avoided by Confessors Answ Though where the appearance of evil or idolatry is but imaginary and founded only upon anothers ill construction or misinterpretation it will not warrant your abstinance or oversation from that act of worship which is necessary and commanded of God For then you should admit an actual sin in your selves to anticipate the appearance of sin to others and must omit necessary duties as often as others will or do opine and declare them to be niceties and idolatry which is against all obligations both of piety justice and charity Yet where an appearance of evil or idolatry is real and flowes from the nature and condition of the act which is per se an occasion either of sin to your selves or but of a scandal tending to sin unto others it worthily requires and will regularly warrant your abstinance from such an act especially in the affairs of instituted worship whereof God hath expressed the greatest jealousie 1 Thes 5.22 Jude 23. Exo 20.5,6 34.14 1 This is fitly instanced against by the Apostles in his resolves upon the case touching meats offered to idols Christians might not eat of them in the idols example nor with idolaters in their religious feasts for this was an appearance of idolatry flowing from the nature of the action and was scandalous per se tending to the countenance of the idol to the confirming of the idolater to the corrupting of the infirm Christian to communicate herein against his conscience And therefore they must not comply in the case as ever they would have communion with Christ 1 Cor. 8.10 c. 10 20,21,22,28 But they might eat of the same numerical meats when they were bought in the shambles or brought forth at a private civil feast without scruple of conscience as far as concerned themselves 1 Cor. 10.25,26,27 2 This is formally interdicted you in all the lawes that inhibit scandal or laying a stumbling block in your brothers way 2 Cor. 6.3 Rom. 14. and 15. 1 Cor. 8. and 10. For in this case you actively concur to or give the scandal which the others take Whose rule is to give no offence neither to the Jews nor to the Gentiles nor to the Church of God verse 32. 3 You shall virtually incur the breach of that Commandment which forbids the evil and idolatrous it self For the same command which prohibits you any sinful act according to the comprehensive intent and import thereof which is exceeding broad forbids the several causes occasions incentives and provocations thereunto together with the shews and appearances thereof as is agreed by Expositors of the Commandments and is warranted by the explication of Christ himself in his Sermon on the mount Psal 119 96. Deut. 12.30,31,32 Math. 5 12-29 And I hope you do not think the transgression or terrors of the second Commandment small to which the sin of idolatry appertaineth and above which above all other God hath hung a fiery flaming sword which turns every way to keep the purity of his instituted worship It may not be expected that I should exhibit a bill of particulars upon this case wherein we may not semblably conform to the idolatrous Papists or wherein neither we nor they may symbolize or correspond in worship with the idolatrous Pagans For this consists not with my design of brevity I should onely adde three things 1 There may be no act carrying an apparent semblance of any evil or idolatrous worship done by us God chargeth his people that they shall not herein do like the idolatrous heathens that were round about them 2 Kings 17.15 How memorable and invitable to this purpose are the instances of Eleazar and Auxentius Who though they might preserve their own lives and liberties by such an appearance of conformity dare not by such hypocrites stain their holy profession scandal ze other professors or strengthen the hands of persecutors by such acts as these The one by setting the branch of a vine-tree loaden with Clusters at the feet of Bacchus his image the other by using his own provision which was lawful for him to eat and but make as if he did eat of the flesh of the sacrifice commanded by the King 2. Mac 6.18 ad finem 2 There may be no allowance of any evil or idolatrous act of worship done to or for us which were to partake of this sin if consent to sin whether antecedent or subsequent gives us as it doth communion therein Psa 50.18 Lev. 19.17 and so we have fellowship with an unfruitful work of darkness which we are faithfully to reprove contrary to 1 Tim. 5.22 Eph. 5.11 The signal zeal of Valentinian afterwards Emperor I may not pass by in this particular who when the Priests had besprinkled him with their Paganish holy water as he passed before Julian into the Temple of Fortune broke off those parts of his garment on which this water fell and burnt with just indignation against the Priest himself also 3 Such appearances seem not allowable neither when we do such an overt action and yet declare other aimes and intentions so long as there is no consistence between the acts done