of that censorious zeal which unchurches Persons or Parishes without just tryal and proof upon rumours of fame or their own surmises DIRECT XI Understand well what is the power of the Keys and what the Pastoral offiae is as they are the Governours of the Church entrusted by Christ with the power of admission and rejection that so you may know how far you are to rest in the judgement of the Pastors and may not attempt to take any part of their office to your selves THe power of the Keyes is the power of taking into the Church and of Governing it and of casting out Both in respect to present Order and in respect to future happiness by a Ministerial declaration of the sense of the Gospel concerning the state of such as they The power of Baptizing is the power of the Keyes for reception into the Church The private members have not the power of baptizing nor were the Pastors ever appointed to do it by their advise consent or vote Therefore the private members have not the power of the Keyes for admission And it is most apparent in the Gospel that the Keyes for admission and for exclusion are given into the same hands and not one to the Ministers and another to the Flock Therefore the people that have not the first have not the later For full proof of this observe the meaning of these Texts Isa. 22. 22. And the Key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder so he shall open and none shall shut and he shall shut and none shall open Isa. 9. 6. The Government shall be upon his shoulder Mat. 16. 19. I will give thee the Keyes of the Kingdome of Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven c. Mat. 18. 18. Verily I say unto you whatsoever ye bind on earth shall be bound c. Joh. 20. 23. Whose soever sins ye do remit they are remitted to them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained Math. 28. 19. Go and teach all Nations baptizing them c. Joh. 20. 21. As my Father hath sent me euen so send I you Acts 1. 16 17. Judas was numbred with us and had obtained part of this Ministry Acts 20. 28. Take heed to your selves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers to feed the Church of God Rom. 1. 1. Paul a Minister of Iesus Christ called an Apostle separated to the Gospel of God 1 Cor. 4. 1. Let a man so esteem of us as of the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the mysteries of God Acts 14. 23. They ordained them Elders in every Church Tit. 1. 3. Ordain Elders in every City as I appointed thee V. 7. A Bishop must be blameless as the Steward of God 1 Tim. 3. 5. For if a man know not how to rule his own house how shall he take care of the Church of God 1 Tim. 5. 17. Let the Elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour 1 Pet. 5. 2. Feed the flock of God which is among you taking the oversight thereof Heb. 13. 7 17 24. Remember them which have the rule over you who have spoken to you the word of God Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls salute them that have the rule over you 1 Thes. 5. 12 13. We beseech you brethren to know them that is acknowledge their power and labours that labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love for their works sake and to be at peace among your selves Read these with judgement and then believe if you can that the power of the Keys or Government is in the People Shew us what text doth give them that power and where the Scripture calleth them to exercise it by Votes Or where God requireth ability in them for Church-government or where he calleth them to leave their Callings and attend this work When those that must perform it he separateth to it as by office and calleth them to give themselves wholly thereunto 1 Tim. 4. 15 16. Tell us when the people were authorized to baptize or to rule the Church that is themselves Obj. Mat. 18. 15. Tell the Church if he hear not the Church c. Answ. Many Expositors think that by the Church there is meant the Ministers only by this reason The Church that mâ—st teach mâ—st be heard the Church that must be heard must be told But that is only the Pastors and not the People Ergo But I easily grant you that the word Church there signifieth the whole Congregation as Dr. Taylor in his Second Disswasive hath well shewed But it is as an Organized body only And so the Office is to be performed only by the Organical part and not by any of the rest When I say to a man Hear me I do not mean that he should hear me with his eyes but only with his ears And when I bid him See or Read I bid him not do it with his ears but with his eyes Nor do the eyes receive this power from the feet or hands but immediately from the Head Though if they were separated from the body they could not retain it So if another Kingdome send to England to desire an Army of Men to help them they mean the King only as the Commander of them and the people as the executors of his Command So when you are bid to tell the Church it is quâ—tâ—nus aurita that it must be told And when you are bid to hear it it is as Teaching that it must be heard So that this talketh not of any Government in the people either to use or to give Obj. 1 Cor. 5. Paul biddeth all the Church to put from among them that wicked person Answ. Note that Paul passeth the sentence first himself I have judged as if I were present not that you deliver but to deliver such an one to Satan And therefore he doth this in himself in the name of the Lord Iesus and supposeth himself among them in spirit and power when they do it and my spirit with the power of our Lord Iesus Christ. 2. And I have said He speaketh to an organized Church which had two parts and accordingly two works to do The Ruling part was to put away the Offender by Iudgement or Sentence And the people were all to put him away by actual shunning his Communion which is but the obeying of that sentence If the King send to a Corporation to execute any Law he meaneth not that all persons must do it in the like manner but the Magistrates by Command and the people by obeying them and executing their Commands If I desire a man to transcribe me a Book and bring it me I mean not that every part of him shall herein have the same office But that he read it only with his eyes and
Physician and with your Estates as well as a studyed Lawyer And why do no Sea-men trust any other to govern the ship as well as an experienced Pilot Do you not see that all men ordinarily are best at that which by long study they have made their profession I know those that I have now to do with will say that Divinity is not learnt by labour and mens teaching as other Sciences and Arts are but by the teaching of the spirit of God and therefore the youngest may have as much of it as the eldest Answ. There is some truth and some falshood and much confusion in this objection It is true that the saving knowledge of Divinity must be taught by the Spirit of God But it is false that labour and humane teaching are not the means which must be used by them who will have the teaching of the spirit And the objection confoundeth 1. The spirits teaching us by inditing the Scripture with the spirits teaching us the meaning of the Scripture 2 And it confoundeth the common knowledge of Divinity with the saving knowledge of it No man commeth to a common knowledge fit for a Teacher of others without the spirits teaching us by the Scripture For that was the first part of the spirits teaching us to inspire the Prophets and Apostles to deliver a teaching Word to the Church by which we might all be taught of God through all generations But many men have excellent common knowledge by this word and by the common help of the spirit without that special help which begetteth saving knowledge Many prophesied and workt miracles in Christs name who had no saving knowledge of him Mat. 7. 22 23. And Paul rejoyced that Christ was preached even by them that did it of strife and envy to add affliction to his bonds Phil. 1. 15 16 17 18. saving knowledge must have a special help of grace And they which had but Solomons knowledge may by the spirit have saving knowledge in a little time by bringing it to the heart and making it clear and lively and effectual But that may be a means of saving others which saveth not the man that hath it And all knowledge requireth time and labour to obtain it though the Spirit giveth it and though it may be sanctifyed to us in a little time 1. Consider I pray you why else it is that God hath so multiplied commands to dig for it as for Silver and search for it as a hidden treasure to cry for Knowledge and lift up our voice for understanding to wait at the posts of wisdoms doors to search the Scriptures and meditate in them day and night Is not this such study and labour as men use to get understanding in other kind of professions Are not these the plain commands of God and are they not their deceivers who contradict them 2. Is it not a blaspheming of Gods spirit to make it the Patron of mens sloth and idleness under pretense of magnifying grace When so many Texts command us diligence and slothfulness is so great a sin And none are so forward to preach as these same men that cry down mens teaching 3. Why hath God setled a Teaching Office in his Church and commandeth all to attend and hear and learn if we are taught by the Spirit without mans help Why were the Apostles sent out into all the world And why are they commanded to teach all Nations and to teach the Church all that Christ commanded them and why doth he promise to be with them to the end of the world but that this is the way of the Spirits teaching to teach those first who are our outward teachers and then to help us to understand them And those are taught of God who are taught by those who are sent of God to be their teachers and have the inward concurrence of his grace 4. Advise with the experience of all the world who was the man that ever you knew able to expound one Chapter in the Bible by the inward teaching of the Spirit alone without any labour of his own or help from others by voice or writing Where dwelleth that man who by meer inspiration can turn one Chapter out of Hebrew or Greek into the vulgar tongue The first part of our preaching or publishing the Scriptures is by Translating them into a language which is understood When Ezra in his Pulpit of wood did read the Law and give the sense the meaning is that he read it in the ancient Hebrew tongue in which it was written and turned it into the language which the Jews then used who were grown much strangers to their ancient speech Where is the man that can solidly unfold any Doctrine of Divinity which he never read or heard of or can teach that truth and defend that Religion which he was never taught by man He is a stranger in the world who seeth not that as in Law and Physick and other professions though some are ignorant even when they are old yet commonly all men are wisest and ablest in their own profession and those know most who having natural capacities have had best help and longest time and hardest studies the Spirit assisting them by his common help to make it Knowledge and by his special grace to make it a sanctifying knowledge Therefoâ—e remember to give due respect to them that have been longer in Christ than you and to them that have longer studyed the Scriptures and to them that have had greater helps and experience And do not too easily imagine that those who are below them in all these advantages are yet above them in sound understanding Though such a wonder may sometime come to pass DIRECT II. Observe well the secret and subtil workings of spiritual pride and how deep-rooted and dangerous a sin it is and what special temptations to this odious sin the younger and emptyâ—headed Christians have that the resistance of them may be your daily care PRide is the self-idolizing sin the great rebel against God the chief part of the Devils image that one sin which breaketh every commandment the Heart of the old man the root and Parent and summary of all other sin the Antichristian vice which is most directly contrary to the life of Christ the principal object of Gods hatred and disdain and the mark of those whom he delighteth to tread down and the certain Prognostick of dejection and abasement either by humbling repentance or damnation It is called Spiritual Pride from the Object when men are proud of spiritual excellencies real or supposed And this is so much worse than Pride of Beauty apparel riches high places or high birth as the abuse of great and excellent things is worse than the abuse of vanities and triâ—les and as things spiritual are in themselves more contrary to the nature of pride and therefore the sin hath the greater enormity The common exercise of this Religious or spiritual Pride is first about our Knowledge and secondly
