you will not do as far as you can your selves When you threaten them for neglecting it you threaten your own souls 12. All our hard censures of the Magistrate for doing no more and all our reproofs of him for permitting Seducers and denying his further assistance to the Ministers doth condemn our selves if we refuse our own duty What must all the Rulers of the world be servants to our sloathfulness or light us the candle to do nothing or only hold the stirrup to our Pride or make our beds for us that we may sleep by day-light Should they do their part in a subordinate office to protect and further us and should not we do ours who stand nearest to the end 13. All the maintenance that we take for our service if we be unfaithful will condemn us For who is it that will pay a servant to take his pleasure or sit still or work for himself If we have the Fleece it is sure that we may look to the â—lock And by taking the wages we oblige our selves to the work 14. All the honour that we expect or receive from the people and all the Ministerial Priviledges before mentioned will condemn the unfaithful For the honour is but the encouragement to the work and obligeth to it 15. All the witness that we have born against the scandalous negligent Ministers of this age and the words we have spoken against them and all the endeavours that we have used for their removal will condemn the unfaithful For God is no respecter of persons If we succed them in their sins we spoke all that against ourselves And as we condemned them God and others will condemn us if we imitate them And though we be not so bad as they it will prove sad to be too like them 16. All the Judgements that God hath executed on them in this age before our eyes will condemn us if we be unfaithful Hath he made the idle Shepherds and sensual drones to stink in the nostrils of the people and will he honour us if we be idle and sensual Hath he sequestred them and cast them our of their habitations and out of the Pulpits and laid them by as dead while they are alive and made them a hissing and a by-word in the Land and yet dare we imitate them Are not their sufferings our warnings and did not all this befall them for our examples If any thing in the world should waken Ministers to self-denyal and diligence one would think we had seen enough to do it If the Judgements of God on one man should do so much what should so many years judgement on so many hundreds of them do Would you have imitated the old world if you had seen the flood that drowned them Would you have taken up the sins of Sodom Pride Fulness of bread Idleness if you had stood by and seen the flames of Sodom This was Gods argument to deter the Israelites from the Nations sins because for all these things they had seen them cast one before them Who would have been a Iudas that had seen him hanged and burst and who would have been a lying sacrilegious hypocrite that had seen â—nanias and Saphira dye And who would not have been afraid to contradict the Gospel that had seen â—lâ—mas smitten blind And shall we prove self-seeking idle Ministers when we have seen God scourging such out of his Temple and sweeping them away as dirt into the Channels God forbid For then how great and how manifold will our condemnation be 17. All the Disputations and eager contests that we have had against unfaithful men and for a faithful Ministry will condemn us if we be unfaithful And so will the Books that we have written to those ends How many score if not hundreds of Catechisms are written in England and yet shall we forbear to use them How many Books have been written for Discipline by English and Scottish Divines and how fully hath it been defended and what reproach hath been cast upon the adversaries of it through the Land And yet shall we lay it by as useless when we have free leave to use O fearful hypocrisie What can we call it less Did we think when we were writing against this sect and the sect that opposed Discipline that we were writing all that against our selves O what Evidence do the Book-sellers shops and their own Libraries contain against the greatest part even of the godly Ministers of the Land The Lord cause them seasonably to lay it to heart 18. All the daies of fasting and prayer that have been of late years kept in England so a Reformation will rise up in Judgement against the unreformed that will not be perswaded to the painful part of the work And I confess it is so heavy an aggravation of our sin that it makes me ready to tremble to think of it Was there ever a Nation on the race of the earth that hath so solemnly and so long followed God with fasting and prayer as we have done Before the Parliament began how frequent and servent were wein secret After that for many years time together we had a monethly Fast commanded by the Parliament besides frequent private and publike Faâ—â—s on the by And what was all this for What ever was sometime the means that we lookt at yet still the end of all our Prayers was Church-Reformation and therein especially these two things A faithful Ministry and Exercise of Discipline in the Church And did it once enter then into the hearts of the people yea or into our own hearts to imagine that when we had all that we would have and the matter was put into our own hands to be as painful as we could and to exercise what Discipline we would that then we would do nothing but publikely preach that we would not be at the pains of Catechizing and Instructing our people personally nor exercise any considerable part of Discipline at all It astonisheth me to think of it What a depth of deceit is it the heart of man What are good mens hearts so deceitful Are all mens hearts so deceitful I confess I told many souldiers and other sensual men then that when they had fought for a Reformation I was confident they would abhorr it and be enemies to it when they saw and felt it thinking that the yoak of Discipline would have pincht their necks and that when they had been catechized and personally dealt with and reproved for their sin in private and publike and brought to publike confestion and repentance or avoided as impenitent they would have scorned and spurned against all this and have taken the yoak of Christ for tyrannie But little did I think that the Ministers would have let all fall and put almost none of this upon them but have let them alone for fear of displeasing them and have let all run on as it did before O the earnest prayers that I have heard in secret daies heretofore for
