knew better the occasions of the Apostles writings and other co-incident circumstances of the then present times to which many passages of great concernment do refer which a private person laying aside Antiquity would be farre enough from discerning and so most likely to mistake the meaning of them being ignorant of the scope and drift of such holy expressions For these reasons it is that the learned professors of this Church have offered the trial of the established profession by Scripture so interpreted against all its adversaries And I will instance onely in that yet unanswered appeal of the Authour against Fisher the Jesuit in these words That all the positive Articles of the Church of England are grounded upon Scripture we are contented to be judgby the joynt and constant beleef of the Fathers which lived within four or five hundred years after Christ when the Church was at the best and by the Councels held within those times and to submit to them in all those points of doctrine Quest What is the third direction Ans. Not to embrace a reliligion that is taken up contrary to a received profession upon the credit of the plausible behaviour and smoorh conversation of the promoters and leaders of it The unsafetinesse of such a profession may be easily observed and concluded First because it is observable that when our Saviour gives a caveat concerning false Prophets he foretels them not distinguishable by their outward behaviour For though they shall be raveing wolves inwardly that is in their designes of turning the Church of Christ yet shall they cover their villany with sheeps cloathing that is so great a proportion of framed sanctimony and formed piety outward innocency and humility or so much of either or all of them as may advance a reputation of their new doctrines to a discontented or prejudicated people This St. Paul calls the form of godlinesse to uphold the credit of such as forsaking publick Assemblies shall creep into houses and lead captive silly women And for such ends it is as easy a matter for false Apostles to transform themselves into the Apostles of Christ as for the devill himself to appear an Angel of light as St. Paul argueth And secondly it is not only possible for the greatest enemies of Christ in pursuance of their designes to put on such deceitful habits of outward holinesse and therefore a new profession taken up upon that ground very unsafe But it is also necessary and therefore the more dangerous that such bringers in of new lights and principles must pretend to more then ordinary sanctity having no other just or semblable plea to perswade or attract men to their misguidances Now though many sad experiences in these times may clearly evince this assertion yet I appear to an universal observation of the ancient enemies to truth in propagating their errours for a confirmation of it Among which I may instance in one or two St. Austin mentioning the artificies of the Manichees to deceive their followers the main was That they carried before them an appearance of a pure life and memorable continence The next is of St. Basil who affirmes of the Arrians That for their fictitious holinesse they got a general beleef of their way Now the great stratagem in their design of personating such degrees of holinesse zeal piety is to take advantage to check the imperfections and imprudencies into which the true Pastours of the Church by time and peace have been betrayed and to raise a repute to themselves by their odium and accidesital disgrace which by such arts they have attempted to put upon them with the people Therefore such a profession that is entertained onely upon the argument of outward sanctity must needs be very unsafe because the greatest enemies to Christian truth have will and must palliate their notable changes in religion by such pretences Quest But what can you say for the defence of your profession that may satisfy them that object against you the corruptions of the lives of your Ministers and Professors Ans. First we know and can prove that no profession in it self containes doctrines of more universal submission to all the commands of Christ nor principles more obliging to unity peace or purity to greater reverence or more solemn worship of God to faithfuller subjection to authority or purer charity to man then the received doctrines of the Church of England Examine but this poore shadow of its religion in this preceding Catechisme and I challenge any man to an objection to shew what impieties to God injustice to men or unsobriety in our selves in body or mind we allow That our Professors and Ministers have not universally lived up to the purity of its doctrine is as certainly true as that all outward Professors of Christ and alwayes have been a mixt company of good and bad which the â—et in the Gospel intimates to which the Kingdom of God that is the state of the Gospel is likened or as that the very Apostles and first followers of Christ were so or as that St. Paul in most if not in all his Epistles especially to the Corinthians and that in the very societies admitted to the Sacrament clearly evinceth to be so or Lastly as certainly true as that all the Churches of Christ have been so in all ages and places Now in this mixture the numbers of hypocritical and loose Professors and their deviations from the holiness of the Gospel have been more or less with respect to the times in which they lived as they were more or lesse courted with peace and prosperity or oppressed with adversities and persecutions It often falling out that the true Churches of Christ have at some times made the lesse visible progresse up the stream of piety as the stronger torrents