alwaies approved in the end And the time is at hand when you shall confess that those were your truest friends He that will deal plainly against your sins in uprightness and honesty will deal as plainly for you against the sins of any that would injure you For he speaks not against sin because it is yours but because it is sin It is an observable passage that is reported by many and Printed by one how the late King Charls who by the Bishops instigation had kept Mr. Prin so long in prison and twice cropt his ears for writing against their Masks and Plaies and the high and hard proceedings of the Prelates when he read his notable voluminous speech for an acceptance of the Kings Concessions and an agreement with him thereupon did not long before his death deliver the Book to a friend that stood by him saying Take this Book I give it thee as a Legacy and believe it this Gentleman is the Cato of the Age. The time will come when plain dealing will have a better Construction then it hath while prejudice doth turn the heart against it I shall stand no longer on the Apologetical part I think the foregoing Objections being answered there is no great need of more of this The Title of the Book it self is Apologetical which if I tell you not I may well expect that some of my old ingenuous Interpreter should put another sense upon it I pretend not to the Sapience of Gildas nor to the Sanctity of Salvian as to the degree but by their names I offer you an excuse for plain dealing If it was used in a much greater measure by men so wise and holy as these why should it in a lower measure be dis-allowed in another At least from hence I have this encouragement that the plain dealing of Gildas and Salvian being so much approved by us now they are dead how much soever they might be despised or hated while they were living by them whom they did reprove at the worst I may expect some such success in times to come But my principal business is yet behind I must now take the boldness Brethren to become your Monitor concerning some of the necessary duties of which I have spoken in the ensuing discourse If any of you should charge me with arrogancy or immodesty for this attempt as if hereby I accused you of negligence or judged my self sufficient to admonish you I crave your candid interpretation of my boldness assuring you that I obey not the counsel of my flesh herein but displease my self as much as some of you and had rather have the ease and peace of silence if it would stand with duty and the Churches good But it is the meer necessity of the souls of men and my desire of their salvation and the prosperity of the Church which forceth me to this Arrogancy and Immodesty if so it must be called For who that hath a tongue can be silent when it is for the honour of God the welfare of his Church and the everlasting happiness of so many persons 1. And the first and main matter which I have to propound to you is Whether it be not the unquestionable duty of the generality of Ministers in these three Nations to set themselves presently to the work of Catechizing and Personal Instructing all that are to be taught by them who will be perswaded to submit thereunto I need not here stand to prove it having sufficiently done it in the following discourse Can you think that holy wisdom will gain-say it Will zeal for God will delight in his service or love to the souls of men gain-say it 1. That people must be taught the Principles of Religion and matters of greatest necessity to salvation is past doubt among us 2. And that they must be taught it in the most edifying advantagious way I hope we are agreed 3. And that personal Conference and Examination and Instruction hath many excellent advantages for their good is beyond dispute and afterward manifested 4. As also that personal Instruction is commended to us by Scripture and the practices of the servants of Christ and approved by the godly of all ages so far as I can find without contradiction 5. It is past doubt that we should perform this great duty to all the people or as many as we can For our love and care of their souls must extend to all If there be a 1000. or 500. ignorant people in your Parish it is a poor discharge of your duty now and then occasionally to speak to some few of them and let the rest alone in their ignorance if you are able to afford them help 6. And it is as certain that so great a work as this is should take up a considerable part of our time 7. And as certain is it that all duties should be done in order as far as may be and therefore should have their appointed times And if we are agreed to practise according to these commonly acknowledged truths we need not differ upon any doubtful circumstances Obj. We teach them in publike and how then are we bound to teach them man by man besides Answ You pray for them in Publike Must you not also pray for them in private Paul taught every man and exhorted every man and that both publikely and from house to house night and day with tears The necessity and benefits afterward mentioned prove it to be your duty But what need we add more when experience speaks so loud I am daily forced to admire how lamentably ignorant many of our people are that have seemed diligent hearers of me this ten or twelve years while I spoke as plainly as I was able to speak Some know not that each person in the Trinity is God Nor that Christ is God and man Nor that he took his humane nature into heaven Nor many the like necessary principles of our faith Yea some that come constantly to private meetings are found grosly ignorant Whereas in one hours familiar instruction of them in private they seem to