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
their dearest friends and fellow-servants were frying in the flames at home and the prisons filled with them and they had daily news of one after another that was made a sacrifice to the fury of the Papists could they yet proceed in their own dissentions and that to such a height O what is man and the best of men Yea before this in King Edwards daies what rigor was used against Bishop Hooper about such Ceremonies But the prison abated Bishop Ridleys uncharitableness and they then learned more charity when they were going to the flames From Frankford the sad division at the death of Queen Mary was transported into England and the seeds that were sown or began to spring up in the Exiled Congregation did too plentifully fructifie in the Land of their prosperity No sooner doth the Sun shine upon them but contentious spirits begin to swarm and the prison doors are no sooner open and their bolts knockt off but they continue the suppressing of their Brethren as if they had been turned loose as fighting Cocks to fall upon one another and to work for Satan when they had suffered for Christ The party that was for Prelacy and Ceremonies prevailed for the countenance of the state and quickly got the staff into their hands and many of their Brethren under their feet and so contrived the business that there was no quiet station to be had in the Ministery for those that would not be of their mind and way And many of them endeavoured to have a brand of ignominy set upon their names who desired the Discipline and order of other reformed Churches That all might be accounted Schismaticks that would not be ruled by them even in Ceremonies The contrary-minded also were some of them too intemperate and impatient and unpeaceable and some few of them turned to flat separation and flew in the faces of the Prelates with reviling For their sakes many wise and peaceable men were the worse used and they that were got into the Chair began to play the scorners and the persecutors and thought meet to impose upon them all the nick-name of Puritans as knowing how much names of reproach and scorn could do with the vulgar for the furthering of their cause some of these Puritans as now they had named them were imprisoned and some put to death and some dyed in and by imprisonment They are all made uncapable of being Preachers of the Gospel in England till they would change their minds and subscribe to the lawfulness of Prelacy and the Liturgy and Ceremonies and use these accordingly when they use their Ministery O how much did many good men rejoyce that the Lord had visited their native Countrey with deliverance and the light of the glorious Gospel of his Son How much did they long to lay out themselves for the saving of their dear Countreymen and to improve the present freedom for the most effectual propagation of the Truth When alas their own friends some of their fellow-sufferers animated and assisted by many temporizers did suddenly disappoint their hopes and shut them out of the Vineyard of the Lord and would suffer none to labour in it but themselves and theirs Alas that persecution should be so soon forgotten and that they should have no more sense of the cruelty of the Papists to have moved them to some more tenderness of the consciences and liberties of their Bretheren That they had no more compassion on the Church of Christ then to deprive it of the labours of so many choice and worthy men and that at such a time of necessity When Popish Priests were newly cast out and multitudes of Congregations had no Preachers at all but some silly Readers yet might not these men be allowed to Preach If the Judgements of these Prelates were never so absolute for the Divine right of their own government yet could it not be so for the absolute Necessity of the Cross Surplice and every part of the forms in their Liturgy Had they but countenanced most their own party and silenced all that did speak against their Government and Ceremonies and only allowed them to preach the Gospel without subscription to the lawfulness of these things and with a silent forbearance of the use of the Ceremonies they might have better secured their own power and way and have exercised some sense of brotherly love and compassion on the necessitous state of the Church and in all likelyhood might have stood safe themselves to this day A wonderful thing it seems to me that wise and good men for such I doubt not but many of them were should think it better that many hundred Congregations in England to say nothing of Ireland or Scotland should be without any preaching at all to the apparent hazard of the damnation of means souls who were so deep in Popish ignorance before then that a man should preach to them that durst not use the Cross or Surplice were these of more worth then so many souls It was lawful in the Apostles daies to baptize without the Cross and to pray and praise God without the Surplice and why might not the Prelates of England have tolerated that in the Churches necessities at least as a weakness in well-meaning Brethren which the Apostolical Churches used not at all What if they were lawful They that thought so might have them Were they now become more necessary then the Preaching of the Gospel when in the Apostles times they were of no necessity or use at all If it were obedience to the Prelates that was necessary they might have required obedience to undoubted and necessary things and they should soon have found it Had they contented themselves to be as Officers under Christ to see to the execution of his Laws and to meddle at least with no needless new Legislation I think few would have questioned obedience to them but the ungodly But it was sadly contrived to have such Impositions on mens consciences in needless or indifferent things as the most tender conscienc't men were likest to disobey and as might be snares to those that desired to please God when the business of Church Governors should be to promote the obedience of Christs-Laws and to encourage those that are most fearful to disobey them and to do as the Law makers Dan. 6. 5. We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel except we find it against him concerning the Law of his God But thus it came to pass that the enemy of the Church did too much attain his ends such excellent men as Hildersham Brightman P. Bayn Parker Ames Bradshaw Dod Nicolls with multitudes more were laid aside and silenced and multitudes of them that petitioned for liberty in Lincolnshire Devonshire and other parts suppressed and the Nation in the mean time abounding with gross ignorance was brought by observing the countenance of the times to like their own Readers better then painful Preachers and to hate and scorn the zealous obedience to the
