in time of tryal upon any condition forsake it Now this exhortation he strengtheneth by giving of directions for furthering their obedience thereunto the first is Christans mutually stirring up and sharpening one another amongst themselves that is a special help to constancy in the true Religion and a preservative against Apostacy together with a godly striving one with another who shall be first in love and well-doing vers 24. Let us consider one another to provoke to love and good works And 2. Another means to this end is the frequenting Christian congregations assemblies So comes in my Text. Not forsaking c. In the words you have evidently two parts 2. A Taxation of some for the neglect of that duty 1. The duty is to keep close to and not to forsake the Assemblies of the Church 2. The fault taxed in some amongst them is that in Schism or pride or purpose of Apostacie they withdrew themselves from these Church assemblies and so fell back again or were in the way of falling back to the open denial of Christ for separation from the true Church or the Christian society of the faithful therein is a remarkable sin tending to lead men by Schism to Apostacy from the profession of the true faith 1. Of the duty of Christians in order to their proving constant in the true Religion even to keep close unto and not forsake the assemblies of the Church The word for assemblies in the Text hath a very great emphasis in it it is a tricomposite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as both Calvin and Hemingius upon the place observe signifies novam accessionem an increase or addition of some more members to a body congregated And these were the converted Gentiles that being converted to the faith became one with the Jews one and the same body of Christ Estius observes that because the Apostle here writes to the Jewes therefore for the Christian Assemblies he useth the word Synagogue because he would not vary from their phrase or custome of Speech any more then needs But might it not be some private meetings some separate assemblies in a corner that he calls by this name and here speakes of O no Interpreters with one consent generally interpret it of the publique assemblies of the Church in such publique places as are by Christian Magistrates or by the Rulers of the Church if the Magistrates be not Christian appointed for the publique worship of God Not forsaking the Assembling of themselves that is saith the London Annotations the publique congregation of the faithful wherein the word of God is taught the sacraments administred and common prayer and publique Thanksgiving are offered up unto God for unto such publique congregations hath God promised his blessing where hath he promised it Marke the Scriptures quoted by the Assembly for it are these d Psal 27.4 one thing have I desired of the Lord that I might dwell in the house of the Lord all the dayes of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his holy Temple for herein is implyed this promise that in the Temple the house of God there will God let us see his beauty Another text quoted by them is e Psal 122.1 I was glad when they said let us go into the house of the Lord our feet shall stand within thy gates O Jerusalem thither the tribes go up the tribes of the Lord unto the testimony of Israel to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. Of such assemblies therefore even of such as go into the said House of God whither the tribes the Multitude of the right worshippers of God go up to pray unto and praise him of these doth our Text speak Not forsakeing the assembling c. And to these Assemblies the Annotations quote that special promise as belonging unto them f Mat. 1 20. Where two or three are met together in my name that is for prayer and other Religious offices there am I in the midst of them Christ promiseth his gracious assistance to and presence with his Church be it great and numerous or be it small and with the publique and solemn congregation thereof Yes say the Schismaticks where ever two or three are met together there is he in the midst of them therefore the promise is to us or any of the Saints wherever or how few soever they be that thus meet together There is no Text wherein the separatist take Sanctuary more then this but very unsoundly For as the Reverend Mr. Ball expounds that place in his tryal of the grounds tending to separation pag 280 by the contextit appears Christ is there speaking of the Validity of the sentence of excommunication and certainly Christs meaning is not that every Society that consisteth of two or three believers met together to pray or preach have the power to excommunicate for no one example can be Alledged out of Scripture or Ecclesiastical History of the ancient Churches wherein any number of the Faithful did ever lawfully excommunicate or judg any Member of their Society without their Guides and lawful Officers moderateing the action There is no promise can be shewed out of Holy Writ wherein any such authority is bequeathed to two or three private Believers Disciples or Brethren O no but the very tenour of the words is to argue from the less to the greater thus If Christ be present with two or three gathered together in his name to ask things agreable to his will he will much more confirmin heaven what ever his officers and servants that have power from Christ to do this service in the Church in his name shall determine and conclude according to his will but they cannot meet together in his name for this or any other holy office that meet together in way of Schism contrary to his will Quomodo possunt duoaut tres in non mine Christi colligi quos constat à Christo ab ejus Ecclesià seperant saith S. Ciprian how can they be met together in the name of Christ that do manifestly separate themselves from Christ and his Church Cum Haereses Schismata nata sint dum conventicula sibi diversa constituunt veritatis caput originem reliquerunt when Heresies and Schismes arise the maintainers of them make separate conventicles for themselves they forsake Christ the Lord and fountain of Truth peace It is the Church and they that keep within the pale of the Chuch by unity and concord to whom this promise runs to give them what they meet together in his name to ask of him and to be in the midst of them I will be saith he in the midst of them That is of them that fear me and keep my precept of peace and truth Non homines ab eccelsia dividit qui fecit instituit ecclesiam sed exprobrans discordiam persidis fidelibus pacem suâ voce commendans ostendit
the world So is this Uniformity in actions of Worship also necessarily included in this Apostolical Exhortation to speak the same things and that there be no divisions amongst us Indeed this would be a perfect and blessed Unity for all these three to meet together unity in judgment unanimity of loving affection and uniformity in action and this perfection ought to be both in all our aims and endeavours but if while we faithfully endeavour it in our several places we cannot through our own weakness or others waywardness attain to the full perfection hereof yet pulchrum erit in secundis tertiis ve it will be our comfort and commendation to labour and attain so much after it as possibly we can and therefore nevertheless whereunto we have attained Phil 3.16 let us mind the same things Let us labour after this unity of judgment affection and action I beseech you Brethren by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions amongst you but that ye strive perfectly to be joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment To quicken you hereunto this being so needful a duty and we all so dull unto it let me offer these following forceable Motives to your serious consideration 1. The seasonableness of the Exhortation for are not these the last and worst days the dregs and Lees of times of which our Saviour prophecied when Christian Love should grow cold which is the Bond of Peace and Satan knowing his time but short should double his diligence in sowing his Tares of cursed contentions in Gods Fold Heb. 10.24 25. â—ude v. 11. the proud and malicious hearts of men being too fruitful soils thereof and of which the Apostle prophesieth and Saint Jude Read the places and see if the men of this Age be not therein exactly described Alas when was the Christian World ever more out of quiet when was Gods Church ever more dangerously rent and torn when was Schismes and Separations ever more greedily and dangerously made and prosecuted when was Gods Church on Earth more Militant or had more Enemies forreign abroad intestine at home more Satanical spirits to hate it more Lucians to scoff at it more Rabshekah's to rail on it or Balaam's to curse it when were there more Atheists to scoff at Religion Ridemur decathimmur saith Tert. more Hereticks to reproach revile and slander it more Schismaticks studying divisions affecting parties carrying up-sides and factions and being out of danger of the Kings Laws and contemning the Churches pious Edicts and Censures like unnatural Children rending and tearing their Mothers Bowels Inimici Domesticiâ— Behold the Churches Foes are those of her own Family Rom. 3.17 her Sons disturb her peace and the way thereof they will not know Mistake me not my design is not to rail or reflect on any sort of men but only to warn you as a faithful Watchman to take heed of these deceitful ways and the very design of this Complaint and Lamentation that there should be such Troublers of Israel abounding amongst us is only to shew the Exhortation in the Text as necessary so seasonable even that we all hearken after the things that make for peace to speak the same things and to avoid if it be possible these divisions amongst us So from the seasonableness pass we 2. To the reasonableness of the Exhortation also and that in almost infinite respects 1. Listen to Gods Commands search the Scriptures Brethren and find any duty if you can more peremptorily commanded more highly commended by the Holy Ghost more frequently pressed by the Prophets and Apostles than this How often doth the Gospel of Peace call upon us to follow peace with all men Eph. 5.16 Heb. 12.14 if it be possible and as much as lyeth in us to live peaceably with all men How much more with Brethren 2 Cor. 13.11 2 Cor. 13.14 2 Tim. 2.23 men of the same Nation and Church and Faith and Religion with our selves for to such it is written Be of one mind live in peace follow Righteousness Faith Charity and Peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart It were endless to give you all the strict Commands of the Gospel to this purpose without obedience to which we are not real but nominal servants of Jesus Christ unless we study Unity and be careful to maintain peace and love and speak the same things and avoid divisions and those that cause them the World may question our Christianity which will further appear in all the following considerations whilst we look upon God whom we pretend to serve and worship 2. It is the Apostles Argument amongst many others Eph. 4.1 2. I the Prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the Calling wherewith ye are called How With all lowliness and meekness and long-suffering endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace For saith he there is one Body one Spirit one Hope one Lord one God and Father of all There is but one God and great reason then we should endeavour unity and unanimity and uniformity in the worship and service of this one God Those that have several Gods may well have several ways and several forms to worship them as the Marriners in Jonah called every one upon his God When several Gods are afoot all Games must go forward but now we all profess but one God unchangeably one the Maker of Heaven and Earth the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and he is always of one mind he is not for one thing sometimes and another thing other times like a distempered Stomack but God is still of one and the same mind and therefore that which pleaseth him at one time the same words and things if they proceed from the same heart must needs find the same acceptance always No marvel if dissentions arise amongst wicked ones betwixt Abimelech and the men of Shechem seeing they serve divers Masters have several lusts one raigning in this another in that man all commanding contrary things but shall not Christians speak the same things without divisions that all serve one Lord and that one being so far from commanding any thing that may occasion discord that his very livâ—â—â— is the Badge and Cognizance of Love and Peace More particularly being we profess to worship the Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity let us consider each Person in the Blessed Trinity 1. God the Father he is one there is one Father of all If God be our Father Eph. 4.6 then are we all Brethren to each other If a man coming into his Neighbours house by chance should find them all together by the ears would he not think them disorderly and ill-governed children how much more if they should be observed to be ever and anon snarling and quarrelling one with another and beating and kicking one another Here Joseph
