Selected quad for the lemma: opinion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
opinion_n	cry_v	faith_n	subordination_n	56	3	16.1754	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76988	The arraignment of errour: or, A discourse serving as a curb to restrain the wantonnesse of mens spirits in the entertainment of opinions; and as a compasse, whereby we may sail in the search and finding of truth; distributed into six main questions. Quest. 1. How it may stand with Gods, with Satans, with a mans own ends, that there should be erroneous opinions? Quest. 2. What are the grounds of abounding errours? Quest. 3. Why so many are carried away with errour? Quest. 4. Who those are that are in danger? Quest. 5. What are the examens, or the trials of opinions, and characters of truth? Quest. 6. What waies God hath left in his Word for the suppressing of errour, and reducing of erroneous persons? Under which generall questions, many other necessary and profitable queries are comprized, discussed, and resolved. And in conclusion of all; some motives, and means, conducing to an happy accommodation of our present differences, are subjoyned. / By Samuel Bolton minister of the Word of God at Saviours-Southwark.	Bolton, Samuel, 1606-1654.	1646 (1646)	Wing B3517; Thomason E318_1; ESTC R200547	325,527	388

God which yet are enemies to the justice and holinesse of God Certainly faith and holinesse ever goe together even as heat and light in the Sunne c. And that opinion which doth not advance all God is certainly an errour If you single out some attribute● ●nd tell us this or that opinion is for the glorie of them if yet it be inconsistent with other attributes of God certainly it is no truth of God All divine truth hath not only a consistency with but tends to the advancement of every attribute of God That a man should be justified and saved by Christ here is the grand truth and here all the attributes of God meet here is wisdome mercy justice truth power grace holinesse all meet in this as lines in the Center as beams in the Sunne as Rivers in the Sea God and all God is advanced in the justification and salvation of poor miserable man So much for the first 2. As truth doth advance the nature and attributes of God so it doth advance the will of God by this doth Christ evidence that his words were true Joh. 5.30 Therefore my judgement is just because I seek not mine own will but the will of him that sent me If Christ who was truth essentiall doth evidence the truth of his Doctrine thus how much more may we evidence the doctrine of truth by this that it advanceth the will of God It sets up Gods will above the will of the creature it sets up his revealed will above all the authorities of men above all traditions what ever Now if we should examine opinions by this 1. There is an opinion that man hath freedom of will to spirituall good Is this a truth yea or no Why here you may be satisfied this tells you it is an errour because it advanceth not the will of God but the will of man I say it advanceth mans will but not the will of God it is a doctrin overthrows all the counsels of God if this were so where were election reprobation then the will of the creature should rule the will of God And as this opinion is contrary to Gods secret so this opinion is repugnant to the revealed will of God he tells us that it is God that worketh the will and the deed and that without him we can doe nothing that it is not in him that willeth or in him that runneth but in God that sheweth mercy So that this opinion is opposite both to Gods secret and his revealed will both to his decree and to his Word 3. Divine truth as it advanceth the attributes the will of God so it doth advance the waies of God It advanceth obedience exact obedience it advanceth duty and exactnesse in duty though it set not duty above Christ nor in opposition to Christ though it set not up obedience above faith nor in opposition to faith yet it advanceth duty in Christ and obedience with faith the obedience of faith justifies our persons but the obedience from faith doth justifie our faith There are many opinions which cry up grace but de-cry holines that advance faith but cry downe obedience that set up Christ but cry downe the Law Indeed we all cry them downe in opposition to Christ and grace but we set them up in subordination And indeed there is a sweet subordination between the Law and the Gospell Christ and obedience The Law sends us to the Gospel and the Gospel having justified us sends us to the Law as the rule of our obedience I say the Law sends us to the Gospel for it cannot justify it cannot save Indeed it saith Doe this and live But not that we should doe and live by doing for God hath appointed another way but it saith Do this and live to empty us of our selves and bring us over to the Gospel that we might live and doe There may be a fault to put men to doing before they put them to beleeving or to put them to doe that they may be enabled to beleeve for faith is the rise and spring of action all action must begin from faith and by faith we are enabled to obey as it was said of Abraham Heb. 11. by faith Abraham obeyed and we are said to be created in Christ to good works there can be no doing without strength no strength but from Christ nothing from Christ but by union no union but by faith therefore the Apostle saith He that hath the Sonne hath life and he that hath not the Sonne hath not life all which seemes to speake plainly that it is no good way to turne men to obeying before they put men to beleeving nor to put men to obeying that they may be enabled to beleeving But yet though we are not to put men to