Thomas Manton · 56 of 67

Meat Out of the Eater. · Part 2

[2.] Because God will show you a point of divine skill, to make poison become your preservative, and your ruin your establishment; he will unite you by your divisions, gather you by your own scatterings. Judas’s treason was called felix scelus, a happy wickedness, because it occasioned Christ’s death. Many times God maketh contentions happy in their issue and result, and though for the present their influence is very deadly to religion, yet their effect is confirmation to the truth, and, in the end, God’s people are brought more firmly and sweetly to close with one another and their God. The noise of axe and hammers doth but square stones for the temple, that they may lie the more evenly in the buildings. Usually we find that religious controversies (like the knocking of flints) yield more light, and, by the providence of God, occasion more sincere love. Before we had but a negative affection to truth, and might rather be said not to hate than to love it. Every vulgar and low spirit will love truth when it is honoured and advantaged with common consent: true affections are ravished with the beauty of truth, and have some positive ground for which they can love truths; yea, and the more when they are suspected and questioned, for then they shine with the greater lustre, as being able to endure contradiction, and as being more strongly vindicated and asserted. Thus, you know, trees shaken are the more firmly rooted, and dislocated joints, if well set again, prove the stronger, as in the point of assurance. After doubtings, the soul doth most sweetly and closely repose itself in the bosom of Christ, so outwardly the more smoke there is in the temple, the greater glory afterward. In times of common consent men keep together as those that are bound with a chain; but in times of difference and dissenting, God’s people are at one with God and one another upon higher motives, and love truth for its own sake, it being, as I said, more cleared and vindicated. I have often wondered at that inference of the people of God, Micah iv. 5, ‘All people will every one of them walk in the name of his God, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever.’ That which is a scandal to the world, is to them a motive and engagement to firmness in the truth and union with one another. There are different ways and persuasions in the world, therefore let us the more cleave together in the right way; the variety that was abroad made them more at one. So at that of David, Ps. cxix. 126, 127, ‘They have made void thy law, therefore do I love thy commandments above gold.’ When the ways of God are questioned, nay, disannulled, exploded with contempt and scorn, the more precious to a gracious heart: therefore do I love them, saith David; that was the very motive of his affection, ver. 127.

[3.] Because God loveth to bestow blessings when the creatures most want them, to give them the greatest unity after the greatest distractions, that their blessings may be according to the rate and degree of their miseries and abasement. God, I say, loveth to make ‘consolations abound,’ 2 Cor. i. 5, in the very degree of sufferings, and therefore you may bear up in the greatest breaches. When God meant them Canaan, he would first give them enough of the wilderness, enough to carry some proportion with the future happiness: Deut. ii. 3, ‘Ye have compassed this mountain long enough, turn you northward.’ They had been thirty-nine years compassing Mount Seir; it might have been done in so many weeks or days, but the pillar of the cloud never went before them till now. God may make you fetch compass enough about this mountain, keep you in the wilderness of distractions, ere you can see providence before you leading of you into better times. You shall see the people of God in the wilderness did plead the equity of this rule and course of heaven: Ps. xc. 15, ‘Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil.’ It was the prayer of Moses in the desert, let Canaan countervail the wilderness. The longer in the distractions, the more abundance of honey and milk shall we find in that good land, more Sowings of grace, larger discoveries of the mind of God.

Well, then, be sensible of the evil of the times, but with comfort in the Lord, and hope in the promises.

Object. But you will say, These are generals that concern the whole church: especially at such a season, what do you say to our distempers and distractions?

Sol. Though the part followeth the reason of the whole, and God’s dispensations are alike to both the catholic and particular churches, so that what is said of the whole may be applied to a part, as many times, on the contrary, promises made to particular persons are reputed as catholic and of a more universal use, and so applied to the whole, yet I shall speak a little more expressly to our own case.

Much may be spoken in this matter about the cause and cure of our distempers, the danger of the times and the hopes. But because this would engage to too large a digression, and the discourse will rather be managed and carried on by rational conjectures than sure and theological grounds, therefore I shall wait for a more convenient season, and but a little touch upon matters that otherwise would challenge an accurate discussion.

