that that Doctrine is made known to men by the light of nature consequentially and by way of deduction though not originally ingrafted I make no doubt and that these two ways 1. By that obligation to forgive planted in humane nature and the inclinableness of generous minds to it as an Excellency and Glory of Humane Nature and therefore it is most attributable to God seeing all perfection derives from God and is most attributable to him To the Lord Dan. 9. 9. our God belong mercies and forgivenesses He hath declared to man it does so by inserting it as a Nobleness in his heart They therefore that do not esteem it a virtue and of most desirable practise in themselves may upon that very reason dispair of it from God seeing they count it wiser and better not to forgive and whatever is best and wisest is most attributable to God 2. By the patience of God towards sinners which in its most natural Inferences leads to repentance and is salvation Rom. 2. 4 5. 2 Pet. 3. 9. Infinite goodness not being willing that any should perish but all come to repentance and therefore that penitential frame discoverable in humane nature upon ingenuous sense of sin answers this patience of God as the Eye and light as the Ear and sound do one another and both together are a connate Gospel in mans soul If any should think this a derogation from the Mediator he will be satisfied I intend no such when I tell him I esteem all those notions of Natural Religion and Morality as continued to be planted in man are from Jesus Christ the Creator-Redeemer by whom every thing was made that is made who is that true light that is the light of men the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world Natural Religion therefore may well be inlaid John 1. 4 9. with Evangelical Lines since it is all from Christ The Apostles therefore both St. Paul and Peter discourse it as the great sin of men against natural Knowledg and Conscience not to know that the goodness of God leadeth to repentance to despise the riches of his long-suffering and forbearance to account it slackness and not salvation which could not be without the grace of God in a pardon made known by natural light nay indeed all impressions of Natural Religion continuing and moving to good actions after sin are built upon Gods pardoning Mercy because God allows receives no worship from Devils who find no place for repentance David therefore celebrates God thus There is forgiveness Psal 103. 4. with thee that thou mayest be feared that is honoured reverenced worshiped and served which could not be since mans sin if thou didst not forgive Thus evident is the Doctrine of Pardon and Repentance that if there be any such thing as Natural Religion since the fall that must be a noble branch of it The King of Nineveh had a confidence in this Mercy that so peremptory decree of destruction notwithstanding for the allowance Jonah 3. ult of them a quarentine or forty days patience carried a solemn promise of Pardon upon Repentance in the very nature of it else why was not the destruction immediate so he understood and so it proved and therefore it is a worthy part of religious publick discourse in the worship of God 2. The second duty of Natural Religion is prayer to God which our dependance upon God our expectation from him both for the holy and happy state of our minds in vertue and godliness challenges from us the recommendation of our state beyond death into the hand of God as a faithful Creator requires it of us the peaceable and prosperous order and government of the world and of our nearer concerns in it National Domestick Personal provoke us to it Prayer for pardon and reconciliation to God Vows of obedience to him of returns to him by repentance how necessary are they for upon supposition of sin and hopes of pardon the same considerations enter into prayer that do into discourses of God Now this is a duty so natural that not to pray is to restrain John 15. 4. prayer to shut up and imprison a most natural motion and vent of the soul that is ready forcibly to burst out as water consin'd within bounds too close for it David makes addresses to God as by one of his Attributes Oh thou Psal 65. 2. that hearest prayers and therefore hast an universal congregation of suppliants about thee to thee shall all flesh come 3. Praises of God in the divine excellencies of his Nature and Beeing in the glories of Creation and Providence in his Mercies and continual Beneficencies to our selves and all his creatures in his righteousness judgments and severities upon the wickedness that is in the world are a tribute to God so natural that God as our Maker gives all men songs in the night that is continual matter of praise even in the ordinary and extraordinary seasons the whole Creation is one Mouth opened in his glory This is so due and even necessary to be paid that some Naturalists of no great reputation for Devotion have upon the survey of the admirable works of God found his praises even bubbling up from them in Hymns of Praise 4. The holy and reverend mentions of God upon all just and valuable Reasons as in swearing by his Name in Covenants and Pacts in decision of controversies by testimony in asseverations of truth in promises are among the Decrees of this Natural Religion Lastly The universal