name of the Lord Jesus tels us The word of God is not bound 2 Tim. 2. 9. not bound either in fetters or within limits Oh that wee could approve to God and our Consciences that this is our main motive and principall drift in our western plantations but how little appearance there is of this holy care and endeavour the plaine dealer upon knowledge hath sufficiently informed us Although I now heare of one industrious spirit that hath both learned the language of our new-Islanders and printed some part of the Scripture in it and trained up some of their Children in the principles of Christianity a service highly acceptable to God and no lesse meritorious of men The Gospell then may be must be preached to those heathens otherwise they shall perpetually remaine out of the estate of salvation and all possible meanes must be used for their conversion but herein I must have leave to depart from Victoria that he holds it lawfull if the savages do not freely permit but goe about to hinder the preaching of the Gospell to rayse war against them as if he would have them cudgeled into Christianity surely this is not the way It is for Mahumetans to profess planting religion by the sword it is not for Christians It is a just clause therfore that he puts in that the slaughters hereupon raised may rather prove an hindrance to the conversion of the savages as indeed it fell out the poor Indians being by these bloody courses brought into such a detestation of their masters the Castilians that they profest they would not goe to heaven if any spanyards were there The way then to plant the Gospel of Christ successefully among those barbarous soules must be only gentle and plausible first by insinuating our selves into them by a discreet familiarity and winning deportment by an holy and inoffensive living with them by working upon them with the notable examples of impartiall justice strict piety tender mercy compassion chastity temperance all other Christian virtues and when they are thus won to a liking of our persons and carriage they will be then wel capable of our holy counsels Then will the Christian faith begin to relish with them and they shall now grow ambitious of that happy condition which they admire in us then shall they be glad to take us into their bosoms and think themselves blessed in our society and cohabitation Lo this is the true way of Christian conquests wherein I know not whether shal be the greater gainer the victor or the conquered each of them shall blesse other and both shall be blessed by the Almighty CASE IX Whether I need in case of some foule sin committed by mee to have recourse to Gods Minister for absolution and what effect I may expect therefrom A Meane would do well betwixt two extremes the careless neglect of our spirituall fathers on the one side and too confident reliance upon their power on the other some there are that doe so over-trust their leaders eyes that they care not to see with their own others dare so trust their own judgement that they think they may sleight their spiritual guides there can be no safety for the soul but in a mid-way betwixt both these At whose gyrdle the keyes of the kingdom of heaven doe hang mee thinks wee should not need dispute when we hear our Saviour so expresly deliver them to Peter in the name of the rest of his fellowes and afterwards to all his Apostles and their lawfull successors in the dispensation of the doctrine and discipline of his Church In the dispensation of doctrine to all his faithfull Ministers under the Gospell In the dispensation of discipline to those that are entrusted with the mannaging of Church-government with these latter we meddle not neither need we if we had occasion after the so learned elaborate discourse of the power of the Keyes set forth by judicious Doctor Hammond to which I suppose nothing can be added The former is that which lies before us Doubtlesse every true minister of Christ hath by virtue of his first and everlasting commission two keyes delivered in his hand the key of knowledg and the key of spirituall power the one whereby he is enabled to enter and search into not only the revealed mysteries of salvation but also in some sort into the heart of the penitent there discovering upon an ingenious revelation of the offender both the nature quality and degree of the sinne and the truth validity and measure of his repentance The other whereby he may in some sort either lock up the soul under sin or free it from sinne these keyes were never given him but with an intention that he should make use of them upon just occasion The use that hee may and must make of them is both generall and speciall Generall in publishing the will and pleasure of God signified in his word concerning sinners pronouncing forgivenesse of sins to the humble penitent and denouncing judgement to the unbeleeving and obdured sinner In which regard he is as the Herald of the Almighty proclaming war and just indignation to the obstinate and tendring terms of pardon and peace to the relenting and contrite soule or rather as the Apostle stiles him 2 Cor. 5. 