None can be ignorant of the state of the times,—that a spirit of division and delusion is let loose and gone abroad amongst us, so that the pillars of religion are shaken, the most concerning truths questioned, nay, exploded with scorn and contempt; great agitations there are everywhere, and God only knoweth whereunto they will grow. It is a thing of great advantage and benefit to us to consider the ground and rise of our distempers, and what is the special genius of that spirit of error that worketh amongst us, and so possibly we may come to conceive some hope of the allaying and removal of it. Divers concurring causes there are that help to beget, conceive, bring forth, and midwife such foul productions into the world, and therefore, before I touch upon the hopes, I shall a little reflect upon the rise and growth of our dissentiency and division, and how it came to be thus with us as now it is. We may let pass the general causes, viz., God’s providence, who usually maketh the morning of a glorious day misty and dark; Satan’s malice, who, when his own holds are shaken, loveth to ruin all the world together with himself; the corruptions of embased nature, by which the heart is either weak, and so apt to prostitute itself to the grossest fancies if left by God, or wicked, and so naturally opposite to the truths of God, very willing to blot out those impressions and that sense that we have of them. I say, if we let pass these general causes, we shall find upon an inquiry that thus our evils grew upon us: First, they were hatched by the ignorance, iniquity, and violence of the former times (when things are very bad, men are apt to fly out into the contrary extremities), and began to break out upon this great change, which the former corruptions did even necessitate and enforce; as usually, you know, great and violent changes occasion great tumults, ill humours in the body discover themselves upon a strain. When God changed his own ordinances, erroneous spirits were busy; I mean, in the first times of the gospel. When a people begin to innovate, it is a hard matter to keep them within the bounds of any moderation; and, therefore, it is the policy of the church of Rome to change nothing, ne videatur errasse; reformations are very perilous, especially to corrupt bodies. Here, then, was the occasion, and indeed a sad occasion to many, who, in the extremity of opposition to antichristian ways, obtruded themselves upon as sad or worse in conveniences, going off not only from vain rites, but religion itself; and instead of leaving corruptions, left worship; and, indeed, any other thing could not be expected, if we consider how loose and slack the reins of government have been of late, with what violence and tumult this change was managed, not in the solemn, grave way of conviction and humiliation. Buildings stand whose foundations are laid in those deeps; but otherwise it will be hard to settle things; partly because till the error be rightly stated the truth is not found out; partly be cause such changes make men lose all awe and reverence in the matter of religion, and so every man digresseth into his own way, and adoreth the idol of his own brain. Usually you will find whatever is carried on by scoffs and popular tumults seldom succeedeth well. I confess God loveth to ‘pour contempt upon the sons of Levi that are partial in the covenant,’ Mal. ii. 9; and, it is his way many times to cause the voice of many waters (id est, of the confused multitude) to go before the voice of mighty thunderings, Rev. xix. 6 (id est, the regular act of the magistrate, whose sentences and decrees are terrible as thunder); and therefore I do adore the justice of divine providence in causing the former ministry to become base and contemptible before all the people. But, however, I cannot but sadly bewail the mischiefs that abound amongst us by the neglect of men. Though the corruptions of Episcopacy made it justly odious, yet it would have been better it had been disputed down rather than jested down; arguments would have done more good than scoffs, besides the danger of returning to folly. Do but consider the present inconveniences of making so great a change without more public and rational conviction, when things that before were of reverend esteem are of a sudden decried. What is the effect? Why! religion itself is of less esteem; men suspect all can as well scoff out truth as error. Calvin’s observation is excellent: he saith that in times of changes there are lucianici homines qui jocose etper ludibrium garriunt adversus superstitiones papatus, interim nullo tanguntur timore Dei, &c.—many that are of Lucian’s temper, who, by jesting against received rites, insensibly lose all sense and awe of religion, and by scoffing at false gods, come the less to dread the true. Consider and see if the former liberty of tongues and pens hath not begotten that present irreverence and fearlessness that is in the spirits of men against things that undoubtedly are of God. But this is not all; do but consider how many are hardened in their old ways, and prejudiced against the reformers, as if they were men that did procedere non ad perfectionem sed ad permutationem, were men given to changes, Prov. xxiv. 21, merely to leave things out of passion and present dislike, or, which is worse, out of self-aims, and are ready to say of them, as Austin said of some one who appeared against the pagans, non pietate everterunt idola, sed avaritia—only to divide the spoil; and all this because the grounds, reasons, and necessity of the change have not been publicly enough discovered. And truly it were very well if the loose principles and in direct practices of some did not give occasion to these slanders. All that I shall further say is this, that to leap out of one way into another, either out of base aims or without due shame and sense of former miscarriages, will but make our own station the more questionable, for, certainly, self-respects have no majesty with them; and though we be in the right, yet having a wrong heart, God recompenseth into our own bosoms the very measure of our dealing with others. We now have found the great occasion of the spreading of those evils amongst us which were hatched under the iniquity of the former times, and possibly let alone as the last reserve against endeavours of reformation, and now meeting with a people capable of such impressions, who love to wander, Jer. xiv. 10, they are the more easily diffused and propagated. Some are ensnared by their own pride and foolish singularity; others by discontent, base aims, unworthy reflections upon their honour, profits, &c.; most by a spirit of opposition against the ministry: God hath set us out to be men of contention to the whole earth, Jer. xv. 10. Those that are censores morum, whose office is to tax public abuses, will be looked upon as men of strife. We might justly suspect ourselves if this were not the portion of our cup. This spirit certainly acteth many: enemies will snarl when the great voice biddeth the witnesses come up hither, Rev. xi. 12. Surely some do behold their late ascension and glory with envy and indignation, others possibly may be led by a desire of being somebody in the world. Simon Magus would be τὶς μέγας, Acts viii. 9; there is a natural itch and desire after mastership in Israel. James checketh it, James iii. 1, ‘My brethren, be not many masters:’ we naturally affect the honour of this chair: some bottles will burst if they have not vent, Job xxxii. 19. Tertullian observeth that this was the reason why divers went over to the Gnostics and the opposite parties in his time: young men, and men otherwise unfit, presently commenced into some esteem and mastership. Thus you see different menaced by different spirits, and all one way or another increasing the distractions of the times, which, being thus occasioned and diffused, are supported and kept up by factions and parties, men severally prosecuting their cross designs without any regard to the truth and advantage of religion; and if any party be opposed and discountenanced, their delusion is the more strong by a supposal of persecution; for, by comparing their state with the state of the people of God, who suffered under the fury of former times, their prejudices are increased, and they think it can be no less than religion, and truth of zeal for the glory of God, to expose themselves to so many hazards; and they do the more confidently believe it, because God’s witnesses have mostly prophesied in sackcloth; and hitherto Christ hath appeared for the most part against the worship and customs of nations. John saith Christ came into the world, 1 John iii. 8, ἳνα ἀναλύσῃ, to unravel Satan’s webs: he hath been indeed acting the demolishing rather than the adstructive part; but therefore they go away with erroneous mistakes, as if he would never build, establish, and set up, and as if the kings of the earth should never bring in their glory to the church, and martyrs were made so more by the blood and suffering than by the cause.