Sanctification of the Divine Majesty in all our thoughts words and actions that in nothing we may reverse that acknowledgment we make in solemn duties who that calls God the bâ—st and greatest Names of Love and Awe in the highest dâ—grees as Heathens did by the force of Natural Religion can deny or keep back any part of these from God or if any denies them or does contrary to them by impious swearing blaspheming the Name of God or undervalues the awful and tremendous attributes or what evidently and undoubtedly pertains to the Divine Honour and Glory who can say severity upon him is cruelty but a due sacrifice to justice as punishments for blood rapine unnatural lusts are All these then are so plain and evident Duties that they need nothing of further discourse but only a sober reflection upon their own evidence in order to their prevalency in the understanding of men And for the manner of performance besides the very gravity required in such awful actions the prudence of rational nature in its solemn deportments the greatest condecency required to divine things that can arise from nature and not from artifice I know nothing to be added except a caution to rest here and not to suffer the transports and inchantments of a fleshly imagination that is endlesly spinning out it self in forms and modes of divine worship till that worship become not a piece of pageantry only for that were
wholly out of the childishness of Ceremonies or Opinions 2. The weaker Christians whom the Apostle very gently and tacitely signifies by those that do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that are under some abatement from this perfection of judgment they have somewhat of reverence for those Rites formerly of Divine Appointment though they sincerely too value Christ above all even as the perfect To the First the Apostle advises Let us wholly and intirely mind the same thing so many of us as are perfect we have nothing else to do we have nothing in the least to take us off To the Second he allows First All the Tolleration of Charity till and confidently foretells God will reveal even this to them viz. not only the supreme excellency of Christianity but the total uselesness and utter abolition of those Ceremonies But in the Second place he presses them on so far as they had attained viz. to a sense of the incomparable excellency of the knowledg of Christ to a conformity in his Death and Resurrection and that they would walk by that one Rule that they would adjust all their Actions and Motions with the perfect Christian and mind that same thing though they cannot lay aside all regard to other things immediately of that lower Rate Here then is the Christians Rule of governing himself as a Christian and it brings forth certain Peace 1. The absolute and inexceptionable Rule to every one that is a True Christian to have a supreme value for the eminency of the knowledg of Christ to know him and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings to be made conformable to his Death to forget things behind and to press forward for the prize If any man hath not attained this Rule he is either no Christian or under the disguise of one if he be an Vndertaker an Imposer a Master in Christianity such as the Apostle here so dreadfully brands an evil worker a designer against Christ Here is the one same Rule by which all Christians are to walk here is the one thing they are all to mind Here is no allowance no tolleration here it is they are all to be so serious of such excellent Spirits to have such a value one of another as to be able to center in Universal Love and Peace upon this point 2. Every perfect man is not to take in any thing of a lower kind of a forreign extract into so Divine and Heavenly a Religion that he may wholly and without any allocation to any thing else mind this same thing This makes him a more wise a more perfect manly and full ag'd Christian more Spiritual and Divine and more fitted to keep the Vnity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace The overowning any way party or person takes off so from the Excellency of a Christian as to render him Carnal and Childish I could not saith the Apostle speak to you but as unto carnal as unto babes in Christ you are so 1 Cor. 1. 12. over-zealous for men and make Christ himself as if he were but the Head of a Party And this brings forth Strife Envy and Division as he tells those Corinths 1 Cor. 3. 1. 3. If any man be under such disadvantage as to have taken such assumenta such additionals to his Christianity he being right in the main Rule of the supreme value of Christ in his Death and Resurrection he is to be supported in his infirmity by all the kindness and condescension of stronger Christians in expectation of Gods timely Revelation Rom. 15. 