they gather it out of the World And all this is because they know no more than they see or at least are affected with no more but live as if England or Europe were all the world One years abode in Asia or Africa might cure this errour In 2 Cor. 6. 12 13 c. the Apostle forbiddeth the Christians to marry with Infidels because light hath no communion with darkness nor righteousness with unrighteousness nor Christ with Belial And therefore inferreth that he that believeth hath no part with an Infidel nor the Temple of God any any agreement with Idols And for this he citeth the words of the Prophet Come out from among them and be ye separate and touch not the unclean thing All these words which the Apostle so plainly speaketh only against marrying with Infidels and Idolaters and having communion with them either intimately or in their sin are by abundance of ignorant Professors abused as if they had commanded us to separate from the colder and common sort of Christians and to come out of the Church whereof they are members What profaning of Gods word is this and how gross and palpable a contradicting of its plain expressions It was a Church of such mixed Christians as our Churches do consist of to which the Apostle wrote those words And because he commandeth them to separate from intimacy with Heathens and Infidels yet so as when they are once married to them to continue in it therefore these men say that one part of the Church is called to come forth and separate from the rest And with the like abuse they apply the command Come out of Babylon to them that have no communion with Babylon And when ignorance uncharitableness and passion have taught them to call Christs Churches Babylon they add sin to sin the sin of separation to the sin of slander and reproach and abuse the Text according to their false exposition of it DIRECT V. Understand rightly the true difference between the Mystical and the Visible Church and the qualification of their Members and do not confound them as if it were the same persons only that must be Members of both THE Mystical Church indeed hath none but true Saints But the Visible Church containeth multitudes of Hypocrites who profess themselves to be what they are not They profess to believe in God while they neglect him and to be ruled by God while they disobey him and are ruled by their lusts They profess to Love God and forsake the world whilest they love the world and God is not in all their thoughts They profess to love the holy Scriptures whilest they neglect them and love not the holiness of their precepts They profess to believe in Jesus Christ whilest their hearts neglect his grace and government They profess to believe in the holy Spirit and to hold the Communion of Saints in the Catholick Church whilest they resist the Spirit and love not Saints All this sheweth that they are Hypocrites But abundance of Hypocrites are in the Visible Church Nay God would have no Hypocrites cast out but those who bewray their hypocrisie by impenitency in proved Heresie or gross sin We must not model the Church of Christ according to our private fancies We are not the Lords of it nor are we sit or worthy to dispose of it Look into the Scripture and take it for the Rule and see there of what manner of persons the Visible Church hath been constituted in all ages of the world till now In the first Church in Adams family a Cain was the first born member and so continued till he was excommunicated for the murder of his brother In a Church of eight persons who were saved out of all the world the Father and Pastor was overtaken with gross drunkenness and one of his sons was a cursed Cham. In a Church of six persons saved from the wickedness of Sodom two of them Lot's sons in law perished in the flames among the unbelievers a third was turned into a pillar of salt the Father and Pastor was drunk two nights together after the sight of such a terrible miracle and after so strange a deliverance to himself and committed incest twice in his drunkenness The two that remained his daughters caused his drunkenness purposely and committed incest with him In the Church in Abrahams family there was an Ishmael And in the Church in Isaacs family there was an Esau and even Rebeka and Iacob guilty of deceitful equivocation And Abraham and Isaac denied their wives to save themselves in their unbelief In Iacob's family was a Simeon and Levi who murdered multitudes under a pretense of Religion and under the cover of false deceit And almost all his sons moved with envy sold their brother Ioseph for a slave and some were hardly kept from murdering him And his daughter Dinah was defiled by desiring to see the company and fashions of the world In the Church of the Israelites in the Wilderness after all the miracles which they had seen and the mercies they had received so great were their sins of unbelief and murmuring and lust and whoredomes and idolatry and disobedience that but two of them that came out of Egypt were permitted to enter the promised land In the times of the Judges they so oft renewed their idolatry besides all their other sins that they spent a great part of all those ages in captivity for it And when the villanies of Gibeah had imitated the Sodomites and ravished a woman to death the Tribe of the Benjamites defended it by a war and that in three battels till fourty thousand of the innocent Israelites were slain and twenty five thousand of the Benjamites Look through all the Books of Samuel the Kings and Chronicles and the Prophets from the sad story of the sons of Eli and of Samuel to all the wicked Kings that followed who kept up odious Idolatry even Solomon himself and scarce two or three of the best did put down the high places And when Hezekiah was zealous to reform the hearts of the subjects were not prepared but derided or abused the Messengers whom he sent about to call the people home to God Manasseh's wickedness is scarcely to be parallel'd And when God sent his Prophets to call them to repentance they mocked his Messengers and despised and abused his Prophets till the wrath of the Lord arose and there was no remedy 2 Chron. 36. 15 16. Read over the Prophets and see there what a people this Church of God was The ten Tribes were drawn by Ierâ—boam to sin by setting up Calves at Dan and Beth-el and making Priests of the vilest of the people and forsaking the Temple and the true worship of God and the lawful Priests And these lawful Priests at Ierusalem were ravening Wolves and greedy Dogs and careless and cruel Shepherds The false Prophets who deceived the people were most accepted The people are accused of cruelty oppression whoredom drunkenness Idolatry and hatred
of those that would reform them They were grievous persecutors Which of the Prophets did not your fathers kill and persecute saith Christ Matth. 23. Yet this was the Church of God and many think his only visible Church And all these twelve Tribes were not so big as England and were to the bigness of all the Earth no more than one tree to a large Wood or Forrest But doubtless the Gospel Church was both more large and pure Let us therefore take a view of it And I beseech you remember that what I say is not to make sin less odious nor the Church or Godly less esteemed but to shew you the frame of the visible Church in all Generations and how it differeth from the invisible lest you should take on you to be wiser than God and to build his house after a better rule than his Gospel and the primitive pattern and marr all by being wise in your own conceits and by being righteous overmuch Eccles. 7. And I pray you forget not that the Primitive Church was the most pure and the pattern of those following and had inspired Apostles to be its Guides and inspired Prophets to be its Helpers and abundance of Miracles and extraordinary gifts to gather and edifie it to silence its enemies and to terrifie and restrain offenders and to bring up the Church to the highest degree of holiness that could be well expected And withall the Members were not driven in by force by Magistrates nor allured by any worldly commodities but were a few Volunteers who in a time of persecution professed Christ to their hazard or suffering in the world Yet see what they were The faultiness of the Teachers The Apostles before the death of Christ though they had so long heard his doctrine and seen his miracles understood not that he must die for our sins and be buried and rise again and ascend into Heaven and there intercede for us and rule the Church Ioh. 12. 16. and 10. 6. Luk. 18. 34. and 9. 45. and 24. 43 44 45. Peter so much perswaded Christ from that suffering by which the world was to be redeemed that Christ speaketh to him as he did to the Devil Matth. 4. Get thee behind me Satan for thou savourest not the things that be of God but those that be of men Matth. 16. 22 23. Iames and his beloved disciple Iohn called sons of thunder perhaps for this or such like zeal would have called for fire from heaven to destroy the unbelieving adversaries of the Gospel and knew not of what spirit they were Iudas was one that was sent out to preach the Gospel by Christ himself who knew his heart Many that preached and prophesied and cast out Devils in his name were workers of iniquity whom he never knew with special approbation Matth. 7. 22 23. When he came to his sufferings they all slept when they should have watched and prayed with him one hour in his agony and this after his admonition When they should have confessed him in suffering they all forsook him and fled Matth. 26. 56. And Peter that seemed to stick closer to him did with forswearing thrice deny him after he had promised to die with him and not to forsake him though all forsook him And when he was dead they said Luk. 24. We trusted this was he that should have delivered Israel as if their faith had been extinct And when he rose and appeared to them they hardly believed what they saw and Thomas one of them resolved that he would not believe unless he might put his fingers into his side And when they spake with him before his Asceâ—sion they dreamed still of an earthly grandure and askt him Whether now he would restore the Kingdome unto Israel Act. 1. And they understood not the descent of the Holy Ghost And when the Holy Ghost was come upon them one of their first Deacons Nicholas was the original of a Sect whose doctrine Christ did haâ—e Paul and Barnabas contended even to parting Peter dissembled by a sinful separation walking not uprightly and drew away Barnâ—bas into the dissimulationâ— Gal. 2. Phil. 1. 15 16. Somâ— preach Christ even of envy and strifâ— and some of good will The one preach Christ of contentions not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds Many were made like the heads of Sects and some were of Paul and some of Apollo's and some of Cephas as the Papists be now And some built hay and stubble which must be consumed 1 Cor. 3. 12 Of Timothy and the rest Paul saith I have no man like minded for all seek their own and not the things which are Iesus Christâ— 3 Joâ— 9. 10. Diorrephes who loveth to have the 〈◊〉 among them receiveth 〈◊〉 not prating against us with malicious words and not content therewith neither doth he himself receive the Brethren and forbiddeth them that would and casteth them out of the Church As the Apostles themselves before Christs death were striving which of them should be the greatest so this vice still followed many of the Pastors so that Peter is fain to exhort them not to Lord it over Gods heritage nor to rule them by constraint but willingly 1. Pet. 5. And what abundance of Sect-masters did arise from among the Ministers of the Gospel in the Apostles own times Insomuch as Paul forewarneth the famous Church of Ephesus not only that grievous Wolves that is Hereticks should eâ—ter that spared not the flocks but also that of their own selves men should arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them Act. 20. 30. And in the Apostles dayes while one had a Prophesie and another a Psalm c. they brought confusion into the Church-worship even by abuse of extraordinary gifts And they so abused the Love-feasts at the Lords Supper that Paul was fain to perswade them rather to eat at home 1 Cor. 14. and 1 Cor. 11. so much of the true state of the Primitive Teachers and Pastors of the Church The faults of the Church of Rome What Heretical Judaizers were among them is intimated in c 1. 3. to the Romans And how little they understood the doctrine of Justification is intimated in cap. 3 4 5 6 7 8. What dissentions there were about meats and drinks and days the weak judging the strong and the strong despising the weak appeareth cap. 14 15. And some caused divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which they had learned serving not the Lord Iesus but their own bellies and by good words and fair speeches deceiving the hearts of the simple Rom. 16. 16 17. The faults of the Church of Corinth 1 Cor. 1. 11 12. There are contentions among you Everyone of you saith I am of Paul and I of Apollo's and I of Cephas and I of Christ. Mark the extent of the sin every one of you that is very many among you 1 Cor. 3. 13. I could not speak to you as spiritual but
Church be able to prove it hath worse crimes to nullisie it than any of these had For none of these were for these faults pronounced no Churches of Iesus Christ. Secondly observe that no one Member is in all these Scriptures or any other commanded 〈◊〉 come out and separate from any one of all these Churches as if their communion in worship were unlawful And therefore before you separate from any as judging communion with them unlawful be sure that you bring greater reasons for it than any of these recited were DIRECT VI. Understand well the different conditions and terms of Communion with the Church as invisible and as visible and the different priviledges of the Members that so you may not presume to impose any conditions which God hath not imposed nor yet to grudge at the reception of those that are not sanctified and sincere ALL Christians are agreed that it belongeth to God only to make the conditions of Church-communion and therefore it belongeth not to us to invent them nor to our wit to censure what God hath done but to search the Scripture till we find it out and then obey it This is the great controversie which hath troubled the Church When men know not who should be Members of the Church and who not and when they have no certain rule or character to know whom they must receive it is no wonder if confusion and contention be the complexion and practice of such Churches And here the Pastors have torn the Church by running into contrary extreams Some have thought that the Visible Church must be constituted only of such persons as satisfie the Pastors and the people of the truth of their sanctification by some special account of their conversion or the work of grace upon their hearts in a distincter manner than the ancient Church required of the baptized Wherein being agreed of no certain terms to know anothers sanctification by their Churches are diversified according to the measure of the strictness or largeness censoriousness or charity of the Pastors the people while one thinks that person to have true grace whom another thinks to have done And so they that will be most uncharitable do pretend to the reputation of being the most pure because they are most strict And multitudes are shut out whom Christ would have to be received his children are numbred with the dogs On the other side there is one or two of late among us who think that the Church is but Christs School where he teacheth the way to true Regeneration and not a Society of professed Regenerate ones or Saints And that all who own Christ as the Teacher of the Church and submit to the Government of the Pastors and are willing to learn how to be regenerate should be baptized though they profess not any special saving faith or repentance And their reasons are because first else all that doubt of their sincerity must lie or be kept out Secondly because that in the Church of the Jews the multitude were such as were openly ungodly And some of the Papists talk also at this rate though indeed they are themselves yet â—tterly unresolved in this point What Church soever is constituted according to either of these two opinions will not be constituted according to the mind of Christ But yet with this difference The first Opinion introduceth Church tyranny and injustice and is founded in the want of Christian charity and knowledge and tendeth to endless separations and confusions But the second opinion inferreth all these greater mischiefs First it confoundeth the Catechumens with the Christians and maketh all Christians who are but willing to learn to be Christians Secondly it maketh the Christian