own Sphere But forasmuch as the Supream Magistrate is intrusted of God with the care of Religion within his Dominions and hath a Civil Supremacy in Eclesiastical affairs and a great concern in the orderly management of publick Assemblies he is authorized of God to oversee the determinations and actings of Ecclesiastical Persons and may assume to himself the determination of the aforesaid circumstantials for the honour of God the Churches edification and the publick Peace keeping within the general rules prescribed in Gods Word For the maintaining of Church-Unity that is according to Gods word it is the part of Subjects to submit to what their Governours have determined so far as their submission is allowable by the said rule and it is the part of Governours to consider well the warrantableness of their determinations More especially their wisdom and care is much required in settling the right bounds of Unity In this regard the terms of admission to the Communion and Ministery of the Church must be no other than what the declared will of God hath made the terms of those priviledges and which will shut out none whom God hath qualified for and called to the same The setting of other boundaries besides the iniquity thereof will inevitably cause divisions The Apostles Elders and Brethren assembled at Jerusalem Acts 15. 28. writing to the blieving Gentiles declare It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things From which it is evidently inferred that the burden of things unnecessary ought not to be laid on the Churches The things injoyned by that Assembly were antecedently to their Decree either necessary in themselves or in their consequents according to the state of things in those times and places And whatsoever is made the matter of a strict injunction especially a condition of Church Communion and Priviledges ought to have some kind of necessity in it antecedent to its imposition Symbolical Rites or Ceremonies instituted by man to signifie Grace or Duty are none of those things which being necessary in general are left to human determination for this or that kind thereof They have no necessary Subserviency to Divine institutions they are no parts of that necessary decency and order in Divine Worship without which the Service would be undecent And indeed they are not necessary to be instituted or rigidly urged in any time or place whatsoever The being and well being of any rightly constituted Church of Christ may stand without them St. Paul resolves upon the cases of using or refusing of meats and the observance or non-observance of days which God had neither commanded nor forbidden and of eating of those meats which had been offered in Sacrifice to Idols Rom. 14. and 1 Cor. 8. That no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his Brothers way The Command here given extends to Pastors and Governours as well as to other Christians and is to be observed in acts of Governments as well as in other acts St. Paul was a Church Governour and of high authority yet he would not use his own liberty in eating Flesh much less would he impose in things unnecessary to make his Brother to offend In the cases aforementioned there was a greater appearance of reason for despising censuring or offending others than there can be for some impositions now in question among us viz. on the one side a fear of partaking in Idolatry or of eating meats that God had forbidden or of neglecting days that God had commanded as they thought on the other side a fear of being driven from the Christian Liberty and of restoring the Ceremonial Law Nevertheless the Apostle gives a severe charge against censuring despising or offending others of different Persuasions in those cases And if it were a Sin to censure or despise one another much more is it a Sin to shut out of the Communion or Ministery of the Church for such matters The word of God which is the Rule of Church-Unity evidently shews that the unity of external order must always be Subservient to Faith and Holiness and may be required no further than is consistent with the Churches Peace and Edification The Churches true Interest lies in the increase of regenerate Christians who are her true and living Members and in their mutual love peace and concord in receiving one another upon those terms which Christ hath made the bond of this Union The true Church Unity is comprized by the Apostle in these following Unities One Body one Spirit one Hope One Lord one Faith one Baptism one God But there is nothing said of one ritual or set Form of Sacred Offices one policy or model of Rules and Orders that are but circumstantial and accidental in a Church state and very various and alterable while the Church abides the same CHAP. III. Of Schism truly so called HEre I lay down general positions about Schism without making application thereof Whether these positions be right or wrong Gods Word will shew and who are or are not concerned in them the state of things will shew Schism is a violation of the Unity of the Spirit or of that Church-Unity which is of Gods making or approving This Definition I ground on the afore-cited Text