strengthen the argument it is observed that such divisions and subdivisions among those that fall from the Churches unity are significant marks of their falsity and that they are not of the true Spirit of God Irenaeus reports of the Valentinians that when they were very numerous scarce two or three agreed in the same opinions And S. Austin of the Donatists that in his time they were cut asunder and divided into very many small pieces factions and the same may be observed by almost all the ancient remarkable heresies And how much of this observation falls upon such as have departed from us I leave to the impartial Reader to judge Qu. But do you follow no directions of the Spirit in your profession Ans. Yes in these foure wayes or respects First I follow the guidance of the holy Scriptures as they were given by inspiration of the holy Spirit Secondly I follow the examples pattern and Doctrines of the first Churches which were planted by the Apostles and Apostolick men of the first age who were directed by the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit as of prophesying tongues and miraculous healing as was then expedient for the conviction of the world that they were from God Thirdly I follow that light of truth which the universall Church of Christ have kept and preserved as to all times and places which I beleeve to be the effect of Christs promise of sending his Spirit of truth to guide into all truth Fourthly I follow the direction of the holy Spirit whereby I am taught of God that is instructed and inabled by his preventing and assisting grace to lead a holy life and to have my judgement spiritualized that I may mind desire discern and design spiritual things Now whatsoever new light is pretended inconsistent with the holy Scriptures so interpreted by the common judgement of the first planters and the Churches nearest them or that shall destroy the All-truth of the Spirit in fundamentals maintained and confirmed by universal profession or that consists not with godlines and the Gospel-rules of a holy life mercy charity peaceablenesse justice and the like I dare not embrace any new light upon the grounds forementioned Quest What is your second direction or caveat Ans. To beware of such a profession that hath no other ground then a plea from Sripture upon private interpretation which ground though it hath not produced such monstrous effects of errour as the former yet hath been more dangerous and destructive to the Churches peace and unity Now the unsafetinesse of such a profession in the first place appeares because the most absurd hereticks of the ancient Church in bringing in their then novel errours as plainly and undeniably appeares by the practices and histories of the Manichees Arians Sabellians Pelagians Donatists and others when they would no otherwise accomplish their enviousnesse against the then present Church departed from its communion upon new principles of dangerous consequence and cried up Scripture for their cause A testimony or two I may instance in from the Ancients instead of many Tertullian speaking of hereticks saith That when they perswade of matters of faith but out of the writings of faith they pretend the Scriptures and by such boldnesse move many to them To the same purpose Athanasius Endure not those that perswade you to new things contrary to the faith received although they anthorize them from the holy Scriptures In the next place I shall further adde as a reason to suspect the unsafetinesse of such a profession the fatall infelicities and irreconcileable differencies that have alwayes befallen the Church but especially in these last ages upon the presumption of private interpretation whereby every man as he hath been indulgent to his own opinion which either education prejudice advantage or ignorance hath inclined his spirit to so hath he decided and determined the controversies of the Church or made new ones worse then the former And I am confident were there a thousand cells and so many of our private Interpreters in them obliged to passe their judgements to determine the controverted doctrines to make a confession of faith to marshall a Church-government to form a service and worship of God from the Scriptures by their private interpretations and they all supposed to lay aside those few principles which they have continued from the received doctrines and practices of the Church and no singling of principles one to another we should soon and certainly find a progeny of a thousand several religions and professions Now the main reason is this though the holy Scriptures be in themselves most perspicuous and plain as to the direction of life and manners for which cause David calls them a light to his feet and lanthorn to his paths yet as to the deep mysteries of faith and the determination of many considerable emergent controversies of doctrine and government God hath pleased to deliver his truths in so dark and abstruse a manner that they that want humility to hear the common judgement of the Churches of Christ and their received interpretations may easily be delivered over by God to find arguments enough in Scripture to captivate and satisfy a private and prejudicate spirit in any errour of religion wresting the Scripture to their own destruction Quest In what manner do you hold the direction of the Scriptures and their interpretation as to your profession Ans. First I acknowledge the Blessed Scriptures to be the rule of faith the end and decision of all controversies and where they are clear and evident I submit my soul to them as to the final end of all my enquâ—ries and doubts Secondly in the things that God hath pleased should be doubtfully delivered which is occasioned either from some difficulty in the Idiome or from seeming difference with other places requiring curious distinctions or when the expressions are clad and darkened with tropes and figures which are frequent in Scriptures or Lastly when the Scriptures