SERM. of princes, of nobles, of bishops and priests!) what miserLVII. able oppreffions, extortions, and rapines! what execrable feditions and rebellions! what barbarous animofities and feuds! what abominable treafons, facrileges, perjuries, blafphemies! what horrible violations of all juftice and honesty! And what, I pray, was the source of these things? where did they begin? where but at murmuring against, at rejecting, at perfecuting the spiritual governors, at casting down and trampling on their authority, at flighting and spurning at their advice? Surely would men have obferved the laws, or have hearkened to the counfels of those grave and fober persons, whom God had appointed to direct them, they never would have run into the commiffion of fuch enormities. It is not to be omitted, that, in the present state of things, the guilt of difobedience to fpiritual governors is increased and aggravated by the fupervenient guilt of another disobedience to the laws of our prince and country. Before the fecular powers (unto whom God hath committed the dispensation of justice, with the maintenance of peace and order, in reference to worldly affairs) did submit to our Lord, and became nursing parents of the Church, the power of managing ecclefiaftical matters did wholly refide in fpiritual guides; unto whom Chriftians, as the peculiar fubjects of God, were obliged willingly to yield obedience; and refusing it, were guilty before God of spiritual disorder, faction, or schism: but now, after that political authority (out of pious zeal for God's fervice, out of a wife care to prevent the influences of disorder in fpiritual matters upon the temporal peace, out of grateful return for the advantages the commonwealth enjoyeth from religion and the Church) hath pleased to back and fortify the laws of fpiritual governors by civil fanctions, the knot of our obligation is tied faster, its force is redoubled, we by disobedience incur a double guilt, and offend God two ways, both as fupreme governor of the world, and as king of the Church; to our schifm against the Church we add rebellion against our prince, and fo become no lefs bad citizens than bad Christians. Some may perhaps imagine their difobedience SERM. hence more excufable, taking themselves now only thereby to tranfgrefs a political fanction: but (befide that even that were a great offence, the command of our temporal governors being fufficient, out of confcience to God's exprefs will, to oblige us in all things not evidently repugnant to God's law) it is a great mistake to think the civil law doth anywife derogate from the ecclefiaftical; that doth not fwallow this up, but fuccoureth and corroborateth it; their concurrence yieldeth an acceffion of weight and strength to each; they do not by conspiring to prescribe the fame thing either of them cease to be governors, as to right; but in efficacy the authority of both fhould thence be augmented, seeing the obligation to obedience is multiplied upon their subjects; and to disobey them is now two crimes, which otherwise fhould be but one. SERMON LVIII. OF OBEDIENCE TO OUR SPIRITUAL GUIDES HEB. Xiii. 17. Obey them that have the rule over you. SERM. SUCH is the nature of this duty, and such are the reaLVIII. fons enforcing the practice thereof: I fhall only farther 25. remove two impediments of that practice, and fo leave this point. 1. One hindrance of obedience is this, that fpiritual power is not defpotical or compulsory, but parental or paftoral; that it hath no external force to abet it, or to Matt. xx. avenge disobedience to its laws: they must not xaτežovLuke xxii. σágav, or xaтaxuρiɛúav, (be imperious, or domineer,) they are not allowed to exercife violence, or to inflict bodily correction a; but must rule in meek and gentle ways, directly influential upon the mind and confcience, (ways of 2 Tim. ii. rational perfuafion, exhortation, admonition, reproof,) in 1Tim, iii. 3. meekness inftructing those that oppose themselves;-con 26. 1 Pet. v. 3. 25. iv. 2. vincing, rebuking, exhorting with all longfuffering and doctrine; their word is their only weapon, their force of argument all the constraint they apply: hence men commonly do not stand in awe of them, nor are fo fenfible of • Μάλισα γὰρ ἁπάντων Χρισιανοῖς οὐκ ἐφεῖται πρὸς βίαν ἐπανορθοῦν τὰ τῶν äμagravóvтwv Traíoμara, &c. Chryf. de Sacerd. 