first in Antioch Ephes 3. 15. Of whom the family in heaven and earth is named to call b upon him b 1 Cor. 1. 2. All that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ by calling him c their Lord c 1 Cor. 12. 3. No man can say that Jesus Christ is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost 2. By a Church is meant a congregation of such men called and gathered together by the Word Mat. 13. 37. till 44. to be d separate from the world d 2 Cor. 6. 17. Come out from them and be ye separate saith the Lord and I will receive you Revel 18. 4. Come out of her viz. of Babylon my people and in the use of all Christs ordinances to be an habitation of God through the Spirit Ephes 2. 19 20 2â— 22. 3. The duty of Christians as visible professors of Christianity doth stand in a threefold Relation The first is to the Church as it is the Body of Christ The second is to the Eldership of that Church The third is to the Members thereof Of the first viz. Duties relating to the Body of Christ 4. All Christians that glory in the name of Christ ought to appeare e for him amongst men e Matth. 10. 32 33. Whosoever shall confesse me before men him will I confesse also before my Father which is in heaven but whosoever shall deny me before men him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven And they ought so to appeare as he hath appointed and not as they think good or as men appoint Mat. 15. 9. In vain do they worship me teaching for doctrines the commandements of men 5. Those that will appeare for Christ ought to apply themselves to some particular Congregation professing Saintship as Members thereof Mat. 12. 30. He that is not with me is against me and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad Mat. 11. 28 29. Come unto me take my yoke upon you Gal. 6. 10. Them who are of the houshold of faith 1 Joh. 2. 19. They went out from us but they were not of us c. Isa 8. 16. Binde up the Testimony and seale the Law among my disciples 1 Cor. 1 2. Vnto the Church of God which is at Corinth to them that are sanctified called to be Saints 1 Cor. 12. 27. Ye are members in particular 6. It is foretold that there should be many Congregations in the Church of the Gospel and yet all upon the same Mount Sion and under the same defence and by Gods appointment to be as one Body Isa 4. 5. Vpon every dwelling place of mount Zion and upon her assemblies there shall be a cloud and smoak by day and the burning of a flaming fire by night Joh. 10. 16. Other sheep not of this fold them I must bring there shall be one fold and one shepherd 7. Now to understand the Relation which believing Professours have unto the Church three things are to be considered First how every Believer doth stand as to a particular Congregation Secondly how one Congregation doth stand as to another in respect both of the Members and of the Rulers thereof And thirdly how Believers should apply themselves unto particular Congregations and be received therein by their Elderships 8. All Believers are baptized by one Spirit into one Body Of the first head how believers stand in a particular congregation 1 Cor. 12 13. and in that one Body they are called to the enjoyment of the Peace of God Coloss 3. 15. and therein by God set in their severall places 1 Cor. 12. 18. and made members one of another Rom. 12. 4 5. and joyned and compacted together by joynts under their head Christ Jesus Ephes 4. 16. whose Body is every congregation of believers 1 Cor. 12. 27. Now ye viz. Corinthians are the Body of Christ Rom. 12. 5. So we viz. Romans are one Body in Christ And the Church universall Ephes 1. 22 23. the head over all things to the Church which is his Body the fulnesse of him that filleth all in all 9. From hence it is evident that every believer is not only bound to make open profession of his faith as is f required Rom. 10. 9 10. f If thou confesse with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved For with the heart man believeth unto righteousnesse and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation but that in so doing he is bound to appeare in the communion of g Saints standing in one body fast together with others striving for the Faith of the Gospel Phil. 1 27. g Ph. 2. 1 2 4. If there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the Spirit be ye like-minded having the same love being of one accord of one mind look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others And by this conjunction of Believers when an Eldership is rightly set over them particular Congregations are constituted As Act. 14. 22 23. The Apostles having converted the Gentiles to the faith ordained them Elders in every Church with prayer and fasting 10. As single Believers are bound to associate themselves one to Of the second head how congregations doe stand one to another another so ought every congregation of Believers to associate it self to its neighbour-congregation by the very same rules bands by which particular Christians are bound to joyn themselves one to another For if all Believers in the world are baptized into one Body 1 Cor. 12. 13. and if all are called to the Peace of God in that one Body Col. 3. 15. and are bound to endeavour the Vnity of the Spirit one towards another in the Bond of that Peace because there is but one Body of Christ in all the world Ephes 4. 1 2 3 4. which is homogeneall that is of the same kinde in all the members thereof And if this whole Body is to be fitly joyned and compacted together by that which every joint supplieth Ephes 4. 16. Then ought none of all the congregations of Believers to stand separate one from another but are bound to unite themselves by their joynts that is their Officers so neer as possibly they can in all Spirituall relations for their mutuall edification in love Ephes 4. 16. 11. So then every true Believer that hath made open profession In respect of their Members of his faith by being a member of any one Congregation hath a right of membership unto all the congregations of the world because all are but one in Christ Gal. 3. 28. and all have one and the same accesse unto the Father and are fellow-citizens and of the same houshold of Faith Ephes 2. 19. 12. It is then contrary to the mind of Christ that those who make profession of the same faith and worship in the same way should stand
