many , and call us to be early and earnest at this duty . Our callings , every company , all earthly affairs are snares , and temptations to us , unless they are sanctified by prayer . It s not safe to drink of those streams wherein so many poisonous creatures dip their venemous heads , unless this Vnicorn hath healed them . They who walk abroad without prayer , may fear they walk abroad without Gods Protection ; Oratio matutina clavis diei ; Morning prayer is the key of the day , which openeth the treasury of divine bounty , and locketh the soul up in safety . A Prayerless person goeth all day unarmed , and may expect many wounds from that hellish crew , that lye always in ambush to destroy him ; The neglect of this pass , gives Satan a great advantage to take the City ; When Saul had left off calling at Heavens gate , the next time you hear of him is , knocking at ( a Witches , at ) the Divels door . Prayer is one of the great ordinances that batters down the strong holds of the Devil ; hence he sets his wits at work , to divert men from it . It is the Souls armour , and Satans terrour ; he that knoweth how to use this holy spell aright , need not fear but he shall fright away the Devil himself . The Lord Jesus , when he marcht out against the powers of darkness , and was to fight with them hand to hand , armed himself before-hand with prayer , ( Luk. 3. 21 , 22. ) not onely for his own protection , but also for a pattern to us . Every day we walk in the midst of enemies , which are both mighty and crafty , and will watch all advantages to undo us ; and should we go amongst them without prayer , we are sure to become their prey . It s too late to wish for weapons , when we are engaged in a Battel ; Caesar cashierd that Souldier , who had his armour to furbish and make ready , when he was called to fight . The moral of the Fable is good ; The Boar was seen , whetting his Teeth , when no enemy was near to offend him , and being asked the reason , why he stood sharpening his weapons when none was by to hurt him ; he answered , It will be too late to whet them when I should use them ; therefore I whet them before danger , that I may have them ready in danger . Another duty that concernes thee in secret , is to read some portion of the Word of God. The Work-man must not go abroad without his Tools . The Scripture is the Carpenters Rule , by which he must square his building ; the Tradesmans Scales , in which he must weigh his commodities ; The Travellers Staff , which helpeth him in his journey : There is no acting safely , unless we act scripturally ; Bind it continually upon thy heart , and tie it about thy neck ; When thou goest it shall lead thee , when thou sleepest it shall keep thee , when thou wakest it shall talk with thee ; For the commandement is a lamp , and the law is light , and reproofs of instruction are the way of life , Prov. 6. 21 , 22 , 23. The Lawyer hath his Littleton or Cook , which he consulteth ; The Physitian hath his Galen or Hippocrates , with which he adviseth ; The Scholar ha●h his Aristotle ; The Souldier his Caesar ; And the Christian his Bible , that Book of Books , to which all those Books are but as a course list , to a fine cloth , and scarce worthy to be wast paper for the Binder to put before this to shelter it ; This will teach the Lawyer to plead more effectually then Cicero , when undertaking the cause of Quint●● Ligarius , one of Caesars enemies , he did by the power of his Oratory , make Caesar his Soveraign to tremble , and often to change colour ; and when he described the Battel of Pharsalia , caused him to let his books fall out of his hand , as if he had been without spirits and life , and forced him against his will , to set Ligarius at liberty ; this will teach him so to plead , as to prevail with , and overcome God himself . This will teach the Physitian to work greater cures then ever AEsculapius wrought , to produce more strange and rare effects then the most powerful natural causes . The Weapon-salve , and most extraordinary cures that ever have been wrought , are nothing to the healing a vitiated nature by the spirit , and a wounded conscience by the blood of Christ , which have been frequently done by the Word of God. It hath opened the eyes of the blind , abated the dropsie of pride , softned the stone in the heart , stopped a bloody issue of corruption , healed the falling-sickness or back-sliding , and raised the dead to life , He sendeth his Word and healeth them , Psa. 107. 20. The waters issuing out of the Sanctuary , are healing waters ; Ezek. 47. 9. This will teach the Scholar , to know more then the greatest Naturalists , or then the Delphick Oracle could enable him to , though it told him his duty , even to know himself ; It is a Glass , clean and clear , wherein he may plainly see the spots , and dirt , and deformity of his heart and life ; It will teach him to know the only true God , and Iesus Christ whom he hath se●t , whom to know is life eternal ; This will teach the Souldier how to war a good warfare , how to fight the Lords Battails against the Prince of Darkness , and all his adherents , and over all , to be more then a Conquerour ; There is no Guide , no Counsellor , no Shield , no Treasure ( among all the Books that ever were written ) comparable to the Scripture ! It is reported , that a certain Iew should have poisoned Luther , but was happily prevented by his Picture , which was sent to Luther with this warning , from a faithful friend , That he should take heed of such a man when he saw him ; by which Picture he knew the Murtherer , and escaped his hands ; the Word of God discovereth the face of those lusts in their proper colours , which lie ready in our callings● in all companies , in our goings out , and comings in , to defile us , and which Satan would employ to destroy us ; By them is thy servant forewarned , saith David , Psa. 19. 11. By reading and applying it , we may know their visage , and prevent their venome ; by the words of thy mouth , I have kept my self from the paths of the destroyer . Cyprian would let no day pass without reading of Tertullian , nor Alexander without reading somewhat in Homer ; Shall the Christian let a morning pass without an inspection into the Word of Christ ! As God commanded Moses to come up into the Mount early in the morning , with the two Tables in his hand ; So Reader , he commandeth thee to give him a meeting every morning , with the two Testaments in thy hand . After the refreshment of nature ( about which I have given thee directions else-where , and therefore shall omit it here ) it will be requisite that thou shouldst call thy family together , and worship the blessed God with them ; Our Relations , namely , Children and Servants have mercies bestowed on them , wants to be supplied , dangers to be prevented , natures to be sanctified , souls to be saved , as well as our selves , and therefore must not be neglected . Some tend and feed the souls in their families on the Lords day , and starve them all the week after , but herein they are guilty of dishonesty and unfaithfulness ; They rob God of the service which is due to him from all in their house joyntly ; They wrong the souls in their families , by not allowing them the liberty , at least by not calling and causing them to hear the voice , and seek the face of God with others ; And they injure themselves most by being false to their trust . Should they feed the bodies of their Children and Servants on the Lords-days , and make no provision for them on the week-days , their consciences would flie in their faces and tell them , they were inhumane and unnatural ; and yet they can omit all regard of their immortal souls , which are far more worthy of care and tendance , without remorse and sorrow . I must tell such persons , that if Atheism had not the predominancy in their hearts , it would not bear such sway in their houses ; Such men are like Swine with their Pigs ( as if all their noses were nailed to the trough in which they feed ) they look not up to the God of their food , and of all their comforts . Such Children and Servants will in the other world find cause to curse the time that ever they knew such Fathers and Masters . Others there are ( some of whom I hope to be godly , though not in this particular ) that pray in their families every night , but omit morning duties . As if God were the God of the night , and not of the day , as the Syrians blasphemously affirmed that he was God of the Hills , but not of the Vallies . These as Austin speaks of those that wo●ship the Moon , are Atheists by day , as they that worship the Sun , are Atheists by night ; The day is thine , the night also is thine , thou preparest the light and the Sun , Psa. 74. 16. Surely , though evening Sacrifice ought to be minded , yet there is as much , if not more reason for morning duties . A man at night in his Chamber , is like a Souldier in his Garrison , subject onely to the unavoidable and more immediate hand of God , whereas in the day when he stragleth abroad from his quarters , to fetch in his supplies , he is then exposed to many unexpected casualties , and unthought of accidents . Family perils and dangers , every day call for family prayers and duties every morning ; Family favours and kindnesses , every night call for family thanks and acknowledgements every day . When many are joyned in a Bond , they go often together to see the money paid ; All in a Family joyn in borrowing domestical mercies , therefore they must all joyn in paying hearty praises . Reader , if thou art Governour of a Family ; Consider , that thou canst not faithfully serve God as a Commander , unless thou takest care that all the persons under thy power , do their duties in their places . The Lord of Hosts will never thank that Officer who is careful to sight for him in his own person , but suffereth his Company , through his carelesness , to fall away to the enemy . Do not pretend Servants are abroad , or scattered here and there about their imployments , and are not at leasure ; but answer ; 1. Art thou and thy servants contented to go all day without Gods protection and provision ? Without question thou art most unworthy of them , that dost not think them worth asking . Surely , God may as well say he hath no leasure , he hath other employment then to defend , and feed , and preserve thee , as thou , that thou hast no leasure to serve him . 2. Dost not thou , and do not thine , squander away more time idly and vainly , then need to be taken up in morning duties ? 3. Do not Children and Servants come together every morning to feed their bodies , and why not to feed their souls ? 4. If any man should make use of thy Goods , or Servants , of thy Time , without leave , thou wouldst take it very ill at their hands ? Thou art Gods , and all that thou hast ; may not God therefore take it unkindly that thou shouldst dispose of thy self and thine affairs without his leave ? 5. Is it not plain Atheism , and horrid disrespect to the blessed God , to put thy self or them under thy roof upon worldly imployments , without asking his providence and blessing ? Is it not too plain a speaking , that there is no such need of him , that thou canst do well enough without him ? 6. Thou wilt not say that thou and thine have no leasure in the morning to plough or sow , or buy and sell , o● follow earthly affairs ; and why not leasure as well to serve and worship the Lord ? His worship is of greater worth , of greater weight ; It is of more necessity , it concerns thine endless bliss in the other world ; It will bring in the greatest profit ; In the doing of his commands there is great reward . Dost thou not believe that he is a better pay-master then the world ? 7. Art thou able to do any thing in any part of the day without his assistance ? Dost thou not depend every moment upon him for all thy motions and actions , and is he not worth acknowledging ? 8. Wilt thou say● Thou hast no time , no leasure to be saved , to escape Hell , and to attain Heaven ? I must tell thee , if thou hast no time to serve God , he will have no time to save thee . 9. Wilt thou stand to this Plea at the day of Christ ? When God shall ask thee ; Why thou and thy Family went abroad prayerless , and drowned your selves in worldly affairs , and were taken and torn by snares and temptations , and disowned him and his laws , as if they were not worth regarding ; Dost thou think it will be sufficient , then to answer ; Lord , I was a Knight , or a Squire , and though I had many servants , yet they had their several offices and employments , and could not spare time to pay that homage they owed to thy Majesty , to implore thy mercy , and to intreat an interest in the merits of thy son ; We had other things to look after , then thy beautiful Image , and the blessed vision of thy face for ever . Or , suppose thou art of an inferiour rank , canst thou imagine it will be a comfortable Plea to say , Lord , early in the morning my Children and Servants were called to tend my S●op , or Flocks , or Cattel , or set upon some needful business or other , that they could have no leasure to mind their inestimable souls , or to approach thy glorious Majesty in holy ordinances ! O blush , Reader , if thou art guilty of morning omissions , and either cast away thy frivolous pretences , and set upon the duty , or else stand to thy foolish pleas , and try whether they will bear weight at the great and terrible day of the Lord Jesus ; but remember in the mean time , that thou hast had one warning more . I have written somewhat largely about family duties , in the first Part , and therefore had intended onely to have saluted them in this place , and so to have left them ; but observing how some families , even where governous are judged to fear God , are without morning ( though not without evening ) sacrifices , I dwelt the longer upon it , to quicken them to this duty , that they might be able to say with Abijah ; The Lord is our God , and we burn incense , and offer sacrifice every morning and evening unto him , 2 Chron. 13. 10 , 11. SECT . III. SEcondly , Spend the greatest part of the day in thy particular calling ; He that mindeth not his Closet before his Shop , is an Atheist ; and he that mindeth not his Shop after his Closet , is an Hypocrite ; The world is Gods great Family , and he will allow none in it to be idle . Though he distinguisheth some from the common Mass , and maketh them vessels of honour , as Superiours and Officers in his house , yet to every one he committeth some Talent or other , and commandeth them to trade till he come . The ancient Massilians would admit no man into their City , who had not a good trade , knowing what pests and plagues such are to the people among whom they dwell . He that is void of , or negligent in his calling , is at best as a snail ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the Septuag . Domiporta according to the Latines ) keeping house , and unprofitable ; But usually such a one is mischeivous , and may not unfitly be compared to Kites that flie lazing up and down , scarce moving their wings , making a querulous complaining noise , filching their food out of the shambles or warrens , or out of Childrens hands by force . Idleness is usher to murmuring and the●ving . He quickly learns to do ill , by doing that which is next to ill , nothing . The Air when still , corrupts and putrifieth . Wheat if not stirred , groweth musty and unwholsom for mans body . The earth if not tilled , breeds thorns ; Milstones if there be no grist , wast and wear out themselves . The soul needeth exercise as well as the body , to preserve it in health . Action keeps the soul sweet and clean . T is no wonder that persons are almost choacked with the flegm of corruption , that deny themselves the benefit and advantage of Motion , that they do not thrive who refuse to trade . It s a worthy speech of holy Master Boultons , He is a cursed drone , a child of idleness , the very Tennis ball of temptation , most unworthy the blessings and benefits of humane society , who doth not one way or other cooperate and contribute to the common good , with his best endeavours , in some honest particular calling . Iob saith , Man is born to labour ; but how many Gentlemen sing the rich fools requiem to their souls ; Soul , take thine ease , thou hast goods laid up for many years , till at last they come to his end , and that place where there is no ease day nor night for ever and ever ; but as a bone out of joynt , so is a good man out of his calling . The Sons of the Husbandman in the Fable , being told by their Father on his Death-bed , that he had left much gold buried in his Vineyard , fell presently a digging and delving with diligence , whereby they obtained , though not the gold they sought for , yet a rich Harvest , by stirring the mold about the roots of the Trees . In all labour there is profit , Eccles. 5. Though the Christian doth not ever by diligence in his calling , reap that gold of outward profit ( which is promised conditionally so far as God seeth fit for him ) in this world , yet he reaps peace and comfort in the discharge of his duty , and prevents temptations , by being imployed about other things . It s in vain for any to pretend that they are so busie in praying , and reading , and hearing , and holy duties , that they cannot attend their particular callings ; for the same God that calls them to spiritual traffique , commands them their temporal trades , and hath allotted them sufficient time for both . He doth the Devil too great a courtesie , who makes the Commands of God to quarrel and clash one against another ; If Satan can prevail with men to neglect their callings whole days together , and leave their families declining , and almost starving through their idleness , for private fasting and praying , he never fears the good such a man shall get by all that devotion , which is ( as Paul speaks of himself ) born out of due time ; He knoweth God doth not usually send in blessings at such back-doors , and that he is provoked as truly by leaving our Shops , when our callings require our company , as by passing by our Closets , when he calls us in to speak with us there . The best food may prove unwholsom and burthensom to the stomach , if a fit season for taking it , be not observed ; Our best duties , like some Children , are utterly lost by being brought forth before their time . The Roman General said , Non amo nimium diligentem , I love not them that are too diligent ; meaning them that leave their own callings , and are busie-bodies in others . God loves not such over-diligent , nor any negligent ones . As he commandeth our dependance on him for a blessing , so he commandeth our diligence in our several places . But having also treated largely of the Christians carriage in his particular calling , in the first part , how he should undertake it in obedience to the divine command , follow it with an heavenly heart , depend upon God for a blessing , I shall say no more here . Thirdly , Be watchful all the day long ; If thou wouldst walk safely , walk as one that hath his eyes in his head ; Ponder the paths of thy feet ; Every man walketh every day in the midst of traps and gins , and rubs and blocks ; now the secure person is as a blind man , stumbling at every stone . When a man goeth upon cords , straitned and fastned on high , it concerns him to look well to his footing , lest he totter and fall , and break his neck ; There is no Christian but walks as dangerously as he that danceth on the ropes , it behoves him therefore to walk Watchfully . The Children of God are called to be Souldiers , to fight a good sight of faith under Christ , the Captain of their salvation ; but Souldiers must be upon their guard , especially such as are encompassed on all sides , at all times , with enemies of all sorts . Should they who are the mark at which the world and Hell are continually shooting their fiery darts to destroy them , give themselves to sleep ? Watch ye , stand fast in the faith ; Quit your selves like men , 1 Cor. 16. 3. The Divel watcheth to devour us , and he is politique to insnare us , and shall we slumber ? Machiavel saith , A Prince ought to know the tempers of men , that he may fit them with baits , and wind them to his own ends ; Satan hath not waited on men , and observed them so long , but he knoweth the length of their feet , and can fit them to their will and wo ; as Agrippina the wife of Claudius , gave her Husband poison in that dish which he loved best ; so he can give them that meat which they love , with poison for its sance ; He is a Serpent for his subtlety , and can bait his hooks answerable to the love and liking of poor silly ●ish ; We read of his wiles , of his devices ; As the Camelion that lieth on the ground to catch Flies and Grashoppers , changeth himself into the colour of the grass , whereby they are deceived and caught ; So Satan can transform himself into any shape , even into an Angel of light , for a shift , that he may deceive and destroy . Though he appeared in the form of a Serpent to Eve , he appeared in the form of a Saint to the second Adam ; If he should be quiet , yet our own flesh is free and forward to pollute and pervert us . Were he at any time absent ( though I fear he never is , but watcheth us night and day more narrowly then ever Keeper did his Prisoner , for whose escape he was to die ) our own wicked hearts are his Deputy to supply his place , and dispatch his business effectually for him . Occasion , and our own corrupt natures seldom meet , but like two inordinate lovers , they sin and defile themselves together . The flesh is instead of a thousand traytours within the Garrison , conspiring to deliver it up into the enemies hands , who is resolved to give no quarter ; and is it not time for the Souldiers to be upon the guard , and to keep strict watch ? Though both Satan and the flesh should grant a truce or cessation for a few hours ( which they never did nor ever will ) yet the world like an Harlot is always watching , with her fair breasts of pleasure and profit , to allure us to folly . Like the Whore the wise man mentions , She is subtle of heart , and lieth in wait at every corner ; She catcheth the careless sinner and kisseth him , and with an impudent face , saith unto him , I have deckt my bed with coverings of Tapestry , with carved work , with fine linen of Egypt ; I have perfumed my bed with Myrrhe , Aloes , and Cynamon ; Come let us take our fill of love until the morning , let us solace our selves with loves ; With much fair speech she causeth him to yeild , with the flattering of her lips she enticeth him . He goeth after her straight way , as an Ox goeth to the slaughter , or as a Fool to the correction of the stocks ; Till a dart strike through his liver , as a Bird hasteth to the snare , and knoweth not that it is for his life . O what reason hast thou , Reader , to watch , who hast so many and such crafty and mighty adversaries , every moment to encounter with ! Watch and pray , lest you enter into temptation . Believe it , if thou sleepest , the enemy will sow tares . Watch thy self in thy Closet , good duties must not be done between sleeping and waking . Praying and Reading are not works that can be done nodding ; Therefore Christ saith , Watch and Pray ; and the Apostle , Continue in prayer , and watch in the same , Col. 4. 2. The Nightingale , that delights her self in h●r night songs , knowing if she should fall asleep , she should be a prey to night-birds , she keeps a thorn at her breast to keep her waking . Watch in thy family among thy Relations ; Thy Wife and Children may be Satans instruments to wound thee ; Abraham caused Sarah to dissemble ; Eve brought Adam to undo himself and all his posterity ; The nearer the person is to us , that dischargeth a piece at us , the likelier to hit , and the more dangerous the Bullet . Watch in thy shop , Satan lieth in ambush in every corner , sin in every counter , to defile and destroy thee . When thou art in company , when thou art alone , at bed , at boord , when thou goest out , when thou comest in , keep thy heart with all diligence , for under every pile of grass there is a Snail , under every fig-leaf ( as Cleopatra found to her cost ) there is a poisonous Asp , in every place there is a snare . Watch against the Occasions of Sin ; They who have a brand or a candle flaming in their hands , had need to beware of thatch and straw . If the flesh and opportunity , like Sechem and Dinah , meet together , they will not part ( unless there be the greater watchfulness ) before they are polluted . It s ill to parle with the wicked one . The French have a good Proverb , When the Spaniards talk of peace , then double bolt the door . The greatest wounds that were ever made in conscience , had at first but weak beginnings ; Davids horrid Murther and Adultery had their rise onely from a glance of his eye ; keep thee far from an evil matter , Exod. 23. 7. The Crocodile , say Naturalists , is no bigger at first then a Goose egge , and yet groweth to thirty Cubits ; An occasion of sin , embraced but a little , like a Thief in the Candle , insensibly makes sad work and waste . Watch especially against thy own sin ; This is , as the Phil●stines said of Sampson , The great destroyer of the Country ; The great destroyer of thy Conscience . Wise Governours of a Garrison besieged , will take care of every part of the wall , and repair the least decays thereof ; but if one gate be more likely to be entred then another , or if one part of the wall be weaker then another , they will be sure to set the strongest watch in that weakest place . Our Soul is our Garrison , committed to our trust by the Lord of Hosts , to be kept for his use and service ; Satan is our enemy that besiegeth it , to surprise it ; Sin is the Wall or Gate , by which alone he hopes to enter and destroy us . Our beloved sins , the sins of our Callings , or Conditions , or Constitutions , ( which we hug and cocker most , which none must touch or reprove , these ) are the weakest part of the Wall or Gate , and so require a stronger Watch and Guard ; Take heed and keep thy soul diligently , Deut. 4. 9. SECT . IV. FOurthly , Be careful to redeem time ; Look upon time as one of the most precious talents which thy God hath intrusted thee with , and which he will reckon with thee for , and therefore not to be vainly spent , or needlesly squandred away . They are worthy to be punished , that spend their gold and silver lavishly , and waste their estates prodigally ; but of how much sorer punishment are they worthy of , that are prodigal and lavish of time , that is far more precious then gold and silver ! Time is of inestimable value , in regard of its present use , and because when once lost it is irrecoverable . Friends lost may be reconciled , an estate lost may be regained , but time lost can never be recalled . He is the best workman , that can cut his stuff to the least waste ; and he is the best Christian who can contrive his affairs , and cut out his time to the least loss . Remember that time is given thee , not to squander away in needless visits , or idle talking , or long meals , or unnecessary sleeping , but to get thy person justified , thy nature sanctified , to secure thine interest in Christ , and the Covenant of grace and heaven ; and surely things of such infinite weight , deserve all thy time , if thy life were lengthened to the age of Methuselah . Sleep robs us of much time ; Friends , saith one , are the greatest thieves of time ; Vain discourse , foolish sports and pastimes , idle company , sitting long at table , must all like luxuriant branches , be pared off , because they suck the sap and juice away from the good boughs ; Walk not as fools , but as wise men , Redeeming the time , saith the Apostle , Col. 4. 5. Eph. 5. 16. It s an allusion to wise Merchants , or Tradesmen , who dealing for most precious commodities , make the most of their Markets , and buy their wares while a fit time of buying them serves ; and having possibly had great losses formerly , or spent their time idly , do by their diligence seek to redeem , and ( as it were ) to buy back again the time that is past . The Lacedemonians were penurious of their time , and spent it all about necessary business , not suffering any Citizen either to play or be idle ; When their Ephori heard that some used to walk in the afternoons for their recreation , they forbad it , as savouring too much of pleasure , and commanded them to recreate their bodies by some manly exercise , which might breed them to be serviceable to the Common-wealth . Reader , the time of thy life goeth post , thou art hastening to thy last stage ; whether thou art eating or drinking , walking or sitting , buying or selling , waking or sleeping , death is always making speed towards thee ; the time of thy departure hence is concluded and resolved , beyond which it is impossible for thee , whether thy work be done or undone , to stay one day , no not one hour , nay , not one moment , and shouldst thou waste thy time upon toys and trifles , as if thou hadst nothing to do , no God to make peace with , no Redeemer to lay hold on , no soul to take care of ! He that hath a great way to go , or much work to do , and that upon pain of death , and but a little time for it , hath little reason to laze or loyter . When we have but a little paper , and much to write , we write small and thick . O how much work hath every Christian to do in this world , which if he neglect he is lost for ever , how many head-strong lusts to subdue , how many duties towards God and men to perform , how many graces to exercise , providences and ordinances to improve , and can all this be done in a little time ! The Candle of our lives burns low ; if like foolish Children we play it out , we may thank our selves if we go to bed in the dark , without the light of comfort to our graves . It is one of the most irrational , yet ordinary action of the children of men , especially persons of estates and quality , to waste time in Dicing , or Carding , or hawking , or Hunting , or Chambering , or Revelling , and yet to murmur that they want time , and tell us ; Its pitty mans life is so short● that it is not spun out to a longer thread . I must tell such , that they complain of God , when they should of themselves ; He is not penurious , but they are prodigal in mispending it . I must ask them , Why would they have more time ? Is it to be more riotous , and prophane , and vicious ? The shortest moment is too much for the service of sin ; He that sinneth but once , sinneth too much by once ; If it be that they might honour God , and get grace ; and lay hold on eternal life ; why do they not set about it , and make it their business ? Every one would accuse him of folly , that were condemned one Assize to be hanged , but was reprieved till the next , and had that time allotted to sue out his pardon , if he should in the interim give himself wholly to gaming and drinking , and take no care about his pardon , yet complain to all that came to him , that his time was short , and he had not enough to get his pardon in , or prevent his Execution . Our days are sufficient for our duties , had we grace to number them , and to apply our hearts to wisdom ; but there is no overplus of time to be abused to fleshly or worldly lusts , or to be lavished away in idle and unnecessary things . A good man that liveth all the day long in the fear of his God , and husbands his time to the best advantage of his soul , finds it so sufficient for his work , that he is always ready to be called to an account , and when ever he dieth , he dieth full of days , and hath had his fill of living ; but men waste their time in vanity and folly , sacrifice their youth to frowardness , and unprofitableness , their manhood to pleasure and passion , their old age ( if they live so long ) to earthly-mindedness and Atheism , nay , they will set down and contrive sports , or send for , or go into idle company , to pass away the time , and then complain that time is little , and life is short , and they have not enough to provide for death and eternity in . The Moralist observeth truly ; Non exiguum temporis habemus , sed multum perdimus ; It is not a little time that we have , but it is much which we waste . God i● bountiful in allotting us time , but we are lavi●h of it , and then grumble that it is no more . The largest possessions in a Country , though worth thousands per annum , are nothing in the hands of a Prodigal Heir , who useth to throw away thousands at a cast , and must pay the Bills which Pride , and luxury , and gluttony , send him in daily ; but a twentieth part of those revenues were a large estate in the hands of a frugal person . The vast incomes of Egypt , and all the Eastern Provinces , were but a small sum , when they were gathered to maintain the pomp and ambition of Antony ; and the riot and fleshly lusts of Cleopatra ; when some prudent provident Emperours have lived freely and nobly a whole year , with less then they consumed in a day . Foolish men that are riotous and prodigal of their time , as if it were given them onely to sport , and play , and roar , and revel in , pine and whine at last that they are lost , because their time is so short ; but wise and gracious persons that deny themselves , and crucifie the flesh , that can redeem time from toys and idle talk , and foolish sports , and unnecessary diversions , to pray , and hear , and read , and examine their souls , and bemoan their sins , and provide for heaven , these grow rich in good works , and find the days of their pilgrimage sufficient for them . SECT . V. FIfthly , Call thy self to an accauut at evening . Take a review of thy carriage the whole day , how thou didst behave thy self . Begin with the morning , consider whether thou didst awake with God , what was the frame of thy Spirit in ; closet and family duties in company , and solitude ; Reflect upon thy actions , thy passions , thy speech , thy silence , thy behaviour at table , in thy shop , whether thy affections were heavenly above the world , when thy actions were earthly about the world , whether thou wast righteous in thy particular calling , and didst set upon it out of conscience to Gods precept , and with an eye to his glory ; whether thou didst not lose an opportunity of advantaging thy brothers soul , and doing thy God service ; whether thou hast not failed in thy thoughts , or words , or deeds , in thy demeanour towards thy relations , or neighbours , or strangers ; whether thou didst in all walk according to that rule which thy God hath prescribed thee . This is the way to make the day more pious , and the night more pleasant . Conscience will be the more faithful all day , when it knoweth before-hand that it shall be called to an account at night ; and the more conscientious we are in the day , the more chearful we shall be at night . Seneca reports of Sextius the Roman Philosopher , that every night before he took his rest , he would examine his soul ; Quod hodie malum sanasti ? Cui vitio obstitisti ? In qua parte melior es ? What evil hast thou this day healed ? what vice hast thou resisted ? in what part art thou bettered ? and then he addeth , how sweet is the sleep which ensueth upon such a review ! As the Shop-keeper hath his day-book , wherein he writes down what he buyeth , what he selleth , which he looks over in the evening ; so must the Christian that would thrive in his general calling , at night reflect upon his well-doing , his ill-doings , his gains , his losses , left his books cast him up ( as some find by experience ) because he will not take the pains to cast them up . The Merchant findeth it a ready way to make his Factours and Cash-keepers faithful , to reckon with them frequently . When great persons neglect to account with their Stewards , they tempt them to be dishonest . Our consciences are corrupted , as well as other faculties , and will be false , if not timely examined . Seneca acquaints us with his own practice , which may shame many Christians ; Vtor hac potestate , & quotidie apud me causam dico . Cum sublatum e conspectu lumen est , & conticuit ●xor moris jam ●ei conscia , totum diem mecum sc●utor , facta ac dicta mea remetior . Nihil mihi ipse abscondo , nihil transeo ; quare enim quicquam ex erroribus meis timeam , cum possim dicere : Vide ne istud amplius facias ; nunc tibi ignosco . In illa disputatione pugnacius locutus es ; — Illum liberius admonuisti quam debebas ; itaque non emendasti sed offendisti . I use , saith he , this authority , and daily plead my cause with my self ; When the candle is taken away , and my Wife ( acquainted with my custom ) is silent ; I search into the whole day , and review all that I have said or done ; I hide nothing from my own scrutiny , I pass by nothing ; For why should I fear any thing , by reason of my errors ; when I can say ; See that thou do it no more , and for this time I will pardon thee , &c. Pythagoras taught his Scholars to talk thus with themselves , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; What evil have I committed , what good have I omitted ? Reader , let not them who knew not God , rise up in judgement against thee . Put every night some brief Q●eries to thy conscience , upon these few heads ; How did I behave my self in Religious Duties , in Natural Actions , in my Particular Calling , in Recreations ( if any were used ) in Company , and in Solitude ; Compare the carriage of thy heart and life , herein to the word and law of God , bring all to the touchstone . Hereby , 1. Sin will be prevented ; The Child will be the more dutiful and diligent all day , who expecteth to be examined ( by them that have power to punish or reward ) for every part of it at night . The Christian will keep his heart as clean as the neat maid her house , who is ever in fear of a severe mistress . 2. Hereby , if sin be committed , it will speedily be repented of ; The wound will be healed before it be festered ; A disease is much more easily cured at the beginning , then when it is habituated in the body ; Had David called his conscience to a serious account , at the close of that day wherein he defiled Bathsheba , he had prevented both much sin , and much sorrow . 3. Our hearts will hereby be the better prepared for evening duties . The reflection upon the sins committed in the day past , will make the streams of our sorrow to run the more freely ; Wounds when fresh , bleed most . Our Petitions also will be the more fervent for divine strength , when we are newly affected with the sad consequence of our own weakness ; The more we feel our pain , the more urgent are our cries for a Physitian ; A review of the mercies newly received , will likewise enlarge our hearts the more in thank●fulness . Divine favours , like flowers , affect us most when fresh and green . Old courtesies , as old cloaths , are too often cast by , and thought little worth . 4. Hereby our souls will be always ready for our great accounts , whenever God shall summon us to give it up . The keeping a diary of Receipts and disbursements , facilitates the Stewards annual reckoning with his Lord. They who make all even between God and their souls every day , need not fear calling to account any day . None will give up their accounts with such comfort at the great day , as they that cast up their accounts with conscience every day ; Often reckoning will make long friends . He that will not hear the warnings of conscience , must look to feel the worm of conscience . Sixthly , Close the day with God , in Praying , and Reading his word , both in thy Closet and Family . Our bed is resembled to our graves , sleep to death ; it s of worse consequence to go to bed before we have made our prayers , then to our Graves before we have made our Wills ; God is the first and the last , and ought to be the beginning and ending of every day ; Thou causest the out-goings of the morning and evening to rejoyce . Some understand the inhabitants of East and West , others the vicissitudes of day and night , for which men rejoyce in God. David was mindful of the Word at night , I have remembred thy law O Lord in the night ; and also of prayer , Evening and morning will I pray and cry aloud , Psal. 119. 55. Psal. 55. 17. The sins of the day call for our mournful confession . The mercies of the day call for our sincere thanksgiving . The perills of the night call for fervent petitions , so that none can want matter for a nights prayer . Our wandrings and aberrations in the day may wellengage us to confession and contrition every night . They who do not paddle in every gutter , or thrust their hands into every ditch , though they washed clean in the morning , find them durty at night . We cannot meddle with money , but we foul our fingers ; nor about earthly affairs , but we defile our soul. Infirmity bewrayeth it self in all the actions of fallen man. We are steady in nothing but wantonness and wickedness . The feet of men limp at best , and are too slow to follow the Word of God close at the heels . If we intend well in any action ( like arrows that are shot in mighty winds● ) we wander from the bow that sent it , and miss the mark . Now whilst the Ship leaketh , the Pump must go . Whilst we sin daily , we must sorrow daily . He is unworthy of the least favour from his Creditor , who thinks much to acknowledge his debt . Austin had Davids penitential Psalms written by his Bed-side , which at night he used to weep and read , to read and weep . Our daily infirmities and imperfections must not be passed over . Some have died of very slight wounds in their fingers or toes . Small sands may sink a great ship . Small drops of rain make the earth mi●y and durty . Vain thoughts , spending time idly , omission of doing good when a price hath been in our hands , are counted by us small sin● , but such small drops will pollute our consciences to purpose , if not bewailed timely . The mercies and good providences of the day , deserve our acknowledgement at night . If God command his loving kindness in the day time ; his loving kindness may well command our thanksgiving in the night season . As David had his soliloquies in the day , so he had his songs in the night , Psa. 77. 6. All our success in our callings , and undertakings is the fruit of Gods providence ; We may work , but God onely can prosper . Humane gains are from divine grace . The Tables that are spread for us like Peters sheet , wherein were all sorts of four footed Beasts , and Fowls , come down from Heaven . How many perils are we protected in ? how many dangers are we delivered from ? How many evils are prevented , good things bestowed every day , and shall not our Sun and Shield be adorned ! We may well every night speak in the words of the Psalmist , Blessed be the Lord , who daily loadeth us with his benefits , even the God of our salvation ; Selah , Psa. 78. 19. The perils of the night , call for our prayers at night ; If there were no fear of visible Thieves and Robbers , yet there is of invisible Devils ; We cannot bolt our doors so fast , but they will find the way in . We never lye down to sleep , but those roaring Lyons are waking and waiting by our bed side to devour us . If God were not our guard , we could not sleep a moment in quiet . He that goeth to bed , before he hath gone to God , by humble and hearty supplication , lieth down before his bed is made , and may well expect to find it uneasie all night ; nay , like a foolish Governour of a Fort beleagured with cruel and crafty enemies , he takes his rest , before he hath set his watch , and is liable to be called up at midnight , or to be kild in his bed every moment . Cyril speaks of a certain people , that chose to worship the Sun , because he was a day God , for believing that he was quenched every night in the Sea , or that he had no influence on them that lighted up candles , they were confident they might be Atheists all night . I fear , many who worship not the Sun , are too much of the minds of that people , in their night Atheism . Though they know not , but when they close their eyes , they may sleep their last , and never open them more , yet they will rather die intestate , then take the pains , by fervent prayers to bequeath their souls into the hands of their dearest Redeemer . Reader , take heed of going prayerless to bed , lest Satan take thee napping . How unworthy art thou of Gods protection , if thou dost not esteem it worthy a petition ? I have read of a Prince , that would walk abroad every evening in a disguise , and stand harkening and listening under his Subjects windows , to understand what they said ; It s true enough , that the great God looketh down from heaven every evening ; he is under thy window , and in thy chamber , to observe whether thou hast the manners or grace to bid him good night before thou goest to rest ; Believe it , if thou forgettest him , thou wilt find sooner or later , that he will remember thee to thy cost . A Good Wish about the Christians carriage on a Weekday from Morning to Night ; Wherein the former heads are applied . THe Rock of Ages , and everlasting Father , to whom a thousand years are but as one day , having out of his rich mercy afforded me a short time in this world , not to play or toy with temporal things , but to prepare my soul for my blessed eternity ; I Wish that I may never waste that pecious season ( which is given me for the working out my own salvation ) about needless affairs , but mind the one thing necessary , and pass the whole time of my sojourning here in the fear of my God ; Every day that I live , and do not improve for my eternal good , is lost ; If I live to eat , and drink , and sleep , the beast liveth in me , not the man ; I do but act a brutish part in an humane shape . If I live to buy and sell , and increase my heaps , the Heathen liveth in me , not the Christian ; What do I more then an Infidel ? Time is a silver stream , gliding into the Ocean ; Eternity depends upon this poor pittance of time ; As I use time well or ill , so eternity will use me ; The everlasting harvest will be sutable to the seed that is sown in time , whether Wheat or Tares . It s irrational to expect a crop of Barley , if I sow Thistles ; or a crop of bliss for ever , if I now sow to the flesh ; My life is given me , to dress my soul in for the coming of my Bride-groom at death . Whatsoever I do , if it hath not relation and subserviency to my last end , and chiefest good , it is lost time , and waste strength ; and though I may be so busie as to sweat about it , yet Christ may say●to me , as to him that stood in the Market-place ; Why standest thou all the day idle ? Lord , my time is not mine own , but thine ; The day is thine , the night also is thine . It is thine by creation , and why not thine by a religious observation ? It was thy favour that I was not turned out of the womb , into the unquenchable fire ; I could Wish , that as soon as ever the Sun of my life arose , I had gone forth to my spiritual labour till the evening of my death , that my childhood and youth had been employed in remembring my Creator ; but since its impossible to recal those days and years which I have spent in folly and vanity ; O teach me so to number my ( remaining ) days , that I may apply my heart unto wisdom , and live ( every day of my life ) in the fear of the Lord all the day long . I Wish that the uncertainty of my life , and certainty of my death , may quicken me to be religious every hour of every day . Every day may be my last , therefore every day should be my best . There is no part of my time , in which I am priviledged from an arrest , by the King of terrors . Am I young ? yet I am old enough to die . Death observeth no order ; Some drop out of the armes of their earthly Mothers , into the embraces of their Mother Earth , and do no sooner speak , but they are sent to the place of silence . My Sun may set in the morning of my age , and death may tread upon the heels of life ; Some have experienced those words of the wise man ; There is a time to be born ( so little to live that it is not mentioned ) and a time to die . Am I strong ? This Sampson of death can fetch meat out of the eater , and out of the strong , sweetness . Deaths harbinger , sickness , which prepareth its way before it , will make me melt like Wax before the Sun , though my strength were the strength of stones , and my flesh as brass . Fresh Flowers are cropt in their pride and greatest beauty ; The Autumn of death comes ordinarily before the winter of old age . Besides , I am liable every day to many sudden accidents , and unexpected surprisals . How many die in their Shops or Fields , or in the Church or Streets , as well as others in their beds ! All men do not go out of the world at the fore door of sickness , many at the back-door of a violent death . When my blood frisketh merrily in my veins , and light sparkleth gloriously in mine eyes , when my countenance is most fresh and lovely , and my senses are most quick and lively , even then , a● my best estate I am altogether vanity . I may draw a long line of life , because nature may afford radical moysture enough for it , when death lieth in ambush like a theif in the candle , and wasteth all on a sudden ; Should I as the rich fool , reckon falsly to a million , when I cannot count truly to one , and promise my self many days , when my soul may be required of me this night , how gross is my delusion ! Ah , how sad , how fatal is that error that can never be mended ! The time past is gone , and never , never , to be called back . All my prayers and tears , all the revenues of the world , cannot regain the last moment ; The time to come is Gods , not mine own . It is not in my hands , therefore I have no reason to reckon upon it ; I am both foolish and dishonest , if I dispose of anothers goods . Reversions are uncertain , and he may well be poor that hath no estate but what he hath in hope , or rather presumption . Lord , thou reckonest my life , not by ages , no , not by years , but by days ; thou hast told me that my days are few , my time is little , though my work be great ; I acknowledge my proneness to put far from me my dying day , whereby I gratifie my grand enemy , in drawing nigh to the seat of iniquity . O help thy servant to live every day , as if it were his last day ; Grant that I may live well and much , though my life be little and short , because there is no day of my life in which I can promise my self security from the arrest of Death ; let me expect it every day , and every hour of every day , that when ever my Lord shall come , I may be found well-doing . I Wish that since the eye of my God is ever on me , 2 my eye may be ever on him , and I may be so pious as to carry my self all the day long as in his presence . What ever I do my God observeth , whatever I speak my God heareth , whatever I think he knoweth ; I may call every place I come into Mizpeh , The Lord watcheth and observeth ; Ah how holy should he be , who hath always to do with so pure and jealous a Majesty ! The Iews were to dig and cover the natural excrements of their bodies , because the Lord their God walked in the midst of their camp . Sin is the spiritual excrement of my soul , and infinitely more odious and loathsom to my God ; O how watchful should I be against it , who walk ever in his company ! The Sun is said by some to be all eye , because it hath a thousand beams in every place , it filleth the largest windows , and peepeth in at the smallest key-hole , it shineth on the Princes Pallace , and the Poor mans Cottage ; the Heavens above , the Earth beneath , and Air between , it looks on every person with so direct a countenance , as if it beheld none beside . The natural Sun is darkness to the Sun of righteousness ; the whole world to him is a sea of glass , he seeth it thorough and thorough ; The Watch-maker knoweth all the wheels and pins and motions in the Watch ; He that made me , cannot be ignorant of me , nor of any thing in me , or done by me . Whether I be in my Shop , or Closet , Abroad , or at Home , in Company , or Alone , the Hand of my God is with me , and the Eye of my God upon me ; O that I could set him ever before me , and set my self ever before him ; that I could always see him , who always seeth me , and like a Sun-dyal so receive this Sun in the morning , as to go along with him all the day ; Lord , thou searchest and knowest me , thou knowest my down-sitting , and uprising , thou understandest my thoughs afar off ; Thou compassest my paths and lying down , and art acquainted with all my ways ; For there is not a word in my tongue , but O Lord thou knowest it altogether ; Whither shall I go from thy Spirit , and whither shall I flee from thy presence ? If I ascend up to Heaven , tho● art there ; If I make my bed in Hell , behold thou art there ; If I take the wings of the morning , and dwell in the utmost parts of the Sea , even there shall thy hand lead me , and thy right hand shall hold me ; If I say , surely the darkness shall cover me , even the night shall be light about me ; Yea , the darkness hideth not from thee , but the night shineth as the day ; The darkness and the light , are both alike to thee ; O teach me to walk before thee , and to be upright . I Wish that the end of all my days , may be the beginning of every day , that my first thoughts in the morning may be of him , by whom alone I think . The Firstling under the Law , was to be the Lords , and why not the first fruits of every day under the Gospel ? 1 Surely , the worthiness of the person , deserves precedency of dispatch . It is no mean incivility to let an honourable man wait our leasure ; what impiety is it then to let the great God stay till the dreggy flesh or world be served ? Ah , how unworthy ( as well as wicked ) is it , to put that God off , who deserves all I am , and have , with the leavings of his slaves ! Besides the soul usually walks up and down all day in the same habit , in which it is dressed in the morning . The day is usually spent well or ill , according to the morning employment . If Satan get possession in the morning , t will be many to one but he keeps his hold all day . What youth is to age , that is the morning to the day ; if youth be not tainted with vice , age is imployed in vertue ; He that loves chastity , will not marry her that spent her youth in whordom . A man may give a shrewd guess in the morning , when second causes are in working , what weather will be most part of the day . If I set out early in my heavenly journey , I am the more likely to persevere in it all the day . As some sweet Oyls poured into a Vessel first , will cause whatsoever is put into it afterwards to taste and savour of it ; So if godliness and the immediate worship of God do first in the morning possess my soul , my natural and civil affairs will probably rellish of it . Again , Mens hearts are generally upon that in the morning , which they esteem their happiness and portion . The covetous Muck-worm no sooner openeth his eyes , but his ●eart is tumbling in his heaps ; The voluptuous beast , no sooner wakes , but he is sporting in sensual waters ; The ambitious Peacock , no sooner is able to think , but his gay Feathers , and gaudy dress for that day come into his mind ; and why should not my heart send its first thoughts into Heaven ? Whom have I in Heaven but thee , and there is none upon Earth that I desire in comparison of thee ? The Birds early in the morning , salute the rising Sun with their sweet notes , and shall not I the Sun of righteousness ? Further , My wants , my mercies , call for morning duties ; I walk in the midst of deaths , of dangers every day , and shall I dare to travail without my defence ? Men cloath their bodies against the sharpness of the weather , and why not their souls against the assaults of the flesh , the world , and the wicked one ? There is no safety without this breast-work ; If Satan take me out of my trenches and strong holds , as Joshua did the men of Ai , it will be no wonder if he ro●t and ruine me . If I do not bless God in the morning , how can I expect that he should bless me in the day ! Is any earthly Prince so prodigal of his favours , as to throw them away upon those that esteem them unworthy to be desired ? If I do not serve the Precepts of God , I am presumptuous to look that his providence should serve me● Should I undertake my affairs on earth , before I have dispatched my business with heaven , I am a notorious Cheat and Theif . I am a Theif to God , by robbing him of his glory , and that natural allegiance which I owe to my Maker . I am a Theif to my self , in robbing my self of that blessing which I might have on my callings and undertakings . O that prayer might be the girdle to compass in the whole body of my natural and civil dealings , and concernments . And that I could every day of my life forestal the worlds market , by setting early about closet and family duties . Suitors find it fittest to wait upon , and dispatch their business with great persons betimes in the morning . Lord , freedom of access to thy throne of grace , is an unspeakable favour ; Access is hard to earthly Princes ; No worldly Court is so open as to admit all comers . Those that with much difficulty present their Petitions , are often , against all reason denyed . Thy gates are open night and day , all that will may come and be welcome . Thou invitest souls to come into thy presence , and delightest to hear and grant their prayers . Thine eares are more open and ready to hear , then their mouths to ask . Thou pressest upon many undesired blessings , but denyest none who ask not stones instead of bread . Importunity never angers thee , the more fervent and frequent my soul is with thee , the more prevalent . Thou fillest the hungry with good things , and dost not send any that desire thy grace empty away from thy gate . What care I how little notice or knowledge the Nobles of the earth will take of me , when I can speak so freely to their better , their Soveraign , and not fear a repulse . O teach me the right art of begging , and then I need not be afraid of poverty . If I be but skilful to follow that trade , my returns will be both ●●re and large . Thy mercies are renewed upon me every morning , so are my necessities . O let my prayses and prayers be as frequent and early . I will bless the Lord at all times , his praise ●hall be continually in my mouth ; O God my God , early will I seek thee , my soul thirsteth for thee in a dry and barren Wilderness , where no water is ; My voice shalt thou hear in the morning ; O Lord in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up . 2 I Wi●h that having done with the more immedia●e service of my God in Praying , and Reading , both in my Closet and Family , I may proceed to serve him in my Shop and Particular Calling . When God saith , Man is born to labour , I must not sing with the fool , Soul take thine ease . An idle person is like . Caterpillars and Mice , that devour Gods creatures , and do no good to others . It s pity he ever lived , the book of whose life is filled up with nothing but Cyphers ; Nature never intended men to be drones , to feed on others labours ; nor bats , to spend their lives in the company of sleep , the brother of death . My God , my soul , my family , my country , do all call upon me to be diligent in that calling whereto he hath called me . My God is a pure act himself , and hath capacitated all his creatures for action ; He created all men , but never made a sluggard ; The idle person wholly degenerates from the end of his being , and receiveth his faculties in vain . The command for civil labour hath the same divine stamp , as that for sacred rest . I have also his pattern for my encouragement , as well as his precept for my warrant ; Hitherto my father worketh , and I work . My soul also stands in as much need of exercise as my body ; Idleness is the door at which diseases enter into both . Rust eats up vessels that are laid by and unused . The mind is never more bright then when it is in imployment ; from doing nothing , we proceed to do evil . Idleness is not onely a vice it self , but also hath this unhappiness , to usher in all other . This is the least advantage of industry , that it gives the soul no leasure to play with sin , or to entertain the wicked one . Standing waters do not sooner putrifie then lazy souls ; T is action that preserves the ●oul in health ; As G●ats dance up and down in the Sun , and then sit down and sting the next hand they seize upon ; So they who have no time to work , have much to imploy in slandering and backbiting others ; One sin never goeth alone . Again , my Family may well rouze me out of the bed of laziness ; If I expect supply of their wants , it must come in with Gods blessing at the door of diligence . I am stealing from my wife and children , all the while I am loytering ; The Heavens may cause seed sown , to ripen into a joyful Harvest , but untilled land will afford no crop , save of weeds or stones . Once more , My Country commands me to my calling ; I am but an ill member in the body Politique , if as a diseased part I take of its nourishment , but rather hinder its growth , then contribute to its health . A jarring string is not more prejudicial to the rarest Viol in the hands of a skilful artist , then an idle person to the musick and composure of the universe . The most venemous creatures that nature produceth , are some way serviceable to their fellow creatures ; O that I might never by filling up my life with laziness , be a Wen in the face of nature , serving no way to profit , onely to disfigure it . Yet I desire that my diligence in my particular , may be regulated by my duty towards my General calling . Oyl moderately poured in , feeds the Lamp , excessively drowns it ; Alexanders Souldier run so lightly upon the sand , that he made no impression with his feet ; My duty is to give earthly things my hands , but my heart onely to the things of heaven ; Lord , It s as well thy pleasure that I should work here , as thy promise , that I shall rest hereafter ; Let t●y grace be so operative in me , that I may never give Satan advantage against me , by being negligent , or over-diligent in my particular calling . Suffer not the interposition of the earth , ever to cause an eclipse of holiness in my soul ; But let thy word so limit me , and thy spirit guide me , that as one diligent in his business , I may come at last to stand before the King of Kings , to my eternal comfort . 3 I Wish that I may no part of the day , be so overcharged with the cares of this life , by my particular calling , as to expose my self to wickedness , by neglecting my spiritual watch . If my heart be full of earthly vapours , they will fume up into my head , and make me drowsie ; A drunken man is no sooner set in his chair , but he is fast asleep ; Sober and Vigilant are sisters in Scripture , 1 Thes. 5. Let us watch and be sober , 1 Pet. 5. 8. Be sober and vigilant . The immoderate love of the world will incline me as effectually to spiritual slumbers , as immoderate drinking of Wine to bodily ; If Satan can get me to take this Opium , he doubts not but to lock me fast to my bed , and to have me at what advantage be pleaseth . O how easie is it to destroy a sleeping body , to defile a sleepy soul ! Noah , Lot , David , Solomon , walked in their sleep and dreams , in strange and sensual paths . When the eye of the souls watchfulness is ●hut , the soul is open to all dangers and assaults . Whilst the Husbandmen sleep , the enemy soweth Tares . Sisera's head was nailed to the earth , whilst he l●y snoring on the ground . Epaminondas was not more severe then exemplary , when he ran the Souldier through with his sword , whom he found sleeping upon the Guard , as if he intended to bring the two Brothers , Sleep and Death , to a meeting . The Hare therefore ( say some● ) being liable to many enemies , sleepeth with her eyes open , to see danger before it surprise her . I walk continually in the midst of powerful and politick adversaries . The Canaanite is yet in the Land ( though not Master of the Field , yet ) skulking in Holes and Ambushments , watching an opportunity to set upon and destroy me ; There is not onely an Army of Temptations besieging me without , but also many Traytours conspiring within to open the gate of my heart to them , that they may enter and undo me . My own heart is like Jacob , a Supplanter , and conspireth to rob me both of the birth-right and the blessing . Let me go where I will , I tread upon Lime-twigs , which the Arch-fowler layeth to intangle and insnare me . Saul sent messengers to Davids house , to watch him , and to slay him . Satan sendeth messengers after me in all places where I ●ome , to watch me , and to s●ay me ; The whole world is as the val● of Siddim● full of slime-pits , and without watchfulness ; the anointed of the Lord are taken in those pits , Gen. 14. 10. Lam. 4. 10. Sin is a slie theif , that steals upon the soul to rob it when t is asleep . O what need have I of the greatest watchfulness and circumspection imaginable ! As the eye-lids guard the tender eyes from harm , so doth watchfulness preserve the soul from wickedness ; O my soul , canst thou not watch with thy Redeemer one hour , when he ever liveth to make intercession for thee ? T is but the short night of this life , that thou art commanded to stand ●entinel ; ere long thou shalt be called off the guard , and freed from that trouble . Lord , thou art ever watchful over me for good , thou never slumberest nor sleepest , but thy seven eyes are ever upon me . Thou mayst say to me , as to thy Vineyard ; I the Lord do keep it , I water it every moment , lest any hurt it I ; keep it night and day . O since thou watchest to preserve me , let me watch to serve thee ; Set a watch O Lord before my lips . Be thou the Governour of my heart ; Lighten mine eyes , lest I sleep the sleep of death . Let mine enemies never find me nodding , lest they leave me dying . Thou hast told me , Behold I come as a Theif ; Bles●ed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments , lest he walk naked , and they see his shame ; Give me so to wake and watch now , that death may bring me a Writ of ease , and call me to my endless rest . I Wish that I may all the day long be even covetous of my time , 4 as knowing it is allowed me not for the service of the flesh , but for the service of my God , and to dress my soul for Heaven . If I be lavish of my time , I am the greatest Prodigal in the World. If he be a spendthrift , that throweth away an hundred pound every day , he is a far greater that wasteth half an hour in one day ; Time is more worth then the revenues of the whole world . He that can command millions of treasure , cannot command one moment of time ; The Father of eternity hath the sole disposition of time ; The value of this commodity , is not known to this beggarly world in a day of life . Now men study sports and pleasures , and company , and plays , to waste time ; It lieth as a drug upon their hands , and they think themselves beholden to any that will help them to put it off ; But when the King of terrors with his gastly countenance approacheth them , and summons them to a speedy appearance b●fore the King of nations , to receive their eternal dooms , O then their judgements will be quite altered , and time will be precious indeed . Then they who play away their time , and give all to the world or flesh , will tell me that time was good for something else then to eat , and drink , and sleep , and trade ; that it was good to feed an immortal soul in , and provide for an eternal estate . Then the Rich and Covetous , as well as they loved their wealth , though it be now dearer to them then their God and Christ , and Souls , and Heaven , will part with all they have for a little time . Then the Swaggerers and Gallants of the world , who spend twenty hour● in Taverns , to one hour in the Temple , and if it were not for Play-houses , and Ale-houses , and Whore-houses , and Hawks , and Hounds , and Cards , and Dice , could not tell what to do with their time ; who mark all the days in the Kalender of their lives , for Festivals , and make them all Play-days , as if there were never a working day among them , that are as busie and tedious in dressing their worm-eaten bodies , as Children in dressing Babies , and are more troubled at the smallest disorder in their hairs , then the greatest disorder in Church and State , would give up all , and much more if they had it , for a little time ; Then the Nobles , and Kings , and Emperours of the world , will disesteem their honours and height , and trample upon their Robes , and Scepters , and ●rowns , for a little time . Then they who dally with their days of grace , and delay the preparation of their souls for death and judgement , as if time were at their command , and they could force it to attend their leasure , that live as if Death were their servant , and must wait on them till they thought fit to come to their graves , will find that time was time indeed ; O my soul , of what worth will time be at that day , and wilt thou wa●te it at this day ! Alas , how little is that time which thou hast to improve for thine unchangeable estate ! My life is but a shadow , that is gone when the Sun hides his head ; A Bubble that vanisheth when a small breath of wind appeareth ; A day that is soon overtaken by a night , a span , nothing . Thou hast made my days as an hand-breadth , mine age is nothing unto thee . Wert thou able to secure a long life , though thou h●s● work enough of infinite weight to imploy it all , yet thou mightest have more colour of reason for being lavish ; but when thy time is little , and thy business of such consequence , what unspeakable madness is it to be wasteful of it ! He that hath thousands of acres of Land , will spare some for a Park , some for a bowling-green , some for a court-yard , some for pleasure and pastimes ; but he that hath but a little land , upon which himself and his family must live , and by which they must be maintained , can spare none at all for vain pleasures , but must improve all to real profit . Man that is born of a woman , is but of few days ; He comes up as a Flower , fleeth as a shadow , and continueth not ; and wilt thou , O my soul , revel and riot away this poor pittance in which thou shouldst work out thy salvation ! O that I could value this jewel in some measure answerable to its worth , and do the work of the day , in the day allotted me for work ! Time rightly husbanded is acceptable time ; a day well imployed is a day of salvation . Lord , though my journey be great , my time is little ; Nay , how much of that little time have I lost ? A considerable part of it hath been taken up with my Infancy and Child-hood , wherein I did little above a Beast . My youth hath been squandred away in trifles and vanity , and too much of it in lust and iniquity . Much of what remains , if thou shouldst add a few more days to my life , must be spent in eating , and drinking , and sleeping , and necessary natural actions ; and shall I not redeem it to my power , for the service of my Saviour ? O affect my soul throughly , how Eternity rides , upon the back of time , that I may prize time highly , redeem it carefully , and improve it so faithfully , that eternity may be my friend , and when time shall have an end , I may enjoy that joy which hath no end . 5 I Wish that I may every day so cast up my accounts , that I maybe always ready for the great Audit-day . Wise Stewards do not write down great sums in gross , which they have disbursed for their Lords at several times , but set down the particulars , whereby they are prepared for a general reckonning , and enabled to justifie their accounts : My trust is more weighty then of any Princes Steward on earth , my Master will be more exact then the severest humane Lord ; and am I not then concerned so to number my days , as to reckon every day what I recei●e from my Lord , what I disburse for my Lord , and at the foot of every day to write the total sum ! How foolish is he that rejects his books , till his book● reject him ? 〈◊〉 is it not better for me to look over the book of my conscience , and observe what blots and errors are there , whilst I have licence and liberty to correct them , then to neglect them , till those eyes which are purer then to behold iniquity , come to look it over and leave be denyed of ever amending what he finds amiss ! O my soul , this evening now I am writing this page , I must send to thee Amaziah's challenge of Joash ; Come let us see one another in the face ? Why should we that are so near together , be such strangers to each other ? I must ask thee , as Elisha did Gehezi , Whence comest thou ? Where hast thou been ? What hast thou done this day for God and thy self ? Hast thou lived , or onely been : in the world this day ? Doth thy soul work , thine eternity work go forward or backward ? Hast thou lived as if thou w●rt going to die , and walked in the fear of the Lord all the day long ? Hath the awe and dread of the divine Majesty all along possessed thee ? Dost thou consider that thou hast one day less to live , and one day more to account for ? Suppose God should come to thee this night , as he did to Belshazer , with a Mene , Mene , It is numbred , It is numbred ; Thy days are told , God hath counted them up , and finished them , thou shalt not live to see a morrow . Thy days are extinct , the grave is ready for thee ; Art thou ready for thy grave ? If God should say to thee , as that Lord to his Servant , Give an account of thy Stewardship , for thou shalt be no longer Steward ? Are thy accounts and Gods even ? Dost thou reckon as he doth ? What do all the actions of this day stand for in thine account , Figures or Ciphers , somthing or nothing ? What were thy first thoughts in the morning ? Was he who came first to thee with his morning mercies , first served by thee ? How didst thou pray in thy Closet , and Family ? What sorrow accompanied thy confessions ? Was thy heart broken that thou hast broken his holy laws ? What faith and fervency did accompany thy requests ? Was the heat of thy affections answerable to the weight of thy petitions ? Didst thou present thy petition to the Master of Requests , the Lord Iesus Christ , by him to be delivered to the Father ? What spiritual joy and delight didst thou find in Thankesgiving ? Didst thou wonder at that infinite cost which the glorious . God is at , with such an unworthy wretch ? How didst thou r●ad the word this day ? Did it come with power and authority to thy conscience ? was it mingled with faith ? Didst thou hide it in thy heart ? Hadst thou any resolution to make it thy rule and Counseller , and Comforter , and to order thy conversation according to it ? How didst thou eat and drink this day ? Didst thou feed with fear ? Didst thou receive thy meat as in Gods presence , and hadst thou an eye therein at his praise ? How didst thou behave thy self in thy Particular calling ? Did it no way incroach upon thy general ? Was thy conversation in heaven , whilst thy dealings were about earth ? Wast thou diligent in the exercise of it , righteous in thy dealings in it , depending on God for a blessing on it ? What was thy carriage in company ? was thy life holy , spotless , exemplary , profitable to others ? Mightest thou not in such a place have done thy God more service , and thy Brothers soul more good ? May I not say to thee as God to Jonah ? Didst thou well to be angry at such a time upon no cause ? what were thy thoughts in solitude ? how wast thou imployed ? Had God any true share in thy thoughts ? hast thou watched thy self this day , and kept thy heart with all diligence ? Hath none of thy precious time been lavisht away on unnecessary things ? Answer me faithfully to all these particulars , that I may be able to return an answer to him that sent me . O that I could but imploy one half hour every day , with seriousness and uprightness , in such soliloquies . Lord , thou didst create the world in six days , and thou wast pleased to lo●k back on every days work , and behold it was very good , and then ensued thy Sabbath . Cause thy ●ervant to be a follower of thee , as a dear child , in minding every day the work thou hast given me to do , that I may every night review it with comfort , finding it good in thy Christ , at the end of all my days , looking back upon all my works , I may see them very good , through the acceptation of thy grace , and with joy enter into my eternal Sabbath . I Wish that I may end every day , 6 with him who is the beginning and first born from the dead ; That I may every night go to bed , as if I were going to my grave , knowing that sleep is the shadow of death ; and when the shadow is so near , the substance cannot be far off ; Though lovers cannot meet all day , yet they will make hard shift but they will find an opportunity to meet at night ; Should my devotion set with the natural Sun , I may fear a dreadful night of darkness to follow . That bed may well be as uneasie as one stuft with thorns , that is not made by prayer . If the soul lye down under an heavy load of sin , the body can have no true rest . Jacob could sleep sweetly upon an hard stone , having made his peace with God ; when Ahashuerus could not , though on a bed of down ; I cannot sleep unless God wake for me , and I cannot rationally expect his watchfulness over me , unless I request it . My corruptions in the day , call for contrition in the night ; How many omissions , commissions , personal , relative sins , heart , life wickedness am I daily guilty of ! and ●hould I lye down under their weight , for ought I know they may sink me before morning into endless wo. Whilst blood is in my veins , sin will be in my soul. The weed of sin may be cut , broken , pulled up , yet it will spring again . I shall as soon cease to live , as cease to sin . Though I should be free all the day long from presumptuous enormities , and onely defiled with ordinary humane infirmities , yet these , if not bewailed , are damning . The smallest letters are most hurtful to the eyes , and far worse then a large Character . Those sins which are comparatively little , if not lamented , are far more dangerous then Davids Murther and Adultery , which were repented of . When the soul like Thamar , hath notwithstanding its utmost endeavours to preserve its chastity been ravished , and by force defiled , it must with her lift up the voice and weep . If the Sun may not go down upon my wrath against man , much-less may I presume to lye down under the wrath of God. Besides , how can sin be mortified , if it be not confessed and bewailed ? Arraignment and Conviction , must go before Execution . The favours of the day past , are not to be forgotten , but to be acknowledged with thankefulness . I receive every day more considerable mercies then there are moments in the day ; and when I borrow such large sums , the principal of which I am unable ever to satisfie , shall I be so unworthy as to deny the payment of this small interest , which is all my Creditour requireth ? Whatsoever gain I have got in my calling , whatsoever strength I have received by my food , whatsoever comfort I have had in my Relations or Friends , whatsoever peace , liberty , protection , I have enjoyed all the day long , I must say of all , 〈◊〉 Jacob of his Venison ; The Lord hath brought it to me . Surely the hearer of my morning prayers , may well be the object of my evening prayses ; A● how unreasonable is it that I like a whirl-pool , should suck in every good thing that comes near me , and not so much as acknowledge it ! Should any one be the thousandth part so much indebted to me , as I am to God , how ill should I take it , if he should not confess it ? If a Beggar at my door receive a small almes from God , by my hands , I look for his thanks ; How often have I complained of the baseness and unworthiness of some that are engaged to me ? O what tongue can express , what heart can conceive how much I am indebted to my God every moment , though I am less then the least of all his mercies ; and doth not all his goodness merit sincere thankefulness ! Lord , I confess there is not a day of my life , wherein I do not break thy Laws in thought , word and deed ; Sin is too much the element in which I live , and the trade that I drive ; I find continually a law in my members , warring against the Law of my mind , and captivating me to the Law of sin and death ; Ah wretched man that I am , who shall deliver me from this body of death ! Since I am no day innocent , make me every night penitent . As my sins abound , let my sorrow abound , and thy grace much more abound . Though I can never requite thy favours , help me to admire and bless the fountain of them . Suffer me never to go to bed , till I have first asked thee my heavenly Father blessing . Let the eyes of my soul be always open to thee in prayer and prayse , before the eyes of my body be shut . And , O be thou always pleased so to accept my confessions , petitions , thanksgivings , my person and performances in thy dear son , that I may lay me down in peace and sleep , because thou Lord makest me to dwell in safety . Finally , I Wish that every day of my life may be spent as if it were the day of my death , and all my time employed in adorning my soul , in trimming my lamp , and in a serious preparation for eternity . Whilst I am living I am dying , every moment my sand is running , and my Sun is declining ; I am as Stubble before the Wind , and as Chaff that the Storm carrieth away ; I flie away as a dream , and shall not be found ; my life is chased away as a vision of the night ; The eyes which have seen me , shall see me no more , neither shall my place any more behold me . I must live now or never ; If I die , I shall not live again ; O that all the days of my appointed time , I could wait till my change cometh ! Were I to take my leave of the world this night , and were my life to end with the day ; how then would I spend every hour , every moment of it ? Should I lavish away my time about this or that vanity ? Would I play it away in vain company ? Would I neglect my spiritual watch ? or waste my talents upon trifles ? should I dally about secret or private duties , or be careless of my carriage in my calling ? would I starve my immortal soul , or cast off all care of eternity ? No , but I should all the day long act by the square and rule of the word . How serious should I be in praying , in reading , in working for my soul , for my salvation ? how diligent to do all the good I could , to receive all the good I might ? how watchful to catch at , and embrace all opportunities of honouring and serving my Maker and Redeemer ? because my time is short , and I must pray , and read , and work for eternity , now or no more , no more for ever . And why should I not be as holy , though I do not know that I shall die this night , when I know not but I may die this night ? How foolish is he who neglects doing his work , till his work is past doing ! Besides , Other creatures are constant , and unwearied in serving their maker , they are every day all the day long in their stations obedient to his commands . If I look to Heaven , to Earth , to inanimate , to irrational creatures , I behold them all as so many Souldiers , in their several ranks , exactly and continually subject to the orders which they receive from the Lord of hosts ; and shall I be shamed by them ? I am at present more indebted , more intrusted by God ; I have a reward hereafter of joy to encourage me , of pain to provoke me to unweariedness in well doing , which they neither hope nor fear . Lord , I live every moment upon thee , why should I not live every moment to thee ? My life is by thy providence , O that it were according to thy precepts ! I would not be thine hireling to serve thee meerly for wages ( thou thy self art my exceeding great reward ) but I would be thy days-man , to work for thee by the day , every day , all the day long ; O help me to live well in time , that I may live well eternally ; Let every day be so devoted to thy praise , and every part of it so imployed in thy service , that I may be the more fitted to please and wo●●●ip thee in that place where there is no night , yet all rest , no Sun , yet all day , all light , all joy , where I shall have no meat , or drink , or sleep , or shop , or flocks , or family , and which is best of all , no unbeleiving , selfish , carnal heart , to call me from , or hinder me in thy work ; but I shall worship and enjoy thee without diversion , without distraction , without interruption , without intermission , both perfectly and perpetually , Amen . CHAP. VII . How a Christian may exercise himself to Godliness , in visiting the Sick. FIfthly , Thy duty is to exercise thy self in visiting the sick ; The Visitation of the sick , is a work of as great weight as any ( injoyned us ) relating to others , and as much neglected and slighted in its management , as almost any duty commanded . Sickness is so common , and Death so ordinary , that with most their frequency takes away the sense of them , and charity in many sickens and dieth as fast as others bodies . The generality of pretended Christians , like the Priest and the Levite , if they see a man wounded , both in his body and soul , though it be to death , pass on the other side of the way , not caring to meddle with any that are in misery . They tell us they are true members of Christ , but like a bag of suppurated blood , they feel nothing , neither have any communion with the body . Many on their dying beds , whose souls are worse and more dangerously sick then their bodies , may speak to their Minister or Neighbour ( for the duty belongs to the People as well as the Pastor ) almost in the words of Martha to Christ ; Sir , If thou hadst been here , my soul had not dyed ; Some visite the sick , but rather out of a complement , then out of conscience , or to profit themselves more then their Neighbours . The Ingenuous Heathen Seneca , will tell such ; If a man visit his sick friend , and watch at his Pillow for charity sake , and out of his old affection , we approve it ; but if for a Legacy , he is a Vulture , and watcheth onely for the carcass . The discourse of these is chiefly about worldly affairs , and nothing about the great concernments of eternity . Others sometimes go about the work , but perform it so ill , administring Cordials , when there is need of Corrosives , sowing Pillows under their sick friends heads , that they may die easily ; or if they tell them of their danger , they do it so coldly and carelesly , and by halves , that as he said , there is disease● their soul-sickness is curable , but the unsutable medicines they take , make it incurable . It may be said of many a soul , as Adrians Counsellers said of him ; Multitudo medicorum , &c. Many Physitians have killed the Emperour ; Ah! How dreadful is it , when unskilful and unfaithful Mountebanks , undertake to tamper and trifle with immortal souls , that are just entring into their eternal estates ; Father , forgive them , they know not what they do . Galen saith , in respect of bodily Medicines , In medicina nihil exiguum , There is nothing small in Physick ; Every thing in it is of great consequence ; A little mistake may cause death ; I may upon greater reason say , There is nothing little in spiritual Physick ; A small error in our prescriptions to sick souls , may cause dreadful mischief ; Instead of curing we may kill the patient ; Hazaels wet cloth was not more deadly to his Masters body , then the discourse of most is to their sick neighbours souls . Fear of displeasing , and a natural propensity to flatter , prevail with too many to sooth their dying friends into unquenchable flames . But surely there is more love ( as well as more faithfulness ) in frighting a sick person out of his spiritual Lethargy , then in fawning him into the eternal lake that burneth with Fire and Brimstone . Some venemous creatures tickle a man till he laughs , even when they sting him to death , so doth the flattering Minister or Neighbour ; he raiseth a sick man , void of grace , to the Pinnacle of joy , and highest hopes of Heaven , and thereby throweth him down into the Culph of irrecoverable sorrows , and leaves him to undeceive himself in hell . I shall first lay down two or three Motives to stir up the Reader to this work , and then direct him about it . SECT . I. 1 FIrst , It is a duty commanded thee by God. Men are apt to think the visitation of the sick to be onely an act of Courtesie and Civility , which they may omit or perform at their pleasure ; when it is an act of Charity and Christianity , which every Christian is bound to by a divine Precept . The Ministers of Christ are especially enjoyned this task ; but every member of Christ also , when God gives him opportunity , oweth this debt to his Neighbour , Iam. 5. 14 , 15. If any be sick , let him send for the Elders of the Church , and let them pray over him . The same word which commandeth the sick man to send , commandeth the Elder to go . Indeed it s a gross fault in many sick persons ( and therein they are exceedingly their own enemies ) that they either send not at all for the Minister , or if they do , not till they have done with the Physitian ; when their bodies are past all hope , then they look after some hope for their souls . But without question it is a duty for the Elder sometimes to go uncalled ; It s good manners to be an unbidden guest at a house of mourning . Our Master was found of them that asked not for him , and so should his servants . There are those that can invite themselves to their Neighbours Tables , who withdraw themselves from their Chambers . Some are drunk so often with their Parishioners whilst they are in health , that they are afraid or ashamed to discourse seriously with them when they are sick . God may speak to many , as to the Shepherds of Israel ; Wo be to the Shepherds of England that do feed themselves ; should not the Shepherds feed the Flock ? ye eat the fat , and ye cloth you with the Wool , ye kill them that are fed , but ye feed not the Flock ; The diseased have ye not strengthened , neither have ye healed that which was sick , neither have ye bound up that which was broken , but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them , Ezek. 34. 3 , 4. None are more cruel to the Flock , then those that are most covetous of the Fleece . Oleaster on Lev. 14. 44. ( Then the Priest shall come and look , and behold if the Plague be spread , &c. that being the third time the Priest was to visit the infected house ) hath this useful observation ; Si Saecerdos toties invisat leprosam domum , cur tu non aegrum ? If the Priest were commanded so often to visit the leprous house , why dost not thou visit the sick person ? The Plague in the heart , calls for more pity and help then the Plague in the House . This duty also belongs to private members , as well as to publique Officers . Every Christian should love his Neighbour as himself , which he cannot do , unless he have a sense of his sickness , and endeavour to improve such an opportunity for his Neighbours Salvation . True love , like fire , burns hottest when the weather is coldest . Histories make mention of one Vr●i●us a Physitian , that being to die for the Gospel , and beginning to waver , Vitalis a godly man stept to him , and though he knew it would cost him his life , encouraged him , saying , What , have you been so industrious heretofore , to preserve mens bodies , and will you now shrink at the saving your own soul ! Be couragious ; For which faithful counsel he was condemned and suffered accordingly . It s our duty to assist them that die natural , as well as those that die violent deaths . To visit persons in their affliction , is one testimony of the truth of our Religion at this day . Holiness and Charity are like Father and Child . Pure Religion , and undefiled before God and the Father , is this , to visit the Fatherless and the Widows in their afflictions , &c. Jam. 1. ult . The fatherless and widows are expressed ( but the sick , and strangers , and captives are included ) because these are usually most afflicted and most neglected ; Those that have received mercy , cannot but shew mercy . As visiting the distressed is a sign of it now , so it will be the test of Christianity at the great day , Mat. 25. 34 , 35 , 36. Come ye blessed , &c. I was hungry , and ye fed me ; naked , and ye cloathed me ; sick , and ye visited me , &c. Works of mercy fill up the whole bill , as the evidence of the Saints right to heaven . Whereof Luther gives this reason ; because the consciences of the wicked shall justifie Christ as well in the absolution of the godly , as in their own condemnation . Though Christians do not give their almes , or visit the sick , to be seen of men , yet in doing many offices of love , and acts of charity , they are seen of men . So they who can witness the truth of Christians mercy , will be forced to acknowledge the equity of Christs sentence . SECT . II. SEcondly , 2 It is a special opportunity of doing and receiving good . 1. Of doing good ; I think it the more necessary to speak to this Motive , because many are apt to judge all pains with sick persons to be to no purpose . They are discouraged from endeavouring the conversion of prophane men upon sick beds , supposing that such mens repentance will be as unsound as their bodies , even when they are sick unto death . Though I would not give the least encouragement to any men to defer their turning to God , beleiving him worse then mad , who puts off the weighty business of his soul , because peradventure God may grant him repentance hereafter ; yet I must obviate this suggestion of the Divel , which hinders men from doing their duty ; God may shew mercy to a soul at last ; There is one example in Scripture , that none might despair . Sickness is with some men the tide-time of devotion . They who scorned godly men , and made a mock of godliness in their health , will prize the Saint , and desire his sanctity above all the world , when they lye upon sick beds , and consider what an holy God they are going to appear before . Sickness , as one saith , is , Officina virtutis , morum disciplina , The shop of vertue , and the school of manners ; Therefore King Alfred was wont to say , I ever find my self best , when worst ; best in soul , when worst in body ; the sickness of my body , is physick to my soul ; Experience daily informeth us that the Swaggerers and Gallants of the world ( whose consciences are not seared with an hot Iron ) though they gave themselves up to Drunkenness , and Gluttony , and Gaming , and Whoredom , and all manner of wickedness in their youth and strength , yet when they are weakened much with a disease , and have no hopes of continuing longer on earth , begin to wish that they had spent their time to more purpose , and are sensible of their neglect of God , and Christ , and their Souls , and Eternity ; then many of them will desire the company of those that fear God , and beg their prayers , and hearken to their counsels , and would give all they are worth for a little of their grace and holiness . Even Benhadad the King of Syria , an enemy to the Prophets and People of God in his health , will send a Prince to Elisha with a large present , and most submissive expressions ( thy Son Benhadad ) in his sickness , 2 King. 7.9 . Sickness gives men a double advantage for holiness . 1. It takes off their hearts from creatures , by teaching them experimentally what a poor weak cordial the whole creation is to sick or dying men . When men are strong and lusty , they can taste and savour earthly things ; carnal comforts hinder their endeavours after spiritual ; They take up with creatures as Esau , and say , they have enough ; but sickness makes them know the emptiness of all sublunary things . When men are sick , they cannot rellish the worlds dainties and delicates ; The preferments , and riches , and pleasures of the earth , are all unsavoury and uncomfortable to them . They now see the vanity of those things which heretofore they so much idolized , how unable they are to revive their fainting spirits , or to allay their pain , or purchase them the least ease , or procure them the least acceptance in the other world ; and hence the price of the worlds market falls abundantly in their judgements . Bernard tells us of a Brother of his , that when he gave him many good instructions , and he being a Souldier , regarded them not , he put his finger to his side , and told his Brother ; One day a Spear shall make way to this heart of thine , for admonition and instruction to enter . 2. In sickness conscience is usually allowed more liberty to speak its mind , and men are then more at leasure to hear it . In health their callings , or friends , or lusts , or sports , or some carnal comfort or other , take up their hearts and time , that conscience must be silenced ( as too bold a Preacher ) for offering to disturb them in their pleasures , or if it will use its authority , and continue to speak in Gods name , and forbid their foolishness , and Atheism , and sensuality and prophaness , they are deaf to its calls and commands , and drown its voice with the noise of their brutish delights ; But in sickness they are taken off from their trades , and pastimes , and merry meetings , and jovial companions , when their bodies are weak , their fleshly lusts are not so strong as formerly , whereby conscience hath a greater opportunity to tell them of their miscarriages and wickedness , and they themselves are more attentive to its words and warning . Reader , It s a special peice of wisdom to improve such a season for the good of thy Neighbours soul. When the Wax is softned , then we clap the Seal upon it , lest it harden again , and be incapable of any impression . When the hand of God hath by sickness made the heart of thy wicked friend or brother soft and tender , then do thy utmost to stamp the Image of God upon it ; Paul would preach whilst a door was opened , and there was likelyhood of doing good . It s a great encouragement to work , when the subject upon which we bestow our pains , seems capable of what we prosecute , and probable to answer our labour . We have some heart to strike a nail into a b●ard , because there is hope it will enter , but no list to drive a nail into a flint , because we despair of effecting it . The Smith strikes when the Iron is hot , he knoweth if he should stay till it is cold , his labour would be in vain ; Friend , take the advantage of others bodily sickness , to further their spiritual health , lest they either die in their sins , or harden upon their recovery . Opportunity is like a joynt in some part of a fowl , which if we hit upon , we may easily carve and divide the fowl , but if the Knife fall on this side , or that side of the joynt , we do but mangle the meat , and take pains to no purpose . It is the speech of Master Richard Rogers in his seven Treatises , I have visited some persons that have been condemned to die , in whom ( through the blessing of God upon his endeavours ) I have found as good signs of saved persons , as of any that died in their beds , not having tasted of repentance before . 2. It s a special opportunity of Receiving good ; We are taught more effectually by the eye then by the ear . The sight of a sick or dying person hath often a strange and a strong operation upon the beholder . When the Father heard of one that sinned notoriously , he cried out , I may be as bad as this man is ; When thou seest one dangerously sick , thou mayst think with thy self , I must ●e as this man is , sick unto death , when none of my Relations or Possessions can afford me the least comfort , and O how much doth it concern me to prepare before-hand for such an hour ! If this mans work be now to do , when his life is ending , how sad is the condition of his precious soul ? O that I were wise to consider timely , and to provide seasonably for my latter end . The sight of a dead man , was instrumental to the spiritual life of Waldus . The sight of others sickness may well quicken me to the greater industry and diligence after spiritual health . Do I behold my Neighbour , whose Sail formerly sweld with a full gale of worldly enjoyments , now wind-bound , chained to his chamber , or fettered to his bed , unable to rellish his food , or take any comfort in his friends ? Do I see him full of Aches , and Pains , Tossings , and Tumblings , crying out in the evening , Would God it were morning , and in the morning , Would God it were evening , because of the anguish of his Spirit ? Do I behold his cheeks pale , his eyes sunk , his lips quivering , his loyns trembling , his heart panting , and nature striving and strugling with the disease to keep its ground , and yet at last forced to quit the field , and leave the victory to its adversary , how many excellent observations may I draw from such a Text ? What a fool am I , to trust the world , which leaves this man in his greatest want ? How mad am I in loving sin , which is the cause of all these crosses and miseries , and which makes death so mortal to poor souls ? Of how much worth and value is the blessed Redeemer , who will comfort a Christian in such a time of need , and carry him through his last conflict with joy and conquest ? How careful should I be to get and keep a good conscience , which in such a day of extremity will yeild me true courage and confidence ? The wise man doth not without cause tell us , It is better to go into the house of mourning ( to the terming or charnel-house ) then to the house of feasting , for that is is the end of all men , and the living will lay it to heart , Eccles. 7. 2. Men in a house of feasting , are apt to be forgetful of their duty to God , themselves , and their Neighbours , Isa. 22. 13 , 14. Amos 6. 3 , 6. Isa. 5. 11 , 12. When the body is filled , the soul is often neglected . Iob was afraid of this in his Sons , Iob 1. 5 , 6. It may be my Sons have sinned , and cursed God in their hearts , i. e. when they had been feasting at their elder Brothers house , God gives Israel a special caution against this , Deut. 8. 12 , 14. Men in an house of mourning , are put in mind both of Gods Soveraignty , who draweth away their breath and they perish , Psa. 104. 29. and their own frailty , how soon they are gathered and withered , even in their prime and pride , Psa. 39. 5. I am blind if I do not see mine own end , in the end of another ; and distracted if I do not provide for my last enemy , which I must necessarily encounter . Thus it s a mercy to our selves , to be merciful unto others ; and whilst we visit the sick , we visit our own souls . Who would not do his Neighbour good , when he may be confident it will tend to his own gain ! I have but hopes by my visit , of advantaging a sinner ; but I may be sure , if I be faithful therein , of profiting my self . SECT . III. THirdly , 3 It may be the last opportunity thou mayst ever have of advantaging thy sick neighbours soul. His sick-bed may be his death-bed , and then t will be too late to counsel or advise him . There is no Purgatory in the other world . Diseases both bodily and spiritual , must be purged away before death or never . He that is filthy at death , must be filthy still , even to all eternity ; All the tears in hell will not wash out the least spot in the soul ; All the fire of hell , will not purge out the least dross ; Therefore Christ took the opportunity of dropping good counsel into the heart of the Theif on the Cross , knowing that if he had omitted it a very few hours longer , the soul of the poor Theif had been lost for ever . Hadst thou a friend going to Sea , and never to return again , waiting at a Port for a Wind and then to be gone , and hadst busine●s with him of as great concernment to him as his life , thou couldst tell him of a quicksand which he must beware of , or he will be cast away ; wouldst thou not be quick and speedy to acquaint him with it , lest he should be under Sail before thou didst see him ? would it not cut thee to the heart , if he should miscarry through thy negligence ? The Application is easie ; The soul of every Neighbour is , or ought to be dearer to thee then the body of thy nearest friend or relation . When thy wicked Neighbour is sick , his soul is launching for ought thou knowest , into the Ocean of eternity , whence he shall never , ●ever , return more . He waits onely for a wind , a word from God , and he is gone . The sick bed is the passage or path-way to the grave . Thou hast work to do with him , that is more worth to him then his life , that i● of as great value as his immortal soul , and eternal salvation . Now thou mayst acquaint him while he is on the shore , with his danger , and the way of his delivery ; but if once he launch into the Main ; thou mayst call loud and long enough after him in vain ; O will it not pierce thee to the quick , if his soul should be swallowed up in the boundless and bottomless Sea of divine wrath , through thy laziness or unfaithfulness ! When the day drew near for the destruction of the Jews , the heart of Haman swelled with hopes , and Hester had then an opportunity to step in and preserve the lives of her Countrymen ; Mordecai tells her , Who knoweth whether thou art come to the Kingdom for such a time as this ? She made use of the season , and saved their lives with the hazard of her own ; Had she delayed a little longer it had been too late , they had all been sacrificed upon the Altar of Hamans ambition . When the hour of a wicked mans death approacheth , the heart of the roaring Lyon is big with expectation of his prey , and a Christian friend hath then possibly an opportunity to save the poor creatures soul ; Now or never , there is no knowledge nor wisdom in the grave , whether the sick person is going . If he make use of the price God puts now into his hands , by serious , prudent , faithful and affectionate counsel , he may help the ●inner to heaven ; Who knoweth whether he be come by the Providence of God , into the sick mans Chamber for such a thing as this ? I have but one thing more to commend to thee , and then I shall speak to the work it self . Before thou goest to thy sick Neighbour , go to God by prayer ; intreat him to direct thee what to speak , and to succeed what shall be spoken . It is his own Ordinance , and therefore thou mayst the more comfortably beg and expect his assistance . Nehemiah would speak to God , before he spake to the King for the afflicted Jews ; Hester prefers her Petition , first to her Maker , that her prayer might prosper , and then her Petition to her Husband , for the lives of her Countrymen . God is the Principal Agent , and if he be left out , all thy labour will be lost . Wherein the exercising thy self to Godliness in visiting the sick consisteth . 1. In endeavouring to benefit the soul of thy Neighbour . 2. In getting some spiritual profit to thy self . First , In endeavouring the spiritual good of thy Neighbour . We are enjoyned in the eighth Command , to mind and further our Neighbours temporal wealth , but much more his spiritual welfare . T was true which Bucers Physitian told him , when he expressed his eagerness to die , Non sibi sed multorum utilitati se esse natum , That he was not born for himself , but for the good of many others ; Every Saint is to be as it were a common stock for the profit of many . He is born , and new born , not onely for himself , but for others benefit . The Lynx is a spotted unclean beast , that knowing how his urine will congeal into a precious stone , and be profitable to men , maketh an hole in the ground when he pisseth , to hide it from them . Iob who knew the advantage that might acrue to others thereby , would not conceal either the word or works of God from them , Iob 6. 10. and 27. 11. To this end ; 1. Labour to be acquainted with the state of the sick persons soul. It s dangerous to give either Purges or Cordials ignorantly , or at peradventure . The souls of men are of unconceivable value , and therefore not to be tampered or trifled with . It s a good step to the cure , to understand fully the disease , and the constitution of the Patient ; therefore Physitians feel the pulse , view the urine , enquire of the sick person , or his friends , concerning his former course of life , diet , present digestion of his food , place of his trouble or pain , &c. that they may proceed upon good grounds , and give sutable and effectual advice . So shouldst thou Reader , in visiting the sick , inform thy self either by conference with some serious Christians of their acquaintance before-hand , or by some searching prudent questions to the sick , concerning the condition of their souls . The ignorance of a Physitian , may occasion the death of the Patient . Some practitioners in Physick , who intend much good , do much hurt , for want of judgement to find out the tempers and distempers of the sick . A mistake in soul-cases , is of more hazard then in body-sickness . If I undertake to humble a person who is already cast down sufficiently , and wants a Cordial , or to comfort one who is full of presumption already , and needs a Corrosive , how good soever my meaning may be , my acting is evil , and instead of releiving , I may destroy my Brother . The Eastern Churches did not without cause enjoyn the Minister , or such as were appointed to visit the sick , to continue with them seven days together , that in that space they might discover the man , before they applied themselves to him , either in a way of Admonition , or Counsel , or Consolation . Iobs friends when they came to visit him , spake not a word , either reproving or advising him , till they heard him open his mouth and curse the tongue that told the news of his birth . The knowledge of the sick mans spiritual condition , is as it were , the foundation upon which we must build all our discourse with him , and prayers to God for him ; or at least it is the rule by which we must build , and therefore it s very dangerous to mistake in it . If the Foundation be laid ill , the superstructure will never stand well ; If the rule be crooked , the building cannot be strait . A blind Archer may as soon hit the Mark , as one ignorant of his Neighbours state , advantage his soul. SECT . IV. 2. APply thy self to him sutably to his condition ; As the conditions of men are several , so must the Application be ; that which cures one , may kill another ; One medicine will as soon cure all diseased bodies , as one way all sick souls ; Indeed the Physick to be prescribed every Patient , is the same for substance ; The blood of Christ ; By his stripes we are healed ; but there are several ways of tendering this to sinners , that they may be prepared for it , and give it all acceptation ; that Physick which is given to one in a Potion , is given to another in a powder , to a third in an electuary , to a fourth in a pill , according as it will be most prositable and most acceptable to them . It s not easie so to write the bill , that the sick may receive , what is prescribed to his greatest content and advantage ; For as many perish errore medici as vi morbi , by the error of the Physitian , as by the power of the disease . Though I judge it next to impossible , for me to set down exactly and fully , directions answerable to the difference of sick persons condition , disposition , education , calling , guilt , &c. yet I shall speak to the most ordinary cases , and be careful not to omit the main work , namely , that which concerneth the conversion of graceless and Christless persons , if on a sick bed , God peradventure will give them repentance . If the sick person be judged carnal and unregenerate ( for the Tree is known by its Fruits ; Besides , it s no breach of charity , to fear the worst of them , whose lives do not speak a positive holiness , especially whilst we are endeavouring their good ) then in general I would advise thee to speak . 1. To the depravation of mans nature , and the transgressions of life , with the sad aggravations thereof . How holy man was by creation , how universally and desperately vicious he is by his fall from God , and what horrid unthankfulness he is guilty of in continuing in sin , notwithstanding the grace that is offered to him in the Gospel . It s fit to speak to the purity and equity of the Law of God , and to the difference and contrariety of his heart and life to it ; to the sinfulness of sin , in its offensiveness and opposition , to the nature and word of an infinitely Holy , Glorious , and Gracious Majesty , in its destructiveness to the present peace and future perfection of his own precious and immortal soul , and in that the stain of it is so deep , and the venome of it so great , that nothing beneath the blood of God could wash out its spots , or be a sufficient Antidote for its poison . Tell him of the folly of sinners in refusing Heaven for Earth , Angelical Delights for brutish Pleasures , the blessed God for a base lust ; and of his own madness likewise in running on so eagerly upon his own ruine against the counsels of men , the commands , threatnings , and intreaties of God , the convictions of his conscience , the calls and invitations of a loving Redeemer , and the motions of the holy Spirit . 2. Speak to the merit of sin , how it being committed against an infinite Majesty , deserveth infinite wrath and severity ; Tell him that the Wages of Sin is death , temporal , spiritual , eternal ; Acquaint him with the justice , holiness , and jealousie of God , how he will by no means clear the guilty , but hath threatned all manner of plagues and judgements on the workers of iniquity , and cannot fail in the least of accomplishing his word ; how he is resolved to make all the Children of Men feel sin to be an evil and bitter thing , either in broken bones on earth , or , broken backs , and endless torments in hell . Let him know his own obnoxiousness , by reason of his many and greivous sins , to the curse of the Law , the wrath of the Lord , and the vengeance of the eternal fire . Tell him that he is by nature a Child of Wrath , an Enemy to God , and an Heir of Hell ; that it had been just to have cast him out of the Womb into Hell ; that Gods patience in bearing with him thus long , will but increase his condemnation and endless misery , unless he prevent it by sincere conversion . This is the first thing requisite in order to the recovery of his soul. Till sin be discovered in its hainous nature , and bloody colours , it will never be lamented , nor the Saviour esteemed according to the duty of the Sinner . The first thing usually , which the Spirit doth in the change of a sinner , is to convince him of sin , Joh. 16. 8. And this is also first in the Ministers commission , Acts 26. 18. The great neglect of this in Ministers and others , is one reason that so few Sinners are awakened , the needful work of humiliation is so dangerously slighted , that poor souls go sleeping and dreaming all is well , till they come to be undeceived in Hell. 3. Speak to his own inability to help himself , that no less then infinite power can recover him out of his miserable condition ; Men are prone to act like Brutes , when they are wounded to undertake the licking themselves whole ; as if it were an easie thing to renew a carnal creature , and heal vitiated nature , but alas the work is not so soon done . It s another manner of work to open the blind eyes , and ●●liven the dead soul , then the secure careless worldling doth imagine . It s called a Resurrection from the dead , a new Creation , the Work of God , because nothing less then a Divine Almighty power can effect it , Revel . 20. 6. Ephes. 2. 10. Ioh. 6. 29. Ephes. 2. 6. 4. Speak to the necessity of a change in him , both of his disposition by Repentance , and of his condition by faith in Iesus Christ ; That these are not works which may be done or left undone , but such as must be done , or he is undone for ever . Tell him the necessity of a change . 1. Of his Nature by Repentance , how God himself hath said ; Except he repent he shall perish , and that it is not possible for the whole creation to make void Gods Word . That as he is a corrupted depraved creature , he is no way capable of Heaven , for God hath shut him out , and bard the gate of bliss against him ; Into it ( i. e. Heaven ) can in no wise enter any thing that defileth , or is unclean , Rev. 21. ult . And he hath shut himself out by his vicious nature ; for spiritual pleasures are not sutable , neither can be enjoyed by depraved and ungodly creatures . Let him know that swinish dispositions cannot rellish heavenly delights , and therefore if it were possible for him to get to Heaven in a carnal estate , Heaven would be no Heaven , that is , no place of joy or pleasure to him . Acquaint him especially wherein the nature of repentance consisteth , not in a few sighs or sobs for sin , or in crying God mercy , or saying , I am sorry I ever sinned , but in a real change of the heart and nature , that his mind must be changed to see the ugliness and deformity of sin , his will to refuse it as the greatest evil , his affections to loath it , and hate it above all things whatsoever , that he must abhor himself , and loath himself , and bemoan himself for all his abominations , if ever he would fi●d mercy ; that he must in his whole man be altered , turned upside down , be contrary to what he is by nature , be converted and born again , or he can nevrr see the Kingdom of God , Mat. 18. 3. Ioh. 3. 3. Forget not also to discover the necessity of a change . 2. Of his state by faith in Iesus Christ , how the Son of God can alone deliver him from the wrath of God ; that there is no name under heaven , by which he can be saved , but the name of Christ ; that all his prayers , and tears , and duties , cannot satisfie the divine justice for the least of his sins , or deserve the least favour on the behalf of his soul ; that he must of necessity be united by faith to Christ , and submit to his guidance , and give up himself to his Government , or perish eternally ; that though Christ died for him without his will , yet he will not save him against or without his will , but he must be heartily willing to accept Christ as his Saviour and Soveraign , as ever he looks for salvation by him . Here it may not be amiss to acquaint him with the fulness of Christs merits , and the freeness of Gods mercy to them that do sincerely repent and believe ; How God commands , intreats , threatens , promiseth , and all to draw men to mind the things of their peace . 5. Speak to the shortness of his time , to do this weighty and necessary work in ; that now there is no dallying , no delaying ; for within a few hours it may be too late ; that grace must be got now or never ; that Christ and pardon , and life must be obtained now or never ; that no sin shall be forgiven , no person shall be justified , no soul renewed or cleansed in the other world , that is not pardoned and sanctified in this ; that Heaven and Hell are before him , and within a short time the matter will be determined which of the two he shall be in for ever ; that he must now get a title to bliss , or miss it for ever ; now prevent the unquenchable fire , or burn in it for ever ; that he is now upon the shore , just stepping into the Ocean , either of Honey or Wormwood , Joy or Horror , and therefore it concerns him nearly to consider what he doth , and to be diligent to the utmost , if he would escape the endless company and torments of Devils and damned Spirits . Take heed of giving him hopes of recovery , which many do to please the sick or their friends ; for hereby thou mayst exceedingly injure his soul , frustrating all the means used for his spiritual health . Think not much to be often with the sick person , in case thou hast opportunity . Let his misery move thee , and the love of Christ draw thee . When we fell an Oak , thirty or forty of the first strokes seem to be lost , because the Tree stirs not , yet if we continue , it comes at last down , and sheweth the effects of the first , as well as the last strokes ; If he be converted thou wilt be satisfied ; however thy reward is with God. If this unconverted person be scandalous , then it may be sometimes convenient to hint at the horrid nature of such sins , being committed against common light , and abhorred by many of the very Heathen , and marked particularly for vengeance by the jealous God , 1 Cor. 6. 9 , 10. Gal. 5. 19 , 20 , 21. Ephes. 5. 5 , 6. Thou mayst have the more hopes of success in visiting such a one , because conscience in this sinner , will probably prove thy friend , and joyn with thee in terrifying him for those sins , from which it could not ( though it frequently attempted ) disswade him . If the unconverted person be one that liyed civilly and orderly in his outward conversation , paying every man his own , keeping his Church , forbearing enormous crimes , &c. It will be then needful to commend his civility , Iesus looked on such a man and loved him ; but also to discover its defects and insufficiency , that there is one thing lacking ; how his nature is universally polluted , and it must be throughly purified , or he is a lost man ; that its one thing to have a wound hid , and another thing to have it healed ; that many In●idels have been unblameable in their outward carriages , who yet perished , being without Christ ; that the Scribes and Pharises went farther then most civil men , for they had not onely a negative holiness in denying gross sins , but a Positive holiness ( in shew at least ) they prayed , fasted , &c. yet he , to whom it is impossible to lye , tells us , Mat. 5. 20. Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees , ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven . It will be good also in dealing with such a person , to insist much upon the latitude and purity of the Law of God , how it forbiddeth ( and condemneth for ) the least sinful thought , and how nothing less then perfect obedience can answer its demands , or satisfie the Law-giver , because such men are apt to judge themselves righteous , comparing themselves with those that are notoriously vicious . They think all is well , their minds being darkned and unable to discern and discover the secret lusts which are hugd in their hearts ; Besides , their consciences being defiled as well as other faculties , are not so true to them as to convince them powerfully of that pride , hypocrisie , unbelief , impenitency , atheism , and ungodliness , which they are guilty of . And Satan hath a strict watch over them , to keep them asleep in sin , not caring , so men go to hell , whether they go thither in the dirty road of scandalous and crying crimes , or in the cleanly path , and through the fair Meadows of Civility . Whether the person be scandalous or civil , it will be needful to let in light at some crevice , and not to leave the sinner wholly in the darkness of despair ; The good Samaritan poured Oyl as well as Wine , into the wounds of him that fell among Theives . A little hope may melt that heart which despair would harden . Sturdy Theives have wept at the news of a Reprieve , that have stormed and raged at the sentence of Condemnation ; But this is wisely to be done , lest the sinner be encouraged to presume . Lenity is to be joyned with Severity ; Let there be love , but not emboldening them to sloth ; let there be terror , but not driving them into a fury , saith Gregory . If the sick person be one that is judged a true member of Christ , then speak to the excellency of Grace , and Christ , and Heaven , to the certainty and worth of those promises that are entailed on beleivers , to make his passage into the other world as comfortable as thou canst . It will be fit also to speak to those graces of Faith , Patience , Love , Heavenly-mindedness , and Ioy in God , which should be minded and exercised in a time of sickness , how the time of affliction is the spring , the special time wherein those graces should shoot up and shew themselves , that God expecteth some service from him under his fickness , and that his last works should be better then his first . If he be under doubts and fears ( for Satan will take the advantage of his sickness , to assault him with his fiery darts , and Saints are too apt to Question Gods love when they feel his hand ; the weakness of the body , discomposing the mind , and denying it the free exercise of spiritual judgement ) then advise him to review his former experiences of divine goodness , and trials of divine grace within him , to hold fast on Jesus Christ , and to consider that sickness is common to men , good as well as bad ; that though they differ vastly in the other world , yet not at all in their passage thither ; Singular Saints have been afflicted with the sorest sickness ; Iob was a none-such for sanctity , yet full of sores ; It s a question whether he were more eminent for corporal distempers , or spiritual health ; Hezekiah , David , Asah , Paul , Epaphroditus , were all thus chastened of the Lord , but not condemned with the world . Whatsoever the sick person be , whether gracious , or graceless , it will not be amiss to mention the three great lessons which God would teach every one by affliction . 1. The emptiness of the world , appearing in its inability to afford the least ease to the body , or comfort to the soul of the sick ; how little worth is that which fails a man in his greatest need ! 2. The preciousness of Christ , and Grace , and the Promises of the Gospel , which can enliven and encourage a dying person ; that can cause light in darkness , joy in sorrow , and life in death ; that can enable a Christian to rejoyce in tribulation , and to welcome pain and sickness , nay , and the very King of terrors ; and to look into the other world with comfort and confidence . 3. The sinfulness of sin , which is the original of all diseases , and aches , and greif , and separation of friends , and losses , and miseries whatsoever . The Rabbies say , that when Adam tasted the forbidden fruit , his head aked ; T is clear , sin is the original of sickness ; The body is the instrument of unrighteousness , therefore the subject of diseases ; For this cause many are weak and sick , 1 Cor. 11. 30. All the evil in this and the other world , are the issue and off-spring of sin ; Ah! what a root of bitterness is that , which brings forth such bitter fruit ! Be sure to take the thoughts of the sick off from resting in Physitians , or any means used for their cure ; Th●s was the fault of good Asah , 2 Chron. 16. 12. Let them know that it is God that wounds , and he onely that can heal , and therefore he must not be tempted , either by despi●ing those helps which his providence giveth , or by relying on them . Hippocrates gave this counsel to all Physitians , that when they went upon any occ●sion to visit their Patients , they should consider first of all , whether there was not , divinum aliquod in morbo , something of God in the disease ; if so , he held the Patient to be desperate , and his recovery impossible ; Cujus contrarium verum est ; If it were the hand of God that smote them , the same hand can help them ; for with him nothing is impossible . Let them understand that sickness hath a supernatural as well as a natural cause . That all diseases are like the Centurions Servants , at the command of God ; He saith to one , Go , and it goeth ; to another , Come , and it cometh ; to a third , Do this , and it doeth it . God would have the Israelites know , that not onely Sword , and Famine , and Captivity , but also Pestilence , Consumptions , Feavers , and Burning Agues are sent from Heaven , Deut. 28. 21 , 22. He causeth those stormes , and tempests , and quarrels , and contentions that are between the humours in our bodies , to their disturbance and destruction ; therefore Moses beholding the whole body of the Jews ( except two renowned members ) corrupted , for he lived to see all that came out of Egypt besides to die , cryed out ; Thou turnest man to destruction , and ●ayst , Return ye children of men . SECT . V. 3. DEal closely and faithfully with him ; Let not fear of giving distaste or hope of some advantage to thy self , make thee false to the soul of the sick . Do not play the part of a Mountebank in using palliating medicines to allay the distemper , or Anodynes to stupifie the patient , and neglect the root of the malady . Alas , carnal wretches are prone enough of themselves to deceive and flatter their own souls , till it be too late for second thoughts , and the wicked one will be at their beds side , to hinder if it be possible , all means from awakening and undeceiving them ; be careful therefore lest thou shouldst be any way accessary to Satans design ; Sin is like the little Serpent Aspis , which stings men , whereby they fall into a pleasant sleep , and in that sleep die ; sinners need all the rouzing and affrighting considerations that may be ; He that gives a potion , which instead of furthering health , procureth death , is a Murderer . The Flatterer is like the worm Terendo , mentioned by Pliny ( in Nat. Hist. ) as soft as Silk , in the feeling of the hand , but it biteth so hard with the teeth , that it eateth out the heart of the strongest timber . Flattery is to sin , what Oyl to Fire , it makes it flame the more . O t is dangerous to speak peace , where God speaks war ; shouldst thou do so , the blood of such a soul would be required at thy hands , Ezek. 33.8 . Jer. 23. Faithful dealing will bring thee in most comfort at present , and most credit hereafter , as also be most advantagious to the sick person . When the great day comes , the man that hated flattery , and scorned for a little profit or favour to disown his duty , or prove false to the soul of his Neighbour , will hold up his head with courage , but the cowardly and fearful wil hang down their heads with shame , Rev. 21. 8. 4. Pray with him , and for him . Sick persons are often full of pain and grief , and are more then usually assaulted by Satan , whereby they are the less able to pray for themselves , and have the more need of the prayers of others . It s observable that though the Holy Ghost commandeth men in other afflictions to pray themselves ; Is any afflicted ? let him Pray ; yet when he mentioneth sickness , he saith not ; Is any sick ? let him Pray ; But , Is any sick ? let him send for the Elders of the Church , and let them pray over him ; Jam. 5. 13 , 14. i. e. A sick man is not so fit to pray himself , he wanteth others to pray for him , and with him . The soul sympathizeth in the sufferings of the body , and the inner man is seldom at rest , if the outward man be distempered and disquieted . The mind is unfitted for duties , by the diseases of the flesh . Paul calls his bodily weaknesses a temptation , Gal. 4. 13 , 14. Afflictions on the flesh , are temptations to the spirit , and sickness is a piercing Arrow in Satans Quiver of temptations . If the person be carnal , what Motives hast thou from his misery to quicken thee to the duty ! The poor creature is going to Hell , and knoweth it not . His destruction is near , and he is not aware . How should the thoughts of that extremity and eternity of torments which he is every moment liable to , stir thee up to be earnest and instant with God on his behalf ? It may be thou wouldst sit up a whole night to watch with him for the comfort of his body ; Dost thou not know that the soul is infinitely more worth ? O watch and pray , that he enter not into eternal condemnation . Thou art not ignorant that God hath made promises of grace , as well as promises to grace , and canst not tell but that grace waiteth in heaven for the ●ick person ; onely thy prayer must be the messenger to fetch it thence . God hath shewn mercy at the last , he can do it to this man , therefore thou mayst have the more hopes ; Besides , it may be his sickness shall not be unto death , but onely to heal his diseased soul , and so to give him a new life , both natural and spiritual . The Question before thee , is , whether that poor sick creatures soul shall be Christs or the Devils for ever , and wilt thou not plead hard with God that it may be thrown in to Christ , whose title is unquestionable , and that the Grand and Arch-enemy of Christ and Men may be frustrated and disappointed in his expectation ? Zeal to the advancement of thy Redeemers interest , and love to the soul of thy Neighbour , should actuate and animate thy requests , and put life and fervency into thy Petitions . If the sick man be godly , thou hast the more encouragement to pray . God hath promised as much to him , as thou canst rationally desire for him . He hath hopes to speed , that goeth to an honest able man , and sheweth him his Bond for what he demands . God is infinite both in righteousness and power , so that there is no fear of a repulse , if you can shew his hand for your request . He delights to hear his promises pleaded in prayer , and to see his Children so full of affection , as to be fervent in their petitions for each other . Thou mayst send the same message by prayer to Jesus , that the Sister of Lazarus did ; Lord , behold he whom thou lovest is sick , and mayst be confident of the like gracious answer ; This sickness is not unto death ( eternal ) but for the glory of God , that the Son of God might be glorified thereby . Next to thy endeavours for the good of thy sick Neighbours spiritual estate , it will be fit to advise him about his temporal estate , that he may dispose of his worldly affairs , and his wealth ( if God have given him any ) with wisdom , and settle things so firmly , that his Relations may not be wrangling for his goods , when his body is at rest in his grave . Secondly , The exercising our selves to Godliness in visiting the sick , consisteth in getting good to our own souls by it . Though it be forbidden us to enquire of the dead , and ask their counsel , yet it s commanded us to enquire of the dying , and to learn of them . Sick men may teach them that are in health many excellent lessons . Some say , that ground covered with Ashes , is made thereby the more fruitful . The Dust of the dead , falling upon a right soil , an honest heart , will make it the more abundant in holiness . A Christian findeth walking in Hospitals or Church-yards among the sick or dying , much conducing to the health and life of his soul. He that was cast dead into his Grave , by touching the bones of dead Elisha , he was ravished to life ; That which Elias said to Elisha , when he begged a double portion of his spirit ; If thou seest me when I am taken from thee , it shall be so unto thee , may fitly be alluded to in this place . The sight of others sickness and death , and their departures from us , is a great means to increase the spirit in us , and to double our care and diligence in preparing for such an hour . 1. In laying to heart thine own frailty . He is but a cold clod of clay , and dead already , who doth not see his own death in the death of others . Sickness is but one remove from death ; the sick bed is the way to the coffin ; therefore when thou visitest the sick or dying , reflect upon thy self and consider ; This will be my case , or a worse , a violent stroak ; The same enemy that encountred my Neighbour , is upon his march towards me , and will certainly overtake me ; The feet of them that carry my friend to his grave , are ready to carry me also ; what need have I to be always in a dying frame , and ready for death . The very next arrow that death shoots , may be levelled at me ; and shall not I stand always upon my guard in expectation of it , and armed for it ? O how deep will the head of that Arrow pierce me , if it find me naked ! 2. In considering Gods mercy to thee , and blessing him for the health thou enjoyest . The pain of others , will tell thee that ease is a mercy ; the racking sickness , and restless nights of others , do speak aloud in thine ears , that health and rest are mercies . O how shouldst thou adore that God who distinguisheth thee thus graciously from others ! Mayst thou not think with thy self , Here is a person full of pain , the day is full of darkness to him , and wearisome nights are appointed to him ; Lo his Wife and Children , and Friends are weeping about him , but cannot relieve or redress him ; all the comforts of this life are un●avoury to him ; His aches and grief , and diseases , hinder him much in spiritual performances , and in the prosecution of a better life ; how much a● I bound to the Lord , that it is not so with me ? I can relli●h outward mercies , and am refreshed with bodily comforts ; I have no such distemper or pain to take me off from prayer or Scripture , but I may be as frequent and as urgent as I will about my soul and eternal concernments ; Bless the Lord , O my soul , and all within me praise his holy name . Surely health is the Prince , the first-born of outward blessings . Though foolish men deprive themselves frequently of it , for the satisfaction of a sensual wanton appetite , yet it s more worth then a thousand of those brutish transitory delights . A Stomach is of more value then meat , and a good digestion then raiment ; Men think not much to part with much of their wealth in their sickness for a little health . O it deserves thy prayers to God for it with submission to his will when thou wantest it , and thy praysing of God for it with enlarged affections when thou hast it . 3. In observing the necessity of a timely repentance , and its difficulty on a dying bed . How unfit is a man to begin to live , when he is wracked with pain , and going to die ! The dolour and trouble of his body are great impediments to the good of his soul. When the outward man is in great distress , and the inner man sympathizing with it , the best words are often wasted and thrown away , and the mind is unfit either to receive counsel or comfort . Further , How irrational is it to give Satan our prime , our health , or strength , and God our weak and consumptionate , and dying parts ; to present our enemy with our quick , and nimble , and active faculties and members , and to put off our best friend with a body full of sores , and a soul full of sin ! Besides , the longer men continue in sin , the more difficult their conversion will be . He that hath wandred or travelled out of the right way all day , will hardly be perswaded to go back all the way , and set out again at night . Where Satan hath dwelt long , he will hardly be removed . A Ship , the longer it leaketh , the harder it is to be emptied . The f●rther a nail is driven in , the more trouble to get it out ; The longer my soul continueth in disobedience , the harder it will be to bring it to repentance . The more sin is riveted and habituated in me , the more pains , and toyl , and grief , it will cost to get it subdued and slain . 4. In learning more the excellency of grace , and an interest in Christ , and God , which will do a man good in a day of ●ickness , and an hour of death ; He is a friend indeed , that is a friend in a day of adversity . The sinners folly in neglecting durable riches , teacheth the Christian wherein true wisdom consisteth , and the worth of it ; That it consisteth not in heaping up such treasures , or getting such friends as will be useless and unprofitable in a time of need , but in laying up a treasure in Heaven , and ensuring eternal comforts . Cold ●harp weather , sheweth the value of an healthy constitution . A storm will speak the worth of a sure Anchor , and a skilful Pilot. The excellency of grace , and holiness , and Christ , and God , are not fully known till we come into the other world , where all sublunary comforts are wanting ; But the more any condition in this world resembleth that , and the nearer we approach that , the more visible is the value of divine and lasting blessings . A Cordial is not esteemed till we come to fainting fits . A soul that in time of health , and wealth , and outward prosperity , made the fear and ways of God , and the estate of the godly , the object of his scorn and contempt , when he comes to be awakened by the alarum of death , and to look into the other world , will make them the object of his choice , and give a world ( if he had it ) for them . A Good Wish about the visitation of the sick , wherein the former heads are applied . THe righteous Lord , and God of all grace , who for sin afflicteth man with sickness , yet in the midst of judgement remembreth mercy , intending his instruction , not his destruction by it ; having designed such afflictions , as rods to whip men to himself , to make them out of love with sin , the spring of all their sufferings and sorrows , and to wean them from the earth , who otherwise would make it their Heaven ; and hath also appointed men to be the means through which these mercies shall be conveyed , and sicknesses sanctified to them . I Wish in general , that I may never omit to visit those Neighbours with pity , whom God hath visited in fury ; muchless insult as the Edomites over the afflicted Israelites , and persecute them whom God hath smitten , drawing blood from those wounds which are already blew with the blows of the Almighty ; but may be faithful to the precept and purpose of my God in this particular , and adopt my second table duties into the Family of the first table , by visiting the sick , not out of common civility , but out of charity , and in obedience to the God of my health . It is my priviledge , that my Almes may become Sacrifice , my Courtesies worship , and in paying that debt of love which I owe to my Neighbour , I may pay that duty which I owe to my Maker . O that in all my common transactions , I might move upon principles of reason , and especially in works that have a tendency Godward , act upon grounds of Religion . Lord , thou hast an eye to my good , in all thy providences and dealings ; why should not I have an eye to thy glory , in all my practices and actings ? Cause thy fear so to possess my heart , that I may visit the sick out of conscience , and let thy grace so assist and accompany my endeavours , that thou mayst visit them to their eternal comfort . I Wish that the Command of my God , 1 may be a sufficient Motive and warrant to make me set about the practice of this work . It is my duty to visit them that are sick , as I am the Lords Servant ; I disown his authority , I deny his Image , if I do not sympathize with others in misery . Nature it self commandeth me to be affected with the conditions of such as are afflicted . All creatures will commiserate those of their rank and order , that are in misery ; Bees will rather stay and starve with those of their kind , that are unable to flie to their Hives , by reason of the weakness of their wings , then stir from them , or forsake them . The Swine are so sensible of their fellows sufferings , that if one of the Company be lugd , all the rest will after their manner condole it . If a Beast be slain , and its blood spilt , others of that sort will ●hew their love and pity , by scraping earth on the blood , burying their fellow , and solemnizing his funeral with a kind of lamentation . Grace doth much more enjoyn me to be sick in others sickness , poor in others poverty , and to remember them that are in bonds , as bound with them , and them that suffer adversity , as being my self also in the body ; David , speaking of his enemies that sought his destruction , saith , But as for me , when they were sick , my cloathing was sack-cloth , I humbled my soul with fasting , and my prayer returned into mine own bosome ; I behaved my self as though he had been my friend , or brother , I bowed down heavily , as one that mourneth for his Mother , Psa. 35. 11 , to 15. My God hath said , To him that is afflicted , pity should be shewn ; Sickness is one of the greatest outward afflictions , it renders all the comforts of this life uncomfortable ; The largest Houses , Revenues , Honours , the most loving Acquaintants , Friends , Relations ; are all unsavoury to them that are under great sickness . To visit the prosperous and healthy is courtesie , but to visit the distressed and sick is charity . The sweetest showres should fall on the lower grounds . Lord , thou art the Father of mercies , and art afflicted in all the afflictions of thy Children ; thy soul is greived for the miseries of Israel ; How sutable is it for them who expect mercy another day , to shew mercy at this day ! Make me a follower of thee , as a dear child , to put on bowels of compassion , and to be merciful in heart , tongue , and hand , as thou my Father in Heaven art merciful . I Wish that as a wise Merchant I may make the use of this price , 2 which is put into my hand , for the furtherance of my own and my neighbours peace . Sickness is a special opportunity , wherein I may advantage others souls ; The most poisonous Viper is at such a season benummed with cold , and so may be handled without much danger . The strength of the body of sin , is much abated ( at least in regard of act and exercise ) by the weakness of the natural body . They who counted holiness a fancy , and holy ones Phanaticks , in their health and power , will beg hard for purity , and desire the Saints prayers in their sickness . The waters of those passions which in a Summer of prosperity did overflow their bounds , and threatned to over-whelm and over-throw all that was near , are frozen up in a Winter of adversity , and kept within their banks ; There are many nicks in time , as we see in a Clock , which if they hit , the work goeth on well . The hardened hearts of sinners are often melted , when their persons are confined to their warm Chambers ; As Tinder when dry easily takes fire , by the least spark that falls on it ; so when the souls of ungodly men are made soft by sickness , and their thoughts of the evil of sin in the pain it brings on their bodies , makes their affections combustible , it will be much the easier to kindle the fire of repentance in them ; Affliction boareth or openeth the ear , and then its seasonable to drop some wholsom counsel into it . Though a load on the ground be hard to be stirred , yet a load on the wheels is easie to be drawn . The illness , and aches , and distempers of sinners bodies , do as it were set the work of conversion , and minding the good of their souls , upon the wheel , and therefore such opportunities ought to be diligently improved ; Sickness is a good time when charity is in season . T is a grace to have an opportunity for the service of my God , but a greater to improve it . The Eastern people do Plow and sow their grounds , when the former Rain hath softned it ; and why should not I endeavour to Plow up the fallow ground of my Neighbours heart , and to sow in it the seeds of savoury instructions , when it is made tender by sickness ? Lord , thou layest hold of every opportunity , to bless me with mercy answerable to my necessities ; make me both wise to discern time and judgement , and faithful to make use of all such seasons to do thee service . I Wish that the opportunity I have thereby of doing good to my own soul , may move me to be the more careful and consciencious in visiting the sick . It is the wise mans speech , It is better to go into the house of mourning , then to go to the house of feasting ; for that is the end of all men , and the living will lay it to heart . It is better , as it is most sutable to my present state . T is not proper for Pilgrims to spend their time in Pleasure . Sorrow is becoming in a valley of tears . An house of mourning agrees well with the mourners in Sion . This world is a Sea , I am a Mariner , and Mariners rejoyce in the Haven , not in the Tempestuous Ocean . This life is a warfare , I am a Souldier ; T is too soon to be joyful whilst I am fighting ; it will be time enough when all my Enemies are foyld . O how harsh is it for a child to be jocond , when he is far from home ! Weeping is good language for them that sit down by the River of Babylon ; How can I sing the Lords songs in a strange Land ? Again , It is better to go into the house of mourning , as it is most profitable to my precious soul. Grace thrives best in a wet soyl ; By the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better . The inner man is best when clad in mourning . Trees planted by the water-side , hang with clusters , and bring forth fruit in due season . The sick bed is a Pulpit , and though there be a wicked man in it , he may teach me rare instructions ; If he be wholly silent , his condition Preacheth to me , that sin is the greatest evil , that the world is a cheat and impostour , and that grace is the most desireable created good . His dark chamber , weeping friends , watered couch , aking head , trembling heart , pale lips , quivering loyns , all call aloud to me to consider of , and prepare for such an hour . Abel , being dead , yet speaketh ; My sick , my dead Neighbour speaketh ; Prepared be , to follow me . Some have been raised to life by beholding the dead . O that I were wise to observe and improve the opportunities which free grace affordeth me , for my own and others welfare ! If I lose a good Market for the furtherance of my outward estate , I befool and bewail my self . Ah , why should I not be as much affected with the loss of opportunities for my inner man. Sinners observe their seasons for the gratifying their Loves , and the satisfying their lusts . The Thief waiteth for the full Purse , till the Market is over , and commodities be sold. The Adulterer makes use of the dark night for his deeds of darkness . Satan watcheth every opportunity to insnare and destroy me ; if I give him the least advantage by idleness or carnal security or running into occasions of sin , he doth presently lay hold on it to pollute me . All men indeed may shame●me . The Mariner doth spread his Sails when the Winds blow . The Merchant observes his Exchange hours , when he may meet with many friends , and dispatch much business in a little time . The Lawyer minds his Terms . There is a time when Kings go out to Battel , 2 Sam. 11. 1. which Souldiers will not neglect . The Husbandman makes Hay whilst the Sun shines ; Yet , Ah how foolish am I to let slip those golden seasons which my God giveth me , for working out my own salvation ! Lord , thou hast made every thing beautiful in its season ; But poor silly man knoweth not his time . Grant me so much prudence , that is the men of Issacar , I may have understanding of the times , and so much piety as to serve the times , not as Worldlings , in altering my course according to the fashions and customes of men , but in embracing what is tendered in due time , for my own and others good , always adhering to the Commands of thee my God. 3 I Wish that the uncertainty of my sick Neighbours outward recovery , may make me the more careful and solicitous about his spiritual health . If he die , he is stated and fixed for ever and ever , and I am for ever deprived of all opportunities of profiting or advantaging his soul. Now he is sick , he is nigh death , but one step from it . The sick stand upon the borders of the grave , upon the brink of the pit , nay , of eternity . Those that are in most perfect health , are inclining towards death ; but they that are sick , are approaching the Chambers of darkness . Such a man may speak in the language of Haman , My life draweth nigh unto the grave , Psa. 88. 3. Should he depart this life in a natural estate , he falleth into the jaws of eternal death . All prayers for him will then be fruitless , and there is no giving counsel to him after death . I must now advise , exhort , perswade , beseech him to mind faith and repentance , or never do it ; I must now put up hearty cries and groans to God on his behalf , or never do it . The loving kindness of God cannot be declared in the grave , nor his faithfulness in destruction . When he is wailing in Hell for the ungodliness of his heart and life , I may be weeping on earth for my neglect of him , or unfaithfulness to him , but both our tears will be ineffectual , and our cries comfortless . O that the love of my Saviour , the command of my God , the worth of a soul , the weight of an eternal estate , the fear of losing such a season , and the impossibility of recalling or recovering it , may all provoke me to be instant with the sick , to turn to God , and abhor and bewail their sins , and to be fervent with God , that he would crown my endeavours with success ! Lord , I may speak thy Mind and Will to Men , but thou alone , who didst make the ear , canst enable them to hear , let it please thy Majesty so to affect my heart with a due sense of others misery , so to direct my tongue what to speak in order to their recovery , and so to prosper the undertakings of thy servant , that as often as I visit any unconverted person in his sickness , I may turn a sinner from the error of his ways , save a soul alive , and hide a multitude of sins . I Wish that I may be solicitous to understand the spiritual conditions of the sick , that my prescriptions may be profitable , being sutable to their several sores . The knowledge of the disease , must necessarily precede directions for its cure . It s folly to undertake their recovery , whose estates I am ignorant of . He works at the labour-in-vain , who goeth about to heal a wounded Patient , when he knoweth not the place or nature of his pain . The mistake of the Physitian may be as mortal and dangerous as the disease it self . It will be no wonder if a blind man shoot awry and miss the mark . This was the cause that Jobs friends , though holy men , and designing a good end , wandred exceedingly ; and instead of administring comfort by their visitation , wounded him to the quick , and proved his greatest cross ; The Sabeans and Chaldeans robbed him of his Cattel ; Satan wronged him in his body , but his three friends vexed his soul , and did break him in peices with words . Their ignorance was the ground of the hurt they offered , instead of the help they intended , Job 19. 2. A Friend may do that mischief upon a false supposition , which an Enemy doth out of malice . Though the Doctrine be true and right , if the Application of it be wrong , I may kill sooner then cure the person to whom I apply it . The Husbandman must know the nature of his ground , before he casteth in his seed , or otherwise he will miss of his expected crop . Lord , thou knowest the conditions and dispositions of all men , by immediate intuition , and needest not that any should testifie of man ; thou knowest how needful it is for me to understand by rational discourse , who and what those sick persons are , how things stand betwixt thy Majesty and their souls , whose recovery I go about ; O help me to find out their sickness , and to give such advice out of thy word , that thou mayst work their cure . I Wish that when the condition of the sick person is found out , 2 neither fear nor flattery may make me unfaithful to his soul. Those prescriptions cannot be profitable , that are not answerable to his estate . I am unfaithful to God , my Neighbour , and my self , if my Application be not sutable to his condition . My God commandeth me to proclaim War against the presumptuous , to preach Peace to the penitent ; and if I act otherwise out of fear , or affection , I act contrary to my commission ; I am false to my trust , if I keep not close to the will of my Lord. He that takes not his Masters Precepts for his rule , will at last be counted and punished as an unfaithful servant . I hinder also my Neighbours good , whilst I give him counsel unsutable to his case . I may pretend love and respect , but its real hatred to flatter him who is hastening to the unquenchable fire . How dreadful will his fall be , from the high Turret of presumption , into the infernal pit of perdition , and how little thanks will he give me in the other world , for cozening his soul , by telling him all was well , till he came to see his own and my mistake in hell ! Again , the guilt of such a crime would make a deep gash in my own conscience . It s ill slighting , or tampering with inestimable souls ; His blood will be required at my hands ; and if the blood of a slain body cry so loud for vengeance , what will the blood of a murdered soul do ? Why should I to humour any mans lust , injure his soul , hinder my own peace , and incur the anger of the Lord. O that no foolish pretences whatsoever , may keep me off from acquainting sinners with th●●●●il and end , the nature and danger of their sins . It s Gods order , first to cast the soul down , and then to lift it up . The ground must feel the Plow , before it receive the Seed . Sorrow must precede comfort , and they must sow in tears , who would reap in joy . God must shake all Nations , before the desired of all Nations will come to him . We come to Sinai , the Mount that burneth with fire , and to blackness and darkness , and a tempest which makes even a Moses to fear and quake exceedingly , before we come to Mount Sion , the City of the living God , the Heavenly Ierusalem , and to Jesus the Mediatour of the new Covenant , and to the blood of sprinkling , that speaketh better things then the blood of Abel . The Law is a School-Master to drive us to Christ. Austere Iohn , with his Ax laid to the root of the Tree , threatning the fire to those that bring not forth fruit , prepareth the way for the sweet alluring Iesus ; Mourning and Grief , is the Midwife of true mirth ; Penitential tears are the streams that lead to the Rivers of Pleasures ; Even the doleful sound of the Trumpet attendeth the Iudge , when he is going to acquit a Prisoner by publique Proclamation . Violence must be offered to corruption , or there will be no acceptance of the Lord Christ. The building of holiness is the more strong , for having its foundation of humiliation laid deep : The safety of the soul doth depend like Jonahs , upon his being cast over-boord , and utterly lost in his own apprehension . The blessed Iesus himself is brought into a desolate Wilderness , before Angels are sent from Heaven to comfort him . O that I might follow my God in his usual way , and never prophesie smooth things to rugged and ●●●●ed men , but endeavour to break their hearts on ●●th , who have persisted in the breach of his holy Laws , that their backs may not be broken in Hell ; Yet I would not instead of beating down the rotten Paper walls of presumption , drive any into the Dungeon of desperation ; but as the good Nurse , have the breast of consolation , as well as the rod of correction in readiness for such Children . Moses and Christ met together upon Mount Tabor . The Gospel must be Preached to heal those wounds which are opened and discovered by the Law. The Lord sendeth me to proclaim liberty to the Captives , and the opening of the Prison to them that are bound . Lord , thou killest and makest alive , bringest down to the grave , and bringest up . It s easie and ordinary with thee to break those bones which thou intendest to rejoyce , and to perplex those Rams in Briars and Thorns , which thou intendest to accept of as a sacrifice . Teach thy Servant to know how to speak a word in season , both to the wicked and to the godly , how to divide thy word aright , both in its minatory , and consolatory parts , that as occasion shall ●e , I may awaken the wicked out of their deadly slumbers , and quicken the godly to their spiritual watchfulness , and help to sweeten that bitter cup which thou hast put into their hands . O that thy blessing might water my labours for both their welfares ! Alas poor sick unregenerate ones , are dropping into boundless and endless sorrows , and yet are without sense . Though they are dying they know not what they are doing , nor whither they are going ; Their eyes are shut by the god of this World , that they see not that unspeakable misery to which they are liable every moment ; their hearts are hardened through custom in sin , that neith●●●●reatnings nor promises prevail with them to feel their wounds and sores . O thou great Physitian , thou Lord of life , thou God of health , open their eyes , send some Ananias to them , that they may receive their sight , and be filled with the Holy Ghost ; enable them so to mourn now , that they may be comforted when the time of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord , and help thy servant to deal so faithfully with those whom thou callest me to visit , that I may never give thy Majesty cause to say of me as once of the Prophets of Israel , They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly , saying , Peace , Peace , when there is no peace . 3 I Wish that I may be close and home in my Applications to sick persons , and speak what is proper to their estates with ardency and affection , to their very hearts ; It s ill dallying with edged tools ; O how sad is it to toy and trifle , to be formal or customary in counsel or reproof , or comfort to immortal souls , that are launching into the Ocean of eternity . Death is a serious thing , and that which they never did before , nor shall ever do again . Sin is a serious thing , as the damned find in Hell by woful experience . Though there they are in blackness of darkness , yet they have light enough to see sin to be the evil of evils , and altogether sinful . Christ was serious when he took upon him my nature , and therein did offer up himself● a sacrifice for sin . God is serious in commanding faith and repentance , and in promising Heaven to the faithful and holy , and Hell to unbeleivers and atheists ; And shall not I be serious and in earnest , when I am dealing about matters of eternal life and death , and about the concernments of God and Christ , and souls , and eternity ! O with what earnestness should I perswade the wicked , to turn from their wickedness and live ! If ever their souls would draw near to the Lord of life , it concerns them to do it , when their bodies are drawing nigh to the Chambers of death ; It is but a very few hours , and their condition will be past all amendment , all alteration . In this poor pittance of time , all must be done , upon which the Scales must turn , for their salvation or damnation . They are going to make that change which will admit them into endless joy or torment , and render their estates unchangeable . Their time is hastening , that they must struggle with dreadful pains , and strong distempers , and death , the King of terrors , and must review that life which is ending , and look back upon all that they have done , and judge their persons and actions impartially , whether they will or no , that they must take their leave of all their friends , and food , and sleep , and lands , and houses , and honours , and pleasures , and riches , and step into eternity , and appear before God without their Relations , or Possessions , or any worldly comforts , to help or encourage them ; that they must be tried by an holy Law , and an holy Judge , for their everlasting lives or deaths ; and can my expressions be too full of weight and reason , or my affections too full of bowels and pity , in my dealing and discourse with such men ? Lord , thou knowest the poor silly children of men , are unable to judge of eternal affairs according to their weight ; they are quickly lost , when in their thoughts they begin to launch into that boundless Sea ; The ponderousness of the subject , is ready to affright and press them down , being so much beyond and above their shallow understandings ; But wouldst thou please to enable them , though it were but to peep into the other world , and to behold , through some Crevice , what is doing and enjoyed there , both by thy friends and thine enemies , they would soon have other thoughts of thee and thy service , and other carriages when they are about thy work ; the greatest seriousness would then be too little , the greatest ardour would not be thought enough for thy worship ; they would then indeed , be fervent in spirit when they are serving the Lord. O teach thy servant , though he cannot see into the other world with the eye of sense , yet so to look into it with an eye of faith , that he may transact the concerns thereof with that diligence , faithfulness , and fervency , which thou acceptest , and whilst he liveth , be zealous of good works . I Wish that my heart may be so affected with pity towards sick and afflicted persons , 4 that I may often and earnestly remember them in my prayers . A little Captive , considering the Leprosie of her Master , was instrumental for his cure , by crying out , Would God my Lord were with the Prophet that is in Samaria , for he would recover him of his Leprosie . I have more reason when I behold a Leprous soul , near its last gasp , to look up to Heaven with , Would to God that poor creature were with Jesus Christ , that great prophet of his Church , who is able and willing to enliven , and pardon , and sanctifie , and save ; Would to God he would be perswaded to come to Christ , to cling to Christ , to close with Christ , for he would recover him ; And what do I know but my prayers may be prevalent on his behalf ; Christ when dying , prayed for his enemies , for them that imbrued their hands in his blood ; and shall not I pray for my friends when they are dying , and possibly ignorant whether they are going ? My Prayers are a cheap courtesie , and diminish nothing of my estate , either spiritual or temporal . Their misery is an awakening motive to the duty . Never did they stand in such need of help from others , and wrastling with God on their behalves , as now that they are taking their journey into a far Country , and entring upon an unchangeable condition . They may say to me , as Nehemiah to Geshem ; I am doing a great work , &c. I am going to die , to bid adieu to all the folly and vanity , and comforts of this world , to take possession of my long home , of the place wherein I must abide for ever ; O pray for us , that we may be pardoned , and saved , that we may repent and believe , that we may die in the faith , and obtain the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto life eternal . They have many distractions upon their own spirits , by reason of pains and bodily distempers , and the loss and lamentation of their Kindred and Relations , that they cannot poure out their hearts to God with that freeness and seriousness , and earnestness , which ( probably ) they desire . Their enemies , and assaults , and temptations , at such a time are more quick , and strong , and violent , and full of rage , having but a short time . I must now pray for them , or never pray for them ; Now beg mercy for them , or never beg mercy for them . When their life is gone , all tears , and cries , and groans for them are in vain . Davids greatest passions for dead Absolon were to no purpose . They are then gone the way they shall not return , and fixed in that place whence they shall never remove . Lord , I confess that my narrow heart hath not pity enough for afflicted , and sick , and dying souls , and my weak hands have not power enough to supply or support them in their sad estates , but thou hast both . O be pleased to look down from Heaven , the habitation where thine holiness dwelleth ; Behold their miseries , hide thy face from all their iniquities ; out of thine infinite fulness , releive their necessities . Let the eyes of their souls be opened to see their sins and their Saviour , before the eyes of their bodies be closed . Give them patience and strength answerable to the burden thou layest on their backs ; Enable them to do their last works well , and let them be better then their first ; Open thou their lips , and let their mouths shew forth thy praise , before they go to the place of silence . Stand by them in their last conflict with their enemies , Death and Devils , that they may over come both , be more then conquerours through him that loves them , and pass through the jaws of death , to the joys of a blessed eternal life . I Wish that my soul may be the more sound for every visit I bestow on sick bodies . 2 There is not so much danger of catching their outward diseases , as there is hope of increasing my spiritual health , if I am not wanting to my self . The sick and dying bed is a Pulpit , out of which I may be instructed more fully in many serious truths , though the sick or dying man be speechless . King Joash obtained three famous victories over the Syrians , by visiting sick Elisha , and might have gotten a compleat conquest over them , if it had not been his own fault . The sight of sick and dying men , may assist me in my conflicts with the three great enemies of my present purity , and future comfort and bliss . It teacheth ●e how vain it is to make provision for that flesh which will it self ere long , be provision for wormes ; Ah how foolish am I to pamper and please that which instead of releiving or refreshing , will in my extremity pierce and pain me ! It teacheth me that the world it self is the greatest Cheat and Impostour in the world . That though it laughs and smiles on men , dandling them on her knees , and hugging them in her armes , whilst they are in health , and promising all sorts of comforts and pleasures ; yet in their sickness and misery she turns them off , and leaves them , as Absolons Mule did him , to be ●hot through with the heart-cutting arrows of eternal death ; By discovering the emptiness and falseness of these two seeming ends , the flesh and the world , it helpeth me to overcome my third enemy , and to repel the fiery darts of the Devil . The cup of temptation , which hath so often bewitched me to drink down his deadly poison , had its prevalency from the worldly profit with which the out-side was guilded , or the fleshly pleasure with which the in-side was sweetned . Ah! could I but bid an hearty defiance to the World and the Flesh , and conquer them , I need not fear the wicked one ; They are the powerful Advocates , by which Satan pleads , and too often prevails with the soul ; By these Hand-maids he wooeth the Mistress . But the sick bed is a Book in which I may read their deceitfulness and treachery , their perfidiousness and fallacies , and thereby learn to avoid them . Further , I may read the sinfulness of sin in others sickness . That Parent must needs be a deformed monster , that begets such uncomely and ill-favoured children . In the dreadful effects I may behold the poisonous cause . Man had never known sickness in his body , if he had not known sin experimentally in his soul ; T is the plague and stone of the heart , that causeth those in the flesh . When I behold the sick man labouring under his distemper , how he is chastened with pain upon his bed , and the multitude of his bones with strong pain , so that his life abhorreth bread , and his soul dainty meat ; How his flesh is consumed away that it cannot be seen , and his bones stick out ; he is filled with tossings too and fro , unto the dawning of the day : When I behold his eyes sinking , his heart panting , hi● Wife and Children wailing and wringing their hands , his friends weeping , his tongue faltering , his throat ratling , his breath failing , his strength languishing , his whole body in a cold clammy sweat , wrestling with his pain and disease ; may I not well cry out , O what an evil is sin , which bringeth all this upon the poor Children of men ! My Redeemer is therefore said to bear our sicknesses , because he bare our sins in his body on the tree , 1 Pet. 2. 24. Mat. 8. 17. And in all his applications for the cure of the diseased , he had an eye to the root of the malady ; To one that was diseased , he said , Be of good cheer , thy sins are forgiven thee ; To another , Sin no more , lest a worse thing come unto thee . When the Angel was smiting Israel with a Pestilence , holy Davids thoughts ran upon the procuring cause , I have sinned , I have done very wickedly ; My God teacheth Israel the grievous nature of their defilement , in the greatness of those judgements which they brought upon them . Speaking of his severity towards them , he tells them , Thy way and thy doings have procured those things unto thee ; this is thy wickedness , because it is bitter , because it reacheth unto thine heart , Ier. 4. 18. Our bodies are full of natural corruption , because our souls are full of moral corruption . O how fitly may I therefore , when I behold the evil of affliction on others , abhor and bewail the evil of sin in my self ! Once more , I may be instructed in the necessity of a timely preparation for such an hour of affliction ; Can I think a ●ick bed a fit place , an hour of pain and grief a meet season to begin that great business of turning from sin , of loathing my self for all my abominations , and working out my own salvation ? Is it rationally to be imagined that trembling joynts , dazelled eyes , a fainting heart , failing limbs , a body full of aches and diseases , a soul sympathizing with it , and full of vexation and grief , should be fit instruments about such a work , which an angelical strength , and agility , and freedom , is little enough for ? Ah , What wise man would build his eternal making and welfare , upon such a tottering and sandy foundation ? The greatest strength , and longest time , and most vigorous health , is not in the least degree , too much for this needful and weighty business ; and shall I put it off till my strength fails , my health is gone , and my time near its last sand ? Lord , Beside all these , I may learn the excellency of thine Image , and thy favour ; Sickness cannot waste them , nor death it self destroy them . Where the Curtains are drawn , and the windows close , in the darkest chamber of the dying man , the comeliness of thy likeness , and the sweetness of thy love , are most sparkling and glorious . The want of outward comforts , doth convince the unbeleiving world of the worth of eternal blessings . When the flesh and world that made shew of such love to their deluded favourites , turn them off in their extremity , as the Jews did Judas ( complaining to them of his-folly and wickedness ) What is that to us , see thou to that ; Thou standest by and ownest thy servants , thou knowest their souls in their days of adversity ; and how-ever thou dealest with them in their health , wilt be sure to tend and look to , to be both Nurse and Physitian to thy sick children . Thy grace is a reviving Cordial , and thy love will make even death it self a sweet and desireable dish . O help thy poor servant to gain much spiritual good by those natural evils which others suffer . As others sickness speaketh these things to mine ears , and their conditions make them visible to mine eyes , do thou write them in my heart , that all such providences of thine towards others , may make sin more ugly , the world more empty , thy graces and favour more comely and desireable , and that furthering my purity at present , they may further my eternal peace hereafter . Finally , I Wish that the sickness of others , may cause me to be the more industrious in a faithful improvement of my health , and take me wholly off from priding , and pampering , and making provision for that flesh , which is so apt to breed diseases , and in its greatest beauty and strength is so near to death . The goodliest structure of body is but earth a little better wrought , or more curiously then usually moulded up , and with an ordinary disease is mard and defaced , and so calleth on me to be humble rather then lifted up . The Flesh that I provide for my flesh , is not more subject to corruption , or more perishing then the flesh for which it is provided . Within a few days I shall have an end both of food and feeding ; O that I might waste that body in Gods service , which will ere long waste with sickness ! spend and he spent in his work , who gives me my health , and strength , and hath promised a bountiful reward ! Sure I am , I can never bring them to a better Market , nor put them off at an higher price . Is it not better to consume my flesh in doing good , in glorifying my God , then with idleness and ease , or with distempers and diseases ? Satans servants do not grudge to give their prime and cheif , their heal●h and strength to their lusts , and shall not I give mine to my Lord ? Ah Lord , an unthankeful selfish unbeleiving heart , hath too much ●indered me from , and disturbed me in those excellent duties which thou callest me to ; O deliver me from it for thy mercies sake ! Strengthen me by thy good spirit , both to do good to , and receive good by such as thou chastenest with sickness ; so to consider the poor and afflicted , and to visit others in my heath , that thou mayst visit me with thy saving health ; strengthen me upon my bed of languishing , and make all my bed in my sickness , that my most mortal sickness may not be unto death ( eternal ) but for thy glory , and my passage into endless bliss ; yea , that in the other world , I may stand among thy Sheep on thy right hand , and hear that blessed heart-chearing voice , Come thou blessed of my Father , inherit the Kingdom prepared for thee before the foundation of the World ; For I was hungry and thou gavest me meat , I was thirsty and thou gavest me drink , I was a stranger and thou didst take me in , I was sick and thou visitedst me ; when my soul shall be above all sin , and my body above all sickness , and both blessed in thy favour and fruition , for ever , and ever . Amen . CHAP. VIII . How a Christian may exercise himself to Godliness , on a Dying Bed. SIxthly and Lastly ; Thy duty is to exercise thy self to Godliness ( if God give thee opportunity ) on a Dying Bed. The work of a Saint is to glorifie God , not onely in his life , but also in his death . The Silk-worm stretcheth out her self before she spin , and ends her life in her long wrought clew ; The Christian must stretch out himself on his dying Bed , and end his life in the work of his Lord. Every Man by his death , payeth his debt to nature . He is earth in regard of his Original creation , and must be earth in regard of his ultimate resolution ; Dust thou art , and to dust thou shalt return , Gen. 3. 19. The Sinner when he dyeth , payeth his debt to Sin , Satan , and the Law ; To sin , as he is the servant of unrighteousness , and so must receive its wages , which is death ; To Satan , as he hath sold himself to work wickedness at his will , and so must have his tempter to be his eternal tormentor ; To the Law , as he hath violated its precepts and commands , and therefore must undergo its punishment and curse . The Saint when he dieth , payeth his debt to God , for he oweth him honour as well by his death , as by his life ; Hence we read , not onely of their living in the Lord , and to the Lord , but also of their dying in the Lord , and to the Lord ; ( Rom. 14. 8. Rev. 14. 13. ) Which though some expound in that place of the Revelations , to the cause for which they died ; they did not dye out of humour or obstinacy , or any carnal selfish interest , but purely as Martyrs at Gods call , and for Gods cause ; They loved not their lives to the death for the testimony of Iesus ; Yet the words may as clearly speak ; 1. The state in whi●● they died . They died in the favour of God , reconciled to him through the death of the Mediatour . The Castle of their souls was not taken by storm or in a state of emnity and opposition , but by a quiet voluntary s●rrender , or in a state of peace and amity . 2. The manner of their deaths ; They died in the fear of God ; they exercised grace as well in sickness as in health , and when dying as when living ; their spiritual motions were quick , when their natural motions were slow . Plutarch reports of Lucius Metellus high Priest of Rome , that though he lived to a great old age , his voice did not fail him , nor his hand shake in his sacrificing to the Gods. It s said of Moses when he was a hundred and twenty years old and dyed , that his natural sight did not fail him , neither was his heat abated ; So it may be said of the Christian , that though he die old , his spiritual sight doth not fail him , nor his divine heat abate . As Caleb , he is as strong in regard of grace , his inward strength , when he is entering into the promised Canaan , as he was when he first went forth as a spie by faith , to search the land flowing with milk and honey . The Heathen counted him happy that dyed either in the midst of the goods of fortune , ( hence they say , if Priamus had died a little before the loss of his Town , he had died the greatest Prince in all Asia , ) or in the exercise of their moral vertues ; Hence they so highly extol Seneca and Socrates , who seemed to dare even death it self , out of resolution and fortitude ; Though those seeming vertues were but as Austin terms them , Splendida Flagitia , Famous Vices , and their confidence arose not from any grounded knowledge of their good estates , but from their blindness and ignorance of their depraved , wicked , and woful estates . He is the happy man indeed , that dieth in the faith , that sleepeth in Iesus , that goeth to his grave in the exercise of grace . The Master of Moral Philosophy , commendeth that Pilot whom a Ship-wrack swalloweth up at the Stern , with the Rudder in his hand . The most high God commendeth that person whom death seiseth , doing the work for which he was sent into the world . Even the blind Mole , if Naturalists may be credited , opens his eyes when he comes to dye ; and the crooked Serpent stretcheth out her self straight , when she is going to fetch her last breath ; and shall not the Saint be best at last ? Reader , Observe how careful the Saints have been to do their last work well , and to go out of the world like some sweet spices , perfuming the room in which they fetch their last breath , with holiness , and leaving a sweet savour behind them . Jacob when dying , worshipped , leaning on his staff , Heb. 11. 21. What a Character doth he give of the Angel of the Covenant , and what blessings doth he pray for , and prophesie to come on his children , when he was going from them ? How was his heart enlarged in pantings after the Lord Christ ? Gen. 48. 16. and 49. per tot . The living waters of his graces ran with the greater strength , when they were emptying themselves into the Ocean of glory . Moses like the dying Swan sings most sweetly , being to go up to Mount Nebo to dye there . What excellent doctrines , reproofs , instructions , doth he deliver to the Israelites ? How pathetically , rhetorically , divinely doth he dictate his last legacies to his Political children ? who can read and not be ravished with wonder and delight ! Deut. 32. & 33. Ioshua like the morning star , shines brightest at last ; He gives his people so strict a charge to serve the Lord , such gracious counsel , when he was going the way of all the earth , that it could not but be remembred many days after . Dying Ioseph will lay his bones at stake for Gods faithfulness , and that he will visit Israel and deliver them out of Egypt . Sampson did the Church of God much service , in slaying more of her enemies at his death , then in his life . Iulius Caesar among the Romans , and Olympia the Mother of Alexander among the Grecians , were famous for their care to die handsomely , and not to commit at last any ill beseeming action , whereby their memories should have been rendred inglorious ; But the Christians care hath always been , to die holily , and to do their God most service when they are going to that place where they shall do him no more in a proper sense . Philosophers tell us , that the soul upon deaths approach is more divine and supernaturally inclined ; certain it is , the soul of a Saint onely doth then more aspire heaven-ward , when its returning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to its original divinity , according to Plotinus his phrase of death . As his Saviour he brings out his best wine at last , and his last works are more then his first , Rev. 2. 19. The blessed Prince , and Lord of life , should be our pattern at death . He got his Father most glory , he did his Church most good , by his death , though he was eminently serviceable to both all his life time . It s said of him , He was obedient ( Phil. 2. 7. ) to the death ; Which may import , 1. His continuance in well-doing ; His obedience lasted to the last moment of his life ; so should ours . Elisha would not leave his Master , till taken from him into Heaven , and we should not leave our Lord till taken to him into Heaven . Polycarp in his old age being urged by the Proconsul to deny Christ , answered , I have served him eighty six years , and he never once hurt me , and shall I now deny him ? 2. His obedience in his death ; His death was a Free-will offering in obedience to his Fathers command . Not onely his birth and life was an answer to his Fathers call ; A body hast thou prepared , &c. Then said I , Lo , I come ( to put on that body , to take upo● 〈◊〉 that nature , and thereby and therein ) to do thy Will , O God ; but also his death was in pursuance of his duty ; This commandment received I of my Father ; Thus the Christians death must be offered up as a sacrifice to God , in obedience to his command . The Sinners soul is Prest to this War , in which there is no discharge ; This night thy soul shall be required of thee . The Saint understanding the orders from the Lord of Hosts , is a Voluntier ; He gives up the Ghost ; Into thy hands Lord I commend my Spirit . 3. The gracious manner of his dying . The Sun of righteousness , when setting , did shine most gloriously . Though at his death he had such infinite disadvantage , being to wrestle with the frowns of an incensed God , the fury of earth and Hell , and met with clouds , black , and thick enough to have obscured the graces , and hindered the holiness of any but himself , from shining at all , yet how brightly did they break forth in the midst of all those Fogs , and Mists , and Darkness ! What holy counsel and comfort did he give his Disciples to prepare them for his departure , in his last ( and one of his longest ) Sermon ! Ioh. 14 , 15 , 16. What an heavenly prayer doth he put up to his Father for them , and all his elect ! to give them both a taste and a pledge of that intercession which he was going to Heaven to make for them . When he was hanging on the Cross , under such an heavy weight as the sins of the whole World , Grace was not depressed . His love to his Mother is observeable ; Woman , behold thy Son ; And from that hour that Disciple took her to his own house , John 19. 26. But his love to his membren● though enemies , was wonderful ; Father forgi●● them , they know not what they do . His Faith in his Father ; Father into thy hands I commend my spirit . His pity to one of the Theives . His Patience in bearing the scoffing words and taunts , more bitter then Worm-wood , of them that passed by , reviling him , as well as in suffering the wracking of his bones , and whole body , and the anger of an infinite God , in his soul , without any murmuring , may well call for our admiration . Reader , he hath set thee a pattern , that thou shouldst follow his steps . Some tell us the Phoenix of Saba , in Arabia Faelix ( so called from Phoenicea , or the Purple colour of her wings ) liveth six hundred and sixty years , at the end of which time , she buildeth her a nest of Cassia , Calamus , Cinnamon , and other precious spices and gums , which the Sun by the extremity of his heat , and the wavering of her wings , fires , and she taking delight in the sweetness of the savour , hovers so long over it , that she burns her self in her own Nest. Thus did the blessed Jesus , and thus ought his followers to expire in a Nest of sweet Spices , the exercise of the graces of the holy Spirit . It was a poor farewel to the world , which even Octavius Augustus gave when at the point of death he called for his Looking-glass , commanded to have his Head and beard combed , and his shriveled Cheeks smoothed up ; then asking his friends if he had acted his part well ; Cum ita responderint , vos omnes igitur inquit Plaudite . It is a dreadful conclusion which Pliny relates the Hyberboreans to make , who when they have lived to one hundred years or more , make a great feast , to which they invite all their friends , and after their jollity and mirth , throw themselves down a steep rock and so perish . Ungodly men are always worst at last ; when they come to the bottom , they are flat and dead , and nothing but grounds and dregs . How often in the eyes of the world , do wicked persons go out like a Lamp , leaving a stench behind them ! The scandalous sinner , usually , like the Goats beard , or star of Jerusalem , closeth up the flower of his presumptuous hope at high noon , he is cast in his own conscience long before his death . The Hypocrite ordinarily , as the Daysie and Dandelion , declares the approach of the evening , by shutting up before its approach ; If he be gold in the morning , and silver at noon , yet ( as we say of Butter ) he is lead at night . What is the hope of the Hypocrite , when God shall take away his soul ! As its storied of the Pardora , a people in India , that in their youth they have silver hairs , but in their age , their hairs are quite black ; Or as the She Wolf hath a yearly defect in generation , the first time she hath five , the second time four , then three , then two , then one , then barren ever after . So the Hypocrite d●clines and decreaseth in goodness , faster then the Moon in its last quarter , and is commonly worst at last . But the sincere Christian hath his best at the bottom , and hath his daintiest dish reserved to be served in at the last course● Naturalists tell us of Honey , that that is the thickest and best Honey , which is squeezed last out of the Comb. O what excellent periods and endings , both in regard of the exercise of grace and comfort , have many of the Children of God made ! The Death-bed to some Saints , hath been like Tharah to the Israelites in the Wilderness , where after many journeys growing near to the Land of Canaan , they rested themselves , and it was called Tharah , from Roah and Tarah , which signifieth a breathing time . The Sun when it declines into the West , hath even then much more light then any of the Stars ; The meanest upright Christian when he is near setting , hath more joy and comfort then a specious Hypocrite any day of his life . When some asked Oecolampadius , lying on his death-bed , whether the light did not offend him , he answered , pointing to his breast , Hic sat lucis , H●re is abundance of light , of joy ; He asked one of his Friends , What news ? His Friend told him , None ; Then saith he , I will tell you some news ; I shall presently be with my Lord Christ. I shall give thee two or three quickening Motives , and then direct thee about the work● of exercising thy self to Godliness on a Dying Bed ; and because its the last time of a Christians working for his God , I shall in the third place annex some brief helps to this duty . In reference to the Motives , Consider , First , What a serious thing Death will be to every Man and Woman in the World. It s ill and dangerous for any to cozen themselves , and undertake to mock God in their health and life ; but it s worst of all , and desperate , for any to do this on a sick and dying Bed. The Heathen hardened in sin , and wholly under the power of Satan , ignorant of the evil of their hearts and lives , and of the sad consequence of a wicked end , made light of death . Flavius Vespasian , none of the worst of the Roman Emperors , died ( as Sir Thomas Moor , ) with a jest in his mouth . Vt puto Deus fio . Methinks I am going and growing to be a God. Augustus Caesar esteemed the best of them whose death the people so much lamented , that they said , Vtinam aut non nasceretur , aut non moreretur ; Would he had never been born , or never dyed , went off the Stage of the World with a Complement ; Livia , Nostri Conjugii memor , Vive & Vale ; Farewel and Live Wife , mindful of our Marriage . Galba dyed desperately , crying out , Feri si ex re sit Populi Romani ; Strike if it be for the common good . Tiberius dyed dissemblingly , of whose death Tacitus wittily , Iam Tiberium vires & corpus , non dissimulatio , deserebant ; Now strength and life hath lest Tiberius , but not dissimulation . But Christians who understand the holiness and justice of God , the infinite demerit of sin , the certainty of an unchangeable condition in the other World , either in joy or torment , know that death is no jesting matter , that to dye is one of the most serious searching things , that they can possibly do . Two or three Particulars will shew what a serious thing death is . 1● Death will try men . When the Bridegroom comes , it will appear who have Oyl in their Vessels , and who have none● As soon as ever thou takest thy leave of temporal good things , thy spiritual riches will be known . A scorching Summer discovers what streams are fed with Ponds , and what with Springs . The Wind sheweth which Clouds have Rain in them , and which have none . Death will anatomize every soul , and reveal all that is in it ; Conscience will then bring in a true Verdict , in despight of all those bribes and frights which formerly kept the Bill in suspense , or caused it to write on it an Ignoramus . There are marks by which Saints and Sinners may be distinguished whilst they live , as great mens servants are by the Liveries that they wear but these characters ; being most inward , and known to none but themselves , and the Lord they serve , it is their dying onely , that will reveal infallibly what they are , and to whom they belong . This World is as a common Inn , wherein all are lodged , and no difference is made between the good and bad , onely that the worst men have the best usage ; but the very moment of mens dissolution makes a plain and vast distinction . Death is the way of all the earth , according to Ioshua's Periphrasis of it ; but this way hath two turnings ; one on the right hand to joy and bliss ; another on the left hand to misery and horror ; now as when the attendants of two Lords , travail together on the road , their servants cannot easily be distinguished , especially if the Servants of the one , counterfeit the livery of the other ; but when they come to the Bivium , the parting way , then it s clearly known who belong to the one , and who to the other , for each then followeth his own Master , waits on him to his house , stayeth and abideth there with him ; So though whilst men live , all professing themselves Christians , and most for a shew at least , putting on the livery of Christ , it is not known who belong to the Prince of Life , and who to the Prince of the powers of the Air , but death will discover it to themselves , and the Elect Angels . 2. It will appear that Death is a serious thing , in that Eternity● When thou diest , thy condition will be like the Law of the Medes and Persians , such as cannot be altered . At death thou goest the way that thou shalt never return . David speaking of his dead Child , saith , I shall go to him , but he shall not return to me ; And Iob by asking the question , denyeth it ; If a man dye , shall he live again ? God will never trust thee with a second life , or give thee leave for second thoughts , or better purposes , or more serious and sober actions , when thou art once landed in the other world . He will not offer thee a Christ , and Grace , and Heaven , when thou art gone from this earth . Think of it seriously ; is not that work to be done well , which can be done but once ? Shouldst thou not use thine utmost care , and strength , and diligence , to dye well , when thy everlasting making or marring dependeth on it ? Ah Friend , If thou failest now , thou failest for ever ; if thou dalliest now , thou art undone eternally ; There is no wisdom nor knowledge in the Grave , whither thou art going , Eccles. 11. 7. 3. Death will appear to be a serious thing , in that all the powers of Hell , will then assault thee . Thou mayst say of it ( in some respects , as Christ did ) to wicked men , and the Wicked one ; This is your hour , and the power of darkness . The Devil its observeable , is most busie at the conclusion of a duty , as of prayer , that the Christian might be hindered and distracted , when he closeth up all in the name of Christ , and so all his desires be frustrated ; so he is most busie in the conclusion of our days , adding fearful dreams to our slumbers , strong distractions to our fancies , increasing our pains with terrors , driving the good if possible , to despair , and intoxicating the bad with presumptuous conceits , and all because his time is little . The Devil is come down , having great rage , knowing that his time is short , Rev. 12. 12. At the approach of death , through pain of body , and perplexity of mind , men are least able to resist , and therefore this cowardly enemy will then be most ready and fierce to assault ; When the Christian is down , then if possible , he will ●rample upon him . The last persecutions of the Church under Dioclesian , and Maximinian , were the soarest . The last messenger the Devil sent to Iob , concerning the sudden violent death of all his Children , pierced his heart deepest . The subtle serpent reserved that great Ordnance for the last , hoping the former small guns of the los● of his Cattel , and Estate , and Servants , would have done some execution , in making some breach upon his faith and patience ; and this great gun playing , when he was before tired in defending , must needs shatter him in peices . He may fitly be called the Wolf of the Evening ( Jer. 5. 6. ) that devoureth . This roaring Lyon walketh in the night to seek his prey . There have been few eminent Saints , but have found their Death-bed , a Bed of Thorns , in regard of temptations . Mr. Knox said , when he came to dye , In my life time , the Devil tempted me to despair , casting my sins in my teeth ; but now in my sickness , he tells me , I have been faithful in the Ministery , and so have merited Heaven ; but blessed be God , who brought those Texts into my mind ; Not I , but the grace of God in me ; What hast thou that thou hast not received ? The Israelites never met with so much opposition , as when they were to take possession of the Land of Canaan , then all the Kings of Canaan combined together , and came out and fought them . When Satan was to be cast out of the possessed person , and never to enter into him more , he rent him , and tore him , that the people thought he was dead . Now Reader , What need hast thou to be serious and holy on a dying Bed , to the utmost of thine ability , and to fetch in all the strength thou canst from Heaven , when thou hast such cruel powerful enemies to encounter with ? It s was one of the most quickening prevalent arguments , that Alexander used to the Macedonians , before their third and last fatal Battel with Darius , That t●ey were to fight with all the strength of Persia at once . What an awakening argument should it be to thee , that thou art to fight with all the Powers of Hell at once ? Secondly , Consider , It s a special season wherein thou mayst glorifie God. A Saint by his death may bring God more honour then by all his life . The Actions and Speeches of dying men , make a deep impression on the hearts of those that are about them . The wicked themselves , who have mocked at the purity and strictness of the Saints lives , have admired their patience and chearfulness in their deaths . Though they look on the beleivers words in health , as savouring of self and sinister ends , and humour , and so neglect them ; yet when they hear a dying Saint commend the love and faithfulness of God , the pleasantness , and excellency of his ways and worship , and to bless the time , and pains , and strength , that ever they spent in his service , they esteem his language and begin to have other thoughts of Holiness and Heaven ; for they consider , that surely now the man is entering upon the borders of eternity , he is serious and in earnest . Hence the Patriarchs , knowing the prevalency of such words , urge Ioseph with Iacobs dying charge ; Thy Father , when dying , said , Forgive I pray thee , the iniquity of thy servants , Gen. 50. 16. That Ru●●ian that would live with his fellow Riotors , beholding the holy behaviour of Ambrose on his Death-bed , would chuse to dye with Ambrose . The enemies of Christ , beholding at the death of Christ how the Rocks were rent , darkness covered the face of the earth , how the vail of the Temple was torn in sunder , the graves were opened , the dead raised , were forced to cry out , Doubtless this man was the Son of God : So when the adversaries of Gods people , see them on their Death-beds , and behold their patience in bearing their sickness , their Faith in relying on their Saviour , their charity in forgiving their enemies , their zeal for the honour and interest of their Master , their constancy in defending the Gospel they did before profess , they are compelled in their consciences to acknowledge , Doubtless these are the Servants , the Sons and Daughters of God. Much more will a holy behaviour on a Dying-bed benefit such as fear God. It convinceth sinners , that they , whether they will or no , must have other thoughts of holiness and holy men then formerly , and it confirmeth Saints in their gracious practices , and makes them more diligent in their preparation . Mr. Bilny , the day before he suffered death , being told that though the fire was hot , Gods Spirit would cool it , to his everlasting refreshing , answered , putting his hand in the flame of the Candle , I feel by experience , and have known by Philosophy , that Fire by Gods Ordinance is very hot ; but yet I am perswaded by Gods holy Word , and by the experience of some spoken of therein , That in the flame they felt no heat , and in the fire no consumption ; and I constantly beleive , howsoever the stubble of this my body shall be wasted by it , yet my soul and spirit shall be purged thereby ; a pain for the time , whereon followeth joy unspeakable . And then he most comfortably treated on Isaiah 43. 1 , 2. But now , Thus said the Lord that created thee , O Jacob , and that formed thee , O Israel , Fear not , for I have redeemed thee ; When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee ; and through the rivers , they they shall not overflow thee ; when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burnt , neither shall the flame kindle upon thee . Which words he applied both to himself and his friends then present . Of which some reaped such fruit that they caused the words to be fair written on Tables ; The comfort whereof , in several that were with him , was never taken from them to their dying day . O t is very profitable to others , when a Saint so behaveth himself on his Death-bed , that he may say to his Friends and Relations , as Sir Robert Harleigh did to his Children , I have formerly taught you how to live , and now I teach you how to die . Thirdly , Consider , It s the last opportunity that thou shalt ever have to do any work for thy God and Saviour , and thy own soul ; When thou diest thou goest to the place where thou shalt receive thy reward , and shalt never never more have any season to sow to the Spirit in , to serve thy Redeemer in , and to manifest thy thankfulness to him for his love to thee ; I must work the work of him that sent me , whilst it is day , saith Christ , for the night cometh wherein no man can work , Ioh. 9. 4. Thou mayst when dying , say to thy friends , as the Crier of the Ludi seculares , which happened but once in a hundred years , did at Rome ; Come see that which ye never saw before , nor shall ever see again . He that hath but one Arrow to shoot , but one throw to cast , but one opportunity left him to work out his salvation in , may well improve it to the utmost . A certain Martyr going to suffer , expressed his sorrow that he was going thither , Where he should do his God no more service . Our God is so good , that his work is desireable , and were it possible for any grief in Heaven , saith Dr. Sibs , it would arise from a Christians consideration , that he did no more for his God , and that it cost him so little pains and labour to be saved . When Sampson was nigh his death , and should have no more opportunities to exalt his God , and advantage his Church , he lifted up his heart to Heaven ; Assist me this once , that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes . So Reader , when thou enterest thy Chamber , and art betaking thy self to thy dying bed , what weighty reasons hast thou to poure out thy soul , and wrastle with God for Divine strength ! Lord , I am now come , in my own apprehension , to the close of my days , after which , I shall never more enjoy a season to glorifie thy Majesty , or further my own account ; I am going to do a great work , which I never did before , nor shall ever do again ; I acknowledge that I have been guilty of too much slothfulness , and unfaithfulness in my life , and have given these Philistines that are enemies to my soul , too much advantage against me , and occasion to mock and deride me . O assist me now this once , that I may do thee and thy Church some eminent service , that I may be strong in faith , an example of patience , humility , heavenly-mindedness and charity , and be the death of those uncircumcised ones , my cursed corruptions , and be avenged on them , for all the dishonour they have done to thee , though I dye with them . I come now to shew wherein thou oughtest to excercise thy self to Godliness , on a Dying Bed. First , In Commending God and his ways to others . The Words of dying men , are living Oracles , and do not dye with them . It is the unhappiness of worldlings and wicked men , that when they come to dye , they cannot commend the work that they have followed , the wages which they have merited , or the Master whom they have served ; but it s the priviledge of Christians , that they have cause to praise the sweetness of that love which they have tasted , the equity of those Laws which they have obeyed , the grace , and mercy , and bounty , and faithfulness of that Lord whom they have prayed to , and delighted in , and worshipped , and the vastness , and richness , and certainty , and eternity of that reward which they are going to possess . The men of this earth , when they are dying , do often cry out and complain of the falseness and unfaithfulness of the world , and the flesh , how they have cozened , the cheated , and deceived them ; and of their own folly and madness , in toyling , and moiling , and drudging night and day , to please and gratifie that which now in their extremity turns them off . O how should the Children of God extol their Father , and his care of them , and kindness to them , magnifie their Redeemer , and his passion for them , and affection to them , exalt the Word and Ways of the Lord , as those which they have found by experience to be the most comfortable and gainful ways . The last breath of a Saint , should be spent in his Gods service . Oportet Imperatorem stantem mori , was Vespasians Motto . Oportet Episcopum , concionantem mori , was holy Iewels Motto . Oportet Christia num glorificantem Deum mori , should be every Saints Motto . Dying Iacob will speak highly of Gods providence , though he bring it in ( as it were ) in a Parenthesis . The God which fed me all my life long to this day , Gen. 48. 15. Dying Ioseph will praise the Lords faithfulness to his promise , and pawn his body for its performance ; I die , and God will surely visit you , and bring you out of this land ; And Joseph took an Oath of the Children of Israel , saying , God will surely visit you , and ye shall carry up my bones from hence , Gen. 50. 24 , 25. Dying Moses ascribes greatness to his God , tells the Israelites , He is a Rock , his work is perfect , all his ways are judgement , a God of truth and without iniquity , just and right is he , Deut. 32. 3 , 4. Dying Ioshua will appeal to the consciences of his hearers , whether God had not kept touch with them to the least title ; I am going the way of all the earth , and ye know in all your hearts , and in all your souls , that not one good thing hath failed , of all that the Lord our God hath spoken , Josh. 23. 14. As Moses and Ioshua did sound forth the praises of their God , so also , when dying , they did perswade and exhort the Iews to godliness , Deut. 32. 23. Iosh. 23. per tot . So Paul meeting with those Ephesian Elders , that should see his face no more , doth solemnly charge them to take heed to the Flocks , over which the Holy Ghost had made them overseers . I remember , saith Senarclaeus , concerning Alphonsus Diazius , his Friend and Bed-fellow , when He and I were at Newburg , the night before he was Murdered , he prayed before he went to bed more ardently , and somewhat longer then ordinary ; after which he spent a good part of the night in discourse concerning the Works of God , and exhorting me to the practice of true piety , and truly , I found my self so inflamed , when I heard him , that I thought I heard the Spirit of God speaking to me . Mr. Knox gave good advice to all his Visitors ; among the rest , the Earl of Morton came to see him , to whom he thus spake , My Lord , God hath given you many blessings ; Wisdom , Riches , and many great Friends , and now is about to prefer you to the Government of the Realm ; ( The Earl of Mart , the late Regent , being newly dead ; ) In his name I charge you , use these blessings better then formerly you have done ; Seeking first the glory of God , the furtherance of the Gospel , the good of his Church and Ministers ; Be careful of the King , to procure his good , and the welfare of his Realm ; If you do thus , God will be with you , and honour you ; if otherwise , he will deprive you of all these honours , and your end shall be shame and ignominy . These words the Earl called to mind nine years after , at the time of his Execution ; saying , that he had sound John Knox a true Prophet . Mr. ●gnatius Iordan of Exeter , one famous in his generation for Godliness , was observed in his sickness , to take all occasions to exhort others to constancy in the truth , Zeal for God , and to make sure of Heaven ; and when the Mayor of the City sent to visit him , he said to the Messenger , Remember me to Mr. Mayor , and tell him ●rom me , that he make sure of Heaven , be careful to do justice , and provide for the poor . We should when dying , in a special manner mind this work of commending God and Godliness to our Relations ; They are more affected then others with our sickness , and so also with our sayings ; Our Counsel may probably do them good , when we are turned into corruption ; Iacob calleth his Children together to bless them ; David layeth a strict command on his Son Solomon ; And thou Solomon my Son , know the God of thy Fathers , and serve him with a perfect heart , and a willing mind . Cyrus upon his death-bed conjures his Sons to peace , lest they should lose the Kingdom he left his heir . The Saint must conjure his Children to purity in the first place , lest they lose their souls and the Kingdom of Heaven . Mr. Robert Bolton , on his Death-bed , called his Children together , Wisht them to remember the counsel he had formerly given them , and he verily beleived none of them durst meet him at the great Tribunal in an unregenerate estate . Mr. Sanders a little before his death , in a Letter to his Wife , writeth thus , Dear Wife , riches I have none to leave behind me , wherewith to endow thee after this worlds manner , but the treasure of tasting how sweet Christ is unto hungry consciences ' ( whereof I thank my Christ , I feel part , and would feel more ) I bequeath to thee , and to the rest of my beloved in Christ , to retain the same in sense of heart always . O how pathetically , how earnestly , should dying Christians , who know somewhat of the worth of grace and holiness , and of the evil and end of sin and sinners , perswade their Children and Relations to love and fear , and serve the Lord , when it s the last time that ever they shall advise or counsel them ! How hard should they woo , that the souls of their Kindred may be married to Christ ! Secondly , In commending thy self and others to God by prayer . When the body breaths shortest , it breaths quickest . Though the Christian on his death-bed may want strength for long solemn devotion , his short ejaculations should be both fervent and frequent . The first thing a Child of God doth , when new born , is to breath , to pray , Act. 9. 27. And its one of the last things he doth , Act. 7. ult . He entereth praying into the place of praise . Paul the Hermit was found dead , saithe Ierom , , with his hands and eyes lifted up to Heaven , that the dead corps seemed to pray . Demus operam ut moriamur in precatione ; Let us endeavour to dye at prayer , saith Austin . 1. The sick man should pray especially for himself ; Lord Iesus receive my Spirit , saith Stephen ; Father , into thy hands I commend my Spirit , saith Christ ; Lord , saith dying Beza , Perfect that which thou hast begun , that I suffer not Ship-wrack in the Haven . Children desire to dye in their Fathers bosome , or on their Mothers lap . Mr. Perkins died begging remission of sin , and intreating mercy at Gods hands . Bishop Vsher was often heard to desire the like end that Mr. Perkins had , which he obtained , for the last words which he was heard to utter , were ; But Lord in special forgive my sins of omission , not long after which he expired . Luthers prayer a little before his death , or rather thanksgiving , was ; Pater mi caelestis , Deus & Pater domini nostri Iesu Christi , ago tibi gratias quod filium tuum Iesum Christum mihi revelasti , cui credidi , quem sum professus , quem amare , &c. My Heavenly Father , the God and Father of my Lord Iesus Christ , I thank thee for revealing thy Son Iesus Christ to me , whom I have beleived , whom I have professed , whom I have loved . Others must not be forgotten by us ; but our own souls must in a special manner be remembred . Bellarmin tells us of a desperate Advocate in the Court of Rome , who being exhorted on his death-bed to pray to God for mercy , made this speech , Lord , I have a word to say to thee , not for my self ; Ego enim propero ad inferos ; neque enim est ut aliquid pro me agas ; For I am hastening to Hell , neither is there any thing that I would beg on my own behalf , but for my Wife and Children ; This he spake , ( saith Bellarmin , who was then present ) as boldly , as if he had been taking his journey onely to some neighbouring Village . 2. For his Relations . The more hot our affection is to any , the more fervent our petitions should be for them . Praying Parents are the most loving Parents ; When dying , chiefly they should bless their Children in the Name of the Lord. So Isaac did , Gen. 28. 1. Thus Iacob , Gen. 48. 15 , 16. Godly Parents may plead the Covenant made to them and theirs , unto God on their Dying Beds with comfort . They are best acquainted with their Childrens conditions , conversations , wants , weaknesses , and so fittest to open their cases to God , and to beseech grace on their behalves , that they may be an holy seed , a generation arising to shew forth his praise . Christ when nigh death , committed his spiritual Children to his Father , and earnestly begged his care of them , and favour for them ; Holy Father , I come to thee ; I am no more in the World , but these are in the world ; Keep them thr●ugh thy name , keep them from the evil , sanctifie them through thy truth . So should a godly Father or Mother when dying ; Lord , I am leaving my poor Children in the midst of snares , and temptations , and miseries ; I am coming out of the world to thy Majesty , where I shall be above all frights and fears , and beyond all malice and mischief ; but my children are in the world , and will dayly be environd with allurements , and affrightments , with assaults and batteries from their spiritual enemies ; thou knowest the power and policy of the world and the wicked one , the treachery and deceitfulness of the flesh within them , and their weakness and inability to wrestle with , and overcome the flatteries of the World , and the suggestions of the Devil . O keep them through thy name , that they may look beyond the World , live above the World , and expect and eye their portion and happiness in a better World. Though they live in the World , let them not live as the World , but walk all their days as heirs of another World. Keep them from the evil of ●in , however it please thy Majesty to deal with them about the evil of Suffering . Give them the Shield of Faith , whereby they may quench the fiery Darts of the Devil . Let thy Covenant of grace be their portion , thy love their cordial , and thy Mansion-house their eternal possession . Be thou their Father to direct , protect , govern , and provide for them , and give them a name in thy house , better then of Sons and Daughters ; O sanctifie them through thy truth , that they may be saved , and may meet me with joy at the great day . Luther when dying , made this Will for his Wife , great with Child , and his little Sons , O Lord God I thank thee , that thou wouldst have me to be poor in this world ; I have no House , Land , or money , that I should leave them . Thou hast given me Wife and Children , I restore them to thee . Do thou O Father of Orphans , and judge of Widows , nourish , teach , keep them , as thou hast hitherto me . 3. For the whole Church of God ; It s good to pray by our selves , but its ill to pray onely for our selves ; When we are dying , and going to the Church triumphant , we should be sure to put up some requests for the poor members of Christ , and the Church militant . Calvin was heard before his death often to sigh out ; How long Lord , How long will it be ere thou avenge the blood of thy Servants● The people of God are the purchase of Christ , and of the same family and body with the dying Christian , and therefore must needs be dear to him . 4. For his Benefactours , and those that have done good to him and his . Paul had received some kindness from Onesimus , he refreshed him in his bonds , and in the ( 2 Tim. 1. 8. ) which was the last of his Epistles , and thought to be written but a little before his death , for he tells us in it , I am ready to be offered , and the time of my departure is at hand , how pathetically doth he pray for him ! The Lord grant that he may finde mercy at that day . 5. For our enemies ; This is to follow Gods pattern , who doth good for evil ; and to obey his Precept , who commandeth us to pray for them that despitefully use us . Stephen when departing out of the World , intreats mercy for them who were cruel to him ; Lord lay not this sin to their charge , Act. 7. 60. Our blessed Saviour dying , begs hard for their eternal lives , who were the instruments and authors of his bloody death ; Father forgive them , they know not what they do , Luk. 23. 34. Thirdly , In an holy exercise of Faith , Courage , Repentance , Charity , and Patience . 1. Faith ; It s the Character of Gods Children , that they live by Faith , and they dye in the Faith , Hab. 2. 6. Heb. 11. 31. The waters , say some , of the Pool of Bethesda ( wherein the Priest washed the sacrifices before he offered them ) was of a reddish colour , to note that men must be washed by faith in the blood of Christ , before they are ready to be offered a Peace-offering to God by death . The dying Christian must expect strong assaults against the bulwark of his faith ; but what-ever he let go , he must keep his hold on Christ. I know no grace that the Devil is such a sworn enemy to , as Faith ; and I know no season that he is more diligent in to overthrow their faith , then when they are under some dangerous sickness ; therefore it s the observation of a good man , that he seldom seeth a sick Saint followed close with temptations , to recover of that sickness ; for Satan knowing he hath but a little time , useth all his craft and strength to separate the soul from the Rock of his salvation . Upon a dying bed , reflect upon former experienes of Gods love to thy soul , and recollect the former evidences of of thy title to Christ , and thereby to Heaven . I must tell thee , though the certainty of thy salvation depend upon the truth of thy Faith , the comfort of thy dissolution will depend on the strength of thy Faith. Faith is the shield of the soul , and therefore above all ( in thy encounter with thy great enemy Satan , and thy last enemy death ) take the Shield of Faith , Eph. 6. 14. Epaminondas after his victory at Lo●ctrum , wherein he was mortally wounded , understanding that his Buckler was safe , bid his Chirurgion , boldly to pluck out the Dart that stuck in his side , and died cheerfully . The Saint , the Souldier of Christ , who is wounded , even to death , and keepeth his Shield of Faith safe , may leave the world with courage . The Apostle Paul , who knew whom he had beleived ( 2 Tim. 1. 12. ) rings a challenge in the ears of death ; O death , where is thy sting ! and sings a triumphant ditty at the approach of death ; The time of my departure is at hand , I have fought a good fight , I have finished my course , I have kept the Faith ; Henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness , 2 Tim. 4. 7 , 8. When Iacob had beleived the report of Iosephs life , his heart was revived ; Is Joseph yet alive ? saith he ; I will go down and see him before I dye . When the true Israelite can firmely credit the testimony which God hath given of Iesus the Son of Ioseph , how he being an enemy , was reconciled to God by the death of his Son , and shall much more , being reconciled , be saved by his life , and by faith can cling on him , his heart , though dying , is then enlivened ; O with what comfort can he take his journey into the other world ! When Philip viewed his young Son Alexander , Now , saith he , I am content to dye . Old Simeon springs young again , at a sight of Christ , and having embraced his Saviour in the armes of faith , as well as in the armes of his body , he begs a dismission out of this valley of tears , being assured thereby of an admission into fulness of joy ; Lord , now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word , for mine eyes have seen thy salvation . Having with an eye of faith beheld Christ , he counts his life but a bondage , and desires to depart or be loosed from fetters , as the word signifieth , and is taken , Mat. 27. 17. We read of the Lords worthies , that by faith they stopped the mouths of Lions ; Death is a fierce and cruel Lion , but faith will pull out its teeth , that it cannot hurt us ; or stop its mouth , that it shall not devour us . This grace , like the Angel sent from Heaven , when Daniel was cast into the Lions Den , will save the Christian from being torn in peices . O Friend , The Robes of Christs righteousness , is the onely Coat of Male , which can defend thy soul against the shot of death . If thou canst with Moses go up to Pisgah , and take a view by faith of the Land of promise , thou wilt comfortably with him lay down thine earthly Tabernacle . Iob desired death as eagerly , as the Labourer in an hot summers day desires the shadow . Paul longed for it as vehemently , as the Apprentice for the expiration of his Indentures , and all because they had first beheld Christ by faith . It s no wonder that many of Gods Children have called earnestly to be laid to bed , knowing that it would prove their everlasting happy rest , and when their bodies are carried by mortal men to their Mother Earth , their souls should be conveyed by glorious Angels to their Father in Heaven . 2. Courage ; A Christian should be a Voluntier in death ; Many of the Martyrs were as willing to dye as to dine ; went to the sire as chearfully as to a Feast , and courted its pale and gastly countenance , as if it had bee a beautiful Bride . When King Lysimachus threatned Cyrenaeus Theodorus with Hanging ; Istis quaeso ( inquit ) ista horribilia minitare purpuratis tuis ; Thedori quidem nihil interest , humine an sublime putrescat ; Threaten these terrible things to thy brave Courtiers , Theodorus cares not whether he rot in the Air , or on the Earth . Cyprian said Amen to his own Sentence of Martyrdom . Hierom reports of Nepotianus , that he gave up his life so chearfully , that one would have thought he rather walked forth then died . When Ignatius was led from Syria to Rome , to be torn in peices of wild Beasts , he often wished by the way , that he were in the midst of those Beasts that were to devour him , and that their appetites might be whetted to dispatch him ; fearing lest it should happen to him , as to some others , that the Lyons out of a kind of reverence , would not dare to approach them , being ready , he said , rather to provoke them to fight , then that they should suffer him to escape . Bradford being told by his Keepers Wife , that his Chain was a buying , and he was to die the next day , pulled off his Hat and thanked God for it . When some wondered that Adam Damplip could eat his food so well when his end was so near , he told them , Ah Masters , Do you think that I have been Gods Prisoner so long in the Marshalsey , and have not yet learned to die ? Yes , yes , and I doubt not but God will strengthen me therein . Ann Askew subscribed her Confession in Newgate , thus , Written by me Ann Askew , that neither wisheth for death , nor feareth his might , and as merry as one that is bound towards Heaven . Indeed it s said of a wicked man , that his soul is required of him , and that God takes away his soul , Luk. 12. Job 27. 10. but of a godly man that he giveth up the Ghost , and he cometh to his grave , Gen. 25. 8. Job 4. ult . Nature will teach the Heathen , that death is the end of all outward miseries to all men , hence some of them drank of its cup with as much constancy and courage , as if it had been the most pleasant Julip ; but grace will teach the Christian that death is not onely a remedy against all his bodily and spiritual maladies , as Sir Walter Rawleigh said of the sharp Ax that should behead him , this will cure all my infirmities , but also an inlet into fulness of joy and felicity ; Reverend Deering said on his death-bed , I feel such joy in my spirit , that if I should have the sentence of life on the one side , and the sentence of death on the other side , I had rather a thousand times chuse the sentence of death , since God hath appointed a separation , then the sentence of life . Ti●us Vespation , the mirror of mankind , being a stranger to Christ , was very unwilling ●o leave the world , being carried in an Horse-litter , and knowing that he must dye , lookt up to Heaven and complained pittifully , that his life should be taken from him who had not desired to dye , having never committed any sin , as he said , but onely one . Socrates and some of the wiser Heathen● comforted themselves against the fear of death , with this weak Cordial , that it is common to men , the way of all the earth ; Hence it was when the Athenians condemned Socrates to dye , he received the Sentence with an undaunted spirit , and told them , they did nothing but what nature had before ordained for him . But the Christian hath a greater ground for a holy resolution , and a stronger Cordial against the fear of death , even his hopes of eternal life , and surely if he that exceeds others in his Cordials , be excelled by them in Courage , he disgraceth his Physitian . Aristippus told the Saylers who wondred that he was not as well as they afraid in the storm ; Ye fear the torments due to a wicked life , and I expect the reward of a good one . It s no marvail that they who lived wickedly , should dye unwillingly , being frighted with the guilt of their past sins , and with the fears of their future torments ; therefore the holy Ghost saith of such a one , The wicked is driven away in his wickedness , as a Beast that is driven out of his den , to the slaughter , or as a Debtor driven by the Officers out of his house , wherein he lay warm and was surrounded with all sorts of comfort , to a nasty loathsom prison ; But that the righteous who hath hope in his death , should even dye almost with fear of it before-hand , is matter of wonder . Lots soul is exceedingly vexed with Sodom , yet he is loth to leave it . This world is a wilderness , a purgatory , a step-mother , a persecutor to all the Saints , and yet some of them when called to leave it sing loth to depart , and would linger behind ; partly from nature which dreads a dissolution , and partly from the weakness of grace ; To fear death much , argueth sometimes wickedness , always weakness . 3. Repentance ; It s said of St. Augustine , that he dyed with tears in his eyes , in the practice of repentance ; and Posidonius saith of him , that he heard him often say in his health , that it was the fittest disposition for dying Christians and Ministers . Laudatos ( saith he ) Chistianos & sacerdotes absque digna & competenti paenitentia exire de corpore non debere . We dye groaning , i● regard of our bodies , why should not our souls sigh that ever they sinned against so good a God! Beasts bite their enemies with more venome and indignation , when they are ready to dye ; Maxime mortiferi solent esse morsus morientium animali●m . The Christian should give sin his most deadly bite , his greatest abhorrency , and grief , and shame , when he is dying , and shall never see sin , or sorrow , or shame more . As its noble and excellent to dye , forgiving sinners , so also taking revenge upon sin . Moses a little before his death , is commanded to avenge the Children of Israel of the Midianites ; and then he is gathered to his people , Numb . 31. 1 , 2. Samuel takes vengeance on Agag , when he was old , and knew not the day of his death ; David could not dye with comfort , till he had charged Solomon to execute that justice on Ioab which he had omitted . The last time the Judge seeth the Felon , he passeth sentence of death upon him . O how should the soul of a dying Saint be inflamed with anger against sin , when he considers the rich love that it abuseth , the glorious name that it dishonoureth , the blessed Saviour that it pierceth , and that vast happiness which he is going to possess , of which without infinite grace and mercy it had deprived him ! Some persons when they have been to take their last revenge on their enemies , have done it to purpose . The beleiver on his dying bed , takes his last revenge on sin , he shall never have another opportunity to shew his love to his God and Saviour in , his spite at , and hatred of sin ; therefore then he should do it to purpose , as dying Sampson put forth all his strength , and beg divine help , that he may utterly destroy it , and be avenged on it , for all the defilement and bondage it hath brought on his soul , and dishonour to his Saviour . Dying Iacob cursed the sins of his own Sons , Cursed be their wrath , for it was fierce , and their anger , for it was cruel ; O my Soul , enter not thou into their secrets . The dying Child of God should curse his passions , his pride , his unbeleif , his selfishness , even all his lusts , for disobeying such righteous Laws , and displeasing such a gracious Lord. When David Chrytaeus lay a dying , he lift up his head from his Pillow , to hear the discourses of his friends that sat by him , saying , I shall dye with the more comfort , if I can dye learning something . The Christian both by his painful sickness , and approaching death , may learn something of the evil of sin , and certainly he may dye with the more comfort ( for godly sorrow and joy may be contemporaries , as the Heavens shine and showr at the same time ) if he dye in a flood of tears for his unkindness to Christ. 4. Charity in a double respect . 1. In forgiving them that have wronged thee . If the natural Sun should not go down upon our wrath , muchless should the Sun of our Lives . It s bad to bear anger or malice one hour in our hearts against any , but it s worst of all to carry it with us into the other world . How can he expect to dye in peace with God , who dyeth in war with men , when God himself hath said , Except ye forgive others their trespasses against you , neither will your heavenly Father forgive you your trespasses ? Amilcar the Father of Hannibal , when he was dying , made his Son take a solemn Oath to maintain a perpetual War with the Romans . Edward the first , adjured his Son and Nobles , that if he dyed in his expedition against Bruce , King of Scotland , they should not inter his Corps , but carry it about with them , till they had avenged him on that Usurper ; But certainly its a desperate thing to leave Children Heirs to the Parents wrath and rage , as well as to his riches ; O how dreadful is his estate , who takes his enemy by the throat , when God by death is taking him by the throat , and ready to thrattle him for ever . If thou hast wronged others , either in name , or goods , or body , seek reconciliation , and make satisfaction , for this is righteous and just ; If thy brother hath ought against thee , thou hast never more need of reconciling thy self to him , then when thou art approaching the Altar of death , there to offer up the last sacrifice to God in this world . If thy Brother have wronged thee in any sort , remit it , this is charity ; to do otherwise , is to give place to the Devil , Eph. 4. 16 , 17. and thou hast least cause to give him ground when his rage is greatest , and his barteries strongest , in thy last conflict with him . O! imitate that blessed Martyr Stephen , and the incomparable Saviour , in begging Gods love for them who hate thee , Act. 7. 60. Luke 23. 34. 2. In remembring the poor and afflicted , if God hath made thee able ; its best to be merciful in our life-time , to make our own hand our Executors , and our own eyes our Overseers ; for the payment of our Gifts and Legacies to our spiritual Kindred , for such have a particular promise that God will make all their bed in their sickness , but its good to be charitable when we are dying ; True friends show most love at parting . Though justice must be blind , not to see persons , yet charity must be quick-sighted , to pick out the fittest objects , viz. the poor , and the pious , poor in the first place . Our Goods will not extend to God , therefore they must to the Saints . When Ionathan was beyond the reach of Davids charity , he doth for his sake manifest it to his Son. God is beyond all our gifts , therefore for his sake we must bestow them on the Godly that are his Children ; Make you friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness , that when that faileth , ye may be received into the everlasting habitations ; Hereby men lay up a good foundation against the time of need . Godly Parents are ignorant how their Children may imploy the estate they leave , whether as fuel for corruption , or as oyl to keep the Lamps in Gods sanctuary burning ; its good therefore for themselves with prudence to dispose of what they may to Gods Servants and Service . Some men have estates dropping on them , out of the clouds , as it were , large inheritances , fair patrimonies , like Canaan , both in regard of their fruitfulness , and abounding with all sorts of comforts , and in regard of their easiness of obtaining them without sweat or labour ; they inherit , a● the Israelites , Houses which they built not , Wells which they digged not , and Vineyards which they planted not , upon both these accounts , such persons are engaged to do good , and distribute , and to be rich in good works . God expects a return of his Talents with advantage ; How liberal , nay , lavish , have many Papists been upon their death-beds , to Friars and Monks , even to the wronging their Wives and Children , that some States , as Venice , have been forced to make Laws to restrain men , lest the Church should in time swallow up all the revenues of the Common-wealth , and all this upon a foolish vain conceit , that they should the sooner pass through Purgatory ? It is certainly a great disgrace to the Disciples of Christ , and no mean dishonour to Christ himself , that so many , and such large gifts , have proceeded from the false faith of Merit-mongers , when the faith of his most glorious Gospel doth not work the like in true beleivers ; How will Christians answer it , that an idle Dream , and fancied Fear of an imaginary Purga●ory , should do more them the sure perswasion of the love of God , and the certain hope of eternal life ? 4. Patience and Submission to the will of God , both as to our death or life , and also as to our pain or ease in sickness ; As to our life and death we must know God is wise , and will never gather his fruit but in the best season . None , ununless a fool , but will be willing God should chuse for him . It s excellent for a sick●person to be wholly at Gods disposal , as knowing that whilst he is here God will refresh him with the first fruits , and when he goeth hence , receive him into that place where he shall enjoy the whole harvest . It was the speech of dying Iulian , he that would not dye when he must , and ●e that would dye when he must not , are both of them Cowards alike . To desire to live when one is called to dye , is a sign of Cowardise , for such a one is afraid to enter the list with the King of terrors ; To desire to dye , when one is called to live , speaks a faint-hearted creature , for such a man dares not look an affliction or disaster in the face , therefore would take shelter in death● Cato , Cleombrotus , Lucretia , shewed more cowardise then courage , in being their own Executioners ; The Romans commended Terentius for his resolution to live , after his Army was routed by Hannibal . He is the most valiant person that can dye willingly , when God would have him dye , and live as willingly , when God would have him live . He that is weary of his work before the evening , is an unprofitable servant , and is either infected with idleness , or with diseases . When Dr. Whitaker was told , death was approaching , he answered , Life or Death is welcom to me , which God pleaseth . Mr. Robert Bolton , being told that it would be better for the Church of God , if God pleased to spare his life , said , If I shall find favour in the eyes of God , he will bring me again , and shew me both it and his habitation ; if not , Lo here I am , let him do with me what he pleaseth . Another pious soul in his sickness cryed out , Domine si tibi sim necessarius , non recuso vivere ; Lord , if I may be further serviceable to thee , I am willing to live . Lucius Cornelius , Lieutenant in Portugal , under Fabius the Consul , was infamous to following ages , for his impatience in complaining of his Physitian , and railing at Esculapius , for not accepting his vow and passionate desire , of having his life spun out to a longer thread . We cannot blame them who have their portion in this life , for their unwillingness to leave it , and to become beggers in Hell for ever . Mori timeat qui ad secundam mortem , de hac morte transibit ( saith Ciprian de Moral . ) Let him fear death , who must pass from this death to the second death . To such a one indeed , death is a Murderer , like Iehorams messenger , comes to take away the life of his soul , and all his happiness , and therefore he may well call , as Elisha did , shut the door and keep him out . Many Saints who died violent and cruel deaths , yet gave their very enemies cause to admire their patience ; They wearied out their bloody Persecutors by their meekness and patience . Bonner said of the Martyrs in Queen Marys days , A vengeance on them , I think they love to burn . When that old Disciple Policarp came to the stake at which he was burnt to death , he desired to stand untied , saying , Let me alone , for he that gave me strength to come to the fire , will give me patience to endure the flame without your tying . Cassianus with admirable meekness , suffered a cruel Martyrdom from his own Scholars , who at the command of the barbarous Tyrant , became his Executioners , some with their Pen Knives , pricking and lancing his flesh , others casting stones at him , till they had killed him . Eulaliae a chast virgin , of a noble Family in Portugal , being for a time kept close by her Parents , for fear her bold Profession should cause her death ; one night getting from them , and appearing before the Tribunal of Maximnus , she was for refusing to sacrifice to his Idols , Executed in this manner , first two Hangmen with all their might , rent her joynts in sunder , then her flesh was scratched from her sides , with the Talons of Wild Beasts , and hot burning Torches were set to her sides , which ended her life . A Christian should also exercise patience and submission to Gods will , under his pain ; It is the rule of Hippocrates , that that sickness is most dangerous in which the sick man alters his countenance . Undoubtedly its ill and unbecomming Christianity , when men who in health are mild and meek , in sickness are altered to be peevish and passionate , that their relations and attendants who pity their pain , and pray for their ease , and watch , and work night and day to serve them , are requited with harsh words , and fretful returns . Cajus Marius , suffered the veins of his legs to be cut out for the cure of his Gout , and never shrunk for it . The Grecians were cowardly in their encounters with men , but valiant and patient in their conflicts with diseases . Master Ieremiah Whitaker , who on his death-bed had dreadful fits of the stone , bore them with ma●vellous patience , often turning up his eyes to Heaven , and saying , Blessed be God , this is not Hell. The Saint who is in covenant with God , and hath engaged himself to God to submit to all his providences , and hath God engaged to him , to lay no more upon him then he will enable him to bear , may well with patience endure the divine pleasure . Vincentius a Spaniard , who was Martyred at Valence , under Dacianus the President of the cruel Tyrant Dioclestan , was used in this manner ; first he was laid upon the wrack , and all the joynts of his body distended till they crackt again ; then all the members of his body were pierced and indented with deadly wounds ; then they vexed and tore his flesh with Iron Combs sharply filed ; then they laid his body on an Iron grate , and when they had opened his flesh with Iron Hooks , they seared it with fiery Plates , sprinkling the same with hot burning Salt ; last of all , they cast him into a vile Dungeon , the floor whereof was first thick spread with the sharpest shells that might be gotten , his feet then being fast locked in the stocks , there he was left alone till he died , all which he endured without murmuring or complaining , and according to his name ( Vincentius ) was over all a Conquerour . And shall not Christians , who dye in their Beds in peace , with much less pain , be patient ! Many who knew not God , did look on death as a favour , and one of the greatest which their Gods could bestow on them . Agamedes and Trophonius , having built the Temple of Apollo , asked of that God a reward for their service ; They were answered ; that within seven days they should be bountifully paid for their pains , at the end of which time they dyed in a sleep . One of Caesars crazed Souldiers , desired the favour of the Emperor , to have leave to kill himself . Especially the thoughts of the happy issue of the most painful sickness and death to a Child of God , may as the wood thrown into the bitter waters of Marah , make them sweet unto him . Some chuse to be cut , rather then to be daily tortured with the stone , though they know that cutting will put them to much pain , because they hope that cutting will cure them of their distemper . When a Gaoler knocks off a Prisoners Fetters and Bolts , though it puts him to much more pain then the constant wearing them , though every blow goeth to his heart , yet he flincheth not , he complaineth not , because he knoweth his future ease will make amends for his present pain . Christians are here fettered with sin and misery , which constantly grate upon their spirits . Death is the Gaoler to knock of their shackles , and let them into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God , what though it put them to much pain , they may bear it with much patience , knowing that it will end in eternal pleasures . Though an Hypocrite like a piece of Brass , when stricken with the Hammer of Sickness or Death , maketh a sharp and irksome noise , with impatience , and breaketh in peices , is undone for ever ; yet the sincere soul , as a piece of Gold , when so smitten , may sound sweetly , and be pliable ; True Gold may be stretcht out in length and breadth , in thin and fine leaves , as you please . Now Reader , that thou mayst thus glorifie thy God , credit thy profession , further thine account , and advantage others by thy death , it is requisite that thou be always ready for it . The Q●arter-day never comes amiss to him that hath always his Rent ready by him . The loving Husband , let him come when he will , is ever welcom to a faithful Spouse ; The actual unpreparedness of some holy persons , hath caused their Petitions for a longer stay , when God seemed to call them hence , Psa. 39. 13. As a Nobleman who is a Loyal Subject , and affectionately desires his Princes presence and company at his house , may wish that it may be deferred when his house is out of repairs , till it is in a better order . The habitual unpreparedness of sinners , I mean their predominant impenitency and unbeleif , hath made death cutting to them indeed . The Pismire fears not the Winter , having laid in her provision against that season ; but the Gra●hopper being unprepared , is starved therein . Let thy whole life be but a preparation for death ; He that would dye but once , I mean , escape the second death , must dye daily , live in a constant expectation of it , and preparation for it . Pliny calleth a sudden death , the greatest fortune of a mans life . Iulius Caesar , the day before his death , in discourse with Marius Lepidus , upon that point , what was the best end of a mans life , preferred that which was sudden and unlookt for , which was his fate the next day . Augustus his Successor , was of the same judgement , and desired , Mortem celerem , & insperatem ; But the Christian findeth by experience , that death to be the best , which was most expected and prepared for . Meditatio mortis , vita perfectissima , The Meditation of death , is the holiest life , ●aith the Father . Tota vita , meditatio mortis , & discendum est mori , The whole life is but a learning to dye , saith the Philosopher . Wise Princes lay up ten years for one days Battel . A wise Christian will lay up every day somewhat for his last day , knowing that if he win that combat , he is made for ever . Invasions or Insurrections , like a sudden breach of the Sea , carry all before them , when pitcht Battels give equal advantage , and cause less terror on each side . Evils premeditated , are often prevented , always mitigated , the mind gathering reason and strength together , wherewith to encounter them . But unthought of troubles , like fire in the night , are most frightful , startling the secure sinner from his quiet repose . In order to this preparation , I shall mention two or three particulars , but briefly , having spoken to them else-where . 1. Keep a clear conscience in thy health ; Remember that sin is the sting of death ; therefore be afraid of sin , if thou wouldst not be afraid of death . T was Nero's answer to Seneca , when he advised him to desist his wicked courses , that he might please the Gods , Ver●or ego deos , cum talia facio , Do you think I fear the gods , who dare run upon such actions ! But he who did not dread the Gods , found death dreadful to him ; for the Historian observeth that he cried pittifully , like a Child , when he was called forth to be killed . T is the righteous onely , that is bold as a Lion , because the rig●teous onely hath a conscience sprinkled with the blood of the Lamb , and a conscience void of offence towards God and Man. When Hilarion was nigh death , Depart my soul ( saith he ) depart , what dost thou fear ? thou hast served Christ almost seventy years , and art thou afraid of death ? Bernard observeth of Gerrard , I beheld him , exultantem in morte hominem , & insultantem morti , exulting in death , and insulting over death . St. Ambrose undauntedly encountred his last enemy , saying , I have not so lived , that I am afraid to live any longer , neither do I fear to die , because we have a good Lord. The Testimony of a good conscience was the great Apostles comfort in the midst of his trials and troubles , 2 Cor. 1. 12. T is guilt which makes us shie of a severe and Holy Gods presence . It is no marvail that Alexander the Conqueror was struck almost dead at the sight of Cyrus Tomb ; that Sigismond when dying should forbid his servants to mention the word Death ; that Lewis the eleventh should while in health , enjoyn his Courtiers not to speak of Death , and when sick , prohibit the naming it upon pain of death ; I do not wonder that Saul upon the news of his approaching danger and death , falls groveling on the ground , and hath no strength left in him , nor that Belteshazar upon the tidings of this Serjeants coming to arrest him , fell into an Ague Quaking , and Shivering , so violently that all the wine which he drank so plentifully in his golden Bowles , could not chear his heart , nor fetch blood into his cheeks . The Malefactour may well dread the thoughts , much more the approach of an Assize , knowing that he is bound over to it , and must appear to be arraigned , condemned , and executed . The entry of death may well be forcible upon them whom it ejects out of all their happiness , and whole lives have been made up of unholiness ; T is vice that paints death with such a formidable countenance , with a whip and flames in its hand . Friend , let thy conversation be pious , if thou wouldst dye in peace . Such as a mans life is , usually such is his death ; An unholy life is ordinarily followed with an unhappy end . A filthy Adulterer , mentioned by Luther , expired in the armes of an Harlot . So also Tigillinus , Cornelius , Gallus , Ladislaus King of Naples ; one of the Popes died in the embraces of strange flesh ; A great swearer when he came to dye , saith Mr. Bolton , swore apace , and as if he had been already in Hell , called upon the standers by to help him , with oaths ; King Henry the second on his death-bed , cursed his Sons , the day wherein he was born , and in that distemper departed the World , saith the Historian , which himself had so often distempered . We read of one who lived well , that died ill ; and of but one in the whole Book of God , who lived ill , that dyed well . A sinner may presume upon peace at death , and bespeak in the language of Iehoram to Iehu ; Is it peace Jehu ? Is it peace death ? or as the Elders to Samuel ; Comest thou peaceably ? but the Answer will be the same with that of Iehu to him , What peace can there be , so long as the whordoms of thy Mother Jezabel and her witch-crafts are so many ? What peace can there be , so long as thy l●sts and atheism , and ignorance , and prophaness abound , and thy abominations are so many ? It s no wonder that such persons , like Owles , are never heard but at night ( the close of their days ) and then they screech horribly . What shall we call a mocking of God , saith a learned person , if they do not mock him , who think it enough to ask him forgiveness at leasure , with the last drawing of a malicious breath ? these find out a new God , make one a leaden one , like Lewis the eleventh of France . And again , Let us not flatter our immortal souls to neglect God all our lives , and know that we neglect him , trusting upon the peace we think to make at parting ; for this is no other then a rebellious presumption , and a contemptuous laughing to scorn , and a deriding of God , his Laws , and Precepts . Unquestionably such will be grosly mistaken at last , in falling from their heights into Hell. As the Daughter of Polycrates dreamed that her Father was lifted up , that Iupiter washed him , and the Sun annointed him , but it proved to him but a sad prosperity ; for after a long life , and large prosperity , he was surprised by his enemies , and hanged up till the dew of Heaven wet his cheeks , and the Sun melted his grease . Reader , Let me bespeak thee , as Iotham did the men of Sechem ; Hearken unto me , that God may hearken unto you ; Hearken unto me in this day of thy health and life , that God may hearken unto thee in the day of thy sickness and death . Make thy peace with God now , give a Bill of divorce to sin , strike an hearty Covenant with Christ , keep thy conscience clean every day , allow not thy self in any known sin , if thou wouldst leave this world in favour with God , in the love of good men , and to thy eternal gain . Nihil est in morte , quod metuamus si nihil timendum vita commisit , saith the Antient ; Death hath nothing frightful , but what a prophane life makes so . They who flie from the holiness of God in life , may well fear the justice of God at death . A sinner indeed , is every day carrying more Faggots to that pile in which he must burn for ever , and always twisting those cords with which Devils will eternally scourge him , and therefore the guilt of his wicked life , and fear of his dreadful wages , may well represent death to him in a frightful vizard . But he who makes it his constant business to please his Maker , to mortifie his earthly members , to crucifie the flesh , to serve the Wills of God in his generation , and to dress his soul against the coming of the Bridegroom , shall finde his latter end comfortable , and the day of his death better then the day of his birth . O Friend , if thou wouldst dye comfortably , live conscienciously ! An happy death is the conclusion of an holy life ; God hath joyned them together , and none can part them asunder . It s reported of the Dardani , that they never Wash but three times , when they are Born , when they Marry , and when they Dye ; The true Christian must be daily washing his soul by faith in the blood of his Saviour , and bathing himself in the tears of repentance , and hereby his soul will be fit to be commended into the Hands of God by well dying . 2. Clear up thine evidences for Heaven . Be not contented to leave thy salvation at uncertainty ; They who walk in the dark , are full of frights and fears ; The comfort of thy death , will depend much upon the clearness of thy deeds and evidences for eternal life ; The want of diligence about this , hath caused many of the Children of God to go crying to Bed , and wrangling to their eternal rest ; They dye and know not how they shall speed in the other world ; they fall into the hands of their enemy Death , as the Lepers into the hands of the Syrians , expecting nothing but cruelty and misery , trembling every step of the way , though they find good chear , and all sorts of comforts . 3. Dwell much in the thoughts of Deaths . Cicero said of Fencing , Fortissima adversus mortem , & dolorem disciplina ; It was the strongest fence against the fear of death ; So I may say of entertaining death frequently in our meditations , it s a good guard against the terror of death ; Custom diminisheth the dread of things which to nature are so frightful . Marius before he would bring out his Souldiers to fight with the Cimbres , caused them to stand upon the trenches , to acquaint themselves with the terrible aspect of those Savages , and so brought them to contemn them , which at first sight they so amazedly feared . When we are on a sudden surprized by an unexpected adversary , we want time to unite our strength to resist the assault ; but what we expect we provide for , and so are the better able to encounter with it . The old people that lived near the Riphaean Mountains , were taught to discourse much of Death , and to converse with it , and to speak of it , as of a thing that will certainly come , and ought so to do ; hence their resolutions were strengthned to undergo it with patience and courage . As Cordials lose their vertue , so even Poisons their venome , by frequent use . Mithridates by constant use of it , made it so far from being mortal , that it was nourishing to him . Though Death in its own nature be venemous , the Christian by frequent meditation of it , and application of the blood of Christ to his soul , may make it profitable to him . 4. Wean thy heart from the earth . They who love the earth as their Heaven , will be unwilling to leave it , though for Heaven ; Canst thou bear the loss of some worldly comforts , when God takes them from thee ? if not , how wilt thou be able to bear the loss of all worldly comforts , in a dying hour ? If running with Footmen weary thee , how wilt thou be able to run with Horsemen ? If a little loss , a little load be ready to break thy back , what wilt thou do under the weight of a great one ? Paul was martyred in his affections , before he was martyred in his body ; and dead to the world , before he was slain by the world ; hence he came to dare even death it self , and to bid it do its worst ; I protest by your rejoycing , which I have in Christ Iesus , I dye daily . Should a Messenger have come to Paul and told him , you must dye to morrow , and leave all the good things of this life ; He might have said , That is not now to do , for I died yesterday , and this day , and every day , and I have already taken my leave of this world and all its vanities . Those that like Eeles , lye in the mud of worldly pleasures , are unfit to be sacrificed to God , as being unclean creatures , and unwilling to part with their present delights , though for those that are more excellent . The immoderate love of sublunary vanities , makes men say , as Peter at Christs transfiguration ; It is good to be here , albeit like him , they know not what they say . 5. Set thy house in order . After the heart is set in order , the next work is to set the house in order , according to Gods counsel , Isa. 38. 1. Abraham was careful before his death , to settle the affairs of his houshold , as appeareth by his providing a fit spouse for Isaac , and his giving gifts to the Children of his second Wife , and sending them away , Gen. 24. 1 , 2. and 25. 6. This ought to be done in the time of our health and strength , partly because we are uncertain whether we shall have time and ability in sickness to do it or no. How many have died suddenly , and why not thou and I as well as others ? Some who had a mind to make their Wills , have not had a tongue to do it with ; Others who have had a tongue , have lost the use of their understandings ; partly because in sickness we should have as little as may be to do with the World. All occasions of disturbance or distraction to our souls , should be prevented . The disposition of what God hath given thee , must be with prudence for the maintenance of love among Relations , with plainness , that thy meaning may not be mistaken , and with judgement and ability for the preventing of all Quarrels and Law-suits amongst such as are interested in it . Reader , If thou art careful and faithful in the discharge of these particulars , thy Funeral will prove a Festival , and the Sun of thy life will set , as the natural Sun , in a clear evening , not in a cloud , but in such a red skie as to prognosticate the ensuing day to be fair , thy certain and comfortable resurrection to bliss and honour ; Thy name will live when thou art dead , and thy memory be blessed amongst all that fear the Lord. Tacitus makes one of the Sempronii , not wholly to degenerate from the honour of his house , onely for dying well . Constantia mortis hand indigna Sempronio nomine . Nero did tacitly wipe Claudius the Emperour , though himself were the worst of the two , when in an ambiguous phrase he mentions his death ; Desinit * Morari inter homines ; Every sinner goeth out like a snuff ; but the just shall be had in everlasting remembrance . By practicing these duties thou shalt come to die in the Lord , to rest from thy labours , and to have thy works following thee to thine endless blessed reward . A Good Wish about the Christians exercising himself to Godliness , on a Dying Bed ; wherein the former heads are applied . THe righteous God having appointed death to be the end of all the Children of men , as the common road through which they pass into the other world , to receive according to what they have done in this life , whether it be good , or whether it be evil ; I Wish that I may be wise to consider of my latter end , and so live that I may rather desire then be afraid to dye , that my last days may be my best days , and I may imitate my Redeemer in bringing my God much honour , and doing his Church much service , when I am entring into my Masters joy . The evening praiseth the day , the last scene commends the Act. The rivers , the nearer they draw to the Sea , the sooner they are met by the tide . Though to guide a vessel safely along in the Ocean , argueth much skill , and such a Pilot is worthy of praise ; yet at the very entrance into the● Haven , then to avoid the Rocks , and to cast Anchor in a safe Road , argueth most skill , and deserveth most praise . Musitians reserve the sweetest strain for the close of their lesson . Orators , though in every part of their speech they use great care , yet in the close of their speech they use the utmost of their Rhetorick , and put forth all their art and skill to stir up all the affections of their hearers , that they may leave at last the deepest impressions upon their hearts of those things which they would perswade to . My whole life ought to be no●thing else but a pleading with my God for mercy and a walking according to his word ; but when I come to the period of my days , how powerful should my prayers , how pious my practices be ? how lively my graces ? how holy my whole conversation ? that my God may say of me , as once of Thyatira , I know thy works and charity , and service , and faith , and thy patience , and thy works , and the last to be more then the first . Though violent Motions are slowest at last , as being farthest from that strength which forced them contrary to their own inclinations ; yet natural motions , proceeding from an inward principle , the nearer the centre , the swifter the motion ; Though Hypocrites and such as have onely a form of godliness , grow worse and worse , and fill up the measure of their lusts with the measure of their lives ; yet gracious persons and such as have the power of godliness , grow better and better , and compleat their task with their time ; O that the longings , the desires , the faith , the hope , the delight of my soul , like the approaches of a Needle , may be so much the more quick , by how much they draw nearer to their Load-stone Iesus Christ. Lord , thou hast an absolute dominion over me , both living and dying ; It s thy word , None of thine liveth to himself , or dyeth to himself ; But whether they live , they live unto the Lord , and whether they dye they dye unto the Lord ; and whether they live or dye , they are the Lords . O help me to glorifie thee , both by my life and by my death . Let thy spirit be strong within me , when my flesh is weak ; When the Keepers of the house shall tremble , shew thy self the Keeper and strength of my heart . When the Grinders shall cease , because they are few or weak , give me to feed on the Manna of thy promises , and that bread which came down from Heaven . When the Daughters of Musick shall be brought low , let me hear by faith the song of Moses and the Lamb , sung by the celestial quire ; When they that look out at the Window are darkened , let the eyes of my soul be opened , to behold , with thy dying Martyr Stephen , Iesus sitting at the right hand of God ; Let my hope and desire look out at the Windows , and say , Why is his Chariot ( sent to fetch me to himself ) so long a comming ? Why tarry the wheels of his Chariot ? Make hast my beloved , be thou like the Heart and Roe , upon the Mountains of spices . Whether I perish in the field with Abel , or in the Prison with the Baptist , or in my bed with Jacob , grant me thy gracious comforting presence , and then though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death , I shall fear none ill . O do thou undertake my conduct in my passage over the rough waters of this Jordan , into Canaan , and then there will be no danger of drowning ; Assist me so to live by faith , that I may dye in the faith , and when my friends take my earthly body to their disposal , O do thou receive my Heaven-born soul into the armes of thine infinite mercy , for thou hast redeemed it , Lord God of truth . I Wish that I may frequently ponder what a serious solemn thing it is to dye . 1 How ever light , or vain , or jesting , my life hath been , my death will be in earnest ; I cannot dally or trifle with it ; It will not dally or trifle with me ; It can be done but once , and upon it my everlasting making or marring depends . It ●s so certain , that all must , willing or unwilling , ready or unready , undergo it ; Neither the policy of Achithophel , nor the strength of Sampson , nor the wisdom of Solomon , nor the beauty of Absolom , nor the piety of Abraham , nor the wealth of the rich Glutton , can prevail to avoid it ; No time , no place , no company , no houses , no lands , no relations , no youth , no strength , no power , no preferments , can priviledge me against the arrest of death . God hath decreed it , Sin hath deserved it , and I must expect it . It is so searching that it will discover all the Children of men , both to themselves and Angels . Though ships are usually distinguished by their Flags , yet that is no sure sign ; for Mariners when in sight and fear of their enemies , will ordinarily hang out the colours of other Nations , and say they belong to them , but when they come to their Haven to unload their vessels , it appears to what Country they belong : Though men are usually distinguished by their outward behaviours , yet many for their own ends put on Christs livery , who are of Satans family , but when they come to be searched and unladen at the end of their lives , t will be known to whom they belong . When I come to dye , then the great controversie between Christ and Satan concerning my soul , will be determined , whose it shall be for ever . O my soul , that thou couldst but conceive what it will be to be sent by death into an unchangeable estate either of bliss or misery . If thou diest in thy sins , thou art killed with death . Shouldst thou now live without conscience , thou wilt dye without comfort , and remain comfortless for ever . Ponder a little with thy self the fearful death of a sinner , that thou mayst flie his wicked acts , as thou wouldst his woful end . In the midst of his jollity and mirth , when he is in an eager pursuit of carnal pleasures , and posting in the way of worldly delights , and running to all excess of riot , he is on a sudden by deaths harbinger , sickness , commanded to stand , and proceed no further ; This cuts him to the very heart . His former prosperity , like Oyl , hath suppled his body , and makes him more sensible of his present pain . And his immoderate love to those fleshly delights , doth abundantly greaten his grief , and increase his loss . Now the man is thrown , whether he will or no , upon his sick bed , that must be his death bed ; In this his extremity , his Companions , and Friends , and Wife , and Children , and Honour , and Places , and Preferments , and Silver , and Gold , and Houses , and Lands , and costly attire , and dainty fare , are all dry things , and unsavoury to him ; no creature can afford him the least comfort . If he look into his Chamber , his Wife is weeping and wringing her hands , his Children are sighing , his friends are lamenting and wailing , but all this doth increase , not mitigate his vexation and misery . If he look into his Conscience , he finds that taking courage , and telling him to his face , that though formerly he would not suffer it to speak , yet now it must tell him the truth , that death , and hell , and wrath , are the wages of his ungodly works . It will bring to his mind , the time he hath mis-spent , the talents that he hath mis-improved , the day of grace that he hath despised , the great salvation that he hath neglected ; his secret , and private , and publick sins , the sins of his Childhood , of his youth , of his riper age ; those sins which he had forgotten , and thought should never have been remembred , are all set in order before his eyes ; His heart which was before harder then the neather Milstone , is now pierced , though not with an evangelical contrition , yet with legal terrors and torments . His sickness will allow no rest to his body , and his sins will afford no ease to his soul. In the evening he cryeth , Would God it were morning ; in the morning , Would God it were evening , because of the anguish of his spirit ; His bones are filled with a painful disease , and his body with unquietness . The Arrows of the Almighty are within him , the poison thereof drinks up his spirit , and the terrors of God do set themselves in array against him . His review of his past actions , his remembring of his slighting Christ for a brutish pleasure , or a little fading treasure , or a base lust , and provoking God , and continuance in sin , against mercies , judgements , warnings , the light of conscience , the motions of the spirit , are as so many envenomed Arrows sticking in his side , and piercing him through with many sorrows , but the thoughts of his necessity of dying , and his fore-thoughts of the consequent of death , how hell rides upon its back , and eternal torments attend it ; how he must fry in unquenchable flames , and take up his everlasting lodging amongst roaring Lyons , frightful Dragons , and the hellish crew sink him quite down . To add some more Gall and Wormwood to his cup of bitterness , the Devil now steps in , and sheweth him his sins in their black hew , in their bloody colour and countenance , to make him hopeless and desperate . The poor creature in this miserable plight and plunge , knoweth not what to do , whether to go for releif . Dye he would not , but must ; live he would , but canno● . Now he wisheth that he had prayed and served God , and minded his soul and salvation more , and gratified his flesh , and embraced the pleasures and honours of the World less ; Now he desireth that he might live a little longer , and thinks , O how would I redeem time , and follow after holiness , and walk with God , what would I not do and suffer to lay up some comfort , some cordial against such an hour ! But whilst he is thus in the midst of his vain wishes , Death tells him by the violence of his distemper , that the time of his departure is at hand ; His eyes now begin to sink , his speech to faulter , his breath to shorten , and his heart to fail him , and a cold sweat to seise on his whole body . He strives and struggleth with all his might to continue here , but Death like a Cruel Serjeant , drags him to the bar of God , whence he is immediately with frowns and fury dismist and haled to the dreadful and eternal Dungeon of Hell. O the howlings , the screeching , the groans , the grief which possesseth this poor soul , when he is attached by Devils , those merciless Officers , and carried by them to the lake that burns with fire and brimstone for ever . The Spirit being now gone , the Body remains a cold lump of Clay , forsaken of its dearest friends , loathsom to its nearest relations , sit for no company but the wormeaten congregation , amongst which it must abide till the last day , when it shall be joyned to the soul , and partake with it in unconceiveable and endless torments . Ah who can read such a souls estate with dry eyes ! or think of such a condition without sorrow , O my soul , what are thy thoughts of such a death ! Wouldst thou for the most prosperous Worldlings life , dye such a death ? Doth not thine heart ake whilst thou art musing on it ? If thou wouldst not meet with the end of such men , avoid their ways ; Lord , I confess my self a great sinner , and thou mightest justly leave me to walk in the counsel of the ungodly , and to go in the paths of the destroyer , that my feet should tend to death , and my steps take hold of hell , yet for thy sons sake , teach me thy way , and lead me in thy righteousness , that my soul may never be gathered with sinners , nor my life with bloody men , that I may die the death of the righteous , and my latter end may be like his . 2 I wish that I may look upon a dying Bed , as a Fit Pulpit in which I may preach my Makers and Redeemers praise . The speeches of dying persons are often highly prized , as savouring of most sincerity , and least suspected of selfish ends . They who scorned my counsel , and rejected my advice in my health and strength , as fearing it proceeded rather from interest then simplicity of heart , will if they have the least grain of charity , believe me in earnest , and my words to be the language of my soul when I am dying , and entering into my eternal estate . The worst of men have some reverence and respect for dying Christians . What thrusting and crowding , even to the prejudice of their bodies , hath there often been to hear the speeches and last words of dying men . The vilest Malefactour , who is cut off by the Sword of justice , is permitted with patience to speak , and attended to with diligence at the Gallows . If enemies have some respect for dying Felons , and will hearken to them with meekness , what hopes may a dying Saint have of advantaging the souls of his friends ? O that I might greedily embrace such an opportunity of advantaging the interest and honour of my God , the service and good of my neighbours , and by my pious language , and gracious carriage at my latter end , make others in love with holiness , holy men , and the holy one of Israel ! Sinners catch hold of every season to propagate their ungodly seed , and commend Satans rotten wares to the men of the world ; Why should not Saints be as vigilant as diligent for their God and Saviour ? Lord , I know not in what manner , by what distemper it will please thee to call me to thy self . I beg if it may seem good in thy sight , that nothing may befal me on my dying bed , which may render me uncapable of commending thee , and thy ways , and worship to others . My chearfulness in bearing thy will , and activeness to extol thy work and reward , may through thy blessing perswade Satans drudges to forsake his slavery , and admit themselves thy servants . O that I might allure others to prepare for such a day , by lifting up my head with joy , when that day of redemption draweth nigh ! The Apprentice makes merry when his time is expired , and he enjoyeth his freedom . The Bride hath a feast and musick , when her Marriage-day is come . This life is my time of service , death sets me at liberty ; In this World I am contracted to my dearest Saviour , my solemn marriage is in the other world , into which I pass through death . Why should I fear that Messenger which brings such good news , and be troubled at that friend who will do me so great a courtesie ? O enable me to live every day according to thy Gospel , that keeping my conscience clean , and my evidences clear , I may in the day of my death , rejoyce and be exceeding glad ; Give me to savour the sweetness of thy love , the pleasantness of thy paths , to feel the powerful influences of thy spirit , the vertue and efficacy of thy word ; so to rellish communion with thy self , and thy dear Son all the days of my life , that when I am going out of the world , and comming to thee ; O Father , I may from my own experience quicken and encourage others to forsake earthly vanities , before earthly vanities forsake them ; and to take thee for their chiefest good , and choicest happiness , who will never leave them nor forsake them . 