SOUND CONSIDERATIONS FOR TENDER CONSCIENCIES Wherein is shewed their OBLIGATION To hold close Union and Communion with the CHURCH OF ENGLAND And their Fellow Members in it and not to forsake the publiek Assemblies thereof In several SERMONS preached upon 1 Cor. 1.10 and Heb. 10.25 By Joseph Briggs M. A. vic of Kirkburton in Yorksshire Qui Christum fine Ecclesia quaerit errare fatigari potest at invenire non pâ—test Venerabilis Beda in Can. 6.1 London Printed for Nathaniel Brooks and are to be sold at the Angel in Cornhil 1675. To the Right Worshipful Sr. John Kay of Woodsum Farnley Baronet one of his Majesties Justices of Peace of the Quorum and Deputy Lieutenent for the Westriding of York J. B. Wisheth all Mercy and Comfort in Christ Jesus both now and for ever Right-worshipful YOu and all good men would think it no small happiness to the Christian World if true Religion might reign as a Law unthwarted unopposed and the Orthodox Faith being obscured by no Questions and Cavils were onely published and not disputed Faith and Religion may fitly be resembled to a pure and liquid stream which becomes muddy being troubled and as by an Inundation of water the Field or Meadow adjoyning is turned into an miry pit So when Contentions which the wise man compares to an overflowing of water overspreads the green Pastures of Sacred truth much filth of error thereby cleavs to them Hence have Faith and Religion themselves come into question though of all other things they be most certain and indubitate And as plants often removed cannot take root and prosper so Faith and Piety being removed out of their ancient standing and bended this way and that way according to mens humors loose their reverence and stability and do decay in the lives of men and Atheism gets ground Hence it is that one gainsaying another one plucks down what should be by a common labour and consent built up And hence it is that as it is impossible for a man to follow guides whose backs are turned each of other and their faces a clean contrary way so Gods people who should be led by their spiritual guides in one beaten path of Faith and Godliness are with unspeakable peril distracted not knowing what to do while their leaders call them contrary wayes By this in a word do we Christians become a Reproach both to Jewes and Gentiles and we Protestants to the derision of Turks and Papists while our Church is broken in so many factions while Aarons bells do jangle all men are in an uproar and fall together by the Ears and the fire of unchristian animosities become too often like that of the Temple never to be extinguished But which is the worst of all Religion hereby becomes as it were heart eaten I mean the heart of it that is the practise of Holiness and Righteousness daily decayeth for when some men are loath to put themselves to the trouble of an holy life they readily list themselves under a party not doubting to acquire to themselves a glorious name if they be but zealous in the defence of a tittle or punctilio how careless soever they be in the essential duties of the Kingdome of God Indeed how this should be how the Christian Religion should be quarrell'd about is next to a Miracle considering what benignity and sweetness of disposition what candour and ingenuity of Spirit what humility and mutual condescention it requireth But aut hoc non est Evangelium aut non sumus Evangelici Either this is not the Right practice of Christianity or it is not calculated for our Meridian wherein abound so much pride and uncharitableness so many strifes and divisions so much wrath and envy confusion and every evil work How far different are ours to those pure primitive times wherein Religion truely flourished For then was the spirit of Meekness and gentleness and peacableness accounted the indispensable duties and characteristical notes of real Godliness The greatest instance of piety in the first Christians was to dye and not to fight for Christ they had not then learnt to make way for Doctrines or opinions by the dint of the sword And surely no reason can be alledged why Christians should not act by the same rule and stand upon the same ground now as then But that can never be while these partition walls are daily set up amongst us while men are dayly forsaking our Church Assemblies and racking their brains and purses and interests to found or defend their private Meetings in opposition unto them Indeed this seems to be the way to perpetuate a schism in the midst of us and as it were to establish it by a Law which we and our Posterity may have sad cause to lament when it is past all prevention or Cure To prevent the unspeakable Mischiefes the Prologue of utter destruction I conceive it the duty of all men in their several places to bestir themselves in time but especially of Magistrates and Ministry and it is my ambition to be some way instrumental to remove the causes which hath willingly carried me to this hazard first to Preach and then to Print these ensuing Sermons How serviceable they are to the end for which they are designed I leave it to your Worships considerations to determine Indeed when I first resolved to publish them I could have no dispute with my self to whom to dedicate them First upon the account of my great personal obligations to you for those constant respects you have been pleased to express unto my person ever since I had the happiness to be acquainted with and seated near you and also for that eminent love of God and his Church and truth the world hath experienced and must upon all occasions gratefully acknowledge in you to the praise of God that raiseth up such worthies Besides the very matter of the book seems as much to concern your self and other good Magistrates as us the Ministers of the Church For these two Offices are so intimately related Church and State Prince and Priest Magistrate and Minister are so nearly and naturally conjoyned in a mutual interest that like Hippocrates his twins they rejoyce and mourn flourish and perish together They have most what in all ages fared alike in the world Both are deputies under and instruments of and actors for God in their several Ministrations And therefore the Devil doth alike malice them both and stirs up his instruments either to corrupt them or remove these sacred functions from their purity and integrity if it be possible or else to disquiet and destroy them God leadeth his people like a flock by the hands of Moses and Aaron * Ps 37.20 and therefore the enemies of the flock have an equal spite to both these two leaders In all Ages of the Church almost since it was constituted and established and since Kings and Queens have become the nursing Fathers and nursing Mothers thereof if the one have prospered
But as it was that solicitous care I had of your present and everlasting Welfare that did at first engage me to Preach upon these subjects so the very same fire burning still in my heart being earnestly desirous the truths herein delivered may not be forgotten by you even while you have use for them this almost irresistibly urged me to enter upon the stage to encounter the harsh Censures I seriously expect for it These Sermons you know together with others upon other texts relating to this subject which to imprint also would swell the book to too great a bulk was preached both in Church and Chappel The design of them was evidently to deal with your Consciences and inform them aright in this present juncture of publick affairs what your Obligation is to your own Pastors and to prevent your Chismatical forsaking the Publick Assemblies to joyn to an Independant Conventicle Pardon me if I mistake it for I believe it cannot as it is circumstantiated consist with the principles of the old sober Presbyterians nor yet with the Modern that have any remains of settled principles concerning Church unity and Church Assemblies in them But having preacht them I easily perceived all my labours utterly lost and useless to many that either would not or could not hear them or else basely without any shew of reason reflected on them Hence I began to desire they might have some way of approving themselves further to the World and especially that they might be exposed with better advantage to your more serious and retired consideration and perusal and if it were possible that they might be known unto and narrowly examined by all under my charge These and other Motives especially knowing that other books of better worth of this or like subjects have never reacht your hands nor in likelyhood ever will do being entertained prevailed and wrought a trembling resolution in me to offer them first to some Christian friends perusal and after to put them upon this publick tryal though at first in composing them I never purposed more than the delivering them vivâ voce to your private audience It is admirable to consider how this perticular national Church suffers by Traduces and Blasphemies on all hands Meet as Christ was crucified betwixt two thieves so on the one side the Papists Anathematize us the Faithful Ministers and Members of the Church of England because we are the most professed enemies to their usurpations Idolatries and superstitions on the other side the separating Members of our Church do hate and maligne us and sometimes saucily and petulantly brand us with Popery and Idolatry and so make us limbs of Anti-christ and therefore no true or faithful Churches of Christ and that meerly for those few innocent indifferent significant ceremonies which we retain and observe for the order and decency of the Worship of God Thus are Christs sheep in the midst of Wolves His Spouse a woman in the Wilderness of wilde Beasts of all sorts this is Ephraim against Manasseh and Manasseh against Ephraim but both against Juda Herod and Pontius Pilate made friends Pharisees and Sadduces combining and agreeing against Christ But blessed be God so safe is our Church and so warrantable is our standing in it that this Flag of Defiance we can hold out against all Sadduces and Opponents that we have in most of our adversaries confessions those things in the Midst of us that in the judgements of all the Reformed Churches as may appear by the Harmony of their confessions are the only undoubted marks and infallible characters of a true Visible Church where ever they are Such are the pure preaching of the Word of God and the Right Administration of the Sacraments And this I made good to you upon that text Acts 2.42 which I trust you will remember Now whoever is once assured that the National Church he lives in and in which he was baptized is a true Visible Church of Christ He can never have just cause while it remains such essentially to separate from it but ought to live and rest with quietness and chearfulness of Spirit in communion thereof For it is every mans duty to profess himself a Christian and to own his Religion publickly and therefore publickly to partake of and frequent the Ordinances and Sacraments of the Gospel in order thereunto but this he cannot do without society and communion with some Church or other Every Christian as such is bound to look upon himself as a member of a Body viz. The Visible Church of Christ but how can he be known to be a member who is not united with the other parts of the Body Hence follows that upon all Christians there lyes an Obligation to engage in a Religious society with others for partaking of the ordinances of the Gospel