by their works deny him and are void of true sanctifying Grace 20. Therefore it is intolerable in those that are stiled the Ministers of Christ and Preachers of the Gospel to preach little more than what Heathens teach and when they speak of Christianity and Faith and should open the Mysteries of the Gospel to do it as drily scantly and heartlesly as if it were done but on the bye and for Custom or Fashion sake rather than as a matter of the necessity and importance before described In all this we are agreed III. As to MORALITY in the third sense as it signifieth Naturals and Positives of perpetual Obligation we are agreed 1. That all to whom they are promulgate are obliged to the practice of them 2. And that for that Practice we need the fore-described helps of Grace even efficient objective and subjective Grace For saving Practice special Grace and for common Practice common Grace IV. And as to the fourth Sense of MORALITY as signifying only our Duty to Man as distinct from holiness to God we are agreed 1. That as the Love of our Neighbour as our selves is the second great Commandment like to the first so the practice of this in our Duty towards Man proceeding from Love and Obedience to God is the second part of our Duty and to be preached and practised accordingly 2. And it is that part about a near discernable Object by which our Love to God must be expressed and made known and by which it shall by Christ himself be judged of at the last day 3. And it is that Matter in which God will have our obedience to him to be carefully and constantly exercised Because God needeth us not himself but as his Government of Man is his ordering us to our own good and felicity so he obligeth us to do good to our selves and one another 4. But as Man without God is nothing and no Man so Duty and Love to Man not depending on Duty and Love to God is no Duty no Morality at all And as to love honour or obey Man above God as the best or greatest is damnable Idolatry or Rebellion against God so to preach up Love Honour and Obedience to Man as separated from or not dependent on our Love Honour and Obedience to God much more as above him or against him were but to preach up Idolatry or Rebellion No Man can love Man for Gods sake that loveth not God more And no Man can honour or obey Man for Gods sake who doth not more honour and obey God He that will serve Man more than God doth as it were make Man his God and from Man must expect his Protection Provision and Reward 5. Profession of Piety to God without true Justice and Charity to man is but Hypocrisie While we have time we must do good as we are able to all Men for with such Sacrifice God is well pleased Gal. 6. Heb. 13. Christ was our great Pattern in doing good even to the unworthy and he purifieth to himself a peculiar People zealous of good works Tit. 2. 14. For we are his workmanship created unto good works in Christ Jesus which God hath ordained that we should walk in them Eph. 2. 10. To be rich in good works is to be rich to God Luke 12. 21. and to lay up a good Foundation for the time to come to lay hold on eternal Life to lay up our Treasure in Heaven and to make us Friends of that which to worldlings is the unrighteous Mammon and blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy and receiving a Prophet in the name of a Prophet or a righteous Man in the name of a righteous Man is the way to have a Prophets or a righteous mans reward when Christ will say In as much as ye did it to one of the least of these my Brethren ye did it unto me Pure Religion and undefiled is to visit the Fatherless and Widdows in their Adversity and to keep our selves unspotted of the World As we verily believe that not only the Parties called Conformists and Non-Conformists alas that we must call them Parties but most true Protestants are agreed in all this so we take it to be our Duty to profess our dissent from the Practice of such as would hinder Love and Concord by perswading men that we are really disagreed when it is not so And as we are the Believing Disciples of the Prince of Peace that blessed Reconciler who took down the Partition-wall between Jews and Gentiles and made them one so we would serve him with all our power and interest in building up the Wall of Defence and taking down every Partition-wall which unjustly divideth the Church of Christ and dayly pray that God would humble convert and reform those men who have built them up and will not yet be intreated to give peace to the Churches and in special to this self-distracting Land FINIS THE JUDGMENT OF NON-CONFORMISTS OF THINGS INDIFFERENT Commanded by AUTHORITY As far as the Subscribers are acquainted with it Written to save the Ignorant from the temptations of Diabolism described 2 Tim. 3. 3. and 1 Joh. 3. 10. 12. 15. Joh. 8. 44. Blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be called the Children of God Matth. 5. 