Mark them that cause Divisions and Offences contrary to the Doctrine that ye have learned Separation and Schism are not of equal extent There may be a Separation or Secession where there is no Schism For Schism is always a Sin but Separation may be a Duty as the Separation of the Protestants from the Church of Rome Moreover there may be Schism where there is no Separation The violation of Unity or the causing of Divisions may be not only by withdrawing but by any causing of others to withdraw from the Communion of the Church or by the undue casting or keeping of others out of the Church or by making of any breaches in Religion contrary to the Unity of the Spirit By looking back to the nature and rule and requisites of true Church-Unity we shall understand the true nature and the several kinds and degrees of Schism As holy love is the life and Soul of Church-Unity so that aversation and opposition which is contrary to love is that which animates the sin of Schism and is as it were the heart root of it Whosoever maintains love and makes no breach therein and whose dissenting or withdrawing from a Church is no other than what may stand with love in its extent is no Schismatick The Unity of the Spirit being primarily that of the Church as mystically the breach thereof lies primarily in being destitute of the Spirit and Life Spiritual much more in being opposite thereunto under the shew of Christianity also in the languishing or lessening of Spiritual Life especially of the acts of holy love The Unity of the Spirit being secondarily that of the Church as visible in its external state and the first and
12. read Sacraments pag. 77. l. 3. read condescention pag. 96. l. 22. read orall pag. 99. l. 2. read rites pag. 116. l. 13. read abasing ib. l. 25. read noting pag. 117. l. 25. read transform it into pag. 121. l. 21. read Levities pag. 144. l. 21. read exalt pag. 149. l. 20. read effected pag. 150. l. 20. read smatch pag. 157. l. 13. read exercise pag. 162. l. 7. read vainly pag. 163. l. 11. dele love pag. 167. l. 9. read concerns pag. 171. l. 3. read Enemies ib. l. 9. read regulation ib. l. 19. read and pag. 189. l. 6. read be not pag. 202. l. 22. read and are withall A TRACT OF THE SOUND STATE OF RELIGION c. CHAP. I. The Nature of Christianity and the Character of true Christians THe Names and Titles by which real Christians are in Holy Scripture distinguished from other men are not mean and common but high and excellent as a Chosen generation a royal Priesthood a holy Nation a peculiar People the first-fruits of Gods creatures the houshold of God children of Light children of Wisdom heirs of the heavenly Kingdom and the Title of Saints was one of their ordinary appellations Doubtless the true difference between them and others lyes not in mere names but in some peculiar excellencies of quality and condition thereby signified And so much is abundantly set forth in the several expressions of Christianity as the Regeneration the new Creation a transformation in the renewing of the mind a participation of the divine nature the life of God conformity to the image of the Son of God and such like Thus from the Scripture stile it is evident that true Christianity is of an other nature then that carnal formal and lifeless profession with which multitudes confidently take up and that in its true professors there must needs be found something of a higher strain and nobler kind and which indeed makes them meet for that holy and Blessed state to come unto which it leads them It is indeed an excellent name and nature the regenerate State and divine life which is begun in the new birth wherein the Soul retaining the same natural faculties is changed from a carnal into a spiritual frame by the sanctifying power of the Holy Ghost and the word of truth In this change the mind is illuminated unto an effectual acknowledgment of the truth which is after godliness as containing the highest good and appearing in such evidence as makes earthly things to be seen what they are indeed but as dross and dung in comparison thereof The will is drawn by the force of the truth acknowledged to an absolute conversion and adhesion to God as the great and ultimate object of the souls love desire joy reverence observance acquiescence zeal and intire devotion In this absolute conversion to God is included the renouncing of all self dependence and of that perverse self-seeking which follows the lapsed state and an unlimited self resignation to God which is the only true self-seeking and self-love For God having made our felicity immutably coherent with his glory but subordinate thereunto a true Convert turning from poor empty nothing self to the infinite God exchanges insufficiency poverty vanity and misery for immensity almightiness all-sufficiency and infinite fullness and so he loseth self as it is a sorry thing and a wretched Idol and findeth the blessed God and self-eternally blessed in him And forasmuch as all have sinned and fallen away from God and cannot be brought back to him but in the hand of a Redeemer and Reconciler our Religion stands also in the sensible knowledg of sin and of our