A SERMON Preached at the FUNERAL OF M. ANTHONY HINTON: Late Treasurer of St. Bartholomews' Hospital. On the 15th. of November, 1678. At St. Sepulchers Church. BY WILLIAM BELL, D.D. and Vicar of the said Church. London, Printed by M. Clark, and to be sold by Benj. took at the Ship in S. Paul's Churchyard, 1679. To my ever honoured Friend, Mrs. MARY HINTON. YOU have herein what you earnestly desired, and have truly deserved of me, the Sermon preached at the Funeral of your deceased, and justly beloved Husband; and now at the instance of his near Friends, made more public: and their desires had been sooner complied with, but that it pleased God by a fit of sickness to hinder me, and thereby it, from coming sooner abroad. His life was a better Comment on the Text, than any I could make. He was such an Original, as did (as Originals usually do) exceed the Copy; so that I lay claim herein not to your thanks, but to your pardon: And for that too I have no other plea, but that you commanded me to show my weakness. But though I fell short in the Application, I may fear I have exceeded in the Discourse itself, having added much that was prepared, but could not be then delivered, by reason of the straitness of time allowed to such occasions. That you may receive spiritual advantage, and comfort by all, you have, together with the Sermon, the hearty constant Prayer of, St. Sepulchers, Jan. 28. 1678/ 9 Madam, Your faithful Servant in our common Master, Christ Jesus, William Bell. A Funeral Sermon, ON ACTS xxiv. 16. Herein do I exercise myself, to have always a Conscience void of offence toward God, and toward Men. THis Chapter of the Text is the Account of a Trial, Ver. 1. wherein the Judge is Felix; the Plaintiffs are the Jews, and their High Priests; and Tertullus, of Council for them; the Defendant is St. Paul; the Crimes laid to his charge are Sedition, Schism, and Heresy, which, if true, rendered him undeserving of life, and liberty, who yet by his very enemies was judged to have done nothing worthy of Death, or of Bonds. Acts xxiii. 29. He easily wipes off these aspersions by the evidence of his peaceable behaviour in the Synagogue, and in the City; All his guilt was honouring the Father in honouring the Son, which was the old Religion of the Patriarches, and Prophets, though by the modern Jews condemned of Novelty, Ver. 14. context. and Heresy: And asserting the Resurrection, which was an Article of the Jewish as well as Christian Creed; which Resurrection because it was to be both of the Just and the Unjust, Ver. 15. to 21. all his design and endeavour was to make that safe, which was already sure; that if by any means he might attain the resurrection to everlasting life, Dan. xii. 2. and not to shame and everlasting contempt; and in pursuance of that end, he did exercise himself to have a Conscience void of offence toward God and toward Men. I shall not suspect your knowledge of the History of this our Apostles life, so as to undertake the proof of the truth of the Assertion in his person, Phil. iii. 17. but rather urge you to walk as you have him for an example, and that in the sincerity, universality, constancy, and industry of an inoffensive obedience. First, The sincerity of that obedience consists in having a Conscience void of offence, which Conscience is the knowledge we have of ourselves, common with others, God, and his holy Angels: Or a concluding Science in a practical Syllogism, whereof Scripture makes the Major Proposition: Whosoever obeys, or obeys not, shall be accordingly saved or damned. To which Conscience assumes, by excusing, or accusing, that I so do, or do not obey; and having thus witnessed at the Bar, it takes the Tribunal, and (suitably to its own Verdict) acquits or condemns, I, and executes too, as being in its own Court, Informer, Judge, and Executioner. And Conscience, as it is well instructed, concludes rightly; or as misinstructed, concludes falsely; or as doubtful, concludes not at all; or if probable, concludes on probable reasons. Now the good, and erroneous Conscience both bind; that simply, and this suppositively, till better informed. The robbing of Baal Berith was Sacrilege with them who were persuaded he was a God. Judg. ix. 4. But the Conscience here in the Text is a true counterpart of the Divine Law which is its rule, a Zeal according to knowledge, and so to know the will of God, as to do it. A Conscience void of offence, or scandal, that loves not to give, or take it. As when we neither lay Galtraps in the way of others, to obstruct them in their Christian fight, or race; nor stumble at those that are laid in our way by others. When evil example or instruction is followed, that is a true scandal effectually given. When what is good, or indifferent, is misinterpreted, or avoided, when by just Authority commanded, that is a false offence effectually taken. Offences may be sometimes given where they are not taken, Mat. iv. as in Satan's several tempt of our Saviour; and they may be taken where they are not given: Thus Christ was a stone of offence, set for the falling of many in Israel. Now to have a Conscience void of offence, is to have a right knowledge of our rule of duty, and of our suitable compliance with it. And that, Secondly, In the universality of our obedience, as first it respects God, who cannot properly be said to be offended by us, since grief is no more in him, Isa. xxvii. 