the dangerous guilt of Adding to the Word of God under pretence of strict expounding it and defending its perfection and extent 3. By the same Rule as they deal thus by one Text as the second Command they may do so by all And if all or much of the Scripture were but thus expounded I leave it to the sober Reader to consider what a body of Divinity it would make us and what a Religion we should have 4. It altereth the very Definition of the holy Scripture and maketh it another thing That which God made to be the Record of his holy Covenant and the Law and Rule of Faith and Holiness and the General Law for outward Modes and Circumstances which are but Accidents of Worship is pretended by men to be a particular Law for that which it never particularly medleth with 5. It sorely prepareth men for Infidelity and to deny the Divine Authority of the Scripture and utterly to undo all by overdoing If Satan could but once make men believe that the Scripture is a Rule for those things that are not to be found in it at all and which God never made it to be a Rule for he will next argue against it as a delusory and imperfect thing He will teach every Artificer to say That which is an imperfect Rule is not of God But the Scripture is an imperfect Rule For saith the Watch-maker I cannot learn to make a Watch by it saith the Scrivener I cannot make a Legal Bond or Indentures by it saith the Carpenter I cannot build a House by it saith the Physician I cannot sufficiently know or cure Diseases by it saith the Mathematician Astronomer Geographer Musician Arithmetician the Grammarian Logician Natural Philosopher c. it is no perfect particular Rule of our Arts or Sciences The Divine will say It tells me not sufficiently and particularly what Books in it self are Canonical nor what various Readings are the right nor whether every Text be brought to us uncorrupted nor whether it be to be divided into Chapters and Verses and into how many Nor what Metre or Tune I must sing a Psalm in nor what persons shall be Pastors of the Churches nor what Text I shall choose next nor what Words I shall use in my next Sermon or Prayer with abundance such like Only in General both Nature and Scripture say Let all things be done in Order and to Edification c. Spiritually Purely Believingly Wisely Zealously Constantly c. He that believeth it to be given as such a particular Rule and then findeth that it is silent or utterly insufficient to that use is like next to cast it away as a delusion and turn an Infidel or Anti-scripturist 6. This mistake tendeth to cast all Rational Worship out of the Church and World by deterring men from inventing or studying how to do Gods work aright For if all that man inventeth or deviseth be a forbidden Image than we must not invent or find out by study the true meaning of a Text the true method of Praying or Preaching according to the various subjects Nay we must not study what to say till we are speaking nor what Time Place Gesture Words to use no nor the very English Tongue that we must Pray and Preach in Whereas the Scripture it self-requireth us to meditate day and night to study to shew our selves workmen that need not be ashamed to search and dig for knowledge c. Do they not err that devise evil but mercy and truth shall be to them that devise good Prov. 14. 22. I Wisdom dwell with Prudence or subtilty and find out knowledge of witty inventions Prov. 8. 12. The Preacher sought to find out acceptable words Eccles. 12. 10. Banish study and you banish knowledge and Religion from the world The Spirit moveth us to search and study and thereby teacheth us what to judge and say and do and doth not move us as I play on an Instrument that knoweth not what it doth 7. This Opinion will bring in all Confusion instead of pure reasonable Worship While every man is left to find that in the Scripture which never was there and that as the only Rule of his actions one will think that he findeth one thing there and another another thing For it must be Reality and Verity which must be the term of Unity Men cannot agree in that which is not 8. Yea it will let in impiety and error for when men are sent to seek and find that which is not there every man will think that he findeth that which his own corrupted mind brings thither 9. And hereby all possibility of Union among Christians and Churches must perish till this Opinion perish For if we must unite only in that which is not in being we must not unite at all If we must all in singing Psalms agree in no Metre or Tune in the Church but one that Scripture hath prescribed us we shall sing with lamentable discord 10. And hereby is laid a snare to tempt men into odious censures of each other Because studied Sermons printed Books Catechisms and Forms of Prayer are Images and Idolatry in these mens conceits all Gods Churches in the world must be censured as Idolatrous And almost all his Ministers in the world must be accounted Idolaters Children must account their Parents Idolaters and disobey them that would teach them a Catechism Psalm or Form of Prayer Our Libraries must be burnt or cast away as Images And when Ministers are diminished and accounted Idolaters if Satan could next but perswade people against all the holy Books of the Ministers of Christ such as Boltons Prestons c. as Images and Idols had he not plaid a more succesful game then he did by Iulian and doth by the Turks who keep the Christians but from humane Learning 11. Hereby Christian Love will be quenched when every man must account his Brother an Idolater that cannot shew a Scripture for the hour the place of Worship the Bells the Hour-glasses the Pulpit the Utensils c. or that studieth what to say before he Pray or Preach 12. And hereby backbiting slandering and railing must go currant as no sin while every Calvin Cartwright Hildersham Perkins Sibbs c. that used a Form of Prayer yea almost all the Christians in the world must be accused of Idolatry as if it were a true and righteous charge 13. And all our sins will be fathered on God as if the second Commandment and the Scripture perfection did require all this and taught Children to disobey their Parents and Masters and say your Prayers and Catechisms are Images and Idols c 14. It will rack and perplex the Consciences of all Christians when I must take my self for an Idolater till I can find a particular Law in Scripture for every Tune Metre Translation Method Word Vesture Gesture Utensil c. that I use in the worshipping of God When Conscience must build only in the air and rest only on