Thus I have touched upon the causes and state of the present distempers. Much more might be said upon this subject, but now I was only willing to point at the heads of things. But you will say, Then what hopes? I answer—Our wound is grievous, but not incurable; many things there are to encourage us to keep silence, and wait upon God till he ordain better things for us. Let me speak a word or two on this matter. Consider, then, errors usually are not long-lived; the next age declareth the folly of them: 1 Cor. iii. 13, ‘The day shall declare it.’ Time will show what is stubble and hay, though men have high thoughts of it for the present. We raise so much dust by the heat of our contentions that our eyes are blinded, the glory of truth darkened; but things will clear up again: we wonder at the contests of former ages, and so will they at ours. ‘When God cometh into his holy temple, all the earth will keep silence,’ Hab. ii. 20. The nearer we approach to Antichrist’s ruin, God will give out more light, Rev. xviii. Babylon fell when the earth was enlightened with the angel’s glory. Light will increase towards the perfect day; and as light increaseth, so doth love; that great unity, spoken of before, is when there shall be more knowledge, for that is the reason rendered, Isa. xi. 9, ‘For the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the world as the waters cover the sea.’ And then, again, the devil usually overacts himself by appearing in some odious delusion, no longer as an angel of light, but as a foul fiend, in such direct opposition to Christ that all good men loathe him. Usually when God maketh any great change, things come to an extremity and excess of corruption. The Arians prevailed for a long time, but being so detestably vicious and insolently cruel, they ruined their own cause. Or else Satan runneth himself out of breath in some civil commotions.

The Remonstrants in the Low Countries quite overturned their cause when they began to raise tumults and troubles everywhere; so those under the conduct of Munster, in Germany, did. but run themselves violently, like the Gadarenes’ swine, Mat. viii. 32, upon their own ruin and destruction. Usually when Satan hath such great wrath, his time is but short, Rev. xii. 12. God delighteth mightily to ruin him by the violence of his own endeavours.

Use 2, for exhortation. It serveth to exhort and press you to has ten and set on these hopes. Promises do not exclude action, but engage to it. Hope keepeth up endeavours; what you do in this kind will not be in vain in the Lord. The promises hold forth unity; strive after it.