are occasionall and a due consideration of the time when and the persons to whom they were spoken or written is necessary to the understanding of them I say in things so doubtfully delivered as to doctrine or government I submit my private reason and opinion to the grand interpretation and common consent of the first Churches for these reasons First because they were uninterested in our present controversies so without danger of being byassed by passion and they ordinarily lying under persecutions were not likely to gratify an errour for any private or worldly regards Secondly because they had most reason to know what were the practices of the Apostles and Apostolical men most certain guides to follow in controverted and doubtful points of Government and the circumstantial parts of religion Their footsteps which had so lately planted the Churches of Christ could not be so soon worn out but that they left discernable tracts for their immedate successors to walk in Thirdly they
what heavenly members of Christs Kingdome have shined in every part of this nation no way inferiour to the most renowned Saints of ancient times but that the frequency of professors and as it were familiarity of piety have eclipsed their own excellencies And without doubt weighing those extenuating expressions of Christs Kingdom as the little Flock few that find it and the like we might with facility observe in this nation plentiful additions of souls to the Church above any nation in the world proportion of places considered Whence then these effects and demonstrations of religion but from Gods pleasure to preserve a never-failing succession of Ministery who disserninated in every part of the nation have laboured in Word and Doctrine among us for it canuot be supposed that this Church have received these grapes of thornes or figges of thistles or that a corrupt tree that is a false or Anti-christian Ministery should bring forth such good fruit as our Saviour argues in this very case And after all this lest these eminent graces and blessed effects should still be attributed to any other either immediate or mediate proceediug of God I desire any of our adversaries to shew that ever any nation was converted to or continued in a Christian profession or that ever the Religion of a Nation hath not verged to a Period with the fall of its Ministery and then I may be induced to suspect this Church received such graces from some other instrument then the Ministery And for further confirmation it is no hard matter to observe how much the interest of Religion is concerned in this Ministeries preservation by considering how piety peace charity reverence to Gods worship and the whole frame of religion have declined and the contrary evils of prophanenesse sacriledge blasphemy Atheisme oppression violence and injustice have generally improved by their fall Now the force of the argument is this There being these effects of piety and salvation as unparalel'd consequences of the work of the Ministery of this National Church and there being no other ordinary means the mehod of grace under the Gospel from whence otherwise they should proceed we therefore cunclude them lawful instruments of Gods work and a blest and truly Christian Ministery to this Church The fecond argument for brevity sake I make as general and comprehensive as I can and thus it is If the Ministers of the Churches of Christ in all ages and places through the whole succession of Christian Religion had the same separation to their offices that we of this Church of England have then by necessary consequence either the universal Ministery of Christ were alwayes Antichristian which would be next to blasphemy to assert as well as we or we Christian and lawful as well as they Now let our enemies shew that in any age of that great space of time or in any place where Christs Name was ever professed that the received Ministery thereof were otherwise in substance ordained whereby to raise any plea to their new or rather no call we will acknowledge the lawfulnesse of our calling to be justly questioned This argument hath its foundation upon a promise of Christ to his universal Church in the name of his Apostles Howbeit when the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth Which promise had apparently in a considerable point been unaccomplished had the universal Church of Christ so many hundred years successively erred by an Antichristian and unlawful Ministery and by consequence all the Christian world all that great while had been deprived of lawfull ordinances the outward means of grace which depend upon the lawful Mission of the Ministery How shall they hear to a success of beleefe but by their preaching who are lawfully sent Quest These arguments are convincing and now as it seems to me a man may as soon and upon as good ground question a great part of his Christian Religion as the lawfulnesse of the Ministery of this Church being inferred from those premisses which conclude and prove one as well as the other I desire therefore rather to venture my soule with all the Churches of Christ and under a Ministery that have been received as lawful by them and of whom we have had experience in this national Church in excellent effects of all spirituall blessings then to embrace the judgement of a few who study new things such as the Churches of Christ never knew before and to submit to such a Ministery as descend in no succession and without any character either extraordinary or ordinary to demonstrate their mission and of which in a short time we have had sad experiences as appears by the divisions blasphemies fond opinions and great impieties that have prospered under them There remaines one scruple more What canst thou say to satisfy them that urge the present fall of this Church and sufferings and contempt of its Ministery as an argument against the truth of the profession and Religion Ans. It is true I cannot deny there be a great many that follow