Now a Christi an being actually joyned in Church society with other Christians is so long bound to maintain society with them till his communion with them becomes sin The separatist must prove that every one sins that keeps in the Communion of the Church of England or else he himself must inevitably lye under the guilt of sin for separation from it there being nothing that can justifie the withdrawing from the society of that Church wherein a Christian was baptized but the unlawfulness of continuing it Nor is it any corruptions that are crept into a Church which still remaines true and and Faithful as to its constitution and Essentials that will make it a Christians duty to withdraw from it or to gather new Churches in and out of it though it be upon pretence of purer administrations Which by the way is all that is pleaded by most of our adversaries against us viz. Some defects or Corruptions in the exercise and administration of Church order and discipline for there is no Church on earth perfectly free from these and as it is proved in these ensuing Sermons especially upon the latter text So is it excellently done by the famous Mr. Norton in his answer to Apollius as I find him quoted by Dr. Edward Stillingfleet in his Irenicum p. 111. That it is Lawful for Christians to joyn with Churches so defective and if it be Lawful to joyn with them it must needs be unlawful to separate from them for how can the God of Love and Vnity endure any rents or Schismes in the Body of Christ and then how dare any one forsake the Communion of that Church whereof they are natural and immediate members if they be not assured that it is either no Church or a false one or that it is unlawful to hold communion with it This is evidently is the Case of our Church in her separation from the Church of Rome the main ground hereof being the sin of Communicating with that Church in her Idolatry and superstition and the impossibility of Communicating with her and not partaking in her sins the practice of her Idolatry being made a necessary condition of her
necks they are properly stiled children of Belial their hellish design is clean contrary to the Text to cause divisions and offences amongst you 2. As it is necessary to prevent divisions that you submit to the same Government so that you walk by the same rule What is that It is either Principal or Subordinate Principal even the Law and the Testimony the sacred Scriptures Subordinate even according to the Scriptures the rules and canons and Customes of the Church without a due respect to both these rules in their right places it is impossible Christians should speak all the same things but there will be divisions among them I dare assert and think it not difficult to maintain by the Scriptures as well as clear reason that there is an obligation upon the members of that Church in which they were born baptised and bred up to submit unto and obey the rules and canons and customes thereof if they be not able to prove them contrary to the Scriptures or the clear light of natural reason in us or at least such conclusions as are properly directly and evidently deduced from them There is much in that argument of the Apostle to confirm the sober-minded herein p 1 Cor. 11. If any man be contentious we have no such custome neither the Churches of God And in that of our Saviour If the Offender will not hear the Church let him be to thee as an Heathen and a Publican and again he that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me Do not think I ascribe to the Church any Popish infallibility or call for any blind obedience unto it O no if any of its rules or injunctions appears to be contrary to the Word of God like Nebuchadnezzar's to the three Children to fall down to his Image or Darius his to Daniel not to pray to any other God or the High-Priests to the Apostles not to speak in the name of Jesus then must we answer with them whether must we obey God or man judge ye But then we must not deny our obedience to such Church rules and canons as repugnant to God's Word upon light surmises and slender presumptions this were to speak evil of the things we know not q Jude 10. O no r As I take it this is the excellent Bishop Sanderion in one of his Sermons No worse for that as in the Courts of Civil Justice men are not ordinarily put to prove themselves honest men but the proof lieth on their accusers part and therefore it is sufficient for the acquitting any man in soro externo that there is nothing of moment proved against him it being requisire to the condemning a man that there be a clear and a full evidence against him So in these moral trials when enquiry is made into the lawfulness or sinfulness of our Churches rules and customes and our Governours commands it is sufficient to warrant them if there can be nothing produced from express Scriptures or sound reason against them and to condemn or disobey them upon remote consequences and weak deductions though it be from Scripture-Texts can ne'r be excused of rashness and unrighteousness Sure obedience is an unquestioned duty obey them that have the rule over you saith the Apostle for they watch for your Souls and therefore unless it be manifest that their Lawes and injunctions be against the Word of God all our questions are but carpings and needless stumbling blocks laid in our way by the Troublers of Israel The safest way is obedience which also is absolutely necessary among Christians that they may speak the same things and that there be no divisions among them Then 3. More particularly still to this end that as Christian Brethren ye may speak the same things without divisions it is necessary that ye all joyn in the same form of prayer praise and manner of worshipping God It was David's earnest desire O magnifie the Lord with me Psal 34.3 and let us exalt his Name together And the Holy Ghost in the Acts mentions this Uniformity in the Churches Infancy and time of her first love to be one chief cause of its prospering and inlarging Acts 4.24 The multitude of Believers lifted up their voice in praises with one accord Acts 4.24 The people with one accord gave heed to the things that Philip spake Acts 8.6 And it s a great part of the blessedness of the heavenly Jerusalem Rev. 4.10 that the Elders sing with one voice unto the Lord. So doth the Apostle make it his earnest prayer for the Romans Rom. 15.6 that they might be like minded one towards another that with one mind and with one voice they might glorifie God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one mind and with one mouth too while men think to glorifie God in several ways and several forms it is scarce intelligible how they can do it in this desirable manner with one mind and with one mouth so many several ways so many several mouths and that can never tend to the glory of God The Apostles expression intimates that like-mindedness unanimity and uniformity are very subservient to the glory of God What an honour is it to the God of Israel when all Israel came in as one man to do him worship when that admirable variety of Gifts and Administrations and Offices that are in his Church do not jar and clash one against another but sustain and mutually supply out of their stores the wants each of other and all conspire together in their several kinds to glorifie God What else is musical harmony but concord in discourse variety in consort it makes the musick full and delightful when there is a well-ordered variety of voices and instruments in it but if all instruments were perfectly well tuned yet if the men could not agree what to play but one would have a nimble Galliard another a frisking Jig another a grave Air and if all of them should be so wilful as without yielding to the rest to scrape on his Tune as loud as he could what a hideous hateful noise may you imagine would such a mess of Musick be no less odious to God and equally grievous to every godly man it is when such Vices as these are heard in the Church of God I am of Paul and I of Cephas 1 Cor. 1.12 and I of Apollo When one Pamphleteer will have the Church governed after this fashion another after that when one Mountebank in Religion will have this way of Worship and form of Prayer another that to the great scandal of the Reformed Religion and the manifest dishonour of God Surely beloved such an Uniformity as of all Christian Members of the same Church to be of one mind and worship God in one place and in one way and form and manner with one accord would be the most beautiful and comely and happiest thing in
and drinking the same spiritual drink in the holy Communion and therefore all reason that as members of the same Body and servants of the same Family we speak the same things and there be no divisions amongst us Mr. Baxter in his Cure of Divisions urgeth two or three things well in this Topick of the Church as that our union with the Church is a sign of our proportionable union with Christ and our separation from the Church is a sign of our separation from Christ nay that union is not only an accident but of the very Essence of the Church without which it is no Church and without which we can be no members of it Unity being necessary to the very being of the Church and of Christianity and that our union is necessary to our nourishment from and Communion with Christ and his Church but I refer you for these to him See it page 66. whom perhaps some will rather hear than us if we should speak the same words I shall amongst many particulars urge only four things with reference to the Church that shews the need you have to speak the same things and that there be no divisions amongst you 1. This is the only way to forward the work of God for the building up of the Church which Faction and divisions on the other hand obstructeth so as nothing more You often read in Scripture of edifying the Body of Christ Eph. 4.12 2 Cor. 12.19 and of doing all things to edifilcation The expression is metaphorical taken from material buildings often used by the Apostle with application to the Church of God and the spiritual building thereof 1 Tim. 3.15 for the Church is the House of the Living God and all Christian-members of this Church are as so many stones of this building whereof the house is made up and the bringing in unbelievers into the Church by converting them to the Christian Faith is as the fetching of more stones from the Quarries to be laid in the building Now the building in it self and that is edification is the well and orderly joyning together of Christian men as living stones in truth and love that they speak the same things and that there be no divisions amongst them that they may grow together as it were into one entire building to make up a strong and comely house for the Masters use and honour a 1 Pet. 2.9 Indeed there is nothing more conduceth hereunto than Peace Love and Concord Knowledge is very little or nothing but a puff in comparison of Charity in order to Edification b 1 Cor. 8.1 It may swell and look big and make a shew but Charity doth the deed c 1 Cor. 1.10 It lays the stones together and makes them couch close one to another and binds them up with Fillings and Cement to make them hold Hence that wise Master-builder S. Paul that knew well what belongs to this work when he speaks of compacting the Church into a building mentions the edifying of it self in love d Eph. 4.16 Indeed when all the Workmen intend the main business each in his place and office performing their appointed task with chearfulness and good agreement then doth the work go on and the building gets up apace and strongly but when one man draws one way and another another way one will have things done after this fashion another after that one mars what another makes pulls down what another sets up how is it possible while things go thus that ever the building should be brought to any perfection or handsomness and therefore well doth the Apostle joyn these two together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 e Rom. 14.19 Let us follow after the things that make for peace and things wherewith we may edisie one anot her Where the hearts and tongues of the builders are divided the building will either come to nothing or prove but a Babel of confusion for where envy and strife is there is confusion and every evil work f James 3.16 