praying by habit Marvel not if it burn you within and without and when your own passions have scorched you other mens hatred of your prayers as you hate theirs do trouble you also And if you hate the quenching of these fires even when the Churches by them are all on a flame as sober men as you will be of another mind I tell you again brother you greatly wrong and dishonour God if you think that he layeth so much upon that which he never gave any law about or spake one word for or against as to tell the World that he hateth all prayer that is put up by a form or book And that he that denyeth this speaketh meanly of prayer The Lord teach you to know what manner of spirit you are of which request I shall reitâ—rate for you instead of praying with your earnestness The Lord rebuke him Have you the bowels of a Christian and the spirit of Christian Love and Unity and can you think that God hateth for that was my word all the prayers of all the Churches and Christians in the World that use a form Even of all the Greek Churches the Armenians Abassines Jacobites Syrians Copâ—ies Lutherans and Calvinists of all the English publick Churches and the prayers of such holy men as Dr. Preston Dr. Sibbes Mr. Perkins Mr. Hildersham Mr. Cartwright Dr. Stoughton Mr. Whateley Mr. Bolton and all such as they that used some the Liâ—urgie and some other forms And that God hateth the prayers of all Christian Families and Christians that use a form Do you dislike adding to God's word and will you adde to it so boldly as to say he hateth that which he never once forbad If you would make your reader think that I make God indifferent to all modes and words in prayer you would abuse him For though I never heard a man swear in prayer I think you curse in prayer a little before and I have heard many rail in prayer and traduce men for truth and duty and vent their own errors But I beseech you promote superstition no more and feign no Divine Laws which you cannot shew us And teach not this unhappy age to feign things necessary that are not and paint out the most holy gracious God as the patron of every one of their fancies Your words Doth not God regard the manner of our addressing our selves to him Must we not pray in the spirit Do still make me pray that you may know your spirit Do you well to intimate that I say the contrary When I maintain that God so far accepteth them that worship him in spirit and truth that he will accept their prayers with a form or without and hateth neither yea hath left both indifferent to be varied as mens occasions and use for either vary as he hath done a form or notes in preaching It is an easie thing to turn formalist either way by thinking God loveth our prayers either because they are in the same words or in various words The second part of this Exception calleth me a trifler that doth neither believe the Scripture nor himself but tries to abuse c. Because I say about a Liturgie 1. Certainly in Christs time both Liturgies by forms and prayers by habit were used 2. That it is like that the Pharisees long Liturgie was in many things worse than ours And yet Christ and his Apostles oft joyned with them and never condemned them Answ. 1. Let the Reader observe whether ever Christ his Apostles or the Pharisees medled with the Controversie about the lawfulness of forms Whether ever Christ condemned them 2. Let the Reader note that when I say that Certainly forms were used I say not whether in the Synagogue or Temple or House nor do I say that they were other forms than Divine But when I say that it is like in many things the Pharisees Liturgie was worse than ours I mean that it is like though not certain that part of it was of humane invention and used publickly And 1. The word Liturgie as Martinius and other Etymologists agree hath three significations 1. The largest is for any publick office of ministry and specially of distribution 2. For the publick service of God in reading teaching praying c. 3. For stated orders and forms of that publick service To which Bellarmine addeth a 4th as the narrowest sense of all viz For the sacrificing offices only which is no usual sense Now the second and third being the now-Common sense I thought there had been no question about them That the Jews had a Divine Liturgie in both senses as a service and as a prescript form I proved in my 5th Disput. of Liturgies many years ago 1. In the Temple they had most punctual prescripts for their sacrifices of all sorts and their offerings and the manner of performance and the actions of Priests and people about them In the Synagogues Moses and the Prophets were read every Sabbath day And the Psalms were purposely penned many of them and recorded to be Prayers and Praises for the publick and private worship and were committed to several Church-officers to be publickly used And David and Solomon appointed the Instruments Singers and order manner in which they should be used A form of prayer for the Priests is prescribed in three benedictions Numb 6. 23. Hezekiah commanded the Levites to sing Praises to the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the Sâ—â—r 2 Chron. 29. 30. 1 Chron. 16. 7. On that day David delivered first this Psalm to thank the Lord into the hands of Asaph and his brethren Exod. 15. The song of Moses is a form And Rev. 15. 3. the Saints are said to sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb. Most Expositers think that the Hymne that Christ sung at his last supper was the usual form If not it was a new form Moses form at the moving and resting of the Ark is set down Numb 10. 35 36. Deut. 21. 7 8. There is a form for the people to use Iudg. 5. Deborahs song is recorded so is Hannahs praise 1 Sam. And Ioel 2. 17. there is a form for the Priests in their Humiliation And Iohn taught his Disciples to pray And when Christ was desired to teach his Disciples as Iohn had done his he gave them a form Now let the sober Reader judge whether the Jews had no form or Liturgie of God's appointment If he say I thought you had meant a humane form I answer If you will think that which I say not and choose rather to revile than observe what you â—ead I cannot help it 2. When I speak of a Probability afterward I do mean of a humane Liturgie of which I will now only say 1. That it seemeth very improbable to me that the Pharisees who so abounded with Traditions should not so much as have any humane forms of prayer or praise 2. When Christ speaketh of their long prayers I desire them on both