and winds of contrary temptations have borne them downe and opposed them So that to take offence and quarrel against a religion or profession upon the argument of the mixture of the professors when the doctrines be pure and holy is most unjust and unreasonable and might be evineing against the best Churches of Christ that ever were or will be to the end of the world It is true it is a great felicity and glory to a profession when the numbers of Saints increase and are predominant when Gods honour is more generally preferved and his worship maintained godlinesse encouraged and sin shamed and strictly corrected but if in a corrupt age it becomes otherwise so loug as the established profession be holy in it self there is no argument to forsake her communion and much lesse to pursue a destruction to the religion it self They should rather continue in it take off the offence from it and make it better by their exemplary living then to make the offence worse by departing from it or to take the task of an enemy to ruine and overthrow it Now the result is this the mixture of all the best Churches
strengthen the argument it is observed that such divisions and subdivisions among those that fall from the Churches unity are significant marks of their falsity and that they are not of the true Spirit of God Irenaeus reports of the Valentinians that when they were very numerous scarce two or three agreed in the same opinions And S. Austin of the Donatists that in his time they were cut asunder and divided into very many small pieces factions and the same may be observed by almost all the ancient remarkable heresies And how much of this observation falls upon such as have departed from us I leave to the impartial Reader to judge Qu. But do you follow no directions of the Spirit in your profession Ans. Yes in these foure wayes or respects First I follow the guidance of the holy Scriptures as they were given by inspiration of the holy Spirit Secondly I follow the examples pattern and Doctrines of the first Churches which were planted by the Apostles and Apostolick men of the first age who were directed by the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit as of prophesying tongues and miraculous healing as was then expedient for the conviction of the world that they were from God Thirdly I follow that light of truth which the universall Church of Christ have kept and preserved as to all times and places which I beleeve to be the effect of Christs promise of sending his Spirit of truth to guide into all truth Fourthly I follow the direction of the holy Spirit whereby I am taught of God that is instructed and inabled by his preventing and assisting grace to lead a holy life and to have my judgement spiritualized that I may mind desire discern and design spiritual things Now whatsoever new light is pretended inconsistent with the holy Scriptures so interpreted by the common judgement of the first planters and the Churches nearest them or that shall destroy the All-truth of the Spirit in fundamentals maintained and confirmed by universal profession or that consists not with godlines and the Gospel-rules of a holy life mercy charity peaceablenesse justice and the like I dare not embrace any new light upon the grounds forementioned Quest What is your second direction or caveat Ans. To beware of such a profession that hath no other ground then a plea from Sripture upon private interpretation which ground though it hath not produced such monstrous effects of errour as the former yet hath been more dangerous and destructive to the Churches peace and unity Now the unsafetinesse of such a profession in the first place appeares because the most absurd hereticks of the ancient Church in bringing in their then novel errours as plainly and undeniably appeares by the practices and histories of the Manichees Arians Sabellians Pelagians Donatists and others when they would no otherwise accomplish their enviousnesse against the then present Church departed from its communion upon new principles of dangerous consequence and cried up Scripture for their cause A testimony or two I may instance in from the Ancients instead of many Tertullian speaking of hereticks saith That when they perswade of matters of faith but out of the writings of faith they pretend the Scriptures and by such boldnesse move many to them To the same purpose Athanasius Endure not those that perswade you to new things contrary to the faith received although they anthorize them from the holy Scriptures In the next place I shall further adde as a reason to suspect the unsafetinesse of such a profession the fatall infelicities and irreconcileable differencies that have alwayes befallen the Church but especially in these last ages upon the presumption of private interpretation whereby every man as he hath been indulgent to his own opinion which either education prejudice advantage or ignorance hath inclined his spirit to so hath he decided and determined the controversies of the Church or made new ones worse then the former And I am confident were there a thousand cells and so many of our private Interpreters in them obliged to passe their judgements to determine the controverted doctrines to make a confession of faith to marshall a Church-government to form a service and worship of God from the Scriptures by their private interpretations and they all supposed to lay aside those few principles which they have continued from the received doctrines and practices of the Church and no singling of principles one to another we should soon and certainly find a progeny of a thousand several religions and professions Now the main reason is this though the holy