after the long night of Popery Unlearned and barbarous times are noted among the causes of depraving Religion with multiplied Superstitious absurdities and deformities Indeed that great Mystery of Iniquity the Romish Synagogue is favoured by many wise and learned Ones but the interest of great Power and Wealth and other carnal alâ—urements ingage them to uphold that Babel and so to detain the Truth of God in their own â—nrighteousness The Papal Kingdom of darkness hath amply provided for an eminent measure of Learning in their Superior Clergy and certain religious Orders designed for Theological controversies and the propagation of the Roman â—aith being necessitated thereunto by the learnedness of the present Age. But for the vulgar Priests who dayly converse with the common People that are ignorant and unlearned it matters not how little Knowledge they have and the Grandees care not that they should be conversant in learned Books no not in their own Bellarmine As for the Laity t is a Principle in that Church that Ignorance is the mother of Devotion A corrupt Ecclesiastical State upheld for worldly ends hath no reason to desire the advancement of Learning any further than is requisite to defend it selâ— against learned Adversaries and to hold the Vulgar in admiration of it It would havâ— the People wholly to trust their Teachers and it is not well relished when learned Gentle men of the Laity are exact and studious iâ— Theological inquiries The supports and rewards of Learning may be so inordinately apportioned and confeâ—… red as to exalt boundless ambition and avariâ—… in some and to nourish a dronish idleness and Epicurism in others and to cast the residueâ—… and those the greatest number into ignorancâ— beggary baseness and superfluity of naughtâ—… ness Such a disposition of things besides thâ—… ruine of Religion would in the ruines thereâ—… bury Learning it self as it hath done in for mer Ages if the industry of some were nâ—… kept waking by the increase of Knowledge aâ—… mong another sort of Men. But whatsoeveâ— abuse corrupts that which in it self is excellent the supports of Learning are always necessary in the true Church and to settle a way for a perpetual succession of wise and learned Guides of the Flock in this intire and sound state of Religion is to build the same on a Rock The spirit of this Profession being sober solid and serious is happy in disposing towards the attainment of much Perfection in all profitable science and especially towards that which is most excellent and usefull in human affairs to wit solid and deep judgement In this respect the Children of true Wisdom stand upon the vantage ground and the scope of their business directs them to excell in the more substantial part of Learning which perfects reason and falls in with practice and makes them able effectually to converse with Men both in Religious and Civil matters These do not spend their days in a cloyster living to themselves alone but are seasonably called forth to sacred or civil Functions and so by Study in conjunction with practice and experience they become more perfect in Science The same â—ntents and purposes direct them to understand the end and use of their acquisitions and to have their Learning at command and maâ—ageable for present business CHAP. XXI The general civility or common honesty of a Nation makes it more generally receptive of real Christianity or Godliness REligion having considerateness and soberness in its nature hath great advantage by the sober and serious temper of a Nation City or Country where its advancement and propagation is designed Civility is a good preparative to Piety and experience witnesseth that among the serious temperate sort of People and in the most civilized places Religion takes best and that it takes least in those places where debauchery and Sensuality raign in those of the higher rank and a Heathen-like rudeness and stupidity seiseth the common multitude Wherefore that sort of Men whose spirit or interest leads them to uphold a corrupt and carnal Church-state seek to gratifie the most sensual and vicious part of a Nation because they cannot so easily gain the considerate and soberminded who are more inquisitive into the principles and practices of different Parties and look more than others into the inside of mens Devotions A Nation may be generally brought to civil conversation and the external part of Religion For the restraining of filthy lewdness gross excesses and rudeness best comports with the health of the Body the security of the estate and the quietness of the mind Therefore when it is in use it is no burden but an ease even to unregenerate Nature and so may pass generally among a People Likewise natural Men being convinced and awakened will easily observe Religious duties so far as the peace of the natural Conscience doth require The Conversation of the Pious is exemplary and of great authority especially when their strictness and seriousness is tempered with the amiable vertues of Meekness and Moderation By this they may do much towards the civilizing of those that live about them and to conciliate the minds of Men towards them and bring them to good thoughts of Religion But the harshness of some rigid honest Men may exasperate and beget hatred in some whom condescension and sweetness of conversation might have gained or at least molâ—ified Likewise by a discreet and seasonable use of christian liberty in the temperate injoyments of outward comforts in harmless Recreations and sober cheerfulness in honest Company the Religious may bring over others to a friendly converse with them and may be a means to keep them from the more gross and scandalous Pollutions of the world Yet as they ought to shun an excessive reservedness and austerity so they must take heed of too great compliance with others in carnal liberty upon pretence of a friendly converse with them They may not spend their time in recreations fruitless visits merry meetings and the like exercises wherein there is enough of idleness and vanity even when there is nothing of dissoluteness or gross immorallity For by such a trade of life they would lose themselves in a sober kind of Epicurism or Sensuality under a form of Godliness and they would harden others in their loose walking or make them think that Professors are but as other men except in a name and outward Form Wherefore they may be sociable no otherwise than that it may appear they make Religion their business and walk circumspectly and redeem their time from vanity for the serious Duties of their general and particular callings It may be further noted that whatsoever promoteth knowledge among the meaner sort promotes Civility Likewise where a people are generally settled in a way of industry and frugality and those of higher extract or education are bent unto exercises truly noble and worthy that Nation will be disposed to a more considerate and apprehensive habit of mind and to a more
our heads is by custom taken for irreverence and incivility and therefore to be avoided as offensive All matters of necessary decency are in their generals of the Law of nature and in the particulars to be ordered by human prudence All natural expressions of devotion as kneeling and lifting up of the hands and eyes in prayer are allowed by all sorts We call them natural because nature it self teacheth to use them without any positive institution divine or human and a rational man by the meer light of nature is directed to use them yet not without some government and discretion For herein nature it self is subject to some variety and is in part determined and limited by the custom of several ages and countries as for instance in the prostration of the body in the act of adoration in the wearing of Sackcloth and renting of clothes in time of great humiliation which in former ages were sutable and that according to nature but not now adays in regard of the variation of custom And I suppose that in this sense St. Paul speaks against wearing of long hair as contrary to nature But there hath been much controversie about such Ceremonies as contribute nothing to the aforesaid necessary decency and are no natural nor civil and customary expressions of reverence and devotion but are of human institution and of a mystical and meerly instituted signification and made visible stated signs of Gods honour and the immediate expressions of our observance of him and obligation to him and by some supposed to be not meer circumstances but parts of divine Worship and yet more especially if they be designed in their use for that significancy and moral efficacy that belongs to Sacraments and made no less then the Symbals of our Christianity It lies not on me to determine on either side in this controversie nevertheless it is easie to apprehend this that it can be no danger nor dammage to be sparing in those things which being at least doubtfull and unnecessary have turned to endless strife and scandal between those that own the same doctrine of Faith and the same Church Communion Likewise it can do no hurt to reformed Christianity not to insist on that latitude in devised rites of worship that will acquit the greatest part of the Ceremonies used in the Church of Rome from the charge of Superstition and which makes way for the oppressing of the Churches and the sinking of religion under a luggage of unprofitable institutions To make any thing necessary and commanded of God which he hath not commanded and to damn any thing as forbidden by him which he hath left indifferent and to dread left God should not be pleased unless we do somethings which we need not do and lest he should be displeased when we do somethings not forbidden is no doubt the crime of Superstition but it is not the whole extent of that sin For it is no less Superstition to feign God to be pleased with mens vain inventions yea though they be not injoyned or observed as divine precepts and this also is to teach for Doctrines the commandments of men And who are the greater controlers of Gods wisdom and usurpers upon his authority They that fear to do what God hath allowed supposing it to be forbidden or they that presume to add their own inventions for the bettering of his service and make the omission