and heresies in meer opposition to their afflicters I know that the great objection is That under pretence of Love I would bring ungodly persecutors into reputation and tempt men to unlawful Communion with them and that I make an ill application of good principles to hide the odiousness of their sins that care so little for the souls of men as their usage of Ministers and people doth openly declare If I had only perswaded you to unite in Love to one another and not to think better of the destroyers of the Church nor to comply with them in their Idolatrous way of worship you could have born it Brethren will you that take it for injustice in a Iudge who will condemn a man before he hear him speak for himself be intreated but to repress your passions for a little while till you have calmely considered these things following 1. Did I ever perswade you to think well of the faults of other men while I perswaded you to love their persons unless you call the Communion a fault of which we are to speak anon Did I ever seek to abate your dislike of the sins which you most speak against Either malignity cruelty persecution or any other 2. The thing which I perswaded men to in that book was Communion with all Christians but differently as they differ in degrees of purity That which I motioned and pleaded for I summed up in the latter end with the contrary extreams which you may there read in five propositions 1. To adhere to the primitive simplicity and make nothing necessary to our Concord and Communion which is not so 2. To love your neighbours as your selves and receive those to Communion whom Christ receiveth and that hold the foresaid necessary things be they Episcopal Presbyterian Independents Anabaptists Calvinists Arminians Lutherans c. so they be not proved heretical or wicked Peruse the rest When you come to your selves you will confess that this was no unreasonable nor unchristian motion Which of all these Parties is it that you are angry with me for perswading you to Communion with Must every one of the Parties renounce Communion with all the rest O how unlike is this doctrine to that of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 1. 10. 3. 1 2 3. Rom. 14. 15. c. If not every one which of them is it Is any one of all these Parties the whole Church of God who dare say so Why should I refuse Communion with any one of these while I scruple not Communion with all the rest Or if it must be but with one sort how shall I know which of them it must be I know some men judge of others by their Own opinions and self interest But is that indeed the Christian Rule Some of the Episcopal way are angry with me for including the Independents when I doubt not but the far greater part of them are the sincere servants of Christ And since their Synods late moderation I know not many Churches in the world besides the Waldenses of the Bohemian Polonian and Hungarian Government who are neerer to my own judgement in Order and Discipline than those in New England are and none that for Piety I prefer before them Some are angry with me for taking in the Anabaptists when it is not such as the Munster Anabaptists that we have to do with but godly men that differ from us in a point so difficult that many of the Papists and Prelatists have maintained that it is not determined in Scripture but Dependeth on the tradition of the Church I am not of their mind and I have given them my reasons in my book for Infant Baptism But having had more invitation to study the point throughly and treat of it largely than most of those that are offended herein let them give me leave to say that I know it to be a very difficult point And I know as good and sober men of that mind as of theirs that are most against them And I know that in the dayes of Tertullian Nazianzene Augustine men had liberty to be baptized or to bring their children when and at what age they pleased and none were forced to go against their Consciences And I know not that our Rule or Religion is changed or that we are grown any wiser or better than they I once motioned terms of Concord to the Anabaptists and was in as hopeful a way for Peace with them as with most others till Some are offended that I put in the Arminians when I am confident that there is not one of many hundreds whoâ— are against Communion with them that know what Arminianisme is and truly understand the difference And the same men refuse not Communion with those Anabaptists who are Arminians And it hath been the work of not only Mr. Dury but many other excellent men for many years to reconcile the Lutherans with the Calvinists and it hath justly been thought a blessed work to draw them to Communion with each other And yet the Lutherans are not only of most of the Arminan opinions but also have superintendents liturgies ceremonies exorcisme Church-images c. When so much labour hath been bestowed in this work and so many excellent Treatises written for it by pious Dury Junius Paraeus Calixtus Ludov. Crocius Joh. Bergius Conrad Bergius Hattonus Amyraldus Hall Davenant Morton c. When all sober Protestants have prayed for their success or approved this design are we now come to that pass that those that seem the zealousest for the Church and mutuall Love shall think it to be a sin either to hold Communion with the Lutherans or to write for it But the great offence is that I put in the Episcopal as fit for our Communion which I suppose is principally because of their manner of worship in which we must have Communion with them Which foreseeing I answered more objections against this than against the rest which hath occasioned some falsly to affirm that I write only to draw men to Communion with the Church of England I will therefore here proceed to some further expostulations of this point 3. Is there ever a word in all my Book perswading you to Communion with a Diocesan Church as such 4. Is there one word in it for your Communion with a national Church that hath one political spiritual Constitutive Head under Iesus Christ though the Kings supremacie none of us question Do I once meddle with any such thing 5. Is there a word to perswade you to Communion with Persecutors Though I am forced to displease you by answering that objection and telling you that we should be Impartial and remember what most parties or many have done to others which you were not able it seems to bear though it was plainly necessary to the due resolution of the Case in question whether any Persecutors may be Communicated with 6. Is there one word to perswade you that every Parish is a true Church and fit to be Communicated