the disingenuous practice of that sort of people of which the holy Psalmist complaines that love to persecute him whom God hath smitten and to talk how to vex him whom he hath wounded Crying out against us like another untoward generation God hath forsaken them persecute and take them for there is none to deliver them But it is a wonder to me that persons pretending light in Religion and an understanding in the Scriptures should make outward providences the guidance of their judgement in determining the justice or unjustice of Causes Conclusions by events prove nothing but the folly of a vulgar judgement that is byassed by them When most frequent it is that the wicked prosper in their way and they are happy that deale very treacherously yea God plants them till they take root God suffers oft-times evill men to flourish like a green bay-tree in worldly successes when he permits them to blast the honour and safety of the just If prosperous providence gives the sentence of justice The Turk that sets up his trophies in the most renowned parts of Christendome already and if he should poure in his forces to the overthrow of all the Christian nations that remain could never want an argument to justify his usurpations and Tyrannies Nor doth the Churches unsuccesseful attempts for its preservation disprove its truth and being But rather if it were lawful or indeed possible to determine from exteriour providences the frequent tragedies of its continual snfferings might induce us to a beleef that Truth and persecution have gone hand in hand Hence the worthy observers of the Churches instability in worldly safety have found out a reason of its happinesse from its miseries The Church hath increased with persecutions and is crowned with martyrdomes saith St. Hierome Then it conquers when it is oppressed and obtaines when forsaken saith St. Hilary For if its
reading of many days And this discouragement became an insuperable difficulty to young persons poor servants labourers and many others whose callings required continual attendance And though some of them were short yet being pend above the reach of ordinary capacities they became altogether uselesse to such young and vulgar intellects To avoyd therefore the inconveniences of both I have truly troden in the paths of this Church as to the first and I have endeavoured plainnesse and brevity as to the second Now to contract my argument to the force of a satisfaction There being none of the former sort that I have seen which are not in some measure chargeable with those mentioned defects nor any of the latter which have not been either prolix or too sublime I presume I may beg the kindnesse to be beleeved that I have done a thing both necessary and seasonable 2. In the next place let not the learned eye despise me that I appear not with the embroydery of large quotations or Chymistry of School-distinctions or that I have not conjured the plain principles of Christ into a circle of sciences Such dresses suits them that pretend to the chayre and aspire to be inserted in the Catalogue of the Learned or them whose design is to court great and generous minds to the love of Christ and his Religion My businesse is of another nature I come to treat the lowest of Christs School and such whom you may as soon nourish with stones as edify with learned discourses with whom I labour to make Christ to be understood not to shew my self understanding And if after this tender of satisfaction to such Readers I must yet purchase their contempt my compensation shall be that I account it as much more blessed to enlighten one poor ignorant disciple of Christ then to please the learned of all ages as to feed one hungry soul hath more charity in it then to feast all the Nobles in the world This intimation then of my design I make my only plea against the such allegations of the learned Reader to whose ingenuity I appeal 3. Lastly as to my Reader that differs from me in judgement I beseech him upon his christian charity to beleeve me that I intend not controversie but have made it my chief business concurrent with the mayn drift and scope of our Saviours Sermons the Epistles of the Apostles indeed of the whole Gospel it self to encourage men in and to direct men to holy lives and just peaceable and mercifull conversations And when I have been necessitated to meet any doubtfull and disputable doctrines as of irrespective and absolute or conditional decrees of election and reprobation of universal or particular redemption and such like tho decision of which have administred nothing but endlesse disceptations to the learned and terrours to the weak I have not at all dogmatized but only used them as they have served the interest of holy living Alwayes giving this rule to my self in those intricate controversies that they are then concluded and beleeved with most safety and likelihood to truth as their determinations give the best reason and encouragement of living well In order to which if I have unavoydably declared a difference from thy judgement in any such poynt have but so much christian civility to beleeve my former profession and that the argument that led me to it was not to differ from thee but according to my perswasion to advance the doctrines of piety in thee and all men and thou canst not but count me worthy of christian peace from thee I beg of thee not to censure me hastily nor litigiously least thou over-reach a disadvantage to piety it self which hath never suffered more then when the fiery combats and unnecessary quarrels of Christians and of Church-men especially have run them into heats and actions beneath gravity and against charity and upon such occasions disgracing and undervaluing each other have taught the people to scorn and contemn them all and in the end religion it self with which they trifled in needlesse argumentations For it is sadly notorious since one Clergy have bitterly inveighed against and heavily oppressed another about