3 I Wish that the nearer I draw to my reward , the more zealous and industrious I may be about my work , and that when my body droppeth and faileth most , my soul may be most vigorous and active in the exercise of grace . I am infinitely indebted to the blessed God , for his unspeakable grace to my precious soul , my engagements to the dearest Redeemer , for loving me and washing me in his own blood , are far beyond my apprehension . This is the last opportunity that I shall ever enjoy to testifie my thankefulness , and to do my God , my Saviour , my soul , any service . O how diligent should I be to promote their interest , and improve this season ! Nature in its last conflict with a disease , puts forth it self to the utmost , it draweth in those spirits which before were scattered in the outward parts , to guard and arm the heart , it rallieth all those forces which are left , if possible , to win the day ; O why should not grace in its last encounter , muster up all its strength , and put forth it self to the utmost ! Lust is strong to the last , when nature is weak and spent , and the sinner disabled from his unclean or intemperate acts , even then he can hug them in his heart , and roul them under his tongue , as a sweet morsel , and commit them over and over again , in his thoughts , and fancy , and affections . The dying Theif on the Cross , when his hands and feet were nailed , and by force kept in order , could yet find his tongue at liberty before his death , to rail at , and revile the Lord of life . Ah is it not a thousand pities that grace should be outvied by lust , and that those that are paid with such lamentable wages as everlasting burnings , should dye serving their cruel Master and enter into Hell , belching out their blasphemies , and spitting their poison in the face of Heaven ; and that the Children of God should do their father so little service , when they are going to their blissful mansions , and can do him no more ? love to my self , as well as to my God , may quicken me to labour with all my might , when I draw near my last hour . As I fall now , I lie for ever . My eternal estate dependeth more upon my death then my life . It s possible , ( though rare ) that a prophane life may be corrected by a penitent death ; but a wicked death can never be amended . He that shoots off a piece , if he be not steady just at its going off , loseth his Charge , and misseth his Mark ; He that dieth ill , dieth ever , he is killed with death . He that goeth awry when he goeth out of the world , shall never come back to recal or amend his steps . If I am a conqueror now , I am a conqueror for ever ; if I am foiled now , I am foiled for ever . Cowards will sight desperately when they are in extremity , and must either kill or be killed . The Historian saith of Cn. Piso , a confederate of Catalines , that though he had an heart like an Hare , yet he could sight like a Lyon , when he apprehended a necessity of fighting for his life . O that my pains , my diligence , may be answerable to my peril and my danger ; Lord , when that day and hour draweth near , that I must go hence and be no more seen , do thou draw near in boundless mercy to my poor soul ; When I must enter into the Chambers of death , and make my bed in the grave , save me from the paws of Satan , and the power of Hell , that the bottomless pit may not shut her mouth upon me ; and give me to triumph in that hour of tribulation , as knowing that neither tribulation , nor persecution , nor principalities , nor powers , nor things present , nor things to come , nor life , nor death , can seperate me from thy love , which is in Christ Jesus my Lord. I Wish that when I am going to the place of silence , I may speak the excellencies of my God , and make his praise glorious . It is the unhappiness of worldlings and wicked men , that they cannot when they dye commend the principles whence they have acted , nor the vain pleasures which they have minded and pursued . How many of them whose lives have been nothing but a bundle of false-hood and lies , when God hath called them to leave the world , have spoken truth , and told their Friends and Relations , that sin is an evil and bitter thing , that carnal pleasures are guilded poisons , that the greatest and choicest of worldly comforts , though they may have honey in their mouths , have a sting in their tailes ; and what a vain empty nothing the whole creation is ? How often have they complained how the world hath deceived them , the flesh deluded them , and Devil beguiled and destroyed them ? It is my priviledge as well as my duty , to extol my Master whom I have served , to commend the sweetness of his ways , the pleasantness of his worship , the reasonableness of his precepts , the richness of his promises , and the vastness of that portion which he hath laid up for his Children when they come to age . I have sometimes tasted his work and ways to be sweeter then the honey and the honey comb ; I have viewed by faith his reward to be vastly glorious , and beyond all apprehensions excellent . O why should I not diswade others from their eager pursuit of foolish fading shadows , and perswade and encourage them to earnest endeavours after real substance , and durable riches ! The sinner who hath wallowed all his life time in the mire of filth and wickedness , will when he comes to dye , and begins to return to his wits , from his own experience of the emptiness and unprofitableness of his ungodly courses , and from the convictions of his natural conscience , acknowledge a sober , sanctified conversation to be safest , and the ways of God to be most gainful ; and upon these accounts advise his friends and relations to forsake and abandon the lusts of the world and flesh , and to follow after holiness , as they would be happy eternally . And have not I much more cause to shew my abhorrency of sin , and love to my Saviour and his image , when I am entering into my Fathers house ? The sinner hath onely found at last a fleshly life , to be vain and fruitless , and is like to pay dear for his learning , but I have known the paths of piety to be paths of pleasantness , and rejoyced more in them then in all riches ; The sinner hath onely the dim light of nature to shew him the loathsomness of vice , and the loveliness of grace ; but I have the holy Spirit of my God to enlighten my mind in the knowledge of both ; The sinner hath only a carnal love to his Neighbours and Kindred ; he knoweth not what it is to love them in Christ , and for Christ ; I have some knowledge of the love and Law of Christ , of the worth of their souls , of the price paid for them by the Lord Iesus , and their unchangeable conditions in the other world . O that my language to them , might be somewhat answerable to the love of Christ to me ! Lord , It is unrighteousness to die in debt to man , and not to endeavour to make them satisfaction according to my power ; I am sure to dye in thy debt ; for I am less then the least of all thy mercies , and unable to requite thee for the smallest of thy favours ; It is my comfort , that all the recompence thou expectest , is a thankful acknowledgement , and hearty acceptance of thy grace and good will. O what injustice and ingratitude were I guilty of , should I deny thee so small a request ! Be pleased to help thy servant in his last hours , both to accept unfeignedly of thy grace for his own good , and to acknowledge thy good will , and bounty , and faithfulness to thy glory , for the good of others . 2 I Wish that my lost breath may be drawn Heaven-ward ; I mean , that I may enter praying into the house of blessing and praise . I am no Christian if I do not give my self to prayer whilst I live . It is one choice piece of my spiritual Armour , whereby I have often assaulted and conquered my soul-enemies ; It is the Ambassadour which I have many a time sent to the heavenly Court , that always received a favourable Audience , and obtained his errand . It is the Vessel which hath brought me food from far , and ever returned richly laden , if it were not my own fault . It is the element in which I live ; the aliment by which I subsist ; the pulse , the breath of my soul , without which it must needs dye . On my death-bed I have as much need of its succour as at any season ; My adversaries will then imploy their greatest power and policy to rout and ruine me , I am but weak flesh and blood , altogether unable to combat with Principalities and Powers ; and how can I expect supplies from the Lord of Hosts , unless I send this Messenger to intreat it ? My wants and weaknesses at such a time will be more then ordinary . Faith must then be acted in spight of all the frights and fears which a malicious Devil , and an unbeleiving heart , from the number and nature of my sins , the strictness of the law , and the justice of God , may put me to ; Repentance must then be exercised , and my sins lye nearer my heart then my sharpest diseases ; In patience I must possess my soul under all the pains and pressures which the wise God shall lay upon me . I must then chearfully submit to the divine pleasure , and by my willingness to leave all the world to go to Christ , shew that I hate Father , Mother , Wife , Child , House , Lands , Life and all for Christ. Those graces and many other , must be put forth at su●h a time , none of which I can do by my own power , and therefore have abundant cause to fetch help from Heaven by prayer . Besides , the distempers of my body will discompose my soul , and unfit it in a great measure for all holy service . Again , my Benefactors , my near Friends and Relations , the poor afflicted Church of God , do all call aloud to me to pray for them , as the last kindness I shall ever do for them ; I profess I love them , how can I manifest it better , then by commending them to God in prayer ? Should I leave them thousands of silver and gold ( if I were able ) it would not all amount to the price of one fervent prayer . My riches might wrong them , through the deceitfulness of their hearts , and cause them to be contented short of Heaven ; but my prayers cannot prejudice them , but may much further their eternal welfares . Men whose natures are crabbed and cruel , have granted the requests of their dying children , when they have been contrary to their own humours . How much more will God the Father of mercies , whose nature is Love , whose bowels are infinite , satisfie the desire of his dying children , when they fall in with his own design and desire ? If Joab had hopes to speed in his supplication for Absolom , because he knew the Kings heart was more for it then his own , may not I be confident to speed when I beg that he would pay my debts in spirituals , with interest to those who have bestowed carnals on me for his sake ; when I ask that my Children and Relations may love and fear , and worship his Majesty , and be his workmanship , created in Christ Iesus unto good works ; and when I intreat that he would accomplish all the great and good things which he hath promised to his Church , the purchase of his Christ , knowing that his heart is infinitely more for these things then mine can be ! Lord , when I dye , I shall no more put up prayers for my self or other particular persons ; My natural obligations to my Kindred and Relations , my civil ingagements to my Friends and Benefactours , besides my spiritual bonds to them and thy whole Israel , may well provoke me to be fervent and instant with thy Majesty at such an hour on their behalves . My Redeemer before his death , wrought hard at this duty ; He offered up prayers and supplications , with strong crying , and tears . Ah , how should I pray for my self and others , when I am taking my leave of prayer ! O let thy spirit of supplication be so poured down on me , that I may poure out my spirit in supplication unto thee● for my own and others souls , through thy Son , with the greatest success . I Wish that the night of my death , 3 may shine gloriously with the sparkling stars of divine and heavenly graces . In particular , I desire that when the time of my combat with my last enemy , and my last combat with any enemy shall come , I may above all take the shield of Faith , 1 whereby I shall be sheltered against the sting of death , and quench the fiery darts of the wicked one . The wise Mariner , perceiving a storm approaching , makes hast to fasten his Vessel with Anchors , that it may be steady , and not altogether at the mercy of the winds ; I must expect the greatest tempest , when I am entering into my eternal Haven , then all the powers of darkness will conjure up their strongest winds if possible , to shipwrack the vessel of my soul ; Ah how much doth it concern me to put forth this grace , the anchor of my soul , both sure and stedfast , and which entereth into that within the vail , and thereby to fasten on the rock of Ages ! If I fail in this , I fall , I miscarry for ever , God is a severe judge to condemn all guilty Malefactours . Without his Son , I am cloathed with guilt , and so under his boundless wrath . When Adam had disrobed himself of original righteousness , by disobeying the law , he fled from God , and dreaded the summons of offended justice . There is no appearing in the Fathers sight with acceptance , but in the garments of his Son. None can have boldness to enter into the holy of holies , but by the blood of Iesus . It s Faith onely that interesteth in this blood . I know that through the red Sea of this blood I pass may safely ( though enemies pursue me hard ) into the Land of promise . Lord , I confess , through an evil heart of unbeleif , I have many a time departed away from the living God ; yet Lord , I believe , help mine unbeleif . O Lord of life , be not far from me , when Devils and death are near me . Help me with thy servant Stephen to see Heaven open ( by faith ) and the Son of man at thy right hand ; Enable me to disclaim whatsoever duties I have performed , or graces I have exercised , and to rely alone on a crucified Christ for pardon and life . Though thou killest me , let me dye trusting and clinging on , and cleaving to Iesus Christ ; Let this Pilgrims staff of faith be never out of my hand till I come to my jo●rneys end . Thou art the Lord of Hosts , and the Captain of my salvation ; O help me to put on the whole armour of God , grant me such skill to use it , that I may be able to stand in the evil day ; Teach thou my hands to war , and my fingers to fight , that through thee I may do valiantly , and through thee may tread down mine enemies ; Grant me so to finish my course , to fight the good fight of faith , that at death I may receive the crown of righteousness , which the righteous judge shall give to all that love his appearing . I Wish that my faith may ripen into full assurance , that thereby I may depart with joy , and an abundant entrance may be ministred unto me , into the Kingdom of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Moses and Simeon could sing at their own funerals . The great Apostle could call to be put to Bed , expecting thereby his sweetest eternal rest . How many Martyrs have gone more joyfully to dye , then ever Epicure did to dine , and leaped when they drew near the Stake , believing that they drew near their home , their happiness , their heaven ? What is it , O my soul , that makes thee start and flinch back at the sight of this bug-bear ? What is there in death that is so dreadful to thee ? Is it the sweetness of life , or the pain of death , or thy future estate after death ? Consider them all seriously , and then judge rationally whether any of these should make the sigh , so loath to depart . First , The love of life need not make thee so backward to obey the call of death ; If all thy time were made up of Holy-days , death would bring thee greater advantage . The Garlick and Onions of Egypt are nothing comparable to the Clusters of Canaan . But alas its far otherwise , thy whole life is a civil death . Thou art born to sorrow as the sparks flye upward . Thy days are few , but full of trouble . The earth to thee is a valley of tears ; the cross is thy daily companion , which accompanieth thee where-ever thou goest . The sufferings of thy flesh are neither few nor small . How many diseases in thy body , losses in thy estate ? how much disgrace , ignominy , slander , oppression , art thou liable to ? The sufferings of thy spirit are more and greater ; Thine own sins , the provocations of others , the dishonour of thy God , the wants , and weaknesses , and oppression , and persecution of the Church of Christ , do all give thee daily occasion to mingle thy bread with ashes , and thy drink with weeping . What is this world that thou art so fond of it ? Thy God calls it a Sea of glass , mingled with fire , Rev. 15. 2. A Sea for its turbulency ; it s never at rest , but ebbs and flows continually , though sometimes more , sometimes less ; Its work is to bubble up mire and dirt , especially on them who are chosen out of the world . A Sea of glass for its fragility ; All its pomp and pride on a sudden vanisheth . Glass is both easily and irrecoverably broken in peices ; A Sea of glass , mingled with fire , for the fiery and dreadful miseries that befal men in it . All its apparent comforts are mingled with real crosses . In Heaven there is solace without the least grain of sorrow ; In Hell there is mourning without the smallest dram of mirth ; but on Earth there is no estate without mixture . The Saints have joy in God , but if need be they are in heaviness through manifold tribulations , 1 Pet. 1. 6. The merry sinners in the midst of their pleasures , have their hearts heavy ; Some of the wiser Heathen , were so sensible of humane miseries , that one of them when Ancient , told his Scholar , that if it were offered him to be young again , he would not accept if . Saints of all men must expect a large draught of sufferings . The world is their enemy , and raiseth all its forces against them . If I be a Disciple I must look to follow my Master in bearing his Cross : O my soul , why shouldst thou hug that which hates thee , and doat on this world , which is neither a fit match for thee , as being unsutable to thy nature , nor ( if she were , can be ) faithful to thee , being made up of wavering and inconstancy ! Or secondly , Is it the pain of death that thou art so frighted at ? Surely the fear of it is the greatest torment ; How many have felt greater pain in divers diseases , as in the Stone , or Strangury , or Collick , then in a dying hour ? Some of Gods Children have felt very little pain in the judgement of those that have seen them dying ; The waters of Jordan , though rough to others , have stood still when the Ark was to pass over . But though I were sure my pain should be sharp , yet I am as sure it shall be short . In a moment , in the twinckling of an eye , I shall be transported over the gulp of misery , into endless glory . My pangs will be almost as soon gone as come ; Sorrow will endure but for a short night , joy will come in the morning ; If I were assured of a great purchase made for me in Spain or Turky , which upon my first comming over I should enjoy , would I not adventure a passage through the boistrous Ocean , to take possession ? My Saviour hath made a larger , a better purchase for me in Heaven . He is gone before to prepare a place for me ; My passage thither , though it may be more painful , is less perillous ; It s impossible for me to miscarry in it . O why am I so slothful to go in and possess the good Land ! Surely , the pleasures of the end , may well sweeten the ways to it , were they never so bitter . With what chearfulness do some women undergo their sharp throws , and hard labours , supported with this cordial , that a child shall thereby be born to them ? O how infinitely inferiour is the joy of a man child brought forth into this world , to the joy of a sanctified soul , brought out of this world into Heaven ! Again , I have a tender Father , who knoweth my frame , and will lay no more upon me , living or dying , then he will enable me to bear . He hath said it , I will never leave thee , nor forsake thee ; O my soul , thou hast little reason to dread a contest with this enemy for this cause . Thou mayst contentedly undergo a little pain , to go to thy dearest Lord , when many a sinner hath suffered greater to satisfie his hellish lust . Thirdly , Is it thy future condition that makes thee unwilling to dye ? Dost thou not know that death is thy portal , through which thou shalt pass into the true Paradise ? It s the straight gate through which thou shalt enter into life ; Though its the wicked mans shipwrack which swalloweth him up in an Ocean of wrath and torment , yet it s the Saints putting into harbour , where he is received with the greatest acclamation , and richest welcom imaginable . Travellers who have met with many dangers and troubles , in their journeys , rejoyce when they come near their own Country . I am a Pilgrim here , and used , or rather abused , as a stranger , shall I not be glad when I come near my blessed home , my eternal happy habitation ? Children in some parts , when they first behold the Stork , the messenger of the Spring , testifie their joy with pleasant and loud shoutings ; O why shouldst not thou lift up thy head with joy , when sickness the fore-runner of death , is come to bring thee tidings that the Winter of thy misery , and cold , and hardships is past , and the Summer of thine eternal light , and joy , and pleasure , is at hand ? Thy death may well be a Free-will-offering , considering that though the ashes of the sacrifice ( thy body ) fall to the earth , yet that divine flame ( thy immortal spirit ) shall ascend to Heaven . In death nothing dyeth of thee , but what thou mayst well spare , thy sin and sorrows . When the house is pulled to peices , all those Ivy roots in the wall , shall be destroyed . The Egg-shell must be broken , that the little chick may slip out ; Thy body must be dissolved , that thy ●oul may be delivered ; Yet thy body doth not dye , but sleep in the bed of the grave , till the morning of the resurrection . That outward apparel shall not be utterly consumed by the moth of time , but lockt up safe , as in a chest , to be new trimmed , and gloriously adorned above the Sun in his greatest lustre , and put on again , when thou shalt awake in the morning , never , never , to put off more . O that I could so live , that I might not only be always ready , but also when God calls me , desirous to dye . If I borrow any thing of my Neighbour , I pay it back with thanks . My life is Gods , he lends it me for a time . Why should I not when he calls for it , restore it with thanks , that he hath been pleased to lend it me so long ? Lord , thy Children love thee dearly , and believe that when they come home to thee thou wilt entertain them kindly , yet their flesh like Lots Wife , is still ●ankering after the Sodom of this World , and loath they are to leave it , though it be for their exceeding gain ; Give thy servant such true faith in thy Son , that I may neither love life , nor fear death immoderately , but as the heart of Jacob , revived when he saw the Wagons which Joseph sent to fetch him to Egypt ; so my heart may leap for joy , to behold the heavenly Chariot which the Son of Joseph shall send to convey me to the true Goshen . I Wish that I may with patience submit on my dying bed to the divine pleasure . It hath been far from some Moralists , to murmure , either at the extremity of their sickness , or the necessity of dying . By impatience I do not help , but rather kill my self before-hand . It s the general lot of mankind to sicke● and dye ; Am I angry that I am a man , that I am mortal ? Because I know that I must be sick and dye , I know that I must submit . The knowledge of an approaching evil , is no small good , if improved . Though it cannot teach me to prevent it by all my power or providence , yet it may teach me to prepare for it , and to bear it with courage and patience . Discontent and quarrelling are great arguments of guilt , and a defiled conscience . The harmless sheep conscious of their innocency , do quietly receive the Knife , either on the Altar or in the Shambles , and give death entrance with small reluctancy ; when the filthy loathsom Swine , roar horribly at their first handling , and with hideous cries are haled and held to the fatal block . The Children of God , and members of Christ , who are perfect , through their head , do often give up the Ghost , and desire to be dissolved , and to be with Christ ; when the souls of wicked men are required of them , and they are strangely passionate at the approach of death , and with dreadful screeches salute its Harbinger , sickness . O that patience might have its perfect work in me , when I am taking my leave of it , and its work is near an end ! Lord , my heart is too prone to be impatient under thy hand , though thou art infinitely wise as well as gracious , and knowest what is best for me . In my sickness turn mine eyes upon my sins , that my discontent may be at my self , for that which is the original of all my sorrows , and then I shall never repine or murmur against thee . I Wish that I may daily think of death , and wait , beleiving , and repenting , and working out my salvation , till my change shall come . My whole time is given me , that therein I might prepare and dress my soul for my blessed eternal estate ; Why should it not be imployed for that end ? The Child who hath all day been diligent about his duty , may expect his Fathers good word at night ; But what Master will give a reward to him in the evening , who hath all the day long served his enemy ? My life is the seed which will yeild a crop of horror , or comfort in an hour of death ; If that be good , my Harvest will be glorious and joyful ; if that be sinful , my Harvest will be bitter and sorrowful ; Do men gather Grapes of Thorns , or Figs of Thistles ? The Grapes of comfort are not to be expected from the Thistles of corruption ; nor the Figs of peace , from the thorns of impiety . I should blush to commit to the keeping of a cleanly and considerable person , a foul and filthy vessel ; With what face can I commend to the holy and glorious God , an impure and polluted soul ? O how dreadful will it be to meet with my dying bed , before I have met with the Lord of life , and to be going out of the world , before I have seriously considered why I came into it ? My great work in this world , is to get my depraved nature healed by the blood and spirit of Christ ; if● I forget my business when I have time to do it , and trifle away my days in doing evil , or doing nothing , I lose my soul , am unfaithful to my Master , and deepen my judgement by the number of my days . ● That Traveller may well be agast and perplexed , who hath a long journey to go upon pain of death in one day , for which the whole day is little enough , and seeth the sun near setting before he hath begun his journey . How ill doth the evening of my time , and the morning of my taske accord together ? How justly may God reserve the dregs of his wrath for me , if I reserve the dregs of my● days for him ? What folly am I guilty of , in deferring my preparation for death ? If he be a ridiculous person , that having choice of lusty horses , should let them all go empty , and lay an extraordinary heavy load upon a poor tired jade , that is hardly able to go , much more foolish is he that prodigally wasteth his youth , and health , and strength , in the service of the flesh and the world , and leaves the great and weighty affairs of his soul and eternity , to be transacted on a sick or dying bed ; O my soul , what little cause hast thou to future or delay thy solemn provision for the other world ? First , thy life is uncertain , thou hast not another day at thy disposal . There are some creatures , they say , in Pontus , whose life lasteth but one day ; They are born in the morning , come to their full growth at noon , grow old in the evening , and dye at night . What is thy life but a vapour , that soon passeth away ? The first minute thou didst begin to live , thou didst begin to dye ; Death was born when thou wast born , the last act of life is but the completing of death ; As on thy bir●h●day thou didst begin to dye , so on the day of thy death thou dost cease to live ; How many outward accidents , and inward diseases , art thou every moment liable to ? May I not say to thee as Michael to David ; Save thy self to night , for tomorrow thou shalt be slain ? Others have died suddenly , by imposthumes , or the falling-sickness , or violent means ; and if thou promisest thy self a fair warning , before the fatal stroak , thou dost but cozen and cheat thy self . But secondly , If thou wert sure to see the evening star of sickness , before the night of death overtake thee , thou art not sure thy sickness shall not be such as may not incapacitate thee for the working out thy salvation . Extremity of pain , anguish of body , lack of sleep , the violence of a fever , may indispose thee , and distract thee , that thou canst not so much as think of God. Or , thy distemper may be such that the Physitian may charge thee not to trouble thy self with melancholy or sad thoughts , lest thou wrongest thy body , and yet the Minister commandeth thee to pull up those sluces of sorrow , if thou wouldst not lose thy soul for ever . Or , cold diseases , as the Lethargy or Palsie may surprise thee , and incline thee to continual slumbers , till at last thou sleepest the sleep of death ; O how sottish art thou , and how grosly doth the destroyer of souls delude thee to defer that work of absolute necessity , of conversion to God , upon which thine endless weal or wo dependeth , to a dying Bed , when thou art not sure to dye in thy bed , but mayst as well dye in thy Shop or Fields , or in the Streets ; when thou art uncertain what disease , if thou shouldst meet with a dying bed , should send thee to thy eternal home ; when thou art neither Master of thy time nor reason , nor of thy natural abilities , much less of supernatural grace , which is indispensably requisite to this great work ! O that since I must dye once for sin , I might dye daily to sin ! and as the Philistines , that they might the better deal with Sampson , cut off his Hair , wherein his great strength lay ; so that I may the better deal with death , I may by faith and repentance , daily cut off and destroy sin , wherein the strength of death lieth ! May I not say to thee , O my soul , as Joshua to Israel ? Prepare ye victuals ; for within three days ye shall pass over this Iordan , to go to possess the Land which the Lord your God giveth you . Prepare the spiritual food , the flesh of Christ , which is meat indeed , and the blood of Christ , which is drink indeed ; an heart weaned from the world , longing to be with God ; for within a few days thou shalt go in , to possess the land of promise . Lord , I know nothing more certain then death . Sin hath deserved it , my brittle body inforceth it , thou hast decreed it , and none can prevent it ; I know nothing more uncertain then the time when , or the manner how . Thou hast many ways and means to bring me to my grave ; not onely ordinary distempers of my body , but thousands of casual dangers ; I cannot promise my self freedom from it , in any place or condition ; Death may seise me abroad , at home , in company , in solitude , at bed , at board . Why should I not always provide for that extremity , that enemy which I cannot avoid ? Why should I not ever be ready for that which may come at any time , and will come at some time or other ? Surely I do not hasten my death by preparing for it , but sweeten it exceedingly ; I ●hall not dye a moment the sooner , but infinitely the better . Should death overtake me in my sins , alas where am I ? what will become of me for ever ? I may well salute it , as Ahab Elijah , with Hast thou found me , O mine enemy ? for t will come to me , as the Prophet to that King , with doleful , dreadful tidings ; T will bring me news of a dismal dungeon of darkness , to be my habitation , of Lyons , and Scorpions , and Dragons , to be my companions , of a never dying worm , an unquenchable fire , pure wrath without mixture , full torments without measure , to be my portion for ever and ever ; O teach me so to live above this vain empty life , so to be crucified to this world , so to make my peace with thy Majesty , through the great peace-maker , and Prince of Peace , my Lord Iesus , so to set my heart and house , my spiritual and temporal concernments in order , that I may be delivered from the paw of the Lyon , from the teeth of this monster , from the sting of this Serpent ; and though my body be destroyed , yet my soul may escape , as a bird out of the snare of the Fowler , and mount up to thy self , to enjoy that happy life which shall know no death . I Wish that all the days of my appointed time I may exercise my self herein , to keep a conscience void of offence towards God , and towards all men . There are but two which can afford me real comfort in a dying hour , which always take the same side and joyn together ; God and my conscience . Humane friends often stand afar off , when they should be most near , and I have most need ; Some of them are loth to come to a sick mans chamber . Mournful objects must not disturb their jollity and mirth . They are sworn enemies to sorrowful occasions , and bani●h such foes their quarters , or themselves from such coasts . Others if they come to visit me , love not to see my gastly countenance , like not to hear my deep and deadly groans . But be they never so full of pity , they can onely sympathize with me , they cannot relieve , refresh me . The most they can do , is to accompany me to my grave , and there they leave me ; But , O the comfort which a loving God , and a conscience sprinkled with the blood of Christ , and purged from dead works , will afford me in a dying hour ! The smiles of a God , and chearings of a good conscience , will be musick indeed , to welcom me to the shoar , after all my tumblings and tossings in this tempestuous Ocean . They will make my bed in my sickness , help me to lye easie , hearten me in my sighs and groans , be my feast at my funeral , bid me Be of good chear , for my sins are forgiven me ; tell me that my Redeemer liveth , and because he liveth , I shall live also ; lodge my body in a grave , as in a Bed of Spices , and convey my soul into my Saviours Bosome and Embraces ; when my Houses , Lands , Honours , Friends , Wife , Children leave me , they will cleave to me : nay when my breath , life , heart , flesh forsake me , they will not fail me ; yea , when faith , hope , patience , repentance , shall bid me farewel weeping , as Orpah did Ruth , these like Naomi will stick to me , go with me , and seek rest for me ; O that my heart may be so upright in the service of my God , that when I ●hall receive the sentence of death , I may be able to say with good Hezekiah ; Remember now , I beseech thee , O Lord , how I have walked before thee , in truth , and with a perfect heart , and have done that which is good in thy sight . O my soul , what a friend shouldst thou be to thy God , thy conscience , how faithful to their warnings , now in life if thou wouldst have them thy friends at death ! Hereby thou mayst be able to triumph in that hour of temptation , to defie death it self , and bid it do its worst . Though it be the common gate through which the sinner goeth into prison , where he meets with Chains and Fetters , and cold , and all sorts of miseries , yet thou shalt go through it , into the Kings Pallace , where thou shalt have rivers of pleasures , and 〈◊〉 entertainment . If Jacob went down so joyfully 〈◊〉 Egypt , when God had said to him , fear not to go down , for I will go down with thee , and I will bring thee up again . What needest thou fear to go down into the Grave , when thy God hath undertaken to go down with thee thither , and to bring thee up again ? Thy body may be turned into dust , but thy God is in Covenant with thy dust ; and thy head , the blessed Redeemer , will not suffer one muscle , or nerve , or artery , or vein of any of his members to be lost . With what chearfulness mayst thou take thy leave of thy body ; Farewel sweet body , thou hast been in some measure faithful to thy soul , in the service of thy Lord ; Farewel , I must bid thee good●night , till the morning of the resurrection . Be thou content to go to bed and sleep in the dust , and rest in hope ; for though after the skin , wormes destroy this body , yet in my flesh ●hall I see God ; Whom I shall see for my self , and mine eyes shall behold him , and not another , though my reins be consumed within me ; Though thou art sown in dishonour , thou shalt be rai●ed in glory ; though thou art sown in weakness , thou shalt be raised in power ; though thou art sown a natural body , thou shalt be raised a spiritual body , and fashioned like unto the glorious body of Christ himself ; Thy dust shall live , and thou shalt arise and be joyned to this soul , and both joyn with the great assembly of the sirst-born , in singing the praises of thy Master and Husband . The Souldier is glad when he is called to receive his pay , though the ways be deep and dirty through which he travelleth to the the place of Muster . The Husbandman rejoyceth when his Fields are white to Harvest , and with piping and shouting accompanieth his last load 〈◊〉 the barn ; O that my life might be so sanctified 〈◊〉 devoted to my God , that at my death he may be my solace . Ah Lord , it matters not who be failing to visit me on my sick bed , so thou be present with me . Nay , though mine enemies come and say , When shall he dye , and his name perish ? An evil disease cleaveth to him ; now that he lyeth down , he shall rise up no more ; If thou pleasest to visit me with thy saving health , I shall not be afraid when I walk in the valley of the ●hadow of death ; O when the Sun of my life shall be setting , let the Sun of righteousness so arise upon me , that I may be delivered from the power , curse , and sting of death , and may find it through his merits to be my haven of rest , after all my foul weather ; a bed of ease , after my sore labour , a release out of prison , and my Iubilee to give me possession of an inheritance undefiled , incorruptible , that fadeth not away , which is reserved in heaven for me ! Amen . CHAP. IX . Means whereby Christians may exercise themselves to Godliness ; A good Foundation : L●ving by Faith : Setting God always before our eyes . I Come now to the second thing promised ; namely , to lay down the Means , whereby Christians may come to make Religion their business . First , If thou wouldst exercise thy self to Godliness , be sure that thou layest a good foundation in a renewed heart and nature . I begin with this , because it is the chiefest requisite , and the ba●is of all . Godliness must first spring up in the heart , before it can overflow in the life . Other means are like those parts of the body , the want of which may be supplied by others ; but this is like the heart , which if wanting , nothing can make up its want . A dead man will as soon arise and walk , as an unsanctified person make Religion his business . Every thing will act according to that principle which is predominant in it : Though for a time it may by violence work contrary to its natural inclination , yet it will endeavour the removal of that force , and return to its old course . Fire moveth upwards , and earth downwards , both str●ving to overturn what standeth in their way , because the place of fire is above , of earth beneath . A river may be stopped and hindred in its current , but it will never cease till it hath overborn the dam , and attained its former passage . Water that is naturally sweet , may be made brackish by the over-flowing of salt water ; but it will not leave till it hath workt out that saltness , and returneth to his natural sweetness ; so every man whether good or bad , will act according to his nature , whether gracious or vicious . A good man may be hindred in his holy course by temptations , and the violence of the flesh ; but because his nature is gracious he will never be at rest till he hath forcibly broke through those impediments , and got into his former way of Godliness . An evil man may step into the path of piety through the example of others , or good education , or some slender convictions of a natural conscience , but he will quickly be weary , he will not hold out in it ; he will break through those obstacles , because his nature , the stream of his heart , runs another way . The Heart of man is like the Spring of the Clock , which causeth the wheels to move right or wrong , well or ill ; Hence it is that Gods precept is to this , Make you a new heart and a new spirit ; and his promise of this , I will put my fear into their hearts , and they shall never depart away from me . The fear of God in the heart will bind thee fast to God in thy life . If the heart be throughly drawn to him , the tongue and hand will not depart from him . If the heart once set forward for God , all the members will follow after ; the mouth will praise , the ears will attend to him , the eye will watch him , the seet will go after him ; all the parts , like dutiful handmaids , in their places will wait on their Mistris . There was a great Master among the Jews , which bid his Schollars to consider and tell him , What was the best thing , or the best way , in which a man should always keep : One said , A good Companion was the best thing in the world ; another said , A good Neighbour was the best thing he could wish ; A third said , A wise man , or one that could for esee future things ; A fourth said , A good eye , that is , a liberal disposition ; At last came one Eleazer , and he said , A good heart is better then them all . True , said the Master , thou hast comprehended in two words all that the rest have said ; For a good heart will make a man both contented , and a good companion , and a good neighbour , and help him to foresee things that are to come , that he may know what is on his part to be done . Indeed without this there can be no godliness ; all professions and performances are but a shew , a shadow ; and where there is this , there is all godliness in all manner of conversation . As the King of France said of Dover , that it was the key of England ; and if his son , who then invaded the Britains , had not that , he had nothing ; So it may be said of the heart , It is the key of the whole man ; it opens and shuts the door to Godliness and Wickedness ; and if grace hath not this , it hath nothing . The Philosopher when he would perswade the King to settle his residence in the midst of his Dominions , and thereby keep all his people the better in subjection , took a Bulls hide ready tanned , upon which when he stood on any side of it , still it rose up on the other ; but when he stood on the middle , he kept down all alike . The onely way to subdue sin , is to do it in the heart ; that commands all ; otherwise though one unruly passion may be kept down , another will rise up . The Heart is the great Work-house where all sin is wrought , before it s exposed to open view ; It s the Mint where evil thoughts are coyned , before they are currant in our words or actions ; Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts , Matth. 15.19 . that is the nest in which those Hornets breed . The heart is the original of sinful words , as well as sinful thoughts ; Out of the heart proceed false witness , blasphemies , Matth. 15.19 . They were in the heart before ever they were in the tongue . It s faid of the Weasel that it conceives at the ear , and brings forth at the mouth : Every sinner conceiveth at the heart , what he brings forth at the mouth . Such stinking breath comes from rotten inwards . The heart is the ●●●sel of poisonous liquor , the tongue is but the tap to broach it ; Out of the abundance of the heart , the mouth speaketh . The heart is the Forge also , where all our evil works as well as words are hammered out ; Out of the heart proceed murthers , and thefts , and adulteries , and fornica●ions , Matth. 15.19 . You will say that murthers and thefts are hand-sins , and that adulteries and fornication belong to the eye , and outward parts of the body ; but alas , the heart is the womb wherein they are conceived and bred ; the outward parts are but the Midwives to deliver the mother of those monsters , and to bring them into the world ; An evil man , out of the evil treasure in his heart , bringeth forth evil things : There is no sin but is drest in the withdrawing room of the heart , before it appear on the stage of the life . Apollidorus dreamed one night that the Scythians had taken him and flea'd off his skin , with an intent to boil him , and as he was lifting into the Cauldron , his heart said unto him , It s I that have brought thee to all this . There is a real truth in this , that the heart brings men both to all their sins , and all their sufferings . As the Chaos had the seed of all creatures , and wanted nothing but the motion of the good Spirit to produce them ; so the heart hath the seed of all evil , and wanteth nothing but the motion of the evil spirit , and a fit opportunity to bring it forth . It is in vain to go about an holy life , till the heart be made holy . The Pulse of the hand beats well or ill , according to the s●ate of the heart , and the inward vital parts . Our earthly members can never be mortified , unless the body of sin and death be destroyed . The foul bird of sin must be killed in the nest , the heart , or it can never be thrown on the dunghil , die in the life . Therefore the Holy Ghost calls on men to take away the cause , if they would have the effect to cease . O Ierusalem , wash thy heart from wickedness . Cleanse your hearts ye sinners , and purifie your hands ye double-minded ; first the heart cleansed , then the hands , Ier. 4.14 . Iames 4.7,8 . If the chinks of the ship are unstopt , t will be to no purpose to labour at the Pump . It is not rubbing or scratching will cure the itch , but the blood , whose corruption is the cause of it , must be purified . When the water is foul at the bottom , no wonder that scum and filth appear at the top . There is no way to stop the issue of sin , but by drying up the matter that feeds it . As Moses cast the tree into the bitter waters , and sweetned the Springs ; And as Elijah cast salt into the fountain , and thereby healed the waters ; so the salt of grace must be cast into the Spring , the fountain of the heart , or the streams of the life will never be sweet . Till trees are grafted , and their nature altered , all the fruit they bring forth is wilde and harsh , and little worth : Till the Christian is grafted into Christ , and a new and another nature be infused into him , all his fruit is unsavoury and unacceptable to God , vain and unprofitable to himself . Such a one is like a Cypress tree , fair to look on , but barren . Like a Painter , he may make a great stir about the colours and shadows of things , the form of Godliness , and shew all his wit , and art , and skill in expressing the outside , but wholly neglecteth the substance , and contemneth the inward parts , the power thereof . There be several things which may help to make the life fair in the eyes of men ; but nothing will make it amiable in the eyes of God , unless the heart be changed and renewed . Indeed all the medicines which can be applied , without the sanctifying work of the Spirit , though they may cover , they can never cure the corruption and diseases of the soul. The best man without this is like a Serpent painted as it were without , but poysonous within . As the herb Biscort , he may have smooth and plain leaves , but a croked root . Or as a Pill , be guilded on the outside , when the whole mass and body of it is bitterness ; It is one thing to be angry with sin upon a sudden discontent , as a Man may be with his Wife , whom he loves dearly ; and another thing to hate sin , as that which we abhor to behold , and endeavour to destroy . A filthy heart , like a foul body , may seem for a while to be in good plight ; but when the heats and colds of temptations appear , t will bewray it self . Some Insects lye in a deep sleep all the Winter , stir not , make no noise , that one would think them dead ; but when the weather alters , and the Sun shines , they revive and shew themselves ; So though lusts may seem dead in an unregenerate man , they are only laid asleep , and when opportunity is , will revive . Shame may hide sin , but it will not heal ●●n ; Corruption often lyeth secret in the heart , when shame hindereth it from breaking out in s●abs and bo●ches in the life . Some court holiness as hard in shew , as Saul did Samuel , to be honoured before the people , when like him , they hate it in their hearts . Fear may do somewhat to curb a vitiated nature , but it cannot cure it ; The Bear dares hardly touch his desired honey , for fear of the stinging of the Bees ; The Dog forbears the meat on the Table , not because he doth not love it , but because he is afraid of the Cudgel ; Many leave some sin , in their outward actions , as Iacob parted with Benjamin , for fear they should starve if they kept it , who are as fond of it , as the Patriarch of his Child . This inward love of sin , is indeed its life , and that which is most dangerous and deadly to the soul. As an imposthume is most perillous for being inward ; and private Rocks under water , split more vessels then those that appear above water ; so sin raigning onely in the heart , is oftentimes more hurtful then when it rageth in the life ; Such civil persons go to Hell without much disturbance , being asleep in sin , yet not snoring , to the di●quieting of others ; they are so far from being jogged or awaked , that they are many times praised and commended . Example , Custom , and Education , may also help a man to make a fair shew in the flesh , but not to walk after the spirit ; They may Prune and Lop sin , but never stubb it up by the roots . All that these can do , is to make a man like a grave , green and flourishing on the surface and superficies , when within there is nothing but noisomness and corruption . It hath often appeared that those means which the great Moralists have used to bridle their lusts and passions , have rather , like strong sents to Epileptick bodies , raised them , then recovered them . Indeed if the cheif fault were not in the vital parts , then outward applications might be effectual ; but when the heart and lungs , and inwards are all corrupted , Plaisters applied to the face , or hands , or thighs , or sides , will do little good . When the fault is in the foundation of an house , it cannot be mended by Plaistering or rough-cast . A Leopard may be flea'd , but he is spotted still , because the spots are not onely in the skin , but in the flesh , and bones , and sinews , and most inward parts . When the disease is accidental , as to lose the sight by the Small-Pox , or the like , there the Physick of morality may be advantagious ; but where the disease is natural , as in the man that was born blind , there Physick will do no good ; a miracle alone must restore such a one to his sight . Unsanctified persons at best , act from themselves , and therefore for themselves . As the Kite , they may spread their wings , and soar aloft , as if they touched Heaven , when at the highest , their eyes are upon their prey upon earth . Lucullus told his guests , when he had feasted them liberally , and they had admired his bounty in their costly entertainment ; Something my Friends is for your sakes , but the greatest part is for Lucullus his own sake . An unconverted person may do something , some small matter for the sake of Religion , from common gifts of illumination , &c. but the most that he doth is for his own sake , for that credit or profit which he expecteth thereby . If any thing be enjoyned which thwarteth his interest , he will reply with Ajax , when commanded to spare Vlysses , In other things I will obey the Gods , but not in this . Reader , Make sure of this inward change ; otherwise , though thy conversation may be specious , it can never be gracious , nor thy profession durable . If the house be built on loose earth , it will never stand long . When the principles are variable and uncertain , so will the practices be . If the arguments upon which thou takest upon thee the livery of Christ , and the grounds of thy engagement in his service , be not firm and constant , the love of God , and hope of eternal life , &c. such as the world and flesh cannot over-top , thou wilt throw up thy profession , and leave thy Master , when thou art offered in thy blind judgment a better service , though it be but the pleasures of sin for a season , with eternal pains at the end of them , for thy soul , and Saviour , and eternal salvation . How well may he prove a Bankrupt , who is worse then naught when he first sets up ? I wonder not that many pofessors disown the Lord Jesus , when they were ignorant why they at any time owned him . He that takes up Religion on trust , will lay it down when it brings him into trouble . As the Celendine springeth and floweth at the comming of the Summer birds , but withereth at their departure ; And the Corn that promiseth a good Harvest in the Blade , is blasted in the Ear , because its root is withered and naught ; So the person that hath no sound foundation , though he seem to look high , will never hold out . The Turnsel makes a shew for a time , with white velvet leaves , and yellow flowers , but fadeth away without bringing forth any fruit ; Christ tells us , some which heard the word , though for a season they rejoyced in it , when tribulation came because of the word , were offended at it , because they had no root . To prevent that sad Apostacy which many are guilty of to their eternal undoing , Friend , consider serionsly beforehand , what it will cost thee to be a Christian indeed . A foolish builder , that undertakes to raise a structure as high as Heaven , and pondereth not the charge thereof , gives over before he hath half finished it , and so loseth all his expence and labour . As in marriage one that is wise , and considereth the person , his portion , and his precepts , with the cares and burdens that are incident to that condition , for such must have trouble in the flesh , and after this , upon mature deliberation , accepteth him for an Husband , will stick and cleave to him loyally and faithfully , whatever befalls him ; whereas a foolish Maid that hudleth up a match in haste , hand over head , promising her self nothing but delight and pleasure , when she comes to suffer poverty or imprisonment , or disgrace with her Husband , repenteth of her bargain , and forsakes the guide of her youth ; So the Christian that hath duly pondered the excellencies in Christ ; his misery without Christ , absolute necessity of Christ ; what love , and joy , and peace , and endless bliss , God offereth with his Son ; what Christ expecteth from all that will be married to him , even the denyal of themselves , the taking up of their Cross , the contempt of Father , Mother , Wife , Children , Estate , Life , and all for him , and after he hath duly considered all this , gives himself up to Christ , will be faithful unto death , and own the Lord Jesus Christ , whatever it may cost him , when the man that followeth Christ for the loaves , or for fashion , or on a sudden strikes a league with him , expecting nothing but comforts and joy in his contract , will quickly leave him , if called to suffer with him . He that followeth Christ , he knoweth not why , will forsake him , he knoweth not how . If thou art , Reader , to begin this work of entering thy self into Christs Army , I would advise thee to bethink thy self upon what grounds thou engagest in his quarrel ; For Christians are not called to their spiritual war for love of fighting , as Cocks that fall to it upon sight of each other . Consider , the enemies thou art to fight against , how potent , and crafty , and cruel they are , continually seeking thy destruction ; the Captain thou art to fight under , how wise he is to direct and command thee , how able to protect and defend thee ; how faithful , and bountiful , to crown and reward thee ; the excellency of the cause ; it is for thy soul , thy God , thy Saviour , thy salvation ; the dangers thou must encounter , and hardships thou willt be called to endure ; the certainty of thy conquest ; how impossible it is to miscarry in so just a quarrel , under such● an Almighty Captain , and then list thy self to fight the good fight of faith , and fear not but thou shalt be more then a conqueror , through him that loves thee . Secondly , If thou wouldst exercise thy self to godliness , Live by Faith. The life of Faith , it s the onely life of holiness ; and unbelief is the mother of all Apostacy . When God would perswade Abraham to sincere and singular godliness , he doth it by offering him sure footing for his faith , I am God Alsufficient , or the Almighty God ; Walk before me , and be thou perfect , Gen. 17. 1. knowing that unless his faith were firm , his steps could never be even ; If he had not beleived Gods power , he could not be evangelically perfect . And hence that father of the faithful became so eminent in obedience , from the strength of his faith . It s said of him , Isa. 41. 2. that he came to the foot of God. That Child was dutiful indeed , that when his Father did but stamp with his foot , left what ever he was about , though it were never so delightful or gainful to him , and ran to his Father , to know and obey his commands . Thus truly did Abraham , when God called him to turn his back upon his relations , and the place of his nativity ; nay , to sacrifice his Isaac ; the child of the promise , as well as of his love ; he did not question Gods pleasure , nor quarrel with his precepts , but obeyed them presently , and all from his faith . His strong faith caused strong obedience , Heb. 11. It s observable , that all the noble and heroick acts of obedience of the Lords Worthies , mentioned in that little book of Martyrs , were performed under the conduct and command of faith . Faith is one of the best Antidotes against the poison of prophaness , and one of the greatest helpes to holiness ; None are more faithful to God , then they who have most faith in God. They who beleive , will be careful to maintain good works , Tit. 3. 8. As the natural heat is the life of the body , and as that increaseth with the radical moysture , strength and health abound ; So Faith is the life of the soul ; as that is strong or weak , his godliness is more or less . He that is highest in affiance , is highest in obedience . This is the strength of the soul ; According to a Mans strength , such is his walk , either straight or stumbling ; According to a mans Faith , such is his life , either even or crooked . 1. Faith destroyeth sin . 2. It enableth to live to God. 1. It killeth sin ; If the Pulse of a Christian● hand or life beat uneven , it is because his Faith , which is his heart , doth faulter . This is the shield of the soul , which secures it against all assaults and dangers ; Other peices of the Christians Armour , are serviceable to defend particular parts of the new man , as the Girdle of truth , the loyns ; right●ousness , the brest ; the Gospel of peace , the feet ; but Faith is a Shield , moveable at pleasure , and surroundeth and guardeth the whole man ; With favour wilt thou compass him , as with a Shield , Psa. 5. ult . Faith secureth the head from evil●principles . What sense denieth , and reason understandeth not , Faith beleiveth . Aristotle reading Moses concerning the Creation , is reported to say , Egregie dicis domine Moses , sed quomodo probas ? Thou speakest nobly , but how dost thou prove it ? The answer to him is easie , By Faith we believe that the world were made of God , Heb. 11. 2. Faith clears up the understanding , and scattereth the mists of error . The pesence of this Sun disperseth those Clouds . Faith secureth the heart from evil purposes . It s the besome that sweepeth out such dust , and keeps the heart clean ; Having their hearts purified by Faith , Act. 15. 9. Faith entertaineth the King of Saints into the heart , it sets him on the throne , and these traytours flye before him ; His presence makes these Rebels to hide their heads . Who ever could find in his heart to hug sin , whilst he was viewing by faith his bleeding Saviour ! Faith secureth the hand from evil practices . The Martyrs chose the flames , rather then the denial of their Master , and all because of their Faith. Those Worthies of the Lord , of whom the World was not worthy , through Faith stopped the mouths of Lyon-like lusts , quenched the violence of hellish fires , were tortured , not accepting deliverance , that they might obtain a better resurrection , Heb. 11. 33 , 34 , 35. By Faith we stand , 2 Cor. 1. 24. As a Souldier under the protection of his Shield , stands his ground , and doth his duty , notwithstanding the shot that are made against him ; So a Christian under the protection of Faith , keeps his place , and mindeth his work , whatsoever opposition he meets with . Faith , like Ioab , stabbeth this Abner under the fifth rib , it wounds fin mortally . Hope , like Saul , hath slain its thousands ; but Faith , like David , it s ten thousands ; Whole Armies of Lusts have turned their backs at the sight of this Warriour ; By Faith the walls of Ierico fall down ; Whilst unbeleif liveth , no sin will dye ; All iniquity sheltereth it self under the Banner of infidelity . If once the banks of Faith be broken down , a flood of wickedness will rush and flow in . What made Abraham deny his Wife , and expose her to such temptations and wickedness , but unbeleif ? What made Isaac tread in his Fathers steps , and leave Rebecah to the Heathens luste , but unbeleif ? What made David dishonour his God , by his uncomely carriage before Achish , and injure his soul by his unholy language , that he should one day perish by the hand of Saul , but unbeleif ? What made Peter deny and forswear his Master , but unbeleif ? These tares were sown by the enemy , when the husbandman Faith was asleep : had they believed the power and faithfulness of God to defend them in their dangers and distresses , without their lyes ; and his grace and bounty to reward them largely for all their sufferings for his sake ; had they believed that God when he called them to straights , would without any sinful means have brought them off safe on earth , or safe to Heaven , they would never have used such sinful shifts for their own safety . Faith would secure the soul against all those temptations , and prevent such sinister and sinful doings . He that beleiveth , maketh not haste . He will patiently wait Gods leasure , and submit to his pleasure , and not venture upon forbidden courses , and unlawful ways , to deliver himself out of distress . Vnbeleif is the dung which makes the soyl of corrupt nature so fruitful in the unfruitful works of darkness . Whence cometh such immoderate love of a perishing world , but from want of Faith and Beleif of that transcendent glory that is to be revealed ? Whence cometh such dulness and deadness in holy duties , but from unbelief , either of the holiness and jealousie of that God with whom we have to do , or of his goodness and mercy , that his reward will pay the charge of diligence in his work ? Whence comes such cozening , and cheating , and over-reaching in dealings with men , that from distrust of Gods power and providence , as if he could not , or would not spread a Table for his Children in the most barren Wilderness ? Whence comes that impatience and murmuring in adversity , but from want of Faith , which would encourage the heart in the Lord his God , in the saddest estate , and when the Fig-tree doth not blossom , nor the Vine yeild its fruit , enable the soul to rejoyce in the Lord , and be glad in the Rock of his salvation . Whence cometh such pride and carnal confidence in prosperity , but because men beleive not the meanness , and vanity , and emptiness of riches , and that divine mercy , not the merits of men are the original of them ? There is no sin so monstrous but unbeleif will venture upon it . He that beleiveth not , will never be allured by divine promises , nor affrighted at divine threatnings , nor obey divine precepts , nor submit to divine providences . As Cicero said of Parricide , I may say of Unbeleif , It s a tee●ing vice , a well of wickedness ; many sins are bound up in it . No wonder the Apostle gives such a serious warning , and so strict a charge against Infidelity , as the mother and nurse of all Apostacy ; Take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbeleif , whereby ye depart away from the living God , Heb. 3. 12. The superstitious Pagans thought that their Idol Vibilia kept them from erring out of their way : The religious Christian knoweth by experience , that his faith keeps him within the limits of his duty . Faith ingrafts the soul into Christ , and into the fellowship of his death , by which the old man is crucified , and the body of sin destroyed ; that henceforth we should not serve sin , Rom. 6. 5,6,7,8 . For therefore did Christ bear ou● sins in his body on the tree , that we might become dead to sin , 1 Pet. 1. 24. Faith enableth the soul to conquer sin by enabling it to overcome the three grand provocations to sin ; The World , the Flesh , and the Wicked one . There is neither of these enemies but Faith hath wounded mortally . 1. Faith enableth to overcome the World ; the World indeed hath conquered millions ; the greatest Souldiers have been slain by it . Alexander could subdue the Nations in it , but could not subdue his Affections to it ; As great a conqueror as he was over it , he was its slave and vassal ; for his ambition was still larger then his Dominions ; But faith cloathing the Christian with the Sun , helps him to trample this Moon under his feet , This is your victory over the world , even your Faith , 1 Joh. 6.4 . The World hath two faces , the one● ugly and deformed , to●affright the Saint ; the other comely and painted to allure him to sin ; but Faith seeth how pittiful ( onely touching the body ) her threatnings are ; and how poor , onely skin-deep her promises are , and makes the soul to disdain both . It was by Faith , that Luther could say , Contemptus a me Romanus & favor , & furor , I scorn both Romes favour , and Romes fury ; The worlds Furnace and Musick● are much alike to a Beleiver ; he is blind and deaf , nay , dead to both ; The special object of Faith , is the Cross of Christ , whereby , saith the Apostle , I am crucified to the world , and the world to me . Tickle a dead man , or lance him , it s all one , he is sensible of neither . As Fabricius the Noble Roman told Pyrrhus , who one day tempted him with Gold , and the next day sought to terrifie him with Elephants , I was not yesterday moved with your money , nor to day with your beasts ; So Basil when first offered preferment , and afterward threatened with imprisonment , if he would not deny Christ , and turn Arrian , to this purpose answered the Messenger , Such babies of preferment are fit to catch Children with , and such bug-bears of bonds and imprisonment , may fright your tender Gallants and Courtiers . Faith enableth the Christian to mount up to heaven , and thereby secures him from the baits and shots , the snares and lime-twigs which attend him on earth . Homer , saith Vlisses , caused himself to be bound to the Mast of the Ship , and every one of his fellows ears to be stopped with Wax , that they might not hearken to the Songs of the Syrens , and so be drowned in the Sea. Faith fastens the soul to Christ , and so ravisheth i●s ears with the glad tidings of pardon , and peace , and eternal life , that it is deaf to the worlds musick . 1. Faith enableth the soul to overcome the affrightments of the world . Faith like blown bladders , keepeth the soul from sinking in deep waters ; It s a Target under which a soul is free from the hurt , though not from the smart of evil ; It s the Ark wherein he rides triumphing , when the windows from above are opened and poure down , and the floods from beneath are broken up . In this strong Tower , the soul finds shelter ; Faith , like Ioseph , layeth up in a time of plenty , against a time of scarcity ; in a day of prosperity● against a day of adversity , and so feareth it the less . Faith sheweth the Christian a place of refuge in the time of trouble . He shall hide thee , saith Faith , in the secret of his presence ( i. e. cover thee with the warm wings of his providence ) he shall keep thee secret in his Pavilion ; ( An allusion to Princes retiring rooms , which are sacred and secure places for their Favourites . ) Nature teacheth all creatures to run in distress to that which they count their defence ; The Conies run to the Rocks , the Goats to the Hills , the Ravenous Beasts to their De●s , the Child to his Mothers Armes . This grace discovereth to the soul , a Rock , a Refuge , a Fort , a Fortress , an High Tower , which makes him fearless of the worlds threatnings and bugbears . The lame and the blind , those most shiftless creatures , when they had got the strong hold of Sion over their heads , scorned the Host of David , 2 Sam. 5. 6 , 7. The Egyptians that dwell in the fens , are much troubled with Gnats , therefore they sleep in High Towers , whither those Insects cannot flye . The Name of the Lord is a strong Tower , the righteous run unto it and are safe , Prov. 15. Such a soul is like a strong Tree , which no wind can shake ; or like Mount Sion , which cannot be moved ; Therefore he can sing when unbeleivers quake and tremble . Though the Earth be troubled , though the Mountains be carried into the midst of the Sea , though the Waters roar , and the Mountains shake , yet we will not fear ; The Lord of Hosts is with us , the God of Jacob is our refuge , Psa. 46. 56. and 91. 2 , 3. Faith is like the Cork in the Net , when the Lead wound sink the Net , the Cork keeps it above water . This Faith is the Anchor of the soul , both sure and stedfact , entering into that within the vail , and so stayeth the Saint against all the winds and waves of affliction . Faith or beleif of the resurrection , and that happiness which then should be enjoyed , was that which enabled Paul to dye daily , and to fight with Beasts at Ephesus , 1 Cor. 15. 30. In the greatest distress , Faith can see deliverance ; and when it is at the greatest distance , salute it , as Abraham did Christs day , afar off . When the weather is cloudy , it can see the Heaven begin to clear , and notwithstanding his present pain and poverty , cause the Christian to rejoyce in his hope of bliss and glory . The eye of Faith , looking to the recompence of reward , seeth afflictions with the Israel of God , much more eligible then the pleasures of sin . Symphorianus a Christian young man , after he was almost scourged to death , being draged to Execution at Augustodunum , met his Mother , not crying , or tearing her hair , but like an Holy Lady thus comforting him , Son , my Son , I say , Remember life eternal , look up to Heaven ; Life is not taken from thee , but exchanged for a better ; At which words of his Mother , he went on willingly to the Block , and exposed his Throat to the fatal Ax ; One of the Dutch Martyrs feeling the flame coming to him , said , O what a small pain is this , to Heaven ! Our blessed Saviour had an eye to the joy set before him , and thereby was encouraged to endure the Cross , and despise the shame ; Indeed , if Faith spring a leak , then the waters break in , and the Christian sinks apace , as we see in Peters denial of his Master . As Faith in the Promises , so also Faith in the Threatnings makes the Christian a Conquerour over the worlds affrightments , where the World threatens Bonds , and Whips , and Dungeo●s , and Death , if the Christian will not sin against God , and begins to stagger the soul. Take heed what thou dost , saith Faith , for God threateneth Fire , and Brimstone , and Chains , and Blackness of Darkness for ever , as the wages of all sin . Is the Wrath of an Infinite God , not more to be feared then of weak dying Men ? Is the pains of a violent death , which will quickly be over , and the most the World can do against thee , comparable to the pains of eternal death ? And thus Faith by the terror of this great Ordinance , drowns the noise of those small peices , that the soul is deaf to their report . 2. Faith enableth the soul to overcome the allurements of the world . If the world cannot terrifie the Saint with its fiery Furnace , to disown and deny his Saviour , it will seek to inchant him with its Musick , and thereby to make him deaf to the Call and Commands of Christ. Thus it served Ioseph ; When it could not prevail on the left hand , by selling him for a slave , it tryeth him on the right hand , by setting a Dalilah to tickle him with pleasure ; but by Faith he saw the Hook under the Bait , and durst not nibble at it , much less swallow it . Though the world like Iezabel , painteth her face , and tireth her hair , to render her amiable and lovely , and as a Srumpet , sheweth her naked Breasts of pleasure and profit , to entice the beleiver to go a Whoring after her ; yet he vieweth by Faith the deformity of her person , under all her dawbery , and the dregginess and deceitfulness of her pleasures , notwithstanding their shew of clearness , and so rejects them with scorn and disdain . Pliny saith of Cato , that he took as much pleasure in the Honours he denied , as in those that he enjoyed . The beleiver can glory more in his refusal of glory for Christ , then unbeleivers in all their preferments . Indeed , if the Christian did consult with sense , or carnal reason , he would take the worlds present money , but the beleiver doth not consult with flesh and blood , like wise Abigal , knowing how much it will conduce to his advantage , he can part with his esta●e for God , and never make those Nabals privy to the design , lest they should hinder it . Besides , Faith discovers pure Rivers of pleasures , more noble and excellent delights , to be the portion of those that refuse to grate their teeth with such kennel water . As man is a rational creature , he would sell his wares to them that will give most . Now Faith sheweth how infinitely God out-bids the world . Sense saith , The world offereth fair , it offereth comforts , sutable to thy flesh , such as they desire , and it offereth ready money , present possession : But saith Faith , God offereth thee better ; The comforts he offereth are more excellent , being sutable , not as the Worlds , to a carnal brutish nature , but to an heavenly divine soul , and more durable , being eternal , when the pleasures of sin are but for a season . He that hopes for no better market , will take the present money offered him ; But he that is assured of greater gains , will refuse the lesser . An unbeleiver who expects no better bargain then what this life affords him , may well take up with present pay , what ever it be ; but the Beleiver who seeth the glory to be revealed , and fulness of joy in Heaven , and is assured that if he be faithful unto death , he shall receive that eternal crown of life , turns his eyes off the honours and comforts of this beggarly world . Those stars of creature joys do all disappear in the presence of this Sun. Gold bears little sway with the soul that knoweth his title to the new Ierusalem , that is paved with Gold , in which gold is trampled under foot ; Those birds that flie aloft in the Firmament , are not so easily snared by the Fowlers Gins ; Though the things of this world were glorious in his eyes , during his estate of unbeleif , yet now he hath discerned a world beyond the Moon , and sent Faith as a spie to search and coast that Country which hath brought word back , that its a good land flowing with Milk and Honey , and in it there is want of nothing , they have no glory , by reason of that glory that doth so infinitely exceed . When a man is below , things above seem small ; the great Stars that are bigger then the Earth , seem not so big as a bushel , and things below seem great : but when a man is above , as upon the top of a Steeple , then things below seem little , he beholdeth men like Grashoppers . Were he conveyed to the highest hill in the World , men would not be discerned ; great Kingdoms would be but small Cottages . Unbeleif sets a man below , here on earth , and so the things of Heaven are little in his eye ; but Faith soars aloft , it carrieth the Christian up to Heaven , and then the whole earth is but a small spot in his eye . Ioseph bids the Patriarchs , Regard not your stuff , for the good of all the Land of Egypt is yours : So saith Faith to the Christian , Regard not the lumber and rubbish of this world , for all the great and good things of the other world are thine . Faith gives the soul a taste , the first fruits of Heaven ; And as no man , having drunk old wine , desireth new , for he saith , the old is better ; So no man , having tasted the wine of Heavens pleasures , desires carnal delights . A Pilgrim travelling to Ierusalem ( saith one ) came to a City where he saw a goodly Training and Mustering , there he had a mind to stay , but that he remembred that was not Ierusalem . He came to another City , where he saw gallant sports and pastimes , there he had some good will to abide , but that he remembred it was not Ierusalem . He came to a third , where were goodly buildings , Fair Ladies , curious Musick , &c. where also he had some thoughts of setling , but still he remembred it was not Ierusalem : So the beleiver , when the world offereth him great treasures , high honours , &c. may through the subtlety of his flesh , have a mind to embrace them , onely seeing by Faith Ierusalem , where are greater treasures , higher honours , he slights and rejects them ; By faith Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter ; esteeming the reproaches of Christ , greater riches then the treasures of Egypt ; for he had an eye to the recompence of reward . Faith makes things future , present ; it looketh into●Heaven and saith as David , before he had conquered those places , Gilead is mine , Manasseh is mine ; Heaven is mine , Eternal Life is mine , fulness of joy is mine , that Kingdom in comparison of which this whole world is a dunghil is mine , because God hath sworn by his holiness , that he will not lye unto his David , and whilst the soul by faith seeth and is assured of these felicities for their sake , it can trample under foot the worlds largest offers . 2. Faith enableth the Christian to conquer Satan ; Though the wicked one be full of power and policy , yet Faith makes him flee like a Coward . It s said of the Crocodile , that he flyeth if resisted , but followeth those that fear and flee from him ; Truly so doth Satan , Iam. 4. 8. Resist the Devil , and he will flee from you . But how must he be resisted ? the Apostle Peter answers that question , whom resist stedfastly in the Faith , 1 Pet. 5. 9. The Crocodile cannot endure the sight or smell of saffron , therefore in Egypt they sow saffron to keep him away . Faith is this saffron , Cant. 4. 14. which drives away the Devil . Faith like little David , wounds the great Goliah of Hell. They overcame him ( meaning the Devil ) by the blood of the Lamb. The Wild Bull , say Naturalists , cannot endure a red colour , therefore the Hunter putteth on red garments , and standeth before a Tree , which the Bull runneth against with all his might , and the Hunter stepping aside , his hornes stick fast in the tree , whereby he is taken . The Christian by Faith in the blood of Christ , overcometh those infernal spirits who thought to overcome him . This is the onely holy water , that will fright away the Devil . Our blessed Saviour in his speech to Peter , acquaints us how to subdue Satan ; Peter , Peter , Satan hath desired to winnow thee as Wheat is winnowed , but I have prayed for thee , that thy Faith fail not . Which words imply , that whilst Peters Faith stood firm , he should not forsake Christ ; whilst that was up , he could not be down ; His Faith flagged before his courage failed , or he himself fell so fouly . A Tree is soon felled when the Root is once loosened ; Faith roots the soul in Christ , and therein his safety consists ; but as his Faith fails , so he is loosened from Christ , and thereby in danger of falling . The Christians strength lieth in his Faith , as Sampsons in his Hair ; if the uncircumcised one can deprive us of this , he may make sport enough with us . Hence it is that Satans chiefest Guns are shot against the Royal Fort of Faith , knowing that that commandeth all ; and if ●e can make a breach there , he fears not but to enter with success . The first mine which he ever sprang , to blow up the first Adam and his Wife , and in them the whole race of mankind , was by weakning their faith ; Hath God said , In the day ye eat thereof , ye shall dye ? When he came to the second Adam , he endeavoured to slay him with the same sword ; If thou be the Son of God , command that these stones , &c. And without question , his aim was more at Iobs Faith , then his Cattel , or Servants , or Children ; he had a greater intent to have blown down that house of Iobs conscience , then that wherein his Sons and Daughters were feasting . Therefore Reader , Above all take the shield of Faith , whereby thou mayst quench the fiery darts of the wicked one , Ephes. 6. 16. Goats in the Island of Creet , when they are stricken with a dart , do seek for the Hearb Dittany , which will cause the dart to fall out ; Truly , such juice hath Faith , that it makes all the darts which Satan shoots at the Christian ineffectual . 3. Faith enableth to conquer the flesh . The great Apostle who lived by Faith , brought under his body , and crucified the flesh . Faith seeth the safety of the body to consist in its subordination to the soul , and that the onely way to save the life , is at Gods call to lose it ; By faith Abraham left his Kindred and Country , and obeyed , and went out , not knowing whither he went , Heb. 11. 8. Indeed , the flesh is the worst enemy of the three , partly in that it is so near us , always about us , so that we can as well flye from our selves as from it . A Traytour in the Bed chamber , is much more dangerous then one in open armes against us in the Field . A Snake in the bosome , is like to do more hurt then one under the grass ; partly in that it knoweth our minds exactly , and so can temper its poison sutable to our Pallats ; but Faith can discover its secret conspiracies , and prevent their execution . Though it dig its mines never so closely , and covertly , and craftily , Faith will find them out and countermine them . 2. Faith enableth ( as to dye to sin , so ) to live to God. The life of holiness doth so much depend on Faith , that it s said to consist wholly in it . The just shall live by his Faith. Though he cannot live by sense , that upon which he lives being invisible ; nor by reason , because his food is supernatural ; yet he can live by faith , and make a good living of it too . As the body lives by the soul , so Religion lives by Faith. A mortal wound in faith , le ts out the heart blood of all holiness . T is faith that actuates and animates the new creature . Faith puts him upon high designs , and holy enterprises for God and his own soul. David saith , I beleive , therefore have I spoken ; It may be said of a Christian , He beleiveth , therefore he speaks so much of God , for God , and to God. He beleiveth the unquestionable certainty , incomparable excellency , and eternity of that reward which is set before him , and therefore he prayeth , and watcheth , and readeth , and heareth , and denyeth himself , and worketh night and day that he may attain it . Ferdinando of Arragon , beleiving the report of Columbus , concerning the richness of the Indian Mines , and the likelyhood of his possessing them , was at great cost and charge in sending out men in Ships , and made them venture their lives , and labour hard to get those Golden and Silver veins . Faith beleiveth the report which the Gospel makes of the glory to be revealed , and the unsearchable riches in Christ , and the likelyhood , nay , certainty of his enjoying them , if he will but strive and labour , and use those means which God hath appointed , and this puts the soul upon its greatest industry and integrity , in the performance of what the word requireth , in order thereunto , and a resolution to obtain them , what ever it cost , or to dye in the undertaking . T is by the sap , which from the root is derived through the bark to the branches , that makes them fruitful . T is from ●he strength which faith derives from Christ , that the Christian becomes so abundant in holiness ; cut off the bark and the tree withereth . Take away faith , and no more good works . The extension of the branches , ariseth from the intension of the sap ; and how shall that be conveyed but by the bark ? Christ , like Ioseph , keeps the granaries , wherein is abundance of soul-food , and faith unlocks those Store-houses , and takes out supplies . As Pharoah when the Egyptians cryed to him for bread , said , Go ye to Joseph , and what he saith to you do : So God saith to Christians that call on him for Grace , Go ye to Christ by Faith , and he will relieve you . It pleased the Father , that in him should all fulness dwell ; Here is 1. Fulness , abundance , not a drop , or a small degree of living water . 2. All fulness , a redundance , the fulness of a spring , a fountain , not of a vessel . 3. All fulness dwelling , abiding there to eternity ; running over , and running ever . But you will say , What is a Christian the better sor it ? I Answer , Of his fulness , by faith , We all receive grace for grace . As a Pipe from the River supplieth the house upon all occasions , and the several offices therein with water ; so doth faith supply the Christian with grace from Christ , answerable to his several exigencies and necessities . Indeed , all the graces act valiantly in their several places , under the command of this General . Hence though fear , and love and heavenly mindedness were specially operative in many of the Patriarchs actions and passions for God , yet still the crown is set upon the head of faith , under whose banner and conduct they fought , Heb. 11. per tot . When this Champion , like Goliah is vanquished , the other graces , as the Philistines , are put to the rout . As dark clouds obscure the glorious stars , so doth unbeleif blemish the lustre of a Christians graces . If this shepherd , Faith , be smitten , other Graces , like ●heep , are scattered . If this grace keep the field , the rest always keep their ground . The length of the days depends upon the shining of the sun ; as this shines more or less , so the days are longer or shorter : The degrees and measures of other graces depend exceedingly upon this grace . The branches blossom answerable to the sap which they receive from the root . Other graces bud and blow according to the sap which they receive from faith . For example sake ; Repentance is more or less according to the degrees of faith . T is the fiducial apprehension of divine love that mollifieth the stony hear● None mourn so much as they who apprehend God a father . The hot beams of divine grace and favour by faith united in the soul , thaw the most i●y heart ; They shall see him whom they have pierced , ( i.e. with an eye of faith ) and mourn for him as one that mourneth for his onely childe . Peter saw Christs love in his look , and then went out and wept bitterly . 2. Humility ; We are never lower in our own eyes then when faith assures us that we are high in Gods favour . The Centurions humility seems to keep equal pace with his faith ( though Christ saith of his faith , I have not found so great , no not in Israel ) Lord , I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof ; neither thought I my self worthy to come unto thee . When Nathan brought David word that God had a great respect for him , and would build him a sure house for ever ; He presently crieth out , What am I , and what is my fathers house , that thou hast brought me hitherto ? &c. 2 Sam. 7.18 . 3. Love ; The fire of love flames more or less according to the fuel which faith provides ; To whom much is forgiven , the same loveth much . The knowledge of a pardon granted by such a Lord who hath all the reason in the world to loath the soul , turns it into a lump of love . 4. Ioy ; Faith broacheth the pipe of the promises , and presenteth that wine which rejoyceth the heart of the new man ; In whom beleiving , we rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory , 1 Pet. 1.7 . 5. Patience ; He that beleiveth his bonds are good , that his estate is in safe hands , and that his forbearance doth abundantly encrease it , will wait quietly for the day of payment ; He that beleiveth , maketh not haste . None quarrel or fret but from want of faith : Run with patience the race set before you ; Looking at Iesus . If the Christian be weak , faith will give him the staff of the Word to lean on ; if he be weary , faith will shew him his journeys end . Lo yonder is heaven , saith faith , hold out a little longer , your work is almost done . As the Eagle by stretching her self towards the Sun , through its heat hath her old feathers fallen off , new ones growing in their places , and her strength renewed ; so the Christian cleaving to Jesus Christ , the Sun of righteousness , by faith , reneweth his strength as the Eagle , runneth and is not weary , walketh and is not faint ; It s reported of the Chrystal , that there is a vertue in it to quicken all other precious stones ; when it toucheth them , it puts a lustre and brightness on them ; It s true of faith , it hath a vertue in it to enliven and quicken all other graces . These stars have the greatest influence , when in conjunction with this Sun. As the Philosopher saith of water , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , It is of all things the best , most soveraign and precious , because it s of universal influence in the life of man ; so I may say of faith , it is of all graces most excellent , in regard of the universality of its influence , upon all duties , graces , providences , ordinances . T is by Faith that prayer becomes so prevalent ; Whatsoever ye ask of the Father beleiving , ye shall receive , Joh. 16. 22. An unbeleiving prayer , is a Messenger without a tongue ; no wonder if he dispatch not his errand , Heb. 11. 6 , 7. T is by Faith that Scripture is so powerful . This sword of the Spirit doth no Execution , save in the hand of Faith. The word did not profit them , not being mingled with Faith in them that heard it , Heb. 4. 2. T is by Faith that the Lords Supper becomes so nourishing and strengthning ; This is the hand that receiveth that flesh which is meat indeed ; this is the mouth that eats it , this is the stomach that digests it ; without this thou mayst receive the Elements , but not the sacrament , 1 Cor. 11. 25 , 26. Unbeleivers like Waspes may sit upon the tops of these flowers , and seem to gather honey , but alas they are far from any such thing . T is by Faith that Crosses are turned into comforts , and afflictions into mercies . This like Mithridates , can digest poison , and get strength from the wrath and rage of Men and Devils , 1 Phil. 19. Heb. 11. 38. T is by Faith that Water is turned into wine , temporal mercies into spiritual advantages ; Faith worketh by love , and draweth men with the Cords of love . T is by faith that men are so fruitful in their lives , Heb. 11. 32 , 33. and so chearful in their deaths , Rom. 8. 37 , 38. O Reader , above all thy gettings , get faith , and above all thy keepings keep faith ; For , it must be faith that must keep thee from falling in an hour of temptation , and from fainting in an hour of persecution . The unbeleiver is fitly called an unreasonable man , because its unreasonable that the God of truth should not be credited , and that he , to whom it is impossible to lye , should be distrusted ; and also an absurd man , because its absurd for a workman to go without his tools , which he shall every moment have need of . It s said of the Serpent , that of all her parts , she is most careful of her head , well knowing that though she be mangled and cut never so much in her body , yet if her head be whole , that will cure the wounds of all her other parts ; Let thy great work be to ●ecure thy faith , if that be whole all will be well , what ever decays there may be in other graces , this will help them to shoot forth again . Thirdly , If thou wouldst exercise thy self to Godliness , set God always before thine eyes ; Subjects will carry themselves handsomly and loyally when they are before their Soveraign ; They who walk before God , will be upright . His eye is the best Marshal to keep the soul in a comely order . Let thine eye be ever on him , whose eye is ever on thee . The eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good , Prov. 15. 9. Seneca perswaded his friend Lucilius for the keeping him within compass , to imagine that some grave man , as Laelius , did still look upon him ; Reader , couldst thou walk ever as in Gods presence , thou wouldst keep close to his precepts . Consider , therefore that in all places , in all companies , at all times , the eye of God is on thee , and he takes exact notice of all thy thoughts , words and actions ; that he knoweth thy natural parts ; In his book were all thy members written , which in continuance were fashioned , when as yet there was not one of them , that he knoweth all thy moral passages , thou understandest my thoughts afar off , and art acquainted with all my ways ; There is not a word in my tongue , but thou O Lord knowest it altogether ; There is no drawing a curtain between God and thee ; He seeth thee thorough and thorough , far more perfectly then thou canst the clearest Chrystal . Darkness hideth not from thee , but the night shineth as the day ; to thee the darkness and the light are both alike . The darkness of the air may hide thee from men , and the darkness of thine understanding may hide thee from thy self ; but there is no darkness nor shadow of death , where the workers of iniquity can hide themselves from him . Neither the ring of Gyges , nor the helmet of Pluto , can hide thee from Gods eye . Observe how strict God is in observing thy ways ; Thou numbrest my steps , dost thou not watch over my sin ? Job 14. 16. By steps is understood inward Motions , and outward actions , whatsoever is done either in the retiring room of the heart , or common hall of the life . To number the steps notes an exact account , we say of a man that goeth very leasurely and softly , Such a man telleth his steps . God is said to tell or number our steps , because he is so exact in his observation of , and so severe in his inquisition , into all our thoughts , words , and deeds . He is supposed to be void of shame , that doth not fear to sin before many witnesses ; Though thou art in secret , consider , conscience is present , which is a thousand witnesses , and God who is a thousand consciences . The Italian was somewhat conceited , who wrote a supplication to Candle light , to disclose to him the secrets of his Kingdom . It s thought the light of the Candle seeth more wickedness then the light of the sun , but to God the day and night , darkness and light are both alike ; he seeth all things , in all places , and at all times . It was a prety fancy of one that would have his chamber painted full of eyes , that which way soever he lookt , he might still have some eyes upon him , and he fancying himself according to the Moralists advice , always , Sub custode & Paedagogo , under the eye of a keeper , might be the more careful of his carriage . And it was a wise answer of Livius Drusus , when an Artist offered him so to convtrive his house , that he might do what he would , none should see him ; No , saith Drusus , Contrive it so rather , that all may see me , for I am not ashamed to be seen . If the eyes of men , make even the vilest to forbear their beloved lusts for a while , that the Adulter watcheth for the twilight● and they that are drunk , are drunk in the night ; how powerful will the eye and presence of God be with those that fear his anger , and know the sweetness of his favour ? Moses forsook the sinful pleasures of Pharaohs Court , not fearing the wrath of the King , for he saw him that was invisible . A good commander causeth good government in a Town or City . This truth wrought home , and set close to the heart , would cause good orders , good government in it . The thought of this Omnipresence of God , will affrighten thee from sin ; Gehezi durst not ask or receive any part of Naamans Presents in his Masters presence , but when he had got out of Elisha's sight , then he tells his lye , and gives way to his lust ; Men never sin more freely , then when they presume upon secrecy . They break in peices thy people , O Lord , and afflict thine heritage . They slay the Widow , and Stranger , and murder the Fatherless ; yet they say , The Lord doth not see , neither shall the God of Jacob regard it , Psa. 94. 5 , 6 , 7. Eliphaz , though falsly , accused Iob as guilty of the same crime , upon the same account , Iob 22. 5 , 6 , 7 , 13 , 14. They who shut God out of their hearts , shut him also out of the world , through their atheism , and then are at liberty for all manner of wickedness ; They who abounded in abominations , said , The Lord seeth us not , the Lord hath forsaken the earth , Ezek. 8. 9 , 10 , 12. The wise man diswadeth from wickedness , upon the consideration of Gods eye and Omniscience ; And why wilt thou my son be ravished with a strange woman , and embrace the bosome of a stranger ? For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord , and he pondereth all his goings , Prov. 5● 20 , 21. Ioseph saw God in the room , and therefore durst not yeild ; but his Mistris saw none but Ioseph , and so was impudently alluring and tempting him to folly . I have read of two religious men , that took contrary courses with two lewd women , whom they were desirous to reclaim from their vicious course of life ; One of the men told one of the women , that he was desirous to enjoy her company , so it might be with secrecy , and when she had brought him into a close room , that none could pry into , he told her , All the bars and bolts here , cannot keep God out ; The other desired the other woman to company with him openly in the streets , which when she rejected as a mad request , he told her , It was better to do it in the eyes of a multitude then of God. How doth the Adulterer , or Drunkard , or Theif , when they come abroad at midnight , for the satisfaction of their lusts , sneak and steal away , when they spye the watch , or any persons who would be witness of their vices ? and shall not the presence of that God who hates sin , who is resolved to punish it with hell-flames , make us ashamed or afraid to sin , and dare him to his face ? 2. The thoughts of this Omnipresence of God , will quicken thee to holiness . The Souldiers of Israel and Iudah were prodigal of their blood , in the presence of their two Generals , 2 Sam. 2. 14. Servants will generally work hard whilst their Master stands by and looks on . It s said of Alexander , that his presence caused such courage in his Souldiers , Vt illo presente nullius hostium arma vel iner mes timuerunt , That when he was with them though they were unarmed , they feared not the weapons of any of their enemies . Our blessed Redeemer exhorteth to prayer in secret , upon this consideration , that God seeth and heareth it , Mat. 6. and to charity in secret , because , though the left hand knoweth not what the right hand doth , God knoweth what the right hand doth . Your Father which seeth in secret will reward you openly . There is a story of Bishop Latimer , that he having in a Sermon at Court , much displeased the King ( Henry 8. ) was commanded to Preach again the next Lords day , and to recant his former sermon ; according to appointment he cometh up , and prefaceth to his Sermon in this manner ; Hugh Latimer , dost thou know this day to whom thou art to speak ? even to the High and mighty Monarch , the Kings most excellent Majesty , who can take away thy life if thou offendest ; therefore take heed how thou speakest a word which may displease , but ( as if recalling himself , he proceeded ) Hugh , Hugh , dost thou know from whom thou comest , upon whose message thou art sent , and who it is that is present with thee , and beholdeth all thy ways ! even that Almighty God who can cast body and soul into Hell for ever ; therefore look about thee , and be sure thou deliverest thy message faithfully ; and so he went to his Text , and confirmed what he had spoken the day before , and urged it with the more vehemency then ordinary . The eye of God , as of the Sun , will call the Christian to his work . Those Countries that are governed by Viceroys seldom flourish or thrive so well as those Kingdoms where the Prince is present in person . Conscience , Gods Viceroy , may much quicken a Christian to holiness ; but God the Prince himself much more ; I have kept thy precepts , saith David , for all my ways are before thee . CHAP. X. Means whereby Christians may exercise themselves to Godliness ; A constant wat●hfulness , Frequent Meditation of Death , Daily performance of ●aored Duties . FOurthly , If thou wouldst exercise thy self to Godliness , Watch over thy self continually : This spiritual watchfulness is the Main-guard of the soul , which if once called off , we lye open to the shot of every enemy . This , like one of the Nethinim , must stand continually Porter at the door of our hearts , Gods Temple , to keep out whatsoever i● unclean● Watchfulness is a diligent observation of our selves in all things , and at all times , that we may please God always . He that watcheth hath his eyes in his head , according to the wise mans phrase , and seeth ( as the Chineses say of themselves ) with both eyes . David expresseth it fitly , I said I will take heed to my ways , Psa. 39.1 . i. e. I will ponder my paths , and consider where I set my feet , lest I should tread awry . Without this wariness there is no safe walking . Secure Laish is made a prey to their enemies ; and the secure soul is made a prey to his spiritual adversaries , Iudges 19.9,10 . Soul-Lethargies are most dangerous , most deadly . Those that slept in the sweating sickness generally died . He who watcheth not is led about ( like one in his natural sleep ) by any temptation , he knoweth not how nor whether . When the Wolves in the Fable once prevailed with the Sheep to part with the Dogs , they soon devoured them . If Satan can but get men to forgo this means of their safety , he will soon make them his prey . The old World was drowned in sleep before they were drowned in water . Sodom and Gomorah were secure when they were destroyed by fire . It s reported of the Dragon that whilst he sleepeth a jewel is taken out of his head . Noah lost the jewel of Temperance ; David the jewel of Chastity whilst they were fallen asleep . If this eye of watchfulness be once shut the soul is open to all wickedness . When Argus , notwithstanding his hundred eyes , was by Mercury piped into a sleep , he was transformed into a Cow. Reader hearken to Gods Watch-word ; Ye are all children of light , and children of the day ; we are not of the night nor of darkness : Therefore let us not sleep as do others , but let us watch and be sober , 1 Thess. 5. 5,6,7 . Sleep is not seasonable in the day of grace , nor sutable to a childe of light : They that sleep , sleep in the night , Rom. 13.11 . The night is for sleep , therefore in it God draweth a curtain of darkness about us ; as the Nurse when she would lay her babe to sleep , throweth a cloth over the head of the cradle . But the day is for watching , for working . He hath little reason to give himself to sleep who is every moment surrounded with mortal enemies , which are neither few nor weak . Naturalists tell us that the bird Onocratulus , and the Pellican take their rest with their Beaks upright , expecting the Hawk ; and that the Whale and Dolphin sleep with their heads erected above water , for fear of hurt . Though there were but that one text of Scripture 1 Pet. 5.8 . relating to this duty , t were enough to alarm any wise man , and to call him to his arms ; Be sober , be vigilant ; for your adversary the Devil walketh about as a roaring Lion , seeking whom he may devour . If that voyce among the antient Romans , Hannibal ad portas , Hannibal is at the gates , were sufficient to make them leave whatsoever they were about , and run to their weapons , and stand upon their guard ; what watchfulness should this voyce of the holy Ghost , The Devil is at the door , call thee too ? Reader , Take that verse a little in pieces , and see what a foe thou hast to fight with , and then tell me whether it doth not concern thee to watch . Consider , 1. His Power ; Your adversary the Devil : It is not a weak man , but a mighty Devil . Thou art not called to wrestle with flesh and blood , but Principalities and powers , Is man a match for a Devil ? or a stripling nodding , fit to enter the Lists with Goliah ? What is a Pigmie to a Giant , or a a dying creature to the Prince of the powers of the air ? Had David been asleep when the Lion out of the wood came against him , the Lion had sooner tore him by the throat , then he had taken the Lion by the beard . The cobweb may as soon withstand the broom in the maids hand , and the dust oppose the force of a violent wind , as a nodding secure Christian the temptations of Satan . 2. His Policy ; Seeking whom he may devour ; Had our enemy strength without craft , there were not so much danger , nor cause of vigilancy ; but when he hath seven heads as well as ten horns , and exceeds us in subtilty as much as in power , it concerneth us to be watchful . He that playeth with a cunning Fencer , will heed his wards the more . Reader , the Devil hath a shrewd guess what Dalilah is most likely to entice thee , and deprive thee of thy spiritual strength ; and if amongst all the uncircumcised there be any that will fit thee , thou shalt not want her . He hath not walked too and fro in the earth so long for nothing ; but he knoweth what weeds will take best and thrive most in the soil of thy heart , & be confident he will help thee both to the seeds and plants of them . The subtle serpent that could wind himself into Paradise , knoweth surely how to wind himself into thee . If he were too crafty for man when he was perfect , much more is he for man polluted ; And can such a strong politick foe be resisted , when thou art lazing upon thy bed of security ? 3. His Industry ; Your adversary the Devil goeth about . He is a diligent servant never from your elbow ; As Ioseph's Mistris , when denied , still sollicited ; and Sampsons Harlot pressed him with continual importunity night and day , that his very soul was vexed unto death . So the Devil serveth men , he will never forsake them , but follow them with his darts and assaults , till they are safe in heaven from hi● , or safe in hell with him . He is called the Prince of the powers of the air , and his Angels , spiritual Wickednesses in high places ; the air is the seat of his Empire ; and truly as ravenous foul hover up and do●n in the air , to catch and kill little chickens , and though they be frighted away by any one , yet they lye near at the catch , and the person is no sooner gone , but they are descending to destroy them : So those infernal spirits are hovering up and down , walking too and fro to defile and destroy souls ; and though they are resisted and foiled , yet they impudently continue their former endeavours to undo us . Now hath he any time for sleep that is every moment in such danger ? 4. His Cruelty ; As a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour . The Lions of the Forrest have no pitty ; Lest he tear my soul like a Lion , renting it in peices , Psal. 7.2 . The Lions brake the bones of Daniels accusers before they came to the bottom of the Den : But the Lions of hell have much less pity ; his tender mercies are cruelties indeed ; it is not the loss of thy life , but of thy soul , and thy God , and thy Christ , and that for ever which he looks after . The racking of thy body , and renting thy bones , is nothing to the flames , and whips , and torments which he makes men suffer , and that not for a day , or week , or year , or age , but to all eternity . Reader , is there not infinite reason for watchfulness ? Had not the Apostle ground enough for his precept , Be sober , be vigilant , when our adversary is so strong a Devil , so sedulous going about , so cruel as a roaring Lion , and so crafty , seeking by all means whom he may devour ? Yet alas , this is not all , Go where we will , we see abundant cause to look well to our feet . Every place we come into is a net to ensnare us ; we cannot look out of our eyes , but we see a baited hook ; nor open our ears , but we hear the Syrens songs ; we cannot put forth our hands , but we touch pitch ; nor set our feet , but in the midst of nets ; every part of the body is a Iudas , a Traytor to the soul. Our crosses and afflictions , if we be secure , will be to us , as the Goal to a prisoner , filling us with Vermine : Our greatest earthly comforts if we be not watchful , prove but like traps set for vermine , pleasant and killing . When the world sings most sweetly in our ears , she doth but like Orpheus with his pipe , endeavour to lead us by the ears into unquenchable flames . Theives with provender in their hands catch horses to steal them : The world allures our hearts by its pleasures and profits , and steals them from God. Our own hearts are Iacobs , Supplanters of us , deceitful and desperately wicked . As the water-foul in Friezland will decoy other wilde foul in a net , and then give a watchword to their Master to seise on them ; so officious will our own hearts be to the Devil ; And shall we not watch and pray that we enter not into temptation ? Sleep is the great Leveller , which makes all equal . The strongest Sampson is as liable in his sleep to be slain , as the smallest infant ; When a deep sleep from the Lord had seised on Saul and his Souldiers , how easily might David if he had pleased , have killed them ? He took away Sauls Spear and Cruse of Water , to assure him that he could have taken away his life . Ah! how soon may the Devil , or World , or Flesh , defile , deceive , and destroy a sleeping soul ! Bees , that have many enemies , Mice , Spiders , Drones , Hornets , Birds and Beasts , never dare , say Naturalists , to give themselves to security , but night and day have their Scouts , and Centinels , and Corp-du-guard , to keep watch and ward , lest some of their many enemies should on a sudden surprise them ; The Christian may learn this duty from such creatures ; Spiders weave their Cobwebs near the Flowers where the Bees use to gather , and also just over the passage out of their Hives , that so at their going out , but especially at their comming in , laden and weary , they may catch them , and make a prey of them . David saith , In the way wherein I walked , have they privily laid a snare for me . So mayst thou Reader say , In the way wherein I daily walk , doth Satan privily lay Baits to catch me , at my Table , in my Closet , in my Shop , in my Bed , in the Streets ; in all places where I go , he hath laid snares for my soul. If there be a snare , and such danger in all things , then let me advise thee , if thou woulst avoid them , in the words of Paul to Timothy , Watch thou in all things , 2 Timoth. 4. 5. Watch against sin , against all sin . The Gardiner doth not onely watch over his Flowers , to water and cherish them , but also watcheth all weeds , to pluck and root them up . Take heed lest there be any root of bitterness ; Epiphanius tells us , when a dead corps was carried by any of the Israelites houses , they used to shut their doors and windows , intimating that men must be watchful against the sent and infection of sin● ; It s in vain for a Captain to guard one gate of a Castle , to prevent the enemies entring there , if he leave another open , when the whole Fort is beleagured , and surrounded with mortal enemies . Watch especially against thine own sin . If a man have many wounds , whereof one is more dangerous then the rest , being near a vital part , though he will be mindful and careful of all , yet he will have a special care of that which is most dangerous ; A Christian must watch against all sin , all soul-diseases , but principally against his own sin ; that disease which is most dangerous ; as a wise Governour will have a special eye upon that particular person in his Garrison , whom he knoweth to be a Traytour . Watch for the doing of good ; For seasons of Prayer , and Hearing , and Christian Communion . The Country-man watcheth for the Bell ringing on the Market-day , when the sacks will be opened , that he may buy food for himself and his family . The Mariner watcheth for the Tide ; The diseased folk watched for the moving of the waters , by the Angels . David watched as a Sparrow on the house top , where he might peck up some corn , get some spiritual nourishment . An opportunity of worshipping God is a jewel , the Christian may well watch to take it up . Watch in duties ; The Child must be watcht at School , or he will play and toy instead of getting his lesson . The heart must be watched in an Ordinance , or it will wander wholly from the business in hand ; continue in prayer , and watch in the same , Col. 4. 2. Take heed how ye hear ; The Bible will drop out of the sleepers hand , and prayer is a wrestling with God , which is not a work to be done nodding ; They who talk in their sleep , talk idly . Watch after duties . Running carelesly into the open air , immediately after the taking of Physick , is dangerous . When the Garden is drest , and the seeds sown in it , we must watch it , lest Hogs get into it , and root up all . Satan thinks to take the Christian at an advantage , after the duty is over ; and though he could not beat him in the fight , yet to do it when the Saint hath laid by his weapons . It was a wise speech of Marcus Aurelius , after he had vanquished Popilion , General of the potent Parthians , and won the day , I tell thee of a truth , that I stand in greater fear of fortune at this present , then I did before the battel , for she careth not so much to overtake the Conquered , as to overcome the Conqueror . Truly , Satan will be industrious to destroy both the conquered utterly , and to overcome the Conquerour . Watch thy senses ; These are the Cinque-ports , as one calls them , of the Isle of man , which if not well garrisoned , will let in strangers and disturbers of our peace . At these Havens much of Satans lading is taken in . Io● made a Covenant with his eyes , he would not suffer them to gad and gaze at random , lest they should return defiled . Democritus walking abroad , would shut his eyes , lest by their wandring , his mind should be taken off from the contemplation of honest things . Acteon became , as the Poet fancieth , meat for his Dogs , by suffering his eyes to wander . Lusting hath often been the issue of looking , witness Iosephs Mistriss , David , Achan , the Israelites , Numb . 15. 39. Stratonice took Mithridates with a Song . The heart hath often been angled into sin by the ear , and led into temptation by the eye● therefore Cassian relates that to preserve the cleanness of the heart , the Egyptian Masters taught that men must be Surdi , Caeci , Muti ; Deaf , Blind , and Dumb. If those out-works be well guarded , the Royal Fort is in the less hazard . Shut up the five windows ( i. e. guard the five senses ) that the whole house may be full of light , according to the Arabian Proverb . Watch your affections ; If those waves be tempestuous , they will cast up much foam and froth , mire and dirt . He had need to make a strong wall , that would keep these raging waters within their bounds . Watch your Tongues ; The Sea hath not more need of banks to keep it in , then the tongue of a bridle ; The tongue is compared to a Sword , to a Razor , both which are keen weapons , and must be handled warily , Psa. 39. 1 , 2. I said , I will take heed to my ways , that I offend not with my tongue ; I will keep my mouth with a Bridle , whilst the wicked are before me . Watch your hearts ; The heart is the Forge , the spring of life , and a wound there is mortal . Keep thy heart with all diligence ( super omnem custodiam , above all keeping , Jun. ) out of it are the issues of life . Watch over all things , watch in all things ; This voice saith Bucer , should always sound in our ears , Watch , Watch. How frequent is Christ in his Precepts to this duty ? as knowing fully the weight and concernment of it ; Watch ye therefore , for ye know neither the day nor the hour when the Son of man cometh . Watch and Pray , lest ye enter into temptation . What I say unto you , I say unto all , Watch. And he is as frequent in his promises to it , Blessed is that servant , whom his Lord , when he cometh shall find watching ; Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his Garments ; and if he shall come in the second or third watch , and find him so , blessed is he , Luk. 12. 37 , 38 , 43. Surely , Blessedness is worthy our waking ; Bliss is worth keeping our eyes open a few days for . Apollonius , held in his time for an Oracle , coming early in the morning to Vespasians gate , and finding him ( then a private person ) up and at study , he said to his Companion , This man is worthy to raign and command an Empire , which afterwards came to pass ; He that watcheth with Christ the short hour of this life , shall be counted worthy to raign with him in his Kingdom for ever . Sion , which is frequently put for the Church of God , signifieth a Watch-Tower , because from that hill , a man might see the Holy Land , and all the Countries thereabout , but the spiritual signification of it may be this ; that all the members of Gods Church must be like Souldiers in a watch-tower , observing who commeth in and who goeth out , lest Traytors should steal into the fort of the heart undiscovered . Fifthly , If thou wouldst exercise thy self to godliness , Think often of thy dying day , and of what price and value godliness will be to thee at such a time ; There are few thoughts more terrible or more profitable then of death . Hence it is , that God commands man so often to remember his latter end , because the meditation of it is so gainful to him . The first day man was made , he was called to think of his last day ; God minded him of death in the Tree of Knowledge , and the threatning annexed to the Prohibition , that he might thereby keep him from sin . Satan could not prevail with Eve , to taste of that killing fruit , till he had prevailed with her to distrust that threatning of death , ye shall not surely dye , Gen. 3. 4. After the fall , God reneweth this meditation , by turning the conditional , into an absolute commination ; Dust thou art , and to Dust thou shalt return ; and though the Holy Ghost omitteth many particulars about Gods carriage with the long-lived Patriarchs , and their holy conversation before him , yet he is exact in registring their deaths ; And he died , and he died , of every one , Gen. 5. to quicken us to fear God , because we are but dying frail men . There is hardly any thing about which we deal , but God gives us by it a Memento of Death . Our Cloaths are all fetcht out of Deaths wardrobe , our food out of deaths shambles ; The Sun is an emblem of lifes posting , the night of the chambers of darkness ; the year hath its autumn , the day its night . Our candles should mind us of the wasting of our days , the evening of the shadow of death ; our undressing , of our putting off our earthly tabernacles , and our lying down in our beds , of our lying down in our graves . If thou wouldst make Religion thy business and main work , think often and seriously of thy death and departure of this world ; He that guides and steers the ship aright , sits in the stern or hinder● most part of it ; He that would order his works , his way , according to God , must be frequent in the meditation of his end ; The end of his days , must be at the end of all his thoughts . Zeno Cittiaeus , consulted with the Oracle , how he might live well , and received this answer , If he would be of the same colour with the dead . Reader , if thou wouldst live much and well , get thy heart as much affected with godliness , in health , as it will be in sickness ; Have the same thoughts of it , the same seriousness about it , the very same carriage towards it , whilst the world salutes thee with its smiling face , and bewitching features , which thou wilt wish thou hadst had , when thou shalt come to take thy leave of it , and lye upon thy dying bed . Be of the same colour with the dead . O what thoughts have the dead of godliness , and of making it ones business ! The dead in Christ , and the dead out of Christ , have both other manner of thoughts of Religion , and making it ones occupation , then thou canst possibly imagine . Those who while they live delay repentance , and dally about Religion , minding it as if they minded it not , who neither in their dealings with men , nor duties towards God , nor in their relations nor vocations , make it their business , but mispend their precious time , misimploy their weighty talents , neglect God and their eternal welfares , as if they had not been made to mind either ; when they come to dye and perceive in good earnest , that that surly Serjeant Death , will not be denyed , but away they must go into the other world , and fare well or ill for ever , according as their hearts and lives have been , godly or ungodly , good or bad , here good Lord , what thoughts have they then of godliness ? How hearty are their wishes , that they had made it their business ? What Worlds would they give that Religion had been their principal work ? What prayers and tears do they poure out for a few days to mind it in ? What sighs , and sobs , and groans , that they have neglected it so long ? What purposes do they take up , what promises do they make , if God spare them , to follow hard after holiness , and make it their onely business ? A Philosopher asking Euchrites , which of the two he had rather be , Craesus , one of the richest and most vicious in the world , or , Socrates , one of the poorest and most vertuous ; Eucrites answered , Craesus vivens , & Socrates moriens , Craesus while he lived , and Socrates when he dyed . The Cuckoe when wearing away , changeth her noat . The worst men when they come to dye , alter and change exceedingly . It is worthy our observation , that those who are greatest strangers to death , are most familiar with the works of darkness . No place abounds more in Wolves ( no person in wickedness ) then where this Mastiff is wanting ; Jerusalem hath greivously sinned , her filthiness is in her skirts , she remembreth not her last end , therefore she came down wonderfully , 1 Lamen . 8. 9. Jerusalem hath greivously sinned ; hath sinned sin , Heb. Hath committed a great or greivous sin , so the Chaldee . Behold here the colour of her sin , is was not of an ordinary dye , but of a black , a bloody , an heinous nature ; Her filthiness is in her skirts ; Lo here , her carriage after her sinning ; she made of it an open shew , so far was she from shame . It is a term taken from prostituted Strumpets , or monstrous women , saith Diodat . The outward looks of the former , bewray her inward lusts , and the marks of the latters defilement are visible on her garment ; thus the shew of Ierusalems countenance , did publiquely evidence her crime . She did as clearly by her skirts proclaim her filth , as if it had been written on her face , and engraven on her forehead ; Here was impiety in her practice , Ierusalem hath greivously sinned ; and impudency to purpose , Her filthiness is in her skirts ; But what dust was that which bred such vermine ? what polluted seed was that which begat such a poisonous serpent . Reader , if thou wouldst know the Mother which brought forth , and bred up this ugly Monster , She remembreth not her last end , therefore she came down mightily . It was her forgetfulness of death , which nourished and cherished her wicked deeds ; They who mind not their reckoning , care not how much they riot and revel . They who put far away the evil day , cause the seat of violence to come near , Amos 6. 3. The further we drive death from our thoughts , the nearer we draw to sin . They who fancy their foe to be very far off , will not prepare and make ready to fight . Men that are young , do not consider , that the old Ass often carrieth the skin of the young to the Market ; that death comes like a Thunderbolt , and Lightning , and blasteth the green corn , and consumeth the strongest buildings ; if they did , they would flee youthful lusts . He who seeth death at his door , will be most diligent about his duty ; A serious consideration of the death of the body , will be a soveraign , though a sharp medicine to kill the body of death . The Naturalists tell us , that the ashes of a Viper , applied to the part which is stung , draweth the venome out of it . They who look on themselves as Pilgrims and strangers , will abstain from fleshly lusts , which war against the soul , 1 Pet. 1. 17. Who would make his Belly , his Gut , his God , who confidereth that every meal may be his last , or that thinketh , his dainty diet , his fine fare , doth but provide a greater feast for wormes ? Who would give way to sinful wantons , who beleiveth that whilst he is unloading his lust , God may put a period to his life ? He that is high in conceit of himself , little dreameth how low he must shortly be laid ; Who would be proud of that body which shall ere long see corruption , become such a noysom loathsom carcass , that the nearest and dearest relations will not endure the sight or sent of it ? He who loveth the world inordinately , forgetteth that he may leave it suddenly , and must leave it certainly ; Would Haman have bragged so much of Hesters banquet , if he had known that his own corps should be served in for the last course ? Would the Israelites have tempted God for meat , if they had thought that death should have been their sauce ? Would Achan have coveted the golden wedge , if he had mused of his so sudden departure into the other world ? Without question , he would have forborn the Babylonish garment , if he had seen death at his back , so ready to strip him naked . Had the rich fool thought that his bed should that night have proved his grave , he would never in the day have prided himself in his goods . Who would not at Gods call vilifie that flesh which will be ere long a lump of filth ; and be choice of that soul which lives for a more high and heavenly flight ! It is reported of the Brachmans , that they use no cloaths but Bear-skins , no houses but Caves , no food but such as nature dresseth ; When Alexander came to them in his travails , he asked them the reason of this severe kind of living ; They answered him , We know we shall dye ; whether to day or to morrow we know not ; and therefore why should we take care , either for power to govern others , or for riches to live in pleasures , or for honour to be esteemed of ? None are so loose to the world ( that great hinderance of holiness ) as they who ponder they must leave it . Travellers who look on themselves near their journeys end , care not to burden themselves with much baggage ; Their moderation will be known to all men , who believe , The Lord is at hand . Those who are most mindful of their deaths , are most faithful in their lives ; Iob was eminent in grace , because Iob was daily conversing with his grave ; All the days of his appointed time , he waited till his change came , Job 14. 14. That servant will follow his work most and best , who expecteth his Masters coming every moment . It is said of the Kite , that by the turning of his tail , he directs and winds about his whole body ; The same is reported of the Glede or Puttock . Fish also , say Naturalists , turn and wind about by the fins in their Tails . Reader , could I but prevail with thee to mind the end of thy life , it would help thee very much to order thy conversation aright ; O ( said God ) that my people were wise , then would they consider their latter end , Deut. 32. 29. The Thebans made a Law , that no man should build an house for himself to dwell in , before he had made his grave . Several of the Philosophers had their graves made before their doors , that when ever they went abroad they might remember their deaths ; If thou wouldst but in thy out-goings and in-comings , behold the place of thy burial , I doubt not but thou wilt be watchful over all thy ways . When thou art in the midst of thy delights ( as Ioseph of Aritmathea ) have thy tomb in thy garden , and it may prevent thy surfeiting by those dainties ; When thou sittest at Table , let the first dish set before thee be ( according to Prester Iohns custom ) a deaths-head , and then with what fear wilt thou feed , how thankfully wilt thou receive the creatures , even as through the beloved Son ? how soberly wilt thou use them , even as in Gods sight ? If God raise thee to the height of prosperity , and some friend do but ( as Moses and Elias to Christ , when his Face did shine as the Sun , and his Raiment was as white as Snow , Luk. 9. 30 , 31. ) talk to thee of thy decease , which thou must shortly accomplish , it will abate thy love to the worlds withering vanities , and quicken thine endeavours after the eternal weight of glory . If God cast thee into great adversity , and thou dost but consider thy time here is but short , and therefore thy troubles cannot be long , this will make thee contented in the saddest condition . When thou beholdest thy relations , and fore-thinkest that thine eternal separation from them is at hand , and that within a few days thou shalt never have another opportunity to help them heaven-ward , how will it stir thee up to do them all the good thou canst now , both by thy Precepts , Pattern , and Prayers ? If when thou attendest on publique Ordinances , thou wilt but cast thine eye on the Graves in the Church-yard , as thou passest along , and meditate thus , Within a little time I must be laid in the dust , when I shall hear no more , pray no more , enjoy a Sabbath no more , when I shall never , never , more have a tender of a Saviour , never more have a season to beg mercy in for my poor soul. After such awakening thoughts , with what attention wouldst thou hear ? with what affections wouldst thou pray ? with what intention and devotion ? with what seriousness and uprightness wouldst thou perform every duty ? Some say that nothing in this world is so strong as death , because it subdueth the mighty , it conquereth the greatest conquerours , it overcometh all . Sure I am , that death hath great force and power over mens souls , as well as over their bodies . The thought of it hath raised some to a spiritual life . The consideration of death hath also caused others to live much in a little space ; when they have s●en the ●un of their lives near setting , and the night of their deaths approaching , they have in the day followed their work with the greater diligence ; None will work so hard as they who think themselves near their everlasting homes . There were two Emperors , Adrian and Charles the fifth , that in their life time caused their Coffins to be carried before them , and their exequies to be solemnly celebrated , to this end possibly that considering they were but men , dying men , they might thence be righteous in their government , and virtuous in their actions . It is reported of Turannius , that after he was ninety years old , he got leave of Caesar to retire himself from Court , and the old man would needs be laid in his bed , as one that had breathed out his last , and all his Family must bewail his death . Friend , do thou in earnest , what he did in jest ; Suppose thou wert this day to bid adiew to thy Friends , Relations , Honours , and Possessions , and to travail into the unknown other world , to take thy leave of hours , and days , and months , and years , and time , and to sail into the boundless Ocean of Eternity ; Suppose thou sawest death creep in at thy Chamber window , come up to thy Bed-side , draw the Curtain , take thee by the hand , and tell thee that he is come from the Infinite Almighty , jealous , most holy God , to fetch thee immediately into his presence , there to answer for all thy thoughts , words , and deeds , and to receive either matchless and endless pain , or unchangeable and unconceiveable pleasures , according as thy practices have been ; What wouldst thou think at such a time of godliness ? Good Lord , what a price wouldst thou set upon it , what wouldst thou not do or give for it ! Then godliness will be godliness indeed , as little and as lightly as thou settest by it now . And why is it not worth as much now ? Dost thou not see death like a Mole digging thy grave under thee ? Dost thou not feel that worm within thee , which will ere long consume thee ? Beleive it , thy death may be nearer then thou dreamest , the glass of thy life may be almost out , though thou thinkest it s but new turned ; The Murdering-peice which kills thee , parting thy soul and body , may be discharged with white powder , give thee no warning at all . The next Arrow which is shot may hit thee ; The next time the Bell goes , may be to tell others that thou art dead ; The next time the Earth is opened , may be to receive thy body in ; Thou seest some fall on thy right hand , some on thy left hand , some of thy very age , and of greater strength and health , and canst thou esteem thy self shot-free ! Is not every carcass a cryer , and every Tomb a teacher , calling upon thee to number thy days , and apply thine heart unto wisdom ? Silly man is like the foolish Chicken ; though the Kite comes and takes away many of their fellows , yet the rest continue pecking the ground , never heeding their owner , nor minding their shelter . Death comes and snatcheth away one man here , a second there ; one before them , another behind them , and they are killed with death , undone for ever , Rev. 2. 23. yet they who survive , take no warning , but persist in their wicked and ungodly ways ; They are destroyed from morning to evening , they perish for ever , without any regarding it . Doth not their excellency which is in them go away , they dye even without wisdom , Job 4.20 , 21. It is the saying of an Heathen ; That it is impossible for a man to live the present day well , who doth not purpose to live it as his last . I may say to thee , Friend , It is impossible for thee to live the present day ill , if thou wilt but live it as thy last day . If thou dost but consider , Well , this place may be the last place I shall come into , shall I pollute it with sin ? or shall I not rather perfume it with sanctity ? This expression may be the last that ever I shall speak , shall it ●e tainted with vice , or shall it not rather be seasoned with grace ? This action may be the last that ever I shall do , and shall it be a deed of darkness , or shall it not rather be a work of the day , of the light ? This Sermon may be the last that ever I shall hear , and shall I now be heedless ? After this I shall never more have a call from Christ , and ●hall I now be careless ? This Prayer may be the last Prayer that ever I shall poure out to God ; if God deny me now , I am damned and undone for ever , and shall not my head , and heart , and will , and mind , and all be working , that it may be a prosperous , a prevalent prayer ? This Sabbath may be the last Sabbath that ever I shall sanctifie ; I may from henceforth and for ever be deprived of all such opportunities of getting and increasing grace , of serving and honouring my Saviour , and of working out my own salvation ; If I sow not now good seed , I must never expect an happy harvest . If I buy not now , the market will be quickly over . Shall I lose any precious minute of this holy day ? Is it time now to trifle about the affairs of my soul and eternity ? Well , I will through Christ , take heed how I hear ; I will hear in hearing , I will pray in praying , I will hear , and hearken , cry and call , with all my heart , and strength , and soul , and mind , that if it be possible , the Lord may not leave me without a blessing . When the Oratour thinketh he is at the close of his Oration , then he useth his chiefest Art and Rhetorick , to move his Auditors affections , he would have his last part his best part . O Reader , if thou wilt but often wind up this weight of thine approaching death , it would keep thy soul in a quick spiritual , and regular motion at all times . As ashes preserve fire , and keep coals from going out ; so the thought that we shall ere long be turned into ashes , will preserve the fire of grace alive , and in action . Sixthly , If thou wouldst exercise thy self to godliness , Mind a daily performance of sacred duties ; He that hath nothing of his own , whereupon to live , must be frequently fetching in provision from the Shops or Market , where it is to be had . The Christians life is maintained , not by himself , but by what he receiveth from God ; Not that we are sufficient of our selves ; our sufficiency of God ; therefore there is a necessity of daily converse with God by holy Ordinances , and of waiting at his gate , as the beggar who hath neither a bit of bread , nor a penny to buy any , at the rich mans door for supply . Our spiritual strength is like Israels Manna , rained down daily ; we are kept by a divine power , and allowed but from hand to mouth , that we might continually depend on , and resort to the Lord Jesus for our allowance . Paul speaks in some places of his great disbursements , how much he laid out for God and his people , that he laboured more then all the Apostles ; but you must think , Whence had Paul such a spiritual stock , that he was able to outvy all others in his expences ! he tells you , that the Son of God kept house for him , and that he was the Steward to spend of his treasure , and thence his disbursements were so large ; I live , yet not I , but Christ liveth in me , and the life that I live in the flesh , is by the faith of the Son of God , Gal. 2. 20. As the Plant Mistel , having no root of its own , both grows and lives in the stock or body of the Oak ; So the Apostle having no root of his own , did live and grow in Christ. As if he had said , I live , I keep a noble house , am given to Hospitality above many , in labours more abundant , in watchings , in fastings more frequent , in perils , and dangers , and deaths often ; but the truth is , I do all this at anothers cost and charge , not at mine own , I am beholden to Christ for strength to do and suffer , whatsoever I am called to . He carrieth the purse for me , and gives out to me according to my necessities . I have not a farthing of my own , wherewith to buy the least morsel . I can do noth●ng of my self , but I can do all things through Christ strengthning me . Man is a weak creature , and so far from runing , that he is not able to creep in the way of Gods commandements , unless Christ strengthen him ; Without me , ye can do nothing , Joh. 13. 3. If Christ with-draw himself as the Sun , he carrieth the light of holiness along with him ; The easiest duty is too hard , and the weakest enemy too strong for us , unless Christ assist us . 'T is upon his wings alone that we can mount to Heaven , in an Ordinance , and through his power , that we do improve any Providence . It is not the standing Army of habitual grace , that will make the Christian a Conquerour , he must daily be recruted with Auxilaries from Heaven . The watch-man doth not onely make the watch , and set every wheel in its right place , but he or some other must wind it up daily , or it will stand still . Exerci●ing grace is as requisite to our spiritual motion , as habitual grace to our spiritual being . The Razor , though it be never so sharp or keen at first , if it be used , must be often at the Whetstone , or it will grow dull . The Wife that hath frequent occasions for money , for provision for her Self , and Children , and Servants , and for Cloaths and all Family necessaries , and not a penny but what comes out of her Husbands purse , and he fearing she should be prodigal , lets her have money by driplets , but from hand to mouth , must be always going or sending to him , or otherwise starve . The Shopkeeper that drives a great trade in the Country , must go often to London , or abroad in other parts , to fetch in commodities . The Israelites in the Wilderness were maintained for water by the Rock . They drank of the Rock that followed them , and that Rock was Christ. The Rock followed them , they did not only drink of it at first , but had a constant mornings draught , and drank of it often in the day , it ran i● a stream after them , and every day supplied them . It s no marvail the Apostle commandeth us , Pray continually , Pray without ceasing , Pray evermore , when he knew all our living was got by begging , that all our supplies must be from above , and we must expect nothing without asking ; Ordinances are the food of the soul. As Cows afford us both Milk and Beef ; so Ordinances are Milk to Babes , and Meat for strong Men. Our God is the Fountain of Spiritual , as well as of natural life . It s said most truly , in respect of a Natural life , In him ( meaning God ) we live , and move , and have our beings , Act. 17. 28. We live ; Now as God hath made the heart the spring of natural life , and hath drawn from thence a multitude of arteries , to carry the vital spirits through the whole body , and disperse life through every part of it . So he hath made the Mediatour , the spring of spiritual life , and his Ordinances the Arteries , to convey life to every part of the soul. In whom we move ; As God hath from the head derived manifold sinews , to carry out thence the animal spirits , and with them the faculty both of sense and motion over all . So the Lord , from Jesus Christ the Churches head , through the sinews of sacred duties , conveyeth spiritual sense and motion to all his members . And have our being ; To preserve our being , he hath made the Liver a fountain of blood , and from thence drawn the Veins to convey it over the body , to the nourishment of the whole ; Ordinances are those Veins which convey and disperse gracious spirits over the whole new man ; With him is the well of life , Psa. 36. Sacred duties are as needful every day for our souls , as food and raiment for our bodies . The body must continually be repaired with nourishment , because it is continually consumed by our natural heat ; Yesterdays bread will not keep the laborer to day in strength and vigor to go through with his work ; he must have new diet , or he cannot hold out . Friend , I must bespeak thee , as the Angel to Elijah , Vp and eat , for the journey is too great for thee ; Vp and be doing in Prayer , and Scripture , and holy Ordinances , that thou mayst feed and receive spiritual nourishment ; for otherwise the business of exercising thy self to godliness , the duties required of thee to be performed , the graces to be exercised , the temptations to be resisted , the deadly enemies to be conquered , will be too hard for thee , the journey will be too great for thee ; The Amalekite by long fasting , grew faint and unable to go his journey . If the bringing stream be not as large as the running stream , the bottom will quickly be without water . The greatest stock will lesson apace , if a man spend daily on it , though but in a small quantity , if he hath no way of getting . Those that are under-kept , and called to hard labour , can never perform what is required of them . The spirits daily are decaying , and if not daily renewed by proper nourishment , we perish . The Vessels that are always leaking , must stand constantly under the conduit to get what they lose . When Ionathan through fasting became faint , He tasted a little honey and his eyes were enlightened ; How much more , said he , if happily the people had eaten liberally of the spoil of their enemies which they found ? for had there not been now a much greater slaughter among the Philistines , 1 Sam. 14. 29 , 30. The more a Christian mindeth Divine Ordinances , in obedience to Gods precept , and affiance on Gods promise , the more strength he shall receive to conquer his spiritual adversaries , and to discharge the several duties incumbent on him . The truth is , our religious life , our heavenly flame is like a straw fire to mault , which must constantly be tended and fed with fuel , or it will go out . There is no● more need of the Shepherds constant and daily tending his weak sheep in the summer season● then of the Saints daily regarding his precious soul. As trees being well ordered with skill and diligence , they become abundantly fruitful , but being left to themselves , without culture and care they bring forth little or no fruit . So Christians by a diligent use of means abound in the fruits of righteousness , but neglecting ordinances they decline and decay . The heart of man is , like Reuben , unstable 〈◊〉 water , and is stablished with grace ( Heb. 10. ) which cannot be expected , but through the means of grace . The Viol that with every change of weather is apt to be out of tune , must be constantly hung within sent of the fire . Whilst we are in the care of this world , we are full of damps , and therefore need all means of quickening . Our hearts are like Clocks , twice a day at least , the Plummets must be pulled up , or their motion and course will be hindered . Indeed as God could preserve our bodies without food or any sustenance , by his omnipotent power , as he did Moses and Elijah forty days together , but he will not where he affordeth ordinary means ; So he could preserve our souls in life without ordinances , but he will not , where his providence giveth us opportunity to enjoy them . Reader , I must say to thee , as Iacob to the Patriarchs , Behold I have heard that there is Corn in Egypt , get you down thither and buy for us , that we may live and not dye . Behold thou hast heard there is spiritual food in Heaven ; the Son of Ioseph hath his granaries full of Corn , go thou thither daily by sacred duties , that thy soul may live and not dye . There is a sensible decay of the strength in Husbandmen ( whose work is great ) upon one days abstinence . If tradesmen grow careless of their business , and neglect their Shops , they quickly decay in their estates . When Christians grow careless of duties , and neglect their Closets , t is no wonder that they decline in their spiritual stocks . When the Moon hath her open side downward , she decreaseth , but when her open side is upwards towards Heaven , she increaseth in light . There is no growing in grace and holiness , but by conversing with Heaven . Grace , like Armour , may easily be kept bright , if it be daily used , but if it hang by the wall , it will quickly rust , and cost much time and pains to scoure . Much fasting takes away the stomach ; and omission of Closet duties at one time , makes a man more backward to them , and dead about them another time . When a Scholar hath plaid the Truant one day , its difficult to bring him to School the next day ; Fear and Shame both keep him back , when he comes thither he is the more untoward about his book . Our deceitful hearts after they have discontinued holy exercises , and are broken loose , are like horses gotten out of their bounds , not found or brought back without much trouble . When an instrument is daily plaid on , it s kept in order , but if it be but a while neglected and cast into a corner , the strings are apt to break , the frets to crack , the bridge to flye off , and no small trouble and stir is requisite to bring it into order again . We read of the Iews daily sacrifice , which was Morning and Evening , Exod. 29. 38. and 30. 7 , 8. David was for Morning and Evening● , and Noon-tide , Psa. 55. 17. Daniel was three times a day upon his knees , Dan. 6. 10. In the Morning the Saints were at their devotion , which is thought to be the third hour , when the Holy Ghost descended on the Apostles , Act. 2. 15. This is deemed to be our ninth hour . The midle or mid day prayer was termed the sixth hour , which is our twelfth , Ioh. 4. 6. At this time Peter went up to the house top to pray , Act. 10. 9. The evening Prayer was at the ninth hour , which is our three a clock in the After-noon ; Now Peter and John went up together into the Temple at the hour of prayer , being the ninth hour , Act. 3. 1. So Cornelius , Act. 10. 30. At the ninth hour I prayed in my house . Some think the Primitive Christians had these three hours in such regard and use , that thence they were termed Canonical hours . David tells us , Seven times a day do I praise thee , because of thy righteous judgements , Psa. 119. 164. The more frequent a Christian is at holy duties ( supposing he doth not make the commands of God to interfere , and neglect his calling and family , when his presence is required in them ) the more thriving he shall be in his spiritual trade . The oftener we go to the Fountain or River , the more water we bring thence . As Runners in a Race do daily diet their bodies , and use exercise to keep themselves in breath , that they may be more able and active when they run for the wager , whereas if they should neglect it , they would grow pursie and shortwinded , and unlikely to hold out , when they run for the Garland ; So Christians who would hold out to the end , and so run as to obtain , must be daily feeding and dieting their souls , and renewing their strength by these means which God hath appointed . As the Sun is the cause of life , and groweth in vegetables , so is the Son of God the efficient cause of motion and growth in Christians ; where the Son is present in any soul , there is spiritual mo●ion and growth budding , and blossoming , and bearing fruit , but when the Sun with-holds and with-draws , when this Sun departs , the soul is at a stand ; Now Ordinances are the means whereby the Mediatour conveys heat and life , and growth to men . CHAP. XI . Means whereby Christians may exercise themselves to Godliness ; Frequent Meditation of the day of judgement ; A daily Examination of our hearts ; Avoiding the Occasions and Suppressing the beginnings of Sin. SEvently , If thou wouldst exercise thy self to Godliness , Meditate much upon the day of Iudgement . They will prepare themselves best to the battel , who always hear the sound of the last trump in their ears . Zisea that valiant Captain of the Bohemians , commanded his Country-men to flea off his skin ( when he was dead ) and to make a Drum of it . Which use ( saith he ) when ye go to battel , and the sound of it will drive away the Hungarians or any of your enemies . Could the Christian , but with Ierom , hear the sound of the last trumpet in his ears at all times , it would encourage him in his spiritual warfare , and enable him to fight manfully , and to cause the enemies of his salvation to flee before him . He who can frequently by faith view the Judge sitting on his Throne of Glory , hear the last trumpet sounding : behold the dead raised , the books opened , the godly examined by the Covenant of grace , all their duties , graces , services , sufferings , publiquely declared , approved , and rewarded , the wicked tried by the Law of works , all their natural defilements , actual transgressions , in thought , word and deed , which ever they were guilty of , with their crimson bloody circumstances , openly revealed , their persons righteously sentenced to the vengeance of the eternal fire , and that sentence speedily without the least favour or delay executed on them , will surely loath sin , as that which brings him certain shame and torment , and follow after holiness , which will be his undoubted credit and comfort at that day . The Apostle writing to the Iews concerning the terror of that day , how the Heavens must pass away with a great noise , and the Elements melt with fervent heat , the earth also and the works therein burnt up , makes this use of it , Seeing then that all those things shall be dissolved ; What manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness ? And again , Wherefore beloved , seeing ye look for these things , be diligent , that ye may be found of him in peace , without spot , and blameness . He had need to be exact in his conversation , who must undergo so strict an examination . Well may the time of judgement be called a day , for it will declare and manifest the worth of grace and holiness , which in the night of this life is not observed . Ah , who can conceive the value which the vilest wretch on earth will put upon holiness at that day ! then grace will be grace indeed , and godliness will be godliness indeed . Then they who mock at Saints for their purity and strictness , and look upon Sanctity but as Hypocrisie , and the acting of a part to cozen the world with , and think it is enough to put God off with a few prayers now and then , when their pastimes and lusts will give them leave , will call to beleivers as the foolish to the wise Virgins , Give us of your oyl , for our lamps are gone out ; then the graceless Princes and Potentates of the world will throw their Crowns and Diadems at the feet of the meanest Christian , for a dram of his grace and holiness . The Apostle speaking of that day , puts the question , Where shall the sinner and ungodly appear ? 1 Pet. 4. 18. Now indeed , those that ●coff and deride and scorn at holiness , and holy ones , may appear before great men in many parts of the world with praise and applause ; Now , they may appear in the Country , and be respected of their Drunken , Atheistical , Brutish Neighbours , and probably be the more honoured for their opposition to the Spirit of grace and holiness ; but then , Where will the sinner and ungodly appear ? Not in Heaven , for that is no Stie for Swine , no Kennel for Dogs , no Gaol for Malefactours , no place for such unholy God-provoking persons ; Into it can in no wise enter that which is defiled or unclean . Such a Pallace is not fit for Beasts ; Snakes , and Serpents , and Adders are more fit for the bosome and embraces of men , then such men for the bosome and embraces of God. Heaven cast out wicked Angels , and will not take in wicked Men ; Where shall they then appear ? Not on Earth , for that will be burnt up with fire ; Their Houses and places must know them no more for ever . The earth groaned under their weight whilst it bare them , but now is eased of such loads , and shall not be pestered with such Plagues again . But where shall they appear ? Not before Christ the Iudge with any comfort , for him they have derided , buffeted , crucified , they have rejected his Laws , trampled on his blood , told him to his face , that they will not have him to raign over them . But where will they appear ? Not before the Saints , for they have maligned , oppressed , imprisoned , persecuted them as a company of Cheats , and Hypocrites . O where shall the sinner and ungodly appear ? 1. Consider , The holiness of the Iudge ; He is the holy Iesus . He loveth righteousness , and hateth iniquity , Psa. 45. What will the ungodly sinner do , when he shall be judged by the holy Saviour ? Who can stand before this holy God ? 1 Sam. 60. 20. His eyes are like a flame of fire , and so he knoweth the most secret works of darkness . His Law is very pure , and observeth and condemneth the least spots , the least defilement , and how will unclean ones endure to be judged for their everlasting lives and deaths , by such a Law ? His throne is a white throne ; and how will the black sinner do to stand before this white throne ? Reader , Thou hadst need to be a faithful and loyal subject , if thou wouldst then be owned and acknowledged by thy Soveraign . How exact should he be in his life , who must be tried by so holy a Law ? If thou callest him Father , who without respect of persons , will judge every man according to his works , pass the time of thy sojourning here in fear , 1 Pet. 1. 17. 2. Consider , The strictness of his proceedings ; Every thought , word , and action shall be revealed , examined , and weighed in the ballance of the sanctuary ; There is nothing hid that shall not be revealed , nor secret that shall not be made known . The thoughts of thy heart shall then be as visible as the features of thy face . When God shall judge the secrets of mens hearts by my Gospel , Rom. 2● 16. All thy words will then be as audible as if thou hadst had a voice to reach every child of Adam , both alive and dead ; Verily I say unto you , that of every idle word , ye shall give an account at the day of Christ , Mat. 12. 36. Every action of thine will then be legible , not onely to God , as it is at this day , but also to Angels and Men ; We must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ , to give an account of all things done in the body , whether they be good , or whether they be evil ; 2 Cor. 5. 10. All the works of darkness will then be brought to light ; We must all appear , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not onely be present in person , and not by a proxy , but be laid open and manifest , be transparent , so the word signifieth , to give an account of every thing done , &c. to render a reason of every individual thought , word , and deed ; what was the principle from which we acted , what was the rule by which we acted , what was the end for which we acted . When Benjamins sack was opened , the silver cup appeared . On that Fair-day , all mens packs will be opened , and then it will be known what ware they carry about with them . Hence some have conjectured that it will not be a short time , nor the judgement soon passed over . It is called a day , but not in relation to our natural , or artificial days , for Christ judging as man in his humane nature , by his divine power , will probably employ a far greater time in searching into , and publiquely revealing every mans condition and conversation . Though I am not of their opinions , who say , it will be precisely a thousand years● because it s said , A thousand years are in thy sight but as one day ; Yet I judge it to be taken indefinitely , and as A●stin saith , That the day of judgement shall begin is certain ; but when it shall end is uncertain . I find two Divines , eminent both for grace and learning in their generations , speaking ; One saith , I humbly conceive that the day of judgement shall not be passed over in an instant , but shall be of long continuance ; sor if Christ should judge onely as God , he could dispatch it in a moment , but he judging as man , it must be after the manner of men , that the creature may understand , admire , and approve what is done . The other saith , It must take up some large quantity of time , to manifest all the secret sins of men , and therefore it may be made evident , both from Scripture and reason , that the day of Christs kingly office , in judging the world , shall last happily longer then the day of Christs private administration , now in governing the world . 3. Consider , The weight of the sentence ; It s called the eternal judgement , because the sentence then pronounced , shall never be reversed , but stand for ever . In this world God judgeth men , sometimes mediately , sometimes immediately , which is the first judgement , from which men may appeal by repentance to his mercy-seat ; but this the last judgement , once for all , once for ever , in which men receive their final , their eternal doom , Ioh. 11. 24. Here Iacob appeals from Laban , to an higher tribunal , Gen. 31. 53. And David from Saul , to the King of Kings ; The Lord judge between me and t●ee , 1 Sam. 24. 12. Psa. 17. 2. And Paul appeals from Festus to Caesar , I stand at Caesars judgement seat , Act. 25. 10. But then there can be no appeal to an higher Court , no writ of error can be brought , no arrest of judgement , no second hearing obtained ; The sinner condemned to eternal death then , is gone for ever ; no pardon , no , not so much as a Reprieve can be procured for one hour . The Saint absolved and declared an heir of eternal life , is blessed for ever , he shall be beyond all fear , all doubts in himself , above all shot , all opposition from others ; In this life , Niniveh was threatned , Niniveh repented , and Niniveh was ●pared ; the sentence pronounced was not executed , at least it was respited ; but then every sinner will repent , weep and wail , but repentance will be hid from the eyes of the Judge , all their tears will be in vain ; when they are cast , then they are gone for ever . To provoke thee to holiness , 4. Consider , The felicity of the godly at that day ; O , with what joy will they lift up their heads , when that day of their redemption is come ! This life is the day of their oppression and persecution , but that day will be the day of their redemption . At this day they are troubled and vexed with a tempting Devil , and deceitful hearts , and false , proud , unbeleiving flesh ; but that will be the day of their redemption from them all . No wonder they love the appearing of Christ , and look and long for his appearing , when it will be the day of their redemption , and time of their refreshing ●rom the presence of the Lord. When thousands and millions shall howl and lament ; When the Oratour will be silenced , and have his mouth stopped ; When the Souldier that durst venture into the mouth of the Cannon , and dare death it self , shall play the Coward , and seek for any hole to hide himself in ; when the Captains , and Kings , and Nobles , shall call to the Rocks to fall on them , and the Mountains to cover them , from the presence of the Lord , and the wrath of the Lamb , even then the godly shall sing and rejoyce . 1. Their godliness will then be mentioned to their eternal honour ; As God hath a bag for mens sins , ( Thou sealest up mine iniquities in a bag ) so he hath a book for their services ; A book of remembrance was written before him , for them that feared the Lord , and thought upon his name . Then all their prayers , and tears , their watchings , fastings , faith , love , zeal , patience , almes , imprisonment , loss of goods , name , liberty , life for Christ and the Gospel , will be manifested to their honour , and praise , and glory , at the coming of Christ , 1 Pet. 1. 7. Mat. 25. 34 , 53. 2. Their names will be then vindicated ; With the resurrection of bodies , there shall also be a resurrection of names . Now indeed , the throats of wicked men are open Sepulchres , wherein the credit of the godly is buried . Ioseph is an Adulterer , Nehemiah a Traytour , Ieremiah a Rebel against the King , Paul a mover of sedition , a pestilent fellow , and one that turned Christian for spite , because the High Priest would not give him his Daughter in Marriage ; but when the Sea , and Death , and Hell , shall give up their dead , then shall the throats , the open Sepulchres of wicked men , give up the names of the godly ; Then their righteousness shall be cleared as the Sun , and their uprightness as the noon day . 3. Their persons shall be then publiquely acquitted ; They shall be cleared by publique proclamation , before God , Angels , and Men. Hence it 's said , Their sins shall be blotted out , when the time of refreshment shall come from the presence of the Lord. The sentence of Absolution passed in their conscience by the Spirit at this day is sweet , and puts more joy into their hearts , then if all the Crowns , and Scepters of this world , had befallen them ; but O how comfortable will it be to be declared just by the Judge himself , before the whole world , at that solemn and imperial day ! They may then ring that challenge , Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect ? Rom. 8. 33. And none will accept it , or take up the Gantlet . Who ? Shall God , whose Children and Chosen they are ? No ; It is God that justifieth . Shall the Iudge ? No ; It is his undertaken-work to present them to the Father without spot or wrinckle , or any such thing . He hath washed them in his own blood , and made them as white as innocent Adam or Angels ; He was judged for them , and will not passe judgement against them ; He cannot condemne them , but he must condemne himself , for they are his members , his body , his brethren , bone of his bone , and flesh of his flesh . Shall the Law ? No , They have fully answered all its demands , superabundantly satisfied it through their surety , both in perfect obedience to all its precepts , and undergoing its punishment : What the Law saith , either in regard of commanding compleat subjection , or cursing for the omission of it : it saith to them that are under the Law ; but they are not under the Law , but under Grace . Shall Conscience ? No ; Next to God and Christ its their best friend : as Christ pleads for them to his father , so Conscience pleads for them to themselves . This is their rejoycing , the testimony of good Consciences , that in simplicity and godly sincerity they had their conversations in this world , 2 Cor. 1. 12. Shall Satan ? No ; The accuser of the brethren will be then cast down , and his place will be found no more in Heaven : then , then , those blessed promises will be performed , The seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents head : and the God of peace shall tread Satan under your feet . 4. The Saints happiness will be then perfected , and he shall never know more what sin or sorrow meaneth , or what want of Gods favour , or doubt of Christs love , or defect of joy and comfort meaneth : The Christian hath so much laid out upon him in this world , Vocation , Adoption , Pardon , Peace , Joy in the Holy Ghost , hopes of Glory , that in the worst condition that Men and Devils can plunge him into , he finds cause to say , Yet God is good to Israel , to them that are of a clean heart : but then when he shall enjoy all that is laid up for him , and know the full extent of Gods promises to him , the all of Christs purchase for him , and the utmost reward of his piety : then surely he will cry out with the Psalmist , O how great is that goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee , which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men ! Clemens Alexandrinus makes mention of a place in Persia , where there were three Hills ; when people came to the first , they heard a clashing of armour ; when they came to the second , they heard a confused noise ; when to the third , nothing but songs of triumph . At the day of the Saints Conversion , he comes to the first hill , then he heareth a clashing of armour , listing himself under the Captain of his salvation , and proclaiming open war , against the world , flesh , and wicked one . At the day of death , he comes to the second hill , a confused noise , his friends are weeping and grieving , his wife and children are mourning and bemoaning their loss ; though his soul be rejoycing to think of the rest to which it's going , yet the flesh sweateth , panteth , is pierced and pained . At the day of judgement , he comes to the third hill , where he heareth nothing but songs of triumph , Victoria , Victoria , Hallelujahs , Salvation , Honour , Glory , Praise to the Lord , and to the Lamb for ever . At that day of judgement , the whole world shall see and say , Verily there is a reward for the righteous ; Then shall the wicked return and discern a difference between them that fear God , and them that fear him not . Then Grace will appear in all its embroydery and glory on that day of its coronation , when the worst in Hell shall admire and adore it . Now holiness hath a wonderful disadvantage , partly by the persecutions , afflictions , bonds , and imprisonments , that attend it ; and chiefly from the darkness of mens understanding , and the weakness of their eyes , they are not able to view the thousandth part of its comeliness ; but then Holiness shall be freed from that black Guard of Hell that dogs her to destroy her ; and then the eyes of all the world shall be strengthned so much as to behold her amiableness , then she shall be owned , honoured , acknowledged by God , Angels , and all the Children of Adam ; then she shall be attended , not with Mulcts , and Penalties , and Bonds , and Fetters , but Crowns , and Scepters , and Palms , and Kingdoms ; and then , O then , how lovely , how beautiful will she be indeed ! 5. To affrighten thee from sin , Consider , the misery of sinners at that day . It s called the day of perdition of ungodly men . Sin will be sin indeed at that day . When sin shall be stripped naked of the favour and countenance of great men , of the preferments , and advantages , and riches , and honours , and offices , with which it is cloathed here below , and instead thereof be invested with fire , and flames , and brimstone , and blackness of darkness , and whips , and serpents , and unconceivable and eternal torments , what an ugly loathsom strumpet will she be , even in the eyes of them that now dote on her , commit whordome with her , and sacrifice their strength , and time , and estates , and souls , and God , and Christ , and Heaven , and all to her ? Then the Drunkard will find his liquor more bitter then wormwood , when he shall have a cup of pure wrath without the least mixture of mercy brought to him , and he forced to take it down , though there be eternity to the bottom . Then the Persecutor of Gods people shall find that it had been better to have been rotting in a ditch , or boyling in a furnace of lead , then to have spent his time in wronging the poorest meanest member of Christ ; when God shall recompence tribulation to them that persecute his people , and to them that are persecuted rest and peace ; Then every sinner will believe and feel what now , though God himself tell him , he will be an infidel in , that it is an evil and bitter thing to depart away from the living God. The wicked is reserved ( as the Beast for the slaughter-day ) to the day of destruction , he shall be brought forth ( as the condemned Malefactour on execution-day ) at the day of slaughter ; Ah how dreadful will the sinners doom be then ! The tribunal of the Judge , will be a tribunal of fire ; He shall come in flaming fire , to render vengeance , &c. The Law by which he will try them , shall be a Law of fire , or a fire of Law , Deut. 33.2 . The Judge himself to them will be a consuming fire , Heb. 12. 28. And the judgement which he will denounce against them , will be , Go ye cursed into everlasting fire , prepared for the Devil and his Angels for ever ; Ah who can dwell in everlasting burnings ! who can abide devouring flames ! Who can imagine the shame that will cover their faces , the horror that will fill their hearts , the terrors , and tortures , and torments that must seize them for ever ? If Iudas was so ashamed when he saw Thamars signet and staff , the remembrances of his sin ? how will they be confounded , when all their revellings and roarings , their chambering and wantonness , their cursing and swearing , and all their sins shall be opened before all the world ? If Herod was so afrighted when he supposed that John was risen from the dead , that the Baptists ghost by walking in his conscience robbed him of all comfort ; what afrightment will possess them , to see the Saints whom they have nick-named , disgraced , imprisoned , and it may be murdered , risen from the dead , owned and honoured by the Judge , and the chief Favourites in the Heavenly Court ? If Saul was so troubled when he did hear Christ call to him out of Heaven , that he fell to the ground ; what trouble , what tribulation will possess them , whom he shall curse with a bitter curse , and call to Devils to seize on , and associate with , and prey upon for ever and ever ? The Saint shall find mercy , the sweetest mercy in that day of judgement ; but the Sinner shall have judgement , the sorest , the most cutting , killing judgement , without the least drop of mercy . If the day when God gave the Law was so dreadful , full of thundrings and lightnings and fearful noises , that the people cryed out , Let not God speak to us , lest we die , and Moses himself did exceedingly quake and fear ; and if the day were so dreadful , when the Son of Gods infinite love bare the curse of the Law , that the rocks were rent , the earth trembled , the Sun was darkned ; how dreadful will that day be , when God shall make inquisition into , and deal with the vessels of wrath for the breath of the Law ? Who can abide that day of his coming ? Who shall stand when he appeareth ? Well may it be called the great and terrible day of the Lord Iesus ; Well might the wise man , when he had seemingly laid the reins on the young mans back , and given him leave to run on in the way of his own heart and eyes , pull him in with this Curb ; Remember that for all these things God will bring thee to judgement . When Sapores King of Persia , had raised a violent persecution against● the Christians ; Vsthazanes an antient Nobleman , and a Christian , who in the Kings minority had the Governmen● of the People , was so terrified , that he denied the Faith ; but siting at the Court Gate , when Simeon an old Bishop , and holy person was leading to prison , he rose up to salute him ; but the good Bishop frowning on him , turn'd away his head with indignation ; upon which Vsthazanes fell a weeping , went into his chamber , put off his Courtly attire , and burst out into this speech ; Ah how shall I appear before the great God of heaven , whom I have denied , when Simeon but a man will not endure to look upon me ! If he frown , how will God frown , when I come to appear at his Tribunal ? Upon these considerations , he repented of his Apostacy , assumed courage , and be-became a glorious Martyr for Christ. If Felix an Heathen trembled , when Paul reasoned of judgement to come ; nay , if the very Devils so far believe that day , as to tremble at the thoughts of it , well may the consideration of that day make Christians tremble at the thoughts of sin , and not dare thereby to treasure up wrath upon their heads , against that day of wrath , and the declaration of the righteous judgement of God. Reader , At this day think much of that day of judgement , hereby thou wilt be stirred up to judge thy self , to repent of sin , to ensure an interest in Christ the Judge , to keep a good conscience , and so to think , speak , and act , as one that must be judged by the Law of liberty , 1 Cor. 11.31 . Act. 3.19 . and 17. 31. 2 Pet. 3. 11. Eccles. 12. ult . Iam. 2. 12. Act. 24. 16. Eighthly , If thou wouldst exercise thy self to Godliness ; Call thy self often to account . This is a special help to holiness ; I considered my ways , and turned my feet to thy testimonies , saith David , Psa. 119.5 . A man that goeth out of his way , will continue wandering , if his mind be occupied about other things , and he consider not what he is doing , and whither he is going . The Christian that is careless of his carriage , and seldom compareth his heart and life with the divine commands , to observe how they agree or disagree , will never order his conversation aright ; When a clock is out of order , we take it to peices , and search where the fault lyeth , knowing that one wheel amiss may hinder the going of the whole Clock . Our hearts are every day out of order , our work must be to take them to peices by Examination , and to see where the great fault is . Seneca's sober young man , Ita laborat , ita ludit , ita caenat , ita potat , ita loquitur , ita vivit , ut qui ephemerides Patri est approbatur●●● so labours , so playeth , so eateth , so drinketh , so speak● , and so lives , as one that is daily to be accountable for all to his Father . He that would keep his spiritual estate , must keep his Account-books well ; The neglect of this , hath been the breaking of many Tradesmen . When Shop-keepers live high , far above their incomes , and for want of searching into their Books , are ignorant whether their gains will allow such large expences , it is no wonder if they prove worse then naught . They who expect the coming of great and severe strangers , who will observe narrowly how their house lyeth , and how their vessels are kept , and publish it either to their credit , or discredit , according as they find ; will keep their houses in order , sweep them clean , have their pewter bright and clear , and all things exactly in their places . When the Christian looks every night for the coming of Gods Deputy , his conscience , to spy and search into his heart and life ; how clean and holy both have been kept all the day , it will be a special means to make him watchful over his ways , and exact in his carriage and conversation . Bee-Masters tell us , that they are the best hives which make the greatest noise ; So that conscience is the best , which makes the greatest noise in daily reasonings and debates before its own bar . Examination is the quickest way to bring the erring sheep home to the fold . Honest men will examine their weights and measures by the standard , that if they be defective they may be mended . The honest heart will examine its thoughts , its words , its actions by the Royal Law , that their unsutableness to its strictness and latitude may be repented of , and to the utmost of its power reformed , Let us search and try our ways ; For what cause ? What will be the issue of such a scrutiny ? And turn again to the Lord , Lam. 3.39 . What man will seek to a Physitian , or accept his advice , or take his prescriptions , who doth not know himself distempered , and feel his disease ? T is examination of our hearts and lives , by the holy and pure Law of God , that gives thee knowledge of our spiritual sickness , and helpeth us to feel it , to prize our Physitian , and thankfully and heartily to accept his directions for our cure . It s observed of the Dutch-men , that they keep their banks ( notwithstanding the threats of the insulting Ocean ) with little cost and labour , because they look narrowly to them , and stop them up in time ; If there be but ; a small breach , they stop it presently , and hereby save much charge and trouble . Frequent examination will do this courtesie for the Christian , it will maintain his peace with little charge and trouble comparatively ; As soon as any breach is made by sin , that Arch-make-bate , between God and the soul , it will help the Christian to run presently to Christ to heal and make it up in Heaven by his merits ; and in the soul , by his purifying and pacifying spirit . The counsel which the Philosopher gave the young men at Athens , may sutably and profitably be applied to Christians ; That they should often view themselves in a glass , that if they were fair and well featured , they should do such things as were beseeming their amiable shape ; but if soul and ill-favoured , that then they should labour to salve the bodies blemishes , by the beauties of a mind , accoutred with the ornaments of vertue and good literature . Examination is a special preservative against sin ; No Children are more bold to defile themselves , and to play with dirt , or rake in kennels , then those who know their Parents are so foolishly fond ( like David of Adonijah ) that they never displease them at any time , in saying , Why hast thou done so ? The Child that expecteth to be reckoned with at night , will be careful how he dirtieth his cloaths in the day . Examination will help the Christian , if not to hinder a coming disease , yet to prevent its growing and increase . The Ship that leaketh , is more easily emptied at the beginning then afterwards ; The Bird is easily killed in the Egge , but when once hatcht and fledged , we may kill it when we can catch it . A frequent reckoning with our selves , will pluck sin up before it is rooted in the soul. Examination will help the Christian that hath fallen and bruised himself , to heal the wound whilst it is fresh , before it is festered ; This one advantage , if there were no more , is extraordinary . As the sting of a Bee , though the Bee be fled , works it self into the flesh deeper , and diffuseth its venome more strongly , causing the greater pain , that every man , unless foolish , will speedily pull it out , lest he encrease his own anguish ; Truly so doth sin , though the honey , the pleasure of it be gone , yet the sting remains , and the longer it is before it is pulled out by Faith and Repentance , the deeper it works it self into the soul , and the more sorrow it will put us to in this or the other world . T is examination at night , that brings the soul to mourn for , and repent of its failings in the day ; T is like the tree which C●esias speaks of , in describing India , that besides fruit , distilleth certain tears , of which are made Precious Amber ; or as the drops of the Vine , its excellent against the leprousie of sin . Ephesus would never repent till they examined and considered whence they had fallen . When sin is admitted into the soul , and as a Theif in the night stole in at unawares , when the eye of the souls watchfulness was fallen asleep ; Examination will light the Candle of the word , and search the house narrowly , and find out this ill guest , and before it hath done so much mischief as it intended , apprehended it , indict , condemn , and execute it . Examination every day , is like purging the body at the beginning of a distemper , which takes it before it hath habituated it self , and so is much the more easily repelled . An enemy may much sooner be forced out of his holds , when he hath newly taken possession , then when he hath continued so long as to cast up his banks , make his ditches , placed his Guns , and fortified them . After we have been foiled by our spiritual enemies , and by examination find out the cause , it will make us more watchful at that gate at which they enter'd , and careful of that particular wherein they got the advantage of us . As when David had received intelligence , that the Amonites had given his Army some small defeat , he sends Ioab word of the reason , they went too near the City , and wisheth him to make the battel more strong against the place , 2 Sam. 11. So examination finds out the reason of a Christians defeat by Satan , either it was through self-confidence , or want of spiritual watchfulness , or love to some known sin , and helpeth the Saint to bewail the cause of his defeat , and directe●h him how to provide better against the next onset : Frequent examination keepeth the conscience raw and tender , that the least touch of sin will be offensive and troublesom to it . When the heart is used to yeild at a small Willow , it will never be quiet under a great Oak . Searching into our souls , makes sin more loathsom to us . Whilst these filthy sinks are unstir'd , they do but little disturb us , or annoy us with their filthy savour , but when by examination we rake into them , their noysom stench offendeth us extremely , and shews us what need we have of cleansing . Examination every night , will help the Christian to a good nights rest ; How comfortably may he lye down , who hath made all even with his Maker , and heard his everlasting Father bidding him Good-night ? How quietly may he sleep , who hath his pardon under his Pillow ! he needs not fear any Officer to call him up at midnight , and attach him for any treasons or misdemeanours . It s said of Cato , that constantly at evening he would call to mind what ever he had seen , read , or done that day . It was Pythagoras rule to his Scholars , That they should no night suffer sleep to seise their senses , till they had three times recalled the accidents and passages of the day . O what a shame is it , that Moralists who had no true sense of the benefit of such a duty , should out-go the Christian in the performance of it ! That many persons should know the Chronicles of other Countries or Kingdoms , some ages past , and yet not know the passages of their own souls one day past ! Reader , If thou wouldst walk closely with God , and keep even with him , reckon daily with him ; Call thy self to a strict scrutiny , What do I ? how live I ? where am I ? is the work I do , warrantable by the word or no ? is my life the life of Faith , of Holiness , or no ? am I in Gods way , under his protection , or no ? Have I truth of grace , the power of godliness , or do I please my self with the form of it ? Do I thrive and increase in grace , or do I decay and decline ? Suppose I were to dye this night , what ground have I to hope for Heaven ? what assurance that I shall escape the power and rage of frightful Devils ? What evidences have I , that I am a new creature , engrafted into Christ , and thereby entitled to life and bliss ? Thus feel the pulse of thy soul , enquire into its state , visit it often , and see how it doth . Call thy self to an account for thy sins ; Let heart and life sins , open and private sins , omissions , commissions , personal , relative , be all reckoned for . Ask thy soul as Rebecah , Why am I thus ? Why am I so false to my God ? so unfaithful to my Covenants ? The heart is like a Ditch , into which filth is continually running , and therefore it behoveth thee by examination , to be always emptying it . The Stable that is daily fowled , must be daily cleansed ; The hands that are daily contracting dirt , must be daily washed . Our souls are more polluted and diseased then our bodies ; we have always a filthy issue of sin running , which we must be daily searching into , and dressing , or our stench will make us loathsom to , and unfit for any communion with God or his people . Call thy self to an account daily for thy mercies ; Ask thy self , How much am I indebted to my God ? what privative , what positive mercies do I partake of ? what old , what new , what night , what day mercies , what mercies at home , what abroad , what personal , what domestical , what national mercies do I enjoy ? or am a sharer in ? what bodily , what spiritual mercies do I receive ? what time , what talents , have I to trade with , and reckon for ? This will help the soul to be speedy and hearty in thankfulness , and force it to Davids Interrogation , What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits ? What hot love should I return , what an holy life should I lead ? Do this daily ; It is much better to pay sums when they are little , then when they are large . Wise men that are able , find it the best way to pay ready money for their wares . Neglect herein , causeth many mistakes and inconveniencies , and many times differences amongst friends . Having spoken to this particular in the sixth Chapter , I shall say no more to it here , though indeed I judge it next to a new nature , not inferiour to any means of godliness . Ninthly , If thou wouldst exercise thy self to godliness , Avoid the occasions of sin ; he that would avoid the commission of sin , must avoid the occasions of sin . If we would not fall down the Hill , we must beware of coming near the brow of it . Keep thee far from an evil matter ; Children which in frost venture upon the Ice , may possibly be safe , but yet many times they break their limbs , and sometimes lose their lives . It s possible for a Saint to come off safe from occasions of sin , but is very seldom seen . A fair booty makes many a man a Theif , who otherwise might have lived honest . It was counted therefore a great part of wisdom in Alexander , when he had taken the beautiful daughters of Darius Prisoners , not to see the fair Ladies , lest their beauty should have enticed him to folly ; The same word in Hebrew , signifieth both an eye and a fountain , to shew that from the eye , as from a fountain , sin doth too often flow ; Iobs practice was such , that he would not look on a Maid , lest he should lust after her ; And Davids prayer was , Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity . We take the wind of those that are infected with contagious diseases . The wise man gives notable counsel to men , if they would avoid drunkenness ; Look not upon the wine when it is red , when it casteth its colour in the glass , Prov. 23. 31. When it laughs in thy face , then shut thine eyes , lest it steal into thy heart ; We are ready to think , what hurt , what danger is there in beholding , the wine in the glass , sparkling and brisky ? But Solomon knew that from looking on it , men come to like it , from liking to tasting , from tasting to a draught , from one draught to another , till the man is metamorphised into a beast . Gen. 39. 10 , Psa. 119. 37. The wise Socrates could advise men to beware of those meats which would entice men without hunger to eat , and those drinks which would entice a man without thirst to drink , knowing that if men come within those traps and baits , they are easily taken . A guest may easily be kept out of the house at first , but if once entertained , its hard to turn him out of doors . When a Governour of a Fort once comes to parley with the enemy that besiegeth him , there is great fear that the place will be surrendred . I have read of one that having a great mind to go to Rome , yet knowing it to be a corrupt place , and a corrupter of others , entered the City with his eyes close shut , neither would he be perswaded to see any thing there but Peters Church , which he went to visit . Solomon perswades his Son , if he should not be enticed by the Harlot , that he would not come near her house , Remove thy way far from her , and come not near the door of her house , Prov. 5. 8. He that carrieth always along with him , an heart ready to break out into a flame , prone to all wickedness , had need to take heed of those Bellows that will help to blow up the fire . I more fear , saith Luther , that which is within me , then that which is from without . When a distempered stomach comes to meet with tossing waves , sickness ensueth , though the prime cause is not from the Billows without , but Choler within . Occasion and the heart , are like Dinah and Sechem , if they meet , they usually part not till folly is committed . Those that desire to hinder the generation of Vice , that brat of Hell , must keep the Male , occasion , and the Female , a wicked heart asunder , one from the other . They who have bodies always ready to take infection , must be more careful of their diet and company then others ; Insensible Vapours bring forth horrible Tempests ; Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth . The best heart is like a flint ; there is fire in it , though it doth not appear ; occasion is the steel that fetcheth it forth , which being let alone would be quiet . Bees in winter being sensible of their weakness , keep their hives , and will not expose themselves to the sharp air and bitter frosts , lest thereby they sicken and dye . Alas , how weak is man ! how unable to resist the occasions of sin ! no more then the Hound can forbear pursuing the Hare before his eyes , and therefore it concerns him to avoid them . A candle newly extinguished will quickly be lighted again . Powder meeting with a light match , presently takes fire . For this cause it was ordained of God in the law of the Nazarite , who did for a time specially consecrate himself to God , that besides his not coming to the dead , and suffering his hair to grow , he should abstain from these things ; 1. from wine , and strong drink . 2. From the vinegar of wine or strong drink . 3. From any liquor of grapes , though it were but the water wherein they were steeped . 4. From the green or moist grape . 5. From the dried grape or raisin . 6. From the husk or kernel of them , Numbers 6.3,4 . Had the Nazarite eaten but the skin of the grape or raisin , he had broken the law : Hereby the holy Ghost would teach us that those who separate themselves from the world , to be in a special manner serviceable to the Lord , must avoid not onely plain sin , but the appearance of sin , and all occasions of it , though we may look upon them but as the husks of grapes , to be of small moment and little danger . Beza giveth this reason why the Levite , when he saw the man that fell among theives , passed on the other side of the way , Ne cadaveris contactu pollueretur ; Lest he should be defiled with the touch of the corps . He would be so far from touching a dead carkass , that he would pass on the other side of the way when he saw one dying . Enter not into the path of the wicked , and go not in the way of evil men ; avoid it , pass not by it ( i. e. come not not near it ) turn from it and pass away , Prov. 4. 14 , 15. He that will do all he may , will quickly do what he may not . It s lawful to enjoy bodily pleasures and delights , but not to buy them with hazard to our souls . Souldiers in a Garrison that venture to the outmost line , are often snapt up by those that besiege them . We sometimes when in danger of a siege , burn down those houses in the skirts of the City which might be serviceable to us , when we cannot well defend them , lest they should prove helpful to our enemies against us . Theseus is said to cut off his golden locks , lest his adversaries should in fight take hold of them . Even in things lawful its commendable for Christians to deny themselves , when there is danger by taking liberty therein of gratifying the enemies of their souls . Cotis King of Thracia manifested possibly more prudence then prodigality in breaking the cupboard of curious glasses presented to him , lest ( his nature being extremely cholerick ) he should deal too severely with his servants in case they had broken any of them . Aristotle hath a story of Satyrus , that being a pleader , and knowing himself passionate , and in that drunkenness of the mind apt to commit many indecencies , and to rush into foul extravagancies , he used to stop his ear with wax , lest the sense of ill language should move him to choler . Reader , as thou wouldst shun sin in the action , shun it in the occasion ; remember thou carriest thatch about thee , and therefore oughtest to avoid the least sparks . A little wind will drive a ship with the stream and tide ; and a small temptation may carry thee that way which thy wicked heart inclines thee . A little pulling will draw a strong man whether he is willing to go ; its safest therefore to be out of harms way , and the greatest magnanimity to flye from the sight of such an enemy as sin is ; He hath most true courage who makes a timely retreat before he be wounded . CHAP. XII . Means whereby Christians may exercise themselves to Godliness ; An humble frame ; Suppressing sin in its first rise ; the knowledge of God. TEnthly , If thou wouldst exercise thy self to Godliness , Walk humbly with thy God. A tree the more deeply its rooted , the more it groweth under ground , the more upward in fruitfulness : The Christian will find that by growing in humility , he shall thrive in godliness . He that turneth his eyes upward is ready to stumble at every rub that lyeth in his way ; but he that looketh downward , seeth and avoideth those stones . A proud man , is like a little man with an high-heeld-shooe , raised thereby in his own conceit , above others of the same rank , but it fits him with many a fall . The proud person giveth not glory to God , and therefore must not expect that God should give grace to him ; But the humble man honoureth God , and sanctifieth his name , and sets the Crown on his head , and so may expect ( because God hath promised ) that God should honour him , and sanctifie his soul ; God resisteth the proud , but giveth grace to the humble . He leaves those high hills barren , but makes the valleys to abound in Corn. T is in vain to undertake to pour liquor into a full Vessel , it will all run over , but the empty Vessel will receive it . The proud person is full still of self , and so will not be thankful for an almes ; but the humble man is empty , hungring , and thirsting , and he shall be satisfied . Proud Vashti divorceth her self , and provoketh her Lord to disown and disclaim her ; but humble Hester is thought worthy of a Crown , and admitted into the Kings embraces . The fig-tree that blooms not at all , brings forth most pleasant fruit , when the Sallow which hath most glorious palms is barren . Hypocrisie kills the flower of grace at the root , Pride nips it in the bud . Sincerity like Paul , planteth grace ; Humility like Apollo , watereth it , and helpeth it to flourish . We may take notice all along in Scripture , that the humblest men , were the holiest men ; and those that were eminent for any grace , were eminent for Humility . The deepest streams were most silent , and made the least noise . Abraham was famous for Faith , strong in Faith , he beleived in hope against hope , but loe how lowly was he ! Behold I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord , who am but dust and ashes . So Iacob , named Israel by God himself , for his fervency and prevelancy in prayer ; I am less then the least of all thy mercies . David , that man after Gods own heart , I am a worm and no man , as a Child wea●ed from his mothers breasts , for humility . So As●ph , Psa. 23. 21. Agur , Prov. 30. Isaiah , Isa. 6. 3. The Virgin Mary , the Centurion , the Syrophenician , Paul , all like full vessels sounded not their own praise , and like Stars , the higher they were in holiness , the less they appeared . When Elizabeth had conceived , she hid her self three months ; they who are the most fruitful in holiness , make the least boasting of it . Lord , said holy Hooper , I am Hell , but thou art Heaven ; I am full of sin , but thou a gracious God. Bradford would subscribe his Letters , The most miserable , unthankeful , hard-hearted sinner , John Bradford . The greater the fire of grace , the less the smoke or shew of it to the world . The weightiest Wheat seeks for the lowest place , when the light chaf● flyeth in the Air. Whe● the Sun is at the highest , the shadow is the least , and the more directly the Sun shineth on u● , the less our shadow is ; so the higher Christians are in Gods favour , the lower they are in their own ey●s ; The more God exalted David , the more he debased himself , What am I , and what is my Fathers-House , that thou hast brought me up hitherto , and yet thou speakest of thy servants house for a great while to come ? 2 Sam. 7. 18 , 19. This was Davids language , when Nathan brought him word that God would build him a sure house . Those trees which spread much and grow low , near the ground most commonly bring forth more and larger fruits then high trees , that aspire up into the air . The highest trees are barren ; so the proud and high-minded man , but with the lowly is wisdom . The humble Christian is nearer God then others , and so must needs thrive above others ; though God beholdeth the proud afar off , he dwelleth in the humble heart . The lowly Christian is most lovely in his eye , and shall have most of his company . God appeared to Moses , not in a lofty Cedar , but in a low , mean , ●bject bush . If he that walketh with wise men becomes wise , and is the better for such good company ; what good doth the humble Christian get by walking with his God ? Pride is like the Remora to a ship , which will arrest it under full sail ; hinder the Saint in his heavenly passage , when he is making the greatest speed . it s like those weeds which are of so poisonous a nature , that they will suffer no good hearbs to grow near them . The servant that hath been trusted and honoured by his Lord , if he prove a Theif , and steal from his Lord , provokes him to take his stock out of his hands , and to trust him no longer . The proud man steals from God , and robs him of that glory which is due to him ; and therefore it s no marvail if he deny to trust such an unfaithful servant with any more spiritual riches . 'T is the empty Barrel that makes the greatest sound . The poor women that have nothing but a few Matches , or Pins , or Band-strings , or Thread-laces ; the men that have onely a few Brooms , or some Small-coal , or Roots , make a great stir , and loud noise about the City , and would have every body acquainted with their ware . When the great Usurer that is worth thousands in Bills and Bonds , and the rich Shopkeeper , whose estate swelleth to a vast bulk , never proclaim what they are worth , but rather endeavour to hide it ; Those that have least spiritual riches , are most guilty of boasting ; Laodicaea bragged much that was poor , and miserable , and blind , and naked , and worse then naught , They who are fullest of Faith , and richest in good works , make the least sound ; When their hearts and lives like the face of Moses , shine brightly with grace and holiness , they do not , they will not , know it . They consider their greatest light and lustre , is but a reflection from the Father of lights , and therefore they have no reason at all to boast of borrowed goods . The worm of pride breeds soonest in rotten wood . The proud Pharisee who justified himself , had nothing in him but matter of condemnation : When the poor humble Publican , affected with his own vileness and baseness , had something of worth in him , even his sense of his own unworthiness . Brass makes a greater sound , and is heard farther then Gold , but every one knoweth there is no comparison between them ; Chaff is seen above the Wheat , not because it is better , but because it is lighter . Alas , what is man ? what hath man that he should be proud ? He is but enlivened dust , moving earth , refined clay , that which beasts trample under their feet ; He hath nothing that good is , but what he hath received ; He lives wholly upon the alms and charity of another . A proud heart and a beggars purse do not agree . As he is a sinner , he is more vile and base , more noisom and loathsom then any Toad , or Snake , or Serpent , and hath he any reason to be proud ? Reader , be cloathed with humility ; learn of thy Redeemer , for he was meek and lowly in heart . Though he thought it no robbery to be equal with God , yet he made himself of no reputation , and took upon him the form of a servant , Phil. 2.7,8 . When pride cometh , then cometh a fall . As a Wrastler , if he can lift his fellow from the ground , quickly gives him a fall ; so the Devil , if he can lift up with pride , doubts not but to throw them . Physicians observe that the Dropsie and Consumption are usually together : when once thou swellest with this Dropsie of pride , expect a Consumption of thy godliness . He walks but dangerously who walks on high places , as on the ridges of houses , and on ropes ; he that walks below is more safe . Angels , Adam , David , Hezekiah , Peter , and many others in Scripture confirm the Wisemans Proverb , Pride goeth before a fall . Trees that are set on mountains are easily shaken and torn up by the roots , when stormy winds arise . Indeed t is no wonder that a proud man should fall into sin , for he relieth on his own strength , which is but a broken reed . Peter had not fallen so fouly , if he had not undertaken to stand upon his own legs , which were too weak to bear his weight ; But before honour is humility . The lower the foundation , the higher the building . A proud man hath a great infelicity , in that he is his own enemy , and makes all others his enemies . God is his enemy ; there is no sinner whom he proclaims such open war against , in such express terms , as the Proud ; God setteth himself in battel array against the proud . T were better Earth and Hell should unite their force against him , then one God. Ah who knoweth the power of thine anger ! Men are his enemies ; he disdaineth others for their meaness or pove●ty , or want of parts , and they disdain him for his pride . He that over-valueth himself shall soon be under-valued by every one . Pride makes him scorn friends ( for familiarity would deprive him , he thinks , of that reverence which he deserves ) and therefore all must be his enemies ; but he is his own enemy most , in cutting such a gash in his soul by his pride , and making way for all other sins to fall on . He that is lifted up with pride , quickly falls into the condemnation of the Devil . Satan had found this vice , Pride , by experience so prevalent to draw the creature from God , that he knew no better bait to catch Adam with , Ye shall be as gods ; and when afterwards he encountred David , 't was with this weapon ; he tempted David to number the people . Yet alas , though it be so prejudicial , how natural is it to us ? Pride is a weed , a worm that gets into the best Garden . It was a witty taunt which a proud Cardinal had from a friend of his , that upon his election went to Rome on purpose to see him , where finding his behaviour stretcht to nothing but pride and state , he departed and put on a mourning suit , and the next day comes in black to visit him ; The Cardinal asking the cause why he was in mourning , he answered , It was for the death of Humility ; which fetcht its last breath in him when he was elected Cardinal . Most of us have cause to put on mourning upon the same account . Eleventhly , If thou wouldst exercise thy self to godliness , Suppress sin in the beginning . This foul Bird is easiest kild in the egge . When a fire is first broke out in a Chimny it may with much less labour be quenched , then when it hath seised the Timber of the House ; What small beginnings had those fires which have conquered stately Pallaces , and turned famous Cities into ruinous heaps ? An Hair is but a little thing , yet some have been choaked with it ; If the Tetter be not killed , it will come to be a Ring-worm . Passion at the first kindling may be quenched , but if let alone , sends such a smoke into the understanding , which thickens into a cloud , and hinders us from the sight of our selves and our duties . The Tree may soon be pulled up , before it hath taken root , but then it may be too hard for the strongest man. A prick with a Pin , or a Thorn , being let alone , hath sometimes caused the cutting off of a limb , nay , the loss of life . Minutes to sin , are like Cyphers to a figure , which quickly increase it to vast sums . Sin increaseth by degrees , Iam. 1. 14 , 15. First it surprizeth the heart in a thought , then it stealeth into the affections for approbation , then the affections plead with the will for its consent , and then that commandeth the act of it , and frequent acts cause an habit , and custom in sin causeth despair , despair causeth men to defend sin , their defence of sin a boasting and glorying in it , and the next step is Hell. Sin is therefore fitly by the Prophet compared to a Chain , for one link draweth another . As the Ivy by little and little creepth upon the Oak , till at last it doth destroy it ; so doth sin cling about the soul , and by degrees over-run and undo it . When the water begins to freeze , it will hardly bear a peny weight ; let it alone a little longer , and it will bear a shilling , then a pound weight , then a man , then a horse , then cart and load and all . As the cloud which Elijahs servant saw , was at first no bigger then a mans hand , but afterwards it spread till it covered the Heavens . Peter first denyeth his Master , then sweareth , then curseth , and forsweareth himself . Cain first ha●bours envious thoughs of his brother , then murdereth him in his heart , then kills him with his hand , then quarrelleth with God and despaireth . There is no staying when we are once down the Hill , till we come to the bottom ; If this Giant of sin get in but a limb , he will quickly get in his whole body . Wanton thoughts , if not stifled , bring forth actual uncleanness . Sin is like water , if we give it the least way , run it will in spight of us . If we get not the conquest over it in its infancy , we shall not overcome it when it is brought to maturity . He that cannot put out a spark , will be much more unable to put out a flame . The smallest of these twigs , will prove thorny bushes , if not timely stubbed up . The Horse must be broken when a Colt , and the Lion tamed when a Whelp ; It s best to deal with sin , as Iocasta with Oedipus , to cast it forth in its infancy . The Israelite must dash these Babylonian Infants , against the wall , if he would be a blessed man , Isa. 13.18 . The Christian that checketh and curbeth sin when it first appeareth , doth as David to the Philistine , wound it in the forehead , and so slayeth it certainly . As the Snail by little and little creepeth up from the root of the tree to the top , consuming the leaves as it goeth , and leaving nothing behind it but filth and slime : So sin gradually infecteth the whole man. This poison if not presently vomited up , as soon as taken down , flieth to , and destroyeth the vitals . The Apostle calleth it a Canker , and truly so it is in regard of its spreading nature , both as to persons , from one man to another , and to parts , from one faculty of the soul and member of the body to another . How dreadful was the effect of a few boys joyning with Massianello in Naples , anno 1647. whom the officers and people laughed and jeered at , instead of subduing ! What murders , and burning Palaces and Churches did ensue and arise from so contemptible means ! Therefore as wise Princes will be heedful to suppress riots , and petty insurrections , knowing that if they be let alone they will break out into open rebellion , and cause much bloodshed and mischeif : So Reader , do thou stifle and kill sin in the womb , before it be quick , lest thou like the young Serpents , if brought forth , it tear out thy bowels , and its birth cause thy death . Twefthly , If thou wouldst exercise thy self to godliness , study the knowledge of God. T is ignorance of God , that is the original of all sin . Did men know the sad fruits of his fury , they durst not by sin provoke him . Did men know the sweetness of his favour , they would do , they would suffer any thing to please him . It is in the mist of ignorance that they lose their way , and wander from him who is the chiefest good . The Devil is bound in chains of darkness , and so are all his Children . They who know God most , love him most , and fear him most , and trust him most . It is life ( spi●●tual , and the seed of life ) eternal , to know thee the onely true God , and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent , Joh. 17. 3. All godliness , all grace , is seminally in the knowledge of God , and floweth from it . They who with open face behold the Lord , though but as in a glass , are changed into his image , from glory to glory ; from one degree of grace to another , ● Cor. 3. 18. They who know the infiniteness , and immensity of his being , cannot but despise all things for him , esteem all things as nothing to him , as nothing without him , look on the whole creation , as less then nothing in comparison of him . Ah what admiring , reverent thoughts of that being of beings , of him whose name is , I am , have they who lanch a little ( for 't is but a little that they can here ) into this Ocean ! All Nations before him are as nothing , and they are counted to him less then nothing and vanity ; they canno● but desire and labour to enjoy so boundless a portion . They who know the power of God , cannot but fear him , and stand in awe of his presence and threatnings ; They fear him who is able to cast soul and body into hell , Heb. 12. 27 , 28. They will depend on him , because there is no want which the Almighty cannot supply , no weakness which he cannot remove , no danger which he cannot prevent or support in . Acquaintance with him who is mighty in strength , makes the Christian resolute in Gods cause , and as bold as a Lion at his call and command . They who know the eternity of God , will chuse him before temporal vanities ; What are the pleasures of sin for a season in his eye , who seeth the pleasures at Gods right hand for evermore ? What are the honours on earth , to him who knoweth the eternal weight of glory ? What are temporal relations , in comparison of the everlasting Father ? Nay , what is his natural life to eternal life ? no good is little that is eternal ; how great then is the infinite and eternal God ? They who know the wisdom of God , will submit to his Providences , and acquiesce in all his dispensations . He is wise in heart , his understanding is infinite , and he knoweth what is best for thee and me and all others , and therefore there is all the reason of the world , why I should rest in his will and be satisfied in his pleasure . It is the Lord ( saith the soul in his greatest afflictions ) who is infinite in wisdom , and knoweth what will do me most good ) Let him do what seemeth good in his eyes . They who know the faithfulness of God , will credit his word , and make him the object of their Hope and Faith ; They that know thy name will trust in thee , Psa. 9. 10. His truth commandeth our trust . We will rely on faithful men , who will not lye , but the Christian seeth infinitely more reason to rely on the faithful God who cannot lye . They who know the mercy and love , and goodness of God , will love , and admire , and trust , and praise him . The knowledge of his love to us , will call out our love to him , as one that deserves it , being infinitely amiable in himself , and the more deserving of our love , for his love to such loathsom ones as we are . It will cause us to rely on him ; for infinite love , joyned with infinite strength and faithfulness , will not , cannot deceive us . It will help us to see the odious nature of sin , in that it is an abuse of infinite love ; The goodness of God will lead the soul to repentance . They who know the holiness of God , will sanctifie him in their approaches to him , and walk humbly and watchfully with him . They know that sin is loathsom to him , because contrary to his holy nature , and therefore they hate it ; they know that holiness is lovely , as it is his Image and Excellency , and therefore they follow after it . They are upright , and serious , and zealous , and humble , and reverent in their holy performances , because therein they have to do with such a holy God. They who know the anger of God , will stand in awe and not sin ; They know that God is not to be mocked ; for it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God , for our God is a consuming fire . They know his fury is terrible , intolerable ; none can abide it , no sinner can avoid it ; therefore they hate sin , the object of it , and flie to Christ , who delivereth from it . O what a work , a gracious sanctifying work doth the knowledge of God make in the soul ! It makes the understanding to esteem him above all , the will to chose him before all , the affections to desire him , to delight in him more then all ; the whole man , to seek him , to serve him , to honour and praise him beyond all in Heaven and earth . What is the reason that God is so much loved , admired , and worshipped , and glorified in his Church , when all the World besides despise him , but this , In Judah is God known , his name is great in Israel ! Psa. 76. 1. O Reader , be confident of this ; the more thou knowest of the excellencies of God , the more thou wilt prize his Son , submit to his spirit , crucifie the flesh , contemn the world , fear to offend him , study to please him ; the more holy thou wilt be in all manner of conversation . Hence the main work of Christs prophetical office was to reveal God to the world . And the Devils great work is to keep men from this knowledge of God , knowing that it will tend so exceedingly to their sanctification and holiness , and to the overthrow of his interest . The Miller mufleth and blindeth his Horse that draweth his Mill , and thereby keeps him at his round , deceiving him , in making him to think he goeth forward . The first work of the Philistines was , to put out Sampsons eyes , and then they made him grind at their Mill and make them sport . The Eagle ( saith Pliny , Nat. Hist. lib. 10. cap. 20. ) before he setteth upon the Hart , rolleth himself in the Sand , and then flyeth at the Staggs head , and by fluttering his wings , so dustieth his eyes , that he can see nothing , and then striketh him with his Talons where he listeth . Satan darkneth mens understandings , and thereby commandeth their wills and affections , and destroyeth the whole man ; If our Gospel be hid , it is hid to them that perish , whom the God of this world hath blinded their minds , lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ , who is the Image of God should shine unto them , 2 Cor. 4. 4 , 5. When men are spoken in Scripture to be vicious and prophane , they are onely said not to know the Lord , and there is no knowledge of God in the land , Ier 4 22. Hos. 4● 1. and when God undertakes in his Covenant of Grace to sanctifie and make men holy , he is said to put his knowledge in their hearts , and his promise is , They shall all know me from the least to the greatest , Heb. 10. Ier. 31.34 . And they that would grow in grace , are commanded in order thereunto to grow in knowledge , 2 Pet. 3. 18. Ignorance is the mother of all irreligion , of all atheism , Ephes. 4. 18. They are alienated from the life of God , through the ignorance that is in them , because of the blindness of their hearts . As Owles , sinners may see in the night of this world , have some knowledge in worldly affairs , but they cannot see in the day ; are ignorant of spiritual , of heavenly things . Sin , like the pestilence David speaks of , walketh in the dark , Psa. 91.5 . And Satan is the enemy that soweth his tares by night . This is one cause why sin is called a work of darkness ; It is from that darkness which is in mens understandings , that they turn their backs upon God , and run upon their own eternal ruines . It were impossible for the rational creature to be so desperately mad as to play with the wrath of God , and slight the love of God , to neglect his mercy and despise his justice , if they did but know God. When Princes go incognit●s , in a disguise , and a●e unknown , then they are disesteemed . Hence they who are obstinately prophane and resolved on wickedness say unto God , Depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy ways , Job 21. 14. The hooded Hawk , that seeth not the Partridge , will never flye after it . The Israelites pitched in Mithkah , which signifieth sweetness , before they removed to Cashmonah , which signifieth swiftness . They onely who know the sweetness of God , will flye to him with swiftness ; Ignoti nulla cupido . He who knoweth the Allsufficiency of God , will never turn to the Creature ; even as the Bee , if it did not find honey enough in one flower , would never hasten to another . Those that are ignorant of God , abound in all manner of Atheism and wickedness . The Families which know not God , will not call on his name . There is no truth , no mercy ; but lying and stealing , and swearing , and killing , where there is no knowledge of God , Hos. 4. 1 , 2. 'T is no wonder to see blind men stumble and fall , and break their limbs . I do not marvail to see ignorant men , who know not God , to live without him , to turn him out of their hearts and houses , as if they had no dependance on him , or ingagements to him . Whence is it that men are regardless of their souls and eternal estates , that they dance over the unquenchable lake , and are merry and jovial at the very brink of destruction , that they despise the God that made them , preserveth them , bought them , and hath them in his hands , and at his mercy every moment , that they slight his Son , his Spirit , his Law , his Love , his wrath , his promises of eternal life , as if they were things of no value , and rather fit to be trampled on then esteemed ; that they can lye down and sleep , and rise up and eat , and d●ink , and follow their sports and pleasures , and laugh and sing under the guilt of sin , and curse of the Law , and infinite wrath of the Lord , but their ignorance of God ? Ah did they but know his holiness , his Jealousie , his Power , his Justice , they they would s●oner undergo any misery that men could inflict on them , then incur his anger , or provoke him to jealousie ; they would never neglect ●is Worship , or put him off with a few heartless prayers ; Ludentes cum Deo ut pueri cum suis puppis , as Calvin hath it , Playing with him as children with their babies , when they come immediately to his presence , and pretend to seek his face . The holy times under the Gospel wherein the people of God sho●ld be of one hea●t , are spoken of as proceeding from this cause ; The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord , as waters cover the sea , Isa. 11.9 . The perfection of grace and holiness in heaven will be the effect in part of this knowledge of God ; When we shall see him ( perfectly ) we shall be ( perfectly ) like him , 1 Ioh. 3.2 . Reader , be perswaded therefore to study this knowledge of God ; think no labour too much for it● pray , and read , and hear , and confer , and mourn that thou mayst know God. Beleive it , it is a jewel that will pay thee well for all thy pains ; Encline thine ear unto wisdome , and apply thy heart unto understanding . Yea , if thou cryest after knowledge , and liftest up thy voice for understanding . If thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasures ; Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord , and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord giveth wisdom , and out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding , Prov. 2. ver . 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6. Did men but spend that time and strength about the knowledge of God , which they spend in endeavouring to raise their families , and advance their parties and interest , and to suppress them that in their apprehensions stand in their way ; we should quickly have a Nation as famous for peace , and love , and holiness , as now it is notorious for divisions and prophaness . CHAP. XIII . Means whereby Christians may exercise themselves to Godliness . A contented Spirit ; Avoiding those things that hinder Godliness . THirteenthly , If thou woulst exercise thy self to Godliness , Labour to get a contented frame of heart . A setled fixed fr●m of heart as to all outward occurrences , is like Ballast to a Ship , which will help it to sail trim in all waters ; whereas a discontented spirit is as a light smal boat in the Ocean , tossed about with every blast , and always in danger of drowning . I doubt not but the great Apostles diligence to learn this lesson perfectly ; I have learned in what state soever I am to be contented ; I know how to be abas●d , and how to abound , Philip. 4. 12. was a special means of his extraordinary growth , and proficiency in grace . It is generally observed that peevish persons whom nothing pleaseth , are usually lean and thin in their bodies ; but those who are of chearful tempers , and not overmuch troubled with any disasters , are thriving and healthful . The discontented soul , whom eve●y heat or cold above ordinary puts into a fright or fever , will rather decline then increase in his spiritual health ; but the Christian who is ever chearful in his God and Saviour , and lives about these lower things as one indifferent about them , will never be hindered by them in his work of holiness . As a sickly man is hindered in his journey by every storm , and ready to run to an House or stand under an Hedge at every shower ; so is a discontented person , ready to turn aside or stand still at every unexpected providence ; when a contented man like a lusty resolved travellar , keeps on his course whatsoever weather comes . Godliness requires a contented mind to grow in , 1 Tim. 6. 6. It is said of the Pelican that she is caught by the Shephards in this manner : They lay fire not far from her nest , which she finding and fearing the danger of her young , seeks to blow out with her wings , so long till she burns her self , and makes her self a prey out of foolish pity to her young . So many men out of unwise pity to their relations and possessions , when they are at any time in danger for want of this contented spirit and q●iet submission to infinite wisdom , trouble themselves so much , and so long about them , till they make themselves a prey to Satan , and no whit preserve or secure those persons or things about which they are so immoderately anxious and sollicitous . Whilst we are in this world , we must expect various winds , some sharp , some warm , some nipping , some refreshing , some with us , some against us , and unless we are prepared for all by an holy pliableness , we shall be injured by every one ; Every strong wind , whether with us , or against us , will be ready to overturn us , if we want this ballast . There is no condition in this life so blessed , as to afford the perfection of content ; and yet there is no estate in this life so wretched , but a Christian may be contented with it . If thou hast as much as thou wantest , thou hast as much as in reason thou desirest , and therefore hast cause to be contented . The way to true Riches , saith Plato , is not to increase our heaps , but to diminish the covetousness of our hearts . It were well for the world , saith another , if there were no Gold in it ; but since its the Fountain whence all things flow , it s to be desired , but onely as a pass to travail to our journeys end without begging . Every man is rich , or may be so , if he will equal his mind to his estate , and be but poor in his desires ; He that hath most , wants somthing , as Haman , when he had the commander of one hundred and twenty Provinces at command ; He that hath least , wants nothing , if he want not a contented spirit . He that can bring his heart to an even poize in all providences , will avoid many temptations , and escape many snares in which others are entangled . The want of this renders many a mans life as unserviceable to God , as uncomfortable to himself . The discontented person like the Sea , is seldom seen without storms and tempests ; A small matt●r puts him out of order and joynt , and so unfits him for spiritual actions . As hot Iron , the smallest drop sets him a hissing , like a rufled skein of silk , every way taken to compose him , entangleth him . Discontent like Ink poured into a Bottle of Water , turns all into blackness ; O Frind , beware of it . It hinders from praying ; A discontented man will rather poure out his passions then any sober prayers , before the Lord. It hinders examining our selves ; Though quiet and calm waters will like a glass , if we look into it , shew us the image and likeness of our selves , yet troubled and muddy waters will make no such representation . Though the heart when calm and contented , may shew us the face and features of our souls , yet if muddied by discontent they cannot do it . It hinders from hearing ; The noise of passion drowns the voice of the Preacher . Men must with meekness receive the ingrafted word , if they desire it should save their souls , Iam. 1. When a Fountain is troubled , there can no Water be drawn out of it , but what is filthy and unsavoury ; When a person is discontented , all his duties are distas●eful and unacceptable to God. Therefore Christ more then once diswads his Disciples from it ; Let not your hearts be troubled ; Let not your heart be troubled , neither let it be afraid , Joh. 14. 1 , 27. Diogenes resolved , since many evils would befal him , to keep himself steady in all ; he would oppose Resolution to Fortune , Nature to the Law , his Reason to his Affections ; But the Christian hath a better guide , and better grounds for contentedness . There be several thoughts which may quiet and compose the heart in all occurents . 1. That Infinite wisdom ordaineth whatsoever befalleth me , and the present condition that I am in , is ever best for me . If a greater portion of outward good things , had been good for me , I had had it ; my Father is not so careless of his Children , as to deny them any thing that is good for them , and if it be not good for me , why should I defire it ? He acteth without reason , as well as without religion , who craveth what is hurtful to him . If my condition were cut out by the will of malicious men , I might have some ground of grumbling ; but when it s cut out by the infinite wisdom of a gracious God , I have not the least cause of discontent . I take it ill if my Children be not satisfied with what food and raiment I think fitten for them ; and may not God much more take it ill at my hands , if I sit not down quietly with his allowance , be it more or less ? 2. That the smallest mercy is above my merits ; If my condition be not so good ●s ● desire , yet it is better then I deserve ; If my estate be not so flourishing as I would it should be , it is not so bad as I know it might have been ; Beggars must not be chusers ; They who have nothing but of charity and almes , must be satisfied with a bare allowance , and contentedly be at anothers disposal ; Why doth living man complain ? Lam. 3. 39. Man , a reasonable creature , and complain against his Maker ! Living man complain , when the most miserable estate out of Hell is a mercy to him ! 3. That be our estate as low as it will , it is better then we brought with us into the world . Some give us this reason , why man ( when none besides of the visible creatures ) is born naked , weeping , helpless , b●t to teach him contentedness . Have I any food ? I brought none with me ; Is my garment course and thin ? I was born naked ; Am I blest with any comforts ? I came into the World without any ; Naked came I into the world , and naked shall I go out of the world ; The Lord giveth , and the Lord taketh away , blessed be the name of the Lord. 4. That a better condition might and would make me worse ; If I were mounted high in the world , I should be like the Flag at the top of the Mast , more liable to storms and winds . The full purse invites the Theif , and perhaps may occasion a stab ; when the empty pocket is secure , and the poor man may travail the road without any such danger . Low shrubs escape many a cold blast , with which tall trees are assaulted ; They have no changes , therefore they fear not God , Psa. 55. 7. Atalanta lost the wager she ran for , by gathering up the Golden Apples which Hippomenes for that purpose had thrown in her way . 5. That others who are better then I and more holy , are worse for this world , and suffer more hardships . In spiritual things look on those above thee , that by an honest emulation thou mayst reform and amend ; but in temporal things look on those below thee , that thou mayst not complain or murmur . How many are in fetters , wandring up and down from house and home , set upon the wrack of diseases , and have an ounce of misery for every dram which thou hast ? stay Sirs , said the wise Hary in the Fable , let our estate content us , for as we run from some ; so others run from us . 6. That all shall work for my good . The Saint is sure to thrive by his sufferiugs ; When Children meet with Nuts , or Apples , or Primroses in their way , those are oftimes occasions to make them loyter in their errands , incur their Parents anger , and sometime their late return finds the door shut against them ; when such as meet with danger make the more haste , and their speed procureth them the greater welcome . They who meet with pleasures are apt to loyter ; they who meet with miseries make the more haste , and shall find the better chear . The Christian hath a promise , and the very Godhead of the Almighty engaged for its performance : We know that all things shall work together for good to them that love God , to them that are called according to his purpose , Rom. 8. 28. Why should not the Christian with an holy resolution hold a steady course in all weathers , and though he be forced with cross winds to shift his sails and catch at side winds , yet wisely steer and keep on his course by the Cape of good hope , when he may be certain that every wind that bloweth shall help him forward to his eternal joyful Haven . Though we cannot see how some passages of Gods providence , as persecution , opprossion , loss of relations or estates , sickness or disgrace , should do otherwise then hurt and injure us ; and are ready to darken counsel by words without knowledge , and to say as Iacob , Joseph is not , and Simeon is not , all these are against me . Children are not , Honours are not , Riches are not , Liberty is not ; All these are against me . But Christ may say to us of such severe dispensations , as once to Peter ; What I do thou knowest not now , but shalt know hereafter . The issue will prove a truth in Gods promises , and the conclusion will speak what was in the womb of the promises . I am confident when God sendeth afflictions , they are at that season more fit for me then outward mercies ; and though at present I am ready to blaspheme , yet when I find the fruit of them in being thereby partaker of his holiness I bless him for them . A Lacedaemonian woman , when Sparta had got the day in a battel , could not onely submit but rejoyce though her five Sons were slain in the fight . If I get the victory over one sin , I have cause to rejoyce , though it cost me some outward comforts . 7. That the more I repine the worse I make my condition . A discontented man like one in a barrel of Pikes , which way soever he turns he finds something that pricks , he is best at ease when he lieth still . Murmuring turns whips into Scorpions , and makes that which would be but as a little Finger , heavier then weighty loynes . They who by an even poize may sit safe in a Boat when the waters are rough , by rising up or stirring , are drowned . Passions like rain or mist to the best firrs , breed vermine in the soul. Because this man hath not what his lust craveth , he enjoyeth not what God hath given him ; but like an Asse feedeth on hearbs , whilst he carrieth better food on his back for others . A single mischief by discontent is made double . The Prisoner galls his legs by striving with his fetters . 8. The examples of others may have some prevalency with us ; Abraham , Moses , Paul were eminent for this grace . Many Heathen who were ignorant of the wisdome , goodness , and faithfullness of God , yet upon principles of morality were constant and even in their behaviours , not changing their countenances with the change of their fortunes and conditions , but bringing their mind to their estates , when they could not bring their estates to their minds . Xantippe said of Socrates that she always found him returning home ( though he often met with affronts and abusive language abroad ) with the same face and carriage with which he went out . Furius Camillus was ever like himself , neither by obtaining the dictatourship inflamed with arrogancy , nor being banished his Country fick with melancholy . The whole body of Rome after their disaster at Canna , where their Consul was slain , and the flower of their Gentry and Souldiery cut off by Hannibal ; when the whole world did ring their Passing-bell , and judged their Fortune dying and desperate , were even then Heroick in their carraiage , and acted nothing unworthy their former greatness . In their Asian enterprise they proposed before the battel conditions to Antiochus as if they had conquered him , and after the ●ight and victory offered him the same terms as if they had not conquered . Abdolomius a poor Gardine● , though of the Kings stock , when advanced by Alexander to be King of Zidon , and asked by him how it was possible for him to endure his poverty with contentedness ; answered , I pray the gods I may continue the government of this Kingdom with the like mind ; for those hands were sufficient for me to live by , and as I had nothing so I wanted nothing . 9. The Lord is righteous in all his ways , and holy in all his works . He doth thee no wrong , he cannot do thee any wrong , now why shouldst thou complain when not injured ? It s unreasonable to murmur when a man hath right done him . 10. God is gracious and good in all his dealings with thee . If thine estate be but little , yet that little with the fear of the Lord is better then the possessions of many wicked men , Psal. 37. A penny which is the earnest of some great bargain , is another manner of thing then an ordinary penny , and more worth then many pounds , being given and received under another notion Thy little is an earnest of infi●itely more then thou canst imagine , and therefore more precious then others thousands . A dinner of hearbs with the love of thy God , in infinitely more elegible then the stalled Oxen of the wicked , and his wrath therewith . Who would desire Eglons present with the dagger ; Siserahs milk with the nail , and hammer ; and Hamans banquet with the gallows , that trod upon the heels of it ? Truely such is the riches of every wicked man. The smallness of thy temporal , may increase thy spiritual estate . If God recompence thy want of earthly , with a supply of heavenly riches , thou art no loser . Nicepsorus tells us of one Cyrus a Courtier , in the time of Theodosius the younger , who through the envious occupation of some favourites being spoiled of his goods , of a Pagan became a Christian , and of a Christian a Minister of Christ. Endoxia the daughter of a Philosopher in Athens , being cast out of her Fathers house by unkind brethren , and coming to Constantinople to beseech Theodosius to right a poor Orphan , found such favour in his eyes , that he made her his Queen . Affliction is the way to honour with men , to more holiness from God ; when Prosperity causeth our fall both into sin and misery . He holds the garments of his godliness fast in a boysterous wind , who would lay it off in a Sunny day . Lastly , If thou woudst exercise thy self to godliness , take heed of those things that will hinder thee therein . As if a man would have his trees to thrive , he must not onely open the earth sometimes , and mind its watering , but also lop off superfluous branches ; and as a Gardiner if he would have his hearbs and flowers to flourish , must be sure to keep his Banks and Beds well weeded , as well as dunged or watered ; so if thou wouldst thrive and flourish in godliness , ●●ere is a necessity of avoiding what is hur●ful to it , as well as of using what is helpful . There be several things which will keep a Christian from the exercise of his holy calling , some of which I shall but briefly name , having had occasion to speak of others , and also to these in other Chapters . 1. Avoid evil company . Wicked persons delight to have or to make fellows . Hence we find in Scripture that they go as the unclean beasts into the Arke in pairs ; Adam and Eve , Simeon and Levi , Ammon and Ionadab , Hymeneus and Alexander , Phygellus and Hermogenes , Ananias and Saphira . Can a man take fire in his bosome and not be burned ? Expect not that the flowers of thy graces should flourish , unless these weeds be removed from them . He that walketh in the rain must expect to be wet , he that walketh in the Sun must expect to be tanned , and he that walks among polluting persons must expect to be polluted . 2. Take heed of idleness . An idle man is like an heap of dry straw , quickly fired by the sparkes of Satans temptations , Prov. 28. 19. 1 Tim. 5. 13. 2 Thess. 3. 10 , 11. Whist the Oyster lieth gaping against the Sun , he is devoured by the Crabfish . Whilst the Christian lieth lazing on the bed of idleness , he is a prey to Satan . The purest river water if it stand still in a vessel , will become unsavoury . The best corn if not stird will be musty . As the Caterpillar consumeth the leaf , and the Canker the rose , so will idleness thy godliness , Ezek. ●6 . 49. A● men in war lying in the field , if they be slothful and lie lazing on the ground , must expect to be a prey to their enemies . The Amalekites found this by experience ; the sluggard will rather be kild , then take the pains to defend himself . A slothful man , who will not imploy his stock , cannot expect to improve his stock . The diligent hand maketh rich in goods and in grace . 3. Love not the World ; The thornes of the world hinder the growth of the good seed of grace . This worlds best , are the other worlds worst husbands . It s hard for the Periwinckle in the Sea to swim , because of the house on her back ; It s impossible for them to swim Heaven-ward , who have the world not on their backs , but in their hearts . The more thou delightest in this world , the more thou wilt neglect the other world . He who is taken with , and fond of an Harlot , will quickly abate in his love to , nay cast off his-honest wife . The Palm tree is least at the bottom , and the higher it groweth , the thicker and greater it is , contrary to all other trees . The higher a Christian mounts in his affections , and the more heavenly he is , the more he wil● thrive in Christianity . The Child cannot thrive that feedeth on Dirt ; the more a man love●h the earth , the lesse he will do or suffer for heaven ; Such Esaus will sell the birthrigh● for a mess of pottage ; such Gehezies will dishonour and be●ie their Master for a talent of silver ; Such Achans will destroy themselves and families , and trouble a whole Israel for a wedge of gold ; Such Iudasses will sell their Lord and Saviour for a goodly price , Thirty pieces ; For a piece of a Bread such a one will transgresse . The fire which breaks out of this bramble , devours the Cedars of Lebanon . The Athenians did set up a pillar , wherein they published him to be an enemy to their City , who should bring gold out of Media , as an instrument to corrupt them . Inordinate love of creatures , is a canker which in time will eat up the very life of godliness . Reader , If thou art risen with Christ , seek those things that are above where Christ is . It is recorded by divers Historians , both of the East and West Indians , and some Blackamoors in Guinea between both , that many subjects willingly dye with their Princes , and Women with their Husbands ; that some Men give their Wives , others their Children , others their Servants to be buried alive in the Grave , with their Kings to serve him ( as they conceit ) in the other world ; that some Women cast them●elves into the fire , in which the dead bodies of their Husbands are consumed . If those can cast away and contemn the world , and all things in it , for the love of a poor wretched creature ; what a shame is it to Christians , if the love of Jesus Christ their Head , their Prince , their Husband do not mortifie them to the world , and make them dispise all in it , to injoy him whilst they live , and to be with him where he is when they dye ? 4. Allow thy self in ●o known sin ; This like a thief used to the shop , which will steal away all thy gains , and keep thee assuredly from thriving in thy heavenly calling . There is no possibility of making Religion thy business , without the gracious concurrence of the holy Spirit ; he it is that must lay the foundation , rear up the building , and perfect what he beginneth , but thou canst not expect his company or assistance , if thou harbourest any corruption in thy heart ; though this Dove may flye to thee , desirous to make its abode with thee , as the Dove went of out the Ark , yet if it behold the earth under water , thy heart in any way of wickedness , it will return again whence it came ; Doves will lye clean or be gone . Bees will not continue in a stinking or impure Hive , therefore those that would not loose them , prepare the stools where they set them with perfumes and sweet-smelling boughs , lest ill savours force them to forsake their stations . Thus saith Chrysostom , deals the holy spirit ; Our souls are the hives , which if perfumed with grace , invite his presence , but if polluted with any known sin , provoke him to depart . O let there not be any way of wickedness in thee , if thou wouldst run the way of Gods commandments . CHAP. XIV . Motives inciting Christians to exercise themselves to Godliness . The Vanity of other exercises ; The brevity of mans life ; The Patterns of others . THirdly , I shall annex some Motives to quicken thee to exercise thy self to godliness , and then conclude the Treatise . First , Consider , The vanity of all other exercises and labours ; The wise man begins his Ecclesiastes with Vanity of Vanities , all is Vanity ; and after a large and exact demonstration thereof makes this use , and ends his book with , Hear the conclusion of the whole matter , fear God and keep his commandements , for this is the whole duty of man. It may be Reader , thou takest much pains , and spendest much time , thou risest early , and sittest up late , and wastest thy body , and wearest out thy strength , and toylest , and moylest about the things of this life ; but alass , to what purpose ? to what profit ? The foot of all thy accompts , when at the end of thy life the total comes to be summed up , will be onely Ciphers , and signifie nothing ; Thou workest all this while at the labour in vain ; like the Disciples , thou fishest all night and catchest nothing ; thou spendest thy strength for what is not bread , and thy labour for what will not satisfie ; If the word of truth , and the God for whom it is impossible to lye , may be beleived , all the things of this life separated from godliness , are lying vanities , broken cisternes , ashes , lyes , wind , vanity of vanities , and things of naught , Joh. 2. 8. Ier. 2. 13. 1. Sam. 12. 21. Hos. 10. 13. and 12. 1. Eccles. 1. 2. Hab. 2. 13. It is Chrysostoms saying , that if he had been to Preach to all the world , and could so have spoken that all should have heard him , he would have chosen that Text ; O mortal men , how long will ye love vanity , and follow after leasing ! Democritus gave that for the reason of his continual laughter , which occasioned his Country-men to look on him as distracted ; That when he beheld the labour and diligence , the running and riding , the sweating and painting ; nay , the fighting and killing of men to get one above another , and to heap up a fading treasure , he could not but deride their folly . Indeed though the Heathen laughed at the ridiculousness of such persons , the sensible Christian seeth great cause to weep at the emptiness and unprofitablenss of such actions , and the madness of the Agents . Cyprian advised his friend Donatus to suppose himself at the top of the highest mountain , and thence to behold the tumults and chances of this wavering world , and told him that then he could not but either laugh at it , or pity it . It s no such wonder that brutish horses should leave good provender to feed on litter , as some Jades do ; but that men who are indued with reasonable souls , that seeming Christians , who have a Table spread before them with hidden Manna , with Angels food , with meat indeed , and drink indeed , withal t●e dainties of Heaven , should neglect these and feed on ashes , may well be matter both of admiration and lamentation . The holy Ghost tells such , that they follow after vain things which cannot profit them , 1 Sam. 12. 21. All outward things are like an olive or date stone hard to crack or cleave , but when with much labour they are opened , they are nothing worth . The Wise Moralist speaking of such laborious loyterers as work hard for nothing , compares them to such as spend many months to learn to write with their feet , and when they have learned it , are never the Better for it . Caesar compares them to such as fish for gudgeons with a golden hook , hazard more then the fish when taken are worth . Life is precious , health , and strength , and time are precious ; because all these have a relation to an eternal estate ; now how foolish is he that wasteth them upon toys and trifles , and neglecteth provision for the other world ? Surely every man walketh in a vain shew , surely they are disquieted in vain , Psal. 39. 6. Observe Rearder , how dearly men pay for their guilded nothings , for their earthen potsherds coverd with silver dross ; they walk up and down , run hither and thither , disquiet themselves with cares and fears , and heart piercing frights and vexations for a vain shew ; The people labour in the fire , and weary themselves for very vanity , Habbak . 2. 13. Their work is hot and hard , they labour in the fire , even to lassitude and weariness . But is it about the noble concerments of their immortal souls ? Is it that their sins may be pardoned , the vitiosity of their natures healed , and that their souls may be fitted for the heavenly mansions ? No , it is for very vanity . For that which will not afford them the least good , or make them in any respect better , or blessed . Alas , how much below , nay contrary to reason doth man act , to cast away pearls upon swine , gold upon dross , diamonds upon dirt , to throw away his time and seasons of grace , which are more worth then rubies , then all riches , upon that which is vanity and vexation of spirit ! It was a worthy check , which Cineas the Oratour gave to the monstrous Ambition of Pyrrhus ; When that King of Epyrus was solicited by the Tarentines and other people in Italy , to become the head of their league against the Romans ; whilst he was musing upon that affair , his favourite Cineas came into his presence , and perceiving the King in a study , desires the knowledge of his thoughts ; Pyrrhus courteously opens his heart to him , and asketh his advice whether he were best to accept of that honourable offer or no ; but resolving before to joyn with them , and promised him self success ; The Oratour answerd him , That in case he should joyn with them and prevail , What would he then do ? Pyrrhus told him , Then Sardinia and Sicily will be at my command . Cineas consented and replied , What then will you do ? Pyrrhus told him , Then Africa will soon be conquered . Cineas asked , What then will you do ? Then said Pyrrhus , Grecia will yield to my victorious armes . Cineas continued , When Grecia is brought under what will you do next ? The King perceiving the intention of his favourite , replied smiling , Then Cineas We will sit still rest our selves and be merry . That said Cineas you may do presently without any bloody fight or barbarous outragious acts , without tiresome marches , pinching quarters , tormenting fears of losing the day without any hazard or danger to your self or others . Truly Reader , I may tell thee , if thou art one that busiest thy self about a throng of worldly businesses , and crowdest thy mind and heart with projects and designs , to increase thy heaps , and advance thy name , and provide for thy children , and procure thy self a comfortable subsistance for a few days , that after all thy care , and trouble , and restlesness , and vexation , and hazards , and dangers , thou wilt be never the better : Thou wilt , but like them that spend their time , and money , and thoughts for the Phylosophers stone , reap thy labour for thy pains , and find all unprofitable . Felix Platerus is of opinion , that all Alchymists are mad , in being so laborious for nothing . May I not say to thee truly concerning thy pains and time , what Iudas did falsly concerning the Oyntment , To what purpose is this Waste ? To what purpose is thy waste of time , and strength , and health ? Alas , what profit will all thy pains bring thee in ? The Vanity of other labours will appear in that all other things are Unsuitable , Deceitful , Unsatisfying , Vexatious and Uncertain . 1. Vnsuitable to thy soul. Gold is unsuitable to hunger , food to the sick , honour to the weary ; so are all the comforts of this life to thy soul. What is an earthly treasure to the poor in spirit ? what is the best Physick garden to a wounded conscience ? what are all the dainties on the table of the Creation , to one that is hungry and thirsty after the righteousness of Christ , and the grace ? of the Spirit ? Bodily things are not suitable to our spirits , nor temporal substance to an immortal soul. The fattest increase of the earth , is from the excrements of beasts , which must needs be far from answering the nature of an heaven born spirit . 2. Deceitful . As Iael to Sisera , the world brings forth meat to us in a lovdly dish , and saith , Come in my Lord turn in ; but she puts her hand to the nail , and her right hand to the Work-mans hammer ; with the hammer she smites foolish Sisera's that trust her , she smites off their heads after she hath pierced their temples . It serveth its greatest darlings in their extremity , as Plutarch reporteth Pompey to have served Cicero ; who when Cicero fled to him in his misery for succour , fled out at a back door , and left him to the mercy of his enemies . The world next mans heart is the greatest cheat and impostour in the world . Like an Host it welcomes us in our Inns with smiles and embraces , but kills us in our Beds when we suspect no such matter . As the wiseman wisheth them to be moderate and abstinent at a full table , and to put a knife to thy throat , for they are deceitful meat ; so I may say of all the dainties and delicates of the Creation , they are deceitful meat , pleasant but poyson . Like the Bramble the world promiseth us protection and refreshment under its shadow , if we will suffer it to be our King and reign over us , but a fire comes out of it to destroy the Cedars of Lebanon ; the souls of men . As the Plover to put a man out of his way , flyeth before him clapping her wings , that he minding the noise she makes , and following her , might not find her nest . So the world with its noise and clamours , its songs and musick , keeps men still in admiration of her , and hinders them from finding out her cozenage and theivery . He that trusteth in vanity , vanity shall be his recompence , Job 15. 31. It is reported of one Oromazes that he had an inchanted egge , in which ( as he boasted himself ) he had inclo●ed all the happiness of the world , but being broken , nothing was found in it same wind . Truly , such is the worlds inside , wind , whatever appeararance it hath in the eye of a worldling ; As the forbidden tree seemed to promise knowledge to our first Parents , but it took their knowledge from them , and brought in ignorance ; so the world promiseth great matters , much joy and delight , but payeth us with the contrary sorrow and horror . The worldlings voice is like that of the thief , Come let us lay wait , &c. We shall find all precious substance , and fill our houses with spoil ; when alas instead of precious substance , they find pernicious shadows ; and instead of filling their Houses with spoil , they fill their hearts with Gall and Worm-wood . The world as a cunning Curtizan flattereth and fawneth upon the young gallant , to commit spiritual uncleanness with her , and then casteth him from the height of fancied delights , into the depth of real horror , Proverbs 1. 10 , 11. 3. Vnsatisfying ; All these sublunary comforts are but skin-deep . As a mist they may wet the blade , but leave the root of the corn dry , they may cause a smile in the face , but cannot refresh the heart , or satisfie the soul ; The Country-man thinks if he were at the top of some high hill , he should touch the Heavens , but when with much pains and sweat and toil , he is gotten thither , he finds himself deceived . Men think if they could attain to such a degree of honour , or such a quantity of riches , or enjoy such brutish pleasures , then they should be satisfied , but they find their thirst after creatures , as immoderate as before ; like men in a Feavor or Dropsie , the more they drink , the more they desire ; He that loveth silver , shall not be satisfied with silver , nor he that loveth gold with increase ; Many men have too much of the world , but no worldly man hath enough ; His voice still is like the Horse-leech , Give , Give . Though he hath enough to destroy him , yet he hath not enough to content him . When the Parthians had taken Crassus the covetous Roman , who had robbed the Temple , they poured molted Gold into his mouth , saying , Drink now thy sill thou greedy wretch , of that which thou hast so long thirsted after . The Covetous Caliph of Babylon , when taken Prisoner , was set by the Great Cham of Tartary , in the midst of those treasures which he had wretchedly scraped together , and bidden eat his fill and satisfie himself , but amongst all his heaps of silver and gold , he was miserably famished . The soul will starve for all the food which the whole world af●ordeth it . A worldling is like Tantalus , who had Apples at his Lips , and water at his Chin , yet pined for want ; In the midst of his sufficiency , he is in straights ; If thou tryest the whole creation , and empannellest every creature upon the Iury , to enquire where satisfaction is to be had , they will write Ignoramus upon the Bill ; If thou askest the Sea , it will answer as concerning wisdom ; The Sea saith , It is not in me ; And the Depth saith , ●It is not in me ; The Earth saith , It is not in me ; Ask every worldly blessing particularly , and it will say , It is not in me . Thou mayst call and cry to them in thy need for comfort , as eagerly and earnestly as Rachel for children , and will each answer as Iacob did here , Am I in Gods stead , that hath with-holden thy desire from thee ? Or as the Angel to the women , Why seek ye the living among the dead ? he is risen , he is not here ; Am I a poor finite being in Gods stead to satisfie the vast desires of thy capacious soul ? Why seekest thou living comforts , amongst dead creatures , it is gone , it is not here ? The World entertains its best guests , no better then Caligula did his favourites , whom he invited to a feast , and when they were come , set golden dishes , and golden cups empty before them , and told them , they were welcome , and he would have them feed heartily ; All the trees in the garden of the creation , are like those trees which Solinus mentioneth in Assyria , the fruit whereof seemeth as yellow as gold , but being toucht , is as rotten as dirt . 4. The things of this world are vexatious . Their sting paineth far more then their honey pleaseth ; They are like the Egyptian reed , which will not onely fail them that trust it , but also pierce them with splinters , and wound them deeply , sooner or later ; They who will be rich , pierce themselves through with many sorrows , 1 Tim. 6. 9. Instead of satisfaction , thou wilt find vexation . The things of this world are not onely wind , for their vanity ; but also thorns , for the vexation they cause . As when the blood is corrupted by a poisoned Arrow , it flieth to the heart , thinking to find some remedy there , but as soon as it toucheth the heart , it findeth death where it lookt for life . Thus men that are pressed with miseries , run to the world as their refuge , hoping to finde comfort and refreshment there ; but alass , that doth increase their afflictions , and gives them rather matter of more mourning then any abatement of their sorrows . They who dive into the bottom of this Sea of the world to the hazard of their lives , instead of the pearl of contentment and happiness , which they take such pains for , bring up nothing but their hands full of the sand and gravel of vexation and anguish . All the ways of worldly delights are strowed with nettles and briars , so that its greatest darlings are but like Bears robbing a Bee hive , that with much labour get a little honey , but are soundly stung for their pains . Therefore reason , much more religion may sound a retreat , and call us off from our eager pursuit of these lying vanities . Car on il ny● ar●en a gaigner que des coups , volontiers il ny vapas : No man makes haste to the market where there is nothing to be bought but blows . 5. Vncertain . There is no constancy in outward comforts . As Brooks in Winter are carried with violence , and run with a mighty stream , flowing over with abundance of water on every side , when there is no want nor need of waters ; but in the heat of Summer is dried up , when water is scanty and hard to be had . Such is the friendship of the world ; t will promise us many things when we have need of nothing ; but when the wind turns and afflictions overtake us , it is like a tree withered for want of sap , and as a ditch without any water to refresh us . When the sun of our prosperity is hid and coverd with a cloud , these shadows vanish and disappear . As leaves fall off in Autumn , so doth the friendship of creatures fail men , when the sap of that maintenance which commanded their company , is withdrawn from them . Man in honour doth not abide , Psa. 49. As the rising Sun , coming into our Horizon like a Giant , ready to run his race , appearing to us with a full and glorious countenance , within an hours space is obscured with mists , or darkned with clouds ; and however , if it meet with neither of these , when it arriveth at its noon-day height , it declines , descendeth , setteth , and is buried under us : So the Ambitious person sheweth himself to the world as chief favourite at Court , with much pomp and pride , by and by his honour is eclipsed , by the hate of the People , or frowns of his Prince , or envy of his fellow Courtiers ; or if not , yet he dyeth , and carrieth nothing away , and his glory doth not descend after him . The like is evident of earthly treasures , they are soon gone , though not soon gotten . As a gallant ship , well riggd , trimmed , tackled , manned , with her top and top gallant , and her well spread sails , putteth out of harbour to the admiration of many spectators ; but within a few days is split upon some dangerous rock , or swallowed up of some disasterous tempest , or taken by some ravenous Pyrate ; so are this worlds goods on a sudden taken from their owners , or their owners from them . There is a hole in our strongest Bags , and rust in our choicest mettal . The Apostle calls riches uncertain riches , and honour a fancy , and all the things of this world a fashion , 1 Tim. 6.17 . Act. 24. 1 Cor. 7. 29. We are not certain to keep these birds in our yards whilst we live ; for Riches make themselves wings and flie away ; but we are certain , if they do not leave us , that we shall leave them . We brought nothing into this world , and it is certain we shall carry nothing out of the world . Reader , how unwise is he who neglecteth eternal substance , for fading nothings ! The Romans are recorded as guilty of much folly , that in their fight with Mithridates , they were so eager after their prey , that thereby they missed taking the King , who could not otherwise have escaped their hands . Ah! how foolish art thou , if through thy violent pursuit of a perishing world , thou shouldst lose an eternal kingdom ! As Constantinople was lost through the covetousness of the Citizens ; so is the crown of life and glory , the City that hath a foundation through mens eager endeavours after earthly things . The beloved Disciple doth not unfitly represent all the beauties , and glories , and excellencies of this lower world , under the name and notion of the Moon , which is ever in changes , and never looks upon us twice with the same face , and when it is at the fullest , is blemished with a dark spot , and next door to declining , Rev. 12. 1. An old man of Brasil discoursing with the Merchants of France and Portugal , and perceiving the long and dangerous voyages which they took to get riches ; asked them , If men did not dye with them as well as in other Countries ? They told him , Yea. He asked them , who should possess their riches after their deaths ? They said , their Children if they had any ; if not , their next kindred . Now , saith the old man , I perceive ye are fools ; for what necessity is there for you to pass the troublesome Seas wherein so many perish , and to run so many hazards ? Is not the earth that brought you up , sufficient to bring up your children and kindred also ? We have children and kindred that are likewise dear to us ; but when we consider that the earth which nourisheth us is sufficient to nourish them , we rest satisfied . That busie Bee and great trouble-world Alexander , had a tart yet wise reproof from Diogenes , when being taken with the Philosophers witty answers , he bade him ask what he would and he would give it him ; The Philosopher desired him to grant him the smallest portiou of immortality . Alexander said , that is not in my power to give ; Then saith the Philosopher , Why doth Alexander take such pains , and make such s●ir to conquer the world , when he cannot assure himself of one moment to enjoy it ! Ah! why should thou neglect thy God and Christ , and soul and eternal good , and tyre and weary thy self night and day , for these unsatisfying comforts which may leave thee to morrow , and of which thou canst not secure the enjoyment of one moment ! If God complain of wicked men , and threatens them with fierce wrath and fiery indignation , for selling the righteous for silver , and the poor for a pair of shoes , and would make them know that he valued his people at an higher price , and would not suffer them to be sold at such a rate : What will become of thee if thou shouldst sell thy soul , thy salvation , thy God , thy Christ , for silver , for vain , unsatisfying corruptible silver , when their value is above millions of worlds ! O take heed that thou dost not cast away thy self for such transitory trifles . Let not the Worlds venison cause thee to lose thy Fathers blessing ; T was a poor change of Glaucus to exchange gold for copper ; but O what a sad exchange wilt thou make to exchange heaven for earth , the endless fruition of the blessed God for a moments enjoyment of creatures ! Thou wouldst condemn that Mariner of folly , who seeing a Fish in the water , should leap into the Sea to ca●ch it , which together with his life he loseth ; What a fool art thou for mortal comforts to lose an immortal crown ! The women of Corinth , saith an ancient Father , did set up Tapers at the birth of every child , with proper names upon each of them , and that Taper which lasted longest in burning , had its proper name transferred to the Child . God himself gives the highest and richest , though conceited worldling , his name ; Thou fool , this night , &c. Nabal is his name , and folly is with him . The plain truth is , the world is the ruine and destruction of men . Its pleasures and honours make the sinner merry and jolly , as the hearb Sardonia the eater , who eating dyeth ; They that will be rich , fall into temptations and snares , and many hurtful lusts , which drown men in perdition , 1 Tim. 6. 9. The world serveth its darlings as that tyrannous Emperor did his servants , let them through a sliding floor into a Chamber ●ull of Roses , that being smothered in them , they might meet the bitterness of death in sweetness ; O do not spend thy strength for that which is not bread , but hearken to Christ , and thou shalt eat that which is good , and thy soul shall delight it self in fatness , Isa. 55.3,4 . Secondly , Consider the brevity of thy life . He who hath but a little time , and a great task , must work hard , or his work will not be done . The Birds know their time , and improve it ; in some Countries , the shorter the days are , the faster they flye . Heathen have been sensible of this . Theophrastus cryed out on his dying bed , Ars longa , vita brevis , Time was short , and not sufficient for humane arts and sciences . Seneca saith of himself , Nullus mihi per otium exiit dies , partem noctis studiis devovi ; I lose no day through idleness , but even devote part of the night to my studies . The very Devils follow their cursed trade with the greater diligence , knowing that their time is short , Rev. 12. 12. Now Reader , Consider how few thy days are ; What is your life ! even a vapour , a coming , and a going , a flood and an ebbe , and then thou art in the Ocean of eternity . I have read of one , that being asked , What life was ; was answered answerless ; for the party of whom the question was demanded , onely turned his back and went away . We come into the world and take a turn or two about in it , and God saith , Return ye Children of men ; A little child may number the days of the oldest man ; We project high things , and lay foundations for an earthly eternity ; but the longest life is less then a drop to that Ocean . Yet alas , the most are blown off in the spring , and few continue to fall off in Autumn . Plutarch compareth Galba , Otho , and Vitellius , in regard of their short reign , to Kings in Tragedies , which last no longer then the time in which they are represented on the Stage . The River Hypanis in Scythia , bringeth forth every day little bladders , out of which come certain Flies , which are bred in the morning , fledg'd at noon , and dye at night ; Man cometh up like a flower , and is cut down , he fleeth as a shadow and continueth not , Job 14. 2. This short time posteth away with speed ; How soon do our days vanish ? Iob tells us that his little time made great haste to be gone ; My days are swifter then a Weavers shuttle , Job 7. 6. The Weavers shuttle is an instrument of very swift motion , and so swift that it is used for a Proverb , for all things that are swift and speedy . Radius Textoris dictum Proverbiale ; Radio velocius . The Latines express it by a beam of the Sun , or a word which signifieth a ray , which is darted in a moment from one end of the Heavens to another ; Such speed doth our life make to pass away . Cardinal Bellarmin , when he had a full prospect of the Sun going down , to perceive the quickness of its motion , took a Psalter in his hand , and before he had twice read over the 51. Psalm , the whole body of the Sun was set , whereby he concluded , the earth being twenty one thousand miles in compass , the Sun must go seven thousand miles in half a quarter of an hour ; However the Cardinal might be mistaken in his reckoning ; Yet , Mans days are swifter then a post , they flee away , they see no good ; They are passed away as the swift ships ; as the Eagle that hasteth to the prey , Job 9. 25 , 26. It s our shame and misery that our days should be so swift , and we so slack ; that our time should be as speedy as a post or ship , or Eagle , and our hearts as slow about our eternal concernments , as a Snail . Our negligence herein speaks us brutish , and void of common sense . Reason will teach him that followeth its directions , to be most indust●ious about matters of such importance . The Heathen Historian can agree with Scripture , in this ; Vita nostra sicut fabula , non refert quam diu sed quam bene ; Our life passeth away , as a tale that is told ; it matters not much whether it be long or short , but whether it be well or ill . Surely it concerneth thee Reader to make Religion thy business , and work the work of God , when thine everlasting happiness dependeth on it , and thy time is so short that thou hast to do it in . In the days of Ptolomeus Philopater , when the huge and great Anchor of the Ship Thalmegos was laid out upon the shore , the Children of Alexandria did ride upon the stalk and crept through the ring of the Anchor , as if it had been made purposely for their pastime , whereas wise men knew it was appointed for better uses , namely , to stable and make sure the great vessel in storms and tempests . Truly , so do too many serve time , they play and toy , and trifle it away , as if God had given it to them for that end ; when he who hath but half an eye , as we say , may see that it was given for better purposes , viz. to furnish his soul for his eternal voyage , and thereby to help to stablish and fasten him when he shall lanch into the stormy Ocean . Protogenes made himself ridiculous in the judgement of all that are sober , for spending seven years in drawing Ialisus and his Dog ; for though the most excellent Pictures are longest in drawing , yet to spend years about that which may be finished in days , argueth want of wisdom . But having spoken somewhat largely to this in the sixt Chap. I am the more brief in this . Thirdly , Consider the examples of others , who have wrought hard at this heavenly Calling . Cicero tells us , Nothing prevailes more with men then similitudes and examples ; Indeed worthy patterns are of great power . Thucydides brake forth into tears out of love to learning , upon hearing Herodotus read an history that he had written . Themistocles tells us , The statue of Miltiades would not suffer him to sleep . Alexander was much provoked to valiant acts , by reading the prowess of Achilles and Hector in Homer . Cesar was so stirred to courage by reading the conquests of Alexander in his youth . that he wept for anger that he had done nothing worthy of himself at that age . Iron put into the fire is turned into fire ; con●ider therefore the Prophets and Apostles of the Lord , how diligent they were at their duty , how hard they wrought for God. The great Apostle was indefatigably industrious for his soul and his Saviour . Consider him in reference to his outward man , how unwearied was he at his Masters wo●k , and in reference to his inward man , how zealous , how fervent in spirit , serving the Lord ! From Jerusalem to Illyricum I have preached the Gospel . His travails are computed to be 12970. miles . He gives us when necessitated thereunto , a brief Catalogue of his actions and passions for Christ. Are they ministers of Christ ? I am more , in labours more abundant , in stripes above measure , in prisons more frequent , in deaths oft . Of the Iews five times received I forty stripes save one . Thrice was I beaten with rods , once was I stoned , thrice I suffered shipwrack , a night and a day have I been in the deep . In journyings often , in perils of water , in perils of robbers , in perils by mine own Countrymen , in perils by the Heathen , in perils in the City , in perils in the wilderness , in perils in the sea , in perils by false brethren . In weariness and painfulness in watchings often , in hunger and thirst , in fastings often , in cold and nakedness ; besides those things which are without , that which cometh upon me daily the care of all the Churches . Who is weak , and I am not weak ? who is offended , and I burn not ? 2 Cor. 11. 23. to 30. Reader , think , thou hearest the Apostle speaking to thee , as once to the Corinthians , Be ye followers of me , as I am of Christ. How did our blessed Saviour work the work of him that sent him while it was day ! He went about doing good . Godliness was his meat and drink , I have meat to eat , which ye know not of . My meat is to do the will of him that sent me , and to finish his work . He wrought so hard that he forgot to eat his bread , and was taken by his kindred to be mad . It was his sleep and rest . He went into a mountain to pray , and continued all night in prayer to God. He prayed with strong cries and groans : And being in an agony he prayed the more fervently . He was taken to be about fifty years old when he was little above thirty , so much was he worn out with labour for his God , Act. 10. 38. Ioh. 4. 34. Luk. 6. 12. Mar. 1. 34. Heb. 5. 7. Mar. 3. 20. O Reader , let Christ be the Copy after which thou wilt write , and the pattern which thou wilt follow , and be a follower of others as they are of Christ Jesus . Did Christ work so hard for thee ? did he lose his food , and sleep , and wear out himself , that his strength was dried up like a potsherd , and his heart was melted like wax in the midst of his bowels ? and wilt not thou spend and be spent for thy Saviour ? I would say for thy own soul ; for in serving him thou servest thy self . Think of it when thou art trifling away thy time , and neglecting thy spiritual watch , and dull and dead in holy duties , how eager and earnest , how zealous and sedulous thy Lord Jesus was in working out thy salvation ; he did not play , nor dally about the work of thy redemption , but made it his business , and did what he was called to with all his heart , and soul , and strength . CHAP. XV. The excellency of this Calling , and the Conclusion of the Treatise . FOurthly , Consider the excellency of this Calling . As it is said of God in respect of beings ; Who is like thee O God! Among all the Gods none is to be compared to thee . So I may say of godliness in respect of Callings , What is like thee O Godliness ! amongst all callings none is comparable to thee . 1. It is the most honourable Calling . The Master that thou are bound to , is King of Kings , and Lord of Lords , the Fountain of honour , and Lord of glory ; One of whom the greatest Princes and Potentates of the world hold their Crowns and Scepters , to whom they must kneel and do their homage ; One to whom the whole creation is lesse then nothing . The work that thou art imployed in , is not servile and mean , but high and noble ; the worship of the great God , walking and conversing with his blessed Majesty , subduing brutish lusts , living above this beggarly earth , a conversation in heaven , a conflict with , and conquest over this dreggy flesh and drossy world , and powers of hell , to which the greatest battels and victories of the most valiant warriours that ever drew the sword are worse then childrens play . To conquer our passions is more then to conquer kingdomes . Th●mistocles is renowned by Cicero for telling some who disparaged him for his ignorance in playing on the Lute ; That he knew not how to play on the Lute , yet he knew how to take a City . To subdue one lust is more then to subdue a thousand Cities . Thy fellow servants are the elect of God , glorious Angels and Saints , who are higher then the Kings of the earth ; Princes in all lands , a crown of glory , a royal diadem , a chosen generation , the excellent of the earth , vessels of Gold , the Children of the most high , of whom the world is not worthy . The Priviledges of this calling and company are eminent . Adoption , remission , growth in grace , divine love , perseverance ●n holiness , an eternal kingdom , are all contained in the Charter granted to thi● Corporation . The covenant of grace , that hive of sweetness , that mine of gold , that cabinet of jewels , to which all the world is but an heap of dust , is their part and portion , and contains more in i● for their comfort , then heaven and earth is able to contain . To serve God is one of the fairest flowers in the Saints garland of honour ; hence the Lords kinsman glorieth in being the Lords servant , and the Lords Mother calleth her self his handmaid , Iude ver . 1. Luk. 1. 38. If the meanest offices about earthly Princes are esteemed honourable , what an honour is it to wait on the King of heaven ? The Saints duty is their preferment , and that service which is commanded them a priviledge . The great Apostle boasteth of his Chain for God as his glory and credit , and holdeth it up as a mark and badge of honour : For the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain , Act. 28. 20. and begins one of his Epistles with this honourary Title , Paul a prisoner of Iesus Christ , Philem. 1. It is not earthly riches that make a man honourable ; we mistake in calling and counting rich men the best men in the Parish : Riches without godliness are but a gold ring in a swines snout , for which the brute is nothing the better . It is not aiery applause or worldly preferments that will make a man honourable . Titles are but like feathers in the hat , or glistering scarfes under the armes , which adde not the least worth to the man that wears them . A great letter makes no more to the sense of the word then a small one . Worship , Honour● Grace , Highness , Majesty , make nothing to the real intrinsick value of any person . The ungodly Monarchs of the world are but beasts in Gods account . Anti●chus Epiphanes , whose name signifieth Illustrious , whom the Samaritans stiled the Mighty God , is called by the Holy Ghost , because of his ungodliness , a vile person , Dan. 11. 21. In his days shall stand up a vile person . All honour without holiness is fading , as well as fancied rather then real . External nobility though it glister in the face of the world , is but as Seneca saith , vitrea , brittle as glass , and compounded of earth . The Potentates of the world are often like Tennis-balls , tossed up on high to fall down low ; Hence some of the wiser Heathen have called them Ludibria fortunae , the scorn of fortune . Haman honoured one day , the next day hanged . Gelimer the Puissant Prince of the Vandals , Bellisarius , Charles the fifth and Henry the fourth Emperours , and many others experienced the brittleness of worldly glory . But that honour which is from above is true and eternal . Plutarch tells us the Roman nobles , as a badge of their nobility , wore the picture of the Moon upon their shoes , signifying as their nobility did increase , so it would decrease . All priviledges , all prerogatives , all titles , all dignities without godliness , are vanishing shadows . T is the new creation that rendreth the children of Abraham like the glorious stars in heaven . The world looks on the Saint ( possibly he is poor and mean in the world ) as the Jews lookt on Christ ; As a root out of a dry ground , and so saw no form nor comliness in him ; but they who could pierce into the inside of Christ , could see that in him dwelt thee fullness of the godhead bodily ; and they who can see into the inside of Christians , behold the Kings daughter all glorious within . As the precious stone Sandastra hath nothing in outward appearance , but that which seemeth black , b●t being broken poureth forth beams like the Sun. So the Church of Christ is outwardly black with affliction , but inwardly more bright and glorious then the Sun , with thriving vertues and celestial graces . The power of godliness in a mean Christian is a rich treasure in a mean Cabinet ; but vice in robes , in scarlet , is poison in wine , the more deadly and dangerous . Tamberlain tomb was rifled by the Turks and his bones worn by them for Iewels , though their enemy , and one that had conquered them in divers combates , and captivated their Emperour , and carried him up and down in an Iron Cage for his foot-stool . God makes his people honourable in the eyes of the wicked : Since thou wast precious in my sight thou art honourable , and I have loved thee ; therefore will I give men for thee , and people for thy life . The sons of them that afflicted thee shall bow before thee , and thine enemies shall lick the dust , Isa. 43. 