never tell any of their sins nor preach repentance to them whilst I lived and that I must not deny my duty and Charity to one sort because another sort will not receive it and seeing also necessity increase and having already writen and said so much to the other party I resolved to imitate those two excellent faithful Tractates viz. 1. Mr. M. Pool's Vox clamantis in deserto in Latine calling the Non-conformable Ministers to Repentance and Mr. Lewis Stukeley's a worthy Congregational Minister in Exeter and a kinsman of the late General Monkes enumerating copiously most of the Common sins of Religious Professors and calling them earnestly and faithfully to repentance which since the writing of this I find excellently done in a book called Englands danger and only Remedy And therefore I first published some old notes written eleven or twelve years ago called Directions for weak Christians and annexed to it The Character of a sound Christian In both which I wrote that which was as like to have exasperated the impatient as this book is And yet I heard of no complaints And afterward I wrote this which I now defend and sent it to the Licenser who upon perusal refused to License it And so it lay by and I purposed to meddle with it no more But leaving it in the Booksellers hands that had offered it to be Licensed after a long time he got it done and so unexpectedly it revived The Reasons of my writing it were no fewer than all these following which I now submit to the judgement of all men truly peaceable and impartial who value the interest of Christianity and of the universal Church above their own 1. To make up my foregoing Directions to weak Christians more compleat Having directed them about the private matters of their souls I intended this as another Part to Direct them in order to the Churches Peace 2. Many good people of tender Consciences and weak judgements desiring my advice about Communion in the publick Assemblies I found it meetest to publish this general Advice for all to save me the labour of speaking to particular persons and to serve those that lived further off 3. I saw those Principles growing up apace in this time of prevocation which will certainly increase or continue our divisions if they continue and increase I am sure that our wounds are made by wounding principles of doctrine And it must be healing doctrines that must heal us And I know that we cannot be healed till doctrinal principles be healed To give way to the prevalency of dividing Opinions is to give up our hopes of future unity and peace And to give up our hopes of Unity and Peace is to despair of all true Reformation and happiness of the Church on earth If ever the Church be reduced to that Concord Strength and Beauty which all true Christians do desire I am past doubt that it must be by such principles as I have here laid down 4. But my grand reason was that I might serve the Church of Christ in the reviving and preservation of Christian Love As it was an extraordinary measure of the Spirit which Christ made his Witness in the Gospel Church so is it as extraordinary a measure of Love which he maketh the New Commandment and the mark of all his true Disciples And whether afflicting on one side and unmerciful and unjust censures on the other side one driving away and the other flying away be either a sign or means of Love And whether taking others to be intolerable in the Church and unworthy of our Communion and separating from or avoiding the Worship where they are present be likely to kindle Love or to kill it let any man judge that hath himself the exercise of Reason and unfeigned Love I know that this is the hour of Temptation to the sufferers to stir up passion and distaste and that men have need of more than ordinary grace and watchfulness and therefore of more than ordinary helps warning to preserve due Love and keep out an undue hatred of those by whom they suffer And how great a temptation also their censures and discontents will prove to their Superiours and others by whom they suffer and what unspeakable hurt it may do their sâ—uls may easily be conjectured This sin will prove our greatest loss 5. Hereupon men will be engaged in sinful Actions of injustice and uncharitableness against each other They will be glad to hear and forward to believe hard and false reports of one another And too forward to vent such behind one anothers backs And there is no doubt but many of each party already think worse of the other commonly than they are Though alas we are all too bad and some egregiously wicked And those Persons and Churches that would censure a man for Curses or Oaths should also censure men for slanders and backbitings And should I not do my best to prevent such a course of daily sin 6. Both violence and separation tend to divide the builders themselves and keep the Ministers in contending with and Preaching and Writing against each other which should be employed in an unanimous opposition to the Kingdom of Satan in the world And when all their united wisdom and strength is too little against the common Ignorance and Prophaneness of the world their division will disable them and give sin and Satan opportunity to prevail 7. It may engage them on both sides in the dreadful fin of persecuting each other one party by the Hand and the other by the Tongue even while they cry out of persecution And on both sides to hinder the Gospel and mens salvation on one side by hindering the Preachers from their work and on the other side yea on both by hindring the success For what can be more done to make men despise the word than to teach them to despise or abhor the Preacher And what more can be done to destroy mens souls than to harden them against the Word Is there any sâ—bâ—r man on either extream that dare say I would have none of the people saved that are not or will not be the hearers of our party If you dare not say that you would have all the rest to be damâ—ed dare you say you would not have them be taught by others Or that you would not have them profit by the Word they hear If not how dare you tempt them to vilifie and despise their Teachers If they will not learn of you be glad if they will learn of any other and do not hinder them 8. By these means they will cherish an hypocritical sort of Religiousness in the people which is more employed in Sidings Opinions and Censurings of others than in humble self-judging and in a holy heavenly mind and life A man need not the Spirit of God and supernatural Grace nor much Self-denyal nor Mortification of the flesh to make him choose a certain fashion of external Worship and think that now he