differences in Government and Service which every thing might have reconciled but passion and self-interest they have purchased a slite and contempt not only to them to whom they designed it but to themselves also in the greatest portion and to Ministery in general and by necessary consequence they have shaken the very foundations of this once renowned National profession Which they may soon beleeve when they behold so universal a defection from it and that their congregations are thin carelesse and irregular the Sacraments unfrequented and other Ordinances disregarded their callings disputed their persons hated their demeans tottering and a progeny of illiterate men ready to possesse their places and which is most sadly to be lamented Religion it self made an amazement and a scruple Let sad experience therefore and pitty to a poor languishing Church move us to lay aside all personal and passionate dissentions and animosities which have produced such miserable effects and draw our contentions to this one period that we strive together who shall be most forward in the work of the Lord All the satisfaction then that I tender to this kind of Readers is That they are obliged to think me charitable and that whatsoever point I have determined contrary to their perswasions was because I made it an argument of more comfort and diligence in the profession of Christ And I thank God I look upon them and aell men that differ from me with no other eye then as St. Austin did his Manachees Vivat homo moriatur error let their errors dye but let themselves be happy Having thus dis-ingaged my self from all these exceptions It remaines only to shew the use of these ensuing exercises which will best appear by discovering the gradual progresse of my intentions about them as they became productive one of another by necessary inferences For I first propounded to my self only the Catechisme for the rules of life but then I found that through the severity of Gospel-obedience many scruples might invade pious minds concerning Gods grace to help to perform them concerning his acceptance of their infirm obedience to them which occasioned the following treatise concerning satisfactions of doubts about the doctrines of Grace After that I considered that many good minds ready to ingage in a religious life were sadly perplexed about the diversities of professions all strongly pretending to be for Christ and especially about the Ministery decryed every where as unlawful and Anttchristian which as it became necessary occasioned the third part Satisfying doubts concerning the profession of this Church and Ministery Then finding that a principal part of holy life consisted in uncessant exercise of prayers to God I thought it not enough to invite men to the duty but also to direct them to the right performance of it which produced the
such as were first disobedient to him And this way of God is most conspicuous in his dealing with his people the Jewes to whom those places in the question chiefly referre For his severity upon them was only unto such that first fell from him They had a day of mercy which they despised after which it was just with God to make it a time of hardening and excluding them from mercy Which when God shall so do what art thou O man that thou shouldst question his justice or reply against him who hath power as a Potter over his clay to make some vessells to honour and some to dishonour when some accept others reject and despise his grace Therefore Gods wayes are â—â—equal That this truth may yet be fully signified we argue that the stony and other unprofitable grounds wanted not their seed the unfruitful tree had its husbandry manuring and long forbearance before it was sentenced to be cut down The refusing guests at the great Supper had their invitation To conclude Ierusalem had a day of visitation in which they neglected the things of their peace before the fearful sentence was past that they should be hid from their eyes From all which it followes that to want grace to be hardened to be a vessel of dishonour can be no arguments to suspect God will deny such grace and sufficient spiritual assistancies but rather motives to beware of the abuse and neglect of grace when it is offered lest we forfeit our peace by neglecting the day of mercy Quest But further may I not fear to be shut out from grace and all hopes of salvation by a fatal and irrevocable reprobation from eternity the necessary consequence of an irrespective decree for the salvation of some Ans. I know some places of Scripture have administred occasion of endless dispute wherein men have waded as in the dark into an abyss of doubts of unfathomed depth and by their passionate disceptations even to uncharitablenesse about that which I am confident is no further revealed then what may make it necessary to be acknowledged a mystery and to put reason to a trial to submit to that which it could never comprehend by any enquiries have made conclusions about the point which in naturâ rei will have and must hinder and put a barre against a lively undertaking the purposes of strict Gospel-obediencence and weaken the applications of Gods grace in pressing endeavours to work out salvation by the performance of the conditions of the holy Covenant Therefore passing by the enumerations of the differing opinions of the divines both of the Romish and Protestant faith laying aside all examination of such secluse secrecies of God and all unnecessary disputes about them I set up my rest in this one thing that I am comfortably confident that whatsoever Gods election and predestination is it doth not contradict his promises of mercy nor his end of giving Christ unto the world both which by the universal scope of the Gospel are general and conditional And it is the doctrine of the Church of England in the end of the seventeenth Article that we must receive Gods promises in such wise as they be generally set forth to us in holy Scripture and in