thereof as criminal as the neglect of divine ordinances Doubtless it is a more tolerable Superstition to be over solicitous and scrupulous about the commandments of God than to be over-confident and vehement in the unwarrantable or questionable traditions of men Human devices multiplyed in Gods worship ingender to much vanity and superstition in the zealous observers of them and are apt to extinguish the inward life of Godliness as rank weeds choak the corn and they are commonly made a Cloak to real ungodliness And if some of them were first introduced with pious intention yet they are commonly maintained and multiplied to serve a carnal Interest And they are the more easily entertained and observed because it is easie to the flesh to buy out the inward Service of God and the subjection of the inward man by superficial bodily exercise But the depretiating of these devices serves to pluck off the mask of hypocrisie made up of meer formalities and to invigorate the life and spirit of true Religion To be the Ministration of the Spirit is the excelling glory of the Gospel Ministration wherewith a grave and sober decency and comely ornament doth well accord but excessive gaudiness pompous and theatrical shews various gesticulations and affected postures are vanities too much detracting from its dignity and spiritual Majesty CHAP. IV. The due dispensation of Gods word WHen our Lord Jesus ascended up on high he gave gifts unto men appointing and furnishing Spiritual Officers for the Service of his Kingdom some extraordinary and temporary as Apostles Prophets Evangelists others ordinary and successively perpetual as Pastors and Teachers Wherefore the interest of Christianity lies much in a right Gospel Ministery which is sutable and serviceable to our Lords design and the ends of his Gospel And it is a Ministery which is pure and uncorrupt dispensing the truth as it is in Jesus whereby men are brought to sound faith and true holiness which is vigorous and powerful apt to take hold of the conscience and reach the heart which is sollicitous and laborious travelling in birth till Christ be formed in the hearers and the Man-child the new creature be born into the world which is assiduous and instant in preaching the word by instruction reproof and comfort that as much as in it lies it may present every man perfect in Christ which comes with full Scripture evidence and cogent reason with solid matter in stile and language not negligent much less undecent yet not too curious and elaborate but free vehement grave serious and fit for the work in hand which is not to tickle ear but to break open the heart which is exemplary in faith purity charity self-denial and contempt of the world and finally which is not mercenary but naturally cares for the state of the flock and accommodates it self thereunto as its great charge and chief concern And who is sufficient for these things saith the great Apostle Doubtless much wisdom and grace is needfull in an able Minister of the new Testament and a Workman that needs not to be ashamed It being pre-supposed that he holds fast the form of Sound words and that he is throughly instructed in the mystery of Godliness which he is to impart to others in the first place his prudence will be concerned for the judicious management of the dispensation committed to him A prudent dispenser of the word will take care to deliver nothing to others but what is very intelligible to himself and whereof he can make good sense and render a reason to those that ask it He doth not
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
trifle with holy things he shuns vanity and curiosity and doth not ramble into impertinences and cares not to utter any thing for ostentation He hath in his eye the end of his Ministry and the usefulness and importance of what he hath to communicate that as it said of the Scripture from whence he takes it it may be profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for instruction in Righteousness that it may come home to the hearts and lives of men and be fit to raise their attention by their own concernment in it He considers withall what the hearers can best receive that is not what the flesh can well digest for then the most necessary truths must be forborn but that which carries its own evidence to that it must be owned or the gain-sayers must be self-condemned And this is to prepare mens minds and to make way for such harder sayings and stricter precepts as must be manifested in due season Moreover the Dispensation of the word of God should be as the word it self is quick and powerfull and in all reason that is to be most esteemed such which is most apt to be effectual to the end for which God hath ordained it which is to open mens eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among them that be sanctified through faith in Christ. That kind of preaching that hath most tendency to convince direct and move toward this end is without controversie the most powerfull The pressing of Doctrines with solid and cogent reason provided they be made plain and obvious to the capacity of the hearers appertains to this manner of preaching and in a chief point therein Strong reason may be so delivered as to be too hard and strong for plain people to receive and digest it Here Condescention is a great Duty and perspicuity a great Gift But the bare evidence of reason doth not all For to gain the Will which is the man besides the judgment the fancy and affections had need be gained We find it the condescention of God himself in his word to deal very much with these lower faculties which belonging not to brutes only but to men also it is not brutish but human to be moved by them in subordination to the judgment Even the most learned and prudent men are found to take no small impression from them and therefore the most proper ways of soliciting and exciting them are not to be neglected much less contemned Now dry reason though strong enough is not so fit to take the affections or raise the fancy Wherefore some other helps among which there are comparatively little things are herein used as familiar expressions apt similitudes expostulations lively representations and such like to which may be added a voluble tongue a moving tone and taking gesture And though much noise and action make not a powerfull Preacher yet earnestness of speech and elevation of the voice is not of little force and especially with vulgar hearers who being the greatest number in most Auditories are very regarnable And truly the weight of the business requires due fervour Should the matters of life and death eternal be delivered without feeling as by men half asleep And people's drowsiness doth no less require it Yea possibly the apprehensions and affections of the common people may better be roused up by a somewhat boysterous way of excitation which for this reason should not displease the learned or most judicious sort who are in this case to consider not what would most affect themselves but the greater multitude who stand in greatest need of help and whose souls are not less precious nor redeemed with a lesser price than the souls of the greatest Scholars and Sages of this world Indeed much judgment and and circumspection is here called for that all rudeness and homeliness of expression all curiosity levity and loathsom affectation and all manner of undecency be avoided and that what is comely and congruous and apt to convince and move be used and that nothing be overstrained And in this matter self-distrust if not too excessive will do better than Self-confidence and conceitedness Here it should be considered that very worthy men may have some indecencies in voice and gesture which they cannot well remedy and others who are very usefull and whose Service in Gods Church could not be well spared may be liable to some lesser mistakes and incongruities in expression which critical hearers may discern yet they hinder not the efficacy of the word And withall let it be considered whose work they do that aggravate such weaknesses to make sport for themselves and others to the contempt of Gods ordinance And for them that pour out scorn upon the most Pious Serious Solid and profitable kind of Preaching and make ridiculous representations of it to the world because it suits not their seeming wisdom I am rather inclined to lament their folly then to emulate their Wit or envy their Applause with some men We read that the wise Preacher sought out acceptable words that is words pleasing to edification that would reach home and were piercing as goads and nails The Preachers inward feeling of what he speaks hath a secret force to cause his words to be felt by others and what comes from the heart is aptest to go to the heart by a Sympathy in the Spirits of men And that any should speak of Seeing and Feeling in some sort the things that are written in Gods word will not seem strange to them who have tasted that the Lord is gracious The powerfull dispensing of the word depends chiefly on the assistance of the Holy Spirit though both natural and acquired parts and the industrious exercise thereof be likewise necessary For which cause the spiritual man hath unspeakable advantage of the meerly natural man in this Service The special presence of the Spirit with him and the grace of God in him causeth him to speak in a strain more apposite and sutable to the forming of the new creature Yea such illumination and conviction and tast of heavenly things as proceeds from a more common or less than regenerating grace will do more in this business with less abilities of art and nature than far greater abilities in those kinds can do by themselves alone The common Sense of the faithfull is a witness to the truth hereof And it must needs be so that he who hath some savour of the things of God should speak more Savorily of them then he can to whom they are tastless or unsavory Wherefore there is a Spiritual kind of preaching not indeed opposite to rational nor taken so to be by any that talk of it with understanding though the Assertors of it have been abusively personated as holding such a dotage They do not say that the Spirit shews any thing about the sense of Scripture or divine matters which is