would have done it on insufficient terms By which means the enemy of Peace hath brought it to pass that whoever maketh motion for Peace is presently under suspition of being one that hath need of it for an indulgence to his own Errors A fearful case that heresie should be so credited as if none were such friends to Unity and Peace as they And that so great and necessary a duty upon which the Churches wellfare doth so depend should be brought into such suspition or disgrace Brethren I speak not all this without apparent reason We have as sad divisions among us in England considering the piety of the persons and the smallness of the matter of our discord as most Nations under heaven have known The most that keeps us at odds is but about the right form and order of Church-Government Is the distance so great that Presbyterian Episcopal and Independent might not be well agreed Were they but heartily willing and forward for peace they might I know they might I have spoken with some moderate men of all the parties and I perceive by their concessions it were an easie work Were mens hearts but sensible of the Churches case and unfeignedly touched with Love to one another and did they but heartily set themselves to seek it the settling of a safe and happy Peace were an easie work If we could not in every point agree we might easily find out and narrow out differences and hold Communion upon our agreement in the main determining of the safest way for the managing of our few and small disagreements without the danger or trouble of the Church But is this much done It is not done To the shame of all our faces be it spoken it is not done Let each party flatter themselves now as they please it will be recorded to the shame of the Ministery of England while the Gospel shall abide in the Christian world What will be recorded What Why this That learned and godly Ministers in England did first disagree among themselves and head and lead on their people in those disagreements That they proceeded in them for the space of 14. years already how much more will be God knows and in all that time had as great advantages and opportunities for Agreement as any people in the world They had the sad experience of the conflagration of the Common-wealth and were scourged to it by a calamitous war They saw the fearful confusions in the Church and the perverting of multitudes of seduced souls some to be Seekers some Socinians some Ranters Quakers or Infidels They saw the continual exasperation of minds and the jealousies and bitterness that their distance bred and how it was the â—uel of a daily course of sin And yet for all these they were not moved to effectual endeavours for a cure They could let a course of sin run on they could let divisions and heresies increase they see the Church of Christ so low and yet forbear the cheapest cure that ever a people could be called to use They could see and hear and know that we were all made a very derision to our enemies and the publike scorn or pitty of the world and yet set still as if all this were little to them They had Magistrates that did not hinder them from the work but gave them full liberty to have consulted and endeavoured a full agreement They lived neer together and might have easily met together for the work and if one or two or an hundred meetings could not have accomplisht it they might have held on till it was done And yet for all this there is no such thing done not any considerable attempt yet made And O what hainous aggravations do accompany this sin Never men since the Apostles daies I think did make greater profession of godliness The most of them are bound by solemn Oathes and Covenants for unity and reformation They all confess the worth of peace and most of them will preach for it and talk for it while they set still and neglect it as if it were not worth the looking after They will read and preach on those Texts that command men to follow peace with all men and as much as in us lyeth if it be possible to live peaceably with them and yet we are so far from following it and doing all that possibly we can for it that too many will snarl at it and malign and censure any that endeavour it as if all zeal for Peace did proceed from an abatement of our zeal for holiness and as if holiness and peace were so fallen out that there were no reconciling them when yet they have found by long experience that concord is a sure friend to Piety and Piety alwaies moves to Concord We have seen how Errors and Heresies breed by Discord as Discord is bred and fed by them We have seen to our sorrow that where the servants of God should live together as one of one heart and one soul and one lip and should promote each others faith and holiness and admonish and assist each other against sin and rejoyce together in the hope of their future glory we have contrarily lived in mutual jealousies and drowned holy love in bitter contendings and have studyed to disgrace and undermine one another and to increase our own parties by right or wrong and we that were wont to glory of our Love to the Brethren as the certain mark of our sincerity in the faith have now turned it into a Love of a Party only and those that are against that Party have more of our spleen and envy and malice then our love I know this is not so with all nor prevalently with any true Believer but yet it is so common that it may cause us to question the sincerity of many that are thought by themselves and others to be most sincere And it is not our selves only that are scorched in this flame but we have drawn our people into it and cherished them in it so that most of the godly in the Nation are fallen into several parties and have turned much of their antient Piety into vain Opinions and vain Disputes and envyings and animosities Yea whereas it was wont to be made the certain mark of a graceless wretch to deride the godly how few be there now that stick at secret deriding and slandering those that are not of their opinion A pious Prelatical man can reverently scorn and slander a Presbyterian and some of them an Independent and an Independent both And which is the worst of all the common ignorant people take notice of all this and do not only deride us but are hardened by us against Religion and when we go about to perswade them to be Religious they see so many Parties that they know not which to joyn with and think that it is as good be of none at all as of any when they are uncertain which is the right And thus thousands are grown into a