our doings that will of God is to be followed whiâ—h we have expressely declared unto us in the Word of God Quest Another scruple yet occurres that if salvation through Christ shall be given to them only that perform the conditions when I consider the weakness of my faith the defects of my repentance and my innumerable failings in every part of the performancies of holy living I find nothing but arguments of discouragement and little hopes of being accepted to salvation How may I satisfy my soul in such a discomfort Ans. Though as it is evident that the faith repentance and holinesse of Gods best servants have ever been and shall ever be defective and imperfect they being unable through their corruptions perfectly to perform those Gospel-conditions yet is God pleased to accept of their faithfull and sincere endeavour to fulfill them For the state of Grace doth not necessarily suppose a soule exempt from all sin but from the reigning power rule and dominion of it and a safe condition towards God is not to be accounted by a freedome from all sinning who then could appeare before God and the reflections of his own concience with comfort but is to be collected by observation that the spiritual part hath the greatest predominancy in the thoughts affections designes and actions and that the lusts and carnall part are lesse and every day lessening by the power of the predominant grace In which estate the failings and defects being suddenly retracted and the soule humbled for them are unquestionably pardoned through the blessed plea and advocation of Christs precious merits and his never ceasing intercession Quest Now because you have mentioned such an hope of pardon by the merits of Christ I conceive it will tend much to thy satisfaction in the first attempt and in the whole course of obeying the Gospel rightly to understand what Christ hath merited for thee that thy soul may know what comforts to rejoyce in for what mercies to blesse God and what duties stand on thy account to be performed What therefore hath Christ as a Mediatour and Redeemer merited for thee Ans. A new Covenant of Grace whereby man being at present enmity with God might be reconciled to him and being in a lost estate might be recovered and redeemed to life and salvation Now the whole work of Redemption may be represented in these five effects of his death and mediation Quest What is the first Ans. Christ hath by his universal passion especially by his death and price of his blood satisfied and attoned the justice of God for the sins of the world to become effectual to the justification and salvation of as many as shall by faith accept of him upon his own terms receive his grace and sincerely perform the conditions of the Covenant Quest What is the second Ans. Christ hath merited that those conditions should not be like the lawes imposed upon the Iewes numerous troublesome full of business and attendance to shadowie rites and ceremonies but should become a light burden an easie and pleasant yoke and that his Commandements should not be grievous but should become approveable to right reason and acts in themselves of the greatest prudence and most conducible to the peace and felicity of all societies and persons Quest You see here a most blessed progresse of mercy to mankind first a dreadful justice satisfied which the sacrifice of worlds could never have done by the suffering of him that was both God and Man then secondly a condition propounded in a law which man could not but have given himself had God allowed him a capacity to have chosen one whereby to
inspirations of the Spirit to guide men to and in it For such a profession must be very unsafe and dangerous for these reasons First because there hath been no succession of any such immediate light or revelations since the Apostles age when they were necessary that the whole way of Christs first planting his Church might in all circumstances be purely miraculous Since which time no Church of Christ in any place or at any time have made profession upon that ground till the late Enthusiasts in Germany and England For certainly if that had been the ground of professing Christ that Church which is a City on a hill and that Gospel which is the Mountaine of the Lord would not have left us without all evidence and president in such a long space of time But if they please to conclude the whole Christian world in darknesse from the Apostles times to this period though they think it nothing to condemn so many ages to uphold their own phantasmes yet I ask them how the promise to the Church was effected when Christ engaged to send the Spirit of truth to guide them into all truth if fourteen or fifteen hundred years together the whole Church so foully erred by a false unlawful and Antichristian profession But because they lay clayme to such immediate gifts of the Spirit without the subministration of learning education in Sciences and Tongues and such like preparations of the understanding for spirituall knowledge from the examples of the Apostles I further require of them why they pretend to some of those miraculous gifts and not to all as gifts of tongues healing and the like which were the significations and proofs that the other gifts and themselves were of God When therefore their ordinary discourses pretended raptures prayings and preachings are delivered by them owned to be the inspirations of the Spirit which may proceed from other naturall dexterities and acquired helps and having no other miraculous gifts as of tongues and healing and the like as the Apostles had to prove them to be so their own assertions are very fallible and the profession dangerous and unsafe Secondly such a professinn is unsafe because upon that ground the devill hath the most certain advantage of deceiving men indiscoverably when they shall once be perswaded to follow the voyce and dictate of an indemonstrable spirit in themselves or others Whence is that seasonable inhibition of the