1. but so as to be press'd on to walk up and bear aloft to that Rule whereunto he hath attained to mind that one thing and so to wear out that mistaken esteem for any thing not deserving it And this is most necessary in order to Peace seeing such infirmities are natural to this low state even of Christians in this world Wherein they that are scrupulous must take heed of judging the wiser as disorderly irregular and almost prophane if they do not observe their Rites and the stronger ought as carefully to preserve themselves from despising the scrupulous as fond superstitionists because they can't neglect them So the Apostle discourses Rom. 14. Yet so that these somewhat otherwise minded be of the same mind and rule in the main else they can neither have peace in themselves nor yeild it to the higher Christians nor grow up to the stature of full ag'd men in Christ This also is to be added as observable that the case of the weakness of the first Chrâ—â—tians can never recur exactly for those Ceremonies being of Divine Institution had just claim to an awe upon Consciences not as yet clear in their repeal whereas all later Rites can pretend no higher than humane institution custome or venerable antiquity for the suspition of Apostolick Institution in their behalf and so adding Religion to them I look upon as much weaker and worse seeing we have no Authentick Records of such Institutions and in things of so dilute a goodness as Ceremonies must be there will not be a ballance to the opposite danger of leaning a Religious weight upon a broken Reed that both pierces and deceives But it may be said Is not the scrupulous forbearing the being scar'd and terrified at Ceremonies as great a weakness as being over anxious in their observation Does not the placing a point of Religion in an abhorrence of them and thinking ones self the better for not using them detract as much from minding this same thing and walking by the same Rule as the other side solicitude No doubt it does if we justly explain and limit in the case and therefore for the resolving this question I will observe the importance of this same Rule given us by the Apostle in another of his Epistles a place very parallel to the sense and much of the same expression with this to the Philippians the right explication of which will also much confirm the exposition given of this Rule seeing as I said they are both one and the same Rule and it is that we find Gal. 6. 14 15 16. God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified to me and I to the world For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature And as many as walk according to this rule peace be on them and mercy and upon the Israel of God Here is the Joy and Glory of Christianity in the Doctrine of Christ dying for sinners and bringing in that Divinest Religion upon it â—ere is a conformity to his Death by which all worldly sensual and fleshly Glory whether in fleshly Religion or fleshly Life which minister one to another is crucifyed to a Christian and he to it But most especially the Apostle levels here against a fleshly Religion observing the enemies of Christianity so active instead of a
with the Reason of Philosophers and wiser Poets in what they said well and wisely as that we are Gods offspring Acts 17. 28. A wise Christian does not deprive himself in his private Freedoms of true Reason or Christian sense though he culls it out of much dross nor of the benefits of Christian worship where he may find Good if the worship be not so corrupted that one cannot be separate from the other There 's a general Charity and Tolleration must be of humane infirmity in the best administration of it by men for there is a charge of our Folly upon all our appearances before God visible not only to God who charges his Angels with it but to our selves so that if Angels hide their faces much more those whose houses are of clay and their foundation in the dust Yet there are advantages of Edification that are indeed to be had for which we are accountable to God and so our withdrawing our selves without just Cause and the degrees of our withdrawing shall be accounted Schism But of this and what may be objected in these cases more may be spoken under the next Head If any man indeed from want of Love and with a design to divide scatters and sows Opinions or causes Divisions is an Enginere of Division Such a man hath the true Spirit of Schism and is to be mark'd and avoided Rom. 16. 17. But there may be dissents there may be dislikes in many cases and yet no Schism no cutting off no more than of a Member in the Body that is weak or deformed or wounded or it may be none of these but for ease or conveniency would posture it self somewhat differently from the rest But still in all cases there must be a care for the body and he that withdraws is in danger and that for the withdrawing not for the different apprehensions Men may withdraw in some points of outward Communion we see they may locally separate on occasion they may deny to conform to what they think amiss as one Member is not bound to deform or wound it self that it may be Uniform with another that is so wounded or deformed There may be very different Motions and ordering the several Members on sundry accounts yet no Schism No man can say then I will not be of such a Body of Christians for such an Opinion for such a form of worship or because they will not so conform when All are the Body of Christ and Members in particular It may be said Are these not of the Body therefore or those not of the Body therefore because in some thing they differ when both parts hold the Head and are Members according to the Laws of the Head What can be said against it but that the Laws of men interposing or the Laws of particular Churches interceeding