Strife will make ill work it will build up nothing unless it be Babels walls It is peace and concord that builds up the walls of Jerusalem which as it hath its name from peace so hath it also its perfection from peace and then and not before shall Jerusalem be built as a City that is at unity in it self g Psa 122.3 whe◠they that build Jerusalem are first at unity amongst themselves when they speak the same things and there is no divisions amongst them 2. As this is the way to build the Church so it is the way to preserve in both in peace beauty and safety 1. In peace The concord of Familie is their peace so is amity and concord in the Church whereas the divisions and discords of Christians disturbs their minds and discomposeth the Church Pray for the peace of Jerusalem h Psa 125. saith the Psalmist but by different forms and ways there is a breach of that peace such divisions in the Church are like wars and tumults in the Commonwealth they discompose and set it out of order It was Sir Henry Wotton's excellent saying Disputandi pruritus Scabies Ecclesiae The Itch of Disputing doth cause the Scab of the Church Every Sect finds some little pleasure in scratching by zealous wranglings and disputes for their several Opinions till the blood be ready to follow and at length it proves the bain of peace and charity and love which is the very life and soul of Christian Religion Now is not this or should it not be an effectual Motive to this Unity Unamity and Uniformity How dear should be the Churches peace to every member thereof Dulce nomen pacis the very name of peace sounds sweetly to the ear there is such a mixture of pleasantness and profitableness in it as wrapt the Psalmist into admiration ut prius miraretur quà m ostenderet he admires it himself and rouzeth others to the like admiration i Psa 133.1 Behold how good and pleasant a thing it is Brethren to dwell together in unity some things are pleasing not good as Epicurism and Good-fellowship some things good not pleasing as Fasting and Martyrdom but this both for pleasure it is like the Oyl poured out on Aaron's Head for goodness it is like the Dew on Hermon's Hill which made the Valleys fruitful So good and pleasant it is that nothing can be pleasant without it It is the desire of all hearts the rest of all Nations the end of all Contentions pacem te poscimus omnes nothing more desirable in Families in Kingdoms much more in the Church And therefore lest we violate the Churches peace it concerns us to speak the same things lest there be no peace but divisions amongst us 2. It is the way to preserve the Church in beauty and honour the concord of Christians is their beauty and honour and their divisions and discord is their deformity and shame The Church
stands upon two Staves the Staff of Beauty and the Staff of Bands if the Staff of Bands be once broken the Staff of Beauty cannot long stand but by divisions our Beauty becomes deformity Reformation deformation as when one hand is black and another white one cheek pale another red so whilst we become several Churches several Bodies what do we but make a Monster of the Church the Body of Christ Indeed nothing more tends to the Churches dishonour and Christs dishonour than this there is no such scandal to the Churches Enemies of all sorts than this the common Enemies of the truth of Religion are chiefly Atheism and Superstition and wherefore serveth the home-differences of Christians especially about indifferent things about Gestures and Vestures and other indifferent Rites and Formalities that for such things as these things in their own nature indifferent and never intended to be otherwise imposed than as matters of circumstances and order men should desert their Ministerial Charges fly out of the Church as out of Babylon stand at open Desiance against lawful Authority and sharpen their tongues and pens with so much petulancy and virulency as some have done wherefore serveth this but to the dishonour of Christians and Christianity and to give scandal to the Enemies thereof 1. To the Athiest for he till all men be of one Religion and agreed in every point thereof too which I doubt will never be whilst the World lasteth thinketh it the best wisdom to be of none nay makes it his best pastime to jeer at all The agreement of Christians is an ocular demonstration to the World that they have a certainty of the Faith which they profess and that it is of a healing nature and tendeth to the felicity of the world so that never was Christians observed to live in an undivided Unity and unfained love but the very Infidels and ungodly round about them did reverence both them and their Religion for it whereas their discords and divisions give occasion to Atheists and Unbelievers to blaspheme as if there were no certainty in their belief or as if it were of a vexatious and destructive tendency so that never were Christians divided implacable and bitter against each other but it made them and their profession a scorn to the unbelieving and ungodly World Their despising and vilifying one the other teaches the wicked to despise and vilifie them all as a well ordered Army and a City of uniform and comely building is a pleasing and inviting sight to beholders whereas a confused Rabble and ruinous heap bree is abhorrence even so the very sight of the concordant society of Christians is amiable to those without whereas their disagreements and separations makes them odious Hence the former conduceth much to the conversion and salvation of men and the latter hardens men in wickedness and hinders their coming into the Church and their obedience to the truth Who loveth to thrust himself into a fray and what wise men will joyn with drunken men that are fighting in the streets A more effectual way cannot be devised to drive men from Christ than to represent Christians like a company of mad-men that are tearing out the threats of one another when one Faction slies upon and speaks ill of one another what wonder if the Atheist and Infidel speak ill of and flies further from them all whereas contrarily the best means to win the World to a love of Holiness is if they can see that holiness makes men fervent and unfeigned in the love one of another k 1 Pet. 1.22 Christs words in his prayer are notable to this purpose l John 17.20 21 22 23. I pray saith he for them that shall believe on me through their word that they all may be one As thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that thou hast sent me c. It plainly implies that the Unity of Christians is a great means of converting the World to the Christian Faith and convincing Infidels of the truth of Christ as sent by God and so on the contrary their divisions must needs be a scandal to them Upon which account also we have reason to take heed to speak the same things and that there be no divisions amongst us 2. Such divisions give scandal to Papists You read how loth was Abraham to fall out with Lot and how desirous he was to compound the differences that were between their Herdmen and one reason is hinted in that it is said m Gen. 13.7 the Canaanites and Perizzites dwelt at that time in the Land So have we in our Land many Canaanites and Perizzites at this day that take offence at these divisions of ours and makes it a chief occasion to alienate their hearts from the Truth of God There be many Papists and Romanists confirmed and made obstinate in their Opinion of the Catholickness of the Romish Faith Hereby when they hear of so many things which have been ever and are still retained in the Church of England in common with the Church of Rome as they were transmitted both to them and us in a continued Line of Succession from our Godly and Orthodox Forefathers who lived in the Ages next to Christ and his Apostles to be now inveighed against and decryed as Popish and Superstitious And when they see men pretenders to Piety Purity and Reformarion more than others not contenting themselves with those just Exceptions that had been formerly taken by the Church of England and her regular children against some Erronious Doctrines and Forms of Worship taught and practised in the Church of Rome and endeavoured to be unduly and by her sole Authority imposed upon other Churches when they see them not contenting themselves with these things but even so far transported with a spirit of contradiction as that they care not so as they may but run far enough from Rome whether or how far they run although they should run themselves as too oft they they do quite beyond the bounds of Truth Allegiance common Reason and even common Humanity also Besides we know it hath been and is one grand objection of the Papists against the Reformed Churches that the Fanatical dissentions amongst our selves are evident signs of an Heretical spirit as Bellarmine Stapleton Kellison and others argue and Fitz Simon an Irish Jesuite hath written a whole Volumn on this argument which he â—alls Britanio-Machia It 's true how unhappy they have prov'd in this pretended Unity which they make a note of their true Church any one may judge that will but read the writings of Doctor Field Discourse concerning the Idolatry practised in the Church of Rome by D. Edw. Stillingfleet Bishop Jewel and even the late Book of the Excellent Doctor Stillingfleet upon this argument which proves them nevertheless faulty however we be blame-worthy As Gregory Nazianzen did answer those in his time that used the
our peoples into sides and parties they set our people a cockloft in rebellion against us they do in a few dayes annul all that we have done in many years towards the bringing our people into a way of order and obedience they fill the peoples mouths with insultations against their Pastors they set them in a posture of defiance against us they render it most difficult for us either to keep an amicable Correspondence with our people or procure our tithes and just maintenance from them they enslave us to their humors for if we displease or reprove them in the least or deny them any Common courtesie presently they tell us they can go to these separate meetings and be welcome and so many mischiefes hereof we daily feel that I may justly Conclude this with that which our Adversaries hate even an c. for they certainly Unhinge the Government both of the whole Church and of every particular Parish But perhaps these Chappels of ease are for the peoples ease or profit if they be it is just as Jeroboams Dan and Bethel was * 1 Kings 12 28.29 for them he intended as Chappels of ease to the people Saying it is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem but his meaning was least the people going up to do sacrifice there should turn again to their Lord Rehoboam * Vers. 27. He pretended the peoples accommodation and ease as a cloak to cover his own diffidence and cursed policy Just the like plea is used by some for these Chappels of ease the Parishes are too large it is too much for them to go to the Church for then perhaps in time we might bring them back again to their just duties and obedience or if you will they are such Chappels of ease as Samaria was to Jerusalem * See Mr. Joseph Meed Diatribae pag. 205. Nehe 13.28 Manasse brother to Jaddo the High priest of the returned Jewes had married the daughter of Sanballat then governor of Samaria and for this he was expelled Jerusalem by Nehemiah and therefore he fled to Sanballat his father in law and after his example many other of the Jewes of the best ranks having married strange wives likewise and loath to forgo them betook themselves thither also Sanballat willingly entertained them and made his son in Law Manasse their Priest for whose greater reputation and State when Alexander the great subdued the Persian Monarchy he obtained leave of him to build a Temple upon Mount Gerizim where his son in Law exercised the office of the High Priest Now this became an occasion of a Continual Schisme for those that were discontented or excommunicated at Jerusalem presently betook themselves to Samaria and just so do our people in the same case to these new licensed Chappels of ease and the Samaritan preachers thereof which whether it be a schisme and a breach of the Unity of the Catholick Church I leave to those to judg who have read how ill the Bishops in the primitive Churches resented it when other their