Of Resisting the Lawful Magistrate Under Color of Religion, Part 3
Of taking up the Crosse.
MAny places of the New Testament there are that require this duty of a Christian, (of which I thinke I may truly say, that 'tis a duty never so much as in kinde required before by God in the Old Testament, nor by the lawes of nature, or Canons of any other Religion, and so a peculiar Christian duty) the chiefe places are these, Matth. 16. 24. If any man will come after me, let him deny himselfe and takeup his Crosse, &c. and in the same words in the parallel places, Mark 8. 34. and Luk. 9. 23. So againe, to him who desired to be put in a course by Christ to inherit eternall life, Mark. 10. 21. in the close, Come, take up the Crosse, and follow me. In all these places 'tis a duty of plaine command; yet somewhat farther, Mat. 10. 38. He that taketh not his Crosse and followeth not after me, is not worthy of me: and in Luk. 14. 27. the words are most punctuall, and of unlimited extent, from whence 'twill be hard for any man to obtaine any dispensation, or excuse, foreign—whosoever doth not beare his Crosse and come after me, cannot be my Disciple. No man will be exempted from the foreign—and no Christian it seemes can be without it; for that is the meaning of [my Disciple,] not onelyonly those peculiar twelve of his, and their successours in the Ministry, for that Relation belongs to them, considered under another notion, as Apostles sent out after by Christ, answerable to the foreign among the Jewes under the Temple, but the disciples are all true followers of Christ, all sincere Christians, and so the doctrine is most plaine, that whosoever doth not beare (which as from those other former places appeares, implyes a taking up) the Crosse of Christ, cannot be a true Christian.
Now the foreign, taking up the Crosse, will be easily explain'd what it's full importance extends to, the voluntary embracing of shame, contumely, (for the Crosse was a contumelious death Heb. 12. 2.) and consequently all other losse of goods, liberty, &c. and beyond that, paine of body and death it selfe: which are said, to be taken up, not when we bring them unnecessarily upon our owne shoulders, (for that is to pull the Crosse upon us) but when by the providence of God they are laid, or permitted to lye in our way to Christ, or Christian obedience, so that we cannot serve Christ perfectly, but it must become detriment or dammage to us, then voluntarily to undergoe that detriment, whatever it is, is to take up the Crosse; and patiently and cheerfully to beare it, is foreign, to carry or beare the Crosse of Christ, which is the duty, without which a man cannot be a Christian.
There is now one thing to be a little more punctually considered, the strict and neere dependance and connexion betwixt Christianity and the Crosse; and that from the pleasure and providence of God, and dispensation of things under the Gospell, so ordering it generally that we should not serve the Lord our God of that that costs us nothing, but that true Christian piety should bring endurances and sufferings upon us. Thus it is plaine it did to Christ our elder brother; the discharge of the office he had undertaken, brought him to the Crosse, and that Crosse was the onelyonly way to his consecration to the office of high Priest, to which at his resurrection he was inaugurate; vid. Heb. 2. 10. it became him, &c. i. e. God foreign (not in bringing, but) bringing, (or being about that most gratious and mighty designe of bringing) many sonnes unto glory, foreign by sufferings to consecrate or inaugurate, (for so foreign critically signifies, being the word solemnely used by the Septuagint to signifie the legall consecration of the Priests under the Law) the captaine of our salvation, that is Christ, who foreign, being so consecrated, became the author of eternall salvation, &c. Heb. 5. 9. From hence, without more places it would follow, that we Christians are to expect our foreign (whether consecration to our foreign our dignity of being Kings and Priests, i. e. Christians here; or consummation and crowning hereafter, as foreign also signifies (foreign. Nyss.) by the same method and means that our captain had his, which is foreign by sufferings: which course of divine Oeconomy is so generall and without exception, (2 Tim. 3. 12. yea, and all that will be godly in this world, foreign, shall be persecuted) that Heb. 12. 