Vox Clamantis OR A CRY TO Protestant Dissenters Calling them from some unwarrantable Ways with which they are vulgarly and perhaps too truly charged viz. From all unnecessary medling in matters of State From too deep engagement of themselves in this present World and too great Conformity to it From thinking too highly of themselves for their Separation-sake only From Fanaticism properly so called in their Prayers Sermons Books c. And seriously exhorting them to the minding of the great concerns of Heaven To Fruitfulness in Well-doing To Sobriety and the use of Reason in all Religious matters By N. N. A Protestant and declared Dissenter from the Church of England as far as that Church dissents from Christian Liberty Holiness and Charity and no further Rom. 12.2 Be not conformed to this World Rom. 18. If it be possible live in peace with all men 1 Thess 4.11 Study to be quiet and to mind your Business London Printed for W. H. and are to be Sold by Richard Janaway Anno Dom. 1683. VOX CLAMANTIS OR A Cry to the Professors and Dissenters of this Age in England London c. SECT I. Christian Friends and Brethren I Have heard and you can't but know that many serious minded Christians much lament the great decay of Godliness and serious Piety among the Professors of this Age and those that are called Dissenters herein England and in this City in special And enquiring into the Causes of it they seem to be divers besides that common and general one of a careless Spirit which all are too apt to fall into even in the most weighty things and the things of God and of their everlasting concern which being matters invisible and future though most real we consider not but are taken up too much with the present things of sense and outward appearance because nearest to us and so most affecting of us I say besides this in the general there are some present special causes reasons and occasions that are bad and at best scandalous which it is the intent of this present call and advice to remind you of and to admonish you that they are detrimental and hinder your progress and perseverance in well-doing in order to your eternal well-being And if we do but look into the state of this Age and the Land we live in as to the profession practice of Religion and the Christian Religion it is sad and to be lamented by all who have any sense of the maine concerns of Christianity or of mankind The world of professing Christians in this Nation to look no further are found to be of two general sorts The First Are the ungodly openly prophane who notwithstanding they have been born and educated in this most Holy Religion of Christ Jesus yet carry nothing but the name of it and who because they have not had the hap to now another must needs be called Christians yet live in all manner of open sin committing all sin with greediness viz. Whoredom Drunkenness Swearing Lying Acts of Violence Oppression and all manner of Debauchery and these things not only in secret but openly yea and that which I think few Ages have seen since Christianity openly owning and avowing the vilest abominations fleshly carnal lusts and wickedness and that sometimes in the most publick manner This is and hath too much been the guise and practice of evil men of great men in place and power and such evil examples propagate wonderfully and beget in their own nature and likeness dayly even to admiration These seem as if they would or had a mind industriously to propagate sin and wickedness and to declare themselves to be the open and sworn servants of sin and the Devil If it were in their power and they should accordingly make Laws to promote and advance the most wicked abominations and filthy lusts they could not that way do half so much towards it as now by giving such publick and open examples It is the most effectual way to promote Vice and that with the greatest advantage as to the debauching and eternally ruining of others when persons great in power and place give such examples As our Lord teaches us that the most effectual way to glorify God is not so much to Preach and Profess or tell the vertues of our Heavenly Father as to imitate and follow them and that the light of our good and excellent works shining before men will tend infinitely more to the glory of God and is a better proof of the truth of our Christianity and of our good Conscience Godward than any assent or subscription whatsoever to the best System of Divinity Articles of Faith or Modells of Worship which the evil and hypocrite may do as well as the best and most sincere To be holy upright just sober and to mortify and subdue the lusts and pollutions of the flesh that fight against the Soul and Spirit this is the hard work that few ingage in though it be all in all as to the life and salvation of a Christian man But we are now speaking of a generation of men into whose hearts such things do not enter or once come into their thoughts or if they do they soon shake them out and get rid of them being resolved rudely and madly to put all to a desperate adventure and never to try nor make enquiry into things of this nature into the truth of Christianity till they feel it in their own damnation But enough of these Secondly There are another sort professing Christianity that are better than those at least not so apparently bad that seem to have escaped the gross pollutions of the World through lusts and cannot be charged with such open abominations but in general are Sober Religious and in many things Zealous great hearers of Sermons frequenters of Churches and Meetings Yet it is too apparent that they sometimes pride themselves exceedingly in those things and are highly conceited of themselves because they are not so bad as the worst and will confidently speak against and reprove those that are openly wicked and glory that they are not like other men and so comparing themselves with the worst think themselves wondrous good but in this they take wrong measures the right way is to look up to the best to see how they come short of them i. e. of the most commended and approved Servants of God and Christ Jesus the holy Apostles the Prophets and the life and example of Jesus himself and not to mind how much better they are than the worst or the most Notwithstanding this that yet such the Professors and Dissenters of this Age are much wanting and in many things out of the way is too plain to be hid and all take some notice of it their enemies do it to their reproach thereby to represent them both false and hypocritical and also ridiculous That they do well that do so I am far from thinking but that you should not mind and take warning by
except ye speak on the prevailing side which if you can't do it is best most prudent and safest not to speak at all others may do it better than you and you should be the last if at all concerned in those matters especially as you are private men and Christians not called to any place of Councel or advice in these matters And if it be not scarce at any time safe and seldom Christian and right to meddle in publick affairs in a way of opposition how ill then and unjustifiable are they that make such things the matter of or at least bring them into their Prayers Sermons c. and by that means both sin against God their Neighbours their Rulers and expose themselves and all that are reckoned of the Dissenting Party to hatred if not to destruction Secondly Further consider that as the Kingdom of Christ is not of this World so neither are you that are his subjects to be much concerned about it nor to reckon or account of any great matter for your selves in it The Saints of God of old did as we are now commanded to do and have greater reason for it than they viz. To be as strangers and pilgrims in this present World And to pass the time of our sojourning here in fear We have work enough to do and time little enough to do it in to work out our salvation to discharge the work and duty we have to do as men and Christians in our Places Standings and Relations to give a good account to God of our coming in and continuing for a while in this World to mind the great design and purpose of Christ and his coming into the World which all that would be accounted his Servants and Subjects in his Kingdom are bound to mind i. e. How to save our selves and others and by all good example and otherwise to draw men from off their sins unto God unto righteousness and holy living that they may escape the condemnation that is hasting apace against all sinners unrepentant and to endeavour this way to encrease the number of Christs subjects and followers this blessed design will find us and you all work enough I wonder much that among all your talking about News and Stories Matters and Affairs that are working that you do not mind those things more and why they are not the subject matter of your Discourse as often as you can that all may see to whom you do belong and according to whose Spirit and Principle you are led and may see that indeed you have been with Jesus and learned somewhat of his Spirit I know no concerns we have to busy our selves meerly as Christians and meddle in matters of State-affairs now more than the Christians of old had that lived under the Heathen Emperors or they who now live under other Princes that are of a different Religion the Ancient Christians were right glad if they could be but quiet in their Religion and Profession being in that Dissenters from the State they lived in and could they enjoy peace and liberty this way they seemed to be pleased well enough For indeed surely the Christian Religion was never much favoured where it was professed in the purity simplicity and excellent liberty of it nor for ought we can know ever will be by the power and greatness of this World and when ever they have gone about to help it by the addition of their Power and Authority and with