4. A wicked King Iohoram honoreth and waiteth on a Servant of God , Elisha ; Herod reverenceth the Baptist. Grace is a powerful , though silent Oratour , to perswade all that see it to love and honour it . What Diogenes spake of learning , is truly applicable to grace , or the knowledge of God in Christ ; It makes young men sober , old men happy , poor men rich , and rich men honourable . When Agesilaus was ready to dye , he charged his friends that they should not make any picture or statue of him ; for saith he , If I have done any thing that is good , that will be my monument ; but if otherwise , all the statues you can make will not keep my name alive . The Egyptians in their funeral orations never commended any for his riches ( because they thought them the goods of fortune ) but for his righteousness and justice . Piety is a lasting pillar , that causeth the righteous to be had in everlasting remembrance . Time shall not out-live the Saints honour ; grace renders him more illustrious then ever the Mausolean mountan did that Carian . As the hairs of Tarandrus are not to be pierced with any weapon ; so the name of a Saint cannot be hurt by all the slanders and calumnies of the wicked . They who are Sainted in Heavens Calendar , and whose names are enrolled in the Lambs book of life , are truly honourable and eternally glorious , maugre the malice of Men and Devils . The disgrace which the wicked cast on the righteous is at worst , but like the noise of some loud tongu'd gun , ceased as soon as heard ; but the honour which God and Scripture put upon the godly , is a pillar which endureth to all eternity ; such a monument as neither age , nor time , nor envy , can waste or wear out . Demetrius under all the obloq●y and contempt which his countrymen cast upon him , could comfort himself in this , that Though the Athenians demolished his statues , yet they could not extinguish his vertues , the cause of raising them . Sin is so base and beggarly , so loathsome and shameful a thing , that not onely the children of God , but even wicked men have been unwilling to own it , and ashamed to be taxed with it , or found out at the commission of it . When Godliness is so high and honourable , so noble and excellent a Mistress , that those who deny the power of it , will take upon them the form of it ; they who hate its work , will wear its livery . There are hardly any jewels of grace , but for each of them vice hath counterfeit stones O! how noble a Mistris , how honourable a Lady is that , whom all pretend relation to , and even those that hate her would not be thought her enemies , but blush to be taxed as strangers to her . 2. It is the most Calling● Satan would represent Christians under ugly vi●zards , and Christianity frightful , to make men loath both the one and the other ; As he transforms himself the Prince of darkness , and his ways which are darkness , into an Angel of light and seeming light , so he endeavours to transform Christians , who are children of light , and their holy ways , which are paths of light , into children of darkness ; and paths of darkness . He endeavours to make men think the power of godliness Antipodes to all chearfulness , but holine●s is far from such a crabbed face , and austere countenance as he would have us fancy . No trade hath so much mirth with it and in i● ; Ioy is one essential part of this Calling , The kingdom of God consisteth not in meats and drinks , but in righteousness , and peace , and joy in the holy Ghost , Rom. 14. 17. The servants of God do not onely rejoyce in the fore-thoughts of their reward , to think of the time when their Indentures shall expire , and they shall enjoy the glorious liberty of the sons of God ; We rejoyce in hope of glory ; but also in their work , they are joyful in the house of prayer , they sing at their work : Thy statutes are my songs in the house of my pilgrimage ; nay , at the hardest and most tiresome of their work . We rejoyce in tribulation ; My brethren count it all joy ; when ye fall into divers temptations . Joy is the beam which is darted from the S●n , the stream which floweth from the fountain of godliness : It is observable that the beginning , the lest degr●e of grace causeth joy , great joy , what then will its growth and perfection do ? When Christ did but call to Zacheus he came down hastily , and received him joyfully , Luk. 19. 6. When the Eunuch was converted he went home rejoycing , Act. 8. 39. When the Samaritans had received Christ into their hearts at Phillips preaching , there was great joy in that City , Act. 8. 6 , 7 , 8. The Jaylor after his heart-quake , rejoyced , believing in God with all his house , Act. 16. 34. The joy of the Saints as it is invisible , so it is unutterable In whom believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable , and full of glory , 1 Pe● . 1. 7. For the measure of it , it s compared to the joy of harvest , to the joy of the bridegroom and bride on their Wedding day , Isa 9. 3. Hosea 2. 19. Hence it is that Grace and Godliness are compared to , and set forth by those things which are pleasant and delightful , and bring joy with them . As Musick , the joy and delight of the ears ; a feast , the joy and delight of the taste ; to light , the joy and delight of the eyes ; life , wine , which rejoyceth the heart ; perfumes , which delight the sent ; good , the joy of the will ; truth , the joy of the understanding ; godliness hath joy proper and sutable for every sense , whether outward or inward . As the higher the Sun is the greater its light is ; so the holier , the Christian the greater his joy is . The more clear the fire burns , the more comfortable it is ; smoak fetcheth tears from our eyes . When grace burns clear , its refreshing indeed ; t is the smoak of sin that turns our houses into Bochims , places of weeping ; when good men step awry not pondering their goings , then they wrench their feet , or put their bones out of joynt , and so put themselves to much pain . Indeed , wicked men who are ignorant of the mystery of godliness , becuase they see no sun-shine in the faces of godly men , judge it to be foul weather in their hearts ; As the Roman Souldiers , when they entered into the Sanctum Sanctorum , and saw no Images , presently reported the Jews to worship the Clouds ; but a Christians joy is as far out of wicked mens sight , to discern it as out of their power to remove it ; A stranger intermedleth not with his joy ; your hearts shall rejoyce , and your joy shall no man take from you . A wicked mans joy is most in his face ; As a Black-a-more , he is white no where but in his Teeth . Seneca compares him to a Commander in a desperate battel , who least his Souldie●s should run away , sets a good face on it , when he is inwardly terrified , and full of fear ; he is like one in an high desperate fever , having a good colour when his heart is heavy , and he is at the gate of death . The Godly mans joy is most in his heart , he is like that f●sh which hath a rough outside , but a pearl within . When there are storms without , there is musick within , peace of conscience , which passeth all understanding . A wicked man is as a book of Tragedies , bound extraordinary , gay and guilt on the out-side , but full of doleful , dreadful stories within , or as Alexander said of Antipater , he was white without , but purple within ; his face may be white and smiling , but his conscience is red and fiery . But the godly mans inside is his best side , though his full sacks of joy and delight are not opened till he comes to his Fathers house , yet the blessed Jesus gives him , as Ioseph the Patriarchs , sufficient provision for the way . The Law gave the first fruits of the earth to God ; the Gospel gives the first fruits of Heaven to men , which are both an earnest and a taste of their glorious and everlasting harvest . All sorrow proceeds from sin ; As the shadow followeth the body , so doth grief follow guilt . Lust like rotten flesh or wood , will breed worms to gnaw in the sinners bowels ; Therefore it s no wonder that Nabal , Saul , and Belshazzar , when their lusts flew in their faces , dyed , or were ready to dye with horror . If a godly man sin wilfully , and wound his soul , it s no wonder if he feel the smart and pain of it . When David steps awry , and slips with his feet , and falls dangerously , he may well keep his bed , and water his couch , and cry out of his aches and broken bones ; yet the very sorrow of a Saint for sin against his God , hath more real joy and delight in it , then all the skin-deep pleasures of gigling Gallants . Crates could dance and laugh in his thread-bare coat , and his wallet at his back , which was all his wealth . The Saint can rejoyce in his saddest afflictions , though he seldom live in Palaces , yet he always lives in a Paradice , having ( if he be careful to keep a good conscience ) a constant youth of joy , and perpetual spring , as that place they write of under the AEquatour ; The tears of those that pray , saith Austin , are sweeter then the joys of the Theatre . It s true , godliness doth abridge men of sinful pleasures , but it s the more pleasant for seperating it self from that which is worse then poison . Agesilaus could taste by a natural appetite , that such pleasures are more fit for Slaves then Freemen ; Averroes and the rest of the Arabian Philosophers , are ashamed of that sensual and beastly Paradise , which their Mahomet provided for them , as most unworthy the soul of man , and infinitely sho●● of true delight . Godliness doth not deny us our natural delights , onely rectifie and regulate them , lest we should surfeit on them . It do●h not deny us drink but drunkenness , nor meat but gluttony . Nature even in things in themselves lawful , would run out unlawfully , if she were not restrained ; Grace onely keepeth the reins in its own hands , least that skit●ish Colt should through its wantonness break its own n●ck . It is as the Pale to the Garden , to preserve the flowers in it from Beasts , or as an hedge to a Field , to keep what is in it within bounds . As Leonidas the Captain , perceiving that his Souldiers left their Watch on the City Walls , for the Ale-houses , commanded that the Ale-houses should be removed to the City walls , that they might both enjoy their pleasure , and discharge their duties together . Godliness alloweth men the comfort of their Relations , and Possessions , only it so limiteth our delight in them , that we may not by them be hindered from working the work of God , and minding our eternal salvations . Godliness brings more noble and excellent pleasures . Others are puddle-water , those pleasures which godliness giveth , are pure and clear streams , such as flow from God himself ; There is more sweetness in one drop of the Fountain , then in all the waters of the Sea ; There is more joy , more comfort , in a little communion with God , then in the greatest confluence of creature-enjoyments . Austin saith , How sweet was it to me on a sudden to be without these sweet vanities ; thou Lord who art the true sweetness , didst take them frem me and enter in thy self , who art more pleasant then all pleasure , and more clear then all light . The world , as they say of Fairies , deprives of true children and puts changelings in their room ; deprives men of true substantial joy , and gives them shadows in the room ; but godliness on the contrary , deprives oft painted poisons , and gives them wholsome and real pleasures . All the comforts of this world to a person void of grace , are but as a sack of perfumes , and medicines , and cordial drugs to the back of a galled horse , which may vex and inrage his sores with their weight , but do not ease or abate his pain with their vertue . A Saints life , notwithstanding his greatest sufferings , whilst it is blessed with the smiles of his father , is an heaven upon earth ; but the sinners life , notwithstanding his honours , and pleasures , and riches , and relations , whilst under the wrath of an infinite God , and anguisht with the gripings of a guilty conscience , is little less then an earnest and taste of hell . Grace is sugar to sweeten all our crosses , and sin is vinagar to sower all our comforts . The iron seems to embrace the load-stone with great delight , and to be rapt with an amorous extasie . So as Thales thought it animal , and yet that motion is void of the least sense of pleasure . The wicked man seems by his smiling face and gigling countenance , to be the onely merry man , when he is as far from true pleasure as from true piety . The least Bee finds more delight in making and tasting a little honey , then the great Sun and all his glorious attendants in their high and perputual courses . The meanest Christian hath more comfort in making sure his salvation , and tasting the sweetness of his Saviour ; then the Kings of the earth , and their Courtiers , in their abundance of all earthly comforts . The Wi●e man tells us concerning the ways of wisdom , wherein a Christians daily walk is ; Her ways are ways of pleasantness , and all her paths are peace , Pro. 3. 17. And the Saints find them so by experience . The word of God , which is the rule of their work , is sweeter to them then the honey and the honey comb , and they delight to do the will of God. The sinners life is an uncomfortable life , be●ide those inward gripes and horror , which sin causeth in the conscience at present , and its end the sting in the tail , which is the eternal fire ; there is trouble , and fear , and shame , and vexation in the very act or commission of many sins . To forgive an injury , which is one peice of Christianity , is pleasant and delightful ; but to revenge an affront , what heats and colds , what passions and perturbations doth it cause ? To love our neighbours , and wish their wellfare , is a sweet thing , a reward in it self , it hath meat in its mouth ; but to envy my neighbour , because he is richer , or more honourable , or hath larger gifts , and more friends then my self , is as rottenness to the bones , it wasteth and consumeth the inward parts , as rust eateth out iron , according to Solomons phrases . A Contented man hath an heaven upon earth , all the year with him is spring-time or summer , like a child he takes no carking care for food , or raiment , or house●rent , but minds his duty , and leaves all to his father who knoweth what he hath need of : But the Cov●tous , who like the barren womb , hath never enongh , pines with fear of want , & can neither eat , nor drink , nor sleep quietly , lest he should lose what he hath , or not have sufficient to hold out ; nay , he will not allow himself convenient food or raiment , though he have never so much ; but like a beast feeds on thistles , when he hath all sorts of provision upon his back . Temperance hath health , and strength with it , and thereby renders the other comforts of this life savoury and comfortable ; so also Chastity . But ●luttony , and Drunkenness , and Whoredom ; bring weakness and sickness on mens bodies , and imbitter all other blessings , besides the fear of being discovered , to the shame and disgrace of the Authors , which tormenteth not a little . There is comfort in dealing honestly and righteously , but if a man will cheat , and cozen , and filtch , and steal ; no wonder , if he tire his head with plots and projects ●o carry it on cunningly , and secretly , and terrifie his heart with apprehention that it will be known , and then he shall be branded for a knave , or suffer the penalty of law in a more severe degree . The sinner is hurried hither and thither by his opposite Lords , and contrary lusts ; and torn piecemeal by them , as a man by beasts , which draw the parts of his body contrary ways . The Commands of sin are harsh and heavy : No Tyrant ever put his subjects upon more crabbed , painful work ; But the Commandments of God are not grievous , 1 Joh. 4. 3. Sin is s●avery , and its servants , worse then those that row in Turkish Gallies ; but Gods law , is a law of liberty , and they walk at liberty who seek his precepts . The ways of sinners are called crooked ways , rugged ways , which are unpleasant to travail in ; but the ways of God are called strait ways , plain paths , which are delightful to passengers . I am confident the true Christian hath more true pleasure in suffering for Christ , or one act of mortification , or victory over one lust , then the highest earthly Potentate hath in his largest dominions , in the multitude of his subjects , in the richness of his kingdoms , and in all the honour that is done him , or good things enjoyed by him all his days . 3. It is the most profitable Calling . Reader , this argument is Achilleum , or instar omnium , the strongest argument , and instead of all ; with most men gain is the great God of this world , that commandeth all their heads , and hearts , and hands ; to whom they bow down the knees both of their bodies and souls . The theif & murderer are quickened by this to their hellish trade ; Come let us lay wait for blood , let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause . We shall find all precious substance , we shall fill our houses with spoil , Prov. 1. 9 , 10. The Sechemites upon this ground , will endure the pain of Circumcision , and throw up their former religion ; Shall not their beasts , and their cattel , and their substance be ours ? The Soul - for this , will scale the Walls , and leap upon the Pikes , and run upon the Mouth of the Cannon . The Husband-man for this , will rise early , go to bed late , eat the bread of carefullness , toyl and moyl all day , and make a drudge , a slave , a pack-horse of himself all the year . The Merchant for this , will plough the Ocean , dance upon the surging billows , suffer many dangers and deaths through his whole voyage . The Shop-keeper for this , will croud into any hole of the City , break his sleep , waste his health , run about hither and thither , early and late . Gehezi , Achan , Iudas , Balaam for this , will venture their bodies , their souls , any things , all things . Profit is such a bait , that all will bite at . The Devil , that Arch Politician , who hath had so many thousand years experience ; besides , his extraordinary natural knowledge , could not judge any Topicks more likely then this to take with our blessed Saviour . All these things will I give thee , if thou wilt fall down and worship me . The gods themselves were said by the Athenians to be corrupted with Philips gold , that their Oracles still were in favour of him . Money is the absolute Monarch , which can put men upon the most dangerous defignes : Therefore Cassius ( surnamed the Severe ) one of the wisest of the Roman Judges , in all doubtful Causes that came before him , would demand , Cui bono , Who gained , or had the profit ? well knowing that that is the bias which turneth men aside to wrong others ; and the heady , wanton horse , which breaks through the fence to trespass upon neighbours . Now Reader , If profit will prevail with thee , Godliness with contentment is great gain . All the gold of the world is dross , all the diamonds of the world are dirt , all the gaines of the world are loss to this gain of Godliness . Egypt watered by Nilus hath four rich harvests , say some , in less then four months . Solinus saith , the Egyptian fig tree beareth fruit seven times in a year : Godliness brings forth 30 , 60. , 100. fold increase ; It giveth an hundreth fold in this world , and in the world to come life everlasting . After ye had your fruits unto holiness , in the end everlasting life , Mat. 19. 29. Rom. 6. 22. Did the sinner but believe Scripture , that speaks the infinite reward of holiness , he would quickly set up this trade , Pinder the Poet saith , in regard of the fertility of Rhodia , and the wealth of the inhabitants , that it rained gold in that country ; The fruit of wisdom is better then silver , and the gain thereof then fine gold . She is more precious then Rubies , and all thou canst desire is not to be compared to her , Prov. 3. 14 , 15. Lucian fancieth all the Heathen gods and goddesses sitting in Parliament , and each making choice of that tree which best pleased them . Iupiter chose the Oak for its strength , Apollo the Baytree for its greeness ; Neptune chose the Poplar for its length ; Iuno chose the Eglantine for its sweetness ; Venus chose the Myrtle-tree for its beauty ; Minerva sitting by , demanded of her Father Iupiter , why since there were so many fruitful trees , they all had chosen barren ones . He answered , Ne videan●ur fructu honorem vendere , Lest they should seem to sell honour for fruit ; Minerva replied , Well , Do what you please , I for my part make choice of the Olive for its fatness and fruitfulness . They all commended her choice and were ashamed of their own Folly. This fiction doth fitly represent the foolishness of men at this day in chusing the honours and preferments , and glory of the world , which are barren and unfruitful things of no w●rth in the other world , before that honour which is from God , and the eternal weight of glory , and also the convictions of their consciences another day , which will force them to be ashamed of their own folly , and to commend the choice of a Christian for preferring grace and godliness , which will stand him in stead in an hour of death , and day of judgment , and bring him in unspeakable gain , before the aery honours and withering vanities of this life . Reader , If thou wilt give conscience free liberty to speak its mind ? I know it will tell thee , that no calling is comparable to this for profit . The gain of Godliness is real gain , rich gain , certain gain , eternal gain . 1. It s real , if the word of truth may be trusted , its fruit is therefore called substance , in distinction from earthly riches , which are shadows . I will cause them that love me to inherit substance . 2. It s called also true riches , other riches are fained ; hence also godly men are said to be rich towards god , and other men to be rich in this world . It s rich gain , as it hath relation to the best part , it makes the soul of man truly precious , as it is serviceable to our last end , and prepareth man for the fruition of God , and also as its reward is unconceivable . The vessels of mercy shall swim in an Ocean of glory . Eye hath not seen , nor ear heard nor can the heart of man conceive what God hath layd up for them that love him , 1 Cor. 2. It s reward is beyond all expression , above all apprehensions , no comparison can fully resemble it , no understanding conceive it . 3. It s eternal gain ; Other gains are fading , deceitful brooks , dying flowers , withering goards , and vanishing shadows ; Riches are not for ever , Pro. 29 Man in honour abideth not , Psa. 49.2 . The pleasures of sin are but for a season , Heb. 11. 25. But this gain is for ever . The fear of the Lord is clean , enduring for ever , both in the nature of it , t is incorruptible seed , and in the fruit of it , which is the gift of God , eternal life . Though other trades shall all fail , as useful onely in this needy World ; though other callings shall vanish , and time it self shall be no more , yet this trade , this calling , shall r●n parallel with the life of an immortal soul ; though gold be a corruptible mettal , the gain of this calling is better then much fine gold ; it s an inheritance , undefiled , incorruptible . Our work , whether in doing or suffering the Will of God , is but for a moment , but it works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory . O what an happy good , what an excellent gain , is that which is eternal ! Mary hath chosen the good part , which shall never be taken from her . When thy Lands and Houses shall be taken from thee , thy place and dwelling shall know thee no more ; when thy Friends and Relations shall be taken from thee ; Son of Man , behold I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke ; when all the comforts of this life shall serve thee as vermine and lice do a dead man ; though they stick close to him in his life , run from him at death ; this Calling will stand by thee , encourage thee , never leave thee nor forsake thee . In other things thou chosest for that which is most lasting . If thou buyest an house , or beast , or suit of apparel , thou art desirous to have that which is most durable and strong . O why shouldst thou not chose that good which is everlasting ! When Demetrius had taken Megara , and his Souldiers plundered the City , he fearing the Philosopher Stilpo might receive some loss , sent for him , and asked him whether any of his men had taken any thing of his ; Stilpo answered , No , for I saw no man that took my learning from me . Godliness is such Wealth , such Learning , as will abide with thee in general plunder ; indeed neither men nor Devils can rob thee of it . 4. It s certain gain . He that sets up of this trade , may be trusted ; for none ever brake of this calling . God himself , whose is the earth , and the fulness thereof , is bound for them , and hath undertaken for their perseverance , and growth , and gains . The Merchant that trades into the other world , is not properly a Merchant-venturer ; for the Gospel , which is the Ensurance Office , hath engaged infinite power , and love , and faithfulness , for the security and safe return of all the Vessels which he sends forth ; The Promises are all yea and amen , the sure mercies of David ; The Covenant of grace , which containeth all their gains and riches , is stable in all things , and sure , 2 Cor. 1. 20. Isa. 55. 6. 2 Sam. 23. 5. If there were a free trade proclaimed to the Indies , and every man that went , promised as much gold as he would desire , and a certainty of making a good voyage , who almost would stay at home ? what crowding would there be to Port-Towns ? and what hast to take shipping . Reader , Though God will not suffer this to be , in reference to earthly treasures , knowing out of his infinite wisdom how hurtful they would be to immortal souls ; yet he offereth thee all this and infinitely more , in calling upon thee to mind godliness ; He saith to thee , as Ioseph to his brethren , Gen 45. 18. Come unto me , and I will give you the good of the Land of Egypt , and ye shall eat the fat of the Land ; Come unto me and I will give you the good of Canaan , and ye shall eat the pleasant fruits of that Land flowing with Milk and Honey . O Reader , didst thou know the worth of this jewel , thou wouldst trample upon all the wealth of this World as dung , in comparison of it . Little dost thou think or imagine the advantage , the vertues of this Diamond ; It is the true Loadstone that draweth all good to it . Luther saith of one Psalm , This Psalm hath done more for me , then all the Potentates of the World ; I may say to thee , This calling will feed thee with bread that came down from Heaven , and cloath thee with fine linnen , the robes of Gods own righteousness ; t will protect thee and maintain thee , t will advance and honour thee , t will inrich and ennoble thee in life , refresh and rejoyce thee in death , crown and reward thee after death , do more for thee then all the Princes or Potentates , Relations or Pos●Possessions , Persons or Comforts upon Earth can do . In thy prosperity and enjoyment of outward good things , godliness would like Sugar and Spice , correct their windiness , and make them wholsom and profitable to thee . It would like Elisha's Meal and Salt , make thy Meat sweet and savoury , and thy drink pleasant and refreshing to thee . It would make thy bed soft and easie , thy garments warm and sweet sented . T will so far abate thy appetite to this luscious food , that thou shouldst not feed immoderately to the surfeiting thy soul. As the fiery bush which Moses saw in the Mount Horeb , though it was in a flaming fire , did not consume ; Or as the shining worm , that being cast into the fire , doth not waste , but is thereby p●rged from its filth , and made more beautiful then all the water in the world could make it ; So Affliction should not ruine , but reform and purifie thee ; In the greatest danger , this will be thy defence . Though others like the old world , are drowned , are destroyed in these waters , yet thou shouldst ride safely in a well pitcht Ark , and to free thee from any fear of miscarrying , the Lord himself would shut thee in . When others are in the open air , on whom storms and tempests have their full force , thou shouldst be housed in Gods presence-chamber , and kept secret by his side . As Gideons fleece , thou shouldst be dry , when all about thee are wet . The whale of destruction may digest thousands of Mariners , but one godly Ionah is too hard for him . The torrent of fire that ran from . AEtna , and consumed the Country , yet parted it self to safeguard them that releived their aged parents . When the Grecians had taken Troy , and given every man liberty to carry out his burden , they were so taken with the devotion of AEneas , in carrying out first his houshold gods , and ( upon a second licence ) his old Father Anchises , and his Son Ascanius , instead of treasures , which others carried out , that they permitted him to carry what he would without any disturbance . Ieremiah in the Babylonish captivity , was tendered and regarded highly by the King of Babylon ; When Sodom was destroyed , Lot was preserved . It was storied of Troy , that so long as the Image of Pallas stood safe in it , that City should never be won . It is true of godliness ; so long as the fear and love of thy God are within thee , so long as thou makest religion thy business , nothing shall hurt thee , every thing shall help thee ; godliness will bring in all gain , and at all times ; No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly . A Child of God by adoption , is in some sense like the Son of God by eternal generation , heir of all things , 1 Cor. 3.30 , 31. Whether Paul , or Apollo , or Cephas , or Life , or Death , or things present , or things to come , all is yours , and ye are Christ's , and Christ is God's . Nay , the Christians riches are not onely unsearchable , Ephes. 3. 8. but also durable , Prov. 8. 15. When a wicked man dieth , all his riches dye with him . His treasue is laid up on earth , therefore when he leaves the earth , he leaves his treasure , Psa. 49. 17. When a godly man dyeth , his riches follow him , Rev. 14. 13. His treasure is in heaven , and so when he dyeth he goeth to his gains . O Reader , what an argument is here , to provoke thee to piety , godliness is profitable in all conditions , in all relations , in both worlds ! In prosperity , t will be a sun to direct thee , in adversity a shield to protect thee ; in life t will be thy comfort , and which is infinitely more in death , that hour of need 't will be thy enlivening cordial ; The smell of Trefoil , is stronger in a cloudy dark season , then in fair weather . The refreshing savour of the sweet spices of grace , is strongest in the Saints greatest necessities . When Death , the King of terrors , comes to enter the list , and fight with thee for thy soul and eternal salvation , for thy God , and Christ , and Heaven , and happiness , when all thy Riches , and Honours , and Friends , and Relations , would leave thee in the lurch , to shift for thy self , as Dogs leave their Master when he comes to the water ; Godliness would be thy shield to secure thee against its shot , and make thee more then a conquerour over it . Thou mightest call thy dying bed , as Iacob the place through which he travailed , Mahanaim , a Camp , for there Angels would meet thee to convey thee safe through the Air , the enemies country ( of which Satan is Lord and Prince ) to thy Fathers houses , where thou shouldst be infinitely blessed in the vision and fruition of thy God and Saviour for ever . Godliness would be the Pilot to steer the vessel of thy soul aright through those boysterous waters , to an happy port . The Arabick Fable mentions one that carried an Hog , a Goat , and a Sheep to the City ; the Hog roared hideously , when the other two were still and quiet , and being asked the reason , gave this account of her crying , The Sheep and Goat have no such cause to complain , for they are carried to the City for their Milk , but I am carried thither to be killed , being good for nothing else . The Ungodly person may well cry out sadly , when sickness comes , for then guilt flyeth in his face , and conscience tells him , death will kill him , he is good for nothing but to be killed with death , Rev. 2.25 . he never honoured God in this world , and God will force honour out of him in the other world . He may well screech out dreadfully at the approach of death , whose body death sends to the grave , and his souls to intolerable and unquenchable flames , but the godly man may bid death welcom , knowing it will be his exceeding gain and advantage . Reader , When others like the Israelites are afraid and start back at the sight of this Goliah , thou mightest like little David , encounter him in the name of the Lord and overcome him . Thou mightest triumphantly sing in the ears of death ; O death , where is thy sting ! O grave , where is thy victory ! The Lord of life would sweeten death to thee , and subdue it for thee ; nay , make it at peace with thee , that thou mightest say to death , as Iacob to Esau , I have seen thy face , as if it had been the face of God , who hath made thee to meet me with smiles instead of frowns . Death would help thee to that sight , to that knowledge , to that state and degree of holiness , for which thou hast prayed , and wept , and fasted , and watched , and laboured , and waited many a day ; as it s said of Iob , there was none like him in the earth ; so I may say of this calling , there is none like it upon the face of the earth ; the very enemies of it in their hours of extremity being judges . Ah who would not work for God with the greatest diligence , and walk with God in the exactest obedience , and wait upon God with the greatest patience ; when he is assured , that in the doing of his commands there is such great reward ; and those that sow to the spirit , shall of the spirit reap life everlasting ! The Conclusion . Reader , I have now ended this Treatise , but whether thou ( if a stranger to this calling ) wilt put an end to thy carnal fleshly ways , and begin this high and heavenly work or no , I know not . If thou art ambitious , thou hast here encouragement sufficient ; godliness will ennoble thee , and render thy blood not only honourable , but royal . If thou art voluptuous , here is a bait which may take thee ; godliness will bring thee to a river of pleasures , to such dainties and delights as take the hearts of perfect and glorious Angels . If thou art covetous , here is a golden weight to turn the scales of thy desires and endeavours ; godliness is profitable unto all things , it hath the promise of this life , and of that which is to come ; when thy house , and lands , and honours , and neighbours , and wife , and children , and flesh , and heart faile thee and forsake thee ; godliness would say to thee , ( and stand to it also ) as Peter●o ●o Christ ; though all forsake thee , yet will not I. W●en the worlds Trinity , Credit , Profit , and Pleasure serve their lovers and worshippers as Rats and Mice do an house , leave it when it is on fire , flye from them in their need and extremity ; godliness would stick to thee as close , as fast as Ruth to Naomi ; where thou goest it would go , where thou lodgest it would lodge ; nay , it would follow thee into the other world , and abide with thee , a cordial , a comfort for ever ; It would give thee cause to say to it , as she to her daughter in law , thou hast shewed more kindness to me at the latter end then at the beginning . What canst thou have to object against godliness , that sets thee at such a distance from it ? Wilt thou believe a lying world , a deceitful flesh , a destroying Devil , or the God of truth ? Who is thy greatest enemy , God or they ? Who will do thee most good , God or they ? If thou wilt be tryed by the confessions of the greatest enemies that godliness hath , even they in their hours of extremity , will tell thee grace is of infinite worth ; godliness is the best of all . Ah how happy had we been at this hour , had we been as faithful servants to Religion , as we have been slaves to foolish lusts and pleasures ! If Reason may be heard , thou wilt not defer one moment the entering thy name in this society , and binding thy self Apprentice to thy Saviour ; thou mayst see plainly that it is thine interest as well as thy duty ; and all thy happiness for this and the other world dependeth on it . If Scripture may be heard , thou wilt quickly set about thy general calling , and make Religion thy business ; it calleth loudly to thee , to turn thy back upon earth , and face about for heaven ; to forsake the flesh , before the flesh forsake thee . It telleth thee plainly under the hand of thy Maker ; that if thou livest after the flesh , and sowest to the flesh , thou shalt dye eternally . If the Conscience within thee may be heard , thou wilt presently give a bill of divorce to thy carnal bruish delights , and strike an hearty Covenant wit Jesus Christ ; It often warneth thee of thy duty and danger , and terrifieth thee with the foretho●ghts of that fire and fury which thou art hastening to ●eel . If thy friends and relations , who have any sense of a jealous God , and eternal estate may be heard ; then thou wilt immediately hearken to the counsel I commend to thee from God , and exercise thy self unto godliness . They advise , and perswade , and intreat thee to turn over a new leaf , and lead a new life , and to mind in thy day the things of thy peace . If the God upon whom thou livest , by whom thou movest , from whom thou hast thy being , may be heard , thou wilt now wink on the world , crucifie the flesh , loath thy self for thy filth and folly , and devote thy heart and soul to his fear . He commandeth thee by his dominion over thee , and thy obligations to him ; he threatneth , promiseth , affrighteth , allureth , and all to make thee mind thy allegiance to him , and the work he hath given thee to do in this world . If thy Saviour , who humbled himself for thy sake , and took upon him the form of a servant , and in thy nature was buffeted , scourged and crucified , may be heard , then thou wilt immedately take the counsel that is given thee , and turn to the Lord with all thy heart , and loath thy self for all thine abominations . He pleads with thee most pathetically , presenteth to thee the stripes and wounds which sin caused in his blessed body ; the blood which he shed , the ignominy he endured , the agony , the death he suffered , and all to satisfie for sin , to make himself Lord both of the dead and living ; he tells thee , he gave himself for thee to redeem thee from all iniquity ; and to purifie thee to himself a peculiar child zealous of good works . If the daily , and nightly , and hourly mercies that thou injoyest ; if the sickness , or pain , or loss , or disgrace , or afflictions which sometimes thou sufferest , may be heard , there would not be so much ado to perswade a wretched creature to be blessed , and an ungodly person to be holy and happy . If the inanimate and irrational creatures , the earth beneath thee , the heavens above thee , the beasts and birds about thee might be heard ; thou wouldst whilst it s called to day , now after so long a time attend to the call and command of him , in whose hand is thy life and breath ; and follow after holiness , without which thou shalt never see the Lord. Shall a Centurions servant go , when he bids him go , and come when he bids him come ? and wilt not thou go and come at the voice of God ? Did Balaams Ass speak at Gods command , and reprove the madness of the Prophet ? Did Ravens at Gods command feed Élijah ? Did Cater-pillars , and Locusts , and Frogs , and Lice execute Gods judgements upon Pharaoh ? Do fire , and hail , and snow , and vapours , and stormy winds fulfil his word ? Doth the earth open , the rocks rend , the stars fight in their courses , waters stand up in heaps as a wall , the Moon stand still , the Sun go backward , wildernesses tremble , things cross the course of nature to obey , his pleasure , and wilt not thou obey him ? O man , bethink thy self ! wilt thou be worse then these irrational and inanimate creatures ? are not thy engagements to God infinitely above theirs ? what wilt thou have to say for thy self , when every stone in the street , as well as star in the heavens ; when every bi●d , and beast , and fowl will condemn thee ? O where wilt thou appear ! I must tell thee that a perillous time , a day of extremity , an hour of trouble and anguish is hastning upon thee ; which thou canst no more escape or avoid , then thou canst flye from thy self ; when the pleasures , and delights , and honey , and beautiful countenances of those Scorpions , thy fleshly lusts will all be past and gone , but the sting remain to pierce and torment thee , when those dreggy waters in which thou bathest thy self now will all be dried up ; when all thy possessions , and preferments , and friends , and relations will serve thee , as women their flowers when they are dead and withered , who throw them away ; or as sinking floores that will fail men when their weight is on them . And then , O then what wilt thou do ? Thou wilt wish that religion had been thy business , and call , and cry to it as the Elders of Gilead to Iephthah , when the children of Ammon made war with them . Come thou and be our Captain , and save us from our enemies . Come thou and be my Captain , to save me from the curse of the law , the terrors of my guilty conscience , the wrath of the Infinite God , and the torments of the eternal fire . But godliness will answer thee as Iephthah did them ; Did not ye hate me , and expell me out of my Fathers house ? & why are ye come unto me now ye are in distress ? Didst not thou hate me , and expell me out of thy heart and house ? didst thou not deride , and jeer , and persecute me , against all the commands , and threatnings , and promises , and intreaties of God , and his word ? and why art thou come to me now thou art in distress ? I must tell thee , thou wilt then weep , and howl , and lament to God , as the Israelites did in their extremity , Deliver us only we pray thee this day . Lord help me , Lord save me , Deliver me this day from the jaws of the roaring Lion ; Lord , let not hell shut her mouth upon me . Who can dwell in everlasting burnings ? who can abide devouring flames ? But thou mayst expect the same answer which God gave them , Go and cry to the gods which ye have chosen , let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation . Go to the flesh , and the world ; Go to thy riches , and honours , and sinful delights , which thou hast chosen and preferred before me , and let them deliver thee in this time of thy tribulation . Where are those gods , the rocks in which thou trustedst ? Let them rise up , and help thee , and be thy protection , Iudg. 11. 6 , 7. Iudg. 10. 15 , 32. Deut. 37. 38. A Saint can sing in such a day of trial , knowing that death is come to him as the Angel to Peter , striking on his side , not to hurt but to awaken him , to beat off his fetters , and set him in the glorious liberty of the children of God. The Saint and the Sinner never differ so much , at least in open view , as in their ends . Sin in the bud is sweet , but in the fruit bitter ; and holiness though at first draught seems not so pleasant , yet afterwards is all sweetness . Though the path of sin be smooth , and pleasing to thy flesh ; yet thou wilt find it slippery , and killing to thy spirit : It s like an evening star to usher in a night of blackness , of darkness for ever . The way of holiness is more harsh to the body , but the onely Nectar of the soul ; Ah Reader , if thou wilt but choose it , thou wilt find by experience , that t will be like Hannibal's passage over the Alpes , a way which will require some pains , but t will lead thee into the heavenly Paradise , at that did him into the worlds garden , Italy . Reader , Let me therefore bespeak thee , or rather God himself . Thus saith the Lord of Hosts , Turn unto me saith the Lord of Hosts , and I will turn unto thee , saith Lord of Hosts , Zach. 1. 3. After all thy neglect and contempt of God and his word , after all thy wandrings and wickedness , thou hast one call more to turn and live ; In which thy Maker doth three times pawn and interpose the authority of his name to confirm his word . The Lord of Hosts , three times he doth as it were bring his Angels , his Hosts with him , in this precept and promise ( as once to Sinai at the delivery of the law . ) 1. As witnesses of his truth . 2. As avengers of him on them that despise his call . 3. As rejoycers for those that turn unto him . O friend , Consider it , that God who might have turned thee into hell , commandeth thee now after all thy folly and lewdness to turn to him ; yea , he promiseth that if thou dost come at his call , he will meet thee half way , and turn unto thee . It is not for his own sake that he is so earnest with thee , for he can be happy without thee ; he hath no addition by thy salvation , he suffereth no diminution by thy damnation ; but he calleth on thee for thy good , that thou mightst be happy in his favour . It was the saying of Antigona that she ought to please them with whom she hoped to remain for ever . Ah doth it not concern thee to please that God upon whom tho● dependest for thy eternal weal or wo ? When Antiochus was in Egypt in armes against the Romans , they sent P. Popilius with other Ambassadours to him ; where when he had welcomed them , P. Popilius delivered some writings to him containing the mind of his Masters ; which he he commanded Antiochus to read , which he did . Then he consulted with his friends , what was best to be done in the business . Whilst he was in a great study , P. Popilius , with a wand that he had in his hand , made a circle about him in the dust , saying , Ere thou stir a foot out of this circle , return thy answer , that I may tell the Senate whether thou hadst rather have war or peace . This he uttered with such a firm countenance , that it amazed the King ; wherefore after he had paused a while , he answered , I will do what the Senate hath written , or shall think fit . Reader , I shall onely allude to it and conclude . Thou art if in thy natural estate , a rebel against God ; thy heart is full of enmity , and thy life of treason against his blessed Majesty ; thou art daily discharging whole vollies of shot against him ; he hath sent me as his Embassadour to offer thee terms of peace , and to require thee in his name to throw down thine armes , and to submit to his mercy . I know , thou art ready to consult with thy seeming friends , but real enemies , the world and the flesh , what thou wert best to do in this case ; but whilst thou art thus musing , I charge , and command thee in the name of God , and by his authority who sent me to thee , that before thou closest the book , thou returne to thy Maker in thy conscience thine answer , whether thou hadst rather have peace with him , whose wrath is infininety worse then death , and whose favour is better then life , or war ? If considering the excellency , necessity , and profit of godliness , thou sayst , I will through the help of Christ do all that the Lord hath written , or thinketh fit to be done , in order to my recovery out of this estate of woe and misery ; I shall inform thee that God is ready to receive thee , the Spirit to assist thee , thy Saviour to embrace thee , the rich and precious promises of the Gospel , containing pardon , love , peace , eternal life , are all ready to welcome thee : But if thou deniest thy God , thy real , able , and faithful friend , and wilt gratifie thy profest , though politick enemy the Devil , so much as to continue in thine ungodly courses , I must assure thee , that Phrygan like , thou wilt repent when it is too late ; and be taught by woful experience , that it had been far better to have hearkened to the Counsels and Commands of God ; that with prudent Prometheus thou mightst have forseen a danger , and shund it ; then to walk on in the broad way to hell , with foolish Epimetheus without any consideration till thou art unconceivably and irrecoverably miserable , and plunged in that lake , and amidst those dreadful torments , of which there is no FINIS . AN Alphabetical Table OF THE Chief Heads contained in the foregoing Treatise . A CHristians should Admonish one another . 285 How. ibid. Afflictions tend to a Christians advantage . 814,815 Anger resteth in the bosome of fools . 44,45 B Backbiting to be avoided . 271 The great danger and evil of it . 272 , to 275 A Backbiter wounds three wi●h one arrow . 274 Christians must bear with one another . 288 A threefold burthen Christians must bear for each other . 289 Their Civil , Spiritual and Natural burthens . ibid. The Beasts of the field may teach men . 453 Beasts teach man six lessons ; Thankefulness to God ; Dependance on God ; The dread of God ; Diligence in our callings ; Innocency ; Wisdom . 453 , 454 Birds of the Air teach man eight Lessons● 454 , to 457 Christians must use a conscience in buying . 17 C CHristians should be diligent in their particular Callings . 511 Christians must avoid censuring . 266 The great evil of censuring . 267 How to apply our selves to civil men in sickness . 577 Saints must be careful in the choice of their Companions . 90 , 133 The benefit of Company . 86 , 87 , to 90 , 138 , 139 The great danger of evil Company to draw men to sin . 9● , to 95. 133 , to 135 to draw men to suffering . 95 , to 99 , 136 The Great advantage of good Company . 98 , to 101. 241 , to 247 A mans Company will discover him . 101 , 102 , 139 Christians should Company with them that are godly . 109,110,140,141 because they are godly . 116,117 Whether a Christian may not be more intimate with some godly Companions then others . 119 Two Cautions about it . 120,121 Christians should endeavour the spiritual good of their Companions . 121 , to 125,182 Saints may sometimes use , but should not chuse the Company of sinners . 109,110 Objections against it answered . 124 , to 128 Evil Company infectio●s● 156 , 157 Saints may be the better for evil Company when they are called to it . 158 , 159 , 177 Wherein . 179 , to 182 Christians must guard their souls in evil Company . 160,161 not needlesly expose themselves to sufferings . 167 Saints must not disown Christ in any Company . 172 , to 175 Saints should endeavour the Conversion of sinners . 182 , 183 How. 183 , to 189 By good Company pious souls have been confirmed . 245 Erring Saints recovered . ibid. Dull Christians quickened . 246 Much sin prevented . 248 Christians must watch themselves in good Company . ●62 What sins Saints are most prone to in good Company . 263 The Communion of Saints the most excellent Communion . 236 , 250 , 257 Wherein the Communion of Saints consisteth . 275 In a mutual communication of their gifts and graces . ibid. In joyning in the Ordinances of God. ibid. In serviceableness each to other . 276 Wherein . 280 , to 287 A Contented spirit a great help to godliness● 809 Nine Arguments to Contentedness in the most afflicted condition . 813 Christians should receive Counsel . 301 Penitent Christians should be comforted . 283 It s a duty to be courteous . 39 Courtesie is an ornament to Christianity . 40,41 D EVery day to be begun with duty . 496 Arguments to it . ib. to 499 Christians should exercise themselves to godliness , in their dealings with all men . 5 It s a sign of hypocrisie to be careless in dealings with men . 7 , to 10 The credit of Religion is much engaged in our Dealings with others . 11 , to 14 In our dealings with others we must be righteous . 15 Courteous . 39 Meek . 42 The Principle of a Christian in his dealings , must be gracious . 51 , 52 The end of a Christian in his dealings must be minded . 53 , 54 A daily performance of holy duties to be minded . 756 The necessity and benefit of daily duties . 757 , to 760 Christians should exercise themselves to Godliness on a dying bed . 611,612 What it is to dye in the Lord. 612 Three things in it . ib. In what respects Christ was obedient to the death . 6●5 Death is a serious thing . 619 Death will try men . 620 At death man is stated for eternity . 622 Satan is busie to assault at death . ib. 623 A death bed is a special season to honour God. 624 It s the last opportunity . 627 How Christians should honour God on a dying bed . 628 In commending God and godliness to others . 629 In commending our selves to God. 633 In praying for our Relations , the Church , our Benefactours , and our Enemies . 634 , to 637 In exercising grace on a dying bed . 637 What graces Saints should especially exercise on a dying bed , Faith , Courage , Repentance , Charity , Patience . 637 , to 647 Our whole life should be a preparation for Death . 633 , 634 In what respects , or how a Saint may dye with comfort . 658 , to 662 Meditation of death a special help to holiness . 745 , to 753 The great mischif of discontent . 811 , 812 E CHristians must spiritualize earthly things . 372,373 Several examples hereof . 374 , to 380 The earth teacheth man four lessons . 457 Earthly things , unsutable , unsatisfying , vexatious , deceitful , and uncertain . 828 , to 840 Ejaculations profitable . 435 Christians must look to their ends in their actions . 53 , 54 Frequent Examination of our selves and our ways a duty . 523 , 786 The great advantage thereof . 524 , to 727.781 , to 786 Examples helpful to encourage us heaven-ward . 841 F FAith necessary if we would exercise our selves unto godliness . 706 The excellency of Faith. 707 Faith destroyeth sin . 708 Overcometh the world . 712 Faith overcometh the affrightments of the World. 713 , 714 Faith overcometh the allurements of the world . 716 , 717 Faith enableth to overcome Satan . 720 the flesh . 722 Faith deriveth grace from Christ. 724 Faith sets all other graces at work . 725 Faith makes Ordinances profitable . 727 Nine Questions to them that neglect Family duties . 508 , to 511 Fear , sinful when . 179 There can be no true Friendship betwixt a godly and a wicked man. 105 , to 108 Who is thy best friend . 303 , 345 G SEtting God always before our eyes , a great help to godliness . 729 , to 737 The knowledge of God a great help to holiness . 801 , to 809 Gods Omniscience . 493 , 494 Gods Patience , Vide Patience . Gods word , Vide word . Means whereby Christians may exercise themselves to Godliness . 695. Vide Means . Godliness the most excellent Calling . 844 The most honourable . ib. The most comfortable . 849 The most profitable Calling . 858 Twelve serious thoughts to quicken all to Exercise themselves to Godliness . Vide , Epistle to the Reader . H THe heart , the great work-house of thoughts , words , and actions . 698 The necessity of a new heart in all that would make religion their business . 699 , 700 The heart of man backward to good . 255 prone to evil . 364 must be watched . 369 Holiness is honourable . 844 Humility an help to holiness . 792 The Excellency of humility . 793 , 794 Vnrighteousness a sign of Hypocrisie . 7 , 8 I THe evil of Idleness . 820 The great mischief of Ignorance . 806 The Ignorant should be instructed . 280 , 281 A serious consideration of the day of judgement , a special help to godliness . 765 Dreadfulness of the day of judgement to wicked men . 767 , 776 The day of judgement will be comfortable to Saints . 772 Their godliness will be mentioned . ibid. Their names vindicated . 773 Persons publiquely acquitted . ib. Their happiness will be perfected . 774 Justice to what resembled . 39 Justice , Vide , Righteousness . K THe Knowledge of God a special means of godliness . 802 Subjects should pay tribute to their King. 38 , 39 L LIfe is uncertain . 490 Life is short . 838 Love should be among Christians . 2●5 Why the Commandment of Love is called a new Commandment . 236 The fervency of Christs prayer for love . 237 Sad effects of want of love among Christians . 239 M MEans whereby Christians may exercise themselves to godliness . 695 A good Foundation . 696 Living by Faith. 746 Setting God before our eyes . 729 A constant watchfulness . 734 Meditation of our dying day . 745 Dayly solemn performance of holy duties . 756 Frequent thoughts of the day of judgement . 765 Calling our selves often to account . 780 Avoiding occasions of sin . 787 Walking humbly . 793 Suppressing sin in the beginning . 799 The knowledge of God. 801 A contented frame of spirit . 809 Avoiding those things that hinder godliness . 819 Meditation useful . 388 What set Meditation is . 389 , to 396 An example of set Meditation on the Word of God. 398 Another example on the patience of God. 466 It s a christians duty to be meek . 42 The excellency of meekness . 43 Meekness a sign of a wise man. 44 The Christians meekness should not hinder his zeal for God. 46,47 A meek man a good Neighbour , in what respects . 48 , 49. N NAture is corrupted , and must be renewed . 571 O OCcasions of sin must be avoided . 787 Obedience must be universal . 8 , 9 P PAtience of God wonderful . 467 Gods Patience amplified in twelve considerations . 467 , to 476 The causes of Gods patience . 476,477 The Application of Gods patience . 485 The vanity of Pride . 795,796 Christians must look to the Principles of their ordinary actions . 50 , 51 Men must pay what they owe. 20 Payments must be in good money . 21 Q ITs good for Christians sometimes to put Questions to their own souls . 524 The manner how they should do it . 546 , 547 The benefit of it in four particulars . 525 , 526 R REgeneration necessary . 695 Christians should rejoyce in others graces . 308 The credit of Religion much engaged in a Christians publique dealings . 11 , to 61 It s the duty of Saints , to reprove them that sin . 165 , 188 , 285 , 286 Reproof must be given seriously , seasonably , prudently , compassionately . 191 , to 204 It s a Christians duty to take a reproof kindly . 302 , to 306 Christians ought to be righteous in their dealings with all men . 15 In their works . 16,64,65 In buying . 17 , 18 , 19 Wherein Righteousness in buying consisteth . 20 , 21,65 Christians ought to be righteous in selling . 22 Wherein it consisteth . 23 , 24,25,66,67 The general rule of righteousness . 27,69 Christian● ought to be righteous in their words . 34,70 S SAtan a strong , crafty , industrious , and cruel enemy . 336 , to 339 Sinful shame , what . 174 Christians must be righteous in selling . 22 It s a sin to work upon the ignorance or poverty of the Seller . 18 , 19 Its a duty to visit the sick . 554 , 557 Great caution about it . 555 It s a special season of doing and receiving good . 559 , 560 It may be the last opportunity . 565 We must be acquainted with the state of sick persons souls . 568 Sutable application must be made to the sick . 570 Five things cheifly to be insisted on to the carnal sick . 571 , to 576 How to apply our selves to civil men in sickness . 577 Three great lessons all should learn by sickness . 579 How to apply our selves to Saints in their sickness . 578 We must deal faithfully with the sick . 581 It s a duty to pray with , and for the sick . 582 Much good may be gotten by visiting the sick . 584 We may learn our own frailty , the worth of health , the price of time , the excellency of grace . 585 , to 588 Sinful silence , what . 165 What it is to be silent in evil times . 168 Sin to be suppressed in the beginning . 799 Open sins worse then secret in a threefold respect . 13 God hates sin . 467 How many ways we may partake of other mens sins by provocation complyance , Silence . 164 , 165 , 186 No true friendship betwixt Saints and Sinners . 104 , 108 , 141 , 142 Christians should be careful of their carriage amongst sinners . 155 Christians should not needlesly accompany with sinners . 111. Vide company . In what respect Sinners are said to be without . 155 Sinners joyn hand in hand to oppose the interest and Kingdom of Christ. 153 What it is to sit with vain persons . 112 Slothful Christians must be quickened . 282 Soliloquies a duty . 432 It s a Christians duty to be holy in Solitude . 354,355 The danger of neglecting our watch in Solitude . 362 The great benefit of seasonable Solitude . 357 To make conscience of our carriage in Solitude , is a good sign of sincerity . 365. Wherein it consisteth . 369 , &c. In guarding the heart against vain thoughts . 369 In spiritualizing earthly objects . 372 In solemn Meditations . 388 In Soliloquies . 432 Secret Ejaculations . 435 The evil of needless Solitude . 257 The sorrowful must be comforted . 283 T CHristians must be thankful for restraining grace . 180 , 181 Vain thoughts must be watcht against . 369 Time is precious and must be redeemed . 263,264,578 Trees teach men ten lessons . 460 , to 464 V VAin thoughts , what . 370 Unrighteousness a sign of Hypocrisie . 7,8 . 58 The folly of unrighteous men . 25 , 28 , to 34 W THe life of man compared to a Walk . 1 The life of a Christian to a walk with God. 2 In what respects a Christians life is said to be a walking in the light . 2,3 . Christians must watch . 514 Watchfulness requisite in evil company . 155 , 160 , 161 Watchfulness a great help to Godliness . 734 Great reason for watchfulness . 741 We must watch against sin . 741. for doing good . ibid. in duties . 742. after duties . ibid. our senses . ibid. our tongues . 743. our heart especially . 744 Every Week-day to be devoted to God. 488 Motives to it . 490 , to 496. Wherein it consisteth . In beginning the day with God. 496 Diligence in our callings . 511 Redeeming time . 518 Constant watchfulness . 514 Self Examination . 523 Evening duties . 527 Our words should be the language of our hearts . 34 The excellency of the Word of God , largely described in its four causes . 398 , &c. The Word of God is true . 412. holy . 408. perfect . 411. powerful . 410 Why the Word of God is compared to light . 416 Why to rain . 419 World not to be loved . 821 The vanity of worldly things . 824 Worldly things unsutable to our souls . 8. 8. unsatisfying . 830. deceitful . 828. vexatious . 832. Z ZEal , what it is . 179 Christians should be Zealous . ibid. FINIS . These Books following are Printed for , and sold by Thomas Park-hurst , as the three Crowns at the lower end of Cheap-side , over-against the great Conduit . Folio's . THe History of the Evangelical Churches of the Valleys of Piedmont ; By Sam. M●rland . A Commentary upon Iob , Psalms , Proverbs , Eccl●si●stes , and the Song of Songs ; By Iohn May●r . Exemplary Novels , a famous Romance . An Exposition upon the first Epistle of Iohn ; By Iohn Cotton . An Exposition upon the second Epistle to the Corinthians ; By Rich. Sibs . The bowels of tender mercy sealed in the everlasting Covenant , wherein is set forth the Nature , Conditions , and Excellencies of it , and how a sinner should do to enter into it , and the danger of refusing this Covenant Re●ation . Also the Treasures of Grace , Blessings , Comforts , Promises , and Priviledges , that are comprised in the covenant of Gods free and rich mercy , made in Jesus Christ with Beleivers ; By Obadia● Sedgwick B. D. The Parly of Beasts , or , Morphandra , Queen of the inchanted Island , with Reflexes upon the present state of most Countries in Christendom ; By Iames Howel Esq The dead Saint speaking to Saints and Sinners living● in several Treatises ; viz. The fulness and greatest evil that is in sin , on 2 Sam. 24. 10. The love of Christ to his Spouse , on Cant. 4. 9. Nature and Royalties of Faith , on Iohn 1. 15. The slowness of heart to believe , on Iohn 1. 50. The causes signs and cure of Hypocrisie , with motives and helps to sincerity , on Isa. 58● 2. The wonderful workings of God for his Church and his people , on Exod. 15● 11. Never before published ; By Bolt●●● D : D. Quarto's . AN Exposit●on upon the nineteen last Chapters of Ezekiel ; By Will. G●eenhil . An Exposition on the first eighteen verses of Iohn ; By I. Arrowsmith : An exposition on the book of Canticles ; By R. Robotham . A Treatise sh●wing the right ordering of the Bee ; By Sam. Purchas . An Exposition on the 15 , 16 , 17. Chap. of Iob ; By I. Caryll . An Exhortation from the Churches of Bohemia to the Church of England ; By Iohn Amos Comenius . The Plain Doctrine of the Justification of a sinner in the sight of God , justified by the God of truth in his holy Word and the Cloud of Witne●●es in all ages ; By Charles Chauncy of New England . The whole Tryal of the Marquiss of Arguile . An Exposition upon the 4. Chap. of the 2. Epist. to the Cor●nthians ; By R. S●bbs . Comfortable Sermons on Psalm 24● Preached before the Lady Elizabeth , her Grace ; By Daniel Dyke . B. D. God save the King , in a Sermon preached the day after his Majesty came into London● by Anth. Walker , Preacher of the Gospel . An Antidote against Anabaptism , wherein the baptizing Infants , taking Tythes , &c , are f●lly vindicated ; by Aylmor Haughton . The Conversation as heavenly , and as natural , in two Treatises ; by D. Stoughton● Jesus Christ the mystical or Gospel Sun , sometimes seemingly Eclipsed , yet never going gown from his people ; opened in a Sermon at Pauls Church ; before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor , Aldermen● &c. March 28. 1652. the day before the l●●e Solar Eclipse ; by Fulk Beller . M. A. A Sermon Preached before the Honourable House of Commons , at their late Monethly Fast , being on Wednesday , Iune 30. 1647. by Nath. Ward . A Declaration of the Faith and Order owned and practised in the Congregational Churches in England , agreed upon , & consented unto by their Elders & Messengers , in their meeting at the Savoy , Oct. 12. 1658. Mesolabium Architectonicum , that is , a most rare and singular Instrument , for the easie , speedy , and most certain measuring of Pla●ns and Solids by the foot ; invented long since by Mr. Tho. Bedwel Esq A Changl●ng no company for lovers of Loyalty , or the Subjects Lesson in point of sacred submission to , and humble compliance with God and the King. The beauty of Magistracy , in an Expositioo of the 82. Psalm , where is set forth the Necessity , Utility , Dignity , Duty , and Mor●lity of Magistrates ; by the labours of Tho , Hall B. D. and Pastor of Kings Norton , and George Swinock M. A. and Pastor of Great Kimbel . Large Octavo's . FOur profitable Treatises , very useful for Christian practice , viz. The killing power of the Law , the spir●tual watch , the New Birth , of the Sabbath ; by the reveren● , Fenne●● late Minister of Rotchford in Essex . Enchirid on Iudl●um , or Iehoshaphats charge to his Judges ; together with the Catastrophe Magnatum , or King Davids lament●t●on at Prince Abners Incineration● by Iames Livesey , Minister of the Gospel at Atherton . The greatest loss , upon Mat. 15 , 26 ; by the same ●uthor . Meditations , Divine and Moral ; by Henry Tabb , M. A. The Psalms of K. Dav●d translated by K. Iames. Will●ul impenitency the greatest Self-murther ; by that able , faithful and laborious Minister of Jesus Christ , Mr. W. Fenner . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Almost Christian discovered , or the False professor tryed and cast ; by Matthew Mead. Spiritual Wisdom , improved against Temptation , by the same Author . Pharonnida , an Heroick Poem ; by VVill. Chamberlain . The good old way of Perkins improved , in a plain Exposition of Perkins Catechism , by C. Broxholme . A Treatise of Self-denial , with the Necessity and Excellency of it ; by Th●●philu● Polwheele . The Hippocr●tes Ladder ; by John Sheffield . The Christian compleatly armed ; by R. Robinson . A practical discourse of prayer , wherein is handled the nature and duty of prayer ; by T. C●bbet . The Righteo●s mans tower ; by Ier. Dike . Mount Ebal levelled , or a redemption from the ●urse ; by El. Wales , with Mr. Calamies Epistle . Tentations ; their nature , danger , cure ; to which is added , his Remains ; by R. Capel . A Wedding-Ring , fit for the finger , ●ogether with the Non-such Professor ; by W. Secker . The History of the Turkish Wars in Hungary , Transilvania , Austria , Silesia , and other Provinces of the German Empire , from the first invasion of Amurath the second , Anno. 1432. to this present year , 1664. to which is prefixed a shor● discourse of the state and government of the said Provinces . The spiritual taste described , and a glimpse of Christ discovered , in two parts , grounded on Psalm 34. 8. and Mal. 4. 2. by R●b . Dingley , M. A. Small Octavo's . CAtechizing Gods Ordinance , in sundry Sermons ; by Mr. Zach. Cros●on . A bridle for the tongue , or a ●●eatise of ten sins of the tongue ; viz. Cursing , Swearing , Slandering , Scoffing , Filthy Speaking , Flattering , Censuring , Murmuring , Lying , and Boasting , on Iam. ● . 26. by W. Gearing . The Pastor and the Clerk , or a debate ( real ) concerning Infant Baptism ; by Iohn Ellis . Habakk●k's prayer applied to the Churches present occasions , on Hab. 3. 2. and Christs counsel to the Church of Philadelphia , on Rev. 3. 11. by Sam. Balmford . The Rudiments of Grammar : The Rules composed in English verse , for the great benefit and delight of young beginners ; by Iames Shirley . The Ladies Dispensatory , containing the Natures , Vertues , and Qualities of Herbs and Simples useful in Physick , reduced into a methodical order , for their more ready use in any sickness , or other accident of the body . The godly mans Ark in the day of his distress , discovered in divers Sermons ; the first of which was preached at the Funeral of Mrs. Elizabeth Moor. Whereunto is annexed , Mrs. Elizabeth Moors Evidences for Heaven , composed and collected by her in the time of her health , ●or her comfort in the ●ime of sickness ; by E. Calamy , B. D. The Gale of Opportunity , and the beloved Disciple ; by Thomas Froysal . Sion in the house of mourning , because of sin and suffering , being an Exposition on the 5. Chap. of the Lamentations ; by D. S. Moses unvailed , or those figures which served unto the pattern and shadow of heavenly things , pointing out the Messiah Jesus Christ , briefly explained ; whereunto is added , the harmony of the Prophets , breathing with one mouth , the mystery of his coming , and of that redempt●on which by his death he was to accomplish ; By Will. Guild . Good company , being a collection of various , seriou● , pious meditations ; by I. Melvin . A Religious Treatise upon Simeons song ; or Instructions how to live holily , and dye happily● by T. Woodriff , B. D. The Reformation , in which is reconciliation with God and his people ; or a Catechism unvailing the Apostles Creed , with Anno●ations ; in which Faith , Ordinances and Governments are professed , as in the Primitive Times , in opposition to all Errors and Here●●es ; by W. K. Prospering prophaneness , provoking holy conference , and Gods attention ; several Sermons from Mal 3 15 , 16 , 17. by Zach. Crofton . The Catechism of Hugo Gr●tius , done into English. Benedictio , Valediction , or the Remembrancer of thy friend , and thy end , being a farewel Sermom , Preached at the house of the ( late ) Right Honourable Letitia Lady Paget , D●wager , deceased , by her Chaplain Anth. Sadler . Ioh. Am. Comenii schola , Ludu● Encuclopaedi● viva , i. e. Ian●● Linguarum praxi● Comicae . A divine Cordial , or the transcendent Priviledge of those that love God , and are savingly called . A word of comfort for the Church of God. The Holy Eucharist , or the mystery of the Lords Supper briefly explained . A Plea for Alms , in a Sermon preached at the Spittle in Easter-week . All four by Tho. Watson . Poems of divers sorts , by Sir Aston Cokain . The Protestants Triumph ; wherein the divinity , excellency , antiquity , and Certa●nty of our Religion is asserted against the Papists , by Charles Drelingcourt . Twelves . THe dangerous rule , or a Sermon preached at Clonmel in the Province of Munster in Ireland , upon Aug. 3. 1657 before the reverend Judges for that circuit ; by S. L. The womans Glory ; a Treatise a●serting the honour of that Sex , by manifesting that Women are capable of the highest improvements : by Sam. To●shel . The discovery of the most dangero●s dead Faith ; by Iohn Eat●● , M. A. Christ a Christians only Gain ; by R. Vi●es : A plain Answer to this practical Question , What course a Christian may take to ha●e his heart quickened in the duty of secret prayer . By Rich. Mayo , late of Kingstone . The dying Fathers last living Legacy to his only Son. A most excellent Treatise , containing The way to seek Heavens Glory . To flye Earths Vanity . To fear Hells Horror . With the Bell-mans Summons . A Good day well Improved . Death disarmed , at the Funeral of Dr. Hill. The Balm of Gil●●d for the Wounds of England , By Anthony Tu●kn●y . The true Evangelical temper , wherein Divinity and Ecclesiastical History are interwoven and mixed ; both to the profit and delight of the Christian Reader ; on Isa. 11. 6 , 7 , 9. by I. Iackson . Twentyfours . GRoans of the Spirit , or a Tryal of the truth of prayer . A Handkercheif for Parents wet eyes , upon the death of their Children ; or Friends . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A62040-e500 Salv. l. 4. De gub . d●i . Tert. Apol. Notes for div A62040-e5090 Psalm 39. Ambulare Hebraica phrasi significat c●rsum vitae instituere . 1 John 1. 6. Psa. 119. 1. Est motus progress●vus . Ambulare in Chr●sto duo denotat . Pr●gredi & perseverare in doctrina & fide Christi . Dav. in Col. 2. 6. Est m●tus perpetuus . Bis de Enoch dicitur ( Ambulavit cum deo ) ad explicandum quod ab ine●nte aetate , profecit in via dei , & perseveravit , profitiendo in eadem semper . C●jrer . Ambulare est vivere . Hac loquendi formula admonemur , Christianum esse in perpetuo itinere versus caelest in patriam , neque unquam esse illi subsistendum in via , sed perpetuo ambulandum & pr●grediendum . Dav. in Col. Notes for div A62040-e6800 Job . 39. 18. 1 Cor. 15. 10. Acts 14. 16. Motives , 1 T is a sign of hypocrisie to be unrighteous in our dealings . Heb. 13. 18. Non est vera religio quae cum templo relinquitur . Lactant. 2 Motive , The Cred●t of R●ligion is much eng●ged in our dealings with others . Scandalum est dictum , aut sactum , quo alius● redditur deterior . Paraeus , in 1 Cor. 8. 9. Quod quasi & siccos madesaceret , & exprimeret humentes ; because he did advance and wet them well when dry , and press them hard when wet . Tacit. Iust●m precium , quod multo amplius erat , nec opinanti dedit . Aug. de Trin. l. 53. c. 3. M●●imony Treatise of Thefr . Cap. 7. Be religious in the manner of thy selling . Tull. de Offic. Quod tibi non vis , alterine seceris , Sever. Arist. Hist 9. Animal c. 24 Festina Iente . Illud adagium arridebat duobus Imperatoribus facile laudatissimis , Aug. & Tito . Eras. Adag . Isa. 618 Be righteous in thy words and expressions . Tul. de . Offic. Vsus frandis in bello gerendo laudabilis , in aliis actionibus d●test ibilis . Machiav . Be Courteous in thy dealings . Benigni●ate adeo praeditus , ut quos armis su●●gerat , clementia magis vicerit . Solin . Austin . Epist. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Comis , Affa●ilis , Humanus & ad vitae consuetudinem facilis comm●dusque Eras. Tanquam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Qui sapit amica , i. e. Qui studet facere ea quae alteri sunt amica & grata . Comitas ( alias dicta humanitas , affabilitas ) est virtus in conversatione mediocritatem servans , ne quis juste offendatur . Praetor . p. 2. Theat . Eth. Sect. 13. Blunts Voyage Ruth 4. 2. Be meek in thy dealings with men . Mansuetudo est virtus quae mediocritatem servat circa iram . Golius . l. 4. Eth. c. 5. Mansuetudo est virtus quae hominem ita tractabilem facit in communi conversatione , ut non praeter aequum & bonum exa●peretur aliorum ineptiis , morositatibus & peccatis le●ioribus etiam in suam injur amtendent . hus . Dav. in Col. 3. 12. Ovid Metamor . Plutar●h . Infirmi anim●i est exiguique voluptas Vltio ; continuo sic Coll●ge , quod vindicta Nemo magis gaudet quam faemina . Juvenal . Sat. 6. No●il●ssimum genus vindictae est par● ere . Contemnere op●rtet injurias & quas injuriarum umbras dixe●im , contumelias sive mer●to mihi acci●●t , sive immerito . Si merito , non est contumelia , sed judicium ; Si immerito , illi qui injusta facit , non mih. erubes●endum est . Senec. in Sap. non cad . injuria . If Injuries be shameful , it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to him that doth the wrong , not to him that suffereth the wrong , saith S●crates . Sae●● dicere solitus sum . Etiamsi me Lutherus diabolum vocaret , me tamen hoc illi honoris habiturum , ut insignem dei servum agnoscam . Cael. Bu. Hierom observeth upon Ephes. 4. 32. that the Apostle saith , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is , saith he , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 freely forgiving your selves . Nam quod bene in alium fit , magis ei reponitur qui praestitit , quam cui datum est . (b) Hanc veniam petimusque damusque vicissim , Horas . Non vivitur inter perfectos & bonos , sed inter illos qui saepe ex infirmitate , & inscitia peccant ; quod & nos ipsi etiam facimus . AEquum est igitur peccatis veniam poscentem , reddere rursus , Cav . ibid. Look to thy principle in thy dealings . Plutar●h . Let thy end and aim in thy dealings be good . Turk Hist. 1332. 1 King. 5.7 . 2 Cron. 2. 11 , 12. Sir Henry Blunts Voyage into the Levant . Repentinis responsionibus & consiliis melior , quam meditatis , Aurel. Vict. Plut. The Introduction . Act. 24. 16. Psa. 119. Motives to mind Religion in civil dealings . 1. It s a sign of hypocrisie to be careless herein . 2 Motive , the honour of Religion . Ezek. 36. 20. Psa. 25. and 31. 13. Isa. 48. 9. In our dealings ; we must exercise our selves to godliness . First , In regard of the manner . 1. Act Righteously . Jer. 22. 12. In thy works . Isa. 1. 15. Psa. 37. 16. Prov. 16. 8. Psa. 106. 3. P●ov . 12. 7. Job 8. 6. 1 Tim. 3. 2. Luk. 1. 73. Act righteously in thy words . Titus 1. 2. Isa. 63. 8. Prov. 12. 22. Psa. 119. 142. Colos. 1. 5. Rev. 3. 14. Psa. 24. 3. and 15. 2. 2 Manner . Deal Courteously . 3 Manner . Deal meekly . Eccles. 7. 3. Job 4. ●● . Eccles. 7.4 . 2 The principle must Legr●ciou● . 1 Sam : 16.6.7 . 3 The end in our dealings is to be minded . The conclusion . Gen. 5. 3. Notes for div A62040-e28720 Siquis est-qui congressus , & societates hominum ●erre non possit , ant nullo egeat , quod seipso contentus sit ; i● p●ofecto in parte civitatis non est habendus ; ●●a vel Deus putandus . Arist. l. 2. de Repub. c. 2. Null●us reisine socio jucunda possissio . Non magu utilitati est ager cum redditibus amplis , quam vicinus aequalis cum moribus bonis . Senec. Epist. 11 Amicitia est omnium humanarum divinarumque rerum benevolentia & charitate summa consensio , qua quidem haud s●io , an excepta sapientia , qui●quam melius homini sit a diis immortalibus datum Cicero de Amicitia . Comes jucundus in via pro vehiculo est . Senec. Societas est ad●nati● hominum ad aliquid perficiendum . Aquin. Solem è mundo tollunt qui tollunt amicititiam . Amb. de Amicitia . c. 7. Plut. Vix dici potest quanto libentius imitamur eos quibus favemus , Quin● . lib. 10. cap. 2. Vt nummum exploras , num sit adulterinus , priusquam eo sit opus . Sic amicus probadus antequam eo fit opus . Plut. Moral . Amicitiae ut pares quaerunt , ita & faciunt . Amicitia parem aut facit , aut accipit . Hierom. in Mich. Proph. Rerum natura sic est , ut quoties bonus malo conjungitur , non ex bono malus melioretur , sed ex malo bonus contaminetur ; di●ersitas enim rerum nunquam potest habere concordiam , & multos sollicitat societas nefanda , Chrys. in Math. Corpora Corporibus jungebat mortua vivis . Ante ignem consistens , etiamsi ferreus sis , aliquando dissolveris ; proximus periculo diu tutus non erit . Per assi duitatem cito peccat homo . Saepe samiliaris impll●avit , saepe occasionem pecc●andi dedit , saepe quod voluntas non potuit assiduitas s●peravit . Isiodor . lib. 2. Soliloq . Levit. 13. Josh. 23.12 , 13 In the Wars against the A higenses , when the Popish Army took the popu●ous City of Beziers , they put to the Sword above sixty thousand , amongst whom were many Catholicks , their own friends , who suffered for being amongst their enemies ; the Popes Legat being General , commanded it , and gave this reason , Caedite eos omnes ; novit enim deus qui sunt ejus . Irenaeus advers . ● . ere 's . lib. 5. cap. 3. Pi●gen . Laert. in vit . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verbum sumptum est a nautis qui flexo cursu declinant scopulum aut periculum , Eras. Psa. 143. Bishop Hall. Amabalis socius omnibus est officiosus , & nulli on●rosus , quia divotus ad deum , benignus ad proximum , sobr●us ad mundunt . Domini servus , proximi socius , mund dominus , superiora habet ad gaudium , aequalia ad consortium , inferiora ad servitium . Hugo . lib. 3. de Anima . Plut. in vit . Syll. Sueton● Qui aequo animo malis immiscetur , malus est . 3 Motive . In deo diligere non potest qui deum non dilig●t . Bernard . Hominum charitas gratuita est . Cicero de Natura . deor . lib. 1. Humanitas vetat . Superbum esse apud s●ci●i , vitat avarum verbis , re●us , a●●ecti●us communem si ●●●●lemque omni●us praestat , nullum alienum malum putat , bonum autem suum ideo maxime quod alic●j ●● bonum faturum ess●amat . Senec. Epist. 11. Inter dispares mores firma , non potest esse amicitia . Aug. de Am●citia . cap. 14. Omnium societatum , nulla praestantior est , nulla firmior est , quam cum viri beni moribus similies sunt familiaritate conjunct● . Sen. Epist. 11. Sen. Epist. 9. Amicus est qui amat , & redamatur , Arist. lib. 2. Rhet. Vera illa amicitia , & Christi glutino copulata , quam non utilitas rei familiaris , non praesentia corporum tantum , non subdola & palpans adulatio , sed dei timor , & divinarum scripturarum consiliant studia . Hierom. in Epist. ad Paulin. Mos ●uit inter reges barbaros , quoti●s in societatem coirent , applicare dexteras , pellicesque inter se vincire , nodoque constringere & ubi mox sanguis in artūs extremos pervenisset , levi vulnere cruorem eli●iebant , atque invicem habebant , idque●aedus arcanum , quasi mut●o cruore sacratum haberi solitam . Tacitus . Some tell vs that two who desired to become intimate ●riends , came into Vulcans Shop , begging this boo● of him , that he would b●at them on his Anvile , or melt them in his Furnace , both into one , the which he granted . Non sunt fideles in anticitia , quos manus , non gratia co●ulat , nam cito deserunt , nisi semper acci●●r●nt . 〈◊〉 enim quae munere gl●rinatur , ●●d●m suspenso diss●lvitur . Isid. lib. 3. de Sum. bon . One gave his friend this adv●ce , Have communion with few , ●e int●mate with one , deal justly with all , speak evil of none . Convictor delicatus paulatum en●rvat & emollit , ne●●sse est aut imiteris , aut odevis● utrumque autem devi●andum est ne aut similis malis fias quia multi sunt , ne vel inimicus multis quia d●ssimiles . Cum his conversare , qui ●e meliorem facturi sunt ; illos admitte quos tu pores facere mel●●res . Senec. Epist. 11. Amicos secundae res ●ptime parant , adversae certissime probant . Sen. Diligentes Agricolae terram prius notulis quibusdam deprehendunt , & explorant , priusquam illi credant sementem . It a explorandus am●cus antequam committas arcanum . Erasmus . Tu omnia cum amico del●bera . sed de ipso prius . Senec. de benef . l. 6. c. 24. Non est vera amicitia ubi est fallax adulatio , Amb. de Offic. lib. 3. Solatium hujus vitae est , ut habeas , cui pectus tuum aperias , cui arcana communices , ut collo●es tibi fid●lem virum qui in prosperis gratuletur tili●in tristibus compat●atur ; facilis vox & communis , Tuus sum totus , sed paucioris est effectus . Amb. de . Offic. lib. 3 In Vit. Mat. 5. 45. Gal. 4. 10. 1 Pet. 2. 2● . Joh. 16. ult . The Introduction . Motives to care in the choice of Co●panions , 1 Motive . The influence that Company hath on us , to d●aw us to the evil of sin . Evil Company may make a Christian to suffer . The great good to be got by a good Companion . 2 Mo●ive . A mans Companions w●ll discover what he is . 3 Mot●ve . There can be no true friendship amongst wicked men ; nor between a godly and a wicked man. Prov. 22. 24. 1 Choose godly men for thy Companions . 2 Choose them because they are godly . Mat. 18. 6. Rom. 14. 1. 3 The end must be good . Notes for div A62040-e50790 Malorum consortia fugere debemus , quoad privatam consuetudinem , non quoad publicam conversationem ; corde , non corpore , Amb. Offic. lib. 1. cap. 20. A malis corde semper disjungimini , ad tempas caute corpore copulemini . Aug. l. de Salut . document . Plin. Nat. ●ist . l. 8. c. 21. Mot●ve . Evil Company is infectious . Melius est , habere malorum odium quam ●on●o●tium . Si●ut ●ona mu●ta habet ●ommunis vita sanctorum , sic plur●ma mala affe●t societas malorum . Isiodor . l. 2. Solil . Arist. Hist. A●●m . l. 6. c. 19. Sicut amici adulantes pervertunt , sic inimici litigantes plerunque corrigant . Aug. Confess . 9. Idem in 2 Thes. 3. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Ne Commercium h●bete . Beza . Ne Commis●eam●ni . Vulg. Abbots Geogr Cambd. Britt . Cons●n●ire est sile e●●m arguere p●ssis , Bernard . Aug. in Mat. 16. Non turbatur navis quae Petrum habebat , sed turbatur ●lla que Iudam habebat ; etsi multa illorum discipulorum merita naufragabant , tamen adhuc perfidia proditoris agitabatur ; in utraque P●trus ; s●d qui suis meritis fi●mus est , turbatur alienis . Caveamus igitur perfidum , Caveamus proditorem , ne per un●m plurimi fluctuemus . Amb. super . Luc. lib. 4. Est tempus quando nihil , est tempus quando aliquid , nullum autem tempus in quo dicenda sunt omnia . Ar●st . Hist. Anim. ● . 2. c. 1● Aug. Conf. l. 8. Qui nescit dissimular , nescit regnare . Phil. Com. Quemadmodum siquis margaritam in luto conculcet , ●jus amplius demonstrat pul hr●tudinem . Sic virtus sanctorum , quo●mque eam proje●eris , declarat suum splendorem , in servitute , in carcere , in prosperitate . Chrys. Hom. 62. in Genes . Christus omnibus o●nia factus est , pa●per pauperibus , divesd vitibus , — Cum Maria ●l●t . cum Apost●is ●pulatur , &c. Amb. Sup. Luc. lib. 4. Ant. D●uralt . Sp●culum exemplorum . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lumen , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 servo , quod receptum l●men servat ; significat tale quid quod lumen ex se emittit , ut S●l , Luna Stella . Sicuti caeli luminaria ac sidera in firmamento caeli à Deo collocata , cunctis indesinenter quae sub caelo sunt , fulgent , & omnibus quae super terram sunt , per tempora , ac tempora , per generationes ac generationes , mirabiliter reluce●t ; alia quidem per noctem di luna & stellae , alia nihilominus per d●em , ut solis speciosissimi radii : Sic & sanctorum virtutis insignia atque beatissimi eorum agones , omnibus in perpetuum singulariter fulgent omnibus in aeternum bonorum formam tribuunt , omnibus sub sole pictatis exemplum ostendunt . Orig. Homil. 1. in Job . Viva lectio est vita sanctorum . Greg. Moral . 24. In altis mansuctus ero , in blasphemiis in Christum non ita . Epist. ad Server . In vita ejus per Anomy● . Non omnis qui parcit , ami●us est ; nec omnis qui verberat , inimicus . Melius est cum severitate diligere , quam cum lenitate decipere , Aug. Confe . 9. Magis amat objurgator san●ns●● quam adulator dis●imulans . Ide●● in Epist. ad Mart. Mi●● aliquando argue●e permissam , t●●i nunquam pecare . Amb. Plut. Moral . Tot quotidie occidimus , quot ad mortem ire tepidi & tacentes videmus . Greg. Cum vera objurgas , sic inimice juvas . Auson● Regat d●s●●plin●● vigor mans●●tudinem , & mansu●●udo ornet vigorem , & sic alterum commendetur ex altero ut nec vigor sit rigidus , nec mansuetudo dissolu●a . Greg. lib. 5. Moral . S●et . in vita . There are two cases wherein Reproof may be omitted . 1. When there is danger of bringing more dishonour to God by speaking then by forbearing , Mat. 7. 6. 2. When we can see no likelyhood of doing good by our Reproving . Hildersham● on Psal. 51. Lect. 9. Vide Plu● . ibid. Q●i non corrigit resecanda committit , & facientis culpam habet qui quod potest c●rrigere , negligit ●mendare . Greg. Iuvenes plerunque severitas admonitionis ad prosectum dirigit ; Scues vero ad meliora opera deprecatio blanda companit . Greg. Qui blando verbo castigatus non corrigitur , acrius ne●esse est arguatur cum dolore s●nt abscindenda , quae leniter sanari non possunt . Isid. l. 3. de somno . c. 46. Plus proficit amica correctio quam accusatio turbulenta ; ill● pudorem incutit , haec indignationem movet Amb. in Lucam . ●i●g . Laert. in vit . Socrat. Quicquid lacerato animo dixeris , ●unientis est impetus , non charitas corrigentis ; diligo , & dic qui●quid vales . Aug. de fin . Vbi peccatum moritur , ibi moria●ur . Vbi malum oritur , ibi moriatur . Secrete admone amicos , palam lauda . Sen. de Benif . Molestus est medicus surenti phrenet●co , & pater indis●iplinato filio ; ille in l●gando , iste caedendo , sed ambo diligendo . Si autem istos negligant & perire permittant , ista potius falsa mansuetudo crudelis est . Aug. ad Bonif. Remedia statim moruent vel offendunt , postea conferunt salutem vel voluptatem ; Ita salubria monita ●nitio sunt non nihil amara postea correcto jucundissima . Plut. in Moral . Prov. 9. 8. Nihil probat spiritualem virum , sicut peccati alieni tractatio ; quum liberationem eju● potius quam insultationem , potius auxilia quam convitia meditatur , & quantum● facultas tribuitur suscipit . Aug. sup . Epist. ad Gal. Diodor. Sicul. l. 17. Terenc . Adel. The Introduction . Psa. 141. Motives to quicken to care in evil company . 1. Our danger in evil company . 2 Motive . It s possible to be the better . Wherein the exercising our selves to godliness consisteth . 1. Take heed they do not make thee partaker of their sins . 2 Do not needlesly expose thy self to suffering . 3 Disown not Jesu , Christ in the worst Company . Either out of shame . Of fear . 4 L●bour to get some good amongst them 5 Endeavour to reform them . 6 Lament those sins which thou canst not prevent . Conclusion . Notes for div A62040-e77840 (a) Gal. 6 10. (b) Ephes. 3.6 . (c) Joh 10. 4 16. (d) 1 Pet. 2. 4 , 5. (e) Ephes. 1. 20 , 21 , 22. Phil. 2. 2. 1 Cor. 1. 10. Motives to frequent good company . The good of good Company . Fulk . Meteor . lib. 4. In vit . * In the same sense that the Poet speaks , A●ri sacra fames ; or as mons is so called , a non movendo . 2 Motive . Wicked men joyn together . 3 Motive . The backwardness of our own hearts . 4 Motive . The evil of neglecting Christian Communion . 1 Take heed of tho●e sins which good m●n are prone to , when they meet together . 1 Mispending time . 2 In censuring the good Qui judicat fratrem , tantum crimen elation●s incurrit , ut Christi tribunal sibi videatur assum●●e , & ejus judicium prae●enire . Ans. in Rom. 14. Luther gives the Character of wicked men . Tanquam fameli●i por●i immergunt se in ster●ora nostra , & ex iis delicias ●aciunt , cum infirmitatem nostram exemple mal●dict . aperiunt & traducunt . Lut. in Gen. 9. Detractor & ●ubens a●ditor uterque diabolum portat ; alter in ore , alter in aure , Bern. 2 Be serviceable to others Ephes. 4. 16. Si amici sunt , quo s●m alter ita dives , alter ita pauper . ●en . Epist. 8. Quanto plus prosundimus fluentorum bonorum spiritual●um , tanto n●hi● & fluenta sunt auctiora . Non enim in hac causa contingit , sicut in p●cuniis . Illic enim quanto plus expendit , tanto plus p●ssidet pecuniae , hic autem plane secus agitur Chrys. Hom. 8. in Gen. p. 37. Prov. 17. 17. 2 Thes. 3. 11. Perrigit panem ut ●il●at . Vt malus sermo● inducit in peccatum● si● malum silentium relinquit in peccato● August . In Quat . Noviss . Rom. 12. 15. Heb. 3. 3. Cyprian de pat●ent . 3 Christians must receive good in good company . Sir W. R●wl . Hist. World , l. 4. c. 4. Prov. 29. 1. P●ov . 21. 24. Prov. 27. 6. 4 Christians should rejoyce in each others graces . Plutar●h● The Introduction . Motives to mind the Communion of Saints . 1. The profit of Christian Society . 1 Cor. 6. ●● . 2 Motive , Wicked men joyn togeth●r . 2 Motive . The evil of needless solitariness . 4 Motive . The backwardnes● of our hearts . Caution in good company . 1 Beware of those sin● that good men are too guilty of , when they meet together . 1 In spending time vainly . 2 In censuring the good . 3 In backbiting the bad . 2 Christians should be serviceable to each other . 1 Pet. 4. 10. Ch●istians must be serviceable 1. In instructing the ignorant . 2 In bearing with one anothers in●irm●ties . 3 In com●orting the sorrowful . 4 In reproving the sinful . 3 Christians should endeavour to receive what good they can from each other . 1 In receiving counsel . 2 In accepting a reproof . 4 To rejoyce in each others w●lfare . The Conclusion . Rev. 7. Notes for div A62040-e108530 Suetonius . Motives . 1. The benefit of solitude . Quando secrete d●us erat in tabernaculo . Vulgar . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Sept. 2 Motive . The danger of neglect . Se● . Epist. 10. Isa. 34. 11. 3 Motive . It will be some evidence of uprightness . Wherein the exercising our selves to godliness in solitude consisteth . 1 In keeping away vain thought●● Quid tr●les● solitudo corporis , si non est solitudo cordis . Greg. Ho● . 7. 9. 2 In spiritualizing natural things . Luth. Declam . Popular de Terti . Precept . Tom. 1. N●● est ●llum animal●ulum tam exiguum in quo non ●l●s dis●ere possimu● quam in omnibus s●ul●tis pictis aut ●as●● sim●la●bris . Lavat . Every creature , sa●th Bernard , hath this voyce , Q●● secit m● propter te , s●●it t● propter se. Cant 7. 11. Isa. 40.6 . 3 Mind solemn and set meditations . The Subject matter of meditation ; The word of God. The first part of meditation ; Cogitation of the word . First , In it ; C●uses . 1 It s principal efficient Cause ; The Spirit of God. John 7. 46. 2 It s instrumental Cause ; Eminent Saints . 3 The Material Cause . 3 The formal cause of it . 1 Inward . 2 Outward . 4 The final cause . Joh. 7. 18. 2 Cor. 4. 6. 2 Ti● . 1. 9. 2 In its properties . Psa. 119. 142. Joh. 17. 17 Dan. 10. ult . Eccles. 12. 10. Col. 1. 4. 1 Pet. 1. 19 Gal. 1. 8 2 Pet. 1. 19 Luk. 16. 31 John 3. ●lt . 3 In its names and titles . a John 10. 35. b Matth. 22.29 c 1 Pet. 1.15 . d 2 Tim. 3.15 . e Ephes. 1.9 . f Ephes. 3.9 . g Prov. 20.17 . h James 1 25. i Rom. 3.27 . k Psal. 19.7 . l James 1. 8. m Josh. 1.8 . n Isa. 34. 16. o 2 King. 22.8 . p Ephes. 1.16 . q Rom. 1. 1. r Acts 20.24 . s Acts 20 : 27. t 1 Kings 2. 3. u Job 37. 10. x Jer. 9. 12 y Deut. 29. 12. z Acts 7.38 . a Micah 6. 9. b Prov : 8.14 . c Rom : 10.14 d Luke 10. ult . e Matth : 16.19 f Luke . 11. 52. g Luke 2.10 . h Isa : 52.7 . i 1 Sam. 13. 23 k Psalm 101.2 . l Matth : 7. 13. 4 In it● comparisons . Application . Resolution . A●nsw . on Psa. 3. 2. The Introduction : Motives to exercise our selves to godliness in solitude . 1. The advantage which a Christian may reap by solitude . 2 Motive , The danger of carelesness in solitude . 3 Motive . T is a good sign of sincerity . Wherein godliness consisteth in solitude . 1 By watching against sinful and vain thoughts . 2 Spiritualize natural things 3 Be frequent in deliberate meditations . An example o● set meditation . The subject of meditat●on , The Patience of God : 1 The nature of it . Patience amplified towards sinners , 1 In that God hates sin . 2 The co●dition of sinners . Mr Bolto● 1 Cor : 11. 31. Rom. 9. 22. 2 Pet. 3. 9. Isa. 30. 18. Gen. 6. 3. 1 Pet. 3.20 . Testimonies . Exod. 32. P●alm . 103. 8. Applicat . Rev. 13. Notes for div A62040-e139150 Chap : 21 , & 22 1 Pet. 1. 17. 1 Motive . Every day may be our last day . 2 Motive . God observeth us all the day long . An nescis , O homo , quod primitias cordis & vocis deo debeas ? occurre ergo ad sulis ortum ; sol oriens inveniat te jam paratum . Amb. in Psal. 119 : Serm : 19 : Mel●h . Adam . in ●it . Luth. Christian m●●● Calling . 1. Pa●● Chap. 23. Valer l. 6. c. 1. D●rections for walking with God , p. 49. Prov. 5. 10 , to the end . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rursus emo . Metaphora sumpta a mercatoribus . Beza . Labitur occulte fallitque volubilis aetas , Ovid. Metam . l. 10. Sen. de brevit . vit . cap. 1. Sen : de Irae . l. 3. c. 36. Desinet ira & crit moderatior quae s●iet●s ●i quotidie ad Iudicem esse veniendum , — . Qualis ille somnus post recog●tionem sui sequitur ? quam trinquillus ? &c. Idem ibid. Idem ibid. The Introduction . Motives . Every day may be thy last day . 2 Motive . Gods eye is on thee all the day lo●g . Wherein the exercising our selves to godliness on a week-day consisteth . 1 In beginning t●e day with God. 2 Spend the greatest part of the day in thy particular calling . 3 Be watchful all the day . 1 Sam. 19. 11. 4 Redeem time . 5 Call thy self to account . 6 Mind evening duties . The Conclusion . Notes for div A62040-e151160 1 Motive . 2 Motive . 3 Motive . Job 42. 3. Jer. 31. 18. Ezek. 47. Miscenda est leni●as cum sev●ritate . sit amor , sed non emolien● ; sit rigor , sed non exasperans . Greg. Mor. 10. Deut. 18.11 . Eccle● . 5. 1,2 . Carendo potius quam fr●endo sapimus . The Introduction . 1 Motive , To visit the sick is a duty . 2 Motive , It s a good opportunity for the doing of good It s a good opportunity for the receiving of good . Eccles. 3. 11. and 9. 12. 1 Chron. 11. 39 3 Motive . It may be the last opportunity . Psa. 88 : 11 The matter of it . 1. Know his condition . 2 Let thy Application be sutable . 3 Be close and home in thy Applications . 4 Pray with them , and for them . 2 In receiving good by them 2 King. 13. 14 , to 20. The Conclusion . Notes for div A62040-e161400 Xen. l. 8. Plut. Apol. Plin. l. 9. c. 35. Suetonius . Sueton. Anrel . Vict●r . Woodriff Simeons Song . Epist. Dedicat. Mr. Nicols in his relation of the life and death of Ign. Iordan . 1 Chron. 28.1 . 8 , 9. Vide Fox . Martyr . Vol. 3. p. 138. Hitr. in vit . Aug. de ve . invo . c. 33. Melc . Adam . Bellar. de arte mor. l. 2. c. 19. I have read of one that used to pray , God bless my Father and Mother , Brethren and Sisters , & none else ; To whom one that heard him , answered , It were better the Devil had thy father , and mother , and brethren , and sisters , and none else . Ruth . 1. 8. and 2. 19. 2 Tim. 1.18 . Si pro te solo oras , pro te solus orabis ; si pro omnibus rogas , omnes pro te rogabunt . Amb Ruth 1. 8. and 2. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Cic. quaest . Tusc. l. 1. Prov. 12. 52. Posidon in vit . Aug. L. Cornelius , legatus sub Fabio Consule . Vividam naturam & virilem animam servavi ; quo ad animam efflavi ; & tandem desertus o●e medicorum & AEsculapii Dei ingrati , ●ui me voveram , sodalem perpetuo suturum , si fil● aliquantulum , optata pro●●lisset . Ep. taph . Plu● . ad Apol. Hilarion morti proximus dixisse fertur , Egredere anim● mea , Egredere ; quid dubitas ? septuaginta prope annis serviisti Christo & mortem times ? Hier. Epist. Fam. l. 3. & in vit . Sir W. Rawleys Ep. Hist. World. Idem l. 1. c. 2. Vide more of this in Fading of the flesh . p. 85 , 86 , 87. See more of this in , Fading of the flesh . p. 88. 89. * Morari , having the first syllable short , signifieth to stay , and so the meaning is , Claudius ceased to stay amongst mortal men ; but take it as it is derived of the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stultus , and hath the first syllable long , in which sense Nero spake it , it importeth Claudius , hath now made an end of playing the fool amongst men . The Introduction . 1 Motive . Death is a seriou● thing . 2 Motive . A dying ●●me is a fit season to glorifie God in . 3 Motive . It is the last opportunity . The matter . 1. In Commending God and his ways to others● 2 To commend others to God. 3 In exercising grace . 1 Faith. Courage . Patience . Means . A continued preparation for it in life . Plut. Conclusion . Notes for div A62040-e173710 Plut. Moral . Drexel . Consid. AEtern●t . A Reverend divine had this written in his study , Nol● peccare manns videt ; Angeli as●ant , Dia●olus accufab ● . Conscientia testabitur , infernus cru●●abit . Tu vero ●● qui● in te artis est , ita compone domum meam ut ab omnibus conspici possit . Vellejus Paterculus . Turpe quid ausurus , te sine teste time . Mag●um nescio quid majusque quam cogitari potest numen est , cui vivendo operoram demus ; Huic nos apbemus , nam nihil prodest inclusam esse conscientiam patemus Deo. Sen●e . Notes for div A62040-e181370 Merito deb●t somper senare in a●ribus Vigilate . Bucer in 13. Mark. Philostr . in vit . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Immunditiae suae in fimbrlis suis mercedem nondum recordata . Trem. Considerat●o mortis tanquam caudae ad vitam optime regendam confert . Sen. de brev . vit . cap. ult . Muson apud Stob. Ser. 1. Luk. 1. 10. ● Psa. 119. 62 , 164. 1 Thes. 5. 17. Notes for div A62040-e186560 2. Pet. 3. 11 , 14. Per quot dies hoc judicium extendatur incertum ●st . Scripturarum more diem poni solere pro tempore nemo nescit . Aug. de ●●vit d●i l. 20. cap. 1. Cicer. de Senec. Plutarch . Q●antum possumus a lubrico recedamus , &c. Sen. Epist. ad Lucil. Notes for div A62040-e191120 Mat. 10. 28. Notes for div A62040-e194170 Joh. 14. 27. Psa. 55. 45. Notes for div A62040-e196110 Liv. l. 15. c. 7. Notes for div A62040-e199190 Conf. l. 9. c. 1. Dares Phryg . de bello Trojan● . Iustin Lib. 34. Ios. Lib. 12. Cap. 5. 
A57540	----	Ohel or Beth-shemesh A tabernacle for the sun, or, Irenicum evangelicum : an idea of church-discipline in the theorick and practick parts, which come forth first into the world as bridegroom and bride ... by whom you will have the totum essentiale of a true Gospel-church state according to Christs rules and order left us when he ascended ... : published for the benefit of all gathered churches, more especially in England, Ireland and Scotland / by John Rogers ... Rogers, John, 1627-1665? 1653 Approx. 2052 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 327 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-12 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A57540 Wing R1813 Wing R1805 ESTC R850 12686509 ocm 12686509 65778 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A57540) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 65778) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 367:14) Ohel or Beth-shemesh A tabernacle for the sun, or, Irenicum evangelicum : an idea of church-discipline in the theorick and practick parts, which come forth first into the world as bridegroom and bride ... by whom you will have the totum essentiale of a true Gospel-church state according to Christs rules and order left us when he ascended ... : published for the benefit of all gathered churches, more especially in England, Ireland and Scotland / by John Rogers ... Rogers, John, 1627-1665? Rogers, John, 1627-1665? Challah, the heavenly nymph. 2 pts. ([2], 564, [32] p.) Printed for R.I. and G. and H. Eversden ..., London : 1653. Hebrew at beginning of title. Pt. 2 has special t.p.: Challah, the heavenly nymph, or, The bride ... being the second book of church-discipline. London : Printed for R. Ibbitson, 1653. Both parts issued also in 1653 with additional 106 p. at beginning and general t.p.: Dod, or, Chatham. "Imprimatur Joseph Caryl" Reproduction of original in Union Theological Seminary Library, New York. Marginal notes. Includes indexes. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Presbyterian Church -- Controversial literature. Church of England -- Discipline. Puritans -- Doctrines. Fifth Monarchy Men. Great Britain -- History -- Commonwealth and Protectorate, 1649-1660. 2004-12 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-02 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-05 Olivia Bottum Sampled and proofread 2005-05 Olivia Bottum Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ohel or Beth-shemesh . A Tabernacle for the Sun : OR IRENICVM EVANGELICVM . An IDEA of Church-Discipline , In the THEORICK and PRACTICK Parts ; Which come forth first into the World as Bridegroom and Bride , hand in hand ; by whom you will have the totum essentiale of a true Gospel-Church state , according to Christs Rules and Order , left us when he Ascended . In which you may finde the Hidden Mystery of whole Christ , in Head , Neck , and Body . Hidden in former Ages from the Sons of Men. Eph. 3.4 , 5. Published for the benefit of all Gathered Churches , more especially in England , Ireland , and Scotland . By JOHN ROGERS An unfeined Friend and Servant of the Bridegrooms and Brides , and Minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ , late at Purleigh in Essex , now at Tho. Apostles , Lond. Declared for the most part in Christ-Church , Dublin in Ireland . Imprimatur Joseph Caryl . Psal. 19.4 , 5. Their line 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( or rule and structure ) is gone out thorough all the earth ; in them hath he set a Tabernacle for the Sun , &c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Heb. To the Sun in altissimo gradu . In that day I will raise up the Tabernacle of David that is faln , and build it as of old , Amos 9.11 . LONDON : Printed for R. I. and G. and H. Eversden , to be sold at the Grey-Hound in Pauls Church-yard . 1653. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Channuccah . A TABERNACLE For the SVN . The first BOOK . CHAP. I. That there is a visible Discipline , or Politie of the Church under the Gospel , ordained by Christ ; and what it is : and how it differs from carnal Policy . NOthing is more clear out of the word of God , then that there is a Gospel-Discipline , or Church-State for Saints of divine Institution , and by divine instruction ; Prov. 1.3 . To receive the instruction of ( Christ ) Wisdome , Justice , Judgement , and Equity ; for Solomon ( who was a type of Christ ) teaches his Discipline in this Book of Proverbs , which you have some call his Ethicks , as relating to morall Precepts ; for Divinity is like some great Lady that is every day in a new dresse ; and Morality like to a handmaid that waiteth on her ; Christ [ the typified Solomon ] intends hereby to tell us of his Order , and of the Discipline of Wisdomes house ( viz. his Church ) Prov. 8.1 , 2 , 3. and Chap. 9.1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5. he begins with this exhortation , Prov. 1.8 . My son hear the instruction ( or Discipline , as many read it ) of thy Father , viz. his spirituall documents , and teachings , and forsake not the Law of thy Mother , that is , of the Church , Gal. 4.26 . who bears , and brings forth children to the Lord. So that it seems Christs Discipline ( which is of the Father , and of the Mother ) consists in the Spirit , and in the truth , Joh. 4.23 , 24. not onely inwardly , but it is also outwardly ; as to outward Orders , Laws , and Ordinances of the Church . Thus the Lord opens the ear to Discipline , sayes Elihu to Job chap. 36.10 . and commands them from iniquity ; that is , sayes Calvin , he instructs them in his wayes , and teaches them to amend . This shews , that Gods designe in giving us so good a Gospel-Discipline , is , thereby to make us good and Gospel Disciples , both in knowledge and in practise , and is therefore of great concernment to us in teaching us these three things , 1 Subess● ; 2 Coesse ; 3 Praeesse . First , to be obedient to his Laws , and Ordinances , ut discipuli , living together in Order : Secondly , to love one another , and all Saints living together in unity , ut socii , Psal. 133.1 , 2. Thirdly , to instruct one another , and to strive together , to excell in exhorting , comforting , and teaching to the edifying of one another , 1 Cor. 14.12 . ut Magistri , as Masters of knowledge , Psal. 119.98 , 99. and therefore it is , that there is so great a need , and notable a use of this good order , and Gospel-Discipline amongst us , which God hath of his goodnesse , and in his wisdome provided for us . So sayes old Bernard , super Cant. Serm. 23. What abundant cause have we to blesse the Lord ( who was no wayes bound to us ) that of his free love should let down a Discipline out of his owne bosome ( as it was brought by Christ to us from the Father for us to dwell in ? because the School-men could say , Disciplina non debetur ex debito , quia inferiori non est aliquis obligatus , in quantum est inferior ; Man is the inferiour , therefore it is man that is obliged to the Lord his Superiour , for making so much , and so excellent soul-provision ( hence religio a religando ) Ma● . 24 45. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Who is a faithfull and wise servant , whom his Lord hath made ruler over his houshold , to give them meat in due season ? So we see the Lord takes care for us , and makes provision for poor souls , for he hath appointed , ( constituit being a compound word , is as much as to say , cum aliis statuit , whom the Lord hath appointed ( joyntly with others ) as an Overseer , ( super familitium suum , ) over a remnant of his family . Now , woe bee to them that reject this Discipline of Gospel-institution , Psal. 50.16 , 17. a meer Moralist will tell you there is a necessity of Discipline . ( See but Tull ▪ in 's Offices lib. 8. & 9. de invent . ante finem libri ) and a meer Formalist will tell you , that there is a necessity of Church-Discipline , which is a principle own'd by all for a truth ( except Atheists ) bee they no more then meer pretenders , or professours . As for this Church-Discipline we shall finde it in the word , and fetch it from the Fountaine freely flowing forth through many more Scriptures , then I shall mention both out of Old and New Testament . First , in the Old Testament , we finde many Prophesies , and Promises filled with this , as Psal. 110.3 . Thy people shall bee willing in the day of thy power , in the beauties of holinesse , which must bee meant of this visible Gospel-Church-state , wherein Saints ( having communion with Christ , and one with another ) do worship the Lord , as appears Psa. 29.2 . Worship the Lord in the beauty of holines ; this is the Lords house , here is his worship due unto his name ; out of this Sion goes forth the Law , and it is beautifull for scituation . So in Isa. 2.2 , 3. It shall come to passe in the last dayes , that the mountaine of the Lords house shall bee established in the top , &c. which foresees the singular fellowship of Saints in these last dayes wherein we live ( largely ) exalting Gods owne way of worship , which he will bring forth with shoutings , and withall an attractivum bonum , a winning excellency will shew it selfe to the ravishing of the Saints , and the re-edifying of their soules as ( in statu quo prius ) of old ; so that the very out-casts of Israel shall ( more fluminis ) by a spirituall instinct , and from occult qualities flow freely ( and be fully satisfied ) unto it , yea up to it , which is a greater wonder . The glory of this latter house shall be abundantly greater then the former , which notwithstanding was filled with his glory . This house the Prophet also premonstrates in Ezek. 43.10 , 11 , 12. which looks to the Gospel-time and Temple . Secondly , in the New Testament , this truth triumphantly appears , for our Saviour testifies himself unto it , in Mat. 16.18 , 19 , and upon this rock will I build my Church ( in the Heb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but , is not a copulate ) but Christ himselfe is this rocke that is pointed at for the Churches foundation , 1 Cor. 3.11 . or else is will fall : And as the verb metaphorically concludes this Doctrin of Church-Discipline ( being taken from a building consisting of many particular parcels made up into one , also of such a Society which are of neer relation and sweet consanguinity ( spiritually taken ) including the order of the house , which is thus built up an habitation to the Lord through the Spirit ; ) So also the person and tense doe signally declare , Christ is yet about this building ( who alone is the Carpenters Sonne , the Son of Mary ) as afterward we shall shew . For further proof , see Mat. 18.17 , 18. the Church is not there ment a mixed company ( sayes Cameron in loc . ) nor a mixed worship , saith Vrsin : but you have here commanded and commended unto you by Christ , the good Gospel-order and Discipline thereof . This the Apostles practised , Act. 2.42 . and 46 ▪ 47. And in all the Epistles of Paul , it is apparent , Phil. 3.17 . 1 Thess. 1.7 . 2 Thess. 3.9 . Cum multis aliis , &c. This the Apostle preached , Act. 8.12 . instructing others in it , 1 Cor. 12.25 , 26 , 27. 1 Cor. 14.12 . and commending others for it , 1 Cor. 11.2 . Coloss. 2.5 . 1 Thess. 1.6 , 7. besides abundance of examples of all the Churches of Corinth , Rome , Phillippi , Macedonia , Antioch , Samaria , and the seven Churches of Asia ▪ So that we are encompassed about with a broad cloud of witnesses , and cannot but concurre with all in this received Axiome , or undeniable truth , that there is a Gospel-Discipline for the Saints to submit unto , and to walk under , together in order and unity . This many call Ecclesiastick Politie , as Cartwright , Hooker , with many others , because that so much skill and judgement is required for the ordering of the affaires of the true Church of Christ , which we are here to treat of , 1 Tim. 3.15 . this same is by others called the Church visible consisting of beleevers in body together , and under outward formes , order , Coloss. 2.5 . and government , and under the power of Christ ( King , and Lawgiver ) committed to him by his Father , Matth. 28.18 . Joh. 5.22 . Joh. 13.3 . and delegated unto him , and executed by him visibly and invisibly ; invisibly by his Spirit and word within , which are as the Ruling Elders and Officers , Joh. 14.16 , 17. Joh. 16.7 , 8. But visibly by his Ordinances , and Officers in the Church without , Ephes. 4.11 , 12. 1 Cor. 12.28 , 29. yet none ought to be a visible Officer ( no nor member ) but such a one as is ruled , directed , enabled , and qualified by Christ , and his Spirit , ordering within in their hearts ; So that the formall and spirituall , outward and inward , visible , and invisible make but one Church : But more of these things hereafter . Onely this at present , before I proceed , I must acquaint you that there is a most dimense difference between this Discipline and Politie in severall particulars , of which some I shall name , and so haste . First , Politie of Nations ( or rather Policy whereby states are ruled ) is not one and the same in all places , but as Physicke is administred according to the constitution and complexion of the body ; so is Policy , and not in all places alike , but according to the constitution and complexion of the people , and place ; one Nation is ruled this way , another that way , but Christs Discipline of his Church is one and the same in all places , to all people , 1 Cor. 7.17 . Secondly , Politie also differs according to the times , but this Gospel-Church-state doth not , but is the same ( by rule ) in all ages , and at all times , be they what they will , Ephes. 3.21 . and Ephes. 4.11 , 12. Media cultus sunt immutabilia , till the coming of Christ , 1 Tim. 6.13 , 14. 1 Cor. 11.26 . Isa. 9.6 , 7. Thirdly , Politie alwayes drives on a Selfe-interest , and seekes no further ; but this Discipline of Christ drives on an interest above selfe ( which is , as having the Moone under her feet ) and is not therefore of this world , Joh. 5.30 . Joh. 7.16 , 17 , 18. Heb. 2.12 . Fourthly , Politie is ordered by certaine outward Lawes , and rules left ( as a Gnomon ) or laid downe for the tranquillity of the State ; but this Church of Christ is govern'd by the Word without , and the Spirit within ( as will appeare hereafter ) in power ; and hence it is that Directories are out of date , the Cannons discharged and broken in peeces , and Platformes of men no more minded then as they are the Word of God , and till further light be given from above , and till the Spirit lead us further into the truth . Fifthly , Politie , and the Kingdomes of the world have many Kings , Emperours , and Rulers ; but the Church of Christ over all the world hath but one and the same head , Ephes 1.22 . and Ephes. 4.15 . and Ephes. 5.23 . 1 Cor. 11.3 . Coloss. 1.18 . who is to rule them by Spirituall influences , and outward Ordinances . Sixthly , Politie requires outward obedience , and no more ( be the heart never so bad ) but this Church-way of Christ calls for spirituall worship , Joh. 4.23 , 24. and the heart , Psal. 27.8 . Prov. 3.1 . Psal. 66.18 . Psal. 51.17 . Acts 4.32 . Act. 8.21 . & Act. 11.23 . Seventhly , In Politie men have power of pulling downe , or setting up new Lawes by the Supreame authority of that Nation or State , and their Lawes and Acts ( as those of the Parliament ) are binding , and of force : But in this Church of Christ there is no setting up new , or pulling downe old and true ; Christs Lawes and word must stand without adding , diminishing , or altering , Rev. 22.18 . this Discipline is not a nose of wax , nor ( as honest Cartwright sayes ) taken out of Cannons , Lawes , Decrees of men , Popes , Prelates , or the like ; from which pit came all the Locusts , and Scorpions , the Romish Hierarchy , the Arch-Bishops and Bishops , and their Servants , Surrogates , Officials , Commissaries , and the rest of that trash and rubbish . Eighthly , Polity hath no higher principle then reason , but this way of Christ is abundantly above , and yet in nothing against pure reason . Ninthly , Polity is a great Fautor , and abettor of Customes , of long continuance , whereby the people are embondaged ; but this way of Christ is very much an enemy to all customes and traditions of men ( that are not of the Word of God ) though of ever so long continuance and use : Vide Vrsin de 2 praecepto . Tenthly , Polity hath Corporall punishments , and power against opposers , enemies , offenders , or the like , Et ist●s vi coercere , ac ferro punire potest ; but the Church-power is from above , the weapons of her warfare are spirituall , Non ferro sed verbo , non vi & armis , sed vi & efficacia ; she uses the two-edged-sword of the Spirit , and Word , against all her opposers and offenders , neither are men compelled ( as by Politicall powers ) to obey , but they are drawne of God , and the Spirit constraineth them , Job 32.18 . 2 Cor. 5.14 . Eleventhly , Polity is full of Tricks , Arts , Quilits , and Aequivocations , and lies ready at the catch , according to a Judges ( or great mans ) interpretation , or construction : but this Gospel-way is full of plainenesse , truth , and simplicity , 2 Cor. 1.12 . and 2.17 . and is not according to mans interpretation , but the spirits , Rom. 12.8 . 1 Cor. 5.8 . Rom. 16.19 . Twelfthly , Polity consists most in the Forme , and lives most in the out-ward show , pomp , and appearance , but this way of Christ consists most of inward beauty , pomp , and excellency , 2 Cor. 5.12 . and 2 Cor. 10.7 . Joh. 7.24 . and lives most in the spirit , and least in the forme . Thirteenthly , In Polity is the greatest respect of persons , one higher then another , making some Slaves , and others Lords ; but in this Church-state of Christ it is an intolerable Tyranny , and hath not the least allowance , Mark 10.42 , 43. lest thereby we should have mens persons or opinions in admiration , Jam. 2.1.3 , 1 Pet. 5.3 . Fourteenthly , Polity preferres men according to their outward parts , fleshly habits , of learning , wit , or prudence ; but Christs Church-state sets up Christ , and his Spirit for Officers in chiefe , and such who are ruled and filled with the Spirit of Christ under them , so that not men , but Christ rules ; Judas that had not this Spirit proved a Traitor , so will others . Fifteenthly , Polity grows every day more and more rusty , and the longer it lives , the more it will be out of date , and loathed at last , and like a Potsheard be dashed a peeces ; but this way of Christ growes every day more and more glorious , and will be the beauty of the whole earth ; Piety shall stand , whilst Policy shall fall , and the Church of Christ , that little stone ( cut without hands ) shall crowd Policy out of doores , and fill the whole earth , Dan. 2.35 . Rev. 11.15 . Psal. 48.1 , 2. Isa. 62.4.7 . In all these respects and many more ( might I not be too tedious ) I might easily demonstrate to all men the vast disproportion between this Gospel-Church-state and Policy , whither in Church ( where it hath been set up instead of Piety ) or State , so that I meane not in any such sense that there is an Ecclesiasticall Polity , but as I have hinted before , and in order to visibles . Now who hath been more politick and subtill then that Beast , that hath for so long usurped Christs Seat ? and what a many Romish Ornaments ( like unto the Aegyptian Jewels ) doe many men and Ministers yet retaine ? fitter for a Golden Calfe , ( which is to be grownd to powder ) then to adorne the Temple , or Tabernacles of God ; O that they were sent away from whence they came ! and that we would come in sincerity to the Lords worke before us ! which is , the building of his house for his honour to dwell in . But thus I have proved that there is a Gospel , orderly Church Discipline , and how farre it differs from Policy , whether called Ecclesiasticall ( as some make it to consist altogether in formes , and things carnall ) or civill . Now the Lord lead us into his owne Spirituall Temple , and Gospel-Church-state by his owne light : for how sad a thing is it to see his flock so scattered among Wolves , and the Saints in a confused darke , corrupt , Disciplinary way of walking without order , rule , and ordinances ? which so many Soules doe sit moaning for , and in the want of them in this their Wildernesse-estate , wherein they have been lost for many ages together ; and whilst they are sighing and sobbing in a strange Land , they that have led them into this Babylonian Captivity , doe call upon them to sing the Songs of Sion ; but alas , their Harps are hung up upon the willowes , and they as in a strange Land are silent , which is the next thing I come unto . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Gnaraphel . CHAP. II. We have had our abode a long time under Antichristian darknesse and Discipline , and the Church was driven by the Dragon , and drawne by the Beast into a Wilderness for many hundred yeares , and ever since how miserably Soules have been blinded by bottomlesse smoake in a Popish Hierarchy , and so have continued to these dayes . IN the next place we are to shew how for many Ages together we have fallen foulely short of this holy and wholsome Discipline of Christs Church , and have been abominably cheated with the rotten figgs , and choaked with the thick Romish foggs , and filthy infectious mists of Popish inventions , so that thereby the Sunne and the Aire have been abundantly darkned . The ( poore ) Church , she was before cloathed with the Sunne , encompassed round with purity of Religion , with brightnesse of Discipline , and in the clear light of Christ , and Scriptures which were her rich ornaments in the twelve Apostles dayes ; yea and after that till Constantines time she wore this Crowne of the twelve Starres , those glistring lights . And not only were the Saints ( such as then lived ) above the Moone , and all sublunary enjoyments , but they had this borrowed light of the Word , meanes , and ordinances , to guide them in their pathes , and to direct them in their Discipline and Church state ; but alas ! ( as our Saviour foretold what would follow ) it fell out afterward that the red Dragon raged and watched to persecute the Church ) which was done very sorely in Domitians dayes ( and in Nero's ) at which time the Church was pure notwithstanding , and ( as yet ) presented for a chast Virgin to Christ , though tormented , because she would not be deflowred , and although then ( the Apostles being all dead ) fierce wolves met together by Flockes , and false Teachers , and Pseudo-Apostles rose up apace , to oppose openly true Doctrine and Discipline . This continued under the Emperours , Verus , and Severus , and Valerianus ; O then ! how this red Dragon ( this bloudy Abaddon followed the Church , foaming with flouds of indignation , and yet for all that , the poore , and ( almost ) breathlesse Saints had a little respite under Galienus , Anno 262. and till that time I finde the Church continued yet very chast , but then , presently after began Images to be set up , and Monuments to be erected in Caesarea Philippi , and other places , and in Dionysius his dayes Bishop of Rome , Anno 267. the Church began abominably to be deflowred and defiled ; so that the true Saints and Churches could not escape a most sad persecution under Dioclesian , and most hot and heavie under Maximinus , that matchlesse Tyrant , till torments in his bowels moved his bowels ( against his will ) to mitigate the violence of the persecution ; this continued to the time of Constantine and Licinius ; and although the red Dragon could not have his wil ( do what he could ) with these his heads and hornes , with which he used to push at , and ( if he could ) to have pushed out the memory of the Saints , that the name of a Christian might not be left , yet the Church liv'd and thriv'd till she was in those dayes driven into the Wildernesse , which was worse then all the Persecutions of the Dragon before , and this was ( not mulatione loci , sed amissione ornatus ) by loosing her former light , life , liberty , excellency , purity , and lovelinesse ; her bright Discipline for darknesse of devotion , and devotion of darknesse ; her truthes for traditions , and Doctrines of Christ for inventions of men , and all this by her pretended friends at home ; for now the Dragon had dragg'd the third part of the Starres after him , viz. Meteors and wandring Starres , made up of earthy matter , but not fixed in the Globe of Heaven , them he hath cast downe with his tayle , i. e. by his Serpentine subtilties , insinuations , strength , policy , and poysonous infections ; Oh sad ! what Superstitions , Idola●ry , and will-worship began in those dayes to be inthron'd , and owned , yea in such a manner as is to be lamented at this day ! for then started up the solemne celebration , up-setting , dedication , and adoring of Houses of Bricke and Clay , Lime and Stone , and Consecrating such kinde of places for the Temples of the Lord , calling them Catholicke , and Christning them Churches ; yea then the superstitious Mother of Constantine ( viz. Helena ) went a Pilgrimage to Jerusalem , to finde out Reliques , and Monuments , and then began Crosses to be set up , and Consecrated , and Christ's Nailes and Reliques to be kept and ador'd , and Miracles ( pretended to be ) wrought by them , ( as they that loved Superstition and Idolatry did ( and doe ) report to this day . Thus , and many other wayes , was ( the poor woman ) the Church , forced into a fruitlesse , comfortlesse , dangerous , barren Desart-like condition , whilst Monkes and Popish Priests sprung up apace , and whilst the glistring glory of the former ( true ) Discipline , Doctrine , and Ordinances did dye apace , and began to lye buried , and unregarded in the dust . But , ah blessed Lord , how excellently doth her deliverance draw nigh ! and that it is hard by will appeare in the following Chapters . In the meane time , let all discerning men judge ( to whom I appeale ) what a miserable state hath the poore Church ( visible ) been in ( to this day ) for many hundred yeares ? and how thicke and three-fold her miseries grew in upon her in the absence of that bright Discipline and Doctrine which she had in the Primitive times ; and also by the pride and presence of a cunning ( and curious ) counterfeit thereof , which hath ( crowded out the true , and ) continued amongst us to this day ? The proud Popish , and Prelatick Discipline quickly grew drunke , and was soone swallowed up , and swimming in the bloud of the precious Saints . The Moone was indeed ( then ) turn'd to bloud ( as well as the Sunne to darknesse ) and most Romanizing outragious Massacres of Saints , and bloudy unsupportable Butch●●ies of Gods people were made , to maintaine the Doctrine and Discipline of those dayes , so that the Saints were accounted as sheep for the Shambles , and were killed all the day long ; yet a little respite was allowed them , and liberty given to them ( through God's goodnesse ) in King Henry the eights time , and then the true Discipline , which seem'd to lye for lost and dead a long time ) which Christ hath left us in his Church , would faine have lived and breathed a little ; and so in Edward the sixth's dayes , and viriditie , very great hopes there was of her recovery , and she began to wax warme , and to sneeze out some good signe● towards it , but alas , they were soone lost againe ; and how lamentably did she lye againe at the Graves brinke in cruell and accursed Queene Maries dayes , and then she was given over ( indeed ) even by her Phisitians for lost , and past recovery ; untill it pleased the Lord to raise her up againe , and ( almost ) miraculously in Queen Elizabeths dayes , and then we did verily expect her full recovery and restauration , according to the Primitive patterne and practise ; but well-a-day ! how were we deceiv'd ! for what by the ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) crafty cunning of the seducing Serpent which deceived Eve , and what by the insinuating subtilties of the Popish Prelates , and Mitre-mongers in those dayes , her Mothers Children were angry with her , and under pretence of Treasons , Rebellions , and robbing of the Magistrates of their right , and the like wrongfull accusations , those ( her enemies ) inveigh'd against this Discipline of Christ's Institution , ( accusing it to the Queen ) they called it a Schisme , a Faction , Sedition , and Heresie , and with this they charged the true Children of the Church , and impeached the precious ones ; as the Presidents did , that conspired against Daniel , Chap. 6. accusing him for the breach of the Kings command , because he kept his conscience , upright ; and as the Adversaries that would have hindred the building up of Gods house in Ezra's dayes chap. 4.13.16 . they charged them for rebellious , and for such as would rob the Magistrate of his right and revenews ; so did these in Q. Eliz. dayes , most cruelly doe the Accuser of the brethren's office against the Saints , branding and abusing them for seditious factious persons , and charging them for Innovators , Hereticks , erroneous ones , calling them Puritans , Brownists , Donatists , Anabaptists , Sectaries , and such like ; saying , they would be the Destroyers of the Nation , and what not ? so that by this meanes the Church did seem black and odious to the world , being Sun-burnt , and set to be the keeper of other ( Antichristian ) strange vineyards whiles her owne was neglected , Cant. 1.6 . For it is in , and by the name of Christs own Church and Discipline , that such a Popish Hierarchy and Prelacy was canonized and consecrated , which carried a faire face , but a foule heart , and which was taken out of humane traditions , and inventions of the Papists coyne , and 〈…〉 Conclave and Canons , as will amply appeare by the beams of the Sun in this ensuing Tract . And certainly the Prelates and Papists did agree , and look very like one another in their Discpline , and in their opposing the Saints , and Christs true Church and Discipline . We might have said of them , as Aristotle once said of the Milesians , that the Milesians were not fools , yet they did just the same things that fooles doe ; so these Protestants and Prelates were not Papists , ( no by no means ) and yet they did just as Papists doe , but they were indeed Mungrels , and meer Hermaphrodites in Religion , Nec vere viros , nec vere , mulieres , sed vere Histriones , neither Papists , nor Protestants , but both , or neither , or either , or any thing for their owne ends . A Roman Cardinal caused his Painter to draw out K. Solomon halfe in heaven , and halfe in hell , for which he was justly to be blamed ; but without any just blame might those Prelates be pictured out so , half way in heaven , for what they pretended , and for the good they did , but half in hel for what they intended , and for the evill they did in afflicting the Saints , accusing the brethren , persecuting the Church , and rendring the true Discipline of Gospel-fellowship odious , and despicable to Magistrates , Ministers , people , and all . But furthermore , the Antichristian Hierarchy and Discipline was so indulgently fostered up by Monarchy , that King James could make it a maxime ( in which he proved a true Prophet ) No Bishop , no King ; and it is clear to me out of many Scriptures , Dan. 2.34 , 35. Rev. 17.12 . and 18.3 . that they both live and dye together ( like Hippocrates twins ) receiving both alike , and at the same time power from , and punishment with the Beast . Wherefore let not the Prelates , nor Papists thinke to hold long in any place , for the day of the Lord his controversie for Zion shall finde them out ; neither need they to thinke their fall is by fortune , for it is appointed of old , and in these dayes wherein we are at suit with them ; let them not wonder if they all lose the day of us ( yea and the hot spirits , violent Presbyterians too ( so called ) who agree too much with Popery , and Prelacy as ( appears Ch. 9. lib. 2. at large ) and must meet with the like lamentable destiny and fate with you ; for ( as M● . Hooker sayes in his Preface before his Survey of Discipline . ) There is no such thing as a Presbyteriall Church , i.e. a Church made up of the Elders of many Congregations Classic-wise to govern , &c. in the New Testament ; wherefore let them not wonder , if they also fall in the heat of this Suit ) seeing the Law and the Testimony is for us this Terme-time , and therefore the Judge must be for us too , and the day will be ours in despight of all the world , because that yee have trusted to forged titles that will hold no water . The Camel seeking hornes , lost his ears , and so have these Disciplinarians , they will not heare what belongs to their peace . In this Summers day of the Lord Jesus , the Sun will shine hot , and scorch , yea mel● ( violento aestu ) the waxen wings of all false-discipline , and thereby throw down that Icarus-like loftinesse of High-Presbytery , Popery and Prelacy in all Nations , and then the whole bulke and massie body of Antichrist must beat his heels in the ayre , and be found in the deeps , and drowned in the Ocean of everlasting misery , Rev. 19.19 . they are already under the burnings of that day in the torrid ( horrid ) Zone , and must shortly tumble into the tomb , where the worme dyeth not . This must bee for that they cannot bee converted into any other use for safety . As the black cloath that will take no other Dye , but must hold so , and is most rotten , uselesse , and unserviceable for weare ; but the whit : will take any other Dye , so indeed will our Discipline of Gospel-institution , which is in these latter dayes to bee restored into its Primitive purity , as white , precious , spirituall , Lilly-like , and lovely , this shall be capable of any Dye , or administration , and Dispensation to the end of the world , any Dye it will take whereinto it is dipp'd by the hand of the Lord ; but the blacke , base , sooty , and darke Discipline of Antichrist , shall be but as a rotten ragge , and good for nothing , being in nothing capable of these latter dayes dyes , which will be of divers sorts , from one to another , yeare after yeare , and the best at last . But furthermore , the Dragon ( till these late dayes ) hath made use of earthly powers to oppose the Saints ( having no more place found for him in heaven ) but now it is that we heare the loud Voyce in heaven , ( viz. his Church ) saying , Now is come salvation , strength , and the Kingdome of our God , and the power of his Christ , for the Accuser of our Brethren is cast down . And now shall the earth ( viz. earthly powers ) help the Woman , and swallow up the Dragons indignation , though the remnant of her Seed must yet meet with Warres , Conflicts , and oppositions for a time . It remaines now , O England ! Ireland ! and Scotland , that yee kisse the Sonne lest he be angry , and yee perish , Psal. 2.12 . and that yee cast away your Popish and foppish trash and trumperies , and those wicked traditions , formes , and ordinances of men , which have made yee Captives , and for many hundred yeares have inbondaged , and endungeoned ye up in darknesse and deceit ; for as we can cousen little ignorant Children , by giving them Counters , and taking away Gold , and those Counters too are only to quiet them ; so how easily can Antichrist cheat you , which he hath done in our ignorance and infancy , by giving us Copper for Gold , and counterfeit ( Brazen-fac'd ) ordinances , and tooke away Christ's , telling us , that they were better which he gave us , and so quieting us for a long time ; but now alasse ! we are older , and we must be wiser , and not be so basely cheated out of our Ordinances , Orders , Doctrine , and Discipline , which Christ hath left us , when he went from us , but let us hold our owne , and keep our Gold ; and to encourage us , he hath promised us ere long to make another change in the Churches , and to give them gold for brasse , Isa. 60.17 . the precious for the vile , &c. Wherefore it is , O Friends , that this true Religion , Discipline , and Gospel-worship of Christ's owne Coyne , and Mint , having his owne Image of his most precious Gold , is offered you againe , and ( once ) againe ; which hath often ( before ) been rigidly repulst , and put off with disdaine , and direfull reproach ; yet notwithstanding it is presented to you the third time , and comes crowned with the twelve Starres , and cloathed with the Sunne , I meane with Christ the Super-intendent , and sole Independent Lord , and Law-giver , yea and alone Light-giver to the Church and Saints . This is especially the Honour and Ornament of this Discipline , or Gospel-Politie , viz. to be cloathed with light , having Christ alone the Lord. Indeed , hitherto hath many a sad soule sate and sigh'd , yea and the Church in the Wildernesse too bewayl'd with Mary , weeping , Joh. 20.13 . Oh! They have taken away my Lord , and I know not where they have laid him . Alexander used to say of his two Friends , viz. Craterus and Hephestion , that Hephestion loved Alexander , but Craterus loved the King , and yet the King and Alexander were both but one man ; and so Certes I may say of some in these dayes , who professe to be Christ's friends , they all love him as Christ Jesus our Saviour , for his sweetnesse , and excellency , and lovelinesse , and love , which is better then wine , and for his usefulnesse , &c. but how few of them that love him as the King ? to be commanded by him ? that are obedient to his Lawes , and Ordinances ? unlesse they be in the Congregationall orderly Courches , and there indeed Christ hath a few Friends , and tryed Subjects , but such Craterus's are rare too ; wherefore let all the faithfull friends of Christ ( of what judgement soever ) that are under his Command and Lordship , come and enter into these Gospel-wayes of Worship , into Christs order and path , ordinance , and Discipline ( for the Lord of the Mannour , I meane the God of this world , will take up all wefts and straies that are out of this way , and empound them ) wherefore for shame friends make haste ! Hye out of Babylon , flye into Sion , into the Fellowship and Church-way of the Gospel , wherein Christ is King , and Lord ; and where this Sunne is highest , brightest , and swiftest in his ascendent motions , wherein Christ appeares in his richest perfection and fulnesse . For as Nature , who hath drawne with her Pencill a perfect Grasse-greene in the Emerald , ( as Pliny sayes ) a skie-colour in the Saphire , a fire colour in the Carbuncle , a sanguine in the Rubie , and a starry in the Diamond , hath also drawne all these together in one , viz. the Ophal : so hath Christ by his Spirit in his Church , for there is one gift and grace in one Saint , another gift in another , and other graces in others , and blessings in the Gospell , and power in the Word , and sweetnesse in the Ordinances , and all in one , viz. the Church . Some excell in one thing , some in another , but the Church is the summary of all , all excellencies are there in one , viz. in one Christ , who is in every Church , the fulnesse and perfection of all ; Christ ( sayes Bernard , De advent . serm . 2. ) is the Bee which flew into the City of Nazareth ( which is interpreted Flower ) and there he alighted on the sweetest flower of Virginity that ever the earth bore ; and so doth Christ now in the Churches finde sweet flowers , who hath , Et mel & aculeum ( sayes Doctor Rawlinjon on 's Mercy to a Beast , p. 13. ) both Mercy and Judgement , yea he is both Love and Law in all his Churches , yea the Law of Love , and the Lord grant we may finde it so in these dayes . Heare , O Ireland ! heare the Lord ! run into his Courts , live in his Sanctuary ! for in a special manner I speake to you from the Lord , for whose sake I dare not bury these truthes as dead , or in silence , which doe so much concerne you ; and seeing I am now with you , I wish from my soule , that most of your Professors prove not Moone-sicke , I meane Lunaticks , that sometimes fall ( or plunge ) into the water , and sometimes into the fire , ( of persecuting the Saints that wil not over head and eares with them in the waters , yee know what I meane ) for I shrewdly feare this ; wherefore I say , forsake not Aegypt to fall into Babylon , nor Babylon to fall into the forme againe , and to make a Church of forme meerly , and to drive in , or draw in poore hearts ( through ignorance and folly ) into a formall Discipline , by urging the forme , or tying others to such a judgement with you ; for this is clearly against God's designe , and Christs Gospel-Discipline , which is to be in the Spirit , and in truth : and therefore I have many precious and pregnant truthes to hand forth , and handle to you , as they are hearted in me from the Fathers bosome of light , in this ensuing Treatise , especially in Lib. 2. but in the meane time , make haste into Sion , into a pure , orderly , Gospel , Spirituall way of Worship , and the Lord be with you , and speed you . But if before I have done , some doe say , Why then we shall be persecuted by Presbyterians , or some ( call'd ) Independants , or the bitter ones of the Anabaptists , or the like , as well as by Malignants and open enemies ; I say , that they shall be but like Sampsons Foxes , who were themselves burnt amongst the Corne which they fired , but the Land brought Corne againe , and the ground was made the better by it , and the fruitfull●r , but the Foxes came up no more ; so be yee sure , that such will by their persecutions , burne up themselves , but better the true Churches ; though it may be some members may suffer in the fire first ; yet take us the Foxes , the little Foxes , saith the Lord , Cant. 1. he will not suffer them to escape scot-free , Phil. 1.28 . for it is to them a token of perdition ( sayes Paul ) but to you of salvation , the true Churches shall ( maugre all their might and malice ) appeare again , and triumph the more , and be yet the more glorious and fruitful , but these persecuting Foxes can never come up againe , but must lye buried in the field which they have fired , and so be the Authours of their owne end . Wherefore feare not , my Friends , their frownes , nor crownes ; but as Alexander was wont to say to his Souldiers when they were in danger , or went on any designe , Sed habebis Alexandrum ; my brave Blades , you shall have Alexander with you ; so say I , you shall have Christ with you , in the midst of you , and engaged for you ; feare not ! and then you shall no more be termed desolate , or forsaken , but be called the Lord's Hephzibah and Beulah ; but thus for the second chapter . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Midbar . CHAP. III. That the Churches full deliverance drawes nigh , and is upon entrance , at first gradually , her Discipline shall be restored as at first . First proved by parallel from the Wildernesse , wherein she hath been long lost , as to true Discipline and Doctrine . TO proceed , the Call continues to hast us out of Babylon . It is Historied of Darius's Generall , that when he had Orders from Darius ( his King ) to revenge the wrongs done him by the Athenians , that he commanded his Servants every day , at every dish of meat they brought in to the Table , to say , Sir , remember the Athenians . Now Christ hath sent to us , and calls upon us every foote , to Remember the ruine of Babylon , and the rising of Sion ; for Babylon must fall , and Sion must fill , and grow up apace to perfection-ward ; but although this is graduall at first , yet the restauration shall be universall at last . In the interim , we heare how long , and how lamentably the poore despised Church hath been in the Wildernesse , wofully bewayling ; but now followes what hopes we finde of her deliverance ; now Mr. Brightman ( the brightest man of his age , that I have met with ) lends his Light to this Age , out of Revel . 12.14 . where we read , the Church was to continue in the Wildernesse for a time , times , and halfe a time ; besides the thousand two hundred and threescore dayes , in ver . 6. which is all one with that in Rev. 11.2 . of forty and two months , for at thirty dayes to the moneth , it comes to one thousand two hundred and sixty dayes , which if we account from Christ's time , was to begin one thousand sixe hundred and ten dayes , ( viz. three hundred and fifty , and one thousand two hundred and sixty ) and the thirty three yeares that Christ lived , makes it one thousand six hundred forty three , about which time her Deliverance and Freedome came running in , and the Congregationall Churches got upon their feete , and began to looke forth as the morning , Cant. 6.10 . though many black Clouds and Mists were cast upon them some ten yeares agoe , to grieve them , and to feare them with the threates of a foule day following , and to render them unlovely , and unlikely to hold ; so that for my owne part I am possess'd with this opinion , as to the yeare of her Deliverance , beginning ( gradually ) and as to us , about ten years agoe . But Master Brightmans judgement is , to have it begin one thousand six hundred and fifty , from that also of Dan. 12.7 . it shall be for time , times , and halfe a time , with vers . 12. Blessed is he that waiteth , and cometh to one thousand three hundred thirty five dayes , a day being often in Scripture for a yeare , as Numb . 14.34 . Ezek. 4.5 , 6. and a time he takes for an hundred yeares , and so times for two hundred , and halfe a time for halfe a hundred , or fifty ; that is , three hundred and fifty yeares , which with one thousand three hundred makes one thousand six hundred and fifty , in which yeare he fore-told the true Discipline of the Church should begin to be restored unto her primitive face and fairnesse ; and how truly he hath fore-told this , let the times we live in testifie for him ; for indeed the eminent passages , and evident appearances of Gods presence with us , and power for us , for the liberty and deliverance of true Discipline , will easily allow of his Exposition , as passing authentick and Orthodox . But whereas it may be objected out of Dan. 12.12 . thirty five remaine . I answer ; 'T is true indeed , and there is great need of thirty five yeares for warres and troubles against the Lambe and 's followers ; Christ and 's Churches , whose Deliverance , and brightnesse of Discipline is but by little and little , and ariseth gradually , and lives most gloriously in these parts of Europe for thirty and five yeares ; and after that followes her full deliverance , and recovery out of the Wildernesse universally in all Nations ; but for thirty five yeares she comes only gradually out of the Wilnesse , leaning on her Beloved , but especially in these parts of the earth , where the worke is already begun , and mountaines made plaines , which shall within these thirty five yeares be all levell'd , and laid in the dust before Zerubbabel , who hath ( already ) laid the foundation of ( that worke ) the Lords house , which his hands shall ( after thirty five yeares ) finish , when all the enemies of God and his Gospel , shall by his glorious out-goings , and the brightnesse of his coming , be nothing'd into nothing . Thus you have his , and my ( poore ) judgement offered under correction . But I meet with two more computations of times , which are set for the Churches rising , and Christ's reigning , out of the same Chapter of Dan. 12.11 . From the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away , and the abomination that maketh desolate set up , there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety dayes , ver . 12 , 13. Blessed is he that waiteth , and cometh to one thousand three hundred thirty five dayes ; but goe thou thy way till the end be , for thou shalt rest , and stand in the lot at the end of the dayes . Some compute this from the time of Constantine the Great , the first Christian Emperour , converted to the Faith about the three hundred and twelfth yeare after Christ ; now the ten hot Persecutions ( by the Dragon ) as I told you in the chapter before ) were ended , and the Church was now cloathed with enough of outward beauty ; riches , greatnesse , and ornaments , were in abundance , which bewitched many from the Truth , and which proved the most irresistible temptations that could be , to corrupt Magistrates , Ministers , People , Ordinances , and all her worship ( as I told you in the former Chapter ) and to bewildernesse her : then was there a voyce heard out of Heaven , to say , This day is poyson pour'd forth into the Church , and then indeed was the daily sacrifice taken away , ( as some say ) viz. the death of Christ ( our only Sacrifice ) became voyd , and neither regarded nor remembred ; but the abomination , ( viz. Superstition , Idolatry , Will-worship , &c. ) that maketh desolate was set up . So we heare how the Church was in the Wildernesse as before , but now after these two notes of the time , viz. 1. Toe taking away the daily Sacrifice , and then 2. The setting up the abomination that maketh desolate ; it followes , there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety dayes , i. e. yeares ( as we proved before ) from Constantines time , to which adde the three hundred and twelve yeares from Christ's time to Constantine's , and then it amounts to one thousand six hundred and two , and in this yeare came King Iames to the Crowne of England . But in vers . 12 , 13. the blessednesse of all is to such as waite till one thousand three hundred thirty five dayes , that is , forty five dayes , i. e. yeares , longer then the former number ( of one thousand two hundred and ninety ) and then it seemes the reckoning reaches to one thousand six hundred forty seven , for the time of the Churches blessednesse to begin more visibly then ever before ; for then the abomination ( of Popery , Prelacy , Superstition , Idolatry , and Formality ) which hath made desolate , and brought the Church into the Wildernesse , is to be unsetled , sorely shaken , and broken downe , that the Kingdome of Christ , which shall never be shaken , may remaine , in Heb. 12.27 , 28. that Christ's Church may be delivered , his Discipline restored , and his Kingdome exalted above all the mountaines of prey . The second computation of time ( out of the same Scripture ) is taken from Julian the Apostate , in whose dayes the Temple ( which he caused to be re-edified at Jerusalem , as all the Learned know ) the Seate of the daily Sacrifice was rent up , and tore apeeces , even the earth , place , foundation , and all , by a most terrible Tempest from heaven ; for that Julian the most malicious Apostate pretended Christ a false Prophet , and in contradiction to Christ's prediction in Matth. 24.2 . hee would have had the Temple built up againe , but God would not suffer it : but now ( as God would have it ) the Prophecy was more fully fulfill'd hereby , for not one stone was left upon another , but foundation and all was turn'd , torne , and taken away , and Judaisme rent up by the very rootes . But this made a concave for the Conclave of Rome , that Antichrist might come in with his abomination , which maketh desolate , and this came to passe about Anno three hundred sixty two , and from thence , reckoning the one thousand two hundred and ninety , as in Dan. 12.11 . the number comes out the last yeare , and this Deliverance is to begin by 1652. for then is Christ to begin his glory , and to reigne in the Temple , viz. his Churches , more eminently then ever before ; and then the Gospel-Discipline is to begin to be restored , & the Abomination to be eradicated root and branch , and then Christ , and him crucified , must be set up for the daily Sacrifice . Then is the blessednesse to begin , and gradually to goe on till one thousand three hundred and thirty dayes , i. e. for five and forty yeers longer ( say some ) these dayes will hold so , five and forty yeers ; at the expiration of which ( viz. five and forty yeers hence ) the Kingdome of Christ shall bee glorious indeed , both by Jew and Gentile , Babylon shall bee fallen , Rome ruined , Rev. 14.8 . Sion repaired , and Christs excellent Discipline and Ordinances fully restored , and the Church shall be againe cloathed with the Sun in greater glory then ever ; but in the meane time there is a graduall restoration of Discipline , and reparation of Sion ( as we said before ) but then the New Jerusalem shall be more apparent and glorious , as Rev. chap. 21. chap. 22. In the meane time we must meet with troubles and warres without , yet in spirit we shall exult , and triumph within : which Spirit of Christ in his Saints and Churches , will be the fall of Babylon , and Antichrists ruine , who must be destroyed by the brightnesse of Christ's coming i. e. in a spiritual manner , and by spiritual meanes , not by Policies , or Powers , or Armies of men , or Wars , or the like , ( though they may be preparatives thereto ) Not by might , nor by power , but by my Spirit , saith the Lord. By the Spirit of the Lord it is , that Antichrist must be killed . I remember Mr. Sterry , ( in a Sermon of his before the Parliament Nov. 2. 1649. p. 12. ) sayes the like of the fall of Antichrist , and of the Abominations ( which we have mentioned ) that it is a spirituall and extraordinary manner , miraculously by his Angels , Ministerially by his Saints , that they shall be tormented and put to death , Rev. 14.10 . and 19 , 19. but yet our troubles will be over as to us ( and I thinke shortly too ) for An. 1656. ( which is now neer us ) the Flood came on all the world ( and so I think the Fire wil ) and when it had lasted forty days ( so may the Fire be for forty years ) till five and forty years hence ( as we said before ) then they were dryed up , and Noah came forth out of the Arke and planted a vineyard , and eat the fruits therof : and so for certaine , though the Churches may be ( as the Arke ) for forty yeers yet on the waters , yet then , I say , about forty yeers ( or little more ) hence , shall Christ come forth ; out of his Arke ( as I may say ) I mean his Churches , and plant him one vineyard of all , and eat the fruits thereof , this will be the day of Christs reigne indeed ; and then all shall bee peace , and quiet , and Christ , and his Saints shall be visibly together , dwelling in the New Jerusalem . I will not meddle with the manner of his Appearance , whether personall , as some affirme , or no , but this I am sure it shall be visible , and I know ( with Job ) that I shall see my Redeemer with my eyes , and after that , Christs next appearance is with his Saints to judge the world . But for the computation of the times , I have produced divers , and shall leave them to your light and judgement , to leave or take what best likes you ; but withall , note , how neer they all agree , and are one to another , and the furthest time set for our full happinesse , and for the universal restitution , is but forty five years hence : And let me tell you , that we live on the brinke of these times promised , yea they are upon us , the worke is begun , God is about it , The Church is coming out of the Wildernesse , and Babylon is falling , and Zion is rising and repairing , and Gospel-order , Ordinances , and Discipline ( lost in the wildernesse ) restoring as at first ; although this is at the first but gradually in these Nations , and so will continue till the times are a little higher ; for which the Lord fit us , and all his Churches . In order to the fulfilling of these Prophesies of her full Restauration , we had need to be wise in the worke ( the strange worke ) that God is at present upon ; For the mightiest , the strongest , the highest , the visiblest , and barrennest ( or bruitishest ) Powers , Policies , Princes , Potentates , or Monarchs on the earth ( which are called the Mighty Mountains that must be made plaine ) that oppose Christs Reigne , Antichrists ruine , or Sions rising in these latter dayes , God is laying low in the dust , and most pitifully flinging them into the Pit from whence they came at first . This worke is also graduall for these few years ▪ God goes forward within these European Nations firstly ; for these ten Toes of the Image mentioned in Dan. 2.32 , 33. or ten Kings ( of Europe ) that war against the Lamb , with the Beast , Rev. 17. and 19. these that have given up their power to the Beast , must be broken , by him who is more excellent then all these Mountains of prey , Psal. 76.4 . This little stone cut without hands , hath begun this worke in England , Scotland , and Ireland , and hath been a burthensome stone to their enemies , and grown'd them to powder : yea this little stone hath fallen upon the late King , and his family , and dashed this Toe to fitters , and so hee will all the nine Toes beside , till the Image tumble ; so that as yet this worke is graduall , which will also be universall , and filling the whole earth , Job 9.4 , 5. Job 28.9 . Isa. 10.32 . in all Nations ere long , for the Lord hath so ordained it , Dan. 8.19 . Dan. 11.27.32 . and Isa. 26.11 , 12. Hab. 1.11 , 12 , 13. and Hab. 2 , 3. and hath given Christ his Commission for it , Psal. 2.9 . Matth. 28.19 . Heb. 10.13 . 1 Cor. 15.25 . Rev. 6.1 , 2. till all bee made his footstool , who then can hinder it ? or say what dost thou ? Job 9.12 . Dan. 4.35 . Isa. 14.6 . Ezek. 38.20 . for this end is Christ ( that must Reigne ) now marching in his might , with his sword girt about his thigh , neither Mountaines , nor Mole-hils that now stand in his way , shall be able to abide the heat of his coming , for he will be greatest , and Reign alone , Psal. 58.12 . Rev. 11.17.18 , 19. Rev. 19.11 , 12 , 13 , 16 , 17. &c. who hath done much in order to this his Designe in these dayes , Ps. 50.2.3 . Woe , woe ! be then to every one whose heart is lifted up against Christ , or the Churches ! for they must be all grownd to powder : And in that day ( which is hard by ) shall they say to the Rocks and Mountains fall on us , and hide us from the day of the Lamb , Rev. 6.15 , 16. Isa. 34.2 , 3. and Isa. 64.1 , 2 , 3. Ezek. 7.7 . Psal. 68.1 , 2. Psal. 132.8 , 9 , 13 , &c. Wherefore have a care , Sirs , that Ye say not a confederacy with them that say a confederacy , Isa. 8 , 9 , 10 , 12. Psal. 58.9 . For the day of the Lord is as an oven to such , who as Briars and thorns are to be prepared for it , Mal. 4.1.2 . whilst the very same day is as the Sun of righteousnesse to the Saints . Wherefore feare not , O ye Saints ! be not afraid ! for your Deliverance is at hand , which as it was foretold by many Prophets , so in especiall manner by him who is our onely Prophet , Luke 21.25 , 26 , 27 , 28. and the Signes are already come ( in part ) for the Mountaines are removing , the Pillars of the earth falling , the powers of the heavens shaking , yea mens hearts failing them for fear ; yet lift up your heads ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) like a bird that lifts up his beak every time he drinkes sweetnesses , as such who drinke in comforts and refreshings , and soope in solaces and refreshing streams , ( Psal. 46.3 , 4. ) for now your redemption draweth nigh . Now may we see the Son of man coming in the clouds ( viz. in many darke , dismall , and cloudy dispensations ) which doe hide him from the world , and from the sight of his enemies till hee come upon them as a theef in the Right , or a Noahs flood ( ex insperato ) unwatched for , and unwelcome to them ) to their cost . But hark!-Hark!-now ! The Trumpet of the Jubilee is blowing ! and the day of the Saints Deliverance and Discipline is proclaimed ! The gates of salvation , shall be opened to every one that hath the word , Isa. 26.1 , 2. and is a friend to the Kingdome , Isa. 9.7 . Zion is building , Psal. 102.15 , 16. and shall be beautiful to all people , Psal. 48.2 , 3 , 4. Isa. 52.1.7 . and the Saints are to be refreshed with full streams , and fat things , Isa. 33.21 . Isa. 25.9 . and 48.18 . Thus , is the Lord at worke in our dayes ( whilst we live in Tabernacles ) to build us a Temple , and in order to the Churches happinesse , he hath promised to make the Wildernesse flourish as the Rose , Isa. 35.1 , 2 , 3. for he will give the glory of Lebanon ( Chap. 5. ) and Carmel , and of Sharon ( in Chap. 6. & ch . 7. ) to his Church ( Calvin in loc . ) in these latter dayes . The Scriptures are so full , the Promises so pregnant , the blessings so rich , that are reserved for these latter dayes for us , and our off-spring , that we may even leap for joy , Ps● . 114.4 . and with shoutings and songs , come singing to Sion , Isa. 35. ult . and run out of Babylon ( which else is falling on our heads ) Ah , how big-bellied the Prophesies are , which doe groan for our Deliverances , and for the Churches Discipline as of old , viz. in the Apostles dayes ; this does lye to the occulous very obvious , for they are in travel to bring forth in our dayes ( the birth will bee visible within very few years , by five or six ) the beginning is now come , yea the set time to favour Sion is come , Psal. 102.13 , 14. It is not very difficult to any ( that discerne the times and seasons ) to foretell the futurity of those rich and choisest blessings ( both for Church and State ( as we say ) that are laid up for these very latter dayes , and to foresee ( for these years that are to come ) the glorious light and liberty of the Saints , which they shall inherit ( I mean never to lose more ) though they be bought and brought in by the destruction of the first-born of Egypt . And this may be easie , out of the abundance of those Scriptures which tell of these dayes , and relate to these rule 1 last ages , by comparing what of them are fulfilled , and what of them are not fulfilled together , and then ( like the Mathematicall rule of Demonstration , which is made perfect ( in aliquo tertio ) by bringing them both up , to the things which are now in fulfilling before our eyes , and thereby they will wonderfully well demonstrate by undeniable rules and reasons ( out of the Scriptures ) what things are to come to passe , and which first , and which are hard by , and upon us to bee performed . And besides this , my Experience tels mee how to prophesie by the Spirit of the Lord , when the Spirit brings me into a rule 2 fruitive discovery of the latter dayes , by leading me into the belly of the Prophesies and the Promises which are to come to passe , as if they were already present and come to passe ; thus Heb. 11.13 . The Saints received the promises afar off , and also when the latter dayes promises ( which we expect ) have hot and glowing influences upon my heart , that I feele ( before-hand ) the heat of them , and of the day that is entring ; I say , by both these together ( for there is the Word and the Spirit agreeing in one ) I am able to foretell , and testifie to the approach of Christ , and his promises . Besides , ( as appears in the Epistle to the honourable Commissioners ) by the movings and stirrings of the waters in the rule 3 bottome of our Well . And also by comparing of Providences and Prophesies together , Gods Works , with Gods Words in these latter dayes , rule 4 thereby we shall attaine to much light ( I say , not infallible ) to foretell what is to come . All these Rules I fetch out of my own heart , and from mine owne experiences , which meeting together , make me sure , That the times of restitution come tumbling in , and the refreshings for the Saints from the presence of the Lord , Act. 3.19.21 . For already things begin to have a new face , forme , and appearance , in order to the Primitive purity and practice . The Meadows ( me thinks ) begin to look green , the chirping of birds , and the Turtle-dove is heard in our land , the young Figs that are ( but ) green , and tender grapes give a good smell , and much sweetnesse , &c. Cant. 2.11 , 12. So that I am perswaded , the Winter is over , and gone , though I deny not , but a storme or two , or a stinging tempest , and blustering blasts may now and then arise , with rage too , for an houre ( as I offer proofe for in Ch. 9. lib. 2. ) yet the Promise must be minded as concerning Saints , Isa. 51.1 , 2 , 3 , 4. for whose sake , Sion is to be restored , and the Wildernesse to bee like an Eden , or Garden of the Lord , and joy , and gladnesse shall bee found in the midst of them . Exceeding great , and precious Promises are provided for us to be as cordials in the Wildernesse to comfort us , and to keep us from fainting ; and indeed , what wise men will be without some of these in their Cabinets to keep up their spirits with , especially against a time of trouble and temptation . And as ( Chrysostome sayes ) As no men were able to saile at Sea , were there not havens and harbours to cast Anchor at , in time of a storme ; So ( saith Smith on the Creed , p. 58. ) the Saints condition would be unsupportable indeed , had they not havens and helps in times of tempests . So certainly the tossed Arke , or Ship of the Church does in all ages , as storms arise , put in for harbour at the next Promise , and cast anchor in the next Prophesie , which is nighest accomplishment and performance . And in these dayes we may see fair land , even the Land of Canaan to cast Anchor at ; I say , exceeding rich and precious promises , which flow with milke and honey hard by us , the promised Jerusalem , the rich and excellent Canaan , we are now come nigh unto ; The good Lord helpe us to put in well for it ( if it be his holy will ) and that before a storme arise , and hide it from us , or cause us to complaine or comply with a tack-about ; wherefore , it will doe well , and be good wisdome , for the Churches ( whom it most concerns ) to cast in their Plummers , and to fathom the waters , which we are now in & ●n . And O blesse the Lord that we see Land ! and are so nigh i● ! else we might sit , sorrow , and suspire , as all our Fathers did ( in the Prelates dayes ) when they were all in the deeps , and in dangers , and had not sight of the Land , as we now see it ; but the Lord hath given us to see it , and hath before-hand shewne , us the Churches harbour , which is to be in a rich and blessed soil , and the Lord lets us know this to warm Saints , and to warn sinners ; For as ( a very vile ) Jezabel could not bee content to intend evill to the Prophet Elijah , but shee must before hand horribly thunder and threaten it out , 1 King. 19. much lesse will or can ( a very good ) God war , before hee warne his enemies ; wherefore it is that he thunders it out , and threatens Christs and his Churches unexorable enemies in these dayes with unavoidable destruction . And above all , to raise and refresh our spirits ( in spight of Sathan and his Surrogates ) he gives us first a sight of this sweet and goodly land which he hath provided for us in these latter dayes , before he brings us into it to enjoy it , he cannot be content to promise and purpose to do us good ( as Mr. Robinson sayes in 's Essayes , p. 16. ) but he must make it known to 's servants before hand . Thus the Lord hath shewn us our harbor in these dayes , viz. in gathered Churches , and hath given us to reckon not from what we have , but from what we hope . For as a man reckons his wealth not so much by his money in his house , as by his money in his bils and bonds ; So doe we reckon in our Churches , our priviledges , riches , happinesse , not so much by what we now enjoy ( as Gathered Churches , Members , Orders , Ordinances , Gifts , Graces , Teachers , Pastors , Prophesies , and fat things ) as by what we are to enjoy , which we are sure off , and have in Bils and bonds , i. e. in Scriptures , Prophesies , and speciall Promises which are sealed to us , and witnessed in us , by his Spirit , Eph. 4.30 . Joh. 8.18 . Joh. 3.32 . 1 Joh. 1.5 . which are as good to us as ready money , for the day of payment is now near us , and no one of these shall faile , Isa. 34.16 . Heb. 10.23 . for he is faithfull that hath promised . Wherefore we are resolved to wait , and we will not give over till the day , and set time comes , Ps. 119.49 , 50. But as the Souldier that held the ship by his teeth after his hands are cut off ; so will we the Promises till they be performed to us , Gen. 15.14 . Josh. 21.42 . and therefore with confidence we wait , Hab. 2.3 . for they cannot sail us , and we will be bold to say it , that if we be deceived , God hath deceived us : but God cannot deceive us : yet to deale ingenuously , I deny not but the performance of these Promises , may be but graduall ( as I declared before ) at first , and to be clear , I shall produce some of the flowering Promises which are about fulfilling in these blessed dayes , which are ( even now ) in approach , and under dispensation and dealing out to the Church , that hath been so long , and so lamentably in the Wildernesse ; and these we shall prove by parallel : First , from the VVildernesse ; And secondly , from the Garden of the Lord. From the VVildernesse . First , it is an untilled place , where wild nature is most seen most eminently , and evidently ( if not wholly ) and indeed which Art and Industry hath not ●amed : in Hebr. Midbar is as much as to say , without order , and in such a wildernesse was the Church for many years together , wherein the ( supererogatory ) bowes , and superfluous branches of that evill root of carnall concupiscence and corruption , did spread and sprout out with lawlesse lusts ; her bottome of her ( then ) discipline was so abominably , and abundantly overgrowne , and growne over with thornes and thistles ( fit for accursed ground ) that a Saint could not walke with safety , so long as they were neither stubbed out , nor cut off : For the brambles of ambition and traditions grew thicke and thronging out at both ends , and abundance of briars and bushes at every step were ready to snatch at , and ensnare a poore Pilgrim-Saint or Professour . Oh the deplorable estate of the poor people of God then ! in a place ! Nation ! Church-state ! so filled over , and over , with humane traditions and naturall inventions ! with Will-worships ! Creature-institutions ! and ordinances of men ; with Monkery and Masse , and with a masse of Monkery , and with a world of trumpery and filthy trash ! not fit for any , but the feet of disdaine , and dogs to trample upon . But the blessed dayes ( under promise , and in approach ) are , that God will husband his people himselfe , and till them , as Hos. 10 , 12. and break up the fallow ground , and Judah shall plow , and Jacob shall break his clods ; the brambles and bushes , inventions and traditions shall be rent up by the roots , and what runs up by nature shall no more be suffered to cumber the ground , and the loose branches , and unserviceable bowes shall be lopped off . Id●ls shall be pulled downe , superstition subverted , Antichrist turned out of doors with his bag and baggage , and then the Lord will raine righteousnesse upon his people . So in Ezek. 36.34 , 35. The desolate land shall be tilled , and shall become like the Garden of Eden , fenced , and inclosed , and inhabited with holy flocks , and they shall know the Lord , and be , as Paul saies , the Lords husbandry , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; the word signifies whatsoever appertaines unto a Husbandman : so they are , and are to be viz. Gods arable , Gods vineyard , Gods Garden , &c. i. e. the Lord will be as watchfull , laborious , solicitous , prudent , and provident day and night of his peoples welfairs , and for his peoples advantages , as an Husbandman is of his arable , vineyard or the like , he will walke about them , overlook them , and keep them day by day from danger and spoyl , and with his own hands , he will dresse them , and prune , and provide , and reap of what he sowes , so that in this sense , the Church shall no more be driven into such a Desart or Wildernesse againe ; But ▪ Secondly , a Wildernesse is a withered , dry , empty and barren place , which brings forth no fruits , or but sowre at the best : there be no crops of Corne , nor grapes that grow there ( of thorns or thistles ) a dry desolate place , Zeph. 2.13 ▪ where the trees are burnt up , and the pastures most pitifully scorched up , and made scarce by the hottest beams . So a loud lamentation is made in Isa. 64.10 . The holy Cities are a wildernesse , Zion is a wildernesse , Jerusalem a wildernesse ; and thus hath the Lord laid his complaint against his people for their fruitlessenesse formerly ; and what could he have said more grievous or sad ? But see ! O what sweet dayes do enter in , and on us ! Gods precious ones shall be abundantly ( and now daily ) more blessed from above , to make us blossoming , bearing , and branching ; yea his Saints shall so flourish , in Isa. 35.2 . by seeing the glory of the Lord , and the excellency of their God. The Church is barren and fruitlesse , when ignorant and sightlesse of that fructifying presence which shall be in the midst of her , ( and then , Florens florebit & exaltans exaltabit ) so in Isa. 55.12 , 13. All the trees of righteousnesse shall clap for joy , and instead of the thorne shall come up the firre-tree , and instead of the brier shall come up the mirtle-tree , ( as in chap. 5. ) and it shall be to the Lord for a name , and for an everlasting signe that shall not be cut off : Good shall be in the roome of the bad , and sweet of the sowre ; Cedars for shrubs , serviceable , and seed-bearing-trees for barren brambles , and uselesse fruitlesse bushes ; and then the barren and desolate shall bring forth more children then she which hath an husband , Gal. 4.27 . These Promises are putting out , and springing forth their bud as the Garden , that causeth the things that are sowne to springe forth , even so the Lord our God will cause righteousnesse and praise to springe forth before all Nations , and in Zach. 9.17 . Corne shall make the young-men cheerefull ( and fruitfull to grow ) and new wine the Maids ; thus shall the wildernesse be like the fruitfull vallies full of Lillies , and of the loveliest Roses of Sharon and Carmel . Thirdly , a Wildernesse hath no ready roade , nor beaten path , nor noted marke , but a man may be soone lost , let him looke on this side , or that side , backward or forward , he knowes not what to doe , nor whither to goe , for he can get no Guide . Now in such a Wildernesse was the Church too , she was at a losse , and hath been above a thousand years , the Saints ( poore Soules ! ) seeking up and downe , hither and thither , this way or that way , but yet in a Wildernesse ; yea , many Professors formerly have , as the Lord hath said , Jer. 14.10 . They have loved to wander , and they have not refrained their feet , but have walked after the imaginations of their owne hearts , and after the Baalim which their Fathers have taught them . Oh! so ! so were we lost most miserably in mens imaginations and devices , and Doctrines , too too much , I say , to this day , for matter of true Doctrine , and true Discipline . Well , but what wil the Lord now doe for her deliverance out of all these false wayes ? and Wildernesse-worship ? why he will send his Spirit to be her guide into his holy truth , as he hath promised ; and he himselfe , Isa. 58.10 , 11. Will be her light in obscurity , and her noon-day in darkenesse ; and will guide her continually , and satisfie her soule in drought , and make fat her bones , and make her like a watered garden , and springs of water never dry : and in Isa. 30.21 ▪ the Saints shall beare the word , saying , This is the way , walke in it ; and then they will cast away all false wayes , and worships , &c. as a menstruous cloath , saying , get thee hence , as to an excrement , ( the word signifies ) Now the Father seekes for Spirituall worshippers , to whom he will make out his minde in order to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Gospel , which is hid to them that are lost , and such as are most in the wildernesse least see it , or seeke it ; but now the way is discovered to the Saints , who desire ( of all others ) to walk therein . For it is with a naturall man , as it is with every thing else that desires naturally to goe to its owne center or place , but regards not the way ; as the stone that falls naturally , regards not which way , and the fire that ascends naturally , ascends any way , and so all men naturally doe ; but God hath promised us his Spirit to lead us , and his Grace to teach us the way wherein we must walke , which is one and the same for all Saints , though others regard it not . But , Fourthly , a Wildernesse is a most dangerous place , where a man is ( almost ) every moment like to be made a prey to the widest mouthes of the wildest , mercilesse , and bloudy Beasts , that seeke to satisfie their never-satisfied hungers , with such strangers . In such a condition hath the Church been , ready to be torne a peices ( every day ) by such unexorable enraged wild Beasts , and bloud-suckers , feeding upon the flesh of the Saints , such as have inhabited in the dennes of Darknesse , and cruelty , ( the Villages of Kedar ) they are called in Scripture-language barbarous , cruell , mercilesse , Beares , Lions , Tigers , Leopards , Adders , Serpents , and what not , to delineate their dispositions against Gods people and innocent ones , their feet are swife to shed bloud , and they have hunted after the holy and upright ones , and have laine in secret to set upon them , see Psal. 74.19 , 20. O deliver not thy turtle Dove unto the multitude of the wicked , for the darke places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty ! O let not the oppressed returne with shame , let the poore and needy praise thy name , &c. The Church is this Turtle Dove , in daily danger of being destroyed , whilst she is in the Wildernesse , amongst the multitudes of mercilesse and matchlesse Beasts of prey , whose mercies are cruelties ; yea their tenderest gripes are terrible griefes unto the Saints , whilst such say in their hearts , ver . 11. Come , let us destroy them together ; the Saints are such harmlesse Doves , weake , poore , timerous , and mournfull ; but innocent , loyall , chast , and faithfull to Christ their Mate ; and poore soules , sadly opprest , and persecuted up and downe , from Country to Country , by an accursed crew of cruell Kites , &c. Birds and Beasts of prey have so hated , and hunted them up and downe , that they durst not appeare openly ( till now of late ) but lye lamenting in some by-holes and corners from the cruelties and crafts of those Cannibals ; but the Promises which are pregnant , and big-bellied for deliverance in these dayes are many , and they are ready to be Midwived for the Churches freedome from this comfortlesse condition , as in Isa. 11.5.6 , 7. for first , the loynes of Christ , and his lovely Body the Church , shall be girded about by a girdle of righteousnesse and faithfulnesse , the Saints are an ingirded , and an inclosed company ( as after will appeare : ) then the Wolves , Leopards , Lions , Beares , Aspes , Cockatrices , &c. ( though they be such ) they shall have no power to hurt us , but shall be glad to lye as still as a stone , as in Exod. 15.16 . So that we shall be safe out of the Wildernesse upon the Mount , Jer. 32.41.44 . for the Lord will watch over us with his whole heart and soule , and we may build houses , and buy lands without danger ; the Lord will be to us a wall of fire round about us , which the Wildernesse ones will be afraid to come nigh , Zach. 2.5 . ● . There shall be no more a pricking brier to the house of Israel , nor a grieving thorne of all them that have hated us , Ezek. 28.24.26 . with abundance of more proofes ; but , Fifthly , A Wildernesse is a place of greatest want , even of necessaries : there is no bread , unlesse made of Stones , nor Grapes , unlesse growing on Thistles ; no Corne comes up among their bushes and brambles ; and Esa. 34.11 . There be the stones of emptinesse ; a man may eate his fingers that is lost in a Wildernesse , unlesse he hath bread about him , ( there is much want ) and such a Wildernesse hath the Church been in also ; where she hath wanted even necessaries for Soules , bread of life , and food convenient for her ; for as in Amos 8.11 , 12. They did wander from Sea to Sea , from North to East , to and fro , to seeke the Word of the Lord , and yet went without it ; often finding ( at best ) but Cankers , trash and trumpery which grow upon every wilde briar and bramble ; so that the very Virgins and young men have fainted for thirst ; but blessed be the Lord , who hath laid it out otherwise in these dayes for his Saints . For as the sharp winter makes the Springe sweet , and the darke night the light lovely ; so the times past doe help to set forth our happinesse in these times present , wherein we have plenty of Mannah falling downe from the windowes of heaven . How sweet doth Honey relish after Aloes and Gall ? O how sweet is health after a sore sicknesse ? wealth after poverty ? pleasure after paine ? and bread enough after infinite want ? A great Courtier complaining to the Harbinger , for that he was laid in so homely and filthy a roome , was answered ; O Sir , You will take delight in it when you are out of it ! and so may we say to thinke of the Dungeon , and bondage , full of darknesse and filthiness , wherein we were barricadoed up in former yeares ; and as Darius said of Puddle-water , when he was in great extreamity of thirst , O sweet ! so now may we that have been in a Wilderness say of the worst preaching ( almost ) and Ordinance we meet with , from the Gospel and the Spirit ; O sweet ! Ah , how did Hagar cry when her bottle was dry , that now she and her childe must dye in the Wildernesse ? she wayles wonderfully ( poore soule ) till she saw a fountaine neare enough ; and so did we , till the fountaine ( which is now set open , ) was found , out of whose fulness flowes streams , which make us glad , Psal. 46.4 . and as the glory of God appeared to Israel even when they wanted bread , Exod. 16.7 . So ( as Ainsworth sayes ) is God with us , and hath appeared in the Assemblies of his Saints , when they were in the greatest wildernesse of want , wanting bread for their soules ; but since I say the Lord hath rained Mannah amongst us , even Angels food , and hath begun to feast us with fatnesse , and fill us with gladnesse ; and in these last dayes he hath promised that the Saints shall be swallowed up , over head and eares in the knowledge of God , as deep as the bottome of the Sea under the waters , yea with the knowledge of the glory of God , Habac. 2.14 . filled by knowing him , in the Hebr. and then shall Corne make the young men cheerfull , and new wine the maides , Zach. 9.17 . for he hath promised to call for the Corne ( which growes in no soyle but Heaven ) and to increase it , Ezek. 36.29 . and the fruits of every tree ( of righteousnesse ) shall be multiplied , and we shall be no more a reproach for famine among the Heathen . The Saints shall have bread enough and to spare , and shall be fed with fatnesse and marrow abundantly ; yea whilst others are ready to starve , they shall have enough , and eate , Isa. 65.13 , 14. yea , whilst others have their tongues cloven to the roofe of their mouthes , they shall drinke full draughts , and rejoyce whilst others shall be ashamed . Sixthly , in a wildernesse a man must be a companion with wildernesse-Creatures , and companies of Wolves , Beares , Foxes , Serpents , &c. such a comfortlesse condition the Church was in even till now , among the multitude of such as the Beasts of Ephesus , wanting religion , yea and reason ; Oh sad condition ! when as no difference was put between the cleane and uncleane , but beleevers with unbeleevers , light with darknesse , men with beasts , and brutish ones were unequally yoaked , and are at this day in Parish-Congregations or Churches ( so called ) so that whereas formerly God might have said of the Churches that bore his Image , behold , they are as one of us ; now the Beasts may say of Parish-Churches and constitutions which belong to the Beast ; Behold they are as one of us . For as the Arke ( at first ) was carried on mens shoulders , but after that ( in the corruption of times ) it was carried on a Cart , and by Beasts , till they quite over-turned it ; even so the Church-Discipline , that ( at first ) in Primitive times consisted of Saints , and which was bore up by Christ , and carried out by the Apostles , was afterwards corrupted into a Discipline , carried out by the power of the Beast , and bore up by Antichrist , consisting of Beasts as well as men , I meane of visible brutish sinners , making the Church a Wildernesse for Wildernesse-Creatures , till they had quite overturned the true Church , ( as to appearance ) and turned it into a stinking stall and stye . But now let us blesse our God , who hath brought us into the entrance of those blessed dayes promised in Isa. 35.8 , 9 , 10. An high way shall there be , and a way called the way of holinesse , the uncleane shall not passe over it , no Lion shall be there , nor ravenous beast shall goe up ( for it is high ) thereon , but the redeemed shall walke there , and the ransomed of the Lord , &c. And the vile and the precious shall be separate , for God is gathering up his jewels , Mal. 3.16 , 17 , 18. so that a difference shall be put between them that serve him , and them that serve him not , with many other Prophesies to this purpose , which I passe by , having produced sufficient ( I hope ) to satisfie either the rationally religious , or the religiously rationall ones in this point , and of the Churches Wildernesse-state , and of her recovery , which is comming apace upon us ; although this I know , that there be more then many neither religious , nor rationall , that doe deplore the falling of Babylon , and men that mourne for Tammuz , who say as Agrippina Neroe's Mother did , when she was told by Astrologers that her sonne should be Emperour indeed , but he should slay her in the time of his Empire ) well saith she , Occidat , modo imperet . So say many of the Beast , and of Babylon , let them reigne though they ruine , for they cannot abide to heare of their fate . Some old Jades there be , that if they be put out of their shuffling pace they will doe just nothing , neither amble nor trot ; so some old Soules there be that are but shufflers in Religion , and their duties very unevenly , brokenly , and imperfectly , unsetledly , and superstitiously performed ; but take them off of their old pace , and customary courses , and think to put them into a well-ordered way and Discipline , they cannot endure to be so checked , but will either stand still , and leave off all , or else will goe on , and in againe , in their old wonted way , and confused order , without rule or reason . Such as these are terribly prejudiciall against the worke which our God is going on with , and in that ; I shall shew you a little of their temper , that they may be knowne . As first , these Wildernesse-spirits have their dennes and habitations in the Wildernesse , but Strangers ( I meane the Saints ) thinke it strange to stay there , though it be but a little , they cannot endure the thoughts of continuance in such a condition ; they take no joy , nor content , nor comfort as long as they are in such a Wildernesse-state , and Wildernesse-ones doe feed and fill themselves with what they finde growing in a Wildernesse , which others cannot doe , nor endure ; So , O how greedily doe some men swallow down the Doctrines and devices of men ! Ceremonies , and Superstitions ! Traditions , with abundance of such old trumpery and trash , Jer. 14.9 , 10. enough to choake us . Further , as for your Wildernesse-ones , they never complaine that they are lost in the Wildernesse , for as long as they are there , they are never out of the way , come what will ; come this or that , this religion or that , this worship or that , so it be in the Wildernesse , where they may run and range about at liberty , and as they list ; whilst the Saints , ( alas ) are soone sensible that they are not in the way , but that they are out of the way , ( Psal. 38.3.5 . ) they know not where ; they call , and cry , and sadly complaine all the day long , and goe about lamenting for deliverance , and every step they take they tread with teares and sighs , Psal. 85.9 . and full of cares , ( Ephes. 5.15 . ) with teares and prayers , Hosea 14.8 . Psal. 80.3.7.19 . Jer. 17.14.16 . &c. yea , and the rather , for that they see such company is not according to their principles , but that there is an apparent and vast difference between them and such wilde Beasts and bruits abroad . Againe , the Wildernesse-ones will agree well enough among themselves , although they ( all ) set upon a poore Soule , a bewildernessed stranger , and will not agree with him , unlesse to ruine him . But lastly , this marke never misses , that the Wilderness-creatures are best content with darkness , and doe most heartily affect , and welcome the night of darkness , for then are they in their element , then they appeare most , and meet oftenest , and prog , and pry , and run , and rant about most busily for their prey , &c. as the text sayes ; They love darknesse , because their deeds are evill , Joh. 3.19 . they hate light , and hide themselves from it ; no wonder then they cannot abide the Gospel , and that the approaches of Christ perplex them , and the appearances of Christ torment them , who cry out , as Matth. 8. Why comest thou to torment us before the time ? These hate the true Sonne , and all light that shines immediately from him ( unlesse it be the Moon , the light of nature , the Candle of the Lord ) they will not allow of that light ( the Sun ) of the Lord , wherein he appears most excellently and eminently ; nay the very Ordinances ( that are most speciall , and refined ) they are offended at , and under the notion of new light , they loudly exclaime against true light , and Ordinances , and explode all Gospel-doctrine and Discipline , the way and worship of Christ ( as precisenesse , novelty , and what not ? ) for indeed they cannot endure an element so neare them wherein the Sunne moves , or whence he shines , whilst the Saints ( who have sat , sobb'd and suspir'd their hearts out ( almost ) in the former dayes of darknesse , whilst they were in the wildernesse , and durst not stirre for fear of stumbling in the darke ) they are glad at the heart the Sunne is up , and that that light which hath been long sowne for the righteous , they are now about to reap off . But as to the vulgar people , the Apostle sayes for mee , in Gal. 3.1 . O foolish people ! who hath bewitched you from the truth ? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , what Basilisk hath look'd upon you ? what hath cast a mist before your eyes , as if ye were bewitched ? what makes you so grossely mistake ? as to call good evill , and evill good ? light darknesse , and darknesse light ? Antichrist for Christ , and Christ for Antichrist ? what makes yee thinke you see what you see not ? and take the flames of fire , ( even of Hell ) for the beams of the Sunne ( even as your heaven ? ) and the true beams of the Sun , ( the Ordinances , Doctrine , and Discipline of Christ ) as flames of fire ( your torment and hell . ) O miserable wretches ! what Sorceries and Witchcrafts hath the Devill used thus to delude you ? who hath bewitched you , that you yet love the Wildernesse ? Darknesse ? Barrennesse ? and Bruitishnesse ? to be without Gospel-government , or Order ? Many are so in love with the Beast , that no other company can content them ? And as Xerzes was so zealously affected to the Plane-tree , that he would needs adorne it with most precious Jewels , so are they with Babylon , that they give up all their Crowns , and Comforts , and Credit , and Riches , and Liberties , and all to adorne Babel . But are yet yee so foolish saith the Text , vers . 3. or mad ? or wild wildernesse-headed ? ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) have yee lost your wits ? are yee so senselesse , to runne ruine-ward ? to keep in Babylon ? to wait for the plagues of Babylon , or to tarry in the wildernesse till the Sunne appeares , and the Hunter pursues you into inevitable destiny ? distraction , and destruction ? The Lord give yee light in the love of his holy truth , to see at last , what belongs to your peace ; but , blessed shal be God ( and that for ever ) who hath called his Saints with an holy calling , to separate from such wildernesse-creatures ( as distinct from them &c. ) and not to be reckoned among them , Numb . 23.9 . and that they may become a curious Garden for the beloved to live in . Wherefore to conclude , the Spirit and the Bride saith Come , and whosoever will , let him come ! Oh obey the call of Christ , and come running , and rowling , Bowl-like , well byassed for Christ into his Churches ( his Gardens inclosed ) though it may be , yee may meet with many rubs and lets in the way : Neither let it be selfe-love that swayes you ; for as there is a difference betwixt a childe and a horse in following of a man , the childe follows his father for love , but the horse for hay , lay downe the hay or oats , and the horse stayes , but the childe goes ( sayes Mr. Harris ) So indeed is the Saints following of Christ into his Churches , and Hypocrites very different , for the Saints follow , and obey him for love , but Hypocrites for the loaves . Wherefore , Take heed to thy foot when thou enterest in , and yet be incouraged all that can be into these Gardens , to get out of the wildernesse , and desolate place , and that without delay , considering the dayes we live in ( for as Dr. Williams sayes in Elijahs-wish , page 2. ) It is reported of the Birds of Norway that they flye faster then the Fowles of any other Country , and that by an instinct which they have , whereby they know the dayes of that Climate to be very short , and not above three houres long , and therefore they hasten with double flight and wings ; So let it be reported of us in this Common-wealth , that we of all other Nations in the World doe discerne the times and seasons , and to finde this day do be shortened for the Elects sake : And that now ( as it is high time ) wee make haste into the Lords house , and with double-winged faith and affections we enter into his Gardens . O let us not delay the time ! Hag. 1.4 . or delude our selves ! but above all other , let us make haste ! Many there bee who cry like nimble-tongued Tapsters , Anon , Anon , Sir ; but ( modò & modò non habet modum ) make haste then ! I have read that after the Grecians had won the City of Sardis , that Darius , or Zerzes ( who were Kings of Persia ) gave a charge that every day at Dinner one should speake aloud , and remember him that Sardis was taken and captivated , he intending not to be quiet till he had recovered it : So should we every day remember the Church in the the wildernesse , resolving never to be quiet day nor night , with God , nor men , till she be recovered , and restored into the Garden of the Lord. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pardes . CHAP. IV. The Church is to be called out of the Wildernesse into an Eden , or Garden enclosed , in what respects particular Churches are particular Gardens , and our duty to wait for this Restauration . WHat Fruits have wee had of all those things whereof we are now ( or at least shall be ) ashamed ? For unto such as are ashamed of their former abomination , doth the Lord bid us to shew the patterne of his house , which is to be built up in these dayes , as wee shall shew hereafter . In the meane time , now the winter is past , our dayes of light will bee dayes of delight , and our wildernesse-sorrows altered seasonably into Garden-solaces , and our humane traditions for heavenly truths , our wildernesse-company , and mixed multitudes , for the society of the first-borne , God in Christ , Angels , and Saints ; our darknesse for light , our deadnesse for life ; from being wilde to bee wise , and our barrennesse for fruitfulnesse , our want for plenty , our dangers for safety , our coldnesse for zeale , our flesh for spirit , our creatures for Christ , our earth for heaven , &c. Now what shall we lose by such an exchange ? yee that are yet for the old Administrations , Will-worships , and ordinances of mens creation ? whilst Ephraim ( whose name notes fruitfulnesse ) shall say , What have I to doe any more with Idols ? for why ? I have heard the Lord , and observed the Lord ; I am like a green Fir-tree , from me is thy fruit found : Who is wise , and he shall understand these things & c ? Christs Church is called the Garden of the Lord , an Eden , a Paradise , &c. In the places forenamed , and in Cant. 8.13 . there Christ is said to dwell with the Saints ( his brethren ) and companions in a most eminent manner . But why is the Church called his Garden ? First , because by Christ they are ( as a Garden ) taken out of the fields , commons , or high-wayes abroad , and separate from them ( as a peece of ground by its selfe ) distinct and independent ( with relation to the rest round about ) So in Joh. 15.19 . I have chosen you out of the world , &c. Eph. 5.11 . therefore have no fellowship with workers of darknesse , unfruitfull ones , and those not fit for a Garden of Christ. Secondly , Saints are by him an enclosed people from them without , they are hedged in by Christs owne hands , Isa. 5.2 . hee hath fenced it in , and gathered out the stones , &c. So in Mark. 12.1 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 21. hee hath round about it raised his hedge . In the time of the Law the ( then ) hedge was full of sharp thorns , and now by a Gospel-fence ( as we shall see afterward ) wee are kept in , and others out , that are not Christs Disciples ; for by his own rules he hath paled his people into a communion of love , light , life , and liberty ; and thus his Church is a Garden enclosed , Cant. 4.12 . as a people by themselves , and separate from them , that are without . Thirdly , He hath planted this his Garden ( as he did Paradise , Gen. 28. with his owne hand , and hath by his owne labours and industry , ordered his Church , he casts out the stones , he cuts up the brambles , he ( who whipped out the buyers and sellers ) sets and sowes with singular heed ( to his Fathers will ) whatsoever he sees for his Garden-use , and every other plant he puls up by the roots . See it in Isa. 5.2 . Matth. 4.33 . he hath planted ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) with great pains ; whatsoever is of his Garden , he will have his owne handy-worke in , that the beauty thereof may be the greater , &c. and above all the world beside . Fourthly , this is his Garden for fruitfulnesse which hee is the cause of ; when a Gardiner sees one of his Grafts bud and beare , he is glad , and boasts of it ; so is Christ to see any one to take well : but yet in this Christ excels all other Gardiners ( as Joh. 20.15 . ) that he sets no Tree but for Fruits ; As Lucian fained , the gods sate in Parliament to choose their Trees , one chose the Oake for strength , another chose the Bay-tree for greennesse , another the Cedar for talnesse ; but Minerva to the shame of all the rest , chose the Olive for fatnesse : So Christ to the shame of all others , chooseth Trees for fruitfulnesse , not for strength , talnesse , or the like , 1 Cor. 1.28 . Not wise , not noble , &c. Christs Church is like Canaan , a land full of Brooks , Springs , Deut. 8.7 . Vines , Figs , Spices , Apples , and all fruits that ripen by degrees , as the Sun growes hotter , they are to be the choisest , these Gardens are to surpasse all others without , both for abundance and the goodnesse of the fruits : As far exceeding such as the choysest Orchard , or Garden-fruits excell common hedge-crabs , or high-way fruits ; So sayes he , Matth. 5.27 . What doe yee more then others ? else it is a burning blushing shame to bee of the Garden , and yet to let others bring forth as good fruits , thus sayes Paul , 1 Cor. 3.3 . &c. Are yee yet carnall ( as yee were before when yee were without ) Doe yee yet walke as men ? O fic ! what not now to live at a higher and holier rate then others ! when your heels ought to bee above their heads that are without . Such Garden-Saints by Christ are to become so fruitfull above others , by having from him fuller and freer influences then others . For he is the Fountaine of Gardens and streams from Lebanon . Thus saith he , I will cause them that come out of Jacob , to take root , Isa. 27.6 . Israel shall blossome and bud , and fill the face of the world with fruits : So in Hos. 14.5 , 6. I will bee as the dew unto Israel , he shall grow as the Lilly , and cast forth his roots as Lebanon , i. e. in abundance of streams , and sweetest sap-roots to receive the soule of their soile , and the heart of their dewes , to reach out , and runne farre ; for his branches shall spread , and his beauty shall be as the Olive tree , and his smell as Lebanon then . Thus they fructifie from Christ , as in Joh. 15.4 , 5. Without him they can do nothing , and are but as withered branches , saplesse , and fruitlesse ; wherefore blessed be they that blossome in the Spring ( now ) and are not nipped off againe by Borean blasts , but be well sett for growing and ripening ; for in this Autumne-harvest ( which is now nigh us ) as the Sunne growes hot and high , they shall bee gathered ( full ripe ) into the Fathers floore or Garner : So be it . Fifthly , He hath them in his care constantly , as a man hath his Garden , and that most of all , for that hee will not suffer Swine to set footing there ( but keeps them without amongst their bruitish brood ) So the Lord hath built a watch-tower to over-look all the Church ; So Isa. 27.3 . I the Lord do keepe it , and I will water it every moment , lest any should hurt it , I will keep it night and day ; By day and by night upon all her glory I will be her defence , Isa. 4.5 . Hee will not suffer one Saint to be hurt by the wilde Boars of the wood , or the Foxes of the field , for he sets traps to take them , Cant. 2.15 . Sixthly , such a society of Saints are his Garden-delights , his Darling-delights , and he dearly loves to live and lodge there , Cant. 7.11 , 12. to eat and drinke there , Cant. 5.1 . of his pleasantest fruits , and sweetest Spices , Cant. 4.16 . of his beautifull beds , and to gather fair Lillies , Cant. 6.2 . and there his presence is most eminent , excellent , free , and frequent in the midst of his companions , ( viz. the Saints ) Cant. 8.13 . to the ravishing of their soules with his sweetest loves , Cant. 7.12 . there he loves to walke alife , Psal. 132.13 , 14. and to shew to his Saints his beauty , Isa. 33.17 . Thus is the Church of Christ his choysest Garden , and therein especially is his presence most excellent , as the proper sphere and orbe wherein the Sunne moves to give his light to the world . Wee know that nothing which is not what it is by nature , can longer be so then the cause continues , and the working of the cause which effects it to bee so , as water which is not by nature hot , will not bee hot longer then the fire makes it so , but little by little it returnes to its naturall coldnesse againe ; so the ayre which is naturally darke , is no longer lightsome then the Sunne makes it so , but the Sunne with-drawne , it will turne againe to darknesse ; and indeed Christ ( this Sunne ) as long as hee shines wee are light , and shall be light , but no longer . Now he hath promised in speciall manner to be a light in the midst of us ( his Churches ) for there he delights most to bee : O that it may be said of all Churches now , as once Caesar Augustus said of Rome , That though he found them bricke , yet he left them Marble ! So though Christ hath found us a wildernesse , yet hee hath made us an Eden ! or Gardens-inclosed ! fruitfull and faire ! pleasant and profitable ! to God and men ! But thus you may see in all , and in more then all these respects , that the Lord is now raising up the Saints , and rearing up his Sion , as he hath promised ; This blessing is already begun , and in these dayes , Christ calls us aloud , as Cant. 4.8 . Come with me from Lebanon ( i. e. out of the Forrest in the North , 2 King. 14.9 . Isa. 29.17 . where wild beasts were ; so out of mixed congregations , and from wildernesse-companions , &c. O my Spouse come with me , looke from the top of Amana ( i. e. interpretatur ●urbulentus , that is , from all wicked and turbulent spirits , that oppose the truth , yea a mount of Tyrants , void of all goodnesse , and great Persecutors of Gods people looke from them all ) and from the top of Shenir and Hermon ( Shenir interpretatur faetor ) from the Lions dens from the mountains of Leopards . This is the call of Christ to us in these dayes , to have us looke , learne , and live beyond this wildernesse-condition , and all them without , that are enemies to the Gospel and Garden-way of Christs Worship ; for now the Lord ( in order to the restauration of Doctrine and Discipline ) declares new things , Isa. 42.9 . before they spring forth , he tels us of them , Wherefore sing a new Song . verse 11. Let the wildernesse rejoyce , and all the Villages of Kedar ( Darknesse ) Let the inhabitants of the Rocke ( Christ ) and all that dwell in the clefts of the Rocke ) shout out from the tops of the Mountains . Amen . Finde no fault with these dayes then ! but wait ! Isa. 25.9 . for the wine will be best at last , and in the evening it shall bee light ; richest promises are reserved for us , therefore called the most precious , 2 Pet. 1.4 . In these dayes shall the Branch of righteousnesse grow up , Jer. 33.14.15 . and our blessed Ahashuerus shall take in Esther . The face of Church-discipline shall shine againe , and the King shall delight in her beauty , Psal. 45.10 , 11. Besides the abundance of Scripture-prophesies prooving of this ; I have seen many remarkable Prophesies of late , largely foretelling these glorious times . As of one Methodius in the yeare two hundred and fifty , in a Treatise de Novissimis temporibus , hee tells us how the Kingdome of Christ , in these last dayes shall be lifted up above all mountains ; but first , hee sayes , That many mighty Ishmaelites must fall , and then shall follow peace and joy to the Saints . I have also met with Hermas whom wee read of Rom. 16.14 . ( and Jerome calls him Pauls disciple ) in a book of his entituled , Ecclesia , hee mentions a vision which he had given him of the Church from that time , to the last age , what severall conditions shee should be in : First , he saw her like an Old woman sitting in a chaire ; The next alteration hee fore-saw in a second vision ( hee sayes ) of an Old woman , onely having the countenance and face of a Young woman ; In the third , shee had the shape of a Young woman , but shee had the haires of an Old woman , and undecent ▪ But in the fourth , which is reserved for us , and ready to be revealed these latter dayes , shee was lively resembled in the forme of a Virgin , and in the beauty of a Bride comming forth out of her Bride-chamber in great glory , and setting forward to meet her beloved Bridegroome , as being already set out , and comming forward also in his great Majesty , might , and glory . Many more I might produce that Prophesie of these dayes , but doubtlesse the Scripture hath said enough ( had they said nothing ) to satisfie our soules , and to set us forward ( afresh ) in this latter-dayes-disposition , and grace of waiting , yea though the vision stay , yet to wait , because it is for an appointed time , Hab. 2.2 . God doth alwayes , and in every age stirre up in his Saints this disposition of waiting suitable to the blessings hee hath to give out , and bestow upon the Saints . So in this age wait ! in beleeving ! and beleeve in waiting ! for the time which they are to bee performed in , is hard upon us ; Although alas ! how most men live most by sence ? what they see that they will beleeve , but nothing without they see some signes , ( as to their sense and reason ) of such dayes as are foretold of : hence is there so much crying out of Taxes , and complaining of troubles , and of the times in the very streets ; tell them of blessed dayes , it is to no purpose , for they want faith to foresee them , and ( poor creatures ! they cannot see that the Lords time is , and his day comes , when they least looke for him , and before they be aware of it ; even then when men thinke he hath forgot his promises , then is his time to come at the pinch , to blow at the last sparke , 2 Pet. 3.8 , 9. as when Abrahams hand was ready up to cut Isaaks throat , at that moment of time , the Lord made him stay , and appeared to make good his promise , then ( as that in Isaak all Nations should bee blessed &c. ) yea then even then when Zion ( even the Saints ) may say the Lord hath forgotten me , Isa. 49.14 . then , I say , the Lord appeares even in the Mount ; when they are at the last , and at the very top , height , pinch , and point of all , then the Lord appeares ! and then are they fittest for the enjoyments of those Promises . O how welcome will they then bee to them ! Besides how many poore soules are lost in this , because they cannot see light through darknesse , good through evill , peace through warres , and blessings through combustions and confusions . Nor doe they understand how God doth infatuate the wisdome of the world , by working out greatest mercies through contrariest meanes , and even then to be ( most of all ) making good of his Promises when he appeares ( most of all ) to work and walke in a point-blanke , quite contrary-way : When hee promises happinesse , he sends us most unhappinesse ; when most truth is promised , he sends in most errours ; when the Kingdome of Christ is to be most exalted , he lets most enemies , and oppositions to appeare against it ; so in all other maine mercies , as when he promises most light , for the accomplishing of the Promise , he lets in most darknesse , Zach. 14.7 . So it may bee in a poore soule , when hee is about the ruine of a lust , he may suffer that lust the more to rage , and even then , when thou thinkest there is nothing more contrary to it , it is in order to doe it : Wherefore ( my deare friends ! ) beleeve and waite in hope ! even against hope ! though in your sence , reason , or wisdome you should see but small ground for it ; yet ( blessed be God! ) there is abundance of sound ground for faith ( safely ) to foot it upon ; but were it not so as to your sense , yet God hath laid the earth upon nothing , but the very ayre , and yet makes the weake ayre a foundation and ground strong enough to support and beare the whole universe and globe . And can hee not ? nay will he not ? raise up , and lay the foundation of our hopes and happinesse in weak means ? in ( the day of small things ) poore and nothing beginnings ? that appeare to men no more then ayre , and ( it may bee ) such as will vanish away ? Nay in , and by contrary means that ( in mens wisdome ) will seem impossible to effect , or to be a good foundation for such a frabricke of hopes , or bee a suitable means for such a delight , as seemes to bee set in a Diameter thereto , and against the meanes ; although the meanes may produce that day and discovery , yea and recovery of Zion which not onely seem contrary to that worke , but which ( also ) the worke is contrary unto , and will destroy . Wherefore when the Sonne of man comes shall he finde faith on the earth ? to instance as clay and spittle ( are contrary meanes ) which opened the eyes of him that had faith ? Finde but faith , and fire shall consume the waters ( and all contrary quenching meanes ) 1 King. 18.38 . and the waters shall not bee able to hinder the flaming of the fire . So many Acts of Providence ( like Hebrew characters ) are to be read backward , or else they cannot be read aright : And so you may read many of Gods remarkable workes which he is about by contraries . As the Fly on the wheele , shee goes on ; though the wheele goes contrary ; so doe Gods workes goe on , though the times and troubles , warres and oppositions seeme to goe contrary , wherefore by faith , let us firmly expect the irresistable recovery of the primitive purity , and piety in Doctrine and Discipline ; Doe Men or Devils what they can to hinder the brightnesse and beauty of Christs Churches in these latter dayes , yet they will but set up the signe of the Labour in vaine , to toule people in to them ; For Christ shall reigne , though the Nations are angry at it , and wrath shall come upon his enemies ; But the Temple of the Lord shall be set open for the Saints , and the Arke of his Testament shall be seen therein ; yet I say not , but lightnings and thunders , earth-quakes , and great hailstones we may yet meet with , Rev. 11.17 , 18 , 19. But before I conclude this Chapter : Let all the Churches remember , that God will have his Gardens well-weeded , and his houses well swept , wherefore the Lord blesse you , as ( the good old man ) Jacob did tangendo manu approbationis , & osculando instinctu inspirationis , by his approbation and inspiration . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Erez . CHAP. V. Christs Garden , or Gospel-Church-State , which is to bee defended , is to bee defined ; first from the materiall cause , or persons ( who are visible Saints ) that are fitly qualified for members . HAving ( hitherto demonstrated ) by some proofes , and sure Prophesies , the sad condition and wildernesse-estate of Christs-Church in the want of true Doctrine and Discipline to this day , and what in these dayes we are to expect of her recovery , and restitution , &c. It follows that wee fetch out what hath lay so long hid ( all the time of our Babylonian captivity ) as the fire that was hid in an hollow place of old , the Servants of God after they had their liberty given them to build up the Lords Temple , sent to fetch it from thence , where it lay so long hid . ( Even so are we sent at this day for this purpose , to bring forth what we can finde , though hid for so many hundred years ) but in case we cannot doe what we would , we will doe what we can in this case ( as Neemias did ) to gather what as yet lyes in the dust , and in darknesse , and so to endeavour to discover unto you ( in what is discovered to us , and what I say we can ) of Christs owne Discipline and Gospel-order , which ought to be in the Church of Christ. Wherefore first I shall begin to gather the wood together , or the matter that the Church is to be made up of , and after that ( the water being sprinckled ) I hope the Sunne ( that hath been for so many Ages set , or hid in a Cloud ) will so breake out , and brightly shine in , and upon us with his lustre and life , heate and light , as that we shall become a great fire kindled ; so that all men may marvell at it , and make much of this holy fire for future Ages , which shall never more be quite out , or extinguished . For as honest old Latimer said to Ridley , as they were going to suffer ; Come Brother , this day we shall give a light , and warme all England ! so faine would I be one that might enlighten others , now I am litt by fire from heaven , and be as a Torch in the entry to such as are in the darke , Et claritate & paritate , & hilaritate , the Lord grant it , in whose light as I see light , I shall shew it , and so I come to tell you what 's the matter . To begin with the Materials , we lay downe this Position , that no persons are fit for such a purpose but visible Saints , or right matter to make up this typified Chariot of Salomon but the wood of Lebanon , Cant. 3.9 . this Chariot is his publick seat , where he is to be seen of all , in Hebrew Apirion , and in Greek Phoreion , a Throne say some , a Bed say others , a Palace say others , and a Chamber of presence say most ; but that this Church is all these to Christ and his Saints say I , and so all ; yea , and as ( Sol. Jarchi sayes beside ) the secret Chamber ( here on this floore , and under this roofe ) for the Bride and Bridegroom to meet in , and to make much of each other in ; but I had rather read and render it from the word , a place much like a Couch , carried about and abroad , being open above , exceeding faire , glorious , and richly beset with beauty within , and in the which Salomon sate with much ease , and in much honour and state , from whence he delivered his Lawes for his Subjects ; and thus Christ doth answer the Type to his Saints , whilst he sits in great grace and Majesty in this his Chariot , and in great glory and triumph he governs , and gives out his Lawes to his Subjects . Now for the matter that this his Chariot is made up of , it must be of Lebanon , elect trees , Deut. 20.19 . Ezek. 47.12 . Isa. 60.13 , 14. The glory of Lebanon shall come to thee , I meane such trees as are the tallest ( heaven-ward ) such Cedars as are the soundest , and will not rot , such Cypresses as are the fairest , Eccles. 8.1 . Psal. 119.80 . 2 Tim. 1.7 . Jer. 5.28 . and such Olives as are the fattest , Psal. 52.8 . & 128.3 . and such trees as are the most upright , and the least crooked , or crabbed , the best and most beauteous ones , Psal. 7.10 . Psal. 64.10 . & 112.4 . Cant. 1.4 . Psal. 15.2 . and for strength , such as nothing can overthrow , being well rooted and united , Psal. 73.2.6 . Zach. 10.12 . Isa. 8.8.10 , 11. but which will stand steddy in all stormes , and against all plots and practises , and powers which no force can conquer , which no Age can decay , ( but they are renewed like an Eagle ) which no fire can burne up ( but purifie ) which no wormes can eate , or enter into , but who are all wayes , and at all times , and in all places , a sweet savour , 2 Cor. 2.15 . to them within , and to them without . These are the Saints indeed , and none but the visible Saints , and that are so judged upon pregnant proofes , and strong presumptions ) are ( De Jure ) of right to be Members of this Church of Christ ; hence are they called , the Churches of Saints , 1 Cor. 14.33 . and Saints called , 2 Cor. 11. and sanctified in Christ Jesus , 1 Cor. 1 , 2. otherwise the types of the Mysticall Temple , ( viz. of the Body of Christ , the temple of his God-head to this day ) Jo. 2.21 . would not be answered , ( which ought to be ) by the typified , for rough unhewen stones were not laid up into the building of the Old-Testament Temple ( till they first were fitted , polished , and prepared for the builders use ) much lesse may this Spirituall house of the Lord be built up of any other then holy and hewen , the liveliest and loveliest stones , 1 Pet. 2.5 . besides , all that entered into the Temple of old were to be holy and cleane , and all the vessels within holy , 1 Chron. 22.19 . and all the treasures dedicated unto God , 2 Chro. 5.1 . &c. and all the materials were the most choyse and pure ; so ought it to be in this Temple ( for a greater then Salomons is here ) and the glory of this house must be greater then the former ; wherefore it must be made up of the most choyse and precious materials , and of such as are dedicated and given up unto the Lord by his Spirit , Ephes. 2.22 . Moreover , ( Mr : Cotton * notes , ) that the vigilant and laborious attendance of the Porters was typicall too , in 2 Chron. 23.19 . who were to suffer none that were uncleane to enter into the Temple , which sayes he , does typifie the duty of the Church-Officers , to prevent and keep out ( as much as they can ) vicious , vile , knowne , uncleane persons from polluting the Temple of the Lord , which would be by their admittance into the midst of us , &c. yet if I may not be so strict and curious , I am content to say ( this reaches to the thing now in hand ) viz. That the Porters ( and the people by informing the Porters ) are bound in duty to put by ( as much as they may ) persons sinfull , and uncircumcised , which were not to be suffered so as the true Israelites were , Ezek. 22.26 . So in Ezek. 44 6 , 7 , &c. for amongst other abominations is this brought in , that they suffered such as were uncircumcised to be in his Sanctuary to pollute it , &c. but Object out of Jerem. 7.9 . There were Adulterers , Theeves , and wicked ones , &c. Answ. This is answered already by many eminent men , yet to adde a word , you see before in Ezek. 44. there were strangers that had crept in through the negligence , or crowded in through the ignorance of the Keepers , but they are condemned , and highly complained of , as such who have prophaned the Sanctuary , and defiled his Ordinances , and despised his Lawes , and made his house a very denne of Theeves , whereupon the Lord threatens them , for that they would suffer such to burne Incense amongst them ; but ( besides the abundance more of Scriptures which I might use to prove it ) I shall produce undeniable reasons to ratifie this truth , that it may run in triumph , yea in whole bundles of them ( that our Beloved may be to us a bundle of Myrrhe , to lodge all night betwixt our breasts ; ) and the first sort of reasons run from Christ our King , and the Lord our Law-giver . Reas. 1. Is taken out of Mat. 16.16 , 17 , 18. where Christ our Lord and Law-giver hath promised himselfe to be the Churches foundation for ever , and such as are built up by him , and upon him ( as all true Church-members must be , that would stand out , and out-stand all stormes ) must be such Professors of this Christ as Peter here was , and that is by such a profession as flesh and bloud revealed not , but his heavenly Father . Now none but Saints are such Professors ( at least they must be Saints in appearance ) who are able to hold forth the worke of the Fathers upon their soules , which consists not in bare words , or a verball acknowledging of Christ ; for words are but Cyphers , which signifie nothing without other Figures ; And as it was said of Epicurus , that he had the habit of a Philosopher , but was none indeed ; so many have the habits and words of Christians that are not so indeed ; and the Church that is built upon the sand , may and must consist of such , Mat. 7.24 , 25 , 26 , 27. But if the Grapes painted by Zeuxes allured the Birds to peck at them , would they not much more have flowen at them had they been true Grapes indeed ? So if such as seeme to be Saints , and appeare visibly ( as to our eye ) godly , are so good , and attractive matter for the Church of Christ , much more then are reall Saints so . Obj. The Apostles admitted all sorts of Professors , three thousand in one day . Ans. First , it is granted , that they were Professors then before they were admitted . Secondly , It does contradict the text , to say all sorts of Professors ; if yee meane thereby , all that professe Christ with their mouthes meerly , for the text tells us , Acts 2.37 . they were pricked in their hearts , and at the heart , for the word signifies ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) a most sad and sore rent to the very soule , a punctuall wound in every part of their hearts , as if Daggers were fastned at their depth in them , and this word will shew their compunction was sound , for it was not ( as now it is with some , Acts 7.54 . ) to kick against Christ , but to cry out for Christ ( him whom they had crucified , for which they were so wounded ; ) besides , they were sensible that they were undone without Christ , wherefore with wide mouthes say they to the Apostles , Oh , What shall we do ? Besides , they repented , and heard , and obeyed , and gladly received the Gospel , ver . 41. yea with greedy stomacks , ( though many now have hot Livers , and cold Stomacks ) and strong affections , yea and embraced it ( and ( as it were ) kissed it , for so farre the word will have it ) with affectionate acceptance ( Gratis animis ) and from their soules ; yea and therein they continued stedfast , ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) i. e. strong in the faith , without staggering , wavering , or shrinking from their Professions and practise ; yea and in the midst of the greatest trials , troubles , persecutions , perplexities , they were yet most zealous and faithfull , by an impregnable assistance , and an invincible constancy . And are not these the chariest Characters of true conversion ? Can yee so under-value this great worke of Gods Word ? surely all sorts of Professors could not doe thus : so that I say , such were all Saints ( in appearance ) and such , and none but such are by Christ's Law allowable Members of Christ's Church , although that afterward some will appeare Hypocrites , who crept in , as Judas , Demas , Ananias and Saphira , with divers others . But , Secondly , The King of Saints hath given orders to attach such as have ( unawares ) got in , and have appeared ungodly , when he whipped out buyers and sellers ; he signified thereby not only his Law against such as were not sound in holinesse , after their unsoundnesse appeared , but also to keep them without , that they might not enter in , now the Gospel-Temple was to be built ; no mixt Congregations were to be continued , but Christ by his Scourge and Whip of Truth will have us to cast them , and to keep them out . Thus Christ commands , Matth. 7.6 . not to throw Pearles to Swine , nor to give holy things to Dogges , &c. wicked ones are so called in sundry Scriptures , for Phil. 3.2 . Beware of Dogges , beware of evil-workers ; so it is in Revel . 22.15 . Blessed are they that may enter in , for without are Dogs and Sorcerers , and Whoremongers and Idolaters , &c. They that are knowne to be such , must be kept without , or else there will be a violent violation of Christs Law : Hence it is the Churches have rule to proceed with such prophane ones and sinners as have crept and crouded in , Matth. 18.17 , 18. &c. Hence it is also the professing-friend ( at the feast , Matth. 22.12 . in Church-fellowship yet wanting the wedding garment , was called into question , but the Text sayes the servants went out to gather all . Ans. It is true , All were said to be called by a publicke call , but before they entred in , their high-way-rags , their hedge-religion , and rayments , were to be laid aside , else the Lord would never have laid it in his dish , What dost thou here without it ? nor would he have been put to a Non-plus , and not have had a word to say ; nor should he have been for the want of that ( had it not been necessary ) cast out and punished , but by all these ( and abundance more I might produce ) to prove this first reason . 2 Are bundled up together out of severall Propheticall Scriptures , for in Isa. 60.21 . The people also shall be all righteous , reason 2 they shall inherit the Land for ever , the branch of my planting , the worke of my hands , that I may be glorified . So in Isa. 35.8 , 9 , 10. It shall be called the way of holinesse , no Lion shall be there , nor ravenous beast goe thereon ( meaning unclean and openly knowne sinners ) but the redeemed shall walke there : And the ransomed of the Lord shall returne , and come to Sion with songs , &c. So in Isa. 52.1 . From henceforth shall come into thee no more the uncircumcised and unclean . So in Zach. 14.21 . In that day there shall bee no more the Canaanite in the Lords house . So in Joel . 3.17 . Yee shall know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion my holy Mountaine , then shall Jerusalem be holy , and there shall no strangers passe through her any more . So in Isa. 33.24 . and in Rev. 21.27 . In no wise shall enter into it any thing that defileth , or that worketh abomination , or that maketh a lye , but they which are written in the Lambs Book of life . It is not denied , but there is sin in a Church , but not a Church in sinne ( as one may be said to have drinke in him , and yet not to be in drinke ) I meane sinne so seen , and knowne , and yet allowed of , or ( at least ) not duely proceeded against , by censure and reproof . Now in this sense nothing that defileth doth enter ; the best Church may have spots on her , but not in her ( i. e. tolerated as before ) no not in her worst estate . Besides , in all that was before mentioned as in the Law-time typical ( and so Prophetical ) in the Baptists dayes , there was even then an apparent repentance and visible profession accounted necessary before admission , as to baptisme . Mat. 3.6 . Luke 3.3 . how much more must this be so before admission into Gospel-fellowship for ( as Aug. sayes in Tom. 4. de fide & operibus ) the Pharises , and Sadduces that came to his Baptisme , were forced to swallow a refusall , and a bitter reproofe to boot , Matth. 3.7 . for a generation of vipers , he neither admitted of scandalous persons , nor must wee into Christs-Church , till there appeares a repentance , and reformation ; But , reason 3 3 Runnes from that most familiar relation which is between Christ and his Church , God and his Saints in such a fellowship . He is their Husband Eph. 5.23 . Isa. 54.5 . and married unto them , Jer. 3.14 . Rev. 19.7 . Hos. 2.19 , 20. and they are presented unto him as a chaste Virgin to these Espousals . 2 Cor. 11.2 . Now he is not thus related to prophane and scandalous persons ( though the Ranters doe call him the friend of Publicans and Sinners ) such , with whom Christ hath so inseparable , and insuperable communion which are Saints called ; and such must the Church consist of ( i. e. of such , and onely such as far as may be judged ) whose husband hee is : But some will object . Say not the Scriptures otherwise ; as that tares are amongst the wheat untill the harvest , Matth. 13.25.38 , 39. and have you any Church in the Scripture all of Saints ? not having one Judas , Ananias , Demas , Hymeneus , Philetus , nor Diotriphes , nor others ? our owne experience is otherwise in all Churches , where there be good and bad , Lambs and Rams , wheat and chaffe , sound and unsound , and yet Christ is called their Husband . First , for the Scripture alleadged , it is allowed of , if we give it its own weight , without any other grain , or the least addition to it ; for see v. 38. the field in which they are , is the world , and so wee say to the end of the world , in the world will grow good and bad together ; but yet grant it ( with most ) to be meant the field of the Church visible ( which is rather a Garden ) yet this is not an Injunction , but rather a Prediction of what will bee , for without doubt , wicked men will bee in the Church in all ages ; but that is not the point ; for this it is that wee say , and say againe , that such as are knowne openly to be such sinners or hypocrites , are neither to bee taken in , nor tolerated in the Church of Christ , of which hee is the Husband . And although our present experiences ( besides the primitive and past ) expresse much of this nature , viz. that naughty , corrupt , and sinfull men have been , and yet are in every Church ; yet we will beleeve such were not openly knowne to be such , when they were admitted members of any true Church of Christ , whether past , present , or to come ; yes say some . Judas was knowne by Christ to be an hypocrite , when admitted . 1 But he was not so knowne unto the Church , for all the rest of the Disciples did not so much as suspect him ( Ecclesia n●n judicat de occultis ) therefore they could not take cognizance thereof , for hee seemed a very holy Disciple to the rest . 2 The knowledge Christ had of him as one , ( before hee appeared such a one ) was extraordinary , but wee are speaking of an ordinary way of discovery , as when sin breaks out , and hypocrisie appears ; Besides , 3 There was a speciall reason in it , that he was received , viz. to answer the will of God given out in Psal. 41.8 &c. yet this is certaine , neither he nor any else appeared hypocrites or wicked ones openly , and so known to be , when admitted either into that , or any other society of Saints ; although there was , is , and will be in every particular Church of Christ some that ought not to be ; For if this fellowship of which Christ himselfe was Pastor , and is for a Patterne , and had but twelve ( a small number for the most are not alwaies the best ) had a Judas ; much more may others . Even as Davids house which is set for a Patterne for future ages , Zach. 12.10 . was not without an Amnon , an Absolon , and others ; even Gods owne Arke may nourish Monsters , as Noahs Arke did Cham ; yea , and as some filthy Toad● might bee found to lye under the stones of the Temple ; so may some wicked dissembling Hypocrites ( sayes Dr. Hall ) and yet the Temple be the Lords for all that . Furthermore , the visible Church is called his Holy Temple 1 Cor. 3.16 , 17. which ought not to be defiled , 2 Cor. 6.16 . and therefore is made up of living stones , 2 Pet. 2.5 . that is , of visible Saints . Also it is called the Lords house and habitation , Heb. 3.6 . Eph. 2.22 , 23. 1 Pet. 2.5 . wherein he walks and lives , and takes his rest , which holinesse becomes , Psal. 93.5 . for ever ; therefore the holiest are the fittest matter . The Church is called his houshold , Eph. 2.19 . Now if David could not endure a wicked person within his doors , Psal. 101.3 , 4.5 . Much lesse will the Lord allow it . But to bee briefe . Lastly , the Church is Christs body , 1 Cor. 12.26 , 27. and Christ is the head of every particular Church gathered , Col. 1.18 . Eph. 5 , 23. &c. Now such as are united to Jesus Christ by his Spirit , 1 Joh. 1.3 7. and have speciall communion with him as their Head ( as to receive vertue and vitality from him ) are to be received as members of his Church , whereof hee is Head : And none else , but such as the Church is perswaded of ( upon Testimony given in ) to have such a relation to the Lord Christ , and whom in the charity of her judgement , and in the judgement of her charity , shee freely accepts of for such , and in whom they finde the graces of Christ , and the gifts of his Spirit in some measure , and from whom they have some answerable fruits , whereby they may be able to judge charitably : for to receive a member which hath not virtuall power , and operation from the Head , is against reason , yea and that reference and correspondence of members with the head . But hence it is that many hypocrites are taken in , who seem to have high injoyments , and large gifts , to wit , Ranters and such like , &c. No! It is not hence , but thence ( I meane by running from these rules ) that so many Hypocrites creep in , as Gal. 2.4 . for it is not enough to have heightened conceptions , quicke apprehensions , admirable gifts , excellent parts , and thereby to plead union with Christ ( our Head ) from the influence of common graces , and injoyment of great gifts ( as Ranters may have very ravishingly ) to make a man fit for such fellowship of Saints ; no not though he prayes , preaches , discourses , &c. like an Angel , if the Church conceive him not a Saint-called , by some evidence given in , or other , whereby the Church doth judge ( him in union with his Head ( Christ ) according to the Influences of soule-sanctifying and soule-saving graces . Simon Magus , I make no doubt but had many common-gifts and graces ( which had a holy face ) by which he passed by Philip and crept in : but yet had his hypocrisie appeared , and that they were but counterfeit Coin , I am confident Philip would have dealt with him home , and have given him his owne as well as afterward Peter did , Acts 8.20 , 21 , 22. And so ( as Tertullian sayes ) even Judas was honest and eminent at first to see to ; so here be many Blazing-stars , and dangerous Comets which doe shine brightest as to sight ( as Ranters , Hypocrites , &c. ) but evermore portend and presage eminent and imminent evills to the Church they are in , unlesse much mercy prevent : a many such meteors may seem fixed stars for some time , so long as they are aloof off , and high , and so cozen us , till they come to fall , and then wee finde they were but Deceivers , made of earthly , slimy , fleshly matter . Thus have I offered the third bundle of Reasons , and reach to the 4 Reason , which is taken from the ends , for the which reason 4 this Gospel-order and Church-fellowship is instituted , the which none but Saints ( at least so visibly ) are able to answer , which are of sundry sorts ; some few of them I shall instance in , but not insist on ; for I feare I am too large , and then ten to one but some will say , my Pen is long-winged , and my preaching is long-winded , which is accounted an ill-favoured , and an impardonable fault ( in Dublin ) I am sure ; but to be briefe . 1 The maine end of this Gospel-Discipline is to set forth the honour and praises of God as a peculiar people , 1 Pet. 2.9 . Heb. 2.12 . Ephes. 3.21 . now none but visible Saints are fit to answer such an end . Others indeed would be a chosen and peculiar people to dishonour God , to rob him of his glory , to Crucifie Christ afresh , to bring a reproach upon the truth , and to scandalize the Gospel , but for nothing else in Christ's Church . 2 Another end of this Gospel-practise is to promote the true light , and to let in more of that knowledge of Christ , which it is eternall life to know ; now none but the Saints are said to reach this end , Ephes. 5.8 . and in 1. Jo. 1.6 , 7. If we say we have fellowship with him , and walk in darknesse , we lye , and doe not the truth . But if we walke in the light , as he is the light , we have fellowship one with another . Now prophane ones , as Atheists , scandalous persons , and such like , are fit for the promotion of darknesse , and for the putting out of the true light , but are not at all fit for fellowship upon this account . A third thing to be shot at in Gospel-fellowship , is the mutuall edification of one another , and the building up of the body in Christ , 1 Thes. 5.11 . Ephes. 4.29 . 1 Cor. 14.26 . now none but Saints doe hit this marke , for wicked ones would serve to pull downe and destroy , but not to build up in the most holy faith , Jude 20. 4 Furthermore , a maine thing we must not omit , is an open-hearted Saint-like love , by the same Spirit of love which Christ bare to us , Joh. 15.12 . Ephes. 5.2 . 1 Thes. 3.12 . 1 Jo. 3.22 . &c. now none but the Saints sit close to this duty , ( and they hardly too in these dayes ) or that can live up to this end , for indeed sinners , so knowne , will serve for nothing more ( and for little l●sse ) then to set at variance , make breaches , and rend the body , being filled with unexorable ( yea unexuperable ) hatred , and malice against the Saints , by the same spirit which their Father the Devill was filled with against Christ. Many other ends might be mentioned , for the which Saints are enchurched together according to the Gospel which I shall shew herafter in the last Book ; but neither to those , nor these ends can any others but the Saints ( at least so visibly ) be said to live up . This is no worke for them ( therefore ) there is no way in Christs-Church for Drunkards , Swearers , Sabbath-breakers , Blasphemers , Persecutors of Saints , Scoffers , or scandalous , or such as may cause a Curse to pursue us , and Gods wrath to be revealed against us , by the with-drawment of his presence from us ; but for nothing more as I know of ; thus by all these reasons I have ( and by many more I might impregnably ) proved , that only Saints visible ( so judged of by sufficient evidences given in to be such ) are competent Members of a true Church of Christ , which ( ought to be ) a company of Saints called to be Christs Spouse , and Temple of the Lord. Obj. Some may say with Master Rutherfurd ( as Cotton and Hooker notes ) but such termes are given to the Church of Christ as invisible . Ans. 1. There is no such distinction in Scripture , but Christs Church is so called , whether visible or invisible . 2 Paul stiles them such ( as a visible body , if they will have it so ) 1 Cor. 3.16 . 2 Cor. 6.16 . 2 Cor. 11.2 . saying , Yee are the temple of God , and what agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols ? and I will walke in the midst of you ; but who will be further informed in this subject may see Mr. Hooker's Survey , 1 Lib. 2 Chap. where they have the terme opened , the question stated , and the conclusion proved . Well , a word of use , which is ; Vse 1. To reprove ( whilst I prove ) Parochiall Churches vse 1 Antichristian ( which I shal sh●w in all the essentials of it ) for in this first we finde how foulely they fall short of being fit matter ; for the veriest ranting , revelling , and reviling Swines , that swill upon the earth , the most notorious Drunkards , and vicious wretches that are , are Members of such Churches , and so held ( De jure ) but this is from beneath of their Father ( the Devill ) and of his bottomlesse-pit-smoak , the constitution of which comes from the busie braines of men : for about Constantines time this corruption began to be great , and was brought on , as it was in Dionysius his dayes ( before him ) Bishop of Rome , who sent out his Edicts ( not to emparadise , but to emparish the people ) which I have spoke to in Chap. 2. and in England , Honorius Canterburiensis was the first that I finde , pragmaticall to promote this confused , this corrupt , and Christ-crucifying , Christ-slighting , and Christ-destroying Church-state : who desire to be more satisfied herein , may be pleased to peruse either Selden de Decimis , or Polydor. Virgil. lib. 4. c. 9. or else Mr. Hookers Polity , or Mr. Jacobs Attestation , or honest Paul Baines Diocesan Triall , or else Mr. Burtons Vindication of the Independant Churches , and they may receive it in full , and write it in folio . But a burning shame it is , so much of the Whores fore-head should be still in some men , as to maintaine them to be Churches ( and to call them such ) and Saint them to boot ) but blessed be the Lord , that Christs Church of his owne institution can be built up amongst us here in Ireland , and that the Honourable Commissioners of Parliament are carefull to keep up Christs , and to keep downe Antichrists Institutions . Object . But , say some , All are not such in our Parish as you speake of , viz. scandalous persons , but we have many precious Christians , and Saints . Ans. 1. Are there any Scandalous , and not Members of your Parish-Church ? Do not your Minister give the Sacrament , and both Seales to all ? without putting difference between the holy and prophane ? this is contrary to Christs rules and order , and most dangerous and detestable . Obj. But our Minister is an honest man , and does not so , but puts a difference ? Ans. 2. Why does he not then call them that are godly out of that condition and Church-state , which he seemes to separate them from , in making the difference , which till then is but mocking God , and Christ , &c. 2 He gives ( as some do ) the Lords Supper as a right Ordinance , but in a wrong order ; but to answer , 2 Yet ye are not therefore a Church of Christs own order , because yee have some , many , though they should bee most , ( which is scarce in any Parish ) precious to God ( which should consist of none else ) for a little leven levens the whole lump ; so doth not a little sweet meale sweeten the whole of our lump ) and what taste hath a little spoonfull of honey in a vessell of vinegar ? ) Nay were there as much honey as vinegar , yet the worst would taste most . Here I know , they would faine bring in the former objections , which are fruitlesse , and frustrate . In the best Churches have been as bad men , as in Corinth , &c. This before in page , 52. &c. but they were not known such , when they were taken in , nor were they tolerated when so knowne , for they must all be true Professours , and not prophane ones , or such as have cut a Covenant with hell and death , as the word signifieth in Isa. 28.15 . which is taken from a Simile of such as were wont of old to cut asunder the beasts they sacrificed : So doe Hypocrites and prophane ones their hearts , for they divide their hearts into two 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so sacrifice them in part to the service of sinne , Satan , and their owne lusts , Gen. 15.17 . Jer. 34.18 . These have cut a Covenant with hell and death , though sometimes they seem to cut a part for God , and to allow him , a ( small ) portion of their hearts . Most of our Parish are great Puritans , and old Professours . Yet it is not enough so to be , which was proved page 62. and which appears , 2 Tim. 3.5 . although it is enough so to bee , for Parish-constitutions and National Churches , yet not for Gospel-ordered Congregationall-Churches : For although a mud-wall may be made up of any thing , seeing it consists of all kindes of stuffe and trash , though ere so mixed and base ; yet Pallaces must be built up with better materials , and so must the true Churches of Christ , which are his Pallaces . But these come all to heare Gods word , they keep his Sabbaths , and have Christs Ordinances dispenced amongst them , &c. What of all that ? Christs Ordinances were amongst the Jewes , and they heard Christ , and his Disciples gladly ; and so 1 Cor. 14.23 , 24. Heathens , and unbeleevers , heare the word ; Herod heard John gladly , and now in New-England , the Indians doe diligently heare the word , but alas ! alas ! it is living the Word , and doing the Word , is requisite in every member of Christs-Church . But let us lay aside those , and all other objections , and all Parish-Churches too , and put on apace for Sion , let us face about , and bid faire for Church-communion according to Christs owne Discipline and Doctrine ; for the which none are fit matter , and allowable , but living Saints ( so in appearance as to us ) and whom wee have no cleare cause otherwise to judge of ; which brings me to the second Vse . Depart yee , Depart yee , saith the Lord , Esa. 52.11 . for as Mr. vse 2 Hooker concludes ( in his Survey , lib. 1. chap. 2. ) Parish Precincts give not a man right , nor make him fit matter for the true Church of Christ ; but this we shall presse by unanswerable argument afterwards : in the interim , this doth very much vindicate the Churches that are Christs for matter from the wide-mouthed malice of wicked-mouthed men , though Hypocrites perhaps have crept in : for as the Giant in Gath , 2 Sam. 21.20 . was a true man , though deformed with superfluous fingers and toes : And as Naaman was a true man , though a Leaper ; so may the Church be a true Church that hath such as do deforme her in her , and such may bee in her that are not of her ; but an Hypocrite is like a we● in the body , which seemeth to belong to the whole , but indeed doth take away the credit , and steale away ( as a thiefe ) the comfort of the whole , though it bee skinned over with the same outside , which the true members of the body have : So I say , Hypocrites , who pretend and appear outwardly , one with the Church as submissive , reverent , and worshippers of God as any , but within they are corrupt , hard , and swelling against the truth and Gospel ; these doe more hurt then good , although as the Ivie about the Tree , which seemeth to imbrace it with much affection , whilst ( indeed ) it takes away and steales from it , and doth but starve it , and hinders its growth , so they doe seem to cling close to the Church as if they were of it , when indeed they are not , and doe wrong and rob from the Church , and are the greatest hindrances of the Churches growth that can bee : Wee in Dublin have had this experience at a deare rate , by reason of some painted Pictures , who crept in , and indeed , Wolfe-like ( as it is well knowne ) who looked towards heaven , and howled , but it was to eat the flesh of others , and to make the brethren their prey , which some of us felt sorely , and found them Kite-like flying aloft , but yet looking low , and keeping their eye on some of the innocent ones for their prey , wherefore let the Churches be wary in their admission of members ; for many times the emptiest vessells make the greatest noise , and sound most , and readiest , but it is because they are hollow hypocrites , & have their retrograde motions . And so we may say we found them at Dublin , like those wandring stars , which ( though they be carried about with the rest in the orbe , and so must be moved the same way with the rest , yet they ) have their silent and secret motions whilst they creep back another contrary way , which is indeed their owne proper motion : And to warne the Churches they must know it , that we have found them that had such motions , and clandestine counsels and courses , untill their secret contrivings and conventiclings appeared openly , and broke out into an open inundation of mischiefes , malice and menacings , against the Church to destroy her , and then like the Fecedula ( that Pliny speakes of ) they faced about , and fell off of a sudden , and changed their colour , forme , visage , and song , and all at once as appeares in the second Booke , Chap. 5. I remember the Riddle , which was propounded to Athenaeus ; How a man , and no man ; with a stone , and no stone , could kill a Bird , and no Bird , upon a Tree , and no Tree : He resolved it thus , That the man was an Eunuch , the stone a Pumice , the Bird a Bat , and the Tree Fennel : But such as wee are speaking of , and have met with , doe make a resolve to this Riddle , viz. seeming Saints , but yet no Saints , onely Eunuch-Christians at the best , having a zeale , but not true zeale , being Pumice-like , hollow , empty , rough , and rash , and not according to true knowledge , their Profession being but a Bat-like professing , mixed with carnality , and forbidden uncleannesse ; and like Bats , neither birds nor beasts , but participant of both : Their faith and conscience being but a straw-like faith , and Fennel-like conscience , soone falling , and failing , and as deceitfull as a broken reed . But it may be like Dyars with Logwood , they may set fair glosses , and varnishing appearances , pretences , and reports upon their sudden change , and subtle colours ( for'c ) but if they doe , they cannot hold : For when a shower comes , their glosse will be gone , and they shall stand for a Sea-marke to all Saints , and Churches , like an Adverb ( quasi ) with the Verb cave to posterity ; though as yet like decayed Merchants they must ( and doe ) study tricks to keep up their credit of being honest and rich , wealthy and wise ; and the m●re they decay , the more shew they will make of sufficiency and of all well on their side . I am sorry to say this , the Lord knows , but that I see them ( of whom I speake ) in profession like white-chapple , but in possession as foul , and corrupt as the common Sewer , and unsavoury in the nostrils of all sort of men , so that they had need to weare Muske and Pomander enough to conceale their ill sent . The Lord lay it upon them for their good , that have given such ( knowne ) offence to the Saints of God. For as Josephs brethren held up their Brothers coat to Jacob , saying , see here ! is not this thy Sons coat which is defiled with blood ? So surely will Sathan take this advantage one day against them for their rigorous usages of some of the harmlesse ones to hurt them , and grinde them , when he shall say , See here these hypocrites ! these Professours ! what have they done to thy Church ? have they not wounded her ? have they not broken her a peeces ? have they not bruised her limbs ? racked her members ? and put her bones out of joynt ? have they not betrayed their Brethren ? threatned them ? consulted against them ? and sought out by false witnesses to ruine them ? see here ! are not these thy Sons garments ? thy Childrens coat ? yea , even Christs seamlesse coat that they have defiled ? rent , and torne , and wronged ? These kinde of Professours like Simon of Cyrene seemed for a time to carry the Crosse with us , but it proved to be for us : And ( indeed ) when it was set up , they were not nayled to it , but they nayled us unto it , and ( I am sure ) I may say Christ ( in his Church , and in their persecuting of the Saints ) unto it ; But I must spare them , though they spare none that are not of the same temper with them ; yet this is to warne the Churches of such , yea and to vindicate the Churches from malicious men and mindes , whose mouthes are open at such advantages , and on such occasions ; for 1 Joh. 2.19 . They were not of us , and indeed , such Cyphers are of good use to us when they are in , for they make the true figures of more value and validity . But to proceed , wee see then who are most suitable matter , and how much it concernes the Churches to be serious in their accepting and receiving members ; for as it is Acts 2.47 . The Lord added daily to the Church such as should be saved ; and onely such are allowable matter and lawfull members whom the Lord adds , that is to say ( by way of Ordinance ) none else , but such as ( wee are perswaded ) shall be saved , and whom the Lord hath received , Rom. 14.3 . to whom the Lord hath given saving grace , and sound faith , and also unsained hearts to give themselves up to God in Gospel-fellowship that are to bee received ( of right . ) Such as are in a visible state of Salvation are to bee received into Christs visible Church ; But Secondly , Hypocrites hold off ! here is no room for your company ! for as by the Law Swans are f●rbidden , who have white feathers , but blacke flesh ; so are you by the Gospel , who seem to bee what you are not ; The beautifullest feathers have not alwayes under them the sweetest flesh , no● the finest outsides the fairest in . The Devill is blacke , but he can appeare the white Angel , or Angel of light : So can hypocrites , they are also forbidden in Levit. 11. where the Bats and Sea-Mewes are to bee accounted uncleane , because they are Mongrels , and so are yee : How dare ye then to enter into such a temple as the Communion of Saints is ? seeing none but upright soules , single-hearts , sincere Saints , and unfained Professors , are ( of right ) to be received . The Oake that is rotten at the heart , will never be good for the building , wherefore stand by ! stand by ! or you shall be thrown by ! ( untill you are better and fitter for the builders use . ) The stones that are for the building must be picked out by Christ , the builders hand , although ( perhaps ) at present , they are in the heaps abroad , which are in preparation to the building , as Builders use to have , in one place heaps of Lime , in another place heaps of stone , in another rubbish , rude ( at present ) and undigested materials , and a tumultuary noise of hammers and axes abroad , which are very busie to set up the fallen Tabernacles of David ; but ere long every thing shall bee set in order , and a beautifull structure laid , whilst others ( without ) shall gather up the Chips , which we leave behinde us to warm them with ; but for this more in the next Chapter , yet in this , I must tell you that the stones which are appointed for this glorious Fabricke must ( first ) passe under the saw and hammer ▪ For it is dangerous to put in a rotten , unsound stone , which will quickly fall out ▪ and make way for many others to follow , enfeebling thereby the whole Edifice , as in 1 ▪ Joh. 2.19 , 20. They went out from us , but they were not of us , for if they had been of us , they would ( no doubt ) have continued with us , but they went out , that it might be manifest they were not of us , i.e. us , what us ? why us that have unction , and are sincere reall Saints ; for yee have the unction from the holy One ; Bu● they were hypocrites , and therefore fell away , as Demas did , 2 Tim. 4.10 . who was but a little before Pauls fellow-labourer , Phil. 1.19 . as well as Marcus and Aristarchus , but he did discover himself after , and so did Judas , though a long time hee was well thought off amongst his brethren and fellow-disciples , insomuch as he was made the Deacon : So no doubt ( Sirs ) but your hypocrisie will bee as soon discovered if yee dare to enter with unsound , unsettled , and unsincere hearts , as others have been ; for the weeds in the Gardens are sooner discovered , and rooted out againe then they are in the fields or common high wayes ; but consider then , O what a scandall you will bring upon the Gospel ! ( as they did at Dublin ) when your wickednesse wil appear to all the world ! O what reproaches to Religion ! dishonours to Christ ! discredit to the Gospel ! and tramplings upon the the truth ! will be laid in your dish at the last day ! yee being the cause of it ! For as it is with the Sunne , and S●arres , if a thousand starres be eclipsed , none takes notice of it , nor mindes it ; but for the Sunne to be eclipsed it is sad , and so accounted , then every one talkes of it and looks at it : and so it is when Church-members do the deeds of darknes that ( of al men ) should be lights to others ( as Christ sayes in Matth. 4.15 . ) a little aberration makes every one to minde them , and mark them , and report of them abroad , when many a thousand of others ( without ) or of wicked ones may be guilty of the like , and not bee looked upon , ( as Par. sayes on Rom. 11. ) It is not a formall Religion , an old Profession , or a high conception , that either felicitates or facilitates your admission , but you must have truth in the inward parts , and have grace in your hearts , for yee may have it in your heads , and yet prove but a new Ranter , or an old Protestant at the most ; None but the ( indeed ) holy must enter into these beauties of holinesse , the more holy we are , the more like our Head , and the fitter for Church-members , without which we shall not see the Lord , but wee shall ( rather ) pollute the Sanctuary of the Lord. Thus much for the matter , and the fifth Chapter . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pillegesh . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 CHAP. VI. This Gospel●Garden , or Church-state of Christ's Institution , and Order , is further defined from the ( second essentiall ) Formal cause , which is First , a visible Segregation ; and Secondly , Aggregation . To the first , First , in this Chapter wherein it appears how all Saints are , and ought to be separates . THis Kingdome of Christ is not of the world ▪ though in the world , for the Saints embodied by Gospel-rules in unity ( which makes the Forme of a true Church of Christ ) must of necessity be first called out , before called in ; out of the world before into the Kingdome of Christ , out of Babylon before into Sion ; for it is an infallible rule , that a visible separation from the world , and all false wayes , worships , &c. and a visible application to Christ Jesus , his wayes , worships , &c. is of absolute necessity in Church-union , and communion , wherein consists the full essence of the forme thereof . Wherefore to keep still to the comparison , this Gospel-fellowship is fitly called the Lords temple , 2 Cor. 6.16 . 1 Cor 3.17 . made up of living stones , 1 Pet. 2.5 . A Spirituall Temple , consisting of particular Saints , taken out of the multitudes without , here one , and there one , and united together into one body ; and like as the stones and materials for Salomon's Temple , were picked out of the heaps , that lay abroad here and there , to make up one building , so are the Saints into one body . Now the first part of the forme to be considered is , viz. the calling , and culling out of the world , and from the heaps without those Saints which are select Members of Christs-Church , according to the order of the Gospel , which we shall prove also from Prophecie , precept , and practise . First , It is fore-told that such a separation must be , for even a Balaam was brought ( against his will ) to fore-see from the top of the rocks , and from the height of the hills , that Israel should be a people dwelling alone ( separated from , and ) not reckoned among the Nations , without , Numb . 23.9 . So in Isa. 52 12. Awake , awake , put on thy strength O Zion ! put on thy beautifull garments O holy City ! shake thy selfe from the dust ! arise , and sit down O Jerusalem ! loose thy selfe from the bonds of thy neck , O captive daughter of Zion . So in ver . 11. Depart yee , depart yee , go yee out from thence , touch yee no uncleane thing , goe yee out of the midst of her , &c. So Isa. 62.10 . Goe thorow , goe thorow the Gates , prepare the way , cast up , cast up the high-way , and gather out the stones , &c. So is the precious to be taken from the vile , in Jer. 15.19 ▪ and the cleane from the uncleane , the holy from the prophane , Ezek. 22.26 . See Exod. 33.16 , 17. For wherein shall it be known , that I and thy people have grace in thy sight ? Is it not in that thou goest with us ? so shall we be separated , I and thy people from all people ; and in the latter dayes especially , the Lord promises to make up his precious jewels , Mal. 3.17 , 18. and to gather them up together , not only from the ●rosse , and out of the vile rubbish , but also into one bundle by themselves ; and then ( sayes he ) shall yee discover , ( and see an apparent and an undeniable difference ) or discerne between the righteous and the wicked , him that serveth God , and him that serveth him not . Furthermore , in Hosea 4.15 . Though Israel play the Harlot , yet let not Judah offend ; come not yee to Gilgal , nor goe yee up to Beth-aven . So in ver . 17. Ephraim is ioyned to Idols ; let him alone , their drink is sowre , &c. This kinde of with-drawing , and gathering from , is also mentioned in many other eminent Prophesies , as in Ezek. 28.24 , 25 , 26. There shall be no more a pricking brier to Israel , nor a grieving thorne of all that are round about them , that despised them ; but when shall this be ? see the next verse 25. ) When I have gathered Israel out from the people among whom they are ( yet ) scattered , and shall be sanctified in them ( in their Churches and Societies ) in the sight of the Heathen ( in the sight of all them without , called Heathens often , whilst the Saints under the Gospel are called , ( and so in these Prophesies ) by the name of Israel , Jacob , Zion , Jerusalem , &c. ) So Ezek. 34. the whole chapter , and in vers . 12 , 13. I will seek out my flock , I will deliver my sheep out of all places , where they have been scattered in the dark and cloudy day , I will bring them out from the ( other ) peoples , and gather them out from the Countries , and will feed them on the mountaines of Israel by the rivers , verse 16. And I will seek them that were lost , and I will judge between cattell and cattell , verse 17. and as for my flocke , verse 19. They eate that which is trodden with your feet , and they drinke that which is fouled with your feet , I , even I will judge , vers . 20. between the fat cattell and the leane : And they , vers . 28. shall no more be a prey to the Heathen , neither shall the beasts of the Land devour them , but they shall dwell safely , and none shall make them afraid , neither shall they beare the shame of the Heathen any more , vers . 29. So in Ezek. 36.24 . For I will take you from among the Heathen , and gather you out of all Countries , and will bring you into your owne Land : then will I sprinckle cleane water upon you from all your filthinesse , and from all your Idols will I cleanse you . Also , Ezek. 37.21 . Behold , I will take the children of Israel from among the Heathen , and will gather them on every side , and bring them out into their owne Land , verse 27. My Tabernacle also shall be with them , yea , I will be their God , and they shall be my people . And verse 28. The Heathen shall know that I the Lord doe sanctifie Israel , when my Sanctuary shall be in the middest of them for evermore ; but before the Lords Tabernacle ( a Type of Gospel-order , and Church-state ) and his Sanctuary be set up , in the midst of them , they are first , a people called out , and separate from them without , who are called Heathens abroad , as other Nations were in opposition to the Jewes ; so is that in Micha 4.6 , 7. In that day ( saith the Lord ) I will assemble her that halteth , and I will gather her that is driven out , and her that I have afflicted . And the Lord shall reigne over them in Mount Zion , from hence-forth and for ever , over them that are thus gathered out . Hence also is that in Revel . 18.4 . Come out of her my people , that yee be not partakers of her sinne , and that yee receive not of her plagues , &c. By all these Propheticall Scriptures ( and by many more ) this truth triumphs , and hath apparent testimony for it , viz. That the Saints are a select number of Separates from the world , and from all false wayes , worships , Doctrines , and Discipline whatsoever . Secondly , Let us see what Precept there is for it ; in the first place , he who is the wisdome of his Father , would have us to separate from the company of fooles , in Prov. 14.7 . Prov. 9.6 . Prov. 4.14 . And in Ephes. 5.11 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Have no fellowship ( no commerce together , nor concurrent communication , or complyance to trade with ) with the fruitlesse workes of darknesse ; and in the Leviticall Law , Levit. 20.25 , 26. a separation is required . So in 2 Cor. 6.16 , 17 , 18. for what ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) fellowship , or communion , or what ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) sweet consent , or harmony , can light have with darknesse , or beleevers with unbeleevers ? Saints with Sinners ? or Gods Temple ( whom yee are ) with Idols ? wherefore come out from the midst of them ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) that are such , and be yee separate saith the Lord ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) i. e. separate apart from them , as such who are excellent , and elect organs ( unto the Lord ) and touch no uncleane thing , and I will receive you , and will be a Father unto you , and yee shall be my Sonnes , and my Daughters , saith the Lord Almighty . So 2 Tim. 3.5 . such as have the forme ( though large Professors , aged , and of long standing ) yet denying the power , from such turne away , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or Turne off , draw off , not onely to shun them that we may not shew them , or bee like them , but also so as to labour with them , and to win them into the sound and good old way of Christ , which is of longest standing ( for truth is older then error . ) So in Acts 2.39 , 40. is there the like call , with the promise annexed , which is to as many as the Lord shall call ( the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies both advocate , avocare , and evocare , to ▪ call out , and separate from ) so that in verse 40 it follows , with many other words did he testifie and exhort , saying , Save your selves from ( i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , doe yee set your selves free from , get away , and forsake , or separate from ) this untoward generation , or this generation of frowardnesse ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) from their abominable aberrations , carnall customes , depraved manners , and from the crookednesse of this generation of perverse people , which you are yet amongst . Make haste out , to save and separate your selves from them . Now wee finde it follows , those that believed , did so , and were a people separate from the rest , Act. 19.9 . by entring into fellowship with the Saints . Verse 41 , 42. and verse 47. it appeares without the least exception ; For they that were thus called out from them ( without ) continued stedfastly in the fellowship , ( and then were called the Church ) in breaking of bread from house to house , praysing God , and having favour with all the people , that is , with them without ; that they did separate from , so sweet , so good , and Gospel-like was their conversations , that they without could not condemn them , but commend them at least , if not be convinced by them , a● 1 Pet. 2.12 . and 1 Pet. 3.1 . Mat. 5.16 . But for further proof that Saints are to bee such Separates , see Rom. 1.6 , 7. 1 Cor. 1.2.9 . where they are called , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence ecclesia comes ) such are called out , and separate from the world , and false wayes . So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they are said to be called out into the fellowship of Christ ; so that first there is a calling out , a comming out , a separating from . Besides you see positive ● precepts for it , Psal. 45.10 , 11. Rev. 18.4 . with many other places ; but to the third sort of proofes . 3 By the practise of all the primitive Saints in Church-societies in Christ's and his Apostles dayes , and many yeares after ; It appears the Saints were Separates ( such as I speake of ) wherefore wee know no cause either that we should complaine against it , or question it ; Jeremy ( although a Prophet ) yet he separates from Jerusalem , Jer. 37.12 . Then Jeremy went forth out of Jerusalem to goe unto the land of Benjamin , to separate himselfe from them in the middest of the people , for they would not obey the word of the Lord , and therefore the Lords wrath was now ready to be revealed against them , and Jeremy would withdraw ( seeing them so refractory ) from them in their sight ; so saies he in Jer. 9.2 . Oh! O that I had in the wildernesse a lodging place of wayfaring men ! that I might leave my people , and goe from them ! for they be all Adulterers , an assembly of treacherous men ! But besides , we know the Jewes that were the people of God , in a peculiar manner , were first called out of Egypt , and so were separate from other Nations , and so looked upon as a people by themselves in Exod. 19.5 . Deut ▪ 7.6 . So is it said , Israel shall dwell alone , in Deut. 33 28 , 29. and not be suffered to be mixed among them without , as in Num. 33.52 . to the end . So Exod. 24.12.15 . &c. and it was a judgement that Jerusalem should be mixed , Jer. 9.11 . Now every Saint is a spiritual Jew , as appeares in Zach. 8.23 . Rom. 2.28 . or one inwardly , and Saints are his peculiar people , and chosen ones , 1 Pet. 2.9 . the true children of Abraham , Gal. 3.7 . called out of Egypt the house of slavery into Zion , as dwelling alone from them that are without . Thus in Joh. 15.19 . Yee are not of the world , but I have chosen you out of the world , therefore the world hateth you . As soon as the people of Israel passed out of Egypt , the Egyptians pursued them , upon hot spur , with Armies and hoasts of threatnings and injuries ; even so deals the world with the Saints called out and separate from them , therefore no wonder wee must learne to take up the crosse , and follow him , before we can be Christs disciples ; for Christ called them first out of the world , before he called them into the Church : And in the Acts of the Apostles , Act. 19.7 , 8 , 9. &c. And in all the Epistles of the Apostles to the Churches , the Saints are saluted as Separates , or called out . Now is there not a cause ? 1 For hath not the Lord laid it as a command upon Christians reason 1 so to doe ? how then dare we delight in a condition which he countermands ? besides , Dear Sirs ! what comfort can you have in Babylons streets ? 2 If you are guilty of her sinnes , yee are guilty of her sentence , if that be true in Rev. 18.4 . to partake of her courses is the way to partake of her curses : So not to separate from any sinfull unwarranted wayes of worship , or the like , is but to run the haz●rd of her ruine , and neither to seeke preservation from her wickednesse , nor protection from her woes . 3 Besides to have yet such fellowship with fools ; society , or converse with unsavoury , carnall , or disorderly persons publishes a loud and lamentable spirit of disobedience , and proclaimes ( exclaimingly ) a corrupt heart , not halfe ( enough ) endeared to Jesus Christ ; for Christ is for his Ordinances in his owne order , and doth delight in the purity of them who walks amongst the best mettals , in the middest of the seven golden Candlesticks , with the seven stars in his band , Rev. 2.1 . the Saints separated are the golden Candlesticks Christ walkes so sweetly among , or in the midst of . How far reaches this Separation which you speake of ? First , Negative . Not from our duties in our Callings , which none what ever ought to be without , or to neglect our worke , 1 Thess. 4.11 . 2 Thess. 3.10 , 11. ( which some slothfull Ranters would have . ) 2 Nor yet from the duties of our Relations , whether as Husband or Wife , Eph. 5.22.25 . 1 Cor. 7 13. Parents and Children , Eph. 6 1.4 . Col. 3.20 , 21. Masters and servants , Eph. 6.5.6.9 . Col. 3.22 . Col. 4.1 . or Rulers and Subjects , Rom. 13.1 , 2 , 3. Tit. 2.9.3.1 . But to owne them in their respective relations for the Lords sake . 3 Nor yet so to separate from them without , as not to have civill converse with them , 1 Cor. 5.10 . in buying , and selling , or such necessary trading ; much lesse so as not to love them , and lay out to doe them good , and to seek their soules welfare , 1 Tim. 2.1 . Gal. 6.10 . to be at peace with them , Rom. 12.18 . Heb. 12.14 . and pious before them , 1 Pet. 2.12 . 1 Pet. 3.1 . Now in none of these sences are the Saints called Separates , although they ( without ) may be separates from the Saints ( thus separating ) in their affections ; But answer 2 Secondly , Affirmatively , 1 To separate from all sinfull wayes and worship , &c. so as not to walke in them , or with them , after the manner of them that are without Christs●Church , Eph. 4.17 . 1 Thess. 1.9 . Rom. 12.2 . Hos. 14.8 . Isa. 30.21 , 22. &c. 2 Cor. 6.16 , 17. 2 Cor. 5.16 . Gal. 2.14 . Eph. 2.2 . &c. 2 It is , not to bee too familiar , pleasant , and delightfull with any that are at enmity and variance with the truth . A man may passe through Aethiopia unchanged , but he cannot dwel there but be discoloured ; so there may be civil commerce ( as we said before ) with the wicked and yet Saints keep their integrity , but this cannot be , if we have too much familiarity with them ( saies Hal. ) Men are , as the Astronomers say of the star Mercury , good , or malignant , according to their conjunction with others ; wherefore as Moses separated Israel from Corah , saying , Num. 16.26 . Depart from the tents of those wicked men , and touch nothing of theirs ; so must we separate from them that doe oppose Christs way , or upbraid the Saints , and so as to discover themselves ill-affected to Christs Kingdome , or jurisdiction , and be so far from familiarizing with them , that we● must bring them hither , saies Luke 19.27 . and abhorre them , Psal. 26.5 . Psal. 119.115 . For this is the Lords Law , to bee at a distance from evill doers ; so sayes ▪ David , Psal. 139 , 21 , 22. so Eph. 5.3 , 4.13 . 1 Cor. 5.12 . Matth. ●4 . 49.50 . Gods anger is against them that doe but company with drunkards , &c. for they are a shame to their father Prov. 28 7. and themselves Prov. 29.3 . A very Plutarch could laugh at such as would have been counted as wise as Plato , and yet in Alexanders company be drunke ; and indeed Nebuchadnezars judgement is some mens joy , viz. to have fellowship with beasts ; But wee must beware ; for who can sleep with dogs and not bee full of fleas , and so with sinners in continuall communion , and not be full of sinne . 3 It is to avoid the vices of their best Orders , and Ordinances , and to have no fellowship therein , although they seem full of reason and Religion too , Col. 2.20 , 21. Thus Rev. 18.4 . Gal. 4 9. Away , away , with them now ! that are but poore ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) beggerly at best , and no more able to support a soule , then one Begger is to relieve another ; thus , saith Paul , Gal. 1.14 . who was so hot ? so high for the Jewes Religion as I ? ( sayes he ) who traded so zealously in , and for our Fathers traditions ? untill — what ? untill verse 15.16 . Christ was revealed in me ( and so unvailed to me ) and then I consulted no longer , that is ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) I asked no more counsell of , nor comfort from these frothy , fruitlesse things , whereof we are now ashamed ) with flesh and blood ; but I bid farewell ( or fare-ill rather ) to all those Trumperies and Traditions which I doted on before ; and thus the Saints are the precisest Separatists . By all which , as it plainly appeares , that Parishes want this part of Church-forme for the constituting of them true Churches , so also might I by what appears , presse the practicall part of this point , from the pregnancy of the proofes produced , being twisted together from the Prophesies , Precepts , and practise , into a threefold cord , not to be broken , but ( if the Lord will blesse you ) of ability to bring you into Christs way of separation from Parishes and Traditions ; For you that will not separate from such false wayes , worships , and the world , must bee separates from Christ , sayes Mr. Owen ( my honoured friend ) in his Esh●Col , or Cluster . But mee thinkes some will say ? Sir ! as you alwaies have been in all things ( so in this ) you are too strict and precise , for such Separates are Schismaticks , and so many learned Ministers call them that leave off their comming to Church , and following our Ministers , &c. 1 Such Separates ( as I have here given you an account of ) are not Schismaticks , unlesse to Antichrist ; answer 1 but on the contrary , such as doe not thus separate are Schismaticks to their owne soules . A causelesse separation from a true established Church of Christ , walking according to Gospel-order ( although it may be guilty of some sleight errours in Extra-essentials and Circumstantials , or things of easie concernment ) is in Gospel-account a sad sinne , ! 2 Tim. 4.16 . Heb. 10.23.25.39 . but a causelesse continuance in a false way , Antichristian worship , and disorderly discipline , is no lesse ( at least ) as appeares before ) being contrary to so much positive Precept : for such a separation from Parochiall constitutions ( which I have proved to be at best but as civill , and at worst a Christ-wronging , Christ-rending , and Antichristian Church-state ) and from such unwarrantable wayes of worship , and unruly Religion , is but to obey the Precept of not partaking in other mens sins . And thus the Saints are , and ought to be Separates , and not Schismaticks ; which Papists and Prelates have ever branded and stigmatized the deare Saints for , in their separatings from them : vide Zanche , on Hos. 2.8 . and which Popish trick trades with many yet , who make merchandize of it . answer 2 2 Suppose learned men be of that minde ; so were they learned that accounted Christ a Blasphemer , and a fellow not fit to live , Joh. 9.29 . and that branded the Saints for Sectaries , Acts 28.22 . and seditious , Act. 24.5 . and Hereticks Act. 24.14 . and in every age have such been Christs enemies in the graine ; and many for the tree of knowledge , lose the tree of Life , vide chap 9. lib. 2. are not the Jesuites learned too ? and who do more mischief ? For as Dr. Sutton said in 's Sermon for Magistrates page 11. as the Ape that saw a Chesnut in the fire , and not knowing how to get it out , spied a Spaniel by the fire side , and snatched his foot to take out the Nut ; even so does the Devill many times make use of learned ones , to fetch his food cut of the fire , though they scorch for it , whom he makes to serve him in it . answer 3 3 If they do leave off your Parish-Churches as Parish-Churches , yet it hath been proved , and will be more abundantly , that they are no Churches , and therefore they ought to doe it , or they sinne in not doing it ; and besides thereby they also wrong us , that say wee gather Churches out of Churches , for it is no such matter ; yet were it so , ( as Mr. Burton tells Mr. Prin , page 27. of his Vindication ) there is example for it , both by John Baptist , our Saviour Christ , and his Apostles , Matth. 