understand more and better entertain it then they did in all their lives before Obj. But what obligation lyeth on us to tye our selves to certain daies for the performance of this work Answ This is like the Libertines plea against family prayer They ask where are we bound to pray morning and evening Doth not the nature and end of the duty plainly tell you that an appointed time conduceth to the orderly successful performance of it How can people tell when to come if the time be not made known You will have a fixed day for a Lecture because people cannot else tell when to come without a particular notice for each day And it is as necessary here because this must be a constant duty as well as that Obj. But we have many other businesses that sometimes may interrupt the course Answ Weightyer business may put by our preaching even on the Lords day but we must
shall be all ungoverned And the Physitian that will undertake the Guidance of all the sick people in a whole Nation or County when he is not able to visit or direct the hundreth man of them may as well say Let them perish Ob. But though they cannot Rule them by themselves they may do it by others Answ The nature of the Pastoral work is such as must be done by the Pastor himself He may not delegate a man that is no Pastor to Baptize or administer the Lords Supper or to be the Teacher of the Church No more may he commit the Government of it to another Otherwise by so doing he makes that man the Bishop if he make him the immediate Ruler and Guid of the Church And if a Bishop may make each Presbyter a Bishop so he do but derive the power from him then let it no more be held unlawful for them to Govern or to be Bishops And if a Prelate may do it it is like Christ or his Apostles might and have done it for as we are to preach in Christs name and no in any mans so it s likely that we must Rule in his name But of this somewhat more anon Yet still it must be acknowledged that in case of necessity where there are not more to be had one man may under take the charge of more souls then he is able well to over-see particularly But then he must only undertake to do what he can for them and not to do all that a Pastor ordinarily ought to do And this is the case of some of us that 〈◊〉 greater Parishes then we are able to take 〈…〉 â—eed to as their state requireth I must proteâ—â— or my own part I am so far from their boldness in 〈…〉 venture on the sole Government of a County that I would not for all England have undertaken to have been one of the two that should do all the Padoral work that God enjoyneth to that one Parish where I live had I not this to satisfie my conscience that through the Churches necessities more cannot be had and therefore I must rather do what I can than leave all undone because I cannot do all But cases of unavoidable necessity are not to be the standing condition of the Church or at least it is not desirable that it should so be O happy Church of Christ were the Labourers but Able and Faithful and proportioned in number to the number of souls So that the Pastors were so many or the particular Flocks or Churches so small that we might be able to Take heed to All the Flocks SECT II. HAving told you these two things that are here implyed I come next to the duty it self that is exprest And this Taking heed to All the Flock in general is A very great care of the whole and every part with great watchfulness and diligence in the use of all those holy actions and Ordinances which God hath required us to use for their salvation More particularly this work is to be considered 1. In respect to the subject matter of it 2. In respect to the object 3. In respect to the work it self or the Actions which we must do And 4. In respect to the End which we must intend Or it is not amiss if I begin first with this last as being first in our intention though last as to the attainment 1. The ultimate end of our Pastoral over-sight is that which is the ultimate end of our whole lives Even the Pleasing and Glorifying of God to which is connext the Glory of the humane nature also of Christ and the Glorification of his Church and of our selves in particular And the neerer ends of our office are the sanctification and holy obedience of the people of our charge their unity order beauty strength preservation and increase and the right worshipping of God especially in the solemn Assemblies By which it is manifest that before a man is capable of being a true Pastor of a Church according to the mind of Christ he must have so high an estimation of these things that they may be indeed his ends 1. That man therefore that is not himself taken-up with the predominant love of God and is not himself devoted to him and doth not devote to him all that he hath and can do that man that is not addicted to the pleasing of God and maketh him not the Center of all his actions and liveth not to him as his God and Happiness That is that man that is not a sincere Christian himself is utterly unfit to be a Pastor of a Church And if we be not in a case of desperate necessity the Church should not admit such so far as they can discover them Though to inferiour common works as to teach the Languages and some Philosophy to translate Scriptures c. they may be admitted A man that is not heartily devoted to God addicted to his service honour will never set heartily about the Pastoral work nor indeed can he possibly while he remaineth such do one part of that work no nor of any other nor speak one word in Christian sincerity For no man can be sincere in the means that is not so in his intentions of the end A man must heartily Love God above all before