the assistance of State Interest and Policy it hath scarce ever or seldom thrived or been encreased thereby We know and 't is upon record how excellently this holy Religion and Profession of Christ Jesus did thrive and grow when the greatness and powers of this World yea of all the World were against it when it stood upon its own Legs went forth conquering and to conquer in its own power and having no carnal but spiritual weapons to assist it and fight for it even such as it had in it self and in its own nature The Divine power secretly but most effectually wrought in it Oh! the excellency of the Divine Power of this excellent Religion called Christian if it were left to its self and to the conduct of the great Author of it by his Spirit that is promised to attend it both in its progress in the World and in the hearts of men Since the Powers of this World would needs extend their favours to it and exert their force in behalf of it and not letting it proceed upon its own Principles but adding to it the Interest and Policy of State Oh! how feeble is it grown it can make no such progress in the World as it did but hath lost much ground of what it had as is plain in many and especially in the Eastern Parts of the World and elsewhere So my Christian Friends and Brethren should it be as to your way or profession if it be of God and of the same Spirit with the Doctrine of Christ to which it pretends it will be enough to live of it self without any dependance on the State where you live and make profession of it and it would encrease and enlarge too if men lived up to it and managed it according to that Spirit of holiness and heavenly vertue that it teaches so that you need not concern your selves lest you should lose your Liberty your Religion your Posterity be over-run with Popery and Tyranny and great fears in this kind are sometimes more than there is cause for How many have sadly and foolishly troubled themselves lived in fear of Popery Plots Massacres all their days spoiled their own peace and have died a thousand deaths before they needed It is sufficient to die once and not to live in a constant fear of it which is worse than death In a word If you and all such had minded their own business been earnest to work out their salvations had let their light shine before men in all peace and patience goodness and beneficialness to all doing all good and bearing all evil ye would have found that your own and the publick good and welfare had been better provided for and you had done more to promote the Kingdom and Glory of Christ in the World and better secured the peace liberty and quiet both of your selves and posterity than now by all your strivings motions and concerns in State Affairs and matters relating thereunto This is the wisdom that is from above that is first pure then peaceable that by patient continuing in well doing obtains all good overcomes all evil secures the main of all unto us both in this World and in the World to come Godliness hath the promise of both To which the Lord Jesus conduct us all in safety granting to us to walk in this way unto happiness and in no other to think to find it O Lord let thy Kingdom thus come c. Fourthly Whereas it is confidently pleaded that you have a right and Birthright to all
Those three thousand converted to Christ in so short a time could know little of Christianity or the Laws and designs thereof they did only acknowledge that Jesus was the Christ whom they received and accepted of for their Lord and Saviour Yet this was a sure way to put all not only into a savable state but into all the rights and priviledges belonging thereunto So moreover when Peter Mat. 16. made such a frank Confession of his Faith this very Faith we speak of That Jesus was the Christ the Son of the living God Immediately a blessing or a blessed priviledge was conferred upon him as it follows there and accordingly all Christians are indued with the same upon their believing and open confession and profession of the Name of Jesus Therefore all those little conditions and qualifications that men now make and require of Christians before they will admit them into the Christian Church and Fellowship or Communion of Saints are Conditions and Orders their of own devising and serve only to form a Party for their own purpose as all Sects have commonly somewhat peculiar more than to advance Religion or Godliness and of this kind are all other Impositions laid upon men as the condition of their admission into the Church Some have of late days devised and practised that men must make a confession of their Faith in a great many Articles or according to such and such Creeds that be in fashion among them and must believe just as they do which a man may do or however may profess to do and yet be as bad as unregenerate carnal and hypocritical as the worst Some others before they will admit any into their Church and Communion will exact a Formal Narration or Declaration not only of their Faith but of their Conversion and the work of Grace upon them with the manner of their Conversion and Conviction at their first turning from their sins to God but there 's no certainty in this First For oftentimes those that are most consident and bold can do this when others of better Spirits and better in the main can't nay it is to be feared many may strain here to say more than is true or more than they have had the experience of Secondly Others sometimes have related such passages and circumstances in reference to this matter which were but trivial absurd if not ridiculous Thirdly Suppose some to have had real Convictions and trouble of mind at such a time Have not many had Convictions that yet have not proceeded to a real and through Conversion and a change of heart and spirit And have not some been changed or converted rather from one sin to another from sins more carnal to sins more spiritual than from sin it self wholly unto righteousness I say not of any that they are so but 't is possible in such a way men may deceive themselves and others so no certainty of knowledge by such a Confession Fourthly But however it is they to whom this Confession or Declaration is made are as wise as they were before and can pass but little better judgment than they could at first because proceeding by no certain rules but those of fancy and conceit and the opinion they have of the present capacity and honesty of the person speaking or declaring if he be either ignorant strongly conceited or hypocritical he may deceive them all Much more might be said against this new way and these new devised conditions and qualifications and to shew that all are to be received who profess Faith in Christ and promise to walk holily and obediently according to his Laws to the best of their knowledge and ability if afterwards they appear to be or walk otherwise they are to be looked unto watch'd over admonished reproved and in case of non-repentance or not amendment to be separated cut off and withdrawn from Fifthly And finally as to this to add this word more The case may be that many that are of upright hearts and truly fearing God who have from the heart turned unto him and hate all sin as such and are truly humbled for it yet are able to tell neither time nor circumstances in particular when or how this change was made and wrought in them Such a work may grow by degrees by vertuous Education or otherwise The beginning of the power of the Kingdom of God in the heart may be like that as to its progress which our Lord speaks of of the Kingdom of God The good seed of the word according to the similitude of the Corn sown in the earth the blade first appears then the ear then the full Corn in the ear no man presently perceives himself much less another to grow yet he may see that he hath grown and is growing in the power of the Divine Life and in good time it may become manifest in him by the fruits of it both within and without He may be born of the Spirit that knows not the time nor particular way how this did operate in him But to conclude what if it be real that such persons do declare and acknowledge and that they were really changed from evil to good yet there is no reason necessarily to conclude that therefore they must be so still Secondly Another Argument as to this is taken from the nature of the Christian Religion which being the last and so the most liberal and extensive of all the revelations and dispensations of the counsels of God unto the World for the better progress and propogation of it it is in the nature of it made fit for the whole World and the state of all mankind And therefore according to the nature of it and intendment of God in it must needs allow a great Latitude to the several ways customs usages of men in their several Nations and States Every Nation and People has somewhat peculiar and particular and differing one from another according to which the Christian Law and Gospel of Christ Jesus will suit in a good degree so they be not sinful in themselves nor contrary to the main holy end and purposes of this Religion yea so free and large is this Christian dispensation in the nature and intent of it that as it will yield much to the several ways so to the weaknesses radicated opinions customs humours of several particular persons at least for a time until they have learned or grown to better knowledge and maturity Thus it is in its self and thus it was at first when first preached to men and propagated c. Insomuch that that excellent generous spirited person the Apostle Paul in conformity to the free nature of the Gospel did become all things to all men in the 1 Cor. 9.19 20 23. verses Vnto the Jews saith he I became as a Jew i. e. In many things complyed with the Jews in their Laws Customs Ceremonies the better to win them off from those things again As without Law to them that are without the Law i.