not consonant to right reason or that whatsoever is darted into their mind is to be taken for an irradiation from the Holy Ghost or that any may presume upon the Spirits immediate help in the neglect of rational search and Study But their meaning is that as heretofore in extraordinary persons there were extraordinary inspirations so there have been are and always shall be the ordinary teachings and inspirations of the Spirit in regard whereof it is stiled in Scripture the Spirit of wisdom and revelation which teaching as all the Faithfull stand in need of so more especially the Ministers of the Gospel and that this divine assistance doth elevate or heighten the gifts of nature and learning and guides us to sound reasoning yea and sometimes brings things into the mind without previous reasoning yet rational and found to be so upon due Scanning There is no great evidence in reason that St. Pauls demonstration of the Spirit and power is to be restrained to the miraculous confirmation of his Doctrine or any extraordinary gift though that sense be not excluded For the contexture of his discourse in that Chapter sets forth a certain faculty perceptive and expressive of the things of the Spirit of God belonging unto spiritual men as such And they are no Fanaticks that to this day own the more common interpretation of the words namely to Preach from the special help of the illuminating and quickning Spirit with a lively perception and feeling of the things that are delivered But whatsoever the meaning of those words be verily they are besotted with reason that in the pride thereof regard not this illumination from above and scoff at those that look after it To Preach Christ is the matter of this dispensation and to Preach moral duties is not extraneous to the Preaching of Christ but comprized under it Yet it must be acknowledged that morality in its best estate as it is vulgarly taken for temperance and righteousness towards men and other vertues of that rank as proceeding from a meerly natural principle which an Aristotle might describe in his Ethicks is far below Christianity For it is found in many that are alienated from the life of God and lead meerly by the Spirit of this world But this name may be given to some higher thing as first to the whole observation of Gods moral law founded in our Creation and that not only in the outward work after a common manner performable by the unregenerate but in a duemannerfrom a right principle to a right end that is from the love of God unto his glory And in this sense we acknowledge that it is a great part but not the whole of the Christian Religion nor indeed the whole of morality taken not vulgarly but Theologically and that in its full extent For so taken it is no other then the conformity of our minds and actions to God and his laws and faith in Christ is a main part thereof Indeed to preach Christ is to preach the whole Duty of man and more especially those duties that are consequent to and founded in our redemption as also to set forth the whole mystery of the Gospel which is the ground and reason of our duty For God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself and accordingly hath ordained the Ministery of reconciliation by which there is made known the lapsed and lost estate of mankind the abundant grace of God in Christ for their recovery remission of sins and free justification through his righteousness regeneration and inward sanctification the inhabitation of the spirit in believers and their mystical union with Christ their living by the faith of him and deriving of spiritual life and strength from him and growing up into him till they be filled with all the fulness of God in him their spiritual warfare and conflicts between the flesh and spirit within them their temptations desertions and renewed consolations and the earnest and sealing of the Holy Spirit given unto them Surely these are fit Subjects to behand led by a Gospel Preacher though the Preaching of these matters or of many of them is by some called Canting and phrase Divinity yet they are the Sacred expressions of the Holy Ghost in Scripture And dare any say they are but a sound of words without matter agreeable to the Stile No they are real and deep mysteries and intelligible to them that obey the truth It is heartily here asserted and earnestly contended for that the Gospel calls us as much to vertue as to glory and that its true intent is to reduce us to a holy life yet withall the Counsel of God therein is to set forth the glory of his free grace the all-fulness of Jesus Christ and the mighty working of his Spirit and the wonderfulness of Salvation through him to the intent that we might glory not in our selves but in him who of God is made unto us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption And indeed who do more powerfully and successfully preach Christian duty than they that most insist on this unspeakable grace and lay open the treasures thereof The love of Christ is so to be spoken of as to beget in us a love towards him not imaginary and conceited but real and substantial made good by an intire subjection to him And therefore the Doctrines of free grace and of good works are to be sounding together in our Pulpits What Christ hath done for us is not to save us the pains of a continual mortification and of the agony to be endured therein and of aspiring to the most perfect state of holiness that is attainable We are to live as strictly as if we were to be saved by the perfection of our own obedience And indeed none lead more holy lives than they that desire to be found in Christ and when they have done all that they can rely wholly upon the mercy of God in him It is most true that Gospel mysteries do not lie in meer Phrases nor is new matter always brought with new forms of speech nor are people much the wiser by having their heads filled with them There are empty sounds and terms unintelligible swelling words with windy notions expressions that seem to draw deep whose meaning is but shallow There is a sollicitous stating of points with a seeming exactness that is indeed weak and injudicious and a niceness in distinguishing which is but frivolous Many controversies much agitated are but a strife of words and too great stress is often laid upon little fancies And a greater mischief there is that in cloudy language pernicious doctrines take shelter and dangerous Sects are known to hide themselves in this covert And therefore he that doth his work rightly will know the true significancy and import of what he utters He vents not meer words but sound matter and good substance for the souls of men are fed with solid sense and not with phrases Howbeit as touching expressions there is a certain
Spiritual strain which is most agreeable to the things of the Spirit of God and which as coming from life and Spirit is better discerned than described There is a speaking not in words which mans wisdom teacheth but which the Holy Ghost teacheth And though this more eminently took place in the Apostles and such other extraordinary persons yet there is no sufficient reason to restrain it to them alone St. Paul may well be understood to speak of this as a gift received by them that had received not the Spirit of the world but that which is of God and as something suted to the perception and taste of all Spiritual men It doth not exclude the use of human wisdom though the wisdom of the Spirit sway in chief For no doubt even Paul's human learning and prudence was herein serviceable though in subserviency to the influence and conduct of the Spirit This Spirituality of expression is conformable to that of the Spirit of God in Scripture though not confined to the words thereof Surely the mysteries of Salvation cannot be better handled than in those terms in which they were first delivered to wit in Scripture expressions or others consonant thereto solidly and pertinently used and to call this canting savours to much of that Spirit to which holy language is unsavory Without controversie the strongest reason is of greatest force to gain the wills of men to imbrace true Religion For that which crosseth sensuality selfishness and all the depraved appetite of our lapsed nature as Religion doth must needs have its greatest strength next under the power of divine grace in the force of right reason But care and skill is requisite that it be so prepared offered and set home that it may be sutable to them that should receive it and that the cogency thereof may so reach unto and fasten upon their judgments as to gain their wills Philosophical ratiocinations are too remote not only from low and dull capacities but also from the greater part of them that are competently apprehensive and intelligent and so being too much estranged from them they do not touch them to the quick A familiar natural plain and obvious way of reasoning comes home to all men and is most felt at the heart and that by Scholars themselves though their intellect may be more delighted in more accurate or reserved Speculations Scriptural preaching is indeed the most rational as coming with such reason as is of greatest force with men in matters of Salvation For Gods written word is a treasure of divine wisdom that throughly furnisheth the man of God Besides the infallible testimony thereof hath more authority than Philosophical reason though sound and true can have upon Christian hearers and it peirceth deeper and sticks closer And arguments taken and words spoken from Scripture wherewith the people converse dayly are more easily apprehended and retained and so are more instructive and every way more usefull than other reasonings Though numerous citations of sentences out of human Authors be an unprofitable kind of ostentation yet the Sentences of Holy Writ which is the evidence of our Christian hope and the testimony of him who is truth it self are most effectual to edification And whosoever is able to speak reason in divine matters is to make a rational use of Scripture and if any quote it impertinently and absurdly it is through defect of reason and they would be as injudicious in their Sermons without those quotations But nice and haughty wits mostly cavil without cause and charge profitable Preachers with injudiciousness