and aimes declared In this case I know not how to acquit the agents from the guilt of hypocrisie who as to this seem but too like Ephraim and Laodicea to be a cake not turned nor raw nor roasted nor hot nor cold in religion a temper which of all others God most nauseateth Hos 5.8 Rev. 3.15,16 And their sin seemeth though somewhat below yet not much unlike theirs who swore by the Lord and by Malcham and feared the Lord and worshipped their graven images Zeph. 1.5 2 Kings 17.33,41 I may not omit that of Origen who though he delivered the palme to those that offered it to the image of Serapis with this declaration of himself come and receive the boughs not of the image but of Christ was yet censured for a worshipper of that idol 1 Such covert appearances of idolatry and evil are manifestly dishonorable to God and the religion you acknowledge as if he and it were not worth an open acknowledgement or overt adventure 2 Disproportionate to the relations which ye have assumed and avouch to stand in toward God in Christ as if he were such a Master King Father Husband or his were such Servants Subjects Sons Spouse as might well be either ashamed or afraid of owning his laws observing his limits of living up to his ordinances and of leaving on or trusting to his omnipotence 3 Hence it cannot be but of dangerous sequel to your selves For God will not be mocked Will ye provoke the Lord to jealousie Are ye stronger then he Gal. 6 7. 1 Cor 10.22 4 And of diffusive scandal to others While the adversaries of truth are thereby obdurate in their bloody cruelty and take occasion to blaspheme and speak the more reproachfully And while the assured friends of truth are generally either defiled or displeased drawn over to sin with you or
frequently to the test and to the tormentors They loved not their lives to the death their liberties to bands and suffered joyfully the spoyling of their goods Rev. 12.11 Act. 20.23,24 Hebr. 10.34 What mean these subterfuges and shifting fetches that shyness and straitning fear which so hold or oppress you Come shew your selves men if not Saints Yea be followers of them who through faith and patience do inherit the promises Hebr. 6.12 III. Look you to what is past of your own selves Remember that time when you were without Christ Oh! How long How long did ye outstand his calls oppose his commands cause and concerns in the world oppress your own Spirits and offend his holy Spirit Brethren should not the time past suffice you should you not study to repair his honor and right holiness as much as in you lieth 1 Pet 4.1 Rom. 6 19. If you are indeed in Christ let your strict confessions now make some amends for your loose conversations then Though you cannot intrinsecally repair his honor you may and should extrinsecally Paul was not so eminent a persecutor but he willingly becomes as eminent a professor when the power of transforming grace hath once past upon him He had lived more adversly to Christ then all before his conversion and labors more abundantly for Christ then they all after his conversion 1 Cor. 1.5 9,10 4. § Fourthly look you forward Oh! how will the confession of Christ be reciprocated and rewarded How will the contrary thereunto be reciprocated and revenged I. First How will your confession of Christ be reciprocated and rewarded confesse him and he will confesse you confesse him on earth and he will confesse you in heaven confesse him before men in your day end he will confesse you before men before Angels and before his father in his day Mat. 10.32 Rev. 3.5 Luke 12.8 Plead his cause and he will plead yours vindicate His Name and he will vindicate Yours contend for him and he will contend for you and contend against them that contend against you Psal 35.51 Lam. 3.58 Isa 49.25 51.22 Sirs how would you that Christ should carry it towards you when he cometh in his glory Would you be cleared and confessed by him then would you that he acquit acknowledg and approve you then As ever you would be found on his side then with the glorified comprehensors in patriâ fall in with his side now amongst the gracious Confessors in viâ II. Secondly how will the contrary be reciprocated and revenged Deny him and he will deny you deny him before men on earth and he will deny you before the Angels of God and before his Father in heaven 2 Tim. 2.12 Mat. 10.33 Luke 12.9 Are you ashamed of him he also will be ashamed of you If you are ashamed of him and his words in this adulterous and sinful generation he also will be ashamed of you when he cometh in his own glory and in his Fathers and in the holy Angels Mark 8.38 Luke 9.26 He will admit no claim of theirs to him then who will not assert his claime to them now but will abandon them for ever with an I never knew you Mat. 7.22,23 Luke 13.27 5. § Fifthly look you inward I. First for this are all those holy principles from God imparted to you and his holy and pure Law imprinted within you Psalm 40.8,9,10 There is not one talent but is to trade with Holy faith hope love c. are all for exercise and imployment and so for evidence to the praise and honour of the giver though not for popular ostentation by the user All the fruits of righteousness are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God Phil. 1.11 True grace is compared to light to fire c. which are not only communicative of their vertues but carry a self-evidence Love and faith are not without their evident works and labour and become effectual by the acknowledging every good thing Rom. 13.12 Psal 39.3 1 Thes 1.3 Philem. 