1. By prayers.

2. By endeavours.

1. By prayers. When things are otherwise irremediable, here is the last refuge: Ps. cxxii. 6, ‘Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper that love it.’ If you love it, that is the least you can do, to mourn over the matter to God; indeed sometimes it is all that we can do. Learned Perkins said of his times, Non sunt ista litigandi tempora, sed orandi—prayers are fitter for these times than disputes. Carnal zeal may put us upon disputes; it is true zeal that puts us upon prayer, when we are so tenderly affected for God’s glory as that, in that respect, we can go and mourn over the matter to him. When Luther thought to redress the evils of his times, one told him, Abi in cellam et die, Miserere nostri—go and cry, Lord, have mercy upon us. Truly things seem past help and cure: I but go and urge the matter to God; that which is marvellous in our eyes, Zech. viii. 6, is not so in his; a man goeth most cheerfully to the throne of grace when he hath the encouragement of a particular promise. Here is a promise not only to the case but to the times, ‘In that day there shall be one Lord, and one name;’ and that you may not think it a casual promise and comfortable word that dropped out of the mouth of God unawares, you shall see it is a blessing full in the eye of the general covenant; for it is very observable that when the tenor of the covenant is expressed, unity is made one of the chief blessings of it: Jer. xxxii. 39, ‘I will give them one heart and one way for the good of them, and of their children after them.’ Mark, he saith in the former verse that he will be their God, and they shall be his people, which is the form of the covenant; and then he undertaketh to give them one heart and one way, union in opinion and union in affections: so Ezek. xix. 11, ‘I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them.’ It is a main branch of the covenant to give them one heart, a heart united to God, and so to one another. Urge God then with his own promise and covenant; be instant and earnest with him: 2 Thes. iii. 16, ‘The Lord of peace give you peace always, by all means;’ the Lord of peace, God that loveth it, God that worketh it; and the latter phrases, always and by all means, note the vehemency and intentness of his desires. One way or another, let God find out a means to ordain peace for you. For your encouragement consider, you do not only pray, but Christ prayeth with you; Christ intercedeth with the Father for the same thing: John xvii. 21, ‘That they may be all one, and that they may be perfect in one, that the world may know that thou hast sent me.’ That prayer is but the copy of his continual intercession. He knoweth what a scandal it is to his name, &c., and therefore he saith, Let them be one. Now, this is a great comfort when Christ prayeth for the same thing for which you pray; he is worthy to be heard though you be not; God will not refuse him that speaketh in heaven, however he dealeth with poor crawling worms on earth.

2. By endeavours. Follow hard after it. I shall speak here to the people in general, then to the ministry, and then shall be bold to lay two or three considerations at the feet of this honourable assembly to help on this work.

First, To the people. Oh! that all of us would now mind the things of peace and holiness in these distracted times: ‘The great house is smitten with clefts, and the little house with breaches,’ Amos vi. 11. There are divisions in cities, divisions in families, divisions in councils, divisions in the kingdom, and yet few healers of the breaches. We are already at a great distance, and yet we do in alia omnia ire, seek to go farther off from one another. Some make it a piece of their religion and zeal to dissent and be otherwise minded. Christ saith love shall wax cold in the latter days, Mat. xxiv. 12; the context showeth it is meant of this dispensative love. Ludolfus said, the world was at first destroyed with water for the heat of lusts; but it will be destroyed with fire for the coldness of love. Oh! that we could stir you up to endeavour peace and reconciliation. The first work is the people’s; things are most managed according to your love and hatred. Herod could do nothing to John for fear of the people, and it is said of others they could not do what they would because of the people. Oh! therefore, come, as the people did to John, and say, What shall we do?

Truly much is to be done by you. I shall touch upon a few things. Besides reconciling yourselves to God, which is the best way to make others be at peace with you, and is to be heeded in a chief place; for when you are at one with God, he will give you the one heart, and one way with other of his people: all agreement ariseth from that oneness with God and Christ; but, I say, besides this general rule, let me entreat you to mind these things.