For those of the antient Prelacy are more moderate I know it will be displeasing to them and I have no mind to displease them but yet I will more avoid the treacherous or unfaithful silence which may wrong them then the words of faithful friendship which may displease them And I will say no more to them then if I know my self I should say if I were resolved for Prelacy It is the judgement of these men that I now speak of that a Prelate is essential to a Church and there is no Church without them and that their Ordination is of necessity to the essence of a Presbyter and that those that are ordained without them though some will except a case of necessity are not Ministers of Christ Hereupon they conclude that our Congregations in England are no true Churches except where the Presbyter dependeth on some Prelate and the Ministers ordained by Presbyters only are no true Ministers and they will not allow men to hear them or communicate with them but withdraw from our Congregations like Separatists or Recusants And the same note many of them brand upon all the Reformed Churches abroad that have no Prelates as they do on us So that the Church of Rome is admirably gratified by it and instead of demanding where our Church vvas before Luther they begin to demand of us Where it is now And indeed had it been no more visible in the ages before Luther then a Reformed Prelatical Church is now they would have a fairer pretence then â—ow they have to call upon us for the proof of its visibility Suppose that the Presbyters who rejected Prelacy were guilty of all that schism and other sin as they are ordinarily accused of For I will now go on such suppositions Must the people therefore turn their back on the Assemblies and Ordinances of God Is it better for them to have no preaching and no Sacraments and no publike Communion in Gods worship then to have it in an Assembly that hath not a Prelate over it or from a Minister ordained without his consent I confess I would not for all the world stand guilty before God of the injury that this Doctrine hath already done to mens souls much less of what it evidently tendeth to There are through the great mercy of God abundance of painful and able young Ministers that were in the Universities in the time of the wars and had no hand in it and were ordained since Bishops became to them either invisible or inaccestible and its like they judge not their Ordination to be of necessity They lay out themselves faithfully for the healing of that ignorance and common prophaneness which got so much head under their careless or drunken predecessors They desire nothing more then the saving of souls They preach sound Doctrine They live in Peace And it is the greatest of their grief that many of their hearers remain so ignorant and obstinate still And see what a help these poor impenitent sinners have for their cure They are taught to turn their backs upon their Teachers and whereas before they heard them but with disregard they are now taught not to hear them at all And if we privately speak to them they can tell us that its the Judgement of such and such learned men that we are not to be heard nor our Churches to be communicated with nor we to be at all regarded as Christs Ministers And thus Drunkards and Swearers and worldlings and all sorts of sensualists are got out of gun-shot and beyond the reach of our teaching or reproof And those that do not for shame of the world obey their Doctrine to stay from the Assembly yet do they there hear us with prejudice and contempt and from the Communion of the Church in the Lords Supper they commonly abstain Were it only the case of those few Civil persons that conscientiously go this way and address themselves to these kind of men for Government and Sacraments I would never have mentioned the thing For it is not them that I intend For what care I what Minister they hear or obey so it be one that leadeth them in the waies of truth and holiness Let them follow Christ and forsake their sins and go to heaven and I will never much contend with them for the forsaking of my Conduct But it is the common sort of prophane and sensual men that are everywhere hardened against the Ministery and they have nothing but the reputation of the Prelatical Divines to countenance it with If their Teachers do but differ in a gesture from these men they vilifie them and reject their guidance having nothing but the authority of such men to support them Fain would we reach their consciences to awaken them from their security for it pittyeth us to see them so neer unto perdition But we can do no good upon them for our Ministery is in contempt because of the contrary judgement of these men Not that the poor people care any more for a Prelate as such then for an ordinary Minister For if Prelates would have troubled them as much with their preaching and reproofs and discipline they would have hated them as much as they do the Ministers But because they found by experience that under their Government they might sin quietly and make a scorn of godliness without any danger or trouble and that to this day the men of that way are so much against those precise Ministers that will not let them go quietly to hell therefore are they all for Prelacy and make this the great shelter for their disobedience and unreformed lives So that I confess I think that the hurt that Separatists and Anabaptists do in England at this day is little to the hurt that is done by these men For I count that the greatest hurt which hardeneth the greatest number in the state and way of greatest danger An Anabaptist may yet be a penitent and godly person and be saved But the sensual and impenitent worldlings can never be saved in that condition I see by experience that if separation infect two or three or half a score in a Parish or if Anabaptistry infect as many and perhaps neither of them mortally this obstinate contempt of Ministerial exhortation encouraged by the countenance of the contrary minded doth infect them by the scores or hundreds If we come to them in a case where they have no countenance from the Ministery how mute or tractable comparatively do we find them But if it be a case where they can but say that the Prelatical Divines are of another judgement how unmoveable are they though they have nothing else to say Try when we come to set afoot this work that we are now upon of Catechizing and private instruction whether this will not be one of our greatest impediments though in a work of unquestioned lawfulness and necessity Even because they are taught that we are none of their Pastors and have no authority over