3.5.7 . John 4.1 . Act. 2.40 . who did ( all of them ) gather Christian Congregationall Churches out of the Jewish Nationall Church ; and so it may be ( yea and must bee ) in these semblable times of Reformation ; but wee say they are no Churches for matter and forme , and so shall prove them all along to bee but Synagogues of Sathan : And to say more ( with Mr. Hooker ) such are not of right matter ( because Parishioners ) for no civill rule can ( properly ) convey a Church-right to any man , because they are ( in specie ) specifically distinct each from other , therefore cannot meet , no more then two direct Mathematicall lines ( not in the least oblique but ) that are distant and distinct from each other can meet , though drawne out ad infinitum . Besides most Parishioners oppose all that is in order to inchurch them , and ( as Hart hath it in 's Char. p. 15. ) they converse with godly Gospel-Ministers about Religion , as if they were in Spaine ; and a searching Ministry is as bad to them as the Spanish Inquisition ; and all the questions we can ask them are suspected for Examinations , & they are afraid : of some secret that wil , be picked out of them , and that they shall be discovered ; such a bondage are the poore blinde people under , and so kept by some ( pretending ) Ministers , whereby the blinde lead the blinde into the ditch . But wee have the word of God well preached , and the Sacraments dispenced in our Parish-Churches . This was answered in the former Chapter , that the word preached makes not a true visible Church : for then might the Natives-Irish here be called , A true Church , and the Heathens in the East or West-Indies ; but there must bee a yeelding due obedience thereunto , and a visible subjection to Jesus Christ , before they be fit for his Church . The reason is , because preaching the word is an adjunct separable , and not a note essential and inseparable : for certainly as sensitiva facul●as is in a man , yet not the true note of a man , because it is but a common adjunct , and not proprium in quarto modo , as wee say : So preaching of the Gospel is in the Church , but not the note of the Church ( as all the Popish and Antichristian Antagonists would have it ) because it is a common adjunct , and others have it also . But for the Sacraments , as I said before , they must be administred in due order , and to due persons , and in a due way of worship and Discipline ; otherwise , without doubt , Saints may and must remove and separate for Gods greater glory , and their better , and more spirituall edification , as Psal. 55.6 . And I said , O that I had wings like a Dove , for then would I flye away , and be at rest , I would hasten v. 8. my escape : Why so ? would David separate so ? what is the reason ? see verse 11. Wickednesse is in the midst thereof , Deceit and guile depart not from her streets . Wherefore ( dearest Friends ) read with a resolution to submit , and that yee may no more be separates from Christ , nor Schismaticks to your owne poore soules , the Father of our Lord Jesus fill your hearts with that Spirit which writes these things unto you . Little Children ! Fathers ! and young men looke about you ! for wee live in these last dayes , wherein we expect most ( Joel 2. ) plentifull out-powrings of that blessed Spirit , which convinces the world of Truth , Righteousnesse , and Judgement , Joh. 16.8 . And to conclude , thinke it not enough to have outward Ordinances in Parish-Churches ( though ( God knows ) they be but as Pharaohs lean kine eating up the Fat ) as the preaching the word , the holy Sacraments , &c. why Sirs ! to let them loose and run ranging about without bit or bridle , may be to your cost , and it may be they may dash your brains out at last ; but it is Christ must curbe and correct , and direct them , that they may be administred in due order to you within his line and limitation , and then they will be blessings . It is upon record of Austin , that he would not say his mother gave him milke , but God by his mother ; so will God by these means and Ordinances feed , and fatten your soules in Sion , and in his particular Churches , and Assemblies . But alas a day ▪ how lamentably men live as to Christs order & Ordinances ! so they be but rich , and bear a religious outside , as K. John once said of a Buck when he had opened it , O it is fat , and yet it never heard Masse ! So because many thrive , and live in credit , rich , and accounted religious that are not of the Churches , many make little of it ; but I hope the Lord will convince them by his light . And so much for the first part of the Forme . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zaba . Chap. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Aguddah . This shewes the second part of the second part of the Forme of Church-fellowship ; First , that the Saints separate ( as before ) are to be knit , gathered , and united together into one Body . THe first part of the Forme is well proved , but it is likely not so well approved , without the second doe second it , viz. That the Saints separated from the worlds false-wayes , and worships , and from all Parochiall Churches , unwarrantable Discipline and Directories , doe forth-with set upon Christs owne way and worship , Discipline and Doctrine delivered to the Saints ; for after they come out of Babylon , they must hast away into Zion , or else they will be lost in the Wildernesse . For what is the cause of so much complaint all men ( with the Ministers ) make up and downe ? and deplorable out-cryes of many that are mixed ? and loud lamentations are heard out of the Wildernesse of many wooded , wilder'd , and wandring ? and at a most miserable losse ? And what is the reason of all this I pray ? that so many Professors that have been ( abundantly ) precise and strict in their practises , and curious in their conversation , and such ( free ) frequenters of the meanes ? daily and diligent followers of their Ministers , and so exceedingly holy in times past , have since their separating from Parishes and Popish Institutions , and Injunctions , forsaken all publicke Dispensations , denied Ordinances , followed Familisme , and run on even to Rantisme . And what is the reason of all this ? Indeed I am ready now to reprove those Ministers ( whom most imagine without reproofe ) though able and ( otherwise ) accounted ( eminently ) godly , yet too too slack and remisse in setting forward the building of the Lords house , that say , it is time enough , and what needs such hast ? whilst they ( themselves ) dwell in their seiled houses , the Lords lyes waste , and worne out of mind ; O sad ! Consider your wayes , saith the Lord of Hoasts ! How can yee be content to sit at ease ? to hold good Livings ? and to feed upon the fat of the flock ? and yet so ( easily ) to neglect them , as to let them stray in the Wildernesse ? Oh! are not such , ( who make the sorest and saddest complaints of them they call Anabaptists , Seekers , Familists , Ranters , &c. ) are not such very much the cause of their miscarriage ? For seeing Saints must separate from such false wayes and worships , why doe they not lead them then into Christs owne wayes , and worship , according to Gospel-order , but suffer the poore soules ( and out of honest zeale I am perswaded at first ) to be lost , in strange , and straying , untrue , and untrodden paths . Truly , truly , in all my applications to some very learned , godly , and most eminent Preachers , with all the pregnant and pressing Arguments I could provide for this purpose , that I might prevaile with them for , and perswade them unto this work of the Lord as Fellow-labourers with me therein ; I found their Answers they made me ( me thoughts ) ever to smell too much of the grease of great Livings , or else of man-pleasing , or else ( and for the most part ) of Tyth-oppressions ; they may thank themselves that so many run into erroneous wayes . For besides , a Segregation , a visible aggregation to the Lord Christ , in his wayes and worship ( with the Saints separate , making up one body of Beleevers ) i● of an absolute , and undeniable necessity , and followes next ; which I now come to . Such Saints as are separate from Parish-wayes , and Popish worships , &c. being ashamed of them , and of all the follies of those false Church-states , are forth-with to see the forme and fashion of the Lords house , and not before are they to enter in , Ezek. 43.10 , 11. and this is the Lords Law , ver . 12. now to such I shall shew the forme which followes , for in the formation of this new Creation , Christian Beleevers are to become first one body ; secondly , a body Independent ( as it is termed by most ) But to the first in this Chapter , viz. That Saints separate as before from the multitude , ( as Acts 19.9 . it is said , ) when divers were hardned and beleeved not , but spake evill of the way before the multitude , that the Disciples separated ; so I say , such Saints are to make up one body together ( distinct from them without , and all others ) and this is obvious to every eye , out of the abundance of Scriptures and texts . To begin with the Simile of a Body , for Saints enchurched are so called the Body of Christ , Rom. 14.4 , 5. 1 Cor. 12. ver . 13.27 . Ephes. 5.30.32 . Col. 1.20 , 21. though members in particular , 1 Cor. 12.14.20 . now all the members are to make up one , and but one body ; and so are the Saints ( every member of Christ ) 1 Cor. 6.15 . to be united together into one body . Hence it is ( as Mr. Bartlet observes in his Modell , cap. 6. ( as I thinke ) for I have not his Booke ) that the blessed Spirit speakes so often of injoynting , and putting Saints into ioynt Gal. 6.1.2 . If a Brother ( a Member ) be slipt out of ioynt , ) or bee overtaken in a fault , ( either before he was aware of it , ) or else read it with the Septuagint , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 although he be easily caught by a corruptiun , and taken ( with too much delight ) in the Action ( for the Simile runs from the receiving and entertaining a friend with free affection , and readinesse ( in delight welcoming him , and with joy ) although he thus fall by a foul stumble , as I rather read it ( from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Polye . Lyser . or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 minuit rem ) for a fault , is a fall , yet yee which are Spirituall , restore such a one ; that is , ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) set such a one in joynt againe , as Chirurgions deale with a broken bone , or one out of joynt , by handling the same sweetly , lovingly , tenderly , so that thereby it may become as sure in , as well-set and strong as ever it was ; so is it here , put him into his proper place againe , by which the Church is compared to a Body , and a Brother to a Member . Thus also in Ephes. 4.11 . Christ left here ( behind ) Pastors , and Teachers , and why ? for the perfecting the Saints , ver . 12. the word is ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) for the well-ordering , ( Tit. 1.5 ) establishing and constituting of them according to order , in a symmetry and suitable proportion of place and power , Rom. 12.4 . as is in a humane body . There is a comly , apt , commensurate , and marvellous wise , and well appointed Location , for every member , joynt , artery , sinewes , and veines , and every one is to be content with his owne proper ( and therefore the only profitable ) place : now if any one be out of his place , the whole body is thereby put to paine ; so that the Simile holds here also ; for this is the beauty and perfection of the body , when no member is amisse , &c. wherefore some read the text , Ephes. 4 12. for injoynting of the Saints , the worke of the Ministry , &c. but to the next Metaphor . Christ's Church is compared to a Building , so sayes he in Mat. 16.18 . Vpon this rocke I will build my Church ; to build , that is ( in unum corpus congregare ) to gather together many particular parcels , out of the heapes without , and rightly to order and dispose of them into one structure ; it is an apt and a convenient collection of the severall and sundry essentiall parts which make up the Integrum , or of the which the whole is built up . Now in this there must be a wise , a suitable , and proper ordering , and disposing of every particular of which the whole consists ; so as that all may serve ( as I said before of the Body ) for the time , use , and place most answerable thereunto , and fittest for the whole building . Thus the Saints are called the Lords house , Heb. 3.6 . 1 Tim. 3.15 . fitly framed together , Ephes. 2.21 , 22. or compleatly , orderly , and in congruity ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) built up together , an habitation to the Lord through the Spirit . So , 1 Pet. 2.5 . That is , the Saints are so knit , pinned , united , nailed , and glewed one to another , and all ( every one ) to the foundation Jesus Christ , Ephes. 2.19 . 1 Cor. 3.11 . that one would thinke they were no more many parcells , but all one substance , and out of one ; and so as they will not be parted asunder ( nor can they ) without the hazard of the whole . Thus when Saul assayed to joyne himselfe to the Disciples , Acts 9.26 . is meant not only to injoynt , alluding to that above of body , but also ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) to adjoyne , cleave , and be glued unto them , relating to this Metaphor of the building , where many things are carved , ( as all things are cut ) framed , and glewed together , which were ( before ) at a distance , and which then are not easily disjoyned , but are faster then ever before . But , 3. The Church of Christ is compared to a City , compacted together , up to which the tribes of Israel goe , Psal. 122.3 , 4. So Psal. 46.4 . yea the holy City , Rev. 21.2 . and thence the Saints are called Fellow-Citizens , in Ephes. 2.19 . now as all the houses , streetes , trades , corporations , and societies , persons , and peoples ( though many in particulars ) yet make all but one City compact : So is it in the Church of Christ ; all Saints , Sexes , Children , Fathers , and Young-men , Callings and conditions make up one Body , and are to make up but one holy City . Besides , there be sweet immunities , enfranchisements , promises , and Priviledges , Lawes and Ordinances , which none have propriety unto , or ( halfe so much ) profit from them , as the Saint-Citizens have ( which shall be shewne if the Lord give leave hereafter ) and none are admitted to be Free-men of such a City but by their consent , vote , and acceptance : and so much is made out in Zach. 2.11 . Many shall be joyned to the Lord in that day , and shall be my people ; joyned , that is , they shall mutually give up themselves to God , i. e. that is , with the concurrent knowledge and consent of each other , in the Hebr. vid. Buxtorf . so also is that in Jer. 50.5 . Come let us joyne our selves to the Lord , &c. all this fairely delineates the Forme of Christs-Church-state , and Gospel-Discipline . 4 ▪ Furthermore , his Church is called an Army with banners , Cant. 6.4.10 . and why ? but because all men , bands , companies , regiments , colours , and Captaines are but to make up one Army ; though there may be many men to one Company , and many Companies to one Regiment ; so all the Saints are but to make up one Church and Body together , being united to make up the forme ; and then are they faire as the Moone , cleare as the Sunne , and not before . But besides , the Church is ▪ 5 Compared to a Kingdome , Joh. 18.36 . Heb. 12.28 . &c. Ma● . 21.43 . to show , as all Families , Villages , Townes , Cities , Countries , Shires , doe make up but one Kingdome , and are all under one rule , law , and power ; so all the Saints , together gathered and embodied , doe make up one Church of Christ , or Kingdome of God , Luke 10.11 . Matth. 13.19 . The Church is , 6 Compared to Heaven also , Matth. 13.11.24.31.33.44 , 45 , 47. Matth. 3.2 . Matth. 11.11 , 12. Now the Saints , which are to be high , above the earth , and the Throne of God , and filled with his glory , and decked up and enamelled with shining lights , Stars of grace , and spangles of glory most sweet and lovely ; the Sunne ( Christ ) moving in them , and ( circularly ) round them , and such as are seene plainly to bee what they are by a kinde of Vbiquity , who ever they are in the Horizon , or this Hemisphere ; I say , such Saints united together , in a body to make up one Church , are one Kingdome of Heaven , even as all the Firmaments , Elements , Stars , Planets , and Constellations together , &c. doe make up one visible Orbicular Heaven . Mr. Jacob in his Treatise sayes , A true Church is one Congregation : so sayes Vrsin , and others . But thus much may serve to prove the Forme of Christs-Church , which is to bee all one , one body , one building , one City , one Army , one Kingdome , one Heaven : O how sweet is such a communion ! this Forme is the ( forma ) beauty of reason 1 all . As the sweet cluster of grapes , which gave taste of the Land of Canaan was bore betwixt two ; so in such communion , we may finde and feed upon the fruits of Canaan . But now to the Reasons . First , Why this is so requisite that Saints doe associate into one body of Beleevers , is gathered from the Onenesse of all Saints ; For all have one Father , Mal. 2.10 . Jo. 8.41 . all , elect in one originall love , Eph. 2.5 . All are in one Covenant , Hebr. 8.8 , 9 , 10 , 11. All have one Christ and Mediator , 1 Tim. 2.5 . and All hewn from one and the same Rocke , Isa. 51.1 . All beare one Image , Rev. 15.1 . Rev. 7.3 . All lay in one wombe , and have the same mother , Gal. 4.26 . All borne by the same seed , 1 Pet. 1.23 . 1 Joh. 3.9 . All are lead by one Spirit , Rom. 8.14 . Joh. 14.26 . Eph. 4.4 . 1 Cor. 14.12.26 . All called into one hope , Eph. 4.4 . All have of one joy , 1 Cor. 12.25 , 26. Phil. 4.4 . Joh. 15.11 . and 16.22 . and All eye and enjoy one and the same glory , Eph. 3.21 . 1 Pet. 2.9 . 1 Cor. 10.31 . 2 Tim. 4.8 . Hence it is that Christ praies so earnestly to his Father for this Onenesse to his Saints ( in communion ) in , and with him , Joh. 17.11 . both for them that were present , and to come , to the worlds end in verse 20 , 21. Hence it is the Apostles tooke so much paines in all places to preach up this Church-way for Saints , to live ( as in one Family ) together in unity , 1 Cor. 1.9 , 10. &c. And otherwise they will much degenerate from the principles of Saints , Psal. 16.3 . Besides , for that unity and entity are convertibles , and this is the meanes to keep up both , in the bond of peace , and love , and perfection , Col. 3.14 . and Eph. 4.3 ▪ 4. Act. 4.32 . But Secondly , Saints not separate from the multitude , lose much of their lustre , light , and glory ; for the Forme makes reason 2 them faire as the Moon , Cant. 6.10 . but when the Saints are in one body , then their beauty dazles the eyes of others , as many beams of light together , gathered into one ; or as many streams met into one , runne with force , and fiercely . David sayes , O how amiable are thy Tabernacles , &c. Psal. 84.1 . So Christ , Cant. 2.10 . Rise up my love , my faire one , and come away ! So in verse 13. So Cant. 4.1 . Behold thou art faire my love , behold thou art faire . So in verse 7. Thou art all faire my love , there is no spot in thee ( but there may be on thee ) So in verse 8. Christ calls her to separate from the mountaines of the Leopards , opened before in page 45 and then it followes , Thou hast ravished my heart my sister , my Spouse , thou hast ravished my heart : and how faire is thy love , &c. My garden enclosed , &c. So in Cant. 6.9 . My deare ! my undefiled is one ( Saints so in one body united ) and then follows , She is the onely one , shee is the choise one , the Daughters ( Professours ) saw her , and blessed her , and the Queens ( Sarahs true Churches ) and the Concubines ( Hagars , false Churches ) admired at her comelinesse and beauty , and praised her , saying , Who is this that looketh forth as the ( Aurora , the Damaske red ) morning ? faire as the Moone ? clear as the Sunne ? terrible as an Army with banners ? Saints then thus embodied , are embroidered with beauty ; but if they be not , no wonder if the world ( nay good men many times ) will not owne them for excellent ones , which otherwise they shall , or be ashamed : for the Forme is ( in a sense ) the life and lovelinesse of every thing ? what were a man without his Forme ? and if the Forme be misplaced that makes him a Monster . What beauty doe yee behold in a Picture ( though the colours be laid on ) before the Forme be drawne ? Suppose peeces of Timber should be carved curiously , and guilt gloriously , for the builders use , and also stones most artificially polished painted , cut , and carved ; yet they lose their lovelinesse with lying among the multitudes and heaps abroad , and about ; but when they come to be put up , & orderly to be placed in the building , there is a great deale of beauty in them , and pleasant grace from them . Thus will it bee , and is it with Saints builded up , and in body together according to Gospel-order , & quanto forma est nobilior , tanto magis dominatur materiae , say the School-men . Thirdly , Till thus in body they are but in confusion , and disorders reason 3 among them without , and trod on by every foule , and fooles foot , and as much wronged , defaced , and defiled as may be ; As polished stones , that lye among the filhy rubbish , so they wil aske much paines to picke and cleanse againe before they can be fitted for the Lords house ; but when they are embodied together ( as before ) they are in their order , which others joy to behold , Col. 2.5 . and so , as the members that are fitly placed in the body , and properly employed , doe appeare alwayes orderly , decent , and comely to the whole body , and are helpfull one to another thereunto , Rom. 15.2 . 1 Cor. 12.25 . For as the Philosophers observe that there is a twofold motion in all naturall things , one whereby they move to preserve themselves , and the other to preserve the whole universe : So must all Church-members have their twofold motion , viz. 1. For themselves . 2. For the whole . Fourthly , Saints , unlesse thus in society , fall fearfully reason 4 short of doing their duties to one another in love , unity , peace , admonition , exhortation , tendernesse , patience , watching , participating , comforting , edifying , or brotherly reproving of one another . So if a Brother offend to tell it to the Church , and to strive to excell to the edifying of the Church , &c. Now how can these rules ( requiring obedience ) bee practised , but by such Saints as are embodied into a Church of Christ ? but this Mr. Bartlet , I remember , in his Model mentions ( a man I have made much use of , and for whose sake I have sufficiently suffered from some in Dublin , ( whom I feare ) fuller of heat then of Heaven , having no more of his booke ( which the Lord will one day witnesse ( to their faces ) then I beare in my breast , omnia mecum , &c. But to passe by such blowes and buffetings of Sathan . I say , the Saints so embodied , are best provided for their duties one to another : And as in a bundle of sticks one kindles another , so doe they . Comes facundus in via pro vehiculo est , and as one helpe another , so all together like Bees labour to bring in hony ( all ) into one hive . So every one hath the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 12.6 . to bring into the stocke , or common banke , or to profit withall . O then how sweet are they to God and men ? who are as so many flowers bound together in one nose-gay . But Fifthly , The sweet soule-ravishing and enamouring reason 5 issues , which are the infallible sequell of Saints so embodied : O the excellent priviledges ! Cant. 2 , 3 ▪ 4 , 5. Cant. 5.1 . Cant. 6.2 , 3. Cant. 7.10 , 11 , 12. Psal. 92.12 , 13.14 . their precious promises , Hos. 14.6 . Isa. 59.22 . the singular delights which the Lord takes amongst Saints so embodied ! Rev. 2.1 . Psal. 132.13 , 14. Psal. 26.8 . 2 Cor. 6.16.18 . Cant. 8.13 . above all others , Ps. 87.2 . The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more then all the ( other ) dwellings of Jacob : More then all . Now such as are not in body together , are deprived of the life and excellency of these , as I shall shew hereafter ( I hope ) convinceingly , if the Lord please , but onely this I adde , That the speciall benefits which beleevers so embodied , doe enjoy , are laid like Tiles one over another , every day , till the whole roofe be covered , and the raine kept out . Sixtly , Which I would not omit ( though I might more reason 6 fitly have found it before ) is , hereby the Saints are abundantly better fortified both to defend , and ( occasionally ) to offend ▪ for to instance against Enemies , they have an united force , and they need not to feare an Adversary , no not an Army if they be but in one , for they are indeed terrible ( then ) as an Army with Banners displayed , Drums beating , Trumpets blowing , Guns playing and discharging , and all in good order , keeping Ranke and File . Why they need not to feare for their enemies then must fall before them , in Joel 2.7.8.10 . They shall run like mighty men , they shall climbe the wall like men of warre , and they shall march every one on his wayes , and they shall not breake their rankes , neither shall one thrust against another ; the earth shall quake before them , the Heavens shall tremble , the Sunne and the Moone shall be darke , and the Starres shall with-draw their shining ; thus are the Saints in their united strength a terrour to the world . Well might the Queene of Scots say , Shee feared more the prayers of that one man John Knox , then shee did an Army of thirty thousand men . For when Gog and Magog doe gather together to battle , in Revel . 20.8 , 9. as the sand of the Sea , they compasse the Camp of the Saints about , and the beloved City . But what successe have they ? Why fire comes downe from God out of heaven and destroyes them , or eates them up ; that is , out of the Churches , according to Rev. 11.5 . If any man will hurt them , fire proceedeth out of their mouthes and devoureth him . If any man dare to wrong them ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) or to deale injuriously or unjustly with them , he must in this manner be killed . Now all the Saints ( and so the Churches ) are such witnesses , and out of their mouthes , by their prayers , and powerfull breathings , which will admit of no deniall , they can conquer and consume their greatest adversaries . Besides , the enemy hath not that like advantage against us , when we are linked , as when we are alone . As it is said , that Siculus ( being on his Death-bed ) bid his Sons bring a Quiver of Arrowes , and being brought , would have them breake them altogether in the Quiver , but they could not conquer them , though they all tried ; then he bids them breake them asunder one by one , which was soone done . So ( sayes he ) my Sons , if yee 'le breake asunder , yee 'le be broken easily , and throwne aside ; but if yee unite , none can conquer you ; as long as yee live together in one , yee will be too hard for every one . So also in a Faggot of Wood , there is no breaking the whole together ; but to take out stick after stick , that wil make it easie to get the mastery of the whole . Thus the Saints united together into one , will be too hard for all the world , but otherwise the world will have the advantage , and they may be easily broken , and scattered about with stormes ; so when they carrie on Gods cause with one shoulder , and by one consent , according to Zeph. 3.9 . it goes on in post , and against all oppositions . For as Mathematicians say , the strait line is alwayes weakest , but the circle is the strongest , and holds ; so the Saints in Fellowship are strongest , and hold best , because one is injoynted into another ; and thus the Saints ought unanimously and joyntly to contest together for the truth , Jude ver . 3. and joyntly to labour together in , and for the Gospel , 2 Cor. 6.1 . and joyntly to put forth together , for the purity , priviledges , orders , and ordinances of Jesus Christ , Gal. 5.1 . and joyntly to receive together reproaches and wrongs , Heb. 10.33 . Gal. 6.2 . 2 Cor. 12.26 . 2 Tim. 1.16 . and joyntly to refuse subjection to any persons , principles , or practises , contrary to the word of truth ; and thus by their joynt powers , opposers will be repulsed to their shame , and losse ; and by their joynt-prayers heaven is taken by violence , and the Lord is overcome , Acts 12.5 . by their joynt-praises , and shoutings of joy , the Heavens and Earth filled with ravishing melody and Musick , Rev 14.2 . As the many beames of the Sunne contracted into a little Burning-glasse doe glow , and burne with abundance more light , life , and strength ; so Saints united doe ; Yea moreover , as one Member , or the Arme can act not only by its owne , but also by the strength of the whole body , to which it is united , ( according to the bodies ability ; ) even so a Saint embodied may wrastle with God , and against a sinne , &c. by the strength of the whole , besides his owne , as hereafter will appeare . But thus much for the reasons , though I might have added more . Vse . By all that hath been penned upon this point it appeares plainly , that Parish-Churches have not the forme , nor the face of a true Church of Christ , according to Gospel-order ; for they have none of this union , fellowship , or injoynting into one . The Devill hath set his black and fowle cloven-foot of divisions and dissensions in every Parish upon the earth ; yet the God of this world , the Prince of Parishes hath blinded their eyes , and they will not beleeve , 2 Cor. 4.4 . O what persecutions of the Saints , oppositions of Christs ordinances ! Menaces against his Ministers ! what desperate Oathes ! devillish cursing ! horrible lying ! detestable libelling ! monstrous malice ! palpable cheating ! and unsufferable slanders ! yea and what not is in every Parish ? and what is the reason ? read what Christ saith , Joh. 8.23 . Yee are from beneath , but I am ( and my wayes are , and worship is ) from above , yee are of this world , but I am not of this world . And as Rev. 9.1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , &c. out of the bottomlesse pit arose smoake , as the smoake of a great furnace , the Sun and Ayre were darkned by reason of the smoake , and out of the smoake came Locusts , and unto them was given power as the Scorpions of the earth have power ; and it was commanded them that they should not hurt any green thing ( a Saint in his viridity full of sap , and in the spring ) neither any tree ( a flourishing Saint in his virility and well grown , ) Psal. 1.3 . Psal. 52.8 . Psal. 92.12 . Jer. 17.8 . but only such men as have not the seale of God in their fore-heads . These Locusts of Hell , these Aegyptian plagues ( which have Scorpion-stings in their tayles , ver . 10. whilst the fairest out-side and faces of men , ver . 7. yet are ever running and ready for battle , ver . 7. ver . 9. ) have seised upon the spirits of many men more ridged then religious , and they doe eate them up . See but what hot contentions , Suits at Law , Plots to doe mischiefe , desires to persecute the people of God , devices to make them odious among men , Jer. 18.18 . and what not ? came along with this Soule-comfortlesse , bottomlesse-pit smoake , when your Parishes were constituted ? and tell me then , if Pharoahs leane ill-favoured Kine doe not eate up the fat ! Gen. 41. and if the withered wild blasted eares doe not devoure the full and faire eares ! See if ( as yet ) amongst many the Magicians rods doe not turne Serpents , and seek to eate up Aarons , though Aarons shal devoure theirs ere long , and Truth shall triumph over errours , Christ over Antichrist , Faith over fallacies , maugre all their malicious & mischievous dispositions and oppositions ; and their water shal be turned into bloud speedily , and all their Fish shall dye , that swim now in their Elements , and croaking Froggs shall cry in every place , I meane them that give now and then a little leape ( and that is all upward , and such ( will ) also dye , and then their dust shall be turned into Lice , and their pleasures to plagues ; then boyles and blaines , their contagion and corruption shall appeare to all , whilst the Lords owne Israel , and Saints shall be safe and free . This shall bee shortly : but in the interim how Parishes swarme with Egyptian flyes , let wise men judge , whilst Serpents lye by the way-side , Gen. 49.17 . and bite us , or rather ( backbite us ) before we are aware , not openly ( in our sight ) but crookedly , and craftily , treacherously , and behinde us . Dublin hath the most of this Tribe of Dan that ever I met with . Moreover many an Adullamite , Gen. 38.20 . might wee finde here in this City , for if their occupations were but printed upon their foreheads ( as some of them have full foreheads ) wee should heare and see their trading and delight is to serve an ill-master , and to runne upon ill arrands , to cog , to carry tales , to dissemble , lye , and flatter , and to have faire faces ( as of men ) but to sting as Serpents and Scorpions , being bound to hurt the Innocent , and harmelesse ones . But I say no more , only that such Parishes fal infinitly short of the true Forme of true Churches of Christ ; and I can confidently assert , such Synagogues , as I said , matter-lesse and form-lesse ; or if some fit matter may bee found amongst them , yet they are but as the Philosophers say ( of the earth , when it was a Chaos , and without forme ) materia ( prima ) informis , sine formâ & normâ , the first matter , which is without forme and order ; and which is ( semper passiva , sayes Tho. Aquin. 1.54.3.3 . ) to suffer another nature and workmanship , Eph. 2.10 . till then , wee may say of them as in Zeph. 2.15 . How are they become a desolation , and a place for beasts to lye downe in ? And why so ? ( as Mayer sayes ) but because no difference is put betwixt the righteous and the wicked , therefore it follows , every one that passes by , shall hisse and wag his hand ; and Zeph. 3.1 . Woe to her that is filthy , &c. which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or provoking and disobedient ; such are your Parish-Churches ? And they put mee in minde of that place in the hot sands of Africa , where wilde beasts of all sorts meet together to drinke , and there are the strangest monsters got ; whence the Proverb is , Africa aliquid apportat novi . And so in Parish Churches , all sorts meet , and many monsters are made , by reason of such who are not fit for civill society , much lesse for Saints . And a Heathen said , Qui aequo animo malis immiscetur , malus est ; he must needs be bad that likes and allows of such a mixture : And I might also mention the saying of one , That as often as he had been among such men , hee returned home lesse a man then he was before : Wherefore common rules of reason may dictate this doctrine to us . The Lacedemonians would enquire of the carriage of their children , by the condition of their Play-fellowes ; And as Socrates said to Alcibiades ( the Parragon of beauty ) I feare not thee , but thy companions ; so may wee say to some honest men . And indeed it is a sad thing : for will the loyall wife still keep that company which her husband dislikes ? sheep lose wool , that will keep in the wildernesse among the bushes ; so doe men ( be they ever so good ) lose much that will continue in Parish-Churches , which are upon their destiny , being too old to live longer : for the Lord will discover their filthinesse , their whoredomes , their Idolatries , and abominations , even unto their Lovers , and they shall loath them . But the Bramble of Rome , which hath brought so many unto obedience , shall be burnt up , and a strong voyce shall say , Rev. 18.2 . Babylon is fallen , is fallen , and is become an habitation of Devils , and the hold of every foule spirit , and a cage of every uncleane ( and hatefull ) bird : and verse 9.11.16.18 . And then the Kings and people , and Merchants and Ship-masters that have traded with her from time to time , and have had of her commodities to carry to other Nations , and have brought away of her Trumperies and Traditions , will h●wle and lament , and yet stand a far off for fear of her torments , verse 15. Wherefore come out of her my people , Come out of her , and vers . 4. which is the last word I have to speak upon this part of the Forme , to intreat you all for the Lords sake , and for your soules sake , to separate from ( as before ) all Parochiall and Popish worship , and wayes of Babylon , and come hither : — harke — how Christ beckens thee ( poore soule ! ) into Zion to dwell with him there in his Discipline , and Tabernacles , Psal. 67.2 . there is beauty , Isa. 52.1 , 2. there is power , Isa. 40.29 . there is his presence , Isa. 4.5 . there is deliverance , Isa. 54.17 . there is pleasure and joy , Psal. 46.3 , 4. there is plenty , Isa. 25.6 . and peace , Isa. 48.18 . and blessednesse , Psal. 56.4 . and salvation , Isa. 46.13 . What can yee aske for more ? How can yee then acquiesce in such a carnall corrupt Church-state ? mingled with more visibly ungodly , then visibly godly ? If wee mingle bright and rusty mettal together , the rusty will not become bright , but the bright rusty ; and thus a rusty companion ( saith Seneca ) rubbeth some of his rust upon a man that is honest , and faire-conditioned , civill , and well-given ; but the honest man cannot make the other any better , or brighter . As a weake eye is not strengthned by looking on a strong eye , but on the contrary , a strong may water by looking on a watry eye ; the sound man may lose his health by lying with the sicke ; So I say , it is dangerous , and ( doubtlesse ) a provocation to the Lord , and a tempting him in the Wildernesse , to continue yet in communion with such mixed multitudes in Parish Churches , whereby wee grow worse and worse ; As a good horse put into the Teame among a company of Jades , doth but learne to shuttle , and become heady and untoward ; and so such as will have communion with the multitudes , learne many ill-favoured tricks , and are made the more obstinate and untoward ; but for shame let us haste in to the Lords Sanctuary , and enter into the communion of Saints . The least small coale raked up in ashes will live long , and so will the least Saint , and the least grace bee kept up , and nourished in the true Churches of Christ ; which will bee ( it is likely ) extinguished , whilst they are out of them , and not wrapped up , and kept warme in them . Wherefore it will bee our continuall comfort to enter into such communion ; for I can name some that have been in abundance of doubts , troubles , suspense and uncertainty , till they were well informed and fully satisfied of this way by the word and spirit , and ever since their soules have been swallowed up in divine solace . As Archimedes that matchlesse Mathematician , after he had hammered his braines about a difficult conclusion , leaped , and danced , and cryed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , I have found it , I have found it ; ( so as Mr. Hoskins hath it ) the Saints cry out , We have found him , We have found him ; Wee have found Christ in his Ordinances , Christ in his Spirit , Christ in his graces , Christ in his Churches , Christ in his Doctrine , Christ in his Discipline ; Wee have found him , Wee have found him ( but yet nothing to what is to come . ) Thus far for the seventh Chapter . CHAP. VIII . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cisse . The third part of the second part of the Forme , viz. Saints separate , and gathered into one body as before , are a true Church of Christ for matter and forme ; and every such particular Church hath as full compleat power as any , without the least subordination , power , or authority of any Church whatsoever . THrough the grace of Christ ( the Head and Husband of his Spouse his Church ) we have handled the Faire Forme of the true Church of Christ , being very beautifull and faire , having Doves eyes ( i. e. such as are the able discerning and directing members of the Church , faire , full , clear , as Num. 10.31 . and chaste , and ever ( as it were ) glazed with teares ) and having comely haire , i. e. the ornament of her head ( who is Christ ) thus are all the Saints , and sincere beleevers to their Lord Christ , an ornament ( and a glory to him , Isa ▪ 43.7 . ) such as hang ( dependingly ) upon him , their Head ( not else , Col. 2.19 . ) being nourished by him , and growing from him , and very smooth , neat , not rough , rugged , &c. that appeare from Mount Gilead , that is a pleasant and plenteous place , Jer. 22.6 . and signifies a witnesse or testimony , and so I take it , for then Saints appear loveliest , liveliest , longest , smoothest , and sweetest , from Mount Gilead , i. e. the Testimony of Christ , the witnesse of the Spirit , and the Word , and Scriptures truth , and Ordinances which do beare the Testimony of Christ , when their soules are satisfied as in pleasant and plenteous places . Gilead is mine , Psal. 60.7 . and Manasseh is mine , &c. Furthermore , her Teeth are like a flocke of sheep that are even shorne , which came up from the washing bearing Twins , &c. Cant. 4.2 . Cant. 6.6 . in the Chaldee it is , thy Priests and Levites . For Teeth are such as the Church eats with , chews , digests , and divides by , and receives for the use of the whole body ; and I beleeve her Ministers must be such , who receive , eat , chew , feed , digest , and divide the word of God ; and all that is hardest of digestion , for the the rest of the people and Saints service , to the capacities , and for the concoction of all the body . But they are even , i. e. not one longer , nor one shorter , which would bee both uncomely and hurtfull , but they must bee all even , and equall , and Brethren , Matth. 20.25 , 26 , 27. not one higher , nor one lower then another , which would also be an hindrance to the bodies welfare , for then they would be wanting , or at least hindring in the use of feeding and chewing for the Church . Away with Rabbies , for yee are all brethren , there is no superiority nor subordination to be suffered in Christs Church by way of Dominion , which is the point I am now upon ; For they must bee all equall , and even-shorne , as come up from the washing , that is , white and lovely , comely , and cleane purged , and purified , and fairly washed ( never more need then now that the Sons of Levi be purged with Fullers Sope ) so that as some ( already ) have been rubbed hard , over and over , and are at last shorne , and come up out of the washing bearing Twins , being fruitfull , and bringing forth ( as Ewes ) though with hazard and hardship ; and as Teeth even set in the gums doe give a good decorum , and both rankes in each jaw full and faire , are of excellent use , and exceeding comely , so ought they to bee in , and to the Church of Christ , that others beholding their good orders may rejoyce , Col. 2.5 . of all men ( also ) they must not bee harren , but bearing-twins . Besides her lips are like a thred of Scarlet ; Metonymically manifesting the excellency of the Doctrine of Christ , which comes from her lips unto others , Zeph. 3.9 . which is described first , from the matter most excellent , first deeply dyed in the blood of Christ , 1 Cor. 1.17 . Secondly , being most pure and high-prized , Lev. 14.14 . Thirdly , Lively and lovely , Cant. 5.16 . Joh. 17.3 . and for the Temples use . Secondly , from the Forme like a thread that is well woven , strongly twisted , and finely , and freely spun out by the Spirit of God , 1 Cor. 2.4.12 . being very fine , thin , subtle , pure , and of a most divine substance , and also ( as the Churches haire-lace ) being to binde up the people of God , to , and about their Head , viz. Jesus Christ : And her speech is comely , i. e. lovely , gracious , sweet , and desirable , as in Eccles. 12.9 , 10 , 11. Prov. 16.23 , 24. therefore in Hebrew Navah , is , being very amiable ; so are the Scriptures full of lovely mysteries , lively histories , triumphing truths , comforting counsels , and counselling comforts . Her temples are like a peece of Pomegrannet . The Temples are those between the eyes and ears , which the Chaldee calls the Kings Governours , and Keepers of Israel ; but I meane , such as are high in Christ their Head ; through which runne many vitall veynes , for , and into the body , and such ought all over-seeing , and directing , governing , and guiding-Elders , to bee like a peece of Pomegrannet ( i. e. frustum , or fragmen ) a crust , or fragment broken off , which is over - full and flowing over with juice , sirrup , and sweetnesse , &c. in the sight of all ; and besides , this shews the benefit of this Church-Discipline , and more then ( meer ) Ecclesiasticall politie that I speake of , being abounding in ju●cie sirrups , and sweet savours to the meanest and most despised Saint ; for although there may bee an outward sharpnesse to the flesh , yet there is an unspeakable inward sweetnesse , and spirituall solaces to the soule to bee had here , and to be got in this Government , as will appeare hereafter : but besides , like the Pomegrannet which is full of sweet seed , odoriferous graines , well united together , and gathered into one body , every one in order pointing up to the Crown ; so is this Gospel-government full of sweet juyce , and sappy seeds ( or Saints ) well-coloured , and all in order pressing after the same perfection , and verticall point of glory , being gathered together into one distinct body . But to delineate her beauty more at large . Her necke is like the Tower of David ( sayes the Text ) builded for an A●mory , wherein hang the bucklers and shields of mighty men . The Neck is that part between the head and body , and united to both , and is of necessity , through which passes , and repasses whatsoever is usefull for both to the nourishment of both , and each in , and by other . Now I am of opinion the Ordinances doe thus , and are ( as the necke between the Head and body ) between Christ and people to bring both into union , and into ( unseparable ) fellowship , as Heb. 8.10 . by the Spirit ; so that both the head and body may be nourished through them , they as conveyances of the vitals to the Animals , and of the Animals to the vitals , that the one may be refreshed by the other , and all be by a mutuall and redaman●ine love ( which is the life of union ) so that through this Necke the body is abundantly nourished by the vital spirits from the Head , I mean by the sanctifying and saving ( so called ) graces of the same Spirit in Christ our Head ; those then that despise Christs Ordinances doe ( as much as in them lyes ) behead the Church of Christ ; A cruell Act ! Have a care ! But then like the Tower ( Migdall , great and strong ) of David , Nehem 3.19.25 . 2 Sam. 5.8 , 9. an Armory ( the word is Thalpiioh of Thalah to hang , and Piioh , sharp two edged weapons ) to hang swords in , the two edged sword of the Spirit hangs there often , and the soules bucklers and shields of Defence are ( ordinarily ) found in this Armory of the Churches , and Helmets , and Head-peeces , and Breast-plates , and what not , for every Souldier of Christs under his Banner , and Command ; for the Church is to be in a bitter warfare continually ; and let a Saint but come hither , bee he of what size soever , hee may bee armed out of this Armory of the Churches ; yea the stoutest Champions that march against Christs enemies . Furthermore , for her two breasts , they are like two young Roes twins , which feed among the Lillies . Her Breasts are both an Ornament , as Ezek. 16.7 . and for use necessary , Isa. 66.11 . and indeed to take the two Testaments , so called , they are both an Ornament , and of necessary use to all the Churches of Christ , though some ( for whom my heart akes ) I feare runne the folly and madnesse of that malicious Apostate , who called the Bible a Bawble , but hee proved a Babel . The truth is , these Breasts swell with sweet milke , and consolations doe drop out againe even for the Babes ( that are weake ) Isa. 66.11 . 1 Pet. 2.2 . they are full in deed of what is absolutely cherishing to the Churches Children , and therein are many precious promises , and sweet truths ( easily ) to be digested by such babes as doe eagerly hunger , call and cry for them , laying full hold on them , drawing and sucking much sweetnesse out of them , which are as Twins , being both borne of one , out of one spirit , and for one end , and from one God. 2 Tim. 3.16 . but I had rather read them the Word and Spirit , feeding among Lillies . For so are Saints white , pure , pleasant , lovely , living best in low vallies , and well moystned at their root , and such are fond ( to sucke from them as before , and ) to entertaine them ; and as Moulin once said , that in the times of Persecutions , whilst they burnt us for reading of the Scriptures , we burnt to be reading of them . But thus I have ( beyond my intention ) examined this Epithalmion which is sung in specie , and paints out ( Prophetically ) the picture of a true Church called into Gospel government , and that upon the breaking of the morning Sunne , and the day springing from on high , ver . 6. for then it followes , thou art all faire my Love. Now in this description her beauty being discovered so eminently , from her most visible Members , it needeth not to speake of more then such as are most conspicuous to the eyes of all at this present . But to proceed to the second part of this part of the Forme , which is ; That every particular Church of Christ , gathered together into one Body , according to Gospel-order ( as before ) hath as free , as full , and as compleat a Church-power ; and Authority , to order all affaires within her owne body , as any Church whatsoever , excluding all sorts of Superiority , that may be ( possibly ) claimed in point of Church-power ; and that par in parem non habet imperium , equall Sisters have equall powers and priviledges , will be proved an undeniable truth . In the progresse of which I beleeve I shall ( much ) use Mr. Bartlets method ( as my memory wil admit me ( for I have no other Booke of his then my breast at present ) see in Rev. chap. 2. & chap. 3. the seven Churches of Asia ; and we finde a full and an alike power in every particular Church of Christ ; therefore in chap. 2.2 . to the Church of Ephesus , the Spirit sayes , Thou canst not beare them which are evill , and thou hast tried them which say they are Apostles , and are not , and thou hast found them lyars , &c. To this Church of Ephesus ( sayes Perkins in loc . ) God gave a full Juridicall power either to admit , or keep out , examine , or cast out ; suspend , or what not ? that was needfull in any true Church of Christ. So in ver . 14. To the Church of Pergamus , I have a few things against thee , for suffering them that hold the Doctrine of Balaam . So in ver . 15. And that thou hast them that hold the Doctrine of the Nicolaitans , which thing I hate ; and thus in ver . 20. to the Church of Thyatira for suffering that woman Jezebell , which calleth her selfe a Prophetesse to teach , and seduce , &c. Now , why should God lay these sins to their charge ? were it not in their power ( within themselves ) to reforme , and remedy ? and how could they have power to take in some , or to cast out any ; to excommunicate such seducers and sinners as these , were it not Gods last Will and Testament ? and to cleare this further , yee may marke this , that Christ blames not any one Church for the sins suffered in another , not the Church of Sardis , for the sins of Laodicea , nor of Laodicea for the sins of Pergamus , nor Pergamus for the sins of Thyatira , &c. but every one for their owne sinnes , because God gave each of them so plenary a power ( and all alike ) for suppressing sin , suspending persons , excluding offenders , and keeping of good and Gospel-order . And there is great reason for it , for without this authority no Church could continue a Church , and all the reasons alledged to the contrary are disallowed and invalid ; which being so observeable in these seven Churches , it seemes evidently Independency was then Orthodox ; that is , such a sort of Independent Discipline as is here handled ; to wit , that one Church hath no dependency upon another , but hath as absolute a power as any other whatsoever , without subjection , or subordination . Besides , in all the Epistles of the Apostles written to Churches ; they write to Churches , as distinct Churches , without dependency upon any but Jesus Christ , their head , King , and Law-giver , Acts 15.22 . 1 Cor. 5.4 , 5. 1 Cor. 14.33 . Rom. 16.1 . Col. 1.2 . being all ( equally ) the Body of Christ , Col. 1.24 . the Spouse of Christ , Ephes. 5.24 , 25. all being ( equally ) Queens , and Sarahs ( as Mr. Cotton sayes ) none Hagars or Concubines , Gal. 4.26.31 . all being alike Sisters of one Mother , and none Servants , or Slaves , Cant. 8.8 . all of them being Candlesticks of the same make and Metals , amongst whom Christ equally walketh , Revel . 1.12 . Revel . 2.1 . or alike branches of the same one Candlestick , and beames of the same Sunne , and streames of the same Fountaine , and branches of the same Vine , and so they are equall in all things , all having equall and like power of opening and shutting , binding and loosing , Mat. 16.16 . admitting of Members , Acts 9.26 . Deut. 1.13 . Acts 6.23 . Acts 14.23 . trying the suspected , Revel . 2.2 . choosing their own Officers , Act. 1.15.26 . and Deut. 1.13 . Acts 6.2.3 . Acts 14.23 , &c. and of administring Censures , Mat. 18.17 , 18. 1 Cor. 5.4.5 . or re-admitting , or rather receiving , 2 Cor. 2.5.6 . and in case the Elders be appointed by the Church to execute their Decree , yet it is ( in ordine ad ecclesiam ) with reference to the Body , the power being theirs ; so as that eminent man Doctor Whitaker ( De contig . quest . 5. pag. 178 , &c. ) affirmes , all Church-power principally to appertaine to the whole Body ; and to her Officers , but accidentally , and as occasion serves ( as cum aliqua virtus duobus inest , uni essentialiter , alteri accidentaliter ) by many faithfull arguments ; and he instances in the heat in water , or iron , which is in the fire first , and essentially , and then comes into the water or iron , or the like . And in Fulk , contr . Rhemist . in 1 Cor. 5.4 , 5. we finde him full for this , Sect. 3. and he quotes Musculus , Calvin , Zanchy , and others to beare witnesse with him , that the whole power is the Churches , which she can give out , and take in , though she may ( if need be ) referre the execution of it to her Officers , they doing it faithfully , not in their owne power , and according to their owne wills , but hers . Pareus I remember in the same place sayes plainely , that it is a currant peece of Popery , to apply the power of the whole to one or other , as their owne ; which is an old usurpation of the Popes , and therefore sayes he , 1 Cor. 5.4 . with the power of our Lord Jesus , &c. power , which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , does there intend the execution of Church-power , as well as the power and authority it selfe , which is absolutely the Churches , although Paul was the mouth of the Church to declare it ; and sadly does he lament the Churches neglect of her Office in this kinde , fearing lest thereby she should be abused ( as she hath been abundantly ) and become a mixt company , which he complaines of highly . Thus Dudley Fenner in his Treatise De sacra Theologia ( a pretty peice ) lib. 7. sayes , &c. Thus that honest old Cartwright in his reply to Whitgift , pag. 184. sayes , Paul knew the rule of Christ well enough , in Mat. 18. when he commanded and communicated the power of excommunication , and Church-censures to the whole body , 1 Cor. 5.2 . 2 Cor. 2. it being the Churches , and not in the Ministers or Officers power , which he proves out of Cyprian , &c. But I should not here needed to have heaped up such Testimonies of great , grave and learned Writers , were it not to stop the mouths of that spirit of malice , and spight of men which belches out bug-beare words against the way of Christ and order of the Gospel , and who please to be confirmed in this point may peruse , Mr. Cottons Keyes , Mr. Bartlets Modell , Mr. Hookers Survey of Discipline , with many others that may carry more authority with them then I can , to convince others , by whom ( through Gods grace ) I received speciall satisfaction , who have gathered out the Testimony of the most learned , eminent , able , and famous men of many generations to bee of this judgement of Churches equality or fulnesse of power within their owne bodies ; so that it is not a new , singular , and upstart opinion , as our Adversaries say . Besides , it is all the reason that can be , they be all alike , having all alike but one Head , Col. 1.18 . Eph. 5.23 . as will appeare hereafter , and he being a Head ( alike ) unto all , and being alike unto every Church of Christ , King and Lawgiver , Jam. 4.12 . there being no other , all which might ( methinks besides all the Prophesies , the Precepts , the Primitive Practises , and equall Priviledges of all Churches ) bee enough to pull downe all topping power , to justle aside superiority , and that Popish usurpation of subordination , and throw it into the dust or smoaking pit from whence it came ; And call up for a Co-ordinate and equall power to stand in the stead . But because this is the mainest Doctrine of difference , between the Presbyterian Discipline , and ours , I speake the more amply upon it , and shall take my liberty in the ensuing Uses ; but must say in the mean time that God abhors that haughtinesse and ambition of spirit , which mounts up like a Prelate , whether in one or other : And indeed it hath appeared in Popery , Episcopacy , Presbytery , and so will ; that all Prelaticall Discipline is condemned of old , and the higher it gets up the Ladder , the nigher it is to its end , and the likelier to bee turned off , and into the darke world . How many worthlesse men like Apes and Monkies will not bee quiet till they have got up to the top of the house , and when they are there , what doe they but make mowes , and faces at Passengers , fling off the Tiles , and play such like ridiculous and mischievous feats ? And indeed , I doe not know how to excuse them that are so covetous and ambitious to bee Pastors and Teachers in the Independent Churches , and when they get in , they are like little Lords , and not as servants to all ; and I sadly feare it , that more have sought for it then can performe it , or then know what a Cure belongs to it . How many have Caesars heart of pride ( and may have his end ) who said hee had rather bee first in the least Village , then second in the greatest : and how many like Psap●on teach the Birds ( that are at their beck ) to call them ( as they did him , Magnus Deus ) rather Gods then Men , and to have their persons in admiration , and to make them follow them , as Dogs follow their Masters , for feare of being cast out of doores upon their anger . O sad ! Sed altitudo non est valida , sayes Chrysost. 20. in Epist. ad Rom. This cannot last long . How many Townes , Houses , Cities have been burnt to ashes by such sooty exalted Chimnies ? ( wherein all the soot of the house may be found for the most part ) who like Lords must over-looke all the rest ? How many are they that like the Worm-wood stalke ( and Starre ) grow the bigger , the bitterer ? I speake of such as would be highest , and be like a Counter , that ( in account ) lyes for a hundred at least , when alas , we should study to be lowest , as the best Corne in the Fanne , and the soundest lyes next the bosome , and in the bottome , but the Chaffe will be above ; But the Lord abhorres them ; and in the Law his Sacrifices were no● Lions , but Lambs , not Eagles , use 1 but Doves , and in the Gospel , the first shall be last . I remember the Cynick coming into the Kings Chamber of presence gloriously hung , looking where to spit , at last spit in the Kings face , saying , It was fit he should spit in the foulest place ; so will God one day spit on the face of Prided Presbytery and Prelacy . Vse 1. But in the first place , it is plaine then that your Parishes are false-Churches in this part of the Forme ; for their constitution consists in a dependency upon other Churches Cathedrall to them , and they are ( by their Cannons and Institutions ) to be in subjection to an universall , visible , Nationall , and Diocesan Church , which blunt Zuinglius calls devillish , proud , and Popish arrogancy , for any to claime any right , rule , power , or superiority over any Church of Christ whatsoever . Thus Keckerman , and Aretius both cry out upon it , and the latter in his Problemes produces Christ's prohibition of upper or superiour power to his Disciples and Apostles , Mar. 10 86. Luke 22.25 , &c. and sayes , none but Antichrist dares be so sawcy to usurpe it , it being the Throne which is set up for Christ's selfe in his Church . O then how dares the rigid Presbyterian be so red-hot for a Discipline ! as dangerous and destructive to Gospel-order as the other ! seeing Popery and Prelacie are ( termini convertibiles ) so nearly related to each other , that if Prelacy thus live , the Pope cannot dye ; and if nothing else , yet such kinds of Church-discipline would keep him up in his Chaire . For grant the Pope to be but ( holy ) Father , and Rome the holy Mother-Church , that may call her Daughter-Churches to account , and give them Orders , and Commands ; and will not this Doctrine keep up the Pope ? then let the wise judge ; and the selfe-same spirit of Prelacy had the Bishops , to Lord it over their Brethren , and to Canonize high Commission-Courts , thereby to call others to account , to lay their Commands and Lawes upon them , or else to punish them , being of the same nature ( though the name changed ) with the Popes power . And now such a proud Prelacy would the bitter Presbyterians promote tooth and naile , by setting up Classes , that thither peoples might make their appeales , and from them receive rules and orders , or else plagues , punishments , fines , or imprisonments ; and severall sorts of Classes they would set up , that men might appeale from one , and apply to another , from the particular to the Provinciall , from the Provinciall to the Nationall Classes , which are ( also ) of the same nature with the others , though their name be changed . But all are an abomination to the Lord , and what doe they but play petty Popes in their Convocations , Synods , Classes , &c. over Consciences by their tyrannies ? Antichrist thus exalts and boasts himselfe as God , 2 Thes. 2.4 . to take authority , to rule , to governe , and have dominion over the Churches of Christ in his high and traiterous usurpation ; wherefore I say againe , as long as this lives , Popery cannot dye . But this is sufficiently condemned and disproved , by all the rules that relate to Gospel-order in Gods Booke , being abundantly to be abominated by all Gospel-spirits ; for as good Master Burroughs against Edwards his Gangrena saith ( a little before he dyed ) we are freed from Jewish Paedagogies , and Nationall Church-wayes , and there is no Nationall Church , Officers , Offices , wayes , and worships , as the Jewes had ; neither is it enough to be Members of the Church , because borne of this , or that Nation . So Mr. Jacob in his reasons for Reformation , pag. 6.7 . and Cottons Keyes , p. 31. makes it appeare to be altogether without a warrant from the Word . But to what a monstrous height doth Ambition bring men unto ? shall we but see the eagernesse of Bishops ? ( before the Presbyterians ( so called ) though in a Scripture-sence we allow it ) how ( to be Civill Magistrates ) they waxed wanton and uncivill Ministers ? neglecting their duties ? and desirous of rule and power ? to be Justices of Peace ? to cast poore people into Prison , to put them into Pillories , and to kill them , to be Judges of Courts , to get the vaine Orders of the Garter , to be honoured by men , some of them titled most Honourable , Princely , and holy Grace , ( when God knows they had only the name of it ) and all of them saluted for Lords , and would sit as Barons in Civill Courts , which they know is contrary to their own old Canons which they accounted more of then the Scriptures ; but if it be unlawfull to alter , or change the bounds our Fathers have set , Prov. 22.28 . I am sure it is , to alter the limits the Lord hath set them , and to serve the Tables of Devils . Now what can be clearer then the rule set in such a case , Mat. 20.26 . Luk. 22.25 . Marke 10.41 . and how often Christ reproved , and repressed the rising desires of the Disciples , in but asking after , and disputing about greatnesse , who shall be greatest ? which he would not admit of by any meanes , it being after the manner of Gentiles ? O then , how Christ detested ( and I am sure yet does ) this Lording dominion in himselfe , or in his Saints ? he himselfe being their Servant , and Minister , washed their feet ; besides , the Apostle abhors it , in 2 Cor. 1. ult . and yet , O what a proud domineering spirit of Prelacy reigned in these ! Did not some Bishops goe with a great Guard in pomp to the Pulpit , with their Officers before them , and a great Mace carried in state , making Roome for my Lord to preach in his Rochet , and square Cap , leaning upon a Cushion of cloath of Gold ? but their pride hath a fall : Ah! but had it not been happy if another Generation had not ( next ) succeeded in usurping such Lording power ! I meane the Prelaticall Presbyterians . Those Olives , and Vines , and Fig-trees ( before very fat , sweet , and fruitfull ) have lost their lovelinesse , and former excellencies , and that meerly out of desire to Lord it too , as well as the Brambles did , Judg. 9.8 , 9 , 10 , 11. although in a Classicall way ( as they call it ) but this being so neare a kinne unto the other , hath met with the like destiny and destruction , and that Discipline proved but short-lived , according to the Proverbe of Fraud and Frost , &c. for it never thrived , and began to be too proud at the first , as soon as ever it stepped into the Chaire . Besides , as their Lording Classes are not Classicall , or warrantable in the Word , neither are their Synods , or ( commanding ) Convocations , to order and make Directories for Christ's Churches , of Divine right , what assemblies are more mischievous ( as they have been hitherto ) to the Saints of Christ ? especially when they would exercise Lordship and Dominion , Soveraignty and authority over their Brethren , or over any Church of Christ as they have done ? most cruelly confining men to their judgements against their consciences , or else crushing them for their consciences ; much like the Bed in Isa. 28.20 . which is shorter then a man can stretch himselfe on . Now if a man lye not even with them , and but ever so out-reaches their reason , judgements , or opinions , he must ( presently ) be punished , and cut shorter ; as the Giant , that in the High-way seized upon all Passengers , and carried them home to his Bed , and those that were not long enough to lye even with his owne length , and the length of his Bed , he by some most bitter and fatall engines or wracks , would rend them out , and draw so one joynt from another , that by most lamentable tortures he would teare them out to that length ; but in case any were too long for his Bed , and his length , he would cut off their leggs till he had made them fit for his humour and fancy . But this is a most monstrous tyranny in men , to wrack and torture consciences , and say too it is for Christ's sake , either to rend or wracke them out , or else to command and cut them off ; ( if beyond them ) to make them even with their owne length and height in their opinions and practises . ) But these Mothers children that are angry with us , and would set us to keep strange Vineyards , and these Brethren that have hated us , and cast us out for Christ his sake ( as they say ) and said , let the Lord be glorified , shall be ashamed when the Lord shall appeare to be our joy . See Isa. 66.5 . for the Lord 's designe in these dayes is to pull downe such as are incensed against the Saints , Isa. 41.11 . and thus saith the Lord , Ezek. 35.21 , 22. Because yee have thrust them with side and with shoulder , and pusht all the diseased with your hornes , till yee have scattered them abroad ; therefore will I save my flocke , and they shall be no more a prey . So in Jer. 30.16 . All that devoure them shall be devoured , and all thy adversaries shall be captives , and they that spoyled thee shall be made a spoile , and all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey ; for I will restore health unto thee , and heale thee of thy wounds , because they called thee an outcast , saying , This is Zion whom no man seekes after , &c. For it must be , that every plant which the Father hath not 〈◊〉 Mat. 15.13 . Jo. 15.2 . shall be rooted out ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) or pulled up by the roots ) so shall Synods downe , for so much as they usurpe Dominion ; but in some case ( as we consider hereafter ) that the Elders appointed by their Churches doe meet together , to conferre , to assist , and counsell ( not to command ) we can consent unto , and are confident that it is very warrantable by the Word ; and Mr. Parker I remember in his Church-polity proves by many pregnant Arguments from undeniable Scriptures and Writers ( Orthodox so called ) and unanswerable reasons , how every Church hath an equall and absolute power without appealing ; and that Synods , Courts , ( or Commissionated Classes ) have not the least power over any Church of Christ , to command or rule ; only ( at most ) to admonish , counsell , and advise ; and it is without a warrant , and but a barren branch , an ill plant , and beyond the bounds of Christ to exercise any such authority ; we shal be more large in this afterwards ; but yet see honest Mr. Burroughs in his Heart-divisions , cap. 22. who cleares it up to any capacity under severall considerations , as that the extent of Juridicall power must be by institution as well as the power it selfe , and that all power receives its limits and extents ( in Church or State Discipline ) from the same Authority , whence it first had its originall institution ; which is undeniable , undoubted , and infallible truth . Now let our Brethren but show their Magna Charta , or proofe out of Gods Word , for that power they would usurpe over the Saints or Churches by Synods , or over any Church of Christ by any Classes whatsoever , and we will freely beare it ; or else let none presume so to oppresse the Saints by Convocations , to command and controule any Church of Christ , or to wracke any conscientious Christians , or to persecute them by reproaches , wrongs , punishments , or the like , as cannot crouch to their Crosse , or cruell Judgements , which is , to put a yoke upon their neckes , which neither we , nor our fathers were able to beare , Acts 15.10 . Obj. Yea , we can quickly prove it by Scripture , but turne to Acts 15. and you shall finde that appeales were made to the Church of Jerusalem . Answ. This is the Master-objection that can be brought against this Doctrine of Gospel-order , which is so often and ablely answered ( I thinke ) by all that have penned on this subject , as that I need not to answer any thing unto it : yet seeing it is so propounded , I pray you marke in that Chapter , Appeals are not made to the Church of Jerusalem , as if they had command over any Church to rule them , or set them a Directory of Church-government , how they should practise , &c. no , but onely to advise and counsell them as a Sister-Church , and as one of a sounder judgement , and of longer and riper , and safer experiences . Secondly , Besides , the application made to Jerusalem was not about Church-government ; or for instructions from them on that account , but it was about a difference , that arose among some who were set for Circumcision after the manner of Moses , whether that might be , or no ? what they ( who were of more established , and better-setled judgements ) thought of that matter , which some held so needfull , verse 1 , 2 , 4 , 5. Thirdly , It appears in verse 2. in that they determined , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , chose and approved of Paul and Barnabas upon that arrand , it was not ( jure divin● ) of absolute necessity to appeale , or rather apply thither , nor yet did they doe it , as to an higher power ( as was answered in the first ) as if they had any Dominion over their faith , but only as helpers of their joy , 2 Cor. 1. ult . Fourthly , But should we grant it ( which wee will not as long as our Buckler holds whole ) but should wee , they would bee but little the better for it ; for consider who they were , were they not the Apostles ? men ? extraordinarily enabled ? and can any ( now ) say so ? and with such confidence ? as verse 28. for it seemeth good to the Holy Ghost , and to us , &c. without high presumption ? But , Fifthly , This helps not one jot the Presbyterian , or Prelacy , nor adds an hairs breadth to their Discipline , or Doctrine : for wee finde in verse 22. It pleased the Apostles and Elders with the whole Church to send , &c. the whole Church had the knowledge of it , and their voting in it ; and the Apostles and Elders did not answer on their owne heads , but the Church consented to it , and concluded it ; which is contrary to the Presbyterian judgement and practises , who will have the Elders alone to be a power and authority enough , without the rest of the Church , which is contrary to rule ; besides the ill consequences of it , which I shall speake unto hereafter in the third Booke , and which is a giving of an absolute power to such ( which makes them Lord it ) who are to have but a derivative power , and are but servants at best . But thus that objection is ( I hope ) sufficiently answered . Another . Object . But is it so ! hath no one Church , power over another ? why then ? how can a Church bee reformed , that erres in doctrine or practise ? Answ. There must be spirituall helps against spiritual evills , and the weapons of our warfare are not carnall ; here is no need of the worlds powers , which I shall shew hereafter ; but we must make use of Christs-rules , which are cleare in this case . Consider in an erring Church either a part or the whole is corrupt and adulterate , if onely a part , then the sound part must admonish , convince and reforme their erring brethren if they bee able ; but in case they cannot doe it , then they may send for the assistance of a Sister-Church , as Antioch did , Act. 15.2 . But if so bee it be the whole Church erres , then looke how an ( equall ) brother in one body is to deale with another , according to the same rule of Matth. 18.15 , 16 , 17. and by proportion is an equall Sister-Church to deale with another , for although one Church is not subject , or subordinate unto another ( neither is one brother to another ) yet one Church is co-ordinate , and hath a like power with another ( and so hath one Brother with another ) so that as in brotherly-love and communion , one brother admonishes , reproves , exhorts , convinces another ; and if there be no helpe for it , declares the brothers offence in publike , and may in time and order according to rule withdraw from him , as in 2 Thess. 3.6 . thus may , and must one Church ( in sisterly love and communion ) deale with another ; as to enquire into the nature of the errours or offence given by an erring Church unto her , to know the Truth , Deut. 13 , 14. and not to proceed upon bare reports , Exod. 23.1 , 2. which yee shall not raise , or not receive ; for it may be read both wayes ; then may the Church send Letters or Messengers to that erring-Church to admonish , exhort , reprove , and convince , if she hears they have gained their Sister-Church ; but if shee refuses to be reformed , then that Church may take one or two Churches more to assist her . But if she resist admonition , and all means that bee used by prayers , fastings , intreatings , perswasions , reproofes , and all , then all the Churches about appoint to meet , and by the word of God reprove the errours , and if they finde her obstinate , then all other Churches are to withdraw from her , 2 Tim. 16 , 17. Tit. 3.10 , 11. and declare against those errours , and no longer to hold them a Communion of Saints , but to take away all right-hands of fellowship untill their repentance appeare to the satisfaction of the aforesaid offended Churches , and a visible reformation , and a publike renunciation of the aforesaid errours and sinnes . Now if they be conscientious and gracious , this punishment ( for so it is called , 2 Cor. 2.6 . ) will pierce to the very hearts of them , and this will worke more upon them , upon their consciences , then all the prisons , or punishments of the world . For if the declaring against such a Church , the withdrawing of all others from her , their open protesting against her , and abhorrence of her detestable errours and sinnes , if they bee so , and the disowning of her for a communion of Saints , and their continually appeales unto God against her , if these doe not deeply enter into her heart , and strike their consciences that are in her , and afflict their spirits , what will ? For Joh. 5.22 . All judgement is committed to the Sonne ; and I am sure if Christs wayes , and the weapons of his make , cannot prevaile , then a formall jurisdiction , Courts and commands of mens make , will not . But thus I have answered the objections of weight against this Point , which hath been abundantly proved and pressed : For ( pares omnes inter se juris essent , sayes Whitaker ) all Power is alike in all Churches , whether in Ephesus , Corinth , Rome , Philippi , or the like ; one not being one iota subject to another ; Wherefore to the second Vse . Vse 2. Then we see , such as are honoured ( though some vse 2 thinke naucified ) by the name of Independents , I meane the Members of the Congregationall Churches , and Presbyterie ( which we hold with , although the Prelaticall be too presumptuous and usurping for us ) I say , such are not without the Word for their warrant ; nor are they without Christs rule for their refusing the commands of men , or their proud precepts , tending to embondage the Saints by their usurping power ; One Church having as plenary power as any other . Master Paul Baines ( that precious holy man , and light of his age ) in his Treatise printed , 1621. pag. 13. sayes plainly , We affirm it , that no such Headship of , or in any Church , was ordained by Christ ( our only Head over us ) either actually or virtually , but that all Churches are equally INDEPENDENT ( being his owne word ) without any kinde of subjection one to any other . Sweet Sibbs in his breathing , &c. pag. 94. speaking how amiable the Tabernacles were , applies them ( as Types ) to particular Churches of Christ , having equall beauty and glory ( and the said Sibbs in his said Treatise , lib. 2. chap. 9. uses the very word also Independents . Robinson in his Reasons discussed , is large upon this point , and Bullinger in the 5. Decad. Serm. 1. sayes it at large also , That the power of governing and ordering all affaires and Church-matters , belonging to the body is within the body , whither with relation to the calling , or chusing Church-Officers , Pastors , Teachers , Elders , Deacons , and Ministers , Act. 6. Act. 14. & 15. or for binding and loosing , and Censures , and Sacraments , examining of Doctrines , admitting of Members , and in all other Church-matters , and that they have besides , power to call Synods , to consult upon weighty occasion● . Ames in his Medul . Theol. lib. 1. chap. 37. sect . 6. sayes , All power of Discipline ( De jure ) according to Christ's Institution is the Churches in Common , and none ought to usurpe power over any such particular Church . A many more Witnesses and eminent mens Certificates under their owne hands , ( in their Writings ) might be produced to prove these truthes ; as Reynolds in his Conference with Hart ; Ainsworth in his Guide to Zion ; Willets Synopsis ; Cottons Keyes ; Bartlets Modell ; Taylor on Titus ; Cum multis aliis , &c. But by this you may see how unseemly it is for , and how little it doth become our unbrotherly and unkind Kinsmen of the Presbyterians to be so bitter against us , as to say only a few simple upstart fanaticks , and giddy-headed illiterate fooles are of this opinion . Why produce your cause , bring forth your strong reasons , saith the King of Jacob , Isa. 41.21 . it is no upstart Novelty , but a truth of equall standing with the Kingdome of Christ ; and in all Ages the most eminent Lights were of this opinion , though they had not the like liberty to put it into practise . Besides , should we not be worse then mad men to expose our selves ? poore Wives ? with little Children ? to the contempt of all ? to be reproached by all ? our persons to be hated of all ? and to be abused in the open streets , our names to be all be spotted with the foulest filth and du●t which can bee cast upon them ? our Families and Friends to the ill-will of all ( almost ) and we our selves continually to feed upon afflictions ? and palpable injuries ? whilst none dare , or doe appeare on our behalfe ? this was , and yet is in many places in the Countries , where we are in daily dangers and troubles . Now I say , what a madnesse were it , we should enter into so strait a gate , and run into the rage of all ( almost ? ) whether prophane , or Professors ? were not the testimony of a good Conscience our continuall feast ? and refreshing and rejoycing ? if a meere head-strong will should hurry us on , to such a way of thornes and bryers . But beleeve it , and the Lord is our witnesse , it is our Consciences that carrie us on . Now Conscience ( being a conjunct Science , and a knowing of the Act with the Rule ) doth render us happy in this ; That we most faithfully and unfeignedly seeke the satisfying our Souls in the revealed Wil , and declared minde of God to that which we know . But thus we must ( and wil if the Lord please ) walk according to our light , and as we are fully perswaded in our breasts , that we may have peace at home , though perils abroad , and warres without continually . See Rom. 14.5 . Phil. 3.16 . and let not the Saints be in the least discouraged at our sufferings , which are a token to us of Salvation , and that we are of God , in Phil. 1.27 , 28 , 29. For we shall come shining out of the fire , and in glistering glory , 1 Pet. 1.6 , 7. although indeed so subtill is he , that can transforme himselfe into an Angell of Light , that Spirituall wickednesses are set up in holy places ; wickednesses that seeme Spirituall , and carry a face and forme of holinesse ; For in every age have your formall Professours run posting to that Religion , and worship which hath been in most request , and highest esteem ; and hence it is , whilst their Presbytery was best accepted of , most of your Prelaticall ones proved Presbyterians ; and now Independency is in date , and hath the day of it , your Presbyterians turne Independents ( omnia pro tempore & nihil pro veritate , saith one ) or at least they gather together in the name of Independent Churches , and such as are so called , who are commonly the cruellest Persecutors and Petty-Popes over the poore Saints , and over the Independents indeed , Veram Ecclesiam non sequens , sed persequens , these being ( in their Judgements ) as rigid , and inraged against the true Churches of Christ , as the Presbyterians or Prelates ; And as one who hath the name of another great man , therfore hopes to be the heire , and have the day , is in hot pursuit for the estate , and will not compound for peace , unlesse upon some unequall termes , although hee hath no right thereunto ; so they ; and by their party they prevail , to justle aside the just and true Heire indeed , and to set him a begging for his livelyhood : And yet it is possible a true Church of Christ shall bee prosecuted under another name too , and that which is most odious , it may bee . But yet we will say as Isa. 63.16 . Doubtlesse thou art our Father , though Abraham be ignorant of us , and Israel know us not . Whilst our Cause is good , our confidence is great , our interest will hold , when others forged Titles will not be worth two pence ; yet how impudent are some , that like Praxiteles , ( who made the poore people worship his Strumpet instead of Venus , and under her name ; so they ) gull poore soules with a forme , appearance , and painted Picture . These worshippers of the Forme , are enemies to the Spirit and Power ; but let us not feare their frownes , menaces , nor malice , but let us goe on , though the bawling Curs run railing after the gallopping Passenger , yet let us ride post , in a Victory of Patience , and in the Triumph of Innocency . And as Anaxarchus said to the Tyrant , Tundis vasculum Anaxarchi , sed non Anaxarchum ; So they may hurt us , but not hinder us ; trouble us , but not triumph over us . CHAP. IX . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zebi . A further Demonstration of the Discipline of the Church of Christ , objective , or upon the account of the Churches object , and what that is . WE have handled , through the grace and goodnesse of our God , the Forme ( I hope ) fully of Church-discipline and Gospel-fellowship , wherein I trust , the Lovers of the truth will not take mee to bee too tedious , although in the following-chapters , I wish I could promise to be compendious , especially in this first Lib. seeing what is to come ( as I take it ) is lesse controversal ; I shall next insist upon the object of this Church-state , whereby it becomes so amiable unto the Saints , viz. the Presence of God , giving out of himselfe more in grace , and glory to such Saints then to any others , according to Psal. 87.23 . which point lyes apparent , Psal. 84.1 , 2 , 7 , 10 , 11. So Psal. 63.1 , 2. O God thou art my God , my soule thirsteth for thee , my flesh longeth for thee , &c. to see thy power , and thy glory , so as I have seen thee in thy Sanctuary , verse 5. My soule shall be satisfied as with marrow , &c. that is abundantly more then in other places , which thing is promised us , as in Exod. 20.24 . In all places where I record my name , I will come and blesse , &c. i. e. I will come in a speciall manner , and blesse them with speciall blessings of grace ; so is the type , Exod. 25.8 . so in Isa. 4.5 , 6. He is upon all the assemblies of Zion ( not elsewhere ) a cloud and smoake by day , and a flame of fire by night , and upon all the glory a defence , &c. Isa. 25.6 . there the Saints ( in the Lords house , this mountaine of holinesse ) shall bee feasted with fat things , Psal. 36.8 . and shall say as in verse 9. Lo this is our God we have waited for him , this is the Lord we have waited for him , we will rejoyce and be glad in his salvation , &c. that is , we have waited for these appearances , and this his presence in grace , and of glory , &c. Thus in Isa. 33.17 . there thy eye shall see the King in his beauty ( an amiable object indeed ) and in verse 21. there the glorious Lord will be a place of broad Rivers and streams , &c. There is the loveliest , heart-ravishing , and soule-enamouring object that the Saint can set his organ or eye upon ; here is the beloved , white , and ruddy , and more then all other beloveds , Cant. 5.10 . &c besides this soule-enamouring presence is promised to the end of the world among Saints in such communion , Matth. 18.20 . Joh. 14.22 , 23 , 26. Matth. 28.20 . Joel 2.27 . Zeph. 3.16.17 . This lovely object ( beyond all others ) Saints embodied as before have had the happinesse to see and enjoy , or to have the fruitive discovery of , which all the true Churches of Christ have experienced to the purpose , and their profit in all ages , Act. 2.28 . Act. 4.33 . So 2 Cor 3.18 . 2 Cor. 6.16 . Yee are the Temple of the Lord , as God hath said , I will dwell in them , i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will ( in the nighest communion of love and grace ) be present ; and so as he hath promised , yee who are his Temples have experienced , Eph. 2.19.20 , 21. Hebr. 2.12 . and in such societies the Saints have found him to delight to be , and to walke there , Rev. 2.1 . 2 Cor. 6.6 . Psal. 132.13 , 14. and to take his repose , Psal. 72.2 . and 26.8 . and repast there , Cant. 1.7 . and 6.2 . and 4.16 . and to impart his most intimate loves in the midst of them , as Cant. 7.12 . &c. by all which , lies apparently before us the beauty of the object . Vse . On which account , how eagerly Saints should bee set upon such a worke will ( obviously ) appeare out of Psal. 84.1 , 2. for if beauty , blessednesse , love , life , light , grace , glory , or any good thing be object enough to win upon a people , all , and more then all , may be had here , in Psal. 27.4 ▪ One thing have I desired of the Lord , &c. what is that ? that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the dayes of my life : why so ? to behold the beauty of the Lord. O there ! there is the excellency of the Lord ! the lovelinesse of his countenance ! the comelinesse of his favour ! the beauty of his face ! above all places ! in the midst of the assemblies of the Saints thus united into a body . Now Parishes have not this amiable and peculiar presence of the Lord , they want the beauty of this object , and this object of beauty abundantly ; For but little of God is to bee seen in their constitutions and Churches . Now , where most of Gods presence of love , light , grace , and glory , &c. is promised , and appears , there is the Church of Christ ; but that most of this sweet presence appears in , and is promised to the Saints associated as before , I refer you to the pregnant Scriptures produced for proofe . Wherefore deare friends ! how forward would you bee for this Discipline , did you but discerne the excellency and beauty of these his amiable Tabernacles ? This made that eminent man Dr. Ames ( Professour of Friezeland ) leave all his honours , estate , esteem , &c. and all to become a member of such a Church at Rotterdam , choosing rather to sit on the Threshold in the Lords house , Psal. 84.10 . then to enjoy all the world without it , and pleasures for a season , blessing God upon his death-bed , that he had lived so long as to be ( first ) of such a body of Christ before hee dyed , and when he was ready with good old Simeon to depart in peace ; hee beseeched Mr. Peters , the ( then ) Pastor , and others , not to be discouraged or daunted , though they must suffer much , saying , If there were a visible way of worship in the world that God did owne , honour , and manifest his Excellencies , and himselfe in , that it was this of the Congregationall ( now called Independent ) Discipline . The ignorance of the object indeed makes men no more in love with it , then they are ; ignoti nulla cupido ; but if the beauty of it be but in the Frontispeece , then every eye is upon it . O how does beauty shine in goodnesse ? like the Sun in a cleare Skie ? O glorious ! It is a Tradition that Noah being in the Arke , and having closed up all the windowes , had a most excellent Carbuncle , or precious stone , which gave them light all within . But it is a truth that Christ gives a most orient , radient lustre , light , and beauty to the object of every eye in the Churches of Christ : So that the beauty of his Tabernacles is most amiable , whilest beauty and naughtinesse blended together , doe shew like a Leprosie , the whiter the fouler . But thus farre for the Object . CHAP. X. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chhok . Every Church of Christ hath his Rule to bee ordered , fitted , formed , and squared by ; and how all the matter must bee measured by Christ's Rule , and what that is ? IN this beautifull building , wee have heard the matter , and the forme , and have found out the Churches fairnesse , objective i. e. from the presence of God in the middest of her . But now it remaines that the rule bee brought out to square by . For is not this the Carpenters Sonne ? the Sonne of Mary ? or will this Carpenter ? or rather the Builder of this Temple of the Lord , worke without his Rule ? no surely ; therefore , Rev. 11.1 . There was given me a reed , and the Angel said , rise and measure the Temple of God , and the Altar , and them that worship therein , &c. This Reed is the Rule , whereby the Platforme of the Lords Temple is measured out , and laid before us ; thus the valley of Succoth is measured out , Psal. 60.6 . So is it in Ezek. 43.10 . Let them measure the patterne of the Lords house . This worke will not bee well done without Rule , and that Rule must bee Christs too , which measures it out ; as might appeare by other Scriptures , Isa. 11.1 . Zach. 6.12.13 . Matth. 16.16 . So you may see in the Precept for it , Matth. 28.20 . What I have commanded . Christs commands are our rules ; Wisdom ( that is , Christ ) calls . Prov. 7.1 . Keep my words , and hear my Commandments : Keep them , that i● , so as diligently to observe them , as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tells us . So Prov. 8.1 , 2. Doth not wisdom cry ? and understanding put forth her voice ? she crieth at the gates ▪ &c. So my beloved spake , and said , Rise up my love , my fair one , and come away , Cant. 2.10 . It is the voice of my beloved , vers . 8. So in Psal. 45.10 . Besides , this hath been the practise of all true Churches , as in 1 Thes. 4.1 , 2. We beseech you as ye have received of us , so walk . How ? According to the Commandments we delivered to you , by the Lord Jesus Christ. For this is the will of God , &c. So 1 Cor. 11.2 . I praise you , that you keep ( or observe , remember , and obey ) the Ordinances , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Doctrines , Traditions , Precepts , &c. as I have delivered them unto you . Now how was that ? Paul did this not as a Head , or Law-giver , delivering his own Canons or Conclusions ; for in Vers. 3. I would have you know Christ is the Head. Now Vers. 23. as I have received of the Lord , so delivered I them unto you ; or , I have given them up unto you , ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) as appointed for that purpose . Now no others does Paul press upon them ; for as in 1 Tim. 6.3 , 4. If any man teach otherwise , and consent not to the wholesom words ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) ( or words sound ( sine vitio ) and healthful for the soul , which are the words of Christ , &c. ) withdraw from him , Vers. 5. Have nothing to do with such a one ; and why ? reason 1 Reason 1. Is because it is not in the power , or policy of men , though they be never so wise , learned , or lofty , to lay down precepts for the Saints practise ; or to set the way to worship God in , and by ; all this being beyond him , and too high for him . A Balaam could say , I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord , Numb . 22.18 . Should the Lord have left this to the wills and wits of men , what a most miserable Church-work should we have had ? For every man would have had his minde , and set reason 2 up his fancy . Reason 2. Wherefore , see how precisely it lies , in Exod. 25.40 . That they look to it , that all be made according to the pattern shewed upon the Mount. So that Moses must do nothing on his own head , in the Government of the Church , or by his own private authority , about the Tabernacle , but as the Lord Commanded ; Nor durst David , or Solomon do any thing in the Lords Temple , either in the building ▪ or ordering , or officers , or singers , &c. but all by direction from above , and according to the Laws of the Lord , who hath laid all , and lined all out by his own rules , and according to his own will , 2 Chron. 3.3 . Much less durst any ( whether Apostles , or others ) have undertaken it without direction from the Lord , and Christ's line , and rule ; this glorious building of the Gospel , so far exceeds the former . Reason 3. Wherefore the voice out of Heaven bid , hear him ; For he hath brought down from his Fathers bosom the pattern reason 3 of this ( new ) Jerusalem ; which is coming down from God out of Heaven . Hence , Acts 3.22 . Christ is called the Prophet like unto Moses , commissionated from the Lord to delineate unto us , and lay before us by plain and perfect rule , and line , whatsoever appertains to the true discipline , and worship of God. So in Isai. 9.7 . Of the increase of his Government shall be no end , to order it , and establish it , &c. Isai. 22.21 . I will commit his Government into his hand , &c. And he shall reign in righteousness , and rule in judgement , Isai. 32.1 . So in Zach. 6.13 . Even he shall build the Temple of the Lord , and he shall bear the glory , and he shall sit and rule upon his Throne , &c. Hence saith Christ , Matth. 28.18 . All ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) authoritative power is given me in Heaven and Earth . Go , therefore and teach them to observe all things that I have commanded you , and I will be with you to the end of the world . Wherefore God hath revealed his minde made forth by Christ in the Gospel , and that must be minded by all men , and Ministers , in this work ; that all that be laid upon the building , be first ●ewn fit , ordered , squared , and qualified , for this worship of Christ , ( both matter and manner ) by Christ his own rule . All other rules of the best , ablest , and wisest men will make but ( mud-walls ) mad work , unequal and uneven , being all too long , or too short , but Christs own . Vse 1. We finde by this , that Parishes are no Churches of vse 1 Christ's building ; never built according to Christs rule or directory , largely delivered in the Acts of the Apostles . For I have already proved , they are without warrant out of Gods Word , and that the Rule and Pattern of their Discipline is Antichristian , and drawn out of the whimsical doctrines , fanatick and fantastick Ordinances and Directories of mens brains . Wherefore come out , &c. For 2 John 9. whosoever abides not in , but transgresses from the doctrine of Christ , hath not God , &c. Wherefore V. 10. receive him not into your house , nor bid him God speed ; for whosoever biddeth him God speed , is partaker of his evil deeds . Neither are ye to own , or say , God speed to Parochial Constitutions , which are transgressions to the rules and laws of Christ , according to all the Scriptures I have produced , and hereafter shall . vse 2 Vse 2. Let none say then , we walk without rule , seeing the pattern of our house is measured by this Reed , as hath been proved , and will be more . vse 3 Vse 3. Let all Saints set themselves to observe Christs rule directly , without adding to it , or diminishing from it , Revel . 22.18 , 19. so far as they see , even to a pin . For in this Moses was accounted faithful , Heb. 3.2 . for that he had so exact a care according to the pattern in the building of the Tabernacle , Heb. 8.5 . I remember sweet Sibbs , in his breathing after God , Pag. 91. speaking of Gods house , sayes , House is taken for the persons , orders , and enjoyments in it , and government of it ( all gods ) which is all to be according to Christs rule . Let every Church of Christ keep close to the Revealed will. Far be it from the Saints to run the riot , with some refractory and unruly rugged ones ; so as to slight Christs rules , and to account it a bondage to be measured thereby , and ordered thereafter ; but I shall speak to them , in the Third Book . Yet Brightman on Rev. 12.1 . sayes , The Saints of Christ called into a Church , must , according to the Primitive pattern , be clothed with the Sun ( Christ ) crowned with the light of the Twelve Apostles ( Twelve S●ars ) and having the Moon , i. e. the light borrowed from the Sun ( Christ ) to shine in her pathes ; to direct her feet in her discipline , and worship . It will never be well with the Church , until gathered and ordered according to Christs rule , and then her paths shall glister by the Beams of the Sun. Let us therefore be thus minded , &c. as the Apostle says , Phil. 2.15 . and whereto we have attained , in Ver. 16. Walk by the same rule . The Lord Jesus Christ direct our way , 1 Thes. 3.11 . And as many as walk according to his rule , peace be on them , and mercy , and all the Israel of God , Gal. 6.16 . Amen . Thus we hear how requisite Christ's Rule is : and indeed , till then as the House will be built but ill-favoredly , and unskilfully : So the Ordinances of Christ will be there , but as the Ark was among the Philistims , rather prisoners , then priviledges ( as Trap sayes ; ) And indeed , I do fear they are so amongst some of your Formal Church-fellowships gathered , and Houses built up by unskilful workmen ; who were not so spirited for the work , as some will be shortly . But as the House , after it is built , stands firm without the builder , because he giveth the artificial order onely , and not the substantial being to the building ; so indeed , such Churches , as are built by Gospel rule and order , will stand firm , though the Pastors , or such ( whose Ministry was the means of making them so ) be no longer about them : But the good order and rule of Christ will continue and keep them up ; whilst such as go to gather a people , or to build without Christ's Rule , do but lay the brands together without tongs , and are sure to burn their own fingers at least , at last . CHAP. XI . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ammi-Nadib . Every man or woman that enters into Church-fellowship , must have a full , free , and clear consent , and be throughly satisfied , having a voluntary submission to all the Ordinances , and Orders of Christ in that Church , whereinto he or she is entring . THus as we do absolutely disclaim such as fall short of , and such as run beyond Christ's Rule in this Church-state on all sides , and that do de novo take up any practise without precept from Christ : So also we must see by what means Saints so qualified as before , are to be embodied together , which I shall more particularly pitch upon in Book 2. Chap. 2. But at present we shall prove , none , but such as are throughly satisfied of the way , and ( as being convinced ) can freely and voluntarily consent , are to enter into it . For we shall finde the Prophecies clear in this , Psal. 110.3 . Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power ; so in Isai. 2.2 , 3. they shall flow ( i. e. freely , unconstrained , by an instinct , as the tydes do , and of their own accord ) to the house of the Lord , and say , Come ; which signifies a freeness thereunto without compulsion . So Jer. 50.4 , 5 , &c. wherein their willingness shall appear ; in that they go , weep , and run , and seek , and enquire , and ask for the ways of Zion , and say , Come let us joyn our selves in a perpetual Covenant , &c. By all which , it is clear all they do ( in ordine ad communionem Evangel . ) is done by a voluntary consent and concurrence . So Micah 4.12 . so Zach. 2.11 . so joyning themselves , is in the Hebrew , A mutually giving up themselves together with the knowledge and consent one of another ; And thus in the third Chapter of Zephaniah verse nine , They shall all call upon the Name of the Lord , and shall serve him with one consent . Besides all these , Wisdom ( Christ ) calls for this in Prov. 23.26 . My son give me thy heart : And thus it is intended in Barnabas's exhortation , That with purpose of heart , ( that is , the decree of the will ) they should cleave unto the Lord. In this sence is mentioned so many comings of poor souls unto Christ , and so many calls in Scriptures to come , Matth. 11.27 . Joh. 6.35 , 37. unto him ; and in Luke 9.23 . If any man will come after me , let him deny himself , take up the Cross , &c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Is as much as to say , such as will come according to Christs call and command , must come freely , affectionately , and with fervency of desire , ( Importat simul affectionem , affectationem & acceptationem ) therefore they must deny themselves , ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. ) that is , Let him not have ends to come for , nor principles to come from off his own ; but let him have ( as it were ) no reason of his own , for , or from himself to induce him thereunto , which is an hard saying to some . For the word is an accurate compound , noting more then an ordinary or single self-denial , ( Abnege● , i. e. Omnino nege● : ) Now none others come to Christ to follow him , in fellowship with him , according to his call and commands , but such as were freely carried forth , even from their own reasons ( if need require ) into a voluntary consent , and coming into union and communion with the Saints : Which also in all ages is proved by the Churches practise . Shall we look a little into the Typical Tabernacles , and it is a truth therein ; viz. All that then offered , were to be free , and to do it voluntarily , ( i. e. not violently , or constrained thereunto ) therefore Exod. 25.2 . O! every man that giveth it willingly with his heart , ye shall take my offerings . And Vers. 8 , 9. Let them make me a Sanctuary that I may dwell among them , according to all that I shewed after the pattern , &c. This is also a good Gospel-rule , and it is a moral , reasonable service I shall show ; but so in Exod. 35.5 . Whosoever is of a willing heart , let him bring his offering . Vers. 22. They came both men and women , as many as were willing-hearted , ( none else came warrantably ) and Vers. 29. The children of Israel brought a willing offering unto the Lord , every man and woman , whose heart made them willing ; which the Lord had commanded . And in 2 Chron. 29.5 . Who then is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the Lord ? Vers. 6 , 7. They offered willingly for the service of the Lords house ; but need I be so long ? In Nehemiahs days , chap. 4.6 . So built they the wall , &c. For the people had a minde to work ; notwithstanding the oppositions and great enemies , and discouraging difficulties , were enough to daunt them . So ( I say in all ages ) Saints did freely and willingly ( without the least compulsion ) to unite and embody together , and enter into fellowship ; as it is said , Jo. 6.21 . they willingly received him into the ship . So when Christ called his Disciples into this Church-state , they came willingly , and by a free-consent , Matth. 4.20 , 22. presently , and without lingring , or delay , or asking counsel of their Father or Friends . So Matth. 19.27 . so Gal. 1.15 , 16. and such as were pricked at their hearts , with the word of grace , in Acts 2.37 . did so in Vers. 41. gladly , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( i. e. willingly ) receive the word , and being baptized , entered into fellowship . So in Acts 8. & 11. & 13. & 14 , &c. And thus the Church of Corinth were gathered , and thus the Churches of Macedonia , 2 Cor. 8.3 , 5. who were willing of themselves ; and they did ( sayes Paul ) give up their selves to the Lord , and then unto us by the will of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is freely , and cheerfully , and willingly . Thus the Church of Thessalonica were examples to all Beleevers in Macedonia and Achaia , for their readinesse and willingnesse ; wee might instance all along , and confirme this abundantly by examples and reasons , but that I shall bee too tedious ; yet the truth is , should we not , with a free , and by a voluntary consent serve the Lord in this his worship , and enter into the beauties of holinesse ; reason 1 First , We should fall short of all Worshippers , even of false gods , and the very Heathens would rise up against us : For nature it selfe teaches us to worship God willingly , and the Scripture teaches us much more willingnesse in the true worship of the true God , Joh 4.23 . reason 2 Secondly , otherwise his Worship would bee as a bandage to us ; for when it is tedious to men , Mal. 3.14 . then they are soon weary with well-doing . And besides , thirdly , they be Hypocrites , and will never reason 3 hold fast , but fall off fearfully , that enter not in freely and fully satisfied , 1 Joh. 2.9 , 10. and perswaded in their owne soules by the Spirit of the Lord , Monendo , movendo , & removendo , instructing , moving , and removing all the lets . Vse 1 Then the weapons of our warfare are not then ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) carnall , fleshly , worldly , or the like ; Not by might , not by power , but by my Spirit , saith the Lord , Zach. 4.6 . wherefore wee finde no need of compulsive Powers , whereby Parochiall constitutions were kept alive so long , viz. by Powers to compell men by stocks , prisons , fines , pillories , and punishments , and whether they will or no to make them keep their Parish-Churches , and Ecclesiasticall Canons , whilst alas ! it is the Spirit convinces us of the truth , Joh. 16.8.9 . and constraines us to the truth , Job . 32.18 . and makes men worshippers in the truth , Joh. 4.32 . Vphold me with thy free Spirit , saith David , Psal. 51.12 . and that the Spirit makes men free in the truth , and the truth in them , see Joh. 8.32 , 33.36 . 2 Cor. 3.17 . It is not all the beating , or bruising , whipping , or punishing in the world , will perswade the conscience , convince the heart , or convert the sinner . Thus men may be made Hypocrites , and play the devils out of feare of torment , but not Saints or true worshippers till the Spirit makes them willing ; therefore give to Caesar what is Caesars , and to Christ what is Christs . As honest old Cartwright said to Whitgift , You would bring in the Magistrates to breake and change the orders which Christ our King and Lawgiver hath left in his Church ; For as Christ came not to meddle with , or overthrow the Civill-government , neither must your Civill Magistrates or Civill Governours meddle with the matters or affaires of Christs Church , Christ alone being Lawgiver therein ; so that such would alter and overthrow Church-order , and Government : for which Christ will give them but little thanks at last , and will requite it to them by the overthrowing of theirs ; and for this end the Rod is in his hand at this day . Now who knoweth not , that the office of the Magistrate consists in those things that belong to our life and goods , and is to bee kept within the compasse of a Civill jurisdiction : Hence it is that Azariah cast out Vzziah out of the holy place , and that because it was not proper for a Prince , but for the high-Priest , 2 Chron. 26.16 . Lev. 13.46 . Let Rulers in their relations , and Church-officers in theirs , bee found faithfull . Vzziahs pride is expresly noted , 2 Chro. 26.16 . for usurping the Priest-hood in the Temple of God , but he escaped not scotfree , for he was suddenly smitten with the Leprosie , and laid out for an example to after ages . On the other side , our Saviour refused to meddle with Civill Magistracy , or with matters of that kinde , a Kingdome being offered him , Jo. 6.8 . hee could not accept of it , nor would he handle Civill-matters so much as to divide the heritage between the brethren , it being not his office , Luke 12. Now let none usurpe , but let the Civill keepe within his Civill-precinct , and the Spirituall within his compasse and sphere . And yet the Civill is to submit to the Spirituall ( and in a spirituall sense the Ecclesiasticall ) Discipline being above it . As Philip the Emperour , whom we read of in Euseb. 4. lib. Eccles. Hist. being commanded to abstaine from breaking of bread , and suspended untill his repentance were seen ( being guilty of some sins ) willingly obeyed , and lay low before the Lord , and did not dare to partake of it , untill his sinnes were answered by sorrows sutably in the sight of all , and till hee had both openly delivered his griefe , and evidently declared his faith before all . Besides Theodosius Emperour ( in 5. lib. Eccles. Hist. of Eusebius ) is eminent for his most ready and religious obedience to Ambrose his exhortations and reproofe , which brought him prostrate upon his knees , and flat upon his face before the Lord with teares , and prayers . I owne nothing of Superstition observed in those dayes , onely this is that I aime at , that all our Magistrates may know they are under Christs Discipline and Jurisdiction , and not Christ under theirs . Yet this may our Magistrates ( whom we honour ) ever know , that it is their duty and proper to them to make provision for the Church of Christ ( principally ) and to improve their Authority for the preserving of Christs Kingdome and Gods Church and service : And for this David , Solomon , Josiah , Ezekiah , and others of the Rulers of Israel were registred famous ; Not that they are ( in the least ) to force mens consciences into a consent and compliance with their own wayes or worships , or to rack them into a Religion : God forbid ! For Luke 9.5.4.55 , 56. Christ came not to destroy mens lives , but to save them . And wee must with all meeknesse instruct them that oppose , if peradventure ( though it bee much in question ) that God will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth , and to be recovered out of the snares of the Devill , 2 Tim. 2.24 , 25 , 26. even as the word ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) is , the hottest adversaries of the truth ; even such are deliberately to be dealt with , and gently intreated , unlesse ▪ the Laws should seize upon them on Civil accounts for transgressions , and as ( Civil ) disturbers of the peace , or the like ; but I meet with a stop by some sturdy stickler for Coercive Power . Object . Luke 14.23 . The Lord sayes , Compell them to come in , that my house may be filled . Ans. Who doth the Lord speake to ? They are the Lords servants who are commanded to it , i. e. not Civill Magistrates , but the Messengers of the Gospel , sent out to gather Guests into the Kings house ; now this is not meant by prisons , punishments , or the like ; But , 2 The word is , ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) i. e. shew them a necessity ( vi & efficacia rationum , Grotius in loc . ) of comming into my house . Win them with arguments , that as they that want bread see a necessity , or are compelled to go to Market , so may these . And thus is it , in Matth. 22.9 . Bid them , that is , invite them ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) call them , with undeniable winning words , and with forcing arguments ; in which sense wee are to compell them as much as wee may , with the weapon of the word , and strength of truth . But before I finish this Chapter , let not the Civill Magistrates imagine in the least , that this Discipline of the Church doth derogate a tittle from their just rights which is the false suggestion of our Adversaries of old against us , as Ezra 4.7 , 8. and verse 16. they said to the King , if these men goe on , then thou wilt lose thy right and portion . Thus the Presidents conspired against Daniel , Dan. 6.6.7 . and accused him for a Rebell , verse 12. But as wee have , wee shall and will ( and dare not doe otherwise then ) be subject unto them , even for conscience sake , Rom. 13.1 . But wee shall meet with more of this hereafter ; In the meane time Saints are compelled . Secondly , By the sweet insinuations and powerfull perswasions of the Spirit of Christ ; they are constrained into the vse 2 house of God , and they are voluntarily knit together into one ; which Sibs sweetly shewes necessary , in his Treatise before named , page 91. Now when the Spirit prevailes , they are to enter into practise , and then they doe it with abundance of sweetnesse , satisfaction , freenesse , and readinesse ; and this is requisite in all that would bee gathered according to the Gospel : It is God which worketh in you both to will , and to doe , Phil. 2.13 . And hee perswades Japhet to dwell in the Tents of Shem , not otherwise forcing them ; so that wee grant such a kinde of compulsive powers : But as all Controversies are about meum and teum , even so it is as to this : And a little thing will make the Magistrate challenge it , because hee is ( for the most part ) inclined to it ; A little clap with the hand sets on an eager Mastive , but the force of staves cannot loosen him ; wherefore I advise men to bee wise , how they set on Secular powers to interpose , or imp●se in matters of Religion , as to tender Consciences ; some are busie herein , who are like the Bustard in a fallow field , that cannot rise high , sine vi turbinis , without the Whirlewind of such a Tempest ; ( for so I account it will bee to the Church ) and then like squibs in a throng , they flye out on all sides . But I hope our Magistrates will be more wise then to runne the hazard of so imminent wrath of God. For as I have read of the Tyrians in Alexanders time , when he had besieged them , that the iron they put into the Forge ( for to use against the enemy ) even whilst it was in the fire , was seen full of drops of blood ( sayes Quintus Curtius ) and so have been , and will be the weapons that are used against consciences . It is sad ! when ungodly great ones must sit as Judges of the greatly godly ones . Many men are like the Lawyer that pleaded strongly for his Client , but before the day of hearing , hee was advanced to the Be●●ch , and made the Judge ; but then he adjudged it to the other side ; saying before he was an Advocate , and pleaded for his Client , but now he was his Judge . Thus Polititians doe , who like A●●alus have planted many herbs , to poyson ( true spirituall ) piety , but to practise policy ; And like curious Cookes build up with their hands high , but with their teeth tear low . These like the Wolfe answer the Lambe , that pleaded her innocency . It is true , thy cause is better then mine , but my teeth are harder then thine . But God is ingaged against such Powers , and Policies ▪ vide chap. 13. Thus much for this Chapter . CHAP. XII . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Halal and Hodh . The End of Saints so embodied together as before , being a true Church of Christ , for Matter and Forme , Object , and Rule , as before , is the Glory of God , and to set forth his praises in Christ , and his Churches . THe rightest-line is the shortest ; I would have mine both short and right , wherefore I feare lest my too much haste make mee run awry . Every wise man proposes to himselfe an End in all things , and the more wise hee is in this point , the more hee imitates and resembles the Lord ; hence said the Psalmist , Psal. 37.37 . Marke the perfect and up right , for his end is peace . And verse 38. The end of the wicked is to be cut off , therefore marke him . The End is the first and principall thing to bee minded , and looked after ; not so much the present motion , station , or action ; as what the end of this , or that , will be , or what it is , is aimed at , and intended ; For there is a Way that promises peace and prosperity to a man , and all w●ll , but the end is death , Prov. 16.25 . So a thing may be but hastily begun , and the end of it be bitter , and not blessed , Prov. 20 , 21. All things in the Creation , as well as in the Re-creation , have one and the same ultimate end , which all Saints should have in all their practices , purposes and proposals to themselves . The end , though last in the execution , yet is first in the intention ( in omnibus agendis , &c. ) and this is an undoubted truth : Now ( agere prudenter ) to do wisely , is ( adhibito certo fine ) to have before us fixed an honorable end , and answerable to the business we are about . Now our end in all things must be the same with Gods end in all , viz. The glory of God ; no other end is honorable enough for us to aim at : Hence it is said , He created every one for his glory , Isa. 43.7 . and in Prov. 16.4 . The Lord made all for himself , yea , the wicked , &c. i. e. The final cause of the Creation was his praise and glory , so is it of his gubernation , our redemption , and salvation , and whatsoever we can say , hath all the same end , which we are to aim at ; viz. The setting forth the praises of God. Hence in so many Psalmes , especially in Psalme one hundred forty eight , David doth invoke all things , and all Creatures in heaven and earth to praise the Lord , but above all he calls on the Saints , which is as much as to say , in especiall manner it must be their end in all , and by all , and to doe all to his praise and glory , 1 Cor. 10.31 . so that Gods Angels , Saints , and all men , and all Creatures humane or heavenly , ( as they are God's ) all have the same end , and that end is the honour and glory of God. Now Saints have ( most especially ) this finall cause commanding them unto , and commending them into this Gospel-Church-state , this being their maine end , and mighty designe , to set forth the praise and glory of God. This truth triumphs in armour of proofe out of Prophecies , Precepts , and practises with others . For first , in Isa. 35.10 . The ransomed of the Lord shall come to Zion with songs , and everlasting joy , Isa. 51.11 . & ver . 3. joy and gladnesse shall be found therein , thankes-giving , and the voyce of melody , and they shall mention the Lords loving kindnesses , and the praises of the Lord , &c. Isa. 63.7 . thus in Cant. 8.2 . the Church gives her Beloved to drinke of her spiced cup , i. e. praise composed of the spices or graces of his owne Spirit ; and here is also juyce of the Pomegranats running out like little Rivers , most sweet and acceptable unto the Lord. So Cant. 7.12 , 13. and Cant. 4.16 . the end of her request is for the spices to flow out , and that the Beloved may eate of his pleasant fruits . This promise is also in that Prophecie of Jeremy 15.19 . to comfort the cast-downe Prophet in his affliction , the Lord promises , when the precious are taken from the vile , they shall be as his mouth , i. e. filled with Hallelujahs of praises and honours , and glory unto God. So in Jer. 30.17 , 19. This is Zion , whom no man seeketh after , shall set forth his praises , ver . 19. And out of them shall proceed thankesgiving , and the voyce of them that make merry ; thus Zeph. 3.9 . I will turne to the people a pure Language ( a lip ) and what then ? they shall call upon the name of the Lord ( often read they shall praise the Lord ) with one consent . This is fore-told in many chapters of the Revelations , chap. 11.15.17 . chap. 14.2.3 . and in Revel . 21.11 . This new Jerusalem which is ( now ) coming downe , hath the glory of God to fill her , and ver . 23 , &c. you shall finde the Types both of the Arke , Tabernacle , and Temple to fore-tell this was to be the end of every Church under the Gospel , in 2 Chron. 5.13 , 14. wherein they had Musicke and Melodies , Trumpets and Singers , all as one shouting out one sound of praises and thankesgiving to the Lord , and then the house of the Lord was filled with his glory . Now much more is this new Jerusalem , and so are these Gospel-temples for the praises and glory of God ; Praise waites for thee in Zion , Psal. 65.1 . and to thee shall the vowes be performed , i. e. to thee in Zion , as if Zion only were for the same purpose ; and in Psal. 67.2 , 3. Let thy way be knowne upon earth , and then followes , Let the people praise thee , O God. So Psal. 70.4 . Let all those that seeke the Lord rejoyce , and be glad in thee , and let such as love thy salvation , say continually , Let God be magnified . Thus is that in 2 Thes. 1.11 , 12. We pray for you , that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you , and yee in him , according to the grace of our God , and the Lord Jesus Christ ; by all which it appeares , Praises are expected , and required from all the Saints in Zion . So Hebr. 13.15 . Let us offer praises continually , with all the cohabitants in the Gates of Zion , which hath been in all Ages , being it is for that purpose they are enchurched , as in 1 Pet. 2.9 . yee are a chosen Generation , a royal Priesthood , a peculiar ( purchased ) people ; and why ? for what end ? That ye should shew forth the praises of him , who hath called you out of darkness , into his marvellous light , &c. So in Isai. 64.10 , 11. Zion our holy and beautiful house , where our fathers praised thee , &c. So Matth. 11 , 25. Heb. 2.12 . sayes Christ , I will sing praise unto thee in the midst of the Church . Eph. 3.21 . Vnto him be glory in the Church , by Christ Jesus , throughout all ages , world without end , Amen . So that by all these Scriptures , appears the final cause of Gods calling out of darkness into light , out of the world , into the Kingdom of Christ ; out from them without , to Saints so embodied ( as before ) within . I say the supream and ultimate end , is to the setting forth of the praises and glory of God , as a peculiar people , in a peculiar manner . Although I deny not , but we are to aim at the edifying one another in Christ , furthering of one another in the things of salvation , watching over , comforting and counselling of , delighting and rejoycing in one another ; and having fellowship with the Father and the Son , 1 Joh. 1.3 . enjoying his presence there more especially , 1 Cor. 6.26 . and provoking one another to love , and good lives , Heb. 10.24 . 1 Cor. 1 9. Yet this of glorifying of God is the main , most , and moving end ; and all other things we aim at , are but in subordination unto this ( in ordine ad gloriam Dei , ) and good reason for it , as will hereafter appear ; for they have most cause for it , being the Redeemed reason 1 ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) and openly and apparently the Ransomed ones , as in Revel . 5.9 . And they are most capable of it too , Psal. 33.1 , 3. & 53.6 . being they have most reason 2 understanding , Psal. 47.7 . and are most unfeigned without flatteries , Revel . 14.5 . having no guile , or as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is , no Hypocrisie , falshood , ( for mentiri is contra mentem ire ) reason 3 no defect of that nature , Hebrew , Mum , Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is found in their mouths ; but it is found so in the multitudes . Besides , reason 4 because they are the Virgins that follow the Lamb , Rev. 14.4 . Virgins have the fin●st and sweetest voices , and tunes , and songs , ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hid , and unknown to them , without , that are but men ; so Saints are hidden ones , or as in Hebrew Porah , the fruitfullest , and followers of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into all conditions . ) Now they know best the notes of high and low conditions , and dispensations ; and they onely keep the tune best , according reason 5 to the times they live in . Besides , they have grace in their hearts , and have Christ dwelling in them richly and abundantly , Col. 3.16 . Now such in their praises to God ( which is their hardest and highest duty of a Christian ) do return of his own fulness , ( and commodities in kinde ) grace for grace , Joh. 1.16 . and glorifie God , Psal. 50.23 . Whilst mixt Congregations ( abundantly ) abase God , and rob him of his honor ; and in their best services and sacrifices , bringing him rather the ratlings ( or what they can spare ) then the fatlings of their lives every day ; or the calves of their lips , lives , and loves . Vse 1. It appears then by the bright beams of our Sun use 1 which shines in the Scripture-Elements in this Hemisphere of his Church here below ; That Parishes in this point are far from true Churches ; They fall short of the final cause , not considering what conduces most to Gods glory ; but what is most for their advantage and gain ( this is the godliness of most Parochially opinionated ; ) In your Parishes prophane ones all sorts of sinners , swearers , drunkards , whoremasters , &c. are all suffered , as of their Churches ( which ought not to keep in , or ( if they creep in ) ought to be cast out of Christs-Church , wherein God is most to be glorified . I say in such a Church as consists of Saints separated as before , and that will not ( willingly or knowingly ) admit of , or keep in carnal , and openly sinful men , &c. Or thus , The Members of Christs Church are the fittest to set forth the praises of God ; but the Members of that Church , which consists of Saints separated and qualified ( as before ) are the fittest to set forth his praises : Ergo , &c. Parishes are excommunicated for such a rabble-rout , as have , and yet do rob God of his due honor , and praise , and glory . But , Use 2. Better is the End of a thing , then the beginning , Eccl. use 2 7.8 . Wherefore come forth ye that fear the Lord from those Dungeons of darkness , those Babylons of unbelievers , and lewd livers , and Synagogues of Satan ; what is the fruit of those things whereof we are now ashamed ? And dearest hearts ! whom I bear in my bosom , before my Father ! are any of you fond of Zion ? see that your End be good , and then that the means be conducing and answerable thereunto . The End , though first and principal in your intention , yet is the last and ultimate in the execution ; yea , this End , viz. the glory and praise of God , is to be the Alpha and Omega , the first and last of all , or else our best will be but ( frustra agere ) bad in our building . Wherefore Friend consider , what is it we promise or propose to our selves ? sayes our Saviour Christ , Luke 14.28 , 30 , &c. Which of you , intending to build a Tower , sits not down first to count the cost ? If he can finish it ? Least he be mocked , and it be said , he began to build , but could not finish it . This is but ordinary wisdom to weigh the End first ; and whither you can accomplish it , or not ; or are fit to go through stitch with it , or not ; or else , what a scandal will you bring to the Gospel ? and dishonor to him whose name you profess ? Consider the End of your conversation , Heb. 13.7 . that is , Look wishfully upon it , ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) consider , what is the end of your ways , walking , &c. is all for Gods honor and glory . 2. This must be the principal End of your entring into the Church of Christ , to honor him , with the same honor , wherewith the Son honored the Father , and you shall receive the end of your faith , viz. salvation , 1 Pet. 1.9 . To conclude , Sing praises ! sing praises ! like the Nightingale , who spends whole nights ( in her kinde ) to sing forth the praises of God , as if the day were too short ; every Man must be a Preacher , every Creature a Text , every Occasion a Doctrine , every Blessing a Reason , every Providence a Proof , every Thanksgiving an Use , Men and Angels the Auditors , and the whole Sermon is Gods honor and glory . And yet how many like unwise Archers shoot , and know not at what mark : And others , vile wretches ! praise with their mouths ; but they are like Samsons honey out of the mouth of a Beast ; or like the Quarester that sung Gloria Patri in the Church , and Carmina B●ccho in the Tavern ; others there be that would blazon our Christs Arms , ( Herald like ) but it must be their own device . But the best flower in these Gardens enclosed to make God a Garland with , is the Coronation flower , to lay all our crown and glory at his feet . When Thales had learnt Mandrita the Philosopher an admirable invention of the motion of the Heavens , Oh Sir , sayes Mandrita , how shall I requite you ? No way , sayes Thales Milesius , but by acknowledging , you learnt it of me . So the Lord requires of us , to give him the glory of all ; we learn in his Churches , by his Spirit , of the motions of the Heavens . CHAP. XIII . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alluph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Of the true Church rightly defined ; that Christ alone is the Master , Builder , Ruler , Repairer , Head of Gold , Lord , Law-giver , without any other Partner , Paramount , Competitor , or Corrival whatsoever . THen the Reed , which hath measured both the true and false Church state , presents unto us as vaste a disproportion and difference , in all particulars ( essential ) as is possible , between Parishes and true Churches . For from the Essential , Material , Formal , Objective , Organical , and Final causes ; we finde the Church of Christ lies thus defined , from the false Antichristian Church ( which also we shall define by the rule of contraries ) The true Church of Christ then is ▪ 1. A society of Believers sanctified in Christ Jesus ; 2. Separate from the world , false-ways , and worships , united together into one Body , Independent ; or having a plenary power within its self , without the least subordination , to any but Christ ; 3. having the special presence of God , in the midst of her ; 4. and being gathered and ordered by Christs rule alone ; 5. all her Members freely , and voluntarily , embodying without the least compulsion ( having communion with the Father and the Son , ) 6. all seeking the same End , viz. The honor and glory of God in his worship . Herein , though at length , yet in strength , have we as full a definition of Christs Church as I can collect , and it is a compendium of what I have hitherto delivered in these Leaves : Now on the other side . An Antichristian Church is a mixed number of the multitudes of the world , not allowing the difference between the holy and prophane , being subordinate to a Prelatick power , without the most spirituall presence of God ; being gathered and ordered by the Rules and Directories of men , and maintained by Civill and Coercive powers , not seeking the setting forth the praises of God as a peculiar people , with one consent . Now as Antichrist hath his Throne therein , and sits and swayes , as Lord and Lawgiver ; so in the Assembly of Saints Christ hath set his Throne , and he alone is Lord , Head , and Law-giver of his Church , which is the point I am now upon : And all this ( and more then this ) I shall prove too by Prophesies , Precepts , and Practises in all Churches . To begin with Isa. 9.6 . And the government shall be upon his shoulders , his name shall be called Wounderfull , Counsellour , the mighty God , &c. Verse 7. Of the encrease of Government shall be no end , he shall sit upon his Throne , and Kingdome to order it , and to establish it , &c. Isa. 22.21 , 22. I will commit thy Government into his hand , and he shall be a Father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem , and the Key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulders , so hee shall open , and none shall shut , and he shut , and none open . The Key to let into the Kingdome of Christ is the Spirit , Rev. 3.7 , 8. and where the Spirit is , there is Liberty , 2 Cor. 3.16.18 . and the Sonne makes free indeed , Joh. 8. from hence it is , Saints are all let into one body , by one Spirit , 1 Cor. 11.13 . and through the Spirit are become an habitation to the Lord , Eph. 2.22 . so the Keyes mentioned in Matth. 16 ▪ 19. to open and shut are declared , Joh. 20.22 . to be the Holy Ghost , and thereupon whose sinnes they remit ( or the Church forgives ) are forgiven , but whom yee doe not , are not ; that is , by the Holy Ghost , being the Key ; the meaning is , during the direction of the Spirit , yee ( the Church ) have the Key to open and shut ; binde and loose , which is laid upon the shoulder of Christ , and acted by his Authority ; For he is the Ruler and Instituter thereof . Hence also in Zach. 6.12.13 . And hee shall build the Temple of the Lord , and he shall beare the glory , and shall sit and rule upon his Throne , &c. None but Christ hath this Commission from the Father to rule here , Matth. 11.27 . Matth. 28.18 . all ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) authoritative power is his . Hence it is we are called continually upon in order to positive Precept , to submit to his Scepter , acknowledge his Sovereignty , and Zach. 9.9 . Cant. chap. 3.11 . Psal. 2.12 . and royall Prerogative , 1 Tim. 6.15 . James 2.1 . and onely Headship , Col. 1.1.18 . and 2.19 . Eph. 1.22 . and 5.23 . which hath been the zeale of true Churches against all Opposers . As the Apostles said , Acts 5.29.31 . to the Priests and others , that commanded them to preach no more Christ , We ought to obey God rather then men , who hath exalted Christ to be a Prince and Saviour ; and we are his witnesses . But this will appear by and by : In the interim , It is in all reason ( as well as in Religion ) that Christ alone rule as Head , and Law-giver , seeing none but Christ was able to institute this Gospel-Church-state ; therefore none but hee , is to order it ; both which appears in the proofes above . Now there is not a Man alive , neither Moses , David , nor S●lomon , had understanding enough , to undertake such a taske ; no nor Christ himselfe , as man meerly in abstracto , no nor all the Angels in heaven , onely the Sonne of God , that fetched it from the Fathers bosome . First , This typified Salomon his own self ( as I may say ) with his own hands ) Cant. 3.9 . as with his own head , builds this Chariot of Lebanon , for were it left to mens wisdome or wills , what a Chimaera , or Monster , must of necessity be set up in the sight of all . Secondly , And surely every man would abuse and beat his Brother , and bring him into the hottest furnace , that did not fall downe to his Image , and bow down to that Babel which is in his breast . Thirdly , Besides ability would bee deficient in the best of men about such a worke ; so much rubbish is to be removed , that men might breake their backs , but doe no good of it ; for as in a house fallen to the ground , before the foundation of it ( though it be good ) be found out for another superstructure , or to build upon it a new , the old heaps and confusions that hinder the comming at the foundation to build upon , must bee removed , and carried out of the way , which will cost continuall labours , and perplexable paines too ; and the longer these heaps have lay , the more setled , and the greater the toyl , and the time will be to bring them off Now there is no building untill this , for then the foundation , and the building will be dis-united , and the building being laid upon the rubbish cannot continue , without Christ carry away the ruines and rubbish ( which have lay so long for above a thousand yeers ) of this fallen Church-estate of Christ ( I meane so to men ) we must say as Nehem. 4.10 . We are not able to build . O what abundance of false conceptions ! sinister thoughts ! harsh censures ! resolute carriages ! carnall reasons ! and what loud and large 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 10.4 , 5. and corrupt imaginations ! in most men must be removed , before they can be built cleare upon ( Christ ) the Foundation ! Now it is not by might , nor by power , but by my Spirit , saith the Lord ; unlesse the Lord build the house , they labour but in vaine that would build it , Psal. 127.1.2 . None but Christ by his Spirit can remove these ruinous Masses & strong holds of carnal reasonings , and corrupt resolutions against his Church-way , which is according to the order and Discipline of the Gospel : whence it is ( as before ) I am free to affirme , that none else is fit to rule , rectifie , and order in his Church , hee being Lord and Master , and onely Head thereof ; he is owned as the Master , Joh. 13.13 , 14. Ephes. 4.4 , 5 , 6. Matth. 10.24 . Mat. 23.18 . For First , Masters may , and must have the commands of , or rather over their servants , and will not suffer them to bee their owne Masters ; or to Lord it over others , or to have more Masters in his service . Thus the Saints have but one Lord , Eph. 4.4 , 5. that is , Jesus Christ , who can command them ( as having the Royall Prerogative ) and they owe him all equall obedience in their places , and to their powers . Secondly , Masters set servants their work , and appoint them their places , so doth Christ our Master tels us where wee must worke , Mat. 21.28 . and what work we must do , Mark 13.34 . for though wee have all but one calling , Eph. 4.4 . and are called all into one hope , yet some walk , and worke in one place of the vineyard , and some in another , as he hath appointed , and according to the gift and graces of Christ , Rom. 12.6 , 7. Eph. 4.7 . 1 Cor. 12.4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8.11 . Thirdly , Masters make provision for their servants , to give them good rayment , tools to worke with , and all things convenient for them ; thus Christ makes provision for his servants , Isa. 65.13 , 14. Psal. 132.15 . hee gives them their daily bread , Joh. 6.48.50 . Spiritual food , and Spirituall drinke , 1 Cor. 10.4 . Water of life , Joh. 4.14 . Fatlings , Mat. 22. yea and feasts them with fat things , Isa. 25.9 . and Wines fresh , Cant. 2.4.6 . Prov. 31 6. and well refined ; hee cloaths them with finest robes , and richest fashions , Isa. 61 10. Mat. 22.12 . and finds instruments and tools fit for the worke hee sets them about in his building , especially Faith , without which they can doe nothing to hold , Cant. 3.7 , 8. 2 Cor. 10.4 . and his rule which they worke by is his Word . Fourthly , As a Master , Christ payes his servants honestly to a penny , Mat. 20.9 . Luke 10.7 . Christ will not keep backe the least reward , crowne , honour , or glory from them when they have done their work , yea , hee alwayes gives them some before-hand too , out of his Treasury and fulnesse , Joh. 1.14 . &c. Fifthly , As a Master , hee hath the honour , name and credit of their worke , all runnes in his name , and for his honour , Mal. 1.6 . Joh. 5.23 . Joh. 12.26 . as a Master-builder , that receives the money for all , that is wrought , though by his servants labours also , so ought we to ascribe all to Christ in praises and graces , prizing him in all things , and for all things that his servants do . Sixthly , As a Master , hee walkes round his servants , and is a wall about them , to keep them , and defend them , from those that would offend them , and wrong them ; and hee keeps them off them that would hinder them in the doing the worke of the Lord which is in building , Zach. 6.4 . Psal. 121.5 . Isa. 27.3 . Cant. 2.15 . hee will suffer none to doe them the least wrong , Ps. 105.14 . lest his worke should lye still , or be done negligently , Jer. 48. Seventhly , and lastly , As a Master , one word from his mouth is of more force then all the Masters in heaven and earth besides , therefore Christs servants would know his minde , and doe not minde what others ( as reason , world , carnall wisdome , parts , or policy of men ( which are strangers to the Saints ) do say , 1 Cor. 7.23 . Matth. 25.9 . Col. 2.20 , 21. Whither shall we go from thee ? saith Peter , Joh. 6.68 . we would hear thee , and not to listen to the Laws and Commandments of men , Hosea 5.11 . Isai. 29.13 . or any other in thy work , worship , and service . Thus we see him the Master of the work , and why he is so ; wherefore his order and direction must be taken , and onely his , Isa. 61.8 . If we would have the building stand , and the work according to his will. But Objection . Pauls says , 1 Cor. 3 10. as a Wise master-builder , I have laid the foundation . Answ. Negat . Paul sayes not , I am the Master of this building laid ; but Affirmat : saith , as a Master-builder doth , so have I done ; so that he draws onely a simile from the Master-builder , and calls not himself the Master-builder ; but as a Wise master-builder doth ; 1. with much pains ( and removals of much dung , dross , filth , and rubbish , to make way ) lay the foundation , well , deep , and sure , before he builds ; so have I done : And as he will be sure , the foundation be of sound substance that will not rot , decay , sink , or endanger the building that is upon it ; so am I sure : And as he that is a wise builder begins at the foundation , and so from thence builds upwards , and onward ; and doth not begin at a wall , or window , or side , or top ; so sayes Paul , I build from ( Christ ) the foundation , upward , and onward , which , first , I have laid ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) or put into your hearts , the ( prima initia fidei ) fundamentals of truth , for others to have after to build upon ; So that I began ( saith he ) at the foundation , not at the roof , as now many ranting Ministers do ; and so do what they can , in their high and lofty strains of building ; they must build downward , unless they could lay a foundation in the air ; which some fancy ( foolishly ) to themselves . And then fourthly , As a wise Master-builder , that is , one of much ( if not most ) experience and judgement , and of abilities ; so , saith he , I do not onely lay down directions , ( as I have received from Christ , 1 Cor. 11.23 . ) and reasons , demonstrations , and rules for others ; but improve also all my experiences , skill , and labor also , and take pains my self ; with tears and prayers , day and night ; I lay out my strength with sweat , and swink ; by practise , as well as by preaching to build you up , in the ways of godliness , and truth . And lastly , I am as a Master-builder , an Overseer of the Churches of Christ , that they be in order , and be built up according to the Rules of Christ , and that they mend what is amiss , as a steward in trust for that end , and purpose , 1 Cor. 4.1 . Whence you see in what sense Paul is said to be as a wise Master-builder , in and about the house of God : But none unless Christ Jesus can be said to be the Master of the building ; and we are his Servants , as I said before : wherefore Rom. 14.18 . he that in these things serveth Christ , is acceptable to God , and approved of men . Next , Christ is Lord , Acts. 2. Christ is not onely the Master-builder , but the Lord over his Church and people ; which is much more , Acts 2.36 . Eph. 4.5 . Col. 3.24 . 1 Cor. 2.8 . & 6.14 . I shall tell you , first , how he is Lord ; and then secondly , what manner of Lord he is ? and then thirdly , what we should be under him in that relation ? 1. He is Lord by power ; Lordship is properly jus in rebus , & personis ; a right in things and persons : Now this right is by power , principally ; which ( potestas est fundamentum relationis Dominii ) is the fundamental of Dominion or Rule , in Psal. 66.7 . and that Christ hath this power , appears , Matth. 28.18 . Joh. 17.2 . & 5.22 . 2. He is the Lord by purchase , and hath bought us at a dear rate indeed , see it Acts 20.28 . we were sold ( before ) under sin . Rom. 7.20 . and are now bought again ; so that Christ hath the deeds to shew ; drawn up and written , and sealed with his own blood , ( whilst the old was cancelled , Col. 2.14 . ) and his Lordship is good by Law ▪ Rom. 14.9 . 3. He is Lord by conquest too , Heb. 2.9 , 10 , 14. he hath won us out of our enemies hands , Joh. 16.30 . Revel . 17.14 . from world , sin , death , law , hell , devil ; all of us are his prize goods , by the best , and justest martial law ; for he hath led captivity captive , Eph. 4.8 . and we are freed . 4 ▪ He is Lord by gift , Psal. 2.8 . Joh. 17.2 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9. Thus hath his Father made him Heir , and given him possession of all in Heaven and Earth . This gift as from God , is a gift that takes in the bounty , bonity , justice , and mercy of God ; manifested in giving us to Christ , as his rightful possession . 5. He is Lord too by election and choice , Psa. 78.70 . Isa. 22.20 , 21 , &c. with reference to God ; the anointed and chosen one above all , Matth. 12.18 . Luke 23.35 . 1 Pet. 2.4 . So in Christ he hath chosen us to Christ , Eph. 1.4 . 1 Pet. 2.9 . And he is chosen with reference to us too , Isai. 26.13 . Cant. 5.10 , 16. John 20.13 , 28. so Matth. 22.44 . My Lord ! which particular appropriation implies the choice which is made of Christ for their Lord ; so do all the Saints , as Col. 2.6 , 7. receive Christ for their Lord ; i. e. A ruling Christ , as well as a Saving Christ , Jesus the Lord , 2 Cor. 4.5 . Now election is the proper act of free-will , whereby we would chuse one above all others , Cant. 6.3 . to which there must be a concurrence of knowledge , and desire ; by the first , we judge him to be fit , preferred above all , and in himself to excel all ; and by the latter , we are made to long after him above all ; and to choose him before all , both these are expressed by Paul , Phil. 3.8 . saying , Jesus my Lord ; though we grant that the principal point of this choice lies in the appetite and thirsting faculty of the soul : But all these ways Christ is Lord. 2. In what manner is Christ called Lord ? what kinde of Lord is he ? First , He is an Independent Lord ; for he depends upon none , answer 1 but all depend on him , Psal ▪ 89.27 . Dan. 2.21 . He is Lord Paramount over all , and above all , Phil. 2 9. Eph. 4.6 . Secondly , He is a Spiri●ual Lord , reigns within as well as without , in the hearts and consciences of men , 1 Cor. 12.3 . 2 Cor. 3.17 . Matth. 22.43 . Thirdly , He is a most excellent Lord ; excelling all in their own excellencies of wisdom , power , prowess , prudence , valor , virtue , beauty , righteousness , Jer. 23.6 . Heb. 1.8 . And in whatsoever a Lord should have , or be . Psal 148.13 . Fourthly , He is an universal Lord over all the world , Dan. 7.14 . Matth. 21.3 . living and dead , Rom. 14.9 . Over all his Church , Eph. 4 5. And yet a peculiar Lord to every Church and Soul , as appears before by choice . Fifthly , He is an alone Lord , Mat. 23 8.10 . Psal. 148.13 . Isa. 63.3 . and Isa. 2.11.17 . without any other Vice-Roy or Lord-deputy , and he will not allow any to usurpe his place , or power ; or to arrogate this over any of his Saints in his Church , Mat. 23.10 . James 3.4 . for hee alone is Lord Chiefe-Justice , Joh. 5.27 . and his Lordship is Royall-Prerogative , for brethren are all equall ; it is the evill servant that lords it over his fellow , and beats him , and takes hold on his throat , but Christ will issue out his warrants against him with a Habeas Corpus , &c. Sixthly , Hee is an Eternall Lord , and cannot be displaced or degraded , Isa. 9.7 . Heb. 12.27 . yea all changes , alterations , and downfals of other Lords doe rather ratifie and set him up surer , then damnifie or weaken his Dominion , hee shall reigne for ever . And thus wee see what manner of Lord hee is . vse 1 Vse 1 Well then , if this Lord be thus Lord , Then let us see the Churches and Saints happinesse , they have not many , but one onely Lord ; so all Saints are fellow●subjects to this one Lord : Had wee many Lords ▪ wee could not misse many miseries , and slaveries , for divers Lords have divers Laws , and divers Lusts , divers Minds , divers Wils , and divers Ends ; and all would breed divisions , and distraction , and destruction , but this one Lord hath but one Law , which is a Law of love , the new Command ( as wee shall shew in the third Lib. ) which breeds , peace , joy , grace , and union . O happy are the servants of this typified Solomon ; 1 King. 10.8 . 2 Chron. 9.7 . who are at peace in liberty and joy ; whilst all others ( poor soules ! ) have hard Lords to serve in a most miserable Babylonish bondage , and Antichristian slavery . Vse 2 The honour of the Saints and glory of the Church is , Eph. 5.27 . to have Christ their Lord and Ruler ; if it were an honour to be servants to Solomon , 1 King. 10. then a greater then Solomon is here . See Isa. 43.4 . Acts 13 ▪ 40. John 5.44 . they have their honour from above , which is ( ad se ab aliis ) more then a praise ( which consists in words ) yea , more then a Glory ( which consists in the good opinion of them ) and yet Christs is a praise and a glory to them , but he is more ; and yet hee is our honour Joh. 12.26 . and advances us , and all his Saints and servants to the dignity of Kings , and Princes , and Crowns , Glory , Rev. 1.6 . hee cannot want preferment that serves in Christs-Court and Kingdome , 2 Pet. 1.17 . Whilst it is most ignoble , and basely dishonourable to serve the Beast . Thirdly , By this Lordship of Christ , Saints are let out ( at large ) in their duties to God and men ( so far are they from being embondaged , that ) they are loose and at Liberty within the Kingdome of Christ ( but not beyond those bounds ) hereby what a bond of unity is this ? ( as appeares , Eph 4.3.5 . ) to make the Saints one ( though they be of severall measures , statures , judgements , heights , enjoyments , &c. yet ) when they remember they have all but one Lord , equally , and the same : How doth this whet their zeal ? and strengthen their hands and hearts for the truth ? when they come to contest together , Jude 3. and against opposers to be unanimous ? Phil. 1.27 . considering they all serve one Lord and Master ; what delight will they have in one another ? how they will encourage one another to be faithfull ? and industrious in serving of their Lord ? how ready will they be to vindicate one another ? and honestly and justly to take one anothers part against Opposers ? remembring they bee all fellow-servants ; how earnestly will they set upon a fellow-servant with arguments and reasons ? Scripture-proofes ? and reproofes ? and in the power of the Spirit speak home to such , as are ready to be lead away with lusts ? and enter into the service of other Lords ? whether of Pope , Prelate , Councels , Class●s , or whatsoever , that would rob Christ of his right ? yea how seriously and assiduously do they demonstrate to others ( that are not yet in this service ) ●he singular soule-advantages which are to be had hereby ? yea what a Bar is this to bolt sinne and Sathan out of doors ( as Hos. 14.8 . ) when wee consider who it is we serve , and whom we are under ? then say wee , what have wee to doe with Idols ! lust ? pride ? drunkennesse ? malice ? vanities ? traditions ? or any such trumperies ? For hath not the Lord ( or Ruler ) forbid us these ? are we not under his command : Come , Lord Jesus doe thy office ! other Lords would faine rule and ride over us , but come ! thou King ! Away Sathan ! avaunt , thou vile lust ! downe with these proud Lording Prelates , for I am under Christ ! I am in his Church and Kingdome ; I am under grace ! and redeemed by the blood of Christ from all false wayes ! worships and vaine conversation ? Therefore I will obey him , and hearken to him what hee saith , who is the ( alone ) Lord of his Church and people , and who is the best , truest , and most absolute Independent . He hath the most reason to rule me , and therefore it must needs follow , that I have most reason to obey him , Vbi est propria & specialis ratio Dominii , ibi est propria & specialis ratio servitutis . Lastly , Christ is the ( alone ) Head of his Church and people , without any other , Col. 1.18 . and 2.19 . Eph. 1.22 . and 4.15 . and 5.23 . neither is any joyned as Partner with him in this reason 1 worke of ruling or medling with the order of his owne , or his Fathers Kingdome . But first why he is called the head , and the Church his body . First , Because the Head and Body ( being united together by the necke ) make up the whole person , so that Christ as the Head makes not up the whole Christ ; but he as Head , his Ordinances and spirituall administrations as the Necke , and his Church and Saints embodyed together as before , and united to the Head by the necke , as his Body ; all these together make up a whole Christ , which is yet ( doubtlesse ) a great mystery , and few there be that finde it out , Epes . 5.32 . The worke of former ages ( since the Mystery of iniquity began to cover the earth , and be in the full ) hath been to know Christ in part , viz. Christ as the Head , which hath lay long obscure , and is not yet revealed to many ( even of the ) religious , and learned men ; much more obscure and undiscovered is this whole Christ , the Head and Body , who will ere long appeare as himselfe in the riches of his glory , and brightnesse of his Gospel , and the Saints shall know him compleatly , as Head , Necke , and Body , by one Spirit : And not covet to know him in part , as Head , or as Body ( viz. his Churches ) the worke of this age , but altogether . reason 2 Secondly , The Church of Christ is called the Body of Christ , by similitude taken from the natural body of man , which according to the diversity of members hath diversity of actions in Rom. 12. and 1 Cor. 12. So is Christ called ( as hee is in himselfe without the Saints ) the Head of his Church by similitude taken from the Head of a man , in which wee have severall considerations set before us ; As , First , In ordine . The Head is the highest , and the primest part of the Body , and yet for the use of the body is but a member , though most eminent , and above all the rest . Hence is it that every Principium , or beginning , is called the Head of a thing , as Ezek. 16.25 . Isa. 18.4 . and 51.20 . Thus Christ is ( secundum propinquitatem ad Deum ) exalted above all others , and is the Well-head to supply others with the streams of Life , and with the flowings of grace , Rom. 8.29 . he is become the Head of the corner , the top of all , Coloss. 1.18 . and yet ( though the Head of his Church ) for the use and advantage of the body , hee is , I say , but a member and a brother , Heb. 2.12 . though the first-borne , highest , and above all . Secondly , In perfectione . The Head is the seat of the senses , the beauty of the body , the grace of the man , and the most honourable of all , Isa. 9.8 . Christ is such a Head ( quantum ad plenitudinem omnium gratiarum ) in whom all fulnesse dwels , as Col. 1.18 . and 2.9 . he is the Head of the Body the Church , vers . 19. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulnesse dwell , ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) So Joh. 1.14 . Col. 2.9 . Christ is the seat of all excellencies and senses of the body , viz. his Church , hee is ( as the Head ) the honour , and grace of his Body , as a Husband is the glory and grace of his Wife , Ephes. 5.23 . He is the King in his beauty , Isa. 33. the beauty of his Body , their crowne and glory ; therefore this Head is of Gold Cant. 5.11 . yea ( in Heb. Cethem ) of the finest , and fairest gold . There may bee other Heads , brazen-heads , but none of gold , but Christ in whom all amiablenesse and perfection dwels . 3. In virtute . The head hath an influence upon the whole body ; every Member is beholding to the head ; for our sence , motion , life , and influences , are all from the vital spirits , and powers seated in the head ; and from thence are communicated to the body . For were the body headless , it would be senceless , motionless , and lifeless ; such a head is Christ ( virtute influendi , vel intrinseco influxu ) to the Church ( his Body ) and to every Saint his Member ; whom he feedeth with divine influences and spiritual incomes ( those very vital spirits ) which are seated in Christ are communicated to the Saints . Rom. 8.11 . For of his fulness . Joh 1.16 . We receive ; and the whole body is filled by him , as Eph. 1.23 . Whereby we become spiritually sensible , moving , and living . And without him for our head , we have not this life , sence , or motion ; so that the Church is maintained and preserved by sweet influences and virtues from Christ her head ; and so is every Saint and Member . It is this head that giveth grace , life , strength , light , righteousness , love , wisdom , judgement , divine reason , and understanding , and whatsoever is in the head ; we receive all from him , and without him can do nothing , Joh. 15.5 , 7. 4. In gubernatione . The head is the governor of the body , and Governors are commonly called the head of the people , Josh. 11.10 . Judg. 11.8 . Deut. 28.13 . Psal. 18.43 . So Saul was called the head of Israel , 1 Sam. 15.17 . And thus is Christ the head of his Church , Col. 2.10 . To rule and govern her , Isa. 9.7 . & 22.21 , 22. A Governor is one that orders , acts , and moves those whom he governs into their proper use , and end : Thus doth Christ govern his Church , and every particular Member , making them act to the end , and in that use they are appointed for ; as Rom. 12.5 , 6. 1 Cor. 12.11 , 12 , 18. And as it pleaseth him , the Marriner that is Master and Head of the Ship steers and rules it to what Haven , and in what rode he pleaseth ; For in this Head , wisdom is seated , which is ( cognoscitiva & directiva ) executed both by a knowing and directing property , and ability , whereunto the Members are become subject . 5. In sympathia . The head hath a fellow-feeling with the rest of the Members of the Body , and is a fellow-sufferer with them in their afflictions : If the finger but ake , and the toe be but trod on , the head is sensible of it , sadded for it , feels it , complains of it , and looks after it ; such an Head is Christ ; and to hurt the least of his little ones , the meanest member , is to hurt him , and to make him complain ; to slight , and slander , cast off , or contemn them , is to do so to him , Luk. 10.16 . Matth. 25.45 . For , as much as ye did not help the least of these , you did not help me ( saith he ) and for as much as you persecute these , you persecute me , Acts 9.4 , 5. Christ takes all to himself , and is partner with the least of the Saints in all their sufferings , Isa. 63.9 . Therefore said Gadius Martyr , Abate nothing of my torments , for it will be to my loss ▪ go on ! Christ is my partner , &c. Our eyes are in this head , he hath ears to hear for us , and tongue to speak for us , ( he is our advocate with the Father , &c. ) 6. In sanitate . The head being well and sound , the body is safe , and out of danger , as long as the head is above water , the body cannot be drowned ; as long as the head is well setled , the body is so too . But if the head be lost , the body is lost ; if the head be unsetled , disturbed or distracted , no wonder the body is so too ; and every Member acts distractedly and disorderly , and runs at random ; for the Governor is not at home , when reason is exiled : Hence men become mad , and unsound , and unsetled ; ( insania dicitur per corruptionem sanitatis . ) Christ the head is in good health ( though many Members may be sick and weak ) and so long the body will live , and without danger ; we are safe in Christ , and sound in him our head : Hence he is , Cant. 5.11 . the head of gold , ( in Hebrew , Paz , ) i. e. solid gold : Saints have a solid head ; but the reason why many run a madding after monstrous errors , traditions , unsound opinions , and fopperies is , Col. 2.19 . ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) i. e. not holding Christ fast , and keeping him close with all their strength . For it signifies , a strong and stedfast retention and apprehension of Christ , against all opposers whatsoever , their loosing or laying aside , this head , and living in , taking from , and acting by an unsound Head , a toxicated brain , a Creature-principle and ruler . ( Hosea 5.21 . Ephraim was broken ) I say , this is the reason many are lost , that do they know not what , and worship they know not whom ; and go they know not whither , but run into all manner of madness : This the Saints do not , that hold fast Christ , their Head. 7. Lastly , As hairs grow upon , and from , and in the head , and are nourished by , and hang upon the head , and are an ornament to the head ; even so are the Saints , ( as the hair ) and Christ as the head , Cant. 4.1 . & 5.11 . By much more I might amplifie it ; and I shall now apply it . First , Learn the unlimited and everlasting advantage the vse 1 Church and Saints have from Christ their head ; A little help to which lesson hath been already offered to you , and laid before you : How from Christ ( as he is head ) she derives all her excellencies and enjoyments , which I shall not insist on now ; but , Secondly , The Church and Saints have but one head : vse 2 Now by Church , I mean all Saints , under all Forms and Administrations whatsoever , past , present , or to come ( which are all but one body ) Eph. 4.4 . Rom. 12.45 . 1 Cor. 12.12 , 13. Therefore must have all but one head ; that body which hath more heads then one , is a Monster ; nothing is clearer in Scripture , then to prohibite the plural , 1 Pet. 5.3 . and to preach up the singular , Psal. 45.11 . Eph. 1.22 . and single head , viz. Jesus Christ , Eph. 5.23 . Col. 1.18 , &c. How dare men make choice of any other head ? or ( which is to set up , the Creature in the room of Christ ? ) A head of brass , in stead of the head of gold ? Have not these men hearts of brass , and foreheads of brass ? They will needs have men to play the part of Lords over Gods heritage , to lay down Directories and Rules of their own make , and Cannons ( very dangerous , charged full , and rammed home and hard , to the very mouth ) of their own constitutions , and in their own construction . How loth are Lord-like Ministers , Magistrates , ( or Prelatick tempers ) to admit Christ , the absolute Lord , and Soveraign ( without any Vice-Roy ) in matters of Religion ? who is so , ( and will and shall be so , whether they will , or no ) by decree from above , Psal. 26.7 . passed in the councel of Heaven , for all eternity , Dan. 4.34 ▪ 35. Isai. 9.6 , 7. This lesson hath been above a thousand years in learning ; and yet how many are marvellously ( and I fear , I may say willfully ) ignorant of it ; always learning , 2 Tim. 3.7 , 8. yet never learn it , in the sound knowledge of the truth ; but as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses , so do these resist Jesus Christ ; as if he took too much upon him ( but they shall know they take too much upon them ▪ ) It goes to their gall to get this by heart , that Christ is head , yea , and onely head , without any other primary , or secundary Vicar , or Vice-Roy . In this particular you may obviously eye and spie out a difference betwixt Christs Church and Antichrists , who stand out at a distance in this : For First , Antichrists hath men to be their Governors , and are led by the laws of men , but Christ is the Head , Ruler , and alone Leader of his Church , by his Word and Spirit . Secondly , The false Church hath its government on the Creatures shoulders ; as on Pope , Archbishops , Prelates , Classes , or Synods , &c. But the true ; onely on Christ , Isa. 9. Zach. 9.12 . To bear up this Ark , and others are forbid . Thirdly , The false Antichristian brazen-faced Church hath even a head of brass ; but the true hath onely a head of gold , Cant. 5.11 . And First , This head of brass brings into his false Church-state by force and fraud ( non verbo sed ferro , ) but this head of gold wins into his , by his Word and Spirit , in love and sweetness , making them a willing people in the day of his power . Secondly , This head of brass brings in iron signs , and fatal instruments to keep men under him ; and seeks secular power , to keep up , hoise up , and authorise his beaten and iron precepts , and commands ; but the head of gold by his own golden authority prevails , without asking leave of any other Civil or Ecclesiastical powers whatsoever . Thirdly , This head of brass is of a mixt principle , Jer. 6.28 . and is best pleased , with a mixt company : Hence are so many godless , hardned sinners , subjects in his dominion ; but the head of gold is of such a principle , that none will serve him , nor will he that any should worship him ; but the precious separate from the vile , the pure from impure , and visibly unholy , Jer. 15.19 . Isa. 60.21 . Fourthly , This head of brass ( which is black within , though it shines without ) accepts of a meer outside appearance , and verbal confession of Christ ; let him be as black as Hell within , so his words be good , and he look like Heaven without , it is enough to answer his principle . But this head of gold ( who is better within , then without ) would have all his like himself ; all glorious within , Psal. 45. as the curtains of Solomon , Cant. 1.5 . being born of God ; for what is of flesh is flesh , and what is of Spirit is Spirit , Joh. 3. Fifthly , This head of brass hath members and officers of mettal like himself ; and of no better principle , if so good , ( for some are iron and clay ) who act according to their own natural principles , or points , &c. But the head of gold hath members and officers qualified with his own Spirit , and excellencies , and filled with his own fulness , Eph. 1.23 . and partaking of his own divine nature , 2 Pet. 1.4 . Christ and his Spirit are the Officers in Christs Church , and none other , any further then Christ and his Spirit dwells in them , and acts them ; so that then it is not they , but Christ rules , orders , directs , disposes , or dispenses , &c. Sixthly , This head of brass hath an ill-savor , Joel 2.20 . and all his doctrines , traditions , and discipline , sent strongly of himself ; so that whosoever handles them , their hands will smell of the brazen head ; therefore beware of their leaven , &c. But this head of gold , and all his ordinances , doctrines , laws , and discipline , are of a most sweet and pretious savor , Cant. 1.3 . 2 Cor. 2.14 ▪ 15. Eph. 5.2 , &c. As oyntment poured out . Seventhly , This head of brass , seen and observed by himself , makes a rich , rare , and amiable show to most men ; but when he comes to be compared to the head of gold , he falls , and then looks like himself , viz. dull , dead , black , earthly , filthy , and unfit for to be a head ( or foot ) in Christs Church . Thus in these days , his doctrine , and devices , traditions , and trumperies , being brought into the light , and compared with the truth , can no longer triumph , but must fall before this head of gold ; who excels him as far , as light darkness , good evil , and as Heaven excels Earth ; although before this he fetcht in many to him , from far , and sat in glory and majesty , exalting himself above all that is called God , 2 Thes. 2.4 . But now he is to be destroyed by the bright appearance of this head of gold , 2 Thes. 2.8 . that is , he is to be rendred useless and uneffectual , as before in the Septuag . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and he shall weaken him , or break his strength , or glory , he shall lessen his lustre , and make him forlorn , and loose his pride : Nothinging him by his spiritual appearance , and in the brightness of his presence . Eighthly , This head of brass is the work of mens hands , and but of mans Creation , and must be broken to shatters , Psal. 29. this Image must fall , Dan. 2.32 . But for the head of gold , the headship of Christ , the gates of hell shall not prevail against him , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the powers of hell , the policies of hell , the very strength and force of hell , shall be set against him , but to no purpose ; for of his government there shall be no end . Thus I have cursorily set before you a vast difference between a false and true Church-state , from the Heads ; the one being of mans make , and the other of Gods appointment , Psal. 2.6 . All things are to be put under Christs feet , and this head of gold shall wear a crown of gold , for ever and ever , Heb. 2.7 , 8. Therefore it is that Kings , Crowns , Kingdoms , Councels , Classes , and Synods , National Churches and States are shaken , and shall be shaken , that the Kingship of Christ , which shall never be shaken , Heb. 12.27 , 28. may remain for ever . Thus you see how false Church-states are but the habitations of Antichrist , built up by men ; but the true ones are built up by Christ , Zach. 6.12 . and the habitation for his presence and honor to dwell in , Eph. 2.22 . 2 Cor. 6.16 . Wherefore Friends ! beware ! beware of brazen faces ! that have the face to cry up that Head , which you have heard of ! These are those that consult to cast Christ down from his excellency , and delight in lies , Psal. 62.4 . Such brazen heads fall ( by thousands ) short ( yea , by millions of myriades ) of the orders , excellencies , perfections , plenitudes , virtue of influence , Government , Sympathy , health , and soundness of this true Head of the Church . viz. The head of gold . But now , who be such heads of brass ? First is , that head of brass , the brazen-faced Pope ( always brought up in Brazen-Nose Colledge ) he was the first , that had the face to prefer himself general-master of the Church ; Lord , Head , and Law-giver . There was no such thing from the beginning , but by little and little , and as ambition , and base thirst of ruling began to rage , the care of Christs Church began to asswage ; and then , we shall finde , first began to be given to one man the name of Bishop , ( a name common to all Ministers of Christ , Acts 20.28 . ) who was chose by the rest of the Ministers and Elders to be ( as it were ) Consul in a Senate , or as a speaker in the house , and which was to be for the time being and present , upon urgent occasions , to sit as Chair-man : And though he had ( the honor ) the name , yet no more authority , nor voice , nor determination then any other ; he had no negative power or voice , which all lordly spirits pretend unto . The next step after this , was , by reason of the paucity and poorness of Ministers and Overseers ; and by reason of the rigor of hot persecutions , the Church was neglected , and Bishops ( so called ) or Ministers grew most ignorant , and very few to be ●ound fit for Church-affairs as Overseers ; and of those very few , most of them unlearned , and very blinde and dumb , and so idle , that they regarded not the Church , and let things go how they would . Then began the care of one Church to be given up to one more then to any other , and then did one take the most charge of Church-orders , Ordinances , and Discipline , which occasioned him to hoise up his ambitious sails to be filled with honor . And so it began to be a perpetual and continual course and office , which was onely for a time at first ( and that upon necessity too ▪ in times of persecution ) conferred upon one and so all began to be guided and governed by one , mans authority ; and no more by joynt consent , concurrence and votes , &c. of the whole Church and Brethren , as was wont to be before , Acts 15.22 , 23. And after all this the veil of ignorance grew thicker , and darkness , yea , gross darkness over-spread the whole Canopy ; so that scarce an able understanding , discerning Minister , or sit Overseer , was in a whole City , Town , or Province , to be had or heard of ; and yet fearful Tyranny , and troubles the Saints ( poor , scattred , scorned , dispersed , and despised people ) were then under . Whereupon all the Churches that were in one whole Province , were ( by those times ) brought under the subjection of one man ; and so called his Diocess ; and that man the Bishop of that Diocess , and then he shook off the care and charge of one particular Congregation or Parish-Church , pretending the over-sight of many ; So that ever since the office of a Bishop hath been by such , left ; and their ambition hath been great , to be great , and to get honors . Thus it came to pass the Authority of the whole Church , and power by Christ committed to the whole body , was usurped by one man ; who sat as a god in the Temple of God , ruling and reigning as he list ( until of late in England these lords were laid in the dust , which is eminently ominous to the Popes . ) But ambition still growing bigger and bigger ( as a bladder which the devil had the blowing up of ) being filled with sulpherous breath and bottomless pit-smoak ; these Bishops climbed yet higher , till there came to be Archbishops and Metropolitans , and Primates to rule whole National Churches , in the whole Nation . After this the whole world , or the Church ( as they called it ) all over the world in all Nations and Kingdoms on the Earth , must be governed by a Quadrumvirat , i. e. Four Patriarks , who had the charge of all the world ; but yet not being high enough , up gets the Pope by those stairs , and saucily leaps upon Gods throne ; And so this Brazen-head , or Brazen-faced Antichrist proudly came to sit in the Temple of the Lord , as 2 Thes. 2.4 . Here you have a true history of his rise , I doubt not but ere long you shall have as true a history of his ruine . He is already begun to fall ( here ) as he began to rise by Bishops , Archbishops , Primates , &c. And this is an honest Narration of the Church-confusion in times of persecution , and of the crowding out of all other Church-officers and offices ( as I shall shew if the Lord please in the third Book ) and of the stating and starting up of Pope and Prelate , upon Gods throne . I shall refer you to 182. page of Cartwrights Eccles. Discipline , Printed Anno 74. wherein you have the Story at large . But after the Pope who called himself Christs Vicar , ever since to this hour : after , I say , him , who taught the poor people Psapho-like , to cry him up for a great god , follows , Secondly , Next a General Councel or Synod , who usurps the power and authority of Christ , and his Church ; they set down Laws , and laying injunctions upon the Saints , they bid and forbid , command , and countermand as they pleased ; to make themselves Judges and Commanders over consciences ; and to determine , approve , and appoint what ( as they accounted ) was truth , and what was not . Thirdly , But this head of brass became also too hard a Task-master , and kept the people of God in grievous bondage . Then after that , starts up the Arch-Bishop , and he Lords it over the Bishop , the Bishop over the Deane , the Dean over the Archdeacon , the Archdeacon over the Parish-Minister , and the Parish-Minister over the people , and what a slavery were poore soules in then ? The Prelate sate then in his magnificentiall robes in pompe , like a little God , and petty-Pope ) in his High-commission-Court ; but as Hierom sayes , in Tit. & in Epist ▪ ad Evagium . Non divina authoritate unum aliquem Presbyteriis esse Praelatum , qui dicatur Episcopus , &c. sed humana consuetudine ; and this is not by divine right , or authority , but having a custom up ; they cannot , or they will not let it goe downe , but it grows higher and higher , whereby the order and authority of Christ is cast by , and their Lord-like , and their tyrannical Ruledome set up , and so it is they came to reigne . This , sayes Bullinger , Blessed Jerome speaks , not of the Roman Hierarchy , as of every Bishop , or any one whatsoever he bee , that will take to himself power over any Church of Christ , or that does domineer over any Congregation ; for ( ab antiquo ) a Minister and a Bishop , a Preacher , and a Prelate ( so called ) had one and the same honour , dignity , power , and authority , yet next to this proud Prelate . Up starts an Assembly of Divines ( as a Councell did next the Pope ) to be Christs Vicar too , and he is another head of brasse , as bold as the former petty-Pope to impose Lawes , and penalties : these have usurped power over Christs Church too , they deliver their dogmata , and breath out their senses and sentences with wild-fires about their eares , that swallow not their Judgements and Lawes by whole sale , and in the lump . Such Synods who have challenged to themselves a potestatem juridicam ) a Juridicall power over the Saints , as to inflict punishments , to binde up consciences to their Cannons , Directories , or Conclusions , and by a Legislative Lordlinesse have laid down the Orders and Lawes under penalties and paines ; so that they have been too brazen-faced and bold . There is no precept for Synods , said Dr. Whittaker ; but for this I shall refer the Reader to Mr. Hookers Survey of Church Discipline upon this subject , as also to the third book of his Treatise , and to Lib. 2. wherein I hope , all objections I meet with , that pretend the necessity of this ( usurped ) power , are answered ; but , Another brazen-head that takes the same course in usurping Lordship , is the Ruling-Classes : O! what a Platonian Metempsuchosis we meet with ? these all breath by the Popes soule ! O mystery ! Mystery ! Mystery ! of Iniquity ! under a new name , this is but the old head of brasse ! only furbished up in a better forme for appearance ! It was the Assemblies vote ( very like , and good reason for it ) That it is lawfull and agreeable to Gods word , that there bee a subordination of Congregational Classical Provincial , and National Assemblies for the government of the Church , &c. but how prove they that ? from Mat. 18. Goe tell the Church , &c. very well proved : then the Church is meant the Classes ( this is a Doctrine for Asses ) and is indeed agreeable to the Scottish word of God , but not to our word of God. This is proved , ( saith Mr Dell ) as the Pope would prove himselfe to be above the Emperour out of Gen. 1. God made two great lights , the Sunne to rule the day , and the Moon the night ; the Sunne is above the Moone ( sayes he ) therefore the Pope is above the Emperour ; so doe the Assembly prove subordination ( very well for an Assembly ) but wee may say as Isa. 26.13 . O Lord our God! other Lords have had dominion over us , but ( now ) by thee onely will wee make mention of thy name . What is this National Assembly ? but Archbishops multiplied ? what is their Provincial , but Bishops multiplied ? their Classical , but so many Deans ? or Deans multiplied ? their Congregational , but Prelaticall Ministers multiplied ? and is not this of Brazen-head-Colledge ? and beat out upon the Popes Anvil ? Well , I might shew what unsavoury fruits there are that grow upon this Bramble of Rome , and what corrupt poysonous Cankers are plucked from it ; but for that I refer to the third Book of this Treatise , onely I must say that such Plants as these ( which are not of the Fathers planting ) must be rooted up , Matth. 15.13 . and shall conclude with honest Bullinger , De unitate Eccles. Decad. 5. Serm. 2. Firmissime inhaeremus sacro-sancto Evangelio , & indubitatae Apostolorum doctrinae , quae tollit omnem primatus superbiam , fideléque nobis ministerium , & ministerii aequalitatem humilitatemque commendat , &c. Let us keep close to the word of Christ , and the undoubted doctrine of the Apostles , which doth cast downe this doctrine , and suppresses this pride and Prelacy , pressing humility , and equality without subordination , or superiority ; but that hath been offered before in Chapter 8. I doubt not but the irrevocable , and irrecoverable downfall of these brazen-faced Idols , is hard by , let us wait but a little while , and he that shall come , will come , and then as , Hos. 14.8 . Ephraim shall say , what have I to doe any more with Idols ? I have heard the Lord , and observed him , &c. i. e. him , who is the Head of gold . But before I finish this Chapter , let us be content with this Head , viz. Christ alone , and be very cautious of medling with secular powers ( who have their secular ends ) in Church-matters ; for though all Popish and Prelatical discipline calls for the sword of the Civill Magistrate to support them ; yet this doth not , only for the sword of the Spirit ; for the weapons of our warfare are not carnall . There is no need of forcing power , as appears in Chapter 11. for Christ bids his Disciples , Goe , and teach , but never to offer violence ; so sayes Chamier , Ea est Ecclesiae natura , ut nusquam magis requiratur persuasio interna ; nam ad fidem nemo potest cogi invitus , &c. ) That the Church of Christ is of such a constitution as necessarily requires inward perswasions and workings upon the spirits of such , as enter , or are in . No man can bee ( well ) against his will forced to the faith , for God wil bee worshipped with the whole heart or will ; and hypocrisie ( which Coercive powers drive into ) is detestable and odious with God : wherefore in the order and government of the Church , this ought to bee the bent and scope , viz. to win into the Church by spirituall perswasions ; and those that are so called , are to bee so kept in , and continued , i. e. not by violence but as voluntary . No such thing as Secular Magistrate to make men bee of any Religion , or to compell any to the faith ; that was of force , or in date three hundred years after Christ. And it was such a thing , saith Zuinglius as Christ alwayes set far from him , at a distance , as if it did not appertaine to him , nor his Kingdome to meddle with , viz. with the worlds jurisdiction , or power , as Luke 12.13 , 14. Who made me a Judge , or divider over you ? who ? not the world ; therefore he would not intermeddle ( though sought unto ) with secular Government ( which hath ever secular ends ; for then Religion must dance attendance to policy , and what is that ( saith one ) but to set the Asse upon Christ , not Christ upon the Asse . This worldly policy ( saith Luther ) would ruine Religion ; yet Christ is made a Judge , Jo. 5.22 . but his Judicatory power is not of the world , nor as the worlds ; and by this he would teach us not to introduce Powers so improper to the nature of the Church into the Church , which must needs act , and be executed in tyranny then , because they are quite out of their owne Orbe , and then they are Phaeton-like , destructive : For the Church is called not of the world , though in the world . In Constantines time ( when the Church it is said was lulled in his lap ) whilst the worldly powers were the Churches servants and friends ; yet Constantine would not come in as a civill Magistrate to compell any man , but absolutely forbids it in his Letter to his subjects in the East : Let no man ( sayes he ) bee grievous one to another , but what every man thinks to bee best , and most the minde of God , that let him doe , but be sure they live holy , and walke as children of light , without malicing or menacing one another ; and he concludes thus ; For there is a great diversity between voluntary and forced Religion ; but this will lie before us in the Second Book . Onely this note , that this head of Iron got in by the Apostacy , and ever since the Churches ( so called ) or rather the Popes and Prelates have had a dependency upon worldly powers , whereby they have been , and shall be both undone together , and their fall shall be great , Rev. 19.18 , 19. which the great hand of God hath already given earnest of ( as is seasonably observed in my Lord Cromwels Letter from Dunbar , pag. 11. ) and sayes he , It is worthy consideration of all those Ministers that do take into their hands , the instruments of a foolish Shepherd , to wit , medling with worldly policies and mixtures of earthly powers , to set up that which they call the Kingdom of Christ , which is ( indeed ) neither it , nor if it were , would such means be found effectual for that end ; and they neglect , and trust not to the Word of God , the Sword of the Spirit , &c. But besides these Letters , we shall finde after Constantines time too , That Civil Magistrates ( as such ) had no right of Vmpirage ( as Master John Goodwin sayes in his sixteenth Quaere ) in matters of Christian Religion , which appears Proof-sure , in Ambrose his thirteenth Epistle to the Emperor Valentinian , who saith , When did you hear , most clement and kinde Emperor , that Laicks ( Laicos judicasse in causa fidei ? ) were Judges in matters of Religio● ? or ever censure in matters of faith , &c. So that it seems ( then ) they were accounted very incompetent Judges . And why not now ? Unless that new invented inference be of force sufficient to carry away the bell , that follows , Object . Job , saith in Chap. 31.26 , 27. If I beheld the Sun when it shined , o● the Moon walking in Brightness ; And my heart hath been secretly enticed , or my mouth hath kissed my hand : This also were an iniquity to be punished by the Judges , &c. Hence say some , Job teaches , the Judges of the Earth are to meddle in such matters . Answ. I shall easily demonstrate , that this Text teaches us not a tittle of Civil Magistrates Power ; and then secondly , That it treats not of their Power in Matters of Faith. 1. And first , We shall finde , both by the Text it self , and by the words going before , and following after , that Job speaks of God , the great Judge ; ( or if you will have the Hebraism , Judges , and Judge of Judges ) and not of earthly Judges ; reason 1 Reason 1. Because the Hebrew is too pondrous for earthly powers , and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is of great weight ; and so Shaphat is as much as to say , One judging and doing right in all causes , which earthly Judges and Powers cannot do : viz. In such cases as are the Ablative to them , being out of their orbe , beyond their sphere , and too high for the principles of secular powers . reason 2 Reason 2. But for more satisfactions sake , see verse 2 , 3. Is not destruction to the wicked , and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity ? Doth not God see my ways ? and count all my steps ? &c. So come to verse 14. If I have done thus , and thus , sayes he , What then shall I do when God riseth up ? and when God visiteth , what shall I answer ? So in verse 23. For destruction from God was a terror to me , and by reason of his highness , I could not endure . So he comes to the Text , If I have been so covetous to make gold my God , verse 24. ( If I have been so Idolatrous as to worship the Sun , or the Moon , verse 26. If I have been a Hypocrite , or if my heart hath run a whoring from God , and hath secretly sinned , being inticed thereunto by idolatry , or the like ; and my mouth , and my hand hath consented , and agreed together ; contrary to my open and apparent Profession ; as those that of old kissed their Idols , 1 King. 19.18 . Hos. 13.2 . or else reached out their complementing hands to the Idols of the Sun or Moon , and then put their hands to their mouth in sign of honor and homage . But if I have done so , will not God judge it ? Or were it not an offence for God to judge ? Heinous and abominable , and against a high God. And for this kinde of Exposition , vide Diodate , Calvin , Arias Montanus , with many others : Besides , see the following verses , verse 35. O that one ( the Judge ) would hear me ! Behold , my desire is that the Almighty would answer me , verse 37. I would declare to him my ways ; and as a Prince ( not as a prisoner ) would I go near him . All these Scriptures are of force and power to prevail with my reason , and to arrest my understanding , that this Judge must needs be meant the just God , the Almighty One ; and not at all touching or teaching the power of earthly Magistrates . 2. For that the earthly Judges of the East-Countreys in Jobs days , were Idolaters , and Sun-gazers , and Moon-worshippers ; and how then could Idolatry be punished by such Judges ? 3. The Word is to be read thus , This were an iniquity condemned , or adjudged , ( iniquitas judicata , sayes Arias Montanus ) or damnable ( sayes Calvin ) or one of the greatest size ( iniquitas maxima , sayes Carthusianus in loc . ) or the like ; but I meet with no Expositors ( but t'other day at White-hal ) that assert this Text to give Magistrates power in Matters of Religion , which is altogether against the Text , Context , and the truth it self ; besides , the original will not allow it ; for to be punished by , is not to be found there , but is added by our Translators , and is a bit of their own brains . On which , all the Inferences , and Arguments that are built , must needs fall ; for this their foundation is of sand . But should we play with them , and ply them a little for recreations sake ( as a man does with the fish that he hath struck , and is sure of ) we might argue with them , Ex concessis , and then say : 4. Suppose it were so , yet this were not to make them Judges of Religion , in matters of Faith ; but onely as their object in matters of fact ; for if my words and actions , mouth and hand , verse 27. have agreed together in Idolatry , &c. Then the Judge takes notice of it ; so in verse 11. the brain is to be punished by the Judges : But I offer this onely for sports sake ; for I adhere to the Answers before , as most authentick , viz. That Job intended not earthly powers , or Judges here below . But I have met with some more Objections and Questions of late , by a Letter sent me , from a pious and an understanding Gentlewoman , Mistress Venn , which I answered : Some of which are as follow , I shall pick out the powerfullest . Quest. 1. Whether Magistrates being set for punishment of question 1 evil-doers , as well as for the praise of them that do well , ought not to punish men for Heresies and Blasphemies ? as well as for answer 1 swearing , drunkenness , &c. Affirmatively , Within their own jurisdiction which is Civil , they may take cognisance of all sins whatsoever ; so far , as they be uncivil , and break their Civil Laws ; provided , that answer 2 those Civil Laws contradict not Christs : So give unto Caesar what is Caesars . 2. We must ( as Master Burton sayes ) put a difference between consciences and practises ; God alone is the Lord and Judge of the conscience ; but man of mans practises , and actions , whether good or evil : So Rom. 13.3 , 4. If you do that which is evil , be afraid . So that it is for deeds or actions , that are evil , he is to punish . Actions are the object of Civil powers to countenance or correct , as there is cause ; not consciences , judgements , opinions , thoughts : So that as they punish swearers , drunkards , whore-masters , &c. for their evil actions , and not for their thoughts , opinions , or the like ; so they are not to meddle with Schismaticks , Hereticks , Blasphemers , or the like , for their judgements , thoughts , or opinions , until they produce practises , and bring forth such actions , as are the adaequate object of Civil Magistracy , and then they may and must ; but to a second answer 2 sort of Answer . Negatively , Magistrates may not usurpe the power of Christ and his Church , to suppress sin , error , or blasphemies , by the sword , ( being no more then opinions , and before they break out into evil pr●ctises , ) seeing Christ hath commanded they should be destroyed by the Word and Spirit ( which convinces of sin , ) &c. Joh. 16.8 . Thus Luther in his Epistle to them at Erphard , sayes , Consider with what sword I have conquered sin , and overcome their errors , and subdued policy : I have never touched them with a finger , but Christ hath destroyed them all by the Spirit of his mouth . i. e. The Word of his Gospel . And this is the onely instrument of conquering , converting , and convincing . Thus saith Zuinglius , Haec unica eaque sola via est , &c. This is the onely way to subdue errors ; the Word will conquer , when nothing else can ; we suffer all the writings from Papists , to be freely and openly read , and read again : For the sword of the Spirit shall slay all the evils that are taught in them . Now judge ( sayes he ) whose cause is most suspicious and surreptitious ; ours , who would have even the adversaries doctrines published in our Churches , that we may overthrow them by the word ? or yours , who reproach our doctrine before the simple people as hereticall , yet by your good will , neither suffering them to read it , nor understand it , nor yet so much as offering to overthrow it by the sword of the Spirit , which is the word of God. Thus we see how secular powers are excluded from medling with matters that are spirituall or mentall , and that the Word and Spirit are the Instruments appointed by God for the overthrow of errours , and suppressing of heresies and blasphemies . Object . We finde the Reformers of the Church in the Old Testament that looked after the worship of God , that they used their materiall sword and Civill powers ( as Kings and Rulers ) to cut off the Idolatrous Priests , 2 King. 16 ▪ 5.20 . and false Prophets , &c. Ans. 1 Such as were types of Christ , ( both King , Priest , and Prophet ) did many things by extraordinary warrants , and answer 1 many things they did in the letter , which were to figurate the administrations of the Spirit , which were to answer thereto , as Num. 9.13 . and 5.2 . Levit. 10.2 . Exod. 32.24.27 . But these were in extraordinary cases , such were the extraordinary persons of Eliah , Samuel , David , Daniel , &c. who exercised both offices , and as I may say both swords , but this was extraordinary , and for extraordinary ends ; Now , Secondly , Loe ! we may prove Priests and Prophets did execute in Civill offices too , as Phineas in putting to death Zimri and Cosby , Num. 25.7 , 8. Psal. 106.30 . but ( our case being not the same ) proves no more that Civill Magistracy belongs to Ecclesiasticall men , so called ; then that Ecclesiastical power and offices belong to Civil Magistrates ( as such ) But besides Thirdly , It lyes evidently before us in the Old Testament , that Ecclesiasticall Powers ( so called ) were ever distinguished from Magistraticall ; For the Priests and Levites had their distinct proper acts and places , both in respect of order and jurisdiction ; so had Moses and Aaron , one having charge of the State , the other of the Church , and not the one confounded with the other , or confined by the other ; Yea the● stood at such a distance that as none of the Priesthood could meddle with State-matters , or take that government upon him ; so none of the Royall-stocke , or blood , could meddle with the Priesthood : Nor durst any ( as I know of by ordinary warrant ) untill King Vzziah , puffed up with conceit and pride , 2 Chron. 26.16 . but he escaped not scot-free , and it hangs upon record as a scare-crow to cautionate others of his temper ; neither doe we read of any Priest ( unlesse by extraordinary warrant , as is said before ) that durst meddle with Civill-matters , till Aristobulus most rashly , after their returne from Babylon joyned and jumbled the Kingdome and Priesthood , Mitre , and Crowne together , so sayes Euseb. 8. lib. of his Preparation to the Gospel : And the New Testament , and Gospel , are as cleare against it as can be ; Christ ( the High-priest ) ever kept within his compasse , refused to meddle with Caesars matters , as to divide the heritage , Luke 12. yea and to be a King , Jo. 6.15 . being a thing Civil , and out of his sphere , and so he forbids his Apostles over and over , medling with such matters , Mat. 20.26 . and Mark. 10.42 . Luke 22.25 . he tels them , that though it befitted Kings Courts , and Gentiles , yet not them , they being called into other and better offices , and distinct from them : the Apostles themselves disclaime it also , 2 Cor. 1. ult . yea , they refused to meddle any longer with the charge of the Poore , seeing there was no such necessity of it , but bid them choose Deacons : Act. 6. Much lesse would they meddle with matters meerly civill and worldly , to take them off their Ministry and duty , 1 Tim. 2.4 . 1 Cor. 24.25.26 . Rom. 12.3 . and yet ah ! how ! how ambitious have many been in all ages ? not content with their calling , but still aspiring ? and usurping ? I find Mr. Cartwright in his Eccles. Discipline p. 80. speaking of the pride and ambition of Bishops complaining much of their meddling with Civill matters , which ( sayes hee ) is contrary to their owne Cannons , and to the old Cannons called the Apostles Cannons in 80. and 82. p. and contr . Concil . Carthag . 3. Cannon 18 , 19 , 20. and which ( sayes he ) is most bitterly inveighed against by the Ancient Fathers ; but this came in at first , he tels us , thus . When things were in controversie , and estates lay at variance between parties , there were not those hot and eager suits at Law then ( nor that fatting or feeding of English locusts ( I meane Lawyers ) as now is ) those things that were in controversie were wont ( by consent mutually from both parties ) to be given up to a Bishop , or Bishops , trusting to their consciences , and looking upon them as more then other men for piety and conscience ; for they conceived this the best means and issue to end all controversies , and so came in Lands called Bishops-lands in part . Since which Kings and Princes partly out of good minds , and out of earnest desires to adorne them , and the Church ( though they were not wary enough in what they did ) and partly because they were themselves so continued in wars abroad , which required their own persons , therefore they ( in their owne absence , and by reason of such like hindrances ) gave authority to Bishops to correct such with Civil censures , mulcts , and punishments as disturbed , or troubled the Church ; which in little time they tooke so much likeing unto , and were so ambitious of , that no honourable office in Civil-state , but they got into their hands by book or crook ; becomming Lords , Treasurers , Keepers , Chiefe-Justices , and of the Privy-Councel , and upper house of Parliament , and what not ? who desire a fuller account hereof , may finde it in Dr. Willets Synopsis 5. Gen. Controv. 9.3 . p 278. How at first , the Priviledges and immunities were inlarged by the munific●nce of civill powers , and Princes , and with divine authority , and so Marsilius Patavinus asserts it ( ex gratuita , &c. ) Praefat in Concil . Senonens . And that the revenues and lands of Bishopricks were ( some of them ) given by devout and religious persons , Princes , &c. Cod. lib. 8. tit . 54. l. 54. Justinian . And their titles of honour , being created Barons , and made Lords of the Parliament house here in England , were bestowed upon them by the bounty of Kings about foure hundred and twenty yeares agone . Cod. lib. 2 ▪ tit . 7. leg . 14. but never by the word and warrant of God , that they got these Civil honours , places , and imployments . But wee shall finde many Lawes that were made to invest them into honour and pomp . As Cod ▪ lib. 1. tit . 6. leg . 28. Anthemius made this Law , that if a stranger dyed , and left no Executor , the Bishop of the place should bee his Executor : So Cod. lib. 6. tit . 54 leg . 10. if a stranger dyed intestate , his goods should bee delivered to the Bishop : And abundance more of such like Lawes ; so that at length what places of honour were in state , but they got either gratis ? or by begging ? or one way or other ? till they had mingled Church and Commonwealth ? Kings and Bishops ? Christs and Caesars ? Civil and Ecclesiastical matters so together , that they made a meer gallomaufrey of Religion , and of the Lawes of Christ ? But is there now a Reformation amongst us ? or doe not our Ministers most unworthily imitate them in their ambition ? and boldnesse ? whose deserved fall lyes before our eyes for our caution , and whose Lordlinesse is laid in the dust ? Oh! I do fear lest this notorious fault should appeare as full and foule upon States-Ministers ( I mean such Ministers of the Gospel as have very painfully and profitably preached Christ to the people formerly , till they come to be preferred by the States ) and then not onely their Doctrine , but their lives are of another stile , i. e. more State-like , lofty , and high-strained ; for then they are medling with State-affairs , and nibling upon State-honours , and so come at length to be corrupted by greater honours , favours , preferments , and places , and turned into meer complements . Methinks the late Prelates , with their precipitant and sudden fall may be set up as a good Sea-mark lest they be swallowed up in such sands . I know this very thing lyes a heavy burthen upon the spirits of hundreds ( very godly ) in this Commonwealth ; and it is their continuall complaint with griefe and groans ( as I have heard with my eares ) that such Ministers are more like Magistrates , viz. lofty , proud , and stately ; and that such Pastors creep apace to be Masters of Colledges , Heads of Vniversities and States-chaplaines , or else get to bee Committee-men , into offices or Armies , or some thing or other that may make them stately , and lord it over others being imployed in secular or Martial affaires . And though the intents of our States and Grandees ( for whom wee can never bee thankfull enough ) bee very godly herein ; yet the Lord make our Governours so wise and vigilant in all those honours or preferments they set upon the heads of such as are Gospel-ministers , as that thereby they doe not corrupt them , and wrong the Church , and lull her asleep ( as wee heare she hath been in Constantine's lap ) least more mischief follow it , then ever went before by the Dragons rage in former ages , as Chap. 2. Which we are somewhat jealous of , having such clouds ( as we have ) hanging over us , and ( seldom failing ) Omens right before us ; and the universal and univocal complaints of Gods people , pursuing and following of us . But we hope our wise God , will give those Ministers an effectual warning-peece , before the decree come forth . I much wonder why such men so much complain of others for usurpers ; for if a poor Tradesman , an honest Soldier , a gifted Brother , or any other of Civil or Martial employment , do get but up into their Pulpits , they cry out upon them ; that they should be suffered ; and yet they themselves cannot keep within compass , but soon grow hungry of secular employment , and seek high-places , Military or Civil , and think it no usurpation at all ; although that a Civilian may be more able for a Preacher , and better qualified , and not step so much aside ( for ought I know ) as the Preacher does to be a Civilian , or Politician , and to meddle with State-affairs , which makes him so stately . O this ! This is the most grand scandal of this age ! That our eminentest Ministers in account , are such as meddle with such matters , and study Politicks ding-dong ; when one upbraided ▪ Lysander the Lacedemonian Captain , for doing many things by fraud and policy : O Sir , sayes he , smilingly , when a man cannot obtain his ends with the Lyons-skin , he must put on the Foxes-skin . So say many Ministers by their practises , though they preach in Lambs-skins , yet they put them off , when they come out of their Pulpits ; and instead of the Brest-plate , ( the Pectorale or chosen Hammischpat . ) they wear the Head-piece all the week long , to work out their own ends ; and herein they are , at least , Masters of Art , if not Doctors , &c. It was accounted by the wisdom of the Antients , very apt and apposit , that Augustus Caesar bare a Sphinx in his signet ; for he was famous for policy , and unriddled many a new Aenigma , with dexterity and promptness to promote his own ends ; and so do these , in stead of a Daniels spirit to expound the Visions and Dreams of these days : For as the Poets fain , that Sphinx was a monster multi-forme ; having the face and voice of a fair Virgin , but the wings of a Bird , and the talents of a Griffin ; he lived in a mountain neer Thebes , he was full of riddles , and he used to surprize , and set upon poor Passengers of a sudden , and so destroy them that could not finde out his Aenigmaes . And indeed Policy is such a Sphinx , a very Monster , having infinite variety ; and its maiden-face flatters many , and learns your Politicians to cog , and complement ; but the wings are the Arts and Sciences ; which such have commenced masters of , which carry them acutely and accurately from one to another . But the Griffin griping-talents are Axioms and Arguments which fetch in their Atalanta-like Golden-balls , pleasures , and profits ; though they step aside for them to fetch them in , as Atalanta did , ( Declinat cursus , aurumque volubile tollit . ) But such Apples of honors , and pleasures , may make them lose themselves , and their race . These Politicians live loftily on the Mountains , and almost scorn to look below them ; they are full of riddles hard to be expounded , whereby many a poor , plain , simple , innocent soul is surprized of a sudden , and made a prey ; but here is our comfort , our Oedipus is on his way , who will finde out the folly and fraud of the Politicians of the times ; and most of all , of State-Ministers ; and then Policy shall be discovered , and destroyed , as Sphinx was ; whose body was laid on an Ass , and led in triumph : For indeed , there is nothing so acute , nimble , Aenigmatical , or abstruse , but shall be easily unriddled then to the lowest and slowest capacity . Christs coming will put a period to this Tyrant , and set at liberty many a poor , plain , harmless one from the Griffin-gripes of Policy and Politicians . Wherefore if they reckon aright , they will finde their time to reign is short ; although many a time Policy reckoning without Piety , reckons without his host , and is like to pay for it at last ; for their Callender lies : But the Scripture which is ours , tells us the truth , Isai. 27.1 . That in that day the Lord will punish Leviathan with his sore , and great , and strong sword , &c. ( viz. Policy ) that piercing Serpent , that crooked Serpent , &c. Wo be then to this Leviathan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hebrew , yea , the subtile Serpent , as Ezek. 29.3 . and devilish Dragon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Christ shall be too strong for him , and shall finde him out in all his crooked windings and turnings , insinuations and subtilties ; and shall punish him to the purpose ere long ; and break and crush his very head and skull , where all his cunning and craft lies . Wherefore down with these Idols of Brass and Iron ( if not of Iron and Clay ) I mean those Heads and Powers who have usurped the power and place of Christ , viz. The Head of Gold , Psal. 83.11 , 12 , 13. Make their Nobles like Oreb , and Zeeb ; yea , all their Princes as Zebah and Zalmunna : i. e. Like those Kings and Princes of the Midianites ( a great army ) whom Gideon slew , Judg. 7.25 . and 8.12 . That is by weak means , viz. As by three hundred men he routed and destroyed all their hoast , and then cut off the heads of the Kings and Princes : So Lord ( sayes David ) who prayes , Let these Princes , Nobles , Rulers , be like them ! And he prophecies , That they shall be like them ; and why so ? See verse 12. they said , Let us take the houses of God to be our possession . O sad ! this is their sacriledge ! to rob God of his right , and to take it to themselves ; and so it is to take possession of his Churches , Church-Powers , and Priviledges , and to make them their's ; as if they ( who are Civil Magistrates ) must meddle with matters of Religion , and judge of matters of Faith , and make Gods houses their right , and their possession , by Nomothetick Politicks . O the ominous ! imminent danger of such a State ! and of such Princes ! and Powers ! For see the next verse , O my God! make them like a wheel ! or else , as it is in the Hebrew , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 set them as a round rolling Globe , or Wheel , ready to run , run , run , run , till they have run themselves all to pieces : So that it seems Magistrates are never in more danger of a desperate downfal , and of running ( as if they were mad ) to ruine , then when they take the houses of God , viz. The Orders , Ordinances , Laws , and affairs of Gods house to be their's in possession , and their's in right , to rule , rectifie , judge , and order by their Nomothetick Power , and Policy : For then they are set as a round wheel , ready to rowl and run , ( more with might , then with right ) when the least touch of a finger , or an Argument , puts them upon a running motion ( as to meddle with matters of Religion . ) O then , it is a mercy if they meet with any rub in the way , to impede their precipitancy , or to hinder their rash running ; for that is very seldom that such ( who act out of their orbe ) are recovered , and their career ruine-ward be stopped ; for being set as a wheel ( as it appears they are , when they meddle with Gods Government in matters of Religion , and take his houses into their possession , by going beyond their bounds of Civil Magistracy , which is a crying sacriledge ; I say then as a wheel ) they are set to run down , down , downward , ( and can hardly be staid ) till they be all broken a pieces . Which the Lord prevent in much mercy our States from being so set , or ( if they are ) from being moved by any of the State-Ministers to run so ; which will be sad ( if they do ) to this Common-wealth , which hitherto the supream power , and over-ruling God hath graciously kept ; and kept also our Rulers from meddling with that stone which hath grownd the late King , and his family , with other Princes and Nobles to powder , before their eyes ; and so he will them , if they be not wiser then others were , that fell before them . For doubtless , such are under an Abimilechean fate and destiny , I mean , the unavoidable fall of a milstone of wrath upon their heads , which will ( at least ) break their brain-pans a pieces , and distract them . For if it be unlawful to remove the bounds set by their fathers ( as it is Prov. 22.28 . ) it is much more unlawful to alter the bounds which the Lord hath set . Rom. 13.7 . And so give to Caesar , what is Caesars , and to Christ , what is Christs . For as we shewed before , in chap. 11. The Lord hath made a most clear distinction , and distance between matters Civil , and matters of Religion ; and hath required nothing of Civil Magistrates , as incumbent to them in their Civil orbs , but Civil matters . Grant that they be zealous ; yet they may do more hurt then good , with a Jehu-like spirit : What think you of Vzzah ? did he not mean well ? ( poor man ! ) 1 Chron. 13.9 . when he ran to save the Ark ( in a time of danger too , and of seeming , Vers. 20. necessity too ) when the Oxen stumbled , and it had like to faln in the way from Kiriath-Jearim to Jerusalem ; yet because he meddled with what he had nothing to do , but went out of his own place to intermeddle with the matters of the Ark , God gave all Israel a sore check for it ( as Jeremy Dyke sayes ) and destroyed Vzzah . And truly , I am of opinion , That if Magistrates will meddle with matters of Religion , were Religion in never so much danger ( by the stumbling of such as carry it ; ) yea , I am confident , it will be a heavy blow , and an uncomfortable day to England ; it may cost us in England a check , and them their neck ; and Perez-Vzzah will appear afresh , for following Magistrates to make mention of , and to take warning by . And sure I am , till each keeps his orb , and acts in his own proper place , I mean , the Magistrate to meddle with Civil matters , and no more ( being all that he is intrusted with , both by God and the Nation , as to the office of a Magistrate , Rom. 13.1 , 2. ) And the Minister to keep in his sphere , as to meddle with Ecclesiastical and Spiritual matters , or matters of Religion ( being all that he is intrusted with , Heb. 5.1 . & 13.17 . ) and not at all to study tricks , politicks , or to meddle with Civil affairs : But these being Magistrates or Ministers for Souls , and those Magistrates or Ministers for Bodies ; I say , till this order , and each orb be observed , we must be far from a good Reformation , and look ( in stead thereof ) for a lamentable check . And doubtless , the Heads of Brass and Iron will yet be kept up Idols in the Temple , in stead of Christ , the Head of Gold. Wherefore , once more , I must beseech the Magistrate , ( as not to meddle with matters of Religion so ) not to let Ministers meddle with matters of State , and to study Politicians : For as Azariah the High Priest ( as we told you in Chap. 11. ) cast out Vzziah , who was lifted to his destruction , 2 Chron. 26.16 , 17 , 18. out of the Holy Place , as the Law commanded ; so ought Magistrates to keep , and cast us out of their places , which belong not to us ; as Luther writes , Epist. tom . 7. fol. 209. to the Dukes of Saxony , viz. Frederick and John. I would not ( says he ) that the Office of Preaching be denied any , but that they have free Liberty ; yet if they transgress Gospel-bounds , and will be seditious and fierce , &c. then it is your Lordships duty to suppress , and banish them , saying , We will freely grant you , to fight with the Word against all false Doctrines ; but we will restrain your hands and spirits from those things , that belong to our Magistracy and Civil Power , &c. Either of these , I say , out of their orbs and places , are of a Phaeton-spirit , obnoxious to all , and in such disorders , as will set all on fire again ; Therefore such are said in Scriptures , to be lifted up to their own destruction , 2 Chro. 26.16 . For such pride is never without a fall . And till this be , both Magistracy and Ministry must needs lie under much contempt ; both which , in the restitution of times , will be glorious at first . Wherefore , as Bishops had not best to storm , that they are thrown down from their Lordships , Judgeships , Justices of Peace , or the like ; neither let our Stately-Ministers be offended for calling them to , and keeping them in the work of the Ministry of Christ , whereinto they are called ; nor yet our honorable Rulers , whose honor is to rule well within their sphere , and not to meddle with matters of Faith ( which is an edge tool that will cut their fingers , ) for , Extorquere timidis commutationem possunt , sed fidem inspirare non possunt , Ambr. epist. 13. it is out of their orb . Quest. But may not Magistrates suppress Errors ? &c. Answ. Evil doings and practises , ( as you heard before ) they may and must ; but they are not competent Judges of controversal points , opinions , and doctrines : And thus , that eminent servant of Christ , Mr. Burroughs in his Vindication against Edwards , answereth this Question : he sayes , That where the hainousness of the matter , and turbulency of the carriage manifests stubbornness , &c. These hainous actions and turbulent carriages , do come within their cognizance ; but they are not the fit Judges of controversies in Religion , or matters of faith : But why ( sayes hee ) for this should there be such a stirre and out-cry against that which is called the Independent way ? as if there must needs bee a confusion of all things , if liberty in it bee but granted . The Lord judge between us in this thing , &c. But as it is an intollerable wrong done to the truth , Christ , and his Churches to grade and grace Ministers with such a Power ( as we said before ) which is most properly the States ; so is it no lesse lamentable ; an injury done to Jesus Christ , his Church and truth , to gratifie Magistrates with such a Power , which is most properly the Churches , as to suppress sinne , errours in opinions , and judgements , which is to bee by the word of Christ : He is no Judge of Doctrine , to pronounce which is true , and which is not , which shall stand , and which shall not ; because as Mr. Dell sayes , he is as liable to erre as any man , Acts 14 ▪ 14. vid. Owens Essay for Church government , p. 72. Secondly , Because he wil do all he can ( dentibus & unguibus , as wee may say , to uphold his owne opinion and religion ( though never so false ) and to sentence others ( though ever so true ) as if they were false , heresies , blasphemies , and the like , as appears , Acts 24.14 . So did the Jewes , Acts 28.22 . and the Scribes , and Pharisees sentence Christ and Christianity , and all but their owne . Thirdly , Every Magistrate would make it his office to maintaine his owne Idol , and what a world of false gods , and false worships would be set up , and worshipped then , and in most places true Religion put into the Rack . Object . But they must have the advice of the Assembly of Divines , or able Ministers . Answ. 1. Then Magistrates must act upon an implicite answer 1 faith , to see with their eyes , and beleeve as they beleeve . Secondly , Then Magistrates were but the Ministers or Assemblies executioners ( a flat peece of Popery ) methinks Pilate stands for a Sea-mark before such , to the end of the world , who did but execute the Priests sentence upon Christ in crucifying him . 3 This would take Ministers off the right means of ruining errour , i. e. by the word of Christ ; and this would make them idle , and neglect their duties in doing that by the word that such Magistrates would doe ( though they ought not to do ) by the sword ; but Fourthly , Why Magistrates ( as Magistrates ) are not to suppresse errours &c. is because Christ and his Apostles after him never medled ( as we heard before ) with secular powers to suppresse blasphemies , &c. neither was this Doctrine maintained or entertained as usefull in Christs Church for three hundred yeers after Christ. Fifthly , Because Christ hath left other Lawes to suppresse Errours , Heresies , Blasphemies , as appears in 1 Tim. 1.20 . Mat. 18.17 . 1 Cor. 5.4 , 5 , &c. Cum multis aliis &c. and by those Lawes left us upon record in Primitive times were errours depressed and punished . Query , Whether a Member cast out of a Church-society , comes not under secular Cognizance for punishment . Answ. Affirm . So far as Christians , whether in , or out of Church-fellowship are of the world , they are under worldly government and powers , but no further ; For worldly government reaches not out of the world ; but Saints as Saints , yea as members of the Church visible , are called out of the world ; and Christs Church , though in the world , yet they are not of the world , Church-government is over men , as Members of the Church , and Civill government is over them as members of the State or Nation or Commonwealth : The first is Christs ; the second Caesars . It is Antichrist arrogates both , and casts a Christian ( under the notion of a Hereticke ) erroneous person , or the like ) out of one hand into the other . We grant that a member ( whether in the society or out , for it is all one for that ) for as much as he is a member of the Nation , must needs come under Civill Cognizance ; but , answer 2 Secondly , Negative , I can finde no warrant in the word for any Church of Christ to deliver up any ( be he never so bad ) to secular powers for punishment : for either he must bee delivered up before , or after he is cast out , if before , then he is yet under the government of the Church , and if after , then the Church hath nothing to do with him , being without her Lines . I doe not finde this to be in practise in primitive times , till Popery was pretty ripe , and then under pretence of Hereticks the dear Saints suffered death presently and frequently . Secondly , But if Magistrates doe take Cognizance of Blasphemers , Hereticks , &c. let them take heed , they out-run not Gods rule in inflicting mulcts and punishments ( though it be for actions ; ) I say , that they goe not too far , Luke 9.55 , 56. I see not how they can sentence to death any for mis-beleeving , or not beleeving our points of Religion , though they be the ( fundamental as we say ) principles of our Christian faith . O what an errour is this ) sayes John Husse to his Adversaries ) to deliver poore people up to secular powers to put to death , & c ! O cruell accursed invention ! Mr. Hooper also in a letter of his out of prison to a precious friend , Anno one thousand five hundred fifty five tels him how thi● tyranny , extremity , and force , hath been the onely argument ( which , sayes he , you must grant ) to maintaine the Pope : And what they cannot doe by the convincing word , they will endeavour to doe by delivering us up to worldly compulsive powers to be tormented . This was also good Bradfords sense , as he sayes to the then Lord Chancellor , I have been ( said he ) now a yeare , and almost three quarters in a stinking prison , and yet of all this time , you never questioned me for my opinions , before this time or for any thing else , when I might have freely spoke my conscience without peril ; but now ! now , that you have a Law to hang and put men , to death , if a man answer freely , and not to your minds , so now you come to ask me this question ! ( about Christ really present in the Sacrament ) Ah! my Lord ! my Lord ! Christ used not this way to bring men to the faith . Bernardus writ to this purpose an Epistle to the Pope Eugenius , who condemned many , and delivered them up to secular Powers to be put to death , sayes he , Apostolos ( lego ) stetisse judicandos , sedisse judicantes non lego , hoc erit , illud fuit . I read that the Apostles stood to be judged , but I never read , that they sate as Judges to sentence any . But this shall be ( for the Saints shall judge the world ) and judge their Judges that now deliver them up to bee murdered and massacred . This wee shall finde long agone the Saints were well acquainted with . A good woman , Mistress Askew , Martyr in King Henry the eighths dayes , said to Wrisley ( the Lord Chancellor ) I have searched the Scriptures all over , but I cannot finde that ever Christ , or any of his Apostles put any to death though Hereticks , or delivered them up to any others to put them to death . Marlinus that eminent French-Bishop upon this very account withdrew communion from his fellow-brethren Bishops , and would have nothing to doe with them , because they consented , and gave way to Maximus the Emperour to cut off by the sentence of death the Priscilianists ( as known Hereticks as ever lived ) yet said he , wee have no power to put them to death , nor to deliver them up to the Emperour . Christ was put to death , but put none to death ( though Hereticks ) neither hath hee given power to any to doe it , but hath denyed it , Luke 9.56 . Nay I will fetch a Gray-Friar that was Philips Confessor , Alphonaeus by name , in his Sermon before Philip and Q. Mary , February the tenth , one thousand five hundred fifty and five ; hee bitterly cryes out of those bloody Bishops for burning men , saying plainly , That they learned it not in Scripture to burne any for his conscience , but the contrary , viz. that such a one should live , and be converted , and many things to the same purport . And deare Lord ! shall we then be of a more rigid judgement ? against one another ! against tender consciences ! against erroneous persons , then the Friar ? It is very remarkable how Edward the sixth declined this devillish doctrine ; Mr. Cranmer had never more to doe in all his life then to perswade , and beg of him , but his hand to be set to the Warrant for delivering up Joan Butcher to the Magistrates power to burne her : All his great Councels , with their Arguments could not prevaile with that Christian-hearted young King to set his hand to it : sayes he , what ? Will you have mee to send her soule quick to Hell ? you say her errour will damne her ; should I then be so cruel to send her presently to the devill in this errour ? O no! let her live to repent ! it may be to the saving of her soule , to give her longer life and liberty to repent ( which the murthering of her will not doe ) I hold it more holy ( sayes he ) that she should live to be converted , &c. that this sweet bird chirps ; and this young man manifested his dislike of such secular powers , and punishments for errors ( though grievous ) but O! how few such Saint-like Caesars are to be found now ! I might heap up many eminent testimonies , yea ( I thinke ) fetched from all ages against this bloody tenet and opinion of giving up Hereticks , or any other erroneous persons into the hands of Magistrates to punish them : Many blessed Martyrs have breathed out flames against this Antichristian custom , which have lent us light into it , to this age . I have read ( I do well remember ) when a flaming faggot was brought to Ridley his feet , to set all the rest on fire , Ha! sayes Mr. Latimer to his Brother Ridley , Come be of good comfort Brother ! play the man ! We shall this day light such a candle in England , as I trust shall never be put out ! I hope so too ; for sure I am , by that light we may see , that putting to death is none of Christs Ordinance ; and that fire and faggots are no good Reformers . Were a man a Turk , Saracen , Jew , Heretick , or what you will ? whilst he lives quietly , and peaceably in the State ; I know not who , nor why he can be put to death ; besides , he is verily perswaded he believes aright , and enough ; much less , can I see how a Church dare ( warrantably ) to deliver up any one to secular powers ( purposely ) to be punished by them . This hath been Antichrists advantage to this day , and the weapons of his warfare in all ages . But ( blessed be God ) it is clear to thousands now , ( as the Sun that shines , ) that spiritual evils must have spiritual remedies , answerable to the nature of these evils , 2 Cor. 10.4 ▪ 5. And that the cutting off of mens heads , is no proper remedy of cutting off mens Errors ; but of cutting off men in their Errors : Let all means ( spiritual ) be used for the recovery of such whose diseases are spiritual and mental , 2 Tim. 2.25 . For we must not sweep up Christs house with Antichrists broom ; nor fight with his hands Christs battles , nor with his weapons our warfare . Quaere . What must Magistrates do then ? Answ. All they can , to encourage and countenance the servants and service of Christ , by giving them liberty , though ever so few , or contemptible ; declaring against all known ▪ and apparent gross Errors , and Heresies ; so as that they do not allow of them , or the like : For what Bilson sayes , serves us , Commissio est à Christo , permissio à Magistratu . Christ commands , and Caesar demands ; Christ gives the Law , and Magistrates the Liberty : But let not Magistrates take too much liberty ( as is said before ; ) Christ allows of , and approves of Magistrates Government , Magistrates must allow and approve of Christs . Christ hath commanded theirs , and obedience to them , they must command Christs , and obedience to him : And as the Saints for Gods sake , Rom. 13.1 . Gal. 4.14 . are obedient to them ( for sancti non subjiciunt se homini propter hominem , sed propter Deum ; ) so they for Gods sake are to be obedient to Christ , and servants to his Church , his Saints , and people of God. Let them make much of the Ministers of Christ , neither to corrupt them with hono●s , nor to honor them in their corruptions : As Ministers cannot make Magistrates , neither can Magistrates make Ministers ; and as Ministers of Christ cannot hinder Ministers of State ( or Magistrates ) in doing their offices for Bodies , and in Civil affairs ; neither can Ministers of State hinder the Ministers of Christ , in doing their offices for souls , and in spiritual affairs . Wherefore ( as I said before ) each must remember his place , as Constantine could say ( Vos est is in Ecclesia , sed ego extra Ecclesiam Episcopus ) to a Bishop or Minister in those days ; ye are Overseers and Officers in the Church ( within ) and I am an Overseer and Officer out of the Church ( without ; ) Constantine kept his course some time , very well , within his own jurisdiction ; without mingling or mangling Ecclesiastical affairs with Civil , or Civil with Ecclesiastical ; so must every Magistrate be sure to do : For it is Gods design , to destroy those powers and policies that hinder Christs reign in his Zion , and Church , as the alone Head and Lord. Christs Kingdom ( of the Son ) and the Kingdom of glory ( the Fathers ) are both alike ; who rules in one , rules in the other● ; who are admitted into one , are admitted into the other ; whom the one receives , the other receives , and none else : But the Kingdom of the Father , receives not Magistrates , as Civil Magistrates , to rule , and govern , or punish there ( i. e. In Heaven to come , ) therefore not here , in the Kingdom of the Son. And he that dares usurpe this power of Christ ( the alone Head and Lord ) takes too much upon him , and as Chrysostom sayes , Non est tributum Caesaris , sed servitium diaboli , &c. It is not his due , but the devils work ; And it will cause his unevitable downfal and confusion , as it did the Devils . Trap observes there , on Matth. 22.21 . the Greek Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is doubled and repeated for this purpose , That our double and special care must be to give God his due ▪ Rom. 13.7 . Oh! O that we did give the Lord his due ! then should we not plead so for Caesars Chair in Christs Church ; that he should sit there with the heel of his cruelty , to kick the Saints brains out ; and to crush them headlong , that stoop not to his form . In a word , Christ sits not on Caesars throne , neither shall he ( who hath too long ) sit upon Christs throne . For though other Lords have had dominion over us , and have usurped Headships ( which are Brass and Iron , Jer. 6.28 . ) yet the Lord will give gold for brass , and silver for iron , Isai. 60.17 . This Head of Gold , and his Gospel , which is better then the silver seven times purified . And if the very Philosophers , ( Aristotle , Plato , and others , vid. Cartwrights Ecclesiastical Discipline of the Authority of the Church ) if they could see and say that Estate is best , and those Citizens happiest , that had God to be their King and Monarch , and his Laws and Decrees to submit unto : Sure I am , the Church is never so happy , holy , and heavenly , as when Christ alone sits upon his throne , in the midst of them , and governs them by his Word and Spirit , see Cap. 2. & 9. of Lib. 2. And sure , this is the great work that our God is bringing about ; who is coming to reign for ever and ever . In the mean time , let us own neither the Brazen , nor the Iron Heads , for our Head ; ( I mean , neither Spiritual nor Temporal , Ecclesiastical nor Civil powers , so called ! ) O none but Christ ! the Head of Gold ; our Master ! Lord ! Head ! and Law-giver ! without any other Partner or Paramount whatsoever , as hath been at large proved ! Wherefore to conclude ; All others are beheaded ! having lost their long usurped ruledom , and jurisdiction ! And with John Hus ; We say , Christus sine talibus capitibus monstrosis , melius ecclesiam suam regulavit , Act. 27. Object . Christ alone is Head , and governs his own Church ( influendo & infundendo ) without such prodigious helps , or monstrous heads , as Antichrist would crowd in . Thus said Gregory the first , Lib 6. Epist. 24. in his Letter to John Patriarch of Constantinople , Quid tu Christo universalis ecclesiae capiti , &c. What will you answer at the last day to Christ ? the sole Universal Head of his Church , and people ? that thou darest to arrogate that title ? which is Antichristian for thee so to do ? Hold fast the head , saith the Apostle , Col. 2.19 . from which all the body , by joynts and bands , having nourishment , ministred and knit together , increaseth with the increase of God. Therefore be sure you hold your Head ; For first , it supplieth the members with all necessaries ; Secondly , It knits every member to its self , and one to another ; and thirdly , It increaseth every one with a spiritual increase : Now Christ in his The anthropie , is this Head , which we must fetch our life , sense , and motion from , by Nerves , Veins , and Arteries . Christiani Christo capiti adhaerent , & ab eo percipiunt , & hauriunt vitam spiritualem , &c. No Member of his , but hath much moisture , nourishment , and spiritual growth . And every Member is moved with their Head , unless some Palsie-Members ( so Palsie-Christians ) that move not as the Head ( Christ ) directs . When Cyneas the Ambassador of Pyrrhus , after his return from Rome , was asked by his Master , What he thought of the City and State , answered ; O Sir ! It is Respublica Regum , a Commonwealth of Kings , and a State of Statesmen : And so is the Church , wherein Christ is King and Head ; O happiness of such a Church ! For if he be in us Head , he is heart , hand , and all . For quickning of us , he is our Anima , the life and soul of the Church , and of every Member ; as he resolves us he is Voluntas , as he maketh us think he is Animus , as he gives us to know he is our Intellectus , as he deliberates us he is Mens , as he keeps our remembrance he is Memoria , as he gives us to judge he is our Ratio , as he moves our desires he is Affectus , as he breaths us and inspires us he is our Spiritus , and as he enables us to apprehend he is our Sensus ; So that Christ our Head , is our Heart , and all . VVherefore let us hold him fast for our Head , and heare of no other , no Brazen-face , no Iron-pate , no O monstrum horrendum ! informe , ingens ! cui lumen ademptum ! Christ willed , when he saw Caesars stamp on the coyne , to give Caesar his due ; so when wee see Christs stampe on his Saints , Ordinances , Worships , Churches , wee must give Christ his due there , which is to be the alone Head and Law-giver amongst them . But thus far for this Chapter . CHAP. XIV . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tsur . That Christ is the onely Rocke , and sure Foundation for his Church to be built upon : All other Foundations being false , sandy , and such as will fail . A House without a foundation cannot stand ; and to have an unsound , sandy foundation , is little better then none at all , if not sometimes worse , as being more deceitfull and dangerous ; Great is the fall of such an house , Luke 6.49 . Matth. 7.27 . But this spirituall house hath a sure foundation ( if it be of Christs building ) which Christ hath laid with his owne hands , as Zach. 4.9 . Isa. 14.32 . other places are founded by the arme of flesh , but this by the Power and Spirit of the Lord. Palestina must fall , but Zion , i. e. ( sayes Sasbout ) the spirituall Zion ( meant Christs Church under the Gospel ) shall never fall : for the Lord hath founded it upon a Rocke too , so Mat. 7.25 . Mat. 6.18 . Luke 6.48 . and this Rocke is Christ , as 1 Cor. 10.4 . 2 Sam. 23.3 . so that Christ is also the foundation of the Church , which the Church is built upon , Eph. 2.20 . 1 Cor. 3.14 . Christ is not the Head of that Church whereof he is not the foundation , sayes Cotton : Christ is King , Priest , Prophet , Head , Master , Lord , and Lawgiver , Advocate , Husband , Brother , Builder ; and yet the Foundation of his Church , what is hee not unto his people ? in any condition ? he is man , and Minister to himselfe as God : so that as he may be both the Prophet , and the Word ; the Advocate , and yet the Argument ; the Law-giver , and yet the Law ; the Master , and yet the member ; the Priest , and yet the sacrifice ; even so may he be , by the same rule and order , the Founder , and yet the foundation : For as he preaches himselfe , and this testimony was true ; as he pleads himselfe , and this argument is full ; as he gives out himself , and this Law is life ; as hee offers himselfe , and this Sacrifice is precious , and effectuall ; Even so he layes himselfe low to be our Foundation , that wee might bee fitly built upon him , and this Foundation will never faile ; for he is a Rockie foundation . First , Because the Rock is a sure and firme foundation , which will not sinke nor shrinke ( per saxum foederis firmitatem notabant antiqui : Venning ) but soft , or sandy stones , will give way , and endanger the whole structure : Now God in Christ is a sure and most firme foundation , 1 Cor. 3.11 . 2 Tim. 2.19 . which cannot faile us ▪ our Salvation lyes upon him , he cannot deceive us : The Church is like Mount Sion which abides for ever , and is immoveable , because founded upon the Rocke of ages : Si nos ruemus , ruet Christus una , said that loud-tongued and liveli-spirited Luther : If we fall , Christ shall fall too , and ( malo cum Christo ruere , quam cum Caesare stare ) I had rather ( sayes another ) ruine with Christ , then run with Caesar ; I had rather fall with Christ , then stand with Caesar : such can never fall , 1 Pet. 2.6 . as long as Christ the foundation stands . Secondly , A Rocke is high , whence we have pleasant prospects , and see far round the Horizon and Hemisphere , whence wee look with delight , and have the least hindrances , Num. 23.9 . Christ is such a high Rocke , Psal. 61.2 . and the Saints foundation lyes in him , who is higher then all Rocks and mountaines , Psal. 87.1 . or places , Isa. 57.15 . Psal. 91.14 . From this high Rock ( i. e. Christ ) the Saints see far , and faire , and have most eminent discoveries , and the sweetest Survey of Heaven , and happinesse , all other things being below them : And they have the least hindrance in their prospects either up or downe , or round about , being filled with loveliest , liveliest , richest , highest , and heavenliest soul-ravishing Discoveries . Thirdly , A Rocke is a place of refuge , of great strength and security , thither people run for refuge and safety , Isa. 2.21 . 1 Sam. 13.6 . and 23.25 . a Castle in a Rocke is accounted impregnable , and cannon proof . Such a Rocke is Christ to the Church and his Saints , Deut. 32.31 . Psal. 18.2 . Psal. 31.2 . a strong Rocke and Castle of defence ; Hence it is Saints are so safe in Christ , that they cannot bee stormed , or taken : Saints are secure in him ; when all Devils in hell let flye upon them ; For as Tertullian sayes , the desperatest Bullets and Darts that men or Devils can shoo● , at this impregnable and impenetrable Rocke , are either returned with a powder , or bounded backe upon the heads of them that shot them , or else are fallen down , dead and blunted , without any more mischiefe . The Gates of Hell shall not prevaile against them ; that is , neither the power nor policy of Hell combined together ; no not though the Devill doth by himselfe or others plot with his seven-heads , or push with his ten-hornes ; neither can all the fraudulent plots , practises , malices , machinations , policies , powers , or engines that Earth or Hell can bring forth , bee enough to ruine the Church , who is seated sure and safe upon a Rocke that is higher and mightier then they . It is true , they may batter , but cannot conquer ▪ they may reach to her heel , ( and peradventure bruise her heele ) but they cannot reach to the Head , but they will break themselves a peeces : They cannot make a breach in true Religion , or a battery in this Rocke ; no though the Devill should discharge the Popes Cannons , or the greatest Ordinances hee hath at them : say they were as big as those two cast by Alphonsus the Duke of Ferrara , the one of which he called the Earthquake , the other the Grandiabolo , or the Great-devill , neither Earth , nor Hell , the Earthquake , nor the greatest Devils can remove the Church founded upon this Rocke ; they may shake her , but not shame her ; disturb her , but not destroy her , who may challenge the Venetian Motto , Nec fluctu nec flatu movetur , as Mat. 7.25 . and Psal. 62.2 . Hee onely is my rocke , and my SALVATION , he is my DEFENCE , I shall not be greatly moved ; so vers . 6 , 7. But to make haste . Fourthly , A Rocke keeps his place ; removes not , and thus doth Christ , who is the same yesterday , to day , and for ever ; hee alters not , nor removes from being the foundation of his peoples principles , graces , happinesse , joyes , enjoyments , and all ; he is ever in this place , and therefore he is in Zion a sure foundation , Isa. 28.26 . and cannot bee removed . Hebr. 12.28 . immobile saxum . Fifthly , A Rocke is very lasting , an Heiroglyphick of permanency , durability , and perpetuity ; so is Christ , who can never decay , or decrease , but of the increase of his Government , and peace there shall be no end , Isa. 9.7 . Sixthly , A Rocke yeelds severall and singular Benefits , it is a shade from the scorching heat , and keeps from being Sun-burnt ; so doth Christ , Isa. 32.2 . and he keeps from being sin-burnt , and hell-burnt , and from the wrath of God ; a Rocke affords precious stones , and Jewels , such a Rocke is Christ , who is the Mine and Treasury of all precious things hid in him , Col. 3.2 . and fetched from him , Prov. 8.10 , 11.18 . Rev. 3.17.18 . Rev. 5.12 . Prov. 3.15 . the Rock yeelds honey , so doth Christ , Deut. 32.13 . Psal. 81.16 . his words are drops of honey , Psal. 19.10 . and his lips and doctrine drop sweet smelling myrrh , Cant. 5.13 . The Rocke yeelds oyle , Deut. 32.13 . Job . 29.6 . and so Christ doth the unction from on High , the oyle of grace , 1 Jo. 2 20. and Rev. 3.17 the Rock , affords wholesome hearbs and sallets , so doth Christ , whose cheeks are as a bed of spices , Cant. 5.13 . besides from the Rock flowes the most rich , pure , pleasant , sweet Christall streams , Deut. 8.15 . Job . 28.10 . so the most springs and best streams of water of life flow from Christ the Rocke , whereby his Church is refreshed , as 1 Cor. 10.4 . Psal. 46.4 . Isa. 33.21 . Joh. 4.13 , 14. Joh. 7.38 . Seventhly , A Rocke is so hard , that a Foundation in it will cost much sweat and labour , and continuall paines , &c. so much meanes must be used , and much paines must be taken , and much care , and continuall vigilancy must bee had to bee well-bottomed upon Jesus Christ , Phil. 2.12 . therefore saith Peter , 2 Epist. 1.10 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. endeavour sedulously , and study it diligently , and if so yee do ; yee shall not fall : therefore learne ( saith Solomon ) Prov. 30.26 . of the Conies ( poore little things ) yet they with labour worke out holes and burrowes in the roots of the Rocks ; by this we are to learne diligence and bee sure to get in force enough , and to dig deep into this Rocke , which is Christ. Eighthly , A Rocke , if it proves a stumbling stone , is most dangerous of all to bruise and breake thee , and batter thee a peeces ; so is Christ to such as by their carelessenesse or selfe-conceit doe fall at him , and on him , O! hee is to them a ( rough ) Rocke of offence ! 1 Pet. 2.8 . Rom. 9.32 . that will not obey him , and yeeld to him , but that stumble at him , and reject him ; they that fall upon this stone ! are bruised and broken ; and those that this stone falls upon , are grown'd to powder , Luke 20.18 . Thus is Christ the Rocke , and this Rocke the Foundation of the Church , and this , saith Augustine upon Mat. 16. Christ meant , when he said , Vpon this Rocke I will build my Church ; Tu quidem Petrus es , cognominatus a me qui sum petra , atque super hanc Petram aedificabo Ecclesiam meam . ) And thus saith Peter Martyr in 1 Epist. ad Cor. 3.11 . CHRIST is said to be the FOVNDATION of this heavenly FABRICKE of his Church , because it hath its BEGINNING from ABOVE , and this FOVNDATION hath the TITLE of a ROCKE , because CHRIST is the SVREST FOVNDATION ( & Christus in summo loco situs est , &c. ) and he is the highest . But the Reasons why the Church hath Christ to be her Rocke , and why this Rocke for her Foundation , are divers ; I shall trouble you with but one or two ; as first is for safeties sake . First , For safeties sake , the Church must meet with multitude reason 1 of tempests and stormes , winds , and waves , Mat. 7.25 . whence Bolton calls her the Tossed-ship , she meets with a continuall succession of miseries , and molestations , one on the necke of another , like Jobs Messengers , and as Clouds rack , Eccl. 12.2 . Fluctus fluctum trudit , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The skies are overcast ; sometimes they fall in lesser and lighter crosses , as the smaller raine , but sometimes in sharpe stinging and piercing Calamities , like stormes of haile , the raine falls , the floods arise , the winds blow , the waves beat , and all to try the building , which like Noahs-Arke is pitched within , and without , and holds out , being upon a sure foundation , and cannot faile utterly , though she may be battered , and will be tryed day by day , and that to the purpose , therefore shee had need to be founded upon the Rocke . We must sit downe and consider , and cast up what it will cost us to be Christians , how much we must suffer ; and then be sure that wee bee upon a good foundation that will not sinke under us , nor shrinke away from us , for we shall have many trials . reason 2 Secondly , Why the Church is built upon this Rocke is for orders sake , that whosoever will venture to build , may begin at this foundation first , 1 Cor. 3.10 . and bee sure he goe wisely to worke ( as I said before in the last Chapter ) so also , that whosoever will enter into this house of the Lord , may first get up the Rocke ( which will be with much difficulty to flesh and blood ) and from thence to goe into the house ( Gods Church ) built upon the Rocke : many have been wrong that thought first to get into the Church , and then into Christ , no! no! but they must bee first in Christ , and have a right to Christ , and communion and closenesse with Christ , and from thence enter into communion with Saints , &c. 1 Jo. 1.3 . Eph. 2.2.20 . First on the foundation Jesus Christ , and then verse 22. into the building : where this order is omitted , and not minded , they build but upon a false foundation , and will never stand the sturdy storms : And truly I am possessed with some jealousie that most of our gathered Churches ( or rather members in them ) are built amisse , and are to be amended in reason 3 this point of order , or else they will not stand . Thirdly , It is for Reasons sake to keep up the building ; to support the body which the foundation is to doe : Therefore is Christ the foundation to be first laid , and all the superstructure to be built upon him , who beares up all by his power , Heb. 1.3 . for the which no other FOVNDATION could be laid to build upon , 1 Cor. 3.11.12 . in whom ( in which foundation ) all the building ( for every bit and parcel must have a dependance upon him , and an abiding in him , as being fastned and nailed to him ) all being fitly ordered together doe joyntly ( and unanimously ) grow ( higher and higher ) and are more and more built up in Christ still ) a holy Temple to the Lord , Eph. 2.20 , 21 , 22. through his Spirit . But , First , Wee must bee sure then , wee have a foundation , and that that be laid first to be built upon , all wise builders do● vse 1 thus , and in Heb. 11.10 . Abraham ( the representative of B●leevers ) is said to look for a City which hath foundations , i. e. in opposition to the Tents he set up to live in , ( being but a passenger ) which were without foundations laid , and could easily bee pulled down , and laid in the dust ; I dare be bold to say it , that some of our gathered Churches ( built in a trice ) are but such Tents without foundations , which will ( as soon , and in a trice ) bee pulled downe and laid in the dust : but let us look for , and verily expect with confidence ( as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there signifies ) a City i. e. a house , a Church , a new Jerusalem , whose builder and maker is God , which hath Christ for the foundation ; these Temples , Tabernacles , buildings will abide , but no others : for Prov. 10.25 . they are on an everlasting foundation , and cannot fall ; This is the thing wee must looke for , and then build ; first , make sure of a sound foundation therefore , Isa. 44.28 . say to Jerusalem , thou shalt be built , there is nothing mentioned yet of a foundation till the next words , and say , O Temple , Thy foundation shall be laid ! or let it be laid before you begin to build the Temple of the Lord. The Temple was a type , & in the type the foundation was first to be laid ; the typified must answer the typifying herein , as appeares in Zach. 4 9. Zerubbabels owne hands that have laid the foundation of this house shall finish it ; but first , he layes the foundation of the house thus Hag. 2.18 . Consider even from the day that the foundation is laid : Consider it ( as if before that it were not worth considering ) as if without that , little heed were to bee given to it , ( for it could not stand unlesse upon that , and after that the foundation is once laid , and the principles setled , then we must set forward ( and not before ) and build on with care and consideration , heed and diligence ; And from that very day the Lord will blesse you . vers . 19. From thence you shall grow up into a high and holy building ; and go on considerately , Quantum ad actum intellectus , & quantum ad veritatem intuentis , both in your understandings , and judgements , which otherwise ( i. e. without a foundation first laid ) you cannot do ; but must deviate from those rules of reason , and right judgement , whereby you become considerate ; and your prudence is ordered and regulated , even from that day the Foundation is laid . Consider , but vse 2 Use 2. Be sure that we have a good foundation ( for it is not enough to have a foundation , which every man fancies to himself ) but that it be a sound and sure o●e , and that which will hold : One that builds upon a rotten , reeling , sandy , and unfit foundation , is found a fool ; and so Christ calls him , Matth. 7.26 . For he shall finde his fairest ground-work will deceive him ; his building soon will lie in the dust , and not endure the trial , but will down like a Spiders web . All such fools ( or unwise builders ) fail in the main point , in that necessary one thing , and do but build upon the sand ; wherefore his building soon sinks , shatters a pieces , and tumbles down . The wise mans and fools house differ in the subterstructure and superstructure both . First , In the foundation ; the wisemans lies deep , little seen , and he is sure it is sound ( as the heart of Oak ) and will never rot ; but the fools foundation is shallow , lies open , and is much seen ; and is soon removed , and razed , and it is so unsound , that it sinks under the building , and layes all in the dust . Secondly , In the building too they differ , for the fools lies loosly , and is not well fastned , neither to the foundation , nor one to another , and may easily slip one from another , and all fall beside to the ground ; which ground-work is but as a stake stuck in the ground , and so may easily be pulled up ; and truly , I say this for fear many Churches , ( as they now are ) prove but such buildings , because some so easily slip aside the foundation ( pretended ) which is a sad thing , and they are too loose , and not well united to one another , nor fastned one in another ; but the Wise mans is as a City compacted , knit fast to the foundation , and pinned in ( as one with ) the Rock : From whence they cannot be razed , raised , or removed ; and like an intire stone ( as is it said of Solomons Temple ) are the whole building one . So much sweetness , evenness , and union , is amongst them ; yea , in the midst of shakings and oppositions : That as none of the building can be separate from the Rock , viz. The foundation wherein , and whereon they are laid ; so not one ( by the violentest temptations that can befal them ) can be parted from another ; but all are one in Christ , and one another . For he that is joyned to the Lord , is one Spirit , 1 Cor. 6.17 . Now the very reason why many fair buildings ( so in appearance ) must be laid in the dust again , is , because they have been built upon false foundations , of mens Creation ; as their Rules , Canons , Commandments of men , Directories , or outward forms of holiness , and wisdom , or some thing or other which is sandy , and which will fail them , and prove infirm and ruinous ( as Peter Martyr , 1 Cor. 3.11 . sayes , ) and which will make their buildings to fall upon their Heads . For every plant which my Father hath not planted , shall be pulled up by the roots , saith Christ , i. e. Their foundation , and all shall be discovered to be nought ; and so in Ezek 13.14 . I will break down the wall ( the work ) that ye have daubed with untempered morter , and will bring it down to the ground . Why so ? Mark ! That the foundation thereof ( that rotten , ruinous foundation ) may be discovered , and it shall fall : None shall be able to save it ; for the Lord will have the naughty , deceitful foundations , discovered , and laid open to our children after us , that they may not build upon such rotten stuff . And therefore it is ( I say ) such buildings must fall , that their foundations may be discovered , ( It shall fall , saith the Lord , none shall be able to keep it up , it shall fall ; ) and then others will beware upon what grounds and foundation they build upon hereafter : False Prophets are builders too , and will be as busie as may be ; but mark the metaphor , It is with untempered morter , which will tumble in the time of a storm ; it cannot stand , but will fall on a sudden : Then they that under such buildings are in danger for want of safety , or shelter ; and are in as eminent imminent danger , as the Twenty seven thousand of Benhadads men were in Aphek , in 1 Kings 20.30 . O! O then be sure of a sound foundation ! Such a one as will not sink , rot , fail , fall , and then it must be a Rock . VVherefore beware of such buildings as are made up of mens sandy and untempered stuff ; for they will fall on your heads , and do a deal of mischief . But the Word and Spirit must have the working of this house upon Christ the foundation ; that is strong , defenceable , and sure of standing : Therefore , vse 3 Use 3. Be sure Christ be that Rock , upon which you are founded Isai. 28.16 . who is called the Stone of probation , the stone of foundation . 1. The foundation of Solomons Temple ( as I said before ) being a type of this foundation , we shall finde was to be laid by those , whom the Lord had endued with most skill , the chiefest and ablest of the laborers in that building ; and none are fit for this work , viz. To lay the foundation principles , and to fit out Christ to the capacity of the building in hand ; but such as are very wise , experienced , and filled with the Holy Ghost . Others , that are raw and unexperienced , and not endued with divine skill and understanding for this work ( which will require the most accurate regard and judgement ) do but do what must be undone again , and bring much discredit upon the work . Therefore , as Solomon sent to Hiram , 2 Chron. 2. and about , for able men ; so must we seek hard , and send up to Heaven , for the Holy Ghost to fall upon some , who may be fitted for it . This is another reason to me , ( full of perswasion and power ) that many of our seeming orderly gathered Churches that yet are , must be rifled , and ript up to lay the foundation ( though it may be good ) yet more orderly , and regularly ; and with more heavenly skill , and wisdom , then as yet it is laid : But , 2. In the next place , the foundation of the Temple was also the choisest matter , as being of most precious and permanent substance , costly and curious stone , 1 Kings 5.17 , and 7.10 . Christ is the most pretious tryed stone , Isa. 28.16 . & 8.14 . Cut out without hands , and elect for that use , 1 Pet. 2.6 . Most costly , chary , and continuing for ever : Thus in Rev. 21. 19. the foundations of the New Jerusalem we finde garnished with all manner of pretious stones ; indeed all excellencies , yea all manner of excellencies are in Christ , the foundation of every particular Church . 3. Furthermore , when the foundation of the Temple was laid ; there were the largest and liveliest testimonies of joy , that could be exprest , Ezra 3.10 , 11 , 12. So is it to be at the laying of this foundation , ( which is Christ ) to build upon ; it is to be done with shouting , crying , Grace , grace unto it , Zach 4.6 . or as it is in Hebrew , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with wide acclamations and cryes of rejoycing and gladness ▪ O ( shall they say ) the grace ! the wonderful grace of God in Christ ! And mark this , That till the foundation be laid , there is no such loud shoutings out , grace , grace . The whole strength and stress of the building , lies in the foundation , so does ours in Christ ; who is also our City of Refuge . Now let this stone which most builders have refused , and which others have rejected , become the Head of our Corner . Amen . Use 4. The last use then that I would make ( now ) of this , is to inform us of these two necessary things , in imbodying together . vse 4 First , to be well grounded ; secondly , to be well united ; without both these , better never to have been a building ; for the fall will be great . This is exceedingly requisite , and of all places , I should pitch upon Dublin ( at present ) to press this ; for sure I am , we have great need of laying a sure foundation . First , That ye be well grounded and founded upon the Rock ; how requisit it is ; you have heard before ; onely this I adde , That such a building will never fall , but last ever , and is of perpetual use for the Saints to dwell in , till the full appearance , or coming of Christ , without alteration or cessation . This Church-state upon this foundation ceases not ; I say not , but the superstructure may sometimes want mending , ordering , and repairing , but the essentials of it shall remain for ever , Dan. 7.14 . Luke 1.33 . Isa. 9.7 , 8. & 59.20 , 21. Eph. 3.21 . Till it be grown up into a perfect stature in Christ , Eph. 4.11 , 12. and then it shall be translated into a state triumphant , 1 Cor. 15.24 , 25. Therefore Paul charges Timothy to a special care of those Ordinances which are to continue till the coming of our Lord Jesus , 1 Tim. 6.13 , 14. So see 1 Cor. 11 ▪ 26. Christ hath promised his presence and personal assistance , to the end of the world , Matth. 28.20 . Now Saints that are built up together upon this foundation , cannot fall ; neither shall the gates of h●ll at any time , in any age , be able to prevail against them , Matth. 16.18 . Here is no room left , for that erronious opinion of Mr. Prynne ; now for such States-Politicians that would make Christs worship like the weather-cock , to serve every wind ; or his building but a Crane to serve the St●●e , and to turn as they list ; and Religion like a nose of wax , to stand which way they will ; and to be altered , and formed into what fashion they think fittest for the State ; and most suitable to the Civil Government and Laws of that Common-wealth . But let that policy , power , and those persons expect the rigor of his rod of Iron , which is already reached out , against such Politicians of our times ; who like the King of Navar ( to Beza ) profess not to stir a foot further for Religion , then it promotes policy , and agrees with his interest . Let such call to the Mountains and Rocks to fall on them , and hide them from the wrath of the Lamb. The great day of his wrath is come . Revel . 6.16 , 17. Neither in the next place , can we read less then an apparent repugnancy to sound truth , and to this sure foundation in that lean opinion of the Cessation of Ordinances , which some hold at this day , contrary to Eph. 3.21 . 1 Cor. 11.26 . 1 Tim. 6.13 , 14. Wherefore they forsake publick assemblies , Heb. 10.23 , 24. Duties , Ordinances ; and will neither build , nor be built up ; pretending the day is not come , as Hag. 1 ▪ 2 , 4. and it is time enough ; wherein ( as one notes ) there is a double sin . First , Their negligence , and pretending it not to be the Lords time to cover their sin ; and secondly , their rashness in charging others that are about the work ; and in the building of Gods house , as if they made too much haste , and might better let it alone , because the time is not yet come , &c. So that they would have all lie in their ruines , till the Restitution of Miracles , as was in the Apostles days , and then to do it by an Apostolick-power and authority , and not till then : But O! what an error is here ! Have they any warrant in the Word for this ? Is not this an argument of a sensual ? carnal ? low spirit ? that must be confirmed by miracles , Job . 20.29 . and of want of faith ? Heb. 11.7 . Besides , are not miracles fallible ? Nay , are they not notes of deceivers , and false Christs in these latter days ? Matth. 24.24 . And doth not Christ call them evil and adulterous , that do seek for such signs ? Matth. 12.38 , 39. before they will believe , that they must go about this building . In a word ( I think ) they are under a world of temptations , and very unsound ( if not sinfully sensual ) that are of that judgement , though ( I will judge no person , but the sin ) for in forsaking Ordinances , Assemblies , Christian-duties , &c. They run a desperate hazard , Heb. 10.23 , 24 , 25. which , some say , is the Prodromus , or Harbinger of that pardonless , pitiless sin of the Holy Ghost , Vers. 26 , 27 , 28 , 29. and of ruine , V. 39. But this I have offered on the first part of this use , to show a necessity of being well-grounded upon this Rock , Christ ; and Secondly , To be well-united in , and to this Rock Christ , by communion , as 1 Cor. 1.9 . God is faithful , by whom ye are called unto the communion of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord : This is the voice of all the Oracles ( sayes Mr. Ainsworth ) to raise men into communion with Christ the Rock , and then with one another , 1 John 1.3 , 7. Hence it is , that there be such variety of similitudes to resemble this communion , and to illustrate it ; as Christ the Head , we the Members ; and all by due joynts , arteries , and sinews , united to the Head ; receiving life , motion , and government , in all actions and affairs from the Head ; and yet by the same arteries , sinews , joynts , and spirits united one to another : so Christ is the Vine , we the branches , i. e. One with the vine , the stock , the root , all participating of the same juice , fatness , sap , sweetness , and yet one branch deriving from another , refreshed by another , growing to another , and one with another : So Christ is the foundation , we are the building , Eph. 2.21 . 1 Cor. 3.9 . all fastned , knit , and united to the foundation , Christ ; although one may differ from another , in form , shape , order , place , &c. And although some be of a courser , and some of a finer substance and appearance in this building ; although some be greater , and some lesser ; some in one fashion , and some in another ; yet all alike do depend upon , and are set upon Christ , the foundation ; all are rooted in him , Col. 2.7 . Eph. 3.17 . grounded and built upon him ; and pinned , fastned , and united to him ; and yet are so to one another ( in faith and love ; ) as if they could not live or stand , one without the other ; for they be many in particulars ; and some are under one form , and some under another ; yet all are coupled together , tacked , and nailed together ; so that they grow together up unto an holy temple in the Lord. Now if we lie loosely , ( and not firmly fastned , as I said before ) we shall slip aside , and fall out , 1 Joh. 2.19 , 20. and thereby bring danger to the whole building . This communion makes us in unity , without which is neither comfort , nor continuance in a Church-state ; neither am I of opinion with some , that they must be all of one judgement , and under one form , and of one opinion , in one body or society , &c. that hold together in love and faith . For I finde no building , no body , no Church that ever was , or will be , without different forms , opinions , appearances , &c. according to the nature of the Members and Matter they are made up of . There be many Members ( and particular parcels of several shape and use ) and yet by the wisdom of God , all are so well-united and set together ; that there appears so admirable a decorum , so goodly a frame , and lovely a proportion and symmetry of the whole ; I say , of the whole , that not the least Member ( though the most differing from others in form or fashion ) could be spared ; for the Lord hath use of all his people ( under what dispensation soever ) to build up his house withal , as I shall ( if the Lord please ) shew in the second Book . Wherefore I am perswaded , those Churches that consist so much in , and subsist so much of , and upon an uniformity , will fall ; for they are not of Gods building ; but those the Lord builds ( as before ) though many Members be in them that differ in opinions , forms , or the like ; yet all shall be very useful and necessary in the place the Lord hath put them in , by his holy Spirit , and shall be so far from making fractions , or divisions , that they shall promote the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace , being all are borne up by one foundation , upon whom all are built , one as well as another , and that foundation which is the strength of the building ) is as able and fit to keep up one as another ( so fastened in him ) bee hee of what judgement soever , and under what shape soever hee appeares to others ( so he be but good matter . ) Now those Churches are of the Lords building ( doubtlesse ) that doe agree in Spirit , though differ in forme , and though they have in them of sundry Nations , natures , languages , judgements , or opinions , yet are all one in Christ the foundation , and are firmly cemented , and united one to another in Christ by his own , and the same spirit , which enlivens , enlightens , quickens , comprehends , acts , inables , moves , and governs all , though under diversity of gifts and administrations : And these are they that shall stand by his wisdome , though not in the wisdome of flesh and blood , or of the world . Well in a word , Sion thus governed , thus grounded , and thus united as before , must be the delight of the whole earth , beautifull for scituation , not onely in a faire air , lovely climate , and good land , but lying on a fair , full , and sure foundation , which shall never bee removed , but which he will establish for ever , Psal. 48.2.8 . SELAH . Wherefore thus saith the Lord of hosts , let your hands be strong , ye that heare in the day the foundation of the Lords house is laid ( Christ being for that purpose preached ) that the Temple might be built . For the building is all in vaine , that is not laid upon this Foundation . And to conclude ; The Lord make our Builders wise in laying the Foundation first ; I feare , too many ( and I desire to deale home with my owne naughty , deceitfull heart herein ) that have sought more their owne fame , then others felicity , more to glorifie themselves then God in gathering the godly into Fellowships , and so they have gotten a good many , and those great ones too , and made themselves some body ; then they Christen their Churches into their owne names . The Lord shame us for it , whom he findes guilty ! Constantine the Great called Trajane ( who was a Great Builder ) the wal-flower , for that his name was engraven on so many walls . So indeed are many mens names most shamefully ( if not impudently ) ingraven on your Churches . This was not in Primitive times , we never read of any Churches called by mens names then ; as St. Pauls Church , or Peters Church , but all called the Churches of Christ ; for they were built upon him for a foundation , upon this Rocke which Eagles flye up to ; but the Ostridges have their nests in Sand. So that all true Churches and Saints have one , and the same substantiall Foundation . For as Rhetoricke is said to be a Fist extended and displayed into an open hand , but Logick a hand contracted into a close Fist ; So the Church is dilated into many Congregations , but every good Christian is the Church contracted , and condensed into one Bosome , being alike built upon the Rockie Foundation which will never faile . CHAP. XV. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ahezachecha . That all the children of Sion called home , are bound to make haste , and to enter into this Way of Christ among his Companions in the Gardens . THe next newes is , that wisdome stands in the streets and calls to all , yea the simple , and poore , to eat of her bread , and drinke of her wine , to forsake the foolish , and to goe in the way of understanding , she cries at the gates , at the entry of the City , at the coming in at the doores , Prov. 8.1 , 2 , 3. yea shee hath sent out her Maidens ( the Ministers ) to cry aloud ( by preaching her doctrine ) Prov. 9.4 . and her Discipline , Prov. 9.1 . For wisdome hath laid the foundation , and hewed out her pillars , as you have heard before ; what follows ? why hearken unto me , O yee children ! blessed are they that keep in my wayes , blessed is the man that heareth mee , watching daily at my gates , waiting at the posts of my doors . The gates of Zion are the particular Churches of Christ , into which Christ calls all that have communion with him ; Arise ! and come away , which ( as Ainsworth sayes ) Beleevers are bound to doe , and must labour forthwith , to enter in , and being come in to abide there , and to contend together for the faith , Phil. 1.27 . which was once DELIVERED to the Saints ; For this is foretold in Isa. 2.3 . and he will teach us his wayes ( the very next step is this ) and we will walke in his pathes ; as soone as ever we know the way of Christ , the Lawes , Ordinances , Institutions , and Discipline of Christ , wee must make no delay at all , but put into practise , and enter into his way . It argues carnality to procrastinate , and put off Christ , and to delay our comming at the call of Christ , when wee have clearly and distinctly heard it , Luke 14.18 . and alwayes observe that it is something or other of the world , that is the let ; but as Micah 4.2 . sayes , and Jer. 50.4 . They shall go and seek the Lord , and aske the way to Zion , saying , Come , and let us joyne our selves to the Lord in a perpetuall Covenant . ( I●unt , non subsistent ad vocationem Christi , non moras trahent , Oecolamp . in loc . So Psal , 110.3 . besides the Precepts , Psal. 45.11 . Mat. 28.20 . and loud calls a● before , the many menaces used in the Scriptures against Rebels , and such disobedient subjects , doe sufficiently testifie to this truth , Psal. 2.12 . Luke 19.23 . 1. Cor. 16.22 . and the practises of the Saints in primitive times , yea though times of hottest persecutions and fiery trials ; yet their ( then ) ready obedience to this order of Christ , doth very much manifest the reality of this assertion , viz. that Saints are bound by vertue of positive Precepts to joyn together somewhere in a Gospel-way and order , as hath been before handled , Act. 2.41 , 42. 1 Thes. 1 , 4 ▪ 5 , 6 , 7. 2 Cor. 8.11.22 . 2 Cor. 8.5 Cum multis aliis . Now is there not reason enough for it ? For , First , What other visible way for Beleevers to walke in together , reason 1 and to worship in , hath Christ brought out of his Fathers bosome ? and left behinde him ? when he ascended on high ? till his second coming ? but this ? see Eph. 4.11 , 12. Secondly , What an apparent peece of disobedience and contempt of Christs Call and Command is this , to live in Babylon streets ? or as Lot in Sodome ? notwithstanding the Angel of the Sunne is sent to cry aloud in our eares to come away into Sion , and to make a habitation for the Lord to live in , Isa. 52.11 . Rev. 18.4 . 2 Cor. 6.16 , 17. Eph. 2.21.28 . yea and the Spirit is to be our conduct , Jo. 16.13 . and 14.26 . and knocks at our doors , and tarries to know if we are ready , and to put us in minde of making haste , by many motions and instigations , and instincts : O then ! how roughly doe they resist the Holy Ghost ! and quench the motion of the Spirit ! that stirs in them ! and strives with them ! Act. 7.51 . 1 Thess. 5.19 . which is a sinne of the saddest consequence , ( if after they are convinced , ) Mat. 12.31 . Marke 3.28 , 29. Heb. 10.26.27 . agnitam veritatem flagitiose insectari . So Saul , Julian , Latomus of Loraine , and many others sinned the sinne of death ! that is , they madly and maliciously resisted the truth , despised , and despited the wayes of Christ , notwithstanding their consciences checks , and the Spirits motions , and so did Stephen Gardiner , Fox Act. and Mon. Fol. one thousand nine hundred and five , and divers others . O sad ! sad sinne ! to sinne against the office , and operations of the good Spirit of grace ! which is more then to speake against his person in ignorance , for so did the Sabellian , Eunomian , and Macedonian hereticks , who yet found mercy . Wherefore have a care how yee dare to live in the loathsome Babylonish wayes of confusion , after yee are called out thence , and convinced by the Spirit ( since ) of the gates of Sion ! whilst the Spirit moves in you , to make haste into Church-fellowship , he is doing his office in you , look you to reason 3 yours . Consider the abundance of ill consequences which must unavoydably follow this disobedience to Christ , or this neglect , or omission of these wayes of holinesse or Gospel-fellowship ; for First , The worship of God , or service to Christ Jesus ( which should be our joy and meat and drinke ) suffers by it , which is more acceptably and orderly performed with joynt consent , and in communion of Saints , Rom. 15.16 ▪ 1 Cor. 1.9 , 10. Zeph. 3.9 . the Lambe is said to solemnize publick service upon Mount Sion with a hundred forty and foure thousand Saints , there their voice is like the voice of many waters , and mighty thunders , Rev. 14.1 , 2 , 3. in the songs of praises , and in their prayers ; but for this I refer to Ainsworths Communion , Chap. 16. Secondly , without this , the Saints must needs fall short of that duty of edifying one another , and of building up one another in the most holy faith , but then they grow , Jer. 23.3 , 4. Ezek. 34.14.16 . and walke in light , Isa. 60.3 . 1 Jo. 1.17 . and love , Eph. 5.2 . 1 Thess. 4.9 . 1 Pet. 1.22 . and unity of the Spirit , Phil. 2.1 , 2 , 3. 2 Cor. 13.11 . Eph. 4.3 . instructing and provoking one another to holinesse , and good works , Mal. 3.16 , Jude 20. 1 Thess. 5.11 . Heb. 10.24 . therefore are they implanted together to flourish in the Lords Courts , and to bring forth fruits , Psal. 92.13 , 14. which will not faile , for the waters run out of the Sanctuary , Ezek. 47.1 . Thirdly , otherwise they have not that mutuall aid and assistance for the counsel and comfort of one another , which they ought to have , Rom. 12.3 . 1 Cor. 12.22.26 . Fourthly , nor is there that unanimous compliance , or united force made against the opposers of the truth as is required , Phil. 1.27 . Jude 3 Gal. 5.1 . 