great corner stones of the Reformation are not as yet publikely professed and laid upon which every one should make an orderly superstructure of gold and silver and precious stones in the unity of the spirit towards his Brethren So the more such Designes are stood upon and advanced in a private course they accidentally become the greater hinderances to the generall work whiles men that are thereby stinted within themselves rest satisfied in their own private wayes and by leaving the thoughts of a publike Communion they prove opposites thereunto when they admit of nothing that is not every way agreeable unto their particular Contrivements I am perswaded that many able men throughout the Kingdome have many excellent things in readinesse which might be usefully applied to the edification of the Churches both for the advancement of Knowledge and of Godlinesse if the wayes of our Settlement were cleared But now as matters stand I cannot look otherwise upon their excellencies but as upon the scattered stones of a building not yet framed and as upon the furniture of a house whose model is neither apparent nor yet well understood by any Therefore although there be many men in these Churches of eminent abilities and Vessels of great honour fit for very good uses in the building of this Tabernacle yet because the Rule and way of their Brotherly communion and correspondencie is not determined as it ought to be they stand though in their private sphere profitable as to God yet as to the Church uselesse in the Communion of Saints For the Parts of the building not being set together their serviceable gifs are not imployed as Joints should be in the Body to make up and compact the whole And for want of this aime and endeavour by all that they do they bring nothing forth unto perfection I have briefly pointed at the Causes of our Disease that thou mayest consider thy self Christian Reader as in the presence of God how thou art led by what spirit thou art guided and how thou shouldest free thy self from the guilt of contributing further any cause or matter of continuance to our Distempers Now the Lord grant us all grace to do all things without murmurings disputings to his glory unblameably in Love Amen I am in the last place to speak of the Remedies of this corrupt Profession of the true Religion And if I should enter at large upon this task I should be obliged to write a Volume but my purpose is only to name the Heads of things necessary to be intended and set awork to advance our Reformation and redresse the Evils which threaten our finall ruine That if thou Christian Reader art convicted of the usefulnesse thereof thou mayest contribute in thy way what thou canst thereunto The remedies then of our distracted condition I conceive will bee found in a discovery of two things first of that which will helpe to rectifie the disease at the root by taking away the cause which doth origionally beget it Secondly of that which will helpe to prevent Of the remedies of our publick distractions the effects thereof which become causes of increasing the distempers to propagate and continue the disease I have shewed my opinion that the causes which beget our distempers are the want of the true aime in the holy profession and the disproportionatnes of the meanes used to prosecute the true and lawfull aimes of the Reformation which wee seeke to rectifie the inward Hypocrisie of the heart is only Gods worke but to discover it and convict mens consciences of it may be the worke of his servants by the right interpretation and The Remedie of the first cause of our disease application of the word as the Apostle testifieth 1 Cor. 14. 24 25. Yet the bare discovery of vice or error and the conviction of a naturall man that hee is guilty of it is not enough to remedie the evill disposition of his spirit or to beget a true aime in him to answer the heavenly call nothing can doe this but God by the discovery of the truth in the lovelinesse thereof When hee giveth faith to the elect by the engrafted word wherein they receive the love of the truth which purifieth their soules and maketh them obedient thereunto through the spirit unto this worke of God the faithfull Ministers of the Word are subservient when they hold forth the Truth in sincerity and manifest the knowledge of the glory and life of God in the face of Jesus Christ The first remedy then will bee to stirre up Ministers who understand this Mystery of Godlinesse ordinarily to presse and preach the maine things which discover the life and spirituall estate of Christ as the Truth is in him that their hearers may know first positively what that life is whereunto they are called and then negatively what that life and state is wherein men are by nature from which they are called and this should bee done not so much by an inlargement of themselves upon many particular branches and twigges of duties as upon the manifestation of the Principles and essentiall properties of the spirituall and carnall man from whence the knowledge of duties will of it selfe flow I doe not meane that the preaching of particular duties is unprofitable or ought to bee omitted but I conceive that the fundamentals which discover the hidden man of the heart both in respect of the Righteousnesse of the spirituall and of the unrighteousnesse of the fleshly nature should be mainly and ordinarily so proposed as from the discovery of that which is conformable or inconformable unto the image of Gods life in Christ all particular duties should bee derived and pressed upon the conscience and I beleeve that because godly and zealous men commonly spend more of their strength in matters of particular concernment then in such a fundamentall course that two evils arise from thence unto the hearers and one in the Ministers themselves First that the naturall corruptions of the hearts of all men remaine in some altogether in others in a great measure undiscovered at the root by which means they still conceiving well of themselves or better than they ought are not truly humbled before God and mortified unto the world but live still as men in the world and take up the profession of Religion in the performance of certain duties rather than in the pursuit of a heavenly call to come unto Christ Jesus Secondly that such as are ingenuous and have tasted the Kingdome of God and thereupon are gotten into a hatred of the world being fervent in spirit to serve the Lord are driven by the much pressing of particular duties to an over acting zeale either against or for some persons or actions which zeale having no temperament of love meeknesse and lenity to heale and beare with the infirmities of the weake or to bring their owne proceeding with them home to the true aime of the holy profession which is to discover Christ unto those that