Church to consist of such as are no Christians As that person certainly is not who consenteth not that Christ be his Teacher Priest and King For to such a one he is no Christ seeing these are the essential parts of his Mediatory office And the new device of distinguishing Christs Apostolike and Mediatory offices so the Church congregate and the Church regenerate accordingly will not seem to difend this conceit For as Christ is not divided so his office for which he is called Christ is but One which entirely is called the office of a Saviour or Redeemer or Mediator which are all one And the essential parts of it are first his Priestly second Teaching and Ruling offices or works And this which is called his Apostleship is but the same which is called his Teaching or Prophetical Office and is a part of his Mediatory or saving Office And he is no Christian nor is that any Congregated Christian Church which professeth not to take Christ for his Mediator his Priest and King as well as for an Apostle a Prophet or Teacher Thirdly they therefore who hold the aforesaid doctrine do introduce a new sort of Christianity Fourthly and a new sort of Baptism which the Church of Christ never knew to this day And therefore they do ingenuously profess their dissent from our form or words in Baptism because we put the baptized to renounce the flesh the world and the devil and to use such covenanting words as must signifie special grace But through the great mercy of God Baptism is still the same thing in all the Christian Churches in the world the Reformed the Roman the Greek the Armenian yea and the Ethiopian too for all their seeming reiteration of it And Baptism among them all is the same now as it hath been in all Generations from Christs institution of it So that we fully maintain as well as the Romans that Christianity hath by this sacred Tradition been safely delivered down to us to this day What a Christian is and what Christianity is may be most certainly known by this which is commonly called our Christening In which the profession and covenant which maketh men Christians is so express and unchanged from age to age Therefore these men who would have our Baptism changed do speak plainly but impudently as if they were raised in the end of the world to reform the Baptism and Christianity of all ages and were not only wiser than the universal Church from Christ till now but also at last must make the Church another thing I intreat the Reader who would know the judgement of all antiquity about Baptism as supposing saving grace to read those numerous citations of Mr. Gataker in the Margin of his book against Davenant of Baptism Fifthly and by this new doctrine they destroy all that special Love which Church-members or visible Christians as such should bear to one another For if no faith or consent must necessarily be professed at Baptism but that which is common to the ungodly and children of the devil then all Church-members as only such must be taken to be but ungodly and no man must love a Church-member as such with a special love as a visible Saint but only as one of the hopefuller sort of the
your foul back-biting reviling censorious contentious tongues do not prove the contrary 13. who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you Let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisedome that is Let him that would be thought more knowing and religious than his neighbours be so much more blameless and meek to all men and excel them in good works v. 14. But if ye have a bitter zeal for so is the Greek word and strife in your hearts glory not in such a zeal or in your greater knowledge and lie not against the truth 15. This wisdome descendeth not from above as you imagine who father it on Gods word and spirit but is earthly sensual or natural and devillish O doleful mistake that the world the flesh and the Devil should prove the cause of that conceited spiritual knowledge and excellency which they thought had been the inspiration of the spirit v. 16. For where zeal and strife 〈◊〉 that is a striving contentious zeal against brethren there is confusion or tumult and unquietness and every evil work O lamentable reformers that set up every evil work while they seemed zealous against evil v. 17. But the wisdome that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality or wrangling and without Hypocrisie And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace when peace-breakers that sow in divisions and contention shall reap the fruit of unrighteousness though they call their way by the most religious names Thus I have briefly shewed you what Vâ—nity and Division are that wrong apprehensions draw you not to sin DIRECT VIII When any thing needeth amendment in the Church remember that the best Christian must be the forwardest to reformation and â—he backwardest to Division and must search and try all means of Reforming which make not against the concord of the Church I Do not here determine in what cases you may or may not separate from any company of faulty Christians I only say that you must never separate what God hath conjoyned the Holiness and the Vnity of believers If corruptions blemish and dishonour the Congregation Do not say Let sin alone I must not oppose it for fear of division But be the forwardest to reduce all to the will of God And yet if you cannot prevail as you desire be the backwardest to divide and separate and do it not without a certain warrant and extream necessity Resolve with Austin I will not be the chaff and yet I will not go out of the floor though the chaff be there Never give over your just desire and endeavour of Reformation And yet as long as possibly you can avoid it forsake not the Church which you desire to reform As Paul said to them that were ready to forsake a sea-wrackt vessel If these abide not in the ship ye cannot be saved Many a one by unlawful flying and shifting for his own greater peace and safety doth much more hazard his own and others DIRECT IX Forget not the great difference between casting out the wicked and impenitent from the Church by discipline and the godlies separating from the Church it self because the wicked are not cast out The first is a great duty The second is ordinarily a great sin THe question is not Whether the impenitent should be put away from Church-Communion That 's not denied But whether you should separate from the Church because they are permitted This is it which we call you to beware Not but that in some cases a Christian may lawfully remove from one Church to another that hath more light and purity for the edification of his soul. But before you separate from a faulty Church as such as may not lawfully be communicated with you must look well about you and be able to prove that thing which you affirm Many weak Christians marking those Texts which bid us avoid a man that is an Heretick and to have no company with disorderly walkers and not to eat with flagitious persons do not sufficiently mark their sense but take them as if they call'd us to separate from the Church with which these persons do communicate Whereas if you mark all the Texts in the Gospel you shall find that all the separation which is commanded in such cases besides our separation from the Infidels or Idolatrous world or Antichristian and Heretical confederacies and no-Churches is but one of these two sorts First either that the Church cast out the impenitent sinner by the power of the Keyes Secondly or that private men avoid all private familiarity with them And both these we would promote and no way hinder Thirdly but that the private members should separate from the Church because such persons are not cast out of it shew me one Text to prove it if you can Let us here peruse the Texts that speak of our withdrawing from the wicked 1 Cor. 5. Is expresly written to the whole Church as obliged to put away the incestuous person from among them and so not to eat with such offenders So is that in 2 Thes. 3. and that in Tit. 3. 10. A man that is an Heretick after the first and second admonition avoid Unless it be a Heretick that hath already separated himself from our communion And then it can be put private familiarity which we are further to avoid In brief there is no other place of Scripture that I know of which commandeth any more I have before shewed that abundance of Church corruptions or of scandalous members were then among them and yet the Apostle never spake a syllable to any one Christian to separate from any one of all those Churches Which we cannot imagine that the Holy Ghost would have wholly omitted if indeed it had been the will of God Obj. But then why did Luther and the first Pretestants separate from the Church of Rome and how will you justifie them from Schisme Ans. Its pity that sloth and sortishness should keep any Protestant or Papist either in such ignorance as to need any help to answer so easie a question at this day Let not equivocal names deceive us and the case is easie By the word Church the Scripture still meaneth first either the Universal Church which is the body or Kingdome of Christ alone Secondly or particular Congregations associated for personal communion in Gods worship But the Pope hath feigned another kind of thing and called it The Church That is The Vniversality of Christians as headed by himself as the constitutive and governing head Whereas first God never instituted or allowed such a Church Secondly nor did ever the Universality of Christians acknowledge this usurping Head Shew me in Scripture or in Church-History that either there ever was de facto or ought to be de jure such a thing in the world as they call the Church and I profess I will immediately turn
to a better if you are free But if as servants or children or wives you are under another Government which restraineth you be patient and use such means as God provideth for you This is the true way of your Church-duty and not to think that you must have a knowledge of the Godliness of all that you communicate with or that you must refuse communion if the Pâ—stor he remiss and negligent Obj. But will it not be my sin if I communicate with such as I know to be notoriously wicked when a little leaven leaveneth the lump Answ. It will be your sin if you obey not Christ Mat. 18. 15. in admonishing them and so if it be long of you that they are not removed or if you do not your duty to reform the Pastor or remove him But otherwise if they be there without your fault it is no more your sin to communicate with such men than it is to live and converse with fellow servants that are wicked when it is not you but your Master that hath the choice of them And the leavening of the lump which the Text speaketh of is the tempting of others to the like sin and not that the innocent shall be held guilty of it nor were the words spoken to the people to perswade them to do the Pastors work or to separate from the Church but to the Pastors to perswade them to cast out the sinner and to the people to perswade them to execute their Sentence and the Apostles in particular It would rule and quiet people if they knew the trust and work of the Pastors from their own DIRECT XII Well study the gracious Nature and Office of Iesus Christ and his great readiness to receive those that come to him though weak in faith and his backwardness to refuse such Commers that so you may desire a Church-discipline that is suitable to the Nature and Office of Christ and to the design and tenor of the Gospel CHrists outward Discipline is agreeable to his inward As those that come to him by faith he will in no wise cast out or reject so those that come to him by profession of faith he would not have his Ministers in any wise reject And coming to Christ when he was personally on earth did signifie the following of him in presente as well as believing in him Just so far as men will come so far they shall be received by Christ If they will come but towards him he will not put them back If they will come but to his visible Church by a dead profession he would not have his Ministers repulse them The outward priviledges of the visible Church which they come to they shall possess If they will come over to the Church of the regenerate they shall be saved But where ever they stop it shall be their own doing Many came to Christ when he was on earth whom he never repulsed though he was marvelled at and grudged at for entertaining them Some came so far as to own his Name and did Miracles by it that yet did not follow him whom the Apostles would have hindered but Christ reproved them Mar. 9. 38. Luk. 9. 49. Some came only to receive a Cure of their Diseases from him whom his Disciples sometimes repulsed but so did not he when little children were brought to him his Disciples rebuked those that brought them as thinking them unfit for his reception but Christ rebuked them for their forbidding of such guests When he eat and drank with publicans and sinsinners and when he received the kindness of a woman that had bin a great sinner the Pharisees censured him therefore as ungodly But yet he would not abate his clemency Many at this day can scarce digest it that he sent forth a Iudas to preach the Gospel when he knew that he was a thief and an hypocrite and foreâ—new that he was a Son of perdition and would betray him and that the Devil would enter into him yea knew that he was a Devil Ioh. 6. 70. 13. 2. yeâ— that this Iudas should be one of the twelve select Apostles and one of the Family of Christ. Yet Christ repulsed him not And if he did not partake of the Sacrament at his last Supper it was not because Christ did turn him out but because he went away himself And accordingly the Apostles received 3000 at once into the Church upon their sudden profession of repentance even of such as had killed the Lord of life And though Simon Magus would not come out of the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity yet was he not kept out of the visible Church when he professed to believe and desired baptism Indeed if men will not come so far as to the profession of true faith and repentance they are not to be received into thâ— Church Because the Church is a Society of such Professours And if they will not come they cannot be received The Church and Sacrament must not be altered and made another thing than Christ made it for the receiving of another sort of men We must not do as some that would have no profession of saving faith and repentance but only a consent to learn required of them that are baptized and so baptism changed into another sort which Christ never instituted and the Church never used to this day But if Christians had well studied the compassions of a Saviour and the tenour of his Gospel and his practice upon earth and instead of a surly flying from their neighbours and groundless censuring them were possessed themselves with that love and tenderness which is the Evangelical temper and the image of their Lord it would put in end to many of our divisions and bring us neerer the truth and one another DIRECT XIII Yet left you run into the worse extream remember still that the destroying of sin and the sanctifying of mans nature and life by recovering us to the obedience and Love of God was the design and work of the Redeemer And that Holiness and Peace must go together And that the outward order and discipline of the visible Church must be subservient to the inward spirituality and prosperity of the regenerate Church And no such favour must be shewed to sinners as favoureth and strengthneth their sin and hindereth the increase of holiness IT is woful work which ungodly Pastors make in the visible Church under the name and pretense of Vnity Concord Peace and Order when an enemy to true holiness hath the managing of these you may easily imagine how they will be used But sad experience hath told the Christian world these 1300 years more doleful things thâ—n could otherwise have bin imagined The compassion which Christ shewed to sinners was to convert and save them from their sin But the compassion which caâ—nal Pastors shew them is to harden them in their sin and make them believe that repentance and holiness are but hypocrisie or needless things The Unity and Concord