6, 7, 8. the words are very remarkeable, Whom God loveth, he chastneth, and scourgeth every sonne whom he receiveth, if you endure chastning, God dealeth with you as with sonnes, for what sonne is he whom the father chastneth not? But if you be without chastisement whereof all are partakers, then are you bastards, and not sonnes. Words of a large unlimited latitude, which I cannot discerne any way in the world to soften, so as they may be supportable to him, that (as the Psalmist saith) hath no changes, hath enjoyed an age of an uninterrupted continued prosperity, without ever having the Crosse on his shoulders. I confesse I would faine finde out some foreign or mollifying distinction, as that of the animus martyris, the preparation to suffer, though God never send occasion, that that might suffice for his qualification, who hath no other, but sure that will not be able to allay or take off the force of [and chastneth every sonne, &c.] and if yee be without, not onelyonly if you be not prepared to beare, but if you be without chastisement, then are you bastards, &c. which when it is set downe as an aphorisme of divine observation under the Kingdome of Christ, an Axiome of Gods Gospell-providence, there will be no safety in disputing or labouring to avoyd the literall importance of it. To that purpose I conceive those words tend Rom. 8. 28. where to prove the conclusion premised, vers. 28. that all things tend to the good of them that love God, (and what those all things are, is specified, vers. 35. tribulation, distresse, persecution, famine, nakednesse, danger, sword,) the Apostle thus argues: From whom he hath foreknown, i. e, fore-appointed, the lovers of God premised, those he hath also predestin'd to be conformable to to the image of his Sonne, i. e. in suffering; and whom hee hath predestined, those he hath also called; to wit, to that conformity to which he hath predestined them, (as 1 Pet. 2. 21. the phrase is used, foreign, for to this ye were called, i. e. to this suffering as Christ did, and c. 3. 9. ye are thereunto called, that you should inherit foreign, blessing (not as we render it, a blessing) i. e. that yee should blesse enemies as Christ did, and so inherit that exemplary grace of his, which as a grace may as properly be said to be inherited; thus the context seemes to inforce it [not rendring evill for evill, but blessing, knowing that you are thereunto called, that you should inherit blessing, &c. i. e. possesse that grace after him, so eminently discernible in him.] And whom hee hath thus called, he justified and glorified. Where the first and second proposition must be acknowledged universall, that all whom he hath foreknowne, all lovers of God, are thus predestined, and all that are predestined, called (by their very title or profession of Christians) to this conformity with Christ in sufferings. Adde to these 1 Pet. 4. 18. if the righteous hardly be saved; which must be understood by the sense of the Hebrew phrase, Prov. 11. 30. rendred by the 72. foreign, and here retained by Saint Peter, and then the sense will be [and if the righteous be recompenced, i. e. by an Hebraisme, punisht in the earth, &c. or more literally to the Greeke, If he escape hardly or with difficulty.] (as 1 Cor. 3. 15. foreign, he shall bee mulcted or suffer losse, but shall escape) which interpretation the former verse in Saint Peter, confirmes [foreign] for it is the season of that act of divine dispensation, viz. of judgements beginning from the house of God, i. e. of Gods inflicting judgements of this life (which are the beginning or first part (foreign as it followes) of Gods retribution for sinne) on the Godly] which signifies that the state of the Gospell, is that season, though the Law was not: and to the same purpose, the verse following also, foreign &c. They that suffer according to the will of God, It seemes by all put together, that the foreign [scarcely saved] is spoken of suffering, and the will or providence of God is that that disposes it so, and so the conclusion from thence is cleare, and universall. The righteous shall be punisht in the earth. 'Tis true indeed, under the Old-Testament we finde not any such oeconomy, but promises of a long and happy life, in a temporall Canaan to the obedient servants of God, (though sometimes, God was pleased to interpose some variety in this kind, many troubles of the righteous in Davids time) but under the Gospell 'tis quite contrary, even those duties which are promised a reward on this earth, as mercifulnesse or almesgiving, are yet to expect the payment of this reward with some mixture (like Homers good cup powred out alwayes with a dash of the bad) the hundred-fold which such men are promised to receive foreign - in this time, this first inferiour harvest of retributions, though they be secular blessings, houses, and lands, &c. yet must they be with persecutions, Mark. 10. 30. Which particular though neither S. Matthew nor S. Luke records, yet S. Peter (who had most reason punctually to observe those words of Christ, being an answer directed to a question of his proposing, as all the three Evangelists acknowledge) remembred them, and so we finde them in S. Markes Gospell, which is resolved to have been dictated by Saint Peter.