4. than fury is; but only by way of Analogy, or resemblance, when we do what in us lies to provoke him, by breach of the Letter, and contempt of the penalty of his Laws, affronting his Omniscience, his Holiness, and his Justice, by saying the God of Jacob sees not, or sees not to regard: And offence toward him is avoided, by firm belief of his Attributes, and a proportionable standing in awe of them, so as not to sin against them. Considering, 1 John three 20. that if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Heb. iv. 13. All things are naked and open before him, as the Sacrifice was, when flayed, and chined down, and all its inwards exposed to view. If Conscience is a Thousand Witnesses, God is more than a Thousand Consciences, whom we must ever set before us, which was the mean he prescribed Abraham to express sincerity, Gen. xvii. 1. and to attain perfection. Not that our eye-service brings God before us, but finds and owns him there, because every where; and every where such a searcher of the heart, and a discerner and Judge of its thoughts, and intents, that with him a lustful look is Adultery, a malicious will is Murder, and a covetous desire Theft. He judgeth not as man judgeth. With us the mind makes not guilty, without the Act, nor the Act without the mind: But with him the conceptions of Lust are sin, as well as the productions, as the Child is the same in the Womb and at the Breast. It is then no advantage to us to have none conscious of our Evil Acts without us, while we have a Conscience within us; or to have no Conscience within us, while we have a God above us. We may dig deep to hid our Counsel from him, but he will bring forth the thing that is hid to light. So that when we are sat from the Justice of men, we are not secure from the Justice of God. He that made the eye shall not he see? He that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he punish? We may escape the Sea and the Viper, yet we have a Nemesis, an avenger within and without us; if not, we have one above us; He that is higher than the highest regards, even the most high, from whom there lies no appeal. 1 Sam. two. 23. If one man sin against another, the Judge shall judge him, but if a man sin against the Lord, who shall plead for him? Trespasses may be compromised, but not Transgressions, Job ix. 33. for there is no man to lay his hand upon the Offender and the Offended, unless he who is God-man, the only Mediator, undertake it; who yet will be no Umpire in our obstinate and wilful quarrels, but for those alone who endeavour to keep Consciences void of offence toward him, by serving him as without hypocrisy, so secondly without partiality too, respecting all his Precepts, not thinking ourselves sound, if we are so in any part, where the Leprosy broke out in the forehead, it rendered the whole man unclean. No duty is little where an Infinite God commands; nor any sin small for which an Immortal Christ did die, and Eternal flames are kindled. Though no one good Act can save us, yet any one evil Act may damn us. We may die of one wound as well as of Caesar's two and thirty. Nor will our good works compound for our bad, our Zeal for our Rebellion, or our Loyalty for our Drunkenness. There is such a firm League between all the Precepts, that the enemies to the one are enemies to the other. The whole Ten words being but one Law. He hath other Gods besides the Lord, who makes his belly his God, by Gluttony, or by Concupiscence which is Idolatry; he hath not kept a day to the Lord, but to his Lust, who by long Prayers and a Fast hath killed and taken possession; hath first made the Widow, and then undone her, by devouring her House or her Vineyard. And he hath taken the name of God in vain, who hath born false witness against his Neighbour. A good Conscience desires in all things to live honestly. And our duty is then currant, when neither allayed, nor clipped. It's intrinsic value consists in a sincere, the extrinsic in a uniform obedience. And this is a Conscience void of offence toward God. And it must be so in the demonstration of it. Secondly, Towards men, towards every man: Toward (1.) Superiors; and they are first in the Second Table, and God himself hath said they are Gods, whether the Gods of our Houses, Parents; or of our Country, the Magistrate. And he commands us to do them homage by honour and Tribute; and he forbids us to plead Conscience for disobedience, when commanded to obey for Conscience sake. Which Conscience, if truly tender, will be so to every appearance of evil, to Sedition, Schism, and Sacrilege, as well as to Blasphemy, an Oath, or an Idol. Now Rebellion is commonly an Inceptor in the Family; where we are ill taught to bear the yoke in our youth, our elder years are empty of respect to the Doctrine of the Pulpit, and the Laws of the Throne; and then with the Fathers of our flesh we are gradually taught to despise those of our Faith, and of our Country too. But while we wound the honour of all, like Swords, we are insensible of the mischiefs we do. Exod. iv. 16. In Primitive Judaisme Moses was a God to Aaron, and Aaron was a mouth to Moses, to plead for him who protected him: In Primitive Christianity, when the Emperors were Heathens, the Christian Legions would not be worse, by becoming Rebels; but with their Swords by their sides, received those of their Executioners into their bowels, as an effect not of their Cowardice, but of their Valour; he dares do any thing, but sin, for his Religion, who dares die for it. Luke xxii. 38. In Christ's Retinue two Swords, when sheathed, were enough, and one, when drawn in his defence, was