that they can find as bad so they think and as deceitful doings and practices among you as among those of the illest Name and Character Persons of those Principles which your selves use most to exclaim against that is the Jesuits and men of their Spirits and Designs I protest I cannot tell how to answer them as to this matter i. e. To do it with truth and honesty I know what is pleaded and pretended to justifie it who knows not Let things be never so foul when men have done them and stand declared for them they will say something and in this case they pretend it is lawful and they will prove it so c. But at present not to enter into that Controversie whether it be lawful yea or nay but suppose it and that this thing could be said with some colour or some satisfaction to themselves yet First I always thought that Christians should and ought to have regard to others how they take and resent things ways and actions and how far a thing may be of use to the honour of the Christian Religion and Gospel and how far otherwise dishonourable to it and that this had been a most excellent rational as well as a most Evangelical Rule in it self c. And that every man should not look altogether on things as they appear to himself but also how his ways and actions appear to other men what aspect they have upon them and how they stand in their eye otherwise I do not see how men can intend to adorn the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus which every man stands bound to do Secondly Suppose you could prove what you have done in this matter to be Lawful which I cannot yet see and therefore not believe What is this to the purpose among Christians or wise and good men Though this Principle reigns much in the World and among the men of the World yet I think the matter is plain among Christians that it ought not to be so yea I am sure they are to be led by Principles of a more excellent kind than to do things meerly because Lawful or to think to justifie themselves when they have done them because they can prove them meerly Lawful One would think the Apostles Rule were near at hand and to be heeded not only because Apostolical but for the reasonableness goodness and worthiness of the Principle it self In 1 Cor. chap. 6. v. 12 All things are Lawful i. e. many or most things are so few things in comparison are absolutely in their own Nature Unlawful But all things though Lawful are not expedient or profitable or useful and besides Lawful conducing to some good end and purpose for the promotion of Goodness of Peace of Piety and the Gospel designs in general and chap. 10. v. 23. He saith All things are Lawful for me but all things are not expedient or convenient again All things are Lawful for me but all things edifie not and I am sure scandalous things and of ill Fame and Report cannot edifie i. e. cannot build up men in Holyness in Purity in the Love of the Truth but on the contrary stumble them and cast them down Now it is the edification of others and not the stumbling or scandalizing of them thereby to hinder them in their love and belief of and commuance in the truth which is here pressed as is manifest in the whole scope of the Chapter and the Apostles Argumentation in it and is without dispute the meaning of the next words immediately following v. 24. Let no man seek his own i. e. Only his own or his own apart from others good but so do and so mind his own ways as to prevent Counsel why hath not the Christian World and men that will be called Christians learned this Christ the great Lord of Christianity taught it and was himself both in Life and Spirit most exemplary in it Thirdly Besides it is common among your selves to condemn it in others that they impose things upon you meerly because they are or may be in their own Nature Lawful The truth is there are a thousand things Lawful that world be most absurd under some Circumstances to do or put them in practice and many things or most things are Lawful in the general Nature of them and as divested of Circumstances that yet when they come to be done or put in practice will be so inconvenient and unfit that it may be as bad and as absurd to do them as if they were utterly unlawful The conclusion is in short that a good Christian neither will nor should do any thing in it self unlawful nor any thing meerly and only because it is Lawful but will mind still the fitness the profit the usefulness of them as to those Circumstances they fall under when reduced to practice Fourthly I do not speak all this because I think such Swearing and Communicating for a present advantage is Lawful but supposing that it were so yet is that alone no good Reason nor Argument for the doing of it Neither again do I meddle or concern my self with the Law and Authority that injoyns these things nor with those Persons that ordinarily hold and practice them being in the Communion of that Church for whose sake and interest they are injoyned and imposed but I speak to them who pretending Non-conformity as their ordinary way and choice to walk in that look upon the Oaths and Renunciations either as unlawful or oppressive and uncharitable and yet on the occasion and meerly on the account of a place of Honour and Profit for once and to serve a turn will swear renounce take the Sacrament do any thing rather than miss it or for fear of loseing it or that they may save themselves or Party by it If this be not scandalous offensive and to Religion and true Piety destructive I know nothing that is so I know nothing that will more render you in the eyes of all as men of flexible and profligate Consciences that can do any thing and make you seem more like to such that are justly esteemed the worst of men It occasions men to hate both you and all Religon at least that which you profess for your sakes however you and men in your Circumstances may turn and wind move every stone break their Brains and their Wits to find out distinctions and evasions to salve their Consciences and Reputations yet the vulgar running sence will judge otherwise of you and them Fifthly But the common Plea for thus doing and grand Objection against what is here said will be this O! but if we should not do thus then no honest men would be in Place none but loose prophane wicked Atheistical Popish or Torish men would get in and so we should or might lose our Rights our Liberties our All yea perhaps our Lives too But to this I answer First Suppose this yea and the worst that can be supposed yet must we needs do evil that
it and upon this occasion look well to your selves and into your ways search your own hearts and works examine your principles and practices this I think argues great carelessness and neglect and shews that you have not that fear nor care which you should have nor a mind truly set within you to design the honour and glory of God nor the credit of Religion I have divers times upon occasion told and others have done the like some of the Professors of this Age what things and matters those publick Scurrilous Libels and Pamphlets that fly about the Streets dayly with some other of more sober language and treatment but as venomous what these I say do still object and cast in the teeth of the present Dissenters being things and faults that they will needs have to be Characteristical of them all But when we have told some of the Professors of this Age of those matters to warn and admonish them and to let them know what the things are that they proclaim as most culpable in them they still reply that such are enemies a sort of loose ungodly and prophane men scoffers at Religion turning all into ridicule and so not to be heeded or regarded in what they say Be it so what then Though you will not mind it for their sake yet you should for your own and for the Name of God the credit of Religion and of your own Party for unhappily we are distinguished into Parties c. God forgive those who in any kind are the causers of it But do you not remember the old saying Ab hoste fas est doceri It is lawful yea very good and prudent to learn from an enemy And if it were for my Life and Soul I would in the first place hearken to my enemies when they reprove or find fault 'T is true they are like to over-do yet most like to do that which our nearest and best Friends may be loth to do for us i. e. speak those things to us and of us that the Laws of Friendship and Civility and love of our Friends and Party will not suffer them to do I do acknowledge that one benefit I have received in the reading such Papers has been that though I saw they were extreamly out and writ neither with a Spirit of Piety nor Charity nor the least compassion to those whom they so severely blame but do it only to render them odious and ridiculous and to make the looser sort of men merry and indeed to bring them out of the way of the love of serious Piety yet I learn much in them which otherwise I might not so well have understood As matters in the world now are we better see others than our selves and as no man can see his own face so neither are a mans own works and actions so near unto him at least not so open before him as other mens Therefore if I can't see my self so well I am beholding to those that shall in good will tell me and ought to acknowledge it with gratitude But if they tell it to me or others not out of love but ill will and to expose me however I have the same or a greater benefit and the worst I will do and return to them is to pray God that seeing they have spoken against me evil or what they think is so they may also see their own and hate all sin and evil and this can't hurt them neither can they for it be angry with me SECT II. I Will at present instance in one thing because it comes now into my mind which they do commonly object and thereby endeavour to expose you to scorn especially the Ministers and Preachers of the Non-conforming Party and them the rather because the People have had an honourable esteem of them for their pains and labour in Preaching and with reference to many of them for their great Faithfulness and doing much good by their Ministry Now to lessen the Peoples love towards them by means whereof they are drawn from and make less esteem of the Conformists way therefore have those men industriously inspected and culled out of the Books and Sermons Preached and written by them all they could think of or find absurd or seeming so that they might thereby render them odious or at least less esteemed E. G. too vulgar and over familiar Sayings to God in their Prayers and the like in their Sermons and Books of Practical Divinity all their course Phrases their unfit uncouth similitudes all as they call them Phanatical Notions and Expressions with such things which they will needs have tend to Sedition and Rebellion Many things of this nature they cull out publish and expose to the World to be seen in their blackest colours They have raked together many Books and Pamphlets of late and of latter days they seem to ply this work more than ordinary and to set and imploy witty men both of the Clergy and Laity therein I could tell you of many Persons and Pieces to this purpose designed and bent one of the most sober of them is the Author of the Friendly Debate And one of the most often imployed this way whose profession and business it is is Mr. R. L. with his Associates I wish that witty Gentleman would use his Parts and Wits some other and some better way For my part had I the Ability he hath that quick smart and pleasant way of Expression that plenty of free utterance In short if I had such excellent rare Endowments as that Gentleman and some others have and are owners of I think I durst not use them in such a Prophane way and in such uncharitable work as they and he do But he must give account to God let him but a little seriously consider with what Spirit he does this whether it be like to the Christian Spirit or Spirit of Christ Jesus And if indeed he really owns the truth of that Religion and Revelation of God by Christ I can't think but that a little reflection upon himself and of this work will do him good Well but to you my Friends and the more so because I know many of you to be Holy Christian men designing Godliness To you I say this they do and would it be now any hurt to you to consider whether there may not indeed be some of those Errors and Misdemeanors in some of your Books and Sermons whether there may not be many things obnoxious in those kinds now named and others which they will sufficiently inform you of Consider of it with free minds do not think First That because they are enemies and it may be prophane wits that find fault that therefore you may conclude nothing is amiss but hearken to them to choose that find great faults whether real or supposed or any likeness or appearance of such matters in your discourses or practices You would surely have them learn from you I am sure you would take it well if they would be