against separation because all this spurious offspring was fathered on them and still laid at their doors And withal because they found how hard it is to stop men that begin to find real faults with other men from fancying abundance more that are not real and to keep men from running into extreams And experience told them that their own party was in danger of running from them and it was not easie to keep them stable in the sober 〈◊〉 of the truth Especially the Independents oâ— this account are obliged to be the greatest disswaders of separation because all sects are fathered on them and too many of their congregations in England and New-England have been lamentably corrupted or subverted and dissolved by them 23. There is 〈◊〉 man that is acquainted with Church history but knoweth that as Christ was Crucified between two thieves so his Church hath been 〈◊〉 and troubled between the prophane malignant persecutors and the heretical and sectarian dividers even from the dayes of the Apostles until this age Insomuch that Paul himself and Peter and Iude and Iohn were put to 〈…〉 as largely against the Dividers almost as the persecutors Iraenaeus Epiphanius Augustine Theodoret besides the rest do sadly tell us in their Catalogues and Controversies how lamentably these Dividers then hindered the Gospel and distressed and dishonoured the Church And the sad stories of Hâ—lland Munster and others in Germany Poland and especially these twenty years past in England do bring all closer to our sense And are not the Watch-men of Christ still bound to tell the Church of their danger on the one side as well as the other Yea in some respects to say more on this side than on that because Religious people are easier and ofter turned to be Dividers than to be Persecutors or Prophane 24. All these dangers lying before us and the Non-conformable Ministers being under great reproaches and lamentable hinderances from their sacred work and called by God to fidelity as in a day of tryal what guilt would be upon us what shame would be our due if we should all be silent whilest we see the principles of Division continually increase The 〈◊〉 principles which the old Non-conformists confuted greatly propagate themselves through the smart which alienateth the peoples minds And Reason doth so hardly prevail against Feeling that all that we can say will prove too little This is the true cause why they cry out now Oh the case is changed It is not with us as it was in the old Non-conformists daies Because they did but hear of what was in those daies but they see and feel what is done in ours Therefore we had so easie a work comparatively to perswade men that the old separatists were mistaken but can hardly now perswade them that the same principles are a mistake because now they smart and Passion is not easily held in by reason I can make shift to hold in a mettlesome horse while he is not provoked But if a Bishop will come behind me and laâ—h him or prick him and then blame the rider if he run away with me I cannot help it But sure if we must needs have to do with such men it concerneth us to hold the reines the harder And if after such grievous judgements as plagues flames poverty reproach and silencings and sad confusions which God hath tryed us with in these times his Ministers should through passion policie or sloth sit still and let Professors run into sinful principles and extreams it will be our Aggravated sin 25. And one reason why I set upon this work was because I saw few others do it If it must be done and others will not then I must take it for my duty 26. And another reason was because I knew but few that I was willing to thrust upon it so forwardly as my self for fear of being the author of their sufferings Many may be abler that are not in other respects so fit Some Ministers are young men and like to live longer to serve God in his Church and their Reputation is needful to their success If they be vilified it may hinder their labours And experience telleth us that the dividing spirit is very powerful and victorious in censorious vilifying of dissenters But I am almost miles Emeritus at the end of my work and can reasonably expect to do but little more in the world and therefore have not their impediment And for popular applause I have tryed its vanity I have had so much of it till I am brought to a contempt if not a loathing of it And whereas some brethren say that Censures will hinder the success of my Writings I answer No man shall do his duty without some difficulties and impediments If my writings will not do good by the evidence of truth in them and if the censures of Dividers are able to frustrate them let them fall and fail And some of my brethren have great Congregations to teach which are so inclined to this dividing way that they cannot bear their information But when I preached in my house to the most I knew scarce any of the Parish that came not to the Parish Church but such as lived in my own house Also many Ministers being turned out of all their maintenance have families and nothing to maintain them but what the Charity of Religious people giveth them Little do some know what the families of many godly Ministers suffer And some Independents are maintained by their gathered Churches and if they cast them off both reputation work and maintenance would fail For those that silence them will neither honor them nor maintain them And though I suppose that these brethren would serve God in the greatest contempt and poverty and self-denial if they perceive that God doth call them to it yet I think it a duty of Charity in me to go before them and do the more displeasing work to prevent the sufferings of such or at least not to thrust them on so hard a service For I have no Church that maintaineth me nor any people whose estimation I am afraid to lose that are dividingly inclined nor through Gods mercy have any need of maintenance from others and therefore may do my duty at cheaper rates than they 27. And I will add one reason more of the publishing though not of the writing of my book When it had been long cast by â—â—ound in the Debater and Ecclesiastical Polititian that the Nonconformists are made ridiculous and â—dious as men of erroneous uncharitable and ungovernable principles and spirits Though we subscribe to all the Doctrine of the Church of England And I thought that the publication of this book should leave a testimony to the generations to come by which they might know whether we were truly accused and whether our principles were not as much for Love and Peace as theirs and as consistent with order and government Is not the Non-conformists doctrine the same with that of the