[1.] Let every one of us mortify such ill affections as may any way engage us to a disturbance and vexatious bitterness. Ill affections do as often divide us as ill opinions; wars come from our lusts, James iv. 1; distempered spirits occasion distracted times. It is observed that when there was strife among the Philippians, the apostle doth not state the controversies, but giveth rules against pride and vainglory and self-seeking, Phil. ii. 3, 4. There are many evils in the heart of man. I shall instance in these: There is an itch of novelty; naturally we adore things that are new; they flocked about Paul because they supposed him a setter forth of new gods, Acts xvii. Seneca observeth right, Homini ingenitum est magis nova quam magna mirari—men admire a glaring meteor and comet more than they do the glorious sun. So pride; that will make a man singular. There is a holy singularity: Prov. xxx. 31, the going of the he-goat is comely; that is, as he walketh before the flock. Thus to be a leading man in religion is honourable, but pride puts a man upon an evil singularity, Col. ii. 18, ‘intruding himself into things not seen, being puffed up with his own fleshly mind.’ It puts men upon ungrounded conceits, quintessential extracts, foolish niceties. So envy; that begets an evil eye upon each others’ renown and esteem: therefore, when God would reconcile Ephraim and Judah, he would take away their envy: ‘And Ephraim shall not envy Judah, nor Judah vex Ephraim,’ Isa. xi. 13. So revenge and discontent. Porphyry and Julian, two bitter enemies, receiving injuries from the church, became atheists. The devil worketh upon stomach and discontent, thoughts of disrespect. So there is self-seeking: men care not what they do so they may accommodate their own ends; they ‘speak perverse things to draw disciples after them,’ Acts xx. 30. Some men love to be in the head of a train, and therefore, if God’s truths will not serve their ends, they can easily baulk them. So self-conceit; men make idols of their own conceptions, love an opinion non quia veram sed quia suam, not because it is true, but theirs; they are angry because others dissent from them, not from Christ; as appeareth plainly, because those that know little or nothing of the mind of Christ make most bitter and loud outcries against errors. Men are passionate in their own cause, and would have every one embrace their fancies: pray, what is the spring of all your disputes? Self, or Christ’s glory? I cannot go over all the corruptions; only you see from small sparkles a great fire is kindled; that which goeth up in thin exhalations descendeth in great showers; that which is at first but a lust, a vain desire, a corrupt working in your own hearts, is at length a tumult and combustion in a church or state. Therefore, in the general, note that a mortified spirit is the most peaceable.

[2.] Keep yourselves pure from ill opinions. You must as carefully avoid an error in judgment as a vice in conversation; many dally with errors, not considering the danger of them. Oh! consider, God hateth filthiness of the spirit as well as filthiness of the flesh, and a vain mind is as great a judgment as vile affections, Rom. i. 26, 28: Yea, certainly, to the public, errors are more dangerous than vices, for vices and gross sins are more against natural awe and shame, and so less spreading, and though we yield to sin in ourselves, yet we do not love it in others; and so among persons openly vicious there is nothing to allure and draw into a faction or party. Therefore be cautious and wary, if not for your own soul, yet for the common peace; as Tertullian said to Scapula, Si non vis tibi parcere, parce Carthagini. So, if you will not pity yourselves, pity England; a man would be careful of being accessary to a kingdom’s or a church’s ruin; where the influence of an action is so public, you had need proceed with good deliberation and advice. However, that I may not in this point seem to press too hard upon any one party, let me discover the extremities on both hands. There are two evils abroad—easy credulity and stubborn prejudice, and both of them increase the differences, whilst some men’s judgments are forestalled by a tradition, others seduced by an invention; therefore it is good to take the mean between both, which is the course the apostle prescribeth, 1 Thes. v. 21, ‘Prove all things, hold fast that which is good;’ prove all things, that we reject not truth by over-much prejudice; hold fast that which is good, that we close not with error by over-much credulity. You owe so much to everything that pretendeth to God as to consider it. When Ehud told Eglon, ‘I have a message from God, he arose out of his seat,’ Judges iii. 20. I say, you owe so much reverence to everything that challengeth descent from heaven as to weigh the claim. I do the rather urge this, because the adversaries of Christianity have been always those that have least inquired into it. Tertullian observeth it of the enemies of the truth in his days, nolentes audire quod auditum damnare non possent—they would not hear that which they had a mind to hate. God, that gave man reason, never intended that he should take up love or hatred by chance; therefore it is good to try things. Sometimes a man may meet with an angel unawares, Heb. xiii. 2; only, on the other hand, remember I persuade you to a serious search, not to an easy credulity, not to play with opinions as if there were no hurt in them, but to examine them in the fear of God, to call in the help of the Spirit, and to use all the outward helps God hath left to the church. The priest’s lips are to preserve knowledge; and the apostle saith, Eph. iv. 12, 14, that ‘God hath given pastors and teachers, that we be no more tossed about with every wind of doctrine.’ That is a help which God hath provided against this evil, and it is presumptuous arrogance to despise it.