meerly through their own vain curiosity and inconsiderateness Scripture quotations are sometimes used by way of allusion or for illustration not for strict proof and that which is brought for proof if it be not full and cogent yet it may add some weight and then it is not abused Besides if a passage be used in a sound and pious though not in its proper sense it is pardonable It is fit indeed that in citing Texts we know their true import and go more by weight than number shunning impertinency and superfluity yet it is not unfit to note that all sound and good Preachers are not alike judicious and those that are very solid may be guilty of some oversights and 't is a bad matter that their Ministery which God hath owned and honoured with good success in his Service should be set at nought for a few mistakes perhaps more pretended than real about the sense of some Scripture when it is not applyed otherwise than the Analogy of faith will bear and nothing is defended but known truth I have known a pious but strangely mistaken sense of a Scripture sentence cast into the mind and there fixed to have been the first occasion of seriousness in Religion to one that afterward lived and dyed a godly Christian. Now that which was causal in this conversion was the godly truth it self which was written in Gods word and the mistaking it to lie in such a sentence where it did not being but accidental was no hinderance I do in no wise countenance the irrational use of Scripture but am sensible of the importance of good judgment and due care about the sense thereof yet I cannot approve the scornful haughtiness of some men who deride godly persons well instructed in the Scripture as having nothing but words and Phrases and senseless notions either because they come short of Scholar-like exactness or because they speak of the things of God in a more Evangelicall and Spiritual strain than these can well bear In speaking the best use of art is to speak to best purpose and for that end in divine matters to speak with greatest Majesty and authority And this is done not by ostentation of wit by puerile and effeminate rhetorications by a rapsody of flanting words by starched speech by cadency of sounds or any too elaborate politeness that please the shallow fancy but by the evidence of reason set forth in a masculine and unaffected Eloquence that hath power over the wills of men which are tough and knotty peices Perspicuity is a great vertue and felicity in discourse for hereby what is offered gains attention and enters the mind and abides therein but intricacy and obscurity is a bar to its entrance and entertainment Hereunto an easie and obvious method evident coherence and plainness of expression conduceth mainly Wherefore he that minds what he hath to do is not careful by a more curious artifice to please the fancies of some itching hearers but hath most regard to that composure that makes most for a general benefit and edification And for this cause as he would not multiply words without need and become tedious so he would not be too succinct and close and by that means either too dark or too quick to inform or effect the people In vulgar auditories a dilating of the matter is most necessary so that idle tautologies and prolixity be avoided and it may be
Their Union and Fellowship being chiefly mystical and invisible their Unity is far greater than what outwardly appears to the World and sometimes than what themselves can discern among themselves in particular by reason of many inferior yet very disquieting differences and discords Nevertheless it behoves them to provide that it might appear as much as may be what it is indeed and that it be conspicuous and illustrious in the sight of Men by their walking in love and peace Unity is the Churches strength and beauty the honour of the Faithfull and an argument for the certainty of their most holy Faith It makes Religion lovely and draws forth blessing praise from the Beholders of it and wins the World to a love and reverence of that Piety which makes the Professors of it to live in brotherly kindness and mutual charity But Division is the Church's weakness and deformity the reproach of Christians and a scandal against Christianity and an objection put into the mouths of Infidels against the Faith and an occasion of stumbling unto many In the present divided state of Religion each Party is apt to appropriate Godliness to themselves or at least to carry it towards others as if they did so And they that are loudest in accusing Dissenters of uncharitableness in this kind are themselves as uncharitable as any others It is true that God hath a peculiar People distinguished from all others by a peculiar Character but it is not confined to any Party of this or that Persuasion or Denomination that is narrower than meer Christianity And all true Christians are to receive one an other as God hath received them Indeed the best Christians are to be best esteemed and their fellowship is most desired But if they should be severed from the universality and in a strict combination set up as divided Party it tends to the Churches Ruine For a Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand and if the nobler parts of the Body forsake the rest the whole must needs die Christian Concord doth not signifie an aggregation of things inconsistent as the fellowship of righteousness with unrighteousness the communion of light with darkness the concord of Christ with Belial To set up Unity against Piety is a conspiracy against Christ who is King of righteousness and to pretend Piety against Unity is to oppose Christ the Prince of Peace whose Kingdom is the Reign of Love in the Soul Holiness and Peace must kiss each other and as inseperable Companions walk together It is the unity of the Spirit we are charged to keep in the bond of Peace But concord in any external Order without fellowship in the Divine Life is not the unity of the Spirit which is to partake of the same new nature and to walk together in the same holy way This is far more excellent than the greatest compliance in matters of meer external order and consequently much more regardable in our estimation and reception of Persons Though to meet in one place be not of so great importance as to be joyned in one Spirit yet it must not be counted a small matter The unity of Faith and Love is much concern'd in the unity of Church Communion it will be a matter of some difficulty for them to live together in Love whom one Church cannot hold Church divisions commonly divide affections and draw men into Parties and divided Interests and make them seek to strengthen their own Party by weakening all others to the great dammage of true Religion in general For which cause the unchurching of Churches and renouncing of Communion with them that are sound in the Doctrine of Faith and Sacrament and in the substance of Divine Worship should be dreaded by all sober Christians yea all unnecessary distances should be avoided least they lead to greater alienations and direct enmities and oppositions Those Churches that cannot hold local communion one with another by reason of differences that destroy not the essentials of Christianity should yet maintain a dear and tender Christian love one to another and profess their owning of each other as Churches of Jesus Christ and should agree together upon certain just and equal Rules for the management of their unavoidable differences so as may least prejudice charity and common good and least harden the ungodly and grieve the weak or dishonour God or hinder the success of common great and necessary truths upon the Souls of men amicably promoting the common cause of Christianity and every part thereof in which they are agreed and opening their disagreements to the People as little as they can Schism is an unwarrantable separation from or division in a Church and without controversie it is a heinous sin and to be detested both for its exceeding sinfulness and wofull consequents But it hath been so disguised and the odious name hath been so confusedly cast abroad and so unreasonably and maliciously misapplied that it is too slightly thought of where it should be sadly laid to heart For it is common with the strongest Party be it right or wrong to call themselves the Church and to have no better name for others than Schismaticks And so the reproach is but contemned by them that suffer it and the sin it self is too little feared on all sides But it is not a Temporal Law nor Secular Power nor any prevalence of Strength or Interest that makes a Church and none of these things will excuse them from Schism that act uncharitably against their Brethren and obstruct the progress of the Gospel and the increase of Godliness Nor are they forthwith to be counted Schismaticks who cannot in all points observe the Commandments of men and cannot neglect to yield their help to the saving of Souls that would otherwise want due means of Salvation when God hath called them to that Service with a woe unto them if they Preach not the Gospel For as much as all must dread the guilt of Schism truly so called let it be well considered that Ecclesiastical Superiors are as much concerned to take heed of Schismatical impositions as the People are to shun Schismatical Recusancy and Disobedience As well the Pastors Wisdom as the Peoples due submission is here importunately called for When Superiors know how to Command and Inferiors how to Obey things will go as well as may be hoped for in this our imperfect state here upon Earth As the Peace of a corrupt state of Religion is best assured by suppressing all conscientious inquiries into its Decrees so the Peace of the true Church and of the sound state of Religion is most secured by the most perfect exercise of sound Judgment and upright Conscience in all its adherents That Church that claims to her self an infallibility or challenges and obtains from her partakers an implicit Faith in her determinations without further enquiry needs not fear the breaking of the bond of her Peace if she multiply constitutions and impose any devised Doctrines and Ordinances sutable to