he can heartily serve him before all 2. No man is fit to be a Minister of Christ that is not of a publike spirit as to the Church and delighteth not in its beauty and longeth not for its felicity As the good of the Common-wealth must be the end of the Magistrate his neerer end so must the felicity of the Church be the end of the Pastors of it So that we must rejoyce in its welfare and be willing to spend and be spent for its sake 3. No man is fit to be a Pastor of a Church that doth not set his heart on the life to come and regard the matters of everlasting life above all the matters of this present life and that is not sensible in some measure how much the inestimable riches of glory are to be preferred to the trifles of this world For he will never set his heart on the work of mens salvation that doth not heartily believe and value that salvation 4. He that delighteth not in holiness hateth not iniquity loveth not the Unity and Purity of the Church and abhorreth not discord and divisions and taketh not pleasure in the Communion of Saints and the publike worship of God with his people is not fit to be a Pastor of a Church For none of all these can have the true ends of a Pastor and therefore cannot do the works For of what necessity the end is to the Means and in Relations is easily known SECT III. II. THE subject matter of the Ministerial work is in general spiritual things or matters that concern the Pleasing of God and the Salvation of our people It is not about temporal and transitory things It is
people to go to the Priest whose lips must preserve knowledge and at whose mouth they must ask the Law because he is the Messenger of the Lord of hosts And because the people are grown unacquainted with the office of the Ministery and their own necessity and duty herein it belongeth to us to acquaint them herewith and to press them publikely to come to us for advice in such cases of great concernment to their souls We must not only be willing of the trouble but draw it upon our selves by inviting them hereto What abundance of good might we do could we but bring our people to this And doubtless much might be done in it if we did our duties How few have I ever heard that heartily prest their people to their duty in this A sad case that peoples souls should be so injured and hazarded by the total neglect of so great a duty and Ministers scarce ever tell them of it and awaken them to it were they but duly sensible of the need and weight of this you should have them more frequently knocking at your doors and open their cases to you and making their sad complaints and begging your advice I beseech you put them more on this for the future and perform it carefully when they seek your help To this end it s very necessary that we be acquainted with Practical Cases and specially that we be acquainted with the nature of true Grace and able to assist them in trying their states and resolve the main question that concerns their everlasting life or death One word of seasonable prudent advice given by a Minister to persons in necessity hath done that good that many Sermons would not have done 4. We must also have a special eye upon families to see that they be well ordered and the duties of each relation performed The life of Religion and the welfare and glory of Church and State dependeth much on family Government and duty If we suffer the neglect of this we undo all What are we like to do our selves to the Reforming of a Congregation if all the work be cast on us alone and Masters of families will let fall that necessary duty of their own by which they are bound to help us If any good be begun by the Ministery in any soul in a family a careless prayerless worldly family is like to stiffle it or very much hinder it Whereas if you could but get the Rulers of families to do their part and take up the work where you left it and help it on what abundance of good might be done by it as I have elsewhere shewed more at large I beseech you therefore do all that you can to promote this business as ever you desire the true Reformation and welfare of your Parishes To which end let these things following be performed 1. Get certain information how each family is ordered and how God is worshippped in them that you may know how to proceed in your carefulness for their further good 2. Go now and then among them when they are like to be most at leisure and ask the master of the family Whether he pray with them or read the Scripture or what he doth And labour to convince the neglecters of their sin And if you can have opportunity pray with them before you go and give them an example What you would have them do and how And get a promise of them that they will be more conscionable therein for the future 3. If you find any unable to pray in tolerable expressions through ignorance and disuse perswade them to study their own wants and get their hearts affected with them and so go oft to those neighbours who use to pray that they may learn and in the mean time perswade them to use a form of prayer rather then none Only tell them that it is their sin and shame that they have lived so negligently as to be now so unacquainted with their own necessities as not to know how to speak to God in prayer when every beggar can find words to ask an alms and therefore tell them that this form iâ— but for necessity as a crutch to a Cripple while they cannot do as well without it but they must not resolve to take up there but to learn to do better as soon as they can seeing prayer should come from the feeling of the heart and be varied both according to our necessities and observations Yet is it necessary