1 Cor. 7 23. Can. 6.4 . til they be in communion , as an Army with Banners , and then they are terrible to their enemies being all under one Captaine , Heb. 2.10 . ( grant there be divers colours ) having all the same word , Jer. 31.33 . marching all in order and ranke , Col. 2.5 . making all one arme , and strength against the same enemies , and joyntly vindicating the truth , joyntly praying , and then out of their mouths comes fire to destroy their Adversaries , Rom. 11.5 . joyntly suffering for the truth , 1 Cor. 11.26 . Rom. 12.8 . joyntly refusing traditions , trumperies , and whatsoever is contrary to Christs word , joyntly disputing for , and maintaining of their Liberties and Priviledges , Gal. 5.1 . Fifthly , without this Fellowship together , there is not that fellow-feeling , or Saintly sympathy as ought to be , 1 Cor. 12.25.26 . Rom. 12.16 . nor is there that bearing one anothers burthens , Gal. 6.2 . Heb. 13.3 . nor forbearing one with anothers weaknesses , as Eph. 4.32 . Col. 3 ▪ 12 , 13. in bowels of love , pity , patience , and without censures , Rom. 14.13 . Rom. 13.1 , 2 , &c. Sixthly , besides they are exceeding deficient in many other Christian duties , who are not in Gospel-fellowship ; for how can they Prophesie in the Church ? 1 Cor. 14. or tell the Church ? as Mat. 18.17 . if they are not members of a Church ? or obey them that are Elders , Heb. 13.17 . or vigilantly watch over one anothers conversation ? and admonish , or reprove orderly ? Mat. 18.15 . 1 Thess. 5.14 . and 4.18 . 2 Thess. 3.15 . Rom. 15.14 . &c. But for this I refer to Mr. Bartlets Model ; But to the reason 4 Fourth Reason or Argument , which is taken from the special priviledges which are proper to them that are in the way of Christ above all others , which are abundance : As first , among them Christ doth most manifest his presence , Psal. 36.2 . in a more then ordinary measure , the glory of God is seen in the face of Christ , 2 Cor. 4.6 . Christ takes most delight in the midst of them to walke there , Rev. 1.12 , 13. and 2 , 1. in his rich robes of righteousnesse to cloath or cover with , the meanest ( Saints or ) member of his body , i. e. with a garment downe to the foot , and girt about the paps with a golden girdle , for himselfe as High-priest and his Saints as Priests . The names of Temples , house , Kingdome , Tabernacle , yea and golden Candlesticks are given to Beleevers in Church-fellowship , 2 Cor. 6.16 . 1 Cor. 3.16.17 . Eph. 2.22 . Heb. 3.6 . Rev. 21.3 . for this very reason , not onely because he walks in them , but there he lodges Psal. 132.13 , 14. lives , and rests in a most remarkable manner , there the Kingdome and King is seen in his beauty , Isa. 33.17 . And for this I referre to the object of the Church in Chap ▪ 9. Secondly , In this Way of Christ , the Saints have most singular refreshments , and the sweetest and highest enjoyments of love , and grace , and powrings of the unction from on high upon them ; we shall finde how Christ ( yea and his Apostles after him ) did daily visit the Synagogues and publick Assemblies , and amongst them he uttered so many gracious words , and wrought so many mighty miracles ; and why so ? if not to foreshew by this , how he would regard the Church-assemblies of his people , and be their Prophet , to declare excellent truths , and to open the Fathers bosome to them above all ; for there hee feeds , Cant. 1.7 . and 6.2 ▪ 3. and eats pleasant fruits , i. e. of his owne planting , Cant. 4.16 . there the Lord is a place of broad rivers , Isa. 33.21 . and Christ is there , and to them streams from Lebanon , and a Fountaine in the middest of them , Cant. 4.12 . as in Florence and Naples , where they have the most excellent Gardens , they have in the midst a most excellent Spring , a Fountaine from which with an Engine they can sprout out water , and streams round about the Garden , so alluding to this , is Christ in the midst of such a Church-fellowship , as we have spoken of , a Fountaine and streams i. e. they are refreshed with streams ( in a more eminent manner ) then all in the world besides ; For the common-fields , flowers , and trees without , have the benefit of the clouds and ordinary● raine and showers , but the particular Churches of Christ , his bed of spices , Cant. 6.2 . are more watered then all others ; for besides the outward meanes of grace , and preaching , praying , expounding , and ordinary publick showers or refreshments , they have a fountaine within that is never dry , of purer and more Chrystall showers that cannot be taken away from them ; the Word and Spirit are ( as it were ) entailed to them in a most spirituall manner above all , Exod. 20.24 . Isa. 4.5.6 . Isa. 25.6 , 7 , 8. Psal. 132.13 , 14 , 15 , Isa. 56.7 . Isa. 59.21 . and are ( as it were ) seated there to sanctifie , season , counsell , quicken , comfort , encourage , and assist them in Church-fellowship above any other . So that when there is a drought without , and the Clouds are steril , and the earth barren , yet there is ( even there ) within a fountaine and streams for the Gardens . So that though Ministers i. e. Clouds may be empty , yet the Fountaine , i. e. Christ cannot . Thus Saints in fellowship are fed with fat things Isa. 25.6 , 7. with flaggons and apples , Cant. 2.5 . and full refreshments , and that above all other the dwellings of Jacob , and they bring forth fruits ( even ) in old age , Psal. 92.13 , 14. Thirdly , Christ is more free with them then with any others , as a Husband with his Wife to impart his most intimate bosome-loves and secrets , Cant. 7.12 . 2 Cor. 11.2 . and to let out his very heart-loves into his wives arms and bosome , Isa. 62.4 , 5 ▪ and Isa. 61.10 . Psal. 36.8 . Fourthly , Such ( of all ) are under his protection and banner of love , Cant. 2.4 . Isa. 4.5 , 6. Joel 2.32 . Isa. 54.17 and in the midst of them is salvation placed , Isa. 46.13 . Zach. 2.5 . And in a word they have a heaven upon earth , Rev. 12.1.12 . O! it is good being here ! For these and many more the like Reasons hath this Gospel-order of Beleevers in fellowship been alwayes praised , prized , and indefatigably sought for , and accounted of , even as of necessity , for beleevers in all ages : For the Lord though hee loves all his Saints , Deut. 33 3. yet he loves the gates of Zion more then all other the dwellings of Jacob , Psal. 87.2 . and so much the Saints have loved these Courts of the Lord , that they have accounted a day better there , then a thousand elsewhere , Psal. 84.10 . the Apostles longed after it , and to see the brethren in it , Rom. 1.11.12 . 1 Thes. 2.17 . yea and esteemed them the Crown of their joy , 1 Thes. 2.19.20 . yea , Christ himselfe ( as man ) exceedingly desired it , and sought comfort by his Disciples prayers , Mat. 26.40.43 . Luke 22.46 . and he exceedingly longed after a most speciall communion with them in fellowship with him , before hee parted from them , and was taken away to suffer . See Luke 22.15 . with desire I have desired to eat with you before I suffer ; as if he should say , I have most strong affections hereto , for thereby I shall be abundantly stengthned and refreshed as well as you , &c. O then ! how dare any , that follow the Lambe , delay entring into these wayes of holinesse , and love ! did not Christ , his Apostles , and primitive Saints goe before us into this Church-fellowship , and Gospel-order ? what hinders us ? nay what is the reason wee doe not run into them ? for what a world of proofs , precepts , promises , practises , reasons , arguments , motives , and priviledges , are there to provoke us ? were they but duely weighed ? who durst either deny , or delay comming or joyning ? The Lord added to the Church from day to day such as should be saved , Act. 2.47 . wherefore make this use ! put forward apace for the wayes of Sion with the will ! wherein you must have ( in your hearts ) inclinations , resolutions for , and choosings of these Tabernacles above all other wayes ; if once you get into these Gates of Sion , you will quickly be in Sion . But some may say , Object . But learned , able schollars , and godly judicious men doe both print and preach against this way ; the Answer is easie . Answ. First , In all ages , both learned and godly have been answer 1 opposers of Christ and his Church ; so were the Scribes and Pharisees , the most learned and ( in appearance ) the most godly of the age ; and so , Act. 13.50 . were those that raised ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) a running and a most rigid persecution-against Paul and Barnabas , and expelled them out of their coasts ; but this should never the more hinder us . Secondly , Though they be learned and godly , yet they bee but men , therefore subject to mistakes ; for judicium fit , secundum vim intellectualis luminis , they preach , and print , but according to their apprehension ; But , Thirdly , All are not learned , nor godly , that the world judges to be so ; they have a form of godlinesse , denying the power thereof , 2 Tim. 3. and so they may have the letter of Learning , but not the life of it , whole Libraries in their heads , but not a Catechisme , nor Principle in their hearts , Isa. 29.11 . Isa. 50.4 . I mean of the true Divinity which the Father learnes us , Joh. 6.45 . by his Spirit , 1 Joh. 2.20.77 . this none but the Redeemed have , Rev. 14.3 . and in this the Spirit is our Tutor , and teaches us out of the Lambs booke , Rev. 5.5 , 6. such have indeed the highest skill of Tongues , and are most admirably conversant with the originall language of the Spirit , here lyes the difference ; but for these , their Learning comes from the heart , Prov. 16.23 . whilst the others comes but from the head : But , Fourthly , They know but in part , they will know more then now they doe . Fifthly , Doe not learned , able , and godly of all sorts print , preach , and pray this way of Christ ? by unanswerable arguments against all opposers whatsoever ? and answer the arguments , and objections of the Adversaries ? Sixtly , This opposition of theirs is necessary for the evincing of the truth , and makes more for it , then against it , Act. 28.22 . Act. 24.5.14 . Object . But when people enter into this way , they run into errors presently . answer 1 Answ. First , Some it may bee that enter , doe run into errour , but this their uniting with the Saints in Gospel-order , is not the cause of it ; nay , Secondly , There is no stricter enemy to error , that can bee , then this order of Christ , which will not allow of the least appearance , much lesse growth of error , or sinne , Rom. 16.17 , 18. 1 Tim. 6.3 , 4 , 5. 2 Tim. 2.16 , 17. Act. 20.29.31 . Rev. 2.14.16 . 2 Jo● . 10. though such as are conscientious have ( and are to have ) their liberty in things indifferent , Rom. 14.1 , 2 , 5. Thirdly , Nay , to say the truth , the neglect and omission of this duty to enter into fellowship according to Gospel-order , makes so much disorder , and so many runne into wayes of error , as hath been hinted before in Chap. 7. but grant it , to argue ex concessis , then we say , Fourthly , Errors are usefull , as well as truth , and it is expedient they should be 1 Cor. 11.19 . In Pope Clements the fifths time , Frederick King of Sicily made this his master-objection against the Church , viz. the errours and evill-orders ( which indeed he might well doe ) but he was answered , and soon satisfied with this Scripture , That offences must come , and that there must be heresies amongst you , that they which are approved may bee manifest ; by Arnoldus de nova villa . This is much for the glory of truth too , and therefore in Isa. 60.1 , 2. a glorious light , and yet a grosse darknesse are both foretold for one time together ; should wee halfe so much prize the light , and presse for it , had we never a night ? nor darknesse ? but both together doth well , and wisdome hath so ordained it . I have heard of a Ruler who gave liberty to his subjects for certain dayes to do any manner of evill or mischiefe , and they should not bee questioned for any wickednesse done in those dayes ; no , though they murdered , or did villany in the highest nature ; But this was in policy to indear government unto them , and by giving his people a taste what it was to bee without it , to make them the more prize it . Obj. We are well enough as long as salvation may be had here in Parishes , what need we enter into any other way ? Answ. 1. Yet ye are not well enough ; for ye live in disobedience , answer 1 and in danger of Babylons plagues , and in contempt of Christs commands , which shall not go unpunished , Heb. 10.20 . And therefore , if you love your own souls , there is great need of getting into the gates of Sion . 2. VVhat a carnal , low , degenerate , base Spirit hast thou , to be as well content with Egypt , as with Canaan ? and with the Onions and Leeks , as well as if ye had the Milk and Honey ? Thou doest fall foully short of the true Spirit of Christ in a Saint ; which is ever going forward , and cannot be content with the husks , no nor crums , as long as there is bread enough in our Fathers house . Besides , how unkindly doest thou deal with Dear Christ ? who took care for thee ? and brought this way from Heaven out of his Fathers heart for thee ? and wilt thou now slight both him , and it ? But , 3. It is a question , whether thy salvation may be had here in these Parochial ways and Discipline , as long as thou art perswaded , and convinced by Gods Word thou art in a false-way ; but how ever , I tell thee from the Lord , thou art an enemy to thy poor soul , and as much as ( almost ) may be an hinderer of thy own salvation . For thou dost rob thy soul of the rich benefit of being watched over , admonished , counselled , comforted , and maist lie in some sin ( which thou seest not , and others might see ) which may be thy ruine ; thou art subject to wandrings now , and may be , runnest in a full career without stop or stay , warning or check ; besides , you have not here without in your Parishes the benefit of many ordinances , as exercising of gifts , prophesying one by one , and frequent communication and conference in the things of God. Mal. 3.16 . And such-like pretious benefits as are in this Church-way to be had at large for your edification . 4. And lastly , it is just with the Lord , to leave thee to thy lusts , to swear in his wrath , thou shalt never enter into his rest ; never to make one motion more at thy soul , by his spirit , to enter into this way ; or once to encline thine heart thereunto ; If now , now I say , after so many clear calls , thou doest resist the Holy Ghost . Wherefore as Heb. 3 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13. harden not your hearts ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which comes of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to dry up , or wither ) do not snib or nip off those buds , or blast those blooms which are in you , and like to set so fair for fruit ; nor by the hardness of your hearts , and unkindness , and cruelties , to the conceptions of Christ within you , do not dry up those sweet sappy motions , which are made in your heart by his spirit ; if you do , you will prove but a barren branch , a withered sear stick , to be cut up for the fire , John 15.16 . Heb. 6.8 . they are nigh the curse that do so , in the deceitfulness of sin , i. e. ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ex à privat . & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) drawn out of the way of Christ , by some fallacy or other ; who ever refuseth this way of Christ , runs a desperater hazard , then he is aware off ; wherefore then let him take heed ! take heed ! And let Ministers ( so called ) look about them too ! and beware ! for a greater alteration is yet to come ! and to befal them ! then ever hath been before ! O then ! Sirs ! that they would be busie about the Lords house ! and no longer delay it ! or do it by halves ! Numb . 14.24 . or by haltings ! between too ! Do they yet know what was the meaning of the last lightning ? and thunder the last year ? which grew so angry at their Morter-Churches and Parish-Temples ? what houses were burnt or beaten down to the ground , but those Churches ? and on that day of worship too ? and in several Counties too ? and which is not without a Mystery ? but it shall be plain , and made an History ere long ; in the interim , it were well , that Ministers and all would take warning and sin no more , ( by dishonoring God in idolizing forms ! and humane inventions ! or in worshipping of Christ in Anti-christian ways ! and traditions ! ) least a worse thing happen unto them . Was there ever any that hardned his heart against the Lord , and prospered at last ? Job 9.4 . But some it may be will say , Sir , You forget your self ( and so I would ) whilest you urge so much your Form of Discipline ! For we look for Zion more spiritually ! and for spiritual worshippers ! Answ. 1. It is not so much the Form , as the Faith , that I would urge ; I mean obedience to Christs positive commands ( as I told you before ) although some soar too high into the air , that account the Practical Part of Worship a meer Form. 2. I urge it not so much to be Church-members as Christs-members ; but first to have fellowship with the Son ▪ and then with the Saints ( as I said before ; ) but I say , both these are enjoyned , to be enjoyed : Yet I say further , whilest in the Form , out of the Form ; and whilest under it , yet above it ; and so are all Saints in the Church , spiritual worshippers of God , John 4.23 . yea , in spirit and in truth together ; Wherefore let none be so censorious , as to say , We are all for the form of Discipline , when indeed , we are least for it , and would have all our Brethren to live above it in their Spirits with God , and with Christ ; in the Temple , and the Light of the New Jerusalem . We live in them , as Abraham lived in Tents , and David in Tabernacles . 3. We also look for Sion more spiritually ! but this is in order thereunto : Before we can get into the City ( which is all glorious within , ) we must pass through the gates , as appears , Psal. 87.2 , 3. His foundation is in the holy mountains . The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more then all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of thee , O City of God! There is , first , the foundation laid by the Lord himself ; and then secondly , the particular Churches , or the gates of Zion , which the Lord so loves , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And then thirdly , the City its self which is so glorious . But I say , before we can come into the City , we must enter through the gates ; which are these Churches gathered : So that this is in the way to that City , where Salvation is placed , Isa. 46.13 . This is the way to Zion , as Jer. 50.5 . They shall ask the way to Sion , with their faces thitherward , saying , Come let us joyn our selves together , &c. We must ask first the way , ( i. e. the Churches ▪ ) and when we are in the way , then for Zion . And thus the Saints come to Sion , Jer. 3.14 . Isa. 51.11 . & 35.10 . i. e. By this way , and through these gates ; we must first live in Tents , and then in the City , Heb. 11.9.10 . First , in Tabernacles , then in the Temple ; and that those that would live in Sion in her glory , and full effusion of the Spirit , must be in the Churches , in order thereunto ; which appears plainly in Chap. 9. lib. 2. For the Lord will be known in her Gates , Towers , and Palaces , Psal. 48.3 . & 44.12 . Quaere . How we should groundedly know we are fitted for this Communion of Saints in Church-society , as hath been pressed ? answer 1 Answ. 1. There must be clear satisfaction to your judgement , and full perswasion in your brest , Rom. 14. the whole Chapter , especially Vers. 1 , 2 , 4 , 14. Acts 2. & 19. & 8. Saints ever first believed , and were fully perswaded , and then they entered . 2. You must be exceedingly longing and desirous after it ; and then make ready for it ; be freely willing to it , by the Spirit of Christ in you , Psal. 110.3 . Jer. 50.4 , 5. For all in Christs Kingdom are voluntiers , 1 Thes. 1.6 , 7. Acts 4.32 . 2 Cor. 8.3 , 5. 3. Such are made free to follow Christ any where soever , Revel . 14.4 . And as they come at his call , Mark 1.18 . so they are prepared to leave all , and to take up the cross , Mat. 19.27 . accounting before hand , what it will cost them ; so that they pass not a pin for storms and afflictions , which they expect before hand ; as 1 Thes. 3.3 . Phil. 1.27 , 28. but they will hold out to the end . 4. What is the object ye look on in these overtures of your affections ? It is the King in his beauty . O the sweet ! Soul-ravishing presence of God in Christ ! in grace ! and glory ! This makes these Tabernacles so amiable ! his goodness in these gardens is so desireable , Psa. 87.2 , 3. Isa. 33.17 . Psa 27.4 . Act. 2.28 . Ps. 84.1 , 2 , 7 , 10. & 63.1 , 2. 2 Cor. 3.18 . & 6.16 . 5. Have ye a clear discovery of your fellowship with the Father , and his Son ? Then ye may from the same principle , and by the same spirit , have fellowship with the Saints ; 1 John 1.7 . but be sure ye begin in Christ first , or else the foundation is not laid ; else ye will fall out and down in the dust , 1 John 2.19 . ye cannot continue else ; and then will your ending be worse then your beginning . 6. What is your end ? is it that as the chosen ones , and those bought by Christs blood , you may set forth the praises of him that called you out of darkness into light ? 1 Pet. 2.9 . 2 Thes. 1.11 , 12. and is it nothing else but in subordination to this ? why then these are good grounds . But many there be that have base , by , sinister ends , for which they creep into this Church-way ; who are ( or will be ere long ) a scandal to the Gospel , and do bring a scorn upon the truth . O! how often hath it been said in Dublin ( and that by such , whose sincerity is without exception ) with bleeding hearts ! Look yee ! there is one that could not tell how to live , but hath lost his trade , and for some place is got in to be a member of such a Church ; and he is now preferred , and made a Gentleman , &c. Nay , some have been so bold as to boast of it , ( among themselves ) as if nothing else byassed them into these ways , but politick ends ! O sad ! such as these do bring the ways of holiness into contempt ! they grieve many that are in ! and keep out many that are not in ! they raise fractions within , factions without ; they open the wide mouthes of the enemies to blaspheme ; and they side for lucres sake , or lusts sake with the great , rather then with the good . Ah! alas ! and indeed , though upon the naked knees of our souls , we cannot be thankful enough for the liberty the truth hath , and that holiness and Religion is so much advanced ; Yet I do verily believe , never more Hypocrites then now , who ( because they know none but honest men must be preferred into places or offices ) do dissemble with God and men ; get into Church-fellowships ( the name of a Church-member making them of note ) and exercise their gifts , and get up into Pulpits ( which God forbid , but they should orderly ) and change their words , ways , and works , but not their hearts , Gen. 4.3 . Hosea 7.16 . These are lights before men , but darkness before God , Matth. 6.2 , 5 , 16. Isa. 58.2 . and though these do not the evil which they love , ( in their hearts , if they durst do it , or could not be seen by men ) yet they will do the good , which they love not , to be seen by men , Numb . 14.2 . & 4.40 . O these ! these are the scandal of this age ! this Land ! this Reformation ! and of the Church of Christ ! whererefo beware ye be not byassed by such sinister , carnal , fleshly ends ! for the Hypocrites hope will come to nothing , Job 8.13 . Their flower will fade , and their joy is but for a moment , Job 20.5 . When Religion is much in fashion , it is much a fancy , and then most men will swim with the stream . Thus have I roughly offered a few directions , and have lent my hand , by a few helps to such as do seek the way to Sion ! but least they leap before they look , they will do well to weigh them in the ballance of the sanctuary ; and because many Church-fellowships in my judgement ( given me by the Word and Spirit ) are in a doubtful state at present ; and which ( I think ) must be purged with the Refiners fire , and Fullers soap : I do therefore beseech you seriously to seek such a society as hath , 1. The sweetest harmony , and most love , and to all alike . 2. Which hath Christian liberty , and no one is robbed by the Rulers , of his or her right . 3. Where they live more in the Spirit , then on the Forms . 4. Where holiness is highest , and appears in most power . 5. Where every Saint may walk according to his light ( so he be holy , humble , &c. ) though he differ in some things from others . 6. Where you see most self-denial , humility of minde , and ready serving one another . 7. Where you see most order and Gospel-decency . 8. Where appears most sympathy , and bowels of love , and pity . 9. VVhere their unity consists , not in the unity of the fo●m , but in the unity of the Spirit . 10. VVhere you finde most readiness to meet together , to instruct , counsel , comfort , and build up one another in the most holy Faith ; and where there is not honor given , or taken , Joh. 5.44 . after the manner of men , or a having mens persons in admiration . Many such things I might offer now , but I shall take more liberty hereafter ; onely these things in brief I lay before you , till the next Books . And this I do the rather , being induced thereunto by abundance of experience afforded me ( through Gods goodness ) from variety of observations , which I have taken of many gathered Churches in England and Ireland , as they now stand . The Lord open your eyes to see , and your ears to hear , and lead you by his light , and Spirit of truth , into his holy tabernacles , Psal. 43.3 . Thus far for the first Part of this Platform , wherein you have the totum essentiale of a true Church of Christ , from The Efficient Causes . The Material Causes . The Formal Causes . The Objective Causes . The Instrumental Causes . The And Final Causes . All this is to shew what is requisit before embodying ; but the next part relates , to what is to be done in ▪ and the last , to what is to be done after embodying together . The End of the First Book . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Challah . The Heavenly Nymph : OR THE BRIDE . Rising up to Perfection , and preparing for the coming of her Bridegroom : Being the Second Book of Church-Discipline . Wherein appears the BRIDES beauty in her Members , and Complexions , her submission and obedience to Christ , her Modesty and her Chastity , her Humility , and her Loves , with other Graces and Ornaments that appertain to her . AS ALSO The BRIDEGROOMS great love to her ( more then to all other the dwellings of Jacob , Psal. 87.2 . ) his care of her , his special Presence , and abode with her , his Royal maintenance to her , and provisions for her according to his owne fulnesse , and the riches of his Grace that filleth all in all , Eph. 1.23 . Or you have ( in this Book ) a sight of the Moon shining ( though under Clouds and thick darknesse ) as she receives her light and life from the Sun ( in the former Book . ) Or Christ ( her Head ) coming in glory , being big-bellied with the precious Promises and Prophesies , and Types , never before so opened , and which are travelling to be delivered in these latter dayes , wherein the light of the Moon shall be as the light of the Sun , and the light of the Sun as of seven dayes , &c. Isa. 30.26 . By JOHN ROGERS , A friend of the Bridegrooms , and of the Brides . Preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Now at Thomas Apostles Lond. But communicated at Brides in Dublin in Ireland . Psal. 45.11 . So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isa. 62.5 . As the Bridegroom rejoyceth over the Bride , so shall the Lord over thee . Rev. 21.2 . The holy City , the new Jerusalem prepared as a Bride adorned for her husband . Zach. 14.20 , 21. Holinesse to the Lord ; and every pot in Jerusalem shall be holinesse to the Lord , and no more Canaanite shall be in the house of the Lord in that day . Zeph 3.20 . I will make you a name , and praise among all peoples of the earth . Rev. 19.5 , 6 , 7. Be glad O all Saints , for the mariage of the Lamb is come , the Bride hath made her self ready , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Ier. 30.17 . This is Sion which none ( to speak on ) seek after . Rev. 22 17. But the Spirit and the Bride saith Come . LONDON , Printed for R. Ibbitson . 1653. To all Christian Readers of all Judgements , a word or two first . Christian Reader , IF thou beest so , thou wilt not wonder , that I say unto thee , The Day is coming when Kiriath-Sepher shall be smitten , whose name signifies the City of Books , and our City and Country are full these times , which by the next Age will be all out of date , and lye moulding like old Almanacks in corners ; for then the Lamb shall be our Light , and the Lord our Temple . And as Solon said of Laws , sayes he , We have many good LAWS made indeed , but alas ! there wants ONE yet ; and what is that ? Why a LAW to put all the rest in EXECUTION ; so we have many good Books abroad , but give way to one more I pray , for there wants one more , and that is the Book which will put us upon the practise of all the rest ; I mean the Lambs Book written within and without , Rev. 5.2 , 3. and Ezek. 2.9 . this is ere long to come abroad , though I feare it will finde but few Readers . In the mean time , the Presse sayes to the Pulpit , as Esaiah said to Jacob , Plurima habeo , sint tua tibi , Gen. 32.4 . I have enough my brother , Gen. 33.9 . keep what thou hast to thy selfe . And amongst the multitude it comes to my turne to bring in ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) but I hardly know whom to invite , for although I may find a few guests ( these stomack-full times ) that may come to feed , yet I know that most will but sit to looke on . And indeed , I have not provided for the proud , or Prelatick Palat ; neither puffe-paste , nor kick-shawes ; But as Aeschilus the Poet said of his Tragedies , that they were but small dishes of great Homers supper ; so I say , I here present you a poore Dish or two from the Lamb , who will sup with you in this the Kings house and Palace , wherein you shall finde the feast of fat things , flaggons of Wine , and the Apples of the Tree of life , yea spiced Cups , and green Sallets , and sweet flowers to boot , gathered out of Spring-garden : and because some men must have their dishes set out with flourishes , they shall finde the attestation of the most eminent and orthodox Writers in all Ages to this Treatises truth : And to satisfie all senses ; the Bridegroom hath provided the best soul-ravishing Musick , I mean the melody of the Spirit ; for his guests that come at his call to this marriage-house and Feast , for all things are ready , the fatlings and oxen are killed , Come ! But I know the wantonnesse of the times make many look for pretty knacks now , as the last courses ; but soft there ; Those Spaniards are wisest who will have the best at last , and your toyes at first . It is true , the Books of these few years coming , are like to be the last course ; but let me tell you they must bee the best , most solid , sweet , spiritual Dishes that have not been yet brought in . Some there be that will read good Books and Authors , but as the Butter-flye that sucks flowers , onely to paint her wings with ; so to feed their fancies , opinions , and judgements with , but not like the Bee to fetch out the hony of them . Others there be that are worse , and would sucke out poyson , to satisfie the lusts of their hearts ; these may hap be taken too , as those in the act of Adultery ; for if one reads two are catched . Others there be that come out of Criticisme too , and to shew the ambo-dexterity of their captiosities , I should say capacities , little to their credit do they buffet words with blows , and pick holes in cyphers to satisfie the curiositie of their quick-silvered Genius . Alexander , when one did present him with his dexterity in finding fault with , and vilipending of others , and in extolling his owne Arts and Activities , desired to see what he could doe ; so his choice art appearing ( to be so poor ) as onely to cast a Pease through the eye of a Needle a little bigger : Well , sayes Alexander , Give , Give him a bushel of pease for his pains to maintain his sport with . And though Alexander was very free in giving gifts , and rewards , he thought a bushel of pease reward enough to keep up his curiosity , So I say , to recompence such Readers if they come hither , I have a whole bushel full for them to keep up their trade . Other Readers we have who minde more the mark then the mettal , and more minde who writes , then what is written ; the name carries it upon the wings of credit , whereby many are bribed to buy and sell their time , their judgement , and the truth at the Authors rate : The rich Citizens are their best Readers , for they will pay most for it . And many , I was saying orthod — but I mean Organ-players will play no longer then such blow the bellows , and fill the pipes ; for their fame makes things furthest off , look fairest , best and greatest . But although I make account to meet with many of the third sort of Readers , who have said before-hand they will salute this Book with Argos-eyes , and with a Zoilus his zeal , yet they are accounted as Crates the Theban was called , the Door-opener , for that he would rush into every mans company to hear what they said , and to gain-say it at a venture ; and so do these sometimes ; they reprehend what they understand not ; and sometimes they ●ail because they ( thinke they ) understand what ( indeed ) they understand not , and like Dogs they choose to pisse in the fairest places ; and all times with naked natural , reason they read ; Like the Smith that smoaks for it , for that he takes a red-hot iron glowing out of the fire with his bare hands so I warrant them they burne their fingers ( at least ) for it , and will be branded . It is this bids them to eat of the forbidden fruit ; and makes them Owl-like frowne at the face of the Sun. Those that make reason their guide , do but set a mad unruly horse to be formost in the Team . Wherefore as Abraham when he went up to the sacrifice of his Son , he left his servants and his Asse below ; so though our natural Reason , and humane Arts may serve for below , yet they must bee left behinde if wee will come up to the top of this Mount ; for our Reason without the Grace , and the Spirit that leads up , is but like Sampson without his Guide when his eyes were out , for without the direction of his Guide he could not finde the Pillars of the house ; Nor shall you finde the Pillars of the Lords house without the guidance of his gracious Spirit . Thus Reader thou art invited to come and welcome , be of what judgement thou wilt , it is all one for that , for thou art bidden to the Feast , thou art guided in hither by grace . Wherefore come hither heartily , yea as into a Wardrobe , not to finde an Inventory of new things , for that is too troublesome ; but to find out what is fit for thy weare , use , and application . In the last Book I was much engaged upon the Power of Civil and Ecclesiastical ; but in this I shall bee most in the power of the Church and Spirit ; the Spirit and the Bride . The Spirit in the Churches ; which will be abundantly powred forth in these latter dayes , Vide chap. 9. As to Civil Magistrates , I have done my duty in shewing their duties , and dare not like some , Mermaid-like , sing them into the Sea. But I feare I may be answered as Antigonus answered one that presented him a Book concerning Justice : Thou art a Fool ( sayes he ) to present me a Book of Justice , when thou seest me making wars with other Cities and Countries . Little lesse said one of the corrupt Lawyers ( viz. Mr Maynard ) ●o me last March before the Lords Commissioners of the Seale in the Parliament Chamber at the Temple , whilst he was pleading the Law for a Delinquent ( Malignant ) Patron ( over and over , an open notorious Enemy and Cavalier against God and State ) yet having compounded he must have the power to present a man of a wicked malignant spirit ( none else ) and knowne for swearing , company-keeping and other vices , and hee must force such a one upon the poore people ( that never heard him so mu●h as preach ) to the joy of all the malignant , godlesse wretches in the Country all about , and to the griefe of all the godly , who cry and complaine of this detestable unsufferable injustice and foule-oppression , which will never leave crying for vengeance till it come with a powder upon the heads of some ; O! that godly , eminent holy men , whom all the Country would petition , and beg for ; the very faithful , useful Ministers of Jesus Christ , must be justled out from a godly people , and a Church-communion too , and that by Church-enemies , Christs enemies and State-enemies , and all this is known most notoriously ; yea that Soules must be thus made sale of , and slaves of , to serve mens lusts ; and all this too by bribes , extortion , oppression , injustice , and thorough friends made by money or gifts ! O let the righteous God come downe and judge ! The whole world that hears of it abhors it . And with tears and prayers , some are crying aloud to the Lord of this lamentable Reformation in the want of the Laws Regulation : The very justice of the Law as it now stands is most monstrous injustice , and sends many a precious soule and family a begging , against all honesty and Christianity ; for the wicked Lawyers ( who live no other way but by sin ; and one may in the sight of God be as lawfully tolerated to live in drunkennesse , swearing , whoredome , and to get money by it , and to make a trade of it ; as to live by , take money for , and make a trade of lying , oppressing the Fatherlesse , and widows , cheating of the Nation , eating up the bread of the poor , yea the poor as bread , turning out godly , putting in ungodly and wicked debauched Whoremongers , Adulterers , Drunkards , or the like in their room ) I say these ungodly ones ( for I cannot see how they can be other ) Christ himselfe deprecates and accuses , as a crew from hell that live by sin ; Wo to you Lawyers , Luke 11.46 , 47. for these are the enemies of Christ , and have another God , as the Romans had , which they called Terminus . But for the incredible wickednesse of those of that Profession , their guiltinesse of all manner of sinnes which the Nation lyes under , as Blood , Theft , Oppression , Injustice , Contentions , Hatred , Cozenage , and Fraud , Rebellion , Lying , Perjury , and what not ? and for the injustice and tyranny of the Law as it now stands without regulation or reformation , to the utter undoing of thousands that are aged , godly and deserving Families , with many a sad and lamentable history thereof , and for the late excessive exorbitances of their injustice and oppression , scarce paralleld in any of the former ages ; I doubt not but an accurate account will be given thereof to all the world in a book compiled for that purpose . But in the mean time , this Mr. M. one of the cast out members of the house ( I hear ) pleading for this cause of the D●vill ( for I dare call it no other ) much offended me , insomuch that I was urged in conscience to say before the Lords Commissioners : Sir , the Acts of the Apostles had been your best Statute-book in this businesse about souls : You use not Gods word : but before I could goe further , he punched mee aside , with some abusive fowl-mouthed language ( as I hope ere long to declare to the world ) saying , What do yee tell us of the word , we have the Law ? &c. So the Lawyers pushed me aside . But what a sad thing is this ? that such Laws ? and such Laywers should bee suffered ? and how can a good reformation be laid upon so base a foundation ? They are the Lawyers all this while that have hindered the Reformation , and so they will , as long as they have such influence upon the Parliament . In reforming of the Commonwealth , I wish our Governours would beware of leaning to Policie too much ; for hitherto like Jewellers when they see a spot or spek or cloud in the Jewel , which cannot be grownd out without sensible abatement of the stone , they will not meddle with it : neither will our Governors as yet meddle with the regulation of the Law ( it seems ) because there must ( then ) be abundance of the corrupt , cloudy , spotty , oppressive part of it be quite taken away and grownd to powder then ; but I hope ere long that policie will be out of power and prevalency . I remember I have read Caligula , upon the suit and out-cry of the people , desired the Law might be set up that all might know it , and not be ensnared by it ; but he had so well learned the art of Policie , that he caused it to be written in so small a hand that none could read it , or was the better for the setting of it open : I will not apply it ; onely this , what are wee the better for the Englishing the Law ? are not the Lawyers as compleat Knaves in plaine English as they are in their other language ? which ( like themselves ) is so full of Solecismes and Apocopies ; so that as long as this lasts , the pleas which some make for Religion and the Gospel , serve onely as Hacknies for their Lusts to ride and spur on in their way : Nor yet is it that we would deal with the Law as the man in the Fable was dealt with , by his two wives , the old which he had married plucked out all his black-hairs out of his head ( the evidence of his youth ) and his young wife ( that he married after ) plucked out all his gray-hairs , that no standards of Antiquity might remaine , so that betwixt both , they left him bald ; I say we would not , that there should be no antiquity of the Law to remaine ( as some Levellers it may be would ) nor would we that there should be no Novelty of the Law ( as the wicked Lawyers it may be would : ) But we say , and affirm it in the sight of God and men , That the Law must be purged to the purpose , and the Lawyers too ; and a great deal of the old ( tyranny ) must out , and much of new must be added for the liberties●f ●f Saints and Subjects : For the best of the Civil Forms are attended with abundance of corrupt ( yet close ) Interests , that must down , down , to the ground . For that Form and Custom is got up in the room of Reason and Right . And this is the ground of our Controversie , with the Law and Lawyers , ( as they now are ) and God himself must be on our side : For Laws were made by men , and are themselves to be condemned so far , as they fall short of pure and restored Reason ; I mean the Reason of the age wherein we live , which is by degrees restored to perfection . Now as Reason is purer in this age , then in the last , so the Laws must be ; and so they must be purer in the next age , then in this . But many of our Laws are nothing else , but the results of the humors , designs , and corruptions of men , to establish themselves , and their mightinesses ; so I account corrupt Presentations in the hands of wicked enemies to Christ , and the Gospel ; and so Fealties , Homages , Oaths , &c. with a hundred other things that I could name . And Law in this sence , is nothing else but Will , Arbitrary Lust , Power , Custom , Pride , and is as corrupt , as those that made them . But the day of the Lord , will deliver us ! But so may the Lawyers say , Did the poor man say to the Pirate , when he seized upon him and his ship , and was plundring of it ; O! sayes the poor man ! at the last day ye will not know how to answer this : Sayest thou so ! sayes the Pirate ? Nay , if I shall stay so long before I answer it , as to the last day , I care not ; but now you shall go with me this day . So the Brazen-headed oppressing Lawyers , it is like will say ; Nay , if we shall stay till that day , it is well enough ; and so I have been answered . Say ye so ? Will not the Rocks and Mountains stand still yet ? Though ye should say , fall on us ? O fearful ! desperate boldness ! but know this day is hard by , even at your doors ; and what will ye do now ? Now the Lord is coming to judge the Earth ? now those whom you have judged and oppressed , shall be your judges ? For then ( that is shortly ) shall be the Resurrection of Principles and Power , Equity and Conscience , Reason and Right ; which is now gradually rising and standing upon their feet . All Laws were made according to the light of the Reason that the men then had that made them : Now as men grow up in purified and inlightned Reason in every age , the Law is to be mended , refined , and purified accordingly : So that the weak and imperfect Reason of former ages , hath lest much to be added to , and to be mended in the Law , by the purer and perfected Reason of after ages . But for want of this regulating and mending the Law , Lust hath succeeded Reason , and hath been ( by fair glosses and counterfeits of Reason ) enthroned in the room of it . And Lust , Custom , Will , Might , and Form , hath as yet the day of Reason , and turns it out of doors , and condemns it for an Offender , a Law-breaker , and a Traytor ; as to instance , Let a Minister be in a living , and preach there three quarters of a year , and then another be put in a week or two before the Harvest ; he that comes for that week or two , shall have all the Means ( by the abomination of the Law ; ) and he that preached there , all before , must have nothing , sayes the Law ; and so said the foresaid Lawyers , before the Lords Commissioners ; though Conscience cries out upon it , and Reason condemns it , and Equity would not suffer it ; yet against Equity , Reason , Justice , Conscience and all ; Lust and Will , Custom and Form ▪ will have it so , and condemns Reason , Conscience , and all for Traytors , and Disobedient , and Rebellious ; When in very deed , it is the Law as it stands , that is an unconscionable oppressing , humorous , self-corrupted Form and Custom , that is to be condemned , as being against clear Right , Equity , Light , Justice , Reason , and Understanding . Now when this Principle comes to be restored , and true Reason and Equity to be the Law ; as I doubt not , but it will be within forty five years ; then wo be to the Lawyers , and to all such Persons and Personal Interests ! the Form tumbles ! Custom falls ! Wills of men shall no longer be a Law ! nor shall the Law be as Lawyers say it then ! But I will avouch it , that the Lawyers , Judges , and such as are so strict to the Form , Lust , and Letter of the Law , shall be found the greatest Traytors , Oppressors , Prevaricators , Rebels , and Opposers of true Justice , Equity , Reason , and Conscience ; yea , to God , and the States that are in the World. In the mean time , O that our Governors would make hast to reform , according to their Light ! and the Reason of this Age ! If they will not , the just Judge of all the Earth ! who is gone forth against all Nations for their unjust Laws and oppressions ! I say this great God will come of a sudden , and regulate both the Law , and them too ! The Paracelsian that promises to restore nature and health , to a corrupt body , doth soonest subvert and overthrow both health , body , and all together . So will our Governors , if they think to reform , before they have well purged over and over the Law , and Lawyers : Till then neither Reason nor Religion can have orbe-room enough . I hope none will think me their enemie , for telling the truth ; and speaking my Conscience . It is to set light upon a hill , let none be offended ; but if they be , I pass not a pin . For as Theodorus of Cyrene answered Lysimachus , when he threatned to crucifie him , O Sir ! said he , Let your Courtiers and Favorites fear that ! for I had as lieve rot in the air , as on the Earth : I could ( I hope ) willingly save men an inquisition after me in such a case , and say to them , I come of my own accord , Here I am ! What will ye ? for I remember the Duke of Burgundy ▪ who was sirnamed Carolus Audax , was son to that Duke who was sirnamed Bonus ; for Conscience and Confidence , are near a kin : Wherefore of whom should I be afraid ? Psal. 27.1 , 2. for the Lord is my light , and my salvation , &c. I must be as ready to write , print , preach , and pray against the sins of great men , as of the meanest , and I will make no more on it , though I suffer for it : Or though they deal with this , as the old Senate did , that burned up Numa his Books , for mentioning the secrets of their Religion . I have heard , that if the Crocodiles , which besiege the banks of Nilus , and way-lay the Travellers into Egypt , were but pricked with the quill of the Bird , Ibis , they will be so weak and stupified therewith , that they will not be able to stir , or hurt any more . O that this course were taken with our English Crocodiles ! Those wicked Lawyers that way-lay , oppress , tear , and torment so many persons and families of this Nation : Did every one arm himself with a quill ; and make it a good pen , with a hard nib , and write but as long as that would last , what they know of them ; i. e. and touch them therewith but to the quick , ( as well as they were able ) I am certain , we should finde them stupified , and stingless , and unable to way-lay us , hurt us , and oppress us , as they do . But I shall say no more of them here , expecting a more perfect Character of them ere long in a Book by it self . The next thing Reader , that this Treatise most of all intends , is the Description of the Church ; wherein I expect Antagonists , tag and rag , of the ridged ones of all judgements , especially of the Presbyterians and Anabaptists ; but I hope to be armed for them with the armor of light . The frothy agitations of some unquiet heads and busie brains , may cast away cost , and twist straws ; I mean , their labor may be worth a pound , but their matter or stuffe not worth a penny . But before hand , I shall pray them to forbear passion , and the pride of a Prelate ; For a foolish sentence dropped upon Paper , will set pride and folly upon a Hill. Memnon , the General of Darius his Army , hearing a mercenary Soldier , with vile language revile Alexander , and exclaim against him ; he struck him with a Lance , saying , He hired him to fight against him , not to rail upon him . Clamors against a very Enemy , requires rather reproof then praise ; and I think there was no man much commended ( but much condemned ) that poor empty , wide-mouthed Libeller of Garlick-hithe , for his Pamphlet he put out lately , whereby he hath brought himself into the report and reproof of all that hear his name , which may be eminently up , and famous ere long in London , as it is in Cheshire , and other places : I had , I confess , a full Character of him ( indeed ) by Master Manwaring ( one that knew him well in Cheshire ) at my Lord Bradshawes Table lately , whilest Sir William Brereton , with an eminent Minister ( that knows him highly too ) was by ; and gave so good account of him , That I cannot but wonder how he could end in one lying ( impudent ) Pamphlet ; and like a Squib ( too dry , it seems ) flash all out at once . But if he , or any other , will leave railing and fall to writing , what tends to edification , I shall be for him , and heartily embrace both it and them , so far , as I finde a Christian Spirit with them . And indeed , as the Athenians dashed out of their Calender a day in May ( when Neptune and Minerva were at oddes , and in a bitter fray : ) So from my heart I wish all our bitter frayes may be ended , and their dayes blotted out . And O! that the Lord would pour out his Spirit , according to his promise in these latter dayes , upon all flesh ; which will make us all one in love , and holiness , and power of godliness , and equal worship . To conclude , Christian Reader , if thou comest to drink of the pure streams , sweep away the froth ( for that is mine ) with thy hand of faith ; and take up of what is spiritual and pretious ( for that is the Lords ) and make not too much stir , least you raise the mud ; for that will make it worst of all . Caius Lucillius , a Learned man , was wont to say , That he wished the things that he had written , might neither be read of the ( altogether ) unlearned ; nor yet of the highly Learned : For , that the one would understand nothing ; and the others would understand more then himself . But I wish the quite contrary , for that the unlearned might learn something of me ; and the more learned might teach something to me : So that I hope this will stir up some to read , and some to write ; which will be the worse for the Worms , and may hap to keep their Libraries from being eat up . But I wish they be the Learned of the Father , for such learning is the Golden Shield which defends the truth . But when Golden Shields were gone , Rehoboam was fain to do the deed with Brazen Shields . So I know where this true Learning , is wanting some Wilde Heads will supply the room with rage , boldness , and impudence . I shall keep thee no longer , good Reader , in the outward Court , or Common Chamber ; but I pray thee go further , and enter into his Chamber of Presence ; where put up one Petition for him , who desires to live and die the Lords , And yours , And all in Christ , and nothing in himself , But JOHN ROGERS . From my Study , at Thomas Apostles , 1. Moneth . 25. 1653. An Epistle to the Parish of Purleigh in ESSEX , nigh Malden ; wherein the Author was setled Minister ; till of late . Dear Friends . I Call you dear , not onely that I found you at a dear rate , but I am forced to leave you so ; yet some of you are very dear to me , and in my heart , and whom I can freely bear in my bosom to the Father . But because the Death , or departure of a Minister from his people should be his last Sermon ; I must therefore say in general to you this , That my greatest grief for most of you , is , That like the Cypresse , the more you were watered , the more you withered . Would it not grieve you , Husbandmen , to see your good seed every year to be lost , and to lie and rot under huge , hard clods ? and never to bring forth fruits , or to come up ? So how can it but be my complaints before my Lord and Master , when I give up my accounts , Heb. 13.17 . and say Lord , I have preached ! prayed ! catechized ! expounded ! conferred for above this five years at Purleigh to such a people , and they have not beleeved nor obeyed thy word : but many of them are as ignorant , arrogant , bitter , prophane still , ungodly , and opposers of Christ and his Gospel still , as ever . O sad ! what comfort can I have of this ? Is not the thriving of the flocke the glory of the Shepherd ? and their losse his griefe ? Blessed bee God whom I serve ! that some of you are my joy and my crowne , which I shall wear with me to heaven , Phil. 4.1 . But yet the most of you ( with much griefe of heart , I must say it ) have rejected the Gospel , and the tenders of love , and the warme bowels and ●eeking blood of Jesus Christ ; and oh ! heavy , shal I say , the Day of your salvation ! O deare souls ! precious hearts , for whom I weep in secret ! what will yee doe in the day of the Lord ! where will you hide your selves from the wrath of the Lamb ! O , O! how is it , that you bring forth nothing but briars and thorns ! what ? are yee accursed ground ? Heb. 6.7 , 10.28 . Hos. 6.5 . Matth. 12.41 . Ier. 11.6 . Ezek. 34.13.33 . &c. Let me aske you , Is it not lamentable to see a poor father wringing his hands , and weeping over a stubborn childe , wishing he had never been borne ! saying , I have tryed him so many weeks , and months , and yeers , and yet he is worse and worse , would you not pity the poor man ? and say of this stubborne wretch , Well , you have a good father , God will never blesse you , you cannot thrive , you will come to nothing . Oh! so is it grievous to my heart ! as it was to Ieremiah , and Elijah , to complaine to God of the stubbornnesse of the people : Ah! it is too notoriously knowne that I have taken much pains to little purpose amongst you : And yet , O! what plottings ! and conspiracies there were against me ? what lies and libels were invented ? what scandals raised ? what scoffes and scornes I continually met with ? what huge taxes and troubles you cast upon me ? what backbitings and railings every day ? what variety of designes were hatched in the midst of you to afflict me ? yea , with plotted and premeditated malice & menacings to undo me ? what work you made to render me contemptible to all the Country ? before Magistrates , Ministers , people , & all ? yea the children and servants set upon mee to abuse me ? yea to stone me ? yea to swear to take away my life from me ? all which forced me to bee much absent from you . And oh friends ! do ye think , God will not visit you for these things ? have yee not suffered your servants and children to laugh and sport in the publick places openly in the sight of all the people , whilst the word hath been preaching ? and when I have mildly reproved them to make mowes and mocks at me in the open Church ? yea to lay dog-whips , and what not on the Pulpit cushion when I was to preach ? What kinde of injury and abuses have you not returned to me , for all my love and pains , and care , and continual prayers for you ? hath there one poor soule of us in Church-communion escap'd your malice and menacing ? and your diligence to raise ill-reports , and to cause wrongs to befall them ? have yee not vowed not to leave us , til you had rooted all of us from you , and not left a Round-head or Independent to dwell nigh you ? have yee not consulted with all the Malignants about , how to bring to passe these designs ? yet in the midst of all these troubles , and every day new trials and wrongs from some or other of you ? yet the Lord will one day witnesse what a care I had of you , when I could not be with you , or durst not ; how I provided for you , and how ye were the travel , as well as the trouble of my soul. Yet when you had not worried mee away with all this , how often did many of you designe to starve me from you ? And though like a Bird kept in a Cage without meat , yet I must doe my duty , and sing , though the thorne were ever at my breast . Still I followed you with love , patience , pity to your poor miserable soules ( O that yee knew it ! ) and with sweat and swinke praying , preaching , and expounding , in season and out of season . But as I have heard of the Seminary ( in Lancashire riding disguised ) that lost his glove , one that found it rode gallopping after him to restore it ; but the Seminary fearing he was a Pursevant , put spurs to horse , and flew from him as fast as he could , and for fear he should be overtaken , hee makes his horse take a hedge , and suddenly skipping over , fell full into a desperate deep pit , wherein he was drowned presently ; O! so Sirs ! the faster I have followed you to doe good , to recover you , to help to save you , why alas ! the faster you fled away into sinne , after sinne , rejecting all offers and opportunities ( almost ) refusing to come to hear the word on the week-day , and many of you not coming above once on the Lords-day ! Oh , alas ! for the Lords sake ! hear ! make not such post-haste in sin to the ruine of your soule , body , and all ! but O remember ! the Pit is but on the other side , yee may soon be in it ; but have a care lest you perish ! Have I not spent out my owne bowels , and like a candle consumed my selfe ( even out ) to give you light ! have I thought my life too deare for your souls ! O no! but you would not regard it ! some pretended I was young , to keep them off ! but alas ! this was but a colour ! did not young Solomon give good counsel ? young Daniel discerne much ? young Joseph fill the Granary with plenty ? and excell all the Grandees and Gravities in Pharoahs Court , for wisdome and judgement ? Did not young Christ put the Doctors to silence ? and young Timothy preach the Gospel powerfully and profitably ? But indeed , the maine offence ( you know ) was my zeal for God ; for silence is the basest tenure a Minister can hold his living by ; I could not be silent , but tell Israel of his sins , and Jacob of his transgressions . Though many feed their Ministers as the Theef doth his Dog , porrigit panem , ut sileat , he gives him bread to be quiet , and not to bark , lest he discover him ; but the truth is , benevolence could not tongue-tye the truth , and 't will bee sad for you to have a Minister who can suffer you , and see you live in sinne , and yet let you alone ; the City is in danger when the Alarm-bell is tyed up , and so is the Parish . I have read of a Law made in a certain Town that none should bring a Rumor of the enemies coming upon pain of death , & this was because they had before some false Alarms ; but alas ! at last the enemy came suddenly and destroyed them all ; so that it was a Proverb , Here stands a Town destroyed by silence . God grant it be not true of Purleigh , for the want of a carefull and faithfull Minister ! neither could I please your itching humors , as to give you the Sacraments in the condition you are in , or the like , which others ( may hap ) will doe without fear or wit , warrant , or order : For as a Painter of old being asked , who taught him his Art ; answered , The people , for that he was forced to study how to please their fancies : So may some Ministers say . But this I can say from my soule , that I sought all meanes to make you sure of Christ. And as the Angel stirred the waters of the Pool , but thrust no man in , because it was a worke to bee performed by themselves ; so I have stirred , but ah ! alas , how few of you have stepped in ! onely a few of the poorer sort ; As when an Angler laies in , he hath many small ones ( and that was my hap ) but few great ones that were struck , ut puncti & compuncti , Act. 2.37 . Yet this is my comfort , I have not lost all my labour , and my reward is with my God : As an Advocate that hath his reward , let the cause goe how it will : And though Flowers grew , though none gathered them , and Springs run , though none dranke them ; yet there may come a sore drought when you will wish for those well-heads that were opened to you but you regarded not . The good Lord lay this in mercy upon your spirits . And now let me leave one word with you , never to be forgot , viz. to prize the Gospel , which is Gods book of Canticles , and begins and ends with love ( as I have formerly laid it before you in the Exposition of Canticles ) it begins with a Kisse , and ends with Spices . The manna comes downe in the dews of the Gospel . Prize Gospel-Discipline , and Doctrine ! and to enjoy ▪ Christ in both , is like to the Sun , which not onely delights us with contemplation , but warms , and enlivens us by his Application . Wherefore beware the world steals not away your hearts ; the Bird that is limed is held fast , and so art thou ! O then have a care ! I have read that when Honorius was told that Rome was lost ; he cryed out , Ah! Alas ! thinking it had been a Hen that he called by that name ; but when he heard it was his Imperial City of Rome , that was lost and sacked by Alaricus the Goth , his spirits were revived again that his losse was no worse : so O! how few of you are halfe so much troubled to hear you have lost your souls , as to heare you have lost your Cattle ! corne ! money , or such like things as belong to the world ! And without the Lord awaken you , yee are undone ! Julius Caesar had a paper given him of the Conspirators that were ready to murther him ; but alas ! not minding the paper , but regarding other things of lesse concernment , he lost his life for it ! And so will you , unlesse yee arise ! and repent ! O heare the voice ! with Jerome ! saying , Arise yee dead , and come to judgement ! Arise yee dead , and come to judgement ! Arise yee dead , and come to judgement ! O be warned ! lest the many warnings ( which yee have had by me and others ) be at last regarded ! And all of them knit together like the many beams of the Sunne in a burning-glasse , may ( I hope ) serve to kindle a fire and flame in your hearts after I am gone from you , and to be no more seen among you ! Heare the Watch-man ! hark ! hee gives you warning Sirs ! by the word of God , ( as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) beware of an invasion ! Sathan is mustering up against your soules ! the enemy is nigh ! that will destroy you ! Up , up ! make haste ! Arme , Arme , Arme ! but if you will not , yet I shall have comfort , Isa. 49.5 . and yee shall know ( to your cost ) that there was a Prophet sent to warne you , whom yee have despised , Ezek. 33.33 . Jer. 28.9 . Gods vengeance sleeps not , but like a pragmatical Promoter is searching your houses for ill gotten goods , i.e. gotten by theft , robbing God of his time , and honour , when you should be at Church hearing the word , you were in the fields telling your Cattel , counting your estate , laying up for many years with the Fool in the Gospel , Luke 12.19 , 20. Now the searcher is coming who will apprehend yee all for fellons , and so bring ye before the great Judge ; and what follows but the sentence ? Demosthenes was asked the first , the second , and the third time what were ▪ the parts of Oratory ; who answered , Every time Pronunciatio , Pronunciatio , Pronunciatio ; and so should I say , the next part is the Pronunciation of the sentence . O what will yee doe in that day ? Isa. 10.3 . whither will yee flye ? O I feare it ! though you will not see it ! for as Caesar said of the Scythians , difficilius est invenire quam interficere ; so I thinke may be said of your sinnes ( Sirs ) which you will not see , but ye shall see , and be ashamed , Isa. 26. yet I say I feare it , that many of you , are as men that goe to a Lottery with heads ful of hopes , but returne with hearts full of blanks ; and the greatest blanke of all will bee this , that the world hath so filled your hearts that Christ could finde no room ; like the Reubenites , Num. 32.4 , 5. you are content to stay on this side Iordan , because it is a place fit for Cattel : And like Spiders , O what pains ye take ! how yee toyle ! even to eviscerate your selves , and spend your own bowels with working ! and what comes on 't ? Hah ! onely a web to catch a flye in , and which the least besome from above will sweep downe into the dust in one night , Luke 12.20 . O! it is this that made them in Luke 14.18 , 19. with one consent to reject the offers of grace , and the Call ! And it is this worldlinesse that makes you like Tumblers stand upon your heads , and kick at heaven with your heels . It is this that made you to persecute the Saints , and to expell us your coasts . O take heed ! God hath planted his Artillery against you , and without a parley , if you make not your peace with God , and forsake the world to follow Christ ! from the Lord I am to tell you it , that God is ingaged against you with his armies of judgements , Matth. 22.7 . and there is no hopes of you . And the world like a bullet shot from a peece of Ordnance , whilst it runs up and down , and danceth ( you think before you ) on the ground shall deceive you ; ( for you shall be like the ignorant souldiers ) that thinkes to take it up with your hands , but it dasheth out your brains , which example shall warn others , and make them wiser that succeed you , by seeing the Lords vengeance on you . Thus having stood Sentinel all this while among you , though I must be justled aside now from you ; I have given you WARNING , and so will leave you : You shall finde the world a Book full of false prints ( as by men ) but at the End of all , thousands of Errata's shall appear to your shame : And being thus to part , I shall say ( with Synesius ) I carry nothing from Purleigh ( of ΠΥP & ΛAOΣ fire , and people ) but bonam conscientiam & malam valetudinem , a good conscience , an ill constitution , and an empty purse ( being denied by you the bread I have earn'd with sweating brows ) yet the Lord shew you mercy , and melt your hearts ; and if it be his will give you the breast , and not the breach ; the blessing and not the blow , and spare the Rod for those few sakes ; that like children long for full breasts of milk among you . Wherefore flye Sirs ! flye from the Common-Law which will condemn you ! to that Chancery-Court ( the Communion of Saints ) where Christ sits as Judge to relieve you ; and there I will promise to meet you by faith , and to plead for you by prayer , though I never see you more face to face , unlesse you meet me at home in our Fathers house . And so farewel ! Dear hearts ! farewel ! — Finally , my brethren , farewel , be perfect , be of one mind , live in peace , and the God of love and peace shall be with you all , 2 Cor. 13.11 . Amen . Thus prayes Your affectionate Friend , and late your Minister in the hot bowels of love to you , yet ready to serve the meanest and worst of you , in the work of my Master Jesus Christ. In , and for whom , I am JOHN ROGERS . From my Study at Thomas Apostles Lond. March. 25. 1653. A TABERNACLE For the SVN . The Second BOOK . CHAP. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hhacham . That the persons , entring into Church-society must consider what they do first , and be sure they be upon good grounds , being throughly satisfied , and fully perswaded that the way they are entring into , is the very way of Christ , appointed for Beleevers to walk in . WEE are come now to the very Gates of Wisdome , Prov. 9.3 , 4. to the Towers and Palaces of Sion , where the Lord is known to be her refuge , Psal. 48.3 . But before we enter in , take some I●structions ; Be more ready to hear ( saith the Preacher ) then to offer the sacrifice of fools , for they consider not 〈◊〉 to hear ( auribus cor●is & corporis ) with head and heart-ears , for these Lessons are to bee let in by both ears , and concerne both the outward man ( for fear of judgement , 1 Cor. 11.29 . ) and the inward man ( for feare of damnation , Mark. 16.16 . and Rom. 14.23 . &c. which is better then to offer the sacrifice of fools , i. e. Such as are rash and preposterous , and run post into Gods house without remembring , or seriously resolving in their mindes what they are doing , whither they are going ; why , these content themselves with the outside forme , and would be one amongst others , though without sound faith , or saving grace . Such are the fools which we are fore-warned of in this Text ; for it is not enough for Pastor or Elder to try us , but we must try our selves : Wherefore keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God , Eccles. 5.1 . that is , keep a watch over it , as a prisoner who must not stir without his Keeper ; that is , observe diligently whither thou art now going , consider seriously that thou mayst go in safely , and enter in rightly , and reverently , and orderly , with humility and holinesse , in devotion and full perswasion of heart ; Hence it is in Psal. 45.10 . the very first instructions to the daughters of Sion are , to hearken and consider i. e. in Heb. prudently to attend , and skilfully or knowingly to minde . Thus Psal. 48.13 . Consider her Palaces . The want of a solid , and a serious consideration makes many runne into these assemblies of Sion , and Church-wayes , they know not how , nor for what ; whereby abundance of trouble is brought upon them , and upon the Church that so receives them . I have considered my wayes , Psal. 119.59 . ( sayes David ) and I will consider thy testimonies , Psal. 119.95 . which is of such use and necessity , that without it nothing is rightly ordered . The Mariner considers his course by his Compasse ; and the Pilgrim puts on his Considering-cap continually in his journey whether or no he be in the right way ; Stat & cogitat ipse secum utram debeat eligere , nec prius adoriendum iter quam animo definierit , & pleniore mentis intentione deciderit ; And hee will resolve which is best before he foot it : And must not wee consider what is before us ? beware of the sands ! if wee would have a good haven ! Doth it not much concerne us to consider our way ! when it lyes doubtfull between the Presbyterian and Independent ( so called ) Non omni● via dirigit ad Hierusalem illam quae in C●●lis est , ( sayes Cooper on Psal. 119. ) Now if a Christian bee carelesse , and consider not the way he goes to walke in , as he may rashly runne in a false way , and thinke hee is right ; so hee may wrongly runne into a right way , and be in doubt whether he be in the Lords way or no : Now to doubt is dangerous , as wee shall shew by and by . The Apostle Act. 17.23 . tells the Athenians that they were too superstitious ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) and full of false religions ( like worshippers of Demon-gods , for so the word will have it ) and why so ? whom ye ignorantly worship , him declare I unto you . Yee worship an unknowne God , although hee bee the true God , yet in ignorance to you ; for yee know not whom , nor what , nor inded how to worship him whom I declare unto you : wherefore it is yee fall into false wayes and Worships . And so it is with a people that worship the Lord in a way of worship , that for all that they know may be false as wel as true ; therefore it concerns them to consider the way first , Take heed to your selves said Moses to Israel , and the same saith Jeremy to Judah , and Christ to his Disciples , Mat. 6.1 . & 16.6 . and 24.4 that no man deceive you ; and Paul sayes so to Timothy 1 Tim. 4.16 . and Peter to all 2 Pet. 1.19 . ye will doe well to take heed , take ye heed , watch and pray , Mar. 13.33 . what is more pressed in Scripture ? and Paul in 1 Cor. 3.10 . sayes , The foundation is laid , but let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) that is ( adjicere oculos animi ) let him see with a serious and discerning eye , what hee doth , not with a light , slight , perfunctory glance , but with an intent and attentive observation of what hee is about . The want of this made so many dolefull complaints and sad invectives against Israel , as Isa. 1.3 . The Oxe knoweth his owner , and the Asse his Masters crib ; he saith not , the Dog knows his Master , &c. hee is more wity , but the dull block-headed Oxe , the stupid sloathfull Asse , they know what is good for them , and will not eat any thing , but consider first what is before them ; yet Israel doth not know , my people doth not consider . They are said to be more brutish and foolish , and void of understanding , because they did not consider what was before them , whether it was good for them , or no ; but that would swallow downe any unwholesome trash or trumpery , superstition or Idolatry , and so like as one who hath surfeited with unwholesome food and trash , breakes out into scabs , botches and boiles . So Israel broke out into rebellion , and sinfull stinking soares , verse 6. This same consideration so pressed , imports , and takes up the truth of the intuitive part , and property of the soule , and requires a clear understanding to be actuated and put forth with a sound and authentick judgement . Whence it is , that the defect of a faithfull and regular judgement , oftentimes arises from rashnesse and precipitancy , and inconsideration ; whilst a man omits those things which produce a right and sound judgement ; wherefore a serious consideration is a most necessary injunction laid upon all that are entring into the Lords house ; for otherwise how can they be fully satisfied , and safely perswaded of the verity and vertue of this way of worship ! the Queen of Sheba was fully satisfied of Solomons building , and of the truth of the report that ran abroad of him , & of the Temple ; when she saw him , and his house , and the order thereof , and then no more spirit was left in her ; in the least to doubt or question the truth . And so it will bee with us ; therefore with a serious eye let us observe what wee are about , and not leap before we look . In this point of consideration for satisfactions sake , these four ensuing things will occur in order . First , you must eye the essentiall parts of this Church or building of the Lord , whether it be of God , or no ; for if it bee , it will stand , Act. 5.39 . else it shall bee rooted up , Matth. 15.13 . and fall , Psal. 127.1 . Now for this I refer to the former Book ; But Secondly , consider how all these parts agree in one to make up one compact building , in unity , and order ! being aptly disposed according to the word of God , and rule , which Christ hath left us behinde him . The third consideration arises from the excellent vertue , and efficacious faculty and ability ( ad operandum & ad causandum ) which this Church-way of Christ hath in her , as to build us up in grace and holinesse ! to strengthen us in the faith , to establish us in the truth , to edifie , exhort , instruct , and provoke to love ! and good works ! to exercise gifts and graces ! and to bring forth fruits in due season . 4. Consider this Gospel-order and Church-state , ( secundum habitudinem , quam habet ad causata ) according to the sweet care , habitude , and disposition it hath to those gracious , holy effects , which are produced by it , as to faith , love , holiness , gifts , graces , and the like . O how tender is she of them ! the Hen hath not so much care to hatch up her chickens ! nor the fond Mother to nurse up her darling babe ! but this way of Christ hath as much ( yea , more ) to nourish ! cherish ! and perfect up Faith ! Love ! Peace ! Purity ! Humility ! Holiness ! and such like fruits as are brought forth hereby in abundant measure , both for quantity and quality ! Now for your satisfaction , let your eye , I say , be set seriously on these things , and be fully perswaded ( saith the Apostle ) Rom. 14.5 . in your own mindes ; and so let every man be , for in Vers. 23. he that reason 1 doubteth is damned ; a smart Aphorism , which is here rendred for a reason of the necessity of being fully perswaded in your own hearts , That you are in the way of Christ : In your own minde , not by anothers mans opinion , be he ever so able , learned , wise , godly , yet man is but man ; therefore be thou careful ( Christian ! ) for thy self ! look to thy own conscience ! and let other men alone , to walk according to their light ! other mens opinions , or conceits , or doings , are not to be thy rule ; but let every one understand what he doth , whether he goeth , and be fully perswaded , or have his heart filled with perswasions , that he is according to the Word of God in ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) the way ! For he that doubteth ( i. e. dijudicare ) that is , ( alternantibus sententiis secum disceptare ) is double-minded , Jam. 1.8 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath a heart , and a heart , halts between two opinions , as to be now for the Presbyterians , another time for the Independents : Now of this minde and resolves this , then of that minde and inclines to that . Such a one is unstable in all his ways ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) i. e. in the Septuagint stands but upon one leg , a little thing will throw him down ; and that is another reason , reason 2 to ratifie this truth , viz. That you must be fully perswaded and satisfied in thy heart , that thou art in the right way ; else thou wilt never stand long ; but the least wind of doctrine will throw thee down in the dust , and thy fall will bring a foul scandal upon the truth , and raise the dust ! But he that doubteth ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) he still puts a difference , and is at variance with himself ; and knows not fully , freely , certainly , or absolutely what to do ; but ( as Budaeus saith ) is at no certainty with himself , whose understanding is confounded , and judgement is divided into divers parts ; as when one of two or three ways knows not which to take , is damned ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) is condemned of his conscience , and adjudged guilty of sin : The reason of this is taken ( saith Par ) from the procreant cause of godly actions and motions ( as they are holy , and of God ) which is Faith. For whatsoever is not of faith , is sin ; this is the confirmation of the former Aphorism and Maxim. reason 3 And from another Maxim or general Rule which is yet an undeniable truth ; and which makes me up a third Reason in order ; for to doubt a thing , and yet to do it , is a great sin , and against the first Table ; it takes away faith , for how can one believe he pleases God , or God accepts of him , that doubts whether he does or no that which pleases him , and is his will. By faith is here meant a full perswasion , a sweet plerophory , which makes the way sweet that we are in , and the work sweet that we are about ; when we know , and are perswaded of the lawfulness of it ; and that it is the Lords , and according to his minde and will. reason 4 Furthermore , Thou wilt never be able to contend for the truth , lustily and lively , Jude 3. yea , against all opposers , to thy very heart-blood , Heb. 12.3 , 4. & 10.32 , 33. No , nor be so much as able to maintain the truth by the Word ! or to defend it by arguments out of Scriptures ! that art not convinced of it , by the Word and Spirit , and perswaded in thy very heart , that thou art in the right , yea , though all the world , yea , the Angels of Heaven , should say against it ; be fully perswaded , your good meanings and mindes will not serve turn , nor yet the gray , Colliar-like , implicite faith of Papists ( which believe as the Church believe , they say . ) And this is the most you have from your Irish Catholicks at this hour ; and yet ask them what the Church believes , why they will say , as we believe ; and what do ye believe ? why , as the Church believes ; and that is , they know not what : But such a simplex conversio is all we can get from most of them , talk a day together with them . But a Christian must be able to maintain his doctrine , and to warrant his opinion and judgement , whether in doctrine , or discipline , by the Word , Isa. 8 ▪ 20. Or else , saith the Prophet , there is no light in them ; That is , else they want understanding , which ought to be rightly informed and inlightned as a beginning imperant ( saith Par , upon Rom. 14. ) and they want the will too , well sanctified , and made pliant as a beginning obsequent and e●cequent , and then ere you are aware , your soul will be set on the chariots of Amminadib ( as we may show in the next Chapter . ) For conscience carries thee out sweetly , and with a sure testimony within thee , ( that white stone ; ) when by good arguments out of the Word , thou art assured , That thou art in the Lords way of worship ; when thou canst comfortably and cordially say , as Rom. 14.14 . I know and am perswaded by the Lord Jesus . Not I think , or it is very likely , but I am sure upon certain and infallible Scriptures ; and I do stedfastly believe it in my heart . O then ! thou wilt prove a stout Champion for the truth indeed ! and darest stand for it ! when thou knowest thou art right : Thou knowest it first ; for thy faith and perswasion is in a sense ( subjective ) seated in thy knowledge and understanding , as in the subject ; thy opinion or perswasion is according to thy apprehension and understanding ; wherefore in order to your full perswasion of , and satisfaction in this way of Christ , or Gospel-fellowship ; you shall do well 1. To examine your knowledge of the Scriptures concerning this way , 2 Pet. 1.19 . have ye searched the Scriptures ? and do you finde them to bear a clear testimony to this truth ? doth the Word ( in your judgement and understanding ) warrant , and witness to this way of worship , as the way of Christ ? And to this Gospel-fellowship , as the Gospel order ? then you will well do to walk in it ; fear not yet discouragements or troubles , you must meet with in it , let them not daunt yee ; do you your duty , and let God alone to defend ye , and to do ye your good . When our Saviour bad Peter , with the rest , throw their nets in for a draught of fish ; why they had many discouragements ; for all night long they had thrown in , and lost their labors ; Nevertheless , at thy word ( saith Peter ) I will let down the net : So should we say , though our friends will be offended , our persons hated , our names traduced , our injuries great , our enemies many , and multitudes of discouragements ; that we must be sure ( and look for it aforehand , though the skies are very calm at this present ) that we shall meet with ; yet for all that , At thy Word , O Lord , we will enter into this way ; so we have but Christs word and warrant for it , we may be confident and couragious , and fully satisfied : But to further this direction , those that would enter into this way , must 1. Be well instructed and informed of the order of the Gospel in primitive times ; what manner of fellowship they finde the Word to hold forth in the Apostles days , and some hundred yeers after them ; that is , before the Church was deflowred and defiled with humane inventions , dregs , and devices ; whilest the pattern was in the Mount ; and the institution of Christ was the onely Canon-law and liberty . As the Apostle would , 1 Cor. 11.24 , 25. bring them to consider the first institution , so doth Christ about divorcement , bring them to the beginning and first institution ; and that divorces were not lawful , Christ proves that they were not so from the first , Matth. 19.4 7 , 8. So in great and rich promises , the Lord is pleased to foretel the restauration of his people , as at first , Jer. 33.7 , 11. so Acts 3.19 , 21. To teach us what we are to look for , that is , things as at first ; holiness ▪ fellowship , doctrine , discipline , as at first ; and we should ask after , Jer ▪ 6.16 . The good old way , ( quam primum , & verum , & optimum ) that is , the true way ; for truth is older then error ; and error is nothing but the excrement and corruption of truth . The Primitive practise and order of Christs Church , is to be s●t before us for our satisfaction ; because it is as a pattern to all succeeding ages . 2. Be also well informed of the order and practise of our Churches now in these days : Sit down ( sayes Mr. Bartlet ) and compare our present stations with the first order of the Gospel ; and see wherein we fall short , and blush , and be ashamed , Ezek. 43.11 , 12. and then come out of Babylon : But for this , I refer the Reader to the former Book . Thirdly Then when ye have found out ( in your judgements and beleefe ) a Church-society in Gospel-order , and are fully perswaded of it , and doe finde it in your heart that you are prepared and ordered for it ; doe not delay entring into it , but be sure first , it be into such a society , and Church-communion of Saints as you see ( and that upon Scripture grounds ) you judge to come up nighest to Rule , and closest to the Primitive patterne and practise , which yee shall do well very diligently to look out for . And fourthly , observe the motions of the spheres , and all the particular becks of providence how things joyne together , and so fittly concur for your admittance into this Church-way : for as holy Sibs saith , fitting occasions , and suiting of things well together doe intimate Gods will , and Gods time . And indeed all Providences have their language to Gods people , and they minde their Call cleare , when Providence makes the way for them . For indeed Gods Providence runs along like waters in a Brook , where every little peble hath a language in it , therefore wee shall doe well to understand them ; For as wrong reading spoyles the sense , so will the not reading of Gods Providences to a full period and stop . But thus far for the first Direction . Secondly , Be sure ye have no confidence in the flesh , Phil. 3.3 . neither in your selfe , i. e. your own wit , parts , gifts , or the like , thereupon to run ( rashly ) into this way ( rather upon a presumption out of pride , vain-glory , selfe-love , or curiosity ) then upon well-grounded perswasion ; nor yet have any dependance upon any others whosoever they bee ; for then the Lord will reject both you and your carnall confidences , Jer. 2.37 . Thirdly , Be not byassed one way or other , as by imaginations taken from your owne senses ( which are very shallow and unsound ) for by such spirits ( full of spight ) came Christs way to be evill spoken of in Act. 28.22 . and so 2 Cor. 10.5 . Sathan hath strong-holds in such mens hearts , to keep out Christ and Gospel ; wherefore let your judgement master your affections ( lest false conclusions bee ushered in by carnall reason , fancy and conceit : ) For the wisdome which is from above is without partiality , Jam. 3.17 ▪ that is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or mis-judging i. e. either out of love to one way , or out of prejudice ( being prepossessed with hard conceits and opinions ) of any other way . We wrong a man much by prejudice , when we take up prejudicate opinions of him without grounds ; & so suffer our conceits of him to be envenomed against him by unjust suspicions , whereby we deprive our selves of the good which we might have by him . So the Pharisees were set against Christ , and the Jewes against the Gospel ; yea this prejudice made Nathaniels question in Joh. 1.46 . Canany good come out of Nazareth ? wherefore bee impartial , without any conceit or deceit , when thou searchest the Scriptures , hearest the word , enquirest out for the Truth ; O then ! then ! let the Lord cast the scales ; and this is the way to be sweetly satisfied in your own breasts , and to have a heart full of perswasion according to the word of God. When yee have attained to this sweet and swelling Plerophory , yee may , yea must move accordingly , and that upon a certainty ; which certitude or assurance ( being the highest part of your perswasion ) that yee are in Christs way , is to bee considered . First ( Ex causa certitudinis ) from the verity of the word , and certainty of the divine truths , which do so perswade and assure you ; and thus yee conclude , seeing the word of Christ is sure and true , &c. the perswasion which it begets must bee so too , and sound . And then ( Ex parte subjecti ) from your own capacities and qualifications , according to your knowledge and judgements ; th●nce yee gather up this conclusion , that yee are the persons called into this way of Christ by his Word and Spirit , and that ye stand in great need of this way , and that for divers reasons , being fully perswaded of it , that yee are appointed and prepared for it , and it for you ; hence arises a full perswasion to enter into it , and a clear satisfaction about it , which is given by the Word and Spirit , and which is so necessary for all that would enter into it , and continue in it , and have the comforts of it , that they should not dare to venture or enter one foot without it . For what is not of faith is sinne . Now as it will doe well that every one of us bee fully perswaded that it is the very visible way of worship that Jesus Christ hath brought out of his Fathers bosome ( the Tabernacles that came downe from above ) and when he ascended on high , Eph. 4.10 , 11 , 12. that he left behinde him for all beleevers to dwell and be perfected in ; so also will it be necessary for every one to bring his perswasion to the triall and touchstone that they may be sure , else ( as Dike saith upon Faith , ) you may be left in the lurch , gulled and cheated in this point too : for in 1 King. 22.20 , 21 , 22. you read of a lying false spirit that perswades and prevails . Now as Clement ( lib. 5. Recognitionum ) sayes , What is more obnoxious and hurtfull to the Church of Christ , then for a man who beleeves he knows what he knows not , and sees what he sees not , to maintaine that a thing is what it is not ? ( being but to him what he imagines ) tooth and nail he strikes at truth for falsehood , and falsehood for truth . Like a drunken fellow that thinks himselfe sober , he doth all things , goes all wayes like a Drunkard , and yet is perswaded he doth , and goes as well as any sober man whatsoever , and would have all others to thinke so too ; and yet perhaps his giddy braines and fancies , make him beleeve that it is others that stagger , who goe stedfastly , and that he goes steadily whilst he staggers ; such whimsical perswasions are of dangerous consequence . It concerns us then to know whence our full perswasion arises , and whither it reaches , or what it brings forth . But to the first : First , A true and full perswasion flows from the word of Christ without , Thess. 2.13 . as we have said before , and the Spirit of Christ within us , Joh. 16.8 . Joh. 14.16 . 1 Job . 2.20.27 . 1 Joh. 5.6 . these have convinced our judgements , inlightened our understandings , conformed our wills , and perswaded our hearts , with undeniable arguments and proofs . Secondly , If it be true , it waits upon the Lord with patience for his concurring Providences , and for the accomplishing his promises , as David did for his Kingdome , Abraham for his Son , Israel for Canaan ; runs not rashly , without feare or wit , as we use to say , before God ; He that beleeves , makes not haste ; Isa. 28. not too much haste , or more haste then good speed ; but he waits to go along with God , with his presence , by his Providence ( as is said before ) into this way of Gospel-fellowship . Thirdly , It will meet with many trials and assaults , but yet will get the better , and abide firme . So Act. 19.23 . What a stir there was about the way of the Gospel ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , contra viam Domini ) or as some read it , against the Gospel-way , this way of the Lord which Paul preached at Ephesus , and yet it gained the ground ; So 2 Cor. 7.5 . they have no rest , but threats and fears , and troubles , and oppositions ; yet this faith and full perswasion stayes the soul , quiets , and satisfies the spirits , establishes the heart , 2 Chron. 20.20 . ie staies the inward man in much peace and assurance in the midst of multitudes of troubles and trials . As the ship that lyes at anchor , though something tossed with wind and weather , and with the swelling threatning Surges of the Sea , rising thick one on another , and boysterous beating about the ship , yet remains safe , unmoved , being firme , and fastened , and cannot bee carried away ; So art thou able to undergo all oppositions , threats , swelling , surging waves , or the like , if thou rest resolved , established and fully perswaded by the word of God , so that stil thou wilt stand by faith , and grow stronger and stronger , as the house of David did , 2 Sam. 3.1 . in the midst of his dangerous conflicts , and trucelesse troubles with the house of Saul : and as Israel , the more afflicted , the more multiplied , Exod. 1. for true faith will have the conquest and triumph at last , 1 Joh. 5.4 . 1 Pet. 5.8 . Heb. 11.33 , 34. Eph. 6.16 . Fourthly , A true and full perswasion in the way of Christ makes thee most ready to run into it ( but orderly ) and very obsequious , Gal. 5.6 . Heb. 11.8 . Rom. 16.26 . O then ! how readily desirous , and thankfully observant art thou to do the will of God , to please him in his way of worship ! and to be obedient to his command of coming out of ( Babel ) confusion into Zion ! Fifthly , A true and full perswasion of the way of Christ makes thee see an emptinesse , and a worthlesnesse in all other wayes , and an excellency and usefuln●sse of this way ( which is Christs ) that all others fall short of . Thus David seeing an amiablenesse in the Lords Tabernacles above all others , had rather be there one day , then a thousand in any other tents , Psal. 84.1 , 2.10 . and saith Psal. 86.8 . There is none like thee ; No wayes like thy wayes , &c. Sixthly , A true , full perswasion , makes thee exceedingly fond , of , and longing , and labouring after these wayes of Sion ! O! how dost thou thirst to be in them , Psal. 84 , 2. Psal , 63.1.2 . and enjoy the benefit of them ! Psal. 42.2 . Cant. 8.1 . Cant. 7.10 , 11. Rev. 22.20 . and though he that beleeves , makes not haste , as before , yet in this sense he hath fullest perswasions , and most faith makes most haste of all ; and cannot but make haste ( but regularly . ) Seventhly , True and full perswasion makes thee very confident ( but with a holy confidence ) and bold ( but with an humble boldnesse ) having the testimony of a good conscience to bear thee out against all adversaries or oppositions whatsoever , therefore in Heb. 10.22 . Heb. 4.16 . Eph. 3.12 . It is not a sawcy , impudent boldnesse , which strangers that intrude may have ( and carry a boldnesse , whilst their hearts tell them they goe beyond good manners ) but this is a sweet , humble , and friendly familiar boldnesse upon invitation , and calls from Christ , grounded upon Gods free love warranted by the word ( not swelling at all with selfe-confidence or conceit , but alleadging meerly love and grace from above ; such a confidence in Christ makes them humbly bold , and ready to approach his Court and Sanctuary ( audaces sunt promptiores . ) Eighthly , This full perswasion puts thee upon others to perswade them ( by the Word and Spirit ) that they may also participate with thee in this Church-way , Cant. 6.1 . Mal. 3.16 . Eph. 4.29 . Col. 4.5 , 6. Heb. 3.13 . Thus Andrew called Peter in , and Philip Nathaniel , and Paul young Timothy and Titus , and many others . We cannot be idle to others , then especially those whom we love , those we would faine get in , Prov. 11.30 . By these few notes from the true rise and effects of the true and sound perswasion , ye may examine before yee enter . I have been the longer on this Point , because many people run hudling on headlong in , and they scarce know how , nor care how , so they get in , but this may be had for a lamentation : And poor souls ! what comfort can they finde in this way , without faith , who stagger through unbeleef , and cannot tell ( being full of doubts ) whether they are right or no! alas for them ! the Ordinances are nothing ( to speak of ) sweet to them , whilst they think to do this , or to bee in this way , which it may be ( they think ) pleases God , and it may be it displeased him ; and this drives them often-times into despaire , and alwayes into error . This makes so many run into strange opinions and errors that run so rashly into this way of fellowship , which is the Churches Threnodia and deep sorrow at this day : O then ! that men would be more carefull ! for as the Sun ( saies Erasm. Roterod. in Simil. ) the more directly he bears upon us with his beams , the lesse shadow he makes , but the more obliquely , the greater . So a wise man that understands himselfe , and is informed , and fully perswaded by the divine light of the word , the beams of Christ , the Son of righteousnesse ; the more this Sonne hath shined upon him , and he is satisfied with the truth , the lesse fancy , imagination , or foolish opinions he hath , and the lesse he runs into errours , but the more obliquely he enters into the Lords way , and the lesse he is by this divine light ( from above ) informed and fully ▪ perswaded , the more he runs into errours , and the longer shadows he makes . But to conclude , I beseech ye beware ! O beware ! how yee enter into this way of worship ! let serious and due consideration be had that yee come in due order , otherwise yee will meet with a breach instead of a blessing , 1 Chron. 15.23 . and this Church-state instead of Peniel may be called Perez-uzza , or Perez-nephesh , i. e. the breach of thy soule ; so see Mat 22.12 , 13. what befel the friend that came in , and not in a right order . Besides the Lord doth not make them welcome , Mal. 1.10 . for they are a provocation to him in Numb . 14.11 . Psal. 78.21 , 22. and the Ordinances of Christ are not so effectual to them , Heb. 4.12 , 13. this want of faith , and full perswasion that they are in the Lords way , in Christs Gospel Church-state , doing the Lords will , doth enervate , enfeeble , and deforce the efficacie and excellency , vertue and operation and spirituall advantages which beleevers finde in it , As thou hast believed so be it , Matth. 8.13 . and chap. 9.29 . See Mark. 6.5 , 6. one such a doubting member , doth much mischiefe in a Church , and is a great hindrance to it . But , dear friends , if ye have faith , and doubt not , Mat. 21.21 . and are but fully perswaded in your souls , that this is the way of Christ you are entring into , then welcome , expect great blessings and mighty works , and energy in the midst of you , Eph. 1.19 . CHAP. II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nahar Sahhish . Those that are thus satisfied , and fully perswaded , as before , must by a voluntary consent unite , and knit together in one body . THis comes in order next , of which in the former Booke , Chap. 11. and 13. you may read at large : but let this be brought into the ballance of the Sanctuary too ; and let every soule see to it , how he enters into this way of Fellowship , that it be by a voluntary and free●motion without a coaction . No earthly power can compell a man into this Church of Christ ; for the Father must draw him , Joh. 6.44 . that is , with his spiritual armes , the Word and the Spirit , which are the Lords hands , and his two armes reached out all the day long , Rom. 10.21 . None are to bee constrained into this communion , unlesse it be by the Word and the Spirit ; thus the Lord is said to adde to the Church , Act. 2.47 . and by his power makes them a willing people , Psal. 100.3 . and so Cant. 6.12 . when the will is set upon the Chariots , or wheels , a man must needs run , Cant. 1.3 . hence a man is often-times said to be according to his will ( a volunteer or not ) which is as the great Wheele , that sets all others a going . Now it should necessarily follow , that such as are fully perswaded , as before , must become voluntary , and freely assent to what they are so perswaded of , persuasio importat assensum intellectus ad id quod creditur , before they enter into it , or act in it , which we offer proof for under several considerations , whence the reasons are raised to ratifie this truth . As First ( A principio agente ) from the principle that moves them and makes them a willing people , which is either ( in se , or extra se ) a natural principle which produces natural effects , and natural actions , and natural motions , from natural reasons for natural ends ; or else a principle above nature , that is a principle of grace , which produces acts of grace flowing from divine reason for divine ends : and such a kind of voluntarinesse I speak of here , as from such a principle which carries the soule on through a thousand difficulties and dangers ; though it cost never so much , though flesh and blood , and world and devils be all against it , yet he will do it , because hee is carried on by an high and holier , and more God-like principle and power ; thus the Spirit is said to be willing , Mat. 26.41 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or free with alacrity and readinesse to run , Psal. 119.32 . Gal. 5.7 . thus Luke 15.18 . I will arise , and I will goe to my Father ; I will , come what will come ; come death , come life ; come temptations , come troubles , come all that can come , yet , I will home to my fathers house , there is bread enough , and I will no longer be starved with husks , among a swinish multitude ; no , but I will arise , and runne into the Lords house ; thus to will ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) is present with me , sayes Paul , that is , Chapter 2. an efficacious will , which takes in both the principle , and the act . O then ! the heart is hurried away indeed upon the Chariots of a most noble people , Cant. 6.11 . with strong and lusty flaming affections and desires ! I will goe in the Lords way , I will get out of this bondage ! this Babylon ! this Cage of unclean birds ! I will not have the Cage-door shut ! I will be set at liberty ! though the flesh be never so violent , though my friends nothing but frown on me , though all the devils of Hell rage , yet I will be gone for Zion , and get into those assemblies , &c. This may serve for a reason , why this voluntary consent is so reason 1 requisite , viz. because it is a living principle which produces such gracious effects : And this is the act of a perfect heart , 1 Chron. 28.9 . Serve him with a perfect heart and willing minde , they come otherwise without hearts , Psal. 119.145 . dead to duty , and heavily forward ; but when men are made willing , as before , they have a principle of agency , and need no constraint at all , 1 Pet. 5.2 . not by constraint , but willingly . O then , a man is in motion indeed , and will doe the will of God , and go into the way of God! though no body else of his friends , or family will do it , nay though he be hated of all his neighbours , and acquaintance for it , and have no thanks at all among men by it , but hee being carried on by a divine principle ( extra se ) considers not what he suffers , as what hee seeks , which is abundantly above himselfe , therefore . Secondly , Consider that ( omne agens seu motum agat moveatur propter finem , every man who is moved ( as before ) by the above-said principle in the day of his power whereby hee is become a cordial Volunteer ) I say that every such a willing man proposes to himself some end that suits his principle , a divine end for his divine principle , but a carnal principle seeks a carnal end ; for alwayes observe the end , to which the principle carries , is evermore of the same make and nature , with the principle , be it good or bad , spiritual or carnal ; if the principle by which he is moved be above himselfe , then the end for which he is moved , is above himselfe ; see but in a stone which you throw up to hit such a mark with , the up-motion of the stone is by a power which is not in it , it flyes upward by a principle ( extra se ) and a power seated in the man that throwes it , and therefore the up-mark of the upward motion is the end ( extra se ) which is appointed by him that throws it , and according to that principle that appoints it ; but in the falling downe of the said stone again , this downward motion is by a principle of its own ( in se ) and seeks its owne Center , viz. the earth , which is the end answerable to the principle . Now I say , it is not enough for a man to move , but to move to some end . ( Non solum ut moveantur , sed ut moveantur in finem ) What is the end of those things whereof ye are now ashamed , saith the Apostle , Rom. 6.21 . the end of those things is death , but the end of holinesse is everlasting life . Destructive principles have destructive ends , but saving principles saving ends ; wherefore the Apostle would have us look to the end . We have used to say , every one knows his beginning , but not his end . Yet in this sense , I say , men may know their end if they know their principles . And now I am upon it , I must presse the knowledge of the end , at well as the motion to the end , lest ye bring but the sacrifice of fools , Eccles. 1. a wise man sets the end of his motion or action ever before him , both before hee begins , and when he hath begun , and as he is proceeding . Every one who is wise in Christ ( and would fain be in the wayes of Christ ) who is carried to Zion-ward by such a principle as before , hath a certain knowledge of the end which hee purposes , promises , and proposes to himself , and he hath not onely his principles to move , but to move for that end proposed ; as if it be for the honour and glory of God , to set forth his praises , as a peculiar one called thereto , 1 Pet. 2.9 . But he that hath no knowledge of the end , though he hath in him a principle of motion or action , yet the principle , which moves or acts him for such or such an end , is not in him , but in another , ( as was shewn before in the simile of the stone ) by whom hee is said to be moved for such an end . Now I say , a Saint who is moved by the Spirit , hath spirituall ends , and by a principle from above hath ends from above , glorious , divine ends above himselfe ; but a natural principle hath natural ends ; and so such as are carried on into these assemblies of Sion by carnal principles , come alwayes in for carnal ends . reason 2 Now this is another reason why such as would be Church-members must be volunteers , and carried on by divine principles into these divine wayes , that is to say , for divine ends . Now when a man knows the end to be according to his desire , and suitable to the principle by which he moves to that special end , then hee is become in a special manner voluntary in his motions , and into means conducing to that end ; and to say something more , he sets before him , not onely what is the end , but also why it is the end that he seeks after , and centers toward ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is my Motto . And consider Thirdly ( Regula voluntatis ) the Rule , according to which the will is moved , and the heart is carried and continued : for every ( principium ad cer●um finem ) principle putting forth to some end , hath some kinde of order or other in his motion to that end ; now ( debitus ordo ad finem secundum aliquam regulam mensuratur ) the will without a Rule , is like an unbroken colt without a curbe , kicking and flinging , and running any way at randome , without order or equity . In all things which are done by the will , there should be a Rule , and this Rule is either humane reason , which is homogenean , and most nigh the will and mind of man ( this is regula proxima , say the Schoolmen ) or else it is divine Reason , the Wisdome and Word of God , the eternal Law of God , which is the supreme , and primary rule of the will ( Regula suprema ) which some call Heterogenean to it . Now such men as move obliquely , and crossely to this Rule , walk disorderly and sinfully , and from such withdraw thy self ( ab hac rectitudine obliquatur ) as 2 Thess. 3.6 , 7.11 . for every good action and motion agrees with the Law of God , the commands of Christ , which are their Rule ; Now as many as walke according to this rule , peace be on them , Gal. 6.16 . and let us all walke by the same rule , Phil. 3.15 , 16. By this Divine reason and rule are the wils of all that are made willing to be ordered , and fitted and directed into this way . Thus Christ sits and rules ( by his Law ) upon his Throne in the Temple , Zach. 6.13 . Mat. 2.6 . Now this serves for another Reason why we should voluntarily come in , because those have this rule to order their steps , reason 3 and direct them into these wayes of holinesse . Now the order according to the Rule of Christ , viz. the word of God , whereby the will is brought into obedience , is , First , By inclining the will to the wayes of God ; so Psal. 119.112 . then you have a good minde to them , as suiting your condition , and the need you have of them ; for , Omnis inclinatio is ad conveniens . Secondly , The Intentions and Purposes of the will follow , which you read of Heb. 4.12 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the intents of the heart , which word takes in both the cause , and the effect : 1 The cause , that is , the faculty of conceiving : And 2 The effect , that is the things conceived , viz. the purposes and intentions . Thus Daniel purposed in his heart , Dan. 1.8 . and Paul purposed in the Spirit , Act. 19.21 . Rom. 1.13 . this is the act of a deliberate will spontaneously , and freely carried out ( after inclination ) into resolution and determination . This made Paul determine to know nothing save Christ , and him crucified , 1 Cor. 2.2 . so eager he was after Christ alone , nothing else would serve his turne , but all else is as drosse and dirt to him ; because the intentions of his will , heart and all , were after Christ. Thirdly , Then the will comes to turn aside from all other vain and false wayes , Psal. 119.113 . Psal. 119.101 . And Fourthly , To make absolute choise of the way of God above all , Psal. 119.30 . so Isa. 56.4 . this election is the proper effect of a free-will , or will set at liberty , whereby a man picks and culs out one way ( that is the way of God ) to walke in ( aliis recusatis ) letting all others alone . Now to this free election or choise which the will makes , two things concur . 1 Knowledge ( ex parte cognitivae virtutis , &c. ) whereby a man must discerne a difference between that way which his will most affects , inclines to , resolves upon , and makes choise of , and other wayes ; and must know wherein this way that he chooses to walke in excels all others , and is to be preferred and chosen . 2 Desire ( ex parte appetitivae ) whereby is requisite that he be of a sound judgement , and so as that he doth most ardently desire to walk in that way which he judges by the word of God to be the way of God ; thus Psal. 119.173 . and this sets the soul a longing and desiring , Psal. 119.5.174 . and Psal. 62.2 . Fifthly , and lastly , then the will comes to challenge , and the heart to appropriate an interest in the way of God , 1 Pet. 1.7 . O this is the way for me to walke in , and here is my Beloved to be found ! Cant. 5.16 . O then the soule clings close to Christ in this way ! as Hezekiah did cleave unto the Lord , 2 King. 18.6 . And as Ruth did cleave unto her mother , Ruth 1.14 . that is whilst Orpah left her , and went from her ; Ruth would not leave her . Verse . 16. Intreat me not to doe it , saith shee , for where thou goest , I will goe , and where thou livest , I will live , and where thou dyest , I will dye ; and thy God shall be my God , and thy people , my people , nothing shall hinder it . Oh! so to cleave close to Christ whilst others ( Orpah's ) fall from him ! and to continue in his way , and worship when others contemne it , and fall away from it ! this is a signe his way is indeared to you indeed , and that you prize him , and his way indeed , to make his God your God , and to make his people yours , his wayes yours , to live where he lives , & c ! O when no discouragement can daunt ye , or drive you to decline the truth , or way of Christ ! no not all the world that can stir you thence , this is sweet indeed ; then you say with David , I have stuck to thy testimonies , Psal. 119.31 . O then ! then ! how precious are all the Promises , Providences , Ordinances , Priviledges which you enjoy , by vertue of a right , and propriety you have to them ! And thus the will is ordered by the Rule , and carried on by divine reason into the Temple of the Lord to worship there . Now every voluntary action or motion is good or bad , according to the recourse that it hath to this order taken from Divine reason . Fourthly , Furthermore , let us set before us the ( objectum voluntatis ) object of will , so fitted , as before , which is ( bonum apprehensum ) something that is desirable ( at least so apprehended to bee ) which moves the will and affection ( bonum omnia appetunt ) say the Philosophers , Tho. Aq. Ethic. lib. 1. Tom. 5. ) some good or other that is conceived to be proper and convenient to the Principle which moves the Will , every man desires , and looks upon , and makes his object in his voluntary motions into the house of the Lord. Who will shew us any good ? Psal. 4.6 . is every ones question ; therefore what is good in the understanding ( nonex veritate rei ) is said to be the proper object of the will. A moral principle looks on a moral good ; a natural on a natural good ; a civil on a civil good , a spiritual on a spiritual good ; we doe not say things right or wrong true or false , for they are as they are in the mind ( objecta intellectus ) but things apprehended good in agreement with the moving principle , Mat. 7.11 . in that verse , there is a different good according to the principle that moves them , either natural or spiritual : And hence it is that the appetitive faculties of the soule , or the longing affections are distinguished according to the apprehensive faculties of the soule ; for the more thou apprehendest this way to bee for thy good , or this thing to be for thy good , the more thou desirest it , and willest it with longings ; but the lesse thou seest it to be for thy good , the lesse are thy affections towards it ; for though a thing bee most excellently good and desirable , yet it moves the affections and will no further , then it is apprehended so to be . Prov. 19.8 . He that keepeth understanding shall finde good . David doth most earnestly desire to dwell with the Lord , and to draw nigh to him , because he apprehended it to be good for him so to do , Psal. 73.28 So it is good for us to be here , Mat. 17.4 . therefore Lord let us build Tabernacles . Now this is another Reason , why men should come voluntary into Church fellowship , because of the good , the universal reason 4 good , the spiritual good , and heavenly advantages to bee had hereby , and such as are suitable to the principles by which we are to be made a willing people . What makes men so desirous of eating ? but the meat that is ( or is to be ) and so is in their apprehension ) set before them to be good ? what makes men run in a race , as if they were mad , but the rewards which they set before them ? And why doe the Apostles so presse the practise of Christs commands , but because of the good which is set before us ? Tit. 3.8 . Heb. 13.9 . Now if ( bonum universale , which is originale ) an universal good ( i. e. a good for all times , in all conditions , in all places , upon all occasions , &c. ) if such a good be thy object , and draws thee as the Loadstone , doubtlesse God alone is this good , Mat. 19 16.17 . and then he alone ( his love which is better then wine , his presence which is better then life ) can fill thy Will , and sufficiently move it , as the only able and effectual object . No one good like unto this can move the will , and make thee a compleat and thorough Volunteer ; when Moses prayed to see his glory , Exod. 33.18 . he said Verse 19. and I will make all my good to passe before thee . But consider , Fifthly , The operation of the will , ( which is velle bonum ) what is it else but a strong and undeniable inclination , and resolution of the person willing into the thing willed , or into the object of the will ? Now from this sweet working of the will into the thing reason 5 willed , or into God , this universal good , another Reason might bee taken to confirme this truth , That those who would enter into Christs Church-way must come by a voluntary consent , being earnestly carried out into God this universal good , which is that they run for . Hence saith Aug. de dono persever . C. 13. Nos volumus , sed Deus operatur in nobis & velle , nos operamur , sed Deus operatur in nobis , & operari , &c. We will indeed , but it is God that works in us that will also , both to will and to do , saith the Apostle ; we worke , but it is God who worketh in us that working of good also . He is in us the principle , to us the object , and for us the end of all , Eph. 4.6 . Consider , Six●hly , The Instruments which propound and offer this object to the will , and the means by which the man is perswaded , and prevailed with to be free and spontaneous , and voluntary to enter into this way of Christ , or Gospel-order , which are the Word and the Spirit . First , The outward instrument is his Word , this is the Sword of Christs Kingdome to conquer with , and his Scepter to govern by . So Act. 2.41 . All that were received into the Church , gladly received the word , as Ainsworth observes , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is , willingly , and voluntarily without any compulsion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they imbraced it ( cum approbationes ) with welcome , joyfully with hearty entertainment , as to the dearest friend , or best guest that could come ; now such as received the Gospel so , were made members of the Church ▪ The Church did all according to Christs word , and Gospel , whether in binding or loosing , taking in , or casting out , still the Statute-book , Christs Word and Gospel was by them in all . So that nothing was to bee done by the Decrees , Lawes , or Canons of men , or by their Votes and Orders in Classical , Provincial , or National Assemblies ; no , no such thing was heard of ; nor yet were any cuffed in , or staved in by Magistrates powers . I am of Mr. Dels judgement in His way of peace , Psal. 63.64 . &c. who sayes , Who so ever affirms that the Lawes , Decrees , or Canons of men , Rabbies , Bishops , Assemblies , or Councels , are fitter and better to order the Church by , then the pure and naked word of the Gospel by the ministration of the Spirit , speaks in my judgement very blasphemously . Luther sayes ( in Epist. ad Carolum Ducem Subaudiae Tom 7 ▪ fo● ▪ 483. ) Christiani eo verbo & non alio regi debent , quo Christiani ( i. e. liberi a peccatis ) fiunt , ( sine additionibus conciliorum Doctorum Patrum , &c. that all Christians are to be ordered by the Word of God , the Gospel of Christ , whereby they became Christians ( that is , set at liberty from sin ) and this without the addition of Councels , Doctors , Fathers , or the like ; for what is it to governe and guide Christians by their Councels , Decrees , or Words , which they may keep , and yet neither become Christians , nor continue such : Nay , many times they cease to be such by those means ; and wee lose the truth for their Traditions , the Scriptures for their Scribbles ; the Bible for their Babel ; yea Christ for the creatures images , which the intellect hath taken up ; and the doctrines of Christ , for the Devices , Decrees , and Ordinances of men . Moreover for such as are not yet called ; suppose they bee not Christians , they are not to be tampered with , or restrained by the ordinances , or traditions of men , but to be let alone , as Paul saith , Col. 2.20.22 . Neither is the Magistrate to meddle with them by his Secular powers , so as to force them into the house of God ; none can be compelled by iron weapons to joyne to a Church of Christ against their wills ( as hath been largely handled in the former leaves , Chap. 11. and 13. which I shall adde now little to but this ) because ( as Luther sayes in the fore-cited Epistle ) Christians are all to be so spontaneously , onely as they are perswaded by the Word of Christ , convinced , and lead by the Spirit of God , Joh. 16.8 . Rom. 8. So are they by the same means to bee brought in members of the Church of Christ , Quae ergo insania est spontanee bonos urgere legibus malorum ? and yet there be some rough spirits abroad that spit nothing but fire and blood , and speake of nothing but imprisonments and punishments for such as are not yet convinced , inlightned , or come up to their opinion . Some imagine men must be brought in by the Magstrates sword , and that the Gospel is to be promoted and propagated by weapons , blows , and cuffes . It is true as Mr. Hooker in the third part of Church-discipline , chap. 1. asserts , That the Civil power may ( as a thing Civil ) require them to come under the tenders , and call of Christ ( which is vox significativa ) but cannot compel their consciences ; and that Power is very uncivil that intermeddles with Church-matters , but Magistrates must leave the Church to follow the rule of Christ , in receiving such as have gladly received the Word ; and whom the Lord hath by his Word and Spirit perswaded , and prevailed with ; and so , whom the Lord addes unto the Church , and not whom men , Magistrates , or any other ( by any indirect means soever ) shall adde . It is known to many in Dublin , that I durst not but bear testimony to this truth , though ( to no little persecution of my self and others , in name and persons , as is well known to the Church-gathered , with whom I walked for the time I was there ; who have also had their share of sufferings by some , and also have added their testimony to mine . ) I say , although the reproof reached great persons that invited many in by indirect means ( more proper for Seducers , then Saints ) whether by promising expressions of preferment , or by commanding words , to such as they had power over , which were under their commands ; or by going to houses to make proselytes by their power , or the like ; if their purposes might be good , yet the effects were very bad , I am sure ; for hereby many Hypocrites crept in amongst us , being byassed with by-ends ; and who afterwards proved incendiaries , and so disturbers of our peace ; they should have let the Lord alone to bring into his Church , whom he pleased ; and the word alone to have perswaded them by the Spirit ; and not have sought the inlargement of the Church , to get up to great numbers , ( which men eye too much ) by any other means then the Word and Spirit . When great men are Members of a Church , that Church must have the greater care of receiving , least any should enter or crowd in more out of love to , or fear of those great ones ▪ or out of any ends of getting a benefit , by having great men their Brethren , or the like . I say , more then out of love to the Lords Courts , and Assemblies , as being inlightned by the Word , and enlivened by the Spirit , and fully perswaded in their own hearts , that they must enter into these ways , as the ways of holiness ; which the Lord hath left here for believers to walk in together ; wherefore our experiences produce this Caution to others ; for want of which , we have sufficiently suffered to give others warning . It was Boniface the third ( that I first read of ) that used his Volumus , Mandamus , Statuimus , &c. as the means of bringing in Members ; and ever since hath the Church wanted peace , and been persecuted , by such commanding powers ; for till Antichrists time we finde none Members of Christs Church , but such as were made willing by the word and power of Christ. Christs words are works ( when his Word and Spirit go together ) Psal. 33.9 . He spake , and it was done . ( In verbo Christi factiva est ratio . ) He said , Let there be light , and it was light ; he said to the Damsel , Tabitha cumi , and she arose ; he bid Lazarus come forth , and he did so , John 11. there is so much vertue in his voice , ( verbum Christi est expressivum & operativum ) that it is called the power of God , Rom. 1.10 . And the arm of the Lord , Isa. 53.1 . To save , assist , deliver , draw out , and to gather into his fold : This arm does all this , and is the only outward instrument , whereby Christ does draw them in ; and then they run after him , Cant. 1.3 . and leave Father , Friends , and all , to follow him , and his commands , or call ; they stand not disputing it , but immediately obey his call , Matth ▪ 4.20 , 22. and come away . Secondly , The inward working Instrument , is the Spirit of Christ , whose work is to convince us of the truth , John 16.8 . and to lead us into the truth , Joh. 16.13 . & 14.17 , 26. or guide us ; that is , not to drag us , whether we will or no : But it implies a willingness in us , being informed by the Word , that this is the way , and that we must walk in it ; that we must follow the Spirit as a guide , a skilful guide , a counselling guide , a comforting guide ; that will go before us , and make way for us . And if we be in suspence , and hang off , why then it is his work to convince us , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as it were , by undeniable Arguments , and Reasons ; and so , as that we shall not have a word to say , but that we shall heartily and willingly yeeld to his motions and perswasions , and finde him both a protection and direction . Quest. How shall I know I have Christs Spirit ? Answ. By his efficacy and power in doing his office : A painted fire will not warm , nor a painted Sun give light ; now by their effectual operations you know which is the true fire , and the true Sun. Besides , the true Sun will discover false painted suns , and the true fire will burn up the false ; so will the true Spirit of Christ , discover , judge , and condemn all other false spirits ; But Quest. How doth this Spirit of Christ convince and bring in , and then keep in the way ? Answ. 1. Mouendo , by inlightning our intellect , informing our mindes with his counsel and admonitions ; he leads us with open eyes , Psal. 32.8 . And the wisemans eyes are in his head ( Christ ; ) This is the first work of the Spirits illumination , Eph. 1.18 . He makes us to see an amiableness in the Lords Tabernacles , above all other tents . Thus our understanding is filled with light , Col. 1.9 . So , as that we see the object which moves the will and affections ( that we spake before of ) to be the ( attractivum bonum ) the best good ; and then 2. Movendo , the Spirit inclines our hearts , moves our wills , and makes us resolved in this way of Christ ; before the Spirit took us up , as upon Mount Pisgah ; that is , by divine contemplation to behold Canaan : But now he makes us willing to enter into the way , with all our hearts full of wishes and desires , which makes us swift in motions . 3. Removendo . This Spirit removes the remora's , answers all objections , takes away all impediments , and puts us on through all difficulties whatsoever ; though Satan like a roaring Lyon robbed of her whelps , rage at us , and assault us with his rough Claws , and sharpe temptations ; though the flesh flie upon us , with full-mouth and foul-mouthed language and invectives ; Though the world frown on us , and threaten never to look well upon us , and friends forsake us , neighbors estranged to us , acquaintance persecute us , and all threaten to begger us ; yet , I say , the Spirit makes us to triumph over all ; and carries us through all , as more then Conquerors , and thus Cant. 5.6 , 7 , 8. The Spouse through inward temptations , Vers. 6. When Christ had ( in her eye ) left her , forsaken her , nor regarding her prayers , or tears , and outward troubles , Vers. 7. Yea , when the watchmen ( that should have been her friends ) frowned on her ; yea , smote her , till they fetched blood from her , and the keepers of the wall abused her , and took away her vail , and tore it in peeces , on purpose , to put her to open shame ; and to show her nakedness , before all in the streets to hoot at , after her , and to hurt her , and to make the world believe , she was an Harlot , and not a true Spouse of Christ ; yet for all this , ( that Ministers and Magistrates were both against her , ) yet , I say , the Spirit carries her on . And thus the Psalmist sayes , Psal. 44.10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15. yet 17 , 18. Thou makest us a by-word , a reproach , a derision , a spoil to them that hate us ; as the appointed for slaughter , and broken in the place of Dragons ; and confusion is ever before us ; and for all this , Vers. 17 , 18 , 20. Yet , yet have we not forgotten thee , nor dealt falsly with thee ; nor is our heart turned back from thee ; nor do we decline thy way ; no , not yet ; and why ? But because the Spirit of the Lord carried them through all , thick and thin , as we use to say ; and so it is here , the Spirit removes all thy rubbidge-corruption that would hinder thee , and throws down to the ground every strong hold , or imagination thou hast against this way , 2 Cor. 10.4 , 5. Which before he admonished thee of , and motioned thee to ; and 4. This Spirit confirms thee in it , as well as conforms thee to it ; and therefore he is called the witness in thee , 1 John 5 10. If any false witness do arise , and rail at this way of Christ , ( as the theif on the Cross did revile Christ. ) If thou meetest with any arguments from flesh and blood against it , that would fain weaken thy faith and foundation ; why yet the Spirit bears testimony within , and that upon his own knowledge , that thou art in the right way , Joh. 16.13 . And this witness within , and the word without , do both agree in their testimony . Yea furthermore , the Spirit is called a seal , Eph. 4.30 . And set me as a seal upon thy heart , Cant. 8.6 . That is , that I may be not onely near to thee , but on thy heart , even in thee , as thine own spirit : A seal is more then a witness ; for it carries the witness with it , and is not onely a witnessing to us , but a work upon us , and in us , carrying the image of him that sealeth us , sayes Sibs in his Fountain Sealed . Now a Seal serves to confirm , and thus doth the Spirit seal instruction to us , Job 33.16 . that is , confirms us in what the Word instructs and declares . Besides , this Seal is for distinctions sake ( as Dr. Sibs saith ) to distinguish which is the Lords way and worship , from all others of mens making , 1 Tim. 2. The Lord knoweth who are his , and who are not his . This distinguishes the precious from the vile Jer. 15.19 . And by this seal the Lord knows his , and the Saints know which is the Lords ; For the seal sets the Lords image on his way and worship . Moreover , a seal signifies a propriety and right to a thing , as Merchants use to seal their wares , that others may not claim a right to them . So Psal. 4.3 . Know , that the Lord hath set apart the righteous for himself . He hath set his mark on them , in the Hebrew , it is the Lord hath culled out and severed in a most excellent manner ( i. e. by his Spirit ) the righteous ; that is in Hebrew , Chasid , the holy One , Acts 13.35 . full of holiness , goodness , piety , grace , to himself . And as the gracious man , so the gracious way of Christ , he hath set apart for himself , i. e. as his way , and his right . Thus every Saint sets his seal to , in John 3.33 . who being convinced by the Spirit , as before , and now confirmed by this testimony within him ( which holds against all opposers ) he gives his testimonial to the truth , Deut. 32.4 . and bears witness to the way of Christ , Joh. 15.26 , 27. and sets to his seal , and subscribes to it , and chuses it to walk ▪ to live and die in . So that they are Christs witnesses , and do bear his testimony with the Spirit , as well as by the Spirit , Acts 5.32 . It is the Spirit which assures them , as well as perswades them ; whereby the will is set upon the wheel ; so after the Saints believed , they were sealed , sayes the Apostle . 5. This Spirit then rests on thee , and on that way thus witnessed and sealed to ; as the Dove did upon the Ark ; yea , as the Spirit did rest and abide upon Christ , John 1.32 . whereby he was known ; so hereby ( by the same Spirits resting on us ) we are known , and the way , and worship , and Church of Christ , is known to be from above . So 1 Pet. 4.14 . Happy are ye , for the Spirit of the Lord , and of glory , rests upon you . And Paul saith , The power of Christ rests upon him , 2 Cor. 12.9 . The Word is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , as the Dove which wandred about , and not found rest , nor where to set the sole of his foot : In this world iniquity doth abound , and the waters are up , and the floods are so high , that the Dove , i. e. the Spirit comes again weary and spent , into the Ark , and from thence is sent out : So that this Spirit found Christ such an Ark and rested there ; and findes the Church such an Ark , and rests there , ( yea , a Saint in a sence , such an Ark , and rests there ; ) And from thence , he is sent out ( by Messengers , means of Grace , &c. ) abroad and about the world , to finde footing among them without ; but oftentimes he returns with this tale , That the waters are too high yet . But here the Spirit rests , and by this the Church is known to be Christs . We are all baptized by one Spirit , saith the Apostle , 1 Cor. 12.13 . Into one Body , and made to drink into one Spirit . So Eph. 4.4 . We are one Body , and have one Spirit ; that is , As one Soul in the Body , quickens , moves , governs , comprehends all , and every Member , so doth one Spirit in the Church every Member , Eye , Ear , Hand , Head , Foot ▪ &c. It is one and the same Soul , that acts in every one , and all the Members , though in a different way ; as the Eye to see with , Ear to hear with , Hand to work with , Foot to walk with , tongue to speak with , Head to plot with , &c. And so many several ways the Soul works , and yet is but one and the same ; so the Spirit works in divers ways , and sundry manners , 1 Cor. 12.4 . in several Members ; some to prophecy , some to teach , some to exhort , some to oversee , some to direct and rule , some to distribute , &c. Rom. 12.4 , 6 , 7 , 8. some to one thing , some to another ; and yet it is but one and the same Spirit . This one and the same Spirit rests upon every Member , and we must by this one Spirit be brought into this Body of Christ , which is his Church . Thus I have done with the inward instrument of working in us , and winning upon us , to enter into Church-fellowship . Now in this , there is an apparent difference between Hypocrites , and true Saints , entring into this way : A true Saint is made willing and spontaneous by a principle within ; but a Hypocrite , or any other man , is moved as the Automata are moved , or things of artificial motion , as Clocks , Jacks , or the like engines of ingenuity : It is some weight without that poyseth them , and puts them upon motion ; so something or other that is without , swayeth , and worketh , and weigheth upon the hearts of Hypocrites , to make them willing ( as we said before concerning Dublin ) and not an inward principle . But thus we have done with the instrumental or organical reason 6 causes of carrying the will on in the way of Christ ; which is matter for a Reason of the necessity of a voluntary cause ▪ that is , because the Word and Spirit are the two arms which the Lord hath appointed to pull them out of Babylon with , and into Sion ; and no other instruments or means must do it , until these hands of Jesus Christ do lead them out of their carnal , corrupt , or Antichristian condition , they have no call to come ; and when they are thus called , and convinced as before , they come running by a voluntary instinct , and consent , flowing up ( more fluminis , as the tide by a natural instinct , and not by compulsion ) into the mountain , where the Lords house is on the top of all mountains , Isai. 2. But consider 7. Lastly , That because the will of man is inclined , and reason 7 carried on into the way of Christ ( as we said before ) ( ab interiori principio ) by an inward instinct and principle , and all kinde of coaction , or violent compulsion comes from without , ( ab exteriori principio ) therefore it is a high absurdity , a groundless and irregular opinion , and positively repugnant even to the principles of one spiritualized , and made willing by the power of Christ , to call for compulsive powers , to promote the ways of Christ , or to bring in any man that way , seeing ( violentia directe opponitur voluntario , & violentia causat involuntarium ) he must be a voluntier . And this will serve as the seventh Reason , to ratifie this truth , That men must not be compelled , but come in voluntarily ; for violence is inconsistent with the will. Thus under several considerations hath this point been offered for a voluntariness , to be wrought in us by the power of Christ , before we venture or enter into his Church-way . Now a man may be said to be voluntary two ways ; directly or indirectly . 1. Directly . Then the will is the agent of his willingliness , ( having an inward principle , ) even as the fire ( having the principle of heat ) is the agent of heat in the water . But such a one as is 2. Indirectly voluntary , is made so by some outward means , promises , or threatnings ; hopes or fears , or the like ; and such a one will be a dangerous , doubting , and disturbing Member . But such men and women as are directly voluntary , by the means I have mentioned in this Chapter , may come with welcome : For they are called and invited , and if there be first a willing minde ( saith the Apostle ) you are accepted , 2 Cor. 8.12 . For Christ will enjoy ( sayes one ) his Spouses love and person by a willing contract , and not by a ravishment ; He is none of them , he will have the heart , to consent with all the heart . O then ! let us say with the Apostle , The love of Christ constraineth us ; and with Job 32.18 . The Spirit constraineth us . These are the best and sweetest compulsive powers . But thus for this Chapter . CHAP. III. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sagad Dur. or Pagad Dur. After this full perswasion and voluntary motion , and concurrence , comes in the communion of Saints , by an orderly uniting and embodying together in a solemne order , suitable to the solemnity of the Ordinance , and that in some publike place . MAny there be that in the time of the Churches tranquillity will intrude , and pretend willingnesse with the Lords people to goe about the Lords work , and build ; especially when earthly powers and Rulers look kindly upon us , and allow us our liberty to go and build , and when they as Patrons , and protecting Fathers , prove favourers and abetters of what we are about . But let us have a care ! and say with Zerubbabel , and the rest of the Fathers of Israel , Ezra 4.2 , 3. It is not for you and us ( joyntly ) to build an house unto our God , you have nothing to doe with us , but we our selves together will build it , unto the Lord God of Israel . Remember that wee are a people that must be separate , the cleane from the uncleane , the holy from the prophane , and by one free consent ( being fully convinced ) concurre together in this worke of the Lord without the unclean hands or help● of them without , who are adversaries to Sion . Now because our Ruler is the God of order , and not of confusion , he would have all things done in decency , and in order , 1 Cor. 14.40 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is ( compositis moribus ) fitly for use and ornament to the Church , which is a rule ( saies one ) of great request and inquest , both for real and ritual decency which is to be observed , and is of much concernment . And for this Colosse was so largely commended , Col. 2.5 . and Christ himselfe ( our sweet Master ) intimates so much in setting downe the people on the grasse , Matth. 14.18 . and 15. and feeding them , ranke by ranke ( as it were ) as they sat . So his Churches are called beds of spices , Cant. 6.2 . that is , as beds and borders orderly set out , to s●ew us what delight he hath to live in an orderly and well set out society . Order is Gods Ordinance ; Now to make up this order , some things are extra-essential , and left to liberty according to what is requisite to the constitution and condition of the Church ; and other things are essential , and positively relate as well to the being , as well-being of the Church ( ita ordo dicitur respectu principii ) and may by no means be omitted ; but of this latter we have been large before ; and for the former , respecting ritual decency and order , we must grant that men must not be tyed to such things as of necessity , but they are left free , whether to observe them , or change them , as often as there is cause for the use and excellency of the Church . I could not omit to premise thus much before I proceed , and shall say with Luther , What if any one Church will not imitate another in things indifferent and doubtfull , outward and circumstantial , ritual and formal ? Yet what need is there of compulsion by Powers , Decrees , of Councels , or the like ; which are presently converted into snares and laws ; and as he saith to the Church at Wittembergs ( about the form of celebrating the Supper ) in quibus omnibus cavendum , ne legem ex libertate faciamus , &c. Be sure that our liberty be not made a Law by men , and a snare to souls ; such a warning I will give the Reader ere I go on , that he confine not his light , opinion , judgement , or perswasion to mine here ( or any other mans ) in those things which are left to liberty ; I am not about establishing a set Form of Discipline , or making a Directory as necessary for others to walke by , or to ensnare any soules , or trouble any consciences , but to set before you ( as is given me from above , and that by measure ) the pattern of Gods house ; and as for this Form of embodying together by a solemn order , which I am now treating of in this Chapter ( as we have promised else where ) you have our experiences of it , and proofs for it , and may follow it , if you please ( it being in our judgement the most orderly , and heavenly manner we have met with , and most Scriptural and consonant to rule both of Reason and Religion . ) Now premising thus much , and promising this more , that I shall heartily imbrace , and willingly give way to the unction from on high in better teachings about this order , and be ready to receive from any , whatsoever shall be offered as more useful and profitable in this forme of uniting ; I shall proceed . In order to a communion of Saints in a Gospel-Church-state , those who are godly , do often meet together ; as in Mal. 3.16.17 . when all that feared the Lord , and thought on his name ( and his worship ) conferred often together ; and this is a duty deeply incumbent to the Saints to do so first of all , and to speak often together , to pray together , to make mention of the Lord , with savoury speeches tending to edification , Eph. 4.29 . and 5.3 , 4. Heb. 3.13 . Jude 20. Act. 18.23 . and this as often as there is an opportunity ; and then you shall finde , Mal. 3.17 . after this the Lord promises to set upon gathering his people ; then , saith the Lord will I make up my 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 peculium , my jewels picked out , and binde them up together : And this day wherein I will doe this , shall be a day of distinction and separation betwixt the precious and the vile , the sheep and the goats ; the righteous and the wicked , and then Verse 18. shall ye discerne between him that serveth God , and him that serveth him not . Now I say , in order to this , the people of God must first meet , and that often together , to try , and have knowledge , and experience of one another , to inquire after one another , and all together , by their joynt prayers , and offerings to contribute their best towards the building up of this Tabernacle . Then let all vaine communication be kept out , Eph. 5.4 . and let your words bee savoury and seasoned with that salt of the word ( that hath not lost its savour ) and be ready to answer any objection , or question that shall be made , Col. 4.6 . exhorting and provoking one another to duty , Heb. 3.13 . and 10.24 , 25. and declaring to one another their clear satisfaction and full perswasion of the way of Christ , and their manifesting of longing fond affections for these Courts of the Lord , and to be in his amiable Tabernacles , Psal. 84.1 , 2. saying one to another , Come , let us goe up to this mountaine of the Lord , the house of the God of Jacob , and he will teach us his wayes , and we will walke in his pathes , Isa. 2.2 , 3. and asking the way to Zion with your faces thitherward , saying , Come , and let us joyne our selves unto the Lord , &c. Now this is preparatory to the worke of embodying which follows , and yet these godly are left to liberty to joyne in what society seems best to them , and are not tyed to one place , therefore did the Apostles gather people together in several Cities where they dwelt , and so established many Churches in one County , ( as the seven Churches in the lesser Asia , Rev. 1.4.10 . ) the Churches of Galatia , Syria , and Cilicia , 1 Cor. 16.1 . Act. 15.41 . Corinth , and yet Cenchrea , Rom. 16.1 . ( in the Suburbs of Corinth ) that the Saints might enter where was most convenient . After this , Those that are clearly convinced of the order , and well satisfied with the worke it selfe , and one with another ( as before ) being affectionately desirous to walke together in this way , and having agreed it ▪ Amos 3.3 . they doe write and give up their names together for that purpose which they propose ( as being the best way to intimate their desires , and seeming most to be in practise in former times , Act. 1.15 . Nehem. 7.5.38 . which thing they doe to one whom they appoint to receive them , and to call them , as occasion serves . In the mean time they most unanimously desire , and appoint a solemne day of humiliation ( or more ) to bee set apart , and to seek the Lords presence , and his promises of direction and guidance in so great a duty , which else they dare not undertake , Isa. 58.11 . Jo. 14.26 . and 15.26 . and 16.13 . on which day they lye low before the Lord , and licke the dust , Nehem. 1.11 . and Nehem. 9.1 , 2. 2 Chron. 30.18 , 19 , 20. Act. 14.23 . this they doe by themselves separate from others , Nehem. 9.2 . and it is usually a most humbling heart-breaking day , whilst they come before the Lord with feare and trembling , wondring at his love to pitch upon them for so great a mercy , to pick them out and leave so many behinde , to visit them with light , and refreshings from on high , Act. 3. Oh! how doth a thousand of these considerations melt them before the Lord ! and yet make them with teares to lay hold on all the promises made to them in this case , and pressing him with Moses , Exod. 33.15.16 . to be with them , and to goe before them in this work , for wherein say they shall it be knowne that we and thy ( despised ) people have found grace in thy sight ; is it not in that thou art with us , and goest with us , and guidest us ? By this , shall we ( Lord ) and thy people be separated and knowe from all the other people ( without ) that are round about us : Therefore say they ▪ For Zions sake we will not hold our peace , nor give thee rest , till thy righteousnesse goe before us as brightnesse , and salvation be in the midst of us as a lamp that burneth , Isa. 62.1.7 . and till thou hast made us a praise in the earth , and we be called the holy people , the redeemed of the Lord , Hephzibah , and Beulah , Verse 4. and 12. We will not goe up ( say they to the Lord ) without thy presence with us ; if thy presence go not with us , carry us not up hence , &c. This , or these dayes thus holily , solemnly , and spiritually spent , the people look like the new mown grasse ( or tender springs ) that hath the Sun shining upon it after a showre . O then , what a humble holy fr●me of spirit may wee finde amongst them ! what Angel-like looks ? sweet words , Christian carriages are there then ? O how they blesse the Lord with much alacrity and life for the returns made upon their spirits ! that the Lord is with them , and will guide them by his owne presence , and they give in an account to one another ( before they part ) of their confidence and comforts which they finde within , being fully perswaded the Lord will be with them , and calling for the time to be appointed when they shall make a Church-body and unite ; having nothing to obstruct , but the worke of the Lord lying plaine before them , they set apart the day for that duty , and ( if any be nigh ) they send and seek out for the assistance of some other Church , as it were to joyne with them , and bear testimony to them upon that day ; and at the parting at the end of the day and duty , will give to them the right hand of fellowship as a Symbole of love , and of approbation ( as Pareus hath it in the Margin , lib. 2. p. 161. Intimae conjunctionis symbolum , non authoritatis ) of friendship and familiarity , not of Lordship and authority . But as Beza sayes , Porrexerunt manum , quod symbolum esset nostrae in Evangelii doctrinâ summae consensionis ; So sayes Paul , Gal. 2. when James and Cephas , and John perceived the grace that was given me , they gave unto mee and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship , ( vide Expositors and Septuagint in Gal. 2. ) so that it will bee very comely , and an argument of their love , and good-liking , but it is not necessary ; wherefore to proceed . The day appointed being brought in now as upon the shoulders of the Saints to be united together , I meane by the daily prayers and preparations for this great and weighty worke ; they judge it ( for the reasons which follow ) to bee most expedient , and more to the honour of Jesus Christ , and more to the convincing of them without , on this day ( however ) to appear in publike ( unlesse there be persecution ) I meane in such a place where any that will may come to hear , and carry away what they can . This day is begun and kept on for some houres with the prayers of the faithful , as Act. 8.15 . as John and Peter began it in Samaria ; and for the same effect , viz. that the Holy Ghost might fall upon them this day , and rest on them . They pray not in a sleight , overly formal way , but with an holy violence , to beset , and to take heaven by force , and bounce hard , with the greatest might for the greatest mercy , and with an united lively power for the large pourings out of the unction from on high upon them , Act. 1.14 . even untill the room , or house is ready to shake again . But after this ; there is some preparatory Sermon , or speech made ( by one that is able , and appointed thereto ) full of exhortation , as Act. 11.23 . Barnabas bid them with purpose of heart to cleave unto the Lord , and as in Nehem. 8 1. &c. the book of the Law was brought out and read in a most religious manner to all that could hear , both men and women , and all the peoples ears were attentive . V. 2 , 3. which Ezra opened in a Pulpit of wood where he stood for that purpose , v. 4.5 . And then blessed the Lord , and all the people , said , Amen , Amen , lifting up their hands . Verse 6. and besides Ezra , Joshua also , and Bani , and Sherebiah , Jamin , and others , &c. Vers. 7.8 . read in the book in the Law of God distinctly , and gave the sense , and caused the people to understand . So I say , it is fit that the book of Christs Law be at that time read openly , unto which he who preaches and exhorts , is principally appointed in a Pulpit of wood in the publike place , or elsewhere , which is as convenient for all peoples , men and women , that will come of all sorts to hear : For then the rules that the Church is gathered by , the grounds upon which they embody together , and the Gospel-order and fellowship of Saints according to Christs Law , are all laid open , proved and pressed , that it may appeare to all that heare and understand that they doe nothing without the Law of Christ , to which the peoples ears will be very attentive ( as we have experienced in some places already ) and such as have before ( through ignorance of this Gospel-order ) been enemies to it , and inveighed against it , and now came but to laugh at it , and to carry tales , and make scoffes , were ( upon such a day ) convinced by it , and inclined to it , enquired after it , being as it were dazled and amazed at the beauty of it , when it came to bee opened out of the Word , and to appear armed with argument of proof out of the Lawes of Jesus Christ ; and then they cryed , Amen , Amen , unto it , ( probatum est . ) But now after this is declared to all , what they doe , and why they do this which they are about to doe , their Rules , Reasons , Grounds , Script●res , and Proofs being produced and drawn up , as it were , into a compendium ; but so as that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doe lye obvious , and as much as may be beyond objection : Then the next thing that followes , is the Confession of Faith , begun by him who is appointed thereunto as the ablest to lead the way hitherto ; this brother besides gives an account of the worke of grace upon his heart , holding out at least some of his Experiences ( and such as are most usefull for such an Auditory ) 1 Pet. 3.15 . with sweetnesse and humility of spirit , so as thereby others may judge him laid upon the Foundation , and be in a regenerate state , and changed from darknesse into light , from death to life , from a state of nature into a state of grace , and to have indeed fellowship with the Father and the Sonne , 1 Joh. 1.7 . But I purpose to insist upon these particulars more at large in the Chapters that follow . But after this Brother hath delivered himselfe at large ( having the more liberty , because he leads , as it were , others , and declared his clear satisfaction and undoubted perswasion to walk in the way whereinto hee is now entring , as the very way of Christ appointed for beleevers to worship God in , & as the will of God , wherein he is confident upon a Scripture and Spiritual account that he pleases God : Then follows some others of the ablest of the Brethren , ( for herein care must bee had in publike , lest the weaknesse of a Brother give advantage to them without , to harden their hearts against the truth , and lest thereby Christ should suffer in his honour , and the Church in her happinesse ) I say , such Brethren as are ablest to speake , are appointed for that one day , being so publike : And these , as Jeshua , Bani , Sherebiah , Jamin , &c. read in the Scriptures the Law of Christ distinctly ; I mean , they lay down the Scriptures and grounds of their satisfaction and full perswasion to enter into this way ( as that which Jesus Christ our Law-giver hath laid out ) and they declare their sense and judgements , and then proceed as the former Brother did in rendring a reason of that lively hope which is in them , by Confession of faith , Experiences of the worke of Grace , and the like , declaring their cleaving to the Lord in this way with full purpose of heart . Thus as many as are appointed , and thought fit for that day , doe goe on one by one in order as they are set out , and possibly on this day but few ( as eight , or ten , or more , or lesse ) may be appointed , and in the number for the first ; because the worke is this day the most difficult , the most publike , and must be most especially regarded , and wisely and watchfully carried on . Besides ( as Ainsworth sayes ) the Church is small at first , a little graine of mustard-seed , which is the least of all seeds , Mat. 13.32 . and as Israel once was the fewest of all peoples , Deut. 77. Christ began but with two at first , and God hath promised to take them , but one of a City and two of a Tribe , Jer. 3.14 . and these are the poore , despised , contemptible ones of the world too for the most part , 1 Cor. 1.26 , 27 , 28. and it shal be said of Sion , Psal. 87.5 , 6. This , or that man was born there , so that not numbers are to bee expected ( or indeed to be desired ) at first , but rather to be a little stone cut without hands , and growing greater , and greater , and so a little one shal become a thousand . After they be gone thus far , some will have a formal Covenant in writing brought forth for these to subscribe , and so all others as they enter ; but a Covenant they have taken , and engagement made before , which may be will appear sufficient when wee come in the following Chapters to speake of the Covenant . But after all this is done , their names are taken together into the Register , Nehem. 7.5 . Act. 1.15 . upon Record ( against whom no exceptions could be made as before ) and these doe by prayer together give themselves up unto God , and one to another willingly , 2 Cor. 8.5 . to worship the Lord , and to walke together with him as a Church , and to serve him in all his will revealed to them , as such whom the Father hath picked out for that purpose , Jo● . 4 23. 1 Pet. 2 , 9. and to bee helpfull to one another in particular , and to the whole body in general , according to their duties mentioned in the Statute-book of Christ , which is alwayes to lye open before their eyes . And to conclude this busie day , they poure out prayers and praises in such a measure ▪ that as it was said of Israel , in Ezra 3.13 . when the Foundation of the Temple was laid , that they could not discerne the noise of the shout of joy , from the noise of weeping , both were so great : So here it may bee said , the Saints are so filled with praises , and with prayers , that the noise of the one can hardly be discerned from the noise of the other . And as upon the reading of the Law in Nehem. 13.13 . separation was presently practised from the mixed multitude , so that they separated from Israel all the mixed multitude ; so these are now a people no more to be reckoned among the Nations without , but such as are separated from the mixed multitude . As for other Brethren , and the Sisters which are to bee admitted , they doe make their Confession of Faith , and ( as wee have heard before ) declare their full satisfaction , and clear the worke of God upon their hearts by his Spirit in private ( I meane ) when these people thus enchurched●together ●together are alone by themselves , separate from the mixed multitude ) being now a Church in visible order . And their admission is most proper so , because the world should take no notice of their weaknesse in utterance or expression , or the like , whereby to upbraid them , and the truth . But this I purpose to speak to afterward ; in the mean time , I , and hundreds of the godly with me must needs be much offended at the practise of some that run preposterously into a way of fellowship without any rule laid downe , or any Law of Christ read and opened , upon which they embody together , clearing nothing of the way first , to give satisfaction to such as sit in darknesse to it ▪ but without any day of humiliation , or due preparation for this weighty worke , without any solemne prayers , ( and serious self-examinations ) on a sudden , in an hours warning or two , and in some place or other too that is unknowne to any but themselves , they write down their names together , choose officers , and all at once , and so in an houre or two's time , make up a Body , and call themselves a Church , and then all that will be joyned , must bee joyned to them that are thus jumbled together in darknesse , and in a most undecent and undue order ; but let them remember that in 1 Chron. 15.23 . The Lord made a breach upon them , for that they sought him not after the due order ; as Dike saith , The failing in a prescribed formality ( which some would think nothing , and that God regards not ) causes a breach upon them , instead of a blessing ; so precisely strict is God to require the most solemne order too in the most solemne Ordinances , and so quick-sighted a Judge he is in small prevarications in such cases . For as to goe and fetch the Arke , and to enquire of God at it , was an Ordinance of God , but to neglect the solemnity of carrying it , and to carry it in a Cart hurrying , and not on their shoulders , and to neglect to sanctifie themselves for that service , but to runne to it hand over head , was not Gods order : So also this Church-gathering , or uniting together into a Gospel Church-state is an undeniable and solemne Ordinance of God , and Law of Christ ; but to doe it without any seriousnesse , solemnity , or the like , hurrying , and rushing into it without due regard and heed , and neglecting prayers , fastings , holy conferences , and preparatory means appointed to season us , and sanctifie us , and qualifie us for this great duty , is doubtlesse a great offence to God , and I am sure none of his order . And what must we then expect ? beleeve it , a sore blow ; The Lord smote them ; it proved a sad day to them at last : and if this severity was but for failing in outward order , in carrying the Arke on a Cart ▪ O! then sure it will be a sad day to such as fail in that inward and spiritual order , with , and in which this great duty is to be performed , God will bee sought in a good order , as well as in a good Ordinance , or else he will deny his blessing . But I shall performe my promise , and so conclude this Chapter : there is a great deale of reason and order in it , to have the first solemne day when we are to embody and unite , performed in publike , in the times of the Churches peace and safety , and that those who are judged ( indeed ) able to speak ( without discredit to the Gospel , or the Church ) should make their speeches also in publick , in the bearing of all that will. First , Experience hath given it in as a great means to convince men of the way , such as upon that day have stepped out reason 1 of their shops , and spared an houre or two out of meer novelty ; why these have heard the way so laid open before them out of Scriptures ( and so proved and pressed from precepts and practise , that they have gone away with another spirit , and if not altogether , yet with Agrippa almost perswaded . now they have not such an opportunity when you doe clandestinely and closely embody together : Christ went often into the Synagogues to convince the Jewes , and to reprove the Scribes and Pharisees , he was sure to finde them there , and he would lose no opportunity : So he disputed with the Doctors in the Temple , and put them to silence , for he would goe to them where hee knew they would bee , seeing they would not come to him . Thus Act. 18.28 . this is the eminent character of Apollos that he mightily convinced the Jewes , and that publickly , shewing by Scriptures , &c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee confuted them over and over , and quite non-plussed them , and for the greater honour to the truth and himselfe ( as a servant to the truth ) hee did this publickly , saith the Text ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) that is ▪ in the company of multitudes of them , in the midst of great Congregations he convinced them ; and the Lord is said openly in a great publike appearance that he shall come to convince all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds , and of all their hard speeches , which he shall doe with a vengeance ; and that will be more then if it were done in a corner , viz. to do it openly . So certainly this is a fit opportunity to bee in publike for this purpose , and to cast the net in where the most Fish meet together . Secondly , This would stop the wide mouths of many , and prevent the scandals which are raised by reason of secret and reason 2 close embodying together ; many ( and such as are godly too ) be ready to censure such practises , as if they were ashamed to bee seen , as Joh. 3.19 . This is their condemnation , they loved darknesse rather then light , because their deeds were evill . Popish Religion was laid in darknesse , and lives in it , unlesse it be under bastard lights , as candles , and such as are of mens make . Tenebri●nes Papistae male sibi conscii , aeternum atri & tetri , &c. and so doth all the false . Truth is hurt , and cannot helpe her selfe , when she is kept a close prisoner and immured up ; and when shee is not let out to speake for her selfe , men are apt to take for truth what is spoken against her ; therefore it is that Peter cals so upon us , 1 Pet. 2.12 . to have us come abroad , and be seen among men , that by our good workes , we might stop their mouths that speake against us as evill doers . This would remove many scandals which men raise , as if we were of a false faith , and all erroneous persons , and a company of Hypocrites , and Pharisees , and the like : would we but appear in publike upon that day of embodying , whereby all men may hear our Creed , and the Evidences of Gods gracious works upon our hearts , and some signs of our onenesse with Christ ; and then the world will beleeve , Joh. 17.21.23 . Thirdly , It is much for the credit of the Gospel , and for the reason 3 praise of Zion , that her beauty appears in publike , and her amiable beams shine abroad . Beauty loves to be seen ; the Sunne hath the more honour and praise , and esteem , by how much the more he shines abroad , and about ; and the Church is ( in these dayes ) to look forth as the morning , Cant. 6.10 . bright , beauteous , lightsome , and welcome ( after the darke night of Antichristian ignorance , and error , which we have been so long under . ) Now shee is to arise in publike , and to be seen by all , and in an ascending light from year to year ; from one administration to another , till it be perfect day , Prov. 4.18 . and high-noon , Cant. 1.7 . and every yeere there shall be more light then in the former , Eph. 3.3 , 4. Veniente perfecto evacuatur imperfectum ) for it is not an evening , but a morning light , Isa. 58.8 . and then follows , Faire as the Moon , in Heb. Lebanah , shining bright , to shew when she appears thus in publike ( as the morning ) she appears in pulchritude , to the admiration of all others ( as in Verse 9. before . ) Thus Ezek. 16.14 . Thy renowne went forth among the heathen for thy beauty , &c. Clear as the Sunne , and terrible as an Army with Banners , i. e. then , when shee appears and looks forth in publike abroad , as the morning ; O what a terror is shee to all the enemies of truth ! when they see Saints in a good array , ranke , and order , to march together in one body , all armed with the Armor of God , and under one Captaine of their salvation , against one and the same enemy . This is the benefit of appearing in publike , and it addes much to the name of Christ , and to the glory of the Church . See but Act. 5.13 . when the Saints came forth into a publike place , viz. Solomons Porch ; O what honour they had by it ! in that little time , saith the Text , The people magnified them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and honoured them , and the way which they were in . Doubtlesse might Christians in primitive times have had their liberty , they would alwayes have been in publike . Fourthly , It answers the Rule most , to appear in publike reason 4 upon that day , and in that duty ; It is most coming up to Christs Commands , see Mat. 10.27 . What I tell you ( whether concerning Doctrine or Discipline ) speake abroad in the open light , preach it on the house-tops , that is , in the most patent and publike places ; teaching them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you , Matth. 28.20 . thus Wisdome sends forth her Maidens to cry and call in the open streets , and in the most publike places of the City where is greatest resort , Prov. 9.3 . and Christ tells his Disciples in Mark 4.22 . there was not any thing kept in secret , but that it should come abroad . Fifthly , This publike appearance would be most answer reason 5 able to Christs practise ; yea and his Apostles and Saints too in the primitive times ( though then dangerous ; ) see what Christ saith , Joh. 18.20 . I spake openly to the world , I ever taught in the Synagogues and in the Temple , whither the Jews alwayes resort , and in secret have I said nothing . So Act. 20.20 . I kept backe nothing , saith Paul , that was profitable unto you , but have shewed you , and taught you publikely . Thus the Church of Ephesus was brought out into publike too sometimes . reason 6 Sixtly , This publike practise , and uniting together , is more answerable to the worke it selfe ( being a worke of light ) and therefore it ought to bee done in light , and openly , for veritas abscondi erubescit , Joh. 3.21 . He that doth truth , cometh into the light , that his deeds may be manifest , that they are wrought of God ( saith Christ , who is Light. ) that is , all as from God , and for God ; such are neither ashamed of their principle , nor of their end , & quoad fontem & quoad finem , saith Aug. in loc . The honest Tradesman is content his Wares should be carried to the street-door from the dim shop-board . It is for Heresie to hide it selfe , saies Hall ; And for Antichristianisme , and false Wares to loath the light , they are Bats and Owles that love not to be seen . But let us walk as children of light , Eph. 5.8.11 . It is said of John Frith Martyr , that when the Archbishops man would have let him gone away , and escaped ; saith he , no ; If you goe to Croyden , and tell the Bishop that you have lost Frith , I will follow as fast as ever I can , and tell him , I have found Frith again , and would deliver my self into his hands ; for what do ye think , that I am afraid to declare my opinion before the Bishops in a manifest truth , or to come into publike ? no! — reason 7 Seventhly , I shall adde one reason more to this , and that is the Incouragements which others would hereby have to joyn in that fellowship ; for the publike appearance of the Christians in Solomons Porch , Act. 5.12 . was very attractive as in V. 14. Beleevers were the more added to the Lord , multitudes both of men and women . So that the Church lost nothing , but got much by it , whilst Clandestine embodying discourages many , &c. It must needs be so , that when people come to see such an amiablenesse and excellency in this way of Christ above all other wayes , and how the Beloved is in this Church - state the best of all beloveds , carrying away the Banner from ten thousands , and that his presence is most familiarly and ravishingly in these Gardens enclosed ( and this appeares to be promised and proved out of Scriptures ; ) I say it must needs bee , that their bowels will earne after these wayes , and to live in these Gardens , when they know what the way is ( as when the Daughters of Sion did ask first ( of Christ ) what is he ? Cant. 5.9 . And then ( when they heard how he excelled ) the next question is , Cant. 6.1 . O , where is he ? whether is be gone ? &c. ) So when they hear what this way is , the next question will be , O , where is it ? how shall we get in ? tell us , that we may seek him with thee ; that we may partake of these priviledges with you : And they shall say , We will go with you , for we have heard , that God is with you , Zach. 8.23 . Many Reasons more I might adde hereto , and produce more Scriptures to confirm and strengthen this Exhortation of appearing in publick upon that day especially , ( sed sat sapienti . ) In a word , If you do these things , shew thy self to the world , John 7.3 . Let all men see and observe how sweetly your practise agrees with Christs Precept , and this way with his Word ; till which time , men surmize much evil of you and your opinion , and think you are without warrant , and walk by fancy , not by faith . As if a man , who never saw any dance in his life , should see a company in a field ( whilest he is afar off ) and before he can hear any musick ) he thinks them mad , wonders what they mean to skip about so ; but when he is come nigh , and hears the melody of the musick , and observes their dancing , and how they agree , both in time and order , with the tune of the musicks , he then admires on the other side ; changes his former thoughts and judgement of them , and now is much taken and delighted with them , and marks with much affection the agreement of the foot to the tune , and could attempt to enter in , and be one amongst them , were he but fit for it ; and yet he can hardly forbear . So it is , that the vulgar and ordinary sort of people ( such as are most strangers to this way of the Gospel ) may think you mad , and wonder what you mean , to separate from their Parish wayes , to joyn in fellowship in this orderly way ; till they come to see how it doth agree with the Word and Spirit ; and then they cannot but with much content observe the Order , and minde the Word , and this way together , to agree most sweetly ; and then they wish to be in the number of them whose practise appears so home to the precepts and practise of Christ , and Saints in primitive times . And that this sweet order and agreement might be the more observed and asserted , I do heartily wish , for the honor of him , whom I serve , that there may be no more Chamber-embodyings , but openly to all , for the conviction of many , especially now in the time of the Churches tranquillity and liberty . And let this be done by them in due order and solemnity , answerable to the weight of the Ordinance ; and then they shall grow up in all things in Jesus Christ their head , from whom the whole body fitly joyned together , and compacted by that which every joynt supplieth , according to the effectual working in the measure of every part , shall make increase of the Body , Eph. 4.15 , 16. And in whom all the building fitly framed together , shall grow up an holy Temple in the Lord , Eph. 2.21 . CHAP. IV. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beith . The Church thus constituted , takes in Members , and of their Admission , upon clear Testimony ; and without dipping , or tying to Forms or Judgements . THe Church thus orderly gathered and united together , do receive in Members , as Acts 2.41 . & 5.13 . & 9.26 . Now in their Admission , we must consider , First , the Power that takes them in ; and then secondly , the Persons that are taken in . First , The power is the Churches , not the Elders or Officers , as some would assert ; to which I cannot assent , because that the Keyes were given to the Church , and left with them , Mat. 16.19 . John 20.23 . And whom ye receive , shall be received ; whom ye loose ( or give liberty to ) shall be loosed ; and whom ye restrain , shall be restrained : The words are read in the plural number , in John 20. and in Matth. 16. spoken to Peter , as the Representative of the rest of the Disciples , and in the room of the whole Church , as appears from Vers. 15. and 20. where he speaks to all ; and we finde the Church ever took this Power in the places before mentioned . So Acts 9.26 , &c. and in Revel . 2.2 . saith the Lord to the Church of Ephesus , Thou tryest ( or examinest ) them which say , they are Apostles , and are not , and hast found them liers . Now as Perkins upon the place sayes , Christ gave every one of the seven Churches ( and so Ephesus as well as any other ) power and authority , to take in , or keep out , or cast out obstinate sinners from partaking with them in their spiritual and special priviledges , else he would not have commended them for executing this Power . Doctor Ames in his Medul . Theol. lib. 1. cap. 37. sect . 6. saith , Potestas ( quoad jus ) pertinet ad ecclesiam illam in communi , pertinet enim ad illos ejicere , & pertinet ad illos admittere , &c. The power by right is the Churches in common , for it belongs to them to cast out , and to admit Members , &c. this is most certain . And Mr. Dudly Fenner de Sacr. Theol. l. 7. p. 277 , 278. affirms , for affairs that concern the whole body , and matters of publick moment , that they are to be done in the Assembly , by the authority of the whole Church ; and if the people have any thing to offer , or any thing to object , or exhort , or counsel , they have their liberty ; and after that , the matters are to be determined , when they have been heard to speak all they can , and have given their consent . Now I say , Officers have not the power to admit or exclude , ( Clave non errante , ) for as Acts 15.22 . It pleased the Apostles and Elders , with the whole Church , &c. The whole Church had the knowledge of it , the voting in it , and consenting to it ; the Elders neither had , nor have any absolute power in themselves , and therefore can do nothing on their own heads , that concerns the whole , as hath been spoken in Cap. 8. of the first Book , and is like to be at large discussed in the third Book . The Church hath the power and authority positively seated in her ; ( ●ui inest virtus & authoritas essentialiter & necessario , ) which she may execute by her self ( which is always best and safest ) or by her servants that derive it from her . ( Quibus inest contingenter , & accidentaliter & minus principaliter , sayes Dr. Whitaker de Cavil . q. 5. p. 178 , 179. ) Now if by her servants , as from her ; then let the Church be sure to set orders and limits for her officers , in the execution of their derived or borrowed power ; that they may know they are but servants , and not masters , and are to be ordered by the Church , not to order the Church . For all are yours , saith the Apostle to the Church of Corinth , all , whether Paul , Apollo's , or Cephas , all yours to serve you . Now in this sence , we consent to a derivative power in Officers ( if need be ) to prepare matters for the Churches judgement ; and they may make way ready for the admission of Members , as by inquiring into their lives , questioning with the persons , propounding them to the Church , and the like ; but neither by taking any in , nor putting any by , nor the like ; for that Power is absolutely in the Body to admit , and judge fit : Thus * Cyprian Epistolarum , lib. 1. epist. 3. And I am much mistaken , if Master Hooker grants not as much in his Survey of Church-Discipline , Part. 3. chap. 1. but whether he does or no , that is all one to me ; the thing is proved . 2. The Persons to be admitted , or taken in , are chiefly to lie under consideration , which are men or women . Wherein ( as Mr. Hooker hath it ) two things are to be attended . 1. What is to be done before . 2. What in their admission . First , What is to be done before . The person ( or persons ) that does earnestly desire to be admitted , makes his desire known to the Elder , or some Officer or Brother , who acquaints the Church therewith ; then order is given to take his name into the first Record , among those that have been propounded for admission ; and the person is desired to come on another day : In the mean time the Church gives order to some Officers or others , to inquire strictly , and to inform the Church carefully and honestly of the persons life , the uprightness of his conversation ; his carriage to them without , and to them within , at home and abroad ; and what report he hath among those that fear the Lord : As also to deal with the said person at some time , by conference and questions , and to gather what he can of his knowledge and acquaintance in the things of God. For the hottest Presbyterians , Mr. Rutherford himself admits of this , That they ought to be neither scandalous nor ignorant ; wherefore a searching enquiry must be made of them . Now , I confess , I cannot finde this work ( with the New England Brethren ) to be onely the Elders , and those that do it , to entrench upon the place of the Elders ; but such as the Church appoints thereunto , have a sufficient call , and do but their duty therein . Now the day appointed being come , and nothing appears scandalous , or sufficient ( to the Church ) to keep him off any longer ( after this sufficient time of information ) he is then called in to be admitted . But some may say , before I step further ; stay Sir. Quest. What is it you count sufficient to keep one off ? Answ. This hath been at large discussed in the former Book , Chapter 5. But in a word , If he lives in any known sin , either in commissions of evil , or omissions of his known duty , and makes this his practise : Why , he professes himself ( sayes Mr. Hooker ) thereby , not free to submit to the Laws of Christ , nor fit to be his subject , nor to enjoy the priviledges of his Kingdom ; not obeying the Authority of his Scepter . Nay , by such a sinful life ( in case he had crept into the Church ) he did enough to be cast out again . Secondly , what is to be done now in admitting them ? The Church appoints whom to speak , ( who is usually the Pastor ) as the mouth of the Church ; and this the rather to restrin the wantonness and pride ( as Mr. Hooker hath it ) of some mens spirits , which are ready to impede the progress , and profit of Gods ordinance in admitting Members , by asking many nice , indirect , and unprofitable questions , or the like : Now for orders sake , and the peace of the Church , when they have appointed whom to speak for the Church ; the person ( formerly propounded , enquired of , and now to be admitted ) is called in : His name is called , and prayer made for direction from above , that they might have a discerning spirit in this great work , to put the Lords difference , between holy and unholy , sheep and goats ; and remembring promises made , as in such cases : This done , the person to be admitted doth express his earnest desire of entring ; and so is to be received upon a threefold Testimony , Negative and Affirmative . The first is , When he is propounded , and no body can object against the person propounded ; which is desired of any that can , and upon what grounds . For Acts 9.26 . though Paul assayed to joyn himself to the Church , yet so long as the Disciples were afraid of him , and did question him , and were in doubt of him , he was not received . Wherefore he is propounded to them all , to know who can object any thing ; as Mr. Dudley Fenner said before . But further , 2. Another testimony of him , is from others ; who can give him a testimony upon their own knowledge ; and for how long ? if there be any Church-member ( whose testimony is most valid ) can so do , it will do well ) , as Rom. 16.1 . Col. 4.12 , 13. whose testimonies are many times writ down , and upon record , for future use , if need be . Or else , such as testifie from the mouths of others ; as those that the Church sent out to enquire of him , giving in their best information , and experience of the person ; and this faithfully , and especially touching his unblameableness in conversation , as much as may be . But , 3. For a further and fuller , and most satisfactory testimony ; that comes from within ; the person to be admitted , being desired for the Churches satisfaction , to make an account of his faith , and of the work of grace upon his heart , he does so , ( as we have said before , and shall show in the next Chapters what manner of confessions are made , or experiences produced . ) But now , if enough be not spoken to the satisfaction of all , he that hath any doubts , doth ask some question for his satisfaction ; and none can deny that liberty : Now this testimony is for the most part , most sweet and useful indeed , and deserves to be registred . Some of the most special that I have met with , and written down , I shall instance in , in the Chapters following ; and often times from a gracious heart , they come undeniably before they have done : Although we grant that some are very imperfect in utterance , and cannot express themselves so well as others , that it may be are ( most ) gracious , precious Christians . Then one of these ways we take ; either to get what we can from them , by asking them some easie questions , and that discreetly too ; and yet such as are useful for that season , and so receiving such broken and imperfect answers as they give ; though they be but words dropping sweetness , and savoring of grace , yet put together , may make weight , and will signifie something well-spelled . I remember once in Dublin , a sister ( propounded to be admitted , as before ) was thus quaeried with , by the Churches appointment , and answering at first very fearfully , and uncertainly ; so that some were unsatisfied , and desired that she might be past by for this present , till the next meeting , ( not daring to put her by , because she was an approved godly Christian in life . ) But when she heard this , she burst out into tears bitterly , before the Church , and amongst many other words , which argued a broken heart , Sir , saith she , to me then present , it was but the last Lords day , saith she , you , preaching over the water , said , Christ called us freely , without any such qualifications first ; and that he said , Joh. 6. that those that come to him , he would in no wise put by , and upon these promises I am come ; the Word hath called me , and Christ hath called me , and bid me come , and I must come , without any worthiness in my self ; and shall I now be put by ? — With that ( poor heart ! ) her passage was stopt with tears for a while , which drew tears from the tender hearts of divers in the Church , who observed a great deal of grace , thorough these weeping words ; and yet her bold challenge of the promise , and of an interest in the Church ( Christs Body ) upon as free account ( without any formal qualifications ) as she had an interest in Christ the Head , having the like call , &c. ( though there might be a mistake in such an apprehension , ) for qualifications are requisite in this external union that are not in the internal , we must take Christ on his terms , and the Church on hers ; yet ( I say ) as when the Sun shines through a watry cloud , so she appeared gracious and amiable in the eye of the Church , and upon debate , her love , faith , zeal , obedience , and grace , appearing to the satisfaction of all , this tender soul was received . I remember Master Fenner in his Sermon called Christs Alarum to sinners , mentions a story of Demosthenes , That when a man came and told him how a Neighbor had abused him , and beaten him , uttering it coldly and carelesly , and spoke it , as if he dreamed ; Demosthenes answered the man , That he could not believe it . No! saith the man ! in a passion ! do you not ! why he took me thus , and held me here , and struck me thus and thus ! ( the man acting it now zealously , &c. ) And do ye not ( saith he ) call this beating ? will you not believe it ? yes , saith Demosthenes , now I believe thee ; for now thou speakest , as if it were so indeed . So many will hardly believe any to be a Christian , but such as can word it well , and speak , and act zealously ; but let them take heed of grieving tender hearts , in expecting too much from them , after the formal way of speaking , least they should send any away , that keep not touch to their fancy and form . For as Dell saith , and it is true ; It is a most pestilent doctrine to make things necessary that are not so ; for God regards not the form , time , or circumstances of such things ( as to him ) but they are left to us to be used according to the wisdom and discretion of the Church , without tyes upon the spirits of any . It is not the form , but the faith , nor the appearance , but the power of godliness , which we are to eye and own , and which God does eye and own . In the mean time , seeing the Church , whilst she is with men , and dwells with flesh and blood , must use some external rites ( which are not absolutely necessary , by which the Church is nothing sanctified nor satisfied ) and things meerly of outward order and decency . Yet let her be sure to observe these rules . 1. To order none of them , as of necessity , or as if they were enough to take in , or keep out any ; and 2. Let all be done in the wisdom of grace , and by the discretion and direction of the Spirit ; and Thirdly , To do all for peace and pieties sake , for order and edification . And Fourthly , Let all be done in deep love , and with sweetnesse of spirit in meeknesse and humility , without rashnesse or roughnesse . These things observed , such a forme as wee before spake of , will not keep a good Christian out of the Church , who is more to eye the substance then the circumstance . But of this more hereafter . Secondly , Or if any is to be admitted that is very unable to speake in publike ( I mean ) in the Church , as some Maids , and others that are bashful , ( or the like . ) Then the Church chooses out some whom she sees fit , against the next Assembly to take in private the account of Faith , the evidences of Gods worke of grace upon his or her heart , which they either take in writing , and bring in into the Church , or else ( which is most approved ) when that person is to be admitted , they doe declare by word of mouth , whilst some easie questions are ( notwithstanding ) asked of him ( or her ) for the Churches satisfaction , and for the confirmation of what was before delivered in private to the brethren ; and then declaring his ( or her ) clear satisfaction in , and full perswasion of this way of Christ , the party withdraws untill it be debated ; and when all consent to his admittance , and all objections and scruples are answered , and every one declares his consent to accept of him into fellowship with them by some token or other ; the person is called in againe , and the Pastor ( most ordinarily ) or whom the Church appoints in his absence to receive him with the right hand of fellowship in the name of the whole Church , using a short Exhortation , and requiring some resolution ( which is often done by a formal Covenant ) from him to cleave close unto the Lord in this way , and to his utmost power to walk as becometh his calling , & the Faith which he professes in all the Rules of the Gospel , and under all the Lawes of Jesus Christ , which are , or shall bee manifested unto him ; After admission , as they end with prayer and praise● , so the persons or person now ( newly ) admitted , must be mentioned , especially to the Lord. If any before I goe further , should aske me , why wee are so strict to have a threefold testimony for all we admit ; it is to keep out scandalous and ignorant persons ( as much as we can ) which makes us so strict ; and yet we are very tender ( as I told you before ) of tying any to a forme , or of putting any by that we can judge truly godly . Mr. Rutherford in his Right of Presbyteries , Lib. 2. pag. 296. requires , Profession to be of that nature , that it may notifie to the Church that there is ( indeed ) saving faith in the soules of such as professe , and that they be invisible Saints who desire to joyne themselves members to a visible Church . Therefore it is , the Church is bound to have her eyes in her head , and in an orderly way ( as Mr. Hooker saith ) to informe her selfe ( as fully as she can ) of the fitnesse of them that she takes in , lest she break the Laws of Christ , and bring a scandal upon the order of the Gospel . Obj. In receiving women you will have them ( that are able to doe it ) to make their account of Faith , and give out some experience of saving grace on their souls , and so to speak in the Church ; which the Apostle forbids , 1 Cor. 14. Answ. Though we shall speak to that more hereafter , yet at present I answer onely thus ; That women are forbid to speak by way of Teaching , or Ruling in the Church , but they are not forbid to speak , when it is in obedience , and subjection to the Church ( for this suits with their sexes ) as in this case to give account of faith , or the like , to answer to any questions that the Church asks , or the like ; But I shall answer to this at large afterward , because it is so much opposed . Quest. What if wee bee to receive a member of another Church ? Answ. First , He must make it appeare that he is so , and then Secondly , That hee hath liberty from them to joyn with you , and is free from any Church-censure , and so Thirdly , He must have the Testimony of a Church of Christ , which will be sufficient to recommend him , unlesse there be any suspicion of the person ; and then for the Churches satisfaction , several questions may bee propounded : but be sure he hath a recommendation from the Church , or at least some Church-members , or other , as can upon their owne knowledge testifie for him so ; 2 Cor. 8.18 . The brother whose praise is through all the Churches , and so Rom. 16.1 . Col. 4.13 . Eph. 6.21 . The Disciples were very cautious of Paul , and would not admit him , Act. 19.27 . till Barnabas did bear a testimony to him , which is very large , and so exiled the jealousies and fears that they before had of him . Thus the Church is to seek such satisfaction as suits with the rule of Christ , of all that are admitted ; and must require ( therefore ) some report of the worke of God in them , and of the frame of their Spirits t●wards him , as hath been said before ; unlesse they bee members of other Churches , recommended by a full , and satisfactory testimony from a true Church of Christ. But before I conclude this Chapter , there bee one or two grand Objections to answer . Object . First , But you take in members such as you judge godly , without baptizing them , which the Apostles never did in primitive times , but first baptised , then admitted . Answ. First , Those that were baptized , as Act. 2.41 . and 8.12 . &c. before admitted , were such as never were before baptised ; but those members which we admit , have been baptized already , which is but once to be administred , and never to bee repeated ; because of the stability of the Covenant of grace , and his gifts and calling are without repentance , and there is but one Faith , one Baptisme , Eph. 4. and by this , configuramur morti Christi , now Christ dyed but once , and this is our initiation too . Now I say , such have been baptized already , and they must not be baptized againe . And for this , see Euseb. Eccl. Hist. Lib. 7. cap. 8. Perkin . 1. Vol. p. 75. cap. 34. August . lib. 3. cap. 2. contra Petil. Secondly , But in Act. 19.4 , 5. we hear of some Disciples baptized again . Answ. First , Because they were before washed indeed , but answer 1 not baptized , but onely to Johns washing , Vers. 3. that is , first in Johns name , which was not Christs institution , and therefore none of his ; Hence it is in Vers. 5. they were baptized now in the name of Jesus Christ ; but those members wee admit , have been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ ; and then , Secondly , The Holy Ghost had not yet fallen on them in answer 2 Vers. 2. We have not so much as heard whether there bee any Holy Ghost ; much lesse enjoyed it , and therefore they were baptized now in Christs name for to receive the Spirit . Vers. 5 , 6. or the inward baptisme , with the outward ; but now we admit no members , but such as we verily beleeve , and judge to have been baptized into Christ , and so indeed dead and buried with him in baptisme , and such as have the inward baptisme of fire , and the Holy Ghost , which is the substance and thing signified . Thirdly , This baptisme , or washing of John , was to fore-run Christ. Vers. 4. That they should beleeve on him which should come after him . But the baptisme that Christ hath instituted is , to beleeve Christ is already come , dead , and buried , rose , and ascended , and therefore of another nature : for John , who baptised Christ , was baptised by Christ , and with Christs baptisme ; the fore-running administration was ( as Johns ) passed away , in the Apostles daies , which when the Disciples heard and understood , they were baptised with Christs Ordinance . Vers. 5. Object . 3. But we doe not account that baptisme , which you were baptised with any thing , and therefore we intend not a baptising againe ( for that we abhor , say some godly people ) but we beleeve that baptisme ( you so call ) to be none , and therefore would have you baptised , before admitted ▪ Answ. Baptisme is Baptisme ( though corruptly administred ; and should we grant you a graine too much , yet too little to make you weight , that we when Infants were undue subjects , yet ) the want of due order makes not the Ordinance no Ordinance , no more then the preaching the Word to such as doe not hear , or understand it , makes the Word to bee no Word . If they had the essentials of baptisme they had enough , and need not , nay must not ( de nov● ) take it up againe . The substance will stand without the circumstance or ceremony . Now who can deny but the godly have had the essentials of Baptisme , viz. matter and forme ( materia vel est remota , vel proxima ) the matter is the water ( generally ) but the washing ( especially . ) The forme ( without speaking de modo ) is the baptising them in , or into the name of the Father , of the Son , and of of the Holy Ghost . Now the godly have had this matter and this forme in their baptisme ; therefore were baptized . But still you say , you were not fit subjects ; what then ? is therefore the Ordinance no Ordinance ? Suppose my glove were put upon a childs hand , would it therefore follow that it is no glove , because it is not the childs glove , and fits not the childs hand ; nay surely , so long as there is the matter and the forme of the glove it is a glove ; but Object . Fourthly , You were not dipped in the water , which is the right baptizing . Answ. First , It is true , the word ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) doth signifie to dip ; we say with Beza out of Matth. 3.13 . to dip , not to dive over head and ears ; but to dip , as in Num. 19.18 . Ruth 2.14 . 1 Sam. 14.27 . Deut. 33.24 . non per modum immersionis sed effusionis ; that is not to drowne , throw downe , dive all over , keep under water , but onely to dip ; And Secondly , The word signifies to wash also , and so is used in Scripture , Luke 11.38 . the very word there wash is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 baptize or dip ; Now Thirdly , Washing is the maine thing meant by the institution of this Ordinance of baptisme of water , ad corporis ●blutionem non modo per immersionem verum etiam per aspersionem vel effusionem aquae . Thus Heb. 10.22 . Let us draw neer to God with a true heart in full assurance of faith , having our hearts sprinkled ( i. e. with the inward thing signified viz. the blood of Saints ) and our bodies washed ( i. e. with the outward thing signifying ) with pure water , there you have it expressely in the terms of sprinkling and washing ; as also in Ezek. 36.25 . I will sprinkle clean water upon you . So the Apostle points at this , 1 Pet. 3.21 . and as Mr. Hooker observes in 2 Chap. 3. Part of Church Discipline , God is said to save us by the washing of the new birth , and the renewing of the Holy Ghost , which is said to be powred out upon us , Eph. 5.26 . Tit. 3.5 , 6. following the resemblance of water powred out in the washing of baptisme which brings me to the fourth thing . Fourthly , Consider , how we are baptized by the Holy Ghost ; so are we to be ( ad proportionem & similitudinem ) by the water , Act. 1.5 . but we are not dived or drowned ( as yet ) into the Holy Ghost ; but onely the Spirit is powred upon us ( as yet ) guttatim as it were ) Act. 2.33 . and 11.15 it falls on us , we fall not into it , although it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Now we are baptized by the Spirit , when that is applied to us first , and administred upon us . So that baptisme may be by sprinkling , or powring water on ; and diving or plunging over head and ears in baptisme is not necessary ; and being a forme , one is of as much force and as significant as the other , and all is left to liberty . For the casting water on the body resembles the nature of burial ( as sense will suggest in casting the mold and dust upon the dead ) as well the diving of the body into the water resembles the casting of the body into the dust , and so the powring on of water , the powring on of the Spirit , or the sprinkling of it , the sprinkling of Christs blood to wash , &c. so that this is left to liberty to doe that which is most orderly , useful , and significant , whether to sprinkle , powre on , dip or dive ; and indeed ( I dare not deny my judgement to reach thus far for dipping above the other formes of sprinkling or powring , that were it as orderly in our Church , and used , and no offence to weake souls ; I should sooner be induced to dip one that was never before baptised , then to sprinkle one ; for to me it would be more significant , and full , and pregnant with former practises ; but all is one , and signifies the same thing , and is of the same use ; what need we jangle about Colours ? object 5 Fifthly , But you were baptised by a corrupt , and unlawfull administrator before ? Answ. Suppose that should be granted also ( which we may choose whether we wil or no ; for I am perswaded , many godly were baptised by such as were orderly sent forth ) but I say grant this , yet his corrupt hand , or foule fingers , doth not null the Ordinance , and make it no baptisme , a jewell , though in a foule sinke , ( an unfit place for it ) yet is as much a jewell ( in its self ) as if it were in a silver Cabinet ; Baptismus datus a meliori , non est melior , quia efficaciam ex merito & spiritu Christi , non alterius . Secondly , Let such dear Friends whom I highly prize and have in my heart ( and yet ( as yet ) cannot be of that judgement with them , till a positive warrant for it in the word ) I say , let them but consider , this latter baptisme of theirs will be found guilty on the same grounds , they charge ours , viz. unlawfully administred , or by an unlawfull administrator , or one not lawfully called to it . Some doe it as if they had extraordinary warrant for it ( whilst extraordinary officers had their Call and Commission immediately from heaven , which they cannot prove ; but we can prove they are ceased . ) Others doe it upon their own private motion , and meer supposition that any gifted brother , or ordinary disciple , that by his gifts and instruction hath won any to this opinion , hee may baptize him , and so make him sure ; but if so , why did Christ ordain officers , and set them in his Church for this purpose , and no man , saith the Apostle , taketh this honour to himselfe , but he that is called of God. Indeed , I did much wonder at the boldnesse of one in Dublin to doe this , and yet knowne to be a man of a most dissolute carriage and conversation , for cursing , and swearing , and blaspheming , ( saying , A pox upon all Ordinances , and Formes , and he would downe with them , and the Devil take prayers ) in such desperate wayes as would make an honest mans heart ake ; and a man of a most malicious spirit , studying to doe mischiefe , as indeed most of that judgement there are , to all , that are not over head and ears in with them in their opinion : thereby they bring a very great scandal upon the Gospel , and hereby they make many enemies to the way they are in , as if it could not bee of God ; but these things are their shame , the Lord humble them for it , for in these things they exceed all others of that practise that ever I met with ; whilst many of that judgement here in London , & other places , may be set for eminent examples ( both to them at Dublin , and us here ) of sweetnesse , patience , humility , obedience , self-denial , and love , even to all Saints ; and indeed such in whom my soule much rejoyces , and hath been much refreshed ; but I do not finde what lawfull call they have , that do administer this Ordinance of Baptisme ( anew ) to any . And it is not the purse of a True-man in the hands of a Thiefe , that makes the Thiefe a True-man . But In the last place , to bring up the Reare , and so all judgements into one ( that is in the Spirit . ) Sure none can deny but those truly spirituallized in Christ Jesus , have the efficacy of baptisme , though they were baptised in their infancy , which is a Spiritu sancto ; the inward worke with the outward washing , the inward grace and baptisme of the Spirit within , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 3.6 . an insition or incorporation into Christ himselfe . Now what can we desire but this in any member , that is to be admitted ; so that grant there were many failings in the outward administration , as long as we see so good successe , and such a blessing with it ( though much might be omitted in the outward order of it , which might make us judge ( therefore ) the Ordinance the lesse useful , and more uneffectual ) but I say , as long as we finde the fruit and effect of baptisme to follow this Ordinance in a lively manner upon their soules , we are satisfied . This covers all former failings , and the outward is swallowed up in the inward , which is that , that we account qualifies them , and us ▪ and fits them and all , for orderly admission ; and not the outward dipping , which many make , and call ▪ their fundamental Ordinance , without which ( they say ) they must have no communion with us , though wee bee ever so holy or godly . Oh , I fear ! such set up the Forme too much , and make as meer an Idol of that , as others doe ( or did ) of Infant-baptisme by attributing to that very empty signe ( nothing in its selfe , Circumcision is nothing , nor uncircumcision , but a new creature in Christ , Gal. 5. ) what is only to be attributed to Christs baptisme of the Spirit , and to his power ( and powring out ) from on high . And lest I should be thought to censure too severely , I shall insert a Letter which was sent to some members of the Church at Dublin ( with whom I walked there ; ) to some few members that those of Waterford held private correspondence with , on purpose to break us , which they both threatned ( by the Captaine that brought it ) and endeavoured by instruments , which they had a● worke on purpose in private places with those members to whom they writ this Letter , which was indeed of dangerous consequence , and did much mischief in the body , and made a sore rent at first from us by some , whose judgement were blinded , though ( blessed be our God that keeps us night and day ) the little Foxes were catched , and could not root us up , and all the effect was to draw that party from us ( a great mercy to us ) who were so rigid in judgement against us , who did lamentably raile upon us , and cruelly afflict and wrong us , that would not run rashly with them into that way : But as Paul said of Jannes and Jambres , their madnesse is made to appear to all . A Letter from Waterford . The Church of Christ in Waterford , walking in the faith and order of the Gospel , do wish all grace and peace to the Saints in Dublin . Beloved Friends , WE hearing that there were many of you that do not onely beleeve , but have professedly put on the Lord Jesus Christ by * Baptisme , did think it our duty in the bowels of love to enquire of your estate ; and we hear that you doe not walke up orderly together , but are joyned in fellowship with such as do fundamentally differ in judgement and practise ; to wit , such as agree not with you about the true state of a visible Church , nor the fundamental Ordinances thereof . Now the Prophet saith , Can two walk together except they are agreed ? but that we may manifest to you , beloved , that wee have a ground and occasion of griefe , and offence at your so walking , as we shall make appeare from cleare sight of Scripture . Consider the Commission in that of Mat. 28 . 19.20.* where Christ layeth down an order that is binding , which is this , That they should teach all Nations baptising them , teaching them to observe whatsoever he had commanded them , ( ye see here is an orderly way commended to teach to the Nations ; ) secondly , to baptise such as are taught ; and thirdly , to teach such as are baptised , to observe whatsoever Christ had commanded ; that is , as we understand , all the Laws of Gods house , the baptised person is to submit unto , and by the Ministers taught the observation of , and this Order is binding . And secondly , It appears the Apostles did so understand the Commission , because they taught and practised this Order , and this onely , to wit , first preached to conversion , then baptised . Thirdly , put them in the practical observation of what Christ had commanded in , and to his Church . Againe , else the Ordinance of the Supper would be prophaned , if that should bee received before that fundamental Ordinance , by which we put on Christ , and are ingrafted into Christ , and planted into his death . Now we say , this is a prophanation of Gods Ordinances , the Jewes might as well h●ve admitted such uncircumcised persons to eat of the Passeover ; but the very end of Church-fellowship is the observation of all Christs commands , as the Commission holds forth ; but this your practise , crosseth in that you agree to walk with such as have not , nor practise the Ordinance of dipping Beleevers , and by your communion with them in Church-administrations , you are made guilty of their sin of disobedience , you willingly having communion with them in Church-admininistrations ; for Beloved , you may upon the same principal admit , into fellowship one that will not receive the Lords Supper , but pleads want of satisfaction of that to be his duty ; another that will not owne the Ordinance of preaching , but conferre onely ( as some such we know ) and others that will not give almes , or contribute to the necessity of the Saints ; and thus in a word ( upon the same ground ) that you admit one that walks in disobedience to the Ordinance of baptisme , whether through ignorance or error , you may admit all manner of disobedience into your Society upon the same ground , which is a total destroying , the end of Church-fellowship , which is to bring up every member to a visible subjection to all the Lawes of Christ their King , or else cast them out of that Society as old leaven . Besides , as we must not allow in our selves any known sinne unrepented of ; so must wee not allow it in any in the fellowship ; but when wee shall begin and constitute a Church-fellowship to walke in sin , and disobedience , this is a horrible impiety . Besides in the fifth place , there cannot be a true visible Church union without baptisme , as appears Eph. 4. * and beginning where the Apostle pressing union brings all these things essentials that must be agreed in , to make a people one , and that he takes for granted the Ephesians did agree in the same , which as he saith , There is one hope , one Lord , one Faith , one Baptisme , one God , and Father of all . Now observe a true Church must of necessity agree in owning one and the same Lord ; secondly , one and the same Spirit , one and the same Baptisme , one and the same Faith , without which they cannot walk together in the Lord. Againe , many of these unbaptised persons doe justifie that Idol of childrens baptisme , and consequently the Church and Ministery from whence they had it : And you having communion with them , judge what you do , bring your selves into communion with , by entertaining persons into communion with you that are unbaptised . Thus beseeching you to beware of by-pathes , that our Lord and his Ministers have left no footsteps for ; but rather beloved , meet together , and lead one example of sweet communion distinct , using all means to convent such as have any fear of God , that they may come into you , through the door , and not at the window , as Christ saith in another case . And thus leaving you to God , and the word of his grace , that is able to build you up , we remain in the name , and in the behalfe of the Church , Yours in the Lord , Tho. Patient . Wil. Burgis . Ed. Hutchinson . Ed. Marshal . Rich. Sutton . James Standish . Swads . Tho. Brenton . Peter Row. Wil. Leigh . Geo. Cawdron . Rich. Ladbrooke . Edw. Roberts . Dated at Waterford , Janu. 14. 1651. This Letter was brought by Capt. Vernon , and A.G.A. to some seven or eight of their judgement , whom they withdrew from the Church into private meetings on the Lords dayes especially , where they with them that were sent from Mr. Patience , clandestinely consulted how to carry on their designe against us . These , and none else , are their Saints . ; BEleevers * , and such baptised ones , i. e. Anabaptists , they put together , as if none were beleevers but Anabaptists . Some of that judgement that were in fellowship with us , they write unto as to Beleevers , and exclude others that differed from them in that point of Rebaptisme . Besides , they account them disorderly walkers , that have so much as Christian communion with us , unlesse we would be dipped . They say without this , wee fundamentally differ from the true state of a visible Church : Let discerning men judge then the foundation , and dangerous scituation of such Formalists Fellowships I who ( by their owne confession ) have laid their foundation in the Water , and on the Sand , not on Christ the Rocke of ages , that is Christ himselfe laid in the Spirit , &c. Vide cap. 14. lib. 1. In this sense they ought to read that Scripture which they mention with too much wrong to it , as they use to doe ( qui Scripturis auferunt , non afferunt ) it is Amos 3.3 . Can two walke together , unlesse they be agreed ? The Prophet means not , Can two walke together , unlesse washed together , or unlesse in one Forme , judgement , opinion or practise : for as Arias Montanus observes , this was their sin for which he threatens them in v. 2 , 4 ▪ 5. viz. for their great agreement in false Formes , to adore Images , and make them Idols ; herein they were very harmonious and unanimous , to their cost and calamity , sayes Theodoret. But the Prophet means , they must be one in the Spirit , Eph. 4 , 3 , 4. Even as Two Travellors who have one and the same end of their journey ( vid. Diodate ) minde one and the same home , heaven , happinesse ; therefore the word is pariter ; Can they walke alike , without they be of one spirit ; thus sayes honest Calvin too , Est igitur arcana ita consensio Spiritus sancti : and to apply this to the forme or judgement , as that there must be an agreement in dipping , else none in beleeving ; or that there must be agreement in the outward , else none in the inward , is to make Faith a forme , Religion a fancy , & to take a meer outside appearance and opinion , for the inward power and life of godlinesse ; which is an agreement in Idolatry , but not in the true worship of God , Spirit , and Truth , so that these Gentlemen mistake the Prophet , and compel a construction , as it is coyned in their own brains . * The Commission is next ; let us see what they would force from those words in Matth. 28.19 , 20. All power is given me , &c. Goe therefore teach all Nations , and baptise them , &c. This hath been their hold for many yeers , out of which they have been hunted by hundreds of orthodox able Writers which save me a labour ; but onely this I say , 1 The Praeface , viz. v. 18. ( All power is given me ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) that is jus agend● ) tells us , that this Commission is to bee executed by Christs power , i. e. by the Spirit , vide Pareus in loc . so that some affirm , this was the baptisme of the Spirit which Christ speaks of her 1 Cor. 12.13 . which the A●ostles ( as Apostles ) had commission in to baptise , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 &c. into the name of the Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , which Water-baptisme could not doe . Orig. An. 200. in Rom. but how ever it was to be executed by Christs Spirit . 2 The command is , Teach them , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make them my schollars ; now little ones , as well as great ones ; Infants , as well as growne ones may be his schollars in his school to learne : for a little childe that knowes not a letter in the book is a schollar as well as others that do ; so not onely the lowest boughes , but the uppermost and least twigs partake of the nature of the root . But , What do they infer ? 1 That none must be admitted , but such as are baptized ; we say so too , but we deny they must be rebaptized . And whereas they instance in the Apostles practise , they would doe well to cleare up the difference of old , betwixt adulti and catechumeni , for qui bene distinguit bene docet , otherwise they will but lead about the blinde , and leave them in the ditch , in darknesse . 2 They say this is that fundamental Ordinance by which we put on Christ. Ans. To call the watry part of baptisme , viz. in abstracto , I say the element , the fundamental Ordinance ; by which wee put on Christ , and are ingrafted into Christ , and planted into his death , &c. is to make no lesse , ( if not more ) then an Idol of it ; and so it is to attribute to Dipping what is onely attributed to Christ himselfe : for what is Idolatry , but exhibere cultum Dei & honorem Christi creaturae , Th. Aq. 22. q. 94.10 . to give the worship and service of God , the glory and honour of Christ to a contemptible poore creature ? Is not this to say , Lo here is Christ ! but beleeve them not . O sad ! sad sinne of this age ! that Professors should fall down so to this Image , which they imagine must doe all for them , without which no salvation . Were ever the Pontificians or Prelates ▪ more uncharitably rigid for it , to Idolize it on Infants , then they are to Idolize it on grown ones ; that then presently they are accounted Saints , Beleevers , Christians , ingrafted into Christ &c. as if Dipping did all ; Alas a day ! what could the Pool of Bethesda doe ? till the Spirit moved the waters , there was no healing ! O this soule-dangerous and dreadfull glorifying the forme ! Idolatry is gravissimum peccatorum , say the Schoolmen , and makes the shortest cut to confusion ! The Lord help poor Ireland ! still the land of Idols and Ire . 3 They say the Jewes might as well have admitted uncircumcised ones , as they u● , to have communion with them ! O charity ! where art thou ? that thou shouldest live ! longest , and strongest of all ? O unchristian ! and uncomfortable tenet ! For 1 Their non-communion with such was by the command of God ; but yours is not with us . 2 Jewish Church was national , ours not . 3 Jewish worship was in the forme , but ours in Spirit and Truth . 4 Jewish eating the Passeover was typical . 5 Circumcised ones after the flesh was enough with Jewes , but it is not with us . 6 We have been baptized ( as you put it in the room of circumcision ) and more answerably unto it then you . 7 The case being altered as it is now ; we finde that Jews and Gentiles , circumcised and uncircumcised , had sweet communion together , Act. 15.5 . Gal. 2.3.7 ▪ 12. 1 Cor. 12.13 . in severall Churches ; so that the outward forme was left to liberty , Rom. 14.2.5 . as a thing of nothing , Gal. 6.15 . as it is n●w to be . 8 Their end and their beginning , they make one , viz. Dipping , i. e. their all in all ; and indeed very indiscreetly and disorderly they lay that downe for the end , which is the Rule by which they are brought into fellowship ; so that it is like enough Logicke is the language of the Beast to them , that know not how to define Church fellowship . Lastly , Because I want room to write more : They conclude , that because of their great disobedience in joyning with us , they must make amends by casting all of us that would not be dipped out of Church-fellowship for old leaven ; and accordingly , the members of them sent from Mr. Patient , with those of them that walked with us , consulted often together , conspired and plotted , and laid snares in designes to break us in peeces ; but when that would not be , they bruited abroad scurrilous and scandalous reports of many of us , to represent us wicked and unworthy to the world and others ; after that they thought to have excommunicated us for old leaven , but the Lord would not suffer it ; so that their plots and designs brought forth nothing but wind , which became a blast to themselves at last . But whereas they say they may as well admit all manner of wicked men , as one that wil not be dipped ; do but observe their spirit in deifying Dipping , and in vilifying the Spirit , that without this ( though we be under Spirit-baptisme ) we must not have so much mercy shewn to us , as to partake of Church-Priviledges , is this doctrine of Christ ? or the Devil ? but I pray mark their ground , for you may ( say they ) as well admit one that will not partake of the Lords Supper , &c. Ans. Suppose one should be admitted that were unsatisfied therein , were that a sinne ? But Secondly , we deny this their haire-brained assertion , for that there is positive command for the Lords Supper , Preaching , Almes , &c. and so there is not for Dipping , but all the Scripture is against Re-baptising , as being but the Idol of the Braine , and a brat that must be dashed a peeces , Psal. 137.9 . * The next thing to this Commission , with their several forced , and unworthy Inferences ; In the fifth place , they would faine insinuate a necessity of Dipping out of Ephes. 4.4 , 5. Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace ; he saith not , the union of the Forme , but of the Spirit , which is preserved not by outward formes , but by inward principles . Then follows , Verse 4.5 . One Faith , one Bap●isme ; &c. all these must be to make up the Vnity of the Spirit ; and it is true that they all must owne one and the same Baptisme ; but what is that , I pray ? not dipping ; but Christs Baptisme , Matth. 3.11 . We are all , mark , all ( Jewes and Gentiles ) before and since the Law ; before , and since Christ ; all Saints of all ages ; members of one Body ; viz. the Church of Christ mystical ; and all this by one Baptisme , 1 Cor. 12 , 13. For by one Spirit we are All baptised into one Body . Now this cannot be ( as by this Letter they would faine have us beleeve ) by water ; for so all Saints , in all Ages were not so baptized into one Body , or Church ; for before the Law this was not the fundamental point , which these men say we must hold ; so that they peel but the barke of the tree , and the Goars may doe so ; but we feed upon the sap and substance . This is a principle of spirituall union , viz. the baptisme of the Spirit , which all Saints of all judgements must , doe , and have enjoyed ; for the life remains , though the Letter alters , as the soule doth , though the body be altered ; variante materia , yet forma manet eadem . But let these uncharitable Formalists , and unkinde unchristian friends know , that by this Letter , and their suitable practises , seeming to answer most cruell and unchristian principles , that they have frighted many of their wel-wishers from them : for Fishes will not be catched in a bloody net , though some Commanders or great ones amongst them , may drive many times some silly little ones in : And indeed I fear that Religion , which lyes so much in the Form , or outside , will doe but little service in the day of the Lord , to shelter us from heat and storme ; yea I fear , that the life and kernel of it is already perished , when ear-wigs and vermine have eaten so into it , and can finde a hole ( through the outside of it ) to go in , and out as they list . You know what I mean , and be PATIENT . In this Letter you find ( Reader ) how Dipping , called their fundamental Ordinance , without which they were to have no communion with us , but either to draw us thereto , or else to cast us out for old leaven , and be distinct from us . Now it appears not to me to be a fundamental Ordinance , on which ( as on a foundation ) should lye the Church ; no , though it bee taken in their owne sense , for the true and right administration ; but rather it is an initiating Ordinance , or entry , through which we enter into the Church ; so that there is a great difference between a foundation , and an entry , or doore . And for their calling us persons unbaptised , and threatning them that have any communion with us , as guilty of the sinne of disobedience : We have proved that we have passed through the water , and the fire , and the Lord hath been with us , and his Spirit rests upon us . We have been under the element of water , and the baptisme of the Spirit ; and if these satisfie not , wee are to seek in a new way , which they make their Foundation ( but it is of water , and will not hold long ) whilst Christ is our Foundation , who is a Rocke and standeth sure . As for the particulars in that Letter , they are easily answered , and have been often , over and over . The Baptisme therein mentioned out of Eph. 4. which the Apostle indeed makes an argument of union , is the one baptisme of the Spirit , not the sign ( so often altered ) but the substance , by which all beleevers in all ages , under all forms and dispensations are , ( and ever were ) all baptised into one body , both before Christ , and since , 1 Cor. 12.13 . this is Christs baptisme , Mat. 3.11 . Now the unity of the Spirit consists not in uniformity , in that outward forme and element : ( for men may , and do differ for all that : ) but in the baptisme of the Spirit , which the Apostle plainly speaks of ; it is an unanimity , not an uniformity , as we shall find out hereafter ; wherfore let all wise , sober , spiritual discerning Christians , yea even of that judgement ( which are without exception many of them ) but tell me . First , Doe not these lay too much upon the Letter to call it a Fundamental Ordinance , without which they are to have no communion with us , but to cast us out for old leaven ; and which in the very element they lay downe to be a putting on of Christ , an ingrafting into Christ , a planting into his death , &c. Now let any judge if this be not an Idolizing of a Forme ( which they cry downe so much in others ) is not this a worshipping of the Element ? to attribute so much to it , as is true in no baptisme , but of the Spirit ? Surely this must bee grownd to powder . But Secondly , Ought we to be so severely sentenced , as to bee cast out for Dung , old Leaven , and uncircumcised ones , because we could not ( nor can we ) find a word to warrant our consciences in the practise of this , which is their opinion ? Oh! uniformity enforced ( sayes one ) is the very break-neck of peace , and love ! we durst not have dealt so with them , it is point-blank against our principles and practises . Thirdly , Ought any sober sound Christians to have sent any such Letters to make a breach in a Church , and by secret and under-working instruments to doe the more mischiefe , without any discourse , or knowledge of us ( as from our selves ) that were not of that opinion ? and onely for one Form ? wherein neither the unity of the Spirit , nor our communion with Christ Jesus can consist ; this I am sure was none of Christs doctrine , nor device to sow such seeds of Divisions . But I shall leave them to the Lord ▪ who loves not confusion , nor ( I am sure ) can allow of such unchristian practises , like carnal men to watch for our mischiefe , and to lye in wait for our b●ltings , and to render us odious to all , as persons fit for excommunication , and onely because wee could not turne againe to that low and beggarly element ( I mean so to us now , that are in , and under the unction from on high . ) For Act. 11 15. when they were under the Holy Ghost which had fallen upon them , then came to minde in Verse 16. John baptised with water indeed ; but ye shall be baptised with the Holy Ghost , that is far beyond the other of water . And should wee be so foolish ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) or mad ? Gal. 3.3 . having begun , and thus far gone on in the Spirit , to thinke , or seek to be perfect by the flesh ! no! God forbid ! therefore our sufferings are sweet ! even as drops of Christ blood ! and draughts out of Christs cup for our consciences sake ! Well , I could wish them to be more moderate , lest haply they be found fighters against God , Act. 5.39 . that have been too rough to the poore harmlesse Saints at Dublin on this account : And let them do all in peace and by love , as becometh Christians , and not by plottings , power , force , or censures , as the carnal Churches of Antichrist to this day ; and let them not busie themselves too much about empty things , so as to presse and promote traditions , for truths , the letter for the Spirit , the creature in the room of Christ , and husks and shadows that are past away ( as to us ) or to passe away , in the room of righteousnesse , peace , and joy in the Holy Ghost . That although we differ in judgement , yet wee may be all of one Body , one Spirit , one hope of our calling ; having one Lord , one Faith , one Baptisme , one God and Father of all , above all , through all , and in us all ; it is this that keeps the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace . This leads me to the next Chapter . CHAP. V. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Regneh . In admitting , none that are godly , are to be put by , though of different opinions ; but all Believers are to be received , yea , of all judgements . WE have heard how the Word warrants all that are godly , that are fully satisfied of the way ; and excludes all the wicked and scandalous in toto & tanto , that are not called of God , but none else . The weakest Believer that belongs to Christ , is to be received , Rom. 14.1 . And our present assertion is this , That none who appear truly godly , are to be put by ; ( meerly for their opinion and judgement ; ) we are not in admitting of members so much to minde their judgements and apprehensions , as their lives and conversations , viz. That they be holy and gracious ; and that they be sound in the faith ; that is , for fundamentals and essentials ; such as are sanctified in Christ Jesus , 1 Cor. 1.2 . Rom. 1.7 . Phil. 1.1 ▪ 7. Col. 3.12 . and 1 Thes. 5.27 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the word doth not say , such sanctified ones that are o● your judgement and form . For we shall prove by Scriptures and Reasons , That those ( godly ) though under different forms , and of different opinions , are to be received , and taken in ; and that it is our sin to shut them ou● . This appears by Scriptures , Precepts , and Precedents . First , this is commanded and commended to us , That every man walk as he is fully perswaded in his minde , Rom. 14.5 . Now mark the meaning of that Text , ( for indeed the whole Chapter treats on this subject , ) there arose some differences about opinions , but the Apostle presses and preaches this , That diversity of opinions , for things indifferent or doubtful , ought not to make diversity in affections , or a breach in charity or unity among Brethren , when they do it out of conscience . Now that I may unlock the meaning of the words , I must orderly proceed in the Chapter , which is very pregnant in proofs for this purpose , ( and wherein you will have the point stated , proved , and ratified by abundance of Reasons . To the first Verse , Him that is weak in the faith , receive , ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) assume to you , admit of , and make one with you , affectu charitatis , and put him into your bosoms , &c. ) In the time of the Jews dispersed , most of the Churches consisted of Jews and Gentiles together ; and so did this Church of Rome . Now the Jews would not be brought off from the observation of Ceremonies , and Levitical Laws , wherein they had been brought up , even from their cradles ; looking upon them as ordinances of God ; and therefore , although they entertained the Gospel , yet out of conscience , they held difference of days , and of meats ; as necessary to be observed . Now the Gentiles were not for such Jewish observations , being perswaded of our Christian Liberty , purchased by the blood of Christ , from such ceremonies and trifles ; and therefore they rejected them : And thence there arose hot contests and dissentions in the Church , almost irreconcileable ; and as the Gentile thought the Jew profuse and superstitious ; so the Jew thought the Gentile prophane and sacrilegious . Now in comes Paul to appease these differences , and to compose these commotions ; he brings in his bucket ( as Par sayes ) to quench the flame , and undertakes as an umpire , to determine these differences , which arose about things indifferent : Wherefore he layes down rules in these his Hieraticks . It is a general precept , and an undeniable duty , to receive such as are weak in the faith , ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) although so weak ( as one that is sick ) and scarce able to stand on his legs ; yea , such babes in Christ as cannot brook strong meats , that have sick and queasie stomacks , such receive with open arms ; take them in unto you , and joyn them with you , and entertain them as friends , and dear brethren ; but not to doubtful disputations ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. ) not into ambiguity , to quarrel or contend with him , and his opinions , though differing from yours , thereby to make him stagger , Rom. 4.20 . Nor yet to judge him for his opinions , as Augustine sayes ; nor to fill his head with intricate things , or curiosities , Rom. 14.1 , 2. Gal. 6.1 . 1 Thes. 5.14 . But as in Vers. 2. One believes he may eat all things , and another , who is weak , eats ( onely ) herbs : Let not him that eateth , despise him that eateth not ; nor him which eateth not , judge him which eateth . Now , though there was this great difference of opinion , here is a direction to their duty , one to another ; that is , to preserve peace and love ; and that this make no difference or distance , in affection or reception : Let not the strong , despise the weak ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ) i. e. To look on him as nothing , nullius praetii ; or set him at naught , as not fit for your company : For the word is so , as to villifie , or nullifie a man. Now take heed here ! for difference of opinions and practises in things indifferent , ought to be no demur or hinderance to the admission , or reception of any ; neither ought there to be therefore the least battery , or breach to love and charity : But now to the question . Quest. What are things indifferent which we may differ upon , and yet be all of one Body and Church ? Answ. Such things as are of a middle size and nature , and not absolute ( Quod , id quod est per essentiam suam relatum posterius est absoluto , ) for absolutum est prius relativo secundum esse , & posterius relativo secundum dici ; ) nor yet necessary , these are called indifferent . First , We say a thing is indifferent , when it is not absolute ; but yet in some degree good , but not so good , but it may be mended ; and yet not so bad , but it might be worse : Such a thing , we say , is indifferent good . So a man ( though he be not absolutely in health ) nor yet very ill , but might be better , and might be worse ; ) such a one , we say , is pretty , or indifferent well : But I speak not in this species . Secondly , Some things may be done , which are not necessary ; such things are necessary which are commanded : But somethings are commanded to be done , and somethings are forbidden to be done . Now such things are indifferent , which are neither commanded nor forbidden ; and those things are doubtful , which are not expressed at all in the Word , but left darkly , or which meet with seeming contradictions therein : Now for the first sort of doubtful things , and things indifferent , they are called by the Antient , things in our power , and left to liberty , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as lying either obscure and uncommanded , or in the midst , between commanded and forbidden . In Pauls time when he writ this Epistle , these trifling observations of dayes and meats , were mentioned as left indifferent , to be used or not used ; as they conceived it tended most to the honor and praise of God , ( which was the very end of their enchurching ▪ ) we finde Paul circumcised , made vows , purified himself , and yet writes against them , as Gal. 4.10 . Why so ? why before Christs death , these Ceremonies were not then indifferent , but necessary , as commanded of God ; but after Christs death ( till the Gospel entered , ) for a while after they were used ( though but for a little time ) as indifferent , Quia Christi adventu lex ceremonialis obligare desiit . Now such Ceremonies remained amongst the Jews , as yet ( saith Paraeus upon the place ) in use ; because Christian liberty was not openly up , and risen in their room : Now with Christs death and resurrection they lost their life , and gave up the ghost , Col. 2.14 , 15. Quasi animam exhalarunt , and breathed out their last ; but as yet , they lay a while unburied and above ground , which ought to have a religious and solemn sepulchre , and which they had soon after in that solemn Church Assembly , Acts 15. Where , all such legal ritual observations were seriously and solemnly laid in their grave ; as being now ( but dead Corps , and ready to stink and corrupt ) and too heavy to be longer borne above ground ; but before this their burial , they were used as indifferent . This Augustine declares in his 19. Ep. ad Hieron . as Paraeus observes , by an elegant similitude . A mans friend dies , he doth not so soon as breath is out of his body , whilest his body is yet warm , take him by the heels and drag him to the grave ; but he keeps him a while , ( whilest he is yet sweet ) and wraps him up with fair cloaths , and so with honor , in due time , accompanies him to his grave ; and thereby he avoides scandal , suspition , and contention , which else might arise ; by giving sufficient content to all , even to his best friends and mourners for him . So it is here , these Ceremonies were alive till Christ ; they died with Christ : Now the Apostles did not presently drag them to the dunghil , and cast them out ( ut faetida cadavera ) whilest they were yet warm ; no! but to avoid all scandal and doubt of their death ; they shew ( in the Acts ) that they were dead , and to be buried , which was done in a decent , honorable maner , as Acts 15.10 , 24. whilst they themselves accompanied them to the very grave . Now that is the reason , ( that Paul in this Chapter ) for so long a time did allow liberty to them as things indifferent ; but after they were buried , their indifferency ceased , and now they were absolutely forbidden : Before their burial ( saith one ) they were mortuae , dead ; but now after their burial , they are mortiferae , deadly and dangerous : And now after this , if a man raises them up again , and rakes them out of the grave , and digs them up again , he endangers a many ( by their unwholsom stench , ) Et non esset pius funeris deductor , sed impius sepulturae violator . Hence you read the reason of Pauls writing to the Church of Galatia , Coloss , and others , against them now ; and after this burial of them , he would not circumcise Titus , ( though he did Timothy before ) but preaches their funeral Sermon , and sayes , it is dangerous to keep them above ground any longer , Col. 2.20 , 21. and Gal. 5.2 , 4. tells them then , Christ would profit them nothing ; and it would be to deny the effect of Christs death . We shall finde Paul opposed Peter , and that openly , Gal. 2.11 . to his face , for urging these Ceremonies , and pressing the Gentiles to Judaize . But here in this Chapter the Apostle forbids the Gentiles to judge the Jews for their liberty in these things which might be used , or not used ( as yet ) being things indifferent and left free which the Greeks call Adiaphora , which things are to be considered either as they are in themselves , and so they are said ( quoad substantiam operis ) to have an indifferency of doing , or omitting ( as we said before ; ) or else as they are in the intention of that principle by which they are done , or omitted ; and in that sense no action is said to bee indifferent ( taken with its circumstances ) but it is said to bee good or evill ( Prout ex mala vel bona intentione procedit ) for as much as it flowes from a principle intending good or evill hereby . But thus I have done with the direction and rules , and have opened the name and nature of things indifferent , and do now reach the reasons which the Apostle renders to ratifie his and , my assertion , of accepting and receiving such as differ in judgement from us in things indifferent . And first , reason 1 The first Reason , for God hath received him , therefore you are to receive him , and lovingly to take him in , for God hath received him ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) that is ( ut suus ) as his owne , a member of Christ , to grace , an adopted one , into his owne family ; how then darest thou deny him , or despise him , or not admit of him , or the like ? for thus runs the Argument , whom God hath received into his Family , you ought not to despise or put by , but him that eateth ( that is , is of this opinion ) and him that eateth not ( that is , is of that opinion ) God hath received , therefore you ought not to put him by ( that is , be he of this opinion , or of that opinion ) but to receive him , and admit of him , as one that belongs to the Lord. This Reason runs a pari statu utriusque partis coram Deo , from the common benefit of adoption which them of both opinions do equally partake of , and as if he should say , Such outward things as these , do neither justifie , nor unjustifie , commend , nor discommend before God ; they neither help to , nor hinder from the Kingdome of God , therefore they should neither helpe nor hinder any in the Church of God here below ; For such whom the Father receives , the Son receives ; and who are admitted in heaven , should be admitted in the earth ; but all Saints of all opinions are admitted in heaven , and received of God , ergo , &c. God regards here ( sayes one ) no more the manner , time , or such like circumstances , then hee does the manner , time , or such like circumstances of eating , drinking , marrying , &c. being left to wisdome , and discretion for order , peace , and unities sake without ties . Now if thou seest one enlightened , and livened by the Spirit of God , thou seest enough , sayes Calvin in loc . Satis testimonii habes &c. wherefore despise not , contemn not , refuse not , condemne not , one whom God hath received . The second Reason or Argument is taken ( a jure gentium ) reason 2 from common right or equity , which is , that every man hath the rule and ordering of his owne family , and none ought to be so polypragmatical , as to meddle with other mens servants , Who art thou that judgest another mans servant ? here is an objurgatory Apostrophe . Who art thou ? how darest thou do it ? why , for he is the Lords own servant whom thou thus puttest by ( for all his opinion as before ) the word is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a hired servant , or a day-labourer , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a houshold servant , one of the Lords owne Family , who alwayes is waiting upon the Lord his Master in such services as are nearest his person , and in his presence . This makes the Apostle ( then whom none was more full of the bowels of love , pitifull or tender ) yet this makes him question with much indignation and heat , how you dare to deny them admission , who are the Lords servants , and that of his owne houshold , and the nighest to him in his Family ; Besides the Argument , see the Amplification in verse 4. which shewes that thou art not to judge harshly of him , for he standeth or falleth to his owne Master ; that is , whether he doth well or ill , pleases or displeases , it belongs to the Master ( Stare vel e●dere , est recte vel secus agere ) therefore prevent not the Lord● judgement , who himselfe will take account of his servants , and that strictly , Mat. 18.23 . Mat. 25.19 . Reason 3. For God is able to make him stand , Vers. 4. This reason 3 Argument is taken a spe profectus from the possibility , and probability of their establishment in the faith , he shall stand , for God is able to make him ; but if you say it is an unsound conclusion or an absurd collection to argue a posse ad esse ( as the Papists doe in Transubstantiation ) we answer , True , if we bee not certaine of Gods will withall ; but his will , with his power appears here , for God hath received him . Now if such a one be weake , and of a differing opinion from you , the Lord hath promised grace to him , whereby he shall stand , as well as you , and as firme in the true faith , and as fast in the truth , and by his power be preserved from falling , therefore receive such , for the Lord will engage , for him , as Hezekiah said , Lord undertake for me ! Reason 4. In Vers. 5. Let every man be fully perswaded in his reason 4 own minde ; this argument is gotten from the qualification of a member , and the nature of his qualification , which is the plerophory and full perswasion spoken of in Chap. 2. of this Book . One man ( sayes the Apostle ) is of this minde , and esteems this , and another man is of that minde , and esteeme that most ; this is the case . Now the remedy is , Let every one walke , as he thinks best ( reject neither ) but he must be sure it be with a full perswasion in his owne minde , that he be full and clear in his owne sense and opinion ; Quisquis suo sensu abundet : Not so to abound in ones owne sense , to give way to an unlimited liberty , but to a Christian-liberty limited by the Lawes of Christ , to be fully perswaded that it is on good grounds , and by good arguments flowing from the Word and Spirit together , Mark. 12.24.27 . Joh. 16.8 . 1 Thess. 2.13 . and as Rom. 14.14 . Isa. 8.20 . A horse in a pasture hath liberty to run at randome , range , and friske , but not when his Rider is upon his backe , but then he is checked , and curbed , and kept in ; so must our apprehensions and perswasions , therefore let every one look to his owne conscience , and not look what others hold or doe , but that what he holds he well grounded and warrantable in the word which the Scripture mentions in matters of faith , though not alwayes in matters of fact ; who hath this plerophory and clear perswasion is to be received , whether his reason 5 opinion be thus or thus in things indifferent . Reason 5. Vers. 6.7 . He that regardeth this , regardeth it to the Lord , and he that regards it not , regards it not to the Lord , &c. This argument runs ab intentione generale fidelium , or a bono fine utriusque partis , from the unity and brevity of the end , which the Saints of all opinions aime at , and which is one and the same , for all aime at the honour and glory of God. Those of this opinion , and those of that have the same end , viz. to glorifie God , 1 Cor. 10.31 . Col. 3.17 . to give God praise , 1 Pet. 2.9 . the summe of this then is to cease despising , denying , or rejecting such as aime at the same end with you , viz. the praise and glory of God , therefore receive them , though of a differing opinion from you . The Apostle hath it thus , Those that do all to the glory of God are to be received of you , but those of this opinion , and those of that opinion aime all at the glory and praise of God , ergo , &c. and this he proves ; 1 Ab adjuncto in Vers. 6. 2. He proves it , V. 7. a toto ad partes thus , who wholy lives , and dyes to the Lord , doth eat , or not eat ; do , or not do this , or that thing ; use or not use this or that Christian liberty to the Lord ; and ab illatis . V. 8. whether we live or dye , we are the Lords . Et a relatis we are the Lords servants , having necessary relation to him , wee are under his subjection and tuition ; and by all this hee teaches us to receive them , as such who are the Lords , in the Lords service , and aiming at his honour and glory , being perswaded from the word , their opinion is to his praise ; and then as one sayes , it is better to follow an erring conscience when it cannot be ( yet better ) informed and corrected , then to doe against conscience ; so that though they are such as cannot in conscience come up to , or unto our opinions in things indifferent , yet we must not dare to put them by , or ( therefore ) to deny them . Reason 6. Vers. 10. Why dost thou judge thy brother , &c. This argument is taken ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad utramque partem ) from the relation the one stands in unto the other ; Art thou strong ? the weak one is thy brother , &c. And so on the other side , though not by naturall generation , yet by supernatural regeneration : Have we not all one Father ? Mal. 2.10 . all alike borne of God ? all alike beloved of God in one Christ Jesus ? God is to Saints ( of all opinions ) one Father ? without respect of persons or opinions ? Now the true Church of Christ is a Kingdome of brethren ; and it is an ill part for brethren to contend , despise , reject , or shut doors against one another . It was ABRAHAMS argument to Lot for peace , and our Spiritual JOSEPH , bids us not to fall out by the way , which yet we doe , and that for trifles too ; This is the new Commandement to love all Saints , Eph. 1.15 . Joh. 13.35 . and 15.12.17 . 1 Joh. 4.21 . not all Saints of such or such a judgement , but all Saints ; being all one in the original love of God , all one in Christ , all one in the Covenant of grace , all one in one and the same Spirit , having all one and the same priviledges , joy and glory , therefore we should bee all one in our love and acceptance , knowing no distinction , but Saintship as Tichborn well notes , on Job . 13.35 . Now it is our living too much in the flesh and forme ( as wee shall shew by and by ) which makes us mind so much such men , as are of our judgement above others , and to put a difference ! This will be cause of pale countenance one day , that we should so fall out by the way , whilst we are all going home to the same Fathers house ; O then ! why do we fall out ! are we not brethren ? a brother must be received and welcomely admitted ! censure him not , though he be not of thy judgement , for he hath as much right to the Ordinances of the Church , and to be a member of the Church of Christ , to suck of the same full breasts and priviledges ( having the same Father and Mother , and elder-brother ) as thou hast . Reason 7. Vers. 10. &c. We shall all stand before the judgement reason 7 seat of Christ. This argument is drawn ( a proprio jure Christi ) from the day of judgement , being amplified from the person judging ( who is Christ , Ast. 17.31 . whose authority and right it is to judge , Joh. 5.22 ) and by the persons judged . ALL : the manner of their appearance ( shall stand ) whilst the Judge himselfe sits . The argument runs thus : They that shall stand before Christs judgement seat to be judged themselves , ought not as judges of their brethren to put any by ( for their opinions ) or to condemne them ; you shall all stand before Christs TRIBVNAL to be judged your selves ( all of you strong and weak ; ) or else ( a jure Christi ) he proves they usurp Christs place , whose sole right it is to judge them for what they hold out of conscience ( as Pareus rather thinks the Apostle here intends ) and that they shall stand before Christ for this sawcinesse and pride over their brethren , which is easie to draw up into argument , mood and figure . The judgement seat by a figure ( per metonymiam signi ) and per metaphoram a judiciis civilibus , is taken for the judgements which passe from the Judge sitting in his Court. Now the consideration of this should induce us to our duty to our brethren ( that differ from us ) for we shal stand together before Christ at one and the same Bar , 2 Cor. 5.10.11 . and shall the prisoner , that shall stand at the Bar for his life as guilty of a world of errors , leap up into Christs ( the Judges ) seat ? to condemne his brother ? as for an error ? and to keep him out of Christs Church ? Oh! how will Diotrephes tremble at this his arrogance ! pride ! and impudence , then ! that he durst shut the Church-door against his brethren ? as 3 Joh. 9. For as Anselme in loc . sayes , Qui judicat fratrem tantum crimen elevationis incurrit , ut Christi Tribunal sibi videatur assumere , & ejus judicium praevenire ; he pre-possesses Christs seat , and prevents Christs judgement , wherefore judge nothing before the time , 1 Cor. 4.5 . this he makes a seventh Argument against this judgelike power in receiving . Reason 8. Vers. 13. This runs ( a scandalo dato ) from reason 8 the offence given thereby , that is by censuring , condemning , or forbidding such Saints communion with you , who differ from you in opinion ; this will be but a putting of a stumbling block in his way . Vers. 13. To hinder , and hurt him . ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) As a stone which is laid for a poor weake feeble man to fall on ; or at least to dash his foot against : for in regard of his weaknesse he wil easily stumble , if not fall ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ) There is an offence given by obstructing , or censuring , or judging of a ( different ) brother , but it is got up to a scandal ( scandalum gravius est offendiculo ) when you do deny , put by , and not receive such a brother . Now what is a scandal ? Tertullian sayes de vel andis virginibus , it is an example ( non bonae rei , sed malae , edificans ad delictum ) not of a good thing , but of an evill thing , which emboldens and heightens , and builds up into an open , ( undeniable ) sinne . At first it may bee but doubtfull whether it bee well or ill ; but at last it lyes open to be a sinne ; so is this your rejecting of the brethren , and not admitting them into the Church , because not of your judgement and opinion . The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( claudico ) from the Etymology taken , signifies to make lame , and limp , and halt like a Cripple , by causing some great fall , from whence I accept of it , and shall arrest with the Schoolmen this definition for mine ( scandalum proprie est dictum vel factum minus rectum praebens aliis occasionem ruinae ) ▪ It is a word and worke not well performed , but producing and affording occasion of falling to others . So is this a scandal to keep out my brother , and not to receive him as before , which may hinder and hurt him ever after , and occasion his falling . And although scandal is taken in general ( pro aliquo impedimento ) for any offence , and hinderance , or ob●x in the way that obstructs , bolts , or bars ( as ) out of doors , or hinders , yet in special I find this is the offence which gives a ( differing ) brother any occasion to fall away ( whether such a brother does so or no ) and this is a sinne so much forbidden in Scripture . Hence the Grammarians say , that scandalum is as the bridge in the trap , which when the Mouse once treads on , o● touches , she is taken sure ; and so is it to give a scandal to a brother ( that is not of your opinion ) it is to lay a trap in the way to take him , and destroy him . Hence it is dangerous to despise ( such differing ) brethren , and not to receive them ; for first , it is a scandal to them ( sayes the Apostle ) it discourages , discomforts , discontents them , and occasions oftentimes them to fall , at least to limp ▪ and halt , and grow worse and worse ; and this I account one reason of so many Ranters and erronious ones now adayes , 1 Cor. 8.13 . 1 Cor. 10. O sad ! as we shall shew by and by , that some Church-fellowships are so fleshed and fat , that they will not abate an ace of their forme for a brothers sake , neither to bear with him in their formal kinde of Covenanting ! subscribing ! confessing ! nor any thing else which is left ( by Christ , doe what they can ) to Christian liberty ! But ( scandalum ) offence is either ( activum dantis , vel passivum sumentis ) active , and so it is given , or passive , and taken . That which is given ( I speak of ) ▪ is active and pragmatical to offend ; and thus in urging , pressing , shewing indiscreetly , rashly , and unseasonably the practise of your opinion upon others , as urging the use of outward things left to liberty and indifferent . O! take heed of any of Christs little ones Mat. 18.6 . Now the Apostle presses this argument taken ( a scandalo ) many wayes ! for first , I say it is an offence to this brother whom thou receivest not ; and it is an occasion to his fall , therefore receive him . For it is a greater sinne , and a greater punishment remaines for such which cause others to offend and fall , then for such who do so offend and fall . So the Serpent was punished more then Eve , and Eve more then Adam , and Jezebel more then Ahab . ( Peccare non tantum in se perditionis habet quantum quod reliqui ad peccandum inducuntur , Chrysost. Hom. 25 in Epist. ad Rom. Secondly , It is a scandal with reference to Christ. Vers. 15. for whom Christ dyed ; O! what will the world say ! what ? are these Christs Disciples , that gurn , bite at , abuse , despise , refuse , and condemne one another thus ! is this all their charity of weake ones to shut them out of doors ! and besides , how dare you to offend one of them for whom Christ dyed ? doe ye thinke they are of so little worth for whom Christ dyed ? that you will not receive them ? what do you make of his blood ? what a scandal is this ? Further , the Apostle , to enforce this , findes out this scandal to reach to Profession , Religion , the truth and Gospel its selfe . In Vers. 16. Let not your good be evil spoken of ▪ or your Gospel liberty , and way of Christ be defamed , nor truth traduced , nor Doctrine , nor Discipline , nor the Kingdome of grace , ( as Olevian sayes ) be blasphemed ! ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) or evill spoken of , 1 Tim. 6.1 . 1 Pet. 2.12 . 1 Cor. 29.30 . How eagerly did Mr. Prin , Bastwick and others take advantage to write and print all they could against this Gospel of Christ , for that the niceties and curiosities of some Church societies did exclude , others ( that were not of their judgement ) though truly godly and holy ! Therefore for the Gospels sake receive them , and have special regard ( for by not admitting such , and judging hardly of them ) you will open the mouths of Gods enemies against the truth , and give them advantages against the way , whereby with Bernard in Serm. Ezek. 38.17 . the Church sustaines great damage , even by her own Children . Reason 9. Runs from Vers. 14 , 15 , &c. I am perswaded by the Lord Jesus Christ , nothing is unclean of it self , but to him that esteemeth it so , &c. from this Concession ( that nothing of its selfe is unclean ) comes out a correction . Vers. 15. Therefore condemn not thy brother for eating , because it is an erronious conscience that makes a thing unlawful : For all actions receive their qualifications according to the will of the Agents , and the will acts according to the object , a thing apprehended by reason ; If thou judgest by thy light that to doe this is sinne , and yet thy will carries thee to it ; why then it is unlawfull indeed , and thou sinnest to doe it ; but if thou judgest it no sinne , it is lawfull according to thy light and conscience to bee ( by will ) carried thereto ; therefore let thy light be Gods light , grounded on the word , and then be perswaded . It is miserable to doubt in things commanded , and to be commanded in things doubtful and indifferent , ( praejudicium non est judicium sed vitium . ) Things indifferent are lawful to him that esteems them so , and unlawfull to him that esteems , and is perswaded they are unlawfull ; see Chap. 1. therefore let not one censure , condemne , cast by , or grieve the other , but receive each other in charity , and bowels of love , and each walk according to his judgement and perswasion , ch . 1. Reason 10. Vers. 17. For the Kingdome of God is not meat reason 10 and drinke , but righteousnesse , and peace , and joy in the Holy Ghost . This Argument is taken ( a natura rerum mediarum ) from the nature of things indifferent , and drawne up from the definition of the Kingdome of God ; from the Thesis and Antithesis take this argument , in forme thus ; for those things the Kingdome of God consists not of , we ought not so to contend ; but meats & drinks , outward formes and Covenants , &c. the Kingdome of God consists not of , &c. ergo , &c. contend not so for such indifferent things , as to judge , or not to admit , and receive a brother . The Kingdome of God consists not of things doubtful or indifferent , but absolute and necessary , Luke 17.20 , 21. 1 Cor. 8.8 . therefore none are to be shut or kept out of this Kingdome , for their judgement in things doubtful or indifferent . This Kingdome ( sumitur pro regno gloriae ) sometimes is taken for that of Glory , the Fathers , which is to come ( ubi Deus erit omnia in omnibus ) and by some ( pro regno gratiae ) ( and so here ) for the Church of Christ , the Kingdome of the Son , the state of grace here ; but take which you will , they are both of one kind , of one make , have one and the same matter , forme , and end ; and neither of them consists in outward forms , or is in meat and drink , or the like , but both of them consist in righteousnes , peace & joy in the Holy Ghost , that is , the substantialia regni are one & the same ; and such members as are fit for one , are fit for the other . These are Characters of such Citizens as are fit , whose Christianity , Religion , Profession , enchurchment , &c. lyes not in meat and drinke , that is , in the outward formes , letters , and things left to liberty , whether to do , or not doe ; but in righteousnesse inherent and infused , and also expressive and declared in faith and holinesse , and in their duties of obedience , and in peace , which follows justification , and unity one with another , which is unity of the Spirit , the Holy Ghost being the procreant cause of this peace and love , and joy , which issues and runs out of such a righteousnesse and peace before spoken of : now those things are necessary , which the Kingdome of God consists of . Oh then ! that differences should arise about such things as the Kingdome of God consists not of ! but can as well bee without ! as about Covenants ! Confessions ! and Subscriptions ! and such things that are indifferent ! or that are doubtful ! as the subjects of baptisme , and whether dipped , or sprinkled , or such like , being left without positive warrant in the word . Oh then ! learne , learne , to put a difference where the Lord puts a difference , as between things spiritual and things carnal ! things of a middle nature , and things necessary , which the Kingdome of God , the Church of Christ cannot be without ! And let us make no difference where the Lord would have none . Reason 11 , from Vers. 18. For he that in these things serves reason 11 Christ , is acceptable to God , and approved of men . The Argument is thus : He that is the servant of Christ ; is to be received , but he that is righteous , and beleeves , and obeyes the Gospel ( whether he eats , or eats not , notwithstanding these formes ) is the servant of Christ , therefore to be received . Thus the argument is a genere : but from the effects , 1 Gods acceptation ; 2 Mans approbation . He that is acceptable to God , is to be received : but he that serves Christ , beleeves in Christ , and obeyes the Gospel , in righteousnesse , peace , and joy of the Ghost , though he be not of your opinion in things indifferent & doubtful , yet is acceptable to God , therefore to be received . Further thus from the other effect , Hee that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a tryed Professor , and a currant approved Christian amongst men , is to be received ; but he that serves Christ ( as before ) in righteousnesse , peace and joy of the Holy Ghost , though he be not of your judgement , yet is a tryed approved Christian amongst men , ergo ; loquitur de hominibus recte judicantibus , saith Pareus in loc . & Calvin . But now ! see ! O , what arguments the Apostle brings to clear this point ; yea with what big-bellied arguments ( one in the belly of another ) he urges them to receive Saints differing from them in judgement ! being holy and peaceable , accepted of God , approved of men , Prov. 3.1 , 2 , 3. Act. 10.35 . 1 Pet. 3.13 . the Kingdome of God is not in words , but in power , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Nazianzen . Reason 12. from Vers. 19. Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace , and wherewith to edifie one another . reason 12 This reason lets out two arguments to receive ( differing ) brethren ; as First , What agrees with the true peace and order of the Church is to be performed , but to receive such brethren as before , agrees with the true peace and order of Christs Church . This Peace is either Spiritual , or Ecclesiastical ( so called ) this latter ( if true ) is taken out of the former , and is content with the substance to finde faith , love , grace , holinesse in brethren , though they differ in forme , ( and for this , see Dels way of peace , about pag. 120 , 121. &c. ) therefore Christ hath left his peace , ( his ) in the Church , but not as the world gives it , Joh. 16. the world can have no peace but with men of the same minde and judgement ; but Christs peace , and Christs love is to all Saints alike , without respect of persons or opinions . This bond of peace and union is spiritual , Eph. 4.4 , 5 , 6. and so is this order in symmetry with the Rules of Christ , which ( hath been proved ) do require all Saints to bee admitted and received . Hence the Church is called the Lords house and family , which consists of old and young , great and small , high and low , &c : yet the difference of sexes , relations , sizes , statures , ages , estates , make it neverthele●●e in order and peace , a family or house ; So it is called his building , in which it is necessary there should bee matter to make it up of different forme and hew ; and though there may be much difference amongst them that are the building , yet being orderly and fitly disposed , it hinders not the welfare of that building at all ; therefore the Church is also called a Kingdome and Corporation , a City compact , &c. in Scriptures ; and all to shew , that although there bee such as do differ , as it were , in Trades , Callings , complexions , places , imployments , professions , ages , statures , yet being all subject to one Law and Law-giver , there is never the lesse peace and order : So a body , 1 Cor. 12 for although the members differ much , one bigger or lesser , and some gifted more then others , and more usefull then others , or more faire and formal in appearance then others , yet all serve to make one body ; and this difference is necessary thereunto , to make up a more orderly body . For as the unity , peace , welfare , and order of the body stands wel with a distinction , and difference of members , which doth not hinder , but help the unity , and order , and welfare of the body ( and is better then if all the body were an eye to see , or an ear to hear , &c. ) so doth the diversity of Church-members , with diversity of gifts , and graces , Rom. 13.6 . help much to the order and edifying of the Church ▪ which is his second Argument . That which is for the Churches edification ought to be performed : but to admit Saints of all opinions ( differing onely in things indifferent ) as before , is for the Churches edification , Eph. 4.29 . 1 Thess. 5.11 . as the least member is usefull to the body , and the meanest matter in the building usefull to the building ▪ Now falsely constituted Churches that are of Antichrist ( indeed ) cannot stand without uniformity , but Christs-can , and be edified as a growing Temple , Eph. 2.21 . Reason 13. from Vers. 20 , 21. Though all things are ( in themselves ) pure , ( yet ) it is evill for that man which eats with offence . reason 13 It is not good to eat , nor drinke , nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbles , &c. So in 1 Cor. 6.12 . and 10.23 . all things are lawfull that are not expedient ; by these the Apostle would teach us to abstaine from things ( that in themselves are good , pure , clean , lawful ) that are indifferent , for a brothers sake , 1 Cor. 8.13 . the Apostle tells us thus much ; as first , That all things of a middle nature may be waved ( as Covenants , subscriptions , &c. Formes , and false Circumstances ) Secondly , rather then cause a body to fall or stumble as before , they must be waved , and not be urged , which is the scope and drift of this Chapter , and of the eighth Chapter , and tenth Chapter of 1 Cor. Now it is the Church that hath power to determine the use of indifferent rites by the Word and Law of Christ , for the maintaining of good order and spiritual peace , and unity . Now Christian liberty consists as well in abstaining from , as in using of those things indifferent . Wee may use our Christian liberty ( sayes Par ) before them which know it ; but before them which know it not , and are offended at it , out knowledge is sufficient , and our use is forbidden ; therefore wisdome and discretion is earnestly to bee sought for from above , that you may know when , where , and how to use your liberty , to call for , or not to call for ; use , or not use things indifferent ; for when liberty ( as Greg. Mag. Moral . 28. marks ) Indiscrete tenetur , amittitur , cum discrete intermittitur , plus tenetur ) is unwisely held , it is oftentimes lost , it is no longer a liberty , but oftentimes when it is wisely and prudentially intermitted , it is made the more a Christian liberty ; now the excellency of it , is the use , or not use of it . The actions of Gospel-discipline , are such as are essential , as piety and power of Sanctity and Profession , or else such as are ordinate ( & media ) or helps appointed for the orderly performance of such a Worship and Discipline ; so are all Ordinances , means of grace , and administrations ; now in these are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be considered , the things that are to bee done , and the manner of their doing ; the first , are instituted of God , and revealed in his word ; but the second sort concerning the manner of performing them , as time , place , gesture , and such like circumstances , are left to liberty , as is best for the order , use and unity of the Church , 1 Cor. 14.40 . 1 Cor. 11.24 . Now those brethren that doe differ from you in things left to liberty , that have not posit ve precept ; the Apostle sayes , you must admit and receive , and ra●her abstaine from those things then ( as to him ) then render offence , or cause him to stumble ; for though thou bevest this or that may be , yet have thy faith to thy self . Vers. 22. and not for another . Thus you have the scope of the whole Chapter to ratifie this undeniable assertion laid downe at first , for receiving of such as are weake , though differing in opinion ; and this point lyes cleare in many other Scriptures besides , both Prophesies and Precepts , and practise of primitive Churches . You have it pr●phesied in Micah 4.5 . This Chapter begins with the promised happinesse , and eminency of the Church of Christ foretold these latter dayes , and amongst other things , this is one Promise made , foretelling her eminency thereby , and her exceeding glory above the glory of former ages ; for that all Nations shall come , that is not meant ( sayes Gualter ) All of all Nations , but many peoples of many languages , under many wayes , formes , orders , and dispensations , shall come in to the Church of Christ , Jew and Gentile , bond and free , of all sorts , and opinions , that are the Lords , under the reigne of Christ shall come in ; though Jew and Gentile are at as much variance and distance for their different judgements one from another as may bee , yet they must be one in one . For there is but one Body of all beleevers ( of all judgements ) Eph. 4 4 , 5 , 6. in all ages , under all forms of all degrees and measures , of light and life , Eph. 2.15 . Col. 3.15 . having all the same faith ( for quality ) in the same Christ , and all live on Christ by faith ( not by forme . ) Thus all ( of us ) will walke every one in the name of his God , and we will walke ( also ) in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever ; Every one according to his light and measure obeying God constantly , and then saith the Lord , I will assemble her that halteth between God and Baal , 1 King. 18 ( two opinions ; ) and make even her a remnant , and a Congregation , over whom I will reigne in Zion . Besides , Ezek. 36.37 , 38. you have the richest blessings reserved for the last dayes , when Paradise shal be restored , and the Church shall become the Lords Eden , in vers . 35. I will increase them , saith the Lord , with men like a flocke ; how is that ? i. e. thus , in a flocke ( alluding to a shepherds flocke ) there be old and young , Lambs and Ews , Isa. 40.11 . of several sorts , sizes , colours , complexions ; yet all make but one flocke , and it is not the difference of the fleece , of the colour , or outward appearance , or tone , or bleat , or going , or weaknesse , or leannesse , or raggednesse , that makes it none of the flocke , so long as it is a sheep still ; as long as none of these differences are such as make it no sheep . So the Church of Christ shall consist of Saints ( though they differ in opinions , so long as those opinions cannot make them no Saints ) that are under variety of dispensations , administrations , forms , opinions , and severall measures of grace and spirit ; And yet the Lords flocke , a holy flocke . Verse 38. all having one Master-Shepherd , serving one and the same God , as Zeph. 3.9 . I will turne the peoples of all Nations to a pure language , i. e. of the Spirit , and then all ( under all formes , orders , languages whatsoever , all ) shall serve the Lord with one consent , all shall agree in one , and consent in that to serve the Lord , and to draw together with one shoulder ; as the simile runs , from a yoake of Oxen drawing together ; yea the Leopard , and the Kid , the Lion and the Lamb shall lye down together . See this also foretold by Zach. 2.11 . Many Nations shall be joyned together , and Zach. 8.23 . of all languages , shall take hold of him that is a Jew , saying , We will goe with you , for we have heard that God is with you : that is , Men enlightned that have found the Lord ( as in verses before ) and are united to him , they shall now enter into the Church of Christ , where the Lord is with them . Though they be of all Languages , Nations , habits , forms , and appearances , so they be but holy , and seekers and servants of the Lord as before , they must be received , though there be as large a difference ( in things outward and formal ) as between other Nations , and the Jews , yet they must be all one , and brought into one body . God will gather all his people into one , and every year he is hastning this designe , to bring all into one . But for further proofes , see Phil. 3.15 , 16. If any be of another minde ) what then ? not put him by , no but walk with him ; for God shall in time reveal it to him ; Neverthelesse whereunto we have already attained ( and are all of one minde and judgement ) let us ( all ) walke ( together , as Phil. 1.27 . and Phil. 2.1 , 2. ) by the same rule ( of Christ ) let us minde the same things ( that is , of God , the honour and glory of God , the worship and service of God ) thus much , to me , lyes under the Commission Christ gave in Mat. . 28. Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to keep them charily , whatsoever commanded and commended to them in Discipline and Doctrine ; now this was one in Mat. 19.14 . to admit even of Infants in Christ , of such who are as weake , simple , innocent , and as unable , as little ones to speak or expresse themselves , &c. yet such are to be by Christs Disciples ( Christs-Church ) received , and admitted as well as others that are of a more manly , growne , and strong stature in Christ ; for of such as these little ones ( as well as of strong ones ) consists the Kingdome of heaven . Moreover , we might muster many Authors together to beare testimony to this truth ; but besides what was said before , we shall finde the examples of all Churches in primitive times to take in all Saints , though of different opinions ( if holy , and beleevers ) in Corinth , Rome , Galatia , Antioch , &c. where were Jews , and Gentiles , circumcised and uncircumcised , and such as did exceedingly differ in opinions ; thus Rom. 14. Gal. 2.11 . and 5.1 . and Act. 15.1 , 2. and 1 Cor. 12 , 13. for by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body , whether Jews or Gentiles , bond , or free ; so after the Apostles dayes , as appears by Ecclesiastical Writers , all that were godly in Christ Jesus without respect of persons or opinions were received , their faith in Christ and love to all Saints was looked upon as necessary and enough ( as Mr. Fox observes ) till the hot contest between the Asians and the Romans about the observation of dayes , An. 157. and then in Antoninus Pius's reigne was Polycarpus faine to goe to Rome to Anicetus ( then Bishop of Rome ) and though they two differed in opinion , yet were they one in most sweet , kinde , and Christian communion , and both avoided the breach of unity or peace , sayes Euseb. Eccles. Hist. lib. 5. cap. 23 , & Socrat. Schol. Hist. Ec. 5. cap. 21. ) and as Irenaeus writes to Victor ( as we shall heare by and by ) the Church before this time received such as were of contrary opinions , and held contrary observations , and yet notwithstanding held fast the bond of love and unity . ( Vide Par on Rom. 14 v. 6. ) Afterwards in Comodus's dayes the poore Saints had a little breathing time , and respite from persecutions to take aire a little , and then arose ( as is usual in the times of the Churches peace and liberty ) a loud difference amongst brethren about the observation of Easter day , and such trifling ceremonies , some ( and those of the Western parts ) as Mr. Del takes it in 's way of peace , pag. 116 , 117. ) pretended the tradition of Paul and P●ter to observe it on one day ( although indeed they had it from Hermes and Pius ) and the Easterne Churches pretended the tradition of John to observe it another day : and about these trifles they had hot word-wars and skirmishes in discourses ; but yet love continued , and unity and order in the Church , till Victor's time , a fiery ( brand , or ) Bishop of Rome ; and hee rose high , and as hot as a Toast , to excommunicate all that were not of his judgement for Easter-day , after the ( pretended ) tradition of Paul. And the Asian Churches not yeelding to his opinion , he would cast out , and take none in , but those that did just jump with him in his opinion ; hereupon those of his opinion went to him , and of the other , to the Churches of Asia . Now the difference growing great , even to the breach of unity , order , and all , and that about trifles , things not necessary ; Irenaeus writes to Victor Bishop of Rome roundly , and tells him it was not so before : for among former Christians , & in the Churches then , they were all at peace , and in love amongst themselves , although there were variety of opinions , and observations , and till this time Christian liberty continued in use , and it remained fresh to use or not use things indifferent ; but now began uniformity to be of force and in fashion , and to be all of one opinion a thing necessary , ( and not before ) and such as differed to be judg●d Schismaticks , Hereticks , and the like . And now all alike have been in a flame , and the Saints of Asia ( that could not be induced to them , or seduced by them of Rome ) were to be cast out , and excommunicated by Victor ; but then the word was brought forth to decide the difference : and those spiritual weapons ▪ to win the Conquest Irenaeus uses ( as before ) and sayes thus further to Victor in his letter . The variance and difference about ceremonies is not now new , nor strange in the Church of Christ , both about Easter day , and Fast dayes ; and yet for all this diversity , they were in unity among themselves , which he proves , and brings abundance of examples for it , and instances in Telesphorus , Pius , Anicetus , Soter , Eleutherius , and others , who neither tyed themselves nor others to an uniformity , or to be of their judgement or opinion , but all were left to Christian freedome . And as Socrates lib. 5. cap. 19. sayes of the several sorts of fasting then used in several Churches , because none can bring any commandement written of this matter , it is plaine ( sayes he ) it is left free to every mans minde and will , and none to be compelled by fear or necessity to doe this or that . Thus we see in those dayes the Saints that differed in judgement and opinion were beloved , and received , and accepted as Saints , without respect to their opinions , till Victor's time , when Antichrist began to get a head , and to assinuate secular powers , &c. And ever since , O what sad differences have arose ! ( by the Devils subtilties , and Jesuitical sophistries ) and what ranke seeds of division have been sowne to set Christians together by the ears , and that about nothing ! empty shadows , and puff-paste appearances ! and all hereby to vilifie the Church of Christ , and true Saints , as if such could not bee Christs Disciples who differ so , seeing they should all love one another , Joh. 13. and not fall out , and jar as they doe . Doe not the enemies of the Gospel to this day , Papists , and others make sport of this , and make it an argument against us that wee are not Christs ? O what a may-game they made ( and doe yet ) at the hot contestations between Calvin , and Luther in Germany ? and betwixt the Lutherans and Calvinists ? what fearful , detestable , unchristian combats are there yet ? how unkind and cruelly hateful are the one to the other , and all about opinions ? And in our dayes what a bone is cast in to make a quarrel between the Presbyterians and Independents ? Independents and Anabaptists , & c ? Now that which is worst , is , that they differ in affections as much ( yea more ) then in opinions ( which is a most miserable thing amongst them that are indeed godly ) now this was not so from the first ; for as we have heard before ; so Augustine and Hierom differed in opinion , but yet loved one another heartily , and did not at all disturb the Church thereby , but had high esteem one of another for all that , as Peter had of Paul ( who differed from him , and preached openly against him , Gal. 2.11 . ) yet , sayes he , Our beloved brother Paul , 2 Pet. 3.15 . And I remember , when the Donatists did urge Cyprian's opinion for rebaptizing , O , sayes Augustine for him , Hunc quasi nevum candidissiim pectoris cooperuit ubere charitatis , but he hath covered this faulty opinion of his most faire and candid breast , with the full bigs of charity ; for he did hold fast to his brethren that differed from him , in all love and sweetnesse , and would not rend away from the Church , but maintained the unity of the Church ( which was not of his minde ) and kept continually the bond of peace ! Oh! O then , that all brethren of all opinions would learne this lesson , and we should be glad to have communion with such kinde of Anabaptists ! Donatists ! Cypriansts ! or what opinion soever , so holy ! But thus I have proved it to be the practise of primitive times to admit differing brethren , till Antichrist began to start up . And Melancthon sayes , ( as Dell observes , pag. 120. in 's way of peace ) seeing we agree together in the chiefe Articles of faith , and Christian doctrine , wee must embrace each other ( as brethren ) in unity and Christian love , order , and peace ; and let not the difference of rites , or variety of Ceremonies , or difference of opinions , dis-joyne our mindes and hearts from one another ; no , nor yet the difference of Ecclesiastical government ( sayes Bucer ) make us differ from one another : have we not all one Father ? for shame let us love and live together as Saints . Besides all this Artillery to defend this truth , viz. That all Saints might be admitted , I might fortifie it further by other Reasons , which I shall omit them now ( having been alreardy at large ) unlesse taken in two or three considerations ; As First , that all Saints are Sons and Daughters of light , and therefore have liberty to lay by what is dark to them ; for as Psal. 39. ult . in the Lords light they see light , not in mans light ; they cannot see with other mens eyes . Therefore they have a liberty of rejecting , or refusing whatsoever they find not agreeable to the revealed minde of Christ ; And whatsoever is asked of them , or accepted from them ( as matter of faith ) and they are required to obey , or yeeld submission to , they must , and will have Gods word to give it them , & the Gospel of Christ to hold it out to them , or else they returne a blanke to it , or a negative answer , 1 Thess. 5.22 . Col. 2.20 , 21 , 22 ▪ 1 Joh. 4.1 , 2. Act. 17.11 . Gal. 5.1 . and will have none of it , that hath none of Christs Commands for it : wherefore it is with them as it was with the Beraeans ; they search the Scriptures whether they can finde such things so or no. Children of day , they see where they goe ; but them of darknesse doe not , Act. 17.23 . 1 Joh. 2.11 . they goe they know not whither , but at a venture doe as others doe ; whilst the Saints of God walk warily , wisely , knowingly , &c. yea and armed with light too , Rom. 13.12 . being round about swallowed up ( as it were ) in a clear truth , which they are able to defend and maintaine , having put on the armor of light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instruments , weapons of light too for defenc● . The word of God which conquers them they use to conquer others with , and in such cases as these are , ( as to the Doctrine and Discipline of Christ ) the Saints had need to be clear ; for they shall meet with many adversaries , oppositions , enemies , hot , strong , sturdy , and lusty , and that will with full blows , and violent buffets , and arguments use all means to assault , wound , and knock them down ; therefore , I say , they had need to have the armour of light on , against the time they are to meet their storming , angry , raging adversaries , else they will soon yeeld and faint ; therefore it is that nothing should be urged upon them which is darke to them . For as darknesse is caused by the absence of the Sun , so is darknesse in the minde , and upon mens spirits , when they finde not Christs ( the Sunnes ) light to shine in their hearts , and to give them the knowledge ; and when they finde not in the Gospel , that forme , opinion , or practise , which others urge to them , and would presse upon them , then they are in the darke , which ought not to bee thrust upon any Saint , or Brother , that is to be received . For first , wherein they are in the darke , they are disconsolate ; whilst those that live in the light walk in the day , and doe what is cleare to them out of the word of God , and doe it chearfully , freely , comfortably , and indeed confidently . And the conscience is cleared , and rejoyces in such practises as are approved by day-light , and are cleared in the understanding , and proved by the word of Christ. And Secondly , darknesse hinders sight , tenebrae a tenend ; and tenebra est visus impeditiva ; and so doe such opinions and practises which are pressed upon us without the word of Christ ( without the light ) and not in the beams of the Sunne ; those brethren cannot see other things ( often-times ) that are swallowed up in them . Who are more blinded ( as to the most spiritual objects and discoveries ) then your greatest formalists ? that are most hot , high , stirring , pressing their owne formes , opinions , judgements , especially in things doubtful , and indifferent ( and such things as are left indifferent ( and such things as are left in the darke without the word ; ) O! how bitterly are they besotted & incensed against the more subtle ! oriental ! spiritual ! and most splendent truths ! ( color omnibus unus ) thus were the Pharisees , and so Isa. 29.10 . and Joh. 9.39 . Thirdly , they know not how to walke when they are in the dark ( est gressus prohibitiva ) nor whether they are right or no ; And Fourthly , they walke in feare ( for so much as they are in the darke , est timoris incussiva ) and so they cannot but bee faint and fearfull of that opinion , practise , or forme , which they finde not in the word of God ; And Fifthly , ( est casus inductiva ) it is dangerous , and they are liable to fall then when they are forced or induced to do that which they see not warranted in the word , but left in the dark too : and who then would ( as was said before ) give a brother such occasion to stumble and fall ? Sixthly ( est verecundi● diminutiva ) this night-opinion , or practise , or forme ( whatsoever it be ) which any are brought into , makes them ( many times ) too immodest tooth and naile ( unguibus & dentibus ) to fight for , and act for what the word warrants not . As the night that makes night-walkers too bold in immodest formes , and appearances and practises sutable thereto . So , O sad ! some of your formalists you will finde have the Whores forehead ! harlots-dresse , and are too bold ! ( as blind Bayard ) and confident for such formes ! opinions ! practises ! and wayes , which have none of Gods word to give life or light to them ! and yet how hot are some for Antichristian orders , and customes , which ( were the light up , and did the Sunne shine in their Horizon ) they would even blush to owne , and be ashamed to shew their heads for . Now all these ( and many more ) inconveniencies would be unavoidable consequences of such practises , as to presse our opinions or judgements upon any of the Saints , and upon such conditions to admit of them into Communion , which God forbid should be in our thoughts hereafter ; For let us doe as we would be done by , and let every one walke ( that is a childe of Light ) in the light and liberty of his owne conscience ; for better it is to follow even an erring conscience , when it cannot bee informed and corrected , then to doe against conscience . But thus for the first Consideration . Secondly , Consider what is the glory and beauty of Sion , ( which shall be shortly ) the joy of the whole earth ? is it not variety in unity ? and into unity ? The Church militant is the image or figure of the Church triumphant , and all her Ordinances , Orders , Forms of Discipline and Doctrine are no more , ( nor lesse ) then a shadow of what is to come in the Jerusalem which is above , Gal. 4.26 . wherefore the word Jerusalem in the Heb. is of the duall number , to teach us ( as the Cabalists confesse ) there is an heavenly , as well as earthly Jerusalem● and the taking away of the letter jod out of J●rushalaim 2 Sam. 5 13. teaches the earthly Jerusalem is but the shadow , and the shadow vanishes away into the substance , which is that , that is above . Thus the Apostle intimates in Col. 2.17 . speaking before of many Ordinances of Circumcision , Baptisme , Sabbath-dayes , &c. which are all ( sayes he ) but a shadow of things to come . Like as you shall see the image of the Sun in a plash of water , where it looks like the Sun , full of light , and very lively , as if the Sun were seated there . So Cant. 6.9 . the Church here is said to bee the onely one , the choice one of her mother ( i. e. the Jerusalem above ) that is , she looks so like her Mother , as the very picture of her . So her Ordinances are but shadows of what is to come . Baptisme whereby they are washed here ( and in primitive times the Catechumeni and Adulti were wont as soon as they were wash●d , to be clad with white robes ) it is but a shadow of what is to come , Rev. 7.9.14 . when the Saints shall be clad with white robes , washed in the blood of the Lamb. The word here enunciative , is but a shadow of what is to come ( the body is Christ , saith the Apostle ) he is the word essential , Jo. 1.1 . the singing of Psalms Hymns , and spiritual Songs is but a shadow of that Hallelujah which i● to come , which we shall all sing with one voice before the Throne and Lamb for ever , Rev. 1.9.1 . and again Vers. 3. and again Vers. 4. and again Vers. 6. as never satisfied , and yet ever satisfied with singing it ( Victoria Hallelujatica . ) The Sabbath here is but a shadow of that which is to come . Christ is the body and substance of them all , he shall be the Temple of the New Jerusalem , that is , he shall be in the room , and stead of all Ordinances , Sacrifices , Worships , and services , viz. Christ , the substance of all . All the shadows are empty things , though caused by the substance in the light , yet the shadows are variable ( as the Sun turns ) in ev●ry age , and shall grow lesse and lesse , shorter and shorter , as the Sun grows higher and higher , till they be swall●wed up in the substance , and are no more ( as shadows ) seen . In the interim where the shadow ends , the substance begin● . The shadow is the darke , or imperfect representation of the person , and hath some similitude thereof . The Church here is a representation , or similitude of that to come ; that here is more in variety , that to come more in unity ; for in that to come , Saints of all judgements , under all formes , in all ages , are members of one Church ; and the more the Church here ( now ) looks like her that is to come , the greater is her beauty and glory ; and the more her variety is swallowed up in unity ; the more she looks like the Jerusalem which is above , for all shall be one Rev. 7. from 1. to 10. of all Nations , kindreds , peoples , tongues , which no man could number ; this is the work , the strange worke that God goes on so fast with , especially in these last Ages , and in these Nations , as Eph. 1.10 . To gather together into one , all things both which are in heaven & which are on earth , even in Christ ( the substance ) ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) to recapitulate , and bring up to one head , to collect ( as in multiplication ) all into one summe ; All things in one , all Saints , all Ordinances , all opinions , all forms , all excellencie● , to gather all into one . To reduce all to one head . For this Christ prayed so , Joh. 17.20 , 2● . that all Saints ( in all ages , of all opinions whatsoever ) that beleeved , or should ( for time to come ) beleeve in him , might be all one , and then their glory would be great , Jo. 17.22 . and they would be made the more perfect . Verse 23. O! we shall see every day more and more ( as the gathered Churches are more & more refined and spiritualized ) that they wil lesse presse the form , or pray for the opinions of such as are to be received and admitted , but wil make it enough to know that they are beleevers in the Lord Jesus and therefore ought to be one with them , be their opinions different from them in things doubtful and indifferent ; and this Doctrine shall shortly be imbraced without scruple or question ; and then the Church shall be more glorious and beauteous in the sight of all . As the b●ams of the Sun which are here below are many , & various , and spread divers wayes , yet the higher and nigher to the Sun , they are the more united , and the more they are united in one , the more splendent , and glorious they are ; So the Church growing upward to her full stature in Christ , the nigher she is ( to this Sun ) the more her multiplicity of forms , opinions , Saints , and all are made one in Christ , and the more glorious they must needs be ; and besides the more sweet & perfect they are too ; as variety and discord in musicke , make the sweetest concord , and most orderly and perfect period ; but thus far for the second Consideration . The third Consideration is from the rule of admission , which is a rule of Prudence , and Charity which are not membra dividentia ) any degree of true faith in Christ is enough to take them in , upon Rom. 14.1 . where we finde an absolute probability of a person converted by the power of grace , and called from darkn●sse to light , there wee are to take satisfaction , without a curious scrutiny ( which some make ) into their judgement in matters indifferent . Mr. Calvin in Epist. Rom. 14.4 . sayes , Semper bene sp●remus de eo in quo cernimus aliquid Dei , &c. Let us alwayes thinke and hope well of that brother in whom we see the ●east tokens of grace , or any thing of God dwelling in him ; ●t is a great fault amongst many to exact an excellent height of grace , judgement , or the like ; and to look for a Paul , or an Abraham presently ; O no! for God accepteth and receiveth the least grace and growth in truth : And so must wee even him that is weake in the faith , Rom. 14.1 . Now that rule which exacts other things , and requires more then is necessary , even to the weakest in the faith , excludes many times such as God includes , and hath ( himselfe ) received and accepted of ; wherefore we must have great care of grieving any of the Saints , or putting any by for their opinions in things doubtful or indifferent ; for to deny a truth ( even a very truth ) in things of a middle size , and left indifferent , does breed but a tolerable errour at the most ; but to do it in points positively commanded and necessary ( I confesse ) is an intolerable error at the least ; for stiffely to stand to an error in points necessary and fundamental , makes a man a Hereticke at the least , whilest the other can make him but a Schismaticke at the most . But thus for the third Consideration ; some more I might have added , but I hope I have said enough to wise men , and to all the true Churches of Christ in the world , to ratifie the truth asserted of brethren ( dissenting in things indifferent . ) Besides what Gamaliel said to the Councel , Act. 5.38 , 39. Refraine from these men , let them alone , lest haply ye be found even to fight against God. Mr. John Goodwin hereon affirmes , it is wisdome not to oppresse any in Gods wayes , of Gods servants , and to attempt any thing against a way , which for all that we know is the way of God , may be found but a fond engagement , and a fighting even against God himselfe ; so it is to shut out any for an opinion ( he holds ) which is left doubtful or indifferent in the Scripture , a great imprudence , if not impudence : And a zeale without knowledge , Rom. 10.2 . Eccles 7.18 . which is full of selfe-conceit . Now the Rule is a sound knowledge out of Gods word of the thing for which we are zealous , that it is right , and required in Gods word and Gospel , Gal. 4.18 . and let it be ( ad aequale ) according to our knowledge , Duo sunt ( sayes Anselme out of Augustin . Serm. 202. de temp . ) in quibus temerarium judicium cavere debemus , cum incertum est quo animo quicquam factum est , vel cum incertum est qualis futurus sit qui nunc vel bonus vel malus apparet . Rash judgement of any brother we must beware of in two things : First , when we know not with what a mind the thing is done ; And then secondly , when we know not what the man may be that thus appeares good ( at present ) or bad to us ; O then , therefore take heed how we judge , condemne , or keep out any beleever , be he of what opinion soever ! But so far for Explication : To be briefe in Application . Vse 1 Reproof : Are not they too to blame then , that stand too stifly upon Circumstances ? and trifles ? and forms ? and vse 1 such things as are left to liberty , and yet to impose a necessity upon them , is not this pestilent ? and unsufferable ? And yet , Oh how many unskilful builders in this age , that urge ( and that strongly ) an Vniformity , Vniformity ! as the Bishops cryed out for a Conformity , without which ( and they say true ) their Churches cannot stand . O sad ! how this mystery of iniquity works yet ! when the Churches order , peace , and happinesse consists in unity of the Spirit , and not in the unity of the Forme , as of a Prelatical , Presbyterian forme , or Prelatick Independent Forme , or Anabaptistical Forme ; O no! but in unanimity , not in uniformity ! For all outward Formes ( be they what they will , as Mr. Warr sayes , ( in his Dispute betwixt Form and Power , a pretty Tract , pag. 33. ) are part of those childish things which are to be done away , as Paul sayes ; hence it is that even as childhood is done away , and ceases in a more excellent growth and glory , viz. in the state of man-hood and perfection ; so shall all Formes of Discipline whatsoever ; Wherefore it is wrong done to the Church of Christ to keep up a F●rme to hurt , or hinder our growth , or offend any of the Saints , or ( as a dead Carcasse ) when it stinks , not to suffer , it to be buried ; so I say , to keep up any Forme as an engine of cruelty or persecution , or to make variance betwixt brethren . For who is so ready to crucifie Christ , as the Pharisee , or man of forme ? who is so contentious , and quarrelsome at the approaches and appearances of Christ ( in Spirit ? ) who is so captious at the truth shining in splendent spirituality ? who is so ready to betray them ? who sits so much at Councel against them ? and all , lest if Christ ( in the Spirit ) should bee beleeved , their ( Mosaical , Levitical ) rites , and forms would fall apace , and be of small repute , and not be received . So that , that Church-society , whose peace , love , order , and unity lyes altogether in the Forme , I may safely say , is such a spiritual Aegypt as we read of in Rev. 11 8. which is full of dead carcasses , and where Christ is crucified ( at this day . ) For as Aegypt ( which typified darknesse so ) it is a place of darknesse , and at least a vaile to keep poor creatures under ignorance , and to hinder them , and hide from them the excellencies and discoveries of Christ in the Spirit . In this Aegypt are many Magicians and wise men , who imitate Moses and Aaron , and they take counsel against the servants of God , the spiritualized ones , and Saints of Christ , saying , Let us deal wisely with them , Exod. 1.10 . lest they multiply and be more then we , &c. or let us deal subtlely against them , as Stephen sayes , the Greek renders it to keep them under us . So that they work against us more by policie , then by piety . As by putting strange names on the truth , to make it odious , as the Pharisees did on Christ in the flesh ; sometimes calling him Samaritan , sometimes Wine-bibber and Glutton , sometimes one that works by Beelzebub , and Devil , sometimes the friend of sinners , &c. all this to render him odious , that they might have the more suffrage to make him suffer as a blasphemer and malefactor , and none to pity him ; so subtilly do they disguise the true Gospel of Christ , the wayes of Christ , and spirituall truths , with new and strange names , calling them Errors , Heresies , Blasphemies , &c. and what not ? And why ? but that they may the more unanimously , and with the freer consent of the poore ignorant people ( who know not what they do ) crucifie Christ in the Spirit : such subtilties are in such societies , as we finde amongst the Presbyterians , and others counted Independents too , at this day . O how confidently they accuse , condemne , and crucifie the Lord , and spit on his face ! and lash him with their tongues in those truths , that they with wide-mouthed malice naucifie and scurrilize , and speake so unmercifully against ! Besides , O , what severe Task-masters , are in this Aegypt ! how the Ministers of it put poore men upon works , lay burthens on their consciences , compell them to their opinions , and set them upon doing day and night , and presse them to it on paine of death , hell and all ! but alas a day ! poore Saints , they have not where withall ( in themselves ) to doe any thing ! but to build a Pithom and Rameses , Treasure-Cities ▪ for Pharaoh the God of this world , to garrison against the appearances of Jesus Christ ! Furthermore they in this Aegypt would confine Saints ( Israel ) to their land ; to worship there , and to serve there , and then they could be content ; if we would but keep within the bounds of Aegypt , and not goe from our own Parishes , Classes , Teachers , or the like ! And moreover , O what a trouble to them it is to see Gods Israel doth encrease and multiply , doe what they can , and how are they afraid ! such a Church , I say , is but a Spiritual Aegypt , whose streets are full of dead carcasses ! corrupt unsavoury , stinking , dead , uselesse , life-lesse and abominable Formes , which are not fit to be above ground in any place , but where our Lord is crucified . Now , I say , O , it is sad ! where we yet meet with such hard Taskmasters , as would keep us in perpetual bondage , under their Formes , and Ordinances , and impose things upon us which wee are not able to beare . Seeing all Administrations and Formes must runne their race and fall : And we finde not that a Forme was created for a standing rule , but a temporary helpe to serve a turne , for an age , or so , wherein it is once usefull ( and then veniente perfecto , evacuatur imperfectum . ) For as every man will dye in time , when his radical moisture is spent , and yet he may be said to dye before his time , being anticipated in his course by intemperance , or miscarriage and mischance , and the like ; so every Forme will fall in time , and naturally expire ; and yet ( as we say ) may be cut off in the midst , and the fall of it hastened by the intemperance and miscarriages of such fondlings , as abuse it , and adore it : As the Brazen-serpent ▪ was suddenly knocked downe when people began to give honour to it , and to Idolize it ; for God is jealous of his honour , and rather then his glory shall be given to the Form , he will break it in peeces like a Potters vessel , and grinde it to powder to bee no more seen , nor set up againe ( as he did the golden Calfe . ) wherefore how dare wee doat upon any Form● which must and shall passe away ! wee read that Austin , An. 598. asked Gregory , how it came to passe there should be so many forms , and such diversity of customes and ceremonies in severall Churches and Countries , seeing there was but one Faith all this while ? why saith he , that you may choose out of all the best , and picked out things , out of all the Churches about here and there , whether in Rome , France , or else where , they being left to take which you best like , and approve of in conscience to practise , as most usefull and orderly . So that we are not to be tyed up to any one Forme , nor to have our consciences bound up to things left to liberty . Now methinks the Church of Christ ( which is his body too , and flesh ( as I may say ) now in his Saints , doth appear much parallel with Christs fleshly appearance upon earth ; For Christ in his flesh ( when he was here ) and Christ in his Church ( now here ) to my judgement , are said both to be his body in a parallel Forme ; For in this Church-forme every member , or Christian brother therein is ( as it were ) an emblem ( representing Christ ) in one stage or other of his life ; some live in a crucified Christ , some in an exalted and glorified Jesus ; some live in his life , some in his death ; some are debased and abused ; some are honoured and owned ; some live in Christ after the flesh and forme , others live in Christ after the Spirit , and power . And in this forme or appearance ( as it were in his flesh ) Christ does and suffers , lives , and dyes , descends , and ascends into a higher glory , and the highest pitch of a Christian's life is Christ risen and sitting , at the right hand of God. In this forme hee silences the Doctors , whips out buyers and sellers too out of the Temple ( turnes out mixed multitudes ) teaches in the Synagogues ( or Parishes ) yea and works miracles , and yet for all that the Pharisees ( of the Synagogues ) do slander him , and seek to crucifie him , as we said before ; so that in a Forme he is capable of suffering too , especially when his people are inslaved by an inforced uniformity , for which Antichrist makes use of Secular powers . But God hath in all ages powred his Vnction ( the Spirit ) upon some of his choisest servants to oppose Vniformity enforced ; and John Gerson , Chancellor of Paris a hundred years before Luthers time , layes about him hard , to beat down this Antichristian doctrine of Vniformity , or tying all to a Forme . For in his Sermon before the King of France ( pro pace & unione Graecorum ) in his seventh Consideration , he sayes , Men ought not to be bound up to beleeve and hold one and the same manner of Government in things that doe not immediately concerne the truth of faith , and the Gospel of Christ ; ( and saith ) he , were this well observed it would be the principal key to open a door of peace and love , and union among all different brethren , and Churches , and now between the Greeks and Latines who differ in many actions and forms , and rites , and rules . As for BAPTISME , the Latines say , I baptise thee ; but the Greeks say , Let us this servant be baptized , &c. So for the SVPPER , the Latines will have leavened bread , the Greeks unleavened bread ; but sayes he , Let every Province , and Church be at liberty about in his owne sense , and use his owne order and forme . Our Fathers before the Flood lived and worshipped in one Form ; after the Flood in another , before the Law in one , and under it in another , and after it , under the Baptist in another , under the ministration of Christ in the flesh in another , under the Gospel in another ; under the dispensations of the Spirit another way , &c. as Heb. 1 , 1 , 2. divers wayes , and in sundry manners . Now all such Formes ( as Gerson speaks of , and of such I speak ) why they are left free to use or not use ( as there is need of them ) without tyes ; wherefore no Forme should be so urged or pressed upon any brother or Saint , as to despise , judge , cast him out , or keep him off if he come not up to it , and under it ( which is a yoke to him who is not free ; ) Now , wee must willingly lay them aside , rather then lay them on any as a burthen ; for even Gods owne Ceremonies , Eph. 2.15 . and Commandements were laid aside , and put by to make peace and unity , that there might not be any difference among brothers ; no not between Jew and Gentile ( so far off ) but that they might be one . Much more must all our Formes ( for of such I speake all this while , let none mistake me ) they must much rather be throwne aside , then thrust on any Saint whatsoever . Famous is the answer of Eleutherius Bishop of Rome to Lucius K. of Brittain ( as Hollinshed in his Description of Brittaine , chap. 7 Anno 187. historifies ) when the Gospel began to be preached freely , and Brittaine received the faith , and without any impeachment , impediment , or Ceremonies at all ; yet King Lucius sends to Eleutherius for some model , or forme of Church-government , who had this answer . That Christ hath left sufficient order in the Scriptures for the government of his Church : you require , saith he , Our Forms and Laws ; but our Laws are faulty , G●ds Laws are never so , take the Scriptures , and look you out a government there , and follow that . So that this was rare , even from a Bishop of Rome himselfe ( being the fourteenth after Platina's Arithmeticke ) but it seems in those dayes they were more modest then they were afterwards , when they haled in , and hoised up humane inventions , and would make men submit to them , or else censure them ; yea I may say , then they are in these dayes , that doe even grate their teeth , and hate at their heart , such tender conscientious Saints as doe but doubt or question their injunctions and Precepts ; and surely this were fitter for the Turkes , for it is among them , that a man must not question ( no not on pain of death , and damnation ) their general received Religion and Ceremonies , whereby they enjoy a ( pace pudendo ) peace which we may be ashamed of ; but this it is , among men of form , they are afraid lest their Idols should be loathed when they are knowne . There is a great deal of Idolatry yet in England ; as when your Formalists set up any forme , or thing , in the room of God , which is not God ; that is done , sayes Mr. Perkins upon Gal. 5. three wayes : 1 When the God-head is ascribed to a meer creature , as it was said of Herod , The voice of God , and not of man. 2 When the property of the God-head is ascribed to the creature , or thing , or forme , Act. 12.22 . And thirdly , when the heart and affections are given up to the creature , Col. 3.5 . or Forms , when they make Idols of them . An Idol is taken two wayes : 1 A thing devised , a fiction , a humane forme or invention . 2 When we conceive of a Forme otherwise then it is ; Thus many have their Idols up , in this age , which God will downe with to the dust in the next : Though they say , Oh , they are holy , spiritual ! as Col. 2.20 , 21 , 22. what difference is between the Papists worshipping God in images , and the Presbyters , and some others in their formes ? which they adore so , and set up in the room of Christ , and his Spirit ; is not this Idolatry ? When Phaedra lay with Hippolytus , she protested that she embraced Theseus in him , whom hee so neerly resembled ; but yet this freed her not from being an Adulteresse : so Papists say , they worship not the Image , but the person in it , not the Crucifix but Christ : so say others , we doe not so adore the circumstance , but the substance , the forme , but the thing ; but alas ! this does little quit them from the guilt of spiritual Adultery , viz. Idolatry . O then ! they are in a high blame , and Articles of high Treason might bee compiled against them ▪ that thus stiffely stand up for Vniformity of necessity ; and such doe but let their nayles grow long to scratch the truth with . In every Forme there is weaknesse , and in some degree or other a tincture of the flesh , selfe Division , &c. For the occasion of them is our darknesse , weaknesse , and imperfection . Now it is Gods designe to purge all forms from their dregs and filthinesse , for they are full ; wherefore let not them under one forme judge or condemne them that are under another ; for the wisdome which is contained in every one of these administrations is justified onely by her own children , and the refiners fire shall ( shortly ) have about with them all , and burne up all : in the mean time urge your forms upon none , for all must cease in time , though useful for the time . Vse . Exhort to two things . First , we must not cast off the present use of Forms ( whilst they are in date ) though wee vse 2 must not Idolize them , adore them , urge , and force them on others . For as lace sets out the Garment , so do some Formes , Ceremonies , Orders , &c. adorne , and not obscure ( if they be not abused , if they be not laid on too thick and many ) the substance of Gods service . Now , I say , we must not in stead of paring the nailes ( which indeed ought to be ) be too covetous at first , and cut the fingers of the Church , or make her hands bleed ; no , not although her nailes were too long , too strong , too ugly , blacke , and uncomely , Let all things be done in decency , and in order . Secondly , All Saints we must receive and love , Eph. 1.15 . that are in the faith with us Eph. 4.5 . for all Saints before , under , and since the Law , Abraham , Moses , David , Apostles , Saints in all ages under all Formes , and Opinions , and Measures ( though never so much different ) to this houre ; yea and all that were , are , and are to come , live in one and the same ( mystery of ) faith , in one and the same Christ apprehended by faith ; For as the Branches of the Vine though some are higher , and some lower , some bigger , and some lesser , &c. yet they all alike possesse of the same life , though some come one yeare , some another , yet they all ( equally ) live the life of the Vine , the little twig that came out but this yeare as well as the greatest Branch that came out many yeares agone , all live the same life of the Vine ; so in faith there is unity and equality all ( in all ages , of all opinions , and under all Formes yet , all ) live the same life of Christ. Now let us not stand at a distance about trifles , as upon shadowes , whilest wee live all in one Faith , one Christ ; Wee know the lower the Sunne is , the longer the shadow is , but the higher it is , the shadow is the shorter : So it is here , the more wee have of ( Christ ) the Sunne , and the substance , the lesse wee see or minde the shadow , or the Circums●ance . And it is because men have the Sunne behinde them , but let us keep the Sunne before us ( with our faces toward ▪ and full eyes on Jesus Christ ) and then wee shall keepe the shadow behinde us , and walk as Children of light indeed . O then , deare friends ! doe not stand so much upon a Circumstance , in receiving in the Brethren ! for beleeve it , they are Carnal Churches of men ( more then of Christ ) that doe so much trouble themselves , and stumble others about outward things . Hence it is that all must doe as they would have them to a tittle , or else they , shal presently be posted up for Hereticks or erroneous persons at the least ; and many times men are crosse , and love to be singular , and to oppose others in their practise and opinions , though without any grounds at all . As it is related of certaine Islanders neer China , who will salute by putting off their shooes , because they of China doe it by putting off their hats ; so some out of crossenesse to others ( that they love not ) will differ from them , though they runne into grosse errours and great absurdities thereby , which are more ridiculous then religious . But let us not looke for shadowes in the room of the Sunne , or empty formes for the righteousnesse , peace , and joy in the Holy Ghost . Such as are sound in the faith wee must admit , for the worship of the Temple must be measured . Hence it is that the Church must bee satisfied that they are Beleevers , and in the true faith of our Lord Jesus , whereof every member whom they admit , doe give in some evidences , or make some account , or other ; whereby the Church rests satisfied . Thus wee did in Dublin , the Confessions of faith ( so called ) made by some , lying much of this Forme which followes , and is the same for matter and substance made by all . An Account of Faith , as it was made and given in by word of Mouth , on the Eighth day of the Eighth Moneth , 1651. In a Publick Meeting-place at Dublin , upon his entrance into Church-fellowship there , By J. R. &c. I Acknowledge and profess from my very heart , before the Lord , and you all here present , That I do believe there is but one God ; who is omnipotent , omniscient , omni-present , and an infinite and all-glorious Being ; and distinguished into three subsistences , or ( if that word offend ) I will say into three personal proprieties and relations , according to his several operations and administrations ; namely , of the Father , Son , and Holy Ghost . The Father is of himself ; the Son proceedeth from the Father ; and the Spirit from them both . And although the Saints cannot take hold of God , as God incomprehensible , and inapprehensible ; yet they know him as a Father , as a Son , as a Spirit , dwelling in them ; and so far as his several attributes makes him known to them . First , Concerning the first Person ( so called ) of the Trinity , or God the Father ; that he is the great Creator and Governor of all things in Heaven and Earth ; eternally distinct ( as in himself ) from all Creatures ( as Creatures ) in his absolute Being , and absolute Well-Being . And that this God shall judge the World. But , Secondly , Concerning the second in the Trinity , the Son , Jesus Christ , of whom Moses , the Prophets , and the Apostles wrote ; and in whom all the Scriptures are , and shall be fulfilled : I believe him , as he is both God and Man , making a compleat Mediator ; and as God equal to the Father , as Man of the tribe of Judah , the line of David , the seed of Abraham , and born of Mary , &c. And as both the onely Mediator between God and Man ; And he was from everlasting ( and yet ) as Man from the Womb , he was separated , called , appointed , and anointed most fully with all gifts and graces , necessary for all mankinde . Concerning his Offices , That he is King , Priest , and Prophet , First , As the Prophet , he hath revealed his Fathers whole will , so far as is necessary to Salvation in his Word and Ordinances , and speaks it to his Church and Saints , by his Word and Spirit . Secondly , As Priest being consecrated for us ▪ he hath appeared to put away sin , and hath offered himself the sacrifice for the sins of the people , once for all ; laying down his life for his sheep , and he hath absolutely abolished all legal and Ceremonial rites and shadows , and is now entred into the Holy of Holies , and sits at the right hand of glory , making intercession for us . Thirdly , As King ; in general all power is given him in Heaven and Earth , and he doth exercise his power , over men and Angels , good and bad , for the safety of his Saints , and destruction of his enemies , till he hath made them all his foot-stool . In particular , that Christ is King over his Church , and shall reign on Earth spiritually , in the hearts of his Saints ; and by his Word and Spirit , he gathers all his peoples together from Idolatry , Superstition , Darkness , &c. into his own Spiritual way of worship and holiness ; and brings them to the Father , and by his Spirit he makes them a peculiar people , a royal Priesthood , a holy generation , and instructs and governs them by his Laws , prepared for his Church , and people . Thirdly , Concerning the Spirit ( the third of the Trinity ) that he is sent by the Father and the Son to make application of the whole work of Redemption , to those whom the Father hath given to the Son , by his decree ; and whom the Son hath brought to the Father , by his blood , according to the everlasting Covenant , made between the Father , and the Son ; which the Spirit carries on to us , as the Covenant of Free-grace , for our Salvation ; By the operation of this holy Spirit in me . This Grace was begun first by and through the Law which awakned me so , as that I saw I was lost , and undone for ever ; and then by the Gospel , whereby Christ was revealed to me ( and in me by his Spirit , ) and his righteousness cleared up mine ( But of this hereafter . ) This Spirit applyed Christ Jesus , ( as far as I knew him ) manifested to , and in me ; by which , I was brought at length to close with Christ ; and that so unfainedly , that I resolved to loose all before Christ. ) So such are , First , by Christs righteousness justified ; Secondly , by his Spirit adopted sons ; Thirdly , by his Grace sanctified and really changed to the piety and purity of Gods holy Image ( gradually ; ) and Fourthly , Glorified and changed from misery to happiness ; which begins in the inward sence of Gods soul-melting love to them in Christ ; from whence , is the hope of glory , and assurance of salvation , joy , peace , and happiness within , &c. Fifthly , Concerning the Scriptures in Old and New Testament , they are the Word of God , as they were writ and indited by the holy Spirit ; and that they are the standing rule left us , both for our knowledge and practise , doctrine , and Discipline , here below . Sixthly , I believe , that by the first Adams disobedience we all fell , and that we are all by nature the children of wrath , dead in sins and trespasses ; and that those who live and dye in their sins , cannot be saved , nor any without regeneration or new birth . Seventhly , Concerning the Church of Christ , I know it is but one Body , Universal , and Catholick , and that is of all Saints , past , present , and to come , invisible and visible , yea , spiritual and formal : But this I also believe , that God hath left a rule in his Word for Particular Congregational Churches here upon Earth , as the visible , to make up his one intire and universal Body . Eighthly , Now concerning Christs particular Churches , I believe as I have preached and proved such a Church to be a Fellowship called out of the world , and united to Christ , As Members to the head , and all one with another ; according to the Word , for the worship of God , and the edification one of another ; and that such must be separate from false ways , worships , Antichristian superstitions , observancies , &c. and willingly joyn in Christian Communion , and Covenant , or resolution of cleaving close to the Lord in this his way , with purpose of heart , and by free confession of their Faith , and subjection to the Gospel ; and therein especially , I believe , That the Ordinances of Christ are to be freely and frequently dispenced ; as preaching , praying , prophecying one by one , Singing of Psalms , Hymns , and Spiritual Songs , Sacraments , Censures , Offices , and Officers , and often and ordinary exercising of gifts . And that there is a chusing of , and setting apart Officers by the whole Body , and that none doth orderly do the office of a Minister among them , but such ; and besides ( to omit many other things ) and bring all up in this rear , I do really believe , that such orderly Churches , have priviledges royal , oracles , and seals , and precious promises of Gods love ▪ presence , and protection , in a special m●nner , more then all the world besides : And although particular Churches be distinct and Independent Bodies , even as Cities compact . Temples , Houses , &c. yet all Churches must walk by the same rule , and have counsel and comfort , and help from one another , when need requires ; as being all Members of one Body , of which Christ is the Head. And to conclude , I am fully perswaded in my very soul , that at the day of judgement , when the dead shall arise , that I shall arise also , and shall rejoyce in Jesus Christ my Saviour and reign with him for ever , and sing Hallelujah for all Eternity , in the Congregation of the first-born ; where the Spirits of just men are made perfect . And this is my Faith , fetched from my v●ry heart , and presented in the hearing of a heart-searching God , and all of you here present . Thus after satisfaction is given to the Church of their sound faith , I finde no other thing necessary for this fifth Chapter ; wherein I have been prolix , but I hope profitably . CHAP. VI. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chasid . Every o●e to be ADMITTED , gives out some EXPERMENTAL Evi●ences of the work of GRACE upon his SOUL ( for the Church to judge of ) whereby he ( or she ) is convinced that he is regenerate , and received of God , which is proved and approved by about forty examples of worth . IT is said of Christ Mark. 7.24 . That he could not be hid , neither can grace , nor the Spirit of Christ ; which is known ( vel per revelationem , vel per operationem ) either First , by Revelation , as when God reveals it to a poor soule ( under extraordinary sad temptations , and soule-miseries ) by extraordinary wayes , many times in dreams , and visions , and voices , &c. ( all which you shall finde instanced by and by ) this way to some he takes , to comfort them , and recover them , and to acquaint them as he did Paul , 2 Cor. 12.9 . that his grace was sufficient for them . Or else secondly , by the operation of the Spirit ( & per aliqua signa ) in the wonder-working , and changing effects of grace ; for then thou hatest those lusts that hinder thee of Christ , and then thou longest vehemently after Christ , and lovest the meanes of grace , and livest in the workes of grace , and findest a great change in thy judgement , will , and affections now , and canst look up chearfully as to thy Father now ( being delivered from the bondage of feare ) and canst come with an humble boldnesse by the Spirit of adoption , and say , Father , I want a new Coat ( I must have one , viz. Christs garment ) and I must have a new Booke , viz. the Book of life , &c. ) and thou canst finde a power in thee ( more then before ) for to resist sinne and temptation , and a readinesse to obey , Act. 2.41 . and do any thing for God , out of fondnes and sincerity of love to him ; yea thou contemnest worldly things , and thinkest them below thee ; and eatest hidden manna , Rev. 2.17 . and hast the white stone , and the new name which none knows but he that receives ; the sweetnesse of which thou tastest , and canst tell it by experience , which is by no others to be known . And such kinde of experiences I could produce abundance , and intended it , but that I am this very week prevented by a little piece , tituled , Spiritual experiences of sundry Beleevers , recommended by Mr. Powel ; yet how ever I shall instance in some of both these sorts of Experiences in such as are the most remarkable and picked out , as they were given in at Dublin by such as were admitted ; the rather for that I finde not the like of some of them ever put forth for publick advantage ; and I beleeve they are some of the flowers of the Spring in these dayes . But before this , we must prove this practise warantable out of the word of God ; for I would not willingly offer any thing , but what is Gods owne , and in Gods order . Now to a poore soule , all such things as are in the soule , are made known by experiences ; experience , we say , proves principles . A mans principles are known and experienced by his actions , as we know how the will stands , by what it wills ( Homo p●r actus experitur principia intrinseca . ) But to the thing it will appear by the word , that the Saints are to hold out their experiences to others , yea in the open Congregations , and then we shall shew you the reasons , and so to the examples , to the proofes first , by precept and practise ; by precept , as Matth. 8.4 . when Christ had cleansed the Leper , he bid him ●oe , and shew it for a testimony ; and Matth. 28.7 the Angels bid Mary Magdalen goe quickly and tell the Disciples , that Christ ( whom yee seeke ) is risen , Go tell them it ; and Verse 10. Christ meeting with the Maries , renews the precept , Goe tell them ( my brethren , for all that I am risen , yet they are my brethren ) Goe tell them , &c. for now yee know it , and have seen me , and can assuredly say that I am risen . Joel 1.3 Tell your children , and let their children tell your children , and their children another generation ; And this is observed among the Jewes at this day out of Deut. 6.7 . and to adde more solemnity to the commemoration of Gods Law , and their deliverance from Aegypt , &c. they write it downe in a peece of Parchment , and then rowling it up , superscribe it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shaddai and fastened it to the wall , or the post of the doore , the right hand of the entrance ; and as often as th●y goe in and out , they touch it , and kisse it with great affection and devotion . This also lyes commanded , Psal. 34.8 . Come taste and see that the Lord is good , and 1 Thess. 5.11 . Comfort your selves together , and edifie one another , even as al●o ye doe . This is excellent to edification and consolation , to tell what God hath done for thy soul ! for hereby many receive benefit , and may meet with the like ; and other comforts , who have met with the like . Besides , there be abundance of Scriptures to prove the practise of this , as in Psal. 26.6 , 7. I will tell of all thy wondrous works ; yea Psal. 66.19 . Come and heare ( sayes he ) all yee that feare the Lord , and I will declare what he hath done for my soule ; for Verse 19. Verily God hath heard me , and hath not turned away his mercy from me ; So that it is no new thing to tell our experiences in publicke to the whole Church , and in the society of Saints . I wish it were more in practise ; for the rich discoveries of grace in Christ , and many wonderfull various wayes of Gods working in these dayes in his Saints would thereby be laid open . But see further , Psal. 18 30. The way of God is perfect ( sayes David ) God is a rocke , faithfull , &c. How knowest thou this , David ? O sayes he , I have tried it , the word of the Lord is tryed ; I can tell it by experience , and I know that he is a buckler to all that trust in him . And David , Psal. 51. promises , that as soon as his broken bones were healed , and the joy of his salvation was restored to him , Verse 12.13 . that he would presently preach it , and teach even sinners Gods wayes , to give them warning of uncleannesse , sinne , &c. and to tell them what it is to lye in hell , horror , to have a wounded spirit , an accusing conscience , and the judgements of an angry frowning God. Thus also 2 Cor. 5.11 . Wee knowing the terror of the Lord , ( that is , by terrible things which would make a man tremble , and his heart ake ) we perswade men ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) we tell them the condition we were in , and now how wee are out , on purpose to perswade them to beleeve in God , and to get out of their carnal condition ; for presidents sometimes doe prevaile before precepts ; so that this is no novelty to declare the condition which we have been in , and are in ; Taste and see , the mercy , grace , and love of God in Christ in the Gospel , by pardon , peace , reconciliation , assurance , or whatsoever is to be tasted , as Dr. Ames observes on 1 Pet. 2.3 . if so be ye have tasted how gracious the Lord is ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) not onely taken grace ( for so many do ) but tasted grace ( per metonymiam effecti ) and found experimentally feelingly , feedingly how it tastes : O then , you will say , O it is good ! O this is sweet ! and say to others , Come and taste ! The Israelites , when they had tasted the manna , they called it Angels food , but before they sleighted it , What is this ? Thus Psal. 119.103 . but why should we taste it , and tell it to others ? There be divers Reasons , both with reference to God , the Church , and those Saints themselves that doe enjoy them , why they should declare them to the Church . First , It is a bearing the best ( outward ) testimony to God reason 1 and his Attributes that can be , when we can say by experience that God is gracious , loving , slow to anger , ready to forgive , that he is true and faithful , for we have tryed him , and therefore know it , Psal. 18.30 . But on the other side , it is the want of this that makes us call his care , and his truth , and his mercy and love so often into question , especially in times of trials , ( as Sibbs sayes in his soule-conflicts , chap. 18. ) in Joh. 15.27 . and ye shall beare witnesse ( sayes Christ ) because ye have been w●t● to mee from the beginning ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) ye shall witnesse upon your owne knowledge ( the word is ) not from hear-say , but have-say , from your own experiences , yee shall testifie even before the Judge in the eye , and ears of all the people , that I am full of grace , light , life , and salvation . You shall know it by experience , and witnesse to his truth , faithfulnesse , righteousnesse , justice , mercy , &c. And though a thousand should deny it , a child of God that can say by experience , that God is a good God , the word is a true word , his love is a most soul-ravishing , and never-ending love , and the like ; and his hand helped me , his blood cleansed , cured , comforted me , his owne good will restored me ; Oh , such a one opens the mouths of many to praise the Lord ! Psal. 35.18.27 . and to beleeve in the Lord , Joh. 17.21.23 . Jo. 11.48 . Act. 3.9 . Luke 18.43 . reason 2 Secondly , It is needful for the Churches benefit too , to set upon this duty to declare experiences of Gods worke on the soule , and that for these several Reasons which follow , As 1 To know ( so far as may be judged by the effects ) who are the Elect of God. 1 Thess. 1.4 . beloved of God ( that is by the judgement of charity , not of infallibility ) for none can say for certainty thou art a Saint , or elect , but so far as we judge and beleeve in Vers 5. the proof of Election lyes in Vocation , and ye know what manner of men we were , sayes he ; so that the Church was endued with a spirit of discerning , 1 Cor. 12.10 . Now such as the Church beleeves to be called of God , she beleeves to be of the election of grace , Rom. 11.5 . and such she must admit . Now to make Election sure ( as 2 Pet. 1.10 . ) and cleare , we must make our Vocation sure , and Calling clear , 2 Tim. 1.9 . where it is called a Holy calling , that is from sin , to grace , Tit. 2.11 , 12. from darknesse to light , 1 Pet. 2.9 . from former sins , and lusts , to holy life , 1 Pet. 1.14 , 15. and by this our election is knowne . To open which note , know that Election it selfe is secret and mysterious , as it lyes in the decree , it is from all Eternity . Now poor man must needs bee lost , to look what was done from all Eternity , in the secret conclave , and councell of Heaven ; a Being that is spanned by time cannot reach to it ; his Decrees are kept close under locke and key ( till it is time to open them ; ) wherefore I finde it not praise-worthy in them that so distract themselves , and others by their curious disquisitions , and nice disputations in this point . For our way to have the fruit of it , is not to dig deep , and to search to the root , but to reach to the boughs and branches thereof . So look out , and take hold on the Holy calling ; For the head of Nilus cannot be found out , but the many sweet issues and Springs of that ( hidden ) head are found out , and known : So though the Head is secret , and kept hid , yet the Springs break out , in our vocations , and holy obedience and conversation ( as Adams on Peter P. 210. hath it ) for a River may runne a great while , and a great way under ground , but in time , and in some place it breaks out , and runs openly : So the Decree may bee hid and secret for a while , but the streams break out in Vocations , which is the way from Predestination to Glorification , Rom. 8.30 . This cuts off that absurd , sottish , and soule-overwhelming opinion of many poor wretches , who say , if I am decreed to bee saved , then I may live as I list , for I am sure I shall be saved if it be decreed ; but if it be decreed I shall be damned , why I shall bee damned doe what I can , and my best way is to live in pleasure , loving and serving my selfe here , for I am sure all my care cannot alter Gods counsel . Oh , alas ! how subtil is the Devil ! but does the Word say thus ? no! but the Word sayes , If God have decreed thy salvation as elect , why then thou shalt walke in the way of salvation , and then thou art decreed to be called ( as well as saved ) from sin to grace , to a holy life , from all uncleannesse , 1 Thess. 4.7 . to sanctification . Origen makes mention of one sicke , who was perswaded by a friend not to send for a Physitian ; for saith he , if it be appointed you shall dye , the Physitian cannot helpe you ; if it be appointed you shall live , you doe not need him , but shall live without him ; Nay , Sir , ( answered hee ) but if I be appointed to live , I will use the means ( which are also appointed thereunto ) for such an appointment to take effect . Now I say there is a strict , and inseparable connexion betwixt Election and Vocation , and Vocation is a comment upon Election . The letter ( sayes Culverwel in his White-stone ) was dated from Eternity , but the Superscription was writ in time , viz. Vocation , now though the Letter be writ first , yet the Superscription is read first , and then the other is unsealed and read , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that was in Election , well becomes ( saith he ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Vocation . Doctor Twisse on the point of Predestination , telling us how God is not guided by second causes , in any of his Decrees , and how nothing in us was the cause of his Decree concerning us , be it what it will ; yet sayes he in the execution of his Decree ( which is in time ) there is another order ; for to instance in the Decree it selfe , from Eternity , glory is first , Salvation is first ordained , which produces grace and sanctification ; but in the execution of the Decree ( in tempore ) grace is before glory , and sanctification before salvation , as was said before of the Letter , the Superscription is first read though last writ . Wherefore I say ( for to this end I speake it ) that it is altogether irregular and anomalous , and out of our order , for any to pry , and pore , and peek first out for Election , and that would first look into the Decree . Now would the Church know ( so far as they are able in charity , for they cannot on certainty ) and wouldst thou know whether thou art an elect received of God , decreed to be saved ; it is not to search the records in heaven first , but the records in thy heart first ( for what is bound on earth , is bound in heaven ; and loosed on earth , is loosed in heaven ) how is it with thy heart ? art thou called yet ? changed yet ? art thou holy ? hast thou left off thy ill courses , companies , conditions , &c. for where there is fire , there is heat ; and where there is true vocation , there is ( inseparably ) sanctification , and holy life ; would we know if the Sun shine , why we shall not need to climbe up into the clouds , to clamber to the skies ; no! but look upon the beams shining on the earth . That Astrologer , sayes one , was sufficiently laughed at , that looking so intensely upon the Stars , and staring with so much amazement at their twinkling , tumbled ( unawares ) over head and eares into the water ; whereas , had it pleased him to have looked lower in the water , he might have seen them lively represented in that Christal glasse ; so many doe but undo themselves , and are over head and ears , that look so high at first , as to search the secret will , which they shall easily see in sanctification , and regeneration revealed . And as a Father that resolves one son shal be his heir , which shal be he ( amongst many ) he saith not , ( but keeps that secret ) yet so far reveals his minde , that it shall be he that observes him in obedience to his commands ; so God , though he hath kept secret who they be that shall bee saved , and whom he hath elected ( he locks this up in his own bosome ) yet he hath revealed it thus far , that such shall bee holy , obedient to his Gospel , beleeve in Christ Jesus ; these effects , Election brings forth , and we are not able to judge of the cause , but by the effects . So that when poore soules powre out their experiences , and tell the means , and shew the effects of their Call ; we cannot but ( in the judgement of charity ) beleeve the cause of this their Call , their faith , their holinesse , is the Decree of Election , Eph. 2.10 . 2 Pet. 2.8 , 9 , 10. and that they shall attaine to the end , viz. Salvation . Now I say , in the powring out Experiences they acquaint the Church with the means , and the effects . And you will finde both these in the examples that follow , where they tell their preparation and qualification . In their preparation , 1 When they came to be taken off of sin , selfe , world , lusts , or the like , some at one houre , some at another , some in the night ; some in the day , some at home , some abroad ; some when younger ; some when older ( but that is most seldome . ) And secondly , how ? some more violently , the Lord came in the thunders , stormes , fire on Mount Sinai , and in frightfull flashes of lightning , like a Ghost , a Destroyer , a judge , in flaming vengeance , roaring like a Lion robbed of whelps to many ; In afflictions , crosses , losses , dangers , frights , threatnings of Law , terrors of Hell , and the damned roaring in their ears , & in such dispensations as cut to the heart , pierced to the quicke , sharp , and fetched blood from the soule , wounded the conscience , with a thousand stabs , as Act. 2.37 . such Sermons Mr. Rogers of Dedham , Fenner preached , &c. But secondly , others more gently were won in by love , cheries , promises , warme tenders of the blood of Christ , lively openings of a crucified Christ , which melt their soules , and make their hearts bleed , and mourne to look up unto him , whom they have pierced , by such Sermons as Sibbs , Crispe , &c. preached . Thus they were brought low , wounded in spirit , broken in heart , and with fresh bleeding wounds weep ( though some more , some lesse ) for a Christ their Lord , but they know not where he is laid , Joh. 20.15 . and know not where to look for him , but sometimes are afraid , and flye off , and on , and up and down , and here and there , under a thousand temptations , being in a ( holy preparing ) desperation , and utterly undone in their own sight and sense , till by some Ordinance , Promise or other ; Providence or other ; the Lord ministers comfort , and by his secret Spirit whispers pardon , and peace , and joy abundantly , and brings them to Jesus . O then they say with Mary , Rabboni ! My Lord , have I found thee ! Oh what sweet claspings ! and closings , and ravishing embracings ! and kisses of love , and banquets , and flaggons ! are betwixt Christ and such soules then ! — none can expresse it ! O but it is best knowne by enjoying ! It is said in Samuel●f ●f many multitudes in Sauls Army , that onely a few bankrupt undone beggars came to David in the Cave of A●u●●am ; and indeed , it is true here , none but a few undone soules ▪ poore beggars , that have spent all , lost all , wounded Cripples , broken-hearted Publicans ▪ troubled Hanna's weeping , sobbing , sighing ( and yet seeking ) Maries , and sin-feeling soules that come to Christ ; and that are cast in upon him through meer misery and want , and thus prepared for him ▪ are received of him , Joh. 6.37 . Mat. 12.20 . Mark. 5.26 . and none can bee put by ▪ that thus come . The second is Qualification ; In their Experiences , you shall heare how they are changed ; O! what a great alteration there is now in them ! all old things are passed away , and all things become new ! O what trouble ! and signal change they then finde ! a new nature ! a new heart ! new affections ! new objects ! new smilings , and flowings of light , and love ! Oh then they could bee content to dye for God! to lay downe their lives for Christ ! yea if it were to be cast to Hell , so they have but Christ in their armes ! their sweet Jesus in their hearts ! yea if they thought that hee would not save them , yet they will love him ! and serve● him ! and doe any thing for his sake ! and though he slay them , yet they can finde in their hearts to trust in him ! and now they forsake all evill wayes , and prize the word ( as a hungry man does food ) & feed on the Ordinances heartily ; and are frequent in prayer and duty , and are able to comfort others in the like case that they have been in ; and do all they can to call home others , and to get them into Christ ; they are loath to eat their sweet morsels alone , and this makes them so ambitious of the fellowship of the Saints ; all which will appeare in the ensuing Examples ; so that it is for this Reson also to satisfie the Church , that they give out their experiences of their Call to Christ. But I shall be briefer . Secondly , by this they are a warning piece shot off in the eares of others , to keep them off from coming into such reason 2 sinfull practises , purposes , and perswasions as they were in ; so it is in 2 Cor. 5.11 . If the rich man ( as Thomas Goodwin hath it in his Childe of Light walking in darknesse , pag. 113. ) the rich Glutton had gotten but a little while backe againe from hell ; O what stories would hee have told his brethren , to have scared them , and frighted them from sin here ! heare the like of such , I say , of such as have descended hell ! and seen the wonders of God in the deep ! O now they are ashore , and lye at anchor , or are safe ( through mercy ) at harbour in Christ ! hark ! now they can tell you of the rocks and sands , the sad shelves and storms , the roaring , threatning , surging , waves , and gaping gulfes that they have met with , and been in , and under . And all sinners that live in the like concupiscence , passions , lusts , covetousnesse , pleasures , and the like , must look for the same , and without mercy too ; if this be not a Sea-mark for them , seeing they are escaped , and ( as it were ) rose out of their graves , and returned out of the deep dungeons , and black abyssnesse of endlesse wrath to give them warning , I say , if this will not doe , and they will not beleeve them , then they shal find experience the Mistris of fools . Piscatorictus sapit . The Fisher-man made haste to thrust his hand into his net to take out a Fish , but was instead of a Fish bit with a Scorpion ; this made him ever after wiser , and then he had learned to looke before he leaped : So many unwise men are made wise ( it may be too late ) by too lamentable experience ; and as Robinson ( I remember ) sayes in his Essayes , page 198. Some who will not beleeve sinne hath so sad a sequel as it hath , till they know it by experience , are like that Physitian Tertullian speakes of , Herophilus by name , who bloodily butchered six hundred men , that he might search into their bodies , and know their natures , destroying them to know them , and murthering man to finde out the nature of man. O monstrous wickednesse ! but oh more wicked Monsters ! that are so mercilesse to their owne soules ! I say it of such , who will not learne the nature of sinne so as to avoid it , till fatally destroyed by it , and then they will learne by experience indeed ( wofull experience ) when others warning will doe no good , no not though the dead doe ( as it were ) rise again to give them warning ; neither will they regard the rough checks of their consciences within them , but will stil go on ; they are like the Flye , which though it hath scorched its back , and burnt its wings in buzzing about the ( candle ) flame , againe and againe , yet it will venture againe , and still to it , till it be burnt downe , and buried in the flame : I say , so many mad men , who will take no warning till they be burnt , and burning and buried alive in the flames of hell ! — O sad , when Examples , and such as these too , told by experience , instruct not ! God teacheth as well by them as by Precepts ( saith Mr. Rogers on the good Samaritan , page 222. ) And the two senses of learning , viz. seeing and hearing have both enough to doe to instruct them by such experienced examples , as are now before them ( Et scripta sunt exempla p●iorum ad cautelam posteriorum , ARDEVS ; ) wherefore that is the second Reason to warn others . reason 3 Thirdly , to teach us to suspend our censures , and to forbear prejudicate opinions , or harsh judgement of such as suspire ( and perhaps long too ) and aspire under lamentable soule-travel , and heart-pangs ! and agony ! and afflictions ! and temptations ! all which Christ suffered , to succour them that are under them ! Heb. 2.18 . Luke 4 13. Mat. 4.3.11 . after which the Angels came and ministred to him . Verse 11. But in the mean time whilst poor soules are set on the racke , and roar under torments , though they cry out , Oh! they are damned ! undone ! forsaken of God! &c. yet condemne them not , for even then , they may be the dear children of God , and passe a false sentence upon themselves for some time ! so long as they lye under despaire , and in the sense of their own ruinous condition , till they see a repaire in Christ ! O how they cry out , O wretched man that I am ! and as David roared out in his troubles , and said , This is my death , Psal. 77.11 . Sir Francis Spira thus despaired , but doubtlesse dyed with an interest in Christ. So do in these dayes many , and so you may finde it in that little Treatise of Experiences before-named , and in these that follow ; and yet they were raised out of the fire refined , and out of horrour the more holy ; For before we reap in joy , we must sow in tears , Ps. 126.5.6 . and for one seed , or tear , we shall reap a whole sheaf of joy , and their joy shall be like the joy in harvest , Isa. 9.3 . and as men rejoyce when they divide the spoyle ; that is , before they arrive at it , there is a time of great trouble ; a seed time before the harvest , a fighting-time before the spoyle . In the seed-time there is rending and plowing ! and trampling and harrowing of the poore earth ; and when all this is done ( to look on ) you would thinke it a dirty , blacke , barren , piece of ground , for you see no fruits at all upon it . Oh! so it is with the Saints ! they have a seed-time , such time as they are rent , and ripped , and torne ( as it were ) in peeces , and beat ! and bruised , and trampled on ! and harrowed with sharp cutting goads ! and daggers ! Act. 2.37 . prickt in their hearts , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stabb'd as 't were with a world of troubles , wounds , temptations , & piercings to the quick ; now alas ! to look upon them then , to heare how they complaine of themselves then , and of their condition , as if in despaire then , &c. you would thinke them without hopes in a very sad case , dead , barren , and unprofitable ; but alas , the seed is in the ground , and lyes hid ( under clods ) now , but come afterward in the harvest time , and see then ; Oh how white their fields are ! what big-bellied crops they then bring forth , Joh. 4.35 , 36. what abundance of smiling fruits ! flowing and blossoming ! grow then upon them ! happy are those that reap from them ? Surely you will say , here is an alteration indeed , even to admiration ! what ? is it possible that this can be that same black barren ground , that seemed so rent , torne , uselesse , and disorderly , it is scarce to be beleeved , that it can be the same , when you see such a change . So that before their joy be as the joy in harvest ( for others to reap of them too , and get by their Experiences , &c. ) they must meet with a Seed-time . And so with a fighting-time too , a time of great troubles , dangers , desperate conflicts against sin , and Sathan , giving no quarter , but kill or be killed , crying , Arme , Arme ; fight for thy life , strike with all thy strength against thy lusts , against their lives with the two-edged sword ; O spare none ! none ! rout them all ! ransacke the Camp ! pursue them hard ! beat them out of the field ! and keep thy ground &c. now it will cost many a bl●w , a wound , a hazard , a desperate engagement , on all sides before the Saints can come to joy , as those that divide the spoyle ; neither can they come off without wounds ; &c. but then their sorrow ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) as of a woman in travel , that is full of pangs , &c. ) shall be turned into joy , Joh. 16.20 , 21 , 22. O sweet change ! but before this joy , Christ himselfe tels them of sorrows , yea of such , as their soules shall bee in travel with bitter , great , sharp pangs ( Medea was wont to say , she had rather a thousand times bee slaine in battel , then bring forth one child ( mallem pe●ire quam parere ) but all tends to the birth of joy ( sed finis edulcat media , sayes Keckerman . ) Now whilst poor soules are in their pangs ; it is neither piety nor charity to censure them ; for in so doing , as Asaph sayes , Psal ▪ 73.13 , 14. you will condemne the generation of the just , and will but gratifie the Devil , to scandalize the wayes of grace in those strict passages which are through the strait-gate ; All this will appeare by observing the Saints in their Experiences , whereby as thou mayest learn the way to live in Christ , so thou mayest to avoid the censures of such as p●sse that way ; which is ( at first ) so full of Difficulties , and dangers , and gulfes , and shelves , and as we say , By weeping-crosse . reason 4 Fourthly , By their Experiences you will learne how various God is in his wayes and workings , as Heb. 1.1 , 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in divers wayes , and sundry manners ; for some men he comes to in one way , to some in another ; to some as a Lamb , to some as a Lion ; to some as a whirlewind , to others as a Noah's-flood , to others as a flash of lightning , to others as a Thiefe in the night ; to some by sicknesse , to others by crosses and losses , to others by Sermons , &c. he leaves some a while in darknesse where they see no light , Isa. 50.10 , 11. in distresses of conscience , and their soules on the rack , where they see no way for deliverance , and others are in dull , duskish , imperfect light , whilst their Sunne is in the eclipse ; yet some againe he sweetly shines upon even in the morning at their first conversion and Call ; and yet their Sunne may be soon over-shadowed ; and some that have lesse grace , and have lived basely , it may be they have ( especially at death ) splendent , and most radiant shinings , and goe into Christs Kingdome with full sailes , swelling desires , and have abundant entrance , whilst others , that have walked more strictly with God , and who ( you would thinke ) should enter more Champion-like , triumphingly and glorious , are fraught with fears , and doubts , and have their Sunne set in a cloud . Now God workes diversly , according to the divers complexions , conditions , constitutions , dispositions , or the like , that he hath to worke upon ; because spiritual comforts doe not tend simply ad esse , but bene esse , to the well-being , as well as to the being of a Christian. Now by these Experiences of Saints you wil learn that God hath divers wayes , and divers times , and divers m●ans to worke with ; and some that seem very contemptible too : so that if he doe not worke on thee or thine , one way , hee may another ; he knows what means is proper ; for that which will helpe this man ( may be a wrong means ) and it may be will not help that man , or another . Fifthly , Experiences declared do oblige others , and allure them exceedingly to relye upon God , and to beleeve in him , reason 5 Jo. 11.48 . Act. 3.9 . &c. For as David sayes in Psal. 22 1 , 2. I cry , I roar , night and day for deliverance ; but what argument doth he make use of ? why verse 4 ▪ 5. Our Fathers trusted in thee , they trusted , and thou didst deliver them , they cryed unto thee and were delivered , they trusted in thee , and were not confounded . Therefore deliver me too , for I trust in thee , Verse 11. so that the experiences which others have had of Gods gracious dealings with them , and deliverances of them , doe encourage David to cast his care upon the Lord too , for the like deliverances out of his troubles . So in Psal. 31.24 . Be of good courage , and he shall strengthen your heart , all ye that hope in the Lord , even as he hath strengthned mine heart , and heard my voice and cryes , as in the verses before ; so hee will yours ! O all ye Saints ! Thus you shall see in Joh. 4.28 , 29. the woman of Samaria ran into the City , and told her experiences of the Messiah come , how he told her all things , &c. and loe ! how this weake means worked upon a many , and effected a great matter , in verse 39. for the Text sayes , That many of the Samaritans be-beleeved on him , because of the sayings of the ( poor ) woman , though many more in Verse 41. because of his owne word ; but I pray marke , what a profitable means the poor womans experiences told were to win them , and to worke upon them to come to Christ ; and then in Verse 40. they besought Christ to tarry with them : And thus Junius professeth that the very first thing that turned him from Atheisme , and made him beleeve in God , was a Conference with a poore Country-man of his , not far from Florence ; and it is observed in the blackest times of Popery ( by Fox Act. & . Mon. fol. 750.767 . ) when good books and good Preachers were ( rarae aves in terris ) as rare as Black-swans ( almost ) yet then did one holy man resort to another , and one good neighbour conferring with another , and declaring their experiences to another , did convert him , and by this means the hearts of many were turned to the Lord , and had light in those darke dayes ; and I dare boldly say by this means more then a few are convinced , if not converted in these dayes , and some that have said it to me often , have been exceedingly wrought upon by hearing the experiences of others ; some informed , others confirmed others confuted by those means , which are of much use ; I wish they were as much in use , whereby others might be encouraged to trust in God by hearing what he hath done for our soules . The Church is hereby strengthened in the Experiences of her members , as Act. 4.23 . when Peter and John had reported their usage , &c. the Church united the more strongly together , and gathered up all their strength together , Vers. 24.29 , 31 , 32. against their foes , and for God. The experience of Gods hand and judgement upon Ananias and Saphira , Act. 5.11 . strucke fear upon all the Church , and as many others as heard it , that they might beware ( cavebis si pavebis . ) It is well knowne in Dublin the very first day after embodying , being the thirteenth of the eighth month one thousand six hundred fifty one , the Church met together , and was ratified by a remarkable mercy , and pledge given in ; for one of the Brethren ( viz. Captain Lieutenant Johnson ) his wife was in labour , ( which did occasion his absence from us : ) she had been in labour two dayes , and two nights ( as I take it , for it is upon record in the Register-booke ) and had two Midwives , her danger was great , her paines violent , her death ( in the account of all present ) imminent , the Midwives gave her over , friends , husband , all gave her over for a dead woman , that either she , the child , or both , must ( unavoidably ) perish : and now they had ( as it were ) no hopes , what does he ( her husband ) whilst she was on the racke ( as it were ) roaring , but ( finding his owne prayers uneffectual ) runnes to the Church ( knowing where they were met together ) in great haste , as fast as hee could hie , ( as we use to say ) being much distracted , and disturbed , tells us his wives condition ( almost past hopes in all appearance ) and begs the earnest prayers of the Church at this instant season , that God would bee seen , which the Church did ( indeed ) I am perswaded with a most hearty , heavenly , united strength ; And by a holy violence did prevaile , for her life , and her little one , and begged both alive out of Gods hands to the admiration of all : for that very time to a minute as well as we might guesse , and as we were informed by this brother himself , and others ) at that very instant time whilst the Church was so earnest and incessant , she was safely and easily delivered ( even to the wonder of all with her ) and soon after well recovered , with her child , and both grew strong again apace , and are well ( I hope ) both at this hour ; This was such an apparent return of prayer , and so seasonable a first-fruits , and pledge of Gods owning us and answering us ; that we could not omit , but did as a Church returne thanks and praises for this seasonable experience , whereby the Church was abundantly confirmed in her faith , for future . And to trouble you but with one testimony further , it is not unknowne , what advantage the Devil made of those Divisions which did arise in this Church afterward , by some who threw oyle into the flames ( as we heard before in the fourth Chapter ) and would but fan downe the fire , to make it mount the higher , untill they had effected ( what they sought for ) a breach in the Church ; after which , wee that held together in order being wounded , and the body being in paine with the rude rent of seven or eight members from us , the Church was forced to flye to the Physitian to bee healed , and a day of Humiliation being appointed , whilest she was yet bleeding in her green and fresh wounds , our good God who hath promised to hear their cry and to save them , Psal. 145.18 , 19. gave them another , and new pledge of his owning of them , and presence with them , which was very parallel with the former and ( as much as to say ) hee was with them yet , which hath been an experience full of vertue and force to this day , and the which I hope , I shall never be unmindful of , or unthankful for ; for it pleased God to visit me with a sore distemper , and such a one as did suborne many doubts concerning me all the night before ( this day of humiliation which the Church appointed , being in the last month of the last yeare but one , one thousand six hundred fifty one ) I lay in a lamentable affliction , kept up with a vehement vomiting , which continued the next day all the fore-noon I ( keeping my bed ) vomited four or five times , or oftner in an houre , lying in a most high ( pestilential as was thought ) and raging Feaver . I sent to the Church for prayers , who were consulting whom to choos amongst them as a convenient keeper for me ( many imagining that it might be the Plague , or that it would prove the spotted Feaver at least , being taken in that manner that others were taken of these diseases ) much means was used to stay the vomiting and nothing would doe , which at last turned to another colour as green as grasse , and came from the very heart ( as I thought ) I sent my man ( afternoon ) to the Apothecaries for more things to stay the vomiting , whilst he was gone , I was thinking the Church was wrestling for me , wherefore with much adoe , up I rise , and got into my Study to prayer also , being perswaded I should joyne with them , and the intercessions of Christ the High-Priest also together , and that we should prevaile : when Loe ! what the Lord did to bee admired for ever by the sons of men , presently the vomit was stayed , I know not how , and I restored ( excepting a light giddinesse in my head ) to such an admirable condition of health , and so sudden ( and which continued all my time in Ireland ) so that I could not but with wonder & amazement fall flat on my face to power out praises , the whilst I was stirred up by an irresistible instinct to shew my self to the Church , as Matth. 8.4 . to shew that their prayers were answered ; when my man returned he wondred to see me walking about the room with my cloak on ready to go out , and tell the Church . Hee and others that came in apace to see me ( that feared the Pestilence , or such distemper was upon me ) wondred and asked me how I did ? I told them well , at which they wondred more , not thinking it possible ; but rather that I knew not what I said , and telling them I was going forth , though they thought me more mad then wise , yet away I went to the Church who were yet praying , and that hard ( blessed be the Lord that heard them and drew out their hearts ) on my behalfe . My comming amongst them , to tell the mercies of God , was much like Peter in Act. 12. verse 16. at which they were astonished ; but as he Verse 17. Verse 13 , 14 , 16. So I did declare unto them how the Lord had brought me out ( of prison ) my bed , my sicknesse : so that this renewed pledge to us , did throw us altogether upon praises and thankful returnes , being so sweet and seasonable an experience that I hope it will never be forgot ; whereby the Church ( as it now is ) was exceedingly satisfied and ratified to this day that God was with us ( yet ) of a truth as much as before ; from which day ( as well as ever before ) I dare ( assuredly ) say the name of this Church may be , The Lord is there , Ezek. 48.35 . as Mat 28.20 . These things I have added to this fifth Reason whereby we were abundantly obliged for future to trust in the Lord , so that experiences declared , do much advantage others to relye upon him , and to beleeve in him , Ps. 37 40. and to plead with him the experience that others have had of him at such a time , in such a need , and extremity of trouble and sicknesse . And as waters run strongest in narrowest passages , so doth Gods Power and Providences appear most and greatest in greatest straits . But thus for the second sort of Reasons . Reason 3. Relates to themselves that doe declare their experiences ; for it is not enough to heare them , but to have them , as it is Joh. 4.42 . First , Hereby they try their owne satisfaction , examine their assurance and plerophory , by bringing all to light , as the honest Draper doth his cloath , to give any leave to object what they can against the goodnesse of it ; so Hall sayes in his Contemp. 4. part . P. 120. Now a man that owes twenty shillings may as wel pay in silver as in gold , and have as good a discharge given him ; but if he paies it in gold , then it is discharged in one piece without telling , or further trouble ; but if in silver , then it is in many pieces , and requires the pains to tell it over before he be sure that it be right ; so is it here , the Saints have assurance of all discharged and payed , and themselves set at large , the Creditor reconciled , the Law at an end , &c. and all this by the immediate testimony of the Spirit , which is with more speed and lesse trouble , as Eph. 4.30 . or else by the markes , and effects in many peeces , which will aske much paines to examine and tell over ; And thus in the experiences by several peeces of good coine ( stamped with Gods image ) you have their assurance or pleonasmes of joy and love , and light and all brought out ; so that they being openly attested and approved , the Saints are thereby often advantaged for future attempts , and troubles and suits in Law ; so that there is great reason the Assurance be brought out to light ; yet we must beware that mens applauding or approving of us , or our assurance deceive us not ; wherefore let us a little call to account , how a Saint knows that his assurance is real & substantial , and not shadowy , counterfeit & false ? To answer this , we have Twin-testimonies and Single-testimonies to know it by ; the Twin-born testimonies are surest ( & omni exceptione majores ) and such are infallible , ) ( but the others are not so ) these are of two sorts ; The Spirit with our spirits bearing witnesse , Rom. 8.16 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 co-witnesses , so Rom. 9.1 . so sayes Paul , My conscience bearing witnesse by the Holy Ghost , both goe together ( as honest Sibs hath it ) like a paire of Indentures , one answers another : and that the Holy Spirits witnesse , is a clear testimony , see 1 Joh. 3.24 . he assures the soule by powerful application ( as Culverwel in his White stone well observes ) for the Father chuseth us , and hath decreed it ; the Sonne executeth it to the full , and the Spirit applies it , and witnesses our interest in it , and sets strong and vigorous apprehensions of love and mercy upon our heart , they be sweet and secret ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) soule-whisperings , and spirit-breathing , by which the soul and spirit converses together ( secret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) and have silent entercourse one with another , which is not an enthusiastical fancy or illusion , but a reall truth which every Saint hath a taste of , being inspirations ; then the Spirit assures , ( or cleares ) by a pleasant irradiation or brightnesse , beaming upon the soule , whereby he sees the assurance reall and genuine ; see 1 Cor. 2 , 12. We have received the Spirit which is of God , that we might know the things which are freely given us of God. So Verse 9.10 . by this Divine light , what a glorious glosse , a rich orjency , a lively lustre , and an excelling Exposition is upon thy assurance ; so that although from the flesh thou doubtest , from the Spirit thou seest , and art assured : For , seeing is beleeving , as we say ; and you know this witnesse from a fancy to be true , by its own convincing nature and efficacy , as you know light by light ; and so you know the Word by the Word , and are able to judge all other words false , and all other lights painted , and all other Suns shadows ; So you know the Spirit by the Spirit , Joh. 16.8 . by its owne conviction which it carries with it ( as true fire carries its owne evidences to declare that it is fire , but false fire painted does not doe so . ) The light of a Ranting presumptuous Spirit is but like a blazing Comet ; presaging his preposterous spirit , or preparing a venemous malign , and pestilential influence , and portending his ruine ; and the light of an Hypocrite , is but a transcient coruscation and flash for a sudden , and is put ou● ▪ but the Spirit displayes himselfe to the soul , and gives a glistering manifestation of his presence in that heart , of his motion in that horoscope and horison , and by his owne beams ( as the Sun ) is to be seen , and paraphrased upon himself , and witnesses to himself , that he is there ; so that ( as one sayes ) a man may sooner take the glo-worm for the Sunne , then an experienced Saint can take a false light ( and delusion ) for the light of the Spirit . And who would be further satisfied , may see Sibs his Fountain sealed , Page 169.170 . &c. The other Twin-testimony is taken from the Word and the Spirit , the Law , and the Testimony together , Isa. 8.20 . Deut. 1● . 18 . Mat. 22.29 . the Scripture and the power of God , which are to goe both together to give assurance , else yee erre ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) yea cause others to erre too , as the word signifies , the Scriptures were endited by the Spirit , therefore the Spirit and they must agree ; now mark then what your joyes , raptures , comforts , graces , peace , hopes , evidences are ? bring them to the Word ; doe they agree with the Scriptures ? these are the undeniable Testimonies which never faile , and are ever joynt-witnesses to make thy assurance the clearer : But before I come to the Single-Testimonies ( which are the lesse certaine and safe ) some object : I have not the Twin-Testimonies as I know of , but onely the Testimony of my own spirit , and conscience . If thou findest not ( as yet ) the testimony of the Spirit ( saies Mr. Perkins ) yet the other testimony viz. sanctification of the heart will suffice to assure us ; for in true fire there will bee heat ( though thou seest no flame ) or seest it not ; yet this is not such a plerophory or swelling pleonasme of joy and peace , which others have that have the Double-testimony ; for certainty is not in puncto , but hath a latitude , per magis & minus , a man may be certaine by an assurance and Deed of an estate , but yet he may be more certaine of that estate , which he is ( now already ) certaine of ; so though one testimony is enough for assurance , yet a Double-testimony is not more then enough , but makes the assurance more illustrious ; of two Christians who are assured of salvation , one may have a clearer , and consequently a comfortabler assurance then the other , for one may have a double-testimony , and the other but a single ; nay the same Saint at some time may have a double-testimony , and at another time but a single one . Oh alas ! I have had not long since a large Testimony ! but now I am without light and finde none , neither the testimony of Gods Spirit , nor yet of my own , but all clouds , eclipses , blacknesse , &c. First , There is a way left open yet for thee ; O have recourse to thy former experiences ! evidence , assurance ! didst thou ever enjoy a sweet serenity of spirit , a calmnesse in conscience , on good grounds ? did the Spirit once bear witnesse with thy spirit ? then run to former assurance and evidences for comfort ; so did that good man , David , Psal. 51.12 . O restore to me the joy of salvation ! O that it were with mee as it hath been ! Oh that my candle were light again ! but this is the spring within that cannot be dryed up , viz. it was thus with me once ; And then consider , 1 Gods love is everlasting , his mercies sure for ever ; he is still the same , his Covenant cannot be broken , 2 Sam. 23.5 . Ezek. 16.60 , 61. Psal. 89.31.33 . hee changes not , though thou changest , and art not sensible at all times of it . 2 All the Father loves he loves in his Sonne ( Christ ; ) now his Son alwaies pleaseth him , is ever alike beloved of him , so that nothing can separate us from his love , Rom. 8. because it is in Christ Jesus , he loves us , and not for any thing in our selves . And 3 Consider ( poor souls ) If God love us lesse or more , as we are lesse or more sinfull in our selves , then he should love as man ; but his wayes are not as our wayes , nor thoughts as our thoughts , for all his love to us is in Christ , who is an unchangeable object , therefore Rom. 8.1.33 , 34 , 35 , 38. 2 Tim. 2.19 . O then did he ever but once smile on thee , embrace thee , emb●some thee ; and wilt thou now feare , and doubt ! O no! rest satisfied in his unchangeablenesse , dear heart , and thou shalt finde the least drop of true grace shal never be exhausted , nor the least dram of true joy be dryed up , or annihilated ; And as it is in a Court , the seale is as true a seale , and as good a sufficient evidence in Law , though the print be defaced , diminished , and not so apparent , as a stamp that is most faire , fresh , and full , and not defaced at all ; So shalt thou finde it in the Court of Heaven , that the dimnesse of the seale , or thy sight , though thou thinkest the Markes are all worne out , the faire image and print ( which formerly thou sawest ) so much defaced , though thy faith cannot finde out that apparent stampe ( that thou once sawest ) in thy heart , yet all this mars not thine evidence , or assurance in heaven ; this defaced seale shall goe current there , and a little imperfect seale is as good to thy assurance as a greater in heaven , and gives as good an assurance of heaven as a fairer and fuller : why so ? for it was once , as good as any ; and that in the Records and Books of heaven : therefore look to the initials of grace . But further , Secondly , Is it so as thou sayest , art thou all in the clouds , answer 2 darknesse ? &c. well then , if reflex acts of assurance ( such as we spake of before ) be wanting , make them up in multiplying , direct and resolute acts ; now ! where wants evidence , make it up in adherence . Now graspe a promise with both hands , and say , Psal. 23.4 . though I walke through the valley of the shadow of death , yet will I fear none evill ; O roule thy selfe resolutely upon free grace , and love , and resolve there to lye , live and dye ! though he slay me , yet I will trust in him , and Isa. 50.10 . When thou seest no ligh● , yet stay upon your God. Thus the Spouse came out of the wildernesse , Cant. 8.5 . leaning ( i. e. laying all her weight , care , body , soule , burthen , all ) upon her beloved . O so ! with a sweet recumbency cast thy selfe upon God , and see how that will worke ! Like men ready to be drowned , who will lay hold fast , for fear the waves should throw them off ; and he that beleeves shall never be ashamed . But thus for the Double-testimonies ; the Single are such as follow in the effects and marks , which may be testimonies to others , as well as to our selves , of our assurance ; but such are not alwayes certaine , yet such as the Church judges upon in Charity , those marks they hold out in their experiences ; for assurance is a reflecting act of the soule , by which a Saint sees clearly he is in the state of grace , and heir of glory , Vita est in se reflectio , said Seneca ; so the Prodigal came to himselfe , and 1 King. 8.47 . we see that we are sure , 1 Jo. 2.3 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we know that wee know him . Thus much we expresse in our experiences of his love shed abroad in our hearts ; so that assurance is more then perswasion , it is the top-branch and flourishing triumph of faith . Now do but minde these men , how much they differ from what they were before their assurance of Gods favour and love : before , whilst they were doubting , they did but stagger at best , if not tumble ; and now being assured , they stand fast ; before they did but smoake , now they flame ; before full of faintings , palenesse , and shiverings , now full of faith , of ruddy complexions , lively and vigorous ; before but tossed about , but now at anchor ; before afraid to lift up their quivering hands , and trembling eyes , but now boldly wrastling with Omnipotency its selfe ; before durst not draw nigh the Lord , but now durst run into his armes , and leap into his lap ; before came but behinde to touch the hem of his garment ( Scriptures and Ordinances ; ) but now , O they can look him on the face ! and flye into his bosome with embraces ! before they durst not touch a promise , and scarcely cast an eye upon a promise , but now they covetously claim all , graspe greedily , and appropriate for their own all ; before their performances were green and unfit , but now mellowed with the hot Sun-beams , and are sweet mature fruits . O how they can snap asunder now those arrows that before made them bleed at the heart ! now they can quench those fiery darts that formerly wounded them so deep : and whereas before they were under bondage , and went a begging , now they have an assurance they are free , and can command , Command ye me , saith the Lord in Isay ; O blessed people ! what a change is here ! from Mount Sinai to Mount of Olives that drops fatness , where Christ is found transfigured , Matth. 17. Now by their experiences you shall heare how they attained to this top of the Mount , and have many remarkable Marks and evidences ; and yet so , as they will neither themselves ( nor would they have you ) to confide in those testimonies as infallible ( for Hypocrites may goe far in these latter , but not in the former . ) It is not their new change from sinne to grace , from uncleanness to holiness , from creature to Christ , from conflicts to peace , from darkness to light , from bondage to liberty , from Sinai to Sion , from carnal-courses companions , &c. to spiritual , that causes their assurance , but their assurance rather causes these , and makes this glorious change , and these happy flowings of joy and peace . It is dangerous to place assurance in mortification of sinne , and dying to our former lusts , or in vivification , and living a new , another life ; such as are legally enlightned may lay hold on Promises , claspe about Christ ; cry out , away with their lusts ; meet with some soul-meltings in praying , preaching , reading , or the like ; and long after the Ordinances , and taste a sweetness in them , and what not ? and yet be under darkness , doubts , fears , &c. for there is something within that fetters and manacles them , till they are under the ministration of the Gospel ; for as we know green wood with fire in it besets the room with smoake , and fills all ; and so some poor hearts , whose principles are yet too sensual , and full of ( our ) sap which may have many sparkes of the Law , and Curses for sinne kindled in them , but they will be fuller of smoak then of light , till the Spirit comes . And yet such smoaking-flax is not to be quenched , but blown up : Wherefore , I say , this makes not assurance , they are all in the darke , and smoake yet ; yet we cannot deny but that the times of Assurance , are times of great change and alteration , the prison-doors are set open , the iron-bolts knocked off , the captives at liberty ; yea they are sealing , and setling times ad corroborandum Titulum , they are times of the soules victory and triumph over lusts , Rev. 2.17 . and with the Virgin-company of following the Lamb whither soever he goeth ; they are times of trampling on all things below , and keeping the moon under foot , yea they are watching and working , and warning , and arming times too , and times of breathing after full possession , &c. and all this ( and more too ) will appeare in the experiences of Saints : O what stories can they tell ! even a new Canticles ! what Jubiles ! love songs ! and soule-raptures doe they meet with ! then is Aurora gaudii , growing more and more to a perfect day ! Now so far as we can judge of it by the rule of charity ; we have matter enough afforded us , in the historical and demonstrable part of their experiences . It is well noted by one ( Donn . fol. 658. ) of the Evangelist John ( who was wrapt up so much into the Divinity of Christ of all other ) that he does ordinarily double that asseveration so often in Christs mouth , viz. Amen , Amen , Verily , Verily , I say unto you , &c. whilst the other Evangelists mention it but Verily , I say unto you , &c. so is it that the more we are beloved of God , and the nearer we are come to Christ ( to ly in his bosome ) and the more we are swallowed up in his Divinity , the further we are from single assertions of truth ; and the more wee meet with , and manifest to others double testimonies of Gods love , and our assurance , which like some precious mineral-waters , will not onely mundifie the ulcers , but comfort the sores , cool the heat , supple the wounds , stop the infection from going further , and by degrees will heal all . Now the fuller we are of the love of Christ , and the more we are in his Divinity , the more assuredly wee assert it , and confidently wee ●ver it , even as it were by double testimonies , and are nothing ashamed to shew our assurance , as much as we can expresse it by our experiences . But thus for this first Reason , wherein I have been the longer , because the Point is so usefull , and excellent to all Saints of all judgements ; but I shall be now shorter . To the second Reason . Secondly , True experiences ( puffe not up , as Col. 3.18 . &c. ) but teach humility , and self-denial , for then they know man reason 2 hath nothing to boast of : for this end had Paul experience of Sathans buffets , of thornes in the flesh of great afflictions , of violent temptations , and strong corruptions of smart blows from the Devils fingers , and such as came so thicke that hee could hardly take breath , lest he should have been exalted and puffed up in 2 Cor. 12.17 . for then we are most fit for use , when we are most humble , and kept low . And it is observed that the very Turkes at this day doe pretend the pride of the Hungarians , and of the Epirots or Albanians to make them unfit for Slaves , wherefore when they take them , they torment them to death most cruelly of all others : So doubtlesse their destruction is most desperate , and the Devill takes a great advantage to put to death such without pity that are in his hands , who are exalted by their experiences ; and Diotrephes-like , loving a preheminence , seek with a corrupt desire to be some body in the eyes and opinions of others . Without infinite mercy , and deliverance this will ruine us ; and thus the hearts of many Hypocrites and Professors are puffed up , and swell out with conceits that they excell others . Such the Apostle speaks of , 1 Cor. 4.18 , 19. and Col. 2.18 . Let no man beguile you , who is vainly puffed by his fleshly minde ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) that is , let him not Lord it , and brave it , as great Boasters doe , or as such Lords that scorn others should come neare them ; for such a one is vainly puffed up ( temere turgens , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) blowne up like a bladder with a breath , or some windy , empty , and unusefull humour , and dangerous or destructive tumour ; of such take heed : In a dish , or a spoon , the inside and useful side ( sayes Staughton in his Right Plea , 8. Serm. p. 81. ) is hollow , but the out-side is swelling out , and convex , but it is the inside that is hollow , which holds , and is of use ; so it is an humble low spirit , and self-denying , and a nothing-seeing Saint ( I mean nothing in himselfe ) that is so useful , and holds so much of the liquours of life , and of what is good , whilest a Hypocrite puffed up with a proud heart , & self-conceited swelling spirit , is but like the convex superficies , and holds nothing . Now you shall finde that it is the lowest vallies that are fullest and fattest , and the sweetest streams glide through them . Such sweet souls , humble Saints , sayes Bernard , are like the violets which grow low and hang their heads downward , but are full of excellency and vertue . The grass on the house-top , and the fine July-flower on the wall will soon lose their lustre , and wither away , but the violets , and other flowers that grow lower and nearer the ground , hold longer and livelier , and smell sweeter , and so doe such as are humbled by the Lords hand , 1 Pet. 5.6 . Now it is a signe their experiences are right , when they keep them humble , Rom. 12.3 . and the more weighty and full of worth they are , the lower they will lay them that have them ; For as in a paire of scales the most light ( and worthlesse ) peeces of gold rise the highest , but the weightiest bear most downward ; so is it here , the richest in grace , and that have the best experiences of Gods love are the lowest and the least in their owne eyes ; The best balme sinkes to the bottome , and the best corn keeps in the bottome of the fan . O weigh things in the scales ! the greater they are , the lower they sinke ! and so it is with the Saints ( sayes Don. Serm. p. 44. ) the greater they are in the sight of others , and the more excellent in their esteem , the lower they sinke in themselves , and are in their owne eyes . Now ( I say ) the more experienced Saints are , the more humble and broken ; for although a whole garment is more handsome to men then a rent one , yet a broken heart is more pleasing to God then a whole one ; We are wont to slash and cut our apparrel in pride , but happy if wee had hearts were so cut and rent in humility and repentance ( sayes Adams on Peter ) A roab artificially mangled and divided , and then richly tyed , and united together with silke , silver , and gold , or the like , Cant. 1.11 . appears the more glorious ; and so is it with a soul that hath been slashed , and nobly ( as it were ) cut in peeces , but now united , and made up againe with rich grace , and love , and peace , &c. O how lovely is an experienced soul in the God! and is reserved as a choise one for the Wardrope of heaven ! yea such as have been ( as it were in the third heavens , are hereby humbled ; For the higher the tide , the lower the ebhe . See but Paul , who was more exalted ? 2 Cor. 12.5 . who had higher experiences ? And yet who was more humble in his own eyes ? he accounts himselfe nothing , 2 Cor. 12.11 . what Paul ? that preached Christ so powerfully ? that writ so fully ? that disputed so manfully ? that converted so plentifully ? and yet sayes he in 1 Cor. 9.16 . I have nothing to boast of . No , why Paul was the Zealot of the Apostles , and in nothing behinde the chiefest of the Apostles ; why Paul the stout Champion of truth , he was full of revelations , manifestations , and mysteries , Col. 1.26 , 27. Eph. 3.3 , 4. &c. carried up to the third heavens , caught up into Paradise , when he heard ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) unspeakable words , and had glorious visions , and yet ( sayes he ) I have nothing to boast of , but of my infirmities , 2 Cor. 12.1 , 4. I will not glory of self . Vers. 5 and Verse 9. I will rather glory in my infirmities , that the power of Christ may rest upon me . I will rather tell of them , and declare my infirmities , and how for all them , the power of Christ rests on me . So hee saith Phil. 3.13 . he forgets all that is behind . See this soul-humbled Apostle , he passed through many perils , troubles , without , within , day and night , by sea and land , was stoned , suffered shipwrack , beaten with rods , in continual labour , and lassitude , weariness , & watchings hunger and thirsts , cold and nakedness , and in prisons often , & more then all others , and all for the truth , and yet he forgets all ; why he fought beasts of Ephesus , conquered the Athenians , non-pluss'd the Stoicks , planted many Churches , and what not ? yet forgets all . Good man , full of grace , full of experience , full of revelations , and yet humble , and so much nothing in his account that he forgets all ; and as if ( of all men living ) he had the least to be accounted of , he knows of nothing , unlesse his infirmities to boast of . Blessed Saints ! that are swallowed up in such an annihilation and Enochian life , Gen. 5.24 . when self is turned out of doors , and Christ all in all , and the love of God alone looked upon ; when a man reflects not on himselfe ( as Giles Randal sayes in his Bright Star , chap. 14. ) but all on God in free-grace . What hast thou then , O man , to boast of ! that is thine ! thus , I say true experiences make us more selfe-contemners ; and it is a signe of a height of grace , and of one exalted to degrees of the love of God , to be of an humble , meeke , self-denying spirit ; for as Hezekiahs signe was the Sunne 's going back so many degrees ( viz. 10. ) in the Dial ; so a Saints going backe ( or from himselfe in selfe-denial and humility so many degrees , and growing still humbler , is a signe of his advancement and assurance in Christ ( another selfe ) in whom hee goes as many degrees forward . For as it is said of Tygranes , whilst at the feet of Pompey he threw downe first his Crownes , and then himselfe , he did thereby so much affect this great Commander , that he ( with his owne hand ) put the Diadem upon his head againe , and raised him up from the ground , and set him downe by him in a Chaire of State , as his deare friend and companion ; and so deals the Lord with such low , selfe-denying Saints ; for though by stooping low they lose of their bodily height , yet by humility and such self-denial they lose nothing of their spiritual . You may see Re. 11.16 . how the Elders there rose up off their seats , and fell flat upon their faces before the Lamb , that is in humility and self-denial , which is more for their honor ( as well as for Christs ) then if they had sat still ; for Moses had more honour by his veyl , then by his face . The Scriptures are very full of this ; we find , Mat. 25.37 . the righteous there had learned it , and so have all the Saints , as you see by their experiences , that they have nothing to boast of ( of themselves ) but of the Lord , and his love , all the day long ) Psal. 44.8 . Rom. 2.17 . and the more they tell reason 3 of him , they are humbled before him . Thirdly , Why we should declare them , because by them we are best taught the worth and excellency of the love of God in Christ , as the Queen of Sheba said of Solomon , It was true , all the report that she heard of him , 1 King. 10.6.7 . Howbeit she beleeved not the words till she came , and saw with her eyes what she heard with her ears ; and then she said , Behold the halfe was not told me . Now behold a greater then Solomon is here ; and such as have left all to follow him , and are gone out of their owne Country , Psal. 45.11 ( by self-denial ) to prove this spiritual Solomon , with questions , petitions , cases , &c. hard to be answered , and have received satisfaction from him , must needs say , Although they have heard much of Christ by his Ministers , Servants , Scriptures , Ordinances , of his worth and excellency above all , and more then they have beleeved ; yet now they have experienced him , they beleeve more then they have heard , and the halfe ( of his worth , wisdome , beauty , fulnesse , &c. ) cannot be told , no not by the very Angels of heaven . O then ! they see it a happinesse to bee his servants ! to dwell in his house ! to sit at his table ! to enjoy his presence indeed ! when once they have had experience of him , and of the fulnesse of his grace ! As in some precious stone , or Pearle is some occult qualities , and excellencies which make it of more worth , and none can tell it , but those that finde it by wearing it ; so in Christ this precious pearle , there be many hidden vertues , and properties and excellencies , that men and Angels cannot express , that the world knows not of , that neither word nor letter nor language is able to utter , and they are best knowne by enjoying him : those that have experience of the worth of Christ , can say it is not possible for all the ablest Ministers alive to set forth halfe so much of Christs excellency , and worth , as their soules finde by experience . And , as I remember , I have read of Dyonisius a Stoick , who wrote a book that paine was nothing but a fancy , and an imagination ; but falling fearfully ill of the stone ( not long after ) and feeling the torture of it , then he roars out ; Oh! all that he had written was false ! all was false ! for now he found paine more then a fancy ; and so surely experience teaches ingenuously and truly . And such as know Christ , and the love of God by experience , can say , their former conceptions , and apprehensions of him as an a●steer Master to please , exacting duties , and a severe Judge , hasty to condemn , and that he damns thousands , &c. I say , they will say these were all false and foul conceptions and aspersions , and that God is gracious , merciful , ready to forgive , slow to wrath , passing by iniquity , transgression and sins , &c. that his bowels are open to embrace and receive ( even the worst of ) sinners of whom we are chief ; and that all the Ministers , Ordinances , Books , Scriptures , that ever were or will be , cannot tell , or utter half of his love , grace , pity , and good will in Christ , &c. but onely the back-parts of his glory , not the face or fore-side . Now as a Physitian findes those secrets ( and oftentimes excellent things ) by his practise and experience which hee could never attain unto by all his reading or search , or study out of books , or out of others mouth ; so I say , many sweet Christians by experience finde and feed on that sweetnesse and excellency of the love of God in Christ , which the greatest Rabbies or learnedst alive cannot acquire or attaine by reading books , Scriptures or the like , so that experience teaches more , and better then all . A blinde man , though from his birth , he hath heard the Theory of the Sunne read to him , yet he can never conceive of halfe of its glory and beauty , or take the hundreth part of that sweet delight in it which they doe that see it ; nor can any thing we heare of Christ , worke halfe so much as what we have of him and of the promises , &c. And one that hath tasted honey , and fed on it , knowes better the sweetnesse of it , then one that never tasted it , but onely can tell it is sweet by reading ( not by eating ; ) and so ( I say ) such precious soules must needs better know the sweetnesse of free-grace , the worth of Gods love , the excellency of a warme Christ in their soules , and the use of his most precious blood , brought hot to their hearts , then such as never enjoyed him , nor tasted how gracious the Lord is , 1 Pet. 2.3 . notwithstanding they may have read much , many Books , all the Scriptures , and heard the most precious Ministers that are , or ever were ( though Apostles ) every day ; for they cannot teach so much in a yeare of sweet Jesus , as spiritual experience will in a day ; nay an houre sometimes to some Saints ; But so much for the third Reason . Fourthly , Experiences embolden them that have them ( and reason 4 others too ) and strengthen them for the future , as the Experience which David had of deliverance from , and destroying of the Lyon , and the Bear , he makes a running and round argument against the uncircumcised Philistim , 1 Sam. 17.36 . and when Saul questioned him in Verse 23. for his audacity and presumption ( expecting it to be no work for him ) telling him he was but a boy , and came but now from keeping sheep , not having any experience of warfare as yet , and that this great Goliah was a stout Champion , and valiant Souldier from his youth ; Ah , but sayes David , for all that , I shall tell thee my experience which makes me so confident and couragious at this time ; it is but tother day since I killed a Lion and a Beare , and saved but a poor Lamb by it ; and shall I not finde now as full a power , as fresh an experience , and kill this proud Philocompos of Gath ; goe to , fear not , I shall save now more then a Lamb ( even Israel ) from this Lyon this day , for the Lord will deliver him to me . Now it is true , a fresh-water Souldier ( as Dr. Tailor sayes , Ps. 32. p. ●67 . ) is afraid of a Gun , looks aside the danger , and the noise is a terror to him , he fears it will cost him his life ; alas poor heart ! but now an experienced Souldier fears no colors , looks full face on danger , frights his foes with frown● , and every perillous opposition , and hostile blow , beats but an alarm to his undaunted courage and valour ; such Souldiers are all experienced Christians ; neither was David such a fresh-water souldier , but hee could gather courage upon his former experiences ; and as they are thus emboldened against their adversaries , and for future troubles , and temptations , so are they by their experiences the more emboldened to deal with God ; Like to the experience that a poor-man hath had of some special friend of his , who helped him at such a time , in such a strait , when else he had beene utterly undone , the remembrance of this revives him much , gives him good hopes , and great confidence , and boldnesse to come to him again ( yet with an humble boldnesse ) and hee assures himselfe hee shall finde him the same still . Certes , so it is with us that have found and felt the bounty of Gods love , and grace ; O we grow the bolder ( and yet the humbler ) and dare confidently beleeve hee will not ( nay that he cannot ) faile us at another time , when we need him ( cum lateres duplicantur ! ) See the Psalmists courage and confidence , Psal. 23.1 . I shall not want ! why ? what makes him so confident ? See Vers. 2.3 . He is my shepherd , he makes me lye downe in green pastures , he leads me , he restores my soul , &c. I have had all experiences , thus he hath done , and thus he yet doth for me ; therefore Verse 4. I will not feare , no! not though I goe thorough the very shadow , nay the very valley ( from whence all might thinke I should never more ascend , and never more be seen ) of the shadow of death , yet I fear not . So Psal. 27.1 . whom should I fear ? Why the Lord is my light , and my strength , and my salvation ; of whom ( or of what ) should I be afraid ? as some men say , Why such a great man or Lord is my friend , what care I ? I feare not . So say the Saints , this emboldens us , why the Lord is our Friend , and a tried Friend too , that never failed us , what need we fear then ? Oh! these experiences are singular good helps to us against future troubles ! and temptations ! in what kinde soever they are to come ! we need not care as long as we have so sure a Friend ( the Lord ) to come to ! so that troubles and temptations cannot soon captivate such soules . For as the breathed Deer are not so quickly caught as others ; neither are the breathed hearts that have been long hunted with the blood-hounds of Hell , and dogg'd by the black-mouthed Cerberusses of their own lusts ; these experienced Christians are not so soon catched as others , or entangled with the subtle gins of Sathan laid under the loveliest Roses of the worlds pleasures or treasures , but they run the faster , and flye the swifter , and the safer from them all . Fifthly , Spiritual Experiences declared out of the reason 5 heart , Mat. 12.35 . are like a store-house opened , whence a man fetcheth forth things , ( for use and need ) both new and old , Mat. 13 52. ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) extrudit copiose & alacriter , hee throws them out tumbling ( saies the Text ) without spare ( non libro sed labro ) So Can. 7.13 ▪ So the Spouse hath such a store-house , or experiences laid up for afterward , new and old , which I have laid up ( sayes he ) even Mandrakes in Heb ▪ Dudaim , not from Dodim loves , ( p●ma mandragorae sunt blandimenta amoris ) in the Belgick , called Doelappelen , they are very sweet , lovely , and pleasant to refresh the weary and languishing faint spirits ; so are the choisest experiences . And as they were dedicated to Lovers , so are these to Christ and his Church , such an antipathy have Toads , Snakes , and such like venemous creatures to the Mandrake , that they will not come near them , but they drive all such serpentine poysonous creatures away from them . ( Vide Lemnius de Mandragor ) so do these experiences of Saints , which sinners cannot abide , but are driven away by them , as having an antipathy to them : besides as they be exceeding Physical , and for singular use to the sickest Patients ( being odoriferous and somniferous ) and so certainly are all faire , full , fresh-gathered experiences to sick souls , like Mandrake-apples of love , ( and at our gates all manner of pleasant fruits , new and old , which I have laid up ) that is at home : but before this , the Mandrakes were abroad in publike and private , far , and near ; at home , and abroad , the Saints are full of sweet , precious , odoriferous , soul-refreshing experiences , new and old , i. e. of all sorts , sizes , seasons , day and night in an abundant measure to be bestowed and communicated , and with which they welcome Christ ( their beloved ) to ; therefore they must be declared , and brought forth , yea and laid up too for future time of need ; there will be need of them when thou art a Patient , Psal 63.7 . Hee that shoots his arrows at a But or Mark , puts them up again into his quiver for another , and another , and another shoot yet ; so the people of God , though they give out their experiences to others , yet they gather them up again , they lose them not , but lay them up for future use , and advantage ; and such especially as have been successeful , and are sweet , and they will not , they cannot forget them . Thus Christ recruits the memories and mindes of his Disciples , When I sent ye out without scrip , or shoe , or mony in your purse , &c. Lacked ye any thing ? and they said , No! ( O then treasure up for afterwards ) and so in Matth. 16.9 , 10. Do ye not remember the five loaves of the five thousand , and how many baskets ye took up ? nor the seven loaves of the four thousand , and how many baskets ye took up ? Why then reason ye thus ? ( or do ye so dialogize ) have yee not laid up these experiences ! to furnish you for future ? for a time of need ? in adversity and want ? wherefore the Saints should lay up this Ammunition , and provision for a Siege-time , seeing the enemy is making ready every day against us ; therefore learn of the Ant ( sayes Solomon ) who hath a Store-house in the Summer to lay up for the Winter , and then you will not be surprised by any sudden incursion or abruption of any raging storm or lust whatsoever . Sixthly , True experiences put the soul upon longing for reason 6 more , and looking out for , and lingring after further manifestations of his presence and love , which is better then wine Psal. 4.7 . and 42.1 , 2 , 3. and 63.1 , 2. and 84.12 . Psal. 119.174 . Cant. 1.3 . Cant. 5.4 . Cum multis aliis . When the child hath once tasted of the breast , then it cryes , and nothing but the breast can content it , 1 Pet. 2.2 , 3. when the Israelites had once tasted of the Mannah , then they longed after it , and then they cryed for more and more of it ; which till they tasted of , they wondred at , and desired it not ( ignoti nulla cupido ) but said What is this ? as Mark. 1.27 . the Jews said , What thing is this ? What new doctrine ? Why ? for they never yet tasted it ; and so Act. 17.19 . they thinke it cannot be good , and therefore doe not yet desire it till they taste it ; and then , O how they prize the Ordinances ! Ministers , means , administrations , and manifestations of the love of God! The horse that hath fed on Provender will look and neigh , and with a wanton laughing eye turne about , and about , and long for it , whilst the Jade that eats no oats , but feeds onely on hay in the racke , requires no more ; so such Saints as have fed upon the bread of life , and tasted of the l●ve of God , in Christ , cannot but look after it , and long for it , and stir about and about , till they enjoy more of it , whilst such as never tasted it , but onely heard of it , are content with their common fare , of hearing and formal worshipping according to what is before them in the racke , and what the Parish Ministers appoint them , and that is all ; when alas ! experienced Saints long for lustier food , and provision . A man ( it may be ) that should newly come out some deep dark Dungeon , who never before saw the Sunne ( no● ever so much as heard of it ) when he sees the Sim go down , set , and gone , is in a great perplexity , and peradventure thinks it is quite lost ; but experience now teaches others otherwise , and that it will the next day arise again , and give us fresh light ; therefore they are content to wait for it , and they wish it with expectation : and so doe all experienced Saints , with assured confidence call for more of Christ , and more of grace ; and of the love of God , which they have experienced , and they wish for more , with expectation of more , as John that looked still for more visions and revelations ; yet the Saints prize them ( at their hearts ) that they have already . So the Spouse , Cant. 3.2 . loses him , but Verse 4. findes him again , and then she holds him , and would not let him go . Seventhly , Experiences declared , doe oblige them ( that have them ) more in obedience to God ; for by them thou reason 7 knowest , thou obeyest a dear , a gracious God indeed , and a Father . Now you shall a finde a child , if a stranger bid him do this , or that , he will not obey him ; but if a Father bids him , then he obeys and runs strait : so dost thou willingly ( and runing readily ) obey the Lord , when thou knowest by experience hee is thy Father , and lookest not on him as a stranger ; and then thy obedience is full of life and spirit indeed , as Joh. 4.24 . for thou canst not be dull in his service that art full of experience , because thou art then full of love and life , 2 Cor. 5.14 . 1 Joh : 5.3 . Exod. 21.5 . Take a glasse and knock it with thy finger , if it sound dull , surely thou wilt say there is some flaw in it ; so a dull obedience is but cracked ; but a filial obedience which flows from love , is shril , sounds well , and is full of spirit and life , Phil. 1.11 . it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 9.7 . but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Col. 3.23 . Rom. 6.17 . Now their experiences prompt them up to it , Psal. 40.8 . and are directory as well as consolatory in a time of darknesse and trouble , even in the shadow of death , as well as in a time of light and peace to serve the Lord , so Phil. 2.8 . even with a Daniel in the Den , as well as with a David on the Throne . See a man that is used to walk in the night , as well as in the day , fears no more one , then the other ; and as some man can better finde the way in the darke , to which he hath been used , and which he knows ( by often going it ) then another that never went it , ( it may be ) can do by the best instructions can be given him by others ; so such as have experiences have the best instructions , and directions in their obedience , and are better , and more orderly walkers in the dark , then others in the day ; in trouble , then others in peace ; in afflictions , then others in joyes ; in any manner of adversity , then others in any manner of prosperity ; and they will keep within their bounds in obedience , which others cannot ; and therefore are in greater danger then experienced Christians . As the Dear that is leapt over the Pale , and is gotten out of the Park , is in greater danger then the rest , and every dog is at his heels . Such as have most experience of the love of God , seek themselves least ; and therefore are the best in obedience to God. But we see as the Hunter that crosseth the high-way , and keeps it not , is but following his own game all this while ; for the way is not there : So the Hypocrite crosseth the high-way ( that you read off , Isai. 40.3 . ) and runs out of Gods road , whilest the seeks his own game , and serves himself more then God. But the Saints of God are guided by the Spirit of God , and have the Pillar of fire ( by night to direct them ) as well as a cloud by day : And whither it be night or day , adversity or prosperity , still they can see to follow Christ ; and as Donn sayes ( in his Serm. in fol. p. 139. ) You shall see a man that is reading in the Evening ; he hath read a pretty while before , all in one and the same Book , and on the same Subject ; now night comes in , twilight is on , he can hardly see a Letter . Yet let him alone , he will see to read longer in that Book , and on that Subject , which he hath been on all the while , then if he took a new book , or new subject to read on . So we that have been all the day-long doing Gods service , and in the Sun-shine of peace , and prosperity about our duties , and obedience : We , I say , shall the better do them ( that have been used to them , and experienced in them . ) Now darkness surprises us , and adversity comes upon us ; and in a time of darkness , when we see no light ; yet we shall obey the Lord , and hear his voice ( having continual experiences ) to direct us . Isai. 50.10 , 11. And yet we shall walk ( though in darkness , without the immediate light of Gods love , and countenance seen ; yea , without the former evidences , and comfort of graces , in a stormy night , without light or star , Acts 27.20 . But to be in doubt , what will become of us ; and to be stumbling at all our comforts , and to be filled with great fears and terrors ; ) yet , I say , we shall continue walking and serving God , hearing and obeying his voice ; which is an argument of a stout experienced Christian indeed ; Experiences conducing very much hereto . But thus for this , and all the Reasons , which I shall gather to ratifie this undeniable Truth . We have sufficiently ( I suppose ) proved the assertion of the use of Experiences declared in the Church , being much for the honor and glory of God , the advantage of the Church , and themselves , that make them . Now we all concur ▪ Schoolmen , Ministers and all , That where there is true grace , experienced Saints know it sweeter then the drops from the honey comb ; and qui accipit gratiam , per quandam experientiam dulcedinis novit se illam habere , quam non experitur ille qui non accipit ; as we have amply before mentioned : Such men must needs know the love of God is sweet , who have tasted and digested it . They can comfortably use Laban's words in Gen. 30.27 . I have learned by experience , that the Lord hath blessed me . Jehovah hath raised me , and increased me , I have experience of it by comparing my former condition with my present . So the Saints do tell by experience , how Jehovah hath helped them , and blessed them , even with spiritual blessings in heavenly places . Some of which ( though not so perfectly as they were delivered , yet ) as well as I can collect them out of the Notes which I took of them from their own mouths , when they were admitted into the Church , I shall present , as a sweet posie of some of the chiefest flowers that I have met with this spring-time in the Garden of the Lord ! the Church of Christ ! which is growing apace up to an Eden ; from flowers to fruits ; from Plants to Trees of Righteousness , planted by Rivers of Water . Examples of Experiences , OR Discourses and Discoveries of the dead hearing the voice of the Son of God , and now living : As they were delivered in Dublin by divers Members admitted into the Church ; Being a clear account ( to the judgement of charity ) of the work of Grace upon their hearts ; in divers ways and sundry manners converted ; some extraordinarily , and some ordinarily . When ? where ? and how ? with the effects . But before I begin , I shall premise this , for the godly Readers sake , that I must contract much their experiences as they were taken , least they be too voluminous : And although in the choicest and most extraordinary ones , I shall gather the stalk longer , least I hurt the beauty and hide the excellency of those flowers ; yet without hurt to the rest , in those which are ordinary , I shall be very short , being prevented by others ( in that little Treatise of Experiences newly put out . ) I shall gather out the flowers onely , and give you the sum of what they said , and so tie them up together for a conclusion of the whole matter . The most of these are mens , and some womens , and a very great many more I might adde to them , which I have met with in England , Essex , and London , and in Ireland , and at Chester , Holly-Head in Wales , and in my travels ; but that , I say , I am ( I hope ) seasonably ( though unexpectedly ) prevented ; although many more do lie prepared by me . But to the business , as coming last from Dublin to declare some of those precious ones ( and which are the greatest treasure ) that I brought with me from thence : The savor of which ( I hope ) will be attractive , and encourage others over into Ireland , where the Lord hath his Garden enclosed , and full of Spices , with the Mandrakes laid up for the Beloved against his coming ; which is looked for every day there , as well as here ; and there the ●ride saith , O! come Lord Jesus ! come quickly ! The Testimony of Tho. Huggins , Preacher of the Gospel , given in , at the publick place , Octob. 8. 1651. of Brides in Dublin . IT is my joy to see willingness in Gods people to walk together in fellowship with the Father and the Son ; and such I desire to have fellowship with , where Christ ( the King ) in his beauty appears most : I do acknowledge ( as you have heard ) that account of faith before made by our Brother R. and do experimentally know ; and therefore must acknowledge that glorious Being of one God in his three distinct relations , of Father and Creator , Son and Redeemer , and Spirit , and Sanctifier ; and I finde in me by his Spirit , and the several operations of this his Agent , these things . I believe the Scriptures , Old and New Testament , to be the very minde of God ; and do heartily desire my soul may be turned into the nature of those truths therein declared ; but to that which is expected from me most , I come , viz. to my conversation . I was but yong when I began to be warmed , yea , within , being under a zealous Ministry , and much put upon duty , I did use to read the Scriptures every night , and to repeat Sermons often , and so spent the first scene of my youth , till I came to be sent by my friends to London , and there I lived for a year or two ; but in that time , as often as I saw any Minister , I could not but weep , and always wished that I might be one , to be able to preach too . After this , I was sent to one of the Vniversities there , but being wilde with youthful company , I was soon after sent hither to this Colledge of Dublin , where I am well known , and here I continued till the Rebellion brake out ; at which time , I left it , and went for England into the North-parts , and about Liverpool , where I preached , ( till now I returned hither . ) But all this while I was but formal , and as the yong-man that said , he had kept all these from his youth : So was I from my youth religious , well-given , loving the means , following of them , and seeking to serve God. But alas ! yet all this while was I in darkness , and did not know it ; but afterwards , I saw that I was blinde , and but carnal : For about the year , 1645. I began to be in great doubts and troubles , and very much clouded in my spirit , and was exceedingly bound and tyed up for a time , under the sence of my formal holiness , and sins , till the Lord was pleased to give me light . Once as I was walking all alone ( sadly ) upon the Mountains , he immediately powred his Spirit upon me , and satisfied my soul in Jesus Christ , and filled my heart with heavenly joy , and peace ; and with most ravishing contemplations , which continued without a cloud for six weeks together , which gave me full assurance of Gods love ; and ever since I have lived in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus , though I have met with many clouds and storms since , yet such as have passed away , and cannot hinder me , as long as Christ ( mine ) is above them . Being thus translated from the form into the power , I do heartily propose my self to be one with the members of Christ in his Church : And although before I was not free in England , or elsewhere to joyn thus , it being so in controversie and disputable ; yet now I am fully satisfied , and do see God building up his Jerusalem apace , and am confident of what he is doing to Nations ; yea , I joy to see that you all seek to unite by one Spirit , and all to be one in Spirit , if not all in one Form , and so do I , not doubting but this Ministration will be most to edification . A further Testimony added to the truth , by the experience declared ( in the same place , at the same time ) by John Bywater , Preacher of the Word . BRethren , I do declare here this day the desire of my heart , which is to have fellowship with such a society as are built up by the Spirit ; to be one with all those that are one with Jesus Christ the Head ; knowing this , That all rudimentary and elementary things , do but point at a higher glory . As for my Faith , I acknowledge God one , not three , but as you have heard before , &c. As for my life , I shall in short say thus ▪ When I was a little one , going to School , God began with me ; for once I swore one Oath ( as I was playing with my School-fellows ) but I was presently struck with horror for it , and sence of it , as if I were to go to Hell for it presently ; in which horror , and great trouble , I left my School-fellows playing , but I could no longer , being in this misery for that sin , but away I went into the Church-Porch ( not far off ) and there I sat alone , and wept bitterly to my self for some time ; but at length growing in some hopes ( I know not how ) of pardon , I began to grow chearful , and fearless , until a little while after that , I went to see some malefactors suffer ; and after I came home , this sight ran so much in my minde , and was for a long time set so before my eyes , That my sins , and the horrors of Hell came afresh upon me again ; so that I was exceedingly cast down , and cryed out , O what shall I do ! how shall I be saved ! which I had often in my mouth , and in the hearing of my friends : in which condition , I could take no comfort from them , till the Lord himself brought me out of it , and gave me to be given up to Jesus Christ , by the life of Faith which I now live ; notwithstanding . I was under several temptations , and oftentimes very thick , but even then I resolved , if that I were flung into Hell , yet it should be holding on Christ ; for I will not let him go now , and here I hold through mercy , ever since . So that I take Christ for my King , Priest , Prophet , and do believe him to be a Propitiation for my sins . And I believe , that he will restore to us a pure language , and that we shall all worship him in one Spirit , and with one consent : And my desire is to walk with you thus , in union and love , and by one and the same Spirit . Another Testimony or Report made of the work of grace upon his heart , ( at the same time , in the same place ) by John Hewson Colonel , and Governor of Dublin . HAving an opportunity to speak something to you , I shall do it without many words — . Time was , that I was in a state of disobedience as to God , a childe of wrath , and lived in a wicked and profane family in London ; but yet I went often to hear a good man in London preach , by which means I was brought to see sin , and shown within me , that I wanted Christ ; which when I saw , I began to desire him , and to long after him , and still frequented the means , and by the use of the means , I was drawn nigher to himself ; but ever since I finde I have a corrupt heart , and have much ado to keep it in ; therefore God brings me under many troubles and temptations , more then many others . And I ( though I am in places of power , yet I ) account them nothing , seeing an emptiness in all things , and a fulness in none but in Christ. I confess , I was sometime for the Presbyterians , and very rigid and bitter against all others of the Independents , till the Lord did shew me the Parish-Church was no true Church , being a mixed Congregation ; and I was ignorant of this way which they call Independent . But now I am clearly convinced of it , and satisfied in this society , and for matter of Faith , I concur with the Brother that before spake , and finde what he said to be true in me , and do desire communion with you , as you have with Christ Jesus . The Testimonial of Raphael Swinfield , or his experience , as was taken out of his own mouth in Dublin , in another publick place called Michaels . I Do declare here what God hath done for me . First , in my youth , my Father , ( being a godly man ) brought up his children very religiously ; but for my part , although I were well brought up ( and instructed , ) yet I was very disobedient , being yong and head-strong , and hearkned not to my fathers advice , ( which I had often , but regarded it not ) which grieved me greatly afterward ; for I could not endure to be curbed or kept in ; but at length , because of his continual ( and yet justly ) reproving me for my ill courses , and ill company which I kept , I resolved I would stay at home no longer , but I would be gone into the Low-Countreys , and we were put out to Sea , but by contrary Winds and Seas were driven back again : But I could not see this , but still held on my purpose , and having an opportunity , I got away for all that into England ; and I was in England a while , where my friends set upon me , and perswaded me to turn home again , telling me many things to move me ; but whilest I had my abode with my friends there for some time , I began to be acquainted with some things ; for there I heard good men , and Ministers often , and there I was made to see my sin , and wicked disobedience , by one Master Evans ; and I was thereupon sadly affected , and disconsolate , and could have no quiet nor rest : In this time my Father hearing of me , where I was ( not knowing before what was become of me , but that I might be dead or drowned ) now writ a Letter to me , wherein I was admonished to beware of such as run headlong to perdition , with many other good advices ; and he seemed ( as Iacob ) joyed to hear that his son was yet alive , &c. All which things struck me heavily to the heart , and so I lay long , under the fearful sentence of my sin and disobedience , and could not take any comfort , or content . I prayed , fasted , heard the Word , went to Ordinances , yet had no satisfaction at all . And thus I continued till my heart was ready to burst a peeces ; and then I began to make it known to my friends , how I was afflicted , who did a little comfort me , but this lasted but a little while ; for I soon fell again into my old malady and grief as before , being sadly diseased ; and so as I could finde no comfort at all , by any means , until that place in Isa. 50.10 . came into me , How he that sitteth in darkness , and seeth no light , should trust in the Name of the Lord , and stay himself upon his God : which did much fasten upon me , and me upon God ; whereby I had abundance of comfort , but yet never free from many temptations , and fears , and doubts ; and such sometimes as made me I could not tell what to say ; until once , that I had a sweet dream , which hath done my soul good to this day ; and in my dream I was told , that Gods love was free in Christ Jesus , I need not fear , for his grace was granted in Christ , and he puts none by that comes . This proved to me a sure comfort in Christ , that I was one of them that could not be put by , but re●●ived to mercy to this day ; but afterward I went into New-England , and had much comfort from them , and their Ministers , and was affected with their way ; but by reason I could not ( before ) bring my Wife and Family over thither with me , I came home again hither to my Wife and Family , whom I found ( I thank God ) all well and living ; and ever since I have been here , but walking alone , and very desolate for want of such a society as this ; and I shall now much rejoyce , if I may be one with you in this onenesse of love and spirit , which ( I perceive ) you are in . Experience of Francis Bishop . MY earnest desire is that I may be worthy to have fellowship with you in Christ ; as for my Experiences , they are many more then I can tell you in a long time . My first main worke upon my spirit , was suddenly , and it was upon an Alarme given whilst I was in the Troop , which took such successe , that I lay all under an apprehension of Gods wrath upon me , and was much cast down ; so that though I prayed , and prayed , yet I could not look up , and had no confidence , but confusion was before my face . Presently after I came to Town here , and was impeached upon an Article of War , for to lose my life , and I was imprisoned for the breach of it ; by all which I was in the apprehension of Hell about me , and could doe nothing but weep and moan , and pray , sometimes , and I counted my life as lost , and yet was more troubled under the wrath of God , then the wrath of man ; but it pleased God to give me great comfort , even whilst I was thus in despaire , and moaning ( one night ) in my bed of a sudden , the room was all alight , and I saw my selfe as in a lightning , and being terrified , I looked till I saw it written in these words , Thy sinnes are pardoned , and thy life is bid with Christ in God ; this comforted me much in that extraordinary trouble and despair which I was in ; but yet for want of faith , this comfort did not continue with me , for I thought after that , that I saw God with a wrathful countenance , and I could not dare to look upon him , and the next news that I heard was , that ▪ I was condemned to be shot to death ; O then ! I cannot expres● the terrours that I was in ! my woful misery was such , that neither the reading of the Scriptures , nor prayers , nor the promises would do me any good ; for I could not beleeve I had a right to them , I could not lay hold on them , and in this woful misery I lay a condemned man both in soule and body ; and so lay lamenting . When I turned open the Bible in Joel 2.13 . and saw it thus written , Turn to the Lord YOUR GOD , for your God is gracious , &c. merciful , slow to anger , and of great kindnesse , and repenteth him of the evill ; with that , pondering a while upon it , said I , and is he such a God ? well then , he is my God , and with that I gave my selfe up into his hands to doe what he would with me , yet he should be my God , and so I resolved , and was setled , and satisfied ; but after this , I was set free out of prison ; and though I thought this had been enough , yet for all this , I found much opposition ( afterwards ) in me against God , which I did not thinke could have been ; but I was grievously wounded for it , and could have no quiet , but went to Mr. W. about it , and he told me I had fallen from my first works , I must repent , which rent my heart , and I had no rest ; I returned from him , and applied to prayer , and kept that course continually to pray , and by little and little , I was recovered out of that condition ; and I praise God , since I have seen him smile , and looke kindly on me , and know that he loves mee , and I am sure of my pardon in Jesus Christ , on whose merits I relye , in whose righteousnesse I rest , and by his grace I am now set free to serve him . Experience in Mihil , made out by John Jecock Captain . I Can say something , and shall give out some account of Gods working upon me at the first , when I was in a wretched state , and without God in the world . Once as I was walking alone by my selfe , God did call to me , and began to open and reveal himselfe to me , but my heart was hardened , and I refusing mercy at that time , the Law laid hold upon me very fiercely , and I was so terrified in my spirit , and my conscience did so reprove me , that I was afraid even of every bush and tree that I met with in the darke ; still I could have no rest , nor quiet , having refused mercy when it was lovingly tendered to me , which I thought was so great a sin , that it could not be forgiven me , but yet I continued praying alwaies almost , and heard the means ; and one time being in this affliction hard praying , and with fervency of spirit seeking God , there came and shone such light round about me , and in such a way that I could not hold , but my heart was full ; and all admiring , I most wondered how the Lord should set his love so on me , on such a one as I ; after this , I was full of refreshment , and have been by faith wonderfully carried out , and I can see God doing great things in mee and for me . Truly at sometimes I have had some sweet refreshments after troubles since ; and I find some enlightments in me oftentimes , but nothing to the first , which was so sweet that it was extreme glorious . After that I was made ever more cautious of company , and conversation , and ever since that sweet manifestation of love , as often as I offended God , though but a little , it strucke home to my heart , and I was very sensible of it ever since , and very carefull in my walkings . Experience of John Cooper . I Have longed to enter into this fellowship , ever since January 4. last , being the Lords day in the night time after prayers ; and many troubles I had , earnestly praying to be confirmed in faith , and fully perswaded for some way or other to walk in , which the Lord was best pleased with ; and ( after prayer ) I slept , and so continued in one sleep untill about five a clock in the morning , having had this Dream that I now give in : for I presently upon my waking made hast to write it down , lest I should have forgotten it again , or any thing of it ; and this is that which I writ down , as I remembred it , that I present to you under my own hand . The Dream of John Cooper the 4. of Jan. 1651. as it was given in under his own hand , WHich was this . I thought I was in the company of Mr. Rogers , Col. Hewson , and my Lord of Clogher , and that we were all going together upon a fine green way ; and did all travel together a long time , and then I thought Mr. Rogers turned backe to us , and said ; Brethren , you may see , what a great comfort it is to walke in the pathes of Righteousness ; For , for all wee have travelled so long , yet we are not any thing a weary , &c. And Brethren be assured , that I will lead you to a place of great joy and comfort before it be long , if you will but follow mee . So then ( me thought ) we went a little further , and we came to a very large and spacious place ; wherein there was a great gate ▪ and there Mr. Rogers made a prayer : and as soon as he had concluded ; the Gate was opened , and we entred therein ; and then me thought wee went into a great Garden , and there was a very large paire of stairs , where we went up , and there I saw mee thought a great many of dead peoples bones , which appeared to Mr. Rogers in full and perfect shape as ever any were , as I conceive , for at those bones he made a stand , and said unto us all , Look brethren , and take good notice of the handy work of our great God ; for here you may see that they are in as perfect shapes as they were in the lower world . So then ( me thought ) we went up a little further , and there Mr. Rogers made another stand , and said , unto us , Brethren , Now shall I see whether you be strong in faith , or not . So then ( mee thought ) wee came to a place where we must needs goe over , and it was in the likenesse of a small Pike laid over a deep pit , and then mee thought Mr. Rogers said , Come Brethren , our journey is in vain without wee goe over this Pike , for they that will see the Habitation of the Lord , must goe through many dangers , and I will by the grace of God be your Leader ; And so then ( me thought ) he went over with as much safety and ease , as if he had gone on the earth . The next that went over the Pike aforesaid , was Col. Hewson , and he went with as much ease also , and after my Lord of Clogher ; The next it came to my turne , which I seeing so great a downfall , and the Pike did so bend and shake that I could not set one foot over it , was afraid ; so then me thought Mr. Rogers cryed out , and said , O friend , friend ! you have walked in the pathes of unrighteousnesse ! So then ( me thought ) he made a prayer to Almighty God , that he would admit me to goe over : And so then ( me thought ) he bowed three or four times , and cryed out with a loud voyce , and said , O thou great God , how much I am bound unto thee for all thy loves and manifestations towards me ! So then ( me thought ) he took me by the hand and bid me , Come over , and not to fear ; and then I walked over with as much safety as the rest ; so then ( me thought ) we went a little further , and we came to a very faire Room , and there was not any in it as I could see , but Mr. Rogers , and Col. Hewson , and the Lord of Clogh●r : They saw , and spake with God ( as I conceived ) for after they had done speaking , they gave many bows and thanks ; and then ( me thought ) Mr. Rogers said , Come , we will sing prayses unto the Lord for all his Promises , and great Gifts to us . And then ( me thought ) wee began to sing , and I heard a multitude of voyces with rare Musicke , and I could not see any , but our selves ; so when Mr. Rogers had done giving God his glory in singing of praises ; he did rise up , and saluted us , and said ; well , Brethren , I have but a short time to stay here with you ; and for the Time I have been amongst you , I have endeavoured to bring you the Right way to worship God. And for the time I doe stay with you , I shall ( by the helpe of the Lord ) make knowne unto you Greater things then I have done yet ; So I desire you to follow my counsel , and it shall bee for your owne profits ; and so I waked , or else I might have knowne more . — After this his Dream , he was much confirmed in this way wherein we walked , and the effects of it were of such influence , that he said he could not rest , nor be satisfied untill he had shewed it to the Church , and proposed himselfe to walke with them ; at the time he was admitted , he said more ( though not much ) that he was called home to God , taken off of sinne , and the lusts of the world ; and that he had found in him a great change , though he were not able to expresse himselfe in words , and was now desirous to please God , to walke in his way , longing after Christ , and communion with his people , being long before wrought upon by the word preached , and prayer , and that now hee had given himselfe up to God , with such like expressions comming very brokenly from him in much appearance of humility and holinesse . A fuller Testimony as it was taken from Elizabeth Avery , out of her own mouth , and declared by her self to the whole Church . IN this society I see much of God , and have a great desire to be one with you . From my childhood I have lived under good education ; my Father was a godly man. I was always tender and consciencious , but my conversion was wonderful . On one Sabbath-day I was playing , but I was soon and soundly checked for it in my spirit ; and went home , but I was a great while troubled , and lay under bondage all along : And I was much distracted and confused for sin a long time , till about sixteen years of age ; and then I began to be very strict , and so retired in my life , that many wondered at it : I had an entire love to the preaching of the Gospel ; O how I longed after it ! but alas ! we had then no good Preaching-Ministery to be had or heard about us ! and yet my heart longed a long time after it , till I came to be married . But alas ! I was yet under the Law , and Works , until God called me out of Egypt ; and I could not tell how I was once wrapt up in a light , and hearing something spoken of Free-grace , then I melted . Yet for all these , I had great afflictions , and amongst others , by the loss of my children , Gods rod was laid heavy upon me , insomuch , That he struck three of them together ; and one childe above all , a most sweet childe , and one , that I least thought of them all would have died , was very ill ; and we were talking ( I , my Husband , and some Friends , ) together of comfortable things , and amongst others of David , when he said of his childe ( dead ) I shall go to it , it shall not return to me . Ay sayes one , that is to the grave ; which word wounded me ; and I went into the Garden to wail and moan my self ; but soon after , my Husband came and told me my childe was dying ; at which I was left in an horror , as if I were in Hell , none could comfort me , nothing could satisfie me , no Friends , nothing ; then it was sad indeed to me , a Hell indeed . I sent for the Doctor and others , but to no purpose . Yet after this the Lord wrought on me much ; and one , a Minister of Christ , that had power from God to do me good , gave me much satisfaction by a Letter of his : And after that , me thoughts , I was content to part with all , and to let all go ; then God tryed me , and took away another childe from me , and I could bear it very well , and was not troubled , but rather did rejoyce within me to be thus tryed . No cross , nor loss could trouble me then , and I continued in this strength ( I praise God ) pretty long . But after this I was like to have died , and then , to adde to my great sorrow , the good Minister that did me so much good , left the place , and went away , and my friends slighted me , and one thing added to another , made me begin to despair again ; but then I know not how God quieted me again , which I wondered at , and was much comforted , and confident , that God would do me good , and I hoped and looked for it : And the very next morning as I was at prayer , God wonderfully appeared ; and then was it , that Christ was manifested to my spirit , and I was as in a trance for a while , but after I awaked full of joy ; and yet for all this , I was somewhat under bondage ( me thoughts , ) but the Word and Means of Grace did confirm me , and comfort me . In the times of the Wars in England , I was brought out of Egypt into the Wilderness . O! I was much refreshed by the Lord two or three years , and was much contented , and had his teachings within me , yea , and ( many times ) without his outward instruments ; for I had his Spirit , his voice speaking within me , and God alone was with me , and no strange god . But when the wars began to cease , my greatest trouble , and that at which I took offence was , That we were so without the means , and without able Ministers ; for now I could not be satisfied , but even doted on them , and could not wait with patience ; for I had forgot now how God had taught me within before , and without them . Yet I followed and hunted after my lovers , having mens persons in admiration ; and thus God suffered me for a while to go on after them . A while after this , Colonel Lambert desired me to go to Oxford , and when I was to go , I made ready my self , packt up my cloaths and all , and rid away ; most , with desire for communion with godly people there , for ( as yet ) I could see no further — ▪ I heard their disputes between Master Kiffith and others , very hot , but saw nothing of God there , and was troubled at it , and could not after that hear him or others ; but I went into a Garden alone my self mourning , and sat so a while under a Wall , and by and by came three men to me ( passing that way ) and wondered to see me so ; they asked me many questions — . But a little after I recovered my self out of that passion , and went and told Colonel Lambert how it was with me ; but he told me , I should not onely be taken off of Ordinances , but off of believing too , within a while ; at which I was troubled , and went away unsatisfied I was troubled to hear any Preach , and being once got to go to the publick place , I was so tormented that I could not bear it ; for I could not joyn with them , nor hear , nor pray , nor had no rest , no comfort , nor ease , nor could I eat or drink , but went ( as I was wont ) to bewail in a Garden , where I was moaning , when there came one unto me , and presently told me , That I was under the opening of the fifth seal , and very near the sixth , in the condition which I was in , and should be in . — Being thus afflicted , I desired to go home again from Oxford , and writ to my Husba●d , but the Letter was burnt ; — but I was in such a condition to see Gods wrath in every thing against me , as is not to be expressed ; I was left in all kindes of troubles ( as it were ) at once ; but here was all the comfort that was left me , and it was my Heaven in my Hell , that God would be glorified by my destruction : And so long I found some ease , and content ( me thought , ) and it did joy me at my heart to think , That all things should go well with the Saints , and they should be happy ; though I had no share with them , yet these things did me good . And indeed , I dare boldly say when my faith was gone , and hope gone , and all gone , and flew from me , and could not be seen in me that I had any ; yet love remained , and might be seen , and was not gone ; noe , though I were to be cast presently into Hell ▪ yet I could love God , and was glad he was to be glorified , though I were to be ruined ; and so I was glad at the welfare of Gods people . Thus I was three quarters of a year , and did not now care for my self , what became of me , for the reasons I said before ; but it appeared my deliverance was near at hand , though ( as yet ) I had no assurance of salvation ; yet at last I was carried out with a great confidence , that light was near at hand , And yet I met with terrible shakings for all that , which lit altogether upon the flesh , for the spirit was free : So that some three years agone , God came in upon my spirit , and gave me full assurance , and I heard a voice say — , And sorrow thou shalt see no more . Then I writ down what God had done for me , and writ about to my friends ; but yet I was struck in the flesh again , which I wonder at ; and then I heard the voice again say , It was sin that was suffering in me , and the flesh as the punishment of sin ; and so I found it was , for the destruction of the flesh ; and ever after that I found Christ in me , ruling and reigning , and taking all power to himself , and he hath caught the man-childe up to God , which I brought forth . i. e. The flesh , ( by his incarnation ) and I have found in me ( and do yet ) his judgement-seat s●t , to judge and sentence sin , and lust , and corruption , and his throne is there for himself to sit , and to rule by his own Laws : And thus it continues with me at this day , and the Lord leads me on , higher and higher in himself ; and for that I see so much of him here in the midst of this Church , I desire to be one also with you . Another Testimony or Experience made by Elizabeth Chambers , in the Church aforesaid , when she was admitted . I Have often prayed for communion with Gods people , which I hope to enjoy as his answer — . When the Rebellion brake out here in Ireland , I went over with my Husband into England , and at Bristol there were a poor despised people that met together , and had some communion , but they were made a meer off-scorn , and disdained by all almost ; but I desired to know them more ; and the more I heard them reproached , and abused , and called Hypocrites , and holy Brethren , or Sisters , in mockery or the like , the more I rejoyced , and desired to be one with them ; and I reproved their enemies for reproaching them ; for that ( by that ) it appeared the more to me , That they belonged to the Lord , and I wished I might be one with them : But being afterwards to return hither , when I was come over , I went to hear at Katherines Church ( so called ) in Dublin ; but I could not well hear the Minister , and when I did , he railed so bitterly against the godly people , that I could not edifie any thing by him ; but I heard Mr. Brisco , and was much moved by him ; but yet I was without assurance , and had no full and clear satisfaction all this while ; until the Lord , who heareth prayers , sent over Mr. Rogers from the Councel of State to us , who on the first subject that he was cast upon to Preach out of Gal. 1.15 , 16. When it pleased God to reveal his Son in me , that I might Preach him among the Heathen , I conferred no longer with flesh and blood . He did show , that unless Christ were revealed in us , he was vailed to us ; and the ablest Preachers speak from inward revealings , Christ revealed in them . And in the handling of this , he shewed , that unless Christ be in us , no Salvation to us , 2 Cor. 13.5 . Now after I had heard him on this , I was much cast down , for I could not finde Christ , but corruptions and sins in me ; and being removed from my former bottom , I was much troubled , and could not finde any thing in me to build my comfort upon ; but lay lamenting , and afflicted day and night . My Friends were much troubled to see me , and questioned much with me ; but yet being cast down , and undone thus , upon the first sight and Sermon of this man , I sighed and prayed , and sighed and prayed , and went to bed with my heart full , and head full , and eyes full , and ●ell afflicted ; at length I slept and dreamed , That unless Christ were in me , I were damned , a reprobate , undone , and lost for ever . When I awaked , my heart aked , ready to break , I rose up , and wept sore , and with sighs and tears I took the Bible , and looked out for Christ there ; and looked out and turned to the proofs that Master Rogers mentioned , and examined them ; and then I examined my own heart , and searched ; but all this while I was at a loss , and lamenting , I told a Gentlewoman my condition , and she did what she could to comfort me , but to no purpose . The next day I hasted away to hear him again , and there I found comfort , for he was now upon certain signs whereby we might ( likely ) judge of Christ within , revealed in us , and know it ; and also to others , he gave and urged the tender of Gospel-promises , upon their willingness to accept of , and receive in Christ , as Isa. 55.1 . and John 7.37 . Revel . 22.17 . John 6.37 . and 16.20 . and Matth. 12.20 . Isa. 44.3 . Psal. 145.19 . and Prov. 13.12 , 19. and Matth. 28.5 . Fear not , for you seek Jesus ; with some other places . And moreover , he proved to us , That some had Christ ( within ) when they think they have him not ; but therefore do pass a false sentence upon themselves , and seek him without ; as the Canaanitess , and the Spouse , in Cant. 3.3 . and Mary Magdalen , &c. By all which , I was much raised up , and went home with joy , and was sure that I had found Christ now ; for my heart was changed , and satisfied , ( as it were ) full of light , and joy , and I saw clearly , that I had Christ ; and all my motions , desires and heart , went out after him , and him alone . After this , my sister had the sickness , and yet I was not afraid , but lived on God , and fed on Christ , as all my comfort : And I saw all was empty and nothing , and not worth loving without him ; and I often spoke to my sister of Christ within ; and did often pray by her , and was ( through grace ) made an Instrument to do her great good ; I being always with her , and seeing her a dying woman . Yea , the more the Lord hath taken away from me , as my Husband , Father , Friends , Sister , Children , and all ; the more have I made Christ in me , in the room and stead of all these to me . And I let God alone to do what he will with me , and I applied that place to Abraham , Gen. 17. Fear not , for I am God all-sufficient , &c. And so I rested on God , and the life I now live , is by faith in the Son of God ; who gave himself for me , and died for my sins , and rose again for my justification . Experience of Henry Johnson , which is taken imperfectly and very short . I Have met with many great mercies , when I was in the West-Indies , there we wanted the means , and had no good Ministers ; but after that with conference that I had with a good man , I began to know something of God , for till then I was in great ignorance : Afterward I came to London , and there indeed I heard many good men , and had much means , yet but a little assurance ; and so I held in a formal-way of working and worshipping ; until a time , when I was surprised with fears , I had a a vision , and an appearance ( as it were ) round about me , and full of glory , which I cannot express ; but a voice said , You shall see it ; at which I was afraid , and after all this , I thought I was but a Formalist , and no better then an Hypocrite , and could not have rest or comfort , but went about , and desired prayers to be put up for me , and durst not go to hear ; until it pleased God to bring into my heart , Isa. 50.10 . Heb. 10.20 . & 13.5 . I will never leave thee , nor forsake thee ▪ And such places which did abundantly comfort me , and satisfie me , and so I could come with boldness in Jesus Christ ; and then durst go to hear , and have been setled on Christ ever since , and have used the means of Grace and Ordinances , with great affection to Jesus Christ. Experience of Edward Wayman . I Am not able to express what I have found of Gods goodness to me . My first call was upon a dream , which I had of a great black terrible dog , which seized upon me , and took hold on my ear fast , which I thought was the Devil ; at which , I waked with screeks and cries , and such frights , as for three weeks I thought I should have gone distracted ; for I found this was sent to raise me out of my sins , which were after set so before me , so that I was a long time afflicted ; and so , as I could scarce walk about the streets for feebleness : But it pleased God to comfort me since by Mr. Fowler , and some others ; and in private meetings , and in prayers ; So that I am sure I am pardoned in Christ , and that God hath accepted of him , as an offering for me . I was zealous before for Forms , but now I desire to be built up by the Spirit , and to live by the Spirit , in Christ , whom I make my all : And for that end , I desire to joyn with you , as you do with the Father and the Son. Experience given in by Humphry Mills . MY Father was a Gentleman of a fair estate , had many children , eleven Sons of us , he was High-Sheriff ; and when he died , we were all the Family of us broken in confusion , and dispersed : Two of us were brought up within five miles of Glocester in England , but I was placed in London an Apprentice after ; and by this means , my sorrow and troubles began to be great ; first out of consideration of this change and it continued so a while , till I was about the seventeenth year of my age , and then my sorrow was turned into another kinde of sorrow and trouble for sin : I was for three years together wounded for sins , and under a sense of my corruptions , which were many ; and I followed Sermons , pursuing the means , and was constant in duties , and doing ; looking for Heaven that way : And then I was so precise for outward formalities , That I censured all to be reprobates , that wore their hair any thing long , and not short above their ears ; or that wore great Ruffs , and Gorgets , or Fashions , and Follies : But yet I was distracted in my mind , wounded in conscience , and wept often and bitterly , and prayed earnestly ; but yet had no comfort , till I heard that sweet Saint ( now in Heaven ) Doctor Sibbs ; by whose means , and Ministry , I was brought to peace and joy in my spirit . His sweet soul-melting Gospel-Sermons won my heart , and refreshed me much ; for by him I saw and had much of God ; and was confident in Christ , and could over-look the World ; and then I did not care for it , and was not afraid of afflictions ; and yet sometimes I was under a spirit of bondage again unto fear : But nevertheless , my heart held firm , and resolved , and my desires all Heaven-ward . I heard Funeral Sermons much , but Doctor Sibbs most , by whom I was most effectually wrought upon , and satisfied with comforts . After this I married a precious Christian full of Christ , and a great comfort to me . My Trade was in Whole-sale , and since those times , I have lost in England and Ireland , Fourteen hundred pounds . I did not think to have lived here , when I came over first , and brought wares ; but I found God to deal very graciously with me . And being much refreshed by your Meetings and Members , I desire to be one with you in Christ. Experience of Ruth Emerson as it came out of her own mouth in the Church at Dublin . THe Lord hath exercised me much , and to passe by all outward troubles which have been very many , I shall declare what the Lord did for me when I was young . I was called out once to hear one some four miles off , where I lived , who was counted a very good man , and I went ( with others ) to hear him , not knowing well what I went about , but I got leave to goe , and he was on that subject ▪ Thy testimonies are sure , holinesse becommeth thy house for ever . The Minister preached exceeding well , and I began to be affected therewith ; and after that my mind ran much on what he said , and I was carried much after the Word , and went often five miles off to hear Mr. Archer , whom I followed , by whom I came to see that I was lost , and left by Adam in a woful condition , yet still I heard him one Sermon after another , but was all this while in great woe and misery , and so continued a long time under the sense of my undone condition , and damnation , untill Mr. Archer perceiving my condition , offered me Christ freely , onely upon thirstiness and weariness , which he proved was as much as was required on our part to come to Christ upon , and to tender him as he did ; I made many objections ( which would be long to tell now ) but he answered them all out of the Word so fully that I could not tell what to say more , but was so wrapped in , that I could not but resign my self up to this Saviour Jesus Christ , and that I would rowl my soul upon him , and leave my selfe so with him . Yet afterwards not finding my selfe so gifted and graced , nor having so much of Gods Spirit , as I saw others had , I was in great doubt for a while of my estate , and was much troubled againe , especially when I thought I heard how the damned roared in hell , and blasphemed God to his face ; O this ! — this cut me to the very heart ! to think I should be one of those that should blaspheme God , this wounded me more then hell ! But after this , hearing the Word constantly , Christ was offered to me time after time , till I was fully called to Christ , and to hang upon him as I do at this day , with confidence and assurance of grace and mercy . And seeing God hath done thus for me , and hath given me this beginning to let me see his everlasting love ; now surely I will relye upon him , though I be in darkness and see no light . Yet I confesse I walk not according to the mercies received , but I find back-slidings ; yet I remember Gods everlasting love in Christ Jesus , and whom he loves , he loves to the end ; wherefore I relye on him , and know that by his grace I shall stand ; and do much desire to walk with you , that I may be watched over by you . Experience of Anne Hewson , wife to Col. Hewson , as it was taken in the Church . I Lived in London , and was a frequent lover of good men , and especially of one Mr. Culverwel , a very able godly Minister , and I received much comfort by him , he preached the love of God so sweetly that my heart melted to hear him , and hereby he first shewed me my miserable condition in shewing what the love of God had done for me ; and after I saw my misery in my selfe , I came to see no happiness but in Christ alone ; and I was very much troubled , because for a long time I could finde nothing , but the legal worke upon my spirit , and I feared that the worke was not yet perfect , therefore I followed and heard the most searching Ministers I could ; and was still tormented in my minde ; but Mr. Culverwel ( poor man ) did still doe all hee could to comfort me , and to incourage me , and told me that God would not break the bruised reed , nor quench the smoaking flax , and that I was in the way to have Christ a full satisfaction , and bid me be of good comfort , but I continued in these troubles and temptations as if Sathan had been let loose upon me , yet this did something comfort me , that other of Gods people were in the like condition with me ; but yet I was thus till I met with Mr. Bolton , by whom I had much comfort , and by other means together I became fully satisfied and assured of Gods love to me in Christ. Experience of Dorothy Emett . MR. Owen was the first man by whose means , and Ministry I became sensible of my condition , I was much cast down , and could have no rest within me , and so I continued till his going away from us , and at his going he bid me beleeve in Christ , and be fervent in prayer ; but I said , how should I do to beleeve ? I lay a long time in this trouble of minde , untill in my sleep one night came to me a voyce , ( I thought ) that said , I am the Fountain of living water : and when I awaked , I was much refreshed , for I had great thirstings after Christ , and yet I was under some doubts , untill I heard one at Cork-house upon that subject , Rom. 8. The Spirit witnesseth with our spirits , that we are the sons of God. So that God satisfied me very much , and I have had ever since a full assurance of Gods love to me in Christ. Experience of Anne Bishop . I Have tasted much of God upon my spirit ; the first Sermon that I heard here so wrought upon me , that for a year or two , I was much tormented , and could have no comfort at all , or confidence to take Christ when he was offered ; for I had this objection continually , that I was not fit to receive Christ , but afterward bearing Christ freely offered without any fitnesse or qualification in us before-hand , without any such conditions of worthinesse , but with hungrings and thirstings , and that hee must be taken thus barely ( as it were ) as from us , and willingly so as to part with Father , and Mother , and all for him . I was at last wrought upon to take him on these termes , and yet I had abundance of temptations , and trials both inward and outward ( which I hope to have time to tell hereafter ) but I durst not do any duty , nor so much as pray before any , apprehending that I was an hypocrite , and once I sate down in great perplexities , when it pleased God to come upon my spirit , and to reveal to me that I must beleeve in him , and cast my self upon him , yet I was troubled , and bid the Lord do what he would with me , so I might but have him . All this was before he made himselfe so known to me as he did afterwards ; for he made me first to see my selfe nothing , and although before I rested on my workes and duties , and so I did long , yet now I could finde no rest there , but thought all my former hopes were gone , and Christ to be lost , and I was destitute and comfortlesse ; but since , I have found Christ to be mine , and that I am his , and the Lord hath appeared to be my righteousnesse , and hath fully satisfied me , so that I live barely upon him . Experience of Tabitha Kelsall . I Was determined once to have life by my owne actings , and thus I was a long time in England , I was of Paul Hobsons society , and ere long all the Ordinances grew dead unto me , and I knew not what to do ; I lay long under a sad condition , and so as I could not read , nor pray , nor hear , but found all unprofitable to me ; many wayes did God shake me sore ▪ and I lay under many trials and shakings long till the Lord came in by himselfe , and setled that in my minde , which is in Heb. 12.26 . Yet once more I will shake not the earth onely , but also heaven , that those things which cannot be shaken may remaine : For the Lord by his voice did thus comfort me , that although heaven as wel as earth , inward , and outward man , my spirit as well my flesh , and all my works , and righteousnesses were shaken , yet it was to make way for what could never be shaken , and yet after this I was lifted up to much by knowledge , and withdrew from Ordinances , but seeing how some that did so , and denied Ordinances ; did live disorderly , and walke wickedly , I was much troubled at it , and yet left in the Wildernesse a long time after untill God did discover by his word to me , and declare clearly that I must not withdraw from the Ordinances , nor deny communion with his people , and then I made a Covenant with the Lord , that I would not , and that I would part with all for one smile , and was glad at my heart that I was received again , and brought under the means of grace , and Ordinances of Christ Jesus . Experience of Andr. Manwaring , Major . I Was brought up well , by Parents accounted Puritans , till about sixteen years of age , after that I was Apprentice in London , but ill company drew me away , and I took but ill courses untill the three and twentieth , or four and twentieth year of my age ; then I came into Ireland in the beginning of the Rebellion in the North of Ireland , I passed through great dangers , and many deaths , ( as I may say ) for there my Father was killed , my Wife was wounded , and I my selfe with much danger escaped from the bloody Rebels ; after that at Tredah-fight I was , when it was delivered , and being laid in the field among the dead , with fifteen wounds , I was given up for one of the dead ; but after that recovering , I went into Engl. and then returned into Ireland again ; at which time I began to looke about me to follow the Word , to hear good men , being sensible of my sinnes ! and former forgetfulnesse of God , and goodnesse . I heard one Mr. Owen here , who did me much good , and made me to see my misery in the want of Christ , and so I continued , till Mr. Rogers was sent over to us , by whom I have received great comforts and assurance of Christ , and now I doe verily beleeve I have fellowship with the Father , and his Sonne Jesus Christ , and finde a great change in me , and I abhor ill company and courses , and desire to walke in all well-pleasing to God ; and though I meet with temptations and hindrances , yet I blesse God he carries me on in goodnesse , and I can now pray , and that by the Spirit , and I love the Word and Ordinances , and do earnestly long to have fellowship with the people of God , to watch over me ; for I am yet weake . Blessed be God for his free grace in Christ Jesus before I had any knowledge in Christ , the Lord spoke to me by the means of an honest man about thirteen years agoe , who worked much upon me . I heard Sermons , and followed Ministers much after that ; I was wont to hear in London Mr. Cradock , and Mr. Simpson ; Mr. Cradock wrought much upon me , being upon that saying in Isa. Woe is me , I am an unclean creature , &c. And truly I could finde it in me , as if he had spoken to me onely ; what he said , so that I was thereby wrought upon : I was much afflicted for a time , and gave my selfe much to prayer , and did love the truth , and all the Saints , and so I continue now , and I have found , and doe yet those things true in me , which were spoken by Mr. Rogers of that onenesse of love and unity of the Spirit , which ought to be among all Saints , which hath much wrought upon me , and affected me ; I have seen my ( sad ) condition by nature , and now I shall see it in grace : and now O! how I love the wayes of God , and holinesse , and duties ! and means of grace ! which before I did not , but such things of God , as before I loathed , I now love , and long after Jesus Christ alone . Experience of Edward Hoar Captain . I Shall declare something of God upon my spirit . It is some twelve years since ( before which I understood not the happinesse of enjoying Christ , that I began to say , What shall I doe to be saved ? I followed the Ministers , frequented the means , and did too much depend upon my doings , and rest on works ; and what I heard from the Ministers , I tooke for granted truths , because they said so , without searching or examining the Scriptures , and the minde of God. I tryed the Scriptures by men , not men by the Scriptures ; but at last , I saw them to be subject to errors as well ( or worse ) as others , and then I saw that humane Learning could not get beyond humane : And what Peter said in 2 Pet. 3 16. Which they that are unlearned wrest , ( as they doe also the other ) Scriptures to their own destruction ; could not be meant of humane Learning , Peter himselfe not being so , but of Spiritual . So that ever since I could not looke on men as infallible , and thence forward I beleeved not things to be so , because they said so , but because God sayd so , and his Word . But now I live in Christ , and I can positively say , I have faith , and am sure in Christ to be saved , and looke upon none else ; and I was darknesse , yet now I am light in the Lord. And so I propose my selfe to you , I had opportunity in other places before now to have been of a society ; but I was not free in my spirit for that I found them to live too much in formes , and not in the Spirit ; but hearing of so much love and freedome of the Spirit in this Society , I desire to be one with you in the Lord , and one with another . Experience of John Spilman Captaine . BEing a member of the Church at Yarmouth in England , of which Mr. Bridges is Pastor , I have given there an account of my faith and life , onely shall say thus much more , that once in a carnall condition as I was , I did slight the Ministers of Christ , especially your long Preachers , and could not abide that any should preach long ; but at last I was catched by one , and hee was on Heb. 8.8.10 . the new Covenant made in Christ , which was applied to me very home , and touched me to the heart , and made me to inquire into my condition , hearing the danger of being out of that Covenant , as it was to bee out of Noah's Arke , and I asked my heart about it , whither I belonged to it or no! but ( alas ) I lay long in great affliction , and had no satisfaction , nor assurance , so that I knew not what to doe , being under many temptations , sometimes I would heare , and sometimes affected the Ordinances , and sometimes not , and so I continued a while , untill those promises comforted me much in Hosea 14 4. I will heal their back-slidings and love them freely , for mine anger is turned away from him . And Heb. 8.12 . For I will be mercifull to their unrighteousnesse , and their sinnes and iniquities will I remember no more . And that in Rom. 5.6 . In due time Christ dyed for the ungodly . And verse 8. While we were yet sinners . And some other places besides ; but yet I questioned whether he dyed for me or no , and that was answered , yes , for me ; for I was one of the number of sinners , and ungodly that needed Christ , but being in fears , I went to Mr. Bridges , told him how I was , and indeed he satisfied me very much for the time ; but I fell into great trouble after all this , and had a sentence of death within me , and thought I was damned , and utterly lost for all this , still wanting faith , and looking upon my owne actings and graces , till the Lord laid these sayings of Paul to Corinth home close to my heart , Covet the best things , and I tell you yet a more excellent way , and I thought there was yet a better way , but I was a great while troubled , for I was well enough untill I had some sweet enjoyments of Jesus Christ , and then I discovered the most excellent way , which is Christ and nothing but Christ , and then I grew confident , and full of courage and assurance , and loved Christ , in all , and all that was Christs , and Christ more then all . Experience of William Walker . I Have much reason to know a great worke of God upon my heart in delivering me wonderfully , from severall destroying sinnes , which once I thought ●leight ; but so great that I can scarce utter them ; I was very extravagant , even here in Ireland , but was brought very low in body and minde together , and then was sensible of disobeying my Parents from what the Word sayes of men , they shall be lovers of themselves , heady , and disobeying parents , which cast me down , afflicted my conscience , and troubled me so , that I cannot utter it ; and I lay thus a long time till I heard once Christ freely offered , even to the worst of sinners , and then I began to looke up a little , with hopes of comfort , and applied these offers to me as needing him , and so I began to be satisfied with peace , and rest , and I followed the Word ▪ and rejoyced in it , and loved the godly to have company with them , and yet for all this I was under much temptation , and too much I was given to drinking , till Mr. Strong told me , Brother , I hear strange things of you , that you are given to drinking , &c. which so smit me , with the abuses I received abroad by the prophane sort , who said , ( O this is one of Fowlers followers ) that I was wounded in my spirit a long time , that I should bring such a scandal upon the Gospel , and a blemish : For two months I was tormented in my minde till the Lord recovered me , and gave me resolution and power against the sin , which hath been ever since , I acknowledge this great mercy to me , and doe live upon Christ the true Messias , whom I beleeve to have dyed for my sinnes , and will save my soul. Experience of Lawrence Swinfield . I Have been a Travell●ur for some yeares , and wandred about in far Countries beyond Seas till I came backe againe into England , and all this while in my natural condition , and so I continued a great while , but I came hither in a sad condition , and very comfortlesse , and could not tell what to doe , but to fall to prayer , and I did that often , and found ( I thanke God ) much refreshment from that meanes but nothing to satisfie my minde , for I have been much troubled in conscience , and could not take comfort untill the Lord was pleased to give in some promises to feed upon , as Matth. 11.28 , 29 , 30. where he promised to ease the heavy , oppressed , and to make his yoke easie and light , and then I began to long for a Reformation , and to desire to be under his yoke , which was before ( I thought ) a burthen to me , and so Esa. 55.1 . Come buy without price , and without money ; and so I came as freely as I was called , and was presently confirmed by the Spirit of God perswading me to give my selfe up into Gods hands upon these his owne termes , and so I did to this day , and many other sweet promises I had , whereby I had a great deale of peace and comfort ; and can confidently say , the Lord is my God , and I have ever since found in me a very great change from what I was before . As to instance in anger , I am now so free from that Passion , that I thinke , none can anger me ; and so for many other things , and I have a great delight in the Word and Ordinances , and have received a great deal of comfort , and been much confirmed by Mr. Rogers , and some others , and I know now that my Redeemer lives . Experience of John Chamberlain . I Beleeve , as you heard before , in one God , manifested by three Relations , and I beleeve this Church-way is Christs , and the very minde of God , and that the Premises made to the Assemblies of Sion , are yours being thus separate from them wihout . But to tell you my life , it hath been very evill ; but now the Spirit of God testifies in mee that I am his . About fourteen years agone , I was a grievous Wretch , and was cast out of doors for my disobedience . But afterward being bound an Apprentice , the example of my Fellow-Prentice ( who was well-given ) wrought much upon mee ; and hee seemed to mee to doe all for Heaven , and to minde Heaven altogether , which began to incline mee much that way too , and one time I went to him , and desired him to own me , and to let me be with him , and partake , but hee told mee hee must not cast bread to Dogs , which troubled mee much ; but then I remembred to say , But I may have the crummes , and thence forward was hee willing to helpe mee all he could ; so I went with him often , and by my selfe to heare good men , and the word preached , but I was yet puffed up with Spirituall pride , and did backslide from my promises , and the profession which I made ; wee were after that about such a way of walking together as this is ; but wee were not so strict , and carefull of admitting ; so I was admitted without any great Examination or Triall ; but by reason of a Contract with a Woman which I could not owne , I was much troubled , and brake out into sinne , and God would have one sinne a scourge to another sinne , to fetch me home againe , which hee did to the purpose ; and I was after much trouble in minde restored againe to the favour of God. Since that , being a Souldier , I was thereby brought under many Temptations to sin , especially that vile lust of Drunkennesse , which too much pursued mee , and so strongly , that sometimes I was ready to yeeld , at other times ready to make away my selfe , which I oftentimes was tempted to doe , and sometimes I was ready to wish all manner of curses upon mee for that sinne ; yet so I continued till the Lord at last came and delivered mee out of these snares , and filled my heart with his promises and presence , and assured me of love in Christ ; and now I long to enjoy more of him , and therefore desire to seek him with you in this fellowship . Experience of Adrian Strong . In short thus : FOr my life , I was two and twenty yeares a childe of wrath , and then by the word preached , and read out of good Books and the Bible , I was brought in to God : for my precisenesse and walking in the wayes of God , I have been imprisoned twice . Sometimes I have had mony before these troubles , and then my heart was set too much on it ; but afterwards I was taken off of all , and then I began to leave swearing , and drinking , &c. which I did too much incline to . And ever since as afflictons have growne greater on mee , grace hath growne greater in mee . I was travelling into England ; but now I blesse God for this mercy ordained for his Saints , that I can have so sweet fellowship with them here in Dublin . Experience of Hugh Leeson . I Have something to say , and I desire , that the grace of God may appear more in me every day . I am convinced of this way of Christ , for believers to walk in ; and I have nothing to plead but my own unworthiness , yet fully assured in Christ , I am emboldned to bring my desires here like smoaking flax . I cannot deny , but my life hath been very bad , and I have been exceedingly given to ill company and courses , and can complain ( and do ) of what I have been more then others , viz. A great sinner , till grace was given me , and mercy shown to me , and Christ manifested in me by his Spirit ; which was begun at first by my Wife , a Widdows daughter in this Town , a godly Christian , and whom God made the first Instrument of my good ; by her often reading of the Scriptures to me , and giving me good councels and admonitions , and by the Spirits working within me , with it : And yet I did even hate the Saints , and forbid many of them coming to my house , and was yet under many temptations , I must needs say ; but I am now made sure of Christ , convinced by the Word , and much comforted and established since Mr. Rogers came hither ; and do now long after nothing so much as Jesus Christ , and do desire earnestly to be in one with his people , and pray them all to pray for me , that I may stand by faith established in the truth . Experience of Frances Curtis . I Cannot but condemn my self before I speak , I am so unworthy of this mercy . I have lived wantonly in my youth , forgetting God , doing no good , but all evil , till Gods hand was heavy upon me for about eleven years ; and when in my outward state I began to mend , still in my inward I was much troubled , and wished that God had taken me away by my former afflictions ; these inward were so great , and a troubled spirit , who can bear ? But afterward I was much comforted again . In these wars I was stripped by the Rebels ( being abroad ) and came home so , thorough sad tempests , and since have gone thorough great troubles , and very many . A while after , I heard my Husband was killed by the Rebels , which I feared was by my sins , and so my troubles were renewed ; and then the enemies came upon us , the Cannon-bullets flew over my head ; and in few days I was turned out of doors , with my childe in my arms . I cannot express what God hath done for me , in saving my life , and my Husbands , in hearing my prayers and tears ; and now in satisfying my soul with himself . I have received much sweet satisfaction by Mr. R. and have now the testimony within me of Gods love to me , which makes me so unfainedly to love him , and his ways , and desire to be a member with his people , in his Church . Experience of Mary Turrant . I Lived till my Twenty third year , and knew not God ; but after that , I came to religious people , and received some good , and soon after was brought to the sight of my self , and then I despaired of mercy ; and thought I was damned , and none of Gods , a great while , but was at last comforted by good Ministers , and the Word of God ; but I was in such a place and condition , that for seven years , I do not know , that I 〈◊〉 so much as a Religious man. My children were murthered by the Rebels , and I lost my Husband by the sickness , and yet the Lord hath spared me in mine old age ; and now I see why ? That I may enjoy this great mercy , which I never looked for , to comfort me in my old age . I have received great comforts indeed by Master Rogers and I must needs say , That I serve my God with a chearful heart , &c. Experience of Elizabeth Marrow . I Have heard at Cork-house , from the Governor , and often from Mr. Brisco , at — precious truths , and have been much affected with them , and told my Husband , that I have heard of Christ. But after that the sickness came into my house , which drew me much to God , Doctor Sibbils did me much good , speaking of every one that had a darling sin , which they loved : By which I was put upon the inquiry and search , and was so troubled and afflicted in my minde for a time , until it pleased God to satisfie within , by his holy Spirit , and to reveal to me , That he was my Father ; of which I have a full assurance , and the witness is within me . 30. Experience of Rebecca Rich. I Was wont ( by Gods providence ) to hear Mr. Cradock by whose Ministry the Lord wrought much upon me , and I thought I was the person that he particularly spoke to ; and I lay long afflicted under the sense of my naturall condition , and under the burthen of a wounded spirit , and after that whilest I lived nigh London , I lived much upon a forme , till God was pleased to come in by his Spirit , and then all was nothing ; but Christ was all , and the best of all , and ever since I have received Christ , I have loved his wayes , and desired the society of his society . I was much comforted and confirmed even the last night in Michaels publique place , by that Ordinance of prophecying one by one , which the Church kept so sweetly , and I was very much convinced of your walking together in love and unity of spirit . 31. Experience of Mary Burrill . I Have been infinitely troubled by my marriage to my second husband , and have been afflicted in Conscience about it much , til the Lord gave me comfort within that my sins were forgiven mee . I was as prone to sin as any , until my God wrought very much by the means of my constant hearing M. R. ever since his coming over to us , God hath made him the chief Instrument of doing my soule good , for which I thank my God through Jesus Christ. I have had in my dreams two terrible conflicts with Satan , by all which I have been much assured of Gods love , for that I alwayes had the better , the victory . O I love the Saints of God! his Word ! and all his wayes ! and I rest on Christ Jesus alone ! and on nothing of self ! and I doe desire your prayers to God for me● to grow in grace , &c. 32. Experience of Mary Barker . I Have great experiences of God , though at present I am not able to expresse them . I have been much afflicted for many years together in my relations , which for my sins have been taken from me ; but the Lord who hath laid his hand heavy upon me , hath made me very sensible of my sins , and I have long layn under the burthen of them ; but the evidence of my pardon is , that the Lord hath removed the burthen , and brought in the roome his grace , and given me a heart to him-ward , and I have received much benefit by preaching , and praying , and reading in private and publique , and by the preaching of Mr. Rogers , I have received infinite good , and found great comforts by his showing how we might know Christ is in us of a truth ; and by prayer which the Lord brought me earnestly into ; the Lord made those means so usefull to me , that I am much satisfied in the love of God to me , in Christ in me , who is all in all , and I doe rest alone on Jesus Christ , for pardon and Salvation by his bloud . 33. Experience of Margaret Fanshaw . I Was a long time under trouble and temptation ; being perswaded to hear none a great while , because I could not tell they were Christs Ministers , a twelve moneth agone we came over hither , and yet I heard none a while , after a while I heard a little boy , and then I heard Mr. Fowler , but yet I received but little benefit by any untill Mr. R. came over , and after I had heard him four or five Sermons , I began to see my sin , negligence , &c. which lay a heavy burthen upon me , and Oh! I am yet grieved much that I denyed the meanes so ; and since by Mr. R. I have beene comforted with the offers of Christ , and all the promises in him , whom I have heartily accepted , and am now perswaded by Gods Spirit , I shall never run into those sins again , but I find his Spirit putting me forward to hear and to follow the means now , with all greedinesse and love to God and all his ways . 34. Experience of Ann Hanly . I Have alwayes had a great desire to walk with God , but was very ignorant , and in the dark , till I heard Mr. Rogers , by whom I have had conviction of my ignorance and sin in neglecting the means , and Christ offered by the means ; I have seen my sins and been much troubled , and have earnestly sought pardon , and I am by the Spirit of Christ confident of it , and I trust in Christ that I shall be established , and do beleive it ; and I doe finde dayly a great change in me , and now I long to hear of Christ , and I love the Word and Ordinances of Christ , and am sure that Christ hath paid the ransome for my sins , and I am resolved in the power of the Lord to walk in his his wayes , and to doe his will. 35. Experience of Sarah Barn-well . IT hath pleased God to exercise me with much afflictions , and his love was all which drew me to himself , and nothing else ; but first I lay long under a legall sorrow and grief for sin , and I was then put upon works and duties hard for heaven , but I saw I could not get it that way ; and in this great Plague-time in this City I was carried further , from the notion to the Power , and to spirituall holinesse , and higher into Christ , yet I used the means much , as praying , preaching , reading , meditating , &c. and by the Word I was struck home , when Mr. Dunstable teached on the sad condition of some ( even Professors ) that were in Hell howling ! Oh! this sad doctrine struck deep to the heart ! and I lay long wounded in my spirit upon it . But it hath pleased God to work upon me in divers wayes ; and by his Spirit he hath set me free from this bondage ; which mercy I obtained first from the consideration of Gods great love in Christ , and hereby I was brought to this assurance which I have . 36. Experience of Jeremy Heyward . THE Lord hath opened my eyes to see sin , and showne me my self , and I lay under his wrath half a year , and so long as I sought to make out my own righteousnesse , I lay thus ; and yet this while , I followed the meanes , heard the Word , and I saw at length nothing but Christ would serve me , and till then I could have no comfort , wherefore one first day of the week , I fell to prayer , I prayed thrice , and at the third time I heard him say , Loe ! my grace is sufficient for thee ; whereby I was much satisfied ere since , rowling my self on Christ , and living in him alone ; and I finde so great a change , that I can say , whereas I was blinde , now I am sure I see . 37. Experience of John Megson . I Have often been in danger , yea of losing my life , and then have desired to live , and to amend ; in many great afflictions I have been in ; in my youth time I was very ign●rant , but now I am earnest for more light , that I may be in the wayes of God. That Scripture of Christ , in Revel . 3.20 . Standing at the doore and knocking , did work upon me , and then I understood Christ must come in , and all evill be put out , and then I did desire Christ , and seek out after him , and so I doe yet ; and shall doe ; though I dare not presume of any thing of my owne , but all on Christ , and therefore I desire to be of this Church , for God shall adde such as shall be saved . 38. Experience of Ann Megson . I Have been long time troubled in minde , but yet I dare not despair ; for , Come unto me and I will ease you , saith the Lord. The Lord did let me be long where there was but small goodnesse to be learnt : But at London-stone I heard a good man out of Isay 53.6 . like sheep we have gone astray , and he showed how the Shepheard had a Dog , when any run out of the flock to fetch him in again , and so the Lord did by his Word fetch in us that went astray ; and thus the Lord wrought upon me , and made me see my sins , and my self , and I was long afflicted , and I thought if I were the Lords I should not be in this trouble ; but then I remembred that Daniel was in the Den , and Jeremy , and Hezekiah were afflicted , and these were the Lords , and that the Lord delivered them ; and so that he would me in due time : and I bless God , he did deliver me out of them all . O that he would give me the heart to praise him ! I was lewd , but now am changed by his grace and goodnesse ; and I love the Lord , and I wish there were such an heart in me that I may ever live for his honor and glory . I doe long after Jesus Christ , and love to be here in the wayes of Christ ; and I praise my God that he hath brought us so much out of darknesse as now to see his wayes . Many more experiences I might insert , but being of the same nature with these I have omitted them ; and shall keep them by me for another occasion ; There were others in Dublin that did declare many excellent passages of Gods workings in them and upon them , as Captain Jones ( since Major ) whose being imperfect I purposely let alone , lest he should take offence , and William Holme , Giles Mee , Randall Lester , William Fanshaw , Elizabeth Holm , Anne Bell , Joice Latherd , Elinor Meeke , Robert Barnwell , Elizabeth Gardner , Robert Glover , with many others . And I doe earnestly desire pardon where offence is thought to be given , especially of such dear friends , whose testimonies I have brought into publique view , to bear witnesse to the world of the workings of Gods Spirit in these dayes : to the facilitating of which I doe ( to all the world ) call God ( who is righteous ) to bear me witnesse herein ; That , 1. In the first place , I have aimed ( herein ) at the honor and glory of God , in the setting out his rich love to the lost sons of men , and declaring the variety of his dispensations in grace , and the sundry wayes of working , both ordinarily and extraordinarily ( yea in these days ) to the fulfilling of his promises made us . 2. I have dealt faithfully with all , as I finde them in my Notes , as near as I can to a tittle , taken out of their owne mouths , without respect of persons ; excepting some of the most ordinary sort , which I have taken summarily , as I promised at the first . 3. I think I have done my duty herein , and wish it might incite others to doe thus , viz. to gather out the flowers of their garden , to present to the Saints in other places ; and though some appear in their weaknesse as wel as in strength , this doth the more magnifie free grace , and all those variety of notes concur to make up the tune of the song of the Lamb , that one song of Moses and of the Lamb : So that the variety of the flowers , and of the colors , and of the natures , and of the formalities of them , gathered together into one , give a glorious lustre , and like the Rain-bow of many colours , signifie fair weather for Ireland . And I am in good hopes no good man can have the heart to blame me for my good will and worke ; before any take offence , let him seriously ponder upon it , and summon his heart in sincerity , and say , For what am I angry ? if the proud flesh and puff-past-heart say , O sad ! I am seen in my nakednesse ! and known in my weaknesse ! Art thou says , the Spirit ? and 't is fit thou shouldst , that it may be known who cloathed thee , and that thou mayest have nothing to boast of ; And was not Christ so too for your sins ? besides sayes the Apostle , my strength was made perfect in weaknesse ; 2 Cor. 12.9 . most gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities ; and vers . 10. when I am weak , then am I strong . God hath a way of himself , as Nazianzen sayes , to make himself the more admired , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and he doth most of his workes as Luther said , in mediis contrariis , by contrary meanes in contrary wayes , which makes him the more glorious . Be not then offended at your weaknesse ; for the waters had better run though muddily and thick , then not at all ; and so you in your infirmities and weaknesses better be seen to run into the Ocean of love , then to lye still , or stand like a stinking poole . Neither be ashamed ( in what the Lord is honoured ) to be seen in your weaknesses , for the roomes of the house that are greater , lighter , larger , colder , &c. have the same foundation with the other , and thus saith the Lord , Joel 3.10 . Let the weak say I am strong ; strong in the Lord : But lest any should cry Crucifie , and should follow me with the ●louds of the red Dragons humors , let such spirits know what they doe before they spit fire at me , or throw wild fire about my ears , or plant their Morter pieces against me . Two things are requisite to a right grounded knowledge , viz. the apprehension first , and then the judgement . Now doe but read these lines by the same spirit they were writ , and dextrously discern the purpose of the Spirit speaking hereby , and I will abide your worst who ere you be : but I confesse first to judge ( as the fashion is ) and then to apprehend , is irregular and unsound . For if your understanding deal amisse , your judgement will I am sure , and so the sentence will be false and full of sin ; and so already by righteous ones I have been judged . But I fairly leave you , yet not the thing that I treat upon , for I shall speak more fully to it hereafter , onely offer two or three experiences more in the mean time , which are full variety in unity . 39. Another testimony to the Truth or further Experience of John Rogers Preacher of the Gospel , and given in to two Churches in England and Ireland . TO give a formall account from year to year of my life , would make me too tedious , to you and my self ; and I fear somewhat offensive to such as are to follow , though I may safely say in every year since I can remember , I have been inriched with so many and such remarkable experiences ; as might make some of you rather admire then belieeve : but I hope we shall have opportunities hereafter to open our selves in this kinde one to another ; In the mean time to tell you some few for the present , I shall cite some of the most remarkable passages which ( to my present remembrance ) I have met with in former years to this day , to doe their duty and homage before you . And first when I was a School-boy at Malden in Essex , I began to be rowsed up by two men , viz. Mr. Fenner , and Mr. Marshall . The first of these about the tenth year of mine age , as I take it , ( for what I was before I know not , a meer — I know not what ) although I was kept continually in good order , as to read every day , and be Catechised and the like : ) yet then hearing Mr. William Fenner full of zeal , stirring about , and thundring and beating the Pulpit ; I was amazed , and thought he was mad ; I wondred what he meant ▪ and whilest I was gazing upon him , I was struck ; and saw it was we that were mad which made him so ; O sayes he ! you knotty ! rugged ! proud piece of flesh ! you stony , rocky , flinty , hard heart ! what wilt thou doe when thou art roaring in Hell amongst the damned ! &c. this made me at first amazed , which run often in my mind after , and I began now to be troubled , being scared and frighted , and out of fear of Hell , I fell to duties , hear Sermons , read the Scriptures , ( though I knew not what I read , but only thought the bare reading was enough ) morning and evening , and learn'd to pray ( at first out of Books , and all the Graces ( so called ) that I could get ) and besides Family prayers , I was afraid every night lest the Devill shou●d carry me away to Hell , if I did not first to my self ( whilest my brother my Bed-fellow was fast asleep ) say my prayers , and my Our Father , and I believe in God , &c. and the ten Commandements , and my little Catechism ( Dr. Hall's ) which I had learnt , and this I did every night duely before I durst sleep ; and I made as much of them as of a charm to keep me well that night ; which else I conceited the Devils would tear me a pieces ; and yet sometimes ( when I was sleepy ) to make the more hast I should say some of them at least ( to be in a forwardnesse ) in the Chimney corner whilest I was unbuttoning me , or untying my hose or the like , preparing to goe to bed , thinking all was well enough so 't was but done ▪ onely sometimes ( though I was unwilling to it , yet ) out of fear ( I remember ) of the Devill , or some mischief , being ready to fancy any thing to be the Devil , I should say my Prayers , or Commandements , or Catechism , or all twice over , suspecting I ▪ said them not well enough before , but often too fast hurrying over before , and skipping somewhat ; and sometimes if I said some things confusedly and too hastily , I would recover them again , or else remember them when I had done al , to say them again better ; but thus , as the Apostle sayes , when I was a child , I did childish things , and I thought this was very well , and very oftentimes would I be talking with some boy or other , getting him from all the rest to walk with mee , and I would tell him of Hell and sin , and such like things , for it ran alwayes in my mind , and I lived under a desperate fear ; but for all this , Mr. Marshall a while after in the same Pulpit took me napping ; whilest I was I know not how bewitched to nod , and began to sleep , but his powerfull voice thundring against such as are drouzy , and sleep , and slumber away their salvation , was at that time pickt out for mee , and very prevalent , I started up with an aking heart , and was frighted at his words , ( which he yet pursued ) and wounded me to the heart when he told us , how that when time was lost we could not call it again , and he knew no other way for us , but now to double our diligence and redeem the time we have lost , by making more hast , taking more care , and pains , or else we should be lost for ever . O! I was sufficiently wounded , and fell a weeping ; I could not hold , and after Sermon I went home ( where I boarded ) and sate alone ! crying and complaining that I had lost my time ; and at that time I took up a purpose never to sleep at Church more , and made a covenant with it ; which I think ( to this day ) I observed ever since ; and when I began ( as at first I was often tempted ) to be drowsie , I would alwaies stand and hold on nothing , and cast my eyes about to open them more . But after this I was not content with my former customary duties ; for now I must double them and do more then before ; wherefore I resolved to write down ( as well as I could ) every Sermon I heard , and to get them by heart , and to say every night one Sermon , and to learn ( out of a book , for I knew no better yet ) another prayer for morning , and another for night , and sometimes for noon too , especially on the Lords daies , so that my task was now doubled . So I began to write down the Sermons , ( which for a time was very little , having no skill to write fast nor orderly ) but I ever observed the Doctrine , and would write down the Reasons and the heads of the Vses ; and when I came at home , I would get it by heart at noon , that which I heard in the fore-noon , and at night that which I heard in the after-noon : and this course which I took made me more ready ( at night when my Father repeated the Sermons , or the Landlord where I boarded , for they both did it , being very godly ) this made me readier to answer when we were asked what we could remember , or what the Doctrine , or Reason , or Vse was , then any other ; and this course I took customarily for nine or ten years together ( long after I came from Cambridge ) every night to repeat Sermons to my self alone , or rather to say them by heart ( as duly as I went to bed ) the Lords-day night that Sermon which I heard in the forenoon ; the Munday night ( so called ) that which I heard on the last Lords day in the afternoon , the Tuesday night , Wednesday night , Thursday night , alwaies left to say by heart , Sermons I heard a month , 2. months , 12. months , and so ( as I encreased in years ) for 2 , or 3 , or 4 , 5 , or 10. years before ; and I would usually get up the oldest , and of longest standing ; and such as I had almost forgot , or not lately recovered my memory with , so that by this means I could remember many Sermons , and such as were long agone preached , perfectly : Now on Friday nights I repeated as I did on the Lords day nights alwaies : and on Saturday nights and Munday nights alwaies alike . But you must observe , if Sermons fell out in the week daies , as on fasts or otherwise , then I was wont to pick out Tuesday nights , Wednesday or Thursday nights , and so kept on the order , and was fit for fresh Sermons on the Lords day ; and the Lord lead me on into this orderly way , I know not how , by himself without any creatures direction on the earth ; so much did I plot out for salvation by such means as these , and to redeem my time . Yet you must know , having so much to do every night , I sometimes began ( to my self whilst I s●te in the Chimney corner ) before supper , and usually left nothing but my Sermon to repeat for my bed , and my prayers by my bed-side morning and evening ; but this I must say , from this form I learnt much of God and goodnesse ; for what I did at first for fear of hell , I did at last out of love to heaven , and of late to God and Christ as if it were without heaven ; and hereby I was not only able to tell many mens Sermons together , and it may be ten years after they were preached ; but also able ( though chiefly by higher means , as I may shew afterward ) to preach at 18 or 19 years of age ; as I did in Huntington-shire ( if not sooner ) to the amazement of many , but to the table talk of more . Well , thus you hear how formall I was , and yet as I may say , I was but feared ( not loved ) into this strictnesse of religion ; and I remember then , I should have been glad if any occasion hapned that there were no Sermons on the Lords daies , or if I heard them not ( which I dare not but do notwithstanding if I were well ) for it was more ease to me ( I thought , or else the Devill in me ) to repeat the old , then to get in n●w . But not long after this , that I had heard Mr. Marshall as before , I was further awakened by my * Father ( afterward ) who preaching upon the good Samaritan , and shewing his compassion to wounded ones , yet in reproof to sinners , shew how they were more guilty then the hard hearted Jewes , that crucified Christ afresh now , and have no compassion on him , now he is in glory , but spit on him , and made him suffer , and how his bloud would rise against them : and if Abels a meer mans did so , much more his ; and if David prayed from bloud-guiltinesse , how much more from this guiltinesse of the precious bloud of Christ , &c. which he preached and pressed so powerfully , that I was thrown into a trembling , as lying under the guilt of Christs bloud , and was long perplexed about it : but after all this there is another remarkable passage that I must never forget , which I met with , or rather met with me to the purpose ; about 1637. ( as I take it ) at Messing in Essex , I was playing with children ( my fittest companions then ) and running round about the house we lived in , ( through two or three little gates ) in sport and idlenesse , as I was running with the rest , ( I know not how , nor upon what occasion ) I threw out vain words , and crying , O Lord ! ( which we were not suffered to do ) my heart was suddenly smitten upon it , and I was suddenly set a running as if I had been possessed , ( by I know not what power or spirit ) not having any strength to stay my self ( were it upon my life ) ; untill I was ( headlong ) carried through a little gate-way , where ( as plainly to my thinking and in my appearance , as ever I saw any thing by the Sun-shine ) there was set a naked sword , glistering with a fearfull edge ( I thought ) and which took up the whole space of the gate from one post to another , with a broad blade most keen and cruell ; at which sad sight so fraught with frights , I gastly screeched , and yet had not the least power to stay , or stop my precipitant course ; but I was quickly carryed quite unto it , so as that the edge of the cruell blade meeting with my body , it seemed to me impossible I should escape death : and I made no other account but to be quite cut off and parted asunder ; but afterward being hurried through , with that headlong and furious force , I had strength to stay a little beyond it , and to perpend the perplexible perill which I was in ; I stood as one amazed , or rather as one that knew not whether he were alive or dead ; I knew not how to beleeve my self lesse then a dead man , and afterward at least mortally and deadly wounded , if not desperately and deplorably eut in twain : Oh! how I stood trembling and tumbling in my thoughts , untill the vitall bloud ( which was fled for the hearts defence ) began to disperse again , and to go quietly to their own homes ; and then I looked about , and turned me to the gate-way , but the appearance was pass'd away , the sword gone and vanisht , whilest I was left ( alone , the rest running away ) in a labyrinth of fears without any wound without , but deeply and wofully wounded within ; and never si●hence ( to the praise of Gods grace ) as I know of , have I had such extravagant preposterous expressions passed from me . But , Good God! What was thy will herein ! Thou who art not tyed to means or order , best orderest and disposest of all things , for thine owne design and glory ! and so this was I am sure , but what it was I know not ; yet it left a lasting impression upon me , and the scar is yet to be seen in my heart , though the wound be healed . But , alas ! How long and lamentable I lay afflicted and in continuall fears after this ! Every thunder and lightning , I look'd upon as my fate , and sent for me ; and then would I fall to my Prayers , and saying my Creed and Commandements , and to my Sermons as fast as might be , that I might be found wel-doing at least ; if not as a charme to defend me , or a challenge to God by virtue of them to keep and blesse me : this I remember was my great comfort to consider , some did not do thus , but altogether sl●ghted holinesse , duties , and did live wickedly , and carnally in drunkennesse , disobedience , Sabbath-breaking , and severall sins every day , which I was so farre from grief at , and weeping over , that I ( in my heart ) rejoyced in it , that I was in more hopes then they , and ( as I fancyed my self ) better then they , and should receive more favour . But all this while like an Israelite in Egypt , I work'd for life , and my services were my Saviours ; and I would to my brothers , sisters , and School-fellowes and companions to take occasion to talk of heaven and hell , and what a hard thing it was to be saved . For some time after this is Malden where I was boarded , and put to the Free-school , I had a certain dream ( which by the consequence proved a praevision of what is now come to passe ) it was on a night about the time when the Spaniards and Hollanders had a scuffling and a kinde of Naumamachy upon the Downes ; for then some talking of that fight , fill'd me full of fears , and in the night my dream was ; that fire rain'd ( as I may say ) or rather powred down round about ; and looking where I was , ( I thought it to be without the Coach-yard gate of my Fathers house , and I was frighted to see nothing but fire , looking upward and round about , praying for deliverance , none came nigh me round about by a good space , but flaming else ( I thought ) in all places , and I could see none exempted ; wherefore being afflicted for my Father and our family , I fell on my knees for them , and I thought I continued so , long ere I could be heard , but was at last bid to arise , and look , and then I thought the fire fell not so fast on my Fathers house as it did before , but by little and little abated till I awaked . Now although this dream had seised much upon my spirits , yet I made no other account of it then of a fancy , till five or six years after in the Isle of Ely meeting with Dr. Draiton D. D. he declared to me , for severall reasons , that this must be more then a meer dream , as working of fancy , and that something was to come which I should finde this to predemonstrate , instancing in some of the like kinde which himself , his wife , and others had met with as warnings and predictions ; and therefore he wished me in no case to slight or contemn it ; for that he was confident it did shew some fiery and angry dispensation upon all our family and my father , and the rest should lye under some trouble by the times or otherwise ; and my self should be set free , and at this liberty to pray for them , and that by degrees they should be recovered and brought out , and the fire abate : which interpretation ( more fully by farre from his own mouth ) is for the most part verified at this day . But all this while I was labouring for life , exceedingly formall , and I did much covet to know the things of God , and therefore wished oft I were but a Minister ! such a one as Mr. Fenner is , or Mr. Marshall , or Mr. Hooker , or my Father , or some other ( that was eminent ) that I might attain to their knowledge , and then ( I thought ) I should do abundance more for God , ( as if God were beholding to me for my obedience ) and I would then ( I thought ) be sure to get salvation , ( as if I could then easily do it ) . Thus a poor creature , I continued for severall years together , ( and if you knew but half what I have met with in that time , you would say I was a poor creature indeed as any alive ) for I kept to my self many fast-daies ( and would eat nothing ) heard , read , sang Psalmes , meditated , used Soliloquies , and prayed many times a day , and what not ? and yet at last despaired even to the depth : what by often thoughts of hell , reading Drexellius upon eternity , and then thinking of endlesse , easlesse , and remedilesse torments ; and what by frequent frights as before , and what by my Father , once preaching on the fool in the Gospel , Luk. 10.20 . Thou fool , this night will I take away thy soul , then whose shall those things be that thou hast provided ? Whence he handled a point of the folly of men to lay up here , and forget heaven ; and shewing that heaven came not with ease on a down bed , but many shall strive hard to enter and shall not be able ; and that except you exceed the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees , Mat. 5.20 . you shall in no case enter into the kingdome of heaven . What with these and other things , I was almost in the bottomelesse abysmes of torments : I took the Bible to look these Scriptures , read them over and over and over again , but the more I read the more I roar'd in the black gulf of despair , where I was cast so deep as ( to me and others ) I seemed sometimes past all recovery ▪ I prayed , fasted , mourn'd , got into corners , yea many times ( being I was ashamed to make my case known , I have ran into barnes , stables , house-of office , any where ( pretending as if I had businesse ) on purpose to pray , sigh , weep , knocking my breast , curse that ever I was born ; wishing I were a stone , any thing but what I was , for fear of hell and the devils ; whom I thought I saw every foot , in severall ugly shapes and f●rmes ( according to my fancies ) and sometimes with great rolling flaming eyes ( like sawcers ) having sparkling fire-brands in the one of their hands , and with the other reaching at me to tear me away to torments ! O the leaps that I have made ! the frights that I have had ! the fears that I was in ! which continued off and on to the beginning of these times ! Besides great outward afflictions which I met with , were of much force to bring me into this condition , being often ( and doubtlesse I might deserve it too too much ) beaten , bruised , turn'd out of doors , whirl'd and kickt about , hardly and unkindly used ; at which times I should sometimes be tempted to murther my self , sometimes think I could not belong to God , for then he could not endure to see me thus used and afflicted , and yet I flie to him , and pray , and pray , and pray , but as good speak to a post , for I am not relieved : sometimes I should read , and weep , and as my usuall manner was in the time of my great despair , fall flat ( all along ) with my face on the ground , and cry , and call , and sigh , and weep , and call for help , but the Lords time was not yet come to answer ; and I was wont to weep half the night together , if not all sometimes , and to water my bed with my tears , for fear of hell and the devill , and therefore for sins or rebellious disobedience ; and ever slept with my hands clasped close together in a praying posture , that if I did die , or that the Devils did prey upon me , they might finde me in a praying posture sleeping as well as waking ; I never durst go to sleep otherwise ( to my knowledge ) for five or six years together . But the greatest blow I had was from the sentence of the aforesaid Scripture in Mat. 5.20 . Surely ( thought I ) I but strive against the stream , and seek out impossibilities , if I must exceed the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees . For I had often read of their strictnesse in their Houses , and Synedriums , and Schools , that the ordinary of them repaired at least three times a day to their devotion , viz. in the morning at Sun-rising , till about the fourth hour of the day , ( called S●h●●with ) and in the afternoon ( Minchah ) about the ninth hour , and in the evening ( Arbith ) and so in a manner all day long in devotion . Besides their laudatory prayers , and thanks not only for all the mercies they receive , but upon every extraordinary accident and in every action they do , a prayer for every time they eat , they will not drink without a prayer ; a prayer for every good smell , a prayer when they wash , yea when they evacuate , a prayer upon every new thing they have , and what not ? insomuch that some say at least 108. Benedictions a day ( Meah Beracoth ) as Leo Modena the Venetian Rabbine writes ; and we have read how strict they are on their Sabbaths , and will not gather wood , kill a flie or flea , dresse any victuals , make a fire , write , cancell , or quench a fire , or carry any thing , or use any hammer , nor eat any thing dressed upon that day , nor any fruits gathered , nor wear any thing on that day but even necessary apparell , nor speak of worldly matters , as buying , selling , giving , or taking , nor make any bargains , nor so much as touch any thing , a weight , or burthen , or tool , or instrument , nor handle any money ; nay on the Friday before evening comes , all worldly things are laid aside and the Sabbath began , &c. ) Now these considerations and such like made me think it in vain to seek to be saved ; and it was but to beat the winde , or build in the air ; for if the Scriptures were true it could not be , for I could not tell how to excell their righteousnesse . Hereupon I despaired deeply indeed , it being so deliberately ; and the results of serious debates ; so much the worse , lying under the severest sense and sentence of that Scripture ; I could take no comfort , but accounted God most cruell to exact impossibilities of men , ( as such a righteousnesse ) and to let so many be damned ( as I thought ) because they could not excell their righteousnesse ! O these hard thoughts I had of God! At length I was tempted not to pray , read , hear , or do any duties at all : for I thought it not possible after all to be saved ; and so I was somtimes tempted to deny all : sometimes I was also tempted to think there was no God , but all things come by nature ; and to challenge God , if there were a God , to require a sign and seek a proof : but in a word , to such a height I was grown up unto , that I did not only despair , but began to be distracted , and out of my wits ( as we use to say ) I thought trees sometimes good Angels , sometimes bad , and look'd upon bushes as the den of Devils : I should sit up whole nights , sometimes in a little Turret ( we had in an Orchard ) from the house , studying , singing , whistling , hooping , or drawing figures , or one thing or other , or else be walking in the fields , woods , or some other places , talking to my self , speaking to trees as to men , or as to Angels , or God ; and thinking the least whistling of the winde , or chirping of a bird , or lowing of a beast to be some answer sent to me , as I would fancy it ; but as these distracted distempers grew higher , I could not avoid the forcible temptations of a furious Devill , making me sometimes whet a knife , sometimes take a billet , sometimes one thing , sometimes another to murther my self , and sometimes others , and sometimes all ; for I would have had all to have gone my way ( me thought ) many waies I tryed , but was alwaies prevented , till at last I was taken and bound hand and foot , and held ( or tyed ) fast in a bed till the raging fits were over ; and then when I was spent and patient , if let go , yet without a watchfull eye , though it may be I said nothing , yet the first thing I went about , it may be , would be to seek a knife , or to get to the window to cast my self down headlong : but I have been strangely and ( almost ) miraculously kept ( which would be too long to tell ) even in the very act and instant of time when a few minutes longer had been too late to save my life . I should not be so long in this History , but that I dare hide nothing wherein God hath appeared my God for his own glory in what I am now by grace . And therefore as things eminent are brought to memory , I am bold to declare them , for the magnifying of his alone love , and the riches of his grace in Christ Jesus . I dare boldly say , few that saw me in those head-long distempers , did think me at the best , fit for any place but Bedlam ; and that I should ever be restored to what I am , which was also as strangely . For as the distracted fits did much abate me , they did turn more to inward malady and melancholy ; my continuall cry being , I am damned , I am damned , I am sure I can't be saved ! it is impossible ! Oh! Hell ! Hell ! fire about me ! the Devils are at me ! and I thought I heard the damned roaring and raving , and saw them ( as 't were ) roasting , and their frisking and frying in everlasting torments . My minde and all was taken up with their howlings and screechings . This sad condition day and night lasted upon me , untill I was perswaded that there was a God! and that this God was righteous , and that he would hear prayers if I continued but knocking with importunity and gave not over , seeing the unjust Judge that we read of in Scriptures , was prevailed with by the widowes importunities : then I resolved with my self ( and gathered together here and there those scatter'd reliques of reason which were le●t me ) that I would continue prayer , and so I did ( though by fits I was froward , and mute , and wilde , and I know not how ) yet off and on 5 daies together scarce eating a bit of bread in all that time ; and was after that in another form and frame of spirit ( though by fits full of distraction and desperate thoughts ) yet more serious , and set to weigh things as in a ballance , and to expostulate with the Lord , and to pray by fits most furiously , and now and then tears began again ( which were all dryed up before ) to trickle and come tumbling down my face like swollen drops of bloud , and I continued thus three or four daies till one afternoon coming into a chamber ( my heart being as big as it could hold ) I threw my self flat on my face ( as I used to do ) knocking the boards and calling and crying to the Lord for deliverance , and using such exorcising expressions as might discover me in despair ; and starting up , I walked a turn or two , saying , Is there not a God ? is he gracious ! are the Scriptures false ! canst thou take delight to see a poor soul thus set on the rack ! sighing and roaring in torment ! rise up and appear for thy self thou God! shew thy self gracious in one act of mercy ! maugre all the Devils in hell ! and with knocking my breast and tearing my hair , I threw my self upon the bed , whilest my eyes were glazed with tears ! and there I lay , in a sudden sleep which seised upon me , and I dreamed of the same Scripture ( the letter which killed me ) and yet of Christ ( the Spirit which quickned me ) and that his righteousnesse ( by faith made mine ) did excell the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees : and except I ( in and by the righteousnesse of Christ made mine ) did excell the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees , I could not be saved ; that is , not without the righteousnesse of Christ. When I awaked , I was so much changed that I was amazed at my self , at the suddennesse of it ; for I dream't I was comforted , and my heart filled with joy , and when I awaked it was so indeed ; I started up , and rebuked my self , saying , Why , I am not damned ! what 's the matter ? am I so filled with a fancy ? with a sudden hope of I know not what , nor whence ? at which time I fell to pray , and whilst I was praying , I said , Lord is this true ? say ! is it true ! if it be so , let it be shewn me that it is so : So I was perswaded that the righteousnesse of Christ was mine , for that this garment was provided only for one so naked and torn out of all as I was ; which weighing I took the Scriptures , and found these divine infusions , and immediate resolutions given in me , agreeing with the same will of God given out there , and then I began to breath upon 't , and to pant a little ; and by degrees to revive and look upward with some hope ; till the Lord satisfied me by pouring it upon me , and writing it within me , that I ( in Christs righteousnesse my only justification ) did exceed theirs ! And thus I had the first assurance of salvation ; for that very same Scripture that before condemn'd me , did now justifie me , that is in Christ. And after that I began plainly to see my self ( and by my self others ) why I despaired , and was so long and so lamentably lost , that it was because I sought in a wrong place for justification , and therefore a wrong way for salvation , as if one of you should dig in your yard for a mine of gold , no wonder that you lose your labour at last , after sweat , tears , prayers , cares , pains , fears and all ; seeing that you look in a wrong place . Thus it was with me all the while I was looking , and poaring , and paining my self for a righteousnesse of my own , and to seek in my self to excell the Scribes and Pharisees ; alas ! I was lost , undone , and could not finde it ! nor see any door of hope set open for my soul , till Christ in 's righteousnesse was revealed in me ! and then I knew him a Saviour to me . Well , with this joy I continued to this hour ! holding and keeping ground against all temptations , which are infinite , that I have met with ever since ; and such as you have scarce heard of , of late . For after I had solemnized and celebrated my new life , ( and being begun anew in anothers righteousnesse , and in another self ) by singing of Psalmes ( and then I began Hymns and spirituall songs to my self ) and continuall open-hearted returnes of praises ; whilest the Angels rejoyced with me . Yet Satan ( my continuall and never ceasing enemy ) now began to muster up afresh more troubles against me , and to follow me with an hoast of afflictions and temptations , as Pharaoh followed Israel with a purpose to destroy him ; when once out of his territories : and see how a bird that is escaped out of the hand is hunted up and down by the boyes , the doors are shut , the windowes and holes stopp'd to hinder her escape ; and see how they hunt her , throw their hats at her , scare her up and down till they think to tire her , and make her fall into their fingers again : So did Satan set upon me ( I may say ) a thousand waies by himself and his agents , to hunt me up and down , and to tire me out , and to make me ( if he could ) fall into his fingers again , but that my God whom I unfeignedly serve from my soul , did deliver me , does deliver me , and I trust will deliver me , as the Apostle saies . For though the Devill did use many snares , and beset me so about ( as you will hear ) that it seemed scarce possible I should escape , yet the Lord set me at liberty from the snares of the Fowler , though sometimes so subtilly layed , that I could not discern them ; and what he could not do by his fair insinuations and subtleties , and inward motions and temptations ; he tryed to do by violence , in tormenting me and making me the most object of affliction and misery all about ; for to proceed , my friends became mine enemies , and my precisenesse was an eye-sore to many , near relations cast me off , and I was lookt upon as disobedient for keeping company with such as were godly Puritans , and accounted then Round-heads , and for praying and holding communion with them ( though commanded to the contrary ) at length I found so little love , and so much malice from some , that I was turned out of doors , and forced ( as men say to seek my fortune ) to flie with my own feathers , with three shillings six pence , or thereabouts ( as I take it ) to travell up and down in strange countries , and that in the coldest winter time of the year , in snowie weather , ( up to the knees very often ) and whilest the very isicles hung on my hair or cheeks , a conflux of tears that came hot would thaw them , which fell abundantly from me in the open fields , and high-waies , where none but God took notice of them . Yet I did often beg at poor cottages , ( or so ) but to come in to warm me , or dry me , or for a draught of small beer , or so ; which would make some poor souls fall a weeping to see me . But after many dangers and troubles I footed it as farre as Cambridge , where I sought from Colledge to Colledge to be but a sizer or poor Scholar , my little stock of money being all gone , and the Servitors of Kings-Colledge ( of which I was one before ) being dismissed , but I could have no place , and I had no money , and I wanted bread , and that so long that all others failed to do any thing for me , insomuch as I was forced for life to try all things , and eat leather , and drink water , and eat old quils and pens ( where I could pick them up out of the dust or dunghils ) roasted in a few coals ( which were left in the Chamber where I was ) and I assayed sometimes to eat grasse , and did it : yea , I grew to that height of penury and famine , that I sometimes tryed to eat my own fingers , biting them till I could endure it no longer ; then tearing my hair , and crying , I had recourse to prayer , whereby the passion ( it may be ) would away for the present , but this continued so long , that I met with temptations in this wildernesse to turn stones into bread , and the Devill did often tempt me to study Necromancy & Nigromancy , and to make use of Magick , and to make a league with him , and that ●nen I should never want , but shew me ( as 't were upon the pinnacle ) the glory of the world ( so represented to me in my , fancy ) bidding me but obey him ( that is , fall down and worship him ) and I should have both my bags of money by me , & be honoured of all men , and own'd by all my friends , and go home with great riches , and in great respect . But God would not suffer me to hearken to him , but to tell him , thou art a lyar from the beginning ! away thou malicious accuser of the brethren , tempt me not , for thou didst do thus to Christ , but he overcame thee , and so I trust I shall by his power ; and then I prayed , and read the Scriptures , and writ holy meditations , and Soul-soliloquies on the 88 Psalme , all in verse very patheticall and sutable to my condition , and I began Dives and Lazarus here , and Lazarus and Dives hereafter : two books ( which I soon after concluded ) using in it English , Latine , Italian , French , being very tragicall , and all in verse very sutable to my condition under severall temptations ; all which I had thoughts ( with some others which I have by me ) to have printed for publique profit , but wanted a purse : so that in stead of Magicall and Astrologicall studies , I bent my minde to holy meditations , soul comforting , Angelical and Evangelical contemplations : yet I continued under strong temptations , but to the praise of God , I speak it , I think never was I more a growing Christian , then after Satan had these repulses ; but yet I must not omit to tell you , that I had one other temptation first ; which was almost irrecoverable , but that I was prevented extraordinarily even as I was upon the execution thereof . For finding my self almost starved and pined to death , my strength almost gone , my eyes sunk deep in my head , and wearing deaths colours , I was almost at my wit end : I confesse when I felt a passion come , or fit come upon me , I would fall to prayer , reading , or something or other , whereby sometimes they were put by , and I had much comfort , but I could not alwaies avoid them by this : for now one temptation got ground of me , and came on audaciously , and grew strongly upon me , so that I could not escape it , but it followed me ; I took up the skin of my wasted hand and armes with a resolution to tear it off for hunger , but in vain , the Devill had so besotted me , that I could see no waies to evade death , for I had been beholding to all the Scholars I could finde any courtesie in , to bring me scraps , or skins of salt-fish , or something or other in their handkerchiefs or pockets , which kept me alive a while , till at last they were all weary , and I wasted almost to death , and ashamed to beg openly about ; and I was blinded as to any way that I could finde to recover out of this condition . Wherefore , after violent and never-ceasing temptations , I drew my knife , whetted it sharp , opened my doublet and shirt , and in the midst of the room where I was alone , kneel'd down to prayer , to surrender my soul up into the hands of God ; my knife lying by me prepared , and I prepared for the act , when behold a door which I thought was bolted all the night before , was but shut to , which a Scholar opens , and with the screeking of it made me start up , and throw my knife into the chimney in hast ( as ashamed of what I was doing ) and in comes the Scholar to tell me of a place in Huntington-shire to teach Gentlemens children at my Lord Brudenels house , and how one of our Colledge was sent to , but refused it ; by which means I was recover'd out of that eminent danger , and after the Scholar was gone , did exceedingly reprove and check my self , for suffering this temptation to grow so upon me , for want of faith , and was much afflicted at it , and the more for that this mercy came in so upon it : O! that I could not wait upon God! but being now night , I went ( as I use to do ) supperlesse to bed , ( after duty ) but my heart melting into abundance of tears , first for the sin that I was about , that I could not beleeve , and resist the Devill ( as I had done in Gods strength before ) and then for the love of God , and his care appearing for me , even at that instant too , when I took no care of my self at all , but had devoted my self to death , and that now he should not only deliver me , but send me newes full of hopes ! O how these things did break my heart ! and work upon me most part of the night ! untill with an heart full , and head full , and eyes full and all ! I was fal'n into a deep sleep , and visited with an extraordinary token from on high both in dream and vision , which hath been since accomplished ( as I take it ) and the last in Ireland the last year . The Dream was this ▪ that I was walking home to my Fathers house , with a staffe in my hand , and fearing lest I should be out of the way , I looked for the path , which at first I could scarce discerne was a path , and began to look about , and to question it , till by and by I perceived some footsteps of some that had gone that way , with that I went forward , and the further I went , the plainer I perceived it to be the path , and that I was in the way ( and I could see no other ) at which I rejoyced , and went on confidently as if I fear'd no evill , nor enemy ; till I came to a fine glorious beautifull house and building on the left hand of me , out of which came forth a beam which reached a little crosse the way I was to go in , so that I being at a little stand at first , yet would not stoop under this beam , but stept aside and so pass'd away , laying my hand on it as I step'd by the side of it , but the house ( I thought ) was all in a flame of a sudden , so that being something troubled thereat , I passed on in the way , wondring in my self what this should be , till I was overtaken by some rude violent malicious men that laid to my charge the setting this house on fire , and would not hear me speak , but were harshly haling me away to prison , with which being sufficiently frighted and all my flesh set a trembling , I awaked , and was offended with my self , for being troubled at a dream , a foolish fancy , so I laid me ( it being yet dark ) and fell asleep again , and was cast into the same dream again , word for word ; and at my right hand I thought there was a grave ancient man full of white hairs ( like wooll ) a long white beard , who stood by me , and bid me chear up , fear not ! for the Lord hath sent me to comfort thee , and to tell thee that he hath chosen thee to preach his word and Gospell of Christ , which is the staffe that thou hast in thy hand , and which staffe , ( that is , the word of God ) thou shalt walk home with to thy Fathers house , i. e. Heaven , where is fulnesse of joy . But after a time thou wilt be troubled with the different opinions , and waies of men , and seem at first to be at a losse , but the Lord will be thy guide , go on , and as thou goest forward , the way of the Lord will lye clearer and clearer before your eyes ; but the footsteps are the examples of the Saints that have gone before you , which will be a great help unto you ; and you shall walk chearfully on in the way which is clear to you ( then the which you shall see no other ) but yet you must meet the fair house on the left hand , i. e. the glory and great ones of the world , who make a great and fair shew to men ( as built high ) but they must fall , and are but on the left hand of you , whilest you will despise them , preach against them , and turn your eye ; looking forward to go on in the way of God ( and turn not about ) but the beam that comes out of this great house ( which makes so much shew ) is meant the powers and opinions of such , which ( whilest somewhat crosse to the way ) you step aside and will not stoop under , they are set on fire , and enflamed of a sudden ; but be not troubled , go forward , although they will send after you , saying you have brought this fire upon them , and they will falsly accuse you , and seek to hale you away to prison for this fact . At which I awaked again , this being morning about day-break , I wondred with my self what this meant , I thought it surely more then ordinary , and being filled with confidence and comfort , I rose up and writ it down presently , And away I went that day towards Didington in Huntington-shire , where the Lord Brudenell once lived ( but was then sequestred ) and one that the Committee put in , had Gentlemens children to board with him , whom I ( afterward ) taught . But after all these deliverances , I did multiply abundantly in gifts and graces , either to pray , expound , read , sing Hymns and spirituall Songs , with the Spirit and with understanding , as Israel in Exod. 1. the more he was afflicted the more multiplyed ; so blessed be the Lord , I was the more filled with the Spirit , endued with strength and grace , refreshed with peace and joy , the more I had so suffered . So that all my troubles were but a Josephs step ( through grace ) to higher enjoyments ; and finding the Lord so abundantly to endue me from above , and to qualifie me for the call , which I had before in the night ( for the ministry which then I little meant , or imagin'd could be , it being often resolved against before by my Father , and my books ordered to be packed up ) but finding things following so fairly to concurre , I was much confirmed in it , that the Lord had design'd me thereunto . In Huntington-shire teaching school first at Brudenel's house , and afterwards the Free-school of St. Neotts , I began with the boyes ever in prayer first , at 7. & 1. and ended with prayers at 11. & 5. on the Saturdaies in the afternoon , I catechised them , and expounded their Catechismes by the Scriptures , and expounded Scriptures , and so singing a Psalm , with prayer we concluded . At this time I came to be convinced of the Parliaments proceedings and cause , to be more regular and in order to the great work that God hath to doe in Nations then the Kings , by comparing them together , and bringing them to the Word ; and then I saw clearly ( by the Word ) that God would doe what he hath to be done , by them and for them , and for the Common-wealth ; it was not long after this that I was by a godly people in T●seland earnestly importuned , and at last prevailed with to preach the Gospel ; and I was soon known in the Countrey , and after sent for into Essex , where I setled ( passing twice through the Assemblie on Examination and approbation ) . So although ever since I have met with many sorts of afflictions and oppositions , lies , slanders , threatnings , libels , vows and endeavours to take away my life , yet many have added testimony to the Word I have delivered in all places ( the Lord be praised ) to the great refreshing of my soule , and towards the making up of my joy when I shall give an account ( to their comfort ) at the great day . And since that I have been sent forth , as a Pastor and publique Teacher by the Church , and I know my Ministeriall commission and authority to be from the Lord ; and notwithstanding the divers temptations that I meet with yet , finding my heart full of corruption , and my life a continuall warfare of flesh against spirit , yet I blesse God who hath delivered me , ( in diverse wayes which I have not yet declared ) from the fraudulent gins and snares of the Devill , and who hath called me out of darknesse into light , that his power is stronger in me , then any that hath been against me ; and I am the better provided against Satan , for that I live now by faith in the Son of God , above the letter in the life , above the form in the power , above self in an higher self , altogether where I have my abode ; so that I am not I , but by the grace of God it is that I am what I am , as the Apostle said Why weep ye for me ? for I am ready not onely to be bound but to dye : so I say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , I have provision within me , seeing Christ is in me the hope of glory . I am assured of Salvation in Christ Jesus my head , my Lord , my elder brother , and the first fruits of all them that rise again . And although I meet with daily troubles at home and abroad , within and without , yet am I all the way ascending heaven ( though descending hell ) the same way with Christ ; who hath ( through the vail ) consecrated a new and living way for me into the Holy of Holies . I can comfortably drink after Christ out of his own cup ; and in eating his meat and drinking his drink , take gall and vinegar , as wel as wine and honey . I prefer Christ before Salvation , and had ( if I know my heart ) yet not I , ( but my spirituall self ) had rather goe to Hell with Christ in my armes ( if 't were possible ) then to heaven without him ; accounting the enjoyment of him to be the enjoyment of all the excellencies and happinesse in heaven and earth , Super omnia Christum ; I am very confident Christ can't be perfect without me , nor I without him , but that I shall appear perfect ( for all Eternity ) in Christs righteousnesse , and am pardoned by his death , purged by his bloud , sanctified by his Spirit , and saved by his power , and this I am as sure of to be glorified as he is glorified , and shall see him as he is . I could say much more , and have many more experiences ; but I fear I offend others , I shall cut off in an Apocope , but pray , pray for me , that Gods power may appear more in my weaknesse , and whilest I live and breath ( I hope and resolve ) it shall be with him and for him , as well as by him , and that I shall not desire to live one minute longer then to his honour and glory , and for his service , which the Lord make me fit for and faithfull in , and prepare me for that glory which is to be revealed . But these things I have spoken in the fear of God , wherein you hear what I was , what I am , and what I shall be ; I know no more yet to trouble you with , but according to the accreasings of the holy one in me , and effusions of the unctions upon me , I shall speak more hereafter for your advantage , I were a wicked wretch should I smother any of the appearances of God which I meet with . 40. An eminent Experience , or relation of John Osborne member of the Church at Purleigh , of the which Mr. R. was Pastor : as was taken out of the Church Register word for word . JOhn Osborne , a poore labouring man , was admitted a Member of this Church , April , 16. 1650. his visible carriage in word and deed seeming holy , and his outward conversation such , as he was well approved of ( after his confession of Christ , and resolution to cleave close to the Lord in this way ) nemine contradicente ; but it seemes this man was much unsound , and not yet fit matter within ( whatsoever he seemed without ) and it being best known to God and himself , Gods designe was to work out the discovery of him out of himself , he began to manifest much grief and gall within him by his outward colour and complexion , but kept it close to all the Church , that his ill life was the cause of his ill looks ; yet he followed the means , frequented the Communion , used the Ordinances at home and abroad , in publique and private , so that nothing could be gathered ( in the Churches apprehension ) but godlinesse in him ; He would presse an exact walking , Gospell duties ; and in discourse cast in his mite of knowledge and measure of light : So that some tooke much content in him , much comfort of him , but for all this his heavy countenance did discover that there was somewhat in him lay undiscovered , and not yet brought to light . But Gods time was near to doe his Church good , and to give them some reall testimony and tasts of the first fruit of his love towards them by making him known to them , whom they thought they knew ) but indeed did not know ; for what God saw in him that was naught , was not visible to the Church , but what was visible was good , but that which was invisible to us was the rottennesse and unsound part of the man. But mark how God met with him , who upon the 28. day of * April , 1650. was after Sermons ( being the Lords day ) struck by a sudden distemper , which in the night produced dangerous fits which continued at times for two or three dayes : the Pastor of the Church J. R. he did visit him , but at that time being Wednesday , May 1. following he discovered no discomfort , discontent or burthen within him at all ; but he had good expressions and motions , yet was once or twice in his fits very fearfully ; but after he was recovered the Pastor with prayers for him , and directions given him departed home . The next day being the Lecture day after Sermon was ended , it was moved in the Church to contribute unto him , who did it freely and largely , and that very night the Pastor J. R. was sent for again to him , but first the Church made prayers for him : And it is observable , that this Osborne being in very strange fits ( as ever were seen ) like one possessed he groveling and foaming ; and his hands , feet , eyes , mouth , were most gastlike drawn out into a Convulsion-manner , but much worse ; at that very hower , that the Church made prayers for him , and not ceasing till God were prevailed with , those strange kinde of fits and distempers left him ( to the amazement of all that knew it , so that after that not one fit more had he , though they continued upon him so thick , and for so long a time before , that no Doctor could help him , but all gave him over for a dead man without recovery . But this was not all yet , that God intended to doe for his people ; this man was not discovered to the Church to be what he was all this while ; And though the Lord heard the Churches prayers to recover this man out of this condition ; yet the Lord cast him into another condition for the Churches good . But by this time was the messenger come for the Pastor ( it being above a mile distant ) to come quickly to the said Osborne ; Thither he hasted , and carried with him the Churches contribution : when he came into the house , the people within told him how suddenly those strange fits left him ; and now how he was altered , and taken in another course , crying out to speak with the said Pastor , who went in where this Osborne lay in another posture ( then formerly ) upon his bed , and seeing the Pastor begins to howle and roar ; crying out , O I 'me damn'd ! I 'me damn'd ! I goe to hell ! I goe to hell ! ( repeating every sentence he said I think at least a dozen times , with a most deplorable voice ) O I am rotten ! I am rotten ! at the heart ! Oh the heart ! with aboundance of such bitter language ; the Pastor wondred ; began to say one thing and another ; to apply for one aile , and for another ; but all in vain , for the more he sought to help he seemed to hurt , and the more he sought to cure he seemed to kill , and the more to fret the disease . The Pastor retiring himselfe for a time into the next roome as desirous to seek to God and to bewail the mans woefull misery , was there told by one or two , that the same Osborne has formerly been suspected for adultery lying with one Right 's wife hard by , and for some other misdemeanors , which were never before known or imagined to be in the man ( by any of the Church as I know of , or that any of the Church did speak of . ) Well the Pastor returning thanks to the parties that acquainted him with this , went out into the yard and then earnestly sought the Lord , that this mans affl●ction might be usefull to the Church , and that by his own mouth , that might be discovered within him , which none could see , and few suspect by his outward deportment and profession ; and if he were so wicked , and that such sinnes and basenesse were in him , that it might be manifested openly to the terror of the wicked , that as at the judgement of Ananias and Saphira , Act. 5.11 . fear might come upon all the Church and those that hear these things . With his heart ful of such hot desires ; the Pastor returned in to the man ( much relying on God ) and as soon as ever the said Osborne saw him , he cryed out alowd , Oh I 'me damn'd ! I 'me damn'd ! I 'me rotten , I 'me rotten , ' Ime rotten ! The Pastor asked him why , and like a floud his voice violently bursting forth , for lying with such a woman , naming her openly to all commers , and continuing this his unsavory speech so long and in so much despair that the Pastor was constrained to leave him so ; he being uncapable of making use of what so ere was said to him , though ere so urgently ; so that the said J. R. the Pastor hasted home ( being now dark night ) hoping to doe him more good by dealing with God for him , then by any further dealing with him ; being much afflicted for the great sinfulnesse of the man ; and for that those without would take all he said up in the worst sense , and with the most malicious construction they could ; so reporting it about the Countrey as it might reflect much upon the Church ; and that to the publique reproach of profession and the Gospel practise ; which ( afterwards as wee shall hear ) through the great grace of our God , ( who turns light out of darknesse , and good out of evi●● ) made mightily for the Churches advantage and comfort . The next day the Pastor praising the Lord ▪ for this large discovery made of the mans sinfulnesse and unsoundnesse ( who was condemned out of his owne mouth ) in his private study strongly sets upon God , and by a holy violence beseecht , and begged of him hard that hee would scourge him here severely , by some visible signe , and that to the purpose , for others to take warning by , and for the further manifestation of such as were unsound and rotten in the Church , and for the fuller strengthening and establishment of his sincere and pretious on●s in the Faith , and that his soul might be saved at the last day . Thus continuing his undeniable requests for the space of two dayes all this while , newes was brought that Osborne was now drawing on , in his last sweat , and senselesse and knowing no body , but speech lesse , and upon giving up the ghost , onely now and then he raged , and flung about ; But every one had given him up for a dead man and without remedy ▪ ( in their eyes ) . After this the said Pastor did set afresh upon the Lord , and lay hard that it might be enough , what was done , and to withdraw his anger ( if he pleased to be prevailed with through Christ ) and now to spare him , and try him a little longer , if he did heartily repent what was past ; and resolve against temptations in time to come ; and to walke up more closely to the rules of the Gospel , upon his promise so to doe , that he would try him now , and be pleased to be pacified and shew him love , &c. The Pastor continued praying for him , the space of a day or two more , and this not onely in private , but publiquely in whole body and society ( May 7. ) it being a day of speciall Communion ; On which day one member of the Fellowship being sent to see him ; he was asleep fast , so as he was not seen to rest for a long time before , being tyred under so many torments as he was in ; and so 't was hard to say whether he were dead or alive , thus he slept a long time . At last when he awak●d , both himself and others by him being wonderfully amazed at so sudden a change as he seem'd to be in ; for as others knew not well , whether he were dead or alive , and all concluded hee was drawing on untill this sleep , so himself ( as he affirmed to the Church after ) wondred he was alive , and altogether thought that he had been dead and cast into Hell ; and was there enduring the torments for his sinnes , not imagining himself upon the earth , for these four or five dayes ( ere since the Pastor J.R. last left him in a despairing condition ) not capable of comforting being senselesse . But suddenly , hee awaking , and wondring at himself , he starts up off of his bed , and by all means would be going to the Pastors house , and to the Church ; and told the people that now he was beholding to his Master ( for so he called the Pastor ) indeed ; and for that his Master had done wonderful things for him ; and the Company asking why ? Oh! he answered that his Master had prayed to God for him ; and the Church had prayed for him . And that God had stayed his hand now , and had forgiven him his sins past ( he was sure ) upon his promise to amend , and that his Master tooke a great deal of pains with God , and would not be quiet till the Lord had commanded the Serpents that had tormented him for his sinnes to fly back for a time , &c. with a great deal of such like language , which yet the more amazed them , they thinking him half frantick to talk so ; and looking on him as a man drawing on ; but as on the morning or last night , and not like to live ; and yet he would needs be gone to the Pastor to tell him , what God had done for him , and had already got on his cloathes , and got out of doores ; but being very weake and ready to reele downe in the way about a field off , his wife and neighbours running after him much against his own minde got him in again . But his wife and neighbours perceived him another manner of man , then what he was before ; by his good motions , prayers , discourses and desires heavenward ; it being a great delight to him to acquaint them with his experiences of God under this sharp dispensation . After a day or two he feeling strength , would not be stayed from coming to the Pastor , and it fell out to be upon a day when the Church gathered together to break bread ; but the Pastor coming to him called him aside , and in a roome by themselves , he set very severely and plainly upon the man in many particulars ; and especially for his presumption to enter into this way being such unsound and unfit matter , and therefore that he could not long have continued , with so fair an outside , but the inside rottennesse would at length have broken out , and he be cast from the rest of the building , as 2 Tim. 3.5 . 1 Tim. 6.3 , 4 , 5. 1 Cor. 5.3 , 4 , 5 , 11 , 12 , 13. Tit. 3.10 . Matth. 