Apostle Beleeve not every spirit but try the spirits whether they be of God for many false Prophets are gone out into the world From which Scripture I inferre these observations to strengthen the argument against such a profession First Beleeve not every spirit because there be several sorts of spirits all false but one There is a lying spirit and a perverse spirit or the spirit of errour as the Septuagint renders it A mans own spirit which is his opinion and fancy there is also the spirit of the world which is the common humour and bent of every present time These and many of this sort will be pretenders to guide as the Spirit of God Therefore when I am tempted to beleeve any thing upon the bare pretence of the Spirit in what great danger am I in to be guided by a false spiitit there being many to one true Spirit of God Secondly But try the spirits that is those false spirits shall be so likened to the true Spirit of God in so great an assimulation that they are not to be distinguished without trial and examination And this is no wonder when Satau himself can transform himself into an Angel of light and his deceitful agents to be like the true Apostles of Christ Now as the difficulty of discerning and consequently the danger of such a profession of the true Spirit from the false ariseth from their similitude so also much more in respect of what reason I have to suspect my self as unable to try and examine them aright First because when I consider how easily my judgement is deceived in things obvious to sense as in civil differences and outward affaires how much more fallible must that my judgement be in discriminating secret and invisible spirits lying under the cunning artificies of devils and evil men who by them attempt to seduce weak soules Secondly when I consider how easily I may be prejudicated and if fo how soon and certainly deceived When a prejudgement hath once passed upon the mind in the worst cause that ever was how doth every likelyhood make an argument every fallacious argument growes into a demonstration and every mans discourse of the same judgement shall have an indulgence and a beleefe But every argument and advising person to the contrary shall be sufficiently answered with nothing but a suspicion and a contempt Therefore when I am tempted to a religion or profession upon the pretence of the Spirit to what dangers do I expose my self lest I should not through the want of or a prejudicated judgement distinguish the true Spirit from the false when they are both made as like as light to light Thirdly because many false Prophets c. which inferres that false Prophets when they come because their â—ofession is against the ground of all visible evidences must pretend a Spirit It being the common artifice of seducers to muffle up the understandings of their followers by alledging something that is high and undiscernable like some Astronomers who betray their disciples to a ditch or a cheat by causing them to look up with wonder to some imaginary Scheme of nothing So that still fuch a profession must needs be unsafe because it is forewarned and prophesied that false Prophets when they come shall have this mark upon them they shall pretend a Spirit Lastly if the pretended ground of being directed by an immediate light of the Spirit were true and consequently safe there could be no profession more regular and certain the same Spirit will alwayes dictate the same thing But we see that the pretenders to the Spirit are divided into Legions of factions Anabaptists Catabaptists Antitrinitarians Antiscripturists Ranters Quakers and many such of like sort among which not one Sect agrees with another nor two Congregations of the same Sect among themselves nor scarcely the members of the same Congregation one with another and very seldome the same member at any one time with what he was himself a little before And yet all pretend the Spirit of God for their guide from whence their several opinions are as unlikely to proceed as that the two Poles should center in one point or that contradictions might be reconciled How then canst thou be safe with what Sect wilt thou joyn profession with what Congregation of that Sect with what part of that Congregation and then in what opinions wilt thou joyn such as they maintained last year or those they now hold or such as they are like to take up the next Now to
knew better the occasions of the Apostles writings and other co-incident circumstances of the then present times to which many passages of great concernment do refer which a private person laying aside Antiquity would be farre enough from discerning and so most likely to mistake the meaning of them being ignorant of the scope and drift of such holy expressions For these reasons it is that the learned professors of this Church have offered the trial of the established profession by Scripture so interpreted against all its adversaries And I will instance onely in that yet unanswered appeal of the Authour against Fisher the Jesuit in these words That all the positive Articles of the Church of England are grounded upon Scripture we are contented to be judgby the joynt and constant beleef of the Fathers which lived within four or five hundred years after Christ when the Church was at the best and by the Councels held within those times and to submit to them in all those points of doctrine Quest What is the third direction Ans. Not to embrace a reliligion that is taken up contrary to a received profession upon the credit of the plausible behaviour and smoorh conversation of the promoters and leaders of it The unsafetinesse of such a profession may be easily observed and concluded First because it is observable that when our Saviour gives a caveat concerning false Prophets he foretels them not distinguishable by their outward behaviour For though they shall be raveing wolves inwardly that is in their designes of turning the Church of Christ yet shall they cover their villany