that are reproved are made manifest and the World that lives in sin and loves darkness hates the light by which it is condemned not only with an hatred of Aversation but of hostile Persecution Nevertheless the Unregenerate sort of Men in general cannot and would not abandon all sense of Religion which is so deeply imprinted in human Nature and the form whereof may be acceptable even to corrupt nature Wherefore they own the name while they hate the thing and keep up a shew and form thereof while they deny the Truth and Power And having a false apprehension of Christ they adore him while they trample upon his present Members that really bear his Image and having a false Idea of Godliness they honor the memory of the Saints of former Ages while they vilifie those of their own times in whom Godliness really exists which shews that if Christ and the former Saints were now on the Earth to appear what they were indeed they would be no less hated and scorned than the Faithfull that are now living The manifold ways of destruction and misery wherein the wicked walk though contradictory to each other do all conspire in this Enmity and Godliness is put to conflict not with one sort of Enemies but with the various corrupt Parties of the divided carnal World Yet worldly Interests often make their advantages of Christianity and have their designs upon it and complicate themselves with it in some external and accidential Ingagements for a season and then the Enmity is restrained And not a few that fall short of Regeneration may be so illuminated and wrought upon as not only to cease from malignancy and hostility against it but to promote and strengthen its external Interests But for all this the Serpentine nature hath hitherto been more predominant in this lower World and Gods Kingdom hath had far greater Opposition than assistance from the Powers thereof Now we are noting the injury and despight that is done to Godliness the calumnies and reproaches heaped on the serious Professors of it to render them hatefull and contemptible requires some animadversion Their adversaries set them forth as Proud Froward Stubborn False Rash Fierce Petulant Sullen Fanatical Hypocritical Censorious Pragmatical Unruly Schismatical Seditious Unpeaceable Presumptuous Selfish and such like If we would judge rightly of these imputations we are to mind many things viz. The intrusion of Hypocrites the multitude of half Converts the great weakness of Grace and defect of wisdom in the greater part of Sincere Christians and the imperfections of the best and chiefest of them It is further to be considered that faults real or seeming are more remarkable in strict Professors than in any others as spots in a white Garment also that the common malignity will aggravate the same above measure likewise that the things they are charged with were they truly charged are not peculiarly theirs but the corruptions of the world in general and that some degrees thereof are found in all in whom human weakness is found and that they are less and in a lower degree in this party of men than in any other Add hereunto that the faults of some are commonly objected against all and the sins of men not yet made perfect are cast upon that holy and perfect way which condemns those sins and hath broken the dominion of them Moreover when it is undeniable that this sort of men in general have renounced palpable dishonesty injustice filthy lewdness wantoness intemperance luxury and other gross pollutions of the world they are burdened according to the true method of calumniation with matter of suspition or evil surmise as Hypocrisie Self-conceitedness Fancicalness and secret Pride things mostly belonging to the hidden man of the heart or with Spiritual wickedness as Envy Malice Bitterness Vain-glory Ambition Self-admiration and Contempt of others things of more close and covert nature and as not easily proved so not easily disproved where they are objected or with the ambiguous charge of Schism Faction Turbulency Singularity Peevishness Perversness Obstinacy which opposite parties are continually casting upon each other faults and duties vertues and vices happening to be called by these names And in this method of of accusation the innocent are sooner injured than cleared and slanderers do their work for the reproaches are boldly cast abroad and something sticks But notwithstanding all the obloquie and calumny the whole world may be challenged to produce an instance of any Sort or Sect of men that have exceeded or equal'd the serious Professors of the true Christianity in things honest and just and comely and usefull and praise-worthy It must not be exspected but that during their imperfect State obliquities aberrations will be found more or less in them as they are more or less remote from perfection But if true honesty and vertue be a reality and not an empty name and if it be not perished out of the world it exists and resides in them Howbeit in this way there are inevitable occasions of stumbling not given but taken and such fall thereat as do err in their hearts and have not known Gods ways The practice of true Piety lying out of the common road is misjudged as a kind of humorous Singularity To speak Feelingly of Divine things seems folly or meer fancy to them who have no knowledge or tast thereof in themselves To express with zeal or vigor such things as seem to others incredible though they be most true and excellent is taken for Madness Tenderness of Conscience strictness of life servour of devotion mortification and heavenly-mindedness is by Sensualists Formalists and carnal Politicians judging by their own measure taken for Hypocrisie designing the applause of men or some eminency and advancement in a party or some other Self-interest A Pious regard to the lesser as well as the greater commands of the Law and a dread of despising the least Commandment is commonly esteemed peevishness and needless preciseness To distinguish between the Holy and profane the zealous and lukewarm the carnal and Spiritual in the visible Church and to judge of both sorts as they are is a great offence to the world for which the Religious are thought to be Proud Boasters Dispisers of others Uncharitable Censorious and Formalists are magnified against them for their large charity towards all which is indeed no Charity but indifferency in Religion not seldom accompanied with bitterness towards the Godly To speak as the Scripture doth of a peculiar people and as Christ himself of the fewness of Gods chosen among the many outwardly called is accounted the confining of godliness to a Party and the fancying of themselves to be the only People of God Now such arrogance is justly charged on those that place Religion in narrow opinions and platforms and methods of their own chosing and judge of all men as they are nearer or farther from them yet nothing is surer than that God hath a peculiar People who are comparatively a small
aggravations of Sin before the Lord and with their acknowledgment and bewailing of such scandals before the World as have been given by some among them as also with their publick Testimonies against Errors and Corruptions that have risen in their times and so they reproach them for their humility sincerity and impartiality in abusing themselves and giving glory to God and condemning Sin where ever they find it They scoff at those that speak of communion with God spiritual experiences desertions and the like matters and use in scorn Scriptural words and phrases and other holy expressions used by the Religious and profane the terms of Holy Godly Saint Sanctified by the use thereof in scandalous Ironies and so they make sport for profane men and harden them in their irreligion They would render holy things contemptible by nothing some little oversight and indecencies mostly involuntary in those that perform the same as perhaps in the Preachers tone or gesture And to say the truth it is one of the easiest things in the World for licentious wits to play upon the most serious and sacred things and to make the most acceptable Service of God and his choicest Servants seem ridiculous These are some of the many vile and wretched ways of disgracing true Religion And I will add one more to wit that madness of opposition on what side soever it be which to make a different Party odious will not fear to expose Godliness it self to the contempt and scorn of them that scorn all Religious Parties Surely it is a fearfull thing to be a hater reviler and scorner of Persons and things dear to God and precious in his sight What is it to provoke the Lord to jealousie if this be not Wherefore he doth no ill service that detects this perillous folly And men would easily shun such mistake and prejudice as makes them misjudge and condemn the Pious if they would but deal fairly and exercise the same equity and candor towards them which is due to all sorts and which towards themselves all do justly challenge But Godliness will be still Godliness let presumptuous wits imploy their Tongues and Pens to transform into never so ugly shapes Invectives Sarcasms odious and ridiculous Tales and Stories Scenial representations and disguises will not confound it nor sink its authority and reputation On the other hand the fairest coverings and best contrived Apologies the most notable and advantageous Policies will not make corrupt things savoury nor insipid things relishable nor little empty things great and weighty nor uphold the estimation of a degenerate carnal outside lifeless state of Religion where better things are known The wit of man may adorn or palliate any folly and deform true Wisdom but in a lucid Region where knowledge is diffused Wisdom will shew it self and the folly of fools cannot be hid But let the Religious know that it behoves them to take care that they suffer not so many things in vain for these indignities may do them more good than the vain applause of men If their Enemies give them advantage as indeed they do for the learning of more Wisdom Sobriety and Circumspection let them receive it it is pity they should not make the most of such harsh Instructions What manner of Persons should they be in all Holy Conversation and Godliness that as much as in them lies there might not be that wo to the World because of offences and that with well doing they might put to silence the ignorance of foolish men More