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another text in all the Bible, as this is for this purpose. One man says, the government of the church of England is the best; another, that the Scottish government is the best; a third, that a third is best; another, Oh, that I knew what were the government and form of God's house, prescribed by God himself. Well. Wouldst thou know? "If you be ashamed of your own iniquities, God will shew you the form of his house."

It is with you also, right worthy and beloved, to see that all the ordinances of Jesus Christ, be rendered to the churches in their native beauty, and that all the relics, and remains of Babylon be quite removed. Opus marmoreum albario non indiget. True marble needs no painting. And God's ordinance is all marble, no chalk, True beauty needs no colouring; and the most deformed of God's ordinances to a gracious eye, is truly beautiful. Great is the pomp of God's ordinances, when freed from pomp, great is their glory when freed from ours. Every ordinance is then best administered, when it is most effectual, and a thing is most full of efficacy, when it is plenum sui, immixtum alieni. As wine or water which doth most cool, or cleanse when freed from mixtures.

In the primitive times when the heathen would put the christians to a cruel death, they tied a living man to a dead man, that so by the filthy savour, and stench of the dead carcase, they might poison the living man to death; this they counted the worst of death; the death of deaths. So when the dead ordinances of man's inventions, shall be tied to the living ordinances of God's appointment; what is this, but as much as in us lies to poison the living with the dead? But I pray tell me, what unkindness hath the good ordinance of Christ done to us, that we should put it to so sad a death. And as Christ said to the Jews, "I have done many good works amongst you, for which of all these do you take up stones against me? so may the ordinances of Christ say, Oh, ye people of England, I have done many good works among you; I have converted many of you by preaching to you; I have healed many of you that were sore bruised ; I have comforted many of you that were sore troubled; for which of all these do you use me thus unkindly; for which of all these do you thus tie and link me to that, which never

entered into the heart of God to match me with? What Luther says concerning preaching, that may I say, concerning all the ordinances of God. We that are ministers, saith he, think to take our people with our expressions, and if we light upon an expression that pleaseth us well, we think that it should convert every one that hears it from us; but when the auditor comes, et hominem olet, he smells man in the expression, turns his back upon it, and the whole vanisheth, and comes to nothing. The explication is plain and easy.

Wherefore, I beseech you, in Christ's stead, that are the heads of our tribes, that nothing be obtruded upon the churches of Christ; but what may clearly, and plainly have Jus divinum written and engraven upon it. Your wisdoms cannot but observe the several distractions that are both in church and common-wealth. If you analyze the distractions of the common-wealth, you may find thereby what is the head of our distractions in the church also. And in the common-wealth this is that which troubles, that proceedings are so illegal; Oh, says one, though it cost me never so much, yet if it were according to law, I would yield unto it. This is that which cuts so deep, says another, there is no law for these, and these courses: so in the church, I cannot yield to this, and that custom, this and that innovation, for there is no law for it.

But if a thing be indifferent, and authority command it, then Jus divinum is written upon it.

It is the wisdom of authority to preserve the churches in that liberty, wherein Christ hath left them, for authority is Tabularum custos, non author.

If a thing be indifferent in its own nature, and the doing thereof offensive to a weak brother, authority cannot write Jus divinum upon it; for to offend a weak brother is to destroy him, 1 Cor. viii. 11. And the destruction of a weak brother, is the breach of the moral law. Now we all know, that authority cannot write Jus divinum upon the breach of the moral law.

Solomon saith, Eccles. xii. 13, "Fear God, and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man." As God is an all-sufficient being for a man to live upon, so God's word is an all-sufficient rule for a man to live by. And if we look into Isa. xxx. 22, we shall find that God doth not

only command that the images themselves should be destroyed, but that "their coverings should be defiled." I remember what Master Dering said in a sermon before queen Elizabeth. There hath been much dust in the house, and though for the present the house be swept, yet the dust is but laid behind the door, and a hen will come that will spread it all abroad again. Wherefore, I beseech you take heed, that there be no dust left in the house of God in any corner. Give us the ordinances of Christ in their naked and own colours, so shall they be blest to us, we under them and you by them.

It is with you also to set up burning, and shining lights in every candlestick of the kingdom. First, that the candlestick be rightly fashioned; secondly, that the lights therein be duly settled with golden snuffers, not brazen extinguishers. This is a special help to the fall of Babylon, for ye heard from the context, that no sooner did there an angel fly through the midst of heaven with the everlasting gospel, that is, preaching openly; but another angel followed presently, crying, "Babylon is fallen." You know, that contraries have contrary consequences. Babylon was built by ignorance, therefore the papists say, Ignorance is the mother of devotion, and they say truly; for indeed ignorance is the mother of their devotion; therefore they use their friends, that the people may be put off with matins, and even-song, that so our ignorance might be an inlet to their devotion. Wherefore then let there be an angel sent, that is a ministry flying in the midst of heaven, that is openly, and not by stealth, preaching the eveslasting gospel to every place and congregation, then will Babylon fall, and fall immediately. These be your duties.