duty to enable them by any power in those duties to beleeve yet may we must we put men upon faith to enable them to obey though we may not substitute faith to obedience yet we ought to substitute obedience to faith And indeed it is the noblest piece of faith that it doth enable us to service The excellency of faith is not in this only that it justifies us but puts us into a capacity and gives us ability to serve God And he that lookes not upon faith as that wherein it 's excellency doth greatly consist that it doth enable us to duty that it strengthens us to service he doth not yet know what Christ and faith is he hath only a faith in notion but knows not faith in truth and power And so much for the second divine truth it advanceth all God the nature and attributes of God the will of God the wayes of God We come to the third Thirdly It doth all this in Christ I say divine truth it advanceth all God in Christ God hath set himselfe to be advanced and glorious to the creature to all eternity but in Christ Indeed all God is no other way to be advanced but in Christ nor hath God set himselfe to be wholly advanced any other way of the creature but in Christ Something of God is to be seen in every creature and something of God to be advanced in them much of God is to be seen and advanced in the whole creation the Heavens they declare the wisedome the power of God and he sets himselfe to be advanced in them the law declares the justice holines of God But now Christ declares all God you may see God in all his dimensions of glory in Christ In him hath God set himselfe to be visible in all his glory to the Saints In him dwels all the fulnes of the godhead bodily fulnes all fulnes all the fulnes of the godhead and all this dwells in him it is in him primarily originally it is in him as the proprietary as the Lord and master to dispose of it c. It is in him perpetually there it dwells and dwells for ever And in Christ hath God set himselfe to be seen in all his

either this doth fill his spirit with horrour to heare it and so doth awaken him and puts him upon reading praying studying searching or else he is carried away with the streame of the temptation and if not openly yet he ●acitely subscribes to the thing though he speakes not out witnesse the casting off that feare that awe that care he had before And thus Satan comes to Atheist men if he doe not awaken and unatheist you by this he will certainly Atheist you more 2. To discourage and take off the heart of men from doing any thing As it doth weaken the beliefe of truths so it wounds the practise of them much more if men faile in principles they will not long hold out in practise if in rebus credendis things to be beleeved surely in agendis of things to be done Men you know will not labour and take paines for that which they have no beliefe of you shall heare men discouraged and taken off from plaine common duties praying hearing reading why will a man say I see all I doe to no purpose I have done this and that I have prayed gone to Church walked in such and such wayes and now all this is cried downe there are opinions abroad which throw down all these as nothing and therefore as good to sit still and doe nothing as to doe all this and to no purpose 3. It may stand with Satans ends that there should be multitude of erronious opinions I say not only some errors but many should abound that he may the better suite himselfe to the tempers of men every fish is not to be caught with the same bait some with one and some with an●ther therfore the cunning Fisherman doth suite his baites to the fishes he angles for So every man is not carried away with the same error some are led aside with one and some with another there is a dissonancy between a man and some errours scelera dissident and therefore Satan he hath multitudes and variety of errours abroad to suit with every mans temper of lust As it is with errours of conversation every one is not carried away with the same lusts that may be lovely to one which is no way pleasing to another the covetous man he will not be prodigall and a spend thrift c. and therefore Satan suites temptations to the temper of spirit in men So it is with errours of judgement every one is not seduced and led aside with the same errour c. and therefore it suits with Satans ends not only to have errours but many errours on foote that he may have a bait for every mans temper provision for every mans lust As the lusts of life are diversified you see the Apostle tells us that wicked men served divers lusts Tit. 3.3 for we our selves were disobedient serving divers lusts they are diversified according to the measure of understanding according to notions received according to tempers of men relations interests and diversity of wayes men are ingaged in Every man is not carried away with the same bait temptation nor lust some are carried away with grosse lusts lusts of life and practise men of grosse and beastly temper sensuall men others againe of finer tempers and spirits that must be undone a finer way a more spiritfull way the grosse way is too low for them and here he hath the lusts of the understanding and yet every one of these are not taking with all some are taken with one errour some with another according to the difference of knowledge and understanding and the command of some lust in the heart And therefore Satan hath multitude of errours on foote that he may suite temptations to the tempers of men Non promotus sed expertum doctor Luth. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 2.14 Rev. ● 24 2 Cor. 3.2 14. And hence he is called a Serpent a wily creature yea and the old Serpent and his temptations the depths wiles methods of Satan You had need to take heed of him if he see a man conscientious he will not goe about with grosse temptations to corrupt him for there he thinks it will be labour in vaine but he endeavours to corrupt the understanding with errours and such as are agreeable and correspondent to the conscientiousnesse of his spirit as I might shew at large 4. A fourth end that Satan hath to the wicked in multitude of errours it is to corrupt them and defile them more errour is of a corrupting and defiling nature Satan labours all he can to corrupt the soules of men and his chiefe designe is to corrupt the fountaine the understanding He doth not so much care for to corrupt a man in his practise as to corrupt a man in his principle to corrupt a man in his life as to corrupt a man in his judgement he knowes an erronious head will quickly come to a sinfull life Mens lives are but squared according to notions received and impressions of things retained in the understanding As true notions doe help to frame a good life so false notions are serviceable to a bad the one is the seede of a holy the other of a sinfull life so that though you could not know truth and falshood in the seede in notion yet you might know it in the fruit in the conversation Men act surely according to their principles received if there be not a bridle and restraint upon them by something without And therfore if Satan can but corrupt a mans understanding he knowes such a man he will be sure for him he will sin without reluctance without check or disturbance If a man have some true notions or light in his understanding though for the present his life be bad and he be carried away with strength of temptation yet Satan is not so sure of this man as of the other he knowes so long as this light is in him he will not sin so fully if he sin yet not without controle and check and he is in danger to loose him at every turne Satan is ill troubled with a man sound in judgement though corrupt in life either the light in his understanding will overcome his darknesse in life or the darknesse in his life will overcome the light in his understanding and the combates such a soule finds makes Satan he cannot yet conclude which shall have the day But now if he can corrupt the understanding if he can pollute the spirit the refined part of man then he knowes this man is sure he can bring this man to maintaine his sinne yea and argue for it and doe all this with shew of religion I told you a corrupt heart will breed a corrupt judgement in time but a corrupt judgement will presently work a corrupt life A man that hath his understanding yet preserved he doth not work regularly in a way of sin he is off and on as his lust doth prevaile but now the other he walkes uniforme he is alwayes the same

is charity in hell it was not out of love to their soules but love to himselfe because he had corrupted them with his life and practise before and had left a bad example behind him which they followed and therefore he desired that they might if not be saved for that I think a damned soule cannot desire yet that they might not for his cause and example be brought into that place of torment because this would be the increase of his torment too as he was guilty by his example and practise of the murthering and undoing of their soules It should be a caveat to you how you live and walke least the example of the husband the father the master be the undoing of the wife the child the servant and the increase of your torment too Your examples will prevaile more to their undoing then all our rules for their saving It is a fearefull thing by our examples to draw others to destruction when your children and servants shall see you walke in a way of sin they themselves are drawne aside and undone by your examples There are many have so much in them that though they will sweare and drinke themselves yet they will not allow it in their children their servants but if thou wouldst not have them walke in the same way of sin leave not such a sinfull example behind thee But this by the way It suits with Satans ends that men should broach erronious opinions for the increase of their torments Which it doth not only directly and in it selfe but indirectly and by consequent contracting the guilt of soule murther from those who are undone with their precepts and poisonous doctrines And thus Satan deales with all his servants they who doe him most service shall have most torment those who have been his statists designed all for him or his engineeres to act all for him this is the reward he gives them greater torment soarer damnation the deepest cellars and darkest vaults of hell are reserved for such persons But mistake me not I speake not this of all kind of errours in judgement what man is he that erreth not All errours are sinfull but all errours are not damning all errours are hurtfull but all errours are not destructive and undoing errours I told you there were some errours which were building errours and some which were fundamentall errours as the Apostle speakes 1 Cor. 3.10 11 12 c. In the one the work shall be burnt in the other the workeman one shall be saved but so saved as by fire the other shall be destroyed in fire work and workman person and errours shall perish together 1 Cor. 3.13 14 15. And thus I have done with two of the first generals propounded and shew'd you how it may stand with Gods ends and how with Satans ends to suffer errours abroad We come now to the third how it may stand with mans ends It may then stand with mans ends also that there should be multitude of dangerous and erronious opinions The men with whose