5.6 Can you then believe in Christ with your hearts and not confesse Christ with your mouths These two are connexed Rom. 10.9,10 Can there be hope in you and you abide wholly carelesse to render a reason of it when thereunto required and the object of your hope will be thereby also honoured 1 Pet. 3.15 II. Secondly upon this the holy presence and inhabitation of God is insured to you Whosoever shall believe and confesse that Jesus is the Son of God God dwelleth in him and he in God 1 John 4.15 O sweet promise O the signal priviledge of sincere professors God and the godly confessour have a mutual cohabitation with one another a mutual inhabitation in one another Every new act of your holy confession will be a new advance in this happy communion Now ordinarily is the most soul enriching intercourse with God and the most soul-ravishing illapses from God even to joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1.6,7,8 Now it was that Stephen saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God And that he said to others Behold I see the heavens opened c. Now when the showers of stones like a storm of haile fell upon this holy Confessour who was yet full of the holy Ghost and of power Act. 7.55,56 III. Thirdly to this all those holy relations whereinto you are called ingage you You are his subjects his servants nay his friends his brethren his bride Who should witnesse to and for him if you do not You are my witnesses saith the Lord Is 43.10 Sirs you are neerest related to him of all the world May I not say to you in the words of Pilate Behold your King Treason of the deepest dye to say with those wicked Jews Away with him away with him and crucifie him rather then adventure to confesse him Iohn 19.14,15 Behold your master your friend that calls you not henceforth servants i. e. comparatively not so much servants as friends for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doth But saith he I have called you friends John 15.15 What! and yet loath to confesse him Where is the loyalty of a servant Where is the love and ingenuity of a friend Behold your elder brother one that is not ashamed to call you brethren though lifted up to the throne far above all principality and power Heb. 2.11,12 And are you ashamed to call him brother that yet lie upon the dung-hill In short Behold your beloved husband you are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones This is a great mystery How should your thoughts be taken up in expatiating touching his honour and your happinesse How should your tongues be tuned to the imblazoning of his excellencies How should you tell every one that asketh you in the language of the spouse Cant. 5.9 ad finem He is the chiefest among ten thousand he is altogether lovely This is my beloved and this is my friend O ye daughters of
but enjoyned it Prov. 26.4,9 7.8 Answ 3. When the ends of confessing Christ cannot manifestly be promoted by it or attained by us For all means are in order to the end for which they are ordained and our obligation to the means is for obtaining of the end The end indeed is desirable and to be intended for it self but the election and use of means is not for themselves but for the sake of the end to which they are referred What these ends are is afore said In these cases then we are priviledged from an open oral confession of Christ 1 If the glory of God our Savior will be visibly rather hindred then helped by it All the lines of subordinate ends and means must center in this which is the supream end of man If the juncture of circumstances be such as this means will now rather cross than conduce to this end we are then exempted Thus Esther conceals both her relations and religion in her recess at Shushan the pallace according to the charge of Mordecai while her confession would manifestly obstruct her honorable preferment to the kings bosom and her hopes thereupon of promoting the blessed interest of the King of kings But when a door is once open after her espousal to him of glorifying God in retrieving the bloody decree of Haman and rescuing his people out of this destroying hand she openly avoucheth both her people and profession Esth 2.10 7.3,4 2 If the Gospel of Grace will be visibly rather harmed than advanced by this open confession of Christ the present circumstances of time considered For we may do nothing in direct prejudice of the Gospel 2 Cor. 13.8 Thus our Savior did often prohibit the publication of his miraculous and signal Cures unto his Patience especially in the first entrance of his Ministery lest it might not onely be interpreted a study of popularity in him but intercept the surer passage of the Gospel among his as it sometimes did upon their immature and imprudent promulgation of them Mark 1.44,45 7.36 Matth. 