deplorable state under the power and guilt thereof with an humiliation sutable thereunto and in a lively faith towards our Lord Jesus the eternal Son of God made man in the fulness of time who gave himself for us to redeem us from sin and death to a life of grace and glory Which Faith is the worthy receiving of him in the full capacity of a Redeemer the intire and hearty acceptance of the grace of God in him the Souls resignation to him to be conducted to God by him and the securing of all that is hoped for in his hands with an affiance in his all-sufficiency and fidelity This Faith worketh by love towards God and man For through faith we love God because he loved us first and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins And through faith we resolve that if God so loved us then ought we also to love one another And this love eminently contains in it all the virtues of moral honesty towards men as truth justice mercy peaceableness kindness faithfulness humility meekness modesty and towards inferiors moderation equity and condescention and towards Superiors reverence and submission Christianity is a root of true goodness that brings forth its fruit in due season in the first place the internal and immediate actings of faith hope and love which may be called radical duties as lying next the root then the inseparable effects thereof such as are holy meditation and prayer among the acts of devotion towards God and among the acts of charity towards men justice fidelity mercy which are called the weightier matters of the Law And further it shoots forth into an universal regard of Gods commandments in all particularities not slighting the lowest or remotest duties which indeed cannot be slighted without the contempt of that Authority which injoyned the greatest and most important The Spirit of Christianity is a spirit of Wisdom and prudence that guides in a perfect way It sets right the superior governing faculties and holds the inferior under the command and government of the Superior It awakens reason to attend to the souls great concernments to mind the danger of temptations the madness of depraved affections and the mischief and banefulness of all sin It is no inconsiderate licentious presumptuous dissolute spirit but strict circumspect and self suspitious solid serious and universally conscientious It is pure grave sober shunning every unseemly speech all foolish and light behaviour and much more that which hath a filthy savour and smels rank of impurity and dishonesty It watcheth the motions of the animal life and sensitive appetite and curbs them when they are extravigant and renounceth whatsoever things tend to vitiate the soul and work it below its spiritual happiness It is a spirit of patience and of true rational courage and of resolved submission to the will of God It is above wordly riches and poverty and glory and ignominy and fleshly pain and pleasure But self-conceit excessive self estimation asperity towards others and domineering cruelty over conscience is no part of the above-mentioned and commended strictness and severity For as it hates flattery and base compliance with others in prophaness or lukewarmness so it is ever qualified with meekness lowliness of mind peaceableness patience that it may gain upon others and win them to its own advisedness
steddiness purity and soberness This new nature while it is lodg'd in the earthly tabernacle is clogg'd with many adverse things especially the relicks of the old nature which cause much vanity of thoughts indisposedness of mind motions to evil and aversations from good and somtimes more sensible disorders of affections and eruptions of unruly passion and aberrations in life and conversation The same divine principal is in some Christians more firm lively and active than in others yet it is habitually prevalent in them all and it resists and overcomes the contrary principle even in the case of most beloved sins and strongest temptations and perseveres in earnest and fearful indeavours of perfecting holiness in the fear of God And whatsoever degree of sanctity is obtained it ascribes wholly to the praise of Gods grace in Christ and the power of his spirit Christianity being known what it is it may easily be known what it is not and so the false disguises of it may easily be detected Forasmuch as it looks far higher than the temporal interests of mankind in the settlings of this life though it doth not overlook them it cannot be thought to have done its work in making men meerly just-dealers good neighbours and profitable members of the Common-wealth for such may be some of them that are without Christ without the hope of the Gospel and without God in the world Moreover it cannot lie so low as in a bare belief of the Gospel and an observance of its external institutes accompanied with a civil conversation As for such as rest in these things what are they more in the eye of God than the heathens that know him not And wherein do they differ from them except in a dead faith and outward form taken up by education tradition example custom of the country and other such like motives Nor doth it