ends it may stand may be distinguished into three kinds 1. The contrivers 2. The actors 3. The abettors I shall only speake to two of them 3. It may stand with mans ends 1. Those that are the Contrivers of this designe to set on foot errours it may stand with their ends There are two maine ends the common adversary hath 1. To blast the truth 1. To divide the professors of it 1. Their end is to blast the truth to bring the truth of religion into disrespect among men to render the professors giddy and unstable and their profession unsound and unorthodox Doe not our enemies within our selves take advantage to cry down the truth to blast reformation and to bring religion into disrespect by the multitude of opinions that are abroad It may be they themselves have been the envious men have sowen tares and whe● they have done they tell us it is because the watchmen who were ever asleepe are taken away doe they not take occasion to blast the truth and to say that their oppugners are a sort of giddy and unstable empty and illiterate men who are certaine in nothing but uncertainty and stedfast in nothing but unstedfastnesse Anabaptists Brownists Antinomians And is it not the same argument their elder brethren hold forth doe not the Papists argue our religion to be unsound and indeavour to bring the truth into disrespect by telling men of so many opinions so much difference as there is among those who are the prefessors of it doe they not say our religion is divided into factions Lutherans Calvinists Arminians Socinians some of which differences they themselves have contrived and set on foote to bring religion into disrespect and to render it of lesse credit by reason of the multitude of divisions among us though all agree in this that theirs is false and erronious 2. A second end they have and that is to divide the professors of the truth Si sumus inseperabiles sumus in superabiles If we are unseparable we are unconquerable and therefore it is the Machivillian designe divide vince divide and conquer and hence it suits well with their designe that there should be a multitude of opinions that thereby the professors of the truth might be divided amongst themselves It was frequently observed in the raigne of the Bishops that those that were called non-conformists were farre worse handled then those who were called Brownists one would think this strange that they should deale better with them that said they were no Church then with those who said they were a Church but corrupted that they who cried their government down for Antichristian should fare better then they who only said it wanted reformation what should be the reason of it sure they were greater enemies that strooke against their being then they were who desired only reformation not unbeing But here was the businesse they liked division well enough and they feared one side it was too great but they slighted the other and therefore would rather countenance them in designe then suppresse them because all this served to weaken them that were their terrour And in this also they agree with them of Rome who send forth their Emissaries Jesuits Priests who shall turne Socinians c. and other opinions on purpose to divide the reformed Churches among themselves that so they may drive their mils with our breath and use our hands to doe their work and this designe hath been too successefull in the Netherlands especially in Socinianisme which was broached as is reported by a Jesuit on purpose to divide them So you see it stands with mans ends 1. The Contrivers 2. It stands with mans end the broachers and actors of this St John divides all that is in the world into lusts of the flesh lust of the eye and pride of life 1 Joh. 2.16 And I may ranke all the men in it into these three 1. Some are proud and ambitious

the minde of God nor doe I reject the minde of God because such reveal it I look not to hear all truth from them The secrets of the Lord are alone with them who fear him nor shall I hear of many sincerely made known and those which are revealed I take them not as theirs but Gods and close with them not because they reveal them but because God hath revealed them I doubt not but men of corrupt hearts and lives may publish many truths though they know few as they ought the truths they publish are generall God doth impart no secrets to them they know nothing of the workings of God and the grounds of publishing them they are for pride and ostentation the end that by this work they might have their gain they walk in this way as you doe in your trade with mercenary spirits not with holy and spirituall hearts And this I thought necessary to premise and now we come to the answer of the Question viz. Whether the loosnesse and wickednesse of the maintainers of an opinion be not a sufficient discovery that the opinion maintained is an errour And I answer though often times it is a probable ground yet it is not alwaies an infallible evidence To the infallible judgement of an errour by the lives and conversations of those that maintain it we are to observe ●●ese rules Rule 1. See what agreement there is between his judgment Rule 1 and his practice between his opinion and his walking it may be there is a contradiction between his life and his judgement his judgement speaks one thing and his life another now if so you are not able to evidence his opinion to be an errour though his life be wicked But if on the contrary you see an agreement between his practice and principles between his life and opinion between his judgement and conversation then may we conclude it to be an errour that is certainly an errour that agrees with loose and sinfull