especially they should do their uttermost to shun even the appearance of the sins more peculiarly charged upon them as Hypocrisie Pride Wildness of Fancy Affected Singularity and Self-Flattery and to be adorned with a conspicuous sincerity humility and charity And whatsoever contumely they indure let them by no means retaliate in the same kind remembring their blessed Lord who being reviled reviled not again but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously Wickedness cometh from the wicked scurrility petulancy bitterness and all intemperate language is more agreeable to their adversaries than to them And it is observed that the flinging of witty sarcasms biting jears and scoffs and railing words against a Party do vex and gall more than hurt or break them and provoke but not convince them and serve indeed to feed a humour and make sport and do some present feat but do not carry the main cause or prevail in the end but turn rather to the dammage and blemish of those for whose service they were designed CHAP. XVI Religions main strength next under the Power of God lies in its own intrinisick excellency THe propagating of true Christianity and the sound state of Religion agreeable thereunto against the enmity of the adverse World is worthy of the utmost indeavours of all pious men and to search into the right ways and means thereof is a necessary and noble speculation But it must first be known that its Stability and Victory in the World depends primarily upon the Wisdom Truth and Power of God ingaged for it and therefore it cannot fall by the Power and Policy of Adversaries nor sink and lose it self by the weakness or defectibility of its Professors but it remains firm and sure and the same for ever Next after the Power of God its main strength is its own intrinsick excellency It is upheld chiefly by its own principles which are mans perfection and place our nature in its due state and put both Persons and Societies into the only right frame and reduce all things into their own place and order They have nothing in them of iniquity impurity vanity or unfitness but are perfectly holy just and good and give unto God his due and unto men theirs and that upon the most excellent grounds that can be laid as the Glory of God our conformity to him our fellowship with him our reward from him and in him and all in and through a Mediator who is God and Man in one Person and the Head of all the faithfull who are his Body The Godly practice conformable to these principles is from a cause that faileth not to wit the inhabitation and influence of the Holy Spirit of God Though true Christianity be far above the strain and reach of meer nature yet it is practicable by Divine grace and notwithstanding the imperfect state of its Professors it faileth not of its end which is to bring into the Possession of the heavenly Kingdom the fruition of God and everlasting glory yea it doth effect great and excellent things in the present world Its rules are pure and perfect its motives are great and high and of indubitable verity They that live after it are a Law to themselves and an aw to others No other institution Philosophical or Religious is so powerfull to restrain inordinate affection and to settle the minds and affairs of men in the greatest peace and order as far as human imperfection can arrive It denies all
state as a Jewel that hath its greatest lustre by the brightest light is maintain'd by the clearest knowledge In bright times the impostures and carnal designs of devised Doctrines and superstitious vanities will be made manifest and the hypocrisie being detected the Merchandize thereof will be quite marr'd In such times even the vulgar sort will expect from those in sacred Functions at least the appearance of a sober righteous and godly conversation with diligence in holy administrations Then the enemies of real Sanctity are put to hard shifts and forc'd to appear either in some colours of Truth or in the shame of their own nakedness For this cause the Followers of Truth make it their special interest as throughly to promote the most ample diffusion and universal increase of Knowledge among all ranks and sorts of Men as the Adverse partly seek to oppose and debase it We do not hereby mean an intermedling in difficult matters a smattering in controversies and certain curiosities of Opinions a store of unnecessary notions and of meer words and phrases which things are commonly erroneous and at the best but injudicious and puff up the half-witted and self-conceited and make them troublesom to themselves and others But that which is here commended for an universal increase and propagation is to understand the Principles of the Essential Truths of Christianity to see their evidence to judge rightly of their weight and worth and to view their coherence and besides these to know so much of other Truths as the different Capacities of Men will inable them for the bettering of their Knowledge in the Essentials The means of diffusing this Light are well known as the constant Preaching of the Word and the opening of the Principles of Religion in a due form of Cathechism the strict observation of the Lords Day repetition of Sermons â—…ious Conferences reading the Word and Prayer in Families profitable Communication among neighbour-Christians in their daily converse the spreading of practical Books written by Men of sound judgment and Ministers private applications to those of their own Charges with prudence and meekness For the same end that main Principle of Protestanism the judgment of Discretion as â—elonging to all Christians is to be asserted and â—…indicated against that Popish and brutish Doâ—…trine of implicit Faith in the Church's deâ—…rminations This is not to subject matters of â—aith to a private Spirit but to refer them to â—…e divine Authority of the holy Scriptures to â—…e apprehended in the due and right use of â—eason which is a publick and evident thing â—…d lies open to the tryal and judgment of all Men. And to Men of sober minds serious for the saving of their own Souls the Analogy of Faith in the current of Scripture is easily discernable Moreover the general increase of Knowledge lies much in the ingenuous Education and condition of the common People in opposition to sordidness slavery and brutish rudeness Though some look upon the vulgar sort with contempt and seem to value them no more than brute Animals and think it enough that their Governors understand and consider for them and not they for themselves yet Christ hath shed his Blood as much for the redemption of that Sort as of the Noble and Mighty and Prudent and he hath made no difference between the one and the other in the conditions of Salvation and in the priviledges and ordinances of his Kingdom As for the receiving of the Grace of God the Scripture casts the advantage on the poorer and meaner side Not many wise Men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called was the observation of St. Paul and St. James witnesseth that God hath chosen the Poor of this world rich in Faith and Heirs of his Kingdom And those whom God hath chosen must needs be instructed in his Will That reasonable service that he requires none can perform without Knowledge Ignorance is opposite to the nature and being of true Christian Piety which is not at all where it is not received with understanding This general increase of Knowledge hath fallen under a great suspicion of evil and it may be under the jealousie of Rulers as disposing Men to Sedition Rebellion Herisie and Schism But how great a reproach is hereby cast upon human Nature or political Government or both that the more rationally apprehensive the Body of a People are they are so much the more ungovernable as if Government could not stand with the proper dignity and felicity of human Nature What manner of civil State is that which degrades the Subjects from Men to Beasts for a more absolute Dominion over them What manner of Christian Church is that which to prevent Heresie and Schism takes order that its Members be no Christians It is an unchristian inhuman policy in Church or State the foundation whereof is laid in the Peoples ignorance As for the true interest of Rulers it is not weakened but strengthened by their Peoples knowledge which in its right and proper tendency makes them more conscientious and however more circumspect and considerate and consequently more easily manageable by a just and prudent Government But gross ignorance tends to make them barbarous and belluine and in their mutinies and discontents uncounsellable and untameable and therefore very incongruous to a State governed by the Principles of Christianity or Humanity CHAP. XX. The advantage of Human Learning to the same end THough Religion rests not on human Learning as its main support yet it seeks and claims the necessary help thereof Those whom God designs for eminent service he indues with eminent gifts either by means or miracle and he gives every intrusted Servant a measure answerable to his degree The Apostles who laid the foundation were wise Master-builders and surely it was not the mind of Christ that Wisdom should die with them when he settled his Church to indure throughout all Ages and promised to be with it to the end of the World It is said indeed that the foolishness of God is wiser than Men and the weakness of God is stronger than Men. But that which is so called is not foolishness and weakness indeed but only so accounted by the pride of carnal Wisdom In this Learned age the Antichristian State in Christendom is forced to advance Learning in its own defence And now without Learning either divinely inspired or acquired by means we cannot defend our selves against it Wherefore to destroy the supports of Learning is the way to subvert Religion Yea though we were not ingaged by such strength of the Adversary to provide for our own defence yet solid human Learning doth of it self notably advance Divine Truth The Learning that was spread over the World in the primitive times of Christianity apparently made way for that sudden and ample spreading of the Gospel And the Reviving thereof after an universal decay no less apparently made way for the breaking forth of this clearer Light of the Gospel