to most unaccustomed ill-bred people that have not been brought up where prayer hath been used that they begin at first with the use of a form because they will else be able to do nothing at all and in sense of their disability will wholly neglect the duty though they desire to perform it For many disused persons can mutter out some honest requests in secret that be not able before others to speak tolerable sense And I will not be one of them that had rather the duty were wholly neglected or else prophaned and made contemptible then encourage them to the use of a sorm either recited by memory or read 4. See that they have some profitable moving book besides the Bible in each family If they have not perswade them to buy some of small price and great use such as Mr. Whateleys New Birth and Dod on the Commandments or some smaller moving Sermons If they be not able to buy them give them some if you can if you cannot get some Gentlemen or other rich persons that are willing to good works to do it And engage them to read on it at nights when they have leisure and especially on the Lords day 5. By all means perswade them to procure all their children to learn to read English 6 Direct them how to spend the Lords day how to dispatch their worldly businesses so as to prevent encombrances and distractions and when they have been at the Assemblie how to spend the time in their families The life of Religion lieth much on this because poor people have no other free considerable time and therefore if they lose this they lose all and will remain ignorant and brutish Specially perswade them to these two things 1. If they cannot repeate the Sermon or otherwise spend the time profitably at home that they take their family with them and go to some godly neighbour that spends iâ— better that by joyning with them they may have the better help 2. That the Master of the family will every Lords day at night cause all his family to repeat the Catechism to him and give him some account of what they have learn't in publike that day 7. If there be any in the family that are known to be unruly give the Ruler a special charge concerning them and make them understand what a sin it is to connive at them and tolerate them Neglect not therefore this necessary part of your work Get masters of families to their duties and they will spare you
antâ—ent Reverend Divines whose Congregations are now grown thin and their parts esteemed mean by reason of the notable improvement of their Juniors And in particular how mercifully hath the Lord dealt with this poor Countrey of Worcestershire in raising up so many of these that credit their sacred office and self-denyingly and freely zealously and unwearyedly do lay out themselves for the good of souls I bless the Lord that hath placed me in such a neighbourhood where I may have the brotherly fellowship of so many able humble unanimous peaceable and faithful men O that the Lord would long continue this admirable mercy to this unworthy Countrey And I hope I shall rejoyce in God while I have a being for the common change in other parts that I have lived to see That so many hundred faithful men are so hard at work for the saving of souls frementibus licet frendentibus inimicis and that more are springing up apace I know there are some men whose parts I reverence who being in point of Government of another mind from them will be offended at my very mention of this happy alteration but I must profess if I were absolutely Prelatical if I knew my heart I could not chose for all that but rejoyce What not rejoyce at the prosperity of the Church because the men do differ in one opinion about its order should I shut my eyes against the mercies of the Lord The souls of men are not so contemptible to me that I should envy them the bread of life because it is broken to them by a hand that had not the Prelatical approbation O that every congregation were thus supplyed but all cannot be done at once They had a long time to settle a corrupted Ministery and when the ignorant and scandalous are cast out we cannot create abilities in others for the supply we must stay the time of their preparation and growth and then if England drive not away the Gospel by their abuse even by their willful unreformedness and hatred of the light they are like to be the happiest Nation under heaven For as for all the Sects and Heresies that are creeping in and daily troubling us I doubt not but the free Gospel managed by an able self denying Ministery will effectually disperse and shame them all But you may say This is not confessing sin but applauding those whose sins you pretend to confess Answ It is the due acknowledgement of Gods graces and thanksgiving for his admirable mercies that I may not seem unthankful in Confession much less to cloud or vilifie Gods graces while I open the frailties that in many do accompany them SECT II. AMong the many things that are yet sadly out of order in the best I shall touch upon these few particulars following 1. One of our most hainous palpable sins is Pride A sin that hath too much interest in the best but is more hateful unexcusable in us then in any men Yet is it so prevalent in some of us that it inditeth our discourses for us it chooseth us our company it formeth our countenances it putteth the accents and emphasis upon our words when we reason it is the determiner and exciter of our Cogitations It fills some mens minds with aspiring desires and desings It possesseth them with envious and bitter thoughts against those that stand in their light or by any means do ecclipse their glory or hinder the progress of their idolized Reputation O what a