fellow Bishops received those they had excommunicated into their Communion And now Reader do but Consider that not one of these pretences but they serve the turnes of all Sects one as well as other Independents Anabaptists and Quakers as well as the better sort of non-Conformists all alike and so they are by Mr. Baxter lovingly coupled together as brethren and indeed to them all these pleas are equally subservient Consider but this and then I submit all that is said both here and in the Sermons to this equal and impartial censure and as I freely give leave thou should reject whatever is tart or sarcastical above what the nature of the thing requires or whatever to thy more Sound judgment shall appear false and untrue so do I only request of thee this favour to which even thy self interest obligeth thee that is to believe me wherever thou seest reason or Scripture for what I say Consider all and the Lord give thee understanding in all things THE OBLIGATION OF CONSCIENCE Not to forsake PUBLICK ASSEMBLIES Hebrewes 10.25 Not forsaking the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is BEfore I close with my Text give me leave to shew you in a few words what great reasons I have to make choice of it for the subject of my present discourse These are three My duty Your necessity and all Our comfort 1. My duty in respect of the Church of God as a Member but especially as a Minister thereof As a Member for it is every Christians duty to inform himself by the best meanes he can how it fareth with the Church of God but especially to take notice of and be affected with the State of that particular Church whereof he is an immediate member Men are most what too inquisitive of news behold this is the news we should inquire after When Gods people were in battel against the Philistines and had the Ark of God with them in the Camp it is said a 1 Sam 4.13 that old Eli sate upon a seat in the way side watching and hearkning how Gods people sped and the reason is given for his heart trembled for the Ark of God therefore he sate watching that he might hear what became of it So when there came one to David out of the Camp of Israel b 2 Sam 1.3.4 David was very inquisitive how it fared with the Lords host How went the matter saith he I pray thee tell me The like you see in Nehemiah c Neh. 1.2 so soon as Hanani came to him the first question he asked him was concerning the state of Gods people that dwelt at Jerusalem though he wanted nothing himself being a Courtier in great place and favour with that mighty King yet could he not but inquire of and be affected with the state of Gods people Nay Moses being in the height of honour in Pharoahs Court did not onely inquire but went out to his brethren and looked on their burdens d Exodus 2.11 All these examples teach us that it is our duty as to inform our selves about so to consider the burdens of Gods Church and be affected with the miseries thereof and every one in our several places to have a care of the cause of Religion in the world and especially we ought continually to inportune the Lord in behalf thereof and never forget it in our prayers to God Ye that have escaped the sword e Jeremiah 51.50 Stand not still remenber the Lord afar off and let Jerusalem come into your mind Ye that are the Lords remembrancers saith the Prophet Esay f Isaia 62.67 keep not silence and give him no rest till he establish and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth Jerusalem is like to become a reproach an hissing to the world more and more if things go on as they do but we therefore that are the Lords Solicitors and Remembrancers as all the
Faithful are should like the importunate Widdow in the Gospel give him no rest till he have established and setled his Church in truth and peace and so give them beauty and glory even in the sight of their enemies so did Nehemiah g Nehe. 14. he sate down and wept and mourned certain dayes and fasted and prayed for the Churches miseries by this means he had wonderful success in his suite to the King in their behalf So might we the poorest and meanest of us all help Gods Church very much and prevail with God and against her enemies if we would so cry and weep and pray before God for her Exodus 17.11 h When Moses held up his hands Israel prevailed and when he let his hands fall Amalek prevailed Alass our hearts and hands are heavy in prayer and therefore doth Amalek prevail so much as he doth and Israel receiveth so many foiles and is afflicted with so many successions of miseries Such is the duty then of every Christian much more it is of every Minister of the Church as to inform himself about and to be affected with so uncessantly to pray for it yea and to prayer to joyn all his indeavours to rebuke and oppose all the enemies thereof secret or open whether they be without or within the Church it is no standing a neuter in the holy wars of Gods people He that is not with the Church to assist her to the utmost of his power is against it Meroz is to be cursed that will not come out to the help of the Lord and his servants against the mighty The zeal of Gods servants was alwayes stirring and active to stop any Schismaticks or Hereticks that did in any Age rise up in and against the Church of God h Judges 5.23 a Text strangely urged in the late Civil wars against neutrality and lukewarmness by those who hate us now implacably if we be not mode rate now as they call it that is careless of the Churches welfare When in the Church of Corinth there did but spring up a contention about so mean a ceremony as covering and uncovering their heads in prayer a very inconsiderable ceremony in comparison yet he that was ever ready to become all things to all men that by all means he might win some did then bestir himself by all means to oppose them in their presumptuous violations of the customes and orders established in their Churches though it was but in and about indifferent things i 1 Cor. 11.16 such is the duty then of every Christian member much more of every Minister of the Church of God and so is it my duty in particular as to take notice of and pray against so as much as lieth in me to oppose all the Church enemies and that 's one reason why I choose this text Not forsakeing c. And as my duty ingageth me to this choice so 2. Your necessity for there is none of you all but you have great need to be well grounded in matters of the Churches Peace and Unity as well as in any other points of Religion else will you be in continual danger of being seduced and so falling from your Baptism and Christian Profession either on the right hand or on the left For there are abundance of false Prophets gone out into the world never was Satan more let lose never was there greater Swarms of Locusts issuing out of the bottomless pit never was the Church more pestered with Schismes and Heresies never was there more broachers and fomentors of them and these as they are most diligent lying in wait to deceive they 'l Compass sea and land to gather proselytes so have they all necessary artifices and tricks of subtilty in order to that end they have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 k Col. 2.4 enticeing words to beguile poor souls and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l Eph. 4.14 Slight and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive they have a great deal of cunning even such as cheats and coggers at dice do use much craft to beguile and circumvent them that they deal with there is no safety in giving them the least audience or having any thing to do with them for these seducers as our experience teacheth us and Gods spirit hath often admonished us have a notable veine of perswading being able to use many reasons that at first sight carry in them great probability and shew of truth hence it is that many there be who have at first wondered at the gross absurdities in a contrary Religion Self-confidence seldome stand firmly in a day of trya◠witness Peter at Chrsts apprehension and have thought them such as might be answered by any simple man and so have scorned and abhorred them that yet by being over confident of themselves and careless in intertaining familiarity with those Seducers have quickly been over born and fallen into the pit of damnable errors such need there is Beloved for every one to ground themselves carefully in the knowledg of the truth as that they may not be so easily turned out of the right way but may make straight paths for their feet that they may go steadily and strongly in it m Heb. 12.13 Alas they that are Children in understanding and wavering they are easily carryed away with every wind of vain Doctrine n Ephes 4.14 and the most pernicious and damnable seducers do easily prevail with simple women that are ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth o 2 Tim. 3.6 7. they daily beguile unstable souls p 2 Peter 2.14 So great is your need then to be rightly informed in the knowledg of the truth and to be well grounded in your religion least you be unaware seduced to error and destruction and that 's another reason of my choosing the Text Not forsaking c 3. Another reason it is in order to all our joy and comfort for the fullness of our Church Assemblies and if men could be disswaded from forsaking them it could not but be matter of great joy and comfort to every truely pious heart Such a one cannot but rejoyce in the frequency and fullness of the publick Assemblies of the Church and in the Prosperity of the true Religion and right worship of God How marvellously did Gods people rejoyce in the dayes of David when the Ark of God was brought to Jerulem q 1 Chr. 15.28 And in the dayes of Hezekiah when the sacrament had been celebrated according to its first institution which it had not been of a long time before r 2 Chr. 5.26 27. So when Nehemiah had purged the house and worship of God from the corruptions thereof and restored it to it 's primitive purity It is said s Neh. 12. v. 43. the people rejoyced with great joy their wives also and their children rejoyced so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard even a far off And
magis esse se cum duobus aut tribus unanimitèr orantibus quà m cum decedentibus pluribus plusque impetrari posse paucorum concordi prece quà m discordi multorum oratione Saith S. Cyprian g De Vnitate Ecclesiâ—e as I find him quoted by Doct. Forbes in his Irenicumâ— Surely our Saviour doth not by this promise warrant divisions from that Church which he himself hath made and gathered but rather upbraiding the contentions of the perfidious and commending unity and unaminity to the faithful he teacheth us that he will rather be with two or three of them met together with one accord in his name and according to his appointment then with multitudes of them that depart from them and that he will rather answer the uniform prayers of a few peace able believers then the jarring prayers of many that divide themselves into sides and factions Can they think that Christ will be in the midst of them that are met together out of the Church of Christ Nay though such should suffer Martyrdome in the confession of his name yet cannot that blot and stain of their Schism be washed away in their blood Inexpiabilis gravis culpa discordiae nâ—c passione purgatur the great and inexpiable fault of separation and dissention cannot be purged by the most bitter passion or suffering Esse martyr non potest qui in ecclesiâ non est he cannot be a true martyr that keeps not unity in the Church Ad regnum pervenire non poterit qui eam quae regnatura est derelinquit He cannot attain the Kingdome that forsakes her that must raign in it It was peace that Christ gave us and bequeathed unto us It is concord and unanimity that he hath commanded us He hath strictly injoyned us to keep the covenants of love and Charity pure and inviolate So that he can never prove a right Martyr for the truth that keeps not Charity with the brethren h 1 Cor. 122. though I have faith so as to remove mountains or bestow all my goods upon the poor or give my body to be burned and have not charity it profiteth nothing God himself is love and therefore they that break the bond of love can never have God God cannot be in the midst of them so that it is not to private conventicles that this promise runs but to the publique congregations