18.18 , 19 , &c. 1 Tim. 1.20 , &c. For though he had done contrary to the rules we must doe according to them . Withall , dealing with him upon such Scriptures , as Jer. 7.9 , 10. Psal. 50.16 , 17 , &c. Isai. 35.8 , 9 , 10. questioning and expostulating with him upon them , and those Ezek. 44.7 , 8. Jo. 4.23 . and many others , and charging it home upon him , the wrong that he had done to Christ and his Church by opening the mouthes of her malitious adversaries , to speak against Christs way , the worst words in their hearts ; to vilifie and slander his Saints , to deride Religion , to wax proud against profession , and grievously to offend those weak in the Faith , & yet though he had mocked men he could not mock God ; but now that the Lord had opened his inside to us , that we might see what a Traitor he was to the Truth , what a hypocrite to God , and what not ? As the Pastor was opening him to himself yet more ; this Osborne told him that the Lord had pardoned him , upon his promise to amend , and the prayer of his Church for Christs sake , and that he saw his pardon writ before him and his sinnes blotted out , &c. The Pastor urging it upon him , how he knew he was pardoned , and what he meant by seeing sinnes blotted out , who then began to tell the whole story of his agony , and torments , and deliverance ; which being long the Pastor desired him to cut off , and to acquaint the whole Body with them after the last Sermon , before they dispersed to their severall homes ; Because that as there was visible offence given to Christ and his Church , so there must be visible repentance and apparent evidences of his conversion , &c. So the Pastor parted with him , the Church could not admit of him into Communion , but hee must hold off , till he could give satisfaction , onely he had liberty in the converting Ordinances ; and to converse with any of the Society or the like ; In the Evening about five or six a clock the said Osborne was called into the Society to answer to such things , as were laid to his charge ; and first the Pastor earnestly seeking God that nothing might be done , or concluded on but what should be agreeable to the minde of Jesus Christ , and the rules of the Gospel ; and to stablish all that are present in the faith , and that they might be the more strengthened , by what did , or should of Gods power appeare to have been upon this man , to punish him , and of his love to deliver him , and that this Church might not be deceived , through the subtilty of Satan , as to believe a lye , or to give no credit to the Truth , but to make them discerning in his wayes , and to eye him in all his goings , &c. After the Pastor had prayed , and the Church joined with him very devoutly , the charges being uttered against this Osborne ; still hee continued his former story how God had forgiven him , and he had seen his sins blotted out , and how the Serpents were suffered to feed on him for his sins . So urging on him what he meant , by these things , and straitly requiring him not to believe a delusion ; No! he said he was sure ! the Lord did not delude him ! and thus he began ! After the fits left me ( sayes he ) I sent for my Master ( i. e. the Pastor ) because I was to dye ( as I thought ) . Then ( this being on May 2. the Lecture day at night ) when he despaired ( so that the Pastor was there ) I thought that I had dyed , and was gone into Hell for my sinnes , where God stretcht out his rod , and then came out a huge great Serpent , which God bid to goe and torment me , and presently out of the belly of the great Serpent came out seven Serpents more ; so many Serpents for so many sinnes ; and they all together seised upon mee , and stung and gnawed me , and eat off all my flesh below , and my thighes , and gnawed all clean to the very bone ; and I heard my Master pray , and say , Lord punish him ! till he amend ! Let him be punished , for a time ! and still these Serpents continued on mee , and tormented me more and more for a long time ( as wee conceived for the space of two dayes or thereabouts by the Pastors words , who acknowledged to the Church that there might be some likelyhood in what Osborne said , because that he did indeed pray for two dayes or thereabouts , in his study privately , that the Lord would punish him severely in the flesh , that his Spirit might be saved , in the Day of the Lord , which the Church never knew , till he told them . Moreover the said Osbornes tongue was bit quite through , and a peece of his lip pulled off ; which hindred his speaking so as he could scarce be understood , and being asked how it came he said he knew not , unlesse the Serpents had bit it , which hee thought because he knew nothing , but that he was in Hell not so much as imagining that hee was alive upon the Earth . But his wife said , that once leaping up as in an infinite torment he bit his tongue quite through and through ; and on another time he run a pin quite through his lip , and rung of a peece on it , this being all in the time of these two dayes ; But to proceede to his story . For these questions were asked at the Conclusion ) After these Serpents had fed upon my flesh ( sayes he ) for so long a time I saw a Rowle as of Parchment lying before me , and upon it God had written , that he would take Justice , and my Master writ that hee would have mercy upon me , and the Lord writ again that he would take vengeance ; and my Master writ again , Lord let it be enough ; if he repents let it be enough now , &c. and I heard ( sayes he ) the words as they were writing ( then the Pastor so said to the Church that it was so , after a day or two , that he indeed desired the Lord to let it be enough ; if he did repent , and unfeignedly promised amendment , and that he would remove his hand ; and this he did both in publique upon the Lords dey , and in his owne study he thus prayed ; not knowing all this while , but that Osborne was as he left him on Thursday night , and in despair ; And as men reported him to be drawing on . ) So my Master would not leave the Lord ( says he ) till the Lord said well , he would try me ; and so the Rowle vanished away , and flew upward , and God commanded the Serpents to withdraw , so the little Serpents went into the great Serpents belly ; And by little and little ( sayes he ) the great Serpent did goe back and back till at last he went away downe , ( as might bee at my Beds feet ) which I was mightily joyed at , because I thought that he would have tormented me so for ever , not knowing but that I was in Hell. After that I heard the Church plainly to pray for me , and I beheld the Lord ( not as before in his anger , but ) smiling upon me ( as it were ) and there were before mee all the joyes that could be desired and Rivers ran before me as Crystall full of gold , so as I had liberty to have taken what I would ; thinking I saw a Paradise . Thus I continued till I awaked , when I wondered where I was , and could scarce think I was alive , not knowing so much ; and he found his heart filled with gladnesse ; and ( hee said ) he fain would have come to the Pastors house , but neighbours restrained him . But now being night the Church-Society must disperse , wherefore not being satisfied with such extraordinary things , as he spake of , he was held off Communion for a time ( being necessary that the Church should see a visible change in him ; by whom were such visible offences given . ) I shall not tye this story to your Faith any further , then as hee related it himself to the Society , it is indeed wonderfull , by God's wayes are wondrous these dayes : This man cannot read a letter . However the result of all this made much for the Churches good , and to the strengthening and establishing of others , and to the searching and examining of all ; which we looked upon as a speciall note of Gods approbation of us , and love to us , who are from the rootes of the heart given up freely and sincerely to be his servants . And I shall only adde this more thereto , that I have taken this story verbatim out of the Church Booke , which registers up such eminent passages at Purleigh in Essex . I shall tire the Reader with no more experiences ; These examples are sufficient , and some of them are very eminent : We are sweetly led by the hand ( manuducimur ) to drinke of these Brookes before we passe . Some are deep but most shallow , and all clear as Crystall streams , unlesse at such times , when Satan ( by temptations ) put in his cloven-foot . Those which are the most extraordinary of them are uttered in Dream , Trance , Voice , or Vision , and Vision is taken two wayes , either first actually , by the senses of the body , and so in some visible bodily shape ; or else 2. potentially thus , that although the soul ( ut forma ) is joined to the body , yet ( ut materia ) above the body ; And yet it uses not any bodily senses for such a service , but sequesters all externals , and the outward senses are ( as 't were ) dead , or asleep , not at all intervening to interrupt the soule ; but when the soule is soared up in any high exigency , or excellency to see great things ; or is intent upon any rich discoveries , as by Visions , Revelations , or the like ; all the bodily senses lye ( as 't were ) in a trance , and all exterior motions are quieted and quash'd , and flesh is silent , whilest the Lord appeares out of his holy habitation , Zach. 2. ult . and some such speciall and spirirituall fruits , I have presented the Saints with , from secundum naturam to supra naturam , whilest some of them were ( as in an Externination to selfe ) transported from darknesse into his most marvailous light , by some extraordinary medium , and prevalent inspirations and visions , or the like ; which were taken up and arrested by the intellectuall and cognoscitive faculties of their soules . And indeed dear friends ! the redoubled experiences which my soule hath had of a sweet Father , ( who was found of me sometimes when I gave over seeking him , as in some measure lies manifest in my testimony ) these facilitate my language , and felicitate my lines to breath out somewhat for others ; of those involving rapsodicall visions , and Love-discoveries ; And indeed ! many matchlesse manifestations I have taken from others ( in other parts where I have travell'd ) so alike and akin to these ( but many more Sun-like and excellent ) that I cannot omit to tell you , that you have heard but stutterings and stammerings to what are to come , and have seen but a jelly and imperfect embryon to that degree and measure which the Saints shall shortly meet with ; which will afford us matter of wordlesse worth , and too high too for any language to delineate . But in the meane time I have presented these to all precious saints , as a fresh posie gathered for that purpose ; wherein they may have variety of colours , and conditions , and all sweet and lovely , and they may finde in this posie , the Rose of Sharon , the pure Lilly of the Valleys , the sweet Violets of humility , Tyme , and Winter-savory , with a great deale of Hearts-ease , all tyed up together with a thread of Scarlet , Cant 4.3 . But many experiences of inferior glory , and lower appearance , I have purposely omitted , yet I must tell you in these their Dreams , voices , and cries , they were not to be observed in themselves as in the effects the effects of them . As for those which are the ordinary ones of them , which are call'd home by such means as , preaching , praying , reading , writings , or such like ; In and by them , if you observe , you shall find a Call twofold , Legal and Evangelical : as to instance in Elizabeth Averies , &c. And note further , those who are first called by the Word , and preaching , are then 2. confirmed by the Scriptures and promises ; and 3. assured by the presence of Christ revealed in them ; instance in John Spilman , Lawrence Swinfield , &c. and many times your most ordinary are most infallible and certain . But these are the present observations , besides this ; That every Church of Christ which is full of experience , must needs be ful of Faith , & have provision laid up for many years , which being so advantagious as hath bin said , should exceedingly oblige others to bring forth out of their treasures , new and old ; & I would have every Church appoint the Pastor , or some others to take up all the experiences which the members declare , and to bring the best & choicest of them into publique light , Oh how beautifull would they be abroad ! and how sensibly and forcibly should we perceive the unparalleld appearances of Gods love and light as they shine more and more towards the perfect day ! and oh how obvious to every eye would the work which God is about be in this age ! and then we should see how far these experiences surpasse the former , or the Saints in former ages ; and how far our childrens will be before us . And indeed it is a burning shame they should lye buried alive , and not be brought into the light , which are given in to all the Churches in this age , that are of excellency or use , but now at last I will wipe my pen and sit down . CHAP. VII . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Berith . That Church-Covenant may be , but not that it must be , as that wherein the Formality of the Church consists . THere is a threefold consideration ( saies Bernard ) which is to go before every work , and which a wise man makes his main ( primum an liceat ; deinde an deceat : postremo an expediat ) to consider whether it be lawfull , comely , and expedient ; for all things are lawfull , but all things are not expedient , saies the Apostle . Now in Christian discipline that does appear to be undecent which is undutifull ; and uncomely , which is unlawfull and against command ; and so also that which is not lawfull nor comely , must needs be unexpedient and unprofitable . Wherefore let us finde this Church-covenant ( which we are now come to ) a thing lawfull , decent , and expedient , and it may passe , or else it must be put to a stand and examined ; And sometimes ( upon examination ) though it be found lawfull in it self , yet being unusefull , and unexpedient for some other reasons which are weighty , ( and import the bene esse , or wel-being and priviledges of the Church ) therefore it must be put upon the file ( for the present however ) and not urged as of absolute necessity to any but left as indifferent . Now of such things we have treated at large in chap. 5. yet this I shall further adde , that those things which are neither praecepta nec prohibita , commanded nor counter-manded by Scripture , yet may be , and in some cases they must be opposed by our preaching ; especially when pernicious errours do attend their practise ; as to instance , when they are cryed up ( if not as meritorious yet ) as ( Deoplacentia ) things not only pleasing , but as if without them the worship of God were displeasing to him ; so that men paint over their traditions by inventions , with such varnish to take others : Et homines fascinati his ritibus , and then some men are ready to run mad for them . Thus they run over head and ears into the water after the Anabaptisticall errour ; as Melanchthon takes notice in his Common places , De ceremoniis humanis . So did the Israelites after the golden calf , and so did the Marcionites , Manichees , and Donatists of old . And so the Presbyterians and rigid Disciplinarians now that do tye men to any empty form . And further , 2. When things indifferent are cryed up for ( necessaria Ecclesiae ) and dignified with the title of things necessary ; and then those that desert those ceremoniall rites or indifferent things , they do presently damn for the members of Antichrist , of an Harlot , as seditious , erroneous , or enemies to Christ , and these men make Religion odious , the Gospell contemptible ; the Church a meer externall policy ; whence it is , that so much discord arises about outward rites and orders . Thus do all rigid Disciplinarians , who cry up the Form more then the Power . 3. When this opinion of things doubtfull and indifferent , does darken the mind , and makes man more blind , and brings forth ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) a foolish , froward , rash violent , hasty zeal ; as it did in the Pharisees for Mosaicall rites ; and as it does in those rigid sort of Anabaptists ( I say not all ) that at this day contend with so much fire for their form , and that with violent invectives ( their loudest arguments ) against all that differ from them , they hate , threaten , malice , rail at with the worst-words in their bellies the precious ones of God ; and are of a persecuting-spirit ( as all formalists are ) I speak of such as I have met with , whose fire cant't be quenched without water , without much , if not whole rivers of water : whilest the true servants of God , and all true worshippers , doe worship him in spirit and in truth , Joh. 4. 4. When hot discords , doubts , differences , malice , madnesse , spight , hatred , and anger or the like , arises from things doubtfull , and indifferent , they are to be laid aside , and left as things dangerous . And thus ought the Presbyterians , Independents , Anabaptists , and all to agree in one ; to cast away whatsoever causes contention , and is left in the word , without absolute command or counter-mand ; As the formall Covenant , baptizing infants , rebaptizing , or the like , seeing that as once we have said before , even ordinances commanded , for quietnesse sake , and to make a onenesse and peace betwixt Jew and Gentile ( at a greater distance then any of these now are ) were taken away by Christ , that they might be all one in Christ , Gal. 3.28 . See Eph. 2.15 , 16. and this ought to be , rather then the want of love , peace , and unity should be among the Saints . They must deny all indifferent and doubtfull ordinances when they grow dangerous , and cause discord . O that men were wise and would learn this ! for loves-sake which is the greatest Commandement of all other ! 5. When the Hypocriticall defenders of such Formes , do cry them up for greater excellencies , and more usefull then positive duties , then they are dangerous indeed . So do the Presbyterians that cry up a Prelacy , and call for Classes , rather then they will deny their high-spirited opinion for peace and love with their brethren . So do these Independents that do rather presse their formall explicite Covenants as necessary to the constitution of the Churches , then lay them aside for love and union-sake ; and rather then thereby any difference or discord should arise . And so do those blazing Meteor-like Comets ( for I fear they are so in Ireland ) those unchristian , rough , threatning Anabaptists ( for I speak of them ) that rather then lay aside their form , they will see all the differing Saints in the world ruin'd , and help to torment and persecute them themselves , and lay more weight upon their doubtfull ordinance , then they do upon the undeniable , an absolute ordinance of love , ( and preferre them before theirs ) which is that greatest and newest Commandement of Christ ; Oh! it is sad to say it , but alas ! we s●e it . For it is the love of the form , not the love of the Father which is in them , 1. Joh. 2.9.11 . 1 Joh. 4.7 , 8 , 20. Where these errors accompany things doubtfull or indifferent were they lawfull ( in themselves ) yet they are unexpedient , and unprofitable by reason of the evill effects ; for such attendants are not to be allowed or approved of . Yet we deny not a due use of things indifferent even in the best Churches ; in ecclesiis emendatis as Melanchthon hath it therefore , 1 Cor. 14.40 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for the order and use of the Church to the edification of it , as in vers . 5.12 . But yet so , as to avoid giving of offence , or occasions of contention by imposing a necessity of them , or a righteousnesse in them . For in such a case the spirit speaketh expresly calling them , 1 Tim. 4.1 . The doctrines of Devils . So saith Christ , In vain do they worship me , teaching for doctrines , the Commandements of men , Mat. 15.9 . Mar. 7.7 . Col , 2.20 , 21. Gal. 5.1 , 2. These things are true when men make such things absolutely necessary to the breach of all brother-hood , peace , unity , order , and love , which are left doubtfull or indifferent in Scripture : and I dare boldly say , this is the main cause of our most contentions ; O! that men would be more milde , &c. and say in such cases ! Too many Church-members there be that make a meer Idoll of their Church-covenant , and ( I think they do little lesse that make it the Formall cause of a visible Church , ( which we have handled in another order the first Book ch . 6. & 7. ) seeing it is left among things doubtful and indifferent , to be used or not used for peace , and love , and orders-sake . Melanchthon I remember memtions a story of one Spiridon a Bishop , who having a friend upon a fast day , ( now called a fish-day it may be ) to visit him , he bids his servants bring in meat , and some flesh being provided , was brought ; but his guest startled at it ; Oh , saies he , non vescor his bodie , sum enim Christianus ! I am a Christian , therefore I eat none of this to day ; Nay but saith Spiridon , eat of this to day because thou art a Christian , for every creature of God is good taken with thankfulnesse ; and speaking in this manner to the man , he was much convinced of his errour , and fell to the meat , learning thus much by this example , that the worship and service of God is more excellent then so , and consists not in meats or drinks , or differencing things indifferent , and with hearty thankfulnesse he embraced his Christian liberty : and so I say , to such a one as saies , Oh! the Church-covenant ! O I am for it ! I think it necessary , for I am a Christian ! yea , a Church-member ! and art thou so ? say I , why therefore because thou art a Church member and a Christian , impose no necessity of it , for the worship of God is more excellent then so , it consists not in such formes ; but in righteousnesse , peace , and joy in the Holy Ghost ( as hath been said in chap. 5 , of this book ) and it is not this makes thee a Church-member or a Christian : But thou art within the Covenant of grace made and confirmed in the Gospell and written by the warm bloud of Christ , and sealed by his Spirit ; then thou art received of God , and hast a right ( as much as any hath ) to be received a member of the visible Church , 2 Sam. 23.5 , 6. And as for formall , explicite Covenants they are like your riders knot fast and loose , saies Mr. Vines in his Sermon before the House , Octob. 22. 1644. p. 15. or else like Shibboleth meerly to distinguish ( for prudence sake ) between person and person , people and people ; so that , I say , not but a Church-covenant may in some cases be usefull , but it is not of absolute necessity ; for these reasons , 1. There is no precept for it . 2. And further we shall finde that Christians fell into such fellowship together ( as we here treat of ) without it , or any such form in primitive times , Act ▪ 19.9 . we can finde no footing for it in all the Churches Directory , viz. the Acts of the Apostles . And further , Saints are of one and the same houshold in the unity of the spirit , not of the form ( as we said chap. 5.6 . ) Ephes. 2.21 . & 4.4 , 5. the Church was represented ( saies Mr. Noyes in his Temple measured ) by your 12 cakes on the table in the Temple , pag. 9. called the Bread of faces , because all the Saints sit together though of different formes ) by one spirit face to face , feeding on spiritual refreshments in the Temple of God So that the excesse of complements , formalities and punctualities must be avoided and evaded as unsutable to the simplicity , and spirituality of the Gospel , Temple , and Worship . Wherefore I finde it evident , that explicite covenanting ( pro modo & forma ) is no necessary formality , but may be used where it causes no contention or disorder ; and yet as men make it , it may be a dispensation too compulsory and violent in respect of Gods free-grace , and the covenant that he hath made : For the Ordinances of the Covenant of grace are sutable to the grace of the Covenant But , Furthermore , all the members of the Church are engaged reason 4 without such a kinde of covenanting and confederating together ; that is , by the same word and Spirit , by which they are bid and brought in , they are bound in the waies of Christ ; and in the communion of love , peace and holin●sse . There is an obligation that lies upon every Saint , of another nature , more noble , loving , and lasting , which will not like a riders knot be fast and loose ▪ but bindes them to love and obedience , without fetters or halters : and this I account the brotherly covenant , Amos 1.9 . not only made in prudence as was between Solomon and Hiram , but in wisdome , Act. 11.23 . which is the deed and decree of heart ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) not of hand ; and this is the bond of brotherhood , as the Hebr. hath it , which bond of peace consists in the unity of the spirit , not of the forme , ( as hath been fairly offered before ) and this is by another spirit ( as it is recorded of Caleb ) after God , Numb . 14.24 . and not after man ; for that the set form which is after man makes many divisions , dangerous separations , and sad discords even among true brethren , and then it is farre from uniting or true order ; and ought to be abhorr'd . But lest some lofty brethren look angry at this assertion , and language , and should fill my ears with clamours by reason of concurrent contra-position of many eminent Ministers and others of this Nation , and of New-England of the congregationall way ; I will but lead them to the Apology of New-England for the Covenant p. 32. & 44. wherein they acknowledge an agreement or consent of Saints together ; or of this or that Christian to walk in Church-fellowship with this or that society ; and that this is sufficient and equivalent with the others . So saith Mr. Peters in his Discourse of Covenant , p. 21 , 22 , 23. & T.G. I.G. But yet we grant , that if this implicite Covenantings should produce such ill consequences , as of contentions , discords , disorders , &c. which the explicite Covenant would remedy and appease ; that then there may be such a Covenant writ in the Church book , and handed by the Church members , for so long as good use , peace , and order are brought forth by it ; but yet with this Caution , that it be allowed only as a thing prudentiall , for a time , ( whilest the use or end is good of it ) and not as a thing necessary for all time , or as without alteration or cessation ; for then you should say , ●ie upon it , we will have none of it ; when it begins to assault and intrench upon Christian liberty . Now in this sense , and in such cases a Church-covenant is lawfull , decent , and expedient ; and in such an exigency and emergency of time , this was put in execution by the Church at Dublin , as a medium ( in prudence ) to compose diff●●●nces , and it proved very effectual ( blessed be God ) to end the former , and to prevent future disturbances , but it was not to be urged upon any one contrary to Christian liberty . And thus farre we can freely concurre with Mr. Cotton , Mr. Hooker , Mr. Ainsworth and all other eminent ones , that are so hot for an explicite covenanting , though the implicite by your own confession carries the formalem rationem of the other which they so urge ; both being but adjuncts . The forms of such Covenants are shorter or longer , as the occasion requires ; I shall insert one or two for examples-sake . 1. The Covenant of the English Church at Roterdam , when Mr. H. P. was chosen Pastour . WEE whose names are hereunder written , having found by sad experience how uncomfortable it is to walk in an unsetled and disorder'd condition , &c. 1. We do renue our covenant in Baptisme and avouch God to be our God. 2. We resolve to cleave to the true and pure worship of God , opposing to our power all false waies . 3. We will not allow our selves in any known sin , bu● will renounce it so soon as Gods word does manifest it so to be , the Lord lending us power . We resolve to carry our selves in our places of government and obedience , with all good conscience , knowing we must give an account to God. Wee will labour for all further growth in grace , by hearing , reading , praying , meditation , and all other wayes we can . We mean not to over-burthen our hearts with earthly cares , which are the bane of all holy duties , the breach of the Sabbath , and the other Commandements . Wee will willingly and meekly submit to Christian Discipline without murmuring , and shall labour so to continue , and will endeavour to be more forward , zealous , loving , faithfull , and wise in admonishing others . Wee will labour by all our abilities for the furtherance of the Gospel as occasion shall be offered to us . We promise to have our children , servants , and all our charge taught the wayes of God. We will strive to give no offence to our brethren by censuring them rashly by suspicions , evill speakings , or any other way . Lastly , We doe protest not onely against open and scandalous sins , as drunkennesse , swearing , &c. but also against evill company , and all appearance of evill to the utmost of our power . Per me F. H. I might make mention of others , some of them very short and generall ; but others fuller and more particular . But I shall trouble thee ( Reader ) but with one more , which as thou heardst before was made use of , as a remedy to end some disorders and disturbances , and subscribed by all that were free thereto upon occasion of differences arising ; to which this ( much ) related . II. The Covenant of the Church in Dublin collected out of the word of Christ according to the Order of the Gospel . WEE whose Names are hereunder written do freely give up our hands and hearts to God the Father and his Son Christ Jesus , our onely Lord and Law-giver ; and doe unanimously ingage in the fear of the Lord every one of us , to our utmost powers , through the gracious assistance of Gods holy Spirit , That wee will walk together in one body with one minde , in all sweetnesse of Spirit , and Saint-like love each to other , ( as the Disciples of Jesus Christ ) and all to the Church . Joh. 15.12 . & 13.34 . Rom. 13.8 . Ephes. 5.2 . 1 Thes. 3.12 . 1 Joh. 4.21 , &c. Jointly to contend and strive together in all good and lawfull wayes , both by doing and by suffering for the purity of the Gospell , the Truth of Christ , his Ordinances and Orders , the honour and liberty , and priviledges of the Church against all opposers , Jude 3. Gal. 5.1.13 . &c. With all care and conscience to study and labour to keepe up the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace , both in the Church in generall , and in particular , between one another , Phil. 2.1 , 2 , 3. 1 Cor. 1.10 . Ephes. 4.3 . 2 Cor. 13.11 , &c. Carefully to avoid all causes and causers of Divisions ( as much as in us lies ) and to shun Seducers , false-Teachers of errors or Heresies , Rom. 16.17 , 18. 1 Tim. 6.3 , 4 , 5. Tit. 9.3 . v. g. 10. 2 Joh. 10. Rev. 2.14.18 . Partaking and fellow-feeling to our power with one another , in every condition , bearing each other burdens , Gal. 6.2 . Heb. 13.3 . 1 Cor. 12.25 . 2 Tim. 1.16 . &c. To forbear and bear with one another weaknesses , and infirmities , in much pity , tendernesse , meeknesse and patience , not ripping up the weaknesse of any one to any other , without our Church ; nor yet to any within , unlesse according to Christs rule and Gospel-order , endeavouring all we may for the glory of the Gospel and the credit of his Church to hide and cover one anothers slippings and failings . Ephes. 4.32 . Rom. 14.13 . Rom. 15.1 . Col. 3.12 , 13. 1 Cor. 13.4.7 &c. And that we will ( as the Lord our God shall enable us ) to our utmost , cleave close one to another , and every one to the Lord , and chearfully undergoe the condition and lot the Lord shall lay upon ( this ) his Church , whether in perseeution or in prosperity , without any wilfull drawing back or falling away from the fellowship or Faith which wee professe together , Heb. 10.24 , 25 , 26 , &c. to the end , 2 Tim. 4.10.16 . If any one Brother or Sister be afflicted , &c. fellow-feelingly to be afflicted with that Brother or Sister ; and in all Christian wayes we can , to counsell , comfort or assist , and to pray hard for such a Member , 1 Cor. 12.26 . 2 Thes. 3.2 . Rom. 12.15 . Act. 12.15 . Freely to contribute and communicate of things temporall and spirituall according to our abilities out of our aboundance both to particular members in want , and also into the Publique-Treasury or Chu●ch-stock , 1 Joh. 3.17 , 18. 1 Cor. 16.1 , 2. 2 Cor. 9.5 , 6 , 7. Rom. 12.13 . 1 Tim. 6.17 . &c. Vigilantly to watch over each others conversation , so as to counsell , comfort or correct according to Christs rules in such cases ; provoking one another to love and good workes , with brotherly bowels and affections , 1 Thes. 5.4.14 . Heb. 3.12 , 13. Heb. 10.24 . Heb. 12.13 , 15 , 17. Rom. 15.14 . Carefully walking together in all holinesse , godlinesse and humility of minde , ( to our uttermost ) every day and often , and orderly meeting together to the edifying of the body , for the glory of the Gospell , credit of the Church , convincing of our adversaries , and them that are without , Mat. 5.16.20 . Mal. 3.16 , 17. 2 Tim. 2.19 . 2 Cor. 7.1 . 1 Pet. 3.12 . Heb. 12.14 . Praying continually for the prosperity of this Church ; for Gods presence in it , and protection of it , against all the gates of Hell , Phil. 1.4 , 5. Rom. 1.9 . Ephes. 6.18 . Col. 4.12 . Psal. 122.6 . Isa. 62.6 , 7. &c. And lastly , because differences have formerly arose about a Pastor , we doe freely declare to embrace and owne our brother — for our Pastor , according to the order of the Gospel ; to submit with all ready obedience in the Lord to Christs Ordinances dispensed by him , Ephes. 4.11 . 1 Cor. 4.1 . 2 Cor. 5.18 , 19. Heb. 13.7.17 . 2 Thes. 3.14 . to pray for assistance from the Lord in the administration to him committed , Ephes. 6.18 , 19. Col. 4.3 . 2 Thes. 3.1 , 2. and to esteem of him as the Lord requires , 1 Cor. 4.1 . 1 Thes. 5.12 , 13. 1 Tim. 5.17 . and to adhere and cleave to him in the Lord , 2 Tim. 4.6 . 2 Tim. 1.16.18 . &c. All which we doe in the sincerity of our soules declare , promise , purpose and engage to , as our God shall enable us by his own gracious Spirit . Per me W. H. Such like are the formes of the Church-Covenant , which are according to the rules of prudence and piety to be altered , taken up or laid aside for love , peace and orders sake , and are all ( alwayes ) left to Christian liberty ; For the necessary combination , consolation , and confederation of Saints together is spirituall ; but the indifferent is this . Bernard tels us , de triplici necessario , of three wayes , that a thing is necessary , and this formall Covenanting is none of them I am sure ( necessarium aut stabile , aut inviolabile , aut incommutabile , viz. that which is stable and standeth sure , and though the formall Covenant will not appeare necessary in this ; yet for this one reason , the spirituall obligation is necessary , for that is the bond of perfection , Col. 3.14 . as well as the bond of Peace , Ephes. 4.3 . And 2. that which is inviolable , and cannot be broken is necessary , which is this spirituall engagement , not the decree of the hand , but of the heart , whilest the formall Covenant is oft broken to pieces , and to powder : But 3. the necessary is unchangeable without alteration or cessation ; so is not the formall kinde of Covenant . Wherefore I cannot account so of the Church-covenant , as that it must be to make up the true form of the Church , as a thing essentiall and constitutive to it ; and of the true Church ( as most doe affirm ) or as if without this there could be no true Church , but all harlots . Oh fearfull doating upon the form ! For , as one says , It is not possible that these things which are knit together by outward bands and sinews should hold longer then their bands hold : But spirituall bands are everlasting , and the two staves , viz. Beauty and Bands , are the unity of the Spirit in the band of Peace ; and both hold together , and both broke together by unbelief , as appeares Zach. 11. Wherefore I am much affected with that prophesie , in Ezek. 20.38 . to confirm this Covenant , and spirituall Obligation , which lies upon us as a stable , inviolable and unchangeable tye upon our spirits , where the Lord promises to make his people passe under the rod , and then to bring them into the band of the Covenant ; that is , saith Polanus in loc . the Lord will bring the godly under affliction , and whip them into obedience as they are bound ; But sayes Calvin thus , the rod is meant a shepheards crooke , by which the Lord gathers in the strayers to keep them within the fold , and not suffering his to Apostatize or fall away ; wherefore this cannot be meant the formall covenant ; but I had rather read it with the vulgar , that the Lord will subject them to his Scepter , i. e. to be swayed and ruled by himself , the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a Scepter : I will cause them by my Word and Spirit to come under my Rod , ( that is , my Scepter ) to rule them ; and then it followes , I will ( i. e. by the same power and Spirit ) bring them into the band of the Covenant , that is , by this means I shall oblige them to mee , to keep Covenant with me , or to cleave close to the Lord , as Act. 11.23 . Wherefore to conclude , in what Congregation so ever thou art , Reader , th●u wilt doe well enough who art united to Christ the Head ; for the Spirit of Christ obliges thee then ; which obligation is absolutely necessary , and must be ; and the other kinde of Covenant , if need be , may be ; but in congregatione bene vivis si vivis ordinabiliter , sociabiliter & humiliter ( saith Bernard , Serm. 1 de Apost . Pet. & Paulo ) thou wilt doe well to walk , 1. orderly , avoiding sin and scandall , and all appearances of evill , and holily as one called 1 Pet. 1.15 . 1 Thes. 4.7 . from all manner of sin to all manner of holy conversation ; and 2. sociably , or in Saint-like fellowship , in love , peace , and good will to all the brethren , in watching over them , comforting , counselling and assisting of them , all that thou can'st in love ; and 3. walk humbly , look not on others at a distance , be not puff'd up with conceit ; keep continually low before the Lord ; for he measures the valleys , and gathers the violets that hang their heads continually by self-deniall ; O learne hard , to be nothing in thine own eyes ! The humble he will teach in his wayes , Psal. 25. The first of these nelates to thy self , ( tibi ) the second to thy brother , ( proximo ) and the third to thy God ( Deo ) who accepts of all . But thus for this Chapter . CHAP. VIII . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pupilla . That in the Church all the Members , even Sisters as well as Brothers , have a right to all Church-affairs ; and may not onely implicitely but explicitely vote and offer or object , &c. THE Furies and Harpies are flowne up very high upon this point , and most men doe arrogate a Soveraignty to themselves which I see no warrant for . The difference that is to be made is already proved to be between the precious , and the vile , the clean and unclean ; and not to be a difference of Sexes , ages , or relations . Now because there be too bitter contentions about this , ( which was one thing that help'd to set at a distance the two societies in Dublin , by such as would rob sisters of their just rights and priviledges ) we shall prove their liberty , and leave others to practise accordingly . Proofes for this may be taken from Prophecy , Precept , and Practise , and which we shall ratifie by firm reasons out of the Word of God , and answering objections , shall leave all to stand or fall according to their foundation and bottome . But , The Prophet Joel , chap. 2.29 . tels us of the liberty of Saints in the last dayes ; for where the Spirit is , there is liberty ; and this Spirit is promised to be powred-out ; i. e. most plentifully and largely in the latter dayes ; and as Luther sayes in these last dayes of the world ; although this was began in the Apostles time , Act. 2.15 . faciendum initium sed non est satis , sayes Paraeus , it is now to be further and fuller performed and is expected to be powr'd out , ex abundanti , but onely with this difference , that it was then visible , but it will be ( and is much already ) invisibly ; then extraordinarily , and now more ordinarily powred out ; and not dropped but powred , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Vpon whom ? 1. Generally , upon all Flesh , non stillare sed plena copia fundere , let out with a full stream and running force , far surpassing former ages , that is the 2. circumstance sayes Calvin , and it is to be considered , Sine discrimine populorum , sexus , aut aetatis , so Esa. 66.18 . Which 2. more particularly and expresly he explaines and confirms ; upon the Servants , and upon the hand-maides , for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies for certain , & accipitur confirmative , that these latter dayes promises , as Isa. 2.2.3 . Jer. 50.4 . &c. doe most expressely and particularly relate to the weakest and contemptiblest sort of people in the Kingdome of Christ , young men and women , and it may be some aged men too , but as Paul sayes , 1 Cor. 1.26 , 27. Not many wise , not many noble , not many mighty are called , but God hath chosen the weak ones , and the despised ones , and the poore mean base ones to confound the wise , that no flesh might boast in his sight . But by these ( and other ) Prophecies it will appear God had care of the weakest contemptible vessels , viz. women , that he would exalt them , and powre out his Spirit much upon them . As ( Mayer sayes ) that they as well as men ( even both sexes ) young men and women might manifestly appeare to defend the Truth , vindicate their liberty , prove their right to the Ordinances of Christ , either by speaking , pleading , prophecying , or the like , and declaring their visions of truth . Besides , the precept which I finde for it , is full enough , Mat. 18.17 . Goe tell the Church , i. e. the whole Church , to whom power is given to consult and conclude , matters which relate to the whole , not one member , age , or sex excepted ; but women that are members as well as men , must equally know it , and ( consensu omnium ) ( sayes Fenner ) conclude about it being to be by the concurrence of the whole . But say the Pontificians , tell the Church , that is , the Pope and his Cardinals , ( the representative ) ; sayes Lyra , tell the Prelate ( the representative ) ; sayes Chrysostome , tell the Rulers ( the Representative ) ; say the Calvinists tell the Synod ( the Representative ) ; and Maldonat says the Judges : So say the Presbyterians tell the Classes ( the Representative ) ; or the Presbytery ( for so they call them ) and some Independents say , tell the Brethren ; but we say the whole body consisting of men and women . For the word is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Councel , or Synod , or some chose to consult and sitting for that purpose ; but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a people called together into one body , being separate from the world and all false wayes and worships for the Lords use , and service ; which word charges the whole body with this duty , and that without difference of persons , sexes , ages , or abilities , but all together , and thus sayes Mr. Cartwright in his 1. Reply to Whitaker , p. 184. So in Act. 6.2 , 3. the whole Church taken collectively ( without any exception of any for sex or degrees ) they are all required to cull and call out , looke out and choose●it ●it Deacons ; that is , that every member might have his or her liberty ; and give his or her consent thereto , seeing i● concern'd every member . Furthermore you finde this in practise in primitive times , wherein the Acts of the Apostles , and their Epistles are full , in Act. 24.23 . the whole Church ( collectively ) chose them Elders ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) by the lift●ng up their hands , so 1 Cor. 5.4 , 5. the whole Church as concern'd so concur'd in that businesse , and Paul 2 Cor. 2.6 . to 10. writes to the whole Church , for their consent and concurrence in remitting and readmitting of love , So that in those generall termes you find no exc●pti●n to one off or exclude sisters concurrence , and complyance with the Brethren , whether it be by voice or lifting up of hands , or the like , whether as we say explicitely or implicitely ; and more expressely , you shall see in Act. 1.14 . These brethren all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication , with the women , and Mary the Mother of Jesus , and with his Brethren , and then Peter stood up in the midst of the Disciples ( the number of whose names were 120 ) now you have it in totidem verbis that the sisters as well as brethren had a right and ( accordingly ) did take it in the choise even of another Apostle , and in ver . 23. they appointed ( even those 120 Disciples men and women ) two &c. yea furthermore in Phil. 4.3 . saith the Apostle , I entreat thee help those women that labour'd with me in the Gospel , with Clement also and with other my fellow-labourers whose names are in the book of life : Magna libertas , & maxima laus mulierum , sayes one , for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) is read actively , wherein they were admired and much commended ; and yet men now think much to allow them that common liberty ( in Christs Kingdome , which is the liberty of the Subject ) to vote or object , or aske , or answer , or say , or consent , as need requires , which liberty they are ( as I may say , as they are member of the Church ) born to , and cannot ( by right ) be deprived off : which I shall prove further from the testimony of others , eminent men ; yea out of their own mouthes , and by the right of reason and equity , and then answer objections . Mr. Dudley Venner , de Sacr. Theolog. lib. 7. p. 278 , 279. hath much to this purpose , that in all matters maximi momenti , of generall concernment , as in censures , voting , choosing of Officers , taking in , casting out , or in what things so ever concern the whole , why they are to bee done in the whole Assembly , or Church meeting , by the authority of the whole Church , without any one debarred of their liberty ; and if there be any one ( sayes hee ) that have any thing to offer or to object ; that hee ( or shee ) have liberty to bring it in , and so after that , matters to be concluded by all . So Dr. Ames , against whom can bee no exception for piety or learning , in his Medull . Theolog. lib. 1. ch . 37. Sect. 6. saith Potestas hujus disciplinae , quoad jus ipsum , pertinet ad ecclesiam illam in Communi , &c. The right power of discipline appertains to the Church in common , every member hath a right to vote , offer , object , to take in , or cast out or such like ; for it belongs to the whole body in generall , & ad illos pertinet ejicere , ad quos pertinet primo admittere , which every brother and sister hath equally a right to and a liberty to doe . So Mr. Rutherford himself in lib. 1. p. 49. produces Beza , Calvin , Bucer , Bullinger , Melanchthon , Bucan , Paraeus , Rivetus , Sibrandus , ●unius , Trelcatius , Cyprian , Jerome , Augustin , Nazianzen , Ambrose , Chrysostome , Theodoret , Theophylact , who all require that Church affaires be executed plebe consentiente , by the consent of all , i. e. every one without respect of persons . So Dr. Whitaker , de concil . q. 5. p. 179. & de Pontif. Rom 9.9.1 . c. 1. Sect 1. and in severall others , sayes enough to confirm us , both of Churches and Members , that omnes pares inter se juris essent , they were all equall among themselves in primitive times , without respect of persons , Jam. 2.1 . So Dr. Sibs in his Breathing after God pag. 94. compares the particular visible Churches to Gods ●abernacle in Davids time , every of which particular Church he cals a severall Church Independent , And as for the Church of England , it 's called ( sayes he ) a particular Church from other Nations , because it is under a Government Civill , which is not dependent on any other forain Prince , and in every one of these particular Churches , the members are without superiority , all making one brotherhood , for par in parem non habet imperium . So sayes Mr. Jacob in his attestation , ( and proves it by many others most eminent in Primitive times and Ancient Writers ) who sayes that all affaires of government or order which concerne the whole are to be by the unanimous vote and consent of the whole ; read the Magdeburgenses in 2. Cent. chap. 7. de Conjo●iatione Eccl siarum . Si quis , ( say they ) probatos authores hujus Seculi perspiciat , &c. If a man but search the Authentick Authors of this age ; he shall see the form of government was like a Democracy ; For every single Church had equall power of Docendi , administrandi , excommunicandi , eligendi , vocandi , ordinandi , &c. And every member hath a suffrage or voice . So Cyprian Epistolarum . epist. 11. lib. 3. epist. 3. lib. 1. speaks of it fully , and see Cottons Way of congregationall Churches cleared Part. 1. Sect. 2. So that women are included in the whole . And many others , had I time to search , I should soon finde to bear witnesse with me , of womens ( as well as mens ) right to vote , offer , object , concurre in and consent to all things that concern the benefit of the whole body . But more particularly I shall take in Dr. Willets judgement , and then prove it by what our dissenting brethren have granted to us of it : Willet in his Synopsis Papismi 12. Gen. Contract . Q. 4. p. 572. lends us light enough to end this trifling controversie , for he tels us of a Heathen Priests son converted by a woman , and the Iberi converted by the preaching of a woman , and of their ordinary duty to teach privately ( and some of them extraordinarily called to preach in publick ) and yet we allow them not their common liberty as members . Moreover he tels us of a Canon in the Councel of Carthage , 4. can . 99. That a woman though never so holy , and learned , was not to preach in publique ( in private as much as she would ) nor to baptize , Can. 100. but never that a woman was forbid to vote , or aske , or object or offer any thing which concerned the whole body , for that it is a priviledge which every one ( woman as well as man ) hath a right to as a Church-member , and this must not be denyed any , nor can it be for the Churches benefit so to do ; and that for such reasons as will follow . So Tertullian tels us , that in his time it was not permitted to a woman to teach in the African Church , nor to baptize ; but he does not deny the liberty which women had in Church-matters , to vote , dissent , or consent according to the liberty of the members of the subjects of Christ. But let us hear what our brethren say , they allow them liberty to speak in some cases in the Church ; as to give answer to a question when the Church requires it ; to render a reason of their faith and hope , to give in a testimony of repentance upon their return from a fault or the like . And Mr. Hooker himself in 's Survey of Discipline , part . 3. ch . 1. p 6. saies they may so speak as suits with their Sexes , that is , saies he , when their speeches argue subjection . Why , so then ! we seek no more then this ; now their offering or objecting , or asking of the Church , or voting with the Church does evidently argue subjection , and suits very well with their sexes , and with their liberty as members , which they must not be robbed of . And Mr. Ainsworth in 's Communion of Saints , ch . 18. is exceeding clear in it , and commends it , and confirms it from the Churches in the Apostles daies , who ( he saies ) had the like right and liberty , for all the whole multitude of beleevers were both beholders and actors in the common affairs ; as at the choise of officers , Act. 1.15 & 16.23 . & 6.2.34 ▪ & 14.23 . at deciding of Controversies , Act. 15.24.6.7.12.22 , 23. & 21.22 . 1 Cor. 6.2 . at casting out offenders , Mat. 18.17 . 1 Cor. 5.4.5.13 . at the choise and appointment of men to carry the benevolence of the Church to the needy brethren , 2 Cor. 8.19 . 1 Cor. 16.3 . These and the like priviledges ( saies he ) in the practise of the Gospell are permitted to all the Saints in all Churches , which they must use in all sobriety , order , and peace , Rom. 12.3.16 . 1 Cor. 14.33 , 40. So that all the members have a like priviledge in common and publick affairs ; and women may as much ( de jure ) vote , speak , and offer their judgements in such cases as men ; being alike and equall members with them . For all that , Antichrist would bring a difference , out of his seminary of discord , as he did formerly ( and which too far takes place yet ) between the Clergy and Laity ( so called ) as if one were the more holy then the other ; and therefore must be distinguished by garbes ▪ gowns , caps , colours , carriages , or something or other distinguished from the other ; who ought to be all one in Christ , without such distinction . But we come now to the Reasons and Arguments which confirm this practise and confute the contrary . And , 1. Is taken ( a toto ad partes ) Thus , that which concerns the whole , is ( by all the rule of reason ) to be done by the whole , or that which concerns all ( brothers and sisters ) reason requires should be done ( or ordered ) by all ( brothers and sisters ) ▪ but to choose this or that officer , to vote this or that thing , to cast out this or that offender , to take in this or that member , concerns all ( sisters as well as brothers ) ergo . So saith Whit. de concil . p. 44. Quod omnes attingit , ab omnibus approbari debet , &c. and ejusdem est recipere , rejicere , saies Hook. part . 1. cap. 11. The power which is in every brother and sister , or Church-member combined together , in one , Is potestas Judicantis . Is potestas Donantis . 1. The power to judge is in the whole , and concernes the whole , as to admit , cast out , &c. 1 Cor. 5.12 . the whole Church is bid to cast out ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) which carries a causall power with it . 2. To give , elect is also the whole's , ( as the Corporation hath power to choose a Mayor ) and every member that is free in the Society hath a right to give his or her vote thereto . Thus the whole hath the power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Mat. 18.15 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 1 Cor. 5.12 . and every single part must be subject to the whole , and serviceable also , for the use and advantage of the whole . Salus populi suprema lex , which is the highest law to look to , and after ; i. e. the preservation and welfare of the whole ; and this lies in every brother and sister to be active in . For as in a ship that is ready to sink , every one seeks the safety of the ship ( i. e. of the whole ) and then they are all safe ; else none ( saies Bolton in 's Tossed ship ) so it is in the Church . But to the next Argument : 2. ( A fortiore ) If it be lawfull for women to have any reason 2 office in the Church ( which implies a power and authority ) then it is ( much more ) lawfull for women to vote , wish , or offer any thing to the Church ( which implies subjection and obedience ) : but it is lawfull for women to have office in the Church . See 1 Tim. 5.9 . There were women that were chosen to look after the poor , sick , lame , strangers , &c. and so Phoebe a Deaconesse , Rom. 16.1 . and so Phil. 4.3 . some women that laboured with Paul in the Gospell , and Philips four Daughters were Prophetesses : Now doubtlesse , and by an undeniable consequence , it followes , that women must have the common liberty of members to vote or the like in the Church . 3. ( Ab aequali libertate omnium in uno ) Severall arguments run from the equall liberty of all members purchased by Christ. And to follow Melanchthon de libertate Christiana in 's Common places , I could argue thus , Quos filius liberavit , vere liberi sunt , sed , &c. Those whom the Son hath made free , are free indeed , Joh. 8.36 . but all the Saints of Christ ( without difference of Sexes ; sisters as well as brothers ) are made free by Christ , Gal. 3.28 . There is neither Jew nor Greek , bond nor free , male nor female , for ye are all one in Christ. I pray mark , the Apostle puts you in minde of their equall liberty in Christ , and therefore , that they should not contend or differ , in saying this is a Jew or Gentile , this is a servant or a woman , why ye are all one body , have all one head , and are all one ( without any such difference ) in Christ ) ; in Christ there is no such thing as subjection one to another , all equall , ( so saith Perkins in loc . ) all sorts of beleevers are under a civill or spirituall rule : in the civill there are such differences of Fathers , children , Masters , servants , Magistrates , subjects , men and women ; but in the spirituall rule , and government of Christ in his Church and Saints all are one , without respect of persons ; no difference should arise amongst them . There is no such thing as Jew , i. e. as opposed to Gentile : nor as Presbyterian , i. e. as opposed to Independent : nor Independent , i. e. as opposed to Anabaptist : nor as a Servant , i. e. as opposed to the Free : nor as rich , i. e. as opposed to poor : nor as the learned , i. e. as opposed to the unlearned in tongues and arts : nor as a man or brother , i. e. as opposed to a woman or sister ; for they are Christ's account , in Christ's Kingdome , without any such respect of persons , opinions , sexes , or ages ; and have all one and the same liberty in and by Christ. Thus Gualther gives out , and bitterly complains of such as are enemies to Christ and his Church , that make differences about persons , opinions , sexes , or the like , and that would rob any one of their liberty bought them by Christ. Now Christian liberty hath these two parts , viz. Deliverance from , and freedome to ; deliverance from the curse , power , and punishment of the Law , and from the observations of traditions , Col. 2.20 . which women have equall benefit of , with men . And so in freedome to the worship and service of God , the ordinances of Christ , the kingdome of Christ , grace and glory ; which also appertains to women as well as men , being restored by Christ to that equall liberty ( in the things of God , and in the Church of Christ ) with men , which they lost by the fall ; and they are now again to become meet and mutual helps : for all are one in Christ , sayes the text . Now though there is a civill subjection to men in their oeconomicall relations as we said before , that there is not any servile subjection due to them , whereby poor souls are inslaved and kept under in bondage from doing their duty to God , or taking their Christian liberty in the things of God. Bernard in lib. de gratia & lib. arbit . tels us of a threefold liberty , i. e. of nature , grace and glory , and every woman ( as well as man ) is made happy by it , ever since Christ turn'd Eva to Ave , they have been restored into spirituall liberty and Christian equality in the Church : and the Apostle , Jam. 2.1 . in his Catholick Epistle ( so call'd ) saies it agrees not with the profession to make difference of persons in the Church of Christ , therefore my brethen have not the faith of our Lord Jesus with respect of persons : not only in not preferring the rich before the poor , but not the strong before the weak , ( nor the men before the women ) and is not this partiality so to do ? ( saies he ) vers . 4. or have ye not made a difference , where Christ hath made none ? Now the force of the argument is full for us . For where there ought to be no respect of persons , there ought to be no difference betwixt men and women , ( for the generall includes the particular ) but in the Church of Christ there ought to be no respect of persons . Ergo , women ( as members ) must have equall liberty with men . Besides , 4. Arguments may be taken from the alike priviledges in the Church of Christ : as the donation of the spirit ; one and the same on all alike ; ( though not in like measure ) the promises made without distinction of sexes or persons , the ordinances dispensed , and price of Christian liberty ( i. e. the bloud of Christ ) payed for all alike , without distinction of sexes . And also acquired by the same means to the one that it is to the other , that is quoad meritum , & quoad Spiritum Christi : by the merit and by the Spirit of Christ. Now out of this matter may many arguments be formed ; and besides that Gods love to his elect ones , his originall love is without any such difference and respect , it is all alike , and gives all alike liberty , and all whom he receives alike , we should receive alike into the Church of Christ , Rom. 14.3 . 5. Argument may run thus , that there is no power that any can have from heaven ordinarily , but by some clear transaction between God and themselves , but there is no clear transaction between God and the brethren alone , but primarily between God and the Church ( i. e. the whole collectively taken , consisting of women as well as men ) Ergo. So the covenant , promises , priviledges , &c. are not to them alone , but to the whole Church . 6. Taken ( ab intentione omnium ) from their unanimous and samenesse in their embodying together , intending one and the same thing . Yet two things are said to be necessary in the intention ( res & causa , quid & propter quid ) the thing it self that is intended , which is to be the honour and glory of God , and for which it is intended , which is to edifie the Church . Now both these are alike intended by women as well as men , and therefore ought to have the like liberty ( as members ) allowed to execute their intentions , for which they are so admitted . 7. Reason runs from their excellencies and abilities of some women surpassing men for piety and judgement ; and therefore ought to have equal liberty , w th them in Church-affairs ; the argument is free , the proofe's clear ; for prudent Abigail excell'd her husband ; for knowledge , Priscilla Apollos ( though a Preacher ) ; For faith , the Canaanitesse , of whom Christ said , I have not seen so great faith no not in Israel . For affection and zeal , the Queen of the South shall rise up against the men of this generation , Luk. 11.31 . And Mary Magdalen , for piety and spirit , outran , and outreached all the twelve Disciples in her diligence to seek out Christ : to whom Christ first discovered himself after his resurrection , and bid her declare it to his Disciples ; she was the first Preacher of Christs resurrection . So we read how Iael excel'd in courage , Deborah in thankfulnesse , Lois and Eunice in faith and obedience : Lydia in entertaining the Word , Act. 16.14 . The Shunamite in faith and zeal , and understanding , excel'd her husband , 2 King. 4.8 , 9.22.30 . So the Samaritanesse the rest of the Citizens , Joh. 4.4 . And we read of some women exhorted to win in their husbands to the truth , 1 Pet. 3.2 . Yea and Manoahs wife , Judg. 13.22 , 23. you shall find of a sounder judgement and faith then her husband . So that all these examples prove the reason which requires their just liberty in the Church of Christ. I remember I have read in Jerom's daies of many holy women that exceeded others in learning and abilities , and in the studying of the Scriptures , and they had their Commentaries upon them of their own making ; Furthermore , the Kingdome of heaven is compared to a woman , and Christs Church is called his wife and spouse . Rev. 19. Cant. 2. And as Mary said it , in the behalf of other good women , He that is mighty hath magnified me , and therefore they are not to be so rejected of men who are so highly received and honoured of God. But to the 8. Reason , which is taken from their strong affection to the truth , when once they be in the way of Christ ; and for the most part they are exceeding men therein . Hence it is that Satan so often makes the first triall of women for his turn and service , seeing where they take , their affections are strongest ( for the most part ) and he sped so well at first , that he can't forget it ; so he found out a Dalilah for Sampson , a Jezebel for Ahab , Pharaohs daughter for Solomon , &c. For where they are bad , they are extreme bad ; but where they are good , they are exceeding good , and most fondly affected with the things of God : thus Act. 13.50 . you read of the devout women , or as the word will have it ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. ) earnestly or eagerly religious and resolved . For as the gold which is of the purest substance soonest receives the form , and much sooner then the sturdy steel , or hard iron which is of a grosse and massie metall ( saies Cawdrey ) ; So are women more readily wrought upon , and sooner perswaded and formed into the truth then men , who are for the most part like sturdy steel and iron , hard to work upon . And as gold ( so women ( many times take the fairest stamp and fullest impression : but I passe by this ; yet before I conclude , I must speak a word or two both to men and women . Let not men despise them then in the Church of Christ ( as the weakest vessels ) nor wrong them of their liberty of voting or speaking in common affairs , ( yet with subjection , civility , and in order ) to prevent disorders and rudenesse ; we were wont in Dublin to call over their names one by one , as well as mens : I know the ordinary objection is objected out of 1 Cor. 14.34 , 35. Let your women keep silence in the Church , for it is not permitted unto them to speak ▪ So 1 Tim. 2.12 . Ans. 1. Grant it in that sense the Apostle spake it , which answer 1 he declares all along the chapter , both before in vers . 1. 2 , 3 , 22 , 24 , 31 , 32. and after in vers . 37 , 39. which is , that they keep from publick preaching , or prophesying , or teaching as Officers or Ministers do ; or the like , &c. which all Expositors grant that I have met with . Now we plead not for this ; but for the common ordinary liberty due to them as members of the Church , viz. to speak , object , offer , or vote with the rest , which this Scripture ( nor no other as I know of ) doth in the least hinder , but rather help , being rightly considered . For , 2. He saith it is not permitted ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) by reason of the disorders and differences that then were in the Church ▪ it was thought inconvenient to allow womens liberty to preach publiquely , whereby they brought but confusion into the Church , as appears in the antecedent and subsequent words , vers . 33. and vers . 40. so that the ill consequence was the cause of this rule of prudence , not any positive command of Gods , but he spake as in 1 Cor. 7.6 . And it is a quest●on whether it be a standing precept . So that from this very Scripture ( besides a hundred others ) I do verily beleeve that handmaids shall prophecy , and have more publick liberty then now they have ; but however this does nothing at all disallow or deny them their common , private , proper liberty as members of Christs body ; equally with men ; I say as members ( though not as officers ) and so subjective to the whole . 2. To women , I wish ye be not too forward , and yet not too backward , but hold fast your liberty , in Gal. 5.1 . which the Apostle speaks as well to the sisters as the brethren ; Christ hath made ye free , male and female , ye are all one in Christ ; and ought to be so in the Church ; wherefore , stand fast , ( saies he ) that is , keep your ground which Christ hath won and got for you ; maintain your right , defend your liberty , even to the life , lose it not , but be courag●ous , and keep it . And yet be cautious too , ( festina lente ) not too fast , but first , be swift to hear , slow to speak , Jam. 1.19 . unlesse occasion requires you ; your silence may sometimes be the best advocate of your orderly liberty ▪ and the sweetest evidence of your prudence and modesty , ( as one saies , Silentium saepissime addit foeminis gratiam et decus , maxime apud viros , cum de rebus seriis agitur ) and yet ye ought not by your silence to betray your liberty , trouble your consciences , lose your priviledges and rights ; or see the truth taken away or suffer before your eyes ; but I say , be not too hasty nor too high ; for as the note that comes too nigh the margent , is in danger to run into the text the next impression , so spirits that run too high at first , may soon fall into disorder , and irregularity . It is said , when Cyrus was young , his Grandfather made Sacas his overseer , to order him both in his diet , time , and recreations ; but when he came to riper years , he became a Sacas to himself , and took not so much liberty as he had leave to do , and as was allowed him by his governour Sacas . And so indeed that may be lawfull to you , that is not ( as yet ) expedient for you ; and rather then run into disorder and confusion , hold your liberty a little in suspense , and wave it on some occasions wherein you lawfully may , but lose it not for all the world which Christ payed so great a price for , and prepare for fairer gales . As the Miller does , for though he cannot command the winde , yet he will spread his sailes out , and open them in a readinesse , when he is in hopes of its coming ; and so do you , and when the winde blowes ( which begins ) your liberty with full sailes , shall bring forth abundantly to serve all the countrey round . In the mean time , make much of the ordinances , prize your ( hitherto ) liberty , and practise accordingly . And in a word , I say to all , Those whom God hath joyned together , let no man put asunder . CHAP. IX . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This last Chapter shewes what Church this Treatise mentions ; and clears it from all others ; and shewes wherein the Presbyterians and we disagree , and wherein they and the Papists agree in most of the essentiall differences between them and us , for Discipline , Doctrine , and Practise ; and proves this Gospell-Church-State , the great promise and thing typified in the last daies , and the Paradise on earth to be restored . I Had thoughts now to have rested me for a while , but I am jogg'd up again by the jarring noises which many make about the name of a Church ; I must now arise and wet my pen a little more , before I conclude this Treatise , or take my rest . You have had the essentialia laid before you , and in this first and second part have had the totum homogeneum of a true Church , both what is to be done before , and what in and upon embodying together ; but what is to be done after , followes after in the third Part ( which I promise next , if the Lord give me leave ) wherein you shall have ( I hope so ) the totum organicum of a true Church of Christ. But before that will be ready , I must meet with some rough Opinionists who will bid me stand ; or at least with such who have the hands of Esau , though the voice of Jacob , and so the principles and practises of the Pope , though the pretences and protestations of a Presbyter , that will not let me passe thus , without a full discharge , and a violent volley upon me made up of wilde fire , and not with the fire from above ; but I must force my way in the name and strength of the Lord , and I shall lay before them , before I leave them , the rotten foundation they are built upon , which ( without mercy ) may be their ruine ; and whose cause and quarrell it is they are engaged in , and whose design they carry on against the Saints and servants of the most High ; And the Lord give them grace to consider and separate from it ; for else I dare confidently affirm they will be found fighters against God , Act. 5. I shall first offer y●u what we mean consideration 1 by the Church of Christ ; where this discipline and order is set , which we have handled ; and shall endeavour to take off all doubts and distractions which may else arise about the word , for that ( Ecclesia est quid dam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) various Controversies have shot out from the word and name , as well as the thing and nature of a true Church . Formerly between the Pontifitians and Protestants , and of late between the Presbyterians and Independents , as will easily appear upon perusall of Mr. Rutherford's Right of Presbyteries , Mr. Bailies Disswasive , Mr. Prinns 12 Questions , and Independency examined , &c. Mr. Ball 's late Treatise , Vindiciae Clavium , Mr. Hudson's Church Catholick visible , cum multis aliis , &c. I take the name of Church two waies , either strictly , or at large , ( proxime & proprie , aut remote & late ) ; at large , or more remotely and improperly , it is to be considered either in respect to , and with distinction from Infidels and Pagans ; or else collectively in respect of Christians amongst themselves : in the first respect as opposed to Turks , and Paynims , all that make mention of Christ are called Churches , and all that professe his name , of what judgement soever , or conversation soever : whether Papists , or Protestants , or Lutherans , or Calvinists , or Brownists , or Donatists , or Arrians , or any . But in the second respect of Christians ( so called ) or rather all that professe the name of Christ , though differing and dissenting among themselves ; And they are said to be the Church ( though late accepta est ) who make the most and best profession of Christ , and are under the outward ministration of his Word and Gospel . So are Protestants ( in respect of Papists ) ; and in this sense the Calvinists are before the Lutherans , and so far the Presbyterians may passe for current ; and Parochial constitutions are in a remote ( and very improper sense ) called Churches . But the Church taken in her own native true sense , and strictly , consists onely of Saints , such as are elected to eternal life , and all are in Christ their Head. vide Aug. in Psal. 92. Cyprian , lib. 1. Ep. 8. Hieron . de unit . Eccles. Epiphanius , and thus she is said to bee either Catholick or Vniversal ; or else Congregational or particular , in the first sense , as Catholick the Church is so called ratione 1. locorum , 2. temporum , 3. hominum , in respect of time , place , and people , being not confin'd to any time , or age , or place , or Nation , or people ; but taking in all the elect people of God , in all the whole Vniverse , past , present , and to come , Jews and Gentiles , under the Law , before the Law , and since , yea in heaven and earth , those which are ascended , Revel . 7.8 , 10 , 11. and which are yet unborn , Rev. 6.11 . invisible and visible , triumphant and militant , all make up but one Catholick body of Christ the head , Ephes. 4.4 , 5. But now in the other respect , as a particular and congregational Church , which comes before the Catholick and Vniversal Church ( so far as it is visible and militant ) it is confined to some certain place and number of people orderly gathered together by the Word and Spirit of Christ ; having Christ alone for their Head ( certo numero , certoque loco Ecclesia particularis definita est ) . And this is the Church which I have spoken of , and in opposition to all Synagogues , Synedriums , Parishes , Conventicles , Classes or the like , as you shall hear more of it by and by . But sometimes such Congregationall Churches as these , are called Cathol●ck too , because of their Faith , and by the figure Senecdoche , yea and as often as Catholick is taken for Orthodox . So did Theodosius in his dayes , ( says Sozomen , lib. 7. c. 4 ) command the Church to be called Catholick , that he was a member of . Every such particular and Congregational Church is a member of the Catholick or Vniversal ( as all the learned say ) ; and every visible is a part ( that is not yet ascended ) of the invisible , whatsoever John writ in Rev. 1.4 . to the seven particular Congregational Churches , he writ to them as to the true members of the Catholick or Church - Vniversal , sayes Mr. Perkins . For the Catholick Church , and the Congregational , onely differ as the totum integrale , & essentiale , that is , the Church Catholick or Vniversal arises out of the Congregational and particular Churches , and is made up of particular Churches , the Integrum , or whole , intire is made up of the members thereof , that are the essentials of the whole . For every person and Congregation of Christ ( sayes Mr. Hooker , in his answer to Mr. Rutherford ) are the members of the Church Catholick , and therefore must contain in them the essential causes of the Catholick or the ( totum ) whole , which is made up of them , as parts , for the Logician does allow it , and men of reason cannot deny it , but that Integrum est totum cui par●es sunt essentiales , that which is Intirely whole is made up of such parts as give an Essential being to the whole ; without which the whole cannot be so intire . So the Churches Congregational and particular which make up the Catholick ( as membra integri ) must needs have the ( materialia & formalia principia Ecclesiae Catholicae , or toti integri Vniversi , ) matter and form which make up the Church Catholick , which none can deny ( and then I say , I cannot see how your Presbyterian Churches as Churches ( who fa●l in form if not in matter , as is prov'd in the first part ) may bee said to bee members ( as partes essentiales & membra similaria ) to make up this totum integrale , or Church Catholick . ) Now the Congregationall Churches consisting of true matter and form ( separate and distinct from the Nations abroad and multitudes about ) as hath been proved ; are members causall and parts essentiall ( of the samenesse and nature of the whole ) which give in ( every one ) there substantiall share to make up the intirenesse of the whole , or the Church Catholick , ( quae habet rationem integri est membrum , sayes Ames Medul . Theol. lib. 1. c. 32. ) But furthermore it must needs follow that the Congregationall Churches must cause the Catholick or Vn●versal , and not the Vniversal or Catholick cause the Congregational ; the Catholick arises out of the Congregationall , but not the Congregationall out of the Catholick , because they give a being to the Catholick ; and in order of nature the members must be before the whole , because I say they contain the causes which make up the whole . For Integrum est totum cui partes sunt essentiales , non totum essentiale in partibus , and these causes or causall parts are also ( by Til●nus de Eccles. ) call'd partes Integrantes Ecclesiae Catholicae , having in them those things which give Integrity or Intirenesse to the whole , viz matter and form , as every piece of money hath the matter and form to make up the whole sum : and an Army is made up of many Regiments of the same kinde and principles with the whole . This is proved by Mr. Hooker in his Survey of Discipline against Mr. Hudson a Presbyterian ; who holds ( with the rest of that judgement ) that Popish tenet , that the Catholick is before the Congregational : primum in suo genere , that Pontifitians and Jesuites have bootelessely wrastled for a long time ; but I leave him & them of that judgment to Mr. Hookers answer ; only I affirm by all this , that there can be no such thing as National Churches , Diocesan or Provincial ; And must we say more to satisfie curiosity ? then this ( the totum is Integrum ) the whole Church Catholick is intirely to be taken distinct by it self , though made up of the Congregational members . As a mans body that is made up of eye , eare , mouth , hands , feet , and so of all the members from head to foot ; yet the body is not said to be all eye ; or all eare ; or all hands , &c. but a body intire made up of all these . So a man is made up of soul and body , yet he cannot be said to be all soul , or all body , but an Integrum made up of both . So is the Church Vniversall made up of the particulars , yet cannot be said to be all this particular , or that particular ; all of them before the Law , or under it , or all of Gospellers , or all Independent ( so called ) or Anabaptistical , or the like . No! But one made up of all . And yet I must say that every member of this whole , ( as every member of our body ) is a whole in it selfe , and limited at the joint , and so can't usurp anothers place ; every Congregregational Church is a whole Church , and intire in it selfe ; and one member is distinguished from another by limits set ; so that although we say ( with Ames in 's Med. lib. 1. c. 32 ) particulares Congregationes sunt partes similares Ecclesiae Catholicae , that particular Churches are essentiall parts to make up the whole Intire , and have of that in them which will make up the whole , and yet we say , such particular Churches are in themselves whole and intire from all others ▪ having matter and form , and power and priviledges , the Keyes and Ordinances within themselves intirely and distinctly from any others . But thus far for the name and nature of the Church which is here handled , and handed forth . The next thing that I offer ( before I conclude ) is the consideration 2 near alliance and agreement ( which is obvious to every discerning eye ) between the Presbyterians and Papists in their Discipline and order . But before I goe further , I give this caution , that when I speak of the Presbytery , I be understood of it , as it now stands with them of that judgement , and not as it stands in the Word of God ; for in this later sense we allow of Presbytery , and say it is in the Congregational way , according to the Word of God : This gives no allowance of that Lordly high Prelatical Presbytery that the Presbyterians now tug for tooth and nail ; and which we speak of ; and if they should enjoy it , what a goodly bit those biters would have of it , I leave it to themselves to be their own Judges ; Will they promise but impartially and pensively to contemplate what familiar acquaintance and friendship their Discipline and the Popes have one with another ; and without anger ( for loves sake ) let them weigh wisely how close they set their feet together , and embrace each other ( and I wish I might say it was onely through mistake ) How near they are akin , or How like they look , the Daughter resembling the Mother ; I shall rough-draw before your eyes , though in dead colours ( at the first ) Yet so far as will sufficiently deliueate a near resemblance between them in as many parts as I can , at this instantanous present time , place before you , as the head , body , eyes , mouth , hands and feet , yea and spirit of this Image which must fall . But let not men be angry with me , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 boil out into a foame against me , for as Dr. Homes says , I do but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Gal. 2.14 . walk with my right foot in the way of the Gospel , and the Lord now knows it is love to the Truth as it is in Jesus , brings me to this businesse with a spirit , in the which I hope I shall appear more zealous then Zoilus , and rather an Irenaeus then Cassander , and when I meet a Critick , I hope to prove a Christian , and part in peace ; but however if I must pledge Christ out of his own cup ( for this his owne cause ) if I know my heart I am content though they give me gall and vinegar , for I had rather suffer then sin ; and so I set forward — and out of their own books shall shew you how they agree ; for I cannot but bear testimony with pretious Mr. Hooker , who is of the same minde with me , and manifests it to the world ; his words are , In my retired meditations I could not but observe a secret kinde of divine d●spensation , that the Presbyterian way must need the help of Popery , not onely as a pillar , by which it must be under propped , but as a foundation or head-corner stone , upon which their whole building must rest and be erected ; thus saith this worthy Champion but a little before his death ; So that I shall neither be the first nor the last , that on good grounds doe affirm their Presbytery and Popery to live one in the other , and that the Presbyterian way is maintained and kept by Popish points and principles ; and keeps up Popery alive in England , which cannot dye as long as that lives , the which I shall easily demonstrate in their congruity together , whilest they dispute for the same things , hold the same points , professe the same principles , ( I say not all ) and are so a like in practises ; but to instance in particulars . I. The Pontificians and Papists affirm the Church to be ( aliam principalem , aliam minus principalem ) principal , and lesse principal ; The Church principally they call the Councel of Cardinals , and Bishops , together : but the lesse Principal they say is the Body of the People , or Congregation of the rest together that are gathered under the Roman See , and acknowledge the Pope of for their head . Thus sayes Bellarmin . 1. lib. de Ecclesia . The Presbyterians professe this , ( with the Papists ) both in their judgements and practises , that the Synod , or National , Provinciall particular Classes , is more then the ( Church , viz. ) the body of all the brethren and sisters ; For they take upon them ( as the Church-Principal ) to set laws and to lay down rules and orders ; and to make Directories , and the like for the Congregations , and Churches to be under ; and they take upon them power of commanding , compelling , condemning , punishing , or the like , as the Church-Principall , ( yet pretend themselves the Church Representative , and therefore they are called the Presbyterian Church , because made up of Presbyters and Elders as a Representative Body , ) thus they say they are the Church primarily ; and not the whole Body of Beleevers together , but they in a Classis , Synod , Councell of Ministers , and such like are the first Subject of the Keyes ; to open and shut , binde or loose , command or countermand , vide Rutherford right of Presbytery , lib. 2. p. 9 , 10. to 14. which is all one with the Papists , and the same thing : So in this sense is it , that Mr. Hudson sets the Catholick first , and then the Congregationall ; But 2. The Papists affirm that the Catholick Church is and hath been alwayes visible ( which is a generall Controversie between them and us , as appears in Willets Synopsis Papismi , Q ▪ 2. of the Church ) they mean not any particular Congregational Church , but that the Vniversal Catholick Church is visible . Rhem. Annot. Mat. 25. Sect. 3. Bellarmin . lib. 3. cap. 12. ret . 7. Calvisius cap. de fide , &c Symbol . Artic. 18. The Presbyterians say the same , whither they all agree therein or no , I cannot say , but Mr. Rutherford for them , lib. 2. of his Right of Presbytery , & p. 291. & p. 293. & p. 304. & p. 311. cals the whole Catholick Church , visible , over over and over , and so p. 418. with divers others , so Mr. Hudson concerning the Essence and Vnity of the Catholick Church , affirmes that the Catholick Church is visible , which he urges by severall arguments , and Mr. Hooker answers him , most of them being the same which the Jesuites and Papists have formerly had full answer to by our judicious and learned Protestant Divines , as to instance in that argument of Mr. Hudson ; If particular Churches bee visible , then the Catholick Church is visible , But particular Churches are , &c. the very same argument in Bellarm. cap. 12. is answered by Dr. Willet , & in Boner . p. 1691. & Marci Antonii object . 6. answered by Martyr Smith , and this same argument Duraeus urged , which Dr. Whit. lib. 3. de Eccl. p. 110. answers and so Sadeel answers Turrian ; and all our Protestant men tell them the ill consequence , yea absurdity of this argument , for that the particular members may be ( as●ectabiles ) visible , but not the whole , i e. as the totum aggregatum ; besides for that the Catholick comprehends , all the Saints of all ages that ever were , are , and will be ; that are in heaven , and that are not yet born ; and can these be all visible here ? Particular Churches are visible , Ergo , the Catholick ; for shame my Masters better arguments saith Dr. Willet and Smith . The Controversie in this , is the same between the Presbyterians and us , that ever it was between the Papists and Protestants . For we with all ( that were and are accounted ) Orthodox and sound , doe affirm the Church Catholick to be invisible , not to be beheld but by the eyes of Faith , Heb. 12.18 , 23 , 24. 1 King. 19.20 . So says Mr. Glover martyr instancing in Eliahs dayes . Fox , p. 1554. & 1712. and B. Farrar , which truth they sealed with their bloud , and such another witnesse was Mr. Philpot who affirmed the Church to be visible and invisible , but the Vniversal Catholick Church to be invisible . Fox , p. 1824. col . 2. Mr. Bradford reasons it , Fox . p. 1613. col . 2. as Eve was of the same substance Adam was of , so is the Church of the same substance with Chris● . i. e flesh of his flesh , and bone of his bone , Ephes. 5.30 . So therefore as Christ was known in the world , so is the Church ( by faith ) , for Christ was not seen by the world , nor known by any external pomp , but by the Word of God , and Spirit of God : so the Church , Ecclesia Catholica non potest a quopiam impio , imo , ne a quopiam pio videri , Whitak . de Eccles. q. 2. c. 2. p. 57. How many hundred might I bring of this minde that are eminent of all ages . Mr. Perkins on Gal. 4.25 . proves from that verse , that the Church Catholick is invisible . So Bullinger de Eccles. 5. Cath. Decad. 5. Serm 1. cum multis aliis , and so say we against the Presbyterians . 3. The Papists assert a twofold Head or Ruler of the Church , viz. principale & ministeriale , the principall and supreme Head , they say is Christ ; but the ministerial and subordinate head they account the Pope , ( as Christ's vicar , &c. ) So the Presbyterians have taken up the same distinction , which was first of all coined in the Popes Conclave at Rome , see Rhemist . 1. Eccles. 22. vide Bartlet , chap. 1. p. 21. they doe not deny but Christ is the Supreme Head over all ; but they would make us believe , ( about which I have had a share in the scuffle ) that there is a secundary or subordinary head ( under Christ ) over the Church ; which they account the Ministery and Classes . Herein they agree , but we agree with neither of them , being both fictious and fallacious phantasmes , and the spawn of mens brain ; but we affirm with all the eminent Protestants against the Papists and Jesuites , that there is no such distinction in Scripture ( & doctores non sunt ductores ) aut imperatores , sayes Bull. de Eccles. D. 5. Serm. 1. p. 354. Sed Pastores Ecclesiae , &c. and we say there is but one Head of the Church , and that Head is Christ. First , that there is but one Head , appears , Ephes. 1.22 . Col. 1.18 . & 2.19 . Isa. 9.6 , 7. Hos. 1.11 . Caput Ecclesiae tantum unum esse , necesse est , it is a rule in Divinity , for two heads to one body would make the body a monster , and hinder the function and action , or due execution of the members , yea though one head were placed under another ; Etiam si unum caput non juxta aliud , sed sub alio collocetur . Keckerm . lib. 3. de capite . Eccles. yea the body would be so much the more prodigious and monstrous to have two heads , and one placed under another , now that Church is a monster that hath more then one Head , which is elegantly expressed , Eph. 4.16 . Thus holy Paul Baines saith on Col. 2.19 . who did ever hear of any secondary or ministerial head on a natural body without deformity ? now it is a natural body to which Christ compares his Church and himselfe as Head. So Zanchy on Hos. 1.11 . sayes God's Israel , i. e. his Church , hath but one Head , yea in Concil . Aquisgranens . lib. 2. c. 9. Ecclesiam cum capite suo Christo unam constet esse personam , the Church and Christ the Head thereof make but one Person , so doe not the Pope and Church , the Prelate and Church , the Presbyter and Church . Ergo ; thus we affirm on Ephes. 4.5 , 6. and but one head of the Church . And then 2. that Christ alone is that Head ( without any other ) Ephes 5.23 . Col. 2.10.19 . Jam. 4.12 . Isa. 22.21 , 22 , 23. Zach. 6 ▪ 12 , 13. and the Scriptures deny all Headship to any others , 1 Pet. 5.3 . Psalm . 45.11 . Mark. 10.42 . Luk. 22.25 . and the Apostles disclaimed it ( as is proved in the 1. lib. ) 2 Cor. 1. ult . and the Scripture never speaks of heads in the plural number , but onely of one , that is Christ , who hath absolute command and authority over the Church , vide Zanch. de Eccles. cap. For to be an head argueth a preheminence , sayes John Patriarch of Antioch in appen . concil . but no man hath any preheminence over the Church , nor Servant over his Mistresse ; therefore none but Christ can be head as having the preheminence , and as the head is higher then the body , Col. 1.16 . And besides none is appointed for it but Christ , Matth. 28.18 . Joh. 5.22 . Heb. 2.7 , 8. nor can any other doe the duty of an Head but Christ , who alone is qualified for it , as having the Spirit above measure , Joh. 3.34 . and as being the fulnesse of the God head bodily , Col. 2.9 . Joh. 1.16 . The Head of the Church ought to bee High Priest , King , and so Prophet , and anointed of God , and appointed by God , Psal. 45.6 , 7. Heb. 1.8 , 9. Now none but Christ is so ; And the Head is that which gives vertue and power to all the members ; which none but Christ can doe , none else can give grace , or powre out the Spirit and put spirituall life into a man or woman ; so that Mr. Perkins sayes in his Exposition of the Creed , speaking of the Church , that there is no such thing as a Ministerial Head , or a Deputy under Christ to Lord over the Church , but that it is a Satanical forgerie knocked out on the Devils Anvil ; for the Headship of Christ is of that nature and quality that it can admit of no Deputy or Viceroy ; seeing he must give commanding and quickning power . And besides oportet caput nosse sua membra , & ab iis agnosci , a very novice and Student in Divinity , knowes that the head must know the members , and the members the head ; now none but Christ can tell all the true members of the Body , as Perkins sayes on Jude , v. 1. such as is alwayes present with them , as the Head is with the members , which none else can be ; for Christ as Mediator , God and man , the Fulnesse of all power , spirit , grace , and goodnesse , is present and gives influence to his whole body , whether above or below , and lives with all his body in all places , which he could not doe were hee not both God and man ; though Mr. Hudson with some of the Presbyterians run a ground grievously when they rashly assert Christ head as man , pag. 23. of his Book , which is abominable , Papisticall , and an unsufferable error , and against this see Whitak . de Pont. Rom. 1.9 . c. 3. arg . 3. and Beza in his Confessions , ch . 5. Antic 5. So Bullinger , de Vnit. Eccles. Dec. 5. Serm. 2. Christo caput est non quia homo , sed quia deus & homo , where they prove this headship to be too much for any man , and therefore Christ alone to be duely and truely qualified for it , as God and man , who is with all his members every where , alias enim caput non esset , otherwise hee could not be head of them . And besides the head is ex quo totum corpus Ecclesiae compactum & connexum per omnem juncturam , &c. is Christ because of him every member hath life , influence , dependence , and they are all by the several joints ( viz. the Ordinances and laws of Christ ) fitly set and compacted together , Ephes. 4.16 . & 2.21 . and from him as the sole Head fitly joined together , 1 Joh. 1.3 , 7. Who maketh increase of the body to the edifying of it self in love ; and none but Christ can doe thus . And furthermore the Head of the Church , debet esse perpetuum , ought to be for ever , both in this life and in the life to come ; now none but Christ is so , Dan. 4.34 , 35. Isa. 9.6 , 7. Thus and in many other respects I might show how Christ alone is head of his Church ; as their light , life , wisdome , safety , &c. but this point hath been aboundantly handled before , lib. 1. ch . 13. onely I adde this further , that all famous eminent men in all ages , whether Fathers ( so called ) or others are of our side ; And the eminent Martyrs dyed with this truth in their mouths , see honest John Husse , A●tic . 20. and Mr. Hooper , in his Examination . 3 Fox , p. 1507. and Mr. Rogers , that eminent Proto-Martyr , saith Christ is onely Head , p. 1486. who doth all in us all , which is the true property of the Head , and which is a thing none else can doe , no not all the Bishops , &c. so say we not all the Classes or Presbyters alive , therefore down with this Popery . And 4. they agree in what they make the matter of Christs Church , Materia est Suprema , & Subjecta ; Suprema , that is the Head , therein we have shown the agreement , but subjecta materia is the matter we mean here , and are the members of the Church ; And in this the Presbyterians and Papists are too nigh one another . The Papists say all belong to the Church that make a profession of Christ , Bellarm. lib. 3. de Eccles. cap. 7. Rhemist . annot . in Joh. 15 Sect. 1. this is a generall controversie between Papists and Protestants , and so it is between Presbyterians and us , as appears by Mr. Rutherford , and Mr. Bayly , &c. see ch . 5. lib. 1. Mr. Rutherford and Bayly answered by Mr. Cotton , in his Holinesse of Church-members , and Mr. Rutherford answered by Mr. Hooker in his Survey , lib. 1. c. 2. whilest Mr. Rutherford sayes , the reprobates and wicked are not simply forbidden , but they may be members of the Church , lib. 1. p. 116. & lib. 2. p. 25. he sayes that bare profession makes him a member of the Church , so that the Papists and they agree , and the very same arguments which the Papists bring as you may see in Synopsis Papismi , 1. Q. & Bellarm. c. 7. lib. 3. &c. the same the Presbyterians bring of the first generall controversie , as you may see in Mr. Rutherford , lib. 2. pag. 240.251 . and Mr. Bayley above mentioned , which I have answered in ch . 5. lib. 1. and so Mr. Hooker , and Mr. Cotton hath at large , and they have saved me the more labour . But we disagree from them in that we affirm true members of the Church are onely such as are visible Saints , i. e. that appear to us so to bee , which is sufficiently proved in this Treatise , both in the 1 & 2 booke . Illa columba , unica , pudica , casta , sponsa , non intelligitur nisi bonis , justis , sanctis , sayes Augustin , The Dove , &c. i. e. the Spouse , the Church is understood of those that are faithfull righteous , and holy , therefore it is not true to say wicked ones , &c. so they have but a profession are true members of the Church . This is witnessed by the bloud of martyrs too ; for one of the Articles against John Husse , when he was condemned in the Councel of Constance was this assertion of his , that the Church are the number of the faithfull , and none else are true members , Fox 610. Artic. 8. So Richard Feurus , a French Martyr , affirmed that the Congregation of Christ consisted in Saints called , and such as seem to be elected ones , Fox , p. 912. col . 1. For this truth , eminent Ridly and Latimer , laid their lives at stake , ( as well as for other things ) Fox , 1562. col . whilest they affirmed the Church of Christ to be made up of living stones , such as are so inward and in heart , and not that it is enough to be so in name and profession , Repons . ad Artic. Antonii , 7. Wherefore knock down this Popish tenet too , which is guilty of the precious bloud of blessed Martyrs . But 5. Papists and Presbyterians are too much akin too against the true form of the Church of Christ ; yea both parts of the Form , viz. segregation and aggregation , as is ch . 6. lib. 1. or calling out and then in , out of Babylon into Zion . I. Out of Babylon , Rev. 18.4 . 2 Cor. 6.16 , 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; separate , ( as such who are select ) and depart out of the midst of them , Act. 19.8 , 9. For this the Papists account Protestants to be Hereticks and Schismaticks , Bellarm : de Eccles. cap. 9. & 10. lib. 4. saying , they are fallen away from the Church , So doe the Presbyterians succeed them in the same language and invective against us ; saying that we are Schismaticks , Hereticks , Separatists , and the like , and that wee have fallen from the Church , meaning a declining from their Antichristian discipline and orders ; and saying , that we separate from the true Church of England , &c. now this is ex falso supposito , false , for they cannot prove , ( nor any alive ) a National Church of Gospel institution ; and till that be done we dare boldly recriminate , and can easily demonstrate them to be but in Babylon ; but whereas they object our gathering Churches , is not out of Infidels , but of men already converted , and so it is without warrant or example of the Word , and is a gathering Churches out of Churches : Grant it were so , did not John Baptist , Christ himself , yea and after him his Apostles ? did not all of them goe about and gather Christian Churches out of the Jewish Church ? particular Churches out of Nationall ; and may we not call out of Babylon ? and gather out from Antichristian Churches then ? Yes , doubtlesse , without the guilt of Schism , Heresie , or the like ; unlesse it be from the sentence of such as Tertullus , who was the Jews Advocate against Paul , Act. 25.5 . and charged him for a pestilent fellow , a mover of sedition , &c. yea a heretick , vers . 14. &c. and so doe the Presbyterians ( we thank them ) deal with us , and so do their advocates and Atturneys . But we shall answer them as the P●otestants did the Papists , vide Zanchy in Hosea , 2.8 , 9. Nos rediimus ad priorem maritum , desertis fornicatoribus , i. e. idolis , & deserta etiam lena , i. e. Ecclesia eorum , &c. This is a commendable , and a commanded separation , to goe out of false ways and worship , and to return to our first husband again , to doe the duty of a good wife , to leave that lustfull Bawd and beast , with all her Idol-worship and humane invention , and to disclaim those Popish Babylonian garments , and golden wedges , which false worshippers serve for ( panis & vinum , lana & linum , ) the tithes , and fatlings of the flocks : and now to return and cleave close to our first husband , viz. Christ , as the Churches found him to be to them in primitive times ( at first ) that so we may finde him in love and presence with us ; Oh this is a sweet and happy separation ! so shall blessings be upon their heads , Deut. 33.16 . else judgements , Hosea , 7.8 . But for the second part , 2. In , into Zion , a visible aggregation or gathering together into one Body , which makes up the Form , as ch . 7. lib. 1. Forma Ecclesiae est unio , this onenesse is twofold , 1. of the members with the head , and 2. one with another ; As the Commonwealth is formed from the peace and tranquillity which the Subjects have by union with the Governnours , and then by their union one with another . The union of the members with ( the Head ) Christ is 1 Joh. 1.3.7 . a communion with Christ , whereby every member receives influence and virtue from Christ ( the head ) Heb. 2.17 . This union is threefold , either of his substance , or office , or influence . 1. The Saints ( his members ) are in union with Christ their Head in substance , in himself : Ex convenientia essentiae , & identitate carnis Christi cum nostra , &c. whence all communion flowes between Christ and them ; therefore it is necessary this Head be both God and man , and it behoved him to be like unto us , Heb. 2. for all our comforts come from him as God , through him as man. * 2. Furthermore , the members ( Saints ) have union with Christ their Head in his offices of King , Priest and Prophet , ( quadam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) whence they are all called Kings , and called Priests , and called Prophets , by participation of these threefold gifts of Christ , or of Christ in these threefold offices ▪ and also by a certain semblance and analogy , for they as Priests offer themselves to God , Rom. 12.1 . as living sacrifices , mortifying and slaying the flesh , binding it to the Altar , and offering the calves of their lips , and the like , 1 Pet. 2.9 . all this by virtue from Christ ; and so they are Prophets , to teach , instruct , comfort , confesse Christ before the world , and the like ; being enabled by union with the Head Christ , thus saith Vrsin in 's Catech. Q. 32. & 3. As Kings , they rule over their lusts , and reign over their own flesh , and by faith overcome the world , Joh. 16.33 . 1 Joh. 5.4 and all this by virtue of Union with Christ their Head , Mat. 19.18 . 1 Cor. 6.2 . But then , 3. The members have union with Christ their Head in his virtues and excellencies , and spirituall properties of righteousnesse and holinesse , light and love , and whatsoever is excellent in life or grace , Joh. 15.5.7 . And in all these are the Saints ( the members ) in Union with Christ ( their Head ) ; which Union can't be in false Churches , that have other lords to reign over them , or between the members of such heads of brasse or iron , as the Papists and Presbyterians strike out for together ; but they both fall short of , and fall out with us for , this form . 2. Union of members one with another , ( which depends upon the union of the members with the Head Christ ) as before . Now this Union consists not then in the Form , or outward ceremonies or rites , but in the Spirit ( quo cum capite & inter se membra omnia uniuntur ) now although they are not all one in some forms , yet being all one in spirit , every member by one and the same spirit , 1 Cor. 12.4 , 5 , 6 , &c. distributes and dispences according to his divers gifts ( suavissima Symmetria ) in a most sweet and orderly symmetry and decorum , to serve the head , to serve one another , and to serve the whole . Now although we grant that the Presbyterians have a form ( yet not this form of the Church ) and so have the Papists , Bellarm. cap. 9. a form like this , but ( simile non est idem ) not the same . For as a dead carkasse that wears the garment of a living man is not a living man , though he look never so like him : so the false Church though they are in union and love , and linck'd together , and ever so alike the form of a true Church of Christ ; yet they are not the true Churches . It is one mark which the Papist makes of his Romish Harlot , for the true Spouse , viz. their unity ; vide Synopsis Papismi 2. Controv. Q. 3. Now know that their forme consists in uniformity , but ours in unanimity ; so the Presbyterians in their unity of the forme , but we say it is to be in the unity of the Spirit . For as Mr. Bradford said ( Fox p. 1622. col . 1. ) the Idolatrous Israelites were one in their sinfull way , and might have pretended to uniformity , were that the argument of a true Church or worship . ( See Latimer epist. ad Dr. Bainton . ) So Roger Holland : Fox 20●0 . col . 2. What is the unity of the Antichristian Church but idolatry ? suspicion ? tradition ? commandments of men ? and to persecute the poor people of God , that can't in conscience be one with them ? And to this we subscribe , and shall say with Helvetia Harm . sect . 10. p. 306 chap. 17. the Church is a company of faithfull , gathered out of the world , separated from false worships , and in communion together , by one spirit . And Bohemia , ch . 8. Harm . 316. that whosoever hath not the Spirit of faith and true love , is but a dead member , and with Auspurg . Harm . sect . 10. p. 320. that saies true unity is not to agree on traditions or such doctrines ; but all to agree in the doctrine of the Gospell and truths of Christ. Add Helvetia chap. 27. p. 499. that the Church is one , and the members all one , and agree in one , though there be diversity of rites , and thereupon they may differ , yet they are one in faith , and in the Spirit . O that all our Churches would minde this more , and the Antichristian form ( of fleshly and outward rites and formes ) lesse . 6. Presbyterians and Papists are too nigh one another in the Foundation which they lay for the Lords house , being both sandy ; for see the Papists they will have Peter the Foundation of the Church , and so the Pope as his Successor : but since this hath been ( to use Mr. Hookers own words ) hissed out of doors , and cast to the dunghill , arises another Doctrine , which is it that the Presbyterians hold , viz. that the profession ( as Mr. Hudson hath it ) of Christ is the foundation , or confession of faith , as many of them have disputed it with me , & vide Trap in Mat. 16.18 . But we differing from both , deny the Doctrines of both , and do with the Apostle disclaim all other foundations ( whither persons or confessions ) but Christ Jesus , 1 Cor. 3.11 . which is a rock and will hold ; chap. 4. lib. 1. and so we answer with the Protestants against the Papists in Synopsis Papismi 2. controv . Q. 1. 7. Presbyterians and Papists are too nigh one another , in laying their foundation by persecution , both with carrying on their discipline , and branding such as differ from them for Hereticks , Schismaticks , factious and seditious spirits , persons not fit to live , and of late , some three years since , would needs have a Petition ( the Presbyterians were so bitter ) against al that would not be Presbyterians , i. e. really or dissemblingly so ) that they might have no indulgence ( which is their own language ) ; so that the Presbyterian would hear of no other thing , but tyranny and cruelty to the Independent , or indifferent brother ( non sequens ecclesiam sed persequens ) Now we declare against them both , whilest we affirm the Word and Spirit the weapons of our warfare ( in chap. 2. of this Book ) and say ( meerly for judgement ) no man must be so persecuted , Tit. 3.10 . 2 Tim. 2.25.26 . but with all gentlenesse and meeknesse instruct ●pposers , if God peradventure will give them repentance to acknowledge the truth . Wherefore the Lord will powre his viall on that bloudy Antichristian spirit of persecution and Popery , yet among us ! 8. The Presbyterians and Papists agree about the subject of the keys , i. e. power of opening and shutting , Mat. 16.18 , 20. which power the Papists say is the Prelates , Rhemist . 1 Cor. 5. sect . 2. Bellarm. lib. 1. de clericis , cap. 7. and as the Jesuites apply it to their Clergy , whence they have their name Clergie , or Key-bearers . So the Presbyterians do to their Classes ; see but Mr. Rutherfords ninth Argument for a Presbyte●iall Church , taken out of Mat. 16. That is the Church ( saith he ) to whom the keyes are given , but the keyes were given only to a classicall Church there . And furthermore , lib. 2. p. 9. he saith , the keyes were given to Peter , as representing the Church-guides , viz. officers Ministers , as the first subject of the keyes , which is the same in nature with the Iesuites and Papists , & not a pin to choose between them . Of this judgement , Vindiciae clavium proves the Presbyterians too . So the Jus divinum regim . eccles . p. 108 , 109. But we differing from both do affirm the Church of Christ , the congregation of beleevers to be the first subject of the keyes , which Mr. Parker , and the Parisian Schoole grants , which Cotton in his keyes , p. 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44. sufficiently proves : so Philips answer to Lamb , p. 150. and Augustine on Mat. 16. saies Peter received the keyes not in his own name , but in the Churches , and Christ gave the Churches the keyes as the first subject , so the Church in Peter received the keyes , for all the Church is built on a rock , ejusdem est instituere & destituere . So saith Fulk on 1 Cor. 5. sect . 3. against the Rhemists . So saies Walter Brute who lived in Richard the second 's daies out of Joh. 20 . 2● . argues thus ( in Fox , p. 492. ) To whom the Holy Ghost is given , to them is given the keyes , or power of binding and losing ; but to the whole Church of beleevers is the Holy Ghost given . So saith the Bohemians Confess . Harm Sect. 10. p. 335. c. 14. which power is committed to the Church of Christ. Wherefore throw down this Popery ( for shame sirs ) which makes Prelates or Classes the first subject of the keyes . 9. The Presbyterians agree with the Papists about Assemblies and Synods or the like ; severall waies , in all which we dissent from them both . 1. Concerning the necessity of them ; the Papists say there is a necessity of them , and they can't be without councels . Bellarm. de concil . lib. 1. cap ▪ 11. the Presbyterians also plead for a necessity of Synods , and assemblies , out of Act. 15. Whilest we assert no necessity , but an usefulnesse of them ; orderly called together , having a consultative power , and being a wholesome means to prevent evils , and provide good for the Church , as the Protes●ants answered the Papists ; so Whittaker de Concil . p. 23. saies they are not necessary . 2. Concerning the calling ; the Papists will have them called by the Pope , Bellarm. lib. 1. de concil . cap 12. Presbyterians by the Civill powers , Princes and Magistrates ; but we dissent from both of them ( and others too ) when we assert it to be properly the Churches power to call and convent Synods or Assemblies , as Dell saith in 's Way of peace , p. 77. The world can't call Councels of the Church , no more then the Church can call the Councels of the world being dist●n●t from each ; but all the Churches , Synods , or Assemblies must have their power and authority from the Church ; who hath power to call out , and to call in , at their occasion : but of this in the next Book which is to come of the totum organicum . 3. Concerning the persons , the Councell or Synod must consist of ; the Papists say , the Prelates only must have the deciding and determinating voice ; although they grant others , Priests and learned ones may discusse and consult . So Eckius loc . de concil . Bellarm. de concil . lib. 1. cap. 14. The Presbyterians also say the Clergie have the right of deciding and determining ; and that the Synod consists of such persons as are sent for and appointed or nominated by the supreme Magistrate , but we dissent from both in this , for that we affirm with Parker de polit . eccles lib. 3. c 8. the persons that are fitted for the work are to be appointed , nominated , and impowered by the Church without the Popish distinction of Laity and Clergie , ( for that in Act. 15. it consisted of brethren as well as elders , ( so Mr. Dell in 's Way of peace , p. 82 , 84. declares at large ) and that they be chosen out of the Churches , and not out of the world or parishes ; and that without respect of persons , every brother ( as well Lay-men ( so called ) as Clergie ) must have a like liberty to conferre , consult , and to conclude , ( aequali auxilio & consilio ) In this we agree with the Protestants against the Papists ( Synop. Papism . 3. contr . Q. 3. ) who say our opinion is grounded upon truth and Scripture , in that we say not only Bishops but Pastors , not only them but Lay-men ought to have concluding voices in Councell ; and that rather the discussing pertaineth to the learned Divines , and the concluding to the whole , Tit. 3.13 . So Zenas the Lawyer was in Fellow-commission with Apollos the Preacher . Act. 15.22 . And Augustine saith , that seeing the judiciall power of the keyes is committed to the whole Church , therefore all sorts ought to be entertained in Councels . Thus Nilus , lib. 2. de primat . saies , for the Greek Churches , ( speaking of their Acts and Councels ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : they made a common inquiry for the consent of all sorts in matters common and belonging to all . But I purpose to speak fully to this in the next Book , wherein we shall ( I doubt not but ) demonstrate easily to all men ; that our Assemblies , and Synods hitherto have done more hurt then good ; and have usurped their authority , which have been called by Pope , or Civill powers , and acted for them , and have consisted altogether of Clergie , setting rules , lawes , and directions for the Church , &c. We may affirm with honest , Nazianzen that he never saw good end of such Councels ; and that he resolved never to came at them more . 4. They agree in the authority of them . For the Papists say , that Councels may determine by their own absolute authority ; and have a decretall power , Bell. lib. 2. de concil . cap. 12. which all men are bound up unto . And the Presbyterians say , that Synods have a protestatem juridicam to decree , determine , give their sense or sentence , which is binding . And Mr. Rutherford p. 210 , 212. argues for it hotly , that the Assemblies decrees lay a tye and bond upon the Churches , p. 212. and his arguments from that Assembly in Act. 15. are the same which that Jesuite Bel●armine brings , de concil . 118. and are answered by the Protestant Divines long since ; and of late by Mr. Hooker in 's Survey , part . 4. ch . 1. and by Mr. Cotton , Mr. Bartlet ch . 2. with many others . And eminent Whittaker de concil . p. 19. tels us plainly that they have no power of framing rules , orders , or articles to binde the conscience : whilest we say the Apostles themselves did not determine any thing without the Word of God ; for James alledged Scripture ; and all that any Synods can do is by the Word of God to set down and dogmatize their judgements ; but they have no power at all to impose Canons or conclusions upon the Churches . For as honest old Latimer answered Bishop White ( Fox p. 1762. ) they were not to judge as they thought in themselves , but secundum legem dei , as it was in the Word , And this the Protestants bear witnesse against the Jesuites and Papists , Synops. papis . 3. Contr. Q. 7. as we do against the Presbyterians . But besides all this wherein they agree ; I might insist on more particulars ( but that I should be too large ) under this 9th head ; wherein they are too nigh one another ; as in that they have ( they say ) power infligendi censuras , of condemning , punishing , censuring , or the like , which we deny even from the Presbyterians own grant , viz. that the power of a Synod is accumulative , but not privative , now it would be privative to take this power from the Church ; as to excommunicate , censure , or the like . Sed jud●cium conciliorum est suasionis non coactionis . Besides they are too like one another , in urging all to bel●eve , and by a blinde obedience to submit to the Decrees of Synods , ( as if they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the infallible breathings of the spirit ) as most certain and sound : to which Whittaker answered , de concil . p 262 , 263. and saies the very ultimate determination and judgement of a Synod may be false p. 231. and that those dec●ees or determinations of theirs may and must be questioned p. 283. again ; and examined by the Word as the 〈◊〉 did Act 17.11 . Search the Scriptures whether those th●ngs were so or no , that the Apostles said : and we say with that p●oto-martyr of Mary's daies , Mr Rogers , in Fox p. 1487. who affirm'd that a poor simple Lay-man , ( call him Cobler , Tinker , or what you will ) that brings the Word of God with him , is more to be credited , and obeyed then the whole Councell gathered together and determining on their own beads ▪ whose Canons Luther cals but hay and stu●ble , wh●ch is to be burnt up . ●ut to the last consideration ( as concerning discipline ) wherein they agree and are one , ( to mention no more now . ) 10. About officers , Ministers or the like ; as the Papists give the right and power of judgement to the Pope and Prelates , Bellarm. cap. 19. de concil . so the Presbyterians to the Officers and Ministers , Rutherford , p. 201. but although the Cle●gie men have usurped it to themselves solely and alone for many years together ; and assumed the right and power of judging , whether judging of Doctrines , persons , opinions , or the like ▪ excluding ordinary Christians , so that they could confidently declare against others , and pronounce others Hereticks , Sectaries , or the like ; but none them , though they were so ; yet we say , that this power is given to the Church , to take heed of false Prophets , so Mat. 10.7 . 1 Cor. 14. to try doctrines and persons , Rev. 2.2 . and to judge as Mr. Dell in 's Way of peace hath it clearly , p. 85 , 86. and that the Church hath power to judge of her Ministers , not the Ministers of the Church . Where●ore with unfeigned ejaculations for the fall of this Babylon , and the overthrow of these Popish tenets , I leave them to agr●e together ( if they will not be wise and face about to Zion , and joyn together against the beast and the whore , and trample under these Babylonish garments ( whereby such Citizens are eminently and evidently known ) but I must tell them , that partaking of her sins , they will partake of her plagues ; without a comming out from her , i. e. her false waies , worship , and discipline , whilest the Lord will give his Zion-citizens victory over the beast , and over his image , and over his mark ▪ and over the number of his name ; holding the harps of God in their hands , singing the song of Moses and the Lamb. but thus much for their alikenesse in discipline . They agree also in doctrine in many points , which I cannot orderly or properly in this place present to view ; only in some few for our purpose , with relation to ordinances and duties , that I shall offer to any serious eye . As , 1. Concerning the Scriptures , the Papists to keep off people from read●ng them , find fault continually with the vulgar translation : Rhem. praefat . sect . 6. and they say the Church by her authority makes them authentick , so Echius enchirid . loc . de authorit . eccles . Pigghius lib. 1. de Hierarch . Stapleton , lib. 9. doc . princip . cap. 1. So Canus , Bellarmine , &c. and they affirm the Scriptures to be most hard , difficult and obscure , Bell. de verbo dei lib. 3. c. 1. So saith Petrus a Soto , and Lindanus ; and further they affirm the Scriptures in their true sense are , as they are expounded by Fathers , Prelates , Councels , and so to be beleeved ; and that we must have recourse to them for answer and satisfaction , Rhem. praef . sect . 18. Bell. l. 3. de . scrip . cap. 3. and they say Scriptures are not absolutely necessary . So Petrus a Soto , & Tilmam . de verbo dei . error . 17. Bell. de verbo dei lib. 4. cap. 4. arg . 1. but besides them other things ( as traditions ) are necessary . Bell. cap. 3 , 4. So Andradius ex Tilmam . de verb. error . 2. Now under this Doctrine of theirs are severall grosse errors , which our Protestant Divines of old , yea in all ages some or other have impugned and ingaged against most of these errors , if not all , implicitely and obscurely , if not plainly and clearly ; are come up again under another cloak . And not only the Prelates of late , but some of the Presbyterians ( even now ) are too rigid and resolute to keep off poor people from the Scriptures ; fearing thereby that they would soon excell their teachers , and take their Pulpits from them . For how fearfull a thing it is to them of that judgement , to see such in Pulpits as have not had hands laid upon them , is obvious to every eye , O how they scree●h out for fear ! See this in that frothy namelesse Pamphlet of a lying Libeller ( and scandalous Philo-compos , that is much cryed up by that party for his voluble tongue ) It is entituled , a Tast of the Doctrine of the newly erected exercise at Tho. Apostles , in page 2. he saies , your setting up men of private places and particular callings , whose education and want of intention to the work of the Ministry , must needs bespeak want of qualification , whilest they unacquainted with the originall of the Scriptures ( which are emphaticall ) must needs see dark & obscure places , but by the light of our translation , which is but a dim and thick medium , &c. Their frequent manner is to fright people from the Scriptures by telling them they want the originall , and so stave them with this Popish trick . Others of them have affirmed that their Classes , Synods , or such like should deliver the authentick sense of the Scriptures , and adde their authority thereto , in which others should rest satisfied ; and they would have all to beleeve the Scriptures according to the interpretation of those whom they account orthodox , Fathers , Commentators , or the like ( and not others ) and look out for no further . About which I have been in the lists with many , and that it is not simply necessary to read them , hear them , know them , or the like , so they do but hear and beleeve what the Ministers tell them , what need they more ? and that other things besides what are in the Scriptures are necessary ; and pretending the difficulty and danger of medling with hard places of Scriptures , they telling them they are obscure and not to be ventured on , as the Revelation and the like , keep off many poor souls , who stand ( in ignorance ) at a distance from them , and as Exod. 20.18 . the people removed from the mount , and stood afarre off , being afraid : so doe they that are so terrified by these thundrings that they hear . But we do dissent from them both , in these things ; whilest we assent to the Protestants of old , that the vulgar translation of Scriptures is necessary , and sufficient ( in matters of faith ) for knowledge , which Lambert argues for ( Fox . p. 1116. col . 1. ) and Chrysostome , for when he cals all people to study the Scriptures in their own language , Homil. 9. epist. ad Coloss. and therefore he himself translated the Bible into the Armenian tongue . Hierome into the Dalmatick . Methodius into the Sclavonian , Nelphilas into the Gothick : yea saies Theodoret Serm. 5. de Graecor . affect . for this end were Conversi erant libri Hebraici in omnes linguas , were the Hebrew turn'd into all languages , that every one might search the Scriptures , Joh. 5. ●9 . though they understand not the originall . We also say , we beleeve not Scriptures authentick , because men , Councels , Synods tell us so , but because the Spirit tels us so ; and 't is the Spirit must adde his authority to the Scriptures , and tell us they be true , and interpret them to us , and lead us into the genuine sense and sound truthes of them , without which all the Exposition of Fathers or writers in the world should not satisfie us ; And we say further that we should sin against our consciences , to sit down content with the Exposition of others ( counted ever so orthodox ) without seeking further and fuller . For the way of the righteous shineth more and more to the perfect day , Prov. 4.18 . Et veniente perfecto evacuatur imperfectum , 1 Cor. 13.10 . Now every man is bound to beleeve the Scriptures ( as Fulk saith 2 Gal. 6 and Whit. Quest. 3. cap. 1. de Scripturis ) without the approbation of the Church , Synod , or Councell to declare them ; neither do we beleeve them because men say it is so , but because the Spirit saith it is so , who is the judge and witnesse ; 1 Joh. 5.7 . to testifie of Christ , Joh. 15.16 . to reveal the deep things of God , 1 Cor. 2.10 , 12. Esay 1.7 . to teach the faithfull , Joh. 19.26 . I remember Dr. Whit. hath an argument for this , thus , That only hath the power to give the sense of the Scriptures which doth beget in us faith ; but the Spirit only by the Scriptures is able to beget in us faith , Rom. 10.17 . Ergo , the Spirit of God is to be our interpreter of the Scriptures : wherefore if Pope , Prelates , Synods , Classes , Father , Presbyter , or any other give us the sense of Scripture , and that thence our faith ariseth of the Scripture understood ; why then our faith must needs be built upon that Popes , Prelates , Synods , Classes , Fathers , or Presbyters sense . And another argument the Protestants fetch against the Papists , which serves us , is , that the Scriptures cannot be interpreted but by the same Spirit wherewith they were written , 1 Cor. 2.11 . For who knoweth the minde of God save the Spirit of God ? And 1 Joh. 2.27 . You have the anointing , and you need not that any man teach you , &c. because as Augustine saith , Magister est omnium qui habitat in nobis omnibus , &c. We are all fellow-scholars ( saies he ) we are not your teacher , but he is teacher and master of us all who dwelleth in us all , &c. We further affirm with the former Protestants , that the Scriptures are necessary to be known by all the people of God ; the reading , hearing , and understanding of them begetting faith ; and that it is not enough to hear the Minister preach , for the Bereans searched the Scriptures , Act. 17.11 . Joh. 5.39 . 2 Tim. 3.15.17 . Whereas some say , it is enough to have what the Minister or Presbyter gives ; it puts me in minde of Mr. Bradford's answer to one Willerton ( Fox 1612. ) who told him that people ought to learn at the Priests hands , Aye ! ( saith he ) why then ( saith he ) you will learn the people to preferre a Barabbas before Christ , and to crucifie Christ , for so the people learn'd it of the Priests . Moreover we declare that all things necessary to the esse & bene esse of a soul , are expressed in the Scriptures , or included in them , and concluded out of them ; whether concerning faith or life ; and that nothing absolutely necessary is to be found besides the Scriptures , Joh. 20.31 . 2. Tim. 3 16. whether for teaching , improving , correcting , or instructing . So that we overthrow the necessity of all traditions , rites , forms , or the like here , whether praeter or contra Scriptura . For as Augustin hath it , qui praetergreditur fidei regulam , ( i. e. Scripturam ) non incedit in via , sed recedit a via , He that goeth beside the Scriptures , goes not in but from the way : this truth hath been attested and sealed to by the bloud of many Martyrs , Dr. Taylor , Fox . p. 1522. col . 2. Holy Bradford , 1626. col . 1. and that valiant souldier of Christ , and stout Champion Mr. Hawkes Martyr , p. 1586. col . 2. saith , Is not the Scripture sufficient for my salvation ? yea , saies one of Bonners Chaplains , but not for your instruction . Ah! saith he , then God send me the salvation and you the instruction . Now let us not be mistaken , though we say all necessary is in the Scriptures , yet we deny not but there may be some use ( for orders sake ) of rites and formes ; but not to be forced , knowing nothing necessary to salvation that is not in the Scripture , Deut. 12.32 . Rev. 22.18 . Mat. 15.3 . Act. 20.27 . & 26.22 . seeing the Scriptures are the rule and measure of faith , they must not come short of the measured , ( viz. faith ) for all things necessary to faith must needs be contained therein . But , Lastly , the Scriptures are not so obscure , and dark , or undiscoverable as they would insinuate and urge upon poor people . For as Prosper saith , Parvuli , magni , fortes , infirmi , habent in Scripturis unde alantur & satientur , No age so young , no wit so small , which Scripture doth not fit , There 's milk for babes , and yet withall , there 's meat for stronger wit. So Prov. 9.35 . yea the Revelation , chap. 5.5 . is a Book opened , and as Augustine hath it De doctrin . Christian. lib. 2. c. 9. In iis quae aperte in Scripturis posita sunt , inveniuntur ea omnia quae fidem continent moresque vivendi : in plain and easie places of Scripture , all things necessary to faith and manners are manifest . Nay the Councell of Toletan . 5. c. 16. decreed the Apocalypse to be preached by every Minister from Easter to Whit-suntide ; so that they strictly enjoyning it , accounted not this book of Revelation , it seems , so hard as men would perswade us to in our daies ; whereby they forbear to read , preach , or expound it ; but if it be hid , it is hid to them that are lost , 2 Cor. 4.3 . It is sent especially to the Churches , and is to be taken and opened by them . But thus far for the first generall Doctrine , wherein Papists and Presbyterians are too near one another ; and we are farre off from both , even out of the sight almost . 2. They are something alike in their Doctrine about Baptisme both with relation to the Ordinance , the subjects , forms , and effects of it . As first in imposing an absolute necessity upon it . Papists say , it is simply necessary to salvation , Concil . Tri●dent . sess 7 can 7. Bell. lib. 6. de Baptism . cap. 4. such a necessity ( or nigh unto it ) do those hold who baptize the babes of all sorts put upon it ; and the very argument of the Rhemists , on Joh. 3.5 . and the Jesuites , Bell. ibid. have they often urged to me , viz. Vnlesse a man be born of water , and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdome of God. And I have heard some of them severely inveigh against such as neglected to bring their children , and to baptize them by such a time for fear a childe should die unbaptized , and the Parents for their neglect be under the judgements and wrath of God. But we differ from them whilest we decline that necessity of Baptisme to Children ; and whilest we affirm with such as were ever held orthodox in judgement amongst men , ( vide Synops. 12. contro . q. 3. ) that the Children of the faithfull that are holy , are holy before they are baptized , 1 Cor. 7.14 . And this truth is attested by Richard Woodman , a holy Martyr , Fox p. 1994. who saith , I read in Scripture , he that beleeveth not shall be condemn'd , but no Sc●ipture saith , he which is not baptized shall be damned , neither dare I say so for all the goods under heaven In the Greek Church Nazianzen saies ( in sanctum la●acrum ) their usuall time of Baptisme were but in feast of Pasch. and Pentecost , which would not have been so seldome , if the want of Baptisme had been so dangerous to Infants . We deny not the ordinance , but that there is much Popery peeached up , and pleaded for , and practised in their ordinance of sprinkling Infants , all discerning men see and are ashamed of , and cry out upon it as unsufferable and too impudent , and as having too much of the whores forehead in it . Furthermore , although the veriest Jesuite do grant the positive necessity of baptizing babes to be grounded upon tradition , and not upon Scripture , Bell. lib. 4. de Ver. and so to baptize them at a Font in the Name of the Father , Son , and holy Ghost : yet how many imitate them therein ? and how hot the Presbyterians are for this positive necessity and order ? it is obvious to every eye . As for the forme , whether in the Name of Jesus Christ ? or of the Father , Son , and holy Ghost ? this hath been a doubt of long standing , and this did cause Novatus to disowne the Church of Carthage , for that this form of Father , Son , and holy Ghost , and necessary baptizing of Infants were brought in ; and he and Cyprian were at great oddes about this order , Anno. 240. whilest Novatus very earnestly pleads for it , as the practise of Christ's Churches in primitive times , and all along the Apostles daies to that hour , viz. To baptize in the Name of the Lord Jesus , the Head of his Church . After that in Anno 400. was great contention about it , but I leave this to further light and liberty , only affirm with all the Protestants who are engaged against the Papists about the form ( Synops. 12. Controv. Q. 3. ) that the name is taken for the virtue , power , and authority , Act. 3. and so doubtlesse the Apostles baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ , and healed in his name , and preached in his name only . Beda , Act. 10. Jussit eos in nomine Jesu Christi baptizari . But I know no necessity of a Font , nor of sprinkling , more then of dipping ; nor any positive necessity of baptizing Infants , ( who are soonest drowned ) but that these be left to light and liberty of conscience , as things left either doubtfull or indifferent in Scripture ( without positive precept ) and I am perswaded for that purpose , that every one may do as he is fully perswaded . As for Infants the Papists make it a ground of their Baptisme , that they have the habit of faith in themselves , and so partly by their own faith , and partly by the faith of others , they are to be baptized , Bellarm. lib. 1. de baptis . cap. 11. So say our Ministers , they have the habit of faith , though not the act ; and by the faith of the Parents with that , they are to be brought to baptisme : but we say with the Protestants against the Papists , that Infants have not true justifying faith ( which is alwaies actuall , Gal. 5 6. ) in themselves , nor yet are profited by the faith of others , for Scripture saith , Rom. 1.17 . The just shall live by faith , i. e. his own particular faith ; and beleeve and be baptized : not , let others beleeve for you , for then it were as well that others were baptized for you : but this will be enter'd at large ( I hope in the next part , 3. lib. of the body organicall ) Tertul●ian speaking of Infants , saies , Fiant Christiani , cum Christum n●sse potuerint : Let them be made Christ●ans ( and baptized into the faith ) when they be able to know Christ , ( Et per fidem est cognitio Christi ) and that is by faith . Wherefore we say that children as children have no right to Baptisme , and then secondly , that parents ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) as parents can't give them a right thereto ; and seeing Baptisme is the ordinance of initiation , or entrance into the Church of Christ , it is wonderfull to see how sudden some are to null the very nature of that ordinance . But lastly , they and the Papists are too nigh one another in the effects which they say such a Baptisme produces in children . The Papists affirm that Baptisme takes away originall sin , in Concil . Trident. Sess. 5. Decret . de origin . Peccat . and in Infants newly baptized there is no mortall sin ; Rhemists 1 Joh. 1. Sect. 5. So have some Ministers hotly pursued this benefit of baptisme : viz. that baptisme wipes away sins going before : whilest we dissent , and deny this Jesuiticall doctrine , applying this to be the effect of Christ's baptisme ▪ ( which none but Christ himself can baptize with ) Joh. 1.33 . M●t. 3.11 . viz. the holy Ghost , in a spirituall washing our hearts and consciences with the warm bloud of Christ , whereof baptisme is a sign ( if not a seal ) and in this we have declared our judgement before to be different from the Anabaptists , that attribute so much to the form and element as makes it an Idoll . But to conclude this , it is in baptisme as it was in the pool of Bethsaida , if the Spirit move on the face of the waters , there is a heal●ng , else none . 3. There is too much alliance between them in that Ordinance of the Lords Supper , ( so called ) I shall instance briefly ( for I have been too long in this chapter ) in some few particulars . The Papists make it no more then a preservative against sin , Bel. lib. 4. de Sacra : cap : 17. and would have confession and absolution of sinnes to qualifie for this ordinance , Concil . Trident. Sess. Can. 11. and that none are prepared but such as are absolved , and then that all may come ; but that they must be sure to come fasting to it , and eat nothing before all , that day , Concil . Constant. Sess. 13. Bell. lib. 3. de Eucharist . cap. 22. ratian . 4. and then they would have every Communicant highly adore ( even cultu latreiae ) and worship the Host , &c. who doth not , is to be accursed , Trident. Concil . Sess. 13. can . 6. And they say even reprobates that receive the Sacrament , receive the very body and bloud of Christ , Rhem. 1 Cor. 11. Sect. 16. Now although our Ministers ( I speak of the violentest Presbyterians ) do not altogether agree with them in these particulars , yet they are not far from them . 1. For preparation how earnestly doe they presse men to Confession of sins , sorrowes , legall repentance and the like , and bid the people to prepare themselves ? whilest we say the preparations of the heart are of the Lord , Prov. 10.1 . Psal. 10.17 . Et opera sunt secundum principium a quo sunt ; and they are good as they are of grace ; our preparation is to be from Christ in us our wisdome , righteousnesse , sanctification ; we hold with the Orthodox Protestants against the Hetero-dox Papists , Opinionists and Jesuites , that we must have a lively faith who come to this Ordinance , but it is to be the faith of the Son of God , Gal. 2.20 . and that we must have true Evangelical repentance , ( which is for sin as sin ) but this must be in Christ Jesus ; repent in Christ , believe in Christ , for Acts 5.31 , 32. Christ was exalted to give repentance for remission of sins . So that there is no preparation or qualification by any act of our own , but all by Christ in us , and grace teaching us to deny all ungodlinesse and wordly lusts , Titus 2.12 , 14. For as Mr. Rogers sayes in his right way to be saved , pag. 54. many mistake and are deceived , whilest they dote for a faith , and a repentance of their own make , and look for something to ground on in themselves ; they are like one that does not set a young tree , but lets it lye on the ground till he see what 't will bear , and then hee 'l put it in ; so is it with such as would see their works and their fruits first , and then would to the Ordinances and to Christ ; No! get into Christ , &c. and then see what fruits , and what works . This ordinance is a soveraign remedy for a troubled conscience , therefore be sure of faith , 1 Cor. 11.28 . 2 Cor. 13.5 . for according to your faith so be it : and this also Protestants ( in Synopsis ) affirm to be sufficient . But further whereas they make this ordinance of great use , to strengthen their faith , and preserve them against sin and temptations , it is true ; and yet we goe further , and affirm it more , viz. to give nourishment and growth to Christians too , to increase in faith , love , and grace , and is therefore to be often ; as one of the standing dishes in the Church to be often renewed ; as a daily dyet , Acts 2.42 , 46. therefore are there such elements , as signifie to refresh , cherish , quicken , strengthen , sustaine , and nourish , and satisfie , Joh. 4.14 . & 7.37 . How many ( in the next place ) put themselves and others upon fasting that day before they receive , and still retain this Popish invention , which we account a meere foppery ; for any man may eat if he will before , as appears , 1 Cor. 11.34 . if any be hungry let him eat at home ; and besides we know Christ and his Disciples partaked of this Ordinance together presently after they had eaten at supper . But whereas the Presbyterians take all to it , that have those legal qualifications before hinted , we cannot but declare against it as disorderly and unwarrantable , as we have proved in the first book before , and we wonder in what one Scripture they can finde that ever any out of Church-fellowship did take it or durst give it , grant they were ever so holy Christians and Disciples , yet they were not to sit down at this Table , till in Gospel-fellowship together , and in Christs Church-way : For Christ had 70 Disciples , as professors of Christ , and Preachers too , Luke 10.1 . besides his twelve , yet none but his twelve in fellowship with him , distinct from the world and in communion together by themselves that sat down with him at this Ordinance , and read Acts 2.42 . Acts 20.7 . 1 Cor. 11.18 , 23 , 24 , &c. or any other Scripture about it , and you shall finde that never any had it but the Churches , thus in fellowship ; and that it was left by Christ in the Church , for the Church , and for none else that are without , as I not long since proved out of Luke 14.23 . where we finde the Lords commission to his servants is to call and bring the hungry , needy , lame , blinde , poore , into his house , ( his Church , Ephes. 2. ult . ) where the feast is , viz. Christ , &c. dished out in his Ordinances in special manner , and there the bread , verse 15. is , viz. this Ordinance of the Lords Supper ; so that we have no order to carry it out of the house to them without , ( for then none as in verse 18 , 19 , 20. would have excused , but any covetous , voluptuous , carnal , drunkard , epicure , sinner will be glad of it so ) but our order is to call them first into the house , and bring into the Church , and then give them these Ordinances , which are confirming , Matth. 6.7 . 2 Cor. 6.16 , 17. Jer. 15.19 . Ezek. 22.26 . which twenty and twenty Scriptures more doe prove ; this is a truth , maugre that malicious and spurious frog-like froth , which appears in the Pamphlet entituled , a Tast of the Doctrine of Thomas Apostles : against this infallible truth which will live when that lies ( where it best agrees ) in dung ; penned by a furious-pated Jesuitick Presbyter : ( if not worse ) hard by , and wel known for scandall and malignancy which hath outed him elsewhere ; but I wish that he or any of his adherents would bring their works to light as we doe , else we must condemne them , John 3.19 , 20. as say they are deceivers and false-teachers ; For they do what , they have neither precept nor practise for , nor one Scripture to warrant ; and I instance in this , of their giving the Lords Supper contrary to all rule , and Religion , yea reason it self ; And we say that they are none of the Lords Ministers in that point that dare doe it . But furthermore , what a deal of folly do some of them learn the people ? to adore , ( and I think I may say Idolize ) the form , to fall down before it and to keep devoutly on their knees , and to sit , or kneel , or stand a distance from it , whilest they alone are at the table , unlesse they have others to wait on them . From all which we dissent , whilest we assert the people should sit up close to the table about , and about ; and draw nigh with hearts fixed , Psalm 57 , 7. upon the Lord by faith ; as much as may be in the manner of a feast , and as much as may be without outward veneration or adoration as to the form , but by faith full of inward ; For Christ's body visibly present among the brethren , his Disciples , was not , nor was it to be worshipped ; so now there is no necessity of it , nay there is a necessity of none of it , because it is not of faith , ( as the Protestants answer to the Papists , 13 Controv . Q. 9 ) Now what is not of faith is sin , Rom. 14.23 . and faith comes by hearing the Word ; but no where in the Word are ye taught to doe this , but to sit about it , and to receive ( by faith ) orderly and holily ; So that were it no offence to the Church , or to any of the conscientious brethren ; one might as lawfully receive it with their hat on as off , so he be a worshipper in spirit and truth , John 4.23 , 24. but we shall handle these ( if God see it good ) in the next book . Again , some of them have avouched every one to have had Christ that had this Sacrament , and have drunk and eat their own damnation : which is too Popish , for the Protestants protested against it , Synops : 13. Cont : Q. 10. so doe we , and say that unworthy receivers have made themselves guilty of judgement ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) thereby ; but they did not partake of Christ , for then they eat and drink Salvation ; for as holy Bradford answered Harpsfield , Fox 1615. Christs body is no dead carkasse , but he that receiveth it receiveth the Spirit , and that is not without grace . Moreover we differ from them in that we according to the pattern , Matth : 26.26 , 27. & Luke 22. set us , doe seek a distinct blessing to the distinct parts of the Ordinance , first to the head , according to the first institution ; Christ tooke the bread and blessed it , ( distinctly ) and then after that was done and delivered , after the same manner Christ tooke the cup and blessed it , i. e. distinctly , not both together , as the Papists now do ( and then give one for both ) ; and the first the Presbyterians and other Ministers do ; which we account an error in them , that should be reformed , and we differ from them in their cutting the bread , and so in distributing it , which destroyes the nature of an ordinance of breaking bread , Acts 2.42 , 46. Acts ▪ 20.7 . as it is properly called in Scripture ; seeing they who will have some of their humane inventions in it , and will be medling ( though not mending ) doe slice or cut it ready to be given about ; but this ordinance ( of mans make and mixture ) I confesse the poore people have had , and been gull'd with for many a year , whilest they are kept and continued in ignorance ( as to the Ordinance of Christ ) to the Ordinance of breaking bread , and scoffe at it , not knowing what it is : Thus the poore people ( as long as they are without ) are caged up under Antichristian darknesse and discipline . 4. The Presbyterians and Papists agree much about their Doctrine of works , which I shall instance in some particulars ; As first , of the necessity of good workes : The Papists say , that good workes are necessary to Salvation , not onely necessitate praesentiae , but efficientiae , as efficient causes together with faith , of our salvation . Bellarm : lib : 6. de justificat : cap : 7. The Presbyterians ( I mean the rigid amongst them ) have affirmed , and yet doe the like necessity of good workes , to qualifie us and prepare us for Christ , viz : repentance , tears , confession of sins , &c. But we dissent from both , and say with Mr. Rogers , in his Right way to be saved , pag : 54. there be no works of ours which prepare us for Christ ; and such as look for something to ground on in themselves , mistake grossely and are lost ; Like one that does not set the young tree , but lets it lye on the ground till he sees what fruits t will bear ( as we said before ) O no! but let it first be rooted and grounded and then you shall see what fruits ; so must you be grounded in Christ , and then bring forth fruits and workes from Christ : then your repentance is in Christ , Acts 5.31 , 32. your faith in Christ , Col : 2.20 . which is the work of God , John 6. Fac Christi opera , &c. sayes Bernard in Paschal : Serm : 2. Doe Christ's workes ; good workes we grant , but not as our owne , but as Christs , for as Augustine on John 15.5 . sayes , sive parum , sive mullum , sine illo fieri non potest , in Tract : 82. nothing little or much can be done without Christ , for Phil : 2.13 . & 4.13 . he worketh in you both to will and to doe : Est deus in nobis , agitante calescimus illo : and I can doe all things through Christ that strengtheneth me , sayes the Apostle ; and in this sense is that negative assertion of Dr. Twisse's , quod homo nihil boni facit nisi deus in illo efficiat ut faciat : Therefore we must not be puzzled and perplexed about works ( de nostro ) of our owne to fit us for Christ ; for whilest men think they must doe something themselves , or else they cannot be justified , and doe nothing for it , or in it , but onely believe , and whilest they think God cannot but approve of their workes and accept of their services , they run a great hazare with the Papists , 1 Sam. 16.7 . Psal. 62 9. and are with perplexible anxiety of spirit spying out for good works of their own make , whilest the Apostle sayes , Ephes : 2.10 . we are all his workmanship in Christ Jesus , and tels us plainly our new works arise from this new creation , for that no flesh might boast in his sight ; seeing Christ is not ours , ( therefore salvation is not ours ) by any act of ours but of God in us , and of grace teaching us , Tim. 2.12 , 13. within ; hence is vocation , 2 Tim. 1 ●9 . Sanctification , 2 Thes. 2.13 . faith , love , repentance , Rom. 2.4 every good woorke , Ezek. 36.27 . and everlasting life , Rom. 6.23 . all given by grace ▪ Therefore no good works of ours qualifie us for any of these , thus sayes Mr. Perkins , upon Galat. pag. 159. the Gospel offers and gives life freely without any condition of workes , and requires nothing but receiving . Object . Yes on condition of faith . Answ. Faith ( saith he ) is mentioned in the manner of a condition , but it is of free grace and the meer gift of God , as well as life eternall . So that Faith brings forth workes , but not workes faith ; for good workes ( sayes one ) followes Christ in us by faith , as the fruits of the tree follow the growing and grounding of it : a woman first is marryed then conceives , then brings forth , or else the children are illegitimate ; and so are those works illegitimate , which flow not from the conjunction and conception of Christ in the heart : but if they be before , wee may blush at the sight of them , and be ashamed of them , and cannot boast of any credit or comfort of them ; Opera sunt secundum principium a quo sunt ; and till Christ be in us , we say our best works are but dead workes , two wayes , 1. effectivè , as sin , 2. privativè , without grace or the Spirit of Gods working . But furthermore , in the formal cause of justification , the Papists affirm an inherent righteousnesse in us , to make compleat the formality of justification , Trident. concil . sess . 6. Can. 11. Rhemist . Rom. 2. Sect. 4. Bel. lib. 2. de justif cap. 3. many Clergy men ( unguibus & dentibus ) doe cry up an inherent righteousnesse too to make up compleat justification , which we deny and abhor , allowing the alone righteousnesse of Christ to justifie us before God , and fully able to doe it without any addition of ours , or any inherent qualification , as to that See Rom. 8.2 . Rom. 4.56 . Rom. 5.24 . 2 Cor. 5 . 21· Phil. 3.9 . for Christ's righteousnesse alone hath fulfilled the Law , which is ours by imputation for our justification , Rom. 8.4 . being absolutely justified , & by that Christ's righteousnesse alone ; as our good workes doe not justifie us any thing , so our evill workes doe not unjustifie us ; and so it is the weakest Saint is as absolutely righteous in the sight of God , and as fully justified ( in the righteousnesse of another ) as the strongest . And as most of the eminent Presbyterians are ( now come in to be ) one with us in this point , so some of the Popish speciall Champions upon a parley have laid down their arms , and doe join issue with us herein , as Pighius de fide & justifi● . Cont 2. p. 45. who grants that we have no other righteousnesse to rest upon then that which ( Christus imputat nobis sine operibus nostris ) Christ imputes to us without works , so Vatablus in Psalm . 18.23 . and the Author of Antidid●g . Coloniens . as Bell. confesses , &c. besides aboundance of famous writers , which prove it at large . Now lest I should be misconstrued by Criticks , know that we affirm an inherent righteousnesse wrought by the Spirit in all such as are justified by faith in Christ ; but we say that it is rather a sanctification ; or the fruit and effect of justification , then any wayes to be accounted of in justification ; which altogether consists in the righteousnesse of Christ which is ours by imputation . And to make this more distinct and clear , the imputative righteousnesse of Christ is taken into three parts , for besides his essential righteousnesse or personal , which we account not communicable to us ; yet there is first an habitual righteousnesse of Christ in our hearts , and 2. his actual righteousnesse in doing the Law , and 3. his passive in suffering the punishment , all which three are imputed to us ; But , 3. As the Jesuites and Papists of old ( to instance in Bellar. lib. 5. de Justif c. 5. initio ) were not ashamed to slander Protestants of old for enemies to the Law ; as that Moses with with his Decalogue they should say belonged not to them , and that they pleaded for Christian liberty from obedience and subjection to the Law : So now the red-hot spirited men and Ministers of our age , the rigid Presbyters pursue the same invectives against us , and in their Pulpits and Pamphlets exclaim against us for Antinomians , and would explode out the sweet doctrine of free grace as tending to libertinism , and that we are against the Law , and enemies to Moses , therefore Antinomians , &c. In which they with the Papists of old will be found to fight sometimes with their owne shadows of their own make , and at other times with God against grace . With their own shade , whilest our God will witnesse for us ( when they shall be ashamed ) Isa. 66.5 . that we deny not the Law , but that Christ came to fulfill it , Matth. 5.17 . for us , and in us , and we in Christ doe it and not deny it . Mr. Bolton speaks for us in his Bounds of true Christan freedome , pag. 74. when he sayes , wee are freed from the Law , ( the letter that killeth ) as given by Moses , and are tyed to the Law ( of life that quickneth ) as given by Christ , and from Christs hands , &c. we are free from Antinomianism then , unlesse Dr. Preston were one , who affirmed that the Law cannot convert ( on 's New Covenant , p. 347. ) and saies he , should I preach to you the ten Commandements again and again , it would be long enough ere you could keep them , therefore Gal. 3.2 . It is not by them , that thou wilt come to be a new creature , but by the Covenant of grace , Heb. 8.14 . that New Covenant made in Christ , that I must preach to sinners : So that those enemies that fight against this doctrine of free grace will be found fighters against God , and Christ , and the sweetest and safest doctrine of Salvation : so sayes Dr. Sibs in his Excellency of the Gospel above the Law , pag. 241. wherefore let us vindicate this doctrine sayes he , and not fear the reproaches of men : and to impose a period to this , hear what Mr. Gataker sayes in his Book called Gods Eye , &c. to the Reader , pag. 10. Note , sayes he , that men of learning and sound judgement , doe not cry out O Antinomianism ! upon the Doctrine of free grace , but doe acknowledge it . Though many do as the proud Pharisees , cry out away with him , he 's a friend to Publicans and sinners , and he sayes that Harlots and Adulterers shall inherit the Kingdome of God before them . 4. The Papists affirm and therefore preach and presse workes , duties , &c. for fear of hell , and for hope of heaven , Rhemist . on Heb. 11.26 . and on p. 4. Sect. 6. so many poore purblind Ministers would put the people on duties madly without fear or wit , so they be doing ; and urge these on the paines of Hell , for fear of damnation ; roaring out with fire and lightning about their eares to fright them and scare them , and there to leave them ! O! this is sad ! For suppose a man in the Thames were almost drowned , and having his head yet above water , but ready to sink , cryed out for help , if a man that might help him with an Oar , or so , should brain him , and roughly knock him down , and drown him quite , would we not say that this were accursed cruelty ? and I pray what doe they lesse , that can cay little else but Hell and damnation to such as are afflicted ? despairing , sinking , &c. but to brain them quite ? We finde David to destroy the Amalekite , in 2 Sam. 1. that slew Saul , though Saul was in danger of his life , and little hopes of his escape , and his enemies were upon him , and required the man to kill him , and was in deadly anguish ; yet David did give order to one of his young men to kill him , and why ? but because the Amalekite should not have kil'd him right out , though hee was wounded , and in danger , and not like to escape , yet hee should have done his devoire , and best to have comforted Saul , and to have encouraged and recovered him , and to have bound up his wounds , and blowne up his hopes , and have helped him what he could ; So ought Ministers with poor wounded souls though sadly afflicted , and have little hopes of their recovery ; yet must they use the meanes to binde up the broken , to pour in wine and Oile into the wounds ; comfort them with the promises on the account of free grace , to apply Scriptures to hold out Jesus of Nazareth , even a crucified blessed Christ to their soules ; and not to make so quick a dispatch of them as to throw them quite into the gulfe of despair ; and if they should recover them by that meanes onely . Why what would this doe but to make them serve God for fear of Hell and damnation , meerly ? and what doth this but make men Hypocrites ? Now we grant a filial fear , Prov. 3.7 . but this is a servile and slavish feare of Hell and damnation , and Augustine on P●al . 127. sayes , it differs from true fear , as the adulterous wife does from the chast , they both fear their husbands ( sed casta timet ne vir discedat , sed adultera ne veniat ) but the chast wife is afraid lest her husband should depart ; but the adulteresse is afraid lest he should come , &c. Yea moreover we grant the terror of the Law to be usefull to uncalled hard-hearted insolent sinners ; but not to tender broken hearted sinners , wounded spirits , or the like : but the promises and comforts are for them ; and not to bring them to serve God , or the like , for fear of Hell ; for as Origen sayes on Matt. tract . 33. Matth. 25.24 . I knew thou wast an hard man , and therefore I was afraid . This fear is not good , nor delivers us from punishment , so said Mr. Tyndall Martyr , Fox , pag. 1253. The people of Christ do willingly hear and follow him , not for fear of the Law , but they are led by love and allured by liberty of grace , &c. Neither is it out of love to heaven , ( as some Ministers presse workes popishly ) for we ought principally to eye the glory of God above our own salvation , 1 Pet. 2.9 . for as Mr. Tyndall sayes p. 1255. they that for fear of hell , or joyes of Heaven , doe a duty , or work , doe a constrained service , as hired men , or waged servants , which God will not have us doe but as children . Lastly , The Papists affirme a twofold merit of workes , 1. meritum de congruo , ● meritum de condigno ; 1. of congruity , 2. of condignity and desert , Rhenist . Rom. 2. Sect. 3. the first kinde of merit most Ministers assert , viz. those that call for preparative workes before justification and qualifying workes for Christ ; This was coined in the Popes ●onclave , as that it doth agree with his justice and truth to give reward to such workes . From which wee dissent , but with this Proviso , that we doe not dis-own a gracious congruity , though we doe a meritorious congruity , we grant that in respect of such and such promises which God hath freely made us in Christ , that say it agrees with his Word , &c. to doe thus and thus , as to pardon the penitent : answer such as ask and seek ; satisfie such as hunger and thirst ; but then this congruity is grounded on free grace , and Gods love , and not ( at all ) on our workes ; for all is of free grace , and nothing of merit . The Papists finding works too light in the ballance , wi●l have our Ladies beads put into their St. Michaels scoals to make weight ; and in parallel to this how many Ministers that must have teares , and call for them as duely as the Papists doe for beads , to help good deeds to weigh down ? But alas ! all workes , beads , and tears weigh too light , and are little worth till Christ comes , and faith be put in for allowance ; Christ in us will soon turn the scale for us : For he is the weight of glory . We say , the eye must have the faculty of seeing before it can see ; and so the ear of hearing before it can hear ; So we first have infused habits before we exercise the operation of them , and as the wheel doth not run round that it may be made round ; neither are we first to act whereby we may be fitted and formed , but first formed and fashioned by the Spirit of Christ whereby we act and do good workes , which then are opera congrua indeed . And in this sense we assert the singular use of good workes , to evidence what is within us , and which way the winde lies as by a weather-cock ; and although we cannot see the winde , yet we can see the sailes of a ship that are filled with the winde , and so our workes that are filled with the Spirit of Christ. But this shall serve for the fourth general Controversie between the Papists and Protestants of old , and the Presbyterians , ( I mean the violentest of them ) and us now : And to say no more of this then what Mr. Perkins says on Rev. 2.24 . that Jezebel and her followers in every age have and doe highly esteem of their own doctrines for deep , and opinions for Orthodox , and cry them up for learned , profound , and Divine , and onely Authentick , thereby to bring misprision and contempt upon the Truth , as a thing simple , foolish , and base . So did the Pharisees and Rabbies in Christ's dayes , to make the poore fishermen and Carpenters sons odious . And so the Jesuites and Cardinals in the Protestants time ; so Prelates and Doctors in Puritans times ; Bishops , and great Scholars of the Episcopalians in the short life of Presbyterianisme ; hot spirited and hair-brain'd Sophisters and Presbyterians in the time of Independency , &c. but saith the Lord , I have known the deepnesse of Satan , that subtill sophister against the truth , to make it odious in all ages . Lastly , I might shew how Papists and Presbyterians agree in giving power to Magistrates as civill Magistrates , over the Church as the Church ; and to constitute Synods , make lawes for the Church , punish offenders , murther Hereticks , &c. from all which we differ and have declared it at large , lib. 1. ch . 11. ch . 13 lib. 2. ch . 2. But lastly , The Presbyterians and Papists are too nigh one another in practise too , as well as in doctrine and discipline , which I shall instance in some few particulars ; for I have not undertaken a tract to shew their agreement ; but only a testimony or two to prove the truth of it , how near the daughter looks like the mother under discipline , doctrine and practise , for truths sake instancing in some few things , though I might produce many for one , yet a few are enough for proof . And now for their practise , first as to their Ministers . 1. Concerning their Ordination , what it is . 2. By whom it is . 3. In what order it is . 1. For ordination what it is ; the Papists call it a Sacrament , Trident. concil . sess . 23. Bell. cap. 8. lib. de sacram . ordinis , can . 3. The Presby●erians call it a solemn inauguration of a person into the Ministeriall or sacred function ( as they call it ) by imposition of hands . From both we dissent , and assert Ordination to be a solemn setting apart of a brother chosen by the Church , and approv'd of as fitly qualified for this or that office , whereinto he is now set apart by prayer . The Papists make imposition of hards the materiall part of ordination , and to be essentiall , Petrus a Soto lect . 5. de ordin . So Hosius confess . Polonic . c. 50. So Bell. cap. 9. So the Presbyterians tooth and nail cry up a necessity of imposition of hands ; as if no ordination without it , Rutherf . ch . 17. ch . 18. and the Libeller ( before mentioned that writ the Tast of Tho. Apostles Doctrine ) cals the denying of imposition of hands the denying of ordination , in p. 3. ; whereas Mr. Crafton that preaches on Garli●k-hithe hath most falsly affirmed that I deliver'd ordination not worth disputing or time to speak of , ( as in the Pamphlet ) it was proved to his face a forgery of his own busie brain , and that imposition of hands ( which some called manumission ) was the word which I I said I would not meddle with as essentiall to ordination , as not worth disputing about or spending time upon , being a ceremony , but not necessary ; for I sufficiently proved ordination that day ( as ere long will appear to the world ) viz. a setting a part such as were duly qualified ( which I proved at large ) into an office of Gospel-institution , Eph. 4.11 . having the Churches election , approbation , prayers , and acceptation , Act. 14.23 . Act. 6.3 . Gal. 4.14 . 1 Thess. 5.12 , 13. which Mr. Crafton could not deny before many witnesses , notwithstanding his satanicall accusation , not beseeming any Minister of this town ( as I know of ) that is look'd upon ; only himself who is ( to the grief of many godly men and Ministers ) known too well ( for one of his profession , and to the scandall of the Ministery ) for his hot furious persecuting spirit , and most unchristian , uncivill practises and malignancy in many places , as at New-castle , in Cheshire , and at Renbury , being by the truly godly look'd upon ( as he is at this day ) to be a crafty one , and a violent enemy both to Church and State : but the Lord hath and yet will rebuke his spirit , I hope , for good at the great day , for truly I pity him , and more such as are seduced and deluded by him , against the truth . But before many I offered him the challenge , yea the advantage of stating the question himself ( to prove imposition of hands no materiall or essentiall part of ordination , which he Popishly asserts , but with words , not with arguments : and further , I offer'd him fairly to prove ( and yet do it ) that his ordination which he makes to lye in the laying on of hands is Antichristian and successive from the Pope , which I entreat him to accept of , or else to lay down his boasting and belching out this against the truth and the friends of it . For we affirm imposition of hands to signifie nothing as to the essence of ordination , for though it may be used , yet it is but a ceremony , not as essentiall that it must be used . So the Protestants ( accounted orthodox ) have unanimously declared against the Papists , Synops. 16. controv . q. 2. and Dr. Cartwright in 's Ecclesiasticall polity , declares plainly , that by laying on of hands in primitive times they did use to present the person so set apart to God , for his gifts and graces to qualifie them for their offices , and that this was their generall end . Whence Mr. Hooker in 's Survey of Discipline , part . ● . ch . 2. argues thence , that imposition of hands cannot be said to be a spec●ficating act , as to give one the essentials of an officer . Thus eminent Bucer ▪ de Gubern . Eccl●s . p. 337. saies , Manus impositio quid est , nisi oratio ●uper hominem ? What is this laying on of hands , but a praying o●e the person to be set apart ? We read , Act. 6. &c. that a●ter they had prayed they laid their hands on them , not before they prayed , nor in the time of prayer , as the Presbyterians do , but after ; and it was used ( some say ) rather in way of blessing of them , ( as Christ blessed the little children by laying on his hands , and so the sick ) then in a way of setting them apart to an office . Chrysostome on 1 Tim ▪ 3. cals it plainly ferme nihil , a nothing . And saies Aug. lib. 5. c. 16. Ordinare , quid est aliud nisi orare ? to ordain , what is it but set apart by prayer ? Hear but the Confession of Bohemia , ch . 14. Harm . sect . 11. p. 356. They may use some seemly and indifferent ceremonies , which are no waies necessary ; such as to lay on hands , to reach out the right hand ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) or else they omit them , say they . The like we have in the confession of Wittenbe●g , Herm. sec. 17. art . 35. who say imposition of hands is but an indiffernt ceremony and not alwaies necessary . For there is no precept for it and the practise of it was extraordinary and significant ; yet not alwaies used ; Christ used it not when he sent forth his Disciples to preach ; nor gave it in commission to his Apostles , nor have they enjoyned it to be a practise for succeeding ages . And Matthias was chosen in Judas's room without it . But to conclude , Polanus , Tilenus , Calvin himself with many others say it is not necessary , but a ceremony . 2. By whom ordination is to be dispensed . The Papists say by their Bishops , or else that they are not ordained , Bell. de sacram : ordinis , cap. 11. So said our Episcopalians , the power of ordaining is alone in the Bishops ( who were rather aposcopi quam episcopi ) but that Controversie is ended as to the hand of a Bishop to set apart ; for ( as Cartwright saies ) in primitive times there was more then one to set apart , Act. 13.1 , 3. Act. 6.6 . the Prophets and Teachers set apart Paul and Barnabas at Antioch . O the abominable blasphemies ! and wicked fogeries of Bishops in laying on hands ! and saying , receive the holy Ghost ! But now the Presbyterians differ as to that whilest they give this power to a classes or company together in form of a Presbyterie : yet in this they agree with Popery , and Episcopacy to seat it in a Prelacy , and primarily to settle it in a Classis : which we deny , for if the Classis be Ecclesia orta , then the primary and first power must needs be in Ecclesia unde Classis est orta . We affirm , that first of all Christ had the sole power of ordaining in himself , since that he hath left this power in the Church his Spouse , and there it is seated : And as Mr. Cotton notes in 's Way of congregationall Churches cleared , part . 1. p. 96. sect . 2. that in the second century of years the government of the Church was administer'd not in a Classicall but in a Congregationall way , and so in the first century ; witnesse the Magdeburgenses , cent . 2. ch . 7. de consociatione ecclesiarum . Si quis probatos authores hujus seculi perspiciat , videbit formam gubernationis propemodum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 similem fuisse ; administrando sacramenta , pure verbum dei docendo , excommunicando Haereticos , Ministros eligendo , vocando , ordi nando & justissimas ob causas iterum deponendo , Conventus & Synodus congregando , &c. If a man ( say they ) do but search the authentick authors of this age , he shall easily see the form of Church-government to be almost like a Democracy ; in the pure preaching the Gospell , administring the Ordinances , excommunicating offenders , in choosing , calling , and ordaining Ministers , and upon good grounds in deposing of them , and calling Synods , &c. So that in those ages the power was in the Church ; yea in the third Century of years , Cent. 3. cap. 7 to use the words of the Centurists , we shall finde ( almost ) the like form of government although somewhat corrupt by ambition , which brought in Antichrist . For we shall finde Novatus excomunicate by a councell at Rome under Cornelius . And Samosatenus was thrown out by a Councell at Antioch . So that in those daies though corruption got in , in a kind of Aristocracy like the Presbyterian way , and after that a kind of Monarchy by the Popish and Episcopall way : but even in those days some were orderly , and some Churches kept their power , liberty and priviledges ; so that then was the power of Ordination in the Church . Cyprian tels us Epistolarum lib. 1. that then Bishops and Church officers were not chosen by a Consistory of Bishops or Pastors amongst themselves ( as is now in Classes ) but as they received it from the Apostles , so they held it for the orderly celebration of Ordination ; the Bishop or Pastor is chosen in the presence of the people , as was in the Ordination of our fellow Minister Sabinus , his office was put upon him by the suffrage of the whole Brotherhood and by the judgement of other Pastors present ; so in Epist. 4. the people fearing God and obedient to the Laws and Ordinances of Christ have the power of choosing worthy Ministers , and of refusing the unworthy : so in Epist. 3. he saies with much adoe vix plebi persuadeo , immo extorqueo , ut tales patiantur admitti , &c. do I persuade the people , yea and pull it from them that they would admit such , &c. by which he shewes the peoples concurrence ; but in lib. 3. Epist. 11. Caeteri cum ingenti populi suffragio recipimus ; yea ( saies he ) in Epist. 16. Ad plebem examinabuntur singula , praesentibus & judicantibus vobis : to the people all things shall be examined before you , you being present and judging . Yea nihil statui ( saies he ) sine confilio vestro , and sine consensu plebis : Therefore this is no novelty to assert the power to lie in the body , by which she ordaines her own Ministers ; yea , saies Melanchthon there is a necessity of it , necesse est Ecclesiam retinere jus vocandi , eligendi & ordinandi Ministros , that the Church retain her right of calling , choosing and ordaining her own Ministers ; this right is given to the Church , and no power can take it away from the Church ( saies he : ) yet we grant that the officers of the Church , may execute the Churches power herein as servants . To the Third , In what order is ordination . Papists say first ordain him , then let him be called , then chosen , Bellar. ds Sac. ordin . Disputabimus primo de ordinatione , tum de vocatione postremo de electione : the Presbyterians say little better , Mr. Rutherford for the Presbyterians Chap. 15. p. 265. soberly asserts Ordination before Election ; p. 267. A. B. sayes he , is first Called and Ordained a Pastor by Christ and by the laying on the hands of the Elders , before the People can elect him for their Pastor ; so that they agree . But from them both we dissent , and say with Dr. Ames in 's Anti Bellar. Tom. 2. lib. 3. De Ordinat . that we place the Cart before Horses , non Ordine sed confuse disputantus Ordinationem praeponere Vocationi & Electioni , &c. and they do very indirectly and disorderly to set Ordination before Vocation and Election , which none judicious ( sayes Hooker in 's Survey , P. 2. ch . 2. ) doe ; nor any of the reformed Churches maintain , for it is too Popish ; wherefore for shame friends away with it , fie on it ! We affirme first , a necessity of Vocation , or a Call , which we account upon 2 parts , viz. Election , and then Ordination ; ( all which I hope to handle at large in the 3. Lib. that is to come ) this Election is when the Church hath had triall of one , and approves of him , and chooses him out to bear such an Office as being fit for it , which is accompanied with examination and triall , ( as I said before ) 1 Tim. 3.10 . 1 Tim. 5.6 . therefore the Church is to choose , Act. 6. Act. 1.23 . Act. 14.23 . not Pope , Prelate , Classes , &c. who is fittest for her to be Ordained . Now the Election of the Brethren gives the person , jus ad rem , right to the Office , and Ordination ( as before ) jus in re right in it . Oh that this order were observed ! it would be a singular means to fill the Church and Nation , with able qualified Gospel Ministers ; ( and to crowd out the scandalous ) if none else ( as it ought to be ) were Ordained but such as appertained to the Churches of Christ , and those too approved of in the Churches as godly , and ably gifted ; this would tend much to the propagation of the Gospel ( and this will be and must be ere long ) and then none can be Ministers but must at least be fit to be members of Christs Church : besides there would be no begging Ministers then roving about for bread . Oh! that the Parliament would more owne the Churches as the best nurseries of able Ministers and Schooles of the Prophets , and suffer no Ordination out of the Churches of Christ , but look on it as Antichristian abroad . I speak not in contempt of Vniversities ( for they are exceedingly usefull , as I shall shew , and I hope to satisfie any rationall man in the next Book ) but that all who are Ordained Ministers , may first be found fit to be members of a Church of Christ ; and then to be orderly Chose and Ordained within the Church : this would be a blossoming blessing indeed ! which shall be in due time however . But before I finish this I affirme , that as Popish Ordination , ( or Ordination Popishly dispensed ) does not give the essentiall to the outward call of a Minister ; so the Presbyterian Ordination ( which I now disowne before God and men , as being in the steps of Popery and successively from it , though I was once through dim-sightednesse under it in the very first Classes that ere was in England , ( if I mistake not ) and tould'd into it ; ( yet I say ) it is Antichristian , and disorderly , as preceding the Election of the people of God , and not giving the essentials to the call of a true Minister of Christ , which as it must be by , so in a Church of Christ , Act. 6.3 , 5. Act. 14.23 . according to institution . But the Election and Call of a people rightly in order according to Christ's rule , gives the essentials to an Officer or Minister of Christ , and leaves the impression of a true outward call upon him ; which we hope to have full proof for in the next Book , of the Body organicall ; in the mean time who will may have much satisfaction at present by Mr. Hooker in 's Survey of Discipline , part 2. ch . 2. p. 66. but thus far for the first point , wherein they agree in practise . 2. Presbyterians and Papists are too alike in practise too , about Distinction and Differences which they make : as , 1. The Papists make great distinction betwixt the Clergy and Laity ( as they call them ; ) Clergy ( which is meant the Lords heritage ) they account the spirituality , or Black Garbe ; and the Laity the Laymen , whom they will not have to meddle in Church matters at all , Bellar. de clericis lib. 1. c. 1. Rhemens . 1 Pet. 2.3 . So the Prelates and Episcopalians kept up the distinction : and some of the Presbyterians do at this day ; and many of them keep up a distinction between themselves as Ministers and the other people , excluding others from partaking of their priviledges , and would have no other dare to touch their sacred function , or enter their pulpits upon pain of an Anathema ; but putting a difference between themselves and others as men more holy for their functions sake . But we deny that distinction as Popish , and as the seminary of a Masse of mischief , discords and decisions ; we allow no such distinction nor difference of persons , 1 Pet. 2.9 . Jam. 2.1 . but as an Alderman or Common-counsell-man differs from the other Citizens only in his office , which they have not of themselves neither , but only of the Cities choyce : and as the Speaker of the House of Parliament differs from other members only in his place . This assertion the bloud of Martyrs witnesses unto , as Walter Brute Fox p. 496. col . 2. who said Christ in the Gospell used not the name Sacerdos but Presbyter , that there might be no difference between Ministers and the people , unlesse it be to exceed them in knowledge and holy life , so said John Lambert , Fox p. 1113. and to this the Writers of those called Reformed Churches agree , averring ( in lib. 1. de miss . privat . abrogand . p. 1. ) that there should be no difference of persons amongst true Christians , as some to be called the Clergy ( or spirituality and inheritance of the Lord ) others the Laity , &c. And Calvin sayes , Haec appellatio aut ex errore , aut prava affectione nata , &c. Instit. lib. 4. c. 4. sect . 3. 2. Papists make distinction of their Priests by Garbes , Gowns , Caps , Garments visibly from others ; as if more holy then others , and require it by canon and injunction , Bellarm. c. 11. Rhemist . 1 Tim. 3. Sect. 7. So did the Prelates , and so do many Ministers now think it needfull to have distinguishing garments and Garbes from other people ; which we think a superstitious foppery and pride , which the Martyrs witnesse with us , and for us , accounting this a ridiculous custome , to wear distinguishing robes to be known by ; and Dr. Taylor ( Fox p. 1324. ) when the Bishop came to degrade him , did disdaine to put on the Popish garments calling them apish toyes and trumperies , fit for boyes to laugh at : So Bishop Ridley ( Fox 1767. ) called their distinguishing vestures foolish and abominable , and too fond for a play : So said Bishop Cranmer ( Fox 1883. ) whilst Bonner was busie in degrading him , Ha! ( sayes he ) all this needed not , for I had done with this geare long agoe . I mention these to shew you their minds , that Ministers might go comely as Christians , but not with superfluous niceties in Clothes , or Colours , Gowns or Garments , to distinguish them from others ; these being base and foolish ; but this will be more manifest in the third Book that followes under the head of Vniversities and their Antechristian orders , distinctions and degrees , which are not yet reformed . And 3. Papists give some of their Clergy principality and power over others of them , Bellarm lib. 1. de clericis c. 13.14 . so do the Presbyterians in their Classes , which we have exploded our discipline and order as detestable , and as being diametrically opposite to Christ's rules and order left in his Church and to 's Disciples , Luke 22.25 . Marke 10. 1 Pet. 5.3 . See lib. 1. ch . 11. & 13. But we affirme all one , brethren , without any superiority or uppernesse amongst the Pastors , no more then there is among the Churches ; and besides what hath been aboundantly produced to prove this both in the 1. and 2. Books before ; we shall finde antiquity doth disowne such a superiority as is pleaded for , in Concil . Carthag . 4. Can. 34. Episcopus in quolibet l●co sedens , stare Presbyterum non patiatur . A Bishop was not to suffer a Church officer to stand before him , for intra domum colleg●m Presbyterorum se esse cognoscat , let him know that he is in Gods house but a fellow and brother , distinct 95. c. 9. and not a Lord or Ruler ; some there be qui de episcopatu intumescunt , who do swell with pride , and are big because they are Pastors and Overseers , as if they had not a Ministeriall but an Imperiall office , &c. O abominabe ! 3. Presbyters and Papists are too alike in their practise too about Tithes Papists say the payment of Tithes is a naturall duty and of absolute necessity to maintain the Priests , Rhem. Annot. Heb. 7. Sect. 4. and do not our Ministers , and most of the Presbyterians professe so much ? How the noyse of putting down Tithes frights them ! they can't endure to hear of any other maintenance ; this makes them assert the Orthodox Ministry will down if Tithes down . But we dissent and doe ( at a great distance ) disowne this necessity which they put upon Tithes , and protest against them as Popish in their practise herein , ( as in the 3. Book may be mentioned at large , when we come to speak of Pastors maintenance ) but for present to clear this we affirme with the Protestants ( against the Papists ) that the Law of paying Tithes to the Levites was in part judiciall , in part ceremoniall , and in some sense might be said to be morall ( though in that very hardly . ) First , judiciall in this , that forasmuch as the Levites ( though the 13. tribe ) were not much lesse in common account then the tenth part , ( I say not in number of persons , for the Levites made but 22000 Num. 3. and the rest of the tribes were 603550. Num. 1. ) but as a tribe they were accounted as the tenth part , and therefore it was thought fit that the tenth part of the brethrens goods should be allotted them , which being a Judaicall and politick Law of that Country cannot tie us , but is left to the libe●ty and discretion of our Governors , as a thing civill and politick : But 2. Tithes and tenthes were ceremoniall as due to the Priests and Levites for their service at the Altar : Therefore not to be enjoyned , but rather abolished , especially when they are a burthen to the people , and abused by the Ministers . So that in neither of these respects can Tithes be challenged as due , or imposed as necessary . But 3. the morall part of them is the equity of the Law , viz. for the maintenance of the Levites ; so also there is to be sufficient maintenance and provision to be made for Gospell Ministers ( as was before for the Levites ) and this is perpetuall , and by divine right , 1 Tim. 5.17 , 18. 1 Cor. 9.7 , 9 , 10 , 13 , 14 , &c. Mat. 10.9 , 10. Gal. 6 6 , 7. Now we affirme with the reformed Churches ( so call'd ) and Protestants of old against the Papists , these three things . 1. That the Parliament ( or any other supreme power over a Nation ) may lawfully throw down Tithes , without dishonour to God or hurt to his Church ; nay with much honour to God , and advantage to his Church , ( though disadvantagious to tithe-servers , and time-servers , and preaching men-pleasers , the thoughts of this being ready to break their hearts , which fail them for fear ) but to speak and spare not ; not only they may do it , but they must do it , when they finde Tithes abused , to maintaine impiety and impudence , idolatry and superstition in parochiall preachers ; which evill thing would be suppressed by paying salaries or stipends to the able and godly , and none else . To clear this , it appeares plainly that it hath ever been lawfull and in practise in primitive ages , for the Prince or Supreme power of the Nation to take away such lands , goods , estates or allowance as have maintained superstition and iniquity , which the said Prince or Power hath converted to a better and fitter use ; see Constantines decree God. lib. 1. tit . 14. leg . 1. & 3. and so Theodos. So in Augustines time the Christian Emperors took away many lands and dispossessed the Donatists . And Aug. renders this reason for it Tractat. in Joan. 6. because it is by the law of a Prince , King , or Power of the Nation , that Ministers are maintained by this or that maintenance , in this or that way , with these or those lands , et secundum jus ipsius possides terram , and according to this law , or the Nations law do you take maintenance , and enjoy your possessions . Wherefore the State does great service for God to alter the Ministers maintenance , if Tithes do keep up a carnall ▪ covetous Ministry , and maintain pride , idlenesse , riot or excesse , let them then fall for shame , and the Dependents with them ; for so the Idle Preists will be spoyled ; but then be sure they be for better use and ends disposed of , as belonging to the State ; though maintenance belongs to the Church . Yet this withall , I do not defend such as are so earnest to tumble down Tithes for their own ends and private gaines . 2. We affirme a competent maintenance , and comfortable allowance to all able Gospell Ministers who live soberly and godly , to be of divine institution . Therefore great care must be had that poor men the Ministers be not as much troubled , disturbed , disquieted in their spirits , and forced to suites or wranglings for their Salaries or Stipends , as they have been for their tithes , rates or former maintenance , but speciall care should be had in erecting their Stipends , that the Ministers may be wholly given to their Ministry , 1 Tim. 4.15 . and that they may receive them without troubles . 3. In as voluntary a way as may be ( which we assert most sutable to Gospell order : ) our Saviour warrants his Disciples ( as Mr. Owen saies in 's Esh●ol . ) to take and eat of those things that were had by their consent to whom they preached the Gospell , Luke 10.8 . so that the people ought to be free in the manner of payment or allowance . In Augustines time vide in Psal. 146. there was no generall law or custome in the Church ( or nation as now is ) to pay Tithes . For saies he , Decimas vis ? &c. will you pay Tithes ? the Pharisees did so ; sed tu vix millesimam das , but you scarce give the thousandth part : Tamen non reprehendo , vel hoc fac , sic sitio , ut ad istas micas gaudeo , here 's a good man indeed ; where is such a Minister as saies with him , yet for all that I finde no fault , do so still , for I so thirst after your welfare that I refuse not your very Crums . We see then in those dayes there was no forcing to pay Tithes , for he was content with the very crums , the ten hundredth part . So in Concil . Aurelianens . cap. 17. Sicut in arbitrio dantis est ut tribueret quod voluerit , &c. the words are , as it is the will of the giver to give what he pleaseth , so if he finde him stubborn and obstinate , and froward which receiveth it , it is in his power to revoke the gift , &c. So that the word of God hath laid no necessity upon Tithes , this lay apparent before the Councell , for otherwise they would not have permitted such liberty , and have made the maintenance free and voluntary . Thus the Bohemians have long since professed their opinion ( artic . 15. ) say they , the Priests preach and say , that men are bound to pay them their Tithes ; wherein they say falsly , for they cannot prove by the new Testament , that our Lord Christ did command it , and his Disciples warned no man to do so , neither did they themselves receive them . So among the Muscovites , the Ministers are maintained by certain free contributions , and certain houses are assigned to them , and they have no law for Tithes , nor maintenance quoad determinationem quantitatis in respect of how much : * but thus far for Tithes till the next Book . 4. Papists and Presbyters agree much in their Names of dayes , ( which seemes nothing , but is ( indeed ) very unsavory and unchristian ) as to name dayes after the Heathenish Idolaters and custome , from the seven Planets the seven dayes , Sunday from the Sun , Munday from the Moon , &c. Rhemist . Annot. Apoc. 1. Sect. 6. But we think ( with the Protestants against the Papists in Contro . 9. Q. 8. ) this ought to be reformed , and these dayes are better and more Scripturally ( as in Mr. Jesses Scripture Almanack ) termed , the first day , the second , or third , &c. as the Jewes called their dayes from the Sabbath . So other things and names must be reformed ; as of our months , for March is called from Mars , June from Juno , July from Julius , August from Augustus , January from Janus , &c. So also the names of Christmas , Michaelmas , Candlemas , &c. must be altered ; and all such names and things as sprung from Popery 〈◊〉 Paganisme : so said Fulke against the Rhem. and Hierom. in lib. de veste sacerdotal . in Job . Arcturum & Orionem , &c. God forbid , saies he , that these names should be any longer in Christians mens mouthes , Absit ut de ore Christiano sonet , &c. O then that we would reforme ! Let young students beware of Heathenish names and books , ( but for this in the next under the head of Vniversities ) and let us learn our children in the language of Christ and his word , and no longer in the language of the Dragon or the Beast . I commend such as are to learn this to Mr. Jesse's Scripture Almanack . 4. Their practise is much alike about the publick meeting-houses , called both by the Papists and Presb. Churches . Fro , 1. As the Papists and Jesuites do eagerly maintain ( these meeting houses ) their Churches to be more holy then any other places , Bell. lib. 3. cap. 4. de Sanctis . So do most Ministers ( so cal'd ) and Presbyterians at this day hold what they can neither prove , nor dare ( to them that discerne ) openly own , viz. a specialty in their Churches , as if holier then other places , or at least as if God were more present and to be found there ; and therefore for a world will not allow of house preaching or the like . From which we dissent , whilest we affirme their Churches no better then then the streets or barnes in themselves , and so say all the ( Orthodox ) Protestants against the Papists in Dr. Willet's Synopsis contro . 9. Q. 6. answering all the Jewish objections which the Papists produce for proofe , as that Solomons Temple was so &c. But our Saviour saith under the Gospell , there is no such difference of places to worship in , Joh. 4.21 . The hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountaine , nor in Jerusalem worship my Father ; but v. 24 in spirit and in trith : Therefore his worship is not now tied or limited to places or Churches ( so cal'd ) . As for Solomons Temple , it was a type of Christ's body , viz. his Church and Temple more holy then all the World beside , Saints being the living stones thereof 1 Pet. 2.5 . A Jew , saies Origen in M●tt . tract . 35. Nihil dubitat de hujusmodi , &c. Christ's doctrine to say so , is strange . Besides , if the presence of God makes holy ; then marke the promise ( which is not to the place but to the people ) Mat. 18.20 . Wheresoever it be that two or three are gathered together in my name , I am in th● middest of them . If example would adde anything , we have all the primitive practise for us , both of Christ praying and preaching on the mount , and the Apostles in any place , in all places , from house to house . Now although we deny not , but that a convenient use may be made of those Churches , yet there is not a necessary use of them as to the places holier then any others , or that God is more present there . For as Origen hath it , Locum sanctum in corde requiro positum , &c. I seek a holy place not in the house but in the heart : My son give me thy heart . Et non putemus structuram lapidum , &c. Orig. Hom. 5. in Lev. Let us not then think ( saies he ) that the building of dead senslesse stones is the holy place . Mr. Tindall hath seal'd to this truth with his bloud , Fox p. 125. That Christ hath taken away the difference of places , and will be worshipped in every place , neither is there in his kingdome on● place holy and another unholy , but all places are indifferent ; neither canst thou more heartily and better beleeve , trust , & love God in the Temple , at the Altar , in the Church yard &c. saies he , then in the barn , kitchen , vineyard , bed , &c. And to be short , the Martyrs of Christ have honou●ed & worshipped him in prisons and dark dungeons . Thus he : And so we . 2. The Papists appointed these Churches to be dedicated to Saints , and Bell. c. 4. brings an argument to urge Temples to be built to Saints . Now although the Priests and Presbyters can't for shame own these Popish decrees ; yet what do they lesse then approve of their Churches so consecrated and dedicated ? as to S. Mary , S. John , S. James , S. Thomas Apostles , &c when they professe them theirs , and call them by their names as Sainted , and unde●take them as such : From which we dissent and do declare our dissatisfaction with Parish-Churches as such , we disown the titles , and them as Temples and Churches , and we abhor them as consecrated or dedicated as before , and affirm further that many Ministers approbations of those Churches , and appropriation of them to themselves , as theirs is not far from that manifest impiety and idolatry which appear'd at their first consecration and Christning ( if I may so say ) of them , and does lead people into too much Popery and foppery about them . It were to be wished that their names were left , and lost and buryed never more to rise among Christians , and that those places also were detested as to the use and end , for which , and name to which they were consecrated . When superstition began to grow big , this idolizing of places burgeon'd out also , though more anciently they were wont to devote them to Christ , as Constantine did his Temple at Jerusalem to the Saviour of the world ; but afterwards they dedicated them to Saints , which saies holy Lambert Martyr , Fox 1108 the very Angels themselves would not that we should dedicate to the honour of them . And for this take the confession of Wittenb . Harm . sect 2. p. 46. who say , neither do we consecrate Churches or Temples to any Saints or Martyrs seeing not they , but their God is our God. It will do wel ( because many are and will be taught by the precepts of men , which is a sad passage , Hos. 5.11 . ) therefore it would do well that our States would declare against those Churches as no Churches , that they might never be eyed or owned more then any other places , further then for conveniencie's sake : so that as hot violent Ministers might not approve , so not appropriate them as they do . But that they might be left to the liberty of the godly people , that when the Minister of the parish preaches not , any other godly Minister or brother might preach there , as having liberty and allowance as well as the other . For indeed some proud s●lf-conceited , hot spirited Presbyterians I know , ( that account these Churches their own inheritance ) will keep ( or solely command ) the keyes and suffer none to preach but themselves or of their own feather , gang , and fancy with them ; and on the week-daies keep the door so close that a mouse may hardly get in , for fear of too much preaching , which they account dangerous , unlesse on their Rounds on Sunday : So that they ●hreaten to arrest such as dare preach in their Pulpits or Churches ( as they say ) without their consent . Oh sad ! such doings we have in Countreys yet ! and are forced to preach under hedges or on mountains ( which I have done my self when we have not had a twig to shelter us from the rain ) But woe be to them ; for they have taken away the key of knowledge , and have not entred in themselves , and them that were entring in they have hindred , Luk. 11.52 . I hope in time , this will be reformed too , which though it seem a trifle , yet will signifie much whilest people have a Popish fancy of finding God there more then in other houses , & that the word preached there is better then in private poor souls they can seek no further . But if these places must be dedicated to Saints , let them be dedicated to the use of Saints living , and for the Churches ( that are so indeed ) to meet together . Now to the last thing I shal name ( though I might many ) more . Lastly , The practise of Presbyterians is too alike the Papists , in their accurate S●rutiny which they have of us , to observe what differences they can finde amongst us , to make their advantage and out cry against us : this is an old popish trick , Bell. lib. 4. eccles . cap. 9. Do way-bible , p. 50. of the Jesuites inventions , which as the Papists had to render the Protestants odious ; so the rigid brethren the Presbyterians do all they can to make us a reproach , and by publishing our weaknesses which they get up from the differences and divisions that are among the Saints , & Churches . So Edwards Gangrena : Baily in 's Dissuasive : Dr. Bastwick in 's Rout : Mr. Prin in 12 Queries , Cummultis allis , &c. But we with the good old Protestants and Martyrs must acknowledge too many differences among us , and that about forms too ; but we say that unity is no infallible note or necessary mark of the Church of Christ ; for as Mr. Bradford said , Fox 1622. the Idolatrous Israelites then might have produced and pretended this argument for them . And then , 2. There may be unity where is not uniformity ; and where be differences about some outward rites , yet all may agree in the thing and the end , Old Latimer ( Fox 1750. ) proves and alledges Hierome , whose Translation of the Bible caused dissensions in a Christian congregation , yet saies Hierome , Ego in tali opere nec eorum invidentiam pertimesco , nec scripturae veritatem pos●entibus denegabo . In such a work as this is , I will neither much fear this envie or fury , nor yet will I imprison the truth of the Scriptures , or withhold it from them that do earnestly desire it . But as Bell. did not blush to say in lib. 4 de eccles . cap. 10. that an hundred severall sects were sprung up among Protestants , but that they ( of the Roman Church ) were one : so say our hot Antagonists the same thing for the same end against us ; saies Mr. Baily in 's Disswasive from the errors of the times . In the third shamefull absurdity ( as he saies ) is found in our way of Independency ; that there be multitudes of errors , dissensions , and such like things and persons ; whose Bellarmine-like language is arrested and brought to a triall by Mr. Cotton in 's answer to him , Part. 1. p. 82. where Mr. Cotton proves , such reports of the way rather to justifie then condemn it : But with all the Protestants against this charge of the Papists , we affirm as the Apostle does , 1 Cor. 11.18 , 19. I hear that the●e be divisions among ye , and I beleeve it . For it is necessary that there should be also Heresies among you ; that they which are approved may be made manifest . It is a sign we are in the true way , when the Devill does take on so , and storm , and studies all he can to set us together by the ears , & so to break us , who united are terrible as an army with banners . This makes an argument for us and not against us . We say as Augustine once to the Pagans : Non proferant nobis quasi concordiam suam , &c. Let them not lay before us with boasting their concord and agreement , nor ●●st in our teeth ( or fling on our faces ) the foul discords and dissensions of Christians ; for Satan assaults not them as ●e doth us , for quid ibi lucri est , quia litigant , vel damni si non litigant ? What doth the Devill get by it if they do disagree ? or lose by it if they do agree ? but by sowing discords among true Christians he helps to hinder the truth , raise ill reports upon the good land , break professors a pieces , make way for persecutions , and draw off people from the practise of Gospel-order , and from obedience to Christs Lawes . This is the Devils cunning to cause contentions , and throw fire brands about our ears , on purpose to puzzle others and to fright them from the true way into his snares : as a Fowler that hath laid nets , le ts those birds or prey alone that go on of their own accord towards his gins and snares ; but such as are going from them and in the way to escape , he meets and frights and scares to make them turn back , and drive them another way . But furthermore , though we have too too many divisions and differences amongst us ( God knowes , which is our daily grief ) yet they are not so many nor dangerous as the bitter brethren would have all beleeve by looking into their multiplying glasses : but those few that are , are not about points of faith , but for the most part formes which are by some too hotly and hastily pressed and pursued . Yet as Helvetia saies , Ch. 17. harm . sect . 10. p. 310. We can't deny but the Churches planted by the Apostles were true Churches , and God was in them and with them , yet there were great strifes and dissensions in them . Lastly , Let all the Saints and Churches take warning , there be such as watch for their haltings ; and will have at them when they finde them in fractions , for then they think they can deal with them ! O would to God we were more one ! in one ! This unity is the form and face of Christs Church ; and when the face hath flawes and scratches , what a blemish is it to the whole body ? In what this unity consists I hope to handle in the next Book , and to lay before you divers rules of walking all as one in the fellowship of the Gospell : Et veritate & varietate . But for the present , I present you with Eph. 4 3 , 4 , 5. Endeavouring to keep unity . Churches united ( like a Faggot ) cannot be easily broken . And the usefulness of this appears in the severall denominations of the true Church , as his sheepfold , which is one , of which Christ alone is Pastor , Ioh. 10. his vineyard one , Mat. 20. though many vines in it : and one mother , Gal. 4.26 . whence many children are brought forth , and are legitimate when they come from the Churches conjunction with Christ , and the word ; that incorruptible seed , 1 Pet. 1.23 . begets to the faith being preached and propagated . So in Cant. 6.8 , 9. though there be threescore Queens or particular Churches that are Christs ( the Kings ) wives who are taken into fellowship with their royall husband by solemn stipulation , and with consent of all friends on both sides , Hos. 2.18 . and such as do bring dowries of praises to Christ their husband , 1 Pet. 2.9 . yea and such have the keys given them to open and to shut , and to order in the government of the family , whilest Christ ( their royall husband ) is about more publick affairs now in the world , in heaven and earth : and such Queens too as bring forth their children true heirs to the Crown , Kings and Princes , Rev. 1.6 . yet there be more , viz fourscore Concubines , or false Churches ; that have not such intimate fellowship with Christ , but only the name without Wedlock or espousals to Christ ; so are all Popish , Prelaticall , Parochiall , Presbyteriall , ( as now they are ) nationall and mee● nominall Churches , though they have the ordinary ordinances , yet few of them have a dowry of praises for Christ , all of whom are ( to speak truth ) without the keyes , and cannot order in the affairs of Christs family , and their children though born to gifts , parts , or the like , yet very rarely have to do with the inheritance ; Besides these , those that reject Christ , and too too coily cast him off , and will not marry him , or espouse him , of the vulgar sort , they are without number , exceeding many , Et nullius numeri , of no account , not worth numbring ; yet of the worst Churches there are most , of the best fewest ; and for all this , saies Christ , My Dove , my undefiled is but one , that is all at unity , and one , 2 Cor. 1.12 . and his house is one , 1 Pet. 2. though there be many stones , wals , chambers , and parts , and ( differing in form ) yet all make but one house : all these things instruct us to unity ; But what kinde of unity is this ? and wherein does it consist ? mark , it is the unity of the Spirit , wherein all Churches may bear , for this is not kept and preserved by forms and orders , as other false Churches have , & the Kingdomes of the world are ; no! but by intrinsicall life and spirit , and inward principles , not by being together , in one body , Churches , City , or society ; but by being of one spirit , and of one spirituall body , which is Christs . The heads are these which are offered for unity by the Apostle . First , there is but one body , i. e. not naturall , nor politicall , but spirituall , viz. the Church compared to a naturall body , Rom. 12.4 , 5. 1 Cor. 12.12 . which takes in the Saints of all ages under all forms , and statures ; seeing none could be left out to compleat the body , but that there is need of Saints under lower as well as under higher forms to make up the body . Whence unity is urged , for that there is need of all to make up the body , viz. of the weak as well as the strong , of the lower as well as the higher , 1 Cor. 12.18 , 20 , 23. 2. Vnity is pressed here , for that this onenesse of body flowes from the onenesse of the Head which in corpore primas tenet , &c. ( saies Bullinger de unit . eccles Dec. 5. Serm. 2. is the first of the body ; and is first , and then the body , ( of right ) , for members do not unite first , and then choose a Head ( saies Mr. Dell in 's way of peace , p. 20.21 . &c. ) but first they are ( if true Churches ) united to Christ their head , by faith , ( Uniuntur primo capiti Christo per fidem ) & ipsum caput conjungitur membris per gratiam & spiritum , Bull. in loc . ibid. ) and then one to another by love . Therefore all that have but one Head , viz. Christ , I say all Independents , Anabaptists , or whoever they be , should be one . 3. Vnity is urged in this word one body , because unity of body stands well with variety of forms , distinction of parts and differences of members , 1 Cor. 12.23 . which do not hinder but help to make up the body , by a sweet symmetry & harmony , Rom. 12.6 . Licet sint membra plurima , omnium tamen est inter ipsa cons●nsio pulcherrim● , &c. Bull. because what one member can't doe another can for the use and service of the Head. 4. Vnity is called for ; for that in one body there is an equality of members all alike , making up one body : Not one more then another ; omnes authoritate & dignitate pares sunt , ( saies Zanchy de unit . eccles cap. 3. ) etsi alter altero sit diti●r , &c. So are all Churches equall in dignity and authority though some may be richer , or bigger then others ( as was prov'd , 〈◊〉 lib. 8. ) 5 Vnity is urged , for that as each member is contented with its own place and office in the body , so ought each particular society to be , 1 Cor. 12.18 . 6. Vnity is called for , from the sympathy and fellow-feeling which one member hath with another in the body , 1 Cor. 12.26 . and all for and with the whole : mourning with them that mourn , and rejoycing with them tha● rejoyce ( Congruunt & conspirant inter s●omnia , condolent sibi●i●icem , juvant se mutuo . ) Ergo , afflict not one another . 7 Vnity is urged from the Law of love , ( and therefore of peace ) that is among the members ; one member doth not force another , or compell another , nor doth one member , beat , bite , quarrel , or fight with another ; neither doth one Church with another that is one in the spirit . And then , Lastly , Vnity is urged for , that every member , is to serve another , and to serve all ( and not himself only ( the eye is to see ( not for its self only ) but for the hand , and for the foot , and for the whole , &c. so the ear to hear , &c. and in serving the whole serves its self . Thus it is among particular Churches , there is no one meerly to serve himself , but one lives to serve another , and then all , therefore the Apostle so earnestly presses unity , for that they are one body , and are to serve one another ; and all the body of Christ. Let no Church break this bond of love and peace then , seeing all make but one body . The 2. Head is one Spirit . Hence unity is urged , for that as one soul , 1. quickens , comprehends ▪ moves , governs , and acts every member of the body , eye , hand , foot , &c. ( sicut per eandem animam multa membra unita sunt , &c. Zanch. de eccles . c. 3. ) So one spirit all the members ; and every particular Church that makes up the body ; one Spirit quickens moves ▪ governs the Independent as well as the baptized ones , &c. Ergo unity . 2. For that as one soul vivificates and unites many and divers kindes of members , so one and the same spirit puts life into Churches under diversity and differency of forms and appearances , and administrations . One and the same Spirit of Christ , unites those in earth , and those in heaven , those in the east , and those in the west : and though about severall works , yet all by one and the same Spirit , Rom. 12.6.7 . Hos. 10.11 . This then is an argument for unity . And , 3. Lastly , as one and the same soul acts severally in every member ; and so as if every member had a soul to give it life , &c. yet 't is but one and the same soul in all : So the Spirit is upon , and in every particular Church of Christ , as if every Church had the spirit solely in , and to her self ; the 7. Spirits , Rev. 5.6 . for the 7. Churches of Asia , and yet all but one and the same spirit , though living in every one . This should engage every particular Church to unity in the spirit , not in the form : that uniformity will never hold nor abide the day of his coming , Mal. 3.2 . 't's diversity of spirits that breaks the peace , not the diversity of formes : for as Zanchy observes , Non externarum ceremoniarum diversitas , impedit veram & essentialem unitatem ecclesiae : it is not the difference of outward rites and forms , that hinders the Churches unity , for God hath left them to liberty , for every Church to use , or not use , as it is most for order and edification , as to time , place , number , manner of meeting , reading , singing , praying , administring Sacraments and such like : In Augustines time some broke bread every day , some each of the day , some thrice a week , some twice , some every first day , some of the first day ; that as to time . Then as to place , sometimes in private , sometimes in publick places , sometimes from house to house , yea as to number in Augustines time , they broke bread sometimes twice a day , morning and evening , sometimes once only . See Aug. Tom. 2. Epist. 118. ad Januar. As to the manner , sometimes without prayer , sometimes with prayer , sometimes with many prayers . Bucer contra Latomum , 133. So there were many ceremonies and much difference about baptisme , about prayers , about Ministers and their ordination , &c. and yet was there unit as veritate , ( saies Aug. Tom. 2. epist. 86. ad Casulanum ) though ceremoniarum varietate : unity in verity , though in variety of formes and ceremonies ; yet true unity stood well with the differences and varieties of formes , &c. because it was in the Spirit , Psal. 45.13 . the Church was all glorious within , though without her outward cloathing was wrought with variety and diversity of needle-work . Thirdly , One Faith , in all , therefore Vnity is urged , seeing all Saints in all ages Moses , David , Daniel , Apostles , and we now , and all that were , are , and are to come , under all forms , live in one and the same mystery , and truth of Faith , 2. Cor. 4.13 . apprehending the same Christ , applying the same Salvation : so are all the Churches Independent , Baptized &c. in one Faith , though not in one Forme : they live not by forme , whether you call it a Conformity with the Prelates , or Vniformity with the Rhemists , or either with the Presbyterians , or neither with us ; but they live by faith . Not on this or that forme or worship , so , as to think our selves therefore good , and others evill , this is contrary to our life of faith , which is all on Christ. This onenesse of faith ( est una & eadem totius Ecclesiae . Zanch. ) which is one and the same in every particular Church , and throughout the whole , agrees very well with the diversity of gifts , parts , formes , &c. so in and through all one and the same Christ be apprehended , Therefore Vnity may well stand with it in all the Churches . Fourthly , he calls for Vnity from all that are called into one hope of their calling : all that are called by the inward and effectuall voice of God into one and the same hope . All hope for the same thing , none for better or greater then another . Unit as consist it in hoc , quod una eademque sit omnibus spes , una eademque omnibus , proposita haeraditas coelestis . Zanch. For 1. Cor. 1.9 . God is faithfull by whom ye were ( all alike ) called into the fellowship of his son Jesus Christ our Lord. All the Churches doe a like expect the appearances of Christ ; the day of his comming the effusion of his spirit , the restauration of Zion the reigne of Christ , and the inheritance of the Saints . Ergo , Vnity : for it is for such as differ in their hopes to differ in their love and waies . Fifthly , One Lord : no more Lords but Jesus Christ , nor no other Lawgiver , in and to all the Churches ; therfore all should come under one Lord. For 't is divers Lords and masters that make divers Lawes , and minds , and wills and ends . Hence a rise divisions indeed : but one Lord , and one Law , one master , and one mind should be in all the Churches . Besides he is Lord to all alike , as much to one , as to another . Ergo , Vnity Sixthly , One Baptisme : with which all Churches are Baptized , 1. Cor. 12.13 . For by one spirit wee are all baptized into one body . This is not the signe which hath beene often altered ▪ but the substance which will never be altered : not the powring on of water , but the powring on of the Holy Ghost in gifts and graces ; which is in all Christs Churches ; and the Baptisme of Christ indeed . All that are thus Baptized with the spirit , are Baptized into Vnity , into one Body : wherefore the Welsh Curat ( with his Welsh Crue ) would doe well to learne better English ( seeing he would insinuate that he is a Welshman of Cardiff , yet is the Apostle of the English , as he saith , as Paul a Jew of Tarsus was , yet the Apostle of the Gentiles ) then to asperse and despise those Churches of Christ that are under the administration and baptisme of the spirit . He professes openly and in Print proclaims himselfe to have Pauls spirit , ( he might have sayd Sauls spirit ) not to build up , but to destroy ( so I thought ) the Churches . For many of them are ( indeed ) such seducing dangerous spirits which cause division , ( which I confesse I feare are many of them crept into some Churches . ) Now as fi●e with fire , and water with water agrees well enough , so will all the Saints , till there come in an Antipathy of spirit amongst them ; and as fire with water cannot agree together , but make a ●●ge n●yse , quarrell and fight together , and oppose one another violently , with thundring threatnings till one destroy another , unlesse one be thrown from the other . So is it with such contrary spirits as are crept into the Churches , till they be out againe ; fire with fire agrees , because being of one and the same principle and spirit , it addes to and edifies one another ; so the Saints with Saints &c. but water and fire cannot , because the water is of another principle and spirit , and seeks to destroy the fire ; so it seems the Ranters spirits are Christ-Crucifying and Church destroying spirits ( by their owne confessions ) and in Antipathy to the Churches and Saints in fellowship , that seek to build up and edifie one another , and all in Christ : but when this spirit comes , the Welsh Curate tells us , 't will doe all that may be to destroy us . O that the Churches would then have a care in the admission ! Of such ! who ( as in Rev. 2.2 . ) say they are Apostles , but are not ! ( for they are Apostats ) ▪ And the Church of Ephesus was highly commended for their strict triall of them , and for finding them liars , seducers , and false Teachers ; so let us doe , and let us all march on to the Land of Promise , under one and the same hope of our calling whereunto we are called , and as baptized by one spirit into one body . Seventhly , Vnity is urged among all the Churches , for that they have one God and Father of all . One Father without respect of one more then another , God and Father to all alike , all alike deare to him , 2. Cor. 6.17.18 . who delights in all alike , and walks in the midst of the seven golden Candlesticks , without respect more to one then to another , as that one is better me●tall then another ; seeing all are alike borne of God , and all alike in one Covenant , and in one Jesus Christ , Mediator and Head of the Covenant ; therefore he calls for Vnity , for that we are all a Kingdome of Brethren , Mal. 2.10 . one God and Father of us all . 2. Above all ! We are not one above another ; but one aequall with another : but only our God and Father in Christ is above us all , Mat. 23.8.9 . we are all his children , and all alike live in his Will ; he alone commands , and blesseth us all alike , therefore we should be all in unity , Psal. 133.1 . O sweet for Brethren to live together in unity ! 3. Through all . All alike professe him , possesse of his nature , and he , through all the Churches , and Ordinances appeares abroad too , Isay 2.3 . Micah 4.2 . Ergo unity amongst all . 4. And in you all . He dwels in all the Churches ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) 2. Cor. 6.16 . Jo. 14.23 . his presence is in this body of Christ mysticall , as it was , it was in Christs body when cloathed with flesh , Col. 2.9.10 . Eph. 3.17.19 . the same for quality though not ( yet ) for equality . Ergo , unity amongst all . These are the bonds of unity , to tye all the Churches together in one ; Sathan hath no better sport then to see them spit fire at one another , and is never in more hopes then then . When Cyrus came neare Babylon with his mighty Army , and found the River about it , over which he was to march with his huge Hoste impassable and unpossible ( it being so deep ) to transport his Army that way , he was at a losse , till he thought of a likely way , which he as suddenly set upon ; he caused it to be divided many wayes , into many Channels , and severall Currents , wherby the main River sunk , and so on a sudden , and with great facility he got over the River with his Army and tooke the City with ease . Thus Sathan doth when he hath any designe against the Saints & Churches ; he sets them into Divisions many wayes . Therefore my Councell , as from the Lord , is to love one another , as Christs Disciples , & be stedfast in one spirit , Phil. 1.27.28 . and then be in nothing terrified by your adversaries : All the powers of Hell cannot hurt thee then . It was the Councell Severus gave to his Souldiers , in vobis pacem & caeter●s dispicite : be one among your selves , and a Fig for your Enemies ; so ye will then be terrible to all Christs Enemies in the world , for they shall know , that out of Sion shall the destroyer come , and they shall finde Jerusalem a burdensome stone . Vis unita fortior , as Mathematitians say of figures , the strait figure or line is weakest , but the circle is strongest of all others and the best , and usefullest , because one part hath fellowship with another , and meets another , and holds up one another ; so should Churches help to hold up one another ; and as one line runs into another , so should they , and such are strongest and best that are so united ; the Lord delights in them most too : O my Dove ! my undefiled is one ! this unity delights his heart . People seem much to eye the Churches now ; now they appear in publick , and preposterous spirits are ready to judge the last news of the Fleet beaten , and the Foraigne Nations , preparing and threatning , to be prodigious signes , presaging ruine to the Churches . which puts me in minde of Cicero's Oration , and answer to the Southsaiers , who upon newes of Earthquakes , and such terrible signes foretold great calamities ready to come upon the State , ( as our star gazers , and sign-observers do now but saies the Orator , fear not ; for the Gods will easily be reconciled to us , if we be but reconciled one to another : so I say to such , our God will easily be at peace with us , so we be but at peace one with another ; and then let them ( all the world if they will ) associate themselves together , and they shall be broken a pieces : yea , in order to their breaking a pieces they must associate themselves together , Isai. 8.9 ▪ and Gog and Magog from all parts of the world , must be gathered together in battell , in number like the sand of the sea ▪ and besiedge the Saints , and circumviron the beloved City of God ; but fire shall come from God ( the spirit of God ) out of Heaven ( the Churches and Saints ) and shall devoure them and eat them up ; as in Rev. 20.8.9 . Out of their mouths shall come fire and devoure their enemies , Rev. 11.5 . and whosoever hurts them must in this manner be killed ; so that there is no fear of all the foes in the world , though they be as many as the sand of the sea . But if any thing hurt us , it will be want of Love ; if any thing will nothing us , it will be want of unity . Vnities severed make no number , Letters divided make no syllable , syllables divided make no word , words divided make no speech , members divided make no body , stones divided make no wall ; so that without unity , all stands for nothing , as a Cypher . I feare nothing so much as want of unity and love among Churches and Members : for as Shepheards observe , when sheep fall a butting one another , a storme is nigh ; so may the Pastors , that Christians contending , and butting one against another , and Churches justling one against another presages a sad day , without mercy prevent ; wherefore to ease my heart , and unburthen my spirit , I am heartily possessed with three things that will produce unity indeed . Which I shall hint to the Churches , and so wipe my pen. 1. A short but sharp time to try the Churches , that those that are approved may remaine ; which day shall be short for the Elects sake , and is called but three dayes and a halfe , Rev. 11 9 though in former years , the time of persecution was long and hotter , for now their bodies shall be above ground all this time of persecution in the sight of all Peoples , and Nations , till the spirit of life enter in afresh , and in a fuller measure then ever before , and the witnesses stand upon their feet again , v. 11. Then woe , woe be to the Nations to the purpose : And this time will be so short that it is called the houre of temptation , Rev. 3.10 . and the hour of Judgement , Rev 14.7 . and for a little moment his indignation , Isa. 26.20 . 1. Pet. 4.17 and then wil the Lord ar●e to punish the inhabitants of the earth : they must begin at Gods house , 1 Pet. 4 17. but end in & with the world . Then sinners in Sion shal be afraid , Isa. 33 14 & terror & trembling shal surpriz● the Hypocrites that are in the Churches ; for they shall not be able to abide his comming like a refiners fire , Mal. 3.2 3. nor can they indure to dwel with those devouring fires , & everlasting burnings , which the upright in heart shall live in . Yet this triall will be well for the faithfull ones , for though two parts will be found drosse and left behinde in the houre of triall , yet a third part shall remaine and be purified , and shall call upon the Name of the Lord , and he will heare them and will say , this is my people , and they shall say , the Lord is my God , Zach. 13.8.9 . this houre will scatter Shepheards as well as sheep , or Pastors as well as People . But then shall the Churches be more in unity then ever , and like gold run melting together out of the refiners fire : for as a flock of sheep are loose about , and scattered , and every one for himselfe feeding , and divided one from another , till comes a dog amongst them , and then they run together and keep close one to another : and so are the Churches too much at a distance one from another , and each one minding her selfe too much and her companions too little , and too much divided , and ( doubtless ) wil be till this time of triall comes , and makes them keep together and closer in love and unity ; so in the Prelates times , Oh what a sweet unity ! love ! and harmony was among the Puritans ! and Professors ! when they were under persecution ! how they priz'd one another ! and so it will be again and much more . Secondly , This Vnity of the Churches will be honoured from Heaven with a large effusion and powring out of the spirit upon them ; for in that day they shall know the Lord to be their God , and as one people they shall acknowledge and never be ashamed , and then shall it come to passe , that he wil powr out of his spirit upon all , Joel 2.27.28 . And by this they will bee yet more one then ever before , as appears Act. 2.17 . and 4.31.32 . when those that were filled with the holy Ghost , were of one heart and one mind , and of one soule , neither sayd any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own , and then great Grace was upon them all . Great grace then indeed ! Having favour with all people , Act. 2.47 . This blessed day is hard by us ; when Jerusalem shall be a praise in the whole Earth , round about us ; but we must be purged first . In Ezek. 37.7 . as the bones there came together by the shaking , bone to bone , so will the Churches by the shaking before mentioned , in the time of triall , cling and come up closer together then ever before , Church to Church , and all as one . Though they were before ( as the bones ) scattered , so in their affections , and far asunder , they shall bee shaked together , beleeve it ; and then they shall receive life , and breath from God more then ever before , v. 9.10 . Yea they shall not only be shaked together , but tied together with sinewes and cords and lawes of Love that shall never break : and this is to be before the full winde from all 4. parts blow upon them and fill them with breath and life ; So I am assured from the Lord , and the Churches shall find it , that they must be united together with strong ties and lawes of Love , even with the liveliest sinews and strength of affections , before they shall enjoy that great and notable effusion of the spirit ( which is the winde that blowes where it lists ) in such a measure as from all parts , in all gifts , graces , and admirable administrations as from all quarters , to enliven them , and multiply them ; for in that day they will be as an exceeding great army , Eze. 37.10 . Lastly , consider the great and notable day of the Lord is then ( the next ) that comes upon us , Ioel 2.31 . and Zion shall be glorious . In the mean time as the lines of a circumference , the nigher they come to the center , the more they are united , and the nigher they are one to another . So for certain , Sirs , the nigher we are to that time , the more we are united , and the nigher we are one to another ; So that we shall see every yeare the Churches more and more united and that in the spirit , untill the dispensation of the fulnesse of times , when all things shall be in one . Ephes. 110. The Lord hasten these happy daies : I was pressed in my spirit to acquaint the Churches thus much , and to call upon them to unity , that the enemies might not have such advantages against us , as they doe take for our defect in this duty ; and that our unity consist not in formes but in the spirit ; as for practicall rules heerto , I shall refer the Reader to the following book . But thus I have shewn wherein the Presbyterians and Papists agree and are alike in Discipline , Doctrine , Ordinances , and Practises . In Discipline , for the Church Catholike , Head of the Church , matter of it , force of it , foundation of it , and in laying their foundation , and about the Keyes , and Synods , and in Officers , to all which we have declared our dissent and abhorrance , and so for Doctrine , and Practises in all , in neere fifty particulars , wherein I have clearly instanced ; the Lord make his people in England wise enough to avoyd such Popish tenets and doctrines , and give our Brethren that power and will to cry Down with Antichrist , Down with Babylon , as we do that hear the voice ; lest pertaking of her sins they pertake of her plagues , Rev 18.4 . And let them not think me their enemy for telling them the Truth . Gal. 4.16 . But to the 3. Consid. The 3 Consideration ( to come to a Conclusion ) is , that the consideration 3 Gospel Order in the Congregationall Church-way ( which wee have treated of ) restored to its primitive purity and beauty , is one of the great promises of these latter dayes ; and the spirituall glory of it sparkles in sight of the saints , out of many promises , prophesies , and varietie of the richest types ; and is to stand apparently distinct by its selfe , from all other orders , wayes , worships , or Churches whatsoever , as the visible Kingdome of Jesus Christ , for his subjects to walk in . That it is one of the great promises to bee accomplished in these latter dayes , appears , Isa. 2.2.3 . Micah . 4.1 . Isa. 35.1 . 8 9.10 . Isa. 30.21 . Psal. 110.3 . Ps. 46.2.3.4.5 . and 48. P. 3. Malach. 3.17.18 . Isa. 51.3.4 . Dan. 2.32.33.34 . Act. 3.21 . Dan. 8.3 . The higher is last ; the best wine at last , and the glory of the latter house shall be greater then the former . Hag. 2.6.7.9.21.22.23 . For further Explication ( though I have beene full in former Chapters , yet to conclude this ) I shall name these 6. speciall Heads which ensue , to prove this Generall Assertions without exception . The Prophesies and mproises are full for Christs reigne , as Head and alone Ruler in his Church , especially and most visibly in these latter dayes . He alone shall reign over them in Zion and for ever . Micah 2 17. Psal. 99.1.2 . Isai 9.2.7 . and 22.23 . Psa. 2.6 . And is set up King in Sion . He will be greatest in Zion· Rev. 2.26 . Yea and rule the nations to , Rev. 11.15.17.18 . Zach. 14.9 . Therefore all power is given him in heaven and earth , Church and State , Mat. 28.18 . to rule all , as being more excellent then the mountains of prey , Ps. 76.4 . till all be under him , 1. Cor. 15.25 . Thus he ●ides in our dayes conquering , and to conquer . But to speak to his Headship ; In his Zion , his most speciall habitation and Kingdome . Hee is the alone Head , of whom all members aptly joyned , receive life and growth . And this he is to us , as he is one with the Father , Jo. 17.21 . From whom we have life and grace . In especiall maner hee is to bee manifested such a Head in these dayes of restauration , Hosea 1.11 . the children of Judah and Israel ( though they differ as to form , as Independents and Anabaptists &c. ) shall be gathered together , and appoint to themselves one Head , and come up out of the Land , for great shall be the day of Jezreel . So the Churches of Christ shall be all one , as we said before in Vnity , under one Head , viz. Jesus Christ. For although the Churches have stood off hitherto one from another , as the 10. Tribes did from Iudah , and so we●e divided into two parts , as Independents and Anabaptists , God hath promised to unite them , under one Head , ( when as circumcision and uncircumcision shall be nothing , but a new creature ) though for a time by reason of our too much Idol-worship , God suffered them to divide , 1. King. 11.33 . Yet God hath promised the elect of them shall be all one under one Head ▪ i. e. Christ whom they shall appoint , choose , proclaime , cry up with one suffrage ; he saith not a King for so he shall bee to the Nations , and rule them with a rod of iron , but a Head , & so he shall be to the Churches , to testifie the firme , sweet and inseparable union they have with Christ , as a Head to give vitall spirits power , nourishment , ●ife , wisedome , influence , and all to them , as the members ; i. e. a more admirable , usefull happifying excellent union , beyond comparison , then can be betweene a King and people . And then they shall come up out of the Land , the Churches shall arise out of that of Babylon which held them captive ; out of those forms which made them differ , and from those Idols that caused their divisions , then shal they come out of that Land that they were in bondage in , and bee no more intangled with those yokes . Gal. 5.1 . and all this in the spirit , as Zanchy observes on Hosea because great shall bee the day of Jezreel . That is seminis Dei , of the holy seed , the elect of God , that is , of Christ ▪ as Psal. 118.24 . the great and glorious day of Christs reigne , and great shall be the day of his Churches ; i. e. the saints thus congregated , that have ( as before is declared ) suffered affliction ( for a short time ) in the valley Jezre●l , v. 4. wherfore in a word : Exhort all the Churches ( as Hosea 2.1 . ) say to your brethren Ammi , and to your sisters Ru●hamah , say one to another Ammi my people . The Lord saith Ye are my people , the people that all these things concern , and this great day wil come upon . O preach this doctrine ! and say to them , Yee are my brethren and sisters : O that we would begin this ! to stir up one another , and to provoke one another to love and good workes , Heb. 10.24.25 . and so much the more the nigher this day is , yea to call abroad to such of Israel and Judah that are not yet gathered with you under this one Head , that they may make haste to come up out of the land , wherein they are captive to the King of Babylon , the Beast ! saying to them without , there is mercy , and they may be received ; for though by nature they are Lo-ruchamah , and aliens to the Common-wealth of Israel , without grace , without God , without mercy , or love ; yet by grace they are Ru●hamah , i. e. a people that have found mercy , and hope , and may be received as we , for his bowels are not shut , but means are offered . Secondly , the Prophesies and promises premonstrate the most precious matter which the Church shall be made up of in these last ages , as jewels , Mal. 3.17 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his peculium , or pick'd out ones , in that day : So Esa. 54 11 , 12. Behold , I will lay thy stones with Saphires and fair colours , upon Christ as the Foundation of his Church , ( which is already laid , and from this very day of the laying ( Christ to be our ) Foundation , God stands engaged to bless us : Haggai 2.18 , 19. From this day will I bless you , saith the Lord , your Churches shall be blessed , upon this foundation shall be laid up the most excellent stones , living stones , yea the liveliest , 1 Pet. 2.5 . having the fairest appearance , and the fullest vertue and efficacy . The Jaspers , viz. are those that are heav'nly minded , meant by the excellentest Skie-colour'd ones that are , those whose conversations are in heaven , and contemplations about heaven . The windows , viz. those that give light , or rather , through whom light ( as they receive from the Sun ) comes to others , are to be of Agates , or rather as some read it , of Chrystals excelling all in purity and sanctity , having of that pure river , cleare as Chrystal in Rev. 22.1 . yea and the gates by whom they enter into the Churches , are to be as Carbuncles , Trem. saith red stones , Carbuncles being of a red colour like fire : the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies fiery , burning , as well as red , and seems to carry out the excellency of those that do receive others ( as gates to let in ) into the Church , viz. being full of the Word and Spirit , like fire in the bones , by the searching Doctrine of the Word they make trial of those that would enter , Rev. 2.2 . as fire purges and tries , and proves , so do they , being most excellent in divine and spiritual knowledge ; yea , all the borders of precious pleasant stones ; all this showes the excellency of the Church , for matter , which is fore-told by this Prophet , especially relating to these latter dayes , all the stones ( of which this building consists ) even from the Foundation to the topstone , yea and to the very borders , are to be of the most precious stones , the precious from the vile , Ier. 15. not good and bad together , or precious and common together , as have been hitherto , but all of precious stones , ( at least so in appearance ) as Chrystals , Agates , Saphires , Carbuncles , and such like holy and excellent Saints , shining severall wayes for singular uses , with gifts and graces , and what is spoken before figuratively follows plainly : They shall be all taught of God , i. e. by the Vnction from on high , 1 Jo. 2.20.27 . and built up in righteousnesse , i. e. in grace , spirit , power ▪ &c. Such transcendent matter to make up the Church in the latter daies , lies evident for an undeniable truth , in Rev. 21.17 . 18.19.20 . and the foundations of the wall of this City were garnished with all manner of precious stones &c. but that this is spoken of the Church here , appears in Rev. 21.2 . call'd New Jerusalem comming down to dwell amongst men : not that Jerusalem above , Gal. 4.26 . as Paul speaks of it ; but the Tabernacles ( i. e. every particular Church ) of God with men , to whom the Lords presence is sweetly promised , v. 3. and all former afflictions and persecutions are to be removed , v. 4 and times of restitution for new things to be restored , v. 5. Now let the Churches that live in the dayes when the seven Vials full of the seven last plagues are to be powr'd out , know ; that the particular description of their glory and excellency is obvious , and view-able , for though before ( till those days ) they wil be but as poore tabernacles with men ; yet then they ( in unity as before ) shall be the Great City ▪ having the glory of God , v. 10.11 . and light , like a stone most precious , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , i. e. Luminosum Corpus , lumen ex se diffundens : i. e. the presence of God most gloriously in her , viz. such a presence , and such a light shall the Churches then be filled with , as will give and communicate light to others round about ; In this sence shall the glory of the latter house be greater then of the former , for that in the former the presence of the Lord was manifested , more according to Gods old way of appearing in the Tabernacle or Temple ; that is the Temple was then filled with smoak , as Rev. 15.8 . his presence , & power ▪ & glory , &c. appear'd in smoake , and were discernable so far as might be in smoake ; but then ( it is ere long ) there shall be another manner of manifestation of God in the Churches more glorious , and excelling in power and presence , life and light , then ever before ▪ viz. by filling the Churches with a bodily light , such a substantiall manifestation of himselfe , as shall give light to others , and no more in smoake , darke veiles , and formes , ( which hurt the best sight most ) as before , but in pure light , cleare and light discoveries of himselfe by his spirit , filling the Churches therewith . And further , a further and more speciall description of th●ir happinesse from the excellency of the man●er which he sheweth to be all precious , v. 18 all the City of pure gold , which fires or flames of persecution can't consume , but make more illustrious and pure , and will never weare away , but will be perpetuall for substance ; yea the very outsides , and lowest matter most precious , and like precious stones . Here are twelve named in number alluding to Exod. 28.15 . the 12. Gems set on the breast plate , for the High Priests ornament . Hebr. Coshen , agreeing with Casha● ; for the Saints are so to Christ the High-Priest and in his breasts ; and will be abundantly unto his praise : As an Oracle silent , yet seeing Chazah . And there were to be foure rowes , foure-square , doubtlesse to signifie a comming in from East , West , North , and South , but what kind of matter shall make up the Church , may something appeare from the severall significations and natures of the stones ; as first the Jasper , of the Hebr. Jashpeh , growing in Scythia and Persia , they be of severall sundry colours , but the best is the azure-green ▪ or airy green , which hath a heav'nly brightnesse , ( which Pliny cals , Aerizusa ) of admirable beauty , sparkled with many blood colour'd drops , and it is of incomparable use , and hath variety of good in it ; hung about the necke , it easeth pains , in the inwards , & comforts them saies Galen , staies the violent current of bloud out of the nose , and mulierum menses prohibet ; for it hath an astringent faculty : And some say it availes much against libidine and the luxurious lusts of the flesh . Such excellent matter must Christ's Church , the new Jerusalem in these latter days be begun with ; And we find the former ended with it , Exod. 28.20 . and indeed we must begin where the former ended , and so go on to exceed ; such are Jaspers then , that are ( as we said before ) most heav'nly minded , & enlightned , sprinkled with the bloud of the Lamb , and of incomparable use , being full of divine ( though it may be occult ) qualities , of a strict conversation , and having an astringent power to take people off of luxurious , libidinous , wicked lives , and from making provision for the flesh to satisfie the lusts therof . Secondly , The Saphire which is the Hebrew name , but in Chaldee is Shabz●z , is very pleasant in the eye , which the Medes most account of ; it is hard and durable , and delights and chears the whole man. It is good against choler , melancholy , and the stings of Scorpions , saith Albertus Magnus . It expels Poyson , and cures some pestilent diseases ; such are Saphirs then , ( and shall make excellent matter for the Church ) who are precious in the eyes of all who have sweet , humble , selfe denying , amiable cariages ( which were to bee wished were more among all Church-members now ) as they had in primitive times Act. 2.47 . to be praysed and highly accounted of , of all ; such doe refresh and delight the souls of others , they are durable too , and will never fa●l away from the Church , or forsake the truth , nor be frighted away from profession but endure fiery trials ; such are very vigilant over their own Choler , and doe much curbe and cast by their passion , and they serve the Lord merrily with gladnesse of heart , and rejoyce in the Lord alwayes , and are very usefull against many reigning , raging pestilentiall distempers , and venemous lusts to suppresse them , allay the rage , comfort the heart , and cure the disease . Such as these are in the second place very precious matter : and further as some say , the Saphire will keep a man more chast , by abating the boyling and burning heat of the flesh , and that it is good to clear the eye-sight , to restrain sweat ; and so ( doubtlesse ) such Saints are signified heereby that doe keep their hearts and affections most pure to Christ , & most chast and alone to the Lord , without running a whoring ( as too many doe ) to covetousnes , the world , flesh , pleasure , or the like , that will not suffer their hearts to be taken up with any thing but Christ ; and therefore they curb and cool the heat of carnall concupiscence by the vertue and divine power which is in them . And thereby these have the quicker and clearer sight and faculties of understanding , and do much help others in their sight , especially such as have their eyes oppressed with ill humours ; and they much restraine sweat and labours after things that will not profit them , and thereby do keep their souls and bodies in the better temper , and grow the stronger and heartier after things above ; these are precious matter . Thirdly , A Chalcedonie , which is in Hebr. Nophe● , a sort of Carbuncle , as Pliny saies , lib. 37. chap. 7. it is plaine simple stone in appearance , yet it hath a fiery brightnesse , and grows in the Northern parts , and is found about the Straits of the sea of Chalcedon . Some say it is denominated from the Hebrew Cadcod , as is before mentioned in Isay. 54.12 . On this stone was Judahs name engraven , of whose Tribe came Christ. Heb. 7.14 . And this stone is of singular use against foolish phantasms and flying illusions , and doth very much strengthen the constitution of the body ( vide Zanch. de Ter. meteoris lib. 3.12 . ) The mystery of this is of such Saints that are precious within , though simple and plain and of no account without , and that promise but little by outward appearance , and yet are full of fire , and of the Holy Ghost , ( of the Tribe of Judah ) deeply engraven in them , and on them , as Ignatius was said to have the very Letters JESUS written on his heart ; such are found in the faith , and found in judgement , and of great use , and able to suppresse the phantasticall flying conceits of unfound empty professors , pretenders , and busie brains ; as in every age many will bee about to spread their sprights , and whine out their whimsies and delusions ; and such precious matter will bee of much use to strengthen whereto they belong . Fourthly , the Emerauld , Smaragd . or in Hebr. Bareketh , of Barak , which is Lightning , Ezek. 1.13 . is of a most pleasant , lovely , lively fresh green colour ; on this stone Levi was ingra : ved : it grows in Scithia ; it is a very soft stone , and soon broke , and is not to be forced : It is said of a certain King of Hungaria , that once when he lay with his Wife , having this stone on his finger , it flew in three pieces , which may easily be by over-heating it ; therefore but few weare them : It is a great enemy to Bacchus and Venus , and cures many Diseases , helps the Memory , and is good for the sight , and much expels dreams and fancies from men when they would sleep ; and certainly such Emeralds are those Saints that lively represent the Green Spring , that is come ; the flowering and blossoming dayes that doe come , that are fat and green Olives in the house of the Lord , ye green figs that gives a good smell , and such as are Priests and Levites in Christ , that are very tender-hearted ; a little passion , or pride , or carnall heat , of flesh , &c. makes them humble and soone breaks their hearts ; they can't endure sin , no not appearances of evill , or the least occasions to sin ; though there be but few of them , they comfort many a soul , cure many a disease , help many a bad memory , enlighten many a dark understanding , and do much enable against doating dreams , and foolish fancies that have no good bottomes . These are excellent matter indeed , but they will not endure to be forc'd , but easily yield , and are willing in the day of his power . Fifthly , the Sardonix : the word seems to bee made up out of the Sardine and Onix stone , named in Hebr. Jahalom , ( says Ainsworth ) of smiting ; for it is a very hard stone , and will bear banging blowes : it is ( as Pliny notes lib. 37. c. 6. ) of a fleshly ruddy colour , to be found among the Indians and Arabians , and is excellent to make one modest ; and may mean such sort of Saints as are found and will suffer all sorts , yea the violen●est knocks , strokes , stripes and calamities for Christs sake , the Churches and Gospels sake , and yet will hold out and nothing fear at all , and yet such as are innocent as Doves , very modest men , full of humanity and curtesie to all , stoutly disposed and very gratious . Sixthly , the Sardius , called in Hebr. Odem , of Adam , red . For it is a Bloud coloured stone ; the Chaldee calls it Samkan , and Thargum ▪ Jerusalemi , Samketha , it is found among the Sardians , whence it hath it's name : it is of excellent use to cheare up the heart , and as Paraeus further notes , to drive away fears , to cause boldnesse , to stay the issue of bloud , to put an edge upon the ingenuity &c. It hath an attractive power over wood , and drawes it to it selfe , as the Loadstone drawes iron , and it is excellent to receive a Seale or Image , neither is it dull'd by the often using it : such precious matter are meant by this , who are of the second Adam , the image of him who is of the heaven heavenly , 1. Cor. 15. wash'd with his bloud , and so presented to the Church ; such can comfort poor soules as they have been comforted , 2. Cor. l. 4. and then cheer drooping hearts by declaring their own experiences : these Christians ( and precious stones ) will not suffer feares to possesse them , but by faith are above feares , full of fortitude and courage for Christ and the truth , and evermore emboldning others to stand to it , to fight a good fight of faith , being clothed with the whole armour of God , and to be strong in the Lord , and in the power of his might , putting an edge upon them to act and stir for the truth , and never to be idle ; yea such as are attractive to draw the wood of Lebanon , the Cedars of the Forrest , and fit matter for the builders use into fellowship with them ; and such as have the image of God , the likenesse of Christ admirably on them , and the plaine seale of the spirit in them ▪ and such as are never weary with well doing , nor dull'd with using , these are precious ones indeed that shall bee found ( ere long in more plenty ) fit matter for the Church ; although as yet but few of them are gathered , for they are somewhat obscure in outward appearance . Seventhly , the Chrysolite , which in Hebr. is Tharshish , the name of the Sea in Psa. 48.8 . for it hath the name of a golden stone , and is called in Chaldee Crum-jamma , of the Sea●ole , because that the glorious splendor of it is most splendent , shining golden sea green ; it growes among the Indians and Arabians , and fetched out of black earth oftentimes . It is of excellent use to refrain from Venery and lust , and layd under the tongue it doth admirably abate the thirsts of feav●rs , or violent desires , and it shines loveliest early , horâ matutinâ , by morning light ; such precious souls shal be found out too , that shal be filled with the knowledge of the Lord , which is to be as a mighty floud ; and as the Sea covers the Earth , ( Sea-green ) i. e. having their colour and properties from this Sea and these waters . Such as were fetched from the Blacks , of darknesse into light ; out of the black Earth of the first man , by the power of God , ( although they will with the Chrysolite retaine some signes of that place from whence they are fetch'd , by som black spots which wil appear viz. in their infirmities ) they are great enemies to the lusts of the flesh , & to carnall concupiscence , having in them a restringent faculty to curb and keep back themselves from running out ; and they find a vertue in them , that allayes all passionate and excessive thirstings after the world , or things below ; and are means to coole this in others that have violent Feavorish humours , and call and cry for those things to satisfie them and to quench their thirst , which will but increase their thirst ; but these Saints have vertue from Christ ( the Sun that shines on them and makes them precious ) that they shall never thirst ( so ) more , Jo. 4.14 . and these precious ones will seek the Lord early , as Mary Magdalen did early seek Christ , Jo. 20.1 . ev'n while it was yet dark ; they will lose no opportunity , but take it betimes , and they shine best earliest . Such are the precious matter promised to make up the Church in these last ages . Eighthly , Beryll , in Hebr. Shoham , in Gr. Beryll , the Chaldee is Burla ; Pliny saies it is an Indian-stone , but Dionysius that it is found in Babylon also , of a watrish , sky-colour , for the most part , and somewhat dull to look on ( although they be of divers sorts , and they having divers colours . ) This is also of exceeding good Use , against the humours of the Eyes , and to suppresse sighes , and to help the ill liver , and ( set to the Sun ) to kindle a fire , &c. Such Saints are precious matter indeed who excell in these properties , that are not onely sky-colour'd , and heavenly , but ( watrish ) humble and lowly , and willing to be of no account for Christs sake ; they are little or nothing in appearance , but full of vigour and vertue to comfort souls , to suppresse sighes , and cause sorrows to fly away , to help their sight , to remove humourish obstructions , and to work upon ill livers , and to restore them to soundnesse ; and having the power of Christ , the influences of this sun of righteousnesse with them , they wonderfully inflame souls , and kindle a fire in their hearts to embrace and embosome the things of God , to long after communion with Christ , to bee in love with him and his wayes , and to set souls a burning after grace and glory ; such as these are indeed precious matter . Ninethly , a Topaz , of the Gr. Topazion , in Hebr. Pitdah , whereunto ●●pad or Topaz is taken , found among the Aethiopians , Job . 21.19 . Pliny sayes it growes among the Troglodites , as Dionysius sayes it is an Indian Gemme , in Chaldee Jarkam and Jarkatha , that is green ; it is of a rich golden green colour , it is of excellent use against the Emrods , it affords ( sometimes ) a milky liquor , cures a wound , helps the Lunatick , and keeps much from mutability . Surely such Saints are precious matter , and usefull Gemmes , that the latter dayes shall finde out , for curing of many sharp humorsome diseases , that would obstruct the passages of the excrements , which would be to the hurt of the body , such as would hinder the casting out of traditions , and excrementall doctrines which will hurt the Church : Such Saints shall say , as Isay 30.22 . Get thee hence : Oh fie upon 't ! out with them ( as the word bears it ) as with excrements . Such Saints shall afford sweet milky consolations for Babes , out of their bellies shall flow Rivers of water of life , they shall be weak to the weak , as well as strong to the strong ; they shall bind up many a wounded and broken Reed , and poure Wine and Oyle into the sad gashes of wounded spirits , applying seasonable promises and Balsomes , yea the lunatick ones , that fall sometimes into the waters ( of drunkennesse and iniquity ) wherein without mercy they will be drowned , and sometimes into the fire ( of their lusts , fitting them for the flames of Hell , if they be not help'd by grace : ) Such as these may be means of recovering , and of confirming many in the Faith , and keeping them from changing with every wind of Doctrine ; and they do themselves , and endeavour to make others hold fast their profession , and that without wavering . Oh these wil be precious matter too ! Tenthly , A Chrysoprasus , in Hebr. Shebo , in Gr. Achate , in Eng. Agate , the name signifies a golden green , and indeed the best of them are green sparkling with golden guttulis ; it is of excellent use to revive the spirits , to help the Eye-sight too , and to shine most excellently in darknesse : Oh! such Saints will be precious matter indeed ! that shine best and most in afflictions ! troubles ! nights ! in a time of darkness ! when they see no light ! these will be strong in faith , and are best in worst times , and therefore must needs revive the spirits of others , and quicken them , which be of great use to helpe the weak-sighted ▪ Eleventhly , the Hyacinth , or Jacinth , in Hebr. Leshem ; it is but little , but excellent , of a bright purple colour , or somewhat violet-like , found among the Indians , and Aethiopians , ( and so is the following : ) this is of admirable vertue to preserve from the blast of lightnings , the danger of Plagues and Pestilence in corrupt and infected ayres ; and as Albertus testifies , it causes sweet rest and sleep , defends the animall spirits , and makes men rich : Oh the unspeakable excellent use of the precious gems the Saints of the last dayes ! such Saints are surely meant here , as are violet-like , humble , with their heads low , but hearts high ; sweet and savory , the first flowers ( as it were ) of the time , the witnesses of the Churches spring , and of the Sunnes approach ; these will be able by the divine vertue in them ▪ to keep themselves and others too from hurt by tempests stormes or flashing persecutions or troubles ; yea , from the contagion of sin , and pestilentiall diseases , and corruptions which reigne in others , and make them rage ; these keep up their spirits for God and the Truth , and doe defend the life of God in them from all that would offend those vitall and soul-spirits ; yea such will be a means to make themselves and others to rest in Christ ( their beloved , ) and to finde their bed green too , yea such do make soules ( their own and others ) Rich in Grace , and to abound in wealth , and to fetch in apace of those Treasures of Wisedome and Knowledge , which are layd up in Iesus Christ for the Saints . Twelfthly , An Amethysh , in Hebr. Achlama , is a Stone to be found among the Indians , Arabians , Armenians , Galatians , Aegyptians , &c. this is of a ruddy colour ▪ and is of excellent use to cause and keep temperance , to restrain all excesse and drunkennesse , it takes away from night-feares , and provokes sweet rest : So the Saints in these latter dayes that excel in these vertues , are meant to be the Mystery of this Precious stone , such as are exceeding temperate , and cause others so to be , that will not abide excesse , and they are not afraid of evill tidings , Ps. 112.7 . nor of terrours by night , nor of those terrours which attend times of darknesse and afflictions , they live above all fears and fancies , by an Heroick faith , being resolved , come life , come death , nothing shall separate them ; And they provoke to that sweet soule-rest , and holy recumbency of Spirit which they have in Christ. These are the Precious stones , the excellent Church-matter promised in these dayes to come : And these being under a promise , O what happy dayes are comming ! great shall be the day of Jezreel indeed ; blessed daies then are approching for the Churches : O let us wait for them ! and begin them , by bringing forth the properties of these Precious stones , which are a mystery of the excellency of Church-members , and matter , consisting of excellent gems and jewels , which shall be gather'd up in these latter dayes from all parts of the world ; East , West , North , and South ; Jewes ▪ and Gentiles , Indians , Arabians , Medes , Persians , Scythians , Sardians , as well as English , French , Spaniards , Italians , &c. These Precious stones , viz. such Saints are exceeding rare , as yet ; but ere long the appearances of Christ will be higher , and the shining approaches of this Sunne will be hotter , and the Gospel shall go further , ev'n beyond Seas to find them out , and to gather them up . And after the houres of triall ( which shall come upon the Churches of Europe ) will the Spirit be pour'd out amply , for such an ample employment , viz. to gather Jewels and Precious stones for Church-matter in all parts of the World ; As the excellency of the matter , so the variety of that excellency is also under promise , as appears by the various properties of the Precious stones ; and certainly Zion will be a beautifull scituation , and the joy of the whole Earth : And who will not in those dayes desire to have a right in them ? and highly prize them that are members of the Churches ( which make up this great and holy City the Jerusalem , ) as Precious stones , though now they are contemned and cursed by many , and thought fit for the most furious and spurious foote of disdaine to trample upon . Oh alas ! be they poore to look upon ? plaine simple , in appearance ( many of them , ) yet their worth is not known to men as yet ; but dogs do rent them , and swine would trample them into the mire . But then , when the seven Vials are poured out ; they shall be no more reviled , or vilipended , there shall be no more death , or sorrow , or trouble , or paine upon the Churches , but they of a little one shall become a thousand : and as Isay 60.5.6 . and Isay 49.18.19 . their destroyers , and those that made them wast must be gone packing , v. 7. and then saith the Lord , lift up your eyes round about and behold ; all these gather themselves together , and come to thee ( to be joyn'd ) and he sayes , they shall be ornaments to the Church , and all her waste desolate places shall be re-edified , and yet too little to hold such a company of Zion-Citizens , and Inhabitants , insomuch as the Church shall say , the place is too strait , give me roome ; make way yee Kings , Nobles , Nations , I must have more , and more roome every year , till this ( now ) very little stone grow greater and greater , till it fill the whole earth ; looke for this hastily , and be assured the Jewes will be admirable ornaments , and excellent Church matter by 1666. and many before ; but of all the Tribes the Church must have matter , as appears by the twelve stones which had the names of the twelve Tribes engraven ; though some apply them particularly one by one to the twelve Apostles : Oh! that in the mean time , every Church and every member would make one or other of these Precious stones ! and let them but study by the properties and excellencies of ev'ry stone , how far the following Ages will exceed ours , and Saints exceed us , and Churches exceed ours , who shall be more ( and more to be accounted of ) for their inward excellencies , spirituall and divine vertues , with varieties of them , then they shall be for their outward appearances , or professions or formes , &c. But thus for the matter fore-told , which I chose to demonstrate from the signification of these Precious stones , that I might not labour in vaine . Thirdly , The Prophecyes and Promises to be made good in the latter dayes , are very full for the forme of the Church , which we have sufficiently proved in many Chapters before , and which appears , Ezek. 37.19.21.22 . Zeph. 3.9 . so in Hosea 1.13 . Isaiah 35.8.9 . 2 Cor. 6.17.18 . and in a word , all Churches shall admit her m●mbers one way ; therefore all the Gates ( through which men enter into this City ) are Pearles , all the Gates of one Pearle ; i. e. Christ , the Pearle of price , in and by whom alone shall be entrance into all Churches and Pallaces of Sion . Rev. 21.21 . and no other way , Act. 4.12 . but something to this afterwards ; only this , know that his fanne is in his hand now , Mat. 3.12 . to make separation betweene Wheat and Chaffe , Saints and Hypocrites , to the purpose ere long . Fourthly , the finall cause of the Church is also promised in the latter dayes , at large ; what this finall cause is , we have showne in 1 lib. which some make two-fold , ( so Zanch. lib. 4. cap. 10. S. 39. ) 1. the glory of Christ to be thereby known , as Jo. 17.10 . I am glorified in them , saith Christ : now this is foretold , Mat. 16.26 . Act. 3.13 . with 21. Mat. 24.30 . Rev. 5.12 . thou art worthy of all glory . 2. the latitude of Gods love even to East , West , North , and South , ( as before Jer. 31.3 . ) to gather the Elect from all corners of the Earth , Mat. 24.31 . Oh how this doth commend his love ! Rev. 5.8 . Ezek. 16.6 . Hosea 14.4 . Rev. 1.5 . Jer. 31.3 . But in a word , the general end promised and prophesied in the latter days , is to set forth his glory and praise , as Ephes. 2.21 . so is it in Isay 65.17 . as if he should say ( saies Brightman , ) I will make to me a new people , in whose Assemblies I will be praised , and glorified , so is it in Ier. 31.7 . Rev. 21.11 . Isay 66.18 . to Isay 49.3 . in whom ( in whose Churches of Israel ) I will be glorified , Isay 43. 21. so 1 Pet. 1.7 . 1 Pet. 2.9 . Rev. 15.2.3 . this is especially a worke that will lye upon the latter dayes , let the Churches look after it . But the finall cause with reference to us , is that God may dwell with us , 2 cor 6.16 . Rev. 21.3 . let the Churches make these their end . Fifthly , the Vnity and Order of the Churches , is prophesied and promised two , to be excellent and spirituall in the latter dayes , Jer. 24.7 . Isay 54.13 . Isay 56.6.7.8 . Isay 60.21 . worshipping him in spirit , and in truth , Jo. 4.23.24.25 . Eph. 2.19.22 . and 1 Pet. 2.5 . then shall there be gold for brasse , silver for iron , brasse for wood , &c. Isay 60.17 . spirit for forme , truth for tradition , life for letter , power for appearance , both in unity and order , 1 cor . 13.9 . and that which is more perfect shall do away that which is more imperfect ; but I have spoke to this also at large before : I shall conclude with Christs prayer , John 17.21.22 . which as appears in v. 20. does include us in these dayes as much concerned ; that the Saints ( and Churches ) may all be one , as the Father is in Christ , and Christ in the Father , ; that is spiritually , and in power , mystery , and in truth : And for that end ( sayes Christ ) the glory which thou hast given me , I have given them : ( those Saints & Churches that I pray for ) what glory is that see v. 5. i. e. with thine own selfe , ( not with the worlds earthly pomp , jollities , or terrene enjoyments , but with thine owne presence and divine being ) this glory ( saith Christ ) that thou hast given me , I have given them ; that is , of this divine phesence , power , grace , and being , communicated to them by the holy spirit ; why so ? that they may be one ( there is unity and order meant spiritually ) as we are one : one with us , one one with another , by one and the same spirit : this will be especially in these latter dayes , because , Sixthly , the Promises and Prophesies are very pregnant and big-belly'd for the breaking out of his spirit upon his Saints , and Churches in these latter dayes , Ioel 2. so Isay 59.20 . the Redeemer shall come to Zion , and then v. 21. my spirit shall be upon thee , and my words which I put in thy mouth shall never depart out of thy mouth , nor out of the mouth of thy seed , nor of thy seeds seed , saith the Lord from henceforth and for ever , Isay , 11.9 . H●bak . 2.14 . Zach. 12.18 . Thus if we seriously perpend and weigh with the word of God these six Heads , it will lye obvious to our understanding , that the Church of Christ restored into Gospel-Primitive purity , is the great promise of these later dayes , as appears also in severall Prophesies , wherein the Lord hath promised the repaire of Sion , and to build up the desolate and waste places , and Ierusalem that is broken down , and such like Scriptures , Ps. 102.15.16 . that concern us in these latter dayes , so is it in Ier. 31.4 . I will build thee up again , O Virgin of Israel ! ( ye that are holy and pure sanctified in Christ Iesus ! this Promise is made to you , ) so in Ier. 33.7 . I will build them as at first , saith the Lord ; in order to this work , is all the noise in the world ; for all the obstructions must be removed , and the old must passe away , as in the 2 Pet. 3.10 . with a great noise ; see in Zach. 4.6.7 . where the Prophesie ( which is for our dayes , and from hence forward ) promises the removall of all lets to this work of the Lord ; though they be mountains that hinder , yet he 'le make them all plains : And also the Lord promises the progresse of his House and Temple , ( viz. in these later dayes ) which he hath put into the hands of Christ ( the typified Zerubbabel ) v. 9. ( who hath ( already , even in our dayes ) layd the foundation of it ) untill he hath finished it . So that in order to this Church-worke , and building up of Sion , it will easily appeare , that Gods designe in these latter daies , is to throw downe mountains , viz. the mightiest powers , Princes , Armies , Monarchies , or Kingdomes that oppose the Kingdome of Christ and hinder this work of the Lord in Zerubbabel's hands , Job 9.45 . Job 28.9 . Isay , 10.32.33 Isay 14 4.5.9.10 . & 41.15.16 . & 24.19.21.23 . Hag. 2.6.7.21.22.23 . he will throw them all into the dust that dare to appeare against Sion , or the King of Sion , Psal. 2.9 . wo be to all the Powers ! Princes ! Nations , on the Earth ! that take part with the Dragon ! or the Beast ! or Turk , or Pope ! Rev. 19.19 . God will make all these mounts ( be they never so great ) plaines , by scattring them as dust , Isay 41.16 . Dan. 2.35 . scourging them , Isay 10.24.25.26 . with furious blows , Ezek. 25.16.17 . by stilling them , Exod. 15.16 . Isay 11.6 . Ps. 8.2 . by ruining them , Jer. 49.38 . & 51.20 to the 27. Hag. 2.22 . or else by converting of them , Psal. 102.13.15 . Isay 49.11.12 . & 60.3.4 . Rev. 21.24 . O then let us not be afraid ! Luke 21.25.27.28 . but lift up our heads for our day is nigh ! Psal. 46.2.3.4 . but let all that would have Zion repaired , rejoyce that the Mountains God is making Plaines , the great work then of his Church is hard by : for the head-stone , ( i. e. the first Plantation stone , according to the Primitive patterne , and practise , which Christ himselfe , and after him his Apostles brought forth ) is already in some measure ( blessed be the Lord ) brought forth with shoutings , crying grace , grace , unto it : wherefore let us blesse God for that voyce of Rev. 19.17.18 . which we have heard in our Land , and thinke it not strange the world is an uproare , for all this must be to make for Zion , to make for the Gospel-order in Church-state , before the Apostolicall primitive Church and order can be restored , which is now hard by us : and then the Churches shall flourish and rejoyce , Isay 35.10 . Joel 3.16.17 . and remaine , Heb. 12.27.28 . Zach. 14.11 . and their name shal be the Lord is there ; wherefore read in the Book of God when all this shal be , Isay 34.16 . The next part of this Consid. is that the glory of the Gospel Church is promised by many excellent Types & ful Figures , as the wise know the Old Test. testifies , and not only the glory of Christs Church , but the shame , confusion , and downfal or Antichrists Church in these latter dayes , is by Types layd before us . I might instance for the fall of false Churches , under the Type of Aegypt , Ezek. 31.18 . Rev. 11.8 . that kept Gods people in bondage , and therefore must be plagued again and again , Isay 10.26 . after the manner of Aegypt and of Sodom too , Rev. 11.8 . whence the Lot's are cal●'d out ( even into a little Zoar or handfull at first ) that they may be burnt up with brimstone , Rev. 19.20 . in the furious anger of the Lord , Psal. 83.11.14 Isay 34.2.3 . for their spirituall Whoredomes and Adulteries : So also of Babylon , whence all that can heare are called ( in our dayes , for the voyce is now ) Rev. 18.4 . to make haste out , for Judgements are comming upon her ; the mother of Harlots , Rev. 17.5 . yea of a sudden , in one houre , Rev. 18.8.9.10 . within these three years the smoake of her burning will begin to appeare , and smell in the nostrils of the Churches , and soon after Anno 1655. All that see it shall stand as far from her as they can , for feare of her torments , Rev. 18.10 . though thousands that see it not will fall into it , and feele it to their cost ▪ yet all the Saints , Apostles , Churches , Prophets shall rejoyce , for that Babylon shall be throwne downe with a mighty violence , never to rise more , Rev. 18.20.21 . but to speak no more to this ; in a word , he shall come to his end , and none shall help him , Dan. 11.45 . and that this his ruine is nigh , appears in the 44. verse ; because the tidings which he heares does already trouble him , as the Expositors upon this place have foretold it , to be fatally ominous , and to foretell his eminent fall . 1. For the signs are the falling away from him , ( which will be more apparent within these three yeares ) as the Iewes did from Antiochus Epiphanes ( a picture of the Pope . ) 2. His feare at the tydings of rumours abroad , Dan. 11.44 . the Iesuits , Cardinals , Pope , yea , Rome it selfe trembles to heare of England , and at the troubles that are arising in all Europe . 3. His passionate desire to do mischiefe , and to Romanize as of old , were he able : all these fore-run his ruine ; as Polanus , Brightman , with many others noted ; now they tremble already , as Antiochus ( the Type ) did a little before his end , which End was with the plagues and judgements of God ; and after which neither he nor his Kingdome , nor any of his posterity and temper did ever more rise , but were extinct for ever ; and so will it be with the Pope , Rome , and all that take part with the beast , Rev. 19.20 . But to the Types that foretell the glory of Christs Church , whieh are many , and of long standing ; I might instance in the hill of Sion ; in Davids Tabernacles , as they were Gods habitacles , which were to be made after Gods appointment , Exod. 25.9 . and all that was brought to make them was to be Free-gift , v. 2. and there was to be the Mercy-seat , Arke , and Testimony , v. 21. and the Table with Shew-bread , v. 30. none were to become there that were uncleane , lest they defiled the Tabernacle , but if they did , they were to be cast out , Numb . 19.13 . and the Tabernacle and all therein was annoynted , Lev. 8. and all loop'd and tach'd together ; that break one , break all ; and the Lords presence was in one Tabernacle as well as in the other , 1 Chron. 17.5 . and Feasts of Tabernacles were kept , Deut. 16.13 . and the Tabernacle the Lord kept , and encamped about , and fill'd it with his glory , Exodus 40.34 . now that these Tabernacles doe by Types foretell the felicity of Christs Churches , i. e. the particular Churches in these last days , wil easily appeare , Rev. 21.3 . the Tabernacle of God is with us , and Ps. 43.3 . O let thy light lead me , & thy truth bring me into thy holy hill , and to thy Tabernacles ! so Psal. 46.4 . there is a River , and there be streames which make glad the Tabernacles of the most high . ( i. e. the particular Churches : ) so sayes Doctor Sibs on Psa. 84.1 . O how amiable are thy Tabernacles ! These in these latter dayes are to be built according to the primitive pattern ; all that are taken in , are to be Free-will Offrings too , in the day of his power , Psa. 110.3 . In these Churches are the Seat of mercy to be found in especiall manner , and the Ark , viz. Christ , ( out of whom no salvation ) and the Testimony within the Ark , ( i. e. the secret of his Tabernacle , Psal. 275. ) viz. the spirit , which is the witnesse ; so the Tabernacle of witnesse is the Tabernacle of the spirit , Exod. 31 , 21. Numb . 17.7.8 . and there are the speciall Ordinances in order fixed , and left ; there is the Lords Table , and breaking of bread , and prayers especially and orderly in the Churches , Act. 2.42 . not out of them ; None that are wicked , dead in sin , unclean Carkasses , or defiled persons are to enter in , Psal. 15.1 . and to abide there , , but to be kept out and cast out , 1 Cor. 5.4 . These Churches of Saints and all in them must receive the annoynting , 1 John 2.20.27 . in a large measure ere long , and all be link'd together in love , and loop'd in one ; so as that to hurt one , will be to hurt all , &c. The presence of the most high must be in one Church as well as in another , to preserve them all , to protect them all , to fill all with his glory , Rev. 21.11 . and to feed all with fat things , Corne , and Wine , and Oyle , the feast of Tabernacles , Isay 25. Zach. 14.16 . Skenopegia , of which the world shall not so much as taste of , Isay 65.13 . this is promised by the Type , and much more . I might mention Jerusalem the holy City set as a Type , Rev. 21. as it stood high upon hills , was the vision of peace and safety , the habitation of Kings , the place of the Temple , and worship of God ; the City Compact , and the glory of the Earth . So wil the Church ( which the congregational ones make up as membra causalia ) be upon the top of all mountains , above all in these latter dayes , Isay 2.2.3 . and be the only place of sweet Peace and sure safety for poore soules , for Salvation shall be Walls and Bulworkes , and Zach. 2.5 . they shall not feare the Judgements that will be round about them . So shall the Churches be the Pallaces of Christ , the habitations of the King of Sion , Psal. 48.3 Joel 3.17 . in them the Lord will be worshipped above all , and he will be there a Temple and Light himselfe , Rev. 21.22.23 . and they shall be all united as a City Compact , and be the glory and praise of the whole Earth , Isay 62.7 . & 60.18 . Zeph. 3.19.20 . I might also instance in the Temple of Solomon as a Type of the Church universall , not particular , ( for I have handled that before ) but universall in three things . 1. In the holy of holies . 2. The holy place . 3. The Porch . 