lie in unwritten doctrines and ordinances of worship devised by men nor yet in curiosities of opinion or accidental modes of Worship discipline or Church-government nor in ones being of this or that Sector party nor in meer Orthodoxality all which being rested in are but the false coverings of hypocrites It is not the lax and easie low and large rule by which Libertines and Formalists yea some pretended perfectionists do measure their own righteousness who assert their perfectness by disannulling or lessening the law of God In a word it is not any kind of morality or vertue whatsoever which is not true holiness or intire dedication to God and therefore much less is it that loose and jolly religion of the sensual gang who keep up a superficial devotion in some external forms but give up themselves to real irreligion and profaneness and bid defiance to a circumspect walking and serious course of Godliness And now it is too apparent what multitudes of them that prophess the faith of Christ are Christians in name only and not indeed Their alienation from the life of God and their enmity against it and their conformity to the course of this world in the lusts thereof doth testifie that they have not received the grace of God in truth But Christians indeed according to the nature of Christianity above expressed which is now in them though not in the highest yet in a prevalent degree do make it their utmost end to know love honour and please God to be conformable to him and to have the fruition of him in the perfection of which conformity and fruition they place the perfection of their blessedness In the sence of their native bondage under the guilt and power of sin they come to the Mediator Jesus Christ and rest upon him by the satisfaction and merit of his obedience and suffering to reconcile and sanctifie them to God and accordingly they give up themselves to him as their absolute Teacher and Ruler all-sufficient Saviour Having received not the Spirit of the world but that which is of God they are crucified to the honours profits and pleasures of the world and have their conversation in heaven and rejoyce in the hope of glory and prepare for sufferings in this life and by faith overcome them The law of God is in their hearts and it is the directory of their practice from day to day by the touchstone of Gods word they prove their own works and come to the light thereof that their deeds may be made manifest to be wrought in God They draw nigh to God in the acts of religious worship of his appointment that they may glorifie him and enjoy spiritual communion with him and be blessed of him especially with spiritual blessings in Christ and as God is a Spirit they worship him in Spirit and in truth It is their aim care and exercise to keep consciences void of offence towards God and towards men and to render to all their dues both in their publick and private capacities and to walk in love towards all not excluding enemies and to do all the good they can both to the souls and bodies of men but those that fear God they more highly prise and favour The remainder of corruption within themselves they know feelingly and watch and pray and strive that they enter not into temptation and maintain a continual warfare against the Devil the world and the flesh under the conduct of Jesus Christ their Leader according to the laws of their holy profession with patience and perseverance In the midst of a crooked and perverse generation they indeavour to be blameless and harmless as the Sons of God and to shine as lights in the world and by the influence of their good conversation to turn others to righteousness Such is the Character of those persons upon whose souls the holy doctrine of the Gospel is impressed and in whom the Christian religion hath its real being force and vertue These are partakers of the heavenly calling and set apart for God to do him service in the present world and afterwards to live in glory with him for ever These are the true Church of God the Church being here taken as mystical not as visible and these are all joyned together by one Spirit in one Body under Christ their Head in the same new nature having one rule of their profession and one hope of their calling These are a great multitude which no man can number of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues yet hitherto not proportionable to the rest of mankind And they continue throughout all ages but in greater or lesser numbers and more or less refined from Superstition or other corruptions and more or less severed from the external communion of the Antichristian State according to the brightness or darkness of the times and places wherein they live CHAP. II. Things pertaining to the Sound State of Religion And first holy Doctrine THe advancement of the Christian life which hath its beginning in the new birth being the great end propounded in this discourse in reference to this end