8 4. 9.30 3 If the good of souls in the glory of himself will be visibly rather hazarded than attained by it When with whom private endeavors will best promote these ends we may and must be private Our precious Lord hath commended privacies of this kind by his own unquestioned example Luk 9 10,11 10 23. As hath Paul also by his who tells his Galatians I communicated the Gospel privately to them which were of reputation lest by any means I should run or had run in vain Gal. 2 2. And chargeth us to keep our perswasions in indifferencies private when and as often as our brethren will be stumbled or offended or made weak by our unreasonable practices or profession in such matters adiaphorous Hast thou faith have it to thy self before God Rom. 14.21,22 Propos 6. If you would know whether at this or that particular time such an open and observed Confession of Christ is due from you you must consider the ends of this Confession and whether it will now conduce or not unto and promote these ends For means receive their value from their end All means are for their end and the end is not attained but by the means Nature it self doth plainly dictate your obligation to the use of meanes when wherein and as often as you may thereby lawfully obtain the end Would you then know whether you are now called according to your several capacities to such a solemn Confession of Christ You have these serious Questions to ask of and answer in your own consciences 1 Will God be most magnified by my present open confession in the present circumstances I am in Speak Consciences and spare not whether of publick Officers in Church or Commonwealth or of those that are in a more private orb This is the highest ultimaie end and therefore infers the highest and indispensable ingagements to the use of all appointed means and then especially and most eminently when the attainment of this end by them is obvious to your own sense and conscience Is not this your end Or is not confession of Christ a means of divine impression in order to it Doth not Conscience dictate the present usefulness of this means in order to that end Now if ever then Let every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father Phil 2.11 Rom. 14 11. Who may dare to be mute when the Lord is to be magnified especially of such as call him Master Whose confession should not be manifest when Christ shall be thereby magnified though it should cost life it self especially if you are Christs Ministers Ps 35.27,28 Mal 1 6. Phil 1.20 Nay let all such us love thy salvation say continually the Lord be magnified Psal 40.16 70.4 2 Will the Gospel be best maintained by my present publick confession in the present circumstances I am in Let Conscience be plainly heard out by all Magistrates by all Ministers and members of Christ who lay claim to the everlasting Gospel Oh! the great goodness that the Gospel hath declared and done to for you what have you declared or done or yet will declare or do for the Gospel What should not be done or suffered for the Gospels sake that it be not hindred much more that it may be encreased Gal. 2.5 1 Cor. 9.12,13 2 Cor. 10.15 Must we not all pray that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified then surely we must according to our place and calling do our best and most to promote it and may not be ashamed to confess and plead for it 1 Thes 3.1 Rom. 1.16 Yea rather then part with it or not profess the Gospel when you may thereby promote it You must be partakers of the afflictions of the Gospel according to the power of God and not be ashamed of the testimony of the Lord nor of such as are his prisoners 2 Tim. 1.8 3 Will the good of souls be best ministred unto by my present Confession in the present circumstances I am in Let the witness of Conscience be attended especially by you that watch for or have the charge of souls and inspection of Consciences No man should seek his own onely but every one anothers welfare May ye not hide your selves in whatsoever concerns your neighbors estates but help them even to their straying brutes 1 Cor. 10.24 Deut. 22.1 to 6. Exod. 23.4,5 Much less may you hide your selves in what concerns their souls the best part and of abiding perfection but should study to your utmost to promote their eternal salvation Jude ver 23. Rom. 11.14 Ah Sirs who should be silent when souls lye at stake and he may both save himself and them that hear him by the same act 1 Cor 9.22 Rom. 10.1 1 Tim. 4.16 Is your present Confession likely to bring in souls to Christ Oh happy work both to us and him and an high piece of wisdom