A42767:91
A sermon preached before the right honourable the House of Lords in the Abbey…
A sermon preached before the right honourable the House of Lords in the Abbey Church at Westminster, upon the 27th of August, 1645 being the day appointed for solemn and public humiliation : whereunto is added a brotherly examination of some passages of Mr. Colemans late printed sermon upon Job 11.20, in which he hath endeavoured to strike at the root of all church-government / by George Gillespie, minister at Edinburgh.A sermon preached before the right honourable the House of Lords in the Abbey Church at Westminster, upon the 27th of August, 1645 being the day appointed for solemne and publique humiliation : whereunto is added a brotherly examination of some passages of Mr. Colemans late printed sermon upon Job 11.20, in which he hath endeavoured to strike at the root of all church-government / by George Gillespie, minister at Edenburgh.
London: printed by F. Neile for Robert Bostock, 1646
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Thus doth Master Cartwright in his judicious Commentary give the sense, As in the water face doth not answer fully to face, but in some sort, so there may be a conjecture, but no certain knowledge of the heart of man.1 But let the Text be read affirmatively, not negatively, what shall be the sense? Some take it thus, A mans heart may be someway seen in his countenance, as a face in the water.2 Others thus, As a face in the water is various and changeable to him that looketh upon it, so is the heart of man inconstant to a friend that trusteth in him.3 Others thus, As a man seeth his own face in the water, so he may see himself in his own heart or conscience. Others thus, As face answereth face in the water, so he that looketh for a friendly affection from others, must show it in himself. It will never be proved that any such thing is intended in that place, as may warrant this argumentation: There is such a particular corruption in one mans heart, for instance, Ambition, which makes him unfit to be trusted with Government; therefore the same corruption is in all other mens hearts: even as the face in the water answereth the face out of the water so just, that there is not a spot or blemish in the one but it is in the other. I am sure Pan! taught us not so, when he said, In lowliness of mind let each esteem other better then themselves, Phil. 2.3. Nay, the Brother himself ha•h taken off the edge of his own Argument (if it had any) in his Epistle printed before his Sermon, where speaking of his Brethren, from whose judgement he dissenteth in point of Government, he hath these words, Whose wisdom and humility (I ⟨p. 33⟩speak it confidently) may safely be trusted with as large a share of Government as they themselves desire. Well, but suppose now the same corruption to be in other mens hearts, that they are in great danger of an ambitious ensnarement, if they be trusted with Government. Is this corruption only in the hearts of Ministers, or is it in the hearts of all other men? I suppose he will say in all mens hearts; and then his Argument will conclude against all civill Government. Last of all, admit that there be just fears of abusing the Power and Government Ecclesiastical; let the persons to be entrusted with it be examined, and the power it self bounded according to the strictest rules of Christ. Let abuses be prevented, reformed, corrected.