and worse continued contests Our nakedness-discovering writings what have they done but added oyl to the flame For Christs sake my reverend and dear Brethren hearken to this word in season from the Oracles of God and treasures of pure antiquity pointing out the way of a godly and edifying peace It will be no grief of heart but sweet peace and consolation when we are to appear before the Judg of the quick and the deed Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus So heartily prayeth your Brother and fellow-â—ervant ROBERT BLAIR Thus far Reverend Mr. Blair who was both a Son of Thunder â—nd a Son of Peace a Peace maker O with what authority and seriousneâ—s did I hear him press unity in Preaching before a Synod from these words Phil. 2.1 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the spirit if any bowels mercies fulfil ye my joy that ye be like minded having the same love being of one accord of one mind And I heard him say upon Preaching before a general Assembly That he could be content to be carried from the place in which he was Preaching to his grave to have the rent that then was in the Church cured Ignorant and rash youths who have not experience and consider not what an abominable sin Schism is and what are the mischievous consequences of it and how it ordinarily ends in the ruin desolation of a Church they know little what they are doing when they are blowing up the fire of contention and it 's a sport to some to cast such fire-brands But they who have Heavenly wisdom see that that sporting is mischievous madness that it will be bitter in the latter end It is not for nought that the Spirit of God directed the Apost Paul in writing to the Church of the Corinthians in which there were many things wrong to fall first upon the ill of divisions 1 Cor. 1.10 and when he is shutting up that Epistle he exhorts that all these things be done with charity and to greet one another with an holy kiss And when he is shutting up the 2 Epist he concludes Finally Brethren farewell be perfect be of good comfort be of one mind live in peace and the God of love and peace shall be with you Greet one another with an holy kiss So thus he begins and ends with this unity and peace 9. And because no speaking nor reasoning will prevail against the working of a spirit of error and schism without the effectual working of the pirit of the Lord let us humbly and earnestly pray that the Lord would have mercy upon us for his Sons sake who came to destroy the works of the Devil pour upon us the spirit of grace and of supplications the spirit of faith repentance that we may look on him whom we have pierced mourn the spirit of a sound mind the spirit of love peace And that every one Magistrates Ministers and people may be made sensible of their own sins We should pray that the Lord would send his Spirit that convinces the world of sin to let us see our sins and to let us see them written in our judgments that we may accept of the punishment of our sins justifie the Lord when he judges The Lord often writes the sins of men in so great and legible letters in their judgments that they who run may read them David despised the Lord and occasioned the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme by his adultery and murther incestuous filthiness breaks out in his house the sword departs not from his house his people despise him and follow Absalom Shimei an exasperate Benjamite is let loose upon him to revile and curse him and cast stones at him he disowns him as no King gives him no title of honour but only calls him a man and which was worse a bloody man a man of Belial and does not cry and then flee but goes along in the sight and hearing of the King Courtiers and Soldiers cursing casting stones and dust David sees that tho' Shimei did this contrary to the Law of God which says Thou shalt not revile the Gods nor curse the ruler of thy people Yet that he did it not without the over-ruling Providence of God he saw that the Lord had let Shimei loose upon him is humbled under the hand of God Uzziah will needs go to the Temple exercise the Priests Office the Lord by Leprosie cuts him off from the House of the Lord and from the exercise of his Kingly Office When the Priests did not impartially apply the Law of God to reclaim the people from their sins no doubt they thought thus to keep in with the people but this brought them to be base contemptible before all the people Mal. 2.9 The Jews that remained in the land after the ruin of the Temple though they had but one Prophet yet they despise him they will not hear the word which Jeremiah spoke in the name of the Lord but they would do what went out of their own mouth and therefore the Lord leaves them to live like Pagans swears by his great name that his name should not be named any more in their mouths they should not have so much as the form profession of the worship of the true God Jer. 44.16 26. they would not be reproved by Ezek. ch 3.26 they are plagued with the want of a reprover When people will reject the counsel of the Lord will not hearken to his voice nor take his gracious offer made in the Gospel when they will not endure sound Doctrine nor desire the sincere milk of the word nor receive the truth in love the Lord justly gives them up to their own hearts lusts to walk in their own counsels to strong delusions to believe lyes to be tossed to and fro with every wind of Doctrine to turn aside to