of the Church of which my Text here speaks Not forsakeing the Assembling of your selves as the manner of some is My way being thus clear and the meaning of the Text being thus made out and explained I shall from what is said raise this observation and prosecute it Doct. That it is the undoubted duty of all pious Christians that desire to prove constant to the true Religion to frequent and not to neglect the publique Assemblies of the Church Which truth that I may prove undenyable and convince the judgments of all that are teachable and will not stop their ears against the truth I will proceed in these gradual propositions The First shall be the furthest off Prop. but the foundation of all the rest taken from the end of Religious Assemblies even this That God is to be worshiped Adorability is due and proper unto God There is such infinite absolute perfection in the divine nature as necessarily calls for religious worship at the creatures hands with this truth our blessed Saviour repelled that great temptation of the Divel to fall down and worship him i Mat. 4 10s It is written thou shall worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve This worship is due unto God and is due unto God only for he alone is qualified with those properties and attributes omniscience omnipresence omnipotence c. that are necessary to make a being Adorable so with him no creature can claim a partner-ship in divine Adoration and religious worship without great Sacriledg nor can any be given to it without gross and abominable Idolatry by this are the Papists therefore convinced of grievious Idolatry in that they worship those things with a religious worship which are no proper objects thereof as Images and Saints and the like But I onely name this Proposition because it is alien from the Text though the foundation of all that is to be â—id of it Those from whom this worship is due unto God are all intelligent rational creatures Prop by the very obligation of nature Indeed though there had never any been created by God to worship him God had continued in his essential perfections as firm as ever But being it was his good will to make the world and rational creatures in it to adore him there is therefore a natural obligation lying upon them as his creatures to worship him and so own their being dependence and preservation as the product of their Creators goodness what can be more just and equitable than for a depending being to adore the fountain of his being and of his both present and future welfare or what higher piece of unreasonable injustice can there be then for the creatures to slight him from whom they drew life breath and all In a word God hath indued Angels and men especially with minds and understandings for this very end that they might know honour and adore him He made all things but them especially for himself to do homage to him and therein lies their natural obligation to serve and worship him Prop. 3 As for pure spiritual beings such as Angels are they need not being incorporeal be circumstantiated either to time or place in rendring this actual worship to God 1. They are not tyed to any time strictly so called because their very nature is measured by Eternity and not by time and being of a spiritual nature they have neither those avocations by any particular calling not necessary diversions from Gods worship as man if he had continued innocent must have had for the very sustaining of his life and being which would have been even in Paâ—adise by ordinary means by seasonable food It is therefore Probable they have no set times but continue constant in the immâ—diate worship of God unless when God applyes them as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his ministring spirits for the service of his Church and then perhaps their even then imployments speakes them only distant from the other Angels their fellow worshippers and not absent from the real worship service of God 2. Thus it appears they are not limited to any place neither as they are not to any limied time of worship for they being Spirits are uncapable of any local circumscription As for any further knowledge of the manner and circumstances of the Angels worshipping and adoreing of God Scriptures have a deep silence concerning it and it is a learned Ignorance for us to sit down satisfied and contented without the knowledge of that which God hath thought unnecessary to be revealed indeed to inquire any further thereinto may
for themselves have no promise to be heard non aequè exoras quum solus Dminum obsecras saith the Father Thou doest not so soon obtain thy desire when thou prayest alone as when in the assemblies of the Brethren for in those Assemblies there is some thing more then prayers even the concord and consent and joyning in Love and Charity and the cry of the Priest whose office it is to make intercession for the people and being of the stronger size to carry a long with them the weak prayers of the people and carry then unto heaven Quod quis apud seipsum precatus accipere non poterit hoc cum multitudine precatus accipit Quare quia si non propria virtus tamen concordia multum potest The thing that a man cannot obtain by himself alone praying together with the multitude he shall obtain why because when his own worth cannot yet the concord and union of the Assembly may avail much It is no reproach to call the Churches Liturgy Common prayer the more common it is the better it is and the more effectual when not onely two or three but a whole Congregation are joyned nay all the Congregations of a whole nation do in the same words put their Common petitions and supplications O what a shrill noise must this needs make in the ears of God St. Jerom likened it to a thunder clap St. Easti to the roaring of the Sea it is like the several strings of a Well tuned instrument that makes a ravishing harmony as the flame of one stick is nothing to that of a bundle on fire together such is the devotion of one man to that of a whole Assembly vis unita fortior force vnited is somuch the stronger a threefold cable is hardly broken So do the joynt prayers of Gods people united and publiquely put up unto God move him as it were omnipotently and irresistably they mount up to heaven they rap at the gates and cannot easily be denyed entrance like as the petition of a whole Corporation is more avaliable to a King then the single petition of any particular person such is the power and profit of publique worship and devotion And that by the way is a forceable argument to disswade the truely Religious from forsaking the assemblies that 's the fifth Proposition the more publique religious worship is the better it is The next in order is this Prop. 6. That divine worship may be truely publique There is requisite the free and full assembling of our selves together in a publique place set a part for the same So you see I come home to my Text so set it home upon your judgments 〈…〉 with fulness of evidence and strength of reason as well as Holy Scripture Give me leave to prosecute this Proposition by parts To publique worship to make it publique there is requisite the assembling of Minister and people in a publique place 1. Of Minister His presence is necessary unless in case of unremoveable impediment as some sudden sickness or some weighty cause of absence for he is a person set a part for the administration of Gods publique worship he is consecrated to draw nigh unto God he is by office an Ambassador or Messenger between God and man Gods mouth an Ambassador to the people appointed to beseech them in Gods stead to be reconciled unto him And he is the peoples mouth and Ambassador unto God to offer up their requests for grace and mercy unto him Gods mouth to them in preaching and their mouth unto God in prayer Hence c Joel 2.18 the Priests are required to put up petitions and supplications Let the Priests the Priest of the Lord stand between the Porch and the Altar and say spare thy people good Lord spare them And as under the Law it was the Priests office to to burn incense and Vzziah was smitten of God with a loathsome leprousie for usurping it So still under the Gospel it is the Ministerial office to offer the Sacrifice of publique prayer unto God which is as sweet smelling incense in the nostrils of God and for preaching the word is express how shall they preach unless they be sent d Rom. 10. â—0 how able so ever they be to teach the word and sound doctrine yet if they have not a mediate and ordinary call or sending which though it be by man yet is divine as Luther saith they cannot preach to your prâ—fit they come not to edifie but to destroy They are Luthers words Let no uncalled speaker Beloved have any encouragement at your hands having no mission from God Our Saviour tells you that what shew soever they make of holiness and spiritualness and godliness and saintship and the like yet they are wolves in sheep cloathing thieves spoiling Gods heritage deceitful workers underminding the truth therefore takeheed of them or forsaking the publique assemblies to run after them to your perversion and distruction such is the first requisite to a publique worship the Ministers the rightly called Ministers presence in the Assembly 2. That puplique worship may be publique indeed the people ought to come and joyn in it every one that would be saved must be member of the true Church for extra ecclesian nou est salus out of the true Church â—nd Religion no man can find assurance of comfort and Salvation Japhet cannot be saved until perswaded to dwell in the tents of Shem nor Noahs family out of the Ark. The visible Church of Christ is a Congregation of faithful men in which the pure word of God is preached and the Sacraments are duly administred according to all those things that are necessarily requisite for the same A true Church is chiefly to be distinguished from a false by purity and soundness of doctrine and due administration of the Sacraments in it And surely these are unquestionable in our Church of England even in the confession of our adversaries as it stands at this day reformed from the dreggs of Popery in its doctrine and worship So then to this Church let every one joyn himself and not seperate from it if he would be saved e Acts 2.47 The Lord added to the Church such as should be saved Regia via The King of heavens high way to Salvation is by adding to the Church not by seperating from it If God be our Father the Church is our Mother f Gal. 4.26 Jerusalem which is above is the mother of us all Hence the Church is oft called the Kingdome of heaven g Mat. 13.44 And that promise that is made h Esa 33.24 the people that dwells there shall have their sins forgiven is to be understood of the catholick Church and so by consequence is applicable 1. The Tabernacle where the Arke of the Covenant and the Altar was placed There God promised to meet with his people that worshipped him hence it was called the Tabernacle of the Congregation or the Tabernacle of Meeting as