have his Peace but not the worlds for he hath foretold us that they will hate us Might not Mr. Bradford or Hooper or any that were burnt in Queen Maries daies have alledged more then this against duty They might have said It will make us hated if we own the Reformation and it will expose our lives to the flames How is he concluded by Christ to be no Christian who hateth not all that he hath and his own life for him and yet we can take the hazard of our life as a reason against his work What is it but hypocrisie to shrink from sufferings and take up none but safe and easie works and make our selves believe that the rest are no duties Indeed this is the common way of escaping suffering to neglect the duty that would expose us thereunto If we did our duty faithfully Ministers should find the same lot among professed Christians as their predecessors have done among the Infidels But if you could not suffer for Christ why did you put your hand to his plough and did not first set down and count your costs This makes the Ministerial work so unfaithfully done because it is so carnally undertaken and men enter upon it as a life of ease and honour and respect from men and therefore resolve to attain their ends and have what they expected by right or wrong They looked not for hatred and suffering and they will avoid it though by the avoiding of their work 2. And as for the making your selves uncapable to do them good I answer That reason is as valid against plain preaching reproof or any other duty which wicked men will hate us for God will bless his own Ordinances to do good or else he would not have appointed them If you admonish and publikely rebuke the scandalous and call men to repentance and cast out the obstinate you may do good to many that you reprove and possibly to the excommunicate I am sure it is Gods means And it is his last means when Reproofs will do no good It is therefore perverse to neglect the last means lest we frustrate the foregoing means when as the last is not to be used but upon supposition that the former were all frustrate before However those within and those without may receive good by it if the offendor do receive none and God will have the honour when his Church is manifestly differenced from the world and the heirs of heaven and hell are not totally confounded nor the world made to think that Christ and Satan do but contend for superiority and that they have the like inclination to holiness or to sin 3. And I would know whether on the grounds of this objection before mentioned all Discipline should not be cast out of the Church atleast ordinarily And so is not this against the Thing it self rather then against the present season of it For this reason is not drawn from any thing proper to our times but common to all times and places Wicked men will alwaies storm against the means of their publike shame and the use of Church censures is purposely to shame them that sin may be shamed and disowned by the Church What age can you name since the daies of the Apostles wherein you would have executed the Discipline that you now refuse if you go on these grounds supposing that it had not been by Magisterial compulsion If therefore it be Discipline it self that hath such intolerable inconveniences why have you so prayed for it and perhaps fought for it and disputed for it as you have done What must all dissenters bear your frowns and censures and all for a work which your selves judge intolerable and dare not touch with one of your fingers When do you look to see all these difficulties over that you may set upon that which you now avoid Will it be in your daies Or will you wait till you are dead and leave it as a part of your Epitaph to posterity that you so deeply engaged and contended for that which you so abhord to the death that you would never be brought to the practice of it And doth not this Objection of yours plainly give up your cause to the Separatists and even tell them that your contending is not for your way of Discipline but that there may be none because it will do more harm then good Certainly if this be true it would have been better to speak it out at first before all our wars and tears and prayers and contentions then now in the conclusion to tell the world that we did all this but for a name or word and that the thing is so far from being worth our cost that it is not tolerable much less desirable 4. But yet let me tell you that there is not such a Lyon in the way as you do imagine nor is Discipline such a useless thing I bless God upon the small and too late tryal that I have made my self of it I can speak by experience it is not vain nor are the hazards of it such as may excuse our neglect But I know that pinching reason is behind They say that When we pleaded for Discipline we meant a Discipline that should be established and imposed by the secular power and without them what good can we do when every man hath leave to despise our censures and set us at nought and therefore we will not meddle with it say they without authority To which I answer 1. I thought it once a scornful indignity that some fellows attempted to put upon the Ministery that denyed them to be the Ministers of Christ and would have had them called the Ministers of the State and dealt with accordingly But it seems they did not much cross the judgements of some of the Ministery themselves who are ready to put the same scorn upon their own calling We are sent as Christs Embassadors to speak in his name and not in the Princes and by his Authority we do our work as from him we have our Commission And shall any of his Messengers question the Authority of his commands The same Power that you have to preach without or against the Magistrates command the same have you to exercise Pastoral Guidance and Discipline without it And should all Ministers refuse preaching if the Magistrate bid them not yea or if he forbid them 2. What mean you when you say you will not do it without Authority Do you mean the Leave or the Countenance and approbation or the Command upon your selves or do you mean a Force or Penalty on the People to obey you The Magistrates Leave we have who hindereth or forbiddeth you to set up Discipline and exercise it faithfully Doth the secular Power forbid you to do it or threaten or trouble you for not doing it No they do not To the shame of the far greatest part of the Ministers of England it must be spoken for we have so opened our own shame that it cannot be