taught by you and so should you not disdain to hearken to them Secondly This would shew you to be of honest ingenuous minds and of those that love the Truth and would much convince the insulting adversary of your uprightness and sincerity What hurt or disgrace is it to retract or to let them know that in some things you may not have been so wise and wary but that you may and will amend Look over seriously and see whether some particular notions of yours may not betray you and make you to speak write and preach not so manly rationally and demonstratively as you might and ought but things looking too like Phanaticism as they think and would be glad to find Certainly the Christian Religion does not unman men but makes them more perfect it makes good Christians to be the wisest as well as the best of men You are not to think that because your own Hearers who out of a good opinion of your worth and Piety may be somewhat too credulous and take all at the best that therefore others will do so too They that Preach and Write about Religion and Divinity should regard those that are contrary and that may be perhaps wicked but witty of Parts but little Piety of Learning and liberal Education but not much Charity and so not like to take every thing by the right handle not to take the best meaning and interpretation the thing will-bear And though men prophanely and scurrilously call you Phanaticks yet give them neither just cause nor occasion for it in speaking and preacking of the word of God and Religion All should mind to do as the Apostle advises Timothy in 2 Tim. 2.15 Study to shew thy self approved to God a workman that needs not to be ashamed i. e. Not ashamed that men any men should hear him rightly dividing the word of Truth For my part I should and I think you ought above all things to dread Popularity and to be most afraid when you see men many men your People and Hearers to take and drink all down examining nothing and all this only out of the good opinion they have of you their Teachers though others in the mean time and for the same matter deride and scorn you Oh! how happy would it be if men Christian men would once come to this excellent Spirit i. e. To consider and judge of things of all things even things of Religion as they are in themselves in their own nature and so receive and imbrace them and be able either to receive or reject out of a free judgment And neither to accept things for the sake of men and that good opinion they have of them nor to reject any thing because they like not the men that write or speak it or because they are not of their Party or Opinion Till this be Christians will never excel nor be wise unto Salvation nor credit Religion I confess the men that object this against you to your reproach are most unfit to do it partly First For that ill temper of Spirit in which they do it it seems to be neither out of Piety nor Charity nor out of an intent to do you any good or in any thing to amend you besides many of them are I say not all plainly men of an ungodly spirit so far from taking that way of Charity Meekness Simplicity which the Gospel of our Lord requires that they put all their trust of overcoming their adversaries in their prophane Jesting Joaking turning Religion into ridicule Deriding Jeering Scoffing at all men of a contrary Party without making a difference handling the matter in difference in a Prophane Poetical Comical strain and drollery and not after that serious manner and with that deep sense nor with that Charity which those things require so that their writing and talk of this kind suites more to the Play-house than to the Church not caring what they say so they can either find or create matters to disgrace their Adversaries with This Jocular strain of theirs with a pleasure in handling matters and answers in the like kind seems to have taken too much hold on some of you in the imitation of them to the no little disgrace and discredit of the most holy and pure Truth and simplicity of Jesus Some of you also delight too much to please the People and tickle their Ears with such like stuff with Jesting and Joaking at your opposites with girds and sarcastical hints against them telling your familiars with too much delight their faults and not seriously nor charitably pitying them nor wishing their good and betterment Thus if we may believe them you incourage and maintain others to draw the Saw of contention and to carry on the Cause in difference at such a rate which if you better consider of it appears not to be Christian nor will you find peace in it at last it no way agreeing with the gravity and seriousness of a Christian nor with the dread and weighty concerns of Religion and mens Salvation Secondly Another account upon which I judge them very unfit to object against or retort upon you Is first because I find some of the main matters they make faulty and draw particular absurdities from in your Prayers and Preaching in some opinions are common to themselves with you Such I find to be the opinions and differences about the five controverted points concerning Election and Reprobation What they will needs call Calvinism you call the contrary Arminianism The consequence and matters drawn from those they still make matters of scorn and wherewith to expose you as is plain and manifest in most of their late Writings and Books especially those made by their Divines They take in the worst and most obnoxious parts and consequences of your opinions though there be both Godly and Learned men on both sides on purpose thinking thereby to disgrace the Non-conforming Brethren which is a most disingenuous way of proceeding Secondly Because those notions and opinions called Calvinianism and Contra-Remonstrant are the plain sense of the Articles of the Church of England or else we have lost all our senses and all men else as well as we till some few of late will needs fancy otherwise Thirdly Because there are still many and have been more in times past of the most Learned if not the most Pious and Zealous of the Church of England that have imbraced held and strenuously defended those opinions Now to screw absurdities out of these notions and opinions to take hold on these ungrateful things and the consequences of them that are most obnoxious to cavil and censure when in the mean time the best and ablest of their own Party are of the same mind and have spoken the same things and full as absurd if they will have it so as any as it were easie to point to Books and Authors of this kind I say to do this upon these terms is most disingenuous and unworthy men and Christians Finally
Priviledges of the Nation and the Kingdom you live in and in which you were born and that therefore you should concern your selves as you do I Answer First And Pray you however as hath been said that if you do it it may be according to your Places and Callings peaceably without scandal so as not to be justly accounted busy or pragmatical nor to contradict any of those holy Christian Rules that are superior to all Civil rights whatsoever Secondly I Answer If the Laws be hard against you how can that be help'd or how can you struggle against it seeing it is your own principle that the English Laws do secure the English Rights And that the people are to be both governed and judged according to the declared Laws of the Land So that still ye ought to be quiet and silent But you say your Civil Rights are invaded whether you say true in this or whether they on the contrary must be left to be judged of by the general judgment of the Nation in the great Councel of it but for private persons to contend much about these things seems to make matters but the worse and to prejudice others the more because you do so much and speak so much about them Thirdly And lastly you are to consider that according to the Christian Doctrine and Principles you are sometimes to forego and not reckon of nor regard neither your Natural nor Civil Rights and Priviledges you may insist upon and plead them when they may do you good and service as Paul did his Roman Freedom But to make matter of needless quarrel and contest and great concern and so to cause disturbance or unquietness or scandal about them I know no warrant you have but that for the Gospel-sake and for peace-sake and the healing of prejudice you ought to let them alone as if they were not For consider are not the peace and enjoyment of our Lives Goods Estates your Natural and Civil Rights yet are Christians upon occasion to part with all of them to loose and say down their Lives to suffer joyfully the spoiling of their Goods where they can't save them without sin and scandal or breach of their Faith as it is in Jesus Again it is so far from being a Truth at all times and justifiable that Christian men should stand so stiff upon their Rights Birth-rights c. or whatever else is due to them that not only to avoid scandal they are to wave and suspend them But further though there be no reason from without forcing them They should and must sometimes voluntarily forego their Rights and lay all aside for the Truths sake and other good Christian purposes when they can by so doing promote peace and godliness in the World and encrease the honour and credit of the Gospel thereby Thus the Apostle though it was his right to take Money or reward for his Preaching and he proved it by many Arguments so to be yet he wholly waved it when he saw that the taking of it would prejudice and the waving of it would promote the Truth c. Some will conceit that to forego these things for Christ sake i. e. for his Honour and Interest in the World is not suffering for Christ except we bear a Testimony to his Truth in the way of Martyrdom or suffer Persecution for the Profession of the Truth But they should consider that there is a suffering for