20. Gods Ambassador offering and suing for the reconciliation of men to God and if that be refused menacing just vengeance to sinners Speciall in a particular application of this knowledge and power to the soul of that sinner which makes his addresse unto him Wherein must be inquired both what necessity there is of this recourse and what aid and comfort it may bring to the soul. Two cases there are wherein certainly there is a necessity of applying our selves to the judgement of our spirituall guides The first is in our doubt of the nature and quality of the fact whether it be a sin or no sinne for both many sinnes are so gilded over with fair pretences and colourable circumstances that they are not to be de cryed but by judicious eyes and some actions which are of themselves indifferent may by a scrupulous conscience be mistaken for hainous offences Whither should we goe in these doubts but to our Counsaile learned in the Lawes of God of whom God himself hath said by his Prophet The Priests lips should keep knowledge and they should seeke the Law at his mouth for he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts Mal. 2. 7. The second is in the irresoluble condition of our souls after a known sin committed wherein the burdened conscience not being able to give ease unto it self seeks for aid to the sacred hand of Gods Penetentiary here on earth there may find it That is that which Elihu as upon experience suggesteth unto Job on his dunghill Job 33. 22. The soul of the remorsed draweth near to the grave and his life to the destroyers ver 23. But if there bee a messenger of God with him an interpreter one
by the Church to be believed are fundamentall A large ground-work of faith Doubtlesse the Church hath defined all things contained in the scripture to be believed and theirs which they call Catholick hath defined all those Traditionall points which they have added to the Creed upon the same necessity of salvation to be believed now if all these be the foundation which is the building what an imperfect fabrick doe they make of Christian Religion all foundation no walls no roofe Surely it cannot without too much absurdity be denied that there is great difference of Truthes some more important than others which could not be if all were alike fundamentall If there were not some speciall Truthes the beliefe whereof makes and distinguisheth a Christian the Authors of the Creede Apostolick besides the other Symboles received anciently by the Church were much deceived in their aime He therefore that believes the holy Scriptures which must be a principle presupposed to be inspired by God and as an abstract of the chiefe particulars thereof professeth to believe and embrace the Articles of the Christian faith to regulate his life by the law of Gods commandements and his devotion by the rule of Christ prescribed and lastly to acknowledge and receive the Sacraments expresly instituted by Christ doubtlesse this man is by profession a Christian and cannot be denyed to hold the foundation and whosoever shall wilfully impugne any of these comes within the verge of Heresie wilfully I say for meere error makes not an heretick if out of simplicity or grosse ignorance a man shall take upon him to maintaine a contradiction to a point of faith being ready to relent upon better light he may not be thus branded eviction and contumacy must improve his error to be hereticall The Church of Rome therefore hath beene too cruelly-liberall of her censures this way having bestow'd this livery upon many thousand Christians whom God hath owned for his Saints and upon some Churches more Orthodoxe than her selfe presuming upon a power which was never granted her from heaven to state new articles of faith and to excommunicate and barre all that shall dare to gainsay her oracles Whereas the great Doctor of the Gentiles hath told us from the spirit of God that there is but one Lord one faith one baptisme Ephes. 4. 5. and what faith is that S. Jude tells us Iude 3. The faith that was once delivered the Saints so that as well may they make more reiterations of Baptisme and multiplicities of Lords as more faiths than one some explications there may be of that one faith made by the Church upon occasion of new-sprung errours but such as must have their grounds from fore-written truths and such as may not extend to the condemnation of them whom God hath left free new articles of faith they may not be nor binde farther than God hath reached them Hereticks then they are and onely they that pertinaciously raze the foundation of the Christian faith what now must be done with them surely first if they cannot be reclaimed they must be avoided It is the charge of the beloved Disciple to the elect Lady 2 John v. 10. If any man come unto you and bring not that is by an ordinary Hebraisme opposes this doctrine receive him not into your houses neither bidde him God speede But the Apostle of the Gentiles goes yet higher sor writing to Titus the great Super-intendent of Crete his charge is Tit. 3. 