Scriptures be in themselves most perspicuous and plain as to the direction of life and manners for which cause David calls them a light to his feet and lanthorn to his paths yet as to the deep mysteries of faith and the determination of many considerable emergent controversies of doctrine and government God hath pleased to deliver his truths in so dark and abstruse a manner that they that want humility to hear the common judgement of the Churches of Christ and their received interpretations may easily be delivered over by God to find arguments enough in Scripture to captivate and satisfy a private and prejudicate spirit in any errour of religion wresting the Scripture to their own destruction Quest In what manner do you hold the direction of the Scriptures and their interpretation as to your profession Ans. First I acknowledge the Blessed Scriptures to be the rule of faith the end and decision of all controversies and where they are clear and evident I submit my soul to them as to the final end of all my enquâ—ries and doubts Secondly in the things that God hath pleased should be doubtfully delivered which is occasioned either from some difficulty in the Idiome or from seeming difference with other places requiring curious distinctions or when the expressions are clad and darkened with tropes and figures which are frequent in Scriptures or Lastly when the Scriptures are occasionall and a due consideration of the time when and the persons to whom they were spoken or written is necessary to the understanding of them I say in things so doubtfully delivered as to doctrine or government I submit my private reason and opinion to the grand interpretation and common consent of the first Churches for these reasons First because they were uninterested in our present controversies so without danger of being byassed by passion and they ordinarily lying under persecutions were not likely to gratify an errour for any private or worldly regards Secondly because they had most reason to know what were the practices of the Apostles and Apostolical men most certain guides to follow in controverted and doubtful points of Government and the circumstantial parts of religion Their footsteps which had so lately planted the Churches of Christ could not be so soon worn out but that they left discernable tracts for their immedate successors to walk in Thirdly they
what heavenly members of Christs Kingdome have shined in every part of this nation no way inferiour to the most renowned Saints of ancient times but that the frequency of professors and as it were familiarity of piety have eclipsed their own excellencies And without doubt weighing those extenuating expressions of Christs Kingdom as the little Flock few that find it and the like we might with facility observe in this nation plentiful additions of souls to the Church above any nation in the world proportion of places considered Whence then these effects and demonstrations of religion but from Gods pleasure to preserve a never-failing succession of Ministery who disserninated in every part of the nation have laboured in Word and Doctrine among us for it canuot be supposed that this Church have received these grapes of thornes or figges of thistles or that a corrupt tree that is a false or Anti-christian Ministery should bring forth such good fruit as our Saviour argues in this very case And after all this lest these eminent graces and blessed effects should still be attributed to any other either immediate or mediate proceediug of God I desire any of our adversaries to shew that ever any nation was converted to or continued in a Christian profession or that ever the Religion of a Nation hath not verged to a Period with the fall of its Ministery and then I may be induced to suspect this Church received such graces from some other instrument then the Ministery And for further confirmation it is no hard matter to observe how much the interest of Religion is concerned in this Ministeries preservation by considering how piety peace charity reverence to Gods worship and the whole frame of religion have declined and the contrary evils of prophanenesse sacriledge blasphemy Atheisme oppression violence and injustice have generally improved by their fall Now the force of the argument is this There being these effects of piety and salvation as unparalel'd consequences of the work of the Ministery of this National Church and there being no other ordinary means the mehod of grace under the Gospel from whence otherwise they should proceed we therefore cunclude them lawful instruments of Gods work and a blest and truly Christian Ministery to this Church The fecond argument for brevity sake I make as general and comprehensive as I can and thus it is If the Ministers of the Churches of Christ in all ages and places through the whole succession of Christian Religion had the same separation to their offices that we of this Church of England have then by necessary consequence either the universal Ministery of Christ were alwayes Antichristian which would be next to blasphemy to assert as well as we or we Christian and lawful as well as they Now let our enemies shew that in any age of that great space of time or in any place where Christs Name was ever professed that the received Ministery thereof were otherwise in substance ordained whereby to raise any plea to their new or rather no call we will acknowledge the lawfulnesse of our calling to be justly questioned This argument hath its foundation upon a promise of Christ to his universal Church in the name of his Apostles Howbeit when the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth Which promise had apparently in a