make a difference betwixt the case of Christians now and in the times in which the Apostles writ and that now such variations from the Obedience and Conformity required by those Laws become Schismatical meerly for the Disobedience sake which shall be presum'd proof sufficient of the want of love and care for the Body and not the want of Love constitute the Schism so that wherever the disagreement in Judgment is there shall be the Schism sure enough whatever the Love and the Indications of it are in all other signs tokens and effects of it But if there be the desired Conformity all the Hatred Emulation Strife and Envy against the contrary side shall be canoniz'd and not reputed Schism and the senslesness or even disaffection to the general Interests of Christianity shall never be considered But shall the Laws of men thus make obsolete the Laws of Christ It is not any Law nor an Offence against any Law but the Law of Christ nor against every Law of Christ but the Laws concerning the Unity of his Body that can make a Schism nor does a Congregation or a Multitude determine where the Schism lyes when there is a difference or a Division among Christians For as one man holding the substantials of Christianity is more a Church than a Community erring in those Fundamentals so is one Christian full of the Love of the Body of Christ most willing to do and receive good more truly of the Body than Associations fill'd with Anger Wrath Clamor and the Spirit of Indignation without Mercy without Compassion who are indeed in their Union more Schismatical than the humble solitary Christian that cannot run with this stream For these things are not carried nor determined by number but by true weight and worth as one wise man is more a Senate than a Convention of foolish and unknowing men By all this that hath been spoken it may be determined what Answer is to be given to that Question whether the Church of Rome as it is call'd be a true Church to which the Answer I should give would be plainly this It is no otherwise so than a married woman that is an Adulteress is a true Wife I say not a true Woman for the importance of Woman is more Physical and so in this case more ambiguous the sense of wife more befitting the moral and mystical sense of Church and the one not made use of by the Scripture in these cases the other constantly call'd for to represent the true or false Church But to keep more close to what we have been upon let me put the question thus Whether the Church of Rome be a part of this one Body of Christ And it is most evident if we look upon it as such an Incorporation such a Body as it is in and by it self it is not it cannot be other than a Synagogue of Satan For so it is a Body consolidated upon other points of Union than the Body of Christ is for though it takes in them yet it adds foreign and aliene of its own and those very many and such as destroy if not all yet some of the principal by such a deep corruption of them changes them so that they cannot be known to be the true ones or alike precious Fundamentals laid by Christ Jesus and his Apostles It is a Body animated with another spirit the very spirit of Antichrist a spirit of blood and cruelty against all that keep to the true measures of the Temple and Altar of Revel 11. 1. God and his true worship therein The Body of that false Church hath its fabrick put together and united not by that faith at once and once for all given to the Saints but by successive and growing Tradidition Jud. 3. And then the spirit of it persecutes out of all the common priviledges of Humanity so far as it can not to buy nor Rev. 13. 17 18. sell those that will not receive that mark of it self its name and the number of it viz. that false Christianity that forsaking the stable four-square of the true body of Christ the Revel 21. 14 16 17. square-roots of
whether a strict Conformity upon Reasons in Government best understood by Governours themselves or a compassionate Indulgence most acceptable to Christianity Rule 3. They that without the violation of the true and substantial Rules of Religion can most see and use their liberty in these things and thereby become instruments of the greatest publique good are most acceptable to God They that do not Tythe the Mint and Cummin of Indifferent Things in National Religion and Worship with great noise and zeal for that is the greatest injury can be done to it but take them so far as they are instruments of Peace and use them in their own Indifferency for the greatest service to the publique They that insisting with any stress upon main things only are most earnest in turning many to righteousness These are they that shall shine as Stars in the Nations Firmament if not now assuredly in Eternity They that take advantage of the National profession to call sinners to repentance cause greater joy in Heaven than they that only think to secure themselves with the purer Societies Sure in this case God chooses mercy in seeking and saving them that are lost rather than sacrificing alone by our selves without regard to such Christ chose rather to converse with Publicans and Sinners than what look'd lâ—ke purer Society because he came to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance For the case was much different between the