with their young ones wives and children and a Ju. 20.26 all the children of Israel went up and all the People came into the house of God when they were to fight with Benjamin and then they prevailed For this cause also was Hezekiah so careful togather so solemn an assembly to keep the Passeover b 2 Chr. 30.2.1 2. It 's as necessary this for others good for every man especially Parents and Masters frequenting the publique Assemblies may do much good by their example David was much comforted in seeing the peoples forwardness in going to Gods house c Ps 122.1 Multitudes doubtless go astray and forsake the holy Assemblies by seeing others of better rank and quality doing so before them and on the contrary many would keep close unto them if the better sort would but more conscionably frequent them Hence Solomon made his Scaffold in the Temple even in the midst of the Court even that all the people might see him d 2 Ch. 11.13 and of King Joash it is said when Athalia came into the Temple he stood by the Pillar as the manner was e 2 Kings 11 24. So it is said of Josiah also f 2 Kings 23.2 and therefore God did require that the Prince should not onely joyn with the people inpublique worship and come in when they come in and go out when they go out but also should be in the midst of them that they might all see him and so take good example by him And as to give good example to others so that we our selves may partake of the fellowship and presence of Gods people that assemble there For as every godly man loveth all such as fear God g Ps 15.4 and delighteth in their Company h Psal 119.36 I am a companion to all them that fear thee and keep thy Commandement So doth he take most comfort in their company when they meet together in their assemblies to serve God In the life to come it shall be a great part of our happiness to meet together with all the faithful and to stand in the assemblies of the righteous as may appear by that observation of the Appostle i 2 Ths 2.1 we beseech you brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering togather unto him And by the Prophets speech k Psal 1.5 sinners shall not stand in the congregation of the righteous And now we have some resemblance and foretast of that comfort in our meeting together with Gods people in the Church assemblies here For by their presents and fellowship Gods grace is both confirmed and nourished and increased in us l Pr. 27.17 as Iron sharpeneth Iron so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend hence when the Brethren met Paul at Apii Forum he praised God and took courage It revived his spirit to meet with them m Acts. 28.15 so in respect of the example we are to give others and that sweetness of having fellowship with Gods people we have cause to esteem highly and frequent the Assemblies of the Church 3. That tenderness that is due to Gods honour and glory obligeth every conscionable Christian hereunto as well as his care to give good example and own his benefit For the more publique the assembly is wherein we worship and the better it is frequented the more is God glorifyed before all the world And the more solemn is the profession which we make of that duty and homage which we owe unto him upon this account it is required of great ones n Ps 29.12 to worship the Lord in the Sanctuary that so they might give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name Hence David vowed Ps 35.18 he would give thanks unto the Lord in the great congregation and praise him among much people And Hezekiah resolved to go up to the house of the Lord the third day so soon as ever he was recovered o 2 Kin. 20.8 Indeed we cannot better professe our religion and homage and obedience unto God our love and thankfulness unto him for all his mercies than by diligent frequenting the most solemn Assemblies of his Church hence the Professors of the true religion are expressed by these two things p Lev. 26.2 ye shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my Sanctuary Nay I add 4. To frequent them is not onely our duty but priviledge also it is one of the greatest mercies we enjoy on earth that we can have liberty to go to the house of God publiquely to Assemble in them to worship him there and should we not then chearfully frequent them There was nothing I am sure that David desired more in the time of his banishment than this liberty and nothing in which he rejoyced more when he had it q Ps 27.4 unicum one thing only one thing have I desired of the Lord and that I shall require even that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to visit his holy Temple r Psa 42.1.2 As the Hart panteth for the rivers of water so panteth my soul after thee O God My soul thirsteth for God even for the living God when shall I come and appear before the presence of God! and verse 4. He saith that his soul languished when he considered that had it not been for the tyranny of his enemies he might have gine with the rest of the assembly into the house of God and s Pas 84.1 â— in a kind of abrupt affection he breaks out O Lord of hosts how amiable are thy Tabernacles my soul languisheth yea and fainteth that I might come into the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cryes out for the living God and verse the third he seems to envy the Sparrowes and Swallowes that had liberty to lay their young where he had no accesse and then he cryes out abruptly with a wonderful pathetical exclamation O thine altars Jehova my King and my God And in the three next verses he pronounceth them happy not onely that dwells in the Lords house to praise him but that hath but liberty to come to the Church though it were with a long and tedious journey through thick and thin through the Valley of Baca the rain filling the pools Yea he prefers a day spent in Gods house before a thousand elsewhere and the meanest room and most contemptible office a door keepers place before the highest in the tents of wickedness David was deeply Sensible you see how great a priviledge the liberty of Gods house is And it is observable to the same purpose when Hezekiah upon his prayer had his sentence of death revoked in what terms Gods goodness is declared behold I have healed thee and the third day thou shall go up to the house of the Lord t 2 Kings 20.5 intimating how special a faviour it was that he should have
corruptions yet so long as God continues his word and doctrine of Salvation to a people and in their assemblies it is evident he dwells among them and hath not forsaken them should men make themselves wiser or purer then God himself to forsake those assemblies which God hath not forsaken till God hath forsaken a Church sure no man may forsake it So shall any man pretend to be holier and to hate corruptions more than the Lord the holy one of Israel Now you may see Gods promise to dwell among and not forsake his Church where the word and true worship of God continues c Leu 26.11.12 I will set my tabernacle among you that is my Solemn worship whereof the tabernacle was a principal part and my Soul shall not abhor you and I will walk among you and I will be your God and you shall be my people In Judah is God known his Name is great in Israel a Psal 76. in Salem is his Tabernable and his dwelling place in Sion Object Put may not this Church may some say be guilty of such sins and corruptions as deserve that God should forsake it and for which God in his word hath threatned that he will forsake it although he hath hitherto dwelt therein True Ans but that is no sufficient warrant for any to separate from it till it undoubtedly appear that God hath indeed forsaken it and put in execution what he hath justly threatned against it Though adultery either in Man or Wife give just cause of separation he bond of wedlock being broken by it yet till a Bill of divorcement do pass between them they remain still Man and Wife notwithstanding that sin So that the woman whom her Husband had wronged is called his Wife b Mat. 2.15 Esau had justly deserved to lose the prerogative of his birth right and superiority over his Brother when he had despised and sold it c Gen. 25.34 and God had by his decree said of them the elder shall serve the younger d Gen. 25.23 And Saul deserved to be deprived of his Kingdome yea God had said that he had rejected him e 1 Sam. 13.14 and 15 23 26 28. yet till God saw it good to put his decree and oracle in execution and actually to depose the one from his birth right and the other from his Kingdome Jacob acknowledged Esau his Lord and Superior f Gen. 32.4 5. and David Saul g 1 Sam. 24.7 9. So though a Church may be unworthy before God of the name of Christs Church for the many corruptions that are in it and the Lords threatnings are gone out against it yet till God put this threat in execution and actually take away his Tabernacle and worship from iâ— it is still to be acknowledged and reverenced as the Church of Christ and not to be forsaken by the members thereof 3. Who is it that dare forsake and separate from these assemblies where men may be assured to find and attain to salvation Lord to whom shall we go thou hast the words of eternal life Accounting this a sufficient reason why they might not leave him h Joh 6.68 but men may be sure to find and attain to salvation in such assemblies where the ministry of the word and the Doctrine of Salvation is continued and purely delivered For the word and Doctrine of Christ is called Salvation i Heb. 2.3 It is the ordinary means appointed by God to bring men to Salvation k Rom. 1.16 It is the incorruptable seed at one time or other effectual in all Gods Elect that do injoy it l 1 Cor. 1.21 it is the ingrafted word m James 1.21 which is able to save our souls Thus far Mr. Hildersham All the enemies of our Church cannot deny but that both many have been and are still saved in the bosome thereof Nor can the malice of those Chams that desire to espy the nakedness of their Mother and glories to discover them shew one foundamental error with us not one Heresie whatsoever how dare they then forsake our assemblies as their manner is What though some others of your fellow members be guilty of sins and errors is that any prejudice to your salvation if you partake not with them but rather reprove them and preserve the true Faith and religion inviolate in your selves although they by walking unworthy of their callings and neglecting the conditions of the promises do forfeit their part in the blessed priviledges thereof and the things promised Yet shall the promises be made good to you if you be sound members of the Church Nor shall it prove any prejudice to your salvation that you are mixed with the wicked in it if you be not partakers of their sins n Mat. 3.12 The wheat shall be gathered into the Lords Garner and the Chaff shall be cast into the fire Hence the Apostle o Rom. 3 3. What if some did not believe shall their unbeleif make the Faith of God of no effect sure it cannot and therefore being there is no Church on earth free from all corruptions no not in its Chiefest members being that Saints in their several ages did not forsake the Church because of corruptions in them being our Saviour hath left us his own practice for an incomparable example being God himself forsakes not such Churches and Salvation may be had in them and the prophaneness of the ungodly is no prejudice to the Salvation of the godly members of the Church Then surely it is a sin in separating from our Church assemblies upon the pretence of some Corruptions in them Who however they usurp the Title of Saints and Godly and Puritanes and Christ Kingdome and Spiritual and the like yet S. Jude p markes them with a black coal Thâ—se be they who separate themselves saith hâ— sensual having not the Spirit Our Christian duty is to mourn for and shew out dislike unto what evil we see in the Church or in our fellow members So did the Faithful before the captivity q Ezek. 9.4 so did Christ r Luke 19.41 We must wait upon God who will in his due time cast his gold into the furnace and purifie it seven times will file off the rust and come with his fan in his hand and separate the wheat from the tares at the day of particular and general judgment * Aug. contra parmon lib. 3. Admonendi sunt pii ut arripiant quod possunt quod non possunt patientèr ferant ut cum dilectione gemant lugeant donec aut emendet Deus corrigat aut in messe eradicet zizanio paleam ventilis But we may not separate our selves from or forsake the assemblies thereof on this pretence as the manner of some is 2. The manner of some is to forsake our assemblies upon pretence they dislike the Pastors and Ministers thereof Some this or other is a miss in their own minister and therefore