considerable point been unaccomplished had the universal Church of Christ so many hundred years successively erred by an Antichristian and unlawful Ministery and by consequence all the Christian world all that great while had been deprived of lawfull ordinances the outward means of grace which depend upon the lawful Mission of the Ministery How shall they hear to a success of beleefe but by their preaching who are lawfully sent Quest These arguments are convincing and now as it seems to me a man may as soon and upon as good ground question a great part of his Christian Religion as the lawfulnesse of the Ministery of this Church being inferred from those premisses which conclude and prove one as well as the other I desire therefore rather to venture my soule with all the Churches of Christ and under a Ministery that have been received as lawful by them and of whom we have had experience in this national Church in excellent effects of all spirituall blessings then to embrace the judgement of a few who study new things such as the Churches of Christ never knew before and to submit to such a Ministery as descend in no succession and without any character either extraordinary or ordinary to demonstrate their mission and of which in a short time we have had sad experiences as appears by the divisions blasphemies fond opinions and great impieties that have prospered under them There remaines one scruple more What canst thou say to satisfy them that urge the present fall of this Church and sufferings and contempt of its Ministery as an argument against the truth of the profession and Religion Ans. It is true I cannot deny there be a great many that follow the disingenuous practice of that sort of people of which the holy Psalmist complaines that love to persecute him whom God hath smitten and to talk how to vex him whom he hath wounded Crying out against us like another untoward generation God hath forsaken them persecute and take them for there is none to deliver them But it is a wonder to me that persons pretending light in Religion and an understanding in the Scriptures should make outward providences the guidance of their judgement in determining the justice or unjustice of Causes Conclusions by events prove nothing but the folly of a vulgar judgement that is byassed by them When most frequent it is that the wicked prosper in their way and they are happy that deale very treacherously yea God plants them till they take root God suffers oft-times evill men to flourish like a green bay-tree in worldly successes when he permits them to blast the honour and safety of the just If prosperous providence gives the sentence of justice The Turk that sets up his trophies in the most renowned parts of Christendome already and if he should poure in his forces to the overthrow of all the Christian nations that remain could never want an argument to justify his usurpations and Tyrannies Nor doth the Churches unsuccesseful attempts for its preservation disprove its truth and being But rather if it were lawful or indeed possible to determine from exteriour providences the frequent tragedies of its continual snfferings might induce us to a beleef that Truth and persecution have gone hand in hand Hence the worthy observers of the Churches instability in worldly safety have found out a reason of its happinesse from its miseries The Church hath increased with persecutions and is crowned with martyrdomes saith St. Hierome Then it conquers when it is oppressed and obtaines when forsaken saith St. Hilary For if its
such as may signify decency and order alwayes considering the infinite majesty of that God with whom I have to do in those holy actions Quest But is not the pious regard of the circumstance of time conducing to the discharge of thy duty to God in the publick worship Ans. Yes I am bound in conscience to keep holy to the Lord his day in all religious exercises and not to prophane it either with secular or sinful employments to observe publick fasts for such reasons as Authority shall order them and all other dayes set apart for the service of God propounding such religious ends to my self for which they were first instituted and commanded Q. What sins are committed against the publick worshâ—p of God which thou oughtest to beware of besides the ordinary breaches of the duties you have mentioned Ans. Many dangerous enterprises that tend necessarily to the impairing eradicating the same as first all attempting by power or seducement to hinder the peaceable assembling of Gods servants together in those holy services Secondly all defacing despising or especially destroying the publick places of Gods worship the preservation of which were alwayes accounted great significations of Religion in a Nation Thirdly all acts that tend to the destruction of the publick ministery it being essentially necessary to the execution of the offices of the publick worship and without which no national profession was ever yet preserved Now the acts that will certainly ruine a publick ministery and by necessary consequence the publick worship are these First the disgracing oppressing and ejecting their persons from their places in any present period of time Secondly the cutting off all possibility of having such a publick Ministry for the future and that will be effected by these attempts 1. By disallowing or prohibiting all means of succession by which an outward designation to ministeriall offices is to be continued and by which a Ministry hath to this day been preserved 2. By taking away all means of education to the knowledge of the tongues arts and sciences by which understandings are prepared by labour and industry to acquire gifts