fables When they despise his servants will not receive his mâ—ssengers their message count them enemies for telling the truth the Lord removes his servants from them leaves them to be deluded with teachers which are after their own humours and lusts When people refuse to hear the Lords words and walk after the imaginations of their own heart Jer. 13.10 the Lord fills them with drunkenness that they destroy one another like drunken men who know not what they are doing v. 13. Behold I will fill all the Inhabitants of this Land even the Kings that sit upon Davids Throne and the Priests and the Prophets and all the Inhabitants of Jerusalem with drunkenness And I will dash them one against another even the Fathers and the Sons together saith the Lord I will not pity nor spare nor have mercy but destroy them Hear ye and give car be not proud for the Lord hath spoken Give glory to
what Doctrine they should preach which was an encroachment beyond any thing done by the secret Council Some talk of Presbytery and Presbyterian parity and of their detestation of Prelacy and in the mean time set up Prelacy it 's a great evidence of a Spirit of giddiness when people run round as those who run in a Circle and so run to that point from which they once did run The Declaration at Sanquair is refuted in the Confutation of the Bonds and the truth is such principles and practices are so absurd and destructive to all Rule and Government that they are not worthy of Refutation and should be answered with detestation and abhorrence They conclude that Declaration hoping that none will blame them for or offend at their rewarding those that are against them as they have done to them if they had considered Prov. 20.22 Say not thou I will recompence evil but wait on the Lord and he shall save thee and Prov. 24.29 Say not I will do so to him as he hath done to me I will render to the man according to his work Rom. 12.14 17 18 19 20 21 1 Thes 5.15 1 Pet. 3.9 10 11 12 13 14. They might have seen how groundless and absurd this hope was The 8 and 9 veses of the 137 Psalm are wrested when applied to justifie such unchristian Practices for that Scripture is a prediction of the prosperous success that the Medes and Persians should have in destroying Babylon which is also foretold Isa 45.1 3 4 13. and not a Rule to warrand us to revenge our selves and to dash out the brains of Infants It 's among the delusions of the time that some know not of what Spirit they are and imagine that to be the Zeal of God which is nothing but the wrath of man which worketh not the Righteousness of God It is meet to shut up this sad Subject with humble and earnest Supplications That the Lord would humble us in the sight and sense of our sins which have procured the dreadful Judgments and Plagues which have come upon this sinful Generation That he would convince us of our sins and make every one sensible of the Plagues of his own heart and of the Plagues that are upon the hearts of others which are among the most dreadful evidences of the anger of God that Magistrates Ministers people of all ranks may take with their sins and take shame and confusion of face to themselves because of their own sins and the sins of others That he would so turn in mercy and loving-kindness and turn us again that our backslidings be not perpetual and turn the hearts of Rulers and the hearts of people to himself and the hearts of Rulers to the people and the hearts of people to the Rulers the hearts of the fathers to the children and of the children to the fathers that Rulers may have the love kindness pity and compassion of fathers towards the people and may not by rigor and severity provoke the children to wrath and may pity those who are distempered by sad sufferings and that the Lord would incline their hearts to take speedy course that the poor people who wander as sheep without shepherds and who through their own ignorance and humours and distempers are exposed as a prey to seducers to Jesuits and those who are influenced by them who drive poor unstable people who are destitute of faithful Teachers to discover to them the devices of Satan and of his Instruments into snares and mischievous practices and makes them imagine that those pathes of the destroyer are the way to an outgate from their calamities That the Lord would incline I say their hearts to take speedy course that these poor wandering sheep may be provided with Pastors after the Lords heart who may feed them with knowledg and understanding with sound doctrine with the wholesome words of Christ that they may not be turned from the truth unto fables but by the words of the Lords mouth they may be keeped out of the paths of the destroyer and any who are intangled through the devices of Satan and subtil deceivers may be recovered in time out of these snares And that the Lord would incline the hearts of people to be subject to principalities and powers and to obey Magistrates to fear God and honour the King and keep them that they be not tempted by grievous pressures to cast off the yoke of lawful Authority but may possess their souls in patience and wait on the Lord in the way of his judgments who often makes use of lawful Magistrates to punish his people for their sins and though the Magistrate may be wrong yet God is righteous and we should be humbled under his hand It 's a very humbling dispensation when Parents and Magistrates are alienate from and rigid against