9. Printed in the Year 1676. THE JUDGMENT OF NON-CONFORMISTS OF Things Indifferent Commanded by Authority Quest WHether things antecedently lawful do therefore become unlawful because commanded by Lawful Authority Neg. We take the Question as we hear it stated by some Accusers of the Non-conformists who feign them to affirm it And some seem serious in the Fiction as if they did indeed believe themselves by which they dispatch these several works of no small moment viz. 1. They hereby render the Non-Conformists contemptible and odious as Brain-sick Persons who keep up a dividing Faction in spight of the Light and Obligation of the Common Principles of Humanity and Society 2. They hereby imprint the Stamp of Satan viz. the hatred of their Brethren upon the minds of such hearers as will believe them and receive the Impress 3. They hereby fill Families Cities and Countries with all that Spawn of ugly sins which are the genuine Fruits of such hatred and contempt and keep men also from Repentance for any thing that they have said or done how cruelly soever against such Ministers and others as are represented as so odious to them 4. They hereby fortifie the Peoples Souls against receiving converting or edifying instruction by such accused Ministers 5. They furnish Papists Insidels and other Adversaries with Matter of Accusation against one part of the Ministers and Servants of Christ They are able now to say that such and such Protestant Clergy-men themselves reported it 6. They tempt the worser and weaker sort of the accused to return the like measure to them again and to judge as they are judged Satan hereby gets Matter for a Temptation to call the Accusers Fools in revenge to bring
by Christ on us and as used by us towards Christ as the Mediator Faith in Christ is to kindle in us the holy love of God and obedience to him Love therefore as the final and everlasting Grace is preferred by the Apostle 1 Cor. 12. last v. and 13. throughout 5. Even our Faith in Christ and our Obedience to the Gospel in Preaching Sacraments and such like are neither only of natural nor only of supernatural Obligation but mixt Christ and his Ordinances are supernaturally revealed but being once revealed with the Evidence of Divine Authority natural Revelation then telleth us that it is our Duty to believe and obey 6. That which is of Natural Revelation and Obligation must be performed by supernatural Grace Though Nature prove that all Men should love God as God it is Grace that must dispose and enable them to do it 7. We call Grace supernatural not only because it is not essential to Nature no not to Adam in innocency but because in our lapsed state it is not conveyed to us by Natural Generation but Nature in the state of pravity is deprived of it and because God worketh it by the free gift of his Spirit in a manner beyond the search of man and by it as an effect of his love doth make us lovely in our union and relation to Christ who sanctifieth and justifieth us it being his Image on the Soul which no meer Natural Causes without this operation of God's Love and Spirit can effect But yet 1. We all agree that Holiness is Nature's health or rectitude and therefore sutable to it as its perfection as health is to the Body 2. And that the Spirit of God doth ordinarily make use of his appointed means and especially his Word for our sanctification And these being second Causes which have their proper Natures may so far be called natural Causes And that thus far Grace may be said to be Natural 8. This Holy Love being the final Act on God the final Object and so being man's felicity it self it followeth that all men have so much happiness constitutively as they have holy love to God and Goodness and that no man can be damned that hath the said predominant holy Love while such And that such have no cause to fear damnation any farther than they should fear lest by forfeiting Gods Grace they should lose that love 9. The Mediation of Christ and our Faith in him who is the Glass the Messenger and the great Gift of the Fathers Love are the Means appointed by God to sanctifie us by the effecting of this Love with all its Concomitants and Fruits 10. Therefore as God is called All in All so Christ is called All in all Col. 3. 11. to Believers as being the Way the Truth and the Life 11. Therefore they that would bring men to the holy and felicitating Love of God must preach Jesus Christ and his Grace to them as the means and bring them to believe in him and to take it for their Wisdom to know Christ crucified and glorified and to learn of him and obey him and trust in him and daily to use him as their Mediator for access to God acceptance with him and communication from him 12. To preach up the blessedness of Saints and excellency of holiness without teaching men how to attain it by Christ is but to commend health to the sick without directing them to the Physician and the Remedies And to hear of a Sanctity and Felicity not attainable is to be tormented by despair And to think to obtain it by our works or endeavours without a Mediator and his Grace