Having thus farre in the passage briefly pointed at this piece of Gospel-Providence, 'twill not be amisse as briefly to guesse at the ends of this divine Oeconomy. 1. To administer occasion of the practice and exercise of many Christian duties, and graces, as of patience, meeknesse, waiting on Christ, of loving our enemies, of the foreign the non-resisting evill, we render it, or not using any violence against him that molests us, (rendring [foreign] of the Person, &c.) which if we have in seed or habit, 'tis certainly a great felicity to us, to meet with oportunities to actuate them, both inrespect of the evidencing the sincerity of them to God, to our brethren, to our own soules; and in respect of that reward, or Crowne promised, the great degree of glory, Math. 5. 12. that is proportioned to the foreign according to his worke, Psal. 62. 12. 2 Cor. 5. 10. foreign according to the nature and number of the Acts, or operations of those gifts or graces, as on the other side, a greater portion of the Torments of hell is allotted to the more multiplyed acts of wilfull winne. 2 To helpe to mortifie any remainders of sinne in us, which by continued prosperity are ready and apt to take root, and reflourish in us. 3 To assimilate, or make us like to Christ, to conforme us to the image of his son, Rom. 8. 29. that is the image of the crucified Saviour, as was said, that he might be the first borne of many brethren, that is, might have a Church or family, a multitude of brethren like himselfe, all sufferers as he was. 4 That our sins being punished here, there might remain no arreare to be paid in another world; having had all our Purgatory here, there might remain nothing but heaven hereafter; which the Apostle expresseth 1 Cor. 11. 32. We are chastned of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the World: to which Father Abraham referres Luke 16. 25. Lazarus received his evill things in this life time, and now he is comforted.
These and such like being the designes of this act of Gods Gospell-Providence; It is next observable what a character the Spirit of God sets upon the Crosse, i. e. Tribulation or affliction here, that it is the happiest, blessedest estate, the most comfortable joyfull condition that a Christian can meete with. This riddle and paradox, or prodigy to carnall reason, is become the most ordinary beaten acknowledged truth in the new Testament. 'Tis the close of the beatitudes, in that institution of Christians, the Sermon in the mount, Matth. 5. 10. Blessed are they that are persecuted, and vers. 11. reviled: and the exhortation in this case foreign rejoyce, and be exceeding glad, so Luke 6. 22. (which there is some reason to thinke was spoken by Christ at another time) blessed are you when men shall hate you, and separate you, and reproach you, and cast you out, &c. foreign, rejoyce ye in that day, and leape for joy, &c. Saint Paul had learnt this, Col. 1. 24. who now rejoyce in my sufferings, yea, and glory too. 2 Cor. 11. 30. 12. 5. 9. Saint James his exhortation is remarkable in the front of his Ep. 1. 2. My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers Temptations, foreign, all joy; i. e. The most joyous accident possible, and vers. 12. blessed is the man that endureth Temptation, &c. & cap. 5. 11. foreign, behold we count them happy, wee render it; it signifies more; behold we account them as a kinde of Saints in Heaven, (for so foreign usually signifies) and Aristotle speaking of some heroicall super-humane excellencies, foreign, saith he, foreign) it seemes that of suffering, a most blessed condition. To these adde Saint Peter, 1. Ep. 3. 15. but sanctifie the Lord God in your hearts; where the word foreign is to sanctifie, as that is all one with glorifying, or hallowing, or praising; a consequent of the generall rule, verse 14. if ye suffer for righteousnesse sake, happy are yee; and perfectly opposite to [being afraid of their terror, and being troubled,] in the end of that vers. and so is an expression of this duty of praising, thanking, blessing God for our sufferings in this life. So againe, 1 Ep. 4. 13. foreign, vers. 12. be not frighted or stricken, &c. but rejoyce in as much as you are partakers of Christs sufferings, and vers. 14. If yee be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you, &c. and vers. 16. If any suffer as a Christian (not as a murtherer, a thiefe, an evill doer, a busie-body in other mens matters, vers. 15. no great joy or comfort in any of those sufferings) let him not be ashamed but let him glorifie God on this behalfe, foreign, that it is the season for judgement to begin, or of judgements beginning, at the house of God, as hath beene explained; 'tis seasonable that the foreign, the first part of Gods foreign; retribution to sinne, that which is in this life, should befall the house of God, Christians, and the most obedient of them; and being so, this is matter of rejoycing, and glorifying God. Other places ye will observe easily to the same purpose, let these for the present suffice, to soften this carnall paradox.