the causes of happiness or misery And the reason of this is because Natural-free-will was part of the Natural-image of God on Adam and it is as natural to a man to be a free-agent as to be Reasonable And God will govern Man as Man agreeably to his nature Therefore do not wonder if Church priviledges are principally left to mens own wills or choice when their salvation is left to it Indeed God would not have any man admitted into the Church and to its communion in his own way and on his own terms The way and terms are of Christs appointment That they must Profess Faith and Repentance is his appointed condition that the Minister must be the publike judge of this profession and accordingly receive them â—olemnly by Baptism and that they must enter under the hand of the Key-bearers of the Church All this is of Christs institution But whether they will make this profession or not and whether they will make it in truth or in falshood and whether they will live according to it or play the hypocrites and live contrary to it These are at their own choice And good reason for the gain or less must be their own If any be in the Communion of the Church who either never made profession of Christianity or who is proved before them to have apostatized from that profession or to live impenitently in any gross sin after the Churches admonition it is the Pastors fault and yours if it be by the neglect of your duty But if any other be there it is their own fault and the loss and hurt must be their own If any one that professeth Christianity ignorantly unbelievingly and hypocritically be there or if they come to the Sacrament whilest they live in secret or open sin before they have been openly admonished by the Church it is their own sin and not you but they shall bear the blame God leaveth such matters to their own choice and as they choose they speed And for us to grudge at this order of God is but to quarrel at wisdome and goodness and to correct Gods order by our disorder The man that came in without a wedding garment is blamed and bound hand and foot and punished But the Minister that called him in and admitted him is not blamed because he did as he was bidden He went to the high-ways and hedges and compelled them by importunity to come in that the House might be filled Nor are any that came in with him blamed for having communion with such For they were in their places and did as they were exhorted to do And sâ—â—will it be in the case that is before us DIRECT XVI Though the profession of Christianity which entituleth men to Church-communion must be credible yet remember that there are divers Degrees of credibility and that every Profession which is not proved false is credible in such a degree as must be accepted by the Church PRofession of Christianity is every mans Church-title No man is to prove the sincerity of his own profession nor may the Church require such proof at his hands For how can a man prove to another the sincerity of his own heart But the fuller testimony he giveth of it the better it is And therefore none should refuse to make his own profession as fully credible to the Church as he is able noâ— is the Church to be blamed for enquiring after the fullest credibility so be it they do it but ad melius esse and not ad esse not laying his title upon it nor refusing him for want of it But every profession as such is credible in some degree which is not disproved Because men are under God the only competent judges of their own hearts And the belief of one another is the ground of humane converse And it is an injury to any man to account him a lyar without sufficient proof He that will disprove a mans profession must prove first that he doth not tolerably understand what he saith secondly or that he speaketh not seriously but in jest or not voluntarily but in hypocrisie by constraint or for some by end Thirdly or that he contradicteth his own words by some more credible words or deeds And if you never yet thus disproved mens profession of Christianity before the Pastors of the Church and yet cry out against the Pastors for admitting them you are not true Reformers but disorderly Mutineers and peevish censurers in the Church of Christ. Christs orders and mens right and all Church-justice must not be trodden down and sacrificed to your humour and arbitrary way DIRECT XVII Know how far either Grace or Gifts are necessary to a Minister that you may give both Grace and Gifts their due THere have been two great questions which long have troubled the Church whether we may take him for a true Minister of Christ that is ungodly And what measure of Gifts is necessary to the being of the Ministry I have carefully answered them both in my Disputation of Ordination long ago and shall now only say in brief First that no ungodly man is so called to the Ministry as to excuse himself before God for his usurpation and hypocritical administrations Secondly But many an ungodly man is so far called to the Ministry as that his adminâ—st at ons are all valid to the Church and the innocent people shall not have the loss Thirdly no people should choose and prefer such an ungodly Minister before a better Fourthly but they should rather submit to such than have none when a better cannot by them be had Iudas had a place in the Ministry with the Apostles Act. 1. 17. And his ministration might be valid to others though his hypocrisie might turn it into sin to himself And his ministry might have been accepted of the people though they had known his hypocrisie as Christ did But a sincere Apostle was to be preferred before him And for Gifts First the greatest degree is best and secondly God maketh so great use of them that many an hypocrite wiâ—h excellent gifts doth edifie the Church more than many good men that are ungifted Thirdly but that measure of Gifts only is necessary to the Being of a Minister without which the essential parts of his office cannot be performed Learn therefore to prefer them that have most grace and guifts but not to take them for no Ministers that want Grace totally or want only a greater degree of Gifts And marvel not that Gifts are more necessary to the validity of ministration than Grace is He may perform the office of a Minister to the benefit of the Church that hath no saving grace at all so did Iudas so did those in Math. 7. 21. that prophesied and cast out devils in Christs name to whom he will yet say Depart from me ye workers of iniquity I know you not For Grace is to save him that possesseth it But Gifts are to teach and profit others Yet Grace is an exceeding
points that no controversies or opinions will shake his faith or destroy his love to God or man Thirdly He will honour God by upright practise and shew forth the power and excellency of religion in the true success upon the heart and life His Religion which begins in solid faith will grow up into sincere Love and good works Fourthly He will be without partiality a Lover of all the servants of Christ and therefore escape temptations to faction and division because his Religion consisteth in those common truths and duties which all profess Fifthly he will not only safely receive all further truths from these principles but all his knowledge and disputes will be sanctified as being all subservient to faith and love and holiness Whereas he that taketh the contrary course and presently falleth to the study of by-opinions and layeth too much upon them will prove too like a superficial hypocrite and a deceiver of himself by thinking that he is something when he is nothing Gal. 6. 5 6. And he will make a pudder in the world for nothing as children do in the house about their babies and their bawbles He will make but an engine of his by-opinions to destroy true Piety and Christian Love in himself first and then in all that will believe him He will first make himself and then many others believe that Religion is nothing but proud self-conceit and faction And he will be the shame of his profession and the hardener of the wicked in their sin and misery by perswading them that the Religious are bnt a few ignorant whimsical fanaticks These are too sad experienced truths DIRECT XXXII Lay not a greater stress upon your different words or manner of prayer than God hath laid And take heed either of scorning reproaching or slighting the words and manner of other mens worship when it is such as God accepteth from the sincere IT is an easie thing to turn the native heat of Religion into a feaverish out-side zeal about words or circumstances or ceremonies whether it be for them or against them O what a wonder is it that by so palpable a trick as thâ—s the Devil should deceive so many and make such a stir and disturbance in the Church I know that one party will cry up Order the other will cry up Spirituality and both will say that God maketh not light of the smallest matters in religion nor no more must we And in this general position there is some truth But if nothing could be said for both their errours they would then be no deceits nor be capable of doing any mischief Some things that you contend about God hath left wholly undetermined and indifferent And some things in which your brother erreth his errour is so small a fault as not at all to hinder his acceptance with God nor with any man that judgeth as God doth Had you ever understood Rom. 14 15. you would have understood all this It would make a knowing Christian weep between indignation and compassion to see in these times what censures and worse are used on both sides about the wording of our prayers to God! How vile and unsufferable some account them that will pray in any words which are not written down for them And how unlawful others account it to pray in their imposed forms some because they are forms and some because they are such forms and some because that Papists have used them and some because they are imposed when God hath given them no command but to pray in faith and fervency according to the state of themselves and others and in such order as is agreeable to the matter and in such method as he hath given them a Rule and Pattern of But of all quarrels about forms and words he hath never made any of their particular determinations no more than whether I shall preach by the help of Notes or study the words or speak those which another studied for me It is a wonder how they that believe the Scriptures came first to make themselves believe that God maketh such a matter as they do of their several words and forms of prayer That he loveth only extemporary prayer as some think and hateth all prescribed forms Or that he loveth only prescribed Forms as others think and hateth all extemporary prayers by habit Certainly in Christs time both Liturgies by forms and also prayers by habit were used And yet Christ never interposed in the Controversie so as to condemn the one or the other He condemneth the Pharisees for making long prayers to cover their devouring widdows houses and for their praying to be seen of men But whether their prayers were a Liturgy and set forme or whether they were extemporary he taketh no notice as telling us that he condemned neither And it s like the Pharisees long Liturgy was in many things worse than ours though the Psalms were a great part of it And yet Christ and his Apostles oft joyned with them and never condemned them Nay as far as I can find the Pharisees and other Jews were not in this so blind and quarrelsome as we nor never made a controversie of it nor ever presumed to condemn either Liturgies or Prayers by habit I shall now pass by their errour who are utterly against publike prayers from a habit as having spoken of it at large elsewhere when I had opportunity I shall now only answer the contrary extreme Obj. Where hath God given any men power to prescribe and impose forms for others or commanded others to obey them Answ. First where ever he hath given any power to teach their inferiours to pray who cannot do it in a better way He hath given Parents this power where he hath bid them Bring up their Children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord Is it not by the Law of nature the Parents duty to teach their children to pray And is not the learning of the words first profitable to their learning of the sense May they not teach their Children the Lords Prayer or a Psalm though it be a Form And why not then other words which are agreeable to their State And he that taught his own Disciples a Form and Rule of Prayer and telleth us that so Iohn taught his Disciples and saith to his Apostles As my Father sent me so send I you by making them Teachers to his Church did allow them to teach either by forms or without as the cause required All the Scripture is now to Preachers a form of Teaching And when we read a Chapter we read a prescribed form of Doctrine And it haâ—h many forms of prayer and praise and forms of Baptizing administring the Lords Supper If you say that the Apostles had an infallible spirit I answer True And that proveth that that their Doctrine was more infallible than other mens but not that they only and not other men may teach by the way of forms All the Books of Sermons now written are