inherent righteousness by which the faithful are truly named righteous not only before men but in the judgment of God himself and which can be no more without good works then the sun without light That this is so perfect as not to lack any thing necessary to the true nature of righteousness nor to be maimed in any principal part thereof though in respect of degrees and some accidental parts it be imperfect That the faithful cannot by this inherent righteousness abide the strict tryal of divine justice but they are acquited from the guilt of sin and their deserved punishment by the meer grace of God in Christ. That Christs righteousness is so far bestowed on believers and made theirs that in the merit and consideration thereof they are freed from the curse of the Law and the condemnation of hell are justified unto eternal life and adopted to the inheritance of the heavenly kingdom And imputed righteousness in this sense cannot be gain-said That no faith is justifying but that which works by love and brings forth the fruit of good works That the condition of the new covenant for the remission of sins and everlasting life is faith alone not as excluding repentance and new obedience but as excluding the works of the Law or legal covenant and this is no derogation from the freest grace That the faithful keep the commandments of God and in some sense may be said to fulfill the Law that is not in the strictness of the covenant of works but in the observance of duty without reserves in the sincerity of love towards God and man as the Scripture saith love is the fulfilling of the Law That obedience every way perfect is required of the faithfull as their duty but not under the penalty of eternal death yet under that penalty they are obliged to sincere obedience That good works have relation to eternal life as the means to the end in that manner as the seed to Havest as the race and combat to the Prize as the work to the Reward not according to equality or condignity or merit strictly so called but according to free compact or congruity That the faithfull may be assured of their own justification by a true fixed persuasion that excludes hesitation and suspense and causeth holy security peace and joy and that they ought to labour for such assurance which ariseth partly from the divine promises and partly from the sense of their own infeigned faith That though godliness stands not in absolute perfection yet it stands in that integrity of heart and life an indubitable evidence whereof cannot be had without a very carefull and close walking with God and continued earnest endeavours of perfecting holiness in his fear That all human actions must have an actual or habitual reference to Gods glory and that all things are to be done in the best manner for that end That notwithstanding the power of divine grace which works mightily in Gods chosen whosoever will be saved must watch and pray and strive and bestow his chiefest care and pains therein and so continue to the end and particularly in the constant exercise not of a Popish outside formal but a Spiritual and real mortification and self denial in continual dependance on Gods grace who worketh in us to will and to do of his own good pleasure In the positions aforegoing all nice obscure perplexed and unnecessary notions are avoided and the plain sense of Gospel doctrine is attended This simplicity and plainess makes the truth much more intelligible and less controvertible where a multitude of nice terms and notions are vain and hurtfull superfluities that muffle the truth and cloud mens judgments and multiply controversies and cause much confusion CHAP. III. The due ordering of Gospel Worship FOrasmuch as divine Worship is the first and nearest act of Piety and aims immediately at the glorifying of Gods name and the keeping of the soul devoted to him the due ordering thereof must needs be one of the highest concernments of true religion Whereupon such an order thereof must needs be most desirable as hath most tendency to exalt the honour of Gods name and to advance the souls pure devotion And doubtless that hath most tendency thereunto which is most according to the nature and will of God Notwithstanding the fetches of mens wit in commending their will-worship God best knows what service will please him best and do us most good It becomes us neither to contemn Gods authority in the neglect of his institutions nor to controle his wisdom in the addition of vain inventions And this will bring us into the way of a reasonable service most acceptable to God and profitable to our selves In the fulness of time our Lord Christ being to establish a more perfect way than what had been before lays this foundation God is a Spirit and they that worship him must Worship him in Spirit and truth Accordingly he antiquated the old legal form great in outward furniture and visible spendor but comparatively small in substance and inward power and instituted an other of a far different strain wherein the rituals and externals are few and plain but their substance and inward power is great and mighty And when he abrogated former things which for their time had the stamp of divine authority because they suited not with the Gospel state and were in a comparative sense called carnal ordinances that were not good doubtless it was not his mind and will