The Lord give you a meeker spirit and a tenderer conscience And that I mean not an Independent as such for the Presbyterians will not suspect me I will stop your mouth with this sufficient proof 1. That the chief Independants have written excellently against separation as Mr. Iacob by name And they pretend that Mr. Bradshaw and Dr. Ames were Independants 2. That I rejoyce in the state of the Churches of New England since the Synods Concessions there and good Mr. Eliots propositions for Synodical constant Council and Communion of Churches as much as in any Churches State that I hear of in the World Though as to the form of Government my judgement most agrees with the Waldenses or Bohemian published by Lascitius and Commenius especially since the Magistrates late printed Order that all the Ministers shall take especial care to Catechize and personally instruct all the people under their Charge even from house to house at least 3 or 4 Families meeting together c. which I much rejoice in It is evident then that though a man may be a Divider that is Episcopal Presbyterian Independant or Anabaptist yet as such as their denominations signifie I mean none of them for many of all these names are no Dividers though a Papist is so by the essence of his Religion un-churching all beside his Sect. And if you had done me but common justice you would have noted that in my scheme in the end the second Proposition of the way of Love which I plead for is in these words Love your neighbours as your selves Receive those that Christ receiveth and that hold the necessaries of Communion be they Episcopal Presbyterian Independants Anabaptists Arminians Calvinists c. so they be not proved heretical or wicked Judge now of your Truth and Charity by these evidences EXCEPT XV. p. 8. Answered Here is the 13th visible Untruth He saith He speaks very slightly of Prayer in comparison of study for the attaining of wisdome calling it too cheap a way which sheweth you how little he understandeth the nature of true Prayer c. Answ. I love you the better for your zeal for the honour of Prayer though I had rather knowledge and truth had guided it Reader I intreat thee to peruse my book and if thou find there what he saith condemn me more than he doth and spare not I tell those men that will do nothing for knowledge but ask for it that God hath not promised you true understanding upon your prayers alone without all the rest of his appointed meaâ—s Nor that you shall attain it by those means as soon as you desire and seek it For then prayer would be a pretence for laziness c. That praying is but one of the means which God hath appointed you to come to knowledge by Diligent reading hearing and meditation and Counsel of the wisest is another And will any Christian deny the truth of this except the Enthusiasts Or should any Godly Minister rise up against it Is any of this true 1. That I have here one word of Comparing prayer and study 2. Or that I prefer study or reading or other means before prayer 3. Or that I speak lightly of prayer in Comparison of the other 4. Or that I make prayer it self an easie thing Is not this that I call his 13th Untruth composed of many When it is visible that I put prayer first that I only say that it is but one means and not all and that others must be added and that praying alone without other labour is too easie a way What should one answer to such dealing as this I beseech you brother preach not the contrary whatever you think lest you justifie the silencers while you blame them And if really you are against my words satisfie the World by experience how many you ever knâ—w that came to the understanding but of the Articles of Faith or the Decalogue or Catechism or Christianity it self that I say not to your degree of knowledge above me and such as I by prayer alone without hearing reading meditation or conference And why Paul bids Timothy give himself to Reading and meditate on these things and give thy self wholly to them And why Hearing and Preaching are so much urged And whether it be any great fault to silence you and me and all the Preachers in the Land if prayer be the only means of knowledge And whether you do not before you are aware still agree with them whom you most avoid who cry up Church-prayers to cry down Preaching And why you wrote this book against me if your earnest prayers against me and the people be the only means And when you have done I can tell you of many Papists and others that you your self suppose never pray acceptably who have come to a great deal of knowledge Though there be no sanctified saving Knowledge after the first Conversion without prayer I am sorry you put me to trouble the Reader about such things as these It follows Neither doth Solomon direct to any other way principally c. Answ. Did I speak one word of the principality or which was the principal way Did I not put prayer first and other means next This is not well brother Truth beseemeth our Calling and our work And yet he that said I was found of them that sought me not in my opinion which yet expecteth your reproach doth give so much knowledge as is necessary to mens first faith and repentance and conversion by the hearing or reading or considering of his word ordinarily to them that never first asked it by sincere prayer For I think that Faith goâ—tâ— before a believing prayer You adde We cannot but wonder that any dares so expresly go against the very letter of Scripture but that we have done with wondering at Mr. Baxter's boldness Answ. This I may well put as your 14th Untruth Reader try if you can find one syllable of what he speaks in all my book Doth he that saith prayer is but one of the means contradict the letter of Iam. 1. 5. If any man lack wisdome let him ask it of God O how hard is it to know what spirit we are oâ— That a man should go on in such dealing as this and make his own fictions the ground of such tragical exclamations when he hath done Yea he proceed For what follows in justification of his unwarrantable conceit exceeds all bounds of sobriety whither will not Pride and overweening carry a man He that had so trampled upon his brethren without any regard to their innocency or sufferings now speaks but slightly of our Lord Christ himself Answ. Your anger I pass by I like you the better for speaking against Pride For by that you shew that you love it not under that name But still How hard is it to know our selves I am sorry 1. That you are so sore and tender as to account it trampling on you to be intreated to Love your