too much. His Gospel must not, like the Koran, Mat. xxvi. 52. be propagated by Armies: Nor his Kingdom, like that of Romulus, be founded in the blood of any but our elder Brother, that is, his own. He asserted the right of Caesar by Precept, and Practice, employs his Divinity to attest his Loyalty, Mat. xvii. 37. and out of the mouth of a Fish sends the Tribute silver to him to whom it was superscribed, and that for himself and Peter, who did not angle for his own profit, laid no claim to the Roman-penny: We ill requite the goodness of God in giving us Kings as Nursing Fathers, when we undermine the Thrones we are by many obligations bound to support. Nor matters it much whether we do it by Achitophel's head, or Absaloms' hand, by Shimei's tongue, or Sheba's trumpet. If the Jew was enjoined to pray for that Land where he was Captive, Jer. xxix. 7. since in the peace thereof he was to have peace: How much more are we bound to seek the peace of the Land of our Nativity, since they only can prosper that love it? We should not then be like foolish Passengers in a Ship, who rip up the Planks of the Vessel, wherein they are embarked, to build their own Cabins. Sure I am, Christ never furnished us with the Doctrine of speaking evil of Dignities, nor true Christianity with the use. St. Paul retracts the rash expression of Whited Wall, Acts xxiii. 3, etc. used to a Judge, though an unjust one, and that with remorse, and calls it his sin, though his sin of Ignorance: While our hearts never smite us for the wounds we give the Royal Robe, by the ill language we speak, or hear, when the reputations of our Superiors are evaporarated in the smoke of a Coffee-house, and all our Allegiance lies drowned, and forgotten in Rheum, and Lethe; we must have a toleration for ill opinions, and ill manners too: And our Laws, like those of Moses to the Jews, and Solon to the Athenians, must be adapted to the hardness of our hearts; Mat. nineteen. 8. while a War, a Plague, and a Fire have ruined many, but reform none: Nay, Isa. 1.5. our revoltings have increased with God's smitings; like the high attainers of our Age, we are above all Ordinances only by being against them: Of which Ordinances the powers that be are one. Our Remedy lies in the strengthening the hands of our Superiors, by subjection to them, and love to one another, that since God hath given us Judges, as at the first, 26. and Counselors as at the beginning, it may appear that with our Government we have a restauration of our Loyalty too. And this we shall do, if we keep our Consciences and our Conversations void of offence toward our Superiors. And Secondly, Toward our Equals, and that in things Civil and Religious; in their concerns as Men, and as Christians. Not invading their property by fraud or violence. The truly Conscientious person shuns every dishonest Act, not so much for the sake of his Reputation, as his Peace; Every black mote is to him, as to a tender eye, his grief, as well as his blemish. He dares not wound his Soul to save his Estate, or his Life; as knowing that God hates the profitable, as well as the pious fraud, and that light gains ill got make the Conscience more heavy than the Purse. When good plain Jacob saw the Money returned with the Corn in his Son's Sacks, Gen. xlii. 25, etc. he order them to take double money with them in their second Journey, for peradventure, says he, it was an oversight: He would not purchase his food too cheap, lest he should buy repentance too dear, and by such an act of Injustice turn his bread into gravel: Prov. xx. 17. And he is an Israelite indeed who is thus without guile, John i, 47. such a Nathanael who is come home to Christ, one of whose Laws it is, that whatsoever we would that men should do unto us, Mat. seven. 12. we should do so unto them. I know a Christian must do more than this, but he is no Christian who doth less. Our Righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, Mat. v. 20. it must flow from a better Principle and spring of Grace; have a larger current in our Conversation with all men, not those of our own Sect only; and empty itself into a deeper Sea, God's Glory, not our own. Let us walk according to this rule in all simplicity and sincerity, and then let others call it Morality, and think they can be Saints without it; whilst Christ commands it, and Christians practise it, we will call it Christianity, a Conscience avoiding offence toward men in their Civil concerns. And let be so in (2.) their Sacred concerns too. Let us not misguide the ignorant and ductile by false fires, as Thiefs draw Travellers into dark Woods with a design to rob them. Let us not suffer Sin to rest upon them, but rebuke them with a spirit of meekness, and instruct them with a spirit of wisdom, as men of feeding lips and healing tongues. Eph. iv. 29. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of our mouths, which is as offensive to chaste ears, as a stinking breath from rotten Lungs is to the Nostrils. Let us not judge the strong, nor despise the weak, but think candidly of all, and act charitably towards all, and where we lawfully may, Phil. iv. 5. let our moderation be known unto all men: As tender and teeming Mothers forbear what their stomaches would bear for their burdens sake. Temperance is not the want, but the restraint of Appetite, the restraint of a lawful Lust: But Brotherly-kindness considers not only what is lawful, Gal. v. 6. but what is expedient also. St. Acts xuj. 3. Paul, who very well knew that neither Circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, circumcised Timothy to comply with the Jews, but would not circumcise Titus, Gal. two. 3. that he might gratify the Gentiles. It is an unchristian use of our Christian liberty to offend the Magistrate in forbearing what we may do, or our Brother, in doing what we may forbear. This, if ingenuously observed, would keep the peace in the great world without us, and in the little world within us too: For this is the justice of a good Conscience that gives to every one his due, and to every one in his order: First, Glory to God on high, and then on earth peace and good will toward men: For as we are not to displease God to please our Prince, nor to displease our Prince to please our Fellow-subjects; so neither are we to displease our fellow-subjects to please ourselves. Where the way is one, we can follow both, Fear God, and the King: But where they part, we show by our attendance, to which we retain. We cannot serve two Masters, Dan. iii. his Servants we are whom we obey. This caused the three Children to choose affliction rather than sin, and to deem a Furnace seven times heated cooler than Hell. But (God be thanked) this is not our case, and I hope will never be. We have no Statutes of Omri, Micah vi. 16. no manners of the house of Ahab to obey, but such a Government as, be the times never so bad, we may be as good as we will in them; and that safely too, we are not called to praise God in the fire, Rom. xii. 1. or to offer up our bodies as any other than a living sacrifice to him: And are so far from suffering for righteousness sake, that we are not so much as buffeted for our faults: But can break the Laws pretendedly with as good a Conscience as others can really keep them. But God, who prescribes the Order, prescribes the Union too; we must provide things honest in the sight of both God, and man. 2 Cor. viij. 21. For though Loyalty is no more founded in Grace than Dominion is, a Nero must be obeyed as well as a Constantine; Rom. xiii. 1, etc. and there may be as good Subjects in Turkey, as in England, if not better; and an Aristides may be as just as St. Paul, yet he is no good Christian who is a Rebel, or a Cheat: Christ will not be righteousness to them who will have none of their own. His Kingdom consists not in Carnal Wisdom, or weapons, but in Love, Joy, and Peace; that peace which is both our duty, and our reward, and both in the Text. To have a Conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men. Thirdly, That which speaks the constancy of duty, is that it must be always the same in all conditions, places, and times. We are to be chaste with Joseph, in the Palace, as well as the Prison; within the Curtains of our bed, as those of the Tabernacle. To be sober among the Vines, and temperate at a loaded Table; to pray for the King as hearty in our Closets, as in his Chapel; and no more to curse him in our Bedchamber, than we would in his own. To be true to every trust of the dead, as of the living; and not, as too many among us, who are so unlike to God, and so like the Devil, that they are most certainly false to all that put confidence in them: Whereas an inoffensive Conscience sets God and man before its eyes, and is the same to those that may be absent, as toward him that cannot; and that in all Conditions, when he hides his face as when he shines on our Tabernacle. It's Piety is not strong only when we are weak, and then languishing when we recover: Is not puffed up by prosperity, nor cast down by adversity, as Boats that rise with the Flood, and sink with the Ebb. Its mouth is not full of murmuring when vempty of bread, Phil. iv. 11. but in all estates hath learned to be content. Can tend on the Ark when its Manna is gone, and nothing left but the Rod, and the Law, when banished, as well as when it gratifies the fleshhook: Can be devout at Mesech and Kedar, as in the go, and solemn Procession of the Sanctuary. Good Barzillai was as faithful a Subject to David, when hunted on the Mountains, as when he went to be Crowned at Hebron. A good Conscience neither flatters the rich, nor oppresseth the poor; takes not the opportunity of a Friend's distress to insult, or to betray; to stand aloof from the sore, or only to pour Vinegar into it by sharp upbraid, or uncharitable conclusions; but where it cannot be a Shield to prevent a wound, is ever ready with Balm to heal it; not trampling on a Prostrate, whether Friend, or Enemy, but is equally prompt to do good, and to forgive evil. James i. 27. Pure and undefiled Religion, (the Religion of a Conscience so qualified too) visits the Fatherless and the Widow, with a visit like that of Christ, Luke i 68 visits to redeem, and as the same Christ too, keeps it self unspotted of the world. It throws no dirt, (and 'tis hard to do it with clean hands) nor doth any thrown at it stick on it, but is soon wiped off by undisturbed Innocence. And this, all this is, Fourthly, and lastly, The whole employ of a good Conscience, as wherein it doth exercise itself, (as the word signifies) prepares for the Combat, bends all its wit and force to it; is First, Diligent to the utmost of its power, striving to excel others, and ourselves. That those things be in us and abound. If it be possible, and as much as in us lies to have peace with God and man, with all men. And this is more than a mere bending our tongues and wits to holiness, and righteousness; not a speaking great things, but living them .. And though God sometimes takes the will