hid we have had free Liberty to have done the work of Christ which we have desired and pleaded for and yet we would not do it What might not the Ministers of England have done for the Lord if they had been but willing They had no prohibition nor any man to rise up against them of all the enemies whose hearts are against their work and yet they would not do it Nay more for ought you know you have the Approbation of Authority You have the commands of former powers not yet repealed You have the Protection of the Laws and present Governors If any one seek revenge against you for the sake of Discipline you have not only Laws but as many willing Magistrates to restrain and punish them as ever you knew I think in England And what would you have more Would you have a Law made to Punish you if you will not do your duty What! dare you tell God that you will not do his work unless the Magistrate drive you to it with scourges I confess if I had my will it should be so and that man should be ejected as a negligent Pastor that will not rule his People by Discipline though yet I might allow him to be a Preacher to the unchurched as well as he is ejected as a negligent Preacher that will not preach For Ruling is as Essential a part of a Pastors office as preaching I am sure And therefore seeing these men would fain have the Magistrate interpose if he did eject them for unfaithful negligent Pastors were it not for the necessity of the Church that hath not enow better I know not well how they could blame him for it It s a sad discovery of our carnal hearts when man can do so much more with us then God that we would obey the commands of men and will not obey the commands of Christ Is he fit to be Christs Officer that will not take his Command as obligatory But I know the thing expected is that all the people should be forced under a penalty to submit to our Discipline I confess I think that the Magistrate should be the hedge of the Church and defend the Ministery and improve his power to the utmost to procure an universal obedience to Christs Laws and restrain men from the apparent breach of them especially from being false Teachers and Seducers of others How far I am against the two extreams of Universal Licence and Persecuting tyrannie I have frequently manifested on other occasions But I shall now say but this 1. Doth not this further discover the carnal frame of our hearts when we will not do our duty unless the Magistrate will do his to the full and all that we conceive may be his duty What! will his neglect excuse yours Hath Christ bid you use the Keyes of the Kingdom and avoid a scandalous sinner upon condition that the Magistrate will punish him with the sword Is not this your meaning if you would speak it out that you find a great deal of difficulty in your work and you would have the Magistrate by terrifying offendors make it easie to you for if it be not safe and cheap and easie you are resolved you will not do it And such servants Christ may have enough Nay is not your meaning that you would have the Magistrate to do your work for you Just as your pious people have long cryed and prayed for Discipline and called upon Ministers to do it but we cannot get them to reprove offendors and deal with them seriously and lovingly for their good and inform the Church-Officers of them that are obstinate So do we toward the Magistrates The work of God is so much beholden to us that we would all have it done but few wâ—ll do it We can easilyer censure and talk against others for not doing it then do it our selves O the guile and hypocrisie of our hearts 2. But further What is it that you would have the Magistrate to do I pray you consider it how you will answer it before God that you should willfully neglect your own duty and then make it your Religion to quarrel with others Is it not a fearful deceit of heart for a man to think himself a godly Minister for finding fault with them that are less faulty then himself I say less faulty For tell me truly Whether the Magistrate do more of his part in Government or you in yours I am no more a flatterer of the Magistrate then of you nor was ever taken for such that I could understand but we must deal justly by all men Would you have the Magistrate to punish men eo nomine because excommunicated without any particular cognisance of the fact and case 1. That were unjust Then he must do wrong when ever we mistake and do wrong If an honest man were an hangman he would be willing to know that he hanged not a man that was unjustly condemned However the Magistrate is not the meer executioner of the Ministers but a Judge and therefore must be allowed the use of his Reason to know the cause and follow his own judgement and not punish men against it 2. And excommunication is so great a punishment of it self that I hope you do not think it nothing unless the Magistrate add more If so then the temporal punishment might serve turn and what need of yours But I suppose that this is not your sense but you are so just that you would have the Magistrate to punish a man as an offendor and not as excommunicate And if so I think it is not nothing that he doth Are all the penalties against Swearers Cursers Drunkards Peace-breakers Sabboth-breakers c. nothing Certainly the Laws of the Land do punish much sin against God Well! What do you as Church-Governors against these same sins The Magistrate fineth and imprisoneth them that is his part It is your part to bring them to open Repentance or to cast them out Have you done this as oft as he hath done his part Doth not the Magistracy of England punish ten twenty what if I say an hundred Swearers Drunkards or Sabboth-breakers by the sword for one that the Elders of the Church do punish by censures or bring to publike Repentance for the satisfaction of the Church Brethren these things seem strange to me that the case should stand thus as it doth and yet that the deceit of our hearts should be so great that we should go on to account our selves such blameless godly men whom Magistrates and people are all bound to reverence and to speak against the Magistrate so much as we do I believe they are all slack and faulty but are not we much more faulty What if they should pay us in our own coyn What language might they give the Ministers that after so many years talk of Discipline will do nothing in it I say nothing in most places To meet together for consulation is no exercise of Discipline nor