scandalous of the Jewish National Church with which our Saviour conversed and so of every National Church from the Churches gathered newly from among the Heathen of whom the Apostle speaks though even among them we read of no Separation from Religious Duties but only from private converse among those that were scandalous till they were as publickly disowned as they ought to be by Church Censures But on the other side they are least in the Kingdom of Heaven and the National Religion whether Rulers or People that dispirit Religion by an immoderate heat for meer Forms that are so warmly concern'd for Indifferencies to give reason to suspect they are a principal part in their esteem of their own or the National Religion Whereas such things so far as they may be any way contributary to good are best observed with greatest silence and least cry being rather to be first so far prepared to acceptance and use that there may be no noise of Axes Hammers or Tools of force or compulsion about them Rule 4. In all Religious Duties and the management or administration of them there are different excellencies like the Psalms of Degrees or those parts of a Psalm honoured with the Notes of Elevation There will and may be different Keys of Affection according to the differing hands playing upon us The People hung upon Christ to hear the Word of God for he tauâ—ht them with Authority and not as the Scribes yet they were â—â—â—nd by Christ to hear the Scribes Even thus in the National 〈◊〉 and Administrations we may undoubtedly more warmly adhere to and pursue the things that are more excellent and with a lighter touch pass over things of less moment though in all we mind the glory of God and the peace of National Religion For Union in National Religion must be primarily and chiefly in things truly called Religion and in lesser things with a regard to peace only David was otherwise affected in praise than in sacrificing a Bullock with Horns and Hoofs seeing as he says it pleased God more yet in the fear of God he did both The Apostle was otherwise affected in the Preaching of Christ than when he became as a Jew to the Jews yet he did the latter Religiously too The higher and closer the Ministry of Divine Truth and Service is the greater and closer the adherence of the Soul ought to bee Some things we ought to do with our might and only not to leave others undone Rule 5. We ought to have a steady and certain Gage within our selves of what our Lord hath provided for the preserving the truth of Religion to us and what care he hath taken so far as is possible with the conservation of that Truth to give us all advantage for publickness in Religion As to the truth of Religion these three provisions will secure it 1. That no man is so much bound to any Church Communion Nation or Government as to the true Religion which is the first and absolute necessary nor shall his withdrawing from any of them in things impure and offensive to God be charged upon him as sin or Schism All the putting out of Synagogues casting out Names or Excommunications signifie not any thing where God and Christ are in communion and where those on whom they fall are of the general Assembly and Church of the First born of that truly Catholick Church which is the only necessary Church to be of that we may be saved 2. The privatest Assemblies yea even single Souls so retiring that they may worship God according to his word have the promise that God and Christ will make their abode with them come and sup with them and they with him and they shall be written in the writing of Gods people The Catholick Church is always provided for them that they may not be out of the best Society under Heaven The Apostle encouraged the Hebrew Christians that might think them selves divided from the Jews that had been the only Church of God by assuring them the Gospel brought them into a greater Church than that viz. the General Assembly and Church of the First-born written in Heaven This honour have all the Saints of Christ 3. All the evils that can be endured upon account of Christ and obedience to him will be abundantly recompenced by the saving of the soul and that better and truer life That Argument of our Saviour He that loses his life saves it and he that saves it loses it And what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and loses his own soul or what shall he give in exchange for his soul stands always impregnable that a man should buy the truth and not sell it at any rate whatever Thus for the Truth of Religion 2. As to the Publickness of Religion there are these great advantages for it 1. That Christian Religion professes Love endeavour of Good and Salvation to all men to every Creature and hath antiquated all that Judaism that neglects any for their profit to Salvation though but Gentiles 2. That a man may join his Religious Services to any thing truly good in Natural or Revealed Religion whether of Families Neighbourhoods Cities Nations or of voluntary Societies stopping there and keeping himself free from other mens sins so that the evil that other men adjoin to any thing true and good in Religion being protested against and divided from does not corrupt what is good or true but it may be enjoyed in the most publick way while we have nothing to do with the