and Universities and humane Learning And Mr. Norton of New England told me that with them A Church separated from a Church or was gathered out of it rejecting their Pastors and choosing unlearned men and would receive and endure none that had humane Learning and that Moses and Aaron as his words were Magistrates and Ministers went down on their knees to them with tears and could not move them to relent unto unity or to receive a learned Minister nor get any answer from them but that is your judgement and this is ours I speak his very words as neer as I can possibly spoken to old Mr. Ash and me before his yet living companion Mr. Broadstreet a Magistrate of New England Now all this the common people are against Must we therefore be against Magistrates Ministers Ordinances and all because the common people are for them How commonly are they against the Quakers and the Familists and the Infidels and Heathens and with us the Papists Are all these therefore in the right Let any Familist deny the Scripture or the immortality of the soul and the common people will be against them Must we deny God and Christ because we live in a land where they are owned Brother consider 1. That some truths the light of nature teacheth all 2. And some common illumination teacheth multitudes of bad men 3. And some good education and the tradition of their fathers and the Laws of the Countrey teacheth 4. And some are better persons among those that you separate from than many are that separate from them Let not us then be bad and more erroneous than those whom you account the worse and all because they are no worse The Text which you wish me to read on my knees I have done so and I thank you for that advice but I answer not your hope of retracting what I have written in that but contrarily 1. On my knees I pray God to forgive you such abuse of Scripture 2. And to give you a sounder mind For the Text speaketh of Infidels or denyers of Christs incarnation and maketh this the differencing Character Every spirit that confesseth that Iesus is come in the flesh is of God and so on the contrary But are all these Christians that you plead for separation from and charge with Idolatry Infidels and denyers of Christ And all the Churches on earth that use a Liturgie O brother you use not Scripture oâ— the Church aright We grant that in professed Christians also the carnal mind is enmity to God and they that are most carnal are likest to reject the truth But yeâ— we would not wish you to measure Truth by the quality of the Receiver For Christ is truly Christ though many workers of iniquity shall say we have prophesied in thy name Many hereticks have been strict and temperate when the greater part of the Orthodox have been too loose Yet that did not prove the Christian doctrine to be false EXCEPT XXXI Answered I have little here to do but number your visible Untruths in matter of fact One is 21th Untruth He flyes upon all sides that are for order in any kind When I speak not a word against Order nor against any side but the instances of some mens extreams which all that are for Order hold not Your 22d Untruth is Without expressing himself whether he is for Papal Presbyterian or Independent Government in the Church And if this were not crime enough to seem unsetled in so necessary a point What signification have I given of unsetledness When I have long ago publickly told the World my judgement about all this to the full in my five Disputations of Church Government and in a Book called Christian Concord and another called Universal Concord another of Confirmation besides many more But might not a man be setled that were as I am in the main of the same judgement as is expressed in the Waldenses or Bohemian Government described by Laseitius and Commenius which taketh in the best of Episcopacy Presbytery and Independency and leaveth out the worst and the unnecessary parts Are all the Hungarian and Transilvanian and old Polonian Protestants that come neer this order withour Order or unsetled 3. It is your 23d Untruth that I write very dubiously about Iustification whether we are to take it to be by Faith or by works When as all that I was here to say of it is spoken very plainly I have written many books to make my mind as plain as it is possible for me to speak As in my Confession my Disputations of Iustification my Apologies my Answer to Dr. Barlow and in my Life of Faith which was printed before this where I have detected a multitude of errors about Justification and many more And if you expect every time I name Justification I should write the summ of all those books over again I shall fail your expectation though I incur your censure who no doubt ' had I done it would justly have censured such repetition for tedious vanity You adde We fear he is not sound in that point Answ. Your fear is your best confutation and the best assistance that you afford to make me as wise and judicious as your self The Lord say you We hope in mercy to his Church and particularly to those who have been deceived into a good opinion of him will bring this man upon his knees that he may make a publick acknowledgement of his folly Answ. If that be your work it is the same with his that it is said you sometime wrote against so many Volumes have been written already by Papists Prelatists Anabaptists Quakers Seekers and many other Sects for this very end to cure mens good opinion of me as if a man that could but think ill of me were in a fairer hope of his Salvation that if all these have not yet accomplish'd it nor all the famous Sermons that have been preach'd against me I doubt brother that your endeavours come too late You may perswade some few factioâ—s credulous souls into hatred but still those that love God will love one another And I confess of all that ever I saw I least sear your book as to the bringing men out of a good opinion of me unless your name and back-bitings can do it When you say that I say that The presumptuous do boast of being Righteous by Christs imputed Righteousness in conscience and honesty you should not have left out without any fulfilling of the Conditions of the Covenant of Grace on their part Is this just dealing Are there no such presumptuous boasters Or will you justifie them all that you may but vent your wrath on me My judgement in the foresaid point of Imputation of Christs Righteousness I have opened at large in the foresaid writings The Life of Faith Confession Disp. of Iustif c. EXCEPT XXXII p. 18. Answered I said The good of nature is lovely in all men as men even in
I say for these reasons I shall give you as my Conclusion the Order of the Governour and Council of the Massachusets in New-England to all the Elders and Ministers in their Jurisdiction for Catechizing and private labours with all the Families under their Charge Dated at Boston Mar. 10. 1668. To the Elders and Ministers of every Town within the Jurisdiction of the Massachusets in New-England The Governour and Council sendeth greeting Reverend and Beloved in the Lord WHereas we find in the Examples of holy Scripture that Magistrates have not only excited and commanded all the people under their Government to seek the Lord God of their Fathers and do the Law and Commandment 2 Cro. 14. 2 3 4. Ezra 7. 25 26 27. but also stirred up and sent forth the Levites accompanied with other principal men to teach the good knowledge of the Lord throughout all the Cities of Iudah 2. Chron. 17. 