that men should erect new frames of their own devising after the similitude of those old things that are passed away To worship God in the Spirit after the simplicity that is in Christ according to the Gospel dispensation as it is most agreeable to the nature of the divine Majesty which is Worshipped and best fitted to glorifie him as God indeed so it is also most efficacious to make the Worshippers more knowing in religion more holy and heavenly in Spirit and conversation and every way more perfect in things pertaining to life and godliness Irreverence rudeness sordidness or any kind of negligence in the outward service of God is not here commended under the simplicity and Spirituality of Gospel worship Due regard must be had to all those matters of decency the neglect whereof would render the Service undecent such as are convenient places of assembling commonly called Churches comely furniture and convenient utensils therein a grave habit not of special sanctity but of civil decency for a Minister all which should not be vile and beggarly but gracefull and seemly likewise a well composed countenance and reverent gesture is requisite in all that present themselves before the Lord. Sitting or lolling or covering the head or having the hat half-way on in prayer is among us unseemly except natural infirmity call for indulgence herein but laughing talking gazing about in our attendance on religious exercises is no better than profaneness and to come into the congregation walking with our hats on
hath hurried some under pretence of erecting the fift Monarchy to rend and tear Kingdoms and Nations to attempt the dissolving of all Government in Church and State which is indeed the most ready way to subvert Gods Kingdom by the subversion of Christian Magistracy and Ministery and to dispossess the Gospel of the Territories it hath gained Some have proceeded so far in the pretended Reign of the Spirit as to abrogate the external Frame of the Christian Religion and to turn the Gospel History into mystical Allegories yet such as might be conceived and shaped in a vulgar fancy and are low and despicable things in comparison of the great mystery of Godliness according to the Historical sense of Scripture And which is yet worse some have been so gross as to turn into an Allegory the great hope of our Christian calling even the Resurrection of the dead and the life of the World to come and so pervert the mysteries of the Gospel into a mysterious Infidelity and Apostacy from Jesus Christ. Yea some perverting the high expressions of fellowship with God and dwelling in God and being made partakers of the Divine nature and the like have impiously talked of their begodded condition and blasphemously intituled the most High and Holy One to their abominable extravagancies and impurities And besides all these some are perpetual Seekers having no fixed belief in the most important points Persons so far inlightened as not to see the necessity of a higher way than the common dead formality and having some tast of Spiritual things and thereby raised above the general indifferency and Luke-warmness unto a kind of strictness seriousness and fervour of Spirit in Religion yet falling short of true Conversion and especially if they be well conceited of their own gifts and parts and seeming graces are apt to be carried away with a full gale of fancy into the gulf of these delusions And a tincture of this contagion though in a lower degree may sease on some who stand in the true grace of God being deceived by a shew of purity and Spirituality and peradventure lying under the disadvantage of some insnaring occasions which work upon the remainder of pride levity curiosity and other corruptions which the present imperfect State leaves in the hearts of real Christians And some of these may sooner fall into absurd opinions than many that receive not the truth in love who may easily abide among the Orthodox either because they do not concern themselves in Religious inquiries or because they are held by worldly advantages which stand on truths side The fancy is sooner filled with notions and the affections thereby raised than the judgment is well informed and the heart established in grace Hence proceed a sickliness in the Souls appetite a satiety of plain Saving truths and of sound wholsom Preaching a desire of novelty Self-conceitedness pragmatical confidence rash censures partiality in hearing the Word a lessening of the Pastoral Authority incroachments upon the Pastors Office dividing principles and practices and innumerable inconveniences Moreover well meaning People associated in a stricter profession are apt to be sequacious of some leading persons among them and some will follow the rest for company And the high pretensions and heightened confidence of Enthusiasts is a kind of Enchantment to bewitch those that unwarrantably approach to near them especially such as are predisposed by temper or complexion towards Enthusiasm In these things men forsake the Law and the Testimony to walk by false Lights and to follow blind Guides The Holy Ghost bids us trie the Spirits and hath given us an