so many prescribed words or forms of teaching And if we may use forms of Teaching as well as the Apostles why not also forms of praying If you say that the Apostles prescribed the Church no Liturgy I answer That only proveth that no one is universally necessary nor to be universally imposed but not that therefore no use of forms of prayer are lawful May we not now use the Lords Prayer or pray in some other Scripture form Obj. But the Apostles compelled none to use them Answ. Christ and his Apostles assumed not the civil Sword and therefore so compelled men to nothing But yet their authority bound the conscience when Christ said when ye pray say Our Father c. he bound them in duty to do as he bid them though he forced them not But Secondly tell me if you can where God forbiddeth you to use good and lawful words in prayer meerly because the Magistrate or Pastor bids you use them Is this the meaning of all the Precepts of honouring and obeying your Superiors Do nothing which they bid you do though otherwise lawful O strange exposition of the Fifth Commandment If you command your Child to learn a Catechism or Form of Prayer before his meat or for other times will you teach him to say Father or Mother it had been lawful for me to use this Form if neither you nor any body had bid me But because you bid me now it is unlawful O whither will not partiality lead men Obj. But though it be lawful to impose forms on children yet not upon aged Christians Answ. Aged persons have too many of them as much need of such forms as children Age maketh not the difference We are fain to teach many aged persons forms of Catechism as well as children Why not therefore forms of prayer Obj. But it is not lawful to impose forms publikely on whole Congregations of Believers Answ. All sects in the world do it I never heard any Separatist or Anabaptist or any other publike Minister but he imposed a form of prayer upon all the Congregation He is void of common sense that thinketh that his extemporary prayer is not as truly a form to all the people as if it had been written in a book The order and words are not of your own invention but invented by another to your hand and imposed upon you to use For I hope you come together to pray and not to hear a prayer only But the difference is First that one imposeth every day a new form on you and the other imposeth every day the same Secondly And that one telleth you not what words you shall pray in before you hear them and the other writeth them down for you to know before hand For my part I wonder why written or unwritten long-premeditated or suddenly expressed prayers should be taken for unlawful But however do not think the difference to lie where it doth not For doubtless to the people they are both formes and both imposed though not imposed by the same persons and authority Obj. But at least you have no proof for imposing forms â—n the Ministers themselves Ans. First I know no man that questioneth but some form of prayer and praise were imposed by God himself on the Iewish Ministers And one was taught by Christ to his Apostles And a form of Profession of faith and of Baptism and the Lords supper is imposed on all the Ministers of the Church And Ioel 2. 17. a form of prayer is taught the Priests Secondly But we are not now pleading for the needless imposing of any forms nor the causless restraint of extemporarary prayers I have fully born my testimony against that in due season But many things are lawfully and necessarily obeyed which are not lawfully commanded as I shall shew you more anon I could heartily wish that we could say that all Ministers of any party were such as were wholly above the need of forms Or at least such whose own composures were better for for the Church than any that could be offered them by others If it were not a contradiction But all that I now expect from the Objectors is that they tell me or themselves what proof they have that it is a sin for a Minister only to use an imposed form when all the Congregation else may use it Answer this well before you go And I pray let all the people note here that it is not nor cannot be denied but that a form even a new one every day may be lawfully be imposed upon all them and that the question is only of the Ministers use of imposed forms Obj. But our Ministers do not impose their prayers by forcâ— Answ. Do you think that there is no imposition but by force Your Pastor is your guide in the worship of God and God hath imposed it on you to to follow him and joyn with him in lawful prayer And what the words shall be and what the matter and order chosen for that time time the Speaker chooseth for you And so he bindeth you by his Ministerial authority which is a true and lawful imposing though he compel you not by the sword or force Obj. But Christ hath given gifts to all his Ministers and commanded them to use them And they use them not when they use imposed formes Therefore we must not obey men against Christ. Answ. No doubt but all that are lawful Ministers have such gifts as are necessary to the essential works of their office But the degrees of their gifts have very great variety as Paul fully sheweth in 1 Cor. 12. and oft elsewhere And the necessary gift for hearty acceptable prayer is true Desire excited by the spirit of supplication which sometime venteth it self but by sighes and groans Rom. 8. 16 26. But the Ministerial gift of prayer is Knowledge and Utterance by which a Minister may be able to express the desires and wants of the people unto God which includeth memory in some degree Even as Knowledge and Utterance are his Gift of preaching And some have more Knowledge and worser Vtterance And some have better Vtterance and less Knowledge And some through want of memory are defective in both The lowest rank of lawful Ministers may be so defective in their own gifts both of Knowledge Memory and Utterance as to have need of the help of the gifts of others who much excel them As a Minister who hath tollerable Gifts for preaâ—hing may yet need the writings of other men before hand and may bring both their Matter and Method into the Pulpit yea and oft times their words so that though he have Gifts yet being weak he may use the gifâ—s of others I have been counselled since I was silenced to compose Sermons my self and give them in writing to some weak Minister that hath an excellent Voice and utterance and to let him preach them And really if I had not known that such have good books enough at hand for such a use
a Heretick or an impenitent sinner and to be excommunicated or not and the Church where he liveth is divided about it if the matter be but referred to the Pope as the supream Judg it is but going to Rome and sending thither all the parties and witnesses on both sides and the Pope can decide it much more judiciously than those that are on the place and know the persons and all the circumstances And all this may be done in three years time or less if wind and weather and all things serve And if all the persons die by the way the controversie is ended If one part only die let the longer liver have the better and be justified Or if the Pope will rather send Governours to the place to decide the controversie whether the next Lords day you shall hold communion with such a man or not and so forward its like in a few years time some of them may live to come thither And if you must still appeal to the Pope himself for fear lest a Priest be not the infallible or final Judg and can do no better than other folks Priests you may after all have the liberty of the voyage And if you cannot in that age get the case dispatched yet you must believe that you have appeared to the only center of Unity This cheating noise and name of Vnity hath been the great divider of the Christian world And under pretense of suppressing Heresie and Schism and bringing a blessed peace and harmony amongst all Christians the Churches have been set all together by the ears condemning and unchurching one another and millions have been murthered in the flames inquisition and other kinds of death and those are Martyrs with the one part who are burnt as Hereticks by the other And more millions have been murdered by wars And hatred and confusion is become the mark and temperament of those who have most loâ—dly cried up Vnity and Concord Order and Peace It is a common way to set up a sect or faction by crying down schism sects and factions And a common way to destroy both Unity and Peace by cryâ—ng up Unity and Peace Therefore let not bare Nâ—mes decâ—ive you Remember that one of the old sects or factions of carnal Christians cried up Cephas that is Peter and said we are of Cephas which I know not how they could be blamed for if he was the Churches Constitutive or Governing Head 1 Cor. 1. 12. and 3. 22. And remember that the Church is not the body of any Apostle but of Christ and that all the Apostles are but the nobler sort of members and none of them the Head 1 Cor. 12. 27 28. Now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular and God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets thirdly Teachers c. But Bellarmine aware of this hath devised this shift that the Pope succeedeth Peter in more than his Apostle-ship even his Head-ship But when he hath proved Peter more than an Apostle and the Pope his successor he will do the business Till then we must say that if the Pope were but a good Priest or Bishop below an Apostle we should give him more honour than his treasonable usurpation of Christs prerogatives is like to procure him For he that will needs have all shall have none and he that exalteth himself shall be brought low and he that will be more than a man shall be less than a man DIRECT LVIII Take heed of Superstition and observe well the circular course of zealous superstition malignity formality and peevish singularity and schism that you may not be misled by respect of persons I mean that First Indiscreet zeal and devotion hath been the usual beginner of Superstition Secondly Malignity in that age hath opposed it for the Authors sake Thirdly In the next age the same kind of men have adored the Authors and made themselves a Religion of the formal part of that superstition and persecuted those that would not own it Fourthly And then the same kind of men that first made it do oppose it in enmity to those who impose and own it and suffer and divide the Church in dislike of that which was their own invention IT is marvellous to observe this partial dance But Church-History may convince the understanding Reader that so it hath been and so it is First the zeal of some holy persons doth at first break forth in some lawful and in some indiscreet and unwarrantable expressions Secondly the malignant enemies of Godliness hate and oppose these expressions for the sake of the persons and the zeal exprest 3. When they are dead God performing his promise that the memory of the just shall be blessed Prov. 10. 7. The carnal party of that age as welâ— as others do honour those whom their fore-fathers hated and murthered Math. 23. 29 30. Wo to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites because ye build the tombs of the Prophets and garnish the sepulâ—hres of the righteous and say If we had been in the dayes of our Fathers we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the Prophets Wherefore ye be witnesses to your selves that ye are the children of them which killed the Prophets Fill you up then the measure of your fathers The wicked of one generation kill Gods servants and the wicked of the next Generation do honour their names and celebrate their memorial The reason is because it is the Life of Godliness which the sinner is troubled with and hateth And therefore it is the living saint whom he abhorreth But the name and form of Godliness is less troublesome to him yea and may be useful to make him a Religion of to quiet his conscience in his sin And therefore the name of dead saints he can honour and the form of their worship and corps of piety he can own And having become so Religious both his former enmity to living holiness and his carnal zeal for his Image of Religion engage him to make a stir for it and persecute those that are not of his way And when the zealous and devout people of that age see this they loath that carkass or Image which the formalist contendeth for and many â—lye from it with too great abhorrence for the persons sake who now esteems it forgetting its original and that it was such as they that set it up and were the first inventers For instance The most of the persons whom the Papists now keep holy dayes for were very religious godly people And the zealous Religious people of that age did think that the honouring of the memories of the Martyrs was a great means to invite the infidels to Christianity and to encourage the weak to stick to Christ And therefore they kept the dayes of their martyrdome in thanksgiving to God and in honour of them The wicked of that age hated and persecuted both the Martyrs and them that honoured them In the next age Religion