1. The holy of holies , as a Figure of the triumphant part of the Church . The 2. a Figure of the militant part of the Church as it is visible here , consisting of such as are indeed holy , and sanctified in Christ Jesus . And 3. the Porch ( which as yet I account no part of the holy Temple ) for all to enter , viz. mixt Congregations ; where all may heare , till they be called into the holy place . This Porch hath mixt company in it , good and bad , Saints and Hypocrites , till they come to be call'd into the holy house , and then they are separated . In our dayes , we are but in Tabernacles ▪ as we sayd before , but the Temple is a building , Solomons dayes are comming ; in the meane time matter must befetch'd from far ( as we shew in the Precious stones before ) as Solomon sent far about to find matter in all Countries for this building ; And at the last all our Tabernacles or particular Congregationall Churches shall be turned into this one Temple , there shall be no more particular Churches as now , but all shall be one Temple to the Lord ; all , all Saints , Churches , past , present , and to come , Jews and Gentiles , gathered from farre , East , West , North , and South , all shall make one Sheep-fold . But before I conclude , I shall bring in one Type more for all , that is a fulfilling in our dayes , and so will untill our compleat restauration , and it is of Eden or Paradise ; and that it is a Type will appeare . Isay 51.3 . so Ezek. 31.16.18 . Ezek. 36.35 . ●6 . he will make her like Eden . So it appeares in Rev. 21. and 22.1.2 . where there is also the Promise of the clear Rivers , and the Tree of life againe . So the Lord hath promised to make his Church a Paradise , that is in Hebr. Pard●se , an Orchard or Garden full of trees of Righteousnesse , Cant. 4.12.13 . Eccles. 2.5 . a water'd Garden , as Isay 58.11 . &c. See to this , in Ch. 3. of 1. lib. the promise is too to make her an Eden . Gr. of Hedone , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , pleasure , where the Saints shall be fill'd with joyes , Isay 35. ult . &c. But let us heare in what particulars the Type tells us of the spirituall happinesse and glory of Christ and his Churches in these latter dayes . See Gen. 2 8.9.10 . to 18. first , from the Description of the Garden it selfe . 2 Of Man plac'd therein . First , the Garden , v. 8. is sayd to be of the Lords own planting , ( & plantavit ( aut plantaverat ) Jehova Elohim hortum aboriente ) so shall these Churches ( or Gardens inclosed , Cant. 4 12. ) in these latter dayes , wherein you have these five particulars . 1. That the Lord himselfe hath provided and prepared this place ; the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 plantavit implies the excellency of the place above all others , which the Lord himselfe by his own hands ( as it were , ) and with speciall wisdome , power , and industry had made , for in Gen. 1.12 . the earth is said to bring forth other fruits , herbs , trees , &c. But Paradise the Lord made , i. e. to shew how far it excell'd all other places of the Earth , so in Gen. 1.27 . is God said to take Councell as it were & to create man ; whilest for other things he said let them be , & they were so , i. e. to shew that Man was the excellency of all his worke and Creation . So will God himself plant his Churches , as in Isay 5.2 . he fenced it , and gathered out the stones , and planted it , &c. so Mat. 21 33 he planted the Vineyard , hedg'd it about , dig'd the Wine-presse , built the towre : So he p●omises in these dayes ; as Ezek. 36.34 35. the desolate Land shall be tilled , and shall become as Eden , the Garden of the Lord ; for know , v. 36. it is I the Lord that will build the ruined , and plant the desolate ; I have spoken it , and I will do it , saith the Lord. All this is to shew the Excellency of his Church in the latter dayes , which shall be of his planting , above all others of mens plantting , when we shall be the Lords own Husbandry , 1 cor . 3.9 . and workmanship in Christ Jesus , Ephes. 2.10 . 2. It is not called a House or Pallace ; but a Garden , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hortus , which comes of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word which signifies to protect and keep ; that is a place which the Lord in especiall manner hedges to keep out beasts , and such as would hurt it . Now , this is a latter dayes promise , and tends much to the happiness of the Churches , tha● the Lord will protect them , Isay 27.3 . Zach. 2.5 . Jer. 32.40.41 . Ezek. 28.26 . Isay 35.8.9 . that they shall be for ever in one , Joel 3.17.20 . and no strangers shal be there ; so that Mr. Erberies spirit , & the Ranters spight to the Churches must , and live and die in their own breasts . 3. The name of this Garden is Paradise , so it is in Hebrew , so in the septuagint , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so sayes Zanchy , it is in the Persian language one and the same , and in the Germane Lu●tgarten , and in the Latine call'd Paradisum , and in severall other languages one and the same , viz. a most pleasant place , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in voluptate ; and to me it signifies much , that so many languages have one and the same name ; for surely the latter dayes promise must reach to all Nations , and this Paradise shall take in of all languages and tongues , Zach. 8.22.23 . Many peoples , and strong Nations in that day shall seek the Lord in Jerusalem , ( i. e. his Churches ) and in those dayes it shall come to passe , that men out of all languages of the Nations , shall take hold of him , that is a ( spirituall ) Jew ; saying , we will go with you , for we have heard that God is with you : so Rev. 7.4 . four Angels at the foure corners of the Earth stood there in their Offices , whilest another Angell was sent to seal● ( in the sealing day of the spirit ) some of all the tribes , Rev. 21.24 . and Nations shall bring their glory to Zion , and shall walke in the light thereof , or in the light of the Lambe , who is the light thereof . It is certaine , that as the name takes in of all languages , so the thing will , and Jewes and Gentiles , and Hebrews , and Grecians , Italians , and French , and Latines , and Germanes , and all must be brought in to the Church of Christ , or this earthly Paradise restor'd in these latter dayes , according to Promise & Prophesie . 4. From the Seat of it ; the Questionists have been very busie to know whe●eabouts in the world this Eden was ; some say in Mesopotamia , a part of Syria , others about Babylon , ( vid. Plin. lib. 8. ● . 17 . ) others in one part of Syria , and others in another : others in the upper part of Chaldea ; others take in Syria , Arabia and Mesopotamia ; others take in Armenia , Assyria , and all Aegypt : others say , it was in the torrid Zone under the Aequinoctiall line , and others make it to comprehend the whole world ; but as Paraeus observes , these discrepant opinions , and perplexable differences arise from the ignorance of the Rivers , the Head and Branches of Euphrates ; so among the Fathers and Schoole-men , and Academians , with Ministers , and many others , are there different mindes and judgements of the Seat and place of the New Jerusalem , Rev. 21. but what need such Cont●stations ? Praestat enim dubitare de occultis quam litigare de incertis : but this is certaine , that where ever the new River , the typified Euphrates runs , in Rev. 22.1.2 . I meane the spirit of God ( according to the flowings of these dayes ) comes ; a City shall be found , whose builder and maker is God : there shall be the streets as well as the streams of the New Jerusalem : and this spirit will be poured out on all flesh ; I mean on all Nations , and they shall come from far : So that it is mens ignorance of this River ( that is cleare as Chrystall ) that makes them question where Paradise will be found in the world ( I say not of the world ; ) therefore let none say , lo here , or lo there ; but when the spirit is pour'd out , they 'le know and understand . 5. Eastward . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is properly from before , which is here in Text , Eastward , or from the East , ab Oriente , and in the Septuagint , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is very considerable ; for Eden was Orientall , or Eastern , sayes Lactant. lib. 2. Paradise was then a part of the East : So is the latter dayes Paradise to be ; but by the East I intend Christ , for where the Sun rises , there we say is the East , and where it goes down , there we say is the West or Occidentall , both East & West , Orientall , and Occidentall , so call'd from the rising and the setting of the Sun ; for there is not really a place or point of Earth at the bottome of the Horison , or Hemisphere , as far as you can see Eastward , that is the East ; no , for when you are there , you are as farre off as before , and so you may goe round the world and never come at it , but where the Sun rises I account the East . Now the Paradise promis'd , viz. the Churches are to be all East-ward , Zion-ward , Christ-ward ; yea all ab Oriente , from Christ ; yea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , all in Christ , the East , from whence the Sun rises , the Gospel-light burgeons and breaks out in golden brightnesse , and light must go forth ( as from you the Churches ) in the sight of others , and gild the Ayre all about , and shine abroad to the world . Thus the Churches in the latter dayes , being all from Christ the East , all in Christ the East , all for Christ the East , are the Paradise in the East , and are of Christ as the first of all , whence the Sun of righteousnesse shall arise and shine to all the World. Thus far for the thing in generall , now to the speciall Priviledges that appertain to this Paradise , which are under these two Heads . 1. From the Trees . 2. The Rivers . First , in that Paradise was full of Trees , it did signifie the Saints , and Members , and Ordinances of the Churches of Christ in the latter dayes , which lies to me open out of Isay. 61.3 . That they ( in Zion the Churches ) may be called trees of righteousnesse , the planting of the Lord. So in Cant. 2.3 . As the Apple tree among the trees of the Forrest , so is my beloved ( C●rist ) among the Sons ( of God , the Saints in fellowship . ) So Ezek. 47.7.12 . So Rev. 7.1 . and 8.7 . with Rev. 9.4 . So Matt. 3.10 . and 7.17 . and 12.33 . So in Psal. 92.12.13 . Those trees that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish , and Psal. 52.8 . I am a green Olive-tree in the house of the Lord , and in Psal. 13. Trees planted by rivers of water bringing forth fruits in due season . Many other Scriptures prove this , besides the ensuing Parallels , but to the Particulars . 1. That as every Tree in Paradise , so shall every Member and Ordinance of the Church be grounded and rooted in Jesus Christ , Ephes. 3.17.18 . Col. 2.6 . Job . 8.17 . and folded into and wrapped about Jesus Christ. 2. Every Tree in Paradise was of the Lords making , so should every Ordinance , and so should every Member of a Church of Christ , being created a new thereto , as the Lords Workmanship in Christ Jesus , Ephes. 2.10 . 3. The Trees in Paradise the Lord caused to grow , v. 9 Gen. 2. So the Lord by his Grace and giving of spirituall Sap , and Life to the Members of the Churches makes them growing Christians , spreading and flourishing Members of , and Ornaments to his Garden inclosed , 2 Pet. 3.18 . and 2.2 . Job . 8.16.17 . Psal. 80.9.10 . and this is an especiall promise of ours for the Churches in Hosea 14.5.6 . I ( sayes the Lord ) I ( by my Doctrine dropping as the rain , Deut. 32.2 . and by my spirit as the neather Springs and Streams from Lebanon , Cant. 4.13 . ) I will be as the dew unto Israell , and he shall grow as the Lilly , and cast forth his roots , ( thick and threefold ) as Lebanon , his branches shall spread . 4. Most fruitfull trees of all the earth besides ; and this is expected of the Churches ; and their members to bring forth fruits ; not common fruits , but Garden fruits ; not ordinary Garden fruits neither , but Eden Garden fruits , i. e. the fruits of the Lords own planting , grafting , growing , the choysest fruits , Jehovahs fruits of the spirit , spirituall faith , spirituall love , spirituall holinesse , spirituall obedience , spirituall knowledge , spirituall prayers , preachings , &c. all of the spirits putting forth , and blooming , and setting ▪ increasing , and ripening , Jer. 17.8 . then they 'le bring forth in a time of drought , when all other trees are withered and burnt up , as Rev. 8.7 . and when the third part of the trees must be burnt up : And why ? because they are so well rooted ; and the Lord causes them to grow . Prov. 12.12 . these bring forth the fruits of holinesse and righteousnesse which are in Christ , Phil. 1.11 . so that ye shall know them by their fruits ; for , 5. They are pleasant for sight . Gen. 2.9 . so must the Saints and all Church-members , ev'n to the world , and in the eies of them without , and shine as lights , and by their conversations attract them , Acts 2.47 . Zeph. 3.20 . I will make you a name and praise among all people of the Earth : this will be , as I have said before , when the Saints shall be a sweet savour to all , 2 cor . 2.14 15. and amiable in the eyes of all . 6. And their fruits good for food , Gen. 2.9 . So will it be again , they shall feed the strong and the weake , with such fruits of love , faith , holinesse , obedience , graces , gifts , prayers , prophesies , interpretations , and exhortations , and such like , day by day , as shal administer grace to the hearers , Ephes. 4.29 ▪ Col. 4.6 . and be full of refreshings , and juice , and sap , and sweetnesse ; yea , ( as Apples ) both meat and drinke to many poor hungry soules : O sweet dayes ! when these fruits shall be ripe , and gathered , and given out in due season . So that it appears the Lord hath promised us in these restitution of times the most precious fruits of imparadised Saints ; suaves ad visum & ad vescendum : so excellent , as shall satisfie all the senses , delightfull to heare of , sweet to smell of , most admirable to feele of , most pleasant to the sight , and exceedingly sweet , savory , and soule-satisfying to the taste . Lord hasten these happy dayes ▪ Then the day of Jezreel will be great indeed , th●n the Churches shall be Paradise , when their members bring forth , such dainty and diversity of fruits , and that for all sorts of people ; that such as will not taste them , may touch them ; or such as will not touch them ; may scent them ; or such as will not scent , resent , nor smell , ( the Spices they bring forth , Cant. 4 16. ) may see them amiable in their eyes ; as such as will not see them , may ( and so they shall ) heare of them . O precious ! precious days ! Come running Lord ! like the Roe ! 7. In Gen. 2.9 . the Lord made every sort of good trees to grow in Paradise , and so will he in these latter dayes ; for there shall not be a confining of a Garden , or Church to one sort of trees onely , and no more , unlesse here and there one by chance ; so to one sort of Judgements ▪ or Opinions , or People ; O no! but of every sort of trees and fruits , of Persons , Professions , and Opinions that the Lord makes to grow , and to bring forth , shall be in Paradise : Oh then will there be a glorious day for Sion indeed ! and Eden shall be the Garden of the Lord ; and the Saints shall feed upon all those sorts of fruits judgements , gifts , graces , or whatever they be . 8. The tree of life shall stand in the midst of other trees ▪ Gen. 2.9 . as also the tree of knowledge , in every Church or Garden of the Lord. The tree of life may be understood two wayes : 1. as living , and then , 2. as life giving ; and in this sence I take it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that it was to give life ; but what kinde of life ? I conceive that in Gen. it may bee life to the body , as our food does by maintaining the natu●all heat , radicall moysture , and animall spirits , &c. but I thinke it most of all intends some quickning power , and vital strength ( if I may so say ) which was given by this fruit to the Eater , ( above all other ) that he could not be sicke , nor wax o●● , nor weake , nor infirme , nor dye ; but should live in perpetuall health and strength , and vigor of spririt . But however , as that tree of life stood in the midst of the rest , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and was more worth then all the rest ▪ Cant. 2.3 . So does Christ in the midst of his Saints ; in the midst ( Rev. 1.13 . and 2.1 . ) of the seven golden Candlesticks , in the midst of his Brethren , Hebr. 2.12 . his fellow trees , in the midst of the Brethren , in the midst of the Church will I give praises , sayes Christ , so is his Promise to be in the midst of them Mat. 18.20 . so Psal. 46 5. Hosea 11.9 . Joel 2.27 . So Zeph. 3.5.15 ▪ the King of Israel in the midst of thee . So hath the Lord promised us in Zach. 2 5. he will be our glory in the midst of us : and so v. 10.11 . sing , rejoyce , O daughters of Sion ( every particular Church and Assembly of Sion ) for lo ! I come , and I will dwell in the midst of thee ; and many Nations shal be joyn'd to the Lord in that day and shall be my ( joyn'd or gather'd ) people , and I will dwell in the midst of thee : Oh this is a singular happinesse ! for then one member , and one Church , and one tree , and one Ordinance will be as neare to him as another , and receive from him as well as another , and all alike will fetch power and glory , and grace , and spirit , and light , and life , and whatsoever else is communicable from him . Some there be that make this tree a Symbole , and the two trees , the two Sacraments ; so far I agree with them , as to say , these speciall Ordinances are in the midst of the Churches , and must not be dispensed without neither Baptisme , nor the Lords Supper , ( so call'd ) of breaking bread , and they break the Command that dare to give them , or receive them without , for they are to be in the midst of the Churches , and will be so ere long , and kept there by the flaming sword , from the sons of Adam , that run greedily ( according to the Serpents insinuations , 2 Cor. 11.3 . ) to eat of the forbidden fruits . But this tree of life which shal stand in the midst of the gatherd Churches in the restored Paradise , is meant Christ , and so hee shall stand , as Rev. 22.2 . and in the midst of the street of the holy City , ( every Church that helps to make up the great City ) the tree of life which bare twelve manner of fruits , &c. Christ will be in the midst not onely to give fruits ( both meat and drinke ) for other trees ( the Saints and members ) will doe so too ; but he is there living and giving life , 1 Cor. 15.45 . a quickening , i. e. life-giving spirit , having twelve manner of fruits for twelve months , of divers sorts , for all sorts and conditions of souls , and for as often as you will have of him ; and those that eat of him shall never dye , Jo. 6.50 . but grow livelier , and lustier , and stronger , and healthfullier every day : So that Christ hath promised to be a tree of life in the midst of the Churches to make them up an earthly Paradise , which else cant be . 9. Other trees , and this tree of life were much alike , for every tree hath the same wood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lignum , and this foretels me how much the Saints ( the true Members of the Churches ) shall look like Christ , and bring forth fruits like Saints , and walk as he walked , 1 John 4.17 . And represent him as pertaking of divine and humane nature , and being filled with the same spirit , and we know when he shall appear we shall appear like him , 1 Jo. 3.2 . The second speciall priviledges of Paradise , were in the River which watered the Garden ; and that this was also very significant , as to these latter dayes , will easily appear by the spirit which is promised to the Saints and Churches in these latter dayes , as a River , and the Graces as Streams , and the Ordinances as Brooks &c. Isay. 30.25 . Isay. 33.21 . Isay. 32.2 . and Isay. 41.18 . I will open rivers in high places , and in the dry land springs of water , and Isay. 43.19.20 . Behold I will do a new thing , and ye shall know it , I will even make a Way in the Wildernesse and Rivers in the Desart : I will give Rivers in the Desart to give drink to my people , my chosen : So Ezek 34.13.14 . I will feed you upon the Mountains of Israel by the Rivers , in fat pastures : So Psal. 46.4 . There is a River the streams whereof make glad the City of God : So Psal. 65.9 . Thou enrichest it with the River of God which is full of water , Psal. 1.3 . and besides many other Scriptures that in Rev. 22.1 . He shewed me a pure River of water of life , clear as Christall , proceeding out of the Throne of God , and of the Lamb , i. e. the spirit powred cut in the latter dayes flowing from the Father and the Son : but to some Particulars : 1. Whence and whither the River flowed : and 2. for what end ? See v. 10. A River went out of Eden to water the Garden , and from thence it parted into four Heads . 1. The River ran out of Eden ; Eden that lay in the East ; so that River ran from the East ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the word is a currere perpetuo cursu , the River ran continually . Some say the Fountain was in the midst of Paradise , but the Text sayes , non Fontem sed Fluvium , it came out of Eden from the East ; the East we sayd before was Christ , and from him out of God , this River ( of the spirit ) continually runs , Rev. 22 1. and shall flow ere long with mighty streams in midst of the streets or Churches . The East was sayd to have two parts ( as Zanchy notes ) the first is clear in the Scriptures which we read much off , as of Arabia , Babylonica , Persiae , Chaldea , &c. in this part was Mesopotamia , and the Garden of Paradise ; but secondly the other part of the East lay obscure , and hidden to us , unknown and unshown in the Scriptures ; and from that part some say the River ran ; whether it be so or no in the Letter , yet this is certain that so much of the Will of God in Christ as is revealed , declares to us Eden , ( the Garden of the Lord ) the Churches of Christ in the latter dayes , will be large , and the Scriptures speak much of it , and show it clearly ; but that part of the Will of God which is secret and in mystery ; hidden and obscure this River runs from also , into the Churches ; by which River the secret and hidden mysteries may and must be found out , and that which is not yet discovered of God and Christ must be revealed , and the whole Book of Revelation ; and whatsoever is as yet sealed up must be layd open , and made common to the Churches . This River it ran into Paradise , partly by secret , close occult conveyances , and partly by open ordinary courses and flowings ( sayes Pliny lib. 5. c. 24. ) So does the spirit , and so it will come flowing into the Churches to water them , & fill them as Waters fill the Sea , Isay. 11. partly by Meanes , Ordinances , Promises , Providences , and such ordinary Passages and Currents of the spirit ; and partly by secret wayes , under ground , mysterious occult conveyances ; but what with one way , and what with another , the Gardens of the Lord the Churches will be well refreshed and filled with this River which arises out of the East : And to finish this Particular , this River ran ( as with one stream ) into the Garden , but from thence divided severall wayes abroad ; so will the spirit as with one mighty rushing Sea into the Churches ; and from them be divided about , and spread abroad . But , Secondly , for what end ? to water the Garden : So the Churches will be abundantly more fructifying and fresh , when this spirit is poured out , than now they are , Cant. 4.15 . And they shall be like a watered Garden , whose waters faile not , Isay. 58.11 . they can't faile , Heb. 2.14 . they are already green and growing , and shall no more be like a parched Wildernesse . Thirdly , a word more about the Division of this River , v. 10. From thence it parted into four Heads . From thence , inde , Hebr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , de ibi ; it is a question among some , where this Division is made ; whether before it came into the Garden , and after it went out , or in Paradise ; now it appears to me , although it came into the Garden , uno influxo , as by one stream , yet it went out by four , in v. 10.11.12 13. &c. So that the Division was within the Garden , and by this Division every part of the Garden was watered : So the spirit though it is one and the same ( as from Christ ) yet in the Church it flows severall wayes , in severall Gifts , Graces , and Administrations , 1 Cor. 12.4 . So that every part of the Church may be watered , and every one have according to his measure , some more , and some lesse : And from the Church it flows abroad to the World ; and this foretels us the spirit shall come flowing in such an ample manner into the Churches in these last dayes , and that it shall flow from them and out of them , run out to others several wayes in severall streams ; yea four Heads into the four Parts of the World , East , West , North and South ; and as the foure Heads encompassed and took in many Lands v. 11.12.13.14 . as Arabia , Syria , Chaldea ( Chus ) Aethiopia , Aegypt , &c. So shall the spirit that goes out of the Churches ( in that Great Day of the flowing of it in , and pouring of it on them ) I say , that spirit shall go out of the Churches , round about severall wayes , into all Parts of the World to fetch in , and to compasse about , and to gather up of many Nations , and Tongues ; and Languages , and Lands , to the Lord , and his Christ , who is the East . Yea , and many pretious stones and gold of Havilah shall be fetched in too , as fit matter for the Lords house , in those his latter Golden Dayes : So that the great and glorious Work that God hath to do by his spirit , in these dayes , is in the Churches , and then by the Churches abroad many wayes in the world ; but thus far for the second speciall Priviledges of the Churches ( typified by Paradise ) in the Rivers that shall run in the midst of their streets , and run from them to others : See Zach. 14.8 . And in that day shall living water go out of Jerusalem , the halfe of them one way , and the halfe another , &c. Now we come to the last Description of the Type , which is so full for these latter dayes , and which relates so eminently and evidently to the Churches ; and that is in ver . 15.16.17 . The Lord God tooke the Man and put him into the Garden , &c. 1. The Man , to shew that it was no place for Beasts ; the Lord hath promised no ravenous beasts shall enter into this earthly Paradise , that is to come in these last Ages , Isay. 35 9.10 . 2. The Lord tooke him ( & tulit Jehovah Elohim ) to shew that he came not thither by nature , and was not born to it , or created in it , but translated into it , by the spirit of the Lord ; the Lord put him in ; so none are to be in the Churches , as Members that be in their meer naturall Condition ; or as if born to it , or born in it ; O no! only such as are brought in by Grace , whom the Lord hath brought in and fitted for Church-Communion , by his spirit , that must be Members ; such as the Lord adds , and he adds none but such as shall be saved , Acts 2.47 . Too too many naturall carnall men have crept into the Churches , and have added themselves ; or else others have added them ; but the Lord will out them , and rout them ere long ; he hath not added them : And therefore the fiery tryall will purge them off , and over with a powder ; And that Day will burn up the third part of the trees , Rev. 8.7 . with Zach. 13.9 . and after that , there shall be no more the Cananite in the Lords house , Zach. 14.21 . 3. The Paradise was of use in mans innocency , as an Academy , or the Vniversity ( sayes Pareus ) to which men from all Parts might resort to praise the Lord , and to learn of him , and to behold his most excellent workes , and to feed of the best fruits ; And from thence others might be sent abroad ( as the Rivers went ) to give knowledge to the people ; and of such excellent use will the Churches of Christ be in these latter dayes ; for all sorts of Saints to resort to them ; to praise the Lord in them ; to be instructed by him ; to be acquainted with his most gracious workings in us , and for us , and to feed upon the best priviledges , and choisest fruits of restored Paradise , and to be sent out thence to go abroad all along with the Rivers , I mean with the rich measures of the spirit , to teach the World ; & to instruct them without , that are ignorant of the truth & mysteries of the Gospel , as they are revealed to the Saints in fellowship . Such Churches wil prove the usefullest Vniversities in the World to stock and store , the Nation with able Spiritual Teachers ; and such as shall speake the things they heare and see , being all taught of the Lord by the Anointing from on high so to doe ; and this is promised at large in these latter Dayes . Jerem. 32.40 . Isay. 46.13 . and 54.13.14 . For his Law shall go forth from Zion , Isay. 22. Micha . 4.8 . 4. God would not have man ( no not in his innocency ) to live ( no not in Paradise ) without Law ; but he kept him under strict Law , v. 16. the Lord God commanded the man ( praecepto singulari obstrinxit , the Hebrew notes the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the Proposition or Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie more then ( simply ) to command , viz. to command with an Interdiction and Prohibition as follows in v. 17. thus is the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vajesau read in Scripture , and this is very significant ; for God doth not promise us a lawlesse liberty , or licentious dayes in these latter dayes ; but that we shall be under his Lawes and Ordinances , which he hath appoynted in the Church : The Saints shall be exact walkers up to the rule of perfect righteousnesse in Christ Jesus ; not destroying but fulfilling the Law , and that in Love which is the bond of perfection , only this obedience shal be more in and by the spirit of the Lord , John 4.25.24 . But God is very exact ( as appears by the strictnesse of the wo●d ) to have his Saints , the Churches and Members thereof subject to his Laws ( even in Paradise ) even in the best reformed & restored dayes , Heb. 8.10 . Ezek. 43.11 . and 44.5.24 . Yea , the Royal Law , James 2.8 And Law of truth , Mal. 2.6 . Yea , the Law to go forth out of Zion to others , Mich. 4.2 . And seale the Law among my Disciples , Isay. 8.16 . So that God especially looks for it from them , for they have more reason to live under the Order and Law of God then any others ; for they are to be Examples to others as lights on a hill , and as the Salt to season others that are without ; They have it first that are in Churches ( most excellently as from the Lord ) and others as from them ; Micah 4.2 . Adam had the Law first in Paradise as from the Lord ( most excellently of all ) and Eve afterwards as from him : Besides the Majesty & Authority of God is promised ( hereby ) especially in the Churches ; as Paul said 1 Cor. 11.23 For I have received of the Lord that which I delivered unto you , &c. so it shal be especially in the last days , as Micah 5.4 . He ( Christ ) shall stand and feed ( and rule ) in the strength of the Lord , in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God , and they ( the Churches ) shall abide : For now ( after this ) shall he ( Christ ) be great unto the end of the Earth : But yet marke this , that the Man was first made , and then commanded ; he had first a Principle , and then a Precept ; the first is to the adesse , and then the other to the bene esse : So that to the singular Comfort of Saints , and all Church Members , here is much promised ; that he will first create , and then command ; that he will first give them a power to do it , and then give them a Precept to do it ; And then they shall be upon the Chariots of Aminadab . First , he 'l write his Law in them , and then receive his Law of them ( i. e. that which is written in them ) in these latter days ; so that the Churches & Saints shal not be , yea cānot be without Law , nor without liberty , nor without the perfect Law of liberty , Jam. 1.25 . 5. Man , though in Paradise must not be idle , therefore v. 15. God put him in to dresse it and to keep it , viz. it , Garden ; for the word is hortus , which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Feminine Gender , with this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 affixed , and it is not without signification to all the Churches and Saints ; for as Zanchy sayes , Paradisu● illa , typus fuit Ecclesiae , ergo , qui in Ecclesiam positi sunt , disca●t se non esse hîc positos ut otiosi vivant , sed ut pro suâ quisque virili , colat Ecclesiam , camque custodiat & Paradise was a Type of the Church , and it concerns every Member of the Church , to remember he must not be idle ; but up and about , to work in the Vineyard , to dresse and keep it ; for the manifestation of the spirit is given to every one to profit withall , 1 Cor. 12.7 . To doe something or other to the edifying of the Church , 1 Cor. 14.12 . Rom. 14.19 . to instruct , exhort , build up , and dresse it , Ephes. 4.29 . 1 Thes. 5.11 . Jude 20. Heb. 10.24.25 . Yea , and to keep it too , from the Foxes of the Field , and the Wild Bores of the Wood ; yea , to keep out all Beasts and such as would hurt this Paradise , and to keep in good Orders , the Fences and Hedges , the Lawes and Liberties of the Church , Jude 3. Gal. 5.1 . Heb. 12.3.4 . Ephes. 4.3.4 . Phil. 2.1.2.3 . 1 Cor. 1.10 . 2 Cor. 13.11 . This Care lies upon all the Churches and Members thereof ; the Lord make them good Husband-men , carefull , and watchfull , and painfull as he hath promised for the benefit of the Church , and the good keeping of this ( Typified ) Paradise , as Hosea 10.11.12 . Obj. But Labour and Worke was ( poena peccati ) a Curse , Gen. 3.17 . and a Bondage . Ans. Not every Labour and Worke , but anxious , vexatious , grievous pains and labours ; but not to labour in Paradise , in the Lords Garden or Vineyard ; to such as the Lord hath set therein , his Yoke is easie ; and his Service is sweet to them , Prov. 3.17 . The Wayes of wisdome are pleasantnesse to their Souls ; they delight to be doing for the Lord , for Christ , for the edifying of his Church , Psal. 1.2 . and 16.3 . and 40.8 . Psal. 119.16.24.35.47.70.77.174 . Duties are a Delight , and Ordinances a Delight to them , Cant. 2.3 . Isay. 58.13.14 . 6. Man though in Paradise , yet upon open Breach of Gods Law he was cast out and excommunicated , Gen. 3.23.24 . Therfore the Lord sent him out from the Garden of Eden , to till the ground , from whence he was taken , and he drove out the man , or expelled , cast , and shut him out ; which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a hard word , and a clear Excommunication ; whilst the former word he sent out , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is but a kind of command to him to pack away ; but now he 's thrust out and banish'd Paradise ; for indeed his offence was the greater , that it was in Paradise after he was so blessed , and had tasted the fruits of it , &c. So must Offenders ( though Members of the Church , 1 Cor. 5.45 . ) be dealt with , & their sins are of the greater aggravation , by how much the longer they have been Members , and by how much the more they have tasted of the Fruits , and found of the Benefits of being inclosed , and in the Garden of the Lord , viz. Church-fellowship ; wherefore let Members beware of the forbidden Fruits ; and they may live ( diu & die ) long and happily in the Churches of Christ in these last dayes . 7. Man in Paradise might eat of every tree , v. 16. of every tree of the Garden thou mayest freely eat , that is of the Fruit of every Tree , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ex quavis arbore ( except as v. 17. of the tree of knowledge ) thou must eat freely , is an excellent Hebraisme , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , eat and eat again , yea comedendo comedes , you may eat by eating ; there be some that say under these words lye a Command upon the Man , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that he must eat of the Fruits of every Tree , without making difference of clean and unclean , &c. This shows the great advantage and priviledges of Saints and Members of the Churches in these last dayes ; they feed upon the Fruits of every Tree in the Garden ( not out of the Garden ) of every Ordinance , of every Administration , of every Gift , Grace , of every Saint or Member ; not putting of Differences , making Distinctions , or having of the Faith with respect of Persons or Opinions , Micah 4.5 . And they shall sit every one under his own Vine , and they shall walke every one in the name of his God , &c. Yea then as every Tree shall be fruitfull , Col. 1.10 . Hosea 14.8 . So every Saint and Member must eat of the Fruits of all , out of all , i. e. that grows out of every one ; yea of the least , lowest , darkest ( and most undershadow ) and meanest Member or Brother of the Church ; for every one shall bring in of his Fruits ( and none be hindred ) and every ones Fruits shall be in due season , Ps. 1.2.3 . and none before the time , Mal. 3.11 . but all ripened by the Sun ; and then every one will be desirous of them , Micah 7.1 . My soul desired the ripe fruits , sayes the Prophet himselfe . 8. Man in Paradise was forbidden the Tree of Knowledge , v. 17. But of the tree of Knowledge thou shalt not eat of it ; for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye ; which words are full in Hebr. you shall not eat of it , that is , not eat out of it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as if the Lord should ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) poynt out with his finger the Tree he forbad ; if thou eatest thereof thou shalt not faile to dye ; thou shalt surely dye , which is in Hebraisme too 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , moriendo merierie , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , thou shalt dye with dying , thou shalt dye the death ; that is necessarily , and unavoydably , and most miserably , thou shalt know 't is a fearfull thing to sin in Paradise ( so in Church-Fellowship ) therefore the command is interdicting , and prohibiting the tree of Knowledg . So are the Saints & Members in the Churches , forbid the tree of Knowledge , that is humane Wisdom , carnal Reason and Policy , affectation of Word , Gifts , habituall Parts of Learning ; subtile Sophistry , and all such forbidden fruits ( in Paradise , so ) in the Churches , Col. 2.8 . That none spoyle you through Philosophy , Arts and Sciences , nor corrupt you with humane Wisdome , 1 Cor. 1.20.21 . 2 Cor. 1.12 . which Aegypt and Babylon did , and yet do abound in ; but the Lord hath promised to destroy and bring this Wisdome to nought , Isay. 29 14. And that the deafe shall hear , and the blind see , Isay. 29.18 . The things and visions of the booke which the learned can't read , in v. 11. Because 't is sealed to him ; but the spirit of the Lord shall reveale them to Babes ; And those that see not shall see , whilst those that see shall be made blind : Therefore let the Saints take heed of that Tree whose Fruits ( if they live upon them , and prefer them ( for so Man did ) will be accursed to them , Jer. 17.5.6 . For cursed is the man that makes flesh his arm , whose heart departeth from the Lord ; for he shall be like the heath in the desart , and not see when good commeth : This is a Curse indeed , as full as the Fig-tree had , and this dreadfull Curse is full of wrath for , and to them that prefer and feed ( altogether ) on humane Parts , habitual Gifts , Wisdome , Learning , or the like ; for by these the Old Man ( who must fall ) gets to be enthroned , and Christ and Truth justled out of doors ; not that we deny an use ( yea and sometimes a great use too ) that may be made of Parts , Learning , humane Knowledge , habituall Gifts , &c. For if there were no use at all to be made of them , then they were not to be there ; then this Tree of Knowledge should not have been set in Paradise at all , much lesse in the midst of the Garden ; but this we say , that though they may be suffered , yea seen , heard , handled ; yet they must not be eaten , fed on before the Tree of Life , to live on , or to be nourished by them : O no! but feed on the Tree of Life ! Eate down the Fruits of the spirit ! the Graces ! Learning ! Wisdome of the spirit ! to live on ! to be quickned , nourished ! comforted by , and to have them consubstantiated into you ! So that the other fruits are not first to be feed on ! but to be looked on ! and to be used as Servants to the Tree of Life , and by the bye ! therefore woe be to them ! that prefer the tree of knowledge before the tree of life ! it is that which is here forbid , and is accursed with a most dreadfull sentence and doome upon it ! and they fall fowlest and most irrecoverably , that fall by eating the fruits of the tree of knowledge ! viz. selfe-wisdome and parts , & c ! in preferring of these ( by Sathan's subtill insinuations ) before the tree of life ! Let all Churches and Members look to it then ! For they are under a desperate curse that do so ! and when they do Julian like Apostatize , they are the most hurtfull ! unholy ! violent ! and unexecrable Enemies to Christ and his Gospel . 9. The Serpent got even into Paradise it's selfe , and presently pitcht upon the tree of knowledge , to tempt the Woman ( and so the man ) with the fruits of that tree , and the Woman seeing 't was to be desired to make one wise , Gen. 3.16 . Sayes the Text , took it , &c. So Sathan , that subtill Serpent , creeps into the best Churches at some hole or other , and appears in their Congregations , as Job 1.6 . ( where God sees him when men can't ) and so even in Judas in Christs little fellowship he crowded in , and so in Jude 4 Gal. 2.4 . and when they are at the best and busi●st duties , he 'l be sure to tēpt them , & that subtilly with wonderous art and cunning winding himselfe into the heart of one or other , to tempt them to forbidden fruits ; and he usually gets up into the tree of knowledge , i. e. by carnall reason , humane wisdome , &c. to do it . He oftentimes presents the fairest side of the fairest fruits of this Tree to tempt poor souls with : And he sets upon the weakest vessels to seduce them with a supposition of Gifts , Parts , humane Wisdome , Learning , and the like ; that these will make them wise and as Gods , &c. O sad ! miserable sad souls ! that are so deceived by the fair shows of Gifts , as to prefer them before graces : Wherefore let all Members and Churches be warned hereby ; For Sathan is got in to tempt some of the weakest of them : Therefore sayd Paul to the Church of Corinth . 2 Epist. 11.3 . I fear least by any means as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety , so your mindes should be corrupted ( by his cunning Acts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) from the ( plain ) simplicity that is in Christ ; Wherefore let us all beware ! and believe graces more then gifts ; the tree of life is better for food then the tree of knowledge ; the spirit is better then the flesh ; and Christ to be preferred before the Creature , or creature-parts and appearances : And know that none are wise but the Saints ; the Churches and Saints are able to out-see all the Vniversities of the Earth , in altissimis causis rerum . Christ is their Wisdome , 1 Cor. 1.30 . Et dignoscitiva & directiva in him they are wise , 1 Cor. 4.10 . and learned ; the learned of God are brought up in the Universities of Christ , the Schooles of the Prophets indeed excelling all in Knowledge , Phil. 3.8 . Jo. 7.3 . and learning as the taught of God , Isay. 29.11 . and Isay. 50.4 . John 6 45. Rev. 14 3. Rev. 5.5.6 . and excelling all in the truest , purest , fullest , sweetest , and profitablest originall tongues and languages , Dan. 1.17 . Jo. 7.15 . Viz. the language of Canaan , the tongue of the spirit , the purest originall ; Wherefore let not Sathan deceive us with his fair sides of Gifts and Parts , so as to make us eat of them , and chuse them before the tree of life : And yet God forbid but that we should have gifts , and parts , and learning , and languages , in the Churches too , for the service of the Church , and to be under the spirit ; so that there is great reason that the tree of Knowledge should stand there , though the Serpent do make it his Den , and Tree of Temptation . 10. It was the sixth day that man was put into Paradise by God ; and now a day is as a thousand years , so that we live in the sixth day since the Creation ; and now God is restoring Paradise apace , and he hath gathered some Churches , his Garden is enclosed , and he hath caused trees to grow there , and the River to run there ; now it remaines , that he by his own spirit do put man in , we live in this day wherein he will do it , as Ezek . 36.33.35.36.37 . Jer. 32.37 . And I will gather them , and I will bring them againe into this place , Micah 7.9 . He will bring me forth to light , and I shall behold his righteousnesse . Zach. 8.8 . I will bring them , and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem , and they shall be my People , and I will be their God in truth and righteousnesse : the Lord undertakes it himselfe , by his owne hand to put men into his Churches , and to bring in the sons of strangers , and the outcasts of Israel , Isay 56.6.7.8 . and he will plant them , Jerem 32.40.41 . and bring all the good that he hath promised in his word upon them , Jer. 32.42 . and cause them to walk by Rivers of waters , Jerem 31.9 . Ezek. 34.13 . &c. 11. But to conclude the Type , Paradise is the place wherein God did most familiarly appeare , and acquaint himselfe to Man , and manifest his love and glory . Three wayes we read of by which God spake to men , by dreams , by visions , or else face to face ; and in this manner , whereby his Love , and wherin his Glory did most appeare , viz. face to face did the Lord manifest himselfe in Paradise , although his face was seen but as in a Glasse . 2 Cor. 3.18 . under the similitude of an Angel , or some other bodily appearance . This signifies the singular appearances and presence of God , which the Churches shall enjoy above all the world besides , in these last dayes ; his presence is especially promised to appeare , and his Love , and Glory to be manifested in the Churches . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 &c. Such a speciall manifestation as is mentioned in John 14.21 . which is promised in these last dayes shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by the brightnesse of his glory , Heb. 1.2.3 . Jo. 2.11 . Eph. 3.3.4 . so is it in Psal. 102.16 . when the Lord shall build up Zion , then he shall appeare in his glory . So Habak 2.14 . Then shall they bee filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. So Zach. 2.5 . Rev. 21.11.23 . The glory of God shall lighten the New Jerusalem , viz. the glorious presence of God in it . Then the Saints in the Churches shall have the most familiar presence of God , discourses with him , discoveries of him walking in the Garden , as Cant. 8.13 . and Cant. 7.11 . So Cant. 6.2 . my beloved is gone down into his Garden , to the beds of spices , ( particular Churches ) to feed in the Gardens , to gather lillies . There is Christ most and best to be found . So Cant. 4.16 . and 5.1 . &c. Psal. 63.2 . and Psal. 27.4 . yea the Angel of his presence shall be there , Isay 63.9 . and the name of them from that day , shall be Jehovah Shammah , the Lord is there Ezek. 48.35 . Thus we have done with these Types that foretell the happy state of Saints in Gospel-fellowship , and the Glory of the Churches of Christ in these latter dayes , sparkling through many more Types then I have mention'd , but these are sufficient for present proofe , though every day will bring forth more , and more excellent matter of praises and rejoycings ; whilst the Church comes out of the Wildernesse leaning on her beloved , persumed with mirrh and frankinsence ▪ and the Saints shal have beauty for ashes , and be called trees of righteousnesse , the Lords own planting , that he might be glorified , Isay 61.3 . But lastly , that the Churches of Christ are to stand apparantly distinct from all others ; we have already prov'd it , Chap. 6. lib. 1. &c. besides severall Prophesies and Types we might bring forth , but that 't is time to conclude and rest me , as Numb . 239. Lo they shall not be reckoned among the Nations , and Rev. 18.4 . Johu 15.19 . Hosea 4.15 . and 14 8. Ephraim shall say , what have I to do any more with Idols ? yea so , as an apparent difference shall bee known and own'd betwixt them and others , Mal. 3.16.17 . Jer. 15.16 . for the Lord hath made the difference as from the first , s Gen. 1.4 . God saw the light was good , and therefore divided the light from darknesse , to be distinct . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Sept. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , i. e. by an apparent difference to bee knowne by all ; and so will he make the Churches of Light distinct from them of darknesse , so as it appeares in the Chaldee Paraphrase and tongue : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so in the Samaritan tongue , that God made a manifest and bounded separation between them . And this distinct separation , or division of Gods make , must stand . It is then no new thing to be distinct from Parishes , and all false Antichristian Churches , wherein there is a mixture , 2 Cor. 6.1415 . and is not so distinct a separation as is and ought to be in all true Churches from false wayes and worships . We find this too typified by Israel separated from all others Numb . 16.9 . and they were not to joyn in Religion and worship with the other Nations , 1 King. 11.3 . Joshua 2.3 . Exod 23.16 . Deut. 10.8 . and 32.8 . but separated from the mixed multitude , Nehem. 13.3 . Ezra 10.16 . yea in Deut. 23.1 , 2.3 . &c. you will read who might , and who might not enter into the Church ; which much concerns us now v. 1. not such as cannot retaine the seed of the word , as it is in Heb. Shophcah , which sheds and loses that precious seed ; how can they beget others to the faith that lose the seed ? such are not to be received into the Congregation of the Lord : O precious promises ! which will produce and procreate a most excellent distinction in the latter dayes ! when the Lord shall adde to his Churches such as have a fulnesse of his seed , 1 Pet. 1.23 . 1 Io. 3.9 . remaining in them ; and then as v. 2. Bastards shal not be receiv'd , i. e. Hebr. Mamzer , one that is of an Whore , viz. the Whore in Rev. 17.5 . the fruit of uncleannesse . Too too many of them , it is to be feared enter in as yet , that have relation to the Whore , and that don't heartily hate her and all her trumperies and toyes ; but then it shall be , that none but those that hate the Whore. and that shall labour to lay her open to all the World , and burn her with fire , Rev. 17. And such as shall be glad of the day , wherein they may dash her little ones against the stones , Psal 137.8.9 . and may serve Babylon as she hath served Sion , that shall enter indeed , in that day ( and not the bastards that are born of the Whore ; ) But such as have gotten the victory over the beast , and over his image , and his marks , and over the number of his name , Rev. 15.2 . Then will be the great and apparent distinction indeed . Yea then v. 3. The Ammonite and Moabite must not enter in , &c. yet the Edomites shall , v 7. being turned Proselites , and received into the faith ; by Idumea or Edom , I would understand the red people ( as the Word signifies ) and as it relates to the latter dayes ; I do believe it may take in the bloody Jewes , who have so ●ong lay under the guilt , who will e're the third generation enter apace into the Churches , in the mean time ; Remember O Lord these children of Edom ( the Jewes ) in the day of Jerusalem ( the gathered Churches , in the day of Jezreel ) who sayd ( and so they shal say as zealously as any of Babylon ) rase it , rase it , even the foundation thereof : O Daughters of Babylon , who ought to be destroyed ! happy shall he be that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us , Psal. 137.7.8 . In that day every eye shall see , and every ear shal heare that ●srael is a people distinct from all others , and so made by the instinct of the spirit , which leads them out of Babylon into Zion , and into all truths . To conclude , all the Prophesies Promises , Precepts , Practises of Primitive Saints , Preachings , and Epistles , and Acts of the Apostles ( which is our Directory ) yea all the Types and Titles of the Church , as Mount Zion ▪ Jerusalem , Temple , Tabernacle , spirituall house , peculiar people , royal Priesthood , City , Spouse , Vineyard , Paradise and Garden of the Lord , and golden Candlesticks , and Kingdome of Heaven , and all other titles that belong to her , do call aloud in our ears to come in unto her , and out of false adulterine wayes of worship . Wherefore Hosea 2.1.2.3.4 . Say to the brethren , come my people , and to the Sisters ( we will joyn with you ) arise , sing , for there is mercy offered us : Wherefore let us all plead ; Plead with your mother , plead , for she is not my wife , neither ●●n I her husband ( saith the Lord ) Wherefore let her put away her whoredomes out of her face , and her adulteries out of her brest : Plead , strive against her . Litigate . Et rixamini . Zanc. in loc . viz. your mother , the Nationall Church ( so called ) and her children . v. 4. viz. parochiall Synagogues , which are full of whoredomes and adulteries , and are not the Lords Churches , or his Spouse , but Adulteresses and ( as Churches ) the Daughters of the Whore , the Quean , the soul strumpet , who shall be burnt up : Therefore awake , O ye people of England ! Ireland ! and Scotland ! and plead and expostulate in good earnest with them ! For their Whoredomes are in their faces , and their adulteries in their breasts ; in their face , that is their externall worship and ordinances , and discipline ; And in their breasts , that is in their hearts . For Parish-Church Members are ful of whoredoms , uncleaness , idolatry , superstitions , and adulteries in their hearts : They , love the Whore in their hearts . Yea furthermore most impudently and imprudently ( like the most brazen faced Whores ) they will commit sin , incest , adultery in open sight , and without blushing for shame call for their Lovers in the open congregations , and will have their Sacraments , their Services , their Idols , and wil-worship in their Synagogues ; yea and they have their Priests too , to preach up and paint out their idolatry ( as Whores are painted ) & to give them the Sacraments in their sins . O sad dayes I like Sodomes ! but the Lord will judge her ! I remember Mr. Cawdrey in 's storehouse and similles , sayes to this , that his high felony , as 't is for a subject to counterfeit his Kings Letters or Seales ; so for men to make new Lawes and Orders , and not to take Christ's ; but to alter the word , to counterfeit the Sacraments , and most impudently with the Whores forehead to maintain traditions , Customes ( though of long standing ) which are not Christ's , but Anti-Christ's , and to administer the Sacrament and Seales otherwise then the Lord hath appointed , and then Christ hath instituted in his Gospel , yea and to aggravate their wickednesse too , to do it in the Kings ( Christs ) name too ; and to pretend his Commission ( which they have counterfeited and invented ) is horrible felony , and high treason , and renders such as so receive them from their Ministers , an Harlot of Anti-Christ . What can the Parish Ministers and Presbyterians then say for themselvs ? or any that receive from them ? Seeing it is Felony , Treason , and Harlotry . Her Whoredomes and adulteries are so open , as makes a modest man to blush and detest her ; whilst other lewd ones and her Lovers ( that seem yet to carry a fair face ) do defend and professe her to be honest and honorable : Aye , 't is for their credit so to do● who trade with her , as long as they can keep it , which will not be long now . For the Lord sayes , v. 3. Let her put away th●se her ( stinking ) whoredomes , lest I strip her naked , and set her 〈◊〉 in the day that she was born , &c. The Lord hath promised to strip these strumpit-Churches , and Temples of Dagon ; The whore and her children , the Daughters of Babylon , viz. Nationall and Parish-Churches as naked as they were the first day they were born ; they shall be as poore and miserable as ever they were ; yea as in the time of their nativity , how is that ? Why thus . First , They shall be quite stripp'd of cloaths for covering and ornaments , and not have so much as men of gifts , ( i. e. Learning that is graced ) or abilities of the spirit that shall plead for them , but all against them , even those that are as yet the Whores Lovers , and commit adultery with her , they shall loath her when they see her l●wdnesse and nakednesse ; so that she shall be stripp'd of all , and bee as naked as ever she was borne . 2. When these Parishes and Sinagogues , and false Churches were borne as they were naked , so they were besmear'd in bloud , begun in bloud , and born in bloud ; so the Lord will shew their abominable filthinesse in the very eyes and sight of all her Lovers , v. 10. and lay her crimes and iniquities , and contamination open to all the world . 3. When they were born at first , why alas ! they were poor feeble ●hings , and not able to help themselves ; and so it shall bee in these latter , dayes , none shall bee able to deliver them , Hoseae 2.10 . or keep them up , Dan. 11. ult . 4. When borne at first they arose with a cry ; they made the poore Saints to cry , and to suffer death and martyrdome ; but they shall be stripp'd into that condition , that they shall fall with a cry , Rev. 6.16 . Rev. 18.11.18 . Isay 15.5.8 . Jer. 48.5.20 , and howling . 5. When borne at first but little , and so shall they be crowded out and be no more ; as the Kingdome of Christ , and true Churches grow greater and greater . 6. When borne at first they were without knowledge , in darkenesse ( in themselves ) and could not see , and thus shall they be spoyled and stripp'd again , and thrown down into darknesse , never more to rise : as Mat. 8.12 . The Children of the Kingdom shal be cast out into utter darknes : So the children of the nationall Churches , viz. Parish Churches . Thus , Hos. 2.4 . I will not have mercy on her Children , for they are Children of Whoredome , i. e. Corrupt , superstitious , and Adulterated ( even in sight of all Saints ) like Rome the mother , whence they came , as wee proved fully in the first Book : They are not ligitimate Children , borne of God , but of base bloud , adulterine seed , whorish Romish principles ▪ wherefore I will have no mercy on them , saith the Lord , but they must fall with Babylon that belong to Babylon , unlesse they put away their Whoredomes , Superstitions , & unlawfull Worships , & no longer , like impudent Strumpets , to paint themselves over with Spanish , yea Romish Paintings , and alluring outsides : Away with those patches● and alluring arguments used to get people in to those Idol Worships ! of their Sacraments ! Burials ! Baptizings ! or the like ( as they are their inventions , ) that are unwarrantable , and declared Whoredomes , and Adulteries in the God! which the Lord will judge with fire from heaven ! In the mean time , the day of putting a difference is upon us , happy are they that see it and do it : It is as yet in our Nation as it was in Athens , there were two sorts of Congregations , viz. Ecclesia & Agorae , Churches and mixt Congregations ; in the Churches none but such as appeared Saints had communion and entrance ; but the other Congregations ( sayes Flaccus Illiricus ) were made up of any consisting of a confused and promiscuous multitude , which made a meer Politicall meeting . And such are your Parishes and nationall Churches , which are far from being Churches ( as is proved in all the Essentials that appertain thereto lib. 1. ) thus Churches differd from Synagogues as they do from Parishes , vide Vrsin , de Eccles. 1. Quest. Parishes ( at the best ) are but like the great Chamber , whereinto all may come and walk that will ; but the Churches of Christ are his Chambers of presence , the King is there , his Councell there , and thence will come forth his great Acts and Laws , and Declarations to all the World. And although the Ship is tossed , and the Disciples that want faith cry out for feare , let the storms rise higher , as long as Christ is imbarqued with us in the same Seas , and in the same stormes . Wherefore as Caesar said to the trembling Marriner , Confide nauta , Caesarem vebis : feare not , ( honest friend ! ) for ye carry Caesar ! So I say to the Churches , and to all the Members , friends ! feare not ! for the Lord is with you , you carry Christ ; it is he that is in you , and holds the stern for you ; Fear not ! only be carefull of some corrupt boards and members of your Churches who will flye in a storm , and so the ship may spring a leake , and thereby let in too much of the raging Sea ; but bee so much the carefuller to stop the leaks , and every day to be pumping out the corrupt black and stinking waters which get in , and goe on with the fairest gales and wind of the spirit ; and as the waters abute , so the Ark , i. e. the Church ( long and broad , and made of many pieces of Wood that will never rot , which ) shal rest on Mount Ararat , Gen. 7.6.7 . till the waters be all dried up , and the Sea be no more , Rev. 21.1.2 . And thus I have done with this Chapter , and this second Booke , wherein you have had the totum homogeneum of the true Church of Christ , according to the Gospel institution , and true Primitive practise and Christian constitution . We have heard what is to be done before and what in an orderly knitting and imbodying together . The next Booke , ( the third ) if the Lord will give incouragement , will be very large and profitable , to shew what is to be done after this orderly imbodying Wherin the Church will be considered , as the totum organicum in all her Officers , and Offices , and Orders , and Ordinances , ( some of which we want in these days & means maintenances , and even round about her very borders . For as the Body is blind that wants Eyes to see , and deaf that wants Ears to hear , and lame that wants Feet to walk , and Hands to act , &c. but yet it is a Body : so the Church is a Church that wants Organs and Officers , but not so perfect and intire without a Pastor , as a Mouth ; & Tongue i. e. Teachers ; & Overseers , as Eyes ; Elders , as Eares ; Deacons , as Hands to distribute to the poor and needy , &c. Messengers , as Feet ; and such like instruments as these . But yet much care must be had in choosing , and calling , and confirming them in their services and places to execute as by Authority , and vertue and the whole , from , and for the wlole : but of that hereafter , and Thus far for the Essentiali● Ecclesiae . I purpose now to lay by my pen for a little while , till I walke about Sion , and have gone round about her ( even her borders ) and told the Towers thereof , and mark'd well her Bulworks , and considered her Palaces , ( as they are now , and as they have been of old , and as they will be in these later days ) & then I will ( God willing ) arise again , in the Name of Jehovah Elohim , to tell ( what I have marked and met with in my rounds ) to the generation that is to come : Sic nunquam metuant Res Magn● oblivia magni Temporis , &c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Fiat Finiat . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . THE FIRST TABLE , Of the Eminent ( Orthodox ) Writers , Councels , and Martyrs , in all ages , that have bore testimony to the truths asserted in this Tract , and that are Quoted in the Tract , 1. Lib. A A Insworths Communion . Ainsw . against Bernard . Alphoneus . Ambrose's Epist's . Ames Medull . Theol. Aquinas . Aretius . Arias Montanus . Askew , ( Martyr . ) Augustinus . B BAines's Diocesan Triall . Baines on Colloss . Bartlers Modell . Benson on Hosea . Bernard in Cant. Bernard to Pope Eugenius . Beza . Bilson , ( Martyr . ) Bolton . Brightman . Bradford , ( Martyr . ) Burton's Vindication . Bullinger . Burrough's Heart Divisions . Burrough's against Edwards . Burrough's excellency of a gracious spirit . Buxtorph . C CAlvin . Cameron . Cartwright on Eccles. Policy . Cartwrights Reply to Whitgift Chrysostome . Chamier . Cotton's Koyes . Cotton's holinesse of Church-Members . Cyprian . D DAmport , or Davenport . Dell's Way of Peace . Dike . Diodate . Dixon . E ERasmus . Eusebius Eccles. Hist. Euseb's Prepar . to the Gospel . F FEnner . Ferus . Fox's Martyrs . Fulke against Rhemists , &c. G GOodwin , I. and T. Gregory Epist. Grotius . Gualther . H HAll . Hart's Char. Harris . Hermes . Hierome . Hooker's Policy . Hooker's Survey of Discipline . Hobson . Hooper , ( Martyr . ) Husse , ( Martyr . ) I IAcob's Attestation . Iarchi Sol. Ierome in Hierome . Irenaeus . Iunius . Iustinian . K KEckerman Theol. L LUTher Epist. M MArlinus Epist. Marlorat . Martyr . Marsilinus Patavinus . Mayer . Melanchton . Montanus . Methodius . Moulin . Musculus . N NOyes Temple . O OEcolampad . Owen's Essay . Owen's Eshcol . P PAreus . Parker . Paul Baines . Paul Hobson . Patavinus . Par. Peter Martyr . Peters . Phillips Answer to Lamb. Perkins . Polidore Virgil. R RAwlinson . Robinson's Reasons discussed . Robinson's Essayes . Rutherford . S SAltmarsh . Sasbont . Selden de decimis . Smith on the Creed . Sheindler . Sibbs . T TAylor . Taylor , ( Martyr . ) Tertullian . Tilenus . Trap. V VEnning . Ursin. W WHittaker , Willets Synops●s . Wilson's Cases . Willi●m's Elijah's Wish . Z ZAnch . de Eccles. Zanch. in Hosea . Zuinglius . Finis 1. Libri . The first Table , 2. Libri . ADams on Pet. Ainsworth Communion of Saints . Ames Medul . Theol. Ambrose in Rom. Ambrose in Gen. Ames on Peter . Ames de Anti Bellarm. Anselme . Apology of N. Eng. men . Aquinas . Ardeus . Augustin in Ioan. Augustin in Rom. Augustin Epist. 19. ad Hier. Augustin in Psal. Aurelians . Concil . Auspurge . B BAines in Col. Ball. Bartlet's Modell . Bayly . Beda . Bernard in Paschal . Bernard in Cant. Bernard in Ezek. Bernard de Consid. cum multis aliis . Beza in Mat. Beza in Rom. Beza's Confessions . Beza's Annotations . Bohemia Confess . Bolton's Bounds . Bolton's toss'd ship . Bradford ( Martyr . ) Brightman . Brute , ( Martyr . ) Bucan . Bucer de Gubern . Eccles. inter alia . Bullinger de Eccles. inter alia . Budaeus . C CAlvin in Rom. Calvins Instit. inter alia . Cartwrights Eccles. Discip. Cartwrights against Whitgift . Cawdrey's Sim. Centurists . Clement . Chrysostome Hom. in Rom. inter alia . Cooper . Concil . Carthag . Concil ▪ Aurelians . Concil . Tolet. Cottons Keyes . Cradock's Gospel-holinesse , and Mount-Sion . Culverwells White-stone . Cyprian Epist. Cyprian . inter alia . D DAmascene . Dell's Way of Peace , Dike on Sacrament . Diodate . Dr. Donn . E NENgland's Apologie . Epiphanius in Haeres . Euseb. in Gen. Euseb. Eccles Hist. F FArrar , ( Martyr . ) Featly . Fenner de Sac. Thol . Fenners Alarum . Feurus , ( French Martyr . ) Flaccus Illiricus . Fox Martyrs . Fulke against Rhemists . G GAtaker . Glover , ( Martyr . ) Goodwin , I. and T. Gregory Magn. Gualther . H HAymo . Hawkes , ( Martyr . ) Hierome de Unit. Eccles. inter alia . Helvetia . Confess . Dr. Homes . Hooker's Survey of Discipline . Hooker against Hudson . Hooper , ( Martyr . ) Holland ( Martyr . ) Hudson . Jo. Husse ( Martyr . ) I IEssey , alias Jacie . Irenaeus in Gen. inter alia . Junius . Justin. K KEckerman . Theol. L LAmbert , ( Martyr . ) Latimer , ( Martyr . ) Luther in Joel . Epist's ; inter alia . M MAgdeburgenses . Mayer . Melanchton Com. Loc. inter alia . N NAzianzen . Nilus de Primat . Nelphilas . Noyes Temple . Novatus . O OLevian in Rom. Origen in Mat. inter alia . Owen's Eshcol . P PAnormitane , a Romano Lawyer . Par. Paraeus in Gen. Joel . Rom. inter alia . Parisian Schoole . Papismi Synopsis . Perkins Problem , Cases of Conscience . Perkins in Gal. Rev. inter alia . Peters Discourse of Covenant . Philpot , ( Martyr . ) Pliny . Polanus in Ezek. Dan. &c. Preston on N. Covenant . Prinn's Quaries , &c. Prosper . R RAndall's Star leading to Christ. Ridley , ( Martyr . ) Rivetus . Robinson Justif. Robinsons Essayes . Rogers on good Samaritane Parable . Rogers's Right Way to be saved . Rogers ( Proto-Martyr . ) Rutherford . S SAdeele . Saltmarsh's Flowing● of Christs bloud . Sibb's Marriage Feast . Sibb's Soule-Conflicts . Sibb's Founta ne sealed . Sibb's Excellency of Gospel above Law. Sibrandus . Dr. Peter Smith . Robert Smith ( Martyr . ) Socrates Eccles. Hist. So●omen . P. Sterry . Dr. Stroughton's Right Plea. Synopsis Papismi . T Dr. TAyler in Psalm . Taylor , ( Martyr . ) Tertullian de velandis virginibus , inter alia . Theodoret in Epist. inter alia . Tichbourn on Io. 13. Tilenus . Tindal ( Martyr . ) Trap in Evang. Trelcatius . Dr. Troisse . V VIndiciae Clavium . Vines Serm. before Parl. October 22. 1644. Ursinus Chatechis . inter alia . W WArr's Dispute 'twixt Form and Power . Whittaker de Eccles. Concil . & Pontif. inter alia . Willet . Wilsons Cases . Wittemberg . Confes. Woodman ( Martyr ) Z ZAnchy de Eccles. de Hom. creat . in Gen. Hos. &c. Finis 1. Tabuli . THE SECOND TABLE . Of those Choise Scriptures which are Expounded rescued and defended from the Adversaries in this Treatise . GENESIS . Chap. Vers. Pag. 2 8.9 to 18. 529 530 &c. ch . 9 l. 2 EXODUS . Ch. Vers. Pag. 20 24 116 ch . 9. l. 1 23 1.2 112 ch . 8. l. 1 25 40 120 ch . 10. l. 1 1. KINGS . Ch. Vers. Pag. 10 6.7 383 ch . 6. l. 2 10 9.10 242 ch . 1. l. 2 1. CHRON. Chap. Vers. Pag. 13 9 173 ch . 13. l. 1 15 23 280 ch . 3. l. 2 JOB . Chap. Vers. Pag. 31 14.24 26 27 161. 162. ch . 13. l. 1 36 10 1 ch . 1. l. 1 PSALMS . 4 v. 3. p. 267 ch . 2. l. 2 18 30. 356 ch . 6. l. 2 22 1.2.4 5. 367 ch . 6. l. 2 26 6.7 . 356 ch . 6. l. 2 27 4 334 ch . 5 l. 2 36 9. 1●7 ch 9 l. 1. 44 10 11.14 17.18 &c. 266 ch . 2. l 2 45 10. 240 ch . 1 l. 2 51 12 13. 356 375. ch 6 l. 2 55 6 8.11 . 80 ch 6. l. 1 60 6. 119. ch 10. l. 1 63 1 2. 116 ch 9 l. 1 65 1. 133 ch . 12 l 1 66 19 356 ch 6. l. 2 74 19.20 . 34 35 ch . 3. l. 1 83 11.12 13 171 ch . 13 l. 1 84 10 118 ch . 9. l. 1 87 2.3.4 209 ch 15. l. 1 110 3 3 ch . 1 & 124 ch . 11. l. 1 114 4 26 ch 3. l. 1 126 5.6 365 ch . 6 l. 2 127 1.2 140 ch 13 l. 1 PROVERBS . Ch. Vers. Pag. 1 8 1 ch 1. l. 1. 7 1 119 120 c 9 l. 1 9 1.2.3 4 32.34 &c. 198 199 c. 15. l. 1 ECCLES . Ch. Vers. Pag. 5 1 239 ch . 1. l. 2 7 18 340 ch . 5. l. 2 CANT . Ch. Vers. Pag. 2 11 12. 28 ch . 3 l. 1 3 9 50 ch . 5. l ▪ 1 4 1 2 3.4 &c. 96. ch . 8. l 1 & 43 ch 4 l 1   8 44 ch . 4. l. 1 5 9 &c. 285 ch 3 l. 2   11 150 ch . 13. l. 1 6 1 285 ch 3. l 2   9 337 ch . 5 l. 2   10 282 ch . 3. l. 2   12 253 ch 2 l. 2 8 2 132 ch . 12. l 1   6 266 ch 2 l. 2   5 376 ch 6. l. 2 ISAIAH . Ch. Vers. Pag. 1 3 241 ch . 1. l. 2 2 2.3 4 ch . 1 l. 1. 5 2 43 ch . 4. l. 1 14 32 183 ch . 14. l. 1 22 21 , 22 138 ch . 13. l. 1 27 6 44 ch . 4. l. 1 28 15 63 ch . 5. l. 1 30 21 , 22 33 ch . 3 l. 1 33 17 , 20 117 ch . 9 l. 1 108 ch . 8. l. 1   21 203 ch 15. l. 1 34 11 35 ch . 3. l. 1 40 11.38 329 ch . 5. l. 2 42 11 46 ch . 4 l. 1 51 311 132 ch 12. l ▪ 1 54 11.12.14 510 ch . 9. l. 2 60 5.6 521 ch 9. l. 2   13 , 14 51 ch 5. l 1   17 181 ch . 13. l. 1 JEREMY . Ch. Vers. Pag. 7 9 52 ch . 5. l. 1 15 19 132 , 133 ch . 12 l 1 30 17 , 19 133 ch . 12 l. 1 33 7 524 ch . 9 l. 2 50 5 84 ch . 7 l. 1 209 ch . 15 l. 1 124 ch . 11 l. 1 EZEKIEL Ch. Vers. Pag. 13 14 191 ch 14 l. 1 20 38 562 ch . 7 l. 2 36 37 , 38 29 ch . 5 l. 2 37 7 506 ch . 9 l. 2 43 10 , 11 82 ch . 7 119 ch . 10 l. 1 44 6 , 7 52 ch 5 l. 1 DANIEL . Ch. Vers. Pag. 2 32 154 ch . 13 l. 1 11 44 , 45 525 , 526 ch . 9 l. 2 12 11 , 12 , 13 21 ch . 3 l. 1 HOSEA . Ch. Vers. Pag. 1 11 509 ch 9 l. 2 2 1 510 ch . 9 l. 2 14 5 , 6 44 ch . 4 l. 1   8 146 ch . 13 l. 1 JOEL . Ch. Vers. Pag. 2 29 464 ch . 8 l. 2 AMOS . Ch. Vers. Pag. 3 2 ▪ 3 , 4 303 ch . 4 l. 2 8 11 , 12 35 ch . 3 l. 1 MICAH . Ch. Vers. Pag. 4 2 199 ch . 15 l. 1 4 5 329 ch . 5 l. 2 ZEPHANY . Ch. Vers. Pag. 3 9 133 ch . 12 l. 1 330 ch . 5 l. 2. HAGGAI . Ch. Vers. Pag. 1 2.4 194 ch . 14 l. 1 2 18 189 ch . 14 l. 1 ZACHARY . Ch. Vers. Pag. 2 11. 124. ch . 11. l. 1 330 ch . 5. l. 2. 4 6. 193. ch . 14. l. 1 524. ch . 9. l. 2 6 13. 257. ch . 2. l. 2 8 23. 330. ch . 5. l. 2 MALACH . Ch. Vers. Pag. 3 16.17 . 70. ch . 6. l. 1. 273. ch . 3. l. 2 MATHEW . Ch. Vers. Pag. 4 33. 43. ch . 4. l. 1.   20.22 . 125. ch . 11. l. 1 7 11.12 . 259. ch . 2. l. 2   26.27 . 183. ch . 14. l. 1 190.   6. 54. ch . 5. l. 1 10 27. 283. ch . 3. l. 2. 16 15.20 . 287. ch . 4. l. 2. 13 38.39 . 56. ch . 5. l. 1. 15 13. 109. ch . 8. l. 1 16 16. 53. ch . 5. l. 1 16 18.19 . p. 4. ch . 1. lib. 1 p. 4. ch . 7. lib. 1 138. ch . 13 lib. 1 284. ch . 14 lib. 1 18 17.18 . p. 4. ch . 1. l. 1 & 465. ch . 8. l. 2 21 33 42. ch . 4. l. 1 22 9 129. ch . 11. l. 1   12. 55. ch . 5. l. 1.   21. 181. ch . 13. l. 1   29. 374. ch . 6. l. 2. 24 45. 3. ch . 1. l. 1 25 37. 382. ch . 6. l. 2 28 18. 121. ch . 10. l. 1   19.20 . 303. ch . 5. l. 2 331. MARK . Ch. Vers. Pag. 12 1. 42. ch . 4. l. 1 LUKE . Ch. Vers. Pag. 9 4.5.6 . 128. ch . 11. l. 1   55.56 . 159. ch . 13. l. 1   23. 124. ch . 11. l. 1 12 13.14 . 160. ch . 13. l. 1 14 23. &c. 128.129 . ch . 11. l. 1   28.29 . 136. ch . 12. l. 1 21 25.26 . 26. ch . 3. l. 1. 22 15. 204. ch . 15. l. 1 JOHN . Ch. Vers. Pag. 3 19. 282 ch . 3. l. 2 4 28.29 . 367 ch . 6. l. 2 6 37 362 ch . 6. l. 2   44 253 ch . 2. l. 2 14 17.26 264 ch . 2. l. 2 15 2 109 ch . 8. l. 1   45 44 ch . 4. l. 1   27 357 ch . 6. l ▪ 2 JOHN . Chap. Verse . Pag. 16 13 264. ch . 2. l. 2. 17 21.22 . 523. ch . 9. l. 2. ACTS . Chap. Vers. Pag. 1 14 566. ch . 8. l. 2 2 37 53. ch . 5. l. 1 125. ch . 11. l. 1 365. ch . 6. l. 2   41.47 . 67. ch . 5. l. 1 261. ch . 2. l. 2   39. &c. 72 ch . 6. l. 1 3 22. 121. ch . 10. l. 1 5 13. 283. ch . 3. l. 2   38.39 . 340. ch . 5. l. 2 6 2.3 . 465. ch . 8. l. 2 9 26. 84. ch . 7 l. 1 11 23. 124. ch . 11. l. 1 456. ch . 7. l. 2 14 23. 456. ch . 8. l. 2 15 12.3 . &c. 22. 109 110. &c. ch . 8. l. 1 17 23. 241 ▪ ch . 1. l. 2 18 28. 281. ch . 3. l. 2 ROMANS . Chap. Vers. Pag. 8 16. 372. ch . 6. l. 2 9 1. ibid. 14 5.6 . 243. ch . 1. l. 2. 14 1.2.3.5.6 7 10.13.16.18 19 20.21 &c 329.330 . &c ch . 5. l. 2. 1. CORINTH . Chap. Vers. Pag. 3 3. 43. ch . 4. l. 1   8. 31. ch . 3. l. 1   10. 142. ch . 13. l. 1 11 2.23 . 120 ch . 10. l. 1 12 6. 89. ch . 7. l. 1   13. 307. ch . 4. l. 2 14 1.2.3.31.32.34.35 . 37.39 . 475. ch . 8. l. 2   33.40 271. ch . 3. l. 2 2. CORINTH . Ch. Vers. Pag. 5 11. 356. ch . 6. l. 2 6 16.17 . 72. ch . 6. l. 1 117. ch . 9. l. 1 403. ch . 9 l. 2 8 35. 125. ch . 11. l. 1 10 45. 140. ch . 13. l. 1 12 9. 268. ch . 2. l. 2 12 5.11 . 381. ch 6. l. 2. GALAT. Ch. Vers. Pag. 3 1 39. ch . 3. l. 1   28. 471. ch . 8. l 2 4 6 337. ch . 5. l. 2   9 77. ch 6. l ▪ 1 6 1.2 . 83. ch . 8. l. 1. EPHESIANS . Chap. vers . pag. 1. 10. 338 , 339 c. 5. l. 5 2. 21 , 22. 84. ch . 7. l. 1 189. c. 14. l. 1 3. 17. 196. ch . 14. l. 1 4. 4 , 5. 307 , 308. c. 4. l. 2 5. 11. 42. ch . 4. l. 1 72. ch . 6. l. 1 PHILIPPIANS . Chap. vers . pag. 2. 12. 187. ch . 14. l. 1 3. 15 , 16. 330. ch . 5. l. 2 4. 3. 566. ch . 8. l. 2 COLOSSIANS . Chap. vers . pag. 1. 18. 148. ch . 13. l. 1 2. 6 , 7. 144. ch . 13. l. 1     196. ch . 14. l. 1   9 , 19. 148. c. 13. l. 1. 150. c. 13. l. 1. 182. c. 13. l. 1.   17. 337. ch . 5. l. 2   18. 317. ch . 6. l. 2 2 THESS . Chap. vers . pag. 2. 8. 154. ch . 13. l. 1 1 TIMOTHY . Chap. vers . pag. 6. 3 , 4 , 5. 120. ch . 10. l. 1 2 TIMOTHY . Chap. vers . pag. 2. 24 , 25. 128. ch . 11. l. 1 3. 3. 72. ch . 6. l. 1 HEBREWS . Chap. vers . pag. 1. 1 , 2. 366. ch . 6. l. 2 3. 10 , 11 , 13. 207.208 . ch . 15. l. 1. 4. 12. 257. ch . 2. l. 2 6. 8. 208. ch . 15. l. 1 11. 10. 189. ch . 14. l. 1 13. 7. 136. ch . 12. l. 1 1 PETER . Chap. vers . pag. 2. 3. 357. ch . 6. l. 2   9. 133. ch . 12. l. 1 4 14. 267. ch . 2. l. ● 5. 2. 255. ch . 2. l. 2 2 PETER . Chap. vers . pag. 2. 10. 187. ch . 14. l. 1 APOC. or REV. Chap. vers . pag. 2. 2 , 14 , 15 , 20. 101. c. 8. l. 1 207. c. 4. l. 2 5. 9. 134. ch . 12. l. 1 11. 5. 90. ch . 7. l. 1   6. 19. ch . 3. l. 1   8. 342. ch . 5. l. 2   16. 382. ch . 6. l. 2 12. 1 , 2 , 14 , &c. 9. ch . 2. l. 1 14. 4. 134. ch . 12. l. 1 18. 4 , 8 , 9 , 10. 525. ch . 9. l. 2 20. 8 , 9. 90. ch . 7. l. 1. 21. 17 , 18 , 19 , 20. 511. ch . 9. l. 2. The third Table : Fully and Alphabetically declaring the chief things handled in the whole Treatise . p. is for page , c. for chap. and l. for lib. A. ABimelechian destiny nigh them that usurp Christs Seat , pag. 172. chap. 13. lib. 1 Ablest , Embody first , and in publick , p. 278. c. 3. l. 2 Account of faith at Dublin , p. 350 c. 5 ▪ l. 2 Accusations against Saints and Gospel-discipline , p. 13 c. 2. l. 1 Acts of the Apostles ▪ Churches Directory , p. 123. c. 10. l. 1 Acts of Providence oft read ( Hebrew-like ) backward , p. 47. c. 4. lib. 1. & epist. p. 6 Acts of the soul , reflex and direct , p. 376 , 377. c. 6. l. 2 Adjunct to a true Church , is the word preached , and no more , p. 79. c. 6. l. 1 Admission of Members , of whom , by whom , how and when , p. 288 , 289 c. 4. l 2 Admission of the least and lowest Saints , p. 339 , 340 , 348. c. 5. l. 2 Admission of all opinions that differ in things doubtfull and indifferent , p. 311 , 312. c. 5. l. 2 Advantage to Churches by experiences of Saints , p. 358 c. 6. l. 2 Advowsons and presentations wicked , and how , p. 7. & 29. of Epist. Adullamites are many , p. 93. c. 7 l. 1 Aegypt , Churches of Form , how ? p. 342. c. 5 ▪ l. 2 Aegypt a type of Antichrist , p. 525. c. 9. l. 2 Aegyptian plagues on Parish Churches , p. 92 , 93. c. 7. l. 1 Aegyptian Task-masters , who now ? p. 342 c. 5. l. 2 Aegle-Saints nested in the Rock , p. 198. c. 14. l. 1 Affections held with difference of opinions at first , p. 333. c. 5. l. 2 Affections of women above mens , p. 474.475 . c. 8. l. 2 Afflictions , converting Ordinances , p. 403 , 413. c. 6. l. 2 Afflictions of ( spirituall ) Israelites under hard task-masters , how ? p. 342. c. 5. l. 2 Afflictions on the Author great , p. 432. c. 6. l. 2 Agates ( precious stones ) who ? p. 510. c. 9. l. 2 Age ; in the last was to know Christ the Head , in this Christs body , but in the next , both , viz. whole Christ , p. 147. c. 13. l. 1 All ages Eminent Independents , p. 114 ▪ c. 8. l. 1 All Languages and nations must make up one Church ere long , p. 530. c. 9. l. 2 Ambition , what it brought the Bishops to , p. 106 , 156. c. 8 , 13. l. 1 All of different opinions , &c. one , p. 329. c. 5. l. 2 All in one , the beauty of Sion , p. 337. c. 5. l. 2 Amethysts ( precious stones ) who ? p. 519 , 520. c. 9. l. 2 Ames left his Professorship for Church-fellowship , p. 118. c. 9. l. 1 Amiable Tabernacles are the congregational Churches , p. 87. c. 7. l. 1 Anabaptists in Ireland too bitter , unsound in judgement , wresters of the Scriptures , uncharitable and censorious . A lesson for them , p. 299 , 302 , 305 , 307 , 309 , c. 4. l. 2. p. 453. c. 7. l. 2. p. 334. c. 5. l. 2 Angels can't teach so well as experiences do , p. 384. c. 6. l. 2 Anger of God against such as company with Christ's enemies , p. 76. c. 6. l. 1 Antichrist destroyed and tormented , how ? p. 23 c. 3. l 1. Antichrists sawcinesse , whether in Episc. Presbyt . or Indep . to usurp Christ's power , p. 105. c. 8. l. 1 Antichrist fals the same way he rose , p. 156. c. 13. l. 1 Antichrist arrogates both powers , viz. Eccles. and Civill , p. 176. c. 13. l. 1 Antichrist the first that made difference of opinions , difference of affections , p. 333 c. 5. l. 2 Antichrist typified by Aegypt , Sodom , Babylon , &c. p. 525. c. 9. l. 2 Antichrist , how he resembles , or rather dissembles Christ. p. 25. epist. Antichristian-Chur . parish-Churches , p. 61. c. 5. l. 1 Antichristian-Churches we must separate from , pag. 78. ch . 6. lib ▪ 1 Antichristian to rob Sisters Right , p. 469. c. 8. l. 2 Antiochus Epiph. a figure of the Pope , p 526. c. 9. l. 2 Antiquity for the Independents , p. 60. epist. in Apostles-daies Church-discipline was glorious , and how ? p. 910. c. 2. l. 1 Apostles not Heads , but Helpers , p. 120. c. 10. l. 1. p. 107. c. 8. l. 1 Appeals never any to Jerusalem about Church government , p. 110. c. 8. l. 1 Appearance of Christ the ruine of Policy . p. 170. c. 13. l. 1 Archbishops ( third ) Head of Brasse , p 156 , 157. c. 13. l. 1 Arke on the waters yet for forty years , p. 24. c. 3. l. 1 Arke overturned by Beasts carrying it , p. 36. c. 3 l. 1 Arke on which the Spirit rests , p. 268. c. 2 l. 2 Armes which the Lord draws with , are Spirit ( his right hand ) and Word ( his left ) p. 253. c. 2. l. 2 Army of Christ , who ? p. 85 c. 7. l. 1 Armour of light for Saints of all judgements and opinions . p. 335. c. 5. l. 2 Armoury for swords for Saints , p. 99. c. 8 l. 1 Assembly of Divines a ( fourth ) Head of Brasse , p. 158. c. 13. l. 1 Assemblies of Ministers must down : which are allowable , and which not , p. 109. c. 8. l. 1 in Assemblies of Sion , God is glorious , p. 118. c 9. l. 1 Assurance requisite before entrance , p. 248. c. 1. l. 2 Assurance brought to light , and how to know it , p. 372 , & 451. of exper . c. 6. l. 2 Authors judgement of the Restauration : 1 Gradually now ; 2 Universally to come , p 20. c. 3. l. 1 Author prays he may be as a light to give others light , though he be spent for 't , p. 50. c. 5. l. 1 Author abused at Dublin for Mr. Bartlet , p. 88. c. 7. l. 1 Author's warning to the Parliament , p. 172. c. 13. l. 2 Author expects a world of Antagonists , but he cals for reasons , not railings , p. 226. epist. l. 2 E. A very , her Experience , p. 402 , 403. c. 6. l. 2 Author's Experience , p. 419 , 420 , &c. ibid. Author's assurance how attain'd , p. 431 , 438. ibid. Authors call to the Ministry how , p. 436 , 437. ibid. And his order in teaching School p. 438. ibid. Author's Resolution and Motto , p. 3. His suffrings in Essex , p. 231 , 232. epist. l. 1 B. BAbes have full breast● , pag. 100. chap. 8. lib. 1. Babes of Christ tenderly received , p. 331. c. 5. l. 2 Babylon a type of Antichrist , p. 525. c. 9. l. 2 Babel hath the hearts of millions , p. 40. c. 3. l. 1 Babylons fall bewailed by many , p. 37. c. 3. l. 1 Babylon in Parish Churches , p. 64. c 5. l. 1 Babylon falling and all that traded with her , p. 94. c. 7.1 the Baptist put by scandalous , p. 56. c. 5 l. 1 Baptisme , how Presbyt . and Papists agree in it , p. 466. c. 9. l. 2 Baptizing again , unlawful , pag. 295. chap. 4. lib. 2 Baptisme of Christ , is with holy Ghost , p. 296 , and how it differs from John's , p. 300. c. 4. l. 2 our Baptisme true for matter and form , p. 296. ibid. Baptisme which signifies most is best , p. 298. ibid. Baptisme of Anabaptists unlawfull , and why , p. 299. ibid. Baptisme constitutes not a true Church , p. 308. ibid. Bare profession not enough for Church fellowship , p. 56. c. 5. l. 1 Barren Clouds who and when ? p. 203. c. 15.1 M. Barkers Experience , p. 413. c. 6. l. 2 S. Barnwel's Experience , p. 415. c. 6. l. 2 Bastards , who ? p. 549. c. 9. l. 2 Beast ( seven-headed ) politick in all ages , p. 10. c. 1. l. 1 Beasts made their Stie of the Church , p. 36 , 37. c. 3. l. 1 Beasts carried the Arke till they overturn'd it , p. 36. c. 3. l. 1 Beasts meet together in Parish Churches , p. 93. c. 7. l. 1 Bed of Christ , where ? p. 50. c. 5. l. 1 Beleevers bound to walk together in Christs way of Church-fellowship , p 198. c. 15. l. 1 Benefits in Churches , p. 201 , 202 , 203 , 204. c. 15. l. 1 Beleevers of all sorts to be received , p. 312. c. 5. l. 2 Beauties of holinesse p. 3. c. 1. l. 1. & p. 69. c. 5. l. 1 Beauty of Saints embodied , p. 87. c. 7. l. 1 Beautifull object of the Churches is attractive , p. 177. c. 9. 1 Beauty of Gospel-fellowship appears in publick embodying , p. 282. c. 3. l. 2 Beauty of Sion is all in one , p. 337 , 338. c. 5. l. 2 Beryls ( precious stones ) who ? p. 517. c. 9. l. 2 Bishops how they got to be so big as Lords , Judges , Barons , &c. p. 106 107 , c. 8. l. 1. p. 166. c. 13. l. 1 Bishops with their Diocesses , how they got in ; and how Heads of brasse . p. 156. c. 13. l. 1 Bishops Lands belong to the poor , p. 167. c. 13. l. 1 F. and A. Bishop's Experience , p. 398. c. 6. l. 2 Blossomes of these daies , and Blessings promised us , p. 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , &c. c. 3. l. 1 Blow to Parish-Churches fatall , p. 94. c. 7. l. 1 Body of Christ , his Church , p. 83 ibid. Body together consults in Church-affairs , p. 110. c. 8. l. 1 Bondage of works , p. 420. c. 6. l. 2 Book of the lamb , ere long out , p. 217. epist. l. 2 Bosome-love to Church of Saints , p. 103. ibid. Breach upon some Churches , p. 280 c. 3. l. 2 Brazen fac'd men set up Brazen head , p. 151. c. 13. l. 1 Brazen head compels by force , is a mixt metall , best in outside , hath an ill savour , and is , mans creature , &c. p. 152 , 153 , 154 , 155. c. 13. l. 1 2 Breasts of the Churches , p. 99. c. 8 l. 1 Bride cals to her friends , p. 40. c. 3 l. 1 Bride coming forth in these daies , p. 46 , c. 4. l. 1 Building of Christ , is his Church , p. 4. c. 1. l. 1 Builders are yet unskilfull , and not such spirited Aholiabs as will be , p. 123. c. 10. l. 1 Builders wise who and how , p. 142 c. 13. l. 1 Build first in Christ , then into Churches p. 188. c. 14. l. 1 Builders foolish how they differ from the wise , p. 190. c. 14. l. 1 Builders most of them reject the right stone , p. 193. ibid. Builders warn'd of Christning Churches into their own names , p. 197. ibid. Buriall of all ceremonies when ? and how ? p. 313 , 314 , c. 5. l. 2 M. Burrels Experience , p. 413. c. 6 l. 2. J. Bywater Preacher his Exper. p. 394. c. 6. l. 2 CAll into Christs Gardens these daies , pag. 45. chap. 4. lib. 1 Call to convert all , p. 55. c. 5. l. 1 Called number the Church , p. 73. c. 6 l. 1 Call of Christ makes us volunteers , p. 124. c. 11. l. 1 Call , when , and how ; extraordinary and ordinary , legall and evangelicall p. 394 , 403 , 406 , &c. c. 6. l. 2 a Call most orderly when , p. 450. ib. a Call to the Ministry how , p. 436 , 437. c. 6 l. 2. Callings to be followed , p. 75. c. 6. l. 1 Canons ( though ere so charg'd ) the Church fears not , p. 185. c. 14 l. 1 Care God hath to provide a Gospel●Discipline , p. 3. c 1. l. 1 Care of Christ , greatest to his Churches , p. 204. c. 15 ▪ l. 1. & 44 4.1 Captivity of Babylon in Parish Churches , bondage , pag. 64 ▪ c. 5. l. 1 Carnall Reason keeps off of Church-fellowship , pag. 80. ch . 6 lib. 1 Castle of defence Christ to 's Churches , p. 185. c. 14. l. 1 Cause judged by the Effects , p. 361 c. 6. l. 2 Catholick Church what , p. 480. c. 9. l. 2 Caution to the Churches of the Church-destroying ranting spirit which is abroad , p. 553. c. 9 l. 2 & p. 502. ibi ● . Censuring taken off , how ? p. 364. c. 6 l. 2 Censurers admonish'd first , p. 418 c. 6. l. 2 Ceremonies dead when , and how ? p. 314. c. 5. l. 2 Chalcedonies ( precious stones ) who ? p. 514. c. 9. l. 2 E. Chambers her Experience , p. 406 , 407. c. 6 l. 2 I. Chamberlains Experience , p. Exp. 6. l. 2 Champions for Christ who best , p. 245. c. 1. l. 2 Change for the Churches , p. 42. c. 4 l. 1 Character of Wildernesse-ones , p. 38. c 3. l. 1 Character of Hypocrites that crowd into Churches , p. 211. c. 15.1 Chariot of Sol. typified , p. 50. c. 5 l. 1 Charity a standing rule , p. 58. c. 5 l. 1 Cherubims the Saints how ? p. 47 epist. l. 1 Children not necessary to be baptized , p 466. c. 9. 2 Christ the Churches fulnesse , p. 17 c. 2. l. 1 Christ's reign 40 years hence , p. 24 c. 3. l. 1 Christ's own planting , who ? p 43 c. 4. l. 1 Christ commands Saints to enter , p. 54. c. 5. l. 1. and to separate from them without , p. 75. c. 6. l. 1 & 94. c 7. l. 1 Christ's Rule for building Churches , p. 120 , 121. c. 10. l. 1 Christ alone institutes , instructs , builds and orders his Churches , p. 139. c. 13. l. 1 Christ alone Lord , how and why ? p. 143 , 144. c. 13. l. 1 Christ a most absolute Independent p 147. c. 13. l. 1 Christ and Church ( Head and Body ) make up a whole Christ , p. 147. c. 13. l. 1 Christlesse Church is a headlesse body , p. 148. c ▪ 13. l. 1 Christ Head , and yet Member , p. 148. c. 13. l. 1 Christ Head , is highest ore Churches , p. 148. c. 13. l. 1 Christ Head is excellency of gives vertue to governs all in sympathy w th Churches p. 149. ibi Christ our Head , hath our eyes , ears , tongue , all , p. 150. c. 13. l. 1 Christ alone lawfull Judge in Religion , p. 151. c. 13. l. 1 Christ , Head , Builder , and yet Foundation , p. 184. c. 14. l. 1 Christ alwaies the same to Saints and Churches , p ▪ 186. c. 14. l. 1 in Christ first , and then get into Churches , p. 188. c. 14.1 Christ the Fountain of Gardens , p. 203. c. 15. l. 1 Christs-memb . more then Church-members . p. 209. c. 15. l. 1 Christ in 's fleshly-form and Church-form alike , p. 244. c. 5 l. 2 Christ crucified in spirituall Aegypt , where ? p. 342. ibid. in Christ the nigher , the more all in one , p. 339. ibid. Christ found after lost , how ? p. 407 408. c. 6. l. 2 Christ Head in Churches , King in Nations , p. 509. c. 9 l. 2 Christian Liberty in opinions , p. 318 , 328. c. 5. l. 2 Chrysolites ( precious stones ) who ? p. 516. c. 9. l. 2 Chrysoprasus's who and how ? p. 519. c , 9. l. 2 Church in wildernesse , when and how ? p. 10. c. 2. l. 1 Church how out of the Wildernesse into Gardens , p. 42. c. 4. l. 1 Churches most fruitfull Gardens , p. 43. c. 4. l. 1. p. 204 c. l. 2 Churches must be well weeded , and many pluckt up by the roots , p. 49. c. 4. l. 1 Church is Christs Bed , Throne , Palace , Couch , Chamber of presence , p. 50. c. 5. l. 1 Church Christs Body and Building , p. 83 , 84. c. 7. l. 1 Church Christs City compact , p. 85 c. 7. l. 1 Church Christs Army , Kingdome , Heaven , p. 85 , 86. c. 7. l. 1 Churches all equall Independent , p. 100 , 101. c. 8. l. 1 Church ( wholly of Brothers and Sisters , ) all to conclude on Church-matters , p. 110. c. 8 l. 1 Church if whole erres , what to do ? p. 111 , 112. ibid. Churches joyn together to recover an erroneous Sister-Church , ibid. Churches object what , p. 116. c. 9 l. 1 Churches Rule for the building , p. 120. 121. c. 10. l. 1 Churches end ever one , p. 131. c. 12 l. 1 Churches Head , Christ alone , p. 137 ▪ 140 , 151 , c. 13. l. 1 Churches true and false differ about the Head , p. 152. c. 13 l. 1 Churches can't deliver up to secular powers , p. 176 , 177. c. 13. l. 1 Churches built on Christ the Rock , p. 193. c. 14. l. 1 Churches enjoy more then all the world from Christ , p. 203. c. 15. l. 1 Churches greatest enemies to errors , ibid. Churches to be members of ; which are the best , p. 212. c. 15. l. 2 Church-members must be brought in by the Word and Spirit , p. 263 c. 2. l. 2 Church ( here ) a picture of her above , p. 337 , 337. c. 5. l. 2 Churches of form , Spirituall Aegypt , p. 342. c. 5. l 2 Churches formal , and why ? p. 348 c. 5. l. 2 Churchmembers warn'd , p. 445. c. 6 l. 2 Church who ? and who not ? p 465. c. 8. l. 2. and taken divers waies , p. 479 ▪ 480. c. 9. l. 2 Church-covenant necessary , p. 455 c. 7. l. 2 Churches in Unity a terror to enemies , p. 504. c. 9. l. 2 Churches when they shall excell , p. 5●2 . c. 2 l. 2 Churches exhorted to live above form , p. 46. epist. l. 1 Churches in the last day , and in the east , i. e. Christ , and from thence the Sun rises , p. 531. c. 9. l. 2 Churches and Parishes how they differ p. 553. c 9. l. 2 Citizens of Sion how many priviledges ▪ p. 85. c 7. l. 1 Civill . converse to be kept up , c. 6. l. 1 Civill Rulers are uncivill beyond civill rules , p. 127. c. 11. l. 1 Civill and Ecclesiasticall , Caesars and Christs , how they came to be jumbled together , pag. 168 chap. 13. lib. 1 Civill powers commit sacriledge and when ? p. 172. ibid. Classes none in Scripture , p. 61 epist. l. 1 Classes , High-Commission-Courts , and Popes-Mother-Church of Cardinals ; are all of the same nature , and for the same ends , p. 105 , 106. c. 8. l. 1 Classes are the ( fift ) Head of Brasse , and the unsavory fruits of them , p. 158 , 159. c. 13. l. 1 Colledges and Committees too full of stately Ministers , p. 168 , 169. c. 13. l. 1 Compulsive powers doe more hurt then good , p. 126. c. 11. l. 1 Comforts to all Churches to come , p. 524. c. 9. l. 2 Coming of Christ but a tale to many , p. 18. epist. l. 1 Common-wealth when flourishing , p. 6. ibid. Comfort and salvation hindred by disobedience to Christs cals , p. 207. c. 15. l. 2 Confidence in the flesh to be cast off , p. 247. c. 1. l. 2 a Confession of Faith , p. 350. c. 5 l. 2 Congregationall Churches are the right Presbytery , p. 313. c. 8 l. 2 Congregationall Churches some will fall , and some stand the trials that are coming , p. 189 , 191 , 192. c. 14. l. 1 a Congregationall Church , what , and how it gives beeing to the Catholick , p. 481. c. 9. l. 2 Conscience ▪ what it is , p. 114 c. 8. lib. 1 Conscience not to be compel'd , p. 128. c. 11. l. 1. & p. 262. c. 2. l. 1 Consciences have liberty in opinions , pag. 312. chap. 5. l. 2 Consciences Golden Rule , p. 337 c. 5. l. 2 Conquest follows fighting , p. 365 c. 6. l. 2 Consequences of doubtings , p. 251 c. 1. l. 2 Consequences sad , upon the wilfull neglect of entring into Churches , when Christ cals . p. 200 c. 15. l. 2 Consideration must be serious , p. 240. c. 1. l. 2 Consideration in four things before entrance , p. 242. c. 1. l. 2 Constitution of Parish Churches open'd a box of plagues ever since , p. 92. c. 7. l. 1 Contrary means bring forth Gods ends , p. 47. c ▪ 4. l. 1 Covenant one to all Saints , p. 86 c. 7. l. 1 Convert discovered two waies , p. 354 c. 6. l. 2 Converting means by experiences , p. 367 , 368. ibid. J. Coopers experience , p. 400 , 401 ibid. Covenant in the Church , indifferent , p. 451. c. 7. l. 2 Covenant , what kinde is necessary , p. 456. c. 7. 2 Councell of Lateran the first since Christ that ratified tithes and Presentations , p. 28. ep . l. 1 Councels the ( second ) Head of Brass , p. 157. c. 13. l. 1 Criticks many promised to be Readers of this Book , p. 218. ep . l. 1 F. Curtis Experience , p. 10 , 11. exper . c. 6. l. 2. D Danger to Churches past ere long p. 34 c. 3 l. 1 Dangerous Rock ( Christ is ) to some . p. 187 c. 13 l. 1 Daniels , who are 35 Ep. Dangerous to raise up Ceremonies again , and why ? p. 315 c. 5 l. 2 Danger of Church-Covenant , when ? p. 452 c. 7 l. 2 Davids , who are such ? 34 35 Ep. 1 David's dayes now , how ? 26 Epist. 1 Dark things must not be urged on the Saints p. 335 , 336 , c. 5 l. 2 Day of Judgement , then Saints of all Judgements all alike , p. 338 c. 5 l. 2 Day of Embodying together , how ? p. 276 , 277 , c. 3 l. 2 Death to be inflicted on none for not beleeving or misbeleeving p. 177 c. 13 l. 1 Decency and order in all Churches p. 272 c. 3 l. 2 Declaration of all that enter into Church-fellowship p. 237 c. 3 l. 2 Definition of Christs and Antichrists Church p. 137 , 138 , c. 13 l. 1 Delight the Lord takes in his Churches p. 44 c. 4 l. 1 Deliverance of the Church out of the wildernesse is as yet gradual , but will be universal 19 , 10 , 21 , 3 1 Dependency upon Diocesan , and National Churches Antichristian p. 105 c. 8 l. 1 Description of the best Church-fellowships p. 212 c. 15 l. 1 Description of the visible members of the Church 96 , 97 , 98 8 1 Despair the effect of doubtings p. 252 c. 1 l. 2 Despair the Author was in , and how ? p. 427 , 428 , c. 6 l. 2 Despair what is the cause of it p. 431 c. 6 l. 2 Despair causes howling and r●aring in hell p. 441 c. 6 l. 2 Different opinions in things indifferent are all to bee received p. 311 , 312 c. 5 l. 2 Difference of opinions may , and must be p. 234 , 327 c. 5 l. 2 Differences about things unnecessary , is lamentable p. 325 c. 5 l. 2 Difference in light not in love in primitive times p. 333 c. 5 l. 2 Differences how all may be reconciled p. 471 c. 8 l. 2 Dipping lawfull , but not Diving p. 297 c. 4 l. 2 Dipping is no fundamental Ordinance p. 300 , 308 , 305 c. 4 l. 2 Discipline of the Gospel God hath designed , and why ? and how it differs from carnal and Ecclesiastical Polity p. 2 , 3 , &c. c. 1 l. 1 Discipline in Apostles dayes glorious p. 10 c. 2 l. 1 Discipline best at last p. 16 c. 2 l. 1 Disciples of Christ Separates p. 74 c. 6 l. 1 Directories and Canons uselesse p. 7 c. 1 l. 1 Disobedience of some that will no come , when convinced , amoun●st to a resisting the Holy Ghost p. 200 c. 1● l. 1 Disobedience to parents grievou● p. 296 c. 6 l. 2 Disorder of Saints till embodyed p. 88 c. 6 l. 1 Distinction , as of Clergy , and Laity Presbytery and Prelacy p. 487 c. 9 l. 2 Distance to the first Institutions , search p. 246 c. 1 l. 2 Divinity in a new dresse every day p. 1 c. 1 l. 1 Divisions in the Churches give Sathan , and his Surrogates great advantage p. 503 c. 9 l. 2 Doctors , Fathers , Councels , &c. uselesse p. 264 c. 2 l. 2 Doctrines of Devils , what ? and when ? p. 454 c. 7 l. 2 Doctrine of Papists and Presbytery alike , wherein ? p. 473 c. 9 l. 2 Doubtings hinder the effects of Church-fellowship p. 252 c. 1 l. 2 Doubting dangerous and what it is to doubts it soon makes us give up Buckler p. 243 , 244 c. 1 l. 2 Doubtfull things , what are so p. 313 , 314 c. 5 l. 2 Doves eyes of the Churches p. 96 c. 8 l. 1 Dove that rests on the Ark , what ? p. 268 c. 2 l. 2 Dreams may be of use to confirm p. 413 c. 6 l. 2 Dream the Author had confirmed by the word p. 430 , 431 , 436 c. 6 l. 2 Dreames extraordinary and usefull to convert sometimes 397 , 400 , 430 , 436 6 2 In Dublin Churches , Hypocrites many p. 64 , 65 , 66 , c. 5 l. 1 Dublin Church experiences , and examples of many p. 368 369 c. 6 l. 2 Dublin Church-Covenant p. 450 c. 7 l. 2 Duties must be kept to Callings and Relations p. 75 c. 6 l. 1 Duties of Christians not done till embodied p. 88 61 , 202 c. 15 l. 1 Duties formally and Pharisaically p. 424 c. 6 l. 2 E Eat of every typified tree of Paradise p. 543 c. 9 l. 2 East where the Sun rises who , and where p. 551 , 537 c. 9 l. 2 East , where ( typified ) Paradise shall be p. 531 , c. 9 l. 2 Eden a most excellent type of the Church p. 528 c. 9 l. 2 Ecclesiastical Politie differs from Gospel p. 6 , 7 , 8 c. 1 l. 1 Ecclesiastical and Civill how they came jumbled together p. 168 c. 13 l. 1 Edification one end of Church-Discipline c. 2 l. 1 p. 60 Edomites shall enter into the Churches p. 549 c. 9 l. 2 Effects discover the cause p. 361 c. 6 l. 2 Effects of some dreams are great p. 409 c. 6 l. 2 Elders have but a derivative power and are to be servants , not Lords p. 110 c. 8 l. 1 Elders have not the power of admitting p. 287 , 288 , c. 4 l. 2 Electing requires two things p. 258 c. 2 l. 2 Election is a mystery , and from Eternity , but vocation is in time p. 358 , 359 c. 6 l. 2 Elements of Baptisme how passed away p. 310 c. 4 l. 2 Embodyed Saints excell , and wherein p. 87 c. 7 l. 1 Embodying follows due preparation p. 273 , 274 c. 3 l. 2 Embody how ? and when ? p. 276 , 277 c. 3 l. 2 Embodying rashly ( as some have done ) fatall and evill , but in publick is best p. 280 , 281 c. 3 l. 2 R. Emersons Experience p. 411 c. 6 l. 2 D. Em●ts Experience p. 412 c. 6 l. 2 Emeralds who , and how they excel p. 515 c. 9 l. 2 Emptinesse in all other wayes , p. 250 c. 1 l. 2 Ends of Church-Fellowship , none but Saints can answer p. 59 c. 5 l. 1 End of all Churches one and the same p. 131 , 132 c. 12 l. 1 End of Parishes is for their owne Ends p. 135 c. 12 l. 1 Ends are base which bring many into the Churches , as Hypocrites p. 211 , 212 c. 9 l. 2 End how Presbyters and Papists agree in it p. 476 c. 9 l. 2 End , su●ts with the Principle p. 255 , c. 2 l. 2 End of Church fellowship answered by all Saints though differing in opinions p. 318 , 319 c. 5 l. 2 Enemies of Christ ground to powder p. 25 c. 3 l. 1 Enemy to Errors , are the true Churches p. 206 c. 15 l. 2 Enemies to Spirit , men of forme p. 341 c. 5 l. 2 Energy of Church fellowship how hindred p. 252 c. 1 l. 2 Enemies afraid of Churches in unity p. 504 c. 9 l. 2 Entrance of Saints and Hypocrites different p. 40 c. 3 l. 1 Entity and Unity convertibles p. 87 c. 7 l. 1 Entrance into Churches , what to do first p. 239 , 240 c. 1 l. 2 Epistle to Purleigh in Essex 229 Equality of all Ministers p. 97 c. 8 l. 1 Equality of all Churches p. 110 c. 8 l. 1 Erring Church how reformed p. 111 112 c. 8 l. 1 Errors to be killed by the word ( not the sword ) p. 164 , 175 c. 13 l. 1 Errors may , and must be in the Churches p. 206 c. 15 l. 1 Erro●s the Excrements of older truths how ? 25 Ep. 1 Essentials of Church-fellowship , must bee knowne before wee enter p. 242 c. 1 l. 2 Essentials of the universal Church p. 481 c. 9 l. 2 Examples of Gospel-Churches p. 5 c. 1 l. 1 Examination of self when ? p. 240 c. 1 l. 2 Examples worke much p. 8 c. 6 l. 2 An Example for all sinners p. 447 c. 6 l. 2 Excellency of Saints in one body p. 88 c. 7 l. 1 Excellency of Churches is ( Christ ) the Head p. 148 c. 13 l. 1 Excellency of Women above Men p. 473 , 473 c. 8 l. 2 Excellency of such Church members as are promised in these latter dayes p. 520 , 529 , 530 c. 9 l. 2 Excellent ones who ? 23 Ep. Excommunication begun in Paradise p. 542 c. 9 l. 2 Execution of Gods eternall Decree in what order p. 359 c. 6 l. 2 Experience proves Principles p. 355 c. 6 l. 2 Experiences to bee declared , and why ? p. 356 , 357 c. 6 l. 2 Experiences declared in what order p. 361 c. 6 l. 2 Experiences of some , warn others p. 363 c. 6 l. 2 Experiences take men off of censures p. 364 c. 6 l. 2 Experiences shew G●ds various working p. 366 c. 6 l. 2 Experiences teach to trust in God and are means of conversion ; teach , us best of all , bring our Assurance to light , &c. p. 367 , 383 , 384 c. 6 l. 2 Experience humbles us p. 379 c. 6 l. 2 Experiences shew sweetly what wee are , from what wee were p. 376 , 377 c. 6 l. 2 Experiences to come are the choysest p. 449 , 450 c. 6 l. 2 Explicite covenanting may be ; but how ? p. 455 7 c. 2 l. 2 Eucharist , how Papists and Presbyters agree in it p. 468 c. 9 l. 2 F Fact ( not Faith ) Magistrates Judges of p. 164 c. 13 l. 2 Faire without , and not within , Hypocrites p. 66 c. 5 l. 1 Fair all over , the Church of Christ p. 100 c. 8 l. 1 Faith never forced three hundred years after Christ p. 160 c. 13 l. 1 Faith more urged then Forme p. 208 c. 15 l. 1 Faith in prayer forces out a quick answer p. 370 c. 6 l. 2 In the Faith all are to be received p. 348 c. 5 l. 2 Fall suddenly to some Churches p. 188 , 189 , 191 c. 14 l. 1 False perswasions dangerous , and how to know them p. 249 c. 1 l. 2 False friends flatter most 2 Epist. Familiarity with Christs enemies declined p. 76 c. 6 l. 1 M. Fanshaws Experience p. 414 c. 6 l. 2 Fatal blow to Parish Churches when ? p. 94 c. 7 l. 1 Father one to all Saints p. 86 c. 7 l. 1 Feat of hell makes hypocrites serve God p. 477 c. 9 l. 2 Felony to give and receive Sacraments as most do in Parish Churches p. 551 c. 9 l. 2 Fellowship Christ was Pastor of , our paterne p. 57 c. 5 l. 1 Fellowship with men , not out of Christs way p. 77 c. 6 l. 1 Few at first embody , and who they be ? p. 278 c. 3 l. 2 F●ghters against God wh● ? p. 340 c. 5 l. 2 Fighting-time for all , before the conquest p. 365 c. 6 l. 2 Finall cause , first in eye , last in act p. 131 c. 12 l. 1 Finall cause of Churches promised what ? p. 522 c. 9 l. 2 Fire goes out of the mouths of Saints and Churches to devou●e all their Adversaries p. 90 c. 7 l. 1 Firme foundation of all true Churches p. 184 c. 14 l. 1 First into Christ , and then into Churches p. 188 c. 14 l. 1 Fittest to lay a Churches foundation , who ? p. 192 c. 14 l. 1 Fit for Church-fellowship who ? p. 210 c. 15 l. 1 Flowers tyed up in a Nosegay , and presented to the Saints , what they are ? p. 450 c. 6 l. 2 Forcing powers must bee p. 126 , 127 , 128 c. 11 l. 1 Folks run mad , and why ? p. 150 c. 13 l. 1 Foolish buildings will soon fall , and why ? and so will many in our dayes p. 191 c. 13 l. 1 The Form of the Church , and how promised ? p. 70 , 61 522 c. 9 l. 2 Form wanting makes deform p. 88 c. 7 l. 1 Form of the Church is ( partly ) Independent p. 100 c. 8 l. 1 The Forme by Christs Rule measured p. 121 c. 10 l. 1 Forme of Embadying , not set , but fit p. 272 , 273 c. 3 l. 2 Forms must put none by Admission p. 292 c. 4 l. 2 Forms childish things , but how ? p. 341 c. 5 l. 2 Forms Idolized soone tumble p. 343 c. 5 l. 2 Form of Christ in the flesh , and Churches parallel p. 344 c. 5 l. 2 Formes not to be forced , but left to liberty p. 345 c. 5 l. 2 Forms of Gods owne ordaining laid aside for peace-sake , much more ours p. 345 c. 5 l. 2 Formes how occasioned ? and how useful ? 345 5 Formes of Church covenant p. 457 , 459 c. 7 l. 2 Formal Professours Time-servers p. 115 c. 8 l. 1 Formalists most furious against the Spirit p. 305 , 308 , 309 c. 42 52 Formality delineated p. 420 c. 6 l. 2 Formal Righteousnesse p. 393 408 410 c. 6 l. 2 Foundation of the Church , is Christ alone p. 53 , 183 , 51 c. 13 l. 1 Foundation is first of all laid in sound buildings 189 , 524 , 14 19 2 Foundations are rotten which many have built , and which will bee suddenly discovered p. 191 c. 13 l. 1 Foundation of some Anabaptists is as weake as water , that making an Idol of it p. 301 , 302 , 305 c. 4 l. 2 Fountaine in the midst of the Gardens is Christ p. 203 c. 15 l. ● Free-willers all Saints , but how ? p. 125 c. 11 l. 1 Fruitfulnesse of the Churches above All 32 43 3 4 1 Fruits of the Trees of ( typified ) Paradise p. 5●3 c. 9 l. 2 Fulnesse of all the Body is Christ the head p. 148 c. 13 l. 1 G. Gardens of Christ his Churches p. 42 , 43 c. 4 l. 1 Gates of Sion are the Congregational Chu●ches , and the way into Sion . p. 204 , 209 c. 15 l. 1 Gathered out is before Gathered in p. 71 c. 6 l. 1 Gathered Churches many must fill , p. 188 , 189 c. 14 l. 1 Gifts , Parts , &c. qualifie not for Church-fellowship p. 59 c. 5 l. 1 Glory of the latter house Greatest p. 4 c. 1 l. 1 Glory of God the end of Church-fellowship p. 132 c. 12 l. 1 Glory of the Churches is All in One p. 339 c. 5 l. 2 Glory of God much by Experiences , &c. p. 357 c. 6 l. 2 God is the universal Good 260 2 1 God ( in us ) the Principle ( to us ) the Object , and ( with us ) the End p. 261 c. 2 l. 1 God and Saints seale by the same Spirit p. 227 c. 2 l. 2 God receives Saints of all judgements p. 316 c. 5 l. 1 Gods great designe is All into One p. 330 c. 5 l. 2 A G●d-like Principle moves the Saints p. 254 c. 2 l. 1 Godly wrong their souls to abide in Parish Churches p. 95 c. 6 l. 1 Golden Rule of Conscience p. 337 c. 5 l. 2 Good must separate from the Bad p. 71 c. 6 l. 1 Good ( in this Church-state ) the Wils object p. 259 c. 2 l. 2 Gospel-Discipline proved from Polity p. 3 5 c. 1 l. 1 Gospel-Hedges and Fences p. 42 c. 4 l. 1 Gospel-Order in the Institution to be knowne p. 246 c. 1 l. 2 Gospel way of worship is the great promise p. 508 c. 9 l. 2 Gospel full of blessings to all 33 Epist. A Gospell call p. 410 c. 6 l. 2 G●vernours in Kingdomes of Saints , and of Families alike p. 180 c. 13 l. 1 Governours of the Nation warned of Lawyers 225 Ep. 2 Government of Christ , and civill Magistrates distinct p. 127 c. 11 l. 1 Graces saving and sanctifying to fit for Church-fellowship p. 59 c. 5 l. 1 Grace in a convert taken two wayes p. 355 c. 6 l. 2 Gradual recovery of the Church ( now ) p. 20 c. 3 l. 1 Grounds of true perswasion is Gods word p. 245 c. 1 l. 2 H. Hair of the Church p. 96 c. 8 l. 1 Hairs grown on the Head , so Saints on Christ p. 151 c. 13 l. 1 Halcyon dayes 32 Epist. A Hanly's Experience p. 414 c. 6 l. 2 Happinesse and Honour to have Ch●ist our Lord p. 145 c. 13 l. 1 Happinesse of Saints in Christ's Churches p. 95 c. 5 l. 1 Harbour in these daies in Gathered Churches p. 29 c. 3 l. 1 Hard to have Foundation in the Rock ( Christ ) p. 186 c. 13 l. 1 Haste ! Haste ! Haste ! words to England , Ireland , and Scotland p. 40 , 41 c. 3 l. 1 Haste to embody , must be with good speed p. 280 c. 3 l. 2 As Head is , members must bee p. 69 c. 5 l. 1 Head ( Christ ) to all Churches alike p. 103 c. 8 l. 1 Head and Body ( united ) make up whole Christ p. 1●7 c. 13 l. 1 Head is the highest over the body , and the Excellency of the Body , and gives influence to all the Body , and governs the Body , and sympathizes with it ; so Christ p. 37 , 148 , 149 c. 13 l. 1 Head and Member both , is Christ p. 148 c. 13 l. 1 Headlesse body is a lifelesse body p. 148 c. 13 l. 1 In our Head ( Christ ) our Eyes , Ears , Tongue , all should bee p. 150 c. 13 l. 1 Head well , All is well p. 150 c. 13 l. 1 Head of Gold ( Christ ) how hee differs from Heads of Brasse 151 148 153 181 13 1 Harvest follows the seed time of sorrow p. 365 c. 6 l. 2 Heathens are Volunteers to their gods p. 126 c. 11 l. 1 Heaven in the Churches of Christ p. 86 c. 7 l. 1 Heaven in hell what ? p. 405 c. 6 l. 2 Hell was Christs , and is our way to heaven p. 361 c. 6 l. 2 Hell how one may be in it , & how out again 394 , 447 , 448 , 398 , 403 &c 6 2 Colonel & A. Hewsons Experiences p. 395 412 c. 6 l. 2 Hermes visions of the Churches in these dayes p. 46 c. 4 l. 1 J. Heywards Experience p. 415 c. 6 l. 2 Hereticks ( as such ) not to bee put to death p. 177 , 178 c. 13 l. 1 Hereticks have put to death Saints for Hereticks p. 177 c. 13 l. 1 Hidden number who they be 14 Ep. Hierusalem vide Jerusalem . E. Hoar's Experience p. 4 c. 6 l. 2 Hold fast the Head ( Christ ) p. 182 c. 13 l. 1 Hollanders how to be dealt with now 12 , 13 Ep. 1 Holy Ghost must fall upon men before they bee fitted to build the Lords house p. 192 c. 13 l. 1 Hopes of Churches Recovery how lost again p. 12 c. 2 l. 1 Honour and praise of God the End of Church-fellowship p. 60 c. 5 l. 1 House of God fitly framed how ? and who ? p. 84 c. 7 l. 1 How●ing under sense of damnation p. 441 c. 6 l. 2 T. Huggins Experience p. 393 , c. 6 l. 2 Humility taught by experience p. 379 , 380 c. 6 l. 2 Husband of the Churches is Christ p. 56 c. 5 l. 1 Husbandry of the Lord , his Churches p. 31 c. 3 l. 1 Hyacinths or Jacinths , who ? p. 519 c. 9 l. 2 Hypocrites ( so known ) kept out p. 57 c. 5 l. 1 Hypocrites not of , though in Churches p. 64 ibid. Hypocrites hinder the Churches growth , and will all be discovered ere long 65 67 ibid. Hypocrites soon made by compulsive powers 127 11 1 , 263 2 2 Hypocrites character and conditions p. 211 c. 15 l. 1 Hypocri●e , what he is p. 373 c. 6 l. 2 Hypocrites puff'd up by experiences p. 379 ibid. Hypocrites warning-peice indeed p. 442 443 , &c. ibid. I. J●spers ( precious stones ) who ? p. 510 512 c. 9 l. 2 Idleness not allowed in Paradise p. 541 ibid. Idols of brass must down presently p. 159 c. 13 l. 1 Idolizing water-baptism , which was before by Papists , Prelates ; and is now by Anabaptists p. 303 305 c. 4 l. 2 Idols made of forms , hast their fall p. 343 c. 5 l. 2 Idols of forms several ways p. 345 ib. Idolatry in many professors p. 346 ib. Idolizing a Church-Covenanting p. 454 c. 7 l. 2 Jew , every spiritual Saint p. 74 c. 6 l. 1 Jew and Gentile all one in Christ p. 392 c. 5 l. 2 J. Jecocks Experience p. 399 c. 6 l. 2 Jerusalem a type of the Church p. 527 c. 9 l. 2 Jews when precious Church-matter p. 54 ibid. Ignorance of Churches object hinders affection to them p. 118 c. 9 l. 9 Ignorance is the mother of false worship p. 241 c. 1 l. 2 Implicite faith not enough p. 244 ibid. Impartiality as to opinion necessary p. 247 ibid. Impudent whoredoms of Parish Churches , Minister , and People p. 550 551 c. 92 Independent Church , every Church of Christ p. 100 c. 8 l. 1 Independency Prelatick , as bad as any p. 105 ibid. Independents of long standing p. 113 ib. Independents walk by Rule , i. e. the Word 122 10 1 , 113 8 1 Independents many called so that are not so , but are persecutors of true Independents p. 115 ibid. The Independent Lord is Christ alone 144 ▪ 13 1 ▪ Indifferent things what are , and what not p. 313 c. 5 l. 2 Indifferent things all lawful in themselves p. 324 ibid. Indifferent● dangerous ▪ when and how p. 451 c. 7 l. 2 Inclosed number of Saints make Churches p. 42 c. 4 l. 1 Infant Baptism idolized , how p. 300 c. 4 l. 2 Infant Baptism true , for matter and form p. 299 ibid. Ingagement for and against Churches , how ? in Epistle to Churches . Injoyments highest to Saints in fellowship p. 202 c. 13 l. 1 Inl●v'ning and inlightning the spirits work p. 265 c. 2 l. 2 Inquiry of members to be admitted strict p. 288 289 c. 4 l. 2 Interest of Gospel polity differs from interest of carnal polity p. 7 c. 1 l. 1 Integrum , what it is p. 482 c. 9 l. 2 Interests National and Antichristian fall backward 5 Ep. Intire Church every particular Church p. 483 c. 9 l. 2 Intruders into Churches , are many p. 271 c. 3 l. 2 Inward truth must be in Church-members p. 69 c. 5 l. 1 Inward melancholly p. 429 c. 6 l. 2 Inward Baptism qualifies for Churches p. 300 c. 4 l. 2 Joynt-powers , joynt-prayers , and joynt-praises of Saints embodied , fill Heaven and Earth p. 90 91 c. 7 l. 1 Joy at laying the foundation great p. 193 c. 14 l. 1 Joy , if true , follows sorrow p. 365 366 c. 6 l. 2 H. Johnsons Experience p. 408 c. 6 l. 2 Ioy to Christs Churches in his day which is nigh p. 25 c. 3 l. 1 Ireland warned of persecutors for forms p. 17 c. 2 l. 1 Ireland calls and incourages Ministers 28. Epist. Iron-hearted men set up the head of Iron p. 151 c. 13 l. 1 Israel a separate people p. 71 c. 6 l. 1 Israel afflicted by Egyptians , how now p. 342 c. 5 l. 2 Ireland springing with variety of flowers p. 417 c. 6 l. 2 Judas in every Church , he went out after the ●op at Dublin p. 66 c. 5 l. 1 Iubilee hard by p. 26 c. 3 l. 1 Iudge of Religion , Christ alone in Commission p. 151 c. 13 l. 1 Iudges of Doctrine of Faith , not Magistrates , and why 173 175 ibid. Iudges shall be judged by Saints p. 177 ibid. Iudgement must be sound p. 242 c. 1 l. 2 Indicature in what Christ is Iudge p. 160 c. 13 l. 1 Iudgements or opinions in things indifferent of all sorts to be received p. 312 c. 5 l. 2 Iudgement of the Church is charitable upon the declaring of Experiencies p. 358 360 c. 6 l. 2 Justification , how Presbyters and Papists agree in it p. 474 c. 9 l. 2 K. Key of Christs shoulders , what it is ? p. 138 c. 13 l. 1 Keyes , who pretend to them , 58 Ep. T. Kelsals Experience , second Experience 6 2 King , and King alone , Christ 19 20 21 22 23 Epist. King in his Beauty , most in Churches p. 117 c. 9 l. 1 King the first , a Tyrant 22 Epist. Kings never more in England 23 Ep. Kingdom of Christ p. 85 c. 7 l. 1 Kingdom of God consists not in outward things p. 324 c. 5 l. 2 Kingdoms of God of several kindes p. 325 ibid. Knowledge of Christ spiritual , is one end of Church fellowship p. 60 c. 5 l. 1 L. Lambs Book of life p. 55 c. 5 l. 1 Lambs Book will be out ere long 217 Epist. Last days , best days p. 26 31 , 46 c. 4 l. 1 Latter days Churches filled with glory p. 537 538 539 c. 9 l. 2 Law-giver , Christ alone p. 144 145 c. 13 l. 1 Lawyers corrupt and live by sin 220 221 Epist. Lawyers mock at the word , and hinder Reformation 222 Epist. Lawyers ere long will appear the greatest Oppressors , Tyrants , and Traytors that are 224 225 Epist. Laws of the Nation , not regulated , and why 222 Epist. Laws and Lawyers must be purged from lusts 223 Epist. Laws of Christ in paradise p. 540 c. 9 l. 2 Law to go forth from Churches to the World p. 541 ibid. Learned men so called , most enemies to Christ p. 78 61 , 205 c. 15 l. 1 Learned in all Ages for the Independent Church way p. 205 ibid. Learned , who are truly so p. 205 ibid. Least garden plants Gods greatest care p. 44 c. 4 l. 1 H. Lecsons Experience , 10 Exp. 6 2 Legal Righteousness , 4. Exp. ib. Lessons for Anabaptists in Ireland p. 334 335 c. 5 l. 2 A letter from Waterford answered p. 302 303 304 c. 4 l. 2 Levitical law required separation p. 72 c. 6 l. 1 Liberty of sisters in Churches p. 466 471 472 c. 8 l. 2 Liberty of Saints in things indifferent 318 5 2 , 328 ib. 333 ib. Life is first , before law p. 541 c. 9 l. 2 Light and increase of knowledge , one end of Church-fellowship p. 60 c. 5 l. 1 Light shining gloriously p. 400 c. 6 l. 2 Light goes forth from Churches round about p. 531 c. 9 l. 2 Lips of the Church , what p. 97 c. 8 l. 2 Lord , Christ alone , by power , purchase , conquest , gift , and choice , Independent , spiritual , universal , sole-soveraign , Lord cheif Justice , most Excellency and Everlasting 78 6 1 143 144 13 1 Love original to all Saints a like p. 86 c. 6 l. 1 Love of God in Christ , ground of comfort p. 375 c. 6 l. 2 Love of God taught by experiences p. 383 ibid. Love of God calls home p. 412 ibid. Love of Heaven , and yet but Hypocrites p. 477 c. 9 l. 2 Love to God out-lives all Graces p. 405 c. 6 l. 2 Love to all Saints , one end of Church-fellowship p. 60 c. 5 l. 1 Love to all Saints that differ in opinions p. 333 c. 5 l. 2 Love and sweetness to restore a faln Member p. 83 c. 7 l. 1 Love is absolute , for which all indifferent things must be laid aside p. 453 c. 7 l. 2 Lust is set up in the room of Law 223 224 Epist. M. Mad folks in Churches , and why ? p. 150 c. 13 l. 1 Maidens of wisdom now calling in the streets p. 198 199 c. 15 l. 1 Mary Magdalen the first preacher of Christ risen p. 474 c. 8 l. 2 Magistrates , what they must do , and what they must not do in matters of Religion 262 2 2 , 179 185 127 128 13 11 , 164 13 1 Magistrates must not head it over Churches and Saints p. 159 ibid. Magistrates Tyrants , when they do so , and sacrilegious 160 172 ib. Magistrates meddle not with faith , but with fact p. 163 ibid. Magistrates struck with judgements that meddle beyond the orb God hath set them in 166 173 ibid. Magistrates when in , most danger p. 171 ibid. Magistrates are servants to , not Judges of , no● Law-givers to Christ , Churches , or Saints 179 180 ib. Magistrates in their places owned and honored , by the Churches p. 129 c. 11 l. 1 Magistracy and Ministry ever distinct p. 1●5 c. 13 l. 1 Magistrate , what he may do about Ministers 11 Epist. Magistrates must do all they can by their powers , and persons to countenance the Churches 13 Epist. 26 ibid. Magistrates must study Scriptures p. 36 ibid. Magistrates , Presbyter , and Papists agree about them p. 480 c. 9 l. 2 Maintenance to Ministers is moral , but the manner of it is civil , and left to liberty p. 489 ib. Man not able to undertake Church-Government p. 139 c. 13 l. 1 Mans rule too long , or too short p. 121 c. 10 l. 1 Man of form most enemy to Christ p. 341 c. 5 l. 2 Many fall to Rantism , &c. and why p. 322 ib. Many Members polute the Lords sanctuary p. 69 c. 5 l. 1 Man●a must fall a pace in these days p. 35 c. 3 l. 1 A. Manwarings Experience , 2 , 3 Exp. 6 2 E. Marrows Experience p. 424 ib. Martyrs in the flames have witnessed against putting to death any for Errors of Heresies p. 179 c. 13 l. 1 Master-builder Christ alone , and how 140 141 ib Matter of the Church , visible Saints p. 51 52 c. 5 l. 1 Fit matter is of the Lords own adding 67 68 ib. Materials for Christs Churches must be the best p. 63 ib. Fit matter is ●ryed by the Hammer and Saw p. 68 ib. Matter , and form of the Church , fitted by Christs rule p. 121 c. 10 l. 1 Matter of Churches in these last days p. 510 512 c. 9 l. 2 Matter for foundation is the most pretious p. 192 c. 14 l. 1 Means to make us voluntary , what and how p. 264 265 c. 2 l. 2 Means to convert by Experiences p. 367 368 c. 6 l. 2 Means to convert one , converts not another p. 367 ib. Measure for the Temple is Christs rule p. 121 c. 10 l. 1 Meeting places made Churches , when p. 11 c. 2 l. 1 Meeting oft together before embodying p. 273 274 c. 3 l. 2 Meeting places called Churches , Presbyters and Papists agree in them p. 492 c. 9 l. 2 I. and A. Megsons Experience p. 416 c. 6 l. 2 Members of Church-fellowship , who fit p. 56 57 c. 5 l. 1 All members make up but one body p. 8● c. 7 l. ● A member amiss , how to be restored ibid. Members of foolish buildings in danger of falling the next storme p. 191 c. 14 l. 1 Members , many come before called , who p. 269 c. 2 l. 2 Members of other Churches , how received p. 294 295 c. 4 l. 2 Members causal and constitutive to the whole Church universal , are the Congregational p. 481 c. 9 l. 2 Memory for Sermons how helped p. 421 c. 6 l. 2 Merit of works , de congruo p. 477 478 c. 9 l. 2 Middle things must not be urged p. 327 c. 5 l. 2 H. Mills his Experience p. 409 c. 6 l. 2 Ministers , and the most eminent , guilty of those Errors they most complain of 82 7 ● Ministers of the Gospel , Teeth of the Church p. 97 c. 8 l. 1 Ministers of State succeed Lord Bishops in their actions and stations , which is bewailed p. 168 c. 13 l. 1 Ministers must not meddle with state matters p. 173 ib. Ministers , why against Independency p. 82 c. 7 l. 1 Ministers turned politicians fall into great places , Colledges , Committees , &c. which is very fatal and ominous p. 168 169 c. 13 l. 1 Ministers cannot be sequestred ab officio p. 180 ib. Ministers all over the Nation warned p. 208 c. 15 l. 1 Ministery , the Author called to it , and how p. 436 437 c. 6 l. 2 Ministers for long preaching despised , and what followed it 4 , 5 Experiences ibid. Ministers must have maintenance 27 28 Epist. Ministers who are made the people● 233 234 Ministry , when most corrupt 7 8 Epist. Ministers much encouraged in Ireland 28 Epist. Miscarriages of Church-members eyed by all p. 68 c. 5 l. 1 Mischief to Churches by proud prelatick lording Pastors , and by ruling Synods and Classes p. 104 108 c. 8 l. 1 Mixed congregations , not Gospel Church states p. 5 c. 1 l. 1 Mitre-mongers and Prelates , ever opposers of the true Churches p. 12 c. 2 l. 1 Mixed congregations , Christ not the husband of p. 56 c. 5 l. 1 Monks and priests , when they arose p. 11 c. 2 l. 1 Morality is Divinities hand-maid p. 1 c. 1 l. 1 Mortal blow to morter Churches last year p. 208 c. 15 l. 1 Motion , life , action , all from ( Christ ) the Head p. 149 c. 13 l. 1 Motions of Hypocrites , and true Church-members differ p. 268 c. 2 l. 2 Mountains made plains , who and how p. 24 c. 3 l. 1 Mystery of whole Christ , i. ● . Head and Body p. 147 c. 13 l. 1 N. Nakedness that parish Churches will be stript into p. 551 c. 9 l. 2 Names of such as would imbody given up , and how p. 274 c. 3 l. 2 Names of Heathenish and popish , presbyters and papists , agree in p. 491 c. 9 l. 2 National Ministry and Churches , how routed 28 Ep. Nations of all sorts to make up one Church p. 538 c. 9 l. 2 National Churches , what they are , and how to fall 550 551 552 ib. Nature of things doubtful and indifferent p. 314 315 316 c. 5 l. 2 Necessity of Gospel polity p. 3 c. 1 l. 1 Neck of the Church , what it is p. 98 99 c. 8 l. 1 Necessity is shown by the Spirit , and the word p. 129 c. 11 l. 1 Necessity of Churches wel grounded and well-united p. 193 c. 14 l. 1 Necessity of serious consideration , and self-examination of all that would be Church-members p. 240 c. 1 l. 2 Necessity of a free principle in all Church-members p. 255 c. 2 l. 2 A necessity put upon indifferent forms is pestilent p. 341 c. 5 l. 2 Necessary is threefold p. 461 c. 7 l. 2 Nobility , who be the best 21 22 Ep. Norman yoke most heavy 6 Ep. Novelty in presbyterians 60 Ep. O. Objections for Parish-Churches answered p. 61 c. 5 l. 1 Object of true Churches , what it is p. 116 117 c. 9 l. 1 Object of the will , what it is p. 259 260 c. 2 l. 2 Obstinacy to Christs call out of Babylon is dangerous p. 207 c. 15 l. 1 Occasion of form p. 347 c. 5 l. 1 Officers of the Church have a derivative power p. 288 c. 4 l. 2 Officers to the church , how women have been p. 470 c. 8 l. 2 Officers of the church , make the body more entire p. 554 c. 9 l. 2 Officers of the church , must be kept under as servants p. 110 111 c. 8 l. 1 Offences what , and how offer'd p. 321 c. 5 l. 2 Occasions of Brethrens fall into errors p. 322 ib. Old formal Protestantism is not enough for church-fellowship p. 69 c. 5 l. 1 One in another , and every one ( of members ) in Christ ●4 7 1 Oneness of all , Christ paid and prayed for 86 87 ib. Oneness of all Saints p. 319 320 c. 5 l. 2 One of all , is Gods great work p. 330 c. 5 l. 2 Oneness of Churches , when more then ever p. 506 c. 9 l. 2 Onions and Looks for Parish-members p. 207 c. 15 l. 1 Opinions out of Magistrates powers p. 174 c. 13 l. 1 Opinions ought not to byass us p. 247 c. 1 l. 2 Operation of the will carries into the object p. 260 c. 2 l. 2 Opinions in things doubtful and indifferent , may and must be divers p. 312 314 c. 5 l. 2 Opinions different , allowed with love two hundred years after Christ p. 332 ib. J. Osborn , a strange relation of him 440 , 441 , &c. 6 2 Opposition against the Churches make for them p. 205 206 c. 15 l. 1 Order requires Gospel-Discipline p. 2 c. 1 l. 1 Order in building Gods house p. 84 c. 7 l. 1 Order of Church-fellowships best , that begin first with Christ the foundation 1●8 13 1 Order of the Gospel , as at first must be known p. 246 c. 1 l. 2 Order in the true Church , is Gods Ordinance p. 271 271 c. 3 l. 2 Order of the true Church , agrees best with different opinions p. 326 c. 5 l. 2 Order of telling Experiences p. 361 c. 6 l. 2 Order of the Gospel , a great latter days promise p. 508 c. 9 l. 2 Orders and Ordinances out of Christs way , to be waved p. 77 c. 6 l. 1 Ordinances of Christ , dispenced in order of Christ p. 80 ib. Ordinances neck , Christ head , Saints bodie of the Church p. 99 c. 8 l. 1 Ordinances prisoners in some Churches p. 123 c. 10 l. 1 Ordinances energy obstructed by doubtings p. 252 c. 1 l. 2 Ordinances here , a shadow of them to come p. 337 c. 5 l. 2 Ordinances and Members , Trees of Paradise p. 532 c. 9 l. 2 Ordinances of breaking Bread , many ignorant of 472 473 ib. Ordinance of prophecying one by one , means of converting and confirming p. 412 c. 6 l. 2 Ordination of Ministers , Papists , and Presbyterians , agree in p. 482 483 c. 9 l. 2 Original love to all Saints a like p. 86 c. 7 l. 1 Originall of Scriptures is the Spirit p. 463 c. 9 l. 2 Orthodox Expositor of Scripture who only ibid Others stirred up into church-fellowship by publick imbodying p. 284 c. 3 l. 2 Outward things make not the kingdom of heaven p. 324 c. 5 l. 2 Order in ordination of Ministers , which is right p. 485 c. 9 l. 2 P Palaces of Christ , true Churches p. 50 , 63 c. 5 l. 1 Papists and Prelates too alike in Discipline and practice p. 13 c. 2 l. 1 Papists , Prelates , and Presbyterians would have all their high courts over the Churches p. 105 c. 8 l. 1 Parish churches antichristian p. 61 78 c. 5 l. 1 Parish churches when they began first p. 62 ibid. Parish churches Satans Synagogues p. 79 c. 6 l. 1 Parish churches no churches 77 , 78 6 1 neither matter nor form 91 , 92 ib. Parish churches plagues from th● first p. 92 ibid. Parish churches confused chaoses p. 93 ib. Parish churches want the form of Independency p. 105 c. 8 l. 1 Parish churches sties for beasts p. 93 c. 7 l. 1 Parish churches in nothing accord to Christs rule p. 121 c. 19 l. 1 Parish churches uphold by carnal powers p. 126 c. 11 l. 1 Parish churches fail in the final cause p. 135 c. 12 l. 1 Parishioners opposite to Churches , p. 79 c. 6 l. 1 Parish Churches get out of , and why ? p. 207 , 208 c. 15 l. 1 Parishes , and Churches how they differ p. 553 c. 9 l. 2 Parish Churches stript naked as at first how p. 552 , 553 c. 9 l. 2 Paradise a type of the Church in the last dayes p. 528 , 529 c. 9 l. 2 Paradise restor'd in the latter dayes in Trees , Rivers , and all 530 , 531.9 2 Paradise in these dayes entring where it shall be p. 530 c. 9 l. 2 Parallel of Churches taken from Gardens . p. 42 c. 4 l. 1 Parallel fetcht from the Wildernesse p. 30 c. 3 l. 1 Parallel of Christ in the forme of his flesh , and forme of his Church-way , p. 244 c. 5 l. 2 Parliament warned p. 172 c. 13 l. 1 Partakers of Babylons sins , partakers her sorrowes p. 75 c. 6 l. 1 Pastors Lord like , most mischeivous p. 104 c. 8 l. 1 Pastors should gather Churches Experiences p. 150 , 151 c. 6 l. 2 Patrons ( so called ) their fearfull sins 29 Epist. Paul a great Separatist p. 77 c. 6 l. 1 Peace of the Church agrees with different opinions p. 326 c. 5 l. 2 For Peace sake Gods own forms ( much more ours ) must bee laid aside p. 345 c. 5 l. 4 People bewitch'd in these daies p. 39 c. 3 l. 1 People not profiting under the ministry , great heart-sores to faithfull Ministers 330 , 331 , Epist. Performance of Promises at last pinch 47. 4 1 Perfection of all in one , is Christ p. 339 c. 5 l. 2 Persons entring into Churches , what to do first p. 239 240 c. 1 l. 2 Persecutors Sampsons Foxes that ●u●n up themselves p. 18 c. 2 l. 1 Perswasion , how to attain it p. 245 c. 1 l. 2 Perswasion ( which all must have that would enter into Churches ) how to know true from false 249. ib. Piety must not dance after policy p. 160 c. 13 l. 1 Plantation of Christs own hands i. e. his Churches p. 43 c. 4 l. 1 Pledges given in at Dublin Church , p. 371 c. 6 l. 2 Policy , carnall , and Gospel policy bow they differ p. 6 , 7 , 8 c. 1 l. 1 Policy must serve piety , not piety policy p. 160 c. 13 l. 1 Policy what it is p. 169 ib. Policy ruin'd by Christs coming p. 170 ib The polick Beast s●t in the temple 8 11 Politicians described p. 170 c. 13 l. 1 Politicians Religion p. 194 c. 14 l. 1 Pope , Prelats , Primates , &c. whence they came p. 10 c. 1 l. 1 Popery to take away Church-power & give it to Clergy or Classes p. 102 c. 8 l. 1 Pope is the head of brasse , and how he came in p. 155 c. 13 l. 1 Popish Discipline swam in blood p. 12 c. 2 l. 1 Porters appointed to keep out the unclean p. 52 c. 5 l. 1 A posie presented to the Saints and Churches p. 450 c. 6 l. 2 Power in all Churches equal p. 101 c. 8 l. 1 Power of men over any Church of Christ is usurped p. 113 ib. Power to admit Members is the bodies p. 286 c. 4 l. 2 Power civill subservient to Christ and his Saints p. 127 , 128 c. 11 l. 1 Powring out of the Spirit hard by us p. 506 c. 9 l. 2 Practise of primitive Saints , Prophets Apostles , &c. was to separate from the mixed multitudes p. 74 c. 6 l. 1 Power and prayers of churches p. 91 c. 7 l. 1 A praevision p. 425 c. 6 l. 2 Praises to God a peculiar end of Church-fellowship p. 133 c. 12 l. 1 Praise is publick of the Church imbodied p. 279 c. 3 l. 2 , Prayer must be much before imbodying p. 275 , 276 ib. Prayer eminently answered , p. 368 , 369 , 370 c. 6 l. 2 Prayer converting and confirming 415 ibid. 399 3 2 Preaching , a call thereto p. 437 , 438 c. 6 l. 2 Precepts for Separation p. 72 c. 6 l. 1 Precious separate from the vile p. 70 ib. Precious stones gathered in latter daies p. 519 , 520 c. 9 l. 2 Prelates ever opposers of the Church of Christ p. 12 c. 2 l. 1 Prelacy and popery , Ter●ani Convertibiles p. 105 c. 8 l. 1 Prelacy ready to be turned off the Ladder p. 104 ibid. Prelacy and Papacy live and dye together p. 14 c. 2 l. 1 Prelates in pomp p. 107 c. 8 l. 1 Preparation before imbodying p. 273 c. 3 l. 2 Presbyterian way fals with Prelacy p. 14 c. 2 l. 1 Presbyterians too bold Usurpers of Christs power p. 105 c. 8 l. 1 Presbyterians and Independents greatest difference p. 104 ibid. From Presbytery to Independency p. 396 c. 6 l. 2 To Presbyterians a word in love p. 479 c. 9 l. 2 Presbyterians how Churches , and how not p. 480 ib. Presbyterian Churches ( as such ) not true Members of the church of Christ Catholick . p. 481 ib. Presbyterians whom we own and honour p. 483 ibid. And whom we dare not close with 57 Epist. Some Presbyterians and Papists look too alike in the Head , Body , Eies , Mouth , Hands , and Feet , yea , and whole effigies of their church p. 484 c. 9 l. 2 Presbyterians monopolize the Churches , so called p. 494 ibid. Presbyterians designe against the Author and Book 55 Epist. Presbyterian way novelty , and Heterodoxie 60 Epist. Presbytery Congregationall is the right p. 113 c. 8 l. 1 Presence of God is speciall in Churches p. 547 c. 9 l. 2 Presence of God in Churches is the adaequat object p. 116 c. 9 l. 1 Presence of Christ sweetest in Churches 45 4 1 202 15 1 Pride in Pastors God abhors ( of all mens ) 109 8 ● Primitive times Saints were all volunteers p. 124 c. 11 l. 1 In primitive times Ministers ( people and all ) equal in honor and dignity without Prelacy p. 151 c. 13 l. 1 In Primitive times Saints longed for church-fellowship p. 204 c. 14 l. 1 In Primitive times no respect of opinions p. 331 , 333 c. 5 l. 2 In Primitive times Saints told their Experiences p. 356 c. 6 l. 2 In Primitive times Sisters had their liberty , as church-members , in church matters p. 465 , 466 c. 8 l. 2 Principle of a Saint is above self , and God like p. 254 c. 2 l. 2 Propagation of the Gospel how p. 485 c. 9 l. 2 Priviledges of Saints imbodyed 89 7 1 202 15 1 Professors who fit for church-fellowship p. 35 c. 5 l. 1 Many Professors not Christians , ib Professors who are best , and tryed , p. 326 c. 5 l. 2 Professors in primitive times p. 53 , 54 c. 5 l. 2 Professors fall to Familism , Rantism , &c. why ? p. 81 , 82 c. 7 l. 1 Promises performed by contrary means p. 47 c. 4 l. 1 Promises to anchor at in a storme p. 28 c. 3 l. 1 Promise of Gold for Brasse , Silver , for Iron p. 181 c. 13 l. 1 Promises of restitution of times to be eyed . 246 ▪ 1 2 Proofs of Sisters right● in ▪ Churches , p. 467 , 468 , 469 c. 8 l. 2 How to prophesie , or fore-tell things to come ●27 3 1 Prophesies of these last daies ready to be delivered p. 30 c. 3 l. 1 p. 46 c. 4 l. 1 Prophesies of Hermes and Methodius p. 46 47 c. 4 l. 1 Prophesies of three things that will suddenly fall upon the Churches p. 505 , 506 , 507 c. 9 l. 2 Prophecying one by one a special ordinance p. 412 c. 6 l. 2 Proud prelatick Pastors in Independent Churches as bad as any p. 104 c. 8 l. 1 Providence is to be observed p. 247 c. 1 l. 2 Publicke imbodying convinces the world of the way , prevents scandal , agrees with Christs practice , and precepts , and the way it self , &c. p. 281 , 282 , 283 c. 3 l. 1 Publick meeting places how they should be dedicated to Saints ( living ) p. 494 c. 9 l. 2 Q Qualifications in Church-Members must be known as to satisfaction before they enter p. 248 c. 1 l. 2 Qualification a second part of Experience p. 262 c. 6 l. 2 Questioning of Forms p. 346 c. 5 l. 2 Questions as●ed in admitting of weak lambes of Christ must be accordingly p. 291 c. 4 l. 2 R. Ranters must not be received into Church fellowship p. 69 c. 5 l. 1 Ranters , why many are so p. 322 c. 5 l. 2 Ranter , what he is p. 373 c. 6 l. 2 A Ranter recalled 2 Exper. 6 2 Ranters spirits Church-destroying spirits p. 502 c. 7 l. 2 Rash judgement fights against God , and wh●t it is ? p. 340 c. 5 l. 2 Ranters blazing-starts , ever po●●ending evill p. 59 c. 5 l. 1 Rash Embodying will soon bee broken p. 280 c. 3 l. 2 Readers of divers sorts 218 Epist Readers what sort the Authour wishes for 227 Epist. Reason keeps many out of Church-fellowship p. 80 c. 5 l. 1 Reasons why Primitive Saints longed after Church-fellowship p. 204 c. 15 l. 1 Reason that is carnall must be laid aside 219 Epist Readers what sort have promised 219 Epist. Reason as it growes must mend the Laws 223 , 224 Epist. 2 Reason ( divine ) the Rule of Saints Will p. 257 c. 2 l. 2 Rebaptizing is unlawfull p. 295 , 296 , c. 4 l. 2 Redeemed are the readiest to praise God p. 134 c. 12 l. 1 Refuge of the Churches of Christ p. 185 c. 14 l. 1 Refuge for England where ? 13 , 14 Ep. Registers in the Church p. 279 c. 3 l. 2 Reigne of Christ visible ere long p. 24 c. 3 l. 1 Relation betwixt God and his Saints , Christ and his Churches , is inseparable p. 56 c. 5 l. 1 Reign of Christ over all Churches as Head , and Nations as King p. 508 c. 9 l. 2 Religion is out of the Civill or be p. 127 , c. 11 p. 173 c. 13 l. 1 Restauration promised p. 27 , 28 , 29 31 Restitution of times to be inquired into p. 246 c. 1 l. 2 Revelations of Iohn must be searched by all in these times p. 465 c. 9 l. 2 Remedies to spiritual evils , are spiritual p. 111 c. 8 l. 2 Remembrance every day of the Church in the Wildernesse p. 41 c. 3 l. 1 Retrograde motions of Hypocrites p. 65 c. 5 l. 1 A Riddle for Hypocrites unfolded p. 65 c. 5 l. 1 Right hand of Fellowship 275 , 3 2 293 4 2 Rituall order in true Churches p. 272 c. 3 l. 2 Rites or Forms not to be urged , so as to put any by admission p. 292 c. 4 l. 2 R. Riches Experience p. 412 c. 6 l. 2 Rivers of Paradise what ? running from the East , and why ? p. 536 , 537 , 538 c. 9 l. 2 Righteousnesse inherent and imputative p. 475 c. 9 l. 2 Rock ( Christ ) the Churches Foundation p. 184 c. 14 l. 1 J. Rogers Experience p. 412 c. 6 l. 2 Rotterdam Church-Covenant p. 457 c. 7 l. 2 Rubbish abundance to be removed , and by whom p. 139 , 140 c. 13 l. 1 Ruine cannot be when the Rock is the Foundation p. 185 c. 14 l. 1 Ruine of the late Civill Powers what ? 13 Epist. Ruling Synods and Classes unlawfull p. 107 , 108 c. 8 l. 1 Rules to prophesie of things to come p. 27 , 28 c. 3 l. 1 Rule Christs Church is built up by p. 119 c. 10 l. 1 Rules of men make mad Church-work p. 120 c. 10 l. 1 A Rule for the Will which is two-fold p. 257 , 258 c. 2 l. 2 Rule of admission of Members p. 339 c. 5 l. 2 To Rulers of Civil affairs a w●od and a warning p. 127 c. 11 l. 1 Rulers run the hazard of ruine when Phacton like they thinke to rule the Sun , in medling with matters of Religion 130 , 11 1 171 13 1 Rulers of Parliament warned p. 171 , 172 c. 13 l. 1 Ruler of Nations goes out of the Churches 38 Epist. S. Sacraments no where but in true Churches 6 1 Sacraments p. 535 c. 9 l. 2 Sacraments disorderly given by Presbyterians 470 9 Sacriledge for Magistrates to meddle with matters of Religion as Judges 172 , 13 1 Safety of Churches in all troubles as p. 187 c. 14 l. 1 Saints shall have enough , and to spare ere long p. 36 c. 3 l. 1 Saints separate from other p. 42 c. 4 l. 1 Saints in Churches should surpasse all p. 43 c. 4 l. 1 Saints live above sense p. 47 c. 4 l. 1 Saints sound , upright , &c. are fittest matter p. 51 c. 5 l. 1 Saints of sweet savour , and for such to be members of the Churches is a latter dayes promise p. 51 55 c. 5 l. 1 Saints , best answer the Ends of Church-fellowship p. 59 c. 5 l. 1 Saints all hewn from one Rock , of one seed , in one womb , bearing one image , lead by one Spirit , called into one hope , having one joy and glory p. 86 c. 7 l. 1 Saints united , too hard for all the world p. 90 c. 7 l. 1 Saints happinesse , and honour in Christ their Lord , and cannot want preferment p. 145 , 146 c. 13 l. 1 Saints Priviledges , in Christ the Head , and as his Hairs , they grow from him p. 151 c. 13 l. 1 Saints in all ages under all Formes make all but one Church p. 151 c. 13 l. 1 Saints are best taught by Experiences p. 384 c. 6 l. 2 Saints shall judge their Judges p. 177 c. 13 l. 1 Saints of old longed for Church-fellowship , and why ? p. 204 c. 15 l. 1 Saints directed to the best Church fellowship p. 212 c. 15 l. 1 Saints that would enter , must consider ; and what else p. 231 , 242 c. 1 l. 2 Saints of all judgements to bee received p. 311 c. 5 l. 2 Saints not tyed to any one Church , p. 274 c. 3 l. 2 Saints the same in Faith , though not in Form p. 348 c. 5 l. 2 Saints of old told their Experiences p. 356 c. 6 l. 2 Saints called Antinomi●ns , and why ? p. 475 476 c. 6 l. 2 Saints glorious Cherubims how 14 47 Epist. Salvation before Sanctification in the Decree , but sanctification before salvation in the execution of it p. 359 c. 6 l. 2 Samaritans brought in by the Experience of a woman declared p. 367 , 368 c. 6 l. 2 Sandy foundations will faile many Churches that are built on them p. 190 c. 14 l. 1 Sanctuary of the Lord filled with Volunteers p. 125 c. 11 l. 1 Saphires ( precious stones ) who they be ? p. 513 c. 9 l. 2 Sardiuss's ( precious stones ) who ? p. 516 c. 9 l. 2 Sardonix's ( precious stones ) who ? p. 515 c. 9 l. 2 Sathan renews Temptations every foot p. 432 c. 6 l. 1 Sathans syn●gogues in Parish Churches p. 79 c. 6 l. 1 Saving sanctifying graces fit us for Church-fellowship p. 59 c. 5 l. 1 Saul is slaine , Davids dayes entred , and Solomons entring very speedily 26 Epist. Scandal upon Churches and Saints ▪ whence vid. Epist to Churches , and p. 321 c. 5 l. 2 Scandal to Christ , Saints , and Gospel , to put any by for their bare opinions in things indifferent p. 321 , 322 c. 5 l. 2 Scandal of this age , and of the Gospel is so many Hypocrites in Chu●ches p. 68 c. 5 l. 1 Scripture-comforts are sure , and will last p. 309 c. 6 l. 2 Scriptu●es how Presbyterian● & Papists agree in them p. 461 , 402 c. 9 l. 2 Seal of the Spirit , what it is p. 266 c. 2 l. 2 Sealing of the Spirit how ? p. 372 , 373 c. 6 l. 2 Secular powers in matters of faith are tyranny and persecution p. 160 c. 13 l. 1 Seed time a sad-time before Harvest p. 365 c. 6 l. 2 Seekers sins . p. 194 c. 14 l. 2 Selfe-examination of all that comes into Church-fellowship p. 240 c. 1 l. 2 Selfe-murther the Author sayed from p. 429 , 435 c. 6 l. 2 Separation from them without Christ calls for p. 45 c. 4 l. 1 Separation a part of Church-form p. 70 c. 6 l. 1 Separation what it is ? p. 75 , 76 c. 6 l. 1 Separates from Parish-Churches no Schismaticks , but who are so ? and who are not ? p. 77 , 78 c. 6 l. 1 Sense makes us look and live so low as not to see things that are comming p. 47 c. 4 l. 1 Sequestration of Ministers of Christ cannot be from their preaching by any man p. 180 c. 13 l. 1 Sermons how to bee remembred p. 421 c. 6 l. 2 Serpent tempts with the tree of knowledge p. 545 c. 9 l. 2 Servants of Christ ( the Master-builder ) who ? p. 141 c. 13 l. 1 Servants of the Churche , officers p. 288 c. 4 l. 2 Servants of God differ in opinions , and yet the Lords p. 317 c. 5 l. 2 Set forme in Churches must not be p. 272 c. 3 l. 2 Shield to Saints who are to be 27 Ep. Shadow , what it is , and what are so ? p. 338 c. 5 l. 2 Sin in things indifferent p. 324 c. 5 l. 2 Sisters ( as well as Brethren ) have their Right as Church-members to vote , &c. p. 463 , 464 c. 8 l. 2 Sisters joyned in choosing an Apostle p. 466 c. 8 l. 2 Sixth day ( now ) man put into Paradise p. 446 c. 9 l. 2 Sodome a type of Antichrist p. 525 c. 9 l. 2 Slanders the Author suffers 43 Epist. Sleeping at Church how to avoid it p. 521 c. 6 l. 2 Solemne Order must accompany solemne Ordinances p. 280 c. 3 l. 2 Solemnity of Embodying is in publick p. 281 c. 3 l. 2 Soules flashed for sin , exalted in Christ p. 381 c. 6 l. 2 Souldiers of Christ are best in the Churches p. 90 c. 7 l. 1 J. Spilmans Experience 4 Expe. 6 2 Speech of Christ what ? p. 98 c. 8 l. 1 Spirit , and Truth inwardly and outwardly God to bee worshipped in p. 1 c. 1 l. 1 Spirit least , when Form most p. 33 c. 3 l. 1 Spirit calls to come away p. 40 c. 3 l. 1 Spiritual means against spiritual evils p. 111 c. 8 l. 1 Spirit qualifies us by convincing and making us voluntary p. 126 c. 11 l. 1 Spirit is the Key that opens , and none shuts p. 138 c. 13 l. 1 Spirit agreeing with our spirits , how p. 373 c. 6 l. 2 Spirit is the sweetest compulsive power p. 129 c. 11 21 Spirited for the worke of the Temple little yet , to what will be ere long p. 123 c. 10 l. 1 Spiritual Ah●●iabs , & none else , should goe about to say the true Foundation of the Church p. 192 c. 14 l. 1 Spiritual worshippers in the Churches p. 209 c. 15 l. 1 Spirit and Word are the Lords Arms be draws with p. 253 c. 2 l. 2 Spirit of Christ the interior working Instrument p. 264 c. 2 l. 2 Spirit is Gods strongest and right Arme p. 269 c. 2 l. 2 Spirit how it is knowne , and how it convinces p. 264 , 265 c. 2 l. 2 Spirit how one in all p. 268 c. 2 l. 2 True Spirit how known p. 373 c. 6 l. 2 Spirit carries through thicke and thin p. 266 c. 2 l. 2 Spirit powred out , hard by us p. 506 523 c. 9 l. 2 Spirits powring out where it will bee first p. 538 c. 9 l. 2 Spirit is the onely orthodox Expositor p. 463 c. 9 l. 2 Spiritual Covenants are best , and binde m●st p. 462 c. 7 l. 2 Spiritual Egypt ▪ many Churches , how , and why ? p. 342 c. 5 l. 2 Spirit-Baptisme a principle of union p. 307 c. 4 l. 2 Spirit-Baptisme by which we enter Christs Body p. 308 c. 4 l. 2 Spouse of Christ faire p. 87 c. 7 l. 1 Spring time is entred for the Churches p. 28 c. 3 l. 1 Sprinkling , and washing , all one with dipping p. 497 c. 4 l. 2 Strength of Saints embodyed , invincible p. 89 , 90 c. 7 l. 1 Storme which the Author was in 48 Epist. A. Strongs Experience 9 Exp. 6 2 Storms the Churches must meet with yet p. 28 c. 3 l. 1 Subjects to Christ the Lord and Lawgiver p. 143 , 144 c. 13 l. 1 Substance of all shadows , is Christ , p. 338 c. 5 l. 2 Sun must rule the day that is coming 528 92 37 Epist. L. Swinfields Experience 396 , 397 , and 4 Exp. 6 2 Sword of Christ that slayes sinne and errors , is the word of Christ p. 261 c. 2 l. 2 Sympathy with the least member of Christ the Head p. 149 c. 13 l. 1 Synods ruling unwarrantable 107 8 1 497 9 2 T. Tabernacles , i. e. Churches , their benefits p. 94 c. 7 l. 1 Tabernacles of David types of Congregational Churches p. 526 c. 9 l. 2 Task masters of Egypt , who , and where now p. 343 c. 5 l. 2 Teachings are best by best Experiences p. 382 , 383 c. 6 l. 2 Teeth of the Church , who p. 97 c. 8 l. 1 Temples of the Church , who p. 98 ib. Temple stones hewn and fitted , &c. p. 52 c. 5 l. 1 Temple of Solomon , a Type of New Jerusalem p. 528 c. 9 l. 2 Temptations are strong , and many ; after Calls p. 416 c. 6 l. 2 Temptations incredible , the Author met with 427 428 ib. Temptations are divers ways 433 434 1 Exper. ib. Temptations , to deny Ordinances 404 2 Exp. ib. Terminus , the Lawyers God 221 Epist. Terror to all the world , Churches united p. 90 c. 7 l. 1 Tenderness , in admitting Members p. 291 c. 4 l. 2 Testimony , threefold of all admitted 290 294 ib. Things indifferent and doubtful , what are so p. 313 314 c. 5 l. 2 Things of a middle size left to liberty p. 327 ib. Thoughts of Hell , scaring at first p. 419 c. 6 l. 2 Twin-Testimonies give assurance p. 372 ib. Single testimony , how enough , and how uncertain 374 377 ib. Throne of Christ usurped by some p. 320 c. 5 l. 2 Times of restitution tumbling in a pace p. 28 c. 3 l. 1 In times of popery , Experiences were told to convert p. 368 c. 6 l. 2 Times of assurance p. 378 ib. Time of tryal , sharp to the Churches , is coming p. 505 c. 9 l. 2 Topaz's ( precious stones ) who they be p. 518 ib. A Trance 404 62 Travel in souls before birth of joy p. 366 ib. Trees of Christs own planting , fruitful p. 43 c. 4 l. 1 Trees of typified paradise , who and what p. 532 533 c. 9 l. 2 Tree of Life , who it is p. 534 ib. Troubles in minde and conscience 410 7 Exp. 6 2 In troubles experiences , are cordials p. 367 ib. Truths occasion errors , but how 25 Epist. Trust in God , is helped by experiences p. 367 c. 6 l. 2 Turks ( and fit for none else ) that will not have their forms questioned p. 346 c. 5 l. 2 M. Turrents Experience , 11 Exp. 6 2 Types of Church-matter p. 51 52 c. 5 l. 1 Types which foretel the ruine of false Churches , and the rising of the true Churches p. 525 526 527 c. 9 l. 2 Tyranny and persecution to have secular powers over us in matters of faith p. 160 c. 13 l. 1 Tithes a heavy yoke 6 Epist. Tithes when , and how confirmed to Ministers 28 Epist. 491 9 2 Tithes , how Presbyterians and Papists agree in them p. 488 ib. Tithes how judaical , how ceremonial , how moral , and how that maintenance must be altered , when they keep up sin and superstition , &c. 489 ▪ 490 ib. V. Variety in unity is most beauteous p. 337 338 c. 5 l. 2 Variety of Gods workings appear by the Experiences of Saints p. 366 c. 6 l. 2 Violation of Christs Laws to take into Churches any but visible Saints p. 55 c. 5 l. 1 Vindication of Congregational-Churches for matter p. 64 ib. Violence and voluntariness repugnant p. 269 c. 2 l. 2 Visions of various conditions of the Churches in all ages , and how in these days , by Hermes p. 46 c. 4 l. 1 Visible and invisible , no Scripture distinction p. 61 c. 5 l. 1 A vision 423 425 398 409 6 2 Vision , what it is , and twofold p. 449 ib. Vital spirits , all from Christ the Head p. 149 c. 13 l. 1 Unfitness of men for Church work p. 120 c. 10 l. 1 Uncircumcised and circumcised all one in Christ p. 306 c. 4 l. 2 Unholy , unclean ones , not to enter the Temple p. 52 c. 5 l. 1 Uniformity when it began to be forced p. 332 c. 5 l. 2 Union of Saints unconquerable p. 90 c. 7 l. 1 Union with Christ the Head , qualifies for communion with Saints in Churches p. 59 c. 5 l. 1 Union of all Saints and Churches necessary p. 195 196 c. 14 l. 1 For unions sake , all that makes difference laid aside ibid. Unity and entity convertibles p. 87 c. 7 l. 1 Unity , where is not uniformity p. 1●6 c. 14 l. 1 Unity urged amongst all Churches , and why p. 501 c. 9 l. 2 Unity with variety agrees very well p. 498 ib. Unity of Churches , when it will be most p. 506 ib. Unispirituality keeps up the Churches p. 196 c. 14 l. 1 Universal deliverance of the Church , when p. 20 21 25 c. 3 l. 1 Universities of what sort at the last days p. 540 c. 9 l. 2 Unnecessary things make most difference p. 325 c. 5 l. 2 Unsavory fruits of the Head of Brass p. 159 c. 13 l. 1 Unskilful builders abundance , as yet p. 12● c. 10 l. 1 Vocation layes open election p. 358 c. 6 l. 2 Vocation legal and evangelical 403 404 , &c. ib. Vocation in time , election eternal p. 359 ib. Voluntary submission to the ways of Christ p. 123 124 c. 11 l. 2 Voluntiers , and none else in Christs Churches p. 253 254 c. 2 l. 2 How we are voluntiers , different from false members p. 270 ib. A voice of God 1. Exper. 406 409 415 ib. Votes in Church concern all alike , viz. Sisters as well as Brothers p. 470 c. 8 l. 2 Use of forms may be p. 34● c. 5 l. 2 Usurpation of Christs power p. 105 c. 8 l. 1 Usurpation of Christs throne p. 320 c. 5 l. 2 Usurpers both Ministers , and Magistrates , and how p. 169 c. 13 l. 1 W. Wants none to the Churches ere long p. 35 c. 3 l. 1 Waiting is a special latter days disposition p. 47 c. 4 l. 1 Warning to Hypocrites p. 67 c. 5 l. 1 Warning piece to Ministers , last year p. 208 c. 15 l. 1 Warning to formal Anabaptists , that idolize dipping p. 343 c. 5 l. 2 Warning to some , by experiences of others p. 363 c. 6 l. 2 Warning to them that take Gods name in vain 423 ib ▪ W. Walkers experience , 6 Exp. ib. A special warning to Purleigh in Essex 237 Epist. E. Waymans Experience p. 409 ib. Water-baptism , how passed away as to us p. 310 c. 4 l. 2 Way of the Churches in latter dayes best discovered p. 33 c. 3 l. 1 Watch and pray for the promises p. 47 c. 4 l. 1 Ways God works in strange , and by contraries p. 47 c. 4 l. 1 Way of Gospel-fellowship , Christ left behinde for Saints to follow him in p. 199 200 c. 14 l. 1 The way much honored by publick embodying p. 282 c. 3 l. 2 Weak Lambs how to be taken in p. 293 c. 4 l. 2 Weakness , God most and best seen in p. 418 c. 6 l. 2 Weakest sex , most exalted p. 464 c. 8 l. 2 Weather for Ireland promises fair p. 417 c. 6 l. 2 Well-grounded , and well-united , necessary for Churches p. 193 c. 14 l. 1 Westminster Assembly of Divines abominable 57 58 Epist. Wicked patrons . In Epist. to L. Gen. and Com. A wife wrought upon her husband , 10 Exp. 6 2 Wilderness the Church was in 10 30 31 1 3 1 Wilderness-creatures no more our companions p. 36 c. 3 l. 1 Wilde Beasts shall not hurt us ere long p. 34 ib. Wilderness-ones characterized p. 38 ib. Willing to enter into Churches , not forced p. 125 126 c. 11 l. 1 Will hath a principle p. 254 c. 2 l. 2 Will must first be wrought upon by the spirit p. 129 c. 11 l. 1 Will hath an end , and what it is p. 255 c. 2 l. 2 Will hath a rule , and what it is 256 257 ib. Will hath an object , and what it is 258 259 ib. Will hath its operation into the thing willed p. 260 ib. Wisdoms polity p. 1 c. 1 l. 1 Wisdom weighs the end first p. 136 c. 12 l. 1 Wisdom hath sent out to all p. 198 c. 15 l. 1 Witness of the Spirit on his own knowledge p. 266 c. 2 l. 2 Witness what it is p. 353 354 c. 6 l. 2 Witness , if without it , what we must do p. 375 ib. Wives and children of faithful Ministers must be provided for , after the death of those Ministers 30 Epist. Winter-time is nigh over to all the Churches p. 28 c. 3 l. 1 Whores children , Parish Churches , and how p. 552 553 c. 9 l. 2 Wolves look upward when they howl for prey p. 65 c. 5 l. 1 Women may , and must speak in the Churches subjective p. 294 c. 4 l. 2 Womens right in Churches proved p. 464 465 466 c. 8 l. 2 Women have a good example p. 407 c. 6 l. 2 Women have preached p. 468 474 c. 8 l. 2 Women how , and why they have equal liberty with men as Church-members 472 473 ib. Women excelling men p. 473 474 c. 8 l. 2 Women , how and when they are not to speak 475 476 ib. A word to the three Nations p. 15 c. 2 l. 1 A word to the Churches p. 29 49 3 c. 4 l. 1 A word to all to come into Christ p. 80 c. 6 l. 1 A word to Saints to begin their Hallelujah apace p. 135 136 c. 12 l. 1 A word to Magistrates p. 1●9 c. 13 l. 1 A word both to Magistrates , and Ministers p. 174 ib. A word to the builders of these days p. 197 c. 14 l. 1 A word to the Anabaptists in Dublin and Waterford· p. 334 c. 5 l. 2 A word to the wicked indeed p. 430 c. 6 l. 2 A word more to Church-members p. 455 c. 7 l. 2 A word to women p. 476 c. 8 l. 2 A word more to the Churches p. 510 511 521 c. 9 l. 2 Word preached , makes not Churches p. 63 c. 5 l. 1 Word preached , is not the indelible note of a true Church p. 79 c. 6 l. 1 Word of God must be the ground of our perswasion p. ●45 c. 1 l. 2 Word of God , the instrumental cause of the will p. 261 c. 2 l. 2 Word converting , and confirming 404 414 11 Exp. 6 2 Word awakens 397 411 419 420 422 426 ib. Word and Spirit twin testimonies p. 374 ib. Work of Churches too hard for men p. 139 c. 13 l. 1 Work of Ministers and Saints , is by the Word to ruine errors p. 175 ib. Work of God in these days , is to bring all into one . p. 330 c. 5 l. 2 Workings under the Law , heavy p. 415 c. 6 l. 2 Works , how Presbyterians and Papists agree in them p. 473 477 478 c. 9 l. 2 Worship of God is in Spirit and Truth p. 1 c. 1 l. 1 Work that God is about in these days p. 24 25 26 c. 3 l. 1 The world will finde Churches too hard for them p. 90 c. 7 l. 1 World much convinced by publick imbodying p. 281 c. 2 l. 2 Worships that are false , we must separate from p. 76 c. 6 l. 1 Y. Forty years hence of Christs coming to reign p. 24 c. 3 l. 1 Ynough and to spare , we shall have ere long p. 36 c. 3 l. 1 Yron heads p. 160 c. 13 l. 1 Yron vide Iron Z. Zeal , that is false , fights against God in his Saints and Churches p. 340 c. 5 l. 2 One word for the Printer . Honest friends ! FRown not ! for who shall throw the first stone ? you or I ? You that are without faults , finde faults , but make not faults ; I fear we shall meet with more Errata's at the end of our lives , then at the end of these lines , though here be many , and more then my leasure can enter together into the list ; but being they are baggage , it shall cost the less care ; onely this , I believe that the miscarriages of the Press , and mens practises ( with some mens malicious misconstructions ) will have alike look and language , and may express . Light a Lie , Truth , Ruth , Mystery , Mysty , &c. For , for the most part their fault is to diminish and detract . But it may be , some men will read with a Romish gloss or glance ( as the Prelate or Presbyteer ) and then I look , they that will ( willingly ) read as in Luk. 15 8. for domum everrit ▪ domum ever●it ; for when they should sweep the house , they would pull it down : So that instead of me●ding worth I must look for some to be rending words till they make them worse then they are , & it ( may be ) as bad as themselves a● last . But to thee Honest Reader ! I wish with all my heart that I had more leasure to direct , and you lift and light to correct . I hope wee shall meet with some candid Christians , and honest men , who will amend in the life what is amisse in the leafe ; and with some patient well-minded Readers who will turn the other side to make it true sence for the Printers sake , and sentence for the Publishers sake ; Passe by the Typographick errors , for his sake , and the Hypographick errors for mine ; For I could not follow the Presse , and the Presse would not follow me . And to be ingenuous , I shall finde out some faults for you ; many from you ; but most in you , that are ever and most finding fault . Errata's in the Epistles . PAge 17. read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fourth month p. 30. line 27. r. deeply incumbent upon Magistrates , p. 26. l. 1. r. Christ's p. 29. l. 29. r. you know what I , p. 37. l. 18. margin r. redire i● principium , p. 55. in margin against l. 6. obliterate the p 70. l 9. in margin r. the way to make it , p. 64. l 19 r. him in , i. e. in one , p. 63 l. 37. r Churches , p. 73. l. 37. r. do save . p. 79. in verses l. ult . r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . In the Book , p 5. l. 27 r. Policie , p. ●4 in margent against l. 16. r. loose , and l 24 ▪ r. because that they . p. 15. l. 32. r. cheat us , p. 16. l. 1. r. Discipline , p. 17. l. 15 r. viz. in the Church , p. 23. l. 7. r. and five and thirty dayes , l. 29. r. that it is in . p. 30. l. 3. r. that holds , p. 34. in margent against , 17. and 18. l. r. Form , are least in Spirit , p. 39. l 6. r. Sun , p. 46. l. 21. r. Hermes , p 50. l. 37. r. others , and obliterare all , p. 54. l. 14. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 56. in margent under object , r. is n●t , p. 63. l 7. r. p 59. and in p. 65. against l. 16 margent . r. Churches , which they have , in p. 66. l. 14. r. sorts , p 67. l. 28. r. they , obliterate ye , p. 69. l. 9. r. new Ranters or old Protestants , p. 72. l. 23. r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , p. 109. l. 1. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , l. 23. r. undeniable . p 86 in margent against l. 25. r. love p 96. l. 1. Contents r. The second part of the s●cond , &c l. ●ast Contents r. any Church , p. 139. l. 24. r. and oblit . as , and in marg against l. 30. r. not able , p. 141. l. 36 mar . r. force , p. 152. r. ●ron sides , p. 217. l. 20. r. Esau , p 320. l. 3. r. that , p. 253. l. 14. r. Sun , p. 255. l. 13. oblit . seu before motum , and put in seu before m●ve●tur , l. 33. r. men ▪ p 261. l. 21. r. approbatione , p. 264. l. 31. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . marg . l. 24 r. Interior , p. 268. l. 3. r. found no rest , p. 304. l. 11. r. here , p. 305. l. ult . r. thou before that , p. 308. l. 12 r. is called , p. 301. l. 4 r. judgements , p 316. l. 30. r. they , p. 320. l. 12. r. be the cause of a pale , p. 328 l. 3. r subscriptions p. 334. l. 32. r. Psal. 36.9 . p. 336. l. 1. r. a tenondo , p. 358. l. 14. r. they , p. 319. l. 9 r. a poor wretch , who sayes , p 418. l. 38. r unrighteous ones , p. 419 l 2. r. full of variety , p. 739. marg r. dum sursum sursim , p. 453. l. 22. r. those , p. 457. l. 19. r. by ther , p. 465. l. ult . but one , r. Act ●4 . p. 466 l. 4 r. re-admitting of one , l. 5 r. to hold off , p. 482. l. 8. r. Intigrale , marg against l. 20. r. no Diocesan , 467 marg . against l. 20. r. duobus locis , p. 469. l 33. oblit . the , p , 470. l. 16. r. 1 Cor. 5.13 . p. 4●0 . l. 7. r. and as are , p. 507. line 37. read Forms of it , page 511. l. 35. oblit . to be , p. 519 l 26. r. an Amethyst , p. 523. l. 17. r. presence , p. 531. l. 5. r. autem , p. 464. l. 31. r. Scriptures , p. 468. l. 1. r. to be baptised , p. 472. l. 9. his ha●● l. 25. r. bread , p. 478. l. 34. r. grant it , p. 484. l. 37 r that they , 480. l. 1. r. about Civil powers , p 442. l 5. r For &c. Other faults I beleeve there be that have given me the slip , but I am not at leasur● 〈◊〉 pursue them . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A57540-e550 Wisdomes Politie , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sim. Divinity and Morality . Expos. From Fa●her and Mother . Spirit and Truth . Expos. Gods design in setting up Gospel-Discipline . To make us Gospel Disciples . 1 For order . 2 For un●ty 3 For edification of one ano●her . Hereby appe●rs Gods great love to us . Th. Aqu. 22. Q. 80.1.3 . Expos. And his great care over us . Expos. The necessity of it is undeniable . This Discipline is proved , 1 cut of Old Testament . Expos. It is the beauty of holinesse . Expos. The glory of the latter house greatest . Proved in New Testament by Christ Expos. It is a building fitly compacted . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is not an ( openly ) mix●d congregation . Expos. Ecclesiam esse misc●llaneam falsum oft dicere Cam. in loc . quia confusis ▪ cultibus confunditur v●rus Deus cum Idolis . Vrsin in secundo praecepto . Proved by the Apostles , and primitive Saints . Examples . Christs Church Discipline , or Politie , why , and how called so . Visibly , and invisibly all one Church . Sim. How it differs from carnall worldly Polit●e . 1 One and the s●me in all places . Sim. 2 In all ages . Cuncta temporum cursu mutantur . 3. In the interest it drives . 4. In the Lawes outward , and inward . Directories or Cannons are of no use therein . 5. In the King and Governor . 6. In obedience . 7. In altering or adding to Lawes . When●e came Pope , Prelates Hierarchy . 8. In principle ▪ 9. About customs of long continuance . 10. In power of making obedient , and punishing Offenders . 11. In the nature of it . 12. In the pomp and beauty of it . 13. In respecting ▪ persons or opinions . 14. In respect of gifts and abilities . 15. In the Consequence of it . It differs from Ecclesiasticall Polity in a sense . Who more Politick , then the Beast seven-headed , most subtill-pated in his Ecclesiasticall Discipline . Saints susp●●ring ( yet aspiring ) in a strange Land. Revel . 9.2 . Rev. 12.1 . Expos. What a happy condition the Church was in in the Apostles dayes both for Doctrine and Discipline . Mat 10.16 , 17 , 18. Anno 110. vid. Euseb. lib. 3. chap. 29. 2 Cor. 11.2 . The D●agon persecutes her . Rev. 12.4 . Anno 179. Anno 204. Anno 256. Anno 162. Euseb. lib. 7 , c. 17. Images and Idols . Cent. 2 cap. 7. Anno 267. Anno 306. Euseb. lib. 8. & 9. Rev. 12.3 . She was brought into the Wildernesse . When ? and how ? Pareus . in Apoc. 12. v. 6. By loosing her Discipline . And how ? Euseb. l. 10. cap. 3. Socrates , lib. i. cap 6. When meeting-places were made Churches . When Crucifixes , Reliques of Saints , &c. came up . Socrates , lib. 1. cap. 1● cap. 9. c. 17. Monkes , Priests . Popish Discipline . Swum in bloud There were hopes of the recovery of Gospel-Di●cipline in King Henry 8. and in Edw. 6. Lit●le hopes left againe in Q. Maries dayes . Great hopes of her restauration were in Q. Elizabeths dayes . Cant. 1.6 . But what hindred it ? Prelates falsly accused it to the Queen . They falsely accused and abused the Saints that called for Discipline . Papists and Prelates alike in Discipline , and in opposing the truth . Prelates Mungrels . Sim. K. James , No Bishop , No King. Both alike have been from , and for the be●st , and shall be punished with the beast . Presbyterians too must lose their Discipline in these dayes . Sim. Isa. 8.20 . The Law is for us , the day will be ours . Sim. The heat of their Sun melt● their waxen wings . Sim. Simile . Black Discipline will not be better , but bitter till it tumble . Church Discipline is best at last . Rev. 12.8.13 . Exhortation to England , Ireland , and Scotland . Sim. We have been cheated in our Child-hood with Copper , and counterfeit Coyne . But Christs true Discipline is offered in these dayes with the crown of twelve Starres , and cloathed with the Sunne , i. e. Christ , the Churches Light , and Lord. Sim. Sim. The Devil takes up straies Sim. Christ in the Churches their fulnesse . Sim. There Law of Love. A word and a warning to Ireland . Sim. Of Persecutors for forme , or judgement ▪ Sim. Proph. Persecutors , Sampsons Foxes that burne up themselves , and benefit us . Christ in you , and with you . Sim. Feare not . Isa. 43.3 . Sim. Proph. Expos. When the Church was Promised to be delivered out of the Wildernesse . The time . Iunius Parcus , in ●a . 1643. The Authors judgement . Of her graduall deliverance . Expos. Mr. Brightmans Judgement , 1650. One thousand six hundred and fifty , as to us in England , Ireland , and Scotland , begins her graduall recovery . The Authors judgement of her universall deliverance thirty five yeares hence to begin . Zach 4.6 , 7. Two times more set for her deliverance . Expos. Proph. From Constantine . To begin at Anno 1647. The second time reckoned from Julian the Apostate . Proph. Anno 362. To begin An. 1652. Gradually to go on till 45. years longer . How Antichrist is to be destroyed . Not by worldly weapons , But by the spirit , killed and ▪ Torment●d . Our troubles begin to be over , An. 1656. Sim. Yet forty yeers on the world , whiles we are safe in the Ark , viz. Ch●ists Churches . Forty yeers hence Christ comes to reign visibly . Then the universal Restitution 45. yeers hence at furthest . Proph. In order to this God is making Mountains plains . Who are the Mountaines ? Isa. 41.15 , 16.21.23 . Hag. 2.6.21 , 22 Expos. Rev. 12.17 , 18 Rev 18. ● . P●al . 83.11.12 , Th●s work is also graduall at first . And will bee universal . Esa. 63.1 , 2 , 3 , 4. Psal. 8.2 . Zach. 12 , 3 , 6. Wo to the enemies . Ioy to Christs and the Churches friends . Mat. 24. Expos. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Sim. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Psal. 97.12.6 . and 67.3 , 4. Isa. 22.22 , 23. Dan. 4.34 . The Lord is at work hard in th●se dayes . The richest blessings reserved for these dayes . Like a Kid in Hebr. Rakad . Rev. 18.4 . How to Prophesie as to foretell what is to come . Times of restitution . Spring time is entered . Winter time is over . Yet storms . Vid ▪ ch 9. lib. 2 Most precious Cordials . Sim. To comfort us ●n the wildernesse . Sim. Promises to anchor at in God. A word to the Churches to fathom . A good harbor Sim. Our harbour in these dayes . i. e gathered Churches . Sim. How we reckon one estate , and make our accounts . Sim. The blossomes and flowery promises that are upon us . 1 By parallel from the wildernesse . Iob 12.24 . Gen. 21.14 . 1 The Church discipline over grown with tradit●ons and trumperies . Vitiis & divitiis . Ezek. 36.9 , 10. 1 The promise is to till her as his husbandry . Pareus in loc . Ier. 4.3 ▪ 4. Rev. 15.2 . Ezek 36.38 . 1 Cor. 3.8 , 9 ▪ Beza in loc . Expos. Sim. The Churches are the Lord husbandry . 2 Wilderness a fruitlesse , barren place . S● hath Sion been . But now shall , be blooming and branching , and fruit-bearing , and flourishing . Amos 9.13 , 14 , 15. Cant. 4.12 . Isa. 61.11 . Sim. Thirdly , a wildernesse without a way . The Church was so in it . Ier. 9.13 , 14. Joh 14. Cant. 8.5 . Promise is to bring her into the way . The Lord will be her guide . Io. 4. Expos. Isa. 30.22 . Spirituall worshippers in Doctrine and Discipline , 2 Cor. 4.3 Most in the forme , least in the Spirit . Sim. Sim. The Spirit guides into the way . 4. A Wild●rnesse most dangerous . Psal. 55.23 Psal. 26.9 . The Church in such danger . Mat. 3.7 Psal. 104.21 Psal. 58.4 Mat. 1● . 16 Prov. 29.10 Psal. 11.2 . Expos. Prov. 12.10 How persecuted up and downe . Promises of her deliverance . Isa. 65.23 Wild Beasts shall have no power to hurt us . Wild Beasts afraid of the wall of fire . Mat. 4. 5. Wilderness of want . Expos. The Church in such wofull wants of necessaries . Expos. Vers. 13. Sim. O how sweet are the dayes that approach ! Sim. Sim. Sim. Good store of Manna . Isa. 11.9 . Isa. 35.2 Psal. 63.5 . Isa. 25.6 , 7 Psal. 65.4 . Saints shall have enough , and no more want . 6. With wildernesse creatures and companies . Ezek. 22.26 2 Cor. 6 , 16 , 17 So the Church was in the wildernesse to this day . Sim. Sim. And quite overturned into a stie of Beasts . Precious promises of her deliverance . Ier. 15.19 How many bewaile the fall of Babylon . Sim. Sueton , in Ner. And would have the Strumpet rule though she ruine us . Sim. They will not be got out of the old pace . Characters of Wildernesse-ones are : 1 Their habitation and ▪ abode . No content to us . 2 Their food is wild f●uit . Enough to choake us . 3 Never lost . We are soone lost , and sensible of it . Psal. 94 17 Psal. 55.22 Psal. 12.4 4 They agree together to seize on a stranger to their wayes . 5 Best pleased with darknesse . And hate the light . But those that have a right to these latter daies promises , love , & rejoyce at the light . Expos. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cashaph . People are bewitched : why , and how . Sim. They give all up to Babel , till they themselves be made a Babel , or confusion . But we are called our . A call from the Spirit , and the Bride to come . Sim. But not for self-ends· Saints and hypocrites different entrance into Church-fellowship . Why make haste into Church-fellowship . Sim. Haste ! haste ! haste ! in England , Ireland , and Scotland , more then all the world beside . Sim. Sim. Every day remember the Church in Wildernesse till she be recovered . Rom. 6.21 . Ezek. 43.10 , 11 ▪ The happy change . 1 Ioh. 1.3 . Veniente perfecto evacuatur imperfectum . Col. 2.22 , 23. Hos. 14.8 . Christs Garden , Isa. 51.3 . Isa 35.2 . Isa. 5.1 . Mat. 21.23 . Ier. 2.21 . 1 Taken out and separate distinct from the commons . Num. 23.9 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 2 Inclosed in themselves . Mat. 21.33 . Expos. By Gospel-fences and hedges . Vide Sibs in Cant 4.12 . Expos. 3 Christs own planting . Vide lib. 2. ch . 9 Mat. 15.13 . Expos. 4 For fruitfulnesse . Sim. Vide Paul Hobsons Garden inclosed . All trees in his Garden are for fruits . Sim. 1 Cor. 1.28 . Sim. Surpassing all others for magnitude , multitude , and plenitude . 2 Cor. 7.11 . Eph. 3.19 . Cant. 4.13.14 . Expos. Cant. 4.12 . Expos. Expos. Sim. 5 The Lords speciall care . Mat. 21.33 . Expos. Of least of his Garden plants . 6 His choysest delights are his Gardens . 2 Cor. 6.17 . Rev. 2.1 . Here is the Suns orbe to move in , and to give light to others . Sim. Sim. How long we are light . Sim. This blessing is begun in our dayes . A loud call from Christ to come . Expos. And separate ▪ from them without . Expos. Cant. 2.14 . The last dayes best dayes . Isa 64.4 . Isa. 2.2 . Zach. 14.7 . Proph. Rev. 12.1 . Prophesies of the Churches restauration in these latter dayes . Methodius . Hermes vision of the Churches restauration gradually 1 An old woman in a chair . 2 An old woman with the face of a young woman . 3 A young woman with old womans hairs in Q Eliz. and to these dayes . 4 A fair Bride coming out to meet the Bridegroom ; so she is now . The latter dayes disposition is to wait , Isa. 25.9 . Dan. 12.13 . Micah . 7.7 . Iam. 5.7 . Few can get beyond sense . Sim. God appears to perform his promise at the last pinch . Psal. 3.1.12 , 13.14 . Prov. 22.18 . Rom. 9.22.23 . Gods strange wayes . He works by contraries . For his Churches . For poor souls . Beleeve and wait . Rom. 4.18 , 19. Sim. When little grounds for faith and hope appears . Contrary means effect that work which will destroy the means . Sim. Many acts of Providence like Hebrew must be read backward . Sim. Sim. A word to the Churches . 2 Maccab. 1.20 , 21.22 . We are to fetch out what hath been hid many hundreds of years . First we must gather the wood together . Latimer . The Authors prayer is that like a light he may be spent to give others light . Ainsw . in loc . 3.9 . Expos. What the Church is , viz. The typified Chariot of Salamon , how and why ? It is a bed , a Throne a Palace , a Chamber of presence , a secret Chamber . A Couch . The matter of this Gospel-Chariot . Expos. Psal. 1.3 . & 52.8 . & 92.12 Ier. 17.8 . Such as are sound , faire , tall , fat , upright , strong , and well rooted , are fit for Church-Fellowship . Such are to be alwayes a sweet savour . Visible Saints only matter of the Church to be made up of . Types of it . 1 King. 6. ● Sim. The Stones of the Temple hewen . 2 Chron. 23.19 None entr●d into the Temple that were known unholy , or unclean . All the utensils and materials holy . 2 Chro. cha . 4. & chap. 5. So now in the Gospel-temple . * In his holinesse of Church-Members , read that Book , p. 88. The Porters that kept out the uncleane . Uncleane and uncircumcised ones doe pollute the Temple of the Lord , And are not to be suffered . Obj. Rutherford , Bailey . Answ. Expos. Cotton , Hooker , &c. Zach. 9.9 . Rev. 15.3 . Isa. 33.22 . Iam. 4.12 . Reasons . Expos. 1 Christ is the Churches foundation , none are true Church-members , but are built up by him , and on him . What sort of Professors and Professions requisite ? Ans. affirm . Ans. negat . not meere verball . Sim. Many Professors not Christians . Sim. Reall Saints most attractive matter . Obj. Answ. Expos. What sort of Professors were taken in primitive times . Sim. Not only puncti & repuncti , but also compuncti , a sound worke . Wounded for sin , crying out fo● Christ. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , repenting , embracing the Gospel greedily . Strong in the faith . In midst of trials . 2 Christ's countermand , Mat. 21. Expos. Christ's command . Expos. Violent violations of Christs Law to take in any but Saints in appearance , and so far as we can judge of them . Expos. Object . Answ. All called by an outward converting cal● But they are not to enter in till fitted . All the Prophesies are ●ull to foretell , that the Church in the latter daies shall consist of Saints and such as so appear . Such are in the Lambs book of life . Sim. Accounted necessary in the Law times , and the Baptists time . August . in Mat 3. Act. 19 4. The Baptist admitted not of scandalous , nor of bare professours . Ierom 31 , 32. The sweet and unseparable relation that is betwixt God and his Saints , Christ and his Church , Christ our Husband . Object . Christ is Husband of mixed Congregations too . Answ Expos. In the Church none members but such as appeared fit , so in all ages , in the true Church of Christ ▪ Object . in Judas . Answ. 1 Not known openly to the Church to be an hypocrite when admitted . 2 Christ knew him so by an extraordinary Spirit . 3 Great reason for Judas admission . Christs fellowship is the patterne , yet 〈◊〉 Judas was in it . Sim. 2 King. 15.25 . Sim. Gods own Ark may have beasts and toads in it . Sim. 2 Sam ▪ 23.4 , 5 , 6. 2 Christs Church is Gods holy Temple . 3 It is the Lords house . 4 His Houshold . 5 It is Christs Body . All these relations teach us what manner of persons Church-members ought to be . The Church must judge of them according to orthodox rules of charity . Vid. Hooker 1 lib. 2 ch . Object . Answ. Jude v 4. Not gifts , or parts , to pray , preach , &c. that doe fit or qualifie us for Church members . But union with Christ the Head by saving and sanctifying graces ( so called . ) Sim. Others are but blazing Deceivers , who must , and will fall of themselves . None but Saints can answer the ends of the Institution of Gospel-Discipline . 1 The honour and glory of God , which none but Saints can . Others cannot . 2. The promotion of the true light & knowledge of God. Others cannot answer this end . 3. Edifying one another . Others cannot . 4. Saint-like love ▪ ☞ Others cannot learne this lesson . Nor answer other ends of Church-fellowship . None but visible Saints sutable matter . 1 Cor. 1.2 . Object . Ans. No Scripture distinction of visible and invisible , but all one Church , 1 Tim. 3. ●5 . 2 . So Ainsworth against Bernard , p●g 174. and Robi●so●s Justif ▪ of separ . p ▪ 112. Parish Churches , as Churches Antichristian . When Parish-Churches began in England . Obj. Many Saints in our Parish . Answ. Obj. Our Minister godly . Answ. Answ. Sim. Object . Answ. Expos. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sim. Object . Answ. Sim. Churches as Christs Pallaces must be made of the best materials ; Object . Answ. Hearing of the word without the Church . Depart yee out of Babylonian bondage , and Parochiall captivity . A vindication of the Churches . Sim. Sim. Hypocrites in them , that are not of them . Sim. Sim. Hypocrites hinder the Churches growth . We in Dublin had this by wofull experience . Sim. Some like wolves looked upward , when they howled for lambs to be their prey . Sim. They have retrograde motions . Sim. Caution to the Churches have from our wofull experience Sim. A Riddle . Sim. The Riddle opened in , and by hypocrites . 1 Eunuchs . 2 Pumices . 3 Bats . 4 Fennels . Sim. They had need to see on a good colour . Sim. And to study tricks to keep their credit . Sim. Like a faire white house , within a house of Office. Sim. Sim. A heavy action against them at the last day . With a Judas kisse they betrayed us , and gave us up to the crosse . Our experience ( the mistresse of fools ) is to ●each other Churches . Hypocrites must be , that the sound may be manifested . True matter must be of the Lords owne adding , and ordering ; Hence in Act. 2.41 ▪ 5.14 . this manner of being made a disciple , is expressed by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 added to , or incorporated . 2 Hypocrites hold off . Sim. For they are forbidden in Law and Gospel . Sim. Fit matter are sound and sincere . Sim. The house is in the builders hands . As yet in heaps in most places . But must bee a fair structu●e . They without gather up the ch●ps . The matter before fitted , must be tryed by saw and hammer . Hypocrites will fall from the building ere long . As D●mas . Judas . Their hypocrisie will soon appear to all . Sim. To the scandal of the Gospel . Sim. Church-members miscarriag●s are mind●d by all , and in every mou●h New Ranters nought . Old Protestants not enough . But aspiring growing Saints are sutable matter . Genus cum formae constituit speciem . The fo●me hath two parts . 1. Separation . 2. Conjunction : vide Mr. Owens Eshcoll , or rules to the Reader . 2 Chron. ch ▪ 2. ch ▪ 3. Sim. The first part of the forme , is their separation from them without doors , viz. the multitudes and heaps abroad . 1 Proved by Prophesies that Saints must be Separates . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Niphal . And s●t loose to bonds and bondages without . Precious separate from the vile , cleane from the uncleane . Expos. Good from the bad . As Israel was gathered out from others , as a people by themselves , so are the Saints now to be . Delivered and brought out ( by the Spirit of the Lord ) God will judge for our former injuries . And he wil save us for future . And separate us from them without . And gather us into our owne Land of Canaan . And then be our God , and we his people . And his Sanctuary shall then be in the midst of us . The Lord shall reigne over them especially that are thus gathered out . Proved by positive prec●pts that Saints must be separates . Wisdome calls for it . Expos. Required in the Leviticall Law. Expos. Separate saith the Lord. And then I wil be a father to you . Expos. Expos. Them without are a generation of frowardnesse and crossenesse . Beleevers did separate from such . Then cal●ed a Church , and not before . Hence Ecclesia the Church is called . 1 Cor. 1.9 . 3 Proved by the practise of Christs Prophets , Apostles and all Saints in Primitive times . Jeremy separated . Calvin in loc . Israel a separate people . So every Saint is a spirituall Jew . So are the Disciples of Christ. Sim. Who are therefore ha●●d . Ch●ists commands . 2 Those that partake of her sins , partake of her sorrows . 3 It publishes disobedience not to be such , and a corrupt heart , plenis faucibus . Quest. Answ. 1 None ought to be without Callings . 2 None must separate from their duties . 3 Nor to separate from civill ●onverse . What it is to separate . 1 From all false wayes and worship . 2 From familiarity with the adversaries of the truth . Sim. Sim. Sim. Have nothing to doe with them . Gods anger is against such as do keep company with them . Sim. Sim. 3 No fellowship with them in their orders and ordinances out of Christs way . Expos. As Paul separated from Iewish Churches , Discipline orders and ordinances . Vse . Parishes have not this part of the Forme . Which is twisted up of a threefold cord to draw us out of Parishes into Churches , All men are separates from Christ , or separates for Ch●ist and which is best ? Object . What Separatists are Schismaticks , and what not . A sin not to separate from false Antichristian Church-States , And parishes , as Churches are such . Learned men many times most enemies to Christ and his true Churches . Sim. Parish-Churches , no Churches . Churches gathered out of Churches ▪ Parish churches are Sathans Synagogues . No Parish-rule conveyes a Church-right . Sim. Parishioners opposite to Churches . Sim. Object . Answ. Word preached is no indelible , nor undeceivable note of a tru●● Church . Sim. But a commen adjunct . Sacraments must be ( of right ) dispensed as Christs Ordinances in Christs order i. e. no where but in the true Church . Expos. A word to all friends to submit to Christ. ☞ ☞ Sim. Outward Ordinances out of Christs order may do more hurt then good . Sim. Carnall reason keeps many off Church-fellowship . Sim. Secondly , 2. Part of the forme is after separation from the fals , & conjunction in the true way . Forth with hast into the Churches . Else we shall be lost in the wildernesse . One reason many Professors formerly strict turne Familists , Seekers , Ranters , and such like . In the Answer , godly eminent Ministers so accounted , must be reproved in the Countries . Hag. 1.2.4 . The Lord expostulates with them . Ministers most complaine , who are most the cause of their owne complaines . What answers some of them have given the Author , when he hath pressed upon them Gospel practise . Why many Ministers are against Independency , as they call it . Expos. Whom the forme is to be showne to ? What it is ? 1. One Body . 2. One body Independent . 1. Christ's Church is his Body , how , and why ? All Members make up one , and but one body . Expos. Sim. If one member be amisse it must be restored into use and order againe , for the good of the whole body , which cannot misse that one member . Sim. That is , candidly with all sweetnesse of brotherly-like spirit , and christianity . Every member is to be in an apt place , &c of the body . Sim. 1 Cor. 12.21.22 and to be content therewith . Vide Zanch. de Eccles. 2. Christ his Church is his building . Expos. The forme of his building . What it is . Sim. Rightly ordered to make all one . The Lords house fitly framed together . Expos. All one in another , and every one on , and in Christ the foundation . v. chap. 14. Expos. 3. Christ's Church is a City compact . Sim. All streets , houses , peoples , &c. make but one City . Saints Citizens . Sim. The immunities , Priviledges , lawes of this City , which belong to the Freemen thereof . None admitted free-men of this City , but by the Citizens consent . Expos. Buxtorph and Sh●indler . 4 This Church is his Army . All men , companies , colours , Captaines , make up one Army . 5 Christ's Church is his Kingdome . For all Cities , Shires , countries &c. make up but one Kingdome . 6 Christs Church called heaven . And why ? All Elements , Firmaments , Orbes , Stars , &c make but one heaven . All Saints in one are so . Mr Jacob. Mr. Ursin. Sim. Because they have All one Father . All one originall Law. All in one Covenant . All hewn from one Rock . All bear one Image . All lay in one womb . All of one Seed . All lead by one Spirit . All called into one hope . All one joy . All one glory . Christ prayed for this onenesse . Apostles tooke great paines to preach it . Unity and Entity convertibles The beauty and loveliness of Saints embodyed . Sim. His Tabernacles amiable His Spouse fair 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such emb●d●ed excel in beauty . Informitas materiae duplex vel exclude●s formam vel formositatem , Th. Aq. 1.66.1 . ● . Sim. Without form deforme . Sim. But in one body their excellency appears . In great confusion , and disorder till then . Sim. But in body in order and proper place . Sim. Sim. Till thus embodied , they do not their duties one to another . Mr. Bartlet . The Author abused for him in Dublin . Sim. Expos. The soule-sweet issues of such a Gospel-order . Priviledges , Promises . The Lords delight there above all . Sim. The united strength of Saints in such Gospel society Vis ●nita forti●● Such Saints are the surest , and the most successefull Souldiers . A terrour to the world . Expos. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Fire proceeds out of the mouthes of Churches to destroy Gog and Magog . Expos. By the Spirit of the Lord. Sim. Unity unconquerable . Sed informitas infirmitas . Sim. Sim. Saints united in one , too hard for the whole world . Sim. Their joynt powers , and joint prayers able to conqu●r heaven and earth . And joynt-praises fill heaven and earth . Sim. One member can act by his owne power , and by the ( virtuall ) power and influence of the whole body . Vse . Parishes no Churches of Christ in this point of forme . For we proved before with the School●men , Ubi partes non habent rationem materiae , ibi totum non habet rationem formae . So that they are neither matter nor forme ▪ The Devils black cloven foote is set in the midst of them ▪ all over England . Why Parishes so devoyd of matter & form , and so full of sinne ? Expos. In Parishes what plagues arose from their constitution . The worse , wicked , ill-favoured Kine eate up and destroy the others of the Neighbours that are better . Exod. 7.12 . and errours and sins doe swallow up truths . Proph. Aegyptian Plagues must come upon them ▪ as in Isa. 10.24 , 26. Although as yet many like Dan do bite us behind ▪ or backbite . Many an Adullamite we meet with in Parishes . Parishes a Chaos . Sim. Sim. Materia informis . Expos. Parishes are stalls for beasts to lye down in . Sim. Sim. Sim. Parish-Churches have their fatall blow . Ezek. 16.36 , 37 Judg 9.15 . The Bramble shall be burnt up in the day that burneth like an oven , Mal. 4.1 . Sim. Babylon falling . Th●se that traded with her bewail her . Vse A call into Zion into the Churches of Christ. Out of Babylon and Parish Churches . Christ beckens to thee . ☞ In his Tabernacles and Churches are beauty , power , his presence ▪ safety , deliverance , pleasure and joyes , plenty , peace , blessednesse , & salvation , all powerfull motives . Great hurt to the godly to continue in Parish Churches . Sim. Sim. Sim. Sim. Sim. Happinesse of such that are in Christs Churches . Sim. In Serm. 4. p. 38. A description of the Church in her most conspicuous parts . Cant ▪ 4.1 , 2 , 3 , &c. Exposit. 1 Doves eyes . The most discerning members that are light to the body . 2 Comely , haire , Saints That hang and live on Christ the Head. Mount Gilead . 3 Her Teeth are the Ministers of the Gospel that chew , divide the word aright , or members qualified with the gifts of prophesie , and interpretation . Even . They are not to be one longer , & one shorter , one higher , and one lower , but all equall . Iam. 2.1 , 2 , 3. Very white and lovely . Mal. 3.3 . Many Ministers have been , and must be rubbed hard , before white . They are to be very fruitful . And very orderly . 4 Her lips . Her excellent word and doctrine . For matter . 2 For Forme well woven , twisted , &c. The Churches haire-lace to binde up the Haire ( that we spoke of before ) together in one . 5 Her speech sweet . 6 Her Temples full . Such are high in Christ the Head. Overseers , Elders . Full of sweetnesse , and savour . All pointing at the Crowne , and pressing after perfection in Christ. 7 Her Necke . Expos. The Ordinances which as means unite Christ and people , head and body together by the Spirit . Who be-hea● the Church . The necke ( in Heb. Thauvaar ) Expos. An Armory for swords . The two edged sword of the Spirit in her Ordinances . The Souldier of Christ of any size or stature is fitted in this Armory f●r his warfare . 8 Her two breasts . For Ornament and for use ▪ Old and New Testament . Julian the Apostate called the Bible a Bawble . These breasts be full of milke for babes . The Authors judgement is , the Word and Spirit are the Churches two Breasts , which are alwayes so full and faire , and freshly flowing and feeding . Moulin . The picture of the true Church . All faire . Second part of the Forme . Every Church is equally Independent . Proofes of particular Churches equall , and alike power in seven Churches of Asia . Expos. To admit or keep out , examine or cast out , or the like . Expos. Nor one Church blamed for another , but every one for her owne sins , being absolutely Independent ( as to others ) and distinct . Independency O●thodox in those dayes . Without any subordination . Proofes in the Apostles Epistles to Churches , as distinct Churches each from others . All alike one Head. All alike Queenes . All alike Sisters . All alike Candlesticks , and branches of the same Candlesticks , streams of the same Foun●aine , and beames of the same Sunne , and branches of the same Vine , all alike opening and shutting , admitting , examining , choosing officers , administring censures , re-admitting . Church-officers are but Servants . Doctor Whitaker . Sim. Doctor Fulk . Musculus , Calvin , Zanchy . Pareus . Popery to take away the power of the Church , and give it to Ministers or other Officers . Expos. Dudley Fenner Cartwright . Cyprian . Mr. Cot. Keyes . Bartlets Model . Hookers Survey And the Testimony of learned famous men for many generations . Reason . Because all have alike one and the same Head. The great difference between Presbyterians and Independents . Prelacy condemned , and ready to be turned off . Sim. Sim. Prelaticke proud Pastors in Independent Churches as bad as any . ☞ Much mischief done by such . Sim. Cornw. Essayes . ☞ God abhors such spirits of pride . Parishes no Churches in this part of the Forme . For they have dependency upon Diocesan , Nationall Churches . Zuing. Artic. 34. p. 254 , 255. Ar●tius's Problem . None but Antichrist so sawcy . Presbyterians too bold in this . Prelacy and Popery termini convertibiles . Presbyterians and all Prelatick ones keep up the Pope , vide ch . 8.9 . l. 2. Papists have Rome the Mother Church to call others to account , and to whom others were to make their appeale . Prelates and Bishops had their High Commission Courts of the same nature for the same ends . The violent ones of the Presbyterians too will have their Classes too of the same nature ( though the name changed ) and for the same end . All abominable in the sight of God. Vide chap. 13. lib. 1. Mr. Burroughs . Mr. Jacob. Cottons keyes . What a height ambition brought the Bishops unto ▪ To be Civill Magistrates they bec●me uncivill Ministers . Justices of Peace . Judges . Order of the Garter called grace honourable Lords . Barons . Cannon 18 , 19 , 20. concil . Carthag . 3. Against all Gospel ▪ Christ would not suffer his Disciples to discourse of it . Ch●ist the Disciples Servant and Minister . Prelates in pomp . Euseb. Hist. lib. 7. Their pride fallen . Another Prelatick spirit succeeded in the Presbyterians . This appeared in their acts of Treason against the State. Short lived too . Proverb . Ruling Synods are unwarrantable . Most mischievous they are so to Christ , ( proprio corpore ) in the flesh , and they are so to Christ in the Church ( in corpore mystico . ) Cruell to tender consciences . Expos. Sim. To put them upon the wrack . Cant. 1.6 . The Lord is about delivering his Saints from such oppressours . Proph. Expos. Synods must down , that usurpe dominion over consciences . What assemblies are allowed of , vid. ch . 9. lib. 2. Mr. Parker in 's Eccles. Politie , lib. 3. cap. 12. &c. 22. Omne determin●tum habet causam efficient●m & omne efficiens habet determinatum . Mr. Burrough his heart divisions . No warrant out of the Word for them . Obj. Answ. Vide Hooker in 's Survey . Cottons way for the Congregation cleared , cum multis aliis . &c. Expos. No Appeals , to Ierusalem , for Canons or as having a supreme Power . 2 It was not about Church-government , but to aske their advice & judgement of a matter in controversie . 3 No necessity of sending , but it was thought fit to send to Ierusalem . 4 Should it bee granted , appeals were made thither . Yet where be Apostles now ? or such to sit as are infallibly gifted , graced , and spirited . 5 The whole Chu●ch ▪ brethren , sisters , all joyned . Not Apostles nor Elders , on their owne heads , as the Presbyterian would infer . This spoyles officers , and makes them to Lord i● . Object . Answ. Spiritual remedies , to spiritual evils . li. 1. Ch. 13. Ch. 2. Lib. 2. How to deal with an erring-Church . One Sister-Church may deal with another Sister-Church , as one brother in a Church may deal with another . Churches co-ordinate . And may admonish , advice , Inquire . Examine . Expos. Exhort . Convince . If the erring Church will not hear , then one or two Churches more joyn together to admonish her . If nothing will prevail , then all Churches joyn together . To withdraw from her , and declare against and excommunicate her . This will bee greater punishment then prisons to the conscientious among them . If Christs judgment prevailes not with them , mens cannot . The best way to bring in an erring Church . Independents have the word for their warrant . Independents long before now . Paul Baines , his Diocesan triall Pleads for Independents . Doctor Sib's his breathing after God. Uses the word Independents also . Robinson . Bullinger . All power is in the body . Doctor Ames in 's Medul . Theol. Power over any particular Church is usurped . Dr. Reynolds . Ainsworth . Willet's Synop●●● . Cotton , Bartlet , Taylor . As Prynne , Bastick , Baily , and Edwards , &c. In all Ages the most eminent men Independents . ☞ Our Consciences carry us on . What is Conscience . Formall Professours time-servers . Many take up the name of Independents , and Independent-Churches that are not so . Sim. Our faith and fortitude . Sim. The beautifull object of Christs Church . What it is ? Proved by Scriptures . His power and glory there . His name and best blessings there . His presence by his Word and Spirit , there . Fat things and feasts there . There is the King in his beauty . And place of broad rivers . Th● most soul-ravishing object there . Wh●te and ru●dy . To the end of the world . Saints and Churches in all ages have experienced this point . Vse . The object invites and incites us into the Churches . This made David even dote in love on them . And in these Assemblies of Sion God appears most glorious and gladsome . Parishes have not this object . Forma formae . Those that are not longing after these wayes of Sion , see not this object in them . Dr. Ames left his Professorship of Friezland for Church fellowship . Vid. Peters Report of Eng. wars . His dying words . Ignorance of the object hinders the affection . Sim. Christs Rule to build the Church by . Proved necessary , 1 By Sc●ipture . Expos. 2 By Precept . Christs Commands and Rules . 3. Proved by practise . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Expos. The Apostle urges the Rule . Not as a head , but as a helper . Expos. Mans unfitness . Mad Church-work made by mens rules . Gods strict command . Moses durst do nothing on h●s own head . Nor David , nor Solomon . 2 Chro. 8.14 . 2 Kings 6.38 . Nor Apostles , nor any , Without Christ's Rule . Christ's Commission . Rev. 21.2 , 3. Expos. To rule , order , and take the whole Government . All the Chur●h matter , and the form , is to be fitted by his Rule . Parish-Churches never according to Christ's Rule . Acts of the Apostles , the Churches best Directory . We walk by Rule . Independent Churches according to Christs Rule . Dr. Sibbs . Neither must we make rules , nor slight Christs Rules . Mr. Brightman . Expos. Then her paths shall glister and shine . In many gathered Churches , Ordinances prisoners , as in Babylon . Trap. Exod. Unskilful builders nor yet so spirited for the work as they will be . Sim. Sim. All that joyn in this way , must do it by free and uncompelled consent . Lib. 2. c. 2. 1. Proved by Prophecies . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Expos. More fluminis . All flow freely . Jer. 31.33 , &c. All mutually and concurrently give themselves up with one consent . 2. Proved by Precepts . Acts 11.23 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Calls to come freely , Expos. Christ's call to come freely , and fervently . Chephetz in Hebrew . Vide Beza in loc . Et Hugo Grotius . See Burroughs on the Excellency of a gracious Spirit , p. 281. 3. Proved by continual Practise of Christs Twelve Disciples . And Churches in all ages . Proved by Types . None else fit for the setting up of Gods Sanctuary . All were to be free and willing , else not to be accepted . Saints in all ages such free-willers . Expos. In primitivo times so . Expos. Expos. Examples . 1 Thess. 1.6 , 7. Otherwise we were short of the very Heathens . Else in bondage . Else soon fall off . Vse . Parish Churches upheld by carnall weapons . Whilst the Spirit , it is that convinces us of the truth , constrains us to the truth , and makes us worshippers in the truth . Compulsive powers doe more hurt then good . And makes many hypocrites , but few true Proselites . Cartwright . Christs government and civill Magistrates are distinct in specie & ge●ore . Psal ▪ 2. Civill Rulers within civill Rules and Precincts . Rom. 13.1 , 2. A Word and a warning to Rulers . K. Vzziah , And Perez-Vzziah . Not to meddle with the matters of Religion . Example . Christ would not meddle with civill Magistracy . The Spirituall and Eccles. is above the civil , which the civil power is to serve . ☞ Theodosius an example . All to teach Magistrates to be under Christs Discipline , and not that Christ is under theirs . But what Magistrates and Rulers may do as to matters of Religion . How far they may go . Vide ch . 13. Examples . Not to force consciences . Expos. But with gentlenesse to win them in to the truth . Object . Expos. Answ. 1 Negatively 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 2 Ans ▪ Affirmatively shew them a n●c●ssity of Christ and his Church-way . Grotius . Sim. True Magistrates in their respective places much owned and honoured by all the Churches . Vide ch . 13. Adversaries of old accused us as enemies to the Magistrates Vid ch . 2. The Spirit compels us , and yet we are voluntiers . Dr. Sibs . God works in us the will first . Vide l. 2. c. 2. Sim. Take heed of setting on Magistrates . Sim. Some busie to do it . Sim. It will run Rulers the hazard of ruine . Vide ch . 13. Sim. Sim. Sim. The finall cause the first in the eye ▪ though the last in the act . The End is first , and most minded . And why ? All th●ngs in the first and second Creation have one and the same Head. Col. 1.18.20 . and one and the same end . The glory of God , the one and the same End of all . Creation , Gubernation , Redemption , Salvation , and all hath one and the same End. This End most of all moves Saints into Church-fellowship . That this must be the End. 1. Proved by Prophecy . Expos. The Churches spiced Cup. Expos. Expos. Types . Musicks and singers . For the filling his hous● with praise and glory . Expos. 2. Precepts . Psal. 140.13 . 3. Proofs by practise of all Saints in fellowship . Expos. Christ in the Churches sings praises . All other ends are subordinate to this End , which is the supream . Isai. 51 9 , 10. Psal. 49.15 . The redeemed . Isai. 35.10 . Most capable . No hypocrisie . Virgins . Expos. Have sweetest voices , best songs . In fittest tunes . They make melody with grace in their hearts . Whilest mixed Congregations rob him of his praise and glory . Parish Churches fail in the Final Cause . Their End is to good peny-worths , to have their tithes at an easie rate , and to make their own end● ▪ Parishes excommunicated if ever they were Churches . A word to Saints in fellowship . Make Gods honor and glory all in your End , and your End in All. Expos. An ordinary Rule of wisdom to weigh the End. Vide cap. 5· Expos. Joh. 8. Sing praises . Sim. All for Gods glory . Some minde it not . Sim. Sim. Some unfit to do it . Some desire it . All are to give God the glory of all . Proved from the essential , material , formal , objective ▪ organical and final causes ; and so defined . The definition of Christs Church . The definition of Anrichrists Church . Arrogans sibi titulum Ecclesiae ; at eam non sequens sed persequens . Christ alone Head and Law-giver . Proved 1 By Prophesies . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What the Key is that is laid on his shoulder . Expos. The Spirit is to let us in . Expos. This Key opens and shuts , binds & looses . 2 Precepts . All power given him and all judgement committed to him . Ioh. 5.21 . 3 Practise proves this . Reason . Because none but Christ could institute , therefore none else can order it . Why none but Christ could undert●ke it . 1 Because he hath his spirit above measure . 2 Man would make all Idols . And torment such as did not bow down to them . 3 Man notable to remove the Rubbish . A hard work ▪ and why ? Sim. ☞ Much to bee done before men be built clear upon ( Christ ) the Foundation . Expos. Zach. 4 6. None but Christ can remove th●s grosse rubbi●sh . Ch●ist is Lord and Master-Builder , how ? 1 We have all but one Master 2 This Master hath set us our work both what ▪ and where . 3 This Master makes us all good provision for our selves , and our service . 4 This Master paies us honestly , and wel and before-hand . 5 This Master hath the honour , and name of all the work . 6 This Master defends his servants from such as would hurt them or hinder the work . Lastly , this Masters word is of focce to make us worke against all gainsayers ▪ So that his order and direction must be served . Obj. Answ. Expos. Paul calls not himself the Master-builder , but as a Master-builder . 1. In laying the foundation , well , and deep . 2. In that the foundation laid , is of sound substance . 3. In laying the foundation first of all , and from thence building upon . Ranters flie aloft first into the air , and are without foundation . 4. Having skill , sound judgement , and experience . Sim. And taking pains himself too , to build up . 5. An Overseer over the rest . Christ onely the Master of the building . Christ the Lord over all . 1. How he is Lord ; or by what means . 1. By power . Th. Aquin. 1.33.7 . ● . 2. By Purchase ▪ His deeds do shew it written with his blood , sealed by his Spirit , &c. 3. By Conquest . We are his prize-goods . 4. By gift , and inheritance . 5. By free choice . 1. So God hath chosen him the Lord. Hag. 2.23 . 2. We have chosen him our Lord. Expos. Christ to rule as well as Christ to save . What it is to choose him . Aliquid ex parte cogniti●vae virtutis , & aliquid ex parte appotitivae . Expos. 2. Christ is the Lord , but what manner of Lord. He is an Independent Lord. 2. A Spiritual Lord. 3. A most excellent Lord. 4. An universal Lord , and yet peculiar . 5. A sole Lord and Soveraign ▪ Lord Chief Justice in his Churches . Christs warrants with a Habeas Corpus . 6 The Everlasting Lord. All troubles and alterations ratifie him . Saints happiness in the Lordship of Christ. We have but one Lord , and one Law. Happy are his subjects and servants . Whilst oth●● are most unhappy . 2. Saints singular honor to have him their Lord. What honor is ? More then a praise and a glory , and yet Christ is all these to his Churches ▪ No want of preferment to them that are in Christs cause . 3 Saints liberty , and duties under Christ as Lord. How much this makes for unity in all Christian duties . One to another to counsell , comfort , encourage , vindicate . Reprove admonish , invite , and perswade . This advantages us much against sin . Expos. The soules Soliloquy under the sence of Christ● Scepter . 3 Christ , and none else the Head of his Church ( which is more then Master o● Lord. ) 1 Why the head . A whole Christ , Head & Body united . Who Head ? Who Necke ? Who Body ? Al together make up Christ compleat . A mystery to most . The work of former ages . To know him in part , viz. as Head. Of this age to know the Body his Church . Of the next to know whole Christ. Vide ch . 3. Is taken from the similitude of the Head of a humane body . 1 In order the head is highest , yet but a member . Head and brother . 2 The head in excellency and perfection . Expos. The fulnesse , honour , grace , glory , of his body . Christ alone the head of gold . 3 In the vertues and influences of the head . A headlesse body is lightlesse , lifelesse , and senselesse . All our vital Spirits from our Head Christ. This Head giveth all grace , life , motion , judgement , wisdom , &c. 4 Head in Government . Gubernare est movere aliquos in debitum finem· Sim. Vid Zuinglium , Artic. 2. de Eccles . Et Bullinger . Decad. 5. Serm. 2. de unitate ecclesiae . 5. In Sympathy with the least , and lowest member of the body . Gadius Martyr . Our eyes , ears , tongue , all in our Head Christ. 6. In health , and sanity . When head is well , all is out of danger ; but when the head is ill , all is ill , and out of order . Many turn mad , and why ? Zuing. Artic. 11. de Christo capite . Expos. Expos. Capitis est incolumitatem dare corpori , &c. Bull. de civit . eccles . Decad. 5. Serm. 2. 7. Saints as hairs , grow and hang on Christ their head . Saints priviledg that Christ is their head . The Church hath but one head . What I mean by Church ? Viz. All Saints in all ages , under all forms . Sim. Brazen-hearted and faced men that set up the head of brass for the head of gold : And so iron-hearted to tender Saints , that set up the iron head . Christ is , and shall be the alone Judge ( do men what they can ) in matters of Religion . A lesson long a learning , and yet not learnt . They resist Christ , and this stone will crush them . A difference betwixt true and false Churches in this . The false ha●h the Head of brass . The properties of the Head of brass , different from the Head of gold . 1. The Head of brass compels by force . 2. The Head of brass seeks secular powers to stand by his side , and to support him . Mark 7.7 . Isai. 29.13 . 3. The Head of brass is made of mixed principles . 4. The Head of Brass approves of the outside appearance , as sufficient to be a member with him . 5. His Officers and Members are all of the same mettal with himself . 6. The Head of Brass hath , and giveth an ill savor . 7. Head of Brass looks bravely and brightly , before a better comes , whereby many souls have been deceived . Expos. 8. It is but mans creature , and must ●umble . Expos. Matth. 16.18 . Christs Headship will hold for ever . Quest. Who be the Heads of Brass ? Answ. The first Head of Brass is the Pope , who calls himself , Christ his Vicar . The History how Bishops , Popes , Prelates , Metropolitans , &c. entred in at first . ☜ How Bishops came in with their Diocesses . Ever since Lords Spiritual and Temporal . Their ambition like a Bladder . Sim. From Bishops to Archbishops , Primates . To Quadrumvirats , or Patriarks , and to Popes . 2 Thes. 2.4 . Antichrist . Vide Cartwrights Eccles. Discipline . Antichrist begins to fall the same way he began to rise . ☜ 2. Head of Brass , a Councel , as Christs Vicar . 3. Archbishop next head of Brass . Bulling . de unit . Eccles. Serm. 2. ☜ Not warranted in the Word . ☜ All in primitive equal in honor , dignity , &c. 4 Head of Brasse an Assembly of Di●vines or Synod . ☞ Chap. 9. 5 Head of Brasse succeeds in Presbytery Classes , that are ruling . They breath by the Popes soule . Mr. Dell in 's way of Peace , p. 32 , 33.34 . Mat. 18. Go tel the Church , i e the whole Elders , brethren , and all . Vide Cottons Keyes p 46. &c. Philips Ans. to Lamb , p. 150. Vide Damports reply to Paget p. 227 , 228 , 229.230 , &c. Burroughs his heart-divisions cap. 22. p. 157. Unsavoury fruits thereof . ☜ These Idols must down , though never so bold and brazen faced as yet . A word more to the Magistrates . They must not Head it over the Church . Regnum Dei non est regnum in quo gladiis & fustibus res agaetur Marlorat . Expos. Eccles. in Luke 9.55 . De Oecumen . Pontif. Cham. None ought to be forced to the faith . Vide chap. ● . l. 2 Not in date 300 years after Christ. In opere Articulatorum Art. 36. Deodate in loc . Expos. Diodate in loc . Piety must not dance after the pipe of policy . Trap. in Mat. 21.7 . ☞ Christ is a Iudge , but in what Court of Iudicature ? Secular powers in , and over the Churches , or in matters of Religion , are tyranny , and why ? Constantines's Letter . ☜ Cromwels Letter . After Constantine , Magistrates meddled not with matters of Religion . Ambrose . Valentinian the Emperor . Expos. Answ. To the Objection in travel to bring forth at White-hal . Feb. 22. 1652. 1. This Scripture teaches nothing of earth●●ly powers or Magistrates . The Text in the original will not bear it . The context foregoing and following , will not bear it . Expos. ☞ Diodate , Calvin . Arias Montanus . 2. Magistrates were the Idolaters . 3. The grounds of their pretended Inference , and new raised Arguments , are of Humane invention . 4. Should we grant this Text did touch Magistrates , yet it could not be for Matters of Faith , but for Matters of Fact. They may as far as they break the Civil Laws . They judge of practises , but not of consciences . Burtons Vindication . Answer to Prynnes 12. In●errog . p. 70. And may take cognisance of Blasphemers , Hereticks , &c. as well as of Swearers , and Drunkards ▪ for their actions . They may not usurpe Christs power to kill errors with the sword , which ought to be destroyed by the Word . Vide Vrsin . de secundo Praecepto , p. 737. de Potestate Magistratus . Examples of Luthers conquest over errors . Of Zuinglius , respons . in libel . Strothionis , Tom. 2. fol. 302. Errours all to be suppressed by the word , not by the sword . ☜ Vide ch . 2. lib. 2. Obj. 1. Extraordinary and typicall . 2 Priests and Prophets did civill offices then . But the case is not the same with us now . 3 There ever was a specifical distinction betwixt Church and State , Magistracy and Ministry , matters Civil , and matters of Religion . Moses and Aa●on . Uzziah the first Civill Magistrate that durst meddle with matters beyond a Civill orb . ☞ Aristobulus . Proved in the New Testament . Christ the High-priest ever kept his orbe . So the Apostles The History . How Bishops grew big and ambitious , and became temporal Lords at first . First by intrusting them with lands in controversie . Bishops lands belongeth to the poor by right . Then by the favour of Kings and Princes . They had Civil powers lent them to punish offenders . And then soon becomes Treasurers and Lord Keepers , Judges , &c. Their priviledges from Civill powers . Bishops-lands . Barons , Lord● . And so things Civil & Eccles. viz. Christs and Caesars , came to be mixed together . State-Ministers too much alike them . Corrupted with honours , and then they consent to the joyning of Civil and Eccles. Christs and Caesars together . Many hundreds bewaile it . That they turn great men , in Civill , Secular , or Martial affairs . These are sad and seldom failing Omens of the Chu●ches danger , which is more now , then it was in the Dragon ● days , o● forme● times of persecution , vide chap. 2. Such complain of others usurping their office and places , and yet they usurpe others offices and places , and turn Politicians . O the shame of this age ! Sim. ☜ Sphinx an emblem of Policy . A description of Politicians . ☞ Christs appearance will ruine policy , and Politicians . Sim. Expos. Expos. Proph. Threats of Rulers ruine , and of loosing their heads . When and why ? When they are in most danger . ☞ For Civil powers to meddle with matters of Religion , as Judges , is sacriledge . The Authors Prayer to keep the Parliament , from an Abimelechian fate and destiny . Uzzah struck dead for meddling out of his Orb , and with the Ark-matters . Magistrates must not meddle with matters of Religion , were Religion in danger . Perez-Uzzah , why so called . ☜ Nor Ministers meddle with matters of State. Vzziah . Luther . ☞ A word to both . Quest. Answ. Not Judges of Opinions or Doctrines . Vide Burroughs . It is the Churches power , or Christs in his Churches ; why Magistrates not Iudges of doctrines , &c. Magistratus non est Dominus , nec author legis . Noyes Temple . 2 They would set up their own opinion , and sentence others . 3 And maintaine Idols & crucifie truth . Obj. Not on the advice of the Assembly of Ministers 2 Pilate is a warning-piece . 3 This would hinder Ministers in their work of ruining errors by the word . 4 Because Christ would never use them to suppresse errors . 5 But Christ hath left other Laws in force to do it without them . Ans. 1 Affirm . So far as they are of the world they are under their powers . Antichrist arrogates both Powers , viz. Civil and Eccles . Vide Synop 7. Gen. Con. q ▪ 2 & p. 1277. Negat . A Church cannot deliver up any to secular powers for punishment . None to bee put to death for misbeleeving , or not beleeving . Witnesse John Husse . See Fox 1. part p. 804. Mr. Hooper . Mr. Bradford . ☜ Bernard . Saints shall judge their now judges , They shall bee adjudged hereticks , who have judged them heretick● Mrs. Askew . Marlin . vid. Bartlet . ☞ No● power to put to death the vilest Hereticks that ever lived . Alphoneus . K. Edw. 6 ▪ that young Saint . More need that they live to repent , then send their souls post to Hell , if they be in the way· Eminent Martyrs breath'd out flames against this Antichristian bloody tenet . Latimer . Ridley . Turks , Saracens , Jews , not to be punished for their Religion . Much less dare a Church deliver them up to be punished by secular Powers . Antichrists weapons ☜ Must not be ours . Quaere . Answ. Magistrates may and must ▪ do all th●● can to countenance the ways of God , and Churches of Christ. Zuinglius , Art. 35. As Servants , not as Iudges , or Lawgivers . Magistrates cannot hinder Ministers of Christ , in their offices of preaching , &c. No Minister of Christ can be sequestred ab officio , onely a beneficio . Constantine mingled not Civil and Ecclesiasticals . None must govern in ●he Kingdom of the Son , but such as shall govern in the Kingdom of the Father ; but Magistrates as such , must not rule in the Fathers Kingdom ; Ergo , &c. ☜ Brazen and Iron Heads no more ; but Gold for Brass , and Silver for Iron . Expos. Own no Head but Christ , the Head of Gold. John Hus Constant . Concil . Gregory the first to John of Constantinople Patriark . Expos. The necessity of this Head. Vid. Ca. 9. l. 2. Hold him fast . Sim. ☞ Sim. Christ the foundation . Vide Dr. Mayo● in loc . Expos. Mat. 16.18 . Christ the Rock . Christ the Head , the Builder , and yet the Foundation , how ? Vide Wilsons ▪ Cases , Aenigma 99. Christ is the Rock for foundation , how ? 1 The Rock is firm , and wil never fail us . ☞ Luther . 2 Christ the Rock is high whence we look round us . Without lets . 3 Christ the Rock is the place of refuge the Castle of defence impregnable , &c. Tertullian de Patientis . Expos. Ferus . Cameron in Mat. 16. Against all Powers and Policies whatsover . The Church fears no Cannons , nor Ordinances . ☜ Nor can she be ruine●●hat is founded on the Rock . ☜ ☞ 4 Ch●ist the Rock keeps alwayes the same in place and power . 5 The Rocke is lasting for ever . 6 The Rock yeelds severall benefits . Keeps from being Sun-burnt . Jewels come from the Rock Yeelds honey . Yeelds oyle . Yeelds wholesome sallets . And the best springs and streams . 7 Rock is so hard that it will cost much paines before a foundation in it . Expos. Expos. 8· A Rock is most dangerous to such as through heedlesseness or hautiness stumble at it , and on it . Austin in Mat. 16. Peter Martyr . For safeties sake in the midst of her manifold troubles . Omnis Christianus Crucianus . ☞ 2 For orders sake , i. e. to begin at Christ this Foundation first , and so to build upward and onward . 1 We must be in Christ , and then get into his Churches . Many gathered Churches in danger of falling that are not built on the Foundation ( Christ ) first . For Reasons sake i e to support the rest . Fundamentum est primum sustentare , & connectere , Tho. Aquin. 22. Q. 4.7.4 . Expos. 1 Be sure of the Foundation . 2 That that be laid first . Pareus in loc . Expos. What gathered Churches will fal of a sudden . And what gathered Churches will ou●stand all storms , and abide ever . How to build . Diodate in loc . The typified must answer the Type in laying the f●undation first . Expos. Else they are not to be regard●d or worth considering . Be sure the foundation be a sound one . Sim. And not a s●ndy one . Dixon in Mat. 7.26 . How the wise builders house differs from the fools . 1. In the subterstructure or foundation . 2. In the superstructure , or building . True Churches knit fast to the foundation , and one another , as if they were all but one . Other reasons why many gathered Churches , ( foolish buildings ) will suddenly fall , and so must . Peter Martyr . Expos. Hab. 3.13 . Rotten foundations shall be discovered . ☜ Members of such Churches are in great danger in a storm time . Be sure Christ be your foundation . 1. 1 King. 5.16 . Who are fit to lay the foundation , and who not . Another reason , why many gathered Churches will down again . 2. The most precious matter must be for the foundation . 3. The greatest joy at the laying the Foundation . Expos. ☜ Informs , 1. Necessi●y of being well-grounded . 2 Of being well united . Without both these , the building falls . 1. If Christ this Rock be your foundation , you will stand till the coming of Christ. Media cultus sunt immutabilia . Junius . Politicians and States , sins herein . Sim. Sim. Politicians Profession of Religion . Seekers sins herein . Expos. Gualther in loc . ☞ They wait for miracles . And run a desperate hazard . 2 Part of the Use. Union necessary . In his twelfth Chapter of Communion of Saints . Sim. Col. 1.18 . & 2.19 . 1 Cor. 12.12 . Gal. 2.20 . Rom. 8.32 . Sim. Iohn 15.14 . Rom. 11.17 . Churches and Saints under different forms , yet are all to be one with Christ and with one another . In unity not in uniformity , or all of one judgment . Ainsw . cap. 16. Communion of Saints . All members even of the most discrepant opinions and judgements , and under the most different forms , are useful and necessary . An●ther reason why many of our gathered Churches must fall , viz. Their standing by an uniformity . Unispirituality amongst all . i. e. Having one spirit though many opinions . Those Churches whose unity is in the Spirit will stand , and are the Lords buildings . All laid on one foundation which is Christ. A word to Builders . Churches must not bee called by our names . Eagle-Saints are setled in the Rock . Sim. Prov. 9.1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5. Wisdoms care of us , and call to us . Prov 9.32 , 34. Expos. Cant. 2. In his communion of Saints . First proved by Prophesie . 2 Proved by Precept . Oecolampad . Threatnings . 3 Proved by Practise . The onely visible way that Christ hath left for Saints . 2 It is disobedience to live in Babylon . And such are resisters of the holy Ghost . Trap in loc . Melancthon Chron p. 5. A sad sin . The sad consequences which follow the neglect of entring . 1 A great wrong to the worship and service of God 2 A great let to their duties . 3 Hinders mutuall assistance . 4 Hinders opposition of enemies by an united strength as one Arme and Army . Joel . 2.7 . 5 Else there is not such a sympathy as ought to be in bearing , forbearing , &c. 6 They faile in many other Christian duties required of them a● Church members . There be speciall priviledges of Saints in fellowship above all others . 1 Christs presence is promised most to them . There is the King and Kingdome in his beauty . 2 Saints have highest enjoyments ▪ and best refreshments there . Jo. 18.20 . Act. 3.1 . Act. 13.5 . Luke 4.15 . Act. 14.44 . Expos. Christ is a Fountain in the midst of his Gardens . Sim. More then in all the world besides . Wherein the Churches have the happinesse of all others . ☜ Others are watered from the ordinary clouds without , but these are from the fountain within . When clouds are barren the fountain is ful . 3 Christ is most free to impart his best bosome-loves to such . 4 They are most under his care and protection , and on his account . For these reasons Saints in Primitive times ( even ) longed after Church fellowship . Apostles longed after it . Christ himself desired it . Expos. We do but as Christ , his Apostles and primitive Saints did in entring into Church-fellowship . Vse . To put forward apace for Zion , and in order thereto get into the Gates . Object . Learned and godly ( in appearance , the strictest Professors ) in every Age , Christs and his Churches greatest enemies . 2 They are but men , and subject to errors . 3 Many counted learned & godly that are not truly so . Who are 〈◊〉 learned . 4 Men know but in part . 5 ●earned and godly of all sorts for this way . 6 Their opposition makes for it . Object . 1 This is not the cause of it . 2 It is a great enemy to error . 3 The not entring into this way , makes men run into wayes of error . 4 Errors are necessary . Truth and error must be both together . ☞ Object . Not enough to be in Parishes , though salvation could be had there . 2. This argues a base carnal spirit . To be content with the Onions and Leeks of Egypt . ☜ 3. Thou ar● ( else ) a hinderer of thine own comfort and salvation . And why ? Quia quoscunque deus eligit ad finem ; eos eligit ad media . Ursin. de Eccles . 4. If thou continuest obstinate , it may be just with God , to give thee up to the hardness and deceitfulness of thine own heart . Expos. Wherefore take heed , how you reject it . Ministers must have a care too . A great change nigh ! Their warning peece , the last year . A mortal blow to Morter-Churches . Obj. We urge Faith more then Form. 2. To be Christs-members , more then Church-members . And in the Churches to be spiritual worshippers . 3. We look for Zion , and must first pass through the Gates . Expos. Particular Churches are the Gates of Sion . Expos. ☞ Quaere . Clearly satisfied in it . 2. Freely willing and longing . 3. Ready to take up any Cross to follow Christ. 4. You have a sweet and true object . 5. You have first fellowship with the Father , and his Son , and then with his Saints . Else it is unsound . 6. Your End is to set forth ▪ Gods praise , and to glorifie God. Many creep and crowd in for by , base , selfish Ends. In Dublin . The mischief that such members do . ☜ Never more Hypocrites , then now ; and why ? Their character and conditions . ☜ And their End. ☞ What Church-fellowship is best for sincere hearted and tender Saints to get into . Experience hath put the Author upon this Subject . Notes for div A57540-e166240 Iosh. 15.15 . Sim. The Lambs● book will be ere long abroad . In the mean time what is presented in this book . Sim. Math. 22.3 . ☞ Divers sorts of Readers . 1 To feed their fancies . 2 To feed their lusts . 3 To carp like Criticks . Sim. ☞ 4 Others mind more the man then the thing . ☜ Sim. ☜ What Readers have promised me . Sim. ☜ Sim. That read with carnal reason . Sim. ☜ Sim. Such will be lost in this house . To Civill Corrupt Lawyers . ☞ Corrupt Lawyers . Wicked men present corrupt Ministers to livings . Horrible soul-tyanny , sin , and impiety , which cryes for vengeance . Mr. Colem . Mr. M. M. R. Mr. Birk . all eminent Ministers thus abused . Lawyers live by sin . Cursed of Christ. Their God is Terminus . They mock at the word . Lawyers hinder Reformation . Sim. Why the Law is not regulated all this while . Never the better for being Englished . Sim. What we would have of the Law , and what not ? Laws , Lawyers , purged . Custom and Form is in the room of Reason and Right . As Reason is better , Law must be better . Many of our Laws are but M●ns Lusts , Wils , Humors , to make themselves great . Sim. The day is hard by , when Laws and Iudges shall be restored as at fi●st . i. e. according to Conscience , Reason , and Equity . But as yet Reason is turned out of the room and Lust set up for Law. Instance . Ere long wo to the Lawyers , and why ? The greatest Traytors , and Oppressors in he world . The greatest Traytors and Oppressors in the World. A word and a warning to cut Governo●s about this . Isai. 2● . 9 . ☜ Let none be offended with me . Sim. Sim. ☜ Sim. The way to disable Lawyers from hurting us . ☞ The Author looks for Antagonists . But prayes them not to rail , but reason . Sim. As the Libeller that put out the Tast of Doctrine at Tho. Apostles . One Spirit will make us all one . A word more to the Reader , to instruct him . Sim. C. Lucillius . The Authors wishes for unlearn●d and learned Readers , and why ? Not l●arned ones are best Readers . 2 Chro. 12.10 . Notes for div A57540-e175910 Sim. Sim. ☜ Sim. Sim. ●oh . 5. Sim. Sim. Sim. ☞ ☞ ☞ Sim. ☞ Honorius . Julius Caesar. Sim. Jerom. ☜ Sim. Sim. ☜ ☞ Demosthenes . Sim. Caesar. Sim. Sim. ☞ Sim. Gaddites . ☞ Sim. Sim. ☜ Sim. Sim. ☜ The Authors leave of Purleigh , and he may say of England . His Prayer , And Counsel , And Promise . ☞ Notes for div A57540-e181060 The gates of Wisdome . Eccles. 5.1 . Expos. Consideration in some must be serious in the first place· Psal. 50.17 , 18. Prov. 15.8 . Sim. A strict self-examination . Expos. Such as come rashly in , do but run themselves upon a Rock . This consideration is of necessity . Sim. Sim. Because of the variety of wayes men have to worship God in . Cooper . Expos. Ignorance is mother of mischiefs , and false worships . Negat quod non notat . Tertul. lib. de Monogamia . Deut. 11.16 . Ier. 17.21 . & Mark. 13.9 . Expos. Sad complaints of such as consider nor first . Expos. Mayor in loc . ☜ What it is . Consideratio importat actum intellectus seu veritatem rei intuentis , &c. What is required in consideration . A sound judgement . ● . King. 10. Expos. Four things in general to be seriously considered . 1 Eye all the essentials . 2 How all do agree in one , in quantum est una . 3 How this way builds us up in Christ , secundum quod i●est vi●tus . 4. And how this Church-state doth nourish and cherish all the fruits i● brings forth . Sim. ☜ Be fully perswaded . Expos. Because it is very dangerous to doubt . In your own minde i. e. not by other mens opinions , &c. What it is to doubt . Else thou wilt be mistaken . Budaeus . Danger of doubting , and the evil of it . Par. The sin of doubting . ☞ Such as doubt , soon yield up the buckle● , and are taken prisoners . ☞ Implicite faith not enough . Par. Cant. 6.12 . Who are best Champions for Christ. Proprium principium actus sit in intellectu sicut in subjecto . How to attain true perswasion . 1. Perswasion must be by the word of Christ. 2 Pet. 1.19 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 1. Learn the order of the Gospel , as given at first . The promises of the Restitutution of times are to a state as at first . And why ? 2. See how far we are in our present condition , from the order as at first . Barlet . Get into that Church that is according to your light , and according to the word , nighest Gospel-rule , and primitive practise 4 Observe the concurrent motions of Providence . Dr. ibs . Sim. Second Direction . Have no confidence in the flesh . Third Direction . Be impartial , and unbyassed as to opinions . Ierem. 4.14 . Rom. 1.21 . Sim. Prejudice does much wrong ☞ After perswasion , follows an assurance . Certainty , or Assurance whence it is , and how . 1 Ex causa certitudinis . 2 Ex parte subjecti . The conclusions which arise . Bring them to the Trial. False perswasion most dangerous . Sim. How to know true perswasions . 1 True perswasions proved and approved from the word and Spirit . 2 Waits for fit time . 3 Meets with trials , yet gets the better . Sim. 4 True perswasion makes obedient . 5 It shews emptinesse in all other waies and worships . 6 It makes thee long after them . 7 Makes thee bold with humility . Sim. 8 Puts thee upon inviting others , saying , come let us go up , and joyn . The sad consequences of doubtings , and of not being fully perswaded . Drives them into despair , and errors . Sim. ☞ They meet with a cu●se , And are not welcome , but provoke the Lord. Hinder the energy of Ordinan●es , and obscure the excellency of the way . Expos. The Lord draws with his arms , the Spirit his right hand , and word his left . Men must come in voluntarily . Proved ▪ by several considerations , as 1 From the powerfull principles which carries them extra se. Vide Fen●ers Alarm . Rom. 7. Because this principle is absolutely necessary in all that would be Church members , which makes them willing . Expos. Second consideration ▪ From the end which suit ▪ with the principles . Voluntas su● natura vult finem . Sim. 1 Pet. 4.17 . Heb. 6 8. Ph●l . 3.19 . Requiritur cognitio finis aliqualis , the end must be known . Sim. In alio a quo ei imprimitur principium suae motionis i● finem . Because a volunteer hath the end for which he moves before him . Res quae est ratio finis & ratio finis . Second consideration is from the rule of the will. Sim. Which is twofold . The Rule which certifies , is divine Reason . Expos. Volunteers have this . Rules to order their will how . Expos. Propositum est actus voluntatis deliberata , &c. ☞ Two Things must be , 1 Knowledge . 2 ▪ Desire . ☞ Fourth consideration is , From the object of the will which is good . Good differs how ? Expos. ☜ Nam appetibile non movet appetitum nisi in quantum est apprehensum . Because of the good in this way of Christ. Sim. The universal good ( that is God ) moves the will most . Fif●h consideration from the operation of the will. Because such labour most sweetly for the good . Austin . God is in us the principle , to us the object , and the end of all . Sixth consideration from the instrumentall causes of this voluntarinesse . 1 The word Christs sword and Scepter . Expos. Ainsworth . Mr. Dell. Luther . Without addition of Doctors Fathers , Councels . ☞ And without the iron weapons of Secular powers . Luther . What Magistrates may do ? and what not . Dublin . Without any other indirect means . Hypocrites by that means in abundance . And such are all , but the Word and Spirit . Caution . ☜ The Power of the Word . The Word is the arm that gathers into the Fold , and makes men ●un willingly . 2. The Spirit makes willing the inferior instrument . Expos. ☞ Christs Spirit known . Quest. Answ. Sim. How he convinces it 1. By inlightning . 2. By in livening . 3. By preparing the way , and making paths strait . The Spirit carries thorough all calamities clearly . Expos. 4 ▪ By ratifying . In the way of Christ , the spirit witnesses . On his own knowledge , as a witness in a Court. Sim. Expos. The Spirit seals . An image of God confirms . Sibs . Distinguish es betwixt true and false . Dr. Sibs Fountain sealed . Sets a propriety . Sim. Expos. Thus God seals ▪ And every Saint seals by the same Spirit . 5. By resting on thee in the way . Sim. This Dove rests in the Ark , no where else . The Church is the Ark. The Spirit is but one in all . Sim. ☞ The difference betwixt Hypocrites and true Church-Members , in the voluntary motions into this Church-state . Sim. The Spirit is Gods other arm . Till then on men come before called . Violence is repugnant to voluntariness . How voluntarily . 1. Directe . Sim. 2. Indirecte . Virtus no lentium nulla est , Trap in loc . Many Intruders . Caution . Order in the Church . 1 Cor. 14.33 . Expos. Trap in lo● . Ordinationes in ecclesia faciendae . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Ordo formae , Et materiae . Ritual order and decency . Left to liberty Luther . ☞ Caution . This is no s●● form . 1 Christians meet together often fi●st , and why ? To prepare for the work . Expos. Saints not tyed to one Church . And secondly , ●o give up their names together . 3 Keep dayes of humiliation & prayer . Which habent quatuor . 1 Invocationem Dei. 2 Commemorationem beneficii Dei. 3 Petitionem 4 Et obs●●rationem . All which must be 1 In elevatione mentis ad Deum & — 2 Fiducia impetrandi . And unity . 4 The day they are embodyed . They appear in publike . Powerful in prayer . Nehem. 9.1 , 2. Exhortations . Order of Christ op●ned and proved . Account of faith made . Experiences of the work of grace . A declaration of full s●tisfaction from Gods word . By the ablest in p●blick . In his communion of Saints ▪ Chap. 17. Few at fi●st ▪ & those that are without exception , & fittest and ablest . Dan. 2. A Covenant . Register . Prayer . And Resolution . And Praises . The Church admits when she is alone . How rashly some embody . Sad sign of a breach . Expos. The most solemne O●der must accompany the most solemne Ordinance . Sim. Dike . Why the first day in publike solemnity . It is more to conviction . Vide chap. 6. p. 98. &c. Christ did so Expos. Jude v. 15 . It would prevent many scandals . R●x Plat. Expos. For the honour of the way . Sim. Expos. ☜ Much honour is had by publick embodying . Act. 2.24 . Expos. ☜ Most consonant to Christs Law. Expos. And to Christs practise . To the way it self . Sim. Frith . In Fox Act. and Mon. fol. 1927. To stir up others into the way . Expos. But see Hookers Survey of Church Discipline , 3. part . ch . 1. Appear the● in publike . Sim. Sim. Many wonder at this way of the Gospel , till they know it . ☜ Dublins experience teaches most of these things mentioned . 1. The power is in the Body ●o admit Members . Expos. Proved ▪ Expos. Mr. Perkins ▪ Dr. Ames . Mr. Fenner . It is nor in the , Elders to admit . Who are servants . A warning . 1 Cor. 3. * Vix plebi persuadeo , ut tales patiantur admitti . So Epist . 11. Caeteros cumi●genti populi suffragio recipimus . And cannot admit any . 2. The persons admitted , Men or Women . 1. What must be done before they be admitted . Their names to be taken . Strict enquiry made of them . By such , whom the Church appoints therunto . What is enough to keep him off of admission . Mr. Hooker . 2. What is done when they are to be admitted . He is called into the Church . Prayer first made . Their testimony threefold 1. Negatively . When none 〈◊〉 object . Fenner . 2. Affirmative . First , from others . Affirmative . Secondly , from himself . 1 Pet. 3.3 . Experiences . If we●k in utterance , what then ? Ask them quest●ons , easie , and according to the ability of the person ▪ Leeson of Dublin admitted . Her broken ( yet broken-hearted ) speech . Sim. Mr. Wil. Fenner . ☞ Take heed none be put by for a form . Mr. Dell. In outward forms and rites Caution . Rules . 2 Such as are weak are sent to for their inward testimony . So was it at Dublin when Mrs. Amee Avery was admitted . Receive the right hand of fellowship . End with prayer for them , and praises . Why so strict to have a threefold testimony . Mr. Rutherf . Mr. Hooker . Women may , and must speak in the Church . Members of other Churches taken in , and how . ☜ Church must take full satisfaction . No baptising again . Euseb. Perkins . August . Object . Expos. The baptisme of Christ that he looks on , is with the holy Ghost . Baptisme of John , and Christ , differs . Our baptisme before , was true baptisme , true ord●nance , if not true order . For matter and form . Sim. Dipped how ? Not dived nor drowned under water . Sprinkled and washed same with dipped . The Holy Ghost is powred on us , and falls on us as yet , not we into it . That which is most significant is best . Ans. Sim. The latter baptisme dispensed disorderly , and without an administrator lawfully called and sent out . Anabaptists in Dublin , not like the Christians . Far differing from them in London . The inward Baptisme ( the efficacy of the outward ) should satisfie us . Dipping is not the fundamental ordinance of Church-fellowship , though initiating . What is a fundamental Ordinance ? Robinson Justif. pag. 230. sayes it is an error which some hold , that Baptisme constitutes the visible Church . Expos. Baptisme of the Spirit by which we enter into Christs body . In baptismat● flaminis non fluminis . 1 They attribute too much to the Element . 2 These are too censorious ▪ Unchristian and uncharitable to Chri●● in seeking to break his Church . The element to us is ( as it were ) passed away . Christians of all judgements should be one in spirit . All Saints of all judgements to be admitted . 1. Proved by rules of Christ. Expos. Rom 14. expounded . Vers. 1. All believers admitted . ☞ Par. Though out of conscience , they differ in judgement , opinions , and practises , about things indifferent . Vers. 2 , 3. Expos. Ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Qaest . Answ. Things ●nd●fferent ▪ what ? 2. Things indifferent . Things doubtful . Indifferent , not indifferent . Paraeus . When Ceremonies , and such like indifferent things died , and gave up the ghost , and were buried . Augustine . Sim. ☜ Dangerous to meddle wirh them now , after they are buried . Adi●phora considerantur vel in ●e . Vel ratione principii sui . All this ratifies the point . God hath received such . Expos. ☞ Argument Calvin . Expos. Verse 4. They may see they are the Lords nighest family servants , for all they differ in opinion . God will establish them as well as the strongest to hold out . Christian liberty in things doubtful and indifferent . Sim. ☞ Saints of all judgements answer the one and the same end of Church fellowship . Argument They serv● one Lord. ☜ ☜ 6 Such b● then alike . ☜ All are one , ho● ? ☞ Day of judgement . ☞ Some usurp Christs throne and how ? Pareus . ☜ ☜ Anselme . Much scandal arises else . Offence what ? Sim. ☜ Scandal wh●t ? How this is a s●andal . Vide Pareus & Par in loc . Aquin. 22 43.1 . Jerom in 15. Mat. 1 To brethren so d●spised . That occasi●ns them to fal off . Sim. ☞ Sim. 1 This mak● brethren fall some●im●s f●w●y , Ranters and erroneous . ☞ What kinde of scandal . 1 Scandal with reference to brethren . ☜ ☜ 2 A scandal with reference to Christ. 3 Scandal with reference to brethren , and the Gospel way its s●lfe . Olevian . Ambros. in loc . Vide Burtons Vindication p 44. Prin. 12.9 . of 12 serious Questions . Bernard . All indifferent things lawful in themselves . What is sin in indifferent things . What is miserable . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Beza . Kingdome of God consists not in outward things . But in things necessary . The Kingdom 1 Of glory . 2 Of grace . Both of one kinde . ☜ Sad diffe●ences about things unnecessary . For want of putting a right difference All Saints Christs servants . Pareus . Calvin . Nazianzen . Else disorders and strife in the Church , the body no● rightly built up , it is for Churches peace . Not as the world hath peace . And for her order . As a Family . A building . A Kingdome . City . Psal. 122. Body . Difference necessary . ☜ Things of a middle nature must be let alone , rather then offend a brother . ☞ Christian liberty to be kept . Par. Gregor . ☞ ☞ Abstain from pressing things indifferent . Proved further by Prophesie . Expos. Iew and Gentile , bond and free . Gualther . One body all . Such as halt between two made one . One flock all . Expos. That serve one God. Expos. Expos. Sim. Expos. God is hastening to bring AL into ONE . Precepts . Expos. Expos. Christ would have have his babes tenderly taken in . Practise of primitive Church . In Apostles dayes . After them in vol. 1. pag 72. Anno 157. Polycarpus An●cetus . Fox . Church admitted Saints of different opinions , and of different observations 157. and after . Irenaeus . Victor Bishop of Rome . Til ●an . 200 ▪ in Victor's d●yes , Bishop of Rome , he went about to cast out , and not take in them that ●iffered in opinion . Which Irenaeus writes against in a letter to him . Uniformity began an . 200. Th●n Saints judged Schismaticks , and Hereticks , and to be excommunicated ▪ that differed in opinion . Euseb. l. ● . c. 26. Not so till Victors time proved by Irenaeus . 1 Wh●t is not commanded , is left to the liberty , and light of Saints . ☜ Ever since Antichrist climbed up to this , what difference are there and breach of opinion , is breach of affection . All should love . Aug. Vincentio Contra Donat. & Rogat de vi Co●rig . Epist. 48. A good lesson for Anabaptists especially them in Dublin , & Waterford . Melancthon . Ali Saints , though differing in opinion must be one in heart and love . Bucer . 1 Consid. Saints children of light . Expos. ☜ In armour of light to defend truth . ☜ Sim. When they are in the dark . 1 Disconsolat . 2 They cannot see . 3 They cannot walk in it well . 4 They are in fear of it . 5 Liable to fall from it , or else to fall in it which is worse . 6 Makes them too bold and fiery . Sim. As at this day we finde among Presbyterians , and others , &c. The golden rule conscience 2 Consider . The beauty of Zion i● all in one . The Church here looks like her above . Amama in Cor●nide . Here a shadow of what is to come here ●f●ter . Sim. Expos. So are all Ordinances . Baptisme . Word Singing . Sabbath . Christ is the substance or body of all . How a shadow here . What a shadow is . ☞ ☞ Variety in unity . God is hastening it . Expos. All Saint● in all ages of all opinions , one : Christ prayed for it . It will be the Churches glory in every age more and more . And her beauty . Sim. Nigher Christ , the more all is one , and her perfection . Sim. 3 Consider . the rule of admission , is prudent and charitable . Vide Noyes Temple p 63. Where there is the least degree of true grace and faith in Christ. Calvin . ☞ Dangerous to oppose Saints of Christ. Oftentimes comes to fight against God. With a false zeal . Goodwin . And with a rash judgement . Anselme . ☜ Reproves such as put a necessary use of such forms as are le●● indifferent . ☜ Form● childish things . 1 Cor. 13. Must all passe away . Man of fo●me most enemy 〈◊〉 Christ. Church of forme the Aegypt in which Ch●ist is crucifi●d . Expos. How it is an Aegyp● . They deale subtilly against the Sain●s . Stephen . By policy To make Christ in the spirit odious , and would keep him up onely in the for● and lett●r . ☞ Hard Task-masters . ☜ Will not let Israel goe out from them . And are troubled that Israel multiples , and are afraid of it . ☜ All forms must dye . Sim. Uuntimely death of forms when they are made Idols , is a warning to the formal ▪ Anabaptists . ☜ Austin . Christ in the form of his flesh , and in the form of his Church-way , run parallel , how . Christ crucified , glorified ▪ living , dying , in flesh and spirit . Christ risen ▪ ☞ Gerson . Forms are not to be enforced , but left to liberty . ☜ Gods forms laid aside for peace and union , much more must ours . ☞ Like Turks , when forms must not be questioned . Many Professors Idolaters . Perkins . Act. 12.22 . Forms Idols . Sim. Featly Serm. p. 491. Sim. The occasion of Form● 1 Not altogether to despise or throw by forms , for they are useful . 2 To receive all Saints that are in the same faith . Sim. Sim. Why men and Churches are so formal . Sim. All that are found in faith must be admitted , for all their judgements in things indifferent . 1 Cor. 8.5 , 6. Joh 8 17 , 18 , 19. 1 Iohn 5.5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9. Matth. 28.19 , 20. Rom 1.19 , 20. 1 The Father . Isa. 40.28 . & 43.15 . 1 Peter 4.19 Rom 3.14 . 2 Chro. 20 6. Psalm 66.7 . 2 The Son. Acts 10.42 , 43. Isaiah 45.21 , 22 1 Iohn 5 29. Isaiah 9.6 , 7. 1 Tim. 2.5 . 1 Iohn 4.2 , 3. 2 Iohn 7. H●s Offices . 1 Prophet . Mic●h 5.4 . Malachi 3.1 . Deut. 18.15 . Acts 3.22 , 2● . Isaiah 54.13 . 2 Priest. Hebr. 9.12 , 14. & 10.3 , 10. Ephes. 5.2 . 1 Peter 1.24 . Iohn 10.15 . Col. 2.14 , 15. Isaiah 53.12 . Heb. 12.24 . 3 King. First , ●n general . M●tth . 28.18 . Psalm 2.6 . Psalm 45.6 . H●b . 8.8 . Isaiah 9.6 , 7. Rev. 2.26 , 27. Secondly , In particular . Matth. 2.2 . Luke 1.33 , 74 , 75. Luke 19.27 . Phil. 2.9 . Haggai 2.7 . Heb. 12.27 , 28. Isaiah 45.22 . Micah 4.2 , &c. 3 The Spirit . Iohn 16.13 , 14. Eph. 1.13 , 14. & 4.30 . Zach. 9.11 . Malachi 3.1 . Heb. 10.29 . & 13.20 . & 8 ▪ 6.8 , 9. Iohn 16.8 , 9. Rom 8.2 . Rom. 4.8 . Iohn 15.26 . R●m . 8.16 ▪ & 1.4 . Gal. 5.22 , 23. 1 John 5.7 . 5 Scriptures . Psalm 147.19 , 20. Iohn 5 39. 2 Cor. 1.13 . Acts 26.22 . 2 Tim. 3.16 2 Pet. 1.20 , 21. Gal. 6.16 . 6 Man. Eph. 2.1 , 3. Iohn 3.3 , 4. Acts 17.30 , 31. Rom. 8.13 . 7 The Church . Eph. 4.4 . Invis●ble and Universal . 1 Cor. 12.27 , 28 8 Churches visible and congregational . 1 Cor. 12.20 . Col. ● 19. Eph 2.21 , 22. Matth. 28.20 . Eph 4.29 . 1 Thes. 5.11 . Iohn 15.19 . 2 Cor. 6.16 , 17 , 19. Revel . 18.4 . Psal 110.3 . Isai. 2 2 , 4. 2 Cor. 8.5 . Acts 11.23 . Mal. 3.16 . Iude 20. H●b 10.24 , 25. Acts 6 3. & 14.23 . Exo● . 20.24 . 1 Kings 9.3 . Isaiah ● . 5 , 6. & 25.6 , 7 , 8. Psal 132.13 , 14 , 15. Revel . 2.1 . 2 Co● . 6.8 . Cant. 4.16 . & 6.2 , 3. & 7.12 . Isai. 33.17 , 20. Psal. 122.3 . Iohn 5.28 . 1 Cor. 15.19 . Acts 17 30 , 31. 2 Tim. 2.18 . Heb. 12.23 . Grace in a convert discovered two wayes . 1 More extraordinary . 2 More ordinary . ☞ Of both those wayes excellent examples follow . ☜ Experiences prove principles . Proved by Precepts . Jews pract●se now . Vide the Hist. of Iews by Leo Modena ch . p. 2. 2 Proved by Practi●e in primitive times Expos. Expos. Expos. Expos. Expos. Dr. Ames . It is mu●h for Gods glory . Sibs his Mariage feast pag. 103. Expos ▪ ☞ It is much for the Churches advantage . 1 In judging of such as a●e Gods. ☞ Election is a mystery . Sim. Sim. ☞ Sim. Made known by Vocation . Adams . Sim. ☜ Obj. Answ. Origen . Election from eternity . Vocation in time . Salvation in the De●●●e before sanctification , but in the execution of the decree , sanctification is before salvation . Dr. Twisse . ☞ How the Church is to jud●e of 〈◊〉 Elect. Sim. Sim. Sim. ☞ ☞ Sim ▪ And judges of the cause by the effects and means . The order of telling experiences . 1 Preparation . 1 When , the time ? 2 How ▪ the means ? To bring them down into hell . Mr Rogers . Mr. Fenner . To bring 〈◊〉 down into 〈◊〉 ▪ Dr. Sibs . Dr. Cr●spe . And to raise them up into heavenly places in Christ Jesus . Sim. But f●w so . 1 King. 31. ☞ 2 Qualifica . By the alteration that is in them ▪ and such like effects . Expos. 2 Cor. 1. ● . To give others warning . Tho. Goodwin ☜ Else others shall finde these stories true . Sim. ☜ Robinson . Sim. Tertullia● ▪ ☞ Sim. Till bu●ied in the flame , some will take no warning . Mat. 5.12 . Mr. Nehemiah Rogers ( my honoured father ) in his Parables Ardeus . To learn others to forbear censuring such . ☞ Sr. Fran. Spira . Rom. 7.24 . & Act. 2.37 . & 2 Cor. 12. Expos. Sim. Saints have a seed-time , and then a harvest . Expos. ☜ ☜ A fighting time , then a conquest . Sim. A time of travel , and then a birth of joy . ☞ Keckerman . ☞ 4 To teach others how variously God works . Expos. Vide Goodwins Child of Light Chap. 12. Means to convert one , not the means to convert another . Experiences teach others to trust in God in times of troubles . Expos. Expos. Thus Samaritan● brought in . Thus was Junius converted . And othe●s in time of Popery . And in these dayes . ☞ In Dublin Church experience , Of prayer answered in a miraculous mercy . ☜ Church experience of prayers answered in another parallel mercy upon the Author . ☞ Faith in prayer forces out a quick answer . ☜ A renewed pledge when most need . ☜ Sim. 1 They bring their assurance to light . 1 Pet. 5.16 . Sim. Caution . Quest. How to know it ? Answ. 1 By the Twin-testimonies . Surest with sealing of the Spirit . p. 170. Expos. ☜ 1 Spirit with our spirits . ☜ How to be sure of it that it is a true spirit . A Ranter what ? ☜ A Hypocrite . Sibs . 2 Twin-testimony is the word & spirit . Expos. Obj. Answ. A single testimony Sim. Is enough . Sim. ☞ Obj. Answ. When thou art without a witnesse , what to do ▪ Expos. Three considerations . Vide Saltmarsh his Free-grace . p. 80. 3 Considerat . to assure poor souls in Christ. ☜ Sim. ☞ 2 When you want reflex acts , run into direct acts , with a resolute recumbency upon God. Expos. Psal. 37.19 . 1 Joh. 3.10 . Rom. 10.11 . Sim. Single testimonies . What assurance is . Their experiences tell how much they differ now from what they were before their Assurance . ☜ Single Testimonies , not ever certain . Sim. Times of assurance . Experiences of Saints are demonstrations of their assurance to others . ☞ Dr. Don. Sim. Full assurance affords full experiences even ( as it were ) with double Testimonies True experiences keep humble . Sim. Vide Hist. of Standerbeg lib. 2. ☜ Hypocrites puffed up by them . Expos. Sim. Dr. Staughton . Saints humbled . Sim. Sim. Sim. Truest experiences lay us the lowest . Sim. Sim. Sim. ☞ Sim. Adams . Souls slashed for sin , low , & humble . And souls exalted in Christ are the more low , and nothing in their own eyes . Expos. Examples . 2 Cor. 11.23.25 , 26 , 27. Randal . ☞ Sim. Sim. Expos. True experiences more declared the more humble us , and lessen us & lower us in our own eyes . Experiences teach best . ☜ As p. 8 ☜ Sim. ☜ Saints by experiences know more then men or Angels can tell them of Gods love . Sim. ☞ Sim. Experiences make more bold for future . Expos. Example . David therefore declared his experience Sim More bold against enemies and in future troubles and trials . Dr. Taylor . More bold with God too . Sim. Example . Expos. ☞ Sim. Sim. They are as a store-house to give out new and old . Expos. Sim. 1 To give out . Expos. Experiences Mandrakes . ☜ 2 To lay up . Sim. Sim. ☜ Expos. ☞ They set the soul to long for more of Christ. ☞ Sim. Many content with Parish-Ministers provisions . ☞ Sim. ☜ They yeeld further obedience to God. And fill them with life , spirit , and love . Sim. ☜ Sim. Sim. Sim. Donn . Sim. In a time of darkness as well as in a time of light . ☜ Expos. ☜ Vide Tho. Aquin . 1.2 . q. 112.5 . o. Expos. ☜ Encouraging others over in to Ireland . Cant. 7. ult . In a formal righteousness from his youth . Called first , when and where ? 1645. called thence on the Mountains . 2. How ? Extraordinarily and ravishingly ● . Effects of this cal● . Called , 1. When. 2. How. In horror of Hell for an oath , wept , delivered out of it . And cast into it again worse then before . Delivered out of it upon surer terms then before . 3. Effect● of it . H●s resoluti●n after it . ☜ Called , 1. When and where ? 2. How ? By the Word . 3. Effects of it . From Presbytery to Independency . Disobedience to parents . Went from them into England . 1. When and where he was called . 2. How ? 1. By the Word preached . 2. By a Letter writ ; by both which , cast low into torments . 3. Effects . Delivered out . Cast in again . Delivered out again on better terms . Yet in fears till a Dream extraordinary . ☜ 4. Effects . ☞ Called suddenly 1 When ? 2 How ? Cast down deep into hell Raised in an extraordinary vision . ☞ Cast down again . Condemned to be shot to death . Raised up out of wrath again by an ordinary means , viz. the Scriptures , as the ●urest comfort to him . 3 Effects . And by prayer his faith . Called , but he refused . ☜ Conscience afflicted . Helped by prayer extraord●narily by a shining light . Called , 1 When. 2 How. 3 Effects . ☞ Prayes for clear perswasion . Confirmed by a Dream . ☞ Mr. Parker was her Father , that able Divine that writ De Eccles. Polit. so largely ; but she married Master Avery a Commissary in Ireland . Called legally . 1. When. 2. How ? 3. Effects . Yet under the Law. Till called out of Egypt into light by Free-grace . Yet in great afflictions . Even in Hell. Deliverance by ordinary means . Effects of it . Nothing could trouble her . Began to dispair again , but soon quieted . Called Evangelically . Extraordinarily In a trance . And confirmed by ordinarie means , t●e Word . In times of wars , full of joyes , and peace , and inward teachings . This forgot , and doting on outward means altogether , and on mens persons . A stronger temptation to d●ny Ordinances , and the use of the means . ☜ Tormented at them . What was her comfort , and her Heaven in this Hell ? ☜ A high pitch . Effects of Christs call , a true and strong love . 1 Cor. 13.13 . ☜ Not caring for self , but for God and his people . How delivered . Extraordinarily by a voice twice . ☜ Effects of it . Extraordinarily called . Her Husband a Captain . This Gentlewoman declared to several Church-Members , that before the Author came over , she had in a dream one night of her troubles , a vision of him so plainly , that after he was in Dublin , the first Serm. he preached , she told her friends this was the man that God had declared to her in a vision , should comfort her soul. Called Assurance . 1. When , where . 2. How ? In great troubles and travels of soul. A Dream . 3 The effects of it . A good example to women . ☜ Fully satisfied , that she had found Christ. 3. The effects of it . To do others good . Christ is her all now . ☞ A Vision extrao●dinary , and a voice . Confirmed by ordinary means . Effects . Converted by a Dream of a Black Dog. Effects of it . A formal righteousnesse . ☞ Very precise . Trouble in mind . Till Dr. Sibs did comfort him . Called by the Gospel 1 When. 2 How. 3 Effects . Called by the word . 1 When , where . 2 How. 3 Effects . Temptations manifold . Sense of hell . ☜ Deliverance . Resolu●ion Called by the love of God ▪ 1 When where . 2 How. 3 Effects . ☞ Called by Mr. Owen . Effects . A voice in her sleep satisfied . Called perplexed . 1 When wrought upon . 2 How by Christ freely offered . 3 Effects . Temptations . ☜ Assurance in Christ. 1 Formal for doings . 2 Denying Ordinances and duties . Temptations till the word was opened . Shee saw other Ranters live wickedly . Called in ●gain by the word , & made a Covenant with the Lord. An ill liver . In dangers . Even death . Called , 1 When. 2 How. Confirmed . 3 Effects . Called , 1 When. 2 How. 3 Effects . A legall righteousnesse . ☞ Assurance . A despiser of Ministers for long preaching . ☞ Called , 1 When , whe●e . 2 How. Confirmed . Assurance by Christ. ☜ Effects . Called , 1 When , where . 2 How. 3. Effects . In his naturall condition long Troubled in conscience . How releeved . Effects . ☜ ☜ Confirmed and assured . From the ungodly . In a carnall state . Wrought upon by a good example . Yet proud . Sinful and scourged by sin in again . Strong temptations . Delivered and satisfied . Called in when he was tempted . A great sinner . First wrought upon by his wife . 1. When , where . 2. How ? Confirmed . 3. Effect . Called by afflictions , outward and inward . Satisfied . Assured . Effects . Dispaired . Recovered by the Word . Effects . Called , 1 When. 2 How. 3 Effects . Confirmed and assured . Captain Rich's wife . Called , 1 When , where . 2. How. Lived much on formes . 3. Effects . Confirmed by that ordinance of prophecying Called , 1. When. 2. How. Confirmed in Dreams . 3. Effects . 1. When brought in , by afflictions . 2 How confirmed . 3. Effects . Rejected the means . Called home , 1. when ? where ? 2. How ? 3. Effects . Called , convinced , 1. When , 2. How troubled . Satisfied . 3. Effects . Assurance . Resolution . 1. Under the Law. Working . ☜ 2. Under the Gospel . Assurance . Under sense of sin . By prayer and the voice of God , Confirmed in Christ. Effects . Called , 1. When. 2. How. 3. Effects . Called , 1. when , where . 2. How. Temptations . 3. Effects . ☞ ☜ ☜ Sim. Fair weather for Ireland . God is seen most in our weaknesse . Nazianzen . Luther . Sim. ☞ Sim. Exposition . Two things requisite before censure . ☞ 1. Call to awaken him by the Word . ☜ Scared at the thoughts of Hell. Very formal and strict in it ▪ Right formality . Under great bondage of works . 2. Call to awaken by the Word . How to keep from sleeping in the Church . More formall . How to help the memory to bear away Sermons . Custome every night . 1. Day . 2. Day . 3. Day . 4. Day . 5. Day . 6. Day . 7. Day . How to keep Sermons many years . ☞ ☞ * N●hemiah Rogers that writ on the Parables . 3. Call to awaken by the Word . 4. Call to awaken , was by a strange Vision . A warning to such as take Gods Name in vain . ☜ ☞ Formall and Ph●risaicall duties still . ☞ A praevision in a dream at Maiden in Essex . Interpreted by Dr. Draiton . Came to passe . Resting in doings . ☞ Despaired . 5 Knock awakened by the Word . Fearfull afflictions and fears . ☜ Temptations . The greatest blow . ☞ Deep despair strong tempting . Despair . Miraculously saved from self murther , Inward melancholy and despairs : A word to the wicked . ☞ Restored extraordinarily by a dream . Evangelicall . Confirmed and seconded by prayer and the Word . Rom. 10.3 . Tit. 3.7 . Rom. 8.4 . Isay 53.11 . Phil. 3.9 . Gal. 2.16 . And got into an assurance of salvation , and how . ☜ Why so many despair of heaven . Sim. ☞ Sim. Satans fresh bouts . 1 Cor. 1. Greater afflictions . ☜ Almost starved at Cambridge . Temptations strong . The Devill tempts to yeeld to him . Is repulsed . ☞ The Devill tempts another way . ☞ A most strong temptation . To murther himself prepared . But strangely prevented . Much affl●cted for his sin and yeelding to Satan . Evangelicall . ☜ Comforted and confirmed in Dream and Vision extraordinarily . ☞ The Dream reiterated . The Dream interpreted in the sleep . How first called to the Ministry in his sleep . ☞ Propheticall . ☜ Partly performed of late in Ireland , as it is well known . But I beleeve not wholly . From that time how he grew fit for the Ministry . 2. Call to the Ministry . His order when he taught Schoole . ☞ 3. Call to preach . 4. Call. Vide Epistle to Purleigh before the 2. Lib. ☞ Act. 21. Assurance . 3. Effects . ☜ dum sur sum dum sur sine Spi ro Spe ro After he was admitted he was much afflicted in his conscience . Yet carried the fairest side outward . * Or the second moneth ▪ i. e. Ziu . Gods time to discover him . The Churches prayers for him ; Answered . Taken in another manner . Howles and roares he is damn'd . Reported to be guilty of sin with one Right 's wife before he entred into Church-fe●lowship long . The Pastors prayer about him . This Osborne discovereth out of his own mouth . A warning to Hypocrites . ☜ The Pastors prayer again . This Osborne dying , drawing on . Pastors prayer again for him . In private and publique . This Osborne thought he had been in Hell. He awaked with strange words and reports . ☞ He rises . He comes to the Church . The Pastor deals wiih him . A plain warning piece to wicked church-members . For the scandal he brought upon the Gospel to Churches . ☜ He said he was sure his sins were pardoned . Prayer in the Church . This Osborne declares in the open Church his sins forgiven with great humility and yet confidence . The strange story of it . A sad example for hypocrites that creep in . It is the more strange , for that this Osborne told all the Pastor prayed privately , which none ever heard but God. ☜ ☜ O sad example for sinners then ; a severe warning to them ▪ A sight of a Rowle . The clear answer of prayers . The Serpents went away , and the Lord pardoned him . ☞ Smiles on him . Sets joies before him . A Paradise . ☞ A word to the Reader . ☜ Vision is twofold . These experiences imperfect to what are to come . ☜ The p●sie what flowers are in it . Tyed up . ☞ Call twofold . An ●●derly call . ☞ Happinesse of Churches enriched with experiences . ☞ Good work for good Pastors of Churches . ☞ Bernard lib. 4. de consider . cap. 51. When Church-covenant is indifferent and must not be urged . ☜ Things indifferent and doubtfull dangerous . 1. When accounted so pleasing to God as if he were displeased without them . Melanchton . 2 When they are cryed up as necessary . ☞ 3. When men are made the more blinde and bad by them . Anabaptist . Rivers of water . 4. When they cause contention , and troubles . ☜ How all , i. e. Presbyt . Indep . Anabapt . may be reconciled , in chap. 5. ☜ Love is positive in which things usefull and indifferent should be laid aside . 5. When cryed up above positive commands . ☜ To some of the Anabaptists in Ireland , i. e ▪ the most rigid . ☜ Yet in best Churches there is a due use of things indifferent . Melanch . Expos. The Doctrines of Devils when . ☞ Church-Cove●●nt idolized . Spiridon a Bishop . ☞ A word to Church-members . Covenant of grace gives right to be Church members . Other Covenants left to liberty . Sim. Church Covenant not necessary , why ? Reas. 2. No precep●s . 2. No practise for it . Noyes Temp. 3. Saints one in the Spirit . Explicite covenant may be where it causes no trouble , but must not be where it causes trouble . All Church members are as much ingaged without such covenanting . What covenant is necessary ▪ Expos. ☞ P. 16. ch . 4. vide the Narrative of Churches in New-England by W. R. Vide Mr. Ho●kers Survey , part . 1 chap. 4. Explicite Covenants how and when usefull . Caution . When it is to be cast away with abhorrence . And when to be taken in . So in Dublin . Formes of Church-covenant . Lib. de praecept . & dispens . in principip . Threefold necessary . 1. Stabile . 2. Inviolabite . 3. Incommutabile . ☜ Answ. com . p 78. Spirituall ties and Covenant hold firm . Expos. Polanus . Calvin . ☞ What may be . Bernard . ☞ What must be . ☜ Proved 1 by Prophecy . Expos. Luther . Paraeus . Calvin . Paraeus in loc . The weakest sort and sex he will exalt most . Dr. Mayer gives the Reason . 2. By precept Expos. Fenner . Who is the Church . 1. Negative . 2. Affirmative ☜ Cartwright . Expos. 3. By practise . Sisters must co●cur as members of the body . Sisters did join in choosing an Apostle . Expos. Sisters were even labourers with Pa●l . Theodor. in loc . Expos. Their common liberty . Proved by learned writers . Fen●er . Ames . Rutherford right of Presb. Whittaker ▪ duobus l●co . Dr. Sibs an Independent , and so Paul Baynes uses the same word Independent in his Diocesan tryall , p. 13. printed 16.1 . Jacob. Magdeburgenses very clear in it . Cyprian . Cotton's Answer to Baily and Rutherford . Dr. Willet's Synops. Women preached . ☞ Councell of Carthage . Tertullian . Prov'd out of their own mouths . Mr. Hooker of New Eng. Mr. Ainsworth . ☜ This was ever an Antichristian Plot. 1 Pet. 2.9 . ☜ The Reasons . 1. Votes concern all , ergo all must vote . Dr. Writ . ☞ Some women officers . 3. Women have equall liberty with men in and by Christ. Expos. Perkins . ☜ ☜ How all differences are reconciled in one . Gualther . in loc . How women attained this liberty , yet subject . Bernard . ☞ ☞ 4. Equall priviledges in Christian liberty . 5. Power . 6. The intention , one and the same . Bernard . Serm. 1 parvorum . ☜ 7. Women have excelled men . Joh. 20. M. Magd. the first Preacher of Christ risen . Judg. 4. 2 Tim. 1.8 . ☞ Mat. 13. ☞ 8. And are strong in affection . ☞ Et muliebrem sexum non minus esse docilem ad disciplinas omnemque virtutem Probat Campofulg . Sim. Caudrey . Women soone● wrought upon and m●st docible . Vses . 1. To men . Dublin . Object . Expos. How women must not speak ▪ 2. In the condition that the Church was then in b●t no standing Rule . ☞ 2. A word to women that they be not too full of words , hold fast their liberty . 2. With Caution . ☞ Sophoc . in Ajace . Caution . Sim. Dr. Featly Serm. p. 205. ☜ Sim. 3. To all A W●rd to Presbyterians . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Church , Taken two waies . 1. At large two waies . So Presbyterians are Churches . Parishes . 2. Taken strictly . Two ways too . 1. The Church Catholick . Vide Zanch. de Eccles. And Bulling . Decad. 5. Ser. 1. And Vrsin . 2. Church Congregationall . Bullinger . Catholick . Perkins Problemes . Is member of the Catholick or Universal . The Congregational Churches are all the Essential parts of the totu● integrale . Presbyterian Churches as Churches not true members of the Church Catholick . Congregational Churches as Churches are constitutive and Causall to the whole . ☞ Tilenus . Sim. Mr. Hudson . Mr. Hockers answer . A Diocesan or Provincial . Church is a totum integrum . Sim. Every member is a particular Church , is a totum too ; but not Integrum . Ames . So particular Churches ●●ue Churches . A humble Presbytery we close with ; But not with a Lordly proud Prelaticall Presbytery . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . How it agre●s with Popery . Dr. Homes . Survey of Discipline , part 1. ch . 15. The Presbyterians need Popery to prop them . ☞ 1. Vide Kerkerm . de Eccles. they agree in their account of Church in the generall . So Hudson , de Eccles. Catholica , &c. We dissent . 2. Presbyterians and Papists agree in their way of Church Catholick to be visible . Mr. Rutherford ▪ Mr. Hudson says so far for them . They have the same arguments with the Jesuites . We disagree from both . Presbyterians hold what Martyrs witnessed against with their bloud . Glover martyr . Bishop Farrar . Philpot. Bradfard argues it ▪ Dr. Whitaker . Perkins . ●ulling●● . 3. Papists and Presbyterians agree in their account of the Head of the Church , vide Keckerman . de capite Ecclesiae . We disagree from both . Bullinger . 1. Grosse errors of theirs of the head . 1. But one head . Vide Keckerm . Sim. Paul Baines on Coloss. 2.19 . Zanchy . ☞ 2. In that Christ alone is that Head. A second gross errors of theirs of the Head. Sim. Perkins . He can have no Vicar . Presbyterians third error of theirs of the Head. Christ cannot be Head but as God and Man. Zanch. de cap. Eccles. Vide Kerkerm . ☜ This Head witnessed by the bloud of Martyrs . Mr. Rogers . Mr. Hooper . 4. Presbyteri ▪ and Papists agree in the matter of a Church . Rutherford , Bayly , Answered by Cotton , Hooker . We disagree from them both This fit matter witnessed too by the bloud of the Martyrs . John Husse ▪ R. Feurus . Ridley . Latimer . 5. They agree in abusing us for separating from Antichrist . Expos. Prins 12. question . 7. quest . and 11. quest . ☜ Vide Mr. Burtons vindication , pag. 27. ☞ ☞ We disagree from both with the Protestants . Zanchy . ☞ Zanch. 1. lib. 1. ch 40. Keckerm . de Eccles. Sim. ☞ Saints onenesse with Christ their head threefold . 1. Union with the substance . * Against that wicked Arianisme of John Bidle . 2. Union with him in his offices . All Saints are 1. Priests . 2. Prophets . Vrsin . 3. Kings . 3 Union with him in his excellencies . Which can't be in false Churches . Onenesse one with another from Christ the Head. Sim. Difference betwixt form of false and true Churches . Martyrs against form of Presbyter . and Papists . Our form is in the unity of the Spirit . Bradford . Holland . Helvetia . Bohemia . Auspurg . ☜ 6. In the foundation of the Church . Trap. Mat. 16. we disagree from both . Ch. 14 ▪ lib. 1. 7. Presb. and Papists agree in laying and carrying on their Church-forms by persecuting such as differ . We declare against both . 8. They agree in the subject of the Keyes . Rutherford . We differ from both . Mr. Parker . The Parisian Schoole . Cotton . Aug. ☞ Tract . in Johan . 124. Fulke . Brute . Bohemians . 9. They agree ▪ in the Councels , 1 As necessary . Vide Mr. Ruthe●ford . Mr. Pri●ns , Mr. Bailie's Disswasion . 12. Q. and Independ●nts examined . We disagree . Whittak . 2. They agree in their call . We dissent from them and others in the formale . 3. They both agree in the persons tha● gives the materiale . Vide Rutherford and Mr. Hookers answer 〈◊〉 Synod in 's Survey p. 4. ch . 3. We dissent . ☞ Parker . Mr. Dell. Austin . Nilus . Gr. Church . Former assemblies Antichristian and lawfull . Nazianzen . 4. Agree in the authority of Synods . We dissent from both . Vide Hooker on Synods . Latimer . Dr. Willet . 5. They agree . We dissent . ☜ They agree . We dissent . Whittaker . ☞ Rogers Proto-martyr . Luth●r . 10. They agree in giving too much power to officers and Ministers . We dissent . Mr. Dell. ☞ Rev. 18. Rev. 15.2 , 3. They agree also in Doctrine● . 1. About the Scriptures . The manifold Popish sooty errors raised againe by Prelates and Presbyterians . We dissent from them both . Lambert . Chrys●me . Hierome . Meth●dius . Nelphilas Theodoret. ☜ Mr. Tulk. Whittaker . The Spirit of God is the only Orthodox Expositor . Arguments . Austi● . Bradford ☞ Austin Witnessed by the bloud of Martyrs . Dr. Taylor . Bradford . Hawkes . Caution . ☜ Prosper . Austin . Councell of Tolet. The Book of Revel . sent to the Church . ☜ 2. They agree about Baptisme of ch●ldren . We dissent . Martyr Woodman . Nazianzen . Bell. de baptism . lib. 1. cap. 3. Novatus . Cyprian . Beda . They agree . Rutherford lib. 2. p. 262. We dissent . Lib. de Baptism● . We dissent . ☞ Sim. 3. They agree too much in the Eucharist . Bell. ibid. How they agree . We dissent . Mr. Rogers . Sim. So Damascene lib. 4. c. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 2. We dissent . 3. We dissent from Presbyterians disorderly giving the Sacrament . ☞ Expos. C. of Garlick-hithe , Lond. 4. Dissent . Rom. 10.17 . ☞ 5. We dissent . Bradford . 6. Dissent . Vide Ho●kers Survey , part . 3. ch . 2. 7 We dissent . Many ignorant of the ordinance of breaking bread . 1. In the necessity of works to salvation they agree in discourse lately with one Crafton , that preacher at Garlick hithe , ( a violent Comet ) with some others . We differ . Mr. Rogers . Sim. Bernard . Augustin . ☜ Mr. Bolton Mr. Perkins . Sim. Sim. ☞ 2. In the formall cause of justification they agree . We dissent . Vide Cra●ock on Gospel-holinesse , on Rom. 8.4 . Serm. 1. cal'd Mount Sion . ☜ In what sense inherent righteousnesse in us . Beza annot . Rom. 5.17 . & Rom. 8.13 . Imputative righteousnesse how taken . ☜ 3. They agree in slandring Saints , as calling them Antinomians . ☞ Mr. Bolton . Lex jubet , gratia juvat . How we are under the Law , ( i· e. of life . Dr. Preston on new Covenant . Dr. Sibs . ☞ Mr. Gataker . 4. Agree too much about the end of serving God. ☜ Sim. Sim. We differ . Augustin . How and to whom hell preached . ☞ Origen . Tindall . ☞ Sim. 5. Agree about the merit of their works in something . ☞ We differ . ☞ Sim. ☜ Sim. ☜ We assert good works . Mr. Perkins . Expos. ☜ 5. They agree in giving power to Magistrates . ☞ 3. They agree in practise . 1. In their account and ordination of Ministers . We differ . They agree imposition of hands . Lond. ☞ ☜ We dissent . Laying on of hands is a needlesse ceremony . Hooker . Bucer . So Aug. de Bap● . lib. 3 c. 16. ☞ Chrysost. Austin . ☞ ☞ 2. Who have the power of Ordination . This is against the Councell of Carthage , Can. 22. Wherein they agree , we differ . ☜ The primary power is in the Church . Cotton . 1 , & 2. Cent. When Independency got in . 3. Cent. When Presbytery came in . When Episcopacy . ☜ Cyprian . How Ministers were Ordained of old . Melanchthon . Yet servants may execute this power to her . 3. They agree in the order of Ordination . ☞ We dissent . Dr. Ames . Our order in Ordination of officers . A speciall means to propagate the Gospell , and to fill the Church and Common-wealth with all able godly Ministers . ☜ Presbyterian Ministers have not the true essentials to the call of Ministers of Christ by their Ordination . They agree , 2. About distinction . 1. Cleargy and Laity . They agree . We differ . Sim. Sim. Martyrs Brute . ☜ Lambert . Synops. 5. Controv. Q 1. Calvin . 2. In distinction of Garments . ☜ We differ . Martyrs Dr. Taylor . Ridley . ☜ Cranmer . ☜ 3. They agree in giving some Ministers superiority . We differ . ☞ 3. Agree about Tithes . ☞ We dissent . Synops. 5. Cont. Q. 6. 1 ▪ Tithes judaicall . They are left to liberty of civill Powers . 2. They were ceremoniall . 3. Maintenance is morall , and must be . ☜ The Parliament may take Tithes away , yea , and must do it . ☜ P●oofes . ☞ Caution . ☞ 2. Parliament must allow a competency for a Gospell Ministry in ●●en of Tithes . 3. In such a way as the people consent to . In Austins time no Tithes payed as now . ☞ ☜ ☜ Exhort . Bohem. art . 15. ☜ * The Lateran Concell was the first that confirmed them . Anno. 1215. 4. They agree in their names of dayes , months , &c. Synops. We dissent . Fulke . Hierom. ☜ 4. They agree . 1. That in the Churches God is most to be met with . We differ . Dr. Willet . Proofes . ☞ Origen . ☞ Origen . Witnessed by Martyrs . Tindall . ☜ 2. Too nigh one another about Churches as dedicated to Saints . We differ . Euseb. Lib. 4. devit . Constant. Lambert . ☞ Presbyterians 〈◊〉 truth out of doo●s . Gospel-propagation by this means . Churches how to be dedicated to Saints . ☞ 6. Agree against us . They alike do take advantages at our r●nts , differences , schismes , &c. Bradford . Latimer in epist. ad D. Baynton . Hierome . Cotton . Austin . ☞ Sim. Exhortation to unity to all the Churches . Expos. Note . ☜ How al Churches differing in forms , are to be one , vide chap. 5. Unity urged . 1. Because all one body . 2. One Head which is first in ordine . Dell. Bullinger . 3. Unity can stand well with variety . 4. Unity is equality . Zanchy . 5. Each contented with their place . 6. Sympathy . 7. By the strings of love which one is drawn by to another . 8 Unity is urg'd from the duty of one to another and to the whole . Unity urged . 1. That one spirits acts all 2. One spirit unites all things under different forms . ☞ 3. Acts severally in all and yet but one and the same . What breaks the peace of the Church and what not . Zanchy . Differing in circumstances in Austin's time . Buccer . For this vide ch . 5. lib. 2. at large . 3 Vnity urg'd for all that are in one faith . ☜ Zan●h . ☜ 4. Vnity ▪ because all alike in hope . Zanch. ☜ 5 Because but one Lord 6. One Baptisme , idest , of the spirit . ☞ The Welsh Curate his Rantisme in his Booke so stiled . ☞ Sim. Caution to the Churches , of that Church-destroying spirits : for so they say of themselves . 7 Vnity , for that all have one God and Father alike of all . Above all . Through all . In all . The Churches ●it in unity , is a great ad●antage to Sathan . Sim. Vt imp●ret Divid●t ▪ is his 〈◊〉 In unity , the greatest terrou● that can be to Christs enemies . Sim. ☞ No feares if we want not in Vnity Sim. ☜ Sim. Three things expected . ● an houre of Triall short , but sha●pe to the Churches . ☜ 1 Proph. The Churches more one then ever . Sim. ☞ 2. Proph. The spirit poured out upon all . Then unity most of all . Expos. Sim. ☜ When ? ☜ 3. Proph. 3. The great day● the Lord the nigher it is , the more Churches will be united in every yeare ☜ This Gospel way is . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. The great promise of these later dayes . 1. Christ shal reign over all in these latter dayes . ☞ Especially as Head in his Church or Churches . Expos. ☜ Christ a King , how and to whom . And a Head , how . Zanch. Expos. A word to the Churches . ☞ 2. The precious Saints , the matter of these latter dayes . Expos. Proph. Jaspers who ? Agates who ? Tremel . Carbuncles who ? Most precious Stones . ☜ Expos. ☜ A word to the Churches . When they shall excell . ☞ ☜ ☞ 1. Who are Jaspers . In what properties they ●xcell . 2. Who are Saphi●es . In what properties they excell . ☞ 3. Who are the Chalcedonie's In what p●operties they excell . Zanch. In what properties they excell . Ignatius . 4. Who are the Emeralds . In what properties they excell . ☜ 5. Who are the Sardonyx . Ainsw . ☜ 6. Who are the Sardius . Paraeus . In what properties they excell . ☞ ☞ 7. Who are Chrysolites . In what properties they excell . 8. Who are the Berylls . In what properties they excell . 9. Who are the Topaz . In what properties they excell . ☞ 10. Who are the Chrysoprasus . In what properties they excell . 11. Who are the Hyacinths , or Jacinths . In what properties they excell . 12. Who are Amethists . In what properties they excell . A mystery of the excellency of Church-members in the later daies . Precious stones Gathered out of all parts of the world . Proph. ☞ Variety in their excellency . ☜ When high-priz'd . Prop●● . ☜ When Jewes expected to be most precious Church matter ☜ A word to Churches and members . ☜ 3. The forme of the Church promised in these last days . ☞ How all enter in . 4. The end of it largely promised . Zanch. Two-fold . Brightman . ☞ 5. Spiritual unity , and order of Churches promised in last daies . Expos. Christs prayer 6. The Spirit poured out on the Churches and Saints , in a larger measure . By six Heads appeare the Gospel-Ord●r in Churches . is a great promise . Expos. The foundation of all this is layd . Comfort to us our day is comming . ☞ ☜ Et redir● in principium . 2. The Types promise , the fall of false worship , and he glorious rising of the true Gospell spirituall worship . ☜ Antichrist ●●y●●fied by Aegypt . Expos. ☜ Sodome . ☜ Babylon . Expos. Pro ▪ Antiochus Epiphanes , a figure of the Pope . ☞ Polanus . Brightman . ☞ Types of the Churches Palaces of Sion ; Tabernacles . Particular Churches . Dr. Sibs . ☜ ☜ Jerusalem a Type . The Sun ( Christ ) must rule the D●y ( that comes ) though the Moon hath ruled the Night ( till now ) Solomons Temple a type of the whole Church when all Tabernacles shall bee joyn'd . ☞ Vid. 5. Zanch. lib. 1. de Hom. creatione , v. 15. P●radise and Eden excellent full types of the Church of Christ in these last dayes . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Churches ●ypified . The Garden was Gods own plantation . The excellency of it , bei●g his work . ☜ 2. His protection of them . ☞ 3. The name of them which takes in of all languages . Zanch. ☞ ☞ 4. The Seat of them in all the World where the Rivers run . Pareus . ☜ 5. The East of them , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Suidas . Lactantius . ☜ The later days promise in the East , whence the Sun shall rise to all the world . Jo. 1.1.2 . ☜ 2. The members and ordinances typified by trees of Paradise . Odinances & Church members trees how 1. Rooted . 2. of the Lords making . 3. The Lord causes them to grow and flourish . ☞ ☜ 4. They are to bee the most fruitful of all the Earth . ☜ 5. Lovely to the sight . Colloquia & congregationes gratiam spirent . Bernard de Ecc. cap. 412. 6. Excellent to feed upon . For all sorts and Senses . ☞ ☞ 7. All sorts of trees that the Lord makes fruitfull must grow there . 8. The ●r●e of life in the midst of them . Tree of life two wayes . ☞ ☜ Diodate . The two Sacraments within the Church kept And not to be carried out . ☜ ☜ 9. The tree of life , and other trees alike . ☞ 3. The Spirit and Word typified by Rivers & streams 1. From whence the Rivers came aborigine , viz. from the East . ☜ Two parts of the East . 1. Knowne . 2. Hidden , but only the River runs from it . ☜ ☜ 2. For Churches , to what end ? ☞ 3. The River divided into foure heads . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diodate . Habes Paradi sum conclusū & Paradisum e m●ssum . Beru . de Serm. Cant. 35. To take in many Nations . ☞ ☞ Where Gods great worke first begins . as in the pouring out of the spirit . The last discovery of the Type . 1. No place for Beasts . 2. It is not for meer naturall men . For none but whom the Lord addes & brings in . These Churches must be purged . ☜ 3. Of the greatest Use , as Universities for others to resort unto , and to learn in , and to goe from to teach others . ☞ Universities ; of what sort in the latter days . 4. Such as are placed in this restored Paradise , are under the strictest Lawes of the spirit . The Law in love . The Churches have their law from the Lord O●hers from the Churches . ☜ We have first Life and then Law , first a Principle , and then a Precept ☜ 5. Those therin are never to be idle , but every day dressing and keeping it . Zanch. What labours are accursed , what not . 6 Such as are sinners , though in the Church , must be cast out . ☞ 7. Such as are therein may eat freely , yea must of every tree . ☜ Ripe fruits ▪ 8. Such forbid the Tree of Knowledge before the tree of Life . ☞ ☞ Expos. An use of humane Wisdome , Learning , and knowledge in the Churches . But not to be preferred first . ☜ ☜ 9. The Serpent got in and tempted by the fruits of the tree of knowledge . ☜ He tempts the weakest with Gifts , Parts , &c. Churches beyond Universities . Saints are the most and best learned ones . ☞ 10. Man put in on the sixth day . By the Lords own hand . 11. Gods speciall presence there . Justin , Irenaeus , Ter●ullian , Eusebius , Ambrose , & alii in lec . 3. The Churches of Christ distinct from all others . And shal be so apparently to a●l . Expos. Not Enemies . Who ? Nor Bastard● ▪ Who ? ☜ Nor Ammon nor Moab shal enter in . But the Edomits shall , or the Jews . ☜ Exhort . To strive against Nationall and parochiall Church●● and why ? Expos. Zanch. A word to England , Ireland , and Scotland about Na●ion●ll and P●rochiall Churches . The standing impudence of P●r●sh Church Members ! ☞ Cawdrey , p. 83. Sim. About the Sacraments . They are guilty of Treason , Felony , and Whoredome . ☜ ☜ ☜ How the Lord will strip them naked . 1. Take away all their Ornaments , and leave them naked . 2. Show them in their blood and f●●th . 3. In their imbecillity . 4. With a loud cry . ☞ 5. Little. 6. In utter darknesse . Parish Churches , the Children of the Whore shall fall without mercy . ☞ Churches and Parishes differ much , Flaccus , Illiricus , vide Bernardus Cant. & Beda Serm. 14. Sim. But out of the Churches are great things to be done these latter dayes . Sim. ☜ A good caution . ☜ ☜ Sim. ☞ A Church is not so intire without Officers and Organs . Psal. 48.12.13 . The Authours resolve to go the rounds , and to make a further and fuller search of Sion . Notes for div A57540-e466180 Peter .