for finding out the mysteries of Religion and to be able to instruct exhort and convince extraordinâ—ry gifts being ceased after the first planting of the Church Lastly by laying hold upon and taking away the demeans by which a present Ministry is maintained and a future perpetuated the most infallible and certain method of destroying them In these two last lay the project of Julian the subtillest enemy of the Church of Christ when he attempted the overthrow of Christian Religion which acts of his were accounted most dangerous persecutions of the Church I oblige my self therefore not to do any act by my self nor to adhere to the act of any other that shall in any of these things impair the publick worship of my gracious God CHAP. V. Quest NOw because it s not enough to a godly life to yeeld conformity to the publick worshâ—p but thou art bound to enlarge thy obedience to the Gospel by thy private performances of holy services to God What doth the Gospel require of thee respectively in order thereto Answ. A giving up the exercises of all the parts and faculties of my soul and body to the obedience of Christ especially the affections of my heart which being rightly ordered by the law of the Gospel will infallibly carry the whole man to the service of God 2. Constantly serving God with private prayers and fasting 3. Honouring him and obeying the Gospel by the use of my particular talent to the good of others Quest Now because the offices of the whole man as you said are guided by the disposition of the heart and its affections It is expedient you know what those affections are and their duties to God What therefore are they Answ. These four especially Love Hope Fear and Joy Quest It is well ordered that thou hast put love to God in the first place which is so necessarily and eminently requisite to a soul in a true Gospel-state that all other services without it are nothing and under its larger notion they are all comprehended What is the command of Christ and thy duty as to that affection Answ. To love God with all my heart Soul mind and strength to love nothing that is unlawfull and so inconsistent with him and to love all other things that are lawfull in subordinatioâ— to him Quest How may I best serv God with my affection of hope Answ. Clearly to resign my self to a confidence in Gods promises living in them above all prosperous enjoyments and possessing my soul with patience in all dangers and adversities hoping that as God hath fore-ordained and called me to them he will also justifie me in them and glorify me after them Quest How may the Gospel be obeyed and God served by the exercise of thy affection of fear Answ. When in all inward motions and outward temptations to sin I represent the divine presence to my thoughts before which I stand and against which I must offend if I consent Quest Lastly when is the passion of joy made serviceable to God Answ. When I rejoyce in the Lord and in all spirituall comforts abandoning all pleasure in sin and removing a too much delight and over value of any present lawfull enjoyment whatsoever Quest Having thus done thou hast presented to God the best sacrifice thou hast which is thy heart and by that thy self yet is not that enough for in the next place as thou saidest God must be served with private prayers And how hath the Gospel obliged thee to that duty Answ. By absolute and indispensable commands and by most gratious promises of Gods acceptance of them and answering them unto me Quest It s true nor hath he for any other service given clearer injunctions or directions havâ—ng made a pattern of words himself and intimated severall kinds of prayers for our Christian exercâ—ses And what are they Answ. These four as S Paul enumerates them Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of thanks Quest What holy offices do those four sorts direct thee to Answ. The first signifies the acknowledgement of my sins and an humble suit for the pardon of them The second petitioning for all spirituall and temporal supplies especially for the assistancies of Gods grace and spirit The third an interceding for Gods mercy and blessing upon all mankind the Church in generall all governours relatives enemies and persons whatsoever The last signifies an expressing my thankfulnesse to God for all his blessings to my self and others Quest The Gospel being very severe and importunate in requiring the frequency of this duty even to uncessancy How mayest thou best discharge thy duty to God as to that obligation Answ. To
of Christ being charitably weighed and the circumstances of a long continued peace which alwayes contracts the rust of corruption and all other accidents of present temptations considered I am confident no one period of time ever presented a Church that ever declared greater effects of piety or produced a more numerous progeny of better Christians then the Church of England hath done And I challenge all the adversaries of this afflicted Church to evince my assertion by any former president or present example As to the loud clamour of corruptions in the lives of the Ministers of this Church by which they pretend to satisfy the world about their unparallel'd and unchristian usages of them and indulge their own cruelties by thinking they serve God while they devour them as our Saviour prophesied we are as willing to acknowledge and lament them as they can be to suggest them But that I may clearly take off the offence that is used as an argument against the profession of this Church by the allegation of such corruptions in the lives of its Ministers I desire that these particulars may be charitably and impartially considered First That the religion of