constant companion what a tyranous commander what a fly and subtile insinuating enemy is this sin of Pride It goes with men to the Draper the Mercer the Taylor it choseth them their cloth their trimming and their fashion It dresseth them in the morning at least the out side Fewer Ministers would rustle it out in the fashion in hair and habit if it were not for the command of this tyrannous vice And I would that were all or the worst But alas how frequently doth it go with us to our studies and there set with us and do our work How oft doth it chose our subject and more often chose our words and ornaments God biddeth us be as plain as we can for the informing of the ignorant and as convincing and serious as we are able for the meiting and changing of unchanged hearts And Pride stands by and contradicteth all and sometime it puts in toyes and trifles and polluteth rather then polisheth and under pretence of laudable ornaments it dishonoureth our Sermons with childish gawdes as if a Prince were to be decked in the habit of a Stage-player or a painted fool It perswadeth us to paint the window that it may dim the light and to speak to our people that which they cannot understand to acquaint them that we are able to speak unprofitably It taketh off the edge and dulls the life of all our teachings under pretence of filing off the roughness unevenness and superfluity If we have a plain and cutting passage it throws it away as too rustical or ungrateful When God chargeth us to deal with men as for their lives and beseech them with all the earnestness that we are able this cursed sin controlleth all and condemneth the most holy commands of God and calleth our most necessary duty a madness and saith to us What will you make people think you are mad will you make them say you rage or rave cannot you speak soberly and moderately And thus doth Pride make many a mans Sermons and what Pride makes the Devil makes and what Sermons the Devil will make and to what end we may easily conjecture Though the matter be of God yet if the dress and manner and end be from Satan we have no great reason to expect success And when Pride hath made the Sermon it goes with them into the Pulpit it formeth their tone it animateth them in the delivery it takes them off from that which may be displeasing how necessary soever and setteth them in a pursuite of vain applause And the sum of all this is that It maketh men both in studying and preaching to seek themselves and deny God when they should seek Gods glory and deny themselvs When they should ask What should I say and how should I say it to please God best and do most good It makes them ask What shall I say and how shall I deliver it to be thought a learned able Preacher and to be applauded by all that hear me When the Sermon is done Pride goeth home with them and maketh them more eager to know whether they were applauded then whether they did prevail for the saving change of souls They could find in their hearts but for shame to ask folks how they liked them and to draw out their commendation If they do perceive that they are highly thought of they rejoyce as having attained their end but if they perceive that they are esteemed but weak or common men they are displeased as having mist the prize of
are one would think should be no great cause of Pride However do not the Devils know more then you And will you be Proud of that which the Devils do excell you in Yea to some I may say as Salvian li. 4. de Gubern p. 98. Quid tibi blandiris O homo quisquis es Credulitate quae sine timore atque obsequio Dei nulla est aliquid plus Daemones habent Tu emin unam rem habes tantummodo illi duat Tu Credulitatem habes non habes timorem illi Credulitatem habent pariter timorem Our very business is to teach the great lesson of self-denyal and humility to our people and how unfit is it then that we should be proud our selves We must study Humility and Preach Humility and must we not possess and practice it A proud Preacher of Humility is at least a self-condemning man What a sad case is it that so vile a sin is no more easily discerned by us but many that are most Proud can blame it in others and take no notice of it in themselves The world takes notice of some among us that they have aspiring minds and seek for the highest room and must be the Rulers and bear the sway where-ever they come or else there is no standing before them No man must contradict them that will not partake of the fruits of their indignation In any consultations they come not to search after truth but to dictate to others that perhaps are fit to teach them In a word they have such arrogant domineering spirits that the world rings of it and yet they will not see it in themselves Brethren I desire to deal closely with my own heart and yours I beseech you consider Whether it will save us to speak well of the grace that we are without or to speak against the sin that we live in Have not many of us cause to enquire once again Whether sincerity will consist with such a measure of Pride When we are telling the drunkard that he cannot be saved unless he become temperate and the fornicator that he cannot be saved unless he become chaste an undoubted truth have we not as great reason if we are proud to say of our selves that we cannot be saved unless we become humble Certainly Pride is a greater sin then whoredom or drunkenness and Humility is as necessary as Chastity and Sobriety Truly Brethren a man may as certainly and more slily and dangerously make haste to hell in a way of Profession and earnest preaching of the Gospel and seeming zeal for a Holy life as in a way of drunkenness and