10. A man that is an Heretick after the first and second admonition reject Now when wee compare the charge with the person we cannot but finde that this rejection is not a meer negative act of refraining company but a positive act of censure so as he who had power to admonish had also power to reject in an authoritative or judicatory way He sayes then Devita reject or avoid not as Erasmus too truly but bitterly scoffes the Romish practise De vita tolle This of killing the heretick as it was out of the power of a spirituall supervisor so was it no lesse farre from the thoughts of him that desired to come in the spirit of meekness Fagots were never ordained by the Apostle for arguments to confute Hereticks this bloudy Logick and Divinity was of a much later brood and is for a Dominick not a Paul to owne for certainely faith is of the same nature with love it cannot be compelled perswasions may move it not force These intellectuall sinnes must look for remedies of their owne kinde But if either they be as it is often accompanied with damnable blasphemies against God whether in his essence or attributes or the three incomprehensible persons in the all-glorious Deity or the blessed mediator betwixt God and man Jesus Christ in either of his natures or else shall be attended with the publique disturbances and dangerous distempers of the Kingdome or State wherein they are broached the Apostle's wish is but seasonable in both a spiritual and a bodily sense Gal. 5. 12. Would to God those were cut off that trouble you In the mean time for what concernes your selfe if you know any such as you love God and your soules keepe aloofe from them as from the pestilence Epiphanius well compares heresie to the biting of a mad dog which as it is deadly if not speedily remedied so it is withall dangerously infectious not the tooth onely but the very foame of that envenomed beast carries death in it you cannot be safe if you avoid it not CASE VI. Whether the lawes of men doe binde the Conscience and how far we are tyed to their obedience BOth these extreames of opinion concerning this point must needs bring much mischiefe upon Church and Kingdome Those that absolutely hold such a power in humane lawes make themselves slaves to men Those that deny any binding power in them run loose into all licentiousnesse Know then that there is a vast difference betwixt these two To bind the conscience in any act and to bind a man in conscience to do or omit an act Humane laws cannot do the first of them the latter they may and must doe To binde the conscience is to make it guilty of a sin in doing an act forbidden or omitting an act injoyned as in it selfe such or making that act in it selfe an acceptable service to God which is commanded by men Thus humane lawes cannot bind the conscience It is God onely 1 John 3. 21. who as he is greater than the Conscience so hath power to binde or loose it Esay 31. 22. It is he that is the onely Law giver to the Conscience Jam. 4. 12. Princes and Churches may make lawes for the outward man but they can no more binde the heart than they can make it In vain is that power which is not inabled with coertion now what coertion can any humane power claim of the heart which it can never attain to know the spirit of man therefore is subject onely to the father
into the world for our Redemption and of the glorious resurrection of that Son of God for our justification we shall take off our selves from all worldly cares or delights I see not why it should not be both lawfull and commendable But to say as it is as the Romanists are guilty of too much scruple in this kind so too many of our own are no lesse faulty in a careless disregard of the holiest occasions of restraint which I would to God it did not too palpably appear in the scandalous carnality of many otherwise inoffensive professors It is a common practise which I have long wisht an oportunity to censure that husbands and wives forget one another too soon Scarce are their consorts fully cold ere they are laying for a second match and too few moneths are enow for the consummation of it Let me be bold to say this haste hath in it too much not immodesty only but inhumanity If we look abroad into the world wee shall find not among Gods peculiar people only but even amongst the very Heathens a meet and not niggardly intermission betwixt the decease of the one husband or wife the marriage of another A whole yeer was found little enough for the wife to mourne for her husband departed and so is still amongst the very Chineses though Atheous Pagans And by the civill Lawes a woman marrying within a yeer after her husbands death is counted in famous It was no short time that Abraham though now very old breathed upon the death of Sara the first of wives mentioned as mourned for before he took Keturah and yet the Hebrew doctors observe that there is a short letter in the midst of that word which signifies his mourning to imply say they that his mourning was but moderate I am sure his sonne Isaac Gen. 24. 