for the deed, it is there only where there is no ability to perform: 2 Cor. viij. 12. Thus Love may fulfil the whole Law in a hearty disposition to all obedience where the Act is not feazible. David's desire to keep God's Commandments, Psal. cxix. 4, 5. goes for the deed; 'twas exercise when he did but strive in Prayer after that perfection, which is not here attainable: Yet a mere present wishing we might do God's will can no more secure us from Hell, than a future wishing we had done it can deliver us out of it. It is not a setting our faces toward Zion that will bring us thither, when like Weathercocks, the next wind of a Temptation, altars our aspect, and we are still where we were. Mat. xxv. 15, etc. Two Talents improved to four have in Heaven a proportionable reward, with the five that were made ten: But the lazy Well-willers Talon that rusted in the Napkin had that rust as a swift witness against him, before that God who expects his own with usury. We have the knowledge of his Commandments, and they are not grievous. The Dictates of his Spirit, the Assistances of our own Consciences, the Examples of his Son and Servants, the Encouragement of all his Promises, which makes our service as profitable as it is reasonable: And if herewith we faithfully do what we can, he will mercifully accept of what we do. And herein we must be, as diligent, so, Secondly, Prudent too, to strive lawfully, as well as earnestly; to have light with our heat; and that light is, in the essentials of Religion, the Word of God, and we are not to vary from the Pattern in the Mount. To the Law and to the Testimony, Isa. viij. 20. if they speak not according to this, it is because there is no truth in them. They oblige our Faith in all the Articles of our several Creeds, 2 Tim. i 13. those forms of sound words founded in Scripture. Our obedience in worshipping God by Prayer, and Praise, by hearing, and receiving his Sacraments, revering his Name, avoiding Polytheism, Atheism, Idolatry, Blasphemy, honouring our Superiors, not invading the Life, Chastity, Estate, or Reputation of our Neighbour: Which Laws are a Moral and perpetual rule to all our Intentions, Expressions, and Actions, and with these neither men nor our own Consciences can dispense: And our trial at the last day will be not merely by our Consciences, but as they have been guided by that Word. Since Conscience, like Fame, may be as tenacious of a lie as of a truth, may condemn where God acquits, or acquit where God condemns. He must touch the Needle to make it point right, which else will vary (as we know Conscience hath done) to all the Points in the Compass. We rightly set our Watches by the Dial, when we are assured the Dial is well set by the Sun. In things Civil, the rule is right Reason; we expect not a Law out of Scripture for every minute action of Life. We try a Circle not by a Square, but by a Compass. The Law of the Land, where it speaks, is the common Conscience which ought to guide us in all things that are not apparently opposite to the Divine Law. The Church is a Vineyard, and is in the State, as in its Fence, without which it would not be long a Vineyard. Hos. i. 9 Israel was Loammi, that is, not a People, when without the true God, a teaching Priest, and Law, when the Pillars are dissolved the People melt. 2 Chron. xv. 3. By undermining our Superiors we Sap our own foundations; and while we pluck flowers from the Crown to wove Garlands for ourselves, the success is to see both droop, and whither together. Did we rightly understand things, we should acknowledge it our liberty to be subject, the very worst of Governments being better than none. Law is the Mound of Property, and without that enclosure, every man would turn all his Lusts, like Beasts without stint, into the Common. Now the Law is but a dead letter, it's life is its execution, and it's best execution is in our active obedience. It is not indifferent to the Law, or the Lawgiver, whether we do or suffer; as it is in By-laws of Corporations whether we fine or serve. Justice would be all Sword, if it did not only consist in the mulcting or punishing our Persons, or our Purses. It is from our corruptions that Penal Statutes are inflicted as well as enacted. Would we be a Law to ourselves, we should not need so many from our Superiors. It is then as imprudent as it is ungrateful, like Sons of Belial, to shake off that easy yoke, that protects where it restrains, and by keeping us in order, keeps us in safety too. Let the Law of the Land subdue that of our Lusts; Let us study to be quiet, and to do our own business. And leaving the Steerage of the Vessel to those that sit at the Helm, let us keep our own Cabins, and there strengthen, and encourage our Pilots by our Devotion, and by our Subjection. In things indifferent let us walk by the rule of Charity, but of Charity first to the Church our Mother, and as we own to her our better birth, so let us pay her our better Honour. Her love first descended on us, before ours could ascend to her, and now we are able, let ours ascend to her, before it spread to the Brethren; 'tis the Method and order of Grace as well as of Nature. In pursuance of which, let us not dispute her Wisdom, or her Authority in confining our practice in what makes for Decency, or Order, whereof she is certainly a more competent Judge than her Children: In God's name, let us search the Scriptures for every circumstance of Worship, but then let us not conclude, we find not this thing commanded there, therefore