Christ and the Gospel though it be not in the way of Persecution nor under tryals of that kind when for his sake and Interest and carrying on the Affairs of his Kingdom in the World we deny our selves of any of our profits rights and priviledges and do not insist upon them nor stand to maintain them when and though they are due unto us E. G. all just debts are our right and property and so may we seek and sue for them as 't is generally supposed and presumed in a legal way yet when this by some intervening circumstance may become scandalous or not falling in with the main design we may not in such a way seek our own and so in many other things and in this thing now in question Finally some will plead that though we may give away our own Right yet we can't anothers nor the Right of our Posterity But to this I say First That I am not about to perswade you to give them away but not always to insist upon them at least not so much and before things of greater moment to you than they Secondly You need not to forego the Right of them nor yet be so busy and concern your selves so much about them A mans Estate and Life is and may be his Posterities yet may he lawfully if need be sell the one and lay down the other and part with both for the Gospels sake More might be said but I wish that those things were better minded and understood that we might have just knowledge and true notions of the true Gospel Principles and the excellencies of them SECT IV. Thirdly ANother matter many of you are much suspected of by your Friends and sometimes possibly charged with by your Enemies is a formal profession in Religion boasting or at least judging your selves Saints the special peculiar People of God his elect and chosen over-valuing your selves and over-looking and despising others especially if not of your own way and Party and this only for your profession and separation-sake And that though you pretend more in this kind and greater purity than others yet you shew forth no more of real vertue nor of the unquestionable fruits of well-doing than others that pretend not so much and they think because they can't see more that there is no more goodness or betterness in you than in others but only that you pretend to be more separate and worship after another manner than they do All which they think is but humour and fancy and that as every one will have their way so you will have yours They think that it is now as it was in Christs time and that this generation is but like that viz. That one sort or part of the Nation which you call prophane carnal and wicked are as the Publicans open sinners and harlots The other as the Scribes and Pharisees who being Hypocrites though they pretended more and seemed better indeed were worse and harder to be convinced and amended than the others Now consider Christian Friends and Brethren whether you or some of you if not many of you have not given too much occasion for this judgment and sence of you among the vulgar by your manner of walking and the temper of your Spirits whilst as to real goodness and righteousness and betterness above and beyond others they can see no difference or but little This you should consider and mind to convince you what you ought to be whatsoever they think of you Consider first That the Christian Religion according to the mind of the
there is no Law nor exception but they are approved commended by all both good and bad These fruits thus expressed are the most proper fruits of the Spirit and are of the true Spirit and temper of our Lord Jesus who shewed himself thus towards all men These will make us most like our Heavenly Father and are most evidently demonstrative of the truth and reality of our faith in Christ by these we glorify God such a temper of Spirit as this we must design and must be growing in it for we are not like to be compleat at first And so it is v. 24. They that are Christ's have crucified or mortified the Deeds of the flesh with the affections lusts or passions of it i. e. They have done it or at least must be in a way of doing it growing in it and getting the victory over those lusts This is to be so done and proceeded in that the power of Christs death may be seen in the death of our sins and carnal affections And the power and force of his resurrection in our rising daily to newness of life and works suitable And ver 25. If we live i. e. If we profess and pretend to live in the Spirit or according to the power of the Divine life Then let us also walk in or according to the Spirit as it is here described in the fruits of it And let us judge our selves and let others judge of us no otherwise but according as they see us thus walk c. But on the contrary are ye not often charged and do ye not give too much occasion for it with divers things contrary to this E. G. with anger and wrath with being subject too much to humour and fancy rather then led by the sober principles of Reason and Religion c. according to the most excellent calm and meek Spirit of Christ Jesus Secondly With being too much guilty of Covetousness Earthly-mindedness and of too much following of this present World and so not shewing forth such freeness such a liberal Spirit as the Christian Gospel teaches and gives example of This being in the nature of it most opposite to a narrow contracted stingy mind and spirit this teaches to be free liberal bountiful all which much grace Religion and the profession of it Consider how greatly this excellent spirit and bountiful temper in all ways of Charitable dealing and Hospitality credits all Religion even a false one And it is so natural to the Spirit and Principles of the Christian Religion that if the practice of it were more it would infinitely promote and propogate it Thirdly You are suspected and charged with being too much conformed to this World and some of you as much as any viz. In pride vanity gallantry in your Selves Clothes Habits and in the Education and bringing up of your Children in scandalous ways and breeding according to the Pride Pomps and Vanities of this World Some that have looked into your Ways and Garbs yea into your Meetings Congregations have seen as much of this as any where else And if they have a mind to see more they may go from thence to the Dancing Schools to the most pompous and vicious parts of them your Balls Masques c. By occasion of all which some scoff others take offence others are grieved and some take occasion to go into the contrary extreams seeing so much pride and vanity in and among Professors Fourthly That you are often found Oppressors Hard if not sometimes Cruel will take the utmost advantage you can will not relieve when need and equity requires but will like other men or the worst of men tye up all to their Bargains Contracts though there be never so great reason to consider them You as well as others have been cryed out upon on this account one instance was in the Letting of Houses and Leases at and since the late Dreadful Fire and Rebuilding of the City Some have wrought upon mens Necessities taken advantage of their weakness want of skill and cunning to look well to themselves and when any have found it and complained of it not the least help and relief in it This dealing hath been charged upon some great Professors and pretenders to Religion and seemingly devout You would do well to mind and consider how far you may have been guilty of this and take the judgment of others and of indifferent persons in the Case Some are complained of as being of an Oppressive Spirit in Trading Dealings Bargains Payments especially by the poor Tradesmen and the Labourers that Work and Sell to you and perhaps dare not complain to you nor contradict you for fear of offending you you never learned this of Christianity nor of Christ Jesus the Author of it Fifthly That when you are Injured and Angered you can't freely forgive nor bear much but are too apt to envy hate take the rigour of the Law these and such like matters are objected against you or divers of you and none can deny but many have given too much occasion for it The truth is that an excellent Bountiful Charitable Religion together with the great work of Self denyal and of Patience Humility and the Mortifying of the lusts passions and evil affections of the flesh is a Religion quite out of fashion and by many disgraced and disparaged as only a piece of dull morality Christian men make no work nor design to excel in these Vertues though it be the only excellent way to glorify God our Heavenly Father as our Lord teaches Let your Light saith he i. e. your good works so shine before men that they may see them and thereby glorify God your Heavenly Father No other way without this no other way but this will do it Nothing but the doing and abounding in such works and in such an excellent temper of Spirit as we learn from Christ Jesus and a principle in our selves from which such works flow Such fruits and works by which we can glorify God are those and of that kind which the most Loose Carnal Atheistical men can judge of as well as others they can tell as well as any who is most Meek Humble Patient Innocent Harmless who is most Charitable Bountiful Beneficial who most Courteous Affable Gentle Condescentious who is most Faithful Careful Diligent useful in the Places Callings Relations God hath set them in They can tell who most abounds in Pity Mercy Compassion and Clemency and who are most free from Pride and Passion who are Ill-natur'd Ill-humour'd who most Sweet and Obliging In word who it is that carryes on a design of Religion and Godliness These things they are at least to some good degree capable to discern distinguish and judge of But for mens Opinions Sects and Parties differences in Religion and things of that kind these they understand not neither do they value nor esteem them nor think any great matter of the zeal of men of different Parties about such things They understand