walking Rule 2. If you would judge of mens doctrino by their sinfull Rule 2 practice see what influence his opinion hath to such practices if his opinion doth necessarily or by way of consequence lead to sinfulnesse of life it is certainly an erroneous opinion for example to take men off the performance of duty to cry down the Law as a rule of obedience it is an opinion that doth necessarily lead to libertinisme and sinfulnesse of life men that will be tyed to no Rule will ere long be under no command men that neglect the practice of holinesse will quickly fall into the practice of sin they who will not doe what they should doe will quickly doe that which they should not doe Rule 3 Rule 3. If you would judge of mens doctrines by their practices then see whether this be a personall failing of one in the way or an universall aberration of all in the way It is possible for men to fail and erre in a way of truth David was in a way of truth and yet had he many grosse failings It was the usuall argument that wicked men have had against the waies of God they have taken occasion by the sins of profession to fall upon profession it self the Apostle complains that men who lived scandalously were enemies to the crosse of Christ and caused the waies of God to be blasphemed Indeed many men have fallen and fallen foully but yet their way hath not countenanced but condemned them for it their judgement had no influence into their sinfull practice the doctrine is pure and holy and good and could have no influence into a sinfull life Nor hath their failings been universall but personall though some have fallen in the way yet God hath preserved others holy and made many of them who have fallen the better for their sins you are not to be led by practice but by precept not example but rule It is possible for some persons that hold such an opinion or doctrine to fail in it but when the corruption cleaves to all that walk in the way it is a dangerous Symptoms of the way to be erroneous Rule 4 Rule 4. If you would judge of an opinion by practice of men or of a doctrine to be erroneous by the loosnesse of the maintainers then see whether that loosnesse doe arise from the errour of their judgement or from the corruption of their affections see whether it doe arise from his opinion or from his corruptions whether from the unsoundnesse of his head or the unsoundnes of his heart There are many errours in life which yet have not their rise from errour in understanding but from corruption in the affection it may be the light within them doth judge and condemn such waies and them for them but yet they are over-powred by the violence and impetuousnesse of their lusts and corruptions which carries them head-long against all the checks of conscience and gain-saying of their understanding To conclude then this Question the wickednesse and loosnesse of those who are the maintainers of an opinion is enough to evidence an opinion to be erroneous 1. If there be an agreement between his judgement and practice between his opinion and walking but not if one contradict the other 2. If his opinion have an influence into such evil practices or by way of necessary consequence carries on to such waies 3. If those practices be universall of all that walk in it not if personall and particular 4. If his sinfull life be the issue of and flow from his corrupt judgement not if it arise from a corrupt heart And in these cases it will be easie to judge that the doctrine is erroneous And this shall satisfie for answer to this Question we come to the next Question Qu. 4. Whether the strictnesse and holinesse of those who are the maintainers and entertainers the publishers and receivers of an opinion be not enough to discover the opinion or doctrine to be a truth Before I come to the Answer I must tell you that this hath been the great Episcopall argument for their Diana a Ego nunquam credam Ambrosium Augustinū reliqu●sque sanctos patres Episcopatum tyrannicum gerere voluisse Sar. I can never believe saith one that Ambrose and Augustine and the rest of the holy Fathers would have taken upon them the office of a Bishop if it had not been lawfull b Absit longè à piis mentibus ut veterem ecclesiae formam ut tot summae pietatis eruditionis episcopos Athanasios Augustinos Chrysostomos Basilios Nazianzaenos accusare audeant tyrannidis cū puritanis Scul Hier. Anac l. 10. c. 23 p. 65. Farre be it from me saith another to thinke that the ancient forme of the Church and so many godly and renowned men Bishops should be thought tyrannicall or that such holy and learned men should be in such an errour And it is that is pleaded in many things that now wax old and are wearing away the

have yet another which is of great moment also and I have then done with this discourse The sixth and last Quaery is this viz. Quest 6. What waies God hath left us in his Word for the suppressing of errour and reducing of erroneous persons A Question certainly of great concernment among all the contentions of the times I know none of greater concernment then this viz. What are the boundaries of opinions It were a sad thing as our case stands if there were no bounds for errours and as fearfull a thing to goe beyond Gods bounds for the suppressing of them Certainly there are some means warranted and anointed of God for such ends but what those means are and where they are to be bounded there is all the controversie I finde learned and godly men differing each from other in this point and * Augustinus retractavit pristinam sententiam fuam quâ existimavit contra haereticos n●hil vi agen●um esse Aug. retract l 2. cap. 2.5 Epist 48 50. some also differing from