we dare not do it; but rather, we find not this thing there forbidden, therefore we may do it; Rom. iv. 15. for where there is no Law there is no transgression: If we doubt, the Command of Authority supersedes the doubt. But while we peremptorily avoid what is indifferent, we meet that Judaisme we pretend to run from; and are too superstitious whilst we would not be at all so. Nay, we lose that liberty whereof we are so tender, as biased to one side, and that against the Powers that are set over us, we are easily drawn away by those who have no right to guide us, but are restiff and headstrong to those that have a right to our obedience; like debauched Gallants, who value their Courtesan above their Chirurgeon, and will give more to get a Disease than to have it cured. Where the Word is silent, we have our Liberty, but let us not use it for any occasion of the flesh. 1 Pet. two. 16. The Primitive Christians when confined to a few things made necessary by the Precept, and not so in themselves, such as abstinence from things strangled, Acts xv. 31. and from blood, are said to rejoice for the Consolation. And so did our Ancestors when reformed from that Worship which was become all husk, and shell, and rind; yet thought not themselves obliged to strip off all the Leaves from Christ's Vine, as if they injured those Grapes which they overshadowed; whose moderation let us imitate, following after the things which make for peace. And nothing makes more for it than our hearing the Instructions of our Civil Father, Prov. i. 8. and not forsaking the Law of the Church our Mother. And here, were the Orator as good as the Cause, I should hope, with as much success as willingness, to plead for the Church of England, whose Doctrine and Discipline are a perfect Comment on this Text, a giving to God and Caesar their due; receiving as a rule of faith all the Articles of the Three Creeds, preserving to God his Worship entire, without the rivallings of Saints, or Angels, or the likeness of any thing above or below. Not invading or depressing the Offices of Christ by Lording it over his Heritage, or derogating from his Satisfaction, or Intercession, by owning any other Purgatory but that of his sufferings in this world, to secure us from those of the world to come. And therefore teaching us that no man can by Masses, Oblations, Pilgrimages, or works of Supererogation redeem his Brother, or pay to God a ransom for him. Psal. xlix. 7. And that the all-sufficient merits of Christ need not be Imped by ours, or those of men subject to like passions with ourselves. And therefore we look on Heaven not as wages, but as gift, yet are careful to maintain good works, Rom. vi. 23. as necessary to salvation, which is that Penny that is paid to none but those that labour: But when we have sowed in righteousness, Hos. x. 12. we hope to reap in mercy. We own but one Mediator between God and us; Nor can we think our better Moses needs any Aaron or Hur to support his hands, in that Mount above, whilst he intercedes for his Church that is militant here below. And therefore as we adore not what is left of the Saints here, so we sue not to what is ascended of them on high. Nor dare we give that worship to a dead Barnabas and Paul, Acts xiv. 11. which they refused when living. How can we call on them in whom we have not believed? We dare not vacate the Prophetical Office of Christ, by teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of men. We own such Traditions, as can prove their Pedigree to be truly ancient, not repugnant to Scripture, and to consist with Decency and Order. And that every National Church hath power to determine practice in things indifferent, and to bind to obedience for Conscience sake, Conscience of that duty that is owing to the fifth Commandment; But we follow not cunningly devised fables, while we have a more sure word of Prophecy. We receive the Sacraments in their due number, and order, and by the Font we pass to the Altar, for so we can call it, as its shewbread is a Commemorative Sacrifice, tendered not to God for us, but by him to us; and as at it we offer up ourselves to him once offered up for us in the Christian Sacrifices of a broken heart, a thankful tongue, a charitable hand, and an holy life. We have a Liturgy in a known tongue, that so we may pray with the understanding, and know to what we say Amen. And if we pray not with the spirit too (I mean not that of the gift of Tongues, but) of prayer and supplication, both Gods, and our own, it is our own fault that most excellent expressions are not attended with suitable affections. If our Common Prayer be a dead Letter, our hearts make it so; for no will warm the dead: And without the pouring out of the heart, the pouring out of words, extempore, or premeditated, is but the sacrifice of fools, and that whether a Pharisee lengthen, or Beads number it. And as we have the same appetite for our daily bread, we can in the same words beg it of him, who gives it, and hath given us a form wherein to ask it. And as our Church is conscientiously careful to avoid all offence toward God, so is she no less toward men. And although ground between the two Millstones of the Papist, censuring her as Schismatical, and the Schismatic condemning her as Papistical, yet disclaims the disloyal principles, and practices of both the Conclave and the Classes. Not affecting the title of cursed Cham, as he who will be called a servant of servants, Gen. ix. 29. yet like servants on horseback bring Princes