this Church doth as little allow such corruptions and gives as strong an obligation to the contrary holinesse and is as capable of entertaining all possible securities for any present reforming or future preventing such evils as any Christian profession ever was or any other can be And if the loose reines of officers and the temptations of a corrupt and prosperous age have occasioned much more errours of life in Ministers then was suitable to so holy a calling yet is not the lawfulnesse of their call to be justly impeached nor the religion and Church it self chargeable with such corruptions Secondly consider that in all the purest ages of Christian profession the Ministers did always evidence they had their honour in earthen vessels that is were men of common imperfections and subject to the same frailties which are coincident to other men To prove which I need not exceed my design of brevity by making historical narrations through the several times of the Church of the common failings of the Ministery in them Account but the Apostles themselves and you may observe Judas to have been a thief and a devill St. Peter to have not onely denied but also to have forsworne our Saviour St. Thomas grossely disbeleeved him and they all once forsake him who had they lived in this age would have been exposed to Articles enough to have ejected them from their Apostolical offices called their standings in question and to have given arguments to a malicious adversary to have scrupled their profession Now if the fountains were defective how could the streams of their successors be expected to be pure and free from all corruptions And because our adversaries have exposed us to contempt for our imperfections of which though we justly accuse our selves and from our soules desire an universal amendment yet we are willing to be tried by the state of the Ministery in any time that our cunningest enemy can name for general defence all circumstances considered Thirdly consider what an easie thing it is to contemne when men are resolved to accuse and what an hard thing it is to be innocent when a man layes at the foot of every froward and unreasonable distaste and humour This evidently appears by the usage of our Blessed Saviour who though he was the onely person that was purely innocent yet there wanted not them to make him guilty of great and high misdemeanours he was accused as and reputed a wine-bibber a friend of Publicans and sinners a Beelzebub and Prince of devils and when he came upon the Articles of his life he was found guilty by testimony of blasphemy and many other things as Pilate told him And certainly were the lives of Gods best servants suppose a Ministery searched to the bottom of their times and their single falls recorded and that by malicious accusers studious to find defects and resolved to quarrel and so presented in the multiplying glass of disaffection to the view of the people already prejudicated by an ill opinion who could be accounted innocent or where would be found a Ministery or a person which might not be called corrupted How much of this case is ours let the consciencies of adversaries attest Lastly let our adversaries cool their fury and consider what security they have above other men to have their own next succeeding Clergy exempted from corruptions after their enjoyments of peace and the heats of opposition be digested whether they can secure a priviledge for them above all examples and common incidencies to errour or whether they would willingly have them suffer such a condemnation which an ill-affected enemy disposed to accuse would fasten upon them I think it not a noble or Christi-thing to search for mens faults or frailties otherwise I might upon a good ground affirm the Ministery of the newest stamp and latest shift guilty of as great failings in themselves and to have been the occasion of as great offences in others though of another nature as those for which we suffer so many indignities and uncivil usages And I beleeve could the people see and I wish they could what the new Ministery would do in some few yeares of peace and power I say I beleeve they would think they had lost a Ministery Qnest This discourse though fully satisfying the scruples that may be objected concerning the lives of Ministers yet leaves another knot untyed which the enemies of our profession have cast upon the consciences of many weak though well-disposed spirits and that is concerning the lawfulnesse of their calling as the Ministery of this Church now stands In which I desire to see your satisfaction Ans. As to that point though I might acquiesce in the various Treatises with which many learned persons have enlightned the world against all the cxceptions of the adversaries to Ministery yet for the satisfaction of every present Reader I will subjoyn these two arguments in their defence The first is from the effect of Ministery an argumentation which our Saviour intimates ought to be used in this very case to discriminate true Ministery from false Prophets Ye shall know them by their fruits And blessed St. Paul that could have brought Angels and men and the plea of an immediate sending from God to the proof of his high and miraculous separation is pleased to argue for his Apostleship with his Corinthians from the effect of the same among them For saith he the zeal of my Apostleship are ye in the Lord Now whatsoever effects and fruits are judged producible from the true Ministery of Christ to demonstrate them such have been eminently brought forth by the Ministery of this national Church What grace was there ever eminent in any Christian Church that hath not as apparently been demonstrable in this