But it is exceeding hard and very difficult to do these: a perfect and full reformation is very good, and necessary, but exceeding hard and difficult.

True, but did not Abraham's sacrifice hang in the briars and bushes? Ye read that when Isaac should have been sacrificed, God provided a sacrifice, but that sacrifice did first hang in the briars. Ye are the children of Abraham, and if you would offer a sacrifice of God's own, a sacrifice that should be pleasing to him, make account that it must hang in the briars, bushes, and many difficulties.

The heathen could say, Virtue grows upon the rocks; and if the extirpation of Babylon, with the reformation of true religion, were not a hard work, it were not fit for a parliament to do. They are met to untie such knots as none else can untie. The heathen king said to a poor man, Though this gift be too great for you to receive, yet it is not too great for me to give. Either it is of God that you are assembled, or else it is not; if it be not why sit you here, if it be, can any thing be too hard for God? Wherefore, let your faith laugh in the face of difficulties. For as unbelief will make a thing difficult though never so easy, so faith will make a thing easy though never so difficult.

But this work is not only exceeding hard and difficult, but very dangerous. In great reformations there must be some alterations, and alterations cannot be without danger and trouble.

There is much difference between smart and danger. If a man have rotten and aching teeth in his head, though the pulling them out be exceeding troublesome, and full of ache, and smart even to bleeding of the gums, and vexation of all the body, yet there is no danger, much smart, but no danger. So in regard of the church and common-wealth, though the pulling out of some rotten members may cause a bleeding, make trouble, and some disturbance, yet there is no danger, some ache, but no danger.

Many things seem to be dangerous at a distance, that are not so at hand. When Moses' rod was at a distance from him, it was turned to a serpent, and he fled from it; but when he took it by the tail at God's command, it was his rod in his hand again. Prisons, banishments, miseries, at a distance are serpents to us; when we come to them, are exceeding comfortable, and our rods in our hands.

Suppose there were danger in a reformation, and extirpation of all that is Babylon's, yet there is more danger in want of reformation. Vomiting physic is very troublesome, but disease more. He that ventures against Babylon, at the worst can but lose his life, which may be taken away by the fall of some tile, or the turning of some humour in our body; but he that partakes with Babylon in her sin, shall partake with her in her plagues and punishments to all eternity. What a trouble did Achan cause, yet he was but

one man, his act one, and the Babylonish garment but one. Oh what trouble will it be then to suffer many Achans, and that continually? Augustine says, that when the Jews would not acknowledge Christ, lest the Romans should come, and take their place, in preventing loss, they lost most. They would not lose their earth, and they lost their heaven; they would not lose their place, and they lost their God.

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But suppose that there were the most danger in the best reformation, is there not enough in heaven to pay for all? Nay, my beloved, even on this side heaven, there is no loss by Christ in losing for Christ; non habendo habemus, in not having, we have. I remember what was written of fortis Zisca, and, as my author says, written upon his tomb in his epitaph, thus, Eleven times in joining battle, I went victor out of the field, I seemed worthily to have defended the cause of the miserable and hungry, against the delicate, fat, and gluttonous priests, and for that cause to have received help at the hand of God. Mark the emphasis, it lies there, And for that cause. But ye have an example of Jehoshaphat, which is exceeding full, and much encouraging, 2 Chron. xvii. 3, "And the Lord was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the first ways of his father David." He brought up reformation to the first institution, and he was full therein, for it is said, " he walked in the first ways," not in the last, "of his father David," and sought not to Baalim, "Nor after the doings of Israel," verse 4. And see what followed, "Therefore the Lord established the kingdom in his hand, and all Judah brought to Jehoshaphat presents, and he had riches, and honour in abundance," verse 5. The prophet Haggai is most express, and bids them compute, whether that from the very day that they set their hands to the building of the temple, God did not build them up in outward mercies. Certainly, my beloved, the only way to gain, is to lose for God. It is a greater mercy to have, that I may lose for God, than that I may keep for my posterity.

But suppose that a man be in place of authority, and find that his heart is exceeding dull and dead, and backward to this work of reformation, what should he do that may give wings to his affections, that may move and quicken up his spirit in this particular?

In this case let him put himself upon the exercise of his

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