devised stricter terms Many must have other proofs of Godliness besides the understanding voluntary assent and consent to the Baptismal Covenant Yea of those that are in the universal Church already before they can be admitted to its priviledges or to a particular Church And which is worse they here give the Church no certain rule instead of Christs rule which they cast by But one man requireth one account and another requireth another and the rule and test doth vary as the charity or prudence of men do vary This is a superstition which hath already torn the Churches in pieces and is going on still to do worse And it s raised by mistaking-zeal Thirdly that none that at the same time or before are not entered members of some particular Church may by Baptism be entered into the Universal Church is a superstition which some good men have taken up Fourthly that he who is a member only of the Universal Church may not in transitu be admitted to communion with particular Churches unless he bring a Certificate from a particular Church of which he â—ometime was a Member Fifthly that the Pastor may not lawfully receive any member into a particular Church without the consent of the Major Vote of the people Sixthly that a Minister of Christ may not by Baptism receive any into the Universal Church but by the consent of the Major Vote of some particular Church Seventhly that no man is a Minister or Commissioned Officer of Christ for the discipling and baptizing of those without the Church unless he be also the Pastor of some particular Church or at least have been such Eighthly that the people do not only châ—sse the persons who shall be their Pastors but also give them their office or power Ninthly that the people have the power of the Keyes or of Church-Government by Vote Tenthly that the people of a particular Church do give authority to men to be Ministers in the Vniversal Church and to preach and baptize among those that are without Eleventhly that he that is a member of one Church may not communicate with any otâ—er but by the consent of the Pastor and people of that one Twelfthly That he that is a member of a Church may not remove his relation to another Church when his occasions and personal benefit require it and the publick good of many is not hurt by it without the consent of the Pastor and people of that Church Thirteenthly that it is simply unlawful to use a form of prayer or to read a prayer on a book Fourteenthly That if a School-master impose a form upon a schollar or a parent on a child it maketh it become unlawful Fifteenth that our presence maketh us guilty of all the errours or unmeet expressions of the Minister in publick worship At least if we before know of them And therefore that we must joyn with none whose errours or mis-expressions we know of before Sixteenth that as oft as a Minister is removed from his particular flock he becometh but a private men and is no longer a Minister and Officer of Christ. Seventeenth that we are guilty of the sins of all unworthy or scandalous Communicants if we communicate with them Though their admission is not by our fault Eighteenth that he whose judgement is against a Diocesan Church may not lawfully joyn with a Parish Church if the Minister be but subject to the Diocesan Nineteenth that whatsoever is unlawfully commanded is not lawful to be obeyed Twenty that it is unlawful to do any thing in the worship of God which is imposed by men and is not commanded it self in the Scripture As what Translation of the Scripture shall be read what meetre and what Tune of Psalms shall be in use what hour and at what place the Church shall meet Pulpits Tables Fonts c. Printing the Bible c. dividing it into Chapters verses c. These and more such as these are superstitions which some religious people have brought up And among those who are of another opinion wil speak against all the fore-mentioned superstâ—tâ—ons there are too many introduced which they are as fond of because they are their own ☞ As that all the Pastors of the Protestant Churches abroad who had only the election of the people and the ordination of Parochial Pastours and not of Diocesan Bishops are no true Ministers of Christ but Lay-men That therefore those Churches are no true Churches in a political sense and as organized That therefore their Baptism is unlawful and a nullity and all those nations are no baptized Christians Though the Papists who hold the validity of Lay-mens baptizing do here censure more easily That it is not lawful to communicate in such Churches and receive the Sacrament of the Lords supper from such Ministers That those Countries which are baptized by such should be rebaptized That those Ministers who are ordained by such should be re-ordained That it is unlawful to joyn with those Churches where the Minister prayeth only from a Habit of of prayer called extemporary without a fore-known form because they know not but he mayx put somewhat unlawful into his prayers and because the mind cannot so readily try and approve and consent to words which are hastily uttered and not known to the hearers before These and abundance other superstitions some men would introduce on the other side And by all such inventions fathered upon God and made a part of Religion the minds of men are corrupted and disquieted and the Churches disturbed and divided by departing from primitive simplicity I shall only now propose this to the consideration of those of the first sort Whether they are sure that these superstitions of theirs may not run the round as other superstitions have done before them Or some of them at least What if the next age should turn them into a dead formality And what if the next age after that should make Laws to enforce them And then Godly people first scruple them and then flye from them as discerned superstition And then the worst men bâ— glad of that advantage to persecute those that would not submit to them By this circulation if the same men who invented un-ordained Elders new and needless Church-Covenants c. could but live two or 300 years they might come to be among the number of those who cry out of them as superstitious and suffer persecution because they will not use them Yea there are among you now many things of a lower nature which some dare scarce plainly say God commandeth or forbiddeth and yet they are censorious enough about them As heretofore many were against wearing the hair of any considerable length Against wearing cuffs upon a day of humiliation Against dressing meat or feasting at least on the Lords day which is a day of Thanksgiving of divine institution and held That it is necessary to feast twice at least upon a day of Thanksgiving of mans appointment That a Minister should
testimony for it in the world And Gods promise of reward doth tell you that you labour not in vain Is that in vain which Heaven is promised to Quest. But what is it that you would have 〈◊〉 do for Love and Peace and against the contraries Answ. First Preach and write if it be your calling Secondly Let the cause of Love and Peace be much in your secret and open prayers to God Thirdly Instruct all that learn of you with principles of Love and Peace and labour to plant them deep in their minds and make them as sensible of the evil of the contraries as they are of any other sin Unless Divines and Parents do take the way to bring up the people and children under this kind of doctrine that Love and peace may become their Religion the Church is never like to be recovered Fourthly In all your conference labour seasonably and prudently to inculcate these matters on the hearers minds and to bear your testimony against cruelty and division Fifthly Put such books into peoples hands as plead best the cause of Love and Peace Among others get men to read these Bishop Usher's Sermon on Eph. 4. 3. at Wansted before King Iames Bishop Hall's Peace-maker Mr. Ieremiah Burroughs of Heart-divisions and Mr. Stillingsteet's Irenicon and all Mr. Duries Sixthly Disgrace not your Doctrine by the badness of your own lives but be as much more Holy than them as you are more Peaceable that they may see that it is not a carnal unholy Peace that you desire But these things belong to the following Directions Finally Brethren farewel Be perfect be of good comfort Be of one mind Live in Peace And the God of Love and Peaâ—e shall be with you 1 Cor. 13. 11. Phil. 4. 9. 1 Thes. 5. 23. And the God of Peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly Rom. 16. 20. Now the God of Peace be with you all Amen Rom. 15. 33. Martyrdome for Love and Peace is as honourable and gainful as Martyrdome for the Faith Part. II. DIRECTIONS TO THE PASTORS HOW TO Esteem and use Christs Flock EVEN The weak ones and the quarrelsome Children And what must be done by themselves in the first place both to prevent and heal DIVISIONS THe Practise of which the Author doth humbly and earnestly beg of them as with tears upon his knees for the sake of Christ that purchased the weakest with his blood for the sake of those that must live in peace with Christ for ever for the sake of those who are in danger of turning to Popery or contemning Godliness through the scandal of our Divisions to their own damnation for the sake of these poor distracted Churches for the sake of the King that he may have the comfort of Governing a quiet and united people and for their own sakes that they may give up their account with joy to the chief Shepherd and Bishop of our souls and not with terrour for the consuming and scattering of his flock And that he may both begin and end with Divine Authority the Author humbly beggeth of them all that England may but SEE and FEEL that the PASTORS do VNDERSTAND BELIEVE CONSIDER and OBEY that will of God which these following Texts of Scripture do express Psal. 15. 4. In whose eyes a vile person is contemned but he honoureth them that fear the Lord. Math. 25. 40 45. Verily I say unto you in as much as ye did it not to one of the least of these my Brethren ye did it not to me Math. 18. 6 10. But who so shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me it were better for him that a milstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the Sea Take heed that ye Despise not one of these little ones for I say unto you that in Heaven their Angels do alwayes behold the face of my father which is in heaven II For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost 2 Cor. 4. 3. But if our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lest 1 Cor. 9. 16. For necessity is laid upon me yea wo is unto me if I preach not the Gospel Act. 20. 20 24 28 33. I have taught you publickly and from house to house But none of these things move me neither count I my life dear unto myself so that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Iesus Take â—eed therefore to your selves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood I have coveted no mans silver or gold or apparel 1 Pet. 5. 2 3. Feed the flock of God which is among you taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly nor for filthy lucre but of a ready mind neither as being Lords over Gods heritage but being ensamples to the flock And when the chief Shepherd shall appear ye shall receive a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away Luk. 22. 24 25. And there was a strife among them which of them should be accounted the Greatest And he said unto them The Kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship over them and they that exercise authority upon them are called Benefactors But ye shall not be so but he that is greatest among you let him be as the younger and he that is chief as he that doth serve I am among you as he that serveth 1 Thes. 5. 12 13. Know them which LABOUR AMONG you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and esteem them very highly in Love for their WORK sake and be at peace among your selves 1 Tim. 5. 17. Let the Elders that Rule well be counted worthy of double honour Especially they who labour in the WORD and DOCTRINE Phil. 1. 15 16 17 18. Some indeed preach Christ even of envy strife and some also of good will The oâ—r preach Christ of contention not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds What then Notwithstanding every way whether in pretence or in truth Christ is preached and I do therein rejoyce yea and will rejoyce Act. 28. 30 31. And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house and received all that came in unto him preaching the Kingdome of God and teaching those things which concern the Lord Iesus Christ with all confidence no man forbidding him Rom. 14. 1 2 3 4. Him that is weak in the faith receive ye but not to doubtful disputations For one believeth that he may eat all things Another who is weak eateth herbs Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not And let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth For God hath received him Who art thou that judgest another mans servant To his own Master he standeth or falleth yea he shall be holden up For God is able to make him stand One man esteemeth one
many very good men think that publick interest may be allowed much power upon their minds though private and personal must be denied Is it not a wonder to see not only that almost all Christians are incorporated into one sect or party or other but how easily the inconsiderable reasons of their party can prevail with them and how hardly the better reasons of their adversaries seem to them of any weight or worth Not only the parties of Papists and Protestants Lutherans and Reformed c. shew this but in the same Church the Regulars and Seculars the Bishops and the Jesuits the Dominicans and Jesuits the Thomists Scotists c. declare it And the difference made by natural capacities is yet more than all this When one man is born to a duller understanding and another hath a quick and clear apprehension All that these men read and hear and meditate on is like to make different impressions on their minds And this is the greatest thing of any one which maketh many controversies endless and maketh both Divines and people run away from one another as dangerously erroneous If a few men have clearer understandings than the duller and unstudied sort they are like to be the minor part For the dull and slothful and yet self-conceited will ever be the greater part many to one till the golden age return And when all the world feeleth the consequents of this difference can we doubt of it or so far dote as to think it possible to cure it Yet the various degrees of the Grace of God do certainly also make great variety of apprehensions When God giveth to some those true illuminations those â—hirsting desires after truth those heart-experiences those delightful relâ—shes those powerful effects and victories which he giveth not to others they are made to differ must needs have different apprehensions of such things In which sense Christ saith that he came not to send peace but division that is to be such an object and preach so holy a doctrine and give such grace as would â—ccasion divisions by making his sanctified ones differ from the world and occasioning the erritation of the worlds malignity And indeed the grand difference between the seed of the woman and of the serpent the holy and the carnal seed is that which is the root of the greatest and sorest divisions in the world which will never be reconciled till Christ at the day of judgement shall say to one part Come ye blessed and to the other Go ye cursed For the carnâ—l mind is enmity against God and is not subject to his law nor indeed can be in sensâ— compâ—sito Rom. 8. 6 7 8. It was not for nothing that God permitted that great eruption of it in the first man that ever was born into the world against his innocent brothers life on the bare account of their religious sacrifices And the Cainites are still too strong for Alel's successors and too numerous And why did he kill his brother But because his own works were evil and his brothers righteous Gen. 4. 10 11. 1 Joh. 3. 12. And as Paul saith of the two sons of Abraham as he that was born of the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit even so it is now Gal. 4. 29. For the flesh fighteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other Gal. 5. 17. And that which is born of the flesh is flesh that which is born of the spirit is spirit Joh. 3. 6. And they that are of the flesh do savour mind or understand the things of the flesh and they that are after the spirit do mind the things of the spirit Rom. 8. 5 6. Our heavenly teacher told his disciples that if they were of the world the world would love them but because they are not of the world but he had chosen them out of the world the world would hate them even as it hated him Ioh. 15. 