with sheeps cloathing that is so great a proportion of framed sanctimony and formed piety outward innocency and humility or so much of either or all of them as may advance a reputation of their new doctrines to a discontented or prejudicated people This St. Paul calls the form of godlinesse to uphold the credit of such as forsaking publick Assemblies shall creep into houses and lead captive silly women And for such ends it is as easy a matter for false Apostles to transform themselves into the Apostles of Christ as for the devill himself to appear an Angel of light as St. Paul argueth And secondly it is not only possible for the greatest enemies of Christ in pursuance of their designes to put on such deceitful habits of outward holinesse and therefore a new profession taken up upon that ground very unsafe But it is also necessary and therefore the more dangerous that such bringers in of new lights and principles must pretend to more then ordinary sanctity having no other just or semblable plea to perswade or attract men to their misguidances Now though many sad experiences in these times may clearly evince this assertion yet I appear to an universal observation of the ancient enemies to truth in propagating their errours for a confirmation of it Among which I may instance in one or two St. Austin mentioning the artificies of the Manichees to deceive their followers the main was That they carried before them an appearance of a pure life and memorable continence The next is of St. Basil who affirmes of the Arrians That for their fictitious holinesse they got a general beleef of their way Now the great stratagem in their design of personating such degrees of holinesse zeal piety is to take advantage to check the imperfections and imprudencies into which the true Pastours of the Church by time and peace have been betrayed and to raise a repute to themselves by their odium and accidesital disgrace which by such arts they have attempted to put upon them with the people Therefore such a profession that is entertained onely upon the argument of outward sanctity must needs be very unsafe because the greatest enemies to Christian truth have will and must palliate their notable changes in religion by such pretences Quest But what can you say for the defence of your profession that may satisfy them that object against you the corruptions of the lives of your Ministers and Professors Ans. First we know and can prove that no profession in it self containes doctrines of more universal submission to all the commands of Christ nor principles more obliging to unity peace or purity to greater reverence or more solemn worship of God to faithfuller subjection to authority or purer charity to man then the received doctrines of the Church of England Examine but this poore shadow of its religion in this preceding Catechisme and I challenge any man to an objection to shew what impieties to God injustice to men or unsobriety in our selves in body or mind we allow That our Professors and Ministers have not universally lived up to the purity of its doctrine is as certainly true as that all outward Professors of Christ and alwayes have been a mixt company of good and bad which the â—et in the Gospel intimates to which the Kingdom of God that is the state of the Gospel is likened or as that the very Apostles and first followers of Christ were so or as that St. Paul in most if not in all his Epistles especially to the Corinthians and that in the very societies admitted to the Sacrament clearly evinceth to be so or Lastly as certainly true as that all the Churches of Christ have been so in all ages and places Now in this mixture the numbers of hypocritical and loose Professors and their deviations from the holiness of the Gospel have been more or less with respect to the times in which they lived as they were more or lesse courted with peace and prosperity or oppressed with adversities and persecutions It often falling out that the true Churches of Christ have at some times made the lesse visible progresse up the stream of piety as the stronger torrents and winds of contrary temptations have borne them downe and opposed them So that to take offence and quarrel against a religion or profession upon the argument of the mixture of the professors when the doctrines be pure and holy is most unjust and unreasonable and might be evineing against the best Churches of Christ that ever were or will be to the end of the world It is true it is a great felicity and glory to a profession when the numbers of Saints increase and are predominant when Gods honour is more generally preferved and his worship maintained godlinesse encouraged and sin shamed and strictly corrected but if in a corrupt age it becomes otherwise so loug as the established profession be holy in it self there is no argument to forsake her communion and much lesse to pursue a destruction to the religion it self They should rather continue in it take off the offence from it and make it better by their exemplary living then to make the offence worse by departing from it or to take the task of an enemy to ruine and overthrow it Now the result is this the mixture of all the best Churches