different apprehensions in opinion and practices it must be for some opinions and practices in special such as some men will call great and fundamental Errors or as others call them intolerable for it seems they will make a difference between tolerable and intolerable but it is manifest every Party of men be there never so many will have something they call fundamental proper to themselves and to their Party and any that hold any thing in opposition to them therein must be accounted intolerable not to be born and suffered in the Church though otherwise never so good and useful E. G. The Papists will account the Churches Infallibility and some peculiar Doctrines as Transubstantiation c. Fundamentals And so again among the Protestants some called Lutherans will it's probable account their Consubstantiation a Fundamental And those called Calvinists will account the decree of absolute Election and Reprobation a Fundamental And on the contrary part some Remonstrants or Arminians of the more rigid perswasion may make their Opinion so fundamental that they will not have Communion nor such Charity to those differing from them as Christian men should have one to another though erring and perhaps sometimes greatly but yet as is to be hoped meaning well The rigid Northern Presbyters will reckon their Model of Classical Church Government by Presbytery as good as a Fundamental and all that will not submit to it are by them accounted persons intolerable nay perhaps they will for some such like thing has been rise in Arms kill and destroy for the sake and maintenance of their Model of Government presuming it of Divine right and therefore not suffering any other Form or Model to stand with it or by it Once more Those called Anabaptists have not much come short of making the Baptism they practise a Fundamental For First They have asserted and maintained it as of necessity to Church Communion and to be sure whoever were not Baptized according to their way and mode were not accounted capable of Christian and Church Communion and so by a near-hand inference not of salvation which some of the more rigid sort have not been afraid to assert All those and a thousand more may thuspretend to make fundamentals and the errors contrary to them intolerable And surely many of them have absolutely denyed Christian Communion to all that could not come up to their way But thanks be to God many of those are commendably enlarged as to this matter and will now allow a Latitude that before they would not I pray God to enlarge them and all good Christians besides still more and more But you see here are many fundamentals and none knows how many more men may make according to the humour ignorance or Interest of their Party and what one sort calls fundamental Verities another will be as forward to call fundamental Errors Heresies and Wickednesses What course can we now take but to love and receive all Christians as such as Christians that believe in and love Christ Jesus and do not contradict this by any wicked works or ill living contrary to it But you will say What is there nothing fundamental in the Christian Religion no rule to proceed by in judging who is fit for Christian and Church Communion and who not must any one that calls himself a Christian be allowed to be so and admitted to all Christian Communion and Church Priviledges c. I answer First There is no Sect or Party of Christians can assign a rule to judge by as they are such a Sect and Party nor can tell us of any Fundamental which another Party or Sect will not contradict and assign some other perhaps contrary to it and hold that for fundamental or a matter of necessity according to which only they will take and receive men into their Communion So in the first place we must not look to any one Sect or Party for a Fundamental or fundamental rule to judge of the capacity of persons for Christian and Church Communion Secondly There is a Fundamental proper to Christianity as such that all Christians do acknowledge And what is this but the owning and professing of this one thing which is both a fundamental and first principle in Christianity that Jesus is the Christ or the Christ of God take it in the words of the Apostle Rom. 10. where he faith The word is nigh thee verse the 8th what word even this That Jesus is the Christ owned of God approved by him and that in special manner testified by the Resurrection from the Dead whom God would never have raised if he had not been the Lord Christ the place runs thus The word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart i. e. The word which we preach which is If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved In short the confession and open owning of Christ Jesus is a Fundamental and necessary to salvation and whoever doth this shall be saved and therefore should be received and accepted as a Disciple of Christ being thereby made capable of Church Communion and Priviledges of that kind This is the Fundamental no other foundation can any man lay or make but this 1 Cor. 3.11 ver And as it is a great fundamental verity that whosoever believes shall be saved so that he that confesses or professes this ought to be by all accepted and received as a Christian and treated accordingly is so plainly laid down in the Scriptures that it is a wonder that either Ignorance Interest Partiality or Uncharitableness should ever have the confidence to rise up against it Thirdly The Scriptures are many and so plain and perspicuous that they are every where to be found so many that it is a tedious labour to cite them all see but a few First When Christ himself and his Apostles first Preached there was no more required to make a Disciple than this Faith when the Apostles Preached after his resurrection it was the same and no more was required but to believe and profess or confess that Jesus was the Christ and then in those first times as a present sign that this was their Faith and to oblige themselves to this Jesus and his Doctrine and Laws they were Baptized and so admitted into the nearest and closest fellowship Acts 2.38 and verse 41 42. Then they that gladly received his word were Baptized And the same day there were added about three thousand souls And they continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of Bread and in Prayers Nothing more was required of them to instate them into all the Christian Rights and Priviledges and being admitted into the Church they were to be further educated and instructed by the converse and society they had there that they might grow up to perfect men in Christ Jesus and be made fit for every good work Secondly
e. Without the Mosaical Law or perhaps any positive Law for he speaks of the converted Gentiles who though under the Law of Christ did yet retain many of those Ways and Customs unto which they had been accustomed whilst Gentiles that he might gain them that were without the Law i. e. gain them by degrees quite over to the compleat true Gospel Liberty and Sanctity which at first and all at once could not be done so ver 22. He complyed with the weaknesses and humours of some men not yet well grown i. e. as himself saith He became all things to all men that by all means such means of complyance he might gain some which he could not possibly nor lawfully do if the Gospel or Christian Religion were not of so large and liberal a nature as to allow it Therefore it is that this Gospel is much celebrated for its great liberty and men are warned and cautioned they should not abuse it Secondly Thus it was not under the Law that would not bow nor bend it self no not in little things they were strictly enjoyned according to the letter of them and so it might better be then considering that that Dispensation and Law in the nature of it was suited fitted and mostly limited to that People Isra l and the state of things as then they were The Worship was limited to one place the Priesthood to one Family all that were admitted to officiate in Sacred things to one Tribe with many other Restrictionis Limitations Commands Promises Threatnings which made it peculiar to them and to that time for it was but for a time being so confin'd and made so narrow in the Laws and Terms of its Union and Communion that Proselytes could never be admitted to the full of the Rights and Priviledges of it with the natural Israelites But this Law was removed for the comparative unusefulness and unprofitableness of it seeing it would not fit all mankind or men as such Therefore seeing God intends to reveal his Name and Mind unto all and to bring all into one common fellowship both Jews and Gentiles this former Dispensation and Law must needs be removed and another more liberal yielding and extensive come in the room of it especially as to things that some call indifferent things not evil in themselves but less necessary that way might be made to come at all if they agreed in the Main i. e. in the Belief and Acknowledgment of Jesus the Christ of God Thirdly It is not here to be understood that the Christian Gospel doth yield in any of its essential Principles or that it doth prostitute it self to any of the sinful ways and lusts of men or comply with them in the leaâ—â— But only that it doth not command nor injoyn any thing as necessary in its self or unto Salvation but what in its own nature is so and if men be made holy and are sanctified in their spirits and inward man fruitful in their Lives in all well-doing to the glory of God especially if abounding in Love and Charity unto men it will make them allowance otherwise as to the ways and customs of Men and Nations This then being the Nature and divine Constitution thereof nothing is more unreasonable and more contrary to it to the design and spirit of it than imposition of the Customs and Ceremonies of one Nation or of one Church upon another or of any number of Christians upon other Christians and that which is the main Matter I now mind the denial of Christian fellowship and Communion in the Church or in any the Ecclesiastical Priviledges of it upon any account of difference in Opinion and Practice on this side the Foundation Nothing that I know can debar any except the Name of Jesus and Christianity be denyed or not acknowledged or that they live unworthy of their Profession They that hold the Truth in Unrighteousness Ungodliness Uncharitableness though they do not deny Christ and his Gospel in words yet in works they do which is worse and a great disgrace unto it from such we are bid to separate our selves Tit. 1.16 2 Tim. 2. v 5. but we must not separate for things wherein good and sober Christians may differ as some particular Opinions and Practices or Modes of Worship unless those things be imposed as necessary to Salvation or made the Condition of Communion or that we are not suffered to enter our dissent in matters wherein we do dissent which liberty ought always to be allowed that it being known how far we do agree we may so far walk together And for Differences in particular points and some Ordinances and Practices if in these we be otherwise minded as we may be God in the way of Peace and of a sincere Enquiry will in due time reveal it unto us Phil. 3. v. 15. Fourthly For further Proof at least for our further serious Consideration of the Divine Nature and liberty of this blessed Religion called Christian that it does give such a Latitude supposing we hold to the Main See a few Scriptures to this purpose from that blessed and industrious Apostle who best knew and understood the nature and extent of this gracious Dispensation of God in Christ for the uniting and bringing all together in one i. e. in Christ Jesus notwithstanding many and various differences otherwise Rom. chap. 2. he disputes at large against those that trusted and had confidence they should be accepted and please God because they were strict in the observation of the Law as to Ceremonies and the ritual parts of it though failing in more weighty things and proves That God will not accept any but upon the account of that real inherent Righteousness which consists in the real fruits of well-doing v. 25. For Circumcision verily profiteth if thou keep the Law but if thou be a breaker of the Law thy Circumcision is made Vncircumcision or nothing He tells them that there may be some profit in Circumcision Circumcision is here put as part for the whole for the Law-service this may profit you if ye keep the Law The Law is taken here emphatically for the most substantial part or great things of the Law which the Scripture and right Reason still distinguish by way of dignity and excellency from the Ceremonious part and Church Priviledges and performance of outward Ordinances The Apostle here speaks of real Godliness Mercy Charity and Purity c. which being in us there may be some profit in the other to us but not without these Therefore verse 26. If the Vncircumcision i. e. an uncircumcised Person keep the righteousness of the Law i. e. in the essential and necessary parts of it Shall not his Vncircumcision be accounted for Circumcision i. e. he shall be as well accepted of as if he were actually circumcised or had really kept the whole Law in the ritual and Ceremonious parts of it i. e. the Law of Ordinances c. Though he have kept and observed none