or by any other Mediator than Christ is the way to lose it by false presumption and neglect of the necessary means It being Christ that is made of God to us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption 13. As Christ on Earth did purchase us this Salvation by his meritorious Righteousness and Sacrifice and is now in Heaven our Head and Intercessor and the Treasury of Grace and Life to Believers so he sanctifieth us by his WORD and SPIRIT and herein differeth from all other Teachers that ever were in the World 1. That his Gospel Doctrine Precepts and Covenant-promises are singularly suited to this sanctifying work 2. That he sendeth forth his Spirit with it to work the Souls of men to that which he teacheth and commandeth that so they may be effectually taught of God Without the Spirit of Jesus no word or means will sanctifie and renew a Soul 14. Therefore all Preachers must jointly preach GOD and holy LOVE trust obedience and delight in him as the END and CHRIST and faith in him and learning of him and obeying him in the use of his healing Remedies as the MEANS This being life eternal to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent Joh. 17. 3. 15. And though the End must be preached as more excellent than the Means yet the Means must be preached as more mysterious and above meer natural Revelation Experience telleth us that all men quickly learn to confess that they should repent of sin and love God as God but they are hardly taught to understand the Mystery of Redemption the Person Incarnation Works Office and Grace of the Redeemer and therefore have here need of longer teaching The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the Love of God the Father and the Communion of the Holy Spirit must be the Preachers subject as it is the Christians benediction and felicity 16. There are things in Aristotle's Ethicks and in the Ethicks of the Stoicks and and some other Philosophers of great worth and use to Christians to shew us what by natural evidence may be discerned But they are all poor defective spirit-less Doctrines and Precepts in Comparison of the Gospel of Christ though to carnal wit they seem to excel it in Method Language and several Curiosities And the Writings of Christians who do but expound and apply Christ's Doctrine do far excel all the Heathens Ethicks 17. We have no reason to think that any of the Heathens understood all that Nature it self by way of proving-Evidence revealeth Yea or that any Christians perfectly understand it because natural evidences are exceeding numerous and none can say that he seeth them all and they are of various degrees some plain and some obscure and even natural verities as they arise from the great Branches into innumerable Partitions as smaller Sprigs are not perfectly discernable by a mortals Eye 18. Therefore no knowledge of Man much less any Heathens Writings are the certain measure of natural verities in Morality by which the number and certainty of the obscurer Particles may be known 19. Though Heathens know and teach that we must Love God and Goodness above all And all that sincerely love God and Goodness shall certainly be saved Yet this Confession will but more condemn them that have not and practice not what they teach but when they profess to know God
moveth us is that it greatly frustrateth the use of the Keys or Church Discipline by obscuring the use and efficacy of them For who can tell whether they do any thing or nothing to that mans seeming Repentance who must lye in Goal and be undone unless he will say that he repeneth Though the Church must take up with outward Professions as not knowing the heart yet must they be voluntary and credible Professions 6. And thus how unavoidably must the Church be corrupted when its Communicants are such as chuse rather to be in the Church than in the Goal and all those are thought worthy of its Priviledges who had rather say we repent than be made Beggars Whenas in the ancient Churches none had its Communion that did not desire it and beg for it though it cost them dear in the world 7. And thus Christs great and precious Gifts seem exposed to contempt while they are forced upon the Refusers by ways of violence If the Church be made a Prison and men be driven into it and lockt up the Place will hardly prove them Christians 8. And we fear it will misrepresent Christs Laws and Covenant-terms to the world while Christ saith that none can be his Disciples that do not by consent and resolution take up the Cross and forsake all and follow him in hope of a reward in Heaven Luke 14. 26. 29 30. 