truth should have depended upon worldly successes and prosperity what advantages should its enemies have had and with what poor comforts should its members have been supported when it lay so long under the bloody persecutions of the Roman Emperours Nero Domitian Trajan c Now if any just cause that is oppressed if any part of Christs Church that is afflicted may plead no disadvantage to them by Gods permitting them to bee outwardly miserable much more the Ministery whose of all just causes and who of all parties in the Church have been ever exposed to the saddest providences as to the worlds eye We shall find therefore as if the cross had been the Label of the Apostles Commission Our Saviour tells them when he sends them forth it should be as sheep in the midst of Wolves From whom what entertainment they were likely to receive he expresseth more fully in a sollowing passage They should be hated of all men for his Names sake And as if they had received with their commissions a commonpasse of trouble they must be persecuted from one City to another All which as they were infallibly to become true in our Saviours prediction so were they as evidently accomplished in the following tragedies of the Churches miseries when the Apostles were set forth as men appointed to death when they were made a theatre a common spectacle a people shewen forth for mockery and misery to Angels and to men For they hungred and thirsted and were naked and buffeted and had no certain dwelling place Afterward followed the violent deaths of all the Apostles under the hands of their Persecutors St. John onely excepted and of the first renownned Fathers os the Church Ignatius Polycarp Irenaeus Justin c. which paid their lives to the prevailing enemies of the Gospel of Christ all which to relate would rather require some large Martyrolygy then a digression in a small Tractate But were all these forsaken of God because they had not prosperity and present successes What providence should then have been followed the prosperous or the adverse If their scornes troubles and oppressions under the hands of their prosperous enemies had disproved the truth of their calling or cause the very Gospel it self might as justly upon the same argument have been called in question By all which it appeares that the charge against this Church for its adversities and miseries is most unjust especially by them who have themselves been instrumental to them It is a hard case first to be made miserable and forlorne and then to be quarrel'd with and disputed against for being so But I leave this to their own consciences and timely repentance only I desire to mind them of a notable prediction by learned Hooker of them and of the ruines of this Church by them even at a determinate period of time which is directly this present age Which becauso it fell from so grave and deliberate a pen I will set down in his own words By these or the like suggestions meaning our adversaries endeavours to overthrow the Ministery in their maintenance and otherwise received with all joy and with like sedulity practised in certain parts of the Christiag world they have brought to passe that as David doth say of a man so it is in hazard to be verified concerning the whole Religion ond Service of God The time thereof may peradventure fall out to be threescore and ten years or if strength do serve unto fourscore what followeth is likely to be small joy for them whatsoever they be that behold it By these considerations I find all my scruples answered and doubts satisfied that I can with all clearnesse of judgement assert the truth of the visible Church of England Now I desire to recline my soul in her bosome and most cheerfully undertake and exercise the whole course of those forementioned Rules of Christian living in its profession as the safest in the world FORMES OF PRAYER For private PERSONS AND FAMILIES To the READER WHosoever thou art I beseech thee but if thy soule stands upon my account to God I mean if thou beest one of my care and charge then I earnestly beg of thee that when thou readest and ownest these plaein directions for Devotion thou obligest thy self upon as strong purposes to follow them or at least the duties intended by them as the interest of saving a soule requires That thou take care by making it a part of thy duty to Christ to season thy children as with the first elements of religious knowledge so with suitable practices of prayer as soon as they shall be capable of these little formes And that thou thy self accont no busines so necessary which should betray thee to forget to sanctify at least the morning and evening of every day in thy privacy and family with prayers and praises considering that the houres spent in this or other religious exercises will be of more concernment and eomfort to thee at thy dying hour then all the pleasures profits and present advantages whatsoever thou canst obtain by the engagement of the rest of thy time I desire thee that before thou enterest upon these exercises or in the midst of them where I have directed thee thou readest part of holy Davids Psalmes by certain periods that thou mayest imitate Davids spirit in thy addresses to God And do not read them as an history meerly to affect thy understanding but as acts of service with affection reverence and piety befitting such communions with God as most of the Psalmes perport Do thou also before thou departest from serving God in any of these offices read some part of she holy Scriptures in such order as thy prudence shall direct thee and digest the same by meditation to particular application to thy self that thou mayest live in the strength of it in all thy actions to God and man I have divided as thou shalt observe the prayers into several parts according to the most considerable periods of the duty First because they will be the more fit and methodical to be taught to children servants and such as cannot read Secondly that after the end of any one part of the devotion the supplicant may stay and collect his spirit to a frame fit for the next considering as to instance that confession and thanksgiving and so the rest do require different carriages of the Spirit Thirdly because the pious soule may more fitly stay in any part and poure out it self to God as spiritual necessity will be administred and yet not break the order of the devotion Lastly because such a partition will alleviate the weariness that is apt to be contracted by one long continued form Now having rigg'd this little ship ef devotion The Lord give thee an heart to venture thy soul in its bottome and grant thee a prosperous gale of his Spirit to drive thee forward to the port of rest which is desired designed and sincerely endeavoured by