to his foot, and exalts himself above all that are called Gods. Eccls x. 7. And if any pretending Protestants among us have done otherwise, they went out from us because they were not of us. We are taught not to hue out Reformation by the Sword, whose mouth is an ill Advocate for the truth. It is usually drawn in the quarrel of a Courtesan, but not of a chaste Wife. If any thing be amiss, we expect the amendment from those Powers that did at first orderly and authoritatively reform us, whose Supremacy in all Causes Civil and Ecclesiastical we humbly recognize, as exclusive of all Foreign Jurisdiction, without giving them what they claim not, the Administration of God's Word and Sacraments. And as our Church as a tender Mother denies not pardon to her Children even for wilful sins, committed after Baptism; so like a prudent Mother, she heals not their hurts slightly, by the palliate cures of easy Confession, and hasty Absolutions, on mere Attrition, or pecuniary Commutations, or slight corporal Penances. She approves of no sorrow but that godly one that worketh repentance never to be repent of: 2 Cor. seven. 10. Such tears as quench the fire of Lust, and such a Reformation as withdraws the fuel. We are so taught by her the tremendous mysteries of Predestination, and Election, as to steer evenly between the two equally dangerous rocks of Presumption and Despair. She imposeth not on her Ministers, or others, the hard yoke of Celibacy or single life, but teacheth them, and by them, Heb. xiii. 4. that Marriage is honourable among all, and the bed undefiled is true Chastity. That Continency is not, as Faith, Hope, Charity, Repentance, and Fear, common to all Christians, but peculiar to some, and is a gift that may be denied to them that ask it in Prayer, since where it is not, God hath by Matrimony provided a remedy. Nor doth she bind any to Poverty, and a Mendicant state, Prov. xxx. 8. which wise Agur did deprecate; as if that could be a blessing under the Gospel, which was a curse under the Law, to serve in the want of all things. Deu. xxviii. 48. She obligeth not by any Vows, Num. xxx. 7. but what are free, deliberate in things possible, and lawful, and with consent of Superiors. She deprives us not of half our Legacy in the New Testament of our dying Saviour, by entertaining us at a dry Communion, and denying us the Cup of blessing. Nor doth she rob us of all our reason, and the better half of our senses by the incredible Doctrine of Transubstantiation, that pregnant Mother of Errors, that would persuade us that is flesh, which we see, taste, and feel is a Wafer. That there are but the accidents of Bread, shape, and colour, and accidents without a subject; 1 Cor. xi. 26. whereas it is truly called bread as before, so after the Consecration. That with the same mouth we can make, and eat our God. First, change his glorious body into the likeness of our sinful ones, and then cast him out into the viler draught. That every loaf and bit shall be the whole man, and at the same time in so many several places: But it is not flesh and blood, Mat. v. 6. but righteousness that we hunger and thirst after, and have the blessing of satisfaction in. Yet we receive that Sacrament, not as a mere badge of our Profession but as a sign and seal of God's mercy to us, and of his grace thereby working in us, which grace depends not upon the worthy or unworthy qualifications of him that administers, but of them who receive that Sacrament. Which while we celebrate in remembrance of an absent Christ, we yet own a real presence of him who is every where: While we pray that we may so eat and drink, that our bodies may be cleansed by his body, and our souls washed by his most precious blood. And the whole office performed with as much respect as is required, or was practised by the Primitive Church, though we proceed not to a preserving, enshrining, procession with, and adoration of the Host, or any other elevation, but that of the lifting up of our hearts. And so let us ever lift them up in thankfulness to that God, who hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light, in a Church and under a Government old as Christianity itself, whose grey hairs are its Crown, Prov. xuj. 31. as found in a way of righteousness. It is called Heresy and Novelty, yet it is the good old way, wherein we worship the God of our Fathers; a righteous, though a dolorous way, as by which the King of Kings, and one of the best of Kings walked to their Cross: In this Profession died the true Defender of the Church in its ancient Faith, and fruitions; equally abhorring Sacrilege and Apostasy: Who by no Arts or force could be brought to subject her to parity or poverty, to gratify those who would have her go as naked out of the world, as she came into it. He took care not to have his nest fired by a coal snatched from God's Altar, earnestly praying that neither he, nor his might ever be accessary to it. And (God be thanked) he hath been hitherto heard in what he desired. Thus he was the most Christian King, by a better title than that to France, as purchased, not by his Subject's blood, but by his own: He was content to exchange a Crown of Gold for a Crown of Thorns, and for which he now wears a Crown of Glory. And may that Religion which such a Saviour founded in, and such a Sovereign sealed with his blood, be our Religion for ever. Amen and Amen. Application to the Occasion. AND now it is time to give you an instance of a fit Servant and Subject to such a Christ, and such a King: And you have one before you, that of our deceased Friend. He kept a Conscience void of offence toward God and toward man. To trace him as high as we can, he was of a generous Family, and therein the obedient Son of an obliging Father, and from thence he was the honest Servant of a good Master, and afterwards the kind Master of many Servants. But what is here most proper to consider him in, is his better Profession, that of a Christian, that of a Protestant: And herein he was a steady Professor, too well ballasted to be carried about by every (by any) wind of Doctrine, whether it blew from Rome, or Geneva. He lived to see Religion in its splendour, and its eclipse, and he equally loved it in both conditions, or if there was any difference, he exceeded in the latter. When those Vipers, who sucked the breasts of the Church, were ready to tear out her bowels, she took sanctuary in his house, and there frequently dealt out her bread of life in the Word and Sacrament, by many of her Fathers to many of her Children. There afflicted Loyalty had wherewithal to content it, for it had food, and raiment from thence. How many of the Lords Prophet did this good Obadiah refresh with something better than bread and water? 1 Kings xviii. 3. He was for many years very useful to this Parish, wherein there was nothing that he did disrelish more than dishonesty: He had a clear head to discern it, and a clean heart to abhor it. When his example could not allure men to a sincere, his strict justice would awe them into an outward honesty. Among those losses we sustained by the late dreadful sire, it was none of the least that it parted him and us; yet when he went from us he seemed still to be of us. We had (as of a setting Sun) somewhat of his head to enlighten us, and of his heart to warm us. And how open was his hand to repair this Church, when no longer his Church? So that should I be silent, Hab. two. 11. the stone in the wall, and the beam out of the timber would charge me with ingratitude: These speak his Epitaph, while the whole Fabric is his Monument. There are other Charities too, wherein I could be loud with a zeal for him according to knowledge, my own knowledge; but that he, who in all his good deeds sought God's glory, and not his own, hath thereby enjoined me silence. It was enough for him to do them, and then to leave it to God to reward them; and he did them with that humility, that he deemed he did not deserve the praise of men, much less that of God. His behaviour in the Royal Society of Apothecaries (for King James who made them a Company used to call them his Society) was such as gained him the applause and affections of all. They found enough, if not too much to imitate, nothing to condemn. It is not unknown to many of you that those public buildings too own much to his Care, and Charity. He was very Instrumental to rear them, out of their ashes, who is now dropped into his own, only with this difference, that he expects what they enjoy, to have his later state made better than his former. His last Scene of life was suitable to all the rest, a work of Charity; when hastening to God he took the Hospital of St. Bartholomew in his way. Hither the unanimous votes of the Governors, the panting desires of the Sick and Lame, with the importunate Letters of the ever Venerable Mr. Mills his Predecessor invited him. This good old man could not die, till satisfied he should survive himself in such a Successor; and then he sung his Nune Dimittis. And here our Friend enjoyed, if not the most honourable, yet the most advantageous employment, that is, advantageous to others, not to himself. For he did not sell, but give himself to good works. And here they had a Treasure in a Treasurer, a Treasure that is indeed in heaven * The Motto of his Mourning Ring. , no sooner showed to them than snatched from them. The Treasure is gone, and nothing but the earthen vessel remains, to show how poor we are; The Wife, in the loss of a most affectionate Husband; the Sick, of a Compassionate Father; the Company, of a loving Brother, and myself of a kind and constant Friend. For, give me leave to tell you, that had it not been for his and some others endeavours sixteen years ago in my behalf, I had not been now here, to give him this just testimony of my gratitude to his memory. And now farewell Pious Christian, Loyal Subject, Faithful Friend, Just Steward, and Good Samarican: yet we take no entire leave of thee, we take no leave of thy memory, that of the Just is ever blessed. The names of Mills, and Hinton can never die. We take no leave of thy life, we will endeavour to live like thee, that we may live with thee. We take but a short leave of thy body, Thou art going to the bottom of the Grave, and we are at the brink of it. We are all but awake for a while, and then we shall not sleep for ever. Christ shall change our vile bodies together, with thine, and make them like to his own most glorious body, according to that mighty working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself. When we shall hear what we hope, and believe thou hast already heard, even that comfortable invitation, and Commendation: Come ye blessed Children of my Father, receive the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world. You have been faithful in a few things, I will make you Rulers over many things, enter into the Joy of your Lord, for which he fit us, and to which he bring us through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth. Amen and Amen. FINIS.