their children and subjects and we should not be chafed and enraged but humbled under the mighty hand of God and carry with that lowliness and meekness patience and respect to lawful Authority that we may commend ourselves to the consciences of all in the sight of God that being reviled we may bless being persecuted we may suffer it being defamed we may entreat And seeing the Devil is so active to rent the Church and to ruine it and to render the Ministers of the Gospel and so the Gospel it self contemptible we should if we can do no more pray for the peace of Jerusalem and that the Lord would let people see the devices of Satan and Seducers who draw them away from under the eye of the Shepherd that they may destroy them and that he would convince people that it 's their duty to esteem Ministers very highly in love for their works sake and for their Masters sake for they who despise them despise Christ and the Father who sent Christ Farmer Sir I think my self much obliged to you for the pains you have taken for my information and I ingenuously acknowledg I am by what I have heard instructed in many things of which I was ignorant I shall desire before we part that ye would give me some directions how to order my way in this dark and dangerous time in which my lot hath fallen it 's seldome that I have occasion to converse with Ministers which makes me the more desirous to make the best use of their company I can when any of them come this way Minist There are many excellent directions in several of these Papers that I was speaking of before it were your advantage to have them I shall only give you a few 1. Let that be your earnest study to be in Christ and to walk in him to know him and to be found in him having his righteousness and to be conformed to him to walk at he walked The Apostle Paul counted all things loss for the excellency of the knowledg of Christ and to be found in him c. and he travelled as in birth to have Christ formed in the
their knowledge He hath an eye to that Scripture 1 Chron. 12.32 Among those who were ready armed to the War and came to David to Hebron to turn the Kingdom of Saul to him according to the word of the Lord Ver. 23. There are some of the Children of Issachar v. 32. And of the Children of Issachar which were men that had understanding of the Times to know what Israel ought to do the Heads of them were two hundred and all their Brethren were at their command These men of Issachar spoken of were as â—he Dutch Interpreters expound the place underâ—tanding and expert men which are able to give good Advice and Counsel at what time it were best â—o attempt any thing or desist from it whether in War or civil Affairs as Esther 1.13 or in Husbanâ—ry and Countrey Affairs Some Interpreters reâ—â—r this to the knowledge of Astronomy as Diodate â—ews but others sayes he understand and take it to be only wisdom and sagacity either natural or gotten by long experience to discern and know the very moment of Opportunities a thing very important whence ordinarily depends the good success of Affairs Others shew that these men of Issachar were men eminently skilful and endued with prudence to know what was to be done and when and gave evidence of this sagacity at this time in taking this fit opportunity in turning the Kingdom of Saul to David and they were followed by their Brethren in this matter This Knowledge of the Times was not common to all the Professors in Israel for if so this Knowledge of the Times would not have been noted by the Spirit of God as something remarkable in these men of Issachar And no doubt there were many Israelites who were taught of God and were sufficiently distinguished from those who were brutish in their knowledge who yet had not this Knowledge of the Times to know when it was time to make War and to make alterations in the State in turning the Kingdom from the house of Saul to David This Knowledge of the Times is very desirable but every thing desirable is not a duty Moses wishes that all the Lords People were Prophets but it is not the duty of every one of the Lords People to be a Prophet and to Prophesie Again there are several things which we are oblidged to have and to do which yet are not the Cognizance or the Badges and Marks whereby they who are taught of God are distinguished from them who are brutish in their Knowledge as for example an eminent measure of Knowledge of Prudence of Love of Assurance these indeed are excellent Ornaments but they are not Badges and Marks common to all those who are taught of God and distinguishing them from those who are brutish in their Knowledg for there are many honest Professors who are taught of God who have not attained to these eminent degrees of Knowledge Prudence Love and Assurance Again it 's the duty of all Professors to obey the Law of God perfectly otherways their defects in obedience would not be sins But that perfection is not the Badg or Cognizance to distinguish those who are taught of God from those who are brutish in their Knowledge So that though that knowledge of the times were a thing which all Israelites should be adorned with yet it would not be right to make it their Cognizance or a distinguishing Mark to difference them from those who are brutish in their Knowledge But for any thing that appears from the Text or the Interpreters which I have consulted this Knowledge of the Times was a natural or political sagacity attained by long