loth to deny themselves as in effect to acknowledge they was formerly in an error and in the wrong It s pride that make some desire to go in some singular way and loath to go on in a beaten tract wherein they may be obscured in the throng with Theudas they are ambitious to be some body with Simon Magus to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some knowing or Zealous person they would be taken notice of by their neighbours as a stricter sort of livers and would be eminent though by the infamy of Schism or separation To be called of men Rabbi Rabbi is inchaunting musick to any Pharisee and the very essence and constitutive parts of a Schismatick is the esteem of himself and the contempt of others I am not as this Publican was the Pharisees voice whose very name signifies separation and our modern separatists do but eccho the same note when they pronounce these Church assemblies and the members thereof heretical or carnal from whom they withdraw themselves r Esa 65.5 they say as those in Esay Stand of come not near me for I am holier then thou But let it be remembred that while the Pharisee lookt so fastidiently on the poor Publican he renounc'd communion in prayers much more acceptable to God then his own and the observation is truly applyable in our case The Transcendant purity and Saintship and holiness which our Separatists boasts of being if brought to the touch but a more sublimated wickedness And their pretence for spiritually being onely verified in spiritual pride By their fruits of rebellion disobedience to and contempt of Magistracy and Ministry rash censures mallice evil speakings and bitterness headiness treasons high maindedness and the like fruits you may know them So this pride is another partition wall that Satan useth to divide us from God and one another and to make men forsake the Assemblies of the Church 3. It is the manner of some also to forsake them out of curiosity this is that baneful weed which the divel made shift to steal even into Paradise which hath ever since affected the richest soils the most pregnant understandings I do not altogether mean that speculative curiosity about the mysterious parts of our religion though that be a notorious mean also to propagate Heresies when men will not be soberly wise but will attempt to find out the depths of those mysteries which God hath thought fit to make secret prying into the Ark of the secret counsells of God But that curiosity of men which is usually about those little trifling notions and thin aerial speculations which do not at all tend to make men wiser to salvation Men are not content to know those divine truths which tend to Godly practice therefore they think such preachers as insist of them dry and insipid and forsake them to follow those who will offer them nicer speculations be they never so unprofitable to the great end of Salvation s vide The Decayes of Christianity in the causes of disputes Besides there is another curiosity that is deep in the guilt of drawing men from the Assemblies to which they belong A curiosity to hear strange preachers they have itching ears their ordinary food do not please them a new besome sweeps clean an uncouth bit is for their palates a Minister of the best gifts cannot please them long as the Athenians were all for enquirng of news so are these men all for novelties In a short time they distaste the ministry of their ordinary Pastors and so to please the distempered palates of their fickle souls they must needs be gadding abroad to hear every upstart Mountebank that is near them and so this is one great reason of their forsakeing their ordinary assemblies as the manner of many is 4. Another reason hereof is covetousness and interest the great Idol to which the world bowes as the Apostle saith they that will be rich fall into divers temptations so do they fall into this sin among the rest Some men will be rich therefore out of respect to their profit they absent themselves from the Assemblies of the Church they must needs spend some Sabbaths in going to Fairs or going jorneys or makeing bargains or meeting customers or looking to some house business they cannot get their living they say by coming to Church and when they come they must needs leave a great part of their family behind them for some worldly advantage or other These are like those in Malachi t Mal. 3â—4 That said it is in vain to serve the Lord and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinances And others there be in the world that make a show of religion and piety that have no other end in their broaching and maintaining Schisms and separations from the assemblies of the Church then their proper advantages They make divinity an handmaid religion a stalking horse to a policy Jeroboam made the Golden Calves become more venerable Deities when he found them sit to serve his jealousies and Matchiavels policy that states and persons should secure themselves of religion was a common practice long before it was a rule In the Old Testament we read of mercenary Prophets that turned the office into a trade that divined for money and even for handfuls of Barley and pieces of Bread And in the New St. Paul speaks of deceivers that speak things they ought not for filthy Lucres sake u Titus 1.11 And the same Apostle declaiming against the love of money as the root of all evil he reproves it from its having made men erre from the faith x 1 Tim. 6.11 And it is St. Peters prediction that the most damnable Heresies even the denying of the Lord that bought them should be introduced by those who through covetousness should make Merchandize of their Proselytes y 2 Pet. 2.3 And is it not plain how mens itching ears in this Age do invite many Mountebanks in Religion to try experiments upon them when men Nauseats Old truths and Old teachers because they are acquainted with them and embrace Doctrines and broachers of them because they are new when men love such teachers and are bountiful to none but such as they love how can it be doubted but some will suit themselves to their disciples humours to gain money to themselves when by sowing tares they can immediately reap Gold our age hath given us sufficient experience hereof would God that this way of divelish traffique were at an end And doubtless as there be many leaders so are there many Disciples in the separation in whom covetousness and self interest reigns exceedingly and by it they are animated in their obstinate continuance in their erronious waies so as to stop their ears to the charmes of sound doctrines charme they never so wisely Now O that such would consider what the character of infamy is that remaines yet upon Achan that he troubled Israel to inrich himselfe And on Balaam that he
not only loved the wayes of covetousness but ensnared the people in uncleannesses and upon those in the Gospel that made Gods house a house of Merchandize and so a den of thieves So that another ground and reason of mens forsaking and propagating separations from our publick assemblies Covetousness selfe interest I 'le name a 5. Even Idleness and this both spiritual and natural spiritual for because many men will take no paines in the practise of the duties of godliness which might well imploy mens whole lives therefore they fall into nice and new opin ions to imploy their active mindes So spiritual Idleness in things in which they should be imployed makes men curious and curiosity contentious The zeal of practise of humility and patience and self denyal and mortifying the flesh with the affections and lusts and renouncing the world and the other parts of real goodness this zeal grows cold and so that of disputes gets and gathers heat and vigor A lass our good works in this age fall short of the first Christians and then no wonder that our controversies exceeds theirs because we spend not our time in the one which is irksome to flesh and blood and therefore we imploy it in hammering and forging the other Pharaoh understood this well though he applyed it ill when he thought the Israelites proposals of travelling into the wilderness to their divotions was the effect of their idleness and so increast their taskes as the properest way to divert their design and as spiritual Idleness so also natural is often the cause of division For as experience sheweth such men as desert or neglect their secular callings are most apt to run after new teachers and with the widowes that neglected their office of Ministration to be busibodies and in many families the she-zealots neglecting their proper business the guiding of the house have therefore run into conventicles and upon them have seducers acted their designs most leading captive silly women to become duck coyes to whole families besides these there are another sort of Idle persons to that can sit at home lurke by their fire sides when they should be in Gods house and though they have little or nothing to hinder them from attending his ordinance yet any pretence a showr of rain a sore finger an Aking head a thin blast of weather will serve the turn to divert them O that such would remember Hezekiahs example who with in three dayes after he had been sick of a most painful and mortal disease went into the Temple a Esa 38.22 And the woman that on the sabbath resorted to the Synagogue though she had a spirit of infirmity eighteen yeares b Luk. 13.10 â—1 Alass the cause is mens hearts are dead and void of grace and the love of God and his word and so they find little comfort they take no delight in his publick worship and therefore are glad of an excuse David loved Gods tabernacle well For his heart and his flesh rejoyced for the living God c Psa 84.12 Those that tast how sweet the Lord is will desire the sincere milk of this word d 1 Pet. 2.2 3 O thou that art so careless whether ever thou appear in the assemblies of Gods Church in this life thou hast cause to fear thou shall never stand in the congregation of the righteous in the life to come e Psa 1.5 That 's a fifth cause of mens forsakeing or absenting from the assemblies as the manner of many is 6. There is a sixth which I will name because I will miss none and but name it because I have spoken in effect to it before The manner of some is to forsake them upon pretence they can spend their time and serve God as well pray and read good books at home as in the Church of God But God loves the gates of Sion more then all the dwellings of Jacob f Psal 87.2 David sure being both a prophet and a King could serve God as well in private as any pretenders and he had both a prophet and a Priest with him in his Banishment yet did he for all that long for the publick worship of God bewailed the want of it exceedingly g Psal 84.3 But I have fully shown you before the excellency and acceptableness of publick worship perfoâ—rmed by Godly ministers together with his people in a publick place above any private whatsoever that 's a sufficient consideration to convince them of sin that forsake the assemblies upon this account as the manner of some is Thus have I now both discovered the evident duty of all Christians and their obligation to frequent the publick assemblies in order to the publick worship of God and the sin of those men that either upon pretence of corruptions in the Church though they acknowledg it Orthodox and right in the substantials of religion or of some faults in the ministers life or opinion or gifts or carriage but in truth out of malice or hatred against him or out of pride or curiosity or Idleness or upon pretence they can as well serve God at home do neglect or forsake the publique assemblies Now what remaines but a word of exhortation to all that have an ear to hear what Gods Spirit saith unto the Churches and members of them 1. I beseech you Beloved in the Lord to learn to lay to heart your obligation to attend upon Church Assemblies and beware of those that endeavour the divisions of the Church or to divide and separate you from it It 's the Apostles own earnest exhortation g Rom. 16 17. now I beseech you brethren mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine which you have learned and avoid them They are no lovers of your souls as they pretend they are no servants of God for your good they are no fit guides for salvation that for things meerly external adiaphorous indifferent matters of meer order or decency separate themselves from the society of a true Church and would have you so to do As if a furious brainsick sailor should upon every occasion of anger or discontent cast himself overboard presuming to be safe enough out of the ship the ordinary road way of Gods saving any soul is in the unity of the Church And that is in a conjunction of them to some visible ordinary congregation according to that h Act. 2.47 the Lord added to the Church such as should be saved but exceruntè nobis they who go out from amongst us because they was never of us as to their hearts I will not presume to judge them as to their final state yet this I 'le say that the Church being the Spouse of Christ and Schism and Heresie being a work of the Flesh an effect of so bad causes as I have shown you fully ranked by the Apostle with fornication and drunkenness and adultery and the like I would not dye in their state for all the