infallible rule of Tryal and leaves us not to any unaccountable impulse or impression The whole Tenor of Evangelical Doctrine shews that the Christian Spirit is both pure and peaceable that it doth not divide break and scatter a Christian people but unites heals and settles them that it doth not overturn Churches and civil States nor inflame Rulers against subjects nor subjects against Rulers nor dissolve Magistracy and Ministery but that it turns the hearts of the Fathers to the Children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the Just and conciliates the minds of Magistrates and Ministers and People of all degrees in righteousness and peace which is the right and sure way of erecting Gods Kingdom It doth not cancel reason but maintain its interest in Religion as being under the power of God and the great prop and proof of the Christian Faith It is a Spirit of judgment and soberness and suppresseth the wild Dominion of the unruly imagination It doth not turn men from humanity and civil behaviour unto a surly and cynical pride and Fanatick melancholy and austerity but it disposeth them to all the duties of human life and civil Converse But there must be Heresies and it is impossible but that offences should come Where the light of the Gospel is broken forth Sectarianism and Fanaticism is the Devils After-Game So it sprung up in Germany upon the birth of Protestantism so it sprung up in the Primitive Church upon the birth of Christianity in the Gnosticks and such like Sectaries and so it continues in our times These irregularities and extravagancies are a great dammage and reproach to a serious zealous and strict profession and it is a stone of stumbling before many Nevertheless the greatest and most dangerous Degeneration from the Sound state of Religion lies not this way The conceptions and motions of Fanaticism having a kind of Spiritual strain though in a delusion take not with the greater number whether of high or low degree the learned or unlearned sort And in case it seases on a greater multitude it may trouble and unsettle a State but it can never settle it self and if it domineer a while its Tyranny cannot hold because it hath no foundation and it can never obtain to be a national Religion because it is inconsistent with the stability of civil Government It s greatest mischief to a State is that it may serve the designs of others to work out a more lasting misery For which cause the Romish Emissaries under a vizor have overacted this wild Spirit that by its confusion and Anarchy they might make way to introduce their own Tyranny But the more extensive dangerous and lasting depravation of Christianity lies on the same side with Popery which is formidable indeed being founded in power and policy and suted to worldly interests and to which mens innate propensions do generally more incline them For that their fancies and affections are inveagled with its outward wealth and glory and their consciences laid a sleep by its loose principles and lifeless forme of devotion CHAP. XIV The way of preserving Religion uncorrupt THe truth and purity of Religion lies in its conformity to its rule which is Gods revealed will or law and its deviation from it is its depravation From this rule men are easily drawn aside being inticed by their own vain imaginations perverse inclinations
vicious excesses and sensuall pollutions yea all offensive levites and unchristian irregularities and all fellowship therewith Yet morosity and sowreness of Spirit it by no means approves but serenity of disposition and freeness and sweetness of conversation is both commanded and caused by it It reacheth the hidden man of the heart and awes the Conscience it forbids the inward motions of intemperance and injustice it condemns and loaths Hypocrisie and makes all external works to be nothing without sincerity It makes sincere love the principle and placeth it at the bottom of our whole behaviour towards others and therefore prompts and powerfully ingages to mutual succour in the time of need It maintains a charity unknown to the Infidel World and which is a vertue peculiar to it in the greatest vigor and extent It injoyns the love of enemies It exalts Humility meekness and mutual forbearance as chief vertues which were contemned by the pride of moral Heathens And therefore it makes men just and peaceable And yet withal it hath the best grounds of true fortitude and magnanimity And therefore Damns that pusillanimity and foolish softness of disposition which betrays truth and vertue Self-denial is one of its grand precepts without which none can live under its discipline and so it over-rules and controles that selfishness which is the Arch-rebell against God and the root of all mischief and turns the World upside down It teaches men to live above the Honors and riches of the World and takes off the heart from them Its principles most intirely accord with the true interest of the Higher powers it declare their authority to be from God as they are his Vicegerents and teacheth them to rule in Subordination to him according to his laws And it awes the Consciences of Subjects to obdience