filthyness For what is true Holiness but a devotedness to God and a living to him and what is a wicked and damnable state but a devotedness to our carnal selves and a living to our selves And doth any man live more to himself then the proud or less to God And may not Pride make a Preacher study for himself and pray and preach and live to himself even when he seemeth to out-go others in the work if he therefore out-go them that he may have the glory of it from men It is not the work without the principle and end that will prove us upright The work may be Gods and yet we do it not for God but for our selves I confess I feel such continual danger in this point that if I do not watch against it least I should study for my self and preach for my self and write for my self rather then for Christ I should soon miscarry and after all I justifie not my self when I must condemn the sin Consider I beseech you Brethren what baits there are in the work of the Ministery to entice a man to be selfish that is to be carnal and impious even in the highest works of piety The fame of a godly man is as great a snare as the fame of a learned man And woe to him that takes up with the fame of godliness instead of godliness Verily I say unto you they have their reward When the times were all for learning and empty formalities then the Temptation of the proud did lie that way But now through the unspeakable mercy of God the most lively practical preaching is in credit and godliness it self is in credit and now the Temptation to Proud men is here even to pretend to be zealous Preachers and godly men O what a fine thing doth it seem to have the people crowd to hear us and to be affected with what we say and then we can command their Judgements and Affections What a taking thing is it to be cryed up as the ablest and godlyest man in the Countrey and to be famed through the Land for the highest spiritual excellencies Alas Brethren a little grace will serve turn to make you to joyn your selves with the forwardest of those men that have these inducements or encouragements To have the people plead for you as their felicity and call you the Pillars of the Church of God and their Fathers the Chariots and horse-men of Israel and no lower language then excellent men and able Divines and to have them depend upon you and be ruled by you though this may be no more then their duty yet I must again tell you that a little grace may serve to make you seem zealous men for this Nay Pride may do it without any special Grace O therefore be jealous of your selves and in all your studies be sure to study Humility He that exalieth himself shall be brought low and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted I observe commonly that almost all men good and bad do loath the Proud and love the Humble so far doth Pride contradict it self unless it be where it purposely hideth it self and as conscious of its own deformity doth borrow the homely dress of humility And we have cause to be the more jealous because it is the most radicated vice and as hardly as any extirpated from the soul Nam saepe sibi de se mens ipsa mentitur fingit se de bono opere amare quod non amat de mundi autem gloria non amare quod amat inquit Gregor M. de cura Pastor P. 1. c. 9. When it was a disgrace to a man to be a godly zealous Preacher then Pride had not such a baite as now As the same Gregor saith ibid. p. 21. c. 8. Eo tempore quo quisquis plebibus praeerat primus ad Martyris tormenta ducebatur Tunc laudabile fuit Episcopatum quaerere quando per hunc quemque dubium non erat ad supplicia major a pervenire But it is not so now as he saith in another place Cap. 1. initio Sed quia authore Deo ad Religionis reverentiam omne jam praesentis seculi culmen inclinatur sunt nonnulli qui intra sanctam Ecclesiam per speciem regiminis gloriam affectant honoris Videri Doctores appetunt transcendere caeteros concupiscunt atque
the eyes of the world and do our part to make them believe that to be a Christian is but to be of such an Opinion and to have that faith which James saith the Devils had and to be solifidians and that Christ is no more for Holiness then Satan or that the Christian Religion exacteth Holiness no more then the false Religions of the world For if the Holy and unholy are all permitted to be sherp of the same fold without the use of Christs means to difference them we do our part to defame Christ by it as if he were guilty of it and as if this were the strain of his prescripts 7. We do keep up separation by permitting the worst to be uncensured in our Churches so that many honest Christians think they are necessitated to withdraw I must profess that I have spoke with some members of the separated or gathered Churches that were moderate men and have argued with them against their way and they have assured me That they were of the Presbyterian judgement or bad nothing to say against it but they joyned themselves with other Churches upon meer necessity thinking that Discipline being an Ordinance of Christ must be used by all that can and therefore they durst no longer live without it when they may have it and they could find no Presbyterian Churches that executed Discipline as they wrote for it and they told me that they did thus separate only protempore till the Presbyterians will use Discipline and then they would willingly return to them again I confess I was sorry that such persons had any such occasion to withdraw and the least ground for such a reason of their doings It is not keeping them from the Sacrament that will excuse us from the further exercise of Discipline while they are Members of our Churches 8. We do too much to bring the wrath of God upon our selves and our Congregations and so to blast the fruit of our labours If the Angel of the Church of Thyatira was reproved for suffering Seducers in the Church we may be reproved on the same ground for suffering open scandalous impenitent ones Rev. 2 20. 