But now having proceeded thus far in a matter, to him that is conversant in the new Testament, so obvious and vulgar, that I shall presume it matter of wonder to him, what should move me to so superfluous and unnecessary an undertaking; I must now take confidence to proceed to that which Arrian cals the foreign, the applying of foreign known and granted principles, to particular persons, or cases, or practices. For therein as that excellent Philosopher observes, consists the ground and beginning of all strife and difficulty, and difference betwixt men; no man having any considerable Temptation, to keep him from consenting to the truth of a generall proposition sufficiently assert, as long as he appeares not concern'd in it, and yet every man almost having some irreconcileable quarrell to it, when his actions are required to be ruled by it; hence is it, that the speculative part of knowledge, is farre easier then the practicall; and as Aristotle saith, the Mathematicks which are the most abstruse Science, are most easie to be learnt by a young man, or a dissolute, of any the most untamed affections, so he have but an ordinary naturall capacity, (and 'tis evident by his Organon, that he supposed children to have learnt Geometry before they came to Logicke) whereas of the precepts of Morality, such are utterly uncapable foreign: they can recite them by rote, but beleeve not a word of them.
I wish it were now uncharitable to affirme the same, of many that have taken upon them, to be the best, and most reforming Christians amongst us; that it continued still to be but our jealousie, what is now proved our sense, that some of those who have hitherto been admired for our strictest Christians, have at length confest themselves farthest from the merit, and true desert of that title, if the doctrine of the crosse which hitherto we have laid down for acknowledged truth, doe not at last prove a fable.
The Apostle Phil. 3. 18. tels us even weeping, that there are many walkers, (I thinke he meanes by that phrase foreign, Christian professors) whom judging by their actions, he cannot chuse but call foreign, (of whom it seemes he had oft admonished them, foreign) enemies of the Crosse of Christ; what those were in the Apostles time will not be pertinent now to examine, I shall onelyonly with a sad heart (not desiring to judge my brother, but if it were possible, to direct him to prejudge, or at least examine himselfe, and so either anticipate and prevent, or else prepare himselfe to approach with confidence Gods judgement, and withall, to helpe undeceive others whom we finde ductile to some moderne sinnes, much-what upon that dangerous prepossession which the Apostle cals having mens persons in admiration) make these few quaere's, and leave every mans owne soule to answer them.
1. Supposing our grounds layd to be true, I demand whether it be the temper of a true Christian, and not rather of an enemy of the Crosse of Christ, instead of rejoycing, to repine and murmure under the Crosse, and evidence that by speaking evill of those powers who have layd it on our shoulders?
2. To be more refractary after such sufferings, (instead of being more meek and more humble) more violent in matters of indifferency, (by our own continued practice acknowledged to be so in our account, till after such sufferings our judgements or rather our practice altered) and more resolv'd not to yeeld obedience in them, then before we thought our selves bound to be.