of these at all yet keeping the other which is the Main he shall be accounted of as well as the Circumcised See more to the same purpose in verse 27. he roundly concludes And shall not the Vncircumcision i. e. the Person uncircumcised if it fulfil the Law judge thee who by the Letter and Circumcision dost transgress the Law And verse 28 29. But he is a Jew So we may say upon the same principle of reasoning he is a Christian not which is one outwardly or is baptized only outwardly but he is a Christian indeed that is one inwardly and Baptism is that of the Heart in the Spirit and not so much in the Letter or in literal Baptism whose praise on this account is not of men but of God So the conclusion for our purpose is fair viz that though a man should not be baptized at all with outward or water Baptism but should scruple that or the time of it or the subject of it yet if he be and can be judged to be a true Christian by his acknowledgment of Christ and purposing or promising to walk in his way it is enough as to God's acceptance and it is strange it should not be so to men and consequently the Christian Religion doth allow a free Communion to all differing in all such like things I would have all that read this to mind it and to look upon the Scriptures before them to see what a little matter they make of those differences about Ordinances and Ceremonies which may or may not be used and practised without scruple or trouble among Christians and learn to estimate men not for such things as these but for their real worth and usefulness To this add chap. 14. of this Epistle where we find Christians differing about keeping of Days and about Meats some making Conscience of keeping some Days more than others so of Meats making a difference and Conscience of eating some not others verse 2 5. One esteems one day above another another esteemeth every day alike What does the Apostle now does he perswade the one to come over to the other No such matter but what does he do to end the Controversie Even this exhorts that one should bear with and not judge and censure another See the whole Chap. for this and consider it well with the Apostles manner of reasoning in it he accounts that every one of them may mean well and serve God in his way Verse 6. He that regards a day regardeth it unto the Lord. He that regards not a day to the Lord he doth not regard it i. e. 't is for the Lord's sake he hath no regard to it He that eateth eateth to the Lord and he gives God thanks And he that eateth not to the Lord he eateth not and he giveth God thanks both give God thanks both think they serve and please him and therefore in the mean time should live at peace one with another and all others with them But further What are now the common Principles whereupon they should agree and keep and maintain Love and Charity and Christian Communion together Not at all these things in Question among them but the Apostle lays them down in verse 17. For the Kingdom of God is not stands not in meats and drinks days and times or in the observation of things of this nature wherein men are at liberty but it consists in Righteousness we are to understand that Righteousness before described that is distinguished from those things in difference Righteousness in the most excellent sence c. He adds and in peace i. e. peace and quietness one with another notwithstanding such differences and joy in the Holy Ghost or joy in the Holy Spirit i. e. rejoycing in that common Interest and Spirit they all have that are in Christ Jesus being made like unto him of the same Spirit and heavenly Nature with him which is wrought in them by the holy Spirit they should rejoyce and love one another because they all partake of the same blessed divine Nature and Spirit And upon this account also and upon no other have their Names written in the Book of Life It follows verse 18. For he that in these things serveth Christ i. e. to make the Apostles Argument compleat and pertinent though he wants or differs in other things yet is acceptable to God and approved of men i. e. He ought to be approved of men and is approved by all wise men and understanding Christians as to all Christian purposes and services otherwise He proceeds in his Argument and the use of it ver 19. Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace i. e. better things than those about which you contend and which may edifie or things wherewith one builds as the word signifies another in all Christian Faith and Vertue In 1 Cor. 7.19 Circumcision is nothing and Vncircumcision is nothing what then but the keeping the Commandments of God c. But were not Circumcision and other Ordinances which are signified under or by this the Commandments of God They were so but in comparison of and coming in competition with the great things of the Law they were in such comparison no Commandments c. and as to the occasion of this saying and assertion Christian men are here by the Apostle commanded to keep their Places fulfil their Covenants and Contracts doing service to them with whom they have covenanted to be Servants all which was of greater use and necessity and of more honour to the Gospel than to stand upon such kind of things as Circumcision c. his drift may be seen from the 17th to the 24th verse Another Scripture is Col. 2. v. 11. In whom also ye are circumcised with the Circumcision made without hands in putting off the body of the sins of the Flesh c. The Apostle here to take them off from admiring and making too much of outward Circumcision and there is the same Reason of outward Baptism tells them there was no great need of it so they had the inward Circumcision the inward Baptism v. 12. They are buried with him in Baptism i. e. Spiritually but really baptized into his death according to the sence and meaning of Rom. 6. v. 4. Therefore we are buried with him in or by Baptism into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of Life The burying here is of the same nature and kind with the rising again as is more plain v. 13. And you being dead in your sins and Vncircumcision of your Flesh hath he quickened together with him c. And though this place and some others are not brought absolutely to exclude a Literal or Water-baptism to them that think themselves under the Obligation of it yet it is the Spiritual and Mystical Baptism that is principally meant and doth principally if not only suit and accommodate the Apostles Intent
in fear lest a cold flat indisposed Spirit grow upon them so that at last they may come to be hardened and deceived that in seeing they may think they see but not indeed perceive In hearing they may think they hear but not understand and that their eyes may come to be closed that they cannot see And is not this a most dangerous and dreadful state which men come unto by neglect and by not being diligent earnest constant and servent in stirring up themselves in and to all holy Ways and Services And it matters not as to the danger and dreadful effects coming thereby whether these come by minding other things and by their being ingaged in this present World or whether they come through a vain Phanatick Enthusiastick perswasion that they are not to act in religious Duties except extraordinarily moved to it for still a neglect there is from what cause soever it comes the danger and ill effects are the same That this ill and insensible Spirit is the effect of such Enthusiastick Notions or Apprehensions is most manifest in our days and to that pass by these means some come that they neither pray by themselves nor pray or worship God in their Families they neither pray with them nor for them nor for any except some extraordinary motion puts them upon it and so at last they Worship not God at all neither in publick nor as far as any can understand in private and in fine do hardly profess or give any account of their belief in Christ Jesus nor whether they be of the Christian Religion or of any Religion or whether they be only Civil Pagans you shall seldom hear them mention the Name of Christ Jesus with any reverence or expressions of any tolerable Love and Affections to him Fourthly Because these kind of men before they come to be so bad do seem to rest much upon the motions of the Spirit of God as they pretend For indeed to speak the truth there are extreams on both sides for as these will do nothing without such motions and impulses others on the other hand rest too much in their forms of Devotions or in their natural Parts and Abilities and so do not look for nor seriously attend unto nor pray for the Divine Illumination and Communication of the holy Spirit who certainly to humble sincere minds waiting on him and asking his help will never be wanting But I say seeing such extreams and mistakes there are let us see what the Scriptures teach us and what we may reasonably expect of Grace and Assistance in this kind to help us in all holy Christian Works and Services and we find the Holy Ghost is often spoken of in the Scripture especially in the New Testament as an helper and assistant to us in the things of God and of Christ Jesus as E. G. for the understanding of them and our Illumination in them for the remembrance and bringing of them and all fit things unto our minds for the helping of us in the performance of them and because our weakness ignorance and indisposedness is great and our infirmities many still accompanying us in all Religious Services and especially in the Work and Duty of Prayer which is that we gave for an instance for all the rest I say it is plain and manifest enough that the Holy Spirit of God is promised to us and doth concern himself in us about these things but we are no where taught that ordinarily his Motions are of such a hot and strong Nature that we cannot resist them but on the contrary that men do resist him and that his Operations may be resisted and as to the Effect frustrated he may be grieved and depart from us not being entertained by us as he ought And that his Motions are ordinarily soft and still not coming in a Storm not in Thunder or with a Torrent but such that by men careless earthly lovers of and busie in this present World or otherwise indisposed or ill-disposed may not be felt or understood because not attended unto c. Fifthly That his Motions and Workings in us are and always must be in and by our Reasons and Understandings as we are men because by the faculties we as men are indued with and according to them we must judge whether such Motions are good or not whether the things and works we are put upon and moved to are good fit seasonable and presently useful orderly and comely whether for edification to our selves or profit to others we are to know consider and judge of the quality of those Motions and to understand our selves lest we follow an ill Spirit as well as the good and holy Spirit of God Finally consider we serve the infinitely Wise God that takes no pleasure in