well reckon that they have made the most of their advantages when they can secure its interests in the common interest of a Nation A firm liberty and security founded in a national interest is more agreeable to the condition of regenerate Christians than an intire potency to themselves alone For they would scarce well comport with so great a weight of power Hypocrites for carnal ends would addict themselves to their party and overact them The sincere would prove but men corruptions would appear and miscarriages would marr their reputation which is not their least Support Hereunto may be added many incongruities that would happen to them The Gallantry and Splendor of the world will be no help to that humble and contrite frame of Spirit and real mortification and holy walking and heavenly mindedness which is the power of Christianity The various and versatile ways of worldly policy turning to innumerable occasions are not very passable to truly tender Consciences Besides if the power were inclosed within these narrow limits many of low Birth and Breeding must needs be lifted up both to the envy of the excluded party and the disesteem of Magistracy And persons of low condition being raised above their own Sphere upon the account of Religion may be easily tempted to think more highly of themselves than they ought to think and to grow busie peevish and rigid in needless matters which will provoke a People and fire their Spirits and though the rage be pent up for a season within their breasts it will at length break out into a flame The power of Christianity as to human strength is best established and extended by leaning upon some common interest with which it falls in as the Vine is born up and spreads abroad by the support of a wall or frame It is therefore most sutable to the terms upon which it stands in this world to be in a complex state with some other just large and stable interest such as is the common peace and safety both of Prince and People And being a holy and wise Profession it leads its Followers in safe and right Paths and teacheth them to wait therein with patience The nature of its interest will bear such patient waiting For it is not carnal consisting of the great things of this world which may call for an eager and quick pursuit and daring interprizes but it is the upholding of such a cause as needs not fear a sinking if it catch not hold of every sudden offer that is not clear in regard of Conscience or prudence but by an unchangable reason it indures throughout all ages and if it fall it shall rise again It needs not the making of Parties and drawing people to its side by a pragmatical importunity nor to enter into any suspected ways but wheresoever it is managed like it self in righteous and prudent Counsels it makes the fairest progress and of longest continuance The reasons aforegoing do hold in due proportion against the ingrossing of privileges in particular in corporate Societies and the making of Parties to interrupt the settled order of promotions and to keep back persons legally intitled that the Religious alone might be promoted Such Practises make sad breaches and upon change of Affairs will turn to the great detriment if not the depression of the Party so advanced CHAP. XXXI Of Leading and following and of Combinations GOds Providence useth to dispose into all quarters some men not only of known integrity but eminent for wisdom and reputation who see more than the ordinary sort of good men and are able and meet to give advice like those children of Issachar men that had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do These are much the stay of this Profession and by their influence keep things right and preserve the weaker sort from manifold aberrations It is supposed that they seek not their own glory in being made Heads of Parties but that in sincerity and self-denial they follow truth and peace and use their Authority and ability to promote a Catholick interest and true concord among all Christians Nevertheless sometimes the understanding of the prudent fails and Counsel is hidden from them It pleaseth the only wise God sometimes to permit strange resolves to proceed from good and wise men that our main stress of hope might rest upon him alone and on his infallible Word and that we might not become the absolute Disciples of any Masters upon Earth One or two eminent men in a Country though wise and faithfull may not be followed as it were by implicit Faith which may lead into great mistakes It is to be supposed that there be many discreet persons though not of eminent ability whom it may become to hear and reverence their eminent men yet to see with their own eyes that is to judge by their own reason In this matter there be two extreams either to be too morose or too sequacious the one being the effect of a sullen pride and Self-conceit the other of pusillanimity temerity and such like weakness and both tending to make breaches and lead into parties We may have the persons of Worthy men in due veneration but not in excessive admiration Avoid precipitate Leaders for though the service of hot Spirits may be sometimes prosperous yet in this temperate cause their conduct is pernicious And there is as much reason to avoid such Leaders as care not or at least consider not what they do against the common interest of Christianity to advance a particular Form or Party But above all beware of such persons whose apparent worldly interests lead them to adhere to some divided Party to cherish Faction If much be committed into such hands we shall be lead into a wrong course or disabled to follow the right though we see it plain before us Yea the cause of Religion will be inthralled to the service of a Faction and be left with disgrace enough when men have serv'd their turns of it A people of honest zeal may easily be over-credulous of great and powerfull men that pretend to favour Religion and take it into their Patronage Yet the more discerning sort will look to it that while Grandees retain them with such favour and Friendship they overact them not to the dishonor and dammage of this Profession which is more worthy than to be held in vassalage and made to lackey after corrupt designs and more noble than to bear such indignity It is good for the younger sort of Professors to reverence the ancient and more experienced and for all sorts in their choice of Guides and Patterns to prefer solid judgment with integrity of Life and Conversation before taking parts heat of zeal and high affections Amidst diversities of Parties and Persuasions it is safe to hold communion with the generality of Serious and Pious Christians and yet to receive with love the several disagreeing Parties who for the main walk in the truth and to have
Lot of inheritance in the glory of it doth not value the concerns thereof above all his chief joys that are but of this World A zeal for the common Faith and a constraning love to all the Faithfull hath excited a very mean and weak one to do what he was able on this important Subject impartially searching after their common good Let the Prince of this Society one of whose names is Counsellour deliver his Flock from all dangerous and disadvantageous error and from wandring in broken Parties by unstable and divided Counsels and shew them graciously the right way of maintaining a consistency among themselves and of gaining upon the reconcilable part of men And forasmuch as this Prince and Leader is the Lamb of God whose Banner is Love let his people every where be acted by the Spirit of Love and shew forth the meekness of Wisdom in all good Conversation with Humility Patience and Long-suffering having this Principle deeply imprinted in them The Wrath of Man worketh not the Righteousness of God The point of CHURCH-UNITY AND SCHISM Discuss'd CHAP. I. Of the Church and its Polity THe Church is a Spiritual Common-wealth which according to its primary and invisible State is a Society of regenerate Persons who are joyned to the Lord Christ their Head and one to another as fellow Members by a mystical Union through the Holy Spirit and are justified Sanctified and adopted to the inheritance of Eternal Life but according to its secondary and visible state it is a Society of Persons professing Christianity or Regeration and externally joyned to Christ and to one another by the Symbals of that Profession and made partakers of the external priviledges thereunto belonging There is one Catholick Church which according to the invisible Form is the whole company of true Believers throughout the World and according to its visible Form is the whole company of visible Believers throughout the World or Believers according to human judgment This Church hath one Head and Supream Lord even Christ and one Charter and System of Laws the Word of God and Members that are free Denizons of the whole Society and one Form of Admission or solemn Initiation for its Members and one kind of Ministery and Ecclesiastical Power This Church hath not the power of its own Fundamental Constitution or of the Laws and Officers and Administrations intrinsecally belonging to it but hath received all these from Christ its Head King and Lawgiver and is limited by him in them all Nevertheless it hath according to the capacity of its acting that is according to its several parts a power of making Secondary Laws or Canons either to impress the Laws of Christ upon its Members or to regulate circumstantials and accidentals in Religion by determining things necessary in genere not determined of Christ in specie As the Scripture sets forth one Catholick Church so also many particular Churches as so many Political Societies distinct from each other yet all compacted together as parts of that one ample Society the Catholick Church Each of these particular Churches have their proper Elder or Elders Pastor or Pastors having authority of teaching and ruling them in Christs name An Ecclesiastical Order of Presbyters or Elders that are not Bishops is not found in holy Scripture For all Presbyters or Elders being of a sacred Order in the Gospel Church that are any where mentioned in Scripture are therein set forth as Bishops truly and properly so called and are no where set forth as less than Bishops These Elders