by faithful Pastors to all the Flocks I have often said it and still must say it that this is a great part of Englands misery and a great degree of spiritual famine which reigns in most Cities and great Towns through the Land even where they are insensible of it and think themselves well provided Alas we see multitudes of carnal ignorant sensual sinners round about us here is a family and there a family and there almost a whole street or village of them and our hearts pity them and we see that their necessities cry loud for our speedy and diligent relief so that he that hath ears to hear must needs hear it And if we would never so fain we cannot help them Not only through their obstinacy but also through our want of opportunity We have experience that if we could but have leisure to speak to them and to open plainly to them their sin and danger there were great hopes of doing good to many of them that receive little by our publike teaching But we cannot come at them more necessary work prohibits us we cannot do both at once and the publike must be preferred because there we deal with many at once And it is as much as we are able to do to perform the publike work or some little more And if we do take the time when we should eat or sleep besides the ruining of weakened bodies by it we shall not be able after all to speak to one of very many of them So that we must stand by and see poor people perish and can but be sorry for them and cannot so much as speak to them to endeavour their recovery Is not this a sad case in a Nation that glorieth of the fulness of the Gospel An Infidel will say No but me thinks no man that believes an everlasting Joy or Torment should say so I will give you the instance of my own case We are together two Ministers and a third at a Chappel willing to bestow every hour of our time in Christs work Before we undertook this work that we are now upon our hands were full and now we are engaged to set apart two daies every week from morning to night for private catechizing and instruction so that any man may see that we must leave undone all that other work that we were wont to do at that time and we are necessitated to run upon the publike work of preaching with small preparation and so must deliver the Message of God so rawly and confusedly and unanswerably to its dignity and the needs of mens souls that it is a great trouble to our minds to consider it and a greater trouble to us when we are doing it And yet it must be so there is no remedy unless we will omit this personal instruction we must needs run thus unpreparedly into the Pulpit And to omit this we dare not it is so great and necessary a work And when we have incurred all the forementioned inconveniences and have set two whole daies a week apart for the work that we have now undertaken it wil be as much as we shal be able to do to go over the Parish but once in a year being about 800. families And which is worse then that we shall be forc't to cut it short and do it less effectually to those that we do it having above 15. Families a week to deal with And alas how small a matter is it to speak to a man once only in a year and that so cursorily as we must be forced to do in comparison of what their necessities do require yet are we in hope of some fruit of this much but how much more might it be if we could but speak to them once a quarter and do the vvork more fully and deliberately as you that are in smaller Parishes may do And many Ministers in England have ten times if not more the number of Parishoners as I have so that if they should undertake the work that we have done they can go over the Parish but once in ten years So that while we are hoping for opportunities to speak to them we hear of one dying after another and to the grief of our souls are forced to go with them to their graves before we could ever speak a word to them personally to prepare them for their change And what is the cause of all this misery Why our Rulers have not seen a necessity of any more Ministers then one or two in such Parishes and so they have not allowed any maintenance to that end Some have alienated much from the Church the Lord humble all them that consented to it effectually lest it prove the consumption of the Nation at last while they have left this famine in the chief parts of the Land It s easie to separate from the multitude and gather distinct Churches and let the rest sink or swim and if they will not be saved by publike preaching let them be damned but whether this be the most charitable and Christian course one would think should be no hard question But what 's the matter that wise and godly Rulers should be thus guilty of our misery and that none of our cries will awake them to compassion What are they so ignorant as not to know these things Or are they grown cruel to the souls of men Or are they false-hearted to the interest of Christ and have a design to undermine his Kingdom No I hope it is none of these but for ought I can find it is even long of us even of us the Ministers of the Gospel whom they should thus maintain For those Ministers that have small Parishes and might do all this private part of the work yet do it not but very few of them nor will not do it And those in great Towns and Cities that might do somewhat though they cannot do all will do just nothing but what accidentially fals in their way or next to nothing so that the Magistrate is not wakened to an observance or consideration of the weight of our work If it be not in their eyes as well as in their ears they will not regard it Or if they do apprehend the usefulness of it yet if they see that Ministers are so careless and lazy that they will not do it they think it in vain to provide them a maintenance for it it would be but to cherish idle droans and so they think that if they maintain Ministers enough to preach in the Pulpit they have done their parts And thus are they involved in hainous sin and we are the occasions of it Whereas if we do but heartily all set our selves to this work and shew the Magistrate to his face that it is a most weighty and necessary part of our business and that we would do it throughly if we could and that if there were hands enough at it the work might go on and withal when he shall see the happy success of our