Fools nor in inconsiderate Works Ways and Worships unless we know what we do and why A meer Motion therefore or Impulse or strong Inflation and Work upon the mind is not to be followed without further Tryal and Judgment pass upon it Sixthly And in particular when we speak of the help and quickning of the Spirit of God especially in our Prayers it is not needful nor have we any good Reason to expect that he should dictate to us the very words and expressions we are to use in them but the things and matters we are to pray for with necessary and fit Arguments by which our Prayers are pressed and inforced c. So when we come to consider our state and condition and what things we have to pray for it is then proper for the holy Spirit to bring those fit and apt things to our minds especially to do this upon great and weighty occasions and in times of great necessity and troubles which that place Rom. 8. seems to have a special respect unto And again we have great need of this Divine help to raise and to bear up our hearts and to maintain a Spirit in us both constant and fervent and to keep us from deadness and formality and to mind us what we have prayed for and what we have in design that we may pursue it to the utmost till we have obtained what we desire and further by his blessed Motions and Assistance to help us against the flatness and dulness of our hearts and to stir us up to a continuance and incessantness in it with many other needful helps as occasion is and requires both in this of prayer and in all other things respecting the perseverance and safe conduct of a Christian Life in order to Eternal Life Seventhly It is not to be denyed but that at some times there may be occasion but very rarely to work upon to move and act some men at a more than ordinary rate as the Prophets and Apostles were at some times when they had some extraordinary Work to do but this I say if it be at all must needs be rare extraordinary and seldom done Considering First That there needs now no new Revelation of the
you and the lack of that manly wisdom in managing your Christian Profession and those rational both Principles and Practices that might adorn it the want whereof disgraces it altogether It hath been before noted that folly or Fanaticism is as disgraceful and in some respects worse to the Honour and Beauty of the Christian Profession as Prophaneness and Irreligion both of them and in the same point have the same ill effects upon the Prophane and Negligent part of mankind especially men that are Wittily wicked the Scriptures especially of the New Testament caution as well against the one as the other and against the Former of Folly and Fancy in all those places where we are cautioned not to be Fools but to be wise not weak nor Children in understanding so not in practice but to be wise and walk wisely to be knowing and understanding what that good most perfect most acceptable will of God is that we may do it and we are bid to have Salt in our selves and to be sober and serious wise and prudent with abundance of this kind and especially to take care of this in our publick Worship and Behaviour of a Religious nature You would do well to look setiously into your Principles and Opinions and the conceptions you have of God and of the things of Religion that there be not any error or mistake about them that may betray you into these ways of Fancy and Enthusiasm 2. I confess it is sometime since these Papers and the Address to you was first drawn up that there may have been some Alterations in some Matters and Affairs relating to you as every day will alter somewhat and that you may think some Severities have been used towards you since but I hope this shall not make you to lose any part of your Patience Prudence or Charity but by such exercise to improve in them and to let patience have her perfect work James 1. v. 4. that you may be entire wanting nothing and if any want either wisdom or patience let him ask of God who giveth liberally to all but be well and throughly resolved that what you ask you are resolved to follow and practice and not wavering nor unresolved whether you had best have it or not for then you shall receive nothing ver 6 7 8 c. Further 't is my desire that you would be more compassionate to them you think hurt and molest you then concerned for your selves not to be angry or offended with them but to learn what Spirit you are to be of towards your enemies and to learn of him who is the great pattern and exemplar in this and all Divine vertues even our dear and to be adored Lord and Saviour in his Precepts commanding us to love our enemies and to pray for them that despightfully use us and persecute us not to return evil for evil no not in words reviling for reviling with abundance more to this purpose And himself was the excellent example in this yea when he was upon the Cross in the midst of his Torments and surrounded with his Tormentors with scornful revilings cruel mockings and the highest provocations and I think under the most cruel hard circumstances all things considered that ever any was yet in the midst of all did not so much mind himself as them his Charity and Compassion was greater for them than himself and most heartily praying for forgiveness of them And that we may not think this only proper for him and that no other could do the like or imitate him in it consider that besides his Example that we are to follow his Command and surely he would not command it if we were not by his Grace in a capacity to do it We have also an instance of one of his Servants a man with like passions with our selves Stephen the first Martyr who when he was in the throng of his violent Executioners actually stoning of him yet then was most mindful of them and prayed heartily for them having well learned of his Lord and Master You have not yet suffered much 't is good for Christians and their duty to be prepared for the worst which the Christian spirit will most excellently fit them for And be sure in all your Prayers to God there be not the least tincture of hatred against your enemies or uncharitableness or ill will against any for this will spoil all and the good success of them Secondly Neither is it well done though too many are faulty in it to trouble your selves with fears and jealousies of what Evils will come what Alterations Changes and Revolutions may be in the World or amongst our selves the fears of Popery and the great Troubles that must needs follow thereupon Not to be ever careful in any of these things but in these and in all to commit your care and the care of all and the publick as well as your own private unto God by Prayer and Supplication and leave it with him trust him with it and the peace of God shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus Hinder not your selves in the enjoyment of your present peace nor by a diversion of your mind and troubling your selves about these supposed and feared Events Your present great work and care of working out your Salvation requires the greatest care and fear above all and in this as well as other things let your moderation be known unto all men and whatever may by the Providence of God or evil of men fall out that may displease and trouble you in matter of State-changes be you not disturbed nor provoked to any Displeasure Discontent much less Tumultuousness and Violent Motions but be as Christ Jesus whose Kingdom not being of this World was not would not be concerned in the Affairs of it much less to disturb the Publick and State Affairs in it so should his Servants they have other work to mind and enough to do to carry on the Affairs of his Spiritual Kingdom in their own hearts and to promote it in the World in all his ways of Goodness and Charity in Meekness and Piety in Perseverance in Well-doing and patient Forbearance and Suffering Finally what I have writ here and said I have done it in the Fear of God and in Love and Charity to all being desirous to do what I can to honour the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour and to my Power to warn you against the things that are dishonourable to it And I consider that the designe of God in the Gospel of Christ is that after the Revealing Preaching and Publishing of it it should be next carryed on by the holy Lives and worthy Walking of those that profess it and commended to the World that way and that the Light of your good Works and holy Living should shine before men that you should so manage your Christian Profession both in your private Capacities and as Members of the Christian Church and that by this means you may prevail and do more good than with all Professions Preaching or any other Services otherwise you can do yea so powerful is holy Living that they that will not be perswaded by the World may be won by the excellent Conversation of Christian Men and Women I might here cite abundance to this Purpose even the whole new Testament-writings but this is plain and well known Happy are we if we do it To conclude all should look more at godliness and worthy walking and for the promotion of Piety in the World than to any particular part of Religion Opinion or Party of their own but this is not yet well learnt nor taught as is too evident among the several Sects Parties and divisions of Christians among our selves and elsewhere for most are more intent upon their own way than upon the main desire of the Christian Religion and so are still looking about for such particular Passages and Texts of Scripture some particular Precept Command or Example that may favour their own Way Opinion or Party and hack and hew at these cutting them off from their main body and grand designe of Religion whereas being taken as they are and ought to be in Conjunction with it and interpreted according to the main principle Duties of Godliness Peace and Charity and the advancement of real Righteousness and Goodness the sence and meaning of all such particular Parts and Passages would become easie and be better understood and that aspect and influence they have upon the whole would be better perceived and the minding the great Intent and purpose of Religion would enlighten them and so Contentions about them would cease Love Charity and Goodness would be joyntly promoted and carryed on by all and the common good and Salvation of men furthered for the most part the contests in Religion are but about the lesser things viz. outward Ordinances and Rites some smaller and less considerable Opinions and Practices all which would be soon ended if Christians of all Sects and Divisions would but mind the main if their Passions Lusts and evil Affections were mortified and their Love and Charity to all were more warm and if they would still mind what is best to be done and wherein they may best approve themselves to God and to men herein also would they find the greatest Peace and Satisfaction in themselves and acceptation with God and the righteous Judge of all Jesus Christ our Lord at the last I end all with the excellent Rule laid down in General comprehensive Terms Phil. 4.8 Finally Brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest decent or seemly whatsoever things are just or Righteous whatsoever things are pare whatsoever things are lovely or Friendly whatsoever things are of good report if there be any Vertue if there be any Praise think upon these things FINIS