3. To plot and project, and to that purpose to hold correspondence with other men, (whom we conceive already moved with discontents, or our selves have labour'd so to move) to find out the most probable way of delivering us from the Crosse, whatsoever that way be, beside our addresses to God in prayer to remove it, if he see it best for us in all respects.
4. To make use of any meanes to this purpose, which wee are not assured is administred and offered unto us by God, of which wee can no way possibly be assured, but by the evident goodnesse and justifiablenesse, at least, lawfulnesse in all respects of that meanes which we thus designe to make use of.
5. To move or stirre the quiet and peace of one or more Kingdoms, (though not principally, yet collaterally, or at all) in this contemplation, that we shall get the Crosse off from our own shoulders, come to a more prosperous condition, yea, though it be but to a more peaceable enjoying of our manner of Religion, then hitherto we have attained to.
6. To venture on, and (though not primarily to designe, if it may be done without it, yet if it may not, then secondarily and consequently) to resolve on the shedding of any one mans bloud, which wee know would not otherwise be shed, especially if it proceed further, to the waging or but occasioning of a warre, in which (whether offensive or defensive on our parts) it cannot be hoped but a great effusion of Christian and Protestant bloud will follow.
7. To attempt or desire the removing of the Land-marks, the altering of the Government of Church and State, the working of any considerable change in either, (which wee can have no revelation to assure us may not prove authour of some inconvenience which wee fore-see not) the better to secure our selves or others, that the Crosse shall not returne to our shoulders again.
8. To thinke it just and reasonable (and our selves injur'd if it be not so) that wee should have the greater portion of secular dignities for the future, in regard of some former sufferings of ours; which if it should befall us, would be parallel to that curse, Mat. 6. mercedem habent, they have their reward, in this life.
9. To endeavour to lay this Crosse on other mens shoulders, of which wee have freed our own, whether those other men be such as were not guilty of our former sufferings, but perhaps pitied and mourned, and prayed for us, (for that were rewarding good with evill) or whether they be our greatest persecuters, (for that will be rendring evill for evill) most perfectly contrary to Christs doctrine, Mat. 6. 44. Rom. 12, 17, 19, 20, 21.
Secondly, supposing things to be as now they are in this Kingdome, my Question is, First, Whether we have no great reason to beleeve, that (the doctrine of the Crosse being not so well laid to heart by those who three yeares since conceived themselves the principall Schollers in that Schoole) God is now pleased to call another sort of men into that forme, to try whether they will prove better proficients then their predecessours have done. Secondly, Whether those on whom that lot is now falne, be not most eminently bound to glorifie God in this behalfe, 1 Pet. 4. 16. Thirdly, Whether by the experience of other mens failings in this kind, they have not reason to be earnest in prayer to God, and diligent in using and improving all Gods directions, for the due Christian discharging of so glorious, and withall, so difficult a task; that when they are proved to the utmost, are brought forth to resist to bloud, they may be found faithfull. Fourthly, Whether the obtaining of this grace from God be not more highly conducible to every mans owne individuall interests, then the removing of the Crosse from us, though wrought most directly, and by meanes administred undoubtedly by God himselfe. Fifthly, Whether it can become a Christian to make use of any meanes which he is not on sure grounds satisfied to be purely and perfectly lawfull (i. e. agreeable first to the Gospel-rule of obedience to Christ in every particular, and second to the lawfull commands, of our undoubted Superiours, not contradicted by any law or power higher then they) to get now either totally or in part from this Crosse, i. e. from any pressure which in the discharge of a good conscience God shall permit to fall on any of us.
When every man in this broken State and Church, most sadly militant, of what perswasions soever hee be, hath laid the severall parts of these two Quaeries to his heart, and examined himselfe by them, (which truly I should not have laid thus plainly before him, had I had any other thought or aime, but this one of making it impossible for him to be blinde in judging himselfe) I shall hope hee will pardon his Monitor, and save this paper the labour of proceeding further to beare witnesse against him at any other tribunall then this of his owne conscience.
The Lord prosper this short discourse to the end to which it is designed.