33 34. And this course seemeth to tell men that if they had but rather be in the Church than among Rogues and Beggars in the Goal they shall have Christ pardon and life eternal given and sealed up to them particularly in the holy Sacrament As if Christ were the Cross-maker and the Cross to be born by his Enemies only and not Christ but sin were served by forsaking temporal felicity 9. And we fear lest it tend to deceive mens Souls by giving them all the sealed Grant of forgiveness and salvation who can but rather endure to take the Sacrament and say I repent than be undone We doubt not but there is a time for just punishment of sinners But we read not that Christ sent men to preach Repentance by any such motives nor to offer his Blood and Mercy on terms so low nor to any but desirous Volunteers And with what confidence or comfort can a Minister deliver the Sacrament to such All which considered we are so far from desiring to subdue Kings and Rulers to be the Executioners of the Clergy and the Servants of their worldly Interest Pride or Passions that we heartily wish that Church Discipline might be left to operate alone valeat quantum val 〈◊〉 re potest and that Church Priviledges might be given to none but desirers and voluntary accepters and none might be cram'd or drencht with the Body and Blood of Christ but all earnestly invited and by loving importunity compelled to come in And that Magistrates may judge and punish Vice in their proper court and proper way X. We hold it not unlawful to take Oaths and make Covenants Subscriptions or Declarations of things lawful when Authority commandeth us yea we hold Oaths of Fidelity to the Soveraign to be needful and are the loather to swear Allegiance to any inferior Officers or to swear never to endeavour any alteration of them lest we seem to make them equally necessary and fixed as the King and to give them any of his Prerogatives when they are his Officers whom he hath power to alter XI We readily subscribe the Doctrine of Faith and Sacraments contained in the 39 Articles and differ not therein from the Church of England that we know of Though our Religion is only objectively Gods Word as to the Essentials the Sacramental Covenant expounded in the Creed the Lords Prayer and Decalogue and integrally the sacred Scriptures and therefore if there be any fault in the 39 Articles it is no fault in our Religion which is confessed to be all true by Papists themselves yet as our Writings and Sermons and Speeches are the expressions of our subjective Religion so the Confessions of Churches are eminently such being useful to satisfie other Churches of our sincerity and to regulate or limit the Teachers that by weakness or errour are apt to deliver their mistakes or to oppose the Truth And though there be some expressions in the Articles the Liturgy yea in the Creed called Athanasius's which we think not accurate but lyable to an ill interpretation yet when our Consciences tell us that it was truth which was intended and words are not natural immutable but arbitrary signs of the Speakers mind we are far from affecting to be peevishly or unreasonably quarrelsome or scrupulous but are willing to overlook infirmity and unfitness of expression when we see that we are not to own Untruths XII We much approve of the Method of the Church Catechism as it first openeth the Essentials of Christianity in the Baptismal Covenant and then the Exposition of it in the Creed Decalogue and Lords Prayer and then the use of the confirming Sacrament the Lords Supper Though we are perswaded that it needeth more explication and some correction XIII We are taught by Christ and his Apostles using of the Septuagint that it is lawful when the Peoples usage and acquaintance with it doth render it most edifying to them to use a defective faulty Translation of Gods own Word and to call this Gods Word as long as it sufficently expresseth the Doctrine which is the matter and main sense And that we may hold Communion with Churches that publickly and privately use such Translations and that have many other faults in their Doctrine Discipline and Worship though we cannot justifie the least of them by our professed Assent and Consent nor make a Covenant that we will never endeavour to alter or amend them We are apt enough to let sin alone and not to amend any thing amiss in our selves and others so far as sin remaineth in us it being a self-de 〈◊〉 ending evil and therefore are unwilling to adde to our badness nor do we need a Law to bind us never to repent or amend or never to help others in such a case to do it XIV We have in a peculiar Explication of our judgment not only disclaimed but sufficiently depressed that unruly Opinion falsly charged on us by some viz. That Things Lawful or Indifferent become Unlawful when commanded by Lawful Authority Though we hold it unlawful to encourage and strengthen Traytors and Usurpers against Christ or the King by voluntary Swearing or performing such Obedience to them even in licitis honestis as seemeth to own their Usurpation XV. How far we think the Magistrates Laws bind us to things Scandalous or Evil and Hurtful by Accident yea by the Weakness of others we are prepared to open in a distinct Profession by it self XVI We are far from condemning all Forms of Prayer and Publick Liturgies as unlawful of which we have His Majesties Testimony in his Declaration about