experience by which these men of Issachar knew what was the fit seasons of making War and alterations in matters of State which concerned all Israel Now for this sort of Knowledge of times I suppose the Author of the Epistle will not say that it is the duty of every Professor in the Church of Scotland to have this politick sagacity to discern the Seasons of making War and making alterations in State matters and much less is this politick sagacity and prudence which is not ordinarily acquired even by men imployed in State-Affairs but by much exercise and long experience to be made a Cognizance distinguishing those who are taught of God from those who have not saving knowledge for this knowledge of the Times is as Interpreters think a natural or politick knowledge and so no evidence or mark of a Spiritual and supernatural estate This is certain from the Scripture that this Knowledge of the Times was a Knowledge which distinguished some of the Tribe of Issachar from the Generality of the people of Israel and therefore this Scripture is misapplyed when this Knowledge of the Times is alledged to be the Mark and Cognizance of all who are taught of God distinguishing them from those who have no true Wisdom but are brutish in their Knowledge and so like the beasts that perish This is an ill token that the Author of this Epistle hath stumbled in the threshold and in the very Entry of his Address and his stumbling is the more dangerous because it may be a stumbling-block to private Professors by putting this conceit in their heads that they must either have the knowledge of the Times that the men of Issachar had concerning the fit seasons of making War and peace and of making State-alterations or else they are brutish in their Knowledge and are not taught of God This were the way to put all Professors Male and Female Lad and Lasse to become Politicians and to take on them to know and determine what Israel should do to determine what the State and Church should do And thus they are diverted from studying to know what they ought to do themselves and how they ought to rule their own Families and set a work to dive into the intrigues of State-policy and to plot alterations of States and conclude when to make Wars and to alledge that all who are taught of God have that Knowledge of the Times which the men of Issachar had is to deceive them and make them imagine that they have that Knowledge which they have not and to tempt them to meddle with things that are too high for them and to crack their brains by racking them to reach those things which are beyond their Capacity and to stretch themselves beyond their line and pass the bounds of their Station and Vocation Such flattering insinuations which either puff up people with a conceit of their Wisdom to manage the greatest and most important Affairs of Kirk and State and that they are fit to guide their Guides and break the Ice to them as the Historian says in his 28 Questions and Vindication hath done much harm to several well-meaning people and put them from minding the duties of their particular Callings and the Duties of their Christian Vocation in the exercise of Faith and Repentance and in giving diligence in the exercise of
this argument was forced to alledg That all the Presbyters mentioned in the Scripture were Bishops and not Ministers for he saw that he behoved either to lose the Bishop or the Presbyter in the Bible for not only are Presbyters called Bishops but they are made Bishops by the Holy Ghost now to say that the Holy Ghost made them nominally Bishops but not really Bishops is very injurious to the work of the Spirit as if it were productive only of an empty name And it takes away the force of the argument Feed the flock of God over which the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers or Bishops If they had only the name of Bishops and not the Office the argument would not be cogent for a meer empty name and title doth not oblige a man who gets it to any work And as Paul says That the Holy Ghost made the Elders of the Church of Ephesus Bishops So the Apostle Peter exhorts Elders to take inspection to do the work of Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither doth the name of Bishop import any primacy of one Minister over others for the Apostle John taketh the love of pre-eminence or primacy in Diotrephes but Paul commends the desire of the Office of a Bishop which shews that the Office of a Bishop doth not import a primacy But though Bishop and Presbyter be one in the Scripture yet it cannot be denied that afterward the name of Bishop began to be appropriate to some Ministers in eminent Cities and afterward Ordination and then Jurisdiction was by degrees taken from the Presbyters It 's true Presbyterians when they are urged with these humane stories and with the holiness of the Ancients who were Bishops they do not deny but praise the holiness and zeal of these Ancients who were Bishops but neither the holiness of the men nor the Ecclesiastick custom will prove the Divine right of the Episcopacy pleaded for If any would plead for Polygamy from the holiness of Abraham the Father of the Faithful and of Jacob who as a Prince did prevail with God in weeping and making supplication Or from the long continuance of that Polygamy the answer were easie From the beginning it was not so God made male and female So when they plead that Bishop and Presbyter were distinguished in