If Rulers command any thing repugnant to the Laws of God it forbiddeth subjects to perform such-commands yet withall obligeth to submit with patience to the unjust penalties of non-performance and to avoid Mutinies and Rebellions It also teacheth the people in Spiritual matters to receive the Churches directive with their own discretive judgment and so not to derogate from the just Authority of Ecclesiastical Superiors It is indeed the chiefest strength of all just Governments and Societies The truth is it doth hedge in with thorns the lusts of men as Pride Malice Revenge Covetousness and Sensuality but it secures and inlarges their wholsome comforts and injoyments their proprieties immunities and all just priviledges It advanceth Righteousness Temperance Beneficience and all other duties appertaining to mankind Wherever it roots and spreads it makes no small part of the Prudence Courage Industry and Frugality and by consequence of the wealth and strength of a Nation There is no aggregation of men in the world wherein appears more of that which is good and profitable to men than is found where the influence of this profession becomes predominant whether in a Nation or Kingdom or City or Family The Spirit of Christianity is the Spirit of power of love and of a sound mind which gives great advantage for Prudence Soberness steddiness of Conversation The seriousness and gravity of this way disposeth not to futil talking childish credulity easiness and rashness but to a considerate freeness and direct dealing with a generous caution and reservedness in due Season Though its followers cannot link themselves to Factions and serve all times and occasions and go along with the men of this world in their designs throughout yet they shall not fail of interest in a Nation not wholly vitiated nor is it hard for them to maintain an influence upon the publick State if they accommodate themselves to serve it so far as conscience and prudence leads them Considerate men will not contemn them and they that own them shall know where to find them and in pursuing good designs shall find them fast friends Religion doth not cast men down into stupidity pusillanimity or sluggish neglect of opportunity but erects them to a Prudent and temperate vigor of Spirit and regular activity whereby they become fit for the affairs of human life in a higher or lower Sphear according to their different capacities CHAP. XVII Religion may be advanced by human Prudence what ways and methods it cannot admit in order to its advancement THough true Religion stands by an unchangeable Law and depends not upon the mutable things of this World and varies not according to their variations nor is to be governed by the common policy of secular Kingdoms nevertheless its affairs may be much advanced by prudence and disadvantaged by indiscretion There is a lawfull use of human Policy being refined from Hypocrisie and all iniquity The Author of this Profession the holy and just One in whose mouth was no guile adviseth his Disciples to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves St. Paul one of his chief Ministers was attentive to all the methods of gaining People and became all things to all men that he might win some and he was bold to tell some that being crafty he caught them with guile but it was the guile of abounding Charity and self-denial managed with prudence for the service of Christ and the saving of Souls In secular Kingdoms the reasons of State are locked up from the common view But the maxims and methods of this Interest may with great advantage be disclosed as well to Aliens and Enemies as to Friends and fellow-Citizens For by this discovery the powers of the World who through their own misapprehensions or others malicious suggestions are sometimes turned against it may become more propense and indulgent towards it and the more sober part of Men may be inclined to favour it and greater numbers both of high and low Degree may be brought intirely to close with it when they shall behold the goodness and usefulness the innocency and integrity of its Principles As for the Enemies counterworking we need not dread it For the stratagems of this warfare are not carnal and cannot be counterwrought with carnal stratagems It remaineth therefore as the business of this inquiry to consider how we may improve the intrinsical and innate Advantages before mentioned and to gain all extrinsical and adventitious ones that may be made and to make thâ— most of them all for the designed end But due care must be had that the wisdom of this World or human Policy have not too great 〈◊〉 stroke For many are the arts and methodâ—… that serve secular Interests which the sincerity and purity of true Religion can by no mean admit It cannot stablish it self in bloud and cruelty nor murther the innocent for its own security nor hold People in subjection by the horroâ— of a Spanish Inquisition which is not the policy of the city of God the Spiritual Jerusalem but of Babylon It cannot make use of such impostures as are used to uphold the mystery of iniquiâ—y and which is the way of those Church Politicians that make