18 19 24 25. Ioh. 17. 14. And every one that doth evil hateth the light Ioh. 3. 19 20. Nothing then can be surer or plainer to a believer than that there will be still as great divisions and diversitie of apprehensions as radicated enmity can breed And to prevent many objections let these three things be noted First That this grand difference which lieth in the greatest matters in head and heart must needs have influence upon abundance of inferiour controversies Both as the Persons and main cause are concerned in them Reason and experience have put this past controversie Secondly That this doth not concern only the visible Church and the world but the visible Church within it self For all the Hypocrites and carnal worshippers have still the Cainish serpentine nature Yea those that by advantages and interest are brought over to the Orthodox as well as Christian side And it is a happy Church where the Hypocrites are not the greater part And it is neither great Learning nor degrees nor the Pastoral office nor the profession of the highest zeal which will serve turn to cure the carnal enmity without the sanctifying spirit of grace So that when controversies arise we see not in the hypocrites that carnal mind which in the strictest proâ—ession or greatest learning or most venerable function will work against the interest of holiness But we are sure that there it is though we know not the persons in whom but by the full effects Thirdly And note also that there is a mixture or remnant of this unhappy root and principle even in the sanctified themselves And it is hard in a controversie to perceive in our selves much more in others how much our judgements may be moved by this party and what influence it may have into our conclusions So that all this maketh it but too manifest what a certainty there is of perpetual differences in the Church upon all these foresaid accounts Add also this great and unavoidable cause that one errour leadeth in another And no man being without some and every one being generative and inferring more what will it come to when all those also shall have their off-spring and the further they go the more they will increase and multiply And as the judgement by one is laid open to another even as truth inferreth truth so the will is engaged and espouseth mens own opinions as their interest which maketh them stretch their wâ—ts in study to maintain what once they have received and asserted And alas how often have I heard wise and reverend persons cry out against this pride and partiality in others who in their next discourse or the same have shamefully shewed it in themselves making much of their own inconsiderable reasonings and vilifying cogent evidence against them and being so intent on their own inventions and cause that they could scarce have patience to hear another speak And when they have heard him their first words shew that they never well weighed the
and what errours are intoâ—erable Yet as long as it is certaâ—n that such a difference there is and that accordingly men must do doth it not rather concern both parties to search after it and practise as far as they can discern than to cast away Reason because there is a difficulty in using it aright Just thus the Papists do with us about the like notion of fundamentals or essentials of Christianity They call to us for a just enumeration of the fundamentals and because they find so much difficulty there as may find words and work for a perverse wrangler they insult as if they might therefore take either all things or nothing to be essentials and of necessity As if Christianity had no constitutive essentiall parts and so were nothing And when they have all done they are forced themselves in their writings to distinguish the fundamentals essentials and universally necessary points from the rest as Daveâ—pâ—rt Costerus Bellarmine Holden c. do And doth it not then concern them as much as us to know which they be What if it be a hard thing to enumerate just how many bits a man may eat and not be a glutton or how many drops a man may drink and be no drunkard or just what meats and drinks must be used to avoid exceâ—s in quality or just what sort of stuffes or silks or cloth or fashions may be used without excess in apparel will you thence infer that men may eat and drink any thing in quantity and quality or else nothing or that he may wear any thing or must go naked What if you cannot justly enumerate what herbs or roots or drugs are wholsome and what are unwholsome which purge too much and which too little Must therefore all be used indifferently or none If I am not able to enumerate just how many faults or weaknesses may be tollerable in my servants Must I therefore have none till I have those that are faultless or else must I allow them to do any thing that they list Though just at the verge of evil even that which is good may be matter of doubt yet God in Nature and Scripture hath given us sufficient light for an upright safe peaceable life Thirdly And if ever Baptism had been well understood by these objectors the essentials of Christianity had been understood Hath not Christ himself determined who they be that shall be admitted into the Church and numbered with Christians in the very tenor of the Baptismal Covenant And did not the Church take the Creed to be sufficient for its proper use which was to be the matter of the Christian profession as to the Articles of faith to be believed And yet are we now to seek in the end of the world what Christianity is and what are the essentials of our faith and who is to be received as a professor of Christianâ—ty But this is a subject more largely to be handled if Rulers will permit it And in the mean time because it is not the Magistrates but the Pastors that I am now speaking to I shall pretermit the most which is to be said and only acquaint you in the conclusion that one of these following wayes must be chosen I. Either to tollerate all men to do what they wil which they will make a matter of conscience or religion And then some may offer their children in sacrifice to the devil and some may think they do God service in killing his servants â—nd some may think it their duty to perswade people that there is no God nor life to come nor duty nor sin but all things are left to our own wills as lawless Secondly Or else you must tollerate no errour or fault in religion And then you must advise what measure of penalty you will inflict If but a little then you tollerate the errour still For they that err will err still and they that conscienciously pray as Daniel did Dan. 6. or forbear to obey the King as the three Confessours did Dan. 3. will do so still for all your penalty And so there is no cure but a tolleration still But if you inflict upon them banishment or death you must resolve that the King shall dwel alone and have no subjects and so be no King nor have any servant and so be no Masters nor endure so much as a wife and so be no husband and if he have children must use them as K. Philip of Spain did his eldest son Prince Charles and so be no Father It can be no less than this at last Or if you will imprison them every subject must be in prison and then who shall be the Jaylor and who shall find them food Thirdly Or else you must deal partially and unjustly and condemn one while you acquit another for the same fault or condemn one sort of errours while you allow to tollerate others as great As if all were to be punished who believe not Christs descent into Hell while all are tollerated who deny the rest of the Articles of the Creed Fourthly Or else you must make sure that all the Kings subjects shall be born under the same Planets and of the same parents and have the same temperament and complexion and the same teachers and company and all hear the same words and all see the same objects and all have the same callings employments interests passions temptations advantages and the same degree of natural capacity and of grace That so there may be no difference or defect in their apprehensions Fifthly or else you must â—istinguish and say that some are tollerable and shall be tollerated and some errours arâ— intollerable and shall not be tollerated in the tongue I mean for you must tollerate them in the mind whether you will or not And then you will find a necessity of discerning as well as you can the tollerable from the intollerable And if so for Christs sake and his Churches sake and your own sake bethink you whether Christ be not the King of his Church and whether he hath given his Church no Laws for its Constitution and Administration By which we must try who are to be the members of himself and his Church and to have Communion with himself and one another and who are to be rejected and avoided And whether the Holy Ghost iâ— not the Author of the Church-establishment in the Scriptures And whether we can expect more infallible deciders of such cases than Christ and his Spirit and Apostles And whether the Church be not the same thing now as then and and its universal constitution and necessary administration the same And whether the primitive Church or ours be the purer and more exemplary And whether it would do Kings and Kingdomes and the souls of men any dangerous hurt to have all Christians hold their Union and Communion just on the same terms as they did under Peter and Paul and all the Apostles Or at least whether it be worthy all the calamitous divisions
thus to seek themselves and overvalue their own esteem If it be the former 2 Why doth it not please you then that they are edified by others though not by you Do you think that it is not the same Gospel which others preach to them And may not that Gospel edifie and save them by the Preaching of another as well as by yours And if their dis-esteem of you be a sign or means that they are not edified by you is not their great esteem of others who are as faithful a sign and means that they are or may be edified by them Thirdly And why are you not much more troubled at the state of all those who are not converted or edified by you though they do not slight you or forsake you How many be there that seem to love and honour you and yet do not love and honour God but despise religion and their own Salvation If it be for their sakes and not your own that you are offended you will grieve most for them that are most ungodly though they honour you never so much and you will be glad for them that are faithful and Godly whose Ministery soever it be that they most esteem Fourthly But suppose them yet so foolish and faulty as to run from you to their own perdition The question is What is the way to câ—re them Is Love caused by hard words or stripes Will you say to them Love me or you shall be fined or imprisoned Christ doth not teach you to use such arguments when you speak for him but to beseech men in his name and stead tobe reconciled to God 2 Cor. 5. 19 20. But your own work will be done in your own way Obj. But Christ threatneth Hell to the impenitent and Paul pronounceth him Anathematized that loveth not the Lord Iesus and he talketh to his hearers of coming with a rod. Answ. No doubt but the corrupted mind of man hath need not only of Love to draw them home to God and work the cure but of Threatnings to drive them and to help on the cure And though it be Love that causeth Love which is their Holiness yet Fear removeth many impediments But still remember that it is Love which is predominant and fear is but subservient And that the fear which is contrary to Love is a vice and hindereth theâ—r salvation And remember that Fear and Love towards God will better stand together than Fear and Love to you will For men know Gods Soveraignty and Iustice and know that he is not to be questioned or resisted But if they suffer by you it will not be so digested nor will it so consist with love A patient will not bear to be whipt by his Physician to force him to take his medicâ—nes though a child will bear it from his parents whose Love and Power are more unquestionable to him I desire you but to mark your own experience and let your Love be predominant in all your ministrations and use no force or hurting course which will really abate their Love to you and then I shall leave you in the rest to your discretion Secondly Yet still we grant that Christs threatnings may be preached by you and must be Thirdly And that the rod of discipline must be used But this must be done only on the scandalous and such as more dishonour Christ than you And it must be so done that it may appear to be Christs own work and done by you upon his interest and at his commund and not either arbitrarily or for your selves And I shall be bold with confidence to add that in those cases where violent restraint or â—oaction is necessary the Pastor is the unmeetest person to meddle in it It is the Magistrates work to drive and force where it must be done and the Pastors to perswade and draw The flock of Christ is led by himself the Lamb of God and his Ministers must go before with him and attend him in the conduct and the Magistrate must come behind and drive and it is the hindermost and not those before that must be driven Pastors should be so far from calling out for the help of violence unless it be to keep the peace that they should rather shew their love and tenderness by seeking as far as they may to mitigate it And they should desire that no such ungrateful work be at all imposed upon them as to seem the afflicters of their flocks because when once they have lost their love they have lost their opportunity and advantage of edifying them And it is not Pilate's hypocritical washing of his hands that will excuse him Nor the Romish Clergies disclaiming to meddle in a judgement of blood which will reconcile the minds of sufferers to them as long as they are Masters of the Inquisition or deliver them up to the secular power and excommunicate and depose the temporal Lords who will not do such execution as they require Though I have some where else mentioned it I will again request the Reverend Pastors of the Church to peruse the story of Idacius and Martin in Sulpitius Severus The sum of it is this Priscillian and many others some Bishops and some Presbyters and some private persons were zealous in religion but heretical Gnosticks saith Sulpitius Ithacius and Idacius were two Orthodox Bishops who were very hot against these herâ—ticks Both of them men of rash and haughty spirits and one of them at least saith Sulpitius an injurious person that scarce cared what he said or did by others see what persons a good cause may be defended by These Bishops drew in the Bishops of the neighboring Churches in their Synods first condemned the Priscillianists and next provoked the Emperour against them The Priscillianists found that if that were the way an Emperours Court was not so Orthodox or constant but there might be as good hopes for them And therefore they got a powerful friend in Court to undertake their business and got the better of the Bishops The Bishops being born down for a time at last Maximus was proclaimed Emperour and came over with power and victory into Germany such another as Cromwel who by the Bishops was accounted a very Religious Christian but usurped the Empire and fought against and killed one of the Emperours and pretended that the souldiers made him Emperour against his will This Maximus whether sincerely or for his own advantage is unknown did take part with the Orthodox and greatly honour the Bishops and promote Religion and got a great deal of love and honour Ithacius and Idacius and the rest of the Bishops apply themselves to Maximus against the Priscillianists who hearkened to them and to please them put Priscillian and some others to death and punished others by other wayes of violence The more rude ungodly sort of Christians so far concurred or over-went the Bishops that they turned their fury against any that seemed more Religious than their neighbours so that if any one