apparent danger of damnation And every impenitent person that you see and know about you suppose that you hear them cry to you for help as ever you pitied poor wretches pity us lest we should be tormented in the flames of hell if you have the hearts of men pitty us And do that for them that you would do if they followed you with such complaints O how can you walk and talk and be merry with such people when you know their case Me thinks when you look them in the face and think how they must lie in perpetual misery you should break forth into tears as the Prophet did when he looked upon Hazael and then fall on with the most importunate Exhortations when you must visit them in their sickness will it not wound your hearts to see them ready to depart into misery before you have ever dealt seriously with them for their recovery O then for the Lords sake and for the sake of poor souls have pity on them and bestir your selves and spare no pains that may conduce to their salvation 3. ANd I must further tell you that this Ministerial fidelity is Necessary to your own welfare as well as to your peoples For this is your work according to which among others you shall be judged You can no more be saved without Ministerial diligence and fidelity then they or you can be saved without Christian diligence and fidelity If you care not for others at least care for your selves O what is it to answer for the neglect of such a charge and what sins more hainous then the betraying of souls Doth not that threatning make us tremble If thou warn not the wicked their blood will I require at thy hands I am afraid nay I am past doubt that the day is near when unfaithful Ministers will wish that they had never known that charge But that they had rather been Colliars or Tinkers or sweepers of Channels then Pastors of Christs flock when besides all the rest of their sins they shall have the blood of so many souls to answer for O Brethren our death as well as our peoples is at hand and it is as terrible to an unfaithful Pastor as to any When we see that dye we must and there is no remedy no wit or learning no credit or popular applause can put by the stroke or delay the time but willing or unwilling our souls must be gone and that into a world that we never saw where our persons and worldly interest will not be respected O then for a clear Conscience that can say I lived not to my self but to Christ I spared not my pains I hid not my talent I concealed not mens misery nor the way of their recovery O Sirs let us therefore take time while we may have it and work while it is day for the night cometh when none can work This is our day too and by doing good to others we must do good to our selves If you would prepare for a comfortable death and a sure and great Reward the harvest is before you gâ—rd up the loins of your minds and quit your selves like men that you may end your days with that confident triumph I have fought a good fight I have kept the faith I have finished my course henceforth is laid up for me a crown of Righteousness which God the righteous Iudge shall give me And if you would be blessed with those that dye in the Lord Labour now that you may rest from your labours then and do such works as you would wish should follow you and not such as will prove your terror in the review SECT IV. HAving found so great Reason to move us to this work I shall before I come to the Directions 1. Apply them further for our Humiliation and Excitation And 2. answer some Objections that may be raised And 1. what cause have we to bleed before the Lord this day that have neglected so great and good a work so long That we have been Ministers of the Gospel so many years and done so little by personal instructions and conference for the saving of mens souls If we had but set a work this business sooner that we have now agreed upon who knows how many more might have been brought over unto Christ and how much happyer we might have made our Parishes ere now And why might we not have done it sooner as well as now I confess many impediments were in our way and so there are still and will be while there is a Devil to tempt and a corrupt heart in man to resist the light But if the greatest impediment had not been in our selves even in our own darkness and dulness and undisposedness to duty and our dividedness and unaptness to close for the work of God I see not but much might have been done before this We had the same God to command us and the same miserable objects of compassion and the same liberty from Governors of the Common-wealth But we stood looking for changes and we would have had the Magistrate not only to have given us leave to work but have done our work for us or at least to have brought the game to our hands and while we lookt for better daies we made them worse by the lamentable neglect of a chief part of our work And had we as much petitioned Parliaments for the interposition of their Authority to compell men to be catechized and instructed by the Minister as we did for maintenance and other matters its like we might have obtained it long ago when they were forward to gratifie us in such undisputable things But we have sinned and have no just excuse for our sin somewhat that may perhaps excuse à tanto but nothing à toto and the sin is so great because the duty is so great that we should be afraid of pleading excuse too much The Lord of Mercy forgive us and all the Ministry of England and lay not this or any of our Ministerial negligences to our charge O that he would cover all our unfaithfulness and by the blood of the everlasting Covenant would wash away our guilt of the blood of souls that when the chief Shepherd shall appear we may stand before him in peace and may not be condemned for the scattering of his Flock And O that he would put up his controversie which he hath against the Pastors of his Church and not deal the hardlyer with them for our sakes nor suffer underminers or persecutors to scatter them as they have suffered his Sheep to be scattered and that he will not care as little for them as they have done for the souls of men nor think his salvation too good for them as they have thought their labour and sufferings too much for mens salvation and as we have had many daies of Humiliation in England for the sins of the Land and the Judgements that have lain upon us I hope we shall hear that God will more
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