after-times it 's answered From the beginning it was not so God made Bishop and Presbyter one man should not have made them two nor made the one less to make the other greater than he was by Divine constitution Yet it cannot be denied that this is a very plausible pretext for setting up Bishops above Presbyters But their new Prelates have no pretext nor colour imaginable for their Jurisdiction over Presbyters for they pretend to no other name but Ministers and yet they will Lord it over their fellow Ministers and thus their Soveraignty is more intollerable because it hath no kind of colour or pretext for it The last clause in the Doctors Definition against Presbyters is pretty ingenious for Prelates engross the power that Presbyters should have Prelacy rises upon the ruines of Presbyters yet I suppose the generality of those who are for Episcopacy will give the Doctor no thanks for that clause of the Definition but it agrees very well with their new Prelates for at their first appearance in the world they stand in a posture of opposition against the Presbyters of the Church of Scotland they libel them they effectually depose them if not excommunicate them nor can they expect to be absolved till they make these their Accusers their Judges and stand in Judgment to be judged by them and if we may guess by the Libel which the Judges themselves formed the sentence would not be very comfortable There is yet another thing which would make them a very dangerous sort of Prelates and that is That they not only engross this Sovereign and Peerless power over Presbyters but also which other Prelates use not to do they engross a singularity in Holiness as if they and they alone had followed God and were free of Defections which other Ministers are involved in and it 's like this is one of the Foundations of their new Sovereignty that they think themselves though the lesser yet the sounder part of the ministry It puts me in mind of a Countryman who understood not Latine who heard some talking great things that the senior pars Ecclesiae could do he enquired what is he that Sanior he sems to be some great man but except they be Judges themselves they will not be accounted by men of sound minds to be the sounder part of the Church Nay Orestes himself would say it and swear it That the contrivance of this Bond was not the work of a man sound in his mind Non sani esse homines non sanus juret Orestes Any may see with half an eye that this is not a Presbyterial form of Government for in Presbytery the Plurality carries matters and the part is ruled by the whole but here the part and a very little considerable part and a part not in conjunction with the whole but that hath disjoyned it self from the whole takes upon it to govern the whole even as if a little Toe should disjoyn it self from the Body and then take upon it to judge the whole Body and dispose of it at its pleasure It is a wonder that so few men so inconsiderable for number and parts were not ashamed to think of their sitting and judging so many Ministers let be to publish it to the world As their high Court of Justice would have made strange havock of Magistrates and readily dispatched some Presbyterian Minister for Loyalty as Mr. Love was dispatched in England to be a terrour to others so this Ecclesiastick Judicatory in all appearance if Ministers had been such fools as to have owned them would have made great havock of Ministers for a few weak men not sound in their Principles and transported with Passion and Impatience and possest with a Conceit of their singular Purity and Zeal and usurping a pre-eminency over the generality of Ministers and taking on them to be their Judges and talking of no less than deposition before they were in any capacity to depose would have made a very Kittle-Court It 's a sad spectacle to behold many through ignorance and blinding humours running into the same evils which they in words disclaim They in words disclaim Independency and yet really make the people and not Church-Officers to be Rulers and guides to direct Ministers what to preach and do and to depose them if they obey not these directions They who called themselves the Council of the Army which was broken at Bothwel-Bridge were highly displeased with the indulged Ministers because the secret Council had sent instructions to them though the indulged Ministers did not accept of them and yet these same persons took upon them to prescribe to those Ministers and Preachers that were with them
opportunity of them these private Meetings which were kept in England in a separating way from the solemn Assembly became the Seminaries of error and heresie when the sheep leave the shepherds tents and the green Pastures of the Lords own Ordinances what wonder if they wander and grow sick and dote about questions 5. In your private converse seek for the things which make for peace and for mutual edification beware ye waste not your time in vain janglings and unedifying debates which distemper the minds and hearts of those who dote upon them and diverts them from edifying purposes When ye meet with those who are given to these janglings if ye can by Scripture and reason reclaim them from that snare essay it with meekness of wisdom If ye find them impatient to be contradicted and not capable through passion and prejudice to receive instruction then fall upon some good edâ—fying purposes wherein you and they agree that whereunto ye