of Israel that when they were rooted out the land should keep her Sabbaths Was that a mercy or a judgement Would you so cure Sabbath-breaking and disorder and take a solitude for Peace Fourthly is not the work to be done the saving of mens souls And shall any be saved against his will And then should not all force be meerly such as is subservient to the ends of Love Fifthly will stripes change the judgement in matters of Religion Sixthly is he any better than a Knave or an hypocrite who will say or swear or do that through fear which he verily thinketh God forbiddeth him and is displeâ—sed for and feareth it may damn his soul Seventhly Is it the honour and felicity of soâ—ls to be such or of Church or Kingdome to be composed of such Eighthly is not a conscientious fear of sinning against God a thing well pleasing to him and necessary to mens salvation and to the Churches welfare and to the safety of the lives of Kings and of the Kingdoms peace And is there not then great cause to cherish it though not the errours that abuse it And should not all care be used to cure the ungodly world of impiety and â—earedness of conscience which makes them make a mock of sin And if conscience were once debauched and mastered by fear and the people be brought to prefer their their fleshly interest before their spiritual and to fear mens punishment more than Gods would not such debauched consciences have a great advantage to make such men the masters of the estates and lives of others And are the lives of Kings and the estates of neighbours and the peacâ— of Kingdomes competently secured where God is not feared more than fines or corporal penalties Ninthly if force be so far followed till it have changed mens judgements or conquered conscience or exterminated and destroyed all that will not be thus changed or conquered who differ from superiors in unnecessary things will it not all things well considered prove a dear price for that which might be had at much cheaper rates Are not the most conscientious necessary helpers of the Ministery by their example to cure the unconscionableness of the rest And therefore should be countenanced encouraged Tenthly would not the cessation of unnecessary impositions cast out the most of the scruples of conscientious people and cease the saddest divisions of the Churches If Rome could have been content with a Religion of no more Articles than the Apostles was and would on those terms have held Communion with other Churches O what rends and ruines had it prevented in the Christian world Are not the old Apostolical rules and terms sufficient to the safety and peace of Christians Were those worthy persons B. Vsher B. Hall B. Davenant B. Morton with the Bergii the Crocii and all the great pacificators deceived who wrote and preached and cried out to the world that so much as all Christians are agreed in is sufficient matter for their concord if they would lay it upon no more vid. Vsh. serm before King Iames at Wansted Or do you think it was their meaning Let all Rulers multiply unnecessary scrupled impositions in their own dominion and for scrupling them let them silence imprison and banish at home And then let them send to their neighbour Churches for Unity Peace and Concord and tell them that the subscribing to the Scriptures generally and to the Creed Lords Prayer and Decalogue and Sacraments particularly are terms sufficient to this end Supposing that good order deconcy and peace be kept up by suitable discipline both Ecclesiastical and Civil And why would not this serve for all the world Or why should more scrupled things be called necessary to order and decency than indeed are so My desire of the Churches peace which caused me to write all the rest provoketh me to touch this subject briefly which will scarce endure to be touched DIRECT XIV When you reprove those weak Christians who are subject to errours disorders or divisions reflect not any disgrace or contempt upon Religion and conscientious strictness but be the more careful to proclaim the innocency and honour of serious Godliness lest the prophane and ungodly take occasion to despise it by your opening the faults of such as are taken for the zealous Professours of it HOnest hearers take most notice what is the main scope which the Preacher aimeth at and the business which he driveth on Some men take occasion by the errours and faults of such as have seemed seriously religious to make all seriousness and diligence for our salvation to seem to the hearers to be meer hypocrisie and not only a needless but a hurtful thing and to perswade the people that an ignorant carelesness of their souls with good neighbour-hood quietness and mirth is better than all this ado Which is no more or less than to preach for Atheism and Ungodliness in practise so it be veiled with the hypocritical profession of the Christian faith And this unhappy sort of Preachers do seldome miss to fall upon the real and supposed miscarriages of men that are or seem religious in some part of their sermons and familiar discourse which being done to so odious an end as to bring seriouâ— Religiousness it self into dislike it maketh the best of the hearers abhor such reflections because they abhor the scope of them Believing that Holiness need not to be preached against in the world till mens hearts are more enclined to it and till all its enemies abate their opposition And if it were to be done yet not by a Minister of Christ He that preacheth against Holiness how covertly soever preacheth against God Whereas if a mans designe be to promote Religion the sober hearers though partly guilty will bear his reproof of the faults of professours with much more patience when they see it is for God and godliness that he doth it I speak by experience and must give them this testimony that I have many and many a time poured out my soul in earnest reprehensions of the errours and disorders of rash dividing zeal and the hearers have taken all with patience when the same persons could not bear the tenth part so much from some preachers whom they imagined to aim in it at the depressing of the honour of true and serious religion Therefore be sure what sort of men soever you are reproving that you say nothing which tendeth to make the ignorant or ungodly sort of your auditors think that it is zeal or strictness or careful diligence about their souls which you condemn But still put in sufficient caution for the necessity of a holy heart and life DIRECT XV. Discourage not the Religious from so much of Religious exercises in their families or with one another as is meet for them in their private stations BY this means many Pastors have been very great causes of schisms and separations Some of them are so carnal and selfish that they make
forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved to fill up their sin alway for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost ☞ Luk. 9. 54 55. Lord wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them even as Elias did But he turned and rebuked them and said ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of for the son of man is not come to destroy mens lives but to save them I conclude as I began that the consciousness of our own ordinary and lamentable infirmities and the greatness of the Churches sufferings thereby in all fore-going ages and in this will condemn us of impudent self-ignorance if Ministers be not compassionate and tender towards the weaknesses of the people who cannot be expected to equal them in knowledg Alas Brethren what are we even after so many years study preparation that we should be supercilious and cruel to the infirm what difficulties puzzle us what a loss are we at in our ordinary studies How weakly do we preach and pray and write How easily do we see this in one another as our mutual censures and severities shew Who troubled Paul and the first Churches but erroneous Teachers Who prated malitiously against Iohn and cast out the brethren but a Diotrephes Who brought in the errours of the Millenaries the corporeity of Angels the errours of the Arrians Eunomians Nestorians Eutychians Macedonians and almost all the rable ine Epiphanius Augustine and Philastrius but Bishops or Presbyters Who have caused and kept open the wounds of the Churches of the East and West so long Who introduced all the errours about praying for to the dead c. that are in most of the Liturgies of the Churches in East and West And all the errours that are found in so many Councils and Confessions of Churches and in so many Volumes of Controversie as are extant Who set up the Roman Usurpation and Tyranny Who set up the Papal power above Princes and determined in the Laterane Council for their power to depose them and alienate their dominions Who set up Usurpers and raised wars against Emperors and Kings upon these grounds Who brought in Transubstantiation with the rest of the Roman absurdities Who have been the Masters of the bloody Inquisitions And who hindereth the preaching of the pure doctrine of the Gospel in all the Romanists dominions Is it not an erroneous Clergy You 'l say Those are Papists and so are not we Ans. No God forbid we should But they are a mistaken Clergy which sheweth us that the Clergy are as liable to be dividers and troublers of the Church as the Laity are and have done much more If any hence would infer that the Pastors must be vilified or deprived of their just liberties and power I would more largely tell such a one that it is also the Clergy that have opposed all these Heresies and sins and that have maintained obedience to Princes and that have preserved the Scriptures and the Christian saith and that have been the salt and lights of the world without whom Christianity never long continued in any nation And that have been the chief instruments of bringing all the souls to Heaven that have passed thither from the militant Church But I have done this in two sheets for the Ministery long ago So that our faults consist with the honour of our function and of our necessary labours and with the praise of the more blameless And even so though the peoples weakness and inclinableness to unwarrantable separations and schisms be blameworthy as a fruit of their infirmity and injudiciousness Yet must we remember that they are the members of Christ and we must â—ot deny his interest in them nor judge or use them hardlier than Christ himself hath done or alloweth us to do But study his Love and tenderness and forbearance that we may follow him in serving him and not follow our uncharitable passions and call it a serving of him who liketh no such hurtful service He that loveth Christ in none of his Infants or weaker members but in the strong and more prudent sort alone doth love him in so few that he may question whether he loveth him indeed at all And whether ever he shall hear In as much as ye did it to the least of these my brethren ye did it unto me April 14. 1668. The way of Division by Violence I. Depart from the Apostolical primitive simplicity and make things un-necessary seem necessary in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Conversation II. Endure no man that is not of your mind and way But force all tâ— concord upoâ— these terms of yours what ever it cost III. â—rand all Dâ—â— â—ters with the 〈…〉 maticks â—â—ereticks or â—â—ditious Reâ—els that the◠〈◊〉 become â—teful to high â—nd low IV. When this â—ath greatly â—ncreased their â—isaffection to â—ou accusâ—â—heir Religioâ— of all the expressions of that disaffection to make iâ— odious also V. Take thosâ— for your enemies that arâ— their friends â— those for your friends which are their enemies And cherish those be thâ—y never so bad that will be against them and help you to rooâ— them out But remember that for all this you must come to judgement And read these following words of Mr. R Hookers which he useth of some part of the History which out of Sulpitius I before mentioned Eccles. Pâ—l Epist. Dedic The way of Peace by Love and Humility I. Adhere to the ancient simple Christianity and make nothing necessary to your Concord and Communion which is not necessary II. Love your neighbors as your selves Receive those that Christ receiveth and that hold the necessaries of Communion be they Episcopal Presbyterian Independants Anabaptists Arminians Calvinists c. so they be not proved Heretical or wicked III. Speak evil of no man and especiaâ—ly of Dignities Ruâ—lers Revile not when you are reviled speak moâ—â— of the good that is in Dislenters and do them all the Good you can IV. If any wrong you be the more watchful over your passions opinions and tongues lest Passion carry you into extreams Love your enemies â—less them that curse you do good to themâ—hat â—hat hate you and â—ray for them that despâ—ghtfully use you and persecute you And do noâ— evil â—hat good may come by it V. Impartially judg of men by Gods inâ—erest in them and â—ot your own or your parties Reprove the wayes of Love-killers and Backbiters and let not the fear of their Wrath or Censures carry you into a compliance with them or cause you by silence to encourage them But rejoyce if you should be Martyrs for Love and Peace For Blessed are the â—eek for they shall inherit the earth Blessed are the Peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God Blessed are they which are persecuted for Righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdome of heaven The way of Division by Separation I. Depart from the Apostolical Primitive simplicity on pretence