themselves afterwards retracting what formerly they have held forth for truth in this point witnesse Augustines retractations Indeed it is a tender point it concerns the conscience a tender part against which who that hath any thing of God in him but trembles to sinne and who doth not fear to injure and offend It is a point of great subtilty which most cannot discern there are many labyrinths many winding subtilties in it and it is of no lesse intricacy having many other subtile and intricate disputes complicated and folded up in it Two of the main subtilties are founded upon those two places of Scripture one the 2 Cor. 13.12 We know but in part the other Rom. 14.23 What ever is not of faith is sin From both which it is argued We know but in part There will be difference in opinions these opinions have power on the conscience for what ever a man hath received he is bound to walk in it and who ever recedes from what he hath received for truth either for fear or for favour he sinnes against his conscience For what ever is not of faith is sinne Again we know but in part therefore no Councels on earth are infallible if not then may they err if they may err it is certainly our duty to try prove their determinations before we do approve them if our duty to try them then it is our duty to assent or dissent to them as those determinations shall appear to us to be consonant or dissonant to the Word of God and if it be our duty to assent or dissent as those results and determinations shall be evidenced to us to be or not to be of God then how can it be the duty of any to compell us to the contrary or to punish us for the doing of that which is our duty It is a controversie full of subtilties and intricacies and it is diversly asserted and as differently maintained according to the different apprehensions principles interests and ingagements of men Some cry up liberty for all opinions Others and most decry that Some would have a toleration or an allowance for lesser differences only Others doe rather desire an accommodation then a toleration and that differences may rather be healed and composed then allowed and tolerated among us Men are divers in their thoughts their thoughts being for the most part diversified according to the proportions and latitudes of their differences in opinions from generall received truths Men of lesser difference in opinion pleading only for a mercifull allowance of some Those of wider difference contending for a liberty of all opinions To both which we shall speak something in the following discourse For the present let us return to our Question propounded viz. What waies God hath l●ft us in his Word for the suppressing of errour and reducing of erroneous persons For the answer to which we shall in brief comprize those waies under two generall heads 1. Ecclesiasticall 2. Civil Both which we shall clear to be warranted and allowed of God to these ends viz. The suppressing of errour and the reducing of erroneous persons We shall begin with the first 1. First then there are some means ecclesiasticall which God hath warranted for these ends And herein we shall finde few to differ from us most concurring in this that God hath warranted some means in his Church for this end though indeed there is some dispute what those means are but there needs nor any among us for we freely concurre with any that those means which God hath appointed in his Church are of a spirituall nature and influence we utterly cast out and abominate all corporall or crumenall mulcts and say the Church hath no power to punish the body or to lay fines upon the estate or to deal with men at all as they stand in any civil or worldly respects The Church of Christ owns no such weapons in her warfare * Gregor de V●lent in m ●ae disp 1. q. 11. punct 3. Azor. instit moral Tom. 1. l. 8. c. 14. It is for the man of sin to propagate his way and suppresse his adversaries with such fleshie weapons The Church of Christ knows not how to use any externall violence or outward force either to advance truth or suppresse errour though the Church be in readinesse to revenge all disobedience as the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 10.6 2 Cor. 10.6 yet not by such carnall weapons in such fleshie waies as these are Christ tells us that his Kingdome is not of this world And the Apostle tells us 2 Cor. 10.3 4 5. 2 Cor. 10.3 4 5. The weapons of our warfare they are not carnall but spirituall and mighty through God for the pulling down of strong-holds and bringing every thought in obedience to Christ So that spirituall means and remedies are onely to be used in the kingdom of Christ the Church of God For all other 1. They are improper not only in respect of the persons that are to u●e them but improper in their own nature And that because 1. They are externall means and those are too short for internall maladies 2. Besides they are heterogeneall they are diversi generis of a divers and different kinde the one carnall the other spiritual the object of one the body the estate of the other the soul and conscience 2. And secondly these were never ordained never appointed of God for such ends in his Church We cannot exp●ct Gods blessing upon any thing further then it hath Gods ordination Now these were never ordained and anointed of Christ as means to be used in his Church and Kingdome for such an end and therefore there can be no blessing expected on them 3. Besides these means are unsutable to the ends to which they are intended fleshie means are unsutable to bring about spirituall ends the end of all Church Ordinances are not ruine but amendment not destruction but edification as the Apostle