bring our Brethren of the Palatinate and of France into the Pit wherein at this day they sit now being at our ease we minde not at all their interests If then our sinne is the same with that of Israel to seek our pleasure and ease and to enjoy it to the full so far as we have gotten it certainly our punishment will be the same with theirs also for God hath as just cause to sweare that he doth abhorre our excellencie and hate our palaces as he did theirs and he hath no lesse power now to punish this Nation with captivity and mortality then he had heretofore to punish that And to me it is apparent that he hath set the same Means awork and for the same Causes against us now which then were threatned against them Against them the Prophet threatned saying Behold the Lord commandeth and he will smite the great house with v. 11. breaches and the little house with clefts that is he will divide you and break your strength to peeces for saith he Shall horses run upon the rock will one plow there with oxen for ye have turned judgement into gall and the fruit of righteousnesse into hemlock That is You must be broken to peeces because v. 12. you cannot otherwise be made subject and usefull unto Gods fervice for you are hardned in your sinnes like a rock upon which the spirit of God cannot run and have a free passage Nor can By horses Gods spirit is typified Zach. 1. 8 9 10. compar'd with c. 6. v. 2 3 4 c. By oxen the Ministers of the Word are typified 1 Cor. 9. 9 10 11. v. 13. you be manured as a profitable husbandry unto him by his ordinary Ministry which is appointed to plow up your fallow-ground because you are not capable of being plowed by reason of your stony heart which is so hardned in the wayes of iniquity that you have turned Judgement into gall and the fruit of Righteousnesse into hemlock Moreover you rejoyce in a thing of nought and you boast your selves of your strength saying that you have taken horns power to defend and assault by your own strength therefore behold saith the Lord God of hosts I will raise up against you O house of Israel a Nation and they shall afflict you from the entring in of Hamath unto the river of the wildernesse This is that which was denounced and executed against Israel this we see hath been the case of the Protestant Churches in Germanie and may we not now say unto England or to Great Britain in like manner to this same effect Behold the Lord hath commanded in the way of his Justice an evill spirit of Division to appeare amongst you for he hath smitten your great houses with breaches and your little houses with clefts there are divisions and subdivisions amongst you at home by which he doth fit you for the ruine which is determined against you from abroad and all by reason of your other sinnes wherein you are hardened for you pervert Justice and cannot be reformed because you trust to the power and strength which you have gotten to your selves therefore God will bring from abroad enemies against you who shall afflict you as heretofore hath been done to others Except you feare the Lord and his goodnesse by which he doth yet spare you and be so wise as to prevent this Judgement with speedy Repentance In respect of God this is the danger under which we lie In respect of Men all the foundations of the earth all grounds of settlement all Rules of government are shaken and out of frame For if we look upon our selves in respect of that which is within How little care and compassion there is of the Poor of the oppressed and afflicted how impossible it is to expedite the wayes of relief for them how neer they are to break forth into tumults and discontents How little faithfulnesse and trust there is to be found amongst men that are called Brethren how some we are of the event of our Divisions how eagerly most men are carried to prosecute the designes of a Party without regard to the Publike how many crosse Interests are prosecuted by opposite Parties in the State which obstruct all proceedings How the Church is broken to peeces within it self and in the very Principles of a true settlement how that which is called the present Church is clogged and obstructed in the way of Reformation and in the aime and meanes to compasse it is distant from the authority by which it is to be supported dnd how that which seems to be established is set upon a sandy foundation If I say we look upon these things within and then in respect of that which is without we take notice of the distance at which we stand from the rest of the best Reformed Churches and of the Judgement which they make of our proceedings I say if all this be laid together as to Man every one that hath eyes must needs foresee our inevitable ruine if we continue thus and that it is impossible for us to subsist long in this condition Cleer it is That if every one be left in his outward and publike wayes to the liberty of his own will to crosse and oppose his neighbour and affront him as he pleaseth that we shall need none other enemy to destroy us besides our selves But if now in the middest of our unsettlements many enemies take their advantage to watch over us to cause us halt if they blow dililigently the coals of our divisions supporting themselves only with this hope that the flame which is kindled amongst us will at last burne us up to ashes and that they may yet triumph over us therein And if few do either observe their wayes to discover them or endeavour by faithfull counsel to shut the door upon them then we may infallibly conclude that our desolation will not only be certainly but speedily accomplished And this is the danger wherein I conceive we all are at this time Now before we can speak of the Remedies we must look a little into the Causes whence these symptomes of our ruinous estate proceed I shall not rake into all the particulars that might be observed Of the causes of our publike evils nor lay all the guilt upon any one It is an easie matter to accuse Adversaries and a very naturall course to make such as we do not love odious unto others But this is a way wherein narrow spirits walk and men as men seeke rather to justifie themselves before the world then to reclaim with meeknesse others from the error of their wayes before God But I shall look to this last duty in the first place and then let the other come as it may if need be that is in case I find my self suspected or accused wrongfully Nor shall I meddle with matters of State to impute the causes of our misery to the miscarriages of Publike designs or to the