6 7 8 9. which endeavours have been crowned with Gods blessing Also we find that our Brethren of the Congregational Perswasion in England have made a good Profession in their Book entituled A Declaration of their Faith and Order Pag. 59. Sect. 14. where they say That although Pastors and Teachers stand especially related unto their particular Churches yet they ought not to neglect others living within their Parochial Bounds but besides their constant publick Preaching to them they ought to enquire after their profiting by the word instructing them in and pressing upon them whether young or old the great Doctrines of the Gospel even personally and particularly so far as their strength and time will permit We hope that sundry of you need not a spur in these things but are consciously careful to do your duty yet forasmuch as we have cause to fear that there is too much neglect in many places notwithstanding the Laws long since provided therein We therefore think it our duty to emit this Declaration unto you earnestly desiring and in the bowels of our Lord Jesus requiring you to be very diligent and careful to Catechize and Instruct all the people especially the Youth under your Charge in the Sound and Orthodox Principles of Christian Religion and that not only in publick but privately from house to house as blessed Paul did Acts 20. 20. or at least three four or more Families meeting together as strength and time may permit taking to your assistance such godly and grave persons as to you may seem most expedient And also that you labour to inform your selves as much as may be meet how your Hearers do profit by the Word of God and how their Conversations do agree therewith and whether the Youth are taught to read the English Tongue taking all occasions to apply suitable Exhortations particularly unto them for the rebuke of those that do evil and for the encouragement of them that do well The effectual and constant prosecution hereof we hope will have a tendency to promote the Salvation of Souls To suppress the growth of Sin and Prophaneness To beget more Love and Unity amongst the people and more Reverence and Esteem of the Ministry and will assuredly be to the enlargement of your Crown and Recompence in Eternal Glory Given at Boston the 10th of March 1668. by the Governour and Council and by them Ordered to be Printed and sent accordingly Edward Rawson Secret FINIS I desire the â—â—ader to 〈◊〉 the most judiâ—ious â—oâ—â—rate Expositioâ— oâ— thâ— sâ—cond Commandment a oâ— all the est iâ— Mr. George Lawson's Thâ—opolitica 1 Untruth False Worship what seven senses of that word 2. Untruth 3. Untruth Of my mentioning former things Whether I were as guilty as any in stirring up the War And guilty of all which he calleth the Effects Whether nothing past must be repented oâ— The Reader must note that I wrote the full Narrative of my Actions herein which this presupposeth but after cast it away because neither part of the accusers can bear it 4 Untruth Whether I never mention the prophane but with honour Of partial genderness Of my foolish talking Of my Pride Whether it be easier to pray extempore or by memory of words Who is to be judged Proud More mistakes Whom we must come out from Whom we must disown as no Church The Corruption of the Scripture Churches 5 Untruth Of concealing the faults of Dividers Of concealing the faults of Dividers * Read but Hornius his description of the English Sects Eccles. Hist. and see what strangers think of us Of my revealing Secrets 7 Untruth 8 Untruth 9 Untruth The Cause of Popery tried Of Mr. Iohnson's Reply to my Book 10 Untruth Whether it be intollerable Pride to say that the Papists understand not Christian sense and reason 11 Untruth Of Separation Of Censuring Papists Of Pauls not scandalizing the weak I know that Expositors much differ about the weak brother here described but not in the point that I now urge the â—ext for More of revealing secrets 12 Untruth Whom I mean by Dividing And of his Curse 13 Untruth Whether I slight prayer And whether wisdom is to be got by prayer alone without any other means 14 Untruth 15. Untruth Whether I speak slightly of Christ How Christ increased in wisdom Whether Christ needed Prayer for himself Of melancholy misinterpretations of Scripture 16 Untruth Whether God hates book-prayers or forms Whether the Jews had a Liturgie in Christs time See Psal 92. and 102 c. 1 Chr. 16. 4. and 25. 2 Chron. 8. 14 15. Of jeasting at other mens â—â—ayers The temptations of sufferings Many are overcome by suffering who think they overcome It 's a reproach to our Nation that Hornius Hist. Eccl. saith Ita ut seperatismus sive Brownismus non alios habeat authores quam cum Tyrannide superstitione Episcopos Dominantes pag. 244. So much good suffering doth Whether all that use any thing in Gods worship not commanded and in particular a form of prayer be Idolaters And what this censure of Idolatry signifyeth Whither we are guilty of consenting to all that is faulty in the prayers that we are present at 17 Untruth Of flattering Christians Whether any 〈◊〉 be 〈…〉 ignorant and injudicious See my book of Directions to weak Christians to grow in grace The greatness of the sin of thus flattering Christians How sad is it to read in Hoâ—nius Salmasius and others abroad such horrid descriptions of the English sects and scandals Though the Actors were not so many as some of them thought Of the loud voice of the Preacher and a sound judgement 18 Untruth 19 Untruth Whether I have left off the Lords work Note how ordinarily Christ himself and his Apostles avoided persecution by removing Of the judgement of the Univeâ—sal Church Of the judgement of Learned men in difficult speculations 20 Untruth Whether honest people be not apt to stray after one anothers example Whether we should mark and avoid the sins of Christians in the time and places where we live Whether the Religious sort may not have some common errour to be avoided 21 Untruth 22 Untruth 23 Untruth Of Justification Whether we can speak bad enough of nature See Act. 17. and 14. And Rom. 1 and 2. 24 Untruth 25 Untruth Whether there be any free-will Whether he that counts all natural men as bad as he can name will not hate them and say bad of them without fear of slander 26 Untruth Whether no persecution can consist with Love 27 Untruth 28 Untruth 29 Untruth Of the fewness of Believers 30 Untruth Whether the same spirit may not be restored to the ancient forms 31 Untruth Maximus Imperator Râ—mpub gâ—bernahat Vir omni vitae merito praedicandus si ei vel diadema non lâ—gitâ—mâ—â—umultuaâ—te milite impositum repudiâ—re vel armis civilibus abstinere licuissâ—t sed mâ—gnum Imperium nec sine peâ—iculo renâ— i nec sine armis potuit teneri Sulp. sevâ—rus Dialog 3. cap. 7. Beda etiam â—ist Eccl. l. 1. c. 9. Maximus vir strâ—nâ—us pâ—obus atque Augusto dignus nisi contra Sacramenti fidem per tyrannidem emersisset c. Invitus propemodum ab exercitu câ—eatus Imperator c. Had not this man brought the Catholick-Church into a little room