9. We seem to justifie the Prelates who took the same course in neglecting Discipline though in other things we differ 10. We have abundance of aggravations and witnesses to rise up against us which though I will purposely now over-pass lest I seem to press too hard in this point I shall desire you to apply them hither when you meet with them anon under the next branch of the Exhortation I know that Discipline is not essential to a Church but what of that Is it not therefore a duty and necessary to its well-being Yea more The power of Discipline is essential to a particular Political Church And what is the Power for but for the work and use As there is no Common-wealth that hath not partem imperantem as well as partem subditam so no such Church that hath not partem regentem in one Pastor or more SECT XII 8. THE last particular branch of my Exhortation is that You will now faithfully discharge the great duty which you have undertaken and which is the occasion of our meeting here to day in personal Catechizing and Instructing every one in your Parishes that will submit thereto What our undertaking is you know you have considered it and it is now published to the world But what the performance will be I know not but I have many reasons to hope well of the most though some will alwaies be readyer to say then to do And because this is the chief business of the day I must take leave to insist somewhat the longer on it And 1. I shall give you some further Motives to perswade you to faithfulness in the undertaken work Presupposing the former general Motives which should move us to this as well as to any other part of our duty 2. I shall give to the younger of my Brethren a few words of Advice for the manner of the performance CHAP. VI. SECT I. 1. THE first reasons by which I shall perswade you to this duty are taken from the benefits of it The second sort are taken from the difficulty And the third from the Necessity and the many obligations that are upon us for the performance of it And to these three heads I shall reduce them all 1. And for the first of these when I look before me and consider what through the blessing of God this work well managed is like to produce it makes my heart to leap for joy Truly Brethren you have begun a most blessed work and such as your own consciences may rejoyce in and your Parishes rejoyce in and the Nation rejoyce in and the childe that is yet unborn yea thousands and millions for ought we know may have cause to bless God for when we have finished our course And though it be our business here to humble our selves for the neglect of it so long as we have very great cause to do yet the hopes of a blessed success are so great in me that they are ready to turn it into a day of Rejoycing I bless the Lord that I have lived to see such a day as this and to be present at so solemn an engagement of so many servants of Christ to such a work I bless the Lord that hath honoured you of this County to be the beginners and awakeners of the Nation hereunto Is it not a controverted business where the exasperated minds of divided men might pick quarrels with us or malice it self be able to invent a rational reproach Nor is it a new invention where envy might charge you as innovators or proud boasters of any new discoveries of your own or scorn to follow in it because you have led the way No it is a well known duty It is but the more diligent and effectuall management of the Ministerial work and the teaching of our Principles and the feeding of babes with milk You lead indeed but not in invention of novelty but the restauration of the antient Ministerial work and the self-denying attempt of a duty that few or none can contradict Unless men do envy you your labours and sufferings or unless they envy the saving of mens souls I know not what they can envy you for in this The age is so quarrelâ—om that where there is any matter to fasten on we can scarce explain a truth or perform a duty but one or other if not many will have a stone to cast at us and will speak evil of the things which they do not understand or which their hearts and interests are against But here I think we have silenced malice it self and I hope we may do this part of Gods work quietly as to them If they cannot endure to be told what they know not or contradicted in what they think or disgraced by discoveries of what they have said amiss I hope they will give us leave
the utmost as your Helpers in their places in an orderly way under your Guidance or else they will make use of them in a disorderly dividing way in opposition to you It hath been a great cause of Schism when Ministers would contemptuously cry down private mens preaching and withall desire not to make any use of the Gifts that God hath given them for their assistance but thrust them too far from holy things as if they were a prophane generation The work is like to go poorly on if there be no hands imployed in it but the Ministers God giveth not any of his gifts to be buryed but for common use By a prudent improvement of the gifts of the more able Christians we may receive much help by them and prevent their abuse even as lawful marriage preventeth fornication And the uses you must specially put them to are these 1 Urge them to be diligent in Teaching and praying with their own families specially Catechizing them and teaching