2. ̓Ενταῦθε οὐ βιαζόμενον, ἀλλὰ πείθοντα δεῖ ποιεῖν ἀμείνω τὸν τοιοῦτον. lbid. their obligation to obey them; they cannot understand SERM. why they should be frighted by words, or controlled by LVIII. an unarmed authority. But this in truth (things being duly confidered) is fo far from diminishing our obligation, or arguing the authority of our governors to be weak and precarious, that it rendereth our obligation much greater, and their authority more dreadful; for the sweeter and gentler their way of governing is, the more difingenuous and unworthy a thing it is to disobey it; not to be perfuaded by reafon, not to be allured by kindness, not to admit friendly advice, not to comply with the calmeft methods of furthering our own good, is a brutish thing; he that only can be scared and fcourged to duty, scarce deserveth the name of a man: it therefore doth the more oblige us, that in this way we are moved to action by love rather than fear. Yet if we would fear wifely and juftly, (not like children, being frighted with formidable shapes and appearances, but like men, apprehending the real confequences of things,) we fhould the more fear these fpiritual powers, because they are infenfible for that God hath commanded us to obey them, without affigning vifible forces to conftrain or chaftife, is a manifeft argument that he hath referved the vindication of their authority to his own hand, which therefore will be infallibly certain, and terribly fevere; so the nature of the cafe requireth, and fo God hath declared it fhall be: the fentence that is Matt. xviii. upon earth pronounced by his minifters upon contumacious offenders, he hath declared himself ready to ratify in heaven, and therefore most affuredly will execute it. As under the old law God appointed to the tranfgreffion of fome laws, upon which he laid special stress, the punifhment of being cut off from his people; the execution of which punishment he reserved to himself, to be accomplished in his own way and time; fo doth he now in like manner take upon him to maintain the cause of his minifters, and to execute the judgments decreed by them; and if fo, we may confider that it is a dreadful thing to Heb. x. 31. fall into the hands of the living God. Ecclefiaftical autho 18. SERM. rity therefore is not a fhadow, void of fubftance or force, LVIII. but hath the greatest power in the world to support and Spiritali gladio fuperbi et contuma ces necan affert it; it hath arms to maintain it most effectual and 2 Cor. x. 4. forcible, (thofe of which St. Paul faith; The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God,-) it inflicteth chastisements far more dreadful than any fecular power can inflict; for these only touch the body, those pierce the foul; these concern only our temporal state, those reach eternity itself; these at most yield a transitory fmart, or kill the body, those produce endless torment, and (utterly as to all comfort in being) destroy the soul. The punishment for extreme contumacy is called delivery to Satan; and is not this far worse than to be put into the hands of any gaoler or hangman? what are any cords of hemp or fetters of iron in comparison to those de ecclefia bands, of which it is faid, Whatever ye bind on earth, fhall be bound in heaven; which engage the foul in a guilt never to be loofed, except by fore contrition and serious repentance? what are any fcourges to St. Paul's rod, lashing the heart and confcience with ftinging remorse? what any axes or falchions to that fword of the Spirit, which cutteth off a member from the body of Chrift? what are any fagots and torches to that unquenchable fire and brimftone of the infernal lake? what, in fine, doth any condemnation here fignify to that horrible curfe, which devoteth an incorrigible foul to the bottomlefs pit? tur, dum ejiciuntur. Cypr. Ep. 61. It is therefore indeed a great advantage to this power that it is fpiritual. 2. Another grand obstruction to the practice of this duty is, pretence to scruple about the lawfulness, or diffatisfaction in the expedience of that which our governors prescribe; that we are able to advance objections against their decrees; that we can efpy inconveniences enfuing Cypr. Ep. upon their orders; that we imagine the conftitution may be 50. 52. (p. reformed, fo as to become more pure, more convenient and 97.) comely, more ferviceable to edification; that we cannot fancy that to be best, which they enjoin: for removing this obstruction let me only propound some questions. |