or Bishops are Personally to Superintend all their Flock and there is no grant from Christ to discharge the same by Delegates or Substitutes A distinction between Bishops and Presbyters and a Superiority of the former over the latter was after the Scripture times anciently and generally received in the Christian Church Yet it was not a diversity of Orders or Offices essentially different but of degrees in the same Office the essential nature whereof is in both The Bishop of the first Ages was a Bishop not of a multitude of Churches but of one stated Ecclesiastical Society or single Church whereof he was an immediate Pastor and he performed the work of a Bishop or immediate Pastor towards them all in his own Person and not by Delegates and Substitutes and he governed not alone but in conjunction with the Presbyters of his Church he being the President Though several Cities in the same Kingdom have their different municipal Laws and Priviledges according to the diversity of their Charters yet particular Churches have no Divine Laws and Priviledges diverse from each other but the same in common to them all because they have all the same Charter in specie from Christ. Therefore each of them have the same power of Government within themselves And the qualifications requisite to make men Members or Ministers of the Universal Church do according to Christs Law sufficiently qualifie them to be Members or Ministers of any particular Church to which they have a due and orderly call Local presential Communion in Gods Ordinances being a main end of erecting particular Churches they should in all reason consist of Persons who by their cohabitation in a vicinity are capable of such Communion and there may not be a greater local distance of the Persons than can stand with it A Bishops Church was anciently made up of the Christians of a City or Town and the adjacent Villages who might and did Personally meet together both for Worship and Discipline All Christians of the same local Precinct are most conveniently brought into one and the same stated Church that there might be the greatest Union among them and that the occasion of straggling and running into several Parties might be avoided Yet this local partition of Churches is not of absolute necessity and invariable but if there be some insuperable impediment thereof the partition must be made as the state of things will admit No Bishop or Pastor can by Divine right or warrant claim any assigned circuit of Ground as his propriety for Ecclesiastical Government as a Prince claims certain Territories as his propriety for Civil Government so that no other Bishop or Pastor may without his Licence do the work of the Ministery in any case whatsoever within that Circuit It is not the conjunction of a Bishop or Pastor with the generallity or the greater number of the People that of it self declares the only rightfull Pastor or true Church within this or that Circuit For many causes may require and justifie the being of other Churches therein Seeing particular Churches are so many integral parts of the Catholick Church and stand in need of each others help in things that concern them joyntly and severally and they have all an influence on each other the Law of Nature leads them to Associations or Combinations greater and lesser according to their capacities And the orderly state that is requisite in all Associations doth naturally require some regular
the Spirit among Christians is witnessed maintained and strengthened by their holy communion of Love and Peace one with another but is darkened weakened and lessened by their uncharitable Dissentions Hence it is evident that the Unity here commended is primarily that of the Church in its internal and invisible State or the Union and Communion of Saints having in themselves the Spirit and Life and Power of Christianity T is the unity of the Spirit we are charged to keep in the bond of Peace But concord in any external order with a vital Union with Christ and holy Souls his living members is not the unity of the Spirit which is to partake of the same new Nature and Divine Life Secondarily it is the Unity of the Church in its external and visible State which is consequent and subservient to the internal and stands in the profession and appearance of it in the professed observation of the duties arising from it Where there is not a credible Profession of Faith unfeigned and true Holiness there is not so much as the external and visible Unity of the Spirit Therefore a sensual Earthly generation of men who are apparently lead by the Spirit of the World and not by the Spirit that is of God have little cause to glory in their adhering to an external Church order whatsoever it be Holy love which is unselfed and impartial is the Life and Soul of this unity without which it is but a dead thing as the Body without the Soul is dead And this love is the bond of perfectness that Cement that holds altogether in this mystical Society For this being seated in the several members disposeth them to look not to their own things but also to the things of others and not to the undue advancement of a Party but to the common good of the whole Body Whosoever wants this love hath no vital Union with Christ and the Church and no part in the Communion of Saints The Church is much more ennobled strengthened and every way blessed by the Communion of holy love among all its living members or real Christians than by an outside uniformity in the minute circumstances or accidental modes of Religion By this love it is more beautifull and lovely in the eyes of all intelligent beholders than by outward pomp and ornament or any worldly splendor The Unity of the Church as visible whether Catholick or particular may be considered in a three-fold respect or in three very different points The first and chief point thereof is in the essentials and all weighty matters of Christian Faith and Life The second and next in account is in the essentials and integrals of Church state that is in the Christian Church-Worship Ministery and Discipline considered as of Christs institution and abstracted from all things superadded by men The third and lowest point is in those extrinsecal and accidental Forms and Orders of Religion which are necessary in genere but left in specie to human determination Of these several points of Unity there is to be a different valuation according to their different value Our first and chief regard is due to the first and chief point which respects Christian Faith and Life The next regard is due to that which is next in value that which respects the very constitution or frame of a Church And regard is to be had of that also which respects the accidentals of Religion yet in its due place and not before things of greater weight and worth Things are of a very different nature and importance to the Churches good Estate and a greater or lesser stress must be laid upon Unity in them as the things themselves are of greater or lesser moment The Rule or Law of Church Unity is not the will of man but the will of God Whosoever keeps that Unity which hath Gods word for its Rule keeps the Unity of the Spirit And whosoever boasts of a Unity that is not squared by this Rule his boasting is but vain An Hypothesis that nothing in the Service of God is lawfull but what is expresly prescribed in Scripture is by some falsly ascribed to a sort of men who earnestly contend for the Scriptures sufficiency and perfection for the regulating of Divine Worship and the whole state of Religion God in his Word hath prescribed all those parts of his Worship that are necessary to be performed to him He hath likewise therein instituted those Officers that are to be the Administrators of his publick Worship in Church Assemblies and hath defined the authority and duty of those Officers and all the essentials and integrals of Church state As for the circumstantials and accidentals belonging to all the things aforesaid he hath laid down general Rules for the regulation thereof the particulars being both needless and impossible to be enumerated and defined In this point God hath declared his mind Deut. 4. 2. Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you neither shall ye diminish ought from it Deut. 12. 32. What soever thing I command you observe to do it Thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish from it The prohibition is not meerly of altering the Rule Gods written Word by addition or diminution but of doing more or less than the Rule required as the precept is not of preserving the Rule but of observing what is commanded in it Such human institutions in Divine Worship as be in meer subserviency to Divine institutions for the necessary and convenient modifying and ordering thereof are not properly additions to Gods commandments For they are of things which are not of the same nature end and use with the things which God hath commanded but of meer circumstantials and accidentals belonging to those things And these circumstantials are in genere necessary to the performance of Divine Institutions and are generally commanded in the Word though not in particular but are to be determined in specie by those to whom the power of such determination belongs They that assert and stand to this only Rule provide best for the Unity of Religion and the Peace of the Church For they are ready to reject whatsoever they find contrary to this Rule they are more easily kept within the bounds of acceptable Worship and all warrantable obedience they lay the greatest weight on things of the greatest worth and moment they carefully regard all Divine institutions and whatsoever God hath commanded and they maintain Love and Peace and mutual forbearance towards one another in the more inconsiderable diversities of Opinion and Practice Those things that are left to human determination the Pastors Bishops or Elders did anciently determine for their own particular Churches And indeed it is very reasonable and naturally convenient that they who are the Administrators of Divine institutions and have the conduct of the People in Divine Worship and know best what is most expedient for their own Society should be intrusted with the determination of necessary circumstances within their