them the meaning of what they learn and whetting it on their affections And there if they have a mind to preach to their children and servants so they undertake not more then they are able to do I know no reason but they may 2. Urge them to step out now and then to their poor Ignorant Neighbours and catechize and instruct them in meekness and patience from day to day and that will bring them more peace of Conscience then contemning them 3. Urge them to go oft to the Impenitent and scandalous sinners about them and deal with them with all possible skill and earnestness yet also with love and patience for the Converting reforming and saving of their souls 4. Acquaint them with their duty of watching over each other in brotherly love and admonishing and exhorting one another daily and if any walk scandalously to tell them their fault before two or three after the contempt of private reproof and if that prevail not to tell the officers of the Church that they may be further proceeded with as Christ hath appointed 5. At your private meetings and in days of humiliation or thanksgiving in private imploy them in prayer and in such learning Questions as is aforesaid 6. If there be any very ignorant or scandalous sinner that you know of and you cannot possibly have time your selves to speak to them at that season send some of those that are able and sober to do it in your stead to instruct the ignorant and admonish the offenders as far as a private man on a message from a Minister and in discharge of his own duty may go 7. Let some of them be chosen to Represent the Church or to see that they have no wrong and to be their Agents to prepare all Cases of Discipline for publike audience and to be present with the Church officers at appointed meetings to hear the Evidences that are brought in against any scandalous impenitent sinners and to discern how far they are valid and how far the persons are obliged to make satisfaction and give publike testimony of Repentance or to be further proceeded against 8 Let such as are fit be made subservient officers I mean Deacons and then they may afford you help in a regular way and will by their relation discern themselves obliged to maintain the unity of the Church and authoritie of the Ministrie as they have some participation of the Employment and honour and so by a complication of Interests you will make them firmer to the Church But then see that they be men Competently fit for the place I am perswaded if Ministers had thus made use of the parts of their ablest members they might have prevented much of the Divisions and distractions and apostacie that hath befaln us For they would have then found work enough upon their hands for higher parts then theirs without invading the Ministrie and would rather have seen cause to bewail the impefection of their abilities to that work which doth belong to them Experience would have convinced and humbled them more then our words will do A man may think he can stir such ablock or pluck up a tree by the roots that never tryed but when he sets his hands to it he will come off ashamed And see that you drive them to diligence in their own works and let them know what a sin it is to neglect their families and their ignorant miserable neighbours c and then they will be kept humble and have no such mind to be running upon more work when they feel you spurring them on to their own and rebuking them for the neglect nor will they have any leisure for schismatical Enterprises because of the constancy and greatness of their employment 11. Still keep up Christian love and familiarity with them even when they begin to warp and make defection and lose not your interest in them while you have any thoughts of attempting their recovery 12. If they do withdraw into separated meetings follow them and be among them if it may be continually enter a mild dissent as to the lawfulness of it but yet tell them that you are willing to hear what it is that they have to say and to be among them for their good if they will give you leave for fear lest they run to further evil And be not easily removed but hold on unless they resolvedly exclude you For 1. You may thereby have the opportunity of a moderate gentle opposing their errors and so in time may manifest the vanity of their course 2. And you will prevent much of that impudent reviling and grosser venting of further Error which they will do more freely where there is no Contradicter They may say any thing when there is none to gainsay them and make it seem good in the eyes of the weak 3. And by this means if any seducers from abroad come in to confirm them you will be readie to oppose them And so at the least you will do much to prevent the increase of their party It hath been a very great cause of the schisms in England that Ministers have only too many contemned them when they have withdrawn into private separated meetings have talk't against them to others or reproved them in the Pulpit in the mean time fled away from the faces of them or been strangers to them while they have given Seducers opportunity to come among them be familiar with them without contradiction and to have the advantages of deceiving them and even doing what their list O that the Ministrie had been more guiltless of those Errors and Schisms that they talk against But it s easier to chide a sectary in the Pulpit and to subscribe a Testimony against them then to play the skilful Physician for their Cure and do the tenth part of the duty that lieth upon us to prevent and heal such calamitous distempers I am not finding fault with Prudent Reprehensions of them in Publike or Testimonies against