have attained ye may walk according to the same rule If you find that they will neither hold off their janglings and that 's very ordinary for a spirit of error or schism to hold people perpetually upon those things which foster error or division nor yet receive instruction your converse with such is not like to be fruitful imploy others to deal with them and be much in praying for them and be ready to do them any good that they will admit or accept of Beware of wasting your time in speaking ill of absent persons remember the words Tit. 3. To speak evil of no man c. Make not that your design to wrong the fame of any person as the word imports hate the way of such whose work it is to render Ministers and those who differ from them in any thing hateful and to put them out of capacity as far as in them lyes to serve the Lord in their generation and station Beware of rash determinations of questions which ye understand not some people are so rash that no question is started but they will presently determine it and having vented their judgment they will not readily retract Meddle not as a busie-body in other mens matters and in things too high for you which are not within the compass of your calling Waste not your precious time as many people do in State-intrigues It belongs to the Representatives of Nations and not to private persons to determine matters of that nature What the Representatives of Nations may do for righting what is wrong in the Government of Nations is a question which the Representatives of Nations and not private persons should move and resolve It 's a trick of Satan and seditious Jesuits to divert people from the duties of their Christian and particular callings and to break and crack their brains in over-stretching them to reach things that are above them and to grasp matters which they can never comprehend and though they could understand them have no call to meddle with them And if private persons take the sword which God hath not given to them to right what they think wrong by strong hand And if private persons take upon them to depose Ministers for real or apprehended faults this is the high-way to all confusion to turn State and Church upside down and to fill the world with murthers and butcheries to turn it into a Butcher-house and to fill the Church with schism and damnable errors These are the methods of the lying and murthering spirit to make havock of the souls and bodies of men 6. Imitate the example of our Lord Jesus Ephes 5.1 Be followers of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be ye kind one to another tender hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you Put on therefore as the Elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercies kindness humbleness of mind meekness long-suffering forbearing one another and forgiving one another If any man have a quarrel against any even as Christ forgave you so also do ye And above all things put on charity which is the bond of perfectness Love them that hate you Bless and curse not Be not overcome with evil but overcome evil with good Learn of Christ to be meek and lowly in heart shew all meekness to all men The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit is of great price in the sight of God When ye are injured and persecuted learn of Christ to be patient and in your patience possess your souls Look above men who wrong you unto God who is correcting or trying you and be humbled and patient under the mighty hand of God fret not at the prosperity of those who for a while bring evil devices to pass but trust in the Lord and be doing good And delight thy self in the Lord Commit your way to him Wait on the Lord and in well-doing commit your self to him as to a faithful Creator Take heed to your spirit beware that ye be not deluded by Satan and brought to imagine that wrathful revenge is zeal Who is a wise man and endued with knowledg among you let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom hut if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts glory not and be not against the truth This wisdom descendeth not from above but is earthly sensual devilish for where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work But the wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisie And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace The Spirit of Christ opposeth that spirit which lusteth to envy and revenge When James and John would have been at fire from Heaven to consume the Samaritans Christ turned and rebuked them and said Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of for the Son of man is not come to destroy mens lives but to save them Let that be your constant design and endeavour to express the praises the vertues of Christ in resembling him in loveliness in love in bowels and mercies in humility lowliness of heart in self-denial in gentleness meekness patience long-suffering forbearance forgiveness that the same mind may be in you that was in Christ Jesus that ye may be in the world as he was in the world that ye may walk in his steps that ye may be conformed to the Image of the Son of God and Christ formed in you He countenanced the Ordinances he heard John was baptized of him when the people were baptized he was Circumcised he Prayed Preached and eated the Passover when Judas the Traytor was present he directed the Lepers whom he cured to shew themselves to the Priest he was subject to Joseph