67. was not comforted concerning the death of that his good mother till three yeers after her decease At which time he brought his Rebecca into that tent which even still retayned the name of Sarahs whereas with us after the profession of the greatest deerenesse the old posie of the deaths-ring tells what we may trust to Dead and forgotten Who can but blush to read that some Heathens were faine to make lawes that the wife might not be allowed to continue her solemne mourning for her husband abve 10 moneths and to see that our women had need of a law to inforce them so to mourn for the space of one In other Reformed Churches there is a determinate time of months set untill the expiration whereof widowes especially the younger are not suffered to marry it were more then requisite that these loose times were here with us curbed with so seasonable a Constitution but it were yet more happy if a due regard of publique honesty Christian modesty could set bounds to our inordinate desires so moderate our affections that the world may see we are led by a better guide then appetite CASE VIII Whether it bee necessary that marriages should be celebrated by a Minister and whither they may bee valid and lawfull without him IT is no marvell if the Church of Rome which holds matrimonie a Sacrament conferring Grace by the very work wrought require an absolute necessity of the Priests hand in so holy an act but for us who though reverently esteeming that sacred institution yet set it in a key lower it admits of too much question whether we neede to stand upon the terms of a Ministers agency in the performance of that solemn action There are those in these wilde times that have held it sufficiently lawful for the parties having agreed upon the bargain before friends and witnesses to betak themselves to bed others have thought this act of conjoyning the married persons in wedlock a fitter act for the Magistrate to undertake And certainely if there were nothing in marriage but meere nature it could not bee amisse that men and women should upon their mutuall agreement couple themselves together after the manner of brute creatures And if there were nothing in mariage but meer civility the Magistrate might be meet to be imployed in this service But now that we Christians know matrimony to be an holy institution of God him selfe which hee not only ordained but actually celebrated betwixt the first Innocent payre and which being for the propagation of an holy seed requires a speciall benediction how can we in reason think any man meet for this office but the man of God set over us in the Lord to derive the blessings of heaven upon our heads From hence therfore have our wholsom lawes taken a just hint to appropriate this service to a lawfull Minister only so as what ever private contract may bee transacted in corners betwixt the parties affected to each other yet the marriage knot cannot be publiquely quit by any other hand then Gods Ministers And herein certainly wee have just cause to bless the wisdom both of the Church and State which hath so regulated these matrimoniall affairs as that they are not only orderly but safely managed For doubtless were not this provision carefully made the world would bee quite over-run with beastliness and horrible confusion And in this point we may well give the Church of Rome her due acknowledge the wise care of her Lateran and Tridentine Councells which have enacted so strict decrees against clandestine Marriages and have taken so severe a course for the reforming of many foul disorders in these matrimoniall proceedings as may be of good use for the Christian world Had they done the like in other cases their light had not gone out in a snuffe As therfore it is generally both decreed and observed not without excellent reason in all Christian Churches that marriages should be solemnized in the publick Congregation of Gods people so it cannot but be requisite that it should be done by him who is ordained to be the mouth of the Congregation to God the mouth of God to the Congregatton And as under the Law the Priest was the man who must conveigh blessings from God to his people so under the Gospell who can be so apt for this divine office as he that serves at the Evangelicall altar And if all our marriages must be according to the Apostles charge made in the Lord who is so meet to pronounce Gods ratification of our marriages as he who is the profest Herald of the Almighty As it is therefore requisite even according to the Roman Constitutions that hee who is betrusted with the Cure of our soules should besides other witnesses be both present active in and at our domestique contracts of matrimony so by the laws both of our Church and Kingdome it is necessary he should have his hand in the publique celebration of them There may then be firme contracts there cannot be lawfull marriages without Gods Ministers CASE IX Whether there bee any necessity or use of thrice publishing the